Chasing Cristabel (Ashland Pride Six) (10 page)

The pride lifted their glasses to her in
cheers, and she touched the rim of her glass of iced tea to all of
her mates.

“I told you they’d love you,” Hunter murmured
into her ear. “You’re a mountain lion now, baby.”

“And I’ve never been happier.”

* * *

Cris buttoned her turquoise blouse as she
stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. The last thing she wanted
to do was leave the bedroom and go to work, because her mates were
so tempting, but she knew that it was a good idea for her to
actually go to her job and earn money. Although they’d told her she
didn’t need to work, because they all worked and wanted to take
care of her, she wasn’t interested in putting her feet up and not
being a contributing member of their family.

There was a soft knock on the door. “Come
in,” she said, reaching for the hairbrush to run it through her
hair a few more times.

Dylan opened the door and stepped inside,
shutting it quietly. He wore what she’d come to think of as her
mates’ uniform: jeans with the top button undone and no shirt. Her
gaze dropped immediately to his abdomen. He had the sexiest happy
trail she’d ever seen.

“I came to ask if you wanted me to drive you
to work,” he said.

Her gaze snapped up to his face, and she
blushed at his sexy grin. “You don’t have to.”

“I know,” he said, shrugging, “but I’d like
to.”

“How would I get home? Your shift starts at
two, and I don’t get off work until six.”

“Chase will pick you up.”

She put down the brush and turned to him. “I
thought you guys all worked the same shifts?”

“We did. Hunter called Perry while you were
in the shower to discuss our shifts.”

“What did you do?”

“After I drop you off at the clinic, we’re
going to meet with Perry to change our schedules. We’ll make it so
that one of us is always home when you’re off work.”

Cris shook her head. Grabbing Dylan’s hand,
she opened the bathroom door and walked across the hall to the
bedroom, where she found Hunter and Chase getting dressed.

She shut the door and turned to them. “What’s
going on? Why would you change your work schedules for me?”

Hunter’s brow rose. “Seriously? You’re our
mate.”

“I know. And?”

“
And
our cats want to keep you safe,”
Chase said.

“Safe from what? Your regular work schedules
had you home during the week at eight or nine, and yeah you work
late on the weekends and that would suck, but we’d have all day
Sunday together.”

Dylan tugged on her hand and said, “Sit down,
love.”

She sat on the bed and looked at them as they
stood in front of her, their gazes full of concern and
affection.

Chase cleared his throat. “It’s important to
us that you’re safe. I know you feel like this is a safe place, and
it is. Ashland is amazing. But like we explained before, some of
the mates have been harmed, and we don’t want that to happen to
you.”

“It’s not as if we’re asking you to stop
working and stay here, locked in the room all day,” Dylan said. “We
just want one of us to be here when you’re home. Aside from us
wanting to take care of you, it’ll give us a chance to get to know
you one-on-one.”

It was her turn to arch a brow. Chase
chuckled. “Most human couples are home at the same time. The males
and females eat dinner together, spend time getting to know each
other. Why would we be any different?”

“I don’t know. I’m just surprised that you’re
changing your lives around for me.”

“Why on earth would you be surprised by
that?” Dylan asked. “You’re ours. If you worked at night, wouldn’t
you want to change your schedule so you could be with us?”

“Of course.”

“You just happen to have three males who want
to be with you. The other mating groups in the house have similar
schedules they’ve worked out,” Hunter said.

Tilting her head, she looked at her mates for
a long, quiet moment. “Does this mean we might get to go out on a
real date?”

All of their brows rose.

“Of course,” Chase said. “We’ll get it all
worked out. Don’t worry sweetheart.”

“I’m not worried,” she promised. Then she
glanced at her watch. “But I will be worried if I don’t get to work
on time for my first day.”

“I’ll be ready in two seconds,” Dylan said
before hurrying from the room.

Hunter and Chase surrounded her, Hunter
pulling her against his chest and Chase pressing against her back.
“We’ll miss you,” Chase murmured in her ear.

“I’ll miss you all too,” she promised,
shivering as Chase’s teeth closed gently on her neck. She purred
softly.

“Hey, knock that off,” Dylan said as he
walked back into the room wearing a shirt and carrying his shoes.
“It’s not fair to horn her up and then make her wait all day to see
us.”

Chase went still behind her as Hunter
laughed. “Sorry,” Hunter said, tipping her face up and kissing her
lips.

“Don’t be sorry. It’s hard enough to leave
without you guys getting all extra-strength sexy on me.”

After stepping into a pair of low heels, she
walked with her mates down to the first floor. Hunter and Chase
both kissed her goodbye, and then Dylan led her to his car and
opened the door for her.

“Get her there safe,” Hunter said to Dylan,
his voice a gruff command.

“You know I will,” Dylan said as he shut her
door and then moved quickly behind the wheel. “Ready, love?”

“Definitely.”

Dylan dropped her off at the door of the
clinic. Her cat made a plaintive sound, but she reminded the fussy
creature that they couldn’t simply spend all day, every day in bed
with their mates. She missed them already, but if they were going
to get a place of their own, then she needed to work to help
out.

As she stepped into the reception area to
start the day, she glanced out the glass door and saw Dylan wave at
her before he pulled away from the building. With an internal sigh,
she smiled brightly at her new boss, hoping that the day would pass
quickly.

Chapter 9

Hunter hadn’t felt this grumpy since the
cable had gone out two years ago during the Super Bowl. Watching
Dylan take Cris to work made something dark creep into him and take
root. He was the oldest and the strongest.
He
should be the
one taking Cris to work and picking her up.

“Why do you look so pissed?” Chase asked as
Hunter parked in front of Kickers.

He scrubbed a hand through his hair.
“Nothing.”

“Bullshit.”

Hunter grumbled a curse and then said, “I
don’t like being away from her.”

“And you think I do?”

He gave him a long look. “I want her to do
whatever she wants to be happy, but I don’t
like
that we’re
not together right now. I wish the weekend had lasted forever.”

“Which is really sappy,” he said, making a
face.

“I have my moments,” he said, grinning.

“It’s still really new for us. My cat is
clawing at me to go get her and take her home, but that’s not
realistic. We need jobs so we can support her, and she wants to
work right now, and I think that’s okay, too. Of the three of us,
you’re more concerned with safety. You always worry about the kids
and the mates in the pride, but it’s more meaningful now that we
have our own mate to take care of.”

Dylan pulled up alongside Hunter’s truck with
a smile on his face. “Let’s get this meeting over with,” Hunter
said as he got out of the truck.

Perry was sitting at the bar with a newspaper
and a cup of coffee. “Hey, guys.”

They greeted him, and he suggested they sit
at a table to talk. When they were settled, Hunter said, “We wanted
to talk to you about changing our schedules.”

“This is because you guys have a mate,
right?”

Hunter nodded. “We want to be home to spend
time with her.”

“I understand. When Rita and I were first
married, she nearly lost her job because she kept oversleeping
because…well, she was tired,” he said, laughing.

“You guys have been married a while, right?”
Chase asked.

“It’ll be thirty years this fall. I think
it’s different for us humans than it is for you shifters. You feel
connections to your mates that aren’t the same as what we feel for
ours.”

“Love is love,” Dylan said.

“Oh sure, but I don’t have a creature in my
head making suggestions.”

Hunter shook his head with a laugh. “It’s not
that bad.”

“All right. Let’s see what we can do with the
schedule so you guys can spend time with your girl. And, of course,
she’s welcome to hang out here. I know you won’t let it interfere
with your ability to do your jobs. You three are some of the best
employees I’ve ever had, but don’t tell Rue I said that.”

Rue, who was mated to James and John, had
started working at the bar several months ago. She worked the day
shift, part-time, so they didn’t see her as much.

“We won’t,” Dylan said.

“All right, so let’s get the schedule figured
out so you guys can get back to focusing on what’s most important,”
Perry said.

By the time Hunter’s stomach was growling for
lunch, they’d finally hashed out a schedule that allowed at least
one of them to be home with Cris every night. He’d also heard from
the rumor mill that some of the black panthers, who had taken up
residence in a field beyond the pride’s territory, were looking for
work.

“Send them my way, and we’ll see what we can
work out,” Perry promised.

Hunter still felt unsettled as he left the
bar and climbed behind the wheel.

“That turned out better than I thought it
would,” Chase said.

“Did you think he’d say no?” Hunter asked
after waving at Dylan and pulling out of the parking lot.

“I thought he’d maybe give us a hard time
about cutting our hours, but he’s being great about it.”

Each of them was going to work the closing
shift once during the week – which meant a damn long day start to
finish – working a few hours each day after that, plus alternating
closing on Fridays and Saturdays. For the week ahead, Hunter was
going to be closing tonight, and then Friday night, but it meant he
had Saturday and Sunday off entirely, and Saturday…well, he planned
to take very good care of her. He’d have her all to himself
Saturday from three to eight. He could think of a dozen things he
could do with her, to her, for her. His mental list of how to make
his mate happy was growing by the second.

On his way to work that afternoon, he stopped
by the clinic to say hello to Cris, and she took a break and sat
with him in the truck.

“Are you enjoying work so far?” he asked,
thrilled when she snuggled right up to him, tucking herself
close.

“It’s been really good. I miss you,
though.”

He pressed his lips to the top of her head,
inhaling her scent. “I miss you, too.”

“This is difficult. I didn’t realize how hard
it would be to be away from you.” She tipped her head up until he
could see her beautiful blue eyes.

“I didn’t know either. In a perfect world we
could stay together all the time.”

“Life’s not perfect, though.”

“You are,” he said.

“Aw,” she said, smiling as her eyes
danced.

He could have sat there forever, but he
didn’t want her to get into trouble on her first day. As he walked
her back into the building, he said, “I won’t be home until really
late, but I’ll get up to say goodbye in the morning.”

She peered up at him as her hands slid into
his coat and pressed against his back, drawing him close. “Have a
good night at work. I’ll miss you.”

He was glad the waiting room was empty so he
could kiss her goodbye properly, pulling her tightly against him
and pressing his lips to hers. He loved the way she tasted, all
sweet woman and tempting lioness, and every time he kissed her, he
felt it all the way to his soul.

“You slay me every time we kiss,” he
whispered against her lips.

She smiled as he pulled away from her. Her
lips were swollen from their kiss, and her eyes were a stunning
navy color with golden swirls. He knew it was her beast shining
through, the lioness wanting to get close to him because they were
mates. His cat sat up in recognition.

His sensitive hearing caught the sound of the
doctor heading down the hallway, and he kissed her briefly and
said, “Have a good rest of the day, sweetheart.”

“You too,” she said.

He turned and left before the desire to toss
her over his shoulder and head home overrode his greater sense of
decency. He looked at the door before he got into his truck, and
she was watching him and waving. He’d heard the stories from other
pride members of how much they coveted the time with their mates,
but he’d had no idea how instantaneous it would be.

It felt like his life started the night she
walked into the bar and into his life.

* * *

Tanya Winston, head of the all-female
mountain lion pride, watched as Bella paced the length of the tiny
hotel room, avoiding bumping into Hannah who was sitting on the
bed. “Pacing won’t bring the human here any faster,” Tanya pointed
out.

Bella turned with a snarl. “I just think
trusting a drug-abusing prostitute to bring one of the males to us
is going to backfire.”

Tanya made a non-committal noise in her
throat. She wasn’t sure if it was a good idea or not, actually, but
it had made sense at the time. The females needed to procreate or
their species was going to die out. They were already banished from
King, Pennsylvania, and Ashland, Indiana, where their males lived.
Procreating with humans or other shifters meant that the children
born to the females would not be purely mountain lion, and that
meant they’d be an abomination, which was, at its core,
inexcusable.