Nervousness made Mystic stumble as they moved into the woods seeking a place that would grant them some privacy. Hawk and Roman steadied her automatically. Their hands on her arms sent a shock of heated need through her. Their touch intensified the fullness between her legs as blood pooled in her labia. The rub of her jeans and panties against her swollen folds made each step part of an erotic journey.

Anxiousness filled her when they came to a spot that looked as if it had been made for what they intended. It was a place of deep shadow and thin rays of sun, a place that smelled of nature's own hidden magic.

Mystic's stomach tightened. She took a step backward though her cunt and the Angelini magic protested her sudden reservation and her worry that she'd made a mistake in suggesting this, that it might yet end in bloodshed and death, in a guilt she'd carry with her for the rest of her life.

Roman took his shirt off and spread it on the ground. Hawk did the same.

Her heart sped up at the sight of them standing side by side. Together they were like day and night, Roman's skin warmed and golden for a life begun under a shapeshifter's sun, Hawk's darkened for hunting in the light of the moon.

Mystic licked her lips in a nervous gesture that brought their sharp focus to her mouth. Part of her wanted to turn and run, to escape, but the other part wanted to be captured and mounted.

She took another step backward. She wasn't sure she could go through with letting them both have her.

Hawk fought his instincts to pounce and force his mate into submission, then fuck her until her whimpers turned into howls of ecstasy and her fear turned into searing, insatiable desire. Every cell in his body knew she was his. But the kiss she'd shared with the other Were, the cop, was burned into his memory. Witnessing it made him realize he still needed to proceed cautiously with Mystic.

He'd seen how she responded to Christian. The wolf inside had howled at the sight of her softening in her other mate's arms, soaking up his confidence and reassurance. The man had protested the knowledge Mystic and Christian were already deeply bonded.

He couldn't risk she'd find him too rough by comparison, too primitive. Yet deep inside the wolf dreamed of the day when Mystic would take her other form and he could rut on her in a way that had nothing to do with emotion and everything to do with creation.

Hawk's hand went to his jeans-covered cock. Mystic's gaze followed, sending a roar of blood to a penis already close to exploding. When she didn't look away he unzipped the fly before kicking off his shoes and stripping out of his remaining clothes.

He let her see what she did to him and thrilled in the way her nostrils flared and her eyes dilated. His cock bobbed in greeting when he took a step forward.

"Come to me," he ordered. The wolf was willing to keep chasing her as it had been doing since the first moment it saw her, but the man wanted her to admit she was attracted to him.

His cock head beaded with arousal when she licked her lips nervously and took another step backward. A low growl sounded deep in his chest as the rest of Roman's clothing fell to the ground and her attention shifted to the other man's cock.

Roman could barely think of anything but getting Mystic out of her clothes. He wanted to explore her body with his hands and mouth. He fantasized about pinning her wrists to the ground while his cock tunneled in and out of her. He could almost taste her cries of pleasure as she locked him deep inside her channel and orgasmed repeatedly.

For centuries he'd taken human women to his bed. He'd preferred them tall and blonde and well endowed, interchangeable, their conversation nonexistent or non-important. No more. None of them warranted even a footnote in the centuries-old text of his life. Against Mystic's dark, exotic looks, they were pale ghosts of what a woman should be.

Mystic. Her name prowled through his heart and soul. It coursed through his veins and commanded his cock.

The lion's growl answered Hawk's wolf challenge.

Both of their beasts were still willing to fight to the death in order to claim this Angelini female. But when Mystic retreated again, fear and worry in her eyes, it was the men who pushed past their animal instincts and stepped forward in silent truce. Without needing to speak they both knew there'd be no winner if they continued to allow the most primitive parts of themselves to rule.

"We'll be good from now on," Roman teased, his fingers settling lightly on Mystic's spine and stopping her from moving further away from them.

She shivered at Roman's double meaning. Her gaze went to Hawk's face when he took her hand and urged her forward, back to the spot where their shirts were spread out on the ground in a gentlemen's gesture.

"It will be okay, Mystic," Hawk whispered.

The husky sound of his voice curled in her womb and shredded her resistance. She didn't protest when the fingers of his free hand made quick work of unbuttoning her shirt.

A moan escaped when his palm slipped under the parted fabric to cover her hard, tight nipple. Her face flushed with heat and a little embarrassment at yielding so easily, but there was no fighting the need for their touch.

Roman's free hand stroked over her belly in a caress that made her clamp her legs together. He laughed, a wonderful, satisfied sound.

Mystic turned her head and met his eyes. He leaned in and covered her lips with his. His tongue stroked into her mouth, offering seduction instead of domination, the kiss so mesmerizing she barely noticed when Hawk stripped her of her clothing.

Hawk went to his knees and buried his face in Mystic's cunt. His hands went to her hips to hold her so she couldn't escape his mouth and tongue. At the first heady taste of her he knew he was lost.

The scent of the other Were was on her but even that didn't diminish Hawk's hunger. If anything, it fed it, made him more determined than ever to mate with her.

He'd accepted from the first moment he'd seen her that he'd have to share her. Even the wolf had come to terms with it, both of them knowing she could not deny her Angelini heritage.

In the beginning it had been about taking a mate and forming a pack. But as Hawk's tongue fucked into Mystic's channel, as her scent filled his lungs, she became the only thing that mattered.

His cock strained to reach her. It bumped against his belly and wet it with arousal. It demanded he pull her down to the ground and mount her, that he rut on her until his sac was empty of seed.

Hawk growled against her cunt. He wanted to swallow her down, to consume her.

Mystic clutched desperately at Roman as Hawk's tongue invaded her. She bucked when he sucked on her clit and sent fire streaking upward to her nipples.

Roman's tongue thrust against hers. She cried in his mouth and felt dazed by the dual assault, by the need coursing through her.

She didn't resist when Roman eased her down to the ground. She didn't protest when he pinned her wrists above her head with one hand and captured her breast with the other. He tweaked and tugged at the nipple until she was arching, desperate for the feel of his mouth suckling her in time to Hawk's assault on her cunt.

Blue fire. Eternal vampire flames burned in the centers of Roman's pupils when he lifted his face. "Please," Mystic whispered, lost, panting, her mind racing toward the erotic flickering deep in his eyes.

Her blood burned in recognition. Her body craved Roman's bite as desperately as her pussy tried to hold Hawk's tongue in its depths.

Mystic tilted her head back in an offering of her throat and Roman knew she did it freely, not because of vampire enthrallment or even because of the Angelini magic. She was reacting to their touches, their attention. She was responding to the feel of their lips and hands worshipping her and paying homage to the beauty they found.

"Mystic," he said, his mouth taking hers again.

He swallowed her moan and gave her one in return when his fangs descended and she stroked them with her tongue, explored them. She was careful to do nothing but caress them until her lower body began to thrash under Hawk's assault on her cunt. Then she grew careless and scraped her tongue over the sharp point of a fang, bled as she arched upward and sobbed, orgasm shimmering through her.

Roman had to take his cock in hand in order to keep from joining her in release as her pleasure flowed into him with her blood. Even if he'd wanted to, he wouldn't have been able to resist the intoxicating lure of Mystic.

He held her tongue prisoner until the sensual throb of her pulse became a siren song he couldn't ignore. With a groan he relinquished her mouth in order to claim her neck.

Vampire, man, beast, all of them roared in victory when he bit her. He marked her as both vampire and Angelini blood demanded, knowing even as he did it that Hawk's face had turned into her inner thigh. That the Were was also biting, claiming her, giving her the first mating mark.

The shadow wolf that was Syndelle's blood gift rose in Roman. It bristled for a moment at Hawk's mark, but then accepted the interloper, chose to see him as a pack mate who would be an equal instead of an adversary.

In centuries of existence Roman had never encountered an Angelini with more than two mates. But he didn't question the ancient vampire magic whispering to him as it had earlier, telling him the future lay in this direction.

He fed, not only on Mystic's blood but on her lust. He filled himself with it as his cock throbbed painfully against his palm.

Roman knew the instant Hawk left her thigh and kissed his way up to her breast. He felt the moment when Hawk began suckling, sending streaks of white-hot pleasure through Mystic's nipples. It was enough to make Roman sheathe his fangs and seal the bite so his mouth could capture her other nipple in a carnal competition to see who could give her the most pleasure, before working in cooperation to make her scream for them both.

There was no fear for the future in Mystic's thoughts. No guilt. No confusion. There was only exquisite sensation and breathless need as the rhythm of their sucking became synchronized and their hands worked in tandem between her thighs, fingers pressing into her weeping slit, fingers swirling over her engorged clit.

"Please," she begged, needing them to finish marking her so she could do the same to them, wanting them to plunge their cocks into her channel and fuck her. The Angelini magic crouched deep inside her like a wolf waiting for the right moment to spring.

Hawk felt the wolf inside her. It howled and writhed with the need to be covered by its mate. Its desire was a thick, erotic musk that swamped his senses.

He lifted his face from her breast. He wanted to see the wolf looking out through her eyes. But despite how intensely he felt its presence, it remained hidden in Mystic like a cub not yet ready to leave the den.

For the moment it didn't matter. Her wolf would come to his call in the future. It would uncurl and take form so they could run together, hunt together, bond in their second form.

Hawk took her nipple in his mouth again. He caressed it with his tongue before moving to the place over her heart and biting down, giving her the second mating mark.

Something had changed with the first bite. The wild desperation, the fear he would lose her to Roman as well as to the other Were had given way to confidence. Mystic would be his.

Hawk kissed his way up to her neck and covered the place where Roman's fangs had penetrated her. "Please," she whispered, tilting her head back.

He could feel how much Mystic's hidden wolf wanted a show of strength and dominance by its mate. He growled in response, allowed some of his weight to settle on her.

When she whimpered and shivered he wanted to close his eyes and cover her completely. He wanted to wallow in her softness and the heady scent of aroused submission.

The Angelini magic was like a hot breath across Roman's body. It was so close to the surface it threatened his control. It made even the shadow wolf press against his skin along with the eagle and lion. All of them wanted to bask in the power and bathe in the heat. All of them urged him to mount her, to fuck his cock in and out of her channel until she locked him in her sultry depths and made him come repeatedly.

"Finish it," Roman said, freeing her wrists and moving a short distance away, allowing Hawk sole possession, sole access to Mystic's body.

Hawk needed no further urging. The wolf howled in victory even as the man accepted the unspoken terms of Roman's concession-that he would soon have to relinquish Mystic and watch as another took her and tried to coax the Angelini magic into making him her mate.

When Mystic's fingers tangled in his braids and guided his mouth to hers, Hawk gladly took her lips. He shared the taste of her passion as well as her blood with her.

His tongue dueled with hers. Sliding. Twining. Conquering.

He shuddered and thrust against her mound and belly as he fought the desperate need to plunge into her wet slit. With a growl he ended the kiss and pressed his neck against her lips. He rubbed his pulse over her mouth.

"Bite me," he commanded, his voice deep, rough with anticipation.

Mystic bit him and with the first taste of his blood the Angelini magic rose like a fever inside her. A growl vibrated in her own throat and she would have joked as she always did, to hide the pain of having no wolf, but the fire streaking from her cunt to her nipples made it impossible.

When Hawk eased backward, moving into a crouch and guiding her to her knees, she went willingly though she didn't release her grip on his neck until his fingers speared through her hair and urged her mouth to his chest.

The magic roared in an unstoppable inferno when his heart beat against her lips. Hers. He would be hers, bound to her with unbreakable chains, first of passion and then of love. The sharing of their bodies and blood was only the prelude to a sharing more intimate, more complete than any other-the sharing of heart and mind and soul, and with it the absolute trust that came with knowing another thoroughly and being known in the same way.

"Mystic," Hawk growled and she bit him. She felt the wildness inside him, the wolf crouched there, ready to pounce.

Hawk lifted his face to a sky partially blocked by the canopy of trees. Every muscle in his body was taut. His balls were pulled tight and his cock strained, ached, wept.

He wanted to howl but feared he would be reduced to whimpering. His buttocks clenched and his lungs labored to gain enough air to sustain him.

A constant growl resonated in his chest. It grew deeper as her mouth traveled downward.

He could sense Roman's presence. It brushed against him like another wolf, not a subordinate but an equal.

It was impossible for Hawk to care. He couldn't focus on the other male as Mystic nibbled over his abdomen, as her tongue reached the tip of his penis only a second before her lips did.

Hawk jerked. Panted. He nearly curled over and lay along her back. The image of doing so, of nuzzling and caressing her smooth, dusky buttocks as he fucked her mouth was an unbearable temptation.

He might have done it if he hadn't caught Roman's movement at the corner of his eye. He spared a glance and saw the vampire's rigid features, the blue fire dancing in his pupils, flickering in time as Roman's fingers gripped and stroked and pumped at a cock darkened and flushed with need.

Hawk knew that whether he came in Mystic's mouth or her channel, as soon as the last of his seed escaped, Roman would no longer be content to wait. The vampire would strike. He would bite Mystic and be bitten. He would shove himself into Mystic with ruthless intention and if Hawk were foolish enough not to mount her first, then Roman would do it. But even knowing what was at stake, Hawk didn't force Mystic's mouth to his inner thigh.

He closed his eyes and allowed her to explore his shaft with her mouth. He shuddered under the exquisite lash of her tongue then cried out when she took him into her mouth, his hips dancing in shallow thrusts as she sucked him.

"Mystic," he groaned, not a command but a plea.

He felt her satisfaction, her feminine pleasure and pride through the link created by the mating marks they already shared. With a husky laugh she released his cock. She teased over the tip before turning her face into his inner thigh and biting him.

The sting of erotic pain was enough for Hawk to take control. He tumbled her to her hands and knees. His hips bucked when she willingly parted her thighs, the sight of her swollen labia and glistening slit nearly driving him into a frenzy.

He wanted to feast again. He wanted to bury his face against her wet flesh and spear his tongue into her sheath but the wolf inside him had reached the limit of its endurance.

Hawk mounted her. He shoved his cock all the way into her channel in a single hard thrust.

At the Zevanti compound he'd fantasized about taking her virginity, about having to fight her inner muscles and claim her inch by inch. But now, as the need to mate rolled over him and the flames of the Angelini magic seared him, he no longer cared that another had taken her before him or that another would take her after him. All that mattered was the exquisite sensation coursing through his penis and balls, up his spine and straight to his heart.

The tight, wet heat of her was enslaving. The knowledge he would never know another female's body, would never want to because everything he could ever desire would be found with his Angelini mate, filled him with contentment.

With the first stroke there was no room for further thought. There was only fierce desire and overwhelming need.

Hawk's hips pistoned. Hard and fast.

His breath came in pants. His moans formed a chorus with Mystic's cries.

He kissed her shoulder in the place where her other mate had already bitten as he took her. He licked over the spot, nuzzled it, gave her gentleness before giving in to instinct.

Hawk didn't fight the wolf or his own nature. He clamped down on the tender skin, held her in place and felt her yield completely, open for him in a way only an Angelini female could do.

She accepted him, claimed him for her own. The tight ring of muscles deep inside her channel locked the head of his penis in her depths and triggering orgasm after orgasm, milked him of his seed in one lava-hot rush of ecstasy after another until he was weak, sated. Hers.

It surprised Roman how much he wanted privacy for what was to come. He'd been alive for centuries. He'd lived in times when debauchery was an art form and there were few limits set on behavior, especially for one such as him. He'd shared women more times than he could remember. He'd eaten grapes fed to him by slave girls as women pleasured each other, along with the men who gathered for sexual entertainment.

Later, he promised himself. Later there'd be time for just Mystic and him. There'd be time to linger, to play, to slowly explore each other, to come together in an intimacy shared by only the two of them. For now he needed to finish what had been started. He needed to mark Mystic and be marked in return. He needed to claim her while there was a window of opportunity to do so, while the magic and her other mates were willing.

Roman wedged his hand between the Were's body and Mystic's. He ignored Hawk's growl and pulled Mystic to him, under him. His lips captured hers. His fingers tangled in her hair.

The blood link between them was enhanced by what he'd gained from Syndelle. It was already strong enough for his mind to touch Mystic's so he could share his desire to have her to himself, to pleasure her in a luxurious bed and become lovers before yielding to the Angelini magic and becoming mates.

Mystic's heart warmed with the words and images Roman whispered in her mind. With a thought she told him she understood the need to finish this now. She told him there would be time for romance later.

Despite having two mates already she wanted him as well. She felt the rightness of joining with Roman. She didn't doubt his cock would become locked in her body when he fucked her, that their lives would become inextricably joined.

She didn't understand how it was she could claim three males. But she had been taught from childhood to accept the Angelini magic and yield to its choice of mates.

A small laugh escaped. Was it only yesterday when she'd fled the Zevanti compound, intent on having an adventure as well as avoiding taking even a single mate?

Roman's chuckle rumbled down her backbone and curled in her pussy. And now you find yourself saddled with not one mate, but three. The burden will be ours to convince you we're worth the loss of your freedom.

She smiled against his lips. She nibbled at the bottom one, suddenly grateful to have a mate who was less intense than the Weres.

Not a mate yet, he reminded her.

You will be.

She felt his smile against her senses.

Only time will tell whether you consider me a less intense mate, he joked as he lifted his face so their eyes could meet.

The sight of the erotic, blue flames in the center of his pupils both aroused and comforted Mystic. Once he might have been a legend among the shapeshifters, but now he was also vampire.

Bite me again, she whispered in Roman's mind, wanting to experience again the ecstasy that came when he pierced her with his fangs and took her blood.

I will bite you for each time you bite me, he teased, brushing his mouth against hers before licking over the well-marked place on her neck.

He rolled to his back, taking her with him so she sprawled across him. The heat in her cunt spiraled outward. It pulsed through her belly and breasts.

Mystic's lips tingled and her gaze went to his smooth, unmarked neck. She couldn't tell if it was her heartbeat or his that thundered in her ears.

His cock jerked against her abdomen, marking her with arousal wherever it touched. Do it, Roman said, need replacing the humor in his voice.

Mystic leaned in and licked his tanned flesh. His skin tone was lighter than Christian's or hers, was almost pale against Hawk's darkness.

She nibbled at Roman's neck, feeling playful until Hawk growled and she became aware of his searing gaze. Her pussy clenched in reaction. No wonder her mother often wore a satisfied expression after spending time in bed with both her mates.

It was darkly erotic to touch one mate while the other watched, forbidden to join in. Not for the first time, Mystic wondered if perhaps she was more her mother's daughter than she'd thought.

She gripped Roman's neck in her teeth and felt his pleasure, his satisfaction, his craving for not just a mate, but for her. She also felt the extent of his need and how desperately he fought to remain in control of the beasts that lived within him.

The place where he'd already made inroads into her heart expanded when she felt how much it had cost him to allow Hawk to take her first, how hard Roman was fighting to give her memories that were more than just a rough claiming.

We've got a lifetime to make other memories, she said, wanting to free him from the cage he'd placed himself in as she gave him the first mating mark then kissed downward and gave him the second and third.

Nothing in the centuries of his existence had prepared Roman for the lust the Angelini magic inspired. Even before Mystic released his inner thigh, Roman's reality had narrowed to the wild roar of blood rushing through his cock and heart and soul. Each pounding beat called only one name, demanded only one thing. Mystic.

He bit her has she'd bitten him. He marked her as she'd marked him. But when she would have rolled to her hands and knees, the man he'd become prevailed over the beast he was.

"No," Roman growled, positioning her underneath him and piercing her with his cock.

In this he would be different.

Roman sealed her mouth with his and gave in to the siren song of Angelini magic. There was no resisting its call. There was no fighting the need to plunge in and out of Mystic's sheath until the deep, hidden place welcomed him, held the tip of his penis prisoner as each instinctive jerk to free himself sent lava-hot semen rushing through his cock instead.

He gave himself up to the pleasure, to the bond. She would become his vampire companion but that was a matter for another time. For the moment his heart soared and his soul felt complete. After centuries of being alone, he had a mate.