RILEY
Brenton woke her up for dinner, rubbing her back softly. Andrew’s room still smelled like sex and passion, but there was a new scent and taste to their air that Riley didn’t know. She filed it away to hopefully find an answer for later. She could also just barely catch the scent of dinner wafting up from the kitchen. Seafood, hell yeah.
“Let’s get you something eat, beautiful,” Brenton kissed her forehead, and she nodded sleepily.
“Yeah, let’s,” Riley chuckled softly, her eyes only half-open on the gorgeous golden-eyed man next to her. His short brown hair was styled perfectly, like always, and humor twinkled in those eyes.
He helped her stand, and when she wobbled, a little unsteady and sore, he held her close.
“What did Andrew do to elicit this?” Brenton sounded like he was a little exasperated with her and Andrew. She flushed at the thought of what they had done, and Brenton growled softly at the scents she threw into the room.
“Had incredibly good anal sex,” she patted his arm and watched his face change from a little confused to very pleased.
“Good,” Brenton growled in her ear. “I was wondering when he would break and convince you to do it. You know, this opens so many doors…” She felt his hand trail down her back and cup her ass. She could feel his nails through the yoga pants she was wearing. Andrew made her put something on before he gave up on keeping her awake and let her nap.
“We can talk about those new open doors after I eat,” she giggled as he tried to kiss her neck and chest, not letting her pull away like she wanted.
“Fine, and what a wonderful talk that will be,” Brenton rumbled, his chest vibrating.
They walked arm in arm to the dining room. All the guys were seated, and they watched Brenton pull out her chair and seat her. She inhaled the wonderful smell and looked at the pot pies, her mouth watering.
“Thank you, Andrew,” she smiled at him. She had found this recipe nearly a month ago, and he must have decided to finally try it. She caught that strange scent again, wrapped in his, but still couldn’t place it.
He looked happy as he nodded. The guys were also looking at Andrew as he served them all, all of them holding knowing smiles. So, they knew but she didn’t. She would really need to figure it out.
“Everyone, eat up,” Andrew clapped his hands together, taking his seat with a smile of pure joy.
Even Riley couldn’t stop herself from shoving the food in her mouth. It was so fucking good, she thought she was going to orgasm right at the table. When she moaned from the taste, Troy laughed.
“Pretty girl,” Troy waggled his eyebrows, his mercury eyes lit up with a heat she could feel across the table, “are you going to leave us for the pot pie?”
“I’m thinking about it,” Riley teased, shoving another bite in her mouth.
“Naughty,” Gabe growled softly, narrowing his emerald greens at her.
“Yeah, our girl is a freak,” Troy grinned at her and his eyes dipped, and she assumed her was checking her out. Like he was creating the image of her sitting behind the table without the table being there.
Brenton’s hand was on her thigh and he drew circles with his index finger on her sensitive inner thigh.
“Eat your food,” she pointed the fork at him. “Or I’m going to.” Brenton chuckled and took his hand back. He went back to eating with renewed vigor because they all knew she would steal food if she was hungry enough.
“So, how was leaving our prison for an hour?” Zachary looked between them all, icy blue eyes giving away nothing but curiosity. Riley looked at Brenton, who was stormy from the question.
“Good,” Andrew mumbled. “Not really actually, it had been shit at the end.”
“What happened?” The white tiger looked at Riley, who sighed and shook her head.
“Winter’s parents were there. Saw me kiss both Andrew and Brenton. We weren’t really paying attention.” She shrugged. “There was a scene where they called me a ‘gold digging whore’ and said that I was the reason Winter was fired, then arrested.”
Growls erupted from the table, shaking the plates and silverware. She held her own down, not wanting her stuff to fall off the table.
“They what?” Gabe growled.
“Look, people were bound to find out eventually. We couldn’t keep it up forever,” Riley sighed, spreading her hands out in defeat. “And if people want to hate me for it, fine. I can just ignore them, like I always ignore rumors and shit talking.”
“You didn’t ignore it in the store,” Andrew grumbled. “You turned around and dared the asshole to say it again.”
“Yeah…” She trailed off. She had gotten irrationally upset over it.
“So,” Brenton sighed. “We need to talk about where to go from here. They have their assumptions, and we’ve been hiding from them. What does everyone think we should do?”
“Continue ignoring them.” Troy.
“Have Andrew be the ‘public boyfriend’.” Gabe.
“Stop messing around in public in general.” Zachary.
“No,” Riley pointed at all of them. “I wanted this. And I don’t just want it in the privacy of our home.”
“Riley, these people can be nasty and mean,” Andrew looked desperate to make her understand something.
“You think I don’t know that?” Riley laughed ruefully. “Sweetheart, I know this isn’t conventional, but I told you earlier, this is my life and, in my eyes, it’s perfect. If people in town have a problem, they can get the fuck over it.”
“Beautiful, we just want to keep you safe.” Brenton took one of her hands, kissing the knuckles in a soft gesture of care.
“I know but I’m not going to hide.” Riley put the hand on his cheek. “You are all mine and I’m yours. Who the fuck cares about that except us? As long as this pride stays together, who cares about what the town says? I guarantee, in six months to a year, none of them will even care anymore.”
The guys all looked around as if they were taking a secret vote. She watched a couple small head nods from Troy and Gabe but a small shake from Zachary. She couldn’t see Andrew’s response and frowned. She looked to Brenton, who was now looking at her.
“Is that what you want? Go public and make it work?” His eyes were searching her face and she nodded. “Then let’s do it.”
Zachary’s groan made her turn and glare. He seemed worried and he had his eyes closed as he leaned back in his seat.
“Zachary,” Riley grabbed a carrot and threw it at him, “you don’t want to be in a public relationship with me?” He snapped up at that, glaring back.
“Of course I fucking do, but we have a few things we need to figure out first,” he growled. “We can’t just go out there and start making out in the grocery section without being able to answer people’s questions.”
She stopped and thought about that. He was fucking right. They couldn’t. They couldn’t just say ‘we live together and have a lot of sex’. The people in town wouldn’t even begin to understand the pride and how close it was.
“We need something official,” Zachary grumbled, stabbing his fork into his pie.
“Are we not official?” Riley looked at him incredulously.
“I mean, we are but…” Zachary’s jaw clenched. “If someone asked you tomorrow what I was to you, what would you say?”
“I don’t really know where you’re going with this…” She looked around at all of them, and Troy shrugged at her but no one else moved.
“Are we your boyfriends? Lovers? Family?” Zachary hissed, and she felt her heart thump hard.
Boyfriends? Too casual. Lovers… she liked that. And she understood where Zachary was going with this. Were they just a pride fucking in the family, or was this serious? Was she in for the long haul, or would she one day find someone to settle down with. Were they all equal? She didn’t know the answers to all those questions, but she knew what she would tell Zachary.
“I consider you all my lovers. Boyfriends is what we can tell the town.” Riley took a shaky breath. “They don’t need to know about the pride and how I do consider all of you my family. We’re close, and we’re strong. And this is official, Zachary. I’m not just getting a hook up from you guys and not taking into consideration my or your feelings. I care about you all. I hope that is okay.”
She felt the wave of approval from all of them.
“Oh, baby, you have no idea how okay that is,” Zachary leaned over and growled playfully. “I’ve wanted to hear you say that for months.”
She smiled down into her lap, her heart full of emotions.
“So, we’re going to do this.” Andrew sounded like he was excited. “We have a pride girlfriend and she has five boyfriends.”
“Damn straight.” Gabe took a bite of food, grinning.
“Does this mean we get to start having real fights, then great make up sex?” Troy looked curious, and Riley rolled her eyes.
“Didn’t we do that a week ago, Troy?” She licked her lips, a grin breaking out on her face.
“Oh shit, yeah. We did do that, didn’t we?” Troy elbowed Gabe. “Brother, we had make up sex. Can only do that in a relationship.”
“Fuck yeah, we did,” Gabe and Troy gave each other a high five, and Riley laughed hysterically, tears welling in her eyes. These two were so wild.
Brenton even couldn’t stop himself from laughing a little into his plate, shaking his head as he turned to her. He wrapped a hand around the back of her head and kissed her passionately, making her moan. When it broke, she was dizzy from it.
“You are fucking wonderful,” he growled softly, holding her face close to his. “And we are a bunch of perverts.” He grinned devilishly, and Riley’s heart skipped a beat at his molten gold stare.
They wrapped up dinner in the new status quo, a real relationship with a girlfriend and her five boyfriends. Riley wanted to laugh at it. Had it really taken them all eight months to figure that out? How did that happen? She hadn’t even thought it was a problem or question about what they were, but she felt a wave of happiness of thinking of them as her boyfriends.
“Shit,” Brenton whispered suddenly, looking around at them as they cleaned the table off.
“What’s up?” Zachary looked over to their Alpha, and Riley frowned at Brenton. Nothing seemed wrong.
“Who’s going to let Sheriff know so he doesn’t kill us all?” Brenton was pale, and Riley slapped a hand over her mouth in surprise. Oh, shit he was right, Sheriff was going to blow a gasket.
“Riley,” was everyone’s responses.
Fuck me, she thought.