Enticed (Two Marks 3)

THEO

After we showed Ali our wolves, I showered, even though my wolf was not too keen on me washing off my mate’s scent.

Now, as I dressed, Holt and Ali were in there together.

Holt had texted his friend, Cord, to see if he and his scent-match, Nash, and their mate, Rachel, would be interested in meeting us at the diner for a late breakfast. It wasn’t because we wanted to share Ali—we sure as hell didn’t—but it was the perfect opportunity for two human females who had wolf mates to chat. In case there was girl stuff they needed to talk over. Like how it works having two mates. Or things we wouldn’t even know Ali might be thinking about or worrying about.

I hadn’t considered it, but it was a solid idea. We needed all the help we could get.

Ali now knew what we were, which was a step forward in terms of claiming her, but this in-between period made her a huge liability to us, and the pack. We’d barely known each other for more than a few days. What if she rejected us? While I couldn’t even consider that possibility, the alpha would say there couldn’t be a rancher out in the world knowing what we were, even if we were fated mates. It would be a huge problem. The most serious of threats to every single shifter in the pack. Hell, everywhere.

If Gibson found out she knew about shifters but we hadn’t claimed her, he’d be pissed.

So we needed to do everything we could to move things along. Move us down the road to permanence. For shifters, a long courtship wasn’t necessary. One sniff, and all parties instantly knew their destiny, as Holt and I knew our fates were entwined with hers.

With a human, it was different.

Ali wouldn’t have the biological need to be with us. We had to make her fall in love with us the human way. Which, unfortunately, neither of us knew anything about. It went beyond sex. It required compatibility. Trust. Friendship. Loyalty. Honor. Faithfulness.

We had all of that. We knew it. It came to us automatically. Ali needed time to believe she’d have all of it with us.

Holt was right. This was a good thing. Any positive words from Rachel would be a win.

When Cord texted back that we could all meet at the diner for breakfast, some of the background tension left my body. According to Holt, Cord and Nash had locked down their human mate, and the two males hadn’t even known each other before they both discovered Rachel was theirs. That was crazy on top of the fact their mate was human. If they could make it work, then we could. They might have answers or pointers for us.

Ali came out of the shower wearing nothing but her panties, and toweling off her long, auburn hair. Her pupils were dilated and her face was flushed with color, like she and Holt had just had another round in the shower. Even though my dick went rock hard at the sight of her beautiful body, knowing Holt had just satisfied our mate again set off an explosion of warmth in my chest.

I liked knowing I could rely on Holt to protect, satisfy, and provide for her. Somehow it calmed my wolf on a biological level. Like, if something happened to me, she would still be taken care of. And seeing her like this, almost completely bare and confident in her body, in us seeing her in this intimate way, helped soothe my wolf and hope we were close to a claiming.

“Hungry, sweetheart? We’re going to take you to the diner for breakfast,” I told her, giving Holt a nod and holding up his phone to show him the text as he emerged from the bathroom.

“Sounds great,” she murmured, then stopped. “Wait—both of you are taking me? Won’t that look weird?”

“I thought of that.” I winked. “We’re meeting three friends, so it will simply look like a group breakfast.”

She smiled, gave a slight shrug as if my answer had been all the reassurance she needed. “Fun. Who are they?”

“They’re another triad like us,” Holt explained, grabbing clean jeans from the dresser. “Two wolves and a human female. We thought it might be nice for you to talk to someone in your situation. Rachel is the newest member of our pack. Nash and Cord claimed her last year.”

“So this is a big secret, right? I mean, obviously. I can’t tell my friends, can I?”

My heart skipped a beat at the possibility, but I calmed when I realized she recognized it was something to keep private.

“Sorry, sweetheart.” I walked over and settled my hands on her waist. Her skin was warm and dewy from the shower. “It’s a hard and fast rule to protect the pack. I know that might be hard for you.”