“Don’t take another step,” Sonny snarled. “You wanna go first, Nerida? We’re all willing to hold back and watch.” His eyes raked down the two of us as he obviously imagined what that would look like. I was pummelled with similar ideas, turning towards Nerida as she argued with the guys. Would her skin be as soft as it looked? What would it be like to wrap my hand in her hair and push her down between my...
“She’s not in her right mind, you’ve gotta see that.”
“Scent don’t lie. You can’t protect her from what she wants. She has to say no,” one of the men snapped.
“No,” Nerida said, her voice started to waver, an errant note of pain there. “She has to say yes.”
“Fuck this, I’m going first,” a guy said, striding towards me, hands at the waistband of his pants.
Oh yes. I looked at that big muscular body, taking in every damn inch. The flames inside me flared harder, almost dropping me to my knees in front of him.
“Not this again,” Nerida said through gritted teeth. She snatched up the two-way radio on her belt with her free hand and said, “Finn? You there? We have a major issue with Jules, and we need you near the Stores building, stat! Finn?” She shook her head, then glanced at the guys who were slowly edging forward. There seemed to be some jockeying, each one eyeing the bloke next to them. Muscles popped, eyes narrowed. I bit back a moan at all this lovely testosterone on display.
“Oh no, you don’t.” Nerida grabbed me by the waistband of my pants and hauled me back. “Trust me, you think a willing mind and a gallon bottle of lube is enough, but seriously, it isn’t. I was douching with arnica and only able to sit down on an inflatable donut for weeks. We’re gonna have to make a run for it.”
“Run?” Men’s heads whipped up, and their attention was ripped away from each other.
“Oh fuck,” she yelped, and then she did just that, jerking me behind her.
I could hear the rough rasp of her breath as we went careening across the carpark, but when I looked over my shoulder, I saw the group of guys were following hot on our heels. Some fanned out, aiming to cut us off, others shimmied up and onto the roofs of cars or nearby buildings, looking for an opportunity to leap.
“Finn! We fucking need you now! Anyone who can get their arse down here better do so right this minute if they don’t want to see a girl raped by the Stores team.”
But it wasn’t just the Stores team. Guys came strolling out of the mess hall or out of the garage to see what the fuss was about until they scented the air. Then just as it had been at Stores, they transformed.
Perhaps another tack, a masculine voice said inside my head.
The muzzy fog of lust dissipated abruptly, my eyes suddenly able to take in all the details with clinical efficiency. The world fairly sparkled with crystalline clarity. The height and musculature of the men was all assessed and weighed. I noted which tongues licked lips, which hands went to groins as something cold and hard surfaced from the depths inside me. Utterly alien, it laughed at the look of hunger on their faces, the savage manner with which they pushed others aside to get to me. They were paying court to me with each blow they struck against their fellows, telling me in the most brutal way possible how much they wanted me.
And I wanted them. I was dimly aware there was a part of me buried deep that was shrieking in fear at this, that wondered what the hell was happening as my mental state rocketed from one personality to the next. She, that simple human part, did not want this, didn’t want so many hands clawing at my body, dicks struggling to shove themselves inside me, each man fighting to be the one to claim me. I shook Nerida’s hand off my arm, which sent the weaker girl flying.
“No, Jules, this isn’t right. Something’s not right,” she babbled. I looked down on her from a great height. She was a puny hybrid, unable to shift, the Tirian spirit in her small and crippled by her contaminated bloodline. She sought to get in the way of me and my fated mates, tried to take from me the power she could only hope to have. I took a step towards the men.
“What the fuck is going on?”
My head whipped around to see the office building door had slammed open, and the delicious scent of a strong male wafted over. Finn stood within the doorway, glaring out at the host of contenders, fairly bristling. I noted his stiff-legged stance and the claws forming on his hands with glee. I glanced back at the men and saw the same. There was going to be a dominance fight.
“What the hell are you all doing?”
His voice held the whip of an alpha, rocketing around the whole complex and bouncing off the hard unnatural surfaces. Mmm, I liked that.
Sonny stepped forward. My eyes dropped down, tracing a single drop of perspiration as it slid down his rigid chest, following the beautiful lines of his body. He is also a contender; I thought. Strong, dominant, I could almost imagine myself under him as he ploughed deep within me.
“She wants it. She reeks of it. I get you’ve got a claim but—”
Finn held up a hand and silenced the other man. Those grey eyes of his bled green when he looked at me. “Is this true? Are they what you want?”
Not quite, I knew that, sure as a stone. I glanced from the host of men to him and smiled. I wanted blood and tearing and biting and fighting, and then I wanted to fuck the winner on top of the limp bodies of those who’d proved not worthy. But one did not tell the males that. They liked to think they were important.
“Jules?”
His hand landed on my arm, and something incredible happened. I felt like I was reset, the human consciousness that had been rudely shouldered aside came back online and looked around in horror.
“Finn...” I whimpered, looking at the rows of hungry men. What the fuck had I done? The guys, all half gone with lust in the bedroom at home, the blokes here, the married dude. What the fuck was going on? I heard the chuckle of the black wolf in the back of my mind. You’re the honeypot, sweetheart. Now be a good girl and lure in those bees.
The coldness rushed back in, not to be denied by a mere male’s touch. I looked down at Finn’s arm, ignoring the utter gall of a male taking me in hand, and said, “You want me, you’ve got to fight for me.”
His eyes glowed bright green, and I met his lambent gaze with equanimity. I knew I spoke to his Tirian, beast to beast. I watched the moment the man was pushed to one side and the animal came to the fore with glee. My eyes took in every damn detail of his body as he stripped down. This was a muscular, competent body, one that could give me strong children. I glanced over to the group where Sonny was doing the same. I took in his broader chest, heavier arms, the proud arc of his hard cock. Yes, but so could Sonny.