Their Unexpected Mate [Paranormal Protection Unit] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) by Honor James

thing that we do need, and that is our bond-mate. You, baby. You are our bond-mate. We mate only once,” he told her softly. “You are more of a treasure than you can ever, ever know, my love,” he whispered softly to her and helped her to pet his friend. “He loves you, baby. He will never, ever hurt you. Even when the animal is on the outside, on the inside it is always your bond-mate, it is always Trey.”
    Mac nodded. “He will always be yours,” he assured her and ran his hand over her hair. “We will always be yours, baby. Not a single one of the three of us would ever hurt you,” he told her as he watched her finally starting to move her fingers through the thick fur of his friend. “Shifters come from the very core of the Earth, from the essence that is everything, honey.” He took over the explanation since Trey currently couldn’t speak to Katherine, at least not until they all bonded. “Do you want the story that is us, darling?” he asked her gently. He wasn’t sure what else she could take. She looked so freaked out. She looked as if she were ready to pass out from information overload, but it was what they had to tell her.
    With tears in her eyes, Katherine nodded. “Yes, please,” she whispered quietly to him, her fingers moving through the silky fur of Trey’s coat. “God, he feels so soft, like silk.”
    Mac smiled. “I know he does, baby.” His hands continued to pet her, gently loving on her as they did so. “We love you, kitten, all three of us. When you walked into that bar, I swear all three of us nearly lost our minds and shifted then and there.”
    “Oh God, you are both wolves as well?” she asked with wide eyes.
    Laughter came from the men. “No, baby. We aren’t wolves,” Mac told her.
    Then Sullivan said, “We are bears.”
    “Bears?” She gulped. “You mean that you are bigger than Trey?” she asked with wide eyes. “Oh God.” She shook her head then. “All right, tell me your story.” She thought, right, fold up the thought of bears and wolves and put it in her pocket to deal with later. Right now she needed to think of this moment, of the story that he had to tell her. That they had to tell her. Bracing herself and anchoring herself in running her hands through Trey’s fur she simply thought for a moment. She simply allowed this all to come through, allowed the story to be told.
    Mac began to speak after he had moved slightly so that Katherine was more in his lap than not, adjusting his placement on the sofa so that Trey could jump up and join them in his wolf form. “When the Earth was created it wasn’t like anything any scientist or religion has stated. The dinosaurs that are found are not truly dinosaurs, but I suppose that you can call them relatives of the shape-shifters, early prototypes. I guess, now that I say it, Darwin had it closest,” he murmured. Shaking himself out of his own thoughts, he continued. “Men were created. They were just as they are today, unable to truly understand much beyond what is theirs.” Mac paused before he continued with, “When man was created, the Earth Spirit, Gaia, also created beings who could wield magic. Men and women who could make the elements do their bidding, make the earth shake, air move, fire dance.” Mac paused and swallowed before he continued, “However, she also created others. Shifters. Men who were part beast, part man. All manner of beast,” he told her softly. “Reptiles like snakes, avians such as hawks and eagles, wolves, bears, feline species such as lions, leopards, jaguars, and so on.” There were all sorts of were shifters. He was only giving her a small portion.
    “There are also those that history has made out to be more mythical than what they are, in reality,” he said with a smile as he thought of Bulldog. “There are also dragon-shifters, baby. So don’t wig out when you see one. We will always protect you, I promise,” he assured her. “All right. I got off track,” he