Chapter 1
A male grunted. Jilly Fallon lifted her gaze from the notebook and saw one of her twin mates, Wyked, take a blow to the shoulder from a wooden sword wielded by Dane, one of the panther shifter clan warriors. She’d thought it would be a good idea to sit in the backyard of her mountain lion pride’s home and study her notes on healing plants, but her sexy mate distracted her.
His shirt was off, and his tanned skin glistened with sweat. Her name was tattooed across his shoulders in black letters, and she loved to see Jillian Ava in the bold font as he moved around the yard, attempting to strike Dane and leave a mark on his skin the way the warrior male had left one on his.
Wyked and his twin, Fate, were Jilly’s mates. They’d been together for three years, but they weren’t officially mated. Her family considered them engaged, since the males had asked her to be theirs, but according to panther tradition, mates couldn’t be together physically until the whole mated party was twenty-one. Jilly had just turned eighteen when they met, and the twins were both nineteen, so they’d spent the last three years in a holding pattern.
Jilly lived in the boarding house with her immediate family – her father, John, and her brother, Henry – as well as John’s brother, James, and their shared mate, Rue and her son, Domino, and also a whole lot of other family and friends, all making up the mountain lion pride. Jilly and Melody were the only two female mountain lions in the pride. An ancient curse on their people rendered female mountain lion shifters cold and unfeeling toward their own males.
The females had poisoned Jilly as a child with venom in their claws, and she’d slowly morphed into an uncaring female, not even recognizing her own father and brother. Then one fateful day, she’d been in the woods in Pennsylvania and stumbled into Wyked and Fate’s paths. They’d shared blood with her, which had released her from the curse and gave her back her memories and her emotions.
A shadow passed over her, and she blinked up at Wyked. He looked concerned. “Are you okay, kitten?”
She put down her notebook and pen and stood, running her thumb just under a red mark on his shoulder. “I’m not the one who took a hunk of wood to the arm.”
He scoffed. “It’s nothing. You looked sad, and I was worried. Is something wrong?”
She stared up at her sexy mate for a long moment. He had the prettiest dark green eyes. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your training. I was just thinking about you two finding me in the woods and how far we’ve come.”
His eyes flashed to the gold of his panther. “We found you because we’re truemates, kitten. It’s been a long road to get to here, but Fate and I know you’re worth the wait.”
Three years had both dragged by insanely slow and sped past. At times, she couldn’t believe she was almost twenty-one and about to be married and mated on her birthday. And at other times, she felt like the day would never arrive. She wanted to be with Wyked and Fate physically. To do more than kiss and light petting. To know what they sounded like when they fell apart and to know how they would feel inside her.
He growled softly and cupped her face. “Your birthday is in two weeks. Fourteen short days. Then we’ll be able to be together like we all want.”
She squinted at him. “Are you so sure I was thinking sexy thoughts?”
“Whenever you think about our mating day, your scent changes. It becomes super sweet with your arousal.”
Her cheeks heated, and she darted a look to Dane, who sat under a tree and drank water from a gallon jug. If he heard their conversation, he didn’t let on.
“I know you’re worth the wait. It’s just been a long time.”
He kissed her, brushing his lips over hers, his fingers flexing on her skin. He growled again, the sound rumbling up his throat. She smiled and rested her hands on his waist, her thumbs rubbing his smooth skin. If she had her way, Wyked would be naked and so would she, mating traditions be damned.
Wyked leaned back and gave her an amused smile. “You know I find you tempting, right?”
“Of course.”
“I just don’t want you to think that I’m not entirely tortured by the wait. In two weeks, we’ll get to really be together and officially start our lives together as a mated trio.”
She smiled. “I know you are. I dream about us being together.”
“Me too.”
“Wyked, you ready to get back to work?” Dane asked.
“Sure thing,” he said, not taking his eyes off her. “Let’s go out tonight. Dinner and a movie?”
“I’d love to.”
He kissed her again, not letting the kiss get too deep, and then he winked at her. He scooped his wooden training sword off the ground and jabbed it in Dane’s direction. “You won’t get me this time.”
“We’ll see,” Dane said.
Jilly sat and picked up her journal, tuning out the sounds of Wyked and Dane fighting. She had work to do, and it involved her finding her place in the clan. Hanai, Wyked and Fate’s uncle, was the clan healer. He’d offered to teach her about healing so that she could become a healer for the clan, too. After she’d returned to the pride three years ago, she had started off in community college studying nursing, and then she’d watched Hanai deliver a clan baby. She’d been fascinated by holistic healing and by the way that Hanai used herbs, minerals, and other natural remedies to heal clan members. She’d spent many hours talking to him and looking through the volumes of healing guides he kept in his trailer. Becoming his apprentice had made perfect sense. He was a great teacher, and she’d learned so much.
She felt Fate before she saw him walk out of the woods and into the backyard. He wore a white T-shirt that was tight enough to showcase his muscular chest and arms, and his jeans looked like they’d been painted on. His long legs ate up the distance to her, and he placed his hand at the back of her neck and smiled down at her.
“Sweetheart, Hanai is looking for you.”
“I was studying, I promise.”
He snorted. “Studying Wyked?”
She tapped the journal. “Not just him.”
Wyked yelled, “We’re going to dinner and a movie tonight.” Then he ducked as Dane’s sword nearly connected with his head. “Damn it! I was talking to my mate.”
“You’re too easily distracted,” Dane said, dancing out of the way of Wyked’s sword as he slashed the air trying to hit him.
“I’m going to check in with Hanai,” Jilly said. “See you after practice.”
“I’ll hit Dane twice for saying I was distracted,” Wyked said.
Fate chuckled as he took her hand. They walked through the woods to the land that the panther clan was renting from a farmer. Because the clan was nomadic, they lived in RVs, and traveled around the country in them. In the summer, they stayed in the northern states, and in the winter, they headed south for warmer weather. But since Wyked and Fate had found Jilly, the clan had settled in Ashland, where they rented the farmland, turning what had once been cornfields into an RV park.
“How’s studying going?” Fate asked.
“Good,” she said, glancing down at the leather-bound journal they’d given her when she started training with Hanai. “I shouldn’t have been outside with Wyked. He’s too distracting.”
Fate chuckled. “I’m sure he felt the same way.”
“How’s your morning been?”
He hummed. “Really great. We’re nearly done with the patio, and tomorrow we’ll be working on the low wall that surrounds it.” They were currently working on an outdoor patio remodel for the Ashland mayor’s home. The previous year, the pride had hired them to do a similar project, but it had included a firepit and an outdoor kitchen complete with wood-burning oven and gas grill.
Hanai was sitting outside of his RV next to an empty chair. “I hope you weren’t busy. I wanted to go over the plants we’re going to be searching for when we go out tonight.”
After sunset, she, Hanai, Wyked, and Fate would be going into the woods to look for night-blooming jasmine. It could be picked at any time, but for use in healing, it was best if the plant was harvested at night when the blossoms were in full bloom. She could already imagine the sweet smell of the jasmine mixing with the heat of the August night.
“We’re going on a date tonight,” Fate said. “Dinner and a movie.”
Hanai nodded. “We’ll go out when you’re back. Anytime between midnight and three a.m. is good for picking. Any later and their blooms will start to close for morning.”
Fate kissed her cheek. “It’s going to be a late night. You can stay here if you’d like.”
Wyked and Fate had bought an RV for Jilly when she’d decided that she wanted to be with the clan and become nomadic. At his offer, she tried not to blush, but she couldn’t help it. This was what they referred to as a sleepover of the “innocent variety,” where they kept on their clothes, but they slept in the same bed.
“I’ll let Dad know,” she said.
Jilly’s dad was old-fashioned, and he wanted her to stay in the boarding house until her mating day, but she was an adult now, and he respected her choices when it came to her mates. He also wasn’t happy she was leaving Ashland, since they’d only been reunited for the last few years, but she had to go where her heart was, and that was with the clan.
Dag and his mate, Dionne, who were the leaders of the panther clan, had promised that they would return to Ashland every summer and stay for three months. This arrangement would allow Jilly time to visit with her family and pride. The rest of the time, though, she and her mates would be traveling and living in the RV.
Turning her attention to Hanai, she opened her journal and showed him what she’d been studying when she wasn’t ogling Wyked. In a few hours, she and her mates would go out on a date. Afterward they would hunt for flowers in the dark. And then, later, she’d be snuggled up between her mates, the two sexiest males she’d ever laid eyes on. Not only did they love her, but they’d saved her from the female mountain lions who’d kidnapped her three years ago when she’d escaped and found her mates. She owed everything to Wyked and Fate, the only males who had ever held her heart.