"Once you get back from the convenience store, park on the side of the road here to be in line with where Aurie and Mys hid the supplies. Think you can follow the map to the cabin on foot?" I asked from the passenger seat.

Tegan flashed a thumbs up and pulled over the burner car. "I won't be gone long," she said. "I want a clear idea of when and where this storm is gonna hit. I'm sure somebody at the store can fill me in on what the local news is saying."

I put her copy of the map in the center console, and I hopped out of the car. As I turned to point my partner down the road, the late morning sunlight cut across her face, and her lips parted in a tense smile. "Don't tell me the unshakable Tegan Stoney is nervous," I teased with a grin. Strolling to her side of the car, I leaned in the open window.

Tegan let out a strained giggle. "I was just thinking we should run away from everyone and everything," she replied. Her poignant stare belied her playful tone. I lifted a brow in surprise, and she laughed again. "Alright, your little friend can come."

I pulled away from the car. "You and I are not the type to run from our problems. The store is a straight shot ahead, southeast. You can't miss it. See you when you get back."

"Wait a second." Tegan grabbed my hand, suddenly serious. "I think you owe it to our friendship to stop playing whatever this game is and be upfront with me. Why did you call me to the cabin?"

I paused, wondering what she was getting at. "Because I needed my partner, Detective Stoney."

"Are you sure? Or is it because you knew I'd come at the drop of a dime and do whatever you ask?" She flipped her hair over her shoulder and confronted me with clear blue eyes.

My jaw flexed. "I would never think to use you like that. I wanted you here because you know the case. You and Kittie Cad have already gotten further by phone than I have in a month of canvassing."

"I don't get it. The thing with Mys. Are you gay? Is that what you've been trying to tell me all along? What about us? Have you always been—?"

"Nahin, Tegan, I'm not gay. Please." I clenched my teeth and inhaled. Pressing my steepled fingers to my lips, I released the breath and tried to explain. "When you and I were together, we had a genuine connection, but you know why that ended."

"Right. Because I was tangled in another manipulative relationship, and I didn't know how to turn him down that one night he called." She clasped my belt buckle, confronting me with those earnest blues.

I braced a hand on the car and met her gaze. "I consider you my closest friend, Tegan. Hurting you has never been my intention. I thought we were on the same page. We agreed it never would've worked out for us."

She angrily dashed a tear. "Forgive me for thinking you might've changed your mind after all these years of proving myself. At every turn, I've tried to show you I'm in love with you, Zyr. But that's my luck. Always picking the wrong guy, huh?"

"Tegan," I murmured with regret. I didn't want to say what needed to be said, but I had no choice. "If being here makes you uncomfortable, please don't think you have to stick around for my sake...I won't hold it against you if you don't come back."

She tightened her lips and drew her hand back into the car, facing toward the road. "I know where the store is. I saw it on the drive up," she said as she clutched the steering wheel. The Ford shot off before I could say anything more. As it faded to a speck in the distance, I realized she hadn't told me whether she'd return.

"Damn it, Tegan," I whispered.

I headed home through the woods, troubled by the conversation. I knew the terrain well, but my heightened olfactory sense made the trek much easier. It struck me the restraints keeping my wolf in check were thinner than ever.

When I entered the cabin, there was Aurie, curled on the couch with a book. Her tiny smile lifted me up as I entered the cabin. Mys was still asleep in my bed, cedarwood cologne drenching my pillows. Padding to the couch, I leaned over it to hug Aurie from behind. Her soft, voluptuous body filled my arms.

"I've missed you guys," I whispered in her ear.

"We've been here the whole time," she replied, smiling.

I squeezed her tighter. "No," I murmured as I kissed her neck. "I've missed you guys."

I needed an escape that only my lovers could provide.

The wildness was already stirring. I felt it beating in my loins as I stood behind the couch and hugged her. I let my hands slowly trace down her body. I dove my fingers into the crease of her thighs, and I spread her legs for me. With my free hand, I tilted her head to nibble at her neck.

Her tiny whimpers excited me. I dragged her head back and let the hot trail of kisses find the hills of her breasts. When I couldn't take the provocative rise and fall of her chest anymore, I rushed around the couch and knelt before her.

I tore off her kimono, burying my face in her cleavage. The soft, heavy breasts against my face made me ramrod straight. As my nails raked down her back, her chest thrust forward, and I clasped a pebbled nipple between my teeth and tongue. Rippling like a wave, she flowed into my lap, both of us on the floor, and my cock was so stiff. So incredibly stiff in her waters.

I had held out for as long as I could with untouched fantasies. Now, I couldn't hold back. I thrust into her body. The wet orifice stretched to accommodate me. She writhed, and I knew it hurt and felt good at the same time. I lifted her buttocks to reposition her so that she only felt the pleasure. With her back against the seat of the couch, she began riding my body, arms outstretched behind her, clutching the sofa cushions for leverage.

It was as if she had been born to dance in my fires. The erotic roll of her hips sucked my erection ever deeper into her as her vagina massaged me from hilt to tip. I felt myself losing control. She stared at where we connected, and I knew. The innocent novice I had tasted on our "one-night stand" was someone altogether different now that she was no longer holding back.

Dripping wet and eager to please, she touched herself and held up the manicured fingers to my lips. I tasted the nectar with an unabashed moan as I thrust harder. The quickening in her body thrummed like vibrations.

She was right there. Ready. Her responses became as reckless as mine. She bit her lower lip, bouncing to meet the rough sex. The pert, high breasts scraped the sky. The thick, luscious mane spilled from its protective puff. The riot of curls framed her awestruck face.

Harder and faster and right there. As I pushed her over the edge to climax, I felt a cascade of silken fluid gush from her body. At a whimper from Mys, I suddenly realized the Empath was experiencing the ache mutually.

"Don't!" I warned, pointing sharply at them in bed. Wait for me.

Mys lifted scared, shy, sexy, needy eyes to mine, and I fled Aurie. I left her on the cabin floor with her thighs soaking wet, and her body twisting in the last throes of ecstasy. Her moans didn't subside when I left. They simply blended with Mitsuyo's.

I couldn't help myself. I couldn't stop myself. It had to be done.

I flipped Mys over the edge of the bed. It happened so fast. Pillows went beneath their stomach. Everything was a blur. I found the tight pucker of their asshole. I kissed the rosy mouth, diving my tongue deep. I plied and toyed with and lubricated and opened.

Mys opened for me. When my dick met resistance, I rubbed and caressed some more. Until I was greased with oil and slipping deep into the wishing well of their exquisite body. Until they were whining in ecstasy and letting it happen. Until I was grunting their name like some crazed, rutting beast and begging for more, for all they had.

"Give it to me!" I growled.

The muscles of my neck corded. Mys circled hips, meeting my thrusts frantically. My perspiration dripped on their slender, lithe back. My fingers twisted in their hair. I brought their face back to mine. We kissed, and it was the kiss of a dying man searching for air. Mys was that last breath.

With a shuddering moan, I felt myself lift on my toes as I—quaking—speared my cock as deeply as it could possibly penetrate. I broke through the ceiling of the universe and came crashing down. Hard as a comet. I folded around Mys as tremors wracked my body, and the potency of the orgasm wrung every drop from me.

I vaguely realized Aurie had climbed into bed with us. She had handed me the lube. I registered Mys fumbling with the erection jutting from their own pelvis, and I slid to floor and let my mouth explore the forbidden cock. I tasted. I licked and laved and sucked until, suddenly, the Empath was moaning and keening against Aurie's lips in a feverish kiss, and my raw, wild hunger was being fed by their drenching release.

I had never done such a thing. Now I'd never get enough. I was irrevocably both of theirs, and come hell or high water, I'd die before I let anything happen to them.