Eminence Shifters 6

Jade

Jade Liang discovers monsters are real when a crazed wolf shifter decides she belongs to him and his pack. She is held captive and tortured before a reluctant good samaritan frees her. Jade escapes, but soon succumbs to her injuries.

Cougar shifters Asher, Barrett, Wes and Troy Pollock have returned home to Eminence to train as soldiers for their pride. Their renewed bond as brothers is further strengthened when they discover they share a mate, the beautiful, but unconscious, Jade Liang.

Rage at their mate’s abuse turns to white-hot fury when it’s revealed she suffered at the hands of a shifter. They must then find a way to earn Jade’s trust as they reveal they are shifters, too. Whilst earning her trust they lose their hearts to the lovely Jade. She now holds their fate in her small hands, for if they fail to keep her from the wolf determined to reclaim her, all their lives will be forfeit.

Genre: Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Shape-shifter

Length: 48,490 words 

JADE

Eminence Shifters 6

Ashley Malkin

MENAGE AMOUR

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

IMPRINT: Ménage Amour

JADE

Copyright © 2016 by Ashley Malkin

E-book ISBN: 978-1-68295-185-9

First E-book Publication: April 2016

Cover design by Harris Channing

All art and logo copyright © 2016 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 Jade by Ashley Malkin from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

Regarding E-book Piracy

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This is Ashley Malkin’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ashley Malkin’s right to earn a living from her work.

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DEDICATION

A special thank you to my husband and children for your unwavering support and love. You make it possible for me to follow my dreams.

JADE

Eminence Shifters 6

ASHLEY MALKIN

Copyright © 2016

Chapter 1

The ringing of the phone woke Jade with a start. She gasped as pain shot through her chest from her damaged ribs. Turning her head slowly, Jade surveyed her living room. She prayed she was still alone. Finding that she was indeed alone she renewed her efforts to free herself as the phone continued to ring. Help was so close, but still too far away when she was tied to the radiator clear across the room.

Jade screamed as she strained against her bindings. Her arm was black with bruising and badly swollen, but it didn’t deter her. She pulled as hard as she could against the ropes. She had to get away before Beau beat her so badly he killed her. Or worse, Beau would make good on his repeated threat to allow his friends Harry and Justin to beat and rape her instead of just bear witness to her abuse.

“Jade, it’s Amber. Again! Where are you, dammit?” Jade sagged as her sister’s voice rang through her small apartment. “If you’re working those crazy long hours again I’m going to come to Duck-wherever-you-are, and kick your butt.”

Amber hung up with a dramatic sigh, and Jade wanted to weep. If only her sister knew what was happening. It wouldn’t matter that Amber was still in New York City. She’d come to Duckwater, Nevada, to help her. Amber and Jade were close. They’d do anything for each other.

Jade heard the sound of boots on the wooden stairs to her apartment. She instinctively curled into a ball, biting down on her arm to stifle a scream as her broken ribs stabbed into her. She tasted blood, but didn’t release the pressure. She was in too much pain, and Beau had promised more beatings if he heard her screaming.

She didn’t think she’d survive another beating.

“Jade, are you in there? It’s Mac from the diner.”

Her boss knocked lightly on the door. Jade froze, unsure whether Beau was with Mac, or if he was alone.

“Jade, you’ve missed work for two days now. Are you sick?”

“Mac. I’m here, I need help.” Jade decided she couldn’t risk him leaving. If Beau turned up, then she’d just die sooner. She had nothing to lose. Her voice was so hoarse she feared Mac might not have heard her.

The doorknob rattled as Mac tried to enter and Jade almost cried with relief. “Can you unlock the door, Jade?” Mac said.

“Help.” Jade tried to scream the word, but it came out as a soft whisper. Her throat was dry and she was beyond tired. She’d had little sleep, with Beau keeping her awake for hours and hours either hitting her or screaming obscenities at her.

The door flew open and Jade screamed as her body tensed in surprise. Her ribs again stabbed at her damaged flesh.

“Jesus,” Mac said. He ran across the room and reached his hands out to her. He suddenly stilled, drawing his hands back as though he’d scalded them. “Did Beau do this?”

“Beau and his friends,” Jade whispered. She was mortified that not only was Mac seeing her damaged and naked body, but she’d just admitted that Beau’s friends had also seen her like this.

Mac turned around, his head turning frantically from the open doorway back to her. “I…I can’t be here. He’ll kill me.”

“Mac, please.”

Jade would beg. She had nothing left to lose. Mac’s fear was obvious and Jade wondered if Beau’s reign of terror was not confined to her.

“Fuck,” Mac said. He pulled out a knife from his boot and swiftly cut the rope around Jade’s bloody and bruised wrists before slicing through the rope that tied her feet together.

Jade moaned as the rope fell from her damaged limbs and she struggled to kneel on all fours. Her chest burned in pain and her back and thighs stung as the healing cuts tore open as she moved.

Jade raised her head and saw Mac backing up to the doorway as he looked out her small front window.

“Can you help me stand?” Jade asked, her thighs shaking with the effort to hold her up as she knelt.

“I can’t touch you. He’ll know,” Mac husked. He ran across the room and grabbed her bottle of Calvin Klein One. He sprayed it around the room and turned to spray it on her.

“Mac, I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. But thank you for what you’ve done.”

Jade crawled to her bed and pulled herself painfully up. She turned her head and saw she was alone. Mac had left her alone. What will I do if Beau comes back?

Jade shook as she struggled to stand. She wrapped her arms around her chest and abdomen in an attempt to ease the pain.

“Move, Jade. Move or die,” she told herself.

She saw that Mac had left the knife and a small pile of crumpled bank notes on her kitchen table.

Jade shuffled awkwardly to her bathroom and washed her face, wincing as she saw her reflection in the small bathroom mirror. Her long dark hair was matted and dull. Her pale skin looked sallow where it wasn’t marred by cuts and bruises.

She would have loved to brush her teeth, but her lips were too swollen, the cuts covered in dried blood. It was impossible. Plus, she had to leave before Beau decided to come back and beat on her some more. Or worse.

She gingerly pulled a long-sleeved dress over her head, leaving it unzipped as she couldn’t manage the zipper. She wrapped her warmest coat around her shoulders, taking too long with her hands shaking uncontrollably.

“Don’t panic, Jade. Just move as fast as you can.” She took a small, shallow breath and rammed her feet into her hiking boots. She didn’t pause to have a much-needed drink, she just grabbed the knife Mac had left, and stuffed it and the money into her coat pocket. She pocketed her broken phone. Beau had stomped on it, but Jade hoped it was only the screen that was broken.

She settled her ball cap onto her head and slowly made her way down her stairs. “One step at a time. I can do this.” Her whole body ached and burned with pain. She could no longer distinguish which injury was hurting. She just hurt everywhere.

Incredibly she made it to the bus station in the center of town just as a bus was getting ready to leave. She didn’t ask where it was going, just pointed to the bus and brought a ticket. The old man selling the tickets didn’t look up from his magazine, taking the money and holding out her change.

Jade sat at the very back of the bus and slumped as low in the seat as she could get. For once she was glad of her small size and build. She’d made it. With a little help from Mac she was free. She wasn’t puzzled by Mac’s behavior. Mac must have seen what Beau was. Not that Jade had any idea what exactly he was, but she was certain he was a monster.

She shivered as she recalled the night Beau had found her in the desert. His glowing red eyes, the hair, the teeth. Her back stung as she recalled his claws tearing through her shirt and into her skin.

No. Mac was wise not to anger Beau. He was a creature of nightmares and he would haunt her dreams for the rest of her life. She prayed she’d never see him again, that he’d simply let her go.

“Please. Just let me go.”

Chapter 2

Asher sat on the fence and watched the antics of the Willis brothers. All three of the brothers were young, with Fergus being the eldest at thirty-five.

“Still a damn cub,” Asher mumbled, feeling the weight of his age press down on him again. He was twice Fergus’s age, and he felt even older as he watched the three brothers ride their horses hard in a friendly game of Tent Pegging.

“Come on, Nash,” Barrett called. “I have twenty bucks riding on your ass.”

“He might like to rephrase that,” Troy said.

“Or, maybe not,” Wes said. “We know Barrett’s partial to blondes with long flowing hair.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Barrett said, throwing an unused tent peg at his twin brothers.

Nash finished his run ahead of his brothers, Fergus and Tanner, and steered his horse straight at the fence where Wes and Troy were sitting. In a display of feline agility and years of practice gained from his time on the rodeo circuit, Nash turned the horse at the last moment and launched himself out of the saddle.

Wes and Troy were knocked off the fence as Nash’s bulkier body swept them to the ground. Asher laughed as the three men hurriedly tried to untangle their limbs when their commander, Samson Reed, called them to assemble for weapons training.

Asher did a backflip from the fence, landing lightly on his feet and jogging to meet Samson in front of the weapons shed. Evan and Ben Harvey stood with Samson, their brother Cameron being absent today. One of the brothers always remained with their new mate, Morgan. Asher suppressed a sigh. He wasn’t jealous of their happiness. He was melancholy.

He may not be as old as their new friends, Aiden and Eamon, the vampires that lived with the shifters in Pine Falls, but he was currently the oldest unmated cougar in the pride. Despite having finished their basic training with Samson and Evan last month, they had all chosen to remain at the compound. They enjoyed the camaraderie of being a part of the pride again as they continued to train, and hone their skills.

Asher had left Eminence in his teens, going off to college to study law. He was a good lawyer, enjoying the fact that he could bring down his prey with words alone. But after practicing in several large firms over the last forty or so years his cat was feeling caged.

When their Alpha, Finn, had made the call for members of the pride to come home and train as soldiers, Asher had jumped at the chance to enjoy a more physical hunt. Samson was retired special ops and Evan a retired Navy Seal. Asher felt like he’d died and gone to heaven. He and his cat had never felt so in tune. He knew he was finally the shifter he was always meant to be. Cunning and deadly.

“Have the children had their fun now?” Evan asked. He stripped down his sniper rifle and put it back together while looking at the group of men in the paddock. Asher dreamt of being that good one day.

“I doubt it. Barrett just won a bet, so I imagine Fergus and Tanner will find a way to win their money back.”

“You didn’t bet on Nash?” Samson asked.

“I don’t gamble. I win.”

Asher wasn’t the least competitive, and he wouldn’t consider himself to be arrogant, he was simply very focused, which was why he continually beat all the trainees on every task.

“I’d never make the mistake of betting against Asher,” Barrett said. He stood beside Asher and bumped him with his beefy shoulder. “It would be like throwing money away.”

Asher absorbed the blow through his whole body, letting it flow through his muscles so he remained unmoving. Barrett was a little shorter than him, but a great deal heavier. He had a solid frame of thick muscles. Asher smiled at Barrett, knowing it pissed his brother off that he still hadn’t managed to replicate Asher’s synergy with his cat.

“Sniper training?” Wes asked, brushing the dust from his fatigues.

“I love sniper training,” Troy finished.

“You two love all the training,” Nash said.

The rest of the trainees assembled around Samson and Evan as they outlined the scenario for today’s training mission. Asher knew they’d be out in the forest overnight. Samson and Evan would not finish the exercise until all of them had been spotted approaching the target. They were all improving, so it was now taking longer and longer for them to make a mistake.

He glanced at the darkening sky. It was midday, and it already looked like dusk. Snow clouds were gathering over the mountains. They were in for a cold night. He focused on Samson’s instructions and began to consider the coming snow and high winds as tools he could use to remain hidden.

He wanted to succeed in the mission tonight. He had been the last man spotted on their last sniper training. Samson had seen one of his boot laces that had come loose as he’d crawled on his belly through the brush. He’d tie them more securely today. He’d take down the target. Asher’s cat brushed lightly against him, anticipating the thrill of the hunt. They’d take down the target.

* * * *

Melanie waved good-bye to Rosie and George and pulled on her gloves. She’d delivered the baked goods for the Eminence Café and Patisserie. The word patisserie was a new addition to the café’s name with Jordanna having taught her, Bethany, and Peata some amazing new techniques in baking.

The little business Melanie had started was not for making money. They donated any profits to the local charities. The business was their hobby and the four women, who would soon be five—when Morgan stopped throwing up every time she stepped into a kitchen—had bonded over their baking. They had become as close as Melanie imagined sisters could be, and were the best of friends.

Melanie smiled as she recalled some of the men of the pride grumbling about how fat they were getting from eating all the delicious new food. As if any of the shifters would get fat with all the running around they do, and all the sex they have.

Melanie felt her cheeks heat in a blush and glanced across the street to the small park where Cooper was pushing their baby, Matthew, on the swing. She saw his head jerk up and he turned toward her. The smile he gave her was carnal and wicked. He’d detected the scent of her arousal. Damn shifters. A girl can’t even fantasize about her gorgeous husbands without them knowing it.

She pulled up the collar of her thick woolen coat and turned to walk away from him, trying to appear interested in the shop window next door to the café. Unfortunately it was the hardware store, so he wasn’t going to buy her pretense of nonchalance.

“Stupid shifters,” she mumbled, knowing full well Cooper would hear her.

As she came to the end of the block, she contemplated crossing the street to look in the department store. Looking to the right for any cars coming from the alley she saw a bundle of rags dumped against the side wall of the hardware store.

“Litter bugs,” she mumbled, as the mound of rags moved. Melanie heard a soft whimper.

“Oh, no,” Melanie cried out as she rushed toward the bundle, certain someone had dumped a litter of puppies or kittens to die in the cold alleyway.

“Oh, fuck.” Melanie drew in a deep breath and called for Cooper in as loud a voice as she could muster.

The woman inside the dirty coat appeared unconscious and terribly hurt. Her face was as pale as the snow that was starting to fall, except where it was black and blue with bruises. Melanie was equally furious and scared. Someone had beaten this poor woman and then dumped her in the street like garbage.

Cooper strode down the alley toward her. His face a mask of worry and pain. “Coming to you at human speed has nearly killed me. Tell me you’re unharmed, angel.”

“I’m sorry, Cooper. Look.” Melanie pointed down at the woman, a small moan the only sign that she was still alive.

“Oh my God. That’s a person.”

Cooper quickly handed Matthew to Melanie and she hugged her small bundle tight, kissing his wooly hat in reassurance. Cooper didn’t stop to assess the woman. He just tore off his coat and wrapped it around her before calling Jason Reed.

Whoever this woman was, if she was going to survive the cold and her injuries she would need medical attention. Jason Reed had proved to be the best doctor the shifter world, and human, had ever known.

Chapter 3

Jade was freezing to death. She knew she’d never feel warm again. She could hear and see nothing. Her whole universe had become her shaking body. Even the pain of breathing with her damaged ribs was numbed by being chilled to her core. Cold. There was nothing but the cold.

She remembered falling asleep at the bus station in Grand Springs, Colorado, and missing her connecting bus. It had been midnight and she’d only been traveling for about twelve hours. The need to keep moving was a soul-deep compulsion that had her climbing into the bed of a truck parked outside the bus station and hiding under an old blanket.

When the truck had started out into the frigid December night and climbed winding roads up into the mountains she’d truly experienced what it was like to be cold. She felt like she was floating on a cloud, suspended up in the air at the center of swirling gusts of snow. She’d read somewhere that hypothermia eventually led to a feeling of warmth. She craved that final sensation just to feel warm again.

“Get me the blankets from the warming cupboard. I’ll need the IV warmer, too, Cooper.”

“Is she going to live, Jason? I’m so scared for her.”

“I’ll make no promises, Melanie. She’s in pretty bad shape apart from the hypothermia.”

Jade heard the soft sobs of an angel weeping for her. She wanted to tell the angel not to cry, that she was ready to die if it would end this torture of being frozen alive. But Jade couldn’t get her mouth to form the words. She felt her jaw tense as her body seized and the unbearable pain pushed her into unconsciousness.

* * * *

Barrett hoisted his brother, Asher, onto his shoulder and Fergus joined him as they carried Asher into the compound.

“Put me down, you idiots,” Asher said. But he laughed, and Barrett knew he was indulging them.

“Samson looked ready to kill you when you tagged him with that laser, Asher,” Wes said.

“You get to drink for free in The Mountain Air for the rest of your life,” Troy added.

“We drink for free anyway,” Barrett said, pushing his younger brother forward as they entered the bunkhouse. “There had to be some advantage to being the stupid older brothers to you two geniuses.”

Troy only just managed to stop himself from falling over. His twin brothers were brilliant, but a little clumsy for cat shifters. Barrett had seen the training regime of the last few months put at least forty pounds of solid muscle onto each of them. They were gaining strength and agility that their former lives of sitting at computers had denied them.

Not that Barrett and Asher weren’t proud of their brothers’ success in their computer design and development business, because they were, and they’d always shown it. But having the opportunity to train together these last few months had developed a bond between them that their separate lives had never allowed.

“You’re not completely stupid,” Wes said. He threw Barrett a cold beer, and Barrett shrugged Asher off his shoulder to catch it.

“You finally learned how to send an e-mail on your smartphone,” Troy finished. Asher snatched the beer from Barrett’s hand as he landed on his feet beside him.

“Very funny,” Barrett said, feeling no anger at not knowing how to use a mobile phone. In his job as a stuntman for the last thirty years he’d just never needed one.

Barrett froze as Tanner Willis ran into the bunkhouse, his red hair a mess and his pale skin flushed. The faint scent of blood followed in Tanner’s wake and his brothers Fergus and Nash were instantly at his side.

“Are you hurt?” Fergus asked, turning Tanner around to inspect his back.

“It’s not me that’s hurt,” Tanner said.

“Fuck.” Barrett ran to Tanners side, pushing Nash and Fergus aside.

The teasing sweet scent of caramel was mixed delicately into the scent of the blood and it was making his cat wild. No, it was making both of them wild. He tore the shirt from Tanner’s body in one swipe, burying his face into the fabric to make sure.

Asher appeared beside him, his eyes glowing amber as his canines descended to his bottom lip. “Holy fuck. So this is what it feels like.” Asher said softly.

“Where is she?” Barrett growled out the words.

“I was just up at the house. Melanie found an injured homeless woman nearly frozen to death…”

Barrett’s cat took over and he shifted in the most violent explosion of rage he’d ever experienced. He roared as he ran from the bunkhouse to Samson’s home. His mate was what? Was dying? Dying as he stood and had a beer.

“She’s not yours alone,” Asher said. He was beside Barrett, still human, but openly displaying his cat in an uncharacteristic slip of his usual iron control.

“It was faint,” Wes said, his voice garbled as a growl of anger split the cold air around them.

“But it was enough,” Troy said. “She’s ours, and she’s not going to die. We’ll fly in anyone we need to save her. We’ll…”

“Jason is all we need to save her,” Asher said. He held open the door and Barrett ran into the living room.

The scent of their mate was thick in the air. Barrett shook his head and tried to detect which way to go. He skidded to a stop as their enforcer, Cooper, held up his hand to halt them.

“What in the hell are the four of you doing?”

Barrett shifted back to human. He needed to know where his mate was, how injured she was, who she was, and to accomplish all that he needed to be human.

“Where is she?” Asher said. He proceeded to snarl at Cooper as he bumped his chest against the larger man in a very uncharacteristic display of raw emotion. The silver-tongued lawyer was nowhere to be seen. Asher was all cat.

Barrett clapped his hand on Asher’s shoulder and hauled him away from Cooper. “Tanner just came into the bunkhouse covered in the scent of our mate.”

Cooper’s deadly expression softened slightly and he took a step back from Asher as he absorbed the information. “I see.” Cooper’s glare was still fixed on Asher.

“I’m sorry, Cooper,” Asher said. He shook himself and Barrett sensed his brother pulling his cat back under his control.

“You won’t be any use to her if you’re out of control.” Cooper relaxed fully and regarded each of them in turn. “Melanie was injured when we found her. I understand your feelings, but she’s a human. You’re going to have to go slowly. You can’t show your cats no matter how angry you become at her being beaten so badly.”

Barrett felt himself disappearing into his cat’s primal rage. Someone had beaten his mate. Someone had hurt her deliberately. The sharp slap to his face had him opening his eyes and stilling the snarl that was rumbling through him.

“Control,” Asher said. His face was inches from Barrett’s and he could see Asher’s cat deep in his blue eyes. “She’s human.”

“Someone beat her?” Wes and Troy said together, their pain obvious.

“We’ll keep her safe now,” Barrett said, pulling back his useless rage. They could do nothing to change what had already happened. They needed to focus on what they could control. “She will never be hurt or cold again.”

“Barrett?” Melanie said. “Why do you have no clothes on?”

Cooper’s snarl had them all turning. Melanie stood in the hallway to the clinic, her face pale and her eyes wide. Cooper may just kill me.

“Turn around, angel, and I’ll get some pants for him.” Melanie turned. She carried the scent of pain, her normally bubbly personality absent. “Your little lady may be their mate.” Cooper returned in the space of one heartbeat and tossed Barrett some sweats.

Barrett quickly pulled them on and walked toward Melanie, his brothers close behind him. Cooper pulled his tiny mate into his arms as she sobbed into his chest. Barrett’s blood froze in his veins. Melanie should have been pleased that they had found their mate.

“Can you tell us anything about her?” Asher asked softly. “Please.”

Melanie sniffed and wiped at her eyes. “I’m sorry. Of course you need to know everything.”

She sounded so sad that Barrett began to think they were too late. Their mate had died.

“She’s alive,” Jason said.

Barrett was able to breathe again. He inhaled sharply as Jason came to stand beside Cooper.

“Her injuries are extensive and I think the hypothermia may have actually aided in saving her life. Her internal injuries stopped bleeding with her body temperature being so low. You’re all her mates?”

“She’s alive now, but will she survive?” Asher asked.

Barrett didn’t want to hear the answer. He wanted to run to her and hold her. He wanted to see what she looked like. Love her forever and never let her go. He didn’t want to hear that she was about to die. He knew in that instant that it was too late for him. Even without ever laying eyes on her he had already bonded to his mate. If she died he’d follow. He’d then love her in the afterlife for an eternity, despite their being denied a life together as mortals.

* * * *

Troy and Wes were gifted twins. As a child Troy had thought everyone shared their thoughts with others, and had been surprised to find out he and Wes were different in that particular way. When shifted, the cats of a pride could share their thoughts, but he and Wes had always shared their thoughts.

“She can’t die, Troy. We’ve only just found her.”

“Fate wouldn’t be so cruel as to bring us our mate as a corpse, Wes.”

“We believe in fate now?”

“I’ll believe in the tooth fairy if it brings me a sliver of hope that our mate will live to meet us.”

“We don’t even know her name.”

“She’ll tell us, Wes. I really believe that.”

“I know you do, Troy. It’s all that’s keeping me sane right now. My cat wants to kill every human male on the planet just to be certain her attacker is dead.”

“You know you just said that out loud?” Barrett said, pulling his gaze from Doc to stare at Wes. “And I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiment.”

“Why don’t you let Doc tell you what’s wrong with your mate? Then you can go and meet her,” Cooper said. “Angel, why don’t you go and sit with our new friend while Doc talks to her mates.”

Cooper bent to gently kiss the tears from Melanie’s cheeks, giving her a warm smile. It was a side of their enforcer that Troy had never witnessed. It made his heart lurch at the unwelcome thought that their mate may die and they’d never have that same soul-deep bond with their own mate.

“We will have it,” Wes said. Wes wrapped an arm around his shoulders and Troy was shocked when Asher did the same on his other side.

“We will,” Asher repeated firmly.

Troy wondered if Asher had heard his thoughts, too. Wes looked at him and just shrugged.

“Maybe he just smelled your sadness?”

“Maybe?”

“I’m warming your mate up slowly,” Jason said, “and observing for any further internal bleeding from her injuries. It’s obvious she’s been beaten.”

“What makes it obvious?” Troy asked. “Couldn’t she just have been involved in an accident?”

Jason pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily. “Do you want me to answer that and delay me further when I should be with your mate? Or shall we just assume I know what the fuck I’m doing, and you let me continue?”

“Continue.” Barrett spoke for all of them.

Troy swallowed noisily. He wasn’t sure he wouldn’t shift and go on a murderous rampage if Doc’s descriptions became too much for his cat to bear. He didn’t want his mate to have suffered while he was here enjoying the good life with his brothers. It was just inconceivable.

“I’ll keep you from doing anything stupid,” Asher said, holding him a little firmer to his side.

“Well fuck. I wonder if he’s always heard us,” Wes said. Asher stared unblinkingly at Jason.

“She has rope burns and deep lacerations on her wrists and ankles. She is severely dehydrated and malnourished. I’d estimate she hasn’t eaten in about a week. The bruising to her face and body follows that time line also. Some bruises are fading while others are only hours old. She has several broken ribs and, at best, a bruised spleen. I may need to remove it.”

Jason turned and walked down the corridor. It took them all a second to realize he was finished. He may have been brilliant, but Troy had to agree with the consensus of the pride. He had a terrible bedside manner.

Barrett was the first to follow, and Asher released him to allow them all to move single file down the corridor to the exam room Doc had entered. The sweet caramel scent of their mate grew thicker in the air the closer they got to her. Troy’s cat was a barely contained beast inside him as the scent of her blood and her fear rapidly filled his senses.

“Now I know how you were certain she’d been beaten,” Troy said from the doorway of the exam room. Barrett and Asher blocked his view of their mate, but her scent told of her ordeal.

“The poor little thing,” Melanie said softly, her voice hitching on an escaping sob. “She was just lying in the gutter. I thought she was a pile of old rags.”

Troy’s cat joined his brothers’ as they all snarled. The thought of anyone lying injured and discarded in the gutter was distressing enough, add that it was their precious mate and their fury was palpable.

“Jason hadn’t yet shared that information with her mates, angel,” Cooper said. He stood protectively in front of his mate as their anger flared when they finally saw their mate.

Melanie hadn’t been wrong in describing her as little. She barely looked bigger than the Alpha’s mate, and she was under five feet tall, but their mate was much, much thinner. A week’s worth of starvation had not made her this way.

Her abuse may have lasted even longer if the thin arm that was lying above the blanket, with an intravenous line inserted, was any indication. Their mate was stunningly beautiful despite her condition. Her skin, where it was unblemished, was milky white. Her hair a natural black that, coupled with her slightly upturned eyelids, spoke of some Asian ancestry.

“She’s so pale, and so young. She can’t be more than twenty-four,” Asher said, stifling his growl as he went to their mate’s side and brushed the long black strands of her hair from her cheek.

“So many bruises,” Troy said. He joined Asher at her bedside and wrapped his hand around her small, much colder one. He was careful to avoid the bruised and damaged flesh on her wrists. “She has two black eyes. What sort of a coward beats a tiny defenseless woman like this?”

“I think we’re in for more bad news when she wakes,” Barrett said. He’d reached under the blanket and Troy assumed he was holding her other hand.

“Has she got a wedding ring on that left hand?” Asher asked Barrett.

Shit, Troy hadn’t even thought of that possibility. Gazing down at her beautiful face he realized he should have.

“No ring,” Barrett said, his voice deep with the growl of his cat. “I can smell wolf.”

All eyes in the room flew to Barrett. Troy wasn’t alone in not detecting any scent but their mate’s.

Jason pulled his phone from his pocket and quickly sent a text. “Axel Wilder will be here soon.”

“If Barrett says it was a wolf, it was a damned wolf,” Asher said.

“It won’t hurt to have it confirmed,” Cooper said. “Melanie and I will be with Bethany and the babies.”

Cooper picked Melanie up and she wrapped her arms around his neck as he took her to find their son. Jason’s mate, Bethany, must have been looking after him while she sat with…

Jason pushed between Wes and Asher to peel back the blankets. They all growled as Jason touched their mate. The instinctual reaction was ignored by Jason. But he did pause in his actions until they were all silent again.

Troy nearly lost the fight to stay human as his mate’s chest was revealed. It was one massive black bruise with a wide white bandage covering her breasts. Jesus. How was she even still alive?

Jason palpated a spot on the left side of her abdomen, and scowled at what he found.

“What?” Barrett asked. “Is that a good or a bad expression on your face?”

Jason looked puzzled at the question and continued his examination without immediately answering. “I will warm her up a little more, and then check again for any further bleeding.”

“Did she have any identification?” Troy asked, desperate to know her name. To know anything, and everything about her.

“Just a few dollars in her coat pocket, a knife, and a broken cell phone,” Jason said. He changed some setting on the machine connected to the IV and left the room without another word.

“Did he say a broken cell phone?” Troy asked. He had an idea.

“He did,” Wes said, a small smile on his lips.

Troy went to the coat on the bench and quickly located the phone in one of the pockets. Wes handed him his open cell phone and Troy took out the SIM card from the smashed phone and put it in Wes’s phone.

“What’s so exciting about a broken phone?” Barrett asked.

Troy and Wes both ignored him and Troy moved back to their mate’s bedside as he rebooted the phone and did what he did best. He used his brain to open up the computer world of their mate. If she was a typical woman in her early twenties, then she would have nearly all of her life open for anyone with access to the Internet to rifle through.

* * * *

Wes paced a few steps away from their mate’s side and then paced back to softly stroke an undamaged section of her arm with his fingertips. He’d been repeating this movement for the last ten minutes, and the thrill he felt rush through him each time he touched his mate still shocked him.

His fingers tingled and his cock twitched. She was his, and his body knew through to its core. He wanted to hold her, and kill whoever hurt her, and not necessarily in that order. Fate had gifted him and his brothers with a mate of extraordinary beauty. But he was smart enough to know perhaps all mates thought the same way about their fate-chosen partners.

He looked at her unmoving face and felt his homicidal rage threaten his sanity again. He looked over at Troy and asked him again if he’d hacked into her accounts. Troy ignored him, and Wes again paced back to his mate.

“I’ve got it,” Troy said softly.

Wes hadn’t doubted he could do it. They could both have done it easily. He’d just let Troy do it because he’d thought of it first. It was only fair. Plus Troy was brilliant and probably had it done in a quarter of the time it would have taken him.

“Will you tell us now what the fuck you’ve been doing?” Barrett asked. He shook his head and rolled his eyes at Asher in exasperation.

“And please,” Asher said, “dumb it down for us mere mortals.”

“Oh, sorry,” Wes said. “I thought you understood.”

“I used her SIM card to enter her account settings and then hack into all her online accounts, including social media.”

“So what’s her name?” Wes almost bounced on the spot like a five-year-old. He was wound so tightly.

“You can find out her name from a broken cell phone?” Asher asked, his mouth remaining open in surprise.

Wes rolled his eyes at Troy and shook his head. “We can find out her shoe size if she’s ever shopped online for shoes. Now shut up and let Troy talk.”

“She is twenty-three years old and her name is Jade Liang.”

“Twenty-three,” Asher repeated.

“Jade is a beautiful name,” Barrett said, picking up her hand to lay a gentle kiss on some of the bruised flesh. “Thank you, Troy. That’s amazing.”

“Idiots.” Wes wanted to slam their heads together. “Just keep going, Troy. Ignore them.”

“She has an arts history degree from New York University and has been traveling around the country for the last two years working in various diners and restaurants to fund her painting.”

“How the hell…” Barrett started, but Wes silenced him with a glare so Troy could continue.

“She’s sold a few paintings, and has gotten a pretty good price for them. They’re really good. She should have come to us. We would have put on a show for her at one of the local galleries here, raised her profile and gotten her name out there.”

“Troy. Focus,” Wes said.

“The last place she was working was a diner in Duckwater, Nevada. That tracks with her latest paintings, too. They’re all nightscapes of the desert. They’re gorgeous. So is she by the way. You should see her eyes.”

Wes had had enough. He snatched the phone from Troy and scrolled through her MySpace account until he found the perfect picture of their mate. He quickly sent it to all of their phones before showing it to Barrett and Asher. It can’t simply be because they’re her mates that she looked so drop dead gorgeous.

“Well, fuck me,” Barrett said.

“No thanks,” Jason said. “But I appreciate the offer.”

Wes shot his gaze to Jason. He’d never heard that the doctor had a sense of humor. One look at his serious expression showed he didn’t.

“We have found out her name and last known address,” Wes said. “We need Hunter to start investigating who has done this to her.”

“Did she wake up,” Jason asked. He gently lifted one of Jade’s eyelids and shone a light in it.

“No,” Barrett said. “My genius brothers went to work on her broken cell phone.”

“I’ll call Hunter. Axel is here. Can I ask him to come in and confirm your suspicions about the wolf? I’ll need you to roll her over. I think that’s where the scent will be strongest.”

“Of course,” Asher said.

Wes was about to ask why they needed to roll her over. But Troy stopped him. “Don’t ask. We need to be in control to roll her. I don’t want Axel touching her. Do you?”

Wes shook his head. It had been bad enough to have the doctor touch her. No way was Axel Wilder, or any man other than the four of them, ever touching her again.

“I’m so sorry,” Axel said as he stood in the doorway and gazed at their mate’s injured face. “It’s a terrible thing to have happened to anyone.”

Barrett snarled at Axel as he took one step into the room. He stepped back and waited for Barrett to calm.

“If the four of you move to her right-hand side and roll her gently, then I think Axel will be able to detect any scent other than hers,” Jason said.

They all moved to the right side of the bed, but it really only needed Barrett to roll her over. She was so small and slight. Wes glanced down at her back and stopped breathing. Four deep lacerations ran down Jade’s back from her shoulder blades to the curve of her buttocks.

The wounds were crusted and oozing serous fluid. They were less than a day old if Wes had to guess. They were also too large for any animal other than a shifter to have made. Healing puncture wounds from four elongated canines surrounded the lacerations. He’d held her still with his jaws as he’d deliberately hurt her with his claws.

“I’ve got it,” Axel said. “Wolf is right, Barrett. I’ll recognize him if I scent him again. He better never come to Eminence. Who does that? Bastard.”

Wes bent and kissed a patch of undamaged skin on Jade’s hip. He moaned, long and low, as Jade’s taste exploded over his tongue. She was sweetness and sex all rolled into one. She was his. His cock was instantly hard again and his rage at the wolf who had hurt her mixed with his desire and finally snapped his control.

As his cat took him he howled in fury. The sound of a high-pitched scream silenced him instantly.

“Oh shit,” Asher muttered.

“Wes, no,” Troy said. But it was too late.

Jade was still on her side, Barrett’s massive frame supporting her easily. The photos of her stunning green eyes didn’t show their true beauty. They were the palest green, just a shade or two from white. They were wide and shining with fear. Fear of him.

“Troy. What can I do?”

Chapter 4

Jade stared in horror at the cougar. She had seen a man standing there. A man had bent to place his lips against her skin in the softest of kisses. A kiss that had made her skin heat like it had been burned. But it was a pleasurable heat that had traveled to all her erogenous zones in an instant and set her alight with desire.

Then the man had disappeared in a shower of light, only to be replaced by a snarling, spitting, giant, cougar. She screamed to wake herself from her nightmare. Beau. She stopped screaming and pulled on her bindings in an attempt to free herself before Beau returned to hurt her again.

“Stop, sweet Jade. You’re safe now.” The deep rumble of the male voice was accompanied by a warm hand stroking down her arm. Her arm tingled with pleasure as the gentle touch calmed her.

She opened her eyes and saw the cougar sitting on a tiled floor. It was blinking slowly at her, its head downcast as it looked up at her. It seemed to be staring apologetically at her.

“I’m dead and I’ve gone to hell.” The cougar shook his head and a shower of lights rained over the thick golden fur until a naked man stood in its place. The same man who had kissed her, but now he was naked.

Jade moaned as she was moved to lie on her back. The ceiling was white, the walls adorned with monitors and shelves holding unfamiliar equipment.

“I’m in a hospital?” She sighed as she realized she was free. Then she frowned in confusion, the last twelve hours rushing back to her. “Mac cut me loose, but wouldn’t help me. The bus. Cold. I was so cold.”

“Jade. My name is Asher Pollock. You’re in a clinic. You’re safe now. We won’t let anyone hurt you.”

“He’ll come. He’ll find me,” Jade cried out as she put her hands down to push herself upright. Her wrists and right arm throbbed with pain. She closed her eyes and tried to breathe through the agony. “I have to keep moving,” she panted. “Please. You need to let me go.”

“Never.” Her eyes snapped open and landed on the face of a handsome stranger. He had a square face with cropped blond hair and deep blue eyes. His mouth was pressed together in a hard line, but his lips still looked pink and full.

“Do I know you?” She seemed to recognize him. No, she’d never seen his handsome face before. “I feel like I know you.”

“That’s because I’m yours.” Simple words spoken with no trace of flirtation or humor. She felt his words wrap around her heart and knew that if he ever left her, her heart would simply stop beating.

She was tired. Too tired to wonder how strange this all was.

“Okay.” She smiled at the nameless man who said he was hers and let her fatigue bring her the peace of sleep.

* * * *

“Well. That went well,” Asher said. He turned to glare at Wes, watching as his younger brother pulled on a pair of sweats Jason had brought in for him.

“It actually went better than when Michael shifted in front of Bethany,” Jason said. He adjusted the IV and walked out without supplying any further information.

“Thanks, Jason,” Barrett said. “A little advice would be helpful. His mating obviously worked out fine. They have a cub and everything now.”

“I’ll be on my way,” Axel said. “Hunter wants to talk to her when she wakes up. We need to find the fucker who did this to her. If it’s a wolf shifter, Finn can find his pack and inform his Alpha. He needs to be stopped.”

“I’m sorry,” Wes said. He perched his butt on the narrow exam bed and caressed Jade’s legs through the blanket. “I just lost it when I saw what that wolf had done to her. Do you think she knows about shifters?”

“She does now,” Asher said. He adjusted his camouflage shirt and dirt rained down onto the exam room floor. They’d come straight in off a sniper training session and they all still had varying amounts of camouflage face paint smeared on their faces.

“Maybe she’ll think she was dreaming,” Troy said hopefully. “Or just not remember it at all.”

“Why would we want that?” Barrett asked. “We need to tell her about shifters anyway. This way she already knows.”

“Yes,” Asher said. Seeing the giant flaw in Barrett’s argument. “But she may think all shifters are barbarians who tie up women and beat them to within an inch of their lives.”

Barrett nodded solemnly. “Well, she likes me. I could feel it.”

“Oh well, that will fix everything,” Asher said. “We can all relax now that she likes Barrett.”

“Asshole,” Barrett mumbled, but Asher saw the smile on his face. He should let Barrett have his time in the sun.

Women didn’t usually warm to the big stuntman. They fucked him easy enough. He was tall, broad chested with muscles on his muscles. But they just wanted him for a quick tumble in the hay. Literally, most of the time, as hay was used a lot on the movie sets. None seemed to stay long enough to glimpse the gentle side of the big man. He was a true romantic with an English literature degree. Asher was glad their Jade seemed to have seen into Barrett’s soul already.

“Why don’t you all go and wash up,” Asher said. “We all look pretty frightening with our war paint on. Except for Barrett, of course.” He punched Barrett’s shoulder and pulled a chair next to Jade’s bedside as his brothers each kissed her hand before leaving the room.

“Well, Jade. That just leaves the two of us. We may as well use this time to get to know each other a little better.”

He took Jade’s hand and licked along the marks marring her delicate wrist. The taste of her blood sent fire coursing through his veins. She was addicting and he found he craved more of her instantly. He closed his eyes to pull his cat back under his control. The throbbing in his cock was a distraction that made the task that much more difficult.

“Well, that was a welcome surprise, little one. You taste more delicious than you smell.” Asher did what he knew best. He talked. He’d made a good living with his eloquence and he fell back into the safety of that habit as he struggled to understand how anyone would hurt his beautiful mate.

He talked nonstop as he scrolled through her MySpace account. After nearly half an hour of reading about her friends, her car, and even her apartment, he scrolled through the folder containing all the images of her paintings.

“You’re a talented artist, Jade. Your paintings capture not just the landscape you were painting, but how much you enjoyed being there. Even how you felt on that particular day.”

“You can’t tell that from a painting,” she whispered.

Asher froze. He’d started this conversation and he feared if he changed the topic to “By the way you’re mated to four shifters” she’d scream herself into unconsciousness again.

“Take this one,” he said, turning the phone around to show her a painting of a night sky over the desert. It was dated only two weeks ago.

“You feel free and happy. You love the way the night turns so cold in the desert and how each night it cleanses away the heat to start fresh the next day. Like wiping the slate clean.”

Her small gasp had him closing his eyes to stop his cat showing in his burning amber eyes. He’d bet that she’d gasp like that as he wrapped his mouth around her nipple for the first time. He filed that sound away to compare later when he fulfilled that particular fantasy.

“I do. I did feel like that,” Jade said softly. “Do another.”

“This one here” —he turned the phone again to show her the ocean scene —“was a happy day that later turned sad. You’d enjoyed the sun and probably the warm water. But when night came the joy left and you felt alone and desolate. You needed company. I would be there for you next time if you’d ever like to return to this spot.”

“You would?”

“I’d actually like to see how you’d paint the exact same scene when I was there with you. After the crowds had all left I’d hold you in my arms, and we’d look at the stars together. We’d listen to the waves as we kissed each other senseless. Then you could paint the scene again.”

“That sounds nice. But I don’t usually hug and kiss men whose names I don’t even know.”

He went to speak, but she pressed a finger over his lips. “Do one more. I remember your name now. Asher.”

“I have only looked at a dozen or so of your paintings, but I keep going back to this one. It’s my favorite. In fact I think no matter how many of your paintings I see, and I want to see them all, this one will remain my favorite.”

He turned the phone to face her and her eyes widened slightly in surprise.

“This particular scene of a forest at night, tells me so much. You were tired by the time you started the panting. You’d probably hiked all day to find the exact spot for the night’s work. You were thirsty and hungry. Perhaps you’d dropped your food or forgotten to pack it.”

“I’d walked for half the day before I found I’d left all the food and my canteen in my car. I was too stubborn to go back and miss the clear night ahead.”

“Well. When you came upon this clearing it was already dusk. You drank from the stream in the picture, maybe even bathed in it to wash off the sweat from the day’s hike.” Her small gasp made him smile.

“So, you skinny-dipped. How daring, Jade.”

Her laughter danced over his senses and opened a door in his heart that he had always kept closed. He’d wanted to keep a part of himself for his mate alone. It had prevented him from feeling so many things and now he was swamped by emotions. Jade was the key that opened his heart. All the feelings of love, warmth, and caring poured from his soul and wrapped around her. He would die without her now. Even without them formally mating she now held his life in her hands.

“I might have. Keep going.”

“When the sun set you picked up your brush and just stared for hours at the forest, the stream, the changing colors of the sky. However, it wasn’t until you saw the cougar that you started to paint. You hadn’t realized you’d been waiting for something. Waiting for him. Once he was there the scene was complete and you no longer felt alone.”

“Yes,” she breathed.

“He sat and waited for you to finish your painting. You told yourself he was curious to see the finished work, so you turned it around to show him. When you turned it back he was gone. You felt sad again once he was gone, and you quickly signed your name and left the clearing. You’ve never gone back there again.”

“Was it you, Asher?”

Asher finally looked at Jade, uncaring that his eyes were now glowing amber with his unmasked cat. She didn’t scream. She didn’t even flinch.

“Were you that cougar?”

“If I had been, there is not a force on this earth that could have stopped me from shifting and taking you in my arms to fill the loneliness in your soul.”

“What about you? Have you been lonely, Asher?”

“I never knew how much. But with you looking into my soul I can feel the loneliness of the last seven decades threatening to crush me.”

“So old. You don’t look much older than sixty.” Jade smiled and pulled her hand out from his light grasp to stroke down his line-free cheek. “I don’t want you to be lonely, Asher.”

“Then stay with me forever.” He laid open his soul for her to see. “Can you feel me, too, Jade? I’m yours.”

Asher felt his heart stop. Hell, it felt as though the Earth had stopped rotating on its axis as she stared into his eyes. Her magnificent pale green eyes searched his with a steady gaze. He found himself praying that she found him worthy because he knew he’d die if she walked away from him.

“Yes.” Her simple answer would have been enough had her eyes not clouded with fear. Her scent soured, and he guessed she was remembering the last time she’d trusted a man. A shifter.

“We’re not like him,” Asher said, drawing her back to the present. Back to this room. Back to him. “Not one of my pride has ever hurt a woman, especially their mate. When we find our mate we dispel a special scent that makes our mate notice us, want to know us. Even if she is human she will feel the pull.”

“Will I feel like I know you, when I know I don’t?”

“Our kind lives a long time because only one mate will ever be born for us and it can take centuries to find them. To find the one who is perfect, who can carry our young, who can see into our hearts.”

“Is that why you can see into my paintings?”

Asher nodded. He was losing focus as she stared at him with her beautiful eyes shining with guileless honesty.

“No one has ever seen so much of me from my work.”

“No one can see you the way your mates can,” Troy said.

Jade turned her head slowly and didn’t scream when she saw his three brothers standing by the doorway. They all had sparks of amber glittering in their eyes. Their cats ached to be recognized and accepted by their mate, as his had been.

“I’m sorry I scared you when I shifted. I was angry when I saw what the wolf had done to your back. I’m Wes Pollock, this is my brother Troy.”

“No one should have been subjected to the ordeal you’ve lived through,” Troy said.

“Especially not you,” Wes finished.

Jade turned back to Asher, a tear leaking from her eye. “I can feel you all.”

“That’s another shifter thing, little one,” Asher said. He gently kissed her bruised lower lip, rage burning hotly that someone had hit this wonderful woman. “Brothers often share a mate because they are so rare and special.”

“We have been blessed by fate to have the most beautiful woman ever created as our mate,” Barrett said, walking to Jade’s side and picking up her other hand.

“You told her?” Melanie said. “Shit. Are you all right…”

“Jade,” Wes said. “Our mate’s name is Jade.”

“Out. All of you get out now.”

Melanie made shooing movements with her arms, her face growing red as her anger rose. Asher found himself rising to follow her orders. She may have been five feet tall, but she was married to a seven-foot Alpha. No one messed with Finn Frederick.

“We’ll be outside while Melanie talks to you,” Asher said, searching Jade’s face for any sign of anxiety. Her eyes were sparkling with her amusement. “It’s not funny, Jade. Her husband is our Alpha.”

“A really big Alpha,” Barrett said. He quickly kissed Jade’s forehead and left the room.

Wes and Troy followed Barrett’s lead, kissing Jade softly and running from the room as Melanie impatiently tapped her little foot.

“We have exceptional hearing,” Asher said. “Whisper our names and we’ll be here in a heartbeat.”

“Do you think I’m a danger to your mate, Asher Pollock?”

Melanie stared daggers at him as he kissed Jade’s hand and ran from the room. Asher skidded to a halt a mere inch from Finn’s imposing form as he blocked the hallway.

“Do you recall the decree I made regarding human mates?”

Asher saw his brothers all shaking their heads behind Finn. Stupid pups. Finn would scent a lie. He would just have to spin the truth into something that didn’t make it sound like he’d just told a human all about shifters. He swallowed and began to talk.

Chapter 5

Jade watched the unusual exchange as the four huge men scurried from the room because a small woman had ordered them to. The woman was beautiful, and she was bristling with anger, but she was far from imposing.

“Those idiots,” Melanie said. “What with everything you must have been through already, the last thing you need right now is to be terrified by the reality of shape shifters.”

Jade shuddered as she recalled exactly how terrified she had been when that reality had been revealed to her. The four brothers’ revelation had not been nearly as terrifying as Beau’s exhibition of his dual nature.

“I’m so sorry,” Melanie said softly. She knelt on the chair Asher had just vacated, and squeezed her hand gently. “I’m sorry. My yelling at your men is probably making this worse. Please, no one here would ever hurt you. You’re a priceless gift to the Pollock men, and to our whole pride. We’re destined to be your family now. I loved you the moment I saw you on the street, all battered and alone.”

Jade shuddered again as the memory of staggering down a small alley looking for somewhere to hide played through her mind. “I was so cold and so tired.”

“You were so cold I feared you’d die,” Melanie said. The small hitch in her voice pulled Jade from her memory to stare at the woman.

“You found me?” Melanie nodded as she sniffed back some tears. “You saved me. Thank you, Melanie.” Melanie squeezed her hand and Jade winced at the pain that shot up her arm.

“Crap,” Melanie said, releasing her hand and holding up her hands. “You’re bruised everywhere. I didn’t mean to. I forgot.”

“I’m sorry. It only hurt a little,” Jade said, guilt at hurting the kind and caring woman making tears fill and overflow from her eyes. She didn’t have the strength to wipe them away, so they ran down her face unchecked.

“Shh, Jade,” Melanie said. “Your men are right outside the door. They won’t be able to go any farther away from you for a while now. Can we talk a little bit before they all rush back in here?”

Jade opened her mouth to deny that she was sad and missing the four men she’d just met. But she realized that was exactly how she was feeling.

“How did you know what I was feeling?”

“Just a little over two years ago I was a nurse working in the emergency department when I was attacked by a cougar. My husband, Hunter, is a policeman and when he came to interview me he found I was his mate. I knew nothing of shifters, mates, vampires, all of it, back then.”

Jade mouthed the word vampire and Melanie nodded.

“But once I had met Hunter and his three brothers I felt connected to them and didn’t want to be away from them. Finding out they were shape shifters was a relief really. It meant I wasn’t crazy for falling in love with four men in the space of twenty-four hours.”

“I’m not in love,” Jade said. “Does that mean I’m not a mate?”

“You’re not in love yet, Jade,” Melanie said, smiling until her green eyes sparkled. “How would you feel if they all left and were never coming back?”

Jade knew for certain now that shape shifters existed. She’d seen Wes change into a cougar, then back into a man. But she wasn’t at all sure she was this enigmatic mate that everyone seemed to think she was.

Jade closed her eyes and thought about the four Pollock brothers driving away in a big truck. They didn’t turn back and wave. They just drove away. Out of her life forever.

“Jade, Jade. Stop.”

Jade could barely hear Melanie over the sound of wracking sobs and banging.

“I was just saying that as an example. They’re right outside. They’ll never leave you. Never.”

“Let me in there,” Troy shouted.

“Stand back.”

A voice boomed so loudly that Jade’s bones vibrated and glass jars rattled on the shelves. Complete silence followed and Jade wondered if she’d been rendered deaf by the acoustic assault.

“That’s my husband, Finn,” Melanie said, drawing Jade’s gaze back to her. She gently dabbed at Jade’s face with a tissue. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you like that.”

Jade was stunned. The pain in her chest made it clear she’d been the one crying out. She’d aggravated her broken ribs and they stung and burned.

“I don’t want them to go,” she said. Tears filled her eyes at the mere thought of it and it confused the hell out of her. “What’s wrong with me?”

“Nothing, Jade. You’re perfect. You’re their mate. They feel the same way about you. That’s what you’ve been feeling. Their mating musk wraps around you and lets you feel their attraction on a soul-deep level.”

“That’s exactly how I feel. The attraction part. I have no idea what the rest of your explanation meant,” Jade said. Melanie smiled at her and nodded. “You know because you felt the same?” Melanie nodded again. “Mating musk?”

“It’s something that happens to them when they meet their mates. It makes them smell good.” Melanie tilted her head and waited for her to respond.

“They smell amazing.” Jade admitted.

“They pack quite a punch.”

Melanie winced and paled as her words hung in the air between them. Jade knew she was going to have to talk about it to someone, and even though they’d only just met, she felt a kinship with this woman. Perhaps because they shared similar experiences, or maybe because she’d saved Jade’s life.

“His name is Beau. I met him at the diner I work at in Duckwater.” Melanie nodded and gently wrapped Jade's hand in both of hers.

“He asked me out for a couple of weeks before I finally said yes. I like to paint. I’ve been traveling around the country, working in odd jobs so I’d have enough to live on and buy art supplies. I paint landscapes mostly. Anyway, we had drinks a couple of times, then went to dinner once. He started to change and it scared me. So I told him I didn’t want to see him anymore.”

“Did you know that he was a wolf shifter?”

“He’s a wolf? How do you know that?”

“Barrett scented wolf on you. Shifters have the enhanced senses of their animal, even when they’re human.”

“No. I didn’t know what he was. He started to become obsessive about knowing where I was and who I was with every second of the day. He would check up on me at work by dropping in or calling Mac, the owner, to see if I was there.”

“Did he tell you why he was doing that?” Melanie’s brows were furrowed.

“No, and I found it strange considering we’d only gone out a few times and I’d made it clear I didn’t want to see him anymore. I was there to paint, and he wasn’t someone I needed to waste my time on.”

“I assume he didn’t take the hint?”

“He continued to come in or he sent his friends, Harry and Justin, to check up on me. Justin is a big man, like Beau. They both scared me with the way they looked at me. One night, I think it must be nearly a week ago, I was out in the desert painting when they all showed up.”

Jade closed her eyes and tried to calm her racing heart. “They just appeared out of the darkness. It was terrifying. Beau was so angry. His eyes, his eyes seemed to be… They were…”

“Glowing red,” Melanie supplied.

Jade nodded and opened her eyes to look at Melanie. She didn’t want to see his face again. It was there when she closed her eyes. Every time she closed her eyes.

“You don’t have to tell me,” Melanie said, her eyes filling with sympathetic tears.

She was a compassionate woman, and Jade knew she needed to talk about it if she ever hoped to heal from the ordeal.

“I don’t think there’s another person in the whole world as kind as you, Melanie. If you don’t mind, I think I’d like to tell it all to you.”

Melanie nodded and took a deep breath, wiping at her own tears with the back of her hand.

“Beau accused me of seeing another man. He, his face. It seemed to change. It seemed as though his teeth grew bigger. I saw the thick black hair on his arms as he tried to choke me.”

The sound of wood breaking was accompanied by snarling and howling. Jade would have been frightened had Melanie not calmly patted her arm and smiled at her.

“All shifters have excellent hearing and your men are going to be very angry as you describe how you were abused.”

Jade actually felt sorry for the men. “Should I not say any more?” she whispered.

More growling from the hallway was instantly silenced by a deafening roar.

“Finn thinks it best that you continue. My husband, Hunter, is also out there with them and he’s the sheriff of Eminence. He’ll take all this down as your official statement. That way you don’t have to talk about it all over again. Unless you want to.”

“That’s so nice of you all.” Jade’s tears started to trickle down her face again. “I don’t think I’ve ever met such generous people.”

“We’re going to be best friends, Jade. I’ll be crying on your shoulder one day.”

“I woke up tied to the radiator in the loft I rent.” Jade looked straight into Melanie’s eyes, and felt as though she were drawing strength from her new friend. Melanie already felt like a friend.

“Beau would alternate between glaring at me for hours and then beating me as he accused me of sleeping with other men. Then he would threaten to share me with his friends.”

Jade paused for the sound of distress from the hallway, but there was only silence. Her heart sped up as she imagined the four men whose arms she wanted around her, protecting her, having left her alone.

“They’re still there,” Melanie said softly. Correctly reading the panic in her heart. “Finn is their Alpha and has ordered them to be silent because they were making this harder for you. They’re incapable of disobeying him. It’s a shifter thing.”

“How do you know?” Jade relaxed at the reassurance that the men were there, even though she wished she could hear them.

Melanie tapped her head. “They can communicate telepathically when they’re cats. I can talk to my mates that way if they’re shifted. My husband, Dane, is out there as his cat. He’s telling me what’s happening. And that he loves me.”

Jade laughed softly, then gasped at the pain in her ribs. If she wanted the Pollock men back in here she had to finish telling Melanie’s husband, Hunter, what had happened.

“How many husbands do you have?” Melanie had named three already.

“Four. Cooper was with me when I found you. He picked you up and brought you here to Jason’s home. Jason is the town doctor.”

So Melanie had four husbands, too. Jade drew on more of the small woman’s strength, and accepted the feelings of kinship she already felt toward Melanie. She would finish telling this and then never think of Beau and his friends ever again. The pain growing steadily worse in her abdomen and chest made her realize she was going to be thinking of them no matter how hard she tried not to.

“My sister, Amber, called me every day. But I couldn’t reach the phone. After I had missed two shifts at work my boss came by. Luckily Beau and his friends were out buying more beer. I called for help and Mac, my boss, broke in. I was mortified that he was seeing me naked and bleeding, but was also relieved that someone would free me.”

“Wait,” Melanie said, her tone tight and her brows drawn together. “Why didn’t this Mac person call the police? Take you to a hospital? Why did you end up freezing to death on the street in another state?”

“It was so strange.” Jade was glad that Melanie found Mac’s behavior odd, too. “Mac asked if Beau was the one who had tied me up, and when I said yes he started to panic. He nearly left me there. I’m certain he wanted to.”

“No.” Melanie looked horrified.

“He pulled a knife from his boot, cut me loose, and sprayed perfume all over the place. He put some cash on my kitchen table and told me to run. Then he ran out of my apartment like I had the plague.”

The door to the room burst open and a huge blond man entered. “Why wasn’t I told my patient had woken up again?”

“Jade, this is Jason. He’s the doctor I was telling you about. He’s also a shifter,” Melanie said.

“Out,” Jason said simply.

Jade heard a rumbled growl coming from the doorway. But Melanie just smiled sweetly and patted her hand again.

“He’s right of course,” Melanie said. “Sorry, Jason. We should have sent for you immediately. Jade’s health is more important than finding the sadistic fuck of a wolf who imprisoned and beat the living shit out of her.”

Jade smiled at Melanie and she would have laughed had the pain in her ribs not been warning her not to. The hugest man Jade had ever seen appeared out of nowhere behind Melanie. Jade opened her mouth about to warn her, but Melanie just winked at her.

“Sweetness, you are pushing me,” he said, picking Melanie up and kissing the top of her head.

“Finn, this is my new friend, Jade.”

“Please,” Jason said.

Jade turned and saw that Jason was pinching the bridge of his nose as he shook his head. A blur moved through the door before it slammed shut. Melanie’s voice grew softer as she called out a good-bye.

“Jade. I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you woke. I’m worried you have some internal bleeding. May I examine you?”

Jade was suddenly painfully aware of each and every ache in her body. Her time with Asher, and then Melanie, had distracted her mind and dulled the pain. She needed him back here. She couldn’t do this alone. She needed them all back.

* * * *

Troy had never felt such rage and helplessness. He and Wes had lived their whole lives in sheltered comfort until they’d come here to Samson’s training camp six months ago. They’d lived at home in the loving bosom of their family and then in their spacious penthouse apartment in New York as their computer design company grew to be a global success.

He didn’t consider himself spoiled or entitled. He and Wes cared little for the luxuries of wealth. It simply enabled them to do things more efficiently. The chauffeur-driven cars and the private jets simply enabled them to keep working while they traveled to the necessary meetings and business events.

“I don’t like Doc being alone in there with our mate,” Troy said, watching Finn take Melanie down the corridor. No matter how stupid he knew the feeling to be, it was still how he felt. Doc was happily mated and no threat to their mate, but he still felt like he wanted to kill him for touching Jade.

“I’m not surprised,” Hunter said. “After just hearing exactly what she’s been through your cats must be frantic to be with her.

“That’s exactly how I feel,” Wes said.

“He went through this when Melanie was abducted by that rogue,” Troy said. “He understands.”

“Can I please have them here,” Jade said softly.

Troy was closest to the door and flung it open before being propelled inside by the weight of Barrett’s massive frame at his back.

“Please, come right in,” Jason said. No humor lacing his tone. “Where are you feeling the most pain, Jade?”

Troy moved to stand by Jade’s side, as did his brothers. He managed to get to her right hand first, and he held it loosely in his, rubbing reassuringly as she smiled at him briefly before telling Jason where she was feeling pain. As his fingers caressed her, the pleasurable sensations spread up his arm until his whole body felt electric.

“Nothing I’ve ever experienced before compares to touching our mate,” Troy told Wes through their link.

“It’s not what I expected,” Wes said. “It’s far better. Infinitely better.”

Jason became exceedingly frustrated with having to keep moving one or more of them out of his way as he examined Jade. But none of them paid him the slightest notice. They were all completely focused on Jade’s needs and trying to make Jason’s thorough examination as painless as possible for her.

“I can’t tell if that fucker raped her,” Wes said. “Her stomach, back, and thighs are so bruised he could have.”

“She didn’t tell Melanie that he did,” Troy said, supporting Jade in his arms as Jason sutured the deepest of the lacerations to her back. “I’m going to kill him.”

“You’re doing great, Jade,” Troy reassured her. “Just lean into me. I won’t let you fall.”

“And I’m going to help you kill him,” Asher said. Shocking both of them.

Jade shuddered as Jason applied antibiotic ointment down all of the claw marks.

“I’m sorry you have to do this. I’m not normally so pathetic.” She buried her head in his chest, her hot tears scalding him through his shirt.

Jade froze as they all growled at her self-deprecation, even Jason. Troy’s cat was tearing at his insides with its impotent fury. Troy and his cat were in total agreement. They wanted to kill the wolf who was such a coward he beat up women, even when they were tied up and defenseless.

“You are certainly not pathetic,” Barrett said, the rumble in his voice showing his cat slipping Barrett’s control. “I think you have more injuries right now than I sustained in my entire thirty-year career as a stuntman. The time I broke a few ribs I cried like a baby for hours.”

No one spoke for the remainder of the examination until Jason wheeled Jade from the room to perform another scan of her chest and abdomen.

“Who fucking does that to someone? Especially a woman.” Troy closed the door to the exam room. He didn’t want Jade hearing him.

“A coward,” Asher said. “Prisons are full of people just like this Beau.”

“Do you think he’s going to come looking for her?” Wes asked.

Troy hadn’t yet considered that possibility, and from the shock on Barrett’s face, neither had he.

“Fuck me. Do you think he will?” Barrett asked Asher.

Troy and Wes both looked at Asher as well. He among them had the most experience with demented criminals, even if they were mostly of the human variety.

“I need to find out this asshole’s last name before I speak with Hunter and Dane. Then we can find out if he has any priors in Nevada, or anywhere really. It’s not something I’m willing to guess at with the limited information we have.”

“Then we assume the worst, and don’t let Jade out of our sight,” Barrett said.

“I have no intention of letting her out of my sight,” Troy said. “Not ever.”

* * * *

Beau straightened and shook the blood from his hands as he walked the length of the cave to emerge into the bright sunlight outside. Beau looked at his blood-spattered clothes and smiled as he let his claws extend. He sliced his jeans and shirt until they lay shredded at his feet.

“Did he tell you where she went?” Justin asked.

Justin was sitting on the tailgate of Beau’s truck, drinking his way through a bottle of Jack. Beau’s bottle of Jack.

“She wouldn’t have gotten away if you hadn’t suggested we buy more beer,” Harry said. “And I was looking forward to us having a nice party when we got back. Right, Beau?”

Beau regarded his two friends, his pack, and wondered why he hadn’t killed them already for being so annoying.

“Did Mac tell you anything or not?” Justin persisted, ignoring Harry completely.

“The bus took her east. So we go east. She was far too damaged not to have left a trail for you to follow, Harry.”

That was why Beau hadn’t killed them. They each had extraordinary talents, even for wolves, and had wasted those talents until Beau had found a use for them. Beau struck a match and tossed it onto his shredded clothes.

Mac had been an idiot to think perfume would mask his scent from a wolf like Harry. Harry’s sense of smell was the best Beau had encountered in his two centuries of life. That’s why he’d tolerated the shifter since they’d met in the county lock-up some forty years ago.

Beau walked to his truck and retrieved his duffel from the backseat. He pulled on clean clothes, ignoring the drying blood on his face and arms. He’d wash later when they had a location for the bitch who’d slipped away.

“When we find her,” Justin said, his lust scenting the air with his musk. “She’s going to be ours.”

“As your Alpha, I’ll assume that was meant as a question.” Beau watched Justin’s wolf reluctantly submit. “Don’t make me regret letting you live the last time you challenged me.”

Beau walked away as Justin bared his neck to him. Justin was much bigger and stronger than him as a wolf, but if Beau drugged him, he’d be able to defeat him. He was replaceable and Beau was now on the lookout for that replacement. Justin was going to regret challenging him.

Chapter 6

Jade felt as though she were floating on a soft cloud, her pain of the last few days a mere memory. She’d reluctantly agreed to have the sedation that Jason had suggested, and she was so happy she had. Any previous pain medication she’d ever taken made her vomit uncontrollably. Jason had promised her she’d be fine. He was right. She was most definitely feeling fine.

“I’ll tell Jade my findings when she wakes, but I will tell you that she doesn’t require surgery,” Jason said.

Jade felt both of her hands tingle, and knew that two of the men—her men, that’s what Melanie had called them—had just taken her hand in theirs. Now the pain was gone, she could appreciate the way they were making her feel. The way they made her want. Want their touch.

“We can’t take her back with us.” Jade heard Asher’s voice and tried to follow what he was saying.

“I’d rather die than do that,” Barrett said.

Jade’s chest began to hurt as her heart seemed to swell. She held her breath and waited to hear Wes and Troy stand up for her.

“Where can we take her?” Troy said.

“I don’t want anyone to see her,” she heard Wes say. He even growled a little.

Jade couldn’t believe she’d been so monumentally naive. She was obviously too stupid to live. They’d all seemed so genuine. She’d believed everything they’d told her. Believed that they were different from Beau Rennie of Duckwater, Nevada. She was done with men. All men.

Jade stopped fighting the pull of Jason’s pain medication. She’d conserve her strength, because when the drugs were out of her system she was going to get the fuck out of this crazy town. She allowed the drugs to suck her under into a pain-free oblivion.

As soon as Jade came awake she forced her eyes to open. Darkness. Blinking several times she determined that the room was dark. Laying as still as possible she focused on the room around her with all her senses.

Silence. No rustling of clothes. No sound of breathing. The pain medication had worn off and her ribs were burning. Her wrists and ankles stung and her back felt like lava was running over it. Lifting her left hand she felt something tug, and reached over with her other hand to feel what was there. A plastic tube. An IV.

Locating the edge of the plastic dressing that protected the entry site, she picked it off, pulling the IV free of her skin in one tug.

“Nothing is going to keep me here,” she mumbled as she held her breath and put her hands behind her to push herself up.

“Going somewhere, darlin’,” a soft voice rasped.

“Shit.” Jade rested back on one elbow and clutched at her chest with her free hand, trying to calm her racing heart. “I think my heart just stopped.”

A light flicked on and she saw Barrett walking toward her from the doorway. He stood well over six feet tall, his solid frame bulky with hard muscles. His blue eyes blazed at her, his unkempt blond hair shining like a halo around his head. He looked like an archangel on a mission from God herself.

“Well, were you going someplace?”

“I was…” Jade tried and tried to say that she was going to the bathroom.

“I was…” She tried again, but the words wouldn’t form. Her tongue stopped working. What drugs did that stupid doctor inject me with?

She tried some different words. “I needed to go…”

“There’s two things you need to understand about shifters and their mates, Jade. I’ll tell you what they are before you attempt to answer my question again.”

Jade glared at the arrogant bastard who dared to look pissed off. It was her they’d all lied to. Her whose emotions they’d toyed with like she was some damned mouse their cats enjoyed playing with.

“The first is that shifters can scent a lie. Emotions all have distinct aromas that our sensitive noses can discern. Easily.” He was slowly creeping closer to the bed.

“The second thing is that true mates, that being you and I, as well as Asher, Wes, and Troy, are incapable of lying to each other. We have the potential to spend three centuries together. Nature knew that lies only led to discord in a mating, so she very wisely took that ability away from us.”

Jade believed him. Barrett looked very much like a predatory big cat stalking its prey. His blue eyes changed to a glowing amber color.

“Now, would you like me to repeat my question, or do you remember it?”

“Oh, I remember it, you big bully.” Jade let loose her anger before she succumbed to the fear the huge man instilled as he loomed over her. “So the humans can’t lie in a mating. How very nice for the lying bastards nature deemed to match her with.”

“You haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting my parents, so let me assure you that even Asher, as the eldest of the said ‘lying bastards’ you referred to, was conceived well and truly after our parents were legally wed. We’re not bastards, darlin’.”

“Well fine. Big, fat, lying, mountain lions. Better?”

“Not much, actually. Where were you going, Jade?”

“You’re so bossy.” She tried not to look away from his penetrating gaze. She needed to ignore the effect he was having on her. “I was getting away from here. I heard you all say you didn’t want me and that you didn’t want anyone to see me.”

Barrett’s nostrils flared and his eyes glowed brighter.

“I had no trouble saying that, so you know I’m not lying. Care to explain how you managed to lead me on with all your ‘mates are forever,’ ‘I’m yours, Jade,’ bullshit.”

Barrett had lifted her into his arms and had her plastered against his rock-hard chest before she even saw him move. Jade gasped in surprise and Barrett gently lowered his mouth to hers and licked her dry, damaged lips so softly she barely felt it. But, boy, did she taste it. Her nipples hardened and her pussy clenched. Her clit swelled and throbbed as the look in his eyes drove her desire higher.

“Do you still doubt anything I’ve said to you…while you were fully awake?”

She had to concede she’d been under the influence of narcotics. The way he was staring at her showed the depth of his desire for her. More than desire. He looked like he was starving for her. An intoxicating smell of male and pine washed over her. As she breathed the scent deep into her lungs she felt her anger drain away.

Jade relaxed against Barrett and allowed herself to enjoy the warmth of his huge arms banded around her. She unconsciously ran her hands over his chest, and his muscles twitched as he breathed out a low moan.

It was a moan of raw pleasure, as though she’d just stroked his cock, not his chest. A carnal and undeniably sexual sound. He was just as affected by her touch, as she was by his. More evidence of how she affected him pressed into her mound as his cock lengthened and thickened. She licked her dry lips as she met his burning gaze.

“Oh, Jade. I want that tongue on me as soon as you’re healed.” He smiled mischievously. “And this misunderstanding is sorted out.”

She opened her mouth to deny that she’d been mistaken and he raised an eyebrow at her.

“All mates are incapable of lying. Being a shifter does not make us exempt.” Barrett’s brows furrowed slightly. “I think I know what you’re confused about.”

“So you admit you said you don’t want…” He silenced her again with a raised eyebrow. “That’s not going to work forever, Barrett.”

“At least you’re admitting we’ll have forever.”

Shit. He was dangerous. Sexy and dangerous.

“When you were finished with the scan, but still asleep, or so we thought. We were discussing where we could all live. The four of us are currently living in the bunkhouse outside of Jason’s home. We share said bunkhouse with three other shifter males. We didn’t think it was a feasible option that we all live there. We don’t want any man to ever see your gorgeous naked body but us.

“You live in a bunkhouse?”

“We all returned to Eminence —that’s the name of our town—a few months ago to train as soldiers for the pride. We each had separate lives, our own careers. Asher is a lawyer. Wes and Troy are computer geeks and…”

“You were a stuntman. I remember that bit.” Barrett kissed the end of her nose. “That was before I was given the mind-altering drugs.” Jade shuddered. “I hate drugs. Never again.”

“I think I’m inclined to agree with you on that.” Barrett sighed and she felt his body tense again. She’d hurt him.

“Is there anything else you’re worried about? I don’t ever want you running off. You can ask me anything. Ask any of us anything. Not only would we not lie to you, we’re incapable of it.”

“Are you a virgin?” Jade forced a smile, hoping her cheeky question would ease some of his hurt.

“No, Jade, I’m not.”

Her smile was no longer forced as he grinned wickedly at her.

“Are you a virgin, Jade?”

Shit. I clearly hadn’t thought that through.

“No, Barrett. I’m not.” Jade felt her cheeks heat and knew her pale skin was now stained a deep red with her embarrassed blush.

“See, no lies, darlin’.”

“I’m sorry you were hurt, Jade. Even though it was the fault of the drugs. I don’t want you to ever feel sad.”

His teasing smile was gone. His expression shone with warmth and sincerity. Maybe even love.

She didn’t trust her voice, so she wrapped her arms around him. They reached to his armpits. As she relaxed against him she took a deep, calming breath.

“You smell nice.”

A growl rumbled through his chest, vibrating against her nipples and making them stiffen into painful peaks.

“Thank you. But you have no idea how incredibly delicious you smell, my Jade. Like caramel creams, and sex. Delicious.”

Jade knew she was probably blushing even more, but ignored it. An overwhelming fatigue was sweeping through her.

“I’m so tired, Barrett.”

“Sleep, my Jade. I have you. I’ll always have you.”

His voice was deep and smooth, the timbre a pleasurable rumble that resonated through her body. This time as she let sleep claim her she was content in her belief that her men were there for her. As she allowed herself to open her heart she felt their love. They loved her.

* * * *

Wes followed Asher and Troy as their cats sprinted through the forest toward their parents’ home. He hated being away from Jade, but was strangely content knowing Barrett was there with her. It felt like he’d left a piece of himself there with her.

“I feel the same,” Troy said. He stopped beside Asher as they stood on the rocky outcrop above their parents’ property. The snow had blanketed the trees and paddocks in a covering of snow. The sky was filled with pale lavender snow clouds as the sun sat low on the horizon. It looked like a postcard, but to Wes, it would always be home.

“I think she’s going to cement a new bond between the four of us,” Asher said. He shook the snow from his coat as he leapt off the outcrop.

“Fuck.” Wes ran to the edge of the hundred-foot drop, expecting to see Asher plummeting to the rocks below. What he saw was just as startling.

“How the fuck did he do that?” Troy asked. Wes just moved his head from side to side, incapable of rational thought as his heart pounded painfully in his cougar’s chest.

“You just need to let your cat free to do what it does best.” Asher said.

He and Troy looked at each other. Troy’s cougar had his mouth open and Wes was certain his cat looked equally dumbfounded.

“He’s human,” Troy said. The statement clearly redundant as they were both looking at Asher climbing down the sheer rock face, his hands and feet finding holds that they couldn’t see from this angle.

“And yet he’s still talking to us,” Wes agreed.

Asher was waiting for them on the porch of their family home as they rounded the side of the two-story house. The smug bastard looked immaculately dressed in fatigues and a black T-shirt as he sipped a glass of iced tea and chatted with their parents.

“You better not have told them about Jade yet,” Troy said, a low rumble coming from his cat’s chest as his whiskers pulled back flat against his face.

“We had an agreement, Asher,” Wes added.

“Your distrust wounds me,” Asher said, as he smiled warmly at their mother. “I told you they wouldn’t be long.”

“It’s been two weeks since you all came over to see us. Where’s Barrett? Has Samson got him running some grueling obstacle course again?” their mother, Marguerite, said as she poured two more glasses of iced tea.

Their father, Brett, moved two piles of laundered and neatly folded clothes toward them. Their mother always kept a supply of clothes on hand in case company came calling in their fur, especially her four sons.

Wes shifted and quickly dressed, anxious to tell their parents they’d found their mate. Troy leaned beside him at the railing as all conversation stopped, their parents looking from Asher to them, and back again.

“They’re feeling anxious,” Wes said.

“Smells more like fear.” Asher intruded again on their twin link.

“When we find out what’s scaring our parents I want to know how long you’ve been able to hear our private conversations,” Troy said, glaring at Asher.

“Is it that bad?” Marguerite asked, her voice barely above a whisper as her normally dark complexion paled.

“How badly has Barrett been hurt?” Brett asked. “You all stink of blood and anger.”

“Mom. Dad,” Asher said in his best lawyer voice. “Barrett is fine. More than fine actually. We’re upset because someone dear to us has been badly hurt.”

“But it’s not Barrett,” Wes added before Asher could. He didn’t want their parents getting any more stressed. They’d come to tell them happy news.

“It’s fucking monumentally fantastic news we’ve come to share, Wes, not just happy,” Troy said, speaking out loud in his excitement.

Asher shook his head as Marguerite ran to the twins and embraced them. Troy had spoken out loud, not through their link.

“Your company won the International Business Award again? I told you, Brett. Our sons are geniuses.”

“Mom,” Wes said calmly. He placed his hands on his mother’s shoulders to stop her bouncing on the spot in her excitement. “We did actually, but this is even better news. Please listen while Asher explains.”

Marguerite looked puzzled, but Wes saw a smile spread across his dad’s face. Troy smiled widely and gestured for Asher to start talking.

An hour later Wes struggled to their father’s ute, his arms so loaded with clothes, linen, and cookware that he couldn’t see where he was going.

“This way, ‘gorgeous boy,’” Asher teased, tugging on his elbow and steering him in what Wes hoped was the right direction.

“Don’t start or I’ll tell Barrett what she called you.”

Asher just laughed. Their parents had been thrilled over their mating and had given them an amazing gift. Nothing could dampen his good mood.

“I can’t believe they’ve kept it a secret all these years,” Troy said. “Sorry.”

Troy ran right into Wes, being similarly blinded by several boxes of canned food.

“Should we take all this over to the house now, or wait until we can take Jade there?” Asher asked. “See it for the first time when we’re all together.”

Wes was surprised that Asher had such a soft and sentimental side. He was always so cool, analytical, and logical, it was easy to forget he had a heart as well.

“Mom says they haven’t been over to the old place for several years now,” Troy said. “It will need cleaning. I’d like it perfect when we carry Jade over the threshold.”

Wes put all the supplies in the bed of the truck and pulled out his cell phone. He sent a message to Barrett and had his reply by the time they’d arranged all the boxes of food in the truck.

“Barrett says to go and make it perfect. He doesn’t want Jade to have to do any cleaning when she gets there. I hadn’t thought of that.”

“We can’t even consider mating Jade until she’s healed,” Troy said. “But she’ll be in so much less pain if we mate her, and her injuries would heal in a matter of hours, not weeks.”

They were all silent, trying to find a solution when there really wasn’t one.

Wes’s phone vibrated and he saw Barrett had sent a photo message. Wes gazed at the image for several long seconds, letting it burn permanently onto his retinas. Their gorgeous mate was asleep on Barrett’s chest, a smile on her swollen and bruised lips.

He handed his phone to Asher, who stared at it silently for a few heartbeats, then passed it to Troy.

“We trust in our cats and the mating bond,” Asher said firmly. “Our cats have the instincts we need to care for our mate. They will know exactly what to do, and when to do it, we just have to listen to them.”

Wes could dispute that belief with the argument that the advances in technology and modern medicine were what they should rely on, but he didn’t. He’d seen his brother do some amazing feats in the last few months, the most amazing not two hours ago.

“We aren’t all as in tune with our cats as you, Asher. So we’ll follow your lead, brother.”

Asher smiled at him briefly and nodded. “Let’s go and get our new home ready for our mate. My cat’s sure we’re going to need it very soon.”

Chapter 7

A soft tap to the door had Troy instantly awake. He rose stiffly from the implement of torture the chair was disguised as and walked to the door. He scented both Dane and Hunter Fredrick on the other side.

“Is this official?” Asher asked. He moved to stand beside Troy, his expression severe.

A quick glance over his shoulder showed Troy the worried expressions on Wes’s and Barrett’s faces as their eyes glowed amber in the dim light of the room. Barrett still held a sleeping Jade on his chest, his arms a protective shield against the bad news Troy felt was coming.

“I’ll stay with her,” Wes said. “I’ll be listening.”

Dane and Hunter were looking serious, their anger clear in both their eyes and their scent. Troy and Asher moved out into the hallway, shutting the door behind them. Troy wanted Jade to get as much rest as she could.

“Seeing as the sun’s not up yet, I imagine you have news on Jade’s abuser,” Asher said, the lawyer front and center.

“Yes and no,” Dane said. “Finn is acquainted with the Alpha of the coyote pack in Duckwater. He contacted him yesterday to tell him what the wolf had done to Jade.”

“The Alpha is also the captain of the Tribal police,” Hunter said. “Elan Tsosie is a good man. Their pack is very solitary, they like to avoid local politics and generally keep themselves out of the spotlight.”

“Have they found the wolf who hurt Jade or not?” Troy’s anger was being fueled by the rage Wes was feeling and it was making his cat crazy.

Asher put his hand on Troy’s shoulder. “Just take a few breaths. Jade is with us now. We’ll protect her.”

“We had a rogue hunting Melanie when we first found her,” Dane said. “It got past me to take her.” Dane’s cat moved across his skin in a wave. “I understand what this feels like.”

Troy nodded as Hunter closed his eyes and took a deep breath before continuing. They both understood how hard this was for them.

“Elan and his pack enforcer, Mason, went to her apartment after Finn had contacted them. They could scent wolves as well as finding…”

Troy saw Hunter swallow as his scent of anger grew thicker. “The evidence of Jade’s captivity and abuse.” Troy finished for him as the growls from inside the exam room grew louder.

“Yes, but Elan said the interior of the apartment had been completely destroyed,” Hunter said.

“They weren’t happy when they returned to find Jade was no longer there,” Asher said.

Hunter nodded, his face going stony as he continued. “Elan called Finn first thing this morning. Mason found a body last night in the desert, about ten miles out of town. The native coyotes had been making a meal of it, but the victim was a local human who’d lived in Duckwater his entire life. Mason recognized his scent even though the murderer had gone to great lengths to make his victim unrecognizable. Mason also scented those same wolf shifters.”

“The victim owned the diner Jade worked at,” Asher said. It was a statement not a question, and it had Troy looking to his brother in surprise.

“Why would you even…” Troy stopped speaking as Hunter and Dane remained silent.

Barrett’s snarl of anger had Troy’s cat snarling inside his mind. He didn’t like that there was obviously more to this. Asher and Barrett seemed to understand, but Wes and Troy were completely in the dark.

“The wolf, Beau Rennie, is searching for Jade,” Asher said.

“That’s the conclusion we came to as well,” Hunter said.

“He’d have no reason to torture the human for information on her whereabouts if he didn’t intend to come for her,” Asher said. His brother’s cold-as-ice demeanor at war with Troy’s rising fury.

“Jade’s awake now if Hunter needs any further information on the wolf who hurt her,” Wes said.

“I think Barrett’s displeasure has woken Jade,” Troy said. “Do you need to talk to her about the wolf?”

“Elan has asked us to,” Hunter said.

Wes opened the door to the exam room, and Troy saw Barrett standing outside the door to the room’s bathroom. He was glaring at the door as though it had somehow offended him.

“She won’t let me help her,” Barrett mumbled. “What if she falls and hurts herself?”

Bethany and Jason walked down the corridor toward them, their baby boy asleep in Bethany’s arms.

“Of course she won’t,” Bethany said.

Handing the baby to Jason she took a bundle of clothes from under his arm and moved to stand beside Barrett.

“She’s not ready for you to see her naked.”

“Oh,” Barrett said, his expression softening as he took a step away from the door.

“Jade, my name’s Bethany. I’m Jason’s mate. He’s the doctor who’s been looking after you. I’ve brought some clothes for you to wear.”

Troy saw the door open a crack and Bethany smiled as she opened the door wider and slipped inside, shutting the door behind her.

“I think we should talk in the kitchen,” Jason said, rocking his baby in his arms. “Jade’s human. I’m not sure she’s strong enough for an interrogation right now.”

“I’m afraid I need to insist,” Hunter said. “We have reason to believe the wolf who hurt her is not ready to let her go. We need to be prepared.”

Hunter’s blunt summation of the danger to his mate had Troy losing the fight to stay in control of his cat’s rage. He shifted, roaring his fury. Jade had suffered too much already at the hands of a sadistic shifter. That she faced the prospect of him seeking to inflict further trauma, even just emotional, was too much for him to bear.

“This is what you’ve been training for,” Asher said. “What we’ve all been training for. We’re soldiers for the pride for this very reason. We protect the mates. All of them.”

That fact had become clear a few months ago when Morgan and Bethany’s father had tried to take them from their mates. But Troy hadn’t been protecting his own mate then.

“We’re strong now,” Wes said. “We can do this.”

They had to, because Troy wouldn’t live without her. He wouldn’t want to.

* * * *

Jade was shaking as she heard the snarls and growls of the men in the other room. This was crazy. She was crazy. She’d accepted the fact that there were shape shifters in the world and somehow also accepted that four men, cougars, had a claim on her. Not just because they’d told her this, but because she felt it. She felt it deep inside her. It was as though they’d always been there and life would no longer seem right if she wasn’t with them.

When did I turn into a clingy, dependent woman who couldn’t live without a man? Or men? Dammit, who does this? Falls in love in the space of one night.

One damned night of being in the arms of Barrett Pollock and she never again wanted to sleep without one of them holding her.

All of this raced through her mind as she debated letting the woman called Bethany into the bathroom with her. She wished Melanie were here. She’d felt like this was all normal when Melanie had been explaining it to her.

When she finally opened the door a crack she was surprised to see the face of a woman with creamy pale skin, long blonde hair, and a huge smile. The woman entered and quickly closed the door behind her.

“Hi, Jade, it’s so good to meet you.”

“Bethany?” Jade’s voice hitched as she suddenly felt completely overwhelmed by her pain, hurt, and confusion.

Bethany nodded and stepped forward to wrap her arms around her. Jade returned her embrace, as Bethany patted her back and whispered for her not to cry.

Jade didn’t know how long she cried, but when she stopped she found the catharsis of crying had left her exhausted, but her mood much lighter.

“Thank you, Bethany. I’m not usually prone to fits of crying, but…”

“It’s been a hell of a week,” Bethany finished. “I think you’re entitled to a few tears. Believe me, I understand. All of us mates do.”

“You’re mate to the doctor, Jason, you said?”

“Yes, Jason and his two brothers, Michael and Samson. I bet you’d love a bath right about now?”

Jade sighed and looked longingly at the small bath behind her. She’d been tied to that radiator for days and hadn’t had the opportunity to properly wash the filth off herself yet.

“I washed myself as best I could in the restroom of one of the bus stations. But I was so sore. I must stink.” She suddenly felt mortified that she’d slept all night on top of Barrett. She felt her face heat in embarrassment.

“I have a great sense of smell, so trust me when I say you’re fine. In fact, I know your mates all find your scent delicious.”

That did nothing to halt Jade’s blush.

A short few minutes later Jade was sighing as Bethany helped her to sit in the warm water and antiseptic-scented bubbles of the bath.

“Melanie, Peata, Jordanna, and my sister Morgan, we all found out shifters exist after we met our mates. It’s quite a shock, even without one having hurt you the way he did.”

“Melanie is so lovely. She found me, saved me really.” Jade saw Bethany’s face grow pale.

“She is. I love her like a sister. Peata and Jordanna, too. We have so much more in common than simply being mated to cougars in the same pride. We all had horrible things happen to us. Experienced so much pain before we could be with our wonderful husbands.”

The look on Bethany’s face showed true horror. “Maybe one day we can talk about it,” Jade said softly. “One day when it doesn’t hurt you so much.”

Bethany shuddered and her eyes changed from blue to lavender. A soft glowing lavender.

“I can’t wait for that day to come.” Bethany gave her a weak smile, her eyes fading back to their former pale blue.

“I just showed my cat, didn’t I?”

“You’re a shifter? Does marrying a shifter make you one?” Jade was unsure how she felt about that possibility. But she knew she didn’t want the four Pollock men to ever leave her. If that was what it took she just hoped it didn’t hurt.

“No,” Bethany laughed. “I didn’t know I was a shifter until my men told me I was.”

The water in the bath was cool by the time Bethany finished telling of her childhood in foster care, her years in a mental home, and her eventually finding out who and what she was when her madman of a father came to kidnap her and her newly discovered sister.

“Oh my God, and now you have a baby and three wonderful husbands,” Jade said. “Talk about a happy ending. That was the saddest thing I think I’ve ever heard.”

“Wait until you hear about Jordanna’s life,” Bethany said. “We’ll be crying right along with you. She was attacked by a shifter and it’s left her blind.”

Jade gasped, making her ribs ache horribly, but she would heal and be left with only a few scars, physical and emotional. Her whole life wouldn’t be so monumentally altered.

“That’s terrible. How does someone deal with that?”

“With the unconditional love of her four devoted mates. They have a two-month-old baby boy now, Elijah. He’s adorable. He and my son Stephen are only two months apart in age, they’ll be best friends. I just know they will.”

“Congratulations,” Jade said, as Bethany helped her out of the bath. Jade let her mind absorb everything Bethany had said, everything she continued to say, as she helped her dry off and then get dressed.

Considering the short time Bethany and all the mates had been in Eminence, they’d assimilated quickly to their new lives. Their new realities. The reality that shape shifters, vampires, and even demons, apparently, existed alongside an oblivious human population.

By the time Bethany helped Jade to the kitchen she had a whole new take on her out-of-control emotions where the four Pollock men were concerned. She was no longer scared of the way she felt about them.

As she entered the kitchen she instantly searched for the four brothers and when she found them the rest of the people in the room seemed to disappear. The intense looks of both joy and hunger on each of their faces reassured her that she was right to no longer be afraid of her feelings.

She hadn’t imagined the connection she’d felt last night as she drifted to sleep in Barrett’s strong arms. Melanie and Bethany had helped her to accept what was right in front of her. What was burning brightly inside of her. They loved her, and despite knowing them for only a day, she seemed to love them, too. The feeling was insane, crazy, and impossibly true.

No more roaming the country. She’d found her place in the world. She was the mate of four gorgeous men who turned into cougars. She was a lucky girl.

Chapter 8

Asher stopped pacing the instant he heard the door down the corridor open. The room fell silent as all the shifters currently gathered in the kitchen listened to the soft footfalls growing closer. Even though Asher knew it was Bethany and Jade who’d be walking through the doorway he was unprepared for what he saw.

Jade’s gaze found him, and then quickly darted to each of his brothers. Asher’s knees threatened to buckle. He didn’t know what Bethany and Jade had talked about, but he was naming Bethany the godmother to their first born for helping Jade to look at him the way she just did. The way she continued to look at all of them.

Jade had accepted them. She had said yes to being their mate. She hadn’t said it in words, but he’d heard her answer loud and clear. Her smile, the love shining in her eyes, the scent of her happiness. She knew that she was theirs and more importantly, seeing as she was human, that they were hers.

Four soft growls broke the silence and a rosy blush swept up Jade’s neck to color her pale skin. Asher moved first. His preternatural speed eliciting a soft gasp of surprise as he abruptly appeared at Jade’s side. She was even shorter than he’d imagined, the top of her head barely reaching his shoulder.

“Did you enjoy your bath, little one?” He offered her his arm and she smiled warmly as she nodded and accepted his offer of support and wrapped her arm around his.

The feel of her skin against his, even through the warm jumper Bethany had loaned her, was a jolt to his senses and sensual pleasure like nothing he’d ever experienced. He realized all previous sexual liaisons had been simply satisfying a carnal urge. They were destined to be but a pale imitation of the tantalizing gratification Jade’s body promised.

As they walked the few steps to the kitchen table, he scented the sweet perfume of her arousal and his cat purred at their mate’s response to him. His brothers moved to stand in front of him, blocking the rest of the room from view.

Jade reached up and stroked her hand down each of their cheeks in turn. She smiled at their soft growls and Barrett pulled out a chair. Asher sat on the chair and gently arranged Jade on his lap. Her sigh as she relaxed against him made his hardening cock stiffen to painful fullness. Jade’s buttocks clenched as her scent of arousal grew thicker.

Hunter broke the spell by clearing his throat loudly, snapping Asher out of his trance and making Jade start.

“We have forever, Jade. We’ll be alone soon.” As he breathed the words into her ear she tilted her head closer, her skin pebbling. “I’ve found a sweet spot to explore.”

“Would you like a cup of coffee?” Bethany asked, her voice a little tremulous.

Asher looked up to see that Bethany’s mates, Jason, Michael and Samson, were all gazing at Bethany with heated stares. The sexual tension in the room was affecting all the shifters. Asher needed to control himself so this interview with Hunter and Dane could be completed as soon as possible and they could take their mate to their new home. So they could be alone at last. His chest rumbled as his cat approved of the plan.

“Are you purring?” Jade asked.

“I know I’d be purring if you were on my lap,” Barrett said. He sat in the chair next to them and took Jade’s hand in his.

“Jade should start with some broth, I have some warming on the stove for her,” Jason said. He crossed quickly to the stove and returned to place a mug of the steaming broth on the table in front of Jade.

Bethany introduced Jade to Samson and Michael as Samson pulled Bethany onto his lap and nuzzled her neck.

“Get the coffee, Michael,” Samson said, “Bethany’s tired.”

Bethany laughed as she snuggled back against her huge mate. “Jade is a lovely name. Did your parents choose it because of your green eyes, or is it a family name?”

“My grandfather is Chinese. He came to America in the sixties and married a New Yorker. They still live there, as does my mother and sister. My mom was a bit of a hippie in the day. She named me, and my sister, Amber, after the gemstones.”

Hunter again cleared his throat. This time it had the desired effect. The room seemed to cool several degrees as the mood became somber. Jade was in danger and they needed to find out everything they could about the wolf that was certain to come for her.

“I have some sad news, Jade,” Hunter said. “I’m afraid the owner of the diner you worked at, Walter MacIntosh, was murdered yesterday.”

“Mac is dead?” Jade stiffened, her surprise genuine. “Why would someone hurt him?”

“The tribal police know who killed him, and I suspect I now know why.” Hunter looked to his brother Dane, who nodded. “Had you ever met the special agent in charge of Duckwater, Elan Tsosie?”

When Jade shook her head Dane continued. “The case has officially been handed over to the local police, who will deem the death to be the result of an animal attack. However, Elan is a coyote shifter. He and his pack enforcer, Mason, scented wolves on the body and at the crime scene. The same wolves they scented at your apartment when I asked them to investigate your abuse.”

“No.” Jade started to shake as she absorbed the news and Asher held her a little firmer, careful not to hurt her damaged ribs and back. “Mac helped me.”

“Yes, honey,” Troy said. He squatted down next to them and gently cupped her face. “We think this wolf, Beau Rennie, killed him to find out where you went.”

“We understand you didn’t know the man very well,” Hunter said. “But we need to know everything we can about him. Elan wants to apprehend him for the murder, and we want to keep you safe.”

“I don’t know anything,” Jade said. Her heart rate had doubled, but she was taking deep breaths as she tried to stay calm.

“I heard everything you said to Melanie yesterday,” Hunter said, smiling warmly at Jade. “You don’t need to repeat what he did to you. Maybe when he first took you out, when you were getting to know him, he told you something we could use.”

Jade took a calming breath and Troy nodded to her before releasing her and standing, his hand resting supportively on her shoulder.

“He said he’d moved to town a few months ago. I think the fact we were both new to town was why I went out with him that first time. I felt like we had something in common.” Jade paused as Wes and Troy both growled.

“He said he’d bought a ranch outside of town and that his friends Justin and Harry were helping him to renovate the old house on the property. I never went there, so I don’t know where it is.”

Jade wriggled off Asher’s lap, and he reluctantly let her stand. She turned around and looked at each of them before taking Wes’s hand and then Troy’s. Their growling stopped as Jade’s grip on their hands grew tight, her knuckles blanching.

“He said some things when he was screaming at me. I’d forgotten about it until now.”

“You’re safe here with us, Jade,” Asher said. “We won’t let him near you.” Asher stood and held her gaze.

“He said that they all did this and they all learned to regret it before they died. He was so angry that I thought he was about to kill me.”

“You did great, darlin’,” Barrett said. “Anything else?” Jade shook her head.

“Thank you, Jade,” Hunter said.

Barrett wrapped her in his arms and picked her up. “We’re taking Jade home.”

Asher had already told Samson they were moving out of the bunkhouse to live in their grandparents’ old home, but he hadn’t yet told Hunter. Jade and his brothers said their farewells and thanked Jason before heading out to their truck.

Asher stayed behind to tell Hunter and Dane where they’d be living now and to ask that Cooper call them when he’d drawn up the new patrol schedule. The home was situated on the Pollock’s property, some fifteen miles east of the airfield Wes and Troy had built for their jet.

It was between the Alpha’s house and the Wilder’s, so was not too remote and would be easy to incorporate in the pride’s existing patrols. Asher would not have risked Jade’s life by taking her somewhere too far from the safety of their pride, no matter how desperate he was to be alone with her.

* * * *

Jade sat in the back of Troy’s massive SUV. It was black and shiny, with the softest leather seats Jade had ever sat on. Troy drove and she sat between Asher and Barrett, their huge bodies unnecessarily close to her, considering the size of the truck’s interior. Not that she minded.

In fact she tingled all over from the sizzling sensation of having them touching her. She wondered if she’d always get such pleasure just from sitting beside them. The heady scent they all carried was magnified in the enclosed space. She licked her lips and could swear she tasted the smell. It was delicious.

As she looked up at Barrett, his eyes blazed amber. “You better stop staring at me like that, darlin’,” Barrett said, his voice husky. “You’re still too fragile for me to satisfy our mutual need in the back of a moving truck.”

Jade slammed her eyes shut. Not to obey his request, but to try and get her mind and body under control. She could easily imagine herself climbing onto his lap and peeling off Barrett’s shirt to expose…

“Jade.” Asher growled her name and she added him to her fantasy, making her clitoris throb and her pussy clench.

“Sorry,” she murmured, wiping her mind of all things Pollock. “This is a lovely truck, Troy.” Cars. Think about cars. Cars weren’t sexy. Think about boring old cars.

“Thank you. Last year Wes and I bought one each for our mom and dad, and for Barrett and Asher, too. They were named the safest SUV on the market and we love our family.” Troy smiled at her in the rearview mirror.

“You’re joking?”

Troy just frowned and glanced over at Wes. Wes just shook his head and shrugged. They were talking to each other.

“That’s very generous of you,” Jade said slowly, her mind trying to calculate the zeros involved in buying six SUVs. “All new ones?”

“I think I mentioned the twins were computer geeks,” Barrett said, his chuckle vibrating through her body and threatening to make her thoughts head straight back to forbidden territory. “I didn’t explain they owned a billion-dollar company.”

“Multi-billion,” Asher added.

“That airfield we just passed,” Barrett said. Jade just nodded. “That’s theirs. They built it so their jet has somewhere to land.”

“Jets,” Asher again added.

“That’s…” Jade started, but was afraid of insulting them.

“We were just lucky that Mom and Dad believed in us and loaned us our start-up money when we were fifteen,” Wes said. He shrugged, his blue eyes bright in his handsome face.

He and Wes both had tanned skin and dark hair, like Asher, but that was where the similarity stopped. They had classically handsome faces, full lips, strong jaws, and solid builds, like Barrett.

Asher was slim, the tallest of the brothers, with his hair swept off a face that looked severe, with high cheekbones and a cleft chin. His eyes were deep blue and added intensity to his shrewd, intelligent gaze. Jade imagined that as a lawyer, he would have been fierce in the courtroom.

“You started your business at fifteen?” Jade asked, tearing her eyes away from Asher’s searing gaze.

“They’d finished college the year before,” Barrett said. “They had to do something with their free time.”

Jade saw the pride on Barrett’s face as he leaned forward and ruffled Troy’s hair. The twins may never have mentioned their achievements, but it seemed their big brothers were proud of them and liked an opportunity to laud their amazing accomplishments.

“It doesn’t hurt to have such long lives,” Wes said.

“What do you consider a long life, Wes? You must be all of thirty.” Jade watched as Wes and Troy did their talking thing again. “I can see that you’re talking about something. It’s rude to do that, you know?”

The expression of shock on Wes’s face as he turned in the seat was genuine. “Why is it rude?”

“You honestly don’t know?” Barrett and Asher both chuckled.

“They’ve been doing it since they were in the cradle,” Asher said.

“It shocked the hell out of them when they were old enough to realize not everyone could do it.” Barrett ruffled Troy’s hair indulgently again.

Jade relaxed a little. Put like that she could see that it was just a part of them she’d grow to accept.

“And we’re forty-five,” Wes said. “We’d been working for thirty years before we came home to train with Samson.”

“I wasn’t joking when I told you I was seventy years old,” Asher said. He brought their joined hands to his lips and kissed the back of her hand gently. “We live to be over three hundred.”

She was shocked speechless and stared at the clear winter sky out the front window of the truck as she tried to imagine living three centuries. The changes they’d see. The wives they’d have. She remembered the loneliness she’d sensed in Asher the day they met. Shit. That was yesterday!

“Will you find another mate when I die, Asher? I don’t want you to be lonely…” Her words were silenced by the eruption of snarls from all four of the men. “What?”

“Once we’re mated you will live as long as a shifter, Jade,” Wes said. His face was set in hard lines, his jaw tense. He looked a lot more like Asher now. “We only ever want one mate and that’s you. When you die, we all die.”

“Be nice, Wes,” Barrett said. “A human mate is changed when we mate, Jade. You don’t turn into a shifter, but you will age more slowly, heal more rapidly if you’re injured, and be immune to most illnesses.” Barrett smiled at her and took her hand in his.

“I didn’t mean to insult you,” Jade said softly. Unsure how she’d managed to make a faux pas that had seemed to insult the very core of their shifter nature.

Wes closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I wasn’t insulted, honey. I’m sorry. I went a little crazy at the thought of you dying.”

“Look,” Troy said. His excited tone snapped the tension from the air. “Here’s our new home, Jade. I hope you like it. If you don’t just say so.”

“We can easily change anything you don’t like,” Wes said. Troy’s excitement was mirrored in his voice.

“We have an all-shifter building crew that does work for us,” Troy continued. “They finish the work so fast you wouldn’t believe it.”

Forgotten or forgiven? Jade wasn’t certain which. Maybe both. She made a mental note to find out all the finer details of shifter etiquette from the other human mates. As a beautiful two-story farmhouse came into view at the top of a long, winding drive, Jade marveled at how natural it was to anticipate seeking advice from Melanie and Bethany.

She smiled. The two women were so loving and open, and from the way they’d spoken of the other mates, Jordanna, Peata, and Morgan, she easily envisaged they’d be equally approachable.

“It’s beautiful. You’re all beautiful. I can’t believe all this is real. I was so scared. I’m black and blue from the torture of a maniac that’s likely still coming for me. But…” Jade’s voice broke as her eyes filled with tears. The emotions suddenly too much.

“But what, little one,” Asher said, lifting her to his lap and kissing her tear-streaked cheeks.

“But I’m so happy.”

Troy opened the back door to his truck and lifted her from Asher’s lap to hold her in his arms.

“It was torture seeing you cry and not being able to hold you.” Troy’s eyes were a soft blue, but now had little sparks of amber flickering on and off in them. His cat.

“I want to find out about every second of your life that I’ve missed. Then I’ll understand why being happy makes you sad.”

“You’re an idiot,” Barrett said. He kissed Jade on the nose as he stroked his fingers through her hair. “She’s crying because she’s happy. They haven’t spent a lot of time around women.” Barrett winked at her as Troy growled.

“At least we weren’t stupid enough to throw ourselves from burning buildings and speeding cars for the last forty years.”

Troy’s smile was teasing and Jade found her heart leaping into her throat as Troy got impossibly better looking when he smiled.

“We were here yesterday cleaning the house and stocking it with food,” Wes said. He leaned down to kiss her as Troy walked her up the timber stairs to the porch. “Remember, if you don’t like something we’ll change it.”

Troy carried her over the threshold of their new home and through a large sitting room that contained two beautiful sofas and four armchairs covered in a matching floral fabric that were arranged in front of a log fireplace. The fire was burning brightly, the logs a deep red as they warmed the room against the cold outside.

Troy went straight through to the kitchen and stopped beside a huge wooden table that would easily seat a dozen people. The man seated at the table rose to his feet, a wide smile on his face.

“There you all are,” said a female voice. Jade found it hard to tear her gaze from the gray-haired man smiling at her. He was tall and solid, his blue eyes shining from a face that told her exactly what Barrett would look like as he grew older.

“I thought you’d all be hungry. And we couldn’t let you bring your mate home to a freezing cold house. I’m Marguerite, but just call me Margie. Or Mom.”

Jade smiled at the small woman who had moved to stand beside her husband, wrapping her arm around his waist as she leaned into him in an act of affection that looked so natural she wondered how long they’d been together. Been mated.

“Hello,” Jade said, squirming to get down. She was embarrassed to be in Troy’s arms in front of his parents.

“You stay right there,” Margie said. “You poor thing. My sons will take good care of you.”

“I’m Brett,” the man said. “I’m sorry for all the pain you’ve gone through, Jade. The boys will keep you safe now.”

Troy sat at the table and somehow had her sitting comfortably against his warm, solid chest in the next second. Sometimes they moved so fast she didn’t even see them.

Asher, Barrett, and Wes kissed their mom’s cheek and helped her in the kitchen with practiced ease. Jade’s ribs were aching from laughing so hard at Brett’s stories of her men’s childhood antics by the time the dinner was ready.

“Growing up out here with all the wide open spaces sounds so wonderful,” Jade said. “Very different from my childhood in New York City.”

“Asher is the only one who’s ever lived permanently in a big city,” Barrett said. “It would have killed me. My cat likes the room to run.”

Jade easily imagined Barrett’s huge cat running through the forest that surrounded the farmhouse.

“Will you find it hard to live on a farm after growing up in the city?” Margie asked.

Jade paused to consider it before she answered. She had been moving around the country painting for a couple of years now and all of the locations she’d chosen to capture on canvas had been open and unpopulated.

“I think Jade’s been preparing for her move to the country for a while,” Asher said. He smiled at her and she remembered their very first conversation, and how he’d seen her soul in her art.

“I think you’re right, Asher. I can’t imagine ever growing bored of painting the beautiful places around Eminence.”

Asher piled her plate high with food despite her protests, but Jade could only eat a little of the fluffy pancake and creamy scrambled eggs. She’d lived on limited funds for the two years she’d been traveling around the country, and was not used to large meals. Plus, in the time Beau had held her captive she’d eaten nothing but the few slices of bread Beau had thrown at her.

“Does the fact that you’re now just moving the food around the plate mean you’ve had enough?” Troy whispered in her ear. She shivered from the delicious tingle she felt as his lips brushed her ear.

“You haven’t eaten anything,” Wes said. He was sitting in the chair next to her, holding her hand as he used the other to devour his breakfast.

“I’m sorry. It was delicious.” Jade relaxed fully against Troy, the wounds on her back stinging a little at first. She closed her eyes, suddenly exhausted again. The warm room and a full stomach seemed to sap her strength completely.

“We should go, Brett,” Margie said. “Jade needs to rest after everything she’s been through.”

“Thank you for the lovely breakfast,” Jade said, the effort of opening her eyes greater than it should have been. She felt a warm affection already for her men’s parents. They were honest and open in their acceptance of her into their family.

As she consciously registered that acceptance her sluggish mind finally connected the dots. She had a family, too. She tried to imagine their reaction to her living with four men she’d just met and moving permanently to Colorado.

“Shit. What am I going to tell my family?”

“Tell them in person when they come to visit,” Margie said, giving Jade a gentle hug. “No parent could feel anything but joy when they see the way my boys look at you.”

Jade could see Barrett’s and Asher’s faces over their mother’s shoulder. She stopped breathing.

“Or the way you look at them,” Margie said.

Jade found she could breathe again and Asher and Barrett released her from their gaze to say farewell to their parents. Perhaps it was that simple. Her mother, stepfather, and sister would see how in love they all were and not even question her sudden decision to live in a ménage relationship.

And there go a flock of pigs flying across the sky.

* * * *

Elan walked around the shallow grave, his coyote growling and pacing restlessly inside him.

“Was this the only one you found?”

Mason rose from where he was squatting next to the exposed body. “There are definitely no more bodies buried around the house, but the property is large. I have men out searching. We’ll know in a day or two if he’s buried any other women out here.

“We’ll need to get the local police involved. She’s not a shifter and her injuries are not going to be mistaken as an animal attack,” Elan said, his eyes burning in rage. He knew his coyote would be showing and was glad they were alone.

“They’re risking the exposure of our race. They’ve signed their own death warrants,” Mason said, the slightest flinch betraying his contained rage. Mason hated women to be abused.

Any rogue shifter who put their hard fought anonymity in jeopardy was subject to shifter law, not human. Shifter justice was absolute.

“I don’t recognize her scent, Elan. She’s not a local. I’m no coroner, but I’d guess she’s only been dead a couple of days.

“The wolf killed her while he still held Jade captive,” Elan said. “Probably why he risked keeping Jade at her apartment instead of bringing her out here.”

“No one would have heard her in that shitty place she lived. I think she’s the only occupant on that side of the complex.”

Elan nodded as he swallowed his rising bile. The body was ripe, but that wasn’t what was making him sick. The wolf, Beau Rennie, was twisted.

“Do you scent all three of the wolves on her?”

Mason nodded.

Elan suspected the sick fuck was not going to stop looking for Jade, but he respected his enforcer’s instincts and needed to know what Mason thought. He’d been correct too often over their century together for him to ever dismiss anything Mason said.

“What do you think his next move will be?”

Mason looked around at the ramshackle house, the unkempt barn, and the overgrown pastures before answering.

“He kept this lady captive a while, moved here with her. That was risky. That sort of behavior makes me think he’s not going to let a town full of cougars keep him from his latest obsession.”

“He’s going to keep looking for Jade,” Elan said. Some shifters liked a hunt. It made catching the prey more satisfying. “You need to go to Eminence. No one there will recognize these fuckers by their scents.”

Mason nodded again, his bright red gaze fixed on the victim. His enforcer would ensure there was ample evidence to prove Beau and his friends had killed this poor woman when he returned to Duckwater with their corpses. Elan knew for a fact they would not be hurting any more women as long as Mason still drew breath.

Chapter 9

Jade had been asleep against him by the time his brothers returned to the kitchen after saying good-bye to their parents. Troy carried Jade to bed as his brothers cleaned up the breakfast dishes. Troy placed Jade on the bed in the renovated master bedroom. The room they would now all share.

Troy hesitated as he went to pull the covers over Jade. She was wearing the jeans and jumper that Bethany had given her and he doubted she’d sleep comfortably in them. Troy hesitated, unsure what to do. He was no virgin, but he’d always had Wes with him when he’d been intimate with a woman.

“Just take her jeans and jumper off, idiot,” Wes said. “She’s sore and bruised. Put her in your T-shirt.”

Easy for Wes to say when he wouldn’t be the one touching her. He stripped off his collared shirt and then his T-shirt, his cat insanely happy that his mate would be wearing his scent and wrapped in his warmth.

He steeled himself and tried to be clinical as he removed Jade’s clothes. She was so exhausted she barely even stirred. The only hiccup had been the fact that she wore no bra. Her breasts were magnificent. The perfect size for his hands. Her nipples were rosy red peaks that made his mouth water.

“You’re killing me,” Wes said.

“Just put your damned shirt on her,” Asher said with an accompanying snarl.

After tucking the blankets snugly around her he lingered to examine each of the healing cuts and bruises marring the perfection of her face. Troy’s cat rose easily to the surface and Troy relished its fierce and primal anger. He felt bonded to his cat on a soul-deep level. He no longer felt as though it was another part of who he was. Now he and his cat combined, were Troy Pollock.

When Asher padded into the room as his cougar, Troy was surprised to find himself at eye level with his oldest brother. He’d shifted. He hadn’t felt the change. There had been no conscious effort or pain involved. He had simply changed form.

“This is what I’ve been trying to explain to you,” Asher said.

Troy now felt a strong connection to Asher’s cat. To Asher as a whole. Asher was a creature of possessive rage and predatory hunger as he gazed at their mate.

“He’s making a mistake coming after Jade,” Asher said.

“If he comes here it will be his last mistake,” Troy said.

Troy felt no remorse as he hungered for the fight with the wolves who’d caused his mate so much pain. He felt no shame as he contemplated ending the life of anyone who came to take Jade from him and his brothers.

Remorse and shame were human emotions and they had no place in the mind of the shifter Troy now was.

“Cooper called with the patrol schedule. You’re to stay here with Jade. Wes is running the outer perimeter from here to the Alpha’s. Barrett is patrolling our property and I’ll be patrolling from here to the Wilder’s.”

Troy leaped over Asher to land lightly on the end of the bed. He found the best location to observe both the French doors to the balcony and the door to the room before he lowered himself flat.

“We’ll be back at dusk when the Willis boys take over.”

Asher padded from the room knowing Troy wouldn’t hesitate to fight to the death to keep Jade safeguarded.

Jade slept peacefully as Troy stood watch throughout the day. The air in the room grew cold as the afternoon sky grew dark with heavy clouds. Tonight would see more snow falling. Troy was contemplating shifting to light a fire in the bedroom fireplace when Jade stroked a hand over his rump. Pleasure thrummed through him, his cat thrilled at its mate’s acceptance.

* * * *

“Your fur is so soft.” Jade spoke softly, afraid to break the spell. “I’m terrified this is all a dream and I’ll wake to find myself locked in that room.”

Jade felt a tremor run across the cat’s body before it rose and turned. It then walked slowly, so slowly, toward her. It watched her intently and Jade shuddered. Its yellow eyes scanned over her face.

“You’re so beautiful.” Jade blurted out the words, her heart a heavy weight in her chest. If this were truly a dream, then she’d let Beau kill her the next time he beat her. She wouldn’t want to live without this new reality. It was too wonderful. Too perfect. Her old life, her old existence, was an empty semblance of living now that she’d experienced the joy of true love. She loved these men, these magical shifters, and they loved her.

Jade knew that no one before had loved her that deeply, that truly. And no one else ever would. She reached out her hand to touch the magnificent cougar that stared at her with such devotion. She had to make certain it was real. That it hadn’t all been a wonderful dream.

It rubbed its head against her hand as it moved closer. The velvet soft fur made her fingers tingle. She gasped and half closed her eyes as a shower of bright lights rained over the cat.

“Troy.”

Troy was standing at the side of the bed, naked and wondrous. He pulled the covers down before climbing in beside her. He held out his arms and she moved into his embrace without hesitation, resting her head on his shoulder as their legs tangled and she molded herself against him.

“Do I feel like a dream, Jade?”

“No. I’m so glad you’re not. I would have mourned the loss of you all, even had you been a dream.”

“Once we’re mated you’ll never be without us, Jade. When you pass away we’ll all gladly follow. Even in death you’ll never be alone.”

They all said such strange things sometimes, but even without understanding all of what they said, she never doubted their sincerity. She could never doubt that. She felt the truth of every word in her heart.

“You know I don’t know what a mating is?” Jade turned her face to inhale the male and pine smell that was present on all the brothers. It filled her body with such peace when she breathed it in. It also made her body ache. It felt like their smell alone aroused all her erogenous zones at once. It was incredible.

“Fuck, Jade. Do you know how fantastic your arousal smells to me?”

“My…” Jade swallowed. Unable to continue talking. She couldn’t deny his warm, hard body and his wonderful smell alone were arousing her.

“No lies between mates, honey,” Troy said. He gently pulled her onto his chest as he rolled to his back. “Remember?”

She stared down at his handsome face, his blue eyes now filled with amber lights. He licked his lips as her gaze drifted to them. They were pink and moist now, the perfect bow stretching into a smile.

“Do you feel better after your sleep? You’ve slept for nearly the entire day.”

Jade nodded, realizing she did feel better. It didn’t hurt as much to breathe and the bone-deep exhaustion was gone. She felt strangely invigorated.

“I feel better. But I’m not sure if that’s the sleep or the way your body is making me feel.”

Troy’s fascinating lips drew into a tight line and she felt the blush heat her neck and face.

“Oh shit. What am I saying?” She didn’t have the chance to apologize as Troy lifted his head and kissed her with his beautiful mouth.

She sighed at how good he felt. His lips were as soft as she’d imagined and when his tongue gently stroked into her mouth she actually groaned at how wonderful he tasted. She licked over his tongue and delighted in his answering groan.

“Jade.” He breathed her name into her mouth as he rolled to lie above her. His arms trembled as he held his weight off her damaged torso, but his rock-hard cock was nestled perfectly in the juncture of her thighs.

She opened her legs and wrapped them around his thighs as though they’d been lovers for years. His cock slid over the wet crotch of her panties and rubbed over her clitoris. His kiss deepened and she pushed her hips up, rocking against him, her pleasure soaring out of control.

Her mind was at war with the body. She didn’t do this. She didn’t sleep with men she’d just met. But her body responded to Troy in a way she’d never experienced before. Her hands moved to his arms. He was hard everywhere.

“God, you taste so fucking good,” Troy murmured. He rained a trail of kisses down her neck, slowly rubbing his cock back and forth over her clit. Feather-light kisses brushed her bruised neck. “I’ll kill that bastard for hurting you.”

Jade wanted to say “Don’t,” but Troy slid up her T-shirt, his hot mouth sucking across her breast. It felt so good she couldn’t speak. When his mouth reached her throbbing nipple Jade cried out. He teased it with his tongue before sucking the aching bud into his warm mouth. She arched her back in her unrestrained pursuit for more pleasure.

“Troy.” Jade moaned his name as he continued the dual assault on her breast and clitoris. Her hands moved restlessly over his body. Everywhere she touched was perfection. She wanted him.

Troy released her breast and pulled back to gaze at her. “You feel so good, Jade. Nothing has ever felt like this.” He continued to rock his hips, sweat beaded on her forehead.

“Troy, please.” Jade would beg if necessary. She needed more.

Troy’s smile made her heart leap. God, he’s sexy.

“Jade, you’re the sexy one. I’m just a damned geek.”

“No.” She shook her head as her body grew hotter. She’d never ached for anyone before. But she ached for Troy. Burned for him. She was too needy to be embarrassed that she was apparently speaking her every thought out loud.

Jade let her hands explore his back, delighting in the feel of each defined muscle. The heat in her body climbed higher, the sweat running down her face.

“So hot, Troy.” Jade gasped as each breath scalded her throat. She was breathing fire.

“Honey, what’s wrong?”

Jade heard Troy speaking, but she was lost in sensation. Her eyes were open, but all she saw was a red haze as her body burned hotter. She needed him. He was all that could stop the rising heat inside her.

“Fuck! What have I done?”

She heard Troy curse and felt him begin to pull away from her. “No. Troy, please.” Her attempt to hold on to him failed, he lifted from her body and slipped away.

“I’m here, love. Hang on, Jade.” His cool lips planted soft kisses across her heated brow. His hands caressed down her arms, soothing her rising panic. The fact that he was here helped, but she feared she’d die if he stopped touching her.

“I won’t leave you. I won’t stop touching you, Jade. I won’t let you die. I’m so sorry for doing this to you. I didn’t mean to start this now.”

His words held no meaning for her, so she clung to his promise not to leave her. He won’t leave me to burn. She felt like she had a fever, a fever that was burning her alive.

“I’m here, honey. I’ll make this better. We’ll all make this better. They’ll get here in time, I promise they will. I’m so sorry.”

Troy’s words both soothed and confused her. She was trying not to panic as she stared blindly into the red haze of her body on fire. Then it struck her like a bolt of lightning. This was mating. The insatiable need to have Troy inside her. To have his hands on her. His mouth on hers. His cock inside her. It was a primal need. Her body knew what it wanted. No, needed. If I can’t have my men I’ll die. It was that simple.

Chapter 10

Barrett remained on full alert as he patrolled the perimeter of their new home. He’d been running for nearly six hours straight, and thanks to their training with Samson he still wasn’t fatigued. This was why they’d trained. He was no longer simply a soldier for his pride. He was protecting his mate.

“What the fuck has that idiot done?” Asher’s furious voice blasted through his mind so suddenly that he stumbled and crashed to the snowy ground in a very un-feline heap.

“Barrett, get home immediately. I’ll have someone call the Willis brothers to take over our patrol. We need to get to Jade.”

Barrett acted without hesitation. Rising swiftly, his cat started for home. About to ask what had happened, Wes’s panicked voice shouted the answers he needed into his mind.

“Troy started the mating. He didn’t mean to. I would have told him to stop, but I didn’t hear him.”

“He wasn’t transmitting, Wes,” Asher said. “I didn’t hear him either.”

“I assume he started the mating in his human form,” Barrett said. His snarl shook snow from the trees around him. “So how the fuck would you have heard him, Asher?”

“I’ve heard them for a couple of months now. The training… Shit, now is not the time. Jade’s in pain.”

Asher had some explaining to do, but he was right. Jade’s safety was paramount. Is she even ready for this?

“I don’t want to hurt her,” Barrett said. “She’s not ready for us to make love to her. To bite her.”

Barrett was the first to arrive home, but he knew Asher and Wes were fast approaching. Asher had been farther away, but he expected Asher’s strength and speed would get him here momentarily.

Shifting once he’d reached their porch, Barrett pulled open the front door and ran up the stairs at full speed. He didn’t know what he’d expected to find, but Troy and Jade locked in an intimate embrace had not been it.

“What?”

“Barrett, thank God,” Troy said, gasping as Jade moaned loudly. “She’s in pain, but it seems better when we’re touching.”

Barrett sighed deeply in relief. He’d thought Troy was hurting her. Nothing could be further from the truth. He was easing her pain. Nature would see her dead or mated. Those were the only options for Jade. The only options for him, too. He wanted her. Wanted forever with this delicate, precious, damaged woman.

Barrett moved onto the bed and lay down behind Jade. The bruises marring her back and legs were a road map of her injuries and he would need to be careful of those areas until the mating healed her. His cock filled as his fear waned. He allowed the scent of her arousal to pull him into her thrall.

“I’m here, Jade. Asher and Wes will be here soon.” He kissed the back of her head and she pushed her ass back against him, rubbing the globes against his cock and making him moan. “Oh, Jade. You’re so perfect.” He moved so close that his much larger body touched every inch of her soft skin. Her soft, heated skin.

“She’s too hot, Troy. We need to start now.”

Barrett quickly, but gently, pulled the T-shirt from Jade’s body and tore the sides of her panties to pull them free. Jade sighed and pulled her lips from Troy’s as she turned to gaze at him. Her eyes were unfocused and his cat snarled loudly. She needed them all touching her.

“Barrett, what’s happening to me?”

“You’ve accepted the mating, Jade.”

She frowned as she writhed between them, her pain increasing. He struggled to find the words that would explain what was happening to her. He needed her to know exactly what she was doing before she bound herself to them for hundreds of years. Even if she died by denying them, he’d never want to feel she was forced into their joining.

“We mate for life, my love. If we make love to you now we cement the bond between us. You’ll be unable to love anyone else, unable to leave us for the rest of your life, and it will be an extremely long life. You’ll live for hundreds of years once we’re mated.”

“She knows all this, Barrett,” Troy said. “Why are you making her suffer like this?”

Jade moaned and released her hold on Troy to grasp the sides of her head. She trembled between them, her skin so hot it was becoming painful to be in contact with her.

“Because we don’t want to live hundreds of years with a mate who resents us. Who feels she was forced into being with us,” Asher said.

Jade grasped his arm and pulled herself to a sitting position. She shook her head and took several deep breaths.

“Asher.” She smiled and Barrett saw her blink several times, her gaze finally focusing on his brother as Asher walked into the bedroom. “You’ve been in my heart since the night we met.” Her smile was wide, and tears filled her eyes. “The night you looked right at me through my paintings. You saw me. I think I’ve loved you since then.”

Asher moved to kneel at the foot of the bed. Jade struggled to rise, and he and Troy helped her to kneel in front of Asher. They didn’t touch, but the air around the four of them sizzled with electricity and heat.

“And now?” Asher asked, leaning closer to Jade but still not touching her.

Jade stroked one trembling hand down Asher’s face. “Now I can’t deny that I love you.” She reached for Barrett’s hand and he took it, bringing it to his mouth and kissing her cooling skin. “That I love all of you.”

When she reached for Troy with her other hand he too kissed it. “Wes?” she asked, and a fine tremor ran through her body.

Troy frowned briefly in concentration and then smiled. “He says he’s about a minute away. He can see the house.”

“You’re so beautiful, Jade,” Barrett said. He gave in to the temptation of her body and rose to kneel behind her. “Too damned beautiful for an old cat like me.” He kissed her shoulder as he ran his hands gently over her bruised ribs to her breasts.

“Feeling better now, little one?” Asher asked. He moved closer and cupped Jade’s face with his hands as she nodded.

“She’s better now?” Wes asked, as he skidded to a stop beside the bed.

“Wes,” Jade breathed his name on a moan as Barrett sucked up a red mark on her neck. On the sensitive spot he’d just chosen to wear his mark.

Jade moved toward Wes, but Barrett was not about to let her go. He knew this reprieve was only temporary. Her pain may have eased with the arrival of each of her mates, but if they delayed much longer it would return. Fate would not be denied its perfect match.

“We need that answer now, darlin’,” Barrett said. He was not trying to coerce her by caressing her breasts and teasing the full plump nipples with his fingers. He was just helpless to resist the pull of his mate. He pressed his throbbing cock between the firm globes of her delectable ass.

“Barrett.” She pressed back against him, rotating her hips slightly and nearly making him come from the delicious friction of her ass on his cock.

“Barrett, stop teasing our mate,” Wes said. “She needs to tell us something before we make her scream our names when she comes.”

Wes caressed down Jade’s arm to take Troy and Jade’s joined hands in both of his. The gesture was natural and so symbolic of the twin’s joined souls that a lump formed in Barrett’s throat. By sharing a mate their twin bond would only grow stronger, the bond between the four of them would now be stronger. They were truly a family because they’d found the perfect gift that was their mate.

“Wes,” Jade said, “I need to tell you lots of things, but there’s only a couple of things that can’t wait.”

“A couple,” Barrett said, not stopping his oral assault on the sweet spot he’d discovered on Jade’s neck. Her skin was now covered in goose bumps and she was wriggling her ass in a maddeningly enticing manner against his pounding cock. Barrett wrapped his arms loosely around her hips in an effort to still her movements before he came all over her back. He wanted to come inside her.

She took a deep breath and shuddered before continuing. “I want you all forever. I understand little of what you’ve all been saying.”

Asher opened his mouth and Jade brought their joined hands up to cover it. “But I know how I feel. I’m a different person around the four of you, and it feels right. I feel complete. I know what my heart is telling me, and that’s what I’m going to follow.”

Barrett’s heart soared at hearing Jade articulate so perfectly how he felt. Being bombarded with unfamiliar emotions had left him feeling confused.

“You just described exactly how I’ve been feeling, my love,” Barrett said. “Thank you for saying you’ll be ours.”

“She didn’t actually say it,” Asher mumbled against Jade’s hand.

Barrett could see the joy in his brother’s eyes. The joy that replaced the deep melancholy that had been consuming Asher over the last two decades. Asher had effectively hidden it from the twins as they toiled in their ivory tower, but Barrett had watched it slowly consume Asher.

“I want to be your mate,” Jade said. “Is that clear enough for you, counselor?”

“Ha,” Troy said. “You’re so perfect, Jade.”

“It’s going to be so good to see Asher put in his place at last,” Wes said. “He always thinks he knows everything.”

“I suspect that’s because he does,” Barrett said. Asher radiated his happiness that they were finally a family.

“What was the other thing, Jade? You mentioned a couple of things,” Asher said, placing kisses up Jade’s arm between each word. “Tell us now, because I have no intention of halting once we start the claiming.”

Jade shuddered against him, then shook her head as she seemed to steel her resolve. Fuck. She’s going to say that bastard raped her.

Asher shook his head imperceptibly as he shot him a glare. What the fuck? Can Asher hear my thoughts as well?

Asher’s face was devoid of emotion as he continued to lay gentle kisses on Jade’s arm, quickly approaching her shoulder.

“I’m kneeling here naked, accepting I’ll not only be making love to all of you, but that I’ll be lucky enough to be doing so for several lifetimes, and yet I’m still embarrassed.”

“Embarrassed is not a word the perfection of your naked body reflects as possible,” Troy said.

Wes slapped Troy upside the head with his free hand. “Just say she’s gorgeous. You’re giving me a headache.”

Barrett felt Jade relax at the banter between the twins and he quickly glanced at Asher to see if he had any idea what Jade had to be embarrassed about. Asher shook his head. Asher being inside his head was a revelation he would have to think through at another time. They needed to mate Jade. Not just because his cock was about to drop off it was so hard, but because he didn’t want her to be in any pain.

“I have,” Jade said, pausing to look at him over her shoulder, “had sex before.”

“Yes, Jade,” Barrett said slowly. She hadn’t seemed self-conscious when she’d been furious with them.

“Well, I’ve never had sex with…” She pulled her arm from Asher’s hold and waved it between all of them.

Asher spoke before he did. “More than one man?”

Barrett felt overwhelmed with relief that Beau and his slimy friends hadn’t sexually assaulted her. Her boss may have been a sniveling coward, but Barrett couldn’t think ill of the man for saving his mate before she’d had to suffer that abuse as well. And there was no doubt in Barrett’s mind that Beau would have eventually done it.

Barrett kissed Jade’s neck and turned her in his arms. “None of us has ever made love to our mate before, Jade. I’m sixty, in human years, and yet you can feel me trembling with nervous excitement just by having you in my arms.

“I can’t believe I’ve actually found you and you’ve accepted me as yours. You’re also the most amazing and beautiful woman on the planet. No one gets that lucky. But I have. I want our joining to be as wonderful and special for you as it for me. I want you to know what a miracle you are to me.”

“I know now, Barrett,” Jade said with a smile, wrapping her slim arms around his neck. “I don’t feel nervous anymore.”

Barrett’s cat roared in his mind and Barrett submitted to its driving need to make Jade his. He lowered his mouth to hers, gentle despite his desperation. Her lips were still sore. He would give her nothing but pleasure. Only ever pleasure.

His hands lowered to her small, firm ass and tugged her up and against his throbbing erection. He swiped his tongue into her mouth and lapped up her taste, swallowing her soft cries of pleasure.

Lowering Jade to the bed, his brothers moved aside but continued to caress Jade’s skin. They remained connected to their mate.

“I love you, Jade. I’ll love you forever.” Barrett almost purred at the smile she gave him. That she was giving him her love, agreeing to share his life, was almost enough to bring him to tears, and he hadn’t cried since he was five.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Jade. You must tell me to stop if anything I do…”

Jade pulled his head down, silencing him with her lips, her hands tangling in his hair. With a growl he told his mate how much his cat enjoyed her zeal.

“Gentle with him, Jade,” Asher said. “I know for a fact he’s a bit soft.”

Jade wrapped her legs around his, bringing her hot pussy in direct contact with his aching cock. He clamped down his muscles, holding off his orgasm by the barest of threads. Releasing Jade’s lips he leaned on one arm, freeing his other hand to position his cock at her entrance. A moan escaped him when the sensitive head slid through her juices.

“So hot and wet for me, mate.”

Jade’s eyes grew wide and her breath caught as he pushed slowly inside her silky heat.

“I don’t think I…”

Jade’s silence would have worried him had she not moaned her pleasure so loudly while he slid his cock smoothly inside her pussy until his balls were pressed against her ass.

“We’re made for each other, my love. Never forget that.”

“You do have a massive penis, Barrett,” Wes said, caressing the hair from Jade’s face and kissing her forehead.

Jade moaned again as Barrett held his weight off her delicate, damaged chest and started to move. Wes disappeared. The world disappeared. There was only Jade. There was only him and his mate, his cock stoking into her, her pussy starting to spasm with her approaching orgasm.

* * * *

Jade had never before experienced the kind of pleasure and connection she was feeling with Barrett. With all of them as they touched her. She felt Barrett’s cock thrusting deeply inside her. Wes was a warm reassurance as he stroked her hair and relaxed her with the gentle teasing of his brothers.

Troy was gently stroking her arm as she clung to Barrett’s massive shoulders. Asher was clasping tight to her thigh, like he was ready to pull her free if anything his brother did caused her pain. It was a sweet pain she was feeling now. Barrett was truly huge all over and the way his cock was stretching her felt incredible.

She was close to release. Poised tantalizingly on the edge of something phenomenal.

“Please,” she said, begging for something, but not sure what.

“I’m here, honey,” Troy said.

She screamed his name as his fingers slowly circled her tender clitoris. She didn’t care how he’d known what to do. She just prayed he didn’t stop. Barrett’s thrusts grew deeper and more rapid.

“Jade.” Barrett moaned her name and lowered his head to nip at the hickey he’d made on her neck.

As soon as his mouth connected with the sensitized spot her orgasm hit. He stroked faster and harder as her pussy clenched around him. Her body shook and she gasped for breath, the pleasure so intense she thought she’d black out. Nothing had ever felt like this.

The sharp pain to her neck and the soft caress of Barrett’s lips seemed to spread the pleasure to every inch of her body. Can you die from an orgasm?

“No, darlin’. But I think I’ve just been to heaven.”

Barrett licked over her neck and her pussy clenched in pleasure again, making her gasp. As her breathing slowed she found she was stroking Barrett’s back as his chest rumbled in a rough sounding purr.

“Barrett, I have no words for how that felt.”

Barrett’s arms were trembling as he rose off her, his cock sliding free and leaving her feeling empty, despite his warm body remaining over her. The thought that she’d made this huge man weak with pleasure brought a smile to her face.

“You should feel smug, little mate. I’ve never come so hard.” Barrett clasped her chin so she couldn’t look away from his burning golden eyes. “Nothing has ever felt so incredible. You’re mine now.”

He brushed his thumb over the spot he’d been sucking. “This mark will be permanent. All shifters will know you’re taken.” She squirmed beneath him. The caress of his thumb was making her tingle all over. “And it will always be sensitive to my touch. Only mine.”

“Is it a love bite?”

Barrett’s eyes blazed a bright golden color, but it was a cold light. She knew he was feeling angry. “We were going to explain about the mating mark, but Troy sort of put everything on fast-forward.”

Jade heard Barrett speaking, but her mind was drifting. The feel of Wes’s hand on her hair was wonderful. His lips brushing over her skin fired sparks of electricity through her body.

“Wes.”

She called his name and was somehow in his arms a second later. She was straddling his hips as he sat on the bed. His arms held her pressed to his rock-hard chest. Each breath he took made her nipples harder as they rubbed sensuously against his cool skin.

“I need you, Wes. I think I’ll die if I can’t have you inside me.” She reached down and stroked the hard length of his cock where it pressed against her mound. His moan of pleasure made her feel bold, so she rubbed the sticky fluid at the tip of his cock over the silky head before bringing her hand to her mouth to taste his essence on her fingers.

“Fuck,” Troy said. “Our mate is the sexiest woman ever born.”

“Yes, she is,” Asher said, his voice so rough she had to glance up to check it was him.

“I’m not,” Jade said, licking the sweet, tangy liquid from her fingers. “It’s all of you doing this to me.”

She knew it was their love allowing her to shed her inhibitions. She hadn’t uttered a single word the three times she’d had sex with her first boyfriend. She hadn’t had a chance.

Wes lowered himself back to the bed, pulling her on top of him, his hands gripping her ass as his fingers stroked down the crease.

“Troy and I have never made love to a woman alone. It’s not been possible for us the way we’re linked.”

“No fucking way,” Barrett said incredulously.

“We can discuss it another time,” Troy said, pressing against her back and kissing a line down her spine.

“May we claim you together, Jade?” Wes asked.

She could only gasp as his mouth found one of her nipples and sucked it into his mouth. She’d read romance books. She knew what they were talking about. She’d just never imagined she’d ever desire it.

“Yes,” she said, her own voice as unrecognizable as Asher’s had been. “I want you both inside me.” She felt her core clench in anticipation. She more than wanted them both inside her. She craved it.

“No fucking way,” Barrett repeated, anger in his voice this time. “My mating bite won’t have healed her enough yet.”

She did feel better. Breathing was easier. Her damaged ribs no longer stabbed at her. She looked down at Wes and he released her nipple and smiled.

“Thank you for your trust, Jade. We’ll make you feel so good.”

Her pussy clenched with need. “I need you,” she said, lowering herself to the temptation of his soft lips.

Wes clasped her ass as he kissed her deeply. Troy’s hands found her breasts, his cock sliding into her pussy from behind. She was completely surrounded by them as they prepared to make love to her and she felt nothing but a burning desire. She wanted them closer. She needed them closer. Deeper. She needed more.

She broke her kiss with Wes the second she realized what it was she needed.

“Asher.”

“Whatever you need, Jade. I’m here.”

He knelt at her side and she reached for his straining cock, the fluid on the end making her mouth water.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“Not a damned thing,” Barrett said, his hand a warm weight on her shoulder as she licked the sweet pre-cum from Asher’s cock.

She’d assumed the restless feeling that had driven her to travel the country was a desire to paint the perfect landscape, to capture something special on canvas. She’d been wrong. That feeling was gone. These men were what she’d unknowingly been searching for. She was home.

Chapter 11

Wes nearly ruined his mating and came all over Jade’s stomach as she licked Asher’s cock before slowly taking the head into her mouth. His cock twitched and he couldn’t stop imagining how her lips would feel on him.

“She feels incredible,” Troy said. “We need to hurry.”

“Are you close to coming, too?”

“No, lightweight. Jade needs to complete the mating with Asher soon, or she’ll be in terrible pain.”

Wes closed his eyes and tried to remember they had hundreds of years to enjoy being mated to the beautiful, sexy Jade Liang. Jade Pollock, soon.

“We have to ask her tonight,” Troy said. “We can fly to Vegas and marry her tonight. We can buy her a dress, whatever one she likes. They’ll have dresses there in Vegas, right? Wedding dresses?”

Wes leveled a stare at Troy over Jade’s shoulder as his brother’s mind flew out of control. Troy was far more intelligent than him, and Wes tested as a genius. They didn’t have a scale to accurately measure Troy’s intellect, but he needed Wes to keep him focused. They really were two halves of a whole.

“Barrett, we need the lube,” Wes said. “Troy. Mating first.”

Troy nodded and kissed along Jade’s neck until he found a spot that made her inhale sharply. “Here,” Troy said.

Wes lifted his head to lick and then suck Jade’s perfect nipple. His hands were still holding her ass as Troy slowly thrust into her pussy. Barrett tapped his hand and Wes continued to torture Jade’s breast, her moans of pleasure driving him crazy, while Barrett spread the cool gel on Wes’s fingers.

Jade flinched as Wes then rubbed the gel over her tight anus, the muscle contracting under his fingers.

“Just relax, Jade,” Troy said. “Let Wes stretch you so I won’t hurt you when we make love to you together.”

Wes moved to her other breast, gently biting the base of her nipple, then circling the sensitized bud with his tongue. He had two fingers inside Jade’s ass when her muscles relaxed fully and she began to thrust back onto his fingers.

“My cock will feel even better, Jade,” Troy said.

Wes told Troy she was ready and returned his hand to her ass, holding Jade open for Troy. Troy pulled from Jade’s pussy and Wes tilted his pelvis, entering Jade in one smooth stroke, never missing a beat in the rhythm Troy had initiated.

Wes released Jade’s breast with a moan, Jade’s pussy clamping down, her wet heat overwhelming his senses. His orgasm nearly overtook him. His every cell was perched on the edge of impending ecstasy.

“I told you she felt fantastic,” Troy said.

Wes opened his eyes and locked gazes with Jade. Her mouth was open as she softly panted. As Troy filled Jade’s ass she got tighter, and wetter. Her pupils dilated and her mouth curved in a satisfied smile.

“So full,” Jade said, her pussy fluttering around his cock and caressing him toward insanity.

“Jade, you feel incredible,” Wes said, trying to convey how he felt. “Nothing compares to being inside you. We are never leaving this bedroom.”

Asher chuckled, holding Jade’s hair away from her face as she rocked between him and Troy.

Jade started to move faster, her orgasm close. She was right there with them in their growing pleasure, and the thickening scent of her arousal was an aphrodisiac. He and Troy were linked, their orgasms would be simultaneous. But they would see Jade reach her pleasure first.

Wes held back for one beat and then filled Jade at the same instant as Troy, plunging deeper to tap her cervix and tilting his pelvis to massage her clit. After just three thrusts Jade came, her pussy tightening so much he was unable to move. The rhythmic contractions of her core were enough to send him over the edge.

He came hard, his cum filling Jade as he pulled her close and let his canines descend. His cat marked their mate as they all found their release. Jade moaned as her orgasm peaked again in response to his bite.

The taste of her blood as it coated his tongue pulled more seed from his balls in a delicious agony as they pulled up tight to his body. He pulled his teeth free and licked over his mark, healing it enough for Troy to mark her as well.

Wes released Jade’s ass at last and pulled her close, his lips seeking hers. As their lips met, they both moaned, their tongues dueling in a passionate tangle as Troy marked Jade as his mate. Wes’s balls contracted again as Jade’s blood made Troy orgasm.

Jade pulled her lips free to call Troy’s name, her pussy again a vise around his cock. He held Jade close as she rode out her pleasure before relaxing on top of him. Their skin was slicked with sweat and they squelched a little as they both tried to catch their breath.

“Wow,” Jade said. “That was… I have no words. But I may hold you to your promise to never leave the bedroom.”

Wes and Troy shared a smile. Their egos and their cats both soothed that they not only hadn’t hurt Jade with their joining, but that she enjoyed it.

* * * *

Asher smiled as he smoothed the hair from Jade’s sweat-dampened face. “I think you broke them, little one.”

Jade turned her eyes up to meet his, not moving from her position between Troy and Wes. “I broke them how?”

“There’s no computer in this room,” Barrett said, handing him a couple of warm, wet washcloths.

“Jade is in this room,” Troy said. He moaned as he rose to his knees and took one of the cloths from Asher, gently cleaning their mate. “What else do we need?”

“Nothing,” Wes said. He sat up with Jade held firmly against him.

Asher could sense Wes’s arousal rising again, and easily felt Wes’s cat’s reluctance to be separated from its mate. That was just tough. Asher knew they only had a few minutes respite left. The clock was still ticking from when Troy had inadvertently commenced the claiming.

He’d heard stories of the pain a mate had to endure if the mating wasn’t completed. He knew the legends of the rare deaths that had ensued were all true, and he wasn’t about to let that happen to Jade because Wes was still horny.

“I need our mate,” Asher said. Holding out his arms he saw Wes’s cat move across his skin in a possessive wave. “She needs us all, Wes. She’ll always need us all.”

“You’re so perfect, Jade,” Wes said, kissing Jade tenderly. “I wish you could share my thoughts. You’d know then how much I love you.”

Jade stroked Wes’s face as he easily lifted Jade’s slight frame and handed her to Asher.

“I feel it in here,” Jade said, pressing her hand to her heart. “I feel warm inside.”

Asher didn’t tell her the warmth she was feeling was actually her ribs healing at an increasingly accelerated rate now that she was mated to three shifters. He liked her thinking it was their love warming her from the inside, because he knew for a fact that three of them loved her already. He also suspected Barrett was equally smitten. His eyes were filled with lust and adoration as he gazed at Jade.

“Are you in any pain, little one?” Asher needed to know this before he made love to her. He never wanted her to feel pain again.

“I’m actually feeling better,” Jade said, clasping his face with her small hands. “So stop worrying, Asher.”

She’d seen right through him. His mate was smart as well as beautiful. His painfully full cock jerked and she wriggled onto his lap, rubbing her ass against it. She was also the sexiest woman he’d ever encountered. He crashed his lips to hers, letting his need and joy free for her to see and feel. He needed her to know him, all of him.

Her hands moved from his face to slide down his neck to his shoulders, pulling herself tightly against him. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he lowered her to the bed and settled himself between her thighs.

“I can’t make love to you without first tasting your sweet pussy. My cat and I are desperate to discover if you taste as sweet as you smell.”

Jade’s blush at his words screamed of innocence and inexperience. He vowed to find out why that was when she claimed to have had previous sexual partners.

Kissing a path down her silky smooth skin was a sensual delight that warred with his predatory rage. Her fading bruises and healing bite marks threatened to unleash his cat to hunt down and kill those that had so abused her.

“Your skin is so soft, Jade, and you taste of the caramel in your scent.”

He had reached the apex of her thighs and didn’t hesitate to lick through her moist folds, making her words incoherent as she moaned in pleasure. God, he loved her moans. His desire returned full force, nearly making him come.

“You taste even sweeter than I imagined. I am never going to get enough of you.”

“Please,” Jade said, her pelvis lifting to press her pussy tight to his mouth.

Asher growled softly, running his tongue around her swollen clit and using the vibrations to add to her pleasure. She came with a soft scream, her quick response making him certain she was sexually naive.

Moving up her body with the speed of his cat, he was stroking his cock into the tight heat of her pussy in less than a second. He kissed her deeply, her body still trembling with pleasure. Pumping into her slowly he drew out her pleasure.

When her pussy relaxed he picked up his speed. She wrapped her legs around him and he sunk deeper. His balls drew up tight, the tingling down his spine a warning that he was too close to hold back much longer.

He released her lips and nibbled down her neck to the spot where it joined her shoulder. “I want you to come with me,” he said, his voice soft and rough with his cat’s rumbling growl.

“Asher, I can’t.”

He let his canines extend and they easily pierced her delicate skin. Her blood trickled into his mouth as she came, her legs clamping her to him as her pussy milked him to climax. He came hard, each spurt of his cum shooting pleasure through his entire body.

His arms shook as he rocked into Jade in a frenzied rhythm that had them both crying out their pleasure. By the time they’d both stopped coming, Asher felt so drained he barely had the strength to hold himself up.

Surprisingly it was Troy who clasped a hand over his shoulder to keep him from crushing Jade as he rolled to the side. He wrapped his arm around Jade to bring her with him until she lay over his chest.

“Incredible,” Asher said, his arms feeling like jelly as he stroked his hands down Jade’s back.

“I never knew sex could feel this good,” Jade said. She turned her face into his chest and inhaled deeply before branding him with a soft kiss. “You smell so good, Asher. You all do.”

Jade bounced a little as he chuckled. “It can’t compare to your scent, my Jade. Yours is now embedded so deep in my skin I’ll never be free of it.”

She lifted an eyebrow, clearly too spent to ask what he’d meant.

“It’s a shifter thing, darlin’,” Barrett said.

The bed rocked as Barrett sat down beside them. “Are you sure you’re even a cat?” Asher said, a smile threatening to ruin his insult. “You have all the grace of a damned bear.”

“There are bear people?”

“We have a lot to share with you, Jade,” Barrett said. “But not today. Suffice it to say Asher was insulting me. You need food. You’re too skinny and you’ve eaten nothing all day.”

Asher sat up with Jade in his arms, nearly head butting Barrett in his haste. “We’ve been poor mates. Our mother raised us to be better than this.”

“She’s going to find out just how much we’ve been neglecting our mate, too,” Troy said.

“We’re in big trouble,” Wes said.

“What the hell are you two talking about?” Asher stilled, the words barely spoken when he heard the door of a truck slam. “Shit. How did I miss them approaching?”

“You were a little busy,” Barrett said, his tone mocking.

Asher could see all of his brothers were happy he’d finally slipped up. He’d let them enjoy themselves at his expense. He’d been on another plane of existence when he’d been inside his mate. But he’d remember not to get so lost in his pleasure again. Not until the wolf stalking her was dead, anyway.

“I think Jade would like a shower before she meets our parents again,” Asher said, rising smoothly and keeping Jade cradled in his arms.

Her eyes were wide, the sweet scent of her arousal being tainted by the acidic aroma of fear. “Your parents? Oh no.”

Wes and Troy were at her side an instant later. “You didn’t like our parents?” Their faces wore identical frowns of confusion and hurt.

“I have nothing clean to wear,” Jade said, her voice rising in panic.

Chapter 12

Beau snarled, smashing his fist into a cubicle door, tearing it from its hinges to collide with the dirty toilet.

“What do you mean you can’t scent her?”

“It means she never made it this far,” Justin said, turning to stare at Beau like he had a right to judge himself superior. Justin was truly going to regret that emotion as he died painfully and slowly.

“She’s in Eminence. It’s only twenty minutes back down the road,” Harry said softly. He was attempting to calm Beau’s wolf, and Beau allowed it.

“The last town stunk of fucking cats. How the hell could anyone scent anything over that stench?” Justin said derisively. He tipped the last of the whiskey down his throat and threw the bottle against the broken cubicle door.

“Because I’m that good,” Harry said, staring at Beau. “She was there.”

“Then she’s still there, or she found another mode of transport other than the bus.” Beau ignored Justin as he proceeded to urinate on the sinks in the ladies’ restroom. Some shifters really were little more than their animals. Justin was truly an ignorant mongrel.

“This is a remote area and her scent was still fresh,” Harry said. “She’s still there.”

Beau turned and left Justin as he further befouled the restroom, following Harry out to his truck.

“Tell me we can kill him soon,” Harry said, his jaw clenched tight.

“As soon as he’s outlived his usefulness,” Beau said. “He’s a fucking huge wolf and we might need him if any of the cats decide to get in my way.”

“True. But he’s an animal.”

“I won’t let him live long enough to desecrate our Jade. I’ll kill him as soon as she’s ours again.”

With that thought warming his cold heart, and the thought of finally having Jade underneath him, Beau slid behind the wheel of his truck and honked the horn to hurry Justin along. The sun was disappearing behind the thick snow clouds rolling over the mountain.

“By morning Jade will be hog-tied in the back as we head off to find our new home. I hope she’s stronger than the last one.” Harry smiled as they both watched Justin stagger to the truck while pulling up his jeans. “And Justin will be sorry he ever met me.”

* * * *

Asher had given her his mobile phone so she could call Amber and then her mother. Even though it was only Amber who’d been worried about her, she wanted to tell her mother where she was living now, and give them both a number where they could contact her.

The call to her mother had been short and sweet, the call to Amber much more difficult. They’d been inseparable as children and had remained each other’s confidant despite how many miles separated them. Amber had managed to get more out of her than she’d intended to tell her.

“Nosy cow,” Jade said wryly.

“You love me anyway,” Amber said, ending the call.

Jade paused and listened to the conversation in the kitchen before entering. The four men were part of a very loving family. Having just spoken with her own mother, the differences were starkly apparent.

“No point hiding, darlin’. The roomful of shifters can smell and hear you standing there,” Barrett said, stepping into the hallway with a wide smile on his handsome face.

“Not hiding,” Jade said softly. “I’m just enjoying listening to everyone.”

Barrett frowned at her words but picked her up and carried her to the table. Jade felt self-conscious at first with the open displays of affection her men lavished on her. They kissed her and caressed her at every opportunity. But as the meal progressed Jade saw how happy their parents were, and with Brett being equally demonstrative to Margie, Jade relaxed and let herself enjoy their attention. Surrounded by this loving family, Jade found herself feeling happier than she’d been in a long, long time.

“Barrett could always charm the birds out the trees with his calm, soothing nature,” Margie said, smiling warmly at her second eldest son. “We thought he might become a vet, but he preferred to risk his life throwing himself out of speeding cars and such, when he wasn’t home working the ranch with his dad.”

Margie cleared the dishes with Asher’s help, frowning when she picked up Jade’s barely touched bowl of spaghetti. Jade wasn’t used to such enormous servings.

“I was hardly risking my life,” Barrett said, pulling Jade tighter against his body. “Not considering how hardy shifters are.”

“Shifters die,” Brett said succinctly. “Being a shifter doesn’t save you from death.”

Jade saw Margie shudder as she looked at all her sons. She saw how proud Margie was of all her sons and was pleased that Asher and Barrett hadn’t ever suffered by comparison to their genius brothers. Theirs was a well-adjusted, loving family who just happened to turn into cougars and live to be hundreds of years old.

“What about your family, Jade?” Brett asked. “We’ve talked nonstop about our boys again. My apologies for being rude.”

“Not rude,” Jade said. “I’ve loved learning about their childhood. I can’t wait to hear more.” She looked at Margie and laughed. “I’m sure there are a lot more stories to tell.”

“We’ll tell you everything you want to know,” Troy said.

“We want to know about you, though,” Wes said. “Everything before yesterday.”

“We want to know why Amber is worried about your weight. Why you don’t speak to your mother very often, and why your friend Paige never wants to speak to you again,” Troy continued.

“How?” Jade tried to stand, but Barrett held her closer.

“Subtlety was never one of their gifts,” Asher said with an exaggerated groan.

“Amber thinks Paige is a bitch, and that you’re better off without her in your life,” Wes said, nodding at Troy.

“Paige? I haven’t heard from her in over a year. How do you even…”

Jade stopped talking when Troy pulled her broken cell phone out of one of his fatigue pockets. He held it out to her with a tentative smile.

“You were unconscious and we didn’t know your name.”

“We’re your mates, yet knew nothing about you,” Wes said. “It was torture. You might have had a serious medical condition…”

Jade took pity on the sweet men who looked to be suffering greatly with their feelings of guilt. “You were helping me. I understand. The police would’ve investigated me if they’d been the ones to find me.”

“That’s true,” Troy said. His smile was genuine and his eyes sparkling. “I just did it a hell of a lot quicker.”

“Your father, Chao, has passed away,” Margie said, her expression sympathetic. It wasn’t a question, so Troy and Wes had somehow discovered that detail as well.

“He died ten years ago from a burst aneurysm in his brain. His death was sudden and instant, sparing him any pain.” Jade paused as her voice hitched slightly, betraying the pain she still felt at losing her dad. She’d loved him very much. “But it left us all struggling with the abruptness of his loss.”

Barrett pulled her closer, and moved her so he could kiss her cheek. “I’m sorry, Jade. It’s obvious you still miss him.”

“Your mother remarried,” Troy said. Again it wasn’t a question. “Do you not like your stepfather?”

Jade laughed, trying to put the old pain of her father’s death back in its box. “No, he’s nice enough. Just different.” She looked around in the silence, feeling the weight of all their gazes.

That answer apparently wasn’t satisfying them. “Thomas Boyd is a banker, he loves my mother, and she loves spending his money. It’s hard seeing her with Thomas. It’s like Mom is another person now. She and my dad were so…in love, I guess.”

Margie nodded and came over to squeeze her hand. “She was lonely after Chao died.” Jade felt her heart soften a little toward her mother. She hadn’t been able to understand why her mother had ever decided to marry Thomas. Now she was beginning to.

However, as Jade looked at her mates, she knew she’d willingly choose death over ever being without them. The love shining in their eyes was something she already couldn’t live without.

Asher and Troy exploded into action. Jade had seen the term written but had never fully appreciated what it meant until this moment. Asher disappeared, the door to the kitchen banging loudly to announce which direction he’d gone.

“Take her to the basement.” Troy’s words hung in the air a second before he followed Asher’s lead and disappeared.

Barrett was moving so fast her head swam. He held her tight to his chest, as she found herself suddenly in the darkness of the basement.

“Who is it?” Barrett asked.

“Asher made it to the trees and Troy is waiting on the porch.”

“What’s happening?” Jade whispered into the pitch-darkness.

“Why are you whispering?” Wes whispered back, kissing her on the tip of her nose.

“I thought we were hiding.”

“No, honey. Just putting a few shifters between you and the stranger,” Wes said. “Wait, Hunter and Finn are also in the stranger’s truck.”

“The Alpha is here.” Brett’s deep voice floated down from above.

Barrett put Jade on her feet, and she staggered a little, the darkness disorienting her.

“Whoa there, Jade. I’m still here with you,” Wes said. He wrapped her in his arms and she melted against his solid chest, breathing deeply and letting his scent fill her lungs.

“There’s a stranger?”

“Troy is waiting on the porch for the Alpha. As soon as he tells me it’s safe, we’ll join them. None of us will risk your safety. You’re too important to us.”

“Wes?” Jade whispered.

The tension in his frame had made each and every one of his muscles bulge. She couldn’t resist the urge to stroke him. Jade felt caged by the darkness and the dusty, stale smell, but was soothed by Wes’s hard body beneath her hands. His strong arms around her made her feel safe. His warm breath on her neck was making her body come alive.

“You feel amazing in my arms, Jade. I never imagined a mate would feel like this.”

She laughed quietly, straining to hear what was going on in the kitchen above them. “Come on. You had some idea what a woman felt like, Wes.”

”You have no idea how different you feel to me. How much pleasure the touch of your skin brings me. How my heart beats faster just by looking at you. You’re not just stunningly beautiful, Jade. You’re a gift from heaven. You’re sweet, kind, sexy as fuck, and you can carry my babies, our babies. No one else on earth can do that, could ever do that. But more than that, no one else on earth is mine as completely as you are. I feel you in here.” He brought her hand to his chest, the strong beat of his heart a rapid thud beneath her palm. 

”I can feel you in my heart, too, Wes,” Jade said, her voice barely even a whisper now.

”Fuck,” Wes swore, moving until she had her back pressed to the cool bricks of a wall. “Am I hurting your back?”

Jade felt no pain as he nipped down her neck to his mark, laving the healing wound with his tongue. 

“Wes, please, that feels…”

She was lost for words as her body shook with pleasure. He’d made her come just from kissing her neck. 

She clung to his shoulders and pulled herself up his body, wrapping her legs around his hips and pressing her throbbing clit against the bulge in his fatigues.

“Are you in pain, honey? I don’t want to hurt you.”

“More,” Jade said, her mouth dry as her core clenched. She needed Wes inside her. “I want you.”

Jade was never going to regret being mated to a shifter. Not ever. Wes revealed his strength and dexterity by holding her easily under her ass with one arm as he undid the tie on her borrowed sweats and peeled them off her legs. Having had no clean panties she’d gone commando, and was now seeing the benefits of choosing that option again in the future.

The metallic hiss of a fly preceded Wes’s groan as he pressed Jade back against the wall. “Mine,” he hissed, crashing his lips to hers as his cock slid deeply inside her.

He was hot and hard as he pumped into her, his pace as frantic as his kiss. He gripped her bare ass in his hands, stroking a finger through her leaking juices and then sliding it into her anus. He was everywhere. Inside her, around her. He was pleasure itself as he quickly transported her to the very brink of another orgasm. The promise of rapture just out of her reach.

Releasing her lips he kissed down her neck, his breath as labored as her own. “So perfect, Jade. You’re ours, all ours.”

Jade wanted to scream as Wes thrust deeply and then stilled, his cock pulsing as he came. He pierced her skin with his teeth and she flew, her whole body shaking as wave after wave of ecstasy washed through her. Unable to shed decorum completely she’d gripped Wes’s shirt between her teeth to stifle her screams.

Jade had no idea how long she was lost in her bliss, but Wes’s breathing was still ragged as she reached up blindly to pull his mouth to hers. She licked the sweet, male taste of him into her mouth. Drank his moans as he held her easily in his hands and rocked his still-hard cock inside her. 

”I’d be more than happy to do this all day, Jade. But Troy is already furious with me. I think we should make ourselves decent and go meet our guest.”

The world slammed back into place for Jade. They were down here hiding from danger and they’d just had sex instead.

”Is Troy hurt? God, did we just have sex when your parents and your brothers are in danger?”

”Everyone is fine. The stranger is an official guest of the pride. Troy is the only one hurting, Jade. But not from any injury.”

Wes thrust into her again, so deeply she gasped as his cock bumped her womb.

”He’s hurting because he’s here with me.” Wes tapped her forehead. “But not here.” He tipped his hips again, his cock sliding deliciously into her sensitized pussy.

”I could do this all day,” Jade whispered, afraid to admit that she really wanted to make love to him again.

“Once the threat to you has been eliminated we’ll definitely be making that wish come true, sweet Jade.”

Wes was unfortunately just as dexterous in putting her pants back on, and was carrying her up the stairs a minute later. Jade wanted to forget all about Beau Rennie. That monster had no part in her new life here in Eminence.

He was also a threat to her men and her new friends, but she couldn’t regret coming here. She’d never regret that.

* * * *

Asher smiled as Wes carried Jade from the dark basement to the brightness of the kitchen. Jade blinked to clear her eyes. She appeared rumpled and well loved. The heady aroma of her arousal made his cock even harder and he knew he was walking awkwardly as he joined his brothers at Jade’s side.

“That was incredible, honey,” Troy said, kissing Jade deeply as Wes passed her to him.

“Stop, Troy,” Asher said softly. “We have company.”

“Damn,” Troy said, releasing Jade’s lips and resting his forehead on hers. “Soon we will make love to you all day, Jade. Soon.”

Jade wrapped her arms around Troy’s neck and sighed deeply. “Why do I want you all again? I feel like I’m going crazy.”

“It’s all the mating musk,” Margie said. “It will be years before it wanes even slightly. But it’s a hell of a few years.” Their mom gave their dad a wicked smile, a tremor running through her.

Asher laughed, briefly hugging his mother for easing the confusion he’d scented in his mate. Jade was smiling at Marguerite, and he felt his heart skip a beat at her sheer beauty.

“I thought you were a vision when I first laid eyes on you, Jade,” Asher said, his cat’s need making his voice husky. “But with the bruising and swelling nearly gone you’re beauty is dazzling.”

Jade’s blush and increasing arousal had Asher stepping closer, his audience forgotten until the Alpha cleared his throat.

“I would like to introduce Jade to our guest,” Finn said. The command in his Alpha’s voice froze Asher with his hand outstretched, only the barest space separating him from Jade.

Jade wasn’t affected by the Alpha’s unspoken command. She pressed her face to his hand with a sigh. “Is it ridiculous that I missed you?”

“Soon, little one,” Asher said. “As soon as you’re safe we’ll have the time to enjoy being mated. To enjoy everything about being mated.”

Jade pulled back to stare at him with a shocked expression.

“Jade, did you meet Mason Reeder while you were living in Duckwater?” Finn asked.

As soon as Finn spoke Asher was free to move. He stepped aside so Jade could be introduced to the enforcer from the Duckwater pack.

“No, I don’t think we’ve met,” Jade said, her brows furrowing.

Asher was glad Troy didn’t step any closer or release Jade from his hold on her. Having an unmated male in the room was causing havoc with his cat. Asher was still in full control, but his cat’s possessive snarls inside his head were distracting as hell.

“No, we didn’t meet,” Mason said. He looked at Asher and his brothers and correctly read the threat. He remained standing at Finn’s side. “But I saw you in the desert often while you painted. You’re very talented.”

“Mason was sent by his Alpha to aid in our protection of Jade,” Finn said.

“They think we can’t protect our mate?” Wes said, his anger infecting all their cats and making the kitchen pulse with aggression.

“I imagine they are suffering under the common misconception that all canine shifters seem to share of our nature,” Asher said.

Hunter stepped beside Mason and slapped him on the back. “They think we have inferior olfactory glands compared to dogs.”

“You cats are all very pretty,” Mason said, his familiarity with Hunter obvious. “But none of you can track for shit.”

Barrett’s booming laugh released the tension and he took Jade from Troy and sat at the table with her. She was satisfyingly engulfed by Barrett’s massive bulk and Asher’s cat relaxed a little.

“She’s safe now,” Asher said, as much to reassure the twins as himself.

“Do they even realize they can’t scent vampires, while we can?” Barrett asked.

Finn’s eyes closed for a second and he sighed before opening them. The heat of their glowing amber threatened to boil Barrett like twin lasers. “They do now. Thank you, Barrett.”

Mason stilled, his large body coiled in predatory readiness. “Vampires? They exist?”

“Sorry,” Barrett mumbled, letting his head fall back with a groan.

“We have business here,” Finn said. “Hunter can brief you on the relevant details pertaining to other species at a later date.”

“Species? As in plural?” Mason asked.

“Mason would like to base himself at your parents’ home,” Hunter said, ignoring Mason’s obvious anger. No one liked being the dumbest person in the room, especially an enforcer. “Unless you would be comfortable with him staying here, close to Jade?”

Hunter held up his hands to silence the snarls that greeted that suggestion.

“That’s what I thought you’d say,” Mason said. “If I may impose upon you, Mr. and Mrs. Pollock, I would be in your debt.”

“Of course, Mr. Reeder, but please, call me Margie. I’ll set up a room for you as soon as I get home.”

Asher saw Mason shift his focus back to Jade. The tense set of the man’s mouth and the way tension rippled off his tall frame had Asher’s cat bracing for bad news.

“Beau and his friends destroyed your apartment, Jade,” Mason said. He stared unblinkingly at Jade, his body taut. “I’m afraid there was nothing salvageable.”

Jade paled as the realization of how furious Beau had been when she’d escaped him sunk in.

“Beau lied to you about his living arrangements,” Mason continued. “He and his friends were squatting on an old property outside of town.” Asher didn’t miss the slight curl of the coyote’s lip, or the flash of rage he worked hard to conceal.

“What was discovered at this property?” Finn asked flatly. Finn was not the Alpha of their pride for nothing. He’d also seen the coyote’s attempt to conceal information. “Jade has her mates to protect her now, Mason.”

Mason nodded at the Alpha before turning his gaze back to Jade. Asher’s cat snarled at the disgust and fury coming from Mason. This was going to be bad.

“We found the remains of a young woman at the property. She’d only been dead a few days.”

A small gasp escaped Jade’s mouth, and Asher saw her grip on Barrett’s arm tighten. Wes and Troy moved to stand beside her.

“There was no question that the same wolves were responsible for her death,” Mason said.

“He would have killed me, too.”

“Eventually,” Mason said soberly.

“They haven’t returned there or been seen anywhere around Duckwater?” Hunter asked. Mason shook his head, his jaw tense.

Asher was barely keeping his cat under control, his every instinct screaming at him to shift and hunt down this threat to his mate. But Asher wasn’t so enraged that he missed the fact that Mason was still withholding information. A great deal of it, the lawyer in Asher recognized Mason being ambiguous in his use of facts. He understood Mason wanting to spare Jade any further anguish, but Asher needed to know everything if he was to keep his mate protected.

The air in the room prickled with tension and Asher had no intention of allowing Jade to suffer further. “May I escort you out, Mason?”

After saying good-bye to Jade and his brothers, Mason followed the Alpha from the kitchen. Asher noted Mason moved with sleek grace. The man was an old shifter, coexisting with his beast in a way that Asher had only recently begun to experience.

“I need to coordinate with the Alpha on your protection, but I’ll be back to tuck you in for the night, little one.” Asher kissed Jade deeply, trying to drive away her fear, and his own, before leaving her in the care of his brothers.

Asher was in total control of his furious cat by the time he faced Mason. His parents stepped up beside him, their concern evident on their faces and in their scent.

“What exactly did you find at this property Beau and his friends were camped at?”

Mason looked to Finn before speaking and Asher’s respect for the man continued to grow.

“There are no secrets in my pride,” Finn said.

“We found the woman’s body in a shallow grave behind the old farmhouse. She’d died recently, as I said, but her injuries indicated her abuse and captivity took place over a number of weeks.”

The cold night air tingled with the power of their combined rage. Asher watched his father wrap an arm around his mother. Asher pushed back all emotion, refusing to be blinded by it when Jade’s life was at stake.

“So she was being held captive at the same time as Jade?” Asher said.

Mason nodded, his eyes glowing red with his coyote’s anger. Jade would have been kept prisoner for as long as Beau and his friends found her amusing. Then they’d have killed her and discarded her like garbage. Asher thanked the fates that she was here with them. It was a miracle to have found her in time. To have found her at all.

“Were any other bodies found on the property?” Hunter asked.

“Two others so far. My pack is continuing the search, but it’s a large property,” Mason said.

Asher let his cat’s rage build inside him, channeling its fury for use in Jade’s protection. Asher would waste none of his cat’s gifts. Mason’s coyote was clearly visible to Asher and he saw through Mason’s deadpan expression to his coyote’s attempt at evasion.

“Is whatever you’re continuing to withhold from us important to my mate’s safety?”

Finn’s growl had Marguerite covering her ears with her hands. The Alpha’s power was pouring over Mason, but he stood firm, his determined expression unchanged.

“The women we found were all human,” Mason said, his rage well under control. “But they have families somewhere who deserve to know their daughter’s killers have been found and punished.”

But the perpetrators were not human and no human prison could hold a shifter. These wolves had gone rogue and the shifter judicial system was not lenient to rogues who risked the exposure of their race.

“So you’re really here to kill these wolves, not apprehend them?” Asher said, liking Mason more and more each second.

Chapter 13

Harry hated having Justin with him on the search. The man reeked of the alcohol he continually ingested. The stench didn’t affect Harry’s ability to track. It simply made it damned unpleasant for him.

“You should bathe in something other than beer once in a while,” Harry said. “Then someone may actually fuck you without the necessity for restraints.”

Justin’s retaliation was swift and painful as he swiped a clawed hand across Harry’s abdomen. Harry didn’t scream. That would only make Justin more excited. The brute liked inflicting pain as much as he liked drinking.

“Just shut the fuck up and do your job, you freak,” Justin snarled, his eyes gleaming as he licked Harry’s blood from his clawed fingers. “You’re one to talk. I don’t see the ladies queuing up to fuck your fat ass.”

Harry closed his eyes and pulled in his anger. Beau was going to kill Justin soon. Please let it be soon. Harry had to content himself with the knowledge that only Justin’s size, strength, and ruthless brutality was keeping him alive right now.

“If Beau wasn’t so fucking obsessed with this Jade bitch we wouldn’t be in this town full of stinking cats,” Justin said, retracting his claws and looking round the corner of the alley they were hiding in.

Harry pulled off his clothes while Justin was looking the other way, and after hiding them under a Dumpster he shifted. The shift allowed him to heal, as well as track Jade more easily. Harry ran out of the alley and followed Jade’s trail. She’d been in the alley, but was taken somewhere by car. He was confident he’d soon find her scent again. No one had ever evaded him for long.

He left Justin to follow in his own time. Harry was a small wolf who would easily be mistaken for a hairy black dog in the dim streetlights, which left him free to search the whole town undetected. He’d find Jade and be gone, with the cats being none the wiser. Stupid cats.

* * * *

Barrett had left immediately to patrol their ranch and Jade found her heart was still racing from their wild good-bye kiss when Troy carried her to their bedroom. Their bedroom. She could hardly get her head around the speed at which she’d accepted all this craziness. Shifters, vampires, matings, living for centuries, it was all insane, but she felt the truth of it in her very soul. Plus she’d witnessed them shifting. The simple truth was she was mated, and she never wanted to be apart from her four wonderful men.

“Have I told you how beautiful you are?” Troy said, placing her on the bed and kneeling between her legs to wrap his arms around her waist. “I can scent your fear and confusion and I’m sorry, but I can’t be sorry that any of this has happened.”

“Troy?” Jade pulled back, but he held her face gently in his hands as he gazed at her with his beautiful blue eyes.

“Don’t ever doubt I’m enraged over the fucker hurting and terrifying you. I’m going to see him punished for that. But it brought you here to us. That’s a miracle I’m never going to stop cherishing.”

Jade laughed at the ridiculousness of that statement, and was shocked that she could laugh after the bad news Mason had just delivered. Maybe I am insane after all?

“You’re not insane, honey,” Wes said, sitting beside her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“I said that aloud, didn’t I?”

She felt surrounded and protected by them. Beau didn’t have a hope in hell of getting near her. Wes and Troy both suddenly froze, their bodies going rigid as they both began to growl. The vibrations rumbled through her and she felt her confidence drain away.

“Is he here?” Jade asked, the brothers unmoving and rigid with tension.

She cupped Troy’s face in her hands, searching for the answer in his expression but not finding it.

“Where did you go, Troy?”

His eyes locked with hers as his arms caressed down her back to cup her ass. He didn’t pretend to not understand her question. He just smiled and kissed the end of her nose.

“We explained how Wes and I communicate.” She nodded, curious to see how much he’d share about his special bond with his twin. “Well, since meeting you we discovered Asher is able to hear us, too.”

“You don’t want him to hear you?”

Wes laughed ruefully. “It was just a surprise. I think he’s been hearing us for a while. He only revealed it to us after we’d met you.”

“So you were just talking to Asher?”

“Not intentionally, little one,” Asher said. He sat down on her other side and wrapped an arm around her waist. “Mason has gone to Mom and Dad’s and I’m starting my patrol as soon as I’ve said good night to my adorable mate.

Despite her fear, Jade felt her body tingle. The three men holding her so tightly was a sensual overload. She’d never even dreamed of being in a ménage relationship, but it felt right somehow. Except she missed Barrett being here.

“Now you’ve left us,” Troy said. She opened her eyes to see a teasing smile on Troy’s face.

“I was marveling at how wonderful it felt with you all holding me like this,” she said without thinking, the words just spilling from her heart, “and I was shocked to find I missed Barrett being here to hold me, too.”

“Why is that a shock?” Wes said, his tone serious, “Is he your least favorite?”

“No. Of course not,” Jade said hurriedly, horrified they’d think such a thing. Then she saw Troy smile. “He’s my favorite, actually.”

She was moved so quickly her head swam and found Wes staring down at her less than a heartbeat later.

“Now you’re just being mean,” Wes said.

“I’m shocked how much I like four men touching me, surrounding me”—she swallowed, her mouth going dry—“inside me.”

She closed her eyes, her face heating. She wasn’t ashamed to tell them how much she enjoyed them all making love to her. It was more a case of her never having talked with men about sex before. Actually, she’d never talked with anyone about sex before.

“I’m beyond happy that you feel that way,” Wes said. She felt his lips brush hers softly, and she licked her lips, groaning at the delicious flavor of him.

“Fuck,” Wes said, slamming his lips to hers and delving into her mouth with his tongue. Her hands flew to his short dark hair, gripping it tight as she held him to her. His kiss was carnal and desperate, and it ignited the same feelings inside her.

Jade was panting for breath when Wes released her lips. “How do you make me feel like this,” Jade whispered.

“Feel like what?” Asher asked.

Wes moved to lay beside her on the bed, one hand propping up his head, his other arm possessively draped across her stomach. Asher continued to stare at her, his gaze heated and his breathing rapid as he slowly undid his shirt one button at a time.

“Feel so…” Jade found her gaze fixed on the smooth, bronzed perfection of Asher’s sculpted chest as it was slowly revealed.

“You’re very shy about sex, Jade,” Troy said.

If he hadn’t moved to stand beside Asher, Jade wouldn’t have seen him. She’d been transfixed by Asher’s body.

“Troy,” Jade said. She was embarrassed to hear it come out as a breathy moan. Troy was naked, his magnificent body looking like a work of art. His hand was slowly stroking up and down the length of his cock. His huge cock.

“Holy hell, did I have that inside me?”

“Yes, you did, honey. You had me buried deep in your tight ass, and you cried out in pleasure as I made love to you.”

“God,” Jade managed.

“You told Barrett you weren’t a virgin, Jade,” Asher said. Jade tore her eyes from Troy’s cock to see Asher had removed his shirt and was undoing the button fly of his fatigues. “It can’t have been a lie.”

Jade knew she’d whimper if she opened her mouth, so she shook her head. Wes moved his hand under her jumper and caressed her bare skin in slow, sensuous circles. Each circle got closer to her breasts and she found herself arching her back into his touch. She’d die if he didn’t touch them soon.

“No, it was a lie, or no, it wasn’t a lie?” Wes asked. “I find I really want to know.”

“Please,” Jade said, wriggling her torso in an attempt to place Wes’s hand where she wanted it. Needed it. Her nipples throbbed. Her pussy felt swollen and slick with her juices. Her clit throbbed in time with her racing heart. She’d never felt anything like this before.

“Please what?” Troy asked.

“I need,” Jade said.

“We know,” Asher said. Jade’s pussy leaked a little as she looked up to see Asher naked at the foot of the bed. “Was it a lie?”

“No. I wouldn’t lie to you.” Jade moaned as Wes cupped her breast with his hand and gently stroked his fingers over her nipple. She nearly came, but Wes moved his hand away too quickly.

“Why are you so shy?” Troy asked, grasping the bottom of her sweatpants and tugging them off her legs.

Jade felt both aroused and exposed as the cold air of the room hit her leaking pussy. She’d forgotten she had no panties on. She saw Asher’s and Troy’s eyes glow brightly as they softly growled. The tips of their cocks were shining with their pre-cum and Jade found herself desperate to taste them.

“You look hungry,” Wes said. “Do you want to taste them?”

“Tell us what happened to you, little one,” Asher said. “Then we can make love to you. We’re desperate to be inside you. We are the only ones who will ever make love to you. Your pleasure is our responsibility, so we need to know what you like. What you don’t. It’s too important for us not to know.”

Jade snapped her eyes to Asher’s, his entreaty cooling the urgency of her desire. He was right. They deserved to know she had no idea what she was doing when it came to sex. These men. Her men, Barrett included, had not only bared their souls to her, they’d bared their existence as shifters to her. She owed them the same honesty.

“You’re right. I’m sorry.” She went to sit up, but Wes held her down.

“Oh, no. I like you right there, little Jade.” Wes kissed her temple, gentling his hold to caress her stomach.

“I’ve only had one other sexual partner.” She sniffed. “And that term’s stretching the definition of the term.” She wanted to get this over with, so she fixed her gaze on the stars outside the window and kept talking.

“My senior prom date, Corey, was my only experience with sex before yesterday. It was nothing like the mind-blowing pleasure I felt with all of you. He persuaded me to have sex with him on our prom night. He said it would make the night perfect. We kissed and fumbled around in the back of his car. Before I knew it he’d managed to free one of my legs from my panties. He thrust a few times inside me and it hurt more with each thrust. Then he’d moaned and pulled out to deal with the condom.”

Jade looked at the stars and remembered she’d stared at them that night as well. She’d been apprehensive about sex, and felt let down after the act, but was too ashamed to say anything to Corey.

“After the next two dates ended with the exact same experience, I decided sex was overrated and told him I wouldn’t be doing it again. He soon stopped calling me, and I’ve never liked anyone enough to want to try it again.”

“It was probably his first time, too. Poor Jade,” Asher said kindly.

Jade was confused by Asher’s reaction. “I really don’t know what I expected you to say. But it wasn’t that,” Jade said.

Asher crawled between her legs, licking and kissing her as he went. “I’m furious you felt nothing but pain, Jade. But I can’t change the past. I can only make certain that you feel nothing but pleasure now.”

“I did. I do,” Jade said. “The way you all make me feel is a revelation. I never knew such ecstasy was even a possibility.”

“For that, I want to shake this Corey’s hand,” Wes said. He kissed Jade until she was panting again, her fingers caught in his hair. Her desire was a pulsing need inside her again, her embarrassment forgotten. “We hold that honor now, Jade. We are the only ones to have brought you pleasure.”

“The only ones who’ll ever bring you pleasure,” Troy said.

Asher lifted Jade, kissing her deeply before turning her to lay on top of Wes. Wes was now naked, and he pulled Jade’s jumper gently off her head, his mouth catching hold of her nipple. She moaned as he sucked hard, the pleasure shooting through her body to center on her clit.

Wes tipped his hips and rubbed his erection through her wet folds. Jade didn’t even think. She took his cock in her hand and put the weeping tip inside her. A long moan echoed through the room as Jade lowered herself onto Wes. She opened her eyes and smiled down at Wes. They had both moaned.

His cock twitched as it filled her. The slow slide of his tense erection into her aroused and wet pussy made her shiver with delight. She began to move onto Wes, bracing her knees on the bed to meet his thrusts, the friction driving her need higher.

“Just a little stretch, Jade,” Asher said. His warm body pressed against her back and she arched to feel more of him. Cool gel pressed into her anus and she shivered as Asher nipped at the place on her neck that bore his mark.

“I need you, Jade,” Troy said.

Jade knew where he’d be and reached out for him, unerringly finding his cock. She moaned as Asher stroked another finger inside her, Wes frustratingly slowing his thrusts. She stroked the silky smooth skin of Troy’s cock, letting her fascination for the organ ease her desperate need to reach her climax.

“It’s so soft, like your cat’s ears,” Jade said, licking along the tip to taste the sweetness of his arousal.

Troy stroked her face. “You’re a revelation, Jade, and so damned perfect.”

His words garbled into a moan as she opened her mouth wide and took him into her mouth. Asher rubbed his cock through the tight rings of her ass and she sighed with pleasure even as her heart ached for Barrett to be with them. Then it would’ve been perfect.

Asher and Wes began a steady rhythm, each filling her in turn. Troy was moaning as she stroked and sucked his cock with gentle, smooth motions. She learned his sweet spots as more elixir dripped from his cock and he held her head gently as his cock jerked.

She discovered she loved pleasing him. She wanted to learn where each of her men was most sensitive and give them the same sort of pleasure they freely gave to her. This was making love, and she finally understood why her men were pleased Corey had been a terrible lover. They were the only ones she’d ever made love to.

“I’m coming, Jade,” Troy said, his words more a growl with his jaw tense and his teeth clamped together.

She watched his orgasm sweep over him as she probed the opening of his cock with her tongue. He held her face tenderly as his cum shot down her throat. She swallowed the musky liquid, committing to memory what her Troy had liked.

Troy kissed her reverently on the forehead and continued to hold her face as his brothers made love to her. They were a family now. Sharing everything. Sharing their hearts, their pleasure, their lives.

Without the distraction of Troy’s cock in her mouth Jade felt everything more keenly. Wes’s and Asher’s cocks were all she felt as her simmering delight exploded into ecstasy. She screamed Barrett’s name as she came. She needed him with her. Needed him to know she wanted him as her body shook with the strength of her orgasm.

She felt the small bite of Asher’s teeth as he marked her again. Her orgasm drew out and she collapsed onto Wes, biting down on him to stop herself from flying apart under the onslaught of sensations.

“You’re so perfect,” Wes murmured in her ear. “I’m so proud to wear your mark, my lovely Jade.”

Jade wasn’t sure what he meant, but she smiled as Asher released her skin and licked over his mark. She gave a small gasp as his cock slipped from her body. She liked him there. She liked being surrounded by her men.

“I hope you mark me one day, little one,” Asher said softly.

Wes was warm and solid beneath her and she licked and nuzzled him as she was gently cleaned and covered with a quilt. She drifted to sleep with her men muttering in the background, too exhausted and satiated to feel anything but cherished.

Chapter 14

“Really? She screamed my name? That’s amazing. Fuck, Asher, I love her so damned much it hurts.” Barrett ached to be near Jade. The mating was too new for them to be apart this long and not have him going crazy.

Barrett was running along their ranch’s lower boundary where it met the Wilder’s. Axel was on the opposite boundary where it met the Reed’s property. Cooper had made sure no one could slip through unnoticed.

“I want this fucker caught so I can spend the next year buried inside our mate,” Barrett said.

“Thanks for the visual, Barrett. Now I need to soak my head in bleach to try and rid myself of the image of your hairy ass,” Fergus said.

“Fuck you,” Barrett said, his happiness at knowing Jade had missed him not in the least diminished.

“Fergus!” Cooper snapped. “I trust you conveyed the message. The safety of one of our mates is a priority.”

“No, Cooper. I have no excuse,” Fergus said contritely.

“What message?” Asher asked, his mental tone sharp enough to cut steel.

“I’m behind the hardware store and it stinks of wolf. I did a sweep forty minutes ago and it was clean then. Whoever they are they’ve only just got here.”

“We can’t know if it’s the same wolves without Barrett, Mason, or Axel confirming the scent,” Asher said.

“Thank you, Asher,” Cooper said. Barrett heard no censure in their enforcer’s tone. Cooper had a mate too and he’d do anything to keep Melanie safe. He understood how they were feeling. “Barrett, get to town as fast as you can. Asher, run his patrol until we hear what’s happening in town. Axel is picking up Mason as we speak.”

“Jordanna is already in the safe room,” Gabriel Prentiss said. “Until we hear otherwise I’m making sure Rowan keeps her and Elijah in there.”

Barrett had already started to run. He shuddered as he thought of beautiful, blind Jordanna and how helpless she’d be without her mates if the wolf went looking for Jade there. Eminence was full of precious mates and cubs. It was the reason Barrett had returned to become a soldier for the pride.

Thank fuck I did because I’m going to be using everything Samson and Evan have taught me to keep my own mate safe.

“I’m with you on that, brother,” Asher said. “We’re a strong pride. All the mates and our cubs are safe.”

Asher had heard his private thoughts again. He decided he really needed to discuss this with him once the danger to Jade was over.

“If you girls have finished,” Cooper said. “Gabe, there is no one but you, Drake, and Caine south of town. I’m sending Dane to you in case these are the wolves we’ve been waiting for.”

“Do you want the other mates in the safe rooms?” Barrett asked. He knew that Morgan, Peata, and Jade were protected by their mates, but they weren’t within easy reach of a safe room.

“Do you think we can’t handle three wolves?” Finn said smoothly. The Alpha was not reprimanding Barrett. The question was a gentle reassurance.

“No, Alpha.”

There was no further chatter. The Alpha’s faith in their strength as a pride was a galvanizing force in their minds. They weren’t facing an army of drugged hyenas or tigers this time. There wasn’t a pack of wolves descending on the town with annihilation of the pride their only goal.

This was just a crazed wolf who wanted to possess, torture, and then kill Barrett’s mate. “We have this, Alpha,” Barrett said through the pride link. “The wolves will not get my mate.”

* * * *

Wes was warm and happy, his mate safe in his arms. Naked and safe. He inhaled her scent again, the thrill no less potent than the very first time he’d smelled it. He’d never tire of it. Of her. She was amazing.

“Fuck. Asher just told me that Fergus has found the scent of a wolf in town,” Troy said.

Wes tried not to leap out of bed, but Troy’s emotions were bleeding into him through their bond, and Troy was twitching with unreleased tension.

“Who’s gone to confirm it’s not simply a random shifter?” Wes asked, swallowing the lump of fear he felt building in his throat.

“Barrett, Axel, and Mason are all going,” Troy said. “Axel will find them. His tracking skills are incredible.”

“He won’t get within a hundred miles of her,” Wes said, slowing his breathing and easing Jade off him to place her on the warm sheet. She didn’t stir as he tucked the quilt around her and quickly dressed.

“He may well already be within a hundred miles, Wes. We should have a safe room constructed in our new home. Make the entire house a safe room. I could easily design something totally impenetrable to even a vampire. Maybe not a demon, but a vampire definitely.”

“Troy, stop,” Wes snapped. Troy had found a release valve for his nervous tension, and if Wes didn’t keep him focused Troy would begin drawing up the blueprints for a safe house.

“It’s too late for that now. But you may be on to something for the future,” Asher said.

Troy shared an exasperated look with Wes as he joined him in the bedroom.

“What do you want us to do?” Wes asked, feeling grateful Asher somehow shared their mental link.

“Prepare to take Jade to Finn’s if it’s confirmed these are in fact the same wolves.”

Troy gently picked Jade up and held her in his arms. “I can’t lose her. She’s a part of me now.”

“It would be as though my heart was ripped from my chest,” Wes finished.

Jade opened her eyes as Troy bent and kissed her lips. She smiled at Troy, then at Wes, before she stiffened, fear clouding her beautiful eyes. Troy stood with Jade in his arms and Wes moved closer, so they both enfolded her in their arms.

“We won’t leave you alone for even a second,” Wes said.

“I remember how crazy Beau was when he was angry,” Jade whispered. “I remember the red eyes, the claws, the pain.”

She shuddered and he and Wes both squeezed her a little tighter.

“I’m not just scared for me,” Jade whispered. “Melanie, Bethany, everyone here is so nice. What if Beau hurts them, or he hurts one of…”

“Your men,” Wes supplied, and Jade nodded, breaking his gaze to lean her head on his chest. Right above his heart. The heart that beat just for her now.

“You’re a good person, Jade Liang,” Troy said. “We’ll keep you safe.”

Wes could feel that Troy was now totally back in the moment. They would keep Jade safe or die trying.

They shared a cold smile. They had too much to live for now that Jade was theirs to protect and treasure. The wolf was going to die.

“Painfully,” Troy added.

* * * *

Barrett didn’t flinch at walking through the middle of town stark naked. Not just because it was after midnight and probably deserted, bar the members of his pride, but because he smelled wolf and he was out for blood.

“Definitely the same wolves,” Barrett said, catching a pair of sweats Fergus threw at him.

“I was afraid of that,” Fergus mumbled. “We don’t get many wolves dropping by for a chat.”

The sound of an approaching vehicle drew their attention. They moved to the entrance of the darkened alley, pressing themselves against the cold cement wall.

“It’s Axel and Mason,” Barrett said, running at full speed to meet the vehicle as it stopped outside the hardware store.

“It’s them,” Barrett said.

“Only two of them,” Axel said. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. “I’d say it was Beau’s friends. I can’t scent enough of Beau to make me think he was ever here.”

“How the fuck?” Mason said. He’d exited the truck while Barrett had been focused on Axel and he was shaking his head. “You’re a hundred percent correct. Beau hasn’t been here, but his friends were.”

Barrett inhaled deeply as Mason paused. Barrett could only smell the familiar stench of the wolves who’d hurt Jade. Their individual scent trails weren’t discernible to him.

“Good work, Fergus,” Axel said. “The trail is less than thirty minutes old.”

Barrett nodded his thanks to Fergus as he waited for Axel’s command. Axel was the better tracker and he’d trust Jade’s safety to him rather than risk blindly running off in the wrong direction. He wanted these wolves found and Mason and Axel were his best chance of making that happen.

“They actually stayed together,” Axel said. “Not a very efficient way to search, but convenient for us.”

Mason and Axel both headed north, jogging not running. Heading toward Jade.

“Fuck, Cooper drove Jade straight from this alley to Jason’s. She was in a car. Could the wolves be following her scent?” Barrett asked.

“I can’t scent her now, but I could in the alley,” Mason said.

“I thought only vampires were capable of following such a weak scent,” Barrett said.

They were exiting the town now, but they were still a few miles from the exit that led directly to Jason’s home.

“If they turn off to Jason’s instead of following the road to your place, then we’ll have our answer,” Axel said. They all remained silent as they followed the ever-stronger stench of wolf.

When they reached the turnoff to the Reed’s ranch they paused briefly as Mason ran down the main road heading north.

He returned under a minute later, his expression unreadable. “No trace of wolf in that direction. Both definitely went this way.”

Axel pulled out his cell and spoke to Samson as they ran. They moved at full speed now, their prey almost in their grasp.

Barrett was flying through the air and colliding with a tree before he’d processed what had happened. His vision blurred and he snarled in pain as his back was torn open as he collided with the branches of the snow-covered birch tree.

Snarls and growls filled the air and Barrett freed his cat to join the fight. Axel had shifted, his cat now lying unconscious in the snow at the feet of an enormous wolf. The wolf’s muzzle was stained red with blood. Fergus’s blood. Fergus clutched desperately at the snow-packed earth with his fingers as the wolf lifted him into the air by his leg.

Barrett heard Mason’s coyote snarl, but didn’t take his eyes off the huge wolf as it crunched through flesh and bone to drop a screaming Fergus on top of Axel. Barrett’s pain was forgotten as he watched the wolf lick Fergus’s blood from its muzzle before curling them back in a snarl.

“This is one huge fucking wolf,” Barrett said through the pride link. He didn’t know who was close, but he knew that if this wolf got past both him and Mason, then he’d be heading directly toward Bethany and her baby. Barrett couldn’t bear that thought. He’d die protecting any of the pride’s mates and cubs.

The wolf’s eyes burned a bright red as he tensed his muscles slightly, stupidly alerting Barrett of his intentions. Size didn’t mean strength. Samson had continually told them this in training, which was why Asher’s smaller cat always managed to beat Barrett’s in a fight.

As the wolf charged, Barrett used everything he’d learned and twisted to the side before they collided, raking his claws down the entire length of the wolf’s side. It snarled as it swung around, its jaws snapping closed on the exact location where Barrett’s head had just been.

Barrett had lowered himself to the ground, waiting for that retaliating bite. The wolf had left himself wide open and Barrett surged up, sinking his teeth into the wolf’s exposed throat. As his canines sunk deep, the metallic wash of his prey’s blood into his mouth had Barrett’s cat snarling in triumph. He swung his head sharply, his claws fully extended for purchase on the frozen dirt, and cleaved a huge chunk of the tough hide free.

Barrett heard the hiss of escaping air as the wolf’s front paws collapsed. He’d torn into the wolf’s airways but wouldn’t assume it a mortal wound. Barrett twisted as he leaped and landed on the wolf’s back. He dug his claws into its back, his weight forcing the wolf to the ground. Barrett bit through fur and skin, his long, sharp canines soon hitting bone. Biting through the vertebrae made a satisfying crunch, the wolf collapsing completely, its life ceasing instantly.

“Mason has the other one by the throat,” Samson said. “I want answers before we end its useless life.”

Barrett’s back stung as he leaped from the wolf’s corpse, his cat very pleased the huge bastard would never be getting his hands on Jade.

* * * *

As soon as Troy had taken the phone call from Cooper, he and Wes had become completely different people. They had still held her gently and kissed her in reassurance while helping her to quickly dress, but their eyes were cold, their words clipped. They were soldiers on a mission, no longer her tender, playful lovers. And dammit but I find them hotter than hell right now.

Wes inhaled deeply as he carried her downstairs, no doubt detecting her growing arousal. She couldn’t help it. They were, tall, lean, and muscled, their jaws set in hard angles that accentuated their masculine beauty. The blue of their eyes was almost lost to the black of their dilated pupils and it added to their dangerous vibe, making them almost irresistible.

“Is Asher meeting us here, or at Melanie’s?” Jade asked, shaking her head slightly, ashamed that her thoughts were focused on licking Wes and Troy all over instead of the imminent danger to herself and her new friends.

“He’s remaining on patrol of the property. We have enough help at the Alpha’s,” Troy said.

“Your scent is strongest here. Cooper is directing Barrett and…some others to come here, too.”

She noticed Wes’s glance at Troy as he paused. Her head began to pound as fear made her blood seem to freeze in her veins. Something had already happened. She was certain of it.

“Stand,” Troy said, placing her on her feet in the dark kitchen. The only light came from the moon shining in through the big kitchen window.

“Arms,” Wes said. She could just make out the shape of a coat as he held it out ready for her to slip her arms through. She moved on autopilot as she tried to get the words out. She wanted to know what had happened, who’d been hurt, but was terrified of the answer.

Wes hauled her against his body, one arm wrapped around her middle, a gun magically appearing in his free hand.

“Give me five seconds. Then follow,” Troy said, slipping silently through the kitchen door into the darkness outside.

“Who?” Jade whispered.

“Shh, honey.” Wes breathed the words into her ear. “We’re all alive.”

He knew what she was panicking about and she had to accept his words as reassurance. He couldn’t lie to her. Someone was hurt, maybe more than one person, but no one was dead. Melanie and Bethany had not lost a mate and neither had the women she would soon be meeting, Morgan, Jordanna, and Peata.

The air was frigid as Wes moved her at a staggering speed to the open door of their truck. She was shaking uncontrollably by the time Troy had started the engine and turned on the heater.

“You did great, Jade,” Wes said, buckling her into the backseat before wrapping an arm around her. “We’ll be at Melanie’s in about ten minutes.” He rubbed his hand up and down her arm, the friction not penetrating the thick coat to make her warm, but she appreciated him trying.

Her teeth were chattering, and her breathing was rapid as the truck drove through the darkness with the headlights off. She didn’t bother asking if he could see where he was going as they hadn’t hit anything yet, so he obviously could. It must be another shifter talent, good eyesight.

The silence in the truck was broken by the deafening crunch of metal as Jade’s body slammed against the door of the truck. The resounding crack as her head hit the window was the last thing Jade heard.

Chapter 15

Asher was running the instant the twin’s thoughts fired through his mind. He didn’t pause for even a second to decipher all the sensory input. He just ran, calling to the pride with the pride link as he filtered the relevant information from the twin’s human minds.

Pain. Blood. Gasoline. Wolf.

“Beau has found Jade and the twins while they were en route to the Alpha’s,” Asher said.

“How far away are they?” Cooper asked. “Hunter and Finn are on the way.”

“No clue,” Asher said, his body warm in the chilly air as he ran. His paws barely touched the ground as he streaked through the night. His cat fully focused on getting to his family as quickly as possible.

His breathing was steady and even. His mind deaf to the chatter through the pride link, he focused solely on running and his connection to Wes and Troy. They were his windows to both Jade and the enemy.

He smelled Jade’s blood, sweet and hot. Tasted it in the air as he breathed. He felt the metal dig into Troy’s legs as he attempted to pull them free from whatever had him pinned in place. He saw the red shining eyes of the devil as he stood naked by the door of the truck. He heard the screech of the metal door as it was wrenched from its hinges.

Asher approached the scene of the accident with his cat interpreting the events as they unfolded from the simultaneous trio of inputs. His own mind indistinguishable from Troy’s and Wes’s. Even from his position behind Beau he saw the man snarl as he reached his hands out to grasp Troy’s head.

He could feel Troy struggle as he continued to pull at his legs in an attempt to free them from the metal that had skewered them. Troy reached his hands up and raked his claws down Beau’s arms, vainly trying to shake his head free from Beau’s crushing grip.

Asher could see Wes looking helplessly on, his body trapped against Jade’s with the rear cabin crushed by Beau’s truck until it was only a couple of feet wide. Wes and Jade were breathing. The main threat was the maniac about to break Troy’s neck.

Beau was oblivious to the danger streaking toward him and Asher caught him by complete surprise as he slammed into his side, using his body’s mass and momentum like a battering ram. Beau cried out as his ribs snapped. Asher dug his claws deeply into Beau’s flesh and muscle as they slid several yards away from the twisted wreckage.

As soon as they’d stopped moving Asher bit deeply into the back of Beau’s neck, surprised when he found himself unable to close his jaws for a killing bite. Fuck, I want him dead. What the hell?

As his breath rasped in and out around Beau’s neck, the man struggled beneath him. Asher dug his claws deeper, but was still denied the satisfaction of crushing the man’s spine and ending his worthless life.

“Are you back with me, Asher?” Cooper’s voice echoed through his mind.

Despite his conscious mind being solely focused on getting to his family, his cat had heard and obeyed his Alpha. “Don’t kill him.” Had been the order from Finn and he was incapable of disobeying. He curled his claws, growling in satisfaction at Beau’s high-pitched scream. The Alpha hadn’t ordered them not to hurt him.

“Beau ran his truck into Troy’s. It looks like a pretzel.”

The minutes dragged as Asher held fast to his prisoner. Incapacitating Beau Rennie was all he could currently do to keep Jade and his brothers safe. It grated on his last nerve that he couldn’t aid his brothers as they struggled to free themselves and care for Jade.

“You just hold that bastard down,” Troy said, gasping as he again attempted to pull his legs free. “You saved Troy’s life, Asher. Thank you.” Wes whispered the words into his mind, his gratitude and relief easing some of Asher’s frustration. They were all alive to love Jade.

“She’s still unconscious, but her breathing is normal,” Wes said. “She’s fine.” The information was unnecessary as Asher and Troy could hear that for themselves, but it helped to ease the tension.

The small vibrations traveling through Beau’s body alerted Asher of the approaching vehicles before he heard them. Help was coming from both town and the Alphas. Minutes later Finn and Hunter were at his side.

“I’ll take him. Go and help Hunter,” Finn commanded.

By the time he’d shifted he was at Hunter’s side and Barrett was leaping from Axel’s truck, his expression tortured. “Just tell me she’s alive,” he said.

“She’s alive, and so…” Wes’s words were then lost under the screech of metal.

Barrett had pulled Beau’s car free of Troy’s truck and Asher moved in to wrap his hands around the remains of the rear door and wrench it free. The glass on the ground sank into his bare feet and the shards still attached to the window frame sliced deeply into his palms.

Asher felt no pain as the blood ran freely from the deep cuts. His sole focus was freeing his brothers and holding his precious mate.

Mason began to remove Troy from the driver’s seat of the truck, but halted as Troy gripped his arm with an anguished gasp.

“I’ll go in from the other side and have a look,” Barrett said.

Asher threw the rear door aside and left Troy’s rescue to Mason and Barrett as he hooked his arms under Wes’s armpits.

“Can I pull you out or are you still caught on something like Troy?”

“I’m clear,” Wes said.

Asher heard Wes groan as he slowly and carefully pulled him from the truck. Once his legs were free, Wes stood, wobbling as he shook broken glass from his dark hair.

Satisfied Wes wasn’t going to fall, Asher stepped closer to examine Jade. Blood ran down her face in a wide, steady stream. He saw no cuts to her face, the laceration hidden somewhere in her hair. He unbuckled the seat belt and looked under her jumper for any compound fractures to her collarbone or shoulder.

Lifting the hem of her jumper showed a large bruise forming across her abdomen. She looked to be otherwise unhurt, so he slid his arms under her and lifted her to his chest. His eyes stung with unshed tears. She was alive and in his arms. He’d never stop appreciating what a miracle she was.

He turned when Wes put a hand on his shoulder. “Is she hurt badly, Asher?” Wes’s eyes swept over Jade’s face and he tore off his shirt, folding it before pressing it to Jade’s bleeding scalp. “I tried to cushion the impact, but it happened so damned fast.”

“She’s alive, Wes,” Asher said. “You did great.”

* * * *

Troy was stuck on the examination bed, the pain in his legs forgotten as he worried about Jade. She’d been taken for a CT scan a few minutes after they’d been brought to Jason’s home clinic.

Jason finally appeared, wheeling the examination bed back into the room. Jade’s face was pale, a darkening bruise covered the left side of her face. She had a bandage wrapped around her head, and numerous small cuts littered her cheeks from the shattered glass.

Troy’s heart squeezed in his chest as Asher walked in behind Jason. Asher’s brows were furrowed, his eyes blazing amber. With blood still coating his bare torso, arms, and face, he looked like he’d stepped straight out of hell to wreak carnage on the world.

“Is she badly hurt?” Wes asked urgently, moving to Jade’s side to hold one of her hands.

“She’s going to be fine,” Jason said, glaring at Asher. “Asher’s just pissed because Finn already killed Beau.”

“I didn’t actually kill him,” Finn said, walking into the room and putting an arm around Asher’s shoulders. “I maintain he broke his own neck when he tried running away while my hands were still wrapped around his throat.”

Jason gave Finn one of his rare smiles, showing he was still very much a predator, despite being a doctor. Beau Rennie had hurt a lot of people. No one would mourn his loss.

“Troy, how are you feeling?” Finn asked.

“I’m more concerned for my mate, Finn. But thank you for asking.”

“He had a piece of radiator through both legs,” Wes said. “He’s healing now Barrett pulled it out for him.”

“Fuck,” Jason said. “Why the hell did I go to medical school if the entire pride thinks they know how to treat themselves?”

Troy felt sorry for Jason, but he knew his shifter genes would swiftly heal him once the metal had been removed, so he’d asked Barrett to just pull it out.

“You were caring for my mate, Jason, and you still have Axel and Fergus to look at. I was only trying to help.”

“Well, if your bones heal crooked I’m resetting them without the use of an anesthetic.”

Jason scowled, muttering curses under his breath as he left the room to see to the other injured.

“How is Jade?” Troy called after him.

“He said she has a concussion,” Asher said. “Wes protected her from being crushed.”

Asher’s scowl softened as he smiled at Wes. “Are all those broken ribs healing?”

“I’m fine,” Wes said, lying on the bed beside Jade and tucking her against his side. “She’ll heal better if we’re touching her. That’s what Jason always says.”

“You’re correct,” Finn said. “Plus your cat will stop driving you completely crazy. Is Barrett still with Mason and the wolf?”

“He is,” Troy said. “He wanted to be there when you and Samson questioned him.”

The Alpha growled and the room seemed to vibrate with Finn’s power. “Once I’ve checked on Fergus and Axel I’m going straight to the jail.”

The Alpha was right to be furious. Apart from being a twisted sadist and a murderer, the captured wolf had put their entire race in jeopardy by killing humans. The exposure of even one shifter to the humans would drive them all into hiding.

“Thank you, Finn,” Asher said.

Finn nodded to them and left them alone with Jade. Troy didn’t like the few feet that separated him from his mate. He needed to be touching her.

Asher released the brakes on Troy’s bed and pushed it next to Jade’s, showing how deep a connection Asher had developed with him. Troy’s cat was desperate to feel Jade, but Troy couldn’t shift until his bones had healed. He contented them both by sliding as close as he could to Jade and holding her hand.

“She’s going to be fine,” Wes said. “We have forever with her now.”

“I don’t think I’m ever going to feel happy unless she’s with one of us,” Troy said, lifting Jade’s hand to his lips. “I’ll always need to protect her every second of the day.”

“I think that’s what it’s like to be mated,” Asher said.

“It’s frightening,” Wes said, kissing the bandage on Jade’s head.

“It’s wonderful,” Troy and Asher said.

* * * *

Barrett paced the interview room, his eyes never leaving the cowering wolf chained in the center of the room. This interview room was in the basement of the jail, built by the Alpha with the express purpose of confining any shifter that broke the law. Either shifter or human law.

The room was really just a concrete cell, the concrete several feet thick with steel bolts cemented into the floor. The room had proven useful for shifters, but inadequate for vampires. Construction was underway down the corridor for a cell to contain vampires. The cell had been designed by their vampiric friends from Pine Falls, Aiden and Eamon, so Barrett was certain it would be more than adequate.

“Your best hope is for a quick death,” Barrett said, disgust dripping from every word. “But that’s not going to happen if I have my way.”

This man had aided in Jade’s abduction, then did nothing while Beau abused her. All he’d done was wait for Beau to tire of her so he could rape and torture her himself. Barrett froze in place as his need to kill the wolf coursed through him.

His cat was also trapped by their Alpha’s command. He’d been ordered not to kill, and Barrett was helpless to obey that order. Barrett was, however, going to be right here when Finn gave the order for him to be killed.

He’d just spoken to Asher, and was comforted that Jade’s CT scan showed only a concussion, but he wanted to be there when she woke. He was frozen in his pacing as he thought of just killing this bastard and going to Jade.

“That must be about the hundredth time you’ve thought about killing him in the last five minutes,” Mason said blandly.

“Even if Finn hadn’t ordered me not to, I wouldn’t kill him,” Barrett said, free to start his pacing again. “Oh, I’d hurt him.” He stared at the wolf with his cat’s rage making his eyes blaze amber.

“I can help with that,” Mason said.

The wolf whined pathetically and Barrett’s disgust grew ever deeper. The bastard was tough when he was dealing with helpless human females who had already been beaten half to death. But he was a sniveling coward when confronting fellow shifters.

“We need to know where all the bodies are,” Barrett said, staring at Mason. “We know Jade wasn’t Beau’s only victim. All those women have families. They deserve to be taken home to them.”

Mason nodded as Samson and Finn entered the room. Barrett sneered at the wolf. It began to shake, then pissed itself, as Samson and the Alpha approached him.

“Don’t like it when you’re the one in chains?” Samson asked.

The wolf lowered his head, avoiding eye contact as Samson released the metal collar from the wolf’s neck. Not that it had fitted very well. This was one puny wolf.

Samson dropped a pair of sweatpants next to the wolf. “Shift or die.”

Mason growled softly, but Barrett placed a restraining hand on his arm. Samson knew what he was doing.

Samson walked away from the wolf to sit beside Finn at the table in the center of the room. Barrett waited until Mason was seated before doing the same. The door to the room wasn’t locked, but he could scent Hunter and Dane in the observation room next door. The wolf wasn’t going to escape.

Barrett felt the charge of electricity in the room as the wolf shifted back to human. He didn’t turn, just waited for the wolf to come and sit in the one remaining chair around the table, the chair directly opposite Samson and Finn.

Barrett stared repulsed as the man slid silently into the chair. He’d pulled on the sweatpants. His large stomach hanging over the waistband was pale and hairy.

“I didn’t hurt anyone,” the wolf said, looking in Finn’s direction, but not at the Alpha’s eyes.

No, the sniveling coward wouldn’t challenge the Alpha.

“Let’s begin by qualifying that statement,” Finn said, his tone arctic as his anger pulsed through the room.

The man looked to Mason, then to Samson and Barrett. He seemed confused and appeared to be seeking their assistance. He got none.

As the silence dragged on, the wolf fidgeted, wringing his hands in his lap and licking his dry lips. He was truly a pathetic excuse for a wolf.

“Wh–what?” he managed. It sounded like a squeak.

“Were you saying you’ve never hurt anyone?” Samson finally said, his voice rumbling as his cat growled menacingly.

“No. Yes,” the wolf said immediately.

Barrett snarled, making the wolf jump to his feet. Finn extended his claws and slowly scraped them across the top of the metal table, making a high screeching sound and leaving grooves in the steel.

“Sorry. What do you want me to say?” the wolf asked, sitting back at the table.

“This is going to be a long fucking day,” Mason muttered.

Barrett ground his teeth together, his cat desperate to get to Jade, but this was too important. To fully recover emotionally she’d need to know that any other women these shifters had ever tortured and killed had been found. That it was truly over. Barrett needed to do this for Jade.

Chapter 16

“You said I could see her. If she’s here, then please take me to her.”

Amber?

Pain lanced through Jade’s head as she tried to open her eyes. She had no idea where she was, but she recognized her sister’s voice.

“We will,” Bethany said. “Jason was just trying to prepare you. She’s been injured.”

Bethany, Amber, Jason. She knew something was wrong with that grouping of people.

“That’s her sister,” Wes said.

“What’s she doing here? How did she get here? What will we tell her? How do we explain three men lying on a bed with her sister? I’m not moving.”

Troy’s words all came out in a rush and Jade smiled. She winced as her face throbbed a little. Her Troy, his mind moved so fast.

“Troy,” Jade breathed. “Amber.” Everything fell into place as she pushed the remnants of sleep from her mind.

“Why is Amber here?” she asked. Even though she’d whispered pain speared through her brain.

“You’re awake, honey,” Wes said softly. She felt his arms tighten around her as he pressed a kiss to her cheek. “How are you feeling? We’ve been so worried.”

Jade blinked several times but still saw nothing. “I can’t see you,” Jade said, clasping Wes’s arm.

“Try the bathroom light, Asher,” Troy said. “The room light will be too bright. She must have a whopper of a headache.”

“I do,” Jade said. The room was lit by a warm glow, the soft light making her head pound. Jade’s throat threatened to close over as the panic attack hit her. “Barrett?”

Asher ran back toward her, his expression tense. “He’s fine, Jade. He’s at the jail questioning one of Beau’s friends.”

“A fat, ugly one, apparently,” Troy said, disgust making his lip curl.

“Harry. I only ever heard them call him Harry.” Jade shuddered and sagged back against Wes’s warm body. She looked around the room. The white walls and shelves were all too familiar. Jason’s house.

“Are you all okay? We were in an accident.” Her head pounded and her body ached. She felt like she’d been hit by a bus.

“It wasn’t a bus,” Troy said.

“It was a truck,” Wes finished. “Beau rammed us with his truck.”

She really looked at them all then. Asher and Wes looked fine, spattered with dried blood, but intact. Troy was lying on a bed, as she was, the bed pushed next to hers.

“Troy?”

“We heal real quick, honey. My legs got a little squashed, but I’ll be fully healed in another couple of hours.”

She felt sick. Troy was hurt because of her.

“I’m hurt because that wolf and his friends were crazy assholes. You did nothing to me, Jade.”

Jade groaned. “How am I supposed to talk to Amber and keep all your shifter secrets when I continue to speak my every thought out loud?” she whispered.

Asher moved Troy’s bed aside and leaned in to press his lips gently to hers. “I think it’s just a mate thing. You’ll be fine when you’re talking with your sister.”

“But I can’t tell her, can I?”

“No, honey,” Wes said. “It’s too dangerous for us.”

“And for her,” Troy added. “If another shifter found out she knew, they may feel they need to silence her.”

Jade shuddered, as she heard her sister become increasingly agitated. “Please. I already know that bastard hurt her. I need to see for myself that she’s okay. I’ve been going crazy.”

“Do you think you can sit up?” Asher asked, his smile not reaching his eyes as they moved over her face.

“Do I look that bad?”

“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on,” Asher said, his eyes shining with love now. “I’m just furious that he managed to hurt you again. We were supposed to be protecting you.”

“Now him, I like,” Amber said. “He’s a keeper.”

Asher winked at her as he stepped away from the bed. Amber’s hand flew to her mouth, her eyes filling, then overflowing with tears. “Jade.”

“Amber.” Wes helped her to sit up and Jade held out her arms. Her muscles ached a little, but she considered herself lucky nothing seemed to be broken.

Amber flew to her side and Jade leaned on her older sister. It felt so good to hold her. To have her here after everything she’d been through. She started to cry, and before she knew it she was sobbing. All the fear and pain suddenly too much to bear. Amber held her tight and sobbed along with her.

By the time they’d both stopped crying they were alone in the room. Amber was sitting beside her on the bed and they dried each other’s tears with Jade’s white hospital gown.

“This is lovely, by the way,” Amber said, tugging on the sleeve of the gown.

“You’re here,” Jade said.

“Of course I am. Do you think I’d stay away after what you told me that prick had done to you?” Amber shook her head. “I can’t believe I didn’t come sooner. I rang you every day and got no answer. I should have got on a plane and come to you. I’m so sorry, Jade.”

Jade shuddered as she remembered the calls. She’d desperately wanted Amber to hear her cries, but she couldn’t.

“If you’d have come, then he’d have had both of us,” Jade said. “I couldn’t have lived with that.”

Growls sounded from outside the room. “Does the doctor have a dog?” Amber looked toward the doorway as if she expected one to walk in.

“Can we come in now?” Asher said, poking his head around the doorway. “We won’t drown in all the snot?”

Jade laughed as her men all came back into the room. They stood awkwardly at the end of the bed, looking from her to Amber.

If they believed she was going to behave differently around her family, then they were in for a shock.

She swung her legs over the side of the bed. Her men were predictable in their reaction and she smiled as Asher got to her first and swept her into his arms.

“Where do you think you’re going, little Jade?” Asher asked, his voice deep as his chest vibrated with his growl.

“I don’t think Doc will want you up yet,” Wes said, pressing close and moving her hair off her face.

My hair. “I must look a mess.” Jade reached up to feel her hair only to find the stiff cotton of a bandage. “Ouch.”

“Careful, honey,” Troy said. He was standing beside Wes and he leaned in to kiss her bandaged head. “I better get Doc to come see you. He will want to look at you now you’ve woken up.”

“Troy,” Jade said, catching up his hand and tugging on it. She didn’t move him, but he took the hint and leaned down.

She wrapped her arm around his neck and smashed her lips to his. His gasp of surprise left his mouth open and she took the opportunity to sweep her tongue into his mouth, moaning as his taste made her crave more.

She wanted to taste all of them. Why isn’t Barrett here, too? Dammit, I need him.

Amber coughed loudly. “Ah, I think I saw Jason. The, um, doctor. I’ll just go and tell him you’re awake, and feeling much better.”

Jade smiled as Troy’s cheeks grew pink. He was adorable.

“You’re adorable,” Asher said. “Sit back down before you fall, Troy. I’ll put Jade on your lap so you both stay in bed.”

He kissed her, deep and slow. The gown was open at the back and Asher took full advantage of that fact. His hands roamed over her bare skin to squeeze her ass. She was feeling an ache of a totally different kind now.

Asher broke the kiss and placed her between Troy’s legs. Jade saw Troy’s jeans were torn and covered in blood.

“Has Jason looked at your legs?”

“Apparently Barrett’s a doctor now, so Troy allowed him to pull the three-foot-long copper pipe from his legs,” Jason said acerbically.

He smiled kindly at Jade as he shined a light in her eyes, but Jade was a little scared of him. He was a huge guy, and he was obviously furious with Troy.

“Any blurred vision or nausea?”

Jade just shook her head. It seemed to make her brain hurt, so she stopped.

“A headache?”

“Yes.”

“That will probably last for a day or two,” Jason said. Then he sighed, his shoulders relaxing. “I’m sorry for being angry. I don’t like my patients doing stupid things that make my job harder.”

Jade could understand that. She elbowed Troy in the stomach. “You’ll let Jason fix you, not Barrett, if you ever get hurt again. Or I’ll be angry.”

Troy kissed the top of her head. “Sorry, Doc.”

“I’ll let you visit with your sister,” Jason said.

He stepped aside and motioned Amber forward,

“Amber, let me introduce you to three of my men.”

Jade had already told her sister she was involved with four men, and to her credit, she was being open and friendly. Jade would need to talk with Amber about the best way to broach the subject with their mom and stepfather. They were not likely to be as accepting as Amber.

“Barrett!” Troy held her in place as she nearly threw herself off the bed and ran to him. He stepped hesitantly into the room, his gaze sweeping warily to Amber.

“You’re awake, darlin’. I mean, Jade. No one called and told me,” Barrett said, sending a glare at his brothers.

“I just woke up,” Jade said, reaching for his hand.

Jade closed her eyes and shivered as Barrett wrapped his hand over hers. It felt like too long since she’d seen him, felt his skin on hers, and she felt starved for him.

“We have company, Jade,” Barrett whispered softly. His breath making goose bumps run over the skin of her neck. “Otherwise, I’d be buried deep inside you right now.”

She moaned as he nipped her earlobe. She turned her head in search of his lips. He was there, his blue eyes twinkling with amber lights, his pine and musk scent surrounding her. Their kiss was long and impassioned. She felt his need for her pulse through their joined lips and it eased the ache inside her to know he was feeling equally desperate for her.

“I think I’ll stay in town at a motel,” Amber said, coughing loudly. “I don’t think I want to be anywhere close when you guys get near a bed.”

Jade felt her cheeks flame in a blush as Barrett nipped her bottom lip gently before pulling away. She wasn’t sorry Amber had witnessed her kissing Barrett. She wasn’t going to hide her love and desire for her men. She was only embarrassed she’d forgotten Amber was there. And that they weren’t in their own home.

“That’s really not…” Asher’s words were then drowned out by a loud growl.

Barrett turned to face the doorway, Asher and Wes moving quickly to stand beside him. Troy tugged her a little closer to his body.

“Was that Mason?” Jade was sure she’d seen the man who’d come from Duckwater standing in the doorway, but Barrett had blocked her view. “Has Harry escaped?” Jade began to shake.

“What’s wrong, Mason?” Barrett said slowly. Jade saw him incline his head to Amber, who had moved back to stand behind Asher. Her eyes were wide with fear.

“Jade’s sister, Amber, has surprised us all by flying in from New York. She, understandably, wanted to check on her sister after her ordeal in Duckwater.”

“Amber.” Jade heard Mason say, his voice resembling the rumble of distant thunder.

“Oh my God, Jade,” Amber said, she reached for Jade’s hand, her body trembling. “Do you know that man? There’s something…I think I saw.” Amber swallowed and peeked around Asher again.

“His eyes. I thought his eyes were glowing.”

* * * *

Barrett volunteered to drive Amber to Margie and Brett’s. He’d assured Jade that Amber would be safe there, despite her fears over Mason being a guest there as well. Barrett had smelled the mating musk pouring off the coyote. Amber was safer right now than she’d ever been in her entire life.

Asher was currently driving Jade, Troy, and Wes home and Barrett was anxious to get Amber and Mason to his parents’ house. Only then would he be free to go home and spend the night holding his mate.

Amber was quiet for the ten-minute drive, answering questions politely while her gaze slid regularly to Mason. There was no doubt she was feeling the attraction garnered by the mating bond. Barrett quickly introduced Amber to his parents, reassuring them the danger was now over and Jade, along with all their sons, were fine.

Quickly saying his farewells he raced down the front steps toward his truck. It had been too long since he’d held his little mate in his arms and he wanted to rectify that situation as soon as possible. Mason was leaning on the driver’s door when he got there.

Barrett looked back toward the house to check there weren’t two of him. “Haven’t I already said good night to you?” Barrett said, feeling slightly ridiculous.

“I need your advice,” Mason said, his eyebrows furrowing slightly in an unusual display of emotion.

“You don’t know how to claim a mate?”

“Don’t be an asshole, Barrett.” Mason ran his hand through his long dark hair. “I never imagined my mate would be human.” He looked longingly at a light that flicked on in one of the upstairs bedrooms. “And neither did my three brothers.”

Barrett was still laughing when he pulled up to his new home ten minutes later. His laughter died when he realized he was eventually going to have to tell Jade her sister was a mate to four coyotes. “Shit.”

He ran through the house, following the scent of Jade’s arousal, and a trail of his brothers’ clothes. Jade looked like a goddess as she lay on top of Wes, his cock thrusting into her pussy as she sucked on Troy’s erection. Troy was lying beside Jade’s head, his body elevated on several pillows, his injured legs obviously not healed sufficiently to support his weight.

“I could get used to coming home to this, darlin’. Are you feeling well enough for me to make love to you as well?” Barrett would die if she said no. His cock was hard and aching as it leaked pre-cum onto his borrowed sweats. But he’d die before he’d hurt his mate, so he’d needed to make sure she was up to this.

“You look so fucking sexy, Jade. Fate was feeling particularly generous when she gifted us with you.” Jade released Troy’s cock to look over at him, her smile making his heart swell.

“Barrett, I need you so badly. Please.”

“Our mate has missed you,” Asher said, throwing a towel at his head as he stepped from the bathroom, his body still sparkling with water.

Barrett quickly cleaned the blood and sweat from his body and joined his family. Asher was circling three fingers in Jade’s ass, his fingers and her hole slick with lube.

Troy was lost in his pleasure, his movements jerky as he called Jade’s name and came. Barrett kissed Jade’s shoulder as he took the tube of lubricant from Asher and coated his dick liberally.

“Swallow him down, Jade. It feels amazing when you do that to our cocks.” Barrett whispered encouragement in her ear. Her face grew flushed as she did as he’d said. Troy continued to moan as he pulled his sensitive cock from her lips.

“You are so perfect, Jade,” Troy said. He pulled her hair from her face and kissed over his mark on her neck.

“Your pussy is squeezing me so tight,” Wes said. “I won’t last, Jade.”

“Barrett,” Jade cried, reaching behind to grasp his leg.

“I’m here, Jade,” Barrett said. He positioned himself at Jade’s stretched ass, his cat growling as he stretched over her and they touched at last. “I’ve missed you, mate. So much.”

Barrett pushed into Jade, his moan of pleasure echoed by her as their bodies joined. He kissed her throat and nibbled along his mark as she pushed back against him, burying him as deep as he could go.

His cock twitched, the slide and rub so exquisite that he felt the thrill of their connection in every cell. Wes stiffened and came, his orgasm igniting Jade’s. Her ass clamped tight around him and the rhythmic clenching of her pussy massaged him to his own release.

They all held Jade as she continued to climax. Barrett and Wes stroked into her until her shudders ceased. She sagged onto Wes, the bandage on her head dislodging. Barrett was pleased that whatever injury she’d sustained was no longer bleeding. He’d never been more thankful for shifter healing.

“I love you so much, Jade,” Barrett said. Kissing her neck and shoulders tenderly. His mate was safe, and she was theirs.

“I’ll shower our mate,” Asher said, his smile altogether too wicked for any of them to believe his motives were pure.

“I could use a shower,” Jade said. Her lips met Asher’s as he carried her into the bathroom, her moans making his softening cock instantly hard again.

“I’ll get clean sheets,” Wes said. “Jade will rest more comfortably on clean sheets.”

“I don’t think we’re going to be doing much resting,” Troy said. Barrett helped Troy to stand and Troy squatted a couple of times experimentally. “All better. Thanks, Dr. Barrett. You do good work.”

Wes laughed too loudly, giving Barrett the impression he was missing something. Jade’s scream of pleasure pushed that thought from his mind and he hurried to help Wes get the bed made.

Epilogue

Jade felt like she’d known these people for years, not weeks. The whole pride had come to the Alpha’s home for a Christmas Eve dinner. The food had been delicious and the people were extraordinary. Jade couldn’t remember a time she’d felt happier.

“Thank you for a lovely meal,” Jade said.

“Thank you for bringing the Christmas cake,” Melanie said. “We’ve got to make them next year. They’ll sell really well.”

Bethany and Morgan both nodded, their mouths full of Jade’s cake. Jade had quickly been recruited into the baking business Melanie had started when she’d first moved to Eminence. Like Jade, the other women had joined Melanie in her venture as they’d each found their way to Eminence.

Jade had learned so much in the two mornings a week they gathered in Melanie’s kitchen, and most of what she’d learned had nothing to do with cooking. The time they spent together was more about sharing their experiences, than baking, which was just fine with Jade, because the women were all incredibly special. There had been tears as they’d talked of past horrors, and laughter as they talked about their lives now.

They had more in common than just being women. They were humans who’d discovered the reality of a supernatural world. Discovering the existence of shifters and living in a ménage relationship was something none of them had ever imagined, and the common ground made them all feel like sisters to Jade. She felt as close to them as she did to Amber, despite knowing them such a short time.

“Are you sure you won’t eat something else, honey?” Wes asked, concern lacing his softly spoken words.

Jade snuggled deeper against Asher’s warm body. She’d quickly become accustomed to never sitting on a chair. With four mates, it seemed she always had a lap to sit on. Looking around the table at her new family, she saw that only one woman was seated on a chair. Her sister Amber.

“I’m full, thank you, Wes.” Jade actually felt a little queasy, but didn’t want to share that with her men. They’d have poor Jason leaving his meal to examine her.

“Good luck trying to get her to eat more,” Amber answered for her. “I’ve been fighting that battle for years.” Amber’s voice sounded flat, her usual smile missing from her pretty face. It hadn’t escaped Jade’s notice that Amber had eaten nothing. She’d just pushed the food around her plate.

“Amber is right,” Barrett said. “You’re still far too thin.”

“I’ll clear the dishes,” Amber said, standing to stack up some empty plates and carrying them from the dining room. Several of the men rose and did the same. Jade hated seeing Amber looking so miserable.

“You seem sad,” Asher said, deliberately not mentioning that he would have smelled she was feeling sad. Amber was here, and she knew nothing of shifters.

“I’m sad because none of you told me what you wanted for Christmas, and now it’s too late to shop for anything.”

Asher’s silent growl made his chest vibrate. He wasn’t fooled by her answer. Damned shifters could smell a lie. She twisted a little so she could see Asher’s face. He wasn’t smiling.

“I’m also worried about Amber. She’s so sad. I hate that she’s flying home tonight and still refusing to tell me what’s wrong.”

“You can’t fix what’s wrong with her,” Troy said. “But I think she’ll be feeling better soon.”

“You keep saying that,” Jade said, growling at him. “Then you refuse to explain.” Jade was exasperated that they wouldn’t share what they knew about Amber’s sadness. Their not being able to lie didn’t mean they couldn’t be evasive.

“It’s not our story to tell,” Barrett said. “She’ll tell you as soon as she knows herself.”

Jade growled again. As if Barrett’s explanation didn’t just serve to frustrate her even more.

“I think now’s a good time to tell Jade what we want for Christmas,” Asher said.

“But it’s too late now. I can’t get it for you,” Jade said. She felt her stomach lurch again, the dinner she’d just eaten threatening to come straight back up.

“It’s nothing you can find in a store, honey,” Wes said.

“We want you to accept our proposal of marriage,” Barrett said.

“That’s all any of us want for Christmas,” Asher said.

“For you to be our wife,” Troy added.

“Say yes, Jade. We love you more than life itself,” Barrett said.

Jade looked at the amber lights dancing in their blue eyes. She pushed Asher’s arms from around her waist and slipped from his lap. She reached up both hands to cup Barrett’s cheeks.

“Yes, I’ll marry you, Barrett Pollock,” Jade said. Barrett smiled widely and leaned down to kiss her. He broke the kiss quicker than Jade was ready for. He tasted so good. Her nipples had hardened and liquid heat pooled in her sex. He spun her to face Wes.

Jade knew what Wes wanted. “Yes, I’ll marry you,” Jade said, reaching up to pull his head down. He kissed her just as passionately as Barrett had and it was making her arousal soar. He broke their kiss, panting a little as he smiled and turned her to face Troy.

“Yes…” was all Jade managed before Troy wrapped her in his arms and pulled her to him. His mouth crashed down onto hers and his tongue plunged into her mouth to tangle desperately with her own. Jade was going to erupt into flames. She wanted these men so badly.

She was breathless when Troy set her down, her legs unsteady as he kept his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face Asher.

“I don’t need to be married,” Jade said, glancing toward the kitchen to make sure Amber wasn't in earshot. “I’m mated to all of you, and that’s already forever.”

“We want you to have our name, as well as our hearts,” Asher said.

Tears sprang to Jade’s eyes. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Asher.” She had their hearts. His words were perfect.

Jade knew they were doing this for her because she was human. Being married wasn’t going to help her mom accept their relationship, but she’d admit it felt wonderful. Mrs. Jade Pollock had a nice ring to it. Asher bent to kiss her, his lips softly brushing hers.

“Someone’s coming,” Cooper said. Asher broke their kiss and pulled her into his arms.

The big enforcer went to stand by Melanie, all the men quickly surrounding their mates and holding their babies. Hunter opened the front door, his tense body relaxing as he looked outside.

“It’s Mason Reeder.”

Jade heard a cry come from the kitchen. The sound of crockery breaking soon followed.

Amber ran to Jade’s side. “Mason is here?” The last word out of Amber’s mouth sounded more like a squeak. “I think I need to lie down, I’m very tired all of a sudden.” Amber’s face was pale as she stared pleadingly at Jade.

“Don’t you want to say hello to Mason first?” Jade said, not understanding Amber’s apparent panic.

“I hardly know him. Why would I want to talk to him? He left without even a good-bye. Who does that?” Amber was walking backward out of the dining room, her face now so white Jade worried she was about to faint.

Mason walked through the living room, his dark hair looking wild and windswept, his black eyes shining. He didn’t look at Jade. He didn’t look at anyone. His gaze was fixed solely on Amber’s back. He looked different. Thinner, haunted even.

“Amber.” Mason’s voice was a rough rumble that vibrated through the entire room.

Amber went so still she could have been made of stone.

“I couldn’t say good-bye to you,” Mason said.

The seconds dragged by in total silence. Amber finally turned around, a small gasp escaping her mouth as she looked at Mason. He didn’t speak. He simply held out a hand to her. She took it and let him lead her back out the front door.

“Well, that went better than expected,” Melanie said, breaking the silence. “Did Jade say yes?”

“Of course she did,” Jordanna said.

“We’re all going to be bridesmaids, aren’t we?” Morgan asked exuberantly. The small woman was jumping up and down with excitement. How could Jade say no to her?

Jade nodded, her happiness bubbling over. Tears ran down her cheeks as Asher put her down. The women rushed to hug her and the men all stepped forward to shake hands and congratulate her mates.

Jade looked to the doorway to check on Amber.

“They’ll all be fine,” Jordanna said. The woman was blind, but seemed to miss nothing. It was spooky.

“All?” Jade craned her neck to look more closely out the front door. She saw several men talking to Amber, one of them looked to be even taller than Finn. He was huge.

“Do you want to set the date, my love?” Asher asked.

He wrapped her in his arms and Jade pushed all thoughts of Amber to the back of her mind. All of her men were fiercely protective of Amber. If they thought she was in any danger, they would have never let Amber leave with Mason.

“Can we have the wedding soon?” Jade asked, loving the big smiles on her mate’s faces.

“Tomorrow if you want it,” Troy said. “We can send the helicopter for the minister if necessary. We can have the ceremony at our mom and dad’s. They’d love that. I know a company that will do a fantastic job on the catering, despite it being last minute.”

“Troy,” Wes said, wrapping his arm around his twin. “Tomorrow is Christmas Day.”

“Soon meaning weeks, not months,” Jade said, laughter bubbling up at Troy’s infectious enthusiasm.

“Anything you want,” Troy said, taking her hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. “Just name it and it’s yours.”

“I just want forever with the four of you.” Jade felt the hot tears run down her face again.

“You already have that,” Asher said, smoothing away her tears with his thumbs. “Let’s take our mate home and celebrate our engagement.”

Jade’s mind was elsewhere as they said their good-byes. She was barely holding back the urge to vomit. The other women had told her they’d fallen pregnant very quickly, and she was afraid the same thing may have happened to her.

She loved her mates so much and to have created a life, a baby, with them would be simply overwhelming and miraculous. She knew logically that if she wasn’t pregnant this month, she had an excellent chance of falling soon. But watching the other men today with their babies, seeing their love and joy, had made her want it even more. Her men would be wonderful fathers. Their boundless love would make their child the most cherished life on the planet.

Jade knew exactly what she wanted for Christmas.

THE END

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ashley was born in England but has lived in Australia since she was three years old. Her love of reading has grown into a love of writing stories. All he stories will have a happy-ever-after, because that’s what she feels everyone deserves. She likes to call it “Ashley-World.” It’s a world of infinite possibility where love conquers all adversity. She hopes you enjoy escaping into her world for a little while.

For all titles by Ashley Malkin, please visit

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