Under the Alpha's Protection (Steamy Werewolf Shifter Menage Romance) (9 page)

“That depends on you,” he answered, turning to the advancing bears. They paused, pacing in front of us but within lunging range.

“I don’t think I understand,” I replied, shocked at what I was seeing.
Why weren’t they already springing to rip me apart?

“My brothers here help me protect this grove from your world. Here, in this place, nature thrives — as it was meant to.” His eyes glared down on me now, even in the dim light. “But you humans and your need to conquer have destroyed many places like this. This grove is one of the last few dozen left, bastions of paradise that humans have not yet scarred or wiped from the land.”

“But you’re human!” I stumbled through my thoughts, finding it hard to comprehend what I was experiencing.

“I am a shifter, much like my brothers.” He waved his hand toward the pacing bears, and something incredible happened. The very air began to glow around them as their bodies contorted and shrank, their thick fur receding until they rose as very handsome, very
naked
men as well.

“You have
got
to be fucking kidding me.”

“As you see, we change at will between man and beast,” the first stranger told me. “We are a small pack of werebear shifters. I am Marcus, and this is Denham and Zander.” The other two shifters matched the intensity of his glare as they stood together now, staring me down.

“What happens next,” Marcus explained, “is up to you.”

“Are you going to kill me?” I blurted out in fear. “I don’t want to die…and I’ve seen such beautiful things today…”

“Normally, yes. We would destroy you for daring to come anywhere near this sacred place.” Marcus paused, summing me up with his eyes. “But we know of the landslide that carried you down to the forest, and how the animals have coexisted beside you. You haven’t disturbed a single creature since coming to these woods, and they have offered you an immense respect. We, too, shall offer that grace to you,” he continued, “but only at a price.”

“And what’s that?”

“You will join our pack.

“You’re going to make me one of you? A shifter?” I asked incredulously.

“Of course, we can’t give you the gift. Our kind can only be born, not changed. However, were you to become our mate, willingly supply us with a litter of cubs to raise, you would become one with our life. We are the lords of this forest, and within our ranks you would see and experience incredible things available only to those close to nature. The choice is yours.”

“You want me to mate you,” I repeated incredulously. “What happens if I refuse?”

“We cannot allow you to spread word of this place to your kind,” Marcus explained matter-of-factly. “You are free to leave this grove, but you could never leave these woods alive. The scavengers would pick your bones clean before the sun rose once more.”

I gulped immediately.
The wildlife had been almost oblivious to me so far…but what happened if that changed?

But their offer was…intriguing. I stared at these three incredible men as they stood bared in front of me, their every blaring perfection in plain sight. Each shifter was graced with broad shoulders and chiseled abs, stretching down to long cocks that dangled at the ready. With handsome, cut faces and piercing green eyes that gazed upon me, I felt myself melting under their scrutiny.

“I don’t understand…why do you want
me?
There are
way
more attractive women out there…”

“You are one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen,” Marcus explained to me. “Your body is thick and strong, capable of withstanding our…needs. We can be rough, and we need someone who can hold her own between us. With your frame, you can take it from all sides at once, carry on with us…satisfy us.”

I felt my face reddening. I’d never been spoken to that way, not with such conviction. There had been times that I was with guys my age who were all talk, just desperate for a lay. Those were the only guys I had been able to fuck.

But this group of shifters – they looked at me differently.
Hungrily.
What they wanted, they knew I could supply, and they knew I could take it. Whereas I had never been truly appreciated before, these werebears wanted it rough, and hot, and they wanted it with
me.
It helped that they were completely fucking stunning in the looks department…

Even ignoring the threat that they had made, and their willingness to end my life right here and now, I would have done almost goddamn anything to fuck three handsome men like this. And here was the perfect opportunity, handed to me on a silver plate! It helped that they were some feral, so primal…it woke something deep in my loins, a burning passion that demanded fulfillment. Something deep inside me wanted
out
, and it knew that the best way was pinned between them…bared for them, broken down by them, shared like a chunk of meat.

But I wasn’t just a chunk of meat to them, not really. The clear hunger in their eyes was tempered with something else.
Respect.
They seriously wanted me to stay with them, long after this little “initiation” of theirs.

Rising up before them, I sauntered closer into the cool, collective gaze of their hungry eyes. “Well, if you’re going to mate me…there’s no better time than the present, is there, boys?”

They surrounded me in an instant, but held off just before taking the prize.

“Are you positive?” Marcus asked me. “We will only take you if you are sure…”

I hooked my thumbs into the waistband of my shorts. “Better warm up the engines, boys…there’s a lot of me to satisfy…’

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Enjoy!

-Willow Wilde