Caught Between Three Billionaire Tycoons - Willa Hart Page 0,50

having the same talk he had with me. Daire looked like he wasn’t convinced. I deliberately made some noise on my approach so they both looked up at me.

“I don’t know what you guys have decided.” I sighed, not even really believing I was doing this.

“I want to do it. The blood pact.”

Both of them wore identical looks of astonishment.

“I want you to be my brothers. For real. So long as we all serve one purpose—to love Whitney.”

Something flowed between us. It looked like, for the second time in as many days, the clans had a common cause.

16

I was not immediately happy about Aleksy’s agreement. Zavier had been making an excellent case for the pact before he came along, but getting his scent in my nose did nothing to help me agree.

I let myself stew a little as the other two talked. Zavier was relieved that Aleksy had seen sense, and I let my anger drift.

My bear wanted to tear them both apart. Fuck Aleksy, he was the enemy. Fuck my cousin too, Whitney was worth tearing apart entire families for.

Zavier looked at me as if he could read my thoughts.

“Daire. Think about this.”

“I am thinking about it. It’s the only thing I can fucking think about.”

“It’s like this, man. Either we all get her, or none of us do.”

I looked up sharply. This was something I hadn’t considered. I hadn’t talked to Whitney since last night; I had pointedly stayed away.

I had been so close to having her last night that I feared my reaction if I got too close. My bear wanted to finish what it had begun and maybe finish Zavier, too.

“Do you agree, Daire?” Aleksy was speaking softly and his hands were clasped in front of him. I had never seen him with open, honest body language before. He always seemed to hold something back.

But not now. Now he was wearing it all out in the open. Something in me responded to his honesty.

“Okay.” I couldn’t quite get the word through my throat. I was angry with myself, with the entire situation. I was afraid. I was also desperate to have Whitney, to know that she would never leave me.

I hadn’t loved Judy, not completely. Losing her still hurt, though. This frightened me more than anything. I cared more for Whitney than I ever had for anyone else. What if I lost her, too?

I couldn’t survive it.

Zavier beamed at us both. Aleksy was looking tense, and I knew my face couldn’t hide my barely masked fury.

“Let’s do this.” Zavier tried to energize us into action, but still we hesitated. It was not a thing done lightly, this ritual.

Zavier looked us over seriously.

“I’ll meet you at the stones. You come if you want. I’ll wait. If you don’t come by nightfall, then I’ll leave. None of us will have her.”

He turned and shifted mid stride, galloping into the forest. I didn’t think, I just went after him. By my side, Aleksy shifted too, and we bolted through the trees.

We followed Zavier to the sacred stones.

In a naturally occurring circle there was a scattering of black stones with one large one in the center. It reared up out of the earth, jagged like coal but with a flat, smooth top. Zavier had shifted back to human form and stood on the opposite side of the rock.

We entered the circle, shaking off our bear shapes. We all put our hands out and touched the rock, feeling a jolt of energy from it.

The land itself was responding to our pledge, our need to bond. The dissolving of the blood feud had soothed the land, and now she wanted to be fully healed.

The three of us stepped back, almost completely in sync. Around the base of the rock was a small ditch dug in around its circumference. We filled it with dried leaves and twigs, all three of us lighting it at the same time from our positions around it.

We were placed at perfect lengths from each other and when the fire flared it joined itself like a great snake.

“To what do we swear?” Aleksy asked softly.

“We swear to our love,” Zavier said quietly. “She is the purpose of our bond. She is the future. There is no better reason to come together than to claim a mate.”

We stood close to the rock, careful not to burn ourselves on the fire. Each of us touched it on the flat top again, feeling that strange current running through us.

“I do so swear,