Chapter Six
Sleep would not come for Aimee that night, even though exhaustion from the weekend’s events seeped into her very marrow. Unrelenting rays of the full moon shone through her bedroom curtains, transforming their muted green color into a pale jade. She flipped over, turning away from the light, but still felt the moon’s energy on her back as keenly as though she were lying under the tanning rays of summer.
How did the cowboys experience the power of that moon? Did the odd vibration she felt tingle beneath their skin, stimulating the change? Did it burn inside of them like mystical fire? Had Kyle given into that power in order use his wolf senses to track down Dillon?
A stab of guilt accompanied the thought of Dillon, and an image of his maddeningly sexy smile and reach-into-her-soul eyes flashed in front of her. That seductive grin had been replaced by a look of hard finality when she’d rejected him in the bar parking lot. He said he wasn’t good enough for her, that he had nothing to offer but himself. Is that why he never returned to the cave? Had he not wanted to be someplace where she might find him again? With Aimee refusing him and Kyle forced to spend the bulk of his existence with another pack, maybe Dillon decided it wasn’t worth bothering to chain up his nature. Maybe he’d decided to embrace it again instead.
Her eyes found the bedside clock, which read almost 1:00 a.m. Aimee pushed herself upright and rubbed her bleary eyes while she slid out of bed, pushing into a pair of blue slippers on the way. The silken fabric of her sleep chemise brushed against her thighs while she wandered over to the window. She parted the curtains with her upper body and peered at the huge ball of glowing white moon that was framed perfectly in the sky. The moon held such beauty and brilliance, overwhelming the planet with its power. What other secrets did the moon hold in its grip?
Movement caught her eye near the ground. Her window looked out over the street, and standing on the far side was a sight that caught her breath.
“Dillon,” she whispered.
The wolf stood between a pair of compact bushes, watching her. Even in the dark and mostly hidden by the hedge, she could tell that it wasn’t Kyle’s pure-black wolf. There was something in that wild, pensive stare that told her otherwise. How had he found her? Surely even a clever wolf didn’t have the manual dexterity necessary to look her up in a phone book.
His majestic head turned this way and that, as if scanning the road for anyone who would be even more alarmed than Aimee at the appearance of a wolf in the small city. Then he started forward, moving with slow caution and his tongue hanging out. She froze, wondering what he expected from her. He had no control over his wolf nature under this moon, and she couldn’t converse with him like this. Nor did she have any intention of letting him inside her apartment, and not only because of the no pets rule. He might appear to be calm and resolute right now, but who knew how wild his nature might become?
The wolf paused, seeming to pick up on her hesitation. He sat down on his haunches right in the middle of the deserted street, curling his tail around him while he looked straight at her. She swallowed and gazed back, unsure what to do. Dillon raised his head, exposing the creamy fur along his throat, and let out a piercing howl that prickled the hair on Aimee’s bare arms.
“Like that will keep you low profile in the city,” she muttered under her breath, but the howl was forgotten moments later when she saw a startling sight.
A truck was coming.
“Dillon, look out!” Aimee called through the window, pointing.
His head turned slowly toward the oncoming vehicle, then back around to her again.
“Jesus, what is he doing?” Her fingernails dug into the flesh of her upper arms as he just sat there.
The truck bore down on him, but Dillon just sat there. She banged on the window and shouted to him. “Hurry up, Dillon. Move!”
A flash of motion followed as another furry canine body leapt out of nowhere and tackled Dillon. The push shoved Dillon out of the way in time to avoid the truck, but the same could not be said for his animal rescuer. The other wolf got clipped by the front fender just as the truck whizzed by. The driver kept right on going, either unaware or uncaring. The body hit the ground rolling as a black wolf, then stopped at the far curb as a naked blond man.
“Kyle!” Aimee shouted.
She was running out the front door even before she’d fully realized she’d turned away from the horrifying scene at the window. Her heart beat frantically while her slippers scuffed along the ground at a full run. Once she raced around to the front walk, she saw that Dillon had phased back and knelt over an unconscious Kyle, who was sprawled on his back in the gutter.
“Oh, my God,” she said when she saw the bloody scrapes all over his body. A cut over his eyebrow flowed more blood into his fine, blond hair.
Dillon’s head snapped up to her. “Let’s get him inside before anyone sees.”
“Shouldn’t he go to a hospital?”
“Weres don’t go to hospitals.”
With that he rose and scooped the man into his arms. She blinked at Dillon’s raw power but simply nodded and followed him as he strode off the way she’d come.
“What were you thinkin’, Kyle?” he said as they rounded the bend to her apartment.
“What was he thinking?” she spat back. “What were you thinking? Were you trying to get yourself killed?”
He flicked a glance at her. “I’m an immortal, darlin’. We’re a tough bunch to kill.”
Her eyes fell pointedly to the man in his arms. “But not tough to injure, apparently.” She opened the door and let him pass. “You can take him straight back to the bedroom and lay him on my bed. I have a first aid kit in the bathroom. It’s not going to be enough, though. That cut on his head needs stitches. And what if there are internal injuries?”
“Cowboys are tough, and werewolves are tougher. He’ll heal fast.” His breath came in forceful puffs while he made his way up the hall to her room. “There are only three things he’ll need to fix him up right.”
Once inside the bedroom, Dillon laid Kyle on the bed and sat down beside him. While her eyes made another tour of Kyle’s injuries, she couldn’t avoid noticing the cocks hanging between their thighs. The last thing she should be thinking about was having two naked men on her bed, let alone a far different scenario that involved stripping off her nightgown and climbing in between them. What a time for her libido to chip in two inappropriate cents.
Dillon slapped at his alpha’s cheek. “Come on, partner. Wake up. I don’t want to have to hold your entire weight up in the shower.”
“Shower?” She came up behind him, wringing her clammy hands together. “Isn’t hygiene the last thing he should be worried about?”
Dillon shot a look over his shoulder. “Darlin’, if you’re gonna be around wolves, then you’ll find that we have three pressin’ needs that help us when we’re sick, hurt, or under the sway of the full moon.”
“And those are?”
“A hot shower, a raw feed, and good, rough sex. Not always in that order, and sometimes combined.”
The third option rung loudly through her head, and she shook it off. “He’s hardly in any kind of shape for even one of those things to help.”
“You’d be surprised.”
A groan left Kyle’s throat, and Dillon turned to sit on the bed beside him. “That’s it, Kyle. Come on back.”
The man’s eyes fluttered open, though they appeared a bit unfocused. “You’re human,” he muttered weakly.
Dillon snorted. “Human? You must have hit your head harder than I thought.”
“Kyle?” Aimee rushed to the opposite side of the bed and leaned over him. “How do you feel?”
His head rolled slowly toward her. “Like I tried to shove some idiot out of the way of a truck.”
“Why the hell did you do it?” Dillon asked. “I wasn’t in danger.”
“Looked like you were up to your old tricks,” Kyle said.
Aimee frowned. “What old tricks?”
Dillon ignored the question. “Gettin’ hit by a truck wouldn’t exactly have served that purpose. It wasn’t even painted silver.”
“I know. I just reacted.” Kyle lifted his hand to the cut on his head, eyeing the blood that came away on his palm. He pressed this other hand flat against the side of his chest. “I think I cracked a damn rib.”
Dillon moved Kyle’s hand and replaced it with his own. “A couple, probably. You’re flarin’ a good amount of heat over this spot.” He sighed and lowered his hand. “That was quite a blow you took. Think we’ll be expectin’ a visit any time soon?”
Aimee frowned in confusion, but Kyle shook his head. “I shut it off as soon as it happened. Still blocking the pain as best as I can. The pack won’t realize I’m hurt.” Kyle eyed Dillon warily. “But next time, could you not sit in the middle of the damn street?”
“Why were you sitting in the middle of the street?” Aimee asked.
He shrugged. “Just a bit of wolf fun. I’d have moved before the truck got to me.”
Aimee gaped at him. “That’s your idea of fun? You’re a damn fool.”
His eyes flashed when he returned her glare. “Believe me, darlin’, my idea of full moon fun was a lot less tame when I was first made.”
“You’re still a damn fool,” Kyle said. “Why weren’t you up at the cave tonight?”
Dillon glanced at Aimee, then looked away. “What’s it matter anymore? I’m never gonna get better. I’m never gonna be enough.”
Aimee’s stomach fell at the way he said the last.
Kyle tried to scoot himself up in bed but stopped with a wince. “You obviously are gettin’ better if we’re havin’ this heartfelt little chat in the middle of your pity party. Or didn’t you notice that you shifted back human under a high full moon?”
Aimee’s eyes widened. The significance of his shift hadn’t even occurred to her.
Dillon blinked and glanced down at himself. “I didn’t have to think about it. It was just the only way I could help you.”
“He did it earlier today, too,” Aimee said. “When he was starting to change at the bar.”
“It wasn’t quite nightfall then,” he said, but she could hear the surprise in his voice.
“So stop feelin’ sorry for yourself,” Kyle said, “and get over this death wish.”
“Death wish?” Aimee asked.
Kyle glanced at her. “I told you when I first saw Dillon that I intended to kill him,” he said.
She nodded.
“This conversation is pointless,” Dillon said. “She don’t even want us. No need to bare our souls if we don’t got the coin to pay her to listen.”
Her chest flared with hot anger. “I happen to care about both of you, however badly you want to think of me, or how idiotic you can be sometimes.” She nodded to Kyle. “Go on.”
“I spotted Dillon trackin’ the huntress you came across in the woods. I assumed he was huntin’ her down to kill her, and I planned to take him out before he had a chance.”
She grunted. “So guns can kill you.”
Kyle shook his head. “Not just any gun. Silver is our weakness. A silver bullet, knife, or other weapon can kill our kind. It’s the only thing that can take down a werewolf, save for beheading.”
She shivered at the thought and cleared her throat. “So what happened?”
Kyle grunted. “I was crouched in a bush, gettin’ ready to spring. Then I realized Dillon wasn’t settin’ her up for a kill. He was trackin’ her to put himself right in her path. He jumped out in front of her and was gonna let her shoot him.”
Aimee’s heart stuttered. “Why?”
“I’ll admit I was in a bad place,” Dillon said, shifting his body on the bed to face her. “I’d lost my pack, and yet we were still bound to one another. We could feel each other’s despair, and it fed our own.” He glanced at her. “Plus Kade had claimed a mate that instinctively drew us all to her, but none of us could have her.”
She swallowed. “The woman you told me about in the parking lot.”
He nodded. “Lily was never mine. But in a were pack, when a mate is claimed by another, there is an automatic attraction for the others. Blaise’s obsession with her because of that was in part what got him killed.”
Her heart pounded in jealousy. The thought of him feeling the call of a different mate struck a distinctly unpleasant chord. How selfish was that, begrudging him when she herself was in possession of another man’s ring?
“I hated this curse and roamin’ the mountains alone,” he went on, “with no control over who I was and no place to go. I couldn’t go back to cowhand work because ranch animals don’t take to havin’ a predator around. I couldn’t hold down another kind of job for fear my nature might come out at the wrong moment. And I was sick of the memories of what Blaise had done, what the rest of us did under his orders. Other packs hated us for it, and the huntress haunts us for it. I thought maybe she was right, that the evil in our pack hadn’t died out with Blaise. It infected every one of us down to our gut, and the only way to purge it would be to destroy us all.”
Her heart twisted in sympathy. “You’re not evil,” she said, her throat thick with emotion. “Or you wouldn’t have cared enough about who you were to let her end you.”
“That’s what I told him,” Kyle said. “Later.”
She looked at him. “If you were planning on killing him anyway, why didn’t you just let her finish him off?”
Kyle sighed. “Sheer impulse. I saw her raise the gun at him, and before I knew what I’d done, I jumped out from the bush and knocked the woman off her feet. I grabbed the pistol in my teeth and flung it over the edge of the cliff. Then she ran off.”
She smiled. “You wolves really have a thing about tossing women’s stuff off the mountain.”
“I was damn pissed, watching that gun plunge into the night,” Dillon said. “I saw that as my only way out. I faced off with Kyle and was prepared to give him his fight to the death, only with me on the victorious side.”
She eyed Kyle, who shrugged. “Dillon and I stood there, baring fangs and snarling at one another. When I looked him in the eye, though, I couldn’t deny why I had really saved him. I felt the bond forming, molecule by molecule. I shifted human right under the full moon, and Dillon froze in shock. Anyone who thinks wolves aren’t capable of facial expressions didn’t see the look on his muzzle that night.”
Dillon snorted. “Caught me off guard. I wasn’t too familiar with weres who shifted at will on a high full moon night. I’d only encountered one pack before that could do it, and that was Kade and his partner, back before Kade became our alpha. I knew right then and there that it was a power I wanted. I knew that Kyle was the alpha I wanted.”
Kyle pushed himself upright, his jaw clenched right. The growl that came out of him had a distinct feral tone to it, and Aimee saw that his eyes were beginning to glow.
“Let’s throw you in a hot shower,” Dillon said to Kyle. He turned to her. “His body’s tryin’ to shift back, but his bones and all reshapin’ for a phase won’t exactly be a big party in his condition.”
She nodded. “Okay, but how will a shower help?”
“The hot water relaxes the joints and muscles, and also helps accelerate healin’ by bringin’ on more blood flow. Got any fresh, raw meat?”
Her brow shot up. “For the shower?”
“For him to eat. I’d rather not have to leave him and go out huntin’ just now.”
“Oh. I brought home some hamburger meat from the store earlier tonight.”
Dillon shook his head. “No good. Ground meat is handled and processed too much.”
She thought for a moment. “I picked up a New York steak, too.”
He smiled. “Now you’re talkin’.”
“Shall I cook it while you get him showered?”
“No. Just bring it to the shower raw.”
She tried not to make a face at the idea while Dillon gingerly helped Kyle to his feet. Well, at least the woman who wound up with these men would have no worries about cooking for them.
When she realized she was staring at the tight, perfectly round asses before her, she jumped up. “Bathroom’s through there.” She nodded to a door next to her closet. “I’ll just go get the meat.” And try to forget the exquisitely packaged meat she’d just been ogling.
Although she had seen both men naked on numerous occasions during their brief acquaintance, she paused when she came back with the Styrofoam tray of marbled steak. Somehow it seemed more intrusive to bust in on them in the shower, even though she’d watched the two of them do far more personal things to one another.
Steam rose from the tub shower, flushing her cheeks with damp heat when she entered the white tile bathroom. Kyle’s moan echoed through the small space, and she couldn’t quite decide whether he was in pain or feeling something else.
Her feet scuffed along the tile floor as she approached the men whose forms were distorted but visible through the sliding glass doors. With a brief hesitation, she yanked open the door farthest from the shower head and stuck the tray of meat inside. “Dinner’s served,” she said.
“Perfect, darlin’,” Dillon said. “Can you toss that tray and come hold the steak for him? My hands are a mite busy at the moment.”
That piqued her interest, and she couldn’t help but poke her head inside to see what was going on. Nothing as untoward as what she’d pictured, though. Dillon held Kyle against his chest, almost the way Aimee had leaned back on him in the bar bathroom earlier that day. He was helping rinse blood from the man’s hair.
“He’s still a little woozy,” Dillon said. “Bring that meat on in here and we’ll get him fixed up.”
“In there? With you?”
He gave her an amused glance. “Unless you’re plannin’ to stick the meat on the end of a long pole and hold it over his face.”
She sighed and kicked off her slippers. Her short gown would get wet, but there was no way she would be stripping down to get in that shower naked with them.
When she climbed in and slid the door closed, she sucked in a deep breath and held it. Kyle’s eyes lit up—literally—as soon as he saw the cold steak she raised in front of him. What she hadn’t been expecting was for his jaw to lengthen and sharp teeth to promptly emerge.
“Oh, God, you’re changing,” she said. She jerked away, but he took hold of her hand and kept it in place, then tore off a chunk of meat with his fangs. She continued to hold her breath while she watched him chew, surprised to note that his face returned to normal proportions and the glow in his eyes subsided once he’d bitten off the steak. So he wasn’t losing control, after all. He just needed his sharper teeth to rip off hunks of the thick, raw meat.
“Thanks,” he said to her after swallowing the mouthful.
She finally whooshed out her held breath. “You’re welcome. Is it helping?”
A faint but dangerous smile breached his stone-cold expression. “It’s all helpin’.”
He leaned in slower this time, and she watched in utter fascination as his eyes and face underwent enough of a change for his fangs to reappear. Her hand shook slightly as he ripped off another bite of steak. His tongue flicked out to lick his lips when he finished chewing. Raw, bloody juices mingled with droplets of water to slide down the front of his magnificent chest. Feeding him this way felt so primal, so decadent. Her heartbeat began a steady, heavy drumming.
Her eyes followed the trickles of reddish fluid dripping from his chin to land on the medallion he wore around his neck. She squinted at the image of a man’s profile embossed on the front and lifted the pendant with her free hand. “Who is this?”
“Saint Francis of Assisi,” Kyle said. “Patron saint of animals and lost causes. Of which I am both.”
“Got that right,” Dillon said from behind him.
“A Catholic symbol?” she asked. “I thought you were Buddhist from the way you were chanting in the cave last night.”
His stare bored deeper into her until her stomach began to quiver. “I draw from a wide range of sources to keep what’s inside of me under control.”
She smoothed a shaky finger over the metal disk. “Is this silver?”
“Pewter. Silver wouldn’t be the best jewelry choice for a werewolf.”
“I suppose not. Still, it’s beautiful.” She laid it back on his chest, her fingertips grazing his skin lightly. Tingles surged up her arm at the feel of his skin before she pulled away.
“You’re beautiful.” He raised her other arm again to get at the meat she gripped tightly in her hand. He closed his eyes and wrapped his mouth around the next bite as though taking in the cock of a lover, and she felt her eyes practically glaze over at the sexuality inherent in his actions.
The muscles in his arms flexed as he held her hand in front of him, enticing her. Just as he turned sideways to put his hand under the shower stream, Dillon bent down to grab a bar of soap. A spray of hot water struck Aimee full-on, drenching the front of her gown.
“Oh! Damn.” She blinked and rubbed water from her face. “Okay, look. Do you really need me in here to hold this steak for you? Because you seem strong enough to hold it by yourself.”
The knowing look he gave her sent tingles along her spine. “Dillon just wanted an excuse to get you in here with him,” Kyle said, and his eyes skimmed along the front of her. “Seems the boy knows what he’s doin’ after all, on rare occasion.”
A glance down at herself showed that the shower spray had turned her pale blue gown translucent and glued it to her body so that her dark nipples and the darker thatch of hair between her legs were outlined perfectly. His cock was thickening rapidly, rising toward her.
She pulled the vacuum-sealed fabric away from her skin and stepped back. “I better dry off and let you finish your shower.” Her voice shook as though she was chilled, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
When he grabbed her arm this time, it was with a tighter grip and a gleam in his eye that wasn’t related to an imminent shift. He pressed closer to her, pushing her back against the shower wall. “Stay. I still need some help healin’.”
“You mean you need help releasin’ some tension,” Dillon said, moving up behind him.
His hands moved around the other man’s back. Her nipples puckered with tingling need as she watched those soapy hands slide around the front of Kyle’s chest, leaving trails of white foam wherever he touched. Kyle’s head tipped back, his eyes shutting and jaw clenching while Dillon’s hands worked magic on his flesh. Dillon rubbed lower, smoothing suds over the rigid muscles of Kyle’s stomach. Aimee’s clit throbbed with an insistent demand to join in when his fingers slid down through Kyle’s black triangle of curls and over the cock that now stood straight out.
The growl Kyle let out pierced Aimee to the base of raw, animal want, and when he reached out to slide his hands along the wet silk clinging to her breasts, the steak slipped from her hand and fell to the shower floor. Pinching her nipples sent a shudder through her clit that peaked so sharply that she thought she would either die or scream, possibly both. She gripped his shoulders for support and leaned her head back on the shower wall, closing her eyes to allow passion to flood over her the way the water streams pounded the men in front of her. Shutting out her sight heightened other senses, electrifying his touch and turning the very sounds of their breaths and moans into instruments of erotic delight.
His hand roamed down to the front of her pussy, pushing the fabric between her thighs and dragging it along her aching clit. She cried out and arched her hips toward him, ready to claw the walls and his flesh in order to get more of him. His desire called to her, and a wild animal answered. Passion clawed its way to the surface until she believed that her eyes would glow with the same golden lust as Kyle’s if she could open them to meet his glittering stare.
Without warning, Kyle spun her around until she was sandwiched between the two cowboys. She still faced Kyle, but Dillon’s hands went to work on her right away, sliding over her shoulders from behind while his hard cock rubbed along her ass. Kyle took hold of the front of her scoop-neck chemise, and with a wild growl, tore the fabric to expose her breasts.
“This is my favorite gown,” she said in a hoarse tone, though it was a false protest. She’d read enough bodice-ripper novels in her day to feel the excitement in her rise for what it was—a daydream made manifest. Seems Dillon wasn’t the only one whose fantasies came to life when they were together.
“It was stickin’ to you too much to pull off easy,” he said. Then he ducked his head down and took a nipple in his mouth, and her protest halted.
Despite Dillon’s claims that the western hotties she had fantasized about were really him, never in her life had she imagined that she would be with two of the sexiest cowboys on the planet simultaneously. The feel of both their hands and dicks rubbing against her brought her to a new level of consciousness, a state of being where nothing mattered or even existed outside the world of their shared eroticism. She felt drunk on the sexual power these men held over her, just as surely as the full moon held power over them.
A hand urged her thighs apart, and two of Kyle’s fingers plunged inside her pussy to find and massage a spot inside the walls that drove her mad with need. Her moan was answered by partly human male growls, and her body lit up with gooseflesh. The three of them could have been standing naked out on that street curb right then, and she wouldn’t have cared. She would still be arched against him, pushing her hips shamelessly against his fingers to drive them in deeper.
“Bet you’d love to feel how wet she is,” Kyle said over her shoulder.
“Taste her,” Dillon growled back. “Like wild clover honey.”
Kyle’s fingers slipped from her slit, and he raised them to his lips. Her stomach jumped, and his eyes rolled back when his tongue ventured out to slide along his glistening fingers. She didn’t have a chance to respond because Dillon yanked her around to face him. His eyes churned in a compelling maelstrom of blue-gold. “You want me inside you.”
“I do,” she said, her heart pounding enough for her to hear over the running water. Then a panicked thought hit, and she gave herself a mental kick for almost getting too caught up to think of it. “But, well, shouldn’t we be, you know, safe?”
He smiled. “We are safe, honey. Weres don’t carry disease, except the curse.” He ran a hand along her belly. “And we’re only fertile one certain time of the year.”
She sighed in relief. “Good.”
“Hold her up,” he said to Kyle, who responded by taking hold of her by the waist and leaning back.
“No! He’s hurt,” she said with a gasp.
“It’s all right,” Kyle rasped into her ear from behind her. “Everythin’s more intense durin’ a full moon. Healin’ power. Feedin’. Sex.”
The last word he whispered, sending shivers along her spine. She watched Dillon advance, grasping the base of his prick and positioning it between her thighs. “Open for me, darlin’. Take me. Take all of me.”
His burning gaze and purposeful motions speared her with pure longing, but also with alarm. She’d heard that a woman’s first time hurt. Bad. And Dillon wasn’t looking like a particularly patient man at the moment.
“I’m a virgin,” she managed to stammer out just as she felt the thick head of his cock press against her tight pussy hole.
“Not anymore,” he said through gritted teeth. “You’re mine.”
“Wait!” she exclaimed, but it was too late. She barely had time to suck in a breath and tense up as his shaft thrust deep inside of her.
She cried out in fear, waiting for a sharp, splitting pain to wipe away all traces of the pleasure these men had been honing. Instead, an incredible sensation of being filled welled up inside her, and her pussy began to throb around his warm, hard dick.
“It didn’t hurt,” she said in shock, staring at him. “The first time’s supposed to hurt.”
His smug grin returned. “Not with me.” He nuzzled her hair and kissed the top of her head.
“If your virginity is stolen by other than your intended mate, it’ll hurt like the dickens,” Kyle said. “But you’re with the ones you were meant to bond with.”
Aimee found her attention to his words dissolving in the wake of the potent yearning raging inside her. She shifted her pelvis back and forth in an attempt to get Dillon’s cock moving, reveling in the sharp pangs of erotic bliss that even the tiniest motion provoked.
She laid her head back on Kyle’s shoulder and moaned softly. “It feels so good.”
His growl in response was palpable to her through his chest. “It’s gonna get even better.”
Dillon’s hips pulled back, stealing away his long rod and her breath as well before plunging forward again. Her breasts jiggled harder, and her body climbed to a higher awareness with each thrust. She gripped his biceps, her nails digging into the scaly dragon tattoo on his right arm. Kyle’s hands slid down over her hips to knead her ass cheeks while Dillon fucked her.
“Jesus, I could lose myself inside you forever,” Dillon ground out as he shoved his hips into her. “I ain’t never wanted anythin’ this bad, Aimee. And I have wanted many things.”
He leaned closer and kissed her gently, sending tickles of surprised delight through her belly. How could he thrust so forcefully and yet join their lips with the tenderness of a chaste first kiss?
When she closed her eyes, desire and imagination caught her up in a whirlwind. For the first time in her life, she pictured herself in a romantic future. She saw Dillon kissing her like this up in the mountains, overlooking the falls while Kyle stood behind her, stroking her hair and whispering a lover’s secrets. She saw the three of them laughing together over a shared meal—cooked, of course, not a full moon emergency feed—while the men’s eyes flickered with erotic pleasure in the light of a crackling campfire. She saw them making love together in the cave, by the roaring waterfall, and in her bed.
Dillon’s strokes in and out united with her stream of consciousness, eroticizing her thoughts into increasingly exotic scenarios between the three of them—that is, until Kyle’s probing finger brought reality rushing back.
“What are you doing?” she said in alarm as the tip of his digit slipped inside her asshole.
Kyle chuckled softly. “Don’t fret, honey. You’re about to find out what it really means to belong to two men.”
“Not quite men,” Dillon said in a low, hoarse voice.
“Just relax,” Kyle said.
Aimee did the exact opposite. She tensed as his finger sank deeper, even though it didn’t hurt any more than Dillon’s rigorous claiming of her virginity had. In fact, it felt rather pleasant. “I don’t belong to anyone,” she said.
“That a fact?” Dillon thrust himself deeper inside and leveled her with a challenging stare. “Because you sure as hell feel like the most perfect fit imaginable. So slick and wet and hot.”
The pressure from Kyle’s finger disappeared, and she relaxed again until she felt his cock against her puckered hole instead. The memory of Kyle taking Dillon forcefully from behind shot her eyes wide. “Jesus,” she whispered over her shoulder. “You’re not possibly thinking of that?”
“Give into me,” Kyle said, and his voice teased around her longing, tantalizing her. “Give yourself permission to let go.” Despite the urging, his tone was as restrained and tense as she felt.
Before she could reply, he bent her forward slightly and pushed himself right into her impossibly tight hole. All three of them stiffened with a gasp-hiss, Aimee again out of a preemptive cry of pain that never happened. Emotions and lust coiled themselves around one another in her spirit while she tried to process the sensation of being utterly, wildly stuffed full of cock.
After a moment where everyone stood frozen, Dillon began to gyrate his hips. Aimee’s insides promptly melted into churning, hot lava.
“Shit, that’s unbelievable,” Dillon said, mirroring her thoughts. “I can feel Kyle’s cock right through your walls.”
“Yeah,” Kyle said. “I feel you, too.”
Both men began to move, and Aimee gripped Dillon’s shoulders while indulging the feel of being the soft filling in a double meat sandwich. Climactic pressure began an arduous, heady climb, each grind of Dillon’s pelvis against her clit sending her another rung higher.
“Damn, your ass feels so fuckin’ good,” Kyle said. “Do you like havin’ my cock in there, darlin’?”
He shoved harder, and every nerve ending in her pelvis screamed with pleasure. “Yes.”
Which wet, pulsing cock felt better was a debate she would have loved to consider for hours, although the way they were moving made it feel like she was being plundered by one gigantic, throbbing organ. When the rhythmic thrusting and grunting sounds threatened to drive her to sexual blackout, Dillon took hold of her face and brought her attention back to him. “You’re mine,” he said. “Admit you belong with us.”
“I’ll admit nothing has ever felt this good in my life,” she said between ragged breaths. “It feels so right, being here with you both.”
“You were meant to be here,” Kyle said, his voice far calmer than she felt. “I acknowledge you as Dillon’s bond mate. Accept us as yours. Agree to take my mark right now and make your place in our pack official.”
Climax toyed with Aimee, looming just on the brink, but his words pushed that release just out of reach. “I can’t,” she breathed.
“Yes, you can,” Dillon said, stroking her face. “Feel me inside you. Feel us both.” He pushed himself deeper, and her eyes fluttered closed as the powerful need threatened to whisk her away from reality again. He took hold of her chin. “No, look at me while I make love to you. Look deep in my eyes.”
She obeyed, finding a churning gold kaleidoscope that threatened to unhinge her. He pulled back and slid his shaft deep again. “See? It’s not just part of my body thrustin’ into you. I’m givin’ you all that I am, Aimee. My body, my soul, everythin’ I have is now a part of you. A were’s bond to his mate is fierce and forever. The love I feel for you burns so hot inside me that I can’t barely breathe.”
Words could not form themselves in her mind. Both men driving themselves to her core in tandem made it almost impossible to even register his declaration, but instinctive warmth spread through her chest at the last. Dillon not only lusted after her but claimed to love her. And if the look in his eyes and the heat in her soul were any indication, he was telling the utter truth.
“The bond is so close,” Kyle said in an awestruck whisper unlike his normally reserved tone. “I feel it washin’ over me. Let me mark you, Aimee.”
“No,” she said, though the word came through a thick layer of emotion in her throat.
“He won’t hurt you,” Dillon said. “Just for a quick second, then it’ll feel so good you’ll come in a heartbeat.”
“That’s not why,” she said. “I just can’t offer you that right now.”
“I can’t wait any longer,” Kyle said through gritted teeth. “I’m past ready to shoot my load deep in her ass.”
“Kiss me,” Aimee whispered close to Dillon’s obviously disappointed face. “Let me have your love for just one night. Just for this moment.”
“No,” he said, but he pumped his hips against her harder. “You’ll have it forever.”
He nodded to Kyle before thrusting harder, pinching her nipples with both hands. Kyle pulled her face up toward him and leaned in to kiss her deep. She gasped at Dillon’s rough attentions to her sensitive buds and Kyle’s fingers lightly stroking her throat while he kissed her. Their combined touch violently breached the final gateway of resistance separating her from climax. Orgasm roared to life like a starving lioness awakened from a long winter’s sleep. Her body clenched and exploded in passion until she knew the only thing holding her upright was the rocking motion of the two men’s powerful, thrusting bodies.
Kyle shuddered and came just as the first waves took her. “I’m comin’,” he said against his lips with a loud groan. “Take every last drop.”
Their cries of pleasure finally unhinged Dillon. He leaned his head back into the shower spray as his climax hit him. An anguished growl came out of him while water streamed down his magnificent body, and when his warm fluid gushed into her pussy, it sent her soaring over another peak.
Her body shook with fatigue in the aftermath, but the smile plastered to her face dissolved even faster when her eyes reopened to see Dillon’s face morphing. The change was beginning.
“Kyle,” she said in alarm. “Oh, no.”
Both the men’s still-hard cocks pulled out of her as Kyle yanked her backward, pressing against him as far back along the shower as they could get. “Shit,” he said over her shoulder. “I was too distracted by my own needs to realize this would happen. Take it easy, Dillon. You got this. Stay with us. Focus on your humanity.”
But it was too late. Dillon literally fell away, dropping to the wet floor of the shower into his brown-gray wolf form. Water poured down over the animal’s back, and he looked up into what Aimee knew must be a startled expression, with yellow eyes and an open mouth that displayed pointed, white teeth. She tucked herself tightly inside Kyle’s embrace. “Now what?” she whispered. “Shouldn’t we run?”
“He won’t hurt you,” Kyle said. “Will you, boy? Remembering our humanity while we are wolves comes before total control over shifts. He knows who we are and who he is.”
Dillon stared up at him with his head cocked as if listening intently, then bent down to sniff at the shower floor. He found the remaining chunk of meat that had been washed pale by the steady stream of water, and then proceeded to gulp it down in two big bites. He licked his chops and gazed back up at them.
“Fine beast you are,” Kyle said. “Go ahead and eat my steak after I saved you a whoopin’ from a truck.”
Dillon actually appeared to shoot the man a wide wolf grin in response.
“Can I touch him?” Aimee asked.
“Of course. Just watch yourself.”
She was already reaching out but froze at his cautionary statement. “Why? Will he bite me?”
Kyle snorted. “No, but he might start humpin’ on your leg.”
She made a face. “Ew.”
“Just kiddin’,” Kyle said. “Go ahead.”
His fur was thick and wet with warm water as she ran her hands over his head and down along the scruff of his neck. Dillon just stood there, his eyes squinted shut while she stroked him.
“He feels nice.”
“Smells like wet dog, though,” Kyle said, and laughed in response to Dillon’s growl.
“I think he smells good,” Aimee said. “Like the wild woods in springtime.”
Dillon sat on his haunches, but when the posture sent streams of water onto his head, he promptly shook it and snorted out water in apparent disgust. He got up and raised a paw to begin clawing at the door.
Kyle leaned over to shut off the water. Dillon lifted his head and stuck his nose under Kyle’s outstretched armpit, then sneezed and shot him a look. “Guess he thinks my shower shouldn’t be over yet, either. Smart-ass.” He gave Dillon a firm but playful slap on the rump and slid open the door. The wolf jumped out first, followed by Kyle. He held out a hand to help Aimee out, wrapping her in one of the thick, green towels hanging on the rack over the toilet. “Sorry about your nightie,” he said. “I’ll buy you another.”
She stopped herself short of asking how he could afford silk lingerie when Dillon, in highly inconvenient canine fashion, shook his entire body to fling off water. Droplets shot every which way, and Aimee ducked for cover with a giggle as the excess sprayed her face and arms.
“Jesus, dog,” Kyle said with a mock scowl. “Where are your damn manners? You’re in a lady’s apartment, not the great outdoors. You don’t see me sprayin’ her walls.”
Dillon trotted off into the bedroom with his tail held high, and Aimee laughed. “Maybe he doesn’t remember as much of his humanity as you thought.”
“Oh, he remembers. In case you hadn’t noticed, his assometer goes up quite a bit when he’s shifted.”
She smirked at him. “‘Assometer’?”
“Technical term for the smart-ass attitude a lot of weres take on. Dillon practically invented it.”
“At least he keeps his humor,” she said, following Kyle into the bedroom. “Do you? When you’re a wolf, I mean. Do you act the same as Dillon?”
“No. We stay mostly like we are when we’re phased, just more intense.”
“So in Dillon’s case, smart-ass is as smart-ass does?”
His scar crinkled with a faint smile. “Somethin’ like that.”
Dillon had stopped at the foot of the bed and turned around to face them. His ears were perked up and tongue hanging out. Aimee pulled off her towel and stooped over him. “Here, let me dry you off, you beast.”
She rubbed him with her towel, and Dillon began licking the side of her throat with his long, rough tongue. Kyle came up behind her and rubbed her hair and back with the towel while she dried Dillon. Then she dropped her towel and took Kyle’s to return the favor on him. His muscles were taut and tempting as the terry cloth glided along the hard lines of his body, and she had to swallow down the urge to initiate round two by fondling the cock that had maintained a barely erect status. When she stood up, he took her by the cheeks and gave her a soft, lingering kiss that took the chill right off her damp skin.
“Will you stay the night?” she asked, glancing at her bed. There was barely enough room on the queen-size for two buff cowboys and herself, but she’d happily squeeze between their hot bodies in exchange for one night to lie blissfully quiet and safe in their arms. Who knew when she’d have a chance again?
Dillon turned toward the bed, but Kyle clucked at him. “Uh-uh. You’re still wet, and I ain’t sleepin’ in a bed mussed up by damp dog.”
“I have a blow dryer,” Aimee offered.
Minutes later, she laughed at Dillon’s peaceful, closed-eye expression while warm air fluffed his beautiful brown-and-gray fur. “You remind me of a dog with his head stuck out the car window,” she said. “Yet another thing I never dreamed I’d be doing this weekend—giving a wolf the gift of a beauty salon treatment.”
“Don’t pamper him too much,” Kyle said. “He might get used to it.”
“Better than lying in a damp old cave,” she said, turning to him. “Besides, you’re next.”
He arched a brow. “In that case, pamper away.”
His blond hair was mostly dry by the time she ran a comb through it with blasts of air, but she enjoyed the way the pale, silken strands felt while she stroked through them. He took the dryer from her hand. “When’s the last time anyone pampered you, darlin’?”
She blinked, unable to think of a time while he blew the tingly, heated air over her hair and shoulders. With her curls, a comb would not be sliding through her wet head any time soon, but his fingers sliding through her scalp felt like heaven. Relaxed and calm, exhaustion weighed her down again by the time the dryer fell silent at last.
The three of them crawled into bed together—two naked, one furry and curled up on the far edge—and Aimee listened to the rhythm of their breaths and to the sound of her spirit ringing with two distinctly different tones. One bell chimed with the joy, fullness and security in the aftermath of two cowboys peeling away her innocence to reveal the woman inside. The other bell rang with loneliness, with the knowledge that she was lying between two men she was not truly a part of and never could be. Regret that she had given into base needs and rejected that logic swirled inside of her. Had she just kept up her guard, she could have prevented the empty hole from opening in her spirit.
She shoved aside the desolate thought and instead determined to lie awake all night and focus on every nuance of the happiness ringing out from the other internal bells. She wanted to bask in the sensual safety of Kyle’s long, hot muscles pressed to her backside, and to stare in admiration at the wolf’s majestic, shining fur.
Her plan was not to be, however, and sleep stole her away from post-sex awe long before she was ready to yield to unconsciousness.