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As it turned out, she had a surprise of her own.

I entered the house to find not one but two nymphs in Shea’s care. Steadying my breaths, I crouched at the edge of the rug where we’d left the first one and rubbed my eyes. Then I blinked again at the bodies on the floor. Nope, there were still two.

Two comatose nymphs.

The second one was younger, definitely more rebellious than the first, given the sleeves of ink on her arms and the amount of piercings in her face.

“Are you mad at me?” Shea perched on the couch, twisting the flashlight between her hands.

Jesse and Roark waited outside with the new arrivals, giving me a couple minutes to update Shea. I knew they were using that time to explain Shea’s background to the men, as well as spelling out rules about not touching her without her verbal consent.

Darwin plopped beside me, nudging my hand with his head. A world of chaos was about to walk through that door—men with nymphs and weapons and carnal desires—and Darwin was all like Scratch behind my ears!

I grinned, running my fingers through his dense coat and rubbing the place on his head that made his back leg kick. “I’m not mad. Just…” Why were nymphs popping up everywhere now? I stood and paced the room. “What happened?”

“She rattled the door. I let her in.” Shea shined the flashlight on her arm, revealing a new puncture mark beside the first, both of which were sealing quickly.

I glanced at my own arms, dotted with ten tiny holes, the marks already closing. Maybe the nymphs had some kind of healing agent in their bite?

I needed Michio. To make sense of all this. To share the excitement with me. To hold me. And if I were being honest, after two months without an orgasm, I desperately needed him to fuck me.

Where did this sudden arousal come from?

The scent of twenty-plus hungry men outside. Alpha males. Men with the kind of presence a woman couldn’t ignore. Men who oozed ferocity and confidence and the promise of protection. Men who knew how to take care of their bodies, which meant they would know how to take care of mine.

Stop it. None of those men could hold a candle to my guardians.

I gave Shea a brief run-down on everything she’d missed and reminded her these men hadn't seen a woman in a very long time. Her smile was contagious when I told her about the ten nymphs waiting outside.

I followed her gaze to the two on the floor. Two nymphs explained the multiple scratching sounds I’d heard. And the second one had come to the door after I left, which meant they weren’t just drawn to me. They were drawn to Shea as well.

Which also meant when these twelve nymphs were fully healed, they could beckon other nymphs and those nymphs could beckon more nymphs and so on. If we traveled in opposite directions, our reach across the continent would be endless. We could cross oceans, our small numbers building, becoming larger, more effective. We could potentially spread the cure to every corner of the world.

My hopeful thoughts shifted to the door as the men marched in with the women. The room filled with footsteps, deep voices, and a fuckton of testosterone. Within seconds, the small three-bedroom house grew exponentially smaller.

A tiny, closed-in boudoir of testosterone. I could smell it, like the sweetest cologne, sifting through me and lathering my inner thighs.

As Roark and Shea led the ten men with women upstairs, I treaded to the far wall and watched the parade of muscle move in. Darwin circled around their boots, sniffing their crotches and wagging his tail. If his hackles rose, mine would, too. When it came to men, I trusted his instincts more than my own.

And the men poured in, carrying packs, barbaric weaponry, flashlights, candles, and kerosene lamps. Soon the house was flooded with light.

More than enough light to illuminate sculpted faces, tight jeans, and even tighter asses. Black men, white men, a few Hispanic, there wasn’t an ugly man in the group. Each one blood-splattered and dangerous-looking, they redefined sexy with a ruthless edge. Most were covered in tattoos, all of them carved to brawny perfection.

I squeezed my thighs together and tried not to make eye-contact, because they were most definitely looking. Every man that strutted through the door set their eyes on me. It shouldn’t have turned me on. I should’ve been watching them for suspicious activity, but evidently my libido overruled my self-preservation.

Jesse gave me a narrowed look from across the room.

“What?” I mouthed.

It wasn’t like he could smell the arousal pooling between my legs. And so what if I was horny? Weirder things have happened.

Oh shit, he was coming over here.

I rested against the wall, all cool and collected, but damn, if his confident fucking swagger didn’t get my pussy excited. My inner muscles quivered in anticipation.