The Maverick Pride Tales - Chapter 120: Chapter 120

That hadn’t gone well at all. His Tiger snarled angrily as Lance looked for some cleaning wipes to pick her spit up off his floor. Who did that? Yuck.
His Cat didn’t give a fuck about the she-Tiger’s tantrum. She was not theirs, and besides, he’d been a gentleman, Treated her respectfully. Paid for the drinks, drove her home, and he hadn’t laid a paw on her.
What would be the point? His beast had lost interest in chasing tail some months ago. It was hell to admit. A man had his reputation to think about, after all.
Sure, he’d tried a little kissing and cuddling, but even that seemed to send his beast into a rage. He had nothing left in him for the females of the Pride. Lance had to face the truth. He was fucking broken.
Physical contact used to be the only thing that worked to soothe his anxious Tiger, but lately it wasn’t enough. His ornery Cat rejected any attempt at physical contact with the women in the Pride.
Lance had no fucking idea how to deal with any of this shit. Typically, the single Pride females enjoyed going out with him. He always told them right off the bat that he was not looking for anything permanent. When he took a woman out, it was as friends, and maybe if they both consented, they could have a little fun. Usually, they were okay with the arrangement.
But Brenda changed recently, or maybe she just never really believed him when he said theirs was a no strings deal. He tried to go over the events of the night and was astounded.
They’d had fun shooting whiskey and playing darts at Bar None. He felt relaxed and happy when he drove back home. Sure, it was odd she wanted to stay after he’d rebuffed her attempts to touch him and kiss him at the bar, but he’d shrugged it off. They were friends. Friends could have sleepovers.
Of course, he should have known she was gonna start some shit when she’d stripped off her dress and gotten into bed. It was obvious she was expecting something, but he’d just turned around and tried to go to sleep—exactly like he’d told her he was going to.
The purple thong, though? That was news to him. He had no idea who’d slipped the purple underwear in his room. Could have been a laundry mishap, but it was more likely one of the other unmated Tigers living in the Pride House was playing a stupid prank.
Assholes.
He shook his head and got up to take a shower. Might as well get some reps in if he was going to be awake, anyway.
The sound of crying cubs caught his attention, and Lance grinned. The Maverick Pride House was crawling with tiny bundles of joy.
Literally.
The little cuties were everywhere. At first, having so many young around had scared the wits out of a confirmed bachelor like Lance. But then he’d changed his mind. His Tiger yearned for a cub of his own, even as his human side scoffed and denied it.
Brenda wanted cubs.
Not Brenda, his inner Tiger snarled.
Lance exhaled a deep breath and dressed quickly. He’d been plagued by the constant hearted yowling of his beast every freaking time he heard the tiny, precious cubs moving around the Pride House.
Okay, fuck the reps.
Uncle Lance was going to pass by the nursery, see if he could help the Nari with the little ones.
Yes, his animal replied. His Tiger liked that plan. Unsurprisingly, by the time he got there, the Nari was already inside with her two twin girls, Melly, and Celia. Her bestie, Jessica, was there as well.
The redheaded female was the Pride leader’s sister. Hunter Maverick, Neta of the Maverick Pride, was a good man. He’d raised his sister, Jessica, from the time she was a teenager.
The female had grown into a fine Tiger, mated now to the Pride Beta, a Black Bear Shifter they sort of adopted from the neighboring town of Barvale. Of course, Brayden was a huge mountain of a man and something of a badass.
He loved his mate fiercely and was an excellent second to their Neta. Jessica stood cuddling her newborn cub, a sweet boy named after his father for some dumb reason.
Why call him Brayden when Lance was a perfectly acceptable and available name?
“Morning, ladies,” he said, grinning widely at the two mothers. “How are our precious cubs today?”
The females stopped their conversations and turned to face him.
Uh oh.
Lance knew when he was in trouble. Elissa rolled her eyes at him and shook her head in disappointment. The Nari lifted Celia, patting the toddler’s back gently and gave him the kiss of death—she tsked at him.
“You are in so much trouble now,” Jessica whispered, and gave a very unladylike snort.
“What? What did I do?” he asked, pointing at himself.
Fuuckk. Were all the ladies in the Pride going to hate on him today?
“Let’s see. What did you start with? Oh, yeah. Good morning. Is it, Lance? Is it really a good morning? Huh, sport?” Jess asked.
“Um, is this a trick question?”
“You tell us,” the Nari snarled, then relented her angry stance. “Okay, look. You’re young and unattached. We get it. You have certain carnal needs⁠—”
“Um, Nari? Please stop—” Lance gulped. He tried interrupting the woman, but when she was on a roll, there was simply nothing doing.
“Now, we ain’t mad at ya. We both know you’re all Mr. Playa-playa, but we heard Brenda leave before. She was not exactly quiet,” the Nari informed him.
“Yup,” Jessica added, emphasis on the p.
Elissa narrowed her eyes at him. She lay Celia down inside the crib and lifted Melly, deftly changing her morning diaper, and pulling some soft, fuzzy, pink looking outfit on the precious babe.
Lance wondered how she did that without even looking. It was like some intense mom sixth-sense shit or something. He didn’t know, but damn, it was cool.
“Shi—darn,” he growled, and cleared his throat. “Nari, I apologize for that. If she slammed the front door, or was rude, I am so very sorry.”
“Yeah, well, that is not all, buddy,” Elissa said. “You know girls talk to each other, and, well, it seems a lot of your dates lately are less than happy,” she continued, to his utter horror.
“Now, if you need advice, on you know, boinking,” Jessica piped in and to help, she inserted her index finger into a hole she made using her opposite hand.
Fucking fabulous.
“We can get our mates to talk to you. Brayden has got the best moves,” Jessica finished, a wistful expression on her face, but Lance was already covering his ears.
“Hunter too. You know, he does this thing with his hips,” Elissa confided, grinning as she whisper-growled and started wiggling her booty. “Like wiggle, swerve, then slam home, baby—and yowza, he takes me there every single time!”
“Oh fuck. Gods, please stop talking,” he shouted.
Lance averted his gaze, baring his throat respectfully. He loved these females, would protect them with his life, but there was no fucking way he wanted any part of a conversation like that with the two of them.
Elissa and Jess looked at each other then back at him. But Lance was still trying to clear those horrifying images out of his head.
The Nari held sway over the Pride—maybe not to the extent of her mate, the Neta, but she was pretty fucking strong in his humble opinion. When she was angry, watch out. Lance did his best not to cross either of these fiercely protective females.
“Hey, if it ain’t that, then what’s the problem, dude?” she asked.
“Maybe we should call him dud? I’m just saying, you know, until his dangly bits are back in working order,” Jessica whispered.
“Hey, be nice,” Lance told Jessica with a frown. “My dangly bits are perfectly fine. I swear to you both. Yes, Brenda was pissed, but only because I would not have sex with her last night. I did not do a thing wrong,” he explained.
“She said it was because you had some ho-bag’s clothes in your room before her—” Jessica told him unhelpfully.
“What? No! I was out last night, not with any female. One of the guys left that underwear in my place as a prank, but it does not matter. Brenda is not and never was my girlfriend,” he hissed.
“So, you just use the Pride females for quickies without shame?” Elissa asked.
“Come on, Liss, Jessi-cat? You know me better than this,” he mumbled, hurt by their characterization of his honor. “Brenda and I were never exclusive, even when we were dating. It’s been over for weeks now. Last night was not a date. We just happened to be at the same place and were hanging out. She wanted to come back here, so I took her. But nothing happened. No nooky. I promise and I don’t know who’s purple thong that was in my room, I just figured one of the guys was punking me.”
“Shit,” Elissa bit her lip and looked around. Was it him, or did she look just a little bit guilty?
“What?” Jessica asked.
“Yes, Nari, what?” Lance asked and picked up baby Melly. The tiny beauty was giggling at him as he started gently tickling her tummy.
She was such a sweet cub, even when she drooled all over him. He didn’t mind one bit. Both twins were talking and crawling too, like little speed demons.
Melly and Celia were perfect angels, as far as he was concerned. Just cherubs. It had touched him greatly when Elissa started calling him Uncle Lance.
He’d vowed then and there to do everything in his power to help protect them. He adored all the cubs in the Pride. Perhaps that was why he’d just recently started fantasizing having some of his own.
The problem was, Lance did not have a mate. Far as he knew, no one in the Pride belonged to him. It was a sad, lonely feeling. Everyone seemed to find their other halves—except him.
“Alright, I confess. Hunter and I might have gotten a little freaky in the laundry room on one of the Pride cleaning days, I don’t know, last week or something.” She cleared her throat, but nothing could contain her scarlet blush.
“OMG! You nympho!” Jess snorted again, jostling baby Brayden, who let out a loud cry. “But how’d your panties wind up in Lance’s laundry?”
“How should I know?” Elissa shrugged. “I was busy.”
“Busy gettin’ busy,” Jessica added with a little shake of her hips.
“Like you and Brayden haven’t broken damn near every piece of furniture in your bedroom. All I did was lose my panties!”
Lance wished the floor would open up and swallow him whole. The last thing he wanted to hear about was these two females’ sex life, for fuck’s sake. He cleared his throat and put baby Melly back in her playpen.
“Okay ladies, I think I’ve heard enough,” he began, attempting to leave the room.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” Elissa growled. “Sit down. Panties aside, Lance, I think it’s time you stopped being such a rounder. Especially with our Pride ladies.”
“Mmm hmm,” Jess pursed her lips.
“Uh—” Lance allowed himself to be shoved into a chair, but even his Tiger winced when both females stood in front of him.
“You’re not as young as you used to be. You’re starting to gray at the temples.”
“What?”
No way. He was not gray. He was barely thirty-five, for fuck’s sake. Elissa raked him over with a steely gaze that made him cringe.
Fucking hell.
He was about to get the mother of all lectures, wasn’t he? Okay. Lance was man enough to go through it. However, the tentative knock on the door, and the subsequent entrance of both Hunter and Brayden, had him doubting his resolve.
“What’s going on in here?” the giant Black Bear Shifter asked, bending down to retrieve his newborn son and give his mate a gentle nuzzle.
“Elissa.” Hunter’s eyes flashed gold with his Tiger as he kissed his Nari on the lips with so much love and emotion, Lance felt like a damn voyeur.
“Hi.” The Nari softened as she addressed her mate, “Would you two mind the babies? Jess and I are about to school our Lance here on what needs doing in his life.”
“Oh?” Hunter grinned, gold eyes flashing at him for a second before returning to his mate. Lance knew then, without a doubt—he was fucked.
“What might our young Lance here need, my love?”
“I’m thinking he could do with a visit from Uncle Uzzi,” Elissa said and smirked at him before glancing mischievously at Hunter.
Oddly enough, along with the healthy tremble of fear that raced through Lance’s veins, came an unexpected flare of anticipation when she mentioned the famous matchmaker.
A mate? For him?
Yessssss.
“Lance, do you still have that cabin?” Elissa asked, eyes sparkling with mischief.
“Yeah, why?”
“I might need to borrow it for a few weeks.”
“Of course, Nari.”
Lance did not know why the Nari would be interested in the small vacation cabin he’d fixed up for himself a few miles out from the Pride House. The place had been nothing more than a shed when he’d bought it. After a year of working on it, he’d turned it into quite the little hideaway. But if Elissa wanted to borrow it, of course, she was welcomed to it.
He made a mental note to send her the code to the electric lock he’d put on the door. His Tiger was busy chuffing and scratching his long, thick claws against his skin from inside the metaphysical plane where the creature existed till called.
Mate.
His Tiger agreed the idea had merit. Maybe a visit from the infamous Uncle Uzzi was exactly what Lance needed.