Eminence Shifters 7

Amber

Mason Reeder, a coyote shifter from Nevada, meets his mate, Amber Liang, while investigating her sister Jade’s abduction. Mason fights his nature and leaves Amber behind to complete a murder investigation, never once guessing the pain he would subject her to.

When Mason returns to Eminence, he insists his brothers, Dylan, Lucas, and Hudson, accompany him, as Amber may be their mate, too. Despite their joy in discovering she is their mate, past mistakes and unresolved torments threaten to keep them apart. Not until they begin to trust does their love finally grow.

In Mason’s absence, Amber attracts the attention of a cougar shifter, Tennyson Lansing, who doesn’t rely on fate to find a mate. He chooses his own, and he’s chosen Amber. Tennyson’s obsession with Amber sees him bartering the life of one of the pride to pay for a demonic alliance. The brothers discover creatures of myth are real as they fight for the life of their mate.

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

Length: 57,917 words

AMBER

Eminence Shifters 7

Ashley Malkin

MENAGE AMOUR

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

IMPRINT: Ménage Amour

AMBER

Copyright © 2016 by Ashley Malkin

E-book ISBN: 978-1-68295-463-8

First E-book Publication: August 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

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DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my wonderful readers. Thank you for all your support. I hope I can continue to write books you enjoy reading.

AMBER

Eminence Shifters 7

ASHLEY MALKIN

Copyright © 2016

Prologue

“I’m telling you the truth, Amber. I’m really fine. I have four boyfriends who are caring for my every need. I literally haven’t walked a single step since they rescued me.”

“And you won’t be walking until we’re satisfied you can do so without being in pain,” a deep voice said.

Despite the horrific news Jade had just dropped on her, Amber found herself smiling. Jade had just told her the details of how she’d been held captive and abused, and then how she’d been freed only to nearly freeze to death. All while Amber had been safe, warm, and pissed because Jade hadn’t called her back.

The man who’d just spoken had growled at Jade like he’d meant business. Like he’d protect Jade from even herself. She easily imagined someone so fierce saving Jade when that asshole, Beau, had made an attempt to abduct her again.

“I hope whoever that was can also make you eat. God knows you never listen to me.”

“She will if she knows what’s good for her,” said another male voice, just as deep, and sounding equally implacable.

“You said you have four boyfriends. Are they all as overbearing as those two?”

“Wes and Troy are the least overbearing,” Jade said, a laugh coming from her sister as the two men with her growled impressively to refute her claim.

“They sound perfect for you, Jade.” Amber swallowed as tears pricked her eyes. “I’m so sorry I didn’t come to Nevada to save you. When I think of all that he did to you… I should have come.” I failed her. I’m a terrible person, and Papa would be ashamed of me.

“Then Beau would have had both of us,” Jade said. “He was twisted, Amber. I know he’d have used you against me. Hurt you just to make my suffering worse, make me feel completely helpless.”

“I’m your big sister. I should have come.”

After a few more minutes of talking, Amber could hear Jade yawning, and she reluctantly said her good-byes. Jade needed rest so she could heal. Rest she wouldn’t have needed if Amber had gone and dragged her ass back to New York before that madman had hurt her.

Amber put the phone down and stared at it for a long moment. She’d fucked up big. “I’m not making that mistake again. I’m going to see for myself how these men are treating you, Jade.”

Decision made, Amber booked a seat on the very next flight to Colorado. She wouldn’t leave Jade’s safety to chance again.

Jade had been traveling all over the country for nearly two years, and Amber felt sick as she imagined all the things that could have happened to her. It seemed miraculous Jade hadn’t been attacked sooner. She’d see for herself that Jade was happy and safe. Above all, safe.

Chapter 1

Amber tried hard to concentrate on the conversations and friendly banter buzzing around her. Everyone was in high spirits as they enjoyed being together to share Christmas Eve dinner at Jade’s. Huge platters sat in the center of the large kitchen table and were almost empty, despite the fact they’d been piled high with food only a short while ago. Amber was quietly aghast at how much food the men in this town could consume.

Melanie’s husband Finn had easily eaten half a turkey, along with baked vegetables and biscuits. But she’d concede he probably needed to eat that much just to stay alive. He was the biggest person Amber had ever seen.

In fact, all the men in Eminence seemed to be big. Maybe it’s something in the water? Thoughts of big men was a mistake, and Amber’s heart clenched painfully as an image of Mason popped into her mind. Mason was big. Tall, dark, gorgeous, and an asshole. A shudder ran through her as the pain speared deeper, making her bones ache.

Mason Reeder was a sheriff from Duckwater, the town where Jade had been attacked. Mason had come to Eminence on a mission and had remained sharply focused on that task. Seeing the men who’d attacked Jade apprehended and punished for their crimes was all he’d seemed to care about. That should have made Amber happy seeing as the men who’d hurt Jade needed to be stopped from ever hurting anyone else, but something about the man had made Amber feel on edge and tense.

If she was going to be totally honest with herself, then she’d admit it was way more than tense. She’d become obsessed with the man. So much so that when he’d up and disappeared like a wraith in the night she’d felt empty and lost.

Amber shuddered, the blazing fire in the nearby fireplace doing nothing to drive away the pervading cold. She hadn’t felt warm for the last two weeks. Not since Mason had left. She was empty now, hollow. A husk that used to be Amber. Mason had taken her soul with him when he’d disappeared.

Crazy. I’m going crazy.

Amber excused herself from the table and walked swiftly to the bathroom. The merriment around the table was making her feel smothered and claustrophobic. She closed the bathroom door quietly before collapsing onto the closed lid of the toilet and burying her head in her hands.

“How the hell am I going to make it through the day?”

She’d be on her way home in a few more hours. She just needed to survive the love-fest outside. She knew that thought to be unkind, and she banged her fists against her forehead in frustration. Jade and her fiancé’s, the other women and their husbands, they were special people. Caring, loving, and delightfully overdemonstrative in their affection.

Amber smiled, despite her sorrow. “I’d be one lucky woman if I found someone who cared like that about me.”

“Those men are it for her,” Amber said, wiping the tears off her cheeks. She wished she was crying because she was going to miss her sister. She would miss Jade, but the heartache was for someone else. A stranger. A man she’d spoken less than a dozen words to. “I am so messed up.”

Amber sighed deeply as her heart pounded in her chest. She’d already stayed too long and really should have left for home a week ago. Her boss had been understanding of her needing personal time, but he wanted her back at work the day after Christmas. She’d enjoyed spending time with Jade and was genuinely thrilled her sister had four wonderful men looking out for her now, but she wasn’t sure she’d stayed for Jade.

For her own sanity, Amber needed to get back to work as soon as possible. Her job as a paralegal in a busy law firm entailed eighteen-hour work days with no time to fantasize about tall, dark strangers. Perfect.

The night she’d arrived in Eminence, Amber had accepted the offer of accommodation at Brett and Marguerite’s. They were the parents of Jade’s four boyfriends and lived only a few minutes from Jade and her men. Amber had thought staying with Brett and Marguerite would mean she wasn’t a burden on Jade while she continued to heal from her injuries and she would also be giving her sister some much-needed privacy with her four men.

Unfortunately, Mason had also been staying with Brett and Marguerite. Since the night they’d met, Amber had become increasingly fascinated by him. No, she’d become obsessed. Obsessed with a man who was, by all accounts, a stranger. She watched for him, listened for his voice, even craved the smell of his aftershave. It was fresh and woodsy. Her body tingled as she remembered the scent exactly.

Mason had been in town for two days after she arrived. Two days where Amber had spent as much time as she could with Jade and had spoken less than a dozen words in total to Mason. Two days. Two days had somehow been enough to effect a massive change in her.

She sagged down lower and wrapped her arms around her calves. Exhaustion threatened to overwhelm her. She’d hardly slept in the last two weeks. She’d tossed and turned each and every night, her heart heavy with a deep sadness.

Loneliness consumed her, even when she was surrounded by Jade and her friends all day. She had no appetite, and when she forced herself to eat, she threw it straight back up. She felt like someone had died, and she was lost without them. She was running on fumes alone now.

“No one died. I’m being an idiot. Mason was here to do a job, and then he went home. Why the hell can’t I do the same?” Amber banged her head on her thighs, the pain in her chest expanding and clogging her throat.

She’d stayed much longer than she’d planned. Her quick trip to check on Jade had lasted two weeks, and she really needed to get back to her job in New York before she lost it. Her boss may have been understanding, but was pissed she’d had to leave so suddenly without giving proper notice.

If she returned to her home, to her old life, then she’d be the old Amber again. The Amber who wasn’t an obsessed stalker. Amber finally had to be honest with herself. “I’ve been waiting here in the hopes Mason would come back. There I said it! Only he hasn’t come back. He’s never going to. I’m an idiot.”

She sighed again and let the tears flow, soaking into her jeans. The truth hurt like a bitch.

Amber shook with silent sobs as she thought of the mess her life had become. She’d come to Eminence to help Jade and ended up causing more worry for her.

Jade knew her too well and had seen through Amber’s fake smiles and known she was unhappy. She couldn’t tell Jade the truth because Amber knew it made her look like a pathetic loser. In an attempt to save face, Amber had concocted a story of how she’d been dumped by some fictitious lothario at her office. The lie was unfortunately too convincing, and Jade and her friends had taken it upon themselves to find a way to cheer her up.

Amber sobbed harder as she recalled the total disaster of two nights ago. A night out at Wes and Troy’s bar, The Mountain View, had been Jordanna’s brain child, and it had been well intentioned. Jade and her friends were worried about her, and had all noticed she’d become increasingly withdrawn and melancholy.

Jordanna had been convinced a night out dancing with lots of sexy cowboys would be the cure Amber needed for her broken heart and bruised ego.

Amber shuddered as the events of that night ran through her mind in vivid technicolor. The night had been a disaster of epic proportions and had served to make her feel worse than ever, emotionally and physically. Embarrassment over her behavior burned through her. If only she could turn back time…

Amber stared at her reflection in the mirror of the ladies’ restroom. She’d hoped that going out and dancing with the Jade and her new friends would take her mind off Mason. But seeing all the big, burly cowboys in the bar was just making her feel worse.

Twice now she’d seen a tall man with dark hair from behind, and her heart had skipped a beat. She’d stood frozen in place with her stomach in her throat, excited and scared, certain it was Mason. When they’d turned toward her and she’d realized they weren’t him, her chest had ached so badly it felt as though she’d been physically punched. She’d been angry at her disappointment, but that anger hadn’t made the pain in her chest any easier.

She didn’t think she could stand going through that a third time, but spending the night in the bathroom wasn’t an option either.

“Those wonderful women have come here tonight for me, so harden the fuck up.” Amber wiped away a stray tear and straightened her back.

“Dammit, he is never coming back. He didn’t want me. He made that perfectly clear by slinking off in the middle of the night like a cowardly dog.”

Amber hastily brushed away the last of the tears she ever intended to shed over the stupid man and took a deep, steadying breath.

“I’m young. I’m tolerable-looking. I’m certain some big, sexy cowboy out there will be happy to show me a good time. Mason is never going to know what he’s missed out on.”

Amber washed her hands and face at the sink and arranged her long hair so it fell in a curtain down her back. This left her cleavage nicely showcased in the tight, shiny camisole top Melanie had loaned her. She left the restroom determined to have fun. Even if it killed her.

Amber had no idea how long she’d been dancing, or how many men she’d danced with, but she knew she should have stopped drinking about six shots of tequila ago. The room was swaying and nothing was in focus as she rocked her hips in a carnal dance with her latest dance partner.

“You’ve got one hell of a sexy body, little lady,” the man yelled in her ear.

“Okay,” Amber answered, unsure of what else to say to the guy whose name she’d already forgotten. That was if he’d even told it to her. She really couldn’t remember. His big hands moved lower to clasp her ass as they swayed together to the pounding beat of the music.

Amber felt the press of his hardening erection against her, and she momentarily froze. She was unsure if she should ignore it and let him think she didn’t notice, or if she should pull away. She didn’t know what to do, but she knew she didn’t want to encourage him. She wasn’t attracted to him in the least. If anything, she felt a little repulsed by him.

Now that she thought about it, she’d felt no attraction to any of the men she’d been dancing intimately with. None of them were Mason with his jet-black hair, tan skin, strong jaw, kissable lips, and piercing ebony eyes.

“I don’t want Mason,” Amber yelled, the sound of her scream lost in the loud music.

“Well, then it’s good my name’s Tennyson. Folks just call me Ten.”

He winked at her and ground his erection against her, pulling her tighter to him. “But you can call me twelve.”

Amber wanted to be sick. The tequila and the beers she’d consumed were having a race to see who’d come out her mouth first. Amber took a good look at the man she was clinging to. The man she’d been bumping and grinding against for several songs now. He was tall and blond, with slim hips and light-blue eyes. The polar opposite of Mason, and he was also disgustingly crude. Amber had no idea why she’d been allowing him to grope her. She didn’t do this sort of thing, not ever. Not before she’d met Mason “Stupid” Reeder, anyway.

“I think I’ll just call you too much tequila. I’m sorry, but I really need to go home.”

The music was loud, and Amber couldn’t hear her own voice, but Tennyson stiffened against her, his fingers digging painfully into the cheeks of her ass as a tremor shook his body.

“Ouch.” Amber pushed against the man’s chest, but he didn’t move. He didn’t let her go, either. “Let me go please. I don’t feel like dancing anymore.”

“That’s okay, because I don’t want to dance anymore, either. Your sexy little body has me as hard as stone. No more simulated sex on the dance floor, I’m ready for the real thing. Let’s go.”

Amber tried to dig her heels in, but the heels just snapped right off her shoes as the man wrapped his arm around her waist and dragged her from the dance floor. He was moving quickly through the crowd and Amber swung her head around looking for Jade or some of their friends as she banged her fists uselessly against the man’s chest.

She saw Bethany dancing with her husband, Samson, and called out Bethany’s name. Amber was dragged deeper into the crush of bodies and lost sight of Bethany instantly. She’d just decided to scream when Tennyson stopped abruptly.

“Samson, I’m heading home for the night. Do you need something from me?”

“I need for you to let the lady go.” Samson’s voice was so deep Amber felt it vibrate against her.

“Stop!” Amber screamed as Tennyson tightened his grip. The small sting of pain intensified, and she tried to pull away as a sharp, burning pain ripped down her side. “Please. Please let me go.”

“You heard the lady,” Asher said. His tone was so cold and flat Amber hadn’t recognized his voice at all. She only knew it was Asher because he’d appeared beside her as he’d spoken.

Tennyson lowered his face and murmured against her ear, “I’m not finished with you, my pretty little doll.”

Amber found herself sprawled on the floor a second later. She looked up, but Tennyson was already gone…

“Oh yes, that was a stellar performance of lunacy, Amber.” She sniffed and squared her shoulders as she sat up straight on the toilet seat. “One I won’t be repeating any time soon. I need to go home and forget I ever crossed paths with Mason Reeder.”

Amber rose unsteadily to her feet, her head spinning and her side still burning where the man’s, Tennyson’s, sharp fingernails had cut into her skin. She wobbled a little before steadying herself and walking to the basin.

After splashing some cold water over her face, Amber examined her reflection in the mirror. She barely resembled the Amber who’d come to Eminence two weeks ago. Her skin looked pale, and her eyes were dull and lifeless with dark-colored circles beneath them.

“I’ll get over him once I’m home. I have to. I’m never going to see him again.”

* * * *

Mason sat forward and peered ahead at the snow-lined road illuminated in the truck’s headlights. His coyote was a snarling ball of fury inside him. Never before had Mason gone so totally against his instincts and defied his beast. Especially as he’d turned away from what he knew to be the correct path. Mason had walked away from his mate, and he’d been in a constant state of anguish ever since.

“Shut the fuck up, Mason,” Hudson said, “If I have to hear your damned coyote whine one more time, I’m tossing you out the damn truck. Preferably while it’s still moving.”

“I didn’t whine,” Mason said. He gritted his teeth and balled his hands into fists. Hudson. The man was a pain in the ass, but he was his brother. Not brother by birth, none of the three men he was dragging back to Eminence with him were that. But they were his brothers in his heart, and apparently that was enough of a bond for fate to unite them. Unite them permanently if they shared a mate.

The cats in Eminence were the strangest shifter pride he’d ever encountered. Mason shook his head, disbelief and awe still washing through him as he considered all he’d seen, all he’d learned, when he’d come to Eminence two weeks earlier to apprehend a killer. Killers—Beau Rennie and his pack of two had all participated in kidnapping, torture, and ultimately murder. The fact they’d killed humans also risked the exposure of their race.

Mason had encountered feline shifters before, met them, dealt with them on a professional basis, but he’d never seen their beasts. He’d been inside the Eminence pride, hunted with them, and protected their mates with them. They were an incredibly strong pride despite having human mates. The rumors in his coyote pack that human mates weakened shifters were dead wrong. Mason had seen firsthand they made them infinitely more deadly.

“This is bullshit,” Hudson said for probably the tenth time. “I only know of a handful of families where the brothers share a mate—a shifter mate. I don’t know why I let you drag me along on this trip. You’re chasing a fairy tale, Mason, and I’m too fucking old to believe in fairy tales.”

Hudson and Dylan had been grown men when the Strouds had taken Mason in. He’d been a baby when he’d survived the car accident that had killed his birth parents. Olivia and Graham had adopted him and then had Lucas some twenty years later.

“You’re willing to risk the life of Mason’s human mate on that belief?” Lucas asked acerbically.

“Barrett wasn’t lying,” Mason said. “I would have scented it. I never considered the possibility that we’d share a mate, but then I never considered my mate would be human either.”

The night he’d met his mate, the beautiful and delicate Amber, he’d been embroiled in a murder investigation. Amber’s sister, Jade, had survived an attack by Beau Rennie and his pack, something nine other women had not been lucky enough to do. Mason had come to Colorado to find the murdering bastards. His job was to bring them back to Duckwater so they could pay for their crimes, or to kill them.

Finding his mate had been an unexpected, but not unwelcome happenstance. It could not, however, eclipse his duty as an enforcer in Elan Tsosie’s pack. Only one of the three wolves involved in the murders had ultimately survived capture. The other two had been killed when they’d attempted to take Jade away from her new mates, four cougar shifters in the Eminence pride.

Harry Lane, the surviving wolf, had struck a bargain with the Eminence pride Alpha, Finn Frederick, that ensured he left Eminence alive. In exchange for showing Mason the location of a further six victims, Finn had allowed Harry to live.

Harry might have been a sick and twisted wolf, but he was also stupid. He hadn’t thought to make the same bargain with Mason’s Alpha, Elan Tsosie. Harry Lane would not be hurting any more women.

Mason turned in his seat to glare at his brother. “You can’t know how hard it was to walk away from my mate.”

“No, I don’t, and I don’t intend to ever know,” Hudson said, his lip curling into a snarl. “This trip is a waste of my time. No one, not even fate, would curse a woman with being my mate.”

“You can’t know that, Hudson,” Dylan said softly.

Mason had thought Dylan was asleep. His oldest brother had his huge frame stretched out as far as the confines of the back seat allowed, his hat resting over his face.

“Fate is a Machiavellian bitch, Hudson. She may curse you with a mate.” Dylan laughed at Hudson’s answering growl.

“I never said any of you were her mates. I just said it was a possibility. After learning about Rowan Lonnigan, I couldn’t risk Amber’s life by not bringing you with me.”

“Sounds unlikely to me,” Lucas said. Mason saw him glance in the rearview mirror and shake his head at Hudson. “Leave Mason alone, Hudson. He’s trying to cover all his bases here. It’s not like you had another, more pressing, engagement to get to.”

Mason gave Lucas a smile in appreciation of his support. The youngest of the Stroud brothers was the most easygoing, and Mason had noticed his excitement growing over the long drive. Lucas seemed genuinely hopeful Amber would be his mate.

When Mason had asked Barrett Pollock, Amber’s future brother-in-law, for advice on when and how to approach Amber about her being his mate, Barrett had dropped the bombshell on him about the Prentiss brothers sharing their human mate, Jordanna, with their cousin Rowan. Like Mason, Rowan was orphaned as a child and raised alongside his adoptive brothers.

“I was busy living my own life, Lucas. I hate being out of the desert this long,” Hudson said. He flopped back against the backseat and sighed deeply. “I always said cats were a peculiar species of shifter. I’m sure the same thing won’t happen to us. You could have saved us this trip by simply bringing us something with her scent on it.”

“Like a pair of her panties?” Dylan said sardonically. “I always suspected you had a kinky side, Hudson.”

Mason blocked out the sound of the violent retribution Hudson was bestowing on their eldest brother. Now that the murder investigation was completed, he had nothing to stop his thoughts from straying to Amber, and it was torture. He wanted her so badly.

He’d denied himself the opportunity to even touch her. He was afraid if he had allowed himself even the briefest contact he wouldn’t have been able to leave. It had been his responsibility to find all the murdered victims and return them to their families. That’s why he’d refused the temptation of taking Amber’s peach-colored sweater from the back of the sofa the night he’d left. Her sweet vanilla scent had called his attention to the garment immediately, but he’d resisted touching it. Only just. Hell, he and his coyote had wanted to roll on it.

If he’d taken that small, fragrant sweater in his hands, then he’d have pulled it to his face and breathed her scent deep into his lungs. Then he’d have run upstairs, taken Amber in his arms, and never let her go. That was the reason he’d been unable to bring anything of Amber’s with him.

“Tell me again what she’s like,” Lucas said, also ignoring the fight in the rear cabin of the truck.

“In another hour, you’ll see her for yourself,” Mason said, a small smile forcing his lip to curl. He’d described Amber in minute detail to Lucas about fifty times now.

Mason’s coyote stopped its snarling and howling as Mason focused on their mate and described her delicate beauty to his brothers again. The sudden silence in the back of the truck a clear indication that Hudson and Dylan weren’t as indifferent toward Amber as they pretended to be.

Chapter 2

Amber was pleased that everyone had finished eating by the time she returned to the dining room. She helped the men clear the table and then helped Melanie and Peata put the Christmas puddings on dishes. Once the desserts were on the table, Amber returned to the kitchen to start the washing up. She had no appetite and hoped everyone would be too occupied to notice she was missing from the celebrations.

The room behind Amber grew suddenly quiet. Amber turned and saw the men were now all standing, each of their face’s set in hard lines. “It’s okay, it’s Mason Reeder,” Cooper said, his voice sounding loud in the tense silence.

The dishes in Amber’s hands fell to the floor and shattered. Mason is here. Mason is here at Jade’s house. Here now. Amber’s heart thumped rapidly and painfully against her ribs as panic set in. She couldn’t see him. She didn’t want him to see her. She’d decided to leave. She was going home in just a few hours.

He’s probably here to see Finn and won’t even notice me. That thought stopped Amber’s racing thoughts. Icy-cold certainty ran through her veins. Of course he was here to see Finn or Hunter, the sheriff of Eminence. This was undoubtedly about Jade’s case and the ongoing murder investigation. She was being an idiot. But an idiot who knew she couldn’t see him, not now she’d decided to leave. Seeing him would just make it harder when he left again. She wasn’t certain she’d survive “harder.”

“Mason is here?” Amber hoped the panic she was feeling wasn’t evident in her voice. She swallowed and tried to sound calm. “I think I need to lie down before my trip. I’m feeling very tired all of a sudden.”

Jade regarded her with a surprised frown on her face. “Don’t you want to say hello to Mason first?”

“I hardly know him,” Amber said. She swallowed, panic making her mouth dry. Keeping her back to the front door, she looked around frantically for an escape route. “Why would I want to talk to him? He left without even saying good-bye. Who does that?”

She felt cold air wash over her body and knew the front door must have been opened. She shuddered, deciding to run for the stairs. She didn’t care what everyone thought of her, she couldn’t see him.

“I couldn’t say good-bye to you.”

His voice seemed to scrape against her skin, making her shudder again. Not from the cold, but from the pain she heard in his rough, tortured, words. She spun slowly to face him, gasping at what she saw.

His black hair was unkempt, his skin pale and sallow. There were dark circles under both of his shining, ebony-colored eyes. Mason’s brows furrowed as his gaze swept over her in a brief but thorough assessment. He saw everything she’d been going through. He saw her despair. The small muscles around his eyes twitched as he held his hand out to her. He was infinitely more handsome than she’d remembered.

The room disappeared. The world disappeared. She saw only Mason, and he was holding out a lifeline to her. She hadn’t even been aware that she’d been walking toward him until her fingers brushed against his.

Heat seared her skin at the contact, and as he wrapped his large, rough hand around hers. Heat spread up her arm in a wave, melting the ice she’d been unaware had encased her. His gaze was fixed on her, his eyes alight with tiny red spots sparkling in their depths. She’d never been this close to Mason before, and she marveled at how he somehow smelled wonderful. He had a soft, musky, masculine smell that made her a little dizzy as she breathed it deep into her lungs.

With a tug on her hand, she was following him out Jade’s front door. Her focus was solely on Mason’s eyes, until the sound of growling startled her out of her daze.

“What? Who are these people?” Amber whispered, afraid to speak too loudly. The three men on Jade’s porch were the most frightening men she’d ever encountered.

They were all tall, like Mason, but one of them looked to be even taller than Melanie’s husband Finn. While their height and solid frames were intimidating, it was their fierce gazes that made them terrifying. They were all staring fixedly at her, and they all looked furious. No, they looked ferocious, and Amber couldn’t imagine what she’d done to make these strangers feel that way.

The air was so electric that it seemed to vibrate against her. The force of their fury broke the stupor her unhealthy fixation with Mason had caused. “I want to go back inside.”

Waves of energy beat against her as the four men stepped closer and surrounded her. Amber spun back toward the door only to collide with the solid frame of one of the strangers. Amber was trapped, and the stress of the past two weeks had weakened her so much she didn’t have the strength to fight them.

Amber let go of her pain and anguish and succumbed to the bone deep fatigue that infused her every cell. As darkness closed in, Amber felt as though she were floating on air.

A deep voice rumbled through her. “She’s magnificent.”

* * * *

Dylan caught his mate as she sagged before him. “You neglected to share that fact, Mason.”

“Is she breathing?” Lucas asked, moving closer and placing his fingers over the pulse in Amber’s throat.

It was an unnecessary action as they were all shifters and could hear she was fine. She was breathing, and her heart was beating. Beating way too fast.

“You scared her, Hudson,” Mason said, pushing Hudson aside to take Amber’s hand. “I told you she was human. Dammit, you shouldn’t have started growling. The Alpha here has strict rules on how to tell humans about shifters.”

“Yes, I do.”

Dylan felt the power of the Alpha beat against him. The Alpha was enraged and his rage threatened to push Dylan to his knees.

“Bring her inside.”

Dylan was just an inch short of seven feet tall, and couldn’t remember the last time he’d had to look up at anyone. This Alpha, however, was not only taller than him, but he also was a lot bigger. The man was simply massive. Couple his size with the power he exuded in his rage, and Dylan’s coyote was whimpering.

Mason pushed him forward. “Don’t piss him off even more by making him repeat the order.”

Dylan shuddered and followed the Alpha inside. The room was filled with people and smelled of turkey and Christmas pudding. Christmas. He’d completely forgotten it was Christmas Eve.

When Mason had approached him and Lucas yesterday and told them he’d found his mate, he’d forgotten all about the holiday season. After Mason had told them there was a possibility they’d share his mate, all he’d thought of was that after one hundred and fifty years, he might finally have found his mate.

He’d never heard of adoptive siblings sharing a mate, and no matter how absurd Mason’s story had seemed, he’d latched onto that remote hope and had thought of nothing else.

“I’m terribly sorry for interrupting your Christmas celebrations,” Dylan said, moving his gaze over the assembled crowd of people, and they were a crowd. “Our mate…” Dylan glanced at Hudson and Lucas for confirmation. Their eyes were blazing red with their coyotes’ anxiety for their mate. “Amber seems to have been overcome by our musk.”

“I’m Jade, her sister,” said a small woman as she rushed to his side and started jumping on the spot as she attempted to look at Amber where she lay in his arms.

“Sorry,” Dylan mumbled. He bent and showed Jade that her sister was unharmed. At least he hoped she’d simply fainted. He examined his mate more closely. She was small, not much taller than five feet, and very slender. She felt as light as a feather in his arms. Her spine and ribs were prominent, pressing into his arms. “Is there somewhere we can take her? A local doctor, a clinic? I’m worried about her.”

“I’m a doctor. Put her on the sofa and back the fuck away from me.”

A man not much shorter than Dylan, wearing fatigues and a black tee that stretched tight over his bulging muscles, pointed at a sofa a few feet away. Dylan had serious doubts the man was a physician. He looked more like ex-military, or a mercenary.

“He is a doctor, Dylan. Do as he says,” Mason urged, stepping in front of him and inclining his head toward the sofa. “Do it. She looked so different two weeks ago. She’s so much thinner, and too pale. Something is very wrong with her.”

Dylan looked down at his unconscious mate, his gaze sweeping over her as he inhaled deeply, searching for any trace of illness lingering in her scent. She had pale skin and long dark hair that had wrapped around his arm when he’d caught her. She looked perfect, beautiful, stunning even. And her scent was a delicate sweet vanilla that carried no discernible trace of illness.

“She’s exquisite, Mason. She can’t be sick.” Dylan followed his brother’s request, even though he was certain Amber was fine. “She was probably scared. Hudson was growling like a bear.”

“Fantastic,” the doctor said, pushing past him to squat next to Amber. “Another shifter who thinks he knows more than the man with the medical degree.”

Hudson’s growl suddenly ripped through the air. Dylan only just managed to catch Hudson around the waist as he lunged for the doctor.

“Mine,” Hudson growled.

“I don’t want to ruin my mate’s Christmas by killing someone when they attack me,” the doctor said. “Mason, control your brothers.”

Mason put his hands on Hudson’s shoulders and helped Dylan keep him in place. “Hudson, look at me. Jason is mated, with a cub. He’s no threat to your mate. He is a doctor, and believe me”—Mason glanced at Dylan briefly before continuing—“something is definitely wrong with our mate.”

Lucas stepped around the three of them and squatted by the doctor’s side. He took Amber’s hand in his and gently raised it to his lips. “I was a paramedic with the fire service until a few years back when I retired to work my family’s horse ranch. She’s been suffering since Mason left, hasn’t she?”

Hudson stilled and shook Mason and Dylan’s hands off him. “What do you mean, suffering? Suffering with what?”

“Since I left?” Mason asked, turning to gaze at Amber.

“You dumb-ass,” Lucas said acidly. “You left her completely alone. We’re lucky she’s not already dead.”

Lucas gently placed Amber’s hand back on her abdomen before turning at full speed and grasping Mason by the throat with one hand and shoving him against the living room wall. The wall shook, and pictures fell to the ground, their frames smashing.

Dylan heard some gasps and watched all the other females disappear from the living room in the arms of, he assumed, their mates.

“You should have told us immediately. We would have come. We could have spared her this pain.”

“If you kill him, she’ll definitely die,” Jason said. He spoke softly, but his words cut through Dylan’s heart like a knife.

Dylan ground his teeth together and quickly caught Hudson by the shoulder as he lunged for the doctor. “I think we need someone to explain what’s happening before I decide to let Hudson loose, and believe me, you don’t want me to do that.”

The tiniest woman Dylan had ever seen walked in front of Hudson, a smile on her beautiful face and a chubby little boy in her arms.

“I’m Melanie, the Alpha’s mate. I love Amber, and we’ve been very worried about her.” She scowled as the Alpha came to stand behind her, his arm wrapping protectively around his mate and cub. “Although my mates seemed to know what was wrong and neglected to share it with me.”

“We didn’t know until now that she’d been affected, sweetness. I would never have allowed her to suffer had I known. I would have contacted Mason immediately and told him to return.”

Dylan watched tears fill the small woman’s green eyes. “I’m sorry, Finn. Of course you wouldn’t have left her in pain.” She relaxed back into her mate’s embrace and sniffed back her tears as she gazed up at them. “Welcome to the Eminence pride.”

Dylan felt the world tilt on its axis. The enormity of what had just happened shot through him at the speed of light. Dylan had found his mate, so moving packs seemed insignificant by comparison.

“What the hell?” Hudson said, a growl rumbling from his chest.

“Stop,” the Alpha said. Hudson’s growl was immediately silenced. “I wonder if you really want to growl at your Alpha’s mate?”

“My apologies, Melanie,” Hudson said, the genteel voice a shock coming from his usually taciturn brother. “I’m happy my mate has already formed such close bonds of friendship in our new home.”

Dylan looked at the shocked expressions on his brother’s faces. Their lives had just been turned upside down. In the space of five minutes, they’d discovered their mate and gained a new Alpha.

Mason and Lucas had the added shock of also seeing a side of Hudson they’d never imagined existed. The one only Dylan knew remained buried deep under his rage and pain. The Hudson he’d been before tragedy had struck their family. The real Hudson.

* * * *

Hudson sat on the sofa, Amber’s head in his lap as he watched Dylan pry Lucas’s hand away from Mason’s throat. Hudson’s coyote sat still and calm, absorbing the pleasure his mate suffused him with. He felt strangely at peace considering he’d just left the only pack he’d ever known and was now joined to a pride of cougars. He stroked his fingers lightly down his mate’s cheek, circling her full lips and marveling at the pleasure he felt from the slightest contact with her perfect skin.

He had a mate, and he was feeling thrilled and terrified. He was also confused as to whether it was possible to be both of those things at the same time. His mate was a small, porcelain-skinned woman, with long, long black hair that was as soft as silk. She had pale green eyes that had shone with pain and confusion as she’d tried in vain to make sense of the confusing emotions the abundance of mating musk had stirred in her.

As she lay restlessly on his lap, her eyes flickering behind her closed eyelids, her hands clenched into fists as she dreamed fitfully. The dark rings under her eyes showed she hadn’t been sleeping well, and his heart ached for the pain she’d been suffering since Mason left her. He left their mate. Hudson would see she was never again alone. He would stay with her himself if that was what it took to make sure she never again felt abandoned.

“Thank you for taking care of Amber,” Lucas said, pulling his arm from Dylan’s hold and turning to look at Jade’s mates. “Mason only told us today about finding his mate when he was working a case here two weeks ago.” Lucas flashed an angry glare at Mason. “If he’d told us sooner, I would have come and watched over his mate for him.”

“Yes, we would have,” Dylan said. “Even had he not told us of the possibility we may also be Amber’s mates, we would have come and kept her safe until Mason could return for her. It would have been our honor to guard Amber until he’d finished finding all the victims of Beau’s reign of terror.”

Hudson tried to imagine how he’d have felt if Mason had told them of Amber when he’d first returned to Duckwater. Lucas and Dylan were right. He would have wanted to come and keep her safe. Hudson should have thought to say that, too.

“I never even thought to ask,” Mason said, his voice rough as he rubbed at his reddened throat. Lucas had done some damage. Good. Amber was left unprotected for two fucking weeks. Hudson growled as he imagined all the things that could have happened to her.

“Does she even live here in Eminence?” Lucas asked, rage making his voice tremulous.

“No,” Mason said, shaking his head. “She only came here to see that Jade was being well cared for after her attack.”

“So she may not have even been here? She could have gone home?” Lucas said, his frantic gaze flicking to Amber. Hudson growled softly at the thought of his mate disappearing off to wherever she was from. He might never have found her had that happened. His head throbbed at all the foreign emotions swamping him.

Feelings were something Hudson had trouble articulating. He’d never been able to link words to emotions. Never seemed to know what to say, and women especially, seemed to get angry with him over it. It frustrated the hell out of him and meant he’d never been able to have any lasting relationships, even friendships. That was except for his brothers, and they had to talk to him. He was family.

“You should have told us about her, Mason. I would have come and watched over her,” Hudson said softly, stroking over Amber’s pale cheek. “I would have hidden in the shadows. She’d have never known I was there, but I would have made sure no harm came to her. She’s a priceless gift. A beautiful treasure, and I’d have cherished her as such.”

Lucas and Mason gaped at him while Dylan simply nodded and moved closer to hold one of Amber’s hands. Just because Hudson chose not to spend much time around people didn’t mean he was incapable of behaving appropriately when he did.

“You need to stop, Hudson,” Lucas said softly. He ran his hands over his face as he groaned. “My whole life has just changed completely and having you acting this way is doing my head in.”

Hudson shrugged, deciding to ignore his brothers and focus on what was important right now, their mate. Hudson was probably well over a hundred years old, he wasn’t sure exactly how old he was as he’d stopped coming home for birthdays, or any celebrations, decades ago. After the tragedy, he’d had no reason to celebrate anything. He preferred the simple life in the desert with the native coyotes. They didn’t judge, didn’t nag, and didn’t make him talk about his feelings.

Mason moved to stand beside Dylan, staring down at Amber in confusion. “What the hell did I do to her, Lucas? If this is my fault, then tell me what’s wrong with our mate?”

Lucas just growled and sat on the sofa by Amber’s feet. He stroked a hand up her calf and shuddered. He directed his stare at Mason.

“Stop glaring at me, Lucas, and explain it to me.” Mason said, scowling back at Lucas.

Hudson was getting annoyed now. “Lucas, you seem to understand what’s happened to Amber, and I’m not above beating the information from you if you don’t tell us soon.”

“I don’t think Mason did anything intentionally,” Jason said, returning to the room after having just carried a small blonde-haired woman away. “I’ve seen Amber a few times since you left, and I hadn’t noticed how much she was suffering. She’s very good at hiding her emotional scent. You’re all going to have to watch for that.”

“But I didn’t even touch her,” Mason said. “I was very careful not to. How could I have harmed her without even touching her?”

“What exactly is wrong with our mate?” Dylan asked, pulling Mason to his side and wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

Jason crossed his arms over his chest, looking at each of them in turn. Hudson refused to squirm under the man’s scrutiny as he’d done nothing wrong. Mason had told them he’d found his mate, and they’d left almost immediately to drive here. He might not have wanted to come, but he had.

Jason’s gaze finally settled on Mason. “Who told you about Rowan and Jordanna?”

“Barrett mentioned it,” Mason said. “Just before I left to take the prisoner back to Duckwater.”

“You say you never touched Amber?” Jason said, his gaze raking over Amber’s body. Hudson barely suppressed a snarl. Doctor. He’s a doctor.

“I didn’t. The closest I got to her was in the back of a truck that first night she arrived in Eminence. You were there, Jason. I never touched her.” Mason closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “It was torture. I was afraid to even look at her in case I lost control and pulled her into my arms. I wanted to hold her so badly.”

Hudson could well imagine that yearning. He’d had the same feeling, but had been able to satisfy his need after only a few minutes. “Holding her has made me feel whole for the first time. I’d never even known I was missing half my soul until Amber gave it back to me.”

“That’s both poetic and disconcerting, Hudson,” Lucas said. He took a deep breath and stared at Mason. “You didn’t have to touch her, Mason. Your coyote called to her, and she answered. That was all that was needed to start the mating. She reacted to your scent and on an instinctual level recognized you as her mate.”

Hudson swore out loud then, and he wasn’t alone. Dylan released Mason and stepped away, his hands balled into fists as he walked around the large living room, looking very much like he was searching for something to punch.

“That’s why Jason stopped me killing you,” Lucas said. “At this point she’s only bonded to you. It would have killed her, too.”

“You can punch me if it will help,” Mason said, catching Dylan’s arm and pulling him close. “It might make us both feel better.”

Hudson lived out in the wild, watching over the desert and its wildlife. The wild coyote pack lived close to his mobile home, and he’d seen many a coyote find their mate. The call of a mate was a life-altering event. The mates were never apart once they’d found one another. It was beautiful. It was also catastrophic when one mate died.

Amber had been pining. She’d been grieving a mate who’d disappeared. She would have stopped eating. Stopped sleeping. Stopped wanting to live. He’d seen so much pain and confusion in her eyes, and this was why. She was also human and would have had no idea what was happening to her, or why. Why she felt so forsaken and hurt so much.

“Poor Amber.” Hudson bent as he gently lifted Amber’s head. He brushed his lips over hers in a gentle kiss. She tasted sweet, and infinitely sad. “I’ll never leave you, honey. You’re all mine.”

Chapter 3

Amber felt her heart pounding frantically as another panic attack rushed in on her. She’d woken this exact same way over the last two weeks whenever she managed to briefly doze off. She felt lost, abandoned, scared, and alone. So very alone.

But after two weeks of hardly any sleep, she was becoming too tired to fight. She was beginning to wonder what she was fighting for. Who am I fighting for? No one, that’s who. Even when she was with Jade and her new friends, she still felt alone. Because I am alone. Empty inside.

Her fatigue had become lethargy, and she knew she was close to giving up. It was why she’d finally decided to go home. If she stayed here waiting for Mason to return, she’d die. Her heart would finally cease beating. Her only chance at survival was to try get away and try to become her old self again. That Amber had been whole, happy even. She’d had a reason to live, but she just couldn’t seem to remember those reasons while she was here in Eminence.

She sighed deeply as she struggled to open her eyes. “Dying might actually be a relief.”

“No, honey. I won’t let you die. Not ever.”

The strange, deep voice had Amber snapping her eyes open. “Who are you?” Amber asked.

“Hudson.”

The man was leaning over her, and Amber realized she was laying down. She’d been outside. She narrowed her eyes and focused on the man staring down at her. Focused on Hudson. He didn’t elaborate, just continued to gaze down at her. His pale-blue eyes were boring into her, and it felt as though he were stripping away her defenses and laying open her soul.

He had deeply tanned skin with his head shaved clean of any hair. His eyebrows and thick lashes were dark, almost black. His face was unlined, but his eyes held too much wisdom and knowledge for him to be young.

Amber turned her head toward the strong, exotic mix of musk and pine she could smell in the air. She breathed deeply and failed to stifle a moan of pleasure as the smell warmed the cold that had slowly been consuming her. A deep growl snapped her mind out of its daze.

“Oh, shit. I’m so sorry.” Amber pulled her face away from Hudson’s groin, her face heating in mortified embarrassment. “What the hell am I doing? I didn’t mean to… Well, I didn’t realize I had my head on you.”

Amber sighed and struggled to sit up. She’d just rubbed her face against some stranger’s lap. I am such a loser.

“Amber, let me help you.”

Warm hands gripped her upper arms, helping her to sit up. Her head spun a little as her eyes settled on the owner of that deep, sexy, voice. The voice she’d been fantasizing about, obsessing over.

“Mason?”

Then it all came back in a rush. It hadn’t been one of her recurring daydreams. He’d actually returned.

“Where’s Jade?” Amber looked around, but the living room was empty. Everyone was gone. Everyone except for Mason and the three men who’d been standing on the porch. The scary ones that had growled at her like she was their next meal.

“Amber,” Mason said, shaking her gently so her gaze returned to him. “I’m sorry.”

Amber turned to look at the two men standing beside Mason. One was a little shorter than Mason, and the other was much taller. He was huge. He towered over Mason, and Mason was incredibly tall compared to her. A rough hand grasped hers, and she turned to look at the man sitting beside her. Hudson.

She tried to slide her hand from his, but his hold, while gentle, was too firm for her to slip easily from.

“You’re sorry?” Amber said, turning to look back at Mason. “Sorry for what? You don’t owe me anything, least of all an apology. You don’t even know me.”

“I like her,” Hudson said. He bent and seemed to sniff at her hair. Amber jerked away from him. “She’s going to make this an interesting hunt.”

“Amber!” Jade called. Her sister slid sideways between Mason and the huge man at his side and enfolded Amber in her arms.

“Jade, I’m sorry. I don’t understand what happened. My flight, have I missed it?” Amber’s mind had finally caught up, the fog clearing as she remembered she’d blacked out. No, she’d fainted. “I need to catch that flight. I have to…”

“No,” Mason said. “You need to stay here. I came back.”

Amber pulled a little harder on her hand, and Hudson, whoever he was, finally released her. She tried to ignore the fact that an icy chill began to spread through her hand and up her arm, quickly permeating her entire body. She was afraid to consider that she was missing the contact with this complete stranger. She shivered as she returned her sister’s hug.

“Thanks for everything, Jade. It’s been wonderful seeing you so happy. You’re finally where you were always meant to be. It’s plain to see, and it makes me happy, too.”

“Won’t you stay for a few more days?” Jade said, pulling back and staring at her with tear-filled eyes. “It won’t feel like Christmas if you go.”

“I’ve stayed too long as it is. I know I have. Your men will make sure it feels like Christmas.” Amber saw the spark of joy light up her sister’s entire face. “I think every day is going to feel like Christmas with those four. They love you just as much, you know?” Amber had seen the way they looked at Jade and had no doubt of their feelings. They worshipped Jade.

Amber refused to look at Mason, even though she felt the weight of his gaze. He was back and standing in front of her. It was what she’d waited two weeks for, only now she felt foolish for doing it. More than foolish, she felt insane. Then she’d gone and fainted, serving only to make herself look pathetic.

“Amber.”

The man who spoke was a stranger, but his voice was compelling. She looked up at him immediately. Way up. The man was a giant, but a handsome, muscled specimen of gorgeous giant.

“My name is Dylan. Mason is our brother. Hudson, you’ve met, and this is Lucas.” Dylan gestured to the man on his other side. He shared Dylan’s dark good looks, and the brothers all shared the same pale blue eyes. Mason’s eyes were different, his were as black as night.

“Mason was wrong not to have sent us here to stay with you while he finished his case in Duckwater,” Dylan continued. “Mason was compelled to finish the case involving your sister.”

“Mason worked with that w…mongrel Harry and was able to locate six other victims,” Lucas said.

Amber found it difficult to stop staring at Dylan, but her shock over how many other women Beau Rennie had killed made it possible. She turned her head to stare at the other man. Six other women had been killed. Jade could have easily been another one of his victims. Mason had helped to save her.

“That’s six more families who now have closure. They can grieve for their daughters.” Amber’s throat closed with emotion, and tears ran down her face. “Hello, Amber, I’m Lucas. You can’t know how good it is to meet you.”

Amber had never felt so selfish and self-centered in her life. I’m a terrible person. She’d felt abandoned by Mason somehow, when he’d left to do his job. She’d known that Mason had taken one of Jade’s attackers back to Nevada. She’d been told Mason was searching for more victims. “What’s wrong with me? I can’t understand what’s happening to me. I don’t behave this way normally.”

“We’re here with you now, honey, and everything will soon make sense to you.” Hudson’s large frame pressed against her back as he wrapped his arms around her. His thick, muscled arms.

Jade smiled broadly at her as she stepped back with a little wave good-bye. Mason took her place, cupping her face with his hands. Amber took a deep breath, relaxing fully against Hudson as relief and pleasure washed over her.

“I hated leaving you, Amber,” Mason said. “I wanted nothing more than to be with you. To get to know you. To hold you in my arms and never let you go.”

Mason used his thumbs to wipe her cheeks dry of tears. His touch was infinitely tender, and she felt her body tingle with pleasure. Her nipples hardened and her core clenched.

“I won’t ever be leaving you again. That’s a promise.” She felt the truth in Mason’s declaration, which served to leave her feeling further conflicted. She was a fool. He’d returned to Nevada because he was doing his job. An important one that had helped a lot of families. Amber had done nothing but feel sorry for herself because he hadn’t what? Said good-bye? That was what it amounted to. She could see he’d committed no other crime. They were just acquaintances after all.

Amber shook her head in an attempt to clear her mind of all the confusing thoughts. She focused on reality, not some half-baked infantile delusion she’d invented. “I’m going home tonight.”

Mason smiled at her, his dark eyes firing with tiny red fireworks. He looked wild and hungry. She sighed loudly as his smile made her body ache. He looked sexy as hell.

“Sweetheart, you’re already home.”

* * * *

Mason had done so many things wrong when it came to Amber. He was over a century old, and he’d been as ignorant and as arrogant as a pup. He’d hurt his mate. Hurt the woman he was destined to love for the rest of his life. As he gazed into her eyes, he saw the depth of the pain and suffering he’d inflicted, and he wanted to howl.

His coyote was going nuts inside him. It was lost, unable to remedy what Mason had done to its mate. His coyote was furious with him, and Mason had never been at odds with his beast before. He’d been a fool. He’d just expected her to be sitting at Marguerite and Brett’s house waiting calmly for him to return. He’d failed to consider she had a life of her own to return to. She might even have a lover to return to. Fuck, I’m an idiot. Look at her, she’s gorgeous. Why wouldn’t she have a boyfriend?

“I’m so thankful you’re still here,” Mason said, the words rushing out as his emotional turmoil made him panic. “I’m so sorry for not explaining everything to you before I left. I was intending to return and, and see you. No, not see you exactly. I was hoping to get to know more of you, I mean more about you.”

The weight of his guilt was nearly making his knees buckle and his mind short circuit. He was making no sense. Less than no sense.

Amber closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “You were working a murder case, Mr. Reeder. I’m the one who failed to spare a thought for all those poor women who needed to be found. I haven’t been myself this past couple of weeks. You have nothing to apologize for where I’m concerned.”

Mason wouldn’t have his mate taking the blame for what the mating bond had done to her. He’d abandoned her when he should have been getting closer to her until they were eventually ready to consummate their mating. Plus I am not “Mr. Reeder” to you, little one. Never again will I allow you to pull away from me.

He pressed his finger to her lips. “You did nothing wrong, Amber. This is all on me. I was so consumed with my own feelings that I left without considering yours.”

“Believe me, honey,” Hudson said, lifting Amber onto his lap and nuzzling the crook of her neck. “When we explain what he did, you’ll probably want to cut his damned balls off.”

“Hudson.” Dylan’s low growl made the name sound like a curse. “And you were doing so well at sounding almost civilized.”

“And then you go and ruin it all,” Lucas said. “Why don’t we all sit down and relax? Maybe Amber would like to learn more about us before we have to leave her for the night.”

Mason had no warning of Hudson’s actions. Nothing in his scent, or his expression. He just disappeared. Vanished. The cold night air blowing against Mason’s back was the only indication of which direction Hudson had gone. No, they’d gone. He’d taken Amber with him.

Mason turned and ran, following Hudson as fast as his human legs would take him. Asher Pollock appeared at Mason’s side only seconds after Dylan had screamed Hudson’s name. Mason was faster than his brothers, so he and Asher were a few hundred yards ahead of Dylan and Lucas.

“Finn has directed I accompany you and your brothers,” Asher said, his voice calm and even. He appeared not to be exerting himself, while Mason was already feeling the strain of running at full speed. “Finn would like Amber returned as quickly as possible and has also forbidden you divulge anything of your nature to Amber until she has returned to Jade’s home.”

Mason suspected that was the real reason Asher had been made to accompany them. Not that any of them could now disobey one of Finn’s commands. Not now he was their Alpha.

“Hudson makes a habit of doing as he pleases?” Asher asked.

Mason was amazed at Asher’s speed and strength, and knew he would be formidable in his cougar form. Mason suspected Asher’s cougar might even be faster than Hudson, and Hudson’s coyote ran like the wind.

“Hudson really doesn’t like people all that much anymore. He’s chosen to live a solitary existence with the native coyotes for decades now. Dylan is the only one from our pack he’ll run with.”

“Unusual for a coyote,” Asher said, his tone thoughtful. “Something significant must have occurred to make him shun his need for pack.”

“He has the native coyotes. But you’re right. We don’t like to run alone. You’re very perceptive, counselor.”

Mason had liked Asher when they’d first met two weeks ago. The cougar was shrewd and Mason could well imagine he’d be an excellent lawyer.

“Hudson has stopped,” Asher said, stopping so suddenly that Mason had run several yards ahead before he was able to come to a halt.

“Amber is fine. She’s calm and showing no signs of distress,” Asher said. “Her heart rate is steady, her respirations slow.”

Mason swiveled his head, anxiously seeking the reassuring sound of his mate’s heartbeat. Her scent was strong in the air, but he heard nothing but the sound of the wind. The winter night was cold and the deep snow was muting any footfalls.

“How? I can’t hear her.”

“What’s wrong?” Dylan asked, as he and Lucas came to a stop beside him.

“My brother Troy is watching Hudson and Amber. He’s high in the branches of the tree Hudson is currently sitting under. Troy has relayed Amber’s condition to me. She’s looking confused, but not scared.”

“How the hell can you be hearing your brother?” Dylan said as he looked up into the darkness at the trees around them.

“I assume he’s not swinging from said tree as a human,” Lucas said, his disbelieving gaze fixed on Asher.

Asher just tapped his temple with his finger and winked at them. “If we run in at full speed, we’ll scare Amber, and I think she’s had quite enough shocks tonight.”

If Mason wasn’t so worried about Amber, and so furious with Hudson, he’d be treating Asher to some of his anger for constantly making him feel like a dumb mutt. When he was first in Eminence, they’d surprised him with the revelation that vampires, demons, and Nephilim existed. Now Asher could hear his brother while he remained human and Troy was apparently shifted.

“Do you have any more secrets you need to share, Asher?” Mason asked.

“Well, tomorrow is Christmas,” Asher said, running at human speed into the trees. “Would it break your heart to know there was no Santa Claus?”

Mason and his brothers shook their heads in disbelief, but Mason felt strangely reassured by Asher’s calm teasing. Amber must be safe for Asher to be so relaxed. He’d seen how protective Asher and his brothers were of her, and Amber’s safety was really all that mattered. Mason had been worried that Hudson had terrified her to a point where she’d be inconsolable when they caught up with him.

“I didn’t realize how annoying cats were,” Lucas said, clapping Mason on the shoulder as he followed Asher into the trees.

“I better get to Hudson first. If he only sees Asher, he’ll likely run again,” Dylan said.

Mason took a deep steadying breath before running to join his brothers. He’d found the two weeks away from Amber to be torture and had imagined it would all be fine once he returned to claim her. He’d imagined wrong, and Amber had paid the price for his mistakes.

Things had become infinitely more complicated and his coyote let out a pained growl as it discerned he was nowhere close to having Amber as his mate. To touching her, loving her. Mating wasn’t meant to be this difficult, but fate had matched him to a human. A gorgeous human who Mason knew he was already falling in love with. He didn’t care how long it took to have Amber accept him. It only mattered that she did, because she was his.

* * * *

Lucas stayed hidden in the darkness of the trees and watched Dylan slowly approach Hudson and Amber. Amber was sitting on Hudson’s outstretched legs. Her delectable ass might have been out of the snow, but she was still shivering in the freezing night air.

“Hudson,” Dylan said. “Amber’s cold out here, buddy. We should probably get her back to Jade’s. Back in front of that big-ass fire so she can warm up.”

Hudson growled loudly and Lucas saw Amber close her eyes as she shook even harder. “I’m not fucking leaving her,” Hudson said, his eyes a fiery red and his jaw set in hard lines as he gripped Amber’s arms tighter.

Lucas cursed softly as the reason for Hudson’s actions became clear. Hudson had run from the house because Lucas had said they’d leave her for the night. This is my fault.

“Fuck it.” Lucas stepped forward, shaking Mason’s hold on his shoulder as Mason attempted to stop him. “I caused this, Mason. I said we’d be leaving Amber for the night, and it seems Hudson didn’t like that plan.”

Hudson’s gaze snapped to him. “I’m not leaving her. Not ever.”

“I see that,” Lucas said. “We could have talked about it, Hudson. You didn’t need to frighten Amber like this.”

“Stop-p-p…t-t talking about m-me like I’m n-not here,” Amber said, her teeth chattering loudly as she spoke. “H-H-Hudson is n-n-nice.”

Lucas felt his mouth pop open. Hudson and the word nice were never usually spoken in the same sentence without the word “not” being present.

“Jade is worried about you, Amber,” Asher said. “Can we go home and talk about everything? Then Jade will be there with you, she’ll be able to explain things.”

Lucas saw and scented the wave of anger wash through Amber. Her beautiful green eyes narrowed as she glared at Asher and then Mason.

“H-Hudson is-s-s-s the only on-n-ne who’s been h-h-honest with me. He h-h-hasn’t l-lied or tried to h-hide things.”

“I’ve never lied to you, Amber.” Mason stepped forward, his hand outstretched, but Amber flinched away from him. “I couldn’t, even had I wanted to, which I don’t.”

“She’s not stupid,” Hudson said, his burning, red gaze directed at Asher. “You all treated her like she was, and I’m fighting the urge to rip your chest open and feast on your beating heart for making her feel so alone and lost. It was unnecessary when you and your brothers could have eased her suffering weeks ago with simple honesty.”

Lucas was showered with snow as a huge cougar landed beside Asher. The cat was easily five feet tall. It snarled at Hudson and advanced one step before Asher placed his hand on the cat’s rump.

“It’s true, Troy,” Asher said. “Our dishonesty has made Amber’s suffering so much worse.” Asher stepped forward, ignoring Hudson’s warning snarl and the escalating scent of his fury. “Our only defense is our ignorance to the depth of, and reason for, Amber’s pain. Had we known, I swear, we would have contacted Mason and insist he return to her.”

Lucas had carefully watched Amber’s face as he listened to the exchange between Hudson and Asher, she’d shown no surprise at the cougar’s appearance, or that Asher had identified it as Troy. Lucas exchanged a concerned glance with Dylan, certain he was thinking the same thing he was. How the hell had Amber known about her sister’s boyfriends?

Amber turned back to Hudson and stroked a trembling hand down his face. It seemed to unleash Hudson’s restraint, and he gathered Amber in his arms, pulling her tight to his chest with a satisfied growl.

“I could never deceive you, Amber. I’d rather die.” Hudson rose fluidly and Amber didn’t hesitate to wrap her legs around his waist as she clung to him without any sign of fear. “It’s too cold to remain here.”

Hudson walked up to Asher and Troy, his eyes still blazing with his coyote’s rage. “If I can stay with Amber, I’ll return to your home. If you’ve got a problem with that, then I’ll take her somewhere else. But know this, unless Amber sends me away, I will be remaining by her side for the foreseeable future.”

Asher nodded. “You stay with her. I’ll make certain it happens. I see no reason we linger needlessly in the cold. I’ll see you at home.” With that said, Asher disappeared back into the forest.

Troy softly chuffed, and Amber twisted her head to look at him. She went to speak, but her teeth were chattering too fiercely.

“Take her back as fast as you can, Hudson,” Dylan said. “She’s in no condition to be exposed to the elements like this.”

Mason hung his head and sighed deeply as Troy and Hudson took off running. “I didn’t know,” Mason said. “I swear I had no idea the mating pull had affected her.”

“Now I’m over the initial shock, I know that’s true, Mason,” Lucas said. “We all do, even Hudson.”

“Coyotes don’t mate outside our species,” Dylan said. “Not that I’ve ever heard of, anyway. You had no way of predicting how Amber would react. This is all crazy.”

“Stepbrothers sharing a mate, sharing a human mate.” Lucas shook his head. “And how much does Amber know about shifters? The pride was ordered not to tell her. So how did she find out?”

“All questions that only Amber can answer,” Mason said. He looked up at the moon. Its light was growing dim as thick clouds rapidly filled the sky above them. “Merry Christmas.”

Lucas wanted desperately to shift. His coyote wanted to feel the unfamiliar snow under its paws as it ran through the trees. Having lived its entire life in the desert his beast was eager to experience the different sensations and smells their new home brought them. Their new home.

“Mom and Dad are not going to be happy.”

Lucas had no sooner spoken the words when an image of Hudson’s face sprang into his mind. Specifically, Hudson’s face as he looked at Amber. “No. Mom and Dad are going to be thrilled.” Thrilled all of their sons were now mated, or soon to be. He hoped.

Lucas started running. He didn’t run as fast in his human form, but his preternatural abilities still made him faster than any human. He wouldn’t shift, though. He refused to embarrass Amber by walking around naked once he arrived back at her side. Not that he thought his nudity would shock her, but his fully erect cock might. Her scent alone was enough to make him hard and horny, and he seemed helpless to prevent it. He didn’t actually want to prevent it.

He’d found his mate, and the fact she was seriously pissed off at all of them, bar Hudson, didn’t ruin his joy at having found her. He was ridiculously happy that his mate was strong and brave. She’d need those qualities to hold her own against Hudson and Dylan. He ached with the need to know all about her.

He wanted to know her likes and dislikes, her passions and dreams. He wanted her to know him, know of his life before they’d met. Share the joy and sorrow he’d experienced as a paramedic, tell her about the tragedy that tore the heart out of his family.

As the sadness began to fill him, he closed his eyes. The image of Amber’s beautiful face was all he saw. It dulled the pain and gave him hope for a future filled with happiness, something none of them had dared dream of.

His arms ached to hold her as Hudson had, to know how she felt in his arms. To be one with her. Those thoughts did nothing to ease his painful erection, so he paused as he arrived at Jade’s open front door and quickly adjusted himself.

He didn’t want Amber to think him too much of an animal, although apparently, that cat was already out of the bag. He was curious to know how that had happened and knew Asher and his brothers would be, too. His Amber had some explaining of her own to do tonight.

* * * *

“Fucking dogs!” he said, spittle flying as he cursed. “A filthy mutt had his hands on her. Had his hands on what’s mine. Mine!”

He snarled as the beast threatened to take over, but the man was in control. The man had to always be in control. He’d had to become stronger than the beast in order to survive. Alphas didn’t like it when humans were killed. It threatened their sense of security. So he stayed in control, kept the beast leashed. He fooled them all.

“First that fucking brute Samson stopped me from claiming what’s mine, and now he’s handed her over to a pack of dogs like she’s a damned chew toy.”

He let his rage drive his feet faster through the snow-covered forest. He was panting as he ran, his breath misting in the freezing air. Once he was high up the mountain, away from all the patrols and certain he was alone, he’d make a call. He had powerful friends. Evil friends. Friends the damned Eminence pride only wished they had.

“The dumb cougars of this pride won’t know what hit them.” He planned to show them exactly how ignorant they were of the supernatural world.

Hell, they hadn’t even known vampires existed until a few months ago. Too damned stuck-up. The whole pride were just as arrogant as that bastard Samson. Well, Samson Reed, you’re going to be sorry you came between me and my mate. I’ll take back what’s mine, and you’ll suffer greatly for messing with me.

Getting help from a demon wasn’t cheap. Luckily he had the asking price thanks to a certain asshole named Samson. As he ran, the image of the dog holding his mate made his fury burn hotter.

The dogs needed to die. Die for daring to think they could have his mate as their own. The demon would devise a way to make their deaths slow. Slow and painful. The best thing about Branik was he’d do the torturing for free. He was a true demon.

Chapter 4

Amber watched as Lucas and Mason walked through Jade’s front door. Their eyes scanned the room briefly before fixing on her, their irises briefly blazing red before they pulled their beasts back under their control. Amber knew she wouldn’t have noticed their beasts two weeks ago. She’d been ignorant to a lot of things before she came to Eminence. She wasn’t ignorant anymore. No, now she was simply uninformed.

“Amber,” Lucas said. The rough growl in his voice made the hairs on Amber’s arms stand on end.

“Lucas.” Amber tried to harness some of her anger to keep the fear at bay. She had to remember she’d done nothing wrong. She’d kept everyone’s secrets.

She’d borne witness to the whimsical beasts of legend as they’d emerged from the bodies of men. Men she’d spoken to, men her sister was planning to marry. Of course, none of them had shared that information with her, and she’d respected their need for anonymity. She understood it completely and even admired her sister for being so loyal as to keep that secret from her. She had no doubt it’d been killing her sister to keep things from her.

Mason stepped toward her, and she felt the heat and power of him pulse against her. At her sharp intake of breath, Hudson wrapped his arms tighter around her.

“You’re not scared of us?”

Amber didn’t pretend not to understand Mason. “Do I need to be?”

“Fuck no,” Hudson answered, and Amber couldn’t help the smile she felt tugging at her lips. She liked Hudson. There was no bullshit when he spoke. He said what he meant, and his tone left you in no doubt he also meant what he said.

“I think we should step out for a moment and allow the women some freedom to talk,” Finn said.

Amber was startled by the sound of Finn’s voice. She knew exactly why some of the men in this town were able to move with such grace and stealth, but it still never failed to surprise her when they appeared out of nowhere as Finn just had.

Hudson held her tighter as she struggled to turn in his lap and peer over his shoulder. The women were all there, standing behind Finn and looking a little annoyed. She gulped as her gaze settled on her sister. Jade had her hands on her hips, her mouth a thin line as she clamped her lips tightly together.

Jade was beyond annoyed. She’d moved into being royally pissed. “I don’t think you have any reason to be upset with me, Jade,” Amber said, hoping to make Jade feel guilty and assuage her anger just a little. “You started keeping secrets first.”

Jade’s eyes narrowed, and she tapped her foot on the floor. Not the reaction Amber had been hoping for.

“We’re no longer children, Amber. So don’t start acting like one.”

Hudson’s lips brushed her ear as he whispered into it, “If you ever try that with me, I’ll have you over my knee so fast your head will spin.” Amber’s skin tingled as his breath made goose bumps rise. Hudson definitely meant it, and if his hardening cock was any indication, he was looking forward to the prospect of carrying out his threat.

“You can’t say things like that to me, Hudson. We’ve only just met.” Amber pushed against his arms, and he released her so she could stand. She missed his warmth immediately, and she started to shiver again.

“I told you,” Hudson said, rising to his feet and staring down at her with his pretty blue eyes. “I’ll always tell you the truth.”

The shiver that ran through Amber’s body had nothing at all to do with the fact she was cold. It was a delicious tremble that had her aching to be back in his arms. She was attracted to Hudson, and the need she felt for him bordered on desperation, which served to confuse the hell out of her. They’d only just met.

Why is that? What the hell is happening to me? This behavior was not normal for her. She was usually very reserved with strangers.

“We’ll explain everything to you, Amber,” Jade said softly.

Jade wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into an embrace. Amber hugged Jade back fiercely as exhaustion and pain washed through her.

“It’s all going to be fine. I know exactly how confusing this is.” Jade said reassuringly.

Amber wanted to believe her, but she couldn’t. How was Jade going to understand when Amber herself didn’t understand what she was feeling? Amber had her eyes closed, but she knew the moment Mason and his brothers had left the room. The pain that had now become as familiar as breathing was back. The bone-deep chill returned, and she was again racked with violent shudders. Only this time, it wasn’t due to the cold.

“Let’s all sit closer to the fire while we talk to Amber,” Melanie said. “She’s not looking so good, Jade.”

“I’m sorry, Amber,” Jade mumbled into her hair. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Jade pulled away from Amber and held her at arm’s length. Jade’s pale green eyes were swimming with unshed tears.

“Tell you what, Jade? That I knew your boyfriends could turn into cougars?”

“No. Well, yes, that, too. But more importantly, why didn’t you tell me you needed Mason to come back to you?”

“Mason? What does he have to do with me?” Amber shook her head in denial, but Jade just smiled at her. “Mason made it clear he wanted nothing to do with me, Jade. He probably still doesn’t.”

As growling erupted from the next room, Jade turned Amber around and pushed her toward her friends, their friends. The women were gathered around the sofa closest to the fire. Amber sat down, and Melanie wrapped her in a blanket. Amber had grown close to the women in the time she’d been here. They were all very special people.

“Now spill, Amber Liang,” Melanie said, her expression serious. “What exactly do you know about our men?”

“I only know for sure about Jade’s men, well man, really. I assumed all the men were the same based on the growling and other behavior they all share.”

“Ah, the growling,” Peata said. “They all do that a lot.”

Bethany, Jordanna, Melanie, and Morgan nodded their agreement.

“I’d like to know exactly what you saw,” Jade said, sitting beside Amber and tucking the blanket around her. “And why you didn’t talk to me about it?”

“I couldn’t,” Amber said, her voice louder than she intended. “It was a secret between you and your boyfriends. I would never make you betray their trust in you.”

“You’re a sweetie,” Melanie said, dropping a kiss on Amber’s forehead and then frowning as she placed her hand there. “I’d say you’re running a fever, Amber. Maybe we should get Jason to come and have a look at you again.”

“I’m fine. It’s probably just the heat from the fire.” Amber wanted this night to end. She was tired, confused, and freezing cold. She wanted nothing more than to snuggle up in bed and sleep for a week. Assuming she could sleep at all.

“So who did you see shift?” Jordanna asked. “You said it was one of Jade’s men.”

“It was Troy. I was over visiting Jade about a week ago, and I fell asleep on the sofa.”

“I remember that day,” Jade said. “Troy came in off patrol and…well, we—” Amber smiled as Jade blushed scarlet.

“Well, needless to say the noise woke me, and I decided to make myself scarce. I went for a long walk, and when I was coming back, I saw Troy run off the back porch. He was naked one minute and furry the next.”

“That would do it. I’m surprised he didn’t hear you, though,” Bethany said.

“I think I was so surprised I stopped breathing.”

“Doesn’t really matter,” Melanie said. “He didn’t hear or see you.”

“No, he didn’t. Then I watched the rest of her men, all of your men.” Amber felt a blush of her own creep over her as she smiled apologetically at the women. “It seemed obvious to me then, once my eyes had been opened. It was clear they were all like Troy. I was actually astounded I hadn’t known sooner. The way they move, the way they’re so tactile. They practically rub up against you women like damned house cats. It’s adorable.”

There was a moment of silence, and Amber enjoyed the happiness and contentment she saw on the faces of each of the women.

“The depth of their love for you is a beautiful thing to witness. The love and devotion you all have for them in return, it’s wonderful. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t more than a little envious. What I wouldn’t give to have a man love me so unconditionally and fully.”

Amber sniffed back tears as she locked gazes with her sister. “I’m so happy for you, Jade. Mom and Thomas may be ignorant and choose to condemn your relationship with four men, but I think it’s fantastic. I’ll miss you once I go home, but I won’t be worried about your safety, as I have been these past two years. I know your men will keep you safe.”

“But you can’t go,” Morgan said. Amber barely heard her over the loud growling that had started. It seemed to come from the kitchen. “What about Mason and his brothers?”

“What about them?” Amber said. “I have a job, a life to get back to. I should have left last week. Shit. My flight!”

“That’s why we needed to talk to you tonight,” Melanie said. “We wanted to tell you about shifters and matings. To tell you why you’re still here. Why you couldn’t leave.”

“I’ve been behaving like an idiot. That’s why I didn’t leave.”

“No,” Jordanna said. “You’ve been behaving like a mate. We all felt the same way when we first met our men. None of us knew shifters existed, or the effect they have on their mate.”

“When you meet your mates,” Peata said, “they become irresistible to us.”

“Like you can’t breathe without them,” Morgan said. “Can’t think of a life without them in it.”

“I feel as though I didn’t know who I was until I met them,” Bethany said. “They make me whole.”

“Make you feel complete,” Jordanna added. “I know my heart now beats for each of them. Them and our cub, Elijah.”

Amber shook her head. “No. No, it’s not like that. I have— No, I had a stupid crush on a man that didn’t even look at me. I saw the love you all have for your husbands, and I invented an attraction for a man who wasn’t even here. I’m pathetic.”

“I meant it, Amber. I’ll put you across my knee if I think you need convincing you’re mine.” Hudson’s deep voice carried into the room, making Amber shudder again. The man has freakishly good hearing.

“Yes, I do. So watch what you say.”

Jade smiled at her as Amber’s mouth went slack in surprise. “Did he just read my mind?”

“No, Amber,” Jordanna said, as the room filled with the other women’s laughter. “You just said he had freakishly good hearing, and he heard you.”

Once the laughter had stopped, Amber felt the weight of their gazes. Melanie came forward and wrapped her arms around her. Amber felt tears sting her eyes and hugged Melanie back, absorbing the warmth and affection the other woman offered.

“I’m sorry you’ve been suffering,” Melanie said, her voice breaking on a small sob. “We had absolutely no idea Mason was your mate. Had we known, we would have had this conversation two weeks ago, before you became so confused about your feelings.” She stepped back and cupped Amber’s cheek. “We’re here for you. We know how hard this is, so please come to one of us if you need anything.”

“We all went through similar feelings of disbelief,” Peata said. “It’s not normal in the human world to be so intensely attracted to men you’ve just met. To feel such a strong need to be with them, close to them.”

“No, that’s usually referred to as stalking,” Bethany said.

“The difference for us was that our men didn’t leave,” Jordanna said. “Once they found us, they stayed close. They opened their hearts to us and showed us they were feeling the exact same way. It helped a great deal to know the feeling was mutual.”

Amber saw Bethany close her eyes as a shudder ran through her. Jason appeared instantly by her side. “What I wouldn’t do to remove that pain from your life completely,” he said softly. He looked only at Bethany, his eyes searching her face.

“It’s in the past, Jason. I know you love me now.”

Jason wrapped his arms around his wife. “But when I said I didn’t, it nearly killed us all. I’ll always be sorry.” Jason and Bethany left the room at a staggering speed. They were embracing one second, and gone the next. Hudson had run that fast with her, and she’d found it exhilarating.

“That’s a story for another day,” Jade said. “We each experienced pain and sadness before we found the happiness you see now, Amber. Some much more than others.” Amber saw Jade and the other women all glance fleetingly at Jordanna. “The love of our mates is what helped us to heal. Your mates are here now, all of them. Please stay and give them the opportunity to heal you, too.”

“If you take little else away from this conversation, Amber,” Jordanna said, “believe us when we tell you that they are your mates. Once you accept that fact, the rest will all begin to make sense. I promise.”

Amber felt like a weak fool. Jordanna was blind, yet she’d still trusted her men, her mates. She’d trusted in her own feelings. That was the crux of Amber’s denial. She’d been here in Eminence alone, and she’d been denying she had feelings for Mason the entire time. That she’d actually been waiting for him.

And now he’s back. He’s back and I’m what? I’m punishing him for leaving. Punishing him because I felt so empty and lost. I’m a better person than this.

Amber looked around at the strong, wonderful women who had thought nothing of breaking away from Christmas celebrations with their families to help her. She was humbled by their kindness.

“Thank you all for helping me like this.” Jade hugged her tight, and Amber felt a little of the sadness lift from her heart. “I may not understand what’s happening to me, but I think I’m ready to talk with Mason and his brothers about it now. Thanks to all of you I’m ready to listen. Ready to really hear what they’re saying.”

* * * *

“About fucking time,” Mason murmured. He was beside Amber in a heartbeat, gazing down at her pale face, and haunted eyes. Haunted because of him. Because he hadn’t known how he’d affected her, hadn’t known she’d been suffering as much as he had. More in fact, because she hadn’t known what was happening to her. As soon as Jade released Amber from their embrace and stood, he sat down in her place.

“I’m trusting you to be gentle with her,” Jade said. She looked sympathetically at Amber. “She doesn’t understand any of this.”

The other women all said their good-byes and left to join their mates in the kitchen.

“We’ll tell her everything she wants to know,” Hudson said. He sat on Amber’s other side and lifted her onto his lap.

“I’ll be fine now, Jade,” Amber said. “Do you need me to help with the dishes?”

“A house full shifters makes for a quick clean up. We’re all set, sis. You can relax and chat to your men. Can I get you anything before I get ready for bed?”

“If we can make use of your kitchen, we’ll get Amber something to eat in a little while,” Hudson said. “I know she won’t have eaten since Mason left.”

Amber swallowed as she closed her eyes and lowered her head.

“You haven’t been eating?” Mason asked. He took her hand and was shocked at how cold it felt. Sitting in front of the fire had done little to warm her.

“I didn’t know,” Jade said, her voice hitching as she started to cry.

“We’ve got this,” Lucas said. “We’ll make sure she eats and then gets some sleep.”

“Come on, darlin’,” Barrett said, He walked into the room and reached out a hand to Jade. “She’ll still be here in the morning.” Barrett’s eye’s blazed brightly as he glared at Hudson. It was a threat, not a statement, and Hudson inclined his head. Hudson would be answering to Barrett if he took Amber away again.

Barrett led Jade away, and they were finally alone with their mate.

“Mason,” Amber said softly. “Why did it hurt so much when you left?”

It was exactly the right place to start their conversation. He’d been struggling to think of what to say, and his mate had cut straight to the heart of the problem. She was beautiful and smart.

“When a coyote meets their mate,” Mason said.

“What?” Amber’s eyes grew wide as she sat up straighter on Hudson’s lap. “Did you say coyote?”

“Yes, love,” Dylan said. He sat on the small table next to the sofa and placed his hand on Amber’s thigh. Mason didn’t miss the small tremor that ran through Amber’s body. “Cougar shifters are just one type of shifter in the world. Our beast form is a coyote.”

“What about werewolves? Are they real, too?”

“Baby, werewolves are just for the movies,” Lucas said. The side table groaned as he perched beside Dylan and stroked a hand up Amber’s calf to rest over her knee. “We’re shape shifters, and yes, there are wolf shifters, too.”

Mason heard Amber’s heart rate speed up and felt her cold hand begin to finally grow warm. “It feels nice having you all close like this,” Amber said, her cheeks growing pink with her obvious embarrassment. “Shit. Why do I keep doing that? I don’t mean to verbalize my every thought.”

“When a coyote meets their mate,” Mason said, “our beast calls to them by releasing a special scent called musk. This musk makes our mate aware of us. They may even find our scent alluring. It’s nature’s way of making sure mates don’t escape each other’s notice.”

“I remember that night we first met,” Amber said, her green eyes searching his face. “In the truck.” Mason nodded his understanding. “I noticed you.”

“I nearly went insane with the need to take you in my arms,” Mason said. “Your beautiful vanilla scent was everywhere. I wanted to take you in my arms and never let you go. But…”

“But you had a job to do,” Amber said, a small smile on her lips. “I thought your aftershave smelled amazing. I was fascinated by you the minute I laid eyes on you. Then, in the truck you smelled incredible. I never imagined a smell could be sexy, but yours was.”

“Multiply that feeling by a million, and you have some idea what your scent does to us,” Dylan said.

“When we’re human, we retain the enhanced senses of our alternate nature,” Lucas said. “So with a canine’s sense of smell, your scent is like ambrosia to us.”

“Like Viagra and PCP rolled into one,” Hudson said bluntly. “Makes us batshit crazy.”

Amber snorted a little as she laughed. Mason found it adorable and vowed to give her plenty of reasons to make that sound from now on.

“I think that falls in the category of too much information, Hudson. But if it means I smell as good to you as you all smell to me, then I understand the analogy,” Amber said, her cheeks a rosy pink with embarrassment.

“But Mason didn’t know that you’d been aware of his musk,” Lucas said.

“I thought I’d succeeded in keeping my beast under control until later when I was alone. Then I shifted and let him free to howl out his rage.”

Amber looked confused again, and Hudson nuzzled her neck. “His coyote was pissed he didn’t jump your bones in the back of that truck.” Amber’s cheeks were blazing red now. Mason liked how shy she was about sex.

“I wanted to,” Mason said unabashedly. He was done with hiding anything from his precious mate. “Even having Brett and Marguerite in the front seat wasn’t a deterrent. The only thing stopping me was the fact I had to leave, had to travel all over the country digging up bodies.”

“When you detected his scent, it sparked a primal reaction in you that was completely beyond your control,” Dylan said, leaning forward to place a gentle kiss on her forehead. He licked his lips before continuing, and Mason’s coyote growled its jealousy. He wanted a taste of his mate, too.

“It was an instinctual response set up by nature at the beginning of time for the continued procreation of our species,” Lucas said. “Coyotes, and the cats, get only one mate in their long lives. Only one female who can carry our young.”

“Just one perfect woman,” Mason said.

“But the pain? Why did I hurt? I’ve never felt so alone. It was confusing.” Mason scented that pain, the depth of her melancholy, and it burned when he breathed it in. He saw they all felt how she’d suffered. Because of him.

“You were alone,” Hudson said. “You’d found the other half of your soul, and when Mason left, you yearned for its return, to be complete again. You also had no idea what was happening, why you were having these feelings.”

“I imagine the closest humans could come to understanding the feeling would be to say you were suddenly deeply depressed,” Lucas said. “But you didn’t understand why you were suddenly in that state. Mason would have been on your mind, in your dreams. Your body would have craved him. Nature wanted you to go to him, to find your mate again. She wouldn’t easily allow you to forget him.”

He saw the tears swim in Amber’s eyes and scented her sadness and fear. “I was in the same pain, sweetheart. Each and every beat of my heart was painful because you weren’t in my arms. My beast and I were at war over my actions, but were in complete agreement over the fact we wanted to return to you. To our perfect, beautiful mate.”

“Perfect?” Amber huffed. “I was selfish, I wanted you back. I can admit that now that I’m not scared you’ll think me crazy. I wanted you even though you were helping all those families.”

“You are perfect, Amber. Perfect for us, and that’s all that matters.” He swallowed as he wondered if he’d ever be good enough for her. “Can you ever forgive me for leaving you in pain?”

“Mason, no. You said you didn’t know I was sad and I believe you.”

She took their connected hands and placed them over her heart. He tried to ignore the fact her breast was under his hand. But it was such a beautiful breast.

“I can feel your sadness, Mason. I can feel it in my heart how sorry you are. You found those women and took them home. And then you came back. Back for me.” Amber looked around at his brothers, and tears spilled down her cheeks. “And you didn’t come back alone.”

“We nearly didn’t come at all,” Dylan said. “The minute Mason had completed his hunt he came for us. He was spouting some nonsense about him having a human mate and that we might be mates to this human woman, too.”

“Nonsense?” Amber said, and she smiled as she tilted her head in question at Dylan.

“You’re going to be trouble, baby. I can see it clear as day,” Dylan said.

When Amber opened her mouth to refute Dylan’s claim, he leaned in and joined their lips. Mason’s coyote felt no jealousy as Amber moaned in response to Dylan’s kiss. His coyote was jubilant. She was going to be theirs.

* * * *

Dylan moaned right along with Amber as he licked and tasted her mouth. The kiss was not what he’d planned for their first kiss, not a slow, tentative joining of lips. Instead it was a deep, desperate kiss born from hunger and raw need. It was magnificent, like her.

Dylan drew away from Amber’s lips reluctantly. Now was not the time to assuage his beast’s hunger to claim their mate. Amber needed to heal and regain her strength. She was human, and needed to be courted as she was gradually introduced into her life with four shifter mates.

“I know now that it wasn’t nonsense, Amber,” Dylan said, his voice sounding husky as he pushed back his coyote. “I knew the second you walked out onto that porch tonight. The second I smelled you, tasted your sweet scent on my tongue. I knew in that instant you were the one I’ve waited a long, long time for.”

“How long?” Amber said, she licked her glistening lips, and he had to swallow back a moan. “You said that your kind, shifters, live long lives. You don’t look old.” She glanced at his brothers. “None of you do.”

“Hell.” He hesitated, but knew he might as well get this over with. It wasn’t like he was getting any younger. “I’m the eldest brother and Lucas is the baby. You’re what? Seventy-one or two?”

“Thanks, old man,” Lucas said, continuing his slow caress of Amber’s thigh. “I’ll be seventy-four this spring.”

Amber’s gaze raked over Lucas’s face before returning to his. “We age slowly and can live to be upward of three hundred years old.” Amber’s eyes grew wider, but she waited for him to finish. “It’s taken me a long time to find you, mate. For Mason to find you. I’ve waited over a hundred and fifty years for you.”

He’d never considered himself old until tonight, but now he felt the emptiness of all the years he’d been living without her in his life.

Amber smiled at him and stroked her hand softly down his face. “You’ll be alive my whole life then.”

“No, baby. Once we’re mated, you’ll be alive the whole of our lives.”

“No, really? How many wrinkles will I have if I live to be three hundred?”

That made him laugh, made them all laugh, and eased the ache in his heart. He wasn’t going to share as many years with Amber as his younger brothers, but all the years for the rest of his life were going to be wonderful now that he’d found Amber. His precious, lovely Amber.

Hudson stood with Amber in his arms. “I’m starving, and Amber probably is, too.” Hudson gently passed Amber to him and Dylan wrapped her in his arms. He never wanted to let her go.

“No wonder Hudson ran off with you. I like how you feel in my arms, baby.” He followed Hudson into the kitchen and arranged Amber on his lap as he sat on a stool at the kitchen counter.

“Before,” Amber said hesitantly. “When you were all touching me.”

“You felt better?” Lucas asked. He’d opened the refrigerator and was passing plates of food to Hudson.

Amber nodded, lowering her head shyly. “I’ve never felt anything like this before. Felt so much, so close, to people…to a man, men I’ve just met. It’s confusing.”

“It’s how we feel for you, too,” Mason said. “We feel connected to you, and know already we won’t survive if we’re separated.”

Amber nodded rapidly. “That’s exactly how I feel, and how I felt two weeks ago when I met you, Mason.”

“Because we’re shifters, we can embrace these feelings and recognize you as our mate,” Hudson said. “That’s why we were angry at Mason for leaving you alone. We understand your feelings of pain and confusion. Not knowing the reason for it would have made it worse for you.”

“That’s why you were apologizing?” Amber asked, the question directed at Mason.

Mason nodded and leaned across the counter to cup Amber’s face in his hands. “Had I known you’d been affected by my mating musk, I would have taken you with me. I should have.”

Dylan winced as Amber moved her cute, round ass restlessly on his lap. She was brushing against his hard cock, and he was gritting his teeth as he tried not to moan in pleasure.

“What is it, baby?” Dylan said, grasping Amber’s hips and moving her away from his aching erection. “Tell us what’s got you all anxious and”—he took a deep breath and tasted the air for her emotions—“embarrassed, if I’m reading you correctly.”

“It’s going to be impossible to hide how I’m feeling from any of you, isn’t it?” Dylan watched Hudson smile widely at Amber, and Dylan’s heart nearly stopped. It was miraculous how quickly Amber was helping Hudson finally move on with his life again. After sixty years of seeing Hudson mired in pain and guilt, their mate had given them their brother back.

“I took the pillow from your bed,” Amber said, her voice barely above a whisper. “I swapped it with mine after you’d left. I felt like a freak, but I did it anyway.”

Dylan saw the pain in Mason’s eyes, and the last of his anger toward his brother evaporated. Mason had brought them to Eminence with him on the slim chance they might be Amber’s mates as well. And thank fuck he did. Had Mason claimed Amber without them, she might have died before he’d known what was happening to her.

“You and Hudson will get along fine. You’re both kinky,” Dylan said. “On the way here today, Hudson told us how he’d wished Mason had stolen a pair of your panties for him.”

Dylan braced himself for pain as Hudson took exception to his teasing him. But instead, he was gifted with a sound that stole his breath. Hudson laughed. The sound deep and rich as his brother grinned at Amber.

“I was actually astounded you were my mate as well,” Hudson said. He stopped smiling and stared at Amber, his expression serious. “I never dreamed fate would bring me such a priceless gift. I hope you understand now how special you are to me, to all of us. I can’t imagine my life without you now. I can never go back to that old life, the one before you. I’d rather die.”

“Don’t say that,” Amber whispered, clutching her hands over her heart. “It hurts when you say that.”

“That I was surprised you were mine as well as Mason’s?” Hudson asked, looking perplexed. Hudson had no idea of his worth any more, and it made Dylan want to kill that bastard Layton. Betty’s worthless husband had caused so much suffering, not just with the loss of their sister. They’d effectively lost Hudson that night as well.

“No,” Amber said, wriggling restlessly again.

Dylan realized something important about his mate. She was not comfortable talking about her feelings. He wondered who had hurt her, because someone had made her feel her emotions and opinions were meaningless.

“It hurt when you spoke about leaving, and dying. Don’t die, Hudson.”

Dylan relinquished his hold on Amber willingly when Hudson rounded the bench and reached for her. Hudson would need to hold her right now. His life had changed more than theirs when Amber walked out onto that porch tonight. He wanted to live, had a reason to take each breath. He had a mate to protect. Protect and love.

Chapter 5

Hudson woke with a start, the soft moan making the hairs on his arms stand on end. Someone was in pain. Amber was trembling in his arms, her body a soft weight against him. Just like she’d been when he’d fallen asleep, only she hadn’t been moaning in pain then.

“Shh, Amber,” Dylan said softly. “It’s just a bad dream.”

Her moaning stopped, and Hudson looked down to see she was frowning while she slept. Her face was flushed, and he saw a fine sheen of sweat shining on her forehead. He was reclining on the sofa with Amber in his arms, the pair of them covered by a throw.

“Is she too warm under that blanket?” Lucas asked.

“She feels cold actually,” Dylan said, his hand on Amber’s forehead. Hudson sat up, gently maneuvering Amber so as not to wake her. His body heat combined with the blanket covering her should have made her feel too warm, if anything.

Lucas lifted the blanket. Amber’s sweater had ridden up, and her baggy jeans were riding low on her hips. It left most of her stomach exposed, and Hudson placed his palm there, only to be shocked at how cold she felt. An unpleasant smell teased at his senses. The odor was faint, but he still recognized it. Rot.

“She’s hurt,” Lucas said, his voice too loud in the quiet room.

Dylan and Mason had been sleeping in the armchairs beside the sofa, but were now by his side. Their growls were loud, but Amber remained asleep.

“I can scent infection, too,” Hudson said. “Can you see where it’s coming from?” Amber’s head rolled to the side, her breathing ragged as she moaned again.

“Fuck,” Lucas said. He lifted Amber’s sweater higher and exposed a large adhesive bandage on her side. The top of the bandage had come loose, and Lucas gently peeled it off completely. The bandage had been used to cover four long, deep wounds.

“Those are claw marks.” As Hudson said the words, his coyote began to snarl. It knew another shifter had made those marks on its mate. Another shifter had touched Amber, hurt her, and she’d neglected to tell them. Betrayed. They’d all been fooled by the pretty package and softly spoken words.

The marks were deep, red, and angry-looking, a purulent fluid oozing from the length of each cut. Now that it was exposed, the smell was strong. The infection had spread out from the claw marks, and red lines tracked across her pale skin like a web.

“Someone did this to her.” Lucas was barely keeping his coyote inside as a growl escaped. Hudson’s beast was close to breaking free.

“She’s been with a shifter,” Hudson said.

“Asher.” Mason’s voice was barely above a whisper as he growled out Asher’s name between his clenched teeth.

The cat appeared beside them a few seconds later. He was rumpled from sleep and stark naked.

“Jesus,” Asher said. He surveyed Amber’s wounds for less than a heartbeat before he disappeared again, the sound of footfalls from the floor above indicating he was waking his brothers.

“I hope he’s calling the doctor,” Lucas said. “How did we not notice this last night?”

“The bandage is waterproof,” Hudson said flatly. “Maybe whoever did this to her was helping her conceal it.”

“You can’t think she’s been seeing one of the cats while I was gone?” Mason asked. Mason sounded confused while Hudson was just angry. Hurt and angry for acting like a fool. Being their mate didn’t mean she was a nice person. They hadn’t asked if she’d been sleeping around, so she hadn’t even had to attempt a lie. They’d made it all so easy for her to hide her lover from them.

“Why else would she conceal the marks? Maybe she likes her sex a little rough,” Hudson said. “We don’t know anything about her, and she’s only a human. You know none of them can be trusted.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Asher said, his tone icy and dripping with malice. Asher and all his brothers were standing behind Mason. They all looked furious. “My mate is a human.”

“Then take this as sage advice, counselor,” Hudson said. He stood quickly and gave Amber to the cat. Asher’s quick reflexes were all that stopped Amber from falling to the floor. Hudson gritted his teeth and tried not to care that he’d nearly hurt his mate. “They are not like us. They see us as animals and can put us down like unwanted pets once they’ve had enough of us.”

Hudson stared blindly ahead as his mind fractured. He was thrust back in time, back to the room where he’d found his sister. Her blood was a red halo around her head, and the bullet had left an ugly black hole in the center of her forehead.

“Get them away from me.” The soft pain-filled voice had his coyote beating at his mind, breaking through the fog of his pain and confusion. “Jade. Please help me, Jade.”

Hudson’s coyote slapped him back into the present. His vision cleared, and he found himself gazing into Amber’s pale-green eyes. Her eyes told him he’d caused his mate pain. Agony shone from her teary gaze.

“I’ve got you, Amber,” Asher said, moving away from them and being surrounded by Asher’s brothers. “Oh, Christ. Who the fuck did that to you, honey? You should have told us.”

“Make them go,” Amber said softly, her head rolling back and hanging limp as Asher carried her gently from the room.

Hudson stood, watching as Asher’s brothers and Jade all gathered in the big kitchen. Their voices were tight with pain and worry. None of them had known of Amber’s injury, that much was self-evident. None of them had been aiding her in its concealment.

“Those were claw marks,” Hudson said. “Did some shifter put those there while he was fucking her?”

Lucas cocked back his arm and punched Hudson in the face. He might have been the shortest of the brothers, but he wasn’t weak. Hudson went down, his jaw aching as his head swam.

“Lucas, stop,” Mason said. He held Lucas back by the shoulders, preventing him from pounding on Hudson while he was down. “Hudson has a point. She didn’t tell us about the marks. She was hiding them from us for a reason.”

“Get the fuck over yourself,” Lucas said, struggling to get Mason’s arms off him. “She met us last night. We talked to her for what? Three hours. Did you see the way she just looked at us? Can you scent the depth of her pain and still think she’s hiding something?”

“He’s right,” Dylan said. “The only things we discussed with Amber were to do with the effects of the mating musk and about mates. We didn’t ask her anything about her life. Hell, we don’t even know what she was doing the day before yesterday.”

The sound of a truck engine roaring to life had Hudson’s head snapping back toward the kitchen.

“They’ve gone. We don’t even know where they’ve taken her,” Lucas said.

“We fucking hurt our mate,” Dylan said. “Lucas is right. She’s human, yes, but she’s not Layton and doesn’t deserve to be treated like she is. She can’t lie to us because we’re her mates. All we need do is ask her how she got the wound and she’ll tell us.”

“We owe her that, Mason,” Lucas said. He patted Hudson’s jeans pockets until he located the keys to the truck. Hudson was unable to move while he was wrestling with so many conflicting emotions. He couldn’t seem to get his limbs to work.

“Don’t you think she deserves a chance to explain?” Lucas said, staring down at him. “I’ll ask her how she got that fucking scratch for your sake, but I already know she’s done nothing wrong. We’re the ones who have fucked up again. We’ll be lucky if she even talks to us.”

They were all silent as they followed Asher’s truck along the snow-covered roads in the chill early morning of Christmas day. A Christmas day that should have been a joyous first of many with their mate.

Hudson wanted to stay angry and distrustful, but now that he was over the initial shock, he could too easily picture the look on Amber’s face as he’d spoken so harshly about her. Hurt, not guilt, or even fear was what she’d shown him. He’d expect some unease at least if they’d discovered something she’d been deliberately trying to conceal.

Hudson knew they had a valid reason to be distrustful of humans, but he might have judged Amber too harshly, and his guilt was burning a hole in his stomach. Hudson knew he’d have to tell Amber why he’d reacted the way he had, or she’d probably never speak to them again.

Hudson had never dealt with his feelings of shame over his sister’s death. Hell, he’d made it a habit to not feel much of anything since that bastard killed Betty. It was the reason he lived alone, avoided his family, bar Dylan, who was just an interfering prick.

But if Amber was innocent of everything his untrusting heart had imagined, then he’d do whatever it took to make her forgive him. He’d open himself up to the prospect of rejection and pain, and he’d do it willingly. He’d be a fool to let Layton be the cause of them losing their mate as well as their sister.

* * * *

Amber clung to Jade’s hand as she shivered under the blanket in the back of Asher’s truck.

“We’ll be at Bethany’s in just a minute now,” Asher said.

Amber let her mind drift as her body shook in painful spasms, her teeth slamming together so hard they ached. The things they’d said filled Amber’s mind. Hudson had spoken with such rage and vehemence, his handsome features contorted with disgust.

Amber was in no doubt that she was no longer considered a worthy mate. Whatever they’d discovered about her while she’d been sleeping was so terrible she’d been judged worthless. They hadn’t even allowed her to answer for her crimes.

“They’re still following,” Barrett said. He was sitting up front beside Asher and he sounded furious.

Amber felt like crying. She didn’t want Barrett to be angry at her as well. He was fierce-looking, and his growling voice was terrifying.

“I think she’s slipped into some sort of delirium,” Troy said. “She thinks Barrett is angry with her.”

Faces crowded around her. Jade’s, Asher’s, Troy’s, and even Wes’s. They snarled at her, and their lips curled back to expose long pointy teeth. She screamed and covered her face with her arms, trying to keep the teeth away from her face. “I’m sorry. I just want to go home. Please let me go. I won’t tell anyone, I promise.”

Amber felt the first sharp tooth prick the skin of her neck. Ice flowed through her as the sting spread down her body. She screamed. She didn’t want the cats to eat her. Then she saw Hudson’s face, his furious expression morphing into a laugh as she was eaten alive.

She stopped fighting, remembering she’d felt death sapping her strength for the last few days. Now that Mason had returned and shown what he really thought of her, she didn’t want to fight death any more. He was why she’d fought to stay alive.

She didn’t have to fight anymore. He despised her humanity, she’d heard them say so, and she was helpless to change what she was. He wouldn’t mourn her human death. None of them would. They could find a coyote to love them now.

* * * *

“What do you mean we can’t see her?” Lucas said, his teeth elongating and his claws erupting. Jade wasn’t scared of him. She was too angry at the way they’d treated her sister to allow fear to eclipse rage.

Asher moved to stand in front of Jade, his back to the coyote, his focus on her. He loved her and was protecting his human mate. Not like the stupid coyote bastards. They’d as much as called Amber a slut.

Grasping her shoulders, Asher moved her farther away from the coyotes. It also blocked the three men from her sight.

“Let me past, Asher,” Jade said, her voice pitched so high it hurt her own ears. Asher winced. She swallowed and tried to calm herself. “I want to tell them to fuck off home, where they can die lonely and childless like the undeserving bastards they are.”

“You just told them, little one,” Asher soothed. “They’re standing right behind me.”

Barrett and Wes stepped behind Asher and pushed Lucas away. “You’re too close to my mate, dog,” Barrett said.

They were all standing in Bethany’s living room while Jason examined Amber in the exam room he had in his home. They’d hated to ruin Bethany and her family’s Christmas morning, but Amber had needed immediate medical attention.

Jade attempted to step around Asher, but was blocked as he slid smoothly in her path again. “Did you hear them, Asher?” Jade asked, her tears starting again as she remembered the way they’d spoken about Amber as she lay in their arms, helpless and fighting for her life. “They called her a slut and a liar. Who does that when they find their mate is injured and sick? Is this what other shifters are like? Are the ones in Eminence the only ones with hearts?”

“No, honey,” Troy said, wrapping his arms around her from behind and tucking her head under his chin. “I think it’s just these coyotes who are worthless bastards.”

Asher smiled down at her, his eyes full of love and concern. “Jason will make Amber well. We’ll celebrate Christmas in a day or two when she’s feeling better and can enjoy it with us.”

“Oh, it’s Christmas. I’d forgotten about my surprise.” Jade reached up and cupped Asher’s face with one hand and stroked Troy’s arm with her other one. “You’re all so wonderful to me. I don’t deserve you.”

“Yes, you do,” Barrett growled. He moved to stand beside Asher, and Wes crowded in beside her.

“We’re the ones who don’t deserve you,” Wes said. “You’re perfect.”

“I had this all planned,” Jade said, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before staring at each of them in turn. “I planned to wake up in your arms and tell you all first thing. It’s my Christmas present to you all.”

“We have you,” Troy said, “We have everything we need.”

“Everything we’ll ever need,” Wes added.

“I’m having a baby,” Jade said softly. She heard the clock ticking on the wall behind her. She looked at each of her mates in turn. This was her present to them and she didn’t want to miss their individual reactions. She felt a smile stretch her lips, and despite her worry over Amber, she couldn’t contain her joy at what she saw.

“Surprise,” she said softly into the growing silence.

Asher plastered her against his chest in a tight embrace, the rumble of his growl made her body vibrate. “You’ve kept this from us for how long, little one?” Asher said, kissing her deeply before she could answer.

She was then passed to Barrett, Wes, and Troy as they each hugged and kissed her. Her mates were happy. Their smiles were broad and their cocks were hard. But it seemed their cocks were always hard when they held her.

“We need to get married today,” Troy said. “I want the baby to be called Pollock, like us, like Jade will be.”

“I think we still have a few months to plan the wedding, Troy,” Wes said. Jade smiled as she saw Troy struggling to control his racing thoughts.

“Pollock’s an unusual first name,” Lucas said.

The room was again silent, and Jade felt the cold chill of sadness replace the happiness she’d felt only a moment ago.

“You hurt my sister, and now you’ve ruined Christmas,” Jade said, her legs kicking as she fought to get down from Wes’s embrace, but he held her well off the ground.

“If I kill them, will it save Christmas for you?” Cooper asked. Jade heard the front door slam closed and saw Cooper and Finn both staring daggers at Mason and his brothers.

“Bethany has been crying on the phone to Melanie,” Finn said, walking slowly toward Lucas. The man had the sense to back away. “It seems certain unfounded accusations have been made against Amber, and against humans in general, which have made the mates of my pride extremely unhappy.”

“We came here to let Amber explain exactly how she got those marks on her body, Alpha,” Dylan said.

Amber watched the color drain from Dylan’s face as the Alpha continued to advance on the four brothers. Their backs were against the opposite wall now, and they had no means of escape. Dylan might not have been a lot shorter than Finn, but he looked scared.

“Regardless of how she came to be hurt, she’s a human, and she’ll forever remain a human. I have no place in my pride for anyone who won’t protect a mate because they are human. Be it their own mate, or another of the pride’s. Mates are the most precious thing this pride possesses, and all members should be willing to die protecting them.”

Hudson took a step forward, his eyes downcast and his jaw bruised. “It’s not their fault,” Hudson said.

“Are you saying it’s your fault they each distrusted Amber on seeing her injuries?” Asher asked.

“I swear you all squabble like children,” Jason said. “Does anyone want to hear how Amber is?”

Jade saw the look Finn leveled at Jason, and she was terrified. The doctor, however, seemed unaffected as he turned and walked back down the corridor.

Finn pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed before inclining his head toward Cooper. Cooper immediately followed Jason. Jade raised her hand.

“You don’t need permission from me to speak, Jade,” Finn said, his lip twitching just a little as he looked seriously at her.

“May I please go and hear how Amber’s doing?”

* * * *

Amber heard the voices coming from far away as she fought the rising wakefulness. She didn’t want to return to the mess her life had become. She’d been alone and scared, hurting for a man she hardly knew, only for him to return and promise her an eternity of happiness in not just his arms, but his three brothers as well.

Amber had longed for the same happiness she’d seen in Jade’s and her friend’s lives, so she’d been fooled too easily by their pretty faces and smooth lies. She was done. Too tired to fight anymore. Too sore, too broken, too…human, apparently.

That was the insult that had hurt the most. The one she had no defense for. She might not have been a slut who slept around, but she was human.

“I think she’s awake. Please get Jason, Asher. He said to call him the minute she woke.”

“Jade? I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. Please don’t be angry with me.”

Amber’s side hurt. The constant burning pain had changed to a dull ache now, but each breath was still painful. She closed her eyes and tried to make her brain work. She remembered the car ride now. Jade and her men had brought her to see the doctor, Jason. Then they’d attacked her. Hadn’t they?

“You got a little confused while we were bringing you here,” Jade said. She gently brushed some hair off Amber’s face, tucking it behind her ear. “No one is angry with you. We’re all very worried.”

“Those scratches to your side have become infected, Amber,” Jason said. She snapped her eyes open to see Jason leaning over her, his face set in hard lines. “You have a high fever. I’ve put in an IV and started you on some antibiotics. You should have come and seen me before they got this bad.”

Amber swallowed and nodded. “I didn’t know.” Her mouth was dry, and she’d slurred her words.

“I just put a bandage over them and tried to forget everything about that night.”

Loud snarls ripped through the room like thunder, shaking her and making her panic. She tried to sit up, but her limbs were heavy, and it was hard to move. She struggled to rise, but Jason easily held her down with a hand on her shoulder.

Jason looked over his shoulder and growled. “I will tear your throats out with my bare hands if you don’t stop scaring my patient, dogs. The Alpha can go ahead and punish me when you’re all dead.”

“I’ll help you,” Jade said. Amber almost laughed. Jade looked tiny standing there next to Jason, but she looked seriously pissed. She looked like she could very well do some damage to the coyotes.

“I love you, Jade.”

“I’ve given her some heavy-duty painkillers,” Jason said. “I don’t think she’s fully coherent right now.” Amber felt relieved knowing that. She’d wondered why she felt so strange.

Jade squeezed her hand reassuringly. “I love you, too, Amber, but you’re in trouble for not telling me you were sick.” Jade smiled at her, sounding anxious, not angry. “Cooper is here, and he’s asking to talk to you. I’ll be right here the whole time.”

Jason stepped back, and Melanie’s husband Cooper took his place beside Jade. “I’d like to ask what may seem a strange question, but I believe it will cut through all this bullshit.”

“Tactful as ever,” Jason said, sardonically.

Cooper looked tense, and Amber stiffened, worried she had caused trouble for Jade. Jade was happy here, and she didn’t want to cause trouble for her sister with the shifters in this town. Mason and his brothers had caused her to feel unsure of how shifters really felt about humans.

“A couple of nights ago the mates took you out dancing to try to cheer you up.” Amber nodded at Cooper, even though he hadn’t asked a question.

“Samson told me he stopped a man named Tennyson from taking you from the club against your will.” Amber nodded again, focusing on Cooper and ignoring the growling she heard in the background. “Did you get those cuts on your side that night? Did Tennyson hurt you?”

Amber blinked and more tears ran down her face as she nodded. “I had too much to drink, and I was embarrassed about my behavior.” Shame burned through Amber at how she’d danced so seductively with complete strangers when she’d been inebriated.

“She broke her shoes trying to get away from him, and he tore her clothes,” Jade said. “I didn’t know he’d hurt her, too.”

“We need to have a talk to Tennyson, Amber. I’m sorry he hurt you.” Cooper stepped away, and Amber closed her eyes, humiliated her reckless actions had led to her disrupting everyone’s Christmas.

“Fuck.” She heard Mason’s angry voice. “I wasn’t here to protect you, Amber. How can you forgive me for all the things I’ve done wrong?”

“And then I went and made things worse,” Hudson said. “I’ve allowed Layton to keep me separated from my family for sixty years. I won’t lose my mate because that bastard killed our sister.”

Amber felt her heart begin to race. Alarms started to beep in the now silent room. Pain and guilt had dripped from Hudson’s every word. Something horrible had happened to Hudson’s sister, to their family, sixty years ago, and to this day it clearly still affected them all deeply. She tried hard not to care. They’d hurt her with their words, their anger, their distrust.

We don’t even know each other. Would I have been just as angry and jealous had I seen lipstick on their collars? Amber knew she would have. They’d spent less than a day together. They might all be attracted to each other by some twist of nature, but trust took time to build. Time they hadn’t had yet.

“Amber?” Jade asked softly. She opened her eyes as she felt Jade gently touch her arm. It was no good hiding the fact she had strong feelings for her mates. Hell, I love them. That’s why I was so hurt by their words. Why I want them still. Want them so much. “Do you want to talk to Mason and his brothers, or do we let Jason tear their throats out?”

Chapter 6

“Have you been to look at the payment?” he asked.

Branik smiled at him. The demon was stunning, too pretty to be handsome, but his smile was cold. Evil ran through his veins, evil hidden under the facade of an almost angelic beauty.

“I have,” Branik said. “It is sufficient an exchange for my services, cougar.”

“Excellent,” he said. He was looking forward to putting the dogs down so he would be free to enjoy Amber.

“Do you have any objection to us playing with the dogs before we end them?” Branik’s beatific smile was at odds with the malevolence that dripped from his every word.

“Of course not,” he said. “I was actually hoping you’d feel that way.”

Fear. Terror and fear left such a wonderful aroma in the air. Amber would be perfect once she knew exactly how she’d suffer if she failed to please him. She would beg to please him. His cock hardened as he remembered the feel of her in his arms. He’d make sure she begged.

* * * *

“I’ll talk to them if everyone goes home. It’s Christmas,” Amber said, her words coming out slowly. She sounded very drowsy from the painkillers Jason had given her. “Including you, Shade. I mean, Laid. No, Jade.”

Lucas let out the breath he’d been holding. She’d agreed to see them. She was more than they deserved in a mate. More forgiving, anyway. Hudson was first in the door, brushing past Jason as he injected something into Amber’s intravenous line.

“Is that more antibiotics?” Lucas asked, his gaze slipping to Amber as Jade hugged her sister. Amber looked pale and fragile, even compared to Jade, who was a slender woman.

“I’ll be in the living room with my family, but I’ll be listening,” Jason said, he glared at each of them in warning. “My mate is very angry with the lot of you. All the mates already care deeply for Amber.”

Jason fixed a glare on Lucas as he tossed the syringe into a sharps container. “That was more painkiller. I estimate you have around ten minutes to state your case before she’s asleep.”

“Thank you, Jason,” Lucas said, gulping at the unleashed power he felt emanating from the cougar. Jason wouldn’t hesitate in tearing their throats out if he deemed it necessary. “I’m sorry my brothers doubted Amber and hurt her. I think you’ll soon understand why if you’re really going to be listening.”

Jason nodded and stalked silently from the room. Deadly. That was the impression Lucas got from Jason, which was incongruous considering Jason was a doctor. He was certainly unlike any doctor Lucas had previously encountered.

“I’ll leave,” Jade said. “Because it’s what Amber wants. But I’ll be back this afternoon. You won’t hurt her ever again.”

She walked into Asher’s arms, and he took Jade quickly away. Lucas knew Jade’s threat wasn’t an idle one. Her four mates would hurt them if they failed to treat Amber as she deserved. As a mate. Cherished and protected— two things they’d so far failed to do.

Lucas joined Hudson as he stood beside the exam bed. Mason and Dylan stood on the opposite side. None of them were touching her, and Lucas couldn’t stand the distance he felt between them. They were inches from her, but it felt like miles to him.

“Why?” Amber spoke the word slowly. She looked at Hudson first, then raked her gaze over each of them. The scent of her pain struck him like a wave.

Lucas took her hand in his, shocked anew at how small and fragile she seemed compared to him. “We should have asked you how the claw marks got on your body,” Lucas said. “It should have been the first words we spoke on seeing them.”

“They weren’t,” Amber said, another wave of her pain hitting him.

“We don’t have long before you’re asleep,” Mason said. “We can’t explain it all right now.”

“Try.” Amber’s words were impassioned, and it gave Lucas reason to hope she hadn’t given up on them completely. If she wanted to know why, then she wanted to forgive them.

“We had a sister,” Lucas said, trying think of a way to condense enough facts into a few short sentences so Amber could go to sleep with some understanding of the reason for their deep seated suspicion of humans. “She married a human she loved deeply. A human who wasn’t her true mate.”

Hudson growled and took Amber’s hand from him. “He was an abusive asshole, but she hid that fact from us. Hid it so well it took her being hospitalized for us to find out what he’d been doing to her.”

Amber’s eyes widened, and she bit her bottom lip as it trembled. “Sorry.”

“That’s not the worst of it,” Dylan said.

Lucas’s mind slipped back in time. The horror remembered too easily through the eyes of the boy he’d been. The sorrow and desolation he’d felt when they’d buried his Betty. He had been only ten years old, too young to shift, too young to allow the coyote free to hunt with his older brothers.

“Stop,” Amber said softly, her eyes filling with tears. “It’s okay, I understand now. You hate me because I’m human. I’m like him. Just go.”

“You think we’d leave you?” Lucas asked. He glanced at his brothers and saw they were equally horrified by her assumption. She was letting them go. She thought she was forgiving them and freeing them to move on without her. “That is never happening, baby. Not even when I’m dead.”

He would fight until his last breath to have a future with Amber. He’d tear open the unhealed wound in his heart and bleed afresh if that was what it took. The way Hudson had been last night, before all this confusion, had been a tantalizing glimpse at how their lives could now be.

They could move forward as a family. All of them united by their love for their mate, and her love for them. Betty would have wanted this for them. She’d have wanted Hudson to be whole, to be happy, to live a long life filled with love. Amber could give that to them. He wanted it and intended to do everything in his power to make it happen.

“I was a fucking idiot,” Hudson said. “I loved my sister. Loved Betty so damned much, that when that bastard husband killed her I was so angry, so lost, I punished everyone I loved. Even you, Amber.”

Lucas saw Amber’s pupils dilate in shock. “I’m so sorry,” she said, her eyelids were beginning to droop from the effect of the painkiller.

“I’ve been holding onto the anger of our sister’s death for a long time, Amber,” Hudson said. “It’s time I finally let myself grieve for her, so then maybe I can move on with my life. My life with you.” Hudson wiped the tears from her eyes and then wiped away his own, never breaking eye contact.

“Did we tell you that mates are incapable of lying to each other?” Lucas asked. Amber shook her head ever so slightly. “Well, they can’t. Human or shifter, doesn’t matter. We can’t lie to our mates. So everything we tell you is the absolute truth.”

Her pale-green eyes showed the pain and the hurt clearly. She’d done nothing to deserve any of their mistrust and his anger.

“I treated you poorly when you’d done nothing to make me doubt you. I’m sorry, Amber,” Dylan said. He softly stroked the back of his fingers down her cheek. Amber shuddered, her eyes closing. It seemed to take a lot of effort for her to open them again. They didn’t have much longer to get her to forgive them even a little. He needed to know she went to sleep secure in their love for her.

“We all treated you poorly,” Mason said. “When we saw the claw marks on your side, we jumped to the wrong conclusion.” Lucas cleared his throat. “All of us but Lucas.”

“Why didn’t you tell us someone had hurt you?” Dylan asked, stroking his fingers down Amber’s cheek again. “Were you hiding the wound from us?”

Amber shook her head, her eyes wide. Lucas saw her fear clearly. Fear of us? Fear of the man who’d hurt her?

“I was embarrassed. I was drunk that night.” She swallowed, her eyes drifting shut. “I covered up the scratches, wanting to forget about them.”

* * * *

Hudson wanted to scream. He’d hurt his mate, his brothers, the entire pride, because he hadn’t simply asked his mate how she came to be injured. None of them could doubt the truth of her words. Even had Amber been capable of lying to them there was no denying the honesty in her baldly spoken explanation. She’d gotten shit-faced and had wanted to forget it ever happened.

Hudson hung his head, tears spilling from his eyes for the first time in over a century. He hadn’t cried over Betty because he’d been too angry. Too full of self-loathing and useless fury to even mourn her, and his mate was hurting because of that.

“I’ve been a selfish prick,” Hudson said.

Hudson looked down at Amber, and saw his tiny mate was still and pale having fallen into a drug-induced sleep. Sleep she needed badly as she hadn’t had much since Mason had left. Hudson turned his gaze to Dylan. Dylan only shrugged.

“You never gave up on me?”

“I love you, Hudson. You’re my brother.”

“I didn’t act like it these last few years.”

Dylan smiled at him, and then smiled down at their mate. “You mean decades? Act like it now and we’ll all forgive you.”

“We need to tell her everything that happened to Betty,” Hudson said. He kissed the back of Amber’s hand and smoothed his fingers down her hair. Amber was so soft and fragile, like Betty had been. What sort of a man hurts someone so small and defenseless?

“God, I’ve become a monster,” Hudson said, the revelation making his knees go weak. “I’m the same as him.” Hudson saw himself clearly for the first time in sixty years. He’d allowed his anger and pain to shape him until he’d become the same as Layton. He might not have used his fists to hurt Amber, but he’d hurt her just as badly.

“No, you’re not,” Dylan said.

The feelings of helplessness and rage over his sister’s death were still burning inside Hudson, but Amber’s tears had been a healing balm to his soul. She’d hurt for them, with them. She’d shared the sadness her mates felt over the loss of someone dear to them. He could put that rage aside now, lock it away and move forward with his life, forward with her. He could be a part of his family again.

“We all miss her,” Mason said. “We’ve all had to deal with our anger over her senseless death. He was human and never really accepted her shifter nature.”

Amber had accepted the shifters her sister, Jade, was planning to marry. She’d also accept them. He’d seen that, felt it in his soul. The fact she’d been pining for Mason should have been proof enough for him that she accepted their dual nature.

“She’s nothing like him,” Hudson said. “I knew this and still punished her for Layton’s crime.”

“We’ve got to do better than this,” Lucas said. “We only met her yesterday, and she’s had to see the doctor twice.”

“As a human mate, will she heal faster once we’re mated?” Dylan asked.

“It doesn’t really matter. I can’t see her mating us anytime soon the way we’re going,” Mason said. “I think we’ll go on record somewhere as the worst mates ever.”

“Don’t bet on that,” Jason said flatly. Hudson turned to see Jason leaning in the doorway. “I think you heard me mention I nearly killed Bethany when we first met?” Hudson simply nodded. There was nothing he could say to ease the regret he saw darken Jason’s face. “I’m still on record as the worst mate ever.”

He was telling them he understood how badly they all felt for hurting Amber. Hudson hoped he was also rethinking the plans he’d made for their deaths. Jason turned and walked away. “She will heal faster once you’re mated, by the way,” he called over his shoulder.

“I think he’s starting to like us,” Dylan said.

“Definitely,” Lucas added. “He may snap our necks now instead of tearing our throats out and letting us choke on our own blood.”

Hudson found his smile was not as stiff as it felt yesterday. He even chuckled at his brother’s banter. His smile disappeared when he looked down at Amber. “Lucas is right. We need to do better. We need to find out about her life. What she likes, what she does for a living.”

“Where she wants to live,” Mason added. “We may be part of this cougar pride right now, but if Amber wants to move, I’ll live wherever she wants. I don’t care where it is as long as I’m with her.”

Hudson thought of leaving the trailer he’d spent the last sixty years in and found he wasn’t sad at all. He would live in the middle of a city if it meant he’d be with Amber. The solitude and quiet didn’t appeal to him any longer. He wanted her, his brothers, pups.

“Will we have pups or human babies, Jason?” Hudson asked, not bothering to raise his voice. He was certain the doctor was lurking out there somewhere close.

“Does it matter?” came the reply.

“No, just curious,” Hudson mumbled, unable to take his eyes off Amber. She was pale, but sleeping peacefully. She was beautiful beyond words. “I hope our daughters are as beautiful as her.”

“I hope our sons aren’t as ugly as you,” Dylan said.

Hudson picked Amber up, her unhealthy weight a concern he’d address as soon as she was well, and held her close to his chest as he slid onto the clinic’s exam bed. “We should be touching her, surrounding her with our scent. It’s what the native coyotes do when their mate is sick.”

Hudson closed his eyes and breathed Amber’s scent deep into his lungs. It was still there, under the taint of infection and the bitter note of the medications. Her sweet aroma had his cock twitching as it filled.

“We’ll be making those beautiful babies real soon, honey. I won’t make any more mistakes. I promise.” Hudson let himself relax and thought of all the things he intended to do with his mate while making those babies.

“Jesus, Hudson,” Dylan groaned. “What the hell are you thinking? Your mating musk is choking us.”

Hudson ignored him and smiled as he nuzzled Amber’s silken hair. When she woke, they’d begin to map out their new life with her. Together. They would do it together. Amber had given him a family again.

* * * *

He had no intention of giving away his mate to a pack of slobbering dogs. Her scent was thick in the air as he crossed the drive and approached the house. So was the stench of the hounds. She shouldn’t be here, let alone them.

“Thanks for seeing me, Samson,” Tennyson said, his gaze fixed on Samson’s boots. “I won’t keep you long. I’m sure you have plans with the family tonight.”

“I was surprised you called,” Samson said blandly.

Tennyson raised his head slightly so he could look up at the man he despised. He kicked at some dirt, as he stuck his hands into his jeans pockets. “I needed to say I was sorry for drinking a little too much the other night. I was out of line.”

Tennyson saw the big man narrow his eyes slightly. He wasn’t buying it. “We’re not susceptible to alcohol, Tennyson,” Samson said slowly.

“We are when it’s one-hundred-proof moonshine.” Tennyson shrugged and tried to look pathetic. “I’ve smashed the still. Don’t want to get like that again.” His lies were going to be interpreted by Samson as shame or embarrassment. Tennyson knew exactly how similar the scents were. He was a cat, too, after all, and he’d had practice at this kind of deceit. A lot of practice.

Samson nodded slowly and opened his mouth to speak. Right on cue, his phone began to vibrate. I fucking love demons.

“Excuse me,” Samson said, turning slightly to the side as he pulled out his phone and answered the call.

“What?” Samson exclaimed. Tennyson tried hard not to smile, striving to keep his expression blank instead. “Fuck me. I’ll be right there, Cooper.”

“Is there something I can do to help?” Tennyson asked as Samson ended the call.

“Tanner Willis has just reported a new vampire’s scent in town.” Samson looked back toward his house, the sounds of laughter and merriment at odds with the tension he felt coming from the big man. “Are you free to come with me and investigate? It would leave my brothers free to stay here with Bethany.”

Perfect. He had the big fuck fooled completely. “Of course. Anything you need,” Tennyson said smoothly. Tennyson now had Samson as his alibi for the rest of the night’s events. Absolutely perfect.

Chapter 7

Dylan was holding Amber on his lap when she started to wake. Hudson and Lucas were out patrolling the grounds surrounding Jason’s house. They’d been told about the visitor in town and had taken turns in standing guard. Despite the cats saying they’d be unable to scent a vampire, they still had eyes. They’d see one if they came close.

“She’s waking up?” Mason asked. He’d been dozing on the bed having come in from his patrol an hour before.

“I’m not sure,” Dylan said. “Amber, are you awake, baby?”

“No.” Amber wrapped her arms around him and rubbed her cheek against his bare chest.

She’d felt cold when he’d taken her from Lucas, so he’d left his shirt off to warm her with his own body. It had been a terrible idea. Amber was now nice and warm, but his cock had been painfully hard for the last hour. If she snuggled against him one more time, he’d likely embarrass himself.

Amber moaned softly, and Mason was beside them in a heartbeat. “Do you need more pain medication?” Mason asked. “Jason told Lucas he could administer some. I can go outside and get him.”

“He’s outside?” Amber asked, she blinked slowly and eventually got her eyes to remain open. She smiled up at him, and Dylan knew in that instant that he was madly in love with his mate. Love and mating wasn’t always the way of things. He’d seen couples who were more like best friends. He was supremely happy that wasn’t the case for him. He liked the feeling of love he had for his beautiful Amber.

“There was an incident in town,” Dylan said. “We’re a part of this pride now, and it’s been an honor to help guard you and Bethany.”

Amber sat up, shivering a little as she withdrew from the heat of his body. “Is Jade okay? Are all the mates okay?”

“No one’s been hurt, baby,” Dylan said. “The town had a supernatural visitor, and the pride is just being cautious. They need to be certain they’ve moved on.”

“How are you feeling?” Mason asked. Amber gently touched her side, wincing at even the light touch.

“Better, but it’s still a little tender.” Amber looked around the room, her gaze settling on the door to the bathroom. “I need to use the restroom.”

Her cheeks turned a little pink, and Dylan chuckled as he stood and set her on her feet. “I’ll walk with you. Are you dizzy?”

She shook her head and looked at the back of her hand. Lucas had disconnected the intravenous line, but the intravenous cannula had needed to be left in.

“You still need to have the antibiotic injections,” Mason said. He took her hand and turned it over to kiss her palm. “We can return to Jade’s though. Jason has given us the drugs, and Lucas can administer them when they’re due.”

Amber took a tentative step and nodded. “He was a paramedic, right?”

The wind howled loudly, and the window rattled. “He was,” Dylan said as he stared at the window. It looked as though a blizzard had struck, and Hudson and Lucas were out there.

A soft hand stroked down his cheek, he startled and looked down to see Amber gazing up at him, her brows furrowed. “Maybe you should go and check on them while I freshen up.”

“We’re from Nevada,” Mason said. “We don’t get many snowstorms down there.”

“Dust storms, yes,” Dylan said. “Will you be okay if we leave you for a few minutes?”

“Of course. Go and make sure they’re not frozen solid.”

“They’re out there as coyotes. They’ll be fine,” Mason said.

Amber’s eyes widened, and her cheeks colored again. “What is it?” Dylan asked, tipping her face up so she met his gaze.

“I haven’t seen any of you like that,” Amber said, she swallowed nervously. “I want to. I want to know all of you, your coyotes, too.”

Dylan fell impossibly further in love with his mate. They had certainly fucked things up where Amber was concerned. She was nothing like Layton. She had just made the most perfect request.

Mason growled, wrapping his arms around Amber and crashing his mouth down on hers. They both moaned softly, their hands restlessly exploring each other’s bodies.

“Mine,” Dylan said, his coyote nearly breaking loose as Mason released Amber and turned her toward him. He leaned way down and kissed her as he drew her close. He was singed by her heat as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

His kiss was hungry as he devoured the taste of her. She was sweet and rich, her lips molding perfectly to his in the most wonderful kiss of his life. His mate wanted him, wanted him body and soul. Beast and man. He cupped her small round ass with one hand and lifted her easily.

She moaned loudly as she wrapped her legs around his hips, her core hot as it pressed to his throbbing cock. One small shift of her hips and he was gone. He came hard, his release soaking his jeans as he gasped and moaned her name.

Amber shook in his arms and gave a small cry. He froze for an instant, worried he’d hurt her, and then he smelled the honey-sweet aroma of his mate’s arousal. His jeans were now wet from both their releases. He withdrew from her lips and rested his forehead reverently against hers as they both gasped for breath.

“I…I,” she breathed.

“You are the sexiest woman I’ve ever known,” Mason said. He pressed close to Amber’s back and turned her head to kiss her deeply.

Dylan gently fondled her ass as she began to writhe against him. “We need to check on Hudson and Lucas,” Dylan said, his voice sounding thick and hoarse with his returning desire. “Plus, if we keep going we’re going to start the mating.”

His words had Mason pulling immediately from Amber’s lips. “I won’t ever hurt you, sweetheart.”

Amber’s brows furrowed in question. “If we start without our brothers here with us, it can be painful for you,” Dylan explained. “When we make love for the first time, we bite you as we come, and it seals our mating forever.”

Amber’s breathing grew ragged, and he felt the increased heat from her pussy. She’d forgiven them and still wanted them. She wanted forever with all of them and he wanted to throw his head back and howl out his joy.

“We all need to make love to you within a short period,” Mason said. “If we don’t, a pain similar to when I left will consume you.” Amber drew in a small breath and clutched at her chest. “Only it will be a hundred times worse.”

She pushed against Dylan’s chest, but smiled up at him to soften her action. “Go get your brothers and let’s get out of here.” She looked around at the small exam room. “I don’t want to…you know, in the doctor’s house.”

“You’re so sweet,” Dylan said. “So shy.” He set her on her feet and turned her toward the bathroom door. “Let’s go and make sure our brothers aren’t pupsicles, Mason. Then we can get our mate to a bed. Next time I come, it will be deep inside you, Amber.” He swept her long hair aside and kissed the side of her neck. “My beautiful mate.”

She shivered as she walked into the bathroom, closing the door without looking back at either him or Mason. He smiled as he adjusted his aching cock in his damp jeans. He knew she hadn’t rebuffed them, because he’d smelled the spike in her arousal. She’d not looked back because she was afraid she wouldn’t let them leave.

“She’s a fucking goddess,” Mason said. “How did we get so damned lucky?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care,” Dylan said. “I’m just glad we did. She’s an angel and I’m counting myself as the luckiest man on earth right now.”

“Second luckiest,” Mason said as he ran out the door. He was just as anxious as Dylan was to show their mate all of them. Both the coyote and the man. His mate was perfect.

* * * *

Amber’s hands trembled as she reached out to turn on the faucet. She took a steadying breath and turned the cold tap on. The water calmed the heat in her veins as it poured over her shaking hands. Splashing her flushed face made her gasp, but she did it again in an effort to rein in her desire.

“Damn, those men are dangerous,” she told her reflection. She turned her back on the mirror and leaned against the basin. Her legs still felt like jelly and her breathing was rapid.

“I want them. I want them all so much I completely forgot where I was and nearly made love to them in Bethany’s house.”

Amber slid to the floor and banged her head on her knees. The pain of earlier was wiped away completely. She’d felt their sorrow, understood their mistrust, and seen their regret. She’d forgiven them and opened herself up to the possibility of a future with them and her body had exploded with need for them, so much so she’d forgotten where she was.

Bethany’s house was not the place to get into her mates’ pants. Amber sat up so quickly she hit her head on the basin. “My mates. They are my mates.”

She rubbed at the back of her head absently as she tried to remember when she’d accepted the startling reality that she had four mates who turned into coyotes. She hadn’t even seen their shifted forms, but she believed them without a shadow of a doubt. Just like she believed they loved her.

“They’re big dumb assholes sometimes, but they do love me.” Amber rubbed at her chest as the warmth of their love seemed to settle in her heart and heat her from the inside.

Amber jumped when she heard the long, distinctive howl of a canine come from outside. It sounded close. Without stopping to think, Amber rose and ran from the bathroom. The exam room was empty, so she ran into the corridor. The living room was on the right, but to the left was a closed door.

The floor was cold on her bare feet as she walked to the door and turned the handle. It opened, and she cracked the door to peer around it. Frigid air rushed in from the darkness. Amber was thinking only of seeing one of her coyotes as she stepped onto the freezing wooden porch. I wonder if I’ll know which one of them it is?

A dark shape lay on the porch, its form illuminated by a narrow crack of light coming from the shuttered window a few feet away. It wasn’t moving, but she heard a soft growl.

“It’s Amber,” she whispered. The growl turned into a whimper that sounded distinctly like pain. Amber’s only concern was that one of her men was injured as she drew closer and dropped to her knees. “Are you hurt?”

Reaching out her hand, Amber touched the warm, soft, fur. “So soft.” Amber felt something wet and sticky under her fingers. She pulled her hand back and held it up to the dim light. Red. Blood. Amber put both hands on the animal, on her mate. It lay still and quiet now. It wasn’t a cougar. Its fur was long and thick.

“Amber, are you out here?” Bethany’s voice drifted to her on the wind.

A light flickered on as Bethany spoke, and Amber stared in abject horror at the coyote in front of her. Amber’s scream came unbidden from her throat, from her heart. She screamed long and loud as she used her hands to try to prevent the intestines from spilling any farther out of the gaping wound in the coyote’s abdomen.

Her hands were too small, and the warm, slick, blood-soaked loops slid over and under her hands as the coyote whimpered in pain. “No, no, no. This isn’t real. It’s not happening. Not now. Not to my…”

“Jason,” Bethany called, her voice seeming to come from miles away as Amber’s own heartbeat thundered in her ears.

Tears ran from Amber’s eyes, blurring her vision as the world turned to blood. All Amber saw was the blood. It was on her hands as she tried to vainly limit the damage. She was surrounded by it as her mate rapidly bled to death.

She tried to replace the organs that now joined the intestines in the growing pool of blood before her. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Amber said. The coyote was quiet now. No whimpers, no growls. Nothing. She glanced at the still body and saw he was no longer breathing. She was too late. She’d failed to save him. Her mate. Her mate had just died, and she’d been helpless to stop it. One of her men was dead.

* * * *

Mason had started running the instant he heard Amber’s scream. He and Dylan had shifted when they’d come outside to check on Hudson and Lucas. It was freezing, and their coyotes were better equipped for running in the snow storm that looked to be turning into a blizzard.

Mason smelled blood as a vicious gust of wind buffeted him. It smelled wild and rich, earthy even. It also smelled fresh and warm. Someone had slaughtered an animal, a canine of some sort, and they’d done it in the five minutes since he’d left Amber.

As Mason rapidly approached the house, he saw the porch was now brightly lit. Michael was holding Bethany in his arms as Jason and Amber knelt beside the body of a coyote. A native coyote. How the fuck did a native coyote get to the Colorado mountains?

Amber was crying loudly, her breath coming out in gasps as her bloodstained hands clutched the coyote’s matted fur. “She thinks it’s one of us,” Hudson said. “You need to shift and tell her it’s not.”

“What the fuck is going on?” Samson said. Mason recognized Samson’s voice, even though it was strange to hear it through the mental link of the pack…no, his pride. This was the first time they’d shifted since they’d joined the Eminence pride. They were going to be hearing a lot of new voices now.

“I’ll stay shifted to tell Samson’s what’s happening,” Hudson said harshly. “Shift, damn it. She’s breaking apart.”

Mason had been distracted momentarily by Samson’s question, but Hudson had remained focused fully on Amber as he ran toward her from the tree line.

Mason leapt up the porch steps in one bound, skidding on the blood as he shifted back to human. He swept Amber’s shaking body up in his arms and stepped over the dead coyote without stopping, carrying his shaking mate around the corner of the house, away from the blood and gore.

“It’s not one of us, sweetheart,” Mason said. He put Amber down and turned her toward him. She had blood on her hands and up her arms. It had soaked into her jeans and sweater and was splashed over her pale face. “Look at me, Amber. I’m not lying.” He cupped her face in his hands and gently tilted it to meet his gaze. “We’re fine, all of us are alive. That was a coyote, not a shifter.”

“It died,” Amber said, her eyes unfocused as tears ran down her face unchecked. “I couldn’t save it. I tried, I tried to make it all go back inside.”

Hudson had joined them, and he had grasped her sweater in his teeth, tugging at it as he softly growled, trying to get her attention.

“I…” She slowly looked down. “Hudson?”

Hudson drew back his lips in a small snarl, bumping his head softly against Amber’s hand.

“He’s fine, sweetheart,” Mason said, he gently turned her around to face Hudson, wrapping his arms around her waist and trying to warm her with his body. She was shaking so hard he feared she’d break apart. “We’re all unharmed. Look, here come Dylan and Lucas.”

Amber gripped hard onto the thick fur at Hudson’s scruff before turning her gaze to where Mason was pointing. It seemed as though she was afraid Hudson might disappear.

Her pupils dilated as she saw his brothers running across the lawn toward them. “They’re big,” Amber whispered.

She looked at Hudson, who now stood at his full height and was only an inch or so shorter than Amber. She let out a small sob as Dylan and Lucas reached her side. “You’re all huge. So much bigger than… It wasn’t any of you.”

Lucas, Hudson, and Dylan surrounded her now, and she was stroking her hands over each of them. The soft, gentle caresses seemed to calm her shaking. Amber was safe, but someone had cruelly, and deliberately, tried to frighten her. Mason was not going to allow anyone to hurt his mate.

“I’m going back to help Jason, Amber,” Mason said. He squeezed her gently and didn’t release her until she nodded. “Lucas, Hudson, and Dylan will stay with you.” Amber nodded and sank to her knees, burying her hands in Hudson’s coat.

Dylan shifted, and Amber gasped as the pulse of light and energy generated by his change washed over her. “That’s. Shit, it’s real, it’s incredible,” Amber whispered. “Does it hurt?”

“No, baby,” Dylan said. “Not after the first few times. It’s as natural as breathing now.” He scooped Amber up and sat on the wooden bench behind them. Hudson and Lucas moved with them and Amber released one hand from Hudson’s thick coat to grip onto Lucas.

“We’ve got this,” Dylan said. “Go and find out what you can. Someone is playing a dangerous game. We won’t let Amber out of our sight.”

“Stay here until I’ve checked inside, too. Someone might have gone in there while we’ve all been distracted.” Dylan nodded and Hudson snarled. “Stay with her, Hudson. This was aimed at our mate.”

Mason had been speaking to his brothers, but his gaze was riveted on Amber. She looked so small wrapped in Dylan’s arms. So pale and innocent. Who the fuck would want to scare her like this? Dylan was right. Someone had meant to hurt Amber with that poor animal’s death and torture.

Mason tore himself away from his mate and tried to do his job. He was an enforcer. It was the way he was wired, and he excelled at his profession. He might not have that role in his new pride, but he’d been protecting Elan’s pack for almost a century, and if the cats didn’t like the way he was, they could bite his furry ass. Actually, Finn could easily just kill him with one swipe of his paw. The Alpha was a massive cougar.

A pair of sweats hit Mason in the face the instant he rounded the corner of the porch. “Michael has taken Bethany and our cub to the safe room at the Alpha’s,” Jason said. “Samson is still in town. There was definitely a vampire outside The Mountain Air. Wes and Troy are en route now to see if anything inside their bar was tampered with.”

“Did the vampire do this?” Mason said, staring down at the cooling body of the coyote. “I can’t scent anything but blood. Its blood.”

Jason shook his head as he looked out toward the forest some five hundred yards away. The storm was getting worse. Snow was already falling heavily, and the wind was driving the snow onto the porch with every gust. “I’ll go now and do a sweep of the property. I can’t scent a damned thing, except for this poor creature, and the weather isn’t helping either.”

“It didn’t find its way here by itself and then decide evisceration was a good way to die,” Mason said. His anger over how distraught Amber had been was burning a hole in his gut.

“This is a clear threat against you and your mate,” Jason said. The big man quickly undressed and folded his clothes.

“Where is the shifter who hurt her? I want to speak to him myself,” Mason said.

“He was here earlier with Samson, actually. Tennyson went into town with him when we got word of the vampire’s presence in town,” Jason said, his jaw clenching as he stared down at the dead coyote.

“And where is he now?”

“Still with Samson, they’re searching the town.”

Mason nodded, his mind elsewhere as Jason shifted and ran into the storm. He did a quick but thorough search of the entire house before returning to his brothers.

“The house is empty,” Mason said. “I couldn’t detect so much as a whiff of anything that didn’t belong.”

“That’s the problem right there,” Dylan said. “We can’t detect as much as the cats, apparently.”

Amber was shaking, despite being held so close to Dylan. His body heat was not enough to warm her with the storm driving the temperature so far below zero, plus she was no doubt suffering from shock after thinking one of them had been killed.

“We need to get Amber warmed up,” Mason said. Dylan followed him inside and he held the door open for Lucas and Hudson. Dylan took a seat on the large sofa opposite the fire as Mason added more logs until it was blazing.

“I can’t stay here,” Amber said, her soft voice breaking the silence. There was nothing soft about her tone, though. She sounded determined. “I won’t bring death to the very door of my friends, or my sister. If this was aimed at me, then I need to be away from everyone I love. I need to be alone.”

Amber gasped as Hudson and Lucas both shifted. Hudson reached Amber first, sweeping her into his arms and holding her close to his chest. “Not happening, Amber. We’ve had this discussion already. I’m not leaving you.”

“Actually, Amber’s right, she can’t stay here or with her sister,” Lucas said. He took a step back as Hudson growled viciously at him, his canines extending as his eyes blazed a fiery red to match his fury.

“I meant where are we planning on living now?” Lucas said. “Where are we all planning to live? As a family. Together. I don’t think we want to permanently live with Jade and her mates.”

Hudson’s eyes dimmed a little, but he still bristled with anger. “You’re not angry with Lucas,” Dylan said soothingly. “You’re pissed at whoever frightened Amber. Lucas is right. We haven’t asked Amber where she wants us to live.”

“Me?” Amber said, her voice muffled by Hudson’s chest.

“Sorry, honey,” Hudson said, his anger visibly draining away as he smiled warmly down at Amber.

It was so good to have Hudson back. To have him smiling and happy, hell, even a pissed-off Hudson was better than not seeing him for sixty years. Mason had missed his brother terribly.

“Yes, you,” Lucas said. “You had a life before coming to Eminence to see your sister. I assume you had a job. You may want to return to that.”

Mason saw Amber pale even further as her breathing and heart rate increased rapidly. He was about to say something to stem her rising panic when Hudson reacted swiftly.

“Being mated doesn’t necessarily mean you have to stay here in Eminence,” Hudson said, gently running his fingers through Amber’s tangled hair. “We would go with you if you wanted to live somewhere else.” Amber looked up at him skeptically. “Without hesitation.”

“It’s true,” Mason said. “If you have a job you love, we’d be happy to return to New York with you.”

“Until the fact we weren’t aging became an issue,” Dylan said. “We should probably get dressed before continuing this conversation.”

“Shit,” Amber said, a small laugh erupting as she put her hands over her eyes. “What does that say about me that I didn’t notice you were all still naked?”

“If you hadn’t had such a scare, I’d be hurt that you failed to notice my godlike physique,” Hudson said.

Mason laughed as a pair of balled-up sweats hit Hudson in the head. “Found these in the laundry,” Lucas said, handing a pair to Dylan and then donning another pair himself.

Amber slipped from Hudson’s lap but hadn’t gone two steps before he was pulling her back after quickly pulled on the pants. “I’ll forgive you this once,” Hudson said. “But next time I’m naked, I expect you to get all hot and bothered.”

Amber turned and clasped Hudson’s cheeks in her small hands. “I promise to be very hot and bothered, but only if I get to be naked, too.”

“I knew you’d be trouble,” Dylan said. He sat beside Hudson and leaned over to kiss Amber tenderly. “I’m so glad I was right.”

After the weeks away from her, Mason’s control was now perilously close to snapping. He was likely to start their mating on Jason’s sofa if he so much as touched Amber right now. Amber blinked several times and licked her lips as Dylan released her. The action had Mason’s cock pounding even harder. He wanted those lips on him, on all of him. He wanted her small, soft body pressed against him.

“We need to find some place safe to go,” Mason said.

“Some place with a bed,” Dylan added.

“Preferably,” Hudson said, growling as he nuzzled Amber’s neck. “I’m honestly not that fussy.”

Mason laughed at Amber’s glowing cheeks. She looked so young when she blushed like that. Too young for an old coyote like him, but nature had made her for him, and he wasn’t going to walk away again. Not for any reason.

“Safe first. Bed second,” Mason said. He turned and left the room before he did something reckless, like strip Amber naked and finally make her his mate. He had to call his new Alpha and arrange for some place safe for them to take Amber. Somewhere the pride could help protect her.

He’d though their biggest problem was getting Amber to forgive them and agree to be their mate. He’d been wrong. Their mate was forgiving and perfect, and someone wanted to hurt her. Mason had worked as an enforcer for a long time now, and protecting people was what he was good at. Whoever was trying to hurt his mate was going to fail. Mason and his brothers would not let it happen.

Chapter 8

Amber was tucked up in a blanket as she sat wedged between Mason and Dylan in the back of their truck. Lucas was up front driving, while Hudson ran alongside. His massive form was a dark shadow in the night as his coyote easily kept pace with the speeding truck. Amber had been so scared she’d lost one of them and was comforted by his coyote’s presence.

The man was an idiot though. The blizzard had only just begun to ease. Vicious wind buffeted the truck, and the temperature outside must have been in single digits. Amber shivered as she considered how cold Hudson must be.

“Are you still cold?” Mason asked.

“We can get naked and warm you up if you are,” Dylan said.

Amber stifled a laugh as Mason and Lucas groaned dramatically.

“Like I need that visual while I’m driving through my first snowstorm,” Lucas said. “Can we change the subject so we make it to this house alive?”

Hudson howled outside. The sound becoming distinctly mournful as the wind carried it away. Amber shivered again at the eerie noise. It dragged her thoughts back to the poor coyote that had suffered and died so cruelly simply because someone had wanted to scare her. It was such a senseless act, and it made her heart ache.

“So Finn just gave us this house?” Amber asked. She swallowed as desire coursed through her. She hadn’t needed the image of them all naked either. She wanted these men, badly, despite her side throbbing like a bitch. The throbbing of her clit was fast overtaking that pain, and having Dylan and Mason so close was a torturous temptation. She could have lost one of them. Fear was making her desperate to connect with them. Feel them inside her as deeply as possible.

“He said he’d been fixing it up and was going to rent it out. The last owner apparently left it to the pride when he passed away,” Mason said. He inhaled sharply, and in the next instant, Amber was straddling his lap as Mason plunged his tongue into her mouth.

His kiss was raw and hard, his hands gripping her hair and anchoring her to him. It was unnecessary, because Amber didn’t want to go anywhere. She moaned as she tangled her tongue with his, her passion breaking free at last.

“Jesus.” Lucas’s curse reached her ears as the truck came to a screeching halt. The movement had her core bumping against the hard ridge of Mason’s cock. Amber moaned as her pussy clenched. Her hands were already around Mason’s neck, but she held him tighter, tried to draw him even closer.

“Inside,” Dylan said.

“Yes,” Amber said. She needed Mason inside her, or she’d explode. Her skin felt tight, and she felt the heat build inside her as Mason’s hands released her hair and skimmed down her back to cup her ass.

Mason licked along her lips as he drew away from her mouth. He was panting as hard as she was, his fingers flexing against her ass as he pulled her tighter against his cock. It wasn’t enough. Her body burned for him. Burned for his touch, for all of them to be touching her.

“Take them off,” Amber said. Her voice sounded rough and foreign as it slipped from her suddenly dry throat. “I need you inside me, Mason. Please, it hurts.”

“Mason. What the fuck?” Hudson said.

Amber turned at the sound of his voice. He was standing in the open doorway of the truck. No longer a coyote, no longer wearing any clothes.

“I promised,” Amber said. She shrugged off the blanket and pulled at her sweater, struggling to remove it. The thing was scratching at her sensitized skin like it was made of steel wool. “I see you now, Hudson. You’re naked and gorgeous. I want you.”

Hudson’s eyes blazed red, and that was all Amber saw before she found herself in his arms and moving fast. His skin, all that naked skin was calling to her and she ran her hands down his back as she licked, kissed, and sucked at his neck. He tasted so good. Her hands roamed over his shaved head, the scrape of the emerging bristles tickling over her palms.

Hudson moaned her name as he ran, his fingers dug into her ass. It was not enough for her. She wanted more. She wanted to feel his hands on her bare skin.

“The bedroom’s here,” Dylan said.

Amber ran her teeth down the hard cords in Hudson’s neck, she was mindless with need as she rubbed her core against the hard planes of his abdomen seeking relief. She ached deep inside, so empty she wanted to scream.

Her back hit the softness of a bed, and she bounced as she looked up at Hudson, licking her lips to draw the taste of his skin into her mouth. She needed all of him. Needed him now.

“I need to ask one more time if this is what you want, Amber,” Hudson said, his big hands stroking up her legs to the waist of her jeans. “There’s no going back from this. We mate you and you’re ours. Forever ours.”

Amber was rapidly losing her mind to the ache in her body. “I want you, all of you. It terrifies me how much I want you all, but after tonight, I know losing any of you terrifies me more.” Hudson yanked down her jeans, taking her panties with them.

“You smell like heaven, sweetheart,” Hudson said, crawling on the bed with her. Her back bowed off the bed as he spread her legs and gently licked the lips of her pussy. “Fucking delicious.” His tongue circled her clit, and his lips closed around it.

One gentle suck, and Amber splintered into a million pieces. She screamed with the force of the pleasure, her legs stiffening as wave after wave of ecstasy rocked through her. Her orgasm drew out as Hudson softly stroked his tongue over her clit.

When the pleasure turned to pain, she released her grip on the bed covers and pushed at his head. “Too much.”

“No,” Hudson said, a growl distinct in his rough tone. “Never too much.” Her eyes fluttered open to see Hudson’s face was now inches from hers. “Mine.”

She wrapped her legs around his hips as she felt the bump of his erection at her pussy. Her core clenched, and she reached for him. Finding his hard, throbbing cock, she guided it to her pussy. She felt desperate. She needed him inside her.

“Yours.” She breathed the words into his mouth as his lips touched hers.

* * * *

Hudson plunged his tongue back into her mouth as his cock slid slowly and deeply inside her slick pussy. Her taste was still on his tongue and his control was at an end. He didn’t know how he’d managed to wait and bring her to climax first, but he had wanted to make sure she was ready for them. Even with his coyote crazed with the mating lust, he’d held onto enough control to make sure he didn’t hurt her. He’d never hurt her.

“So hot, so silky, wet and tight, Amber,” Hudson said, “So fucking perfect.” He withdrew and pumped slowly back inside her. She was made for him and he felt peace at last. He was home. Not in this house, but inside his mate. He would no longer be alone and in pain. He would be with Amber. He’d tell her everything. Share his shame and agony and no longer be a coward. He’d become the strong mate she needed. He’d be whole.

“Hudson, stop.” Mason’s worried voice snapped Hudson out of his pleasure-soaked mind. “Amber, sweetheart, are you in pain?”

Mason was lying naked on the bed beside them, his fingers stroking tears from Amber’s cheeks. Hudson froze, regret and fury at himself burning through him.

“No,” Amber breathed, gripping him tightly with her legs, her feet digging into his thighs. He’d pulled back, but she was making it clear she didn’t want him to move away.

“I can’t decipher your scent,” Dylan said. He sat on the opposite side of the bed and took one of Amber’s hands from Hudson’s shoulder. Hudson missed her touch, despite the fact he was buried deep inside her, their connection as intimate as two people could get. He still wanted all of her. “Why are you crying?”

“I can feel Hudson,” Amber said, her eyes locked on his, and Hudson smiled.

“I should hope so,” Hudson said, thrusting his cock deeply inside her. His fear drained away as her eyes sparkled with joy.

“In my heart,” Amber clarified. “I can feel him now.”

Hudson knew exactly what she meant and leaned down to tenderly claim her lips as he began to move his hips. She was there inside him, too. He’d let her in, and she filled him with peace and happiness. With love.

His brothers disappeared as he focused on Amber. He was making her his. Claiming her body the way she’d just claimed his soul. He kissed down Amber’s neck, gauging her most sensitive spot as he thrust deep and hard, his orgasm racing up on him. Nothing had ever felt so good.

Amber’s pussy grew slick and tight as her orgasm hit her. He loosed his restraint and sank his canines into her soft skin as he came. Amber shook beneath him, moaning his name as her blood coated his tongue and his seed filled her. He sealed his mark with his lips and buried his head against her neck, his orgasm so powerful he almost passed out. He was mated. He was whole.

* * * *

Lucas returned with a washcloth as Hudson rolled, Amber still tight against him. Still joined to him. Hudson looked different as he kissed Amber’s hair and caressed his hands over her perfect ass. He looked years younger than he’d looked only two days ago. Love had softened his features and he no longer looked haunted and tortured. He looked like he had sixty years ago. Before Betty had died and their family had been torn apart. Amber had brought Hudson back from the dead.

“Here,” Lucas said. He handed Mason the cloth and quickly stripped off his clothes. His cock ached as it sprang free from the sweats he’d donned.

Primal need was making Lucas desperate for Amber, his coyote riding him hard to claim its mate, but Lucas was a man, too. A man who would never hurt his precious mate. He knew they had a little time before the mating heat caused Amber to feel any pain. Time she’d need to prepare for each of them to make love to her.

As Mason gently tended to Amber, Hudson kissed her deeply and drew away, his reluctance obvious. Amber’s eyes were brighter. The fever that had dulled them was leaving her already. By the end of the day, the enhanced healing that came from being mated to shifters would have all the infection cleared from her body and the wound would then heal rapidly. It would scar though, a constant reminder to them of what could happen when their mate was left alone.

“We’ll never leave you alone again, baby,” Lucas said, climbing onto the bed.

“Good,” Amber said, her tone serious. “It sucked. I’m in no hurry to ever feel that way again.”

“If I could only turn back time,” Mason said. He leaned down and tenderly kissed their mate.

“I’d expect you to do the same thing,” Amber said when they broke their kiss. “You helped a lot of families find their missing daughters.”

“You’re too soft and kind,” Dylan said. “He should have sent us here to watch over you.”

Lucas smiled at Amber as worry creased her brow. She was carrying no residual resentment toward Mason. She had forgiven him completely.

“You’re right, Amber. Mason had a hard decision to make, and he made the right choice,” Lucas said, ignoring Dylan and Hudson’s soft growls. “He didn’t have any idea you were suffering in his absence.”

“You’re all here now,” Amber said, stroking Mason’s face and looking at each of them. “I’m so happy you’re all here now.”

Lucas bent and kissed Amber’s silky, soft, thigh. Goose bumps rose immediately, and he inhaled the sweet scent of her arousal with every breath, “You taste incredible,” Lucas said. “You are incredible.”

She gasped as he nipped her inner thigh lightly, dragging his tongue lightly up to her glistening sex. “Sweet, so sweet,” Lucas whispered, licking over her pussy. His cock was now so hard it hurt.

“Will you be my mate, Amber?”

Amber writhed against his mouth as he lowered it to her engorged clitoris and licked around it with soft swipes of his tongue. Her moans were a delight to his senses, but he wanted to hear the words. She was his mate, the only one he’d ever have, and he wanted it all. He wanted to hear his mate say she wanted him.

“I’ve waited a lifetime for you, Amber, and I want you so badly. Tell me you want me, too.”

Lucas lifted his head as he heard Amber groan. Her face was flushed with her arousal, her lips parted, and her eyes sparkling. “Yes, I want you, Lucas. I want you so badly I feel like I’m burning up from the inside.”

That was his cue to move. Not only had she said the words that made his heart soar, she’d also told him he had no more time to waste. The mating heat was starting, they completed the mating now or Amber died, with them all following soon after.

Nature had given them Amber as their perfect mate, but if Amber died, nature also spared them a lifetime of solitude and devastating sadness over her loss. She gave them death so they wouldn’t go mad with grief. They were together now for the whole of their lives or they all died. Lucas didn’t see it as cruel, it was a blessing. Now he had Amber he never wanted a life without her.

“Thank you, baby.” Lucas kissed a path up Amber’s body, finding some sweet spots along the way. “So sensitive,” he murmured as she writhed away from him as he suckled a spot on her hip.

“We’ll have to explore here more thoroughly later.”

“Later,” Dylan said. Lucas saw the concern on Dylan’s face and knew he was telling him not to delay any longer.

Lucas took a moment to lick and then suck each of Amber’s perfect pink nipples. He smiled as she wrapped her legs around his hips and tried to pull him closer. “So damned sexy, Amber.”

“Lucas,” Amber breathed. “Every touch is so good. Too good…”

“We have you, Amber,” Mason said. He reached for her hand and she clasped his as Lucas moved over her body completely. She was so small, so petite, so human. Fear had him hesitating. “She was made for us,” Mason said, correctly interpreting his hesitation.

Amber’s feet dug into his ass, her effort to draw him closer eased his worry, and he closed the distance to press himself fully against her soft skin. He clenched his teeth as the feel of her nearly made him come. She was a sensual delight like nothing he’d ever experienced.

“Nothing compares to how you feel against me,” Lucas said, his voice rough with his desire.

Amber ran her free hand up his arm and clasped his shoulder. “I feel it, too,” Amber said. “Please, Lucas. I need you.”

She was beginning to tremble, and Lucas wasn’t sure if it was from excitement or the onset of pain. He leaned his weight on one elbow as he reached between them to place his leaking cock at her entrance with his other hand.

“You have me, baby.” Amber gasped as he slowly pushed between her swollen, wet folds. “You’ll never be without me now. Never.” She was so tight and hot as he slid balls deep inside her. “God,” he gasped. He had no words for how she felt as her pussy fluttered around his aching length.

Sex had never been like this for him. He doubted it had been like this for any of his brothers either. Not until Amber. Until he’d found his mate. Still not able to find any words that described how sublime she felt, Lucas stared deep into her eyes and hoped he was conveying all he was feeling.

Amber opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out, only a deep sigh of unrestrained pleasure. He crashed his mouth down on hers, swallowing the moan as he withdrew and rocked back inside her.

He was plunging slowly, but her hips were moving wildly as she worked her sex up and down his length, seeking her pleasure. His woman would never have to find her own pleasure. She had them, and they’d always see she was sexually satisfied.

“Mine.” Lucas growled the word into her mouth as he took up her rhythm and gave his mate the stimulation she needed. Their tongues tangled, their teeth clashed, the kiss wild and unrestrained to match their joining. She was the hottest fucking thing ever created, and she was his.

Amber threw back her head, breaking their kiss as she arched her neck and screamed his name. Her pussy was slick and tight as it pulsed around him as she came. He let his beast free, his canines elongating with a pinch of pain as he lowered his head and gently pierced the tender flesh behind her ear. She came again, her legs stiffening as her nails dug deliciously into his shoulders, marking him with the sign of her unrestrained pleasure.

His beast howled in his mind as he swallowed his mate’s blood and his orgasm hit. It rushed through him so hard and fast that his knees buckled and his vision dimmed.

“I’ve got you.” Hudson’s voice sounded miles away as his body shook with each pulse of come that jetted from his cock.

“Amber,” Lucas said, nuzzling her neck as he laved his tongue over his marks and sealed the wound. “My Amber.”

“My Lucas,” Amber said, her voice husky and so damned sexy.

His cock twitched and filled in an instant. She was his. Lucas kissed Amber’s swollen lips as he pulled from her body. It was the hardest thing he’d ever done. He wanted her again with a raw hunger he knew would never be satisfied. He’d always want her this desperately. She was his mate.

“We have to finish the mating,” Lucas said, kissing the end of her nose as he rose onto his shaking knees. “That was incredible, baby. You’re incredible.”

Amber blushed as she lowered her eyes to his erection. Her gaze shot back up to meet his. “You didn’t come? I thought…”

“Oh, I came, baby. I came so hard I thought I’d pass out. I just want you again.” He kissed her one more time and took the cloth Dylan handed him and wiped over Amber’s pussy. He enjoyed the deep red of Amber’s cheeks as she blushed even harder.

“So shy?” Dylan said. “We’ll soon fix that.”

* * * *

Dylan made good on his promise and kissed Amber as he ran his hands up her body to cup her breasts. The man was lethal. The combination of his lips, tongue, and hands was making the banked fire inside Amber burn wildly out of control again.

“It’s happening too fast,” Mason said.

Amber barely heard his words as Dylan kissed her deeply, his fingers twirling and pinching her nipples until the pleasure peaked, and she came. Her body bowed off the bed, and she turned her head to break from Dylan’s lips. She gulped in much-needed oxygen as her pussy throbbed and clenched.

Dylan continued to play her body like a cherished instrument. He moved one hand down her body to delicately stroke over her damp folds, thumbing her throbbing clitoris. She moaned when he finally slid a finger inside her, caressing her most sensitive spots and driving her crazy with need again.

“Please,” she begged, her body seeming to fly out of control. “I need more. It’s too much and not enough.”

Amber was cognizant of the fact her words made no sense, but luckily her men understood her perfectly.

“Can Mason and I take you together, Amber?” Dylan said, his voice rough and deep. “Can we claim you as ours forever?”

Amber was not so lost to her pleasure that she missed the importance of his plea. This was a big deal to her mates, not simply sex. This claiming would change her on a cellular level. She’d live for centuries and never love any men but her mates.

“I’ll die without you,” Amber said. It wasn’t a question. It was her answer. She would die without them. “You mean too much to me, all of you, for me to ever want a life without you. Make me yours, Dylan, Mason. I want you so badly.”

She looked at each of them, her four strong mates. Their eyes were fixed on her, eyes heavy with lust. Their cocks hard and leaking. No one had ever desired Amber like this. No one ever would. She was theirs.

“I trust you,” Amber said. She pulled Mason’s head down and kissed him, letting loose all the passion she was feeling.

She surrendered her heart, her very soul, into the hands of her coyotes. A place she knew she’d be safe and loved forever.

* * * *

“So strong and brave, my mate,” Dylan said.

“So fucking perfect,” Hudson rasped.

Dylan glanced at his brother and saw the love in his eyes. It had a lump forming in Dylan’s throat. So many decades of running silently alongside his brother, trying to pull him back from the brink and Amber had finally achieved it just by breathing.

“Eloquent as ever, Hudson,” Dylan said, cuffing Hudson’s head. “But I have to agree. Amber’s perfect.”

Mason released Amber’s lips and wrapped his arms around her, rolling until she lay atop him, her legs spread wide over his hips. “We’ll take this as slow as you need it,” Mason said.

Amber nodded and turned to look at Dylan, her eyes lowered, and she swallowed a couple of times before being able to speak. “I know from Jade, from the others, but I’ve never…”

Her voice had grown softer with each word until he’d been unable to hear her at all. Dylan knew what she was saying, ménage sex was something practiced by few people. He was pleased she was able to share this with them, even though it had obviously been difficult for her.

Dylan moved up between Mason’s legs, lifting Amber until she was poised above Mason’s groin. Amber’s skin was hot and damp, the mating need growing rapidly inside her. “Thank you for trusting us, baby. We’ll never hurt you.”

“Pleasure,” Mason said. “We will only bring you pleasure.”

Mason gripped Amber’s hips and helped Dylan guide her down slowly. Mason and Amber both shuddered and moaned as she took Mason into her body. Dylan nearly came from the sounds Amber made. His mate was a damned goddess.

“Dylan.” Hudson growled his name and Dylan found it hard to tear his gaze from Amber as she arched her back and began to rock and grind on Mason’s cock. “Your claws.”

Dylan looked down to where his hands were firmly gripping Amber’s shoulders. “Fuck.” He’d let his control slip, and his claws had dug into Amber’s soft skin. Small drops of blood bubbled up as he withdrew them, trying not to hurt her further.

“I’m so sorry, baby.”

“I need you,” Amber said, her breathing rapid, her heart racing. “Please, Dylan. I’m burning up.”

Dylan would have to kick his own ass later for hurting her, then beg for her forgiveness, because right now he needed to claim her before the unimaginable pain of the mating heat overcame her.

“I’m here, my precious mate.” Dylan pressed his body against her sweat-slicked back. He shuddered at the pure delight of the feel of her. He knew he’d never get enough of her. The time he had left with her seemed suddenly too short. Another century and a half with Amber was not going to satisfy his need for her.

“Here,” Hudson said, tapping his arm with a tube of lubricant. “Don’t fucking hurt her again.”

Dylan nodded and took the tube, quickly squeezing some onto his fingers and coating his cock generously. He would not let his focus slip again. He wouldn’t hurt her.

Kissing down the side of her neck, Dylan leaned into her and guided Amber down to lie flat against Mason’s chest. Mason gripped her shoulders as he rocked into her slowly. “Dylan needs to prepare that sexy ass, sweetheart,” Mason said.

“Now.”

Amber spoke the word like her life depended on it, and Dylan felt a trickle of fear run down his spine. They’d taken too long, and she was already in pain.

Mason took Amber’s lips with his, but his hands gripped Amber’s ass, holding them open. Mason was well aware they’d run out of time.

“Just a little cold lube to stretch you, baby,” Dylan said, his cock began to rise again as the need for his mate swamped his concern with its primal force. “We’ll be one forever, Amber. You’ll be ours forever.”

Mason slowed his thrusts as Amber moaned, thrusting her ass back against Dylan’s massaging fingers. “We can’t go fast, Amber.” Dylan put a steadying hand around her hips to slow her movements but it did little good, she was shaking with need now.

“Hudson,” Mason called, breaking briefly from Amber’s lips.

Hudson and Lucas both moved closer, stroking down Amber’s arms. She almost purred in relief and delight as they all touched her. She settled, her jerky movements now a slow rock that would not risk him tearing her.

Dylan guided his aching cock to Amber’s stretched anus and pushed slowly inside her. He pressed himself tight to her tiny frame and sunk his canines into her soft shoulder, over his claw marks as he came hard, breathing his claim. “Mine.”

* * * *

Mason felt the connection as Dylan slid into Amber’s ass. Not just from the tightening in her pussy, but in the very air they breathed. It snapped and sparked around the five of them as Amber’s orgasm tore through her.

She cried out mindlessly as the mating bound them. He and Dylan inside her, Hudson’s and Lucas’s seed and saliva already working to change her. Mason held back his desire to mark Amber until Dylan had removed his canines from Amber’s shoulder.

“Even your blood tastes sweet, my Amber,” Dylan gasped, his cock still deep in Amber’s ass despite his orgasm having passed.

Mason’s balls were tight and painfully hard as he released Amber from their kiss and gazed into her eyes. The green was clear now, shining brightly with health and life. “Forgive me my foolishness, Amber? I hurt you without knowing when I left you.”

Amber’s eyes glowed brighter, warmer even, as she brought up a hand slowly to cup his cheek. Her breath was washing fast and hard over his face as she struggled with her fatigue. “There’s nothing to forgive, Mason. Feel me.” She closed her eyes as she whispered the words out.

Mason brought his mouth to her exposed neck and licked her sweet flesh in warning of his bite. Amber pressed closer to his teeth, almost impaling her own flesh on his razor-sharp canines.

Mason pumped his hips as he let his orgasm break free, the sweet taste of Amber’s blood trickled into his mouth as he did as she asked. He felt her and was overwhelmed by the force of her emotions.

She wanted him, wanted him to mark her, claim her. Keep her. She was inside him, deep in his heart and soul. She was around him, her pussy spasming, milking his cock in a sensuous massage as he shot the last of his cum inside her.

As their hips slowly stopped moving, he felt Amber relax fully atop him. She buried her face in the crook of his neck and kissed him gently.

Amber sighed, as Dylan slid from her body. “Sorry, baby,” Dylan said softly, kissing each and every claw mark on her shoulders. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“Didn’t,” Amber said, her voice slurring now. “It was hot.”

Mason felt her smile briefly as her breathing slowed and her body relaxed completely into a deep sleep.

“Now you’ve kissed each mark, you do realize they’ll be permanent?” Lucas said. He handed Dylan a cloth, and they all smiled at Dylan’s surprised expression.

“I didn’t mean to do that. Shit, I’m an idiot. Will she—” Dylan stuttered.

“I was inside her, Dylan,” Mason said, wrapping his arms around Amber and holding her tight. He never wanted to release her. “She wasn’t lying. She came when you marked her with your claws. I think our shy, reserved Amber likes that we’re a little wild.”

“Of course she does,” Hudson said. “She’s our mate.”

Hudson lay on the bed next to him and pulled up the covers. “Can we hold her between us, Mason?”

“I think she’d like that,” Mason said, the words came out sounding thick and strained, betraying the emotions he was trying to hide. He had his brother back. He held Amber close as he rolled to his side. Hudson spooned against her back and smiled at him as he closed his eyes.

“It will also help her heal,” Lucas said. “We should all be touching her as the mating heals her wound and clears the infection from her body.”

“I’ll just take a quick shower,” Dylan said. “Should one of us be on patrol? We don’t know what’s happening with the vampire, and if he’s the one who put the coyote there to scare Amber.”

“The Alpha has men watching the house, and that little gift was not put there simply to scare Amber,” Mason said. “It was a threat, and a threat from a completely unknown enemy. I still want to have a talk with the bastard who hurt her the other night. He’s not innocent, I guarantee it.”

“I intend to teach him the meaning of the word no,” Hudson said, a low growl slipping out with his threat.

“I’ll touch base with the men patrolling outside,” Lucas said. “I’ll find out what’s been happening in town, then come back and stay with Amber for the night. I’ll assess her wound in a few hours to see if she needs any further antibiotics.”

Mason tried to relax fully and enjoy the feel of his soft, sweet mate as she lay beside him, but his mind was too attuned to thinking like an enforcer. He was not going to be able to rest until the person and reason for the attack on Amber was discovered.

“Your constant worrying is going to keep me awake,” Hudson said.

“It was done for a reason,” Mason said. “Someone doesn’t want Amber to accept us as mates. It’s the only possible reason to use a coyote to terrify her like that.”

“Of course it was,” Hudson said confidently.

“Do you know something I don’t, Hudson? Because I’m frustratingly clueless and would love for you to clear up the mystery for me.”

“Yes, do tell,” Dylan said softly. Hudson leaned up on one elbow and waited for Dylan to finish drying himself and slide into the bottom of the bed.

“Lucas is coming back,” Hudson said. Mason ground his teeth together as Hudson waited for Lucas to join them.

Once Lucas had told them there were no reports of any strangers in town or around the house, Mason directed his frustration squarely at Hudson. “Well, Sherlock?”

“It’s not that hard to work out,” Hudson said. His eyes blazed brightly in the dark room, displaying he was equally furious at whoever had targeted Amber. “This cat shifter, Tennyson, has enlisted the help of a vampire to try to either scare Amber for her publicly humiliating him, or because he’s a crazy bastard who thinks we’ll let ourselves become distracted so he can take her from us.”

Dylan sighed as he closed his eyes and lay back down. “The shifter was with Samson the entire afternoon.”

“Pretty convenient,” Hudson said. “Almost like he wanted to direct suspicion away from himself.”

Mason couldn’t say he disagreed with Hudson’s theory. “Samson and Cooper aren’t stupid. If they suspect this Tennyson person, I’m sure they’re watching him.”

“If they’re not, then I will be,” Hudson said. “As soon as Amber wakes up in the morning, I’m going to find the cat and become his new shadow.”

They all grew quiet, but Mason knew they were all thinking about Amber’s safety. Mason would not make any more mistakes with his mate. She was not going to be alone for a moment.

Amber moved closer to his chest, her arm tightening around his waist. He inhaled her sweet scent and decided she must have agreed with him. “We’ll keep you safe, sweetheart. Always.”

Chapter 9

Tennyson was growing weary of the game he was playing. Samson had not been as easy to convince as he’d imagined.

“I don’t think there’s a square inch of town we haven’t searched,” Tennyson said, not having to fake his weariness. He was fucking exhausted, yet Samson looked as though he could keep going for another month.

“Yet still no vampire,” Samson said. He regarded Tennyson with his cold, blank stare, the same one he’d always used with Tennyson, and it was getting on his last nerve. He deserved respect, not disdain, and Samson would fucking beg him for mercy before the day was out.

“Perhaps he was just passing through?” Tennyson had spent the entire night with Samson, searching the town through a blizzard, and he was now more than ready to move onto the next part of his plan.

As dawn began to break, Samson had finally called off the search. He’d been fielding reports from the pride all night, and no vampire had been seen or scented within a hundred-mile radius of the town. Tennyson tried not to laugh out loud at the stupidity of the entire pride. They thought they were powerful and untouchable.

“Thank you for your help,” Samson said flatly.

“Anytime,” Tennyson said, hiding his rage for the man in a well-practiced show of geniality. Tennyson backed away from Samson and walked to his truck, trying hard to mask any sign of anxiety. He’d seen a flash of something pass over Samson’s face when he’d expressed his thanks, and it hadn’t been gratitude.

It had looked a lot like anger, and Tennyson was worried Samson might be just as good as he was at hiding his true emotional scents. If Samson hadn’t fallen for his act, he’d have to contact Branik immediately and move directly to their end game. Disappointing, but he wasn’t willing to risk losing his mate just to play games with Samson and the dogs.

Branik’s vampire friend had caused the cats a night of delicious disquiet. They’d chased their tails the entire night while Tennyson laughed at them.

Tennyson tried not to speed out of town in his growing excitement. He pictured Amber’s beautiful face and her delicious body, and his fatigue vanished. His body readied itself for its mate, and he hissed in pain as his erection scraped against the zipper of his jeans.

“Maybe it’s a good thing you’re a paranoid asshole, Samson Reed. This way I get my Amber even sooner than I’d planned. Those dogs will never get the chance to lay claim to her. She’ll be mine before the sun sets.”

* * * *

Amber woke with a start, her eyes snapping open as she wondered momentarily if she’d dreamt the events of the night before. The room was dark and the wind was howling outside, but Amber was cocooned by warmth. A lot of warmth.

She wriggled her fingers and touched smooth, hard skin. Moving her hands, she encountered more hot skin covering bulging, hard muscles. “Mason.”

“Was that a statement or a question, sweetheart?” Mason asked.

Amber couldn’t control the urge to explore. To feel, to touch. “Statement,” Amber said softly. She explored Mason’s chest, tracing the dips and grooves of his muscles with her searching fingers.

“Amber,” Mason said, his mouth taking hers in a kiss that promised he wasn’t releasing her until they were both breathless.

Amber felt Hudson’s hands smooth up her back and moaned into Mason’s mouth as the pleasure roared through her. She felt wild. Her pussy clenched, and she wanted these men inside her. Never before had she felt such need, such desire. She’d had lovers before, had thought she’d made love before, but nothing that came close to the way these men, her men, had made her feel.

Pressing her ass against the heat behind her, she moaned Hudson’s name. “Hudson.”

“We’re all here with you, honey,” Hudson said, his voice rough with sleep. Or lust?

Amber had to feel him, too. Had to touch him. As Hudson kissed her back and pulled her hair away from her neck, his lips found the mark he’d left on her and she saw stars. She reached back and caressed the bristled skin of his scalp as he licked and sucked on his mark, prolonging her orgasm until her whole body shook.

“So fucking sexy,” Dylan said.

“She’s more than that,” Lucas said. “She’s perfect.”

Amber opened her eyes into the darkness of the room and felt all her men around her. Mason and Hudson were holding her, Lucas and Dylan were smoothing their calloused hands over her legs, and she wanted more. She wanted them inside her.

“Please,” Amber said, not knowing what else to say. Hudson had her lying on his chest a second later, his cock slowly pressing into her. “Yes,” Amber said, kissing her way up Hudson’s neck and taking his mouth with hers. Allowing all her love and passion to pour through her.

Mason’s lips pressed to her neck, his body pressing her closer still to Hudson. It still wasn’t enough. She needed more.

“I have you, sweetheart,” Mason said. His fingers pressed cold lube to her ass as he stretched her. She couldn’t help her moan of frustration as she pushed herself onto Hudson and against Mason’s fingers.

“Here,” Lucas said, his voice a rough caress against her ear.

When she turned to him, his cock slid over her cheek. She opened for him, and his pre-cum was sweet on her tongue. She moaned as he gasped and held her face gently between his hands, rocking deeper into her mouth.

“So good, Amber.”

She wrapped a hand around Lucas’s cock, and stroked him as she sucked him deeper. Mason was slowly pushing into her ass and Hudson finally began to move, pushing fully into her pussy.

They all moaned as they took pleasure from each other’s bodies. Dylan was there, his hand holding hers as he whispered a commentary to her of what they were doing and how on fire for her he was. She was full of her mates, surrounded by them, and she’d never felt so alive, so perfectly happy. Nor had she ever felt so turned on.

Amber let free all fear and inhibitions. She rocked her pelvis and took her pleasure higher and higher as Hudson and Mason filled her in turn. Lucas growled, and her mouth filled with his hot seed. She drank it down, wanting him inside her.

Mason and Hudson bit into her marks, their cocks swelling inside her as they came. Her orgasm was not sweet and slow. It was a carnal explosion that had her grinding against Hudson. Her orgasm drew out and her limbs were shaking, her heart racing, when she collapsed onto Hudson’s sweat-slick chest.

“Jesus,” Hudson said, kissing her hair. “If that’s what waking up to you is like, we need to take naps all day.”

Amber smiled into his chest. She wanted to sleep right now. She was exhausted, deliciously exhausted.

“We have company,” Dylan said sharply. He and Lucas disappeared and the covers floated down around her. Icy air washed over her skin, replacing the warmth where their bodies had just been.

Lucas was back beside the bed a heartbeat later, pulling on his jeans. “It’s Samson and Finn.” Lucas bent and kissed her as her mouth hung slightly open in surprise at their speed. They were incredibly fast when they wanted to be. “We need to see why they’re here.”

Hudson sat up, lifting her until she was standing beside the bed. “Why don’t you take a shower while we see what’s brought the Alpha here?”

Mason looked somber, and a shiver of fear drove all the sweet satiation from her body, replacing it with apprehension.

“It can’t be good news,” Hudson said. When Amber turned to question him, she found he was already dressed, his face set in hard lines. He was no longer the gentle lover who just made her orgasm with only the touch of his hands and mouth. He looked deadly.

Mason and Hudson kissed her deeply before they left, but she felt their tension and it made her anxious as well. Deciding a shower was a good idea, Amber turned toward the bathroom door and found herself staring into the eyes of a stranger.

“I think it’s time we left.”

* * * *

Dylan ushered Samson and Finn into the house. The snow had stopped falling but the wind was fierce and bitterly cold. The Alpha nodded a greeting, but Samson’s face was set in hard lines as he strode into the house. Dylan could tell this wasn’t a social call and began preparing himself for whatever task he was set in order to protect Amber.

“What’s happened?” Mason asked, as he and his brothers joined them in the living room.

Dylan raised an eyebrow in question at Hudson, the last one down the stairs.

“She’s showering before she joins us,” Hudson said.

As much as Dylan didn’t like the fact she wasn’t here with them, he was also glad he wouldn’t have to deal with his feelings of possession when the felines scented his mate’s recent orgasms. Amber’s sweet arousal was for them alone.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but we found no further trace of the vampire,” Samson said. “And Tennyson Lansing has been lying his ass off all night.”

“Where is he now?” Hudson said, a long growl rolling from him.

“He’s being watched,” Finn said. “I think it would be wise if you took Amber to the safe room at the Prentiss home while we wait for Tennyson to show his hand.”

“I knew it was all a little too convenient that he was with you, Samson, when that coyote was dumped on your porch,” Hudson said.

“He thinks he has me fooled, but he’s harboring a great deal of rage toward me.” Samson looked at each of them before continuing. “I suspect it’s because I stopped him from taking Amber a few nights ago.”

“We don’t know a great deal about him,” Finn said. “He only joined the pride a few months back.”

“You didn’t have him vetted by anyone?” Mason spat out, interrupting the Alpha. Dylan felt equally incredulous, but was not so foolhardy as to voice his disbelief.

Finn had Mason against the wall in the next second. Mason’s feet were several feet off the ground as Finn held him easily aloft by his throat. Waves of power had Dylan staggering back a few steps before adjusting to the onslaught.

“I take the protection of my pride very seriously,” Finn said, his voice echoing as the Alpha’s cat snarled.

“He was an acquaintance of the Willis brothers,” Samson said smoothly, ignoring the Alpha and Mason completely. “They knew him for a few years on the rodeo circuit. Michael did a background check, and it matched what the Willis brothers had told us. Matched it exactly.”

Dylan heard the anger in Samson’s voice and scented his regret. “It was bogus?” Dylan asked. Samson’s nod was slow.

“Michael is doing a more comprehensive search as we speak. Michael’s the best. If there’s anything there to find, he’ll find it. Thank God we’re onto him now, before the fucker has had a chance to do too much damage.”

Dylan didn’t take offense at Samson’s words. Amber had been frightened badly when she’d discovered the injured coyote, but she hadn’t been physically harmed. Dylan exchanged looks with Lucas and Hudson. They would keep Amber safe.

“My apologies, Alpha.” Mason’s voice was hoarse, and he was rubbing his throat as he came to stand next Dylan. “He’s not working alone.”

Finn opened his mouth to speak, but froze as a loud thud came from the floor above them. “Blood,” Finn said as they all ran toward the stairs.

“Michael’s blood,” Samson said, followed by a low curse.

Dylan’s mind hadn’t yet processed Samson’s statement, so the sight of Michael’s bloody body lying on the bedroom floor was a complete surprise to him.

“Amber,” Dylan said, his voice loud as his coyote fought him for control. It needed to know Amber was safe. Then it would find out how Michael came to be in the bedroom while the six of them had been standing downstairs.

“She’s not here,” Hudson said. “She never even made it to the shower.”

Dylan’s mind finally accepted what he was seeing. The bathroom was dry and empty. The bedroom held nothing but an injured Michael. Hudson was staring fixedly at a spot on the floorboards. Dylan didn’t want to see what Hudson was gazing at. He didn’t want to know, but he took three slow steps from the empty bathroom and stopped at Hudson’s side.

Dylan was transfixed by the shimmering drops of red. Amber’s scent, sweet and smooth with hints of vanilla, filled his nose. “They made her bleed.”

* * * *

Jason’s blood froze as Bethany’s scream split the cold morning air. Jason was patrolling the grounds, making sure Tennyson Lansing didn’t return with any more surprises, and he was too damned far away. He ran, his cat flying through the forest with single-minded focus. Mate.

By the time the house came into view, he saw Bethany running from the front door. She was dressed in nothing but her robe. The sides were flapping open as she ran, exposing the scars that a madman had carved into her porcelain skin. He’d failed her then and had vowed never to do so again.

Bethany ran around the corner of the porch and out of sight. Jason’s nostrils burned with the acid scent of Bethany’s fear. No, her terror. He shifted as he bounded up the front steps and was human as he caught his mate in his arms a second later.

“It’s me,” Jason said, as Bethany screamed again. “You’re safe, Bethany.”

“No,” Bethany screamed the word as she shoved viciously against his arms, very nearly breaking free. “He’s gone. My baby, he’s gone.”

Jason held Bethany tight as his body began to shake. She’d be hurt if he let his cat break free while she was so close. He held onto his control by the finest of threads. His cub. Had someone actually managed the impossible and taken their cub?

Not someone. Something.

* * * *

Lucas arrived first at Michael’s side, with Samson breaking free of his shock an instant later to join him. “He’s alive,” Lucas said reassuringly.

“What the fuck happened?” Samson asked, rolling Michael to his back and gasping as the knife protruding from his brother’s chest came into view.

“No.” Lucas seized Samson’s hand as he reached for the knife. “He’ll bleed out if you remove it. The fact that it’s still in there is probably the only reason he’s alive right now. It’s directly over his heart.”

“I need to get home,” Samson said. “Bethany and Stephen are there. We need Jason.”

“He’s alive,” Finn said, squatting next to Samson and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. “And he’ll remain so as long as I draw breath.”

Lucas assessed Michael’s pale skin and shallow breaths and briefly wondered if the Alpha was going to be able to keep that promise. The full extent of the situation slammed into Lucas like a physical blow.

“How the hell did someone take Amber and leave an injured Michael here?” Lucas said, he laid a steading hand on Michael as the man’s eyes fluttered open. “Don’t move, Michael. Lie still.”

“Stephen,” Michael said. He struggled to sit up, and Lucas pushed harder on the man’s shoulder to keep him down.

“Don’t move,” Finn said, his words imbued with the power of an Alpha.

“You have a huge fucking knife in your heart,” Samson said. He leaned forward until he caught Michael’s gaze. “Now lie still and tell me what the hell happened to our cub.”

“Demon,” Michael and Finn said at the same time.

“He took Stephen,” Michael said, his muscles working as he fought against the Alpha’s hold.

Lucas could understand Michael’s desperation. It mirrored his own feelings about Amber. A demon. He’d only just learned of their existence and had no idea how to fight something that could simply disappear.

“He could have taken them anywhere on the planet,” Lucas said, stepping back from the others. His fear and rage were threatening to overwhelm him as his coyote struggled to break free.

Hudson was beside him in a heartbeat. He stood firm as Lucas’s snarling coyote tried to overwhelm him. Lucas had to find her. They’d promised Amber they’d never leave her alone. She was depending on them. She was waiting for them to come rescue her. He threw his head back and howled out his pain and anguish.

“Think, Lucas,” Hudson said. Hudson’s coyote was staring straight at him from the burning red depths of Hudson’s eyes. “This is our pride. They will not rest until our mate and the cub are returned to us. They also have the knowledge and resources to find a demon. We do not.”

As Lucas’s pounding heart slowed a little, he managed to gain a thread of control over his emotions. He saw that Hudson was right. He looked at the fury and determination on Samson’s and Finn’s faces. They were all in this fight together, and none of them would consider failure an option.

“We’ll get her back,” Lucas said, trying to calm his coyote.

“Yes, Lucas, we will,” Finn answered. Lucas felt the vise of fear and panic that was squeezing his heart begin to release under the Alpha’s absolute belief in his pride.

Logic and reason returned to the mind of the man and the beast. “How do we find and kill a demon?”

“With our own demon,” Samson said coldly. “Tennyson and his pet demon are going to be sorry they ever came to Eminence.”

Chapter 10

Peata screamed as Max was carried into Lily’s room by Axel and Calder. Peata’s body shook as she detached Lily from her breast and hugged her to her shoulder as she ran to the sofa Max was being lowered onto.

Blood was shining in Max’s black hair, the coppery smell easily reaching Peata’s human nose. “He’s bleeding. What’s happened?”

Calder was at her side a moment later, wrapping his strong arms around her and their squirming daughter. Lily didn’t like Peata’s fear. Their little cub was very sensitive to emotions. She was a special kind of shifter according to her granny, and granny Neva was never wrong.

“He’s fine, sugar,” Calder said. “He’s just out cold. We need to call the Alpha.”

Max moaned and raised a hand to the patch of blood on his head. “Fucking Tennyson.” Max winced as he tried to sit up.

“Finn,” Axel said, his eyes fixed on Max as he spoke to the Alpha on his cell. “Tennyson attacked Max.”

“He has a fucking demon with him,” Max said, rising shakily to his feet as his gaze bore into Peata’s.

“Fuck,” Axel said viciously. “We’ll be at your house as soon as possible.”

She watched Axel as he spun and started grabbing some of Lily’s clothes and toys. “We have to get to the safe room at Melanie’s. Now.”

Calder was rigid, his anger palpable as he stared down at Lily.

Peata knew something had happened other than Max being attacked by the bastard, Tennyson. Lily started to cry as Peata’s fear rose. “What’s happened?”

“Tennyson has a demon working for him.” Axel ran from the room, but Peata heard drawers opening from their room next door.

“I’m sorry, baby,” Max said. He swayed a little and Calder caught him. “We have to go.”

Peata let Calder guide her from the room, Lily’s cries growing louder as Peata’s terror soared. “Has someone been killed?” Her tongue stuck to the roof of her suddenly dry mouth. Which one of her friends had lost a mate? Her heart ached, and she swayed on her feet.

“No, Peata,” Calder said gravely. “Someone has taken Stephen.”

Peata thought she knew fear after what she’d been through when she’d been abducted by the asshole detective. She looked at her baby girl and couldn’t conceive of what Bethany and her mates must be feeling.

“They didn’t just walk in and take him,” Peata said, rage boiling inside her and burning away her fear. Someone took their baby. “What can I do for Bethany?” Peata knew all of Stephen’s fathers would die protecting him, so one of them was either dead or dying. Bethany needed her friends, and Peata would be there for her.

* * * *

Twenty minutes after Mason’s world had been ripped apart by Amber’s seemingly impossible abduction, Mason was reaching for the arm of a stranger with the complete confidence that he was beginning the journey to bring his mate home.

Mason had watched his new Alpha, Finn Frederick, turn chaos into order in a matter of moments. Brody, the demon from Pine Falls, had proved that not only was he a true ally and friend, but he also was powerful despite his small stature. Only a fool would think the slim, beautiful man was weak and helpless.

Brody had come the moment Finn had asked him to, adding intelligence to his arsenal of weapons by bringing Pine Falls’s doctor, Charlie Paige, with him. He’d then taken the doctor and Michael directly to Jason’s awaiting operating room, where Jason and Charlie were currently sewing him back together.

Brody then returned to their bedroom with Aiden St John. Aiden was a vampire and enforcer in the Pine Falls pride, but seemed to hold that same trusted position in Finn’s pride as well. The vampire had then tasted a drop of Amber’s blood and left immediately to hunt for her.

Aiden had proved his tracking abilities by locating Jordanna the exact same way less than a year ago. He’d reassured Mason and his brothers, as well as a distraught Samson, that he would locate Amber and the baby no matter where they were in the world.

After taking Samson home to be with his mate, Bethany, Brody had returned to the room with one of his own mates, Elliot Damarin. Finn had requested Brody’s mate be included not only to aid in the eventual fight, but also to safeguard Brody. No one’s mate was more important than another, and Mason had even more respect for Finn because he recognized this despite the gravity of their current situation.

“Is this all real?” Lucas had asked, just before Brody was to take Lucas to Samson’s house, where the pride was gathering to await word from Aiden on Amber’s and Stephen’s location.

“It’s a nightmare,” was the only answer Mason could give.

Mason had watched Brody move himself and others great distances with apparent ease. He could transport two people at once with his seemingly magical abilities, a description the demon had denied—asserting it was simply physics—but he seemed to prefer taking only one person at a time.

Mason’s close and silent observation had yielded another morsel of information that he hoped to use in defeating the bastard who had Amber. Mason had noticed the small charge in the air as the demon did whatever it was he was doing. The charge was allowing Mason to accurately pinpoint the exact spot the demon would appear each time he returned.

Mason was the last to be taken to Samson’s. He stood alone for the space of two heartbeats in the room where they’d sealed their mating with Amber, before Brody returned from taking Hudson.

“Thank you, Brody,” Mason said. “I can never hope to repay you for all you’ve done already, and the fight hasn’t even begun.”

“I may not be a thousand years old, like Aiden, but I’m experienced enough to know a good man when I see one. You’re a good man, Mason Reeder, and I know if I’m ever in need of help, you’ll be there for me.”

Mason’s throat clogged with emotion as he nodded and placed his hand on Brody’s arm.

* * * *

Amber screamed and screamed, but the devil just ignored her and continued to cut into her skin.

“Do you need to make so many cuts?” Tennyson asked. “My mating bite will do some healing, but I don’t want my mate scarred and ugly.”

Tennyson pulled hard on Amber’s hair, tipping her head back and thrusting his mouth down on hers. Amber bucked against the metal restraints that held her wrists and ankles tethered to a wooden table. Tennyson’s tongue thrust so deeply she was finding it hard to breathe, making her thrash harder. The flesh on her ankles and wrists tore open against the bindings.

“You’re choking her,” Branik said. “I need her alive, or she’s of no use to me.”

Tennyson pulled roughly from her mouth and stalked toward the other man. The man he’d called Branik. The one who’d brought her here to this strange, candlelit, stone room, when she’d thought she was stepping into a shower. She’d apparently stepped into hell instead.

“What the fuck are you talking about? You said you needed only a little of her blood. I think you’ve taken plenty, no more cuts. I want her now!”

Amber was gasping, trying to suck much-needed air into her lungs, and she still saw more than the stupid shifter. Tennyson was delusional if he thought his “friend” Branik was going to let her go. She’d seen the stark hunger in Branik’s eyes the second he’d looked at her.

“Do you?” Branik said. He lifted the knife again and sunk the tip into Amber’s calf. She gritted her teeth and breathed through her nose, trying, trying so hard not to scream. It seemed to make Branik very happy when she screamed.

“Fuck it, Branik. We had a deal,” Tennyson said, lunging for the knife. “Stop cutting into my mate.”

Tennyson froze, his body becoming so still he resembled a statue, a statue whose eyes moved frantically back and forth in a show of stark terror.

“Now, where were we, my pretty little doll?”

* * * *

Morgan, Bethany’s sister, was working at one of the many computers in the large room. Her mates surrounded her protectively, and considering Michael was attacked in this very room, Hudson knew it was a necessary precaution.

“Morgan has isolated this picture from the security footage of the attack,” Finn said. “This is the demon.”

“Nephilim,” Brody interrupted. “I could tell. He’s old, and very powerful, which means he’s been draining people’s souls for a long time, but he’s a Nephilim.”

“Nephilim,” Finn said, with a nod of appreciation to Brody. “Who helped Tennyson Lansing take Stephen and Amber from us.”

The large bank of monitors lit up with the image of a surprisingly ordinary-looking man. Hudson’s coyote didn’t care what the man—Nephilim—looked like. He just wanted it dead and Amber returned. Hudson, however, was more than just a coyote. He was a shifter, and the man in him wanted all the information he could get on the enemy. It would make him easier to kill. Make certain Amber was returned to them. Amber and the cub. What sort of monster took a four-month-old baby?

“Don’t be fooled by the man’s slim build and small stature,” Finn continued. “Remember, Brody is infinitely more powerful than his huge mate.”

Hudson’s heart clenched as the bear shifter planted a kiss on his mate’s head, the gesture tender and loving. Brody was going to be placed in danger as soon as Aiden had somehow located Amber, but Hudson didn’t have it in him to refuse the demon’s help. He’d do anything to see Amber returned to them, and Hudson feared that made him a monster, too.

“Morgan also has a picture of the man we knew as Tennyson Lansing.” As the picture flashed on the screen, Morgan told them everything she and Michael had discovered about the shifter who’d joined their pride only four months earlier.

The man had started killing at sixteen. He’d raped and murdered his Alpha’s daughter in an attempted mating that had ended with the girl’s throat being ripped out.

“I’ll be doing the world a favor when I kill the bastard,” Hudson said when Morgan had finished listing all the man’s previous crimes. They’d all followed a similar pattern. Tennyson fixated on a woman, kidnapped her, and then killed her after weeks—sometimes months—of abuse failed to produce offspring.

“There’s going to be a line,” Samson said. “He targeted my son and Michael because he had a problem with me.”

“You got in his way when he wanted Amber,” Hudson said.

“And you have a mate and cub,” Mason added. “Two things he’s failed to achieve over the past fifty years.”

“No matter how many times he tried,” Dylan said. “He’s had a great deal of practice to perfect his ability to hide his true feelings. I expect that’s how he managed to fool everyone in the pride.”

“We’ll get them back,” Hudson said. “Losing them is not an option.” As Hudson spoke the words, he knew they were a vow, not a statement. Even if it cost him his life, he’d keep his vow. Amber and the cub were coming home.

“Aiden gave these to me before he left on his hunt.” Finn unrolled a soft leather pouch to reveal two small daggers that appeared to be carved from ivory. “He is unable to wield them, as is Brody, but they are the only weapons made that can kill a demon or a Nephilim.”

“Are they made of ivory?” Lucas asked.

“No, vampire bones,” Finn said. “Apparently the result is quite explosive when they’re driven into a demon’s heart.”

“It is,” Elliot said. Hudson saw that Brody’s pale skin had bleached to a chalky white as he held tight to his mate. “Please put them away, Alpha. They’re hurting my mate.”

Finn quickly wrapped the knives back in their pouch before handing it to Samson. “Sorry, Brody. Aiden didn’t have a chance to tell me they would cause you pain.”

Brody had taken them all outside earlier and demonstrated some of his other abilities. They’d all needed to be made aware of the enemy’s capabilities. “Is that the only way to kill them?” Hudson asked.

“No,” Elliot said. “They can recover from pretty much any injury but decapitation. Take their heads and they die, same as a vampire.”

“I can’t see any of us getting close enough to stab him with that tiny blade, or rip off his head,” Mason said. “Not with everything he can do.”

“You have me,” Brody said starkly. “Not all Nephilim are evil, and not all demons are good. We choose how we’ll live our lives, the same as humans and shifters. This Nephilim has chosen to steal immortality and power from innocents. I’ll do everything in my power to stop him, and my power is far greater than his.”

“Where Brody can create fire from nothing,” Elliot said.

“Not nothing, Elliot. I make the atoms in the air…” Elliot placed a finger gently over Brody’s lips.

“The Nephilim needs a flame to already be present for him to then manipulate it to his will,” Elliot continued. “He can break open the earth, but he can’t turn it to lava, as I’ve seen Brody do.”

“Shit,” Tanner Willis muttered, as Elliot continued to list the differences between a demon and a Nephilim’s capabilities. Knowledge was power.

Tanner and his brothers, Nash and Fergus, had returned to Eminence a few months ago to undergo an intensive training program run by Samson. They had trained to become soldiers for the pride and when Mason had worked with them to help rescue Jade two weeks ago, he’d described them as deadly.

“And Brody looks like such an angel,” Nash said.

“Remind me never to piss him off,” Fergus added.

“What?” Hudson asked. “His three-hundred-pound, seven-foot mate wasn’t enough motivation not to piss him off?”

“We’ll get her back,” Nash said, turning to look toward Samson. “We’ll get them both back.”

All trace of humor was gone from the three brothers as they watched their commander, Samson, struggle with his own fury and grief while tenderly embracing his tiny mate. Samson was giving her his strength and support as they tried to deal with the loss of their baby and the uncertainty of Michael’s survival.

“We get them back.” Hudson said, repeating his vow.

He’d been alone for over sixty years, depending on no one, and feeling nothing. He’d as good as died when he’d lost his sister at the hands of her abusive husband. His tiny mate, Amber, had brought him back to life with her enormous heart. He wasn’t alone anymore. He had the strength of an entire pride at his back, and he knew he wouldn’t fail.

* * * *

“I feel better already,” Branik said as he took a deep breath. “I always do when I get my first taste. You’re all still filled with boundless innocence and hope. You truly believe you’re going to be saved. Returned to your loved ones.” The bastard laughed. He actually threw his head back and laughed at Amber’s suffering.

Branik laughed harder as the metal shackles all sprang open at once. They’d opened without him touching them, and Amber couldn’t help the tremble of terror that shook her.

“Fear is nice, too, but not as sweet,” Branik said, sobering instantly. Bending, he licked the blood from her torn wrist. She tried to pull it away as his saliva burned and stung the wound, but he was much stronger. He held her wrist in an iron grip as he continued to lick and suck the oozing blood.

He yanked on her arm, and she felt the freezing air surround her again. When he released her and vanished, the icy air around her was the only thing left of his presence. That was how she’d come to be here, wherever here was. When the evil bastard had appeared before her, she hadn’t even had the chance to scream for help.

She’d screamed for her mates moments later though. After spending only seconds in an inky tunnel of freezing air, she’d been dropped onto that wooden table. As soon as the shackles had magically snapped closed, Branik had begun to use his knife on her. That was when she’d started screaming.

Wherever Branik had left her was dark and cold. Amber could feel rough, damp stone beneath her naked buttocks. Her body was slick with blood. She began to shake, the cold rapidly permeating her skin and sinking all the way through to her bones. As her eyes adjusted to the dim surroundings, she slowly rose to her feet. She needed to see where she was, and more importantly, if there was a way out.

She explored along the walls with her hands as she slowly inched forward. Cold, rough stone was all she could feel. The cuts to her arms, legs, and body were growing numb as her body grew colder, but she still felt blood trickling along her skin.

“I’m not going to bleed to death.” Amber tried to say the words with conviction.

“No, but you’ll soon wish you had.”

Amber froze at the utter despair she heard in the softly echoing words. She was unsure if she’d heard the words or if they’d simply been her own thoughts. The only thing she was certain of was that they were true. She’d seen the evil and depravity shining from Branik’s black, soulless eyes. If her men didn’t come soon, she’d be wishing for death.

Chapter 11

Amber had been taken twice more to the room with the table. She’d been shackled to the wooden surface that was still slick with her blood. Branik hadn’t kept her there as long or cut her again. Whatever he was, he seemed to get high from the smell and taste of her blood.

But it wasn’t just the blood he seemed to crave. He’d asked her questions, and if she’d tried to stay mute, he’d pressed his filthy fingers into one of the deeper cuts he’s made on her leg, using pain to get the answers he craved.

Will you be rescued? Will you die? Who will miss you? The questions were obscure, some even rhetorical, but he wanted his answers and seemed to gain perverse pleasure from those answers when he finally got them.

“It’s so confusing. What does he need from me?”

“Your soul.”

Amber sat up, swearing as her cuts scraped on the rough stone. “I know that wasn’t my imagination this time. Who’s there?”

The darkness meant Amber had no idea of time, but it already felt like she’d been here in this hellish prison for days.

“Please, can you help me? I want to get out of here.”

“Death is the only way to freedom. Everyone dies who comes here. Everyone but me.”

Amber shuddered with cold dread as she wobbled forward blindly in the near total darkness, closer to the soft voice. A woman’s voice. Amber reached out, her fingers scraping against cold stone as she moved her hands up, down, and across the wall of stone. She was determined to find a way out. Again her search yielded no door, no window, nothing but solid stone.

“Can I get to you? Do you need my help?” The utter despair in the woman’s softly spoken words had broken Amber’s heart. If this woman had been enduring days, weeks, of Branik’s torture, no wonder she sounded so broken.

Amber’s words echoed back at her. She was clammy with sweat, despite the freezing stone walls. The tiny square of light high above her head seemed to be the only opening into her prison cell. This meant the creature who’d taken her, and was torturing her, was also the only one who could free her.

Thinking of the vile man somehow called him to her. Icy air washed over her as Branik’s hands found her in the darkness. He seized her wrists, and a moment later, she was standing beside the wooden table again, only this time a crying baby was lying on the bloody surface. Her blood.

The baby was red in the face, its little hands balled into fists as it screamed. Without a second thought, Amber scooped the baby into her arms, holding it close as she rocked it and cooed softly against its warm cheek. The baby’s silver-white hair was uniquely beautiful. Just like its mother’s was.

“Why?” Amber said softly. The baby’s cries came out in little shudders as he began to calm. “Why have you taken a baby?”

“Is there anything more innocent than a baby? Anything more pure?” Branik licked his lips as he stared at her with those eyes of bottomless black. “Is there anything you won’t do to keep the baby from harm?”

Tennyson remained a statue, his eyes the only indication he was still living. Amber feared for the baby, and for herself. What hell had spawned this creature called Branik? She feared for her mates. If they somehow managed to find her, how could they hope to fight something seemingly invincible?

* * * *

Dylan had succeeded in staying still through a whole hour of waiting. Then he’d succumbed and joined Samson in his restless prowling. They weren’t alone. Most of the men in the pride were wandering between Michael’s war room, as the computer-filled conference room had been dubbed, and the clinic, where they constantly harassed Jason for updates on Michael’s condition.

When Finn’s phone finally rang after what had felt like an eternity, everyone stopped moving and watched the Alpha. Sweet relief flooded Dylan’s body as the Alpha’s lip curled into a smile.

“I’ll put you on speaker, Aiden. Brody and Samson are here, as are Amber’s mates.”

“I found her,” Aiden said tightly. “How well do you know the islands off the Ontario coast, Brody?”

Canada. Aiden had not only reached Ontario on foot in mere hours, but he’d also followed an invisible trail that had somehow led to their mate. The vampire was capable of moving at a staggering speed and following seemingly indiscernible scents.

“Not too well,” Brody said, his brows creasing. “Which island? There are quite a few from memory.”

“They’re on Bedford Island. I’m currently in Cold Springs. The island is about twelve miles off shore, and it’s also very small. If I go any closer, the Nephilim may sense me.”

“Don’t go any closer,” Samson said. “They could kill Stephen and Amber before you can get to them.”

“I won’t risk their lives, my friend.” Aiden fell silent, and fear stopped Dylan from breathing. “I’m close enough to be certain of Amber’s presence, but…”

“But you don’t know if Stephen is with her?” Samson said, his voice choked with emotion. Jason entered the room and wrapped his arms around Samson and Bethany.

“I’ve been to Cold Springs,” Brody said. He ran to Samson and pulled on his hand. “Meet us at the entrance to the Pioneer Cemetery.”

When Finn raised an eyebrow in question, Brody just shrugged. “Jayce liked to look at really old headstones.”

“We’re ready to go, Aiden,” Finn said. “Brody will bring Elliot first, and thank you.”

“Michael?” Aiden asked.

“He’s doing well,” Jason said. “As soon as he wakes, Charlie will get him to shift, allowing his healing to progress more rapidly. He’s alive thanks to Brody and Charlie.”

Aiden disconnected the call and Finn pocketed his phone. “Everyone knows what to expect from this Nephilim Tennyson has befriended, but we won’t know if he’s working alone until Brody gets there.”

Finn waited until everyone had acknowledged him before turning to Mason. “You’re in charge, bring everyone home alive.”

If Mason was surprised by Finn’s decision, he didn’t show it. Mason merely nodded and walked to Samson’s side. “You keep one knife, and I’ll take the other. I don’t care who kills the Nephilim bastard, just as long as he ends up dead.”

Brody went back to his mate as Samson unwrapped the leather pouch. After removing one of the knives and tucking it in the top of his boot, he handed the pouch to Mason. “We go as planned. If we have to split up, Tanner, Nash, and Fergus come with me to find Stephen.”

“My brothers and I will search for Amber.” The two bumped fists and turned to Brody.

“Me first, baby,” Elliot said. “I need to make sure you’re safeguarded at all times.”

Brody stood on tiptoes, and Elliot bent to kiss his mate’s upturned lips. “Let’s go, big guy.”

A few days ago, Dylan would have laughed at the idea of traveling more than a thousand miles in an instant. Now it was anything but funny. Now it was a miracle that meant they’d be holding Amber in their arms in a matter of minutes, despite her having been taken so far away from them.

Brody transported them all to Canada in seconds, and Aiden then guided them to the shoreline where he’d procured a small runabout for Brody’s transport to the island. The weather was icy, with the wind blowing in off the ocean. Aiden led them the short distance to the shoreline, the rapidly setting sun giving them added security as they moved with their preternatural speed.

“There’s only one Nephilim there,” Brody said, gazing out at the water as Elliot set him down at the water’s edge. “It’s the same one who attacked Michael. I can also feel another, much weaker, whisper of power coming from the island.”

As anxious as they were to get to the island, Brody’s information was vital to them succeeding. Brody closed his eyes and shook his head. “That’s all I can feel from here. Maybe when I’m closer, I’ll be able to determine exactly what it is.”

Aiden pulled the small runabout onto the sandy shore. “It’s the best I could do on short notice.”

Brody had explained the limitation to his form of traveling was the need to have a clear mental image of his destination. This meant he needed to physically see his destination, or have been to the place previously. Since he’d never set foot on Bedford Island before, and it couldn’t be seen from the shore, Brody was required to take the initial journey there by boat.

“It’s perfect,” Mason said. “Dylan, you go with Brody and Elliot, and we’ll wait here for Brody to come back for us.”

Dylan was an avid fisherman, and of the four of them, he was the most familiar with boats. The trip to the island seemed to take forever, but once they’d reached a small, deserted cove, Brody had the rest of them there in moments.

“Aiden, can you carry me to where the Nephilim has Amber?” Mason asked.

“It won’t slow me down, but I know from experience the trip is not pleasant for your kind.”

Mason simply nodded. “Aiden and I will do a reconnaissance of the facility where Amber and Stephen are being held and hopefully have found a way inside by the time you all join us. Elliot and Brody, you’re our reinforcements. I can’t thank you enough for everything you’ve done already, Brody, but I hope you’re not needed.”

“Brody and I will follow along behind at a safe distance,” Elliot said. “We’ll be close by if you need us.”

Without another word being spoken, they turned and ran. Aiden and Mason vanished, leaving them then their scent trails to flow to Amber’s location. Hudson shifted as he ran, and soon he and Samson were out of sight. Hudson’s speed was not a surprise to Dylan, and Samson’s shouldn’t have been. The big man would run through hell for his cub, and he’d happily take a traitorous shifter and Nephilim with him, if that was what it took.

Nephilim.

Dylan and his brothers would die without Amber now they were mated, so the prospect of dying at the powerful Nephilim’s hands instilled no fear in him. He and his coyote had one goal—free his mate and the baby before returning them to Eminence. Now Amber had accepted all four of them as her mates, if only one of them remained alive then she would continue to live. He wasn’t suicidal, just realistic. They were about to fight a creature who wielded incredible powers.

“You now have friends with incredible powers, too.”

Aiden’s voice whispered through his mind. Dylan’s laugh was a yip from his coyote’s throat. “So it would seem.” He sent the thought back to the vampire who, it seemed, had access to his thoughts. “One day soon we’ll be having a conversation about all those incredible powers.”

The vampire’s reply was a dry laugh brushing against his mind.

* * * *

Amber rocked the baby in her arms, blinking rapidly as tears of pain leaked from her eyes. She was trembling, her body freezing cold while her arms burned in fiery agony. She knew she’d been badly burned, but in the darkness of her stone prison, she couldn’t see if she’d been quick enough to save the baby from the flames.

Stephen had finally stopped crying, falling asleep while sucking on his tiny thumb. He’d cried for what seemed like hours, and she felt heartsick not knowing if he was crying from pain or from hunger. As cruel as the thought seemed, she hoped he was hungry.

Amber began to shake harder as her mind dragged her back to the horror of that room. Branik had allowed her only a few seconds to hold the baby in her arms before he’d snatched Stephen from her. Branik had smiled as he pulled a lighter from his pocket and flicked a flame to life.

What happened next defied logic, but Amber had the burns to prove it had truly happened. A fire had come to life on the bare stone floor before her, growing to a blaze several feet high in a matter of seconds. She’d scrambled back a few steps as the flames scorched her naked flesh.

Branik had smiled as he’d stood beside her and thrown the baby toward the flames. Amber hadn’t thought, hadn’t hesitated, she’d surged forward, reaching out to catch the baby.

“We made it, baby boy.” Amber kissed his head as Stephen squirmed in a fitful sleep. “I won’t let him hurt you.” Amber’s tears continued to flow as her heart bled for the baby. She struggled to stay quiet so the baby didn’t wake, but she hurt so badly, and she really wasn’t sure she could keep her promise.

She pictured Bethany’s face as she’d sat and fed her little boy. Amber rocked and cried as images of Stephen’s fathers, Samson, Michael, and Jason, holding their son ran through her mind. She had to be stronger than this. She had to keep this child safe until his daddies came for him.

Amber stopped crying as hope suddenly flooded her. Samson. Samson was the fiercest person she’d ever met. He was scarier than the Alpha, and he was terrifying. Samson would come for his son, and Michael and Jason would be right there with him.

Branik had made a mistake taking Stephen. Amber’s mates were coming, too, she was certain of that fact, and Samson would welcome the company of four bloodthirsty coyotes when he tore his son’s kidnapper apart.

A long, low howl split the air. The hairs at the back of Amber’s neck rose in a primal response.

“Time for you to die, you evil monster.”

* * * *

Mason and Aiden had arrived at the tree line of a small clearing only seconds after leaving the beach they’d landed on. Aiden released him, and Mason’s head swam as he staggered and fell to his knees, His empty stomach clenched as he dry heaved.

“I warned you,” Aiden said. “I’ll circle around the house and be right back.”

Mason struggled to his feet and reached for the trunk of a tree as he looked at the old stone cottage in the center of the clearing. It felt deserted, he scented nothing. Amber’s scent was nowhere. The island was so small he should have scented her the minute he arrived.

“Are you sure she’s here?” he said, as the vampire appeared in front of him.

Aiden scowled, his brows furrowing in confusion. “Of course. Her blood is pulsing strongly, she’s here, and she’s alive.”

Mason straightened, as he pushed the nausea aside. “I can’t scent her. I can’t scent anything from that house. It seems empty.”

“I can’t scent my son, either,” Samson said. Samson and Hudson skidded to a stop beside them.

“Can you scent anything?” Aiden asked Hudson.

Hudson howled, long and deep, his lips curling back into a snarl as he stared at the house.

“What is it?” Mason asked.

“He can scent her blood, a lot of it, and her pain. A lot of it,” Aiden said.

Mason looked at Hudson. He stood still, his gaze fixed on the cottage. He did nothing to refute Aiden’s statement.

“I can read your thoughts,” Aiden said. “When shifted or in human form.”

Mason glanced at Samson to see if he was aware of this fact. Samson nodded stiffly. “Aiden, I scent nothing as well. Can you tell if my cub is here?”

“He’s here, Samson. I can sense his heartbeat.”

A small shudder ran through Samson’s frame, the only indication of the relief the man must have been feeling.

“I can’t hear or scent either of them.” Mason ran a hand through his hair in frustration as he watched Hudson snarl and growl at the cottage. Hudson seemed to sense something Mason wasn’t detecting.

Aiden looked directly at Hudson, making it clear he was conveying his brother’s thoughts. “He can scent both the cub and Amber.” Aiden turned to look into the trees. “The others are here. Hudson says Amber is in a great deal of pain.”

Mason gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to imagine what was happening to her while they’d waited to find her, or what was happening to her right now. He inclined his head toward the cottage. “Did you determine the best way inside, Aiden? We need to go now!”

“The cottage is empty, so they must be below ground somewhere. A basement, maybe?”

Dylan’s coyote appeared out of the trees, Tanner and Fergus followed as cougars while their brother, Nash, remained human. Lucas was human, too, and they were depending on him remaining so. Jason had given Lucas a camouflage version of a vest similar to the ones he’d worn as a paramedic. He and Jason had spent a large chunk of the time they’d waited for news on Amber’s location, choosing what equipment Lucas would take.

Lucas was now fully prepared to render emergency care to Amber, Stephen, or any of the shifters should they be injured, but only if he was able to stay human. If he was forced to shift at a moment’s notice, the equipment would be shredded along with Lucas’s clothes.

“We’ll go in the back. Samson, you take your party around the front. Aiden says the upstairs is empty, so we need to find a way to the basement.”

Hudson had started running before Mason had finished talking and they all followed in his wake. Mason felt a strange sense of “wrongness” emanate from the cottage, the feeling growing stronger the closer they got. He couldn’t pinpoint what exactly felt wrong, only that the something did.

Aiden was waiting for them at the back door, his hand on one of the old boards barring the entrance. Mason nodded for Aiden to break open the boards when a loud roar nearly shook him from his feet.

“Stop,” Brody screamed. “You need to stop.”

Aiden released the board immediately and stepped away, his hands held up in front of him. Samson appeared a second later with Brody at his side and a massive bear leading Nash and his brothers. Mason almost stepped back as the bear drew closer. Elliot’s bear was the size of a tractor, each of his claws the size of a machete.

“Has the Nephilim moved them already?” Mason asked. He feared how much more Amber would suffer if they were forced to start the search for her all over again.

“It’s a trap,” Brody said, pushing on Aiden’s chest to move him farther away from the cottage. “I nearly didn’t realize in time. The stone walls are concealing super-cooled air, you’ll all freeze if you enter.”

“We’re shifters,” Lucas said. “We can withstand a little cold.”

“It’s a brilliant trap.” Brody continued as if Lucas hadn’t spoken. “There’s no smell to give the trap away, and no survival for any living thing that touches the air inside. If I hadn’t been here…”

That didn’t sound like a normal bit of cold air to Mason. Elliot roared as Brody stepped closer to the stone wall. “I’m not going inside, Elliot. Not yet,” Brody said softly. “Quite clever.”

“How cold can it be, Brody?” Samson asked. “I can shift before I go in.”

“Then you’ll die, Samson Reed,” Brody said reproachfully. He put his hands on his hips and glared up at the much larger man. “I’ll give you a quick demonstration of what’s inside that death trap.”

Brody turned toward the trees they’d just run from, one hand held out in front of him.

Mason watched in horror as one of the trees became covered in frost, and seconds later, gauzy-white wisps of fog floated from around the tree. The tree then toppled over and exploded on impact with the ground. The fog thickened before dispersing, leaving no evidence the tree had ever existed.

“How fucking cold is it in there?” Nash asked, staring at Brody with reverence. Mason felt equally awed. The small demon could probably have ruled the world if he so desired. Only the fact he had a heart of solid gold stopped him traveling the path of a despot.

“The Nephilim has formed a bubble of absolute zero inside the walls of the cottage. The temperature where atoms stop moving, minus four hundred and fifty-nine degrees. Nothing can be colder than absolute zero.”

“That’s why we can’t scent Amber,” Lucas said. “Her scent is frozen in that bubble of cold.”

Brody nodded, and as interesting as it was to discuss such scientific marvels, Mason needed to get to his mate before the bastards killed her or took her away again.

“Get us inside,” Mason said. His coyote wasn’t polite in his demand, and he wouldn’t apologize. No one would demand it of him, either. They had a mate and a cub to save.

* * * *

Tennyson slumped to the floor, his body limp and weak. “They’re here,” Branik said. “If you want to keep your mate, then I suggest you get the fuck off the floor and prepare to fight for her.”

The demon vanished, cold air washing over him in its wake. The demon. Tennyson had sorely underestimated the demon’s power, and their alliance. Tennyson was under no illusion that Branik was going to let him simply walk away with Amber.

Tennyson had watched, frozen in place for God only knew how long, while the bastard tortured and maimed her. Branik intended to keep his little doll for himself. He’d seen the way the demon had touched her, used her, tested her. Hell, he’d gotten high as a kite off her pain and fear. Branik was like a junkie. He wouldn’t easily give away his source of getting stoned.

Branik and Amber appeared beside him. Branik shoved Amber at him and vanished again. Tennyson’s muscles protested, but he moved quickly enough to catch her before she fell to the ground. His cat snarled, his claws slicing from his fingertips as he held her bloodstained body against him.

“What the fuck has he done?”

Amber curled around Samson’s whelp, protecting the screaming baby with her damaged, shaking body.

“You know,” Amber said, crying out as his claws dug into her bloodstained skin. “Y-y-you watched him.”

He had, too. Branik had left him frozen, unable to move, unable to make a sound, as he’d carved, tortured, and burned Amber.

Tennyson tried to snatch the baby from her. He wanted her out of this place. He wanted her, period. He’d leave the brat as the payment he’d promised Branik, then maybe the demon wouldn’t hunt him down to get Amber back. Maybe Tennyson could get out of this mess alive. Alive, and with his mate, because he wasn’t leaving her for the demon. Amber was his.

Chapter 12

Hudson howled, long and low as the scent of fresh, sweet, vanilla-scented blood seeped from the ground around him. He pawed at the earth, his coyote prepared to dig through solid rock if necessary. Amber was being hurt. She was being hurt while they stood here debating how fucking cold cold was.

“I know, Hudson,” Aiden said. Tanner and Fergus snarled, their cats obviously scenting the same thing Hudson had. “They’re hurting her again. We have to move now, Brody.”

Brody nodded and waved his arms, ushering them all to move back. Hudson moved quickly behind Brody, not wanting to delay him for even a second. When Brody was satisfied they were all back as far as he wanted, he turned his back on them and stared at the ground.

Hudson choked on his snarl of frustration as the ground shook so violently they were all knocked off their feet. Elliot’s massive bear swept Brody up in one thick arm as the ground disappeared from beneath his feet.

As soon as the ground stopped bumping and rocking, Hudson sprang to his feet and ran to the edge of a long chasm in the earth. Twenty feet below was a stone path that led back into the earth. A tunnel.

Hudson was already sliding through the loose dirt as he ran for the tunnel, following the strong scent of Amber’s blood, when Mason gave the order for them to move.

“They’re together,” Aiden said. “I can touch her mind now. She’s fighting Tennyson for Stephen.”

Hudson felt the vampire brush past him as he ran down the tunnel leading away from the cottage. He could hear the others following close on his heels as he ran into the tunnel’s complete darkness. Even his enhanced vision didn’t help after he’d rounded a few corners. Shifters were as blind as humans in total darkness.

He relied on his other senses to navigate, until he ran into a solid stone wall. “It ends here,” Aiden said. “I can hear them, sense them, but there’s no doorway, no window, nothing.”

“Can’t you just push in the stone wall?” Mason asked. Hudson could hear everyone’s breathing and heartbeats, but could see nothing in the absolute darkness.

“I could,” Aiden said harshly, “But I’d collapse the tunnel on everyone, Amber and Stephen included.”

“Sorry,” Mason said. “I can feel her. It’s like she’s right here.” Hudson heard a thump, and dirt rained down on him.

“How do we get through this?” Samson said. “Aiden, what’s happening with my cub and Amber?”

“It’s a maze of solid stone rooms down here,” Brody said. “This tunnel was probably only used by Branik when he constructed his prison. Each room has no exit or entry. He alone is the key, the only way out for anyone he puts inside them”

Hudson’s coyote tried to slip his control. It howled as Hudson threw himself at the stone in frustration. He had to do something. Brody couldn’t take them inside with his power unless Branik himself took Brody inside first, and that wasn’t likely to happen.

They were going to be standing here, helpless, as their mate was either killed or taken to another such prison the demon would construct.

“Amber can’t seem to hear me,” Aiden said. “I can hear her, but for some reason she’s not hearing me. Hudson and Dylan, you need to reach for her, find a link. The other human mates, they can hear their men if their men are shifted.”

Hudson growled and heard Dylan’s answering growl. They could try to reach her with their minds, but they needed to get to her with their bodies if they were going to protect her.

“Brody,” Aiden said, his voice tight with anger. “There’s no more time, you need to act now. Tennyson…the baby.”

* * * *

“No, you can’t have him,” Amber cried. She ignored the searing pain in her arms as Tennyson tightened his hold on her. Tennyson shook her until her teeth chattered together.

“Let the spawn go. Branik can take him as payment while we escape.”

Amber was thrown to the ground as Branik yanked her from Tennyson’s hold. She screamed as she cushioned the baby against her body. She ignored her own pain, wanting only to keep him from being hurt.

“And how exactly are you going to affect this escape?” Branik said silkily.

The baby had stopped crying, he was blinking rapidly as he stared up at her with his blue eyes wide. “What is it, little man?” she said. “Are you hurt?” She kissed his head, and he smiled at her.

“I gave you the baby,” Tennyson screamed.

Amber tore her gaze from the smiling baby as Branik’s cold laugh filled the room. “Gave me. Are you really as stupid as you look? I took them both. All you did was find their sweet innocence for me.”

Branik was staring up at Tennyson, who now floated some ten feet off the ground. Blood began to seep from Tennyson’s nose as his mouth opened and shut in a strangled scream.

“Maybe I should let you live. Your life could be your finder’s fee.”

“Please.” The whisper came from behind Amber. “Please.”

It was a little louder the second time, and Amber recognized the sorrow-filled voice. Stephen tipped his head back toward the voice. Amber held Stephen close and struggled to stand. She was shaking like a newborn calf, but her legs held as she turned toward the darkened corner of the stone room.

Ignoring the taunts Branik was throwing at Tennyson, Amber squinted into the darkness as she shuffled forward. “Can I help you now? I’m Amber. Stephen and I will help you.” A weak promise, but if there was another prisoner down here, Amber would do all she could to help them get away from the monster holding them.

“Please,” she said again. Definitely a woman, Amber decided. “Kill me.”

“No,” Amber cried, shuffling forward into the dark corner where the light from the candle barely penetrated. “I heard a coyote. That was my men, they’re coming…”

Amber’s words froze in her throat, a choking noise replacing them. A maelstrom of jumbled thoughts and images flooded into Amber’s mind until she thought her head would explode.

“How is this possible? How could anyone have done this to you?” Amber winced as she painfully rearranged Stephen until she held him on her hip with one arm. She reached for the woman and clasped her hand.

“We’re not leaving you behind, Sienna.”

* * * *

Dylan’s head felt like he’d been hit with a sledgehammer. He’d called, he’d screamed, and he’d pushed with his mind, but Amber remained out of his reach. Hudson was doing the same, and his screams of frustration echoed his own.

“If such a thing is even possible, we’re not having any success,” Dylan said.

“It’s possible,” Tanner said. “Melanie was able to hear her men when she was abducted.”

“Both times,” Fergus added.

“Stand back,” Elliot boomed. “Let Brody in.”

Dylan had never been anywhere this dark, yet another thing that was driving his coyote wild. He leapt to the side when a three-hundred-pound bear stepped on his paw. He yelped as he landed on a cougar and earned himself a vicious swipe to the face.

Light filled the dark space, its suddenness and intensity making Dylan turn away, blinking wildly as the image of the light continued to flash before him.

The pervading cold he’d ceased to notice disappeared, as the area grew warm and then unbearably hot. Bodies, furry and clothed, bumped together as they moved away from the scalding heat.

“Baby,” Elliot said slowly, the word clearly spoken as a warning for his mate.

“Done,” Brody said. “They’re not in this one.”

The light and fire returned. Now that Dylan was farther away, and the light not such a shock to his eyes, he was able to see what Brody was doing.

“He’s making windows,” Aiden said. “Brilliant, little demon. I could kiss you.” A growl shook the tunnel. “A figure of speech, young bear. I won’t kiss your mate.”

Brody was standing in the middle of the tunnel, he had his hands outstretched, and the solid stone wall before him was glowing bright red. On the opposite side of the tunnel, an area the size of Elliot was shimmering in the reflected light.

A large round window was embedded in the solid stone wall. Dylan was forced to look away again as the light flared impossibly brighter. In the surrounding darkness, it seemed more intense than the sun.

“I think it actually may be brighter than the sun,” Aiden whispered in his mind.

“They’re here,” Brody cried. He stepped back quickly as Mason and Samson surged forward, the bone knives ready in their hands.

“Will this shatter like ordinary glass?” Mason asked.

Dylan suspected there couldn’t possibly be anything ordinary about glass made from solid stone in the space of a few seconds.

“It will shatter when I cool it,” Brody said. “Are you ready?”

“Now,” Samson said.

A crack split the air. Brody’s constructed window shattered, and the soft tinkling of falling glass was drowned out by an agonized scream.

They poured into the room, their combined anger a palpable wave of raw power flowing before them. Dylan and the pride surrounded the man in the center of the room. He ignored them, despite their numbers. His sole focus remaining fixed on the man floating near the ceiling.

“Leave now, and I’ll spare the woman’s life.”

Dylan had his orders, protect Amber. Hudson, Tanner, and Fergus joined him as he backed away from the Nephilim. He could see his mate. She was naked, bloody, and not alone, as she huddled in the far corner of the solid stone room.

Fire roared across the room, barring his path to Amber. It burned hotly, licking the stone ceiling and forming a solid barrier between them and his mate. Dylan roared as he spun. He crouched, his muscles tensing for his leap, the Nephilim’s throat his target.

“We can play all day,” the cruel, cold voice taunted. “I’ll win in the end.”

Dylan’s paws began to burn, he tried to take a step but found himself unable to move. He looked at the floor and saw a thick mist was now covering the bare stone.

“I can’t move,” Hudson said.

“Don’t you think it’s us who’ll be winning?” Samson jeered.

“Ah, one of the cub’s fathers. How is his other daddy? Oops. That’s right. He had a little accident, didn’t he?”

Samson’s snarl was all cougar, and Dylan could see he was struggling the same as they all were. They were frozen to the floor. It seemed this Nephilim had a penchant for the cold. Aiden stood beside Samson, his features hardening as his fangs descended past his lips. He looked deadly, but was apparently as useless as the rest of them currently were.

“Care to tell them why they’ll lose?” Tennyson fell to the ground with a sickening thump. “Tell them!” the Nephilim screamed, his face contorting in rage as the room shook.

“Because…” Tennyson said, a wet cough racking his body as he struggled to a sitting position. “Branik is a god.”

* * * *

Amber had her back to the fire as she shielded Stephen and poor Sienna with her body. The flames were real, hot, and creeping closer by the second, pushed toward them by an invisible hand.

Sienna lifted her gaze to Amber’s. Her eyes were a pale, soft blue. “Why are you here?” she asked, tipping her head to the side, her brows furrowed.

“I’m trying to shield you from the fire,” Amber said, jiggling Stephen as he started to cry again.

“Are they not your men?”

Sienna was beautiful, stunning even, and that was despite her being dressed in only a filthy scrap of rag that barely covered her breasts. Her skin was coated with thick dirt, blood, and other unmentionable substances. Skin that was golden, like she’d been painted by sunshine. Her hair was long and the darkest black, but that might have only been because it was a tangled, dirty mess.

“Don’t you want to be with your men?”

Now Amber was confused. “I want to be with my men. I want Stephen to be back with his mother and fathers, one of whom is out there fighting to get to us.”

“Then go, leave me to the flames. I will finally be free.”

“Not going to happen, Sienna. We all get out of here together, don’t we, Stephen?” Amber bounced Stephen and kissed him, the baby quieting again as she soothed him.

“I saw into your mind, Amber.”

“I know. I felt you in there. You told me your name and…” Amber paused, as tears sprang to her eyes.

“I didn’t mean to share those memories,” Sienna said, sadness again filling her voice. “I’ve been so alone, for so long. I’m unpracticed in the arts that were once as simple as breathing for me.”

“I hope you have the opportunity to become proficient again,” Amber said, hissing as the flames started to grow so close they burned her.

“Can you touch this?” Sienna raised her arm. It was adorned with a wide, intricately carved bracelet that looked to be made of ivory.

“Like this?” Amber touched the bracelet with her finger and waited for something magical to happen. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you want me to do.”

Sienna’s pale blue eyes began to darken shade by shade until they were almost indigo. “It has a pin holding it together.” Sienna lifted her arm again and winced as the bracelet moved.

Amber watched Sienna’s skin redden and blister. The bracelet was burning her, just like the fire was burning her as it grew closer by the second. Amber’s back was burning from the heat radiating off the flames. She’d be scorched before the fire licked at her flesh. She knew that from experience. Her arms throbbed painfully as the proof of the fire’s evil.

Amber saw the pin Sienna had indicated. A scant quarter inch extended from either end of the bracelet, and Amber tried to pull it free with her broken, dirty fingernails. “If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll free you of this torturous piece of crap.”

As she pried a little more of the pin free, Amber was finally able to grasp it between her fingers and yank it free. The cruel bracelet clattered to the ground.

* * * *

Lucas was in hell. He was standing helpless as the Nephilim brought hell to this room. Lucas quickly glanced over his shoulder to see if Hudson and Dylan had managed to get to Amber.

“Fuck.” They were nowhere near her. A wall of fire separated her and the baby from Hudson, Dylan, Tanner, and Fergus. Their job had been to protect Amber and Stephen while the rest of them killed the Nephilim and Tennyson. None of them had succeeded.

The room was rapidly filling with mist, a mist that smelled strongly of sulfur. Lucas tried again to move, but remained frozen in place by some unknown force as the mist rapidly rose. If the mist was pure sulfur, as he suspected, then they’d be dead in minutes once they were forced to breathe it in. With them frozen in place like this, then there’d be no choice but to breathe it in.

“Seems our plan has gone to hell,” Lucas muttered, trying in vain to move.

Tennyson struggled to stand as the mist covered him completely. He screamed, his fractured bones crunching and grinding as he began to writhe in agony. Lucas turned his gaze back to Branik, ignoring Tennyson’s suffering. The bastard deserved a painful death, as did the Nephilim. Now they just had to kill him.

“You bring children to fight a god, vampire?” Branik’s taunts were wasted on them. Tennyson might have fallen for the bastard’s lies, they wouldn’t.

“Be ready.” The warning was spoken into his mind. Aiden’s voice again. Lucas tensed, and though he was still unable to move, he trusted that Aiden had something planned.

“Actually, he brought a demon to fight a Nephilim, Branik,” Brody said simply. Then Lucas saw what hell must truly look like.

The fire that raged behind them rose and burned across the stone ceiling. All the surrounding mist swirled and gathered around Branik, moving faster and faster until it was a noxious tornado with him at its center. The tornado rose higher until it collided with the fire still burning brightly across the ceiling. The gas and fire ignited into blazing blue conflagration. Branik’s screams were barely audible over the whoosh of burning gas.

Lucas was so mesmerized by the fiery tornado he failed to notice he was no longer fixed in place until Samson and Mason rushed toward the burning tornado, their bone knives clasped in their hands.

Branik’s keening wail was a high-pitched accompaniment to the roar of the tornado as it consumed the last of the poisonous sulfur he’d created. Lucas joined Nash as they completed the ring of men surrounding the Nephilim.

The fire, the tornado, the deafening roar, all vanished with a loud crack. Lucas’s ears rang as Branik’s screams echoed through the room.

Samson was a blur as he rushed the Nephilim, Mason moving in from the opposite side. Samson’s knife sank into Branik’s chest as Mason’s was driven into his back. The Nephilim didn’t scream. He exploded, his body reduced to a cloud of blood and bone.

Lucas didn’t wait to see what would happen next. The path to his mate was clear now, and he was the one tasked with making sure she lived until Brody was able to take her to Jason. He’d make sure she and the cub were alive and well before he celebrated the Nephilim’s and Tennyson’s deaths.

* * * *

As soon as Dylan could move, he’d run toward his mate. The room might have been rid of the stinking gas, but his nose still burned. It affected his sense of smell so much that he’d failed to detect the scent of the woman slumped against Amber.

Dylan’s coyote almost took his control away as he drew closer and saw the condition of his mate. His beast’s ravaging need to seek vengeance turned the room red. No. The world isn’t red, just Amber. Blood.

He and Hudson were at Amber’s side in an instant. They were there to protect her until the fight was over, but his humanity was leaching away as he catalogued each of the wounds he could see. She had to have been in incredible pain, but she held baby Stephen tenderly in one arm, her other wrapped protectively around the small, dirt-covered woman at her side.

“I knew you’d come,” Amber said softly. Her voice sounded wrong. It was rough, strained, and husky. Screams. Her voice is broken because she’s been screaming.

“I want to turn around and tear that fucker apart,” Hudson said, his growl of rage making his whole body shake.

Dylan butted his head against hers, closed his eyes, and let her sweet vanilla scent replace the smell of the gas. Mate. “We need to keep her safe,” Dylan said. “We can’t fail her again.”

“The baby?” Fergus asked, his mental voice strained. He and Tanner were to protect the baby.

“We can protect them both,” Dylan said, his gaze flicking to Hudson. Hudson sat beside Amber and leaned into her. She immediately leaned back against his large, furry body.

“I’m so cold, Hudson.” Amber began to shake. Now she felt safe her adrenaline would be crashing, leaving the cold and shock to race through her. “The baby. He’s hungry. We need to get him to Bethany.”

“Amber,” Lucas said, his voice cracking as he squatted next to Dylan. “I’m so sorry, baby. This will keep you warm.” He opened a thin metal blanket and spread it over Amber and the small woman beside her.

Samson pushed past them, shoving Dylan aside as he squatted next to Lucas. Dylan couldn’t understand how Samson had managed to stay sane while his cub had been missing, so he took a step back to allow the man to reclaim his son.

“I’m so sorry for your pain, Amber,” Samson said, his arms shaking as he reached out to take the baby from Amber’s bloody and blistered arms. “Is any of this blood Stephen’s?”

“No,” Amber said, clasping Samson’s arm with her small hand as her words rushed out. “He’s hungry, and probably cold, but not harmed. I promise you. I checked, he’s perfect. I tried…” Amber’s eyes filled with tears, and they spilled down her cheeks as she began to cry.

“I tried to keep him safe, Samson.”

Samson nodded. “Thank you, Amber.” His gaze swept quickly over Amber. “I suspect you’ve suffered greatly to protect my son.” He stood stiffly and nodded to Lucas. “I’ll have Brody take us home and ask he return immediately for your mate.”

Samson left, and Mason immediately took his place.

“Amber.” Mason breathed her name as he took her hand. “I love you so much, sweetheart.”

“Is it over?” Amber asked, her eyes wide with fear as she looked past them.

When Mason nodded, Dylan let the shift take him. He needed to tell Amber he loved her. The minute he’d shifted Nash crashed into him.

“No.” The word was stretched out as he screamed at Dylan.

Fergus and Tanner converged on Amber, their cougars snarling, their fur bristling.

“Ah, fate has stepped in again it seems.” Aiden’s calm voice was incongruous with the tension in the air.

“What the fuck?” Dylan said, pushing Nash off him so he could stand again. Tanner and Fergus continued to growl as they paced back forth in front of Amber, barring him from getting to her.

“You’re naked,” Nash said, his voice tight with anger. He quickly shrugged off his shirt and threw it at Dylan. “Don’t go near her again unless you’re fucking dressed.”

Nash and his brothers moved back toward Amber. “Amber’s seen me naked.” Dylan was getting pissed. Amber was hurt, and for some unknown reason, the Willis brothers had suddenly become prudes.

“Amber may have,” Aiden said seriously. “But Sienna hasn’t.”

Chapter 13

Amber was warm and pain-free. Two things she never thought she’d feel again. The thought that she might be dreaming had her body instantly tensing.

“You’re safe, sweetheart,” Mason said. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”

“Am I dreaming?” Amber didn’t want to wake up if she were. She’d rather stay asleep than face the reality of those stone rooms. “Stephen.”

Amber struggled to sit up. She’d fallen asleep and left the baby alone. “Oh shit. What have I done?”

“Shh,” Hudson soothed. The sound was wrong when it was spoken in Hudson’s deep, rough voice. “Stephen is safe. He’s here with his mom and dads. You kept the baby from harm, Amber.”

Amber opened her eyes, unable to hide any longer. If this wasn’t a dream, then she’d need to find Stephen and Sienna.

Amber recognized the stark white walls lined with medical equipment. Now that she was fully awake, she heard the beep of a heart monitor. She was safe. They came for her. She swung her head around, frantically searching for all of her mates. “Branik! He’s, he’s…” She had no idea what he was, but he was very, very dangerous.

“Dead,” Mason said flatly.

Mason. Mason was sitting on the bed beside her. Amber touched his cheek with her hand, ignoring the pain as the burn to her arm stretched. Mason was alive. She struggled to remember how she got here. She remembered flames, coyotes, Samson. Then nothing.

“So is the shifter Tennyson,” Dylan said. Amber looked up. Way up. Dylan was standing beside the bed, his dark hair tousled, his blue eyes shining. She reached out her hand, and he engulfed it in his. His huge, rough, warm hand. He was alive.

Amber turned her head searching for Hudson and Lucas. They were there, too. They both sat on the bed on her other side. She needed to touch them, and she could. They were here, they were alive, and they were hers. Their smiles were warm, their eyes troubled.

“What is it? What’s wrong? Did someone get hurt?”

As happy as Amber was to be here with her mates, she couldn’t bear it if someone had been hurt affecting her rescue. A rescue she seemed unable to fully recall.

Ten minutes and a lot of tears later, Amber knew everything her men, and the pride, had done to rescue her. She had never felt so loved and accepted before. They had come for Stephen as well, of course, but it seemed she’d been just as important to the pride, and it left her feeling humbled.

“Why do you all look so worried? Are you keeping something from me?” Amber felt their hesitancy in their every touch. Saw it in their eyes.

“We’re fine,” Lucas said, his voice flat and not in the least reassuring.

“I can hear Amber’s awake. Can I come in, please?” Bethany stuck her head in the door anyway.

“Is Stephen…” was all Amber got out before Bethany walked into the room, the baby safe in her arms.

“He’s perfect, Amber.” Bethany kissed the baby, who smiled at his mother, his chubby fist holding tight to a lock of his mother’s white-blond hair. “Can we possibly speak alone for just a minute?” Bethany smiled at them, but her gaze held steely determination. She wanted to speak to Amber alone, and she’d use her husband’s brute force, if necessary, to make it happen.

“One minute,” Hudson said, his tone equally implacable. “And then I’ll be back in here.”

Four hot, deep kisses later and Amber’s head was spinning as Lucas closed the door behind him, leaving her and Bethany alone.

“Hudson wasn’t kidding,” Amber said by way of warning. Bethany better hurry up and say what was on her mind before all her men were back to hear it.

Bethany smiled warmly and reached for Amber’s hand. It wasn’t until she squeezed it softly that Amber felt the pain of the burns again. She didn’t mean to gasp, but it hurt. It seemed all her pain was returning now she was fully awake.

“Sorry,” Bethany said, quickly releasing her. “There’s hardly an inch of you that isn’t damaged. I’m so sorry, Amber.”

Amber shook her head. “You did nothing wrong, Bethany. Tennyson started all of this because of me. Because I got drunk and danced with him that night. It was my fault, all of it.” Amber tried not to cry, but tears leaked out anyway.

“We can discuss that misconception in detail later, but you need to know, he’d done it before to other women. Tennyson was sick and twisted.”

Amber nodded, the heart monitor seeming to count down the seconds remaining until her men came back.

“I needed to see you alone to tell you something important.” Bethany glanced at the closed door and lowered her voice. “You need to tell them whether Tennyson or the other man raped you.”

Amber stopped breathing. “That…that was certainly not what I imagined you needed to say.”

“I was abducted.” Bethany waved her hand dismissively when Amber opened her mouth to say she was sorry for Bethany’s ordeal. “My men were distraught over the whole ordeal, naturally, but what really tortured them was wondering if I was raped by that bastard and not knowing how to broach the subject with me.”

Bethany stood as the door opened, and Hudson charged in. “Sixty-one seconds. I had to knock Samson out to get past him.”

Bethany smiled at Amber, despite Hudson having just hurt her mate. “I’d watch your back then, Hudson. Payback’s a bitch.” Bethany nodded at her and waved Stephen’s little hand. “Bye-bye, Auntie Amber.” She sobered again. “Thank you for keeping my baby safe. We’ll talk later, because I want to know about every single second he was away from me.”

Amber nodded. She could understand that. She’d tell Bethany everything that happened. Otherwise she’d be tortured, too.

“Where’s Sienna?” Amber wasn’t trying to change the subject. She’d really just forgotten to ask until now.

“She’s safe,” Bethany said, her smile warm again. “She’s still asleep, or unconscious, Jason can’t determine which. But she’s being closely guarded.”

Once Bethany was gone, Amber felt the weight of her mates’ stares on her. She was exhausted. They’d told her she was away from them for less than half a day, but it had seemed like much longer when she’d been in that cold dark room.

“We’re here for you, sweetheart,” Mason said. “You know that, right?” He slid onto the bed behind her and gently tugged her closer to lean against his wide, firm chest. His woodsy scent surrounded her as he enfolded her in his arms.

“We love you unconditionally. Nothing,” Dylan said emphatically, “nothing will ever change that.” Dylan and Hudson sat on either side of the bed, their hands sliding under the blanket to stroke softly over an undamaged section of her thigh.

“You’ll need to talk about your ordeal at some stage,” Lucas said. “Whenever you feel able, we’ll be here for you. In your own time, of course. We won’t rush you.” Hudson grunted at Lucas’s statement.

If Bethany hadn’t talked to her, she would have missed the hidden subtext in their words. She would have blurted out everything that had happened, never realizing they needed reassurance over what hadn’t happened. She wouldn’t have talked about any sexual assault, and they would have worried she’d omitted it because she wanted to spare them.

“Bethany is a wonderful woman,” Amber said. Dylan and Lucas frowned and Hudson grunted again. “What was Branik? I know he wasn’t a shifter.”

“He was a monster,” Hudson said icily.

Amber was tired and in pain. She also didn’t know how much longer she’d be able to stay awake, and she needed to tell her men what had happened when she’d been taken. She was dressed in a lovely hospital gown, so she guessed they’d seen everything Branik had done with his knife.

“He seemed to enjoy, no, that’s not right. He seemed to almost crave my emotions. What sort of person does that?”

“He wasn’t a person,” Lucas said. “He was one of the other creatures the supernatural world has spawned.”

“We knew nothing of his kind until we came here,” Dylan said. “Apparently angels are real.”

“An angel choosing to live on earth can have children with humans,” Lucas said, taking Amber’s hand in his and kissing it softly. “Their offspring are called Nephilim. That’s what Branik was. Angels pass down some powers to these Nephilim, but immortality is not one of their gifts.”

“To become immortal, they siphon…” Amber felt Mason’s shrug. “Or maybe absorb? I’m not sure of this part, Brody explains it better.”

“They get to live longer by sucking the life from people,” Hudson said tightly. His brows were furrowed, and his expression pained. “Bottom line, the nicer the person, the more years they’re able to stay alive. The torture and pain were just a way for him to drink from your soul.”

Amber shuddered. The explanation was harsh, but it actually answered all her questions. “Thank you, Hudson. That was exactly what it felt like when he was hurting me. He was like a demonic leech.”

“No, baby,” Lucas said, kissing her hand again. “Our new friend Brody is a demon, and he’s already immortal. He doesn’t need to leech off humans.”

Amber couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up and wouldn’t be restrained. Her men just stared at her like she was having a breakdown, which made her laugh harder.

“Should we get Jason?” Hudson asked softly, but Amber still heard him. “She might be unstable.”

Amber leaned forward and cupped his cheek with her hand. “Ouch.” The pain from the cuts made her laughter dry up. “I was laughing at the absurdity of our conversation. We were discussing demons and leeches, and it made perfect sense. That’s crazy.”

Hudson smiled and Amber’s stomach fluttered. Hudson was rough and abrasive, but he was so beautiful when he smiled at her like that.

“What’s crazy is how much I love you,” Hudson said, kissing her hand and then holding it against his cheek.

“I love you, too,” Amber said. “I love you all so much.” Tears flowed from her eyes again and Amber lost the fight with her fatigue. She was warm in Mason’s arms, surrounded by her men and she was safe. She relaxed and let sleep claim her, confident her men would keep her safe.

* * * *

Mason was glad Amber was getting some sleep, but was also frustrated at his ignorance over what exactly Branik had done to his mate. When he’d seen her small body covered in so much blood, he thought he’d lose her. Later, when he was helping Jason clean and dress all her wounds, he thought he’d lose his mind with rage.

“Stop growling,” Hudson said. “You’ll wake her.”

Mason hadn’t been consciously growling. He wondered if perhaps he had lost his mind. “She’s so small, but so strong,” Mason said, gently kissing the top of Amber’s head.

“She is,” Hudson said. “I wasn’t ignorant of the mechanics of shifters and matings, but I didn’t know I’d love her so much.”

“I didn’t either,” Dylan said. “It’s not simply love is it?”

“No,” Lucas said. “It’s more. I need her. Not to make my dinner or wash my clothes.” Mason snorted as he tried not to laugh. “I need her so I can keep on breathing. There’s no reason to without her.”

“I feel the same,” Amber said sleepily. “And I won’t be washing your damned clothes, either.”

Mason loved his mate. “Does that mean you’re saying yes to cooking dinners?”

“Only if you all want to starve to death. I can’t cook anything but burned toast.”

“No problem,” Dylan said. “Jordanna is a chef, and Melanie has even taught Bethany to cook. You’ll learn soon enough.”

They were all laughing when Jason came to check on Amber’s wounds. She’d only been asleep for two hours, but was healing at a rapid rate. Some of the smaller wounds were healed completely, with only faint pink scars remaining.

“Only one or two of these cuts will leave a permanent scar,” Jason said. “The pigment of your skin may be a little paler when the burns finish healing, but you’re so fair, I don’t think they’ll be noticeable.”

“Thank you, Jason,” Mason said. “Can we take Amber home now?”

Jason hesitated. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before looking directly at Amber. “I haven’t thanked you for keeping my baby safe.” Amber opened her mouth, and Jason’s eyes narrowed dangerously. Amber remained silent.

“Aiden told me what he heard from Tennyson’s mind. You fought a much larger, much stronger man to keep my son safe, and you did it while you yourself were severely injured.”

Mason’s head pounded as his rage burned hotly. He had no outlet for his anger. Tennyson was already dead. He hadn’t thought to ask Aiden for information on Amber’s ordeal. Now he wished he had.

Amber lowered her head and wrapped her arms around her waist protectively. She was hiding something very painful. Her scent betrayed this fact, and Jason didn’t miss it.

“What else did you do to keep my son safe?”

Amber began to shake, lowering her head even more. “Amber,” Hudson said, his voice soft, his tone tender. “Jason will go crazy if he doesn’t know what was done to his cub. Imagining what was done is much worse than knowing. Believe me.”

Mason was shocked again at how wonderful a mate Hudson was. How loving, caring, and intuitive he was. Envisioning what was done to Amber was fucking killing him. Nothing she could say would be worse than the scenarios his vivid imagination was torturing him with.

When Amber raised her head, her eyes were haunted, but she wore a determined expression. “I didn’t know he was there at first. Branik took me to that room.” She shuddered and Mason hugged her tighter.

“You’re not there, honey,” Hudson said, cupping her chin so she met his gaze. “You’re here with us.”

“I don’t know where Stephen was at first, maybe Sienna knows. I held him. I-I caught him when Branik threw him in the flames. I was in the dark for a long time then. I couldn’t see if he’d been burned.” Amber’s eyes were wide, her mind back in that room. “Then I held him until Samson came for him.”

“He was hungry when Samson brought him home. Hungry, but otherwise perfect,” Jason said. “Thank you, Amber. You can take Amber home, Mason. Call me if you need anything. Anything at all.”

When Jason left them, Mason stood, Amber in his arms and ran from that room. Amber’s screams had seemed to echo in the silence. That same painful silence continued as they drove to their new home. Mason felt helpless to break it.

Then Amber began to talk. She told them everything that had happened from the minute Branik had taken her. They were still sitting in the truck as the sun came up. Amber dispelled all their demons into the darkness, leaving them free to enjoy the pale glow of the new day’s light.

“I’m starving. Are we going to sit here all day?” Hudson said, with a perfectly deadpan expression.

Amber solemnly wiped the last of her tears from her cheeks. “I told you I can’t cook, so don’t look at me.”

Mason was looking forward to the next couple of centuries with his mate and his brothers. Fate had gifted him with a priceless treasure when she’d chosen Amber as his mate.

Chapter 14

Lucas held Amber on his lap as he finished his breakfast. Close to his heart, where she belonged forever now. She’d fallen asleep after only a few mouthfuls of breakfast, her head resting on his encircling arm.

Hudson was staring at her with a worried frown. “She’s too thin. She needs to eat.”

“She needs to heal,” Lucas said. “She’ll do that faster when she’s asleep.” His brothers followed him as he took Amber upstairs to their room. The room had become theirs when they’d mated Amber. They would modernize the bedroom, the entire house, but this would always be their room. Lucas would make sure of it.

He knew he was being hopelessly sentimental, but the room was special to him now. He’d gained more than a mate when Amber had agreed to their mating, he had a family now, and Hudson was bound tightly to them. He’d never lose his brother again.

Lucas woke with a delicious heat enveloping his cock. Lifting the covers, he saw Amber was still between him and Hudson, only now she had his cock in her mouth, and Hudson was moaning as she stroked his glistening cock with her hand.

The sight of her mouth stretched tight around his hardening cock had his balls drawing up tight to his body. “If you don’t stop, I’ll be coming down your throat in seconds.” Lucas’s voice was husky from the combination of sleep and lust.

Amber wrapped her hand around his cock and smiled sweetly as she moved to Hudson and swallowed his cock with a slow slide of her mouth. The bandages her hands had been wrapped in were discarded beneath the covers. Her hands were pink, but otherwise, the new skin was perfect.

“Fuck. I want to wake up like this forever.” Hudson’s muscles were tensed as hips jerked spasmodically. He was close to the edge, too.

Lucas threw off the covers and knelt by Amber’s head. Her hand continued its soft stroking as he caressed his hands down her back, trailing kisses in his hand’s wake.

He molded her small, firm ass in his hands before sliding one hand between her parted thighs to stroke over her sex.

“So hot and wet,” Lucas said, his cock jerking as the scent of Amber’s sweet arousal filled the air.

Amber’s mouth covered his cock, and she moaned as he circled her swollen clit with his thumb and stroked two fingers up into her pussy.

“Shit.” Lucas pulled free of Amber’s mouth as his orgasm roared up on him. “Too soon, baby. I want to be inside you when I come and your mouth is a fucking deadly weapon.”

Amber groaned and circled her hips, pushing herself down harder onto his pumping fingers. “Lucas.” His name was a plea he would never ignore.

He softly pulled his fingers free of her pussy and moved until he was kneeling behind her. He couldn’t resist bending to lick across her folds, her juices were sweet like her, and he moaned as her taste drove his coyote wild with lust.

Amber returned her mouth to Hudson’s cock, and they both moaned in pleasure. Lucas aligned his cock at her entrance and nearly passed out from pleasure as he sank slowly inside her tight heat. He savored the pleasure as he tightened his hold on Amber’s hips.

“Don’t move yet, baby, or this will be over way too quickly.”

Amber bobbed her head up and down faster, Hudson’s moans of pleasure turning into a roar of pleasure as his hips jerked and he came.

Lucas couldn’t stay still. Amber felt too good and the sight of her pleasuring his brother too erotic. His cock was pulsing, his orgasm so close it was nearly at the point of no return as he began to rock his hips.

He wanted Amber with him when he came. He pumped faster as he lowered his chest to her back and slid a hand around her hips to her clit. Her pussy was fluttering around his swelling cock as he moved faster and harder, sinking balls deep with every thrust.

With just a soft caress of her clit, Amber screamed out her pleasure. Lucas lost his hold on his orgasm and it tore through him, his whole body shaking as he held himself deep inside Amber. He came long and hard as Amber’s tight pussy pulsed around him.

Lucas was still gasping as he wrapped Amber in his arms and rolled to the bed. Amber’s pussy was still fluttering as her breathing slowed.

“Wow.” Amber rotated her hips and arched her back. “You feel so good, Lucas.”

“Good is not a word I’d ever use to describe how you feel,” Lucas huffed out a laugh. “Fantastic, incredible, lush, delectable. Those are more in the realm of how you feel to me, my mate.”

“I’ll work on my vocab,” Amber said with a small grin.

“I think fucking amazing just about covers it,” Hudson said, lowering his mouth to Amber’s for a long impassioned kiss.

“Amber likes kissing you,” Lucas said, reluctantly pulling free of Amber’s pussy as he heard his brothers running up the stairs. “Her pussy’s hot and wet again.”

Hudson moaned into Amber’s mouth and she wrapped her arms around his neck, keeping him close. Mason and Dylan would be anxious to know how Amber was feeling, and the smell of her arousal was going to tell them she felt better.

Lucas kissed Amber’s shoulder as he rose from the bed. Her wounds were healing amazingly fast for a human, but the evidence of all she’d suffered tortured him. He had to shower and go on patrol. They were a part of this pride now, and its protection was the Alpha’s number one priority. With his new knowledge of the evils in the supernatural world, Lucas was more than willing to play his part in that protection.

“We’re needed on patrol, Hudson,” Lucas said, laughing as Hudson flipped him the bird without breaking his kiss.

“Holy fuck,” Dylan said, tearing off his clothes as he inhaled deeply.

Lucas’s cock was hard and aching again, his thirst for his mate nowhere near slacked.

Mason’s gaze was fixed on Amber as he addressed Lucas. “Everything’s quiet.”

“Not for long.” Dylan picked Amber up by the waist and pulled her close. “How does a shower sound, my sexy mate?”

“Like heaven,” Amber sighed. “But only if you both help me.” Amber’s smile was teasing and so damned sexy. “I might fall down if you aren’t there to help me.”

“You’ll never shower alone again.” Mason’s assurance was a promise to Amber and a dismissal for him and Hudson.

“We’ll be back soon,” Lucas said, holding a hand out to Hudson as his brother let out a pained groan. “We’ll all be here tonight with our mate.”

Hudson shifted and ran from the room, just as anxious as Lucas was to complete their time on patrol and return to their mate. Lucas felt a sadness creep through him. Two hundred years with Amber was too brief a time. He’d make certain he made the most of every single minute of those years.

* * * *

Dylan savored the feel of Amber wet and warm in his arms. Mason was rubbing body wash over every inch of Amber’s front, cleansing away the touch of evil. They’d been back from that island for less than a day, and already the worst of Amber’s wounds were nearly completely healed.

“Don’t.” Amber pulled her arm free from Mason’s hold as he kissed the pale pink scar of a long knife wound.

“It shows how brave you were,” Mason said, clasping her chin and tilting her head up so she met his burning gaze.

“It doesn’t. I screamed, Mason. I screamed and he liked it.”

Dylan was glad she was talking to them about her ordeal, but was fighting his coyote for control as he remembered that bloodstained table with the metal restraints and easily pictured Amber laying there screaming.

“Yet you protected Stephen and Sienna when they needed you.” Dylan kissed Amber’s wet hair and squeezed her tighter to his much larger body. “You fought for them, burned to protect them from harm.”

Amber sagged in his arms, and Mason took her arm and kissed the wound again. “I still feel it was all my fault. I danced with him when I was crazy drunk.” Amber’s soft words were filled with regret and sadness.

Mason’s expression grew dark. “Branik had held Sienna captive for a long time from what Jason can deduce. Was that your fault, too?”

“Are you angry at Mason for unknowingly leaving you in pain when he returned to Duckwater?”

Amber’s head snapped up, and she shot an angry glare at him. “Of course not. He had no more idea what was happening than I did.”

Dylan raised an eyebrow at her and smiled warmly. “But you hold yourself responsible for the actions of a maniacal shifter and a demented Nephilim?”

Amber’s smile was slow in coming, but when it did, it transformed her face. Her eyes grew warm, her pain no longer clouding the soft green of her irises. “You’re smart for a cowboy. Are you sure you never worked as a psychiatrist?”

“I’m the eldest. I just got all the good genes.”

Amber gasped as Mason’s mouth wrapped around one of her nipples. He pulled his head back and teased both nipples with his fingers. “Let me show you how much I adore you.” Mason’s eyes were glowing dimly with the red of his beast. “I need to claim you as mine, as ours.” he corrected, glancing briefly at Dylan. “It was agony when he took you from me.”

Amber wrapped her arms around Mason’s waist, kissing his chest as the hot water finally ran out. Dylan shut off the taps and pulled Amber’s long wet hair aside to nibble at the column of her neck.

“We all nearly went crazy,” Dylan said reverently.

“I knew you’d come for me. I didn’t know if I’d be alive when you came, but I knew you’d come.”

“We’d have brought you back from the dead,” Mason said, cupping Amber’s face with his hands.

“You can’t do that. It’s impossible.” Amber looked unsure, and to tell the truth, Dylan wasn’t sure it was impossible. He’d seen a lot of things that were impossible since coming to Eminence, Colorado.

Mason picked Amber up and Dylan grabbed a towel off the shelf above the sink. They dried Amber’s body before taking her to the bed.

“I need you.” Dylan’s breath was heaving out of him. He was desperate for his mate.

“I need you both,” Amber said, her pupils dilating and her cheeks blushing with her growing desire. “I need to feel you inside me. Feel you everywhere.”

“Sweetheart,” Mason said, the words turning into a moan as he opened Amber’s thighs and lay between them, licking her from ass to clit. “So fucking delicious.”

Dylan grabbed the lube from the bedside cupboard and knelt on the bed beside Amber. He leant over her, bracing himself with an arm on either side of her head as he crashed his lips down on hers.

He ate her moans as he licked and sucked on her tongue. He was never going to get enough of his mate. Never.

Amber’s scream of pleasure was muffled by his mouth as he briefly let her draw in a breath and then sealed his lips to hers again. She was then swallowing his moan as his mate’s small fingers stroked softly over his aching cock.

She teased him with featherlight caresses to the head and length of his erection. She rubbed his leaking pre-cum around the head of his cock, her fingers gliding through the slick secretion with tantalizing agony. He needed more.

“Now, Mason.” His words came out as a command, and they actually might have been. He was dangerously close to losing control. He was desperate for Amber.

Mason kissed Amber’s mound as she panted, her face flushed, her body relaxed from her orgasm. “Mine,” Mason said simply. He flipped over to lay on his back and Dylan lifted Amber up, her slight weight causing a small amount of worry to calm his raging libido.

“We need to make sure you eat.” Amber smiled at him as he lowered her onto Mason.

“I just ate. Ask Hudson.”

“I knew you were trouble.” Dylan lightly tapped her on the ass, he loved his mate’s feisty sense of humor. Hell, he loved everything about his mate. The more he discovered about her the more deeply he fell in love with her.

“Mason.” Amber breathed his brother’s name as she lowered herself onto his cock. She took him slowly inside her, lowering flat to kiss him as she slid her pussy up and down his length until she’d taken his entire length. “So big.”

“So fucking tight,” Mason said, trailing kisses across her face to his mating mark on the neck.

Amber shuddered as he licked his mark, and Dylan’s cock pulsed, dripping pre-cum on Amber’s perfect ass.

“Jesus.” Dylan flipped open the lube and squirted a generous amount onto his fingers. He coated his painfully hard dick and then massaged the rest into Amber’s tight anus. “Breathe deep and push out onto my fingers, baby.”

Amber followed his instructions, and he soon had three fingers inside her. The tight muscle of her anus now loose and pliant as Amber sank onto Mason’s cock and then rocked back against his invading digits. He needed his mate.

Gently pulling his fingers free, he guided his cock to her ass. “You’re ours, Amber.” He pushed inside the tight rings and Amber threw her head back, her mouth open, her eyes closed as she lost herself to sensation. Her moans were loud and needy as she tried to move faster.

“Just relax.” Dylan nibbled her neck and whispered the words into her ear, his chest now pressed to the silken skin of her back. “We’ve got you, baby. We’ll make you come. Trust us.”

Mason had heard the muttered words, and as their eyes met, he nodded, sinking deeply into Amber’s pussy and Dylan withdrew from her ass. Their rhythm grew faster as Amber’s moans grew louder, her pussy and ass tightening as her orgasm drew close.

Dylan’s cock was buried deep in Amber’s ass when she came. His balls drew up tight and his canines grew longer. His coyote was ready to mark his mate again. He and Mason broke their rhythm, rocking into Amber as they came with her. His cum shot deep into her ass as he slid his teeth into his mark, her blood seeping sweet and hot onto his tongue as their bond was renewed.

They all shook as their orgasms rocked them. Amber collapsed onto Mason, satiated and exhausted. Dylan relaxed onto her, a very small amount of his weight sandwiching her between them. It felt good.

“I think I like you between us like this,” Dylan said, licking over his mark and swallowing the tiny drops of blood that had leaked from the wound. “You’re completely safe. Nothing can hurt you.”

Mason chuckled as he stroked Amber’s hair away from her face. “I’m in total agreement, Dylan. But we fucked Amber into unconsciousness. She isn’t completely safe from us.”

Dylan laughed as he kissed Amber’s cheek and slid from the warmth of her body. He knew she wasn’t unconscious. She was just fast asleep. Their mate had more healing to do. He went to the bathroom and had a quick—cold—shower, returning with a cloth and finding Mason asleep as well. Neither of them had moved.

He gently wiped Amber clean before rolling her off Mason until she was sandwiched between them, their legs tangled.

Perfect. He had a mate now, and his life was perfect, despite having resigned himself to a life of solitude, a life of trying to bring Hudson back to his family, back to the land of the living. His little mate had changed everything with just one whiff of her delectable scent.

He kissed his mate and let her scent consume him. She was back in his arms, and he’d never let her go again.

Chapter 15

Amber stretched out her legs and hit hard, slightly bristled flesh. She blinked several times in the dim light and propped herself up on one elbow. She tried to make sense of what she was seeing, and as realization hit her, she threw herself into Mason’s opened arms.

“Good morning, sweetheart.” Mason kissed her, his lips fusing to hers and his tongue sliding deep, tasting her as he pulled her tight to his chest.

“Good morning, mate,” Amber said, when Mason finally released her lips. His answering smile made her stomach do a little flip-flop. Her Mason was as sexy as sin with his dark hair and midnight eyes. “You’ve got a panty-dropping smile, Mason Reeder.”

Mason barked out a laugh as he lifted the covers and stroked over her naked ass. “As long as it continues to work on you, then I’ll die a happy coyote shifter.”

“Did someone say panties?” Dylan strolled into the room, his jeans hanging low and his torso bare. He was the definition of tall, dark, and handsome. “Why thank you, Amber. But I don’t think I care to be a piece of man-candy for you to ogle.” He fanned his eyes with his hand. “I’m a person, too, and I have feelings.”

Amber relaxed back onto Mason’s chest, laughing at Dylan’s outrageous expression. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to blurting out every thought that crossed her mind, but she definitely wasn’t as embarrassed about it. Her men loved her. She trusted them with all her feelings, all her insecurities. Bottom line—she trusted them.

Hudson jumped onto the bed and shook his thick black-and-golden coat, showering them all with snow.

Lucas followed right on his heels, a pale golden coyote with white ears. Mason rolled her to the edge of the bed, caging her with his big body as Lucas and Hudson shifted. The air sparkled and snapped as they returned to human. Amber shook her head, still in awe of the reality of shape shifters.

When all her mates had said good morning to her, coyote-style, Amber was in need of another sleep. “So coyotes say good morning by making love to their mates?” Amber’s limbs felt like jelly and she didn’t think she’d be capable of walking for the rest of the day.

“They certainly do,” Hudson said, stroking his fingers through her hair. “Have you decided yet where we’re going to live, baby?”

“Me?” Amber looked around at her men, they were serious. She couldn’t make a decision for all of them. That would be selfish.

“Yes, you. We told you it was up to you. What sort of work did you do in New York?” Dylan asked. He squeezed her hand softly, as if he sensed the distress she was feeling. Or maybe he’d scented it. No matter how human her men looked, she could never forget how extraordinary they were.

“I worked as a paralegal in a fairly prestigious law firm.”

“I shouldn’t have any trouble getting work in New York,” Lucas said, his eyes met hers and he smiled warmly. “I only retired from the fire department in Duckwater a few years ago. I was a paramedic. I needed to retire before they noticed I wasn’t aging.”

“I can’t understand how I can feel so deeply for you all, yet still know so little about you.” Amber hesitated, rubbing her hands together restlessly. Not because she was cold, but because she wondered how big a leap she should take. I’m already committed heart and soul to these men. Should I step off the cliff completely?

“I can’t imagine the four of you squeezing into my tiny apartment,” Amber said, choosing her words carefully as she warred with her indecision.

“We could look for something bigger, there’s four of us to help you pay the rent now,” Lucas said.

“Hell, we can buy a place,” Hudson said. “It’s not like I’ve spent any of the money our great-grandparents left me.”

“What? Your trailer didn’t cost a fortune?” Dylan said sardonically. Amber looked up at him. His expression was guarded but she felt his pain clearly.

“Trailer? What trailer?” Amber watched as Dylan closed his eyes and shook his head.

“I told you I went a little crazy after Betty died. I was pissed off at everyone.”

“You were already crazy,” Mason said, wrapping Amber tightly in his arms. This was a painful topic for all of them.

“I didn’t like being around people.” Hudson leaned down and kissed her softly. He wasn’t running away anymore. He was staying with her. He’d promised her that he would, and he was proving it now.

“Not even your family?” Amber asked softly, stroking her hand down his face as the pain made him look deadly.

“Especially us,” Mason said. “He shifted and ran into the desert when Mom and Dad or any of us came around.”

“I ran with Dylan.” Hudson smiled at his brother, and Dylan cuffed him softly on the chin.

“Only because my beast is bigger than yours.” Hudson’s growl was loud and deep. It made him look even deadlier. “You never talked though. Not even once.”

Amber couldn’t bear the pain in his eyes. “Why did you blame yourself, Hudson? I thought you said her husband was abusive.”

Amber leaned a little deeper into Mason’s arms. Hudson looked fierce when he was in pain.

“I let her down,” he said at last, his eyes closing.

“Bullshit,” Dylan said, rising to kneel chest to chest with Hudson. “How many times have we had this conversation? When will you believe me? You did nothing wrong. That man killed our sister. He was the monster. Not us.”

Amber could see Hudson would never forgive himself, it was just who he was. He loved too deeply and felt he’d failed in protecting his sister. Amber knew exactly how that felt. “Is it my fault that Jade was held captive and abused by that murderous deviate, Beau?”

Hudson’s gaze swept to her as Dylan smiled broadly at her and winked his encouragement. It bolstered her courage to know he supported her and trusted her to help his brother with this old and deeply entrenched pain.

“Well? Is it? She’s my baby sister. I rang her every day and got no answer. When she didn’t call me back after nearly a week, did I get on a plane and come find her? No, I didn’t.” Amber took a breath and spoke of her biggest shame. She’d do this for Hudson.

“She needed me, and I didn’t go to her. Had Beau killed her, would her death have been my fault?”

“Of course not,” Lucas hurried to say. He took her hand and held it to his chest.

“You had no idea what Beau was doing,” Mason added.

“No, I didn’t,” Amber spoke slowly, looking deep into Hudson’s eyes. “Because Jade never told me she was scared of him, that she feared for her life. I’m not psychic.” As much as her heart hurt for him, she needed to keep pushing. Hudson needed to see things the way they truly were, without his guilt blinding him.

Hudson nodded his head, his eyes growing shiny. “She kept it from all of us that he was abusing her. She loved him and didn’t want us to insist she leave him. Then, when we found out, she made us promise not to hurt him, to just let him go. He was to escape punishment for hurting her.”

Hudson closed his eyes for a second, took a deep breath, and returned his gaze to her. “But he refused to let her go. One day when she shifted for a run, he shot her as her coyote.”

Amber reached out her arms for Hudson, and he came into her embrace. She held him, kissed his bristly head as he slowed his breathing. “Her death was a tragedy, but her husband was to blame, not you. Would she want you to be angry forever, for your family to suffer losing you as well?”

Dylan and Lucas laid their arms across Hudson’s wide back as Amber continued to hold him. Mason had his arms around both of them now, patting Hudson’s arms as the silence stretched out. It was a comfortable silence as the brothers finally shared their grief over their sister’s tragic death.

Hudson finally sat up and looked at each of his brothers before returning his gaze to her. “I miss her.”

Amber nodded. “Nearly losing Jade and then finding all of you has made me rethink what I’m doing with my life. I never wanted to be a paralegal. It was just a job I was good at and I bowed to the pressure my mom and stepfather put on me to have a ‘respectable’ profession. Their expectations stopped my pursuing my true passion. Stopped my living my own life.”

“What did you want to do?” Mason said, cupping her chin and turning her so he could kiss her. “I’m as curious as a cat now.”

“We want your dreams to come true,” Lucas said. “Whatever it is, we’ll make it happen. We’ll go with you as you follow you dream, no matter where it takes you.”

Amber’s eyes filled with tears as their love drove away her deep-seated fear in her own abilities. Fears put there by her mom and stepfather. It was time to live her own life. The love these four men had for her gave her the strength to reach for her dream.

“I was actually the one who first got Jade interested in painting. She used to come with me when I went out into the country to paint. We’d paint and talk about how one day we’d open our own gallery together. We were going to sell our art and never be apart.”

Her men were staring expectantly at her. “That sounds like a wonderful dream,” Hudson said, a wide smile stretching his lips.

“Is my wanting to stay here with Jade and make Eminence my home selfish? I don’t think I can leave her now. I’m going to be an auntie, too. I want to be here to help her with the baby. I want to be a part of the baby’s life.”

“That’s not selfish, Amber, that’s honest,” Dylan said.

They were all smiling now. “Since I can’t lie to you, I guess it is.”

“Eminence became our home the minute we acknowledged you as our mate,” Mason said. “That means Finn already considered you as a member of his pride. You’d already accepted this was home for you.”

“We’d love to stay here for as long as you wish it to be our home,” Hudson said.

“It’s a gift to have found you at all,” Lucas said. “We meant it, Amber. You’re our home now. Where we live is inconsequential.”

Amber’s tears of joy were a mystery to her four coyotes. Amber cried harder when they kindly offered to call Jade for her. So they simply held her until she stopped crying. In her darkest hours when Mason had been gone, Amber never imagined she’d feel such happiness.

Epilogue

Mason ran across their large snow-covered yard and bounded up the steps to the porch. The sun was just lighting the sky, and the air was still and cold. He’d finished his patrol, and was desperate to climb into bed with his warm little mate. He and his coyote were still enjoying the novelty of snow, but nothing beat snuggling up to a warm, sleepy, and sexy Amber.

Aiden stepped around the corner of the porch, catching Mason midshift and completely by surprise. “We have need of your services.”

Mason clapped a hand over his heart a few times and blew out a sigh. “You scared the life out of me. Did I hear talk of getting you a fucking bell?”

“Yes.” Brody’s laugh was loud in the quiet of the new day. “Are you decent yet? Landon and Elliot won’t like it if I see your bits.”

Aiden nodded toward the pile of Mason’s discarded clothes. “Landon and Elliot are identical twins.”

Mason didn’t want to ever piss off a pair of three-hundred-pound bear shifters and hurried to dress. “I’m decent.”

“We need to go back to Bedford Island,” Brody said. He walked around the corner and reached for Mason’s arm. They were back in the stone room before Mason had even agreed, or disagreed, to the trip. All the candles in the room simultaneously sputtered to life. It served to bathe the chamber in an eerie, flickering light.

“That was quite a bit faster than our first journey here,” Mason said, his gaze settling on the bloodstained table. “Amber told us everything that happened to her here.”

“And now you’ve just told me,” Aiden said, his voice tight with rage. Mason staggered back a step as the table exploded into toothpick-sized pieces. “Thank you, Brody.”

Mason chastised himself for forgetting Aiden could read his thoughts and for overlooking what a powerful creature lurked behind Brody’s sweet demeanor. “Why are we here?”

“We need you to retrieve a weapon,” Aiden said.

Mason looked around the stone chamber, wondering what sort of weapon Aiden saw here. “And why do you need me to retrieve it?”

“Sienna.” Brody didn’t elaborate as he pointed to the corner where Amber and Sienna had huddled.

Mason walked to the corner, crossing the charred stones that indicated how close the Nephilim’s fire had come to killing his mate. Mason bent and picked up what looked like a wide bangle.

“There’s a pin that holds it closed,” Brody said. “We’ll need that, too.”

Mason turned to roll his eyes at the demon, but saw Brody was standing in the opposite corner of the chamber, and he appeared to be trembling.

“Of course,” Mason said, no longer taking this lightly. Vampire bones. The bracelet was made of the same material as the knives they’d used to kill Branik. Anything that scared Brody like this needed to be destroyed.

“Not destroyed,” Aiden said, he held out a leather pouch and Mason dropped the bracelet and pin inside. “Kept safe from evil bastards like Branik.”

The bracelet hadn’t looked like the carved knives, but it had felt the same when he’d held it. Which also explained why he was here. Neither Brody nor Aiden could touch the knives either. Brody nodded at Aiden.

“Vampire bones,” Aiden said, putting the pouch in his pocket. “It’s the only substance on earth that’s deadly to the angel-born.”

“Interesting choice of words,” Mason said. “It’s been two weeks now, so has Sienna finally woken?”

Aiden nodded and smiled. “She’s quite surprised with everyone in Pine Falls.”

“Ah. I didn’t think I’d seen Fergus, Tanner, and Nash back in Eminence yet.”

Aiden raised an eyebrow. “I doubt they’ll be traveling far from Pine Falls for quite some time.”

“We need to go,” Brody said, his feet crunching on shattered glass as he hopped from foot to foot. “My mates will wake up soon and this impromptu excursion will get me in trouble if they discover me gone.”

Mason tried not to laugh, and saw Aiden was similarly struggling to contain his mirth. Thinking of mates had his thoughts straying to Amber, but most things seemed to make him think of Amber.

“So you’re going to propose? Congratulations,” Aiden said, clapping him on the back and knocking Mason to his hands and knees in the sea of broken glass.

“I hope we get an invitation to the wedding,” Brody said, a dreamy look on his face. “I love weddings. I must ask Amber if I can make her wedding cake.”

“You should take a handful of those if you want to make sure your mate says yes.”

Mason looked at where Aiden was pointing and saw only broken pieces of the window Brody had made from solid rock. He picked up a large piece of clear glass and watched its many facets sparkle with reflected candlelight. No. Fucking. Way.

“Shiny,” Aiden said, raising his eyebrows.

Brody extinguished all the candles as he reached for Mason’s shoulder. Seconds later, Mason waved as Brody and Aiden disappeared from the porch.

“I thought I heard Brody earlier.” Hudson was the second person to sneak up on him in the space of five minutes. Mason was losing his edge. “Amber’s been waiting for you.”

“I had to do a little favor for Aiden.”

“We owe Brody and Aiden more than a little favor,” Hudson said.

“What do you think of these?” Mason opened his hand and held out the handful of shiny glass pieces for Hudson to see.

“Where exactly did you go to do this favor?”

“Now we have what we need for the ring. Are you ready to propose to our little mate?” Hudson’s smile was answer enough.

* * * *

“He’s late. He’s never late. He’s always here before dawn.” Amber twisted in Dylan’s arms again, looking at the clock and wondering where Mason was. She’d been awake most of the night, waiting for morning so she could take the test Jade had given her.

She didn’t seriously think she’d be pregnant. Her period was only a few days late, and with everything she’d been through, it was probably normal to be a little late. Jade had just laughed and hugged her, saying their children would be best friends like they were.

I can’t have gotten knocked up the second those men dropped their pants. Just because most of the mates had done exactly that didn’t mean it had happened to me.

When Mason finally walked in, Amber ran across the room and jumped into his arms. “You’re late.” She kissed his cheeks and nose and lips. They were all here now. Time to find out one way or another. “Put me down.” Amber pushed against Mason’s chest as he squeezed her ass and thrust his erection against her pussy.

“Your mouth says down, your pussy says otherwise,” Hudson said. He pressed against her back and sent shivers through her body as he nibbled at his mating mark.

Amber sighed and tilted her head, giving Hudson better access. Mason rubbed his rigid cock against her again, and her full bladder brought her to her senses. “I’ve got to pee.”

After more nibbles and kisses, her mates let her down, and she ran for the bathroom. Amber’s hands shook as she opened the box and took the end off the stick. After reading the instructions for the tenth time, she followed them to the letter, put the stick on the bathroom counter, and flushed.

I’ll know in two minutes.

Amber’s head was spinning. So much had happened in the short time she’d been mated. Her mates’ parents were due to arrive today. Hudson had been the one to contact them and share the news that the four of them had found their mate. Olive and Graham Stroud had been more thrilled at speaking to Hudson after so long than they were over the news of the mating.

Amber had spoken frequently with both Olive and Graham over the past two weeks, and she suspected this visit was also an exploration of Eminence in view of them moving here permanently. Olive had even mentioned she’d waited a long time for the grandchildren she intended to spoil rotten on a daily basis.

Amber wasn’t sure she was ready for motherhood. Hell, her own mother didn’t even know she was moving here permanently, let alone joining in Jade’s ménage lifestyle. Then there was the change in her career.

She was now a co-owner of The Mountain View Gallery. Jade’s mates had fronted them the start-up money and advised them in every aspect of the gallery’s construction. The pieces they were going to display, though, that was left completely to her and Jade. They were going to live their dream. Painting and owning an art gallery.

Jade’s work could go on display immediately, as she had so many pieces already completed. Jade had been traveling for the past two years in the pursuit of new and varied landscapes that inspired her to paint.

Amber now had a studio filled with everything she needed to start painting, thanks to her men, and Eminence was surrounded with the exact subject matter that got her creative juices flowing. Rugged landscapes rich with wildlife. Nirvana.

“Are you all right, sweetheart?” Mason said, knocking lightly on the door. “You’ve been a long time.”

Amber jumped to her feet, shocked at being so lost in her thoughts. The room spun as all the blood drained from her head.

“Amber. Come on, baby. Open those pretty green eyes for me.” Amber blinked in confusion as Lucas stroked her cheek lovingly. “There you are. Do you hurt anywhere?”

“What?”

“You fainted,” Hudson said. Hudson was scowling at her.

“Sorry.” Amber struggled to sit up, a little put out that Hudson was being a jerk. “I didn’t do it specifically to piss you off, Hudson.”

“See, you’re still trouble,” Dylan said. He squatted next to her and kissed her. He kissed her until she was breathless and her head was spinning again.

She was panting when Hudson scooped her up and kissed her sweetly. “I wasn’t angry, I was scared. I love you. Marry me?”

Amber felt her mouth pop open. There was no laughter from her other men. They were watching her expectantly. “We want you to marry all of us?” Lucas said.

“I’m getting old here,” Hudson said. He was giving her the killer smile she loved so much.

“I love you, Hudson. I’d be honored to marry you.”

Amber kissed her fiancé and then her other three fiancés, Lucas, Dylan, and Mason. Hudson was carrying her out the bathroom when Amber remembered the pregnancy test. She looked behind in a panic. She needed to know what the test had said, and her men needed to know.

“I’m sure glad you agreed to marry us,” Dylan said, twirling the pregnancy test in his fingers. He knew. They all knew.

Amber relaxed in Hudson’s arms. She’d forgotten she wasn’t alone in this. Having these four wonderful men love her meant she could do anything now, even have a baby. Hudson sat on the edge of the bed and arranged her on his lap. Her men crowded close.

“I’m scared.” Mates couldn’t lie because honesty was vital when you were together for hundreds of years. “Are we having a baby?” Their smiles were radiant.

THE END

ASHLEYMALKIN.WEEBLY.COM

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

www.bookstrand.com/ashley-malkin

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com