Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46787 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46787 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 187(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
“Now,” I moaned. “Come with me now and form the Heartmate Bond!”
And then it happened.
Finn grunted, his rhythm breaking. Ronan threw back his head and roared. And both of them thrust as deep as they could inside me and began to come.
Liquid heat filled me as they spurted deep in my pussy and ass. My own orgasm broke as well and I shattered between them, crying out helplessly as the Heartmate Bond exploded into light—white-hot ecstasy that lit my entire being from the inside out and tied the three of us together for all time.
But even before the last wave of pleasure could fade or the Bond we had formed could fully seal, the air was torn apart by a furious, inhuman roar.
I jerked my head around, startled by the blood-freezing sound. To my horror, the door of the Lust Hut suddenly blew open with a deafening crack.
Standing in the doorway was a grizzly bear the size of a truck, his fur silvered at the temples, his eyes wild with fury and grief and something darker.
For a moment I was at a loss…then I understood. This was the third of the Werebear Clan—the leader. The one who had been lost.
Thorne.
He had found us and now we were all going to die.
26
GOLDIE
But Thorne’s Bear couldn’t get through all at once. Long ago, when I first built the Lust Hut, I put in plenty of security measures. One of them was an invisible barrier in the doorway which wouldn’t allow anyone who wished me harm to pass.
The grizzly hit the invisible barrier with a roar that shook the entire Lust Hut. The wards around the doorway shimmered, flickering like heat lightning before they pulsed outward in a blinding flash of white. For now, the barrier held—but I could feel it weakening with each swipe of the bear’s claws, each push of his massive body against the magic.
“Shit!” Ronan growled, tugging hard at the cuffs that bound him to the headboard. “You have to let me up, Goldie. That’s Thorne—I can smell him. He’s coming through!”
“I’ll stop him!” Finn was halfway across the room already, naked, fists clenched and body tensed to Shift.
“No! Stop—don’t Shift!” I cried, throwing out a hand.
Both men froze, instinct and magic warring in their eyes.
“If either of you let your Bear out now, the potion won’t work! It hasn’t finished brewing,” I told them. “If you Shift before our Heartmate Bond fully seals, you’ll be stuck that way! And I’ll be locked in here with three feral Werebears and no way out!”
“Fuck—she’s right.” Ronan growled.
“What do we do then?” Finn demanded, glancing toward the door where foot-long claws were scraping across the wards.
“I don’t kn—” I began, but then my eyes caught a flicker of light in the far corner of the hut. What in the name of the Goddess…?
I looked closer. A soft, shimmering glow pulsed from where my jacket hung on a wooden hook.
Suddenly I understood—it was the Veil of the Goddess. It was glowing like a fallen star, threads of pearlescent light dancing in the air around it. I remembered that Whimsy had said it would let us know when to use it—clearly the time was now.
My heart thudded against my ribs like it was trying to get out but I knew what we had to do.
“That’s it,” I whispered, the words forming in my mouth almost before I could think them. “The Veil of the Goddess—that’s what we need. It’s time.”
I pulled off Ronan and ran to the veil, tugging the silky square of starlight from my pocket where it had folded down to the size of a tissue packet. Unfolding it felt like unwrapping magic itself—cool and tingling in my hands, enormous and endless and weightless. Just touching it calmed me.
Be still child…all will be well, I felt a voice whisper in my head, as though the Veil was talking to me.
“Ronan—get up,” I said, straddling him one last time and clicking the magical cuffs open with a murmured word.
“What the hell are we going to do?” he grunted, rubbing his wrists as he sat up. The wards were flickering again around the frame of the door. “Thorne’s coming through—your magic won’t be able to stop him.”
“We don’t need to stop him,” I said, speaking much more calmly than I felt.
“Don’t need to stop him? What are you talking about?” Finn sounded slightly panicked. “What are we going to do if we don’t stop him?”
“We’re going to use the Veil,” I said. “You and Finn—spread it out. It’s going to catch Thorne when the barrier breaks. I’m trusting you,” I added. “The Veil has to make contact with him—the more contact, the better.”
“All right—you got it.” Ronan nodded and took one end of the Veil. Finn took the other. Without hesitation, they moved together, catching the corners of the shimmering silk and holding it like a net between them, crouched on either side of the Lust Hut’s threshold. They weren’t a second too soon.