STORY EXCERPT

He glanced at his sister to see Tammy was standing beside the vehicle, her face so pale she looked as if she was about to pass out and anxiously shifting from foot to foot.

“Is Celeste—” Tammy swallowed audibly and tears rolled down her cheeks.

“She’s alive,” Tarik said, hoping to relieve his sister’s fear, but they wouldn’t know how badly her friend or Jarvis were hurt until Serge and Ward examined them.

“Put her on the stretcher,” Serge said, pointing to the portable gurney ready and waiting outside the ambulance.

Tarik eased the woman down onto the bed and when he saw her face he sucked in a noisy breath. She was so fucking beautiful. Her face was covered with streaks of dirt and blood marred her left cheek. He followed the path of the blood and saw she had a cut on the side of her head just above her left temple.

“Shit!” Serge muttered as he studied the unconscious woman. When Serge began to run his hands over her limbs, Tarik’s sabear protested. A low warning rumble started from deep in his chest and out of his mouth. Serge glanced at him with wide shocked eyes and then began to explain what he was doing. “I’m just making sure she doesn’t have any broken bones.”

Logically, Tarik knew what his friend was doing, but his inner animal was having a hard time dealing with seeing Serge’s hands on her slim, sexy body. He inhaled deeply but couldn’t catch the woman’s scent—only the stink of aircraft fuel. Tarik didn’t know why his sabear was acting up just yet but he had a suspicion. He wouldn’t be able to confirm his beliefs until he was away from the crash site.

“Is she all right?” Tammy asked as she stood next to Tarik, leaning into his side. Tarik wrapped his arm around his sister’s shoulder to offer her comfort.

“She doesn’t have any broken bones, spinal injuries, or whiplash,” Serge explained. “What’s her name?”

“Celeste,” Tammy sobbed, before taking a deep breath and speaking again. “Celeste Marsden.

“She does have a hell of a knot on the side of her head.” Serge grabbed a penlight from his bag, lifted Celeste’s eyelids before shining it into first one eye and then the other. “Her pupils are reacting sluggishly.”

“What’s that mean?” Tammy covered her mouth as tears streamed down her face.

“She has a concussion.”

“Is it a bad one?” Tarik asked, needing to know how severe her head injury was.

“Not sure yet.” Serge cleaned up the cut with antiseptic wipes.

Tarik sighed with relief when he saw that the cut didn’t seem too bad. He realized that head injuries tended to bleed like a bitch, but he hadn’t been able to see how deep the gash was. “Will she need stitches?”

“No. A couple of butterflies should be enough.” Serge glanced over to Ward. “How’s Jarvis?”

“Lucky to be alive,” Ward replied. “He’s got a broken arm and a concussion, but otherwise seems fine.”

“Let’s get these two to the clinic,” Serge said.

Tarik moved to the end of the gurney and helped his friend get Celeste into the back of the van. Hodge helped Ward with Jarvis.

“We’ll meet you there,” Tarik said and turned to face Tammy. “You okay, sis?”

Tammy nodded as she wiped the last of her tears from her face. “She’s going to be okay.”

“Yes, she is. Come on. You need to be there when she wakes up. I don’t want her freaking out when she opens her eyes to strangers.”

Tammy nodded as she grasped his hand. Tarik glanced over at the crashed aircraft, pleased to see that Hopper and Phelan had doused the spilled fuel with foam retardant circumventing the chance of a fire and or an explosion.

“How long has it been since you’ve seen Celeste?” Tarik asked glancing at his sister as they walked toward the clinic.

“Six months. We spent my last break from college together having fun.”

“Why didn’t she finish college?”

“A model scout offered her a contract.”

Tarik frowned. He didn’t like the sound of that because he believed a college degree was important. However, he didn’t know Celeste’s circumstances so he would keep his opinions to himself, for now.

He glanced back when he heard pounding footsteps coming up behind them. Hodge slowed his pace when he drew close and after ruffling Tammy’s hair he met Tarik’s gaze. His friend’s eyes were glowing, his inner beast close to the surface.

“What’s wrong?” Tarik stopped at the bottom of the steps to the clinic.

Tammy glanced from Tarik to Hodge and frowned before shaking her head and hurrying inside to the clinic.

“My sabear’s acting up and from how your eyes are glowing, yours is, too.”

Tarik nodded. “When Serge had his hands on Tammy’s friend, my inner beast wanted to tear him apart. My sabear’s feeling very possessive right now.”

“Mine, too.” Hodge scrubbed a hand over his face and tilted his head back to look up at the sky.

“You have any idea why our inner animals are acting this way?” Tarik frowned.

“There’s only one hypothesis that I can think of.” Hodge crossed his arms over his chest.

Tarik stared intently at Hodge. A slow smile curved his lips up and then he grinned outright at the same time as his best friend.

“Mate!” they said simultaneously.

“Let’s go find out.” Tarik skipped the stairs and stepped up onto the porch. He sucked in a calming breath and tried to push his beast back down. If Celeste was awake he didn’t want her seeing his glowing eyes or scare her if his sabear started growling.

He was hopeful that Tammy’s friend was the woman he and his beast had been waiting for. He just wasn’t sure how his sister was going to take the news. And if she was, how the hell was he going to explain to a human woman that they were shifters, let alone a mixed-hybrid shifter derived from the legendary extinct saber-toothed tiger and a polar bear?

ADULT EXCERPT

Tarik sucked on her lips and then somehow got her tongue into his mouth and sucked on that, too. Heat raced through her veins and liquid desire pooled low in her belly. Her clit was throbbing along with her heartbeat, but it was also pulsing each time his denim-covered dick pressed against her wet folds and sensitive engorged pearl.

She froze when another set of hands caressed up her sides, but she couldn’t help relaxing into Tarik again when he slanted his mouth and deepened the kiss further. She gasped when Hodge cupped her breasts from behind and was about to pull away, but she ended up moaning into Tarik’s mouth when Hodge strummed his thumbs over her hard-throbbing nipples.

Each time she inhaled through her nose the tantalizing scent of their combined aromas of spice and earth invaded her olfactory senses and she could smell the musky fragrance of their desire. Excited desire rolled through her belly, slickening her folds with juices but deep in the recess of her mind a warning niggle sparked to life. She shouldn’t be doing this and though the reason was buried in her subconscious, she couldn’t bring it to the front of her mind. She was drowning in sensation, and it felt so fucking good that she never wanted it to stop.

Celeste had never felt like this in her life and she wanted to see where it led, where the culmination would crescendo.

Her moan of need was muffled by Tarik’s mouth when he slid one hand up into her hair and cupped the back of her head. With Hodge at her back, she felt as if this was where she was supposed to be. Safe and secure in their arms.

Tarik broke the kiss and then licked and nibbled up and down her neck. When Hodge squeezed her nipples between his fingers and thumbs she couldn’t stop the compulsive arching of her upper body as she pushed her breasts into his touch. A soft whimper emitted from her parted lips when Hodge began to pluck and pinch on her sensitive nubs and she began to rock her hips in sync to Tarik’s guiding hands.

“So fucking sexy,” Hodge rasped into her ear, sending another shiver up and down her spine. He nipped and sucked on her earlobe and she cried out with pleasure when his tongue delved into her ear canal.

The warmth that was heating her blood lifted another degree or two when Tarik’s hand slipped under the waistband of her jeans and under her panties. Having his callused warm skin against her bare ass was amazingly good and without even thinking about what she was doing, Celeste braced a little more of her weight onto her knees, lifting her lower body off of his thighs.

“Oh yeah.” Tarik sucked on the sensitive spot just beneath her ear. “So slick and hot.”

A thick finger dipped into her entrance, glided up through her folds and swirled around her throbbing clit. She gasped and groaned, her body trembling as the liquefied pleasure pooling in her belly began to spread. Celeste could feel herself melting and wondered if she would end up a puddle of water on the floor at their feet. Just as her brain tried to take over, Tarik began rubbing over her clit.

The pressure inside grew tauter, the heat grew hotter, and she felt as if she was about to go up in flames. Her pussy muscles rippled and twitched, her internal walls contracted closer together as the coil inside tightened.

Tarik groaned against her neck before he suckled on the skin firmly. She felt the blood rise to the surface and had no doubt he was leaving a mark on her. Hodge pushed his hands beneath her long-sleeved shirt and up toward her breasts. Her bra was pushed up and over her breasts. She cried out with pleasure when Hodge massaged the naked globes and sobbed with joy when he flicked over her nipples with his thumbs.

A low guttural sound emitted from her mouth when Tarik penetrated her cunt with the broad tip of a finger as he continued to stroke her clit.

The flames engulfed her whole body as the pressure inside of her exploded. She screamed with rapture as she came apart in their arms. She shivered and shuddered as her pussy palpitated in ecstasy. Stars detonated before her eyes in bright bursts of white light as cream wept from her cunt. All the while she was coming, Tarik and Hodge continued to stimulate her breasts, vagina, and clit until she was so sensitive it was almost painful. The aftershocks waned taking her strength with them and she flopped down against Tarik.

Hodge had removed his hands from her breasts and now he was caressing up and down her bare back.

Celeste had no idea how they’d gotten past her defenses, but now that she had a taste of the pleasure she’d heard so much about, she wanted more. She should have been embarrassed, but she just couldn’t drum up the energy to waste it on something she couldn’t change. Plus, she’d liked everything these two men had done to her.

However, now that her body was no longer ruling her mind, the niggle of wariness she’d tried to remember before stood front and center in her thoughts. She sat up quickly and scrambled sideways off of Tarik’s lap, adjusting her bra and shirt as she moved. When her feet touched the floor, she realized that her jeans were undone and slipping from her hips. How they’d managed to do that without her awareness she had no clue. She turned her back on the two men frowning at her, pulled the zipper up, and refastened the button of her jeans.

After taking a deep fortifying breath she turned back around to face them and asked angrily, “How did you know about the stalker? Did Tammy tell you?”