Hearts Unleashed: A Limited Edition Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection

by C. D. Gorri

  Both of the moms looked at one another.

  “Well, there is the relief of finding out before you were legally bound to him.” Caro looked like she was thinking.

  “I’m sure it’s a relief that you could walk away.” Andi was also thoughtful.

  “Is he really that bad? I mean, he was bad as a kid, but I was happy for the last couple of years.”

  Neither woman spoke. They both looked at me.

  “Ah. It was that bad.” I sighed.

  “Do you miss him?”

  “No, not at all.”

  Bran’s hand slid into mine under the counter.

  “It’s just… I feel so stupid, you know? How did I miss who he really was?”

  “Love is blind.” Caro was diplomatic. “Let’s table this and eat. Conan’s omelets are delicious.” She smiled at the tall man who was passing plates around. “Then we’ll need to talk to your father.” She gave her son, my mate, a loaded look.

  One I couldn’t interpret.

  It made me think this was just the beginning of their discussions.

  Once everyone had a plate, he pulled a pan of hash browns from the oven. “Dig in.”

  No one spoke as they ate. Eating around wolves was a serious business. I’d always noticed that. I liked to—well, I used to like to talk and take my time while I ate, but I’d gotten used to eating, enjoying the food, and getting lost in your own thoughts, mostly in silence. I could remember my mom talking and laughing, and when she came to visit, my sister would join in. My dad wasn’t around at dinnertime much. After all these years, I’d gotten used to the quiet. I’d made peace with my desire to commune at the dinner table by trying to talk after dinner was done.

  I might not be a wolf, but I wasn’t ready for any other world.

  A slight ping made Bran pull his phone from his pocket again. He stared at the screen, his face going pale under his tan. “Oh, shit.” The words came out as a whisper. Or a prayer. Then he looked at me. “Lena, can you excuse me for a moment?”

  Caro’s eyes darted to Bran, but she didn’t say anything.

  “Sure.” I was confused.

  “I mean, I’ll bring you into the den. You can finish your breakfast there. Just for a minute.” He was already taking my plate and moving around me.

  “Sure.” I was used to this. I’d been kicked out of the room numerous times with the Darkbanes when it came to pack business.

  Bran, my plate still in his hand, went over to the window. “Shit shit shit. Lena, come on.”

  “Bran, could you be any ruder?” Caro had gotten up.

  Andi was frowning.

  “It’s all right.” I waved a hand. I guessed it would be—at some point.

  Conan had the same look on his face he’d had when I first met him. Hard, set, ready to defend. He set down his plate and came out from behind the island. He was moving fast, faster than I was used to, and I tried to stop so that I didn’t bump him, but it was of no use.

  I crashed into him and pitched forward.

  Conan caught me, his long, capable fingers holding me securely.

  A buzz started where his fingers touched me, and I whipped my head around to stare up at him.

  He was staring at me, his mouth slightly open and a pink color in his cheeks.

  My body started to shake a little. His hands felt… wonderful. How could I have ever thought he was cold or too angry? He was worried and concerned. It was clear that family was everything to him. He wanted nothing more than to make things right for his family. No matter what it took.

  And he was so, so beautiful.

  He was the night to Bran’s day.

  I wanted them both. I needed them both.

  They were both mine.

  “Conan!” Bran’s voice came from behind me.

  There was a slam, and then a woman’s voice called out. “Bran!”

  “What are you doing here now?” Bran almost yelped. “I thought we’d meet later in the week!” There was no mistaking the near panic in his voice.

  “It’s a damn good thing I am! You weren’t kidding about the mate bond!” The woman was obscenely cheerful.

  “Fuck.” Bran’s word was whispered.

  “Sharona, we weren’t expecting you.” Caro’s cool tones interrupted.

  “Bran called me, told me he had to make an appointment, had to see me. Something about a mate bond. So, I came right over.” The woman laughed. “Haven’t seen one of them in a long time, and this one, whoo boy!”

  I felt a hand pat my shoulder. I had no idea who it was. I couldn’t look at anyone but Conan yet.

  How had I missed how gorgeous his eyes were? I wanted to fall into them and never leave.

  “This is strong. We’ll have some work to do, untangling it all, but it can be done. Don’t worry.” The woman didn’t sound stressed at all.

  She sounded almost as good as I felt.

  “I thought I’d see you next week.” Bran’s repeated words were dull and flat.

  “No, sir!” There was a thump.

  Conan finally righted me, and I looked around to see a petite woman with white hair that fluffed around her head, holding a cane. That must have been what thumped on the floor. She had on a pair of lilac pants and a flowered purple top with a white sweater. Large white pearls peeped out of the neckline of her top.

  “Mate bonds are a sticky mess. We need to get out in front of them before maximum offense is taken.” The woman laughed then as she gazed up at Conan. Her eyes were warm and fond. “Finally found the right woman, have you, sour one? Boy, you have made a mess for me!”

  “I didn’t call you about Conan.” Bran’s voice was still deadly flat. “I called you about me.”

  The room went silent.

  Chapter Eight

  Bran

  Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

  That’s the only thing I could think, the only word in my mind, one after another. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Why was Conan standing there with his hands still on Lena, my Lena? Why did she have the same look on her face that she’d had when I’d taken her hand last night?

  And why in the fuck of all the fucks did Conan look like I felt last night?

  Like he’d been hit with a mallet and left on the side of the road for dead and didn’t mind one damn bit.

  That’s exactly what it looked like.

  And I knew exactly what it felt like.

  “What?” Sharona looked at me, then Conan, then Lena, and finally back at me. “This is your mate, Bran?”

  “And mine,” Conan said slowly, never taking his eyes off Lena. He looked stunned.

  I knew how he felt.

  Lena was still looking at my brother like he was the greatest thing since… since indoor plumbing. Like he was a miracle.

  Like she’d looked at me last night. And this morning.

  And now I was going to have to share her.

  Everything else aside—I didn’t even want to think about all the things that had to happen, not only for me but now for Conan—I didn’t want to share her.

  Damn it.

  It didn’t look like I would have a choice.

  They had a mate bond, as surely as Lena and I did. I could feel it, although not as strong as I could feel Lena’s emotions. She and Conan were connected.

  Forever.

  Just as Lena and I were.

  Damn it.

  This was not how I pictured the big reveal to my family going. So far, things had gone well. But now—in fact, I didn’t think I could have come up with anything worse, outside of Zane Darkbane showing up and saying he was her bonded mate. And that included the upcoming conversation with my dad. And Morena.

  I loved my brother. Dearly.

  That didn’t mean I wanted to share the only woman I could ever love with him.

  Fuuuuuuuck.

  Chapter Nine

  Lena

  After hearing their sons, Andi grabbed Caro’s hand, holding it tightly. There was some kind of communication going on between them, bu
t I didn’t have a clue as to what it was.

  Bran had been right about one thing. The bond between his moms was strong. Really strong.

  Conan’s hand tightened on my waist, and everything went dark.

  Was I in the moonlit room of the dream? Vision? I’d been here this morning at Bran’s place before Conan came in and scared the daylights out of me. The same sad woman was there, and she was holding her hands over her heart. She must still be holding the thing she passed through the candle, I realized.

  It was like picking up in a movie where you’d left off.

  There was noise around me from a distance. It must be everyone still in the kitchen. But I couldn’t pay attention to them. This woman, she was who I needed to see.

  The woman looked up, and her eyes glistened with unshed tears, tiny crystals around her eyes in the moonlight. The hood on her head slipped back a little further. It was like she could see me, as though she were looking directly into my eyes, even though I knew I wasn’t there. Her lips moved, and it was as though she was trying to tell me something, that she wanted to share something with me—

  “Lena!” I blinked, and I was back in the Blackwood’s kitchen.

  “What happened?” Bran was cupping my face.

  Conan held me in his arms.

  Oh.

  This was… interesting. Weird. Maybe scary.

  “Did you faint?” Conan asked.

  “Are you pregnant?” Sharona called out.

  “No!” Bran and Conan spoke with me.

  Which could have been funny, and might be, like ten years from now.

  Right now, it was awkward as ass.

  “I can stand up.” I felt like I needed to ease the tension between the brothers first.

  Because I didn’t want them to fight, and they were both giving each other the eye. The one where you know all it would take is a word or even a look, and the firebomb would go off and burn down everything nearby.

  Conan carefully steadied me, and when he let go of me, Bran ran his hand down my arm. I wasn’t sure whether he was reassuring himself or me.

  I positioned myself between them so that my arms were touching both Blackwood men. They both needed something from me. I could feel that. This was the best I could do at the moment.

  Sharona came over, her cane punctuating her progress. “So let’s get this straight. You both have bonded with her? What’s your name, girl?” She peered at me.

  “I’m Lena Raff.”

  “I thought you were Lena Darkbane.” She leaned in closer, and her eyes narrowed behind her shiny metal glasses.

  “I have never been Lena Darkbane.” Although up until yesterday, I was proud to be thought of as a Darkbane. “I just haven’t used my true name all that much.”

  “I’m Sharona Nightstalker. I’m what you’d call the go-between for the Blackwood clan. So none of these hotheads go for a meeting and end up killing someone. They send me in first. Like my name!” She cackled at her own humor. “When stalking is a good thing!”

  Which was dad humor. At best.

  “You’ve got yourself kind of a pickle.” Sharona looked between the three of us, not bothered at all. “But pickles are my specialty. I’ll help you two out of it.”

  “Why would Lena bond with both of them?” Caro spoke from behind Sharona. Caro watched the three of us like we were a bomb that would go off if she moved too quickly.

  Sharona turned. “That I don’t know.” She looked back at me. “But it happened the same way with both of them?”

  “Yes. I felt the same way when I touched their hands, looked into their eyes. Bran last night, and then Conan just now.” I would never forget that. With either of them. Not ever.

  Bran’s hand slid into mine. He squeezed my hand gently, and I felt myself let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.

  One of the moms sighed. I couldn’t tell which one, although I’d put money on Andi.

  “That’s interesting.” Sharona looked as though someone had given her the best puzzle ever. “I’ll have to consider this. But you two, we have some business to attend to. I’ll need to put on my diplomat’s hat.”

  “Sweet hell.” Conan let out a groan. “This isn’t good. How could I forget?”

  “Everything else just fades away.” Bran looked over my head at his brother. “It’s not possible to think about anything else until it shows up.” He glared at Sharona.

  Why was this Sharona’s fault?

  I was missing something, something really big. I felt anxiety spike from both men on either side of me. “What is going on?” I demanded. I’d been ignoring it, but that would stop right now. “You two need to start talking this instant. Between the two of you, you’re making me crazy!”

  “You can feel their emotions?” Andi took a step toward the three of us.

  “Yes. Isn’t that normal?”

  “Not this early.” It was Caro who answered me.

  She and Andi exchanged another one of their looks. This meant something to them. Caro’s frown deepened, the lines between her eyes lengthening.

  “What?” I wasn’t going to be kept in the dark any longer.

  “There are several things. All three of the Blackwood heirs are betrothed.” Andi didn’t want to tell me, but she didn’t shy away from the truth. “Now that two of them have mate bonded with another, Sharona will need to deal with the betrothals and try to keep the other families from getting all bent out of shape.”

  Bran glared. “You mean, end the betrothals.”

  I dropped Bran’s hand and stepped out from between him and Conan. Then I turned, taking a few deep breaths. “You’re betrothed?” The words came out as if they were each their own sentence. “And you couldn’t mention this last night?” I gave Bran not just the stink eye but the if-looks-could-kill-evil stink eye.

  Bran opened his mouth, then closed it.

  It was kind of hard to find a defense. I could give him that.

  Conan snickered.

  “Hey, I didn’t hear you pop up in defense of your fiancée, either.” I rounded on the tall man. “In fact, what you did was put your arm around me and go all caveman, claiming mine, mine, mine.” My anger rose like a wave. “Is there any man who doesn’t lie to me, either right to my face or by omission?” I stomped away toward the front window.

  Everything that had felt wonderful seven seconds ago tasted like ashes. I could feel the anguish from both Conan and Bran. They didn’t want to hurt me, and it hurt them to know they had.

  Neither one liked being yelled at, either, but tough shit.

  You didn’t just forget to mention a fiancée.

  These were my mates. I didn’t want to give them up. But I felt for the other women involved. They didn’t ask for this. To be discarded because another was chosen.

  At least these two unknown women would know that the mate bond was to blame—they weren’t like me. Their fiancé didn’t choose to be with another. Not like me.

  At that moment, I wanted to kick Zane in the balls again.

  “You both suck right now,” I spoke without directing my words at anyone, and I didn’t raise my voice, but it was clear to whom I was speaking.

  The words made my mate bond—with both of them—ache.

  This was really going to suck if it made it hard to argue with your mate. Life was not all roses and rainbows. I’d learned that early on.

  What I’d also learned was those who were supposed to protect me wouldn’t.

  My father.

  Zane.

  All the Darkbanes.

  Liars.

  Would it be the same with the mate bond? Learning that the truth had been kept from me right from the start made me worried.

  Bran had been amazing for a couple of hours. Face him with the truth, and he stood there with his mouth opening and closing like a fish who found itself on dry land.

  I had no idea what Conan’s deal was.

  I crossed my arms and stared out the window, not really seeing anything. In
the course of twenty-four hours, I’d lost a fiancé. A best friend. Found out I had a mate bond, then lost my virginity in the most amazing sex ever. Sex that promised only to get better. Then I was gifted—because that’s how I saw it—with another mate bond, with another amazing man.

  And both men were already promised elsewhere.

  Neither man had informed me of this fact.

  I sighed. Sofia Darkbane had said that you could get out of it, but she implied it was as messy as hell. This felt messy, and it was very likely things would get worse.

  However, facts were facts. This was my life now. I had a mate bond with not one but two men. They were brothers. I didn’t think that was a negative.

  As long as they could break off their engagements.

  Should I not be intimate with them until they did? Was that the etiquette? I didn’t know.

  The voices of everyone else in the room came back into focus. I could hear Caro’s voice and then Sharona’s, but they were speaking quietly.

  It was time to face whatever was happening. I took a few breaths, inhaling deeply and trying to center myself. I could do this. I would do this.

  This was my life, and I wasn’t going to be a passenger in it anymore, mate bond or no mate bond.

  When I walked back to where Conan and Bran stood, both of them were eying me carefully.

  “How are you?” Bran asked.

  I noted that Sharona, Andi, and Caro were watching us.

  Something had happened, but once again, no one was letting me in on it.

  Fine.

  “I’m not great. I’m happy about the bond I have with the two of you. It feels right. It feels like this is what is supposed to be.”

  The look of relief on both men’s faces wasn’t imagined.

  “But this is a mess. And neither of you were honest with me.” I held up a hand as they both opened their mouths. “No, don’t protest. It’s true. You slept with me without mentioning your other commitment. You should have told me.” I looked right at Bran.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry. I…” He looked away, running a hand through his hair. “I didn’t know what to do. I mean, everyone knows about mate bonds, but no one actually has one. It’s like an urban legend.”