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  Lock’s dark brown eyes were suddenly as hot as his brother’s had been earlier when he’d scented her. “One with a shape like yours, my lady.” His big hands described a generous hourglass in the air. “Most of the females on Twin Moons are lean and tough—our lifestyle and diet make them that way.”

  “But there are a few,” Deep went on, taking up where his brother had left off. “A lucky few whom the Mother has marked with curving hips and ripe breasts, full to overflowing.” His black eyes flickered hungrily over her body as he spoke and Kat had to fight the urge to cover herself. She suddenly felt naked under the blue silk gown.

  “They are blessed by the Mother—goddesses who walk among us. We call them the elite,” Lock continued, still eyeing her. “And naturally we thought you were an Earth elite. Were we wrong?”

  Kat stared at them, unbelieving. “Uh, I guess so. But on Earth we call it ‘plus sized.’”

  “Plus sized?” Deep raised an eyebrow at her.

  “You know—more to love? Pleasingly plump? Big beautiful woman?”

  His eyes gleamed. “Most intriguing. I like all those descriptions.”

  “I do, too.” Lock gave her a ravenous look.

  Kat felt the sudden urge to pinch herself. Are they seriously saying they come from a planet of skinny-minnies but they think plus sized girls are hotter? Did somebody slip me some crazy pills? She shook her head, trying to clear away the mental images the brothers’ words brought to mind. “Look,” she said sternly. “It’s great you’re so into women with curves, but we are getting way, way, way off point here. One, I’d prefer if you just called me Kat. And two, we need to do this…whatever it is we’re going to do and try to locate Sophie and Sylvan. They’ve been missing for hours now.”

  “Very true my…Kat,” Lock said, coming over to her. “But the fact is, one doesn’t just jump headfirst into a joining with no preparation.”

  She looked up at him, refusing to let herself be intimidated. “A joining? Is that the name of what we’re doing?”

  He nodded. “Indeed.”

  Kat took a deep breath. “Okay, what’s the prep? Do we have to do some kind of special exercises or what?”

  “You’re not far off.” Deep came to stand directly behind her, which made Kat nervous since Lock was standing directly in front. Even though they weren’t touching her, she could feel the heat of their large, male bodies radiating against her skin through the thin dress. Suddenly she felt surrounded.

  “Okay, hold on a minute.” Kat took a step to the side and faced both of them. “Look, I don’t know what you’re up to, but I did not come here for some kind of a booty call.”

  Lock frowned. “I’m sorry, a what?”

  “More Earth vernacular,” Deep rumbled. “I believe our little Kat is saying she’s not prepared to surrender herself to us sexually.”

  “That’s right.” Kat crossed her arms over her breasts protectively. “I’m not about to have sex with either one of you, so you can just get that out of your heads right now.”

  Lock looked confused. “But we didn’t ask you here to have sex.”

  “And you couldn’t make love to either one of us individually,” Deep said, arching an eyebrow. “You’d have to take both of us at once. We come as a pair.”

  Kat felt her cheeks heating at his double entendre. “Good to know—now I have twice as much reason not to get physical. Because I am not interested in being the filling in your sex sandwich—I’m only here to do the uh, joining. So you can stop it with the whole surrounding me thing.”

  Lock shook his head. “Surrounding you? Do you mean the way we were standing?”

  “Exactly.” Kat nodded. “I don’t like that. It makes me…nervous.”

  “But that’s the traditional grouping for a joining,” Lock protested. “The finder in the front, the seeker in the back, and the focus in the middle. Sometimes the finder and seeker switch places, but the focus must always be between them.”

  “We’re usually lying down when we do a joining,” Deep added. “But we thought you’d be more comfortable standing up.”

  “Oh, uh…” Kat cleared her throat. “Well yes, standing is better than…it’s definitely better. But…we don’t have to touch each other, do we?”

  “Skin to skin contact generally makes the joining better and more effective,” Lock said gently. “But we don’t have to remove any clothing if you’d rather not. We can just hold hands.”

  Coming to stand in front of Kat again, he held out a hand. Hesitantly, Kat took it. It was warm and large and enveloped hers completely.

  “See?” Lock smiled. “That’s not so bad, is it?”

  She smiled back. “No, not bad at all.”

  “Good, then it’s my turn.” Deep moved up behind her again and Kat could feel him looming over her in a way that felt almost predatory.

  Taking a deep breath, she reached behind her with her free hand. “Here.”

  “I prefer it like this.” Deep wound an arm around the front of her body and took her hand. Entwining their fingers, he rested his chin on the top of her head. “So much nicer this way.”

  Kat wanted to answer but she was frozen to the spot. From the moment Deep had taken her hand in his own, a strange sensation had started inside her.

  It felt like a warm tingling that started in her hands and ran up both arms like a low level electric current. The sensation, while strange, wasn’t too bad until it reached her torso. There it became a warm glow in the pit of her stomach—like the best buzz she’d ever hand. Then, however, it moved to the tips of her breasts and the vee between her legs. Suddenly her nipples were painfully hard and her pussy felt swollen and wet. And the current didn’t stop there—it stroked her like a knowing hand, tugging at her nipples and caressing her clit until she felt like she was going to explode.

  Finally her paralysis broke and she pushed away from the brothers. “What the hell?” she demanded, glaring at them. “What the hell did you just do to me?”

  “What do you mean?” Deep asked at the same time Lock said,

  “We didn’t do anything but touch you.”

  Kat’s entire body was still tingling like she’d touched a live wire, but at least the more intense sensations in her nipples and between her legs were gone. She put her hands on her hips. “You’re going to stand there and tell me you didn’t do that?”

  “Do what?” they asked together.

  Kat put a hand to her forehead. Give me strength! These two are going to drive me crazy! “That…that weird tingling. You mean you didn’t feel it?”

  “Feel what?” Deep stepped toward her and frowned, his nose wrinkling. “Why do you suddenly smell so hot?”

  “What?” Kat crossed her arms over her chest protectively.

  “Hot—in heat. In need.” Deep’s black eyes were positively glowing. “Come smell her, Brother,” he told Lock, who was still standing a little distance away. “It’s as though she went from being disinterested to panting to be bred and bonded in the space of an instant.”

  Lock took a step forward and leaned in to sniff Kat’s neck. When he straightened up, his eyes were half-lidded with lust. “My lady, er Kat, Deep is right. You smell delicious and very, very…ready.”

  “R-ready for what?” she asked in a voice that trembled more than she liked.

  Deep’s eyes flashed. “Why, ready to be fucked, little Kat.”

  Kat took a step away from both of them. “Look, I’m not… I don’t know what you’re talking about—I only know what I felt.”

  Deep gave her a lazy smile. “And what exactly did you feel?”

  “I told you—just a tingling sensation.” Kat felt her cheeks getting hot and cursed her fair complexion that showed a blush so easily. “Look, are you seriously going to stand there and tell me this has never happened to you two before with some other, uh, focus?”

  “Our only other focus was our mentor, F’lir, who was male,” Deep told her.

  “Really? Was he gay?” Kat cou
ldn’t imagine a straight guy wanting to get such intense sexual sensations from two other males.

  “Gay? Meaning did he enjoy the company of other males?” Lock shook his head. “No. He was old enough to be our grandfather—he taught us to harness our talents in the first place.”

  “But, I mean, he never felt anything strange? Like I just did? Maybe you could call him up, uh bespeak him, and ask him,” Kat suggested.

  “Not unless you can place a Think-me call to the Mother herself. F’lir is dead,” Deep said soberly. “And we have been without a focus since he died over a cycle ago.”

  “Maybe that’s it then.” Kat was still looking for an explanation. “Maybe your power kind of…built up over that amount of time and it sort of…came out when you two, uh, touched me.”

  Lock looked thoughtful. “I don’t think so. I think it’s more likely to have to do with the fact that you’re female.”

  “So you’ve never had a female between you before?” Kat asked.

  “I wouldn’t say that, exactly.” Deep gave her a lazy smile. “But Lock and I have certainly never had a female as lovely as you between us, little Kat.”

  Kat frowned, wishing she could stop blushing. “You know what I mean.”

  “Yes, we know what you mean.” Lock gave his brother a warning look. “And the answer is no—we’ve never tried to mesh our minds with a female’s before.”

  “So…is this even doable?” She looked at them. “I mean, is my mind too different from yours to make it work?”

  Deep raised his eyebrows. “There’s only one way to find out. And you jerked away from us before we could even get a good connection.”

  “But…” Kat bit her lip. “Am I…will it feel like that every time?”

  “We don’t know.” Lock looked concerned. “Was our connection causing you pain?”

  “Not…exactly. It was…it was…” Kat was sure her face had to be crimson by now. “It was pretty much the exact opposite of pain, actually.”

  Deep smirked. “Which explains why you smell like a female in heat.”

  “Deep.” Lock frowned at his brother. “Remember your promise.”

  Deep held up his hands. “Forgive me, brother. I know I swore to be on my best behavior but I had no idea our joining would be such an…interesting experience.”

  “I had no idea either.” Lock turned to Kat. “Please believe me, my lady. Neither Deep nor myself had any intention of harming or upsetting you. We just want to find Sylvan.”

  “And I want to find Sophie.” Kat hugged herself nervously. Oh Sophie, you are going to owe me when we find you. Owe me BIG. “Which means we need to try again, I guess,” she said.

  “Only if you’re comfortable,” Lock said seriously. “There are no long term effects to being a focus that Deep and I have ever run across, but I hate the idea of you being uncomfortable the entire time we’re joined.”

  “Thanks, but it looks like I’ll just have to put up with it.” Kat took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay boys, round two.”

  Chapter Nine

  A jolt and a loud cracking sound woke Sophie up. “Wha…?” She looked around uncertainly. It was still dark, the stars winking faintly in the sky above. Sylvan was holding her and he had a look of grim concentration on his face. Sophie blinked, trying to remember what was going on. Where are we? Why is Sylvan carrying me?

  “Hold on. We’re almost in.” There was another jolt and more cracking. Suddenly she realized they were standing in front of a cabin and Sylvan was kicking the door in.

  “Hey, wait a minute!” she protested as he pushed open the now-crooked door and shouldered his way inside. “You can’t do this—it’s not our property.”

  He gave her a stern look. “We need a place to rest. A place I can defend if necessary.”

  “But…but what if whoever owns this place comes back?” she protested. “They’re not going to be very happy to see us.”

  “We’ll deal with that problem when we come to it.” Sylvan was scanning the dark room as he spoke, his pale eyes flickering from left to right, obviously looking for threats. “I’m more concerned about the Scourge right now than any disgruntled home owner.”

  Sophie’s heart skipped a beat. “You really think they’re following us?”

  “I know they are.” Walking across the room, he laid her down gently on a bed. The comforter on it smelled a little musty but it was soft and deliciously comfortable. Still Sophie couldn’t relax.

  “How do you know?” she asked, sitting up and wincing at the renewed pain in her ankle.

  “I saw the lights of their probes landing while you were sleeping.” Sylvan sat on the side of the bed beside her legs and sighed wearily. “To humans they probably looked like what you call ‘shooting stars,’ but their pattern was much too regular to be a meteorite shower.”

  “I thought the Kindred had set up a protection grid all around the Earth,” she protested.

  “We have. So at least their ships can’t land and we won’t have to deal with any Scourge soldiers. But the probes are small enough to get through and they can carry other things. Things that…” He broke off, shaking his head. “Never mind.”

  “No, no—what things? Things that what?” Sophie sat up, wincing again, and moved to sit beside him so she could see his face. “Come on, Sylvan,” she said softly. “It’s me they’re after, for whatever reason. I have a right to know.”

  He sighed again and ran a hand through his hair. “All right. What I’m mainly worried about are the urlich.”

  “The what?”

  “It translates into your language as ‘sniffers.’ They’re a little bit like your Earth dogs, but they’ve been hybridized and genetically mutated by the Scourge until most of them are more machine than animal.”

  “Sniffers. So…they’re like some kind of cyborg bloodhound or something?”

  Sylvan nodded. “That’s actually a really accurate description. And if they find your scent…” He shook his head.

  “Go on,” she urged anxiously.

  Sylvan pinched the bridge of his nose. “Let’s just say they’re incredibly fast and strong and very, very hard to kill, since most of them aren’t really alive after the Scourge get done with them.”

  Sophie felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice cubes into her stomach. “And they’re searching for me.”

  He gave her a sidelong look. “Yes. In all probability the AllFather has programmed your scent exclusively into their brains. So they’re going to be very focused on finding you.”

  “But…why? What do they—the Scourge—want with me, anyway?”

  Sylvan shook his head. “I don’t know. If I had to guess I’d say it has something to do with their prophesy. No one really knows what it’s about, but Baird and I have speculated that they’re searching for an Earth female because of it. They thought Olivia was the one they wanted, but she wasn’t. Maybe because you’re so closely related to her—”

  “They think I’m the one. But the one what?” Sophie shook her head, feeling sick. “I guess it doesn’t matter why they want me. The main thing is to not…not let them get me.”

  Sylvan’s eyes flashed like cold fire. “As long as I am alive they shall not have you. I will stand by you and defend you unto death, Sophia. I give you my word as a warrior and a Blood Kindred.”

  “Oh Sylvan…” She didn’t know what to say. The way he spoke, she could tell he’d just sworn a formal oath to her. One that would bind him as surely as his vow to never claim a bride. “You don’t…don’t have to do that for me,” she said softly.

  His eyes blazed again. “But I want to. Even if you don’t want me to.”

  “I just…don’t want you to get hurt on my account,” she protested but he only looked at her gravely.

  “It would be my honor to die defending you.”

  Sophia felt her breath catch in her throat and for a long, long moment she couldn’t look away from his ice blue eyes. She could smell his scent again
—even stronger this time, surrounding her, making her dizzy. Warm, spicy, sharp, with that indefinably masculine note that made her want to lean toward him, to touch him, to let him touch her…

  Wait a minute—what are you doing? Get hold of yourself, Sophie!

  She jerked back and sat stiffly upright on the side of the bed. Had she really almost kissed him? What was wrong with her? “So, uh, what can we do?” she asked, trying to cover her awkwardness. “Do you really think we’ll be safe here?”

  He looked around the darkened cabin again as if assessing it. “Probably not, but it’s better than being in the open. Our best hope is that the sniffers just pass us by and miss this place completely.”

  “Do you think that’s possible?”

  He shrugged, his broad shoulders rolling with the motion. “I don’t know. It should help that I carried you the past several miles, so you didn’t leave any scent on the ground.”

  Sophia wondered exactly how many miles he’d carried her while she slept like a baby in his arms. It must have been a far distance. No wonder he looks so beat. Poor guy!

  “What…what do we do if they do find us?” she asked, looking down at her hands which were still scraped and raw from her fall.

  His face was grim. “We have to do our best to make sure that doesn’t happen. I might be able to handle one or two, but a whole pack…” He shook his head. “All I could do is die defending you.”

  “Well then what—?”

  “We may have to mask your scent.” He looked at her soberly. “Did Olivia tell you anything about scent marking?”

  “Scent marking?” Sophie wracked her brain, trying to remember. It seemed vaguely familiar though she couldn’t remember exactly what it involved. Still, how bad could it be? “Oh, uh, sure. Scent marking.” She nodded.

  “Good. Because in the last extremity, if I hear the sniffers around this cabin, I may have to scent mark you—to mask your scent with my own.”

  “Can you do that? I mean, is your scent that much stronger than mine, especially when they’re focused on me?”