I felt wondrously rested, if confused, when I woke up in my bed, face plastered to the pillow, drooling like a fiend.

Lifting my head, I shrieked when a voice said, “How you feeling?”

Not violated, that was for sure. Then again, that was probably a good thing. I’d want to be awake for it.

Rolling over in bed, I noticed Mike sitting in a chair, the pile of clothes I kept on it moved to make him some room.

The urge to run fingers through my hair, throw myself on my back, and beckon him wantonly warred with my pasty mouth, sweaty thighs, and urge to pee.

Hard to be sexy when your bladder threatened to wet the bed.

“What happened? How did I get here?”

“We brought you home.”

“We?” As in a trio of wolves. How exciting.

“All of us have been taking turns watching you.”

“Afraid I’ll run off?”

“Actually, we were more concerned about you showing signs of possession.”

“Sorry to break it to you, but the crazy in here”—I tapped my head—“ is all mine.”

“You’re not crazy.”

“You say that, and yet you don’t like me.” I could tell I’d thrown him off guard.

“What makes you say that?”

“Well, you never smile around me for one.”

He scowled. “I’m not a smiley kind of guy.”

“You never called after our make-out session.”

“I’ve been busy.”

“And now you’re making excuses.” My lips turned down. “You can tell me, you know. I can handle it. You wouldn’t be the first guy to not like me, and I am sure you won’t be the last.”

“Why do you care what I think?”

“I don’t know, which I guess is a whole other ballgame. Let me ask you, since you’re a psych doctor, maybe you can explain to me why it is I seem to scare most people off.”

“You haven’t scared Chloe away.”

“She’s the exception, not the rule.”

“It’s not unusual for a woman your age to date and discard different partners.”

“If I was doing the discarding, perhaps it wouldn’t bother me so much.” I squirmed as some of my inner vulnerability peeked out. I wasn’t usually given to introspective depression.

“Perhaps if you toned down your more outrageous outbursts.”

My lips turned down. “You mean change who I am for other people?”

“Yes.” He said it, and then a moment later changed it to, “No. You shouldn’t have to change who you are because there’s nothing wrong with you.”

“Is that your professional opinion?” I asked with a smile.

“There’s nothing wrong with being headstrong or outspoken.”

“Unless you’re a girl looking for a man who won’t run off the first time I scream ‘holy fuck’ in a movie theatre when there’s a good twist.”

A smile pulled his lips. “I can see how some people might find it embarrassing.”

“Would you?”

“Yes.” He didn’t even try to lie. “But do you know who would totally enjoy that? Sebastian.”

I blinked at him. Did he just throw his buddy at me? Did this mean he wasn’t interested?

Utterly confusing.

And I told him so. “Is this your way of saying you don’t want to be with me?”

He recoiled, his expression quite startled. “No. I mean. Um. That is. I , um, like you.”

He stammered. Mr. Grumpy Pants stammered. Maybe he wasn’t as cool and collected as I thought. Might I even say he was definitely still interested?

“Let me see if I understand. You like me, but think I should go to the movies with Sebastian.”

“Not all the time.”

“But some of the time, and you’d do this even knowing I like to fool around at the movies?” I questioned.

“I would send you with him, yes, because I’m not into public sex.” My lips turned down until he added, “But I am not completely without adventure. My office has a lock and a sturdy desk.”

My mouth rounded. “Okay, that I wasn’t expecting.” I smiled. “But I like it.”

“Mike!” Dale bellowed for him, and he sighed.

“I’d better go see what he wants.”

“He’d better want to order some food because I’m starving. I’m going to hop in the shower, and by the time I get out, there’d better be something I can put in my mouth.”

“I’ll find you something for your mouth.”

Did Mike just make a dirty joke? “The kind of thing I can chew on.”

“Chew, spit, or swallow. Completely up to you.” Said utterly deadpan.

I narrowed my gaze on him. This other side of Mike intrigued me. But my stomach demanded satisfaction. “Food, or I won’t be responsible for my behavior.” People who knew me understood what happened if I wasn’t fed.

“I’ll let him know,” Mike said, almost smiling.

I’d crack that baby yet.

I admired his ass as he left the room before hopping out of bed and stretching.

My shoulders ached, and when I stripped off my shirt, not the same one I’d been wearing at the library, I noticed the gouges in them, bruised crescents where Spinerella had grabbed me.

What I couldn’t figure out was, why? Why me? And what was the connection to the Peabodys?

A hot shower didn’t help me puzzle it out but did leave me feeling human. Very human. Also very horny.

I’d almost died. I think. Who knew what the possessed librarian wanted from me. It was an interesting change that I’d gone from too few people wanting me to too many.

Whatever is a girl to do.

How about three men?

When I exited the bathroom, freshly showered after the library incident—which ended in a meaty bang that thrilled the horror lover in me—I found the guys still arguing.

Not wrestling naked to see who would win me.

Not trying to figure out who’d get the damned pizza I needed to feed my hungry belly.

Nor were they using their anger to clean my apartment, which sadly needed a good vacuum.

Since I wasn’t in the mood to yell but did want a spot of quiet, I did what any woman in a robe would do.

I flashed them.

Held that robe open long enough to draw all their eyes, drop their jaws—stoking my ego—and blessed silence descended.

I then hid the goods because, hello, “Where’s the food?”

“That’s all you have to say?” Dale snapped.

“How can you ask about food after what happened?”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s not like I asked for steak tartare.” Even my stomach rebelled at the idea. “But would it have killed you guys to order a pizza?”

Knock. Knock.

We all looked at the door, a door Mike crossed the room to answer.

He handed some cash to the delivery guy and then whirled around with several boxes.

I clapped my hands. “You are totally my favorite person right now.”

“Don’t I get brownie points for planning to bring food over later?” Dale retorted. “Along with the beer you demanded.”

“How come you invited him and not me?” Sebastian pouted.

“Plates or napkins?” Mike asked. He plopped the boxes on my living room table, and I sat down cross-legged in front of it. Realized silence had fallen again and adjusted my robe.

Over a slice of pepperoni with extra cheese, I asked, “So, am I to assume that, given the sudden attack at the library”—aimed at me, giddy inner dance—“that I’m now under your protection again?”

“You are not to leave this apartment.” Guess who uttered that imperial decree.

“That’s not going to fly. I have to work tomorrow.”

“Call in sick.”

“Mike, I’m shocked at you. Advising me to lie.” I shook my head.

“Think of it as playing hooky,” Sebastian offered.

“I’ll be bored.”

“Better bored than dead.” Dale had no sense of humor.

“You really think one of Spinerella’s possessed friends will come attack me at work?” I should be so lucky.

“They’re not who I’m most worried about,” Dale muttered ominously.

“What Dale means to say is, if you were to talk about what’s happened to you lately, you could end up an unwilling patient in my care.” Mike threw that out there before taking a big bite of his meat lover’s.

“Are you saying if I don’t behave you’ll institutionalize me?” My query had an incredulous note.

“If I have to. Even you’d have a hard time getting in trouble in a padded room.”

“I’m not crazy,” I grumbled. Horny, perhaps a little stupid where danger was concerned, and eating way too much in front of guys I found hot, but definitely not loony bin material.

“Why don’t you tell her the real truth?” Sebastian said before taking a bite.

“What truth? What aren’t you telling me?”

Dale glared at Sebastian, as did Mike, which meant this was going to be juicy.

“Spill it,” I demanded. “I have a right to know.”

“Unfortunately, the incident at the library brought you to the attention of the grand Whizziar.”

“What’s a grand whizzer?”

“Whizziar,” Mike enunciated. “He’s a fellow high up in the wizard collective.”

“Wizards.” I snickered. Some things still had the ability to tickle my inner princess who dreamed of knights and dragons.

“You shouldn’t laugh about this. Morfeus isn’t a person to trifle with from what we’ve learned.”

“You mean the dude I met at the library? I didn’t get the impression he liked me.” No surprise there.

“He doesn’t like most humans, and he especially dislikes humans who know more than they should.”

“What’s the big deal? So what if I know magic exists? I’m pretty sure the whole world knows by now.”

“Actually, the collective and the TDCM did an excellent job of covering up the incident at the library.”

“How the hell did they cover up the fact that Spinerella—”

“Who?”

“Crazy possessed librarian chick. Duh.” I rolled my eyes. “How could they hide what she did and what the grand whizzer did to stop her?”

“Easy. He wiped the minds of the witnesses. Cleared their phones, and burnt the library down.”

“He did what?” I might not love books, but even I was shocked.

“Burnt it, eradicating all trace evidence, and the human authorities are treating the few witness claims that escaped Morfeus’s net as hallucinations brought on by the gas leak in the library that caused the explosion.”

I blinked. “Do you mean to say instead of admitting demons and wizards exist, they fabricated a ginormous lie? Am I the only one who thinks they’re nuts? Why not just come out of their closet, or hat, or whatever wizards hide in? Lycans and mermaids did it. What’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is that the collective is an old institution that has made it past all the witch burnings and the Inquisition, and survived this long because of rules. Rules, I might add, that the Lycans broke when they went public.”

“Boy, were they pissed,” Sebastian exclaimed.

“They were livid,” Dale agreed. “But they couldn’t take it back once it was out there. And they couldn’t stop the other races that decided to join us. Not everyone was happy with the strict rules governing our existence.”

“So a bunch of you rebelled against the wizard overlords.” A statement that deserved a giggle. “Still not sure why that endangers my life. I mean, Chloe knows about magic and witches and vampires, and they’re not trying to erase her ass.”

“Because she was formally claimed by both Pete and Anthony, which assured her safety. The wizards can’t touch her unless they want to start a war with the Lycans and vampire clans.”

“So what you’re saying is if someone claims my butt, I’ll be safe.”

“Essentially.” Said rather faintly, and it was then I noticed the men staring at anything but me.

The sharp pang of hurt lifted my chin. “I see. None of you want to do that.”

“We didn’t say that,” Dale hastened to say.

“And yet none of you volunteered.”

“I will.” Sebastian raised his hand.

Mike slapped it down. “No one is doing anything yet. Claiming is a serious thing and not to be done lightly.”

“What is it, like marriage or something?” Surely not, because if Chloe had gotten married, she would have told me, not to mention we had wedding binders—shoved in a drawer gathering dust in my case. As for Chloe’s, I was supposed to be her maid of honor, and we’d both planned to wear steel-toed work boots so we could take awesome pics with the photographer.

“Claiming is more binding than marriage. There’s no divorce from it. No walking away. It’s for life.”

“Damn. No wonder none of you want to commit. Who’d want to be chained to me for life?” A laugh bubbled from me, edged with a note I didn’t like. A note of bitterness. As if I’d let them hurt me. “Well, it’s been nice, boys. But I think it’s time you left.”

“We’re not leaving,” stated Dale.

“We should talk.” From Mike.

“Don’t be mad at me. I was ready to do it.”

Yes, Sebastian had offered, and yet, I had to wonder, did he do it because he wanted to or out of pity?

I did have some standards. Not many. But a smidgen of pride was one of them.

“I think you’ve all said enough.” I stood, tucking my robe tight. “Go. Now. Before I call the cops.” When Sebastian went to close the lid on the pizza, I did add one more thing. “Leave the food.”

I’d need it.