Page 15 of Delivered to My Beasts (Mail-Order Matings #22)

Jax

I walked up the stairs slowly, not wanting to spook our mate. She’d gone quiet since the attack, and who could blame her.

“Imogen?” I asked, knocking on her door lightly.

My mind flashed back to the moment I saw Mateo’s hands on her. Him grabbing her around the throat. He wanted to take her—take her from us.

I knew she was ours before, but when I thought we might lose her, my bear went wild. No one would take our mate from us.

“Come in, Jax.”

Her trust in us solidified everything. She loved us, and we loved her. But knowing wasn’t good enough anymore. Now that the danger had waned and she no longer had to fear Mateo or anyone, I didn’t want her to think for a second that we wanted her to leave.

I walked in and saw her on the edge of the bed. She’d taken a shower, and her hair was wet. All she wore was a lavender robe.

“Are you okay?” I asked, going over to sit beside her. She was frozen in place, staring at the floor.

“It’s over. I feel like I’ve been afraid of him and my future for so long, and now I don’t have to be, but…”

“But?” I asked.

“But now I don’t know how to not be afraid. Doesn’t that sound stupid?”

I wrapped one arm around her shoulder and coaxed her body toward me. She leaned in and pressed her nose against my shirt, inhaling deeply. “No. You’ve been in a state of fear and trauma. The relaxation and calm can be unsettling. It will take some time but you’ll get used to it.”

“Promise?” she asked.

“I promise. You want to get dressed and come have dinner with us?”

She looked up at me with those brown eyes, and I almost offered to skip dinner altogether.

More than ever, we wanted to mate her and seal our bond, but we had to be gentle with her, not physically but emotionally.

We had all the time in the world to mate.

“Are you saying this is not proper dinner attire?”

I growled then, my bear making himself known through me. “Not if you want to eat. If your intention is to entice three bears, then by all means.”

“What if I want to entice three bears?” she asked. The scent of her arousal reached my nose, and I inhaled, knowing it was for me, for us only. She wanted us just as much as we wanted her.

I gathered every ounce of discipline I had inside me and stood up. “You’re hungry, sweet female. One need at a time. But I promise you, you say the word and you won’t have any unmet needs.”

“Give me two seconds. I’ll be down.”

I walked down the stairs, and we had dinner already prepared.

This time, we worked together on the meal.

I made rosemary-garlic biscuits and blueberry swim biscuits.

Because sweet and savory. Crew handled the fruit salad and the eggs.

Duke took care of the bacon, sausage, and hashbrowns.

Sweet potato cheddar grits were piping hot on the stove.

We could all use a bit of comfort food tonight.

And tonight, we would leave it all on the table.

Our feelings. Our intentions. Nothing would go unsaid.

If Imogen chose to leave after tonight, it wouldn’t be because we didn’t communicate to her how much we wanted her in our lives.

We also wouldn’t force anything on her. Decisions had been made for her all her life.

She would decide her life from this point forward, even if that meant breaking our hearts.

“Everything smells incredible.” She had a new lightness to her steps. Her hair was up now and she wore a white shirt that hung off her shoulder and some maroon leggings.

“We thought breakfast for dinner would be a hit.” Duke pulled out her chair and pressed a kiss to her cheek before she sat down.

“Always a hit,” she answered.

We ate in a comfortable silence for a while but, as our forks slowed, I knew we couldn’t waste another second. We had to tell her.

“There’s something we would like to tell you,” Duke said, reading my mind. I should’ve known that bold bear friend of mine would beat me to the punch. He usually did.

“Oh?” Her scent instantly changed. She was nervous now.

“We don’t want you to leave.” Crew wiped his mouth and reached for her hand. “You are our mate. We knew it when you first came up the driveway and maybe before then.”

“But,” I interrupted. We couldn’t get ahead of ourselves.

I didn’t want her to feel like we were pressuring her or making her choices for her.

“Please don’t let our feelings determine your choices.

If you want to leave now and pursue your life without us, that’s your choice.

You’ve had your choices made for you for a long time and the last thing we want to be is another person who tells you what to do. ”

Imogen said nothing. For a second, we didn’t either.

“We will respect any decision you make,” Duke said.

“We love you. All three of us. We would love nothing more than for you to stay with us and be our mate. We could live somewhere else if you don’t like it here.

You can go to school or pursue a career.

Whatever you want. I couldn’t let the rest of this night go on without telling you how much we love you. ”

“Even though I only came here for protection?” Her voice was only a tiny bit above a whisper.

“It doesn’t matter. What matters now is what you want.”

“You have a beautiful home, and you three have taken me in and protected me. You have been respectful and kind. Those reasons are only the start of why I’m in love with you too.”

I nearly fell out of my chair.

“Say it again,” Duke said, gripping the table with both hands.

“I love all three of you. When we ran together, my wolf knew for sure. I don’t want to leave. Ever. I came here thinking this was a stop on my way somewhere else, but now I can’t imagine leaving. I want to build a life with you. All of you.”

One minute, she was making a life-changing confession for all of us and the next, Duke was practically squeezing the life out of her. Crew and I let it go on for a few seconds before I had to say something. “Duke, she can’t be our mate if you squish her to death.”

“Oh. Yeah.”

Imogen laughed and kissed him, but what started as a kiss quickly grew into more. Her scent filled our home and drove my bear to the brink of madness. “Mate?” I asked, begging almost.

“Yes?” she asked.

“If you don’t want to be mated tonight, I suggest we go watch a movie or something. Not that we are complaining. Not one bit.”

“Come on, Jax,” she whined. “We all just told each other ‘I love you’ and yet no one is taking me to bed. You really think I want to watch a movie?”

All three of us were on our feet in seconds. Crew took Imogen from Duke’s hold and threw her over his shoulder before ascending the stairs. “No movies. Mating.”

Once we got to the bedroom, we stopped and watched. Our mate who had come here scared and trembling every time there was a noise, stepped back and began taking her clothes off. I was sure I’d died and gone to heaven.