Chapter Eight

Oren

When I went to the train station, I was excited. What had started as me wanting just someone to kill some time with—possibly a one-night stand or two—changed over the course of our messaging. In a lot of ways, it felt like I already knew them, and I didn’t really understand it. Why did I have this pull to somebody, no, somebodies that I hadn’t even met yet? Was it my loneliness manifesting itself and if so, should I tamper it?

Thankfully, I didn’t even try to because once I reached the train station platform, everything made sense. They were mine. And I was theirs. Mates. Both of them. I didn’t know that was possible, but there was no denying it. The cabin, the repairs, the photos…none of them were the reason I was here. They were all a tool of Fate who sent me a wolf and fox to call my own.

Luckiest. Deer. Ever.

Ours. Ours. Ours. My beast kept repeating it over and over again in my head, but he didn’t need to convince me. I knew it too. What that would mean, what that would look like, or where we went from there, I had no idea. But I was more than excited to find out.

After a very quick meeting at the station, we went back to my place. I’d fixed a lot of it up, but it wasn’t completely where I wanted it to be.

The cabin had been much better off than I originally thought. There were a few things I had to fix, like a hole in the roof and the walls where water had dripped, but the extensive water damage I worried about didn’t exist, and I was glad. The more time I spent in it, the more I felt like it might be where I belonged. And now that the internet was installed, I could work from there to buy me time while I figured out what was next. Of course, when I started that plan, I hadn’t included mates in the mix.

I wished I’d managed to get it all done, though, wanting them to see it at its best. I didn’t want them to think of me as the alpha who could provide nothing more than a dilapidated structure in the woods.

As far as it had come, I was nervous as we all walked up to the front door together for the first time. They say there’s only one chance to make a first impression, and this was mine. Not that my fox had shifted yet—he was so funny, I could sense his enthusiasm and loved it.

“Should we join him?” I looked to my sexy wolf, and he gave me a single nod.

We shed our clothes, leaving them on the steps, and I shifted first, wanting both of them to see I wasn’t afraid of their predatory nature. That was always the risk when you were an alpha of an animal who was, frankly, not the bravest, strongest, fiercest creature in the woods. But I wasn’t afraid of them. They were mine. They’d never hurt me.

It was weird to think how easily I settled into the idea—they were mine—accepting they belonged to me and I to them, and we hadn’t even had this conversation. For all I knew, they didn’t feel it too, but they’d have to, right? The goddess wouldn’t mess with me like that. Would she?

I stood there on my four hooves, my fox jumping up onto my back, rubbing into my neck. He was so stinking adorable I couldn’t even handle it. The two of us watched our wolf take his form. The power that emanated off him as his paws hit the ground was undeniable. He looked up and howled, announcing to the world he was here and we were his.

Or maybe that wasn’t it after all. Maybe he was telling others to back off—his way of telling the forest around us that I was protected, and I wasn’t prey. I’d done what I could to keep the grizzlies out, but the residual scent was still here, so it made sense he’d be aware of it.

I bent down to rub noses with him and then took off into the woods. I wanted to show them both the river. I thought Heath would jump off and run on his own, not wanting to be up so high and dependent on me, but he held on as we bounded through the area until we reached the river.

It wasn’t far. I took a little leap over a stump, and bounded down the path, Heath on my back, and our wolf following right behind us. From what I could tell, they enjoyed the run as much as I did. When we reached the river, I stopped to get a drink. Heath jumped down to do the same, our wolf by our side.

Our reflection in the water filled me with such happiness. If any human had seen the three of us there, they’d have second-guessed themselves, but we fit. After our brief break, I led them on a run, showing them the perimeters of our land, and then we went back home. And yes, we owned it, not me. They were my mates, even if we hadn’t discussed it yet. This was all theirs as much as it was mine.

There was so much to talk about, but as we reached the porch steps, I wasn’t able to say a thing. First, my fox shifted back, and I sensed his arousal. I had heard foxes were like that—the more they shifted, the more heightened their desires became. But to see Heath like that...all hard and slick…

I shifted behind him, my body reacting with similar heightened sensuality.

“Are you coming, Archer?” Heath asked, and Archer took his skin back.

“Not yet, but if you show me inside, I’m pretty sure we could fix that.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.” I ran up the steps to the door and turned the handle. “Welcome home.”