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So this was how we came to be ushered into a massive compound, instructed to shower and dress by a tense-looking Ophelia. We did so like chastened children. Well, they did. I was well and truly still in rebellious teenager mode.

“We didn’t do anything wrong,” I insisted. “Everyone there was a consenting adult.”

“In the club? Yeah,” Shaun said grimly, towelling himself off with rough motions that made me step in and take the towel from him.

He went very still as I reached up, drying off that body, that beautiful fall of blond hair, much more gently.

When I pulled it away, his hand whipped out, holding my wrist and pulling me close.

“Things run to plan here, always stay the same. Usually, it’s comforting, but…

The focus of Sanctuary is on the safety of the women. ”

“And somehow we’ve threatened that?” I asked, incredulous.

“You… We made them feel what we felt. Every damn adult in the town, I think.”

“Which was insanely hot,” Axel said. “I’ve fucked and been fucked, but I never knew that’s what it felt like for women.” He tossed his head back, looking somewhat shell-shocked. “That was…transcendent.”

“But we didn’t have their permission,” Ethan said grimly. He stood a distance away from us, then pulled on the provided shorts and T-shirt.

“You… You don’t have to stay.” I had to force the words out, everything inside me screaming the opposite, but I had to say this.

“Like, I don’t want you getting into shit because of me.

I have a job to get back to, a friend who’s probably rung the cops, thinking Shaun kidnapped me. I can GTFO once this blows over and?—”

“No.”

Arms went around me, and I was tugged up against Shaun’s body, his lips finding the mark he’d left on me with unerring ease, but it wasn’t pain I felt when he brushed it, more an echo of that former pleasure.

Axel, on the other hand, looked a little shaken.

“Your heat is broken?” I nodded, because it was, sort of. It’d been remarkably short, but I felt like I was in the driver’s seat right now. “The agreement is that we stay until your heat is done, unless you wish otherwise.” His eyebrow slid up slowly in question. “What do you want us to do, Bec?”

Stay. That was definite, I felt it beating hard in my chest, but for some reason, it caught there. Axel watched me struggle, swallow, my head twisting, before he reached out and placed a big hand on my sternum.

“What do you want? This is Sanctuary. It’s safe to ask for what you need. Just tell us. You were so fucking brave before, reaching for what you want.”

I might have infected the whole town with the equivalent of spiritual Viagra, but Axel, there was something different about him. When he spoke, he cast spells, drawing my answer out of me before my inhibitions could hold me back any more.

“Stay. Please. If you want to. I mean…”

“I’m not going anywhere, ever,” Shaun assured me, holding me close, and that same rush, of warmth, of sweetness, of feeling like I was home after being so long out in the cold, had my eyes closing.

“I’m in.”

My eyes flicked open to see Axel had stepped closer, his eyes roaming, taking in all the ways Shaun’s body and mine enmeshed.

That same hunger that longed for exotic sexual scenarios rose in his eyes, but for quite different reasons now.

I held out a hand, and he took it, rushing over, sandwiching me between the two of them, only the slight shake in his hands telling me how he felt about this.

He gripped my hand in his, then bent down slowly to kiss me.

So I could pull away if I wanted to. I kinda missed wild, libidinous Axel, smirking as he proposed dirty scenario after dirty scenario, but this Axel was damn nice too.

He kissed me as Shaun slid a hand up and down the back of my neck, as if soothing me through the process, and maybe that was right.

I felt too full, too much, too intensely right now, the fire Shaun had lit inside me spreading now, catching alight in Axel, in anyone who wanted it, and that had been the way of it.

I saw myself, that other version of me in that other world, moving between the groups of people, fucking, hugging, kissing, loving, and they held up their hands as if to catch part of my gift for themselves.

I’d given it, distributing lust and love until I had no more to give, and that was when they stepped forward, the four of them, ready to replenish me, fill me back up.

Shaun was one of them, I knew that, but the others?

“What about you, mate?” the guys asked Ethan.

The world reasserted itself, and for a second, I watched Ethan, thinking I could anticipate his answer.

His body was as taut as a bowstring, his hands fists, his jaw tight.

He’s going to say he wants to leave , I told myself, and that thought was a knife sliding into my side, cold where everything that came from the other guys was hot.

“Of course I’m fucking in,” he rumbled, storming over and then taking my face into his hands. “You thought I’d say no?”

“I don’t know what to think. This has been a crazy couple of days, and to be honest, I don’t know you at all. You look hot when you kiss Axel, but do you do that for me, him, or both of us? You seem to want to read my reactions, but I don’t know why. I don’t know why any of this is happening.”

Ethan smiled at that, then muscled in to pull me against his chest, his hands stroking through my hair.

“You come lobbing into town, sending everyone into a flutter, and out of all those blokes vying for your attention, you chose us. We want your need, your hunger, and while we’re serving that, we want a chance, love.”

“A chance at what?” I asked in a small voice.

“Dunno about Axel, but I felt it the moment Shaun bit you, felt that fucking rush, that feeling…”

“We want that, greedy girl, every single one of us,” Axel added. “We want to feel like we’re a part of someone like they’re a part of us.”

“An admirable aim.”

Ophelia stood at the doorway, looking the lot of us over with an impassive but not unsympathetic gaze.

“And something you might need to discuss with the forum. A meeting of the matriarchs has been called. It’s not a trial, but there will be an interrogation.

We work hard to keep everyone in Sanctuary safe.

That’s what we need to establish, Bec. Are you safe?

” She crossed her arms, her stance widening.

“I think yes. I feel no animosity, no cruelty, no malice in you. I didn’t when you shared everything you saw and felt with the town’s adults.

But they don’t know that, not yet. Come, you’ll be escorted to the forum so you can plead your case. ”

But I shouldn’t have to.

I turned to Shaun, knowing and feeling how wrong this was, what really needed to happen.

Whatever was going on with Ophelia, the other guys, it meant that what had happened between us would need to take a backseat to this, for tonight at least. I stared into his eyes, saw the perfect mirror of my own expression there.

We’d been waiting for this for so long. My Tirian and his…

Fuck those memories, fuck this town. We’d been hovering around on the outskirts of things, wanting and waiting for that other person or people who were part of our soul.

That was what was on the table, as ridiculous as that sounded to my rational brain.

I didn’t know anything about him, except somehow, I did.

He is our mate , my Tirian said, much more gently now, her cranky voice softening, conveying a world of emotion in just those four words. Always, forever, in this world and the next. We are always joined.

When I moved closer, his arms went around me, holding me close, knowing I needed that without even saying a word, a gift we both shared.

He was holding everything back, not wanting to crowd me, push me, take away my choice, but he wanted to order everyone out of the room and selfishly glut himself on me, over and over, until finally, the bond of ours would have time to settle.

“Soon,” I promised. “Soon.”

And so he kissed the top of my head, releasing me when everything inside him screamed not to, taking my hand and facing down a quietly waiting Ophelia.

“Let’s get this done, because it’s riding me hard,” he said in a firm voice. “I need her. I need my mate. Whatever situation or relationships might develop, I need her tonight. Just me, just her.”

“I’m glad to see you’ve found the one you sought so long, Shaun, but I can make no promises. People are scared, angry, and that makes them rash. Hopefully, clearer heads will prevail. C’mon, the hour grows late, and this won’t get any better for waiting.”

So we followed her down the grand halls, out of the big front door, and into the accompanying cars, off to face the music.