“Yes, I know that much. You are bound so that you can join your hound shapes and become one, giant, three-headed hound.”
“Yes. Good.” Rune nodded. “Because of this bond between us, we can feel each other's emotions.”
“More than that,” Braxen muttered.
Rune shot him a silencing look before continuing. “Lora, when one of us falls in love, all of us eventually follow. And we only fall in love with our destined mate.”
I stared at him, comprehension dawning. But my brain shied away from the underlying truth and focused on something else. “Does this magic affect the woman you fall in love with?”
“We don't know exactly what it does to our mate. We only know that after we claim her, we share our immortality with her.”
“You . . .” My mind spun. Was I their mate? If I left Hermes, could their immortality replace that which he had givenme?CouldI leave Hermes? No, I couldn't. Not after everything he'd done for me. But what if I was a mate to a Cerberus team? I would have to leave him. Then it clicked. “You left me because you didn't want them to have to deal with Hermes too.”
Rune nodded. “It was too big an issue. I couldn't allow myself to love you if it meant that not only I, but all of us, would have to experience the pain of seeing you with Hermes.”
His words came back to me.“I can't, Lora. I can't let myself love you if you're still with him. I can't!”He had roared that last bit, so full of fury and frustration. I didn't know his words had been literal. That he truly couldn't make that decision on his own.
“But it's too late,” Merrick said. “You two took things too far. He's in love with you.”
I stared at Rune. “I said it to you, but you never said it back.”
“I was in denial,” Rune said.
“It's why we followed you,” Braxen said. “We were drawn to you because of Rune's love.”
“What?” I whispered as I looked at Braxen.
“He loves you. That means we—”
“No, we don't,” Merrick cut him off. “Not yet.” He looked at me, then sighed. “But we will. It's inevitable now.”
“Inevitable.” I looked down at my hands. They were shaking even though Rune held one of them. “And what of Hermes?”
A growl filled the room, coming from all of them.
“No!” I stood up and glared at them. “He saved me. Hermes may have destroyed my love for him, but not my loyalty. He's certainly not my enemy. So, if you're going to . . .” I trailed off, then made a horrified sound. “What am I even saying? I can't be with three men. Three! How would that work? Where would we sleep? Would we have sex together? All of us at the same time?”
“We will figure it out as we go,” Rune said.
“You're jealous of Hermes, but you think you can share me with each other?” I scoffed.
“It's different with us,” Rune said. “We're like three parts of one being. Sharing with my packmates isn't the same as sharing with an outsider. They are me. I am them.”
“And yes, we'd all have sex together,” Merrick said. “To clarify, we'd have sex with you. Not with each other. That would be like fucking ourselves. Also, we're straight.”
I gaped at him. Three men. At once. Could I even . . . ? Suddenly, my fantasy came back to me. The strange, erotic masturbatory fantasy with the warriors in my paintings. Three of them. I had wanted to be with all of them at once. Holy shit. Had their Cerberus magic—the spell that Hades had cast upon them—been affecting me from the start? Was that fantasy because of them? Maybe it was trying to prepare me for this. But then why was the crusader there, staring at me in condemnation? Was he supposed to represent Hermes? Or maybe my guilt. Fuck, it was all so insane.
Slowly, I sank back onto the couch.
“Lora?” Rune asked.
“Give her a minute,” Merrick said. “We just laid a mental smackdown on her.”
“Fuck that. She's strong. That's why she's ours.” Braxen knelt before me. “Lomasi of the Tsimikiti, I know you are born of warriors. You are the last of your kind, more special than you know. And we are lucky that you have chosen to love one of us. But you will need to draw on the strength in your blood to love a Cerberus—to stand beside all three of us. Because our enemy knows how important you are, and he intends to use you to take us down.”
Braxen's words sank in. Past the shock of who we might become to each other. Past the dark fascination I had with the idea of having three men. Past the love that burned in my chest for Rune. It settled in my mind and slapped me back to sanity.
“Your enemy,” I repeated. “You mean Michael. He sent that man to hurt me.”
