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“Near a compatible Coven,” he mutters under his breath like he’s embarrassed by the words.

Which. Fair.

“So you two have some kind of vampire pheromones. That what? Trigger me to want your dick?” I laugh at how ludicrous that is.

They aren’t laughing.

“Not exactly,” Leif says, his voice dropping lower. “It’s more primal than that.”

I turn to Davi, who’s looking at me with an expression I can’t quite read. “And what about you? You’re human?”

“Very much so,” he nods.

“But bound to them.”

“Ah.” He looks to Leif, then Enzo before answering me. “Bound, yes.”

I fumble with my dress, my fingers suddenly clumsy as I continue to attempt to zip it up. “Bound how?”

“Blood exchange,” Enzo answers for him, his voice rough and deep and oh so sexy.

My stomach drops. “Like... what we just did?” The last thing I need in my life right now is three men. Two of which are vampires.

“Similar concept,” Davi explains, moving closer. “But the bite is different. More permanent.”

“You’re telling me vampires are real, I’m apparently some kind of... Bride, and you’ve all been drinking each other’s blood? And Davi works in HR. Allegedly.”

“All of it,” Leif says, stepping forward. “Except Davi owns a bar, he’s not HR.”

I want to deny it. Deny their claims. Except, the receipts are everywhere. Blood on their chins. The fangs. The weird eyes. The speed.

“It’s real, Hadley,” Davi says softly. “You are the one woman in the world who can sustain their life. You have to feel how much you want them.”

“The pull is mutual,” Leif says, his voice low and careful. “We’re drawn to you as well in ways we can’t control.”

“So you’re telling me that my attraction to all three of you, the most inappropriate professional situation I’ve ever been in, is because of vampire pheromones.” That’s kind of bullshit.

Davi steps closer. “It’s more complicated than that.”

“It always is,” I snap, struggling with the zipper and finally giving up. “That’s what people say when they don’t want to admit they’re predators.”

Davi takes a step toward me. I take a step back, and that step back says more than I want it to.

Enzo makes a sound in the back of his throat, not quite a growl, but close enough. I glance at him, catching something fierce in his eyes.

“Hadley,” he says my name the way he said it in the hallway hours ago, when this was still a job and I still had my dress closed. “Two years of watching you and you never once turned my way. Then tonight.”

I laugh again, but it comes out hollow. “You’ve known what I am this whole time. You’ve been waiting to spring this on me. Haven’t you? And you used the most important night of my career to do it. That’s selfish, Leif, and you fucking know it.”

“That’s not—” Leif tries and fails.

“Not waiting,” Davi says. “Leif could only sense you tonight.”

“Sense me?”

“I couldn’t sense what you were, who you are to us, before tonight,” Leif admits.

The locker room suddenly feels too small, the fluorescent lights too harsh. Three powerful men,vampires, if they’re to be believed, surrounding me. I should be terrified. But the part of me that recognizes danger is strangely quiet.