Dragon Blood

Dragon Blood By

Madelaine Montague © copyright by Madelaine Montague, July 2010 Cover Art by Eliza Black, July 2010 ISBN 978-1-60394-445-8 New Concepts Publishing Lake Park, GA 31636 www.newconceptspublishing.com

This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.

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Madelaine Montague

2

Chapter One Special Agent Marlee Madison paused, checking her position and then glancing uneasily at the glint of sunlight pouring through the lower branches of the thick forest that surrounded her. It was nearly sunset. Before much more time passed, she would be stumbling along through cave-like darkness, blind, through unfamiliar territory, and potential prey to things a good bit more dangerous than the men she’d been tracking. They had been tracking … although from where she stood, it looked to her as if she’d become separated from the other agents taking part in the exercise. After carefully surveying her surroundings for any sign that the suspects they’d been tracking might be hidden close enough that they could overhear her, she decided it was safe enough to try the radio. Transferring her service revolver to one hand, she scrubbed the dampness from her other palm along the leg of her trousers and unclipped the walkie-talkie from her belt. “Team alpha, come back,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper. With the volume nearly at its lowest setting, she lifted the radio to her ear to listen for a response. There was no answer to her hail. Nothing but static echoed back to her. Frowning, she lowered the radio and studied it. The casing was banged up from her fall a little earlier but the damned things were supposed to be practically indestructible! Maybe she’d knocked it off the frequency in the fall? It looked like the right setting, though. After glancing around again, Marlee shoved her pistol back into her holster and tried adjusting the dial. “Anyone? Team alpha? Team beta? This is Special Agent Madison, come back!” Again, she picked up nothing but static, although she tried several different frequencies. Anger flickered through her. Granted, she’d been focused on following the signs left by their target group, but if everyone else had been, how the hell could she have gotten so far from them that she was out of range? Maybe it was just interference? She tipped her head back and studied the rise above her. She’d allowed herself to become too focused on her prey and not nearly cognizant enough of her surroundings or the rest of the team, she realized in dismay. She’d caught hell over that more than once during training and it had begun to look like that particular failing was going to cost her the prize. Or worse. Shrugging off her uneasiness with an effort, she considered the situation. The exercise had been a planned four day manhunt scenario through dense forest for a group of bank robbers who’d kidnapped a clerk. The teams tracking them were supposed to meet up at sunset each day, however, since the bureau hadn’t wanted to risk losing any trainees in the exercise. And it was nearly sunset. Yep! She’d screwed up—again! And all because she’d been determined she was going to bag a bad guy her first day out and prove to the rest of the team that she hadn’t been ‘helped’ through training because she had a pussy and knew how to use it! Well, fuck!

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Was it close enough to sunset that the ‘bad guys’ would already be making camp? Or was she running the risk of becoming another ‘hostage’ if she came out of cover to find the rest of her team? She glanced at her watch and then squinted at the sunlight again. ‘Officially’, she should have at least an hour till sunset, but the terrain in this particular area made that an iffy prospect. The gloom of dusk was already descending upon her surroundings and she had a bad feeling she didn’t have an hour to locate the rendezvous point. Clipping her walkie-talkie to her belt again, she pulled her map and compass from her pocket. She’d left the trail approximately thirty minutes earlier. She’d noted the time and looked for a landmark. She’d descended down the ridge marked on the map … at least twenty feet—rapidly—after she’d stepped in a patch of loose pebbles and lost her balance. She shouldn’t be more than a mile from the trail, she decided. She thought it was closer to half a mile, but figuring a mile at the outside and two more to the rendezvous point marked on the map—she should be able to make it to the site before dark, she thought. After studying the map, the compass, and her surroundings until she was certain she knew the direction she needed to take, she folded the map again and carefully replaced the map and compass in her pocket, buttoning the flap to make sure she didn’t lose them if she took another tumble. Straightening, she adjusted her backpack and began climbing the slope. If she could just make it to camp, she could cover her ass and no one needed to know she’d gotten lost off from the group. Not that it would look good that she’d deliberately ignored protocol, but that beat the hell out of the alternative—‘loose cannon’ still sounded better than ‘liability’ to her! She’d been climbing the steep slope for maybe twenty minutes, pausing from time to time to check her bearings and listen for any sound indicating someone else in her vicinity when she thought she spotted the edge of the trail above her. Her heart leapt with relief and she made her second serious blunder of the day. She was in such a rush to reach the point where she thought she’d seen the trail that she threw caution and good sense to the wind. She was on top of the bear before she even knew it was there. Unfortunately, she caught the bear off guard, too, and the bear wasn’t happy about it. Uttering a challenging bellow, the bear stood up on its hind legs. Marlee’s first inkling that she was about to be majorly fubar (fucked up beyond all recognition) was the shadow that darkened her vision just before the paw made impact with her head. The scream that peeled the skin from her throat was instinctive, but she’d barely reached the highest decibel before the blow threw her into a deep, black well. **** Eli’s head whipped toward his brother, John, as the enraged bellow of a bear cut through the stillness of the forest. For a split second, their gazes met—before the terrified scream of a woman galvanized them. Almost as one, they launched themselves into a run in the direction from which the sound had emanated, racing through the familiar terrain at speeds that far exceeded anything any other animal, man or beast, could achieve. Despite that, regardless of the fact that the rough terrain posed little in the way of obstacles when they could bound over five or six foot tall shrubs with barely a pause to gather themselves before or to regain their balance afterwards, the sight that met them when they reached the scene of attack was appalling. The woman was as limp as a ragdoll and bloodied and torn beyond recognition and the bear had the woman in his maw, shaking her.

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A red haze of fury swept over Eli. Uttering a roar that vied with the bear’s, he launched himself at it, driving his balled fist into the bear’s snout. The bear bellowed in pain and dropped his victim. Before Eli could follow with another punch, John drove himself bodily into the bear, slamming into the beast with such force that it staggered backwards several steps and fell to all fours. The bear heaved itself up onto its hind legs again almost at once, sniffing the air and uttering threatening growls, but the scent it caught took the urge to fight out of it. It backed away as the two men stalked it, slowly circling. Snarling, it lunged at first one and then the other, swiping at them with its meaty paws and drawing blood as its nails bit into the bare skin of their chests. The smell of blood maddened the bear, but it maddened the beasts stalking it even more. In concert, they launched themselves at the bear, grappling for a hold, rolling with it when it lost its balance and tumbled to the ground. John curled a stout arm around the bear’s head, his muscles straining and bulging as he slowly but surely twisted the bear’s head as far as it would go and then snapped its neck like a twig. Eli, who’d grabbed its lower jaw when the bear snapped at him, had torn the bone, skin, and ligaments, ripping its jaw from its head before it dawned on him that the fight had gone out of the bear. He leapt back as the heavy beast slumped toward the ground. His chest heaving with his exertions, he stared at the bear for a long moment to make certain it wouldn’t rise again and finally turned his attention to the woman. John had already bounded from the back of the bear, he discovered, and was crouched beside the woman. “She’s alive,” he said grimly as Eli joined him, crouching on her other side. Eli’s lips tightened as he met his brother’s gaze. “We agreed to leave the affairs of humans to the humans,” John said quietly. Eli flicked a look at the woman struggling to hang on to life. “Fuck it!” he growled, slipping his arms beneath her and carefully lifting her. “They’ll be looking for her,” John said warningly, “and you know who’ll take the blame for her condition when they find her. If they capture even one of us, they’ll find out what we are and they’ll hunt the others down.” Eli snorted derisively. “Humans don’t believe in dragons anymore—and they’ve no reason to when they’ve slain them all save us.” “I don’t want to leave her either, but look at her!” John said angrily. “We can’t save her. We were too late.” “She’s still alive,” Eli said coldly. “When and if she dies, I’ll agree with you.” Marlee was drifting in and out of consciousness, but she heard snatches of the conversation. Wondering if any of it was even real, she responded anyway, or tried. “Help … don’t want … die,” she whispered, or thought she did. Eli glanced at her face sharply. Her eyes were still closed, but she was more aware of her surroundings than he’d thought. Shifting her weight to one arm, he curled the arm supporting her shoulders so that he could place a palm over her eyes and sealed them to prevent her from seeing them. She heard us. She won’t remember even if she survives, Eli said pointedly. We’re risking discovery, Eli! And there’s more at stake than the two of us. We don’t have the right to decide for all! What are we going to do with her, anyway? We don’t have the magic of our ancestors! We can’t heal her.

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She’s bleeding to death while we argue! Get out of my way if you don’t want any part of this. I’m taking her to the lair. Gods damn it, Eli! I didn’t say I didn’t want to help. I just don’t see it doing any good! We can’t if we don’t try! Eli growled, pushing past John and beginning to race through the woods as he had before, moving almost as swiftly burdened with the small woman as he had without any burdens. John turned to stare after him for a long moment and finally followed—more slowly, taking the time to cover their tracks until they reached the rocky slopes of the mountain where their lair lay. Once they’d begun moving over the rocks, there was little to mark their path beyond the occasional droplet of blood and he thought they’d covered enough ground to make detection unlikely. Leaving the blood for the moment, he hurried to join Eli and the woman. He discovered once he’d entered the lair that Eli had settled her carefully on the floor of the cave and was busy tearing her clothing off. With mixed feelings, he joined his brother, pulling off her boots and socks as Eli unfastened the belt around her waist and jerked it through the loops. In a few moments, they had her stripped completely. John’s heart sank as he studied the gashes across her formerly smooth skin from the bear’s claws and even those paled beside the jagged tears from the bites. Gods have pity! She was such a pretty little thing, too. Even Eli seemed taken aback by the extent of the damage, to suffer doubts that he could do anything at all for her. Abruptly, he leaned toward her and began to lick the closest wound. John frowned. You think that will help, he asked doubtfully? It heals us, doesn’t it? John considered that and finally shrugged. Instead of pointing out that they were dragons and that was why it served them well, he shifted along the cave floor and repositioned himself to help to bathe her wounds. A strange sensation flowed through him the moment he tasted her blood on his tongue—a tingling warmth. He paused, glancing toward Eli, wondering if he’d felt the same odd current. Shaking it off after a moment, he focused on his task again, trying to ignore the odd circumstance. Within a very few moments, he discovered he had no trouble ignoring it. In point of fact, a strange fever seemed to sweep through him. His pulse began to race. Heat poured through him. His balls tightened until it felt as if there was a tight band around them and blood surged into his cock until it was pounding so painfully he lost focus of anything else. He began lathing her more and more feverishly—her cheek and neck and then her arms and breasts. When he could find no more blood, he sat back, searching her with his gaze for more. It flickered through his mind that the tears and cuts had vanished with the blood, but he was too focused on finding more to lap to consider the significance of it. Eli, he discovered, had bathed her torso and hips and legs and then had pushed her thighs apart and buried his mouth against her mons. He was lapping at her cleft as hungrily as he’d lapped at her wounds only moments … minutes? ... before. John’s throat closed as if from deep thirst. “Turn her over,” he said hoarsely. “I need to check her back.” Eli’s head jerked upward. He stared at John blankly for a handful of seconds, his amber eyes wild and blazing with the same fire John felt burning inside himself. Almost reluctantly, he moved her thighs together and caught her hip, rolling her onto her side.

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John’s heart leapt when he saw more wounds on her back. He dove for them only to discover that Eli had, as well. Rage flickered through him. “Mine!” he growled, meeting Eli’s challenging gaze. “Mine!” Eli snarled back at him. A soft groan from the woman redirected their attention to her. After studying her for several long moments, their gazes clashed again. John bristled as Eli very deliberately lowered his head and lathed his tongue along the woman’s wounds. “You would’ve left her to die,” he growled. “She’s mine.” Fury raced through John … and a sense of guilt he wasn’t accustomed to, but that only made him angrier when he knew he’d only reminded Eli of their pact. “I would not!” he denied hotly. “I only urged caution! She isn’t one of us! She’s human.” “She’s mine,” Eli growled. John wrestled with the urge to settle the argument with battle. “Ours,” he said finally, reluctantly, but it had occurred to him that neither would have her if they abandoned her to her wounds to fight one another. “She’s human—not a mate—and if she were a dragoness we would still have to share. A battle would only settle who mated her first.” Eli seemed inclined to dispute that for several moments. Shaking his head after a moment, he stared at the woman, frowning in confusion. He didn’t object when John leaned down to resume his ministrations, however. After a moment, he joined him. When they’d finished, Eli saw with a sense of satisfaction that her flesh was as flawless once more as if the beast hadn’t mauled her. The graying color of death had fled, as well. Her skin was pink with health. Her skin was smooth and sweet to his tongue. Her scent mingled with his own—and John’s which was less appealing—but it was as heady as strong wine. He’d healed her, brought her back from the brink of death. She belonged to him. He lifted his gaze to his rival and discovered that John was studying her with the same possessiveness he felt. Fury washed through him, but hard upon the heels of it—utter confusion. Why, he wondered abruptly? Why did he feel the churning need to possess her? She was beautiful, but she was human and they were inclined to eschew the favors of humans until the desperation to spill their seed in the warm body of a female drove them to seek them out. He frowned, trying to remember the last time he’d taken a human as a lover, but he knew it hadn’t been long enough to explain the way he felt. Nothing explained the way he felt, nothing in his experience! They shared lovers more often than not and that made the depth of his antipathy toward his brother for sharing this woman all the more incomprehensible. Not that they particularly relished sharing their lovers anyway, but they hadn’t survived so long by being careless and there were six of them—he and his nest mates—the last of their kind so far as any of them had been able to discover. It was far safer to share the favors of one generous hearted woman than for each of them to leave a string of lovers behind to compare notes and perhaps ask too many questions. Beyond that, they had learned to their sorrow the pain their desire to mate could bring them. The human life span was woefully brief, but plenty long enough to tear a dragon’s heart out if he was unwise enough to form any sort of attachment to one. Because they did not have their mother’s magic, the magic that should have been their birthright. He was certain that was the difference. Their mother had mated with human males to

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produce them and yet they lacked the human frailties of their fathers. They were pure dragon, despite the human seed their mother had harvested to reproduce. Deep down, they all knew it even though they had no idea how their mother had managed it. The irony was that not one of them had ever managed to achieve their true form. They had been trapped almost since birth in the human forms their mother had bestowed upon them to protect them. At least, they’d always assumed that was the reason behind it, that she’d woven a protective spell around them to make it possible for them to hide what they were. They hadn’t had the chance to ask their mother. She’d been slain by the humans, struggling to protect them with her last breath. **** Marlee knew that shock had enveloped her to protect her from the horror. She welcomed it and the same time tried to fight it since she was still peripherally aware that her chances of survival dwindled every moment she was completely at the mercy of the bear and unable to gather her wits. Unfortunately, even the shock didn’t shield her completely from the pain and that added to the shock made it all the more difficult to try to focus her mind on some possibility of saving herself. Through a funnel of darkness much like peering through a telescope, she caught a blur of movement, a glimpse of flesh. Almost instantly the pressure of the bear’s jaws vanished. Hope surged through her for a handful of seconds and then confusion and then fear. It couldn’t be the rescue she’d thought, she realized, dismayed. Whatever it was that had attacked the bear was fighting the bear and that made it far more likely that the three animals were fighting over ‘dinner’ than any possibility of rescue. Unfortunately, even that realization didn’t lend her the strength to try to crawl away. She was still struggling with it when she sensed a presence and discovered a man had knelt beside her. Confusion filled her again. She didn’t hear the bear anymore and then she found that two men were bending near her, studying her. Their expressions were eloquent. She was fucked! Before she could dwell on the hopelessness that twisted inside her, the two began arguing and threw her deeper into confusion. Dragons? Where had that come from? It was two men, bare chested, wearing jeans. Men! It sounded as if they meant to abandon her, though. Don’t let me die! I don’t want to die! Despite the pain of being picked up, relief flooded her when she felt arms surrounding her, lifting her, when she settled against a broad chest. It soothed her. His warmth began to chase the cold that had been gaining ground within her until she’d begun to think she was going to freeze solid. She fell into the pit that had been yawning before her when he began to move, sending jarring pain through her. When she clawed her way out of the pit again, she discovered she couldn’t open her eyes. It felt as if lead weights were attached to her eyelids, and yet she was alert enough to feel the tugs as her clothing was removed and the hard, cold surface beneath her. Hospital, her mind supplied, relief filling her. She was going to make it. Shouldn’t she be aware of light against her eyelids, though? They started bathing her. At first, she was so distressed because of the pain she didn’t analyze the circumstance, but as the pain began to recede it occurred to her that her injuries should have had top priority.

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Wouldn’t they stabilize her before they considered bathing her? Or was it because it was an animal bite that they’d decided the wounds should be cleansed and sterilized? She didn’t know, but she stopped worrying about it when she realized just how good it felt. The water was just the right temperature to soothe and even the faintly rough texture of whatever they were using to bathe her felt good. The cold vanished and warmth began to take its place. Amazingly, the pain disappeared, as well. That circumstance worried her for a little while but the warmth continued to grow the longer they bathed her. She began to feel more than soothed and comforted by the bathing. She began to feel pleasurable tingles and heat that was almost … erotic. She tried to ignore the inappropriate heat she could feel growing in her belly when they began bathing her genital area, but her mind conjured the image that it wasn’t just an indifferent nurse or orderly stroking the warm, faintly rough cleansing pad along her cleft. The escalating heat conjured the dreamy sensation of having a man’s tongue stroking her with intent. She was almost sorry when it stopped and they turned her over and she was almost as glad because she thought she might have come and that would’ve been embarrassing. She drifted when they’d finished bathing her almost in a drug-like state, although she couldn’t recall feeling any sort of injection that would account for it. It struck her as odd and even stranger than that, they seemed intent on nothing else when she was certain she must have wounds that needed stitches. She didn’t hurt anymore, though, and thought whatever drug they’d given her was like nothing she’d ever had. The tingling of her skin didn’t dissipate. It began to grow more and more pronounced. She tried to ignore it, to will it away, but it refused to be subdued. She couldn’t imagine why she would feel aroused after what she’d been through. She could understand relief from the absence of pain. She could even understand pleasure arising from the sense of comfort and safety, but what she felt was sexually aroused and it continued to rise in her blood until she began to feel almost feverish. She tried to convince herself, at first, that that was what it was—fever, but it wasn’t akin to the sort of fever that followed accident or illness. This fever made the blood pool in her pulse points and begin to pound for relief and it grew stronger and stronger until she couldn’t be still. Within a very short space of time, she felt as if her loins had caught fire. The muscles along her channel fluttered, forcing moisture into it. Her clit swelled and ached. Her breasts and nipples felt as swollen as if they’d been stimulated until she was unbearably aroused. She was unbearably aroused! She hurt with the need. She tried to fight against it, but it almost seemed to grow more marked, more painful until she discovered she simply couldn’t be still. She needed relief. She needed … a dick pounding into her. She sensed that whoever had bathed her was still close by, and yet despite that, she discovered she couldn’t resist the urge to try to sooth herself by massaging her breasts and her genitals to try to take the ache away. **** The woman stirred, bringing Eli’s focus from his thoughts to her once more. He had no idea how much time had passed while he stood watch over her, wondering if she was truly healed as she appeared to be or if they’d managed nothing more than to close her wounds and she would die anyway. He saw her struggle for a moment to lift her eyelids and give up. She began to move restlessly and he wondered if a fever had come upon her. He realized very shortly that one had, though it wasn’t in the nature of an infection—at least not from her wounds.

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Her skin flushed from light pink to a darker pink as she moved more and more restlessly. She began to pant slightly. Her little pink nipples grew erect and rosy as they tightened. His groin tightened in response, but he couldn’t seem to drag his gaze from the tight little points. She curled into a ball, moaning slightly. He flicked a glance at John and discovered his eyes had grown glassy. As if feeling his gaze, John lifted his head and stared at him, swallowing convulsively. I smell her arousal. Until John had voiced it, Eli hadn’t realized that it was her scent as much as her movements that had brought the same heat to his groin that he’d felt when he was bathing her wounds. He transferred his attention to her once more, struggling to clear his mind of the fog that was rapidly consuming him again. Unable to resist, he grasped her knees, prying her thighs apart. She resisted for a moment and then relaxed abruptly, allowing him to push them wide. He stared down at her cleft, at the swollen lips, the gleaming moisture and swallowed convulsively several times. Following the intoxicating scent, he moved closer and finally grasped her buttocks in both hands, lifting her hips from the floor and bringing that tantalizing scent closer. A red haze filled his mind. Opening his mouth, he covered the moist, swollen lips and began to suck and lick at them hungrily. She groaned, bucked against his mouth, but he was too focused on the pleasure pouring through him to think beyond filling his senses with her. He lathed at her sweet juices with his tongue and sucked them greedily until she began to shake and jerk all over, gasping for breath and finally crying out. It was the high pitched cries that finally penetrated the heated fog. He lifted his head to stare at her blankly and discovered that John was tugging as greedily at her breasts as he had her cunt. His eyes narrowed. “I’m first,” he growled, settling her buttocks on the floor as he began tearing a little frantically at the closure of his jeans. Ripping them finally when he discovered he couldn’t master the intricacies of zipper and snap, he shoved the jeans from his narrow hips. Grasping her legs, he dragged her toward him, impaling the head of his cock into her opening. She arched her back off the floor, driving him deeper. He shoved at John even as his brother straightened away from her. Falling over her, he caught himself with one hand and slipped the other beneath her hips to hold her for his next thrust. She arched again as he plunged a little deeper. She was so hot and wet it made him nearly mindless to conquer her depths completely. He curled tightly around her, trying to close his mind to the velvety soft walls closing tightly around his cock and thwarting his efforts as he pumped his hips frantically. He nearly blacked out when he slid home and felt her all along his length. He groaned raggedly, trying to hold on, but it was a losing battle. Next time, he promised himself, unable to still the jerky movement of his hips for more than a handful of seconds. The promise was enough to rip the last shreds of his control from his grasp. He began to thrust into her frantically as he felt his body building toward an explosive release. His belly tightened abruptly, ejecting his scalding seed. He caught his breath with an effort, grinding against her in a desperate effort to drive his seed as deeply as he could. For a handful of seconds when his body finally stopped convulsing, relief filled him, but it was woefully brief. His cock had already begun to rise again when John punched him on the shoulder, pitching him off of her. Anger instantly replaced the satisfaction of only moments before, but the release had left him weak enough that John had already mounted her and was pounding into her frantically before he managed to gather his wits about him enough to get up. He paused, debating whether

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or not he could tear her from John’s grasp without harming her and finally decided that was unlikely. Grinding his teeth in impotent fury, he watched John through narrowed eyes, reminding himself that he’d planted his seed deep. His would have the first chance at the egg and, that being the case, he could count it as his. Reason should have reasserted itself, particularly with that reflection. It didn’t. As soon as John ground himself against her, uttering a deep throated growl of triumph and finally ceased jerking with his climax, he shoved his brother off of his woman and mounted her again. She was well seeded and there was nothing more potent, they knew, than the seed of a drake, and yet he could still smell the unclaimed egg. No amount of trying to reason with himself that his seed simply hadn’t had time to claim it served to cool the heat that seemed to be consuming him from the inside out or his ardor. It seemed likely the fever was the only thing that prevented bloodshed. He resented John’s determination to claim the egg he was working hard to claim for himself and if he hadn’t been so intent on that he might have yielded to the desire to stop long enough to beat John unconscious. Eli had already expended himself over and over, however, and it was beginning to wear on his stamina by the time he heard the shout that finally distracted him. “Gods! What in the bloody, fucking hell is going on here?” He recognized Gabriel’s voice. Instead of deterring him in any way, however, he renewed his efforts to sow whatever seed he could summon before Gabriel could stop him. He managed to eject it before a blow to the side of his head sent him spiraling close to black out. Shaking his head, he turned to give the attacker a deadly look and slowly rose from his woman. “She’s ours!” he snarled. Gabriel gaped at him a split second before he slammed his fist into his face again. That time, it sent him flying backwards. He was stunned enough when he hit the back of the cave wall and slid down it that it took him a few moments to collect his scattered wits. Gabriel and Luke each grabbed one of his arms, hefted him to his feet and slammed him against the wall again before he could launch a counter attack. “Eli!” Gabriel bellowed, almost nose to nose with him. “Have you lost your fucking mind? That’s a human woman, you idiot! And the woods are crawling with men searching for her like a stirred ant hill! There’s a fucking army of law men out there!” Eli struggled against their hold on him, a mixture of fear and fury churning through him. “They can’t have her! She’s mine! I’ve claimed her egg!” “It’s mine!” John bellowed. “I mated with her!” Gabriel and Luke exchanged a perplexed look. Shaking his head, Gabriel drew back his fist and aimed it at the point of Eli’s chin. His head bounced off the stone wall behind him at the blow. His knees gave out as his head rebounded and Gabriel and Luke lowered him to the floor of the cave. After staring down at his unconscious brother for a moment, Gabriel glanced at Aaron, Joshua, and John. John was unconscious by that time, as well, however, crumpled on the stone floor as Eli was. The lair wreaked of sex. The mingling scents acted upon Gabriel as if he’d been shot up with an aphrodisiac. Heat washed through him. His pulse began to pound as a backlash and blood engorged his cock. “It’s the woman,” he said hoarsely, staring at her hungrily, struggling to hang on to reason when desire was chipping away at it faster than he could remind himself of the consequences of yielding to it. Joshua dragged in a deep breath. “She’s in heat,” he growled.

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The comment was enough to jar all four men. They exchanged challenging glances. “We have to get her out of here,” Gabriel said abruptly. “Gods! Get a grip or we’ll all go down for this one!” Luke stared at him dizzily, wondering if he was trying to redirect their minds or his own. He swallowed with an effort. “She’s in heat,” he echoed Joshua’s comment. “Gods!” Gabriel growled. “She’s in our lair! The humans will be at our door before we can spit!” “So … we move her!” Aaron said tightly. “We remove her!” Gabriel retorted harshly. “They aren’t going to give up until they find her.” “But she’s here now! I need to fuck her. I’m going to explode!” “Eli and John have damned near fucked her to death already!” Joshua ground out. “They will have claimed the egg!” “Gods!” Gabriel snapped, grabbing Luke’s arm as he surged toward the woman and slugging him so abruptly and without warning that Luke staggered from the blow. Striding swiftly toward the woman, he scooped her up, grabbed the rags beside her, and strode from the lair with her. The others trailed him. He halted and turned to glare at them. “Get back into the lair and keep an eye on those two morons!” he bellowed. The three stiffened, glaring at him, but they didn’t move to follow him when he began jogging rapidly down the side of the mountain with the woman. The urge to protect what little remained of his clan—his nest mates—rattled through Gabriel’s mind, colliding with his own urge to find a place to rut her in peace and plant his seed as Eli and John had. He managed to focus on what seemed of lesser importance to him at the moment, though, carrying the woman far enough from their lair, he thought, to insure that they wouldn’t be forced to slaughter the humans to protect themselves. Even so, he discovered his reluctance to release her was akin to pain. It was only the threatening scent and sound of the searchers that finally convinced him to leave her and do what he could to ensure they couldn’t track him back to their lair. It would be war if they did. Not one of them had spawned and they had no intention of being the last of their kind.

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Chapter Two “Oh my god! I found her! Over here!” The voice penetrated the deep fog that seemed to envelope Marlee and she struggled to lift her eyelids to see who was yelling and what they were yelling about. She managed to pry her eyelids high enough to get a glimpse of the man, but she didn’t recognize him or the uniform he was wearing. It seemed only a matter of moments later that she was surrounded. Discomfort wafted through her when someone dropped something over her—a jacket, she thought—making it clear she’d been as naked as the day she was born before. The sights and sounds escalated. She groaned as she was lifted and her discomfort escalated to pain and then felt her back settle against a flat surface that was marginally more comfortable than the ground she’d been lying on. Confusion and disorientation followed as she felt herself moving. The thing she was strapped to felt dangerously unstable as it bumped and pitched in first one direction and then another, making it clear that she would’ve hit the ground over and over if she hadn’t been strapped down. Finally, the sound of a helicopter drowned out the excited voices around her, though, and for a handful of moments, she was settled on a flat surface that didn’t move. Her stomach went weightless as the helicopter went airborne, dipping and swaying with the movements until she thought she was going to puke. She focused on not throwing up for a while and then felt her stomach dip and knew the helicopter had settled. The confusion that followed told her she’d arrived at a hospital. She endured bumping along a corridor on a moving gurney, being poked and prodded, scanned, and eventually was plunked on a bed that didn’t move and sank into blessed, peaceful oblivion. Erotic dreams chased terrifying nightmares for a while and eventually she rose toward awareness and opened her eyes to discover she was, indeed, in a hospital. She lay for a while trying to figure out how she’d gotten there and why, but she discovered to her dismay that her memories were nothing but spotty images mixed with the nightmares and the erotic dreams. A hard faced man and woman appeared beside her bed. “Do you know where you are, Special Agent Madison?” the man asked in a clipped, professional voice. Marlee blinked at the man, wondering if she was supposed to know him, feeling a flicker of alarm when she didn’t recognize him. “A hospital?” she guessed, startled to discover her voice was little more than a hoarse croak. The man glanced at the woman beside him. “I’m Special Agent David Fox and this is Special Agent Marge Strouse, Agent Madison. Do you know why you’re here? Do you remember anything that happened?” Marlee’s alarm increased. “What happened?” Fox frowned. “That’s what we’re trying to find out. You don’t remember anything?” Marlee blinked at him and turned to look at the woman, searching for a clue. A vague memory surfaced and she puzzled over it, trying to decide if it was really a memory of part of the nightmare she’d kept having. “The bear ….” Again the two exchanged a look. “We found a bear.”

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Marlee’s heart jerked in reaction. “You found a bear?” “I think you’re going to have to give her a little more time before you question her,” another man said, moving forward abruptly until he was within view. This man was dressed like a doctor. Marge Strouse and David Fox both looked annoyed but finally shrugged and left to Marlee’s relief. The doctor checked her and scribbled on a clip board. “How bad?” Marlee asked anxiously. The doctor frowned, seemed puzzled. “You’re going to be fine. You were suffering the effects of exposure when they brought you in, but nothing dire. You should be good to go by tomorrow.” Marlee gaped at him blankly. “But … the wounds?” Something flickered across the doctor’s face. “You didn’t have any wounds,” he said slowly. Shock washed over Marlee like a tidal wave. No wounds? Was the bear attack just a nightmare then? And if that was a nightmare, what had happened to her? **** “What in the fuck has been going on here?” Gabriel demanded when he returned to the lair and discovered his brothers, Eli and John, had recovered enough that they’d begun pacing the cave furiously and Luke, Joshua, and Aaron were standing guard. The violence that rumbled in Gabriel’s voice pierced the seemingly endless, rambling chaos of conflicting thoughts in Eli’s mind and he halted abruptly, staring at his brother and wrestling with the urge to attack him. It was the very violence of his feelings that finally shook him from his intent. They’d had their differences over the years. There’d been plenty of times that he’d wanted to beat the shit out of him, plenty of times he’d tried, and even a few when he’d succeeded, but it had never crossed his mind that he wanted to kill his brother. A vague sense of nausea washed through him. The confusion from before assailed him again. Struggling with the resentment of being questioned, prompted by it to focus, he cast his mind back over what had happened. “We heard the challenging bellow of a bear and a woman screamed—the woman we brought here,” he said slowly. “By the time we got there, though, the bear had already mauled her.” He stopped again, swallowing sickly at the memory. “I thought she was dead already and ….” He stopped again, frowning. “The bear challenged us and brought our beasts to the fore,” John added when Eli stopped. “We killed it. Eli went to check on the woman, but I could see she was dying and there was nothing we could do. I reminded Eli that we’d agreed not to interfere in the affairs of men, but he was determined to try to save her and I ….” He glared at Gabriel. “We couldn’t just fucking leave her there, Gabe!” Gabriel’s lips tightened. “So which of you had the brilliant idea of bringing her back to our lair?” he growled. Eli glared at him. “I did!” Gabriel’s hands flexed several times as if he was struggling with the urge to plant his fist in Eli’s face. “Then what?” he asked tightly after a few moments. Eli’s face tightened with rage as he stared at his brother. After a moment, though, confusion flickered through him again. He scrubbed his hands over his face. “Fuck! I don’t remember a hell of a lot clearly after I realized she was going to die if we didn’t stop the

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bleeding. It was just …. I think my beast was still in control. It seemed like bathing her wounds as we do ours was the thing to do.” Disgust flickered across Gabriel’s face. “And then fucking her seemed like the thing to do after that?” John glanced at Eli uncomfortably. “Yeah! It did!” Eli snapped angrily. “It wasn’t really a decision,” John said angrily. “I don’t know what the fuck happened. It was … like a fever, like some kind of … madness. At first I was focused completely on just trying to keep her from dying and the next thing I knew I had this … urge that I couldn’t shake. She was in heat, gods damn it!” Gabriel’s lips tightened. He glared at his brothers for a moment and finally turned away. Stalking to a rocky ledge, he settled on it, turning what they’d said over and over in his mind. “She wasn’t in heat,” he said finally. “I’ll admit something strange came over me, too, but I wasn’t so out of it that I would’ve mistaken her scent. She wasn’t a dragoness. She was a human and humans don’t go into heat.” “Something happened!” Eli growled. “I know gods damned well it wasn’t just my fucking imagination! I smelled her arousal! I smelled her egg!” “I smelled it, too,” John said after a moment. “All I could think was that I had to have it.” Gabriel glanced at the others questioningly. Luke shrugged. “They’re right. I smelled it, too.” Joshua frowned. “Maybe it was them healing her wounds?” he said thoughtfully. “Has anybody ever done that before?” Aaron stared at him blankly. “What the hell could that have to do with it?” “They both did it!” Joshua snapped. “I don’t know. Maybe it confused the scent?” “Not that I think that explains it,” Gabriel said slowly, “but there might be something to it. Have any of you ever tried to heal a human like that before?” They all glanced at one another questioningly and finally admitted they hadn’t. “But it worked?” Gabriel prompted. “I would never have thought it would.” “You saw her. Honest to gods, Gabriel, the bear had mauled her something god awful,” John said a little sickly. “I don’t know how she survived long enough for us to try it.” Gabriel got up. “Well—maybe we’ll figure it out … sometime. In the mean time we’re going to have to keep a low profile until the humans calm down and stop looking for answers.” He fixed Eli and John with a hard look. “Can I trust you two to steer clear of the damned humans until this dies down?” Eli glared at him angrily. “We aren’t hatchlings,” he growled. “I’ll admit I screwed up … to an extent. I know it’s a damned poor idea to get too close to the humans—ordinarily. This wasn’t an ordinary situation, though, and I’m damned if regret helping her.” “I’m sure fucking her half to death really helped her recovery,” Gabriel growled sarcastically. Eli flushed, but as much as he wanted to knock Gabriel’s teeth down his throat, he was uncomfortably aware that his brother had a point. He would’ve liked to know why he had gone from concern about her to a grim determination to plant his seed in her, but it wasn’t likely he was ever going to figure it out. There wasn’t a hell of a lot they had figured out by themselves. It seemed to him that their mother might have given them a little more to go on.

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He immediately felt guilty at the thought. She hadn’t had a lot of time to pass them any of the knowledge they needed beyond the bare essentials for survival. If he felt resentment, it should be focused against the damned humans for taking her life before she had the chance to nurture them, not their mother. “Eli’s right,” John said tightly. “I tried to talk him out of it, reminded him of our pact, but I didn’t want to leave her out there to die either—and she would have. The humans wouldn’t have found her soon enough to save her. But you’re right. It’s done. We did what we could for her. We need to focus on damage control now. It’s too soon to make another move. There’ll still be humans alive that could remember us.” **** She was pregnant? How in the hell could she be pregnant, Marlee wondered, too shocked to take it in? “You’re sure?” “Yes,” the doctor informed her, his expression carefully neutral. Four to six weeks along as near as I can tell at this point. If you could give me the date of your last cycle I can calculate your due date.” “But … I can’t be pregnant!” Marlee exclaimed. “I haven’t even had sex in months, damn it! I haven’t had a damned date in damned near a year!” The doctor gave her a speculative look. “I don’t think it’s immaculate conception,” he said dryly. “The test was conclusive. We can take more blood and run the test again, but I’m guessing the results are going to be the same. I wanted to get more blood anyway. We didn’t get enough to run some of the other tests I wanted. I’ll send somebody in here to take blood and then you can get dressed. When you’re dressed, come to my office and we can discuss options.” Bastard, Marlee thought furiously when the doctor had left to allow her to dress. She hadn’t had a hard enough time getting through the damned academy? Now she was pregnant and hadn’t even reported for her first assignment? That was going to look just fucking great in her file! She was going to be lucky if she wasn’t flying a desk for the rest of her career—which she hadn’t even started, damn it! She’d come through the rest of her physical with flying colors—even her psyche evaluation—which was saying something considering ‘the incident’ a couple of weeks earlier— but that wasn’t going to count for shit now! And what kind of tests did he need to run that hadn’t already been run for that matter, she thought as the lab tech drew more blood? She was done with her physical! She’d already gotten the results on that. It flickered through her mind as she left the examination room to simply take off and ignore the ‘invitation’ to discuss the matter further. She needed to think and she was too upset at the moment to think straight. About the only thing rambling around and around in her mind, replaying over and over, was the doctor’s announcement and her frantic attempts to figure out how it was possible. It was the half formed hope that the doctor would offer her a way out of her dilemma and the anxiety that ignoring the subtly worded order would make matters worse that turned her toward the doctor’s office. She sat down in front of his desk when she arrived, fidgeting with her clothes and then trying to assume a front of professional detachment when she heard the doctor heading toward the office. Instead of entering and settling at the desk, however, he merely poked his head in. “Just a moment.”

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Frowning, Marlee glanced at him and caught a glimpse of another man standing in the hallway just a little further away. Despite her turmoil, several things instantly flashed through her mind. First and foremost was the fact that the man looked completely out of place. The second impression was a conviction that he was a government man, although she couldn’t decide what had given her that impression, and the third was that he looked vaguely familiar. It was enough to shove her anxiety about the doctor’s announcement to the back of her mind and bring a cold wave over her. Although she wasn’t certain what had jumpstarted her sense of threat, she was keenly aware that the adrenaline pumping through her wasn’t something she should ignore. Her instincts were well honed by her training, now, although they hadn’t been exactly dull before or she wouldn’t have been FBI material to start with. She couldn’t place the man, although she strained with her memory until a dull throb began in her head. She’d seen him, though. She didn’t know where or when, but her senses were telling her he was some sort of threat. And she didn’t think that would’ve been the case unless she’d noticed him more than once before, however peripherally, and in a situation where he was as out of place as he was now. The doctor looked more nervous, if possible, when he entered the office with a file. More in possession of her own facilities now, Marlee realized with a leap in her pulse that he’d been nervous when he examined her. She watched him warily when he settled at his desk and opened the file he’d brought in, scanning the documents. It seemed to her, though, that he was already familiar with everything in the file and was merely using it as a ruse to gather his thoughts. “There isn’t much here regarding the debriefing after the incident in the park,” he said finally. “Because I didn’t remember much,” Marlee said a little stiltedly. He lifted his head and studied. “Is that still the case? Or have you remembered anything?” Marlee wrestled with the urge to point out to him that he’d told her the pregnancy would be the topic of conversation. Wariness finally won out over her instinct to tell him to shove his questions up his ass. “Nothing new,” she said neutrally. He nodded. “It says here that you thought you’d been attacked by a bear.” “That’s what I thought. I remember seeing one. I guess I fainted.” “What do you think might have given you the impression that the bear had attacked?” Marlee stared at him blankly, trying to think of a response. “There wasn’t a mark on you, I mean. A lot of blood—no wounds.” She shrugged uneasily. “I’m afraid I don’t remember anything else—nothing to explain it.” He nodded again. “They did find a mutilated bear not far from where you were found. Did you know that?” A fresh wave of cold washed over Marlee. She hadn’t been told that. “Actually, nobody mentioned it before. Do you think there was a connection?” He frowned, seemed to wrestle with something. “Some of the blood on your clothing matched the bear’s.” He paused. “You didn’t notice any … strange lights? Sounds?”

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Strange lights—strange sounds—animal mutilation. Feeling abruptly as if she’d stepped out of her body and was looking down at the scene playing out, Marlee connected the dots and realized the doctor was hinting about reports of alien visitations. And he was connecting her pregnancy with the incident! She knew abruptly, with absolute certainty, that he was, although she hadn’t connected it to the incident in the park. Because he had suggested she was four to six weeks pregnant and the incident had only happened a couple of weeks before. And he’d just been talking to a man who looked like he worked for the government! And she thought she’d seen the man at least once before. “The only thing that sticks in my mind was the sound of the helicopter they brought in to airlift me out of the park,” she said slowly. “I think I must have been unconscious.” “That’s another curious thing, though,” the doctor said. “Nothing was found to explain the period of unconsciousness you apparently experienced.” Marlee shrugged with an effort. “Well, if I figure it out, I’ll let you know. Could we discuss the pregnancy? It isn’t too late to consider terminating it, is it?” He looked taken aback. “I’m not sure you’re in any state of mind to consider that right now,” he said tightly. “Why don’t you go home and think about it? Make an appointment on your way out and we’ll discuss options at the next appointment.” Despite the fact that the doctor’s reaction to her question about terminating the pregnancy pretty much confirmed her fears, relief at the offer of at least temporary escape flickered through Marlee. “I guess you’re right. I’m still in a state of shock.” She grimaced. “You know, I’d forgotten about a hook up I had not too long ago—not that that makes me anymore inclined to go through with this. I don’t even remember the guy’s name.” “Well, you should think long and hard about it before you consider taking that step. We didn’t find any sign of disease, but it’s dangerous to have unsafe sex these days. Regardless, I have to tell you I’m not inclined to terminate what appears to be a healthy fetus for anything less than rape. It was consensual?” Marlee felt her face reddening, but she doggedly pursued the lie she’d manufactured, even though she could see he didn’t believe it for a moment. “Uh … does drunk count?” The doctor smiled thinly and got up, her cue to take her leave. “Poor judgment, unfortunately, isn’t an excuse.” He forced a chuckle. “If it was, half of us probably wouldn’t be here.” Marlee was marginally reassured when she didn’t see any sign of the man she’d seen in the hallway, but only slightly. She was under surveillance—probably had been since she’d been released from the hospital after the incident. She’d just been too focused on her own concerns to notice. Not that that was an excuse for not noticing, she thought angrily! She’d hoped when she was done at the doctor’s office that he was going to give her a clean bill of health and she could go to work. Obviously, that wasn’t going to happen—now. By the time she got to her apartment, she’d considered the situation obsessively. Still more than half convinced it was purely paranoia, she combed her apartment for electronic surveillance nevertheless. It didn’t help her feelings when she found what she was looking for. How insane was it that her own government was watching her … and because of some crazy idea that she’d been … what? Abducted by aliens and impregnated?

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She should have felt like laughing at the absurdity. Instead, she was terrified. Except for those bizarre, erotic dreams that she’d been having since the attack, she hadn’t been with a man—which meant they weren’t dreams at all if she really was pregnant! **** It had been touch and go for a while, but Marlee began to slowly relax when she realized she’d made a clean getaway. It was unfortunate that she hadn’t had enough cash stashed in her apartment to carry her and had had to go to the bank and clean out her account. That had been a dangerous move, but then again, leaving a ‘paper trail’ behind her if she discovered the cash she had wouldn’t cover her expenses would’ve been much worse. It shouldn’t have been as dangerous as it had turned out. She didn’t have enough money in the bank, ordinarily, to have thrown up red flags when she withdrew it. It was the fact that she’d had a tail that had created the problem. Fortunately, she had expected it. She’d still felt like a bank robber and she resented the fact that they’d forced her into a lot of cloak and dagger bullshit that she shouldn’t have had to worry about. It was her money! And she wouldn’t have considered that she would need it so badly if not for the fact that she’d had to leave just about every damned thing she owned to keep from alerting them to her intentions to start with! Forcing it from her mind after her second day on the road when there was still no sign that they’d picked up her trail, she went to phase two. She left the car she’d borrowed from her friend and bought a car from the newspaper. It was a lot more iffy in terms of reliability, she supposed, but she didn’t want to go to a car lot—even a used one—and the car looked good enough even though it was a long way from new to avoid being stopped because of economic profiling. Besides, the color and style were common on the road. She thought there was a good chance there would be ‘sightings’ reported that would convince them for a while that she was still headed south. She did in fact, continue south for at least a hundred miles before she got off the interstate and took a small highway for several hundred miles before she got back on a westerly interstate. By her fifth day on the road, Marlee managed to put her anxieties of being followed and possibly detained far enough to the back of her mind to focus on the task ahead of her— discovering just what the hell had happened to her in those woods. She was pretty sure they wouldn’t expect her to head back to the scene of the attack—She hoped to hell they wouldn’t anyway. **** Twilight began to settle over the landscape like the dimming lights in a theater as the bright disk of the sun sank slowly behind the tallest peak of the nearby mountain range. As it did, the Natives, dressed in native dress or maybe theatrical recreations from those bygone times, began a rhythmic thumping on the drums. Marlee’s heart executed a strange little stammer, as if pausing to catch the step, as the first notes vibrated through her and then it began to beat in concert to the drums. She hadn’t come to watch the show even though she’d been posing as a tourist since her arrival a few hours earlier. She’d only intended to grab a few souvenirs to support her claim, but somehow she couldn’t seem to move once the drums began. Torch bearers appeared. Half naked, their sinewy bodies glistened in the flickering light as they moved toward the wood stacked in the center of the circle and knelt to light it. Almost the moment the fire caught, the sound of the drums intensified, swelled to fill the air and the

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ground beneath the spectators. The dancers began to move rhythmically to the beat, began to sing a strangely haunting chant. The incomprehensible words of the ritual, uttered in an ancient tongue, washed over Marlee and through her as if they truly did carry magic. As enthralled as she was by the scene playing out before her, one dancer in particular caught her eye. She had no idea why. Like the others, he wore the ritual costume. His face was painted, obscuring the features beneath, distorting them in concert with the deepening shadows cast by the fire he shuffled around. He was tall and well formed, all sinewy muscle, but so, too, were the others—perhaps a little taller, his muscles a little more defined. His black hair was like the night—cool, deep, as mysterious as his strange golden eyes. And yet, for whatever reason, from the moment he caught her attention, she found she couldn’t look away, found herself struggling to pierce the shadows and the paint he wore to study the face beneath. She felt herself sinking deeper into the magic. Her heart abandoned the rhythm of the drums, fluttering a little faster. Her breath seemed to catch in her throat. An odd sense of familiarity washed over her. She immediately questioned it. She couldn’t think of any time she’d actually met up with a Native American man and it seemed absurd to think he would seem familiar otherwise. The feeling persisted, regardless of her efforts to dismiss it and she found herself searching for an answer despite her fascination with the man, struggling even harder to pierce the disguise of the paint. His features were different from the others, she decided, not just in the sense of individuality, but different in a way that suggested he might not be of the same tribe as the others—or maybe not even pure blooded—if there even was such a thing anymore. She wasn’t even sure of how she’d arrived at that conclusion. The sense of recognition didn’t solidify. She was no closer to understanding why she’d had the vague sense of having seen him before when she’d mentally peeled away the paint. Trust her perception? How could she when she was well aware that the shadows, the drums, and the chants had woven a spell upon her? Maybe that was it, she thought whimsically? Magic. Maybe she’d been an Indian woman in another life? Unfortunately, she didn’t believe in reincarnation. What she did believe in, knew for a fact, was that she was just as susceptible to her hormones as the next person, possibly more susceptible considering how long it had been since she’d been in any sort of relationship. He was attractive. That was all. Maybe more attractive because he was exotic and also because of the setting? It was easy to imagine him as some wild, untamed warrior from the past and she was no more immune to the romanticism of that than the next woman. The impulse struck her when the exhibition ended to seek him out—to see if the attraction was stronger or if the spell had been completely broken—but she discovered when the applause of the spectators had petered out and they began to disperse that he’d vanished like the smoke wafting toward the sky from the fire. Disappointment wafted through her, more disappointment than she should’ve felt. Maybe she should just be glad, she thought wryly. This way she was left with the fantasy. Noticing that most of the tourists were heading back to their cars, she hesitated, but she’d meant to explore the tourist shop and perhaps pick up a souvenir or two to support her story about being a tourist. Again, she hesitated, glancing around one last time for any sight of the

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‘warrior’ who’d caught her interest. Sighing when she still didn’t see him, she decided to head to the souvenir shop to see if they were still open for business. She discovered she was in luck. The bell above the door tinkled as she stepped inside. Glancing toward the proprietor—a Native American in full historical dress—she looked a question. “Do I have time to look around a little before you close?” “Sure. Help yourself. I won’t be closing for a couple of hours.” Surprise flickered through her, but when she’d scanned the store she realized that it was more than a memento shop. The entire front of the store was filled with all sorts of Native American crafts, but the rear half was a grocery. Shrugging inwardly, she decided she might as well pick up a few things for her stay at the camp ground while she was at it. Neat stuff first? Or should she be practical and look for actual supplies first and trinkets later? A real tourist, she decided, would focus on the trinkets first. She looked around until she spied a few small shopping carts and began wandering up and down the display of Native crafts. It was nicely displayed, she thought wryly. The impulse to throw one of everything into her basket was strong. She curbed it. As much as she loved the crafts, she was on the run and she didn’t know where she was going to land. All she had intended when she came in was to find one or two ‘special’ things to support her pose as an ordinary tourist. The chimes over the door tinkled again when she stopped to study the ‘war shields’. She glanced in that direction, feeling her heart leap at the possibility that it might be ‘him’. She saw instead that it looked like another tourist. He certainly wasn’t a Native with that blond hair! Not hard on the eyes, though, if the profile was anything to go by. She toyed with the idea of staring until she got a really good look at him but turned away when she saw that he was about to glance in her direction, struggling to regulate her pulse. She must be seriously horny, she thought a little irritably! What in the hell was with her, anyway? Maybe it was just that her blood was still warm from watching the interesting warrior, but even that had been more than a little disconcerting considering her situation. The thought resurrected his image in her mind, increasing the jitteriness in her stomach that she realized hadn’t completely settled and, she decided, answered that question fairly neatly. If she hadn’t been randy before she’d watched the exhibition, she certainly was now! Selecting one of the dream catchers hanging beside the war shields instead, she was about to move away when a display of illustrated books caught her eye. Intrigued, she paused to study them. As she’d suspected, they were historical ‘comic books’, not the run of the mill super hero variety. The cover of one caught her attention fairly quickly, mostly because it seemed out of place among the tales of tribal battles and victories. It was the legend of the golden dragon. Wondering what that could possibly have to do with the Native American culture, she picked it up and flipped through it, skimming the pictorial story. She frowned, more intrigued as she caught the gist of the story. Apparently, long, long ago a golden dragon had entered one of the villages of the people, disguised as a beautiful woman with long, golden hair and it was from her that the totem of the golden dragon had come. She was so engrossed, she barely registered the man that approached her until he spoke. “Are you going to buy? Or just read it here?” Laughter threaded his voice but guilt still crept into Marlee cheeks in a red tide. She jumped at the deep, male voice, sending him a startled glance. The discovery that it was the other patron she’d noticed quelled some of her discomfort, but he was handsome enough that it

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sent a shockwave of a different kind through her, scrambling her brain. For several moments, she merely gaped at him. Slowly, it dawned on her that she was gaping in awe and the discomfort from before surged through her. “I beg your pardon?” she stammered, struggling to remember what he’d said and coming up empty. He flicked a look at the book in her hands. “Oh! Oh—I just got caught up in it.” She hesitated and dropped it into her cart. He chuckled. “You don’t have to buy it. I just used it as an excuse to meet you.” “You did?” As flattered as the female side of her was, wariness instantly tightened inside her. He held out a hand. “Gabriel. Tourist?” Marlee blinked at him, trying to kick-start her brain. “Uh ….” He grinned at her. Her brain fried and her belly began to dance an Irish jig. “It wasn’t a trick question.” She reddened until her face felt like it was on fire. What was wrong with her! She was twenty-eight years old! Way too old to act like some awkward teenager just because a drop-dead gorgeous man had spoken to her! “I’m sorry. You caught me off guard. My mind was somewhere else.” On her coochie, clearly! “Marlee.” His dark blond brows rose. It took Marlee a moment to realize she’d been so bowled over by his looks she’d given him her real name instead of the name she was traveling under. Mentally, she kicked herself a couple of times before it dawned on her that he was waiting for her to give him the rest of her name. “Marlee Mercedes. My friends call me Mercy.” Fuck! The man had thoroughly rattled her to screw up twice in as many minutes! Now she’d given him her alias and her real name! His face darkened faintly, drawing her attention to the fact that, contrary to what his hair would’ve suggested, his skin was a beautiful golden tan. “Ah! So … you aren’t a local.” Suggesting he was? Surprise flickered through her. Then she gave herself another mental kick. Granted, there were a lot of Native Americans in the area since it was close to a reservation, but he could certainly still be a local and not be Native American! “I’m staying at the campground,” she blurted before she thought better of it, so desperate to recover her blunders that she was getting deeper and deeper. Jesus Christ! She might as well have spared herself all the efforts she’d made to cover her tracks! “So you are a tourist?” Was it her imagination or did he sound disappointed? Or was that hopefulness on her part? If it was, she needed to add stupid to horny! Struggling a moment with her discomfort, she finally realized that she hadn’t necessarily screwed up as badly as she’d thought. If she was a tourist, she’d flirt, right? He was a gorgeous hunk. She was supposed to be somebody focused on enjoying a vacation …. “Guilty. I’m just passing through.” “It’s going to be a little dark for setting up a camp.” “Oh—well, I took a cabin. Don’t get me wrong. I love the outdoors. I just don’t love it that much!” He chuckled at her little joke. “I guess I should let you get on with your shopping.” She’d lost interest in shopping. She felt a desperate urge to flee the scene and the need to try to smooth over the mess she’d made and an equal, insane, urge to detain him so that she

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could drool over him a little longer. “I guess I should grab a few things and get going,” she agreed, wishing she could think of something to keep him. “Maybe I’ll see you around?” Surprise flickered through Gabriel. When Eli had told him the woman was back he was certain their worst fears had been realized and they’d come under the radar of the government. If she was here to investigate, however, even undercover, it seemed unlikely she would allow herself to be distracted by a flirtation. And yet he could see he’d managed to pique her interest. Of course it might be the pheromones. From his experience, dragon pheromones were a good bit more potent than those the human male exuded and he’d been a long way from unaffected by her the first time he’d encountered her. The memory alone had been enough to have the blood pounding through him even before he’d spotted her himself and that had ramped up considerably when he had. She might merely be responding to the pheromones he was kicking out, he thought wryly, because there was absolutely no doubt in his mind that he was eager to offer her dragon love. Was it way too dangerous to see if he could take advantage of her interest and find out what she was up to? Or was it even a possibility? He tilted his head thoughtfully. “We could make sure of it if you’ll let me buy your dinner.” Marlee blinked at him, trying to decide if that was a good idea or not—safe or not. She was too old to throw caution to the wind! Oh, but she wanted to! ‘Live a little’ was probably famous last words. “Thank you ….” “But you’ve just met me. We aren’t going to get to know each other if you won’t take a chance,” he said, amusement threading his voice. “I tell you what, I’ll be at the diner in Odessa around … say, eight? That should give you time to settle into your cabin. If you feel like being daring, I’ll meet you there.” He didn’t wait for an answer, which was just as well. Marlee was in a state of complete disorder. She watched him as he strode to the door and went out. Turning away when she saw him reach a pickup truck and climb in, she stared blindly at the contents of her cart for a moment and finally headed to the back of the store. It wasn’t until she was checking out that she realized she’d noticed a shadowy figure already seated in the truck. Frowning, she tried to decide if it had been a man or a woman waiting for him. She finally decided it had been another man. The figure had been in shadow but it had seemed too large and broad shouldered to be a woman, in spite of the impression she’d gotten of long, dark hair. The ‘warrior’ flickered through her mind, but what were the odds of that? Astronomical, she was sure.

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Chapter Three Marlee was so giddy at the prospect of a date—a date with the most divine man she’d ever set eyes on!—it still took a strenuous effort to behave like a normal functioning ‘mature’ adult when she arrived at the cabin she’d rented. She hadn’t consciously acknowledged the fact that she fully intended to take Gabriel up on his offer, but she unloaded her belongings and her supplies into the cabin in record time, simply dumping them in any available spot, and immediately rushed to the bathroom to check her appearance. Relieved to see she wasn’t a total wreck, reminding herself that she’d undoubtedly made a good impression or he wouldn’t have asked her out, she headed back to her luggage to find something to wear and then dashed to the bathroom again to primp. She wasn’t completely satisfied with the casual clothes she’d chosen, but he’d mentioned a diner. She hardly thought the slinky black ‘man bait’ dress she’d wanted to wear would be appropriate. She toyed with the idea anyway, trying to convince herself she wouldn’t look completely overdressed. Sure she’d bought it, and worn it, in club settings, but it wasn’t as if those were high class settings. Maybe it was a little dressy, but surely not enough to make her feel totally out of place? Was it the message she wanted to get across, though? It had ‘fuck me’ written all over it. Was there any way he was going to get any other message when she was as wired as a cat perched on a livewire? Did she honestly want him to get any other message? It didn’t take a hell of a lot of soul searching to produce the answer. It wasn’t typical behavior for her by any stretch of the imagination. In point of fact, it wasn’t something she’d ever done, but she knew she was going to. She knew she was probably looking at a one-night stand any way she cut it—extremely short term even if she was lucky. She still didn’t know if he lived in the area, although she’d gotten the impression he did. Even if that was true, though, she was on the run and she couldn’t afford the distraction. She struggled with that for a few moments, uneasy with her reasoning once she’d reminded herself that it was necessary to maintain her pose. Deep down, she not only knew it wasn’t at all necessary, she knew it was a very, very bad idea. She’d arrived alone. That was suspicious enough by itself and maybe being seen with a local would make her look more ‘normal’ and less strange, but it was risky in itself to get too cozy with a local. Besides that, she didn’t know how much time she had to find out what she could—if she could find out anything at all—before moving on again. She hadn’t actually thought much past trying to discover what had happened to her. No amount of trying to reason with herself, she discovered, worked. Every time she tried to counter her urges with logic, she found another excuse to do what she wanted to do. And, truthfully, it wasn’t as if she could do any real investigating now. Wandering around in the woods in the daylight was risky. She sure as hell didn’t want to chance doing it at night.

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She might as well go ahead and get this out of her system, she decided. Giving in to temptation was probably the worst thing she could do in a lot of ways, but it should at least have the benefit of clearing her mind so that she focus! It wasn’t as if anything even close had ever happened to her before. This sort of chance encounter with a man that effected her so profoundly was probably a once in a lifetime shot—especially now when her future was looking so grim. Abruptly deciding against the casual clothes, she stripped her shirt and jeans off, discarded her bra, and pulled the black dress on. Definitely man bait. Shrugging, she searched her suitcase for a small clutch purse, dropped a condom and her small pistol in it and then headed out to her SUV. A girl could never have too much protection! In spite of everything, she managed to arrive early at the rendezvous. She didn’t have any trouble finding it. For one thing, it was the only diner. For another, the agency had used the parking lot of the same diner for a rendezvous point when they’d gathered for the exercise that had ended so disastrously for her. Primping to appeal was one thing, arriving too early and looking way too anxious was just asking for trouble! Fortunately, she discovered she had the little pictorial historical in the front seat to while away a few minutes. After finding a strategic location to park, she picked it up and leafed through it, more for a pretense than because she could actually think beyond the date. She discovered that, just as it had snagged her attention in the store, however, the moment she picked it up she was deeply engrossed. According to legend, long, long ago a young dragoness had chosen territory within theirs (the Native Americans who’d lived in the area at the time) and established a lair, looking about for a mate. Although she waited hopefully season after season for a drake to appear, moving even beyond the territory she had claimed for herself to lay out her scent to draw them, none came. Finally, certain there could be none left, she changed herself into the form of a beautiful woman and went to the village of the people who lived nearest to her, seeking a mate among them. According to the ‘old ones’ a beautiful woman had simply appeared near their village one day, following the trail that snaked through the center of it. Naked and barefoot, the people believed at first that she was a white woman who had lost her way, perhaps crazed from some terrible trial, but she bore no injuries and she spoke the tongue of the people as if she were one of them. Moreover, she was unlike any white woman they had ever seen. As tall as the tallest of their warriors, her long, flowing hair was like spun gold, her skin a pale, golden brown, and her eyes a strange amber gold. She told them she could not find a mate of her own kind and was seeking the seed of the bravest, strongest, and most cunning warriors among them for her off-spring. In return, she offered to give them warning if she saw their enemies approaching and promised that she and her off-spring would hunt beyond the territory of the people and would not be a threat to them or their food source. The people were almost inclined to laugh at her claims, despite the fact that her strangeness unnerved them, but their chief saw no harm in allowing her to stay among them and, despite their fear that she truly was insane, the warriors could not resist her beauty. They began to vie for her interest. As she had told them, however, she refused to accept any of the men as her lover until they had proven they were elite warriors—the bravest of the brave, the strongest of the strong, and the most cunning among them.

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The women grew jealous and began to speak out against her as the men began to fight among themselves, vying for her favor. When two of their finest warriors fought to the death over her, the chief had had enough. He told her that she had to leave the village, whereupon she told him that she had gotten what she had come for and transformed herself right before their eyes into a great, golden dragon and flew away. One day not long after, Spanish invaders came, searching for gold. When they spied the golden dragon, they knew that there would be gold in her lair from the legends of the old world. As they began to search for the dragon, they came upon the people, saw the pictures of the golden dragon that some had painted on their tepees and demanded that the Indians show them the way to her lair. She was a powerful ally and the Indians refused to tell them, but there were Indian maids among the people who were jealous of the dragon’s beauty in human form and the fact that the braves competed to prove themselves worthy of her. They offered to lead the Spanish to the place in the hills where it was rumored the dragon’s lair lay. The dragon spied them searching for her den, however, and she attacked them, slaying them all, but she was mortally wounded herself in the battle. Her lair was never found for the people never searched for it and refused to pass the knowledge of its location down. The Indians believed, though, that she hadn’t merely chosen lovers among them. She’d chosen mates and that somewhere in the mountains she’d given birth. Marlee nearly jumped out of her skin when someone abruptly tapped a knuckle against her window. Whirling, she gaped at the man leaning down to look at her without comprehension for several unnerving moments. Embarrassment flooded her abruptly as recognition dawned. A strange sense of unreality flickered through her, as well, though. How weird was it that the gorgeous guy she’d just met had golden eyes like she’d never seen before, a deep golden tan, and golden hair? He grinned at her. “Cold feet? Or you just staking the place out?” She smiled back at him sheepishly. “Maybe a little of both?” It sounded better than the truth, but she strongly suspected he knew the truth. How often did women turn the man down? He looked her over appreciatively when she got out. “I’m not sure Odessa can handle that much good-looking woman,” he murmured. Marlee felt the heat she’d just tamed surge into her cheeks again. “Uh … Am I going to be hideously out of place?” He chuckled, settling a hand along her waist. “They’ll get over it. Not sure my heart will.” “Thank you … I think.” “Just a fact ma’am … no bullshit.” Marlee smiled. “Right. I should’ve worn my waders.” He quirked a brow at her as he walked her across the street. “You come for some serious fishing?” “That was sarcasm. I don’t fish.” “That’s a shame. And I had tomorrow all planned out.” Dismay flickered through her, but she firmly dismissed it. Gorgeous he might be, but there wasn’t a man alive gorgeous enough to get her to slap mosquitoes all day and watch a fishing line bobbing in the water! Besides, she reminded herself sternly, she couldn’t afford to screw around literally or figuratively. This was a onetime deal to appease her clamoring hormones. “Sorry, but as tempting as that sounds, I’ll just have to pass.”

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“I hate fishing, too,” he said cheerfully, pushing the door of the diner open as they reached it and allowing her to enter first. Half the people in the diner turned to look when the bell over the door chimed and then did a double take, but she couldn’t decide whether it was her or him that had gotten that reaction. The dress was just a tad dressy for the diner—no huge surprise! Then again, men like Gabriel whatever-his-name-was didn’t exactly grow on trees. She hadn’t realized until that moment that she hadn’t actually gotten his last name. Was that a good thing or just another excellent reason why she shouldn’t be where she was about to do what she had in mind? The waitress nearly fell all over herself to dash to the table and toss out menus. It took her a moment to remember where she was when she’d taken their drink orders. Irritated at her awe-struck hovering, Marlee flicked a glare at her. It seemed to penetrate the fog. The woman left. Gabriel seemed unfazed, but he was frowning at his menu. “I heard the food here was good, but ….” The waitress made it back with two sloshing glasses of tea and managed to catch the comment. She answered before Marlee could do more than open her mouth. “We got yankee pot roast on special. I had some earlier. It was real good.” Gabriel lifted his head and sent her a level look. “You like chicken better? We got a nice pot pie.” “The pot roast sounds good to me,” Marlee responded. The waitress turned to look at her as if she’d forgotten there were two people at the table. Marlee suspected she had. She scribbled the order on her pad, however, reeling off the choices of sides and taking notes. “I’ll have what she’s having,” Gabriel said promptly when the waitress turned back to him, then added when she quoted the options, “Everything the same.” Nodding, the waitress left. Gabriel relaxed visibly. “I guess you aren’t as used to that as I thought you would be,” Marlee murmured with amusement. He looked at her blankly. She saw something flicker in his eyes, but she couldn’t figure out what it was about. “Hero worship,” Marlee clarified dryly. “Awed admiration. You don’t do movies by any chance, do you? Modeling?” He blinked at her several times and then turned so red she was almost sorry she’d asked. Almost. She didn’t think she’d ever seen anything quite as charming. Bashful? “Uh … no.” The answer was short almost to the point of being brusque. It was impossible not to get the impression that he didn’t find it the least bit flattering. “Never had any interest in that sort of thing. What about you?” Marlee gaped at him. Maybe he had bad eyes? Good thing for her! “No. Not my thing either.” She hesitated. She’d never found herself in quite as awkward a situation. The typical ‘getting to know you’ questions seemed unnecessarily probing all things considered. Shrugging inwardly, she decided to go with it. She couldn’t think of anything else to ask and it would be more awkward just to sit together staring into space. “What do you do?” “This and that.”

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He didn’t want to tell her. Now why was that, she wondered? He thought it wouldn’t impress her? Or was he an ex-con, recently paroled and not yet employed? He didn’t have the look of a felon. “Depends on the work available in an area. I’ve done some construction, some logging. Mostly, I just like working with my hands and I like being outdoors.” Which accounted for all those nice muscles and the beautiful tan! “So … you move around a good bit?” He shrugged. “No more than anybody else these days, I guess. What about you?” He was tenacious! She didn’t want to tell him what she did for a living either. Even if she hadn’t been in ‘trouble’ her chosen profession was a turn off to men more often that it was a turn on. “Like I said—I’m on vacation. Between jobs at the moment. I just graduated, actually.” She tensed when she said that, irritated that she’d fallen into the trap she meant to avoid—which was anything that could be traced back to her! He nodded a little absently instead of commenting on the fact that she looked a little old to have just graduated. “You get settled into your cabin?” Marlee grimaced. “Honestly? Not really. I just sort of unloaded and dropped everything. I didn’t know how long it would take to find the place.” Fortunately, the food arrived. Marlee wasn’t particularly hungry, but she’d decided very much small talk was going to ruin the evening she’d had in mind. Too big a dose of reality and all that! Then, too, there was the fact that the guy turned her brain to pure mush! Of course, in her defense, she hadn’t been on the run before, hadn’t ever expected to be. She might have been trained to ‘get in’ to the mind of a suspect, but she hadn’t been prepared for the fulltime role. Not that that was a reasonable excuse. Her survival instincts had been thoroughly aroused. It shouldn’t have been that hard to think like a runner when she was one—and, in fact, hadn’t been until she’d run into Gabriel. Ok—so she’d already been stewing when she’d met him, but it was actually a relief to recall that. It seemed to her to support her theory that it was just needs she’d ignored too long, compounded by the fear of a short future and magnified by the fact that she’d stumbled upon two men in quick succession that made her blood run hot! She struggled to dismiss her discomfort and the attendant uneasiness that she was acting so far outside the norm for her that all kinds of alarms should be going off in her head. Not that she had a problem with the impression she’d gotten that Gabriel seemed to be a tumble weed. It lessened the possibility of a complication she didn’t really need. Unfortunately, the small talk during the meal didn’t seem to be taking them in the direction she wanted to go. She’d begun to think by the time they finished that a meal was all she was going to get out of her evening. She should’ve been relieved. Maybe if she’d managed what she’d planned it would’ve taken care of the distraction, but it was still way too chancy and something she shouldn’t have contemplated to start with. He seemed meditative as he walked her back to her vehicle. “It seems a shame to waste a dress like that on the diner. There’s a tavern close by if you’d like to dance?” Marlee considered it, but a night of drinking and dancing wasn’t what she’d had in mind either—besides the fact that that much exposure didn’t seem like a good idea—seemed like a worse idea than the one she’d already succumbed to. She toyed with the idea of shooting straight from the hip but although she wasn’t above thinking wicked thoughts she couldn’t quite bring

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herself to be that blunt. “I’ve been driving all day. I’m a little stiff for that to sound very appealing. How about a walk instead?” He frowned, lifting his head and looking around. “There isn’t much to see here,” he said slowly. “I don’t think those heels would be very good for walking in the park, though.” Marlee struggled with another round of wariness and finally pitched good-sense to the wind. “You could always follow me back to my cabin and wait for me to change into something more appropriate for a walk?” He relaxed. “Sure. Sounds good to me.” Relieved, Marlee unlocked her door and got in. “I’m parked across the street. Give me a minute.” She had time to reconsider her plans for the evening on the trip out to the camp. She did consider it, just as she had earlier, and she arrived at the same conclusion. She felt more comfortable with the decision than she had before, though. She hadn’t gotten any threatening vibes from the guy, any little ‘tells’ to make her uneasy. She was pretty convinced that he was just an ordinary guy looking to get laid—simple! He won more points when he stayed in his truck when he’d parked. She liked the fact that he didn’t make any assumptions. “Would you like to come in while I change?” He looked a question. “You sure you’re ok with that?” It was going to be hard to jump his bones in the damned parking lot! “I’m sure.” She was on edge as he followed her inside, but it wasn’t because she was uneasy. She’d begun to doubt he meant to make the first move and she just wasn’t the type of woman who felt comfortable making the first move herself. Damn it! He stopped just inside and looked the place over. “Would you like something to drink? I got water and sodas at the store. Unfortunately, I didn’t take the time to put them in the fridge.” “I’m good.” “Why don’t you have a seat?” He was too damned tall for her to take advantage of him standing up! He glanced around and strode to the only easy chair the cabin boasted. Well shit! Was the guy dense or what? Marlee considered the situation as she watched him settle and decided enough was enough. If she was going to take care of her itch, she was just going have to be brazen! When she reached him, she ignored the frantic pounding of her heart, placed a knee on either side of his thighs, and settled on his lap facing him. “I don’t think I’m actually in the mood for a walk,” she said, lifting her arms and draping them lightly around his shoulders. Amusement gleamed in his eyes and something else—desire? She was pretty sure of that. Triumph? What game had he been playing? Run till she catches me? “What are you in the mood for?” he murmured huskily. Irritation flickered through her, but she found herself smiling. “I’ll give you two guesses but the last one doesn’t count.” He settled his hands on her hips and dragged her closer. “Only two?” he murmured, sliding his hands slowly along her thighs. “Give me a hint. I’m not that good at guessing games.” He chuckled at her expression, tilting his head a little curiously. “You’re not like I expected you would be.” Marlee lifted her brows. “Is that a good thing? Or a bad thing?” His lips twisted. “I’m not sure it’s a good thing … for me.” “How’s that?” Marlee asked, beginning to feel uncomfortable.

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He slipped his hands beneath her dress, stroking the soft flesh at the top of her thighs. “I got the impression that you were a more ‘take charge’ kind of woman.” Disconcerted despite the warmth that had begun to tingle through her at his touch, Marlee debated whether to dispense with the talk altogether. “And now that I’ve climbed on your lap you have an entirely different perception?” “I was actually beginning to worry that I might have to give chase,” he murmured, slipping his hands to her buttocks and dragging her up against his chest. The movement brought her cleft into contact with a raging erection, dispelling any doubts that lingered that he just wasn’t ‘in’ to her. His lips played along her face teasingly. He sucked at her lower lip, as if savoring the softness and then nipped at her upper lip with his. “Meaning you thought I might get away?” Marlee whispered. “There was never any chance of that. I just didn’t want to scare you. They run so much faster when they’re frightened.” Marlee’s heart skipped several beats, but since he settled his mouth over hers just then it was hard to decide whether it was uneasiness or heated need that caused the surge in her pulse. She dismissed the comments as teasing as her focus shifted to the currents flowing through her at his possession. His kiss was far more intoxicating than half a dozen mixed drinks would’ve been. Almost as soon as her body absorbed the heat, the moisture, his taste and scent, she was floating on a dizzying high. She heard the sound of his zipper and then the distinctive rattle of foil. Breaking the kiss, she looked down between them and saw he was fitting a condom over the most massive erection she’d ever seen in her life. A mixture of uneasiness and anticipation filled her. “I want all the trimmings,” she said when she’d dragged her gaze from the monolith to meet his gaze. “Good. I’m ready for a feast. Don’t worry. It isn’t going anywhere.” She struggled with the desire to mount him immediately despite her determination to enjoy a rousing round of foreplay. Distracted from that goal briefly by another kiss, she came up on her knees when he broke from her lips to explore her throat. Grasping his cock, she pushed the leg of her panties aside, guided it to the mouth of her sex, and lowered herself onto it. “Let’s just tuck in here to keep it safe,” she murmured. He smiled against her throat. “If you had any idea how long it’s been for me you’d be more worried about tucking it into that nice little cavern than leaving it lonely.” He caught her hips, though, lifting to meet her at the same time he bore down on her to seat himself. She’d thought between the lubrication of the condom and her own there wouldn’t be a problem. She realized fairly quickly that she’d underestimated the sheer volume of flesh. “They usually run when they see that thing, right?” she gasped, trying to banish the image of a dash to the hospital to sew her coochie up as she felt the burn intensify. He didn’t smile that time. His expression was taut as he slowly lifted her and settled her over and over until her body finally adjusted to him. She was panting for breath by the time he filled her completely, but even she wasn’t certain if it was altogether passion. He stroked her belly with a hand that shook. When she looked down, she saw the clear outline of his cock within her in the ridge along her belly. It made her kegels clench reflexively. He let out a hissing breath that drew her gaze to his face again. Holding it, he skimmed her dress upward. As soon as he’d unveiled her breasts, he pulled her to him, capturing the peak of one and suckling it. Tangled in the dress briefly, Marlee whipped it off and tossed it, curling her arms around his head and squeezing her eyes tightly at the jolts of pleasure shooting through her and connecting with her womb. By the time he

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released the first nipple and moved to the second, Marlee was so dizzy from panting for breath and from the rise of tension inside of her, she hardly knew what she was doing until Gabriel abruptly halted her restless movements by coiling his arms around her waist and pulling her more tightly down on his erection. She felt a deep flutter of the muscles inside of her then, the threat/promise of a climax. Unable to resist the lure of rapture so close, she ground herself against him and Gabriel released her nipple abruptly. Sucking in a harsh breath, he held perfectly still for a handful of moments and then began to move jerkily, lifting her up and then pulling her down over his cock again as he pumped into her in hard, jerky thrusts. Marlee uttered a long, drawn out groan as she felt her body gathering to take the leap and then sucked in a sharp breath as the ecstasy detonated, sending keen shards of blinding pleasure through her that stole the strength from every muscle and seemed to melt her bones. Slumping against him weakly in the aftermath, she focused on nothing but basking in the pleasurable afterglow. Her wits had just begun to kick into gear again when Gabriel tightened his grip on her and stood up. Carrying her to the bed, he lowered the two of them onto it together. He got up again almost immediately, though, and she listened to his movements without making much effort to interpret them, wondering for a few moments if he meant to dress and leave. The thought sent a flicker of dismay through her. Before she could get too wound up about it, however, she heard the plop of the condom in the trash and a moment later, Gabriel sprawled half atop her again. She was pleased when he burrowed his face against her neck, nuzzling her, and then her face and finally sought her lips. The kiss didn’t just carry lingering heat or appreciation, however. It was as hot and hungry as his kisses had been before. The thought of protesting flickered through her mind and was drowned by the heat he summoned. A flicker of surprise went through her—some sense that something just wasn’t quite right about the equation, that she should be sated and unable to generate much interest—but the pleasure drugs bombarding her eliminated reasoning ability very quickly. She climbed from warmth to feverish so quickly that Gabriel’s almost savage desperation, rather than sending up any red flags of uneasiness, only thrilled her more. She came almost as quickly the second time as she had the first and it was as satisfying or more so. She was exhausted enough, however, that she drifted from the pleasant cloud of warm afterglow toward oblivion without any awareness of the transition until Gabriel woke her again and made love to her with the same, fierce hunger of before. **** Eli knew the moment Gabriel entered their lair that he had done far more than simply ‘keep an eye’ on the woman—his woman. Anger instantly surged through him and he had to struggle with the urge to meet him and knock the shit out of him. “My memory must be faulty,” he growled. “I seem to recall that you said we needed to keep our eye on the woman to see what she was up to. I don’t remember you saying anything about fucking her.” Gabriel’s expression tightened. Despite the anger that instantly arose at Eli’s antagonizing comments, however, it was the truth—and he hadn’t said it merely to steer Eli and the others away from the woman—away from Marlee. He’d meant it at the time. “She’s breeding,” he said tightly instead of addressing Eli’s accusation. Eli felt as if he’d been punched in the solar plexus. The announcement sent him reeling, struggling to catch his breath, trying to bring some order to his mind. “Breeding?” John asked hoarsely. “She’s been with a man?”

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“She’s been with you two … and me … and she’s breeding. That’s no man’s child she’s carrying.” Eli looked around for a place to sit and finally collapsed on a rock jarringly. “She’s … How could she …?” Gabriel raked a hand through his hair agitatedly and then looked at his fingers when he realized they were shaking. “I don’t know. I just know she is. I smelled it.” He met Eli’s gaze. “Believe it or not I had no intention of doing more than we’d agreed upon.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what it is about that woman …. She reacted to me. I smelled her desire and the next thing I knew ….” John caught him off guard, slugging him hard enough on the jaw to swing his head sideways. He threw up arm instinctively to block the second blow and sent John a murderous look. “Have a care, brother,” he growled. “We bred her!” John snarled furiously. “What the fuck were you thinking to fuck our woman when she’s already breeding our young?” “I smelled another!” Gabriel bellowed at him. He had no idea where the thought came from or that it was even in his mind until it had spilled out. A jolt went through him when it had. He was as startled by the statement as all the others. They overcame their shock. “That isn’t possible!” Eli said tightly. “She’s human! You said it yourself. They don’t breed like that.” “I know that!” Gabriel snarled. “I’m telling you I smelled it! I could no more stop myself than either of you could!” “Well this is a hell of a god damned mess!” Eli muttered after a few minutes. “If you’re right, then she’s breeding mine, John’s, and yours—or mine and yours anyway—and she’s human. We have a hell of a lot more to worry about than her finding the lair or leading her people back to us if you’re right!” “What the fuck do you mean by that?” John demanded furiously. “Yours and Gabe’s? What the fuck makes you think you bred and I didn’t?” “That isn’t the point ….” “Like hell it isn’t! If she’s breeding mine, that makes her as much mine as yours, gods damn it! But that is the point, isn’t it? You think you can claim her and cut me out?” “I don’t know what the hell you three are pissed off about!” Joshua snarled. “At least you got the fucking chance! None of us have bred and none of us got any chance to breed when the three of you snatched the first female to come along that’s capable of breeding with us!” “It’s a problem for all of us!” Gabriel bellowed. “And it’s going to be more of a problem if all we can do is fight among ourselves! Shut the fuck up and think—or shut the fuck up and let me think!” All five of his brothers glared at him furiously, but after standing tensed to fight for several moments, they forced themselves to relax. Eli and Joshua began to pace restlessly. The others settled like Gabriel had, glaring down at their feet thoughtfully. “She seemed nervous,” Gabriel said after a little while. “Before, after, or during the fuckathon?” Eli snarled angrily. Gabriel sent him a tight look. “When I first spoke to her—when I was with her later.” “So?” Joshua asked blankly. “Some women are nervous. Maybe you made her nervous?”

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Gabriel frowned with a mixture of irritation and thoughtfulness. “She’s a government woman, right? She had a badge when we found her here. I don’t think she’s nervous by nature. I don’t see a woman like that going in to law enforcement.” He sent Joshua an irritated look. “And although I think some of her nervousness might have been from being around me— humans aren’t in touch with their instincts like we are, but they still have them!—I didn’t get the impression that that was all of it. There was wariness, and it might have been because she sensed that I was dragon without realizing it, but I still don’t think that was all of it. She went out of her way to invent some tale about being here on vacation. She never once mentioned that she was in any kind of law enforcement.” “You didn’t tell her anything but a bunch of tales about yourself,” Aaron pointed out dryly. Gabriel’s lips tightened. “I make it a habit to stick as close to the truth as I can, however, and that’s my point. I have a reason to be evasive. What reason could she have when I know damned well that she had no idea I was connected in any way with … the mating frenzy that went on here?” “So …,” Eli said after a few moments, “you’re suggesting … what? That she’s here undercover specifically to find us?” “Maybe,” Gabriel said doubtfully. “I suppose that would depend on how much she remembers.” “We healed her,” John said pointedly. “If they figured out that that bear crossed paths with her that would’ve aroused a lot of curiosity.” “The bear by itself might have done that,” Eli said dryly. “I was in a killing frenzy and then … well, you know the rest. I wasn’t thinking straight. They could’ve tracked her and found the bear.” “Why would she come alone, though?” Gabriel said after a moment’s thought. “I think that’s what’s bothering me. If she was sent, they wouldn’t send her alone to investigate.” “You don’t think you were too busy stalking her to notice if she had company?” Eli asked sardonically. Gabriel resisted the urge to punch his brother in the face—mostly because he didn’t feel like getting up at the moment. “You were there,” he said pointedly. “Did you notice anybody else that seemed to be particularly interested in her?” Eli felt his face heat. He didn’t particularly want to admit, however, that he hadn’t been able to focus on anything else from the moment he’d caught her scent and recognized her. “I didn’t notice anybody,” he said coolly, “but they could’ve arrived before she did.” Gabriel shook his head. “They couldn’t have set anything like that up,” he said decisively. “She didn’t actually see any of us. She couldn’t identify us and that means they can’t be that close, certainly not close enough to set up a trap at the rez for us. I think it must be a fishing expedition on her part. Maybe she remembers just enough to want to figure out the rest—like we thought when she showed up?” “Maybe. I don’t think the Feds were happy when they concluded their investigation and left, though. It might not be personal at all.” “Even if Gabe’s right, we still don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing,” Luke pointed out. “The question is—curious in a good way? Or dangerous?” John frowned. “I haven’t really paid all that close attention to the breeding habits of humans. It never really seemed relevant. Do you think it’s possible she could know she’s breeding and that’s what brought her?”

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Gabriel and Eli exchanged a look. “They don’t have our senses and I doubt she’s far enough along they could detect it with their tests,” Gabriel said dryly. “She’s only a few weeks along. I almost missed it myself.”

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Chapter Four Marlee knew as soon as she woke that she was alone in the bed and the coolness of the sheets where Gabriel had lain the night before assured her he’d been gone a while. She had mixed feelings about it. His departure had spared both of them any awkward ‘morning after’ conversation. On the other hand, she’d always been a light sleeper and she found it deeply disturbing that he’d risen, dressed, and departed without rousing her at least a little. Of course, she was almost more exhausted than if she hadn’t had any sleep at all, she thought wryly. Being woken several times during the night would’ve left her tired anyway, but being awakened for another frenetic round of sex had taken a good bit more out of her. “The man is insatiable!” she muttered tiredly, toying with the idea of turning over and going back to sleep. As she drifted toward slumber once more, it was only the thought that she was on a personal mission, and one of life altering consequences, that finally inspired her to give up the thought and get up. She winced as pain lanced through her. “Rough too!” she added as she got up and tottered toward the bathroom. Not that she was complaining—too much, she thought as she adjusted the water in the shower and climbed in. He’d made her feel pretty insatiable—and frantic. She frowned as that thought flickered through her mind, turning it over and over as she bathed. Could she just dismiss the effect Gabriel had had on her as ‘normal’ in the sense that it was simply a new experience for her to find a man that had such a powerful effect on her? Or was it really, really odd that she’d had two encounters in the exact same place that went so far beyond anything she’d ever experienced that she felt like it defied the norm? She was still considering those questions when she got out and dressed, wondering if she was searching so hard for explanations that she was blowing the encounter all out of proportion. It didn’t necessarily follow that there was anything the least bit suspicious about it just because she hadn’t experienced anything like it before. Women talked—not that she had a lot of female friends—but she’d heard things, read things. Women who fell madly in love were inclined to talk about their feelings as if it was almost beyond ‘earthly’. Not that she thought she’d just experienced love at first sight, or anything like that, but maybe lust at first sight? Maybe she’d just beaten astronomical odds and met up with two— make that three, because she was certain there’d been two before—different men in the same area that were so attractive to her on a chemical level as to produce temporary insanity? Because what she’d done bordered irrational—ok! It went beyond rational. It didn’t just border it. She’d been as giddy and excited about going out with Gabriel the night before as if she didn’t have a care in the world and that was just plain out of character for her. It would’ve been even if not for the circumstances. Could his pheromones have been powerful enough to create that much of an imbalance? Science had pretty well established that attraction was chemical, even though people weren’t actually aware of it on a conscious level, and a natural drug was still a drug. She’d felt drugged the night before, but she knew damned well if she had been it was strictly natural. She

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hadn’t been so … enthralled that she’d let her guard down that much! There was no way he could’ve slipped anything to her. Besides, she’d been ‘high’ on Gabriel from the moment she’d met him. Abandoning that thread for the moment, she went back to considering the astronomical odds of meeting more than one man that had that kind of effect on her in one place and felt a wave of cold wash over her. She didn’t know how she could possibly be so certain that Gabriel wasn’t one of the men from her ‘erotic’ dream, but she knew he wasn’t. She felt it with a certainty that was impossible to shake. That definitely left her with three ‘out of this world’ lovers, because she was just as certain that two men had figured into that dream that certainly wasn’t a dream if one of them had gotten her pregnant! She felt a little nauseated when she realized she couldn’t dismiss the possibility of a connection. It was just too coincidental to be a coincidence. In her line of work, that was usually a sure sign of a connection—not always, but usually. So … he’d spotted her and recognized her? Not that she’d placed much faith in the possibility of alien abduction to begin with, despite her certainty that that was why there was so much sudden interest in her by the government, but didn’t his presence make that even less likely? It had been weeks. Aliens wouldn’t be hanging around, would they? She rolled her eyes at the thought. She didn’t know why or even how—or for certain that that was what they actually believed, for that matter—they’d gotten the idea of alien involvement to start with. Of course that had a lot to do with the fact that she could remember damned little and no one had filled her in. They’d questioned her, seemingly endlessly, but that left as many gaps as it filled in. The searchers had found the bear—or at least ‘a’ bear—that she’d thought had attacked her and it hadn’t just been dead. It had been mutilated, it’s back broken in several places and its lower jaw ripped off. Even she didn’t see how that could be put down to another animal attacking, including another bear, but it was a hell of leap to aliens, wasn’t it? She’d gotten the impression that two men had arrived to help and they’d fought the bear. She hadn’t told anyone that. Fortunately, she’d heard about the bear before she’d had the chance to tell that tale and realized it probably wasn’t a good idea to tell her version. They would probably have put it down to hysteria or trauma anyway, but she was still glad she hadn’t. Unfortunately, the only thing that was really clear to her was the pain she’d felt and then the heat that had begun to infuse her like a fever once they’d bathed her. How could she have felt such pain if she hadn’t been hurt at all? Even the doctors had scratched their heads trying to figure out how she could’ve been unconscious for what was hours when they hadn’t found any drugs in her system or any sign of an injury that would’ve rendered her unconscious. It she wasn’t pregnant—and she still hadn’t fully accepted that—she would have gone on believing that the entire thing had just been some sort of delusion. It made her head throb just trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for what had happened and she finally dismissed it. She wasn’t going to get any answers until and unless she managed to track down the men who’d impregnated her. She would’ve liked to have been able to convince herself that it had been rape, and she still felt that she’d been manipulated somehow, but unfortunately her mind was pretty clear on that aspect. She hadn’t just been willing. She’d practically begged them to do something about the heat.

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Just like she had Gabriel. Today, she felt like complaining because she was tired and sore. Last night, she not only hadn’t complained, she’d been eager for him to scratch the seemingly insatiable itch. Gathering up a map of the park, a compass, a couple of bottles of water and enough food to see her through the day, she stuffed everything into a small pack and left the cabin. It would’ve made things a lot easier if she could’ve simply gone straight to the park rangers and asked to be shown the area where the ‘FBI woman’ had been attacked, but she decided it was too risky. She didn’t think any of them had paid enough attention to recognize her, but she didn’t want to take a chance that they might. She wouldn’t have worried about it if she’d thought she could get in, find her answers, and get out before her ‘tail’ figured out she’d headed to the park, but she was working on borrowed time and she knew it. She’d lain a trail south, but they might already have figured out she hadn’t gone that way. It was standard procedure for authorities to track down all known addresses associated with anyone they were trying to find—but they had to know she knew that and wasn’t stupid enough to go to any friends or relatives—except the one who’s car she’d borrowed for the first leg of her trip. They might realize pretty quickly that she would want to know what had happened and would head for the park, but she hoped not. She hoped they decided she’d figured out they were watching her and had made for the nearest border to try to get completely off their radar. If the last was the case, then she would have a little time to see what she could figure out. It would make her chances of getting out of the country later, if she decided to, nearly impossible, but then she still hadn’t figured out what she wanted to do ‘after’. A lot depended on what she found out. If there was nothing ‘other worldly’ about her pregnancy then she didn’t see that she had anything to worry about, or lose, in reappearing. She could just say that she’d headed for relatives in the south and changed her mind and decided to see what she could find out. They couldn’t prove she’d run, because she hadn’t committed any kind of crime and had no reason to think she was under surveillance. She couldn’t be charged with anything and she didn’t have to worry about disappearing into some secret government lab for experiments—or worry about the baby. She hadn’t consciously acknowledged that the main reason for her flight was concern that her baby might be in danger, but the moment she did, she realized that was her main driving force—fear for the life of a child she hadn’t even wanted to acknowledge was there. It was hers, though! Despite the circumstances of its conception, despite her plans for her future and a career, it was her child and she wasn’t going to let anybody decide its fate! She thought she might have felt differently if she’d felt raped. The truth was, regardless of the fact that she did not understand why she’d wanted them to fuck her senseless, she couldn’t lie to herself and claim rape. It had to have been ‘them’, whoever ‘they’ were—the two men who’d somehow rescued her from the bear. She hadn’t heard them speak more than a few words to each other, and she’d been drifting in and out of consciousness the entire time, but she was convinced she hadn’t changed hands at any point. She was just as convinced that the place where she’d been found wasn’t the same place where she’d been taken. She vaguely recalled an argument between the men. It had seemed to her that there were more than two—more than three, but she’d decided that must have been some sort of trick of her imagination. It just didn’t seem plausible that an entire gang of men would’ve been in the same place—especially since she was absolute sure that only two had screwed her— and she’d been found naked.

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She was in luck she discovered when she arrived at the trail entrance. The lodge she’d decided to stay at wasn’t far from the park entrance and she’d woken early enough that there were still a fair number of hikers that hadn’t taken to the trail. She wouldn’t have considered it luck at all except that as she was scurrying past one of the rangers she overheard one of the hikers asking about the site where they’d found the bear. She hesitated, debating whether the risk of being recognized trumped the information she might get, and finally slowed her steps enough to catch the conversation. It seemed obvious that the ranger wasn’t especially happy about the focus on the ‘possible alien mutilation’ site, but it seemed equally clear, from the resignation in his voice, that he’d directed more than a few people to the area. It unnerved her to realize that some sort of bizarre story must have hit the gossip rags, at the very least, to bring out the UFO nuts. On the other hand, she thought philosophically, that would just make her one more nut case and less likely to draw attention. She stopped near the trail head and made a pretense of searching for something in her pack and waited for the hikers to direct her to the trail. She’d done her best to mark her map from her memory, but this was far better since she’d been lost at the time and wasn’t entirely sure she had the spot marked correctly. Giving the hikers a head start, she fell in behind them, close enough she could hear snatches of their conversation. She was rewarded for her efforts by catching a good bit of the dialogue about an article one of them had read online. There were arguments both for and against the possibility that the bear killing fit into the alien mutilation category. Mostly, those seemed to be farm animals and the mutilation didn’t really match either. It was still a strange enough circumstance that they wanted to see it for themselves. Personally, Marlee didn’t see their point. The bear carcass had been removed long since and she couldn’t imagine what they thought there was to see. The only reason she’d decided she wanted to see it for herself was that she wanted to see just how far away the site was from the spot when she’d been found. She’d been told it was several miles, but she didn’t know how accurate that was or even if it was close to accurate. Beyond that, she thought if she walked it there still might be a chance of finding some small clue that hadn’t been discovered. The possibility was slim, she knew. Not only had the searchers combed the area when they were looking for her, but there’d been another investigative team on the site afterwards— whoever the stranger in the dark suit worked for that she’d seen with her doctor. She couldn’t see that she had anything to lose by looking, however, and she thought if the distance had been exaggerated, or completely wrong, then that upped the chances that her ‘rescuers/abductors’ were plain old home grown guys—not weird aliens that wanted to impregnate human women for some strange reason. Of course, that also suggested that they were hikers which might or might not mean they were locals. She thought there were probably locals who made use of their proximity to the park, but the number of visitors would be considerably higher and therefore, she thought, the chances were higher that, even if it had been hikers, they were strangers to the area and it wasn’t likely she would ever track them down. The hikers stopped to rest and eat before they reached the site. Since she didn’t want to make it too obvious that she’d been following them, Marlee kept going for about thirty minutes more and then found a shady spot to rest and wait for her ‘guides’. She’d begun to think they’d

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changed their minds by the time they finally passed her. She focused on repacking her small pack while they trooped past, gave them another ten minutes and fell in behind them again. She was a little annoyed when she discovered they’d stopped little more than an hour from the site. If she’d known they were that close, she would’ve kept going. Her annoyance waned, however, after she’d watched them for a little while. They were serious UFO hunters and had brought equipment with them. Deciding after a little while that it wouldn’t hurt to indulge her curiosity, she wandered a little closer. “What are you guys doing?” She knew they had to have heard her approach but apparently they’d been too engrossed to really register it. All three young men whirled to look at her … and none of them looked especially welcoming. “Testing the radiation levels,” one of them finally responded. Her heart skipped several beats. “Radiation?” she echoed. There was no need for acting that time. The second man nodded, but he didn’t offer any explanation. “Why would you think there’d be radiation? Isn’t this the site where they found that bear?” “We heard it was a possible case of alien mutilation,” one of the men, who looked to be the youngest, finally volunteered. “I don’t get the connection.” The other two sent him an irritated look, but almost seemed to shrug. Wandering off, they left her and the talkative young man alone. “It’s pretty common to find higher levels of radiation around a reported UFO landing site.” That was news to her! “Really? I guess since you aren’t picking up anything that rules that out?” He shrugged. “Probably … not necessarily, though. It just means there was no landing as far as I can see. They could’ve beamed the bear up for experimentation and then dropped it here.” Marlee blinked at him. “Beamed it up?” He reddened slightly. “You know we have scientists working on that particular technology now, right? Well, we haven’t perfected it, but there’s no saying someone else couldn’t have.” “So … you’re leaning toward some kind of … uh … alien visitation thing?” “We’re here to study it,” one of the others said a little testily as he returned. “We don’t make conclusions until we’ve gathered whatever facts we can. But if you’ve heard anything about this, you’d have to agree that something really, really weird happened here.” The younger guy nodded eagerly. “The bear was only part of it. An FBI agent disappeared and was gone for nearly ten hours. They found her miles from here—even though there was evidence that she’d been at this site, where they found the bear, and she had no idea where she was or how she’d gotten there.” She actually had some idea. It just didn’t compute! She frowned, wondering if it was a good idea to hang around now that they’d mentioned her. The chances were if she’d been part of the story her picture had been plastered next to the story and although they hadn’t shown any sign of recognition, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t. “Really?” she said in a ‘tell me more’ tone.

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“The government has been crawling all over it. The last of them only pulled out last week or we would’ve been here sooner.” That was good to know! She felt a little cold at the realization that she’d come damned close to running into just the people she most wanted to avoid. She debated briefly and decided not to allow her caution to prevent her from finding out what she could. “What, exactly, was it about the killing that made you feel like it might have to do with UFO’s?” “There isn’t a lot that can kill bears,” the elder young man said dryly. “It wasn’t a little black bear. It was a grizzly.” “Another grizzly?” “Yes, but they’re pretty territorial. It wouldn’t be a ‘usual’ thing to find two that close together and from what we could tell about the pictures, there weren’t any of the wounds you’d expect to see if it had been a fight between two bears—no claw marks, no teeth marks—which pretty much rules out any other wild animal.” “Whatever it was ripped the lower jaw almost clean off,” the younger man volunteered eagerly. A wave of nausea washed over Marlee. “Ripped? Not cut?” she managed to say. “Wouldn’t that rule out aliens, too? I mean, wouldn’t they use … uh … lasers or something?” “Yeah, well, you’re right, I guess, but it’s damned strange. Something weird happened here.” He frowned, obviously thinking. “Not that I believe in any of that bullshit or anything, but I suppose the xenobiologists might have a case here for big foot or something like that, now that you mention it.” “Footprints? Hello?” The older man glared at the younger. Marlee looked at both of them questioningly. “They only found a couple of partial footprints anywhere in the area and they were both human. One belonged to the agent and the other … well, it was a big print, but clearly human— barefoot.” Marlee glanced around speculatively. “I don’t suppose there’d be much chance of discovering any other footprints after all this time.” “Not since the feds were here,” the eldest said dryly. “Maybe I’ll look around anyway?” Marlee said. “Just out of curiosity.” The guys shrugged, studied her for a few minutes as she moved slowly around the area, searching the ground, and finally returned their attention to what they’d been doing. Marlee poked around until she decided she’d looked long enough to convince them she was curious, but not overly curious, and then returned to the trail to wait for them to leave. She discovered she’d reckoned without their enthusiasm. An hour passed and then two. The young men began discussing trying to find the second site—where the agent was found—on the following day. They seemed to be fonts of information—had been thus far anyway—which made her wonder if there was really any such thing as secrets of any kind anymore. After a while, she fell to considering if it would be worth trying to track them to the location or if she’d have better luck on her own. When they began to discuss their strategy for reaching it and getting to the nearest camping area in one day, though, she decided it might not be such a great idea to try it without any kind of guide. Leaving her watch position, she headed back to the trail head, wondering if it was possible that she might find a guide among the locals who knew where the site was and could take her and get her back without getting lost. From what the guys had said, she’d gotten the impression that it wasn’t near any of the marked trails and that could spell trouble with a capital

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T for her! It sure as hell hadn’t been any part of her plan to get lost and become the subject of another hunt! She was still struggling with the pros and cons of the idea when she reached the trail entrance and headed to the parking lot, so deep in thought that she damned near ran one of the rangers down. It was only the discovery that she was on a collision course that jerked her back to her surroundings and, unfortunately, that made it too late to avoid being noticed herself. The ranger, an older man, glanced at her, did a double take, and stopped dead in his tracks, staring at her hard. “You’re the agent that was lost up here a few weeks ago.” If there’d been a thread of doubt in the man’s voice, Marlee would’ve flatly denied it. She was tempted to anyway, but what was the point in avoiding recognition, and possible capture, if it also meant that she didn’t find out what she’d come for? “I’m sorry. I don’t recognize you,” she said after a long moment. He looked a little disconcerted and then shrugged. “Phil … Phil Collins.” He paused, obviously waiting for a comment. “I don’t sing,” he added, grinning abruptly. Marlee managed a thin smile at his little joke. His eyes narrowed on her thoughtfully. “I guess you wanted to check things out yourself?” “Something like that. The problem is, I don’t have a very clear memory of any of it. I followed some hikers up to the site where they found the bear ….” He nodded, considering her assessingly. “Haven’t seen it myself. I wasn’t with the group that found you.” Meaning some of the rangers might have been? “I suppose I could talk to somebody at the local PD …?” He nodded again. “Or you could talk to some of the other rangers.” He frowned thoughtfully. “I think Boyd and Fletcher were both in that area when you were found. I was actually heading to the local watering hole myself—they’ll be there. If you’re interested, I could give you a ride.” That was generous! She didn’t especially want to ride with him, though. That meant she was stuck until he decided to give her a ride back … unless she could find someone else to give her a ride. “I drove over from the … hotel where I’m staying.” “Beaumont Lodge?” So much for trying to keep that little secret, she thought wryly. “That’s it.” He grinned. “It’s the closest to the park entrance. Visitors usually stay there to visit the park unless they’re camping at one of the campgrounds.” Marlee nodded. “I sort of figured that.” “Well, you can ride with me and I’ll give you ride back—or someone will. Or I’ll wait and you can follow me.” “Actually, I think I’ll follow you and come back to clean up a little bit before I go to the watering hole,” she said, grimacing as she looked down at herself. “I’ve been hiking most of the day. I’m feeling pretty grungy.” “That’ll work, too,” he said cheerfully. “We’ll probably be there a while.” In spite of the fact that Marlee had already assessed her situation and arrived at the conclusion that she should either jump on the opportunity offered or take off right away, she was still wrestling with it when the ranger pulled his pickup into the parking lot of a nightspot that

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was already hopping, regardless of the early hour. The bustling parking lot was enough to tip the scales against returning until she caught a glimpse of a truck that looked familiar. Her heart jolted as soon as it popped into her mind that it was Gabriel’s truck, sending her pulse to hammering in her ears. The urge to turn around and make another pass to get a confirmation was so strong her hands tightened on the steering wheel and her foot came up off the gas pedal as if her body had taken over and put her mind out of gear. She fought the urge off, but she was so shaky as she headed back to her cabin that she couldn’t think straight. Trying to ignore her state, she headed inside and straight to the shower to clean up when she got to her cabin. The bath soothed some of her jitters, enough to allow her to question her reaction—which seemed excessive even to her. Granted, she’d had an instant, powerful attraction to him. She thought that was reasonably understandable even given her dire circumstances. He was a gorgeous hunk and personable besides—and there was no getting around the fact that he’d delivered in spades when they’d gotten back to her cabin. With the exception of her ‘erotic dream’, she’d never felt anything even close before. But she hadn’t been as giddy and stupid with her raging hormones even when she was a teenager and the jock she’d had such a wild crush on had actually noticed her and smiled at her! She should take the warning to heart, she told herself. For whatever reason, there was something about that man that reduced her IQ to barely above slobbering idiot. She needed to stay as far away from him as she could possibly get. She’d already screwed up once just by taking him up on his offer of dinner—and spending the night with him. She couldn’t risk being drawn any further under his spell. It wasn’t as if she couldn’t talk to the rangers about a guide, or at least directions, by simply going to the park again the following day. She discovered she couldn’t fight the urge to go back, though. The entire time she dressed and fixed her hair and wrestled with the urge to discard the jeans and shirt she’d picked and put on something more alluring she kept telling herself she was just going to talk to the rangers, arrange a tour of the site, and leave. She managed to resist the impulse to go overboard on the primping, but she also managed to convince herself that she really needed to meet the rangers at the bar. She couldn’t be certain she could run them down to get what she needed if she waited until they were on duty the following day. And she’d probably been completely mistaken about the truck anyway. The depth of her disappointment when she made it back to the tavern and saw that the truck was gone was so profound it should’ve sent another wave of alarm through her. Instead, she found herself wanting to discard the idea of even going in. Shaking it off, she parked along the street since the lot was full to overflowing and walked across to the entrance. The music and the cheerful voices of the patrons all seemingly talking at once hit her in waves as the door opened and closed with people passing in and out. She paused just outside, trying to steady her nerves, sucked in a calming breath and plunged inside. The place was as crowded as it had sounded like it was, but she discovered why as soon as she was inside. It was far more than a watering hole, as Ranger Phil had called it. The bar itself wasn’t actually very big at all although it took center stage inside. To one side of it, however, booths lined the wall across the front and down one side. A few tables were sprinkled in the open space between the booths and the bar. On the other side of the bar smaller tables were clustered around what looked like an open space set aside for dancing—which was

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currently occupied by a handful of couples. In the back, there were three or four pool tables, all in play and with men standing two deep along the walls waiting for a chance to play. Clearly, it was the place to go for dinner, dancing, and entertainment in the area. Ranger Phil must have been keeping an eye out for her. He spotted her before she saw him, coming halfway out of his chair and lifting at arm to catch her attention. Her nerves tautened a little more when she saw he was sitting with nearly dozen people, all gathered around two tables they’d drawn together. Girding herself, she wove her way through the people crowding the floor until she reached them. Phil introduced her around, but she didn’t really note any of the names beyond the two he’d mentioned to her—Boyd and Fletcher. Thomas Boyd was almost painfully young—or at least looked like he was barely out of high school—string bean thin and not a lot taller, she didn’t think, than her five feet four inches. Ben Fletcher looked to be about middle aged and rather more fond of the highlife than he should’ve been considering his field of work. She didn’t especially like the assessing look either man gave her—or rather the ‘undressing’ look. It seemed pretty clear they’d been on the scene alright and they obviously hadn’t missed much—at least in regards to her. She doubted they’d noticed a hell of a lot else, though. “We just ordered,” Phil explained when they took their seats. “I’d decided you weren’t coming after all.” Marlee’s stomach growled either in response to the suggestion of food or from the smells wafting around the tavern from the other dinners. She hadn’t packed a lot of food for the trek and discovered she was hungry, never mind her nerves. The selection was fairly simple. She ordered a burger and fries when Phil had waved the waitress over. “Put it on my tab,” Phil told the waitress. Marlee smiled at him with an effort. “Thanks! But no.” She gave the waitress a firm look. “Mine’s separate.” Ranger Phil looked more than a little miffed that she’d insisted on paying for her own, but that was just too fucking bad! He needn’t get any ideas that paying for her dinner was going to pay his way into her bed! Maybe she was just being paranoid—or full of herself—but she got the distinct impression that he had designs and she figured she might as well nip than in the bud right off. “Sure you don’t want a drink?” Boyd prompted as soon as the waitress turned to leave. Marlee hesitated. There was nothing quite as annoying as being stone cold sober around a bunch of half-lit jackasses, but she’d heard somewhere that alcohol wasn’t good for pregnant women. Besides, as much as she felt the need to ease some of the tension, she thought she needed to keep her wits about her more. “Just the water.” “So what brings you back?” Fletcher drawled as soon as the waitress left. “I’d think that would be pretty obvious.” “Officially? Or unofficially?” “It’s personal.” “Well, I don’t know what you think you’ll see, but I could take you to the scene tomorrow if you feel up to a long hike through some pretty rough terrain. It’s a good piece from the nearest trail.” Marlee nodded, flicking a questioning glance at Boyd since it was Fletcher who’d made the offer.

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Boyd shrugged. “Or I could take you. I’m working tomorrow, though. Fletch is off. I could take you day after tomorrow, though.” Marlee didn’t especially like the vibes she was getting from ‘Fletch the lech’, but she couldn’t afford to hang around any longer than necessary. “I appreciate it—both offers. I guess I should take Fletcher up on the offer, though. I’m not going to be here long and there were a few others things I wanted to check on.” “Other leads?” Phil asked with sharp interest. Marlee grimaced. “I suppose you could call it that.” She hesitated, but she was interested in their reaction. “There was a group of … I guess you’d call them UFologists at the bear site today ….” Phil snorted. Boyd flushed and grinned. Fletch studied her assessingly. “They’ve been crawling all over the park,” Phil said derisively. “There wasn’t a single person that reported any kind of sighting, though, and I’m damned if I can figure out what brought in all the kooks.” They hadn’t struck her as ‘kooks’ despite the fact that she’d felt pretty much the same way that Phil appeared to—that it was absurd to connect the dots and come up with aliens. They’d seemed rational and intelligent and they’d come with equipment, taking radiation readings and soil samples. “We’ve had a bunch of folks out there looking for big foot, too,” Boyd added with a chuckle that didn’t disguise the fact that he was at least excited about all the hoopla, whether he believed in any of it or not. “Or something else.” He shook his head. “Not that I believe in any of those things they’re always looking for, but it was weird. You have to admit that.” Fletch sent him a sour look. “I ain’t got to admit nothing. Wild animals are unpredictable—always have been, always will be. There ain’t no figuring out why they do some of the things they do. Two bears got into it. That’s all. They’re trying to make something out of nothing if you ask me.” “Yeah, but they didn’t find any tracks indicating another bear. They didn’t find nothing but human tracks—and a man running around barefoot in that area is weird all by itself.” Phil snorted again. “Yeah, well it was a big foot—about a size fourteen—but it was still human!” “What time should we get started tomorrow?” Marlee asked as soon as there was a lull in their discussion, almost sorry she’d ordered since she was already regretting it. “’Bout day break. I can take a service road part of the way, but it’s still going to be a long hike there and back.” Anything to cut a little time off of the trek! She had no reason to believe Fletch was going to present any sort of problem or that it was dangerous to even consider being alone with him in the woods, but there was no getting around the fact that there was something about the guy she just didn’t like. She glanced around a little hopefully for the waitress and saw that she was waiting another table. “I don’t suppose there are any local legends about sightings of any kind of ‘creature’?” “Just the dragons,” Boyd said with a chuckle.

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Chapter Five Fletch glared at Boyd but Phil merely looked blank. “I never heard any legends about dragons,” he disputed. “And I’ve been here a lot longer than you have, boy.” Boyd shrugged. “Well, I don’t guess it’s really relevant. There certainly haven’t been any sightings that I ever heard of. The Indians have a legend, though.” Marlee’s interest was instantly piqued. “So … you’re saying maybe the dragon took out the bear?” All three men laughed at that. Boyd reddened. “I guess that was misleading. It’s an ancient legend—really old. Like I said, from the Indians, but it wasn’t even the ones around here now. It’s from way back—the locals refer to them as ‘the old ones’.” “I picked up a story about a golden dragon,” Marlee admitted, “when I went to the novelty store.” “That’s the romanticized version for tourists,” Boyd said dismissively. “It’s all romanticized if there even is such a legend,” Phil said dryly. “It was probably made up for tourists.” “There is!” Boyd said defensively. “I heard it from my grandmother and, in case you haven’t noticed, the locals use a dragon symbol as a totem even now.” “What was romanticized about it?” Marlee demanded, redirecting the conversation. He shrugged. “Well, she created a lot more dissention than it mentions in the toned down versions—nearly caused a war within the tribe, not to mention there were warriors from neighboring tribes trying to get her attention. It was also because of her that the Spanish came to this area, because they’d heard about the dragon from people in the other tribes, and they nearly wiped out ‘the old ones’ looking for her lair because they were convinced there would be gold there. “Apparently, she settled the issue by wiping out the Spaniards. As far as I heard, her lair was never found, but the belief persisted among the ‘old ones’ that she’d given birth—or hatched her brood—and that her descendents walked among them.” Marlee stared at him blankly. “How could her brood walk among the ind … Native Americans?” “You aren’t falling for all this bullshit?” Phil asked with a chuckle. “I’m just curious as to how they could explain dragons living with people,” Marlee said a little testily. “They took human form, just like their mother had.” Marlee felt her face heat. “Alrighty then! You had me going for a little bit there.” Boyd looked uncomfortable. “I did say it was a legend, but you know every legend there’s ever been about dragons accounts them as being magical creatures.” Marlee nodded even though she’d never read a single story about a dragon in her life beyond the one she’d picked up in the novelty store. To her relief, the waitress finally arrived with the food. She thought she’d dismissed the tale completely, but she found herself turning it over in her mind, trying to infuse logic into a tale that clearly couldn’t have any since it was

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entirely fairytale material. “So … what kind of magic did the dragon have besides the ability to turn herself into a beautiful blond?” she asked, using a joking tone. Boyd shrugged. “They said she could get inside their heads and control them. And, although it was generally held that she was very beautiful, they also believed that she had the ability to enthrall her lovers so that they behaved contrary to their nature. Nobody believed the warriors were just so smitten with her beauty that they would turn on each other. They thought she’d … bewitched them.” Marlee felt her belly clench and lost all interest in the sandwich she’d dove in to with such enthusiasm. A wave of nausea washed over her. She pushed her plate away. “That’s … interesting. I guess the ‘old ones’ weren’t so different from anybody else way back. They explained anything they didn’t understand with magic.” She glanced around the table and saw that nobody was more than half finished with their meals and then glanced at her watch. It wasn’t even nine o’clock, but she thought she’d gathered all the information she was likely to get and the urge to leave was strong. She glanced around, trying to get the waitress’ attention so that she could pay her bill and leave. “You aren’t going to rush off?” Phil asked. She flicked a look at him. “Actually, I’m pretty tired after hiking most of the day and it looks like I’ve got another long hike ahead of me tomorrow. I figured I would.” He flicked an appreciative look at her. “You’re too young to be complaining about being worn out so early. You owe me a dance for hooking you up with Fletch at the very least.” It was said jokingly, but Marlee was uncomfortably aware that she hadn’t shown a lot of appreciation for his efforts on her behalf—not that she could see that he’d gone out of his way that much, but still …. She didn’t particularly like the idea of encouraging him, but she decided she could rebuff him if he tried to get too pushy. “I guess I could hang around for at least one dance,” she responded finally. “I really am tired, though! And I really intend to make an early evening. I’m two hours behind this time zone and it feels a lot later to me than it does to you.” He seemed content to leave it at that, but she could see she hadn’t convinced him—or that he figured he could convince her once he wowed her on the dance floor. She’d already begun to regret yielding to pressure by the time everyone finished eating and the majority of the rangers sitting with them got up and headed toward the pool tables in the back. Phil helped her with her chair, which might have been pure curtsey but which gave her the impression that he was thinking ‘date’ when she had no intention of allowing the evening to progress beyond friendly strangers. A glance toward the pool tables to assess her situation as they reached the small dance floor and Phil slipped his arms around her possessively completely diverted her. There was a tall, cool drink of water propped against the back wall that set her ‘man-dar’ to jangling like a fire-alarm fire and threw her into a state chaos she’d never experienced but once before—when she’d encountered Gabriel. Actually twice, she realized abruptly—and the first time was when she’d noticed the Native American dancer—and the man staring at her was definitely Native American. He was looking directly at her—not the pool table—his eyes narrowed and assessing in a way that made her kegels clap together frantically and her throat close with desert dryness. Disconcerted, she broke eye contact with an effort and tried to pretend he hadn’t thrown her entire system into disorder, glancing blindly at the people around him. She had no idea if any of the rangers were still among those clustered around the pool tables or not, though. Worse,

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before she even realized the song that had started up was a slow piece, Phil had dragged her much closer than she would’ve allowed if she’d had her wits about her. Thankfully, she didn’t have to turn the dance into a wrestling match. He resisted when she wiggled to put a little more distance between them, enough to set off fresh alarms, but he yielded quickly enough that she began to think she’d imagined his attempt to get way too close. When her pulse had regained some of its natural rhythm and the movement of the dance allowed, she flicked a surreptitious glance toward the pool tables again. Thankfully, the gorgeous hunk she’d spotted was leaning down to take a shot, not looking at her as he had been before, but just looking at him was enough to cause heart palpitations. The knit shirt he was wearing looked to be about two sizes too small. It molded to a body that looked like it belonged to a bodybuilder—impossibly broad shoulders, deep chest, washboard belly and arms thick enough he looked like he could bench press four hundred pounds without breaking a sweat. And that was just the top part! The snug, well-worn blue jeans he was wearing conformed to equally impressive thighs and a ‘package’ that made her belly abruptly go weightless. “Looks like we’ve got a couple of injuns in the back tonight,” Phil muttered, jerking her attention back to him. “That usually means trouble.” Marlee sent him a shocked look. “What?” “Long stringy hair at ten o’clock.” Her cool drink of water? Revulsion flickered through her. “I don’t see anybody that matches that description,” she said tightly. Her reprimand seemed to go right over his head. “If he ain’t drunk yet, he soon will be and the minute they get drunk they get belligerent as hell. I’m surprised Floyd even let him in the door.” She supposed he was referring to the owner of the place and that shocked her even more. He’d said it as if there was a standing policy of no ‘injuns’ allowed! “I thought that was generally the idea of about ninety percent of the people that hit the bars on the weekend—to get drunk,” Marlee said drily. “I don’t know which is worse—the injuns or the wannabes.” He snorted. “You think blondie over there thinks he can pass as injun?” She hadn’t noticed ‘blondie’ but she discovered she couldn’t resist glancing around for the man in question. Her heart had stopped dead in its tracks at the mention. It restarted painfully when she spied the man, thumping dully in disappointment when she saw it wasn’t Gabriel. She wondered it if was just pure imagination that he looked enough like Gabriel to be related or if she was as guilty of ‘profiling’ as Phil and had decided he did merely because he was blond—with a very similar golden tan. He seemed to be the companion of the man who’d raised her heart rate and blood pressure. She didn’t know how she’d missed him once Phil had pointed him out, though. That bright, golden, beautiful mane of hair alone should have snagged her attention—especially when Gabriel had been on her mind most of the day. She saw he was right—in a sense. The blond also had unfashionably long hair, at least as long as the dark haired man he was with. He was dressed similarly, as well, and just as impressively built—maybe a tad broader and a shade shorter, but close. He looked a lot more like a Viking than a Native American, but there was no getting around the fact that he had a similar effect on her libido.

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She’d always admired a man with a hard body, but she didn’t recall ever having such an excessive reaction to just looking at a man—except with Gabriel and the Native American dancer. The heat surging through her went just a bit beyond mere admiration. Uneasiness she couldn’t quite grasp flickered through her. She was willing to admit that there was a good chance Gabriel and maybe even the Native American dancer had tapped in to a libido she’d been ignoring way too long in favor of focusing on her career—easily, both because she had ignored her natural needs and because both of them were extremely attractive. She thought the pair across the bar were also well above the norm as far as good looking and well built went, but … it was like her libido was on steroids or something! Raging hormones because she was pregnant? She knew pregnancy caused some extreme shifts in hormone levels, but this seemed really excessive to say the least! She didn’t know whether to be glad or sorry when the song ended and Phil cupped a hand under her elbow and guided her toward what was left of their group. Frankly, she was barely aware of it. From the moment she realized she was being steered closer to the objects of her unaccountable lust, she was thrown even more off-kilter. Try as she might to refrain from gaping at the two like a moonstruck teenager, she couldn’t seem to command herself to behave at all ‘normally’. They were about halfway between the dance floor and her goal and she was frantically trying to figure out some way to introduce herself when the fight broke out. She hadn’t even noticed the beautiful twosome were playing against two other men until the movement of the pool cue caught her attention. She wasn’t certain she would have then except the man wielding it was aiming for the dark haired Adonis’ head. She threw a hand up as if she could ward off the blow. “Watch out!” she gasped in warning. The ‘injun’s’ reflexes were nothing short of amazing. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. The pool cue smacked into the ‘injun’s’ palm rather than his head and shattered. Before Marlee could blink, there was a full-fledged brawl involving a half a dozen men in progress—the blond and the black haired man on one side and four against them. Her ‘cop’ instincts kicked in and she surged forward to break up the fight, but a virtual wall of patrons sprang up from seemingly nowhere, surging around the combatants and throwing punches. She’d been buffeted enough in the melee to bring her focus entirely to the situation at hand before they managed to get the fight under control. Huffing for breath when she managed to subdue the man she’d ended up struggling with, she glanced around to survey the damage and saw that the other rangers had leapt in to help quell the battle. A dozen patrons were lined up against the back wall. The rest of the bar patrons began emptying into the parking lot the moment the sound of sirens penetrated the quiet that fell over the bar in the wake of the fight. Without surprise, she saw that the objects of her interest were lined up with the others, their hair disheveled, t-shirts half torn off and their faces battered but still lovely. Sighing with irritation, she guided her catch to the wall with the others and stepped back to await the arrival of the local police. They didn’t have long to wait. Four grim faced deputies entered the bar, looked around, and headed straight toward them. When they’d cuffed the brawlers, they began questioning everyone. Without surprise, Marlee discovered no two accounts of the fight matched, not even among the rangers. To her disbelief and anger, however, one theme prevailed—the two ‘long

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haired dudes’ had started it. Even the other rangers, who’d certainly been close enough to see how it went down, gave statements that the two men had started the fight. “That isn’t how it happened,” she said tightly. Everyone, it seemed, turned to look at her in disbelief and dawning anger. “And you are?” the deputy demanded brusquely. It flickered through Marlee’s mind that she had no business getting involved, that it was liable to get her in a lot deeper than she could afford. She discovered she was too outraged at the plain bigotry to simply ignore it, however. Reluctantly, she pulled her badge out and showed it to the deputy. He glared at her identification as if more than half expecting to discover it was a fake. “What’s your take on this, Agent Madison?” “I was looking directly at the man, there, when that man,” she pointed to a man further along the wall, “tried to hit him in the head with his pool cue.” The deputy’s eyes narrowed. “So you didn’t actually hear the argument before that?” Marlee gaped at him in disbelief. “There wasn’t an argument that I saw.” He scribbled in his notebook. “What happened after that?” “The man that was attacked retaliated in self-defense,” Marlee responded tightly. “You saw him hit that man over there?” the deputy asked, pointing from one man to the other. “I saw that man attack and then he retaliated.” “I thought you said the first man tried to hit ‘chief’ over there?” “I said he tried to hit him on the head. The Native American man threw up his hand to deflect the blow and he was struck on the hand instead.” He asked her a few more questions but it seemed clear to her that he’d made up his mind about who was guilty the minute he saw there was a Native American involved. Without surprise, she watched as the deputies hauled all of the men up and escorted them to the patrol cars outside. Phil made his way back to her to stand beside her and watch until the last of the men were escorted out. “I guess you’ll want to get back to the campground?” Anger flickered through her, but maybe she’d misunderstood the undertones? Maybe it was just her imagination that he was hinting about resuming the party somewhere else? “Yes. I believe I’ve had enough excitement for one night.” She was still fuming inwardly when she reached the campground and stalked into her cabin. She wasn’t certain why she was still wound so tightly. She supposed a good bit of it was pure adrenaline over the battle in the bar. Probably a good bit of it was anxiety that she’d been caught up in the mess at all—completely destroying her intention of keeping a low profile, gathering what information she could, and taking off before her tail managed to catch up to her. Thankfully, she hadn’t been involved in many full scale battles like that one, but it wasn’t a new experience either and the one thing that was to be expected was that it took a while for the ‘fighting’ blood to settle afterwards. That was only part of it, though. Most of it, she realized, was the angry sense of injustice boiling in her veins. It was procedure to pick up all the combatants in a fight, whether they’d started it or not, but the fact that everyone seemed determined to focus on the Native American as the instigator thoroughly pissed her off when she knew better. Was it pure prejudice that they’d focused on him like she felt it was? Or were they simply profiling when they hadn’t actually seen who’d started it?

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It occurred to her that it was also possible that she’d missed something herself. There could’ve been undercurrents from trading insults that had touched off the fight. Maybe she was wrong? She didn’t believe it. She knew it was possible, particularly given the fact that she’d been more focused on jumping the guy’s bones than actually paying any attention to the interaction between him and his opponents at the pool table, but she still didn’t believe it. Trying to dismiss it from her mind, she prepared for bed, but it was a long time before she finally managed to sleep. She woke at the crack of doom, disoriented by her surroundings and the grogginess from too little sleep. Regardless, it didn’t take long for her mind to leap to the fight the night before and her emotions to begin roiling again. A shower didn’t improve her mood either. The urge smote her to beg off her excursion with Fletch and head down to the police station instead. She hadn’t especially wanted to go off with Fletcher to start with and she could always hit Boyd up to guide her the next day. She’d made up her mind to do just that and yet, when Fletcher pulled into the lodge parking lot beside her car, she changed her mind yet again. She needed to stay out of it, she told herself. It was a local matter and she couldn’t afford to be caught up in the mess any more than she already had been. She was going to be damned lucky if she hadn’t already screwed herself thoroughly by flashing her badge! Because she was going to be in a jam if the local PD found it necessary to check out her credentials. Fortunately, Fletcher didn’t seem any more inclined to chat than she was. He pulled into a fast food joint and went through the drive-through for coffee and a breakfast burrito. Marlee rarely ate breakfast herself, but she hadn’t eaten much more than half the meal she’d paid for the night before. She ordered the same for herself and managed to consume enough to keep from wearing half of it as Fletcher reached the park and turned down a pothole pitted service road. The food and coffee briefly improved her mood, but it wasn’t long before her mind was traveling the same ruts it had most of the night while she’d tried to sleep. As hard as she tried to convince herself that the Native American would be out in no time, with the charges dropped, she couldn’t. It took an effort to focus on her own concerns when they reached the site at long last after tramping through rough forest for nearly two hours. The site itself had been well trampled, unfortunately, by the searchers and the investigators that had walked the scene. Marlee surveyed the area without a lot of hope. She’d seen it and it didn’t look familiar to her. “Were you one of the first on the scene?” “Nope. They hadn’t moved you by the time I got here, though. You were lying right there, curled up in a ball.” She wondered if it was merely her imagination that he seemed to be undressing her with his gaze. Turning, she studied the spot and moved closer, working a slow circle around it and then widening it. “Do you know if they only connected me to the bear they found because I told them I’d been attacked? Or if they had some other reason to suppose there was a connection?” She discovered when she turned to look at him that he was focused enough on her that the sensation increased that he was remembering what she’d looked like then—naked. “It wasn’t anything they actually released … and I’m guessing they didn’t tell you, either, but they found your DNA under the bear’s claws. Weird, ain’t it, that you didn’t have any marks on you when they found you? How do you suppose the bear got that DNA in its claws?”

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Marlee’s uneasiness increased tenfold. “Maybe somebody just made that part up?” she suggested. “There were some guys at that site yesterday talking about information they’d gotten off the web.” “Ah … well, it’s possible. Thing is, those government guys that were here seemed to connect you to the bear, too, and I’m wondering why they would if there wasn’t something to the rumors.” Anger flickered through Marlee. “Why don’t you tell me your theory?” she said tightly. He shrugged. “I don’t have a theory. I’m just a park ranger.” He was lying. He suspected … something. She didn’t know what, but she could see he had some theory. “I don’t suppose any of this jogs your memory?” Marlee stared at him, realizing at least part of the explanation for the suspicion in his eyes. He thought she was lying about not remembering anything. “I had the impression that I was carried here.” “Well … I guess that’s something, then. Weird thing is, nobody found tracks leading to you … any kind of tracks. It’s almost like …. You sprouted wings and flew.” “I didn’t fly,” Marlee said dryly. “Why don’t you just spit it out, Fletcher? I can see you have some thoughts on this.” “No ma’am. I’m just pointing out that nothing about this really seems to add up. We’re about ten miles, as the crow flies, from the site where the bear was killed. That’s a long way to wander off, even if you were dazed—which is also weird when you didn’t have a mark on you.” Marlee uttered a snort. “So … you’re suggesting I made up the whole thing? What possible motivation could I have for that?” He lifted his head and looked around the area. It made Marlee more uneasy, emphasizing the fact that they were miles away from anyone else. “That hadn’t occurred to me. Did you … make it all up?” “Like I said—no! I was in the middle of an exercise. I had every reason to want to complete it with flying colors and none to fake an … abduction.” “That’s interesting. Nobody mentioned an abduction. At least not officially.” “And unofficially?” Marlee asked tightly. “Well, now, there were rumors that there were signs of a sexual assault.” Which maybe explained why his fucking mind seemed to be in the gutter? “There wasn’t an assault, sexual or otherwise, unless you count the bear.” “Which also didn’t appear to have assaulted you. I’ve seen people that had a bad encounter with a bear. It’s an ugly thing what they can do to a person—really quickly.” He wasn’t just digging, Marlee realized abruptly. He had his own theory. She just couldn’t piece it together from the comments and questions. One thing seemed very clear, though. Even though he kept emphasizing the weird circumstances, he didn’t seem to think they were weird at all. It seemed to her that he was adding them up to something. But what? Aliens? Something of a paranormal nature? Because nothing she could think of that belonged in the natural world really matched the facts. She shook those thoughts off. She dealt in the real world! “Someone rescued me from the bear and brought me here,” she muttered, more to herself than to Fletcher. “So maybe it was somebody really good at covering their tracks or they took the time to go back and cover them?” Marlee flicked a sharp glance at him. “Who around here would be that good?” He shrugged. “Some of the injuns, maybe.”

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Marlee’s heart hit her ribcage and began to pound as the image instantly arose in her mind of the Native American who’d been arrested the night before—the one who’d been staring at her so hard. Had she completely misread that? Was it because he was wondering if she would recognize him? “That still wouldn’t explain the bear.” “Maybe if I find the person or persons responsible for bringing me here I’ll find out how that was done—and why.” “Why bring you here? The park entrance is in another direction entirely.” “Lost?” Fletcher sent her a sardonic look. “They’re that good at covering their tracks, but they have a shit sense of direction?” Anger flickered through her. “Anyway, the investigators said this wasn’t the crime scene. You were dumped here … after.” Marlee realized the guy was really starting to annoy the shit out of her and it didn’t look like she was going to pick up anything from the site or remember anything she hadn’t already. “I don’t suppose you remember being in a cave?” Marlee sent him another sharp look. The question prompted a vague memory, but she certainly wasn’t sure she’d been in one. “What makes you ask that?” He gestured toward a rocky hill in the distance. “It’s about eight to ten miles from here, but it isn’t any more farfetched than any of the other ‘what ifs’.” Marlee shook her head. “That’s really stretching it. A very strong man might have carried me this far, but over there and back?” Except it wasn’t the same man who’d brought her to this spot, she remembered abruptly. It was a different man. At least, she’d always believed it was, a third man, because she knew there had been two men with her from the time she came around after the bear attack. Two very strong, very fit men? Gabriel and the man from the bar popped into her mind instantly, but she couldn’t think of anything to put the two men together other than the fact that she’d noticed both, had had an extraordinary reaction to both, and the Native had been with a blond haired man that had reminded her of Gabriel—who had also affected her. She shook those thoughts off. Very likely the reaction to the blond in the bar was entirely because she’d mistaken him for Gabriel. Quite possibly, she could dismiss her reaction to the Native man for a similar reason—he reminded her of the dancer. The acute chemical reaction? Maybe it wasn’t them so much as it was the change in her hormones because of her pregnancy? Or maybe it was a combination of the two that had given her an extraordinary kick? Either way, the theory that one or even two very fit, very strong men had carried her so far was almost as unbelievable as the alien theory or the big foot theory! Frowning thoughtfully, she lifted her head and studied the hill, thinking about Fletcher’s suggestion that she might have been taken to a cave. Could they have taken her to a cave? She could remember something hard and really cold beneath her when they’d undressed her. She was pretty sure it had been rock, although she hadn’t thought about that at the time. She’d been convinced she was in a hospital even though she’d wondered why there were no bright lights.

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In fact, it had seemed really dark, now that she thought about it. Even if there were caves in the hill Fletcher had pointed out, though, it was a really long way off. Turning slowly, she scanned for any other outcropping of rock that might suggest the possibility of a cave but the other hills, or mountains, she could see were even further away. “You remembered something?” The question prompted an instantaneous alarm in Marlee. She didn’t know why he was so interested, but she abruptly had the sense that his intention hadn’t been to help her out any of the time. She didn’t know what his motives were, but she didn’t think it was either plain out curiosity or any sympathy for her cause. He seemed too … eager to pump her for information. “Unfortunately, no,” she said finally, releasing a tired sigh. “I guess I’m ready to go back now.” She was uneasy until they reached his truck again, but some of the tension and some of her suspicions were laid to rest by that, at least. He kept glancing at her assessingly as they drove back and finally asked her what she did remember about the incident. Shrugging, she repeated what she’d told the investigators—and nothing more. “I’m wondering,” she added, “if it’s possible I just … blacked out when I saw the bear. I remember screaming when I saw it and I remember falling. I thought it had hit me but shock plays tricks with the mind. If I just fainted after I screamed, maybe these guys came running up and scared the bear away long enough to grab me and run. That would explain why they didn’t take me back to the park pavilion. They would’ve been panicked themselves—which could also explain how they managed to carry me so far. Adrenalin can make people do some amazing things. Maybe they even saw a second bear that had been drawn by the bellows of the bear I stumbled on and that explains the dead bear?” Fletcher was silent for several moments. “They?” he prompted. “I thought you said it was ‘a’ man?” Irritation flickered through her. “There might have been two. I don’t know why that popped into my mind, but it’s possible.” She was glad when he dropped her off and left. She was inclined to wonder how much she could trust her instincts given her erratic behavior of late, but there was something about him that just didn’t sit right. Shaking it off, she went into her cabin and cleaned up and changed clothes. By the time she had, her mind had switched from the trip into the park to the incident the night before again and she decided it might be worth it to take the risk of sticking her nose into that investigation. It not only didn’t sit right with her that the man might be facing charges he shouldn’t, but she’d begun to wonder if she would have the same reaction to him as she’d had the first time. Grabbing her purse and keys, she headed into town and parked near the police department. She sat in her car for several minutes after she’d parked, questioning the wisdom of her decision and finally took the keys out of the ignition. Girding herself, she got out and went in to ask about the prisoners brought in the night before from the bar. The desk sergeant looked her over speculatively. “You here to post bail for somebody?” Marlee’s discomfort increased. “No. I was at the bar. I gave one the deputies a statement last night. I was just mostly curious about the incident … wondering what charges were filed and against whom.” Suspicion flickered in his eyes. “You were with one of the men that were arrested?” Her lips tightened. “Like I said—I was a witness. I’m just passing through, but I figured I should see if there were charges filed and if I’d need to testify.”

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That sounded good! The man studied her a few moments longer and finally shrugged. “We turned over two of them to the reservation PD last night. The others have been released.” Two? It wasn’t hard to guess who one of them was, but his companion certainly hadn’t looked like he came off any reservation. Nodding, she left, but she sat in her car for a good fifteen minutes debating whether to drive up to the reservation or not before she finally started the car and headed to the reservation. She mentally kicked herself most of the way. It was late. Very likely she was only going to discover when she got there that the guy—guys had already been released, but it seemed to her that every step she’d taken since she’d arrived had only led to more questions, not answers. Not that she was convinced the men were in any way connected to her pet mystery, but it was damned curious that the cop she’d talked to had indicated two men had been picked up when she knew damned well the blond could not be a Native American. Who else would it be but the blond guy that was with him, though? Maybe it was just a case of her only having eyes for the cool drink of water, but she didn’t think her circumstances, or even the attraction, were enough to completely annihilate her training. She hadn’t noticed one single Native American in that bar besides her hunk, and she was convinced there hadn’t been another one. Besides, she couldn’t shake Fletcher’s suggestion that the local Native population was the place to look for someone who could move through the forest without leaving a trail. Seen in that light, her reaction might have been more than attraction. It might have been recognition. As flimsy as the theory was that she’d come up with, she wanted to know whether to discard it and work on something else or not.

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Chapter Six It was dusk before Marlee finally found her way to the reservation police station. She didn’t hesitate or question her reasoning as she had before. She parked her car next to the single SUV in front marked as reservation police and got out. The door opened directly into the main office, she discovered, and appeared to be completely empty except for a single Native American male seated at a desk near the front door and facing it. He glanced up when she came in, seemed to do a double take and then studied her assessingly as she approached the desk. The look unnerved her when it shouldn’t have, but she supposed her awareness of her precarious position with the government was enough to send uncomfortable vibes through her. “Can I help you?” His voice didn’t send unpleasant vibes through her—far from it. To her horror, she felt her nipples prickle and stand erect. My god! What the hell was up with her body? She cleared her throat. “Actually, I thought I might help. I was in the tavern last night when the brawl broke out there. The arresting officers seemed inclined to charge a Native American man with starting the fight and I know he didn’t. I just wanted to be sure that was on the record. When I went down to talk to them they told me he’d been transferred here—actually two men.” Something flickered in his eyes. He leaned back in his chair. “A bar fight, you say?” “In the tavern in Odessa.” His draw brows rose. “I don’t know anything about it, ma’am.” Uneasiness flickered through her. She frowned. “I was told that the reservation police picked up two of the men,” she said slowly. “You don’t have them here? Is there another reservation around here?” He shrugged. “This is the closest.” “But you don’t know anything about any prisoners being transferred here?” she persisted. He hesitated. “I only came on duty about an hour ago.” As an excuse for his ignorance that rang completely false. Not that she was disputing the time he’d come on the job, but he seemed to be the only officer on duty. She lifted her head and glanced around. “Is there anyone else here that might know?” He sat forward. “What was the name?” She blinked at him. “The prisoner?” She felt her face heat. “I don’t know his name.” “What did he look like?” Irritation flickered through her. First he tells her he has no idea at all and now he wanted a description? Just how many had been transferred, she wondered? “He was tall. I’d say probably six two. He looked pretty solid so maybe around 220 and he had long, black hair— swarthy skin.” “Brown eyes?” he guessed, a trace of sarcasm in his voice.

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The suggestion prompted a flare of anger. Before she could give voice to it, it hit her that the man’s eyes hadn’t been brown at all. They’d been gold—like Gabriel’s eyes—like this man’s eyes. The sound of two vehicles pulling up outside distracted her before she could respond. She turned toward the entrance as she heard the opening and closing of several doors, feeling her pulse leap as the thought instantly popped into her mind that she was about to have the confrontation she’d dreaded since she’d taken off. Wild scenarios of escape attempts raced through her mind and were discarded. As far as she could see, there was no place to run or to hide. Even as it popped into her mind to duck into the bathroom—because they surely had one—the door opened. The shock that went through her rooted her to the spot and wiped her mind clean. Gabriel halted briefly in surprise when his gaze met hers. After that brief hesitation, however, he sauntered toward her, his mouth curled into a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I see you tracked me down.” Marlee gaped at him blankly. Even as his comment sank in, however, giving rise to anger that was in direct proportion to the scare she’d just had, her gaze flickered to the men who’d followed him in and she felt another shock wave roll over her. Her tall drink of water, wearing the uniform of the reservation police, and his blond companion were directly behind him. “She came because of the fight Eli and John were involved in last night,” the man behind her said, breaking through her shock. She’d turned instinctively to glance at him when he spoke and, despite her shock, she noted the speaking look he fixed on Gabriel. It prompted her to glance at Gabriel to gauge his reaction which was when she made a disturbing discovery. Of the four men that had followed Gabriel inside, all four had the same strange golden eyes as the man behind the desk. What were the odds, she wondered vaguely? Gabriel’s hand settling on her upper arm seemed to break the trance that had held her. She surfaced sufficiently to realize she wasn’t the only one in the room that was tense. All of the men were. “Thanks, Joshua. I’ll take it from here.” He transferred his attention to her. “Why don’t you come back to my office where we can talk.” Marlee’s anger erupted abruptly. She didn’t know what the hell was going on, but she recalled Gabriel’s comment immediately. “Why don’t you kiss my ass?” she growled tightly. She felt the jolt of surprise that went through him. “I don’t know what the hell gave you the idea that I was interested enough to track you down, but you over estimate your charm!” There were several sounds of curbed amusement from the men behind him. It distracted her briefly and she met her dark haired hunk’s eyes. They were gleaming with amusement, she saw, which only irritated her more. Gabriel flushed, but his grip on her arm tightened. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. Come on in and let’s talk.” Marlee snatched at her arm, trying to break his grip. “I don’t need to talk. I only came because I thought he had been falsely charged,” she said tightly, glancing at the man behind him, who’d taken up a position propping up the door. “I apologized,” Gabriel growled. “Like hell!” Marlee snapped. “Let go of my arm, you conceited jackass!”

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He released her arm but he didn’t move. “My office is that way,” he said grimly, lifting his arm and pointing. Marlee stared at him assessingly for a long moment. “After you,” she conceded finally. He studied her. The moment he turned away, however, she moved around him and headed for the door. The man leaning against it with his arms folded merely stared at her. “Move!” she said tightly. Amusement gleamed in his eyes. “I don’t think so.” Marlee planted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “I said move!” An arm slid around her waist and lifted her off her feet. She whipped her head around and stared at Gabriel’s grim profile in total disbelief. “You do know that it’s a Federal offense to assault a Federal officer,” she gasped in outrage. “One, this isn’t an assault,” Gabriel said grimly. “And two, you happen to be standing in the sovereign territory of the Blackfoot tribe.” When he’d closed the door to his office behind them, he released her and leaned back against the door, folding his arms across his chest. Marlee whirled around to face him, still too angry to think straight. “I’m a federal agent, just the same. You can’t hold me here against my will! They’ll be looking for me,” she added for good measure. His eyes narrowed. As a matter of fact the feds were looking for her, but he didn’t think it was the way she meant. He’d just spent the last several hours with his brothers trying to track her down and remove her from harm’s way because they were looking for her. He supposed he should’ve just been relieved to find her on the rez—and he was, but he was irritated as hell to have spent hours anxiously searching for her only to have her bite his head off when he finally did run her down. “Somehow I don’t think so—not the way you think, anyway. Do you want to be reasonable and talk?” She did not feel like being reasonable! She was totally pissed off! His comment jolted her, however. He knew she was a federal agent! He also seemed to know that she was here on her own and no one, she hoped, knew where she was. How could he know that? “Why would you say that?” she asked, trying to wrestle her emotions into abeyance. He lifted his dark blond brows questioningly. “Don’t try to play dumb blond,” Marlee said testily. “You said you didn’t think anyone would be looking for me. You also seemed to know that I’m an agent, and I certainly don’t recall telling you.” His eyes narrowed. After a moment, however, a look of supreme male satisfaction settled over his features. He snagged her around the waist and jerked her up against his frame before she realized his intention or even that he was close enough. “We were definitely communicating but you’re right, there wasn’t a lot of talking going on.” Marlee stared up at him, struggling with the excitement that swept through her like a potent drug, sending her entire system into chaos as carnal images of their night together filled her mind. She wasn’t certain whether his words had conjured them from her memories or his touch, but it didn’t seem to matter. The heat that rose in her was real and inescapable. Triumph and desire blazed in his golden eyes as he lowered his head toward hers. She struggled to find a barrier to throw up and came up empty as his hard mouth settled against hers. There was no blossoming of warmth as his scent and taste invaded her and took control of her senses. Fire erupted seemingly everywhere at once. It annihilated the last vestiges of rational thought.

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Before she was conscious of anything beyond the play of his tongue along hers, he’d shoved her blouse up, unfastened her bra, and had her jeans halfway down her hips. The sudden knock on the door they were leaning against jolted through both of them. “Gabe!” Dragging in a harsh breath, Gabe lifted his head. “Not now, Eli!” he growled. “Right now,” Eli snarled back at him. The heat that suffused Marlee’s face at the interruption had nothing to do with the passion of moments before. Escaping Gabriel’s clutches, she struggled frantically to set her clothing to rights as Gabriel shoved away from the door and opened it. Marlee was too intent on her clothes to actually see what happened. She heard a meaty thud, however, and Gabriel staggered back in her direction. Uttering a sharp gasp of shock, she leapt away and whipped a look from Gabriel as he hit his desk and rebounded to the man standing at the door—her Native American hunk! Her sharp gasp seemed to jolt through both men. The murderous intent in their eyes lost some of its potency as both of them jerked a look at her. She could see that both men were still furious, however, and stared back at them wide eyed, trying to grasp what had just happened. Gabriel and Eli dragged their gazes from her and exchanged a long look with one another. Gabriel rubbed his jaw a little ruefully, although anger still glittered in his eyes. “This is my brother, Eli,” he murmured. Marlee had already deduced his name was Eli, but at that comment, she whipped a sharp look at Gabriel. Setting aside the fact that they looked to be the same age, beyond having the same, strange golden eyes they didn’t look anything alike—not even close enough to be related much less brothers. “Your brother?” “You might remember him from the tavern brawl last night.” Eli’s lips tightened. “There was no avoiding it,” he responded tightly, although he’d already explained himself one time and it pissed him off to have to defend his actions yet again. “If there had been, I would have.” “You might have avoided it if you’d been paying more attention ….” Gabriel didn’t finish the sentence. Eli returned his attention to Marlee. “So you came all the way out here just to make sure I wasn’t in any trouble, huh?” he asked, surveying her appreciatively. Marlee felt her face heat, but she also felt warmth that had hard echoes of what Gabriel had just stirred up. “A waste of time, obviously,” she muttered. His dark brows rose. “I suppose that would depend on your viewpoint,” he drawled lazily. “I’m not averse to having a woman to keep me out of trouble. In fact I can think of a number of things you might want to try to accomplish that.” Marlee hardly knew how to react to the shocking, if amusing, innuendo. Fortunately, Gabriel, after glaring at Eli, decided not to give her a chance. “You might as well meet everybody.” He settled a large hand on her shoulder and urged her toward the door. Eli made no attempt to move until she was standing toe to toe with him and he’d taken the time for a slow, thorough appraisal. Marlee lifted her brows at him questioningly. A slow grin curled his lips that made her stomach perform somersaults. Pushing away from the door frame, he stepped back, allowing her and Gabriel to pass.

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‘Everybody’ was waiting by the front desk. “Joshua you’ve already met,” Gabriel said, pointing out the man she’d first spoken to. “The one with yellow hair is John—you’ll probably remember him as the one that nearly got his face rearranged last night. The one with braids is Luke and the other is Aaron. “Marlee’s having dinner at our place with us,” he finished, glancing at Joshua as Marlee flicked a stunned look at him. “Transfer the calls and lock up, will you, Joshua?” “Did I miss something?” Marlee asked a little testily as Gabriel ushered her out of the building toward one of the SUV’s parked out front. “I don’t know. Did you?” Gabriel asked as he opened the passenger door for her. “I don’t recall you asking me to dinner and I certainly don’t recall agreeing.” He grinned at her but there was a challenging light in his eyes. “You will, though, won’t you? My brothers sure are going to be disappointed if you don’t when I’ve already told them you would.” And that was her problem? “Brothers?” she echoed blankly. He caught her elbow and urged her into the seat, shutting the door the moment she was inside. She was tempted to get out again but discarded the idea in favor of renewing their dispute of before. “This is … kidnapping!” she said tightly when he got in. “What about my car?” He nodded. “Give me the keys.” She stared at his open palm a moment and then met his gaze suspiciously. “Why?” “You want the car or not?” She fished her keys out and slapped them into his palm. He leaned out his open door. “Joshua!” When Joshua turned around, he tossed the keys. “Park that in a discrete location.” Catching the toss, Joshua nodded, flicked a glance at her and then got in her car. Gabriel started the SUV, leaving the others to divide up between the other two SUVs and her car. Marlee grabbed her seatbelt and fastened it as he shot backwards and slammed on brakes, shooting a rain of pebbles into the air as he jerked the vehicle into drive and headed out. “What in the hell is going on?” Marlee demanded when she’d caught her breath at the hair raising turn he executed out of the parking lot. He fished a piece of paper out of his shirt pocket and dropped in on the seat between them. “Maybe you could tell me,” he said grimly. Marlee studied the paper for a moment and finally picked it up and unfolded it. It wouldn’t have been completely accurate to say that she was greatly surprised. She’d suspected what it was before she ever picked it up, but it still sent a jolt through her. She was wanted as a person of interest in an ongoing investigation. What thoroughly pissed her off, however, was the suggestion that she used drugs and might exhibit delusional behavior. They were covering their asses just in case she tried to convince any other law enforcement agency that they were lying through their teeth. She struggled with her anger for several moments and finally wadded the paper up and threw it at the dashboard. “Have you already called them?” she managed after a few moments, staring out the window at the darkness beyond the car and trying to think how she was going to get herself out of the mess she seemed to be in.

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When he didn’t answer she finally turned to look at him. His expression was hard with anger. “They will have faxed that all over the country by now,” he said after a moment. “I asked you what it was about.” “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” she said tiredly. “And the truth is, I really don’t fucking know.” “So tell me what you do know … or suspect.” She considered it for a few moments, but she didn’t see that she had anything to lose. Shrugging, she told him about the incident at the park. “I honestly don’t remember much of what happened. I was in and out of it. Some of it … well, I thought it was sort of a bizarre erotic dream, but I guess it wasn’t. I’m pregnant and I certainly didn’t get that way by immaculate conception. I got pregnant then—when I was missing.” He didn’t say anything for several moments. “You think it had to do with some kind of alien abduction?” His voice was neutral, but she knew it sounded insane. It certainly did to her. “I said I thought that was what they were suggesting—or thinking. I don’t believe it. They were men.” “You’re certain of that? Even though you say you didn’t see or hear anything?” “I wasn’t numb,” she said dryly. “They felt human.” She thought about it for a moment. “They smelled and tasted human, too.” He sent her a startled look. She felt her face heat. “They kissed me.” “So … you came here to find the men who’d gotten you pregnant?” “Well, obviously only one did—but the men involved. It wasn’t exactly that, though.” “What, exactly, was it?” Gabriel probed when she fell silent. “There was something about the way the doctor said they wanted to run more tests ….” She shook her head. “Maybe it was because he’d asked me if I’d noticed strange lights or anything unusual. I suddenly felt like they’d found something in those tests that could be a threat to me and the baby. I guess I really came here for reassurance—and because I have a lot of questions about what happened. “I don’t honestly know what happened. I thought I was dying and then I felt … completely alright, I guess, except I felt like I’d been drugged and yet I’m as certain as I can be that I wasn’t. And they didn’t find any drugs in my system when they examined me. They saved my life. I not sure about too much else, but I am sure about that … and it wasn’t rape. I don’t know that I would’ve been willing if I hadn’t been so out of it, hadn’t felt … really strange. But that’s beside the point. I didn’t decide to ‘hunt them down’ because they’d gotten me pregnant and I had some kind of vendetta about it. I just need to know that there’s no reason for me to be afraid there’ll be something wrong with the baby. And … well, even if it wasn’t human, there’s no way in hell I’d let them experiment on it and I was afraid that was what they had in mind. “The first thing that crossed my mind when the doctor told me was getting an abortion. I don’t think it would’ve even then except that it was gut reaction to the news—and the fact that I had no idea how it had happened or who’d fathered it. Now … I just want to know that it’s alright. I want to do whatever’s right … and that means knowing who, or what, fathered this baby. If there’s even a chance that it’s … some kind of freaky hybrid, I don’t think it would be right to bring it into the world to suffer. And it would. People that are even a little bit different go through pure hell the way things are these days.”

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A wave of both nausea and anger washed through Gabriel. Not that he couldn’t see her point—she certainly had a very good one—but it did nothing for the resentment that welled him that she would consider destroying his baby if she knew what he was. It wasn’t an issue he needed to dwell on at the moment, though—they could face that later. He almost wished it had been a matter of chasing down the culprits that gotten her pregnant that had brought her back. The suggestion that the government had found something when they’d run tests on her sure as hell wasn’t good news—for any of them, him, his brothers or the babies. A fresh wave of anger flickered through him at the thought. He’d had a bad feeling Eli and John had seriously fucked up. He just hadn’t realized had bad it was. He didn’t think Marlee was imagining a damned thing, though. He tamped his anger. As pissed off as he was with Eli and John, he hadn’t done any better. He hadn’t been able to keep his hands off of her either. In point of fact, he hadn’t been able to think straight from the moment he met her. He’d been a totally lost cause the moment he caught the scent of her desire and that lonely little egg just waiting for him to snatch it up. He didn’t know what it was about Marlee, but there was no denying she had a powerful effect on dragons—at least him and his brothers and since, as far as they knew, they were the last of their kind, he supposed that effect was universal as far as dragons went. Unfortunately, that didn’t give him a damned clue of what to do. She might think she was only looking at one child, one father, but he knew better. He was as certain as he’d ever been of anything in his life that not only had Eli and John successfully bred her, but he had also. And he didn’t think she was going to be nearly as thrilled once she figured that part out—to say nothing of what had fathered her brood—as they were. So now three of them had finally managed the spawning that had been driving them just about as long as they’d been in the world and it might well bring them to the final eradication of their species. They’d spent their entire lives trying to blend in and avoid detection by the humans that had obviously already wiped out most of their species and ended up spawning on a human female who not only had no idea they existed but would probably be as eager to wipe them out as all the others. He didn’t think he’d properly appreciated the scope of the mess before. “Are you going to … report me?” Marlee asked tentatively, breaking the prolonged silence that had fallen between them. Gabriel sent her a long look before he returned his attention to the road. “What do you think?” Truthfully? She didn’t know what to think. He’d sent Joshua to hide her car, though. That might not have been anything but a ruse to buy time until he decided what he wanted to do—It might still be, but she had a feeling she was being offered shelter from a storm. She just wasn’t certain of how safe the shelter would be—from any direction. It didn’t take a lot of thought, though, to realize she trusted Gabriel and the others far more than she did her own government. Gabriel’s motives for helping might still be murky, but the flyer that had been faxed all over everywhere certainly supported her fears about the government’s interest in her. Unless she found out that their suspicions were totally groundless, she couldn’t afford to fall into their hands. The baby was liable to end up in a jar and she would probably disappear and never be seen or heard from again. She was too caught up in her worries to pay a lot of attention to where they were going, not that she could’ve told much if she’d been trying. It had been dusk when she’d arrived at the

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Reservation police station. It was full dark by the time they left and they’d left the small community fairly quickly and headed out into the countryside. She’d been too engrossed in her thoughts even to make any kind of note of the time, but she knew they’d been driving at least thirty minutes to an hour before the deceleration of the SUV finally penetrated enough to arouse her. She saw that they were pulling in to a ranch. Old fashioned split rail fence lined the narrow drive Gabriel had turned in to. Ahead of them, she saw a sprawling two story log home. One of the SUV’s had just parked. Eli, she thought, and John got out, paused to watch as Gabriel pulled in to park next to their vehicle and then headed inside. She hadn’t realized how similar in height and build the dark ones were until she discovered she wasn’t certain it was Eli or one of the others that strode across the wide porch of the cabin and went in. John was as unmistakable by his coloring as Gabriel was. She’d been more than half convinced when Gabriel had introduced them all as his brothers that he’d only meant in the sense of brotherhood—because they were all on the force together. It had flickered through her mind to consider the possibility that he was referring to their connections with the tribe, but neither John nor Gabriel looked like they belonged to any tribe—unless it was a Viking tribe. She hadn’t actually intentionally waited for Gabriel to walk around the vehicle to open the door for her—that was a bygone courtesy that few people observed anymore. He did just that, however, opening the door and waiting for her to get out and then settled a hand at the small of her back as they mounted the stairs to the porch and crossed it. The front door opened into a great room that deserved the name with a high, vaulted ceiling emphasized by crisscrossing beams. The sound of running water and banging pots were already issuing forth from the large, open kitchen Gabriel escorted her to and she saw when they reached it that both Eli and John were busy preparing the dinner she’d been invited to. She’d forgotten that invitation—hadn’t really registered it—but she realized she was hungry as soon as she saw they had plans of eating as soon as they could throw something together. Actually, she revised that, not throwing. Eli and John both worked with the efficiency and skill of chefs, making it clear that they had a lot experience in the kitchen. Eli had five whole chickens lined up that he was systematically quartering. John was chopping vegetables with equal efficiency. As she watched, Eli cleaned, patted the pieces dry, seasoned it with a flick of his wrist and what seemed almost a complete disregard for where the seasoning landed and then began tossing the pieces into a waiting pan to sautéed them with the vegetables John rinsed and tossed in behind. “It’ll be about an hour before dinner’s ready,” Gabriel said. “Would you like to get cleaned up?” Marlee dragged her gaze from the ‘show’ with an effort. “I showered and changed before I drove up. Anyway, I don’t have anything to change in to … but thanks.” “In that case, I think I will while there’s still plenty of hot water,” Gabriel said, leaving her and striding across the great room to the stairs. Marlee watched him until he disappeared into a room at the top and returned her attention to Eli and John. “Is there anything I can help with?” Both men flicked a glance at her. “We’ve got it under control,” Eli responded after flicking a speculative gaze over her.

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Warmth tingled through her—and irritation, mostly with herself. She’d seen that look in a man’s eyes more than once and it generally ticked her off. It might be flattering in a way to know a man found one attractive, but at the same time it was demeaning in that it reduced a woman to nothing more than an object—even if that was an object of lust. She was more than a pussy on two legs! Clearing her throat, she searched her mind for a topic of conversation. Not that they seemed to feel any need to talk, even between themselves, but she wasn’t comfortable. “What did Gabriel mean when he said you were all his brothers?” she finally asked curiously. Eli and John both sent her looks of surprise. She couldn’t help but notice there was also a touch of wariness. “We are brothers,” Eli answered. Marlee frowned, but she wasn’t comfortable bringing up the fact that Eli, Joshua, Luke, and Aaron all looked pure Native American and neither Gabriel or John looked like they had so much as a drop of the same blood. “Uh … you must be really close in age,” she said tentatively. John snorted. “You could say that.” Eli finished browning the chicken pieces and dropped the last into a large baking pan. When he’d shoved the monster into the over, he washed his hands and turned to study her as he dried them. “Gabriel was first. He’s three or four hours older than me—give or take. John …,” he hesitated for a fraction of a second, “popped out about an hour behind me. The others, Joshua, Luke, and Aaron, in that order, hatched the next day.” Marlee felt her jaw slacken with stunned surprise. “You’re saying …. You’re … uh … sextuplets?” John had sent Eli a sharp look. At that, he seemed to relax. He grinned at her. “Guess so.” “That poor woman!” Marlee gasped, her mind instantly leaping to their mother. “Six at one time! That must have been …. I can’t imagine what that must have been like!” She didn’t want to! In some ways, she thought it must be a tremendous thrill to have a multiple birth—but twins she could see being thrilled about. Maybe even triplets. Six? And it had taken her two days to deliver? What kind of medical facility would let a woman labor that long? “We didn’t get the chance to ask her,” Eli said tightly. “She died.” Marlee felt her stomach tighten as if she’d been punched. The shock wave left pity behind it. “I’m … so sorry to hear that.” He shrugged. Turning, he tossed the dishrag down that he’d used to dry his hands. “We’re sorry, too.” Dismay filled her as he left the kitchen and mounted the stairs, disappearing as Gabriel had. She bit her lip as she studied John’s back, struggling with her discomfort. “I’m sorry I brought it up. It must have been … really hard. It’s nothing short of amazing that you all survived.” “I’m not sure we would have if not for our fathers … father’s care.” “He must be an amazing man to raise six boys at one time.” “He was.” Was. They were orphans? Questions immediately cluttered her mind, but she tamped the urge to ask anything else. She hadn’t been in their home five minutes and she’d already brought up too many things that were obviously painful. As curious as she was, that didn’t give her the right to indulge her curiosity when it meant opening old wounds.

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Thankfully, the other brothers arrived before the silence got too uncomfortable and they completely diverted her when they came in carrying her belongings from the cabin she’d rented. “You got my things?” she asked blankly, trying to mentally calculate how long it would’ve taken them to make the round trip. Joshua glanced at her somewhat warily and flicked a look at John. “We got them when we were out looking for you earlier. It didn’t seem like a good idea to go back for them later when the feds were looking for you,” John responded coolly. Marlee turned to stare at him in disbelief and dawning anger. “You assumed I wouldn’t object to being … abducted?” she asked tightly. John’s eyes narrowed. “We figured it would be better for you to be pissed off than shipped off, lady. I don’t think you realize just how close you were to disappearing in a very unpleasant way. I’m guessing here, but I think it’s safe to say that either your buddies at the park, or the cops you talked to last night, had already notified the feds. We were still there when the feds arrived … and hadn’t cleared your things out much more than five minutes ahead of them.”

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Chapter Seven Marlee felt cold all over every time she thought about how close she’d come to being caught. It did cross her mind that John might have made up the entire story, but somehow she didn’t think so. For that matter, the flyer she’d been shown might have been—except there was too much information there that they would’ve had no way of knowing. And if she accepted that the flyer was genuine, then she thought she also had to accept that what John had told her was true. And if she accepted both, then she thought she had to accept that the lab had found something really strange in her tests. That frightened her a whole lot more than the near miss. She’d escaped capture. She wasn’t going to escape whatever it was inside of her. She lay awake most of the night thinking about it. Gabriel had given her his room. She was certain of it when he’d brought out a spare pillow and blankets and made up a bed for himself on one of the long couches in the great room. It had been politeness that had prompted her to take the couch and not put him out of his room, but she discovered very quickly that it hadn’t actually been offered because she was a guest. They didn’t trust her not to take off during the night. The lack of trust angered her, increasing the sense that she was more a prisoner than a guest even if they were taking a risk in sheltering her. As much as she resented the insult to her integrity, however, she could see their point. It wasn’t those thoughts that kept her awake, though. She was too early along in her pregnancy to have fully accepted the fact that she had a being growing inside of her. Even if not for the fact that she hadn’t even known it was there a matter of weeks ago, her own plight had taken precedence and the baby had held a distant second place—more because the baby itself was the threat in a way. Somewhere in the back of her mind, though, she realized she had not only accepted it, she felt deeply possessive and protective of it. That was almost a surprise in and of itself. She hadn’t given much thought to having a baby—ever. She’d been completely focused on and dedicated to her career in law enforcement. There’d been no wistful dreams of marrying, having children, and giving up that career. She didn’t know how or when or why she’d changed so radically, but it was a significant enough shift to add to her uneasiness. The government seemed so convinced that she was carrying something really strange and out-of-this-world, that she thought it was irrational of her to want to hold on to it. She should be considering aborting, not considering what it might look like or how she was going to take care of it! She tried to consider it dispassionately but discovered she couldn’t. It was almost as if the baby itself was speaking to her, demanding to be born, but then that was almost as unnerving a thought as the possibility of producing a little green alien. What if she was being controlled and manipulated by the baby? It seemed like something out of a horror/sci-fi flick and yet it would’ve been a lot easier to dismiss if the government hadn’t seemed so hot to get hold of her.

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What had they found in those tests, she wondered? Maybe more importantly, was it something that would show up if she went to another doctor? What the hell was she going to do about that? Even if she dismissed the thought of aborting, she would have to be under a doctor’s care, wouldn’t she? She sure as hell had no intention of trying to deliver a baby without medical help! She finally reached a state of exhaustion that overcame her fears. When she woke, the light streaming into the room was a sure sign that she’d slept well past the time she usually got up. She was still tired, for all that. Her morning wake up routine didn’t exactly pep her up all that much either. She discovered when she finally made it downstairs that everyone had disappeared except for Eli. He was standing on the wide porch along the back of the house when she reached the great room, but he turned almost as if he’d heard her and entered through the double glass doors when she neared the foot of the stairs. “Hungry?” Marlee sighed. “Not really … but thanks.” “You should make the effort anyway. You’re breeding,” he said coolly, heading toward the kitchen. Marlee followed him. “Breeding?” He flicked a glance at her as he removed eggs and bacon from the refrigerator. “You are.” “It’s just a strange way to put it,” Marlee said and then frowned. “I don’t know what to do about it.” Eli set the things on the counter and turned to study her. “Meaning?” She looked at him a little resentfully, but she’d spent most of the night scaring the hell out of herself and she was still afraid! She met his gaze. “I’m scared to death,” she admitted, struggling abruptly with the urge to burst into tears. “There must be some reason they think it’s not human!” Eli’s lips tightened, but he moved across the kitchen. To her surprise, he gathered her in his arms, molding her tightly against his length. “You don’t need to be afraid, Marlee. The babies are fine.” Marlee felt her heart skip a beat as she digested that. She pulled away and looked at him. “Babies?” she repeated. He scanned her face and seemed to struggle with something. “Shit!” he growled. Releasing her, he put some distance between them. Instead of focusing on cooking, however, he turned to face her. Leaning back against the counter, he folded his arms. “You ever heard of the Native American practice of dream walking?” Marlee frowned, searching her memory. It wasn’t a long search. It was a fairly wide custom among the Native Americans to use certain drugs found in local plants—hallucinogens— to perform certain rituals. She wasn’t actually a history buff, but she was pretty well versed in drug abuse. Apparently, he saw when that connected in her mind. “What if I told you that John and I were dream walking when we heard you? That it was us.” Marlee stared at him as that slowly sank in and threw her into a complete state of turmoil. Fletcher had suggested that it might have been Native Americans, though. She felt her face heating with a mixture of anger, embarrassment and, loathe though she was to acknowledge it, heat. “You’re saying …? You’re suggesting …?”

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“They’re ours, Marlee, and there’s no way in hell any of us are going to stand by and let you abort them. Given the circumstances, I can see where you might not want the babies, but we do.” Babies. It was the second time it had been suggested that she might be carrying more than one. Given the fact that they were sextuplets, maybe that explained it—and oh god! They could be right! That was almost more terrifying than the idea of having alien babies had been! “You’re saying …? It was you and John? You think you got me pregnant?” “I know,” he said grimly. Marlee looked around for a place to sit down as a wave of faintness rolled over her. “You knew, but you weren’t going to tell me?” His lips tightened. “We didn’t know until you came back.” She blinked at him. “How the hell did you know?” “You told Gabriel—remember?” he said after a prolonged pause. Marlee frowned. Something didn’t click with that. She was in no state of mind to figure it out at the moment, but it just didn’t ring true somehow. “So you decided to help me seeing as how you got me in this mess to start with?” she said angrily. “Something like that,” he growled. “You complaining?” “Hell yes, I’m complaining, god damn it! You and John dragged me off and raped me! Why the hell wouldn’t I complain?” He surged toward her so fast she barely had time to blink before he’d dragged her hard against him. “It wasn’t rape. You know damned well it wasn’t.” Marlee swallowed with an effort, recalling the memory with far too much clarity for her comfort. “You drugged me with something! That isn’t consent!” He studied her for a long moment. Spearing his fingers in her hair, he held her while he dipped his head and fitted his mouth to hers. She struggled, clamped her lips tightly together and tried to turn her head, but the frantic pumping of blood through her wasn’t fear and she knew it. His mouth was ruthless, punishing, demanding. She yielded abruptly, telling herself that it was useless to fight his far superior strength but the moment he invaded her mouth she knew it was a lie—all of it. The only drug he’d used to drain of her any will of her own was essence of Eli. It invaded her just as it had then, crumbling every barrier she’d tried to throw up in a matter of seconds. Heat surged between them. She gave up the effort to elude him and clung to him instead, feeling the strange fever of before consume her until she couldn’t think beyond absorbing him. He lifted her. She didn’t know or care where he was taking her as long as it involved stripping off the clothes that separated them and connecting their bodies. He sprawled on the couch with her, breaking the kiss long enough to shove her blouse up and scoop one breast from her bra cup. The jolt that went through her as his mouth settled over the tip of her breast nearly made her pass out. She clutched at his head for a moment and then arched her back, struggling to reach the fastener of her bra and unhook it. He shoved her bra out of the way the moment she did, shifting his attention to her other breast and thwarting her attempts to rid herself of the blouse and the bra for several moments. Abruptly, he released her breast, sucking in a harsh breath. For a moment, the fear seized her that he would stop when he reared up on his knees, but he merely stripped his own shirt off and reached for the fastener of her jeans.

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He dragged her toward him as he yanked at her jeans and panties and peeled them down her hips. She ‘swam’ backwards using her elbows and wiggled out of the jeans as he finally managed to get them past her knees. Dropping them to the floor beside the couch, he settled over her again, arching rhythmically against her as he covered her mouth once more and drove her to distraction with the thrust and retreat of his tongue and the movement of his hips that was almost more frustrating than fulfilling. She ached with need. The rough brush of his jeans only seemed to make her body throb worse in complaint. She began a frantic search for the opening of his jeans. Finding the hard evidence of his arousal first, she paused to stroke it. He broke the kiss with a hiss and wrenched his jeans open, shoving them down his hips. She sucked in a sharp breath as she felt his flesh probing her and then sinking slowly into the mouth of her sex. Her desperation increased. She grasped his lower back, unable to reach his buttocks, and pulled at him when he ceased to thrust and allowed the muscles along her channel to squeeze him nearly all the way out. Curling his arms around her, he tightened his hold and thrust again, sinking deeper, sending out currents of pleasure. “Eli!” she gasped mindlessly. “God! That feels good!” He released a pent up breath. She heard his teeth grinding as he curled his hips and drove deeper. She could feel her body soaring toward its peak even as he finally achieved full penetration and set a feverish pace, driving her ever closer to the top with each thrust until her climax abruptly burst upon her. She arched against him, stiffening with the force of the spasm. Sucking in a keen breath as the first convulsion of pleasure eased, she struggled to match his rhythm as wave after wave followed the first. She’d reached fever pitch when she felt his cock buck inside of her as he reached his own crisis, felt the scalding heat of his seed bathing her channel. Sanity was slow to return, but it did. Despite the delightful afterglow, Marlee had begun to feel the discomfort of having encouraged him every step of the way by the time Eli managed to catch his breath. He pushed himself up on his arms and studied her face for a long moment. His expression hardened at the look of wariness she sent him. “I suppose that was rape, too, but that isn’t the way I remember it. You were just as eager then as you were just now.” She narrowed her eyes at him, struggling with the urge to smack him. “You started it! Both times! Just because I enjoyed it doesn’t mean I wanted it to happen and I sure as hell didn’t invite you! I was horny and you were handy!” He pulled free of her and got off the couch. “If you think I wanted it to happen any more than you did, you’re mistaken! You’re a ….” He stopped abruptly. “Not the woman I would’ve picked to mother my child!” That stung! Marlee sat up abruptly and looked around for her clothes. “Well you aren’t the man I would’ve picked to father any child of mine!” she snapped. “So I guess we’re both unhappy about the situation!” Eli had snatched up his jeans angrily to jerk them back on, but when Marlee jerked her own clothing up and stalked up the stairs, he dropped to the couch and slung them down again. “Fuck! That went well!” **** “Marlee’s all sunshine,” Gabriel said tightly, sending Eli an accusing look. Eli rolled his shoulders, trying to shrug off the dark mood that had hung over him ever since they’d enjoyed some of the best sex in his memory and then promptly disintegrated into snapping at each other.

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Not that that had lasted long! She’d treated him to the cold shoulder most of the day! Not that it wasn’t his own damned fault! It had thoroughly pissed him off to be accused of raping her, though! Granted, he’d been in a fever, but it was her fever that had touched it off, not the other damned way around! He didn’t fucking believe she didn’t know it either! “I told her,” he growled. “What the hell did you do that for?” Gabriel demanded angrily. Eli fixed him with a hard look. “What was your plan? Just to wait until they popped out and say ‘oh by the way—this one’s mine and these two belong to my brothers!’?” “I thought we might try a little fucking finesse!” “She wanted to get rid of them,” Eli said tightly. “At least now she thinks they’re human. She was scared they weren’t.” He thought it over for a moment and glared at Gabriel. “I thought you said she told you she wasn’t raped?” The accusation took Gabriel aback. “She did.” “Well that isn’t the way I heard it. The damned second I told her I’d fathered one of them she wanted to chew me up and spit me out!” Gabriel eyed him assessingly. “And yet you still managed to fuck her somehow,” he said tightly. Eli’s lips tightened. “She’s my mate,” he growled. “If you think I’ll be fucking asking your permission before I touch her you can think again.” “And mine.” Gabriel and Eli both turned to look at John as he entered the kitchen. “We bred on her. That doesn’t make her our mate,” Gabriel said tightly. “She’s human. You might as well get that through your heads right now. The very moment she discovers what we are she’s going to take to her heels and never look back. The idea of bringing her here was to protect our spawn.” John eyed him assessingly. “Meaning you have no interest in trying to convince her to stay beyond that?” Gabriel stared at him a long moment and finally looked away. “I don’t fucking understand what’s happened here any better than you two do. Something happened. It’s affected all of us—her included. She thinks they found something in her blood. I think she’s right and that’s why they’re so keen to get their hands on her. I just don’t know whether it’s because of the babies or not.” “Meaning as soon as she has them she’ll feel entirely different?” Joshua, who was cooking, asked sharply. “There are three of us here that didn’t get the fucking chance to spawn and Marlee’s the first female, human or dragoness, that offered that possibility.” “She didn’t offer!” Eli growled. “She made that clear as a bell!” “And it seems to me that you and John fucked it up for the rest of us!” Luke retorted angrily. Eli glared at him, struggling with the urge to knock his teeth down his throat. “The government is going to fuck it up for all of us if they manage to get their hands on her,” Gabriel said pointedly. “The only way to prevent that that I can see is to try to convince her to stay with us so that we can protect her. I don’t think she’s convinced now by a long shot even though she’s worried about the government boys catching up with her. And genius here decided to allay her fears by convincing her they were human babies. So now, maybe, she won’t be worried so much about them catching her? I don’t guess you thought about that?”

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Anger flashed through Eli, but he felt his face heating with discomfort. “She was afraid,” he said tightly. “I could see it in her eyes.” “Well it’s a damned good thing you thought to comfort her!” John snapped. Gabriel held up his hand before the two could come to blows. “He had a point—to an extent. She doesn’t necessarily have to find a doctor to abort. There are things she could take— and she might’ve been tempted otherwise. At least he allayed that anxiety and I don’t think we’ll have to be worried about it. The problem is that she might decide that she doesn’t have to worry about it at all.” “It isn’t likely she could elude us,” Luke put in. “Not for long,” Eli said grimly, “but it might be long enough to get her into trouble even we would have a hard time getting her out of—without revealing what we are. That wouldn’t help her, us, or the babies.” **** Marlee didn’t even make any attempt to play the courteous guest and try to make polite small talk when they all gathered to eat. She was pissed off with all of them! She couldn’t decide whether she was more furious with Eli or Gabriel. They certainly topped her shit list, but the others had known! She knew damned well that all of them had and that made them accessories as far as she was concerned! It was almost more annoying that they seemed oblivious to her anger. Not one of them made any attempt to draw her into conversation and they dispersed so quickly when they’d finished their meal that it seemed painfully clear that none of them wanted her there any more than Eli did! She debated whether to help Aaron and Luke with kitchen clean up after the meal since everyone else had abandoned ship, but she could see that they worked as efficiently together as all the others when they paired up in the kitchen. Shrugging the impulse off even though she felt guilty about not even offering, she went into the great room, turned the big screen TV on and flipped through the channels they had available. It wasn’t much of a selection, actually, but she supposed the mountains played havoc with reception. Giving up on finding anything to occupy her mind after a few minutes, she turned the TV off again and wandered out onto the back verandah. There were no city lights, or car lights for that matter. There were no buildings in sight with the exception of the large barn some distance to the south east of the main house and what she supposed must be a pump house and a small shed. The stars and moon shed far more light than she’d ever thought they would, though, illuminating a shadowy landscape that was so alien to her she found it far more disturbing than peaceful. A faint creaking sound from the porch caught her attention and she whipped in that direction. Eli, she discovered, was seated in a rocking chair at the other end, tipped back with his feet propped on the railing. He took his feet down and got up, sauntering toward her. Irritation flickered through Marlee as soon as the fright passed, but her heart didn’t cease to pound against her ribcage like a trip hammer. He stopped about an arm’s length from her, folding his arms over his chest and propping his ass against the railing. “Still pissed?” It occurred to Marlee that the deep, gravelly drawl of his voice was just about the sexiest thing she’d ever heard. If everything inside of her hadn’t already been straining to reach out to him before he opened his mouth, it certainly was the moment he did. Why was it that these men had such an effect on her? Because they all did. She’d tried her best to ignore the fact that they did, and there was certainly a notable difference in the effect

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that each of them had on her, but she felt like she was strung out on something every time she was in close proximity to any of them—something like X, or at least the way she’d heard it described. Every nerve ending tingled almost as if she’d encountered some kind of bizarre force field. Her libido purred to life, warming her to ignition point so that it took no more than a light caress to send her up in flames. “I don’t even know what your last name is,” she said after a moment and then grimaced. “I didn’t know your first name until yesterday.” Something flickered in his eyes. “Bear.” Marlee stared at him, more than half convinced he’d said it as some kind of poor attempt at a joking reference to the bear that had attacked her. “Bear?” He shrugged. “Standing bear. I am an injun.” She met his gaze. “And a bigot. Do you hate all white women, or just me?” He unfolded his arms and uncrossed his legs. Grasping her shoulders, he guided her between his legs until she was standing close enough his warmth and scent wafted to her, weaving their intoxicating spell. “Baby, is there anything about the way I touch you that says hate to you?” She smiled with an effort. “Only your lips.” Something flickered in his eyes. He pulled her closer until her center of gravity shifted and she found herself lying against him. “Must be some kind of language barrier thing,” he murmured, slipping his arms loosely around her and lowering his head to meet hers. “Let’s try that again.” Her heart just seemed to stop in her chest as he brushed his lips lightly across hers and then just as gently sucked on them. For a handful of seconds, he hovered a hair’s breadth from her lips, as if waiting to see if she wanted more. She tipped her head up and closed the distance. Her awareness of him expanded the moment his lips closed over hers. His hands tightened briefly on her and then coasted in opposite directions. One arm curled around her shoulder blades, pressing her breasts more tightly against his chest. He reached downward with the other hand to cup one buttock and rock her pelvis against his. Moisture flooded her channel and her focus shifted inward, drawn by the warming pulse of blood in her breasts and her sex. His kiss was slow, a thorough exploration rather than the fevered mating of mouths of before, but it aroused her just as thoroughly. She lifted her eyelids with a great effort when he finally broke the kiss. His lips curled upward at one corner. “Better?” he drawled huskily. “Or should I try again?” She wanted to tear his clothes off and mount that thick rod of flesh he was rhythmically brushing against her mound. She swallowed with an effort. “I don’t understand why you have this affect on me, Eli,” she murmured. His eyes gleamed. “That makes two of us then, baby, but I think I’m more inclined to go with it and enjoy it that question it.” She was more inclined to go with it than question it, too, and that worried her. She didn’t know anything about him—except that he might have fathered the baby she was carrying and he’d apparently been high on some kind of hallucinogenic weed when he’d impregnated her. And that still didn’t explain why she’d felt that way when she certainly hadn’t smoked anything. “You brought me here to protect the baby.” “And its mother.” She chewed her lip. “Would you feel the same if it wasn’t yours? What if it belongs to John?”

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He tilted his head. “You think I’d be less inclined to protect my brother’s child?” She pushed away slightly. “That’s the whole point, Eli. I don’t know you—except in the biblical sense.” His gaze became shuttered. “What makes you think there’s that much to know?” She studied his face and finally lifted a hand and lightly traced one hard cheek. “I have a feeling you’re fathoms deep, Eli Bear.” He lifted a hand to hold hers and then moved her hand to his lips and nibbled her palm. “There’s were you’re wrong, Ms. F-B-I,” he drawled, laughter threading his voice. “I’m as shallow as spring puddle on a flat rock. If you could read my mind right now you’d know the only thing on it is how to convince you to let me go fishing in that little cavern of yours.” Marlee couldn’t help but chuckle. “I would never have guessed,” she murmured, bumping her pelvis lightly against his ‘pole’. “I was thinking you might not have figured that out.” “Seriously, though ….” “Baby, I’m as serious as a heart attack,” he murmured, dipping down to nibble at her neck. “I think you’re seriously trying to distract me.” “Is it working?” She chuckled again and gave up. “I think you know the answer to that.” “Good!” he said briskly, setting her slightly away and then catching her hips and lifting her straight up. She tipped across his shoulder, trying to brace herself up with her arms. “Eli!” He popped her on the ass and strode toward the glass doors. Marlee’s sense of playfulness vanished the moment he strode inside with her. She struggled upright and looked around. To her horror she discovered both Aaron and Luke were sprawled on the couch facing the TV—staring at her as Eli strode past them with her over one shoulder. “Put me down!” she hissed. “I intend to,” Eli said, striding toward the stairs and trotting up them at a pace that jarred every tooth in her head. “I mean it, Eli!” she grunted. “I mean it, too!” She sucked in her breath of the edge of a scream when he abruptly pulled her from his shoulder and tossed her. She landed in the middle of his bed with a jounce that nearly gave her whip lash and gaped at him a moment before she managed to thrust aside her surprise and glare at him. He was already halfway out of his shirt and missed it. Her gaze was snagged by the ripple of muscles along his arms and torso as he pulled the snug knit shirt off his head and dropped it. He reached for the snap of his jeans. Marlee was torn between irritation at his highhandedness and fascination as he stripped the jeans from his lean hips and then placed a knee on the bed and crawled toward her. She fell back against the pillows as he grasped her legs and lifted them, tipping her over. Planting a knee on either side of her hips, he unfastened her jeans and tugged them off, backing away until he could pull them from her ankles. He took hold of her ankles then, spread her legs wide and settled between them, propping the weight of his upper body on his elbows. Dipping his head down, he sucked the patch of skin where her ribs met, stroking it with his tongue before he lifted his head again.

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“You get to know me your way. I’ll get to know you my way,” he drawled lazily, his eyes gleaming with a mixture of amusement and promise. She lifted her brows at him, but he focused on her belly again almost immediately and dipped toward it again. That time, however, instead of sucking on it, he blew on it. Marlee laughed before she could even consider trying to quell it, jerking her knees upward. “Ticklish stomach,” he murmured, laughter threading his voice. “No questions?” She grabbed his hands as he slid them up her rib cage. He twisted his wrists and grabbed hers. “No interference,” he said chidingly, shifting upward and lifting her arms above her head. “This is a serious investigation, ma’am.” She met his gaze, searching her mind for a question to pose. “You grew up here on the reservation?” she asked tentatively. He grunted. “No.” Transferring his grip on her wrists to one hand, he stroked a hand lightly down her from shoulder to belly and then up again along her ribcage. He found her ticklish spot unerringly and goosed it with his fingertips, making her erupt into laughter again. “Ticklish ribs, too.” “Have you ever been married?” Marlee asked when she caught her breath. “No.” He slipped his hand upward to cup one breast, squeezing it lightly, and then focused on the nipple, teasing it with his fingertips until it stood erect. Cupping her breast again, he lifted it to his mouth as he lowered his head and covered the pert bud. Marlee felt her belly clench at the first tug of his mouth. Tentacles of heat wafted through her, gathering strength with each successive pull of his mouth until she seemed to be floating on a cloud of endorphins. “Why are you so angry with me, Eli?” she whispered when he finally lifted his head and met her gaze again. Eli stared at her for a long moment, wondering how she could’ve gotten the idea that he was and realized that she was right. He was angry—still—no matter how badly he wanted her, he was still angry. He was angry that she’d even considered destroying the one thing he had wanted so badly for so long that he couldn’t remember not feeling the desperation to have it and the despair that he never would. He was far angrier, though, because he had mated himself to a human woman. He hadn’t even realized it until she’d asked—that he was angry about it or that he had, but it occurred to him with an abruptness that almost deprived him of breath that that was the power she held over him. That was the reason he couldn’t think straight when she was around him or think of anything else when she wasn’t. That indefinable ‘something’ that there was about her that set him on fire went well beyond admiration for her beautiful face and body, her spirit and her intelligence. It was more than the fact that he’d finally managed to mate merely in the sense of having successfully spawned at last and that she was carrying his future. Fear and frustration had spawned his latent anger because he knew just as surely that she wasn’t bound as he was. She could walk away and never give him another thought, but he was bound to her for his lifetime. Even if the remote possibility, now, of finding a dragoness did come to pass, he had blood bound himself to Marlee … and she couldn’t be there for him for his lifetime even if she wanted to. “You wanted to abort my child,” he said finally, knowing even as he did that it was as irrational to be angry with her about that as it was to be angry with her because he had blood bonded with her.

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The statement threw Marlee into complete disorder. “I didn’t know it was yours. I was afraid it was a … monster.” He looked at her strangely and abruptly rolled away from her, dropping one arm across his eyes. “It’s yours, too. How could it ever seem like a monster to you?” Marlee turned to look at him in dismay feeling a horrible sense of guilt slowly settle inside her. Lifting a hand, she settled it on her belly, rubbing it almost apologetically. “You’re right,” she said finally. “It was a crazy thought.” She sighed. “I honestly was trying to think of the baby’s best interests, though, whether you believe it or not. You must know what prejudice is like, how miserable it can be for the person who’s singled out to be tormented. I was trying to be unselfish. I just thought it might prefer to be spared a life of misery if it was … different.” He lifted his arm to study her face. “I’m different. Would you have spared me the life of misery I’ve had?” Her gaze flickered over his face. Sympathy welled in her as she thought about how unhappy his childhood must have been without a mother to dry his tears or cuddle him. Would his father have given him the tenderness every child needed? Or would he have worried that doing so would unman his sons? “Has it been terrible, Eli?” He hooked his hand behind her head and dragged her across his chest. “There’ve been times when I’ve wondered if it was really worth the sacrifice my mother made to ensure my life.” He skimmed her face with his gaze. “Now, I begin to think maybe it was.” Surprise flickered through her when he pulled her down for a heated kiss. She’d thought she’d ruined the moment with her questions, and yet the heat was still within her, banked and waiting only for him to call it forth. She caught fire at the feverish hunger of his kiss and the touch of his hands. He rolled after a moment, carrying her with him, carrying her beneath him, and surged into her. She broke from his lips, gasping in pleasure as she felt his slow possession, felt her body engulfing that part of him that seemed made especially for her. The pleasure that inundated her as he moved within her was far more than the physical. She felt the pleasure of soothing his wounds and the pleasure of feeling as if she was a part of him and he was a part of her. And when she came, it was as if those pleasures all united as one, shook her to the core of her being, and transcended mere earthly pleasures. It seemed to sooth her own doubts and fears and lay them to rest. No dark thoughts intruded as she lay curled against him afterwards, enjoying the shelter of his big frame curled around hers and the almost idle stroke of his hands. No sense of passing time or urge to retreat to her own bed caused ripples of unquiet. It felt right and good to stay right where she was and make love with him until they were both thoroughly exhausted and slept at last. Unfortunately, the first fingers of dawn had barely reached across the sky when the real world reasserted itself.

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Chapter Eight The jarring blow to Eli’s shoulder jerked Marlee from deep sleep when it jostled her, as well. Her eyelids popped open automatically, but the burn made focusing her vision impossible. Her eyes instantly watered and blurred so that the dark form looming behind Eli was too wavering and indistinct to identify. “Get up and get dressed, Eli. It’s your shift,” Gabriel growled. Despite the repressed violence in Gabriel’s voice, Marlee merely groaned and rolled over when Eli bounded out of the bed and disappeared, convinced she’d grasped the reason for the rude awakening. For several moments after the door of the bathroom had slammed closed, she felt Gabriel’s gaze on her, but he finally turned and left as the sound of the shower filtered into the room. Uneasiness prickled at her, but she discovered her mind was simply too sluggish to try to untangle the puzzle and drifted away again. She’d barely submerged when she felt a stinging pop on one buttock. Eli dove at her even as she reared up in surprise. Rolling her onto her back, he covered first one breast and then the other in a vigorous, open-mouthed salute that lasted just long enough to cause a stir in her belly and annoy the shit out of her, planted a hard, almost bruising peck on her lips, and then disappeared. Uttering a mildly irritated huff, she snuggled down into the pillows again and sought sleep. She had just reached the threshold once more when all hell broke loose downstairs with a clatter of scraping, overturning furniture and the tinkling sound of shattering glass. The noise brought her up from the bed as if she was a puppet controlled by an unseen hand. Instinct, not thought, drove her from the room and toward the sound to identify the threat. In the great room below her, she managed to identify all six of the Bear brothers. Three of them were merely standing in a wide legged stance of anger, their arms folded, watching. The other three, which included Eli, were trading blows among the wreckage of the great room. Marlee gaped at the scene below her without comprehension, struggling to make sense of it when she didn’t see any sign of an intruder at all. The flying blond hair made it easy to identify the other two combatants—John and Gabriel—but she couldn’t produce any explanation for the fight. Eli seemed to be the focus of everyone’s anger, however, and that aroused a surprisingly strong protective instinct in her. “Stop! What are you doing? What’s going on?” It had a surprising, and someone unnerving, effect on all of them. All six froze and lifted their heads to stare at her. To a man, they seemed just as furious about her interference as they had been with Eli. “Go!” Eli bellowed at her in a voice that made her jump all over. She set her jaw mulishly, however. “Not until somebody tells me what the hell is going on!” All six men bellowed at her in unison that time. “Go!” Marlee retreated several steps before her anger overcame her sense. “Fine!” she yelled back at them. “Somebody tell me where the hell they put my car and find my damned keys! I’ll get my things!”

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That wiped the anger off their faces. For a handful of moments they gaped up at her blank faced. Then the dark scowls descended again and Gabriel, John, Joshua, Luke, and Aaron all bent accusing glares on Eli. “Fuck!” Eli burst out. “I’ll talk to her.” “Like hell!” Gabriel snarled. “I think you’ve ‘talked’ to her enough!” John snapped. When Marlee saw the three of them converging on the stairs, she decided retreat was the better part of valor. Whirling, she raced toward the room Gabriel had lent her, darted inside, and slammed and locked the door. She was debating whether or not to build a barricade when she heard a short scuffle outside the door. There was a single, hard blow, to the door near the lock and the panel flew inward, hit the wall behind it hard enough to crack the plaster and leave an imprint of the entire door and then rebounded, slamming into Gabriel’s shoulder as he followed the kick that had wrecked the door. Marlee didn’t see any sign of Eli or John, but the look on Gabriel’s face was enough to galvanize her flight instincts—not, unfortunately, enough to kick start any sort of higher brain function! Letting out a shriek, she came up off the floor a good foot, whirled mid-air, and hit the floor again peddling. She could hear Gabriel’s pounding footsteps behind her as she dashed mindlessly around the room in search of an avenue of escape in a zigzagging pattern that took her across the bed and helped her elude capture for a handful of moments but didn’t reveal the possibility of escape she was searching for. He finally managed to corral her in the corner of the room where two windows overlooked the back and side yards of the house. She stopped struggling to get one of the windows open and shuttled back into the corner between the two when she discovered Gabriel was too close to allow for the possibility of getting the window open and climbing out of it. Clearly content to have boxed her in, Gabriel halted abruptly. She stared at him distrustfully for a moment and then flicked a glance at the window she’d been trying to open. It was locked, not stuck as she’d been convinced it must be. Gabriel released a disgusted huff. “Nobody meant for you to leave,” he said after a long moment. Marlee stared at him, feeling the blind panic slowly give way to a modicum of rational thought. “Yes, well, thanks! But I think I will, just the same.” His expression hardened for a moment. He seemed to wrestle with himself and finally managed to relax fractionally. “You can’t leave. You know that. They’re looking for you. This is the only place you have any hope of being safe.” Marlee blinked at him, digesting that. “Obviously you and I have different interpretations of ‘safe’. Anyway, it’s my problem.” His lips tightened. “It’s our problem.” Marlee set her jaw stubbornly. “It’s my problem! I’m the one that’s pregnant! Anyway, it’s either John’s or Eli’s. They wouldn’t find anything to interest them even if they did catch me—not that I mean to let them.” “One is mine ….” He stopped and wrestled with his temper again. Apparently, he decided to try a different tact. “We’re brothers. Sometimes—very rarely—we get into an argument and things get out of hand a little bit ….” Marlee gaped at him in disbelief. “A little? You guys trashed the room!” He ground his teeth. “We just didn’t want you to get into the middle of it and maybe get hurt.”

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“Oh! Believe me, I don’t want to get in the middle of it! I don’t know what it was all about and I don’t want to know. Obviously, it’s some kind of family thing and you guys are used to settling arguments with your fists. But I’m not used to this kind of thing and I don’t want to be dodging flying pieces of furniture or bodies!” “You won’t be. I swear it! It won’t happen again.” Marlee searched his face, but she couldn’t see anything but grim determination in his eyes or his expression. “Look … aside from the fact that there’s no way you can make that kind of promise when you have five brothers who all have minds of their own—and really bad tempers—I’m the outsider here. I think I’m the stresser in this situation. Everybody will be much better off if I just leave.” “That’s where you’re dead wrong,” he said grimly. “The babies … The baby’s a part of this family and that makes you a part of it.” Marlee smiled thinly. “I appreciate the fact that Eli and John are willing to take responsibility … even though I have my doubts that they really are—even legally if they were high on something like Eli said. I mean, it could be argued that they weren’t in full possession of their facilities at the time. As far as I’m concerned, I’m perfectly willing to relieve them of any responsibility on those grounds, anyway. “I can’t hide out forever, though, for god’s sake! Eventually, they’re going to figure out where I am and I’m not really worried about it anymore. The baby’s either John’s or Eli’s—not the product of some alien or big foot or anything like that. As soon as they see they don’t have a weird hybrid—just an ordinary baby—they’ll lose interest and I can have my life back. No harm, no foul. They can even have visitation once we figure out who the father is. I don’t have a problem with that if that’s what’s worrying you guys.” Despite the fact that Marlee felt like she’d presented a very reasonable argument, Gabriel looked like he wanted to chew nails by the time she finished. “Be reasonable, Marlee.” “I am being reasonable,” she said somewhat testily. “You think they’re just going to take your word for it that … two Native Americans hopped up on a hallucinogen dragged you off to a cave and impregnated you? They’ll haul you off to some top secret facility and run tests ….” Marlee felt the first crack in her confidence—because she knew he was right—and she didn’t want to disappear into some creepy government facility even if they didn’t keep her very long. “And the tests will show that it’s just an ordinary baby,” she said stubbornly. Gabriel looked like he wanted to pull out his hair. “So you’re willing to risk them killing it with their damned tests? Is that it? Maybe you’re hoping they will and then you won’t have to worry about whether to abort it or not?” “That is completely unjust! The only reason I considered that at all was because they’d suggested it wasn’t human and I was afraid something would be terribly wrong with it! You sound like Eli, damn it! Like I’m some kind of cold blooded monster that would consider killing my baby just for my convenience! How the hell do you think I could protect a … hybrid, especially if it didn’t look human? It would be in danger its entire life! They’d never stop looking for it and if they caught it, it would be a lab rat for their experiments! I’m a monster because I couldn’t bear the thought of my baby having to endure that? Being hunted? Having no chance for any kind of normal life? “Well! I don’t give a damn what you think of me! That is the only reason I thought about it—thought about it, didn’t do it!—whether you believe me or not!”

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“Then you’ll stay here and let us protect it. It’s our seed,” Gabriel said grimly. “Once it’s born, you can have your life back and leave it to us.” Marlee’s anger flared at that comment and she forgot caution. “It’s my egg and my nest, god damn it! Don’t you believe for one moment,” she snarled through gritted teeth, stabbing him in the chest with her forefinger, “that you’re going to separate me from my baby! Maybe you’re all harboring mother issues because your poor mother died and you see it as being abandoned. I don’t know, but I won’t be leaving my baby anywhere!” The anger glittering in his eyes died abruptly. Amusement flickered to life and something else she didn’t entirely grasp. “You’re as fiercely protective as a dragoness,” he murmured. The comment and the abrupt shift in his mood threw Marlee completely off kilter. She gaped at him, too stunned to put up even a token resistance as he caught her finger and guided her arm around himself, abruptly jerking her up against his length. “Stay with us, little dragoness. Whatever our own battles, we’ll protect our dragoness, our babies, and their nest,” he murmured huskily, sealing the bargain with a kiss that threw her into further disorder. **** Marlee wasn’t actually in any frame of mind to effectively analyze anything she’d collected by way of impressions or even information for several days after she’d arrived at the cabin the brothers shared—not the Bear brothers as she’d originally thought. Every single one of them claimed a different last name, she discovered on her third night when she asked John if he used Standing Bear or just Bear as his last name. He was intent on his task. “White Wolf,” he replied absently and then seemed to realize what he’d said and sent her a sharp look before he glanced at Eli. Eli’s expression hardened, but he focused on the meat he was browning. Marlee stared at him, frowning in confusion. “Eli said his father was Standing Bear and that was why he used that for his last name.” John cleared his throat uncomfortably. “It’s a Blackfoot custom to choose your own name … according to your personal totem.” Eli flicked a look at him, rolled his eyes, and then nodded. “Mine just happened to be the same as my father’s. I saw a standing bear in my first dream walk.” There was something about his tone that suggested he was teasing her, but he kept his expression carefully neutral. “So what name do the others go by?” “Gabe is Red Fox. Aaron’s Crow Flies, or Crow, Luke is Panther, and Joshua is ….” “Tripping Rabbit,” Eli broke in, sending Joshua a provocative look as he entered the kitchen. John uttered a snort of laughter. “Sometimes we just call him Knock’s Knee.” Aware of the undercurrents and beginning to suspect what they were implying, Marlee flicked a searching look at Joshua to see how he was taking the teasing. His face was a little red and he looked torn between irritation and amusement, but he didn’t seem particularly insulted or perturbed. He folded his arms and leaned against the counter. “Fat Snake,” he countered, grinning at her. Eli and John both laughed uproariously at that. Marlee couldn’t prevent herself from glancing down. She hadn’t even realized she had until the men laughed harder. Feeling her face heat, she decided to leave the kitchen to the men. “Fat worm, maybe,” John countered, lobbing a chunk of carrot at him.

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Joshua neatly caught it and popped into his mouth. He hooked an arm around her waist and drew her against his length as Marlee tried to pass him. Laughter and desire both gleamed in his eyes as he stared down at her. “Gray Fox,” he murmured. “Not that he drew any wisdom from it,” Eli said in a low growl that was suddenly completely lacking in humor. “Let her go.” Joshua sent him a level look and then glanced down at her again. With obvious reluctance, he released her. Marlee divided an uneasy look between the men, wondering if she retreated now if they would immediately come to blows or if it would diffuse the situation if she left. Eli jerked his attention back to the pan he was supposed to be tending as the smell of burning meat wafted past his nostrils. “Fuck!” he growled, snatching the pan off with his bare hand and looking around for the fork he’d been using to turn the meat. It immediately distracted Marlee. Sucking in a sharp breath, she surged toward him. “Put it down!” Eli glanced from Marlee to the pan in bemusement and abruptly dropped the pan on the counter. “Did you burn yourself?” Marlee asked sharply, trying to grasp his hand and look at it. “It’s fine,” Eli retorted shortly, clenching his fist. “Just let me see!” Eli sent a look over her head instead. “Why don’t you go get the … uh … burn ointment out of my bathroom?” John suggested. “Good idea!” Marlee said, immediately abandoning the attempt to look at the burn and racing from the kitchen. “There should be bandages, too!” John called after her. “Shit!” Eli muttered under his breath. “What now?” “Brilliant move,” Joshua said tightly. “Just wrap it in something while she’s gone!” John snapped, then added with a warning growl, halting Eli with a hand in the middle of his chest when he surged toward Joshua. “Don’t do anything stupid!” “Anything else stupid,” Joshua said pointedly. “Like pinching your head off?” Eli growled. “It you had a fucking brain I’d worry about it!” “His brain’s in the head of his dick … and too far from his head to get the signals back,” John said tightly. “You both know what Gabriel said, so cool it or take it the fuck out back!” Eli was sorely tempted, but John’s reminder washed over him like a cold bucket of water. If he and Joshua disappeared to work things out, Marlee wasn’t going to be fooled at all. “Later,” he growled. “Sure. By the falls?” Eli nodded, but since he heard Marlee heading for the stairs on the upper landing, he glanced around a little frantically, grabbed a dishtowel and wound it around his palm, tucking the edge in. “I couldn’t find anything!” Marlee gasped breathlessly. “How’s the hand?” Eli felt his face heat. “Fine.” Marlee sent him a look of disbelief, but she could see he was determined not to allow her to touch it. A mixture of hurt and understanding flickered through her. He wasn’t used to being

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coddled and he wasn’t about to let her start. “Ok. I’ll just get out of the way,” she said after a moment, trying to keep her voice neutral. Uttering a sound of irritation, Eli followed her. Catching her, he drew her lightly against his frame. “You aren’t in the way, baby. I was just about to throw the burnt offerings into the oven anyway and head up for a shower.” Marlee searched his face and finally smiled. “Want company?” Eli had already responded with a smiling promise of his own before it dawned on him that the shower meant naked and that meant she was going to see his hand wasn’t burned at all. His smile flat-lined. “Next time. I have to make it quick and get back down before our supper’s a total loss.” Marlee’s face fell. “And I don’t like to rush,” he added. She smiled at him again. Relieved, he released her, watching her as she crossed the living room and headed upstairs. “Whose brain’s in his dick?” Joshua taunted. Eli turned to glare at him. “Fuck you!” Joshua shot a bird at him. “Later bird dick.” “Now I’m hurt,” Eli snarled, giving Joshua a feral smile. “I would be, too, if I was hung like a stud canary!” Joshua retorted. “Jesus!” John hissed. “If you two get any louder you might as well duke it out right here!” Eli dragged in a calming breath and stalked back to the stove. Gabriel arrived with Luke and Aaron while the three were still in the kitchen, bristling at each other. He surveyed the three with a mixture of anger and disgust. “What the fuck is going on now?” Eli glared at him and flicked a look at Joshua. “Joshua seems to be having trouble remembering Marlee’s already mated—and bred,” John said in a low growl. “I’m going to break that anaconda of his and shove it up his ass if he can’t keep his hands to himself.” Gabriel studied Joshua angrily for a long moment and then flicked a glance at Luke and Aaron. “We’ll discuss this … outside … later. We clear on that?” All five of his brothers glared at him resentfully, but after a moment they turned and split up. Luke and Aaron headed upstairs to bathe and change and Joshua headed outside to cool down. “What’s with the bandage?” Gabriel asked tightly once the others had left. Eli flushed. “Numb nuts was so busy trying to start a fight with Joshua that he grabbed a pan off the burner—in front of Marlee.” “Shit! Well you’ll have to stay the hell away from her until it’s had time to ‘heal’.” Eli stared at him in outrage. “How the hell long is that?” “Like I would fucking know!” Gabriel snarled. “A few days, anyway.” “I told her it wasn’t bad,” Eli said stiffly. “Did she believe it?” Eli glanced at John. “No.” “Thanks!” Eli snarled.

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“You’re welcome. What the hell do you expect? You stood there holding the pan like a dolt for five minutes!” “It wasn’t that long and that bastard, Joshua, had distracted me!” “Hell, Eli! If you were that bad about hiding all the time, we’d all be dead by now!” “Alright! Fine! But I’m going to beat the fuck out Joshua,” Eli growled, stalking out of the kitchen and upstairs. Gabriel watched him and then turned his attention to John. “Was that an exaggeration—I hope—or an accurate assessment?” John shook his head. “We were doing fine until Marlee got uncomfortable and decided to leave the kitchen. Joshua caught her and embraced her. It was all I could do to refrain from beating the shit out of him.” Gabriel’s lips tightened. “Like or not, they’re going to have to accept that they’re not taking part in this dance,” he said grimly. “No battle is going to change that—not now.” **** If Marlee hadn’t already acknowledged that Gabriel had some very valid objections to her leaving she thought she would’ve been considering it yet again when she retreated upstairs. It did flicker through her mind, but she’d decided to stay to protect the baby and the only thing that could convince her at this point to leave was a threat to the baby. It was hard to dismiss the suspicion that she was at the center of the tension between the brothers. It was ridiculous, of course. They were all far above ‘average’ looking men. They were exceptionally handsome and well built besides. Women everywhere probably threw themselves at them. She didn’t see how they could possibly lack for all the female attention they wanted—probably more than they wanted or needed! She could more easily see them having to fight the women off than struggling to catch their attention! She wasn’t a fool, though. She knew they were attracted to her—God only knew why! She thought she was reasonably attractive, but she certainly wasn’t any great beauty, classic or otherwise! It occurred to her, though, that it might be an extreme case of sibling rivalry, that they weren’t necessarily attracted her as much as they were drawn into some kind of territorial squabble. Maybe it was competitiveness? Subconsciously, because Gabriel and Eli had noticed her and wanted her, the others thought she must be ‘special’ somehow and they wanted her for that reason. Or maybe they didn’t especially want her. They just wanted to beat out their brothers? Whatever the case, though, it was their problem, not hers. They were going to have to deal with it. She had enough to deal with. She’d had sex with both Eli and Gabriel before she knew they were brothers and that complicated things already—because she was equally drawn to both of them and she was putty in their hands. The chances were at least fifty-fifty that she was carrying Eli’s baby, and that made it all the more difficult—because that wasn’t enough to settle it in her mind and her body wasn’t taking directions from her anyway. She was a little miffed that John hadn’t made any attempt to ‘renew’ their acquaintance, but she supposed he’d decided the baby wasn’t his and things were complicated enough without his involvement. There was still a fifty-fifty chance that the baby was his, though, and it was disturbing that he didn’t seem to have any interest in that possibility.

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She shook that thought off. She should just be relieved, not … upset. She was as certain as she needed to be that all of them, regardless of the paternity of the child, would protect her to the best of their abilities—and they seemed pretty damned able. Besides, staying on the reservation was as good as having made it to another country to hide out. Even if the feds figured out she was on the reservation, they would have to jump through hoops to get permission to enter the reservation and she could easily move to a new location before they could get to her. She hoped. Regardless, staying was the best option available to her and she was just going to have to deal with the tension her presence seemed to cause and try to minimize it the best she could. The biggest problem looming at the moment, it seemed to her, was that she couldn’t avoid causing friction unless she stayed in the room and she was already about ready to climb the walls. She was going to be a basket case long before the baby was born unless she could find some way to occupy her time. She decided she was just going to have to talk to Gabriel about it when they all sat down to dinner. Surely he could find something for her to do besides vegging-out all day in front of the damned TV? Unfortunately, she discovered when she did go down to dinner that the tension hadn’t eased—far from it. It seemed to have spread throughout the clan! She decided to try anyway when the tense silence became just a little too much for her digestion. “Gabriel?” His head came up from focusing on his meal, but his eyes were distant. “I agree that I should stay here—at least for now—but I really need something to do.” He blinked, bringing her into focus. “What?” Marlee sighed. “I can’t just sit around and breed,” she said a little testily. “I’ll lose my mind when I can’t even leave the house—or maybe I could?” He studied her for a long moment. “You could be spotted. I don’t think that’s a good idea.” “Then you’ll have to bring me something to keep me busy,” she said tightly. “There’s nothing here to do and I’m not used to doing nothing!” “If you can cook, you can take a turn in the kitchen,” Eli said after a few minutes. “I don’t think anybody would feel like arguing with you.” “I’m not playing domestic goddess for six damned men!” Marlee snapped. “So you can just get that idea right out of your head! I don’t mind taking a turn—although you might all be sorry since I can’t cook worth a shit—I don’t even mind doing some of the other chores since it looks like I’ll be living here, but that damned sure isn’t what I had in mind!” The brothers all exchanged glances and then looked at her with amusement. It irritated her, but she could see they weren’t as tense and she relaxed fractionally, as well. “Domestic goddess?” John asked. She gave him a look. “The live in housekeeper that gets screwed?” She was immediately sorry that she hadn’t put her brain in gear before she’d spit that out. Encountering six pairs of predatory, golden eyes at one time was enough to make her feel over warm and just a little lightheaded. It didn’t make her any happier or less uneasy when they appeared to realize they were all looking at her like a juicy steak and turned to glare at one another.

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“If you’re looking for something useful to do—besides playing domestic goddess,” Gabriel said, his voice tinged with amusement, “there’s plenty of paperwork that needs to be done for the office.” That didn’t especially thrill her but at least it was something constructive. “I’ll do it.” He sent her a doubtful look and then glanced at Aaron, lifting his brows. Aaron shrugged a little defensively. “It’s not in that bad a shape. I’m only a little behind.” “Maybe we can transfer calls in so you can handle that, too. Before I consider that, though, we need to settle on a name for you—and a background story.” “Maddie Bow Legs,” Joshua quipped. Marlee whipped her head to stare at him in horror, struggling with the twin urges to throw something at him and to laugh. Raunchy or not, it was still funny. She might have been insulted given the fact that she’d had sex with three of the men present, but although amusement gleamed in his eyes as he met her gaze, there was nothing the least bit denigrating about his expression. On the contrary, he looked like he was contemplating helping her to earn the name and she felt her kegels clap with an enthusiasm that made her squirm uncomfortably in her seat. Unfortunately, nobody but her and the ‘wit’ seemed to share their amusement. The abrupt scrape of several chairs as the occupants surged to their feet snatched her attention from Joshua with alarm. Gabriel, John, and Eli, she discovered, had all gotten up at once. “I’m going to head down to the barn to check on the livestock,” Gabriel said tightly. “Eli? You want to give me a hand?” Eli stared at Joshua for a long moment, clenching and unclenching his hands, but he finally nodded and turned to follow Gabriel out. Marlee cleared her throat. “I guess I could take my turn handling kitchen clean up,” she said, infusing far more enthusiasm into the suggestion that she actually felt. “I’ll give you a hand,” John said. Stacking his plate with Gabriel’s and Eli’s, he strode into the kitchen. Marlee glanced at the others at the table uncomfortably and finally got up when the remaining three brothers got up to leave. No one had actually finished eating that she could see but apparently the party was over. She glanced up at Joshua as he reached her. “I know you were just kidding,” she said quietly. His eyes were tumultuous, but something flickered in them at that. He coiled a hand along the side of her neck, using his thumb to push her chin up and planted his mouth over hers so quickly she’d just managed to suck in a breath of surprise when his mouth covered hers. His kiss was brief, but hot enough to curl her toes. “Wrong,” he said against her ear. “I want to fuck you so bad I could drive nails with my dick, baby.” It was crude and disgusting! She didn’t know why her kegels were clapping and her panties were wet! She couldn’t manage to do more than gape at him wide-eyed, however, when he leaned away. He studied her for a long moment from beneath hooded eyes and finally left her. Shaken, Marlee met Luke’s and Aaron’s gazes briefly and then focused on stacking dishes. Any hope she had that John had missed the exchange were dashed when she reached the kitchen. There was murder in his eyes as he watched Joshua, Luke, and Aaron step through the sliding glass doors and disappear into the darkness. Marlee’s lips were still tingling. She licked them and then wished she hadn’t. She could taste Joshua and it didn’t do a thing to settle the quaking inside of her. Avoiding John’s gaze,

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she headed for the trash can to rake the plates she’d gathered and then moved to the sink to stack them. John caged her against the sink as she turned, planting a hand on either side of her. She met his gaze uneasily, struggling to banish the sense of guilt that welled in her at the look in his eyes. “I’m the reasonable one,” he said evenly. “But I’m not feeling terribly reasonable right now. You want to know why?” Marlee blinked at him and slowly shook her head. “No?” She shook her head more vigorously. “Really, I don’t.” “Because I don’t need to tell you, do I? You already know.” Marlee swallowed with an effort, but Joshua had already wound her up and John’s proximity wasn’t doing anything for her IQ. She didn’t even try to resist when he captured her hand and guided it to his crotch, cupping it around his erection. She flicked a look down at the thick rod heating her palm through his jeans and met his gaze again. “I want,” he said in a low growl. “I know you need time and space to adjust … to everything that’s happened, but there’s a limit to my patience, Marlee. I’m not proud of my part in what happened, but I’m tired of kicking my ass about it. I’m tired of torturing myself about what would’ve happened because I was trying to be reasonable if Eli hadn’t been determined to act on his instincts. I’m tired of watching you with Gabe and Eli and wondering if they deserve you more than I do. And there’s no way in hell I’m going to let Joshua touch what’s mine and keep my hands to myself.” Marlee gaped at him. “I didn’t …!” “You don’t have to, baby.” He leaned closer, nuzzling her hair and dragging in a deep breath. “All you have to do is walk into the room and there are six stiff dicks, and six randy … brothers.” Marlee gulped, half unnerved and half intrigued. “You’re scaring me,” she said shakily. He dragged in another deep breath. “Liar,” he murmured, dipping lower in search of her lips. “We have the same effect on you that you have on us. That scent’s been driving me insane, baby.”

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Chapter Nine Marlee was so enthralled by the husky drawl of John’s voice and his nearness that it didn’t occur to her to even attempt to evade his questing mouth. She tilted her head to give him access and allowed herself to fall completely under his control, her entire focus on the feel of his mouth on hers and the heady brew of his essence as it infiltrated seemingly every part of her and turned her to liquid want. It flickered through her mind that she felt much like she had that first day with him, as if her body was no longer within her control at all, but there was no more alarm at that moment than there had been then, only the need thrumming through her, rising like a molten tide. Disappointment fluttered through her when ceased to explore her mouth with his tongue, sucked lightly at her lips, and then lifted his head. She struggled to lift her eyelids to look up at him. His expression was taut with own need, still, watchful, but, as if he’d only been waiting for the invitation in her eyes, he caught her around the waist, lifted her, and settled her on the counter next to the sink. Pushing her thighs wider, he pressed close, dipping his head to kiss her lingeringly on the mouth once more and then exploring her face and throat with his lips as he slipped his hands beneath her blouse to explore her torso with hands that shook. She grasped the bottom edge of her blouse and pulled it off when he shoved it up beneath her arms and scooped a breast from the cup of her bra, bending down to pluck at the engorged nipple with his lips. Dropping the blouse, she reached behind her back to unfasten the bra, no happier at the impediment to his exploration than he seemed to be. He leaned away as she allowed the straps to slide down her arms, studying her breasts, and then reached for the closure of her jeans, fumbling with the snap for a moment before he realized it was a snap and not a button. She’d already reached to help him when he popped the snap and tugged the zipper down. He shoved his hand in, struggling to reach the lips between her legs and then gave up and began trying to work the jeans off. She leaned back to brace herself on her palms and lift up. He nearly pulled her off the counter but he managed to peel the jeans and panties off. For a handful of moments, he merely stared at her, lightly touching her breasts and belly, stroking his hands along her thighs. He met her gaze after a moment, swallowing audibly. “Gods! You’re beautiful,” he said hoarsely. Slipping his hands from her thighs to her buttocks, he cupped one in each hand and dragged her to the edge of the counter, pressing his cock rhythmically against her. It sent pleasurable jolts through her and at the same time frustration. He seemed to reach the same point at the same time. Marlee heard the distinct sound of his zipper as he reached between them and lowered it. As anxious as John was, she tugged at the waist of his jeans until he managed to free his cock and she felt the heavy weight of it hit her thigh. Lifting her arms to his shoulders, she tightened them as he dragged her hips off the counter and probed her cleft, squeezing her eyes closed as he made the connection and she felt his thick flesh stretching her. It felt wonderful. At the same time, it seemed to chase the itch deeper and she couldn’t focus on anything for many moments beyond her anxiousness to envelop his flesh completely. That delightful circumstance seemed as if it might elude them for a time. He propped her hips on the counter for a few moments to get the leverage he needed and then lifted her again, jogging

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her up and down along his length until her flesh finally yielded and he sank deeply. Slipping one hand up her back to tangle his fingers in her hair, he tugged her head back and burrowed his face against her neck and then followed it upward to her mouth. The muscles along her channel began to flutter madly the moment he covered her mouth with his own and thrust his tongue inside. Uttering a sound of pleasure, she sucked at his tongue a little frantically. His cock jerked. He groaned into her mouth and then broke away, sucking in a harsh breath. “Tell me you’re close, baby,” he gasped hoarsely, withdrawing slowly and then plunging deeply again. “I’m coming!” Marlee said on a low groan, feeling the inner walls of her sex tensing toward release. Goosebumps rose on the flesh beneath her palms. John shuddered, sucked in a harsh breath, and leaned her against the counter, thrusting in and out of her like a piston. Her climax exploded through her almost the moment he shifted positions, dragging a cry of ecstasy from her. His powerful strokes only seemed to drive her higher and higher until she’d begun to think she might black out. She thought she might have for a handful of seconds. When awareness filled her again, John had ceased driving into her and was holding her tightly, shuddering in the aftermath of his own release. Catching her breath, she tightened her weak arms around him and nuzzled her face against the side of his neck. He cupped a hand on the back of her head and then stroked her hair. “I’m not sure this was well thought out,” he murmured ruefully. Marlee chuckled. “There was thought involved?” she asked teasingly, lifting her head to smile at him lazily. “Not a hell of a lot,” he admitted, grinning back at her and then glancing around at the kitchen as if he’d just become aware of their surroundings. “I don’t remember much after that first kiss.” Marlee shrugged. “Well the kitchen needed cleaning anyway.” He grimaced. “I’m going to have to abandon you to clean the mess—or you can leave it and I’ll take care of it when I get back.” He hesitated. “There’s something I need to do.” Marlee lifted her brows at him, but she didn’t question him. Reality was setting in with a vengeance and her main focus at the moment was dismounting and getting her clothes on before any of the others got back. Kissing her lingeringly, he helped her down and adjusted his jeans. She watched him tuck his tool away with interest, wondering why even that seemed sexy. He was studying her a little quizzically when she lifted her gaze and she felt her face heat. His lips curled. He turned away without another word, however, and headed out the back of the house by the sliding glass doors as the others had. Frowning, Marlee stared at the doors for a few moments, realizing abruptly that all of them had headed out back. The temptation to move to the doors to see if she could see what they were up to hit her, but she dismissed it. Gathering her clothing, she hugged it to her and turned to survey the kitchen. Shower and then clean? Clean and then shower? Her thighs were sticky with John’s semen and she decided on a compromise, heading into the downstairs bath to clean up before she dressed. Despite the fact that it took her nearly an hour to clean up the kitchen, none of the men had reappeared. Uneasiness flickered through her, but she firmly tamped the urge to check on them and went up stairs to bathe. ****

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“It took you long enough,” Gabriel growled when John finally arrived at the entrance to their lair where everyone else had gathered. “I’ll give you two guesses why and the last doesn’t count,” Eli growled. John flicked a cool look at him, noting the signs of battle. “Tired of kicking Joshua’s ass already?” “We were just warming up while we waited for you to finish fucking Marlee and get your ass up here,” Joshua said tightly. John had thought his rage had cooled, but it needed only that to set it off again. He launched himself at Joshua in a flurry of flying fists. Fortunately, Joshua’s rage and frustration hadn’t been tempered even a little. He was running on instincts, as well, and in no better frame of mind to combine logic with fighting skills. After trading a dozen quick punches, they seized one another and began a grim wrestling match for dominance. It wasn’t until he managed to break Joshua’s hold and punch him hard enough in the jaw to send him reeling backward several steps that he realized Gabriel, Eli, Luke, and Aaron had also engaged in a grim battle for dominance. Even as Joshua managed to regain his balance, Eli, reeling backward from a punch Luke had thrown, slammed into him and knocked him off his feet. He uttered a bellow of rage as he hit the dirt beneath Eli that sounded less than human. John felt his skin begin to crawl at the sound. Every hair on his body, it seemed, stood up at attention, and then the adrenaline pumping through him seemed to amp upward in direct proportion to his rage. Power surged into every muscle with burning, painful intensity. Joshua shoved Eli off and surged to his feet but even before he turned to face John once more, John saw that he looked oddly distorted. His face when he whipped his head around had ceased to look like Joshua’s at all. Surprise flickered through John briefly but vanished the moment Joshua uttered a challenging bellow. Fury took its place. He felt almost as if he’d stepped outside of his own body, watching as the beast that had taken his place leapt forward to accept the challenge Joshua/beast had issued. Not beast—dragon. A sense of exhilaration expanded inside of him as he grappled with Joshua once more, trading blows that echoed inside of him like dull thuds he was barely aware of beyond the impact itself. Abruptly, the balance of power shifted and Joshua, uttering a growl of rage, seized him, lifted him above his head and threw him. He contorted his body as he became airborne, twisting, trying to find his center of gravity. He managed to right himself, but instead of landing on the ground, he slammed into the rocky slope. That time pain managed to filter through and he roared at Joshua in fury for causing it even as gravity took over and slammed him into the ground. He surged upward instantly on all fours, braced to counter Joshua’s attack. Twin points of fiery pain erupted at his shoulder blades. The pressure built until it abruptly broke through the skin. He arched his back as he felt a shift of weight there and spared a glance over his shoulder at his back. Spiny wings had sprouted. He focused on flexing them and they spread outward at his mental command. He flapped them a couple of times, testing the air for lift. “John!” The voice wasn’t familiar, didn’t sound human, and it certainly didn’t sound like Gabriel and yet he knew it was even as he flicked a gaze over the golden dragon that called out to him. “You’ve shifted into dragon form!”

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Surprise flickered through him. How could he have shifted? He’d never been able to shift—none of them had! They’d been trapped in human form as long as he could remember, and yet, when he surveyed the clearing outside their lair he saw dragons, five dragons. Confusion held him, tamped the urge to retaliate against Joshua. “We’ve all shifted,” he said in a growly voice that didn’t sound like his own as he stood up and looked down at himself. The exhilaration that had seized him before filled him. He’d been cut off from his true self most of his life, unable to assume the form he knew was his, to be what he knew he truly was. He felt stronger than he ever had before. Shrugging his shoulders at the unaccustomed weight he felt of wings, he folded them against his back and then flexed them again, stretching them as far as he could and then flapping them again. A strange sort of joy filled him, almost seeming to expand his chest like a hot air balloon. He could fly! The moment the thought filled his mind the urge to try it seized him. He looked around for a place to launch himself and finally merely raced toward the edge of the cliff. “John!” Gabriel shouted in alarm when he saw what John intended. “You’re never flown before you fucking moron!” A momentary doubt speared John in the chest, but he knew he could fly and he merely ran faster, spreading his wings wide. When he soared off of the ledge it was the most terrifying, thrilling thing he’d ever felt in his life. His heart thundered in his ears as if it would explode in almost equal parts joy and fear. He felt himself spiraling downward and then a painful jolt along his wings as the air slammed into them, slowing his descent, and then stopping it, and finally reversing it, lifting him upward again. He angled his wings to turn in a wide circle and when he had made half a circuit, he saw a sky filled with dragons. Pride filled him as he watched them—his brothers—his people. Maybe once upon a time, many more had filled the skies, but it was comforting that there were still dragons! If they’d had the ability to shift before, had had the ability to fly, they might have found those mates that they’d yearned for for so many years, he thought abruptly, wondering now if there truly weren’t any others. Or was it only that they’d been confined to the earth, unable to assume their true forms that they hadn’t found others? Their mother hadn’t. She’d been forced to take a human form and seek out mates among the humans. Was that why they hadn’t been able to change before, he wondered abruptly? Had their mother confined them to the form of humans to give them the chance to find mates, making it impossible to shift until they had? If that was the case, though, why and how had their mother managed to take the seed of men and produce him and his brothers when they hadn’t been able to produce their own offspring until they’d found Marlee? The thought of Marlee sent an abrupt chill through him and a fear he’d never felt before. Was he confined to dragon form now that he’d made the change, he wondered? Could he take his human form again? Because, if he couldn’t, he had lost his mate. He could never go back to her, hold her in his arms, lose himself in the pleasure and comfort of her body. The abrupt shift in his focus from the delight of feeling the wind beneath his wings to a near desperation to return to his human form nearly cost him dearly. The body that had seemed so much a part of himself that instinct guided him, that he didn’t even consciously have to think about to know exactly what he needed to do to stay aloft, suddenly became a cumbersome, awkward burden. He didn’t dive toward the ground. He dropped like a stone, head first,

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spiraling more and more out of control. Gritting his teeth, he forced Marlee from his mind, forced all thoughts of his human form far to the back and struggled to reach for the beast side of his mind. His instincts took over once more, but even at that it was a near thing. He barely managed to pull himself out of the fall and catch enough wind to lift him upward again. He thought for many moments that he was going to have to land and climb the mountain again. The strain of flapping his wings to catch enough air to climb exhausted him. By the time he landed in the clearing, he was shaking all over and weak from the energy he’d expended. Dropping to his hands and knees, he fought to catch his breath and shake off the weakness. When his heart finally assumed a less painful, more normal rhythm and it was no longer agony trying to suck in enough air to fill his lungs, he opened his eyes. It was his own hands that came into focus—his human hands—not the gnarled claws of his dragon form. As confused as he had been when he’d transformed into his dragon self, he stared at them uncomprehendingly for several moments and finally sat back and lifted them, turning them. The near deafening sound of wings drew him from his absorption and he lifted his head to watch as Gabriel settled to the ground and then Eli. “Where are the others?” Gabriel nudged his chin in their direction. “Still out there.” He tilted his head curiously. “How did you change back?” “Why did you?” Eli asked. John swallowed with an effort. “Marlee.” Almost as if her name itself was a magical talisman, Gabriel and Eli began to shift from beast to man. They were naked. Pushing himself to his feet, John looked down at himself, saw he was just as naked, and then looked around for his clothing. They were shredded, he discovered to his disgust. He pulled his jeans on anyway and tore a strip from the t-shirt he’d been wearing to tie them around his waist. “Note! Undress, then shift!” he muttered ruefully. Gabriel and Eli glanced up from a similar task. “Do you know how?” Eli asked. John shook his head and then frowned, trying to think how it had happened. “I saw Joshua shift and then I felt a strange sensation wash over me. The next I knew I was in dragon form.” Gabriel settled on a rock. “You were enraged. It set the beast free.” John looked around and found a rock that looked relatively comfortable and settled on it. “This isn’t the first time I’ve felt rage, Gabriel,” he said wryly. “And I’m the most even tempered.” Eli looked like he wanted to dispute that but in the end he kept his opinion to himself. “If it wasn’t anger, what was it?” Joshua, Luke, and Aaron settled in the clearing. “Fighting over Marlee,” Joshua responded in a voice somewhere between the beast and man as he slowly resumed his human form. Gabriel frowned thoughtfully. “Maybe. Have we ever fought over a woman before? I don’t recall that we have.” The others stared at him blankly for several moments and sat down to ponder the question. “There was the chief’s daughter,” Joshua said finally. Eli glared at him. “She’d taken me as her lover first,” he said, but with little heat. “Well there’s no point in getting pissed off about it now!” Joshua said testily. “I didn’t know!”

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Eli’s eyes narrowed. “You still trying to convince me you didn’t smell my scent?” “I smelled bear grease!” Eli shrugged. “I can think of at least three—early on. That was many, many years ago, though, when there weren’t nearly as many humans in the area.” “I’m thinking it was more like a dozen,” Luke said dryly. “You just don’t remember all of them because there were only a couple that we actually fought over—We’ve argued about at least a dozen, though—over the years.” “I guess that rules that theory out, then,” Gabriel said irritably. “It’s got to be something about Marlee. It’s too much of a coincidence, don’t you think, that we’ve never known how to take our true forms and now, suddenly, have? What’s so different about Marlee?” “Everything,” Joshua said dryly. “You think it’s because she’s a white woman?” John snorted. “Fuck no! How many white women have you been with?” Eli narrowed his eyes at him. “Not as many as you have. They don’t know you’re a native. All they have to do is look at me and they look like a doe caught in the crosshairs of a rifle scope.” John and Gabriel exchanged a speaking look. “Maybe it’s got nothing at all to do with Marlee,” Gabriel said slowly, “at least not directly. Maybe it’s something Mother did? Some sort of protective spell she wove?” “I’d agree with that if it had worn off or been broken once we were adults, but why even consider ‘protecting’ us beyond that?” Aaron said irritably. “She couldn’t have had time to do much once she realized she was dying. If she was too wounded to heal herself, she couldn’t have been thinking clearly. She was acting on instinct to protect us,” John said quietly. “Who knows what was going through her mind?” Gabriel shook his head. “Maybe we’ll figure it out. That isn’t the issue that brought us out here, however, and we haven’t settled that.” Joshua instantly felt his rage flow back into him. He wanted Marlee. That was the bottom line—and it was clear that Gabe, Eli, and John weren’t about to share. “I don’t see that we’re going to settle it either,” he said tightly, struggling with his anger. “Not when you three have decided to keep her to yourselves. If she’s our woman, then she’s ours, by gods! I could see it if we hadn’t shared women before, but we have—even if none of us were particularly thrilled about it! Maybe not all of us at one time, but we’ve certainly shared. It isn’t like it’s ever been easy to find women who didn’t immediately sense our dragon side and take off like a shot!” John sent him a cold look. “You challenging my right to enjoy my mate?” “She’s human, John. She isn’t a true mate, which means you’ve no more right to her than the rest of us. I don’t give a fuck what Eli says.” John glanced at Eli questioningly. Eli shook his head. “I tried to tell them they’d find themselves bound to her. They seem convinced that I’ve made it up just to keep them away from her.” John felt a wave of dizziness wash over him as he stared uncomprehendingly at Eli and it finally settled in the pit of his stomach exactly what Eli meant. Denial instantly sprang to his mind, but his search for an argument came up against an undeniable truth. He’d thought of Marlee as his mate because she was the first woman he’d managed to impregnate—but he knew she was human and he hadn’t considered it a true mating—not consciously.

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He might have gone on telling himself that he hadn’t blood bonded with her if Eli hadn’t made it impossible to ignore any more. He glanced from Eli to Gabriel. “You, too?” “Yes,” Gabriel said grimly. “Even if that’s true,” Luke said tightly, “she’s a mate and I’ve been searching for one just as gods damned long as you three have!” “Gods, Luke!” Gabriel snapped. “You don’t think we’ve got enough of a fucking mess now? You’re that determined to take a chance on forming a bond with her, too?” “You think no mate appeals to us more?” Joshua growled. “You don’t have anything on your mind but fucking and there’s plenty of human women out there that would let you!” Eli snarled. “You know she’s bred. You can’t fucking call it mating when she’s already bred!” “Then I’ll call it fucking till she’s ready to breed again!” Joshua snarled back at him. “You can call yourself fucking some other woman!” Gabriel growled. “If she was a dragoness she wouldn’t let you touch her now that we’ve bred her. She wouldn’t risk the babies! Marlee doesn’t know any better!” “Just how the fuck is it going to hurt the babies for us to couple with her,” Aaron demanded, “if it doesn’t hurt for her to couple with the three of you?” “Well, gods damn it, Aaron! Try to get your mind off of your dick five minutes and think about that! There are six of us—and we’re dragons. We aren’t men!” Gabriel said impatiently. “I know the scent is driving you up the wall. You think it isn’t driving us crazy, too? Go find you a damned woman if you need one—all of you. We found Marlee and she’s compatible with us. There are bound to be others.” “What the hell gives you that idea?” Joshua demanded. “Were you asleep the last fucking three or four hundred years? She isn’t like the others. I don’t understand it any more than you do, but you’ve bred her. You’ve bonded with her. I don’t give a fuck if she is human! There are no dragonesses left! None! We are all that’s left of our kind! I don’t need a woman to fuck. I need a mate. I’m not willing to keep looking another three or four hundred years!” “She won’t live half that,” Eli said flatly. “Have you considered that? Because I’ve sure as fuck been considering it!” Joshua looked taken aback for a moment. He glanced at Luke and Aaron. “Then you’re looking at it the wrong way and you don’t fucking deserve her!” Luke said angrily. “You will have her for her lifetime. She will bear your young. I’ll gladly give up a few hundred empty years for that!” “It seems to have escaped you that we don’t have her,” Gabriel said angrily. “She has us. She’s human. She won’t form a blood bond as we have.” “How do you know that? Maybe it never happened before because Marlee is different? And if she’s different enough to breed with us, then you can’t say that she hasn’t bonded or won’t bond. She feels something or she wouldn’t respond to us as she does.” “Our pheromones are stronger than those the human male produces,” Gabriel said dryly. “What kind of logic is that? If no human woman had ever responded, it might make sense to make that kind of assumption, but you know better.” “This is getting us nowhere,” Eli said tightly. “If you can’t be trusted to keep your hands off of her, then you can’t stay. It’s as simple as that,” Gabriel said grimly. “I’m not saying that you don’t have valid points. The bottom line, though, is that Marlee is carrying the only hope of any kind of future any of us have and if you’re

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just so damned stupid you’re willing to risk harming them—and her—then we’ll have to exercise our right to protect our mate and our off-spring.” “What kind of future are they looking at, though?” Aaron said pointedly. “Probably one as miserable as ours—but we found Marlee. Maybe they’ll find their own.” Gabriel studied his brothers. “I don’t mind saying I’d far rather we figure out a way to make this work. I don’t like us splitting up when there’s so few of us and so many humans who would kill us on sight if they knew what we were. Beyond that, Marlee’s people must have discovered something about the babies and they obviously want to get their hands on her. She’d be safer with the six of us watching out for trouble.” Joshua glanced at Luke and Aaron. “If we stay and help to protect her then we should also have the right to take her as a mate when she’s borne yours,” Joshua said after a long moment. Gabriel, Eli, and John all tensed angrily, but after a few moments they relaxed fractionally. “That’ll be up to her,” John said. “Don’t expect the three of us to simply bow out, however. It won’t happen. We’re blood bonded and we’ll do our damnedest to mate with her again.” “We wouldn’t expect anything else,” Luke said tightly. “You can be just as certain you’ll have a fight on your hands.” Gabriel nodded and got up. “Swords or fists? Let’s see if we can work off a little steam without shifting. It’s going to be a serious problem if can’t control it now that we’ve made the shift once.” **** Marlee was woken from a sound sleep the moment the bed dipped. Startled, she lifted her head and looked at the man climbing into bed with her, trying to decide if it was John or Gabriel. She could see the glint of the gold hair and knew it wasn’t any of the others. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.” Sighing, Marlee settled again, trying to figure out what was wrong with the picture. “Am I in the wrong bed?” “No, you’re in my bed.” Amusement threaded Gabriel’s voice. “Go back to sleep.” “You got tired of the couch?” she guessed. He rolled onto his side and dragged her closer. “Something like that.” “I’m too sleepy to feel like sex,” she muttered when he nuzzled his face against her neck. She could feel him smile against her neck. “In that case, you should sleep.” Relieved, Marlee snuggled closer and went back to sleep. She was awakened some time later by the hand on her breast and the log trying to wedge itself in the crack of her ass. She drove her elbow into his belly. “Cut it out!” “You’re hell to sleep with,” Gabriel growled groggily, turning over. “I suppose you know that?” Marlee considered ignoring the comment and going back to sleep, but she’d always been a firm believer in paybacks. Waiting until she heard deep even breaths that told her he was sound asleep again, she rolled over and scooted up close behind him. Sliding a hand over his hip, she felt around until she found his cock and began stroking it. It responded beautifully. “I’ll give you twenty dollars and twenty minutes to stop that,” Gabriel muttered huskily.

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She bit his shoulder playfully. Luckily for him she was awake enough by that time and aroused enough the offer had some appeal. “Twenty for twenty?” she murmured thoughtfully, abandoning his cock and reaching down to cup his balls and lightly massage them. “How much for this?” She sat up as he shifted onto his back and looked at her, leaning down to take his cock into her mouth. “Mmmm?” she hummed the question with his cock still in her mouth. Gabriel uttered a choked laugh. “My wallet’s on the dresser. Take the whole thing,” he said a little breathlessly. Marlee’s warm interest rose to definite arousal as his voice, laden with his own rising desire, jangled along her never endings. It was more than that, though. She’d been inspired to tease him by kissing his cock and yet her focus shifted as soon as she had and felt pleasure waft through her. She liked the way he tasted. She enjoyed feeling his thick shaft gliding along her tongue and she enjoyed the effect it had on him even more. He held perfectly still at first, almost as if he was holding his breath, afraid she’d stop. Within moments, however, he began to shift restlessly. Her own excitement grew apace with his. She toyed with the idea of bringing him off with her mouth, enjoying the thrill of excitement only thinking about it produced. Instead, when she realized he was close to exploding, she released his cock with one final, hard suck and began to weave her way up his taut belly, nipping lightly at him with her teeth and sucking love bites at random. He caught her upper arms before she reached his chest, hauling her upward and then spearing his fingers in her hair as he cupped the back of her head to trap her for a kiss. His mouth was hot, his kiss hard with need, ravenous. A wave of dizziness washed over her as he rolled, taking her onto her back and arranging her with eager hands for his possession. He broke the kiss and surged upward the moment he’d settled his hips between hers, penetrating the mouth of her sex and gliding inward along her channel to seat himself firmly with his first hard thrust. She arched to meet him as he thrust again, sucking in a sharp breath as the head of his cock nudged the nerve bundle inside of her and set off waves of pleasure. Lifting her legs once he’d penetrated her fully and set a hectic pace, she curled them around his hips purely for the pleasure of feeling his flesh sawing back and forth along her channel. The tension inside of her built with his pace, however, and she felt herself nearing crisis. For a few moments more, she struggled against it, wanting the anticipation to last and then she dropped her feet to the bed and tilted her hips so that each successive thrust jolted against her g-spot. Her pleasure multiplied exponentially and then abruptly ruptured. She dug her fingers into his shoulders, her back arching with the first powerful concussion wave that went through her. Gabriel uttered a choked grunt as her muscles tightened vice-like around his flesh, plunging deeply and arching his back as if he, too, was caught up in a powerful spasm. He shuddered, withdrew slightly and charged again as his body seized and released, pumping his hot seed deeply inside of her. Marlee had already lost all muscle tone in the aftermath by the time he stopped, hanging his head and gasping for breath. Feeling him tense to move away, she curled her arms around him, stroking his damp back as far down as she could reach before she stroked upward again. Her senses still held sway and no thought flickered through her mind beyond the pleasure of feeling his weight on her, feeling his flesh inside of her, and the heat of his breath. It occurred to her after a few minutes that the pleasure wasn’t merely appreciation for her lover’s

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performance and the ecstasy he’d given her. The reluctance to let go had nothing at all to do with physical pleasure and everything to do with a need to feel a part of him, a sense of belonging. He rolled off of her when she ceased to caress him. Settling beside her, he arranged her until they were spooning as they had been when he’d first joined her in the bed, found a comfortable spot for his head, and dropped to sleep as if someone had turned his off switch. Marlee lay thinking about the way she’d felt, however, for a long time before she dropped from consciousness. It was a dream that woke her—the same erotic dream that had played out in her mind over and over since the day of the bear. Except this time something crucial was different.

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Chapter Ten Gabriel, Marlee discovered, was gone, the place where he’d lain already cool to the touch. Relieved, she settled back, trying to decide whether the dream was just a dream or if she’d actually remembered something. She’d almost managed to completely convince herself that the bear hadn’t really attacked her. There was every reason to believe that and absolutely nothing to support her conviction, to begin with, that the bear had savaged her. In her dream, though, she’d been fighting for her life. She’d known that she was dying. In her dream she remembered hearing John and Eli and opening her eyes. She remembered seeing them. She remembered that they were arguing—about her. John had said she was dying and they couldn’t help her and Eli had said they couldn’t if they didn’t try. And then the conversation had turned really bizarre. She couldn’t remember much beyond a snatch here and there, but she remembered thinking at the time that it was so weird that they were talking about humans … as if they weren’t. She remembered something else, too. They’d said something about dragons. She must have dreamed that! Maybe there was something to the rest of it, but that? If she dismissed that, though, where did that leave her? With memories of having been savaged and feeling as if she would die and not so much as a scratch on her when she was found. She focused on the mention of dragons, trying to think what might have put something that bizarre in her mind even to spawn a dream and abruptly remembered the book she’d bought about the legend of the golden dragon. They had golden eyes—all of them—the strangest colored eyes she’d ever seen. And she’d met Gabriel of the golden hair and skin when she’d found the book. Was that it? She’d gotten so caught up in that old tale that she’d somehow mixed that with reality in her dream? It seemed plausible—even likely. Why was she convinced she’d been mortally mauled by the bear, though? For that matter, how had she escaped it? She remembered that the bear had run straight toward her. Eli and John hadn’t arrived until after that. How could they have prevented her being hurt when the bear had already attacked? She lay thinking about it, running the dream over and over in her mind and trying to compare it to what she remembered until her head began to throb with the effort. Realizing that she wasn’t getting any closer to any kind of certainty, she finally got up. Eli was parked on the couch, frowning at the blank TV screen when she headed downstairs. It didn’t look as if his thoughts were particularly pleasant and after glancing at him, Marlee headed into the kitchen to search for something to eat. “The coffee’s still hot—maybe a tad strong by now.” Marlee glanced at the kitchen clock and grimaced. She supposed she deserved the reference to laying in bed half the morning, but it wasn’t as if she had any where to be or anything to do. “I overslept,” she said a little uncomfortably. “Gabe, too,” he said neutrally.

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Marlee flicked a sharp look at him. She didn’t really feel up arguing when she’d just gotten up—with anyone—and she certainly didn’t want to argue with Eli, but it looked like it was going to be unavoidable unless she simply ignored the veiled reference to the fact that Gabriel had spent the night in her bed or rather in his bed with her. It wouldn’t have been so bad if not for the fact that she cared about Eli—a lot. Unfortunately, she also cared, a lot, about Gabriel, and she was hardly immune to John. If she was honest with herself, she was more than half in love with all three. She’d tried to tell herself that it was just lust—and that was weird enough! She sure as hell had never considered herself a nympho! And yet all any of them had to do was … actually talk, walk by her, look at her. They didn’t even have to do anything remotely akin to foreplay and she was revved. And once they got to the kissing it was all downhill from there. Between times, she felt guilty and slutty because she couldn’t seem to behave any better than she had since she’d met them. But in the moment, she was putty and brainless. She didn’t understand why she reacted to them the way she did, but she hadn’t made any real attempt to try to curb her enthusiasm—even though it went against both her nature and her nurture to sleep with three men basically all at the same time. On the other hand, none of the three had pretended they weren’t aware or even behaved as if it bothered them a hell of a lot. “I wasn’t under the impression that I meant enough to any of you for that to matter. You shared me with John that first day—and you knew about Gabriel.” She frowned as a memory abruptly popped into her mind. “You were all there that day—arguing.” She looked at him. “About me. Everybody wanted a turn as long as I was there anyway, completely out of it, and naked. What in the hell did you give me? You must have given me something. I’ve never felt like that in my life! I’ve certainly never acted like that! And I still can’t remember much of anything.” His face hardened. “We didn’t give you anything.” “Not even whatever it was you and John had taken to dream walk?” “I never said we’d taken anything.” Marlee blinked at him, casting her mind back. “You suggested it.” His lips tightened. “You wanted answers.” “Answers! Not lies!” “I didn’t lie. I suggested a possibility and you accepted it without questioning it.” It was true and yet he knew damned well that it was as good as lie. “Then what is the truth?” “You know what the truth is. You just don’t want to accept it. What’s the point in me telling you? You feel it every time I touch you.” “Desire?” She shook her head. “I don’t have a problem accepting that. There wouldn’t be much point in trying to lie about it anyway. You know. But that still doesn’t explain what happened to me that day. That wasn’t … natural.” “What about the last time we were together? Did that seem natural to you? Or do you think I slipped you something then?” Marlee was about to inform him that of course it had been natural when it abruptly occurred to her that she’d already acknowledged that there was something about them—all of the brothers—that made her behave completely contrary to her nature. She hadn’t had sex with all of them, but she was just as drawn to them, or almost so, as she was to Gabriel, Eli, and John. It was like they bathed in pheromones! She could understand if she’d been smitten by one of the

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brothers—any one of them. They were sinfully attractive men. But to feel the way they made her feel when she’d spent the better part of her adulthood single because she was more interested in her career just wasn’t reasonable. And she didn’t believe for a moment that they’d managed to tap into a nymphomaniac side of herself that she hadn’t known was there. “I know you didn’t,” she said finally, still feeling as if he was guilty of something even though she couldn’t figure out what it was. “I didn’t the first time either. You would’ve remembered beginning to feel strange, wouldn’t you?” Marlee frowned. “You’d think so. The thing is, though, I don’t really remember much of anything between the time I encountered the bear and when I … you know.” He studied her for a long moment and finally grasped her arm, pulling her closer. “I’m not sure I do know,” he drawled teasingly, settling his arms lightly around her. “You might want to elaborate on that a little.” As disturbing as she found her memory lapse, she couldn’t help but smile. “I don’t want to elaborate on it. That’s why I said ‘you know’.” He kissed her forehead and slipped his arms from around her, catching her hand. “Come on.” The suspicion instantly arose that he had more of the same in mind, but she went with him. When he’d settled on the couch, he pulled her down beside him and then turned her so that she was lying half across his lap, cradled by one arm. She shifted for comfort and then settled her cheek against his chest. “Now, tell me what you do remember. Maybe I can help you fill in some of the blanks.” She didn’t see how that would help, but she shrugged inwardly. “I’d gotten lost off from the rest of the group and I couldn’t raise anyone on the radio.” He’d been stroking her hair soothingly, but he stopped. “You sure you want to remember that part?” She nodded. “That’s part of it that’s bothered me the most.” “So … maybe it would be better not to remember it?” “I already have remembered part of it … I think. Are you going to let me do this my way or not?” she said a little testily. “If you’re sure that’s what you want to do,” he said after a long moment. She thought back over what she’d already told him and picked up the thread of the story again. “I thought I could see the trail above me so I decided to climb up and see if I could make it to the rendezvous before dark. I’d climbed part of the way and caught a glimpse of the trail and … I wasn’t cautious then. I was so relieved that I wasn’t lost after all that I blundered right into a bear. I think it surprised both of us and he didn’t like the surprise any better than I did. I skidded to a stop when I saw him, trying to think what to do, but he stood up and roared at me. I didn’t think at all then. I whirled around ….” She paused. “I screamed … then I turned to run and felt … this bump. It was weird because in a way I didn’t really feel it—not like I should have. I guess it was shock. And then everything was blurred, like I was falling and the motion was just so fast I couldn’t focus my eyes.” Fear washed through her. Goosebumps erupted all over her arms and crept up her neck. She shuddered. “It mauled me. That’s why everything was blurred. It was shaking me. I think I screamed again.” Eli tightened his arms around her. “How could I remember that if never happened?”

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“You think it didn’t?” “I wasn’t hurt when they found me … that was the next day. I couldn’t possibly have healed in that length of time. Anyway, if I was hurt that badly I would be scarred.” It had seemed real, though. It still seemed too nightmarishly real to be nothing more than a nightmare that had arisen from what she’d expected to happen. “What do you remember after that?” he prodded after a few moments. “You and John. I remember one of you … John, I think, said I was dying and I knew it was true and I was afraid.” “And you said you didn’t want to die.” Marlee pulled away and looked up at him. “And John said that I was human and you shouldn’t interfere—that the two of you would be blamed if I died.” “And I said …?” Marlee frowned. “Something about dragons.” She studied his face searchingly and finally settled against his chest again. “I don’t understand any of that, Eli.” Eli stroked her back soothingly, wondering if he should try to prod her to remember more. It seemed clear she remembered most of what had happened. She’d just dismissed it because it didn’t fit into anything she knew. He supposed he’d hoped she would tell him something that would help him understand what had happened—because he sure as hell didn’t, not a lot more than she did except that he knew he was a dragon and he knew that he’d managed to call upon something and heal her— some magic he hadn’t realized he could wield. At least, that was what he thought had happened. It had been instinct to lick her wounds—part that and part the hope that whatever was inside of him that made his own wounds close and vanish would do the same for her. Was that it, he wondered? Had he and John given her something when they did that? Something that had done far more than heal her wounds? He wished to hell he knew because even he couldn’t understand how it was possible that something he’d done had brought her into heat, had made her eggs receive his seed and blossom. It would’ve been more understandable if he could have sensed a change in her, but beyond the scent of their off-spring, he couldn’t detect anything that was any different about her than any other human. He didn’t recall that he had even at the time, although he couldn’t say that he was exactly in any frame of mind to notice a hell of a lot. “I couldn’t open my eyes. I remember trying and it was almost as if they were glued shut. It felt as if we were moving very fast, though, and it still seemed to take a long time before I got to the hospital.” “Pardon?” Eli asked, startled. “That was what I thought. I thought I’d been taken to a hospital. I couldn’t figure out why they were bathing me, though. I thought they should be focused on sewing up the wounds. And then I realized I wasn’t actually in a hospital, but I wasn’t cold anymore and I didn’t hurt anywhere. And then I felt almost … euphoric, better than just alright.” She considered it for a few minutes. “I suppose it was shock.” “I hear that plays some strange tricks on the memory,” Eli drawled. “You think it was shock, too?” she asked, looking up at him. “Don’t drag me in to it. This is your memories.” He twisted, carrying her down onto the couch and nibbled lightly at her lips. “Do you remember my kisses? That’s the main thing I’m interested in.”

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Marlee smiled against his lips. “I remember your kisses … all of them. I think that might have caused the euphoria.” “You think?” Marlee pulled away enough to meet his gaze. “I was high. It must have been on you.” He rubbed the tip of his nose against hers. “I was just as high on you, baby. I still am. I’m not sure I’m ever going to come down. I hope to hell I don’t.” **** Marlee didn’t know if the brothers made up the entire force of the reservation police or not, but they worked different shifts. Generally, the only time all six of them were in the house was for the evening meal. The rest of the time some were out on patrol, some were sleeping from having patrolled all night, and someone was always close by to keep an eye on her—or a hand, and sometimes their entire body, she thought with a mixture of amusement and discomfort. It was only when she had time alone far enough away from any of them to be distracted that she had the chance to analyze the situation and wonder just what she’d gotten herself in to. Despite what she’d said to Eli, she couldn’t say that the brothers treated her with contempt. They didn’t seem to simply assume it was a foregone conclusion that she was there for their use whenever the mood struck them. They certainly weren’t the least bit timid about trying to seduce her, but they didn’t stint her on charm either. She couldn’t quite figure out the sharing thing either. As she’d said, Eli had shared her with John right from the first, but he hadn’t seemed particularly happy about it at the time and she couldn’t say that he appeared to be any happier about it now. He allowed it, but he didn’t like it. She remembered him snarling at John that she was his. Actually, she remembered John behaving the same way. At the time she’d been too out of it to feel any sort of alarm about it, but it had almost been like two cur dogs fighting over a female in heat, snarling and biting at each other to be the next one to mount. When she’d finally remembered that she’d heard all of them, that impression increased. They hadn’t just been arguing about her. They’d been demanding a turn—like a pack. She didn’t know if it was purely imagination or not, but it seemed to her like she’d actually heard more than one say that she was in heat. As insulting as that was in retrospect, she was obliged to admit that that was what she’d felt like. She hadn’t been upset or alarmed that she had a pack surrounding her quarreling over who was going to fuck her next. She’d been … impatient for them to settle it and scratch her itch. She could not accept that that was the result of any kind of mental trauma or shock. Eli was right to an extent. Shock could do weird things to the mind. People remembered doing and seeing things that had never happened or existed. But it didn’t make them behave completely out of character. The survival instinct might bring out aspects of the personality that had never exhibited before, but it had always been there regardless. And that would only have explained ‘the moment’ anyway. As contrary to her nature as her behavior seemed to her on a rational level, she didn’t actually feel any of the shame or guilt she knew she should have. It felt right. It shouldn’t have, but it did, and it wasn’t a simple case of overactive lust because they were all charming and handsome and available. When she was with Gabriel, she felt as if she belonged with him and he with her, that they were a couple. And when she was with Eli or John, she felt exactly the same way. She didn’t feel like she was ‘sneaking around’ or cheating on either of the others. How bizarre was that?

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She almost wondered if she’d had some kind of psychotic break because of the incident that had radically altered her personality. Beyond her relationships, though, she didn’t actually feel any different. And that was the key. It felt like she had a relationship with all of them—not just that they were lovers, but a bond that seemed to grow stronger the longer she was with them. It might be purely a combination of imagination and hope, but she felt like they felt the same way about her. She didn’t understand it, but although it confused her, it didn’t cause her any particular anxiety. The rest of her adventure continued to plague her. If she could’ve been more certain that the things she ‘remembered’ were actual memories, she might have been able to put it aside and push it from her mind. There were still too many gaps, though, and the puzzle pieces she did have didn’t fit together no matter which way she turned them. If the bear had actually mauled her, then everything that happened afterwards actually fit together fairly well—to a point. Severe injuries and the shock that would have resulted from them would have explained why she wasn’t able to remember anything very clearly or even remembered things ‘wrong’. She’d screamed her head off. Eli and John had heard and raced to her rescue and then had taken her somewhere to try to perform first aid to keep her from bleeding to death. That didn’t explain how she’d gotten from point A—near death, to point B—the object of their affections, but it would’ve explained why she thought she was dying and why she was so out of it that she’d felt as if she was in a drugged state. She would’ve been. The mind produced its own drugs to help bring a traumatized body through severe injury. The absence of any actual wounds completely annihilated that possibility, though. Scenario B—She stumbled on the bear, knew what it was going to do with her if it managed to get hold of her, screamed her head off, and then fainted. Eli and John race to her rescue, think she must be hurt and dash off with her to perform first aid. By the time they’d bathed her off and discovered she wasn’t hurt at all, she’d undergone some strange metamorphosis and become a nymphomaniac and they were so overcome with her that they started fighting over who was going to fuck her first. Scenario C—The brothers weren’t human at all—according to John’s statement at the time. Everything she thought she remembered happening actually had. They race off with her, heal her wounds and something they use drives her completely mad for dick—and they oblige. Ridiculous! Absolute garbage! Unless she was willing to entertain the possibility that the brothers really weren’t human but were some kind of alien hybrid or magical creatures—like dragons—and had abilities like no human. Before the incident, she wouldn’t have entertained such a wild idea at all. She wasn’t even certain she would’ve after the incident except that, as crazy as it sounded, it was the only thing that seemed to fit the circumstances. And her own government seemed to consider it a possibility. If they’d just thought she was crazy as a loon, they would’ve shipped her off to a psyche ward. They wouldn’t have been monitoring her and they wouldn’t have put out a ‘find and detain’ order when she managed to slip their leash. The question was, aside from the incident, which was still far from clear in her mind, what evidence did she have that the brothers weren’t human? They felt human. She’d had sex

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more than once with three of them and she certainly hadn’t noticed anything unusual about them beyond the effect they had on her. Except their eyes. Could she really say they weren’t human, though? They were certainly unique. She’d never seen anyone else with eyes that color, but they looked like human eyes except for the color and it was hardly a reason for wild conclusions when they were siblings even though the fact that they all had the same color of eyes itself was pretty unusual. They’d exhibited inhuman strength and speed the day she’d been attacked. She thought they had, but she couldn’t be certain when she’d been so out of it and even so people had been known to do some pretty amazing things when they were hyped up on adrenaline. She didn’t suppose killing a bear with their bare hands was that farfetched when men, and women, had been known to lift a car off of a child. If she was right and they had healed her wounds so quickly and completely that it hadn’t even left a sign on her, then they were definitely ‘not of this world’. She wasn’t sure of that, though. She was sure that Eli had picked up a frying pan off the stove and held it long enough it should have blistered his hand at the very least and that there was absolutely no sign of a burn on his palm. His palms were calloused, though, and that might have protected him from a burn. They’d all acted very strange about it, though. John had sent her to search for medical supplies they didn’t have—in fact she hadn’t found a sign of any kind of medicine in the entire house. She’d gone on the hunt for something for a headache only a few days after that, had searched the place from top to bottom, and hadn’t found so much as a band-aid. Yep! They were aliens alright! Eli hadn’t denied that John had said something about her being human and suggested they weren’t, though. He also hadn’t denied that he’d made a reference to dragons. She hadn’t asked him what he’d said. Because she’d been afraid he’d tell her. That thought made her realize that, despite all of her attempts to rationalize everything and put it neatly into slots she was comfortable with, she felt, deep down, that there were too many ‘strange’ circumstances to completely dismiss them. They felt as human to her as anyone she’d ever been intimate with, and yet the suspicion lingered that they weren’t what they seemed. **** Marlee was almost sorry she’d volunteered to do the paperwork once Aaron started carting it in. She discovered, though, that it was what she needed—real work. A real paycheck would also have been nice, but she didn’t push it. She figured working for the reservation police at least paid her way and she felt better about living with them when she knew she was pulling her own weight. It wasn’t as if there were a lot of places to go to spend money, after all. Gabriel decided after she’d been living with them for nearly a month that the search for her had died down enough, at least in the immediate area, to make it safe enough to leave the house occasionally on short shopping excursions. She would’ve never thought she could actually enjoy grocery shopping, but she realized deprivation had benefits. It made one appreciate the little things they ordinarily took for granted. It was an escape from the confines of the house—as large as it was—different scenery, the chance to see different faces. Curious, suspicious faces, actually. They seemed polite enough, but she felt so out of place around the Native Americans she almost felt like she was on display.

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It was damned strange to her that nobody seemed to question that Gabriel and John belonged when they looked far less like Natives with their coloring than she did, but then she was a stranger and she supposed they must have lived on the reservation for years. In some ways, the life she was leading seemed completely surreal. She almost felt as if she must wake up at some time or other and then she would discover none of it had been real at all. The baby was very real, though. It seemed to her that it was growing awfully fast, but then again she’d never had a baby before. Maybe it wasn’t particularly unusual, but it was certainly annoying and depressing to discover that she couldn’t fasten her pants and then couldn’t zip them and still wasn’t comfortable and she wasn’t even two full months along! She shuddered to think what she was going to look like in a few more months. Beached whale came to mind way too easily. The household wasn’t exactly tension free even after everyone seemed to settle, more or less, into a routine. Although they’d seemed friendly enough to start with, Luke, Joshua, and Aaron were distant—in every sense. She didn’t see them for days at the time and when they were around they seemed to go out of their way to give her a wide berth. She tried not to let that bother her, but it was hard to dismiss the feeling that she wasn’t welcome as far as they were concerned. Actually, John was pretty distant, too. She’d thought after their interlude in the kitchen that they’d glossed over whatever it was that was bothering him, but she discovered she’d thought wrong. Like Aaron, John tended to be quiet and reserved and considering how reserved they all were, that was saying something. With the others, though, she had more a sense that they were being guarded, not that it was natural part of their personalities. She thought Aaron was actually shy, although it was hard to be certain when the whole lot of them were such alpha males. For all she knew it might be wicked thoughts that preoccupied him. John was entirely different. He wasn’t shy and he wasn’t just guarded. He was a stone wall. She didn’t have a problem with the fact that they all seemed to be measuring her up. Aside from their bedroom gymnastics there was still a lot more they didn’t know about one another than there was that they did, and she’d been measuring them up if it came to that. And she was impressed. There was a lot more to them than pretty packages. It was clear that their lives hadn’t been easy. They didn’t trust people in general and, to her, that meant they’d been given reason not to. It could’ve been a lot little things, or one or two big screwovers, but she didn’t think they were jaded for no reason. John almost didn’t seem to go with the ‘set’. If not for the fact that Gabriel not only did, but seemed to be top dog, she might’ve thought it was because he looked so different from the others. She might’ve thought he’d caught hell both from outsides and his brothers. But she couldn’t see that that was the case. He seemed to make even his brothers a little uneasy—which was strange considering very little ever seemed to faze him. She could’ve understood it if he’d had a short fuse, but he seemed to have the longest of all of them. As he’d told her himself, he was the reasonable one. She supposed it was just the sheer contrariness of her nature that the very fact that he seemed determined to hold her arm’s length, seemed focused on putting just as much distance between them as possible that made her determined not to be ignored. That and the fact that when he did unleash his passions, he was just about the scariest, most exciting man she’d ever met—except for Eli. Eli’s emotions were closer to the surface, though, and he was a lot easier to read. She felt like she was playing a dangerous game of

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Russian Roulette whenever she teased John. It was the game of ‘will he explode and knock my socks off like he had before?’ or ‘will he not?’. She thought it was the very fact that she’d had to work so hard at pushing his buttons, with no results, that made her more and more incautious—sort of like the person that lights three sticks of dynamite and discovers they’re all duds until they get to the last one. Apparently, it was John’s day to stay home and babysit her. They rotated daily, which was almost as insulting as it was irritating—as if it was such an ordeal in sheer boredom they didn’t think it was fair for anyone to be confined to the house more than one day at the time! Except her, of course. She’d been trying to focus on the mounds of paperwork that had backed up—all hand written and in need of skilled deciphering before the data could even be entered on the computer—but most of her mind had been on John who was moving around the house restlessly. She’d conjured and discarded a half a dozen lame scenarios that might end up in getting her bones jumped and had finally given up on the idea and actually focused on her work. Hours had passed by the time she emerged again and she’d been so deeply engrossed she’d completely forgotten that she’d spent most of the morning trying to get John worked up. Stiff from sitting so long, she got up from the chair and bent down to touch her toes, bouncing a little to thoroughly stretch the muscles and then straightened and lifted her hands above her head in an all over stretch. She’d dressed for bear, though, or more accurately underdressed for wolf. She hadn’t bothered to put on a bra or change out of the loose t-shirt she’d slept in and she’d unfastened her jeans and unzipped them as soon as she’d sat down in front of the computer. The tail of the tshirt hit her on the chin when she touched her toes and then rose up to her waist when she straightened and lifted her arms while her unfastened jeans slid halfway down her hips. Grabbing her jeans, she hiked them back up and glanced around self-consciously. Showing off her far-from-flat, oh-so-unsexy belly hadn’t been in the game plan at all. The moment she glanced around, however, she discovered John hadn’t missed a thing. He lifted his head from studying her belly and met her gaze. She cleared her throat uncomfortably and said the first thing that popped into her mind. “I forgot I was supposed to help in the kitchen tonight. I think I’ll just go take a quick shower before the guys get here and put on something more comfortable.” He didn’t move from the spot where he was standing near the stairs when she passed him, but he didn’t attempt to stop her either. Sighing with a mixture of relief and disappointment when she reached the top, she glanced back. A jolt went through her when she discovered he was mounting the stairs. Unnerved, she headed toward the bedroom she’d been using. John caught the edge of the door with his hand before she could close it behind her, however. “Uh … did you want something, John?” she asked a little shakily. His gaze flickered over her face. He propped one shoulder against the door frame. His lips curled at one corner but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “I had the impression you did.” Marlee felt her face heat but there was no way in hell she was about to admit that she’d been trying to get his attention for days. It was really annoying to finally succeed when she hadn’t intended or expected to and felt so damned awkward she couldn’t think of any way to turn it to her advantage! “Oh! Well … hmmm. I can’t think of anything. I was just going to take a quick shower to get rid of the kinks from sitting so long,” she added a little hopefully, thinking he might offer to wash her back—and her front!

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He straightened away from the frame. “I think a massage would probably work better for that. Why don’t you lie down?” Her heart rate quickened but at the same time reluctance moved through her. The massage might turn into something interesting, but what if he really meant massage? Or worse, he’d decided to tease her for a while? Smiling with an effort, she nodded and moved to the bed, kicking her shoes off and then climbing to the center and laying down on her stomach. It wasn’t terribly comfortable. Her breasts were swollen and tender with her advancing pregnancy and her belly was already round enough to add to that discomfort. Pushing up, she grabbed a pillow to prop on. “Do you have any lotion?” She glanced at him. “On the dresser,” she said, pointing. He nodded. “You should get undressed.” The mixture of reluctance and hopefulness assailed her again. She was going to be seriously pissed off, she decided, if she discovered the massage was just a massage! She decided, just in case that was what he had in mind, to pull off the jeans and t-shirt and keep her panties. At least she wouldn’t feel so exposed! He straddled her hips when he returned and squeezed an icy glob of lotion out between her shoulder blades. She sucked in a sharp breath and tensed all over. “Lift your hair,” he murmured in a low voice as he began to rub the lotion over her back. She gathered it in one hand, twisted it and held it on the top of her head, straightening her head when he began to massaged the back of her neck. The tension eased from her at the slow, mesmerizing glide of his hands over her back, shoulders, and neck. The only time she’d ever had a massage before the guy had tried to separate the tissue from the bones. John applied the pressure of his hands and fingers evenly, warming and relaxing the muscles deeply without the pain she associated with the word ‘massage’. He squeezed another dollop of lotion into the palm of his hand, moved her arms so that they were perpendicular to her shoulders, and massaged them. She felt the warmth of his breath along the back of her neck as he leaned closer. It lifted the fine hairs along the base of her skull and created a rash of pebbly skin along her back and arms. He returned his attention to her back after a moment, rubbing down the center and then up along her sides, brushing the sides of her breast. He paused and then leaned down and nibbled a string of kisses down her spine. Her belly fluttered and tensed, quaking harder as he reached the small of her back. She waited tensely to see what he do next. Hooking his fingers in the waistband of her bikini panties, he dragged them down her hips and then her legs. He bent her legs upward and then she felt a splat of cold lotion on the sole of her foot. The warmth shimmying in her belly heated up as he kneaded her feet. It felt more wonderful than anything she’d ever felt in her life. She’d had no idea how good it could feel to have her feet rubbed. She was sorry when he stopped, but then he began kneading her calves and that felt wonderful, too. “You have the most wonderful hands, John,” she murmured almost drunkenly, so relaxed by that time she felt like hot wax. The tension returned when he reached her thighs.

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Chapter Eleven Marlee held her breath every time John stroked up to the tops of her thighs and lightly brushed the lips of her sex, hopeful that he would part the nether lips and stroke her there, and each time she was disappointed. Her hopes rose again when he began massaging her buttocks, but he teased her unmercifully, brushing close enough to set off waves of anticipation and then moving away again. She’d decided she’d been right all along and his only intention was to torment her a while when he moved off of her altogether. He slid down on the bed beside her as she turned onto her side. Cupping one breast, he bore her down on the bed and covered her mouth in a torrid kiss so ravenous it curled her toes. The warmth he’d already generated burst into flames. Having thoroughly ravished her mouth, he broke from her lips and wove a path of open mouthed kisses along her throat to her breast. She dug her fingers into his shoulder, sucking in a sharp breath when he captured the peak of the breast he’d been kneading. He gentled the kiss instantly, stroking her tender nipple almost apologetically. It sent pleasurable currents through her and she cupped his head to her, stroking him a little feverishly. He nuzzled his face against her breast when he released the bud at last. “Tender?” he murmured huskily. She was instantly torn. Her nipples were more tender than she’d realized, but she didn’t want him to stop. “Don’t stop,” she whispered after a brief hesitation. He nuzzled her other breast, lathing the tip with his tongue and finally took it into his mouth and lightly suckled it. When he shifted upward to match his lips to hers again, he slid one hand downward to lightly stroke the rounded mount of her belly and then pushed his hand between her thighs and gently parted the sensitive petals, stroking her cleft. She spread her thighs for him and began to search a little frantically for the fastener of his jeans as he teased her clit. He allowed her to fumble for a few moments and then broke the kiss and rolled into a sitting position to peel his shirt off and unfasten his jeans. Marlee sat up anxiously, stroking her hands over John’s muscular back and nibbling along the crook of his shoulder and neck. A shudder when through him. He turned, bearing her down onto the mattress once more as he wrestled his jeans and shorts from his hips and finally kicked them off. She pulled at him, eagerly parting her legs to accommodate his narrow hips as he shifted over her, positioning himself. A mixture of relief and anticipation filled her as she felt the probe of his thick flesh, felt the connection as he found the mouth of her sex, and the pressure as he cupped his hips to enter her. She clutched at his shoulders, arching her back to brush her breasts along his muscled chest. The faint abrasion of his hair roughened chest sent fresh tingles of warmth through her to raise her fever higher. Impatience began to war with her delight as he surged into her in shallow strokes, driving a little deeper each time until he’d claimed her completely and she could feel the weight and thickness of his cock. She squeezed her eyes tightly, focusing on the friction of his flesh rubbing along her channel as he sawed in and out of her, sending pleasurable currents through the nerve bundle there that gathered strength with each pass until she neared the peak. She struggled with

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the urge to reach for it and to stave it off for a few moments longer to enjoy the feel of him inside of her, but the tension increased until it abruptly burst its boundaries, broke free of her control. She sucked in a sharp breath as her body began to quake with release, for many moments so swept up in the powerful expulsion of energy that she lost touch with all else. His groan as he drove deeply and shuddered as he was caught up in his own release penetrated that heavenly fog of inner focus. At the same time, it seemed to expand the pleasure still rocking her. She tightened her hold on him as the warmth expanded to her chest, making it ache with a confusing mixture of emotions she couldn’t even sort let alone identify. Joy dominated, however. He’d found pleasure in her and at that moment it seemed to be for her alone. **** Gabriel was propped against the kitchen counter, his arms folded, as John entered the kitchen. John sent him a cool look and moved to the refrigerator to search for something to cook that wouldn’t take too long since everyone had arrived to eat before he’d made it back downstairs. “I see you’ve given up the idea of breaking the bond,” Gabriel said dryly. John’s lips tightened. He hadn’t admitted, even to himself, that he was trying to erect a barrier Marlee couldn’t breach. Grabbing a package of steaks, he pulled it out and shut the refrigerator with just a little more violence than was necessary to close it. “Luke had a point, you know,” Gabriel said after a moment, not without empathy. “Not much of one,” John said evenly. “As you pointed out, she isn’t bound to any of us.” Gabriel frowned. “Not in the way we think of it, I don’t suppose. She seems happy enough to say, though.” “Now. She feels the need to protect the babies and to nest. Even human women feel that. It doesn’t have anything to do with us beyond the fact that we’re offering protection she needs … at the moment.” Gabriel’s lips tightened. “We have her desire.” John gripped the edges of the counter when he’d seasoned the meat. “That won’t be enough to hold her here once she finds out what we are, Gabe.” “She’ll stay until the babies are born. We have time to win her affection.” John sent him a look of repressed violence. “You think that’s going to outlast the discovery that we’re monsters? How much time do you think we have, Gabe? She has three babies in her womb and she thinks there’s only one. They’re growing fast. She’s going to want a doctor—Humans go to doctors. What the fuck are we going to do about that?” “I don’t have all the answers!” Gabriel growled. “All I do know is that she’s accepted that they’re there and she seems content to stay. Granted that isn’t a hell of a lot, but it’s a hell of a lot brighter picture than we’ve had before. I don’t know anything to do but take it a day at the time … and enjoy it while I can if that’s the way it ends.” “Find another topic,” Eli snarled from the living room. “She’s finished her shower.” **** Marlee frowned when she heard the sliding glass doors close and looked around the partial wall that divided the kitchen from the great room just in time to see Luke disappear in the darkness that shrouded the rear deck. She didn’t have to look around to know that she had the house to herself. The guys had vanished one by one after dinner as they did fairly regularly. What they did out in the barn, she had no idea, but she was beginning to suspect that the reason they disappeared was the need to blow off steam.

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She hesitated and then put the dish down that she’d just washed, dried her hands on a dishtowel, and headed for the glass doors. She stopped again when she reached the great room, however, indecisive, and glanced up at the overhead light. They’d be able to see her snooping if she went to the patio doors, she realized. Turning around, she headed to the small downstairs bath and peered out the narrow window. Luke had already crossed the backyard, but he wasn’t heading toward the barn as she’d expected. Instead, he strode toward a well worn path that led up the rocky slope behind the house. She’d explored part of it when Gabriel had finally lightened up enough about ‘security’ to agree with an occasional outdoors excursion, but she hadn’t gone far before Eli had caught up with her and distracted her by hauling her back into the house and fucking her stupid. She had gone far enough, though, to see that the steep trail appeared to wind all the way up to the peak. As she watched Luke curiously and finally flicked a gaze past him, following the trail with her gaze, she saw movement a good bit further away. Light gleamed on his hair as he flicked a glance back toward the house and she knew it was either Gabriel or John—probably Gabriel since he’d disappeared shortly before Luke had. So—they didn’t congregate in the barn to duke it out so that she wouldn’t be any the wiser? What in the world would they be doing up on the hill? Looking for a more dangerous place to work out their hostilities toward one another? Or was she flattering herself? Was it nothing more than a regular exercise routine? Coincidence that they usually decided to go out for a climb after there’d been an ‘incident’? Like the one earlier when she’d nearly run Luke down, literally, coming out of the laundry room? He hadn’t embraced her! He’d caught her to keep her from falling, she thought angrily. She’d known it had pissed Eli off. She could see it in the deadly look he gave Luke, but what was he supposed to do? Let her fall in the floor? She thought she’d glossed over the incident when she’d thanked Luke for catching her, but now she wondered if Eli had decided she’d only said it to ‘cover’ for him. She would’ve been willing to keep her nose out of their business if she’d thought it had nothing to do with her, but the suspicion that it did was enough to spawn the urge to at least find out. If she discovered it was just … a pow wow or something like that, she could always turn around and come back, hopefully without them noticing she was sticking her nose in where it didn’t belong. Leaving the window as Luke disappeared over the first rise, she let herself out the patio doors, crossed the wide verandah and jogged down the steps. She saw Luke had reached the second hump as she reached the path and paused until he’d disappeared again. She didn’t think he would look back, but she didn’t want to take the chance that he might. When she saw him descending on the other side, she jogged up the trail at a fast walk, trying to reach the first hump and cross it where she hoped he wouldn’t be likely to see her even if he did glance back. She discovered that wasn’t the case when she reached the top of the first rise and started down it since it was lower than the second, but fortunately Luke didn’t look back. Breathless, she paused. Her damned jeans were cutting her in two and making it that much harder to catch her breath if it came to that! She unfastened the button at the waist and lowered the zipper about half way to give her belly a little more room. Breathing easier, she set out again. By the time she’d topped the second rise, Luke had disappeared completely.

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Wondering uneasily if he’d spotted her and was laying in wait for her somewhere ahead, she stopped again to catch her breath while she scanned the path above her for any sign of him. She finally saw a shadowy movement a good bit higher, nearing the peak. She waited to see if she could catch a glimmer of golden hair and finally decided when she didn’t that it was Luke. He was making time! He must be as surefooted as a mountain goat, she thought wryly. She could see well enough by the light from the stars to keep on the trail, but she’d stumbled more than once on the small rocks that littered the path that she couldn’t see. There was no third hump, she discovered. After she’d crossed the second, the path dipped slightly and then began to climb at an angle that had her winded and her calves burning in short order. Self disgust flickered through her. She didn’t suppose it would’ve been an easy climb any time for anybody that wasn’t used to it, but she’d been in peak physical condition before she’d gone into hiding! This was what came of doing nothing all day but paperwork! When she stopped to catch her breath again, she heard a sound like rushing water, faintly, in the distance. Frowning, she strained to identify it and finally decided it was water. Deciding it must be the source of the small stream she’d seen meandering through the pasture, she felt her interest pique. Maybe it was just ‘their’ spot after all, she wondered, imagining a quiet, rocky retreat with the waterfall as a backdrop? Maybe they only came up here for male bonding or something like that? That thought didn’t especially make her feel good. She knew her presence caused friction, but she couldn’t see that it was disruptive enough that they felt the need to ‘escape’ it to be themselves. It was almost enough to make her want to turn back. She considered it and finally decided that she’d come this far and she didn’t want to go back until she knew what was going on. At the very least, it seemed likely the sound of the waterfall would prevent them from hearing her approach and make it easier to leave again without their noticing if she discovered that was all it was that had drawn them. Feeling relieved at the reflection, she started out again. She’d reached the point where she was considering stopping to rest again when she heard another sound. This one was harder to identify, partly because it seemed so out of place and partly because the sound of rushing water was much louder. It sounded like someone was banging something metallic against rock, though. She didn’t think if that noise hadn’t thoroughly aroused her curiosity that she would’ve gone any further when she discovered the path ended at the waterfall, or rather seemed to dip behind it. She stopped, staring in fascination at the water gushing from the rocks high overhead. Her belly went weightless when she leaned forward enough to see the rocky gulley the water had carved below her. After studying the damp rock beneath her feet, she stared hard at the waterfall, trying to penetrate the shadows behind it. She knew Luke and the others must have walked behind it to get to the other side. There was no other way to cross, but it was so dark she couldn’t tell what it was like behind the fall. It looked like the entrance to a cave, but it might not be more than a shallow indentation and she certainly had no intention of trying it when she couldn’t tell how wide the ledge was. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see what was going on on the other side. She could hear the metallic banging better, despite her proximity to the falls and thought they must be close, but the boulders on the other side prevented her from seeing past the rim of the gorge. While she was staring across, trying to get up the nerve to try to cross behind the falls, two of the men abruptly appeared within her vision.

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Her heart seemed to come to a screeching, painful halt in her chest. What in the hell were the maniacs doing, she wondered wildly when she saw finally that the metal clanging she’d been listening to was two of them pounding at each other with swords? Who did they think they were? The pirates of Penzannce? Fencing? On the top of a fucking hill high enough to kill them if they fell off even if it wasn’t high enough to officially be considered a mountain? She’d already sucked in a breath to scream at them to stop when the dark haired one— Luke, Eli, Aaron, or maybe Joshua—struck the fair haired one that was either Gabriel or John. She clapped a hand over her mouth in horror, straining to see if he had been hit or it just looked like he had from where she was standing. Both of the men lowered their blades. The blond looked down at himself and then at his opponent. The urge to burst into tears assailed her as the conviction settled in her that he was hurt. She would’ve thrown caution to the wind then and dashed behind the waterfall except something even more horrifying froze her to the spot. Gabriel or John changed. One moment she saw a man clutching his arm, the next … she saw something else entirely. The … thing, dropped the sword and let out a bellow of rage that jolted through her, turning her from stone to jelly as quickly as he’d transformed from man to beast. Unable to move or even breathe, she watched him surge toward his opponent and discovered that man wasn’t a man anymore either. Sucking in a sharp breath when they slammed into each other like beasts from a really bad Asian horror flick, Marlee’s instinct for flight kicked in. Whirling, she began stumbling back down the path she’d followed up. Gravity, she discovered was as much foe as friend. She hadn’t been in any state of mind to coordinate her efforts to run with the obstacle course she had to negotiate. She skidded several times on loose pebbles even as the slant increased her downward momentum. Her heart jerked fearfully each time she skidded and then resumed the frantic pace fear had set. She struggled to slow her breakneck pace before she did break her neck, but she was so shaky and wobbly with fright that it was too little, too late. She stepped on a rock big enough to pitch her off balance as it rolled from under her foot and screamed instinctively when she felt herself falling. She landed on her ass hard enough to make her eyes water and skidded nearly two yards before she managed to halt her descent. Realizing she’d screamed, she jerked a look back as she scrambled to her feet, hoping it hadn’t been loud enough to alert them to her presence. The discovery that both beasts had whirled to look in her direction was enough to get her on her feet. “Oh god! Please don’t let them have seen me!” she babbled shakily as she scrambled down the path, searching a little frantically for a place to hide. When she finally managed to reach the first hump, she threw another glance behind her. She couldn’t see a sign of either one, but they’d both had wings. She glanced upward and searched the sky. She didn’t see anything, but it didn’t comfort her much. She couldn’t see well enough to be certain they weren’t above her. They could be swooping toward her that very moment and she wouldn’t know it until they caught her! The thoughts galvanized her to move faster. She fell again, and skidded to the bottom of the dip. Ignoring the pain in one knee and the stinging friction burns on her palms, elbows, and even on her knees and shins through her jeans, she leapt to her feet and ran up the last hump and down the again so fast that she nearly pitched forward and rolled down the last section of the path.

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She was so winded by that time she felt dizzy and nauseated. The sound of her own huffing breath and pounding heart deafened her. Instinct drove her. The thoughts flitting madly through her mind barely made any impression at all until several seemed to collide and connect at the same time. The guys had changed—two of the men she’d been living with for well over a month! The house wasn’t a refuge even though she realized that had been her objective. Holding her side, she jogged around the barn, wondering where the hell she could go. Even as she rounded it, however, someone jumped out. She slammed into the man so hard it almost sent both of them sprawling. He recovered first. Marlee was still trying to decide which of the guys had caught her when she felt something hard and cold dig into her cheek. “Gotcha!” Fletcher said triumphantly. “Now we’re going to take a little ride and you’re going to show me where that cave is the injuns took you to!” **** “Gods damn it!” Gabriel roared furiously. “She followed us! She saw us!” “She’s going to kill her fool self!” Joshua said hoarsely. “I’ll go after her!” “Like hell!” Gabriel snarled, flinging an arm out to block him as he surged forward. “We’ll all go after her!” Luke said grimly. “That’ll calm her down!” John snapped. “I’ll go. It was me and Aaron she saw.” Gabriel studied him assessingly for a moment and finally nodded. “You’re right. If all of us go chasing after her it’s only going to scare her more. Catch her and see if you can calm her down. We’ll wait here.” John nodded grimly, wondering how in the hell he was going to manage to calm her down, regardless of his assertion to the others that he would. Gabriel grabbed his arm as he headed toward the falls. “Gods, John! You think you’re going to calm her down looking like that!” John halted abruptly and looked down at himself. Discovering he was still in dragon form, he focused on the change and then looked around for his abandoned clothes. Discarding the idea of figuring out which were his and which belonged to one of the others, he simply grabbed a pair of jeans and shimmied into them, zipping them as he strode toward the waterfall and ducked behind it. His heart sank when he emerged and didn’t see any sign of her. Wondering if she’d had time to make back to the house while they’d argued about what to do and who would go, he scanned the trail and the drop for any sign that she’d fallen. He was relieved when he didn’t see her off the side of the trail, but he thought that meant she must have had time to make it back to the house. Unless she’d realized it was them and decided to head for the hills. She didn’t know where they’d hidden her car, though, and he didn’t think that she could find the keys to any of their vehicles and take off before he could catch up to her. He hoped to hell not anyway. He could still chase her down but a high speed chase would be far more dangerous that what she’d done already—running on the trail. Worry nagged at him until he began to run himself, ignoring the slash across his arm that hadn’t had time to close completely. It reopened. He would’ve dismissed it except that it dawned on him that it wasn’t likely to calm Marlee down if he showed up bloody all over. Stopping, he wiped the blood with his hand and pinched the wound together. The smell of his own blood stirred the beast within him. He lifted his arm and lathed the cut until it closed before

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he set out again. The sounds of a struggle reached him as he left the path and started toward the house at a jogging run. He whipped his head toward the sound. In the distance, he could see Marlee stumbling along beside a man he couldn’t identify and shock and worry gave way to rage. Changing directions, he began running. His fear for Marlee completely negated any possibility of reasoning or even yielding to his instincts and approaching quietly the moment he realized the man had a vehicle parked in the brush. “Get your hands off of her!” he bellowed, running faster. The man stopped, whipping around at the shout and dragging Marlee with him. He hesitated, clearly trying to decide whether he could get to his truck with Marlee before John could catch up to him. **** Marlee was too stunned by what she’d seen at the falls and too exhausted from her trek up and her run down to gather either her wits or her strength. She’d run right in to an ambush, she realized, but she couldn’t think of any way to get herself out of it with a gun barrel digging into her cheek. Every scenario that came to mind ended with her getting her head blown off. “Dragons,” she managed to gasp finally as her mind shifted from fear of the gun to the fear that had driven her into flight to start with. “I knew you were lying! You didn’t forget anything, did you? You just figured you’d wait till all the fuss died down and get the treasure yourself!” The comments threw Marlee into complete chaos all over again. By the time she emerged enough to glance around for any sign of the dragons, she discovered Fletcher had dragged her far enough from the house that she didn’t have a chance in hell of reaching it before he could catch her even if she did manage to get away from him. She’d probably get a bullet in the back if she tried. But a running target was harder to hit. Except she didn’t know if she could run at all. Her legs hardly felt like they belonged to her anymore. She wasn’t certain she could’ve even commanded them to walk if Fletcher hadn’t been dragging her, forcing her to put one foot in front of the other to keep from falling. The shout behind them set her heart to hammering again with recognition even before Fletcher wrenched her around to see who it was. Hope surged through her when she recognized John and then doubt and fear as it settled in her mind that he was one of them. She didn’t know what he was, but he wasn’t human! The sudden absence of pressure of the gun barrel jerked her attention from John to Fletcher. Her mind connected the dots within a split second. Marlee grabbed Fletcher’s hands to divert the shot even as the gun fired. “No! Don’t shoot!” she screamed into the deafening silence that filled her head in the wake of the gun blast right beside her ear, her gaze jerking toward John. She saw him jolt a halt as the bullet impacted with his chest and screamed again at the look of surprise that flickered across his face. She tried to claw her way free of Fletcher, surging toward John frantically as he staggered back a couple of steps and then dropped to his knees. “John! Oh my god! John!” Pain exploded in her head without warning. The thought struck her that Fletcher had shot her in the head even as her own knees turned to jelly and fell out from under her and darkness filled the gulf behind the flash of white pain. She stared at John hopelessly, helplessly as she felt herself falling. “Don’t die, John,” she murmured drunkenly. “Please!”

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He struggled to his feet. Even as the hope formed inside her that he wasn’t hurt as badly as she’d feared, the gun went off again and she saw him stagger back, saw blood form another blossom on his chest. She couldn’t get to him. She struggled anyway, trying feebly to break Fletcher’s grip on her. “Let me go to him!” Uttering a snarl of rage, Fletcher began dragging her. He was going to die and she’d never told him she loved him! “I’m sorry, John! I’m so sorry! I love you! Please don’t die!” Fletcher slammed her against the side of his truck and jerked the door open, shoving her toward the seat. She fell in, too disoriented and uncoordinated to respond to his demand to get in. He shoved her, grabbing her legs and stuffing her onto the seat, and then slammed the door. She struggled to right herself, to gather her wits, but she seemed to be drifting in and out of a black void. The need to escape formed in her mind, the need to get to John and see if she could help him. She couldn’t even seem to figure out which way was up, however. Fletcher leapt into the truck, started the engine, and shot the truck forward before she’d figured it out. The force slammed her into the back of the seat and, in her search for some means of bracing herself, her hand brushed the door handle. She grasped it, managed to depress it. The door flew part of the way open, nearly yanking her out with it. Fletcher braked, throwing her forward. Grasping the hair on her head, he slammed her forehead into the dashboard. When that pain exploded inside of her head and darkness followed it that time, it took her all the way down. **** Gabriel had been pacing worriedly but the sudden sound that cracked like thunder across the sky halted him abruptly. Lifting his head, he scanned the sky, listening to the reverberation. But he knew what it was even before he heard the second shot. He whipped a look at the others. “Gods! She’s shooting at him,” Aaron said in disbelief. The five of them glanced at one another questioningly. “I guess that means she didn’t feel like being reasonable …,” Eli began and then broke off as he heard Marlee’s voice faintly in the distance. “What the fuck is he doing to her?” Joshua growled, turning away from the others abruptly and striding quickly toward the water fall. Feeling a sudden fear that they’d completely misinterpreted what they’d heard, Gabriel raced him toward the pass, trying to outrun him. Eli, Luke, and Aaron glanced at one another blankly and then followed. Seeing that Gabriel and Joshua had broken into a run as soon as they’d cleared the falls, they quickened their own pace. Gabriel found himself struggling with the urge to transform himself to reach the house faster. He couldn’t place a name to the terrible dread that had filled him, but he didn’t question it. Something was wrong. Marlee was in trouble and he didn’t believe John had anything to do with it. A vague sense of relief began to percolate through him as he reached the end of the path and jogged toward the house, but he knew even as he shoved the door open and stepped inside that Marlee wasn’t there. “Marlee!” Eli bellowed. “Where is she?” “They’re not here!” “Check the trucks!” “Wait!” Gabriel growled abruptly. “Did you hear that?”

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“It’s a truck engine. She’s found the damned keys!” Joshua snarled, racing across to the front of the house. “Not that!” Gabriel snapped, realizing abruptly that the sound was in his head. “It’s John!” Turning, he ran back out the way he’d come, searching the landscape from the edge of the porch. **** The pain in his chest warred with fear and rage as John lay staring up at the night sky, trying to summon the strength to rise. He could feel blood pooling on his chest, though, and finally realized he was growing weaker, not throwing off the weakness. Struggling to block thoughts of Marlee from his mind, he tried to focus on making the wounds close, but the bullets were still in his chest. He couldn’t close the holes or stop the bleeding. Wrapping one arm tightly across his chest to apply pressure, he finally managed to lever himself into a sitting position. He began coughing as soon as he sat up. Alarm flickered through him when he tasted blood. It occurred to him with a touch of surprise that he might die. The fear that flickered through him was galvanizing. He wouldn’t be able to help Marlee and she was hurt! Leaning forward, he tried to focus on forcing the bullets out, picturing them in his mind, searching inside himself for them. One had entered a lung. The other had hit a rib, shattered it and lodged in the muscle near his heart. Thankfully the bastard had only been packing a .22 caliber or there would’ve been a lot more damage. It was frustration and fear that he either couldn’t expel the bullets at all or wouldn’t be able to in time to help Marlee that directed his mind to Gabriel. They’d never succeeded in sharing mind talk when they were too far from one another, but he tried it anyway, abandoning the effort to heal his wounds long enough to focus on calling out to Gabriel. He felt a question form in his mind, knew it was Gabriel’s mind and tried again. That time Gabriel answered. Where? Field beyond the pasture. Slumping with relief, he rested for a few moments and focused on the bullets again. Slowly but surely, he worked them outward. He thought for several moments after he first noticed the pounding that it was only the blood pounding in his skull from the effort. He heard Gabriel call out a moment later, however. “I see him!” In a few minutes his brothers surrounded him, dropping to their knees to study him worriedly. “Who shot you?” Gabriel barked, his voice filled with anxiety. John tried to focus on the details he’d noticed. “Wearing a ranger’s uniform,” he said finally. “She’s hurt. She tried to run to me and he pistol whipped her.” His brothers surged to their feet. “Stay with John and help him, Aaron,” Gabriel growled. Aaron looked torn for several moments but he nodded as the others shifted into their dragon forms and one by one took to the air. Dropping to his knees, he studied John. “Close the wounds before you bleed to death.” John shook his head, trying to shake off the darkness that was beckoning to him like an embrace. “It won’t heal around the bullets.” “Shit! Try shifting! We’re stronger when we shift.”

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John choked on more blood when he tried to suck in a breath to speak. “I don’t have the strength. That’s what killed mother—trying to shift when she was too weak. It took the last of her strength.” Aaron shifted. “This is going to hurt like a son-of-a-bitch, John,” he growled warningly. Curling his fingers inward except for the index, he used his claw to slice into John’s chest across one of the holes. To his consternation, John passed out. He thought, in fact, that he’d killed him for several horrible moments. The steadily surging blood told a different story, however. Shaking off his anxiety, he focused on digging the slug out and then cut a slice above the other wound. It was far harder to find and he’d begun to worry that John would run out of blood before he succeeded. When he’d finally removed the second slug, he pressed the sides of the wounds together and leaned down to lathe the cut. It was one of the few things they’d ever figured out about themselves and their abilities. Their saliva helped to heal wounds when they couldn’t merely ‘will’ them to heal. Quite often, it was enough just to think about the wound and mentally close it and heal it. They’d gone through many battles over the years, however, particularly in their early years, where that wasn’t enough. Arrow, spears, and bullets damaged so much that they would’ve died many times over if their instincts hadn’t guided them in that, at least. Relief filled him when he saw the wound had ceased to bleed. He waited a few moments and tended the other and then sat back, watching John’s pale face in the light from the stars, watching the shallow lift and fall of his chest. It seemed to him John’s breaths grew shallower and shallower and further and further apart. He’d begun to think he’d only succeeded in finishing John off when he finally dragged in a noticeably deeper breath. His eyelids fluttered a few moments later and then he opened his eyes and stared at the sky. “Did they get her?” Aaron felt a combination of fear and rage surge through him—fear both for John and for Marlee, rage that anyone had dared harm her. “They went after her.” John swallowed with obvious effort. “Go. I’ll follow when I can.” “Gabe told me to stay with you,” Aaron objected, still torn between the need to go after Marlee himself and the fear that John would die if he left him. “I’ll be alright,” he said with an effort, anger tingeing his voice. “If she’s … still alive, she needs help.”

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Chapter Twelve Marlee wove in and out of consciousness, aware of the jouncing truck for a time and then losing any awareness at all. She had no idea how long she’d been drifting in and out before her mind finally managed an attempt to assess her situation, but she focused inwardly first. Her head ached as if her skull would split—or already had been. Her hair was matted to her head and still sticky. She remembered thinking that she’d been shot in the head and wondered if she had been. If she had, she was still alive, though, could still string thoughts together. Struggling with the nausea that began to vie with the pounding pain in her head for attention, she tried to perform a mental inventory. She managed to twitch her hands and fingers by thinking about first one and then the other and then wiggle her toes in her shoes. She had some control over her motor skills. It was a relief, but it was hard to get excited when she felt like she was going to die. She passed out again. When she became aware once more, the pounding wasn’t as bad. The nausea was worse, but she realized that was at least partly because she was slumped on the seat of a truck that was bouncing like a bucking bronco. Rough terrain—which could mean a back road or no road at all—and that didn’t tell her where she was. She tried shuffling her memories to figure out what had happened, but that was no help at all. As soon as she did, she remembered John. He was dead and she’d never told him she loved him. The urge to cry vied with the nausea and the pounding in her head a while and then she thought abruptly about the baby. It might be John’s baby. It might be all she would ever have of John! Those thoughts finally helped her chase the urge to weep and try to focus. The baby was safe—for now—she told herself. Her belly was just about the only place on her entire body that didn’t hurt. But that was alright. That was a comfort. The baby wasn’t hurt. If she could figure out a way to escape, it would live and then John wouldn’t be completely gone. It flickered through her mind that it might be Eli’s baby, or Gabriel’s, but she didn’t want to think about that at the moment. It seemed far more important that it was John’s baby. No! The important thing was that it was her baby and she had to protect it! Despair filled her for a few moments. She wasn’t physically capable of doing anything to win her freedom and she wasn’t convinced she had enough possession of her wits to manage it either. She decided to simply lie still and try to gather herself. She was drifting toward unconsciousness again when the truck abruptly stopped. The truck door opened and then slammed shut again. He coming around to get her, she knew. If she could just pick her feet up, she thought, maybe she could stun him with the door when he opened it? She struggled for all she was worth, but she’d only managed to get one leg up when he snatched the door open and she didn’t have the leverage to kick out at him. He dragged her out, stood her on her feet and slapped her, hard, on both cheeks. “Wake up!” Marlee had to focus just to lift her head. The sharp slaps to both cheeks seemed to have rattled what little wits she had right out of her head.

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He shook her, making her head wobble weakly on her shoulders. “Where is it? Show me bitch! I killed that bastard. I have to get out of here.” The sense of lost that swept over Marlee squeezed her heart painfully when he said he’d killed John. She began sobbing. “What?” she wailed when he started shaking her again. “The cave! Don’t play stupid with me. I have to get the gold and get the fuck out of here. God damn it! You made me do it! If you’d just shut your stupid, damned mouth and done what I told you I wouldn’t have had to kill him!” Marlee sobbed harder, too hurt and confused to even try to think past her grief. “John! You killed John? No! No! No!” she screamed at him. “He can’t be dead! He can’t be!” When he slapped her that time, her knees buckled and she hit the ground. The rocky surface sent shards of pain through her that pierced her grief. She clawed at it, fisting her hands around the debris that had cut them as he grabbed her by her hair and jerked her up again. “Show me the damned cave where I can get the gold you fucking bitch or I’ll kill you right here, right now!” Marlee twisted in his hold and flung the debris she picked up straight at his face. He let out a squawk when the sand and tiny rocks peppered his sensitive eyeballs and clawed at them. Wrenching free of him, Marlee lurched away, trying to scramble toward safety when she couldn’t see and was so dizzy she could barely stay on her feet. When she tripped over a rock and sprawled out, she didn’t try to get up again. She began crawling frantically on her hands and knees, expecting any moment to hear the gun go off again and feel a bullet ripping through her. Instead, she heard the sound of wings slapping at the air. They’d come to rescue her, Marlee thought joyfully, so relieved it dragged a hurtful sob from her throat. The ‘monsters’ she’d fled from had raced to protect her from the real monster. “I’m here!” she whispered. **** Gabriel was in such a blind panic to find Marlee when he’d taken to the air, all he could think about was finding her, but there was no sign of any vehicle that he could see. He was dizzy from trying to pick up her scent before it dawned on him that he’d felt Marlee’s distress. Gods! Where is she? Father moon, mother earth, tell me how to find her, damn it! She’s my bond mate! Why can’t I feel her? He strained to listen, to pick up even the tiniest clue of which direction she might have been taken but all that kept pounding in his mind was that she was gone and she was hurt. She was with rangers that night at the tavern, Eli responded. John said the man was dressed in a ranger’s uniform! I was focused on her, but one of them was questioning her on and on about the attack. He kept prodding her when she said she didn’t remember what happened. Gabriel turned and found Eli. Do you think it could be the same one? He said he could take her to where she was found, Eli responded doubtfully. He thought about it for several moments and abruptly remembered the man had told her that whatever happened to her hadn’t happened there. She’d been dumped there. He asked her about a cave. Gods! He thinks she knows how to find mother’s lair! He’s a damned treasure hunter like the fucking Spaniards that killed her! Gabriel didn’t voice the fear that turned his blood to ice then. Even if she’d been in any condition to notice anything about her surroundings, Marlee couldn’t possibly know where the lair was because Eli and John had taken her to their lair.

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Worse, that only gave them one possible reason for the man taking Marlee. It didn’t tell them where to look beyond searching the park itself and that was an enormous area to search even with the ability the fly and four of them to look. Unless the bastard had managed somehow to get an idea of the general location? We should head toward Mother’s lair, Eli said. If we don’t see any sign of them we could spread out from there. Gabriel considered where he’d left Marlee that day and decided it was doubtful the man would’ve connected her to their Mother’s lair by proximity. That didn’t mean he hadn’t, though. I want to search that peak closest to where I left her first. We don’t even know if that has anything to do with the man that took her! Joshua said angrily. Why else would he have taken her? Luke pointed out. It sure as fuck wasn’t the people we’ve been hiding her from! They would’ve just shown up and dragged her into a car! Gabriel dismissed the argument, trying to focus on Marlee again, hoping against hope that he could connect with her mind if he could get close enough to form a connection. Even if she wasn’t calling out her distress to him, he was bonded to her. He’d felt the threat to her, felt her danger. He’d thought it was only his instincts telling him something didn’t fit right, but he hadn’t just considered that things weren’t adding up. He’d felt a sense of fear and distress. He didn’t believe he’d imagined it because he was worried sick about her. As the dragon flew, they were far closer to the park than it seemed, or was, by the road. Once they’d finally settled on a direction, it only took a matter of minutes before their goal was in sight. Gabriel searched the area feverishly for any sign of lights, the sound of a vehicle engine coming from area where it shouldn’t. “Gabe!” Eli said in a strange voice. Gabriel’s heart seemed to squeeze to a halt. “What is it?” Eli turned his head as if trying to catch a sound and determine its direction. “I feel my son’s fear.” A mixture of dismay, disbelief, and resentment flickered through Gabriel. He hadn’t sensed his own son at all, but he dismissed it and focused inwardly, trying to hear what Eli thought he’d heard. He heard it then, the cries of their minds. Their mother was in trouble and they felt the same emotions she did, reflected them. “He’s taken her to Mother’s mountain!” Gabriel bellowed as soon as he’d tracked the direction, furious with himself that he’d guessed the wrong direction. He cut a sharp turn without waiting for a response from the others, straining to find the currents he needed to gain speed. Eli found the stream they needed first, soaring past him. He angled his body and beat the air to gain altitude to reach the current that was boosting Eli’s efforts. Joshua reached it at the same moment he felt the sudden lift of the current. They nearly collided. Wheeling away to find the room he needed, Gabriel focused on the mountain he hadn’t set foot on since he was little more than a hatchling. In the distance, he caught sight of the lights he’d been searching for and strained harder to reach her, fearful that he was still going to be too late when he at last heard the sound he’d searched so desperately for. Marlee was trying to reach out to him. He was close enough by the time the bastard dragged her out of the truck to watch helplessly as he beat her and screamed at her and not close to do a damned thing about it. Rage enveloped him. He sucked in a breath to bellow his fury and instead expelled a plume of flame.

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It scared the pure fuck out of him. He hadn’t even known he could. He certainly wouldn’t have if he had known when he was so close to Marlee. He heard a chorus of ‘what the fuck?’ from the others, but the blast of flame had caught the attention of the man. Marlee, he saw, was scrambling away from him on all fours. The man gaped at him in pure horror for several moments and whirled to run, firing blindly behind him until he’d emptied his gun. He threw the gun then. The fury that had been diverted by the near disaster with his dragon breath rushed back as Gabriel swerved upward to counter his forward race to reach the man, trying to slow himself to land. He nearly skidded in on his ass, but he righted himself and charged after the man. Eli, he saw, had flown around to cut off his attempt to escape. Joshua landed beside him and Luke between the three of them. The man halted abruptly and grabbed his chest as Eli arched his neck and sucked in a breath. Screaming as he saw the flame boiling from Eli’s throat, he staggered in a tight circle, saw he was surrounded on three sides and raced in the only direction open to him—the edge of the cliff. Gabriel dove toward Marlee, spreading his wings to cover her from the flames as they shot across the small plateau where the ranger had parked his truck and engulfed the vehicle in flames. The inferno heated every combustible contained within the vehicle to detonation temperatures as if it was a bomb. The truck exploded, sending fragments of the body and engine in every direction. Gabriel felt the flying shrapnel pepper his back. Agonizing pain shot through him from seemingly every part of his body at one time. When his ears finally stopped ringing, he realized that Marlee was struggling against him, babbling incoherently. He shook his head. “He shot John! He needs help!” He shook his head again, struggling to get up. “Aaron’s with John,” he said a little drunkenly, lifting his head to survey the damage. The explosion, he saw, hadn’t left anyone unscathed. Eli, Luke, and Joshua were trying to get up and bleeding as profusely as he was. “The explosion will bring the humans,” he said, struggling to gain his feet. “We need to get out of here before they come and find us.” He staggered when he finally got to his feet, nearly sprawling out again. Marlee plastered herself against him as if she could hold him up. “You’re hurt. You can’t fly.” He stared down at her in confusion for a moment and then lifted his head and looked at the others. None of them were any shape to fly and Marlee was hurt badly, as well. While he was trying to gather his wits to think of a solution to their problem, the sound of sirens wafted to him and then the sound of wings. Aaron settled on the plateau. “Gods! This a fucking mess! Can anyone fly?” “Take Marlee and get out of here,” Gabriel said. Marlee clung tighter. “No! I’m not leaving you here—any of you!” “Gods damn it, baby!” Eli growled and then stopped abruptly. “Mother’s lair!” All of them looked upward, trying to judge the distance. Gabriel wasn’t convinced he could make it that far. In fact he knew that flying was out of the question. He might climb it, but he wasn’t going to make it any other way. “Take Marlee to Mother’s den, Aaron. We’ll climb up.” Marlee still looked distressed, but she didn’t argue. When Aaron reached for her, she moved toward him, staggering as drunkenly as Gabriel had. Uttering a curse, Aaron surged toward her, scooped her up, and turned to race to the edge of the cliff to get the lift he needed.

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Gabriel watched him for a moment and finally turned to the cliff face looming above them. Fire and rescue was coming closer. If he didn’t move his ass there were going to be a lot surprised and unhappy people—including him. He was weaker than he’d thought, though. It took all he could do to begin the climb and it seemed the distance to the ledge where he needed to go moved further out of reach the longer he climbed. Neither Luke, Eli, nor Joshua seemed to be having nearly as much trouble. They passed him and disappeared over the edge of the ledge above him. He paused to rest when he thought he must be more than halfway up the cliff face, struggling for breath, wondering if he had the energy to make the rest of the climb or even cared. Even as the thought formed in his mind, he realized he did care, though. Marlee was up there. His son was up there. He needed to get to Marlee and make sure she was alright. Almost as if his thoughts had summoned her, he heard her in his mind—felt her anxiety—not her thoughts. When he looked up again, he saw his brothers, still in dragon form, peering down at him. Eli settled heavily and reached an arm down. “Just a little more, Gabe.” Joshua and Luke settled beside him, reaching down to grasp his arms and help him up, as well, but the help came from an unexpected direction. He thought he was imagining it when he heard the flap of mighty wings and felt the draft of air that washed over him and cooled him and then he felt arms clamp around him. A mixture of hope and doubt flickered through him when he discovered it was John. “Are you strong enough?” “I’m strong enough, brother,” Joshua said flatly. “Let go. I’ll lift you up.” Gabe wasn’t as convinced as he would’ve liked to be but he didn’t think he had much choice. He released his grip on the rocks. John dropped with him several feet when he took his weight completely and then began struggling a little higher. In a few moments they were high enough that Eli and Joshua managed to grab a hold. They heaved him over the side and Luke grasped his leg and helped him the rest of the way as John released him and settled on the ledge himself. Once he’d made it to the ledge, Gabe couldn’t do anything by lie where he was, struggling for breath, fighting the darkness that had been steadily draining the strength from him. “We need to get inside and get the shrapnel out before we all bleed to death,” Eli said grimly, grasping Gabe’s arm with his uninjured one and trying to haul him up. Luke grabbed his other arm, pulling him high enough to get his shoulder beneath Gabe’s arm and they dragged him into the den that had been his birthplace. Aaron, he saw, was still tending Marlee. “Is she alright, Aaron?” “I don’t know. I healed her wounds the best I could, but … I don’t know. She isn’t conscious.” He got up after a moment, laid her carefully against the floor and moved toward Gabe. “I think you caught more than anyone. I need to dig the pieces out, Gabe.” Gabe nodded, rolled onto his belly and passed out. The pain brought him around a few moments later. He was aware that his brothers had gathered around him to make mince meat out of him while they dug out pieces of metal, but he kept his focus completely on Marlee, trying to reach her mind. After a while they left him in peace and settled to picking truck fragments out of everyone else. The sounds of the emergency vehicles increased and then stopped completely when they reached the fire. Passing in and of consciousness, Gabe stared at the flashing blue and red lights that flickered across the ceiling and walls, wondering if they would be found and if there was anything he would be able to do to defend himself if they were.

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It seemed doubtful, but he focused on trying to pull strength into himself from his reservoirs of energy, hoping it wouldn’t come to a fight, hoping if it did that he could at least make some of them regret the decision to come after them. He had no idea if they’d left evidence of themselves on the ledge below or not. None of them had been in any shape to try to hide their presence there. The sounds below continued for hours until Gabe finally gave up trying to stay alert and gave in to the weakness tugging at him. It was the morning sunlight spilling into the cave that woke him. Feeling as if he’d been through a cement mixer, he struggled to push himself up into a sitting position. His wounds, he discovered when he searched for them, had vanished as if they’d never been there at all and yet he still felt like pure hell, far weaker than he could recall. When he managed to clear the fog from his mind, he lifted his head to stare at Marlee. Relieved when he saw she was breathing, he got up and moved closer. It was only as he settled beside her and reached for Marlee that he realized he was still in his dragon form. Doubt instantly assailed him. The entire disaster had been precipitated by them—as they were now. If they hadn’t frightened Marlee half out of her wits she wouldn’t have run right in to the trap that bastard had set for her. He knew without any doubt that that was what had happened. He would never have caught her otherwise. She was too good at what she did and too smart. Sighing, he sat down instead of pulling her into his arms, trying to gather the strength to shift into human form. The change didn’t come as it had before. Settling his elbows on his knees, he cupped his pounding head and tried again. The hand that settled on his knee broke his concentration and he opened his eyes to stare at Marlee warily, unnerved to discover she was staring at him wide eyed. “Don’t be afraid, baby. It’s me—Gabe.” “I know it’s you.” She didn’t seem to be afraid, but he couldn’t tell how she felt about his appearance. “I’m too tired to make the change.” She pushed herself up on one elbow and grasped her head, wobbling. He caught her without thinking, steadying her. She looked down at his hand where he gripped her and he released her abruptly and withdrew his hand. “I never hurt you before, Marlee. I’m not going to now just because I look like a monster,” he said tightly. She looked like she was going to cry. To his surprise, she scrambled up and threw herself at him, burrowing her face against his chest. “I’m so glad you’re alright! I was so worried!” Surprise flickered through him. He curled his arms around her tentatively. “You were?” “Of course I was!” she said crossly. She pulled away after a moment, studying his face and finally smiled. “You’re handsome even as a dragon.” He couldn’t help but grin at her. “You think so?” She looked a little unnerved, but she slipped her arms around his neck and burrowed her face against him. “You’re Gabe and I love you and that’s all that matters to me,” she murmured. “I’m so sorry I made you think I wouldn’t care if I knew. It was just … such a shock! But all I could think after Fletcher grabbed me was that ….” Marlee stopped abruptly and pulled away, searching the shadowy interior of the cave. Relief flooded her when she counted five other dragons—four black and another golden dragon. Her heart leapt. “John?”

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He opened his eyes and smiled at her lazily. Stumbling away from Gabe, she dropped to her knees when she reached John, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his face all over. “You’re alive! I was so afraid.” He curled his arms around her. “I was worried about you, too.” She frowned, lifting a hand to her head. “He shot me,” she said when she felt the stiff hair where her wound had been. “He hit you with his pistol,” Aaron corrected her. She turned, following the sound of his voice to the source. “But … it’s gone now. I had a concussion. I was so nauseated, I know I did.” He grinned at her toothily and flicked his tongue at her. “Dragon magic.” She stared at him, vaguely horrified for a moment and then chuckled. “That’s just gross.” He shrugged. “Whatever works. You weren’t in any condition to object and I wasn’t in any position to offer anything else.” She smiled at him apologetically. “I wasn’t complaining. You had to do the gross stuff. Thank you!” He looked away bashfully. “We’re dragons. It didn’t seem that way to me. Anyway, you’re our ….” He stopped and flicked at look at Gabriel and then John. “You’re our woman.” Marlee settled beside John, leaning against him as the adrenaline that had shot through her at the discovery that John was alive began to wane. She actually didn’t feel at all well, she realized. She’d been virtually free of pain when she woke and had simply reacted, but she wasn’t totally healed. She was still a little dizzy and vaguely nauseated. She settled her head against John’s side. “That’s what John and Eli did after the bear attacked me. That’s why they thought I hadn’t been hurt.” “I didn’t know what else to try,” Eli said in a growly drawl still recognizable as his voice. “You were dying.” John sighed. “I didn’t actually think it would work. We’ve never tried to heal a human before.” Marlee digested that. “Not that I feel like objecting—now—but how did we get from healing Marlee to … uh … the other stuff.” Eli snorted, the sound a mixture of amusement and self-disgust. “We don’t know, baby. That’s something we haven’t figured out. We actually know a lot more about being human than we know about being dragons. We couldn’t even change into dragon form before.” Marlee stared at him. “Why wouldn’t you know about being dragons?” she asked blankly. They looked at one another. “Mother died here … protecting us,” John said quietly. “The Spaniards came, searching for gold, and they thought she had hidden gold here in her den. All she had hidden her, though, was us and she fought them to the death to keep them from finding us. Our fathers were human. They raised us in the way of the people—Native Americans.” Marlee felt her throat close. “The legend of the golden dragon,” she murmured. Even after she’d said it, however, it took many moments for it to actually sink in. “That was your mother?” It was stupid even to ask, she realized as soon as she had. Everything fit. Gabriel and John had taken after their mother and the others had taken after their fathers—plural. She was on the point of asking them how their mother had managed to become impregnated by six different men when she realized how absurd that was. Their mother was a dragon. Not that she knew

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anything at all about them, but dogs and cats could and did have multiple fathers for their offspring given the opportunity. Evidently, that was a trait shared by dragons. That thought led to another, but she dismissed it. She wasn’t a dragon. Her baby was half dragon, though. She frowned. Maybe that was a quarter? “They will be as we are—dragon,” Gabriel said quietly. Marlee lifted her head and looked at him. “How could they be? How could you be?” He shook his head. “We know what we are whether we have the knowledge of our ancestors or not. And we know what they are. They led us to you.” Marlee blinked at him, trying to assimilate that. “Wait a minute! They?” Eli flicked an irritated look at Gabriel. Getting to his feet, he stretched—and then transformed himself into the Eli she knew. Minus clothes. When he did, the others got up and changed one by one until only Gabriel and John were still in dragon form. The realization that they were both still too weak to change forms, because they’d nearly died to protect her, made emotion form in her throat. It wasn’t gratitude that she was still alive, although she was. It was gratefulness that they were. It chilled her to think they’d nearly died, that she’d come that close to losing them without ever acknowledging it to herself that she’d fallen in love with them let alone them. She still felt as if none of the things she’d thought happened had and yet she was lying against a very real feeling dragon and staring at another. She’d watched them change from beast to man. She supposed that kind of acceptance might take a while. She glanced at Eli and smiled, struggling with the urge to tell him she loved him. It seemed important to tell him right away, not to take another chance that she might miss the opportunity, and yet she wanted to tell him when they alone together. “When can we go home?” Eli’s gaze sharpened. After a moment, his lips curled in a smile. “We’ll have to wait for dark, baby. Nobody believes in dragons anymore, but they might if they saw dragons in the sky.” It wasn’t particularly comfortable, but Marlee wasn’t inclined to object when he was right—it wasn’t safe for them to be seen. In any case, she was still weak from the ordeal herself. “What happened to Fletcher?” she asked abruptly, feeling fear creep through her in a cold wave. “He decided to see if he could leap to the next peak,” Joshua said with grim amusement. “I don’t think he made it.” Marlee glanced at him when he spoke and did a double take before she could stop herself. Good god! The poor man was … deformed! No wonder Eli had made the joke about Tripping Rabbit! Not that it was long enough to trip over, but Knock’s Knees wasn’t that far off! Feeling her face turn as red as fire, she dragged her gaze from him and studied the floor since there wasn’t a one of them that was wearing a stitch of clothing. She’d almost gotten used to the fact that they strolled around the house half naked much of the time—shirtless and barefoot—but she didn’t see how they could seem so at ease without anything on! She cleared her throat uncomfortably. “I guess we don’t have to worry about him anymore then.” “I don’t think he’d in any condition to tell them anything,” Eli drawled, amusement lacing his voice. “I think I’ll find that water I’ve been smelling. You thirsty, baby?” She sent him a startled look. “Smelling? I’m not sure I want to drink water you can smell.”

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He chuckled. “You won’t smell it. I promise.” She was thirsty, but she was also a little suspicious about the invitation. “She doesn’t need to be walking around,” John said coolly. “She’s still weak. She lost a lot blood.” “Which means she needs the water,” Eli retorted. “I’ll carry her.” “I can walk,” Marlee said, getting to her feet. “Maybe, but that won’t give me the pleasure of carrying you, will it?” She smiled up at him a little doubtfully. “You were hurt, too.” “If I stumble and fall, you can catch me like you did old Gabe over there,” he said, scooping her up and cradling her against his chest. She knew he was teasing and it still embarrassed her. “I did that? I don’t remember.” “Good thing, too. He would’ve fallen on his face. The look on his face when he discovered you were trying to prop him up was priceless.” Marlee looped her arms around his neck and burrowed her face there. “I was so scared, Eli,” she murmured. His arms tightened. “We were, too, baby,” he said huskily. “We thought we’d lost our darling.” “I thought … I was afraid I was going to lose all of you.” “Well, we’re pretty tough.” Marlee uttered a watery chuckle, lifting her face to look at him. “That’s an understatement if I ever heard one.” She settled her head against his shoulder. “Do you hate me for running when I found out …?” “Hell no! We knew you were going to. That’s why we didn’t tell you and we’d gone up to pow wow and see if we could figure out how to—or better yet, how to keep you finding out.” “You aren’t serious?” “Yeah, well, you know I tried to hint it at you. I could see right then that you really didn’t want to know.” “It wasn’t that! It’s just … hard to believe there’s such a thing, really, as dragons.” “Only the six of us as far as we know. Never met any others. We looked. Of course, we didn’t know how to assume our dragon forms or we would’ve been able to look further, but I’m thinking we’re all there is. Mother never found a mate among her own kind. That’s why she chose our fathers.” “So … that part of the story is true?” “All of it’s true. The natives passed the story down.” Marlee couldn’t think of a response to that. It was almost harder to believe that they could possibly be as old as he was saying they were than it was to believe they were dragons. She discovered when Eli settled her on the side of a pool of water at the back of the cavern that they had company. Eli didn’t especially look pleased about it, but he seemed to shrug it off. He splashed her as he dove in and she discovered the water was hot, not cold as she’d expected. The pool was also deceptively deep—so clear it seemed the bottom couldn’t be more than a few inches away and yet deep enough for him to dive in. He slung his long hair back when he surfaced and sloughed the water from his face. “Come on in. It’s warm. It’ll make you feel better.” Marlee glanced at the others as they, too, dove in. It was one thing to be intimate, privately, with three of the brothers and something else entirely to get naked and swim with them. She didn’t have a change of clothes, however, and sitting around in wet clothes didn’t

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appeal to her. “You mean … undress?” she whispered and then reddened when it echoed around the room. She might as well have used a megaphone! She discovered the men were grinning at her. “Baby, I didn’t know you were so shy,” Eli murmured, laughter threading his voice. “I’m not! I’m just not an exhibitionist.” “Well, I can promise you if you take everything off … we’re all going to look.” Marlee gaped at him when sank in. “That’s what I was afraid of!” Eli flicked water at her face, chuckled and turned to swim off. She watched them a little enviously for several moments. She was sticky and dirty, too, and her hair felt horribly matted. Sighing in defeat, she undressed since it seemed they were all focused on enjoying their swim. She discovered when she’d shimmied out of her jeans, however, that she had their undivided attention. She covered her mound with one hand and clamped an arm across her breasts. “Too late now, baby. We already saw it all,” Eli said, laughing. She shook her head at him, moved to the edge and jumped in, sending a wave of water over his laughing face. By the time she’d surfaced again and shoved her hair out of her eyes he was laying in wait for her. She hadn’t anticipated retaliation. She was pretty sure she snorted about half the water he shoved at her. He caught her around the waist when she began to sink. Holding her until she finally managed to stop coughing. “You alright?” “No thanks to you!” she said without heat. “I don’t think I’m thirsty anymore.” “Well, hell, baby, you aren’t supposed to drink this water!” She sent him an anxious look, wondering if there was something wrong with it. “Why?” “Cause we’re bathing in it.” She stared at his face for a long moment, torn between the urge to shove his head under and the urge to laugh. Finally, she merely curled her arms around his neck and nuzzled his ear. “I love you, Eli.” His arms tightened around her. When he eased her away, he studied her face. “You feel the blood bond, baby?” She frowned at him in confusion. “Blood bond? I don’t understand.” The light in his eyes dimmed a little. He cupped her face between his large palms. “It’s alright, baby,” he murmured, tilting his head and matching his lips to hers. His kiss warmed her and yet uncertainty still flickered through her. “It’s not alright, Eli,” she said quietly when he broke the kiss. “I want to understand.” He frowned. “It’s hard to explain something I don’t understand completely myself,” he said wryly. “Try.” “You’re carrying my baby. We mated. I’m bound to you by blood. It’s a bond I could never break even if I wanted to.” Marlee smiled her relief. “It binds us, too, Eli. Whether we want it be that or way or not—even if a man and woman stopping loving one another in time—the bond is still there when they’ve had a child together.” That was the difference, Eli thought unhappily. Humans could and did stop loving one another and go their separate ways, and sometimes the love turned to hate. The feelings he had for Marlee would remain the same. He might want to hate her when and if she stopped loving him and left, but he would never be able to stop the yearning. He would always feel torn apart

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without her. Still, it was something that she felt that she loved him when she knew him for he was. He hadn’t looked for that much. He’d thought, just as the others had, that as soon as she discovered he wasn’t the man she thought he was everything she believed she felt would disappear, as well. “If you’ve soaked long enough to suit you, I’ll take you to the fountain.” Surprise flickered through Marlee, but she nodded and followed him as he crossed the pool to the other side. The shadows were so deep in the back that she didn’t see the opening that led deeper into the mountain until they’d reached the edge of the pool and climbed out. She shivered as she got out of the warm water, sorry she’d left her clothing on the other side, but she followed Eli and the others through the opening. Fortunately, it wasn’t far at all. The shadowed area was a small ‘room’ of the cavern little more than eight feet by eight. At the back, water trickled from the rock and into a basin it had worn in the rock below it from the many years it had dripped there. It was so icy cold it numbed her fingers and gave her brain freeze. “All the comforts of home,” she murmured when she’d drank her fill. Eli lifted his head and looked around. “It seemed that way to us … and safe. I guess it was.” Discomfort flickered through her that she’d been so flippant about it and he’d noticed. “You remember it?” Marlee asked tentatively. He dragged in a deep, shuddering breath and expelled it. “Yeah. I remember it.” He smiled a little crookedly. “That’s the curse of the dragon, baby. They remember everything.”

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Chapter Thirteen Marlee spent much of the day catnapping. She thought if she could’ve actually gotten comfortable it wouldn’t have been napping but the deep, healing sleep she really needed from both the injuries and the emotional trauma. She certainly didn’t feel completely recovered in any sense. She thought it had been more shocked disbelief that had sent her barreling down the hill when she’d seen the guys in dragon form than actual fear. There was no getting around the fact that she’d also been afraid, but she hadn’t been afraid of the guys from the start. Suddenly becoming terrified of them because their appearance had changed, she thought, was akin to abruptly rejecting someone you’d loved because they’d suffered disfigurement of some kind. Their appearance might be and usually was a part of the package you loved, but true love, she thought, was about the whole package and that didn’t change, or shouldn’t, because the exterior did. If it did, then you’d just never truly loved at all or you weren’t capable of it. The incident settled one thing completely in her mind. She loved them. It didn’t matter how unconventional it was or how unreasonable it might seem to outsiders. She loved them— and not just Gabriel, Eli, and John. Her fear of their appearance had instantly switched to fear for them when she’d thought they might be hurt or, worse, killed, and that fear had been far more devastating … and telling, at least to her. She couldn’t help but wonder if, as Eli had suggested, she’d suspected for a long time, maybe even knew in some carefully guarded part of her mind, that they weren’t human but something else that appeared to be human. She just hadn’t been willing to accept it. She didn’t know, but she thought if not for the incident with Fletcher, it would’ve taken her far longer to progress as far as she had in accepting. And she still hadn’t fully accepted it. Maybe she never would. It defied everything she’d ever thought of as the ‘real world’. People that actually believed in anything outside that narrow perimeter were fruitcakes. It was alright to fantasize and entertain oneself with stories of ghosts and goblins and fairytales about dragons, unicorns, and other mythical creatures, but the feet were supposed to stay firmly planted in reality—and reality was accepted knowledge and/or scientific theory based on observations. Of course, as advanced as mankind was actual proven knowledge about the world and the universe would just about fill a thimble. It wasn’t just the holes between known and unknown either. The ‘known’ fell apart so regularly with new discoveries that it was hard to figure out where to stand anymore. The certainty that this or that was nothing but a myth invented by ignorant, superstitious savages had also been disproven time and again. She could certainly testify to the one about dragons! The thought swamped her with guilt that she hadn’t realized she’d been nursing. She’d almost singlehandedly been responsible for wiping out the last of them. It didn’t matter that they’d made the decision to forfeit their lives if necessary to protect hers. She was an investigator, both by nature and training, and she’d been going around with blinders on. She should’ve paid more attention to Fletcher’s behavior instead of simply dismissing him as a lecher

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and vulgarly, morbidly curious. Everything he’d said, suggested, and asked, and every mannerism he’d displayed should have set off alarms in her head, should have drawn her focus until she’d figured out what he was up to. Instead, she’d been so focused on her own concerns and caught up in the wild courtship of the dragon brothers that she’d either ignored or neatly shelved everything. She should’ve at least made an attempt to figure out what he wanted and what he was up to and why he was fixated on her—because she had noticed that even though she’d misinterpreted it! If she had, she would’ve realized that he wasn’t going to give up just because she seemed to have vanished. He must have been looking for that legendary pot of gold for years! That was a sign of serious, dangerous greed and absolute dedication to do whatever it took to satisfy it! She was almost as sure that he’d fully intended to murder her once she showed him how to find what he wanted as she was that he hadn’t actually anticipated or intended to kill anyone else. Even knowing she was an FBI agent, he must have considered that, being a woman, she wouldn’t be difficult to handle or dispose of. And since he’d been the one that had suggested Native Americans might be involved to start with, it probably hadn’t taken him long to put her with Eli and figure out where she was likely to be. John had caught him off guard and it had scared the pure piss out of him to find himself confronting what he perceived as a young, virile male far stronger and more agile than he was. He must have been watching her from a distance for quite some time, long enough to know that when the guys went up the hill they all went and they were all gone for a long time and that that was all he could count on. There was no pattern for him to take advantage of beyond that. They went when the ‘mood’ struck them, and it was the only time she was alone for any length of time at all. Her deviation from pattern must have thrown him off. If he’d been watching long enough to figure out the pattern, then he must have been waiting for the next opportunity and been thrown completely off kilter when she’d left the house before he could grab her. She didn’t think he would’ve taken a chance on waylaying her otherwise. He would’ve been worried that her deviation might prevent him from grabbing her and making off with her with enough time to elude the men—which meant he’d already been shaken up. He’d probably half feared what had happened and that had been enough to thoroughly rattle him. Seeing his plan falling apart, he’d made one mistake after another, shooting and killing John, he thought, and then nearly killing her. He couldn’t have planned to pistol whip her when he needed her to show him the cave. People with head injuries didn’t make very good guides and she didn’t think he’d been stupid. She had put the dragon clan in danger. As long as they kept to themselves they were safe from detection by humans and safe from eradication by them. As strong as they were, they weren’t invincible and that was something they’d always known when their mother had been slain for the gold humans thought she was hoarding—might even have seen her slain. Now she understood completely why John had warned Eli that it wasn’t safe for them to interfere in human affairs. They’d put everyone at risk just by becoming involved themselves. She’d thought she’d understood even then. It was standard procedure to investigate anyone that reported an accident or crime because quite often the people that reported it were involved. And they couldn’t afford close scrutiny. All the police would’ve had to do was demand a DNA sample from them, or forcefully take it, and they would’ve been on the run just like she had been.

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She had to suppose their dragon DNA from the baby was what had piqued her government’s interest in her. That was an unpleasant thought on several levels. It meant she was a continuing threat to them, at least as long as she was pregnant. It also meant she couldn’t afford to risk getting prenatal care. She’d been leery of trying it even before she knew. It didn’t comfort her to know positively that that wasn’t an option for her. That might not have been such a terrifying prospect if she’d ever had a baby before. At least she would have some experience to fall back on! As it was, she was completely in the dark and completely on her own! By afternoon, John and Gabriel had recovered enough from their wounds to shift to human form. That was a great comfort to Marlee. She hadn’t realized she’d still been worried sick about them until she saw they’d regained enough strength to manage the shift. It was really disturbing on another level, however. Instead of having four beautiful males pacing restlessly around the cave stark naked, she then had six and it was really hard to keep her mind off of that fact. She began to suspect, in point of fact, that their restlessness was at least partially connected to her preoccupation with all the swinging dicks. When she’d first noticed, they’d all been pointing at 6:00. By noon, they were drifting toward 3:00 and by mid-afternoon most of them were going on 12:00 and she was going on stir crazy. **** She was reacting to them, Eli thought when he could think at all. He knew that had to be why Marlee was aroused and it didn’t do a damned thing to cool the rising blood. None of them had considered what the results of being confined with Marlee in such a small area for such a prolonged period of time might be, but by mid-afternoon Eli realized Marlee wasn’t just aroused. She was going in to heat. It defied logic that she could when she was breeding already, but there was no getting around the seductive, subtle alteration of her scent. They were making her go into heat with their pheromones just as they had that first time because it sure as hell wasn’t ‘natural’ to her. He considered, several times, hauling her off to a place with some privacy and scratching her itch before it got completely out of hand, but he’d been afraid that would only precipitate the disaster he wanted to avoid. Joshua, Luke, and Aaron had been on edge for weeks now and getting worse because they wanted Marlee and they refused to assuage their needs elsewhere. Or maybe they had and it just hadn’t done any damned good because Marlee pulled them right back in the moment they got close enough to come under the spell of her scent? Regardless and despite his own preoccupation, he could see that they were getting perilously close to falling completely into the mating fever and neither Gabriel nor John were strong enough at the moment to help him fend them off of her if they lost control. Ordinarily, he might have been able to handle it by himself, but this sure as hell wasn’t an ordinary situation. ‘Ordinary’ was just pissed off but still in possession of the ability to see reason. ‘Ordinary’ would never include the potential that they might consider fighting to the death if that was what it took to get their hands on her. He considered dragging her to the pool to bathe again in the hope that it might give them time to cool down. As long as she was in the pool, they wouldn’t be able to detect the scent. Unfortunately, he was afraid it was the first bath that had set the wheels in motion to start with. It had made Marlee more aware of them and them more aware of her. Convincing her strip down again might tip the scales in the wrong direction.

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He should’ve known when she covered herself that that was a sign that she was acutely conscious of the others, but he’d been too damned focus on her himself to consider it might create a problem. If he could just think of some distraction, for all of them, that would be the best bet, but there wasn’t a hell of a lot to work with when they didn’t dare leave the cave for fear of attracting just the attention they didn’t want. Food would’ve been a welcome distraction, but they didn’t have it and couldn’t get it. It was the growing need to work off some of his excess energy that finally produced the solution he’d been trying to come up with. In all honesty, he’d been far more focused on working it off with his fists if he could find a place far enough from Marlee to keep her from knowing what he was up to, but he didn’t particularly care how he worked off steam as long as he could. “I think I’m going to explore the cave system,” he said tightly, abruptly surging to his feet and staring at Joshua, Luke, and Aaron pointedly. “Why don’t you three come with me?” It was enough to distract them from their hungry appraisal of Marlee, but they stared at him so blankly for several moments that he thought they’d completely missed the hint. Joshua’s face hardened after a moment, however, and he got up. “Good idea!” He punched Luke on the shoulder. “Come on. You, too, Aaron.” Uneasiness slithered through Marlee. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean, we don’t have lights. What if you get lost?” Eli smiled at her thinly. “We aren’t human even if we look like we are. We can see well enough that isn’t going to be a problem—and follow a scent trail for that matter.” He was sorry he’d added that last tidbit of information since it instantly reminded him and the others of the very thing he was trying to avoid, particularly since Marlee seemed to take it as a personal affront and a direct, derogatory reference to the fact that she was human. She sent him a look that was part hurt and part anger and finally smiled tightly. “I keep forgetting.” She got up. “I think I’ll just go with you. I need to stretch my legs.” Dismay flickered through Eli. “Stretch them here,” he growled. It wasn’t the least bit tactful and he knew it, but he wasn’t in the mood to be fucking diplomatic! Shrugging his shoulders at the laser glare he knew she’d focused on the middle of his back, he led the way. He began to relax when they’d passed the areas he was familiar with. Despite his remarks to Marlee, it was dark enough fairly quickly to make it a strain even for him to see well. He wasn’t worried about finding his way out. He was confident that wouldn’t be a problem. He was a little uneasy about discovering a shaft leading down by stepping into it, however. The shadows were deep enough that it was difficult for him to tell until he was right up on them whether it was a deeper shadow or a hole. The narrow passage he’d taken from the fountain seemed to go on forever without showing any signs of opening up to a larger cavern and he’d just decided that the ruse had been a waste of time after all when he found what he’d been looking for—a larger cavern. Actually, he found a lot more than he’d been looking for or expected. He found their mother’s treasure room. **** “He’s certainly a bear when he’d hungry!” Marlee muttered when Eli and the others left. “He’s a beast when he’s horny,” Gabriel said dryly. Getting to his feet and stretching, he closed his eyes and transformed himself to human form.

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Pleased to see he’d healed enough to shift forms, Marlee smiled at him, but she was still upset about Eli’s crankiness. It didn’t seem to her that it been long enough since they’d last had sex to account for that level of horniness! “It’s your arousal he’s responding to,” John said coolly, nudging her away so that he, too, could get up, stretch and change forms. Marlee felt her face redden with a mixture of indignation and embarrassment. “I’m not aroused!” John and Gabriel exchanged a speaking glance. “I think I’ll make use of the pool,” John said after examining himself. “I’ll join you,” Gabriel agreed. “I’m sticky.” “I think I’ll go, too,” Marlee said, getting up. “Stay here!” both of them growled at her in unison. Marlee gaped at them in dismay for several moments before the shock wore off that they’d growled at her. She glared at their backs as they strode toward the back of the cave, but she couldn’t help but notice they had really nice backs—nice butts, too. Nice everything actually. “That’s exactly why you need to stay put,” Gabriel growled, throwing her a look over his shoulder. “Try to keep in mind that there are six horny dragons penned up with you.” That comment was disconcerting enough to set her back for several moments, but she discovered when she’d thought it over that she wasn’t nearly as unnerved as she thought she ought to be. She didn’t know if that was because she trusted them or if it was because the idea of having all of them was actually a little titillating. Alright, more than a little! Maybe he was right and she was a little horny? She hadn’t thought so, but maybe it was residual survival syndrome—the need to reaffirm life after a near death experience, the search for comfort and reassurance? She’d thought she’d done that when she’d hugged them all so tightly. She’d needed that. None of them, including her, had been in any shape to even consider more, but she’d needed to hold on for all she was worth. If there hadn’t been so many to worry about, she thought she wouldn’t have been satisfied with just a hug. She would’ve wanted to cling until the shakes went away. It didn’t necessarily have to be for that reason, though, she thought a little irritably. They didn’t have clothes to put on. That was probably enough by itself to keep fucking on their minds. It certainly was for her! No red-blooded female, she was sure, could spend the day confined in a small area with six naked hunks and not entertain fantasies. She was still mulling that over when the objects of her thoughts returned and she discovered that the explorers had found something to distract all of them. Marlee surged to her feet and went to meet them as soon she saw what Eli was carrying. “You found that in the cave? What is it?” Eli grinned at her a little shakily like someone who’d just won a million dollars. “Mother left it for us. In ancient times they called them a philosopher’s stone.” Marlee frowned. It actually looked more like a bowling ball except it didn’t have finger holes. It was about the size of one anyway. It looked like it was made of glass, though. “I’ve never heard of one. What is it?” Eli knelt and carefully set down on the stone floor. He flicked a look at her curious face and grinned again. “It’s like an ancient computer. It contains data.”

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Marlee stared at him blankly for several moments and then stared at the ball again. “You’re joking, right? It’s just glass. How could you tell it was ancient?” “Actually it’s crystal and I know what it is because it spoke to me.” Marlee gaped at him that time and then looked around at the faces of the others, more convinced than before that they’d hatched some kind of practical joke. Not that she’d ever noticed they had the tendency to do such a thing, but there was always a first time for everything. She couldn’t see anything to indicate that she was right, though. They all looked excited, tense with expectation, but she didn’t get the sense that it had anything to do with her at all. “It spoke to you?” He lifted a hand to her. Still convinced he had some sort of trick in mind, she took his hand. He tugged on her arm until she sat beside him. “Place your hands on it like this,” he said, showing her. Frowning, she did what he said, waiting for the punch line. “Do you hear it?” “I don’t hear anything.” Instead of laughing as she expected, he looked disconcerted. “Nothing?” As unpleasant a thought as it was, it occurred to Marlee that maybe he actually could hear something and she couldn’t because she was human. “Maybe only dragons can hear it? You said your mother left it.” He blinked at her and glanced around at his brothers. “I have an idea,” Gabriel said abruptly, lifting his hand to her. Reluctantly, she got up and moved to him. That time, though, Gabriel directed her to sit in his lap. Her suspicions immediately rose again, but she wasn’t against a game of whatever they had in mind. It might be fun! He surprised her by settling his palm over her belly and placing one hand on the ball. “Now you put your hand on the other side and just hold it there.” Still wary, Marlee did as he instructed. Almost immediately, she felt an odd … almost like a prickling in her head. She thought at first that it was her scalp, but then she heard a voice in her head. She jerked her hand from the ball and it stopped. She met Gabriel’s gaze. “What was that?” “The language of dragons—my mother’s voice.” She realized abruptly why they were all so excited—or thought she did. They hadn’t heard their mother’s voice since they’d been nothing but babies. She swallowed against the tightness of emotion that closed her throat with empathy for them. “Do you understand it?” “A dragon never forgets anything,” Eli said, reminding her of what he’d said before. “I heard it because of the baby,” Marlee said abruptly as that realization sank in. Gabriel flicked a look at Eli and then John and shook his head ever so slightly. She wasn’t certain what that communication was all about but before she could ask, he placed her hand on the ball again. “Listen and you’ll understand it, too.” She wasn’t convinced, but after a few moments, she discovered he was right. The words resolved into speech she could understand and the voice was definitely feminine. It made her feel strange to hear the woman’s voice explaining the history of dragons and their abilities. It occurred to her forcefully after only a little while that the messages weren’t merely a general history at all. All of it had been for the sons she’d left behind. She was on the point of releasing her hold on the philosopher’s stone when the voice began to explain her trials in searching for a mate. She hesitated, but she’d been fascinated by the tale when she’d read it.

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The opportunity to hear it told from the viewpoint of the golden dragon herself was irresistible. She explained how she’d taken the seed of man and made it her own so that she could produce her sons. And then she explained that her sons would have to find mates among human women as she’d found her mates. They would first have to blood bond with her by sharing blood of dragon with the human female. That would make her womb receptive to their seed, would bring her into her fruitfulness for them, and produce the eggs they needed for their seed. Only then could they have off-spring of their own. She cautioned them, though, that they should seed the female and move on else they would become bound to her through the seed they’d sown. Marlee jerked her hand from the crystal and surged to her feet. She discovered she couldn’t think of a thing to say once she had, however. After staring at John and Eli for several moments, she finally left the men to listen to their mother. The temptation to leave the cave for a breath of fresh air was strong, but she wasn’t so lost to her emotions to forget the danger of doing so. Instead, she left the main cavern and headed back to the hot pool. They’d accidentally bred her and they’d accidentally bonded with her. She discovered she couldn’t escape that fact even after she’d stripped and swum the pool enough laps to exhaust herself. Now she understood why they hadn’t tried to find her afterward! She supposed it had to have been instinct, though. As much as she would’ve liked to blame them for something so that she could just be angry instead of so hurt she felt like dying, she was as convinced as she could be that they hadn’t known. They’d blood bonded with her when they’d decided to save her life. She knew that had to be it and that meant that they’d fought the bear to save her and been wounded themselves. She couldn’t think of any other way it had happened. Eli had told her they didn’t understand themselves what had happened, that they hadn’t been in control any more than she had been. She wanted to cry. She didn’t even understand why she felt like crying, but the urge was so strong that it was only the fact that she knew they’d hear her that kept her from yielding to it. They hadn’t wanted her any of the time, she realized after a while. That was what made her want to cry. They’d just felt sorry for her because she was dying and tried to help. That was all it had ever been! Except that she’d come back, looking for them, and they’d been snagged in the net they’d woven without even realizing they were. She’d been snagged, too. She’d fallen in love with them—because the poor idiots didn’t have a clue that they’d gotten tangled in the pheromones—or whatever—that they’d inadvertently given her when they’d shared blood transfer. That was what the tests had found! She was abruptly certain of it because she knew it was still there. That was why they found her damned irresistible! That was why every time she became aroused it drove them up the wall! “Marlee?” Marlee jerked all over at the sudden intrusion, whipping her head to look at Gabriel. “It’s dusk. I think it’s safe for us to head home.” Marlee swallowed with an effort against the fist sized lump in her throat and finally nodded. Getting up, she put the clothes on that she’d discarded to swim and followed Gabriel back to the main cavern. The others, she discovered, had already assumed their dragon forms. Eli had the crystal tucked carefully in his arms and was standing at the cave entrance, surveying the landscape below.

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Gabriel shifted and reached for her. “I’ll carry you.” Marlee resisted. She didn’t want to get that close at the moment, even if he was in dragon form. He misunderstood. “I won’t drop you, baby. You’ll be safe.” She thought for a moment that she was going to lose her hard won control and burst into tears. She swallowed convulsively several times and finally managed to tamp the urge. The drop from the cave effectively diverted her mind. It felt like her belly floated up and wedged itself in her throat. By the time Gabriel caught the air currents with his wings and lifted the two of them higher, she was so tense she felt like a piece of petrified wood—except she was also shaking so badly her teeth began to rattle together. It didn’t help that it was dark. There was enough light in the night sky to illuminate the terrain far below her and strike terror into her heart. She’d never been more glad of anything in her life than she was when Gabriel began to descend and she saw the cabin she’d come to think of as home. Because it was where they lived. As soon as Gabriel settled and released her, and she managed to get her legs to function, Marlee marched into the house and straight up to the room where she’d been staying, slamming the door behind her and locking it. Her clothes were filthy even if she wasn’t, but she didn’t care. She sprawled on the bed, burrowed her face into a pillow, and wept until she was exhausted enough to pass out. The rattling of the door knob woke her. She lifted her head from the pillow groggily as it was followed by a knock. “What?” “We fixed dinner. Come on down and eat.” Marlee considered Gabriel’s invitation and decided her hunger had passed and she could make them think she was suffering without actually having to. “I’m not hungry.” He didn’t say anything for moments, but he didn’t leave. “You should be. You haven’t had anything since yesterday.” “Well, I’m not!” “Open the door.” “Why?” “Marlee!” he growled. “Open the fucking door! I just got the damned thing fixed. I don’t feel like fixing it again!” She glared at the panel. “Go away. I told you I wasn’t hungry! I’m tired.” “Don’t be childish, Marlee! You need to eat for the babies’ sake even if you won’t do it for yourself!” Her temper rose. “It isn’t going to hurt me or the baby to do without a meal!” Marlee snapped. “I’m not being childish, damn it!” “What’s going on?” Eli asked Gabriel from the other side of the door. “She won’t come out.” “Quit sulking and come eat,” Eli growled. “Asshole! I’m not sulking!” “The food is getting cold,” John said irritably, joining Eli and Gabriel at the door. “What’s going on?” “Marlee locked the door and won’t come out.” “Marlee?” John said gently. “What?” “Get your ass out here or I’m coming in!”

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“For crying out loud!” Marlee said through gritted teeth. “I’m tired, damn it!” “You’re tired because you haven’t eaten anything in a solid day and you lost a lot of blood, Marlee. What is going on with you?” If he hadn’t decided on that approach she would’ve told him to go to hell. It occurred to her rather forcefully, though, that there wasn’t much point in hiding in the room if she made it clear she was hiding because she was so miserable. “Fine! I’ll change and be down in a few minutes.” “If I have come back to get you I’m going to break the fucking door down!” Eli threatened. “Scaring her isn’t going to get her to come out,” Gabriel said tightly. “I’m not scared!” Marlee snapped, rolling off the bed and stomping toward the dresser to find a clean change of clothes. Apparently the opening and closing of the drawer satisfied them. She heard them turn and head back down the stairs again. She was tempted to push it and see if Eli really would break the door down, but she decided that actually might be a little bit scary besides making a mess and making it hard to shut the door. As Gabriel had pointed out, they’d just gotten it fixed from the first time. In any case, she was empty even if she didn’t especially feel hungry and he was right about the blood loss. Her hair had still been matted to her head with dried blood when she’d woken up. Then, too, she didn’t know what she was going to do now that she knew the whole truth. It didn’t change the fact that she was pregnant and one of them was the father. It didn’t change a whole lot of anything, in fact, except that she was miserable now when she’d happy before. When she’d changed, she went downstairs and took the seat reserved for her. The food had cooled while she’d screwed around arguing and then dressing, but it was still wonderful! She had to say one thing for them, they all knew how to cook! Actually, they were so good at everything she thought she would probably have a hard time thinking of something they weren’t good at. Which stood to reason considering they were probably two or three hundred years old, at least, even if they still looked like they were her age. They aged well, too. It flickered through her mind to wonder if they were still going to look the same way when she was so old she looked like a prune. Probably, she thought glumly. It was small wonder they were so unhappy about being blood bound to her! If she hadn’t been a complete idiot it would’ve occurred to her before that they couldn’t possibly want to be tied to her. “This is good. Thank you whoever cooked,” she said when it finally dawned on her that she’d forgotten her manners. “There’s more if you want it,” Aaron said. She smiled at him a little wanly. “This is plenty. I’m full. It was really good, though.” “It was better hot,” he retorted wryly. She looked at him uncomfortably. “Is it my night to help in the kitchen?” “Don’t worry about it,” Eli drawled and then flicked a hard look around the table at his brothers. “It’s my night with Marlee. We need to talk anyway.” Marlee gaped at him, feeling her face heat. None of them had ever been that blatant about their arrangement! “Eli!” she gasped. His chair scraped the floor as he stood up and moved around the table. Marlee stared up at him, torn between the desire that flared in her at the mention of spending the night with him

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and embarrassment at the idea of simply getting up and leaving with him. He dragged her chair back from the table while she was still trying to think how to respond. The moment she stood up, he hauled her up and over one shoulder. “G’night all. Tell them goodnight, Marlee.” “Eli!” she grunted. “What?” he asked grimly, striding across the great room toward the stairs. “Put me down!” “As soon as we get to the bedroom.” “Now!” “I don’t think so, darling.” “You’re really starting to piss me off!” she growled threateningly. “Good, ‘cause I’m pretty pissed off, too. I think a rousing good fight is what we both need.” Her anger tanked. She rallied. “Exactly what do you think you’ve got to be pissed off about, Eli Bear!” He reached the upper landing and opened her door. She’d more than half expected him to toss her onto the bed, but he set her on her feet. “You told me not more than a few hours ago that you loved me and now you’re acting like you hate my guts! I can’t read that steel trap of a mind of yours, baby—I wish to hell I could—and I’m not worth a shit at guessing. I want to know why. What changed between there and here?” Her anger dissolved completely at that. “It’s what your mother said,” she said finally. He frowned, clearly searching his mind for what she was talking about. “About getting me pregnant.” He stared at her in outrage. “Did you actually listen? I didn’t know that was going to happen! I already told you that! It was an accident!” Marlee felt her face crumple. “I know!” she wailed. “I love you! How do you think it makes me feel to know it was accident? That you didn’t want me at all! Even the baby was an accident!” Thoroughly disconcerted, Eli stared at her for several moments and finally grasped her arms, pulling her against his chest and wrapping his arms tightly around her. “That part was an accident. You never asked me what I was doing in the park that day to start with.” Marlee sniffed and pushed away from him to look up at him. “Why were you in the park?” she asked a little hopefully. He shook his head at her. Lifting his hands he cupped her face between his palms. “Because I’d seen the prettiest little thing down at the diner I’d ever seen in my life. She looked tough as nails with her FBI flack vest and pistols, and I decided she was just the woman for me. So I followed you to the park figuring when you were done playing cop I’d see if you were interested in playing cowgirl and injuns.” Marlee felt her face heat, but then again she felt warm all over. She searched his eyes. “This isn’t like when you suggested you might have been on dream walk, is it?” He shook his head and then dipped lower to fit his lips to hers. “No, ma’am,” he murmured. “I was there for you, alright.” “I can always ask John his version,” she murmured, enjoying the feel of his mouth on hers. He smiled against her lips. “Yeah, well his version might be a little different.” He reached for her blouse and tugged it off, tossing it aside. “He thought he saw you first. We stopped to discuss it for a little while.” His gaze flickered over her face. “You wouldn’t have

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been hurt if we hadn’t. We would’ve been close enough to prevent it. Will you be pissed off again if I say I’m not sorry at all that things turned out the way they did? I was sorry as hell you got hurt, baby, but I’m not sorry I was there, and I’m not sorry I did any of the things I did.” “You aren’t? Not even a little bit?” “Not even a little bit.” She considered that for several moments. “John’s sorry.” “If he is, then he’s not as smart as I thought he was, but you’ll have to take that up with him,” he said, lifting her up and carrying her to the bed. “Tonight’s my night with my baby.” When Eli had stripped and the two of them were lying in the bed chest to chest, gazing into one another’s eyes, allowing themselves a few moments’ anticipation, Marlee lifted a hand to stroke his hard cheek. “You didn’t tell me you loved me, Eli,” she said, a little miffed that he hadn’t. His hard mouth curled upward faintly at one corner. “How about if I just show you?” he murmured in a husky drawl. “I’m more in to demonstrating my affection.” Marlee chuckled despite the flicker of disappointment that went through her. “Well,” she said finally, “if you aren’t going to tell me you’re going to have to work really hard to convince me.” His eyes gleamed. “I’m willing to devote the entire night to convincing you, baby, and tomorrow, too—whatever it takes. It might piss my brothers off since they were counting on spending a little time convincing you of their devotion, but I figure it’s worth getting my ass kicked to make sure you’re thoroughly convinced.”

The End.