by Thorne, Elle
He claimed her, rode her, made her his.
She would belong to no other. His and his alone. Nobody else would have her, but him. She’d be his forever, this was how it was meant to be. He knew this was fated.
She moaned with passion and he groaned into her ear.
“Give it to me,” he urged her.
“Yes! Linc!” She threw her head back, screaming his name as her body shuddered beneath his. She tightened around his hardness, clenching down on his length.
At this point, with that pressure, with Circe climaxing around his cock, he couldn’t keep himself from coming.
Linc stiffened, crying out against Circe’s neck as he released.
Circe was his mate. Forever.
He bit into her neck, marking her as his.
Forever.
Her panther’s snarl was a sign of approval as he let himself come undone while he made her his.
Epilogue
Circe was eating breakfast with Dina, learning all about the intricacies of a young one who was completely enthralled with the butterflies flitting about.
Linc strode up to them, his hair messy, his shirt untucked—God, she loved that look on him—his jeans covered in dust.
“I may need to ask for a raise,” he exclaimed as he leaned in to give her a kiss and at the same time pick up a squealing, joyful Dina.
“I’ll take that to the committee,” Circe said with a smile.
“I thought we took it to the committee this morning.”
“Linc,” Circe hissed a warning for him to behave while the heat of embarrassment rose to her cheeks.
He laughed, a laugh that came from deep within, and twirled Dina in a circle, making her giggle.
“I expected you to be sad, what with Mae and Jake pulling out this morning.” He gave her a knowing look.
Melancholy wove its way in and around Circe’s heart. “I am. But I’m heartened with the knowledge I’ll be seeing her again soon, when Astra has the baby.” More than ever, Circe now understood why Mae had left when she found her mate so long ago. No forgiveness was needed. None at all.
“I get to be her godmother,” Dina interjected. “Astra and Kane told me so!”
“That’s wonderful,” Circe told her with a smile.
She wriggled free of Linc’s arms and began to dance around. “I’ll be Cameo’s godmother. I’ll be Cameo’s godmother.” She chanted over and over.
Suddenly, Dina came to a stop, crossed her arms over her chest, and grew serious. “And I’ll have a cousin soon, too.”
Circe and Linc both gave her a double take.
“What’s that?” Circe asked, indulging the energetic little girl with her fancies and ideas.
“Rinalli told me. Albani told her.”
Linc kneeled, eye level to Dina. “Told her what, DiDi?”
“Circe’s going to have a baby.”
Circe frowned. Wouldn’t she know first? Wouldn’t her panther know first? Wouldn’t Linc’s lion have scented?
“I—” She didn’t want to contradict the little girl, or to rain on her parade or dampen her excitement… but…
It’s true, Albani said in Circe’s mind.
How can I not know? Circe asked Albani.
You’d know in the next few days.
Linc was studying Circe with a concerned look in his eyes, and in their depths, she saw doubt.
Was that doubt about it being true? Or did he have doubts about their having a baby? Or… her mind was tormenting her with options.
“What,” Circe asked him.
“Is it so?” Linc queried.
“It seems to be,” Circe affirmed.
The smile that curved his lips upward grew, and grew. It reached his eyes, and warmed her soul.
Linc took Circe in his arms, held her close, one hand on her belly, his eyes concerned.
Dina swooped in, making it a group hug.
“What dangers are there for you?” His smile had faded slightly, replaced with concern.
“I’ll be fine,” Circe assured him. “We’ll be fine.”
“It’s wonderful!” Dina was bouncing again, in the confines of their hug.
“What will we name her?”
“Her?” Linc gave Dina a mock frown. “Don’t you think we have enough women running around here? Seems we men-types are outnumbered,” he said with a teasing smile.
“And don’t you forget it,” Dina admonished, one hand on her hip, the other shaking a finger at him.
Linc gave Circe a sideways glance. “I blame you for this attitude.”
Circe smiled. “She’ll be a force to be reckoned with, one day. Won’t you, Dinaria Avila?”
Dina raised one brow, looking far older than her years. A small fire erupted in the fire pit next to the patio table.
Linc shook his head.
This was just the beginning, Circe thought. Just the beginning.
Scandalous
Twin bear shifters Tyler and Sean O’Reardon need a little help. They’ve got guardianship of a set of twin toddler girls who are hybrid elemental shifters.
No biggie, right?
Wrong.
The twin girls are throwing tantrums that come in the form of tornadoes and earthquakes.
Order of Elementals agents Camden and Eden Brazos—also twin hybrid elemental shifters—are assigned to Bear Canyon Valley’s mountain range to save the set of toddler twins.
So, what’s the problem?
No one told Camden and Eden they were expected to be nannies.
Say it isn’t so.
Oh, but it is.
And Camden can bearly—oops, barely!—stop gritting her teeth over this one. Because the bear shifter Tyler is too sexy for his own good.
What’s next?
Oh, nothing. Except no one’s really sure why two single males are guardians of two toddler girls.
As far as Tyler and Sean are concerned, they have a good reason for being guardians. And it’s nobody else’s damned business.
Until the Shifter Council steps in.
Then questions have to be answered.
And custody of the twins has to be determined.
Only problem is…
The Order of Elementals issued an order against Tyler to keep him from having guardianship of the twins.
Camden’s getting custody.
Now Tyler’s pissed.
Insta-attraction just turned scandalously close to insta-hate.
Chapter One
Tyler’s cell phone rang. Looking at the caller ID, he grimaced and hollered to his twin. “Hey,” he said to Sean.
Identical twins. Both bear shifters. Yeah, that made growing up easy. Identical twin bear shifters. What had made it hard was that they hadn’t had their parents around. Tyler and Sean had been custom-made to raise hell, wreak havoc, and probably die young.
But they didn’t. Thanks to one grizzly shifter who took in the two and gave them a chance.
Griz.
And that’s why Tyler and Sean were in the predicament they were in.
Predicament.
Tyler looked at the phone again. He raised it so Sean could see. Sure, Sean was across the room, but he could still see the tiny letters on the screen. Shifter super-vision. Came along with shifter super-hearing, and every other sense that was super-enhanced.
Sean rolled his eyes when he read the nanny’s name on the screen. “Now what?”
Ty shrugged.
“Well, aren’t you going to answer it? She’ll go ballistic if you don’t.”
Ty knew this. Knew it all too well. The nanny had been with them for only two weeks, but she was prone to overreacting. And overcalling. He punched the screen to answer the call.
Immediately, he held the phone away from his ear. The screaming that came though the phone would have been heard by a human from across the room. He didn’t need shifter hearing to catch it. He gritted his teeth at the annoyance. The sound was nails-dragging-across-blackboard worthy.
H
e gave Sean a dirty look. “You get along better with her than I do. Go deal with this.”
“Just because I slept with her a decade ago doesn’t mean I get along better with her.”
“You brought her here.”
“The fuck I did. You put the word out for a nanny.”
“Yeah, and she came because she wants you.” Tyler raised a brow, looking stern. He was the firstborn. His brother should be listening to him.
Okay, maybe thirteen minutes, he was firstborn, but still.
Sean shook his head. “Not a chance. The last time I tried to tell her she was fired, she never let me finish my sentence. She stripped naked and tried to seduce me.”
“You didn’t say no, did ya?”
“Actually, I did.” Sean’s smile was tight. “I’m not talking to her. I’m not firing her; she’ll just get naked again.”
“Fine. But you’re going with me. Even if you don’t have the cajones to do the deed.”
“I can do the deed.” Sean winked. “I’m just not the one who fires her.”
Tyler threw the keys at him with more force than a Major League baseball pitcher. “You drive.”
Sean caught the keys, his expression not registering the discomfort the keys had on his bare hands. “Fine. I’ll drive. But I’m not saying jack. This one’s on you.”
Ty shook his head. “What’s new,” he muttered.
The O’Reardon brothers pulled into their driveway. Tyler and Sean lived in the same home—why not, right?—they were both single, and worked closely in the same business. Their home wasn’t far from the office, but the nature of their work demanded the business be kept isolated and hidden.
Sean nosed their truck to a stop. A cabin, but not a little cabin. More like a cabin duplex. Each brother had their own side, separate, though they had connecting doors on the inside.
And of course, the connecting doors were open so there was easy passage from Sean’s place to Tyler’s.
Tyler studied the driveway. It was littered with twigs, leaves, and dirt. “Not good,” he said with a low groan.
Sean grimaced. “Not good at all.” He was looking out the side window.
Tyler scowled when he noticed the ground bore gouges that looked like they’d been made by a giant bear’s claw.
And by giant, Tyler was thinking a bear the size of a damned eighteen-wheeler.
“They’re killing me,” Sean said.
“But they’re so-o-o-o damned cute.” Tyler chewed on his bottom lip.
“Cute like a flippin’ Tasmanian devil on speed.”
Ty bit back the smile at Sean’s comparison. “True that.”
Sean hadn’t even had a chance to kill the engine when the front door, which led to the communal hallway inside, opened.
Evelyn the nanny came running out.
Okay, the word nanny might have indicated the opposite of what Evelyn was like. Evelyn was hot. Model hot. Legs. Rack. Ass. Face. She had it all.
Oh, Tyler thought… not all. She had no brain and zero patience. And she lied when she said she liked kids, that became clear quickly. Ty had been looking for her replacement, certain this moment was coming—and why not, since every other nanny had quit.
And though Evelyn usually looked so damned put together, like she’d just walked out of the salon, not so right now.
Her long blond hair was askew, flying in every direction. Her poofed up ponytail—why did she even do that, Ty had always wondered—had hair sticking out of it in every direction and made him think of a porcupine’s quills.
And Evelyn wasn’t even a porcupine shifter, he thought, laughing on the inside. She was a fox shifter.
“She’s looking like she’s been on the wrong rollercoaster ride,” Sean said after taking in her appearance.
Evelyn was standing by the door, the driver’s side door, of course, tugging on Sean’s sleeve.
Tyler rushed to the other side. This would be his job; Sean wasn’t very good at it. At least, he hadn’t been thus far.
“Help me, Sean. Help me or I quit. I mean it.” Evelyn was pouting. “I didn’t sign up for this.”
“They’re young,” Ty said.
“They’re hellions. Demon spawn.” Evelyn whirled on him.
Suddenly a brisk wind picked up and blew Evelyn against the truck.
Just Evelyn. It touched nothing else. No one else.
Strange? Not really.
Tyler knew where that wind came from.
Eyes narrowed, he looked up at the cabin’s windows. The tiniest hint of movement came from the curtains in the TV room.
He shook his head slightly, but at the same time, fought to keep the smile from his face. He was no Evelyn fan, not by a long stretch.
“Take me out of here. I want to go home. I quit.”
“Go pack,” Tyler told her.
“Just ship my stuff to me. I’m leaving now.”
Tyler glanced at Sean. “Go ahead.”
He wasn’t about to volunteer himself to be trapped in a vehicle with Evelyn for a two-hour drive to the airport. Hell no, not a chance. “I’ll book her on the first plane back to San Diego.”
The ground beneath his feet shook, but the earth next to Evelyn shuddered as a split formed, creating a crevice large enough for a human to fall into.
“Forget it!” Evelyn screeched.
With the sound of bones crunching and tendons stretching, Evelyn swiftly turned into a tan fox. The fox yipped, leapt over the schism in the earth and vanished into the forest.
This time Tyler couldn’t contain it. He let out a loud laugh. Sean joined him.
“That shouldn’t be so funny,” Tyler said between gusts of laughter.
“Yeah, and what we’re doing right now is encouraging them.”
“I know.”
“It’s not going to get any easier,” Sean added. “They’ve become downright bullies. Barely three-foot-tall and they are hounding every single nanny right the hell out of here.”
Tyler sobered. “You’re right. How the hell are we supposed to run a business when we can’t even get a nanny to take care of them?” He scratched his jaw. “We better get inside and let them know this isn’t acceptable behavior.”
Sean nodded. “But what’s the game plan?”
“I’ll call Griz. He’s bound to have an answer.” Or so Tyler hoped. He followed Sean up the steps to the cabin’s front door.
They’d no sooner stepped over the threshold when two little girls ran up and into each of the grizzly shifters’ arms. Trista jumped into Tyler’s while Tessa threw herself into Sean’s.
The little girls giggled and snuggled their heads under their chins.
“Ah, no you don’t,” Tyler admonished. “I saw what you did to Evelyn.”
“She’s mean,” Tessa protested.
“She doesn’t even like us,” Trista whispered.
“How can anyone not like you?” Tyler chucked her beneath the chin, then held her at arms’ length. “Let’s see. Maybe they don’t like the fact you try to practically blow them into a tornado?”
Trista bit her lip.
He glanced at Tessa. “Or to have the earth swallow them up?”
Tessa looked down, a guilty expression on her face, but mirth in her eyes.
Tyler tsked. “Incorrigible. That’s what you two are.”
“We want to be with you,” Trista said. Always a bit bolder, that one was.
“I want you to be with us, too, but we have to work. And you should be working, too, while we’re gone. Learning your ABCs from your nannies, learning to count.”
Tessa raised her eyes to his.
“Learning to behave,” he added.
She dropped her gaze once more.
Tyler sighed then turned to Sean. “Don’t you have something to add?”
Why did he always have to be the hard ass, the disciplinarian?
Sean nodded. “I think it’s lunch time.”
“Thanks for the backup,” Tyler said as the twins giggled.
“I’ll call Griz while you handle this.”
Chapter Two
The puddle jumper excuse of an airplane made a landing softer than Camden expected.
She let a breath out.
Next to her, her twin—identical twin—Eden did the same. Her smile was tremulous.
“Are we panthers or chickens?” Cam whispered.
Camden and Eden were panther shifters with elemental hybrids. Just like their older siblings, Circe and Marco.
Camden’s elemental was ruled by ice, whereas Eden’s was ruled by fire. That was the only way the twins weren’t identical. The elementals they hosted in their body were not twins. They were separate beings.
Well, more like spirits, actually, of a group of beings long extinct, wiped from the face of the earth during a series of battles between their ancient captors and themselves.
Now, the beings lived only through their presence in a host’s body.
“I didn’t think we’d live through this.” Eden expressed the same sentiments Camden felt.
“We should have rented a car,” Camden said.
“Maybe we can rent one and drive to a real airport for the return flight to Denver.”
“Indeed.” Camden pushed her hair out of her face. “We sure sound spoiled.”
“We’re not spoiled. We’re just not accustomed to flying in little planes that get bounced around in the air,” Eden whispered as the flight attendant made her way down the extra narrow aisle.
“Sorry about the turbulence. Weren’t expecting it.”
“No problem,” Camden assured her with a forced smile, though, she was sure she still looked a bit green around the gills.
Her stomach certainly hadn’t settled.
“I’m having a talk with Marie about this,” Eden huffed. “Next time we make our own travel plans.”
“For sure.” She looked out the window. “Do you see him?”
“I don’t even know what he looks like.”
