Chapter Twenty-Five

One week later…

“Adriana, you look fine. Stop fussing and come downstairs.”

Adriana spun around from where she stood in the master bathroom and met Nolan’s gaze. “Don’t rush me.” She resumed brushing through her hair even though she’d done so already for long enough that not one piece would dare get out of line for the entire day. For the last several days, she’d been coming back into herself, taking extra care with her hair and makeup and clothes. She’d even designed several new dresses, spending hours escaping into her work.

But Nolan was right. She was stalling. Her hands were shaking, though she tried to hide this fact by brushing more vigorously.

Nolan shoved off the door frame where he’d been leaning and came to her. He took the brush out of her hands and set it on the counter. She sighed as he wrapped his arms around her middle and set his chin on her shoulder, meeting her gaze in the mirror. “You’re beautiful. Always. No matter what you do. And that dress is amazing.”

She glanced down at her latest design, hoping others would see it the same way she did. It was floral with an array of pinks and blues and purples, and it had a fitted bodice with a filmy flowing skirt that hung to mid-calf. It accented her chest and her waist. “You have to say that.”

He chuckled, his chin vibrating her entire body.

“In fact, it’s worse. You’re programmed to believe that even if it’s not true.” She wasn’t lying. After binding together, mates were forever permanently attracted to each other for life. They could literally do no wrong. That’s how bindings worked in her world.

He nudged her hair out of the way with his chin and kissed her neck, sending shivers down her spine.

Her nipples jumped to attention, which was absurd since they’d had sex twice that morning, and she was pretty sure between Nolan and Reid, they’d delivered about five orgasms. Her body was constantly aroused.

“What’s bothering you, baby?” he whispered into her ear.

She blew out a breath.

Reid stepped into the room and came to her side. When he saw her look in the mirror, he turned to face her fully and slid into the space between her and the vanity, his ass against the granite. He cupped her chin opposite Nolan’s cheek. “Everyone’s here.”

“I know.” She could scent them and had before they each arrived at the door. Besides, the volume downstairs was loud enough to attest to the number of people in the condo. Her parents, Nolan’s parents, Wyatt and Paige, Alton and Joselyn. Eight guests. It was a tight fit in the condo, but no one would care.

The only people unable to come were Reid’s parents. The trip from Ottawa was too far for them to come that weekend. Reid had promised them he would bring his new mates to visit in the near future.

“What if they don’t accept this?” She didn’t need to elaborate. Both her men knew she’d fretted all weekend over their arrangement. So far they hadn’t had to confront anyone, human or shifter. She’d taken Monday off school, but returned Tuesday and had followed her normal schedule all week. Reid hadn’t relented to let her drive on her own yet, but he would soon.

He was no longer worried about her safety so much as he didn’t want her out of his sight yet. She understood because she felt the same way about him. And Nolan. In fact, Nolan tagged along two of the days also.

Perhaps it was insanely strange having two men wait outside for her, but no one seemed to notice, or they assumed one of them was her boyfriend and the other his friend. Humans wouldn’t be tuned in to something like that, and there were no shifters in any of her classes.

She was calmer in her classroom having them nearby. Separating from them for even those few sporadic hours during the week was hard. It was true what people said, the binding was intense. It held them together like Super Glue. She had no idea when the magnetic pull would loosen, but as of yet, there had been no change.

Nolan had moved his computer and boxes of files to Reid’s home office so he could work. He claimed he was actually ahead of the game with his workload since he’d had nothing to do the previous week in hotels but work. It helped keep his mind off Adriana. He’d had to cancel several client appointments and reschedule, but he was relieved this situation was no longer going to last for months.

Reid hadn’t taken a new assignment yet, but he had enough people working for him that he was covered for a while. After his last assignment that ended just over a week ago, he’d been due for a vacation anyway.

According to both the police and the Arcadian Council, the threat was eliminated. With the kingpin taken out of the picture, no one cared if his witness was alive or not. Anyone employed by Stephen Rimouski needed to find another line of work and fast.

Adriana shuddered to imagine how many people that included.

Reid wrapped his fingers around her neck and tugged her face toward his, taking her lips. When he pulled back, he met her gaze. “The people downstairs are all family. Not a single one of them faults us for something that’s totally out of our control. We’re a unit. Unconventional perhaps, but united.”

She nodded but still argued. “This has never happened before in the shifter population. Who’s going to believe us?”

Reid smiled. “Actually, you’re wrong.”

She lifted a brow, glancing at Nolan.

“He’s right,” Nolan added. “We spoke to Wyatt Arthur yesterday. Remember, he and his brother Isaiah traveled to Montana a while back to help the wolf shifters with their strange weather problems.”

“Yes.” It was lore among the grizzlies. Everyone knew of the wolf shifters, but few of them had met any. She also knew Wyatt was downstairs right now.

“Turns out, we misunderstood what light Wyatt might share concerning the mating habits of wolves,” Reid continued. “It’s not simply that they meet more than one mate and choose like we assumed. They often mate in groups of threes.”

She flinched. “Seriously?”

“Yes.” Nolan kissed her cheek and lifted his head. “And, even more interesting, those ménages are always two men and one woman.”

Her eyes grew wide. If what he was saying was true, then maybe they weren’t as freaky as she thought.

“If you want,” Reid suggested, “we could take a trip to Montana one of these days and meet some of the people Wyatt knows. Maybe it would ease your mind to speak with other women who live in arrangements like ours.”

“That would be amazing.” She stood taller, the weight of two weeks of fretting easing slightly from her shoulders. Hope. Something to look forward to.

Every time the three of them ventured out to places where they would be around other shifters, she would still feel nervous—probably for the rest of her life—but at least she now knew they weren’t alone in the universe. They could fake anything while in human circles and pretend their relationship to each other was whatever they made up. But in shifter circles, that would be impossible. Any grizzly would scent their ménage and be shocked. They would never be able to hide what they were to each other.

Nolan squeezed her body where he still held her around the waist. “Yes, it’s going to be weird for a while. When we run into shifters, they might do a double take when they catch the scent of us together and realize the sort of arrangement we have, but anyone who stops to think will realize we didn’t choose this for ourselves. Fate chose it. We simply headed Her desires.”

Reid added to that. “When we’re out in pairs, we’ll appear to be bound couples. No one will flinch.”

“What about our human neighbors and people around us? How are we going to handle them?”

Reid smiled. “Nolan and I were discussing that earlier. We thought we should sell this condo. We can move into his house for a while until you finish school and then build something outside of Calgary. Maybe we could get some land where there aren’t neighbors nearby. If we pool our resources, we can afford something with more acreage.”

She liked that idea. It could work.

Nolan and Reid seemed to have adjusted to their ménage more seamlessly than her. Maybe because they’d been friends for years and she was the new common denominator. It still surprised her.

They’d been leery and reluctant around each other for the entire first week after she met them. Clearly, they’d had no interest in getting naked in front of each other or possibly brushing against each other while loving her, but after the binding, it was like a switch was flipped. Whatever concerns the two of them had vanished immediately. In fact, they were outwardly shocked to find they didn’t care one bit for their cocks to sometimes touch or their mouths to share hers.

The three of them had spent more hours naked in the past week than clothed. They were constantly touching at all hours of the day and night. The sexual interest was clearly focused on her and not each other. It wasn’t as though Reid and Nolan had any desire to have sex outside of their devotion to her, but the idea of brushing against each other in their efforts no longer made them cringe.

It just was. The world was perfect. Perfect in its own way.

Perfection came in many forms.

For Adriana, it came in the form of two men who loved her unconditionally and intended to rock her world for as long as they lived.

She was blessed. Truly blessed.

With a deep breath, she smiled at them both and wiggled free of their grasp. “What are we doing standing in the bathroom? There’re a lot of people downstairs waiting to congratulate us.”

They both chuckled as they followed her out the door.

Yep. Having two men in her life was her perfect world. And it always would be.