Theirs?

Was I insane?

One night of awesome, no-holds-barred sex did not equate to my being theirs. It couldn't. I was just confused. My post-coital glow and orgasmic memories making me hazy.

Beckham was right. This was all too much. I had to get away. Like he had. But for so many different reasons. My insides were suddenly choking with emotion. So much emotion. Too much emotion.

That was what this was. It was all too much.

The guys, except for Beck, were relaxed around me. Cooper and Jaeger holding me while Maddox rested his head on my stomach.

They were caring, gorgeous, attentive lovers.

But there were four of them. And none of them wanted me to himself. I didn't want one of them. I wanted all of them.

Surely, I couldn't.

Surely, I was in way over my head. Not just because they were paranormal beings. They were also paranormal beings who didn’t subscribe to the idea of one man with one woman, but I definitely did.

Didn't I?

Panic gripped my heart and confusion took over my senses. I didn't know what to do, but only one thought made sense in that moment.

Run.

I needed to get the hell out of here. I needed to be away from their delectable bodies and smooth tongues. I needed to get away from their “we need you to be ours” talk and their strong hands and arms that I'd gotten all too comfortable leaning into. I'd known them for a few hours. Jaeger for maybe a bit more than a day, yet already, I'd been intimate with them. I knew what they looked and sounded like when they came. This wasn't me. I might not be crazy, but my brain was clearly addled because I wasn’t this person. A risk-taker who slept with guys just because she felt like it, no thought to tomorrow.

Getting out of here was the only option, because being here surrounded by them and their hungry gazes? I’d never be able to think straight.

I needed space to think. Maybe several cups of coffee and a couple of hours sleep.

Yes.

That would do the trick.

I'd put this impossible scenario to a rest and get back to my life. I'd forget about vampires and werewolves and succubi. I was a school teacher, for crying out loud.

I didn't belong here.

Running my hands through Jaeger’s soft hair, I squeezed Maddox's hip where my other hand was resting and sat up.

“I have to go,” I announced to the quiet room, disentangling my limbs from theirs and trying to ignore the strange ache in my chest.

“Why? It’s not even dawn yet,” Cooper yawned, confused. Jaeger propped his weight up on his elbow, eyes searching mine.

"He's right. If you want to leave, we'll take you home, but you should get some rest. Why don't you sleep for a little while and we'll talk more later?" Jaeger's voice was soft and compelling. If I didn't get out of here soon, I would surrender to its lull and possibly never leave.

"No. I should go. I need to think about all of…" I gestured to them and wildly around the room, already scrambling to the edge of the bed, "this."

Maddox's hand closed over mine as he patted the space I'd just vacated on his chest, a lazy smile on his lips. "So think about it with us. That way we'll be here to answer any questions you have and to perform any demonstrations you need to help you come to the conclusion that you should come to."

Jaeger shot him a look and I felt his warm body move up behind mine. His hands were light, his touch gentle, as his fingertips trailed along my arms. "Ignore him. He's right about the questions, we'll answer any that you have. But we won't be performing any demonstrations of any kind, unless you want us to."

"No." My eyes searched the room frantically and though I thought that my dress had disappeared, vanished, it hadn't. It was hanging in an open closet off one side of the room, my shoes sitting beneath it. My bag was resting on the couch where I'd left it.

Making a mad dash for my dress, even though I'd be sans underwear, I ran smack into Beckham's chest. He steadied me by reaching for my shoulders, looking down into my eyes, concerned. "What’s going on?”

I was momentarily distracted by him, by the feel of his bare flesh against mine. But then it hit me that my bare flesh was against his, in the presence of three others and I shrugged out of his grip to squeak, "I’m going home."

The closet was filled with suits and shoes, jeans and shirts packed neatly onto its shelves. I barely registered that fact as I pulled my dress on and suddenly there were fingers on my back, helping me to do up the zipper. Grabbing the shoes, I turned to find Jaeger behind me.

"At least let one of us see you home."

"No. I'll be fine. Thank you for, you know… Everything. "

Oh my god, was I really thanking them for sex? I yanked out my phone and said a silent prayer as I opened my Lyft app. Even the gods must’ve sensed the wisdom of me leaving because there was one only three minutes away.

“Got a ride and everything, so nothing to worry about, okay?”

Blood rushed to the skin under my cheeks and Jaeger reached to stroke his thumb over my bottom lip, an expression that I couldn't quite place on his face.

"Starling, you don't need to run." He inhaled a deep breath and I knew that if I let him finish what he was going to say, I wasn't going to get that space I so desperately needed to think.

"No, really, I'm fine."

I wasn't, but I would deal with that later. Crossing the room to grab my bag, I clutched it and my shoes to my chest and was out the door before any of them could say anything more.

In my rush to get out of there, I dropped one of my shoes like a real life freaking Cinderella and, hurried as I was, didn't even realize it until I was back outside the hotel, waiting for my Lyft.

Whatever. It was one of their magic shoes anyway.

I couldn't risk going back in there. I'd only just managed to leave them once, I wasn't going to test my self-control or determination by going back in there right now. The sun was just starting to kiss the horizon when my driver pulled up and I slumped into the back seat of his car, rattling off my address in a daze.

I didn't remember the drive to my house, my mind a maddening tangle of memories. Hands on my body, skin on skin. Eyes, all so unique and mesmerizing and beautiful in their own right, darkening with desire and locked on mine. Hard bodies, murmured groans.

It all played on my mind until my house came into view on the far side of the street. Knowing that it was empty, I realized that I really didn't want to be alone right now.

"Could you take me to 21 Merry Way instead, please? So sorry. I forgot that I had plans with my sister this morning."

So maybe she didn't know about the plans yet, but she had told me to tell her if anything happened. I just hoped that she was awake already.

"Sure thing, Miss," the driver grunted as we sailed past my house.

We were pulling up in front of Melanie's house only minutes later and I thanked the driver and then watched him drive away as I collected my thoughts.

Melanie's street was quiet, the early light of dawn rendering the streetlights just about redundant at this hour. There were sounds of traffic floating from the distance and one dedicated elderly woman in a brightly colored tracksuit out for a walk. She raised her hand to wave at me as she passed, then her friendly smile dropped and she gawked at me.

I supposed that she wasn't used to seeing women dressed in cocktail dresses standing outside in the freezing cold, barefoot on one side while the other foot was clad in a fancy heel. Suppressing a bubble of hysteria at the absurdity of my situation, I lifted a hand to return her wave and headed to my sister's door.

Melanie kept strange hours, so I wasn’t too surprised when her door swung open not thirty seconds after I rang the bell. Her hair was swept up into a ponytail and she was wearing rumpled pajamas, but her eyes were bright and alert as they ran the length of my body.

She stepped to the side and motioned me in, arching a brow when I hobbled past her. "Starling? You do realize Halloween is a long way off, right?"

There were so many things that I wanted to say all at once and I didn't know what to say first. Eventually, marching straight to her kitchen and flipping on her kettle, I turned to face my puzzled sister and blurted out, "I just slept with four guys. At once."

For a second, she didn't say anything and her expression didn't change, then the arched eyebrow dropped, along with her jaw, and she took over the tea-making ritual.

"Well, I was just watching a documentary on the human cost of the war in Central Africa, but I think that can wait. What the hell happened? Tell me everything. From the beginning."

Melanie got out honey and lemon as I filled her in on the events that had followed her leaving my house the night before. To her credit, she listened carefully, only interjecting with a few well-timed 'what the fucks', 'wows' and 'no way's' of her own while still allowing me to tell her everything mostly uninterrupted.

By the time I was finished, we were settled in her white couches, the documentary she'd been watching paused and long forgotten as we drank our beverages and my sister listened to every detail of the most crazy, wildest night of my life.

"And so, yeah, then I was on my way home and I realized that I just needed to talk this through."

Melanie was stunned, speechless, as she processed everything that I'd told her. I collapsed into the cushions behind me when my story was done, exhausted and more confused than I'd ever been. The dress was becoming uncomfortable and I was suddenly dying for a comfortable pair of pajamas and a shower, hoping that that would clear my mind.

"I'm going to go have a shower and borrow some of your pajamas while you process this. Lord knows it's a lot to absorb."

"That it is. I'll have breakfast ready when you're done," she said, seeming almost as dazed as I was.

Melanie's house was very similar to mine, tiny and comfortable. It was old, but remodeled, and just like everything in her life, she'd gone all out with modernizing the place. Her furniture was white and sleek, her appliances top of the range with framed photographs of her family and friends everywhere, complemented with expensive art on the walls and a fluffy gray blanket on her bed.

The day she'd installed her shower, I'd thought that the contraption with its steam setting and two showerheads was overdoing it, but I was thankful for it this morning. I stripped out of the dress, kicked off my only shoe, and stepped into the warmth offered by the extravagant monstrosity.

Where I'd pursued the more traditional career path that involved being paid a salary every month, my grab-life-by-the-balls sister had chosen not to be tied down. She was a freelance graphic designer who never seemed to run out of work and had made something of a name for herself in her industry.

Working at night suited her, which was why finding her watching a documentary on a serious issue at the crack of dawn didn't surprise me. This time of day was her version of winding down and watching the news after work as most other people did.

Well, hey, look at that…a night owl, sort of like my vampires.

My vampires?

I rolled my eyes at myself and lathered my skin with her apple-scented body wash. And then I spent the remaining time of my shower trying to figure out whether or not they were my vampires and if they weren't, whether I wanted them to be.

They’d made their feelings towards me pretty clear. They wanted more of what we’d experienced tonight and I couldn’t deny, the thought had my every nerve-ending lit with excitement. After all, they'd given me a stunning preview of what a relationship with all of them could be like, but I just didn't know if I could do it. I barely knew them, knew even less of their kind, and my mind just couldn’t wrap itself around the idea of loving four men.

My body instantly clenched at the reminder of exactly what it had been like loving four men and I was pretty sure we’d barely scraped the surface. What would I be leaving on the table if I didn’t explore this? And would it be my life’s greatest regret?

I washed my hair, applied a conditioning treatment for good measure, and was toweling off when I realized that the shower hadn’t helped in the least. I was even more divided on what to do now than I had been when I'd gotten in.

True to her word, Melanie had breakfast waiting by the time I padded back to her living room, wearing a pair of her flannel pajamas and my hair pulled into a messy, wet bun on top of my head.

She handed me a bowl of sweet oats and a fresh mug as I sank back into my position on her couch. In the time I'd been gone, she'd resumed watching her documentary, but she paused it when I re-entered.

"Feeling any better?" she asked, cautious and curious.

Did I?

"I don't know. I don't even know where to begin to untangle my feelings."

She munched on a bite of her oats, her eyes faraway before she refocused on mine. "But you do have, like…feelings for them?"

"I don’t know how to explain it," I admitted, pausing to eat some of my breakfast before I continued. "I know it sounds crazy because I don't really know them at all, but I feel oddly connected to them already. Like I know them on some deep, cellular level. How freaking weird is that?"

"It is weird, but not any weirder than the fact that the guys you're into are actual vampires."

Bless her soul, anyone else would have been checking me into an institution for thinking that, but Melanie knew me better. She knew that I wasn't a liar and we didn't keep any secrets from each other, I wasn't about to start now. Regardless of how insane what I'd told her was.

"I guess." How had I gone from being single and my potential suitors being limited to the likes of Freddie, to being with four superhot vampires who looked at me like my face lit up the sun, or maybe it was the moon in their case, and fucked like gods?

"You said you met some other girls who were with more than one man, so maybe in their world it's not as uncommon as it is in ours. Maybe they are more like… European?"

"I know we've never been to Europe, but even in the movies I’ve never seen one girl walking around with four guys. I mean, my eyes nearly popped out of my head last night when I saw that Stevie girl with all those men."

Melanie pointed her spoon at me. "But that's just it. You said one of the guys told you that they're all sickeningly in love, right?"

"Yeah. And they looked it," I admitted, shivering as I recalled the scrape of Beckham’s teeth against my skin, of Jaeger’s scent filling my head, of Maddox’s fingers and Cooper’s lips…

Mel’s voice jarred me from my reverie.

“Well, then it's obviously possible to have these kinds of relationships that we've never been exposed to. If you do have feelings for them like you say you do, what's the harm in exploring them? I think you owe it to yourself to see where this leads. They know the score. They know you're a newbie at this, but they don't seem to mind. If not, why not? This could be the greatest adventure of your life, it seems like a waste to shoot down the idea before even trying it."

Of course, she would think that. Melanie would have climbed them all like trees and had fun with it while she was figuring it all out. Why couldn't I do that just for once?

Because it's not you, a voice in the back of my mind whispered.

Why couldn't it be me? I was only twenty-four, there was still time for me to grow into who I would become. I'd spent my life making the safe, seemingly responsible, decisions and I was ready to throw caution to the wind.

Just this once. Just with these guys.

"I promise you that I'll at least think about it. But right now, I think I need to just get some sleep. Is it okay if I just crash here? I don't really feel like going home yet."

"Sure, I think it's probably time for me to turn in, too. You want to come crawl into bed with me or are you fine here?"

"I'm fine here." I pulled one of her throw blankets over my legs, knowing there would be tossing and turning for a while despite my exhaustion, thinking about the guys and the decision that I had to make.

Melanie shrugged and nodded. "Suit yourself. You know where everything is if you need something. Sleep tight, Star."

"You, too," I said, watching as she switched off the TV and drew the curtains. We were well into morning, but Melanie's curtains were the best and it almost felt like I'd been thrown back into the middle of the night.

As I predicted, it took me a long while to get to sleep and when I finally succumbed to my bone- numbing exhaustion, it was with thoughts of four, devilishly sexy men on my mind.