“Get a jar,” he ground out, claws forming on the end of his fingers as he scratched at the tiles.
“Do you need—?”
“Just a jar,” he replied.
Hollingsworth was all about the torment, and I’d thought I’d gotten out of this relatively unscathed. Like, I’d been kidnapped, locked up, assaulted, and had my birth control stolen, but still no zapping for me. He didn’t need to, I realised, placing the two specimens on the supplied trolley. He might not be able to damage my body for fear of destroying his investment, but he had no problems with emotional scars.
I felt Zane’s hot eyes on me, his salacious conversation, something Jai must have heard the lot of, I realised belatedly. Which was why he was standing at the glass, simmering, his eyes a blazing silver that only softened when he saw me.
“Babe…” I hated the reluctant way he reached out to touch the clear surface, like he was afraid it would bite, or that I would.
“Jai.” For a moment, I couldn’t say much else. If he’d been in the bathroom with five other gorgeous women, watching them pleasure themselves, how would I have felt? My teeth ground together, my jaw flexing as hot, hot rage burned through me.
“I’m sorry. I had to. I can’t just stand there and watch them kill you. I can’t.”
He stared for a moment, then nodded.
“I know, baby.”
“I didn’t touch him. I won’t…”
Jai’s expression shifted into one that took me a bit to parse. His eyes softened, his other hand going flat against the glass next to mine. “I’ll always love you, Shan. No matter what happens. As far as I’m concerned, you’re my mate and nothing else matters.”
“What… Why…?”
“I… We’ll talk when you’re back in here with me, when you’re in my arms. I love you, baby.”
“I…” Why did this feel like I was being sent off to war? “I love you too.”
“Try Caleb next,” Nero said, appearing behind me but maintaining a much greater distance now, something I wondered at. “He’s on edge. I think we need to sort him out and soon.”
“Right,” I said before looking back one more time at the only wolf I actually wanted to touch. Jai nodded slowly, then pulled away, disappearing back into the room.
Caleb’s head jerked up when I entered his cage.
“It’s OK,” Nero said as I paused in the doorway, taking in the taut set of his shoulders, the clench of his fists. That, and the bright silver shine of his eyes. “He’s not gonna hurt you.”
“Don’t bring her in here,” Caleb growled in response.
“I have to, you know that. If she doesn’t… If we don’t…”
“Let them zap me,” he replied, arms settling on his knees as he leant back against the wall. “Seriously, unconsciousness would be fucking bliss right now.”
“And for the others? For Jai? For Shannon?”
I watched the muscle in his jaw flex as he listened to Nero’s words.
“Just take the jar and rub one out. Easy.”
“Easy?” I took a step backwards when Caleb got to his feet, the thin fabric of the scrubs pants making it clear he was just as affected as the other two men. He ambled over, eyes sliding slowly from my face, all the way down my body, stopping at every floor to see what I had on display. “This ain't easy. Hearing them last night while he worked her over…” The lion shifter had moved into the space between us, his huge body providing a partial barrier, but Caleb looked past it, his eyes meeting mine. As he edged closer, Nero stayed right where he was, until the two of them were almost touching. I could hear heavy breaths being taken, but didn’t know by which man. “Hearing him tease open that tight little cunt to take his knot… I want her, Nero, more than my next breath.”
“We all want her.”
“No, not like this. You’re scenting a receptive female or whatever you cats do, but me…?” Both Nero and I gasped when the other man jerked his scrubs down to reveal his hard cock.
Look away. Fucking look away, I told myself, but I couldn’t. I caught his slow smile as he watched my eyes get drawn inexorably down. He was thick, really thick, with a curve that promised all sorts of fun, but there on the base of the shaft was something I hadn’t expected to see.
“You’re the first woman I’ve ever gotten a knot for. Was starting to think I wouldn’t or couldn’t.”
“Fuck…” Nero hissed as he watched the man give it a squeeze, a pearly stream of pre-cum oozing from his cock.
To lubricate you, I thought dimly, my mind a frozen haze. To prepare you for him.
Except I didn’t need that, did I? While all of this might have started as a response to finally admitting my feelings for Jai, I was soon realising that my body knew no such loyalty.
Caleb, Zane, Nero… If I’d met any of them at the pub, looking at me like they did, I’d have dived into their arms and then let them throw me into bed. Or maybe all three, a traitorous voice in my mind amended. For a moment, I just let my eyes run over their bodies as Caleb’s had mine, seeing the heavy slabs of muscle, the leanly defined shapes like nothing I’d seen in a local guy outside the pack. Nero’s body was heavier, his deep brown skin making my fingers itch to stroke it, Caleb’s shifting, like he wanted me to. I flinched when I felt a gush of slick spill, my thighs snapping tight as I felt it seep out.
“Fuuuck…” Caleb growled, throwing himself at me, but Nero caught him before he got too far.
I didn’t feel like myself right now. Maybe it was delayed shock, maybe it was my heat, maybe it was the fact that I seemed to be stuck in the role of a Bond girl, locked up by the evil mastermind with a plot to take over the world, waiting for 007 to bust in and rescue me, but I knew this. My mouth went dry as I watched Caleb struggle against Nero, as I saw the big man force him back, wrapping his massive arms around the wolf shifter and stopping him from coming any closer.
“I need her,” Caleb said in a hoarse rasp, his hands clawing Nero’s shoulders. “This is it, Nero. I might never have this chance again. She’s mine!”
His words slid over me, winding around me like a cocoon, divorcing me from reality, and closing tight around my limbs. My head felt foggy, full of cotton wool, thoughts coming and going unsaid.
“So help her out. Make a show of it. Show her the way you’d want her touching you. Make her want to take over.” His eyes darted over his shoulder at me. “She’s already drawn to you. Make the most of it.”
My eyes jerked up, watching Nero closely as Caleb agreed, backing off and pulling his pants up thankfully.
For the meantime.
The lion shifter gathered up the gear and handed it to Caleb, who walked backwards towards the bathroom, eyes hot as they burned into me, until he reached the doorway, where he stripped down. Nero went to follow him into the room, but I grabbed his arm.
“What do you get out of all of this?” I asked.
His eyes dropped down to my hand, and he moved in slightly, as if to increase the contact, the first sign he’d given me that he wanted me too.
“These guys, they’re as close to a pride as I’m likely to get. We’re on the other side of the world from what I know, and there’s no lion shifters in Australia, no cavalry on the way. They’re all I’ve got, and I’ll be damned if I’ll let this tear us apart. Now, let’s get this done so you can go back to your mate.”