Every Angelic Moment Read online

  Grabbing the hem of her top, she flashed a grin to her mates and then pulled it over her head. “Race ya!”

  * * *

  Angel snuggled on top of Brin, rubbing her cheek on his chest and stifling a yawn. She was blissed out and worn out, but so happy. The shower had been fun, with her mates taking turns under the water with her, and then they’d tumbled into the bedroom, leading to her current state of feeling like her bones had melted. Her skin was still tingling from the pleasure.

  Ian wrapped a lock of her hair around his finger and tugged gently. “What’s that secret smile for?”

  She opened one eye and said, “I was just wondering if a person could die from too much pleasure.”

  “Is there such a thing as too much when it comes to climaxes?” Quill asked.

  “I’ll let you know when my body stops humming.”

  “You’re giving us quite the egos,” Brin said.

  A glance at the clock on the nightstand told her that they had an hour before dinner with her bosses. She kissed Brin and scooted off him, pausing as she stood at the end of the bed. Her mates were the sexiest guys she’d ever seen. Brin with his adorable smile, Ian with his ropes of muscles, and Quill with his dark eyes. Individually, they were gorgeous, but all three together were an amazing sight. She wanted to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

  “I thought we could get dressed and talk,” she said.

  “We can’t talk naked?” Quill smiled from where he lounged with his hands behind his head, his body on display for her like a sexy buffet. Her brain fogged over for a moment as she thought about crawling up his body and licking his abs.

  Shaking the wonderfully naughty thought from her mind, she shook her head. “We don’t talk when we’re naked and in bed.”

  “Sure we do,” Ian said. “You were saying a whole lot earlier.”

  Her cheeks heated as her mates teased her about being vocal. She knew they didn’t mind, and she’d honestly never been that noisy in bed before, but her guys just knew exactly how to touch her. If she was a shifter, she would’ve been howling or growling or purring in happiness.

  Quill’s gaze slipped from sexy to serious. “Right. Let’s get dressed.”

  While her mates got ready with the clothes they’d brought, she put on a pair of shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. She went to the kitchen and filled up four glasses with ice and lemonade, then joined her mates on the big couch in the family room. The family room had exposed beams, a stone fireplace with a flat-screen TV mounted above it, and a super-comfy couch.

  She set the drinks on the coffee table and sat between Ian and Brin. “Earlier we were talking about the gatherings and you guys looking for your mate. Then you clammed up like you were about to spill nuclear secrets.”

  Quill sat on the coffee table facing her. “Our past isn’t really great, sweetheart.”

  She looked at him for a long moment and saw the worry and distress in his eyes. “We’re mates, right?”

  “Of course,” he said.

  “I just…unless you’re serial killers, I can’t imagine anything you might tell me that would change how I feel. I know we just met yesterday, but I feel so close to you, so connected. I can’t explain it, but I know that it means we’re meant to be together.”

  Ian laid his arm over her shoulder with a sigh. “How did we get so lucky?”

  She rested her head against his. “I’m lucky, too.”

  Chapter 6

  Quill inhaled deeply and drank in the sight of their beautiful mate. She had the prettiest blue eyes and the softest, most golden hair he’d ever seen. And that body.

  Damn.

  Lucky wasn’t a strong enough word to describe them.

  “Our parents’ clan wasn’t part of a baro. They were just a clan to themselves, a baro on their own. When I was eight, three of our parents, including our mother, were killed in a car accident. They’d gone out to run errands, and a semi-truck lost control and hit them. We were left with our father Davion.”

  He paused for a moment and rubbed the space over his heart. Even thinking about his dad made his heart hurt.

  “Our dad was…just ruined by their deaths. I think if we hadn’t been around, he would have killed himself. After a while, he kind of snapped out of that depression, and he started talking about how it was the parents’ responsibility to choose their sons’ mate. We were young and didn’t know any better, and we believed him.”

  Looking back, Quill could see how obsessed Davion had gotten. Overnight, he’d gone from a bereft widower to a man with a mission. And that mission had involved kidnapping an innocent young female hyena.

  Angel’s mouth dropped open and she inhaled sharply. “What?”

  Quill frowned. “Our dad paid someone to kidnap a little girl to be our mate. We didn’t know that was what he was doing. He told us that he was going to bring our mate to us, because that’s what hyena parents did. That males and their mate lived together from childhood, and the mate was chosen by the parents. He played it like it was an arranged mating, and we had no reason not to believe him.”

  Angel’s skin paled. “It’s not possible.”

  “What, love?” Brin asked.

  “That’s my best friend Whisper’s story.”

  It was their turn to pale. “I don’t understand. That happened in Kentucky. How could you possibly know her?” Ian asked.

  “She was found in an abandoned crack house in Atlantic City as a toddler, and the pack alpha adopted her. She didn’t find her real family until she went to a gathering here last year, and met her biological brothers.” She frowned and then surged to her feet. “You said you were here last year. You were looking for Whisper?”

  All three of them stood and reached for her, but when she backed away, they stopped. She looked plaintively between them, her eyes shining with tears. Ian took a slow step toward her and she leaned into him, throwing her arms around his neck and crying. They joined them, putting their hands on her to offer comfort.

  “Do you think she’s yours?” she asked between sobs.

  “Fuck no,” Ian said with a growl. “That was our dad’s baggage. We were kept in the dark all those years, baby. We didn’t know. I fucking swear we didn’t know anything about her, we hadn’t even met her until we saw her at the gathering.”

  Angel reached for Quill, wrapping one arm around his neck and drawing him close. She did the same with Brin. “What happened?”

  Quill said, “We told our dad something was wrong, because Whisper was clearly mated to that clan. When we said we thought it was time to move on and find our own mate, he went ballistic. He followed her and tried to kidnap her, but she shifted and attacked him. He refused medical treatment and told us the truth, and then he died.”

  “We found out where Whisper lived in Kentucky and told her that we weren’t a threat to her or her mates, and that our dad had died,” Brin said.

  She lifted her tear-streaked face from Ian’s chest. “I don’t even really know what to say.”

  “Please, don’t leave us,” Brin whispered, his eyes luminous and glistening with sudden, unshed tears.

  She pulled him close and kissed his forehead. “Never, I promise. I’m just a little overwhelmed. Your dad had my best friend kidnapped. I can’t fathom anyone doing that and believing it was the right thing to do.”

  Ian said, “Trust me when I say we’re still struggling with it.”

  Quill rubbed her arm and pressed a kiss to the inside of her elbow. “Angel, I don’t want to minimize the terror that your friend went through and how destructive our dad’s actions were, but that was him. We were pawns. In hindsight, we all feel like we should have known something was wrong, but we were cut off from other hyenas outside of going to gatherings, and we really did believe that what he said was the truth.”

  For sure, Quill had wrestled with the situation for a long time, and so had his brothers. As bad as Ian had felt for not protecting them from their father’s insanity, Quill felt
equally guilty for not being a better leader.

  She brushed her fingers under her eyes and gave them a watery smile. “This is just surreal. What your dad did actually made a difference in a lot of people’s lives, for the better. It’s weird to think about it in a positive light, but it did happen. When Whisper was taken to Mack – the alpha who took her in – he was drinking himself to death over the loss of his mate. Without his adoption of Whisper, he wouldn’t have adopted Kross or Kayne. At the gathering, Whisper met her mates and her biological brothers, and her brothers mated my other best friend, Bliss. Then Kross and Kayne mated Heaven, who is a cousin of Whisper’s. Brierley was rescued by Bliss, and I brought her here and stayed.”

  “It’s nice that there were happy endings when it could have been far, far worse,” Quill said.

  “I’m just thankful we found each other,” Brin said.

  “Me, too.” Angel agreed.

  * * *

  When they arrived at Ally’s home for dinner, Brin felt like things had changed significantly once more for his clan. First when they’d found Angel, and now after they’d discovered the strange connection they shared because of her friend. The day could have gone horribly wrong if she’d chosen not to forgive them for what their dad had done, but she hadn’t. After her initial shock, she’d embraced them. For a moment so painful that he’d never shared its equal, he’d worried she would just walk away from them because of it. But she hadn’t.

  Brin knocked twice and heard an answering “come in” from one of males. He opened the door and held it for Angel, who gave him a sweet smile as she walked past. He and his brothers followed her into the cabin. The scent of apple pie was heavy in the air as they made their way to the kitchen.

  The kitchen was large, and clearly that was necessary judging by the number of people in the room. Ally lifted a platter from the counter and handed it to Troy, one of her mates, who set it in the center of the table.

  “How about introductions?” Richard said as he stood and smiled. There were nine males at the table: their sons, Harry, Mark, and Taylor; and two trios of nephews, Donnie, Edward, Ken, Jack, John, and Michael. “Our boys grew up here, and our nephews came to work for us after they graduated from high school.”

  Quill introduced their clan.

  Angel reached for the young blonde woman standing next to Ally and hugged her. “This is my adopted sister, Brierley.”

  Brierley grinned. “It’s so nice to meet you.”

  Everyone shook hands.

  “Let’s eat,” Ally said. There were five empty chairs on one side of the table. Brin pulled a chair out for Angel and then sat next to her, with his brothers on her other side and Brierley at the end. Richard sat at the head of the table and Ally took the seat to his left, with her two mates next to her, followed by their sons. The others sat at a folding table nearby.

  Platters and bowls were passed around the tables, and Brin made sure that Angel’s plate was filled first before he took any for himself. When the food had all been passed and the glasses filled with sweet tea, he smiled at Angel and said, “This is your favorite meal?”

  She lifted the chicken salad croissant sandwich from the plate and said, “Maybe not my most favorite of all time, but definitely in the top ten.”

  “The day that Brierley and Angel came here,” Ally said, “we had this for dinner. Angel said it was worth staying here just for the chicken salad.”

  While they ate, Ally and her husbands peppered them with questions, while managing to never once feel intrusive or pushy. Brin wanted Angel’s bosses to like them because they were important to her. When the meal was over, their sons and nephews left, and the two quartets and Brierley headed into the family room with coffee to talk.

  Brin and his brothers had spoken to Angel about being candid about their history, and she had agreed it would be better to be up front rather than appear to be hiding something. Although he and his brothers were ashamed of what their father had done, and harbored guilt over the lives that had been harmed because of it, Brin knew that they really couldn’t continue to hold onto that shame forever.

  Quill told their history while holding onto Angel’s hand tightly as if she were an anchor and he was about to be blown out to sea in a storm. The whole room was silent when he finished, and Angel leaned on Quill’s shoulder with a sniffle.

  Blake shook his head. “That is the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  Troy nodded, kissing Ally on the top of her head. “I can’t imagine the grief that would strike a male who’d lost almost everyone he loved. He must have been out of his mind.”

  “He was,” Quill said. “It was hard to find a silver lining, but Angel gave it to us. Because of what our dad did, her friends found their truemates. It’s tough to imagine something good coming from something so dark, though.”

  Richard leaned forward and rested his forearms on his knees. “You’re not your dad, though. You do understand that?”

  Brin’s throat constricted with emotion. He’d wondered from time to time if his dad’s craziness was hereditary. But he felt grounded with Angel.

  Ian cleared his throat. “We’re coming to terms with his behavior. What he did came from a place of love, even as misguided as it was. He’s responsible for his actions, and we don’t have to carry that blame.”

  Of his brothers, Ian had taken it the hardest. He felt like he’d failed in the basic part of his duty to their clan – protecting them. With Angel, Brin knew they could find a new road to happiness. They were a mated clan, and they had each other’s backs.

  “Good,” Richard said, nodding. “One of our fathers was an alcoholic. He ended up drinking himself to death, despite the rest of our parents trying to intervene. When we talk to unmated clans or females, it’s easy to put a rose-colored hue to everything. Being mated is one of the most wonderful things, but just because a group is mated doesn’t mean that life will suddenly be easy or that some or all of the clan might not suffer from one thing or another. Our parents are missing one of their clan members. No matter how they tried to help him, our dad always went back to the bottle. But that didn’t mean that my brothers and I had to skip along the path to destruction behind him. Guilt, shame, depression – they all come hand-in-hand with losing someone that way.”

  Troy said, “I see three young males who are making the most of the cards that they were dealt. I’m glad you’re here, and I’m glad that you found Angel. She’s special.”

  Angel smiled. “I’m glad I’m here, too.”

  Ally said, “We’d like to make a suggestion.”

  “What?” Angel asked.

  “Come work for us.”

  “I already do,” Angel said.

  Ally chuckled. “I was talking to your mates.”

  “Oh. Oh! Really?” Angel asked.

  Brin’s eyes widened, and he looked at his brothers who wore equally surprised expressions.

  “I don’t know what to say,” Quill said.

  Richard leaned back and put his arm around Ally. “Our nephews are leaving in a few weeks. They’ve been with us for a while, but they want to go back to their parents’ baro, so pretty soon it’ll be just us and our boys. The timing for them to leave isn’t great since the gathering is in November and that’s a busy time for us, but we’d never try to hold them back.”

  Blake said, “Your mating with Angel is really timely. We’d like to invite you to move into one of our cabins and work for us. You wouldn’t believe how much stuff we have to do to get ready for the gatherings; plus, we have guests pretty much year-round.”

  Ally said, “You don’t have to decide now. Take a day or two and think it over. Angel and Brierley’s cabin is a three-bedroom, which you could take.”

  “Hey!” Brierley said.

  Ally laughed. “You can pick another one, goofball.”

  “Oh, okay.” Brierley grinned. “I thought you were kicking me out.”

  “Never,” Ally said. “Anyway, there are also other cabins that
have three or four bedrooms.”

  Richard got up and went into the kitchen, returning with a map of the campground. He circled several cabins with a pen. “These are all empty right now anyway, but they’d need a good cleaning before you moved in. You could go check them out and see what you think about them. You don’t have to live on-site – you could always get a place in town – but if you want to live in the campground, we’ll give you the cabin as part of your salary.”

  Brin looked at Angel. “Wow.”

  She echoed the sentiment.

  “Like Ally said, you don’t have to answer right this minute. And we won’t be offended if you say no. Angel’s job isn’t in jeopardy, but we wouldn’t be able to give you a larger cabin if you weren’t working here, too.”

  “We understand,” Quill said. “We’ll discuss it and get back to you soon.”

  “Thanks for dinner, it was great,” Brin said, standing and helping Angel to her feet. Everyone shook hands and they left, walking on a well-worn path back to Angel’s cabin. Brierley was with them, chatting quietly with Angel.

  At the cabin, Brierley said, “Do you want me to find someplace else to sleep tonight? Ally said I could crash on their couch or in one of the unused cabins.”

  “No, of course not,” Angel said. “This is your place, too.”

  Brierley looked at them, her brows drawn and her mouth puckered in a frown.

  “What’s wrong?” Angel asked.

  “Nothing. I just can’t help but think that we were meant to meet.”

  “You and me?” Angel said.

  “Well, yes, but I also mean your mates. I just have a feeling like something good is going to come out of you finding your mates.”

  “Something great came out of it,” Angel said.

  “No, I mean something good for me. I’ve always felt like our paths were destined to cross. Without me, you wouldn’t have come here to live, and then you might never have met your mates. Now, though, I think things are going to turn up for me, too.”