Athena Brody knew she was different, sensed it even as a child. A virtual prisoner in her own home, she craved freedom, needed answers to the questions her parents had refused to answer. After weeks of meticulous planning, she escapes the cabin she'd grown up in and her over-protective, over-bearing adoptive brothers, determined to learn who she was and where she came from.

Three of Athena's brothers have lived with the knowledge that she was their mate since the moment their parents brought the little girl home to live with them two decades ago. The three eldest, Jake, Gage, and Maverick impatiently await the moment of her sexual maturity but realize only her own kind can enlighten her. When she leaves their mountain home to discover her past and still the hunger that gnaws at her soul, they're one step behind her, watching over her as they've always done.

But not everyone wants Athena to discover her roots, or the secret that has been hidden for decades, and they'll do whatever they must to keep that secret buried in the past--including murder.

Athena's Hunger
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Excerpt

Licking her lips to ease the sudden dryness, she tried to think, but the more answers she received, the harder it became to deny her body's needs. She knew there was something very important she needed to ask, but focusing on the conversation had become beyond difficult so she asked the one thing that had been on her mind since they showed up at the river. "So why did you help me? I still don't understand why you all have assisted me in my escape, even providing the means by leaving money for me to steal."

"Don't you, sweetheart?" he asked, the tone of his voice turning rougher, almost like a low, rumbling growl.

She shook her head no.

He took a single step, pulled her into his arms, and cradled her against his body. "Because you're our mate, Athena. The one woman the Fates created just for the three of us and we weren't about to let you go without us."

Before she could answer, could even think of a response for his amazing statement, his lips sought hers, devouring her as if he were starving and she his last meal. Heat and fire raged through her at his touch. Beyond thinking now, she tore at his jacket, fumbling with the zipper, almost ripping it off him in her hurry to touch bare skin. When his jacket lay on the motel room floor, she reached for his sweatshirt, breaking the kiss only long enough that she could yank it over his head and toss atop the jacket. Again, their lips met, ravenous hunger for Jake pushing aside all thoughts of stopping what they were doing. Finally, her hands slid over the solid muscles of his chest, down his torso and over rippling abs.

When her fingers met the waistband of his jeans, she let out a frustrated growl. They, too, had to go. His damp jeans were hard to peel off his body, but she wasn't about to let that deter her. She wanted him naked and she wanted it now. Again, she broke the kiss, but this time she dropped to her knees, pulling Jake's jeans down to his thighs as she lowered herself to the floor. His erection brushed against her cheek as she lowered his jeans to his ankles. After kicking his pants off, Jake pulled her up from the floor, once again wrapping his arms around her waist and holding her against his chest.

With his arms around her and her head pressed against his chest, she could hear his racing heartbeat, smell the lust pouring from his skin. She ached for him--for all of them. She couldn't choose between them. Even now, with just Jake, she felt that the others should be here, that being alone with Jake in this way was a betrayal of some kind.

"They'll understand, and no matter what we do here, no one will take you vaginally until we're all together. That's a pact that we forged long ago when making our plans to get you out of there. If we ever had to separate, the one who took you to safety wouldn't enter you there until we were all together again. We wanted no one to associate a sense of guilt or betrayal to making love to you, especially you. Do you understand?"

Athena wanted to be pissed that they'd talked about her, made decisions about her body without her input, but in the end, she felt relieved, knowing that Jake wouldn't take her that way eased some of the guilt she did indeed feel. Once she nodded that yes, she understood.

Jake walked backward with her still in his arms until his knees hit the back of the king size bed.

With a small turn and a gentle lift, he had her placed in the center of the large bed, her towel still wrapped around her. That didn't last long though before he was pulling at the material where she'd tucked the towel between her breasts, spreading the towel wide and opening her up to his gaze like he had opened a present. Only her panties covered her now. Jake sucked in a breath and his eyes dilated as he looked at her. His cock, already huge and heavily veined, grew even larger as he stared down at her body.

"You have the body of a goddess, sweetheart," Jake whispered.

His husky voice sent ripples of need down her body, making her ache even more. How could his voice alone make the need worse, the ache deeper? She didn't understand this intense need. It had never been this bad before, even when she'd woken up from an erotic dream, her fingers buried inside her vagina, it had never been this powerful.

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