"It's the guy who was with Frankie," Rafael said as he peered into the dumpster behind Fangs, staring at the body that had been tossed inside.

They'd scoured the area around the nightclub, looking for a place that a vampire's minion could be positioned in order to see who came and went. They'd found no mark, had found nothing until Syndelle's nose had led them to the dumpster.

"Cause of death?" Skye asked.

"You've been mated to a cop too long," Rafe teased.

Skye shook her head. "A cop who's going to be very unhappy when he finds out that I've been at the scene twice today when a body was discovered. Can you tell how he was killed?"

"No." Rafe jumped down from his perch and Skye took his place.

"Not a lot of excess blood." She wrinkled her nose. "But plenty of semen. He smells like he's covered in it."

Rafe remembered the man licking a stud-pierced tongue over his lips when he'd told him to back off, how he'd challenged Rafe, saying, "Or what? Your daddy will come beat me up? I'd like that. Does he give good pain?" It made Rafe's stomach roil just thinking about it, just imagining the man's final hours. He didn't doubt that he'd gotten what he thought he wanted-pain. "Let's get out of here. Let one of Gian's people call this in."

"There's the small matter of our fingerprints," Skye pointed out.

"Wipe them."

Skye hesitated for only a second then shook her head. "No. You take Syndelle home, she didn't touch anything. I'll go inside and call Augustino one more time." She grimaced. "He's going to start dreading my phone calls."

"You do this for your human mate?" Syndelle guessed.

Skye scowled, clearly unhappy about having to follow a set of rules she didn't agree with. "Yeah. Don't ever let anyone tell you that dealing with mates is easy."

Syndelle's heart leaped and jerked in her chest as her mind brushed against Brann's, finding that his rage had firmed into implacable resolve. But she laughed and hugged her sister, saying, "Trust me, I already see how difficult having mates can be," and then she and Rafe returned home, to Brann, who prowled through their house like a hungry, dangerous tiger, his words an attack as soon as they walked through the front door.

"You will not continue to defy me, Syndelle," he said, pressing her against the wall in a show of physical strength and dominance. "I will not let you risk yourself."

Lust flashed through her, the wolf enjoying this display by its mate, despite Syndelle's irritation. "No harm has come to me and I have returned as I promised I would."

Brann's nostrils flared, the scent of her filling his body with heat. The call of her blood and Rafael's arousal a distraction he was almost unable to fight. His cock was hard, aching. His gums tingled with the need to bite. And the feel of her power brushing against his roared through him, filling him with the primitive need to conquer in a physical show of force.

"I have lived in times when men took rods to their disobedient wives," he growled, his fingernails extending to deadly talons.

"And I have not," Syndelle said, challenge in her eyes. Her gaze unflinching as Brann pressed sharp nails against her jugular vein.

Rafe moved then, lounging insolently against the wall next to them, his tone mocking when he said, "It might amuse you to try and fuck with her mind, Brann, but I would prefer to fuck other parts of her before I have to leave again."

For a long moment the air grew heavy, charged with Brann's power, the feel of it rippling around them like the buildup before a lightning strike. Syndelle and Rafe braced themselves, both watching as Brann's pupils flared, his eyes filling with a vampire's ice-blue fire, becoming alien, predatory, a promise of death-until he fought his impulses and stepped back, hissing, "Strip, Syndelle."

The wolf's smile echoed Syndelle's. This victory she could give her mate. She lowered her eyelashes as her fingers moved to the front of her shirt, slowly working down the row of buttons until the shirt spread open, exposing breasts that she hadn't bothered to contain within a bra.

She licked her lips, savoring the way Brann's face went tight, savoring the heady scent of male arousal, the sounds of rapidly beating hearts and quick breaths of air. Her fingers went to her nipples, fondling and tugging on them.

"Fuck," Rafe growled, kneeling in front of her, his hands making quick work of getting her out of her jeans and shoes, his face going instantly to the juncture between her thighs.

Syndelle cried out, using the wall behind her to brace herself against the onslaught of Rafael's mouth, her clit pulsing with its own demand even as her channel clenched, trying to capture his tongue.

Brann moved in, trapping Rafe between their bodies, one hand dropping to stroke his male companion, while the other hand captured Syndelle's face, holding it still as his lips covered hers, as his tongue thrust into her mouth in the same rhythm as Rafe's tongue pressed into her pussy.

There was no denying her need, no denying theirs. Syndelle gave herself up to them, letting them drive her higher and higher, then whimpering and begging when they pulled back just short of bringing her to orgasm.

She could feel the swirl of an unspoken conversation going on between her two mates, but the pleasure they were bringing her was so intense that she couldn't concentrate on what they were saying, she could only writhe against them, reveling in their shared desire, reveling in the promise that this was just the beginning of what they would share this night.

She sobbed when Brann stepped away. And when Rafe's mouth left her desperately hungry pussy, she speared her fingers through his hair and tried to force him back to her swollen, dripping cunt lips and engorged clitoris. He laughed, a husky sound of masculine satisfaction and yielded to her demands for a moment, swirling his tongue over and around her swollen knob as Brann opened his own shirt and dropped it to the floor before retrieving a necklace from his back pocket.

Syndelle's heart jerked at the sight of it-a chain of onyx with each link bearing a symbol, both a warning and a claim, while a coin identical to the one Rafael wore hung in the middle, suspended by woven silver strands. When Brann once again closed the gap between them, her heart filled with pleasure at the knowledge that he intended to include Rafael in this most sacred act between a vampire and the one he had chosen as a companion.

"Do you accept my offer and freely choose to become my companion, Syndelle?"

"Yes."

"Then bind your life to mine by taking my blood and wearing the medallion that shows all that you belong to me."

He leaned in, brushing his lips against hers before fastening the snug, collar-like necklace around her throat. Then he opened a gash above his heart, a moan of exquisite pleasure escaping from him at the dual sensation of Rafe's renewed assault on Syndelle's cunt and the feel of her mouth on his skin. She drew his blood deeply into her body, so deeply that it flowed into every cell and claimed her on every level, giving him power over her for all eternity, Syndelle's shuddering release sealing their companion bond.

She lay limp and sated in Brann's arms as he quickly carried her to his bedroom, Rafe's needs echoing his own so that there was no need for conversation. He paused only long enough to remove a bottle of lubricant from a drawer and hand it to Rafael before stripping out of the rest of his clothing and lying on the bed, pulling Syndelle on top of him and urging her legs apart so that his cock speared into her wet depths.

Her eyes opened and Brann's cock jerked, his heart swelling with fulfillment at the look on her beautiful face, the love and acceptance, the absolute hunger for her mates. When the walls of her channel clamped on his cock, he groaned, arching into her wet pussy, anxious for the moment when the three of them would be joined, when Rafe's penis would slide against his.

Brann's hands smoothed over her buttocks, spreading them as Rafael moved into position above them. Anticipation whipped through Syndelle and she sought Brann's mouth, welcoming his coaxing tongue, welcoming the reassuring feel of his strong body beneath hers.

Her sheath tightened even further on Brann, her vulva grew fuller, and her clit pulsed as Rafe coated her back entrance with lubricant, using first his fingers and then his arousal-wet penis, taking his time to gently open her though he shook with desire, with the desperate need to be inside her, to bathe in the all-encompassing bond between the three of them and feel Brann's cock against his as they were both held deep in Syndelle's body.

Emotion washed through Rafe. Love so profound that he knew he would chose death rather than to ever be without this.

Then it is good you won't have to make such a choice, Brann purred, his voice a soft stroke that had Rafe clenching his buttocks and fighting against the need to force his cock into Syndelle's virgin entrance.

Virgin. There were no words to express the depth of his feelings, other than the wash of gratitude and swelling of love that he allowed Brann to feel.

Brann had known what this gift would mean to Rafael. To be the first to have Syndelle in all the ways a man could penetrate a woman. Her cunt. Her mouth. And now her ass.

He groaned, pressing his lips to her shoulder, sucking in the springtime scent of her with each pant, tasting her desire with each wet kiss, the touch of his mouth on her skin triggering the wolf's submission, making her body go lax so that it was easier for him to enter her, until finally he was all the way in. His length separated from Brann's by only a thin barrier.

Brann's hands moved from Syndelle's buttocks, going to Rafael's hips, his sides, his ass. And the feel of a masculine touch combined with the soft whimpering sounds Syndelle was making eroded the last of Rafael's control.

Pleasure like none she could have imagined burned through Syndelle as her mates began thrusting-their hands and mouths everywhere, their bodies all that she would ever need.

As their pace quickened, she screamed and scratched and bit, fighting like a wild thing-not to escape, but to get closer to them-to yield everything that she was to them. And they took and took and took, just as they gave her all that they were. The love and lust a fire so hot, so intense that it consumed them, destroying anything that would separate them, leaving them like a phoenix rising out of the ashes of their pasts in order to embrace a future where they were one. Forever joined by Angelini magic and vampire bonds.

With a final cry, Syndelle locked Brann's cock inside her, the feel of her tight muscles holding him bringing the three of them to the precipice and shoving them over, triggering a continuous string of orgasms, ripping wave after wave of pleasure from their very souls until they were left breathless, sated, their sweat-slick bodies melded together by more than just desire.

"You are beautiful," Brann whispered, "inside and out. A priceless treasure that I will never misuse. A gift that I will always appreciate. Love is a pale, shallow word, one that can't begin to hold what you mean to me within it, Syndelle."

"Or to me," Rafe said, and Syndelle's heart swelled with not only her own emotion, but theirs as well so that she touched them with her thoughts, trying to convey without words the depth of her feelings for them both.

They made love again. Their bodies a choir singing a song of ecstasy. The melody softer, gentler the second time, but just as overpowering. The climax equally sublime.

"I've got to meet up with Augustino," Rafe said a little while later, pulling away and rising from the bed, shaking his head "no" and laughing when Brann grumbled and Syndelle stirred. "You two stay here." He leaned down, pressing a kiss to Syndelle's lips, then Brann's. "Enjoy the rest of the night. Somehow I think between Skye, Gian, Rico, and Augustino, I'll be well-guarded." He laughed, feeling lighthearted. "But don't expect me to tune in to this channel while I'm hitting the club scene. I don't intend to walk around all night with a wet stain on my crotch."

Syndelle laughed, rolling to her back so that she could look at her mate. Her heart thundering in her chest at his beauty, at the openness of his heart and soul.

Rafe shook his head, returning to the bed, lying next to her, his mouth pressing affectionate kisses along her neck, over her chin, against her lips, his nose finally rubbing against hers as he stared into her eyes. "If you don't stop looking at me like that, I'm never going to be able to leave you. I need to go-just in case we get lucky and find Justin's killer-but I don't want to relive last night, Syndelle. I don't want to worry about someone trying to kill you. I want to know that you're here, making love with Brann and enjoying the night."

Worry moved through Syndelle, along with such a mix of other emotions that her heart felt full, her chest tight. But she stayed while he left, accepting the shallow barrier he erected in order to concentrate on what he was doing away from them, wishing for the sun to rise almost as much as she wished that the night would never end. The clouds of foreboding gathering inside her, settling along the dawn in a dark omen.