by Jane Jamison
“Just answer the question, Bree.” Burton rubbed the back of his neck, looking more perturbed than angry now.
“He didn’t. I mean, I think he tried, but—” She hadn’t realized what Burton’s reaction meant until then. “Wait a minute. You’re all acting like it’s possible. Like The Allure is real. You believe Ron could’ve given me his allure, don’t you?”
Their expressions changed from anger to ones of surprise and guilt. Matt put his back to her while Burton and Ridge averted their gazes.
“Oh my God. You really are shifters, aren’t you? And Ron, too. That’s why you’re so upset. He’s a shifter, and you’re worried that he gave me The Allure.”
“Don’t go there, Bree,” warned Burton. “Don’t twist this around. We’re pissed off because you’re in bed with him. And that you promised him you’d”—he waved his hand, disgust filling his face—“do that thing you said you’d do. This has nothing to do with shifters.”
“The hell it doesn’t.” She couldn’t help but grin. As far as she was concerned, they’d finally admitted the truth. “You’re all shifters. Damn it. Just say it. Ron confirmed what I already knew.”
Matt jerked his chin at her. “We’re not going to do a damn thing, but you are.”
“What’s that? Run my fingers through your fur? Go on. Go ahead and shift. I’m not afraid.”
Matt stalked over to the closet and flung open the accordion-style door. He grabbed some folded sheets, turned, and flung them to her. She caught them but didn’t catch on.
“What am I supposed to do with these?” she asked.
His eyes blazed with amber bits, telling her his animal was close to the surface. If she pushed harder, would the beast take over?
“You’re going to spend the rest of the night in this room. Change the sheets, too. I don’t want Ron’s stink lingering. You can put the dirty sheets in the hamper in the bathroom.” He nodded toward the door to the left. “And take a shower, too.”
“You’re ordering me to clean myself and make the bed? Are you kidding me?”
“I don’t think he’s kidding, puttin’,” added Burton. “You’d best just do what Matt says.”
“And then what? Am I a prisoner? Are you locking me in here?” She laughed a short laugh, devoid of any real humor, then looked at the lock on the door. The home was older, and as such, the door could be locked from the other side. But they weren’t actually going to lock her up. Were they?
But another look at the men’s faces said they were deadly serious.
“Come on.” Matt bent his head toward the door, his attention set on Ridge and Burton. “We need to talk.”
She gaped after them as they turned toward the door. Clutching the sheet around her naked body, she scrambled out of bed. She made it halfway to the door when they started flinging her discarded clothes into the room. “What the fuck?”
Ridge dropped her panties to the floor then took hold of the doorknob. He held her phone, retrieved from her jeans, in his other hand. “We’ll talk to you in the morning, hon. Try to get some sleep. I have a feeling you’re going to need it.”
* * * *
Matt paced the living room from one end and back again. “How the fuck did this happen?”
Burton sat, elbows on his knees, in the big, comfy leather chair. “It’s easy enough to see. We let Ron sleep it off, and she thought he was one of us.”
Ridge stood, his hands shoved in his pockets, staring out the front window. “Let’s be glad nothing sexual happened.”
Matt stopped and glared at both men. “Nothing happened? We just found our mate in bed with Ron Gardner. In the bed we were saving for her. This is fucked up.”
Matt dragged in a hard breath, doing his best to calm down. But he couldn’t shake the memory of seeing Ron in bed with their hot mate. “How the hell couldn’t she tell it wasn’t one of us?”
Burton slouched back in the chair then pushed out of it and stalked to the wet bar. He poured a shot glass of whiskey, lifted it to the other two to silently ask if they wanted a drink, then poured them both shots. They came to his side and, as one, lifted their glasses and downed the drinks.
Matt closed his eyes, giving him that brief moment of relief as the whiskey burned its way down his throat. When he opened his eyes, he could see the same misery he was feeling reflected back to him from Burton’s and Ridge’s eyes.
Burton poured them a second shot and downed his without waiting for them. “Let’s just be thankful that Ron didn’t give her his allure.”
“But he tried.” Ridge drank his shot. “Damn him. He tried.”
“Fucking asshole.” Ron could count himself lucky if Matt didn’t track him down and skin him alive. “He had to have picked up my allure on her. Damn it. That’s supposed to keep other werelions away.”
“Not if they don’t follow the rules and back the hell off like they’re supposed to. Only scumbags like Ron ignore another werelion’s allure on a woman.”
“The real question is whether or not she got any of Ron’s allure.”
Matt hadn’t wanted to think the same thing as Burton, but there it was. Out in the open and now they had to deal with it. “We’ll have to find out.”
“I don’t think she did,” said Ridge. “And he said he didn’t.”
Burton snorted. “Yeah. Like I trust anything he says.”
But Ridge didn’t agree. “No. Think about it. If she’d taken his allure, even a small part of it, she would’ve had a fit when we tossed him out. But she didn’t.”
“True enough.” Still, did that mean she was clean, unaffected? Or had she simply not had time to react? “We should’ve given her the full allure when we had the chance.”
“We were taking it slow, remember?” Burton started to pour yet a third glass but put the bottle and shot glass down. “All that’s in the past. Let’s assume she didn’t take any of Ron’s allure. What do we do now?”
“No, man, we can’t just assume that. We can’t take that chance.” Matt gritted his teeth, hating that they still had to discuss Ron. “First, we figure out what to do if she did take his breath.”
“We keep her locked up until it wears off.” Yet Ridge didn’t look confident in his answer. “However long that takes.”
“You’re talking about kidnapping a woman.” Burton shook his head. “Nah, man. That’s not an option.”
“It’s the only option we have,” argued Ridge.
Matt worked his neck, trying to relieve some of the tension setting up shop there. “Strictly speaking, we’ve already kidnapped her. We locked her in the room.”
“Yeah,” admitted Burton. “I guess we have.”
“Okay, then we’re kidnappers. So what’s next?” Ridge took the bottle and poured himself another drink.
“We do the only thing we can do. Maybe what we should’ve done from the very start.” Matt’s mind whirled. Their future would be decided soon. Very soon.
“And what’s that?” asked Burton.
“We admit that we’re werelions, and we shift for her. Then, if she accepts us, we give her our allure. If Ron did give her his allure, it’ll wear off, but ours won’t. Especially once we’ve claimed her.”
Ridge and Burton remained quiet, obviously reflecting on what Matt had said.
“It’s our only real option,” added Matt, feeling the need to convince them.
“I think Matt’s right.” Yet Burton’s expression didn’t show he was confident in the plan. “It’s not how we wanted things to go, but it’s the only way now.”
“And when do we do this?” asked Ridge.
“Tomorrow morning.” Matt glanced out the window as the burgeoning sunrise cast a golden glow on the horizon. “This morning.”
“And what about Winnie? What if she gets in the way?” asked Burton.
“She won’t. If we’re lucky, the Landerson men are keeping her busy.” Matt pulled Bree’s phone out of his pocket. “And if she tries to get in touch with Bree, then I’ll do the
answering. As Bree.”
Matt chuckled, imagining Bree’s reaction. “Bree’s not going to like that.”
“By the time she finds out, it’ll all be over,” added Ridge.
* * * *
Bree was showered and dressed, making herself as pretty as possible with basically no fresh clothes or makeup, and waiting for the men when they finally knocked on the bedroom door soon after the sun had grown full in the sky. She held her breath, turning to face the door. Were they going to tell her to leave? Or would they, as she hoped, ask her to stay?
They took her breath away as they always did whenever she saw them. It was as though she’d forgotten how incredibly handsome they were. They oozed a raw masculinity that few men possessed, but there was a gentleness only real men could show without seeming effeminate. She clasped her hands together to stop them from shaking.
“Hi, baby.” Matt led the way as the men entered the room.
She held back the urge to let out an audible sigh. Matt wasn’t angry any longer. Still, that didn’t mean she had to give in easily to whatever they wanted. “Morning. Am I free to go now?”
Part of her shouted at her to shut up. To beg them to tell her to stay. Yet, the independent part of her, the part that wanted men who could stand up to her, was ready to leave. If they didn’t want her, then she’d hold her head high and walk out of the room. She could collapse in a ball of tears later.
“You can do anything you want to do.”
She arched an eyebrow at Ridge. “Can I have my phone back? Winnie must be going out of her mind.”
Ridge pulled her phone out of his pocket and handed it to her. Their fingers brushed, sending an electric current through her. When he backed away, she could feel the loss of his touch.
“She’s fine. I told her you stayed here with us last night.”
She swiped her thumb over the phone, reading the text messages. Surprised, she looked to him for confirmation. “You pretended you were me. She thought she was texting with me.”
“Guilty as charged.” Ridge shrugged. “But we didn’t want her to worry. I mean, it’s not as though you were ever in any danger.”
She should’ve been infuriated. Instead, she had to hold back a smile. As long as her friend wasn’t worried, then it was all right. Besides, judging by the texts, Winnie was too involved to worry much, anyway.
“Okay. Then I guess it’s time for me to leave.” Did her voice sound as unsure as she felt? As afraid?
“Again. If that’s what you want, then you can leave.” Burton undid the top button of his shirt. “But if you want to see us change, then you might want to stick around.”
He continued to unbutton his shirt, catching all of her attention. “Um, what are you doing?” As though her mind and her body didn’t already know.
Burton started toward her, his fingers working on the silver belt buckle. With quick smooth moves, he had his belt undone and the button on his jeans popped.
“Guys? What’s going on?”
“You win,” said Ridge, his dark eyes blazing with amber as he heeled off his boots.
“I do?” She skimmed her tongue over her top lip. “What’d I win?”
“Well, for one thing,” said Matt, “you win the truth.”
“The truth about what?” They’d moved closer, sending her heart into a fast, hard rhythm. Her body hummed for their touch, ached for a stroke of their tongues along her sensitized skin. “Wait. Burton said something about changing, didn’t he?” Yet, she’d been so thrilled to see them that she hadn’t been listening all that intently. Had Burton really said it? Or had she imagined it?
“Don’t play dumb now, hon. You know what we’re talking about.”
Her gaze jumped from Ridge to Burton and finally to Matt. “Are you finally telling me that you’re shifters?”
“That’s right. And we’re about to show you, too.” Matt shrugged off his shirt then started working his jeans as he, like his brother, heeled off his boots.
Questions jumbled in her head, unasked. Instead, emotion replaced thinking. She bit her lower lip and kept her focus glued to them. They stopped a few feet away and continued disrobing.
“You’re shifters.”
“Yeah, puttin’. We’re shifters. Werelions to be specific.”
She pulled in what little air she could before releasing it then starting over again. Yet her lungs never seemed to get filled completely. “Werelions. Like the one I saw.”
Burton kicked his jeans to the side. “Well, yeah. Of course, we’re men. Not women.”
Judging from his huge, erect cock pointed straight at her, he was absolutely right. In a matter of less than a minute, Ridge and Matt were just as naked as Burton.
“Oh, wow,” she murmured. Granted, she’d seen them naked before, but seeing them again was nothing short of spectacular. How could any three men be so fucking hot?
She lifted her hand to undo her top button. If she didn’t get them between her legs, sucking on her tits, and ramming a cock into her ass soon, she’d break apart.
“Hold up, baby,” said Matt. “We’ve admitted that we’re werelions, but we have to know something else before we take you. Something more before we show you what we are.”
She trembled, from want, from nerves. “Yes?”
“We want to know if you can ever see yourself as our mate. We want to know if you could ever love us. As men and as shifters.”
She stalled, both her mind and her body failing her. “What did you say?” The question came out as a whisper.
“We want you as our mate.” Burton glanced at the other two men as though asking silent permission. “Look, we know this is probably coming out of left field and all…and it’s fast. Real fast.”
“Not at all the way we’d planned to ask our mate,” interjected Ridge.
“But we’re asking all the same,” said Matt.
“You want me to be your mate? Your shifter mate?”
“You don’t have to change, you know. If you want to stay fully human, then that’s okay by us.” Burton spoke quickly, almost as though he was too afraid to speak slowly in case she said no. “You can stay human, or we can bite you and change you into a werelion. There are good things and bad things about being a shifter, but like I said, it’s totally up to you.”
Matt slapped Burton on the shoulder. “Slow the hell down.” Yet he seemed as nervous as Burton, clearing his throat before he began again. “We want you to take The Allure from us. From all three of us.” His countenance hardened for a moment then lessened. “It was fucked up that Ron tried to give you some of his, but we get what happened and don’t blame you. If you take all three of our allures, then that will make you ours.”
“He may have tried, but I don’t think he did. I don’t feel any differently toward him and I sure as hell don’t want him. Not even a little bit. But let me get this straight. If I don’t take your allures, you won’t mate me? Is The Allure supposed to make me love you?” Did she have to prove her love for them?
“Hey, no. That’s not it at all,” said Ridge. “Right, guys? Allure or not, we want you as our mate. It’s just that werelions want to give their allure to their mate.”
“The Allure doesn’t make you love us.” Burton moved, jiggling his cock.
She caught the movement. “Stay still. It’s hard enough to talk with you three naked.”
“The Allure draws a mate to a shifter. That’s all. And it wears off in time. So if you don’t care anything for us, then you won’t care for us after our allures wear off,” explained Matt.
“Besides, I thought you wanted us to give you The Allure,” added Burton.
“I did. I do. But for the right reasons.”
Matt took her hands in his. “Forget The fucking Allure. All that matters is whether or not you care for us. And whether you want to be our mate or not.”
Ridge edged closer, too. “Do you, hon? Do you want us as much as we want you?”
“Yeah. And not just for a quick f
uck, either.” Burton grinned, his dimples showing. “Not that we’re turning down a quick fuck, mind you, but you get what I mean.”
She couldn’t hold back any longer. The joy filling her had to be released. “I want you, too. I’ve wanted all of you since the first time I laid eyes on you.” She grinned back at Burton. “And not just for a quick fuck, either.”
“Then say it, hon.” Matt skimmed his hand down her arm. “Say you want to be our mate.”
“I want to be your mate.” She’d never said any truer words. “And I want to know what The Allure feels like.” She gave them a saucy look. “Allure away, big boys.”
Burton picked her up, eliciting a squeal of delight from her. Yet instead of gently placing her on top of the bed, he held her over it then dropped her. She bounced, laughing.
Her laughter suddenly stopped.
Chapter Eight
Bree’s breath caught in her throat. The men had changed. Not into their lion forms, but the real change was easy enough to see.
Gone was their humor.
Gone were their smiles.
Instead, they’d somehow grown larger, more intimidating, and, incredibly, much sexier. The air thickened around her with sexual energy. Their eyes, each sporting flecks of amber, burned into her as though they were searing holes right through to her soul.
For a moment, she was frightened. But soon enough, the instinctual knowledge that they would never harm her swept the fear away. Their need, their adoration for her gleamed in their eyes.
She didn’t dare speak. She didn’t dare move.
Were their animals rising to the surface? Were they about to lose control? But would they lose control as men or as beasts? Part of her hoped for both.
They fell on her then, an attack of a sexual nature. Burton picked her up again and tossed her on top of a suddenly prone Matt. Her landing knocked the air from her, but she would’ve lost her breath anyway when Matt’s cock pressed against her crotch.
“Hey, baby.” Matt smiled with a wickedness that sent heat flooding her pussy. He cupped her breasts, fondling them, while never taking his eyes off hers.