“I’ll just bet you have,” Leo replied, chuckling. “So, you guys come from really big families, huh?”
“Oh yeah, you’ll think you’re being besieged when they all file into a room together.”
“Naa, no worries there,” Leo said. “My dad is a firefighter. That comes with a huge, extended family of first responders and an endless stream of barbeques all summer long. I grew up with more ‘cousins’ than I knew what to do with, none of them related by blood, but all of them close enough to me that we fought battles for one another when someone else dared to try and pick on one of them. My pops, being an MMA fighter, came with a whole other extended family at the gym. I spent a lot of time at both places after school, and so I’m used to being around a lot of people. I always wished for more siblings, but my dad was never able to, um….”
When his voice trailed off, I reached for his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, hoping it would motivate him to continue his story.
“Your dad is an omega, isn’t he?” Maverick asked. “It’s okay, you don’t have to hide that from us; we have omegas too. It’s perfectly normal. I’m one.”
“Shit, seriously?”
“Seriously,” Maverick said, snuggling closer to him.
Leo blew out a long breath and pressed their heads together. “I couldn’t tell if I was picking up on that from you or not; you mask it well.”
Then he looked me dead in the eyes. “You, however, give off total alpha vibes, no question. It’s kinda been making me feel a bit, well, itchy is not a very sexy word, but my skin has been prickly all day, hoping for more moments like this.”
“We can always pull the cushions off the couch and move the coffee table so we can build a blanket nest and have way more room to cuddle,” Mav offered.
“I’d like that,” Leo said, already squirming out from between us so we could start building it.
It didn’t take us long to have a nest assembled, pulling all the spare blankets off the backs of the couches and chairs, as well as the soft, cozy blanket Mav and I had brought up with us and spread out over the bed. We put Leo between us as we got settled, with me behind him and Mav in front of him, though he seemed to have no interest in the movie and instead turned his back to the television so he could snuggle in Leo’s arms.
“Can a human carry shifter babies?” Leo asked, not long after we’d gotten settled back in.
I decided to leave that question for Mav to answer, since there had been certain health classes he’d taken that alphas had absolutely not been welcomed in.
“They can, yes,” Maverick replied. “While they might not have the ability to shift, many of the children they carry are more than capable of it. Briar reminded me earlier today that there are many who believe that for a human to have a shifter mate, it means that someone, somewhere in their family tree, was a shifter, but that the shifting gene got so diluted over time that the ability to shift got lost.”
“I’d love to find out if that were true in my family, but I doubt we’d have much luck unscrambling my family tree,” Leo said. “My dads met in foster care and don’t know much of anything about their birth families except that they were unable to care for them and surrendered them into the system when they were young. They really don’t talk about their childhoods much.”
“I’m guessing with good reason,” I replied. “Do you think they’ll be okay with you having two mates that aren’t human?”
Leo chuckled at that and wiggled back against me until you couldn’t slip a piece of paper between our bodies. “I think they will be thrilled that I’ve found the men I was meant to spend forever with. That’s the only thing that’s really going to matter to them.”
“My old man felt the same way,” I said.
“What about you, Mav?” Leo asked. “Are your folks going to be okay with all of this after pushing you and Briar to put space between you?”
“I think so,” Maverick replied. “Their main issue was that we didn’t have bondmark’s. Now that we have them, I can see their attitudes changing about us spending the rest of our lives together, especially since they knew that was what we always wanted to do. We’ll see tomorrow when I call home. I’m not worried; they always wanted me to find my mates, and now I have.”
“So, is that all there is to it? Those bondmark’s appear, and bam, you’re mated.”
Now it was my turn to chuckle. “Oh no, the bondmark is just the beginning. A tag that pretty much says that person is mine. When we’re ready, we’ll slide into the second part of mating, though I’ve got to warn you, that part can get a little messy.”
“I’m good with messy, as long as it’s the fun kind of mess and not the kind that requires medical intervention,” Leo quipped, prompting a low, whimpering purr from Maverick, who squirmed against him, drawing a gasp from Leo.
“This is the best kind of messy,” Mav murmured in his ear, though with my hearing, I didn’t even have to strain to make out what he was saying. “’cause Briar is gonna bite us both and leave us with imprints of his teeth that will never fade. Then he’s gonna fuck us until we won’t even want to think about moving.”
“Oh yeah,” Leo groaned, gripping Maverick’s rear and rolling his hips until both were moaning. “That’s the best kind of messy, indeed.”
Chapter 11
Leo
“Is there a time limit,” I groaned, as I ran my fingers through Maverick’s hair and tugged just enough to get him to quit licking and nipping my neck long enough for me to kiss him.
“Time limit for what?” Briar moaned, lips vibrating against the other side of my neck, sending a wonderful series of shivers through my body.
