A Twitch of Tail (7 page)

Tahlon came out of the bathroom, a towel slung low on his hips.  “Besides, kitta, Midas wouldn’t want a mated male as his protector anyway.”

She wiggled around until she could see Tahlon.  “Why not?”

Tahlon crossed the bedroom and stroked her cheek lightly.  “Because a protector must ensure the safety of the king at all costs.  There may come a time when a mated male would have to choose between his mate and his king, and no king worth his salt would ask a male to make that choice.”

Tera looked back at Melo.

Melo touched the rough tips of his fingers to the soft skin of her jaw.  She was so delicate, but she had an inner strength that he was just beginning to see.  A powerful Wiccan, sure, but she would be a strong mate as well.

“I would throw Midas over a cliff to save you in a heartbeat, sweetheart.”  He wasn’t sure he’d ever said anything quite as truthful as he had at that moment.

She laughed and her eyes shone with humor.  “I’m not so sure your king would be glad about that, but I appreciate the sentiment.”

“It’s the truth, Tera.”

Tahlon said, “I’m going to get dressed.”

He glanced at the clock purposely and then at Melo, a silent reminder that Melo needed to leave.  Well, he didn’t want to, damn it, but he had no choice.

“I need to get ready, sweetheart.  I’d love to stay here in bed all day, but the outside world beckons.”  He eased away from her as she rolled to her back and stretched.

“Outside world sucks,” she said.

He agreed completely.

Tera got in the shower when Melo was done, and he dressed and walked out to the kitchen to fill a travel mug with coffee.  His feet were dragging.  He didn’t want to leave the house.  Or the bed.  Or Tera’s arms.  For about a thousand years.

“What are your plans today?” Melo asked Tahlon, who was stirring milk into a coffee mug.  He was surprised that Tahlon had made coffee, because his brother had never been much for kitchen activities outside of eating.  But he was grateful, even though he was fairly certain that his brother only made coffee because their mate was a caffeine-hound and needed at least two cups to start her day.

“I told Tera I’d take her over to her townhouse and help her pack a few bags.”

She had packed a bag on Saturday, but only for a few days.  Melo hadn’t hesitated to ask her to move into the house.

He cleared his throat.  “I don’t know if I even need to say this, Tahl, but my house is ours now.  Yours, mine, and Tera’s.”

Tahlon turned slowly and faced Melo.  Melo hadn’t been around his brother in three years, but he could still read his younger brother like a book.  Tahlon was surprised and grateful.

Tahlon reached his hand out and laid it on Melo’s broad shoulder.  “I never thought we’d be sharing a woman again, Mel.”

“Who did you share before?” Tera asked as she came into the kitchen wearing only a long sleeved shirt and white and green striped panties.

He and Tahlon both froze.

“Wow,” Tera laughed, “you guys look like a couple of deer caught in headlights.”

Tahlon snagged Tera around the waist and drew her between them.  She faced Melo, as Tahlon buried his face in her neck and drew in a deep breath.

When Tahlon didn’t start talking right away, Melo figured his brother didn’t want to tell the story, but Tera deserved to know.  So he told her everything, from being selected to join the harem to the queen’s lies to his own leaving.

Melo tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.  “It wasn’t like this, sweetheart.  There wasn’t any emotion between the queen and us.  It was an honor to be chosen as part of her harem.  At first, anyway.  Then it became a duty, something I came to dread very quickly.  I left because I couldn’t handle going through another heat and risk having a cub with her.  I hated to leave Tahl behind, but he wouldn’t come with me.”

Tahlon lifted his head and looked at Melo intensely.  “I stayed for you.”

“What?”

Tahlon straightened, but drew Tera closer.  “When you told the king you were going to leave the ambush, the queen called me into her chambers. I was going to go with you.  I had every intention of it.  Then she told me that if I left, too, that she would make sure you died.”

Shock tore through Melo.  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Tahlon shrugged.  “What could you have done?  She told me that she didn’t want to lose both her white tigers, and one of us had to stay.  I wanted you to have a better life, Mel.  I didn’t want you to stay for me or die trying to get free.  It was best this way.”

Sorrow dug at Melo.  He hadn’t known.  For the last three years, he thought his brother was just being honorable to the ambush.  He hadn’t realized that he’d made a sacrifice.

Tahlon’s voice dropped low so that it was almost a whisper.  “Two weeks ago, two she-tigers came from an ambush in London to visit.  They were young, still in their eighteenth year.  They were traveling from ambush to ambush around the world, hoping to find their truemates.  The moment they came into our territory, the queen went ballistic.  She said that they were trying to usurp her position and steal her harem.  She kicked them out, threatening to kill them if they stepped foot inside our territory again.  It wasn’t until later, when I heard her tell the king her outlandish version of events, that included the females plotting to kill her, that I understood why our ambush had remained entirely male for so long. “

Tera looked up at him.  “She chased them all away?”

Tahlon nodded.  “A few days later, I found the queen trying to force one of her harem males into her bed.”

At Tera’s confused look, Melo said, “The harem is only for the heat.  They’re not supposed to have sex with her any other time.”

Tahlon continued, “So I stepped in and told the queen that she was overstepping.  That I wouldn’t allow her to drag a male into bed with her against his will, which would most certainly get him killed.  She attacked us.  I held her at bay until the male could get away, and she scratched me on the back as I was leaving her chambers.  I went straight to the king and told him that I was coming here to check out the ambush and that I would be back in a few weeks and leave officially.”

“You have to go back?” Tera asked.  “Can’t you just send for your things and leave the ambush with a phone call or a letter, like quitting a job?”

“I wish it were that simple, love.”  Tahlon laid his hand against the side of her neck and stroked her jaw with his thumb.  “If I don’t return, the king will send warriors here to bring me back, and then I won’t have a chance to leave on my own.  I’ll be imprisoned as a traitor, possibly killed.  Next weekend, I have to go back.”

“Then we’re coming,” Tera said.  She reached out her hand towards Melo and turned her head to look at him.  Her gaze was fierce and determined.  “Tell him, Melo.  Tell him that he’s not going down there alone.  We’re a family now, and family sticks together.”

Pride swelled in his heart as he gazed into his mate’s lavender eyes.  She was not going to sit idly by in Ohio while Tahlon fought for his freedom in Florida, and Melo couldn’t have been more impressed.

“She’s right, brother.”  Melo stepped close and picked up her offered hand, placing it on his cheek.  “We’re in this together.  I’ll watch your back, you watch mine, and both of us will keep Tera safe from harm.”

She tilted her head back and kissed Tahlon, and then went on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around Melo’s neck.  “Thank you.”

“For what, sweetheart?”

She smiled, and her eyes crinkled at the corners.  “For being a good brother and a good mate.  I’m lucky to have you in my life.  Both of you.”

“We’re the lucky ones, Tera,” Melo said and brushed his lips across hers.  Everything in his body tightened as she opened her mouth and swiped her tongue across the seam of his mouth.  Lifting his mouth from hers, he groaned, “It’s not nice to tease a horny tiger when he has to go to work.”

Sighing miserably, he released Tera and dumped his cold coffee down the sink, fixing himself another cup.

“I wasn’t teasing, exactly.  Just reminding.”

He snapped the lid down on the cup and tweaked her chin.  “Reminding me of what?”

“Of what’s waiting for you when you get home.”

“I can’t wait.”  He kissed her goodbye, nodded at his brother, and left.  As he pulled out of the garage, he debated calling in sick.  But then again, he couldn’t keep doing that.  He did need to earn a living, especially now that he’d found his mate.  He didn’t want her or their family to ever want for anything.  And perhaps someday, in the near future, Tera would become pregnant with a cub, and their family would grow.

Melo looked forward to that day.

* * * * *

Friday evening after work, Melo stood under the shower, one palm pressed against the wall and the other absently washing his stomach as exhaustion pulled on him.  He just wanted to fall into bed and sleep for a week.  It had been a busy few days, working and then coming home to Tera and staying up late to make love to her.  None of them had gotten much sleep at night, but Tera and Tahlon had the luxury of sleeping in if they wanted to.

A cool breeze moved through the shower stall as the glass door opened and then shut and Tera slid behind him.  He turned to face her, taking in her beautiful body and her eyes that were now dark violet and filled with desire.  Lifting her hands into the spray, she tilted her head back until her hair was wet and the front of her body slick with hot water.  All his exhaustion fled as he stared down at her.  There wasn’t anything more he wanted to do now than touch his sweetheart and share this time with her.  Just the two of them.

“Need some help, baby?”  She took the bar of soap from his hand and lathered her hands, slipping the soap onto the holder and pressing her hands to his shoulders.

Her hands massaged his shoulders lightly, her thumbs tracing his collarbone before her palms slid down the front of his chest.  Her fingers rubbed at his nipples, tracing them in quick circles until they hardened into sensitive points.

She moved her hands down his sides, touching the ridges of his abdomen and circling his navel, before following the narrow path of hair down to his swollen cock.

Pausing only long enough to lather her hands again, Melo’s head tipped back, and his mouth fell open as her hot, soapy hands closed around his cock.  She pumped him, stroking along his length.  He pressed his back against the cool tile wall.  He dropped his head so he could watch her small hands wrapped around him.  Her movements were slow and exploring, as her fingers ran the length of him, circling the thick crown and following the sensitive underside.  One hand cupped his balls, massaging them with a gentle touch.

She shifted slightly so that the water hit the front of his body and washed away the soap, and then she slipped down to her knees in front of him.  He’d never seen anything quite so erotic in his life as his mate on her knees, her pink tongue darting out to lap at the droplets of water on his cock.  Opening her mouth wide, she cast her gaze up to him, her eyes glowing with passion.  Her mouth was hot and wet, and she moved her tongue around him, making little pleased humming sounds, as if he were the most delicious thing she’d ever had in her mouth.  He slid his hand through her wet hair, his hips shifting in time to the movement of her head as she took him as far into her mouth as she could before moving slowly up his length until she was just sucking on the head.  One of her hands dug into his thigh, and he saw her shoulders move slightly and realized that she was touching herself.

He barely stopped himself from coming.

“Sweetheart,” he murmured, tugging lightly on her hair until her eyes focused on him.  They were glazed with passion, bright and excited.

His cock slipped from the hot confines of her mouth, and he helped her to her feet, bringing the fingers of her left hand to his mouth and sucking on them.  Her mouth was parted, her lips swollen, and she panted for breath, watching as he licked the sweet heat of her passion from her fingers.

“I want to come inside you,” he said and turned his back to the water, moving her until she faced the wall, placing her hands on the tile.  Tugging her hips back, he angled his cock into her depths and thrust into her, pressing his hands on top of hers.

Her body was slick and tight, and he knew he wouldn’t last long, already dancing the edge of climax from her mouth and hands.  He slid one of his hands down her arm, feeling the tension in her as he stroked down the side of her body and across her hip.  His fingers found her clit, and she sucked in a deep breath and moved her hips.  He tightened his grip on her hand, twining their fingers together as she brought her free hand down to rest on top of his.  He rubbed her slick, swollen clit, thrusting into her slowly to hold off his own climax as long as possible.

He turned his head and nipped at the mating marks on her neck, his fingers on her clit making her body cream even more.  “Come for me, sweetheart,” he urged, his control beginning to unravel with each stroke into her tight heaven.

“Melo,” she moaned, her nails digging into the top of his hand, her body trembling.

He licked the mating marks and then closed his mouth over her flesh, sucking her skin into his mouth and biting down, enough for her to feel the press of his teeth but not to break the skin.  Her body tightened like a bow, her pussy clamped down on his cock like a fist, and he stroked her bud fast and hard until she shrieked and jerked against him.