Claimed by the Pack

Maybe not ever.

I shifted slowly beneath the blankets, turning to spoon against Broderick now instead of Damien. His body was bigger, warmer. Damien’s seemed to fit better though, as I could get my arms all the way around him.

You don’t have to choose. You have them both.

Both men had their strengths, their own advantages. Being between them — no, shared by them — was like having the best of both worlds.

I brushed Damien’s hair away from my face, kissed his bare shoulder, then sighed. Honestly I couldn’t remember ever being so happy.

And what happens next, Serena?

It was a great question. The headstrong part of me wanted to chalk it up to a very fun fantasy and move on. A once-in-a-lifetime experience that I could tuck away in the back of my mind and pull out whenever I got lonely.

No. It’s much more than that and you know it.

The other part of me — the one run by my heart instead of my head — told me it could never be that way. It was that reckless, hopelessly romantic side that wanted to explore the seemingly endless myriad of possibilities of remaining their mutual girlfriend.

It couldn’t possibly work. Not with them and me. I wasn’t a wolf now, was I? I couldn’t give them that part of me. The more primal, animalistic part that Karessa could.

And how did that work out?

It was a point well taken. As stupid as it sounded, I wanted to believe. I wanted to think that being a Lycanthrope — or rather, not being one — had no bearing on whether or not I could be with, or ‘mate’, the both of them.

Holy shit, now I was talking in their terms!

Pushing aside my threeway relationship drama, I tried focusing on the task at hand. We’d already gotten Damien’s totem back. What happened if we recovered Broderick’s? Would the two of them still help me find the Order’s lost library? Or would the entire thing get too dangerous after that?

In order to properly search the halls beneath that cathedral, I had to deal with the occupants there. And to do that, I’d have to deal with Karessa.

Broderick’s not going to like that.

“Tough shit,” I sighed aloud.

Damien murmured something in his sleep. I couldn’t tell what.

If you’re going to talk in your sleep, I smirked to myself, that might be a deal-breaker.

I extended my arms and legs, stretching the last of the day from my body. Sleep was coming for me. There was no more fighting it off, and no more reason to try.

I opened my arms to embrace it, welcoming it the way I’d been welcomed into my lovers’ own little pack.

30

BRODERICK

“Serena, get up!”

She stirred again, this time rolling over and gripping the pillow. Sleep was a thing for her, I could tell. It might be a problem.

“Serena!”

I rolled her back toward me. Even in her sleep she was beautiful. All hair and lips and—

“Damien’s gone!”

One eye fluttered open. “Wait… wha?”

“I just woke up,” I said, shaking her again. “And he’s not here. I think he was taken.”