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“Is there anything hotter than a pretty mouth saying dirty words?” he asked in a low rumble, his hand reaching up slowly, deliberately, giving me all the time in the world to pull away.

But I didn’t, did I? I stared up into greenish hazel eyes, caught on the spike of his gaze, unable to look away or do anything as those broad fingers stroked down the side of my face.

I smelled sandalwood, musk, and motor oil, and together, it made this dark, luscious scent that had my lips falling open to breathe more in.

He seemed to sense that, his smile spreading wider.

That hand grew bolder, stroking my skin, tilting my jaw up and cupping it in his massive hand before dropping his head down.

“Ethan!”

It was that shout that jolted me out of a haze that had robbed me of any thought but him. I blinked wildly, my heart feeling like it started to race again from a standing start. My hands pressed against that impervious chest, shoving him up and away from me to see Ophelia and Shaun in the doorway.

“Bec, are you OK?” Shaun asked, taking a step forward, but Ophelia stopped him from coming any closer with an outstretched hand.

Well, him and the guys clustered behind him.

Green eyes, hungry eyes, I knew exactly what was going on in their heads, every one of them.

I’d felt my bloodlust rise, the heat of the hunt upon me when chasing down bunnies in a forest, but this?

Pretty sure rabbits didn’t get all hot and bothered between their legs right before I crunched them.

“She’s in heat. We weren’t notified,” one of the men ground out, looking like he was holding onto his control by a string.

“She’s only just got to fucking town,” Shaun snapped back.

“Bec’s not from here. I found her at a truck stop on the way home.

We… She went into heat, so I brought her here last night.

” He turned to me, his eyes stark against his tanned skin.

“Bec, it’s OK. No one here is going to touch you without your permission. ”

And if I gave permission? A rumble from the crowd seemed to contradict what he’d said, but the look Shaun shot the men was a fiery one.

“The woman chooses,” he snapped at them.

“Always. No matter what you want, how you might feel…” It was right about now I started to wonder if the hot stranger I’d spent the night with had some unresolved issues.

He was being way too intense for this to be just about me.

“You don’t come near her until she gives you permission. ”

I stopped still for a minute, the surreal nature of what was happening finally sinking in.

As I’d said, I was aware of my appeal to men.

Some liked me fine, some didn’t, but nothing prior to this had prepared me for what was playing out right now.

These guys, all fucking gorgeous guys, stood there at the edge of the workshop, like there was an invisible fence erected and they were dying to take a step over it, dying to get to me.

A part of me wanted just that, my limbs feeling heavy and molten, my cunt twitching and clasping at nothing, desperate to be filled.

By them , a sneaky little voice said, not quite my own. By all of them. The thought somehow of having the men jostling at the perimeter, trying to draw my attention, forcing me to choose was delicious.

“You smell fucking creamy.” My gaze jerked over my shoulder to where a shirtless Ethan stood. He came closer, but stopped short of touching me. “Like honey and sunshine and pure fucking sex, all rolled into one.”

“You smell pretty good yourself,” I snapped back, and that was when I felt it. My body was still on fire, but me? I was back online, back in my own head.

“Bec, you are in control here.” Ophelia’s voice was gentle, persistent, with strength enough to keep everyone where they were.

“This has all been too rushed for my liking, but needs must. If you do not wish to take sexual partners to ride out your heat, tell me and I’ll move you to a separate facility.

You’ll be protected and kept from harm, if that’s what you want. ”

“And if I don’t?”

There was a challenge in my voice, way too much, which sent the guys jostling again, Ethan drawing closer.

Fuck, my heart rate might have slowed, but it felt like my cunt was sending out a frantic SOS, letting all the fellas know about my current state of distress.

My eyes traced the shapes of his muscles and his body while my fingers twitched with the need to do the same.

I felt so damn hot, I knew I’d keep burning and burning until someone quenched me.

Someone like him.

“You just have to ask,” Ophelia said. “That’s what I was trying to get out back at Shaun’s place.

Ask for what you want.” Those words scared me, but none more than the next.

“Ask for who you want, for how long, and in what capacity. Sanctuary is about choice—your choices. It’s been a long time since I experienced a heat, but I remember the tumult of it well.

It transforms all that you are into need. Who and what do you need?”

It rose at that, a chaotic tangle of desire, old fantasies, and even older inhibitions, creating a messy snarl inside me.

What the fuck was I supposed to say? That I dreamed hot, hot dreams just like this, when I ran in Tirian form, a pack of them hunting me down, bringing me to ground.

And when they did? They emerged from their Tirian forms, hard and ready for me, as I did the same.

Even though everyone’s eyes were on me, waiting, waiting for me to say it, what I needed…

I couldn’t.

And as if summoned to take that need for a response away, a ute pulled up outside the workshop, a woman jumping out and running towards me.

“This is the new girl?” a woman with a wild mane of curly brown hair asked.

She took in Ophelia, me, Ethan, and then Shaun, but it was only when she reached him that her nose began to wrinkle.

She shot him a wary look, but her focus quickly shifted to me.

“I’m Jules, and you’re…” Her voice trailed away as she studied me closely. “You’re George and Nelly’s sister.”

I frowned, wondering who the hell this woman was, before my memory sluggishly kicked into gear. Tame the mane back into plaits, replace the jeans and T-shirt with a school uniform, and it began to come together. “Bec,” I said in reply. “You were a few years ahead of me at school.”

“Yeah, I sort of hung out with your older sister. But you’ve found Sanctuary!” She looked inordinately happy about this before she scanned me more closely. “Oh my god, you’re in heat.”

Her eyes darted around as she put her body between mine and the men, shooing Ethan away with an exaggerated gesture.

He sidled away, but his eyes remained on me, not her.

I watched him settle back against the bonnet of one of the cars, arms crossing, every cobblestone ab on display, looking like one of those fucking hot Diet Coke ads.

“Jules…” a man from the car said, walking closer. He was tall, really tall, with reddish brown hair and grey eyes. He looked at the other woman with concern.

“She’s new and probably has no bloody idea what’s going on and she’s going through her first heat.

We need to take her to our place, Finn. She shouldn’t be thrown to the wolves…

” Jules stumbled on those words, her attention shifting rapidly to Ophelia, then me.

“She shouldn’t have to face down a horde of single men on her first day here. ”

She turned back to me.

“Come with us. You can hang out in the married quarters, away from all the guys, until you work out what you want. Well, my mates will be there.” I saw several other men jump out of the utes, approaching slowly.

“But that will be good.” Her eyes slid back to Shaun, a frown forming. “They’ll keep you safe.”

“Is there going to be a mating call? Will we get to present ourselves this time?” one of the men in the crowd asked Ophelia, deep rumbles indicating he spoke to this one.

“If she wants you to,” Jules shot back, bristling with irritation.

“You’re all getting pumped up on her pheromones, but you don’t know what it’s like, to find this whole other side to yourself.

It’s…dizzying and overwhelming.” Her focus flicked back to me.

“How the hell did you find Sanctuary, anyway? It wasn’t like poor Flick, right?

You don’t have an abusive husband or boyfriend or anything? ”

“Bec came here with Shaun,” Ophelia replied coolly.

“Shaun?” She wheeled around, her eyes narrowing.

My body, it was hit by waves of adrenalin and need, everything inside me telling me to fight, fuck, or flee.

I’d tried to flee, and that’d only just made things worse.

There were too damn many here to fight, so that left…

My eyes slid sideways, Ethan meeting them head-on, a slow smile spreading across his face, as if he could see exactly what I was thinking.

Nope, too much an unknown factor right now, so I pulled my gaze reluctantly away from that hot body.

But rather than Jules or Ophelia or any of the guys beyond the workshop, I found myself looking at Shaun.

There was something in his face, in the tension in his body that seemed a perfect visualisation of how I felt. His feet shifted, like he wanted fucking out of here, a frown forming, something that didn’t smooth away until I reached his side, putting a hand on his arm.

For a moment, I figured I’d done the wrong thing again, his eyes going wide and staring straight into mine.

I blinked, thinking I’d overstepped, pulling back, but his arm went around me, loosely enough that I could pull away if I wanted to, but I didn’t want to.

I barely knew the guy, but right here, right now, he felt like the safest bet.

“Can you get me out of here?” I asked, hating the tremor in my voice, but it was what it was. “I can’t…”

As my voice broke, his arm tightened, pulling me into his side, and finally, there it was.

Everyone was talking, so much talking going on—everyone but him.

Instead, I shamelessly burrowed my nose in the neck of a guy I barely knew, unable to stop myself, though that wasn’t the crazy shit.

The blast of his clean, crisp, masculine scent loosened muscles I didn’t know I was holding tight, but it was the way he held me, cradled me into his chest, as if he knew I needed that, that made me tense all over again.

Yes, this one , my beast said in my mind, her voice resonating with command. An order that pushed past my discomfort, creating a strange peace inside me.

“C’mon,” he said, taking my hand and then pulling me behind him. Then he faced down everyone else in this three-ring circus. “Whatever you want, any of it, you can wait. Fuck, we only got here a few hours ago. If you need something to do, unpack the fucking truck I brought home.”

I didn’t see how the crowd reacted, despite hearing a loud, clamouring response.

I couldn’t, my eyes were trained on the worn cotton of Shaun’s shirt.

It’d feel soft if I reached out and touched it, I was sure of that.

It was easier to focus on that, to bring my attention to the minutiae, because everything else was too fucking big.

No one had ever done this before. None had turned around, eyes blazing, softening when they saw me, then gripped my hand tight before leading me away from all the confusing shit.

He ushered me into something that looked like a golf cart, then turned the ignition and reversed us out of the car park.

“Wait!” Jules shouted, running over to my side. “You don’t have to do this.”

“I know,” I replied, somewhat pissed now. I wasn’t a fucking child, I was just well and truly past my limit. “Get me out of here, please.”

“You got it,” he said.