Every Dawn Forever (16 page)

Crux pulled away from the kiss and her eyes met Sterling’s, dark with passion and heavy-lidded.  Straightening on his knees, he planted his hands on either side of her and met her lips with his own.  She tasted sweet, her lips soft and lightly swollen from earlier kisses.  A small sound came from her throat as he tilted his head and deepened their kiss, sliding his tongue across hers.

Her hand touched his neck, her palm grazing his throat as her thumb rubbed along his jaw.  Her touch was electrifying, charging his blood and making his brain misfire.  Pulling away slowly, he watched her ease back against the couch cushions, her hand drifting down his cheek.  He caught it and pressed his mouth to the center, and let it go as she relaxed in front of him and his brothers, in only a pair of peach-colored bikini panties.

He brushed his fingertips up the inside of her thighs and she shivered, which made him want to howl.  She was so responsive.  Skimming his fingers over the tops of her thighs, he eased them underneath her and pulled her gently towards the end of the couch.  Her eyes were heavy-lidded and dark blue.  His brothers sat on either side of her, touching and kissing her, but her eyes were locked to his.

He brushed his fingers across the front of her panties and then delved down to lightly touch the satin that covered her heated flesh.  Rubbing up and down, he smiled inwardly as her hips began to follow the motion.  Sliding a finger underneath the satin, he stroked the soft curls that covered her sex, keeping his eyes locked with hers.  Pressing slightly, he parted the lips of her pussy and grazed her clit, which was wet and swollen.  His mouth watered to taste her, and he leaned back and pulled her panties down her legs.  With a toss over his shoulder, the panties went airborne and he spread her legs apart slowly with his hands and returned to his place between them.

Her pussy was wet and glistening with her arousal, and he rubbed his fingertip in a circle around her clit several times before sliding it down to her entrance and pressing his finger slowly inside.  She arched her back as his brothers caught her nipples in their mouths and her eyes finally closed.

Dropping his head, he used the fingers of one hand to expose her clit, the little pearl glistening and begging to be tended to.  Setting a slow in-and-out rhythm with his finger, he pressed a single, chaste kiss to her clit and then stroked it with his tongue.   The sweet taste of her arousal was like melted sugar, and he lapped at her as her pussy clenched his finger.

Her legs moved restlessly, and he added a second finger.  She moaned in approval.  Increasing the pace of his fingers, he captured her tight bud between his lips and lashed it with his tongue.  He could feel how close she was to coming, because her pussy was clenching his fingers and her legs were now pressing against his arms.  She made little breathy sounds when he deviled his tongue on the side of her clit, and he kept it up, driving her over the edge.  She exhaled on a soft cry of pleasure, but he wasn’t done yet, curving his fingers up and stroking the soft walls of her pussy until she fell apart again.

He released her clit and watched as her back bowed and she rolled to one shoulder, crying out with a throaty sound as her hands gripped his brothers.  All three men watched her quake in pleasure, the sight among the most beautiful things he’d ever witnessed.  Her head rested against Orion’s shoulder as she gasped for breath, her eyes squeezed shut.

He pulled his fingers from her and her eyes opened slowly, her gaze at first unfocused but then sharpening quickly.  She leaned forward and hooked her arms around his neck.  “I love you,” she whispered.

“I love you, too, Little One.”

They kissed, and then Crux tipped Sydney’s face towards himself and said, “My turn?”

She smiled, that awe returning to her face, and Sterling switched places with his brother.  As he settled next to her, Sterling cupped her breast and ran his thumb over her tight nipple.

“You guys are going to make me melt from the inside out.”  Her voice drifted into a moan and he grinned.

He was sure there was nothing better on earth than his mate’s cries of pleasure in his ears, the sweet taste of her arousal, and her awe-filled smile.

Chapter 13

Late Friday morning, Sydney took a shift with Orion watching the firepit.  While she sat on a blanket with her back against a wide tree, Orion poked at the flaming contents of the pit with a long-handled tool, making sure that what needed to burn would continue to do so until it was nothing but ash.

He lay the tool down on the dirt near the pit and brushed ash from his hands onto his jeans before joining her.  He sat next to her and put his arm around her, drawing her into the already familiar warmth of his body.  They didn’t say anything, and they didn’t really need to.  At least not here, in this place.  The day before, they’d touched her in ways that had eclipsed the first time they’d been with her in the cabin, each of her mates drawing her body to higher and higher plateaus of pleasure until she was hoarse from crying out and her body ached in new and amazing ways.

She’d had boyfriends in high school, but she’d never let anything go further physically than kissing.  On the full moon, when her wolf wanted to have sex, she’d always chosen to go hunting the entire night, wearing her beast out.  It worked for the most part, but she had always wondered if she was missing something.  She doubted, though, that any of the young males in her pack would have held even a tiny candle to the pleasure that her mates brought to her.

A few hours later, they left Mason at the pit so they could go back to the house and get ready for work.  Orion suggested she stay home from work and relax, but she didn’t want to just be sitting around by herself brooding.  Even though she wasn’t big into the whole workout lifestyle, she enjoyed being at the gym.  Sterling was always fixing something, replacing something, or building something.  Crux had several clients that he met with a few times each week, and she was glad that none of them were women.  And Orion, with his pretty blue-green eyes, would sneak peeks at her when he thought she wasn’t paying attention.  But he was so handsome it was hard not to notice everything he did.

While they were at work on Friday, Nyte and his clan cleaned the den and made repairs, replacing the door and the furniture in the main room that had been destroyed during the struggle.  When they got home from work that night, she went right down into the den and stood in the center of the main room where the male that had tormented her had died.

“How are you feeling, sweetheart?”  Orion asked as he and his brothers joined her.

She leaned into him and his strong arms surrounded her.  “I was just making sure there aren’t any ghosts from my past down here.”

Crux asked, “And?”

She smiled.  “It’s entirely ghost-free.”

When she was drying off after her morning shower on Sunday, she reached up to put her towel back on the rack and felt a twinge in her side.  She pressed her hand to her side with a sharp exhale, bending over slightly and waiting for the pain to pass.  As the pain passed, she remembered that she’d felt a similar pain before she shifted.

She took in a sharp breath and her mind began to race.  Darting into the master bedroom, she found the smart phone that Orion had purchased for her and opened up the calendar program.  She’d always kept careful watch over her monthly cycle, using a natural birth control that her former mate had never known about to prevent pregnancy.  When Katharine told her that
he
was planning to force her to have a child, she hadn’t thought there was any way to overcome the birth control that had worked so well for so many years.  But she was late.  Definitely.

She sat down on the edge of the bed and stared at the calendar.  She had no idea how to tell when she was ovulating or what the symptoms were for early pregnancy.

Her first thought was to go to her mates and tell them that she thought she might be pregnant, going only on two slight pains and the lateness of her period.  Fear ratcheted through her spine.  She didn’t think she could look into their eyes and tell them that she might be pregnant when she didn’t know for sure
who
the father might be.

Her fingers trembled as she called Alyssa.  She knew she was taking the coward’s way, but she didn’t think she could face them with so little information.  Alyssa was happy for a visit, and Sydney dressed and went to find the guys, telling them that she was going over to see Alyssa for a while.  After declining company for the walk, she headed out the back door and followed the path to the big house.

Alyssa was standing on the back porch in a white and purple sundress and sandals.  After a warm hug, Alyssa looked at her appraisingly and said, “Let’s go talk upstairs.”

She led her up to a large bedroom with a huge bed against one wall and matching dark wood furniture.  The door shut softly behind them; Alyssa gestured to the bed and Sydney sat down.  Joining her, Alyssa rubbed a hand over her belly and asked, “What’s up, Syd?”

Swallowing, Sydney asked, “Can you take me to a doctor?”

Alyssa looked at her in surprise.  “Are you sick?”

She fiddled with the hem of her top for a moment before answering.  “No.  I think I’m pregnant.”

“Oh!  I’m so happy for you!”

Alyssa hugged Sydney, but she didn’t have the desire to return the hug in celebration.  Not until she knew for sure just whose baby she was carrying.

Alyssa stiffened and released her, gripping her shoulders.  “You’re asking me to take you to a doctor because you haven’t told your guys yet.  What’s going on?”

Don’t cry.  Don’t you dare cry.

She sat on the edge of the bed and chewed on her lip.  “I don’t know for sure whose baby it is.”

Alyssa let out a slow breath.

Sydney continued, “I’m late and I thought maybe a doctor could give me an idea of the timing.  I was only with the guys that first night.”

Alyssa put her arm around Sydney.  “I totally understand.  I’ll talk to my OB and get an appointment for you this week.”

“You won’t tell anyone, will you?”

Alyssa frowned, but then shook her head.  “It’s not my secret to tell.  But they’re crazy about you, Syd.  Regardless of who fathered your child, they’d want to be with you and take care of you and the baby.”

“I need to do this first.”

Alyssa nodded silently and looked towards the window.  “I came from a pack that treated unmated females like whores.  If a female was single, she was expected to make herself available for any of the unmated males at any time, but especially during the full moon.  When I decided I’d had enough of that life, I pulled up my roots and came here to Dalton to work at the gym.  I thought that I didn’t deserve such amazing guys like Dante, Cairo, and Mason.  I pushed them away even though I knew that there was more between us.  I was ashamed of my past because I had let myself be treated like property because I didn’t care enough about myself to say no.  But they didn’t care.  They look at me and see their mate.  They don’t see the endless string of my past lovers or the humiliation that I endured when I tried to start my life over in the pack before I felt like I had to leave.  They just see me.”

Alyssa turned her head and her eyes were shining with unshed tears.  “Whatever happened to you before you came here is in the past.  If you feel like you can’t tell them what’s going on now because you’re worried about the outcome, I would encourage you to reconsider.  They’re amazing guys and they’re not going to run because you may or may not be carrying a child from another male.  Do you love them?”

Sydney’s heart clenched.  “Yes.”

“Then you should trust them.”

“I do.”  Sydney brushed at tears that she hadn’t realized had fallen.  “But I want to do this on my own.”

Alyssa hugged her a little tighter and kissed her cheek.  “I understand, and I’m glad that you could come to me.  I’ll call my OB first thing tomorrow and get you an appointment.”

“Thanks for your help,” Sydney said, standing with Alyssa and walking towards the door.

“I’m glad to be here for you, Syd.  I’m your friend and I hope that you think of me that way, too.”

Nodding, Sydney walked out to the back porch with Alyssa and hugged her once more before heading home.

The following morning, Alyssa called and asked Sydney if she’d like to have lunch on Tuesday at one, which was the code they’d agreed on when an appointment was made.

She didn’t like asking Alyssa to lie to her own mates for her, or deceiving her guys by not telling them what was going on in her mind, but she felt like she needed to do this on her own.  She wouldn’t keep it from them for much longer.

* * * * *

The waiting room of the women’s clinic was done in pastels, with water-color pictures of flowers in gold frames on the walls.  The sunny receptionist greeted them as Sydney signed in and then filled out the new patient forms.  When the forms were completed, a nurse took them back into a room and gave Sydney a cup for a urine sample, pointing to a bathroom across the hall.

Sydney peed in the cup, placing the lid and tape on it and setting it inside a cubby over the toilet.  Then she returned to the exam room and stripped completely, putting on the gown and climbing up onto the table.  Alyssa had been happy to come into the exam room with her, at least for the start of things, and Sydney smiled at her.