by Renee George
Mina stared at him, her heart pounding. Tonight, she hadn’t only wanted Gav, she’d wanted to mate with him. How could she want Gav so much—and Eric, too?
The situation was impossible.
Gav leaped from the couch, grabbed her by the arms and held her to the wall. His eyes turned amber as his dark pupils undulated between large and really large. He sniffed at her neck and Mina held perfectly still. She couldn’t risk rousing his animal. “I want all of you,” he growled.
Don’t let go lion-y now. She’d only seen him change a little before, in the eyes, the hands, but never full-on leogenus.
His lips moved toward hers, and she turned her head.
He growled and snuffled her neck.
Shit! His nails had started to change, turning into claws. No, no, no. Her fear was amped up, and she could smell the musk of his arousal. “Stop, Gav,” she said quietly, firmly. His tongue licked at her jaw line. “You’re mine.” He snapped his teeth in emphasis. The bones in his face crackled and snapped, reforming, widening, becoming lion-like. Some of his humanity bled back into his eyes. “Help me fight this,” he gritted. Instantly, the beast returned. “I will have you.”
“Something is wrong with you. This isn’t you.” She inhaled a steadying breath. “Stop.”
“Make me.” The demand was part plea, part challenge.
Mina brought up a knee and nailed him in the groin. He doubled over, roaring. She brought her instep down in one quick motion along his shin, landing hard on the arch of his foot. She touched fur and knew she was moments away from Gav giving into his beast. Dropping to the floor, Mina rolled toward the coffee table, snatching her gun from under it. She leveled the piece on him. What the hell are you going to do, Mina? Kill him? He’d recovered quickly, and in the millisecond it took for her to get the 9mm, he’d turned completely—covered in a thick golden fur and twice as broad as his human self.
“Gav,” she cautioned as he stalked toward her, stripping his torn clothing from his body, “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t.” Werelion Gav took a step closer. Mina aimed and squeezed, and with a loud bang, the bullet buried itself in Gav’s thigh. He roared, the noise shaking the walls of her apartment. A framed print fell to the floor.
Mina scrambled backward until her shoulders met the wall. She did not want to shoot him again. Or at all.
Dropping to all fours, Gav barreled forward and Mina kicked him in the face, whacking him between the eyes, stalling him for a split second. It was enough time for her to get around him and run toward the front door.
Before she got there, the door banged open, and Eric charged into the room. He threw himself in front of Mina. The werelion lunged at Eric, knocking him flat. Shit. Mina bounded onto Gav’s back, wrapped her arms around his neck and forced the werelion to lose his balance.
She had one lover down, the other staggering toward them with his face bleeding from claw marks. She had no handcuffs and it wouldn’t have mattered because Gave had the strength to destroy metal and plastic alike.
Gav’s fur grew shorter, the bones shifting around, crunching, grinding, making her teeth hurt to hear and watch. Soon, Gavriil Doyle looked human again. But he was unconscious. She scooted off his back and rolled him over. “Oh, crap. Gav.” She shook him. “Gav. Please wake up, honey.” She looked at Eric, the marks on his face fading. An undeniable feeling of helplessness washed over her. “I can’t lose him.”
Eric knelt beside her and Gav. He checked for a pulse. “It’s faint, but it’s there.”
Mina watched as blood oozed from the bullet wound in Gav’s thigh.
“We should call an ambulance,” Eric said.
“No ambulance,” Gav said, his voice raspy.
“He’s not going to survive without medical attention.”
“He’s not human, Eric.”
“I…” Eric touched his face where Gav had clawed him. His expressions shifted through a range of emotions, but once again, Mina didn’t feel anything but lust and desire.
“I’m fine. I’ll be fine.” Gav tried to sit up and failed. “Fuck. I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.”
Her front door opened, and a tall man with long white hair, bronze skin, and silver eyes sauntered into her apartment. He took a look at the naked werelion, the half-naked aural, and the clothed but confused incubus. “Gav be fine.”
“Keane?” She stood up and put her hands on her hips.
“Shade? What are you doing here?”
“I live here. What’s your excuse? Is the queen calling in her favor?”
His shoulders relaxed, but his face remained serious. “No. I’m actually here to see…” He pointed to Gav. “Why did you shoot Detective Doyle?”
“Because I didn’t have a choice.”
“Hmmm.” He thumped his chin with his thumb, a habitual gesture she’d seen him employ dozens of times in the past. It was his go-to for when he was deep in thought.
Mina smiled and did something she that surprised her and Keane. She hugged him. “It’s been too long, old friend.” He’d been like a father to her during her years as a warden, and she’d missed him since she’d left the fold. “What do you want with Gav?” If shadow warriors were involved, Gav could be in serious trouble.
“Nothing sinister, Shade. He called me.”
Mina stared at Gav.
The werelion nodded.
Eric stepped in. “How do you know this guy, Mina, and why does he keep calling you Shade?”
Keane eyed Eric with interest, but it was Gav who spoke up. “I remember talk about a woman named Shade, who fought for the new Triune. An assassin, if the rumors are correct.”
Mina tensed and tried to ignore the heaviness in the pit of her stomach. “It’s true.” She waited for the recrimination she was certain would come, but Gav’s face didn’t change, and other than curiosity, his emotions didn’t fluctuate. She’d expected him to hate her if he ever found out about her past, but, instead, he appeared resolved.
Eric sat down on the couch, his face completely healed now. “I’m not going to pretend to understand anything going on in here.”
“Smart man,” Keane said. “For a leiol.”
“Half leiol,” she said in Eric’s defense. “How did you know Gav would be here?”
“I didn’t. I was supposed to meet with Doyle,” he looked at his watch, “fifteen minutes ago. But there was no answer on his door.” He tapped at his ear. “I couldn’t help overhearing some rather vocal sexual activity followed by the fighting and the shot. Then this one on the couch barreled past me in the hallway and knocked your door open. I had no idea I’d run into you.”
Mina thinned her lips into a grim line. “What a mess.”
“I’ll get Detective Doyle a washcloth.”
“In the bathroom,” she said, pointing down the hall. After Keane Silvertail had departed, she sat next to Gav. As the wounds healed, she became aware he was still naked, and while werelions weren’t modest, she did him the courtesy of grabbing his shirt and throwing it over his lap. “I’m really sorry I shot you,” she said. “But to be fair, you were trying to kill me.”
He laughed, not an easy laugh, but one that was forced. He looked down at his now covered groin. “I wasn’t trying to kill you, Mina. I was trying to…you know.”
“Asshole.”
“Sorry. I don’t know what happened. I couldn’t control myself.” He closed his eyes. Mina had never seen him look so vulnerable, wounded, and naked.
Mina brushed drywall dust from the werelion’s cheeks. “I know how dangerous it is to be with you, Gav.” Leaning down, she kissed his forehead. Don’t do it again.”
Grunting, Gav rolled onto his side. “Let me just lay here for a minute.”
“I’m feeling totally freaked right now.” Mina leaned back and felt Eric behind her. The half-leiol had joined her on the floor. Having him nearby brought her a sense of peace, a calm in her torrid emotions. She reached out to Gav and took his hand. �
��Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I will be.”
Gav’s body might have been magically healing itself, but it was doing nothing for the dark stains on her carpet. “Would you look at this mess? You got blood all over the place.”
“I hope you don’t expect the deposit back on this place.” Keane tossed her the washcloth. “We have much to discuss.” He glanced across at the open package on the coffee table. “What is that?”
“It was delivered earlier,” Mina said. “It had Gav’s name on it, but it landed on my front door. Why? Do you recognized the flower?”
Keane shook his head. “Not the flower, but I can feel the taint of magic.” He dumped the container onto the counter. “Uh oh. I know this symbol. It’s mangemarte.”
“Mangy-who?” Mina asked.
“It’s a sub-faction of the rebels who are working against Caledon. There have been rumors they’ve been funding some of the terrorist activities of the rebels.” His earlier humor faded. “This is serious.” He gestured to the flower on the counter. “Don’t touch this again. I’ll be right back.” He took his phone out, walked back to Mina’s bedroom, and shut the door.
“Make yourself at home,” she muttered. Great. She’d worked so hard to leave her past in the past, but it had followed her across the state. Maybe she should have moved to New York.
“He doesn’t have to worry about me touching that damn thing again.” Gav forced himself up. “When I was holding it earlier, it was as if my brain shut down until there was nothing left of me but pure instinct.”
“The instinct to make me your bitch?”
Gav smiled, the wounds on his chest closing as he sat up from the floor. “Pretty much.”
“I love her,” Eric said. Really? He was trying to stake his claim now?
“You don’t,” Mina told him. But she felt a strong connection to him, and she knew it was more than simple attraction. She needed him. Needed Gav. The realization blew her mind. She’d never needed anyone.
“I love her,” Gav said.
Wow. They were putting it all out there. What the fuck?
“You okay?” Gav stood up and rested against the wall. “You’ve gone paler than usual.”
Mina handed him the wet washcloth. “You’re paying for a carpet steamer rental, and you’ll be working it too, by the way.”
Keane walked back into the room, ignoring the awkward tension between Mina and her lovers. “Cleaners are coming. Explaining to your neighbors why they heard gun shots, well, I’ll let you worry about a cover story.”
“Mina. Mina, dear.” The voice was muffled through the door, but Mina recognized it as Mrs. Baumgartner, her and Gav’s elderly neighbor.
Keane shrugged.
“Do you have to be right all the time?”
“A millennium of experience.”
Mina rolled her eyes and strode to the door. She cracked it open. Her neighbor was in a pink housecoat, fuzzy slippers, and her hair was tied in a scarf. “Hey, Mrs. B.”
“Is everything all right? I heard sounds, like a hammer. Woke me up.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am.” She smiled to ease the elderly woman’s concern. “I had my TV up too loud. It won’t happen again.”
Mrs. Baumgartner tried to peek around Mina to see inside, but she didn’t have Mina’s height advantage. She pursed her lips and nodded. “See that it doesn’t.”
Mina shut the door before her neighbor could question her more.
Eric laughed. “That was easy.”
“The walls are thick, and Mrs. B has terrible hearing,” Gav said. Mina noted how much stronger he sounded and relief uncoiled through her.
Chapter 10
“So, Shade, huh?” Gav, now wearing a pair of sweats wore a path in his living room carpet. They’d moved across the hall when the cleaners arrived. “You used to be a warden.”
“Yes.” Mina bit her fingernail, something she hadn’t done in a very long time.
“In service to Garrick until you switched sides?”
“Like I had a choice. Weren’t we all in service to Garrick when he ruled?”
“Who’s Garrick?” Eric asked.
“He was the new queen’s maniacal daddy until she took him out,” Shade said.
“What?” Eric leaned back on the couch. “I’m so confused.”
“You do have a type, Shade,” Keane said. “Big and dumb.”
“I’ll tell Trace you said so.”
“Trace?” Gav leaned forward in his chair. “Trace who?”
“Oh,” Mina said. “That.”
“This should prove interesting,” Keane said.
Mina crossed her arms and clenched her jaw. “Can I have a minute here?”
“I’ll go make some calls.” When the apartment door shut behind Keane, Mina sighed. She hadn’t wanted any men in her life, and now she had two of them. Both had professed their love for her…in front of each other. And now, they knew the truth about her. She wondered if either of them would stick around now. “You know I was married before, Gav. I told you that. He was a lupinus.”
“A what?” Eric asked.
“Werewolf,” Gav said.
“Huh.”
“Yes, what Gav said,” Mina continued. “We were both wardens in training at the time. Both teenagers. Really, it wasn’t much of a marriage. We managed to not kill each other for a year before we decided to end things.”
“You were married to a werewolf,” Eric said. Then he looked at Gav. “And he’s a werelion. And the guy that just left, he’s part dragon and part… aural? Like you?” Eric rubbed his hands through his hair.
“My father abandoned me. I spent most my life in foster care. I only know what I am because of Keane. Next to you both and Charlie, he’s the only family I’ve ever known.”
“And our kind are ruled by a monarchy? That seems archaic.”
“When you have this much power floating around, you need people in charge. You need a policing system. Otherwise, what would stop someone like Tsvaras, the god of doors, from taking over the world?”
“That’s a real person?” Eric asked.
Gav nodded. “Yep. He’s a chimera. Only one of them in existence.”
“Well, actually, there are three of us if you count my wife and our son.”
Mina, Gav, and Eric stared at the open bedroom door. Gav’s bedroom had disappeared and in its place was a large spacious room with white marble floors and cream colored walls. Marcus Tsvaras, his dark curls pulled back from his face, moved aside as a petite redhead with freckles walked into the living room with two men on either side.
“This is not happening,” Mina said.
Gav went to a knee. “Your highness.”
“Please don’t do that,” the queen said tersely.
“Queen Benoica,” Mina acknowledged. Her eyes softened when they landed on the square jaw of Trace Calder, the man she once loved enough to marry. “Hey.”
“Hey,” he said back.
The other man, taller than Trace, stepped forward. Ian Arendt “Where’s the flower? We didn’t want to take a chance bringing it back to Caledon, but I need to get a look at it.”
“Across the hall.” Mina jerked her thumb toward the front door. “Knock yourself out.”
Eric stood up and extended his hand to the young queen. “I’m Eric Bishop.”
She took it. “Benie Dilian.” She raised a brow. “You have a little juju going on there.” She turned her focus to Mina. “I didn’t think I’d see you again.”
“A girl can hope.”
Benie frowned. Her small, freckled nose wrinkled. “You can be unpleasant.”
“Ditto.”
Benie’s hand went inside her jacket.
Eric and Gav both moved to either side of Mina.
“Easy,” Trace said. He put his hand on Benie’s shoulder. “Let’s play nice.” He stared at the two men who instinctually had stepped up to defend Mina. “You have two mates now?”
“Mind your own business
, Trace.”
He shook his head. “And you love them.”
“Stop poking around in my head.”
Eric took Mina’s right hand and Gav took the left.
“The right and the left,” Benie said.
“I didn’t run out and get my own triune. No worries there.”
“There are other power triads, Semina,” Trace said. “You should know better than anyone that anything is possible.”
Mina felt a warm, steady pulse in her palms as she grasped her lovers’ hands tighter.
Ian rushed back into the apartment, Keane close on his heels. “Qetesh,” he said.
Mina gripped Gav and Eric tighter, her throat suddenly tight. “What did you say?”
“The three stone goddess. Qetesh. This is one of the symbols used to represent her,” Ian said as if that cleared it up.
“I know who she is,” Mina said. “It was Aural 101 in warden school. But I haven’t heard or thought about Qetesh in years. Suddenly a crazy old homeless woman rants about her. And now a lethal gift with her symbol is left at my door. It’s too bizarre to be a coincidence.”
“What did the crazy old woman tell you?” Keane asked.
“Something about someone controlling the snake, and that I’d been given the gift of Qetesh, and if I don’t embrace it, I’ll die. It’s nonsense.”
Keane’s lips pressed flat, and Mina registered a jump in his emotions. He was suddenly…uncomfortable. And worried.
“What is it?”
He turned to her, shaking his head. “I believe you’re in great danger.”
“That’s not new,” she told him.
“This danger is more…personal.”
He casts furtive glances at Eric and Gav, before settling his gaze on Mina. “Do you love them?” he asked.
If he hadn’t sounded so serious, Mina would have laughed. It was her turn to feel uncomfortable. Benie, Ian, and Trace all watched her with the attention usually reserved for an execution. Eric turned to face her, but Gav stood stock still, his grip tightening on her hand.
“I don’t think that’s—”
Keane held up a hand. “It’s important, Shade, or I wouldn’t ask.”
The cold, knot in Mina’s chest grew. She’d never imagined having this kind of intimate conversation, let alone having it with an audience in attendance. She knew where both the men in her stood. They loved her. They’d declared as much, and their actions, their desire to protect her—even though she could take care of herself—backed up their words. But how did she feel? She tried to imagine a life without Gav. Even after their break up, she constantly ached for him, and until Eric, she hadn’t given another man a second look. But her attraction to Eric didn’t stop her from wanting or needing Gav, or vice versa. Even against her better judgment, she couldn’t stop herself with Eric. But did she love them?