“Say the word and I will break our agreement,” he growls at me. “I want you. I want you now, to be mine, Aefre. Just say the word.”
I shake my head. “No. The agreement stands. I want you too, my love, but my priority is to all of you right now.”
He looks pained and then angry. “I will be watching you closely, Aefre, you and Cole. If either of you give me a reason to break our terms, I won’t hesitate,” he warns and again, I marvel how he goes from hot to cold in the blin
k of an eye.
“Calm yourself,” I snap at him then. He narrows his eyes at me in amusement – again with the mood shift. “Things will be changing for sure, but that is not one of them.”
“We’ll see,” he says mutinously and with an abrupt change of subject, he says, “What about this Wolf Shifter? You have claimed him?”
“Yes.”
“As a fifth?” he asks curiously and not at all pleasantly.
“A fifth?” I ask confused. “Oh, a fifth.” The penny drops. “No! I already told Cole he is not joining our little circle. I have no intention of making him a lover,” I say, not entirely convincingly, even I have to admit, and he pounces on it as I knew he would.
“Oh, please, Aefre. You may be able to fool your husband, but you can’t fool me. He is exactly your type and I know you won’t resist him if he tries it,” he says nastily.
Huffing at him and his stupid ability, I say, “He won’t try it. He says Wolves mate for life, and he doesn’t understand our ways. He isn’t likely to stick his oar into this lake with all its complications.”
“It’s not his oar I’m worried about,” he pouts. “So, you’ve discussed it, then?”
“No, it came up in conversation. He’s not a fool, he saw what happened between us in the dungeon.”
“Humph, indeed he did,” he grumbles.
“Complain all you like now, I didn’t see you objecting then,” I say smartly.
“I will never object to touching you, Aefre,” he says softly.
“Hello, you two in the corner? We are still here, you know,” Devon says dryly from over by the sofa. “We would appreciate it if you either rejoined us, or at least spoke loud enough so that five hundred year old Vampire ears can hear you.”
“I can hear them perfectly,” Lincoln says with an air of superiority that has everyone gaping at him. “And just so we are clear,” he adds with a sly wink at me, “I never said this lake wasn’t for me.”
CK rounds on him. “Watch yourself. That wasn’t meant for your ears.”
“But you were talking about me, behind my back, I might add,” he says as he stands up and moves closer to the two of us. “I think my oar will fit in quite nicely.” He is standing at my side now, glaring down at CK from his extra two inches. I have never seen anyone do that before! He reaches out to me and pulls me in front of him. He does a partial Shift, which must be a Werewolf, or general Shifter thing, claws and teeth at the ready. He proceeds to sink his teeth into my neck, raking his claws down my arms as he does so.
I don’t react out of shock for a second that he is biting me and nor do the other three, great protectors that they are. But then in the next second, everything seems to move in slow motion as CK, Devon and Cole lunge forward. Lincoln releases the bite and pulls me backwards, slitting his own wrist with his claws and holding it up to my mouth. I grab hold of him as my fangs drop at the scent of his blood and somewhere deep down, I know this is going to have far reaching consequences, but I clamp down on him and drink as he hisses.
Stopping at my actions, my three boys stare in disbelief as I drink deeply from him. I pull away eventually and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.
“What the fuck?” Constantine snarls at him. “Do that again and I will…”
“CK, stop. It’s okay,” I interrupt him.
He glares at me. “He bit you without your consent. That is not okay.”
“His ways are different to ours.” I pull out of Lincoln’s strong embrace and round on him myself, glaring into his clear green eyes, that are glinting with amusement. “You might have given me time to think about it,” I mutter to him.
“Would you have said yes?” he asks, raising his eyebrow at me.
“Maybe, if you had let me think about it for a minute,” I yell at him.
“A minute, a second. It makes no difference, I marked you, you accepted it and now it is done,” he says mildly.
“Oh, you are just… infuriating. No bloody wonder I found you. Seems to be my lot in life to be surrounded by tall, gorgeous, exasperatingly maddening beasts.” I am riled up now and even more so as he just smirks at me.