7 Unprepared

7: Unprepared

Cole

Not too far from our destination, Posy awoke from her little nap and wrinkled her nose in curiosity. With wide eyes, she rolled the window down, then stuck her head out, and took a big inhale of fresh ocean air.

"What is that smell?" she asked as she came back inside, her hair flying around her pretty face. "It"s wonderful!"

"You"ll see in a few minutes," I teased her, grabbing her hand and bringing it to my lips. "Right, Ash? We are almost there, aren"t we?"

"Yep! Less than five minutes according to GPS."

She bounced in her seat and beamed, and my boys and I fist-bumped each other, proud that we made our girl happy.

When Ash drove up to the beach house we"d rented, she gasped, her eyes fixed straight ahead on the glittering stretch of blue water that disappeared into the horizon.

"Is that— Is that the ocean?" she whispered.

"Yep!" Ash and Wyatt told her.

She clapped her hands and squealed and, as soon as Ash put the vehicle in park, she opened her door, hopped out, and took off running. I managed to catch up to her before she made it past the sand dunes, and we ran hand-in-hand toward the water.

"It"s so beautiful!" she shrieked as she reached the white foam left by the most recent wave. "And loud! I didn"t think the waves would be so loud!"

I grinned at her and told her we could get our feet wet before lunch if she wanted, and she practically jumped out of her flip flops. Chuckling, I ditched my slides, then I followed her lead as she stepped closer and let the water wash over her little toes.

"Hey!" Jay shouted from the wooden walkway that led back to the beach house. "Aren"t you going to help unload the car first?"

"No!" Posy shouted back before I could, not realizing he was talking to me and not her.

As if we"d let her carry luggage, I thought to myself with an eye roll.

With a smug grin, I smirked at him, and he shot me the bird before turning around and going back to help the others.

"Do we have food here?" Posy asked as she watched the seafoam sparkle and evaporate around her feet. "I mean, is the kitchen stocked?"

"Yeah. We paid someone to set everything up for us."

"Good! Then I couldn"t care less about unpacking the car right now. It can wait until later. I just thought Jayden might want it emptied so they could go get groceries."

"No, honey," I smiled down at her. "We can play here for a while. They"re fine, and there is absolutely nothing you need to do except enjoy yourself."

She took me at my word and began to dance in and out of the shallow waves, stopping to pick up an interesting shell here or piece of beach glass there. Soon her hands were full of "treasures," as she called them, and she turned to me with a pout.

"I can hold them for you, honey," I offered, stripping off my t-shirt and gathering it into an impromptu pouch. "See? Drop them in here."

"Thank you, pine tree." She gave me a sunshine smile, the one that showed her dimples and made my heart stutter in my chest. "I love you! Thank you all so much for bringing me here! Lark and I always dreamed of seeing the ocean someday."

"We"ll take you to Bora Bora soon," I promised. "That"s a little harder trip to arrange with passports and finding a resort that isn"t fully booked. Otherwise, we would have taken you the moment you asked to go."

"You"re so sweet." She stretched up on her tiptoes and kissed the base of my throat, which was as high as she could reach, and my heart fluttered again. "Can we build a sandcastle later?"

"Of course we can." For her, I"d build a real castle. "We"ll do it after lunch. Until then, why don"t you see if you can find some more treasures?"

With a nod and a happy smile, she whirled and skipped away, and I smiled as I watched her.

Dude, you suck, Ash grouched in the alpha link. I want to be down there with her, too!

You snooze, you lose. I shrugged. Are you guys done unloading yet?

No, Mase grumbled. You should come help.

And leave our happy girl here alone? Besides, I"m holding her beach finds.

Beach finds? Jay frowned. What is there to find? Seaweed?

Shells and sea glass, I told him with an eye roll, then reminded myself that he"d never been to the beach, either. Only Mase and I had, and that was a work trip.

Ooh! I have an art project for that! Wyatt chirped. Make sure you bring everything up to the house so she and I can—

"Cole?"

The pain in our girl"s voice caught my immediate attention, and I closed the alpha link to focus on her. She stood about ten feet away, wincing and hugging her arms around her middle. A few pieces of beach glass lay at her feet as if she"d dropped a handful, and I wondered what happened.

"What is it, honey? Did you hurt yourself? Did you pick up a crab and it pinched you?"

"No," she whimpered. "I don"t feel well all of a sudden. My whole body hurts."

Frowning, I hurried over to her only to stop dead in my tracks when her scent hit me like a ton of bricks. Her delicious chocolate chip cookie smell was much, much stronger, and I froze in a panic.

"Cole?" she whined and her face crumpled up as tears flowed down her cheeks. "It hurts! It hurts so bad!"

Even knowing what would happen as soon as I touched her, I took two giant steps and gathered her against me, my t-shirt dropping from my fingers with a muffled clatter of shells and glass. Her scent flooded all my senses, and the mate sparks sizzled everywhere our skin touched. I felt like I was going to combust any second - and this was only the beginning of it.

She moaned and pressed herself into me as her hands skimmed up and down my sides, then nuzzled her face between my pecs. When she began to lick my abs, my eyes rolled back in my head, her scent arousing me as much as her little fingers and tongue.

"It stopped!" she gasped. "The pain stopped! But I still don"t feel like myself, and all I can think about is getting your clothes off!"

Poor baby has no idea what"s happening to her.

With a crooked smile of both nervousness and anticipation, I wiped the tears from her face with the pads of my thumbs, then leaned down and kissed her forehead. Her thighs sawed together and her hands grew more adventurous and aggressive, and I moaned as one little hand slipped into my shorts and cupped my balls.

Thank the Goddess this is a private beach!

"What"s happening to me?" She lifted her head to stare up at me with wide, teary eyes. "I want to push you down and... and... and do things to you! Out here in the open!"

"What"s happening is completely normal and natural," I assured her. "Don"t worry or stress, okay? We"re going to take care of you, but let"s take this inside."

Then I swept her up in my arms and carried her toward the house, hoping I could find where Wyatt hid the condoms.

All nine of them.

Goddess, was I in trouble! I was going to have to hold myself back for as long as possible until the others could get more.

Oh, yeah. Should have told them right away, I scolded myself, then called out to my brothers in the alpha link. Dudes, we have a problem.

What"s wrong? Is Posy okay? Mase asked first.

You need to leave. I swallowed hard as our girl"s soft lips found my mate mark and began to suck it. Don"t come down here.

Why? Wyatt demanded. So you can hog our girl?

Wyatt, put what condoms we have on the kitchen counter, I growled, my patience at an end, then all of you drive to the nearest store and buy more. A lot more. Better grab some extra lube, too.

The boys all sucked in a sharp breath in unison.

Don"t tell us she"s—

Yep, I cut Jay off with a smirk. Posy"s in heat.

#

Wyatt

It took almost an hour to reach the closest store, which happened to be a pharmacy.

We ran inside, I snagged a cart, and Jay went off on his own, saying he had to pick up something. With a nod, I pushed the cart along with Mase and Ash following me like lost ducklings.

You"d think they never set foot in a pharmacy before, I snickered.

Reaching the rubbers, I skimmed the shelves, trying to find extra large for our self-proclaimed big boy. Meanwhile, Mase picked up a box, turned it over, and began to silently read the back.

"It says there are directions for proper use inside," he said, "and that they are highly effective against pregnancy and STIs when used correctly."

"Excellent for the first, don"t care about the second since shifters can"t get them," I commented absently.

Then I spied what I was looking for.

Praise the Goddess!

There was a whole section of extra large. Cackling with satisfaction, I pointed at that shelf, wanting to make sure Ash was covered.

Literally and figuratively.

"Okay, boys, load these up," I directed. "I"m going to get something. Be right back."

They nodded at me, so I hustled off. I found the flats of bottled water and lugged one up on each of my shoulders. It would be handy to keep in the bedroom.

Marathon sex was thirsty work.

Then I hurried back, curious about where Jay disappeared to, but giving him his space.

When I returned to the others, I found Ash standing right where I left him, staring at the shelves. Mase at least was over at the lubes, scooping up bottles and tossing them in the cart.

"Dude! What are you doing?" I whisper-yelled at Ash.

"Picking out condoms?" He had the audacity to blink at me in confusion. "I don"t know which to get. Look! There are even ones with flavors! I can"t decide which I"d like—"

"Get them all!" I interrupted with a snarl and swept the whole shelf of larges into the cart. "You can figure out your favorites later!" I did the same with the extra larges. "We are not having pups yet!"

Sure, I wanted to be a dad, but not at eighteen. I was nowhere near ready for that responsibility, no matter how much I would love our kids. On top of that, Posy wasn"t recovered enough to carry pups. We weren"t even sure she"d have a heat this first year due to the abuse and starvation her tiny body had endured for so long.

As Ash stared at me with an open mouth, Jay trotted over with an armload of lotions, face masks, and bath bombs.

"You guys ready?" he asked.

"What"s all that?" Ash frowned at him.

"Stuff to pamper Posy with. I want her first heat to be as positive an experience as possible."

"Good thinking," Mase praised him, then clapped his hands. "Chop chop, boys. Our girl needs us, even if she isn"t linking us."

"Probably because Cole is keeping her well occupied," I muttered a little sourly, wishing it was me, then brightened when I realized it would be me soon enough.

"I hope he"s pacing himself. He only has six condoms," Jay grunted.

"Six?" I narrowed my eyes at him, and Ash and Mase became statues next to me. "I bought three packs of three. That"s nine, dumbass, not six—"

"I tried on one of the regulars this morning. It was too small."

"How did you know it was too small?" Ash tilted his head to the side, looking very much like Sid. "I mean, was it too tight or didn"t go down far enough or what?"

"Both, but worse, it was so tight that it ripped."

"Did you try the other two on to see if it was a manufacturing flaw?" Mase, of course, would think of that.

"One more, and the same thing happened. So there"s one regular left, but if it"s too small for me, it"s for sure too small for any of you."

"Teeny weenie peenie," Ash said with a giant grin.

I snorted, and Mase slapped him upside the head.

"Don"t ridicule your brother," he growled. "Jay, you"re plenty big. The fact that a regular condom is too small is proof enough of that."

"I"m not ridiculing him!" Ash protested while I giggled at Mase for complimenting Jay on the size of his dick. "I"m just stating a fact! It"s not my fault he"s the smallest of us!"

"I"m big enough to please our girl, and that"s all that matters." Jay shrugged.

His cheeks and ears were red, but we all knew his embarrassment came from discussing bedroom things in public, not from his size. Like he said, Posy had nothing to complain about.

"Okay, let"s make sure we have everything we need." Mase held the cart as I went to push it toward the register. "We won"t be able to make another trip until her heat"s over."

We all nodded, knowing that we"d be irresistibly drawn to her the second we smelled her and wouldn"t be able to stop touching her until we"d mated. After that, it would calm down some, but the compulsion to be inside her would remain until her heat ended.

"Condoms, lube, water, and pampering supplies," Jay listed, then nodded. "I believe we"re set."

"I know it doesn"t seem like we"ll run out," Ash pointed to the full cart, "but if we do, can we use a cucumber or something? They don"t sell dildos here and you know she likes something in her little pussy when I"m pounding her ass. If none of you have a condom left, well, a cucumber would work, right?"

A squeak came from behind him, and we turned as one to see two human boys about our age staring at us with wide eyes and red cheeks. We stared at each other for a few seconds before the taller one grew a pair and pointed to our cart.

"Um, can we have at least one box? We"d rather not use a cucumber, if it"s all the same to you."

"No!" Ash howled and wrapped his long arms around our cart. "Ours!"

I took a deep breath and counted to twenty so I didn"t yell at him in front of the humans. Fortunately, Mase was level-headed as always and looked at the boys with his usual blank mask.

"Regular size okay?"

"Yep."

"They"re all yours." Mase waved at the boxes I"d left on the shelf. "Glad you boys are mature enough to be safe."

Leaving them gawking, I shoved Ash off the cart, then hurried to the front of the store. As I made a beeline for the register, Jay beat on my arm with his fist and pointed to the other side.

"Use the self-checkout!" he hissed.

Glancing up, I saw there was only one register open with a white-haired human woman standing at it. I rolled my eyes at his sense of propriety, but went over to the self-checkout and began the laborious process of scanning boxes and bottles.

Mase made Ash do the bagging so he wouldn"t wander off, and Jay lugged the flats of water out to the SUV after I scanned them with the little hand-held gun.

Cole, how"s our girl? Mase asked in the alpha link when I was down to the last few items.

Scared at first. It"s making her aggressive, and she feels out of control.

Wait a minute! Ash pouted. You"re playing Princess Bossy Pants without me?

Not the time, Ash, Cole growled. I calmed her down and she"s more comfortable with it now, but I"m getting scared. If I stop touching her, she doubles over in pain. She said it"s five times worse than period cramps, and apparently those are pretty horrible.

What?! Jay yelped in a panic. Why is she in pain? Papa and Dad said it would fade after the first round and leave only the lust!

I don"t know, but after round two, she had to go to the bathroom and ended up falling on the floor, screaming in pain. I had to stand next to the freaking toilet and hold her hand while she peed, which got her all kinds of upset and embarrassed.

I bit back a grin. Our girl was more than generous with her personal space, but she did not like us around when she was in the bathroom. Even if we were standing outside the door to just ask her a question or something, it embarrassed her. It was one of the only things she"d asked of us, so of course we gave her that privacy. I myself didn"t understand what was so embarrassing about us hearing her tinkling. When she had to do number two, sure, that made sense, but what was so shameful about peeing?

You all need to get back here with more rubbers! Cole groaned, interrupting my thoughts. I only have three left!

Do we have any cucumbers? Ash asked. Take her ass and put a cucum—

Mase smacked the back of his head before Jay or I could.

Forget the cucumbers! I hissed. She has five dicks! She doesn"t need any fucking cucumbers!

Well, only one dick is here right now, Cole barked, so the rest of you dicks better get back here ASAP!

Chuckling, I scanned the last bottle of lube and tossed it to Ash, then he and Mase began lugging all the bags out to the car.

The total came to $1,949, and I didn"t even blink as I swiped my card. Although it was probably overkill, I wasn"t taking any chances.

We weren"t going to run out of condoms on my watch.