Page 103 of Blood and Trouble

Her orgasm blasted through me and into Lycan, propelling my own. I clenched and sobbed and spilled into him, and he tightened around me, his muscles spasming as he reached his own pinnacle. Our bond burst open, rage and affection and exaltation scalding my senses. Fucking either of them was an experience in itself, but together? Like this? Release didn’t quite encapsulate it. It was heaven. It was undiluted bliss. It was everything I never knew I always wanted.

My knot expanded, locking me inside Lycan, holding him to me. Ava collapsed on top of me, her cheek pressed against my racing heart.

“Wow, what a fucking ride,” Lycan whispered. “You both are incredible.”

I ghosted my fingers up and down her spine while she wrapped her arms under my back to hold me tighter.

“I never want this to end,” she said.

“Are you okay, Trouble?” Lycan asked. “Let me see your wound.”

“I’m fine,” she said.

Unconvinced, both Lycan and I inspected her side. What had once been an angry cut had now dissipated to a bright purple line. For a human, it would have taken weeks to heal like this. But Ava had spent the day with her mate, with my magic pouring into her. And whatever complicated mess Lycan had started by biting me must have added to that. I’d never seen a silver infection fade so quickly.

“And you, Poe?” Lycan asked. “Have you forgiven me yet?”

Worse. I’m in love with you, you fucking Bastard.

I didn’t say it, but he must have heard it. He smirked and leaned down to kiss Ava’s shoulder before moving to my lips and giving me a chaste peck that contrasted with the deviant way he’d just defiled my body.

Yes, I’d forgiven him, and as I watched Ava drift off to sleep, I thought about that almost bite…what it would mean if and when he ultimately did it. After this, there could be no more denying what it was between us. We both belonged to Lycan, and it would only be a matter of time before he made that ownership clear.

“I should have asked you,” Lycan whispered from the other side of my mate, his eyes glowing in the darkness. “At the hotel. I should have asked you first.”

“Yes, you should have.” I turned to face him.

“Would you have said yes?” His voice softened, almost like he was afraid of the answer.

I didn’t know. I’d already accepted the bond with Ava. I didn’t think a shifter could take on two bonds.

“Probably not,” I admitted. “But that doesn’t mean I regret it.”

He ran his fingers down my neck, tracing the marks, sending a shiver down my spine.

“Me neither,” he said.

CHAPTER 23

Lycan

I couldn’t sleep. I lay awake and stared at the ceiling long after Poe’s breathing evened out and Ava started to snore softly. I blamed it on adrenaline, on having the best sexual experience in a very long life of fucking around. But it was more than that.

I couldn’t lose either of them. I wanted both of them, and I was selfish enough to take them. I didn’t care that shifters were only meant to mate one person. I didn’t care that Kodiak would probably have a lot to say about my claiming Poe after marrying a Vanderbilt, not to mention my flat-out refusal to undo any of it.

I marveled at how quickly my worldview had changed. A week ago, I never wanted to be mated. I thought I’d ruin it. I thought it would ruin me. And now? Well, maybe Ren was right. Maybe I’d been so focused on the bad parts, I hadn’t considered how amazing it could be. Or maybe it was the threat of losing her, losing him, that had me tightening my hold on them until I couldn’t breathe.

If Poe’s wolf didn’t want me, the mark would have faded. If Ava didn’t want me, she would have insisted on the annulment paperwork the day after she came out of her transition. If they didn’t want each other, they wouldn’t have…

I stopped that train of thought. Their shared marks, done without me present, seethed in my chest like a festering wound. But watching them together opened a perverse box in my hedonistic heart, and it wasn’t closing. Who the hell knew I had a hot-wife kink? Well…maybe only with Poe. The thought of her with anyone else sent my wolf on a rampage bordering on rabid.

Restless and tired of fighting it, I pushed the covers back and sat up, glancing over my sleeping partners. Ava was on her side, facing Poe, her hands wrapped in his. Poe’s forehead touched hers, his features softened and relaxed in a way he so rarely showed when he was awake.

I’d do anything to keep them like this—safe and protected and warm in my bed.

I thought back to what the witch said to Poe in Copenhagen at the royal reception. She’d mentioned a half-formed bond. Why bring that up? What had she meant? A small thread of fear unfurled in my stomach, making my wolf’s ears twitch. With Ava and Poe mated, she should be protected by him, by pack magic. But I’d gone and screwed with that by marking Poe. Had I fucked it up? Had I put them both in danger with one moment of weakness? What if his wolf rejected her mark in favor of mine?

I didn’t have an answer by the time they woke up, and the question rode with me the entire way to St. Albans.