Esme swallowed a string of curses as she ran. Those two wolves were the sexiest thing she'd ever seen, and she resented having to leave. She'd never had a threesome in her life, never thought of herself as very adventurous, but oh dear God, for those two she'd make an exception – if she were in her own world.
But it would be completely inappropriate for her to become involved with these two here – wouldn't it? And yet, finley and smith had both talked about women who went to the festival seeking only a good time. She could be one of those women – couldn't she?
No! she berated herself firmly. She was here to observe and report back. She was here to write a research paper.
Once more, she'd definitely learn the werewolf way of life if she spent the night with those two in their cabin…
"Hey! What's the hurry?" Smith waved at her. She was across the way at a vendor's booth with a big, muscular guy with a crew cut, who had his arm around her waist. They both had a drink in their hands.
"Hey, smith." She walked over to them.
Smith had a necklace around her neck she hadn't been wearing before. It was on a gold chain, and from it hung a little bouquet of flowers – but the bouquet changed to different flowers. A bunch of daisies, the roses, then tulips…
"Does it do that forever?" Esme asked, fascinated.
"No, a few days, perhaps, unless I take it to a mage's station and get it recharged," smith shrugged. "You've never seen one of these before?"
"No, but they're lovely."
Damn. Every time Esme spoke she was risking giving herself away. And alfie and finley would more than likely be able to track her, and she wasn't sure she'd be able to fight them off a second time. She should leave, should hole up in the woods and observe from afar, but she felt like staying. Everyone was having so much fun, and she really liked smith, and leaving alfie and finley behind made her feel weirdly anxious and depressed.
Fortunately, smith was too intoxicated to be wary. "Take some of this. It's a howl at the moon. They're so good." Smith proffered her drink, a multi-layered concoction that tasted sweetly delectable. It was some kind of mixture of coffee and liqueur and cream.
"Oh, dear god. Liquid orgasm. Oops, excuse me," she said to the crew-cut guy. "I don't usually discuss my orgasms in front of total strangers. Too much alcohol. I'm a total lightweight."
"Rloa," he said, sticking his hand out to introduce himself. "Please, discuss away. I'm delighted to be surrounded by two beautiful ladies talking about their orgasms."
"Was that a fat joke?" she laughed. "There's two of us and you're surrounded?" She took another sip of smith's drink.
"Hey!" Smith reclaimed her drink. "Leave some for me, drunken wench. Get your boyfriends to buy you one. Where are they?"
"Oh, I, ah…"
Smith gave her a narrow eyed glare. "You what?"
"I might have panicked and run away, a little bit."
"Are you crazy, lady? Besides mr. hot stuff here, they're the two hottest werewolves I ever laid eyes on." Rloa let out a low growl, and Smith punched him in the arm. "I said, besides you! Geez, you big baby."
He smiled at her.
I'm going to make you eat those words. And a few other things." The two were staring at each other with pure lust in their eyes. Esme could practically see sparks flying between them.
"Gosh, you guys, get a room," she said.
"That is, indeed, where we were headed." Smith tore her attention away from rloa briefly to smile at her. "Don't worry if you don't see a lot of me over the next day or so."
"I won't. I'll just imagine you're being eaten by a big bad wolf," Esme said, then clapped her hands over her mouth. "Oh my god! Why did you let me get so drunk?"
Then she looked longingly at smith's drink. "Maybe I should just have one more sip, so I can remember what it's like to taste."
Smith clutched the drink protectively to her curvy breast.
"You're cut off! Back up and find your hot boyfriends and have them buy one for you!" she said.
"They're not my boyfriends," Esme said glumly. Wish they were? What a wonderful thing to be coming home to every evening. And waking up next to in the morning.
"Come along, this way." Rloa led the two of them to another open-air bar whose sign declared it the love connection. Subtle. "Never say I let a lovely lady go thirsty."
He fought his way through the crowd to the bar, never letting go of smith, and ordered "one howl at the moon for my friend here!" He glanced a smith, who'd all but finished her drink. "And another one for this lovely lady."
"He has good taste," Esme said.
Smith nodded in agreement. "Good eyesight, too. And he's going to get very, very lucky."
The bartender began mixing their drinks, adding the layers carefully. Music was blaring from speakers, men and women dancing under a pavilion close to the bar, and Esme was starting to get used to the sight of wolves walking casually through the crowd and then stopping to shift into fully naked men.
Where did you two meet?" Esme shouted. She had to yell to be heard. "Here at the festival, or in the real world outside?
"Oh, we met here last year, but not until the last day, so we never got a chance to hang out," smith said. "We don't live close to each other. In fact, rloa and theo live so far away, they're almost in another district, I'd never have met them outside the festival."
My parents met outside the festival," rloa thought. "It does happen sometimes. My mom was in a supermarket aisle, one of my dads saw her, and that was that. She moved in with them two weeks later."
"So anyway, enough about us. Seriously, why did you run away from those two hotties?" smith asked. "Don't you like them?
"Oh, god, I loved them. They were so freaking beautiful," Esme said. "It's just…" She tried to come up with an excuse that wasn't a complete lie. "I'd never thought about being with a pair of alphas, and all that entails."
Smith's expression turned solemn. "Listen, Esme, I like you, so I'm going to tell it to you straight. This festival… it's not always what it seems. Some women come here and never return to their own world. And these magic claimings? They're not always voluntary. Once bonded, you can't just up and leave without tearing your soul in two.".
Esme's blood ran cold. I didn't come here for this. I came to watch, to rescue my family, not to lose myself. Was this intense attraction she was experiencing for finley and alfie real, or some potent magic of the festival, designed to trap her? The thought of being trapped in this world, not being able to return, filled her with a horrible dread.
The bartender set the drinks in front of her and smith, and rloa reached for his wallet.
"I'll get that," alfie said, sliding up next to Esme. Finley was following close behind him.
Alfie slammed a few bills down on the bar, then slung his big, muscular arm around her. He smelled musky and sexy, and she loved how it felt to lean against him.
"Thanks," rloa replied, raising his own glass in a toast to alfie and finley.
"We're going to leave you three to enjoy the fact that you're all adorable together," smith yelled over the music. "Also a certain wolf has been threatening to get me to eat my words, and I'm just dying to see how he's going to make me do that." She let rloa take her by the hand and lead her out of the bar.
As smith and rloa disappeared into the crowd, Esme felt a prickling at the back of her neck. She looked around, in time to catch a glimpse of a dark shape, hooded and cloaked, melting into the darker shadows beyond the pavilion. A spy? From the blood claws pack? Or perhaps one from the college of koala, assigned to ensure she did not stray from her mission? Her heart pounded with a different sort of fear, one that had everything to do with the intoxicating appeal of the two alphas on either side of her.
Esme swallowed a big mouthful of her drink and tried to calm her buzzing nerves. Smith had just left her alone with the two most beautiful men she'd ever seen, and both of them were staring at her like they wanted to devour her…in the best possible way.