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“T his is madness.” All of this was pure fucking madness.

Those words were stuck on repeat since Aodh had tossed.

.. tossed her toward his brother as if she weighed nothing.

Liekki quickly caught her before he followed his leader’s command and ran off with her, returning her to this room.

The space, once comfortable, now felt like a four-walled cell.

Morlie paced the room and stared out the big window at the woods, ignoring everything else.

The thick, dense trees seemed to hold so many secrets.

All this time, she had no clue what was out there or what lurked around her.

She’d had a false sense of security around Eilidh and her friends in this community.

She knew what they were, dragon-shifters.

Even though none of them would take their dragon form around her, she had spotted many of them above her head in the distance.

However, one thing she knew now, after the insanity of her day, a day that started simply with a walk and lunch in the woods with friends, became a day that changed her life.

And now she knew that there were others out there. Others wanted her and wanted to claim her for something.

She stopped and stared into the darkening trees. Nighttime was coming.

What else?

Will they come for me here? Her lungs seized, and her air seemed to become trapped inside her body.

It bounced around the tightening tissue as if it had forgotten the way out.

Spots began to form in her eyes, and her head became light.

She knew she would pass out soon. A part of her wanted the relief of not having to process the unimaginable day she’d experienced.

Her arms flailed out as her vision zeroed into a fine point. In seconds, she would be gone, gone, gone. When her palms connected with the cool window glass, it sent shock waves up her arm, jolting her.

Breathe. Fucking breathe, damn it.

Fainting was for the weak, those who didn’t have the strength to face their problems head-on. And if Morlie knew one thing about herself, she wasn’t weak. She’d survived death, and she wouldn’t allow it to take her so easily next time.

She gasped and coughed. Another cough racked her body as she gulped down a large lungful of air. Her vision cleared as she pressed her heels onto the floor until her legs found strength.

Morlie shook her head at herself as she moved away from the window. Staring out into the woods wasn’t allowing her a chance to focus—to process everything.

She turned and walked toward the bed. The torn material of her pants continued flapping around her leg.

Sitting at the foot of the bed, she stared down at her bare limb.

Her gaze followed the length of the damage.

The height of the tear shocked her when she parted her thighs.

She could see the side curve of the side of one of her pussy’s lips.

If she could see it, then those men could, too.

Her pulse increased, and heat flooded her neck and face.

She shut her eyes and turned her head as the memories came back.

She’d been trying to avoid thinking about what happened.

It all seemed too difficult to process. But after what had happened to her, she wouldn’t shy away from anything else but face stuff directly.

It was as if her brain had been waiting for her to decide because, in a breath, her ears filled with the phantom sound of a single slice of fabric.

The pale, thin man with oddly long eye teeth swiped at her clothing with one of his long nails, fast and accurate.

If time had permitted her to comprehend what he was doing, she may have screamed, believing he would cut her, or at least tried to stop him.

However, it all happened in a blink, and she was bare.

She’d felt humiliated sitting there and unable to move.

Something about the pale man and his female companion frightened her and made her uneasy, especially when he locked her in his direct stare.

Her body felt icy cold and paralyzed, and she was unable to move or look away from his blood-red stare.

She was angry at Aodh for not getting her out of that odd structure sooner, but she had been grateful for his stopping the Vampire, as Aodh called him when he threatened the man to leave her alone.

Back in the dispatch, there weren’t any books or stories in the archive room.

Frequently, older adults told ghost stories as cautionary tales to warn youth about what may have happened beyond the wall to those who couldn’t get underground during the catastrophe.

From what she understood, Vampires were some walking dead.

One after another, those gathered inside the circle appraised her. The leader of the big man who had abducted her and brought her there had been surprisingly kind with his size, even as he rejected her.

Then there was one.

A shiver coursed through her body—not as cold as the Vampire.

But thoughts of the tall, golden man with his eyes a soft amber—odd golden-orange tones.

She’d never seen eyes so captivating. Not even the bizarre, compelling gaze of the Vampire held her like the tall, muscular man’s.

He’d been wearing a gray suit, dressed like one of the images of a corporate man Morlie had seen.

No one in the Dispatch District had such clothing.

However, she wondered if those in the Consumer Providence wore such elegant attire.

Even though the blond man appeared comfortable moving around in it, his movements were too fluid to be contained by such material.

He went from crouching on the table to kneeling before her.

She wondered if, like Aodh, he was only garbed in that fashion for the meeting and preferred a different dress style.

However, his clothing didn’t make a lasting impression on her.

It had been the man’s words and actions.

Unlike the others, he’d touched her. First, he’d gently held her wrist in his large, strong hands.

Her mind had screamed at her to pull away and order him not to touch her, but her mouth wouldn’t follow the command.

The entire time she had been in the place, her heart had pounded in her chest, and her body shook with fear of the unknown situation and strange people, but his effect on her stilled her nerves.

There was a warmth and comfort in his touch she didn’t comprehend.

Then there was a change. When the shifter grasped her knees and pried her thighs wide, pushing them out to the point of pain, her pulse sped up again. But not with fear.

She had never felt the sensations in her body that made her feel a million sparks set off under her skin. The small, rapid-fire bursts ignited something she couldn’t identify in herself.

Where others had sniffed at her, indecently close but kept a modicum of distance from her intimate center, the amber-eyed man took liberties with her person.

Mine. One roughened word had come out of the blond man’s mouth. A perfectly designed set of lips that looked like they belonged on an angel instead of a mere man—a shifter.

What gave him the right to think he could claim her?

He’d buried his nose right along the crease of her left thigh and brushed the soft fold of her sex.

Her core quivered. It seemed to tighten and build to something unknown, but she knew she should tell him ‘no’ and stop him.

However, there was something about him. She felt mysteriously drawn to him. And she wanted to see what he did next.

What she hadn’t conceived was his bite. It had been more of a nip or quick pinching of her flesh between two of his teeth, followed by a swipe of his tongue.

Her cry sprang forth.

It was the audacious sting and wet glide that made her grip a fistful of his hair and yanked him away from her.

The quivers in her core had spiraled into heat that swelled and sank low into her sex, making it throb and liquefy.

Everything and everyone else around them had blurred, faded, and practically become non-existent. He garnered all her focus.

As she stared into the eyes that had turned a dark amber and held a bright glow around the outer edge, she had the urge to lean forward and press her mouth to his tantalizing lips. No, his wolfish grin. The man was wicked.

Kai showed up to rescue her right then. Thankfully?

The doubt-filled thoughts shocked Morlie. Her big sister was always there for her and protected her. If it hadn’t been for Kai, she would have been dead by now.

However, Morlie could not help but wonder what if she had put up a fight when Aodh had ordered Liekki to take her away. What if she had remained and let the sexy, tall man deliver on the promises she saw reflected in his gaze?

She wanted to know what he meant when he made that claim—mine.

No one owned another, so why did he say it?

That area high on the inside of her thigh began to tingle as the questions filled her mind.

It reminded her of something else she had avoided focusing on.

They all had referred to her as marked. The Vampire had gone as far as to state the reason he shredded her pant leg was because he wanted to see the mark.

Dov had clarified the man’s act when he explained it was at the top of her thigh.

Nervous about what she would find, Morlie lifted her leg. She set her heel on the edge of the bed, then leaned forward and looked between her legs. She could see something but had difficulty identifying it at her angle and seated.

Getting up, she went into the bathroom to the mirror over the sink.