Unicorn Mates (Valentine Pride Book 1) Read online

  "Why would I be playing at anything? I told you, I came for a run. I wasn't sure if the wolf was a shifter or not, so I listened to my instincts and ran."

  His eyes bored into me, no doubt trying to work out if I was playing with him. Hurt welled up inside me, despite the fact I knew he had no reason to trust me. Just like I had no real reason to trust him and the others. All the four of us were basing it on was one tryst in the woods. I didn't even know enough about shifters to understand what that could mean. All the books I'd read had included a different version of shifters and what they did together. And they’d been fiction.

  "Why are you here?"

  "I told you..."

  "The truth," he growled.

  I frowned. What did he think I was hiding. "I don't know what you're talking about," I insisted. "I am telling you the truth." I wouldn’t even admit to myself that I’d dared to hope to run into them again while I had my shifting fun.

  "Cas, back down," Kerry warned.

  I wanted to turn to him and ask what he was doing. He didn't seem to be in any position to call out the alpha, and it would have taken a lot of guts to do it.

  Cas sighed and ran a hand over his face. "Fine. Sit, tell us everything," he instructed me.

  Still unsure of exactly what he wanted from me, I perched on one of the sofas, wringing my hands together and trying to make sense of things. "What do you want to know?" I asked, looking up at him.

  He melted under my gaze. Probably the eyes. I'd always been told I had eyes that could melt the devil. Apparently, it was true.

  "Why did you come to the woods?"

  "Like I said, I came for a run. I've only shifted twice in my whole life...well, three times now, I guess, and I got curious."

  "Curious? You came to the same place you ran into the three of us because you were curious?" Cas's voice was filled with disbelief.

  "Alright, I haven't stopped thinking about your cock inside me and came back partly on the off chance of a repeat performance." While I'd started saying it sarcastically, I realized part way through that I was, in fact, telling the truth. I really did want a repeat performance. Being in their home definitely improved my chances of that.

  "That doesn't explain what you are." Cas sat on the edge of the large coffee table in front of the couch.

  "What I am? I'm a shifter, just like you are."

  "Yes, a unicorn shifter," Cas returned.

  I laughed bitterly. "I'm not a unicorn. I'm brown." What was he trying to do?

  "Yes, a brown unicorn."

  "There's no such thing," I insisted, crossing my arms and pushing up my breasts.

  Cas' gaze slipped for a moment, giving me a smug sensation that couldn't be beaten. He wanted me as much as I wanted him. That was always a good sign when it came to my desires.

  Levon snorted. "You're seriously going to argue with shifters about things not being real?"

  "Of course. Everyone knows unicorns are white." Even as I said the words, my beliefs began to falter. Why couldn't things be different? For all I knew, unicorns could come in all colors of the rainbow. And if they did, then it was just my luck that I was a boring old brown one.

  "He's not lying, Leola," Kerry said softly, coming to sit beside me. "You're a brown unicorn."

  "How is that even possible?" I asked. I'd always assumed I was a deer. The spindly legs covered in fuzzy brown fur and the antler I got caught on my towel rack...it was the animal that had made the most sense to me.

  "Normally it's possible because that's what your parents are," Levon quipped.

  "My parents died when I was still a baby," I whispered. "I grew up with humans, not shifters. Hence..." I waved my hand around, hoping they correctly interpreted it as meaning all the stuff going on and the confusion it was causing me.

  "I'm so sorry, Leola." Kerry placed a hand on top of mine and squeezed lightly.

  "Don't be. My adoptive parents treated me like their own up until the moment they died. They never hid that I wasn't theirs and never made me feel bad about it either." Tears threatened at the thought. They'd been gone for nearly a decade and I still missed them. But they'd have told me off if they even suspected I wasn't trying to move on. They were those kinds of people. Certainly the best parents I could have asked for.

  "What do you know about your real parents?" Cas seemed to have calmed somewhat, his question even seemed to be coming from concern for me over anything else.

  "Not much. They died somewhere here on the mountain."

  Levon sucked in a breath. "You don't think..."

  Cas shot him a disapproving look and lapsed into silence.

  "Nothing? Not even a name?"

  I shook my head. "Why?"

  "What do you know about the shifter community here?" Cas asked.

  "There's a whole community?" It kind of made sense. No matter how common shifters were, the only other people who would understand the problems they faced were other shifters. Living together would make that a lot simpler.

  "Yes. We didn't used to be. A lot of us keep to our own kind. Some of us are even solitary. It depends what kind of shifter we are. That changed in our grandparents' time around here. Someone went around killing shifters. We still don't know if it was one of ours, or just someone who found out about us and decided they were going to rid the world of us for whatever reason. The alphas and other leaders had a meeting on this very mountain and decided that the best way to protect everyone was to build a community of our own. They claimed the mountain, and everyone started working together..." he trailed off, giving me an odd look that I struggled to interpret.

  "What does this have to do with my birth parents?" I had an idea, but at this stage, I needed to hear it from him to be sure.

  Cas sighed. "I never knew them well, but when I was a kid, there was a couple who lived out in one of the log cabins. They kept to themselves, never shifted with the rest of the community. One day, I got too curious for my own good and hid in the bushes outside their home to see what they'd do. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I saw something I haven't seen since. Not until today anyway..."

  "Say it," I whispered. I needed him to say it out loud.

  "I saw brown unicorns.”

  I slumped back against the couch, shocked. I’d known that was exactly what he would say, yet the words cut me to my core.

  “Leola, I need to ask this, though I hate to. Do you know if they ever found your parents’ bodies?”

  “I really don’t know,” I said. “All my parents were told was that there was an abandoned baby girl that had been found injured in the woods. Apparently a hunter found me and took me to the hospital. I’d been shot.”

  “What?” Cas exclaimed. “Where?”

  I chuckled. “I guess from your angle, and with where their hands were, you wouldn’t have seen it. Whoever killed my parents shot me, but I didn’t die. I don’t know why they didn’t make sure the job wasn’t done, but…” I stood and lifted the borrowed shirt, giving them a good shot of my front before turning to show them the star-shaped scar on my left buttcheek.

  “It only winged me,” I said. They were silent, so I dropped the shirt and sat back down. “The hunter said I was laying alone.”

  “The police crawled all over these mountains for months after your parents were killed,” Cas said. “We never knew about you. Didn’t even know your mom had been pregnant.”

  “Cas was right, your parents were very private. We would go months without seeing them at all. It’s not surprising they could hide a pregnancy.” Kerry sat beside me and put an arm around me. “This can’t be easy to hear.”

  He wasn’t wrong. “Did you catch the guy that was murdering all the shifters?” I asked hopefully.

  “No. One day, the killings just stopped. We never found out who it was, and the human police didn’t either.”

  We sat in silence for a few moments until Levon broke the uncomfortable pause. “Well, who’s hungry?”

  All three men jumped up and walked into
the kitchen, falling into an easy camaraderie. I stayed in the living room to absorb what I’d learned. My parents had been murdered, and I was a unicorn. And the murderer was at large. You know, nothing major.

  I sucked in a deep breath and looked around me. The space had no windows, of course, that tended to be the case with caves. It did have a ventilation system. I briefly wondered how they hid that before deciding it didn’t really matter. I nestled into the couch and watched them interact with each other.

  Every once in a while they’d glance back at me, and I’d give them a smile or a little finger wave to let them know I was perfectly content right where I was. I appreciated them giving me some space.

  My body stilled, and I noticed a blanket draped over the back of the couch. I tucked it around myself as they set the table.

  I jerked as I realized how comfortable I was. I’d been in their hidden cave home for all of a half hour and I felt more at home than I’d felt since my parents died. The guys made me feel grounded and accepted, and their home felt like I was meant to be there.

  Interesting.

  “Come eat!” Cas said. “Oh, your clothes are there on that little table by the door.”

  I hadn’t even noticed them. “Thanks!”

  They weren’t paying any attention to me, so I slipped my underwear and jeggings on there in the living room before joining them in the kitchen. The feel of my breasts swinging free under the borrowed shirt teased me. My nipples puckered.

  “Can I help?” I asked. They were piling sandwiches on a plate. I didn’t know how they could’ve possibly made so many sandwiches in the short time I’d sat on the couch and mused.

  Three plates piled high with several different options. I even saw what looked like a BLT.

  “Uh, guys, I’m sorry to say this—and probably should’ve said it sooner, but I’m vegan.” I was proud of my diet, and it wasn’t one hundred percent by choice, but I did feel bad if I would be putting them out. I expected them to be disappointed, or maybe even irritated.

  Kerry gave me a huge smile, surprising me. “Here you go!” he said, pulling a plate with two small sandwiches on it. Just enough for a deer.

  Not a deer. A unicorn. What the hell.

  “What is it?” I asked. I didn’t really think it would be vegan. He’d probably not anticipated the fact that there were animal byproducts in pretty much everything everywhere. I had to cook all my own meals, or else I didn’t eat much. That’s how I ended up getting into food vlogging.

  “Vegan grilled cheese,” Cas said proudly.

  “How did you know to make vegan grilled cheese?” I took the plate tentatively. “And how did you even have vegan cheese?”

  They had the decency to look a little sheepish. “We figured you wouldn’t realize, but most shifters sort of go along with their animal counterpart as far as food is concerned. Herbivore animals tend to be herbivore shifters. Carnivore animals tend to be carnivore shifters,” Levon said.

  “Okay, so that explains how you knew. How’d you have the cheese?” I didn’t even ask if the bread was vegan.

  “Our housekeeper is vegan,” Levon admitted. The other two laughed. “We were hoping you’d just think we were awesome for having it in the house.”

  “Oh, and the bread is vegan, too,” Cas said. “We started stocking a lot of stuff she could eat so that if she spends a lot of time here cleaning, she could have lunch.”

  “How dirty are you guys?” I said with a laugh.

  Cas’s eyes drifted to my loose boobs, boobing boobily in the big shirt. “Very,” he murmured, then took an enormous bite of his sandwich.

  I let his comment slide, focusing on the grilled cheese. It wasn’t the best I’d ever had, but they made it for me, so that made it absolutely delicious.

  “How do you guys know what time of day it is without any windows?” I asked once I’d eaten half the food.

  “Clocks,” Kerry said with a smirk. I stuck my tongue out at him.

  “And all three of you live here?” It was apparent Cas was the alpha, but where did the others fit in?

  “Cas is the pride alpha, and Levon the Beta. I’m the shaman,” Kerry said.

  I looked from one of them to another, gauging if they were messing with me. “You’re a shaman?” I asked Kerry. “How does that work?”

  “I was born with an extra shot of empathy, best we can figure. I have the intense need to fix people,” he said, then took another bite.

  “Why didn’t you become a doctor?” I asked.

  “My parents didn’t trust humans. A lot of shifters don’t. They wouldn’t let me go to school with humans. I apprenticed with a native shaman and healer for years until I found my spirit animal. Most shifters never find their spirit animal, and once they do, they know their life is on the right path.”

  Cas and Levon nodded sagely. “Have you two found your spirit animals?” I asked.

  They continued to nod.

  I’d sit at that table and have the happiest of freakouts if they said their spirit animals were all a unicorn. No! A brown unicorn. “Is it some secret you can never tell another soul?”

  “No, we all know what each other’s spirit animal is,” Cas said nonchalantly, as if he didn’t know I was dying to know the answer.

  “Okay,” I said and took another nibble off of my second sandwich. “So, you’re all best friends because you all have the spirit animal of what, a hamster?” I pretended not to care, but I absolutely burned to hear their answers.

  “It’s a unicorn, Leola,” Cas said seriously. “That’s the main reason I freaked out when we realized what you are.”

  My body tried to combust. It did. Goosebumps broke out all over me, and my cheeks flared at the same time as my core. Desire washed over me like a freaking tidal wave, and there was no way they couldn’t smell it.

  “Well, then. Have you ever seen another female unicorn?” I asked.

  “Besides your parents, I’ve never even heard of another unicorn,” Cas said. “If I hadn’t seen them with my own two eyes, I wouldn't have believed you existed.

  “Well, what color was the unicorn you saw?” I asked, holding my breath.

  “Brown,” they said in unison.

  Liquid pooled in my underwear, and I was glad I’d put it on. I’d considered just wearing the jeggings, and if I had, there’d be a wet spot in the crotch.

  “If you keep doing that I’m going to take you on this table,” Cas said.

  “You’ll wait your turn,” Levon said. “You got her last time.”

  A deep-chested rumble was Kerry’s only reply. “We talked about this,” he said.

  “Talked about what?” I asked.

  “When we met you in the woods, we all felt like we had all our inhibitions removed,” Kerry explained. “Like being drunk without the pesky drunk feeling.”

  “That’s exactly how I felt,” I said. “There’s no better way to describe it!” Like I could make all the wild or bad decisions I wanted. Why not?

  “There’s a precedence for that,” Cas said.

  “Fated mates,” Levon supplied. “Also, fated mates can’t usually keep their hands off of each other.”

  To prove his point, he eyeballed Kerry’s hand on my back. I hadn’t even registered that it was there. It felt so right that he touched me. I looked at him, and his heavy gaze fell on me.

  “So, you’re saying we’re fated mates?” I asked.

  Three head nods. I knew that should freak me out. It was a life sentence. Whether I liked it or not, or agreed or not, they believed we should be together and forever. I doubted they’d give me much choice in the matter.

  Except, I didn’t want much choice in the matter. The thought of being tied to these three men for the rest of my life sounded like the most amazing thing in the world. Comfort and security, companionship, possibly love? And somehow, three of them? I didn’t know if they intended to be romantically involved with each other, but I’d have three times the love, three times the comfort and three
times the helpmates.

  Hell, yes.

  I stood and faced them. “Okay,” I whispered. “I’m in.”

  Cas’s chair went flying, but the other two were a bit more sedate. Before I could second guess my decision, I was in Kerry’s arms, lifted up into the air by my thighs again.

  They were all three strong enough that they could hold me against them any time they wanted to. “Put me down,” I whispered.

  He complied immediately. I grinned up at him and ran my hands over his chest. “Okay, pick me back up. I just wanted to make sure you’d do it if I asked you to.”

  “Don’t ever doubt we wouldn’t,” Cas said. “We said something to this effect in the woods the other day, but when it comes to your body and what you do with it, you call all the shots. Just say no, or stop, and we will, immediately.”

  “We don’t believe it’s possible for there to be a point of no return,” Levon added. “You always call the shots in that way.”

  Cas chuckled. “Of course, I call the shots in all other ways.”

  I snorted and laughed. We’d see about that. I had a feeling the big tough alpha would be wrapped around my fingers in no time, if he wasn’t already. He let me deal with that teenager, after all.

  Kerry grabbed me again, and I let my lips part just a small bit, enough to make them look inviting.

  "There's no need to play games like that with us, Leola," Levon growled.

  "Do what?" I responded, fluttering my eyes and trying to make him forget I was doing anything other than waiting for them.

  Kerry chuckled from where he stood in front of me, his hot breath hitting my cheek. "I think he means trying to make yourself more desirable to us. You don't have to do that. We want you already." He took a step forward, crowding my space.

  I stood my ground. Him being close to me was definitely part of my end game, and I was going to do anything I could to make it happen.

  "I found something else in your bag," Cas's low voice interrupted.

  "Oh?" I widened my eyes, forcing an innocent look into play that no one would be able to resist. Especially hot-blooded men such as these.

  "You know what I found, Leola."