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My lips meandered across his cheek, bringing my mouth to his ear. “What position are we going to try tonight?”

His breathing picked up. “I’m going to ride ye from behind while you’re licking Jesse’s balls.”

The huskiness in his whisper reverberated between my legs.

He kissed my lips, and all the air seemed to circulate toward him. “Then Jesse’s going to flatten ye while I watch.”

Any lingering anger I might’ve harbored vanished with those words. Yeah, maybe I was an easy lay, but I’d never been a casual lover. When I gave my body, my heart went with it. Jesse and Roark were part of me. They’d become my sanctuary, and now that I had them, I wanted to spend as much time as I could in the refuge of their arms.

That night, Roark made good on his promise. In the secured wing of a dilapidated hotel, I writhed beneath Jesse’s weight as Roark lay spent beside us, catching his breath.

The mattress groaned with the force of Jesse’s thrusts, the fire in his gaze burning me everywhere it touched. I reached for Roark’s cock, knowing how hungrily his arousal fed on the sight and movement of our bodies. Once he recharged, he would join us again. But I couldn’t wait. Jesse had hit the right spot, the perfect tempo, and my orgasm was seconds from reach.

Just as I was about to fall over the edge, the tingling low in my belly took on the ugliest form. Dozens of aphid vibrations broke through my concentration.

Darwin’s head popped up from the floor. He sprung toward the closed door, whining and pacing in front of it. Muffled footsteps pounded on the other side and faded down the hallway, followed by shouting.

“Fuck.” Jesse slowed the roll of his hips then stopped, his jaw clenching.

I knew the aphids could sense my arousal, something to do with the pheromones I sent out, but it had been so long since they’d disrupted me in a moment like this.

Staring up at Jesse, at his just-fucked hair, at the frustration replacing the heavy-lidded look in his eyes, I didn’t want this to end. I always hated those green bastards, but dammit, I really hated them right now.

Just die already!

The vibrations in my belly vanished. Just like that, every single one of them blinked out at the same time. Poof. Gone. I gripped my stomach, as if I could somehow find the sensations with my hands.

“Evie?” Jesse pulled out of me and glanced around the room.

“Wha’ is it?” Roark joined Jesse’s side, his gaze sliding to the door.

It crashed open, and Link stormed in, his clothes covered in black blood and hunks of fleshy pieces.

I yanked the sheet over my body, but his eyes were distracted, staring at—I glanced over my shoulder—nothing?

“An army of aphids got past our perimeter.” His dark gaze leveled on me. “Then their bodies simultaneously exploded from the inside out.”

Dressed and armed with my blades and bow, I stood in the lobby of the three-story hotel, taking in the scene piece by piece, and there was a lot of foul, unrecognizable pieces. I covered my nose with my hand, but the signature stench of rancid aphid bowels seeped in with my inhales and made me gag.

Across the dimly lit room, a man bent at the waist and retched on the floor. The dozen or so guys standing around holding flashlights and kerosene lamps looked just as green around the gills.

I didn’t blame them. Bits of organs, bone fragments, and ripped flesh clung to the walls and broken furniture. Double-jointed legs scattered here and there, still identifiable yet no longer attached to a body.

I gagged again, repulsed and baffled. Surely I didn’t cause the aphids to self-destruct? I willed them dead all the time, but I didn’t have the power to make it happen. Maybe the Drone was behind this? Or the aphids did it to themselves? But that didn’t make sense.

Darwin traipsed through the guts, nose to the floor, rooting through the entrails. I cringed, thinking about all the crap he would track into bed. Not sure why I cared about something as insignificant as dirty paws. We would all need a good scrubbing after this.

Link strode by, shining a flashlight at the gore and shouting at the men. “Start digging through the shit. Look for anything that might tell me what happened here.”

“Like what?” one of the men asked.

“I don’t know, a beating heart or a footprint or the goddamned magic ring of invisibility.” He aimed the beam at a row of men, their pale, nauseated faces stark in the glare of the light.

Most of the men were half-dressed, wearing boxers and holding axes, as if they had woken when the security was breached and grabbed the nearest weapon.

“Hurry up!” Link shouted. “I don't want to see anything but assholes and elbows until this place is picked clean.”