Page 49 of Beasts of Mine

“I don't know. She gave me a vague answer involving a strange animal and said it was a long story,” I told Tavian, remembering the way Evie had smoothly redirected the conversation afterward.

“And you just let that go?” Tavian asked me, staring as though my lack of interrogation might be stranger than her ability.

“She didn't want to talk about it,” I told Tavian, lifting one shoulder. Tavian slowly turned toward Luca.

“He voluntarily stopped asking questions,” Tavian told Luca, lowering his voice with exaggerated concern as if reporting a troubling symptom.

“I heard him,” Luca replied, his eyes briefly meeting mine while amusement tugged at his mouth.

“I had something else on my mind,” I told both of them, and the change in my voice pulled Tavian away from the joke.

They waited.

“I want to court her,” I told my packmates.

Neither man looked surprised. Tavian gave a slow nod and rocked once onto his heels, while Luca's shoulders loosened as though I'd finally confirmed something he'd already accepted.

“You decided that days ago,” Luca said, studying me from beside the spring.

“Yes,” I told Luca, pushing away from the stone. “I wanted to be certain before I involved either of you.”

Tavian snorted.

“You've been coming home smelling like her for nearly a week, rearranging patrols, and apparently sleeping beside her during storms,” Tavian told me, counting the offenses on his fingers. “I think we were involved the moment you started making us pretend not to notice.”

“You were curious,” I told Tavian, giving him a flat stare.

“I remain extremely curious,” Tavian replied, dropping his hand with absolutely no shame. Luca shook his head, but there was a faint smile on his face.

“You want us to meet her,” Luca said, looking toward me as he understood where the conversation was going.

“Yes,” I told Luca. The three of us had built our lives together years before Evie entered the rainforest. We shared the temple, the territory, the work required to maintain both, and nearly every decision large enough to affect our future. The possibility that we'd eventually court one Omega together had always been part of that future, just as it was for many established leopard packs.

There were practical advantages, particularly in a territory like ours. Patrols could take one Alpha away for days, meetings with neighboring communities sometimes required another to travel. An Omega's heat didn't care whether the rest of life had become inconvenient that week. A larger household meant more support, more hands, and more people available when someone needed something.

If there were cubs someday, there would be three Alphas teaching them, feeding them, protecting them, and hauling them down from whatever dangerous place they'd decided they could climb despite being told not to.

It was ordinary to us.

What wasn't ordinary was finding a woman all three of us might genuinely want.

“I want you to meet Evie yourselves,” I told my packmates, looking from Tavian's obvious excitement to Luca's more measured interest. “Spend time around her. Then we'll see.”

“When?” Tavian asked me, straightening immediately as though there was a chance I might tell him to return to the creek right now.

“Tomorrow,” I told Tavian, already wondering whether giving him an entire night to become more curious had been a mistake.

“As ourselves?” Tavian asked me, glancing down at his human body before turning his gaze in the distant direction of the creek.

“As leopards,” I told Tavian, crossing my arms as disappointment flashed across his face. “She already has talking animals to deal with. I'm not adding men turning into leopards to the list tomorrow.”

“I wasn't suggesting that,” Tavian protested, though the way his eyes shifted toward Luca said he had at least considered it.

“You absolutely were,” Luca told Tavian, bending to retrieve his shirt from the stone ledge.

“I was considering possibilities,” Tavian corrected Luca, spreading one hand in his defense.

“You were considering introducing yourself,” Luca said, pulling the shirt over his shoulders before gathering his hair out from beneath the collar.