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  One of the other men came forward, confusion on his face. She could see that same expression on all of their faces now, and could smell it in the air.

  Wait, what?

  She inhaled, and the scent that came from them was this light, citrusy aroma that tingled her nose. She instantly recognized it as confusion, although she had no clue how she knew that.

  “You don’t know what you are, who you are?” one of them said.

  “You have no idea what we are to you?” another said.

  “How does our mate not know us by instinct alone?” the third said, addressing them, but also addressing her.

  She curled her hands into tight fists at her side, her anger rising, this power moving through her. “What in the hell is going on?” she finally said, her voice raised, her confusion, annoyance, and agitation real.

  And then the citrusy scent changed to something darker, more intense and pleasing. She recognized it as arousal.

  “I’m Stanis, and these are my brothers, Casis and Malachi.” He took another step closer.

  “I don’t know what’s going on,” she said, feeling herself shake as emotions and sensations bombarded her.

  He stopped a few feet from her. “You want to see what you are, what we are?”

  She nodded, not sure if she did, but right now needing some answers. “I don’t know what’s going on, and I’m feeling like I’ll explode.” Maybe a bit dramatic but at this moment she did feel like that, felt like she could tear away her skin and it wouldn’t even faze her.

  “But you’ve dreamt of us.” He said it without making it a question.

  Ruby found herself nodding. “I have.” Why am I telling them anything about myself?

  “For years,” he said again and took a step closer.

  She nodded once more. “Since I was eighteen.”

  He made this low sound, almost animalistic in quality. “You know nothing of your past, of where you came from?”

  She shook her head, not sure why she felt such ease amongst these three strangers.

  Because he knows so much about me already.

  “Tell us your name,” the one named Stanis said.

  Ruby licked her lips and found herself answering, even though she shouldn’t have told them anything. She had no clue who they were, or what their real intent was with her. “Ruby.”

  There was this vibration that filled the room, and she realized it came from the three men.

  “Tell us more,” Casis said.

  “I was abandoned, put into foster care, and know nothing of my past or my family.” She swallowed, feeling her wall break down, her emotions spew forth. She couldn’t stop herself. “I stopped looking for answers a long time ago.”

  The man took another step forward, but she shook he head. He stopped instantly.

  “You want to see where you come from?” one of the other men said and moved forward. The third man did the same. She looked among the three of them, saw them glance at each other, and felt the air thicken, heat.

  “You want to see what you are?” Stanis said, and she found herself nodding, even though she had no clue what he meant.

  But hearing him say that clicked inside of her, and it was like this recognition filled her. “Yes,” she whispered.

  Stanis took a step back, as did the other two, and then they stood in a line. A second passed, and then they started breathing harder, faster. She felt sweat bead between her breasts and down the length of her spine.

  “I hope you’re ready, mate.”

  I’m not.

  There was this popping sound, as if electricity coursed through the cavern. Their bodies grew bigger, taller, their muscles becoming even more pronounced. Claws tipped their fingers, fangs touched their bottom lips, and their eyes became black, their pupils eating up the blue irises.

  Oh my God. What am I in the middle of? Why am I still standing here?

  The flight instinct kicked into overdrive. She didn’t think, just ran out the tunnel, thankful they’d been on the other side of the room. She pumped her legs hard and fast, pushed past the discomfort in her leg, but heard them behind her. They were coming for her, and she knew they’d catch her.

  Chapter Seven

  She could run, but they’d find her, catch her. She was confused, not afraid, but unsure of the situation. Maybe they should have taken things slow, but they’d waited their entire life for her.

  Stanis ran faster, took the twists and turns of the tunnel, following her scent. His brothers were behind him, the low rumble of excitement and need leaving them all. They anticipated this, were eager to catch her. Stanis hadn’t known she’d run, because he figured a mate would instantly want them.

  They wanted her the moment they’d scented her in the mountain.

  But she hadn’t been brought up like them, hadn’t lived the shifter life. She was a human in the sense she had been raised by the inferior species. She may not shift like them because she was female, but he’d seen her wolf rise up, probably for the first time in her life. He’d scented the strength, the power that filled her. He’d seen her eyes change, seen the start of her fangs. He couldn’t blame her for being afraid.

  He supposed if he’d been in her shoes he would have been as well.

  But Stanis and his brothers had been waiting for their mate—her—since they entered their prime, which had been since they were seventeen years old. They had a lot to talk to her about, a lot to explain. But they had all the time in the world.

  “She can run, but she won’t get far.”

  He heard Casis’s voice in his head. Once in their shifted forms they could communicate telepathically. When Ruby finally accepted who and what she was, and embraced her she-wolf, she’d realize everything that came with being what they were. She was closed off, though, and that was a barrier she needed to break through.

  “Let her get this raw energy out,” Malachi said.

  “She’s frightened of herself, of us, and confused on what’s going on. She can run, but I agree, we won’t let her go.” Stanis was the one to reply, and picked up his speed.

  She didn’t know the caves, but from the way her eyes changed he knew she could see in the darkness as well as if it were filled with light. But she’d get turned around and find herself right back in the cavern. They’d decided to make their home in that particular spot for that reason, because the tunnels twisted and turned, and it was difficult to even get to it if the location wasn’t known exactly.

  It was only a matter of time before she accepted all of this, before she didn’t have a choice. And when she did they’d be theirs in all ways.

  ****

  Ruby felt like she was running in circles, but what shocked her out of this entire situation, what had a tight hold on her, were several things.

  She could see in the dark … perfectly.

  She knew she was running far faster than a human should.

  And she could hear them right behind her, hear their breathing, and smell their scent.

  There was also the fact that instead of fearing for her life, instead of being scared to death, all Ruby felt was heat moving through her, and an arousal the likes of which she’d never felt before.

  Pumping her arms harder, moving her legs faster, Ruby took another turn, feeling like she was going in circles. And then she came to an abrupt stop when she ran right into the place she’d been running from … the cavern.

  Her chest rose and fell, her heart raced, and she felt that wild, powerful energy in her rush through her veins. Moving further into the cavern and looking around, she felt like everything she’d ever known, ever thought was real, was all a lie, a dream.

  She heard them approach before she saw them. Staring at the cavern entrance, Ruby curled her hands into fists, knowing she needed to stay calm. Ruby had questions, and she knew these men where the ones that could give answers to her.

  Then they stepped into the cavern, and everything in her stilled, but also heightened. Her emotions, the feelings moving t
hrough her, all of it rose up like a tsunami about to level everything in her.

  Ruby watched them, their bodies so big, their half-human, half-shifter selves something she should have feared. But she didn’t. She actually felt so wet over the fact they looked primal, dangerous.

  A high unlike anything she had ever felt moved within her, stole her breath, and made her body shake with anticipation. She’d found out the truth of who and what she was, and as unbelievable as it may seem, it also felt so right.

  Her pulse seemed to beat everywhere, but was far more pronounced in her pussy, her clit, and every other erogenous zone in her body. Malachi stepped forward, his body already half shifted, his pupils dilated, and his wolf right there at the surface. He didn’t look like a monster; none of them did. He looked like a male she could relate to, a species she had come from. For so long she’d harbored this confusion, this nagging in the back of her head. And now she knew why that was. Now she knew what she was.

  Casis and Stanis came forward, as well, and her pulse pounded at the base of her throat, the sound filling her ears. Despite the fact they were still in the mountain, ice surrounding them, all Ruby felt was warmth.

  “You ran,” Malachi was the one to speak.

  She looked among the three of them, their bodies so big, their eyes completely black, and their fangs pronounced.

  They were shifters—wolf shifters—but they weren’t the creatures she’d ever read about in fiction. They weren’t man turned into beast, but more a combination of the two.

  “You ran from us, and we won’t accept that, mate,” Casis said, his voice distorted because he was this man-wolf creature.

  Yes, she had, but how could they think she wouldn’t have? A part of her was afraid, but not of these males, rather of what she felt.

  This was all so strange.

  They wore only leather pants, and it was clear the three of them were aroused for her, their erections pressing against the material. She should have felt shock, maybe even disgust that these strange men made no qualms about showing off their arousal. But Ruby felt nothing of that. She just felt this power moving through her.

  Looking down at her leg, she felt no more pain.

  “It’s because your wolf side came out, took over. It healed you from the inside out,” Stanis said.

  God, is this real? Maybe I’m dead and in some limbo? Maybe I’m lying in some dark tunnel hallucinating?

  It just seemed so fantastical, but as strange as it all was, Ruby could honestly say she didn’t want it to end.

  And isn’t that the craziest part of all of this? Isn’t it insane to just … accept this?

  Chapter Eight

  Ruby couldn’t breathe, but she felt this energy move through her.

  She stared at the three men, no one moving, let alone speaking for long moments. They were so feral and savage as they stared at her. Stanis moved closer to her as well the three of them only feet from where Ruby stood. Stanis took another step forward, and another, until he was just inches from her now, the wild scent of him filling her head, making her drunk from it. If he inhaled deeply his chest would brush against her. Ruby craned her neck back, because in this form the men were nearing seven feet in height.

  She forced her eyes to stay open, made herself keep his stare, to hold her place. But the scent of him, of all of them, made her feel intoxicated.

  “You’re confused about it all,” Stanis said, his voice just as deep and distorted as the other two males’. “And all of your questions will be answered.”

  She was breathing harder, not able to control the feelings and emotions moving through her.

  “I don’t know what to ask, because I don’t know what in the hell is going on.” All she knew was she was the same as they were, a shifter, a beast. They might have given her little snippets of her heritage, but what she felt, her connection to them, only went as far as them calling her their mate.

  “You want us the same as we want you,” Casis said. “Your body yearns for us, has since the moment you came of age.”

  She thought about when the dreams started, how she’d been eighteen, her body on fire after that first dream of her three mystery men. Even now she was wet, her nipples hard, her entire body craving their touch.

  “Your wolf side needs us,” Stanis said, the vibration in his voice seeming to move through her.

  “We need you,” Casis said.

  “Be with us.” Malachi was the one to speak.

  She started breathing harder, not able to deny what she felt, that she did need them, their touch. The truth was the two men she’d been with in her lifetime had always left her missing something. She felt like it had been this void being ignored, that it wasn’t the intensity she craved.

  “For your entire life your wolf has been leading you here, to us.” Stanis took a step closer, so close she felt the brush of his fingers on her arm. “The desire to study science, the fact you eagerly took on this position…” Stanis looked down at her mouth. “You never questioned why you wanted the things you desired so badly?”

  She hadn’t, but hearing him say it, knowing the truth, she realized it all made sense now.

  They were just so compelling, and all she wanted to do was let herself go. It was a dangerous line she was toeing, Ruby knew that, but at the moment she couldn’t care less.

  “I am so confused,” she found herself whispering.

  And then Stanis reached out and cupped her cheek, and she felt his claws very gently move along her flesh. Even though he didn’t appear fully human, she found him attractive. They were all so arousing, and it was a lust she’d never experienced before, never thought even existed.

  “Your wolf side needs this, needs us. If not you wouldn’t have found your way here, subconsciously or not.” Casis was the one to speak, and he moved up beside Stanis.

  “Just give in.” Malachi growled, and the way his baritone voice wrapped around her had an obscene amount of wetness coming from her.

  “We can explain everything, anything you need to know. Just be ours, let us show you how good it can be, how good it was meant to be with mates.” Stanis moved his head closer, and she inhaled the addictive scent of him.

  An animalistic growl came from Stanis, and she couldn’t help the little mewl that left her. For the first time in her life it was like the animal they said she harbored, the part of her that was engrained in her DNA, woke. She felt wild, free, sensed her muscles tense and her body and mind becoming submissive. She wanted to give these males what they wanted, because that’s what she wanted, as well.

  She felt her wolf side rise up even more to the change, pushing everything else back until the only thing that mattered was this moment. She actually felt her eyes change, knew they were black, her pupils taking up her irises.

  God, will I turn into a creature like them?

  Stanis growled low again, and then the other two males did the same.

  “The females of our kind do not shift the way the males do, mate.” His lips were right by her throat, his warm breath teasing her flesh. “Subtle changes occur: your eyes changing, your senses more attuned.” He lifted his head and looked her in the eye. “But your body, otherwise, will stay the same.” He said that last part on a groan. “So luscious and full, thick and curvy.”

  Is this what I want?

  She looked among the three of them and felt her whole body warm, like her flesh was on fire. She heard their hearts beating as if they were her own. The sound of the ice making tiny cracks around them filled her head, and her arousal controlled every part of her. She felt wild, and didn’t want it to end.

  Looking at Casis and Malachi, and then looking at Stanis, she could hear the soft sound escaping her. That must have been the only thing they needed to know she wanted this as badly as they did, because in the next second she was pushed against the wall. Stanis had his knee wedged between her thighs, and this animalistic sound left him. A shocked gasp of pleasure and outrage spilled from her mouth.


  “Mmm, I can smell how wet your pussy is.” He leaned down, ran the tip of his nose up her throat, and groaned once more when he reached her ear. He had his hand between her legs now, right over her pants, but she wanted more.

  This isn’t me. I don’t want this kind of attention, this kind of intensity.

  But I do want this. God, I do.

  “Ask me to get you undressed, to make you nude for us,” Stanis murmured.

  She couldn’t think rationally, let alone say what he wanted. But she wasn’t herself right now, or at least not the self she’d known on the surface. This energy moved within her, demanding she give in, that she be true to herself. Before she knew what she was doing, and because she was sick and tired of clearly pretending, Ruby said, “I want this.”

  In the next second Stanis was pulling at her clothing, tearing it from her body and tossing it aside. Once she was nude, the cold not bothering her and in fact it making her hotter, he took a step closer to her. Using his knee he pushed her thighs farther apart and had his hand right over her pussy. A gasp left her as the hotness of his flesh speared right over her bared skin between her legs. Everything happened so fast that she couldn’t tell him to stop, even if she could have formed the words.

  I wouldn’t have told him to stop.

  The truth was, Ruby wanted this desperately, but trying to rationalize it kept her in this box. She didn’t want to be confined anymore.

  At the first touch of his fingers on her labia she let her head fall back and closed her eyes.

  “So warm and wet, mate.” He ran the pad of his huge thumb along her clit, rubbed the bundle of nerves back and forth, and rumbled deeply.

  Ruby could say with certainty she’d never been this inflamed, this wet and needy before, and it wasn’t just for one man, but three.

  She glanced at the other two shifters and saw they stood still, hard as stone, watching the whole thing.

  “We’ve waited for you a long time, Ruby,” Stanis growled out, his words having her body on the brink of exploding. Yes, she could have come just from his voice alone.