The Mating Rules

We move through the flowers, the long stalks waving leisurely in the slight breeze as though they are encouraging me onward. I’’m still in shock, both my mates have planned a date for me, together. A warmth fills me from their words, that they are willing to put aside whatever it is from their past for me, like I’m the most precious thing in their lives and even their own animosity doesn’t trump me and my happiness.

We step out of the paths to a small seating area where a blanket is laid out in the middle with a vast array of foods placed on top.

Pulling me gently, Caden leads me toward the blanket, helping me sit on the corner as he and Hadley sit on either side of me. Hadley pulls a bottle of soda out of a basket at the side along with three glasses, whilst Caden places a plate in my hands and starts to load it with food.

I take the glass that the warrior holds out to me, taking a sip before placing it down beside me and picking up a sandwich. The boys pile their own plates, and we sit in complete silence as we eat, me giving them surreptitious glances out of the corner of my eye.

‘So, you like the sandwiches?’ Caden asks awkwardly.

‘Yeah, yes really nice, did you make them?’ I reply quickly.

The Alpha scratches the back of his neck as he grins at me sheepishly, ‘I got the omegas to make them’ he admits.

‘Oh, well they are very nice’ I say before we fall back into awkward silence again.

‘Ugh’ Hadley finally growls, putting his plate aside and dragging his hand down his face, ‘I did not expect it to be this weird.’

Caden nods, grimacing, ‘maybe it was a stupid idea’ he agrees in defeat.

‘NO!’ I yell before lowering my voice, blushing, ‘I mean, it’s a lovely idea and I really appreciate it.’ I fish into the back pocket of my jeans and pull out my phone, entering my pin code before scrolling the screens and opening an app.

Placing it on the ground beside me, I stand up as music fills the area around us. Turning to my mates I hold out my hand to Hadley who raises an eyebrow curiously.

‘Dance with me?’ I ask, smiling shyly.

The warrior smiles, clambering to his feet and taking my hand, spinning me around before wrapping me in his arms and starting to move to the soft melody with me. We dance around the blanket until a tap on Hadley’s shoulder interrupts us and the warrior bows to me, stepping back so Caden can take over. The Alpha sweeps me up and we waltz around the alcove, me laughing as Caden grins, singing the words softly as we twirl.

Hadley cuts in again, then Caden and when Hadley attempts to cut in for a third time, I smirk as I bow gracefully and place Caden’s hand in his, flopping down on the blanket as the pair stare at me in surprise.

I twirl my finger in a circle, smiling up at them, ‘go on then’ I tease.

Caden shrugs, pulling Hadley against his chest and starting to dance as the warrior glares at him, struggling to get away.

‘Aww come on Carrington, afraid to show your feminine side?’ the Alpha taunts, sweeping them round and round me as I laugh.

‘No, I just don’t see why you get to lead, why am I the girl?’ Hadley huffs in annoyance.

‘because I’m the Alpha’ Caden replies airily, dipping the warrior back in his arms.

Glancing over at me, Hadley’s face turns mischievous as he sees me rolling on the blanket in fits of giggles. ‘Find this funny do you sweetheart?’ he calls out, flicking his gaze to Caden who lifts him back up and follows his eyeline to me.

Swallowing, I choke back my giggles, ‘um, no?’ I reply meekly.

Hadley meets Caden’s gaze, his grin widening wickedly, ‘I don’t know Star’ he muses, ‘she seems to be enjoying our mortification.’

We move through the flowers, the long stalks waving leisurely in the slight breeze as though they are encouraging me onward. I’m still in shock, both my mates have planned a date for me, together. A warmth fills me from their words, that they are willing to put aside whatever it is from their past for me, like I’m the most precious thing in their lives and even their own animosity doesn’t trump me and my happiness.

Caden shrugs, ‘not me that’s mortified mate, I wasn’t the girl’ he replies, earning himself a dirty look from the warrior. ‘But I agree, she is taking way to much pleasure in this situation’ he muses, his eyes running up my body, making me shudder. ‘So the question is, what do we do about it? Laughing at someone else’s pain is not a nice thing to do.’

‘Punishment?’ Hadley offers, also staring at me, a hungry gleam in his eye.

‘No!’ I squeak, holding my hands out in front of me defensively, ‘I’m sorry’ I add for good measure, making my eyes wide and innocent, pouting in what I hope is a cute way.

Caden’s gaze turns predatory, ‘nice try baby’ he growls, and a hint of gold around the edges of his irises inform me that Cobalt is surfacing.

Shrieking, I jump up, glancing left and right before bolting past them both, their laughter echoing behind me as they give chase.

‘RUN!’ Skarla cheers inside my head excitedly, prancing around in agitation, desperate to come out and have her mates chase her down.

‘I’m running you stupid mutt!’ I gasp back, my legs carrying me through the twisting pathways as the sound of two men’s footfalls follow me.

‘You can run but you can’t hide from us Leeway’ comes Caden’s taunting voice.

‘That’s what you think’ I mutter, a smile creeping across my face as I head for the exit to the gardens, bursting through the archway and taking off at full speed across the grass toward the forest.

Breaking through the treeline I dodge around the thick trunks, dragging off my jumper and unclipping my bra as I go.

‘Shift! Shift!’ Skarla is screaming at me, fully invested in the chase.

Nodding, I skid to a stop, stripping off my jeans and panties, piling everything up haphazardly on a branch before giving myself over to Skarla who shifts in record time. Yipping loudly, she takes off, the wind whipping around us as the sounds of cracking behind, tell me that both my mates have found my clothes and shifted along with me.

Skarla is barking as she runs, calling out to both her mates, letting them know where she is before dodging to the side, playing hide and seek with them.

A playful growl seconds later, from the direction we just came from, tells me that Cobalt is enjoying her games. He wants to hunt her down but the fact she’s making it hard for him, taunting him, is encouraging his Alpha desires to stalk her like prey.

A sudden growl up ahead has my wolf skidding to a stop in surprise, those sneaky wolves! They split up! We’d been so focused on Cobalt behind us that we hadn’t noticed that Hunter’s footsteps were missing.

Changing direction again, Skarla fled to the north, the two wolves flanking her on either side, hidden by the foliage, letting her know she is cornered but still letting her run.

‘Come on Skarla, you can shake them’ I encourage, now as invested as she is in extending the chase.

‘Tired yet?’ comes Caden’s voice in my head, and I can hear the smirk, bastard, he doesn’t even sound tired! Damn Alpha wolves!

‘Not even slightly’ I lie, urging Skarla onward, my wolf running flat out now and I try to ignore the annoying fact that both my mates are keeping pace with me easily.

We reach the small pond in the centre of the forest and my wolf yelps as she skids to a stop but she’s moving to fast and tumbles over the edge straight into the water.

Shifting underneath, I come up gasping for air as my two mates stare down at me from the ledge, their wolves laughing as I scowl up at them.

‘You knew we were heading this way and didn’t warn me!’ I accuse them.

Cobalt tilts his head to the side, giving me a wolfy grin that I just know is because Caden said something to him.

I c**k my head to the side, a sweet smile gracing my lips seconds before I sweep my arm and send a wave of water up over the ledge, slapping both wolves in the face.

Laughing, I swim backwards away from the ledge as both wolves growl at me seconds before they jump in, disappearing below the surface only to reappear as their human counterparts.

‘You are going to pay for that Leeway’ Caden growls as I squeal, turning around and starting to swim for the far shore.

Two arms wrap around me and I instinctively know it’s Hadley, ‘not this time sweetheart’ he murmurs in my ear as a hard body presses to my back.

My body is on fire when I feel something touch my legs making me shriek in horror, some weird pond monster has me!

Caden’s head breaks the surface in front of me and thoughts of monsters flee my mind as I’m suddenly acutely aware that I’m sandwiched between two very sexy, very naked men.

‘Beefcake sandwich’ my best friend’s voice echoes in my head teasingly, and oh Goddess does that sound tempting right now.

‘You ran from us Leeway’ Caden murmurs as they swim me toward a shallower part of the pond so we can stand up.

I nod, ‘you wanted to punish me’ I whisper, my head filled with ideas of how they might have done it and really not that upset at the thought.

‘You deserve to be punished sweetheart’ Hadley growls from behind me, ‘you laughed at us and then ran from us, that’s a bad girl if ever I saw one.’

‘Is that what you are Leeway?’ Caden asks huskily, ‘are you a bad girl?’

I lick my lips nervously, ‘I can be’ I admit, my cheeks warming.

‘I bet you can’ Caden agrees roughly, ‘just how bad can you be?’

I clear my throat, my gaze dropping to his lips, ‘as bad a I need to be’ I respond.

I can feel the air thicken around us, both men crowding me as I tremble in the cool water.

‘Rogues at the border!’ comes a shout through the mind link, snapping us all from the haze that has engulfed us.

Caden and Hadley drag me from the water, the warrior shifting immediately as Caden takes a moment to grab my shoulders, ‘go back to the pack house now!’

‘I’m a Beta wolf, I should come help’ I argue as the Alpha shakes his head.

‘You are the future Luna’ he replies, ‘you need to go and protect the pack house.’ He looks deep into my eyes, ‘that’s an order Skarla’ he adds firmly.

Letting me go, he shifts into Cobalt’s huge black wolf and races away after Hadley. Skarla takes over, shifting quickly into our brown wolf and racing back toward the pack house, unable to fight the order even if she wanted too.

Skidding to a halt in front of the doors, I take my position next to Caden’s mother in the centre of the line of warriors that encircles the pack house. We stand silently, listening for the sound of wolves, trained on the woods for stray rogues that may break through the fighting line and head toward us.

We don’t know if they are here to attack us or it’s just a group that strayed to close to our borders, but we are not taking any chances. I glance quickly at the Luna who meets my gaze and nods curtly before focusing back on the tree line. I try to push my worry about my mates from my mind, they are strong, they will be fine, I need to concentrate on protecting the pups and elderly that are hiding inside our pack. My mates will come back to me, they have too.