by Dia Cole
My body howled in protest. “Please don’t leave. I want to try again.” I needed to try again. This time I won’t think of the bastard.
Mason searched my face. “Are you certain, love?”
I nodded, never more sure of anything in my life.
“Okay, but tell us the moment you want to stop.”
I threw him a wicked smile. “I don’t ever want to stop.” There were a couple of just-in-case condoms in my duffel bag from back in the day. We were set. Let’s do this. Licking my lips, I pressed my breasts against Liam’s lips.
The big guy’s eyes lit up as he took one of my nipples into his mouth.
I moaned at the delicious sensation of his lips on my sensitive peak.
Mason let out a frustrated sound.
I gave him an arch look. “Didn’t you say you were good with your hands?”
He flashed me a masculine smile, took his previous position behind me, and slid his hands down to my thighs. He swatted Liam’s hands. “Out of the way, mate.”
Liam shifted his hands to the small of my back, never taking his lips from my nipple. The rasp of his beard against my skin made me shiver.
“This will feel so good, love,” Mason whispered.
I gasped as he slid his fingers beneath my thong and caressed my damp flesh.
“Do you like that?” he rasped against my ear.
All I could do was whimper as he found my swollen bud.
Mason stroked me slowly at first and then faster.
Pleasure streaked through me. I grabbed Liam’s shoulders to steady myself. My knees quaked, threatening to give out.
Mason pressed me back against his chest. I could feel his arousal pressing into my back. The fact that I was pinned between two men who wanted me stoked my desire even higher.
While continuing to work my clit with his right hand, Mason slid two fingers of his left hand into me and found my G-spot.
I cried out.
On the stove, the teakettle whistled and shook.
“Oh, God!” It was too much. The delicious pressure at my core combined with the erotic pull of Liam’s mouth on my nipples sent me spiraling into a mind-blowing climax. Screaming, I shattered and collapsed boneless over Liam’s chest.
The sound of our ragged breathing cut through the shrieking kettle.
“I’ll get that,” Mason said, pulling away and moving the kettle from the woodstove.
I pushed myself off Liam’s lap on shaking legs. As soon as I stood, my unzipped dress pooled to the floor.
Both men gasped.
This is only the beginning I realized with a smile. They’re mine. All mine.
With their gazes following every movement I made, I sauntered over to the bed and sat down. Using my Mistress Robin voice, I said, “Take off your clothes and come over here.” I patted the top of the mattress.
Liam leaped from the chair and whipped off his shirt.
The sight of his muscular chest took my breath away. Wow. Just wow.
Mason pulled off his jacket and polo revealing lean tanned muscles that made my mouth water.
There was something predatory in the way the men stalked toward the bed. They loomed over me, their bodies tense and hard.
Heat suffused me, filling me with such need, I whimpered. How will we do this? Who will go first? Or will we all be together at the same time? Overcome with desire, I watched the men approach.
Suddenly, the door crashed open and Gabe rushed in wearing nothing but his eye patch.
13
Gabriel
The sight of Havana sprawled out nearly naked on the bed, with Liam and Mason standing over her sucked all the air out of my lungs. For a moment, my anger was replaced by a lust so fierce it turned my shaft to granite. The entire cabin was filled with the powerful musk of her desire. Each inhale of her scent eroded my self-control.
I couldn’t rip my gaze away from Havana. Her beautiful breasts were more than a handful and those dusky nipples were begging for my touch. Her smooth skin looked like it’d been dipped in honey and a tiny scrap of fabric covered her cleft. A growl escaped my throat as I battled the urge to tear off her panties and bury my face between her legs. She’ll taste amazing. I licked my lips and took one step forward.
Havana blinked up at me from the bed. “Looks like you want to join in on the action. The more the merrier.” She patted the mattress next to her.
Immediately realizing I wasn’t there for fun, Liam stepped protectively in front of her. “Gabe, I can explain.”
Mason threw a comforter over Havana. “Before you get upset, mate, you should know we’re all consenting adults here.”
Their words slapped some sense into me. I took a deep breath through my mouth knowing I couldn’t afford to scent any more of Havana’s pheromones. Spying Liam’s oversize shirt on the floor I pulled it on. Thankfully, it was long enough to cover my still pulsing erection. I cast a quick glance around the room noting the dramatic improvements in the cabin. The males had been busy. My mood soured further. “Do you know what Nathan will do to any male that touches his female?”
Both Mason and Liam froze.
I glared at them. “He’ll rip their heart out of their chest and eat it.”
Mason gulped while Liam shuddered. No one got between a Lykos Alpha male and his female and lived to talk about it.
Havana sat up in the bed with the comforter clutched to her chest. “Nathan doesn’t care about me.”
Seriously, how dense can she be? “Right, and that’s why he ordered us to rescue you. Only you. Think about it. There are over a hundred thousand souls in Saguaro Valley and his only thought was to save you and his daughter.”
Havana opened her mouth and promptly closed it.
Liam shook his head, refusing to believe what his senses had to be telling him. “She’s human, Gabe. She can’t be his mate.”
I gave him a hard look. “Use your head, brother. Why do you think you and Mason are reacting to her like this?”
Liam took a step away from Havana and blinked as if he was seeing her for the first time. “She’s a latent.”
“Ding, ding. Point goes to the Enforcer with the death wish,” I said in a dry voice. “She’s also close to her first transition. You can smell it all over her.”
Both Mason and Liam inhaled deeply and groaned.
“What’s a latent?” Havana asked, sniffing her hair.
Mason and Liam looked at me for guidance. Disclosing anything about our kind with a non-Lykos was punishable by death.
“Are you 100 percent certain about this?” Liam asked.
“I thought she was an Atavus,” Mason added, insinuating himself into our private mental channel.
“She’s a latent,” I said firmly. I replayed my recent conversation with Nathan for them starting with my cell phone ringing back at the lodge.
“Is Havana safe at Sanctuary?” Nathan’s deep voice boomed as soon as I brought the phone to my ear.
“Yes.”
“Good,” Nathan said, relief in his voice.
In the background, I could hear his young daughter calling out, “Vana! Vana!”
Nathan made a shushing noise. “Quiet, Mira. You’ll see her soon.”
“You didn’t tell me Havana was a latent,” I said in an accusatory tone.
Nathan’s silence confirmed my suspicion.
“Does Havana know what she is?”
Nathan let out a heavy sigh. “No. She knows nothing. When I first interviewed her for the nanny position, I sensed there was some Lykos blood in her—it’s why I hired her in fact—but I assumed she was an Atavus. My visceral attraction to her should’ve been a clue that she was so much more. It wasn’t until I dug into her background that I discovered she was a latent. Apparently, her mother had a one-night stand with a colonel before becoming pregnant with Havana.”
My gut did a slow churn. “I’m guessing not just any colonel.”
“I suspect he was one of the original test subjects from the L
ykos project.”
I cursed. The originals were the strongest and most unstable of our species. Tasha was a case in point. Very few had survived the military’s attempt at exterminating them. Apparently, Havana’s missing father had been one of the rare few the army had retained. To have survived and risen so high in rank, he must be one badass motherfucker. “You know we’re required to report any suspected Lykos to Tasha and—”
Nathan interrupted me. “Tasha can’t know about Havana. I’d planned to take her and Mira somewhere far from her territory.”
“Well, obviously that didn’t pan out. Havana’s close to her transition so you’d best not take too much time getting back here. I can barely keep Liam and Mason away from her as it is.” I peered out the lodge window searching in vain for the truck or the SUV. The males had been gone too long.
“She’s mine!” Nathan’s roar was deafening. “I will eviscerate any male that touches her. Understand?”
I pulled the phone away from my ringing ear. “Understood.”
“Good,” grunted Nathan. “The storm is closing in and I won’t risk the drive up the mountain with Mira. Sunridge is here on our left. I’m pulling into the resort. Mira and I’ll stay here for the night. Expect us first thing in the morning.”
“Yes, sir,” I replied before the line went dead.
Mason and Liam paled in response to the replayed conversation.
“Now do you understand?”
Both men nodded, looking stricken.
“Why do I get the feeling that you’re all having a conversation I can’t hear?” Havana asked from the bed.
“Because we are,” I said quietly.
I could hear her heartbeat speeding up. “You guys aren’t human, are you?”
I let out a weary sigh. “No.”
“Then what are you?” she asked in a breathless voice. “Vampires?”
Liam let out a barking laugh.
I shook my head. “I can assure you there is nothing supernatural about us. We’re man-made.”
“Man-made,” Havana repeated, looking to Mason for answers. For some reason that bothered me. A lot.
Mason gave her an agonized look and took a step toward her. “Havana—”
“Mason, you need to leave,” I said interrupting him. I then looked over at Liam. “The same goes for you, brother. I don’t want to have to bury pieces of you tomorrow.”
Mason stiffened. “Finding out you’re Lykos when you’ve been raised as a human can be traumatic. Let me talk to her—”
“Leave now, Dr. Wheeler and Enforcer Murphy.” The steel in my voice left nothing up for debate.
Both men headed straight for the door. “Goodbye, Havana,” they both said in unison before leaving. A minute later I heard the sound of their vehicles crunching through the snow.
Havana stared at me with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension in her gaze. “Are you going to tell me what you guys are?”
“No. I’m going to show you,” I said, yanking Liam’s shirt off my head.
Her gasp at my nakedness shouldn’t have affected me the way it did. My first mistake was in looking over at her and seeing her gaze focus on my swelling shaft. The second mistake was in taking a deep steadying breath through my nose. The scent of her pheromones hit me like a punch to the gut.
I fisted my hands to keep from pouncing on her. I can’t touch her. I can’t touch her. I slammed my eyes shut trying to block out the vision of her sitting up on the bed, her gorgeous bare legs visible.
She moaned as if she was picking up on my lust. “What’s happening to me? I’m not normally a nympho like this, but it’s like I can’t help myself. First it was Mason, then Liam, and now I want you.”
Hearing that she desired me shook my resolve. She belongs to Nathan. Gritting my teeth, I slowly opened my eyes. “You’re about to go through your first transition.”
Her dark brown eyes widened. “Transition into what?”
“Into this.” I slid my eye patch down so the elastic settled around my neck and shed my human form in a snapping and popping of bones and joints. My eye radiated extreme pain as it fought to regenerate around the diamond in my eye socket, but I kept my muzzle lifted until the flesh and sinew grew around the stone, holding it in place.
Havana let out a gasp as I rose as a wolf. “Oh my God.” She swayed on the bed and for a moment I thought she’d pass out.
Quickly, I transformed back to human.
“You’re werewolves,” she cried, scrambling toward the edge of the bed away from me.
I held my hands out. “I’m not going to hurt you. And we prefer the term Lykos. Our species originated as part of a military genetic engineering project that began nearly a hundred years ago.”
“The military created you?” Havana asked, some color returning to her face.
I nodded. “Yes. They wanted stronger, faster, more resilient soldiers so they created animal hybrids.” Among other abominations. “Unfortunately, they couldn’t eliminate our most primal urges, which made us unsuitable in combat and the Lykos project was deemed a failure.” The urge to mate and serve our females had been both our damnation and our salvation. “Numerous members of our species managed to escape from the labs and establish factions all over this country. We’ve existed in secrecy ever since.”
Havana blinked, taking this all better than I would’ve expected. “So, obviously you don’t need a full moon to transform.”
“No. And silver doesn’t kill us although it inhibits our ability to change form,” I said, anticipating her next question. I waited for her to put the pieces together and ask where she fit into all this, but instead she turned her attention to my right eye.
“Why do you have a jewel in your eye socket?”
With a start I realized I hadn’t put my eye patch back in place. I grabbed it from around my neck and quickly hid the yellow diamond from view. “I wear it as punishment.” Bitterness crept into my tone. “When taking our wolf form we can regenerate from most injuries, but Tas—the person who punished me doesn’t want me regenerating my eye.”
Havana made a sound of sympathy. “That must be painful. Why don’t you take it out?”
“I can’t.” Tasha made sure of that with a heavy dose of compulsion. She intended the stone to be a lifelong reminder never to be blinded by loyalty to anyone other than her. Needing to change the topic, I gave Havana a penetrating look, “You’re Lykos too.”
Her mouth fell open, and then she laughed. “Me? A werewolf?” She shook her head. “No way.”
“How old are you?”
She blinked, clearly not expecting that question. “Twenty-two.”
I nodded. “A late bloomer.”
“What do you mean?”
“We normally go through our first transition between eighteen and twenty-one. Females are later than males.”
She rubbed her arms as if she was cold. “The first transition—that’s the first time a person transforms into a wolf.”
“Yes, and for females, it’s the first time they go into heat.”
“Heat?”
“Yes, during which time they are filled with the insatiable urge to mate.”
A blush spread across her cheeks. “And that’s what you think is going on with me?”
I nodded. “Nathan confirmed you’re a latent when I spoke with him earlier today.”
She blanched. “Nathan? He’s a Lykos too?”
“Yes. He’s an Alpha male, which means he’s dominant over the rest of us.” But he’s still under Tasha’s rule.
“And he knew I was a werewolf?”
The rising tension in her voice made me soften my tone. “He knew you had Lykos blood. He said it was one of the reasons he hired you as his daughter’s nanny.”
“Motherfucker.” Her eyes flashed with anger. She jumped off the bed and the comforter fell to the floor. “When I see that bastard again I’m going to kick him in the balls. I can’t believe he would keep this from me along with all the other
crap he put me through.” She stalked over and glared up at me. “And you—you’ve been an ass to me since the moment we met. What did I ever do to you?”
Struck dumb by the proximity of her delectable curves, I tried to take a deep steadying breath. Fuck. I’d forgotten to breathe through my mouth. The scent of her filled my senses, making my shaft jump at attention. “You haven’t done anything, princess. Liam and Mason aren’t the only ones losing their minds over you. I'm pissed because I can never have you.”
She glanced down at my erection and froze. The air between us crackled with electric tension. A change seemed to come over her like a switch was hit. Her face flushed, her eyes lightened with desire, and she licked her lips. “You want me.”
There was no point in denying it so I stood there like a fool.
“Well you’re in luck because I want you too,” she purred. “I don’t care if it's some kind of werewolf heat, all I know is that if I don’t get you inside me in the next five minutes, I might combust.”
“I can’t,” I groaned.
“Why not?” she asked cupping her breasts and offering them to me. “Don’t you like what you see?”
I groaned at the gorgeous sight of her stiffening peaks. “Fuck, yes. But Nathan forbade any of us from touching you. He’ll kill us if we do.”
A naughty smile crept across her lips. “What if I touch you instead?” She reached out and caressed my shaft with her uninjured hand.
Yesss. The feel of her soft skin against mine made my eyes roll back in my head. No. “I can’t. I won’t,” I repeated, but my traitorous body refused to move away from her touch. My instincts cried out to submit to this, to her.
She slid her hand back and forth in a practiced motion that had me clenching my jaw so tight my molars ached.
Feels so good. With a ragged gasp, I rocked against her palm. It’s been so long since a female chose me. Savage need ripped through me along with the urge to pick her up, throw her on the bed, and bury myself balls deep inside her. Can’t. Nathan.
Before my control frayed further, I pulled away, tore open the door, and ran like a coward into the storm.