Knowing she needed comfort now, more than seduction, the three men moved forward, wrapping their arms around her in support. “Tell us,” Ash whispered against her temple. “Tell us everything that happened.”

  “About a week after our grandmother died, I went to her office to clean it out. I’d spent so much time there when she was alive it always seemed like my second home. I’d put off gathering her things because it was so hard to let her go in that final way.”

  Beside her, Damen ran his hands up and down her thighs, doing his best to comfort her. More than Serena’s adoptive parent, she had been the closest thing Serena had to a mother once her own parents had died during the attack that had killed many of their elders, including his own mother and father. None of them had known what to say, how to offer her the comfort she needed when their grandmother had quietly slept in one night.

  “What happened at the office, Serena?” Ash asked.

  “I found a file on a shipment that should have been given to your operation’s manager, but because of Nana’s death, he’d never received it. It was for a big shipment that was scheduled to go out at the end of that month. There was also a letter.”

  When she paused, seemingly lost in thought, Brady rubbed her back in large circles. “A letter?

  Go on, baby. Finish it.”

  “It was a strange letter. It talked about something that hadn’t been shipped—the usual monthly supply of guns. It wasn’t addressed to Nana. It was addressed to Uncle Bernard, and maybe I shouldn’t have opened it, but I’d handled all the mail since I started to help nana with the office work. The letter puzzled me, but I shrugged it off and went to see Uncle Bernard. I walked into his office, just like I always had.”

  Damen snorted. “You mean you ran in his office without even bothering to knock.”

  She nodded, licking her lips while she gathered her courage to continue. Brady could feel the struggle inside her, the toll this conversation was taking on her. “Do you need a break, baby? We can stop if you have to.”

  “No, no, I need to tell you. I need to tell someone and the three of you are the most important people in my life.”

  “Take your time, sweetness. We have all night if we need to get to the bottom of this.”

  “No, I need to say it all now or I never will.”

  Ash pressed a kiss against her temple, took her hand in his and squeezed. “Whenever you’re ready then, little one.”

  Snuggling deeper into Brady’s arms, she picked up her story where she’d left off. “He had someone in there. Someone I’d never seen before.

  As soon as I walked through the door, no one spoke. I handed Uncle Bernard the file and told him that I found it in Nana’s desk and that the shipment was scheduled to leave the warehouse that weekend, but that it hadn’t been assigned to a driver.”

  “What happened next?” Brady murmured.

  “He scowled at me, snatched the file out of my hand, opened it, found the opened letter and then told me I better keep my nose out of places it needn’t be.”

  “Bernard said that?” Damen asked, his voice thick with fury.

  “Yes, and it was really weird because I’d been helping Nana schedule the delivery drivers for over a year. Anyway, I quickly turned around and left.”

  “And you had no idea who was in there with him?”

  “No, Ash, I didn’t. But I wouldn’t have run off just because he had acted odd. It was what happened after I closed the door to his office that forced me to leave.”

  Brady tightened his arms around her. He knew—just knew—that whatever she was about to say would shatter his belief in his long time operation’s manager, a man they called uncle because of his loyalty to their people. If that happened, he’d have no choice but to do something about it. No one threatened his family and got away with it, not even another man he’d long thought of as kin despite the fact he wasn’t related by blood—or even species.

  “I closed the door but didn’t walk away. Some inner voice warned me to stick around, or hell, it could have just been a teenager’s curiosity. Who knows? Anyway, the stranger in the office asked your manager who I was.”

  “What did Uncle Bernard say, sweetness?”

  Serena hesitated, then turned toward Damen.

  “Some girl my nephews took in off the streets.

  Don’t worry, Mr. Merino, she’s not important.”

  Beside him, Damen stiffened, but Brady had to know the rest. “Then what, baby?”

  “The other man said, She’s seen too much, knows too much. Get rid of her. Then Uncle Bernard told him, My nephews won’t sit quietly by if something happens to her. Then the stranger told him that he had no choice. If I went running to you three, Uncle Bernard was to do whatever he needed to do to make all of us disappear.”

  Beside him, Brady could feel both Ash and Damen tense up. He could feel their rage building, threatening to explode. Barely able to contain his own wrath and need to destroy those that had threatened his mate, he knew exactly what they were feeling. To find it was his uncle, the one he’d gone to for help in locating their mate, the one who was in constant contact with their PI as he searched for her was almost more than Brady could stand.

  “And so you left?”

  Serena squeezed her eyes closed, pressed her head against Brady’s chest and nodded. “The very next day. I couldn’t let anything happen to you three. You were all I had left in the world. I took the cash I’d been saving for college and left that night, before the three of you got back from your business trip.”

  Ash took her by the chin and turned her face toward his, pressed a tender kiss to her lips.

  “Thank you for trusting us with the truth, little one.”

  Serena ducked her head and mumbled, “How can you still call me little one, especially after this morning?”

  Ash winked, then squeezed her hand again.

  “You’ll always be little one to me as Damen will always call you sweetness and Brady will call you baby. We each have pet names for you.”

  She smiled sadly. “I can’t, Ash. So long as I’m near you, you all are in danger. I just can’t do that to you. I’d rather be alone knowing you’re alive and safe than be responsible for your deaths.” She turned to look at Damen and Brady. “Can’t you all understand that?”

  Sighing, Brady took her chin in his hand and forced her to look at him. “No. There is something you don’t understand. Something we weren’t allowed to tell you when you were younger.”

  Sitting up, Serena pulled out of his arms, then gazed at Damen and Ash, wariness evident in her eyes. “What do you mean?”

  Brady could feel her fear. Hear the quiver in her voice. They all could. Now was the time to lay out all their cards on the table, time to tell her exactly who and what they all were and what she would soon become.

  Chapter Seven

  “Tell me, dammit.”

  Brady nodded, glanced warily at his brothers.

  A feeling of unease snaked its way up her spine. What could be so terrible that he couldn’t come out and tell her? The not knowing couldn’t be any worse than what he had to say.

  “Maybe it would be best if we showed you instead.”

  Frustrated now, Serena ran a trembling hand through her hair. “Well, don’t just lie there. If you have something to show me, then show me already.”

  “Ash, show her.” With a hesitant nod, Ash left her side, leaving the warmth of the bed to stand in front of the fireplace on the opposite wall.

  Serena watched stupefied as Ash closed his eyes and tipped his head back. “What—”

  “It begins in his mind first, the certain knowledge that he needs to change now. Then he feels the wrenching as bones grow, reshape,” Brady whispered.

  Serena stared in awe at the scene in front of her.

  “The painful stretch of muscles and tissues, and the itchiness as his body hair grows out, happens next,” added Damen from beside her. “Finally the last to change will be his face and hands. His ears will change, become feline in nature. His fingernails will grow into claws. His teeth will elongate, curve and then thicken into fangs. A muzzle forms where before he had a nose, a mouth.”

  As the men continued the running commentary, Serena watched as Ash the man dropped to all fours and shifted into a beautiful white tiger, a huge, awe-inspiring beast. “How, uh…huh?”

  Damen snorted. “I think she’s speechless, but she isn’t running scared. That’s something at least.”

  “I, uh, um…” Serena trembled, frightened by what this meant, but intrigued as well. She’d always had a fascination for big cats, often going to the zoo alone just to watch the lions and the tigers in the manmade habitats, wishing there were more places where the big cats could roam free rather than how they’d been forced to live in cages in order to avoid extinction at man’s hands.

  But this…this was just too much for one woman to take in. “I have to think about this. I don’t know what to think about this.” She knew she was babbling, but she just couldn’t help it. She’d known that she was different. Had known it even as a child, but when she’d tried to remember, to understand the foreign sensations clamoring inside her, there was nothing there. Her mind filled with empty space where memories should reside. She couldn’t even remember what her parents looked like. It was as though her entire life hadn’t begun until Brady’s grandmother had taken her in as a traumatized seven year old child.

  Brady tightened his arms around her. Beneath her his big frame shuddered. Did he fear she would leave them because of this? Then another thought hit her. Turning to face Brady, she raised her questioning gaze to his. “And all of you can do this, not just Ash?”

  “Yes, baby. All of us. And that includes you, or should I say, will include you.”

  “What?” she shrieked, trying to shove herself out of his arms, which only caused him to tighten his hold on her. She knew it was a girly reaction to scream at him like a banshee, but she couldn’t help it. “What do you mean I will, too? Did you bite me? Can you even change me by biting me?”

  “Sweetness, we don’t need to change you and no, you can’t be changed at all. You were born this way. The females just can’t shift until around their twenty-fifth year. We would have explained everything when you turned eighteen, the soonest the Council of Elders would allow it, but by then you’d already run off.”

  Serena stilled, quickly thinking about what all this meant, would mean to the rest of her life.

  Seeing her men shift was one thing, turning into a cat that would go into heat was something entirely different. Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God…

  “Please tell me there isn’t anything else?

  Please?” She could hear the denial, the fear, even the shock in her own voice. What must they think of her? Oh, God, what was she going to do?

  She was still shaking when she felt the soft fur rub against her thigh. She almost screamed at the size of the animal beside her. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. This is Ash. It’s only Ash. You love him—you love cats. It’s a two for one deal. Just breathe. Soon enough, the inner dialogue quieted her anxiety and she could open her eyes.

  The most beautiful white tiger she’d ever seen stared right back at her. Just as she gathered the courage to reach out and touch the beast, Ash’s voice whispered through her mind. And it was most definitely Ash’s voice even though the tiger was sitting quietly, panting in front of her, looking as docile as an overgrown housecat.

  It’s just me, little one. Go ahead and touch me. Even in this form, I would die before I ever hurt you. I love you.

  “Okay, now that is just too freaky.” She looked to Brady and Damen. “Can you hear him, too?”

  Damen shook his head. “No, sweetness. Until you complete the binding we can feel each other’s emotions, but won’t be able to speak or hear each other.”

  Serena lowered her head, biting her lip. “And how do I do this? Complete the binding I mean?”

  Brady shifted her on his lap, pulling her closer to his heart. “There are two ways. Usually, the bond forms when the males mount their woman at the same time, giving her their seed simultaneously. Obviously, we haven’t done that…yet.”

  A wave of heat rolled through her. Goddess, to make love to all three of them at the same time was one of her greatest fantasies. Swallowing thickly, she looked from Ash, who had sprawled across the foot of the bed in tiger form, to Damen who abruptly adjusted his thickening cock, to Brady whose eyelids had lowered to half-mast.

  She could feel his shaft pressing against her ass and knew the thought of having a foursome definitely had him eager for lovemaking. “And the second way?”

  “You allow us to bite you. Each of us has placed their mark upon you with our seed and saliva.

  After we bite you, you’ll be the bridge between all our minds,” Damen answered.

  “Though we’d all prefer the foursome method,” added Brady.

  Damen snorted, his hand slowly stroking his erect cock. “Obviously.”

  “Though we’d prefer that method, we just don’t have the time. You must have completed the bond with us by tomorrow at midnight, the dawning of Imbolc.”

  “Why must it be by then?

  “If you don’t bond with us by then, you’ll never be able to shift and you’ll never be able to have children. There is a ritual ceremony you must perform in order for the Moon Goddess to bestow the gifts of shifting and fertility on you.”

  Serena ran a trembling hand through her tangled hair. “And if I don’t bond with you?”

  “Then you’ll never be fertile. You’ll never feel the exhilaration of the hunt while in tiger form.

  But if you’re asking if we’d stop loving you, leave you and look for another to take to mate, the answer is an unequivocal no.”

  She glanced at Damen, searched his face for any clue to what he felt, needing to know his thoughts.

  “And you?”

  “Brady is right. Nothing you can say or do, or not do, will ever stop me from loving you.”

  She turned to the tiger still sprawled at the end of the bed. “And you, Ash? You’ll love me even if I don’t go through with the bonding?”

  I won’t lie to you, little one. I want you to give me—

  us—cubs to raise, but I’ll take you any way I can get you.

  “I’m confused. I thought tigers are solitary, preferring to live and hunt alone.”

  Brady cleared his throat, then reached for her hand, lacing their fingers together. “If we were full tigers we wouldn’t need anyone, that’s true. It’s our human part that needs the bonding, the human part that tells me—us—that if any of you were to die, a part of me would die with you. That includes you, Serena. I need you just as I need air to breathe, water to drink and food to eat. The thought of you coming home is all that’s sustained me—us—over the years since you left us.”

  Tears began to pool in her eyes. How could she deny them, deny the bonding? She’d loved them for years. First she loved them as her closest friends, her new brothers and confidants, then as the men they had become. She had dreamed of making a family with all three brothers.

  Swallowing past the lump that seemed lodged in her throat, she nodded. “Yes, I’ll do the bonding. But that isn’t going to make the danger that’s following me go away,” she warned.

  At the end of the bed, Ash growled and his fur stood on end. Don’t worry about that. We’ll make sure that everyone after you pays. By tomorrow, you won’t have anything to fear.

  Serena nodded, still unconvinced that staying was the right thing. But after the morning she’d spent with her men, after hearing their feelings for her, she couldn’t just leave them. She couldn’t. So, whether selfish or not, she wasn’t running away this time. Danger or no danger. Letting out a deep breath, Serena smiled. “So, do I just sit here while you all bite me?”

  Damen snickered and Brady outright chuckled.

  “No, baby, we’ll make you come, then bite you.

  You’ll only feel pleasure.”

  At the end of the bed, Ash began to shift back from tiger to man. She watched, mesmerized, as the tiger receded and the man emerged. “How much pain is involved in this whole shifting thing anyway?” she asked warily. Not that the answer would change her mind, but she’d like to know what to expect tomorrow night. Ash winked, then crawled up the bed, resting his chin on her inner thigh. He wouldn’t bother hiding the truth from her and for that, she was grateful.

  “The first few times hurt a little bit as the shift takes longer, but once you’ve done it a few times, the pain lasts but a second or two, then the euphoria of being in your other form overrides everything else.”

  She nodded. “Okay, then. I’m ready whenever you all are.”

  The men didn’t need to be told twice. Brady turned her so that her back pressed against his chest, then used his hands to spread her thighs open, exposing her to everyone’s gaze. Damen licked his lips, Ash groaned and Brady actually purred. She could feel the rumbling vibrate against her back.

  Already between her thighs, Serena watched as Ash lowered his mouth to her mound, nuzzling her. She groaned when Ash’s tongue tickled her inner thighs, first one and then the other before moving to her slit. His tongue circled her clit, then dipped into her channel and out again. Over and over he teased her before finally suckling the hardened nub into his mouth. She screamed. Her thighs trembled. Damen took one hardened nipple into his mouth while squeezing the other with his fingertips. Behind her, Brady licked and nipped along the column of her throat. It was too much, too much sensation. She’d surely die of the pleasure-pain long before they finished tormenting her.

  Ash brought her to the edge again with tongue and teeth before inserting his fingers into her vagina and pressing upward, hitting her G-spot.

  This time they didn’t stop her from coming and, as wave after wave of pleasure washed over her, through her, Brady bit the nape of her neck, Damen marked her breast and Ash placed his mark on her inner thigh.

 

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