SHIFTERS' CAPTIVE

Shifters' Captive is now available at Samhain.

Animal attraction is the essence of their power…Magical Ménages, Book 1

Waitress Sherrie Stolz never thought she’d need her chatting-up skills to play along with a hot, sexy kidnapper who rants about were-animals and psychic possession. Then he proves his story by changing into a wolf before her eyes.

Human contact never interested John Walker, but his mission is desperate. The pack seer insists Sherrie is the only one who can save his people from a rash of mysterious comas. His connection with Sherrie is instant, powerful and beyond rational explanation. And then a third piece of the puzzle enters the picture.

Grant Perron follows his instincts only to find his prize in the hands of his rival. He’s poised for battle—until he learns his panther shifter clan suffers the same fate as John’s pack. But there’s more. When the three of them touch, the primal, erotic power surge swells like the waves of an earthquake.

Sherrie’s hands—and bed—are suddenly full, figuring out how to manage two snarling alpha males without giving in to the urge to knock their heads together. And channel her new-found power before a villain uses it to destroy them all…


Excerpt

Sherrie’s body vibrated like a violin string tuned too tight, and the desire her interlude with John had slaked began to swell again. She felt as if her body was one raw, pulsing sexual nerve, responding to these men with a mind of its own.

“There’s a network of caves near the peak. We’ll head up there,” Perron announced as he pulled his hands from behind his back and rubbed his wrists.

John grimaced at the other man’s arrogant tone, but held his tongue. He glanced at Sherrie.

She offered him a smile. Locks of his dark hair had fallen over his forehead and she longed to brush them back and kiss him. A fantasy of doing this while Perron watched flashed in her mind, and heat flooded her body. She pictured him, still tied to the chair, erection growing, as she and John fondled and kissed in front of him. He would groan and shift as they stripped and fell on the bed in a tangle of arms and legs. She’d ride John’s cock, breasts bouncing, and meet Perron’s hungry gaze, taunting him with a smile.

Swallowing, she banished her wayward thoughts and darted a glance at the two men, afraid they could read her mind. Perron looked back at her and grinned. Maybe he could see into her head—a dream had brought him to her side.

His eyes skimmed over her as if she was still naked, and her nipples tightened. The ropes fell away from his body, and he rose from the chair, his cock bobbing before him.

Sherrie turned to the bed and searched for something to cover his groin. She flung the sleeping bag at him. “Don’t you carry clothes with you when you change?”

“No.” The men answered in unison then exchanged a cold-eyed stare.

“Must make for some awkward moments when you turn back into human form.”

Grant let the sleeping bag drop from his hand and stalked across the floor with catlike grace to stop in front of Sherrie. John was right behind him, hackles bristling and eyes narrowed. He looked ready to attack if the other man so much as touched her.

“So you’ve never had a psychic experience before.” Grant studied her and his head moved slightly as if he was inhaling her fragrance. “Where are you from? Who are your people?”

She resented the staccato questioning and answered succinctly. “My mom and I never lived in one place long. I don’t know who my dad was.”

He regarded her silently and nodded. “Well, you’re no shifter, but you’re not purely human, either.” He jerked his head at John. “You had sex with him? What was that like? Did you feel anything strange?”

“That’s enough!” John inserted his body between them, standing almost chest to chest with the other man.

Perron snorted. “I’m not asking from curiosity, Balto. She might have latent tendencies only now coming to full maturity. I wasn’t always able to dream travel or experience psychic visions myself. It developed within the past couple of years with no particular trigger, as far as I could tell. Or it could be that Sherrie’s psychic abilities are brought out by contact with our kind.”

“Is something like that possible?” Sherrie thought of how her senses had expanded when she held Liberty’s hand and how being around John had made her edgy. After sex her senses were heightened as if she’d been wrapped in a thick quilt before and was now uncovered and wide awake.

“Anything’s possible,” Perron answered. “Psychic dreaming, precognition, telekinesis and other mental abilities. Energies can be shifted or mutated in many ways. Sex is one of them.”

“What am I supposed to do with this power? How does it work?”

“Maybe you can find this entity with your mind, without holding Liberty’s hand, and learn his strengths and weaknesses.”

John moved closer to Sherrie, sliding a hand around her waist. “I don’t want to put her in danger by having her let this thing inside her head. Let’s start toward the caves and see if we can size him up physically first.”

Grant shrugged. “We can head out now as far as I’m concerned.”

“Sherrie will need clothes and hiking gear. I’ll get supplies from my shop and be back in a couple of hours. Meanwhile, she can get some sleep.”

Perron gave an impatient sigh. “I thought wolves were like Boy Scouts, always prepared, but it looks like you kidnapped her without much of a plan. Now you have to run an errand and leave me to guard her.”

“She’s not going to be with you.”

“Were you planning on leaving her here all alone and unprotected?” Grant’s eyes widened in an astonished cat’s stare. Sherrie couldn’t help smiling.

“Safer than leaving her with you.” John scooped his discarded shirt from the floor and slipped his arms into it.

“I promise not to disturb the lady’s sleep.” He pressed his palm over his heart, but the vow was diminished by the fact that his cock was pointing at Sherrie. “She can keep the door locked and bolted.”

“Go on. I’ll be okay.” Both flattered and mildly annoyed by his protectiveness, Sherrie squeezed John’s arm. She leaned in to plant a kiss on his cheek, but he turned his head and laid claim to her mouth with his. The possessive kiss was for Grant’s benefit, but Sherrie didn’t care. It was hot and deep and pulled on that thread within her that led straight to her clenching pussy. She gripped the sleeves of John’s unbuttoned shirt and longed to slide her hands up his stomach and chest to feel his warm skin and the solid muscle beneath. She felt Perron’s gaze burning into them, watching and craving, and that made the kiss all the hotter.

When she finally pulled away from John and glanced at the panther, his eyes were molten gold.

John whispered in her ear, “Keep the door locked.” He nudged Perron in the back, toward the cabin door.

Sherrie bolted the door then looked out the window, watching the headlights of the Blazer swing away and the taillights disappear down the track. She couldn’t see Grant in the dark, but felt him out there. Was he still man or had he turned into his animal form to patrol the night?

Leaving the window, she went to the kitchen for a bottle of water, which she emptied in a few gulps. She picked up the sleeping bag from the floor and draped it around her shoulders before sitting on the musty futon. There was no way she could sleep with her brain jumping like she was on speed. One twist after another had warped her life into an unrecognizable shape and she couldn’t stop reliving every moment of the past day. She also couldn’t stop picturing a panther prowling outside the door of the cabin.

She wrapped her arms around her body and lay back with her head on the flat pillow, gazing at the bolted door. I’ve had sex with a wolfman and now I’m lusting after a man who turns into a mountain lion. This has been the weirdest day of my life. Her muscles twitched, and her skin tingled. She’d never be able to fall asleep…

It didn’t surprise her when Grant Perron was suddenly standing beside the futon, gazing down at her. Locked door or not, she’d known he would come. His appearance was inevitable. It was her destiny.

He didn’t say a word, merely smiled at her, a glorious Apollo of a man with his dark blond hair and white teeth. He sat beside her on the bed and rested his hand on her belly. Her flesh felt branded by the heat. She expected to look down and see her skin smoking.

“Feel me?” His mouth didn’t form the words. They were inside her head as he was.

“Is this a dream?” But she knew it was no mere dream. On some plane beyond the physical, he was with her. Yet every sensation was concrete, and there was none of the flighty change of scenery or storyline that usually accompanied her dreams.

“It’s real enough. Don’t think too hard. Go with it. You can do whatever you want here. There are no limits.”

Sherrie glanced down at her body and saw it was true. Because she wanted to have his hot hand caress her bare skin, she was naked. No limits. The very words evoked erotic fantasies. If there were no limits, what would she want to do? The possibilities made her feel indecisive, and so she suggested, “I want you to take control.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

She felt she’d made a deal with the devil as a slow smile spread across his face, but he reassured her by his velvet-pawed caresses on her stomach.

“Don’t look so worried. I won’t hurt you…more than what you want.”