Page 6 of Claimed By the Damned

The next evening, Amara was wandering around the stacks, reshelving a cart-load of books that had been left out throughout the day. It had been another busy day at the shop, which had helped to keep her mind occupied. However, now that the day was over, she couldn’t stop herself from thinking about everything that had occurred the night before and the predicament she now found herself in. She had been up all night thinking about it too and was no closer to figuring out what she was going to do.

The first rogue shifters she had ever met personally had killed someone right in front of her. For her, no less. They had ended his life solely because he had been a threat to her, and she found it surprising that it didn’t bother her as much as it should have. Her father had always told her that rogues were vicious and cruel, and yet, she didn’t see too much of that in them. She knew the reason for that, but she had thought that watching them kill a man in cold blood would have changed things. In truth, she had seen more death and murder within her own pack, so what the guys had done barely fazed her.

What did concern her though was the whole fated mate thing. Not only had she never expected to find her fated mate, but the fact that she was mated to three men, three rogues, meant that it would never work even if she wanted it to. And she was pretty sure she wanted it to work. After all, who wouldn’t want to find their fated mate? But the fact that they were rogue shifters meant that the bond between them was doomed from the start.

Amara was a pack shifter, and pack shifters were forbidden from associating with rogue shifters for the most part. Especially those in her pack. Her father hated rogues with a passion, and if he found out that she was mated to three of them…

She paused in picking up a book to shudder at the thought. Unfortunately, Zeke and Knox didn’t seem to realize just how big of an issue this was. Drake did though. He was the only one, apart from her, who understood the severity of their situation. She just hoped that he would be able to convince the other two.

Zeke and Knox were not making it easy for her either as they had been texting her all night. Zeke wanted to know everything there was to know about her while Knox continued to send her dirty pictures and messages describing all the things he wanted to do to her.

She would be lying if she said that it wasn’t intriguing, and she found herself wondering more than a few times if she could handle all three guys at once. The thought of it had her doing exactly what Knox had said she would and touching herself. Though, she’d never tell him that because she would never hear the end of it.

That morning, she had gone to work exhausted, confused, and hornier than she had ever been, despite getting herself off several times the night before, thanks to Knox’s dirty mouth.

She continued putting the book on the shelf. As hard as it was to do, Amara eventually made the decision to keep her distance from them. No good could come of the bond between the four of them, and she did not want to be the cause of any problems because they were obviously well-established in their little town. Her father would never approve of the bond they shared and would end up making their lives a living hell. It was better for her and everyone if she just stayed away. At least, that was what she kept telling herself.

Her dress snagged on a screw from the cart as she stood on her toes to put a book up on one of the shelves. With a sigh, she gently pulled the fabric free and grabbed the cart, pushing down the next aisle. She then positioned the short ladder before picking up the small stack of books that belonged on the very top shelf, one that was way too high for her to reach without help.

Just as she reached the top, the cheery little bell above the front door dinged, indicating that she had customers. “I’ll be right with you!” she called out.

It was really close to closing time, and the fact that someone had come in this late was a little irritating, but thankfully, she managed to keep that irritation out of her voice. She had become very adept at hiding her emotions as she had to do it a lot. Especially when it came to her father. She could put on a mask of professionalism while still being upset that her night was going to drag on even longer due to the late arrival.

A few moments later, a warm, calloused hand slid up her thigh and cupped her ass, taking her by surprise. She gasped and spun around, nearly toppling off the ladder she was standing on, and the books she had been holding clattered loudly to the floor. Knox was standing below her at the bottom of the ladder, a cocky smirk on his face that pinched the scar along his cheek.

Amara rolled her eyes, silently chastising herself for not smelling him when he came into the shop, as she attempted to calm her now sputtering heart. Just the sight of him was enough to make her mouth water, and that wasn’t a good thing considering she had just decided to deny this thing between them.

“Jesus, you scared me. You ass.”

“Speaking of asses,” Knox replied smoothly. “If you come down a step, I can bite yours.”

“Not a chance,” she muttered with a shake of her head. “What are you doing here?”

Knox didn’t reply. Instead, he attempted to lift the skirt of her dress, but she batted him away. He just chuckled in response, which was mildly irritating.

Zeke came around the side of the shelves then, making her realize just how bad she was at this. She was a shifter, for crying out loud, and they were her fated mates. She should have been able to tell when they were near. Then again, she had been trying to push them from her mind, so maybe that was why she hadn’t sensed them when they arrived.

“We came to see you,” Zeke stated casually as he stepped up next to Knox.

Amara sighed heavily and began to descend the ladder, careful to keep her dress tucked lest Knox get any more bright ideas. “Look, like I told you guys last night, this isn’t going to work out. There’s too much stacked against us.”

“That sounds like a dare,” Knox replied, giving her the distinct impression that he was never one to turn down a dare.

“Not a dare, just being realistic.” She picked the books up off the floor and set them back on the cart. She would have to take care of them later when Knox wasn’t around to mess with her while she was vulnerable. She then brushed her hands and turned to face them once more, this time with far more confidence now that she had regained some sense of her composure. “Be honest here, how do you guys even see this working? With my being pack and you being rogues.”

Zeke shrugged his massive shoulders and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Honestly, I don’t know. But I do know that, if I don’t try, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.”

His blunt yet honest response caused her to pause. She didn’t expect that kind of blatant honesty from guys like them. It went against everything she thought she knew about rogue shifters, and she wasn’t sure how to respond.

Zeke must have sensed how caught off guard she felt because he smiled softly. “That never occurred to you, did it?”

She shook her head. Since he had been honest with her, it was only fair that she did the same. “No, it hadn’t. I’ve been so focused on why it can’t work that I haven’t really thought about the ramifications if we didn’t even try,” she admitted. “But even so, what’s the point? All that’s going to do is get us attached, and then, when it all inevitably falls apart, it’s going to hurt even more. It’s just a recipe for disaster.”

“We can’t predict the future, Princesa. We don’t know that it’s going to fall apart,” Zeke replied. “I am willing to take that chance. And I know Knox here would agree if he wasn’t too busy staring at your tits.”

Amara’s gaze flicked over to Knox just as he glanced up at Zeke and chuckled dryly. The look in his eyes told her that he had a list a mile long of things he’d like to do to her apart from staring.

Instinctively, she looked down at her chest and then quickly folded her arms in an attempt to hide them. She wished she had worn something that covered a bit more, but she hadn’t expected the guys to just show up at her shop.

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