STORY EXCERPT

Jess grabbed a sword similar to the one she held and tossed it to him. He caught it expertly. The purported lover had fighting skills. She smiled thinly. They would not save him.

“Last chance,” she said to Deon. “Tell me what I saw out there. Tell me what you are, or I’ll slice him to ribbons.”

Deon set his mouth in a stubborn line. “You don’t have to tell her anything,” Fin said. “She won’t hurt me. I’m too pretty.”

“Don’t be so sure,” Jess said, and swung at his naked chest. She meant to deal him only a scratch. He brought up his sword and blocked her with unexpected skill.

Jess smiled. “You’ve had training.”

“I have a checkered past.” He swung his weapon experimentally, and adjusted his grip. “We’re perfectly willing to share your bed, together or separately. Most women I know would jump at the chance. You don’t want to muck it up with all this baseless suspicion.”

“Hardly baseless.” They circled. “You’re a slave. All slaves try something eventually. It’s to be expected. And I’m not like any woman you know.”

“You’ve got me there,” Fin said. “I tell you what—I win, we fuck, and you stop asking questions about Deon there. Agreed?”

“I don’t make deals with pets.”

“Then defend yourself, Mistress.” Fin lunged at her.

He was better than his careless manner suggested, but not better than her. Jess realized that within minutes. She kept the knowledge from him by a series of clumsy parries and one wild swing that left her wide open. He didn’t take advantage of her offering, simply stepped back and allowed her to recover. Then he clipped the pale snow rose from her suit’s lapel with a deft flick of his wrist, and flashed a scoundrel’s grin at her.

Her feline urge to toy with her prey threatened to swamp her. Far too seldom did she find an opponent to test herself against. Her female peers recoiled, aghast, from the thought of combat, and the males got surly when she beat them. Fin’s skills presented opportunities for all sorts of new games, during a sword match and after.

Their blades clashed. They drew apart. Both were panting now. “You’re worth every cent I paid for you,” Jess told him.

“You haven’t even sampled my true skills.”

“Tell me what Deon is and we’ll rectify that.”

“It’s not my place to say.”

“Then you’ll just have to lose.”

Jess leaned in and with one quick twist disarmed him. He made a startled yelp. She pressed the tip of her sword against his collar. Fin had the sense to stand still. “I’d hate to have to mark your flesh,” she said. “Now talk.”

The words had scarcely left her lips when she was seized from behind. With one hand Deon caught the wrist of her sword hand. The other pressed a razor edge against her throat. Even taken by surprise, she recognized it from its feel as one of the duocorn horns. The kind her female ancestors had used to dispatch their enemies.

“Really,” Deon growled beside her ear. “Did you think I’d just stand there like one of your useless society friends and let you hurt him? Not on my behalf.”

Jess remained predator-still while Fin took her sword. Stupid girl! she berated herself. Stupid, careless girl, to believe for even a second her defiant pet would be cowed just because she held a weapon. That jumped her brain to the blade at her throat. The clinical part of her wondered. A horn? All those weapons on the wall at his disposal, and he had gone for this?

Perhaps it was adrenaline that spurred her racing thoughts. All at once the pieces fell into place.

Fin tossed her sword into a corner. “No need for violence,” he said to Deon. “I’m sure we can come up with a solution that doesn’t involve blood on the floor.”

“I don’t see how,” Deon said, “now that I’ve threatened her life.”

“You had good reason, protecting your secret.” Jess spoke coolly, though beneath her silk blazer her heart pounded like a racing stallion’s hooves. “Don’t be frightened. I won’t betray you, or kill you. There are so few of you left.”

She felt his hard body jerk against hers. The horn at her throat slipped. She extended her claws and scored his forearm. Not deeply, but the surprise of it had the effect she desired. He yelled and let her go. Jess grabbed the horn and twisted away, out of reach. She backed to the weapons wall and faced them in a crouch, with the point of the horn aimed at Deon.

“This isn’t the first time you’ve used one of these, is it?” She brandished the horn. “Though not in this manner, I’m sure. It’s more of a gore for you, isn’t it?”

He glared at her so murderously she wondered if she ought to risk a reach for another sword. Fin hopped between them, his hands out. “All right, you caught us,” he said. “He’s my brother. Half brother. Quarter brother. Cousin. Something like that. He’s part silver fox. He doesn’t shift because his form comes out weird. All that bad blood in the line. He won’t—”

“Save it,” Jess snapped. “I know what he is.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Jess opened her mouth for one last halfhearted protest. Fin picked that moment to move his mouth from her clit to her cunt. His tongue plunged deep inside her. Her protest became a bliss-bloated yowl. “We’ll take that as a yes,” Fin mumbled through the fine, soft hairs that ringed her little lynx. The movement of his lips there tickled delightfully.

“Yes,” Jess panted. “More.”

“You heard the lady.” Fin pushed her dress up over her hips and cupped his hands around the bared globes of her ass. Deon finished the move, lifting Jess’s arms over her head so he could slide the garment up and off her. He tossed it away to join his and Fin’s tunics, abandoned on the floor. His big hands captured her tits and began a rough but thorough exploration of them, while Fin continued to drink from her gushing well.

Trapped between them, dizzy with ecstasy, Jess forgot all about punishment. The last of her control shattered and she came, with a primal cry her feral foremothers would have recognized. These were her men, her males, her mates, the authors of her pleasure.

They did not yet fully belong to her, though. That would have to be rectified. Quickly.

She sagged against Deon while her body rode the crest of her triumph back down to the mortal realms. “You’re wicked,” she said raggedly. “Both of you.”

“Apology accepted,” Fin said. “Give me a hand here, horny boy. We’re not finished.”

Together Fin and Deon lifted Jess. Deon positioned himself on the bench with Jess firmly cradled in his lap. His prick poked her ass. The second both of them were settled he returned his hands to her tits. Meanwhile, Fin knelt at the end of the bench and spread Jess’s legs. “Oh, the view,” he marveled. “You should see this.”

“You should feel this,” Deon countered, and gave her tits a squeeze. Jess hissed, not in protest. “Remember that girl from the Barrows? These are better. These are real.”

“Let me see.” Fin clambered on top of her. The bench creaked dangerously. Fin pried Deon’s hand from her left breast and replaced it with his mouth. Tongue, teeth, and lips worked the rosy nub until Jess hit the edge of sanity. She ground her hips against his in search of the ultimate prize, but his dick eluded her. So did Deon’s, no matter how much she moved her ass.

Her claws threatened to pop from their sheathes. She wanted to rend them both. Were they trying to drive her insane?

When Fin finally lifted his head again, his pale eyes had gone smoky with desire. “There’s nothing false about you, is there, Mistress? Every bit is genuine. Including that lust in your eyes. Would you like a taste?”

Jess made an incoherent sound. She raised her head from Deon’s chest to meet Fin’s mouth.

Their tongues clashed like swords. Jess drank in silver fox and snow lynx, both heavily steeped in sex. She found she liked the blended taste. For the moment she abandoned her quest for a cock and relaxed enough to savor the kiss, and allow Fin to savor her.

She moved her hands from Deon’s thighs to Fin’s torso, to seek out those abs he’d been sculpting. She fondled them while Deon kneaded her breasts. All the while her tongue and Fin’s toyed with each other in a duel as much playful as it was a test of wills. By the time Fin ended the kiss, both of them were purring, the battle ended in a draw. Fin pulled back with a nip to her lower lip and a salacious wink.

Deon rubbed his cheek in her hair. “Want some,” he demanded.

Jess tilted her head to kiss him, but Fin was faster. He pressed his mouth to Deon’s as passionately as he had with Jess. Deon made a low grunting sound. His hand joined Jess’s in Fin’s hair. The other left her tit to tease its way down her belly, with little hops to Fin’s chest along the way.

Now this just wouldn’t do. She was mistress here. Their attention should be focused fully on her, not each other. She batted at their faces until they broke apart.

For a species mostly herbivorous, Deon proved capable of producing the most guttural growls. “Somebody’s jealous,” Fin singsonged.

Jess seized a fistful of Deon’s long mane. She grabbed for Fin’s cock. “I want this in me,” she rasped. “Yours, too.”

“At the same time?” Fin said doubtfully. “You’ve got a pretty pussy, Mistress, and it’s clear you’re no virgin, but I don’t think even you could—” Her growl made Deon’s sound like a whimper. “You’re in charge,” Fin said. His lips crooked. “For the moment.”

He took her nipple into his mouth and sucked hard on the sensitized nub. Jess quivered until she feared she might shift. Deon must have sensed it, because he leaned over her to distract her with a kiss. He didn’t spar with her, as Fin had. His was a demanding kiss, greedy and rough. His mane fell across his face to brush her cheek. Jess countered with her own demand. When his mouth finally left hers, both were breathless. Hunger burned away the aloofness in Deon’s eyes.

She reached out to both of them, undecided. Which to sample first, her smooth silver fox or her rutting brown stallion?