Page 51

Alec’s voice interrupted my rambling thoughts. “Um…” I scrubbed a hand over my face. “Right. No point dragging it out.” I looked at Chloe, who watched me with wide blue eyes. She was so beautiful it almost hurt to look at her. But I forced myself to hold her gaze as I said, “I didn’t want a human for a mate, but it was never because of you. Humans killed my mother…and one of my fathers.”

She put a hand over her mouth.

Alec stiffened, his whole body suddenly alert.

I settled my gaze on a spot between them, and their faces went blurry as I cast my mind back to my earliest memories. “My mother was a werewolf, as you know, and she believed she had nothing to fear from humans. In those days, they were primitive and superstitious. They accepted magic as part of everyday life, even if they didn’t understand it. But people can turn on things they don’t understand. When they encounter something powerful, they fear it…and then they try to eliminate it.”

The room was still as Chloe and Alec listened. Outside, the London night reigned, an inky black covering the city. If not for the room’s sleek furniture and the thick panes of glass protecting us from the cold, we could have been in a mead hall, our ears pricked for the sound of enemies.

Or monsters.

“The details aren’t important,” I said, “although humans got plenty of them wrong when they wrote down the story. But the long and short of it is they hunted my mother and eventually killed her. Ripped her arms from her body and hung them in the king’s hall for all to see. My fathers sought revenge, but they were heartbroken and it made them weak. By the time they attacked, the humans had amassed a large army. They killed one of my fathers. My other sire died shortly thereafter.”

“Leaving you an orphan,” Chloe said, her voice thick with tears.

When I looked up, moisture sheened her eyes, turning them a deep violet. “No,” I said. “I was a fully grown dragon, and I unleashed hell on that kingdom. I burned it to the ground, just like the fairy tales say.”

Alec shook his head. “It was a long time ago, Lachlan. A thousand years or more. And it was hardly a kingdom. A cluster of longhouses, more likely, or a village with more animals than people.”

“Why should that matter?” I asked, voicing the question I’d grappled with for centuries. “I murdered men and women. Children and babies. I didn’t discriminate. Is there an expiration date on evil? I was capable of that once. Who’s to say I’m not capable of it again?”

Alec drew a breath, but Chloe put a hand on his arm. Then she rose, crossed the small space, and sank to her knees at my feet. “You want to know what you’re capable of? Evil isn’t capable of love.” A sad smile touched her lips. “When I first started working for you and Alec, I was jealous of your relationship. You love each other wholeheartedly, with zero reservations. I wanted that for myself, for me and Josh.”

My voice was gruff in my ears. “He wasn’t worthy of you.”

“I don’t regret what happened,” she said. “Now that I’ve seen what true love looks like, I know I could never settle for anything less.” She tipped her chin up as she met my gaze, and her blue eyes grew fierce, giving her the look of a furious angel. “You’re not a monster, Lachlan MacKay.” She grasped my hands in both of hers. “We are all more than the worst parts of ourselves.”

My throat ached. Because I wasn’t worthy of her, either. “I killed,” I said hoarsely.

“In another time, in another life. You had lost your family, but now you have a new life…and the chance to make a new family.”

For a moment, time stood still. Then I was on my feet and she was in my arms, our mouths locked together as I walked her backwards and tumbled her into Alec’s lap. He cushioned her fall, then went to work stripping her out of her clothes. Her sweater sailed over my head and her bra smacked my shoulder as I sucked at her tongue and nipped the pouty lower lip that had driven me mad for months.

She moaned loudly into my mouth, and I broke away to see Alec’s big hands cupping her tits. Lust struck me like a rattlesnake, and I pulled back so I could take in the sexy sight of his palms overflowing with her trembling breasts. He flicked his thumbs over her nipples, making the dusky pink tips tighten to little spears. He and Chloe made an alluring pair—him with his big, muscled body and her with her soft, creamy curves. My beast craved them both.

“Get ready for me,” I told them as I worked Chloe’s jeans down her legs. I tossed them aside and snapped her panties off with a quick yank that made her gasp. I pushed her thighs wide and hooked her legs over the arms of the chair, baring every inch of her luscious pussy to my gaze. Alec’s cock stood up proudly between her splayed thighs, the veined length inches from her glistening folds. A bead of precum dotted the tip of his erection. Shiny juices pooled at her entrance.

No sight had ever been hotter. I kept them that way for a moment, my inner beast thrilling at having them open and needy and at my mercy. “Which to taste first?” I mused, shooting a dark look up at my lovers.

My mates.

Chloe whimpered.

I smoothed my hands up Alec’s calves and kept going until I reached her soft inner thighs. “You’re right, lass. Ladies first.” I lowered my mouth and licked straight up her center.

She went to pieces at once. “Oh God, oh God…oh God.” She thrust against my mouth, griding against my face as Alec’s leaking shaft brushed my cheek…my chin…my neck.

I gave Chloe a long swipe of my tongue, then closed my lips around Alec’s cock and took it straight to the back of my throat.

His hips jerked, and his deep groan seemed to vibrate the chair. The room echoed with his gravelly pleas. “Suck me. Yes. Fuck…just like that.”

I fell into a pattern—one lick for her, one suck for him. Back and forth, I feasted on both, reveling in the contrast between her soft pussy and his rigid shaft. I kept them on the edge as long as I could, denying them release as their moans grew louder and Chloe’s pussy got wetter.

But Alec broke first. When it was his turn, he surged into my mouth almost comically fast. His hips thrust in uncoordinated bursts, and his harsh pants drifted over my head. Smiling inwardly, I slid a finger between his cheeks and teased his hole.

He came at once, his hot release hitting the back of my throat. I drank him down and then some, delving my tongue in the tiny slit on his head to make sure I got every last drop.

When I pulled back, he’d wrapped his arms around Chloe’s thighs, spreading her impossibly wide as he took her mouth in a passionate kiss. I rose, grasped my shaft, and stirred the tip around her entrance.