by Jayce Carter
She shuddered as the adrenaline slipped from her, as she rested against Marshall’s grasp. She’d survived. They’d all survived.
But where did that leave them all?
* * * *
Kieran sat in the conference room at the FBI headquarters. Marshall and Kane also sat around the large table, Daniel and Kyle present as well.
The fallout of the disaster at the mall had taken a few days to clear up. The security cameras had cleared Kane for the killing of the beta.
The drive was safely in the care of the FBI who had already started to decrypt it. It appeared to hold slave auction data, and while they didn’t share everything with Kieran, they were hoping to find someone to infiltrate the next auction.
And now? Now they waited for Tiffany to show up. She’d spent the last few days with her friend, Claire. Kieran had accepted it only because he knew the woman’s alphas were protective to a fault. She would be safe, and the distance would be good for her.
That time away ended today, however, and they all had to face one another.
The paperwork sitting in front of Kieran was all he had to offer. It hadn’t been easy and had taken more of his favors than he liked to give, but it was worth it.
The door opened, and all three alphas lifted their gazes.
Damn, I missed her. Tiffany’s hair was down, the blonde waves cascading over her shoulders. Her snug shirt was pulled tight across her chest, accentuating her cleavage, and her flared hips begged him to grasp them.
They’d only been apart for a week, but not a day had passed without Kieran thinking about her. He’d fallen asleep missing her scent, her warmth.
Hell, he even missed her smart mouth.
Even so, he’d not messaged her. Neither had Marshall or Kane, all agreeing to give her the space she’d wanted. They’d respond if she reached out, but she hadn’t.
Seeing her walk in, he felt inclined to forgive her for it.
Her gaze sought Kieran’s, those blue eyes of hers locking onto his.
“You look well,” he said.
Tiffany wrung her hands together so tightly, Kieran fought the urge to tell her to stop. He had to rein in his protective instinct.
She sat beside Daniel and Kyle, across from her mates.
And they were mates. Even if she walked away, even if she fought their bond and never wished to see him again, it didn’t change a thing. They were mates and losing her would hurt more than anything he’d experienced before.
Tiffany tucked her hair behind her ear. “Thanks.”
Kane’s soft growl said what the alpha didn’t. It said he’d missed her as well.
Tiffany offered him a smile, one that tugged at Kieran’s chest. If she left, it wouldn’t only be him to lose a mate. Hell, they’d all lose the group they’d formed, the family.
Marshall leaned forward, his elbow on the table. “How’s your side?”
“Good. The doctor you recommended is great.” She shifted in the seat, a soft wince saying she wasn’t fully healed.
“Are you not taking your medication?”
“I did the first day. They made me sick.”
The shift into doctor mode by Marshall was so fast Kieran swore he saw a lab coat appear. “I can prescribe you something that won’t make you sick, or anti-nausea medication—”
She stopped him mid-tirade. “I’m fine, really.”
Marshall huffed out a soft laugh. “Sorry. It’s a hard habit to break.”
Everyone fell to silence, the unasked questions between them all.
Daniel broke it. “So, Tiffany, we’ve got quite a bit of paperwork here for you.”
“Right. We’re going to sign over my future.”
“Not exactly.” Daniel pushed paperwork over to her, the folder sliding across the table. “We’ve worked out a better deal.”
She frowned as she opened the file and ran her fingers down the page. Finally, she lifted her gaze. “What does this mean?”
Kyle answered. “That’s freedom, Tiffany. No more contract. A new identification, an account with enough money to get you started wherever you want. You can go anywhere and start over.”
Her lips tipped down. “I thought no judge would sign off on this without the year under the care of an alpha.”
“Well, seems like your lucky day. Your help with the drive meant this one went for it. With the new name, you won’t need witness protection. Be smart, be careful and once we finish our investigation, you’ll be able to contact your family again. In the meantime? Well, you can do whatever you want.”
She stared at the paperwork, her fingers stilled on the page.
Kieran held his breath. He’d offered her everything she needed to leave. It was the right thing to do, but damn, it was hard. Staying still took everything he had, having to sit there and say nothing.
Not beg her to stay, not promise her the world, nothing.
She had to have choices. It had to be up to her.
She had to choose a future with him, with Kane and Marshall because she wanted it, not because it was all she had. For that, she needed to have options.
Between the three of them, they’d pulled all the strings they had to give her that option. She could go anywhere, start any life she wanted. It was, in the end, the only thing they had to give her.
Her freedom.
* * * *
Marshall tipped the beer back, taking a gulp of the cold liquid. He wasn’t normally much of a drinker, but then again, he didn’t get his heart broken often.
Kane laughed as he took a step backward. “Well, look at that. You thinking to keep up?”
A grimace passed over Marshall’s features as he remembered why he didn’t care to drink. “Well, if I don’t learn, what else am I supposed to do when I visit with you and Kieran?”
“How fucking sad is that, huh? The three of us assholes left, what? Fucking moping around.” Kane took a drink that made Marshall’s look like a sip. “Fucking pathetic, that’s what.”
Marshall settled onto the couch, drink pressed between his thighs. “I miss her.”
Kieran took a spot in the chair. “I wonder where she is?”
“Texas.” At the look from the other two, Kane shrugged. “She always talked about going to Texas if she ever had to run far. Said the sun would do her good.”
Marshall grinned at the image of her—jeans, tank top, cowboy hat. She’d fit in well there. That blonde hair of hers would catch the sunlight and light up. Damn, he would love to see that.
“Did we do the right thing?” Kieran asked.
Ah, the same question he’d asked himself for day since they’d come up with the idea. “We did what we had to. She needed to have a choice to make, and we gave her that.”
“And she took the chance to run off and break our fucking hearts.” Kane huffed. “Yep. Great plan.”
The words hung there between them all, the truth. When they’d all given in, when they’d realized what they wanted, she’d been the one to break their hearts.
Kieran was the first to break the silence. His laughter started slow, deep. He leaned forward, holding the beer away so he didn’t spill it. “I never thought I’d end up like this,” he gasped out between bouts of laughter.
Kane joined in, his laughter deeper, rougher. “Who’d have figured a fucking omega would put us on our asses, huh? Figures, don’t it? Some spit of a female does what no one else could.”
While the moment wasn’t all that funny, Marshall joined in. There was some sense of camaraderie with the other alphas, with all of them feeling the same pain. “We are a pretty pathetic group, aren’t we?”
Then a voice that haunted Marshall broke into the laughter. “I don’t appreciate people talking about my mates like that.” Tiffany.
The sight of her three males had Tiffany’s heart speeding. Walking into the house with the key she’d already had felt right. I feel like I’m home.
And the laser-like focus they had when they turned their gazes to her? She’d
missed them. Every night away, she’d thought about them, woken up swearing she’d heard their voices in her sleep. Worse, the more she’d thought about it, the surer she was they’d been involved.
“What are you doing here?” Marshall asked.
Tiffany tossed the folder she’d received from the agents onto the coffee table. “I’m not as stupid as I look. I knew the only people who could have worked this out for me were you guys. Why’d you do it?”
No one answered at first, feet shuffling as if they were children caught doing wrong.
Finally, always the brave one, Kieran gave it a shot. “You deserved whatever future you wanted. We figured the best thing we could do for you was give you the chance to figure that out for yourself. If you wanted us, well, you needed to really want us.”
“So, you set up everything for me so I could have a life that didn’t include any of you?”
“We want the best for you, and if that isn’t here.” Marshall shrugged. “Then we’d do whatever we could to help you.”
Tiffany’s gaze fell to the paperwork, to the proof of what they’d wanted to give her, to do for her. Despite wanting her, despite risking their lives for her, they’d given her a choice. They’d offered her freedom, because what she needed mattered to them more than what they wanted.
It made it clear.
I love them.
Especially as they sat there like lovesick puppies with nowhere to go. Three alphas who could strike fear into anyone had been brought to their knees by the idea of not having her in their lives anymore.
It melted whatever resistance she’d had.
Still, it made her ask one last question. She turned to Kieran. “You told me you couldn’t give me anything but a year.” She nodded at the papers on the table. “Does this mean I don’t even get the year?”
Kieran rose and crossed the room until he stood before Tiffany, so close she had to crane her neck to look into his dark eyes. He didn’t touch her, though. Even standing so close a deep inhalation could cause them to brush, he didn’t cross the final inches of space. “I don’t want a year. I said that because I thought losing you would be too painful to risk. After almost losing you to that beta, I’ve realized losing you would hurt no matter what, and pushing you away wasn’t going to help. I’ve always done what I had to do, but with you, I see what life can be. I see the fun, the unexpected, the parts I’ve always thought weren’t for me. The fact is, I don’t want a year, girl—I want forever.”
Kane’s large body stood to the side of her, tattooed up and imposing and undeniably beautiful to her. “I ain’t been the sort of man who could ever earn a girl like you, but I’m sick of letting that stop me. If you’re willing to put up with my stupid ass, doll, I’ll take that as a win for me. I don’t want you to go, don’t want you to be gone for a fucking second. Ain’t saying any of us will be easy to live with, but hell, if anyone could put up with it, it’d be you.”
Marshall, the last to speak, the one always to consider his words to carefully, offered his piece before she could interrupt. “I’ve always been afraid that if I let myself go, if I ever cared about an omega, that I’d turn into my father. I was terrified that I’d end up like him. The funny thing is that the exact thing I was doing to stop it caused the fear. My alpha side is vicious, but I know that it’s only drive is to keep you safe. You taught me I don’t have to be afraid of it, run from it. There is nothing in the world I want more than to be with you, than to wake up to your laughter and go to bed exhausted and covered in your scent.”
Kieran’s voice dropped low, unsure when she didn’t respond to their declarations. “If that’s what you want.”
Tiffany took her lip between her teeth, considering the life she could have. It didn’t take more than a moment for her to gaze around, to find Kieran’s eyes, Marshall’s, Kane’s, and know she wanted exactly that.
She crossed the space Kieran had left and slid her lips against his firm ones. The kiss was quick, only a heartbeat before she pulled back, her hand pressed flat against his chest. “I haven’t made a lot of good decisions in my life. In fact, my life has pretty much been a string of bad choices.”
Marshall’s hand came to rest on the small of her back, the comforting weight, that quiet strength he had reassuring her. She reached out, wrapping her fingers in the fabric of Kane’s shirt, gripping it tightly.
“I think this might be the only good choice I’ve ever made.”
Kane huffed a laugh before catching her behind the neck, twisting her to face him. “Nah, doll, I’d bet this is another shitty choice, but like I’ll complain.” He pulled her in for a kiss that was nothing like what she’d offering Kieran. No, Kane’s was deep, his tongue taking as if to tell her how much he’d missed her and how badly he wanted her.
He broke the kiss only to have Marshall steal the next one. It wasn’t gentle, but rather let out that dark edge he had hidden for so long, a low growl in his throat as he forced her head back to deepen the kiss, his fingers tightening on her lower back. He broke the kiss with a stinging bite to her bottom lip that only had her growing damp. “You won’t regret it,” he swore.
Kieran caught her hand and lifted it, offering a kiss too chaste for the things she was thinking. His lips twisted into a smirk, one that promised such filthy things, her cheeks warmed at them. “I say we take our mate to bed and show her how much we’ve missed her.”
Kane and Marshall agreed with their bodies more than words as they all pulled her toward the bedroom.
And Tiffany followed, following her mates, the family she’d found and the home all of them had made. No matter how they’d fought it, they’d created something between them that they’d all needed, and Tiffany wouldn’t let anything get in the way of that.
She’d never been as happy as she was being shared by her alphas.
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Taming the Beast:
Mastering the Beast
Tina Donahue
Excerpt
Zoe stormed toward a treatment room, ready to rumble.
As the top enforcer at From Crud to Stud, the New Orleans’ makeover service for supernatural beings, she didn’t take lip or attitude from anyone. She’d made that fatal mistake in the past. First with hard-nosed villagers during the Salem witch trials, which had been way worse than the fluff shown on the History Channel. Then with Satan after he’d wooed her to Hell using his typical bait-and-switch scheme. What a creep he’d turned out to be.
Twice in her existence, she’d let guys determine her future. No more. She was her own woman now, uninterested in men. Her work here was all she needed, guided by her determination to do things the mortal way—suffer and endure, no supernatural powers allowed.
She pushed open the door and faced a sickly looking vamp who sported a pasty complexion and a man bun. Hardly a babe magnet. Only fierce dedication and hard work would turn him into Mr. Charm. “Yo. On the table. Now.” Before the staffers helped him to suppress his inner beast, she had to strap him down. An easy-peasy job for a reformed demon with hardcore ways.
He licked his fangs flirtatiously. Some might say hungrily. “Hey. I’m—”
“I’m not going to ask again.”
“Easy, cupcake. I’m just trying to make conversation. What’s your name?”
“Kim Kardashian.”
“Yeah?” He regarded her scrawny figure. “You changed. Like a lot.”
“It’s an illusion. Call it my work uniform. Once I’m on my own time, I blossom.”
“Cool.”
They circled each other, both ready to pounce.
Given his powers, he struck first and sank his teeth into her neck.
She tapped her foot but let him do his thing.
“Gah.” He gagged and recoiled. “Damn, you taste like hell.”
Surprise, surprise. “Time for you to learn some manners. Good thing you came to us.”
He eyed a female staffer s
trolling by and gave her a toothy grin.
Zoe got in his face. “Park your butt over there now.”
“When I’m good and ready, sweetheart.” He craned his neck to watch the staffer. “Run along.”
Zoe rammed her saddle shoe into his foot and her elbow into his gut, wrestled him to the table then strapped him in so he’d never get free. Not even if he morphed into a freaking bat. His frustrated hiss mingled with a reaper’s wail, zombie grunts and were howls.
Lovely sounds, ordinarily. However, tonight something was off, the evening heavy with tension that breathed danger. Similar to when another demon slunk nearby.
Warily, she approached the last two treatment rooms. Both were empty. The walls bore claw marks from former inhabitants.
Maybe she was overreacting due to the calendar date. Halloween approached, the dumbest and most inaccurate holiday ever.
Heather, a healer and the good fairy receptionist there, had decorated her desk with plastic skulls. Fake cobwebs hung from the faux gas fixtures. Rubber spiders stuck to the coral walls and spelled out Boo! on the artificial brick floor.
Zoe resisted the urge to roll her eyes or say anything unkind, since Heather was her BFF.
Heather smiled adoringly at Daemon, a former satyr. He’d come to the service more than a year ago to ditch his horns, tail and hooves in order to look fully human so he could boogie with mortal babes. Not only did he work there now as an enforcer, he and Heather had shacked up, their love more enduring than Romeo and Juliet’s. They laughed easily and gazed at each other with tenderness and respect whenever they weren’t busy making out like sex-starved teens.
Loneliness tightened Zoe’s chest. She ached from unexpected longing but shook it off.
Romance wasn’t what she needed or could risk. She’d learned that brutal truth centuries ago when she’d had wanted one guy, just one, more than life itself. What a hot mess that had turned out to be, especially after she’d sold her soul to get his affection. Talk about false advertising. What she’d ended up with was a one-way ticket to Hell along with Satan’s negligent shrug and pissy explanation about what had happened.
