Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen here in a huge crowd of her family and friends. Maybe never.
For the humans, this was Leah and Bram’s wedding, and that was it. But for the panthers there was another, much more important, ceremony still to come. Tonight would be the formal mating of Leah with Saxon, Hardy, and Bram. Saxon had told him that Leah’s parents knew about shape-shifters and had worked with them once before. Not here in Ohio, somewhere else. Texas maybe. Anyway, Chase thought that meant Leah’s parents and sisters would be there tonight, although he wasn’t sure how a minister of religion would feel about his daughter marrying three men. Well, clearly he’d agreed because they were all here. But it was rather surprising. Whatever. It meant that maybe tonight he’d get to talk to this woman if he couldn’t speak to her now.
He and his brothers had made only limited progress through this hall. Draven seemed more interested in eating, and Chase was beginning to feel he might give up and eat as well. There seemed to be plenty of food, whereas getting all the way to the other end of the room was proving damn difficult to achieve.
Just when they’d almost gotten there, Chase saw Vallen, Montague, and Diego Reed slide through a gap in the people and stand in front of her. Chase ground his teeth. Fuck! Those Reeds were going to steal his woman right out from under his nose. He couldn’t allow that to happen. He tapped the shoulders of an older man blocking the way in front of him, smiled, and said, “Excuse me,” and pushed through. The person on the opposite side of the man must have heard him and stepped back, so Chase progressed another three feet into a small empty space. He moved to the right, around one of the servers, wiggled left, said, “Excuse me, sweetheart,” to a little girl while gently ushering her out of his way, and arrived.
He’d done it. He was standing with the bridesmaid in pink. And this close to her, he could see she was even more beautiful than he’d imagined. Her eyes were shining brightly. They were brown. No, not brown, sort of hazel with gold and green flecks in the brown. Her figure was gently rounded, her breasts generous globes against the delicate fabric of her dress, and, now she wasn’t walking, her hips were only hinted at under the A-line skirt. He ignored the Reeds and held out his hand. “My name is Chase,” he said to her, looking right into her eyes and smiling.
Automatically, she shook his hand, and her touch was perfect. Soft and sweet, but not limp. Her hand fit inside his just right, and he gave it a tender squeeze before he let go. A weight leaned against his back, and Draven said, “Hi. I’m Draven.”
“Theron,” the middle brother added.
“I’m so glad you could be here on Leah’s special day. And Bram, Hardy, and Saxon’s as well.”
Fuck yes she knew. She knew it was about all three of them, not just Bram. Chase’s dick lengthened and pressed against the zipper of his suit pants. It knew what it wanted, and that couldn’t happen here in a huge crowd, but he’d think of some way to touch her again. Possibly even to kiss her.
“You didn’t tell us your name,” he said, making it just a little bit of a challenge to judge her reaction to the mere hint of dominance.
But she just smiled politely and said, “Oh, I’m sorry. I forget that everyone doesn’t know which of us is which, and today, it’s rather obvious which one is Leah. I’m Maia.”
“You have no idea how much we relate to that. Even some people who’ve known us all our lives still can’t tell which of us is which,” said Theron.
Maia giggled. “We’ve always traveled a lot, and even though we’re different ages, it seemed to me that because we’re all girls so many people never remembered who was older and who younger. We’ve all got brown hair obviously, but our eyes are different.”
“Yes. I noticed that. Yours are hazel.” Draven’s voice had a hint of lust in it. Chase hoped no one but them noticed that.
She nodded. “And Zoe’s are very dark. Almost black.”
Other people pushed their way forward, and Chase had to leave, but he was glad that he’d seen her and was already making plans for the panther ceremony tonight. Hell yes. He’d touch her there and maybe even claim a kiss.
* * * *
Theron hadn’t really thought much about finding a mate. Well, of course he wanted one. It was more than time they settled down and acted like adults instead of teenagers. Besides, a mate meant regular sex, and he was tired of jacking off alone in the shower night after night without even a mental image of Ms. Right to picture as he stroked himself to completion. And a cunt was ten times better than a hand.
But Leah’s sisters were something special. Sweet and lush and genuinely interested in the people around them. He didn’t mind which one his brothers wanted. But having spoken to Maia, and seen her up close, he was highly attracted to her. She was alive and alight with happiness. She wasn’t even the center of attention. It was her sister’s party, not hers, but she seemed so happy to be there and share in it. That was the kind of woman he could love. One who cared about others and wasn’t always insisting on being the focus of everyone’s gaze.
Of course, in bed, she’d be the center of attention. All three of them would make sure she came and came again with the hardest of orgasms. But the rest of the time it would be good if she paid attention to them as well. Although her paying attention to his dick would be nice. Sucking it into that sweet, hot mouth. Putting those pretty pink lips over his shaft. Fuck yes. That would be a hell of a lot better than nice.
How could they get her alone though? There must be a couple of hundred people crammed into this room right now, and tonight the entire pack would be at the mating.
Although tonight it’ll be dark. Perhaps they could entice her away from the crowd. I wonder if she’d like to see the dungeon. That would get her alone. It’d tell us a lot about her, too. If she shudders at the thought, that means she isn’t the one for us, but maybe she’ll ask questions, and we can demonstrate a few pieces of equipment for her.
Theron’s dick was harder than a spike at the thought, and he knew he’d better stop thinking along those lines, or he’d risk half the world seeing his erection. He was wearing a fitted suit, not a baggy sweatshirt right now to hide his cock.
Apart from the fact that Saxon and Hardy said vows as well as Leah and Bram, there wasn’t really much difference between a wedding and a mating ceremony, Theron decided. The wedding party and most of the guests wore the same clothes as earlier in the day. The atmosphere was serious during the ceremony and then full of joy afterward, and all three men got to kiss Leah. Theron stared at Maia, but she was smiling happily at her sister. Clearly she approved of her sister mating three men.
Even the reverend was beaming at his daughter, and that was quite amazing. Surely there must have been quite an adjustment to accepting three sons-in-law in a single marriage.
But it was all good news for him anyway. He spoke softly to Draven. “We need to get her alone. Any ideas?”
Draven shrugged. “We can hardly ask her out for coffee. There’s plenty of coffee here.”
Chase said, “We need to move fast, or those Reeds will grab her.”
Theron looked for the Reed brothers, but they weren’t anywhere near Maia at the moment. Still, they had been right there with her in the hall. “I thought of asking her if she wanted to see the dungeon.”
Chase nodded. “Definitely. Let’s do it.”
Draven grabbed their arms. “Are you insane? You’ll frighten her away. We’re supposed to be attracting her to us, not sending her screaming home to mommy.”
“Well, you think of something then.” Theron glared at Draven. Let the man put his brains where his mouth was for once.
“We offer to show her around the pack headquarters. Not anywhere private, just the public rooms. Plus the dungeon if she wants to go there,” said Chase.
Theron’s dick stretched again. Fuck. He’d been half-hard since he first looked at Maia, and there was still no chance he’d be able to do more than give her a PG-rated kiss. Or maybe hold her hand. Well, that would have to be enough for now. As Chase said, they needed to stake their claim on her before the Reed brothers jumped in front of them again.
“Let’s go,” he said, pushing his way forward to the side of the room where Maia and her sister stood. He looked at Maia and then at Zoe. Leah was lovely, and he liked her. Zoe was pretty as well. But it was Maia who seemed to hold a string in her hand that was tied to his cock. She smiled, and his cock stood up. He could only hope the attraction was mutual.
Suddenly he was scared. What if she was just being polite? What if the thought of panther shape-shifters or three men scared her? What if she refused to come with them or get to know them because she didn’t want to be associated with panthers? What if she didn’t like
him
?
Every time Maia caught sight of the blond panthers her belly clenched with need. They were so good-looking, and they’d smiled at her and said hi. No matter how often she reminded herself that likely they were just being polite, she couldn’t diffuse the lust that filled her at the sight of them.
This was most unusual for her. She was the third daughter of a Baptist preacher, and boyfriends and sex hadn’t played much of a part in her life. She’d actually been worried she mightn’t even have a date for her prom, but fortunately the boys were just as scared of being left looking desperate and dateless as the girls, so two different boys had asked her and she’d been able to pick the nicer of the two. He’d remained her boyfriend all that year, although they didn’t go out very often. Or have sex much either.
Maia was certain sex with any of these panthers would be so much better than sex as she remembered it and that her life would be changed forever.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to happen. There were almost as many people here as there’d been at the church. Nevertheless, when the men came up to her, she couldn’t help grinning like an idiot at them. “Draven, Chase, Theron,” she said, pointing to each one and hoping like hell she’d remembered them properly.
Chase had a more upright bearing and a more serious demeanor. Draven was more relaxed and easy-going. Theron was not intense precisely, but more of a thinker, she decided.
Fortunately, they all smiled back at her and nodded or said, “Yes.”
“Would you like to see around our headquarters? Look into some of the public rooms perhaps? We could give you the ten-cent tour,” said Theron.
“I would like that, thank you.”
“In that case we’ll make it the twenty-cent tour and show you everything,” said Draven.
They guided her out of the large community room and down the hallway past the bathrooms and the little sitting room where she and the rest of wedding party had rested and had coffee and cookies before this ceremony began.
The hallway took a dogleg to the right, and there were two elevators and a stairwell in the angle section. Next was a row of offices. They could have been any offices anywhere in the city. Maia didn’t care how boring what she was seeing might be. She was walking around escorted by three tall, incredibly handsome men. Her. Maia. An absolute nobody with three—not one, not two, but three—super handsome men.
“That’s right. Leah said something about you working at …Um…”
Oops.
“Stealing” probably wouldn’t be a good word to use. Likely they didn’t see it like that, even though it was basically what they did. “Repossessing mislaid items,” she said, proud she’d thought of a politically correct way of phrasing her thoughts.
“And finding things that were lost,” said Chase, bending down and almost whispering the words into her ear. She shivered with lust at his warm breath and sexy voice.
For ten more minutes, they showed her around the building, but although being with them was amazingly exciting, she knew they’d run out of things to do. She was saddened at the thought her time with them was about to end and once more she’d be surrounded by people. Then a brilliant idea flashed into her mind. She turned to look at them.
“Would you mind showing me your panthers? I’m sorry if it’s rude to ask, but the last time I saw panther shape-shifters I was a very little girl. Maybe only four or five years old. I might have been in kindergarten that year I think. Anyway it’s a very long time, ago and I’d really like to see you.”
“Of course,” said Draven instantly.
“I’m happy to do that,” added Chase.
“There is one place we haven’t shown you yet, but we weren’t sure if you’d be interested. If we go there, I’ll change for you,” said Theron.
Maia was a bit surprised. She was certain they wouldn’t take her to their apartment, so what did they mean? “Where?”
“The dungeon. A BDSM dungeon. Do you know what that is?” asked Chase, staring at her.
“Like
Fifty Shades of Grey
? I think I’d like to see it.”
All three men smiled and turned her around, walking faster now to the dogleg in the corridor. They took the stairs down two flights and emerged into a long corridor with concrete walls and heavy metal doors. Theron walked ahead, punched a code into a security pad, and opened a door for her, flipping on the lights as she stepped past him.
Maia stared at the dungeon. The walls were concrete painted black, and the floor was made of gray tiles. She looked up, and the ceiling was black blending with the walls.
“This is quite the atmospheric color scheme you have going on here,” she said.