Page 72 of Shrouded in the Dark
“I’m so happy you’re better. You scared me, teddy.” Her fingers moved along the scruff on his chin.
His eyelids fluttered. That was one of his sensitive spots he liked to be touched. I grinned, knowing he was getting even harder than he’d been before.
Seth cleared his throat. He gently pushed me to sit on the arm of the couch as Axel sat next in the middle of the couch, next to Becca. Jasper came back from the kitchen, handed her a bottle of water, and sat next to Axel, leaning his head against my arm.
Seth sat on the ottoman facing all of us. He stared directly at Becca. Damn, I wished at times like these that we could communicate without one of us being in our animal forms. He ran a hand through his hair before rubbing the back of his neck.
“Alright. We had planned to talk to you about this after the danger had passed, but, obviously, we can’t hold it off any longer.” He glanced at me before looking back to her.
“Becca, we all like you. We all want to be with you. It’s fair to everyone because we’re a pack.”
She blinked at him, confused. “So, because you’re a pack, that forces you to like the same person?”
Seth shook his head. “No, my sweets.” Laughter filled his voice. “Let me explain a little better. Most shifters are born, about ninety percent of our population is shifter born. Only ten percent are made. That number is so low because most humans don’t have the right genetic make up to be able to survive the change that comes with a bite from our animals.” He gestured to all of us. “We’re all shifter born.” He waited for her nod of understanding before moving forward. “Of the population, only about fifteen to twenty percent of that are women. None of those were made.”
“Why such a drastic difference?” Her curiosity got to her.
Jasper leaned forward a little so she could see him. “It’s just genetics. Our animals are part of us, but separate. They’re their own beings. It takes a lot of strength, mental and physical, to be able to work in tandem with them. We assume that the minds of women, when they’re bitten, just can’t handle the animal counterpart, and their bodies reject them. As for shifter born, women just aren’t born very often. We haven’t figured it out, but a theory is that nature does it to keep our population down.”
She nodded as she leaned back. “Ok, so little women. Many men.”
I snorted at her humor. My wolf’s tail moved rapidly.
“Right. So, because of that, most women have more than one mate.” Seth crossed his arms across his chest. “We’re a little different from most packs. Usually, packs stay to one species. We’re all different, the only one that I know of, but we all have the connection of packmates because our animals have claimed us as male mates to each other.” He paused a beat waiting for her to understand that.
If he was worried that she’d be upset, he shouldn’t have been. We all smelled her arousal. Jasper rubbed his cheek along my own in pleasure at her smell.
“Oh.” She had her hands over her face, peeking through a gap in her fingers at all of us. “Like, you’re… um… lovers?”
Seth growled, his chest rumbling as his tiger basked in her smell. “Yes. Lovers. Does that bother you?” We all knew it didn’t.
“No! Of course not! Everyone should love who they want, as long as it’s consensual.” She looked up at Axel. “What about you? You were trying to date Felicity. How did that work?” Her hands fell into her lap as her nose scrunched.
“I stepped away from the family, sexually, while I pursued Felicity. If we’d dated, or gone further, I’d have asked her to mate with us, introduced her to the world of shifters.”
She pursed her lips. “And the others were okay with it?”
“Not really,” I spoke up. Axel swung his head around sharply to look at me in surprise. “But we wanted Axel happy. So, we said yes. That’s what you do in a pack.” Axel’s eyes were pained, but I reached out to grip his chin. “We love you, bear. Stop being upset about it. It all worked out for the best.” He nodded slowly so I let him go.
Becca cleared her throat. “Ok. You’re all male mates to each other. How do I come in?”
I snickered, but Jasper nipped my forearm, reminding me to behave.
“In every group of mates, a woman is the one who grounds us, or completes us. Until we have that connection, our animals are restless. Once a group is complete, the powers within them build.”
She was quiet, but I didn’t like her thinking face.
“That doesn’t mean you’re a means to an end,” Jasper spoke softly at her. “This connection we have with you is special. We’ve never felt it before with anyone else. We WANT you as our mate, our center, because of you. You’re smart, funny, talented, you give back just as much as you take. You complete us, even without being mated. I started falling for you without knowing it that first night in the garden.”
Her face flooded again. I was never going to get tired of making her blush. I wanted to see her blush all over her body. I bet her toes were adorable when they were bright red. Jasper nudged my side as my thoughts careened off. He knew me well enough that he didn’t have to read my thoughts to know what I’d been thinking.
“This is all a lot to take in. I just thought that I’d date you, not end up mated.” She tested the word. “It’s a little fast, plus, I need to talk to Felicity.”
Axel took her hand in his great, big paw. “We both need to talk to her. As for all of us, we can take it as slow, or fast, as you want. We just wanted to let you know that we want you, in whatever way you’ll give us.” He brought her hand to his lips, kissing her fingers. “We also didn’t want to hide the fact that we are all together in that way, too.”
She squirmed again. The blush looked like it wasn’t going away anytime soon. Her arousal was starting to get to all of us. A wicked idea formed.
“Would you like to see?”
