She smiled and gave me a playful shove.
I couldn’t help but laugh. While my dick—and wolf—were telling me to toss her over my shoulder, carry her to the nearest horizontal surface and fuck her, I wanted to get to know her too. Yes, the need to claim her was powerful, but this was the long haul. Forever.
I wanted to know more than what she sounded like when she came on our cocks.
I released her and watched her hips swing as she walked up the wooden stairs to Holt’s house. “Amazing view,” she said when she stepped inside and saw the windows overlooking the valley.
“That’s your ranch down there,” Holt said, following her and pointing.
She walked through the open concept living room to the large picture windows, and looked out. “It sure is.”
“You were riding a beautiful horse earlier,” I said.
“Daisy,” she replied with a small smile.
“How many horses do you have?” I asked, as I went to the kitchen island to grab the plate of steaks I had marinating.
“Eight at the moment,” she replied. “It’s probably more than we need, but horses become part of the family, you know. We have some older ones who are living out their retirement.”
My heart flipped in my chest, hearing her talk about the horses so affectionately. A woman who loved animals so much could surely love wolves, as well.
“My little sister is crazy about horses,” I told her, thinking of Ariel. “She’s eleven. She has posters covering her walls of Black Beauty and whatever other fictional horses she’s fallen in love with.” I walked to the sliding glass door that led to the deck where Holt’s barbecue was heating up.
Ali drifted out behind me while Holt uncorked a bottle of wine. It felt so right—like we were already a family. As if this could be just another day, her here with us as we made dinner.
“You have an eleven-year-old sister?”
“I have four younger sisters,” I admitted. “Quite an age difference, right? She’s the baby, and has everyone hooked around her little finger.”
Ali couldn’t help but smile. “She loves horse books? Is she a big reader?”
I looked over my shoulder at her as I raised the lid on the grill. “Totally. Nose in a book all the time.”
I was the oldest, and had been more interested in playing outside, roaming the woods, and getting muddy than reading anything. I’d already graduated from college when Ariel was born so I’d been raised in a completely different time. Not that much changed here in Wolf Springs.
I adjusted the dials on the grill to lower the flame then forked the steaks onto the grate. The meat sizzled, and I closed the lid and gave Ali my full attention.
“Does she ride? Do your parents have horses?” she asked.
“No.” I chuckled and pointed in the opposite direction of her ranch in the valley. “They live up here in the forest land. They’re not horse people. Ariel would love to meet you, a real cowgirl.” I hoped I wasn’t pushing too hard this time with that suggestion.
“I’ll take her riding,” Ali offered without hesitation. “I’d love to.”
My chest warmed. “Would you, really? That is a very kind offer. I’d love to take you up on it. Surprise her.” Meeting family, getting connected that way, would be an important part of building trust with our mate. Ariel might be a shifter cub, but she was also a girl. A tween, as my other sisters called her.
“Do you have a sister?” I asked. I could have done a whole background check on her, but I hadn’t. I wanted to get to know our mate the normal way, not like a DEA investigator.
She shook her head. “One brother, but we don’t talk all that much. Older. He lives in Spokane.”
Holt came out with three glasses of chilled chardonnay. The asshole had spent a solid twenty-five minutes at the liquor store quizzing Marjorie, the owner, about the different wines, trying to find the best one for our mate.
Ali took the glass and split a look between the two of us. “So, is this a thing for you two? You’ve done this before?”
So much for making small talk. Her questions were reassuring, though, pointing to the fact that she’d thought about it, about being with both of us. Was thinking about it now.
“Have sex?” Holt asked, which made her roll her eyes. “We’re not virgins, and I assume you’re not one either.”
It was a tricky question, because what woman wanted to know about a guy’s sexual history?
Her cheeks blushed prettily as she gave a slight head shake. I wasn’t too keen to know whom she’d been intimate with before, but I wasn’t naive.
“You might not believe this, but we’ve been waiting for you.” I stepped closer, tipped her chin up to ensure she saw the truth in my words. “Any woman who has come before is in the past. We’re here with you now. And hopefully longer.”
Holt shot me a glance. We’d talked at length about not coming on too strong and not trying to rush things with her. As if that was possible.
Male wolves who found their fated mate couldn’t very well sit back and wait. We’d go mad. Now that we’d scented Ali, our wolves were going nuts trying to get us to claim her with our teeth. We could reassure her, but we weren’t going to go slow either.
“Longer?” she asked. “We just met.”
I dropped my hand, went to the grill to flip the steaks.
“Yeah, but there’s something here, sweetheart. We feel it and I know you do, too.”
Holt’s words were exactly fucking right.
“You wouldn’t be here otherwise.”
Ali sipped her wine and cocked a hip, surveying both of us with interest but also assessment. Taking her time to think about what we said. “Are you two a couple?”
“Nope,” I said. “Childhood friends. We just found out early on that it’s fun to share.” Not a lie.
“Here’s to exploring it all with you.” Holt lifted his wine glass and eyed her as if she were the meat we were about to eat, and not the steaks that were almost done.
I picked up my glass and waited for Ali to put hers forward. We tapped her glass lightly.
“How do you like your meat?” I asked. “No pun intended.”
She grinned. “Medium rare.”
“Good girl.” I stabbed the steaks with a large fork to put them on a clean plate.
Her laugh was throaty and went straight to my dick. I didn’t know how I was going to make it through dinner without taking a bite out of her. We wanted to get to know our mate with her clothes on first. Show her we were interested in more than just her scorchingly hot body.
“Have a seat, sweetheart.” Holt indicated the patio table, on which he’d set cherry red placemats and napkins. “I’ll grab the salad.”
My mom had made the dish—a beautiful Greek salad with cherry tomatoes, olives, red onion, and feta cheese. She’d dropped it by the minute she heard we were having our mate over for dinner, giving us all the help we could get. Obviously she was afraid Ali would run away screaming because of either of our bad cooking.
Holt’s parents had moved to Alaska a few years back to be close to their grandpups there. His sister had mated an alpha wolf in Anchorage.
I had to be grateful my parents hadn’t freaked out over our mate being a human and a rancher. Of course, I hadn’t told them who her father was. It would come out soon enough—it was a hurdle we’d all have to deal with—Holt, Ali and I, primarily. For the moment, though, I liked having their full support and excitement.