Rugged Return

Rugged Savage Valley, Colorado 2

Rugged Return Michelle Andrews needs a break. After years of catering to her sister’s every whim, she’s lost herself. So she drags her sister away from the country music limelight and heads for Savage Valley, looking to catch some hard-earned R&R. What she catches instead are the hearts of charming bear-shifters Elias, Thomas, and Franklin Ashley. The brothers recognize something beautiful and good in Michelle, but they know she’s fragile. As they help her stand up to her sister and rediscover her strength, land-hungry NormCorp plans to unsettle the peaceful town. But will NormCorp’s violent scheme expose Savage Valley’s most treasured secret? Genre: Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Shape-shifter Length: 56,916 words

RUGGED RETURN Rugged Savage Valley, Colorado 2

Edith DuBois

MENAGE EVERLASTING

Siren Publishing, Inc. www.SirenPublishing.com

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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting

RUGGED RETURN Copyright © 2011 by Edith DuBois E-book ISBN: 1-61034-919-9 First E-book Publication: October 2011 Cover design by Les Byerley All art and logo copyright © 2011 by Siren Publishing, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission. All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

PUBLISHER Siren Publishing, Inc. www.SirenPublishing.com

Letter to Readers Dear Readers, If you have purchased this copy of Rugged Return by Edith Dubois from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

Regarding E-book Piracy This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book. The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment. This is Edith DuBois’ livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Dubois’ right to earn a living from her work. Amanda Hilton, Publisher www.SirenPublishing.com www.BookStrand.com

DEDICATION For anyone who has disappeared and then found herself again.

RUGGED RETURN Rugged Savage Valley, Colorado 2 EDITH DUBOIS Copyright © 2011

Chapter One “Oh!” Her sister’s sudden exclamation made Michelle Andrews jump and jerk the steering wheel. The vehicle tilted in a stomachlurching manner for a small moment. Once she had regained control of the car, she glared at Marina in the passenger seat and sucked in a breath to stuff down the boiling anger. “Don’t do that when I’m driving, please.” “Michelle, turn around.” Marina’s head craned around to look at something on the side of the road. “Turn around! Turn around! We have to go back.” Michelle slowed the black Cadillac Escalade, alarmed by Marina’s panic. “What is it? Did you lose something?” They’d been riding with the windows down, so Michelle thought maybe something had flown out. “Hurry. Pull over, Michelle!” “I’m pulling over as quickly as I can. Give me one second.” Marina beat on her door, impatient for the SUV to come to a halt. “Come on!” She looked at Michelle, annoyance written across her beautiful, doll-like features. “Pull over.” “I am, Marina. I said give me one second.”

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Marina rolled her eyes, huffed, and turned to look out the window. Before the Escalade came to a full stop, Marina opened the door and hopped down into the tall grass that edged Highway 40. They were on their way back from Denver, from an uncomfortable meeting with Marina’s therapist, and Michelle felt less accepting of Marina’s behavior than usual today. After putting the SUV in park, Michelle climbed out of the driver’s seat to see if Marina needed help looking for whatever she had lost. Marina bounded ahead of her, and a passing semi blasted its horn. Michelle jumped, anxiety spiking inside her at the loud, disconcerting noise and the violent whoosh of air that smacked into her. As she neared Marina, who searched determinedly through the tall grass, Michelle asked, “What are you looking for?” Marina didn’t answer and kept swatting the grass out of her way. “What is it, Marina?” Michelle halfheartedly poked at the grass, hoping that she would know what she was looking for when she saw it. Marina put one hand on her hip and then used the other to wipe her long bangs out of her face. The wind from a passing car blew them right back in her eyes. After the car had passed, Michelle heard a small noise. Marina must have heard it, too, because she perked up and began her search anew. “Marina, what exactly are we looking for?” Michelle had an ominous feeling in the pit of her stomach and began swatting at the grass again. Then she saw it. Its furry, little body quivered and trembled, crouched low in the grass and looking up at Michelle with big, brown, take-me-home-please eyes. “Oh crap,” she whispered to herself. She squelched down her instinct to pick up and cradle the little thing in her arms. After Marina’s appointment, Dr. Brine had pulled Michelle aside. She’d said Michelle needed to work on subduing her motherly instincts, needed to rein in the urge to control everything and

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everyone. Looking at the little body in the grass now and keeping Dr. Brine’s advice in mind, Michelle said, “Tell me that this is not what you had me pull over for.” Marina ran over, a look of excited expectation lighting up her already brilliant features. “Oh, did you find him?” She reached Michelle, squealed, and then scooped the wayward puppy up into her arms. He had white fur with a dark-brown stretch of fur covering his eyes and part of his ears, making him look like a masked bandit. He had one large brown spot on the right side of his ribs, and one black spot splashing over his butt and the base of his tail. “You are so adorable,” Marina crooned. She touched his nose in affection with the tip of her finger, rubbed his ears, and lavished kisses all over his tiny shaking body. “Marina, don’t. He probably has fleas and ticks and who knows what else kind of disease. Put him down. Come on. Let’s go back to the car.” She knew it sounded harsh, but she needed to get Marina away from the puppy before her sister’s pleas to take him home could change her mind. “Hell no.” Marina pulled the puppy closer to her body, and then with a gasp, she began stomping through the grass again. “What if he has brothers and sisters?” she asked, stricken. “We have to make sure. We have to find them. Yes we do. Yes we do have to find them.” She had turned her attention back to the puppy and was speaking to him in a high-pitched, coddling tone. “You don’t want to be all alone in this big, bad world do you, little fella? No you don’t. I know.” She rubbed him and kissed him. Michelle watched her with arms crossed, her irritation rising. It wasn’t that she didn’t feel sorry for the puppy. A puppy on the side of the highway was always sad. It was only that Michelle knew Marina. Even though she was completely smitten now when the puppy was helpless and pathetic and in dire need of a rescue, Michelle knew that tomorrow when he needed to go

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pee at four in the morning, Marina wouldn’t be the one hauling her ass out of bed to let him out. “Come on, little fella. Let’s help Mama look for your brothers and sisters.” Marina moved through the grass. “Marina, we’re taking him to the vet, and we’re leaving him there. We’re not taking him home.” “How can you even say that? You know what they do to animals there when they can’t find a home for them.” She kissed the puppy again. “Don’t listen to your crazy Aunt Michelle. You know Mama would never let that happen to you. No, I never would. I’m going to protect you. I’m going to keep you safe from everything.” A million retorts rose to Michelle’s lips. You can’t even take care of yourself. What makes you think you can handle a puppy? And what about feeding it? And bathing it? And making sure it gets its shots and checkups? It needs exercise and attention and so much time. And when it poops on the floor, you’ll be too drunk to deal with it. Michelle cringed at that last thought, despite the truth of it. She hated thinking of her sister as a drunkard, but after their meeting with Dr. Brine that afternoon, Michelle didn’t have the energy to deny it anymore. Despite all of these thoughts, she held her tongue. She kept her mean retorts inside. No matter what Marina did, Michelle harping on her wouldn’t solve any problems. Taking a deep breath, she said, “I’m taking this dog to the vet, Marina. I know he’s cute and helpless, and you want to make sure that he’ll be all right, but we can’t keep him. Please don’t argue with me about this.” Marina stopped her puppy talk and stood facing Michelle. There was a certain set of her shoulders and the way her chin jutted out ever so slightly that told Michelle her sister had made up her mind. “Michelle,” she said, her tone cautious. “I’m supposed to be taking on responsibilities of my own.”

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So Dr. Brine’s words were on her sister’s mind as well, Michelle thought. She had wondered. Marina never said much about their appointments or the therapist’s request that Michelle attend every week. Today she’d stared out the car window from the moment they left the clinic, only once moving to change the radio station when one of her songs came blasting out of the speakers on a Top 100 Country Hits show. “Please, Michelle. I’m asking for a chance on this. I want…” She struggled for a long moment, her features shifting, ephemeral and shimmering as she grappled for the right words. “I want to be better, Michelle. I want to feel better.” A passing line of cars behind Michelle on the highway cut off the end of Marina’s sentence, but she knew what her sister had said. Michelle waited a long moment, waited until the traffic had passed and all was quiet between them. Then she looked at the small, now-wriggling, body in her little sister’s arms. “Okay,” she said, her breath coming out in a defeated puff. “Okay? As in okay okay? I can keep him?” Michelle nodded and turned back to the Escalade. Please let this work, she thought to herself as she trudged back through the grass. Please let this be the time. **** “Mr. Pecksniffian?” The blonde-headed receptionist working at the front office of the vet eyed the occupants of the lobby, waiting for Mr. Pecksniffian, or his owner at least, to speak up. Michelle watched a middle-aged woman lead a curmudgeonly miniature Schnauzer up to the front desk. The slim blonde peered over her desk. “Excellent,” she said. “Please wait in Dr. Ashley’s office. He will be with you shortly. Thank you.” Without further ado, the receptionist returned to

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her business at the computer, and Michelle settled back in her seat, disappointed that her name hadn’t been called. She held the little rescue puppy in her arms, afraid to let him loose in the lobby. Marina hadn’t bought a leash for him yet. In fact, Marina hadn’t done much of anything for him yet. They’d found him on the road on Friday, and it was the following Monday. Michelle had gone through a weekend filled with irregular sleeping patterns, tampeddown ire at finding yet another puddle in Aunt Agnes’s kitchen, and chewed-on undergarments that Michelle had left in the basket to fold. Michelle rubbed the little puppy between the ears. When she’d asked Marina what she wanted to name him, her sister had said, “We can’t rush it. It has to come to us,” and then she’d flitted off, leaving Marina to take him on an evening walk. The one thing Marina had done was make the appointment with Dr. Ashley, and that was because Michelle had forced her when they got home with the puppy. The only opening was at eleven in the morning, and of course, Marina had overslept. Michelle didn’t feel like rousing the beast from her cave, so now here she was, waiting in the vet’s office with a nameless puppy that she hadn’t even wanted in the first place. Michelle played with the nameless pup, teasing him by touching his nose or tickling his ears. His adorable eagerness took her mind away from troubling thoughts until the scrupulous Mr. Pecksniffian returned with his owner, nose poking high in the air and mustache aquivering as he strode through the lobby. Michelle waited for the blonde to process Mr. Pecksniffian through, and she was about to announce the next patient when Dr. Franklin Ashley himself ambled through the door, one hand in his pocket and the other holding a clipboard. “Miss Andrews, I believe you’re up next.” Dr. Ashley smiled at her. Her stomach muscles clenched. Did he remember her? They’d met briefly a few weeks ago at a barbecue out at his house. Aunt

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Agnes had insisted they go. It was their first day in Savage Valley, and Michelle remembered being inordinately flustered most of the time, trying to get Marina up onstage and having to meet so many strangers at once. Of course, out of everyone she’d met that day, she hadn’t forgotten the Ashley brothers—Elias, Thomas, and Franklin. She doubted any hot-blooded woman, or cold-blooded for that matter, could easily forget the awesome exhibit of man-body on ostentatious display in the Ashley brothers. And not only were they decadently attractive, but they were smart, rich, and welcoming on top of all that sexiness. Michelle tried to squash down her nervousness as she gathered the puppy up to her chest and headed for the smiling man waiting for her. “It’s so good to see you again, Miss Andrews.” She smiled wanly, not sure how she should respond, especially when her initial reaction was to shove the puppy into the nearest bystander’s arms, wrap her body tightly around his, and bump up against him in a really fast way. “Do you remember me?” he asked at her hesitation. “We met at the barbecue.” His smile wavered a tiny bit. “Yes, I remember.” His smile jumped back to full wattage at her words. “Excellent. All right, well, if you’ll follow me.” He led her down the hall to a cracked-open door. Shoving it wide, he motioned her in. “This is my assistant, Becky.” Another gorgeous assistant, Michelle noted to herself. This one had orangey-red locks pulled back in a low, curling ponytail, and despite her scrubs, it appeared she was in possession of quite a buxom figure. “Hello,” the woman said, barely noticing Michelle. “So who do we have here?” Dr. Ashley asked, taking the puppy from Michelle’s arms. His fingers brushed across her chest, and a ripple echoed across her flesh. She had to focus on not leaning into

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him and letting her whole body form to his. He gave the puppy an affectionate rub behind the ears before placing him on a metal table. “So far, this is Nameless Puppy,” Michelle answered, speaking past the sudden husky rasp in her voice. “My sister found him on the side of the road, and I want—I mean, we want to make sure he’s all right and get him any shots he may need.” “Good, good,” he said, checking the puppy’s vitals and muttering things to Becky to jot down on her clipboard. After taking the puppy’s blood sample, he handed it off to Becky. “Run this through. After we know how old he is, go ahead and begin preparing his first round of shots.” “Sounds good,” the gorgeous woman purred up at the doctor. As she swished by Michelle, a wave of tropical, fruity perfume hit her in the nose. “So your sister is the great country and western singer Marina Andrews. What must that be like?” he asked, shaking his head and running his hand through the puppy’s fur. “Mostly it’s like being tied to the back of a pickup and told to run along as it goes tearing down the highway.” She didn’t mean to sound quite so spiteful when she said it, but Dr. Ashley laughed. It was a warm laugh, unrestrained and honest. It sent little tingles through her blood, sent them trickling down into her pussy. She shifted her weight from one foot to another, trying to ignore the sensation. “Did that sound horrible?” “No. It sounded honest.” “I like that.” He gave her a questioning look. “‘Honest’ seems like a much nicer way of saying ‘bitchy.’ I’ll have to keep that in mind.” “No, I just meant…it was supposed to be…” He looked at her helplessly, and Michelle chuckled. “I’m not offended,” she assured him. “Honestly.”

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They met eyes for a moment, and then Michelle looked away, nervous. “I am curious.” “Yes?” “Does she ever get tired of it?” Michelle frowned and shrugged. “I don’t know.” She didn’t want to discuss her sister with Dr. Ashley, and the annoyance and the jealousy she felt springing up disconcerted her. Most of the time it didn’t bother her, the way people always roped her in with her sister. Like Michelle wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for Marina. When Marina had first started singing in the honky-tonks of Nashville, Michelle hadn’t even noticed the jealousy. They’d both been so overwhelmed with the thrill of Marina onstage, Marina in lights, Marina singing. Even now, after almost five years of managing her sister, Marina still dazzled her. Onstage, she was magical. There was never a moment when Marina sang and played her guitar in front of a crowd that Michelle wasn’t proud of her. As Marina’s popularity grew, however, she began playing shows in Europe and Japan and Australia and at the Grand Ole Opry and at Madison Square Garden. Michelle felt herself being swirled up into this existence that revolved utterly and entirely around her sister, the famed country and western starlet, Marina Andrews. But with this man, she realized she wanted to be Michelle. Michelle sans Marina. Just Michelle. “Here are the blood test results, Dr. Ashley.” Becky whooshed into the room, snapping Michelle out of her moroseness. The little puppy licked her hand, and she patted him on the head. While he talked over the puppy’s blood sample with Becky, she gave his features a quick but intense study. As he spoke with his redheaded assistant, he twisted his wide lips up and to the side a little. His features, as a whole, were broad, generously spaced yet not overbearing. He had a strong, dark brow,

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but his hair, thick and slightly wavy, fell over his forehead in brown shades much lighter than the bold arcs above his eyes. And what a pair of eyes they were. Those eyes were quite a sight to behold, and he watched his surroundings with such intensity. There seemed to be so much happening in those orbs. They were like black glass holding a wild and terrible sea. Whenever they caught hers in an accidental moment, something inside Michelle quivered in response. She tried to push it out of her mind, but it was there, waiting for her to pay attention. Michelle was by no means a short woman at 5’6”, but Dr. Ashley looked tall enough for her head to fit comfortably against his chest while his chin rested perfectly atop her head. Suddenly, she itched to cuddle up next to him and try it out. After they had agreed on which shots the puppy needed, Becky sashayed back out of the room. “I’m sorry,” he said, running his hand through the hair that fell across his forehead. “I’m sure you get tired of people asking you questions about your sister all the time.” His astuteness caught her off guard, but she couldn’t help smiling. “A little,” she admitted. “Please forgive me, and also”—he offered her a lopsided grin— “try to remember that us ordinary folks in Savage Valley aren’t used to rubbing elbows with the likes of you two world travelers.” He was a beautiful man, and he spoke in such a deep, wellhumored voice that any residual churlishness she held on to dissipated beneath his disarming smile. The puppy gave a yap and in a sudden burst of energy began jumping around on the table, his tiny paws slipping on its metallic surface. He stumbled close to the edge, and Michelle reached out to catch him. At the same moment, Dr. Ashley lurched forward, reaching for him as well, and his head thumped hard against hers. “Ow!” “Oh!”

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Michelle took a step backward, rubbing her forehead, and looked up to see Dr. Ashley doing the same. They met eyes and started laughing. The puppy yipped between them, still prancing. “I got him,” Dr. Ashley said emphatically. “Go ahead.” she said, waving her free hand for him to move in. He grabbed the little pup gently by the scruff of the neck and scooted him backwards. Then he scratched him behind the ears. “It’s all right,” he said in a low voice. Michelle felt that flutter again, deep in her gut and inching ever closer to her pussy with each whispered word, and again she tamped it down. “You’re all right,” he said. Michelle moved in, needing him to stop so she could think in a straight line. She stood next to him at the table, her arm barely brushing his, and stroked the puppy. His big hand stopped for a moment, and Michelle, without thinking, looked up at him. His eyes were locked on her. They were tight. They held everything back. Michelle sucked in a breath. Instinctively she took a step back from his blazing black gaze. “I…uh…” She bumped into a cabinet or the wall, something solid. Dr. Ashley took a step toward her, leaving no escape, and she shrank against the wall. He stood so close, his face only inches from hers. He stood so close that all she could see were the depths of his dark eyes. He took her in. Then his hand came up. He grasped a lock of her dark hair that had fallen against her cheek. With something akin to reverence, he tucked it back behind her ear. Then his eyes moved, taking in every inch of her face. Michelle felt everything in her body trembling, and she so wished to touch his face, but a cold fear gripped her. It held her as still as an oak tree. It was only the fine hairs across her skin that trembled like the leaves in a quiet wind. Franklin moved his hand to her cheek, his thumb and his fingertips moving across her face, feeling everything. He ran his fingers through her hair, across the

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bones of her cheek, down the bridge of her nose, tickling across her lips. Someone cleared their throat in the doorway. When Michelle peeked over the doctor’s shoulder, she saw a new woman, this one with silky dark-brown locks cut in a fashionable bob around chin level. She had a pert little nose and pouty lips. Three assistants? She’d immediately noticed the woman’s scrubs. For such a small clinic? That’s a little gluttonous. Dr. Ashley took a step away from her and turned to the new woman. “Yes, Veronica?” “Johnny Greenwood just called. He says he’s got a beaver he needs you to come over and look at when you get the chance. He said he found it in a bush, and he thinks it may need to be inspected thoroughly and possibly even handled by you before it’s good and ready for reinsertion.” As the woman spoke, Michelle noticed a bright-red hue seeping across a patch of skin visible on the back of Dr. Ashley’s neck. “Thank you, Veronica,” he said in a stiff voice. Veronica’s eyes shot over to Michelle, still hunkering in the corner. They widened in surprise as if to say, “Oh, I didn’t see you there.” Then Veronica shrugged and turned, her bob swishing outward for a moment, and she marched out of sight. Dr. Ashley faced Michelle again, his neck and jawline bright red. “A beaver, huh? Needs to be thoroughly inspected?” His cheeks flamed up. “That’s just…that’s Johnny…he’s always…” “And then reinserted?” Michelle listened to him stutter for a moment, but as he floundered to explain, she couldn’t hold back her teasing smile. He paused in his stuttering to eye her skeptically for a moment. Then his features relaxed. “Sorry about that,” he offered sheepishly, shrugging. Then he patted the puppy, not meeting her eyes for a moment. “Would you—” He stopped himself, shaking his head.

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“Would I what?” she prompted. He looked up at her again. “I was going to ask if you would be interested in having dinner with me. This Friday?” Michelle gasped, but then like an idiot, her face split into a grin. Try as she might, she couldn’t hold it back, so she went with it. “I would love that,” she admitted. Dr. Ashley’s face also split into a grin, so she didn’t feel as ridiculous. “Really?” he asked, and Michelle was surprised that he was surprised. He had three gorgeous assistants following him around—hell, maybe he had some more tucked away in the tiny clinic—and each of them so totally oblivious to everything outside the realm of Dr. Franklin Ashley. “Yes, really,” she said. “Oh, okay. That’s…” He was really grinning now, and the tips of his ears had gone bright red. “That’s just great.” “But okay, I have to ask this.” “What?” “Not that I would change my mind or anything, but you must ask women out a lot, right?” “No,” he said, laughing but with an odd hitch to his voice. “What makes you say that?” She narrowed her eyes at him, searching his face, but he looked genuinely confused. “Becky? Veronica? The blonde receptionist?” she prompted. “What about them?” “Oh, come on. Not one date? Not one little kiss?” Dr. Ashley crossed his arms over his chest and leaned a hip against the checkup table, eyeing her with an amused but also incredulous expression. “Honestly, I don’t care,” she continued. “And I’m not trying to be pesky or prying. But you can tell me. You don’t have to pretend. Because you know, I’m completely a modern woman about these kinds of things and everything.”

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“Michelle,” he said softly, causing her to stop for a moment and take a breath. “I’ve never kissed or dated any of the women that work here. That would be unethical. I see them in a professional light only.” He’d moved in closer as he spoke, and she felt her words spewing to the surface again. “Okay, but I haven’t been asked on a date in a long time, and I thought that you must do this kind of thing all the time, but I wanted to be sure, so that I would know. So that I would just know.” Her last word was cut off as Franklin pressed his lips to hers. She gasped, her eyes wide with shock as he began to kiss her. His eyes were closed, and he smiled as he moved his mouth over hers, tasting and exploring. He didn’t reach out for her, only touched her with his lips. With a sigh, she closed her eyes, letting her thoughts dissolve and finding the rhythm of his mouth on hers. The little puppy let out a happy yap, and Michelle jumped away, looking down at him. His little eyes were squinted, making him appear most pleased with himself. She backed away, stumbling slightly. “We do need a name for him,” she said, hoping to ease some of her confusion. She thought dog naming a safe enough topic to discuss. “We’ll find a name for him,” Dr. Franklin said, brushing back some of her hair. Michelle offered a tentative smile. They spent the rest of the appointment testing out different names on the puppy, and as Dr. Ashley continued his checkup, Michelle felt a tiny bubble floating around in her chest. It wasn’t large. It didn’t overwhelm her, but it was there. It was most certainly there. And it was warm, and it was bright. He’d asked her out on a date. Dr. Franklin Ashley had asked her out on a date. She had something, and it was hers, and there was no Marina in sight.

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Chapter Two A small wood chip, a tender brown fleck, skipped off the tip of Bohagande’s knife and landed on Franklin’s denim-clad thigh as the older Indian whittled on a piece of pine wood. Franklin swiped it off. The Shoshone shaman sat on a hand-carved wooden stool on his porch while Franklin occupied the top step. “So the Greenwoods set off early this morning?” Bo asked. “Yep.” Franklin watched a pair of mockingbirds harping on a squirrel. The scared critter scampered and flitted through branches, trying to dodge and outmaneuver the sharp, relentless beaks. “Even with the three of them,” Bo said, flicking away more chips, “I’d say it will probably be close to a month before they finish working around the Edge.” “Guess it depends on what they find. Or what they don’t find,” he added as an afterthought. “Nah. The bears are strong, the lions, too. The boundaries will be wide this year.” Franklin and his brothers had worked their way around the boundaries of the bear territory two years before. He didn’t envy the Greenwoods their arduous task. They would spend hours each day struggling against the Edge to see exactly how far the territory reached. Physically, it was painful. Mentally and emotionally, it was torture. Franklin remembered it feeling the way he imagined a broken heart to feel, only every footstep past the Edge reopened the wound and intensified the pain tenfold. “Strong?” Franklin asked with a hint of disbelief, forcing himself away from the pointless memories. He respected Bo, thought the

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world of him, but sometimes the guy had some weird ideas. At the same time, he couldn’t help feeling a little nervous around the shaman. Only a short while ago, at the most disastrous Honey Harvest Hoedown in Savage Valley history, Bo had stripped one of the bears—Carter Strong—of his ability to shift into bear form until he could straighten up his drunken, disorderly behavior. Before that night, none of the bear-shifters realized that Bo had that much power. Franklin wondered if even Bo had known until he used it. Either way, Franklin had noticed all of the shifters, the lions included, treating Bo with a little more respect. If the boundaries were wider than usual, as Bo seemed to think they would be, then it could take the Greenwoods longer than a month. The bear-shifter families had gotten together before their annual boundary inspection to discuss recent events. Only a couple of weeks before, Savage Valley had been inundated with dead carcasses made to look like vicious animal attacks. Only the bear-shifters and lion-shifters knew that humans were behind the attacks. NormCorp most likely. Although there was no way to prove this theory as yet, the bears wanted to be extra cautious this year. Technically, it was the Strongs’ year to perform the boundary inspection. However, as Noah was the only bear with the freedom to leave Savage Valley in case of an emergency, and his brother, Carter, was unable to perform his duties as a bear-shifter, the annual task had been relegated to the next family in line, which happened to be the Greenwoods. “You want a beer?” Bo asked. “Sure.” “Great. You know where they are, right?” Franklin opened his mouth to protest but then shook his head and got up from his perch. “Grab me one, will ya?” Franklin chuckled as he grabbed a couple bottles of the Yeatses’ brew from Bo’s old icebox. The Yeats twins were lion-shifters, which

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Franklin wasn’t too crazy about that, but he had to admit that they possessed an innate ability to brew just about any kind of alcoholic beverage known to mankind. When he had settled back onto his step, the sun tickled the tops of the Mukua Mountain Range. He popped off the top to his beer and took a deep, cooling swig. “Guess you’d better go ahead and spit out what you came to spit out,” Bo said in a dry tone. Franklin twisted around to eye the old man. His silver hair caught the evening sun, making it appear a fiery orange. “What makes you think I came here for anything other than a friendly chat and a beer with my longtime buddy?” Bo almost choked on his beverage, and when he did get it swallowed, he pointed the neck of the bottle at Franklin. “Son, I been dealin’ with bear-shifters my whole life. Like my father before me and his father before him and so on. You know what my father’s advice to me was when I inherited my position as shaman?” Franklin shook his head. “My father said, ‘Bohagande, there’s only one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty about bear-shifters—they always want more honey.’” Franklin frowned, not quite understanding the metaphor. True, he liked honey, but so what. He was a bear. It came with the territory. Bo watched him for a moment and then rocked back on his stool, laughing and holding his knees. “Franklin, I know you’ve seen a bear foraging for honey.” “Yeah.” He thought about it for a moment and then chuckled. He remembered once coming upon a black bear going for a hive at the top of tree. Only, the hive was situated on the uppermost branch sticking straight up from the rest of the tree. It was the skinniest, most precarious branch, but right at the top sat the most delectably perfect beehive. Its flat panels of wax shone bright against the clear blue sky, and the skimpy branch waved back and forth in a gentle breeze, beckoning in a most tempting manner to the bear. Of course, the bear

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couldn’t resist such a treat, and he scooted up the flimsy pole of a branch with determination, his paws swatting, trying to reach the hive. After a couple swats and with a loud crack, the branch broke. The bear fell down to the foliage beneath him, bumping and scrabbling and tumbling through the tree. With one final grapple, he fell through to the ground, landing with a loud thud. A few moments later, a second thud followed. Rolling to his haunches, the bear used his front paws to pick up the hive that had fallen next to him. With a few murmurs of contentment, he buried his nose in it and happily gorged himself. After he finished, he tossed the hive aside and walked away, completely unconcerned with the mess he’d left behind. Recalled back to the present by the thwack of Bo’s knife as he knocked off some wood chips, Franklin took a swig of beer. “I don’t know what you’re trying to imply, Bo.” “Well, let’s see, Franklin Jonas Ashley. The last time we had one of our beer-on-the-porch chats, you asked me if you could leave Savage Valley to become a bona fide veterinarian. You said, ‘Bo, I’ll stay in state. Please let me go. Please, please, please, Bo.’” “Let’s not exaggerate.” “‘This is what I want, Bo. This is who I am,’ you said. It was all very dramatic and moving. I drank wine and ate chocolates all night.” Franklin snorted. “You gotta be careful with that kinda stuff, Bo.” He slapped his flat belly and shot a pointed look over his shoulder. “You don’t want to start getting all soft on us.” When he turned back around, something rapped him on the back of his head. “Ouch!” He glared at Bo who watched him with a steady eye and then resumed his whittling on the pinewood. “Always respect your elders.” Franklin rubbed his head. “I didn’t even come here to ask you for anything. Well, except maybe some advice, but seeing as I’ve now witnessed your true nature and your barbaric, heathen side, not to mention the brunt end of your stick there, I’m not so sure anymore.”

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Bo narrowed his eyes. “You didn’t come here to ask permission to leave again?” “It worked out, didn’t it? I did what I said I was going to do. And when I finished, I came back, didn’t I? And now Savage Valley has one of the most renowned veterinary clinics in the state of Colorado. I’d say that falls into the realm of ‘overall betterment of the town, its people, its creatures, and its land,’ wouldn’t you?” “Could be,” Bo answered circumspectly. “Hmmph.” Franklin watched the setting sun for a while longer as Bo continued to whittle. Parts of the sky had faded to a silvery lavender, and Franklin watched a hawk dive down fast to snatch up some unsuspecting critter from the ground. “So,” he said, breaking the comfortable silence, “what did your father say about the lions?” “Never wear a meat dress around ’em.” Franklin shook his head, chuckling, and then took another swig. “You are full of crap, Bo.” He ignored the little disappointment he felt that Bo wouldn’t tell him, but Bo had never been one to mix his dealings with the lions and the bears. “Where are your brothers tonight?” “Thomas went to Catdaddy’s. To see Letty,” he added hastily, thinking Bo might not approve of the bear-shifters loitering around the honky-tonk after recent events. “You know…her cough.” “Yes, and Elias?” “Elias is at home, sleeping. He’s been on call.” “All right. So tell me, what sort of advice can I give you that you’re too embarrassed to ask for from your brothers?” Bohagande Young was never was one to beat around the bush. “I’ve asked someone to dinner, a woman—” “Whew! We were starting to worry about ya there, sonny.” “If you’d let me finish…” “My apologies. Go on.”

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“I was about to say, I’ve asked a woman I just met to dinner. I wanted to know if there was anything…er, you know, for us bearshifters…that I should know…um, before.” “So you’re a virgin?” “Well, no…I mean, I wouldn’t…it’s just…you know, I have…” he sputtered. “I have experiences, but I…” He glared at his beer bottle, clamping his mouth shut, knowing he could easily dig himself into a deep hole if he didn’t stop. Bo laughed behind him. “Franklin, the Scrupulous Bear.” He laughed harder. “The next New York Times best-selling children’s book. It’ll be illustrated and everything. We’ll make millions.” Franklin quickly downed the rest of his beer. “Thanks for the beer, Bo,” he said stiffly, rising from the porch step. “Be seeing you around and have a good evening.” He moved away from the porch, but Bo’s sharp voice stopped him. “Stop right there.” A chill ran up Franklin’s back. There was a note, low and terrible, in Bo’s voice. It made his blood freeze, and with hunched shoulders he turned back to face the Shoshone elder. Bo rose from his stool and walked down the porch to look Franklin square in the eye. After a long, contemplative look, Bo said, “Make damn sure.” “What—” “Whoever she is, make damn sure.” “Of course,” he said, blanching at the thought of bonding himself to a woman who didn’t, in her heart, want to be with him and his brothers. It was the most miserable existence he could imagine. “I would never shift in front of her. No, not unless…” He liked Michelle all right, but he stopped himself, not wanting to think past anything besides their dinner on Friday. “That’s not what I mean.” Franklin frowned. “What else is there?” “Don’t you think there’s a reason you’ve yet to…ah, how to put this delicately…fuck anyone?”

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Franklin cringed at the callous term but didn’t comment. “You and I both know that wouldn’t lead to anything particularly disastrous,” Bo continued. “The bears aren’t like the mountain lions, which you well know. For some reason, when your ancestors were cursed, the magic decided to let you choose your mates. In my opinion, I think the lions got the better end of the deal. They bump into their mate, squirt her with some musk, and then bam, they mate her. Simple. Clear cut. “But with the bears, you have the whole real-world dating thing. Women like to be wooed and courted. They need to feel special because when they decide to love someone, it’s intimate, and it’s private, and it’s personal. Add on top of that bear-shifting and the more-than-one-husband thing, it can get pretty difficult for you to find someone. I get that. But still, your brothers have managed to get out there in the dating scene.” “Yep?” Franklin answered when Bo shot him a pointed look. Franklin obviously wasn’t getting the point. “You know…getting their freak on? Doing the dirty?” “Okay.” “Boning.” “Yep. Yeah, I got it. Thanks.” “But not you, Franklin. Why do you think that is?” He shrugged. “Haven’t found the right woman yet, I guess.” Bo grinned and thumped him hard on the shoulder. “Exactly. And that means, when you find her, you’re never gonna want to let her go. So you’d better make damn sure she’s the one before you go plundering for her pussy.” **** Michelle plunged the freshly scrubbed dish into soapy water, making a big slop of suds hit her square in the chest. “Motherfucker,” she growled under her breath.

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“Oh my, is that any way for my great-niece to speak to my finest china?” “Sorry, Aunt Agnes. I didn’t realize you’d made it home.” She didn’t take her attention away from the dishes in the sink, picking up a piece to continue her vigorous scrubbing. “And it wasn’t directed at your china, believe me.” “Oh? What…or who is the intended quarry, may I ask?” “I’m sure you can guess.” Aunt Agnes pulled out a pair of rubber gloves from a cabinet on the opposite side of the sink and joined Michelle, rinsing each of the dishes handed to her. “Let me see…she’s in the house?” “Warm.” “She eats ketchup on her scrambled egg whites?” “Warmer.” “She went to the doctor this morning?” “You’re getting really hot.” “She is currently in bed with laryngitis?” “You are on fire, Aunt Agnes.” Aunt Agnes clicked her tongue as she set a plate in the drying rack. “She’s your sister. Surely you have a slight bit of sympathy for her.” “Oh, trust me. I have plenty of sympathy. If I didn’t, her sorry ass—I mean butt—” “Thank you, dear.” “—would be all alone tonight while I enjoyed my date with Franklin Ashley.” “Oh?” Aunt Agnes perked up at this fresh tidbit of gossip, never mind that it was about her own niece, Michelle thought with an inward smile. “You have a date with one of the Ashleys? You’d better watch your back. There’s a lot of unmarried women in this town that would just as soon gouge your eyes out for a chance with one of the Ashley brothers.” “Well, you’re wasting your breath because I have to cancel.”

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“Oh no.” “Exactly. When Marina came home from the doctor…Dr. Thomas Ashley, actually. Franklin’s brother?” Aunt Agnes nodded in confirmation. “All she did was hold up a notepad with the words I have laryngitis and a little frowney face on it.” “Well, that doesn’t mean you have to cancel your date, does it? It’ll only be a couple hours. She can live through that without you, can’t she? And I’ll only be gone for a few hours as well.” Michelle sighed. Technically, the answer to that question was yes. But the real question was could Michelle live through it. Marina had come into her bedroom while Michelle tried on dresses for her date. Her younger sister wore a pair of onesie pajamas with little white puffs and rabbit ears on her feet. She’d sat on the edge of Michelle’s bed, watching her with big, sad eyes. At first Michelle hadn’t noticed as she eyed herself critically in the mirror. She had on her favorite dress, a sea-green-colored silk Karl Lagerfeld confection, but looking at herself, she thought it might be a little too fancy for a date in Savage Valley. She had a less flashy, olive-green Anthropologie number hanging on her closet door. She held it in front of her body, and then pulled it away. Then she did it again. She held it in front and pulled it away, trying to get a feel for which dress would be The One for her date. Unable to decide, she turned to her sister. “Which one do you think?” she asked, switching the dresses for her sister’s benefit. Marina stared at her for a long moment, her big blue eyes wide and imploring. Then, slowly, tears began to gather in the bottom. Michelle let the dress dangle in her hands. “What is it?” she’d asked with obvious exasperation. Her chin wobbling, Marina bent down to write something on her notepad. When she’d finished, she handed it over to Michelle. One of the tears had broken free and dripped down her cheek, catching the

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late afternoon sun in a most dramatic fashion. Michelle read what Marina wrote. Dr. Ashley said it could get infected. It could ruin my vocal chords forever. “I’ll make you some chicken soup before I go. Don’t worry. And I’ll pick up whatever medicine you need. You’ll be better in no time. You’re probably just stressed.” She rubbed a hand over Marina’s dark hair. Marina shook her head and held her palm up. Michelle plopped the notepad back in it, resisting the urge to throw the damn thing in the trash bin. Marina scribbled something and held it up for Michelle to read. Please don’t go tonight. “Marina,” she said, shocked that her sister would even request such a thing. She hadn’t been asked on a date in over five years, much less gone on one. Every waking hour had been focused on Marina, on her career, on her music, on anything and everything that would help her sister find success as a country music singer. This break in Savage Valley was as much for Michelle as for Marina, and it hurt that her sister could ask such a thing from her. Although, truthfully, a small part of her brain been dreading something like this from the moment she’d agreed on the dinner with Dr. Ashley. She turned from her sister, walking to the window, not wanting Marina to see the play of emotion across her features. She ran her hands over the silk of her gown. So many thoughts—usually easy to suppress—tore through her mind that she had difficulty finding her way through them. “It’s one date, Marina,” she said, not turning from the window, her voice low. “I want one night.” Even though she spoke the words, in her heart she knew Marina wouldn’t budge. She’d made up her mind. Still, if there had been any hope, it fled when Marina placed her notepad again in Michelle’s hand. Michelle dutifully read the words. What if we lose everything? This is all we have.

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Michelle didn’t want to think about that, but then Marina wrote another note, and Michelle looked down. A chill rippled through her body, for it seemed as if Marina had somehow snatched the thoughts straight from Michelle’s brain. The words had always been there, always threatening, always holding her hostage. They were as true for Michelle as they were for Marina. I’m scared. I need you. Michelle shoved past her sister, heading for her closet. With trembling fingers she unzipped her dress. She couldn’t speak. Even as a mute, her sister still managed to ransack anything good that came into Michelle’s life. If it didn’t involve Marina, then Michelle couldn’t have it. That was the rule. After she put her jeans and T-shirt back on, she forced herself to look at Marina, sitting on the bed again but with a pillow hugged against her chest, watching Michelle with watery eyes. “I’m going to wash dishes. Leave me alone for a while.” Marina’s lips trembled, but she nodded, and Michelle left her. Now, after almost an hour of dish scrubbing and talking with Aunt Agnes, she realized the worst part of her night hadn’t even happened yet. She still had to call Franklin Ashley to cancel their date.

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Chapter Three Thomas knocked on the door, feeling foolish with the CorningWare dish full of chicken soup and the old, worn Yahtzee box in his hands. He’d never shown up at a woman’s house before, unannounced and hoping to stay for a while. A thrill raced through his blood, though, at the thought of seeing Michelle again. He hadn’t seen her since that first day he’d met her at the barbecue. He hardly counted that, though. She’d said maybe ten words to him that day. Her bratty sister kept interrupting every time he tried to ask Michelle a question. He chuckled to himself. Well, it was thanks to the self-centered younger sister that he now had an excellent excuse to make an impromptu visit to Agnes Bird’s home where he knew the lovely Michelle was staying, so he couldn’t be too annoyed with the country music starlet. He thought she probably didn’t know how to behave when she wasn’t in the spotlight. And she was young. Maybe she had time yet to learn some manners. He heard a commotion inside at the sound of his knock, and after a moment, Mrs. Bird answered the door. “Dr. Ashley,” she said, her eyes gleaming. “Come to check up on your patient?” She nodded at the soup. “Yes, ma’am. I wanted to make sure she’s following orders. Absolutely no talking, complete vocal rest for at least three days. “And I see you’ve brought some entertainment to ease the tedium of illness. Very wise.” “Thank you, Mrs. Bird.”

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“Unfortunately, I’m just on my way out,” Agnes said, holding up her purse as proof. “I’ve got my weekly Wii bowling tournament with Rita Copely and Susan Pope, you see.” “Ah, that is indeed most unfortunate.” “I’m sure.” She chuckled, her lively blue eyes twinkling up at him. “Please come in.” She motioned him into the house, and as he entered, Michelle peeped her head out from the living room. “Who is it, Aunt Agnes?” Her eyes popped open wide when she caught sight of Thomas in the doorway, and she disappeared back into the living room. He caught the flash of big fuzzy socks as she dove around the corner. “Well,” Mrs. Bird chirped, “toodle-oo!” With that, she bobbed out the door. From the living room, he heard some gunshots and explosions coming from the television. Before he could make it to the room, though, Michelle darted back out. She wore the most hideous pajamas he’d ever seen on a woman—too big and full of holes. Her shorts went down to her knees and looked a little too baggy, even for her generous hips, and on her feet were the socks he’d caught a glimpse of. They stretched up to mid shin and were an ugly ocher color. “Hi,” she said, and he could hear the question in her voice. He held up the soup as an answer. “Brought soup for your sister.” He grinned at her. “Pardon me for saying, but those are some ugly pajamas.” “Well, how about you spend eleven out of twelve months on the road. Tell me what state your pajamas end up in.” She bit her lip, a small frown creasing her features. “I’m sorry. That was rude.” She sighed. “It was kind of you…you know.” She took the soup from him. “It was nice of you to think of my sister.” Leading him to the kitchen, his nose registered the scent of something delectable wafting through the air, making him laugh. “Looks like my services aren’t required,” he said, watching her place his measly CorningWare dish on the counter next to a great big pot of

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boiling chicken soup. “I have to admit, yours smells much better than mine.” He sniffed again, catching hints of bay leaves, celery, and possibly lavender mixed in with the hearty, potent smell of chicken broth. “No, no. Thank you. We love chicken soup. We’ll eat every bite.” She pulled it out of his hands when he made a move to take it back. “Paws off.” She picked up a wooden spoon and waved it at him in a threatening manner. “Now, what else did you bring?” He laughed at the fierce picture she made with her long dark hair tumbling across her shoulders in a wild, tangled mess, her big brown eyes burning brightly up at him in a teasing manner, and her absurd pajamas. She was damn beautiful. His cock realized it at the same time his mind did because he felt himself growing tight and hard in the groinal region. He held up the red box in answer. “Yahtzee. It’s a family favorite of ours.” “Hmm.” She continued to eye him with suspicion but lowered the spoon. “Have you played?” he asked, and she moved in close to take the game from him for inspection. Her scent filled his nostrils. It was fresh and airy. It made him think of the sky, clear and cerulean. It made him think of a breeze flying off the water of Brown Trout Lake, crisp and invigorating as it washed across his body or rippled through his fur. “I think so, a few times. You’ll have to refresh me on the rules, though.” She smiled up at him, a lock of dark hair falling across her face. He began to lift his hand to smooth it out of the way when an aggravated look flitted across her features. She scooted around him. “Marina,” she said, “Dr. Ashley came to make sure you’re doing all right. Wasn’t that nice of him?” There was a tight note in her voice. Michelle’s younger sister smiled at him, her wide blue eyes fluttering in what could only be described as a flirtatious manner. She was so different from her sister, in looks, in behavior, that it was hard

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for Thomas to comprehend that they were so closely related. But still, he was well known around town. People expected him to be polite. On top of that, he had no wish to offend the sister of the woman he was attempting to woo. “I see you’ve got the notepad I gave you. Good. Not a peep, remember?” She nodded, her smile wide and winsome. Thomas returned his attention to Michelle, who watched her sister with an almost pained expression. It was touching to see her so concerned about her sister’s health. Growing up in Savage Valley as a bear-shifter, he’d learned very young how important family was. He liked a woman who shared those same values. “So,” he asked, “are we up for a game of Yahtzee now? Or should we wait until after soup?” Marina jumped up and down, clapping, and then she grabbed the Yahtzee game and ran out of the kitchen. “I guess that means now,” he said, smiling at Michelle. Her smile was small and tight, but she walked back toward the living room. He followed and saw that they had been watching Thelma & Louise before Michelle turned off the television. “Any music requests?” she asked, moving to a shelf with hundreds of records lined up. “Aunt Agnes has been collecting since she was in her teens.” Marina slid him a note and batted her eyelashes at him. May I pick? “Sure,” he said, shrugging. She sprang up, her short-clad butt cheek coming only inches from his face. He lurched back, taken unawares. He glanced up at Michelle, but she quickly looked away, pretending not to notice the incident. Marina picked something from the shelves and, with a grin at Thomas, placed it in Michelle’s hands. She sauntered back to where he was setting up the Yahtzee game and sat down close. Michelle fumed at the record in her hands for a moment, but without a word of protest, she took it out of its sleeve, placed it on the

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record player, and gingerly settled the needle against the spinning vinyl. Marina slid him another note. She’s my favorite. There was also an accompanying winky face. A second later, Marina’s hit single “Nashville Through and Through” permeated the air. He nodded at her and shot her an awkward smile, not exactly sure how he was supposed to react to the song, so he decided to politely ignore it and return his attention to Michelle. She had joined them around the game. He saw Marina huff out of the corner of his eye. “So there are only a few basic rules of Yahtzee that you need to know,” he said, handing them both a score sheet. “First, always follow the dice. They’ll tell you what they want, so don’t get greedy. If the dice want twos but you want sixes, forget it. Go for the twos. Second, if you roll a full house and you don’t have one yet, take it. Don’t go for a three of a kind or a four of a kind. Don’t go for anything. Take the full house.” “Why?” Michelle asked. “Because the second you try to go for a full house, the dice will turn evil, and you will never get one.” She laughed at his odd rule but nodded her understanding with a smile. “And last but not least, if you get a Yahtzee, we must all celebrate. Even when we’re all secretly dreaming of gouging your eyes out, we all have to do it. The Yahtzee roller may choose the manner in which we do so, but no matter what, you must celebrate. Got it?” “Yes,” Michelle said, and Marina nodded. They each rolled to see who would go first, and Marina got the highest number. She snatched the die from Thomas with a flirty, smug smile and then held out her hand for Michelle to put her die in. For a long moment, Thomas thought Michelle wasn’t going to, but Marina was patient, and with a small narrowing of her eyes, Michelle surrendered the die. Turning from her sister, Michelle said, “So all three of you Ashley brothers are doctors?”

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“Yes, ma’am. My older brother Elias is a surgeon. I’m a family practitioner, and Franklin is the town vet.” “Impressive,” Michelle said in teasing tones, but he also heard the interest in her voice. “The Ashley family has been a part of Savage Valley since the fur-trading days, and our family has always been known for its physicians.” “You can trace your family’s ancestry back that far?” Now she looked truly impressed. “Oh yes,” he said with a small, inward smile. “We have a particularly detailed account of our family history.” As did all the bear-shifter and lion-shifter families, he thought to himself. And they weren’t likely to forget it anytime soon, either, not with Bo Young lurking around to keep an eye on them. “In fact,” he said, “I believe the Savage Herald, the newspaper on Main Street, has some archival photographs of all the original families in Savage Valley.” “I’d like to see those.” She smiled at him. It was a tentative smile, but there was something hopeful under the vulnerability. His cock stirred again. He wanted a taste, just a little taste, of those smooth lips, of the tongue that hid behind them. He swallowed, thinking about how sweet her other lips would taste against his tongue. “I know the Carsons have some, too, hung up on the walls in the bank. I could take you around town one day, reveal all our historical secrets.” “I would like that.” Her voice was husky, and her eyes were locked with his. But then, Marina clutched his arm, jarring him out of the moment. She pointed at the dice. Four twos were face up, and she held a finger up at him. “You have one more roll?” he asked. She nodded. Shaking the last die in the palm of her hands, she sucked in a breath and then let it roll. It landed with a two facing up at them.

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In a wild fury of movement, Marina exploded up from her seat and began dancing around. She went circles around them, dancing to the music with a wide, ecstatic smile on her face. Then she fell onto the couch and wriggled her legs in wild, happy abandon. “She got a Yahtzee,” Michelle said, her voice far from enthusiastic. “Congratulations,” Thomas said with a genuine smile. He jumped up from his spot and held his hand out to Michelle. “It’s the rules,” he said, laughing. “We gotta celebrate.” When she placed her hands in his, a jolt ran across his skin, and he yanked her up from her sitting position. He pulled her in close and spun her around the room. She shrieked and giggled. When he put her feet back down, Marina slid into his arms, pushing Michelle out of the way. He felt helpless watching Michelle’s stricken face as she stepped away from them, but he could think of nothing to do or say to get Marina to stop pestering him. He gave her a few halfhearted spins and then set her back down. Marina clapped her hands with joy and gave Thomas’s hands a little squeeze before going back to her spot around the game. Not wanting to seem rude, he resisted the urge to wipe his hands on his pants. “Marina is always the lucky one,” Michelle said when they had settled back into their spots. “She always wins.” “Aww, now, come on. Chin up. We’ve still got a lot of game left to play.” “No. She always wins. Everything.” Michelle locked eyes with her sister, and something passed between them. Thomas could sense the tension that had been sizzling between them all night grow stronger. Trying to cheer Michelle up, he teasingly chucked her under the chin. It seemed to momentarily distract her because she smiled up at him, and her face relaxed. But then, damn it, Marina passed him a note. Where’s Franklin? I thought he would come with you since Michelle had to cancel on him.

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He frowned at the note. “Cancel what?” “What?” Michelle asked, a strange note in her voice. “Did you cancel something with Franklin?” She blanched at his question, glanced at Marina, but then returned her eyes to his face and nodded. “We had a date.” Her voice was quiet. Not for the first time that night, Thomas wondered what the hell was going on between the sisters. But more importantly, Franklin had a date with Michelle? He hadn’t mentioned a word of it to either him or Elias. But that was Franklin. He mostly kept to himself, only talking to his older brothers if he deemed it absolutely necessary. That also explained why Thomas, when he’d come home from the office earlier, had found his younger brother chopping wood in the middle of September beneath the still uncomfortably warm sun, his face red and sweaty with the exertion. Blowing off steam. Thomas thought he’d probably do the same if Michelle cancelled a date with him. So Franklin was interested in Michelle, and he was interested in Michelle. If Elias met her and took a liking to her… His phone rang before he could finish that thought. He looked down at the screen. Exactly the man he wanted to talk to. “Excuse me, ladies.” He stepped out the sliding glass door in the back and slid it shut behind him, stepping out to the grass as he answered the call. “Where are you?” Elias asked. “At Agnes Bird’s, fraternizing with her nieces.” He turned to look through the glass. Michelle had risen and was glaring down at her sister, who sat demurely on the couch. “The country singer and her sister? Why—” “Skip the questions. Just meet me over here.” Michelle said something to Marina, making a sharp movement with her hand in Thomas’s direction. There was a long moment of silence on Elias’s side. “See you in a few,” Elias said and then hung up.

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He almost put the phone in his pocket, but then he heard Michelle’s voice, as clear as if she stood next to him. “I saw what you did,” she said to her sister. Looking at the door, he realized he hadn’t pulled it shut all the way, and there were almost two inches between the glass and the wall. With his sensitive hearing, he could hear every word. He put the phone back up to his ear in case one of them should glance out the door. Marina shrugged at Michelle, seemingly unconcerned with her sister’s agitated state. “I saw you turning the dice. What is wrong with you?” Marina wrote something on her notepad, taking her time, and then handed it over. “No. I had a date with Franklin. But you saw to that, too, didn’t you?” Marina didn’t write anything, only stared up at Michelle, clearly unmoved by Michelle’s distress. She looked almost disdainful. “And why did you tell him?” She waved her hand at the Yahtzee game. “He came for you anyway. It was one friendly moment, and you…you couldn’t stand it. You had to suck it away for yourself.” Marina began writing something, but Michelle spoke before letting her finish. “I’m tired. You can finish the game. I’ll leave you alone with him. It would make everything simpler, wouldn’t it?” That was the last thing Thomas wanted. “Yeah, of course. Good. I’ll talk to you later. Thanks.” He made a big show of getting off the phone with someone as he headed back up toward the house. He slid the glass door wide open. “I’m back,” he proclaimed. After closing the door, making sure it slid all the way this time, he strode back toward the table. “And where do you think you’re going?” he asked Michelle, who was trying to sneak away toward the stairs. “We’ve still got a whole game left.” Her eyes darted to Marina, and she began to utter some small excuse when a knock sounded on the front door. It had to be Elias,

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and Thomas smiled. The asshole must’ve seen Thomas’s car at the house and was already there when he called. “Expecting someone?” “No.” She headed toward the front door. Thomas followed, catching delicate drifts of her fresh scent as her body cut through the air. “Miss Andrews, how nice to see you again.” Elias stood at the front door, smiling down at an obviously disconcerted Michelle. “I was in the neighborhood, saw my brother’s vehicle outside, and decided to stop by and say hello.” “Oh, then hello. Come in.” “Thank you. Nice pajamas,” Elias said as he swept through the door. Thomas watched her face flush most becomingly at his brother’s offhand comment. Then she looked up and noticed Thomas watching her. “Shut up,” she said and moved past him back toward the living room. He caught his brother’s eye and raised his eyebrows in question. Elias grinned and mouthed two words. Oh yeah. **** Michelle glared at the dice she had rolled. It was her second roll out of three for this time around, and she was going for sixes. They were all she had left to get on her score card, and she hadn’t gotten any on her first roll. She hadn’t gotten any on this roll, either. She scooped all five dice back up for the obligatory last roll, knowing that nothing she rolled would help her now, not even a Yahtzee. “Come on,” Thomas encouraged. “Give ’em a good shake. Show ’em who’s boss.” “You’ve at least got to get one six,” Elias said. Thomas punched his brother in the arm. “We’re supposed to be cheering her on, not making her feel like crap.”

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“It doesn’t matter. My score is already abominable. Marina’s gonna win this one anyway. What with three Yahtzees and everything.” Marina bestowed a smug smile upon them. She’d gotten two more Yahtzees since the first one. Michelle couldn’t be too upset about losing. At least the last two Yahtzees had been earned fair and square, so Marina would have gotten her celebration dance anyway. “What if you get a Yahtzee?” Thomas asked. Michelle smiled at him, thankful for his effort to make her feel better about her crappy score. “It doesn’t matter.” Thomas’s eyes widened. “Never say a Yahtzee doesn’t matter. Never.” Elias looked somber. “It’s sacrilege. Besides,” he said, perking up again, “with that attitude, you’ll never summon enough Yahtzee magic. Here.” He grabbed her hands and put his lips against them. Michelle gasped, unprepared for the sudden feeling of his big warm hands around hers. Her first reaction was to yank against his grip, but he held tight. With a wicked smile in his eyes, he whispered something against her fingers. A hot jolt shot up through her wrists then moved up her arms and tingled across her breasts. Elias’s dark eyes stayed locked with hers as he continued to whisper to the dice in her hands. “There. I told them what they need to do. You should have no problems now.” She shook the dice again, rolling her eyes, trying to pretend his skin on hers didn’t affect her as strongly as it did, and was about to release the dice when Thomas said, “Wait a sec.” His hand shot out toward hers. “It only works if both of us do it.” He cradled her cupped hands in his and bent his lips to her fingers as his brother had moments before. Michelle felt a warmth sliding thick and potent through her body and gathering hotly in her pussy. Damn, she thought to herself, worried that her body responded so strongly to both of them. Thomas pressed a kiss on her knuckles, and Michelle yanked her hands out of his, her heart beating fast.

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“That’s enough.” She gave both of them a hard look, hoping to dissuade their attentions. She could feel Marina’s glare without looking, and Michelle could sense the air tingling around her, like the tremors from a silent, ticking bomb. When she shook the dice, her hands were a little weaker than before. Elias nodded graciously for her to continue. His short dark hair set off the strong angle of his cheekbones, and his eyes. Oh, dear sweet Lord, they smoldered. They were deepest black, like Thomas’s and like Franklin’s. But they were alarmingly intense. His lids hung low over the dark orbs beneath, and when he looked at her, it was all she could do to keep her body contained. She wanted to leap across the table, wrap her legs around his muscular body, and dissolve into him. But then she’d look at Thomas, and her body would be consumed anew by heat and desire. His hair was lighter than Elias’s, but it was a deep, rich chestnut brown color. The angles of his face were more squarer in nature, not quite so sharp as his brother’s beside him. Where both of his brothers were toned, Thomas was broad. He looked so solid, so sturdy. His cock had to be huge. Shocked but also aroused at the direction of her thoughts, Michelle shook the dice vigorously and gave them a toss. They stopped rolling, and Michelle stared at them. “Oh my god.” The words came out with a laugh. She looked up at Thomas and Elias, who also started to laugh. “Oh my god, you did it,” she said. She looked back at the dice again. Not only did she get a Yahtzee, but it was a Yahtzee with sixes. “It actually worked.” She shook her head in disbelief. “The odds must be astronomical.” “Celebrate!” Thomas shouted. “You’ve got to celebrate.” “House rules.” Elias nodded officiously. Michelle laughed, rocking back in her seat. “Cheater.” The whispered words came from across the couch, scratchy and strangled, forced unwillingly through barely functioning vocal cords. Michelle felt her stomach drop and looked at her sister,

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pleading with her eyes. Just this once. Let me have this. Please let it go. Marina glared, her blue eyes narrowing into angry, viperous slits. “You cheated.” “Marina,” Michelle said, keeping her voice even. “I did not cheat. I rolled the dice fair and square. You saw it, Marina. We all saw it.” “You fucking cheated!” Marina swiped her hand across the coffee table, sending the dice and the playing cards flying in all directions. “I hate fucking cheaters.” She leapt off the couch and picked up a figurine that Aunt Agnes kept on an end table. “No, Marina!” Michelle shouted, reaching for her sister. But she was too late. The porcelain exploded against the wall with a loud, aircracking shatter. “I hate you!” Marina’s strangled voice was painful to hear, and Michelle winced with each forced word. Marina began screaming and thrashing her body. Thomas and Elias leapt up. Thomas wrapped his strong arms around the flailing form, containing her fit. “You’ve got to stop screaming.” “I hate you,” Marina cried. “You don’t care about me. You’ve never cared about me. You want me for the money I make you. I hate you, Michelle. I hate you. You’re not my sister!” The words weren’t new. She’d heard them hundreds of times. Every time Marina went into one of her fits, she heard them. But no matter what, every time those horrible things spilled from Marina’s mouth, the tears spilled from Michelle, and she couldn’t move. She stood still and couldn’t stop the words from tearing through her. “You’re jealous! You are jealous because I’m the talented one and the pretty one and you never had a boyfriend and you think it’s my fault. But it’s not. It’s yours. You’re a bitch, and nobody loves you. Do you hear me? Nobody loves you, Michelle!” The men had been trying to sedate her with words, but at this, Elias grasped Marina’s face. “Look at me, Marina. You’re hurting

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yourself.” Marina panted, staring hard at Michelle, her eyes full of fury. But Elias continued to speak to her in hushed tones, stroking her face and taking her attention away from Michelle. The tense lines of Marina’s face softened, and she looked at him. “That’s good,” he said. “We can’t risk losing this beautiful voice.” He touched her throat, and Michelle felt sick. “Shh,” he said, “that’s a good girl.” Marina took a deep, shuddering breath. “Good girl. I think we can relax our grip a little, Thomas.” Elias rubbed the hair that had fallen out of her face. Staring deep into his eyes, Marina nodded. When Thomas let go, however, she almost collapsed. Without hesitating, Thomas scooped her up in his arms. “Michelle?” Elias asked, his voice maintaining its even, soothing tone. “Yes?” she croaked out. “Would you help me find Marina’s room? I think she needs some rest.” Wordlessly, they all three moved up the stairs and into Marina’s room. Michelle watched from the doorway as the brothers tucked her beneath the covers, pulling the quilt up beneath her chin. Thomas ran his hand over the top of her head. “Now get some rest,” he whispered. Michelle turned stiffly away, walking down the stairs, not able to stomach another minute. She sat on the couch and waited. Soon after, she heard the brothers treading quietly down the stairs. She didn’t look up at them and was surprised when they sat on either side of her. Elias’s hand rested lightly above her knee, and Thomas smoothed her hair back from her face. “Are you all right?” he whispered, quiet and soft and gentle. Elias wiped at some moisture beneath her eyes. A soft kiss brushed against her cheekbone. It was Thomas, and Elias moved his hand along the inside of her leg. He leaned his face over her chest and kissed along her collarbone. Michelle’s body, her skin and her blood and her bones, everything was fire. She wanted

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nothing more than to return their kisses and to answer each caress with one of her own. But shame, thick and heavy, held her back, rendered her body and her muscles useless. She couldn’t face them, much less their kisses. “Please go,” she rasped. Their caresses stopped, but they didn’t take their hands away. “What is it?” Thomas asked. “I can’t…not after that. Please…I need…sleep…something. Please just leave.” She looked first at Thomas and then at Elias, into both sets of deep black eyes, silently pleading. Thomas opened his mouth to say something, but Elias put his hand on her cheek. “Okay.” Thomas glanced at his brother, confusion etched on his features, and Elias said, “For now. We’ll let you rest for now, but we’ll be back.” He pressed a kiss to her brow. Thomas held her face, tender concern filling his eyes. Then he touched a gentle kiss upon her lips. His thumb moved along her jawline. She felt her body lighting up, reacting to the warm pressure on her mouth, and she turned her face away. Squeezing her eyes tight, she felt him run his hand over her head and then a few moments later heard the front door open and quietly close. She stayed on the couch, sitting on the edge, back ramrod straight, for a long while. She couldn’t think about Marina’s fits, but she couldn’t ignore them either. She was supposed to be getting better. Savage Valley was supposed to take stress out of her life. But every day felt like a battle, felt like her sister slipped further and further into her despair, and Michelle was helpless to pull her away from it. Forcing herself to rise from the couch, her muscles stiff and resisting, she left a note for Aunt Agnes, explaining that they had both gone to bed early. She called Marina’s counselor and left a message, asking her to call back as soon as she got a chance. She looked into Marina’s room. Her sister had somehow crawled out of the covers and slept curled up with her knees to her chest on top of the blanket. Even in the dim light, Michelle could see her shivering.

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With a sigh, she walked into her sister’s room and nudged and prodded Marina until she had her back under the covers again and snuggling down into their warmth. She tucked a loose strand of hair behind Marina’s ear and kissed her on the temple. Then Michelle trudged to her room, crawled under her own covers, and closed her eyes. But she didn’t sleep. Not after one of Marina’s fits. She never could.

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Chapter Four “We should go back.” Elias had barely opened his car door before he heard Thomas speak from the other side of the garage. They hadn’t said anything to each other as they left Mrs. Bird’s house and the two Andrews sisters within, but Elias figured that meant Thomas had plenty of time to mull things over in his own car on the drive home. “Not tonight, Thomas,” he said, knowing his voice sounded tired. “Let’s give her some space. Most women prove apprehensive with our unconventional predilections, and now that we know she’s dealing with Marina’s issues, we should take this nice and easy.” “But you saw her face,” Thomas said. Elias shut his car door and headed for the house, following Thomas through. The garage was attached to the back side of the house, and they walked through a small hallway to the laundry room before passing into the kitchen. Thomas went straight to the fridge. “Yes, I saw her face, and I’m not likely to forget it anytime soon, either,” Elias answered. The image of those silent tears pouring down Michelle’s face as her sister screamed in that raspy, monster-like voice would be burned in Elias’s mind for a good long while, he had no doubt. Thomas pulled out a smoked ham, an almost empty container of mustard, and a block of cheese. “Sandwich?” he asked. Elias nodded. Thomas dumped the goods unceremoniously onto the island in the middle of their kitchen. “See? So now is the perfect time. We need to go over there, crawl into bed with her, and show her that we want to take care of her, that she needs to be taken care of.

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We’ll be there for her. Now is the best time to go to her and present her with the ol’ three-is-better-than-one routine.” “Speaking of three, where is Franklin?” “Probably brooding. Apparently Michelle canceled their date.” Elias got a carving knife to slice off some ham while Thomas spread mustard over four pieces of thick rye bread. “A date?” “So he didn’t mention it to you either?” “No.” “I swear it’s like talking to a brick wall.” “A brick wall with barbed wire and an armed guard and antipersonnel mines all around.” “Exactly.” Thomas slapped on the meat and cheese, covered each glorious mound with the second piece of bread, and then chomped down on his sandwich. He nudged the second sandwich toward Elias. As he chewed, he said, “But I did find him chopping wood when I got home earlier. Looked like he’d been at it for a while.” Elias grabbed up his sandwich and took a hearty bite, thinking about Franklin and Michelle, Michelle and Marina. Michelle, Michelle, Michelle. Damn, the woman was potent. She needed to get away from her sister. That much was clear. She’d been embarrassed, he thought, after her sister’s fit, too ashamed to respond to their touch. That wouldn’t work, not with him and not with his brothers. She needed to be able to trust them, with all her doubts, all her fears, and all her desires. He’d felt her heart beating against his lips as he kissed her collarbone, how it had quickened at his touch and at his brother’s. She wanted them, but she was confused, and probably, at the moment, heartbroken. It must have hurt like hell to hear those words coming from her sister’s mouth. No, she needed a little time to lick her wounds, and then he and his brothers would move in. He’d show her that she could not and would not resist his touch. God, just to possess that sweet body of hers. When she spoke, it was in the softest of tones and always with a

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hint of a question, but every once in a while, she’d get this playful lilt to her voice and this flash of teasing fire in her honey-brown eyes. Her dark-brown tresses always seemed to be in a state of disarray, whether pulled back in a ponytail or dangling across her back in a wild bramble of curls. Her pink lips had the smallest of pouts, not nearly as pronounced as her sister’s, but there just the same. The thought of that little pout snugly fit over his cock had him choking down his sandwich. “You all right?” Thomas asked, ripping thoughts of the tantalizing Michelle from his mind. Another thought struck him, however, as he watched his younger brother take an overly large bite of his sandwich, tearing hungrily into the meat and ripping it away with a snarl. “Have some manners, Thomas.” His brother merely shrugged. “Bear’s gotta do what a bear’s gotta do, bro.” And that was just it. Even if they helped Michelle break free from the tight grip her sister held over her, there would still be one monolithic hurdle they’d need to overcome before Michelle could truly be theirs. They’d have to tell her about being bear-shifters. It was still too early to decide if they wanted to take that step, but there it was, floating lazily in the back of his mind in case he ever wanted to examine it with a more scrutinizing eye. “Thinking about what a bear’s gotta do,” Thomas said, sniffing around the pantry for another tidbit as he had already finished his sandwich, “have you heard anything from the Kinmans?” Elias let out a humorless laugh. “About what? NormCorp buying up property, NormCorp hiring thugs to set a fire at the Woodland Den, or NormCorp staging animal attacks around town?” “Take your pick,” Thomas answered with the same lack of humor. “If those little shits working for NormCorp show the smallest hint of a hide or a hair…” Thomas glowered darkly into the pantry.

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Elias felt the same wrath. Although they’d been unable to prove it, most of the bear-shifters and the lion-shifters agreed that the two goons hired by Ulyssess C. Norman, owner and founder of NormCorp in Denver, were responsible not only for setting fire to the Woodland Den at the last Honey Harvest Hoedown a few weeks ago, but also for lethally injecting some of the surrounding wildlife and then leaving their carcasses around town to sully the reputation of Savage Valley. The town’s slogan was plastered all over the place—No animal attacks since 1846!—and lately every time he saw it, the slogan served as a painful reminder that someone had deliberately tried to sabotage the reputation Savage Valley had worked so hard to build for itself. That didn’t sit well with Elias, nor with his brothers, nor with any of the shifters in Savage Valley. It was their duty. It was in their blood. They lived to protect Savage Valley. On top of all that, Elena Ward, now mate to the Kinman brothers, had been caught up in the goons’ scheming and been kidnapped and dumped into Brown Trout Lake. It was only by luck and the resourceful woman’s skill at holding her breath underwater that Elena had made it out of the lake. Elias would be furious if any woman of his had been put through such an ordeal. He knew the Kinmans were waiting for the NormCorp goons to show their faces again. They’d already called first dibs on tearing those pissants to bits. The phone rang, pulling Elias out of his vengeful thoughts. “Good evening. Ashley residence. Dr. Elias Ashley speaking.” “Dr. Ashley, I think you may want to come on down here.” The old, leathery voice of Letty Hargrove sounded from the other end of the line. She was the owner of Catdaddy’s, Savage Valley’s local honky-tonk. “Do I want to know, Letty?” “Well, seeing as your brother’s done passed out on my bar, I’d say yeah, you want to know.” “Damn it, Franklin,” he said under his breath. To Letty, he said, “All right. I’ll be there in a few.”

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“See ya then.” “Oh, Letty?” “Yes, Dr. Ashley?” “Nothing strange happened, did it?” Letty chuckled. “Oh, you’d certainly be the first to know if it had.” Elias heard the line click dead. He turned to Thomas. “Guess I’m running down to Letty’s place to pick up our delinquent younger brother.” “Want some help?” Although Elias knew Thomas would help him out in a heartbeat, he could see his brother still rummaging through the pantry and figured he could handle this one on his own. “You’ve got an early shift tomorrow, right?” “Afraid so.” “Then I’ll be fine. Stay here. Get some rest. And I’ll see you later.” Thomas had discovered a jar of Nadeen’s Nuts and Honey and already had his hand digging into the jar. “You know what,” Thomas said, his face lighting up, “I definitely have some things I need to accomplish tonight. So you know, maybe you should stay and talk to Franklin, see if you can get him to spill his guts, let him get everything off his chest.” “Catdaddy’s isn’t exactly my scene. You know that.” “But it’s Franklin. He’s your brother. You should make an exception for him. You know, have a beer and discuss your feelings.” “Someone sure is being pushy. What exactly do you have to accomplish? “Oh you know, stuff for work. I was thinking about how nice some peace and quiet would be around here.” Elias studied his brother for a moment, thinking he was probably missing something, but he didn’t want to leave Franklin alone for too long. Bear-shifter and alcohol didn’t mix. As he walked to the garage and crawled into his car, Elias had a feeling that once he found his younger brother and brought him home,

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a certain lady with dark curly hair and pink lips with the smallest of pouts would be at the bottom of all his brother’s drunken woes. Despite his annoyance, Elias couldn’t help feeling at least a little sympathetic. **** Michelle heard something, and in her groggy state of mind, it almost sounded the way she would imagine a small pebble or piece of gravel to sound as someone tossed it against her bedroom window. But that was silly. No one had ever thrown a pebble or a piece of gravel against her window. No man, no best friend, no ardent teenage flame, no one. And in fact, for the past five years, she hadn’t owned a bedroom window to throw a pebble against since she’d been traveling across the country in a tour bus and across the world in planes and taxis. She snuggled back into her covers, and her mind moved back to warding off the memories of Marina’s tirade from earlier in the evening. What the hell? she thought when she heard the small noise again. Feeling foolish, she snuck along the wall, hidden in the shadows, to surreptitiously peek out her window. She looked around, but no one stood on Aunt Agnes’s lawn. She was on the second floor, but the tree branches outside were too far to tap against the glass. She stepped more fully in front of the window, trying to see if anyone was out of her line of sight. She looked left and right but still saw no one. She was turning away, thinking herself ridiculous and fanciful, when a big hulking shape appeared in front of her. A scream stuck in her throat as she stumbled backward and tripped over a pair of shoes that she had left carelessly strewn across the floor. She scrambled back as the shape began jiggling her window, and she looked frantically around for a weapon.

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The shape at her window tapped on the glass and then waved at her. Michelle paused, thinking that probably wasn’t the normal behavior of a deranged serial killer on the loose. She stepped closer, and the man moved his face closer. “Thomas,” she said aloud, relief flooding through her body. She quickly moved to the window and helped him open it. “How’d you get up here?” she asked as he pulled through one leg and then the other. She peered over the edge, seeing only the slightest of ledges. “Oh that. I climbed up.” Michelle studied the side of the house, confused. Her room was upstairs. The house had been constructed with unevenly stacked gray bricks, but even so, the most any of the bricks stuck out was a couple inches. Before she could question him further, he grabbed her and turned her around to face him. “Are you okay?” His big hand swept along the side of her face and cradled her cheek. The moonlight streaming in from her still-open window shone softly against the deep black of his eyes, giving his orbs a strange silver gleam. “Yes, I’m fine.” She could barely whisper the word. Her breath was coming in very short gasps all of a sudden. “No one’s ever snuck into my bedroom.” She smiled at the thought, feeling like a schoolgirl but not really caring, either. He shot a devilish grin down at her. “I can’t say that was my first window-sneaking endeavor.” His voice became lower, huskier. “But I can say that no one as beautiful as you has ever been waiting for me.” Oh, how she wanted him to fold her up in his arms. How she wanted to float to the bed and let him ride her pussy deep and hard, but the night’s events were fresh in her mind. She was mortified, and despite what her body wanted, her mind shied away. She felt herself stiffen in his arms and tried to pull out of them. “Don’t do that,” he said, his voice hard. Faster than her mind could process, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her tight against his body, causing her breath to come out of her lungs

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with a gasp. She felt his cock pressing into her abdomen. It had been so long since she’d felt a man, hot and urgent with need, that the desire she now felt bubbling through her body had her arms clutching at him even as her mind warned her to stay calm. “Please, Thomas…” She choked on the words that would send him away, unable to push them through her lips. He bent his head toward hers, and with slow abandon she lifted her lips to his. Her hands crawled over his broad chest, pushing against the hard, flat muscles. She ran her fingers over the dents and rounds of his shoulder and then gripped the thick muscles of his arms tight. All the while, she held her mouth against his and tasted him. Their tongues pushed against each other. He wanted in her mouth, but she wanted in his. She pushed against him. She put her body into it. His arms squeezed around her in response, moving his hands to her ass and pulling her tight against him. Their tongues twirled around each other, and then he dove inside her. She couldn’t resist him. She opened her mouth and let him rove the inside of her mouth. He pulled slightly away, and she followed. He closed around her bottom lip and sucked. Michelle spread her hands flat against his back, feeling the pleasure all the way to her fingertips. “It’s like you’ve come alive, and your whole body shivers when I hold you,” he said. “Like I’m holding the wild sea in my very arms.” Without loosening his grip, he spun them both around and fell backward onto her bed so that Michelle lay on top of him. Her body was fire and need. The feel of his thick, hard cock poking into the space between the softness of her thighs filled her with a sense of womanly power. She rolled her hips slowly against him, reveling in the hot, burning glow of desire in the pit of her stomach. He groaned at her motion, and she smiled, enjoying the headiness of her power. He rolled them over together until he was on top of her and began fighting with the drawstring to her shorts. His fingers against her stomach sent shivers through her body and a trickle of liquid warmth

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dripping from her pussy. It had been so long since she’d had a man. Her cunt was eager for him. “These damn pajamas,” he muttered. Michelle grasped his hand, holding him still. “Wait.” “What?” he growled, grabbing both of her wrists and pinning them on either side of her head. His face was close to hers, and with his black eyes, the dim light from a small lamp next to her bed created huge, gaping shadows across his features. He appeared demonic as his gaze burned down into her. “I’m scared. I haven’t…not in a long time.” His scowl softened and eased until he looked down at her with a strange tenderness, disconcerting in its intensity. No man had ever looked so deeply into her. “I could…I could do something for you if you…to ease you…your…” She sounded like an idiot, but he continued to stare so fully into her that the words spilled out before she could form coherent thoughts. She wanted him. She wanted to help him. She felt bad for arousing him, but she wasn’t ready. She just wasn’t. As she continued to sputter, his face hardened again. “Damn it, Michelle, you’re not going to suck my cock because you feel guilty.” She snapped her mouth shut. Hot, painful, embarrassing emotion burned at the back of her throat. She concentrated on a spot to the right and above Thomas’s face. With Marina’s cruel words so fresh on her mind, his stark refusal of her offer cut more deeply than it should have. And he saw so clearly into her thoughts. It frightened her. His presence, the feel of his hard length, her reaction to his kiss—it all frightened her. “Please,” she whispered, still not looking at him. “I need…please. I can’t. This isn’t good for me.” He didn’t release her wrists. Instead, he moved his mouth down to the ticklish skin at the back of her jawline below her ear. His lips brushed against her, featherlight. “Thomas.” She breathed sharply through her nostrils.

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“Don’t say that,” he whispered. “Never think this isn’t good for you. And never think I’m not good for you.” Slowly, his lips trailed across her skin. “Your skin beneath my lips, that is good.” He brushed kisses upon her neck and down the slender hollow of her throat and to the little round dip between her collarbones and down her sternum. “My hands on your flesh, that is good.” His slid the heel of his palms down her arms, his thumbs dragging along her skin, blazing a hot trail from wrist to crook of elbow. He held her arms hard against the mattress, and he wriggled his face down, burrowing under her shirt to kiss and lick up her belly, pushing the fabric up as he went. A small breeze from the ceiling fan tickled the tiny hairs of her stomach. “Your breasts against my face, that is good.” He attacked one of her nipples, taking the little bud between his lips. He sucked and nibbled until her nipple was hard and aching, until she arched against his mouth. Then he moved to the other one, drawing up her pleasure afresh, pulling it up to the surface from some deep, hidden place within her. Then he moved back to the first nipple. It had grown cool from his saliva and the breeze of the fan. He breathed his hot breath over it. She whimpered, the torture of his warm breath upon her nipple causing her to wriggle beneath him. He did it again on her other nipple. Her pussy throbbed with insistence now, demanding some release from his gentle torture. She squeezed his ribs tight between her legs, trying to ease some tension from her body by physical exertion. He responded, moving fast, moving until his hips were nestled between hers. “Our bodies, one against another. My cock here.” He pushed against her. “Your hot, wet cunt waiting for me, that is good.” He released her arms, but Michelle no longer wanted escape. He leaned his weight on one elbow and cupped her face with his free hand. After pressing a firm kiss to her tingling lips, he pulled back again, looking at her. “Now tell me this isn’t right.” She shook her head, unwilling to let those words pass her lips.

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“Good. Now tell me what you want.” The room was completely silent apart from their breathing. “You.” His mouth fell hard against hers. She could feel their teeth grating, and it awoke something animal in her. Arching up with her hips, she moved her hands down to her drawstring. After she had the shorts untied, Thomas yanked them off. Then he yanked her panties off. She pulled off his shirt and delighted in the feel of his bare flesh beneath her hands. Soon her top was gone. Thomas sat up, and with a grin, he moved off her. Grabbing the tops of her thighs, he tugged her to the end of the bed, causing half the bedcovers to come with her. “Thomas,” she gasped. “What?” Her ass was at the edge of the bed, and to answer her question, he gripped her knees and jerked her legs wide open. “Oh!” she squealed but then clamped her mouth shut, embarrassed. She moved her hands to cover herself, but Thomas’s voice stopped her. “Don’t even think about it.” The warning in his voice sent hot thrills shooting up and through her body. “I want to look at you.” He knelt down reverently in front of her, placing the bottoms of her thighs against his chest and shoulders. “This is a beautiful pussy.” She doubted that, but she let him look, not seeing any help for it. She was exposed, vulnerable, and completely out of control. She liked it. The thought shocked her so much that she physically jerked. “What is it?” Thomas asked, concern apparent. He had been stroking lazy circles across the skin of her thighs, but at her jerk, he stopped, gripping her legs. She looked at him, long and hard. His thick brows creased slightly above his black eyes as they scanned her face. His lips were parted, a small smile still playing across them from his reverent perlustration of her pussy.

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“Nothing,” she said, a smile unfurling. “I like when you look at me.” She spread her legs farther apart for him. “And when you see me.” His eyes grew hungry as he lowered his head to her cunt. He kissed the lips of her pussy soft and gentle. “So beautiful,” he murmured against her wet folds. His tongue darted out and licked at her. “Oh god,” he whispered. He shoved his shoulders against her and buried his face deep. Michelle let herself fall into the dizziness his tongue conjured and swirled inside her body. Her stomach muscles clenched with each lave of his tongue, each suck of her clit. The tip of his tongue tickled against her nub, teasing and light one second and then hard and fast the next. He put his lips to her hole, and she could feel his hot breath inside her. She arched, pleasure tearing through her body, and her legs shook with need. He pushed a finger into her while his mouth worked her clit. She clenched against him, rolling against his finger as it rubbed across that delicate patch of nerves just inside her channel. “More,” she whispered. He slipped another finger into her pussy. He swirled them around, and his teeth nibbled against her. Stroking in and out, he matched the rhythm of his fingers with the clenching of her inner muscles. “That’s right,” he said, his lips brushing across her flesh. “We’ll follow each other. Let your cunt grip me just like that, and I’ll take you far away.” His words pounded against her ears. Her skin was flushed, hot, and rippling. Small whimpers fluttered into life at the back of her throat with each stroke of his fingers, and she felt the white-hot bud of orgasm revolving deep in her pussy. With each stroke it grew wider and stronger, its radius moving farther through her body until every nerve ending she possessed buzzed with the promise of it. “You’re there, Michelle. Let me have your pleasure. Surrender it to me.” “Oh god, Thomas.” His fingers pushed deep inside her, dragging hard against her inner walls as he moved in and out, fast and urgent.

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The barely contained orb of pleasure exploded, expanding and throbbing through millions of nerves. She gasped, arching up against his hand, her fingers digging hard into the sheets and mattress somewhere beneath her flying body. After a long moment, her feet fell to the floor, her legs limp. Thomas rested his chin on her stomach, and when she could open her eyes, she found him grinning happily up at her. She ran her fingers through his hair, brushing it away from his forehead. “Come here.” She patted the bed beside her. With an almost boyish delight, he scrambled up the bed to her as she wiggled back. Something about the way he snuggled so fully into her with his contented “Mmm” reminded her of Franklin and the eager happiness he’d exhibited when she’d agreed to have dinner with him. She contemplated her predicament for a moment, wondering if she should say something, but she’d always been one for honesty, even when difficult. “Thomas, I have to tell you something. And it might…well, it might cause a little tension.” “What is it?” Her cheek rested against his chest, and his deep voice rumbled against the bones of her face, tickling the end of her nose. “I had planned to eat dinner with Franklin earlier this evening, and I canceled it to…” She didn’t feel like going into that now, not when pleasure still coursed so luxuriantly through her veins. She would keep Marina out of this. She was determined. “Anyway, not that I plan on shouting from the rooftops about us…about this, I mean…but he is your brother, and I thought you might want to know, in case he does find out about this.” Her cheeks felt like fire, but at least she’d gotten that off her chest. Thomas shook beside her. “What?” She pulled back from him to look up into his laughing face. “How is this funny? At all?” she added more firmly when his laughter continued. “Thomas, why on earth are

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you laughing? Do you understand what I’m saying? It was a date. I had a date with your brother.” “You’re right,” he finally said. “It’s not funny.” He began laughing again, and Michelle moved, trying to pull away from him, thinking his behavior annoyingly absurd. “All right, all right, calm down.” His arms held her tight. “I am perfectly calm.” Despite the terseness in her voice, she snuggled into him again, unable to deny herself such a delectable, comfortable warmth. “I’m laughing because there’s something you don’t know about us.” “Us? You mean you and your brothers?” “Yes, me and my brothers. The thing you need to know is that we…” He didn’t finish his sentence for a long while. His fingers ran through her hair, and his other hand sketched lazy patterns across her glowing skin. “Uh-huh?” she asked, a warm lethargy settling in her limbs. With Thomas’s strong arms around her, she felt herself drifting quickly into sleep. “Well, we like to share.” “That’s good, very polite.” “Women, that is.” “Women…share…” Something moved in her mind, and she couldn’t quite fall into the mindless abyss of slumber. An idea, or a word, something kept her. “Women?” she said. “Share women?” She shot up like a box spring, wide awake and with her mind buzzing. He chuckled, reaching out a hand to smooth her hair. “You look like an offended she-badger.” “You share women?” She swatted his hand away, glaring. He watched her warily for a long moment, probably trying to decide if she was going to leap out of the bed, rush down the stairs, and run away from him screaming because that was exactly what she

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felt like doing. “You share women?” She had to ask again. She couldn’t believe he’d said those words. He nodded. Thinking her eyes might possibly bulge completely out of their sockets, she forced herself to blink a couple times. Then she made herself take a few deep breaths. “Why, may I ask?” “There are a lot of reasons, but mostly it’s how I grew up—how we grew up—and we’ve always known that it would be one woman between the three of us.” “So your mom has…?” He nodded. “Two husbands, and I have two fathers.” “How…” She shook her head, unable to comprehend such a thing as one woman with two men, much less three. “How does anyone even begin to make that work? What about jealousy? Or just…the energy it would take…And what do you tell people? I mean, do you tell people? What about children? How would you know? Do you know who your…” She stopped herself. Realizing that might be a touchy subject, she studied his face, but he was smiling. “Where are your parents? Do they live here?” “Let’s see. It’s September, so that means they are in…” He frowned, thinking. “Germany! They’ll be there until the end of Oktoberfest.” “Sounds fun,” she said in a flat tone. “They’ve been in Europe for almost six years now.” She studied for him, hearing an odd note. “You’re jealous?” He smiled at her, but his smile looked a little sad. “Won’t you come back into my arms? I’ll tell you anything you want to know, but I like the way you feel when I hold you.” She thought about refusing but liked being held in his arms too much to do so. After she had cuddled against him again, he said, “It’s a complex thing, like any relationship, but it can also be very rewarding. Yet it’s not something that can be easily explained.” “Try.”

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“Well, let’s see…” “What’s the worst part about it?” she prompted. “I can’t say that there’s anything inherently bad about it. If everyone in the relationship wants to be in a ménage, then there’s nothing to make it better or worse. But for someone that’s never been in a ménage, like you”—he playfully tickled the ends of her curly hair over her nipples—“then naturally, concerns will arise. For instance, it may be difficult at first to acclimate yourself to the idea that you have three men at your beck and call.” “That doesn’t sound too bad.” His chest shook beneath her cheek. “Considering you felt guilty for making my dick hard, I think you may find it a little overwhelming when confronted with three hard dicks.” “Oh.” She tried to envision herself with all three brothers, and holy shit, the image her mind conjured had her pussy tingling again, but then she tried to imagine how she would actually accommodate each of them. She would take Thomas’s cock in her mouth as Elias fucked her in the front and maybe she also held Franklin’s length in her fingers, but even just envisioning that scenario had her mind spinning. She couldn’t imagine how difficult it would be to actually live it. “Okay, that would take some getting used to, but what else?” She was trying to be objective about the whole thing. It was never her gut response to shoot something down because she had never experienced it, or in this case, even thought about experiencing it. She’d traveled to many strange places, touring with Marina. Her sister always dragged her along to interesting sights in the cities they visited, and she’d seen many fantastical things over the past five years that she wouldn’t have imagined existed in this world—miles of catacombs filled with bones beneath the teeming streets of Paris, a taxidermied two-headed crocodile in Georgia’s state capitol building, the great stone giants buried up to their necks and looking toward the sky on

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Easter Island. She’d seen stranger things than one woman with three men, but still, the idea was so foreign in her mind. She had to let it soak for a while. “Another thing to think about,” Thomas said, drawing her mind back to the present, “is trust.” “How so?” “It’s like any relationship between people that care for one another. We have to trust you.” She bristled. “You think I’m not trustworthy?” “That’s not what I’m saying. We have to trust you, and you have to trust us…all three of us.” Michelle thought of her own parents, divorced only two years after Marina was born. Her dad left with another woman. Typical enough story, but then again, it was already hard enough for one man to stay with a woman. How could she keep three men with her? “Michelle.” Something pleasant curled up tight in her stomach when he said her name so deep like that. “Don’t ever feel like you have to push my brothers away because of what you and I have between us. With us—with you and me and my brothers—we want you, and we want you to want us, all three of us. We know how this sort of relationship works, which means we also know how amazing it can be. All it takes is trust.” “Easier said than done.” “All right, fair enough. But do you think you would at least try it? To see if it could work for us?” As she had lain against him, his body heat soaked all the way through her, moving deep through her body, through her ribs and her stomach and her heart. She felt like the caterpillar in her cocoon, all soft and liquid and delicate. She sighed against his bare chest, feeling deliciously drowsy. “We can try,” she heard herself promising. He kissed the top of her head. “Go to sleep then,” he whispered. “You’re safe.”

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Chapter Five Franklin wiped the sweat from his face with an old bandanna one of the Greenwoods had left on the wooden banister of their front porch. He had to admit that the place felt a little spooky without the brothers around and more than half the animal cages empty, but it felt damn good to stand naked in the brisk morning air. He had just finished an early morning run in bear form from his house to the lake and had stopped at the preservation center to shift back, grab some clothes, and check on all the animals while the brothers were gone. A pale lavender sky lent the lake’s waters a smoky hue, but the sun had already begun to peek over the spiny tops of the forest. A breeze from the lake washed over his body, stirring the hair between his legs and tickling his balls. The blood still coursed fast through his veins from his run, and the tickling sensation brought his shaft straight up until it pressed toward his belly. A vision of Michelle, naked and panting his name as he plowed into her, flashed through his mind. “Shit, that’s not helping,” he said aloud. He walked into the lake until it came to his thighs. Chills rippled up his flesh, and without giving himself time to think, he dove in. The shock of coolness on his hot skin washed over him and helped, only minimally, to dampen his ardor. When he finished his swim, he quickly put on his clothes. After checking the animals and the general well-being of the preservation center, he started walking back toward Main Street. By the time he got to Savage Hunger, it would be about seven, just in time for a fresh

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batch of Phil’s honey almond muffins. His stomach growled thinking about them. He didn’t want to think about Michelle, but as he walked toward town, it was all he could do. She’d agreed to go to dinner with him, and not that he was an expert on women, but she seemed pleased with the idea. Then at the last second, without giving him a reason, she’d canceled. Part of him wanted say, “fuck it,” and just forget about her, but he knew that wasn’t going to happen. Because the other part of him, the most basic part, wanted to hunt her down, grab her by the shoulders, shake her until her teeth rattled, and then plunge his cock so deep in her cunt that she’d never think about doing that to him again. Elias had tried to bring up Michelle at Catdaddy’s, but Franklin was never one of those “let’s chit chat over beer and discuss our feelings” kind of guys. Plus, puking on his older brother’s shoes had sort of put a stop to the small talk. Working in a different office and working different schedules made it all too easy to avoid his brothers, and they had been acting strange over the last week. They’d been shooting him funny looks and dropping weird hints about Michelle, like they were trying to get him to admit something. On the one hand, he tried his damndest to ignore thoughts of Michelle. On the other hand, he’d never felt so strongly about a woman, and Bo’s words kept moving through his mind. Make damn sure, he’d said. Well, he intended to do just that. The next time he saw her, he’d— As he passed Treaty Lane, something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye, disrupting his thoughts. When he looked down the road toward the north, he saw a lone figure approaching. Squinting his eyes, he could barely make out the telltale black swish of hair. As she neared, his suspicions were confirmed, and in a few short moments, she looked up and saw him waiting for her.

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He noticed the small hitch in her step as she realized who waited for her, but she kept coming. “Morning, Miss Andrews,” he said, more stiffly than he’d intended, but hell, he couldn’t control himself around her. “Good morning,” she answered, her voice low and sweet from disuse so early in the morning. “On your way into town?” “Yes, and you?” He nodded. “Savage Hunger.” “Me, too.” She smiled at him, a little nervous he could see. “Aunt Agnes doesn’t ‘believe’ in coffee. I don’t know how that’s possible, but apparently in some parallel universe it is.” “Marina doesn’t drink coffee, either?” he asked, wanting to confirm that she was totally alone, but he noticed her features tighten for a moment, and then she forced herself to relax. “If she doesn’t have to, she won’t get out of bed before noon.” “Ah, so then it’s a little early for pesky younger siblings.” She shot him a sideways glance and smiled, showing a hint of teeth. “Only for some, it would seem.” Buoyed by her warmth toward him, he asked, “Michelle?” “Mmhmm?” He watched a pair of cardinals chase each other along the old wooden fence that ran along the edge of Main Street. The brownfeathered female darted here and there, always out of reach from her bright-red mate, chirping and teasing as the two birds moved along. “What happened on Friday?” She sighed. “Pesky younger sibling issues.” When it didn’t seem like she would say anything more, he asked, “What about them?” Again, his voice came out more sharply than he intended. Suddenly, she stopped, turning to face him. “She can be difficult, and I know it might not make a lot of sense to people, but she is my sister, and I have to…” She waved her hand, searching, groping for

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the words. “I need to take care of her. She needs someone…” She looked at him helplessly and then shrugged. “I just couldn’t go.” He grasped her hands between his and was surprised at how cold they were. “Okay,” he said, pulling her hands up to his chest and rubbing them to warm them. “Okay?” she asked warily. He nodded. “Although I can’t pretend it wouldn’t have been nice to know that on Friday.” “Sorry,” she said, ducking her head with a sheepish grin. “Well, you’re here now.” “I am.” She met his eyes and smiled. Warmth shot through him, and he smiled back. “Now, am I right in guessing you’ve never partaken of Phil’s honey almond muffins?” “You would be correct.” “Then you are in for a treat.” They began walking again, but Franklin didn’t let go of her hand. He told himself it was because he didn’t want her getting cold again They chatted on the way into town, waving to the few folks who were out early on a Sunday morning. He felt an odd sense of pride growing with each person they passed. He liked walking with Michelle, and he liked people to see him walking with Michelle. It felt right. When the first whiff of coffee and eggs and bacon and muffins greeted their nostrils, a loud grumbling noise came from the petite form next to his. “Was that your stomach?” he asked, incredulous. “I think I’ve got a wild bear living in here.” He choked down his laughter at her offhand remark. As he held the door for her, Rita greeted them, chipper as usual, and then showed them to the Ashley booth in the farthest corner of the diner. Michelle slid in and looked out the great glass panels behind her. “Wow.” She breathed the word. “This view. I can see morning light glimmering off the tips of the mountains. It’s like the ends of

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monstrous fiery swords forged from the bowels of the earth poking through the ground.” “Quite the poet, are we?” “And that’s pre-coffee,” she said, turning back to him with a sassy lift of her brow. After Rita brought them a carafe of coffee and they had ordered their muffins, eggs, and bacon, Franklin looked at Michelle with an appraising eye. “So I guess now it’s time to discuss how you plan on working off your debt.” She finished sipping her coffee and then set the cup back on the table. “My debt?” “Well, I’d say a canceled date and no reason until two days later requires some sort of repayment, wouldn’t you?” “First, it was a day and a half, and second, it depends. What exactly did you have in mind?” “Hmm…I don’t think that’s how debts work. I’m pretty sure the borrower doesn’t get to choose how she wants to pay back her lender.” “And what is it exactly that I have taken from you?” “Oh, my honor as a man….my manly pride…you know, that sort of thing.” She scooted closer, whispering. “You might want to lower your voice. Small town like this? Rumors have been known to form on far less.” He leaned down toward her, grinning. “I think my hand inching up your leg would wreak more havoc than a few uttered phrases.” Her eyes widened in shock as he grasped her leg, starting at her knee and niggling his hand up to the sweet softness of her inner thigh. She squeezed her legs tight together, her eyes scanning the diner nervously. “Franklin, stop. Somebody will see.” She tried to wiggle away, but that made him want to hold on tighter, so he clamped his strong fingers around her flesh. She let out an eek of surprise.

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“It seems my fiancé isn’t the only one with questionable table manners.” A prim British voice spoke from across the table, and Franklin and Michelle sprang apart from each other like guilty conspirators. “Miss Ward,” Michelle said. “It’s nice to see you again.” “And you, but please call me Elena.” She smiled at Michelle. “And it’s nice to see you again, Dr. Ashley.” She smiled at Franklin, but her eyes had a hint of warning in them. He chuckled to himself, wondering to which fiancé she referred. “And how are the hives doing after the harvest?” “They’re doing well…getting ready to hunker down for the winter.” “Do you think I could head out there sometime this week?” She held up the camera hanging from her neck in question. “The Savage Valley website is getting a makeover.” “And you’re taking the photos?” he asked. She nodded. “Congratulations.” “My first Savage Valley commission,” she answered, beaming. “You’re a photographer?” Michelle asked. “I didn’t realize that.” “I am indeed. If you ever need a portrait, let me know.” “I’ll keep that in mind. My sister is looking for a new photographer for her next album cover.” “Oh, goody! I’ve never done album work before.” Elena Ward stayed at their table, chatting until Rita brought their muffins, but after she was gone, Franklin turned to Michelle. “All right, I know what you can do to pay off your debt.” “Oh?” She had a big bite of muffin in her mouth. Her cheeks were puffed out, and the word could barely get past the breakfast pastry. “Come with me to the Savage Valley Hives. We’ll have a picnic.” She swallowed her bite and opened her mouth to say something. “With chicken salad sandwiches,” he said, cutting her off. “Because they’re my favorite.” She opened her mouth.

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“And…” He cut her off again. “Apples with peanut butter because they’re my favorite, too.” She watched him for a long moment, waiting, and then opened her mouth. “And cheese,” he said. “Are you—” “And orange juice.” “Franklin—” “And pickles.” She glared at him. He grinned back. “Have you—” “And macaroni and cheese! And boiled eggs! And angel food cake! And tapas! And—” Rolling her eyes, Michelle leaned toward him and pressed her lips against his. Yep. He was done speaking for the moment. He watched her as she kissed him. Her eyes were closed, her long dark lashes appearing stark against the skin of her cheek. Her lips didn’t move much over his, but they pressed against him with an eager insistence. A moment before breaking the kiss, she squeezed her eyes tight. “I don’t have any plans today,” she said, “and I would love nothing more than to picnic with you.” He opened his mouth to spout off some smug, “I knew you couldn’t resist me” comment, but she was too quick. She crammed a chunk of honey almond muffin between his lips. “And chicken salad sounds wonderful.” **** “The trick is to stay still. Stay calm. The bees can sense your fear.” She felt tiny feet and a furry body crawling across her shoulder. There was one on the back of her hand and one on her cheek. They

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weren’t too close to the hives, but close enough that a few curious bees would buzz around and land on them occasionally. They’d ordered chicken salad from Savage Hunger, bought some apples and peanut butter from Savage Convenience, and then headed out toward his and his brothers’ house. Even though she’d seen it at the barbecue, the glass-and-wood naturalistic confection of a house still impressed her. “It’s amazing, something like this existing out here in the middle of nowhere.” “People in the middle of nowhere can like a beautiful house as much as people not in the middle of nowhere,” Franklin said, laughing as held open the front door to the house for her. “But if you really want to know about it, you should ask Thomas. He’ll talk your ears off.” She felt her skin flush at the mention of Thomas. Even though she’d talked about it with him, she wasn’t about to bring up having a relationship with more than one of the brothers, not then at least. They packed up their lunch in a small ice chest and then set out along a path that led from the house, over Savage Creek, and then deeper into the forest. The hives were in a large clearing, and Michelle could count about two dozen wooden boxes, each with what looked like a little rooftop. “This area is what we call the central hub,” Franklin said. “If you head east down that little dirt road there”—he pointed it out, and Michelle nodded—“you’ll run into Brown Trout Lake and the preservation center. They have a few hives there. And then about ten miles to the northwest is the Shoshone reservation. They have some hives, as well. We can’t keep them too close to each other, or else the colonies will compete against each other for nectar and pollen.” “If I couldn’t see the bees flying so endlessly in and out of the hives, I’d say it was a little village for dolls. It looks like it.”

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He chuckled. “Those are called Warré hives. They’re a relatively new development in beekeeping, but instead of adding levels and hives to the top of each one, we can put new hives on the bottom. It helps keep in heat and promotes the health of the bees.” “Real interesting stuff.” She fought back a yawn. “Oh, am I boring you?” he asked. Before letting her answer, though, he swept her up in his arms. She squirmed and squealed. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Put me down.” “Shh. Don’t disturb the bees.” Stilling her body, she continued to glare up at him. “Put me down. Now.” The words came out as a violent whisper. He looked down at her with those black eyes, and she couldn’t read his expression. “Sorry,” he said. “No can do.” “I will get you back for this.” His lips tilted in a small smile as he took her away from the hives into the forest. He didn’t walk along any of the paths that he’d pointed out to her or on the one they’d come in on. His face was inscrutable, but his arms were solid and implacable around her body. She felt so small and breakable in them, and it made her uncomfortable. She wanted to like the way it made her feel. She wished it would make her feel all delicate and feminine. She figured most women would, but she hated being taken care of. That was her responsibility. Besides, she was the one who always took care of everyone else, and he was putting her on edge by carrying her. “Can you please put me down?” she whispered when they had gone a little ways. “Nope. Part of your debt repayment.” “I don’t recall anything about you carrying me to god-knowswhere when discussing my repayment options this morning.” “It was in the bylaws.”

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“Please, Franklin,” she said, making her voice intentionally breathy, hoping to disconcert him a little. “Please put me down. You shouldn’t have to carry me and the ice chest.” He looked down at her, his black eyes burning with something powerful. “That tactic won’t work.” A ripple moved through her body. Something in his voice, the way power cracked through his words, had her insides all a-tingle. Squeezing her for a moment, he said in a low voice, “Now, I do have to say, you’re no feather—” She smacked his chest. “—but you feel like it in my arms.” She frowned up at him, trying to hold on to her irritation. He was being much too charming, and his constant smile made her crazy. With need. With frustration. With so many warring emotions. “And Michelle?” She squirmed in his arms, uncomfortable and wishing he would put her back on the damn ground. “What?” she snapped. “Try and relax.” “Oh.” The breath seeped out of her lungs in a slow release, and in resignation, she let her muscles relax, let her body rest comfortably in his arms, and let the rise and fall of his chest against her body soothe some of her anxieties. About half an hour later, he set her gently on the ground. “We’re here,” he said in a quiet voice. Once she had regained her footing, she took a look around. He’d brought her to a small wooden bridge with a railing worn smooth by age and thousands of hands passing over it. On one side was a steep upward jut of stone. “The base of the Mukua Mountain Range where it meets the Savage Valley Forest. And that’s an old set of tracks leading into the now-abandoned mines.” “It’s beautiful,” she said. The tracks were moss grown and had a few planks missing between the rails. The iron twisted around the

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stone and out of sight about a hundred yards away to the left. She could see for miles into the valley, the spindly tops of pines, the rooftops of the town nestled among the dark green, and the sparkling waters of Brown Trout Lake. She hadn’t even realized that Franklin had been moving up in elevation while carrying her, and she found herself even more impressed with his strength. He’d barely broken a sweat. “My mother used to take me on walks up here when I was a teenager. I’d get so mad because my brothers said I was too young to take me on their adventures. They always felt like they were old enough to tell me what to do. Mama brought me up here to cool off.” “Sounds like a wise woman.” “Oh, she is. She told me throwing tantrums wasn’t going to get my brothers to change their minds. Said I had to earn my place as a man in this family.” He chuckled, getting a distant look in his eyes as if remembering a pleasant memory. “What is it?” “I was thinking about the first time I shift—” Suddenly he looked stricken. He glanced down at her with a worried expression, and then his features cleared, his wide smile returning. It happened so fast that Michelle almost didn’t see it. “What? What is it?” “I mean, I was thinking about when my parents left. God, it’s been five years, going on six.” Michelle knew he’d been about to say something else, that he was purposefully changing the subject, but she didn’t press him, seeing that he was uncomfortable. She wanted to listen to him talk about his parents, so she wouldn’t press him where he didn’t want to be pressed. “Mama brought me up here one last time a couple of days before she and…well, before my parents left.” “Franklin”—she put her hand to his cheek—“I know you have two fathers. Thomas told me about it.”

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For a moment, he looked relieved, but then he frowned. “When did you see Thomas?” “Umm…” “Because I know he was at the clinic all day yesterday and last night until past midnight.” “He came by,” she said in a bright voice. “But what about the last time your mom brought you up here?” “When did he come by?” She could feel her smile crumbling and knew it was pointless to try hiding the facts. “Last Friday.” “The night we were supposed to go on our date?” She nodded. “So did Elias.” He turned toward the railing and grasped, his fingers tightening around the stained and damp wood. His eyes moved from one side of the valley to the other, and the muscles across his back and shoulders looked tight. Michelle moved to him, settling her hand on one of his shoulder blades. When he didn’t jerk away, she slid her palm across the broad expanse from one shoulder blade to the other. “Everything okay?” she asked. “Mama told me last time we were here, she said that until I stop seeing myself as their younger brother, my brothers won’t either. I don’t mind that they saw you. Really, I don’t. But they didn’t tell me.” He shook his head. “I knew they were acting strange. I wish they would have told me.” He turned to her then, grabbing her elbows. He looked down at her, his black eyes alive and burning. “I want you,” he said. “But I…I don’t know how…I’m too rough. This is awkward, isn’t it?” He tried to let her go. “No,” she said, stepping into his arms and holding his face. His uncertainty moved her, made her more willing to allow her own vulnerabilities to show. “It’s not awkward. It feels honest, and maybe we’re not used to that, and so maybe we want to shy away from that, but…”

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She got lost in his eyes for a moment. Her breath caught sharply in her throat. “But what?” “Let’s not do that. I want honesty.” “Michelle, I…I don’t know what I’m doing.” There was something deeper to his words. “What do you mean?” He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and said, “I’m a virgin.” She gasped, and his eyes snapped open. “You’ve never…?” He shook his head. “Really? You’re a…?” He nodded. She looked into his black eyes, his handsome but worried face, and saw the truth. “You can’t be real.” He lowered his lips to hers, and she stood up on her toes to meet him. Holding her, his hands tight on her lower back, he moved across her in a slow, deliberate pattern. He savored her, and she felt her body shudder in response. His hands moved up her back beneath her shirt, holding her so tight against his body. Her mouth opened to him, and his tongue dipped in, tentative at first but quickly growing adventurous. She slid her hands across his muscled ribs and down his hard, ridged stomach. She slid farther, wanting to feel the weight of his cock in the palm of her hand. His already stiffening shaft grew rock hard, and she massaged her fingertips into his balls. He groaned, and he pulled back from her kiss for a moment. Using his backward motion to her advantage, she pushed him until he leaned against the wooden railing. Her fingers quickly moved to his belt buckle, unfastening his belt and then the button to his jeans and then the zipper. She pulled them down as she knelt before him. “Michelle, you don’t have to—” “Shh.” She grasped him with both hands. “I want to.” Grinning up at him, she said, “You’d better hold on to something.”

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His eyes widened, and he gripped the railing behind him. With tenderness and breathless anticipation, she slid his boxer briefs from his hips, over his thighs, and down his legs, freeing his huge cock. “Oh god, this is a beautiful cock, Franklin.” She took him between both hands, sliding up and down his shaft to get the full length and heft of him familiar to her touch, to teach her hands to know him, for them to recognize each other. She kissed him, first on one side and then on the other, where the ridge of his head met the smooth skin of his length. She ran her hands from tip to base, pressing both her thumbs firmly against his underside until her hands grasped his balls. Then she moved her mouth to his tip. Covering only his head with her lips, she sucked, rolling her lips and massaging, tasting his few drops of pre-cum. “I want to go in farther. Can I…oh, hell,” he said when she took him all the way to the back of her throat. She held him there for a moment, humming against his cock. Then she began rolling her palms against his balls, and she pulled her mouth back, letting her warm lips drag across his skin. “I can’t…I want to…” “Mmhmm,” she hummed against his dick. She quickened their pace, knowing that if he’d never been with a woman, she must be causing him such exquisite torture. The thought made her smile, and almost made her lose her rhythm, but she kept going. She felt him press against the back of her throat with each thrust. Her mouth and her hands worked him hard, and when her fingertips felt his balls begin to tighten, she pressed hard against his sensitive spot. His back arched hard, pushing him deep into her throat. She’d been ready for it, though, and she let him in. His cum spurted into her, and she swallowed it down, continuing to suck on his cock until the last jet was released. When she looked up, he still gripped the railing and looked down at her with such a fierce, burning expression, she had to look away for

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a moment. She pulled his boxer briefs back up and then his jeans. Before rising, though, she grabbed him and held her cheek against his stomach for a long moment. She took a deep breath, smelling sap and sweat on his skin. Then she released him and stood. Finally, he let go of the railing and wrapped his arms around her. Burrowing her face into his chest, she couldn’t keep the huge smile from breaking across her features. Despite his insistence on carrying her up here, he’d eventually let her take care of him. And now she just wanted to be held by him. When he loosened his grip somewhat, they turned until they were both facing the valley. A pair of hawks skimmed across the tree line, their heads swiveling back and forth. With a loud squeal, one of them suddenly dove down into the trees below. The second one followed. Michelle gasped at the piercing whistle and the thrilling drop of each bird. “I’ve never seen that,” she said, watching them in fascination. Then she swallowed and turned her face to him. “Franklin?” “Yeah?” “Thomas said that all three of you share…that you all…” “Yes?” “But if you don’t want to…” His arms tightened around her. “You asked me first, and I wanted to be with you. I can talk to Thomas…I can end everything if you want.” She forced the words out. Franklin said he didn’t feel like he belonged with his brothers, and if he didn’t believe in the whole sharing-women thing, she would be with him. Maybe he needed that. But damn, it hurt more than she thought it would. Franklin was the first one that she’d agreed to go out with, but from the very first moment of meeting each of the Ashley brothers, she’d been attracted to all three of them. She couldn’t explain it. Maybe it was that somehow she knew, or her body knew, that they would all three want to be with her and that they were okay with that. Maybe it was

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something else. Maybe it was their nature, theirs and hers possibly. Whatever the reason, she couldn’t deny that she did want them. She wanted Franklin, and she wanted Thomas, and she wanted Elias. She wanted all three. And she thought Marina was the selfish one. Franklin laughed, pulling her out of her thoughts, and placed a quick, warm kiss upon her lips. “Oh no, you’re not going to deny me the satisfaction of finally having one up on my brothers.” “What do you mean?” He held her chin, and his black eyes were bright and mischievous as he looked down into her upturned face. Running a thumb over her bottom lip, he said, “These lips tasted my cock first.” Her cheeks burned red. “Franklin!” “Wait. They did, didn’t they?” She heard the uncertainty in his voice as his eyes nervously searched her face. “Yes," she muttered, trying to shove away from him, but his free arm darted out and pulled her firmly against his body. The hand on her chin snaked over her breasts and stomach down to the warmth between her legs. “Will you promise me one thing, Michelle?” “Let go.” She wriggled against his grasp, but he only chuckled. “Promise me that if you do decide to be with us, my cock will be the first these lips taste, too.” He gave her cunt an affectionate squeeze, causing little swirls of pleasure to ripple through her. “I will do no such thing.” Her words were meant to come out defiant but ended up sounding breathless and wanton. He grinned down at her, hitting her full force with his wide, disarming smile, and then kissed her. It was a deep kiss, pulling at her annoyance and transforming it into need. “Please, Michelle,” he whispered against her lips. “Let me take you first.” She sighed. His kiss was so eager, so heartfelt. She couldn’t resist him, not even if she’d wanted to in the first place. “Okay,” she said. He ended the kiss abruptly. “Okay?”

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She rolled her eyes in mock exasperation. “Yes, yes. Okay.” He lifted her up, swinging her around with a loud shout of triumph. It echoed against the stone wall behind them and then rolled down into the valley. He kissed her hard then, his exuberance taking her breath away. God, he made her feel so good.

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Chapter Six Marina held two boxes of allergy medicine in her hands. She’d been standing in the aisles of Savage Convenience for over five minutes, trying to pick out some medicine for Michelle. How the hell was she supposed to know which one would make her nose run less and which one would make her eyes less itchy? There was also a third brand on the shelf, but its packaging looked sketchy. “I’d go with this one.” A blunt-tipped finger tapped the box in her right hand. She turned to face the man who had spoken to her. She’d known he was there, of course. She’d noticed him when he first walked in. She always knew when there were men around, and he was no exception. He had dark hair and deep blue eyes, high, Icelandic cheekbones, and a thin smile. She noticed because his smile grew wider and thinner when she turned to look at him. He was a pretty handsome man, and at that thought, her instincts took over. Plastering on her megawatt smile, she simpered and looked up at him through her lashes. “Now what makes you say that?” She used her country-girl drawl. “I always go for the most expensive one. That way, if it’s no good, I’ll at least know it wasn’t because I was being cheap.” She giggled. “I like how you think.” She sauntered down the aisle a ways. “So what are your theories on cough drops?” Joining her in front of the cough drops, he quickly snatched up a bag and placed it in her hands. “Got to support the locals.” She looked at the package. It read “Lianne’s Honey-Lemon Lozenges.”

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“Made right here in Savage Valley?” she said in mock surprise. “I don’t believe it.” He smiled his slick smile, and she knew he saw through her feminine wiles. “Now, I’m no doctor, but you don’t seem to be showing any allergy or cold-like symptoms.” “For my sister.” “What a lucky sister to have someone like you to take care of her.” He took a step closer, and Marina quirked a brow up at him, sensing the change in their game and welcoming the challenge. She had gone just about stir-crazy, feeling cooped up in Aunt Agnes’s old, dusty house. It was about time she had a little fun, and it seemed she’d found someone who was willing to take her up on that offer. “And what are you doing after you give dear sister her medicine?” “I don’t know. You tell me.” She sent him her “sexy smile.” She had about five smiles she liked to use on men. The “sexy smile” was secretive. It said, “I’ve got something for you if you want to look for it.” She didn’t show teeth on the “sexy smile.” That gave too much away. She said everything with her eyes. “Well then, why don’t you ditch the sick sister and come have a drink with me at Catdaddy’s?” She opened her mouth to shoot back a sassy retort, but he put a finger to her lip. “Seven is a good time.” He smirked and then turned to head for the door. “I don’t even know your name. My Mama always taught me to stay away from strangers.” He paused and turned back to look over his shoulder at her, a dark grin tipping up the corner of his mouth. “Skyler Fischer. It’s nice to meet you, Miss Marina Andrews.” Then he slipped through the door. Oh, hell yeah. She was going to have some goddamn fun tonight.

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**** Michelle wiggled the end of her nose. She felt an itch. The sneeze was coming. She knew she couldn’t stop it, and she grimaced. Her nose itched. Her eyes itched. The back of her throat itched. She could feel it coming. Every extremity of her face twinged and tickled with the sensation. If it would just… It all exploded. At her loud sneeze, the puppy, which they had named Roy, yelped, startled from his dozing on Marina’s stomach. Marina cuddled him and petted him until his head went down again and his little bandit eyes drifted closed again. Marina lay slung over an armchair, watching a Wheel of Fortune rerun, but she craned her neck to look at Michelle who lay stretched on the couch at the back of the living room. “You sneeze like a man, Michelle.” “Thank you. That’s very sweet.” “Try to channel it through the nose, not the throat. It’ll sound daintier that way.” “Not really concerned with my daintiness right now, but thanks.” She blew her nose, wincing in pain. Her nostrils were raw from blowing her nose so much, but after every sneeze, her nose turned into a snot faucet. “When is that medicine supposed to kick in?” “It’s only been ten minutes, Marina. Give it some time. Do you maybe want to start thawing out some of that chicken soup?” “Oh.” “What?” “I think Aunt Agnes took it to her bingo potluck thing last night. I got stuff at the store, though, to make a fresh batch.” “Where is she tonight?” “Yoga, I think. Or maybe poker? I don’t know. It’s something.” “Okay, well, I guess you’ll have to help me cut up veggies.”

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“Umm, actually…” “What, Marina?” She didn’t mean to snap, but she recognized her sister’s tone of voice. Marina used it when trying to get of something. “Well, I was going to go over to a friend’s this evening.” “What friend?” “Real nice.” Frowning, Marina turned back toward the television, her legs now kicking up and down in a furious rhythm. After a couple minutes, Michelle sighed. “You know I didn’t mean it that way. I meant…” She sniffled. “I just meant…hang on.” She sneezed. “I meant that I didn’t know you’d made any friends here yet. Have I met him?” “She’s not a him.” “Oh?” Michelle blinked a couple times, trying to get her head wrapped around that little tidbit of information. Besides her, Michelle didn’t know that Marina even knew how to talk to females without pissing them off, much less make friends with one of them. “Yeah. Her name’s Lianne. She makes honey beauty products or something and invited me over to try some of her new stuff.” Michelle watched Marina for a while, trying to decide if there was any angle she was missing, but she couldn’t come up with a logical reason why Marina would need to lie about this. And at their meeting with Dr. Brine that week, the counselor had suggested to Michelle in their private session that she encourage Marina to try making female friends outside of the family, namely someone besides Michelle. “What’s she like?” Michelle asked. Marina shrugged, mindlessly stroking Roy’s back. “Don’t know her that well. She made those lozenge things that I brought you, and she saw me checking out at Savage Convenience. She knew who I was and asked if I would come by and try some of her beauty products and then maybe like tweet about them or something.” “Oh? That’s great. That’s really great, Marina.” Michelle smiled, hugging a couch pillow to her chest as she coughed. “Speaking of

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tweeting, did you see that T-Swift has a new beau? She was tweeting about some mystery guy today.” “Oh, how juicy.” Michelle giggled. “And Loretta Lynn’s doing a show in Nashville soon.” “Wish we could go to that.” “Yep.” “Hey, Michelle? How come you never ran away to like Paris or Cairo or something?” “That came out of nowhere.” She sneezed and then blew her nose, but she could feel her head growing gradually clearer. “I was thinking about Nashville and traveling, and you know, I used to really look up to you. Back at home and everything. You were always talking about leaving and getting the heck out of there. You were always playing that LeAnn Rimes song about being on a westbound train or whatever.” Marina laughed, remembering. “You never told me that.” Marina let out a strange little laugh, and Michelle could see her putting Roy’s ears over his eyes and holding them there. He was attempting to snooze and nipped sleepily at the air. Marina got up off the chair and dumped Roy on the ground. “Yeah, I always thought you were gonna leave me.” She headed for the stairs, but before going up, she looked at Michelle. “You’re a good sister.” Stunned, Michelle couldn’t think of any reply as Marina started up the stairs. “That was weird,” she whispered to herself, but she had a small warmth in her heart, nonetheless. An hour or so later, after Marina had left for Lianne’s, Michelle rolled off the couch. The medicine had kicked in, but now she felt groggy. Groggy was better than sneezing and sniffling, though. Roy woke up and jumped off the chair as Michelle headed for the kitchen. After rummaging through the fridge, she pulled out all the veggies and the chicken. She got the chicken boiling with a few spices

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and set about cutting up veggies, tossing a couple bits of mushroom to Roy, who gobbled them up in one bite. It had been about a week since that wonderful day she’d spent with Franklin. He’d given her a ride back to Aunt Agnes’s and told her that he and his brothers all had busy schedules that week but that he’d want to see her again the next weekend. Thomas had called her while at work almost every night, talking to her on his downtime when nothing was happening at the clinic. Elias nagged at her mind. She’d only seen him that Friday night when they’d all played Yahtzee, and he hadn’t spoken to her since Marina’s fit. She wondered if maybe he wasn’t as keen about her as the other two insisted he was. She wanted to see him again but didn’t know the best way to make that happen. So occupied with thoughts of the Ashley brothers and clumsy with the allergy medicine, she lost her concentration slicing the vegetables. The knife blade cut hot across her palm before she realized what was happening. She saw red blossoming out of the corner of her eye, and then she jumped. “Shit,” she said, her voice shaky, as the knife clanked onto the counter. Her hand trembled as blood spilled over the sides of her palm. Spurred into action at the sight of the first red drop against the creamy tile of Aunt Agnes’s kitchen floor, she rushed to a drawer and grabbed a towel. Pulling it tight against her cut, she squeezed it with her hand to staunch the flow of blood. Roy sniffed at the blood. “No. Roy, no! Damn.” Grabbing her car keys, she scooped up Roy and walked out the door to her car. Her whole left arm was shaking as she climbed into the driver’s seat. She knew she wouldn’t die from the cut, but she didn’t want to pass out. With the blood loss and the allergy medicine and the shock, she knew it was a very real possibility. After dumping Roy into the passenger’s seat, she pulled away from Aunt Agnes’s house. The hospital was only a few miles down the road on Treaty Lane, but she felt justified driving a little faster

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than normal. When she pulled up to the ER, she left the car running. She wanted to grab Roy, but she didn’t feel strong enough. Inside, there was only one other patient sitting in the waiting room. The nurse working the front desk looked up when the automatic doors slid open. Upon seeing Michelle, she leapt out of her chair and ran toward her, taking Michelle’s weight on her shoulder. “Honey, you are white as a sheet. Dr. Ashley!” She shouted toward the back. “I cut myself, and nobody was home, and so I had to drive myself, and I’m really tired, but Roy is in the car. Please, you need to get Roy.” “All right, honey, take it easy.” “You’re kind of fuzzy right now.” She couldn’t think in a straight line, and she giggled. She felt drunk, but it was a sick drunk. “Oh, drat,” she said, looking down because she’d let the towel fall away from her hand. But then she was floating, and it felt so lovely. Like she was on a cloud, flying through heaven. She heard voices from somewhere far away, a magical land, somewhere she couldn’t live. There was something cool on her face, and then she went to sleep. **** Marina popped two quarters into the jukebox. Skyler leaned against the old, rusty contraption, an arm slung casually over the top. He smiled down at her, his face only inches from hers. Maybe it was the three shots of whiskey she’d already consumed, but she thought he smelled dangerous. She liked that. She wanted that. “What are you gonna pick?” he asked. Covering his eyes with her hand, she giggled. “It’s a surprise. My favorite song of all fucking time.” After she typed in the code for her song, he grabbed her wrist and yanked her hand away from his face,

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his fingers around her wrist a little too tight. He stalked toward her, his eyes shining with that danger she craved. “I want another shot of Jack,” she said. Skyler backed her up until she felt her lower back hit the bar. Placing his hands on the wood on both sides of her hips, he shouted her order to the bartender without looking away from her face. “You wanna dance?” She grabbed his hips. “I love dancing.” She rolled her body against his and brushed her fingers through his hair. He smiled down at her, but there was something cold in his smile. Marina liked the challenge. She wanted to make him hot for her. She wanted to wield her power. She wanted to rule him, wanted to rule every man. “Drink up,” he said, providing her with a shot. After she downed that one, he gave her another. Over his shoulder, she saw two of the Ashley brothers come in. “Oh shit,” she said under her breath. Luckily, they didn’t see her behind Skyler and headed to the other side of the bar to greet some buddies. “Come on,” she whined. “Let’s dance.” “Honey, if he don’t want to dance with you, I’ll take you for a sweet turn around the floor.” “Hell yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.” She shoved away from Skyler. “You snooze, you lose.” She grinned over her shoulder at him and then turned to her new dance partner. “I’m Marina.” “Cleve Yeats, honey. You been in Savage Valley long?” “Not long enough, I guess, since I just met you. Boy, do you people breed sexy men here or something? Every time I turn around, I see someone else I want to two-step with.” She stared up into his startling bright-blue eyes. He had a devilish gleam lurking in those depths. Earlier, after she’d left the house and was a safe distance away, she had run behind a tree to change her clothes. She’d exchanged her jeans for a tight blue-jean skirt and her flannel shirt for a white tank top that showed her neon-green bra beneath. She wore a thick black belt with a buckle in the shape of a snake’s head and two bright

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diamonds for eyes. On her feet was a pair of black snakeskin cowboy boots. God, she felt sexy. Once she made it to Catdaddy’s, she went straight to the bathroom and applied a few extra layers of eyeliner and mascara and a coat of hot pink lipstick, which was her favorite. She knew it made her lips look extra pouty. She took her hair out of its ponytail and let it tumble in curls over her shoulders and down her back. When she walked back out to the bar area, she felt her sexiness washing out onto everyone in waves, and she felt wild. Now, dancing with the gorgeous Cleve, she felt that wildness again. It coursed through her blood and drove her crazy. She had to do something or else she’d lose her mind. Grabbing his hand, she placed it on her ass and rolled her body against his. “Didn’t you hear me, cowboy? I said I want to dance.” “I see.” His voice growled low and sexy in her ear while he moved her around the floor, holding her body tight against his. She felt like an undulating galaxy, full of light and space and dust. She felt a tap on her shoulder. When she turned her head to see who it was, she suddenly found herself in another man’s arms. “’Scuse me, but it was time I cut in. Can’t let my brother have all the fun.” Turning, she felt her jaw drop. “Cleve?” “Yes, ma’am?” He’d only moved about half a foot away. “Is this your brother?” “Sure is.” “The name’s Ezra.” “Marina.” She smiled up at her new dance partner. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He shot her a wink, and she noticed he had the same startling blue eyes as his brother. “Well now, I just can’t decide.” “Decide what?” She looked between both brothers. “I can’t decide which one of you is sexier.”

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“Well, I’m generally known as the sexy one,” Cleve said, winking. “Ezra is the dumb one.” “Now hold on. I think you got that a little mixed up there, bro.” “No, no. This is a real quandary, fellas.” “Maybe you don’t have to decide,” Cleve said, coming up behind her, trapping her between both their bodies. Cleve’s hands moved to her waist as Ezra’s hands slid up her ribs. She let herself float between them, resting her head on the broad chest behind her, and stared up at the ceiling. She felt so happy. Or was it sad? She didn’t know if she could tell the difference. “Oh shit,” she whispered. “What is it, honey?” Startled that he’d heard her, she jerked upright. “Boys.” “Yes?” they said together. “I am drunk. Drunk as a fucking skunk!” She laughed, her body shaking hard with the force of it. “Marina?” She peeked over Cleve’s shoulder at the sound of her name and saw one of those Ashley brothers approaching. “Goddamn it,” she heard one of the brothers say close to her ear. “Marina, come on.” That was Thomas, the middle one. She felt really proud of herself for remembering. “Why don’t we go outside for some fresh air?” He put a hand on her arm, meaning to pull her away from her sexy dance partners. “No, I wanna stay and dance.” He reached for her again, but Ezra and Cleve stepped away, keeping her body between them. “The lady said no.” When Thomas reached for her again, the sexy brothers with blue eyes yanked her out of Thomas’s grasp. “Go on. Shoo,” Cleve said, and she heard Ezra laughing above her. “Yeah, shoo!” she said, laughing. “Does Michelle know you’re here, Marina?” She heard the beginning strains of “Fancy” by Reba McEntire. “Oh my god!” she screamed. “This is my song. Skyler!” She looked

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around, looked for the man who smelled like danger. She saw him watching her from the bar. Breaking free from her dance partners, she ran over to him. “This is it! My favorite song of all fucking time!” She climbed up on a stool and then clambered up onto the bar, grabbing an empty beer bottle on her way up. The words tore out of her throat. “Here’s your one chance, Fancy, don’t let me down.” She sang at the top of her lungs, prancing her way from one end of the bar to the other. She felt all those eyes on her, and it made her feel so beautiful. A man ran his hand up her leg, and she slapped at him, laughing and wagging her finger at him as she sang. “Just be nice to the gentlemen, Fancy, and they’ll be nice to you.” One of the Yeats twins, she couldn’t tell which, shoved at the groper, and she giggled. She loved when men shoved and fought over her. It made her feel powerful, like a panther queen or a fucking Amazon woman. She fell to her knees at the bridge right in front of Skyler. “You know, I might have been born just plain white trash, but Fancy was my name!” She finished the song with a scream, her throat raw and her lungs burning. But she felt so fucking good. Running her hands through Skyler’s hair, she saw his deep blue eyes, and they were burning. She moved her hands, raking them down his neck and then grabbing the gray lapels of his business suit jacket. Leaning close, she said, “I’ll be your Fancy tonight.” “Come on, Marina.” Someone grabbed at her from the side. “We’re going to get you out of here.” A chant of “one more song, one more song” had broken out, and she laughed, rising and taking drunken bows. “Fuck off.” She kicked out at the hands that reached for her, not ready to leave the bar. Her foot met solidly with flesh, and looking down, she realized she’d hit Thomas’s hand and caused it to fly back and slap a man standing behind him in the back of his bald head. The man turned slowly around, growling.

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“One more song, one more song, one more song.” The chant grew louder and more chaotic. “They love me,” she said to the other Ashley brother, Franklin, who had taken Thomas’s place in trying to get her off the bar. “We need to get you outside for a minute or two. Come on.” “No, goddamn it. I wanna sing. I just wanna sing.” He’d maneuvered her so that she clung to the lip of the bar, her body parallel to the floor as he tugged on her legs. “Let go!” she screamed. “Let go of me, you bastard!” Ezra shoved Franklin. “She said let go. Get your hands off before I take them off.” “Ezra, calm down. I’m only taking her outside.” “Don’t tell me to fucking calm down.” “I didn’t tell you to fucking calm down. It was a regular ‘calm down.’ No fucking involved. I know that probably feels a little weird for you.” She heard the sound of a fist hitting flesh, and then the hands that had been trying to pull her off the bar let go. “Whoops,” she said, giggling when Thomas tackled Ezra, both of their bodies slamming into a table, sending glass bottles flying. Skyler sidled up next to her. “You are quite the rabble-rouser, aren’t you?” “I guess I am.” She watched as more men joined in the fight, and soon the whole place was in an uproar. Climbing over the top of the bar, she fell to the other side, ducking down whenever the action came too close. What a fucking beautiful show. **** Her hand flinched. “I know you’re probably still feeling a little woozy from everything, but try to be perfectly still, Michelle.”

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“I’m trying.” Elias hated hearing the tremble in her voice, but he didn’t want to mar her hand as he stitched her skin closed. When he’d assessed her cut, he’d seen the white of her tendon beneath the layers of skin she’d sliced through. She’d passed out for a few seconds from the shock of cutting herself and from the sight of her blood-covered hand. After she’d come to, Matilda, his PA, had brought juice and animal crackers for her. She seemed to be feeling a little better now although her face remained pallid. He had her lying on a cushioned, adjustable table with her head raised. “Okay, I’m about to start. Take a deep breath in.” She did, looking in his eyes. “Now let it out.” He looked down at her tiny hand between his. “Now take a deep breath in.” He moved the needle to a ready position. “And let it out.” He pushed the needle through her skin. There was always that small resistance. Human skin was tougher than it looked, but he shoved the needle through her flesh. She sucked in a quick breath, but her hand remained still. He began his work, but after he’d gone back and forth through her skin a few times, she whispered, “Can you talk to me please? Distract me.” “Okay.” He poked the needle through one side of her cut. “I supposed what I’m wondering right now is why do you let Marina treat you the way she does? Because what we saw at your aunt’s house wasn’t the first time she’s behaved that way, was it?” He pushed the needle out the other side of the cut. “Wow. Not one for small talk.” “Was that offensive?” “Not offensive. Just, you know, there it is.” They were both quiet for a moment, and Elias continued his work, waiting, knowing she would want to think before she spoke. He felt her hand shaking in his, and after he’d pulled the thread taut, he looked up.

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Her features trembled with traces of emotion, and he wanted to know what each flicker of her eyelids meant, what the tremble in the corner of her mouth meant, why one of her eyebrows jerked up. “Dr. Ashley, you can’t…please don’t look at me like that.” “What is it, Michelle?” “You’re making me feel…I don’t know.” Her expression was worried, and her eyes begged him, so he turned his face back to her hand. “I don’t know why,” she finally answered. “I think maybe a part of me shuts down when she starts up. It makes everything easier.” “But only for the moment. Because she’ll keep doing it. She’ll only stop if you stop allowing her to get away with it.” Michelle sighed, and when he glanced up, he saw that she had clenched her eyes closed. “Do you have a dream, Michelle?” Her eyes flew open. “What?” “What did you want to be when you grew up? What was your dream? Just a guess, but I don’t think babysitting your sister was it.” A gentle smile passed her lips then faded away. “Yes. I had a dream. This might sound kind of weird, but when I was little, when I didn’t know any better, I used to want to be a hippo.” He chuckled. “A hippo?” “Well, first, if I was a hippo, I could stay in the tub all day.” “Solid reasoning.” “And then I’d seen somewhere, at school or on the television, how in ancient Egypt the hippopotamus was perceived as a protective goddess of pregnancy and childbirth because of her ferocity and aggression while protecting her young. I remember liking the sound of that.” “It’s a noble aspiration.” He looked up when she giggled and said, “What?” “Nothing. I like the way you said that.” “How did I say it?” “I don’t know. You’re more serious than your brothers.”

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He smiled at her. “Looks like you and I have something in common then.” He felt his cock rise in response to the flush that washed over her chest and cheeks. He’d thought of little more than the feel of her pussy as his cock sank into her warm, glistening depths since that night at her aunt’s. “You’re beautiful when you blush like that. It’s good to see your color coming back.” Her eyes locked on his. She had deep brown irises that, when moving and shining under the lights, reminded him of a silk dress his mother used to wear when she went dancing with his fathers. “I thought that you didn’t…that maybe…that you and your brothers—” “Say what you’re going to say.” “I’ve seen Franklin. I’ve seen Thomas since that night. But not you, and I wondered.” “Don’t wonder that. You needed space. I gave you that.” “I never said I needed space.” “But you needed it nonetheless.” He pulled the thread through on the last stitch then tied and snipped it off. “I don’t think you know me well enough to say something like that, Dr. Ashley.” Her voice was cooler than before. He could see that he’d annoyed her. She didn’t like that he could see through her insecurities. Wiping her palm with sanitizer, he locked his eyes with hers. “It’s Elias, and you know it.” Moving across the room to throw away refuse from the procedure, he heard a rustle of material as Michelle got up from the bed. Then she spoke from the door, her words clipped and agitated. “Thank you so much. You’ve been most helpful.” He recognized it for the self-preservation tactic that it was. She wanted to pretend that the air between them didn’t crackle with the pull of their attraction. She wanted to deny that something intimate and real existed between them. If she pretended, then she was safe.

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She could go on living with her sister, miserable and abused. But hell if Elias was going to let her get away with that. “I’m not through talking to you. Get back over to that table.” He bit back his smile when her eyes flashed. “I don’t think so, not if you’re going to talk to me like that.” In one step, he crossed the distance between them. He grabbed her by the hips, lifted her up—satisfied with her indignant shriek of surprise—and then plopped her ass firmly back onto the table. “Now,” he said, “what do you think about that?” She glared at him, her eyes narrowing and her chest heaving with her agitation. But then something small changed in her features. Her eyebrows lifted, and her breathing came shorter. He noticed her good hand clenching the edge of the table. He thought maybe his position between her now-spread legs had something to do with that. “Part of me wants to slap that smirk right off your face.” She pushed back on him, but when he didn’t budge, her eyes, angry at first, dropped lower to focus on his lips, and the longer she looked, the softer hers became until they parted slightly. He could feel her warm breath wash across his lips. “And part of me wants you to kiss me and kiss me hard.” He bent his head to hers, but suddenly she looked up and put her hand to his mouth. “But you can’t.” “Why not?” “I’m sick.” He growled, and for the first time since he’d been around her, he felt his bear rippling through his skin. He wanted her, and he didn’t like being thwarted. He put his hand on her chest and exerted a slow pressure, easing her back until she lay on the table again. Moving his hand lower, he lifted her shirt up her stomach a bit, enjoying the expanse of her creamy skin. It looked like the color of a female pheasant, all soft and creamy with a light-brown tint. He put his lips to her skin. He tasted her flesh. He breathed her in deep.

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He needed more. Trailing his lips down the softness of her stomach, he kissed above her belly button and then moved farther. She wore an old pair of pajama pants. He put his nose between her legs and nuzzled her pussy through the thin fabric of her pants. Taking a deep breath, he absorbed the scent of her. Even in human form, it was a powerful scent. He could feel her rippling through his blood, his bear eager to shift and smell her. He’d started to nibble when his cell phone rang. Michelle jumped. “Damn,” he said under his breath. When he checked the caller ID, Franklin’s number flashed on the screen. Then Michelle’s phone rang. She pulled it out of her pajama pocket. “I put it in there before I started cooking. It’s Thomas.” Elias frowned. Something wasn’t right. They answered at the same time and soon had the story. Franklin had an odd lisp as he relayed the events occurring at Catdaddy’s. “We’re going to have to stop this quick, or Joseph and Caleb and the Cashes are going to get involved. We’ll all be in deep shit then.” “Michelle’s with me right now. We’ll come over. Give us a couple minutes. Do whatever you can to get Marina out of there.” “I don’t even know where the hell she went.” “Damn it, Franklin, find her.” He kept his voice as even as possible because he heard Michelle growing more upset as she talked to Thomas. “Is she hurt? Is Marina okay? Please, Thomas, you have to help her. I’m coming over there now, but please, just get her out of there.” A moment or two later, she hung up. When she looked at Elias, he could see a tumultuous mix of anger and fear and pain in her features. “She said she was going to a friend’s. She said…” Michelle sucked in a breath, shaking her head. He cradled her cheek in her hand. “Michelle…”

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“I know.” She nodded, looking down, sniffing. “I know.” Then she looked up, meeting his eyes, and he saw something harden deep in their brown depths. “I’m here. My brothers will be, too.” She nodded. “Let’s go.” “All right.” They walked out to the lobby together, and when she went to scoop up her puppy, which was sitting in Matilda’s lap, Elias swept in and grabbed the little guy. “Not with your hand.” She nodded. They walked into darkness.

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Chapter Seven As soon as she opened the car door, she heard the sounds of a brawl coming from inside Catdaddy’s. She could hear shouting and breaking glass and chaos. The building was a basic rectangular shape constructed with dark wood. Above the entrance on top of the roof was a red, electric sign with the name of the bar in blinking, lit-up letters. “You stay out here, Michelle. I’ll find Marina and bring her out.” She nodded, not wanting to delve into the mess. When he walked through the doors, the noise intensified, and she could make out an amalgam of shapes in the dimly lit interior, writhing and twisting and slamming against one another. Anxious about Marina and wary of the anger she felt brewing beneath the surface, she grabbed Roy and set him on the ground, looking for a distraction. He sniffed suspiciously at a small weed that had popped up through the dusty gravel of the parking lot. Then he trotted away, investigating other matters. A few minutes later, the doors to the bar opened up again. Elias and Franklin dragged a fighting Marina out of the doors while Thomas walked so close behind another man that Michelle was surprised he didn’t trod on his heels. The man had dark hair that curled loosely over his brow and wore a gray business suit. It was a nice-looking one, too. The nicest she’d seen in Savage Valley. Franklin and Elias brought Marina toward the Escalade. “Oh god, why the fuck did you call her?” Marina asked, slurring her words, when she caught sight of Michelle.

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“Come on. Stop it. We’re going home.” The words were stiff, and Michelle hoped they could make it home before Marina embarrassed her any further. “Stop it,” Marina mimicked with a nasty sneer. “Wah wah wah. Shut up, Michelle.” Michelle jerked with the wrath in Marina’s words. “All you ever fucking do is complain,” Marina spat. “I’d think you’d at least pretend to be grateful. If it wasn’t for me, you’d still be working at Ike’s Burger Joint in Nashville, grease stains on your apron and always talking about how you’re going to get out, how you’re going to travel the world and do things.” Marina laughed out loud and shoved out of Franklin’s grasp, stumbling forward. “What a fucking joke.” “That’s enough.” Michelle spoke low. She didn’t dare look at any of the Ashley brothers. She couldn’t. She didn’t want to look in their faces, into their black eyes, and see her own pitiful reflection there. Marina laughed again. “Look at you. Nothing to say?” Marina looked at Michelle with disgust, and then she smiled coldly. “That’s right. You never have a goddamn thing to say.” She leaned in close so that only the two of them could hear. “Because deep down you know I’m right, don’t you, Michelle? You know where you would be. What you would be. How fucking pathetic your life would be.” “That is enough.” Michelle snapped her eyes to Marina’s face, and her voice shook. She could feel her fury growing, and her hands shook with the force of containing it. Marina didn’t listen to Michelle’s warning. “I got you out of Nashville. I got you out of that grease house. Nothing in your life would be real without me, Michelle. I’m the talented one. Everyone loves me. You are nothing without me.” “Marina, oh my god, look at yourself.” She could feel her control slipping. Her voice rose hysterically, and she couldn’t keep her emotions in check. “You’re a mess. You’re a drunkard and a liar. And you are so selfish.”

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“I’m selfish? I’m selfish? You use me, Michelle. I’m nothing but a paycheck to you. All you care about is if I’m making you enough money.” Michelle groaned in frustration. “That is not true.” “I couldn’t have one night? One damn night, Michelle. But no. We have to get me healthy, have to get me back out on the road, have to get another album out, another interview, another fucking CMT special. You never stop.” “We cancelled over thirty tour dates. You don’t understand how serious this is.” “Oh, please do tell me.” “Let’s just go home and get some rest. Come on.” She tried to grab Marina, but her sister twisted violently away from her. “No! I want to know. You say I don’t understand. Fucking enlighten me then.” She hadn’t wanted to tell Marina. She’d been afraid of sending her spiraling even further away than she already was, but Michelle couldn’t take anymore. She had to come clean. “The record label wants to drop you, Marina. Did you know that?” The sneer on Marina’s face diminished, and Michelle pressed on. “The only way they would agree to let you stay on is if you got sober and were ready to record by the New Year. You’ve cost them thousands of dollars. You are this close to losing everything, Marina. You are this close.” “That’s a lie. They wouldn’t dare. I’m Marina fucking Andrews.” She threw her arms out in a wide circle and laughed, but Michelle knew her sister. She could hear the desperation in her laughter. “They would and they have.” “You’re a liar. You’re trying to scare me. You always have to be the one in control, don’t you? You’re trying to make me feel guilty for coming here.” “No, Marina, you are the one that lied. I don’t have to do anything to make you feel guilty about that.” She turned around, not sure she could handle any more arguing. But then her anger and her hurt

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exploded outward. “I’m your sister, damn it. Don’t you understand what that means? I’m the one person in this world who actually cares what happens to you. I couldn’t give two shits about selling a million records or selling out ten-thousand-seat shows. At the end of the day, I’m your sister. That’s it. And you can’t treat me like shit. You can’t do that to the people who care about you.” “I can do whatever the hell I want. You know why? Because you are nothing, and you are nobody. You are going to die alone, sad and old and lonely. You don’t matter to anyone. You—” “This has gone on long enough,” Elias said, his voice cracking over Marina’s. He stepped between them, but Michelle put her hand on his arm. Looking at her younger sister, she finally understood what she had to do, and the realization had her drawing in a sharp breath. She realized now why they’d had to cancel the last half of Marina’s tour. Why they’d come to Savage Valley to get away from the rest of the world. She realized why, even after all of that, Marina still wanted to blame her for everything. Why her sister couldn’t get over her alcoholism and her jealous, raging fits. “Marina, I’m sorry, but I quit.” “What?” Marina’s voice was low and deadly. “I said that I quit.” “You are a fucking idiot. What do you think is going to happen? Do you think that you’re going to stay in Savage Valley with Aunt Agnes? And do what? Join the Wii club?” “I’ll figure something out.” She chanced a peek up at Elias. He gave her a small encouraging smile, and she answered with one of her own. Then she went on. “For whatever reason, you and me, we’re not working anymore.” “Get a life, Michelle. Things don’t work that way.” “You’re right. I do need my own life, and so do you. You need to get better, to get happy, and you can’t…” She felt hot emotion in the back of her throat. “You can’t do that with me.”

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“You’re gonna regret this. Every single day of your life. You’ve always been envious, and when you’re not with me anymore, you’re gonna hate your life.” Michelle’s anger had dissipated, and now a sort of emotional numbness crept over her. “I hope you’re wrong about hating my life, but I do envy you, Marina. You have so much, and you’re wasting it. You’re throwing it all away. I can’t stop you. I see that now, but I can’t stand by and watch, either. So you’re on your own, Marina.” She stood up straight and looked her sister square in the eye. “I’m done.” **** Skyler watched Marina sleep off her drunkenness. She was disgusting and not at all his type. Her mouth hung open as she slept, a bit of drool escaping from the corner of her mouth. She was weak. She let alcohol control her life so that she didn’t have to. He looked away, unable to stomach the sight of her. No, he preferred something harder, less yielding than her womanly form. He preferred muscle and strength and the rawness of male beauty. One man in particular, but no…he couldn’t think of that. He had to keep that secret locked away, even from himself. It had been so long since he’d felt the touch of a lover, a man’s hands between his legs or a cock between his lips. But the thought of one man in particular kept him closed off to all others. If he couldn’t have the one he wanted, he didn’t want any. And here, in Savage Valley, he had to keep that part of himself locked tightly up. His boss, Ulysses C. Norman, had given him a job, an important task that he must fulfill. Nothing would distract him from that. The Ashley men had been more concerned with taking care of her sister, which suited Skyler fine. He’d brought her home and planned on inviting her to stay for a while. He was looking for an opportunity

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in Savage Valley, and with her apparent prowess in causing turmoil and chaos, he thought she might come in handy. He faced Marina again. As much as the country music starlet annoyed him, Mr. Norman had given him one goal—destroy the pristine reputation of Savage Valley. NormCorp had started with the slogan—No animal attacks since 1846!—staging animal attacks to make it look like the slogan was no longer viable. That had gone awry, so now Skyler was working on the crime rate. The woman asleep on his couch had single-handedly caused a riot at the bar. Already, she’d rattled Savage Valley’s clean record. And judging by the way those Ashley brothers had been glaring at her while she lashed out at her sister, he had a feeling he could use their vulnerability for the Michelle woman to his advantage. He kept turning that scene over in his mind. Inside the bar, he’d thought that one of the brothers had his eye on Marina with the way they were so adamant about getting her out of there. But then her sister had shown up, and the two women had started bickering. God, he’d wanted to slap them both across the face. But he hadn’t. He’d listened and he’d watched. Every time Marina spat out an insult at her sister, he’d watched the Ashley brothers. The younger ones wanted to help Marina’s sister, but the older one kept them in check. It was an interesting dynamic—all three brothers after the same woman, yet none of them going after each other. He’d like to observe that more, see what he could uncover about this town. Walking over to his fifty-gallon, saltwater fish tank, he watched his brightly colored dwarf angelfish grazing on the microalgae growing in the tank. In Denver, he had a much larger tank with a lionfish, but he’d had to sell it when moving to Savage Valley for Ulysses. Now he only had to stay with Marina. He would wait. And he would watch.

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**** “Do you like hot chocolate? Hot tea? Cold tea? Water? Orange juice? What do you like?” Elias narrowed his eyes at Franklin’s puppy-dog eagerness to make Michelle comfortable. “Why don’t you give her some space to breathe first? And then we can figure out what Michelle wants to drink.” “It’s all right,” Michelle said, reaching for Franklin. “I like having someone close to hold on to.” Franklin smiled at her and took her hand. He sat down next to her on the couch, placing a box of Kleenex in her lap. She’d cried the whole way to their home, and while she seemed to have pretty good control of her emotions at the moment, Elias thought it probably wouldn’t take much to bring her tears back up to the surface. Franklin went in to kiss and nuzzle her neck. At first she closed her eyes and smiled, but then her eyes flashed open. Elias saw the rosiness creeping up into her cheeks as she looked at first Thomas and then him. She pulled slightly away from Franklin. “I’m sorry. I’m still a little new at this whole thing.” Elias kept his features blank but, with an inward growl of frustration, realized that if they could shift in front of her and mate with her, she wouldn’t have any issues at all with loving all three of them. Something would happen. Some part of the Shoshone curse would seep into her blood when she mated with all three brothers and allow her to accept their relationship a lot more easily. He hadn’t believed it until he saw how quickly Elena Ward fit in with her mates, Joseph and Caleb Kinman. He watched the Kinmans interacting with Elena when she came into the hospital for checkups, and he couldn’t help feeling a spike of jealousy every time he saw them together looking happy and so well settled with each other.

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“It’s okay,” Elias said, “We know that you need to take this slow. We don’t want you to feel rushed. We want you to feel safe with us.” “I do. I’m just nervous about everything with all of you.” “That’s natural and to be expected.” Elias took a step closer to her as Franklin and Thomas moved closer to her on the couch. “But in order for this to work, you have to trust us.” Elias continued toward her as Franklin smoothed his hand over her stomach and smiled when her muscles quivered in response. “You have to trust us implicitly.” Elias moved to stand between her legs, spreading her knees and her thighs wide while Thomas moved his mouth to one of her breasts, sucking and nibbling through her thin pajama top. All the while Elias held her gaze, never taking his eyes from her deep brown orbs. When Franklin’s hand slipped into her pajama bottoms, though, her eyes fluttered closed as she lost herself to her pleasure. With Franklin’s assistance, Elias lifted Michelle’s hips and tugged off her pajama bottoms. Her body melded into his touch. A small gasp slipped through her lips when he knelt down on his knees and firmly grasped her ass cheeks. Bending his head down, he took a deep whiff of her cunt and felt his bear ripple in answer to the scent. Franklin and Thomas had both moved their mouths to a breast and were torturing Michelle’s nipples while her fingers grasped their heads, hanging tightly on. Michelle cracked her eyes and looked down at him. “I want to taste you, Michelle.” She swallowed but nodded her head. He dipped his face to her cunt and took that first delicate swipe. Her belly shuddered in response. He could see her stomach muscles rippling, and he licked her again, enjoying the way her body responded so forcefully to small movements. He quickened his pace and nudged his tongue a little deeper inside her hole with each stroke. She clenched every time he passed, her pussy trying to catch his tongue.

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“Oh, please. This is unbearable. I need…” Elias thrust his tongue inside and was answered with a low, satisfied moan. He rolled his tongue around, pressing firmly up against the top of her passage. “Yes, I need that. Keep going.” She tried to press her cunt harder against his face, but he held her thighs wide open and kept her hips still. Each time her muscles strained against his hold, however, his bear moved inside him in response. The muscles of his back rippled as her flavor permeated the inside of his mouth and sank lower in his body. Thomas had moved his fingers to her clit. “Is this what you need?” Elias heard him ask her. His only answer was Michelle’s quickening moans. With each flick of his tongue and each stroke of Thomas’s fingers, Michelle went higher, and Elias felt his own need growing. He had his erection pressed against the couch, and his bear felt ready to burst out of his skin to claim her and mate her. Fuck, he needed that. He couldn’t, though. Michelle’s hands flew to his head and held him as her pussy’s inner muscles trembled around his tongue and she arched off the couch. Her warm, creamy liquid covered his lips and his mouth. Never had he tasted anything so powerful. This was their mate. She had to be. But he couldn’t be with her, not until she knew about them. “Elias,” she said, her breathing unsteady. “Yes?” He looked up at her. She waited a long moment, staring into his eyes. He knew a lesser man would have been intimidated by such a stare, but he held her gaze, drinking in her strength. Finally, she spoke, and when she did, her voice was low, urgent, and full of heat. “I want you.” Then she looked at Franklin and Thomas, cupping each of their cheeks. “I want you all.” Franklin kissed her hard on the lips and began to slip his hand down her body to move between her legs.

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“Wait,” Elias said, cursing himself but knowing what had to be done. Three sets of burning eyes met his gaze. He met first Franklin’s and then Thomas’s. “She needs to know first.” Realization dawned upon his brothers’ faces. “Know what first?” Michelle asked, sitting up on the couch. Thomas frowned at Elias. Then his expression softened into one of acceptance. He gave Elias a small nod and then returned his attention to Michelle. “Before we can be with you in that way, there’s something you need to know about us, something you should know about this town.” “What?” She sat up further, moving slightly away from his brothers, and Elias saw goose bumps ripple up her arm. “Now this is probably going to sound ludicrous at first,” Elias began. “But please, try and hear us out,” Thomas said. “And remember that we care about you. We really care about you.” Franklin tucked a wild strand of her dark hair behind her ear. “But we’re—” “—our family is—” “Bear-shifters,” Elias finished.

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Chapter Eight Michelle almost laughed aloud. At first she thought they’d said bear-shifters. Then she replayed the sentence in her head, and when she listened to it for the second time, she was almost certain that they had said bear-shifters. She darted her eyes between each of the brothers, giving each one of them a glare. “If this is a joke, now is definitely not a good time for it.” She waited for them to laugh, to say “April fools!” and to move on. But none of them did. “It’s not a joke, Michelle,” Elias said in his cool, even tone, holding her gaze. “We’re bear-shifters. We can shift into bears. Along with a few other families in Savage Valley.” “And you should also know that there are mountain lion-shifters here, too,” Thomas added as an afterthought. Michelle glared at them again for a long moment. “What the hell are you playing at?” She looked at each one of them and felt her hands shaking. She’d trusted them with her body, with some of her deepest secrets and insecurities, and now they were trying to trick her into believing some fantastical nonsense. Why? Why would they do that? Hadn’t she already convinced them that she was willing to trust them? Elias took her hands. “We’re not trying to trick you. This is real, and you should consider yourself lucky that we would share this with you.” “Consider myself lucky?” She ripped her hands out of his and was surprised at the near screech that came out of her mouth. “Of all the high-handed, arrogant…you”—she poked Elias in the chest— “should

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consider yourselves”—she poked Thomas—“lucky that I”—she poked Franklin—“don’t cram my dirty socks in your mouth for speaking to me like this.” She could feel the shakiness spreading from her hands up into her arms. She was furious. She’d never experienced such anger and humiliation. “Michelle,” Thomas said with a pleading tone, “what my idiotic, less-than-eloquent brother meant was that we’ve never told anyone else this about ourselves. We’ve never shared it with anyone because no one has been special enough.” “You barely even know me, so I find it highly unlikely that I’m the first one you’ve played this joke on.” “Again, it’s not a joke.” Elias said, a hard note creeping into his voice. “Besides…” Franklin said with a small grin, “we kind of have a sixth sense when it comes to women.” “Comes with the bear territory, you see.” Thomas shot her a lopsided, hopeful smile. “That was a stupid joke,” she said, hearing the surly tone in her voice and not caring one damn bit. This whole conversation was stupid. “Let me up. I’m going home.” Elias put his hands on her shoulders and held her down. “Not until you hear us out.” “Get your paws off.” She winced at the unintentional pun and could tell that Elias held back a smile. She shrugged her shoulders violently against his restraining hands. “I mean it. I want to go home.” “You would leave without at least giving us a chance?” Thomas asked, injecting a hint of hurt into his voice. She thought it was probably to make her feel bad, and she wasn’t falling for it. “Yes. I would. You’re being cruel.” She struggled against Elias again, but he held fast. She stopped for a moment, looking him in the eyes. “I trusted you.” She wanted to sound righteous and accusatory, but her voice came out strangled and hurt. “I don’t understand why. Not at all, and now I want to go home. Please, Elias. Let me go.”

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If possible, Elias’s eyes grew darker, and much to her surprise, she felt his grip slacken, and then he rocked back on his heels, giving her the space she needed to get away from them. She waited for a moment, making sure it wasn’t another trick, and when he made no move to grab her again, she stood and walked to the door. “What the hell, Elias?” Thomas asked. “She doesn’t trust us. If we don’t have that between us, she doesn’t deserve to know.” Michelle almost turned around to give him another earful since they were the ones who’d betrayed her trust but then decided it was probably best to keep going and not look back. She’d almost reached the front door when a shape blurred in front of her to block her path. “Franklin!” She jumped back a little in surprise. “What the—” He put a finger to her lips and looked over her shoulder at his brothers. “Don’t let her outside.” Then he turned and walked out the door, closing it with a resolute slam. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? Where’s he going?” She started to wrench the door open, but Elias and Thomas were both there in an instant, stopping her and dragging her over to the huge plate of glass that made up one side of the walls in their living room. After a moment she gave up struggling, knowing she would never get away from both of them if they didn’t want her to. A second later, Franklin walked from around the side of the house to stand in front of the glass. He didn’t look inside as he walked. He stopped about twenty feet away from the window with his back to the three onlookers inside. First, he took his shoes off and tossed them a few feet away. Then he took off his shirt and his jeans. She felt her cheeks flush when she realized he wasn’t wearing any boxers, and his muscled buttocks appeared silver edged in the bright light of the moon. His body was awe inspiring. Even in the moonlight, she could make out his breathtaking proportions. The broad expanse of his

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shoulders, the tapering of his waist, the elongated muscles of his legs, everything about him was perfection. Those rigid muscles began to shake. She saw his shoulder blades press together, and then his whole body exploded outward. First his skin split along its edges, and black fur exploded from within. Then his chest blew out. His legs transformed into great, muscled haunches, and his arms rolled upward into large outstretched paws, the edges glinting and sharp against the bright silver moon. Michelle jumped back away from the window with a scream. Where Franklin had been standing only moments before now stood a huge, ferocious-looking black bear. The bear whipped around, a snarl curling its lips, and trotted up to the glass. It looked back and forth, unable to see inside because of the bright floodlights glowing outside. The lights went out, and Michelle jumped, noticing that Thomas had left her side to turn them off. “Don’t,” she said. “Turn them back on. It can see us!” Elias put his big, warm hands on each of her shoulders. “Michelle, look closely. He’s not an ‘it.’ That’s Franklin, and he wants you to see him like this. Look.” He nudged her resisting body forward. “Elias, I’m scared,” she whispered. “Look in his eyes.” Shaking, she stepped forward, fearing that the huge bear would somehow break through the glass with his huge paws and gobble her up. But Elias nudged her again from behind, urging her forward while hanging back. The bear kept its eyes on her, and when she got close enough, she could see that they were the same unending depth of black as Franklin’s, as Elias’s, and as Thomas’s. “Franklin?” she asked, not knowing if he could hear her or if he would understand her if he could. Taking for granted that he was, in fact, Franklin. At her question, though, the bear’s head dipped once and then came back up. The bear’s—or Franklin’s, rather—breath cast a wide

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circle of foggy moisture on the glass, and Michelle placed her hand on the window. Franklin licked the glass where her hand was, and she jumped back. Realizing the silliness of her action, she laughed nervously. Franklin let out a couple short and stilted breaths on the glass. “Are you…” Realizing he wouldn’t be able to hear her, she turned to Thomas and Elias. “Is he laughing?” “Looks like it,” Thomas answered. “Can he understand me? Or you? When we speak, does he know what we’re saying?” “Yes, we all do, but nothing’s quite the same in bear form.” “What do you mean?” “Well, when I’m a bear, when people speak to me, it’s like another language that I have to translate first before it makes sense in my head. Thoughts are more disjointed but in a way more free flowing as well. The thoughts and actions are based more on instinct rather than the logical thinking that you and I are used to employing in our everyday interactions.” “If I go out there, will he attack me? Wouldn’t that be a bear’s instinct?” “First of all, don’t go out there,” Elias said. “You won’t like what happens when Franklin gets a whiff. Michelle barked out a laugh. “Yeah right. You think I’m going out there with a bear?” “Second of all,” Elias said, ignoring her question. “No, he wouldn’t attack you—” “At least not in the way you’re thinking,” Thomas interjected. Michelle met his eyes, but he’d pressed his lips together despite the smile tugging at the corners. “Michelle,” Elias said softly, taking both her hands in his. “We want you to be a part of this. I think I speak for all of us when I say that I’ve never wanted a woman the way I want you.” Thomas nodded. His eyes, joking and teasing a moment before, were now

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blazing, boring deep into hers. “But there are things you need to know about us—about this—before we can truly be together,” Elias continued. “Just hear us out, and if you decide that you don’t want to be a part of this, a part of us, we’ll leave you alone. We’ll never bring it up again, and you will be free of any unwanted attentions from us. Is this an acceptable proposition?” She thought about it for a moment and then tersely nodded. “But Franklin should be here, too.” “He’s coming,” Thomas said. Michelle looked out the window and saw that Franklin was back to human form and putting on his clothes again. She pulled away from Elias. “This is crazy. This can’t be real. This is absolutely insane.” She paced back and forth, knowing what she saw but also unable to fully comprehend how it could ever be possible. “Michelle, it’s okay to be scared at first,” Elias said in a matter-offact tone. “We’ll answer any questions you have.” Franklin burst through the door. “Michelle! Wasn’t that incredible?” He strode over to her, oblivious to the tension in the room, and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, lifting her up and spinning her around a few times. When he set her down, Michelle didn’t say anything, only glared up at him. “What?” “Michelle’s not buying the whole bear-shifter thing.” “What?” Franklin asked, frowning at her. “I shifted in front of you. What’s not to buy?” “It’s just…” Well, when she thought about it rationally, when she remembered the sight of Franklin shifting in front of her, she had to believe it. Then again, she was thinking about it rationally, and when she remembered that people transforming themselves into bears was completely and utterly impossible, she couldn’t fucking believe it. “It’s a lot to swallow,” she said with a helpless shrug.

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“All right…okay…” Franklin paced back and forth in front of her. “Let’s all get comfortable, and we’ll talk this out.” He guided her to the couch, fluffed up a few pillows, and spread a blanket over her even though she wasn’t cold. Then he sat down next to her, taking one of her hands in his and tucking it tight between both of his. He grinned over at her, hitting her with the charming force of his white teeth and full lips, his disarming smile, so that she couldn’t help smiling back at him. Just a little. “How about we start with the history of our family, how we came to be part bear, part man, and then we’ll go from there. Sound good?” Elias asked, pulling up a brown, silk-upholstered chair so that he could sit close to her. He put his hands on the tops of her legs and stroked up and down in a comforting way. She liked it when they were all touching her. She couldn’t deny that, couldn’t deny how perfect it felt to be snuggled between the three of them. “Yes,” she said. “Okay. How did you become…” Nope. She wasn’t ready to say the word aloud. Elias chuckled, seeming to understand her difficulty. He patted her knee. “You’ve seen the town slogan, correct?” She nodded. “Welcome to Savage Valley! No animal attacks since 1846!” she recited in a perky voice. “Aunt Agnes taught it to us when we were girls.” “Well, the animal-shifters in Savage Valley, they’re the reason for the slogan, but our story begins a bit before that. Our story begins in the 1830s, before Colorado was even a territory, when the five founding families of Savage Valley were known far and wide throughout the area for their skill and prowess as fur-trappers. There were the Kinmans—with a known propensity for trapping and killing bears.” “The sheriff and the deputy?” she asked. Elias nodded. “And Elena, their fiancée, she knows?” He nodded again. “Then there were the Ashleys—known for their skill in the healing arts. Next are the Greenwoods, known for their

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ability to track any animal over any terrain and any distance. Then there are the Carsons, known for their shrewd eye and ability to make a few coins multiply into a few piles of coins. And finally we have the Strongs.” Michelle noticed a small frown cross Elias’s features. “What were they known for?” “Moonshine.” “Oh, how exciting.” “Yes, well, those are the five founding families. Now, some people around here may claim differently, but those families were here first.” “Who would say differently?” she prodded, detecting that Elias would rather not discuss it. “The lion-shifters, mostly,” Thomas said, apparently harboring no qualms. “And who are the lion-shifters?” “Let’s get through the bear history first.” “I think I should know,” she said, crossing her arms stubbornly. Elias glared at her. “That won’t intimidate me. I want to know who they are.” Sighing, Elias said, “I’ll tell you who they are, but that’s it.” She nodded her agreement. “Okay, first we have the Cashes. The older brother is mayor of Savage Valley. Then there’s the Popes. They own the diner. Next are the Abbotts, the Yeatses, and the Sullivans.” “And what do they all do?” “Ah-ah.” He held his fingers up to silence her. “Bears.” Michelle pouted but didn’t say anything, wanting to hear more. “The five founding families had made quite a name for themselves, and their fur-trading outpost was one of the most profitable in the region. However, the local Shoshone tribe got fed up with what they considered the slaughter of local wildlife. As punishment, Cameahwait—the shaman of the nearby tribe—cursed all five families. He transformed the men, the women, and the children

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into black bears and banished them to the forest until they had amended their ways. “Strangely enough, all of the families had boys, and the eldest son in our family has always been named Elias. Our forefather, Elias, had three sons—Elias, Elihu, and Ezekiel—who were transformed into bears as cubs. All of the families were stuck in bear form for many years…” “They all thought we’d die out as bears, with no way to transform back into our true shape,” Thomas added. “And they had all changed. They could communicate with each other, but it was different. Their thoughts flowed with the land and the water and with the air and the trees,” Franklin said, low voiced. “Then one day,” Elias continued, “the two Kinman brothers, Robert and Henry, went to the river for water. The rest of the families, or what was left of them, waited for hours, but the Kinmans had vanished. “They had been the self-appointed leaders of our bear clan, still are to this day, but when they were gone, it caused a bit of an uproar. It fell to our family to take care of the rest of the clan. Up until then, none of us could leave the forest around this area. We were bound to it, but Ezekiel decided he would find the Kinmans. So one morning he woke up, and he began to walk. He walked for days and for nights, barely stopping to rest.” “He followed his instinct, letting his feet and his heart guide him,” Thomas said. “Soon he found himself outside of the forest. He walked many miles across the land. He traveled through mountains and across rivers and through wide, grassy plains,” Franklin said. “And that is when our ancestors discovered that one chosen bear out of every generation would have the ability to roam the earth freely while the rest are bound to Savage Valley.” It sounded like he was wrapping his story up, but Michelle still had too many questions. “But what about the Kinmans? What about

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the rest of the families? How did you all get back into human form? What happened?” Elias grinned, and he looked a little too smug. “Not that I believe you,” she said hastily. “It’s an interesting fairy tale. That’s all.” “Of course,” Elias said, but she detected a grin tugging at his lips. “To answer your questions, the Kinmans were gone because that day that they’d gone to the river, a human woman had been there, bathing in privacy, away from the small town that had cropped up in the valley. “The Kinmans caught sight of her and moved close enough to smell her. After one sniff, their bodies reacted without them being able to control it. Luckily, the woman was unclaimed by another, and when the brothers shifted back into their human form…” Elias watched her face for a moment. “What?” she asked. Thomas spoke from beside her. “This is one of the reasons why we want to tell you all of this before we take this relationship further. You see, when a bear-shifter catches the scent of an unclaimed woman, a kind of mating frenzy takes over. So their bodies shift back into human form, and they want to…” “It’s more like a need,” Franklin added helpfully. “They need,” Franklin frowned. “Well, they need to…” Michelle looked at the uncomfortable expressions on each of the brothers’ faces. “Fuck?” she asked. “We prefer the term ‘mate,’” Elias said in a disapproving tone. “Because essentially that’s what it is,” Thomas said. “Once the woman accepts the bear-shifters as her mates—” “Once she fucks them?” “Yes,” Thomas ground out. “Once that happens, then she is bound to the land just as her mates are. It’s not until a new generation of bears take over that the old generation is allowed to leave.”

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Michelle thought for a moment, reminded of a conversation between herself and Franklin near the moss-covered railway tracks in the mountains. “Your parents? That’s where they are! You can all three shift, so they were allowed to leave. Right? Is that right?” Franklin smiled. “You catch on fast.” He leaned close, pressing his lips to the corner of her mouth, tempting her to turn herself fully toward him. She let out a small breath, so wanting to give in to the sweet warmth of his kiss. “So if I have sex with all three of you, I’ll be mated for life?” “We have to smell you in bear form first, but yes, that’s the basic idea.” “Who needs marriage?” she said, letting out a nervous chuckle. “Oh, we’d still want to get married,” Elias said with a hint of a growl. “You’d marry me in name and be married to my brothers in spirit.” Michelle stiffened. “Wow, we sure jumped to that quick.” She licked her lips, her mouth suddenly dry. “I think I need time to think about this. I can’t say yes. I mean, I barely know you.” She pulled her hands out of Thomas and Franklin’s grips. “I need to go home. Aunt Agnes will be worried.” “Michelle,” Elias said, commanding. “Can you deny what is between us?” She heard her own heavy breathing in the quiet room. Elias put his hand to her hips and pulled her toward him, pulled her completely off the couch until she straddled his lap. He bent his head between her breasts and turned his face so that his cheek lay against her breastbone and his lips rested upon the swell of soft flesh. His big hands were splayed across her back, holding her against him. “I can’t,” she said. “That’s right. You can’t because you know that we belong together.” As Elias began to slide his hands beneath her shirt, tracing gentle circles across her flesh with his thumb, Franklin and Thomas each

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grabbed a wrist and began trailing featherlight kisses up the sensitive skin of her inner arms. She bit her lips, trying to control her trembling breath. “No, I mean I can’t…” What the hell was she trying to say? Elias’s hands held her ribs beneath her breasts while his mouth worked fervently on each of her nipples. And Franklin was slipping his hand toward her pants. “I can’t,” she pleaded, but her head fell back. She arched against Franklin’s hand as he pressed against her hot, needy flesh through her panties. Her cunt throbbed for him, for more than his fingers. She remembered the promise she had made him about letting him be with her first. Her eyes snapped open. “I can’t.” This time she said it with more conviction and shoved up against Elias’s shoulders. “It’s too much. I’ve had the worst fight with my sister. My hand is stitched up. Oh my god, where’s Roy?” “Relax, Michelle, he’s in the laundry room. I fed him when we got here,” Elias said. She hadn’t even noticed. “I gave him a few towels to lay on. I’m sure he’s fast asleep.” She shoved against him again. “That doesn’t change anything. I need to go. I can’t…not right now. I can’t do this.” Rising up from the couch, she looked around. “Where’s the laundry room?” Franklin led the way, and after she had picked up a dozing Roy, he caught her elbow. His black eyes held her gaze, pleading and yet hard and burning at the same time. “Michelle, please stay.” She couldn’t look away. She didn’t want to leave, but how could she stay? “Franklin,” she pleaded, “I have barely broken free of Marina, and now you want me to commit my whole life—my freedom, my independence, everything I am—to you and your brothers, no questions asked?” He stepped closer, his lips hovering above hers.

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“Franklin,” she breathed, tilting her head up, wanting to give in, needing it. “I can’t,” she gasped. He had grabbed her elbows, but she pulled her arm out of his grip. “I won’t.” “Don’t go, Michelle,” he said, his eyes tender and yearning. She couldn’t look at him, or else everything would dissolve. Everything she was and everything she knew would disappear, would become completely absorbed in Franklin, in Thomas, and in Elias. She squeezed her eyes shut. “I’ll come to you if I change my mind.” She turned away from him. “Don’t call me. Leave me be. I need space, and I need time.” With that, she walked away from the Ashley brothers.

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Chapter Nine Skyler Fischer had been waiting at the table for almost half an hour. He’d ordered an appetizer of crispy zucchini fritte, a local favorite at the upscale Italian restaurant in downtown Denver, and a bottle of Novilo Sauvignon Blanc. He checked his watch for the third time and then, hating the nervous gesture, took his watch off and placed it in his pants pocket. His dinner companion would get here when he got here, and checking his watch wouldn’t bring the man any sooner. The waiter came by for the second time. “Should I bring another bottle, sir?” Skyler cut his eyes toward the man and shook his head. As the waiter swirled away in a flurry of coattails, Skyler saw him across the room. His chest tightened, and his fingers reflexively gripped the napkin in his lap. Something in his gut jumped, but he kept his features blank, watching the man’s progress as he moved across the restaurant. Skyler studied his features, those features he’d come to know and love and revere. The man was strongly built, with broad shoulders and a tall frame, yet he still looked sleek, lithe and powerful, able to strike out at those who were weaker at any given moment. His sharp eyes scanned the room, taking in his surroundings, pinpointing any weaknesses. Skyler knew him so well, knew how his mind worked, and he reveled in that knowledge. He had no hair on his head, and Skyler thought it made him seem even more powerful and invulnerable. God, how the man’s power thrilled Skyler.

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He could feel his mind’s stronghold on that part of himself slipping. He needed to force those sorts of thoughts away. He needed to keep his brain clear and unmuddled with emotion, but then the man caught his eyes, and he nodded. A barrage of imagined scenarios flooded Skyler’s mind. The feel of their hard bodies slamming together. The taste of their lips, biting and tasting and tearing at each other. The weight of the man’s cock in his hands. “Good evening, Fischer.” Skyler blinked, forcing the false, tempting images back down, fighting with all of his mental powers to keep his thoughts under control. A waiter pulled out a chair for the man, and he sat down. Skyler opened his mouth, pushing the words past his dry throat and past his tumultuous emotions. “Good evening, Mr. Norman.” **** “We fucked it up,” Franklin said. Thomas watched his younger brother swing the axe high and then bring it down with all of his strength. “Hacking that pile into wood chips isn’t going to make her come back to us any faster.” Franklin buried the axhead into the chopping stump and turned to face Thomas with an angry glare. “Why can’t we fucking shift in front of her, catch a whiff, and then make her see reason?” Thomas glanced inside through the glass wall at Elias, who sat on the couch entering information into a laptop he used for keeping up with all of his documentation and legal work at the hospital. Then he shrugged. “Elias says the only way to make sure this truly lasts is if she wants it to.” “That’s bullshit. We all know what happened with the Kinmans.” Even though Elias was inside the house and couldn’t hear them,

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Thomas noticed that Franklin had lowered his voice and leaned in closer. Thomas chuckled to himself when he remembered Joseph Kinman at the barbecue telling the story of how he’d thought the Carsons had mated his woman on accident, and he’d gone off the handle, tearing through the forest, howling his misery. Then he’d come across Elena unexpectedly and shifted on the spot. The next thing he knew, he and his brother were engaged and expecting a baby. Well, apart from a few bumpy moments in between. Thomas had only met Elena Ward, soon-to-be Kinman, a few times, but she had to be quite a woman to handle the sheriff and his brother. “But from what the Kinmans told us, they were all three pretty sure before Joseph shifted in front of her.” Franklin yanked the ax back out of the stump and resumed his mutilation of the woodpile. “I can feel my bear. It’s always rippling below the surface, like it knows she’s nearby.” Thomas nodded, understanding because he was experiencing the same sensation. The bear in his blood felt like miles and miles of underground water, heated from below by the earth’s lava, and when the right amount of pressure built up, the water would burst from beneath the earth’s crust, wild and hot and uncontainable. “I’m going for a run. Be back later.” Franklin barely glanced up as Thomas headed for the woods. Once he reached the screen of trees, he began to strip. He left his clothes in a box they’d crudely nailed to a tree. Then, after years of practice had made it as easy as breathing, Thomas felt the bear rippling out from his core. It started as a hot force deep in his gut but then spread through his body like black lightning. His bear form rippled through his muscles, shredding his human form until he stood panting, his great bear-claws scratching at the warm earth-ground, ready to run.

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He sucked in the crisp time-before-the-deep-cold air. It filled his powerful bear-belly and gave strength to his bear-blood as he moved his paws across the needle-strewn earth-ground. Visions of his cream-skinned-Michelle moved through his bearmind like the reflection of geese-wings on the surface of water or the flight of white clouds across the great-blueness above. He wanted his cream-skinned-Michelle. He wanted his mate. **** Michelle picked at her banana nut pancakes. The vanilla bean agave nectar had already soaked deep into the fluffy cakes, making them the right amount of soggy for her taste, but she had too many thoughts on her brain to give the pancakes the attention they deserved. Ever since she’d left the Ashleys’ place, her thoughts had been consumed with one restless emotion after another. She wanted to trust them, give in to what they wanted from her, but she couldn’t. She wasn’t ready to give up the life she knew, to settle down in Savage Valley, to gain three husbands after such a short period of time. She didn’t feel brave enough for that. Besides, it was crazy. It was a crazy, stupid, reckless idea. She shouldn’t even have to think about it. But she couldn’t ignore the way her body reacted to their presence, much less their touch. Just standing next to them made her nipples erect, made her clit pulse and her pussy throb. They drew her in like a shark to blood. She wanted to devour them. When they put their hands to her flesh and their lips to her body, she felt likely to shatter at the slightest whisper of a breath. She ached for the feel of their cocks, each one of them, sliding into the hot channel of her cunt. She had never in her life had this sort of reaction to a man, and definitely not to three. It felt wrong to ignore that. Of course, there was Marina, too, always churning and aggravating in the back of her mind. Michelle hadn’t heard from her

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sister since their big fight outside of Catdaddy’s, and it had been over a week. Aunt Agnes was rarely at her house, although Michelle thought she probably was today since it was Sunday, and her beauty salon, the Haven, was closed. It felt like she had no outlet, no vent, for all of these emotions and anxieties. What she really needed was a good bout of girl talk over a bottle of red wine with a healthy surplus of chocolate on hand. Sighing, she glanced around the room, hoping to see something that would take her mind away from the self-pity she was wallowing in. When she’d come in with Franklin quite a few mornings ago, they’d immediately been seated in the far back corner. This morning, alone and with no one of importance, she’d had to wait fifteen minutes for one of the small tables lining the wall on the left to clear up before she was seated. She was in a corner again, but it felt more like she was stuffed out of the way than tucked in cozily. At first she’d been a little frightened of returning to Savage Hunger after what Elias had told her about it being owned by lionshifters, but her craving for coffee won out. Looking around the busy diner, she saw groups of families and people who were obviously tourists. One family pored over a map of the area but were arguing with each other because someone had spilled syrup on it. Another table of two, a man and a woman, were huddled in front of a laptop, laughing and ogling over pictures that they had taken the day before. Then along the bar were some of the locals—big, burly men shoving forkfuls of steak and eggs down their gullets while slurping coffee or orange juice to wash everything down. She smiled to herself at the unabashed display of male appetite happening at the bar. A woman with bright-red hair piled high on her head sat alone in the big booth at the front of the diner right where restaurant-goers walked in. Michelle thought she must be someone important to have such a prime location. Sitting at the third table from the front, she could make out the title of the woman’s book, North and South by

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Elizabeth Gaskell. Michelle nodded her head in approval of the woman’s taste. Touring with Marina, she’d developed a love for reading classical literature, and the Victorian era was one of her favorites, especially the female writers from that time period. A moment later, a tall, handsome man strode through the diner. He had a predatory look in his eye as he headed straight for the front booth with the woman she’d been looking at. He slid into the booth beside her and gave her a long, firm kiss. The two chatted for a minute and then the man left. The redhead had barely resumed her reading when another handsome man came into the diner. At the ding of the bell on the door, the woman looked up and smiled wide. As he slid into the booth next to her, he planted a heated kiss upon her lips. Michelle sat up straight in her seat, her eyes instantly glued to the two of them. She heard one of the waitresses refer to him as “Mr. Cash,” and suddenly it all made sense. Cash was the last name of the mayor and his brother. Elias had said that the Cashes were also lionshifters, so the redheaded woman must be their mate. Michelle was suddenly wide awake and full of energy. She sat, staring at the couple and waiting for the man to leave the booth. When he finally did, Michelle marched over to the booth and plopped herself in front of the woman. She had opened her book again, and Michelle could tell she was startled to find her reading interrupted for the third time that morning. “Hi, I’m Michelle.” “Chelsea.” The woman smiled, but Michelle could detect a portion of wariness in the back of her eyes. “Am I right in assuming that the two men you were speaking to were the Mayor Cash and his brother?” The portion of wariness grew larger, and the smile dimmed. “Yes.” Chelsea’s voice was low. “What about them?” “This may sound crazy, but”—she leaned in close so that no one could hear—“I know what they are. I know what they can do.”

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Chelsea lurched at her words. “I don’t know what you mean.” “No, no. I don’t mean to upset you. It’s just that I know some others like them, and I…I want to…I have all this…” She struggled for the right words but noticed that Chelsea’s features had relaxed, and her smile was beginning to return. “I’m really lost right now.” It was the bald truth, and she didn’t regret blurting it out like that because it felt so damn good to do so. The woman grabbed her hands, and Michelle winced a little. Although the cut on her hand wasn’t fresh, it still stung a little when jostled. “Who do you know? Which family?” Michelle looked around, double-checking that no one was listening in. “The Ashleys,” she confided. Chelsea frowned for a moment, but then her eyes widened. She had large eyes, Michelle noticed. “Wait. Do you mean bear-shifters?” Michelle nodded. Chelsea giggled. “Oh my, this is a treat. The newest bear-shifter mate. Have you met Elena Ward yet?” Michelle shook her head violently back in forth, pulling slightly away. “No, no. I’m not their mate. Not by a long shot. I mean, they want me to be, but I’m not. I’m definitely not.” Watching her with a small smile, Chelsea nodded and then patted her hand in a motherly fashion. “Of course not.” “Honestly. We’re not…they’re not my…we haven’t even slept together,” she whispered. Chelsea’s eyes popped open even wider. “Oh, well that does change things a bit.” “They want to, and I…” “You want to as well, of course.” Michelle felt her cheeks light up. “No need to be embarrassed. I’d pay megabucks to meet a woman who could resist the charms of any of the shifter-men in Savage Valley. Whatever they may or may not be, they are all abundantly attractive. Might as well get that out on the table.”

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Michelle giggled nervously. “I guess. Well, there are two things that I am mostly concerned with.” “Yes?” “Is it weird? Being with more than one man?” “Not really, not anymore. At first I was tentative, like I’m sure you’re feeling now, but it’s been such a perfect fit for me. I was married before I met my Cash men, you see, to my high school sweetheart. We’d been together for such a long time that I never got to experience anything else. Then when I came here, it suddenly made sense why my marriage wouldn’t have worked. I feel like I was made for my lion mates.” When she spoke, her eyes got a faraway, dreamy look, and Michelle felt a little envious of the woman in front of her. “What about, you know, them being shifters. Does that ever bother you?” “Oh, no. It doesn’t bother me. It was a lot to take in at first, but my men are stronger and sexier because of it. I wouldn’t have them any other way.” “And you’re happy?” Chelsea grinned and held up her left hand. The early morning sunlight glittered off a white gold band and a simple diamond on her ring finger. “Congratulations,” Michelle said, meaning it. It was Chelsea’s turn to blush. “I’ve never been happier in my life. Michelle?” “Yes?” “I don’t want to be pushy, but…” She waited for Michelle to nod. “If you’re worried about what people will think or worried about if you’ll be able to handle all those men, don’t be. This has truly been a gift, and my life is a million times better now that I have my men. Don’t let something like this go. If it’s love, anything is worth it. Understand?” Michelle nodded. She nodded because she did understand. And that was what scared her the most.

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Chapter Ten Skyler stifled a jaw-cracking yawn. He sighed, looking at the elderly woman sitting stiffly across from him. He could hear Marina making all sorts of racket from above, but her aunt, Agnes Bird, sat in her living room, watching him with a hawk-like stare. She’d brought him a glass of iced tea, but apart from that had said little else to him. The night before, Marina had claimed that she needed to “grab more crap” from her aunt’s house, but Skyler had the suspicion that she was hoping to catch a glimpse of her sister. She hadn’t said much about their fight, but he noticed a certain squeamishness when the conversation veered toward that topic. Michelle, however, was nowhere in sight this afternoon. Skyler took a sip of the iced tea. It was delicious, with a hint of lavender, he thought. “I know who you work for.” He darted his eyes to Agnes Bird. Her lips were pressed tightly together, and he doubted that he’d heard the words. “I’ve lived in Savage Valley my whole life, young man. I know what sort of person your Ulysses C. Norman is.” Skyler tightened his grip on the glass. She didn’t know. She couldn’t. But the way she had said it. Your Ulysses. He felt sweat on the back of his neck. Suddenly the room felt too small, the air too thick. “He wants to buy up all of our land, land that belongs to the hardworking citizens of this town. They are decent folk. Most of them,

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along with their families, have been here their entire lives.” Her voice went lower. “We don’t take kindly to strangers who come in and mess with the valley. We treasure our peace here.” He sipped his tea, not taking his eyes from hers. When he pulled the glass away from his lips again, he said, “That is very noble of you, I’m sure.” Her eyes flashed, but she soon regained control of her emotions. She was a worthy opponent, he thought to himself. Cool and collected but also able to speak her mind. All traits that he admired. Too bad her beloved town would be crawling into the arms of NormCorp soon. The plan had come to him the night before. He was with Marina at Catdaddy’s, half listening to her prattle on about an idea for a new song, something about a Bonnie and Clyde–themed music video. Then she’d said something that snagged his full attention. She said she wanted to shoot the video up at Savage Convenience, the small gas station on the east side of town. Marina kept talking, on and on, but Skyler grasped at five words. Shoot up at Savage Convenience. From that moment on, the plan had been roaring through his mind. Details, ideas, statistics—they all slammed against synapses, making his head burn with the power of the idea. He’d barely been able to sleep last night. The idea consumed him, and he couldn’t leave it alone until he had every last detail planned. After that, he would call Mr. Norman. He would share the idea, and the idea would grow a little larger. Then it would expand past the two of them. It would grow and grow until suddenly, it could no longer exist as an idea. It would become an event. “I have to ask myself…” Skyler was pulled out of his musings by the woman’s voice. “…what you are doing with my niece. You see, we speak plain around here, Mr. Fischer.” He took a sip of his tea. “How refreshing.”

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She watched him, her face blank. “It doesn’t escape my notice that you and your boss have been awfully noisy about that zoning change of late.” He shrugged. “We’re businessmen.” “Mmhmm.” Her eyes narrowed. “Keep in mind that my niece isn’t a piece of prime real estate for you to bargain and lobby with. Her name, her money, her fame—they’re not at your disposal.” “I wouldn’t dream,” he said, taking another cool sip. Her sharp eyes held his, and she nodded once. “You start to get any other ideas, you should know it won’t be discussed over iced tea and sunshine, and it won’t be me you’re discussing it with. I may live alone, but I have a very large family. It’s the size of this town, in fact. You hear what I’m saying, young man?” Fighting back an urge to laugh at the situation—a seventy-yearold woman issuing threats while she sipped her iced tea—he let a slow smile curl across his lips. “Of course, Mrs. Bird.” And then, because he could resist it about as much as he could resist the decadent sensation of a raw oyster sliding down his throat, he said, “Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll be a part of your family.” Agnes Bird’s eyes widened, and he saw a bright-red splotch grow rapidly into existence on her neck, but she didn’t say anything in response. Her aplomb was impressive, and he tipped his iced tea at her. An instant later, Marina came stomping down the stairs. “Well, I can’t fit any more crap in here,” she said, indicating the large, jewelencrusted suitcase she lugged behind her. “Bye, Aunt Agnes.” She pecked a kiss on her aunt’s cheek. “Tell Michelle…” She didn’t say anything for a while, only stared down into her aunt’s face. “Tell her I took the hairspray and the toothpaste.” “I’ll be sure to pass that message along. Anything else?” Skyler noted a hard note buried deep in the older woman’s voice as she looked expectantly at her niece.

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“Nope.” Marina turned on her heel and stalked away from her aunt. “Let’s go, Skyler,” she said as she passed him. She marched out the front door without a backward glance. **** On her way home from the diner, Michelle stopped at Savage Convenience for some ibuprofen. She’d taken the last three pills before going to bed the previous night, and now her hand, after a restless night of sleep and then riding a bike to the diner this morning, was feeling a little abused. She’d been to the convenience store a couple times since she and Marina had arrived at Savage Valley, and usually there were three men sitting in wooden rocking chairs on the porch that connected Savage Convenience to Savage Valley Auto next door. Today, though, since it was Sunday, the repair shop was closed. A small bell hanging at the top of the door announced her entrance. The man who owned the store, Jim Bob Pritchett, wasn’t behind the counter. She thought he was probably in the small office toward the back. After grabbing up a bottle of generic brand ibuprofen, she headed toward the counter. She hoped that he had a security camera in the back because she had an aversion to dinging bells at people. A minute passed, and no one came out to help her. She tapped her nails on the counter and then rapped her knuckles. She watched the door to the office. It was cracked, so if anyone was in there, he should be able to hear her movements. Watching the door, she picked up a bag of chips on display and crinkled the packaging. Still, no one came. She really wanted the ibuprofen. She thought about leaving money on the counter with a note but then decided against that. It felt too weird. Eyeing the dinger, she let her hand hover over its shiny silver dome. No, she couldn’t.

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She pulled her hand back. But she needed the ibuprofen. Her hand hovered. But if no one had heard the bell over the door, presumably no one would hear this bell either. She pulled her hand back. “Damn it,” she said and began walking toward the office. “Hello?” she called out. She definitely heard movement behind the door. She knocked lightly and then pushed it open. She blinked her eyes a couple times, her brain simply unable to process the image before her eyes. Her aunt—her staid, respectable, dowager aunt—was locked in a heated embrace with none other than Jim Bob Pritchett, owner and proprietor of Savage Convenience. Jim Bob had a lock of her silver hair wrapped around his hand, and her aunt’s hands had a firm grip on Jim Bob’s derriere, and their lips were just a-going to town. “Aunt Agnes?” Michelle squeaked in surprise. At the sound of her high-pitched voice, the two gray-haired paramours burst apart with strangled exclamations of surprise. “Michelle! What are you doing here?” Aunt Agnes struggled to retain her composure. Hastily she straightened her crooked blouse, and Jim Bob attempted to disentangle his hand from her hair. “Ouch!” Her head jerked back as Jim Bob accidentally tugged too hard. Michelle’s hand flew to her mouth as she fought to keep in her giggles, but she couldn’t. They squeaked out the sides, and soon she was laughing full-on. “This is hopeless,” Aunt Agnes said, meeting Michelle’s eyes. Jim Bob cursed and gave up, holding his hand out to let Aunt Agnes free the long, clinging strands. “I came by for some ibuprofen.” She held up the box, still laughing. “Do you think that after you get…rearranged—” She burst into laughter again. “I’m sorry. I never expected to see anything like

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this from you, Aunt Agnes. I mean, go you! But, I think I’m partly in shock.” Aunt Agnes rolled her eyes as she freed the last few strands of hair from Jim Bob’s fingers. “Come on, Jim Bob. Let’s get her rung up.” “So…” Michelle let a suggestive tone flavor her voice. “How long have you two been an item?” “Don’t be impertinent, young lady. I’m still your aunt.” Michelle giggled. “No impertinence intended. I think it’s sweet. Honestly, I do. And I’m curious.” “This is a new development,” Aunt Agnes said as Jim Bob totaled up Michelle’s purchase. “It’s still in the test phase.” “But we figured, at our age, why not go for it?” Jim Bob looked at her aunt, and the love she saw shining out of his old eyes nearly brought Michelle to tears. And what was more, her aunt looked back up at him with an identical look in her eyes. For the second time that morning, Michelle felt envious of the happiness of others. She envied their ease and their willingness to go for it. She’d always been the cautious one, the pragmatic and responsible one. It had been years since she’d done anything truly adventurous, and suddenly she didn’t want to be that person anymore. She wanted to be the woman who leapt at the chance for love. She wanted to go after it, to risk everything. She wanted to make herself happy, not her sister, not her sister’s fans, not the record label. This was her heart and her life, and she wanted to be full of love. “I have to go!” She gave Jim Bob a twenty dollar bill, snatched up the ibuprofen, and ran out the door to her bike. Then she pedaled like a madwoman.

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Chapter Eleven “Go…yes…keep going. Keep going…come on…Yes. Yes!” Franklin’s passionate cries rang through the large house. “Yes!” he roared in triumph. As he did so, cheers erupted from the newly installed surround sound system as the Denver Broncos ran a halfback option, sneaking in a pass to the wide receiver, and then running for a thirty-two-yard touchdown. Football season had just started up, and Franklin already felt the excitement, the bloodlust for victory, pulsing through his veins. Along with the sound system, he and his brothers had also installed a projector system with a 106” screen. Ordinarily, it was impressive, but during football season, its full glory was revealed. After a successful field goal kick, the game split to commercial, and Franklin glanced outside to see what the weather looked like, wondering if a run in bear form would be a good idea. The weatherman had said there was a slight chance of rain that afternoon. He looked out the wall of glass behind him and then sprang off the couch. Michelle was pedaling up his driveway. Even from inside the house, he could see that sweat covered her body and that her hair was wet with it, as well. She looked fucking hot. Suddenly, the realization struck him. It was Michelle. She’d come back. She wanted to talk to them, maybe be with them. Everything was happening. Not thinking, only acting, he scrambled around the couch, bumping his thigh in his haste,

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and moved with purpose to the back door. He flung it open wide and didn’t bother to shut it. “Michelle,” he called out to her because her head was down as she forced her tired legs to pedal. She looked up at his call. Her eyes locked with his, and she stopped pedaling, letting the bike fall to the ground. She strode toward him, her eyes burning. Their bodies didn’t meet. They crashed. He tasted her lips and the salt of her labor in their kiss. She pressed into him, and he could feel her thundering heart against his chest. He could feel her full breasts, each tipped with a hard nipple that poked against his chest. His cock hardened and expanded. His bear roared from within, and Michelle moaned into his lips, making his face tingle. Not pulling her lips away from his, she said, “I rode here from town. I wanted to think, to make sure. And it all brought me closer.” She pulled back to look at him, her words coming out in bursts from her panting. “But it wasn’t easy.” She looked up at him with an expectant frown. “Do you know? Do you understand? What I mean is I want to see you. I want to be with you.” She swallowed. “All of you.” He took her chin firmly in his hand, more firmly than he intended. He pressed a hard kiss to her mouth and then stepped away from her. Not taking his eyes from her face and letting himself sink into the warm, brown depths of her eyes, he began removing his clothes. As he pulled his shirt over his head, he caught the scent of Michelle. Her sweat had sunk into the fabric, and he could smell her essence. It was like rainwater in a pail, the bark of an old willow tree, like freshly washed sheets that had been dried in the sun. Standing before her fully naked, his cock straining with need, he felt a small flush wash over his chest and neck. Her eyes went to his cock and stayed there a long while. When she looked back into his

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eyes, her face was alive with feeling. He could plainly see how much she wanted him, and he wanted to see that on her body, too. “You, too, Michelle.” “Me?” “As much as I want you now, after I shift and then shift back, there will be nothing on my mind but burying myself deep inside you.” Her eyes widened at his blunt statement. “But I want to enjoy the sight of you. All of you.” He intentionally repeated her words back to her. There were about ten feet between them, and he stayed perfectly still as she first undid the zipper on her jeans and then slid them off her long, shapely legs. Her skin was delicate. His bear’s senses had latched on to the perfect smoothness of it, like creamed toffee or dark honey and milk. She took off her light jacket, its bright-red color stark against the brown pine needles that covered the ground. Then she shed her shirt and finally her bra and panties. “Now let your hair down,” he said. Slowly, she pulled out the elastic band, and her long, dark hair cascaded away from her hand to fall down over her shoulders. Her hands fell to her sides, and he and she both took their time looking at each other. Although he’d had a few awkward groping sessions with women, he’d never been with one who allowed him to look at her body the way Michelle did now, like she wanted him to look, like she wanted to be seen in her nakedness. The women he’d been with had insisted on darkness for anything more intimate than kissing. Maybe that was partly his fault. He had never been with a woman that made him feel as strong and as powerful as Michelle. The darkness was an insult to the way he felt about her. He wanted her in the clean and open light. “Are you ready? As soon as I shift, there’s no going back. That’s it.” He noticed her hands shaking, but she had a firm set to her full lips. “I’ll count to three.”

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He smiled, liking the idea. “Sure. Whenever you want, go ahead.” “One,” she said, her voice a little shaky. He felt a surge in his blood. “Two.” She sounded stronger. Their eyes locked, and he could keep his bear back no longer. “Three.” She shouted it because a roar had ripped out of his throat. His muscles shook. Everything was inside for a moment, contained in an infinitesimal speck of existence, and then there was the explosion. That sudden loss of self, his conscience, as his thoughts and his body shifted. The impact from landing on the earth-ground with his mighty bear-paws reverberated up his bear-legs. He snapped his head up. His sharp bear-eyes focused on the woman in front of him. It was her. His cream-skinned-Michelle. He held the air quiet and still inside his huge bear-stomach. He moved his paws toward her. A breeze moved through her dark strands. The strands flicked across the creamy skin of her soft woman’s cheek. His bear-eyes wanted to look their fill of raw naked beauty. She belonged to the earth. Just like he did. Just like his brothers. He stepped so close. Her arms came up. Her tiny woman’s hands rested on each side of his bear-face. Her fingers curled into his rough bear-fur. She held him. He saw salty-eye-water gathering in her brown depths. “You are beautiful,” came her feather-voice. He sucked in the air. It held her. His cream-skinned-Michelle lived in the air. He pulled her woman-scent deep into his bearstomach. And then the magic was alive. It worked through his blood. Her scent was fresh and unclaimed. He took it deep into his body. Her skin, her blood, her heart, her flesh, her bones—all of it filled him. All of it belonged to him.

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She was his cream-skinned-Michelle. Forever. **** Michelle felt something. It trembled inside her, and it was powerful. As soon as Franklin had smelled her, she felt it, somewhere deep. It wanted out. It flickered against her insides at the sight of him. Then, as fast as he’d burst outward into his bear form, as soon as he breathed deep, he’d shifted back into being a man. And he was all man. Her legs trembled, eager to wrap around his perfectly shaped form. His muscles were long and sinuous, shaped over his bones and his organs like they were carved from the hands of a deity. And maybe they were, for all she knew. Magic ran through his veins. It ran through his body. Her hands twitched to hold him, and her pussy quivered, wanting his large, aroused cock buried deep and pulsing. Franklin put his hands on her hips and lifted her. He’d started walking before her legs were wrapped all the way around his body. Her clit rubbed against the hard muscles of his stomach, and she moaned low in her throat, desperate for more. She could feel his cock against the delicate, sensitive skin of her ass. She knew her cum dripped down onto him. Finally he stopped, setting her feet on the ground, his cock pressing up against her stomach as he pressed his lips to hers. “You are mine,” he said, breathing hard. He knelt down, yanking her with him. They were on a slight hill covered in moss and leading to the small creek that ran through their property. He rolled so that she was beneath him. “I’ve never done this, Michelle. I don’t know if I can be gentle. There’s a wildness in my blood. I can’t…it won’t end until…”

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“Don’t you dare be gentle. Take me.” His eyes lit up like she wanted them to. “I don’t want to hurt you.” “You won’t hurt me. But even if you did hurt me a little”—she leaned up and whispered in his ear—“I’d like it.” She ran her fingers down his back, cutting into his skin. He groaned with pleasure, and she felt his muscles shaking. “See?” He nodded and then crashed his lips onto hers. He was rough, not smooth. He ground into her mouth, yet he trembled. “Take me hard,” she said. She grabbed his cock and put the tip to her wet, throbbing hole. “Take me,” she said again, her voice demanding. “Now!” His hips moved, and he was inside. He plunged deep and hard, and she gasped at the raw sensation. His black eyes held hers. She couldn’t look away from him, and that wild thing, that terrible power she’d felt when he shifted in front of her, was fully awake now. “More,” she growled, thrusting her own hips up toward him. She moved her hands to his ass, digging her fingers into his hard, muscled buttocks, guiding him and pulling him into her. Every thrust of his dick was a battle to take him further inside her body. She’d never been so needy or so wanton, but her body wasn’t her own. It was pulled and it was moving. His cock dove into her pussy again and again. All the time, their eyes held each other. The world disappeared until her thoughts became disorganized, until the only thing she could remember was that wild, untamed entity now writhing inside her. It wanted to join with him. With her fingers she scratched deep into the flesh of his back, using pain to spur him onward. She needed more. She couldn’t come until he broke through to the caged thing inside her. His cock invaded her cunt with a preternatural fury. “I can feel you,” he said, smashing into her. “Michelle, let me have you.” Her body was so hot, and her pussy burned with the fiery need that clamored through her.

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“Let me have you,” he demanded again, his voice shaking. “All of you!” She arched up, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Everything went white, and her mouth fell open in a silent scream of pleasure. Her hands fell to the earth, but Franklin had one arm around her. It held her to him until he was the only thing she knew. He was the only thing, her everything. After a long moment, where nothing but Franklin and the white fire of their pleasure existed in her world, she fell back to the earth. Franklin moved to the side of her but left one heavy thigh nestled firmly between hers. One of his shoulders lay across her chest, and his arm held her body close to his. His lips kissed along her jawline. She could smell him. It was so strong. Bending her nose toward him, she breathed in deep. His scent flared through her. It wasn’t enough. She breathed in, again and again. She took his scent deep—his wants and his needs and his self. She took it deep to her core, and it twined itself around that wild, untamed thing at the center of her being. She held him there, and they slumbered, their wild selves at peace. **** A diamond pelted her on the shin. “Ouch,” she grumbled. Another one stung her thigh and another her hip. She heard them tinkling against the surface of the creek, and slowly her mind roused. Not diamonds, but tiny cold raindrops, were falling. Franklin still lay next to her, partly slung over her body. “Franklin,” she said, shoving his shoulder. “It’s starting to rain. Wake up.” He mumbled something unintelligible.

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The rain fell harder, and Michelle fought back a shiver. “Franklin,” she said again but louder. “Get up. It’s raining.” As if her words had summoned it, the water came down hard. That woke him up. He jumped but didn’t immediately roll off her. Pushing himself up onto his elbows, he looked down at her. He grabbed some of her hair and spread it out on the ground around her. Water dripped off his face and onto hers, but it was warm from traveling across his skin. “That was the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to me.” She bit her bottom lip to keep from giggling. “Surely not…” “Oh yes,” he said, his dark eyes burning into hers. She felt need coiling tight inside her, and she tightened her thighs around the one he still had nudged between her legs. He put his hand to her cheek and then bent down. His full lips were warm as they fitted against hers. Water cascaded from his cheeks onto hers. He slid his hands under her shoulders and then lifted her up without breaking the kiss. They adjusted their bodies so that she was in his lap with her legs around him. He held her, his body keeping her warm as the cold rain fell over them. Every sound but the sound of their breathing was muffled by the rain. Franklin slid his rigid cock slowly into the depths of her cunt. They moved together, their rhythm slow yet urgent. When he pushed himself in, he held her hips, and she squeezed herself tight around him. After a tense moment, they let go, and he slid out, taking his time to slide the tip of his cock against her inner walls as he moved out of her. Then he would push back in, pressing hard against another part of her insides, and when he moved all the way inside her, she would clench hard around him again. He took her hand in his, kissed her palm, and then dipped their hands between their moving bodies. He put her fingertips against the swollen bud of her clit and then took his hand away. She began to swirl her fingers, and Franklin squeezed hard against her, driving his cock to her depths again and then again. Breathing hard, she pushed

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her forehead against the crook of his neck and shoulder, the tense pleasure her fingertips created making her whole body teeter on the edge of climax. After a few more strokes her body shivered, and her orgasm rolled through her. She tilted her head back, her body overcome with tremors, and her eyes closed as Franklin continued to move inside her. Cold rain fell on her forehead and her lids and her cheeks. The water snaked down her body, and Franklin shoved himself deep and hard once more. His cum spurted inside her, and she bent her face to him again. Smiling, he lowered his head to put his cheek against her wet breasts, and they stayed still for a long moment. “Your heartbeat sounds good with the rain.” He looked up at her. “Are you cold?” “Not when you hold me.” He smiled and kissed her, warming her to her toes. When they pulled away from each other, she grinned at him. “But I’m not saying a cup of hot chocolate would go amiss.” Laughing, they climbed to their feet, slipping on the wet moss, and then raced each other to the house. Franklin gave her a big, fluffy towel and a warm sweater and long johns while their clothes were in the dryer. “A healthy dollop,” she called out to him as he put whipped cream on her hot chocolate. His white teeth gleamed between full lips. She loved his smile. His eyes squinted together in a picture of such delighted happiness that she couldn’t resist smiling back. When he strode toward her with two mugs of hot chocolate, she thought she noticed a certain swagger that wasn’t there before. The wild creature inside her purred and flicked its tail and then curled up, satiated.

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“Thank you,” she said, taking her mug. She sucked delicately at some of the melted whipped cream that had mixed with the warm chocolate below. Franklin put his lips to the rim of his mug and then sucked up all of his whipped cream in one inhalation. Her mouth fell open. “Franklin, you’re supposed to take your time. Enjoy it. Let it melt into chocolaty, creamy goodness.” “I did enjoy it.” He licked his lips, his tongue darting out to capture some errant cream. “You’re too adorable.” She leaned in and kissed him, rolling her tongue across his chocolaty, creamy lips. “Mmm,” she purred against him. When she pulled away, he brought a whipped-cream-covered finger to his mouth. “Yep,” he said, smacking his lips together. She looked down at her mug, noticing a suspicious gouge in the top of her whipped cream. “Franklin!” She glared at the prime suspect. “Yours is good, too.” “Thanks for testing it out for me because, you know, I wasn’t quite sure.” “You better hurry up and drink that.” “Why?” she asked, gingerly putting the warm mug to her lips. “Because I’m gonna eat all your whipped cream.” He dipped his finger in again. “Franklin!” she squealed, moving the mug to her opposite hand and holding it away from him. “No more.” “Or what?” “Don’t test me. When it comes to whipped cream, I get crazy.” His mouth slowly curled up into a lascivious grin, his dark eyes holding warm light. “I think I like the sound of that.” His voice was low and suggestive, and suddenly her nerves were tingling. Her body was so aware of his. When he moved to take a drink of his hot

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chocolate, she felt it. She was aware of the little bit of air that stirred between them. “How is this possible? How can I already want you again?” she asked. Her hands shook with the force of her wanting, and she had to put her mug down. Franklin did the same. They came together like two speeding freight trains, crashing and exploding and spilling everywhere. They rolled onto the floor, clothes flying and their bodies joining. **** Elias noticed a bicycle on the ground dumped on the side of their driveway as he drove up toward the house. He and Thomas had miraculously managed to get off work at the same time, and now they both pulled into the garage. As soon as he opened the door, he smelled something. It was subtle, and he barely caught a trace of it, but there was definitely something sweet and intoxicating in the air. “What is that?” Thomas asked, closing his door and poking his nose up to sniff more fully. “I don’t know, but I like it.” Thomas’s parking spot was closer to the door, so he walked through first. As soon as the door opened, though, the smell intensified. It reached down and gripped Elias by the insides, threatening to pull him out of his skin. “What the hell?” he heard Thomas ask as he rounded a corner from the kitchen to the living room. A second later, Elias followed suit and then stopped dead in his tracks. Franklin lay in the middle of the living room, naked ass on full display, a pair of long, shapely legs wrapped around him. The two bodies on the floor were frozen, and Michelle’s wide eyes peaked out from under Franklin’s shoulder. “What the hell is going on here?” Elias asked, his bear becoming frantic. Its power shook within his body, threatening to explode out of him right there in the living room.

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“Well,” Franklin said, turning to look over his shoulder with a smug, self-satisfied grin, “if you can’t tell, brother, we sorta mated.”

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Chapter Twelve “What is that god-awful noise?” Ulysses’s smooth voice came over the line as Skyler slammed the bathroom door closed. “Marina Andrews, the girl I told you about, drunk and in the shower.” “It’s not even ten o’clock.” Ulysses sounded impressed. “She knows how to drink. Unfortunately, no riot tonight at Catdaddy’s, but I did wonder aloud to a young bar-goer how much a person could make sending in pictures of the famous Marina Andrews, drunk off her ass and in the middle of nowhere.” “Good. You should have the date set by now. Do you?” Skyler allowed himself a small smile. He loved Ulysses’s curtness. He only spoke of what he needed to. He didn’t waste time. He’d called to find out about their plans, and that was all he wanted, all he had time to discuss. The man wore his power so comfortably. It gave Skyler thrills. But he shifted his thoughts. He felt his smile drift off his lips, and he was the businessman again. “This coming Saturday,” he answered. “Good. I’ve hired two men to assist you. There are no cameras, you say?” “Right.” “Then make sure there are at least three witnesses in the store when you send them in. Nothing like having a few eyewitness accounts to get a murder case on the news.” Marina hit an exceptionally horrendous note. “Ulysses?” “Yes?”

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“What if Marina was there? Of course, we’d have to be sure she came to no harm. But if she were somehow involved…” “Yes, I like that.” Something volatile curled in Skyler’s stomach. It billowed up suddenly. Just those few words of approval from Ulysses had an instantaneous effect on him, but he stifled it. He pushed it away. He must keep those thoughts in their place. “My men will arrive Friday afternoon,” Ulysses continued. “Make sure the singer is out of the house.” “Of course.” “Don’t fuck this up.” “I won’t.” The line went dead. **** The rain had stopped. Only mist swirled through the air and hit her naked skin like a cool embrace. But it wasn’t the mist that made Michelle shiver. Her men, her three bear-shifting men, stood before her, stark naked in the fading light of day. As soon as Elias and Thomas had found out about her and Franklin, they’d all four gone outside. They stood before her now, stripped of all clothing, stripped of every barrier. Without saying a word to each other, they erupted into bear form. They stalked toward her, and she couldn’t help but take a step back at the sight of three huge bears approaching. Elias and Thomas breathed deep and, as they continued to step toward her, shifted back into their human form. Elias reached her side and kissed her neck. A shiver rippled across her skin at the touch of his lips. She reached her hand up to hold the side of his face, and when she did, Thomas kissed the skin that stretched over her shoulder blade. She looked back at him and arched

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her back when he slid his hand across the curve of her spine and then over her ass to cup a cheek. Franklin stood before her, still in bear form, as she, Elias, and Thomas went down to their knees on the ground. Elias moved so that they were lying down and he was on top of her, but she could still see Franklin. He moved toward them, shifting back into his human form as he did. Reaching down, he grabbed her feet and held them at a high angle, massaging her soles as Elias lined his cock up with the entrance to her pussy. Thomas sat on his heels beside her head, and she grabbed on to his cock with one hand then wrapped her other arm tight around Elias. She began stroking Thomas, holding on to his hot, hard shaft. Then Elias plunged into her depths. He rooted himself deep in her body, and she gasped. As he pulled back and then forth, as his cock stroked her insides, Thomas put a circling finger to her clit. A whimper tumbled softly from her lips. She loved that none of them had to say anything. They knew each other. They spoke in looks and in touches and in breaths. She understood the need in each of Elias’s thrusts because she felt the same need burning through every vein and every nerve in her body. The wildness that she’d felt lashing out inside herself when she was with Franklin came growling and clawing to the surface again with each penetrating slam of Elias’s dick. Still holding her feet, Franklin pressed his thumbs into the arches, and she cried out, shoving her hips up hard against Elias. Her harsh movement disrupted Elias’s rhythm for a moment, but he soon joined her, both of them berserk in this first joining of their flesh. She wanted to consume him. She wanted his body, his heart, his soul. She wanted to devour him. Elias growled, looking into her eyes, calling up the wild creature that stirred so restlessly within her. Franklin yanked her legs higher, causing Elias’s cock to push deeper. Her hands fell from Elias and

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Thomas down to the earth, and she thrust her cunt up so hard. She held herself so tight against him and around him. His hot seed spilled into her channel as the explosion of orgasmic pleasure took away everything she was. As her body collapsed back onto the ground, his scent washed through her body. And she belonged to him. Completely. And forever. **** The world floated in front of Michelle’s eyes. She felt utterly suspended. She knew neither how long she had existed nor what she had done before this moment on earth. Someone spoke her name, and she turned her face toward the sound. It was Thomas. He was the answer. He was what she needed. If she wanted to be whole. If she wanted completion. If she wanted to return, she needed to feel him moving inside her. Elias had collapsed on top of her as they both came, but she shoved at him now, her cunt ablaze and wanting. “Thomas,” she whispered. His black eyes locked on hers as she moved out from under Elias. She rose to her knees and then launched herself into Thomas’s arms. As she kissed him and fell upon him, his cock slid into her pussy. He lay back on the grass and thrust up into her in one motion, causing her back to arch at the pleasurable, arresting slide of their flesh. It brought forth a deep moan from Michelle as she felt his dick plunging far into her body, and she squeezed her thighs tight around his hips. And they held their eyes tightly to one another. She put her hands on his face and rode him hard. She held on to his neck and clawed at his shoulders. She kneaded her fingers in his flesh with each penetrating, upward thrust of his cock.

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There was no imaginable way to take her eyes from his. He took everything from her. She put her hands on her breasts, panting and flicking and pinching her nipples in time to his driving, merciless pummeling. Placing his hands on her hips, Thomas lifted her and then yanked her back down on his dick. “You won’t come until you let go.” He fucked into her hard. “Until you give me everything you are.” He did it again, his fucking driving her past what she thought she could take. “Thomas,” she whimpered, unsure. His hard upward thrust took away all thought, all further speech. “Give in to me, Michelle.” Her hands gripped his arms, holding on as he ravaged her cunt. “I can’t,” she screamed. “Thomas, I can’t. It’s too much.” Even as she screamed the words, her pussy squeezed tighter around him. Each stab of his unyielding cock echoed through her flesh more harshly than the one before. “You won’t come until you let go. Fucking let go, Michelle!” he roared up at her. Yet she heard a note of pleading in his voice. His eyes begged her. “Thomas.” She needed to say his name. She needed him to be real. “Let go!” Suddenly, all of her doubts, all of her insecurities, everything that kept her from being herself, from being Michelle, ripped away from her heart. She felt it all flying away, and that feeling made her scream. She didn’t know if it was terror or happiness or sadness or anger that caused her to scream, but it was the most powerful thing she had ever experienced, and it tore through her body. “Yes!” Thomas roared up at her as her pussy held him, as pleasure incarnate overcame every sense, every feeling she’d ever experienced. Her body, her heart, her soul—all of it was tied up in Thomas, in Elias, and in Franklin. She could no longer exist as Michelle without them.

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The power of that thought had orgasmic pleasure roiling through her body anew. She took a deep, shuddering breath, and the scent of Thomas filled her lungs. This was what it felt like to be alive. This was what it felt like to be truly and completely alive.

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Chapter Thirteen “God, I fucking hate this town,” Marina said, tossing up and catching a pillow while she lay stretched out on Skyler’s couch. “Why don’t you leave then?” “That’s genius, Skyler. And what the hell am I supposed to do once that happens?” He shrugged. “Climb a mountain. Go scuba diving. Paint a mural. I don’t know, Marina. The world is your oyster.” She sighed. “My fucking label won’t let me back in the studio until that cunt of a therapist says I’m ready. And now after all this shit with my sister, it’ll probably be even later.” She thought back to her meeting with Dr. Brine the day before. The therapist had been less than pleased that Marina was no longer staying at her aunt’s, and even more disappointed that she and Michelle hadn’t talked to each other in almost a week. How the hell was she supposed to get out of here and back to her career? “Goddamn this shit hole!” “Well, speaking of shit holes, you used the last of the toilet paper.” She looked at him, nonplussed. “So what?” “So I’m going to Denver this afternoon. I have a meeting at NormCorp.” “It’s Saturday.” He stared at her. With a huff, she put the pillow behind her head. Then she cut her eyes over to him standing in the doorway in his tailor-made business suit, his designer glasses, designer shoes, and designer briefcase. He was a beautiful man. His dark hair was stark against the paleness of

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his face, and he had high cheekbones that cut an aristocratic line below bright-blue eyes. He had an aquiline nose and beautifully lush lips. Lips that Michelle had yet to taste. She’d been staying with him for almost a week. “So are you ever going to fuck me? Or what?” His bright eyes became suddenly fevered and tight. They held hers for a long moment. They were angry. A dark, deep-buried emotion swirled violently to the surface, and Marina froze, afraid he might attack. After a moment, though, the dangerous emotion that had risen so forcefully dimmed, and he returned to his usual cool self. “There’s nothing to eat here,” he said. “This shitty town doesn’t sell the food I like, so I get my groceries in Denver. If you want anything, you’ll have to get it yourself.” “Okay,” she whispered. “I’ll see you later.” But he had already slammed the door shut behind him. **** Michelle hadn’t opened her eyes. The sun shining through the bedroom window had her seeing nothing but rosy pinkness. Its warmth danced delicately across her cheek, her shoulder, and one exposed breast, and her lips curled up in delight at the sensation. “Rise and shine,” came a man’s voice from the doorway. “Oh god, is that coffee?” “Sure is, but you have to open your eyes first.” She cracked one lid. Elias, Thomas, and Franklin stood at the end of the bed, each with a mug of steaming coffee in his hand. Thomas had a cup for her, and Elias and Franklin both had trays stacked full of breakfast foods. “Are you trying to butter me up for something?” “Yes,” Franklin said, grinning, but then Elias elbowed him in the ribs.

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“May we join you in bed?” She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. Flashes from the night before flickered through her mind, and she felt her cheeks burning. They’d had to carry her up the stairs after she and Thomas had finished. She’d never had so much sex in one day, and she’d practically passed out after mating with all three of them in the way that she had. This morning, her body felt raw and exposed and vulnerable, but at the same time, she’d never felt like such a woman. “I’ll be right back,” she said and flew out from under the covers. She was completely naked, but surprisingly unconcerned as she scampered into the large bathroom that connected to their loft-like master bedroom. When she closed the door behind her, she stood across from a large, free-standing oval mirror with ornately carved gilding around the reflective glass. In awe of its beauty, she approached the mirror a little breathlessly. She could see herself from head to toe. It was the same body she’d lived with for twenty-eight years, but somehow it looked so very different to her eyes this morning. The long, dark hair cascaded over delicate shoulders. She tossed the curls, enjoying the weight of her hair as it fell across her back. The cheeks in her reflection were rosy. The legs were long and shapely, the hips rounded out and curvy. The breasts were a nice size, too, not small but not overly large, either. The nipples perked up a little at her scrutiny. She never completely shaved her pussy, but the hair was nice and neat, a lovely dark V between her legs. Her eyes, though, showed the biggest change. They were burning, bright and fully alive. When she looked in them, she saw strength staring back at her. Her lips curled up, and she was struck with the realization that she looked damn sexy. She grabbed a white T-shirt hanging on the bathroom door and returned to the room a few minutes later, where her men had set up a little tray for her in bed. She crawled in, careful not to knock anything

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over or spill any coffee. After they had all four settled, she looked at each of them, one by one, drinking in the sight of each of their gorgeous faces. If she didn’t feel so connected to them, so completely theirs, she wouldn’t have believed it was real. She wouldn’t have thought to exist in such a moment. But she was theirs, and they were hers. It felt exquisitely good. “So what’s with the breakfast in bed?” she asked, needing a distraction before she threw all of the food off the mattress and began devouring a completely different kind of breakfast. She plucked up a wheat bagel and spread cream cheese on it. “It’s a sort of thank you,” Thomas said, taking a couple slices of orange. “For trusting us, for being with us.” He shot her an impish grin and popped in a slice. “And I mean that in more than just the physical way.” He slid his hand up her calf as he swallowed the bite of orange. “Even though that is certainly something to celebrate.” Michelle drizzled a little honey over her bagel and took a big bite, trying to tamp down the desire that flared up at his touch. Her pussy, a little sore from previous activities, answered his touch as well, growing warm and damp as his fingers tickled up her leg. He stopped at her knee, though, and began tracing a lazy pattern. “Also,” Elias said, “As Thomas said, this is a celebration. We’ve found our mate, and not only are you beautiful, but you are smart and caring and good. You are a rare find, Michelle.” His voice had lowered. “We will cherish you until the day we die.” They were silent, the air between them suddenly tense and full of emotion. “I love you,” she said, feeling the truth of the words to the deepest, purest part of her soul and needing to express that truth. They smiled, but Franklin was the one who grabbed her hand. He gave her a reassuring squeeze and said, “We love you, Michelle.” He leaned in for a kiss, an enduring and slow melding of their lips and of their hearts.

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When they finally pulled away from each other, Michelle ran her thumb across his full bottom lip, her breathing ragged and uneven. “You”—she swallowed, attempting to regain some of her equilibrium—“you never told me how your family became human again. I never got to hear the end of that story.” Franklin kissed her forehead and then relaxed back against the headboard next to her. Elias was on her other side, and Thomas leaned against the footboard, still massaging her calves. The master bedroom was directly above the kitchen and the dining room table below. Across the room from the bed, there was only a panel of glass that separated the outermost edge of the room from the living room below. All of the early morning sunlight streaming in through the large glass wall downstairs also spilled into the master bedroom. The floors of the bedroom were wooden, and the walls and the bed covers were white. Everything was brilliant and clean. It made Michelle feel fresh on the inside. There were also several windows along the side walls of the room, so everything was lit up by the sun. Its light gleamed off the naked chests of her three men, her beautiful men, whom she loved and who loved her in return. She smiled at all the warmth that surrounded her. “So you want to know how our bear ancestors got back into human form?” “Yes.” She smiled at Elias. “I would like that very much.” “Okay, so you remember that the Kinmans had found themselves a woman. They disappeared—” “—yes, and they came back with one wife for the both of them.” “Excellent,” Thomas said, grinning. He swiped his thumbnail up the length of the bottom of her foot. Her leg jerked in reaction. “Don’t,” she said in warning, but her laughter dimmed the effect. She put her foot on his chest when he put his thumb at her heel again. “Don’t,” she repeated, more forcefully.

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“I’m sorry,” he said, grinning, “but bare feet are too tempting for me to resist, especially these delicate things.” He held up her size-ten foot. “Har, har.” She yanked her foot out of his grip. “Elias, please continue,” she said while keeping a wary eye on Thomas. “So when Anne—she was the wife of the Kinman brothers,” Elias continued. “When she found out that there were more bear brothers that needed wives, she promised her husbands to help them find four more wives for the rest of the families. She was a kind and nurturing woman, and it was her way to care for and protect the ones she loved.” “Anne knew of a family that lived alone in the forest,” Franklin said, taking a bite of oatmeal with raisins and honey. “She knew there was a husband and a wife and two daughters. She went to speak to the father, to see if he was interested in finding a husband—or husbands, as it were—for either one of his daughters. When Anne found the cabin, however, she only found the eldest daughter. Scarlet fever had taken the rest of her family. The girl, Moira, had some skill in the healing arts, but it wasn’t enough to save her family. For some reason, she was spared, but if Anne and her husbands hadn’t come along, Moira probably would have starved to death. “She’d never been farther than a mile or two from her cabin. She didn’t even know that Savage Valley existed. So Robert and Henry Kinman helped her bury her family and then took her home with them.” Franklin scooped in another bite, so Thomas took over the story. “She stayed with the Kinmans a while, adjusting to life in Savage Valley, but it wasn’t too long before Anne and her husbands knew that she would need to marry. Another local gentleman, one of the lion-shifters in fact, from the Yeats line, had already begun sniffing around, hoping for a chance to court Moira. “So one day, they took Moira out to the forest, they shifted in front of her, and Anne told her all about living with two husbands and

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living with shifter-mates. She explained that there were more shifters that needed wives, and she asked her if she wanted to be married to the next family—the Ashleys.” “I’m guessing she said yes?” Michelle took a lingering slurp of her coffee, eyeing the brothers over the rim of her mug. Elias smiled and nodded. “She said yes. Anne had become like a sister to her, and she saw that Anne was happy with her husbands. She figured she could be, too.” “How do you know so much about them? I mean, I understand it’s your family’s history, but still…I barely even know my greatgrandmother’s name, much less whom she married or how they met or even what they did with themselves.” “One of the original wives, Helen Strong, she kept very accurate and detailed journals. She was the final wife to join the bears, but she spoke with each of the wives and got their stories.” “Do you still have the journals?” “The Strongs do. They belong to their family since Helen was the one to write them.” “Of course.” She nibbled on her bagel, thinking. “So what happened after Moira told Anne that she would marry the Ashleys?” “The Kinman brothers took her to stay with Cameahwait while they went to get Elias, Elihu, and Ezekiel. They didn’t want any of the young bucks in town to come sniffing around while they were gone. None of the roustabouts would fool with Moira or Anne while the Kinmans were around, but once they were gone, they feared Anne wouldn’t be enough of a threat to keep unwanted suitors away.” “That didn’t sit too well with Anne,” Franklin added, winking. “But eventually she agreed. Things were still pretty rough in Savage Valley.” “Were?” Michelle asked with a raised eyebrow. “Anyways,” Elias said, drawing her attention back to the story, “while Moira stayed with the Shoshone, she became even more interested in the healing arts. By the time her future husbands arrived,

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she was extremely knowledgeable and well respected as a local healer. “Anne only went part of the way with Moira to meet her new husbands, knowing of course what would happen once they smelled their new wife. So meet they did, and once the Ashleys became human again, they joined their wife in town, learning from her until the Ashley family—all four of them—become known throughout the region as the most trusted physicians, often traveling for days to care for people living in isolation or travelers visiting nearby areas.” Michelle swallowed the last bite of her bagel and followed it with a healthy swig of orange juice. There was a French coffee press on the tray, so she poured herself a fresh cup, adding cream and sugar as she preferred. “So…” There was something about the story that was bugging her. At first she hadn’t been able to put her finger on it, but then as the story progressed and as she watched her three mindblowingly attractive men, she realized what it was. “How come there are never any women bear-shifters in your family? What’s up with that? Was Cameahwait sexist or something?” Each of their faces fell. “No,” Elias said, his voice subdued. “He wasn’t sexist.” “It’s rare for a daughter to be born into a bear-shifting family,” Thomas said, holding on to her ankle. “The women born into our family are barren. Something happened when the curse was initially cast, maybe it was so that the first bears couldn’t give birth to bear cubs, but whatever happened, none of the women have been able to conceive.” “That’s horrible. Not that everyone wants children, but to not even have a choice.” Michelle put her hand over her stomach, feeling a sort of womanly empathy. She wanted to have children, and the idea of it not being a possibility filled her with great sadness. “There is one upside, however,” Franklin said, grabbing her hand. “They usually have some sort of extra ability to compensate.” “Ability?”

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“Like our great-aunt Sarah. She could communicate with animals. Most of the time it was birds. She loved listening to mockingbirds. She’d whistle with them for hours, exchanging tunes with them.” “Umm…” “It does sound kind of weird,” Thomas admitted. “But when you see it, it makes sense.” “Like what did she say? ‘Bird, fetch me some berries!’ Because, yeah, that does sound crazy.” “No,” Thomas said, laughing. “It was more like she could see them, understand them. Like if a flock of geese flew above us, she knew where they had been, where they were going. That sort of thing.” “Animals don’t speak,” Elias said. “Unless you’re a bear-shifter.” Michelle dug her elbow into his ribs playfully. “They don’t speak”—he grabbed her elbow—“but they do have urges and desires and basic instincts. Our Aunt Sarah could understand these things.” Michelle moved her hand to Elias’s leg, dragging her fingers across the hard muscle of his inner thigh. “I think I understand what you mean.” She put her other hand on Franklin’s leg, stroking him. “Urges”—she cupped Elias’s cock—“desires”—she cupped Franklin’s cock—“basic instincts.” She put her toes under Thomas’s groin and then pushed up, holding the weight of his balls on the top of her foot and wiggling her toes against him. Thomas groaned and rolled his hips against her, so Michelle circled her foot a few times around his hardening bulge while also gripping and then releasing the two hard cocks she held in her hands. She made sure her fingers went to the undersides of their sacs and danced across the sensitive area there. “You are all so huge. I feel like a goddess with each of you at my fingertips.”

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“You are a goddess,” Elias said, rolling toward her. He slid his hand up under her T-shirt and palmed her breast. Franklin did the same on her other side, reaching for the heavy roundness and then flicking his thumb over its sensitive nub. Closing her eyes, she arched up against their hands. She felt Thomas put his hands on her ankles. He yanked her legs wide open. “Thomas!” She gasped his name, her eyes flying open. He watched her with dark, hungry eyes. “Are you scared, Michelle? Are you afraid of what I can do to you?” “No.” Her voice sounded weak and unsure, so she said it again. “No, Thomas.” She meant it with everything that she was. “I’m not afraid. I want it. All of it. All of you. Take me as you will. Use me as you want. I am yours.” She turned to Elias. “And yours.” Then she looked at Franklin and held her palm to his cheek. “And I am yours,” she whispered. She took a deep breath, the scent of each of her men filling her with such strength, with such a sense of purpose, that any qualms, any tiny lingering doubts that she may have had, completely vanished. They disappeared, and she was completely and utterly herself with them. Thomas moved up between her legs, licking her cunt from the back to the top, swiping his tongue up one side of her seam and then down the other. His hands gripped her ass so that she fit snug up against his face, and he buried his tongue in her pussy. As Thomas continued to lave at her cunt, Elias and Franklin pulled the large white T-shirt over her head, and the warm morning sun tingled on the tips of her nipples. They put their mouths on her hardened buds, and Elias moved his fingers to her clit. Michelle needed something. She needed something to do to keep from crying out, but Franklin grabbed one of her wrists and held it

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pinned against the bed. Then Elias grabbed her other wrist so that, with Thomas between her legs, she lay completely spread-eagled. As she thrust her hips up hard against Thomas’s face, her breathing became harsh. She could feel an orgasm building, and she reached for it. Her pussy clenched in yearning need. She wanted to wrap her legs around Thomas and suffocate him until he made her come, but he held her legs wide open, pressing them against the mattress, and he forced her to suffer the sweet torment of each delicious flick of his tongue. “Thomas,” she pleaded. “Fuck me, Thomas. I want to be fucked.” His tongue stopped, and she whimpered, rolling her hips and trying to get his tongue back in motion. “Oh, we are going to fuck you good and hard, Michelle.” She stopped her frustrated movements, frozen by his words and by the dark promise in his voice. She sank into the black depths of his gaze. “And not only are we going to fuck this pussy…” Slowly, he slid his hands up her legs until his strong fingers bit into the soft flesh of her cheeks. “But this ass is also going get fucked good and hard, too.” Suddenly she couldn’t breathe. Her body was a burning blaze. He sat up on his knees between her legs. “Do you two have her?” A shiver of anticipation skipped through her blood as Elias and Franklin tightened their grip on her wrists. “Michelle, I want you to close your eyes,” Thomas said. “What?” “Do you trust me?” “Yes, but—” “Do you trust my brothers?” “Yes, of course, but—” “Then close your eyes. If you open them before I tell you, I will slap your pussy.” “You’ll what?” He narrowed his eyes at her. “You heard me. Now do as I say.”

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“Thomas, you are being an insufferable, pig-headed, chauvinistic—” “Just close your eyes,” Franklin said, grinning. “You’re gonna like it.” She frowned at all three of them, glaring. “Please,” Elias said, kissing her wrist. “You gotta trust us.” “All right, fine,” she said, rolling her eyes. “But if I don’t like this game, I’ll get you back for it.” Thomas nodded, so she did what he asked and closed her eyes. For a long moment, nobody moved. She could feel all three of her men, breathing next to her, parts of their bodies touching her, but not moving. Then, between her legs, she felt Thomas moving. He left for a moment. She heard a drawer open and close, then his feet padding across the wood floor. The bed shifted as he returned to his place between her legs. “Spread wide for me,” he whispered. Her stomach jolted at the sound of his voice, but she did as he said. A moment later, something soft fluttered against the lips of her pussy. She jerked, her eyes flying open. “What is that?” “Michelle,” Thomas chided, “you didn’t even last thirty seconds.” Biting her bottom lip, she offered him a sheepish grin. “Whoops.” “I’m going to have to punish you for that.” “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. It took me by surprise.” “Close your eyes.” His voice was heavy, but his eyes held a teasing lightness. “Okay, sorry.” She closed them but not before catching a glimpse of a long blue feather in Thomas’s hand between her legs. “Since this is your first offense, I’ll only give you three slaps.” “Three slaps!” Her eyes flew open again as she tried to sit up in protest. “Michelle,” Franklin and Elias said at the same time, yanking her back down to the pillow.

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“Damn, now I’ve got to make it the full five,” Thomas muttered. “Why don’t you go ahead and clench your eyes closed. In case you feel the urge to open them again while I slap this beautiful pink pussy.” A tremor ran through her at his words. He spoke of it so casually, but a spasm of fear lashed through her body. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her, not really. But the idea of someone slapping her pussy had her sucking in deep, hurried breaths. “Count ’em off for me.” A moment later Thomas’s hand landed a slap on her cunt. A sharp, piercing sensation ripped through her, stemming from her clit and shooting straight up her stomach. “Michelle?” “O–One.” She gasped for breath, and as she did, a different kind of sensation struck her. It was a warm swirling. Then his hand struck her cunt again, and she whimpered at the sharpness. “Two,” she said. The swirling warmth spread further and deeper. Thomas continued his punishment, and with each slap, the pain grew more defined, but then so did the pleasure. Her mind didn’t understand it, but oh, her body sure did. After the fifth slap, her hips arched up, and the swirling warmth moved all through her stomach and her thighs and even tickled from beneath her nipples. “Okay, now keep those eyes closed.” A moment later, something else brushed against her pussy lips. This time the object was hard and had tiny knobs on it. Thomas kneaded it into her flesh, some of the knobs poking into her. He rolled and jiggled it. He pressed hard. He was gentle. Michelle had to fight to keep her eyes closed. She clenched as tiny tingles began to spread through her. “This is torture,” she said in a harsh whisper. “I can’t—oh god, yes.” Elias and Franklin each had a feather now and began tickling her nipples while maintaining their hold on her wrists. They could have let her go, though. Her body was their captive. She would do anything they wanted.

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Thomas’s fingers plunged into her pussy, and pleasure unfurled, the movement of his fingers resonating sharp and poignant. Moisture rolled out of her, and she could tell it coated his fingers almost immediately. “Thomas, may I open my eyes? I want to look at you.” “Go ahead.” When she did, Thomas’s eyes burned into hers. “Turn over.” She did without hesitating. “You’re our mate. You have to trust us to take care of you, Michelle.” “I do. I promise I do.” Elias ran his fingers through her hair from behind. “We know that you are used to taking care of yourself. We know that you feel obligated to take care of everyone except yourself, but we can’t have that, especially not in bed.” Thomas ran his hand over her ass. “I didn’t do that to hurt you. Michelle, whether you realize it or not, your body belongs to us, and we will push it as far as it can go—in pleasure, in pain, in love. You belong to us.” She looked over her shoulder at him. “And what about me? What about your body? Don’t you belong to me as much as I belong to you?” He gripped her chin, holding her tight. “Yes, Michelle. I am yours. My body, my heart, my soul—all of it belongs to you. And my brothers, they are yours, too. You can do anything to us, and you will never change that.” “Even what you just did to me? I could do something like that to you, and you’ll let me?” She thought he would come up with some excuse, some way of explaining how as a man, it would be different, but he didn’t. “Do you want to try it right now? You can if you want. I am yours,” he said in absolute seriousness. His eyes were steady and unrelenting in their gaze.

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“You mean that?” “Yes.” Her breath came out in a soft exhalation. “No. Not right now.” She frowned and met his eyes. “But promise me that when I ask, you will agree.” “I promise.” She smiled faintly as Thomas leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers. He sucked gently on her bottom lip and then pushed his tongue into her mouth. He rolled it slow and easy against hers, building up her desire, starting a rhythm between them that she knew would never end, would never stop calling to her. As she rolled into his embrace, Elias got off the bed, heading for the bathroom. Franklin, however, pressed his torso against her back, putting his hot lips to the top of her shoulder and kissing his way to her neck. His erection pressed against her spine. Thomas broke his kiss with her and turned her toward Franklin, who fell back, wrapping his arms around her. His head landed at the side of the bed. “Curl your knees up,” he said, rising up for a quick kiss. “Put your thighs against my ribs.” When she’d done as he said, she reached down between their bodies, wrapped her fingers around his cock, and guided him to her open and waiting pussy. They held on to each other as he slid into her. His face was tense as he started to move slowly. When she tried to increase the pace, he grabbed her hips. “This has to last.” She pushed down against his restraining hold. “Trust me, Michelle. We’re going to take our time with you.” Knowing she couldn’t force them, she leaned down to press her face against his face, her cheek against his cheek, letting her breasts roll up against his chin. Each slow-burning thrust of Franklin’s cock drove the pleasure deeper into her body, but they didn’t near an exploding point. She heard something happening behind her but couldn’t concentrate on anything other than the feel of Franklin’s cock pushing

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in and pulling out of her. When he drove upward, her body shook and her legs squeezed, wanting to hold him inside forever. His pulling away was torture, but it was a necessary torture, one that she reveled in. She slid up his shaft until she felt the ridges of his head at the edge of her inner lips. Her ass was curved high up into the air, and a hand caught one of her hips, halting her. “Elias, is that you?” “Yes, my love. This might be cold.” He reached between her legs and smeared lube from the back of her cunt to the top of her ass. She shivered, automatically clenching around Franklin at the jarring sensation. No one had ever touched her there, and she felt a small bit of apprehension at the thought of one of them filling up that hole with his cock. She twisted around to look back at Elias. He smiled at her in reassurance. “Don’t worry. We’ll take this nice and slow. We won’t do anything you don’t want to.” She nodded and then turned back to Franklin. “But you want this, don’t you?” Franklin asked, his eyes knowing as he pushed up into her. “Yes,” she said, and he thrust again. “Yes.” Elias traced a finger around the edge of her back hole. Then he pushed his lubed up thumb through its tightness. Michelle’s mouth fell open, and her hands fell to the side of Franklin’s face. “You want more?” Elias asked. Franklin pushed her a little harder. His thrusting became a little more urgent, and Elias matched his rhythm with his thumb. “Yes, I want more,” she whispered, her eyes locked with Franklin’s. Elias took his thumb out and replaced it with two of his fingers. Michelle’s eyes squeezed shut. “No,” Franklin said. “Stay here with me.” She forced her eyes open. “I want to come,” she whispered, but Franklin kept his pumping in and out steady. He kept her body lit, but he didn’t burn her up as Elias

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rolled his fingers inside her ass, exploring and stretching. His thrusting slowed, and Michelle whimpered. “Elias is putting lube on his cock.” Franklin kissed her softly. “He’s going to put his cock in your ass.” Moving his hands to cup each cheek, he gave her a squeeze. Tiny sensations rippled across her skin and sent delicate tingles to her pussy. As Franklin had promised, Michelle felt Elias nudge the tip of his cock between her cheeks. It pressed against her hole, making the muscles there clench and then unclench in anticipation. “Oh,” she said, struggling to remain relaxed. The pressure from Elias’s cock grew, and she jerked. “You’re okay.” Michelle looked up at Thomas’s deep voice, not realizing he was in front of her. Franklin touched her clit, massaging and whispering reassurances in her ear. Elias kept pushing, and a moment or two later, his tip moved through the tight outer muscles. He held still for a moment, and Franklin shifted inside her. He pushed his cock up then pulled out. When he moved out, Elias shoved himself in a little further and then stopped. Franklin pushed in and then pulled out, and Elias moved deeper. They kept it up, and Michelle’s muscles trembled, straining to maintain control of her body. “I’m almost in,” Elias said quietly behind her. She could hear the tense struggle in his voice, and she wanted to answer him, to tell him that she was okay, but there were too many sensations flying through her body and her mind to form coherent words. Instead, she shoved herself back against him and was rewarded with a surprised, desire-ridden grunt. Elias pushed himself in, causing Michelle to shudder. “That felt good,” Franklin said, smiling up at her. “You all right?” She nodded, and the three began moving, Franklin and Elias rocking back and forth all around her. The orgasm that had been

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hovering out of reach floated closer and closer, but she felt like something was missing. She wanted Thomas to be a part of this, too. Looking up at him, she realized he had been waiting for her to come to this realization. He stood looking down at her with his cock so near her face it was almost on her forehead. She smiled and then opened her mouth for him. Sliding into her with a deep sigh, he wrapped his fingers in her hair and matched his rhythm in her mouth to Franklin’s in her cunt and Elias’s in her ass. She held on to Thomas, wrapping her arms him, and she took in her three men. She couldn’t remember what the boundaries of her body felt like. Everything had dissolved into pleasure, which had no boundaries and knew nothing of restraint. As one, their motions became more fervent. The cocks in her pussy and ass slammed deep into her body, making her jerk with each impact. Each slam had her humming around Thomas’s shaft. He pushed himself to the back of her throat, and she grabbed his balls, massaging and kneading, desperate for their tightening, desperate for his hot cum to spurt into her mouth. She felt her own climax approaching and fought to keep it at bay until Thomas came in her mouth. She felt his fingers twist further in her hair. She felt his balls tighten up, and she moved faster. Franklin and Elias fed off her frenzy, each one pummeling deeper into her body. Then Thomas roared his release, holding her tight against his dick as she swallowed his flowing seed. His orgasm triggered the rest of them. First Michelle felt her own muscles clenching hard around Franklin’s dick. The electrifying tingles of her orgasm fired through her body like a thousand tiny bullets, moving like liquid silver through her blood and her skin and her organs. Everything was exploding. And then Elias came, holding himself deep inside her as he gripped her hips and jetted his cum into her ass.

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“Oh fuck,” Franklin said, arching up into her as well, his semen shooting deep into her welcoming channel. Michelle drank it all in, greedy and wanton. Everything was red and fire and gold. She was melting. She was disintegrating. She was falling to pieces. She was infinite.

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Chapter Fourteen “I’m so fucking bored.” Marina pushed the hair out of her eyes and stared up at the ceiling. Saying it aloud didn’t help anything. She didn’t even have Roy to keep her company. Like an idiot, she’d left the dog at her aunt’s, thinking that she and Skyler were going to be too busy fucking for her to worry about a dog. Yeah. Wishful fucking thinking. She supposed she could mosey on to the store and get some toilet paper and then maybe pick up a burger from Savage Hunger, but she couldn’t muster up the energy for it. Putting a pillow over her face, she screamed. Why did she feel so alone? Nothing made sense to her anymore. She’d wanted to get away from Michelle, and she had, but her sister hadn’t even tried to call her or text her. It was like Michelle didn’t care about her at all. What the hell was Michelle up to anyway? It wasn’t like she had a job or a husband or children or anything really to take up her time. Pretty much, the only thing Michelle had to do was take care of Marina while on tour, but since that wasn’t happening, Marina wondered how Michelle was handling herself. Probably sitting at home like Marina. But what if she wasn’t? Marina remembered how those Ashley brothers trailed after her, tongues lolling and eyes following her like puppies.

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With a small huff, Marina threw the pillow across the room. As if Michelle would even know what to do with the attention from three such gorgeous men. Knowing she would never get some peace until she talked to Michelle, she nabbed her cell phone off the table next to the couch and hit her sister’s number on speed dial. After a couple rings, she heard the line pick up. There was some shuffling noises and a couple of whispering voices, and then Michelle answered. “Marina?” Her voice sounded different, and Marina was immediately on her guard. “Where are you?” she asked, letting the annoyance come through loud and clear. There was a long pause. “Do you need something?” “I was calling to check up on you. You haven’t called me in a week.” “I’m fine, Marina. Thank you for asking.” Marina waited for Michelle to ask how she was doing, but there was only silence from her sister’s end of the line. As the seconds ticked by, Marina felt her irritation growing stronger. Well, she’d be damned if she were the one to break the silence, so she stubbornly closed her lips and waited. But Michelle didn’t speak. Instead, she heard her talking to a man. “Yes,” she said. “I’ll be a minute.” Then she giggled. Marina rolled her eyes. “No, I said a minute, not a second. Stop it,” her sister squealed. “Marina?” “Yes,” she drawled out. “I have to go. I promised Aunt Agnes—Thomas!” she squealed. “No!” There were some bumping noises as if the phone was dropped. Then there was some scuffling, some general grunting and giggling, and then Michelle came back, breathless. “Sorry. Umm…so, yeah, I have to make some cupcakes before tomorrow morning for this church thing for Aunt Agnes. I have to get to the store, and then we’re all going to be baking here, so I gotta go.”

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Marina ground her teeth together. “Okay, well, I guess I’ll see ya around,” Michelle said. Marina opened her mouth to give a biting remark, but the line was already dead. “Fuck!” she screamed at the phone. Then she sprang off the couch and shoved the phone into her pocket. She slammed the door on her way out of the house. Suddenly she really needed to go to the goddamn store. **** Skyler had been watching Savage Convenience for almost four hours, and Marina still hadn’t shown up. He cursed himself for not leaving her some Coke or juice so that she’d have to go to the bathroom sooner. There had only been a few moments throughout the day so far when enough people were in the store to send in the two men Ulysses had hired. However, he would wait for Marina to show up. One famous witness was better than three nobody witnesses. Almost as if his thoughts had summoned her, Marina pulled up in the Prius he had left for her to use. When she got out of the car, she flicked her braid over her shoulder and strode up the steps and into the store. Skyler pulled his phone out and dialed. “The singer has arrived. Make your move now.” As soon as he hung up, another vehicle pulled up to the storefront, a black sedan. When it had parked, four people climbed out, and Skyler smiled to himself, not quite able to believe his luck. It was Marina’s sister and her three doctors. What a greedy bitch, he thought to himself but then couldn’t help feeling a begrudging respect for any woman who could handle three men. She had to be fucking them. Skyler noticed that each of the men found a way to surreptitiously grab her ass as they made their way up the steps and into the store.

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Now, all he could do was wait. It would be mere minutes before sirens blared and this town found itself in the midst of an identity crisis. And then he would call Ulysses and give him the good news. And Ulysses would be so grateful and… Skyler crossed his legs and shifted uncomfortably and, as usual, forced those thoughts away. **** “Hey, Jim Bob,” Michelle called out, winking at her aunt’s paramour behind the counter. “Has my aunt been by this morning? We’re supposed to be making cupcakes.” “Oh yes,” he answered, winking back at her. “I’ve seen her all right. You know how she likes her sweets. Seems like her niece can’t keep her fingers out of the sweeties, either.” He cut his eyes to the nearest Ashley brother, which happened to be Franklin. Franklin shot her a debonair smile, and then Jim Bob looked back at her, a knowing twinkle in his blue eyes. Michelle blushed and quickly turned away, stifling a nervous giggle. “Umm…baking supplies are”—she scampered down the aisle—“this way?” She ducked around out of sight. “Looking for this?” Michelle stopped dead in her tracks. Marina held out a plastic canister of icing, an angry frown vibrantly displayed across her features. “What are you doing here?” “Am I not allowed to go to the store now?” Michelle sighed, not wanting to get into it with Marina after such a glorious morning. “You can do whatever you want. You just surprised me, that’s all.” She took the icing from Michelle and put it in her plastic carrier. She took a step to her right to go around Marina, but her sister sidestepped, blocking her way. “What are you doing?” “Waiting.”

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Michelle sighed. “Waiting for what?” Marina jutted a hip out and put her hand on it. “Don’t you think you owe me an apology?” Casting a quick glance around the store to make sure none of her men were nearby or approaching, Michelle grabbed Marina’s elbow and yanked her down to a squatting position. “Listen, I know that you are going through crap and that I’m your sister and I should probably be there for you and all that, but you—” “Oh my god, Michelle, shut up.” “No,” she said, yanking Marina’s arm. She looked deep and hard into Marina’s eyes. “You listen to me. I’m saying this, and you need to hear it, so do not interrupt me.” She whispered, not wanting anyone to hear, but even so, she could feel power emanating from her voice. “A person can only take so much, Marina, and you have pushed me past my limit. This last week has been one of the happiest I’ve had in years.” She took a deep breath. “Listen…from now on, you are on your own. You’re old enough to take care of yourself, and I realize this is partly my fault, but I can’t help you anymore.” She watched Marina’s eyes widen and let go of her arm. “We are done, okay? There’s no more Marina and Michelle. It’s Marina, and it’s Michelle. I am going to be me. Just me. Without you.” Marina stared at her, and Michelle couldn’t tell if she was angry, hurt, confused, or what. Her face was frozen. Damn, had she actually rendered her sister speechless? The bell over the entrance sounded. Then a voice called out, harsh and deadly. “Everybody put your fucking hands in the air.” Michelle froze, her eyes locking with her sisters’. Quickly considering their position and the direction of the voice, she made a decision and motioned for Marina to follow her. “Everyone to the front of the store,” a second voice called out, calmer and more sedate than the first. Silently they crawled to the far end of the aisle and then crawled along the back of the store, next to all the refrigerated beverages, until

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they made it to the farthest aisle and sat next to each other, trying their hardest not to make a noise. “Don’t fucking move, old man. You three,” the first voice barked, “get down on the ground and put your hands behind your head.” “Go search the rest of the store.” Marina looked at her, desperation and fear in her eyes, the same desperation and fear that Michelle felt. She looked around quickly, hoping to find some sort of weapon. There was only motor oil and cleaning supplies. She looked at Marina. They were both scared, and there was nothing. She grasped Marina’s hand, holding it tight as the footsteps drew nearer. Despite everything she’d said to Marina, she still loved her sister, and the hand she held in hers was an anchor. It kept her mind present, kept her strong and brave. A moment later a masked man rounded the end of the aisle. His eyes peered at them through the holes in his black mask. “Ladies.” He drew the word out, and Michelle could hear the smile in his voice. “Follow me if you please.” He had a shotgun pointed at their faces. Michelle’s heart beat so fast and hard it was painful. The sight of that barrel pointed not only at her but at her sister made it hard to breathe. Her muscles trembled as she clutched Marina and walked past the masked robber and toward the front of the store. Franklin, Thomas, and Elias were on the ground with their hands behind their head. Elias met her eyes, and she could see the struggle there. She knew it was his natural instinct to fight, to protect. This had to be killing him, and his brothers, too. The other masked man had his gun pointed at Jim Bob as the older man emptied out the contents of his register into a black canvas bag. The man behind her prodded the gun into Michelle’s back. “On your knees, bitch. And put your hands behind your head.” Slowly she lowered herself, keeping her eyes on Elias. As she put her hands up, she blinked slowly once, trying to let him know that she

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was okay, that this was going to end up all right, that she had a cool head. She hoped he did, too. Marina whimpered behind her, and Michelle turned to look around. “Don’t fucking look at me.” Michelle quickly turned back around but not before seeing that the man had the barrel of his gun at the back of Marina’s head. “Hurry up, old man,” the calmer one said, prodding Jim Bob with his gun. “Don’t do that,” Michelle said fiercely but then realized what she had done and lowered her eyes. The man at the register laughed. “What? This?” he said, shoving Jim Bob again. “You don’t like that?” Michelle held her tongue but couldn’t stop from glaring at the man. “What about this?” he asked, hitting Jim Bob on the back of the neck with his gun. “Stop it!” she cried out, biting back angry tears. At the blow, Jim Bob crumpled to the floor. “Well, damn. He wasn’t supposed to do that,” the man behind the counter said, looking down at his feet. Then he let out a weird little laugh. He looked up, his eyes meeting Michelle’s. “Come here,” he said. “You’ll have to be the martyr today.” She heard a growling noise coming from the floor and saw that Franklin was shaking. “Franklin,” she whispered. “Breathe, just breathe. Everything’s going to be okay.” “Hey. Cunt. Shut the fuck up,” the man behind her said, kicking her hard in the back. She flew forward, hitting her head on the wood floor. She knew it was over after that. The three men in front of her exploded up at the same time. Thomas and Franklin went for the man behind the counter, and Elias leapt for the man who had his gun

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pointed at Marina’s head. Michelle could see his black fur exploding as his bellow morphed into an air-shattering roar. “No!” Michelle cried. Then the shotgun went off. **** Elias did not stop. He felt fire-pain bursting in his bear-shoulder, but he did not stop. The sister of his cream-skinned-Michelle yelled in fear. She dove out of the way as he lunged for the bad-one. He wanted to sink his powerful bear-jaws around the soft, yielding flesh of the bad-one’s throat, but he was supposed to use his strength to protect only, not to murder. His roar became an angry growl. He barreled into the foul-mouthed bad-one. The puny animal fell to the ground. His exploding-boom-stick clattered to the floor. It slid out of reach. Elias put his great bear-paw on the bad-one’s chest. He leaned down so his hot breath fell across the disgusting face that trembled and leaked thick, sniveling liquid at the awesome display of strength towering above him. Elias bared his teeth. He let out another dominating roar. The bad-one screamed in terror. Elias snapped his mouth closed inches from his face. It was good to make the bad-one scared. He was more disgusting than the lowest fungus in the forest. He deserved the darkest, lowest, most despicable place to exist. “Elias!” his cream-skinned-Michelle called to him. There was a bright, sharp ringing in his ears, but her voice came through it. “Elias,” she said, “we’re okay. Everyone’s okay.” He felt her tiny woman’s hand on his back. It moved through his fur, soothing and gentle. Keeping his great paw on the bad-one, he turned to look at her sweet face. “You’re hurt,” she said, her eyes soft. “Come back. Thomas has the other one.”

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The ringing grew dimmer. He heard Franklin on the phone. “Joseph? There’s been a hold-up at Savage Convenience. You need to head over quick. And bring Bo if you can find him.” Elias heard the petulant sister crying next to him. He turned to look at her and realized she watched him with eyes wide like large, flat river stones. “Jim Bob needs you, Elias,” his cream-skinned-Michelle said. “And we need to take care of this.” She leaned in to eye his bleeding bear-shoulder. “I’ll take Marina to the back office until you find some clothes,” she whispered into his ear so that only he could hear. After they disappeared through the door, Elias took his great bearpaw off the chest of the bad-one. He shifted back into his human form. The man’s eyes were bugging, and he took a quick glance in the direction of the shotgun. “Don’t even think about it. Franklin, come take care of this while I find some pants.” “You…you…” the man sputtered as Franklin hoisted him up and forcefully moved him toward the counter. “You were a bear!” “No shit.” Franklin shot him a questioning glance. “Let’s wait for Bo,” Elias said, not ready to think about how quickly this afternoon had deteriorated before his eyes. After donning a pair of jeans and a simple white T-shirt, he went over to Jim Bob, who was barely conscious. The elderly man sat on the stool behind the counter, his head lolling. Elias tended to him while Franklin and Thomas secured the two criminals and waited for the Kinmans to arrive. When the sheriff and deputy got to the store along with Bo and Agnes, whom Elias guessed Michelle had called, he had a chance to look at his own wound. It wasn’t too bad. It had been loaded with shot, and the blast hadn’t hit his arm full-on, so while it would be tedious work to have one of the nurses dig out all the tiny metal pellets, it wasn’t serious. The bits of metal had only torn through

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some of his outer muscle. He didn’t know how shifting with the metal in his arm was going to affect the removal process, but for now, he didn’t worry about it. Instead, he went to Michelle, who was sitting with her sister while Joseph asked them questions about events. On his way over, he noticed Agnes petting and kissing Jim Bob’s face, cooing and holding his hand. “Quit fussing,” Jim Bob said. “I told you I’m fine.” “But did Dr. Ashley check to make sure none of your bones were fractured when you fell? You’re not the young whippersnapper you once were. Your bones are brittle. Something could have happened. As much as you would like to be a the big, studly hero, you’re not, and we need to be sure nothing—” Her clucking was cut short when Jim Bob leaned over and smacked her right on the lips with a heated kiss. Elias smiled to himself, happy for the two lovebirds. As soon as Michelle saw him coming toward her, though, she leapt up and crashed into his arms. He grunted at the impact, but was happy at the feel of her safe in his arms. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, pulling away because of his arm. She looked up into his eyes and then burrowed her face into his chest. “I’m just so happy you’re okay,” she whispered. “We’re all okay,” he said, using his good arm to hold on to her and stroke her hair. Then he kissed the top of her head. “How’s Marina?” Michelle sniffed. “I told her we would talk about it tonight, but I think”—she turned to look at her sister for a moment—“I think she’ll be fine, actually.” She turned her face back to Elias. “You were so brave,” she said, her eyes shining. “I love you so much.” He smiled down at her and then noticed his brothers approaching behind. “Bo said he has an old recipe that might help to confuse those two assholes,” Franklin said when he reached them. “He says they won’t

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forget what they saw, but after they sleep, it will become like a dream, and they won’t remember what exactly happened. You know, after a while, the details will be so fuzzy that it will all feel like a mirage.” Elias nodded. “Good. We owe him.” Thomas wrapped his hand around the back of Michelle’s head. “Are you okay?” he asked, his eyes intense. Nodding, she put her hand over his and turned her lips to his palm. “I don’t know what I would have done if any of you…if those bastards…” “Shh,” Elias said, putting his hand on her waist. “We’re here. We’re alive, and we love you.” Franklin brushed a tear off her cheek. “Don’t cry. You’re our cream-skinned-Michelle, and we could never let anything happen to you.” She looked up at Franklin and then at Thomas and then at Elias. “I’m yours?” she asked. “Always?” “Always. You’re ours, and we’re yours.”

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Epilogue “Great,” Marina said, tapping her nails on the linoleum tabletop at Savage Hunger. “She asks to meet me, and then she’s late?” She blew out an annoyed breath and then glowered at the other diner patrons, daring them to let their gaze linger too long in her direction. Her waitress, a tall, softish woman with dark wavy hair, flitted through the diner, keeping people’s coffee cups full, joking and teasing with the locals, and taking orders back and forth from the kitchen. She’d said her name was Marta, and Marina waved her over, deciding to go ahead and order without Michelle. Served her right for being late. “You doing all right over here?” Marta asked. “You ready to order?” “Yeah, I’ll take a grapefruit and a hard-boiled egg. I also want a cup of water with five cubes of ice.” She glared up at the waitress. “Make sure it’s five. I will notice the difference.” The woman leaned a hip against the table. “Yeah, I got it, honey,” she drawled out. “Now are you sure that’s what you really want? Because I gotta tell you, I know the chef personally, and he takes real pride in his banana nut pancakes. They come with vanilla bean agave nectar, and they are damn musty.” Marina jerked her eyes up to Marta, wondering if she had missed something. “Musty?” “Yep. You ‘must eat’ them.” Marta shot her a big smile. “My grandpa’s joke. Probably shouldn't use it on unsuspecting customers, huh?” She winked at Marina. “So can I put you down for some pancakes?”

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“Fine. Whatever, but I still want the water. Five—” “Five ice cubes. Got it.” Marta winked and then bustled away, heading toward a table of new arrivals. Marina saw her lean over and say something as she passed a redheaded woman. The woman threw her head back and laughed aloud. “Why is this town so weird?” Marina whispered to herself. At that moment she heard a bustle at the front door and peeped over the rest of the booths to espy Michelle bursting through the diner’s entrance. She shouted greetings to the hostess, to Marta, and to a tall blond man in the kitchen. How the hell did she know all those people? Then Michelle spotted her, floated over, and fell into the booth with a huff. “Where have you been?” Marina hissed. “I’ve been waiting for almost half an hour.” “I got caught up.” A bright blush spread across her sister’s features, and Marina rolled her eyes. “Ew, okay. Look at a frigging menu or something.” She shoved one at her sister. “So what did you want to talk to me about?” “I’ll take the usual,” Michelle called out to Marta as she whizzed by. “You got it, honey,” Marta called back without slowing down. “So?” Marina prodded. “First, I want to apologize.” That perked Marina’s ears right up. “Oh? What for?” “Well, I was a little harsh at the grocery store, and while I meant everything I said, I should have been nicer. I should have been more considerate. You may exasperate the shit out of me, and you do, but you’re always going to be my knuckleheaded little sister.” “You’re right.” Marina crossed her arms over her chest. “You could have been nicer. And I still don’t believe that you aren’t gonna come on tour with me after the New Year.” Michelle opened her

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mouth to protest, but Marina held up her hand. “Before you spew, I have to say something, too.” She waited for Michelle to close her mouth. “I’m not gonna pretend like I’m not still pissed off about what you said, but I didn’t like being in that convenient store with those berserko gunmen. It kind of gives you a different perspective on things.” She shuddered, remembering the hours she’d spent at the sheriff’s department, giving her statement and identifying the robbers. The old Indian guy had given those assholes some kind of herbal drink, and now they couldn’t remember what happened. Marina didn’t like to think too much about what other sorts of potions the Indian dude could whip up. She would never admit this to Michelle, but in a weird way, she thought maybe having a gun pointed at her face wasn’t one hundred percent bad. It wasn’t like an “oh my god, I almost died and now I have to be a good person” kind of thing. But sitting with Michelle now, things felt a bit more even. She took Michelle’s hands in hers. “Look, Michelle. I can’t make you any crazy, grandiose promises. Anyway, you know that’s not my style. All I can do is say that I’m gonna try. I mean it. I’m really gonna try this time.” Michelle grinned. “That’s absolutely wonderful.” Marina smiled back. “It feels kinda good to say.” She took a deep breath. “Now, about going on tour. I think we need to—” The words suddenly froze in Marina’s throat. She still had Michelle’s hands in hers and something had scratched the palm of her hand. It was on Michelle’s left hand. She grabbed Michelle’s wrist and held it up. Then she gasped. “What the hell is this?” She shook her sister’s wrist, causing the little diamond on her ring finger to sparkle and glimmer in the sunlight. “Surprise,” Michelle said, her smile going all meek.

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“You’re engaged?” Marina choked on the horrendous words and threw her sister’s wrist back at her. “That’s the second reason I wanted to meet with you. I wanted to invite you to the engagement party. It’s next weekend.” “Next weekend? When are you getting married?” “We haven’t set a date yet.” “Shit, Michelle, to which one?” Michelle shot her a quizzical look. “Which brother are you engaged to?” “Oh! Oh…um…to all three.” Now Marina’s mouth fell open. “You are not serious.” Michelle nodded. “Oh lordy. I was hoping to avoid this topic, but you’re leaving me no choice here.” Marina rolled up her sleeves and leaned forward, lowering her voice. “You cannot get engaged to those…to those…” “Bear-shifters?” Marina glared at her sister. “Whatever they are. They are freaks! They’re not even human, Michelle. What on earth has possessed you? They’ve already started to brainwash you if they’ve convinced you that they are all three gonna marry you. This is…” She realized she had absolutely no words to describe the situation, so she threw her hands up and leaned back in the booth. “Everything okay, ladies?” Marta asked, placing their food in front of them. “Fantastic,” Marina spat. “We’re fine, thanks,” Michelle said in a gentler tone. After Marta had left, she said, “I’m a big girl, Marina. This is my decision. I’m not changing my mind. Ever.” Marina glared at her sister for a long, weighty moment, but Michelle didn’t look away. “Damn,” Marina said. Michelle nodded, and Marina took a few bites of her pancakes, thinking. She couldn’t take it in. Her sister getting married? To three dudes? To three bear-shifter thingy dudes?

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This couldn’t be real. Could it? No way. Just absolutely no way. But hell, she’d seen Elias Ashley turn into a bear right in front of her eyes. He’d roared and growled and shit. She’d been scared out of her mind. But at the same time, it was magical in a way. She could see why Michelle might be drawn to that. But no. That was too freaky to contemplate. Fuck it. She wasn’t going to ruin her breakfast thinking about crap like this. “Do you want to talk about it?” Michelle asked. “Nope.” She popped in a bite of pancake. “I do have one question, though. Just so I can know for my own safety and whatnot.” “Yes?” “Are there more of these bear-shifter thingies here? In Savage Valley?” Michelle nodded. “What the hell?” Her fork clattered to her plate. Michelle shrugged. “It’s because of an old Shoshone curse, and it was placed on more than one family.” “No. I don’t want to hear it. No more.” “Okay, but it’s actually really neat. There’s all this family history, and—” “Michelle, look. I’ll be nice to your fiancés—god, that sounds weird. But for the record, I would never, ever, not in a million years, not if you broke off all my fingers and toes and fed them to piggies right before my eyes, get engaged to one of those bear-shifter thingies.” Michelle laughed. “Just ‘bear-shifters’ is fine.” Marina narrowed her eyes at her sister. “Listen to me. I will never be with a bear-shifter. And I especially will never be with three of them.” She took a huge bite of pancake. “And that’s that!”

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THE END HTTP://WWW.BOOKSTRAND.COM/EDITH-DUBOIS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Although she grew up in small-town Texas, Edith has lived and traveled in both France and the UK. She currently resides in Austin, Texas but wouldn’t mind a gallivant or two across the Australian Outback, the Highlands of Scotland, or any other foreign land that happens to interest her. She’s been writing since she was eight or nine, but she never thought about writing as a career until she handed in her first short story to her high school English teacher. She had so much fun writing it and spending time with her characters and actually finishing it that she started another, and she hasn’t stopped since. Edith enjoys writing in all sorts of genres and forms, including song writing and script writing, but no matter what, love is always at the center of her stories. Edith’s idea of passing a perfect hour would be to cuddle up next to the window with one of her favorite books, a big ol’ mug of hot chocolate with whipped cream and cinnamon in her hand, and Patsy Cline softly crooning from her record player in the background. You can e-mail Edith at [email protected] or find her on Twitter with EdithDWrites.

Also by Edith DuBois Ménage Everlasting: The Male Order, Texas Collection: A Bride for Two Babes Ménage Everlasting: The Male Order, Texas Collection: A Bride for Two Renegades Ménage Everlasting: Rugged Savage Valley, Colorado 1: Rugged Glimpse

Available at BOOKSTRAND.COM

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