STORY EXCERPT

Decker had only one thought as the world turned red and his cat burst free. Brother William must die. There was no cage invented that could keep Decker from his prey, and that was not him being cocky and overconfident. That was a fact.  

Decker had trained as a covert operative and sniper while Forbes had studied. He’d thought he’d done it because the work suited his stealthy nature as a predator and a cougar, but he’d been wrong. He had trained so that he could kill the man who had spent weeks torturing his mate for no reason other than he enjoyed it.  

Cats liked to play with their prey before ending its life. Decker would give Brother William access to a knife and see how much he enjoyed trying to use it on someone who wasn’t chained to a wall. 

“Stop!” Caleb shouted, his power slamming into Decker with such force his bones shook. 

Decker had made it as far as the back door of the clinic, which now lay under his feet. Not being able to open the door was not a problem when his beast weighed over two hundred pounds. 

“Torturing Brother William will not help your mate.” 

Caleb was wrong. Ending his miserable life in the same way he’d violated Jordan—and who knew how many others?—meant she could be certain that he could never hurt her again. 

“Would you spend days carving into him until he eventually bled out and have Jordan know you to be the same kind of monster he is?” Miller asked into the silence of the room. 

Decker roared, rage filling his mind and pushing him to the brink of madness. He was close, so close, to shattering the Alpha’s control over him. He would kill Miller first, tear out his tongue for saying such a thing. He was nothing like that monster Brother William. 

“Eamon showed me what you have planned for Brother William, Decker,” Jordan said softly.  

Decker heard her over his roars, heard the tremor in her voice, and his rage evaporated. Shame filled him. He could see himself as she did in this moment. A massive cougar with sharp claws, lethal fangs, and feral in his rage. A beast of nightmares.  

“You are not a monster, Decker,” Caleb said calmly. “You weren’t there when I saw my Meg, broken, bleeding, dying, while her five-year old sister sat helplessly tied to a chair. Do you imagine I don’t understand your thirst for vengeance?”  

Caleb pulled his power back, and Decker was free to move again. He hung his head and dropped onto his belly. He didn’t want to be a monster, didn’t want Jordan to see him as one. 

“I’ve never seen a cougar that looks like you.” Jordan’s scent drew closer, her heartbeat slowing. “Your coat is a beautiful dark red.”  

Decker flattened himself further. His cat was big, and he had just shown her he was a wild beast. The scent of her fear struck him like a blow. He had done that to her. 

When she next spoke, it was barely audible, even to his cat. “May I touch you?” 

Decker had never before felt this broken, not even on the day he’d lost his parents. He was undeserving, but this woman was now his everything. He had never wanted her to feel afraid of anything again, and yet, that was what he’d done only hours after meeting her. He didn’t deserve her touch, didn’t deserve her. 

“If you leave her, she will never be whole, young cat.” Eamon said into his mind. “And your cat will be so grief-stricken that its pain will drive you to madness before you end your own life.” 

“If Caleb hadn’t stopped me, I would have done it,” Decker admitted.  

“And I would have kept the others away while you did,” Eamon said. “Remember, I saw what he did to your mate directly from her mind.”  

Decker found he liked Eamon very much. Honest, forthright, and deadly. An image filled Decker’s mind. A naked man hung by his manacled wrists from the roof of a cave. His entire body was coated in blood from hundreds of lacerations. Hate shone from the man’s eyes, even as the spark of life drained from them. 

“That was what I did to Otto Parran, the doctor who tortured me for a century.” 

Eamon truly understood Decker’s desire for vengeance and retribution. “Did killing him aid in your healing?” 

“It certainly did,” Eamon said, surprising Decker with his answer and his honesty in admitting it. “Brother William is not in the vampire council’s prison yet.” 

Decker could see that his actions did not make him a monster. They made him a mate. He looked over at Eamon. “If he fucks up in any way, I will end him.” Eamon’s head inclined slightly in acknowledgement. “Please tell Jordan that I would like very much to feel her hand on me.”  

A moment later, her small hand lightly touched his rump. The jolt of pleasure ran over him in a shudder. Her hand jerked away, and he turned to look at her as his cat began to purr loudly. She smiled and stepped closer, smoothing her hand up his side to rest on the top of his head.  

“You’re so soft, and you’re huge. Much bigger than my father’s cat.” Decker rose to his feet, no longer afraid he was scaring her. She didn’t scent of fear now. She smelled of mate, delicious and sweet. She was also smaller than he’d realized, and she needed to tilt her head back a little to meet his gaze. “I am not afraid of you, Decker, even though I was raised to fear other shifters.” 

ADULT EXCERPT

His voice sounded strained, and Jordan looked up at him. The tendons in his neck were taut and corded as he clenched his jaw. “Are you in pain, Decker?” 

“A sweet, torturous pain, angel.” His smile was wickedly sexy. He gently kissed her forehead. “I ache for you, Jordan. I want to slam my cock into you right now and make you mine.” 

Jordan’s pussy clenched, and she moaned, the heat rising inside her veins to a scalding burn. She wanted that. She needed Decker inside her. 

Jordan looked back at Forbes. “I want a life with you, Forbes. With all of you. I will do whatever it takes to make that happen. I promise.”

Decker kissed her gently on the lips, the neck, and then her breasts as he slid down her body. She moaned at the feel of his lips, her eyes rolling back in her head as need for him climbed impossibly higher.

Jordan forgot about being embarrassed, forgot her name. Sensation was everything, and her entire world was pleasure. The weeks of pain and starvation made the experience only more intense. Made their caresses more arousing.

“I need to taste your pussy. I want to lick you until you’re wet and ready for my cock.” Decker kissed her inner thigh, the stubble on his cheek making her skin pebble in goosebumps. 

She was inexperienced, but not ignorant. She knew what he meant to do. She opened her eyes and looked down at him. “I’ve never… No one has…” He smiled, and it made him look very much like a cat who was about to eat all the cream he’d ever want. He was sexy as hell. 

“Then another first for us,” Decker said. He stuck out his tongue and slowly licked her from the bottom of her pussy to her clit. “Fucking delicious.” Decker licked her again and paused to nip, then suck, at her sensitized clitoris.

Jordan’s hips bucked off the bed, and Miller and Forbes both growled as they placed a hand on her stomach, pressing her gently back to the bed. Jordan shuddered at their touch. The way they touched her so carefully reminded Jordan of how she currently looked. 

These three men, her mates, made her feel loved and desired despite the fact she currently looked anything but desirable. They didn’t see her emaciated body. They saw who she was, inside. Nature may have chosen these men to be her biological match, to procreate, to bring forth the next generation of shifter, but the match didn’t come with a guarantee that she’d love, or even like, them.

Jordan reached for Miller’s and Forbes’s hands and gripped them as tightly as she could. Closing her legs slightly had Decker lifting his head to look up at her. “I want you to know, before we mate, that I think all of you are the bravest, kindest, and best men I have ever had the honor to meet.” 

They didn’t say anything, and when the silence lengthened, Jordan thought she’d ruined everything. Decker blinked a few times, and Forbes frowned. 

Miller, however, began to smile. It became more of a smirk. “What? You don’t think I’m handsome?” Miller lowered until his nose was almost touching hers. 

Jordan’s heart skipped a beat. He’d understood her perfectly. “You’re okay, I guess,” she said. He pressed his lips to hers, the kiss deep but too brief. 

“I didn’t expect to love you this soon or this much,” Miller said. “You’re strong, loyal, brave, determined. You’re also the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” 

Jordan would have called him a liar on that last point, but he was still gazing directly at her. He couldn’t lie to her. She cupped Miller’s face in her trembling hands. “I forgot to say that you’re all incredibly sexy, too.”

“We’re yours,” Decker said. 

“Always,” Forbes added. Jordan’s hands slipped from Miller’s face as he backed away and Forbes took his place, kissing her deeply until she was squirming. He broke their kiss and pressed his hand to her cheek. “You’ll soon know exactly how much I love you.”

Decker moved up her body until the head of his cock was pressed against her pussy. “Now we will be together forever.” Decker tilted his hips, and his cock slid easily inside her slick pussy. Jordan tensed at the slight burn as she stretched to accommodate his size. “So tight and wet for me, angel. You feel incredible.”

Jordan looked up at Decker as he gazed down at her, his brown eyes full of heat and love. She wanted him, wanted this. Lifting to meet his slow thrust, Jordan joined him in the moment, in their mating. He filled her, completed her, and when he stopped moving, she realized they were fully joined and it still wasn’t enough. 

“More,” she breathed, not knowing what she was asking for.

Decker knew, though, and he lowered his lips to take hers in a passionate kiss. As his tongue plunged between her lips, he pulled his hips back and then filled her again, deeper this time. The slide of his hard cock inside her felt incredible. She couldn’t hold back a moan.