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  She forced herself to turn away from Chris’s stare, and then she awkwardly disentangled herself from the pair of them before she could make a fool out of herself. She sat up, clutching the blankets to her chest as if they were her armor. “Show me,” she said. “Now that I can think clearly, I want to see.” She really did want to see them shift again, but she also wanted to steer her thoughts into a different direction.

  So much for that idea, she thought as the two of them got out of bed. She felt a blush creep up her neck and face as they stood naked before her at the foot of the bed, their cocks at full attention in a testament to their attraction to her. Both men had not only impressive lengths, but girths as well. She reflexively licked her lips, an action that caused both men to growl at her.

  When she looked up at them, she noticed that the guys had their nostrils flared. Chris gritted his teeth as Drew cleared his throat before he spoke. “Are you ready, Char?”

  She nodded and then watched in fascination as both men became surrounded by a shimmering white light appearing very close to their skin. It took mere seconds for human features to morph into those of an animal—a seamless, soundless transition that was both beautiful and frightening. The tigers were nearly identical with their black-striped patterns, but their eye color mirrored their human one.

  Tiger Drew jumped up on the bed and stalked over to her. She gasped when he brought his face an inch away from hers, but then giggled when his pink nose touched the tip of hers and then she did the only thing that came naturally to her—she wrapped her arms around the neck of his beast and hugged him tightly. “You’re so beautiful,” she whispered, emotion thick in her voice. She felt arms wrap around her seconds later as Drew turned back into a man.

  “We were so worried you’d be afraid of us,” Drew whispered back.

  She shook her head. It wasn’t possible for her to be afraid of them. It was like she already knew them even in their animal forms. She remembered having the feeling of safety wash over her in the water with Chris’s tiger wrapped around her.

  When she and Drew pulled apart from their hug, she looked over to the foot of the bed to see Chris as a man again, but his spirit tiger was next to him with his paws propped up on the bed. When Charlotte extended her hand toward it, she suddenly realized that her blankets were around her waist and her breasts were completely bared. Chris stared at her with unabashed desire and she heard Drew breathing heavily beside her.

  “Shit.” She quickly covered herself up, but just as soon as she did, Chris’s spirit tiger leaped onto the bed and playfully nuzzled her, causing her to lose hold of her blankets again. The sensation she got from touching the spirit tiger was a bit different than the feel of the corporeal one. It was almost like having a heating blanket on her skin mixed in with the vibrations one would get from a massage chair.

  Drew’s spirit tiger joined in, making her skin tingle everywhere they touched her. “Bad kitties,” she scolded with mirth in her voice. Drew and Chris burst into laughter. Finally, when her own fit of giggles subsided a little and she made herself decent again, she blurted, “I’m not sure this is appropriate. What would your mate think?”

  Her statement definitely got their attention. Men and beasts merged once again, leaving Drew still sitting on the bed beside her on her left, and Chris, having already gotten back into bed, positioning himself in a seated position on her right.

  “What do you mean what would our mate think?” Drew asked.

  They hadn’t gotten around to explaining that part to her yet, she realized. “I heard you both whispering earlier.” She glanced down and began nervously toying with her fingers. Might as well get everything out into the open.

  Drew tilted her chin up so that she would look at him. “How much did you hear?”

  She swallowed, preparing herself to utter the words that were about to completely crush her heart. “I heard you say shifters have destined mates … you both have a mate.”

  “We do,” Chris stated, his voice matter-of-fact. He leaned in close to her and kissed her bare shoulder. Her breath hitched as he kissed her neck next, followed by her cheek, and then with his lips a whisper touch against her ear, he added, “And we love her very much.”

  Chapter Seven

  Charlotte was stunned. Speechless. She turned to Drew, hope flaring in her chest along with doubt waiting to crush it.

  Drew began to explain in a rush. “I’m so sorry. We didn’t know. If we had, we never would have let you walk out of our lives.”

  “We would have followed you to the ends of the Earth, had we known,” Chris added. “And believe me, we wanted to anyway, even had you not turned out to be our mate.”

  “We always knew that shifters were destined for a mate,” Drew continued. “It’s unknown when or if we will find one, but when we do, the pull is undeniable.” He then went on to explain that the ability to scent a mate doesn’t occur until after a first shift, which is why they couldn’t sense Charlotte back in high school. Furthermore, it was very unlikely that a shifter’s mate would be a human, but their bond to her was unmistakable. Charlotte was, without question, their mate. They both took turns telling her what they had felt at the airport while waiting for her, and the relief that washed over them when they realized it was Charlotte all along.

  “I still remember the very first time I laid eyes on you back in high school,” Chris said, wiping her tears away. She hadn’t even realized she had been crying, so caught up in the description of them sensing their mate for the first time … sensing her. He threaded his hand through her hair. “You were the prettiest thing I had ever seen, and I was instantly drawn to you.”

  Charlotte had had the exact same feeling upon first seeing Chris and Drew. She remembered it well. It was the very first class in her new school. She came early and sat in the back by herself. She figured that in such a small town, despite starting off on the same playing field as the other freshman at a new school, everyone would already know each other. She wasn’t wrong. Jill and her posse had strolled in next, followed by a few more students, also in small groups, and then Chris and Drew walked in. They walked right past Jill, ignoring her invitation to sit next to her and her friends and took seats near Charlotte instead, one on each side. They had sat with her at lunch that day as well as in the two other classes they had shared with her. By the end of the week, they were hanging out with her at the diner, and phone numbers had been exchanged. Not even a month had passed before the three of them became inseparable, forming their own little group in school.

  “I don’t even know when it was that I fell in love with both of you.” Charlotte couldn’t help her tears this time, nor did she try to hold them in, red nose be damned. “I thought … well, I didn’t think about the possibility of the three of us, so I figured it would be easier to walk away. I didn’t want to.” Her voice broke on the last few words. Chris and Drew held her tightly between them. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”

  “We keep our existence secret, but it wasn’t about not trusting you with it. We didn’t want to hurt you more than we had to by telling you about a mate we hadn’t yet met, or to burden you with knowledge when we couldn’t experience all of it with you,” Chris told her. He soothingly rubbed her back. “We were both so completely in love with you, too, Charlotte.” He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. “In fact, we asked you to come here because we were going to turn our backs on the whole mating thing.”

  That shocked her after their description of the mating pull, and spoke volumes about the depth of their feelings for her. It matched her own for them.

  Chris cupped her cheeks in his hands. “Do you think you can accept us both?”

  This time she didn’t hold back or worry about embarrassing herself. She leaned forward and kissed his lips, wrapping her arms around his neck in the process. He brought her close to him and moaned into her mouth as their tongues finally connected, feverishly entwining. Then he softened his kiss to just a gentle touching of lips, the pair o
f them breathing heavy. He gave her one more lingering kiss before placing his forehead against hers.

  She pulled back to look at him and touched his cheek, leaving her hand there for a moment as she turned to Drew. She put her hand on his cheek as well, and with her voice gravelly, still partially out of breath, she declared, “You’re both all I ever wanted.”

  Drew pulled her to him and kissed her just as fiercely. She heard a low growl coming from the back of his throat and that only turned her on more. She had heard growls emanating from them before and quite a bit in the past two days, confusing them for simple male grunting sounds, but now she knew that the sound was a far more primal one. Soon after, his kiss turned playful, as he first licked the top of her lip and then nipped it. She moaned at the sensation and felt her nipples harden against his chest and her belly contracted with excitement, all modesty forgotten.

  She had thought about what her first kiss would feel like with them, but her thoughts had paled in comparison with this reality. She moaned again, louder this time, when Drew pulled back slightly and cupped her breasts. Chris moved in closer from behind and began to gift her with kisses to the nape of her neck, gliding his hands up and down her sides.

  Drew ended their kiss with another playful bite, but to her bottom lip this time. He exhaled loudly, while she tried to catch her breath. “You should get some more rest,” he said with regret.

  “I have done nothing but sleep for the last two days.” Rest was the last thing she wanted right now. “Please don’t stop.”

  “Mmm … I can smell her desire,” Chris said right before he tugged on her earlobe with his teeth.

  Drew closed his eyes as he inhaled. “You smell delicious.”

  “You can—” Charlotte did not have a chance to finish her sentence. Chris tilted her head to deliver another breath-stealing kiss, leaving his hand splayed right under her neck. Charlotte threw her arms up and over behind Chris’s neck.

  Drew wasted no time in taking advantage of her inviting position. He cupped her breasts again before bringing them closer together and sucked hard on her nipples in turn. “You have such beautiful breasts,” he murmured against as he continued to lavish his attention on them.

  Chris let loose another sexy growl as she tugged on his hair. He used his free hand to glide down her belly, moving the covers away from her body. She nearly convulsed when his fingers made contact with her soaking-wet pussy. She wanted his fingers inside her, but he only toyed with her at first, rubbing her lips, parting them, and then rubbing the wet flesh between. “I want a taste,” he said, cupping her firmly.

  She let out an incoherent sound of agreement.

  “Lay down, baby,” Drew said, releasing her breasts.

  She complied, positioning herself on her back and then she boldly spread her legs in invitation. Chris moved between them. He massaged her breasts and then ran his hands down the length of her torso to her thighs as if his hands were memorizing her body. “You’re so fucking beautiful, Char.”

  Drew lay down beside her. “Chris and I are going to acquaint ourselves with every beautiful inch of you, and then when you are ready, we are going to claim you, permanently.”

  “Yes,” she said. She had no idea what he meant by claiming her permanently, since she already belonged to them both body and soul, but that would have to be a topic for another conversation. “I want you both so much.”

  Drew leaned in for a kiss just as Chris’s mouth connected with her other lips. She moaned loudly into Drew’s mouth as they both devoured her. She fisted one hand in Drew’s hair and the other in Chris’s. She reveled in the sensory overload as Drew began to trail kisses down her neck. He’d pause to suck, lick, and bite in different spots while his talented hands found her breasts again.

  Her legs began to quiver from Chris’s attentions. He licked teasingly around her clit before finally sucking it into his mouth. Further proof that all teasing had ended came when he inserted two fingers into her core and pumped them in and out, making sure to hit the sweet spot of her inner wall with each pass. Not wanting to rip out their gorgeous strands of hair, Charlotte released her grip on them and clutched the pillow above her head instead. She panted heavily as she chased her release. She could feel it building, blinding with its intensity.

  “Let go, baby,” Drew ordered softly. “Let us finally see you come for us.”

  At his gentle command, her orgasm hit her fast and hard, her hips bucking, and Chris’s mouth remained on her, refusing to release her. He kept his mouth on her until he wrung out every spasm.

  When she was finally spent, Chris crawled up her body, planting kisses along the way. “See how yummy you taste?” he asked when he reached her mouth. He kissed her hard, his tongue immediately finding hers.

  Chris shifted over a bit for Drew and then they both were touching her, kissing her, driving her quickly to another orgasm, but she wanted more. She wanted to finally feel them inside of her. “I’m on the pill,” she said.

  “Doesn’t matter. We can only impregnate you on the full moon,” Drew deadpanned.

  “Wait … what?” She looked back and forth between them, their serious façade quickly slipping and turning into a smirk on the one brother and a full-on grin on the other, right before they broke out laughing. “You two are a bunch of asses,” she said, though she laughed right along with them.

  Their laughter died quickly as Chris took her lips again in a searing kiss right before he rolled with her on top of him. He hugged her close to him, rubbing his cock against her wet folds, toying with her once again until she cried out in frustration. It appeared that Chris had had enough of the teasing himself because he thrust upward and impaled her in one long hard stroke. They froze in place for a moment, savoring their connection, until Charlotte began to slowly move on top of him.

  He groaned into her mouth, grabbed her ass to both still her and bring her closer, and began to pump up into her hard and fast. “You feel fucking amazing,” Chris said in between kissing her, his voice husky.

  She heard Drew breathing heavily next to her, and when she glanced over at him, she saw that he was slowly stroking himself. He may not have been touching her at the moment, but she still felt connected to him, his presence integral.

  Never once breaking their connection, Chris swiftly and agilely sat up with her, one hand on her lower back, one threaded in her hair. He pumped into her once, twice, before flipping her over onto her back. She locked her ankles around his waist while he thrust in and out of her, harder, faster with each pass, this new angle hitting just the right spot inside of her.

  “Ah!” He threw his back. “Char … I … I can’t…” He sounded more animal than human now, and when his gaze pierced her, she saw that his eyes were glowing and noticed that his canines were elongated … and then he bit her.

  Surprisingly, she only felt a light sting as his teeth punctured the skin between her neck and shoulder. Her world exploded then. She came hard, Chris right along with her. She called out his name while he emitted a throaty growling sound against her skin as he held himself still inside of her. She felt a slight pull as he sucked some of her blood into his mouth, followed by a tightening of her skin after he licked the wound. He placed a few soft kisses on her lips, and she tasted a hint of her own coppery blood on his lips.

  “I love you,” he murmured against her lips. “I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t realize I wouldn’t be able to stop. We should have talked about—”

  “It’s okay,” she cut him off. “You didn’t hurt me. It actually felt kind of … good.” And suddenly she felt something else happening. “What…” Her entire body tingled. Chris gave her a wide smile and another soft kiss on her lips. That’s when she noticed the same whitish glow around him as when he transformed in front of her earlier, only now it extended to her, surrounding her with warmth. “Does this happen every time?”

  “Making you come?” he barked out a short laugh. “It is my mission in life to give you as many screaming orgasms
as I can.” He bit her neck, only playfully this time. He finally became serious when he said, “What you are seeing is our souls joining together, sealing the mating bond. You are mine, and I am yours, forever.”

  This is what they had meant by claiming her. “I’ve always been yours.” She turned to Drew, who had been quietly observing, giving them their moment, and said, “And yours. Please, Drew, I need you, too.”

  Chris pulled out of her and moved over, propping himself on his elbow, and taking his place as the observer now. Drew kissed her deeply before rolling her onto her stomach and then he began to deliver sweet kisses to her neck and back. She moaned into her pillow when he placed himself flush against her body, supporting himself on his elbows, and inching her hips up just enough to get the perfect angle to enter her.

  He pushed in slowly, exhaling harshly as he slid all the way in. His movements were slow, thrusting all the way in and then pulling halfway out. Charlotte entwined her hands with his and tried to meet his thrusts as best she could from her position. He had the fire building anew inside of her, his skin gliding against hers, his cock, thick, warm, and pulsating inside her core.

  When slow was not enough, he brought her to her knees and began to thrust in and out of her with abandon. She easily met him thrust for thrust this time, fisting the sheets, her orgasm just within reach.

  “Oh, fuck,” Drew grunted. He gently prodded her to lie back down, flat on her belly, placing himself flush against her again. She was prepared for the bite this time. Once again, the initial puncture stung a little. The prickle of pain quickly turned to pleasure as she simultaneously cried out her release and Drew spilled inside of her, screaming out his own ecstasy.

  When every last spasm of pleasure had been wrung out from both of them, Drew sat up, taking her with him, her back to his chest. As his arms wrapped around her middle, she saw the same white glow on their skin. She tilted her head back to look at him and saw so much love shining in his eyes.