Chapter Sixteen

Wade had never been so delightfully exhausted before. Once they had all recovered from their fast and furious first time together, their beasts seemed content to leave them to more leisurely loving. Mason and Wade spent the entire night exploring their new mate and she, in turn, did the same to them, until they’d all finally fell into an exhausted heap in the wee hours of the morning. He gingerly opened his eyes to see the sun shining into their room from the balcony windows. Someone had also opened the sliding doors to let the fresh sea air in. He assumed it had been Mason since their sweet little mate was still snuggled deep in his arms in their bed. He heard the outside door open and close, then Mason was wheeling a cart up beside the bed.

“Wake up, sleeping beauty.” Mason poured a cup of steaming coffee and brought it closer towards Heidi’s cute little nose, making it twitch in interest. “Julie slipped a note under our door saying that your spa appointments start at nine this morning and she would not accept ‘over chafed’ as an excuse to cancel. She’ll be here to collect you in forty-five minutes.”

She mumbled something as she tried to burrow deeper into Wade’s chest, but all he could make out of her muffled words were ‘fucking heifer’ and ‘screw the spa.’

“Just think, love. You can have another nap when you get your massage, then if you’re still mad at Julie, you can throw mud at her while you’re getting your wraps done,” Mason said, almost with a straight face, and when Wade couldn’t stop his chuckling as he pictured that debacle, she finally let out a loud sigh and snatched the mug of coffee from the other man’s fingers.

“Oh, man,” she winced as she moved to sit up at the headboard, “I really could use a massage, some of my muscles have muscles that hurt. You two nearly broke me last night.”

Wade was worried for a second that they had indeed been too taxing on her—until she winked at him over her mug, a little smirk on her pretty pink lips.

“Well, maybe we should call down and book you an extra hour of massage?” Mason teased as he held up a crisp piece of bacon to her lips. “Because I have an idea about what we should do tonight, and it was inspired by your little fantasy at dinner.”

“Oh?”

He loved the slight tremor of excitement he could hear in her voice as her imagination no doubt raced trying to guess what Mason had planned, but he knew his partner, and keeping Heidi guessing all day was part of it, he was sure.

“Indeed, love, and while you’re getting pampered at the spa, we have a little bit of work to take care of this afternoon, so why don’t we pick you up around six to grab a bite before our evening begins?”

“Perfect, that’ll give me enough time to get a nap in.” she smiled before taking the plate Mason had piled up with fresh fruit and a croissant for her.

“Us, too.” Wade winked before stealing a slice of watermelon and jumping out of bed to hit the shower.

****

It was lucky for Heidi that Julie was the ever-efficient bestie and she’d shown up at 8:30 with a comfortable change of clothes just as she was contemplating wearing one of the guys’ t-shirts down to raid her suitcase.

With a lingering kiss goodbye from both of her mates, and only minimal gagging sounds heard from directly outside the door, Heidi left Wade and Mason’s room with a ridiculous shit-eating grin on her face.

“Okay, you only get today to look that pleased with yourself,” Julie couldn’t help smiling back at her. “Any longer than that and I get to boob-punch you.”

“Fine, fine!” she laughed, her hands up in surrender. “I promise not to get my gooey-happy love vibes all over you.”

“You’d better not, that shit stains, you know.” The wink Julie gave her just caused more giggling as they got into the elevator and hit the button for the spa level.

Two minutes of the horrible elevator music seemed to be all Julie could take before she turned to Heidi and gave her an uncharacteristically serious look.

“So—are you truly happy with those two tiger yahoos?” she asked quietly. “Just because the universe sends them to you, doesn’t mean you have to keep them, you know. Mates aren’t always the perfect thing they’re cracked up to be.”

“Julie, yes.” Heidi smiled, though she wondered what was going on with her friend a little bit. “They make me so happy my heart feels like it might burst from being so full. I really didn’t even think it was possible to be this happy.”

Julie just seemed to study her face for a moment, and then chucked her in the shoulder and turned back to face the doors.

“Okay, because if anyone deserves to be that happy, it's you, babe.”

The words were almost whispered, and Heidi felt her eyes get misty right before she launched herself at her best friend and hugged her hard.

“Thank you, Julie, for all of this. If you hadn’t brought me here, I never would have met them,” she mumbled, still not letting go despite Julie’s struggles to shake her off—but her lion hugs were mighty and no mere wolf shifter could repel them.

“Good Goddess, Heidi, enough!” Julie laughed and finally Heidi let her go, just in time for the doors to open and surprise the two older ladies waiting for the elevator.

And in true Julie fashion, she couldn’t resist fucking with an audience.

“All right sugar, but if you change your mind about those two boys, you just let me know and I’ll tip one of those hot little porters to push them over the railing on the top deck—tigers can swim, can’t they?”