The wolf inside Christian wanted to surface and rip Hawk apart. It felt as savage as the man did.

He stripped his jacket off and tossed it on the coffee table. The harness and his gun followed. He was too angry to trust himself with a weapon.

Hawk's groan from the bedroom only set Christian's teeth on edge. A muscle spasmed in his cheek. For a second he contemplated turning around and leaving.

A low growl formed and escaped from the deepest recesses of his soul. This was his territory, his mate. He wouldn't be chased from it like a defeated and outcast wolf driven from the pack.

He stripped his shirt off because he could no longer tolerate it against his skin. His socks and shoes followed.

When his hands went to his belt, alarm bells rang in his mind. He realized he was subconsciously preparing to shapeshift and fight. And since the wolf was just as lethal as the gun, Christian forced his hands away from the buckle. The pants would slow him down. He hoped.

Another groan came from the bedroom and Christian's lip lifted in a silent snarl. He didn't question his behavior, his need to get to Mystic. The man was still running on emotion. The wolf was, too.

His thoughts were a chaotic mix. He had no plan of action as he stalked toward the bedroom door and once he got there he had nothing but pure instinct.

Mystic was kneeling on the bed, her hips raised and her thighs spread. He had a fleeting impression of Hawk with his head thrown back as Mystic's mouth worked his cock, but Christian couldn't focus on anything except the glistening, dusky folds of her cunt.

Lust roared through him. His penis pulsed and leaked and burned as if the blood engorging it was lava-hot.

On some level he knew she was manipulating him, purposely trying to distract him from his anger by presenting him with her swollen vulva and wet slit. He didn't care. His wolf didn't care. The sight of their mate slick and ready, positioned for fucking drove everything from his mind but the urgency to cover her.

He stripped out of his remaining clothes as he walked from the bedroom door to the bed. Only pride gave him the strength to shift his focus to Hawk and growl-though her other mate didn't react. He was already lost in the bliss of what Mystic was doing to him with her mouth and tongue.

Christian snarled again but the scent of her arousal drew his eyes back to her dewy lower lips. He crouched, unable to stop himself from pressing his mouth to her flesh in greeting.

She moaned and leaned into him. She may have positioned herself in order to divert his anger but her need for him was real. The truth of it howled down the bond along with her hunger.

He deepened his kiss, stroked into her hot channel with his tongue. She called his name mentally, begged him to shove his cock into her.

Christian resisted. His hands smoothed up her thighs, cupped her hips, palmed her silky buttocks.

He alternated between fucking her with his tongue and sucking on the swollen folds of her labia. The anger and fear over nearly losing her gave way to euphoria at having her safe-in his home, in his bed.

The wolf's internal growling became rumbling groans as Christian licked, kissed, coated his senses with Mystic. His cock throbbed in warning. It burned against his abdomen and wet his flesh with arousal. His balls drew up tight and hard, so full of seed his hips pumped subtly in an imitation of the mating act.

Please, Christian, please, she whispered in his mind, widening her thighs, letting him feel how much she needed him to mount her, how much she wanted the three of them to orgasm together.

When her inner muscles tightened and rippled against his tongue Christian couldn't hold out any longer. He crawled onto the bed behind her and sheathed himself in a single hard thrust.

With a moan he yielded to the rhythm defined by her mouth pleasuring another man's cock. He was helpless to do anything but pant and thrust as Mystic's bond with both her mates linked all three of them together and locked them in an erotic circle of ecstasy.

Fire streaked through Christian's testicles and penis. His hips bucked and jerked in perfect synch with Hawk's. Ice-hot shards of lust ripped along his spine and exploded in his skull, leaving him mindless to anything but the climb to orgasm. He hunched over to kiss Mystic's back and shoulders, to press more of his skin against hers, to bite her as the last of his control fell away and semen jetted from his cock.

They collapsed on the bed in a pile of tangled arms and legs. Christian nearly whimpered into Mystic's hair as aftershocks of sensation rippled through him. His hips jerked as her cunt continued to clench and unclench on his cock. He closed his eyes and shuddered with pleasure, content for the moment not to think about the rogue Weres and Bangers.

* * * * *

Time has changed very little, Roman thought as he and Brann followed a blood slave into a playroom designed for erotic pursuits.

The garish, velvet-cushioned throne sat on a raised dais at the far end of the room. Two smaller chairs were positioned beneath and to the left and right of it. Dusan Juric wasn't present at the moment but the room wasn't empty. A blindfolded male vampire was strapped onto a St. Andrews cross. A naked female vampire was on her back, spread-eagled and tethered to a piece of equipment while another was bent over and strapped for fucking or spanking.

"The master wishes to know if you want something to drink. There are humans here who haven't taken vampire blood."

Roman shook his head. "I've already fed."

"As have I," Brann said.

The slave indicated the two chairs below the throne. "If you'll make yourself comfortable, the master will be in momentarily."

It was stated as a request but the slave didn't leave until both Brann and Roman were sitting. Roman idly studied the naked vampires. It was impossible to ignore them given the strategic placement of mirrors around the room.

They weren't fledglings though all of Dusan Juric's vampire offspring started out as his bed partners. Few lingered there for long before the novelty wore off. Yet even after they matured to the point where they could exist without Juric's blood, he routinely called them home to demonstrate his dominance by fucking them.

Roman's attention shifted to the centuries-old male vampire on the cross. His penis was rigid, but whether his erection was due to sexual arousal at the prospect of regaining Juric's attention or because of the cock ring restricting the flow of blood, Roman couldn't tell.

The females were younger, a century, maybe less. Like the man, they were blonde, well endowed.

Roman grew aroused as the conversation with Mystic played itself out in his mind. Perhaps he'd deliberately let her see his memory of these particular blondes so she'd think about the human sheep in his past and give him an opportunity to make good on his threat to punish her.

He shifted subtly in order to adjust his cock then started to open the link to her but stopped before he could be swamped by lust and the images of her being fucked by her other mates. He'd have to make sure Hawk and Christian weren't around when he satisfied Mystic's curiosity about the enjoyment to be found in carnal punishments.

Wolves liked to chase and pounce. They liked rough shows of dominance, rolling and pinning, mounting and aggressively mating. But as a rule they didn't appreciate being tethered or spanked. Roman chuckled. Not that he intended to try either tethering or spanking with Mystic's two alpha Weres. Still, he worried Christian and Hawk's wolves might take charge and rush in if they saw their mate being restrained or punished.

Roman repositioned his penis. Thoughts of having Mystic at his mercy had him fully engorged, anxious for this night to end and the next one to begin.

Brann chuckled at his obvious discomfort. "It gets worse with time, not better."

"I can believe it." Roman turned his attention back to the male vampire. I don't sense Brallin's taint, he said, finding it mildly amusing that Syndelle's gift of blood had forged a link between him and the council's executioner. Then again, Brann was one of very few vampires who was also a sorcerer.

Roman's lip curled in a wry smile. Given his own beginnings as a mage-created gryphon, perhaps he was cursed to always have some type of connection to beings who liked to dabble in magic. Thankfully he wasn't mated to one.

There is nothing here but vampire magic, Brann confirmed.

They both leaned forward slightly as several blood slaves entered the room. A moment later Roman and Brann stood when Juric stepped through the doorway.

"Sit, sit," the vampire said, waving negligently. "Let me get my slaves started and I'll join you." He laughed. "I can only wonder what imagined transgressions bring the council's executioner and his most unusual sidekick to my dungeon."

Juric paused next to the female vampire who was bent and tethered into a splayed position. His hand smoothed over her buttocks with the casualness of a merchant testing the quality of a bolt of silk.

"Do you have children, Roman?" he asked.

"No."

Juric tsked. "I don't know whether to applaud you or pity you. They can be a great joy, but they can also be the source of such painful tribulation." His hand rose and came down on the female's buttocks with a sharp crack, followed by several more until he reached beneath the bench and retrieved a wooden paddle.

"You give them life after death, you feed them from your vein." Juric shook his head and handed the paddle to a male slave. "They mature and go out on their own then they forget who brought them into this world. Pretty, pretty children. It seems the more beautiful they are the more they need to be reminded where they came from and what behaviors you expect of them."

His hand soothed over the female's reddened buttocks. "Twenty spanks, Carlos. Then fuck her. When you're finished let Stefan do the same."

Juric moved to the female tied spread-eagled and blindfolded. "Do you have a preference, Brann?" With a flick of his wrist he indicted the waiting slaves. "You used to enjoy the show at Wyldfyres before you found yourself mated to an Angelini." His smile became sly. "Better you than me. I'd feel gelded."

Brann chuckled. "Yes, better me than you."

Juric's sly smile faded with a shrug. He positioned three male slaves at the female's breasts and cunt, instructed them to use their mouths to drive her to orgasm. With a bored wave he sent the remaining female slaves to the St. Andrews Cross with the freedom to do what they wanted to the vampire secured there.

Moans filled the room as Juric claimed the throne on the raised dais. He spared a brief glance around his playroom before turning his attention to Brann and Roman. "Why are you here?" he asked, all humor gone from his expression.

"A fledgling from your line is dead," Brann said.

Juric's eyes narrowed. "Who?"

"He was born and died as Todd Moore."

"His name is not familiar to me."

"His human life began and ended in Las Vegas. His second birth and new life began here, too."

"Impossible."

"Would you doubt the word of a Renaldi Angelini?"

A look of distaste settled on Juric's face. "No."

Brann's gaze flicked over the three vampires being attended to by slaves. "The children you keep close are all accounted for?"

Roman's attention shifted to the three men attending to the female vampire. She was fighting against the tethers, responding despite the fact slaves suckled at her breasts and feasted at her cunt at another's orders.

He doubted she wanted the pleasure forced on her along with the reminder she had a master who expected to be obeyed. Still, he found the sight of her writhing fueled his own fantasies of having Mystic tethered to the bed.

"None of my children would be so foolish as to create another of our kind without gaining my permission," Juric said, drawing Roman back to Brann's interrogation. "I have ended second lives for less. It is one of the rules I ensure they understand before they leave my home."

Brann tilted his head slightly in the direction of the restrained vampires. "And yet apparently your children do not always obey."

An unfriendly look passed through Juric's eyes at the reminder. "You have better luck with yours?"

Brann shrugged. "They are not the reason I am here. Are your children all accounted for?"

A muscle spasmed in Juric's cheek. His gaze settled on the female being paddled. "Harder, Carlos. She has displeased me greatly."

The other female screamed in orgasm. Juric said, "Make her come again. Do not stop until I tell you to stop."

His face darkened as he looked at the male vampire on the St. Andrews Cross. "I am missing a son. As a lesson I banished him to California, to Mendocino County. He disappeared almost immediately and I have not been able to find him."

Juric turned his head to meet Brann's eyes. "He was barely out of his coffin, barely strong enough to remain alive without feeding directly from my vein. He couldn't have created a fledgling."

Brann opened the narrow case he'd carried in with him. Juric stiffened at the sight of the knife lying on a bed of black satin edged with golden symbols. His nostrils flared and he licked his lips. "I smell werewolf and Angelini."

"And beneath those?" Brann asked, lifting the knife from its case and handing it to Juric.

Juric hissed. His eyes flashed red and his fangs elongated. He touched his tongue to the crevice Syndelle's fingers had explored. "My blood. My missing son's blood. The blood of a fledging I have no knowledge of."

* * * * *

The lassitude and contentment lasted less than fifteen minutes. Mystic sighed as she felt Christian's anger growling to life along their bond.

Please, she said, let it go. Look how much we learned. It was worth it.

Look what we nearly lost. Nothing is worth your life. He lifted up onto an elbow behind her and even though she couldn't see his face clearly, she could see Hawk's. She could feel their wolves bristling and snarling at one another.

Mystic sighed again, more dramatically this time, as some of the reasons why she hadn't wanted mates, especially werewolf mates, came back to her. She put a thin mental barrier between their minds and hers then wriggled out from between them and headed toward the bathroom.

Even with the mental separation she knew they were fiercely aware of her every move. Good. Sex wasn't the only weapon in her arsenal even if it was the most powerful one, even if was her Plan A.

She took a quick shower and put on Roman's shirt. She didn't think she'd get as far as the front door but she would stop at her suitcase and pull on a pair of pants for show.

They were arguing when she stepped out of the bathroom. She didn't bother listening to their words or picking the theme of their conversation from their minds.

"Is your car in the garage, Christian?" she asked. "I'd take Hawk's but I've never gotten the hang of a stick shift."

She didn't make it two steps before they'd both rolled out of bed and were stalking toward her. Her intention to put on a show for them left her mind completely. She forgot to keep walking because she couldn't take her eyes off their heavy testicles and rapidly filling cocks.

They were magnificent mates. Hard muscle and well endowed. Any woman would be happy to claim them, even if they were growling.

Mystic hid her smile. Her mother was fond of saying, "Passion is passion. Handled correctly, a man's anger can be turned into something else and put to a much better use."

Usually Estelle said that after she'd taken a solo run in the woods as a wolf. Based on what Mystic had seen-or not seen since her parents tended to disappear into their bedroom for days afterward-her mother knew what she was talking about.

"Where do you think you're going?" Christian asked, reaching her first and crowding into her personal space so she shivered with the need to rub against him and lick his lips in a gesture of appeasement.

"You can't go to Roman," Hawk said.

Mystic's frown in his direction was real. "I have other choices besides being with you, Christian or Roman."

"No you don't." Hawk's voice held the absolute authority of an alpha wolf.

Mystic bit her bottom lip to keep from starting a fight with him over the issue of her freedom. She didn't doubt it was a subject they'd do battle over, but at the moment what she really wanted was to lie in bed with mates who weren't snarling and snapping at each other.

She took a deep calming breath before meeting Christian's eyes. "I'm going to hit the casinos while you and Hawk sort things out." She let them both feel her resolve to leave the house.

"You're not going anywhere," Christian said. "You need to stay here, where it's safe." His eyes left hers long enough to glower at Hawk.

Mystic thought about making a run for it, but given how they were crowding so close they were nearly touching her, she didn't think she'd get far enough to make her point. So much for Plan B.

Plan C for dealing with her mates arrived with a wicked thrill. She made a silent promise to tell Estelle she was the best mother to ever grace the planet the next time she talked to her.

Mystic placed one hand on Christian's chest and the other on Hawk's. She stroked their warm flesh and watched as their cocks pulsed and bobbed. She made her body relax into a more submissive female pose. Their human minds were instantly wary but their wolves responded immediately, stretching inside them and radiating dominant intensity.

It was hard not to smile. She'd never imagined it would be fun to play with alpha wolves-not that what she intended to do was without risk.

"You'd both like for me to stay home while you hunt the rogues. You've made that perfectly clear. We could argue every time we have a new lead to follow or we could resolve this here and now in a way you'd both find very, very pleasurable."

She laughed softly as their wolves bristled with suspicion. She could feel Hawk and Christian rubbing against the mental barrier she'd erected.

"What do have in mind?" Hawk asked.

"We play a game." She looked at him from underneath her eyelashes. "If either you or Christian wins then I'll agree to obey you when it comes to the hunt. I'll stay in the house if that's what you want." Her fingernails scraped against Hawk's taut abdomen. "Though I don't promise not to misbehave with whichever mate is left to guard me."

The foreskin on Hawk's penis pulled back. Liquid arousal seeped out to glisten on the velvety head.

He grabbed her hand and forced it to his cock. Mystic wrapped her fingers around his erection.

"And if we lose, we'll have no say in what you do?" Christian said, taking her hand to his penis and making her heart swell with tenderness.

His hips jerked when she brushed her thumb over his engorged cock head. His hand tightened on hers.

Curiosity and lust flooded the bond along with utter masculine confidence and satisfaction. Both of her mates were positive they could win at any game she might propose. They were already envisioning her willing imprisonment.

Mystic licked her upper lip and felt a jolt of lust go through their shafts. "If I win then you two will stop objecting every time I want to participate in the hunt. Advice is okay. I don't want any of us to get hurt. I've had no training as a hunter so I'm willing to listen to what you say. But you'll let me be part of this and you won't snarl at each other if things don't go exactly as planned."

Both men growled in reaction but she could feel them examining her words, studying them for hidden traps. Hawk said, "Explain the game."

She rubbed her thumbs over their cock heads again. "It's simple. You and Christian will take turns fucking me. You'll trade off after a certain number of strokes. Each time you trade off, the number of strokes increases. Whoever comes last wins."

Christian's amused laugh was immediate. "Clever. The instant you lock our cocks inside you we'll lose."

Hawk tilted his head. His beaded braids and intent gaze made her think of a bird of prey getting ready to swoop. "If she loses control and ties one of us, then that person is the winner."

Christian's eyes narrowed for an instant before his face relaxed. "Agreed. Mystic?"

She could feel his absolute confidence that he could make the Angelini magic rise so her hidden muscles would tighten and hold his cock deep inside her. She could feel the same certainty in Hawk.

She nibbled on her bottom lip, not in worry but to hide the smile threatening to emerge and make them wary again. If they weren't so utterly convinced they were going to win she might feel guilty about what she intended to do in order to make them lose this sexual challenge.

"Okay," she said, letting herself sound just a little bit worried.