Chapter Ten

Summer

When I wake up, Tommie sits on the edge of the bed next to me, shirtless. I watch the muscles move across his back as he reaches for something on the nightstand. “How’d you sleep, darling?” he asks me. Turning to face me a smile spreads across my face meeting his.

“Great,” I tell him as I stretch, purring like a cat sprawled in the afternoon sun. “I feel much better. Rested and ready for the day. How about you?” I reach up and run my hand down his jaw, sliding my thumb over his lower lip.

A strange hand spreads across my hip, and I tense for a moment at the sensation on my skin. I can feel the warmth spreading through the soft, thin fabric of my nightie onto my skin. Rough shadow beard brushes against my cheek, then soft kisses spread over my neck and shoulder.

“I slept amazing as well, lassie,” Aaran says next to me as he runs the hand he has resting on my hip up over my abdomen and under my nightie sending chills through my body. I push back into him, the curve of my ass grinding against his hard arousal. He continues to kiss my shoulder and neck while he slides his hand up towards my breast and starts groping me there. The desire inside me builds the more his hand roams over my body.

Tommie leans forward and takes my mouth in his, kissing me deeply, demanding, taking me, and making me his. He slides down onto the bed, and I’m sandwiched between them. I slowly slide my hand down over Tommie's firm chest and abs, down to his waistband and beneath it, finding him hard and ready for me. I take a small breath in as he continues to kiss me.

“Ah, see. They’re getting started without us,” a voice says as I hear the door click open. Tommie releases my mouth, and I look up. Jakub and Balint stand at the end of the bed, both naked and glorious, their caramel skin glistening in the low light of the room. Smiling at me, Jakub climbs onto the bed towards me. The commanding look in Balint’s eyes as he stands behind him, watching his brothers take my body for their own, tells me that he won't be far behind.

“Here, darling,” Tommie whispers in my ear as he takes my hips in his hands, rolling onto his back and placing me on top of him. My hair falls into my face as I smile down at him underneath me. His cock positioned against my throbbing pussy, I clench at the emptiness I feel. Wanting, waiting to be filled by my Masters.

Jakub slides his hands down over my shoulders to the hem of my nightie and pulls it up over my body, exposing me to them. Aaran immediately takes my left nipple into his mouth, biting down hard, I cry out. A hand is in my hair, pulling my head backward, and I meet Balint’s eyes. He is standing to my right, beside the bed.

“Tell me who owns you, darling.” He catches his lower lip in his teeth as he looks down at me. The desire filling his eyes makes my muscles clench and the butterflies in my stomach swirl.

“You do, Master,” I pant out at him, licking my lips.

Aaran continues to suckle my breast and knead me as Tommie takes the other in his mouth. Jakub spreads kisses down over my shoulders and back. I feel a thrill shoot through me as Tommie slides his hands up over my thighs, squeezing me hard and taking hold of my hips, grinding me on him.

“Please,” I whimper.

“Please what, darling?” Balint asks me. A wicked smile on his face, his hand is still in my hair.

“I need.” I gasp. Tommie between my thighs grinding his cock on my clit is bringing me close to the edge. Three mouths on my body as I rub myself against him are pulling me apart at the seams, and my need to have them fill me is building quickly now.

“I need you,” I tell him, longing in my eyes.

Balint kisses me then, and I can feel his fangs on my lower lip, the prick of them spreading goosebumps over my body as they continue to touch me, suck me, knead me.

“Here.” Tommie shifts himself under me, and I can feel the head of his cock pushing against my entrance. I know I’m wet. I can feel it as he spreads my lower lips and coats himself with my arousal. “Oh yes, darling. You’re ready for us, aren’t you?”

I try to nod while Balint continues to kiss me, holding my head still, owning me. When Tommie retakes hold of my hips and slams me down onto him, I cry out around Balint’s kiss. Aaran continues to suck at my breasts while Jakub, still behind me, kisses my neck. Then Aaran shifts and rises onto his knees, putting his hand in my hair and pulling me from Balint’s kiss. Taking me in one of his own.

Balint grabs my hand by the wrist and guides me to his swollen dick, wrapping my fingers around him. He is massive, and I can’t take all of him in my hand as I slide up and down his length. I get lost in Aaran’s kiss, with Tommie pounding up into me still.

I feel Jakub’s hands on my ass then, sliding down me, grabbing me, and spreading me open to him. Warm oil coats my tight hole, and he slowly massages it in with his finger. “Ready for me too, darling?” he purrs in my ear, and I nod at him, still lost in Aaran's kiss.

They’re my Masters, taking me, owning me, marking me as theirs, and I need them to fill me. I need to feel them inside me as I come and give myself to them, now and forever.

“Relax for me, darling,” Jakub says, as Tommie stills and lifts me to give him access to my ass, Aaran doesn’t release me, kissing me still as his brothers fill me.

“God, she’s beautiful.” I hear Balint say to the other two at the same time that I feel the head of Jakub’s cock pushing into me, inch by inch. The fullness is too much, and I whine into Aaran’s mouth.

“Shh,” Aaran says, releasing his hand from my hair and running it over my cheek.

“Relax for them,” Balint instructs me. I nod at his command.

Aaran releases my mouth from his kiss, and I look up at him, longing in my eyes. I need him too. Two is not enough. I need a third. “Please?” I ask, licking my lips and nodding towards him. He rises up on the bed, fulfilling my request, and taking my head in his hands, he guides my mouth down onto him.

The velvety-soft skin of his cock tastes amazing on my tongue as he slowly slides in and out of my mouth. Just then, Jakub pushes forward deeper into me, filling me entirely while Tommie pulls me down onto him again. The two inside me stretch me beyond my limit, and the pain spreads through me. I still my hand on Balint’s cock, and my mouth full of Aaran’s stops for a moment as they allow me to adjust to the new sensation of being so overfilled.

Tommie takes his thumb and slowly starts to rub circles over my clit. “Relax, darling. You can do this. You were made for this. Take us in. Let us give you the pleasure you deserve.”

His words mixed with the feeling of his fingers on my clit fuels me, and I grind down onto him and back against Jakub buried in my ass. I suck hard at Aaran’s dick as he pushes forward into my throat. Balint takes my hand in his and starts pumping the length of his cock, using my hand to pleasure himself.

“There she is, that a girl.” I hear Jakub say behind me as he starts to piston in and out of me, deeper with each forward motion. He pushes in as Tommie pulls out, and then when he pulls out, Tommie fills my pussy. They get into a rhythm, fucking me, using me for their pleasure, and giving me mine. Tommie’s hand is still at my clit, pleasing me.

“I want you to come on my cock while we fuck you. Are you going to come for me, sweet thing?” Tommie asks as Aaran stops and pulls himself from my mouth, allowing me to answer his brother.

“Yes, Master. Please, I want to come for you. Make me come.” The fire building inside me makes my muscles clench down on the cocks filling my holes. I lean forward to take Aaran back in my mouth, but he shakes his head and grabs my hand instead. Balint takes hold of my head and turns me to him, roughly he shoves his cock into my mouth, and I gag around him. I can taste the tang of his pre cum on my tongue.

“That’s right, choke on my cock, darling.” I jerk Aaran’s cock while the other three brothers fuck my holes. “I’m going to fuck this pretty mouth while they fuck you.” Balint’s words fan the flame deep inside me.

The orgasm building within me barrels down on me like a freight train, and I explode around the cocks inside me. Clenching down on them, I buck as they fuck me harder then.

“I’m going to come in this tight pussy. You ready for me, darling?” Tommie asks as he bucks harder underneath me, and I nod the best I can with Balint fucking my mouth. I feel him still and twitch inside me, filling me with his cum, breeding me, marking me as his. Slowly they step back from me, and I’m left feeling empty. Jakub leaves the room, and I can hear the sink in the bathroom running as Tommie shifts me on the bed, laying me on my side and then kissing me.

“Thank you, sweet thing,” he whispers against my mouth as he stands from the bed. I’m cold without their hands on me. I need my Masters to make me theirs.

I slide my hand down my body to my clit and rub myself quickly, looking for another orgasm, needing to be filled.

“Please, Master,” I say to Balint as he climbs onto the bed next to me. Then lowering himself down, he fills my mouth again, and I suck him hard, showing him my appreciation, relishing the taste of him. I feel a hand on my wrist, pulling it away from my pussy, stopping me from touching myself. Then a cock fills me, and I cry out around the one already in my mouth. I’m fucked hard and fast this time. One cock in my mouth, another filling my pussy.

The next orgasm explodes through me, and I cry out around Balint. “There you go, lassie,” Aaran says from between my legs. “You ready for me next?”

Balint releases my mouth, and I look down at Aaran, his hands on my thighs. He pushes my knees back towards my chest as he fucks me hard, faster than before. His pace is punishing. I can feel him at the entrance of my womb as he fills me. “I want you to come with me,” he tells me, and I nod up at him.

“Yes, Master. Please.”

Balint bends down and kisses me, taking my breasts in his hands. He twists and pinches my nipples hard, and I cry out. As the pleasure shoots from my nipples to my pussy I come around Aaran’s cock inside me, his cum mixing with mine and Tommie’s.

“Aye, that’s right, milk me, darling.” He continues, as he slowly slides in and out of me, my pussy clenching down on him, over and over through my orgasm. When he raises up on his knees, leans over, and kisses me. He too whispers against my lips, “Thank you.”

When he leaves the bed, Jakub smiles at me from the end of it, and Balint shifts his position to stand next to me at the side of the bed. Taking hold of my ankle Jakub pulls me down to the edge of the bed, then grabs my hips and flips me onto my stomach, pulling me up to my knees and back onto him in one fluid motion. He pounds into me, and I gasp at so quickly being filled again.

Balint is back on the bed now, on his knees in front of me. He grabs my hair in his hand, pulling me onto his cock again, gagging me and fucking my face hard. They’re fucking me from both ends, roughly this time. Jakub’s hand comes down on my ass, and I scream around Balint’s dick. I push myself backward toward Jakub, asking him for more. He recognizes my need and spanks me again.

Yes, these two are much less gentle than the other brothers. Their punishment of my body brings me close to my orgasm quickly, and I explode around Jakub’s cock buried to the hilt in my pussy as he smacks me a fourth time on the ass. My skin under his hand stings, and the feeling sends me over the edge. I come again, the spasms of it making me buck back onto him.

I reach down and rub my clit as they fuck me, and I can hear their laughs filling the room. “You’re a dirty whore who likes to be fucked rough, aren’t you?” Jakub asks as he smacks me again, and I nod, looking up at Balint, begging him with my eyes. He fucks my mouth harder, and looking down at me, he smiles, then smacks me across the face, and I smile around his cock. Yes! This is what I need. I need my Masters to fuck me rough, use me and show me they’re in charge.

Every moment they fuck me like this, I am closer and closer to the feeling of flying. I feel Jakub still behind me as he comes, deep inside my pussy. Filling me even more with their combined seed. Balint backs away from me, and I cry out. “Fuck, Master, thank you, sir.” As I come on his brother’s dick still buried in my pussy. Jakub leans forward, kissing my back, shoulders, and neck.

“Thank you, darling,” he says, kissing me on the cheek. When he releases me, I collapse forward onto the bed, unsure if I’ll be able to handle any more. I’m sore, tired, and ready to curl up in their arms and sleep.

I smile at Balint as he bends down next to the bed, brushes my hair out of my face, and kisses me on the forehead. “You’re doing great. Come here,” he tells me as he stands and holds his arms out to me. I crawl to the edge of the bed and let him lift me up off of it, settling me onto my feet. Smiling up at this man, I know I would do anything for him. I am his now.

He turns us and pushes me back against the wall. “Arms above your head,” Balint commands as he takes hold of my waist and lifts me, holding me up against the wall. I wrap my legs around him with my arms above my head. One of his hands encircles my wrists, pinning me there as he lowers me down onto him. My own weight is working with us, and I am filled completely. He is the largest of the four, and I hiss. As he fills and stretches me, the sting of pain catches me off guard. Balint buries his face in my chest and bites my nipple hard as he pounds me back against the wall, fucking me relentlessly now.

I look over his shoulders at the other three brothers still in the room and smile. Tommie and Aaran make their way towards us, one on each side of me. Tommie reaches up and replaces Balint’s hand at my wrists with his own while Aaran grabs me roughly, pulls at my breast, and then smacks it hard. I cry out.

“Are you going to come on my cock too, darling?” Balint asks me.

“Yes, Master, please. I need to come, now.” I’m panting, and the overwhelming sensations are spreading across my body again. I need the release.

Balint nods at me. “Soon,” he says softly in my ear. “Me first.”

When he looks back up at me, the look in his eyes makes me flinch, but I don’t have time to process as he fucks me more demanding now, faster. Then I can feel his hot cum filling me too. They’ve done it. They’ve bred me now. He is still looking into my eyes, and I nod at him, smiling.

“Thank you, Master,” I say softly. When he brushes his finger against my clit I buck against him and come around his softening cock, still filling me.

He drops his head to my breasts again and bites down hard on one, I cry out at the sensation, but it carries me into another orgasm. Slowly, he reaches back and unwraps my legs from his waist. Tommie drops his hands from my wrists and I’m lowered to the ground. I stand, my back to the wall. I can feel cum running down my thighs as I smile at my masters, all four of them staring down at me.

When Balint steps back and holds his arms out to me, I fall forward into them. He turns with me in his arms, and I feel Jakub at my back now. All four men surround me. I look back up into Balint’s eyes, and I see the terrifying glow in them again. He drops his head to my neck at the same time that I can feel Aaran, and Tommie grab my wrists and raise them to their mouths. Jakub’s mouth finds the opposite side of my neck.

As the fog starts to clear my mind, I realize what I’ve done, but it’s too late. The exact moment I realize, I feel them simultaneously sink their fangs into my flesh, and I scream.

***

I sit bolt upright in the bed, still screaming from my dream. When Balint bursts through the door into the tiny airplane bedroom. I drop my hand to my pregnant belly as he steps towards me. I remember where I am and that I’m in no better condition than in my dream.

“Summer? What’s wrong?” It takes me a moment to process his words, and I shake my head at him. I can’t look him in the eyes. The things I did with him, with them, willingly. I wanted it. I still want it. What is wrong with you, Summer? They kidnapped you!

I’m gasping for breath. Trying to steady myself when Balint sits down on the edge of the bed, and I look up to see Jakub and Aaran standing in the doorway. Tommie is standing on the opposite side of the bed. I hadn’t noticed him entering the room. There isn’t enough space in here for all five of us. I can’t be in this room with the four of them after the dream I just had.

I reach down between my legs, and my cheeks flame bright red. I’m wet. I came in my sleep dreaming of having them dominate me.

“Are you okay, lassie? Do you need a doctor?” Aaran asks, and I jerk away when I feel Tommie’s hand come down on my shoulder.

He takes a cue from my body language and steps back from me when I turn to glare at him. “Don’t,” I growl.

I notice the plane has come to a stop, and I look out the window past Tommie, “Where are we?”

“Amsterdam. We had to land to refuel,” Balint tells me. His eyes are still full of questions.

“I’m fine. I had a bad dream is all, we’re fine. The baby and I are fine,” I reassure them, and they all visibly relax. The room is so full of testosterone it is doing things to my insides that I can’t admit to myself. I need to feel something that I can’t, and I’m filled with shame.

“I need to use the bathroom.” I stand from the bed and motion out to the hall, trying to slide past Aaran and Jakub. “Excuse me.”

Slipping into the small bathroom, I close and lock the door behind me and look at myself in the mirror. I can’t meet my own eyes. I can’t look at myself because of the shame. I want these men, I want them to breed me, and I can’t handle that thought right now. It’s the hormones I tell myself as I splash water on my face trying to cool my still inflamed skin.

When I come out of the bathroom, the brothers are no longer in the bedroom, and I decide to hide in there. I slip in, hoping to go unnoticed and sit cross-legged on the bed. My yoga pants are still soaked through in the crotch. No amount of drying them with paper towels in the bathroom helped. I say a silent prayer that they overlooked it, but I know from what Donnie has told me that they more than likely can smell it on me. I blush again at the thought.

Lying back down on the bed now, I slip my hand under the waistband of my pants and slide my fingers through the slick folds of my pussy. Mmm, I say softly to myself. Slowly I start to rub. I’m so wound up I need to get the release. I can’t handle it. Otherwise, when I go out there and look at the undeniably handsome faces of my captors, all I will be able to think about is having them fuck me here and now.

I try to picture Donnie’s face as I slowly slide my fingers up and down my folds and into my hot center. I come quickly. The shame again fills my mouth with a bitter taste, and I hope that no one will ever know what I’ve done.

I stand and look out the window. We are still stopped. I can see the men working on the tarmac, fueling our jet to continue to the brothers’ home in Poland. When I hear loud voices coming from out in the main area of the plane, I step towards the door and crack it open, trying to see if I can make out what the issue is.

“You don’t know that,” Tommie says firmly.

“Aye, he is right, for all we know, the child isn’t even a half-breed, and all of this is for not,” Aaran backs him up.

“Exactly my point. That’s what I’m saying. We have to determine it somehow. We have to find a way to experiment on the baby once it’s born and determine whether or not it is actually a vampire.” My hand flies unbidden to my stomach. They will not touch my child.

“What is the plan for that? I don’t think you can experiment on it. I think the best course is to let her have the baby. We will see if it can withstand the sunlight. If it can, that still won't tell us everything we need to know, but given time, we will be able to see if we can impregnate her.” I’m unsure which of the two are speaking. Both Jakub and Balint have the same foreign accents, which I suspect now, are Polish.

“Then what do we do with it?” the other asks.

“You’re going to have to let her keep the wee thing. If you take that child from her and run some type of twisted experiments on it, you’ll never gain the trust you’re hoping to earn,” Aaran says, and I nod at his words. He is right. He is so fucking right. They will not take my baby from me.

If I have to be resolved to remaining with these men and being their breeding mare, then Aaran is right. I will never trust them if they hurt my child. I pause. My children. I’m going to have their children. It’s too much. I can’t take the thought. I close my eyes and step back from the door.

When I bump into a lamp, it falls from the table and crashes to the floor. The sound of breaking glass fills the room, and I can hear them coming down the hall towards me. As the door opens, I spin and I meet Balint’s eyes.

“You’re white as a sheet.” Simply nodding at his words, I throw my hand out towards him, looking for support.

“I’m going to be sick,” I reply as I bend over and heave onto the floor. Fortunately, it has been an untold number of hours since I’ve eaten. I have no clue what day it even is.

Balint gently rubs his hand on my back as he holds my hair back and lets me get it all out. “You’re all right, darling. It’s going to be okay. Just get it out.”

“Stop, please just stop. I can’t take this. You’re going to give me a nervous breakdown, please. I want to go home,” I beg him, still bent with my hands on my knees, waiting for the waves of nausea to pass.

“We can’t do that,” Jakub tells me from the doorway, and I nod in agreement. I know what he says is true, at least in their minds. They’ve gone too far to turn back now, and they sincerely believe in their cause.

“I need to eat. Is there any food on this damned plane?” I ask as I stand. Balint is still holding me steady as I sway slightly.

“Aye, I’ll get you a piece,” Aaran calls from the hall.

“A what?” I ask as I put my hand on the doorway. Jakub holds his hand out to me in the hall, and I begrudgingly take it and let him lead me to the table.

“A sandwich,” Tommie tells me as he sits down next to me and offers me a bottle of water. “Drink this.”

I take the bottle, twist off the top, and slowly sip at the water, looking between the four men, all different but similar.

“Can you explain how you’re all brothers?” I ask, setting the bottle of water down and picking up the bag of potato chips Jakub has set in front of me. As I open it and take one, I wait for them to explain. They’re all turning to Balint, and again I get the feeling that he is their leader, the oldest, maybe?

“We all have the same father, for lack of a better term. Meaning the vampire who sired us all, it was long ago. We have spent centuries together and grown to see each other as family, brothers even,” Balint tells me as he sits down across from me at the small table.

I nod at his response. I had assumed as much on my own without their explanation. “What if I’m not what you think I am? Are you going to kill me?” Looking down at the table, I pause for a moment. “Or eat me?”

“No,” he says matter of factly. “Honestly, we had not realized you had a mate when Leo told us about you. Otherwise, we would have contacted him to see if we could work out an agreement. But no, Summer, we’re not going to kill you. Or feed on you.” He pauses and rubs his hand over his jaw. I notice for the first time how tired he looks, and I wonder if this is more than they had planned on it being.

“You could let me go. Honest, Donnie and I, we won't tell anyone about any of this. Please, Balint, I’m not convinced I am what you think I am. Donnie and I both think that this isn’t what your legends say.” I’m begging.

“What exactly does your Donnie know about the legends? How much has he told you?” Balint presses.

Aaran sets a massive sandwich down in front of me, and my mouth starts to water. I pick at the bread and pull it apart, eating it piece by piece. The brothers watch me, patiently waiting for me to satisfy my appetite before telling them what I know.

“Not a lot,” I say finally, popping another chip into my mouth. “When I found out I was pregnant and told Donnie, he told me it wasn’t even possible. Donnie went to Leo, who told him that there were legends of it being a possibility, and there was someone who tried once. But I guess he couldn’t help himself and accidentally killed all of the women he tried it with.”

They nod at me, listening to me intently. Feeling encouraged, I go on, “Donnie is the only person, err, um vampire. The only… You get it. I’ve only slept with Donnie in almost two years. There is no possibility that anyone but him is the father.”

“You’re sure your Donnie is a vampire?” Tommie asks. I turn and look at him. I had considered this before, but he says he is and that he is over one-hundred years old. Leo believes he is. Now is not the time for me to start doubting what I have already accepted as fact, even though the more I think about it, the more I realize I have little to no proof.

I decide I have nothing to lose and tell them as much. “I don’t really have proof of it. He says he is. Leo is, right?”

Balint nods at me. “Leo is a vampire, yes.”

“Leo says he is, Donnie says he is, he says he is over one-hundred years old and was turned in the forties. I think he would know if he was a vampire.”

“A baby one at that,” Jakub says from his chair across the room. I shoot him a glare. He shrugs at me. “If the shoe fits, darling.”

I shrug back at him and continue on, “So we’ve decided that he is a vampire. I mean, what proof do you need? Do you all even know what to expect? We have been trying to figure out what will happen once she is born. Do you have any information?”

Again, I decide that since I’m not going anywhere, if I can get information from them that will help my daughter, I need to try.

“It’s a girl?” Balint asks, and I nod. I’m not sure why, but the way he asks makes me uneasy about what he might be planning for my child.

“You’re not going to touch her!” I shout at him.

Just then, the door to the cockpit opens, and the pilot steps out. “Hey folks, we’re going to be preparing for takeoff and be taxiing in about five minutes. Would you all put on your seatbelts, please.”

The brothers and I nod, and I’m taken aback by how surreal the moment is. After the pilot returns to his seat to prepare us for takeoff, we all buckle our lap belts, and it is quiet for a few moments.

“Summer?” Tommie says beside me, and I turn to look at him. The pain I see in his eyes surprises me, and I’m caught off guard. “We truly do not wish to hurt you. Tell me, before Donnie met you had he been with anyone? Long-term, I mean. A mate ever, a vampire or human?”

Shaking my head at his words, I’m unsure where he is going with his questions. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Can you imagine living for centuries alone?” Balint asks me, and clarity starts to dawn on me.

“You all, you can’t have families. I mean, aside from turning others, or like the bond the four of you have?”

“No, it’s a lonely existence, to be honest. Even when it comes down to it when we have met a woman in the past, the thought of taking her humanity from her, turning her into what we are. Well, when you love someone, that’s not something that you wish to do to them.”

“You genuinely want children? You mean to tell me you’re not looking to rule the world and take over the human race?” I wring my hands in my lap as I ask the question.

They all chuckle then. “No, we’re not. I imagine that most of those bidding on you at Leo’s little auction probably wanted that. Summer, we’re looking for a companion. Like I said, we thought we were saving you from those half-mad old buggers.” Balint smiles at me when he finishes.

“We didn’t know you had a mate, darling. Do you know what Leo did to him?”

“What?” I gasp. The thought hadn’t occurred to me that Leo had hurt Donnie. “Do you think he did something? You think that Donnie is dead?” I’m starting to panic, and Tommie puts his hand on my shoulder.

“Take a breath. You need to relax. I don’t think that’s what Balint meant,” he says as he rubs my back and tosses a glare at his brother. “I think we are just trying to figure this all out. Do you think Leo would have hurt him?”

I’m shaking my head at his question. “I don’t know. I can’t lose Donnie. I can’t be here. I need to get home to my son. Please, you seem like decent men. You have to understand. I need to go home,” I plead.

Balint is rubbing his jaw again and looks across the table at me, reaching out his hand for mine, I hesitate but slowly place mine in his, and he gently squeezes. “Darling, Leo said there wasn’t a father. We didn’t just assume that there wasn’t one. He told us he had taken care of that and there wasn’t going to be some angry father coming to find you and the child.”

The room starts to spin, and tears sting my eyes. “He’s gone?”

“We don’t know that, lassie,” Aaran says, stepping towards me and putting his hand on my other shoulder. Having three of them touching me at once is starting to do things to me that I’m ashamed to admit. Even with the news that Donnie might be gone, my body is coming to life under their touch.

“I can’t do this right now. I need to be alone, please?” I ask as I unbuckle my belt and stand. I’m face to face with Aaran, and I can picture him naked in my mind kissing me. His eyes flash, and I wonder for a moment if somehow the four of them together are strong enough to do the mind control on me that Donnie never could. I look Aaran straight in the eye for a moment and wait to see if anything happens. He nods at me and steps aside, letting me go to the bedroom. I turn my back to him and look at the other three sitting at the table.

“It doesn’t work on me, does it?” I ask them collectively.

They don’t need any more of an explanation. Understanding is written all over their faces when they all shake their heads no.

“You’ve tried then?” I accuse.

“Aye,” Aaran confesses from next to me. “I did. I’m sorry, lassie. We had to know.”

“And if it worked? Then what? You were just going to tote me off to Poland behind you, against my will? Under mind control to have all of the little babies you want?”

No one speaks, and I glare between them, waiting for an answer. “I guess that’s not much different than what you’re doing now, is it? But you’re just trying to use a different type of mind fuck on me, right? You’ll catch more flies with honey, so if you convince me you’re all nice and lonely, and you just want a family you can call your own, I’ll go along with you willingly?”

My temper is rising, and I’m pacing in the small space as I shout at them now. “So we could all what? Live happily ever after together, the four of you, me, and our little family? Honestly, did you think that was going to work?” I’m fuming at them.

“We don’t want to hurt you, Summer!” Balint raises his voice as he stands. “It was worth a try, wasn’t it? Can you at least understand where we are coming from? Imagine you lived in a world where you spent centuries wanting something you could never have. Then you found out there was one chance at it, one chance in the entire world for you to finally get the one thing that your family was missing and had dreamed of. How far would you go to obtain that thing?”

I stop and look into his eyes again, they soften, and he shrugs at me. “How far, Summer?”

“To give my family what they need? To protect them? I would go to the ends of the Earth and never stop fighting. But see, that's where you fucked up, Balint. Because Donnie, this baby, my son. They’re my family, not you, and you can rest assured that I will go to the ends of the Earth to protect them. So that’s where you’re going to have to understand me. If you’re what I have to protect my family from, you don’t stand a fucking chance.” I have my finger in his face, spit coats my lips, and I’m raging at him now.

“We don’t have to be enemies, Summer. We could be your family. I will do what I can to give you the answers about Donnie, but he is likely gone. You have a son? We will get him. Bring him here with us. But don’t count us out yet. You’re going to need someone in your corner when that little girl looks up at you one day with a blood lust she can’t control, and you don’t have the slightest idea where to begin on teaching her to do so.” I stagger back at his words. These are things I had never thought of.

“You? She?” I stammer at him.

“Yes, Summer. She is half-vampire. She is going to act like one. Please sit back down. Talk this through with us. We are not your enemies.” He is holding his hand out to me, motioning to the chair. “Please, Summer. Hear me out.”

I nod and sit back down, taking a deep breath and letting out a long sigh. I drop my head in my hands. “You really think he is gone?”

Balint kneels in front of me and puts his hands on my knees. I look at him, we’re at eye level, and I’m taken aback again by how handsome he is. I have to stop myself from brushing my fingers through his hair, the pure attraction that I feel to these men is killing me.

“I can’t do this.” Unshed tears fill my eyes when I tell him this.

“You have to, darling. This is what it is. Please let us help you.” He puts his hand to my cheek, and I close my eyes, resting my face on his warm palm. I consider what he says. If Donnie is dead and I have a vampire child I can’t control. How will I protect her? How will I protect Gus against her?

“You have to prove it to me. I will not let you convince me Donnie is gone without proof. Find Leo and bring him here. If he tells me he killed Donnie, I will stay with you willingly. I will hear you out, but you have to help me. I don’t know how to do this, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do when she is born, and I don’t have any blood to give her. I don’t know how to teach her.”

I open my eyes, looking around at them all. I nod my agreement. They’re right. I need them. Without Donnie, I have no one, and if Leo really did kill him, they’re my only hope.