24
LAUREL
It was late, almost nine, but Sam would be awake. I’d put everything on hold the moment I knew I was going into heat, but I couldn’t postpone this phone call. I was still reasonably sane between heat waves—which might change later—so I’d better sort this out now. I scrolled to Sam’s number and pressed the call button.
“Hi, Laurel! How are you?” I could hear music thumping in the background. Sam was out having fun, and good for him.
“I’m great. But, um, there’s something we should talk through.”
“Oh. Let me just…” The background noise disappeared as Sam presumably moved to a quieter place. “There. Now I can hear you. Everything okay?”
I stood in the upstairs lounge at the chalet, overlooking the living room area. Monty and Jordy sprawled on the sofa below, tangled in each other. Monty scrolled on his phone, and Jordy had his eyes closed, his head on Monty’s chest, his hand on Monty’s arm where it rested across Jordy’s chest.
My magnificent alphas.
Maybe it was the heat, but they seemed to fill my head the same way they filled my body, overwhelming and unstoppable, and suddenly, everything else seemed unimportant.
“Laurel, are you still there?”
“Yes, sorry.” I had to tear myself away from my men to focus for a minute. “Sam, how much do you know about bear shifters and, um, mating?”
“They find mates for life.”
“Yes. That. And it can be quite sudden.”
“It happened to Calvin, right?”
“Not just Calvin.”
There was a beat of silence. “Laurel, what are you trying to say?”
“We might be dealing with a few PR and management issues in the near future.”
I could practically hear the cogs turning in Sam’s clever head. “Can you be specific?”
“I’m in heat.”
“Oh.” He sucked in a breath. “The guy at the B&B, Montgomery Wolf. Or no! No. The other one. The tattooed bartender. Orson Jordan!”
“Yes.”
For some reason, Sam squealed happily. “Really? The hot bartender?”
“Both.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Sam, I’m mated to both. Monty and Jordy. Two alphas, one little me.”
The pause that followed was longer.
“Oh, sweet heavens,” Sam finally breathed, sounding shaky. He didn’t say anything else, so I babbled on.
“We started hooking up, the three of us together, and I really liked them both, but it was just for fun. Then I moved to the chalet, and I missed them. Yesterday morning, I woke up, and I was in heat.” I paused, waiting for Sam to say something, but he didn’t.
“I needed them both,” I added, feeling like maybe I should explain more. “It was so clear when the first heat wave came that I needed them both with me. When only Monty was here, half of me was missing. Then they held me between them, and everything just fell into place. So yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s both of them.”
The silence on the other end of the call stretched.
