STORY EXCERPT

Using her beak, she tapped on the glass. Aubrey didn’t have to wait long. Seconds later, the window was pulled open and a hand wrapped in leather bits was extended for her to land on.

“You’re drenched,” Dom commented as she landed on his forearm.

Aubrey let out what she hoped was an annoyed caw. He chuckled, reaching out with his free hand to smoothen the wet feathers on her back. His callused and large hand didn’t feel heavy as he stroked her. Dom’s touch was gentle and soothing.

His forest-green eyes looked amused in his tanned and handsome face. Dom kept his thick mane of blue-black hair short, and it made his well-built and hard body always look professional and suave in his designer suits.

“Good girl, what do you have for us tonight?” He gently undid the straps of the pouch on her leg.

Good girl. Damn. Just hearing those words on Dom’s lips was enough to make her melt. Aubrey inhaled the musky masculine scent of him and wished suddenly he’d rubbed her back the same way when she was in human form. Dom would never do such a thing though.

Since Dom and Max rescued her years ago, the two werewolves had always been careful with her. Aubrey wasn’t exactly sure what she was to them. She was fourteen when they found her, but they’d never treated her like a child. Adopted pet was the best term, she supposed, because Aubrey made sure she remained useful to them by spying for them. There were other wolves in the house who did subterfuge work, but not as well as she did.

There were thousands of crows in the city, but only one of her. While there were bird shifters like the eagle and hawk shifters from House Scavos’s rival, the Perraults, crow shifters were rare as it turned out. Most shifters and supernatural beings in Stocoma City didn’t notice she was there.

Max had been more distant, but she understood by simply being there in their lives she placed them in a dangerous position. In House Scavos’s hierarchy, Aubrey ranked low because she wasn’t a werewolf.

Dom set her down on Max’s desk. Max Scavos looked as he always did, on the phone with someone else while he tapped a pen impatiently on a sheaf of papers. Even so, he always reminded Aubrey of a big golden predator. Max kept his dark blond hair trim and short like Dom, always making her aware of the strong line of his jaw and the little scar there she’d like to someday lick.

He wore his favorite suit today, a dark midnight blue with a matching sky-blue tie, and it fit him like a second skin. She could see the coils of muscle under the suit, and often she found herself imagining how those amazing arms would feel like as they picked up her small frame.

She was eighteen now, but Aubrey’s experiences with men had been limited to the men who’d abused, used, and tortured her. She hadn’t been interested in the opposite sex. Not the boys who’d pawed after her at school or the werewolves in the house looking for a quick fuck. The only men she wanted were the only two men who’d decided they were never going to touch her out of some sense of twisted honor.

Annoyed, Aubrey opened her wings. Max gave her a warning look, but she only shook herself and wrung the rainwater off her wings. Max slammed the phone down and snarled at her.

“What the hell is your problem?”

To annoy him even further, Aubrey shifted on his desk. She wasn’t sure why lesser werewolves always looked in pain when they shifted. To her, trading one form for the next had always been easy. Max cursed, moving files and papers aside so she wouldn’t get them wet.

“You’re practically begging for punishment, aren’t you, little crow?”

Aubrey’s pulse sped up when Max’s large hand closed over one of her wrists.

Aubrey lifted her chin and met his feral gaze. Max’s control of his wolf was considered the best in the house, but she wasn’t sure why it always seemed to surface when she provoked him.

“Then punish your pet, Master.”

She heard Dom let out a breath, and could feel him moving toward them.

“Don’t tempt me, Aubrey. I can still spread you across my lap and give you a spanking.”

“When have you ever given me spanking?”

Aubrey knew she was playing with fire, but she’d decided to continue playing with it until the two men finally admitted their desire. She wasn’t blind or stupid. If Aubrey knew Dom and Max really felt nothing for her, then she’d back off in a second. Even if it hurt, she’d let them go, but it wasn’t the case.

“Perhaps it’s about time I did,” Max said. His voice held a seductive but dangerous edge.

“Max, careful,” Dom warned, but Max ignored him.

“Go ahead. I think I’m going to enjoy it. I’m getting wet just thinking about it.”

Max’s irises began to expand and grow heavy with need at her words. Aubrey could hear her rising pulse and wondered if it was too late to back off now. Perhaps baiting and pushing Max wasn’t one of the wisest things in the world to do.

ADULT EXCERPT

“Fuck, little crow. Have you always smelled this good?” Max murmured against her ear. “I bet you taste even better.”

He tongued her neck and began nibbling on it while his hand curiously palmed her skin. Max was like an eager lover finally allowed access to something he’d been forbidden to before.

Aubrey was still pissed at both of them for a number of things, like idiotically coming after her knowing they might die, but her traitorous body shuddered and she sighed, instantly reacting to their touch. Years of tension threatened to spill over the surface and it would’ve been so easy to give in, to yield, but she couldn’t. She wasn’t that easy or weak-willed.

Dom stopped Max’s hand from wandering between her legs. “Max, remembered what we’ve discussed beforehand? We need to talk first before we do any sort of fucking.”

“I don’t understand,” Aubrey admitted, trying to clear her head. Anger seeped in her voice. “What the hell are you two doing?”

Dom lifted her chin, his gaze solemn and serious.

“Max and I have been blind, Aubrey, and we’re sorry.” Before Aubrey could process his words, he continued, “but I have to ask, do you still want us? If you do, then we’re about to make you ours. We’re going to put our mating mark on you and bind you to us.”

Aubrey swallowed. Her heart felt like it was about to burst from her chest. Max was rubbing circles into her back, and it felt nice but a little distracting. Never in a million years did she think Max and Dom would offer to make her their third, but here they were, offering her what she’d been dreaming of ever since they’d rescued her.

Her answer should’ve been an automatic yes, but instead she said, “What the fuck, Dom? Have you two really thought this through? This is a mistake none of us can recover from easily. I mean politics—”

Dom interrupted her by kissing her hard and deep. He licked at her bottom lip, tracing it, all the while not looking away from her. His eyes had grown dark and heavy with need and when he pushed his prodding tongue between her lips. She let him in. Heat seared through her and moisture began to flood between her legs. Dom reached out to pinch one of her nipples and it instantly hardened at his touch.

Aubrey wanted more. She knew it was no use restraining the dam that was about to burst. Her pussy, her entire body, ached and longed to be filled by them. Dom drew away with obvious difficulty.

“We’re fucking sure,” Dom said.

Clearly, he had made his point.

“You think we’re kidding around, Aubrey? Well I can’t blame you, but I assure you we’re being completely serious,” Max said. “Fuck house politics. I can’t see any werewolves who are brave enough to face a god.”

“So, will you still take us?” Dom finally asked at her silence.

Aubrey looked from him to Max. She never imagined having this much power over them and it was terrifying.

“You know, you two were really assholes, you know that right?”

Max growled at her, but she reached out to thumb the slight stubble on his cheek thoughtfully.

“But since you two are being nice and all for once, I can’t say no, right?” she joked.

Max took her fingers and began sucking on each of them, watching her intently. His mouth was hot against her skin, and the animal hunger in his eyes made her shiver. Max took his time sucking each one, making her uncomfortably aware of Dom and his physical presence.

Fuck. She hated how well they both knew her.

Swallowing, Aubrey finally felt the tears gathering under her eyelids flow. “Yes. Of course it’s a yes. What else do you expect me to say?”

“Fuck, Max. We made her cry,” Dom said, sounding furious.

Max didn’t answer him. He did the unexpected and leaned over to gently kiss away her tears.

“Everything’s going to be all right. We know we’ve forced you to walk a hard road, baby, but we’re going to spend the rest of our lives making it up to you. You’ve always been ours, ours to protect, and ours to cherish. I’m so sorry it took us a long time to realize that.”

Aubrey sniffed, furiously rubbing away the tears. She was acting like some immature brat, but it felt good being pampered by Max—to feel loved by the two most important people in the world to her.

Pressing Max’s face to her chest, Aubrey could feel his relief. He began licking the side of her neck again, where the sunburst was inked, and she liked the way possessive way he gripped her flesh.

“Okay, but you better make good on your promise, Max,” Aubrey told him.

“It’s going to hurt the first time we give you our mating mark, but we’re going to make you feel a lot better later,” Dom told her.

She felt Max’s canines lengthening against her neck. Dom turned her chin gently and kissed her just as Max sunk his teeth into her flesh. Aubrey’s entire body jerked, but the two men held her solidly in place.

Pain and the heat of Dom’s mouth collided. Max licked away the blood he drew away, his hand sliding between her legs to thumb her clit. The sensation of his fingers distracted her from Dom, who stopped kissing her and gently tilted her head to mark the other side of her neck.

“Mine.” Max growled, tongue flicking out to lick a nipple as Dom repeated the ritual. She was ready for his bite this time round, breathing heavily when he was done.

“Ours,” Dom said, his intense amber eyes on her.

Aubrey touched the mating marks on her neck, first Max’s then Dom’s, feeling the ridges where their teeth had been. They didn’t mount her just then. They began touching, caressing, and stroking every inch of her skin, acquainting themselves with what was now theirs.

Her pussy clenched, wet with need and desire. Aubrey reached out for Dom’s curving shaft and began to fist him.