Page 45 of Third Offense

She’d clawed at them like a starved beast in need of sating, and they’d responded in kind. Animalistic. Harsh. Even cruel.

And yet she’d mewled so beautifully between them, indulging in the sensations and proving herself more than capable of handling them both.

No fear. No screams for them to stop. Just demands formore.

I ran my hand over my face, my lungs burning with the need to breathe. But her scent… if I inhaled… I would be forced to return to her. To take her in my own way. To stake a claim on the female whose purr had summoned me from my rooms.

With a shake of my head, I jumped off my balcony again and sprinted toward the ocean, away from the palace, away from Layla, away from her mouthwatering fragrance.

A few vigils on the outskirts immediately reacted to my approach, but I blew past them, not caring at all about protocol. I needed to fly. The guards could ridicule me later for leaving the compound without appropriate permissions.

I was a prince.

The son of two gods.

What could they even do to me?

No. I needed fresh air. A new perspective.

A plan.

One that would help me win over my mate. And maybe even her mates. Because it was clear to me now that to be with Layla meant I needed Novak and Auric to approve of me, too. Otherwise there would be strife in the bonds, and that would lead to a weakened circle.

Layla couldn’t be the core of a weak circle because weak circles were easily broken.

Finding a way for us all to coexist was the only way to thrive.

The question was…How do I even begin to persuade Novak and Auric to let me in?

CHAPTERTWELVE

LAYLA

Gods,this bed is soft, I mused, rolling around on the down feathers and sighing in bliss.

Until those feathers started to move.

Feathers that did not belong to me, but the hot male body beside me.

My eyes flew open to find Novak grinning in amusement, his eyebrow arching. “Comfortable?” he asked, his voice silky and filled with the afterglow of our sex from last night.

I ducked my head into his wing and inhaled his leather-laced scent. “Mmm, yes,” I mumbled, unashamed to admit that, yes, I was indeedverycomfortable.

Except…

I glanced over my shoulder and frowned at the empty space behind me. “Where’s Auric?” I started to sit up, but Novak’s wing wrapped around me, folding me into his chest.

“He went to find breakfast,” he replied.

I narrowed my gaze at the ease with which he uttered that bald-faced lie. I knew my mates better than they wanted to admit. “You mean he went to scout.”

“Andfind breakfast, yes,” he murmured, drawing out theand.

“Uh huh.” I glanced up at him through my mess of hair, my chin finding his chest. “What’s he scouting?”

Novak shrugged. “I intend to ask him that when he returns.”

“And in the interim?”