“Well, I guess we start Operation Mate Claim when Faith gets up from her nap for dinner, huh?” Trent went back to finishing their dinner of steaks, baked potatoes, and a green salad. Ty chuckled as they both heard the door to the mistress suite open slowly and hesitant steps come out into the corridor.
“I guess our mate is hungry,” Ty stated as he went to meet Faith and bring her into the kitchen for dinner.
Trent felt his heart sped up. He was nervous, for fuck’s sake! This was like their first real date! This was the first time the three of them would be together when he and his brother were on the same page and trying to get Faith to accept them as life partners. The importance of this was not lost on him, or his wolf, who for the first time since Faith arrived on their doorstep that afternoon had stopped prowling in his mind.
The scent of his mate suddenly filled the kitchen, and Trent closed his eyes to draw her scent into his lungs. My God. She smelled delicious, and he couldn’t wait to take a great big ol’ bite out of her. Just the thought of getting his mouth on her body caused major blood loss to his brain as his dick suddenly filled. Shit, if this continued, he was going to have a zipper imprint on his dick for life!
“You and me both, Brother.” Ty’s strained voice came to him down their link. Well, misery liked company, so at least he wasn’t alone.
Trent turned to smile at Faith as Ty got her settled at the kitchen counter. She was dressed for comfort in a large cotton button-down shirt and leggings. They had decided to keep this meal casual, as the conversation afterward would be anything but. Within minutes the three of them were settled at the counter with plates piled high with food before them.
“Wow, this looks fantastic, guys! Thanks.” Faith cut into her steak. It was cooked to her liking, well-done, which was sacrilege as far as he was concerned. Faith must have noticed the frown he and Ty wore, and she laughed, sending tingles over his skin at the sound. “Yeah, I know, it’s sacrilege to have a steak well-done, blah blah blah. But your steaks look like a good veterinarian would have them up and running in ten minutes!”
Ty and Trent threw their heads back and laughed. They loved their mate’s sense of humor. She had always been able to make them laugh. After that, the atmosphere definitely relaxed, and it wasn’t until then that Trent realized just how tense it had been up until that point. The conversation throughout dinner was simple and light, shared memories from two years ago playing a major role in the evening.
As the meal drew to a close, the brothers ushered Faith to a chair at the kitchen counter with a cup of coffee while they took care of cleaning up. When they were all seated around the counter, the conversation stopped altogether. Trent felt the tension rise as he realized that all three of them must have come to the same conclusion.
There were a lot of things that needed to be said. Trent thought about that old saying that there was an elephant in the room, and smiled when he changed the analogy to a herd of elephants in this room. So many things that needed to be talked about, apologies that needed to be made and accepted, and then trying to explain about being shifters without Faith running screaming from the house. OK, so he had effectively outlined an agenda, and now it was time to lay all their cards on the table. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he glanced quickly at his brother and saw they were on the same page. Then he turned to face their mate.
The time was now.
