Page 55 of Beauty

And I smell it. Her scent. A breeze blows it, the delicatescent of her life wafting over my senses, filling me, and I’m overcome.

My fangs pull. My cock hardens. My focus dims to one thingand one thing alone.

Her.

The mating fever takes over.

ChapterSixteen

Shim

I shake, my every sense open and overflowing withher. Somewhere in the back of my head, I know what this is.

My goblin blood is calling. I’m proudly Unseelie. It meansmy blood is mixed with all the Fae of the planes. My mother was a vampire, myfather a mix of sidhe and goblin and brownie. It’s the goblin I feelnow. The goblin need to mate with the perfect female rides me.

Bron shakes in my arms. Why did Lach think for a second shewas dead? Fire cannot kill my mate. Death cannot take Lach’s. I’m pretty sure Igot every bit of optimism between us. It’s obvious that Lachlan got all thefighting skill. There are dead bodies everywhere, some fresh and some seeminglyancient. They lie around the courtyard, though despite their placement, itstill seems to me that they lie at Lach’s feet waiting for the moment whentheir master calls to them again.

Bron moans, her eyes fluttering open only to close again.

My cock stands up straight in my pants. Just being near her,smelling her, touching her is driving me crazy. I have to try to focus onanything but her. She fills my senses, my world. Someone is saying something,but all I can do is stare at the woman in my arms. My mate. My bridge.

I wipe away a smudge on her face. She’s so much more slenderthan she is in her dreams, her hands callused and her face slightly red fromtime in the sun. Thirteen years of running and being forced to work like apeasant took their toll, but she’s still so beautiful. I’m going to coddle herand cosset her and feed her. She won’t have to worry again. I’ll take her offthis plane, and she’ll never fear for her life or work a plow or go hungryagain. She will be my sweet wife, protected from all the bad things of theworld.

Of course, one of the bad things of the world appears to bemy other half. Lach stands staring down at us, his body covered in blood, hiseyes huge and foreign in his face. The goblin blood is working in my brother’sveins, too.

“She smells so good.” Lach gets to one knee, seemingly dazedby the sight of her.

“Lachlan, you can’t touch her right now. You’re covered inblood, and we’re out in the open.” A firm, feminine voice breaks through myhaze. “You two have mating fever. This isn’t the time or the place. Take a stepback and let me get Bronwyn someplace safe.”

I hear the growl coming from my own throat. I feel feral.The blood, the heat, the closeness of my Bron. I suddenly realize I don’t wantanyone else around. I want Bron. It’s past time to take her. She fuckingbelongs to me. She was promised to me since the moment of her birth, and Iwon’t allow one more thing to come between us.

Lach’s huge dark eyes focus on our mate. “Bronwyn.” Lachtouches her hair before letting his hands float, skimming across her skin,pausing at the vein in her neck. “She’s alive.”

I nod, ignoring the fact that a crowd seems to be gathering.

“Our sister is here. Gillian’s alive.” Lach says the words,but he’s wholly focused on Bron.

“Shim, please think for a second.” Gillian moves in closer,delicately stepping around the bodies of the fallen. “You can’t take her here.”

“She is ours.” Lach speaks around the fangs in his mouth.“We’ll take her where we want to. She belongs to us.”

Yes, my brother is definitely feeling the fever, and nowsome of Gillian’s words are breaking through. Bron is hurt. Bron isn’t evenconscious. Do we intend to push her skirts up right here on the battlefield,the dead all around us?

It would prove once and for all what animals we are. Yes,when her brothers discover how we treated her, we’ll be welcomed with openarms.

Lach’s face is in her hair, breathing in her scent, lettingit flow around him. Lach growls, his hand moving to her breast. If I don’t stophim, the fever will take control, and there will be no controlling the warriorhalf. The dead all around us prove Lach is capable of giving in to the beastthat lies inside our soul.

“Please, Shim. I understand the fever, but Bronwyn will not.As far as I can tell, she doesn’t even know you’re real.” Gillian takes anothercautious step forward. “Please. If you give in to the fever, you’ll take herwith not an ounce of thought to her. She’s a virgin. I made sure of it. I’veprotected her for thirteen years because I knew she was your mate. Trust me.Take her back to the tower. Give her and yourselves some privacy.”

Bron’s eyes flutter open. I stop, terrified that the nextsound will be Bronwyn’s scream. Brown eyes look at me. She seems unfocused,shaky. Her hand comes, brushing my chin. “My Shim?”

My heart leaps. “Yours.”

“Lach?”

I kiss her forehead. “Is here now, love.”

“What is wrong with your eyes?” She tries to sit up.