The Twisted Kiss
Author: Anya Bast
Date: 2000-01-01 05:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Paranormal; Vampires; Paranormal Romance; Romance; Menage; Shapeshifters; Werewolves; Erotica; Fantasy; Post Apocalyptic
Description: Kylie Mitchell lives in a world of monsters. Thanks to a military experiment gone viral, over half the population is gone, and most of what remains has mutated into storybook werewolves and vampires. On this new Earth, only the tough survive, and Kylie has more than enough reason to want to be left alone. When the Council of the Wise decrees that she must mate with a potent vampire and a powerful werewolf, Kylie resents their intrusion into her self-imposed exile. As one of the last humans on Earth, she always assumed she'd be safe from the super-psychics' machinations, and she's not ready to
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Rights: All Rights Reserved (c) 2012 Anya Bast

Dedication

Dedicated to all those who found love where they least expected it.

Chapter One

“Afternoon, Richard, what will it be? Pig, cow or goat?”

“What kind of cow do you have on tap, Kylie?”

“The Holstein’s on special, but we got a nice bottled Ayrshire in just this morning. Don’t get that one in very often.”

Richard frowned, deciding, then opened his mouth and flashed her a little fang. “You sold me. Ayrshire it is.”

“Coming up.” Kylie Mitchell grabbed a lukewarm bottle of cow’s blood and slid it across the polished bar of the Twisted Kiss to Richard’s pale, waiting hand. “Nice and room temperature for you.”

Richard lifted the bottle to his lips and took a long drink. When he set it back on the bar, a bit of blood marked the corner of his mouth. It was a sight that would send most humans running, but Kylie only went back to wiping down the bar. She was human, but she’d lived among the vampires and werewolves of Sweet Rock, Minnesota, her whole life. At times it was a lonely existence, being one of the few of her kind around, but she’d learned to accept it.

It was only a little after sunset and the bar was still pretty much empty. Another hour and she’d be slinging every kind of animal blood known to man. She’d learned to accept that too. It was her livelihood.

“Heard about the council’s proclamation.” Richard’s voice was deceptively soft.

Kylie stiffened. She’d been waiting for one of her patrons to bring it up. When she’d received the news that morning, she’d almost run home to hide under the covers, but she had too much pride for that. “Yeah, you and the rest of the town. Everyone’s talking about it.” She tossed a glass into the sink a little too forcefully and the rim cracked. Swearing under her breath, she fished the pieces out. “I reject it. I’m not a supe. These things don’t apply to me.”

Richard took a sip from his bottle. “You were born here, raised here, live here. You breathe our air and eat at tables alongside us. I guess that makes you one of us, at least enough for the council.”

She rested her hands on the counter and glanced over her shoulder at him. “I’m proud to be counted a member of this community, Richard, just as my father was, but I don’t want Michael or Christian, let alone both of them. I don’t want anyone and no one, especially not the Supe Council, can force me.”

Richard snorted.

“What?”

The old vamp took a long pull from his bottle. “I wouldn’t be worried about the council as much as those two young bucks they’ve paired you with.”

Just then, the door to the Twisted Kiss opened. Kylie was busy staring down at the edge of the towel she used to wipe up spills, trying to ignore the fact she knew exactly who had entered the bar. All the hair on the nape of her neck rose and gooseflesh pebbled her skin.

“You mean like him?” she muttered under her breath.

The vamp let out a low laugh.

She picked up the towel, threw it to the counter and went to the back without looking at her new patron. He wasn’t there for a drink; he was there for her.

Of course, her retreat didn’t stop him.

Michael Sanborn walked partway up the hallway and watched her rummage around in the storage room for things she already had up front and didn’t need. She stopped with a hand on a shelf and drew a deep breath, refusing to look his way. This was the last thing she wanted right now. It wasn’t as if her life was complicated and this was adding to it. Far from it. In fact, her life was very simple. She had the bar, her artwork…and that was pretty much it.

More than anything, she wanted to keep it that way.

Hearing more patrons enter the building, she knew she couldn’t hide any longer. At least Emma and Becca would be in soon to wait tables, Alec would be in to bartend and she could retreat to her office. Be alone. Just the way she liked it.

“Hey, boss,” said Becca from the hallway, making Kylie jump. “Heard what the council said—”

“Yep, just like the rest of Sweet Rock.” Kylie brushed past her, clutching a bunch of coffee stirrers. Becca was dressed in green tonight. It matched her eyes and set off her deep-red hair. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“The whole town’s going to be in here tonight, you know,” Becca called after her.

Without turning around, Kylie waved a hand at her. “I know.” It was a small town in a small post-doomsyear world. Any bit of juicy news brought everyone out to gossip. That’s why she planned to hide in her office. “At least it will be good for business.”

“You’re lucky, you know. Having two fine men like Michael and Christian. Hard enough to find one in this world.”

Shaking her head, Kylie rounded the corner of the short corridor that led out to the restaurant and ran smack-dab into a broad chest covered with black leather. She took a step back and looked up at Michael Sanborn. Dark, tousled hair framed a strong face that was just a shade too rough to be called handsome. His eyes were a deep brown—soulful, her father would have called them. His mouth was the kind that made a woman want to nibble.

“We have to talk, Kylie.”

She shook her head. “No, we really don’t. Look, Michael, I’m not a supe. This whole thing is ridiculous. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a bar to run.” She tried to push past him, but he grabbed her arm.

She went still, trying to calm her temper, which had skyrocketed through the ceiling the moment he’d laid a hand on her. She gave him a look and he removed it. Good thing, or she’d have hurt him. Every post-doomsyear woman, especially a human one, knew how to take care of herself. Not when there was such an overabundance of testosterone in the world, and a lot of it supe.

“Just give me a few moments of your time, Kylie.”

Bowing her head, she pinched the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger. She’d known Michael since childhood…well, known him as much as anyone could know such a secretive person. She couldn’t just stonewall him. “Fine, but not now. After the bar closes, okay?”

He nodded and she took off, practically running away. She did not want to deal with this. The restaurant and bar were filling up fast. Everyone stared at her as she melted behind the bar and started taking orders. Of course they were talking about her. It wasn’t every day the council announced a mating, and they were almost never as odd as this one—a human woman to a vampire and a werewolf.

It just didn’t happen.

First off, humans tended to stay away from the supe towns. Mostly they lived in little clusters, scattered across the United States in small, frightened communities. Post-doomsyear, the supe population was large and scary to the non-supes. With good reason. The supes were bigger, stronger…and sometimes had a temper. There were human-supe pairings, of course—more all the time—but rarely were they proclaimed by supe councils.

Secondly, the vamps and the weres didn’t get along. In most supernatural enclaves, Sweet Rock being no different, they tended to fight like cats and dogs—or maybe vamps and wolves. Three-way pairings by councils weren’t out of the ordinary since females had been hit so hard during the doomsyear and had yet to recover—there were more men than women these days—but three-way pairings with a vamp and a were? Nearly never.

Lucky her. All she needed was for Christian to show up and her day would be complete. Though that was unlikely in the Twisted Kiss, a vampire establishment.

The bar became really busy and she spent her time filling drink orders and helping the wait and cook staff instead of obsessing over her man problems. The werewolf to whom a council of freaky supe psychics had mated her was nowhere to be seen.

Michael took up residence in a back booth and watched her broodingly. Once Alec arrived to tend bar, she deemed the place under control enough to slip away and hide in her office.

After spending a few hours with accounting and paperwork, she closed the place up at dawn and slid out the back door with her weapon securely on her—a gun that shot bullets made of a mixture of silver and wood. They were twofer bullets, able to kill both wolves and vamps. They were expensive, but practical. Of course, one had to be a really good shot to have any hope of them being effective.

Kylie was a really good shot.

Michael hadn’t arrived to chat during close, so she figured he’d changed his mind. That was just fine by her. She wanted to get home and do a little sculpturing before she headed down for the day. Living in a supe community meant she kept supe hours.

She stood near her ten-speed, unlocking the chain. Once upon a time, oil had been plentiful. Man, she wished that were still the case. Those had been the glory days. She owned a car, but fuel came dear, so she rode her bike when she could. At least it kept her in shape. Footsteps sounded behind her. Pulling her revolver, she dropped her backpack and whirled, safety off and muzzle pointed vaguely at heart level.

Christian held up one big hand to ward her off. “Whoa.”

She sighed and holstered her gun. Stooping to scoop her backpack off the ground, she growled, “What do you want, Christian? It’s late.”

“What do I want?” He snorted. “What do you think I want?”

“If it’s me, it’s not happening.”

He remained silent a moment before responding. “You heard the council’s proclamation.”

“Of course.” She faced him. “Everyone on the planet has heard it, so why not me?”

A hank of dusky-blond hair had fallen over one eye. He flicked it back and grinned at her. Hell’s bells, at least the council had paired her with two devastatingly good-looking men. She couldn’t fault them for that. His gray eyes crinkled at the corners. “You don’t seem too happy about it.”

She’d known Christian since childhood too. He’d been a few years older than her when they’d gone through school together. School being a conference room in the town’s dilapidated hotel, taught by a handful of townsfolk who traded off subjects. That was education in the post-doomsyear world.

She closed her eyes and sighed. “I don’t want to be mated with anyone right now, Christian, okay? I don’t want to be mated with anyone ever, actually. And obviously, I wasn’t expecting this since I’m human. Look, you’re a really great guy. So is Michael. I’m just not into it. I don’t want you.”

The US government would call that sentiment mighty unpatriotic. And maybe it was selfish. After doomsyear there weren’t many people left, and she guessed she should be trying to pop out a bunch of babies just like every other god-fearing, country-loving woman of childbearing age. Maybe she was selfish for just wanting to be left alone. Maybe she was a horrible person for not doing her duty.

Honestly, she didn’t care. She had her reasons and they were damned compelling.

Christian’s face clouded with something close to anger. He stepped toward her. “Yeah, well, I want you.”

Her stomach dipped and her hand went to her gun. There was nothing like having a muscular werewolf advancing on you with lust on his face, especially when you were alone with him in a back parking lot at five in the morning. Yes, she’d known him from childhood, but he was a werewolf.

“Have dinner with me.”

She blinked. “What?”

“Dinner. Like a date. I’m just asking you to spend some time with me.”

Her hand eased away from her gun. “What about Michael?”

He looked impatient for a moment. “He can do his own wooing.”

Her eyebrows rose and she snorted. “Wooing? You’re going to woo me?”

Favoring her with his famous lopsided grin, he took another step toward her. He was so close she could smell him now—a faint trace of cologne and leather. Why did he have to be so attractive? “I plan to do a whole lot more than just woo you, Kylie.” His head dipped toward her and she feared for a moment he’d kiss her—feared even more she wouldn’t stop him from kissing her. “Like I said, I’ve been coveting you for some time. The council just gave me one more reason to pursue you.”

“Pursue me?” Suddenly her mouth had gone dry.

His head dipped a little more and his lips grazed her cheek, very close to the corner of her mouth. “Dinner isn’t asking much. Say yes.”

He was right; dinner wasn’t too much to ask. So why did it feel like she was making a deal with the devil? “I don’t really want to date anyone right now.” There was a quavering note of doubt in her voice, probably brought on by the jig her hormones were currently doing. Just because her head told her to stay away from men, didn’t mean her body agreed. “Ever, in fact.”

“If this is about—”

She held up a hand to stop his flow of words. “He is not a topic of discussion.”

“Okay, I get it.” He grasped her shoulder and spoke close to her ear, making the gooseflesh rise along her arms. “Just dinner. I promise to be a perfect gentleman.”

“Okay, just dinner.”

He backed away from her and she let out the breath she’d been holding. “I’ll pick you up tonight at seven.”

She nodded once, jaw locked. What the hell was she doing? She had the willpower of a gnat. He was still standing there in his tight, faded jeans and T-shirt as she pedaled away. Of course, his looking the way he looked, she could probably be forgiven.

Chapter Two

“If you think you’re going to get her all to yourself, you’re wrong.”

Christian smiled. He’d known Michael had been watching from the shadows as he’d talked to Kylie, of course. Werewolves had a great sense of smell and vampires, with their earthy scent, could be detected right off. “Yeah, well, it’s possible neither of us will get her. You know her history. If you think it’s not kicking up a storm right now, you’re deluded. She could slip through both our hands.”

Michael walked to stand next to him, all but silent in his biker boots. “Speak for yourself.” There was a dangerous edge to his voice. Clearly the vamp didn’t like this arrangement any more than he did.

But they were going to have to live with it. The council was never wrong about these things and every supe knew it. Now they just needed to prove it to Kylie.

Christian peered up at the fast-retreating moon. “We need to convince Kylie we’re the men for her. We may not like having to share her, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles, vamp.”

Michael stood for a moment longer, then quietly disappeared into the surrounding woods as dawn pinked the horizon. Michael was a man of few words. Action, yes. Conversation, not so much.

It was now officially daytime, but Christian bet anything Michael was on his way to Kylie’s. Vamps didn’t like the sunlight, but they could handle it, and Christian understood just how strongly Michael felt about her.

Just as strongly as he did. There was a reason the council had paired them with her. Christian had been holding a flame for Kylie for years and he knew Michael had been too. From a distance, across the walls that divided the vampires from the weres, he and Michael had shared an unwelcome bond. That bond was about to become much stronger, but Christian understood that there’d be some tumult between point A and point B.

Again, he looked up into the sky at the faint image of the moon. Almost full. He didn’t have to look to know that, of course. It was in his blood. The closer the full moon, the closer his wolf. His skin itched to set it free.

The downside was that he’d be incapacitated for at least a day, giving Michael a chance at Kylie’s heart.

He might talk big about sharing, but, like Michael, he wasn’t really the sharing type.

Kylie pulled a broad section of metal from her forge and set to pounding it into the shape she wanted, the loud clangs of her hammer reverberating up her arm and into the air around her.

Ah, finally, peace. It seemed like she hadn’t had any since that silly proclamation had been made.

Her art always gave her peace. She did it for that reason, more than anything. She wasn’t looking to sell it or have a big, fancy exhibit in New Minneapolis or anything like that. She was happy where she was, in Sweet Rock, running her bar and restaurant and doing her artwork in her barn. She wasn’t even sure she knew how to act around humans anymore, anyway.

She finally configured her piece exactly the way she wanted it and set her hammer aside.

“Kylie.”

She jumped and whirled around, pushing her safety goggles to the top of her head. “Michael! What the hell?” She shouldn’t be surprised one of them had followed her home.

He stood near the open double doors of her barn, gazing up into the rafters. “Your work is amazing.”

She glanced up, seeing what he saw—huge metallic loops and swirls. A sight that never failed to please her. Today it almost didn’t. She peeled off her gloves and threw them to the counter, then stalked toward him. “Don’t change the subject. Why did you come here?” She gave a pointed glance at his motorcycle—indeed, it was as beautiful as he—before her gaze came to rest on his face. “I can’t handle this right now, seriously.”

He tore his eyes away from her artwork and his dark gaze held hers. “You’re going to have to deal with it sometime, Kylie.”

“No.” She shook her head, coming even closer to him. “No, I don’t, because I’m not a supe, Michael. Your rules don’t apply to me.”

His stony expression didn’t crack. It was as if his face and eyes were carved from marble—the pale color of his skin didn’t help the impression. “You have lived among us for so long, the council has decided you are one of us.”

“I don’t want to be in a relationship right now.”

“The council sees all. They see something you don’t want to admit.” He glanced around the barn, specifically at the sculpture. “Maybe, deep down, you’re lonely. Maybe, somewhere inside, you’re ready to move on to another portion of your life.”

Her adrenalin flared with a burst of pure, unadulterated annoyance. She glanced at the sculpture and her chest constricted. “I’m not lonely,” she ground out. “In fact, until yesterday morning, I was perfect in every way.”

“I didn’t mean to offend you.” Michael didn’t seem perturbed at all by her sudden flash of anger. He remained the same stoic man of few words she’d always known him to be. “But the council is never wrong.”

She made a frustrated noise in the back of her throat and pointed out the double doors of the barn to his bike. She almost stomped her foot. “Out! I didn’t invite you here and I want you to go.”

He just stood there, looking at her.

Suddenly she wished that old myth about inviting and uninviting vampires was actually true. “Michael, please.”

He gave her a slow blink and then closed the distance between them so fast her eyes couldn’t register the movement. His arms came around her and his mouth descended on hers.

She stiffened in shock for a moment, then punched him in the side as hard as she could, right in the kidney—it had no effect. His lips slid slowly over hers, tasting her. She tried to keep her anger, but the more he kissed her, the less anger she had. Little by little it was replaced by lust.

Goddamn him to hell and back.

Her arms went around his shoulders as he slanted his mouth over hers and parted her lips with his tongue, spearing in to mate with hers. He didn’t have his fangs out, which was a good thing. If she felt his fangs, it would break this odd magical spell. She heard a low, hungry sound and was mortified to realize it was her.

Well, it had been a long time since she’d been with a man and Michael was a very potent man.

His arms tightened around her and he moved her back toward a table, pushing her against it. For a crazy moment, she wanted him to take this even farther. She wanted him to strip off her clothes, lift her up onto this table and take her right here, right now, damn the consequences.

But he didn’t take it farther. Instead, he broke the kiss, set his forehead to hers and murmured, “I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself.”

Her breathing was fast and heavy. “Sorry?” She let out a short laugh. Putting a hand to his chest, she pushed—hard. It was like trying to move a boulder, but he staggered back anyway. “Look, this is all a little bit too much for me right now, understand? Yesterday morning I woke to a day just like any other day. Then, the council made a proclamation about me they had no right to make and now I have two men pursuing me when I don’t want even one. Can you see that I might need a little space?”

No matter that those two men were a couple of the finest she’d ever set eyes on. Most women would think her insane for denying them—and maybe she was.

Michael met her eyes. “I see it, but I’m not a patient man. I don’t think Christian is either.”

“Well, then I’m about to teach you how to be. Maybe I’m exactly what you both need.”

Michael gave her a crooked smile. “There’s no doubt about that.”

Her jaw locked involuntarily. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“It’s a truth you’ll come to accept.”

Damn that stupid council to hell and back. She did not need this right now. Dawn blazed brilliantly behind him. She gazed out at the bright horizon. “Shouldn’t you be getting home now?” Please?

He nodded. “I’ll leave because that’s obviously your preference.” He studied her for a moment. “But I will see you tonight.”

“I can hardly wait.” Her voice trembled a little.

He turned, donning his helmet before the early morning sunlight touched his skin, and walked to his cycle. It started with a roar that settled into a kittenish purr. Michael was well off and could apparently burn all the fuel he wanted. With one long, last look at her through the dark visor, he took off, sending up clouds of dust as he traveled down the winding driveway of her farm, protected head to toe by leather.

Once he was gone, she stalked up the steps of her house and slammed through the screen door into her kitchen. Her father had left this house to her after he died. She missed him every day, but more so today. She could use his advice.

Scrubbing her hands over her face, she leaned over the sink and stared out at the still-settling clouds of dust that Michael had raised in his wake. The phone rang and she jerked. The phone service was spotty and the shrill ring got her every time. She turned to lift it from the receiver, hoping like hell it wasn’t Christian. That was the worst part of this. Vampires were nocturnal, but werewolves weren’t. That meant she would be plagued by one of them all hours of the day and night. Maybe double time during twilight and dawn?

Stifling an absurd laugh brought on by stress and fatigue, she barked, “Hello?” into the phone, ready to hang up on Christian if he’d dared call her.

“Kylie?”

She let out a relieved breath and sagged against a nearby kitchen chair. “Carolyn, I’m so glad you called. You’ve heard, I guess?”

Carolyn was her closest friend in Sweet Rock, the daughter of the local alpha. They’d been inseparable since childhood. Since her father’s death and her purchase of the Twisted Kiss, the only time she got to see her was in the morning before Kylie went to bed, since she now kept a vampire’s schedule to correspond with her clientele’s.

“Heard? Are you kidding me? My father told me over my morning coffee and I spewed it all over the table. Christian Phillips and Michael Sanborn? A human, vampire and werewolf triad? It’s…”

“Unbelievable, Carolyn. Seriously. There’s been a mistake.”

“The council doesn’t make mistakes.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, they know all, see all. So I’ve heard about twenty-five times today.”

Silence dominated the other end of the line for several long moments. Finally Carolyn said, “What will you do?”

Carolyn alone was privy to all her secrets. She understood why Kylie didn’t want any romantic entanglements, not even with two gorgeous men.

“I don’t know.” She glanced out the window, her jaw tense. “I need to go see the council and find out what went wrong. Why didn’t they match you with them?”

Carolyn snorted. “I wish. I have to admit, I’m pretty jealous right now.” She paused. “I don’t know Michael, but I know Christian. He’s had his eye on you for a long time. I’m not really all that surprised at the matching.”

“I’m sure he’s a great guy—”

“He is.”

“I just don’t want—”

“I get it. We don’t have to discuss it if you don’t want. I know it’s not your favorite topic.” She paused again. “Good luck with the council. I’ll come in to the bar tonight, okay? We can talk.”

“That sounds great.”

Once she’d hung up the phone, she spent a little time tending her vegetable garden. In post-doomsyear, most everyone grew their own food, canning for the winter months. Some people raised their own livestock too, but Kylie was lucky enough to be part of a co-op for her meat.

Necessary chores done, she grabbed her purse, locked up the house and barn, then took off for the council. It was time she got this straightened out.

Chapter Three

She approached the blue house on the far end of town where the Council of the Wise, aka the Supe Council, was located. The viruses that had shot through the world’s populace during doomsyear, creating genetic mutations like vamps and werewolves, had also created a very small number of superpsychics…and a few monsters, but no one liked to think about those, especially Kylie.

Out of all the supernaturals, the psychics were by far the oddest. They existed in pockets around the world, usually near high concentrations of supes, gathering together to live and to give out proclamations to their various communities from time to time. Their greatest gift to post-doomsyear society was their apparent ability to see into the hearts and minds of those around them and make romantic matches.

Those matches were often two males to one female, since the waves of viruses had left women scarce in the world. Two males to one female cut down on things like wars, kidnapping with the intent of sex slaving and such—the things that tended to happen when there was an imbalance of testosterone in a society.

Kylie had been five during doomsyear. The earliest years had been toughest, of course. She’d been young, but she remembered extreme hunger and being cold in the winter. She remembered her father defending their home from marauders with a shotgun.

The world economy had been decimated, of course. Money had been useless for years. She’d grown up learning how to provide for herself, bartering for the things they couldn’t grow, make, or scavenge for themselves. It had only been in the last ten years that money had started to be used again.

The virus had killed Kylie’s mother. She and her father had been immune, as were all the remaining humans. Those who weren’t immune had either died or been turned into a supe. She lived in a world of monsters now and normal was something of a novelty.

And all seemed guided and governed by the psychics.

A bent, white-haired old woman opened the screen door of the blue house and stared at Kylie as she walked up the steps. “We knew you would come.”

Well, of course, they had. They were psychic, after all.

“There’s been a mis—”

The old woman—her name was Margaret—held up a hand to stop her words. “Now you come on in here, sit down and have a cup of coffee. Then we’ll talk.”

Kylie pursed her lips into a thin line, hesitating on the steps. Figuring this was her only way to bring her issue in front of the council, she nodded and continued into the house.

The other three psychics were already in the living room, steaming carafe of coffee on the wood-and-glass table in front of them, along with five cups. They’d been expecting her.

Kylie nodded at the other three—an older black man named Tony, a middle-aged brunette woman named Charlotte and a skinny man in his early twenties named Brian. Brian was a second-generation psychic, born of a mother who had been virus-affected during doomsyear.

She sank down onto the edge of an overstuffed floral chair. The three psychics were all watching her with various pleasant expressions on their faces.

Creepy.

Glancing around, she quickly found the source of the tick-tocking in the far corner—a great-grandfather clock with a heavy brass pendulum. The house was small and crammed with various pieces of antique furniture. The floor was polished wood and scattered with thick but worn throw rugs.

Margaret entered the room and poured them all cups of coffee. She even knew that Kylie took hers black. Then, with a grandmotherly smile, she sank onto the couch next to Tony. “We know why you’re here, Kylie, and we don’t need our particular skills to understand why.”

Her coffee cup trembled in her hand. “I’m not a supernatural, Margaret. With all due respect, please leave me out of your proclamations. I have no desire to be matched with Christian or Michael, let alone both of them together.”

Tony looked down into his coffee cup, lips pursed. “Desires. They’re a funny thing, you know. Sometimes what we think we want isn’t really what we want…or need.”

“I don’t need psychoanalysis. I need my life back the way it was yesterday.”

“Was your life really all that great yesterday?” Brian asked.

She looked at him in shock. “What a rude question.”

“Remember,” said Charlotte gently, “we see more than most.”

“Well, whatever you see for me, I want to remain the same. I don’t want to be with a man. I just want to run my bar, make my art and be left alone.”

“Alone is what you are and alone is what you’ll always be if you don’t take a risk on these two men,” answered Margaret. She raised her white eyebrows at Kylie as she took a sip of her coffee.

“They are your soul mates,” said Charlotte. “If you pass up this opportunity, it will be a great tragedy for not only you, but for Christian and Michael. Give them a chance, Kylie.”

Soul mates?

Her brain tripped over the term. In the back of her mind, she’d always understood that the council’s proclamations did, indeed, bring soul mates together—or make extremely compatible matches at any rate. Since she’d first learned of the proclamation, Kylie had thought of it as little more than a pain in the ass. The possibility that she might be shunning her best chance at lasting romantic happiness had never really occurred to her.

Still, she wanted to resist it. “I’m…human,” she insisted. “Christian is a werewolf and Michael—”

“Is a vampire,” answered Margaret. “Yes, we’re aware it’s an unusual match. I think you’re a little too concerned with it, however. We were all one race before doomsyear. Despite our surface differences, we are still one race.” She paused and smiled kindly. “And all of us are worthy of love, Kylie.” She paused and took a sip of her coffee. “Even you.”

All four of the council members watched her carefully as those words seemed to echo in the room. Suddenly Kylie felt naked, like they could see right into the center of her—all her insecurities, all her anxieties.

All her guilt.

She shifted in the chair, placing her barely touched coffee onto the table in front of her. She should have known that coming here would be a mistake. Of course, the council wouldn’t admit to mismatching people. She was stuck with the proclamation.

Kylie stood. “I would say thank you, but you’ve turned my life upside down.”

Margaret seemed unperturbed by the tense set of her body and the clipped tone of her voice. “One day, you’ll thank us for turning your life upside down.”

Yeah, right.

Without another word, she turned and left the house.

Deep in thought, her hands white on her steering wheel, she drove back home. Maybe what was so scary about this situation was that she was bad—no, terrible—at forming relationships. She’d had her father and she had Carolyn, but that was pretty much it as far as close relationships went. She guessed it was because she’d experienced so much loss.

And it wasn’t only her father she’d lost.

Grief, a dark, old friend, wended its way up from the depths of her and curled its tendrils around her gut and throat. Not a day went by that she didn’t think about her dad and miss him.

Deep down, maybe she thought Christian and Michael could never possibly want her. After all, look at what she’d done to the other men in her life. Maybe she was preempting things before someone got hurt.

Wow, it would be awesome if she had a shrink. Unfortunately, the nearest psychologist was at least five hundred miles away. In Sweet Rock, sadly, it was Alec, the bartender at the Twisted Kiss, who usually played that role, and he wasn’t very qualified.

She would have to deal with this on her own, as she dealt with everything on her own.

Christian watched Kylie and Carolyn as they talked over the bar, heads together—one light and one dark. His gaze skated over Kylie’s slender body as she leaned in, whispering furiously. He could imagine what the topic of conversation was.

She wore her thick, dark-brown hair loose over her shoulders tonight. Usually, she kept it in a ponytail when she worked at the Twisted Kiss and he wondered why she’d done it differently tonight. Perhaps because she’d agreed to go out to dinner with him? He could hope. Whatever the reason, it tempted him. He wanted to tangle his fingers through it and use it to tug her face close to his for a kiss. He’d been waiting long before the proclamation to do that.

Maybe soon he’d get his chance.

It was almost eight and he shifted at his place at the bar, conscious of the vamp eyes on him. Weres didn’t usually frequent the Twisted Kiss. They had their own establishment on the other end of town—the werewolf end of town—called the Beautiful Bite. Vampires and werewolves in Sweet Rock tolerated each other, but there was a tension in their relations that came from being two highly alpha races forced to live alongside one another.

Kylie stepped away from Carolyn and looked up, laughing, her dark eyes crinkling at the edges and her wide mouth open. His heart arrested in his chest for a moment and he took a long drink of his beer to calm the sudden hunger the sight of her ignited in him. He’d wanted her for so long, and now that she was close to being his, it was killing him.

He knew Michael felt the same way and that killed him too.

He and Michael had grown up in Sweet Rock and knew each other as well as any two people from opposite ends of town could. Christian wasn’t into the whole vampire-hating thing, and luckily Michael wasn’t an extreme were-hater either. Still, having to share Kylie with him rankled.

Every man knew there was a high chance of having to share his mate once one was proclaimed by the council. It wasn’t any easy thing for alphas to do under any circumstance, even though it was a fact of post-doomsyear life that they’d had to come to terms with. The tri-pairings served a very important purpose. History had shown that in cultures with too few females, the males became overly aggressive and warlike. Two men matched with one woman in mutual compatibility was a very good thing

Proclamations weren’t made every day, but they were always perfect. The council was never wrong. All three of them—even if Kylie didn’t know it yet—were lucky to have found their family.

Christian would do his best to remember that the next time he saw Michael. Maybe it would keep him from punching him.

He glanced at his watch—eight o’clock. Kylie was his.

She glanced at him, then at the clock above the bar. A look of resignation came over her face, and Christian vowed to turn it to lust the first moment she let him. She said her good-byes to Carolyn and picked her way through the thronged bar to his side.

“Glad to see you’re so excited about having dinner with me.” He kept his tone dry.

“As I told you before—”

“You’re not interested in a relationship right now. Yes, all of Sweet Rock knows that by now.” He accompanied that small bit of criticism with a cocky smile.

Glaring, she pushed past him and bolted for the door of the bar.

He exited into the night air, breathing in the late Minnesota autumn. There was a chill bite to the air, a hint of winter on its way. Like most weres, he relished the colder temperatures—all the better for running in fur.

She hugged herself against the chill and gazed down Oak Street. This end of town was just starting to come alive, the nocturnal shops and restaurants opening at twilight. They needed to walk two blocks down, to Hessian’s, a restaurant located between vamp and were territory, but mostly frequented by weres.

Kylie tipped her face up to the sky, where the moon was ripening toward full and stars shimmered all around the silver almost-orb. His gaze traced her jawline and the slender column of her throat, his body tightening and his cock twitching in his jeans. He gritted his teeth, clamping down on the impulse to draw her into his arms and slide his mouth over hers, then follow the line of her throat with his tongue. The closer to the full moon, the harder it was to control his desires.

She drew a deep breath. Apparently he was doing a good job of masking his thoughts, since she smiled at him. “The council pointed out to me this morning that if I reject you and Michael, I could be rejecting my soul mates. The timing of this is bad for me, yet passing up my one true chance at love would be a pity.” She studied him closely. “Do you think you’re really my soul mate?”

“I know you’re mine, Kylie. Known that for years.” He managed to mostly disguise the growl in his voice. “That’s all I know.”

Her eyes widened a little and her lips parted. The slight shiver he imagined he saw may have been wishful thinking.

Before he could do something to scare her off, he turned and started walking down the street. “I’m hungry, aren’t you?” He was hungry, but not for food. His body hummed with awareness of her and he wasn’t sure they’d even make it to the restaurant.

Be civilized, Christian. Don’t scare her off. She’s human.

She fell into step beside him, the heat of her body radiating out and warming his side. The faint scent of her perfume teased his nose and made his balls tighten. There weren’t many free women in his pack, but he’d slept with almost all the ones who were free. Still, he’d never had any woman affect him the way Kylie did. That’s how he knew the council was right the moment they’d made the proclamation.

They walked in silence, Kylie looking up into the night sky and admiring the stars, Christian warring with his impulse to pull her into the dark and kiss her senseless. His hands fisted at his sides. He was losing that fight.

Darkness closed around them as they entered a quiet stretch. Huge oak trees stood sentinel at equal intervals on either side of the sidewalk, streetlamps glowing above them and casting dappled shadows on the concrete walkway.

Kylie glanced at him. “So, how—”

He turned, took her by the waist and dragged her up against his chest, his other hand finding her nape. In the dim light, he saw her surprised expression and cursed his inability to resist her…then he kissed her.

Her body stiffened against his, then relaxed. She kissed him back with surprising intensity, her lips sliding over his. His tongue found the seam of her mouth and pushed inside. A slight growl issued from the back of his throat as the sweet taste of her spread through him, made him want more. His cock went hard, pressing painfully against the zipper of his jeans. The wolf inside him throbbed with savage need for its mate. He couldn’t wait any longer for her; he couldn’t be civilized—not now, not where Kylie was concerned.

He dropped his hand from the nape of her neck to her waist and pushed his hand under her shirt, finding the smooth skin of her lower back. She felt so nice—like silk. He wanted to know what the rest of her felt like, wanted to experience her nude body rubbing up against him.

She broke the kiss and he worried for a moment she’d pull away. If she pulled away, he would have to let her—but it would be hard. “You affect me in a dangerous way, Christian.” Her voice was shaking, a little uncontrolled. “I shouldn’t want this. I should run away from you right now…but I can’t.”

The wolf inside him howled in triumph. His mouth curved in a feral smile. She was his. His. “Then let’s forget dinner. Come home with me.”

Her eyes seemed wide and extraluminous, part of her face in shadow. He held his breath waiting for her answer, hoping with everything he was that she would listen to her body and not her head, listen to the faint whisper in her heart that was telling her the truth—she loved him, she just didn’t know it yet.

Then she nodded and he didn’t hesitate. Taking her by the hand, he hightailed it to his car before she could change her mind.

Chapter Four

What was she doing?

She’d completely convinced herself that she was going to resist these men, then Christian had kissed her and all her hard-assed sentiment had flown out the window on the wings of her goddamned undersexed libido.

She could tell herself she was just doing this because she was a woman with certain…needs and Christian was an incredibly attractive man, but she wasn’t heartless. Christian and Michael both actually seemed to care for her—amazing as that was. She wasn’t the type to use a man for sex and then walk out the door.

Therefore, every inch of her was aware of the commitment she was making by going home with Christian right now. By doing this, she was agreeing to explore the bond the council said she had with these two men.

The darkened streets of Sweet Rock flew by the passenger’s side window of the car at an alarmingly fast rate. Christian was pretty impatient to get her home and into his bed and she was impatient to be there—consequences be damned.

He pulled into the driveway of his small, neat white house at the edge of town and practically broke the sound barrier getting around to her side of the vehicle to open her door. He lifted her straight into his arms with a strength that gave her pause and carried her up the steps and into the house, slamming the door behind them with his booted foot.

He set her down in the entryway and immediately began to kiss her. These weren’t just any kisses—they were kisses that stole her breath and made her knees weak. He slid his arm around her and bent her toward his body, his mouth slanting hungrily over hers and his tongue sliding into her mouth to ease up against her own.

Inch by inch, he moved her backward toward a doorway she could only get a glimpse of. The dark house closed them in lovely, velvet seclusion. Traveling through shadows and discarding clothing as they went, Christian nudged her into his room and up against the side of his bed.

His hands found the hem of her shirt and lifted it over her head, throwing it to the side. Her breasts, still cupped in her bra, brushed his chest as she did the same, exposing his powerful upper body to the exploration of her hands and lips.

He undid the button and zipper of her pants, slid them down her legs and pushed her back onto the bed gently to pull them completely off, along with her shoes. She reclined on the soft mattress wearing nothing but her bra and underwear and stared up at Christian in the shadowed light. He stood wearing only his jeans, his chest bare and beautiful in the shadowed light. Her fingers itched to touch him and her tongue thirsted to taste him.

“Come here,” she whispered.

He crawled onto the bed over her, his mouth coming down on hers as she worked the button and zipper of his jeans and pushed them past his hips, his hard, long cock springing free. He shed his jeans and tangled his fingers in her underwear, yanking them impatiently down and off.

Planing the inside of her leg with his hand, he parted her thighs and made a hungry noise in the back of his throat as he stared down at her bare cunt. She shifted on the bed, aroused to the point of begging, and thrust her hips up at him just a little in invitation.

He bent his dusky blond head and kissed along her upper thigh, making her bow her spine and moan his name as he worked his way up. His mouth closed over her sex and she bit her lower lip to keep from crying out. The sight of his head between her legs as he sucked her swollen, aching clit almost undid her.

“God, you taste good,” he whispered, his breath warm on her sensitive, aroused flesh. “I want to make you come this way.”

Her fingers gripped the blankets on either side of her as his finger found her entrance and pushed inside. She gasped as her body adjusted to the width and length of his digit. It had been a long time since anything had penetrated her and her muscles clamped down around his thrusting finger. He added a second, stretching her even farther, then lowered his mouth back to her clit and nibbled and sucked it until she was near-incoherent with lust.

She closed her eyes and tossed her head, her toes curling as the first hint of impending orgasm teased her body. His fingers thrust in and out of her faster and harder, making pleasure ripple through her while he made low sounds in his throat as though she was the best thing he’d ever tasted.

The first climax she’d had in years burst over her body like a bomb exploding. Her back arched and she cried out, clawing the blankets on either side of her as the sensation gripped her hard. All she could do was hold on and go for the ride.

When the waves of pleasure finally passed, she lay panting and sated on the mattress for a moment. Then she pushed up and sealed her mouth to his as though not kissing him would kill her. He used the press of his lips to push her back down onto the mattress, one hand slipping behind her back to undo her bra strap.

Her fingers found and curled around his cock, stroking him from root to luscious, smooth tip until he groaned into her mouth, making the hair on her nape rise and her body quicken for him. She couldn’t wait to have him inside her…

“Oh,” she whispered. “Birth control.”

He jerked a little, as though the words came as a surprise to him. “Birth control,” he agreed and reached over, fumbling in a drawer by the side of his bed for a condom. He went to tear open the package with his teeth, but she plucked it from him before he could.

Scooting away from him a little, she let her bra fall off and stifled a smile at the way he studied her bare breasts so intently. Her breasts were one of her best physical features, full and nicely shaped. Right now, her pink nipples stood at hard attention, letting Christian know just how excited she was.

Parting her legs so he could glimpse her aroused sex as she worked—just to tease him a little—she ripped open the package and crooked a finger.

He came toward her on his knees and she bent her head to his erect cock, sliding her lips over the smooth crown. He jerked and groaned, his fingers tangling in her hair. She gave him a few long strokes, then teased the underside of the crown with the tip of her tongue. Then she slid the condom over his length slowly, her gaze caught intently with his.

“On your hands and knees.” His voice came out rough and needful. It sent shivers through her body.

She did as he requested, tilting her pelvis up and showing him her damp, excited sex. He studied her for a long moment, then ran his hand over her aching sex, spearing two fingers in her from behind and thrusting in and out until she was a panting mess, nearly coming again.

He took her roughly by her waist and pulled her flush up against his pelvis. The jut of his cock pushed like an iron rod against her delicate flesh. “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to get you into my bed?”

She rubbed along his cock, making him moan. “I’m happy you finally got me here.” She was happy now, but she’d probably be regretting this in the morning.

His hands found her breasts and caressed them, rolling the nipples between his thumb and forefingers until her body jerked in a sudden flush of pleasure. “You are so fucking beautiful and I can’t wait to hear you come again.”

She shifted her hips. “Then what are you waiting for?” Her voice came out breathless.

He guided his cock to the entrance of her sex and pushed slowly between her lips. She moaned, hitting the mattress with her closed fist as her muscles stretched deliciously to accommodate him. Pleasure skittered through her body, stealing her thoughts and sometimes even her breath.

Little by little, he pushed deep inside her until he was seated to the root and Kylie was filled up more than she thought she ever had been. Then he began to thrust.

She saw stars. Moaning, she gripped the blankets as he stroked inside her faster and harder. His hand slipped down to flatten against her abdomen, then eased between her thighs to find her aroused clit. He teased the swollen bit of flesh with the pad of his finger as he fucked her, keeping time with his thrusts.

Her second orgasm hit her like a freight train, pleasure pouring through her and nearly making her lose the ability to remain on her hands and knees. She cried out, her muscles spasming around his thrusting length.

He groaned her name, then bellowed in agonized pleasure, his cock jumping inside her.

When it was over, he lowered her to the bed, took care of the condom and then returned, tucking her against the curve of his body. She snuggled against him with a smile, inhaling the scent of his skin and enjoying the sweet aftermath of really good sex.

His hand roamed her body as though he just couldn’t make himself stop touching her. “Kylie, I wasn’t kidding when I said I’ve wanted you for a long time. I mean, since school. You always seemed so unapproachable, I guess because you’re human. Aside from being gorgeous—” he stroked his warm palm over one breast and her nipple tightened “—I always admired your strength, coupled with that hint of vulnerability you have. You always seemed a little sad and I had the urge to make that sadness go away. I’d always hoped the council would match us.”

She sighed and closed her eyes, her body still tingling from the way he touched her. She knew the sadness he was talking about. “Carolyn told me you’ve been crushing for a while. I had no idea.” It was pretty flattering, in fact. She smiled.

“Right, I forgot she’s your friend.”

“My best friend.”

“She’s a valued member of our pack. I wouldn’t be surprised if the alpha took her one day.”

“Really?” She turned to look up at him. “I don’t think Carolyn has any clue that’s a possibility.”

He shrugged. “I can see it happening. She’s the strongest female in the pack, probably the best option Brady has for a mate. I think he’s just waiting to see what the council says.”

Kylie snuggled back into his arms. Brady Callahan, leader of the Sweet Rock pack, was alpha in every way. She had the impression that Carolyn was both awed and frightened by him—Kylie wondered how she’d take this bit of news.

“What do you know about Michael?” she asked softly.

His hand stroking her outer thigh faltered for a moment, then resumed. “I know him about as well as any werewolf knows a vamp in Sweet Rock. I grew up around him, same as you, but wolves and vamps don’t occupy much the same space.”

Michael and Christian were around the same age, but supe kids of different natures didn’t tend to hang around together. The school in Sweet Rock was integrated, since it was such a small town and there were so few kids, but Michael had been educated mostly away from the school, at home.

“It’s so stupid. I almost feel like I cheated on him. Dumb. I don’t owe him anything.”

“It’s the bond you share with both of us, Kylie. Doesn’t matter what the council said about the three of us, or what anyone else might think—now that your chemistry with me and Michael has been pointed out to you, you feel it. That’s why it feels like you betrayed him by sleeping with me.”

She closed her eyes for a moment, wanting the truth of that statement to go away. Yet, she’d always been attracted to these two particular men. Even when she’d been with Louis, the man she’d thought was the love of her life.

The thought of Louis made her blood go cold. She couldn’t think about him right now, not while she was in Christian’s arms.

“This is all too weird for me.” Her voice came out trembling.

“It’s not my ideal situation, either. My ideal situation would be to have you all to myself.”

“I guess the fact that Michael is a vamp makes it worse.”

“Nah. That doesn’t bother me. Honestly, maybe it’s better this way. At least he’ll keep different hours than I will.”

She laughed. “Yeah, right, and if I accept you both, I’ll never get any sleep.”

He flipped her to her back and slid between her thighs. His mouth came down close to hers. “Baby, tell me you’re not at least a little fascinated by the idea of having two men at once.” He nipped her lower lip and her body tightened in desire.

“Two men…I haven’t really thought that far ahead.”

He slipped on another condom, then nipped her lower lip again, this time a little harder, then licked the tiny hurt. “Four hands on your luscious body, two mouths, two tongues, two cocks…” He moved the head of his cock to her entrance and found her wet and willing. One little thrust and he was inside her again, making her gasp against his lips. He slid a hand beneath her and touched her rear entrance. “You know that if we take you together, one of us will need to go here.”

She jerked as he pushed the tip of his finger inside and then moaned as delicious, curious and unexpected sensations rolled over her at the contact.

“Ah, yes, it’s good, isn’t it?”

“Strange.”

“Just relax and I can show you how good it can be.” He pushed in a little farther and gently thrust into her cunt at the same time.

Her body went rigid as ecstasy slammed through her. She gripped his shoulders and held on as he very gently pushed deeper inside her rear, continuing to drive in and out of her sex at the same time. The sensation of having both her orifices penetrated blew her mind. It produced a blossom of pleasure she’d never known before.

“Christian,” she gasped. “It’s good.” Her words were slurred.

“Oh, baby, you’re killing me.” His voice was rough, uncontrolled. “You don’t know how bad I want to flip you over and take you in your sweet little ass right now.”

“Just don’t stop what you’re doing,” she panted. “I’m going to come.”

He gave a few hard pumps, his pelvic bone rubbing her clit, and she exploded. He rode her through her orgasm, bracing both hands alongside her on the mattress and taking her hard and fast until he burst inside her with a groan.

He collapsed alongside her. “Kylie, I want you in every way I can get you. Now that I’ve had you, I only want more.” He dragged her up against his chest, a finger skating over her aroused sex. “I want to put a toy deep inside you, then take you in the rear so you can see what it would be like to have two men at the same time. I want to hear you scream when you come that way.”

She shuddered at the thought. She hadn’t been a virgin before she’d come here tonight, but she wasn’t all that experienced either. Until now, she’d never had a man touch her where Christian had just touched her, and she’d never had a man tell her he wanted to do such exciting—dirty—things to her.

She loved it.

She smiled wickedly. “The night’s still young.”

He growled and rolled her under his body.

Chapter Five

Michael stood outside Christian’s house, under the shadow of a tree, his hands fisted at his sides. He knew where Kylie was right now, knew she’d be there until morning. Jealousy rose hot and hard within him.

So, Christian had gotten a taste of her skin first.

He gazed up at the moon. By tomorrow night, it would be full. Christian was a strong wolf, so the full moon wouldn’t put him out of commission for long. It was likely that today, the day before the full moon, he was losing some of his impulse control—probably how he managed to lure Kylie to bed with him. Tomorrow night he’d be a wolf and running the woods, leaving Michael alone with her.

He couldn’t wait for tomorrow night.

Kylie straightened a piece of thin metal to the exact angle she wanted it and rocked back on her heels, admiring her work. The piece she was working on had taken her three years to complete. She’d started it right after—

She purposely turned her mind in another direction.

Standing, she surveyed the enormous piece of art that took up a good chunk of her barn. In places the metal lay smooth and flat; in others it crinkled and warped. In still others the artwork flowed and swooped like an angel’s wings, or twisted and was scorched by her blowtorch. Every surface of the piece was different and made the viewer feel a certain way. All of it was a testament to a life, a love…and a death of sorts.

It was almost done.

Outside the open barn doors she was surprised to see that twilight was falling. She’d been working far longer than she’d meant to. Putting her tools away and closing up the barn, she hurried into the house to take a quick shower and hurry over to the bar. It wasn’t her night to run things, but she usually stopped in anyway just to make sure everything was going smoothly.

She tossed her work clothes to the floor of her bathroom and stepped into the blessedly warm water. It was chilly outside—something else she hadn’t really noticed while she’d been working. Lathering soap over her body, she remembered Christian’s hands on her and shuddered. Her body still tingled from his touch.

Her gaze drifted to the barn and the artwork contained therein. A little thread of guilt wormed its way through her, taking the pleasurable memories away. Being with Christian had been the first time she’d been with a man since Louis…and worse, she’d loved it.

Turning her face away from the window, she dunked her head under the water as if to wash away the taint of that thought. It was all done and gone, years past. No sense in dwelling.

Of course, she could tell herself that all day long and never be able to follow her own advice. Good sense didn’t have much in common with grief and guilt.

After her shower, she dressed and headed downtown to the Twisted Kiss. She noticed Michael’s motorcycle parked outside right off. Her eyes immediately searched for him as soon as she entered and found him seated in a booth in the back of the bar, dressed in black leather and staring down every move she made.

Her annoyance at his presence had eased since the day she’d gone to see the council. Sometime between then and now, the uncomfortable truth of her situation had been forced to register. No matter how much she didn’t want it—these men were her best chance at happiness.

The question was—did she deserve it?

Her gaze caught his and held as she crossed the floor to the bar. Both these men were incredibly potent on their own. She was pretty sure her head would explode if they ever tag-teamed her. Just the touch of Michael’s mind brushing ever so gently against hers was enough to make her shiver. Vamps could do that, enter your thoughts and sense your emotions if you didn’t guard against them properly.

There were some parts of the traditional vampire myth that held true. They needed blood to survive, but they could eat regular food too. They didn’t like sunlight, but they could endure it. Crucifixes and garlic had no effect on them. They weren’t the walking dead and they didn’t live forever. In fact, a vamp’s lifespan was the same as a human’s or a were’s. But in many ways, vamps and weres both classically followed their legendary ancestors.

And that was by design.

The government had been trying to bioengineer soldiers who had unique supernatural abilities to use during operations and had drawn from the qualities of werewolves and vampires as their models. That’s how doomsyear had kicked off. The techniques they’d been using to manipulate genetic structure had mutated into a highly contagious virus that had ripped through the human population, killing approximately 63 percent and transforming most of the rest into supes.

No one really knew where the psychics had come from. Some people believed they’d been sent here by God to guide those left behind after Armageddon. Kylie wasn’t sure what she thought about that. She’d only been a child during doomsyear, so if God had sent the viruses that had killed her mother, he’d also chosen to leave her behind on Earth motherless. She wasn’t sure she could believe God would do such a thing. Seemed more like pure chaos to her.

She passed through the bar, said hi to Cody and eased down the narrow corridor to her office. She needed to take care of a couple of minor things, then she’d go out and talk to Michael. She’d given in to her lust for Christian, so it wasn’t right she should avoid Michael.

Just as she was finishing up, someone knocked on her office door. She rose to answer it and found Michael standing on the other side holding an enormous bouquet of flowers.

“Flowers? For me?”

Michael didn’t have the same easy grin as Christian, but he gave her a sexy little smile with just a hint of fang. “I didn’t bring them for the cook.”

She took them and inhaled the scent of the artfully arranged roses and lilies. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure. I had hoped they might soften your sentiments toward me and you would allow me to take you out tonight.”

She looked down into the bouquet. She’d known he’d ask her and now that she’d opened Pandora’s box, she couldn’t say no. Not after last night. Michael deserved a fair shake too. She looked up at him. “Of course. Just let me put these in some water and grab my sweater.”

“I’ll wait by the bar.”

Five minutes later, they were walking out of the Twisted Kiss with all eyeballs on them. As she was leaving, she heard someone whisper, “What if they have kids? Will they be vamp or human?” Someone else chimed in, “Or maybe she’ll have a litter of puppies.” Everyone at the table laughed.

She rolled her eyes and pretended not to hear.

They walked to Michael’s bike and he tossed her a helmet. “Have you ever ridden one?”

“No.” She eyed the huge black-and-silver machine.

Motorcycles weren’t really rare these days. They were practical because they were better on gas than cars. Humans didn’t ride them much, though, leaving that to the supes who had better healing abilities. Cycles were dangerous, after all, and health care wasn’t exactly abundant or particularly stellar in the post-doomsyear world.

He pulled his helmet over his dark hair and mounted the cycle. “Get on and hold on to me.”

She hesitated a moment, but the power of her curiosity outweighed her apprehension and she pulled the helmet on and mounted behind him. Her arms came around his broad, warm body and she sighed in pleasure. Just a trace of musky cologne clung to his coat and she could feel the flex and bunch of muscles under the leather.

She did have to hand it to the council—they had good taste in men.

He started the cycle and it settled into a low purr before he eased away from the curb and headed down the street. The coolish evening breeze kissed her skin and the trees whipped past them faster and faster as they made their way out of town and into the country. It occurred to her that she’d never even asked Michael where he was planning to take her. She found it interesting that she instinctively trusted him.

A ways out of town, he took the cycle off-road and led her through the woods to the bottom of a hill. There, he turned off the bike, they dismounted, removed their helmets and he beckoned her up the side of the hill.

When she reached the top, she saw that he’d spread out a blanket with a nighttime picnic. There was cold chicken, fresh fruit, chocolate and wine spread out under a thick, soft blanket. Above their heads spread the magnificent night sky with a low, pregnant moon hanging amidst a sparkling array of stars. “Wow,” she breathed, looking heavenward.

“I thought you might enjoy this.”

She gazed at the spread, her stomach growling. “I had no idea you were so romantic.”

“I wanted to get you alone, Kylie. I thought this was a good way.”

She sank down onto the heavy comforter, thick enough to shield them from the chill of the ground. He sat down next to her and poured her a glass of wine. “There are no weres in these woods, are there? Full moon tonight.”

He looked up into the sky. “No. The Sweet Rock pack runs to the north of here. Christian won’t be out here tonight.” He looked at her. “Are you disappointed?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry—this is just strange for me. Two men vying for my attention. I’m not sure how to handle it without offending one of you.”

Michael prepared her a plate of food and she nibbled at it. “We were both named in the proclamation. We both understand the situation, Kylie.”

“I need to be clear with you. I went out with Christian last night, and even though at the beginning of the night I never intended—”

“I know.”

“You do?”

“I was in the Twisted Kiss. I saw you leave with him.”

She gave him a sideways glance. “Did you follow us?”

“You are my soul mate, Kylie. Yes, I followed you. I saw you go back to his house.”

She swore under her breath and bowed her head. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. I don’t know how to handle two men at once.”

He moved toward her, tipping her chin up so she looked into his eyes. “I know you slept with him. I’m jealous he was the first, but I’m glad it happened. It means you’re opening up to the possibility of this.”

She stared into his dark eyes, her lips parted. She wanted him to kiss her. Damn her to hell, she wanted him to touch her. What kind of slut was she that she could go from sleeping with one man to wanting to sleep with another one twenty-four hours later?

Ugh, no matter how much her libido might be doing cartwheels over the possibility, she just couldn’t let herself.

“Michael…” She started to say that she found him incredibly attractive but that he shouldn’t expect her to be as easy tonight as she’d been last night, but he moved away instead and started eating his dinner.

Her sex drive protested even as her willpower breathed a sigh of relief.

She took a careful sip of wine, studying him in the moonlight. “You know, we’ve grown up in the same town, but I don’t know much about you. You’ve kept to yourself over the years.”

“You knew my grandfather, of course.”

“Yes. Everyone knew him.”

His grandfather and Michael were the only survivors in his family, everyone else succumbing to the virus while his grandfather and Michael turned vamp. Up until that time, the Sanborn family had been something of local celebrities. They’d been the wealthiest family around and had owned more than half the businesses in town.

“I look after what remains of my family’s legacy. My grandfather left a lot of real estate behind that I still take care of. I look after the investments the family still had after doomsyear. Everything is much diminished now, of course.”

Of course. The economy had been hellishly bad after doomsyear and had never really recovered. Her father and those who had survived had talked about the world before in terms she couldn’t understand. The excesses they’d had then were unbelievable. They’d had everything they wanted, and more. He’d told her they’d actually thrown away food back then, left the water running while they brushed their teeth. They’d had something called air conditioning all the time in the summer, and sometimes they’d gone shopping just for fun—not necessarily because they’d needed something. Crazy. There’d been tons of stocked stores back then. Now all those stores were rotting husks of their former selves and the selection was only a fraction of what it had been before doomsyear.

She tipped her head to the side, studying him. “You’re not bored, not having a formal job?”

“Managing those investments and taking care of those properties takes more time than you might imagine.”

“I can imagine. Just taking care of the farmhouse my dad left me is a big job.”

“It’s a big place.”

She grew wistful. “It needed to be. It used to be filled with lots of people.”

“Doomsyear was kind to none of us.”

She traced her finger along the blanket. “Do you believe in the Armageddon theory?”

He gave his head a sharp shake. “I believe in the People-Do-Stupid-Shit theory.”

“I do too.”

Since doomsyear, the US government was a shadow of its former self. Martial law had been declared in the wake of the virus. It had been just as well—the local health systems had been completely unable to deal with the mass panic and the ensuing problem created by so many people falling ill, so fast, and either succumbing or turning.

“It’s hard for me to believe that if doomsyear had never happened, I would not need to have blood in my diet to survive.”

“Hmm…not such a blessing. You’d be more prone to sickness, not as fast, or as physically strong and you wouldn’t have those quirky little psychic benefits. I would say you got lucky during doomsyear, compared to the rest of us. Well, with the exception of the weres. Sometimes I wish I would have turned supe instead of just being naturally immune to the virus.”

“Which would you have liked best, vamp or were?”

“Hmm.” She looked up into the sky, considering her answer. “They both have their advantages. I love the strength and speed of the vampires, but the ability to shed your human self for wolf and run like a wild thing through the woods is pretty seductive too.”

“You can still shed your human self and run through the woods like a wild thing, Kylie. Strip everything off and let yourself go. Why not do it once in a while?” He looked around him. “Why not now?”

She laughed. “What? Do you mean take my clothes off and run around in the woods?”

“If it would make you feel free, why not?”

She laughed again, looking down at the blanket. “Maybe I will sometime, but not now. I’m enjoying my time with you too much.”

He crawled over to her and pulled the wine glass from her fingers.

“Uh, Michael?”

He ignored her, instead placing his mouth gently to hers.

She melted, all thoughts of how she couldn’t sleep with him right now, gone from the first touch of his mouth. Damn it, apparently three years of abstinence didn’t matter—she was a slut through and through.

No, she needed to find a way to resist.

Gently she pushed him away. “Michael, I can’t do this. It’s not you, it’s really not, but I just can’t sleep with one man and then sleep with another the next night.”

He scooted closer to her, pushing her back onto the blanket and coming down over her. “Do you think we’re just ordinary men, Kylie? Christian and I are the matches to your soul. How could you ever have expected to resist us? My heart, my body calls to yours. They want to join and they don’t care about societal expectations or cultural rules.”

Michael’s mouth slanted over hers and his hand slipped inside her coat to cover her breast. Her nipple went hard as a diamond against his palm and he rubbed his fingers back and forth over it until she moaned into his open mouth.

“Do you want me?” Michael whispered. “Because I sure as hell want you.”

“I do,” she murmured. “Heaven help me, yes, I do.”

Chapter Six

Slowly, they undressed each other, lips and hands trailing over revealed, bare flesh. Kylie guessed she should be cold, but Michael’s heat kept her warm. He slid his hand down the front of her cotton briefs and found her wet and hot from his touch. He teased her clit until she shuddered, then slid two fingers deep inside her. She lay on the blanket, nude but for her underwear, and arched her back as he thrust gently, wanting to feel his cock there instead.

He yanked her briefs down and off and she rose up, running her lips over the muscular planes and valleys of his chest, trailing her tongue down to his belly button and past it. Her fingers worked the button and zipper of his jeans and together they eased them past his hips and off.

She found his long, wide cock and kissed it. He shuddered against her, groaning, as she slipped him into her mouth and drew him to the back of her throat, sucking gently. His fingers tightened in her hair and he murmured her name over and over as she learned all the spots where he most liked to be licked and stroked.

Finally, he pulled her away and pushed her back to the blanket. He forced her thighs to part and explored her with his strong, sure hand, petting her labia and stroking her aroused clit until she shuddered with need and the bud plumped, begging for more contact. He eased a finger deep inside her, then added a second, stretching her muscles and thrusting in and out. As he did this, his hot mouth found her breast and he sucked one nipple inside, teasing it until she was a writhing, moaning mess, and then moved on to the other.

Then, he moved his head down to cover her sex with his mouth. He licked and sucked the sensitive folds between his lips and caressed her clit with his tongue until she was just on the verge of a climax. He held her there, suspended in a state of ecstasy, until she begged for him to enter her. She wanted to feel his cock pounding in and out of her, driving her over this precipice of pleasure he had her so carefully balanced on.

He rose up a little, his dark gaze catching and holding hers. Then he licked his thumb, set it to her clit and rubbed up and down, making her moan out her pleasure. His fangs came out—sharp and deadly looking in the half light—and he lowered his mouth to her inner thigh.

His fangs slid into her flesh in a sharp stab of pain that quickly faded into the most intense throbbing pleasure she’d ever experienced. As Michael drew her blood, she orgasmed. Her body shuddered and she cried out, her spine arching. For as long as Michael fed, the climax persisted, fading and then re-intensifying.

By the time Michael had drunk his fill of her, she was a mess of boneless satisfaction. Her body tingled and quaked and she was pretty sure she couldn’t move.

He licked the wound on her inner thigh, sealing it to heal, then settled down next to her, wrapping the blanket over them.

“I had no idea,” she murmured. “I’ve heard stories, but, holy cow, I’ve never been bitten before.”

Michael chuckled. “I’m glad you liked it.”

“Like is far too mild a word.” She turned toward him, resting her head in the crook of his neck. His cock was still rock-hard and pressing against her thigh. “But what about you?”

He kissed the top of her head. “Rest now.”

At some point she fell asleep, drained by the intense reaction she’d had to being bitten by him. When she woke, it was to heat. While she’d slept, he’d been touching her. She woke with a gasp, panting, his fingers tunneling deep inside her cunt and his mouth over her nipple, his fangs just grazing her skin.

Her gaze sought the moon and saw it was much lower in the sky—they were approaching dawn. “Michael.” His name came out a groan.

“I need you, Kylie.” His voice was as close to uncontrolled as she’d ever heard it.

“Condom,” she gasped. She was incredibly wet and she wondered if he’d been tonguing her as she slept.

He found one in his jacket pocket and slid it on while she rose up on her knees and kissed him. Then he forced her back down to the blanket, spread her thighs and set the head of his cock to her entrance. One good thrust and she was impaled nearly to the base of him.

She cried out and moaned in pleasure as her muscles stretched to allow his girth. Kneeling on the blanket, he slid her thighs over his waist, angling her hips upward and leveraging himself above her. Grasping her hips, he pulled out almost to the crown and pushed back in, making her eyes roll back in her head. He was strong enough to manage this position, where it would be too hard for most human men. Once her body had adjusted to accommodate him, he set up a hard and fast rhythm, pistoning in and out of her.

“Touch yourself,” he said.

Her eyes flew open. “Wh-what?”

“Stroke your clit. I want to see your hand between your thighs while I fuck you.”

Hesitating, she slid her hand slowly down her stomach to her clit and rubbed it with her first two fingers. He watched her, clearly aroused. Her breath caught as pleasure bloomed through her body. With his cock tunneling in and out of her, it wasn’t going to take much for her to come.

“Touch your breast,” he ordered softly.

Now into the game, she raised her hand and cupped her breast, dragging her fingers over the hardened nipple, rolling and pinching it until ripples of pleasure radiated through her. Her fingers stroked her clit harder and faster as he took her and her climax rose.

It exploded over her and she soaked his thrusting cock, moaning out his name.

As the waves of pleasure still had her caught in their grip, he pulled out of her, flipped her and set the head of his cock to the entrance of her rear.

She tensed. “Michael?”

“If you don’t want me to do this, just tell me.” His voice seemed strained, as if he was holding himself back.

She remained motionless, her body wanting the pleasure she knew he’d give her, but her mind balked. Never in her life had she performed this act and it worried her.

“I won’t hurt you.” His voice was soft, reassuring. “I would never hurt you, Kylie.”

She believed him and…she wanted him. Biting her lower lip against a quiver of anxiety, she pressed back a little, bumping his cock and giving him permission to take her there.

He eased the head of his cock within the tight entrance. She let out a sigh at the way it stimulated those intimate, not-often-used nerves. He pushed in a bit farther and she let out a small whimper as the pleasure grew.

Dragging his hand down her abdomen, he slid his hand between her thighs from the front, found her clit and rubbed it. She moaned at the dual sensations. When he added another inch to his penetration, she understood why he stroked her clit. Now there was the slightest edge of discomfort, a twinge of pain that made the pleasure even sweeter. It was an odd feeling that was hard to put into words. She wanted more.

He pushed in another inch and then another, her body accepting him more easily than she ever would have guessed.

Curious sensations ripped through her. He had her on her knees, thighs spread, his cock now deep inside her. As he pulled back out slowly and thrust back in, he slipped his hand from her clit and thrust two fingers deep inside her cunt as he rocked in and out of her rear. It was a direct reversal of what Christian had done to her the night before…and it was good, oh, so very good.

She felt the brush of fang at her throat and she arched her neck in invitation. His fangs slid in as deep as his cock and she shuddered in utter, complete ecstasy as he drew her blood while she came for the third time. Intense pleasure poured through her, stealing her thought, dominating her body.

Finally he unlatched from her throat and groaned her name as he came in her rear, his cock jumping as he climaxed.

They didn’t so much collapse as they melted onto the blanket. Every muscle in her body was sore and happy.

“Both of you are going to kill me,” she murmured, fingering her throat, which was tacky with drying blood.

Michael curled beside her, nipping her earlobe. “Let’s see how wild we can get.”

At the moment, smiling and sated, she didn’t have a problem with that plan. “It’s amazing how up until last night, it was like my sexuality had been frozen in time. Now all of a sudden…”

“I haven’t slept with a woman in over two years.”

She moved her head so she could look into his face. “Why?”

He bent his head and pressed his lips to hers. “Because two years ago, I noticed you for the first time.”

She blinked, suddenly speechless. “Are you saying you saw me and suddenly decided—”

“That no other woman was worth my time, yes.”

Her mouth worked for a moment as she tried to make the jumble of emotion in her chest turn into words. “Michael…I had no idea.”

“I knew of you for years. As soon as you bought the Twisted Kiss I saw you every night. But it wasn’t until one particular night that I looked up to see you laughing at something behind the bar while you dried a glass. In that one moment, I fell in love with you.”

“What? I don’t understand. How could that happen so fast?”

“It didn’t. It happened over the course of years. I’d always noticed you, ever since we were kids.” He paused, as if remembering. “One of the periods I attended the town school, I remember how you and Carolyn teamed up against Sawyer Collins.”

She snorted. “He was such a bully, always pushing around the younger kids.”

“You and Carolyn brought him to his knees, made him stop that crap.”

“That was how Carolyn and I became so close.”

“I remember how unafraid you always were of the supes, so unlike most humans. You just lived among us, like you were one of us. Showed no fear or bigotry. That old dog you had, what was his name?”

“Harvey.” She smiled. He’d been a mutt they’d taken in. She’d loved that old dog.

“You used to walk him to town and back on summer afternoons.”

She laughed. “When I passed the hardware store, Mr. Miller would always have a treat ready for him.”

“I had all these memories of you. I liked you, admired you, thought you were beautiful, caring and fearless. But that night in the Twisted Kiss, when you were laughing behind the bar, that’s when I noticed you as a woman. I really saw you and I knew I loved you, even though falling in love with you probably happened over the span of ten years. In that moment, I knew you would be mine one day. I just needed to wait for the council to make it official.”

“I always saw you watching me, but you never said anything. You never asked me out. Why?”

“I knew you weren’t dating because of Louis. I knew you needed time.”

“Oh.” She dropped her head to his chest. She could hear his heart thumping strong under her ear.

“And because I was waiting for the proclamation.” His voice rumbled through his chest.

She smiled. “You were that sure of yourself?”

He waited a moment before he answered. “Yes.”

Her smile faded and she listened to the pump of blood through his veins. Michael loved her and had loved her from afar for a very long time. How crazy was that? Both Christian and Michael had known she was their mate way before the council had declared it and she’d never known. Still really didn’t know.

If she thought about it too much, her limbs grew cold and her heart started to pound. There had been another man who’d loved her and…

Suddenly, Michael rolled away from her and bounded to his feet. “Come with me.” He held out a hand.

“What?”

“Come run in the woods with me like a wolf. Come on.” He waited a moment longer, while she stared at him in shock. Then he bounded away on legs four times as strong as hers, very nice buttocks flexing, and was gone into the dark. From a distance, she heard him call to her.

Laughing, she got up and followed him.

Christian took the steps up to Michael’s house two at a time and rapped at his screen door. It was just twilight and the vamp’s cycle was still in his driveway. His wolf had only released him a couple of hours ago and was still close to the surface, making him feel more aggressive than usual.

When Michael didn’t come to the door right away, Christian banged harder.

The door finally opened. Michael wore a pair of jeans and nothing else. No shirt, no shoes. Ordinarily Christian would’ve wondered if Kylie was here, with Michael answering the door dressed that way, but he knew exactly where Kylie was. Sometime during the time he and Kylie had made love, he’d developed a deep psychic connection to her.

“Did it happen for you too?” Christian asked, his hands in fists at his sides.

Michael cocked his head. “Did what happen?”

“Are you going to let me in or what?”

Michael pushed the door open and Christian caught it. Then Michael turned and walked into the foyer of his immense house. It was a classy place, nothing like the small house Christian kept in town. This house was all polished mahogany, antique furniture and chandeliers.

Christian followed Michael down the hallway to the living room. “I know you fucked her.”

Michael turned to regard him with cool, dark, vampiric eyes. “And I know how you know that.”

“Then it did happen for you.”

“If you’re talking about the fact that I can now feel Kylie from afar… Yes, it happened for me too.”

Christian paced to the fireplace and back, pushing a hand through his hair. “What the fuck, man? No one told me this would happen. It’s like Kylie has rented part of my skull. I can sense where she is and how she’s feeling. Last night, it was like being in a nightmare. I was a wolf, running down a deer in the woods, and I could feel her ecstasy with you. I knew it when she came”—he turned and speared him with an angry gaze—“three times.”

Michael held up a hand. “No sense getting competitive. It’s the chemicals from my bite that helps a woman come that often and so strong.”

“I made her scream my name twice without any help,” Christian countered with a growl.

Michael didn’t rise to the bait. He just stood there, watching Christian pace back and forth.

“The council never told me this would happen. What the fuck is it from?”

“They never told me it would happen either. I think it must have something to do with the fact that we’re supes and she’s human. Whatever the reason, I like it. What’s your problem?”

Christian rounded on him. “My problem is I’m sharing Kylie only because I have to share her. I’m enduring this, but I hate it and I don’t fucking want to know when you’re screwing her brains out.”

“You’re jealous.”

“Yes, I’m fucking jealous.”

“And you think I’m not?” Michael’s voice had risen a notch and his dark eyes flashed. It was the first time he’d ever seen the vamp show any temper. “You had her first. You think that didn’t suck for me?”

“Yeah, well, you made up for it by sucking the next night.”

Michael turned away from him and walked to the large window overlooking the well-kept yard. Christian had known Michael had inherited some bucks when his father had passed, but he hadn’t known exactly how much dough the vamp was rolling in. “We can’t do this. We have to find a way to ally ourselves. For her sake.”

Christian sank into a nearby chair. “I know.”

Michael walked back toward him. “She’s entranced by both of us now, but it’s a shallow attraction. Sexual. Her mind and body sense the emotional bond that you and I already know we share with her, but she’s resisting it. All she wants from us right now—”

“Is our bodies.” Christian gave a rough laugh.

“Something like that.”

“She’ll come around to us. She has to.”

Michael shrugged. “The past weighs heavy on her. She’s scared.”

“Do you think she feels the same psychic connection to us?”

Michael shook his head. “She’s human, remember?”

“We can’t let her run away from us.”

“I have no intention of ever letting her go.” Michael raised his brows in challenge. “How about you?”

“Never.”

Chapter Seven

Kylie wrapped herself in an afghan she’d been told her grandmother had knitted and reclined on the couch in her living room. Outside, the world had gone cold quick. Winter was definitely on its way. A chilly rain had started this morning and hadn’t quit all day.

Luckily the bar was closed today, so she didn’t have to go out unless she wanted to. And it seemed that both Christian and Michael were giving her a little space. That was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, stupidly, she missed them. On the other, she was glad to have some time to get her head together.

There were about fifty things she could do with her rainy day off. The house needed a little bit of a cleaning. Most people didn’t like to clean their houses, but she enjoyed it. It gave her a sense of accomplishment—seeing direct results from her labor. It was also kind of a zen experience for her. While she cleaned, she was perfectly in the moment, not thinking of the past or the future or any of her problems.

Maybe cleaning was exactly the right activity for today.

Then there was her almost-finished piece of artwork in the barn. Sighing, she gazed out toward the red building on the other side of her yard. She could bundle herself up and head over there. She had a wood stove that made the area nice and cozy when she wasn’t playing with her blowtorch.

Yet something was holding her back from finishing up the piece, and she didn’t know what it was. There should be nothing preventing her from putting the final touches on it. After all, she’d started it as therapy of a sort, an effort for her to work through her emotions using metal and fire. It had worked.

Maybe that’s what was holding her back—maybe some part of her was unwilling to give up her coping strategy. Or maybe she just wasn’t ready to let go of the guilt that had gripped her for so long it felt like a biological part of her.

“Whatever.” Her mutter sounded loud in the quiet house.

Flipping off the afghan, she went for a rag and the can of cleaner.

She threw herself into cleaning with such total abandon that before she knew it, it was evening. As she was wiping down the kitchen counters, her last task for the day, she had a sudden flash of Michael and Christian walking up to her door. She stopped with the rag in her hand and lifted her head, frowning. How odd.

The doorbell rang.

Her frown deepened. Even odder.

Abandoning her work, she walked down the short corridor to the front door. Through the heavy glass, she could see the outlines of two men. Her two men, she was sure.

She jerked a little at the thought.

Her two men.

According to the council they were, but did she want them? Ah, now that was a complicated question. Yes, of course, she wanted them. She would have to be half-dead not to want them—the real question was did she deserve to have them?

She touched her hair, which she’d tucked under her handkerchief while she’d cleaned, and grimaced. Oh, well, there wasn’t much she could do about her appearance at this point. She opened the door to find Michael and Christian standing there, both with bags of groceries in their hands.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, still holding a cleaning rag in her hand.

“It’s dinnertime.” Christian jerked his head toward the brown fabric sack he carried. “We came to feed you.”

She took a step back into the foyer to allow them through. Her annoyance at their presumption was tempered by the fact her stomach was growling and she didn’t have much in the house at the moment. “How did you know I’d be home? I could be out with Carolyn or something right now.”

Christian and Michael exchanged a look. Michael caught her gaze. “We have to talk to you about that.”

She wrinkled her brow at him. “Okay, but can I wash up first? I’ve been cleaning all day.”

Christian headed for the kitchen. “Go ahead while we start dinner.”

“Take your time.” Michael’s gaze lingered on her for a moment longer before he followed Christian down the hall.

She watched them go, perplexed. It actually appeared they’d gone shopping at the local farmer’s co-op and now they were going to cook…together? She wasn’t sure her heart could stand it if they’d joined forces.

After she’d cleaned up and dressed in a soft sweater and a pair of jeans, she returned downstairs to find the dining room table set and delicious scents wafting from her kitchen. She dragged a wide-toothed comb through her hair as she entered the room. “Yum. What are you making?”

Christian turned from tending something on the stove. “Steak with roasted veggies and potatoes.”

She smiled. Sounded like a meal a man would choose. “I’m starving.”

“Good. It’s almost ready.”

Once dinner was served, they sat down at the table and began to eat. “So, you two just decided to come on over here and make me a meal, huh?” she asked, her gaze sliding between the two men.

Christian shrugged. “Why not?”

“It’s just that I didn’t have the impression either of you were all that happy to be named two men to one woman by the council.”

“It’s reality,” Michael answered. “We’re dealing with it.” He jerked his head at Christian. “He had the day off from the construction site and stopped over this morning to talk to me about some things. We could tell you were feeling a little sad today. That’s when we made plans to come here tonight and see you.”

She set her fork down. “Sad? How could you know that?”

They exchanged another look.

“Michael, Christian, just tell me.”

Michael cleared his throat. “We’re hoping this doesn’t freak you out, but Christian and I have developed some kind of psychic link to you. We can tell where you are and what sort of emotions you’re experiencing. We think it’s a result of the bond between us.”

She remembered that eerie sensation that she’d known they’d been about to ring her doorbell. Still, she had nothing like a psychic link to them. She drew a steadying breath. “And you have that because you’re supes?”

“We think so.”

“Is that…normal?” Not that anything about this situation was normal, really.

Christian and Michael looked at each other. “We’ve never heard of it happening before.”

“And you and Michael don’t have it between yourselves?”

Christian crinkled his face and glanced at Michael. “Hell, no. Look, Michael is a nice-looking guy and all, but I don’t swing that way.”

“Neither do I,” Michael growled.

She held up her hands. “Okay, guys, okay. Chill out, please.” She picked up her fork and began eating again.

“Uh, Michael,” Christian ventured, “she’s taking that news a lot better than we thought she would.”

She glanced up from her plate. “I am still in the room, you know.”

“Why are you taking it so well, Kylie?”

She shrugged. “I’m so past the point of weird it’s not even funny. I have to take this stuff as it comes.” She looked between them. “I’m not sure I like the fact you guys will always know how I’m feeling, though.”

“We think it’s a consequence of the bond being forged between us,” answered Michael. “It allows us to protect you by knowing your location and always know where you stand emotionally so that we can support you.”

She considered him. Michael seemed much more sensitive than Christian, yet every bit as protective of her.

“When did this psychic link thing start to happen for you?” she asked them.

Christian took a sip of his beer and set the bottle back on the table. “For me, it happened after our date.”

“Me too,” answered Michael. “After last night.”

Her eyebrows rose into her hairline. Riiiight, after she’d had sex with each of them. Her face flushed as she realized she’d slept with both these men during the last forty-eight hours.

Most women would be really jealous of her.

She took a bracing sip of her water. It was sweet and pure, from a well on her property. “Okay,” she breathed. “It’s all good.”

“It is?” Michael asked. “You seem uneasy.”

She laughed. “Well, you would know, wouldn’t you?”

Christian glanced toward the barn. “How’s the art coming?” Apparently he thought it best to change the subject. Probably wise at this point.

“I’m almost done with the piece I’ve been working on since…Louis.” Her heart made a little dip that she now knew both these men would sense. She cleared her throat and took another drink of water. “I’ll finish it up on a day that’s not so cold and rainy.” Maybe. She pushed her food around on her plate. They might be able to feel her emotions, but they shouldn’t be able to tell when she was lying.

Christian changed the subject again, this time to the topic of the construction job his company was working in Sweet Rock. Soon they were on comfortable, mundane topics, talking of the regulars in the Twisted Kiss and some of the characters in the town where they’d all grown up.

“Remember old Mr. Addison?” asked Michael, sitting back in his chair and pushing his plate away.

“That old wolf? Didn’t a vampire get him in the last skirmish?” asked Christian. Every once in a while, the conflict between the vamps and wolves flared into little miniwars, not unlike gang fights.

“He was found trying to kill one of my kiss, a pregnant woman.” Michael nodded. “Yep, a vamp got him.” He paused. “Really, really got him.”

Christian snorted. “I’m not surprised. He was a nasty piece of work. Some of the old ones are. They remember so much of their lives before the virus turned them that they’re bitter. Take their hate out on everyone around them instead of just accepting what they can’t change. Are the older vamps like that?”

Michael nodded. “Sure. I think that affects us all.”

“Everyone but humans,” Kylie broke in. “We’re just plain bitter.”

Christian offered her a lazy smile that made her stomach do a slow flip. “You’re not, Kylie.”

“My dad was. Seems like lots of humans are.”

“What was your dad bitter about?”

“My mom’s death.”

The room went silent. Finally Michael said, “Everyone’s got reason to be bitter over a loved one’s death. The virus left a path of carnage that will never be forgotten.”

Kylie raised her glass. “To never forgetting those who have gone before us, be they human, vampire or were.” Her mind was on Louis as she looked between the men. Michael held her gaze, seeming to understand that.

“I’ll drink to that,” said Christian, raising his glass.

They all clinked glasses and drank deeply.

The skies grew darker and the rain began to come down harder. Eventually, they rose and cleared the table.

She returned from the kitchen to collect more dishes and Christian passed her in the entryway, closer than he needed to be. The scent of him, leather and the faintest whiff of his cologne, made her stomach do another slow flip.

Gathering the last of the dishes, she returned to the kitchen to enjoy the sight of two gorgeous, hunky men cleaning up. She helped them by wiping down the counters, only to be lifted bodily by Christian and set into one of her kitchen chairs.

He wagged his finger at her. “Sit. We’re both bachelors and know how to handle ourselves in here. No worries.”

So she relaxed and watched them move. There was something oddly sexy about watching two muscular men doing such domestic tasks. Her eyes were drawn—as always—to the way their arms and chests flexed when they performed even the smallest of movements.

Was it wrong that watching these men clean her kitchen turned her on? Of course, watching these particular men do just about anything turned her on.

Michael leaned against the counter when they were done and looked out into the night-dark sky. It was still raining.

“Did you come over here on your cycle?” she asked him. Michael driving his cycle in the rain concerned her. He was a vamp, all big and strong, but he wasn’t immortal. It jarred her how much the thought of his getting hurt bothered her.

“No.” He jerked his head toward Christian. “He came over to yell at me. We made peace and decided to come over here together.”

“Yell at you?” She looked at Christian “About what?”

“You, of course.” Christian grinned. “It’s pretty much all we have in common.”

“I bet you have more than that in common.”

“Maybe.” Christian glanced at Michael. “I gotta say that as vamps go, he’s not a bad one.”

Michael grinned. “Thanks for the high praise.”

“No problem.”

Christian walked over to her and pulled her from her chair. She gave a little surprised cry when she ended up flush against his chest. “You’re more than enough anyway.” He dropped his head and kissed her, his lips slanting over hers slowly and then parting to allow the slip of his tongue.

She melted against him, her hands gripping his upper arms. For a moment, she worried about Michael, who was standing in the kitchen watching both of them, but then Christian’s kiss deepened and she couldn’t worry after that—or think.

He pulled her away from the table and held her close, taking his time with the kiss, exploring her tongue with his and making little sounds like she was the best thing he’d ever tasted. His kiss made her think of the night they’d spent together, of naked, entwined limbs and skin sliding against skin. It made lust fire up in her belly and want it again.

Christian broke the kiss and she staggered back against the table, her eyes slightly unfocused. He gave her a cocky grin—so very Christian. He understood the kind of effect he had on her and he loved it.

Michael stood not far away, fists clenched and a dark look in his eyes. She wasn’t sure if it was jealousy that made him look that way or pure, flat-out desire. Something in the pit of her stomach told her it was a combination of both and she wondered what would come of that. Michael was intelligent and sensitive, but he had a dangerous edge to him too. Christian was tough and protective, funny and kind, and, overall, less complicated. Her gaze met Michael’s and held. His pupils seemed to go larger and darker. It made her heart thump in her chest.

Suddenly she needed to be away from both of them, away from this confusion and the heavy feeling that had entered the room—lust and expectation. She needed to be away from all of it.

Ripping her gaze from Michael’s, she turned and left the room. She went for the foyer and her jacket. She could head down to the bar for a few hours, drown herself in work. Anything to distract her from this situation she’d been thrust into.

Michael reached her with preternatural speed, took her by the arm and whirled her to face him. He yanked her up against his chest and whispered against her mouth, “Give in to us.”

She shuddered against him. Had they planned this? Had they come over to the house tonight with exactly this in mind? A double seduction? If it had been any other men but these, she could resist, but she’d already proven twice over that she had no defenses against them—as a double threat they were surely her downfall.

“Give in to you?” she whispered back. “Like I have a choice.”

“You do have a choice. Tell us to leave and we will.”

A shadow had fallen nearby. Christian had followed them into the foyer.

She bowed her head, resting it on Michael’s shoulder, trying to imagine the words stop or leave coming out of her mouth…and failing. “God, what is wrong with me? I want you two so much. Both of you.”

“That’s natural. It’s as the council said it would be. You’re our mate.” Michael’s voice rumbled through his chest as he spoke. “You are ours, Kylie, as we are yours.”

Christian moved to her other side. “This is how it could be,” he whispered in her ear, making goose bumps erupt all over her body. “You could have both of us, Kylie, both of us to love you.”

She squeezed her eyes shut and felt the truth of that statement through every fiber of her body, yet all she wanted was to deny it and push them both away. She had never felt so out of control in her entire life and she hated it.

Christian forced her to look up at him. “What’s going through your beautiful head now, baby? What are you thinking?”

Her breath shuddered out of her. She didn’t say what she was thinking—I’m not worthy of this—because if she did, she’d cry. “The last time I was in a relationship—”

“That man became a monster. You blame yourself for that, I know.”

Damn it. A tear rolled down her cheek.

Michael cupped her chin and focused his gaze on hers. “Christian and I are already monsters, Kylie. Can you live with that?” He stared down into her face for a long moment, then dipped his head and caught her lips against his. He slid them slowly over hers until her knees turned to butter.

Monsters, schmonsters… It didn’t matter what Michael was when he kissed her this way.

Dimly, she noted that the lights in the house flickered and then went out.

“What the…” breathed Christian.

Michael broke the kiss and she glanced out the window, expecting to see a storm. It wasn’t unusual that she would lose electricity when there was a lot of wind. It was still raining, but there wasn’t a breeze or a lightning strike in sight.

At the back of the house she heard the screen door slam…yet she, Michael and Christian were in the foyer at the front of the house.

Christian suddenly moved toward her in a protective gesture. “Do you smell that, Michael?”

“Fuck,” Michael said under his breath.

“What? What is it?” Although she thought she might already know. At the possibility, her stomach suddenly felt filled with cold lead.

“Take her,” Christian commanded, moving away from them. “Take her and protect her. You play defensive and I’ll go offensive.”

In the half light she could see that Christian’s form was rippling, shifting.

Then she got a whiff of something tainted on the air, something wrong. Unwashed human body mixed with animal. A being that should not be.

Louis.

Chapter Eight

Her stomach coiled into cold little knots. She thought all trace of humanity had been eaten up when the virus had taken Louis and turned him verdorben. But there could be only one explanation for why he had chosen to return to her tonight, after all these years. Somehow, he had learned about the proclamation and some part of him that still retained his humanity didn’t like it.

Michael growled low in his throat. She looked up to see that his fangs were out, gleaming in the pale light filtering in through the window. Before her, Christian was nearly transformed into the huge black wolf that was his other form. His clothing hung in strips on him, rent from the change in his size and shape. He made no sound of pain, but Kylie knew the process hurt.

Finally, an enormous black wolf stood in the middle of her foyer. He shook himself once, ridding himself of the scraps of clothing, looked back at her and Michael, then leapt through the doorway into the living room with one smooth, rippling move.

Somewhere at the back of the house, something growled. Christian answered with his own growl and Louis—it had to be him—snarled in response.

“Oh, God,” she breathed, her hand going to her mouth. “I can’t believe this is happening.” She gripped Michael’s arm. “Gun. I need my gun, right now.” She bolted up the stairs toward her bedroom. She couldn’t let Louis hurt Christian or Michael.

Memories slammed into her as she pounded up the stairs and ran into her bedroom, images of Louis how he used to be…and how he was now. Michael stood sentinel at the door as she flung her closet door open, grabbed the handgun on the top shelf and checked it for a cartridge.

Downstairs, furniture crashed amid a flurry of snarling and growling. Kylie dashed toward the door, but Michael caught her around the waist.

She fought him, trying to pull away. She was responsible for Louis being the way he was; it was her place to put him down. Tears streamed down her cheeks. This was her worst nightmare made real.

Michael was around fifty times stronger than she was. All he had to do was pick her up, turn around and walk back into the room. It didn’t matter how much she kicked and flailed. “Michael, let me go! I can’t let this happen. I can’t—”

He threw her down onto the bed. She looked up at him, seething, hand wrapped firmly around the gun’s handle.

Michael’s fangs were still out. The lines of his face looked brutal. “Christian can handle him. You’re staying with me so I can keep you safe.”

Downstairs, the sounds of battle reached a crescendo, making Kylie’s blood turn to icy slush in her veins. Something yelped and all went quiet.

She looked up at Michael, breathing heavily. “You better be right,” she rasped through a too-tight throat. “I will never forgive myself if something happens to Christian.”

He inched to the door and peered out. The house had gone still. He held up a hand in her direction. “You stay here,” he whispered. “I’m going down to check. If something comes up those stairs that isn’t me or Christian, use that gun.”

She nodded, her breath coming shallow.

He eased into the hallway and down the stairs. She squeezed her eyes shut, praying Christian was all right.

Low, pained breathing drew her from her prayers. Her heartbeat momentarily arrested, she slid from the bed with a nearly silent swoosh of fabric and wrapped both hands around the gun, pointing the muzzle at the doorway.

A soft, dragging sound met her ears, a muted shuffling noise mated with the labored breathing of a wounded animal.

Eyes wide, she swallowed a whimper of fear. She knew what it was in that hallway; she could smell it. Her whole body shook when what was left of Louis rounded toward her in the doorway.

His form was coated with dark, sticky blood and open wounds from his battle with Christian’s wolf. His deformed body hulked in the doorway, small black eyes peering at her from a face that was forever caught between human and wolf, a grotesque mixture that twisted the viewer’s mind. He opened his mouth to reveal bloody fangs, like that of a vampire’s—fangs that had probably ripped into Christian’s body.

She raised her gun and pointed straight at Louis’s head. Her body shook, but her hands didn’t. Louis narrowed his eyes and growled, making all the hair on her body raise. Still, she couldn’t make herself shoot him.

This was her fault.

She would be able to shoot in defense of Michael or Christian, but not in defense of herself. If Louis leapt across the room and tore her apart right now, she would let him. She deserved it.

But Louis didn’t budge. He only stared at her, dripping blood on the carpet, his fangs gleaming dully and a thin growl trickling from his parted jowls. They locked gazes—held.

Sounds came from the stairway and Louis sprang from his crouch straight through her bedroom window. Glass and wood crashed. Kylie covered her head, rolling to the side to protect herself from flying debris.

In an instant, Michael was there, lifting her away from the glass and carrying her to the safety of the hallway. “Where is it?” he rasped through his fangs.

She shook her head, realizing she was still gripping the gun. “Gone. Jumped out the window.”

He put her down and she followed him back into the bedroom. Rain pounded into the huge gaping hole that used to be her window and the wind rustled the yellow curtains that still hung on either side. Together they peered out, letting the rain and wind hit their faces.

Louis was gone.

She let out a shuddering breath and tossed the gun to the bed. Then she asked the question she was afraid to hear the answer to, “How’s Christian?”

“Wounded, but he’ll be okay.”

She let out a pent-up breath and went for the door. Hitting the stairs running, she was at the wolf’s side in a heartbeat. He lay in what remained of her living room, a furry, dark lump on the carpet that was now shredded from scraping and scratching claws.

She lay her hand on the wolf’s shoulder and threaded her fingers through his silky fur. “Christian?”

The wolf let out a whuffling sound. After a moment, he started to shift. She backed away, watching the transformation. This was what Louis couldn’t do. He was forever caught in a distorted triple life of wolf, vampire and human. If anyone from Sweet Rock knew he was stalking these woods, he would be hunted down like the monster she’d turned him into.

Finally the nude, blood-streaked form of Christian lay where the wolf had a moment ago. She hurried to his side and began assessing the damage. It looked as if most of the blood was not his, but he did have one nice gash in his shoulder, probably made by Louis’s fangs.

Behind her she felt Michael’s presence as he entered the room.

“How bad is it?” she asked Christian.

He pushed to a sitting position with his good hand. Blood caked his hair. He glanced at his shoulder, then grinned. “I guess I might need a Band-Aid or two.” The rasp in his voice betrayed the flip response. He was hurting.

Michael walked over to stand near them. “Christian wounded Louis really badly and he won’t be back for while. I suggest you clean him up while I cover your broken window. He’s a wolf—it won’t take him long to heal, but it would be better if the wound was clean when it happened. Once that’s done, we can head to my house. I have safeguards in place to prevent that thing from getting in.”

“Sounds like a plan.” She looked around at her wrecked house. The extent of the damage hadn’t really registered yet. “I don’t want to stay here, that’s for sure.”

“I won’t let you stay here,” came Michael’s firm reply. Then he was gone.

She helped Christian to his feet and led him into the downstairs bathroom where she had a first aid kit. After lighting a few emergency lamps, she guided him to sit on a chair so she could work on cleaning up the gash in his shoulder. It would be better to do this in good light, but Michael was right about needing to get it done quickly. Werewolves healed fast.

So did the verdorben, but there was no one to clean Louis’s wounds. The thought made her unutterably sad.

She wet cotton with antiseptic and gently swiped it along the edge of the wound.

Christian jerked. “Ah! That hurts, woman!”

She stifled a smile. “I barely touched you. Come on, you just fought a monster—surely you can handle a little antiseptic.”

He glanced at her over his shoulder. Even through all this, he had a mischievous look on his face. “Only if you promise to kiss me and make it all better.”

“Considering what you just did, I think I owe you more than a kiss.”

He gave her a mock leer. “I’ll be looking forward to that.”

She shook her head, amused and not wanting to be. “I can’t believe you can joke at a time like this, Christian.”

“I’d rather laugh than cry, baby. Now, go ahead, do your worst.”

She concentrated on cleaning up the wound and dressing it, but before she even got the bandage on, she noticed that the wound had begun to heal. She put the bandage on anyway. At least it would heal clean.

After she was done, she leaned in and whispered in his ear, “Thank you.” Emotion clogged her throat. She still hadn’t really dealt with the fact that Louis had showed up in her home after all these years.

She’d thought him long gone.

The lights flickered, then came on steady. Michael had probably gotten them going again. By the light, she could see the extent of the blood marking Christian’s body, but most of the scratches and bruises were already gone.

He stood and turned to her. Cupping her cheek, he looked down into her eyes. “I was terrified for you when that thing made it into your house. My thought—Michael’s too, I’m sure—was about protecting you. He’ll be back for you, Kylie. You know that, don’t you? Somewhere in his messed up head, he still thinks you’re his.” Christian pulled her close to him and she laid her head on his shoulder. “But you’re mine, mine and Michael’s. He can’t have you.”

The fierce note of protectiveness in his voice made her shiver. “You should let him have me, Christian. I did that to—”

He pulled away and grasped her shoulders. “Stop it right now, Kylie. It’s not your fault. You didn’t know. You had no idea he was carrying that virus and that you were the one person in a thousand who could trigger it. Not your fault.”

“If I had never met him. If we had never kissed—”

“You didn’t know. Neither of you did. It could have just as easily been you carrying the virus. It could be you out there in the woods right now. This is the reality of the world we live in.”

Grief rose from the deep center of her gut, like dark sludge. She fought against the sob that came with it, unable to release herself from the memory of that night.

One kiss. Just one innocent little kiss, their first kiss. It had been Louis’s last kiss.

Little had they known that Louis had carried a mutated form of the Doom Virus that was triggered by her own altered genetic makeup. They’d just been kids in love and such a thing had been far from their minds. After all, there had been a one-in-a-million chance that they would have the right combination to trigger the virus in Louis.

And they’d won the lottery.

She rested her head against his shoulder. “I just want to get out of here.” It was the first time in her life that she wanted to escape her father’s house, and the feeling made her nauseated.

“Then let’s go.” Michael had come up to stand behind them. “If Christian is healing, so is Louis. Time to get out of here.”

Chapter Nine

Christian watched Michael and Kylie in the shadowed back seat of his car. Kylie had her head on Michael’s shoulder. Before this evening, he would have felt a pinch of jealousy at that sight, but he and Michael shared one thing fiercely in common—protecting Kylie. Tonight had brought home that common goal with a vengeance.

Traveling down the rain-slicked back roads to Michael’s house, the swipe, swipe of the wipers working constantly to clear the moisture from his windshield, he remembered back to the day the town first heard about Louis Millhouse going verdorben. Kylie had taken all the blame on her shoulders, he remembered that well.

Kylie’s father, along with a hand-selected group of weres and vamps, himself included, had gone out to hunt Louis down. The most humane thing to do was shoot the man. They’d never found him. They’d figured he’d fled the area.

Guess they’d been wrong.

Christian kept his eyes on the road, watching for any sign of the monster hiding in the bushes. And monster he was. He’d never seen anything like Louis before—never fought anything like him. He didn’t want to do it again, but he knew they hadn’t seen the last of him. The creature had come back for Kylie and he wasn’t going to give up.

A part of him pitied the thing, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t kill him when the time came.

He turned down the long, winding driveway leading to Michael’s house. From the back seat he heard the sound of gentle murmuring and a kiss. His stomach clenched a little.

Maybe not all the jealousy was gone.

He pulled up in front of the house just as the rain was tapering to a drizzle. With his enhanced vampiric senses, Michael made sure Louis wasn’t lurking in the bushes. Once he gave the all clear, Christian helped Kylie from the car and carried her bags in. She seemed a little in shock, quiet and pale.

Christian glanced at the huge picture window as Michael unlocked the front door. “You said your house has extra safeguards. What’s to stop Super Monster from just crashing through that window, just like he crashed through the window in Kylie’s room?”

Michael opened door and glanced back at him as he ushered Kylie through. “Those windows are bullet and shatter-proof. My grandfather had them changed out to protect the house during doomsyear when there was so much chaos.” He tapped the door. “The doors may look like wood, but they’re reinforced steel. Louis isn’t getting into this house.”

Slicking the rain back out of his hair, he entered the classy foyer and watched Kylie taking stock of the place with dull eyes. He wanted that look off her face. He wanted to make her laugh, cry—something.

“I need a drink,” he said, striding for the kitchen. He was sure he’d seen bottles of alcohol in there when he’d stopped to pick up Michael earlier. “I think Kylie needs one too.”

“I don’t drink,” she said, following him.

“Yeah, why is that? I mean, you own a bar, Kylie.” He entered the kitchen and found a bottle of Grey Goose on the counter. Oh, good, Michael had taste.

“Yes. That’s why I don’t drink.” She entered the kitchen and leaned against the wall, hugging herself.

He poured two glasses of the vodka and pressed one of them into her hand. “Tonight, you do.” He clinked the edge of her glass with his and then tossed it back.

She stared at the liquid for a long moment, then drained it to the dregs. Her face twisted into a grimace and she made a mock gagging noise. Then she handed the glass back to him. “More.”

Christian poured them both two more drinks and led her through a fancy, obviously not-often-used dining room and into an equally unused living room. The fussy furniture didn’t really seem much like Michael. Christian suspected the vampire had simply left everything as it was since his grandfather’s death.

She went to stand at the window, looking out into the woods. Michael came into the room, lighting a couple of small table lamps as he went. She drank her vodka and set the glass down on the window ledge.

Christian shared a look with Michael, drained his glass and then went to her, wrapping his arms around her. She stiffened, then melted against him, resting her head on his shoulder. Christian closed his eyes, enjoying her weight against him.

The rain came down harder and a breath seemed to shudder out of her body—like a release of tension. She turned in his arms and leaned up to press her mouth to his, pushing him back into the living room. Her action was so aggressive it made him stumble a little as he went.

He broke the kiss and held her away from him. He liked the sudden change in her behavior, but it was strange. “Kylie?”

“I want you to distract me. Make me think of something other than Louis.”

His gaze flicked to Michael—who looked like he was holding himself back from leaping over and pulling her into his arms—then back to Kylie’s beautiful eyes. “Michael and I are dreaming about distracting you.” Christian brushed his knuckles across her lips and over her jaw.

A smile, almost shy, crossed her full mouth. She brushed her hand over the front of his pants, finding him almost painfully hard. Christian’s breath hissed out of him. He wanted her bare hands on him, fingers curling, stroking. She was like a drug he couldn’t get enough of.

He drew his hands down the fine curve of her ass and met Michael’s eyes for a moment. Christian understood what the focused look on his face meant. Without even speaking, he knew how Michael felt—they needed this woman, and they needed her badly. But she would require a slow seduction and Christian wasn’t sure he and Michael could handle it.

Christian closed his eyes and groaned as she rubbed the length of his cock through his jeans. He cupped her face and kissed her, biting gently at her lips and forcing his tongue into her mouth to mate with hers. He couldn’t get enough of the taste of her.

Apparently unable to just stand back and watch, Michael pulled her away, whirling her into his arms. For a moment jealousy nearly overcame Christian. He clenched his fists and refrained from the impulse to take her back.

Share. They had to share Kylie.

That was the only way this was going to work.

Michael crushed her to his chest, mouth slanting possessively across hers. Her knees seemed to go weak and Michael held her up until she found her footing once more. She held on to his upper arms, trying to stay upright under his hungry onslaught.

It was clear that Christian wasn’t the only one feeling jealous. The kiss Michael gave her was probably curling her toes.

Christian watched Michael’s hands roam over her clothes, then threaten to ease under the edge of her shirt. Michael slid his thigh between her legs and rubbed it against her sex. Kylie bucked against him, eager for his touch.

It was pure torture to have to watch this and not be able to touch her. Jealousy flared again and he turned his face away, tamping it down, with effort.

Kylie looked between the two men, sensing the tension between them through the haze of her lust. She wanted both these men—wanted them singly or together. She just wanted them. The force of her desire scared the hell out of her, but it was no match for her hunger.

“I want your hands on me,” she said to both of them. “I want you both any way I can get you.” She swallowed hard. “I…ache for you and it’s frightening.”

Christian stepped toward her. His fists were clenched at his sides and his eyes were dark with desire. “It’s the bond, Kylie. Michael and I feel that hunger too.”

“I want you both to make love to me,” she whispered.

Michael’s grip on her tightened and his breathing grew just a little heavier. Kylie felt herself respond to him, to his growing arousal. The need he had for her was laid bare in his expression. He gripped the edge of her jeans, his fingers at the buttons. “Then let’s go upstairs,” he growled.

Christian drew her from Michael’s arms and lifted her like she weighed nothing. He shared a challenging look with Michael, before Michael turned and led them up the stairs, down a hallway and into his bedroom. Like the downstairs, the upper part of the house was filled with antique furniture. His bed was a huge affair—probably a good thing, considering what she’d initiated—a four-poster that was taller than most.

The thought made a shiver run up her spine.

Michael eased her from Christian’s arms, bracketing her between them. She had a moment of hesitation. What was she doing? She’d never been with two men at once and she was relatively certain that neither Christian nor Michael had ever been in a threesome either.

Yet suddenly they seemed to have some strange, unspoken synchronicity in their actions. Michael gathered material, eased his hands up her arms, drawing her shirt over her head. Offending garment gone, he cupped her breasts and teased her nipples through the fabric of her bra as Christian worked her jeans over her hips and off her. Soon, she wore only her bra and underwear.

Christian stood, drawing her into his arms, kissing her open-mouthed, his tongue hungrily mating with hers while his hand pushed beyond the elastic band of her panties to stroke her sex. Finding her clit, he toyed with it, priming her and making her moan into his mouth.

Michael growled low in his throat and lifted her away from Christian, laying her on the huge bed that dominated the room. It was a California king, big enough for three people. He came down over her, covering her body with his, rubbing his clothes over her sensitive, bare skin as he kissed her deeply, hungrily, while Christian slid in beside her and worked her panties over her hips and down her legs.

Slipping his hands around her, Michael undid her bra, letting it fall to the mattress. He took one nipple into his mouth, laving it until it was red and hard, then he switched to the other while Christian planed the inside of her thigh with his broad hand, parting her legs.

His finger touched her engorged clit and stroked it until Kylie’s back arched and a moan escaped her throat. After a minute of that delicious torture, Christian dropped his hand and speared one finger deep inside her, then added a second, stretching her inner muscles.

Michael rocked back on his heels and watched Christian’s hand working between her thighs with intense, aroused interest.

“She’s very pretty, isn’t she?” Christian asked him.

Michael gave her bare body a slow head-to-toe sweep. “I could look at her all night, but I’d rather do other things to her.” He pulled his shirt over his head and kneeled there in just his jeans. Kylie nearly swallowed her tongue at the sight.

Throwing his shirt to the floor, Michael settled in beside her and stroked her achy, swollen clit while Christian thrust his fingers in and out of her. Kylie whimpered in the back of her throat, holding on to the blankets with clenched hands, her toes curling. The sight of both these men so intent on pleasuring her was nearly her undoing.

“I think we can make her come,” Christian murmured. “What do you think, Michael?”

Michael petted her clit with perfect pressure, making pleasure radiate through her body in waves. “I think we’ll make her come more than once before this night is through.”

“I say we go for at least four times.”

Four times? The words cut through her lust-filled haze.

Michael grinned wickedly, a sight more often seen on Christian’s face. “At least.”

Christian matched his grin and raised an eyebrow. The whole exchange was sexier than hell. “I say the first time we do it together?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“You want to feel her come, don’t you, Michael?” Christian continued to thrust his fingers in and out of her, rubbing a spot deep inside her that felt especially good on every outward movement.

Michael shifted on the bed and took up Christian’s invitation, sliding his finger alongside Christian’s. Her muscles stretched and she let out a small whimper of pleasure, closing her eyes against the tide of an approaching climax.

“Come on,” Christian coaxed. “We want to feel you when you go, baby.”

Michael set a thumb to her clit and rubbed it back and forth while they thrust inside her.

Her climax hit her fast and hard. She cried out as the waves of it crashed over her body, bowing her spine, stealing her breath and then giving it back to her in one long cry of ecstasy. The muscles of her sex spasmed around their thrusting fingers, seeming to go on forever.

When it was over, she lay for a moment, a little dazed from the force of it. Both men crawled up her body with hungry looks on their faces. The sight made her heart stutter.

Christian came down over her and kissed her, long and deep. She lifted her head toward his and tangled her tongue with his tongue greedily. His hard body rubbed against hers, his smattering of chest hair rough against her tender breasts. She spread her legs and pushed her pelvis up, wanting his cock filling her, but he would have none of it.

Michael pushed Christian to the side a little and laid his mouth to her stomach. He drew his tongue down her skin excruciatingly leisurely, dipping it into her bellybutton and continuing lower, over her pelvis and down to her inner thigh where his warm breath bathed her aroused sex.

She moaned, stopping herself from thrusting her hips toward his mouth. Michael kissed the crease where her leg and pelvis met, and ran his tongue along her skin. Kylie jolted on the bed when his tongue twirled around her clit, lapping at the aroused bit of flesh like an ice cream. He groaned low in his throat as if she tasted good.

At the same time, Christian dropped his mouth to one nipple, then the other, drawing each into his hot mouth and teasing them with the tip of his skillful tongue. Kylie thought for a moment she’d explode from the onslaught of such intensely erotic sensations combining at the same time.

Michael still teased her with his tongue, thrusting it in and out of her, and occasionally playing with her clit—keeping her on the razor’s edge of another climax. His touch was just enough to keep her unbelievably excited, but the pressure was not steady enough to push her over the edge. She knew he was doing it on purpose.

“Please,” she whimpered. Neither of the men answered.

Michael eased a finger inside her, then another, as Christian once again lowered his mouth to her nipple. The combined sensations forced a second orgasm to crest and explode through her, making her cry out. The men rode her through it, drawing it out and making it more intense.

“I want her, Christian,” Michael rumbled in an aroused voice, rocking back on his heels and letting his hungry gaze sweep over her. “Let’s take her together.”

Christian nodded, his eyes dark with lust.

She pushed up and stared at each of them in turn, her body still tingling from her climax. “Take your clothes off.”

Christian’s lips curled into a small, sexy grin as the men slid out of their shoes and jeans, then drew their shirts over their heads. Soon both of them were lusciously bare, sporting hard, muscled chests, rippling stomachs, and arms strong enough to protect her from anything.

The pair of them almost blew her mind.

She shifted on the mattress, her sex warm and aroused and her nipples two hard peaks from the sight of them. “Come here,” she murmured.

“Nothing in this world could make us go anywhere else,” Christian growled, his gaze skating hungrily over her body.

Michael reached over and took a bottle of something from a drawer. Christian nodded at him and slipped it from his fingers, as if in some silent communication.

Eager to touch both of them, she reached for their taut stomachs and the long, strong jut of their cocks. Taking the bottle from Christian, she coated her fingers with the lubricant contained inside and massaged it onto both of their lengths, stroking them from head to base. The men groaned, tipping their heads back. It was the most erotic sight Kylie had ever seen.

Then Michael drew her to him and lay down, urging her to mount him. She straddled him, easing down over the head of his cock and sinking down, driving him deep within her. Her head fell back and her breath hissed out of her as he stretched her to the limits.

Behind her, Christian found the base of Michael’s cock thrust deep within, drawing his finger up over her rear, awakening all the little nerves. She moaned and her eyes rolled back in her head.

Michael pulled her down against his chest, his lips skating over hers and his tongue penetrating her mouth, as Christian straddled Michael’s legs and set the head of his well-lubricated cock to her rear. The crown breached her entrance, ripping a low moan from her throat. Slowly, he pushed inside. She cried out in pleasure as her muscles stretched, widening. It brought her up to the sweet, confusing edge of pain—a pain so slight it only played sweet counterpoint to the incredible pleasure.

Unhurriedly, inch by wide, thick inch, Christian eased within her, deeper and deeper, until he was finally seated base-deep. “Fuck, baby,” he groaned, “you feel so good.”

Both orifices completely filled, her body completely possessed by these two men, Kylie saw stars. Pleasure this intense stole her thought and nearly her ability to breathe.

Then they began to move.

Christian, Kylie and Michael immediately found a rhythm that worked. Moving like one animal, they gave and received pleasure. Kylie could only hold on against the pressure of the men’s bodies on hers, the slow, delicious slide of their cocks relentlessly thrusting into both her orifices.

Something popped in her mind, like a light turning on. First it was just a pinprick in the distance, but it hurtled toward her until it exploded—and suddenly she shared the same mind as her men. All three of them gasped, experiencing the same thing.

Kylie could feel what they felt—could feel the slide of Christian’s cock into her tight rear, sense the pleasure he took in watching her kiss Michael, in seeing the curve of her back and the tendrils of hair at her nape. She could feel what Michael felt as his cock thrust deeply in and out of her, and sense the pleasure he took in knowing the ecstasy she felt at being with two men.

It was a circle of sensation, knowledge, emotion—and pleasure.

It was too much. Kylie shattered, the most intense orgasm of her life ripping a hoarse scream from her throat. The men came at the same time, experiencing the same thing. Pleasure crashed over them, through them, in an endless feed that wracked them all.

Finally, they all collapsed onto the bed, breathing heavily. “Oh, wow,” she gasped.

The men pulled her between them, cuddling her to them.

“What was that?” Christian breathed near her ear.

“I think we all know,” answered Michael.

The bond. And, oh, was it incredible.

After a few moments, Christian slipped his hand between her legs and teased her clit. “Four times, we said,” he murmured, nipping at her earlobe. “Michael, a little help?”

Michael nuzzled her throat, fangs rubbing at her skin, while Christian stroked her clit. As Michael’s teeth pierced her skin, she came a fourth time, between her men, shuddering in intense pleasure.

Then, sated beyond belief, she snuggled between them and, legs twined together, fell asleep.

Chapter Ten

Kylie woke sandwiched between her two men. Smiling over the fact that she thought of them as hers, she stretched and closed her eyes, remembering the night before with a little shiver. Sliding out from between the covers, careful not to wake the men, she climbed off the foot of the bed, slipped on her jeans and shirt and walked downstairs.

The house was completely silent. The only sound was the occasional squeak of a floorboard. The house had that fresh, early morning scent, and she inhaled it when she entered the living room, drawing it into her lungs like a fine perfume. Mist hung in the air outside the window, obscuring her view of the woods beyond. Hugging herself, she stared at the swirl, wondering where Louis was right now, how hurt he’d been by Christian.

That familiar sense of guilt welled up and she tried her best to push it away. Turning, she walked into the kitchen and, after she found everything she needed, made coffee and breakfast for Christian and Michael.

Around twenty minutes later, the scent of coffee and cooking bacon roused the men and they wandered into the kitchen. Both men were shirtless and shoeless, Michael having pulled on a pair of gray sweats and Christian his jeans from the night before. Both looked a little sleepy and their hair was mussed.

Her heart caught at the sight of both of them.

Christian wrapped his arms around her waist and nuzzled her throat while she tended eggs on the stovetop, raising goose bumps all along her arms. And when she turned from the stove, Michael caught her and pressed his lips to hers.

Yes, maybe she could get used to this.

Making light conversation that didn’t go anywhere near Louis or what had happened the previous night, she fixed all three of them plates while Michael served them coffee.

They finished breakfast and Christian pulled her into his lap. Moving her hair to the side, he laid a line of kisses down her neck. He murmured, “What do you have planned for the day?”

She glanced out the window. The rain from the night before had left the world soggy and misty. “This afternoon I need to go to work.”

“Not without one of us by your side,” answered Michael.

“Yep,” replied Christian right away. He looked at Michael. “You want me to take the day shift, you the night?”

“Sounds good.”

She slid off Christian’s lap. “What’s the deal?”

“What do you mean?”

“You guys think I need a babysitter?”

“Not a babysitter.” Michael stood and started to clear the table. “A bodyguard. You can’t be alone right now.”

She glanced out the window again, toward the woods, and hugged herself. “You know, it’s strange. I didn’t have the sense he meant to hurt me. He had a chance, after all, and he didn’t take it.”

“Yeah.” Christian pushed a hand through his hair, mussing it further. “But we don’t know what he meant to do. We have no idea what’s going through Louis’s head. He’s unpredictable.”

Michael clanked plates in the sink while he washed them. “We need to go to the council this morning and alert them to Louis’s presence. We need to form a posse to find him. I can go to my kiss and Christian can go to his pack.”

“You won’t…hurt him, will you?”

The room went silent.

Fear surged up her spine. “It’s not his fault he’s this way!”

Michael turned to face her. “It’s not yours, either.”

She made fists at her sides and turned her face away.

“I don’t know what they’ll decide to do with him,” answered Christian in as gentle a voice as she’d ever heard from him. “He’s a menace, Kylie, pure and simple. It’s his nature. You know that. How much guilt would you feel if Louis killed an innocent person?”

“Just—” She let out a slow, careful breath. “Try to convince them not to harm him if you can.”

“Agreed,” said Michael, “but there are no guarantees.” He pulled her into his arms.

Her head fit just perfectly under his chin. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation of his warm, strong arms around her. “Thank you.” He tipped her chin up and kissed her softly, his tongue slipping between her lips and rubbing up against her tongue. It speared pleasure through her body and made her recall the night before—the press of their bodies, the slide of their skin.

She wanted all that again. And again. And again.

Christian came around to her back and pulled her gently from Michael’s arms and into his own, giving her the same knee-buckling treatment. He broke the kiss and pressed his forehead to hers. “I think I can speak for both myself and Michael when I say I would prefer to stay here this morning. However, we need to take care of Louis.”

Take care of Louis. It sounded threatening and she pulled away a little.

She gritted her teeth and suppressed the sudden sting of tears. She backed away from him. “I’m going to take a shower,” she mumbled and walked out of the room.

Kylie wiped down the bar and jerked her head at the next customer, Mac Rory. “Have you decided?”

“I’ll take a Yorkshire, chilled.”

Nodding, but not looking at him, she turned to fill his order for a bottle of pig’s blood. The bar was packed tonight, undoubtedly because word of the were and vamp posses had gotten around. Everyone now knew Louis was back. They were all here to get a good gawk at the woman whose kiss was responsible for a man’s destruction.

The name of her bar was meant to refer to a kiss of vampire, but it was pretty appropriate on a personal level too.

Michael sat at the end of the bar, eyes tracking her movements. He looked relaxed, but she knew he was aware of everyone in this place. Even though she thought it was overkill, she was grateful for his presence.

Turning, she slid the chilled bottle of Yorkshire into Mac’s waiting hand and took another order.

She was pretty sure that Michael hadn’t meant to sit in the same place where Louis had sat once upon a time, before he’d turned verdorben. That had been back when they’d just been friends, on the verge of something more. Back when Louis had nursed a crush on her and she’d been too oblivious to notice it. Before she’d bought the Twisted Kiss, she’d worked there. Every night she’d had a shift, Louis had sat at the bar, sipping orange juice and trying to pretend he wasn’t ill at ease in a vampire establishment.

Back then, Louis had been training to be a physician under old Doc Williams. He’d been one of the few other humans in Sweet Rock, set to take over Williams’s practice. Louis had been committed to the care of all, even the supes who made him a little uneasy. All those dreams had ended, of course, with the press of her lips and the slip of her tongue.

“Kylie, I think that glass is dry now,” came Cody’s voice. “You can go home anytime, you know. No worries. I got it covered.”

She blinked and looked down at her hands, not even remembering picking the glass and towel up in the first place. For all she knew, she’d been standing there drying it for the last half hour.

She met Michael’s gaze and he jerked his head toward the back.

Nodding, she turned control of the bar over to Cody, then slipped down the hallway and found the refuge of her office. A few moments later, Michael entered.

She leaned with both hands flat on the desk, her back to him. “Any word from Christian?”

He came up behind her, his warmth radiating into her spine. She stood and leaned back against him, letting him envelop her in his arms. She sighed, feeling a slight release of stress. “No,” he whispered near her ear. “Nothing yet. It’s late evening. The weres should be finishing up their hunt. The vamp posse plans to take over for deep night.”

She closed her eyes and her breath shuddered out of her. “I’m half relieved they haven’t found him.”

“I understand. This is hell for you.”

Opening her eyes, she focused on the old painting behind her desk and swallowed hard. “He’s on my mind tonight. He’s got no one to miss him but me, you know. Me and maybe Doc Williams. His family’s all dead.” Maybe that was a blessing.

“I remember.”

“He wanted kids.” Her voice broke. “He wanted a whole bunch of them to make up for feeling so alone in the world.”

“Louis was a good guy.”

“Yes, he really was.” She paused. “Now he’s twisted and warped.”

Michael turned her to face him, tipped her chin up, and forced her to look into his eyes. “Everything is twisted and warped these days, Kylie. That’s why it’s important to grab on tight to whatever beauty you can find and never let it go.”

Her eyes filled with tears, even as her heart grew huge and warm—filled with the thought of Christian and Michael. “The council was so right about you and Christian. You have become everything to me and it hardly took any time at all.”

“It was there locked away in you already. You just needed the key. That’s what the council gave you.”

A tear rolled down her cheek and he kissed it away. She found his mouth and slanted hers across it, sliding her tongue aggressively within. His body went still for a moment, almost like he was shocked. Then he kissed her back, hard, his tongue spearing into her mouth hungrily.

She wanted him, wanted his body mastering hers, wanted the sweet distraction he could give her. More than that, she wanted to join with him, wanted him to become a part of her. She wanted the physical closeness that only sex could bring.

Finding his hand, she drew it up and covered her breast with it. Her nipple went hard against his palm, stabbing through the fabric of her shirt. He dragged his thumb back and forth over it, igniting all the sensitive nerves and making her moan into his mouth.

She found his hard cock and stroked it through his jeans. He wanted her too.

“Is the door locked?” he murmured against her lips.

“I don’t think so. Don’t care.” Her fingers found the button and zipper of his jeans, even as he fumbled for hers.

She toed off her shoes and he yanked her jeans and underwear down and off, leaving her bare from the waist down. His jeans half undone, just enough to free his cock, he lifted her and carried her over to brace her back against the nearby wall. His hands cupped her buttocks and her legs curled around his midsection as he held her there, suspended like she weighed nothing.

They were face-to-face, gazes locked. It seemed incredibly intimate and she never wanted it to end. He guided the head of his cock into her aroused sex and pushed in with a long, hard and steady thrust. Her mouth and eyes opened wide as he pushed within, as he stretched her muscles and filled her completely.

When he was seated base-deep, she melted against him, moaning and closing her eyes. That same strange psychic link connected them, intensifying her sensations and adding to his. It became one long hum of intense pleasure. “That’s what I wanted,” she breathed. “Oh, that’s it. I needed you inside me.” She’d craved this, feeling utterly joined mind and body with him.

Bracing her against the wall, her legs loose around his waist so he could move, he withdrew and pushed back in. Her body bumped against the wall. Someone on the other side might hear, but she didn’t care.

Michael set up a hard, fast rhythm, his cock tunneling in and out of her. Every thrust rubbed him against her clit, sending waves of sexual bliss through her. Her gaze locked with his and didn’t budge as he took her, the muscles of his gorgeous rear flexing as he stroked in and out of her.

“You’re heaven to me,” Michael whispered. “Every inch of you feels like home.”

She sealed her mouth to his, whimpering as the edge of a climax flirted hard with her body. The head of his cock rubbed deep inside her. Every hard, long thrust brought her up against an explosive climax.

Finally her orgasm burst over her like the sweetest berry. He stifled her cries with his mouth, taking all her sounds of ecstasy onto his tongue. The muscles of her sex pulsed and rippled along his pistoning length, her orgasm triggering his. His cock jumped, deep inside her, and he groaned into her open mouth.

She collapsed into his arms, limp and sated. She realized they hadn’t used a condom—just as they hadn’t the night before. She didn’t care about that, either. For half a second, before her head ruled her heart, she hoped one of them had gotten her pregnant.

Michael lifted her gently, kissing her temple. In his arms, for the time being, she was content. “Come on, Kylie, I’m taking you home.”

Sometime after midnight, Christian slipped into bed as Michael slipped out to join the vamp posse. He drew her into his arms and kissed along her skin. Drowsily, she noticed the scent of the forest clung to him, earth and evergreen.

“Michael’s leaving to hunt Louis,” he whispered into the curve of her neck. “I’m here to watch over you until morning.”

The words hunt Louis banished some of the heavy sleep clinging to her limbs. She reached up and cupped his cheek, feeling the prick of hair on his face. He needed to shave. “Did you see him at all?”

Christian shook his head. “Not a trace. Not even a whiff of him on the wind. He’s like a ghost.”

“Maybe he’s gone.” She could hope.

“No, I think he’s still out there. He’s got unfinished business with you, Kylie. I don’t think he’ll leave until it’s been resolved.” His eyes went cold as gunmetal. “Michael and I are going to make sure we resolve it before he gets to you.”

She closed her eyes for a moment. “He was human once and he loved me. Please, Christian, show him mercy.”

“I knew him too, and I liked him. He was a great guy. That thing he is now, that’s not Louis. You have to remember that.” His arms tightened around her. “If he wants to hurt you, he’s going down. It’s sad, but that’s the way it is.”

She turned her face away, tucking it into the curve of his neck. He was naked and his skin was warm along hers. “I understand.”

“I love you, Kylie. Michael and I both love you more than anything in this world. We would do anything for you, risk anything.”

She laid a gentle kiss on his skin. “I love you too, and I feel the same way.”

They stayed twined together for a long time, then Christian pulled her beneath his body and parted her thighs. She guided him inside her and he sank deep. Her breath shuddered from her as he stroked in and out of her, slowly and sweetly.

With soft sighs and gentle murmurings, they gave and received pleasure. Minds and body melded, she felt the hot, silky clasp of her sex around his cock, just as he experienced what it was for her to be filled by his thrusting cock.

They came together, each other’s names on their lips, just as dawn started to pink the horizon.

Kylie woke in the late morning between her two heavily sleeping men. She lay back down, snuggling against Michael and Christian. Sighing with contentment, she closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep, but it wouldn’t come.

Climbing over a snoring Christian, she slipped out of bed, found some clothes, and shoved her feet into her slippers. Hugging herself against the chill, she descended the stairs, going to the kitchen for a glass of water.

She got a glass from the cupboard and poured herself a glass of water, then went to the sink and looked out the window while she drank. It was raining again, not pouring, but in a steady drum of dreariness. A dark figure near the edge of the woods that surrounded Michael’s house caught her eye. She looked closer.

The glass dropped into the sink, shattering.

It was Louis.

Chapter Eleven

Uncaring about the broken glass and oblivious to everything but the deformed shape out there in the rain, she stared. Louis knew she was here. She didn’t know how she knew that—she just did. He knew she was here, watching him, and he needed to tell her something.

She also felt, with bone-deep certainty, that he had no wish to harm her.

Feeling as though she were caught in a dream, she walked to the door leading out to the back yard and opened it. She could be wrong about Louis not wanting to hurt her. It was possible—logical even—that she would walk out there and he might rip her to tiny, bloody pieces.

A week ago she might have even welcomed it, due to the weight of her guilt, but now she had something to live for. Two somethings.

Yet she needed to confront Louis, needed to look him in the eye and tell him she was sorry. The opportunity to do that outweighed everything else. So she stepped past the threshold of Michael’s safe, cozy house and walked toward Louis.

Louis didn’t move as she approached him. He stood, hunchbacked and staring at her out of his half-human, half-wolf eyes, near a pine tree. Kylie walked slowly, cautiously. Looking at him in that twisted body, it was hard not to second-guess herself. How much of the old Louis was left?

“Louis,” she said as she came to a stop in front of him. Rain pelted her hair and soaked her pajamas. “I’m sorry.” Her voice broke and emotion flooded her chest. She’d needed to say those words to him for so long. They came out of her on a flood of deep feeling. She fell to her knees, pressing her hands to her chest and lowering her head. “I’m not asking for your forgiveness. I just want you to know I think of you every day and…I regret.”

No sound but the pitter-patter of the rain on the grass and the leaves in the trees. Finally, Kylie looked up. Louis had come to stand only a foot away from her. She let out a small, surprised yelp and scrambled backward, but he made no further move in her direction. Instead, he reached out a hairy, paw-like hand toward her.

She went still, looking from the hand to his face. After a moment, she stood and took a step closer to him, slowly raising her own hand.

“Kylie! Don’t touch him!” yelled Michael from behind her.

Before she had a chance to react, he rushed past her with his fangs bared. Close on his heels was Christian in wolf form. A heartbeat later and the three were a tangled mess of snarling and snapping jaws and teeth.

Kylie rushed forward, holding out both her hands. “No! Stop! Please don’t hurt him!”

They didn’t hear her. The snarling and growling continued and she imagined flesh being ripped, blood flowing.

“No!” she screamed at the top of her lungs, putting every ounce of her will into it. “No! Stop!”

Still nothing. She picked up a branch, but what could she do with it? How could she get them to stop this horrible fighting? “Christian and Michael, if you love me—stop!”

The snarling cut off and the men separated. When Michael and Christian backed away, Louis lay on the ground.

She rushed to him. “He wasn’t going to hurt me,” she yelled furiously over her shoulder. They stepped aside to let her kneel at Louis’s side. He had a few scratches and gashes, but nothing too serious. She looked up at Christian and Michael and saw they were completely wound-free.

“He didn’t fight us,” Michael explained. “So we pulled back.”

She looked down at Louis. The half-yellow eyes in the hairy flesh of his eye sockets opened. “Louis? Are you all right?”

Louis pushed to his feet and stood looking among the three of them, blood dripping from a long scratch on his curled forearm. Michael moved away when Louis glanced at him, lip curling. Christian responded with a long growl, but Kylie shot him a look that made him back down.

The monster that used to be Louis held out his gnarled hand. Kylie stepped forward without hesitation and touched him. All the breath seemed to go out of him and he closed his eyes for a moment. Then he squeezed her hand, a gesture that seemed alarmingly human. After several seconds, he withdrew his hand, nodding first at her, and then at Christian and Michael. Giving a low, inhuman growl, he turned back to Kylie, letting his gaze linger on her face for a long moment.

Then, leaping back into the foliage, Louis was gone.

Kylie stood in the rain, soaked through and chilled to the bone, staring at the now-quiet forest that Louis had disappeared into. Christian and Michael were silent beside her.

Letting out a slow breath, she closed her eyes. She felt forgiven. Blessed even. It had been as though Louis had been happy she’d found a match in Christian and Michael, like it had freed him in some way. And if Louis felt freed…so did she. Now they both had closure.

Michael scooped her up into his arms and headed inside with her. She was grateful since she wasn’t completely sure her legs would work. All of them were soaked. Christian followed behind, looking over his shoulder and growling as though he thought Louis would pop out to threaten her at any moment.

But Kylie had a feeling Louis was gone for good.

Kylie shut off her blowtorch, backed away from the heated metal and pushed her welder’s mask to the top of her head. Lips pursed, she surveyed her work.

Finally, she was finished.

She set the blowtorch aside and looked at the statue from the base to the top. It started out, even and compact, arching toward the sky. Slender rods of metal separated into two smooth, twining columns, reaching higher and then coming together. Where the rods met, the piece exploded into chaos, twisting and mottled, the sculpture no longer aspiring heavenward, but reaching in all directions in a symphony of confusion.

The Supe Council had just sent word that the statue was to be placed in the middle of Sweet Rock as a symbol of the sacrifices everyone had made post-doomsyear. Every day she would see the statue and think of Louis.

She removed her gloves and set her welder’s mask next to the blowtorch. Then she turned off the light and, with one last look at her artwork, closed the door.

Christian pulled Kylie down onto his lap, making her yelp with surprise, and kissed her temple. Smiling, Michael watched them from the doorway of the dining room, an edge of desire for their mate lighting his eyes.

Michael loved and wanted Kylie every bit as much as he did. They were allied in their caring for her and they both knew that Kylie loved them back just as much. Finally they’d found their bond and Kylie was at the center of it.

Kylie snuggled against his chest, fitting her head into the crook of his neck and sighing. She held out her hands to Michael, who settled down beside them. She slipped her hand into his. “You two are everything I didn’t know I needed,” she murmured.

“And you’re everything Michael and I knew we needed.” He met Michael’s gaze over the top of her head and they shared a silent communication.

It was time.

Michael stood, left the room and came back with two small boxes. He slipped one to Christian, then knelt in front of Kylie, who straightened warily.

“What’s going on?” she asked, her gaze skating between the two small boxes.

“Back before doomsyear, men would ask women to marry them,” said Christian.

“Yes, I know. My father told me. Men gave women diamond rings as a promise they would marry them one day.” She paused. “Those are rings?”

“Yes. Not diamond, but just as pretty.” Christian opened his box to reveal a silver ring with sapphire stones.

Michael opened his to reveal a matching ring. “I had Henry Dougherty make them, using stones from one of my mother’s rings. Men and women don’t marry formally anymore, but we want you to wear these rings anyway as a symbol of our love and commitment to you.”

Kylie smiled and held out her hands. “I would be overjoyed to wear them. In fact, I’ll never take them off.”

Michael and Christian slipped the rings onto the third finger of each of her hands. Smile on her face, she held her hands out, admiring them, and then launched herself into Michael’s arms, kissing him all over his face.

She reached up and pulled Christian onto the floor with them and kissed him all over his face too. “I love you both so much.”

“We love you too, baby,” murmured Christian. “And we intend to show you just how much. Over and over—”

“—and over,” Michael finished.

“Mmm…” She squirmed beneath them, her voice going lower. “I can’t wait to get started.”

Neither could they.

About the Author

Anya Bast is the author of numerous works of romantic fiction, mostly all paranormal and mostly all scorching hot. She lives in the country with her husband, daughter, eight cats, a dog, and an odd assortment of rescued animals.

Somewhat reclusive by nature, she can be drawn out with a good bottle of red wine, classic movies, or good music. When she's not writing, she can be found trying to grow organic vegetables, shopping in thrift stores for that perfect piece of clothing, or dreaming about travel to some faraway country.

She loves to hear from readers. Contact her via her web site www.anyabast.com.

Look for these titles by Anya Bast

Now Available:

Taken

Sometimes love knocks softly…and sometimes it breaks down your door.

Taken

© 2009 Anya Bast

Anne’s morning starts like any other normal day—and ends in a race for her life. The surprise that interrupts her regular date with a latte looks a lot like Frankenstein, except this monster is for real. And it chases her straight into the arms of two mouthwatering hunks who whisk her away from everything she knows. That would be Earth.

Suddenly life isn’t so normal anymore.

Caleb and Van have been watching Anne for several weeks. Women are scarce in their world, a situation that sometimes forces two or more males to share one wife between them. Anne is their perfect match. Now all they have to do is convince her of that—while trying desperately not to let their intense desire for her scare her away.

Then there’s the little matter of protecting her from the Guardians, who want to make sure no match is ever made…

Warning: Contains explicit language, ménage a trois sex scenes and big scary monsters.

Enjoy the following excerpt for Taken:

When she’d been standing in line for her non-fat latte that morning, Anne had never expected to be running for her life only moments later.

Latte long since splattered on the sidewalk, Anne careened around the corner of a random alley, scraping her bare arm on the corner of a brick building in the process. She stifled a cry of pain and nearly collided with a banged-up silver trash can, nimbly dodged the object, and then leaped over a puddle of dank, cold water on the pavement.

She’d exited the coffee shop near her office and was headed to her car when a man had approached her. Only once he’d grown near enough, she hadn’t been sure he was a man at all. Male maybe, but not human male. Her mind had tripped over itself for a moment as she tried to make sense of that. The thing, whatever it was, had insinuated itself in a menacing fashion between her and her car. When she’d run, he’d chased her.

Her high heels already long gone, the only sound she made was the almost imperceptible slap of feet to concrete and her regulated breathing. She’d been on the track team in high school. She could outrun this thing…whatever it was that chased her. Behind her, footsteps sounded. It was gaining on her.

Correction, maybe she could outrun it.

Squashing that deadly flicker of uncertainty, she pushed herself faster. Anne vaulted over two abandoned pallets and stumbled on her landing. Expensive material tore as her skirt ripped up the seam. Designer clothing simply wasn’t made for this kind of abuse, curse it. At least now that her skirt was split she could run faster.

At the end of the alley, she turned a corner, catching a glimpse of her pursuer out of the corner of her eye. He, it, whatever was on her tail and quickly catching up to her. Her heart thumped harder…from fear, pure and simple, not from physical exertion.

Out of the darkness, a hand reached out and snagged her arm. Anne screamed in spite of herself—a full, open-mouthed screech of terror that could’ve been heard in a five-block radius if this hadn’t been the commercial part of town and it hadn’t been six in the morning. Strong arms closed around her, and Anne fought with every ounce of strength she had. The grip only tightened, squeezing her air passage closed. Her head swam, her vision dotted.

“Sleep.” Rough male voice. Low and commanding. Scary.

Her head dropped as if on his order and exhaustion dragged her under as though she lay tucked into her own bed after a long night out and she was safe… No. Her head jerked up as she fought the impulse. If she slept, she lost control. She couldn’t…couldn’t… Her head lolled to the side, so tired.

“Sleep,” came the voice again, this time more gentle. “You’re safe now.”

Her pursuer came around the corner of the alley and she had the utter horror of seeing him again. “Frankenstein,” she whispered. Tall, green. Thick shoulders and square head. This guy couldn’t be human, he just couldn’t.

“Sleep.”

The pull toward slumber increased; made an offer she couldn’t refuse. Right before her eyelids slid shut, she saw another man step out in a menacing fashion right in front of the man/it/whatever.

She slept.

“You frightened her.”

Caleb looked up from where he stood at Anne’s bedside and regarded Van, his best friend and, right now, his bane. “It was your fault the Guardian was chasing her at all. You’re the one who wanted to wait to contact her. We waited too long.”

Van stared down at the woman, their woman, his long multi-shaded blond hair falling into his face. “I had no way to know that the Guardians would have located her so quickly.”

“We did what we had to do to keep her safe. Now we will have to pick up the pieces when she awakes.”

“This could have gone smoother.”

“But it didn’t. The important thing now is to help her become acclimated to her new life with us.”

In fact, he couldn’t wait to get Anne home with them. He’d spent the last three weeks in this place and he’d had enough. He missed Valencia, missed the colorful lands, the wonderful food and his own, comfortable home. Earth was far from charming, though it did have Anne, which meant it was good in some ways.

Caleb shifted his gaze back to Anne, from whom it had hardly budged since they’d brought her to their hotel room. She looked so fragile, so different from the few Harmon females that remained. This had been done numerous times before, but, now, looking at this tiny, breakable Earth woman, he wasn’t sure how. Her body was of average size for her kind, not especially slender, but she still seemed fragile.

Her dark brown hair spread over the pillow like the wing of a glossy bird. Dark eyelashes swept down over pale cheeks. Her face was oval-shaped and pretty, though in an ordinary way. Her lips were full and pouty, and Caleb was sure the Earthian’s Christian heaven lay between them. Soon enough he would find out. She’d been on her way into her office and wore the remnants of a burgundy skirt that was now split almost all the way up her thigh, revealing a lickable swath of creamy skin. Her filmy matching blouse was torn and dirty and she’d lost both her shoes. Never fear, soon she’d be outfitted like the princess she was, their princess.

Every morning for many mornings they’d followed her to work, but today…so had the Guardian.

“How will we tell her?” Van pushed a hand through his hair and glanced at him. “Our way breaks all their ways. Normally human women only take one lover at a time. One husband. So infrequently will a human female bind herself to two men at the same time for always. The relationships that are like that here are considered outside the bounds of normality. How will she ever come to accept us both?” Open challenge passed over his face but was gone in a moment.

They’d had time to come to terms with having to share her. It wasn’t the Harmon way normally, but circumstances had forced them into it. And even though they’d been best friends from childhood, it was still difficult. Even more difficult to be in the same room with the woman the oracle had found for them, their perfect match. The scent of her alone was an aphrodisiac and they’d both gone a long time without a sexual partner.

“I don’t—”

Anne lunged across the bed, grabbed the phone and smashed it into the side of Caleb’s face. Pain exploded through his head—along with utter surprise—and he staggered back, catching himself on a nearby chair before he ended up on his ass on the floor.

Caleb heard Van restraining the woman, but she was screaming at him and fighting him tooth and nail. She sounded like a wild animal. Good thing the walls were soundproofed. He put a hand to his head and thought for a moment about mischiefing her mind the way he had in the alley when he’d made her sleep, but that seemed wrong somehow. It took away her choice.

Which was stupid, since they were about to take away all Anne’s choices. The survival of their species depended on it. It didn’t make him feel any less guilty, though.

“Calm!” he commanded, manipulating her emotions just a little bit, just enough to break the worst of her panic. “Calm, Anne.”

He raised his reeling head, blinked blood out of his eyes and saw Anne go still in Van’s arms. Van breathed heavily and his arms were scratched and bloody. He moved her back onto the bed, where she sat placidly.

Van turned once he’d settled Anne into her place, and got them both a couple damp towels to wipe up the blood she’d drawn from them. “She’s a fighter,” Van said under his breath, tossing him the towel. “She’ll not go meekly.”

That was apparent.

Caleb pressed the towel to his forehead, wincing, and walked over to kneel by her. He put his hand on her knee and sent her nice, calming vibes. “We’re not going to hurt you, Anne Michaels, I promise you. You don’t need to fight us.”

“Who are you?” Fear flickered in the depths of her green eyes. “What are you speaking and why can I understand it? What am I speaking for fuck’s sake and how am I speaking it?”

“We are speaking Valencian. You can understand it and speak it because it’s in your blood. I am Caleb Verona and that is Van Childress. We’ve come from far away, looking for you. We’re here to protect you.”

When hell reigns on earth, love is a luxury they can’t afford.

Hammer Down

© 2012 Moira Rogers

Children of the Undying, Book 2

While the tattered remains of humanity huddle underground, hiding in their virtual world, Devi prefers living topside, making dangerous hauls through the demon-infested wasteland earth has become. The wealth that comes from smuggling supplies to those shunned as summoner-born or demon-touched doesn’t hurt, either.

The man she meets to arrange one of those under-the-table hauls is complicated…and handsome as hell. Literally. A glimpse of the predator beneath his silver gaze and she’s tempted to break her cardinal rule: never mix business with pleasure.

Zel’s first look at the wild-haired hauler threatens to distract him from his mission—and reminds him just how long it’s been since he got laid. As the leader of an outcast settlement, he can’t afford to trust too easily. Devi’s got a reputation for running a tight, disciplined crew, but her very willingness to deal with him means she has something to hide.

Not to mention a hot, tempting package like her could be the cleverest trap his enemies have ever set.

Warning: Contains demon bars, virtual (and literal) fights to the death, forbidden love, renegade AIs, a badass truck-driving heroine who will do anything to protect her crew and the half-demon warrior who will move heaven and hell to make her his.

Enjoy the following excerpt for Hammer Down:

“It shouldn’t matter.” His voice grated, suddenly angry. “God damn it, it shouldn’t fucking matter. You shouldn’t matter.”

It hurt, even though she understood the sentiment perfectly. “Thanks.”

He snarled again and covered the space between them in two long strides, crowding her against the wall. His hands slapped the wall on either side of her head, but he didn’t touch her. “Liar. Or are you going to tell me you want me to matter?”

She opened her mouth to give him a kind lie, to tell him he didn’t matter in the least, not to her. “No. I wish I didn’t give a damn about you.”

“You don’t. You don’t know me.” He pressed closer, nothing but hard muscle and heat stretched out against her. “We both got it bad, sweetheart. If you want to take me for a ride and get it out of your system, I’m game.”

“I bet you are.” He’d obviously given the matter some thought, which was more than she was capable of at the moment. Her body had gone into sensory overdrive, cataloguing every bit of tactile information it could gather about him.

And it wasn’t enough. She wanted to know what he tasted like, mouth and skin. Whether she could find softness anywhere on his body, or if he was all hard. There was only one way to find those answers, so she lifted her hands to his shoulders and pushed, testing his strength.

He didn’t budge. His lips curved into that wicked smile she’d first seen at the Pit Stop, and his hands skated down to grasp her hips. One quick jerk lifted her off the ground, onto his solid, muscular thigh, and he crushed his mouth to hers.

Heat blazed through Devi. Nothing, not even the way she’d spent the last few days craving him, had prepared her for the way she reacted to what should have been a simple kiss. His tongue touched hers and her knees went weak, leaving her grinding down on his leg. He knew how to take a woman’s mouth with single-minded determination, waging all-out war on her defenses. His thigh began to move against her, and he matched the thrusts of his tongue to that slow, deadly rock.

Devi jerked her mouth from his with a gasp. “Harder.”

“Bossy.” He bit her lower lip, and his chuckle rolled over her. “You want something, you take it.” He fit his mouth to hers again as his rough fingers curled around the back of her neck.

He liked being in control, but so did she. When she rocked against him this time, she dropped her hand and caressed the hard ridge of his cock in time with her body’s movements.

She swallowed his hissing moan, and a heartbeat later he snatched up her wrist and pinned it against the wall. “If that’s how you want to play…” He moved his other hand from her hip to her ass, dragging her into his next grinding thrust.

A little creative wiggling put her legs on either side of his, and she arched off the wall. She wanted to play, so badly that once wouldn’t be enough. She’d fuck him fast, round off the sharp edge of hunger twisting her belly. Then she could take her time, learn all those things she couldn’t leave without knowing.

He groaned, a rumbling noise that was half pleasure, half something darker, but he let her wiggle as he lowered his lips to her ear. “Impatient, aren’t you? Do you usually fuck men who roll onto their backs for you?”

“Sometimes.” She moved her hips once more, and a bolt of pleasure shuddered through her. Anticipation prickled over her skin and tightened her nipples.

“Lazy bastards. Not that I wouldn’t let you ride me, sweetheart.” He squeezed her ass. “But not until I’d had my fingers between your thighs. I bet you bite when you come.”

The mental picture his words painted was intoxicating. “And you like the thought of my teeth on your skin.”

“Depends on where you sink ’em.” He worked a hand between their bodies, his knuckles skimming the edge of her pants. “Where would you let me sink mine?”

“I’m not nearly so picky.” Flip, easy words, handy for hiding how deeply his touch shook her. “Bite me wherever you want.”

“That’d be just about everywhere.” His fingertips were hot as they grazed her bare skin. Rough breaths fell against her cheek, almost panting, proof that he wasn’t nearly as unaffected as his cocky, casual tone implied. “Fuck, I wanted to do you slow, but I’m losing my damn mind. Can’t think about anything but being inside you.” He traced his tongue around the shell of her ear and proved the words with a low groan.

The wet trace of his tongue made her hands clench in his shirt, and the fabric ripped a little. “Shit, sorry. Take it off.”

A rough denial as his fingers jerked at her pants. “If you weren’t wearing these, I’d be fucking you already.”

Devi bit his jaw. “You’d be fucking me already if you didn’t talk so much.”

“And I’m talking—” He froze, his hand halfway into her pants, and cursed as his gaze jerked to the door.

She heard it a second later, pounding footsteps coming down the hallway. Zel backed away and eased her to the floor. She wanted to withdraw, smooth her hair and take a moment to compose herself, but there could be trouble. If there was, it was likely to affect her crew.

So she jerked open the door as Cache skidded to a stop outside of it. “What happened?”

Cache couldn’t hear her words, but she apparently had no trouble interpreting her meaning. Her fingers flew, three quick gestures in a row. Tanner. Guard. Fight.

“Fuck.” Devi grabbed her vest and shrugged into it with a quick glance at Zel. “Tanner’s found trouble. A fight with a guard.”

He swore and jerked his shirt back into place, seemingly oblivious to Cache’s too-curious appraisal. Devi turned back and signed to Cache. Where?

Cache pointed behind her, toward the hallway that led to the main common area and the tunnel to the rest of the compound.

Zel appeared at Devi’s shoulder. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. Somewhere in the compound…” She scrubbed her hands over her face. The last thing they could afford after Cache’s potential snooping was violence. “We have to stop it. Come on.”

She didn’t wait for him to follow, too preoccupied by the knowledge that they were heading into a fight that likely involved more than one halfblood. The same demon heritage that made them such fierce warriors also gave them enhanced senses.

She had Zel’s scent all over her, and vice versa. Which meant that, in very short order, the complications Zel had wanted to avoid would come crashing down around them.

The Twisted Kiss

Anya Bast

Sometimes it takes just one kiss…

Doomsyear, Book 1

Kylie Mitchell lives in a world of monsters. Thanks to a military experiment gone viral, over half the population is gone and most of what remains has mutated into storybook werewolves and vampires. In this new Earth, only the tough survive, and Kylie has more than enough reason to want to be left alone.

When the Council of the Wise decrees that she must mate with a potent vampire and a powerful werewolf, Kylie resents their intrusion into her self-imposed exile. As one of the last humans on Earth, she always assumed she’d be safe from the super-psychics’ machinations, and she’s not ready to trust her heart to anyone.

Michael and Christian share no great love for each other, but they have one thing in common—their long-time desire for Kylie. Determined to ensure she doesn’t spend the rest of her lonely life wallowing in needless guilt, they choose to put aside their differences and work together, never allowing her time to think as they seduce her body and mind, hoping their love will tempt her heart to open to them.

Yet just as she begins to bloom under their fiercely protective attention, a twisted and monstrous figure from the past rises up, threatening to destroy everything…

Warning: Features a sexy werewolf, a motorcycle-riding vamp, and one very lucky woman who is tough enough to take care of herself. Watch out for sizzling hot sex scenes, two alpha males, undeniable love, and a twisted monster that might end it all.

eBooks are not transferable.

They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B

Cincinnati OH 45249

The Twisted Kiss

Copyright © 2012 by Anya Bast

ISBN: 978-1-60928-869-3

Edited by Mary Hamilton

Cover by Kanaxa

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: January 2012
www.samhainpublishing.com

Table of Contents

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

About the Author

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