by Renee George
She’d never been a petite girl, so when Cage picked her up from the floor as if she were light as a feather, it made her giddy. She wrapped her legs around his waist, leaning back as Adam stepped behind her. He brushed her nearly dry hair to one side, and kissed her neck, nibbling and sucking his way to her ear. Cage palmed her breast, giving it a gentle squeeze, as he kissed up the other side. His tongue felt rough—rougher than she remembered as he thrust inside her parted lips.
Maddie squirmed, arching her back, rubbing her groin against Cage’s T-shirted stomach as their kiss became a frantic dance. Adam bit down gently, as he reached around and took both of her nipples between his fingers, rolling them until they constricted into rigid buds. She felt Adam’s hardness through his jeans against her back. Between the nibbling, the sucking, the pinching, and the rubbing, she could feel another quick burn happening in her lower body.
“Oh hell,” she moaned. “It’s happening again.”
“Then we’re doing it right,” Adam said, his voice low and sexy.
“I want to see you,” Maddie said, dropping her legs to the floor, and trying to push herself from between them. “I want to see you naked.”
Adam chuckled. “You’ve seen me naked.”
“Yes,” Maddie said, remembering how he looked, hard and masculine when she’d taken the sheet from him. She turned in his arms and kissed him, his mouth tasting of oranges. A fruit she was beginning to suspect was his favorite. “But I’m allowed to look at you now for as long as I want.” She turned to Cage. “Both of you.”
Cage raised a brow, but didn’t argue or banter. He simply stripped his shirt off. Maddie made an appreciative noise as she stared at his wide expanse of chest and the golden hair dusted across and down his stomach. Damn, he was huge.
The muscles at his hips dipped in a deep V, and when he dropped his jeans, she knew the V stood for victory. Her victory, because damn, the man was sexy from top to bottom. His thick erection glistened at the tip, and she licked her lips, imagining how he would taste.
He stroked his length, running his thumb from the base of his shaft to the tip. Oh God. So freaking sexy. She admired him for a lingering moment, letting him see in her eyes how much she wanted and desired him, before she turned her attention to Adam.
His hair was pulled back as usual, and Maddie wanted to see him in all his glory. “Take down your hair first.”
“As you wish, my queen,” he said without any hint of humor.
Moisture pooled between her thighs as Adam shook out his hair, his blond mane cascading over his shoulders. She held her breath. He was so startling beautiful, she couldn’t keep the tears from her eyes. He took his shirt and pants off. His erection was as long as Cage’s, not as thick, but just as potent.
Her overwhelming lust made her whimper. “We’re all naked now,” she said with an unsteady voice.
“Yes,” Cage answered, his expression predatorial. He dropped to the floor with the unique grace of cat and crawled to Maddie. Her breath hitched when he put both hands on her knees and spread her thighs. She didn’t resist, her stomach a mad frenzy of butterflies. He placed his hands under her buttocks and yanked her forward with a growl.
Maddie yelped in surprise, and then moan loudly when he stroked a finger gently between her slick folds, opened her with two fingers, and licked her swollen sex.
“Mmm,” he hummed then dragged his tongue from the bottom to the top. “You taste so sweet.”
He reached behind her and lifted her farther back onto the bed, crawling up with her, even though his legs hung off the edge. That’s when she noticed Adam sliding in beside her. He kissed Maddie, his tongue exploring her mouth with hungry desire. She squirmed as passion stirred her body, making her crave more.
Adam broke from the kiss and began his descent down her chest, giving both nipples a laving before moving to her stomach. She stared down her belly at the two men. Cage held her open and Adam dipped his head between her thighs. Almost of their own volition, her fingers laced in Adam’s hair as she rolled her hips to meet every intimate caress of his tongue.
“Yes,” she said huskily, her voice rough from her rushing breaths. The tip of a finger, Cage’s, pressed against her opening, gently pushing, entering her as she arched into the mattress.
Adam shifted slightly, allowing Cage room, as they both licked and sucked her enlarged clitoris. The awareness of both their tongues lashing her sex as Cage entered her with his finger overpowered her senses. She fisted Adam’s hair, the cool strands, a welcome relief to her feverish hands. She was so wet, and Cage slid in and out of her with ease. Her blood burned with their seduction. They were a perfect match, experts in the arts of love and sex.
Adam moved from her pussy to her mouth, his lips glistening with the evidence of her complete abandon. She tasted herself as he thrust his tongue inside her mouth, Cage taking the reign over her lower body, feasting between her thighs with hungry voracity, while Adam feasted from her lips then down to her neck, her breasts. And Maddie gave over—saying their names and begging for more until her head pressed back into the mattress, her neck going tight and rigid, right before the power of the orgasm, the soul scorcher, crashed through her in pounding waves of ecstasy.
“Oh God,” she whimpered when the she could speak, and she couldn’t hold back the racking sobs that stole her breath.
Adam and Cage moved to either side of Maddie, wrapping their arms around her, around each other, as they huddled in to comfort her. She could feel their sudden anxiety in the tension of their muscles.
“Did I hurt you?” Cage asked, the worry hard in his tone.
Maddie couldn’t answer, not straight away, but when she caught her breath and could, she said, “No.”
“Are you okay?” Adam asked, mirroring Cage’s concern.
“Yes,” she laughed, and the tears still flowed. How could she explain why she was crying? She barely understood herself. After her climax, a flush of an overwhelming sense of completeness had washed through her entire body, though she wasn’t sure that was the right word for the emotion even if it made sense.
“I’m more than okay,” she told them.
“Then why are you crying?” Cage asked.
They waited for her answer, and when it finally came to her, she said, without reserve, the most honest truth she knew, “I’m happy.”
WHEN Madeline had started to cry, a crushing fear squeezed Adam’s chest, but when she’d finally said, “I’m happy,” he knew with certainty she meant it. He smiled at Cage, who was also smiling. She was theirs now, and they would love her and protect her.
She touched his face with one hand, her other caressing Cage’s beard. “I want you inside me. My heart is completely yours, both of yours, and I want my body to be yours as well.
Clary had never been so bold, so slow to come to them, to trust them, and here Madeline had known them for less than a week, and she accepted her destiny without doubt or reservation. His own heart filled to bursting. He could hear Cage’s pulse speed up as Madeline’s scent changed once again. God! His cock twitched, leaking pre-come onto her thigh. He didn’t even notice the rumbling in his chest and throat until Madeline asked: “Are you purring?”
Cage laughed, a sharp, unexpected bark of whimsy. “Yes, Maddie. I do believe he is.”
Adam gave them a stiff smile, but then laughed too. “That’s never happened to me before.”
“I bet you say that to all the girls,” Madeline said, fighting to keep the grin off her face.
Within seconds, all three of them were laughing, and Adam had never felt so light or so free. She’d done that for him. For them, he amended, as he watched Cage, the years of torture and pain nearly vanishing before his very eyes.
When the laughter subsided, he brushed her hair away from her face, and kissed her lovely cherubic lips. Her pale eyes met his gaze, and he promised himself that they wouldn’t lose her. Never.
Cage moved up on an elbow and kissed her next. Adam smiled, more
pleased than he could put into words. Clary had calmed Cage’s rage, but Maddie made it disappear. What a fool he would have been, had he let her get away from them. With Madeline, every part of him clicked into place.
He slid his fingers between her thighs—already wet and ready again.
She moaned, spreading her legs for him. Now they would finally have their mating, the one that would make her their true queen. She would give them a child, and the pair bonding would give her a long life, one that Adam and Cage would spend making her as happy as she made them.
Adam maneuvered his body, positioning himself between her knees. He lowered his hips, his mouthwatering as he felt his lion push to his consciousness. He would have to shift some into his half-form, in order for the mating to be true, as Cage would, but he would keep the change to a minimum. A full shift to half-form would be more than she could take, not while she was still completely human.
She reached up and fisted Adam’s hair. “God. In me. Now,” she said breathlessly.
Bang! Bang! Bang! The loud knock jerked Adam’s attention. Cage rolled to his feet, alert and ready to fight.
“Adam!” a voice called through the door.
It was Carl. Son of a bitch. The panther didn’t like Madeline, Adam knew, but he wouldn’t stop this. “Go away, Carl,” Adam snarled.
He banged again on the door.
“I’m going to be eating dwarf for dinner,” Cage growled.
Adam cast an apologetic glance at Madeline. She yanked the covers across her as soon as he got up.
Adam stalked to the door and said, “Goddamn it, Carl. Go away.”
“Zaria’s missing!”
The panicked declaration hit Adam like a bullet, but he stopped Cage when his brother dashed to the door. He directed his gaze to Madeline. “We’re coming,” he said through the door. “Give us two seconds.”
Madeline was already on her feet, unbuckling her suitcase. She pulled out a pair of shorts and a camisole and yanked them on without ceremony. Cage and Adam quickly dressed as well then opened the door to Carl.
The dwarf almost fell into the room. His face was red, worry and dread clear in his expression. “Adelaide hasn’t been able to find her since you left,” he said in a rush of words. “We’ve searched the entire carnival. She’s not there, Adam. She’s just gone.”
He’d never seen the dwarf so shaken. He trusted Carl. If his oldest friend said they’d looked everywhere, they’d looked everywhere. A sinking fear dropped his heart into his stomach. He could feel the same tension rolling off Cage as he stood nearby, unable to stop clenching and unclenching his fists. Adam’s throat tightened until he couldn’t breathe.
Maddie moved between them and put a set of keys in Adam’s hand. “Let’s take my car. It’ll be quicker.”
Adam stared at her, shoving his vulnerability down. If it had been anyone but Zaria he’d know what to do, how to act, but he’d raised the girl as his own... how could she be missing?
Madeline touched his face. “Apparently I have this gift for seeing things that have happened when I touch people, and I will put my hands on every goddamn person at the carnival and in this town until we find her. I promise you, Adam.” She turned to Cage, whose fear for Zaria was reflected in the widening of his face and the animalistic sheen of his eyes. She touched his face as he stared down at her. “I promise,” she said again.
12
ADELAIDE Michaels, Adam’s sister, waited under the welcome arch with several of the carnival folk, including Alana, Darren, Marlena, Alice Deckard, and a lanky fellow Maddie had seen on the fairway, but hadn’t yet met. With her matted blonde hair, red puffy eyes, and trembling hands, it didn’t take a psychic to know how upset Adelaide was by her daughter’s disappearance.
Maddie stood by feeling helpless as Adam strode to Adelaide and gathered his sister in his arms. She broke down with wracking sobs against his chest. Adam stroked her hair back, making soothing noises until she finally calmed. An overwhelming fear shook Maddie to her bones.
So consumed with Adelaide’s grief, she barely noticed when Cage slipped his arm around her shoulders. A gesture meant to comfort. Instead, the world began to transform around her into a giant field with large stalks of corn, the tassels browning, almost ready for harvest.
I CAN see Alice up ahead with her picnic basket. She is beckoning me to follow her. I am taller than the stalks with their swelling ears of sweet corn, but Alice, with her golden hair, keeps disappearing from my view. I can hear her laughing, and it makes me uneasy. I only agreed to go with her for Adam’s sake. He and she have been lovers for a couple of years now. It started before Adam rescued me. She is another of his saves, and I want to respect his choice.
I can sense the jealousy in Alice at Adam’s deference to me, but she doesn’t understand. She is not leogenus. She is pumagenus, a mountain lion shifter. She does not understand the connection Adam and I have. We are two parts of a whole now, tied until death. Brothers. Co-Rulers.
I hate her. They are not truly mated, and she knows this. A true mating would have brought a child, and after two years, she has never produced. She manipulates Adam to keep him around. Why can’t he see it?
She takes me through two more rows.
“Just a little farther, Cage. The clearing is up ahead. It’s gorgeous.”
I shake my head, unable to keep the growl from vibrating my chest and throat.
Alice disappears again as I make my way to where she stood. Caution makes me look down just in time to see a large, dark opening in the ground. I wave my arms to catch my balance.
I hear Alice laugh right before she shoves me forward.
The walls are dry and crumbling. I try to claw onto them as I fall into the man-made pit. I splash into knee-deep water when I hit the bottom. Completely unprepared for the impact, I am thrown to my ass—my hands and feet sink in the mud below. My fall has happened so fast, I forget for a moment why.
“Alice!” I roar at the bright opening at least twenty feet up.
She peeks her head over the edge, the fall of her hair and the lack of light on her face hides her expression. “I found this old well out here. Cool, huh?”
Every time I try to crawl up, I pull more dirt and earth down on me. And I am sinking further into the mud with every effort. “Get a rope,” I tell her, trying to push down the edge of panic.
“I don’t like you, Cage. And I like you even less as Adam’s roommate.” She’s not laughing now. “We had a good thing going until you came along. He barely touches me now.” I can hear an edge in her voice that scares me. What is Alice going to do now that she’s trapped me in this hole?
I don’t have to wait long for the answer.
“Good bye, Cage.” There is a certain amount of triumph in her voice as she pulls a lid over the top, submerging my watery tomb into complete darkness.
“No!” I shout, but I know she is already on her way back to the carnival. My heart pounds, beating like hammered fists inside my chest, as I realize Alice means to leave me here. I am in the middle of a field, in the middle of nowhere, down a long forgotten well. Sixteen years of torture I endured. Sixteen years of living and sleeping in my own filth. For what? To die buried and alone in a worse place?
I feel the shift take hold. My beast has always been stronger. He kept me sane all those years, but even now I can feel his panic welling to the surface. Neither of us can take this. We cannot be caged again. We will not.
I scream, but the sound is inhuman. My face widens as bones move and reshape. My fingers become claws, thick dark nails sliding from the tips. My neck thickens, the corded muscles merging to broaden my shoulders, and I grow by inches as my partial form fully emerges.
I sink my hands into the dirt walls, stretching my legs to push against the opposite side. Half-way up, the soft wall crumbles again, and I slide back down into the watery grave. I will kill Alice. Kill her!
I don’t know how long I work and dig, but I am unable to climb to the top. I am small
again. A child. Joe Armando has beaten me, forcing me to change. I am blood. I am hate. I am rage.
When the light shines down from above, a rope is dropped onto my back, and I take my shot at escape. Alice will die. Like the Armandos, she will not survive me. I leap out of the well when I reach the top, almost slipping back as the blonde holding the rope around her waist screams when I pounce.
My claws tear into her upper arms as I press my fangs against her fragile neck, and the stink of fear stokes my fury. I will taste her blood. I will devour her whole!
She turns beneath me. Not a mountain lion. Leogenus. Like me. Like Adam.
Confused, I pause.
I can see her now. This is not Alice. Not. Alice. The anomaly penetrates my violent thoughts.
Even in my half-form, I manage to say, “Adelaide?”
She keeps her head down, paws down, her full belly on display. She is submitting. Afraid to do little else.
In my blind savagery, I have almost killed Adam’s sister.
REALITY crashed over Maddie as she awoke from the vision screaming and slashing at the arms wrapped around her. It took a moment to realize she was no longer trapped. The panic she’d felt had been suffocating. She stared at Cage and Adam, both holding her tightly and looking worried.
“Stop,” she said, her voice hoarse. “I’m okay.”
“What happened?” Adam asked. “Did you see something about Zaria?”
She stared at Cage, remembering his frenzied terror, and shook her head. She gulped. “Nothing. It was nothing.”
She’d been experiencing Cage and Adam through Clary’s eyes, but just now, the glimpse into Cage, had made her more aware of the large man’s fragility. She’d felt how tenuously he held onto his control. How easy it might be for that control to snap. He’d savored Adelaide’s blood. She swallowed as if she could still taste the metallic sweetness.
She loved Cage, no matter what she’d seen, and she tried to put her reassurance in her gaze.
