Mir stepped forward self-consciously, her eyes veering right and left, landing on every gorgeous face in the establishment.

They were all beautiful. Every single shifter in this room. Throngs of massive men, some of whom sniffed her as she made her way by them. The feeling was odd, yet tantalizing. The air smelled of musk, the faint scent of embers lingering in its particles, as though someone were cooking over a distant fire.

The two shifters led Mir to an area at one end of the gigantic space where a wooden dance floor was set up. Couples were moving slowly, their bodies gyrating to a pulsing, slow, strange sort of music unlike anything Mir had ever heard. She wanted to ask about it—was it meant to sound so erotic?

As she looked around, sets of bright eyes flashed towards her, taking her in. If they were angry at her presence, they didn’t show it. No hostility, no judgment.

She felt welcome in this place. A place that shouldn’t welcome the humans who were threatening their kind.

“Well, they don’t seem to want to kill me,” she whispered into Cad’s ear as he and Phair began to move in synchronicity with the music. One man was in front of her, the other behind, and it felt so damn good.

“They don’t,” he said. “You’re with us. They can smell it on you.”

With us, thought Mir. The words held so much hidden meaning. At least she hoped they did. She so wanted to be with them. To give herself over, to become a part of them. To claim them as part of herself.

“There are only a few shifters who might want to kill you,” Phair said. He was behind her, holding her hips as he pushed his body gently into hers, his heat surrounding her in a delicious sort of armour against all the ills of the world.

“Oh?” she replied, laughing. Her hands were on Cad’s chest as she pressed her backside into Phair. “Who might they be?”

“Don’t worry,” he replied, his lips so close to her skin that she could feel them move. “They’re not important. Not tonight. Besides which, it’s more likely that Cad and I would get punched in the face.”

“Okay, now I’m intrigued,” Mir said, reaching back and wrapping her fingers around Phair’s neck, pulling him even closer. He pressed a line of kisses to her cheekbone.

“I only want you to be intrigued by the two men who are making a Mir sandwich,” he whispered. “You’re here under our protection. We wanted you to have a nice evening outside of that hell-den of Barton’s.”

“Well, mission accomplished,” she said, spinning around to face him. Now Cad grabbed her by the waist, drawing his chest into her back as she ran her hands up Phair’s chest.

God, he was big. And hard. And extraordinary.

“I want to see this,” she said, slipping a fingertip over his left pectoral muscle. “I want to see you naked.”

Phair smiled down at her. “I believe that can be arranged,” he said, lifting his eyes to look at Cad. “I know another man who’d like to be naked with you, too.”

Mir let out another laugh. This behaviour seemed a little unlike Phair. He was so relaxed, even a little flirtatious. Such a change from his usual serious self.

Blood rushed through her, a torrent of heat that set her core into a painful throb. She’d wanted them both since the first moment she’d set eyes on them, and now, well, this was beginning to feel like torture.

Delicious, wonderful torture.

“I don’t suppose shifters approve of women ripping their clothes off on the dance floor?” she asked. “Because I’d do it right here, right now.”

“It might not go over so well,” said Cad from behind her, pulling her hair away to lay a soft kiss on her shoulder. “Let’s hang about a little while longer, then we’ll see about finding a nice, secluded place where nudity is acceptable.”

“That sounds very, very good,” she replied, pushing her head back to accept another kiss on her neck.

She should have felt self-conscious. In a human club she would have. But this place was different. It was magical. No doubt the others simply thought she was a future mate to the two men who were dancing so languidly with her. Like her, they thought she belonged in this other world.

It seemed so greedy, somehow, to want both men for herself.

Yet it felt so right.

“I could get used to this,” she said, looking into Phair’s eyes. They’d taken on that golden glow again, the one that made her feel so close to the beautiful creature inside him.

“Good,” he replied. “So could we.”

* * *

It was nine-thirty by the time they moved away from the dance floor. Mir had hardly had a drop to drink, but she felt intoxicated, dizzy, light-headed. Something had happened out there with her men, something deeply sensual, deeply intimate. She wanted them more than ever, and the only thing that even began to bring her down from her incredible state of euphoria was the thought of Bry, still tucked away in her basement kitchen.

She made a note to check on her sister when she got home. Of course, Bry might be in bed by then. Either way, she’d give her a hug to show her how much she cared, how much she’d missed her tonight.

“The Guild members are here,” Cad said as they pushed their way through the crowd. “Let’s go say hi.”

In the distance, a few very large men were making their way to a high wooden table. Mir watched them, unable to ignore the fact that everyone who saw them darted out of the way as though out of some quiet, almost fearful reverence.

Cad escorted them towards the shifters—the most massive creatures she’d ever seen, aside from her two almost-lovers.

“Hallo, lads,” said a blond man, raising his face to look at them when they were close. He issued Mir a friendly grin, which put her a little at ease. The guy seemed friendly, if ever so slightly terrifying.

“Evenin’ Aegis,” Cad said casually. “Having a boys’ night out, then?”

“In a manner of speaking,” he replied.

The man sitting next to him was staring curiously at Mir, an intense look on his face. He had light brown hair, eyes like aquamarine. Her own eyes, drawn to his, settled on them, and for a moment she stared, frozen.

He was doing something to her. Trapping her with his mind.

When the feeling grew too intense, she somehow managed to pull her gaze to a distant wall, her breath trapped in her chest.

Something about the man seemed oddly powerful, as though an energy was pouring off him in radiant waves. She felt when she looked at him as though he was reading her mind, her blood, her bones, her very cells.

But Cad and Phair, for some mad reason, didn’t seem to notice. Maybe they were impervious to his strength. Maybe shifter blood made one invulnerable to such men.

“What’s the occasion?” Phair asked as he pressed his elbows to the high table.

“Minach’s baby was born a few days back,” Aegis said, raising a beer pint high over his head. The other men raised theirs and clinked them, sloshing ale all over the table.

“Amara gave birth, then?” asked Cad. “Congratulations, big man.” He raced around the table towards one of two identical-looking dark-haired shifters, clobbering one of them on the back. The man lurched forward, laughing.

“Um, Cad, that’s Lyre,” Aegis said. “Minach’s the one next to him.”

“Shite. Sorry mate,” Cad replied, slapping the other twin. “I always get you two mixed up. You really ought to wear name tags or something.”

“Or,” shot Aegis, “Minach could just wear a t-shirt that says I’m the bastard. My brother’s the nice one.”

Lyre signed something, which his sibling promptly translated. Apparently one of the twins was hearing impaired. “He’s making a note to himself to buy that shirt as soon as possible,” Minach grunted. “My brother’s a right tosser, you see.”

Mir was watching the conversation with a healthy dose of confused amusement. “These are the Dragon shifters,” Phair told her, pressing in close. “Some of them, anyhow. There are lots more in the city. Lumen is the Alpha.” He nodded towards the man who’d made Mir feel so exposed a moment ago, and he nodded back to her. A slight smile curved his lips upwards. “These other wankers,” added Phair, “are Aegis, Lyre, and Minach.”

“Nice to meet you,” Mir said, nodding towards them. “I…I have to admit to being a little stunned. I didn’t know that I’d be meeting Dragons tonight.” I didn’t have a clue how wonderful tonight would be, in fact.

“Well, I hope we live up to your expectations,” said Lumen.

“Yes, you certainly do…and then some,” she replied, avoiding eye contact for fear that he would dig deeper into her psyche.

Lumen exchanged a strange, telling glance with Cad, who immediately turned to Phair and Mir. “Listen, would you two grab us a few drinks?” he said, “I want to have a word with the Alpha for a moment.”

“Of course,” Mir replied, grabbing Phair by the hand, relieved to get away. She led him towards the bar, her body tense. “What was that?” she asked when they were some distance away.

“What was what?”

“The looks. The Alpha. He was sizing me up like he was trying to work out if I’m friend or foe. I felt him inside me, like he was rifling around my internal underwear drawer, looking for incriminating evidence.”

“He was,” said Phair. It was hard to tell if he was joking or not. “I haven’t known him long, but I do know how he works. Lumen can see deep inside a person; he can read you like a sodding newspaper.”

Mir grabbed the bar, steadying herself at the thought. Had this Lumen seen everything? What she did, how she lived? Had he seen Barton’s cruelty? Did he know about Bry, about…everything?

“Don’t worry, he’s a good man,” Phair said, reaching out to lay a hand on her back. He stroked her gently for a few seconds. It was probably meant to calm her, but it had the opposite effect. Mir went from nervous to horny in the blink of an eye.

Damn, that hand felt wonderful.

“If he was exploring your depths, it was only to figure out what sort of person you are. If he’s the judge of character I know him to be, he’ll know that you’re…”

He stopped talking suddenly, and Mir looked up into his eyes, which had gone gold once again.

“I’m what?” she asked, slipping her body towards him. His hand shifted to her waist, hesitant for a moment, but he didn’t pull it away. Instead, he moved it down slowly until it rested on her hip.

Gooseflesh rose up on her skin to be so close to him. It was so nice to be touched affectionately. So nice to feel so drawn to a man. Two men, rather. She wasn’t forgetting the one they’d left behind with Lumen.

“I’m what?” she asked again, pulling closer to him.

“You’re fucking perfect,” he growled. It wasn’t a menacing sound, rather a hungry one. “Perfectly beautiful. Perfectly intelligent. So sexy that I have trouble staying away from you, Mir. You’re everything.”

“I have trouble keeping away, too,” she confessed, pressing a hand to his abdomen. It was hard as rock, and her mind didn’t have to work hard to envision the eight-pack that was waiting to meet her lips. “Trouble keeping away from you both. How is it that I find both of you so sexy, but I don’t feel torn in two by it? And neither of you seems jealous, either. It’s utter madness.”

“Because you know what it is that we crave,” he replied softly as her eyes watched his lips. “You know that our déors crave the Ritual. Our human bodies crave you.”

“The Ritual?”

He nodded and pulled her closer. “Yes,” he said, his eyes running down her body. “Do you know about the Ritual, Mir?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so…”

“It’s when two of our kind bond with a woman. It’s a life-changing experience. One that would alter all three of us.”

“Bond?” she asked. “By that do you mean…?”

“I mean everything you could possibly think I mean,” he replied. He pressed forward and whispered into her ear, “It means we would both come inside you at once.”

Fuck. Oh, fuck, that sounded so good.

She pulled back just enough to look into his eyes again. Bright, rich gold. Half beast, half man. All god. “That sounds delicious,” she said.

It sounded better than delicious, even.

It was everything she wanted in this world.