Another groan, and Shawn bit off, “Yeah.Please.”
Marc got up and peered around the door to the walk-in closet where he saw the wine fridge purring beside a wall of hangers loaded down with innocuous black suits.
The man’s wardrobe screamed security guard.
Figuring that made sense as the manwasa bodyguard, Marc grabbed two IPAs, approving of the names as he did so, then headed back to the bedroom.
The sounds of the bottles clinking had Shawn tilting his head to stare at Marc, and he held out his hand for one of the bottles.
Twisting off the bottle cap, he took a deep sip and sighed after.
“Seriously, Shawn, you have to get over this,” Marc said when he’d taken a deep gulp of his own beer.“I know it must be hard for you, but…” He blew out a breath.“I know this might not be reassuring, but does she sound unhappy?”
“That isn’t the point,” Shawn retorted softly.“It’s just weird knowing my woman is being fucked by another dude, and that it could be one of three guys.”He propped his bottle on his belly.“It’s fucked up.”
“Yeah, for humans, I guess it is.”Marc sighed after he took another gulp.“Do you know that Pride females are capable of wearing out their mates?”
The fact had Shawn’s gaze clashing with his.“Seriously?All three of them?”
Because of a quirk in their species’ reproductive capabilities, women were born singly, and males were born in litters.
With the population skewed from the start, the Mother had figured out a way to combat the problem—all females had either a single mate—usually a human male—or were mated to a Triad.
Three men who were bonded to one another.
It was always either one male or three of them.
Never four.
As was the case with El.
“Yeah.They can wear out a Triad.Especially when they’re in estrus.”
Shawn frowned.“Wow.”
“You won’t know this either… Pantera are considered highly sexed.”
Shawn spluttered around his mouthful of beer.“The implication being that Pride females aren’t?”
Marc shrugged.“I don’t know what to tell you.But you’d never be enough for her anyway.We’ll have a time of it keeping up with her as it is.”
Shawn blinked.“That explains it.”
“Explains what?”
“All the fucking I’ve been hearing.Before she shifted, I didn’t hear anything.Not really.Now?It’s twice a day.Minimum.It’s driving me fucking mad.”
“You’re going to have to get used to it, or you’re going to have to move rooms.”
Shawn gritted his teeth.“I can’t move rooms.I told you.She needs the protection.”
“Look, I get that.You’re not wrong.Someone managed to infiltrate our security, either from outside the Pride or from within, and nearly killed Ryan and Trip… we lost good men that day.Men who didn’t deserve to die in such a cowardly attack.
“But, I’m talking about swapping rooms with me, because, those sounds?They don’t irritate me.They make me happy.”
Shawn grunted.“How can they make you happy?”
“If my mate’s happy, I’m happy.”
