“I feel like we’re back in high school again, trying not to get caught making out beneath the stairwell,” he muttered as he pulled his shirt off while I started shoving at my sleep pants, which were technically a pair of his, so once they were over my hips, they just fell to the floor to pool around my ankles.
We nearly cracked our heads together straightening back up. In that moment, my eyes landed on the woven band of interlocking lines and whirls running around his upper thigh, and my heart shattered.
“Bri,” I stammered, tears stinging my eyes as I reached out to touch it, hesitant, because that mark meant I no longer had the right to touch him and everything we’d just done…
Nausea hit then, and I slapped a hand over my mouth to keep from puking all over him.
“Mav, what is it? What’s wrong?”
I couldn’t say, so I used my free hand to point at his thigh, only to realize that there was a horrified look on his face as he stepped back from me, something he’d never done before.
“Mav,” he said, voice hitching like he was on the verge of tears. “You’ve got a bond mark.”
Huh?
The screech that ran through my head was like nails on a chalkboard as every thought came to an abrupt halt.
I had a bond mark? He was the one with the…
My thoughts tripped over themselves, memories of the day flashing on repeat. We’d met Leo, we’d met the medics, and he’d gone in to get the key to the cabin while I’d waited in the car. Did we have the same mate? Two different ones? My heartrate kept ramping up with each new question that spiraled through my head. For a moment, I was afraid I was going to faint and hit the floor.
I wondered if the same medics were on call.
What were the proper protocols for asking someone if they’d suddenly had a bondmark appear on their upper thigh?
I heard the sound of the doorknob. The slight scrape and squeal of hinges as Leo opened the bathroom door. Instinct kicked in, and I shifted, dropping to the floor with a thud at Briar’s feet, while he reached down and yanked his sleep pants back up, covering his nakedness and the bondmark we’d both longed to see appear on our skin.
I couldn’t even look at Leo. It didn’t matter if he was Briar’s mate or mine; what had just taken place between us was a violation of what those marks were supposed to be.
“Sorry I took so long in there,” Leo said, his voice sounding a bit off to my ears, or maybe it was just the pounding of my heart and rapidly rising panic that made his words sound so pained and confused. “I, um, sort of had a bit of a meltdown when I discovered a tattoo wrapped around my thigh that I don’t remember getting. I thought it was from a Sharpie at first and figured a couple friends had played a prank on me the other night when I passed out at a Christmas party, though I don’t remember it being there the morning after or last night when I took a shower before bed, but there was a lot of tequila involved, so the details of the night are hazy, though I’d think I’dremember getting a tat all the way around my thigh. That would hurt, right? Even with the tequila?”
His words spilled out in a rambling tirade tinged with confusion, not that I could blame him. I was just glad I was already on the floor because I was completely overwhelmed.
Briar scrubbed a hand over his face, rubbed the back of his neck, and paced a little, his shadow passing back and forth over me while I stared up at him, waiting for him to confirm what my broken heart already knew. Leo was his mate. Which must mean mine was one of the EMTs. I knew the fates sometimes gave two mates instead of one, and for snow leopards, our marks only came in once all mates had been discovered, but I was scared to hope for that, and way too scared to get excited and bound across the room to pounce Leo and thank him for giving Briar and I the bondmark’s we’d always dreamed of.
“Okay, so um, does it happen to look like this?” Briar asked as he eased his sleep pants down enough to show the bondmark I’d pointed out to him.
Three shambling steps brought Leo close enough to get a clear look at the mark on Briar’s leg, while the bug-eyed look on his face after he’d studied it gave a clear answer.
“You might want to sit down,” Briar suggested with a seriousness in his tone that I knew far too well.
I half expected him to take Leo by the arm and escort him to the bed to make sure he got there safely; instead, he knelt beside me, stroked a hand over my fur, kissed me on the top of my furry head, and then rubbed our noses together.
“Yours is in the same place, Mav,” he murmured, his voice a bit choked as his tears began dampening my fur. “The exact same place. We’re mates, Mav, just the way we always wanted. Our wish came true. We’re gonna be okay. Better than okay. Now let’s go reassure our human.”
I felt the knot in my belly start to loosen as he stroked my fur and spoke gently to me before he lifted me and carried me over to the bed where Leo was seated, studying us with a guarded look on his face. The moment Briar lay me on the bed beside him, his hand shot out, hovering for just a moment before settling on my back to play with my fur.
“It’s not a tattoo,” Briar explained as he sat on the other side of me and started petting me too. “It’s called a bondmark; it, um, happens when snow leopards discover their mates. It, umm, means that you’re meant to belong to us.”
“Us?” Leo muttered. “Does, umm, does that mean the two of you are a couple?”
“More like friends with benefits,” Briar explained, while I narrowed my eyes up at him, having always hated that term, despite understanding the reason for it. “Until now.”
“I’m not sure I understand what you’re getting at.” Leo stammered. “How does learning thatI’myour mate turn into anussituation, and where am I supposed to fit in all of this?”
“Maverick shares the same bond mark with us,” Briar explained. “They weren’t there this morning; they only happened after we met you. As snow leopards, we only get our bond marks after we’ve met all our mates. We’ve always dreamed of being mated to one another, but when we came of age, and no marks appeared, we resigned ourselves to the fact that despite the strength of our connection, we weren’t destined to be mates. We were wrong. Trios are rare among our people, but not unheard of. That’s what we are now. A trio. Well, as long as you don’t intend to reject us.”
“Wait, are you saying being able to change forms is contagious and that just by hanging out with you guys today you’ve changed me?” Leo asked.
