Nervousness made Mystic stumble as they moved into the woods seeking a place that would grant them some privacy. Hawk and Roman steadied her automatically. Their hands on her arms sent a shock of heated need through her. Their touch intensified the fullness between her legs as blood pooled in her sex. The rub of her jeans and panties against her swollen folds made each step part of an erotic journey.

Anxiousness filled her when they came to a spot that looked as if it had been made for what they intended. It was a place of deep shadow and thin rays of sun, a place that smelled of nature’s own hidden magic.

Mystic’s stomach tightened. She took a step backward though her body and the Angelini magic protested her sudden reservation and her worry that she’d made a mistake in suggesting this, that it might yet end in bloodshed and death, in a guilt she’d carry with her for the rest of her life.

Roman took his shirt off and spread it on the ground. Hawk did the same.

Her heart sped up at the sight of them standing side by side. Together they were like day and night, Roman’s skin warmed and golden for a life begun under a shapeshifter’s sun, Hawk’s darkened for hunting in the light of the moon.

Mystic licked her lips in a nervous gesture that brought their sharp focus to her mouth. Part of her wanted to turn and run, to escape, but the other part wanted to be captured and mounted.

She took another step backward. She wasn’t sure she could go through with letting them both have her.

Hawk fought his instincts to pounce and force his mate into submission, then fuck her until her whimpers turned into howls of ecstasy and her fear turned into searing, insatiable desire. Every cell in his body knew she was his. But the kiss she’d shared with the other Were, the cop, was burned into his memory. Witnessing it made him realize he still needed to proceed cautiously with Mystic.

He’d seen how she responded to Christian. The wolf inside had howled at the sight of her softening in her other mate’s arms, soaking up his confidence and reassurance. The man had protested the knowledge Mystic and Christian were already deeply bonded.

He couldn’t risk she’d find him too rough by comparison, too primitive. Yet deep inside the wolf dreamed of the day when Mystic would wear fur and he could take her in a way that had nothing to do with emotion and everything to do with creation.

Hawk’s hand went to his jeans-covered erection. Mystic’s gaze followed, sending a roar of blood to a cock already close to exploding. When she didn’t look away he unzipped the fly before kicking off his shoes and stripping.

He let her see what she did to him and thrilled in the way her nostrils flared and her pupils dilated. His cock bobbed in greeting when he took a step forward.

“Come to me,” he ordered. The wolf was willing to keep chasing her as it had been doing since the first moment it saw her, but the man wanted her to admit she was attracted to him.

His cock head beaded with arousal when she licked her lips nervously and took another step backward. A low growl sounded deep in his chest as Roman’s clothing fell to the ground and her attention shifted to the other man’s cock.

Roman could barely think of anything but getting Mystic out of her clothes. He wanted to explore her body with his hands and mouth. He fantasized about pinning her wrists to the ground while his cock tunneled in and out of her. He could almost taste her cries of pleasure as she locked him deep inside her channel and orgasmed repeatedly.

For centuries he’d taken human women to his bed. He’d preferred them tall and blonde and well endowed, interchangeable, their conversation nonexistent or non-important. No more. None of them warranted even a footnote in the centuries-old text of his life. Against Mystic’s dark, exotic looks, they were pale ghosts of what a woman should be.

Mystic. Her name prowled through his heart and soul. It coursed through his veins and commanded his cock.

The lion’s growl answered Hawk’s wolf’s challenge.

Both of their beasts remained willing to fight to the death in order to claim this Angelini female. But when Mystic retreated again, fear and worry in her eyes, it was the men who pushed past their animal instincts and stepped forward in silent truce. Without needing to speak they both knew there’d be no winner if they continued to allow the most primitive parts of themselves to rule.

“We’ll be good from now on,” Roman teased, his fingertips settling lightly on Mystic’s spine and stopping her from moving further away from them.

Mystic shivered at Roman’s double meaning. Her gaze went to Hawk’s face when he took her hand and urged her forward, back to the spot where their shirts were spread out on the ground.

“It will be okay, Mystic,” Hawk whispered.

The husky sound of his voice curled in her womb and shredded her resistance. She didn’t protest when his free hand made quick work of unbuttoning her shirt.

His palm slipped under the parted fabric to cover her hard, tight nipple. A moan escaped and her face flushed with heat and a little embarrassment at yielding so easily, but there was no fighting the need for their touch.

Roman’s free hand stroked over her belly in a caress that made her clamp her legs together. He laughed, a wonderful, satisfied sound.

Mystic turned her head and met his eyes. He leaned in and covered her lips with his. His tongue stroked into her mouth, offering seduction instead of domination, the kiss so mesmerizing she barely noticed when Hawk stripped her of her clothing.