The Wolf's Mate Book 3: Callie & The Cats (18 page)

“Nothing, you guys are just very cute. And
quiet. Don’t you have an opinion?”

Eryx leaned over and brushed her hair from
her shoulder, “We’re waiting for you to go into the dressing
room.”

She snorted a laugh and blushed. While she
looked at the dresses in her size, she found out that they both
preferred the color black, hadn’t been to a wedding before, and
worried that they were dreaming and she was going to disappear at
dawn. Silly boys.

With four dresses, all black, she left them
at the chairs outside the dressing rooms and cursed herself
inwardly for not putting on at least panties. Every time they
brushed up against her or smiled at her it made her whole body go
liquid and she felt like she’d left a trail all the way through the
damn store.

The first dress was a plain black tank with a
bolero jacket that had some beading and embroidery to make it
fancy. Still wearing her thigh highs and heels, she walked out and
they grinned. She had a feeling that no matter what she wore,
they’d say it’s wonderful. The problem was that the dress was too
short for an evening wedding. At least that’s what she was always
told.

“Well?” She turned around and smiled.

“Do you have to wear the jacket?” Ethan
asked, leaning forward with his forearms on his knees.

“It’s like negative 2 degrees outside.” She
protested.

“We’ll keep you warm.” Eryx’s brows wiggled
and she blushed, damn it.

“It’s pretty, it’s just you have really sexy
shoulders.” Ethan shrugged, “I’d rather see you in something that
doesn’t cover you up so much. And we’ll be inside, anyway. It will
be warm there.”

“And we’ll keep you warm.” Eryx promised
again with a wink.

“Fine, let me try the others.” She wasn’t
disappointed. She wasn’t that crazy about the dress in the first
place.

The second dress was a tank dress with a
shawl, the third was a halter and neither were very flattering.

And then the fourth dress.

“Perfect.” Eryx breathed, his eyes getting
darker and a wicked smile curling up one side of his mouth.

“That’s definitely the dress,” Ethan stood up
and came to her, taking one hand and twirling her around. He caught
her around the waist, stopping the spin, and kissed her. “My little
sweetheart is one gorgeous kitten.” His smile was sincere and his
words were warm and made her feel all tingly and loved.

No doubt it was a great dress. Solid black
and strapless with a sweetheart neckline that made her generous
chest look even nicer; the bodice was delicately embroidered and
gathered at the waist, where it fell to her ankles with a slightly
longer drape at the back, almost like a train.

Eryx was suddenly behind her and he twisted
her hair up and kissed her neck. “Could you put your hair up,
angel, so we can do this easier?” He bit down gently on her pulse
and her knees went weak.

She grabbed Ethan for support and let out a
trembling
yes
and they both chuckled in that way that men
do, when they think they own the world. And these boys owned her,
lock, stock, and tingling pussy.

Chapter 13

**Ethan**

“I’d give my canines to be in there right
now,” Ethan stared at the place where his sweetheart was changing
right now. The dress was perfect for her. It accentuated everything
that he loved about her and then some, plus the black looked
perfect with her skin tone. He wagered she looked good in every
color, although he preferred her naked. Naked and saying his
name.

“Me too, brother.” Eryx chuckled and leaned
back in the chair. “So this has been an interesting
experience.”

“I’ll say.”

They’d never taken a woman shopping before.
They’d never been asked their opinion about a dress. In fact, what
might be slightly more embarrassing was before they had taken her
to dinner, they’d never been on a date before. Ever. 26 years old
and this was their second date.

“Do you think we should tell her
everything…about our past?” Ethan asked quietly.

“You mean like before we leave? Because I
think we should eventually, I’m just not sure I think we should hit
her over the head with all that we’ve dealt with as lions all at
once. She’s only just agreed to be our mate. I wouldn’t want to
scare her off.”

“I know we’ll tell her everything eventually,
I just, there are some things that I’m afraid the females might try
to throw in her face. I wish we were already gone.”

His happy thoughts drifted darkly, to the
things they’d been forced to do to gain the affections of the
females once-upon-a-time. He snorted to himself at the term
‘affection’. He’d truly never known the female form of affection
until he’d held Callie in his arms. She was the word
personified.

She moved out of the dressing room wearing
the ridiculously tiny mini skirt that showed the top edge of lacy
stockings and just a peek of her sweet belly between the top and
the waistband of the skirt. He was torn between loving how she
looked and hating that anyone else could get a glimpse of her.

Eryx took the dress from her and disappeared
to pay for it and he pushed her backwards gently until she was
hidden between two racks of clothes and kissed her. His mouth fit
with hers as if they were made together, one for the other, and she
drew her arms around him and held him as tightly as he held her.
His body went uncomfortably tight, and he pulled from the kiss with
a slight groan. What a brilliant idea. Now he’d be stuck with a
hard-on for however damn long the movie was. Whose idea was it,
anyway, to sit in the dark in public with her and not be able to do
anything?

Her eyes were bright, pretty hazel and gold,
and she stroked his jaws with her thumbs. “You’re so handsome,
Ethan.”

Instead of answering her sweet compliment, he
kissed her again, and then pulled her away from the wall and went
to find the other part of their trio. Eryx put the bagged dress
over his arm and took her other hand and they walked out to the
truck to go to the theater.

They had a good twenty minutes before the
movie started, and they’d chosen it because it had been out for a
while so it wouldn’t be packed, plus being an action flick meant
they weren’t going to be watching her watch handsome leading men in
love scenes on the screen. At the ticket counter outside of the
theater, he purchased their tickets while Eryx held her as she
shivered. Apparently wolves didn’t run as warm blooded as lions
did, but they had no problem keeping her warm. No problem at
all.

They were standing in line for snacks when
she excused herself to the bathroom and promised whatever they
picked was fine, and as they watched her go, Eryx said, “So about a
ring.”

“I was wondering what you thought about that,
too.”

“Well, we either both get her an engagement
ring, one for each ring finger, or we get her one really nice
engagement ring and do separate wedding bands.”

He hummed in his throat. “I don’t know.
Should we ask her?”

“I don’t know. Do men do that?”

“Hell if I know. And it’s a different
scenario than normal anyway, with just one man and one woman.”

He paused and looked across the candy
counter, spying the orange jellied slices she said she loved. After
getting two boxes, plus a large tub of popcorn and drinks, they
moved away from the counter to wait for her.

Ethan said, “Maybe the best thing is for us
to pick out separate engagement rings. That way the bands on each
finger will be part of a set. And we can get what we like
individually instead of one of us maybe compromising.”

Eryx snorted, “It’s not as if we have that
much experience with jewelry.”

“Yeah, well, I’m totally out of my depths
with just about everything we’re doing with her. How about
you?”

They both grinned and dropped the
conversation, because Callie was there. She went on her toes and
peeked into the popcorn tub and then smiled, one of those sweet
ones that made her eyes look bigger and her whole face light
up.

As they’d hoped, the theater was nearly
empty. While they knew they couldn’t avoid people seeing what they
were together, because things were so new between all of them they
didn’t want to expose her to how horrible people could be when they
saw something they didn’t agree with. Like a woman with two men. As
cops, even in their small town, they’d gotten a good glimpse of the
nastier side of human nature, and although the connection between
the three of them was strong, they both worried she would try to
pull away again if things got dicey. He wanted to believe the look
in her eyes that said she wasn’t going anywhere, but his experience
with women was limited to the female lions, and, well, the less he
thought about them right now, the better.

They sat in the far back corner, his shoulder
against the wall and her between them. The lights were still on,
and they could see a couple sitting towards the front. The theater
was small, with a main middle section of seats and two smaller side
sections, and he just had to hope that no one would come in and
want to share their space. It would be hard enough to be with her
in the dark when she smelled good enough to eat, literally, but not
being able to touch and kiss her when he wanted to because there
were people around would be hell.

He gave her the boxes of orange slices that
he’d tucked into his coat pocket and the way her face lit up made
him feel like king of the world. She opened a box and fished one
out and popped it into her mouth. Sighing happily, she darted a
glance towards the other couple in the theater and then leaned over
and kissed him and then turned to kiss Eryx.

“Did I say thank you for the dress?” She
asked when they had taken off their coats and both leaned forward
to rest their arms on the chair backs in front of them so they
could look at her while they talked.

“You may have mentioned it once or twice.”
Eryx smiled.

“It was our pleasure.” He said, taking her
hand and brushing off a little bit of sugar caught on her fingers.
He wanted to lick the sugar crystals off, but he knew one taste of
her skin and he’d be done for.

“So, this thing with your uncle and leaving.
Are you sure?”

Surprised, he said, “Why wouldn’t we be
sure?”

“Well,” she looked uncomfortable, “this is
your home. Your dad and brother are here, and the rest of your
family. We’ve known each other a week and you’re uprooting your
whole lives for me.”

Eryx answered for him. “Callie, if we could
stay and keep you safe, if the females would eventually stop the
harassment, then we would. But they won’t ever stop. And more than
just you, any kids that we might have would be in danger of being
threatened or hurt, too, even if they were completely lion.”

She bristled slightly and that protective
wolf that he’d come to love shone in her eyes. She squeezed their
hands. “I just don’t want you to regret what happens between us
all.”

Ethan leaned forward and caught her face with
his free hand. He hoped she could see the truth in his eyes. “The
only thing that we would ever regret is not having you in our
lives, I swear. Whatever happened to bring you to us, the only
thing that matters is our life together, our marriage, our family.
We’re getting so much more than we’re leaving behind.”

She smiled in a small way and then said, “You
want to marry me, like really marry me?”

They both said “yes” at the same time and she
breathed out a small laugh. “We’re already technically married, at
least by wolf standards. You know, the marking thing?”

Really? Damn cool. “So wolves don’t get
legally married?” Eryx asked.

“No, they do, it’s just a formality. In the
eyes of a pack, marking is like taking vows. I…maybe should have
mentioned that?” She flushed like she was embarrassed and he tucked
his finger under her chin so she’d look at him.

“We love you, sweetheart. If we’re already
married to our little kitten, then we’re thrilled. But we still
want you to have our last name.”

She looked at Eryx for confirmation and he
nodded. Then she looked for the human couple again and found them
not paying attention to anything but the screen that had some sort
of trivia game on it, and she leaned over and kissed Eryx first and
then him. The lights dimmed and they sat back, and Eryx put the
popcorn in her lap but she was more interested in the candy and
unfortunately they had to give up holding her hands while they
snacked. She shared an orange slice with both of them and they
watched the previews together while another few couples entered the
theater but stayed to the center and front, thankfully. He was
feeling possessive of her, and it was a new feeling for him. Maybe
it was the revelation that in her eyes they were already married.
All he knew was that he didn’t want anyone close to her right now
except Eryx.

By the time the previews were over and the
movie started, the candy and popcorn were gone and they were back
to holding hands again. In his head he cursed the theater seats and
the arm rests that separated them. It would have been a much better
idea to watch a movie at home where they could hold her on the
couch, although he could guess they probably wouldn’t even notice
the movie.

She released his hand and leaned onto his
shoulder, curling her arm around his bicep and squeezing. It put
his hand in an interesting position, draped over the arm of the
chair and right over her thigh. Tantalizing bit of flesh that it
was. He reminded himself that they hadn’t brought her here to paw
her in the theater, and there were far too many humans nearby for
them to do anything remotely fun, so he ground his jaw and stared
at the screen.

Which worked for about ten minutes. All he
could think about was how close she was and how good she smelled
and, hell, he just had to touch her, just a little bit, and see how
silky those stockings felt. It was only a half inch that he had to
move his hand to touch the top of her thigh and she made a very
faint murmured sigh, but she didn’t pull away or tell him to stop,
so he took that as a good sign.