by Zoey Marcel
Damn Lucius for this.
She turned the key in the lock, gasping when she felt a heavy hand on her shoulder. She whirled around to see Lucius standing behind her. “What are you doing here?”
“You walked out on me this morning before we had a chance to screw in our human forms. I don’t appreciate that.”
“Yeah, well, tough. I’m not sleeping with the person who keeps destroying my every chance for happiness.”
He smiled confidently. “Yes, you will. You seem to be forgetting your place. You need to be reminded of it. I seem to recall you getting rather frisky last night with the oldest Taylor. I need to discipline you for that.”
Her heart raced. Her back was to the door, but it was unlocked now. If she could somehow get inside without him grabbing her she would be safe since he was part vampire and couldn’t enter a human’s home without an invitation.
“I think a betrayal of that magnitude calls for the bullwhip, don’t you?” His lecherous eyes fell on her heaving bosom and he feathered his fingertips over her cleavage, tone becoming husky and dominant. “I’m going to make you bleed, Chanel. And if that doesn’t wipe those Taylors from your memory then I can resort to pissing on you and controlling your functions until you remember who your true Master is.”
Flashbacks of his most severe forms of discipline resurfaced and Chanel became afraid again. She turned the doorknob swiftly and dashed inside, taunting his inability to follow her into her apartment.
Lucius looked at her knowingly. “You feel safe now, don’t you, knowing that a vampire can’t enter a person’s home without an invitation?”
“Sorry, Lucius,” she quipped.
“Don’t be.” He smiled slowly, stepping forward. “That rule doesn’t apply to my blood mate.”
Her eyes widened, but her delayed attempt to shove him out wasn’t quick enough. In a flash, he had the door closed and pinned her to the floor.
“Stop! We won’t do this.” Chanel wasn’t sure if she was denying him or reassuring herself that she wouldn’t cave to his wishes.
“Yes, we will.” Lucius matched his crotch against hers so she could feel how hard and thick his aroused length was as he breathed in her scent. “Fuck, you smell amazing. Your body feels so perfect against mine. This is where you belong, Chanel, on your back beneath me.”
“Damn you. I’ll scream.” Cold, bone-chilling fear prickled over her skin and scalp when he placed a gentle palm over her belly.
“No, you won’t,” he whispered darkly.
It wasn’t fair. The mating heat, the threats he made on the people she cared about, and the aggravating fact that she couldn’t kill him or escape him no matter how hard she tried.
A loud pounding came from the other side of the door, followed by Brad’s stern voice. “Chanel, I know you’re in there. Open up.”
Chanel felt her spirit soar with hope, wishing that Brad could somehow save her from this nightmare without putting his life on the line for her.
Lucius rolled his eyes with an annoyed sigh. “Damn him. Get rid of him.”
“He sounds irritated. I won’t be able to send him away until he’s ready to leave.”
“Fine, but don’t get any ideas. I’ll leave, but I’m coming back tonight and we’re fucking over and over again all night long and I intend to punish your infidelity as I see fit.”
She cringed but nodded, grateful to be rid of him. He helped her up and went into the other room and she heard him opening the window. He would likely shift into a bat and simply fly out as a safe means of exiting the premises.
Chanel was glad she would be alone with Brad without having to worry about Lucius eavesdropping on their conversation. Before she could get to the door, Brad burst in with Cory following right behind him.
“Why is the door unlocked?” Cory asked. “That’s not safe.”
“I heard a man’s voice. Do you have a guest?” Brad asked.
“Is there something you wanted?” she evaded.
He sniffed the air and growled. “There was someone here. I can smell him and the pheromones. Was that son of a bitch who bit you here in your apartment?”
Her head lowered and she sighed. “What do you want, Brad?”
“I want you to answer my fucking question.”
“How about you answer mine,” she retorted, folding her arms. “What are you doing here?”
Cory spoke up. “We know you’re pregnant.”
Her lips parted and she didn’t dare meet Brad’s hard, angry stare. “Did Sally tell you?”
“What? You told Sally you were carrying our baby, but not us? Who the hell else knows?” Brad demanded.
“Nobody,” Chanel said softly, feeling small when he glared at her like that.
“We found your pregnancy test in the trash in the bathroom,” said Cory.
“How do you know it was mine?”
“You’re the only woman we’ve had up at our house in a long time.”
She shook her head with a defeated sigh. “It wasn’t even on top. How did you find it?”
Brad became even angrier. “Oh, so you were trying to be sneaky, were you? Exactly when were you going to tell us that we sired a child?”
“I wasn’t going to. I don’t need help raising my baby.”
“Our baby,” he corrected her.
“Baby, we want to raise it with you,” Cory told her.
“That’s sweet, Cory, but you don’t have to help me raise it just because you accidentally got me pregnant.”
“Except it wasn’t an accident, was it?” Brad pushed her up against the wall, glaring down at her. “I know you poked holes in our condoms, Chanel. I saw you do it.”
“What?” Cory appeared stunned.
Her mouth hung open. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Yeah, why the hell didn’t you say anything, Brad?”
“I didn’t think it was pertinent unless she conceived from it,” Brad replied, keeping his scolding eyes glued to Chanel.
“What the crap, man?” Cory looked cute when he was irritated. “Next time tell me when a woman’s trying to abduct my sperm without my knowledge.”
Brad gently angled her chin so she met his serious, pained gaze. “Do you know how pissed off I am at you right now? Do you have any idea how shitty it makes a man feel to find out the woman he loves tricked him into knocking her up and then didn’t tell him about it because she feels he’s not good enough to raise his own child with her?”
Chanel’s eyes closed, heart wrenching in sorrow. If she’d felt guilty for deceiving them before, she was utterly ashamed of herself now.
“Baby, why don’t you want us in your life?” Cory looked so sad it broke her heart and brought tears to her eyes. “We’ve loved you for years and we’d be so good to you and the baby. Why can’t you see that?”
“I know you would be, but I can’t be with you,” she wept.
“Why not?”
Because of Lucius. Because Brad was a Dom. Because they were all shape-shifters.
“Because you’ll hurt him.”
“What in god’s name makes you think we would hurt our own child?” Brad sounded offended and he certainly had every right to be.
“I know you would never do so intentionally, but you’re all shape-shifters and you might inadvertently hurt him while in your animal forms.”
“Honey, no. You got it all wrong,” Cory protested. “We’re still in control of ourselves when we shift. Granted our wild natures tend to come out more, it’s true, but we’re still aware of our choices and surroundings. Besides, Dawson’s a rabbit and I’m a fox. We’re hardly threatening.”
“And what is Brad?” she asked nervously.
Before Cory could answer her, Brad spoke. “It doesn’t matter what I am. What matters is that if you trusted me, my species wouldn’t matter to you, because you’d know that I would always protect you and our baby and never hurt either one of you no matter which form I embody.”
He made it soun
d so easy, so comforting, so safe and promising. Like Lucius had before he betrayed her.
“Whether or not you would hurt him doesn’t matter since I’m mated to another man,” Chanel ruefully reminded them.
Brad stepped closer until she felt his body against her and became aroused by it. “I don’t care whose mark you have on your body. You’re ours, not his. You’re our mate and we won’t ever let you forget that.”
“I’m not the one who forgot anything. You’re the ones who rejected me.”
“It was a misunderstanding.”
She snorted. “You called me a whore and said you didn’t want me anymore.”
“That was wrong of me.”
“You’re damned right it was wrong.”
“I apologized for it.”
“No, you didn’t. And stop playing with my hair.”
Don’t ever stop.
Brad smiled, somehow knowing how much she secretly enjoyed his fingers running through her strands. “Yes, I did, at the club.”
“You said you wanted to start over, but you never said you were sorry.”
“That was an implied apology.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, brother. You’re going to have to do better than that.”
“All right, then. I’m sorry for hurting you and behaving like a jackass.”
“Well, that’s a start, but I need more.”
“What do you want from me?”
“I want you to get down on your knees and grovel in front of me and beg my forgiveness.”
Brad’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t push your luck. I’m not getting on my knees for any woman. Even when I propose to you I intend to remain standing.”
Her heart fluttered with joy, but she kept it hidden. “Why would you propose?”
“You’re having our baby. Why the hell wouldn’t we?”
Her hopes sank. “So that’s what this is about? You want to marry me out of obligation because you impregnated me? Screw you.”
“We’ve wanted you since we first laid eyes on you and you know it. You may doubt our parental qualifications, but we’re not walking away from you or our baby. We’re going to raise it with you, so you might as well get used to the idea.”
“Now you listen to me—”
“No, you listen, babe. I’m not going to stand here and argue with you. We’re going to pack your shit and you’re moving in with us and that’s final. You’re our woman and ours alone. And I don’t want to hear about you fucking another man again or there will be some serious consequences.”
Guilt racked her conscience. They all knew. “Why isn’t Dawson with you?”
“He needed some time alone today.”
Her chest ached and she said a silent prayer for him and a heartfelt apology as though he would somehow hear her. “I thought you didn’t want to endanger your brothers by messing around with another shifter’s mate.”
“I don’t, but I don’t want to lose you to anyone else, either. We’ll find a loophole of some sort. We were meant to have you and we will, by god. Now get in the shower while we pack your things. You smell like him and it’s pissing me off.”
Chanel headed toward the bathroom, unsure why she felt compelled to obey him. “I don’t want you to put your lives on the line for me.”
“Don’t worry about it. We know how to take care of ourselves.”
“I hope you don’t take my compliance as agreement to a permanent relationship,” she worried. “I’ll stay with you for a little while, but it can’t be forever. It’s not safe.”
Lucius would kill them if she showed them any level of commitment.
Brad gave her an authoritative look. “Get in the shower, Chanel.”
Chanel obeyed, deciding that the men could indeed handle themselves, though she still worried for their safety. Her baby needed protection and Lucius would be unable to enter the Taylors’ house since they owned it and she would merely be a guest there. She and the little one would be safe. She just wouldn’t invite Lucius in.
Chapter Thirteen:
Confessions
Chanel was excited to be living under the same roof as the men she loved. She unpacked her things in the room they’d designed for her, wishing it could always be like this. They promised to take good care of her and the baby and so far in the few hours she’d been there they had done exactly that.
Despite their chivalrous doting, things were awkward between them and she knew it was because they were aware of what happened between her and Lucius in the woods the night before.
Dawson stayed away, but she heard him come in later that night after she’d retired early while the others were still awake. She wrestled with the idea of going out into the living room and begging his forgiveness and trying to somehow explain her maddening struggle to him, but decided against it. He needed time, if there was even any chance at all of him ever forgiving her. Men like Dawson didn’t carry grudges, but they bled deeply when someone betrayed and hurt them as bad as she’d hurt him.
The urge to get out of bed and open the window overwhelmed her. She wasn’t sure why. It was cozy in the room and there was snow on the ground outside. Still, she felt compelled and acted on it. The freezing kiss of air felt refreshing and the light howl of wind in the distance proved peaceful.
The atmosphere suddenly became saturated with sensuality and the irrepressible need to copulate, which confused her. Now the wind was making her horny? She had some serious issues.
“Chanel.” The sleek satin of a ghostly whisper called her name.
Chanel gasped and turned back to the window, astonished to find Lucius perched high in a branch in the large tree just outside her bedroom window. He climbed onto a lower branch so she could see him better. She knew she should scream or slam the window shut.
“Stay where you are. You disobeyed me, slave. I told you to get rid of Brad and stay away from the Taylors, not move in with them. Do you seek to incur my wrath?” His tone was low and nonchalant, though the displeasure over her conduct was clearly written on his face.
“No. I just want to be safe.”
“And you don’t feel safe with me?”
“You’re a murderer. Why would I feel safe with you?”
“I’ve never killed you.”
“Not in the literal sense.”
His countenance softened. “So bitter over the past. So unwilling to forgive me. You hurt me, too, Chanel.”
“How the hell did I hurt you?”
“By disobeying my orders.”
She shook her head. “I don’t believe you even have a heart to feel with. Your soul is made of ice.”
“The fire of your touch can melt it,” he murmured suggestively.
A mad rush of desire washed over her and Chanel stiffened in apprehension. Mating heat. If she didn’t walk now—
“You remember, don’t you? How good everything felt? The way I made you feel? Don’t walk away from me.”
Why in god’s name was she paralyzed to the floor?
“I remember,” she whispered.
“So do I.” He inched closer along the branch toward the open window. “You don’t have to choose between light and darkness. All you have to do is reach out to me. You can save me, Chanel.”
“You’re beyond saving.”
“Then why do you keep coming back to me?”
“You bit me.”
“Before I bit you. You remember the good in me. You always thought good and evil were separate, but the lines become blurred in real life, don’t they? I kill people, but I was a good father to your baby and a loving partner to you. You were raised with principles, but you threw them away to please me and you gunned me down because your hatred was stronger than your childhood teachings of forgiveness. You cried when you shot me. And I have to ask myself if that was your conscience assailing you for it...or your heart.”
Chanel’s eyes closed. “I don’t know what we had. I don’t think it even has a name.”
“But living without it dep
resses you. What we have is too good to throw away, Chanel. I won’t let you.” He scooted closer along the branch. “Invite me in.”
She shook her head frantically, scared that she was tempted to. “No.”
“I’m not going to hurt them, princess. I just want to touch you and feel you against me. Just give me one more night with you and I’ll let you be with them. One night, that’s all I ask. No one has to know, just you and me. I know you want to feel me inside of you again.”
Half of her did and the other half of her still hated him. The dark pull toward her unintended mate vied for control over the soft warmth in her heart that cried for freedom from him so she could be with the men she truly loved.
What if fate’s dictation was actually stronger than the romantic truths in her soul? Could the captivity of this bond Lucius had forged between them someday eclipse what she felt for her men? What if he someday possessed her so completely her identity was erased and she no longer had control of her mind and will because of this awful curse?
His hushed timbre softened to a heady, foreboding whisper. “Let me in, Chanel. Invite me to come inside.”
The bedroom door flung open and the light flipped on. Chanel turned to see Brad and Cory walk in, and she heard a tiny squeak behind her as Lucius shifted into a bat and flew away into the darkness.
Brad’s expression blazed with fury as he grabbed her by the arm while Cory shut and locked the window. “Was that him? Why the hell were you talking to him?”
“We were just talking.” Chanel quivered with shock as the mating heat subsided and her natural loathing for Lucius returned.
“I can detect your elevated hormones, woman. I let your liaison in the woods last night slide because we weren’t technically in a relationship, but we are now. Got it?”
She nodded.
Cory turned to her. “Your mate is a bat shifter?”
“Don’t call him her mate. He’s not her goddamned mate,” Brad lashed out before refocusing on Chanel. “You’re fine with that shifter, but not us? I want to hear about your supposed accidental mating.”