Gabrielle didn't bother to hide her curiosity. She shifted position so she could openly study Roman's profile. The longer they were in the close confines of the sports car, the more obvious it became that he was unlike any vampire she'd ever met.
That was saying a lot. Because of her friendship with Mystic, she'd met more vampires than most Weres.
Gabrielle could sense Roman was ancient. She could tell his power was immense. But every time it brushed against her, it felt like a shapeshifter's aura. It made her think of a giant purring cat weaving around her, friendly at the moment but capable of ripping her into shreds without warning.
Uneasiness chased Gabrielle's curiosity away. Dread filled the place where it had been.
Her mind wandered through the conversations she'd had with Roman since he stuffed her into his sports car. They'd talked about the vampire in the woods to begin with, but in the end they'd talked about Mystic.
Gabby grimaced at her own inability to keep her mouth shut. He'd drained almost every drop of information from her and at the moment she was starting to feel as hollow as a human whose blood was the main course at a vampire's feast.
She was tempted to divert him down one of the unnamed barren roads. She considered delaying the inevitable, but she didn't. Strangely enough she'd come to like Roman and see him as worthy of Mystic.
That was a dilemma. This disastrous adventure had rapidly turned into a test of her loyalties to her pack and their alliance through blood to the Renaldis.
Hawk wouldn't have been invited to the Howl if the Zevantis hadn't wanted him as one of their allies. In fact, her own parents had made it very clear to her that they welcomed his interest in Mystic. And then there was the small matter that she'd also thought Hawk would make a good mate for Mystic. She still did.
Gabrielle sighed and the car filled with the sound of her uncertainty. Who could have guessed their trip to Vegas would turn out like this?
Roman laughed. The young wolf was well named. He'd never know a Were to talk so freely or so much! But during the course of their drive he'd become fond of her-not just for the information he'd gained about Mystic but because Gabrielle was without artifice, without any agenda other than that of a loyal friend.
True, she'd told him much about his future mate. But she'd done so with the idea of helping him to be the mate she thought Mystic deserved. She'd given him insight and gentled him without even knowing she was doing it.
Mystic. Roman's heart ached to find her. His body ached to claim her.
He'd assumed she'd be as fierce as Skye Coronado but now he knew she was no hunter, at least not yet. It surprised him how glad he was that her fathers were vampires and her parents had chosen to raise her outside of the pack. It would make the transition for all of them easier.
He'd lived too many years as a vampire to be completely welcomed by the Renaldi Angelini and their werewolf allies. And he was still a vampire-though one like no other thanks to Syndelle.
Feelings of love and loyalty for Syndelle swamped Roman. He didn't fight them as they moved through him, swelling and receding like the ocean's tide, the ancient magic whispering without words until Gabrielle's nervous fidgeting turned his attention to her. "We're close now?" he guessed, anticipation filling him when she nodded.
"It's just up ahead." She bit her lip and he almost laughed at how difficult it was for her to not speak what was on her mind.
"Something troubles you?"
"We're a long way from any buildings. The sun's going to come up soon. The woods aren't thick enough, or at least they weren't for the other vampire." Her eyebrows drew together. "You're really, really old. I can tell though I can't tell exactly how old you are. But I've always heard the older a vampire is, the longer they suffer if they get caught out in the sun. The longer it takes-" to die. "It was really horrible hearing him scream and Mystic said he was just a fledgling."
Roman was touched by the worry in her voice. He couldn't stop himself from taking her hand though Gabrielle jumped with nerves when he did it. "I appreciate your concern, little wolf, but I'll be fine."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because I am not only a vampire." He brought her hand to his lips and pressed a chaste kiss to it. "You will see for yourself and I think your pack will overlook your stealing away with Mystic once they know I consider you a worthy friend."
Gabby frowned. His words held the weight of importance. A memory fluttered at the edge of her consciousness, tantalizing but illusive. She sighed again, frustrated with herself. Politics and pack history held zero interest for her-which made her an odd wolf. Almost all of the Weres she'd grown up with were far more serious students of the supernatural world than she was. In fact, the only one she could think of who was less interested was Gabe.
The thought of her brother focused her awareness on him. He was close and getting closer.
Her stomach lurched as she wondered whether or not he was alone. She prayed he was but feared he wasn't.
They weren't close enough for their thoughts to touch. By the time they were it would be too late if Hawk was with him.
Gabrielle shivered. Her mind scrambled to think of a way to avoid what she feared was coming-a fight to the death between Roman and Hawk.
She'd never heard of such a thing between prospective Angelini mates. But among wolves it happened though the pack elders did their best to prevent it.
"Mystic might not be the one for you," Gabby blurted out when the tension inside her grew beyond what she could contain. "Maybe it would be better to meet her for the first time at Fangs-give everyone a little breathing room. Plus Gian would be there, and Skye..."
Menace moved through Roman as he picked up on Gabby's growing uneasiness. A lion's rumbling growl escaped and the little wolf next to him jumped in her seat and edged closer to the door.
"I will not kill her other mate," Roman said, thinking perhaps that was the source of Gabby's anxiousness. But her body only tensed further, warning him there was something more, something she hadn't told him yet.
Roman slowed the car as he considered what he should do. In the past he would have thought nothing of simply pinning her down and trapping her in his gaze in order to take what he wanted from her mind.
She was young and no match for him. No shapeshifter was though the most alpha among them might need to be weakened first by the taking of their blood.
But Mystic would learn what he'd done to her friend and... A laugh escaped. Not even mated yet and already he wished to avoid the wrath of his Angelini mate!
"You're worried about something?" he said in a soft purr, though he was unable to keep the hint of compulsion from his voice.
Gabrielle closed her eyes and concentrated on keeping her mouth shut. Her fear had been justified. She didn't need to feel Gabe's presence or hear his words in her mind. She could see the car's headlights in the side view mirror and tell Hawk was with him.
In a few more miles they would all be at the spot where they'd parked the Jeep to take a break-only to have their worlds turned upside down by the howl of werewolves and the scream of a dying vampire.
What should we do? Gabrielle asked. Her heart thundered so loudly in her mind it was hard to hear Gabe's answer.
What can we do?
Mystic reluctantly put her shirt on, buttoning it over flesh still heated from the hard fuck her mate had given her as she leaned over the hood of the car. She smiled when Christian chuckled and pulled her against his naked body.
"I wouldn't mind seeing you run through the woods without clothing," he said as he nuzzled the side of her neck.
She wrapped her arms around him and pressed close. She was amazed at how quickly she'd come to need the feel of his skin against hers along with the sound of his voice and his touch. She held him for a moment, soaking in his warmth.
Christian's fingers stroked down her spine. They traced each vertebra and made her shiver. Her vulva grew swollen in anticipation of another sexual encounter.
"The sooner we hunt, the sooner we can devote ourselves to nonstop lovemaking," Christian said.
Old feelings of being less than what the other Renaldis were assailed Mystic and chased away the warm glow of heat. "Are you going to shift?"
"Curious to see how large I am in my other form?" he teased.
Mystic buried her face against Christian's shoulder. "I think you might need your wolf's nose to backtrack the path Gabby and Gabe and I took. I won't be able to find it."
Christian's heart exploded with warmth at her admission. He rubbed his knuckles against the smooth untattooed skin on her neck. "You haven't been trained as a hunter?"
She gave an embarrassed laugh. "I can dance, mix drinks, play hostess, manage the music and even sing along with a band-all the things necessary for a good party, but- No. My parents haven't had time to instruct me in other things, in the things most of the Renaldis know."
"I will teach you. I will take care of you-always." He lifted her face and lowered his, kissing her softly at first-an affirmation of his promise, then harder, more aggressively-an affirmation of his pledge.
Mystic settled into him. She felt loved and cared for in a way she'd never known before, in a way that made her want to cry and laugh at the same time. If she never took another mate, she would be content with this one. And yet even as she thought it, the Angelini magic stirred deep inside her and Christian tensed. He lifted his head, suddenly alert to danger.
She heard the approaching cars. They were out of sight, blocked from view by trees, but the sound of them carried well in the still, night air.
Mystic's thoughts merged instinctively with Christian's. His mind was already busy computing the odds and trying to determine what the best course of action was in order to keep her safe.
If she'd been a hunter or a wolf then the decision would be easy. They'd go into the woods. Since she was neither, Christian was afraid it would make her harder to protect if the cars approaching held the Weres responsible for the vampire's death.
Before he decided which course of action to take, Mystic knew one of the cars contained something much more difficult to deal with. Her body tightened and her heart raced in her chest. The need to couple unfurled along with the awareness that her second mate was approaching.
Christian growled in reaction. It was an unhappy, threatening sound as he released her and pulled on his jeans.
Mystic's breath shortened with fear when he opened the car door and retrieved a gun holster. He fastened it over his naked chest, checked the gun before retrieving a second one from the locked glove compartment and slipping it into the waistband of his jeans. The smell of silver bullets burned Mystic's nostrils.
"Get in the car," Christian said, his words menacing and possessive, his wolf nature not ready to accept what his human mind already had-that he would share his mate with another.
"Christian..."
His feral gaze halted her words. She quailed under the force of his will until something shifted inside her, firming into a resolve she'd never had to use before.
She was no match for him if she threatened him directly. He was more wolf than man right now, his blood running hot, his mind raging with an alpha's claim to keep its mate for itself.
Instinctively Mystic dropped her eyes. She looked at him from underneath her eyelashes. Her body went soft and she moved into his personal space, filled it with her own heat and scent.
You promised to keep me safe but you can't protect me from this, Christian, not without hurting me in the process and perhaps destroying me. You can feel the Angelini magic as well as I can. There's no denying it.
His lip lifted in a silent snarl and his eyes flashed dangerously where only moments earlier they had been full of amusement and warmth. Who is he?
Mystic cocked her head. She listened as the two cars approached. She knew one contained Gabby and one contained Gabe. She had a blood bond with both, a pact forged long ago by cutting across their palms and clasping hands in a custom found even among human children.
It was enough of a link to tell when they were near or if they needed help, but it wasn't strong enough to exchange information without the spoken word. "I don't know," she said though the image of Hawk rose in her mind and Christian growled again, a deep, menacing sound that moved along her spine and filled her heart with dread.
In the distance the first car came into sight. Mystic's stomach roiled. Her thoughts spun backward to the previous day when she and Gabe and Gabby had been standing in this same spot as the sun rose, listening to the frustrated yips and howls of Weres followed by the scream of a hunted vampire.
She could feel the dawn on her skin now. The prickly awareness was something she'd gained from Falcone and Yorick. She realized a part of her had secretly hoped for at least one vampire mate. It somehow seemed traitorous to her parents to end up with two Were mates-just as her often disapproving and rigid grandparents had planned when they used her parents' absence and the Angelini gathering as an excuse to send her to the Howl.
The Angelini magic grew stronger, more compelling as the car neared. There was no denying it. In the long history of their race there had never been a choice as to what the Angelini were-hunters, guardians. There had never been a freedom to take any mate but the ones chosen by the magic.
The heat inside Mystic continued to build and pool in her vulva and breasts. There was no fighting it, no suppressing it. There was no choice but to yield to the desire and accept the mates the magic called to the bond.
She closed her eyes and bowed her head. She concentrated on the link with Christian and willed him to feel what she felt, to accept what she had to accept.
For several long seconds Christian fought the magic flowing through his bond with Mystic. The wolf thrashed wildly against it. The man argued he was all she needed. But even as the car moving toward them pulled to a stop several yards behind his own car he knew he'd lost the fight.
The passenger door opened first. Gabby shot out of the sports car and distracted Mystic though she felt Christian's shock and recognition as the name Roman moved along their link.
Her attention swung back to the driver's side and her heart lurched when she saw the man who was already out of the sports car and moving toward her. Vampire. And yet the prickling along her skin argued he couldn't be. The sun's first rays were only moments away now.
Mystic couldn't look away from him as he closed in, moving with a vampire's gracefulness. His power hit her first. Ancient. Older than her own fathers', older than any vampire she'd ever met, save Brann, the vampire council's executioner, the sire of her father's sire, who she'd met only once, when she was a small child.
Awareness pulsed through Mystic along with heat and longing. She shivered and fought the urge to move toward Roman, to rub against him in greeting, to touch her mouth to his and taste him.
His gaze locked with hers. Fear burst through her when she saw the cold flame of a vampire's life force and will dancing deep within his pupils. "The sun," she gasped and felt his smile all the way to the depths of her soul.
Tenderness rushed through Roman along with the beginnings of love. Her first concern had been for his safety. He stroked along her soft cheek. His body raged with the need to claim her. His mind knew these early moments of give-and-take, of accommodation were a necessity, a time well spent-especially between Detective Christian Augustino and himself.
"I'm not as other vampires are," Roman said. He already felt the hint of a link with Mystic, Syndelle's blood recognizing Gian's blood.
Reluctantly he shifted his attention to the armed Were. The scent of silver in one of the guns burned Roman's nostrils. He lifted an eyebrow and decided on humor though the beast would have been pleased to rip his opponent to shreds.
"Are you thinking to challenge me to a duel? Or do you favor a shootout like those of the Old West?"
Before Christian could answer, the small wolf grabbed Mystic's arm and pulled her away. It was a pointless exercise. Her whispered words were as loud as a shout. "Gabe's got Hawk with him."
Mystic's heart jerked with fear. Christian and Roman tensed automatically. They turned their attention to the approaching car. Their resolve to guard her was written on every line of their bodies.
She pushed through the fear and reached for Gabrielle's hand, squeezing it. Her grip was reassuring and pleading at the same time, silently conveying the message that it would be up to them, and Gabe, to keep this from turning into a bloodbath.
Gabby's fingers tightened on Mystic's in solidarity before Mystic moved back to Christian's side. Mystic curled her fingers around his arm then reached out to touch Roman for the first time.
Her palms burned where skin met skin. The fear in her chest was equaled only by the heat in her belly and the ache in her cunt-the Angelini need to claim a second mate.
Hawk emerged from the car almost as soon as it stopped. Mystic's fingers tightened on Christian and Roman. Shock and confusion nearly overwhelmed her when her body reacted to the sight of Hawk just as intensely as it reacted to Christian and Roman.
Gabe was close behind Hawk, his face strained, his eyes worried as they swept over Roman, Christian and Hawk, before meeting Mystic's gaze.
"Move away from them, Mystic," Hawk growled, his tone possessive and commanding, as if he were already her mate.
Something stirred deep inside Mystic. It uncurled along her spine and gave her the courage to let loose of Roman and Christian. Before they could stop her she stepped forward and put the palm of her hand on Hawk's chest.
She met Hawk's gaze boldly where before she'd found his presence overwhelming and his interest in her unnerving. His nostrils flared and his eyes darkened at the touch of her hand and the magic that whipped between them.
Mystic licked her lips, wetting them in a nervous gesture. "No fighting. It's not the Angelini way."
Hawk's face hardened. "Most think the Renaldis are more wolf than Angelini. Fighting for a mate is acceptable under our laws. I will be your second mate, Mystic. I would have been your first if you hadn't run away."
She bristled at his charge. "I didn't run away!"
"You knew I intended to claim you. My mistake was in giving you time to get used to the idea and accept what your body already did. If I'd mounted you when I had the chance you would already know you belong to me."
His words rang true but she didn't let them distract her from her purpose in confronting him. Her fingers tightened on his shirt. "I am not like most of the Renaldis. I can't even shift form. I can't even tell whether it's you or Roman who is supposed to be my second mate."
The vampire's power brushed against her like a giant, predatory cat. "If you are uncertain then I have no problem with fighting this Were for you. Let the victor claim you as his mate."
"No!" The thought of it horrified her. "I won't accept another mate under those conditions!"
Christian moved to her side then. He pulled her into his arms with her back pressed tightly to his front. The feel of his guns against her added to her anxiety.
I'll take care of you. We'll find a way to resolve this without bloodshed, he soothed along their link though she could feel what it cost him to say it. She could sense the pleasure the wolf inside him felt at the thought of both the other men being mortally wounded so there would be no second mate.
"No fighting," she repeated.
The first of the sun's rays hit them. It broke the tension as they automatically shifted their focus to Roman and watched in disbelief as he stood in the daylight.
He lifted his face toward the sky. His eyes closed as though he couldn't stop himself from offered up a prayer of thanksgiving.
"What the hell are you?" Gabe murmured, awed.
Gabby moved closer. She dared to touch Roman. "You don't feel like a vampire now. You feel like a shapeshifter."
Knowledge skittered along Mystic's nerve endings, just out of reach. It was chased by Christian's curiosity and suspicion.
"You weren't able to walk in the daylight before, Roman," her mate said.
At the sound of the name, Hawk stiffened. "Roman?"
The vampire opened his eyes. He met Hawk's gaze. Curiosity replaced the challenge that had been there only seconds before. "You've heard of me?"
"If you're the one once known as Gaius Cicero, and before that as Korak, then yes I have heard of you."
Gabby and Gabe both gasped. Even Mystic felt a jolt of awe, though almost immediately Christian's irritation and confusion at being ignorant seared down their link.
She rubbed against him in an offer of comfort. Then she swiftly sifted through her memories, the lessons in the classroom as well as the tales told by her grandparents, and shared them with her mate.
To hear my grandparents speak of him, until Korak met a fate almost worse than death-and became a vampire-he was beyond compare. He was a universal hero shared by all shapeshifters.
Consternation and incredulousness flowed back to her from Christian along with images of Roman as he'd seen him-commanding a table at Fangs and surrounded by blonde, interchangeable humans with long legs and large breasts.
Uncertainty filled Mystic at the sight of the women Roman had called to himself. They were nothing like her. The old, familiar dread resurfaced, of being wanted not for herself but because of what she was.
It will be okay, Christian said. A part of him found it hard to believe he'd been forced into this role, into soothing his mate and helping her accept another male. Yet to feel her insecurity and vulnerability was even worse.
I didn't grow up in your world, Mystic. But what I've observed from watching Gian with his Angelini mate, and Brann with his, the magic that draws the individuals into a bond does so for a purpose and the choices seem right for all involved. Isn't it that way for the Angelini you know?
Mystic's first thought was to wonder what purpose could possibly be served by mating Estelle with Yorick and Falcone. But somehow she couldn't picture her mother with any others but those two, and not just because she loved her fathers.
The same was true of her grandmothers and her aunts. Even she had found it true when it came to Christian. Few of the Angelini could claim to be in love, as humans so often professed to be, when they first joined, and yet it was more than just an animal instinct to couple that brought them together and kept them together.
The bond between mates, the shared thoughts and memories, the intensity of the physical union made it impossible not to feel deeply, not to feel emotions beyond what could easily be held in such a small word as love.
Mystic turned in Christian's arm. She was grateful for his presence and his shoring up of her confidence, especially when she knew he'd prefer there be no other mates at all.
She circled his neck with her arms and pulled his head down for a kiss. The others were entirely forgotten as soon as his lips covered hers and their tongues dueled. The heat and need between the two of them quickly filled the air with the scent of heady lust.
Mystic moaned in protest when the kiss ended and Christian lifted his mouth. Gabe snickered and said, "This is a first. I never thought I'd see the day when the Milk-Bone got munched on with an audience present."
"Don't call me Milk-Bone," Mystic said automatically, turning, her gaze traveling to Hawk and Roman. Kissing Christian had only intensified the need to claim a second mate. But the physical craving made no distinction between the other two men. She shivered as she realized there was no choice but to give them both the opportunity to be with her. She had to leave it up to the magic to choose between them, to lock one or the other of them into her body and claim him in the way of the Angelini.
Mystic licked her lips nervously. She let Christian read what was in her mind before she spoke it out loud. He tensed. He protested. But in the end he had no choice but to agree. In the end he locked his guns back in his car. He shifted into his wolf form then set off toward the vampire's burial spot with Gabe and Gabby.