Chasing Cristabel (Ashland Pride Six) (14 page)

“We don’t have to,” he started to say, but
she shook her head.

“You took such good care of me tonight. You
knew what my cat was thinking before I even realized it. If you
hadn’t kept hold of me I could have...really hurt her.”

“It kills me that your cat doesn’t trust us
because we’re not wearing your marks.”

Her eyes stung, and she blinked back the
tears. “I do trust you. The cat just has her own opinions of what a
real mating looks like. I know now that we can’t wait. I need to
call my parents and tell them that you’re mine and, with or without
their blessing, complete the mating ceremony.”

It wouldn’t be bad to have another set of
marks, knowing it would mean that she would go into heat and be
able to carry one of their cubs. Females went into heat once a year
after they were mated, unless they were carrying a cub or nursing.
Her mother had never had any other cubs, because she’d lost the
ability to bear any when she’d been injured during a hunt. She’d
almost died when Cris was little, and although Cris had always
wished she’d had sisters or brothers, she was thankful her mother
had survived.

The hot water steamed up the bathroom, and
Cris turned her attention back to Dylan, who had stripped
completely. He stepped into the shower and looked at her as he held
back the thin curtain. She could see the heat in his eyes, twined
together with a deep regret for the events of the night. He clearly
felt as torn as she did about what had happened. Stripping out of
her clothes, she joined him in the shower, where they quietly
cleaned up, their gentle motions more for reassurance than
anything. Then they’d hurried across the hall to the bedroom and
made love, Dylan holding her so tightly and so perfectly that she
almost cried. She didn’t want to add any more tears to the night,
so she held them back. He’d fallen asleep curled around her, and
she lay there staring at the wall where the moonlight made a
pattern of tree branches through the window.

She heard the knob rattle an hour later and
realized she’d forgotten to unlock the door. Thankfully, there was
a tiny key hidden on top of the door, and in a few seconds Hunter
and Chase let themselves into the room.

Chase knelt in front of her and kissed her
gently. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”

“I am now that you’re here.”

“We’ll talk in the morning, love,” he said.
“It’ll be okay.”

She watched Hunter and Chase silently strip
to their shorts and join them on the bed. Hunter took the space
next to her, and she wiggled away from Dylan enough to rest her
cheek on his chest so she could hear his heartbeat and drape her
arm across his massive body to hold hands with Chase. Touching all
three of them at the same time soothed her cat and settled some of
the restlessness she felt. The elephant in the room was still there
– the fact that she craved marking them and carrying their child –
but she could breathe a little easier knowing that they were with
her.

* * *

Dawn came far too early in Cris’s opinion,
but the world kept spinning no matter what occurred in the
day-to-day. The calendar still flipped, the hour hand still swung
around, and the sun rose and set no matter if people were feeling
upset or needed a break. Hunter’s heart was a steady beat under her
ear, his skin warm and soothing in spite of being well muscled. She
felt like she could shift into her form and curl up on his lap and
be the most contented person who ever existed.

As if sensing she was awake, all of her mates
woke at the same time. Dylan pushed a little closer to her back,
Hunter’s arm that had been a comforting weight on her all night
tightened, and Chase squeezed their linked fingers. It was a
perfect moment, and she would have liked to freeze time so they
could enjoy it, but she couldn’t just spend the day in bed, hiding
under the blankets with her sexy mates and not facing the truth of
what they may or may not be dealing with when it came to the crazy
females.

“Sleep well?” Hunter asked, his voice a
pleasant rumble in her ear.

“Yeah. You?”

“Sure. My stomach is making angry demands, so
maybe we should venture down to the kitchen for breakfast.”

She let herself lie on him for a few blissful
moments more, and then she sat up, kicking them all into gear with
her action. She leaned over Hunter and kissed Chase and then turned
around to see Dylan, with his hair mussed and a sexy smile on his
face.

“What happened last night after you went to
Theresa’s hotel?”

Hunter propped himself up with a pillow while
Chase moved around to settle at her back. “Just as we got to the
hotel, we saw a van tear out of the parking lot like their tail
pipe was on fire. Theresa said it was the one the females used.
While Eryx went to the hotel office to see about parking lot
footage, James and John went with us into the room with Theresa.
The room smelled like females, so it was clear that she’d been
telling the truth. She had a cell phone they’d given her, and she
called the number that Tanya had given her to use. We found it in
the trash, ringing.”

“Did Eryx get the footage?” Dylan asked.

“The place is such a hellhole,” Chase said
with a snort. “The security cameras were fake. We had a description
of the vehicle, but the plates were missing so there’s no way to
track it. It was just a generic van.”

Hunter looked at Dylan for a long, silent
moment. “Theresa said that she’d heard the females talking about
taking you back to their home and using you to breed cubs. She
doesn’t know where they were living, but she said they mentioned
customs, so we believe they’re in Canada.”

“Probably, though not with the same pride who
kept Melody,” Chase said.

“There are two female-only prides?” Cris
asked.

“We thought there was only one up in Canada.
There was a small group of females who left King and stayed in Twin
Pines. Jilly was there with them. They used to scout the town in
disguise and had been talking about abducting males for breeding
purposes when their leader, Layla, was killed during a battle and
they fled up to Canada. If Tanya is in charge, then she’s kept the
smaller pride to herself.”

“Breeding? Like they want a…stud?” Cris
asked. She couldn’t wrap her head around the idea.

“Pretty much. They do seem to realize that
when our males are mated, they won’t cheat on their mates, and I
think that our mating happened so quickly that they didn’t realize
what had happened, or they thought it was early enough in our
relationship that they could still get to Dylan. It doesn’t really
matter what their purpose was, because it’s just one more fucked-up
link in the chain of the females’ mind-set. Who the hell can guess
what their endgame will be, but the pride is shaken up.” Hunter
laced his fingers over his abdomen, his expression serious.

“Does this mean we can’t move to a place of
our own?” she asked.

“Hell no,” Chase said, kissing her shoulder,
his hand sliding around her bare stomach to draw her close to him.
“It just means we need to be vigilant. When we find a house we
love, we’ll get a security system. One of us will always take you
to and from work, and no one will be alone in the house overnight.
Hunter’s our security guy. He’s going to make sure that you’re
safe.”

“And you guys, too,” she pointed out.

Hunter nodded. “The whole damn family.”

“Good. I like the boarding house, but I’d
love to not have to worry about locking the bedroom door,” she
said.

“We’ll find the perfect home for us, I
promise,” Chase said.

Hunter’s stomach took that moment to growl
loudly, and he grinned at her. “I need to take a quick shower. Any
sweet little cats want to join me?”

“See if you can stop me,” she said with a
laugh as he stood and scooped her into his arms.

An hour later, when she’d showered with both
Hunter and Chase, the four of them headed to the kitchen to see if
the pride had learned anything new overnight.

Rue smiled at Cris. “I saved you a pan of
French toast. It’s in the oven.”

“Thanks, Rue,” Dylan said.

Cris, Hunter, and Chase sat down with coffee
at the large table. Rue, sitting with James and his son Alek, said,
“Did you guys sleep okay last night? I hope you weren’t too upset
to get a good night’s rest.”

“It was good,” Hunter said. To James he said,
“Any news?”

James rubbed the back of his neck and yawned.
“Eryx talked to the local sheriff where the hotel was located. He’s
a rogue wolf and was happy to give Eryx access to the street cams.
He found the van and followed it to an abandoned grocery store
where they left it and were picked up by another car, missing its
license plate, and they drove out of town. The good news, though,
is that one of the street cams had a clear enough picture that the
sheriff was able to get one of his people, a lip reader, in to
study the footage.”

“One of the females was talking in view of
the camera?” Chase asked.

James nodded. “It was Tanya. She got out of
the van and talked to the driver of the other vehicle. She said,
‘It was a clusterfuck. The males know we’re here, so we have to
abandon our plans.’”

Cris smiled as Dylan sat next to her, using
tongs to place thick slices of French toast on her plate. “Do you
think it means the females aren’t coming back?” she asked.

Alek said, “We’re not entirely sure. If what
the human said was true, and the females were attempting to breed
cubs from captive males, then the three of you spoiling their plans
by getting mated could mean that they’re done with us for
good.”

“You don’t think that’s true, though,” she
said. Judging by the steely resolve in his eyes, she suspected he
was about two seconds away from going on a hunting trip with the
intention of finding the females.

Shaking his head, he said, “No, I don’t. I
wish they would stay the hell up in Canada and leave us alone, but
history tells us that they’ll just come back at us again in some
other way. I believe they’re trying to breed cubs because they want
males who they can raise to be servants.”

Chase snarled. “Can you imagine a cub raised
by females? Male or female, the cub would be living a
nightmare.”

James stood and pushed in his chair, picking
up his empty coffee mug. “I’m going to call King and talk to the
chief so their pride can be on alert. I do still believe that the
boarding house is safe, but now we need to be vigilant when it
comes to going to our jobs and being in town. If we watch one
another’s backs, we’ll be safe.”

Rue stood and said to Cris, “The Ashland
pride females would like to invite you to a luncheon at Callie’s
house. I know you’re working during the week, so maybe next
Saturday?”

“That sounds great. I’d love to spend time
with the females.”

“There aren’t a whole lot of us, but we’re a
tight group. Plus, whenever you’re ready to tie the knot legally
with your guys, Lisa is the pride’s wedding planner and Melody is
the pride’s photographer.”

Dylan winked at Cris when she looked at him.
“First, we have to ask you, though,” he said.

“I said
when
you’re ready to get
married,” Rue pointed out. “What we need is a pride baker. Ooh, and
a personal chef. That would be cool.”

James snorted good-naturedly. “Maybe we’ll
get lucky and Dom and Henry’s mate will be a baker.”

“Nice,” Rue said, waving goodbye to them as
she walked out of the kitchen with her mate.

“They’re so sure that Dom and Henry will
share a female?” Cris asked as she turned her attention to the
French toast.

“The boys are. Even though they’re
step-brothers, they both said they feel like true brothers meant to
share a mate,” Chase said.

Lions didn’t share mates. She’d never even
considered being shared by more than one male before she met her
mates. Now, she couldn’t imagine not being with all three of
them.

When they were finished eating, Hunter turned
to face her and said, “I know that the females’ behavior seems
strange to you. Trust me, it’s strange to us, too. I swear to do my
damnedest to keep you and our family safe. I don’t believe they’ll
try this tactic again, but it would be foolish to assume they’ve
learned their lesson.”

“All right.” She kissed him and then said, “I
need to call my parents.”

“Of course,” Chase said. “Do you want us to
be with you?”

“Yes, please.” Her heart kicked into high
gear as she thought about talking to her parents. She was fairly
certain her mom would be happy for her, but she didn’t think her
dad would be happy. Not only were her mates not African lions, but
also there was more than one male for her. Of course the worst case
scenario was that her parents would disown her and kick her out of
the pride. But at the end of the day, if she lost them, she still
had three very devoted guys who loved her. She’d still come out on
top. A part of her would be devastated to lose her parents, but she
wasn’t about to leave her guys for any reason. She’d rather have
them than her parents’ approval.

“Let’s do it,” she said, pushing her chair
away from the table and standing. Nerves skated through her, but
she shoved them aside. She’d set this into motion years ago when
she’d chosen to go to college out of state and refused to bow to
pride tradition. She had what she’d always wanted – her
heart-chosen mates – and that meant she had everything she
needed.

Chapter 12

Hunter sat on the bed and watched Cris pace
the length of the bedroom as she stared at her cell phone. She was
wound tight like a spring, her shoulders tense and her cat growling
every few steps as if to punctuate the worry that was plain on her
face.

“Sweetheart?” he said.

She stopped moving and looked at him,
blinking rapidly as if she were clearing her vision. “What?”