TamingTabitha

Virginia Nelson

Book 1 in the Bond of Three series.

As a Seer, Tabitha has always known the day would come when
she’d have to face her destiny and succumb to her future mate, as only then
would her powers fall fully under her command. Tradition dictates that Tabitha
run, forcing her intended to prove his worth—and his desire. But it is the
discovery that Tabitha is destined for two mates, creating a bond of
three—unheard of among her people—that sends her running faster than she’d ever
expected.

Gage and Lancaster have been chasing Tabitha for over a
decade. Though sharing goes against their basest instincts, the primal urge to
find and seduce Tabitha overrides any desire to fight between themselves. As
Gage and Lancaster close in, Tabitha must face the truth—though her people may
scorn a bond of three, there’s nothing on earth strong enough to destroy the
chemistry and soul-deep longing Tabitha feels when she finally stands her
ground and faces her men.

A
Romantica®
paranormal ménage erotic romance
from Ellora’s Cave

Acknowledgments

For All the Heathers

I can thank Shell, Jfab, Ma and Dad a thousand times and it
wouldn’t be enough for the random things they do to keep me sane and well fed,
but I’ll thank them again because they deserve it. Thanks to the bratpack for
being the world’s most amazing kiddos and
So Many
cups of coffee. Thanks
to the Schommer fam for giving us such a wonderful and unique home and extended
family. Also, big thanks to Mardi and Ami…since donuts, alcohol and chocolates
sometimes magically appear and make everything just a little nicer
J

Tabitha Hoffman peered into the darkness, willing her eyes
to see the mate she knew paced her steps in the velvety cover of night. The
mating ritual wasn’t a new or complex one. A female Seer reached fertile age,
her body ripening like fruit on a vine. Once she’d gained full maturity,
instinct drove her to run—literally—and only the male destined for her could
catch and claim her. Regardless of the simplicity implied by the race, it only
guaranteed the woman would find a man biologically suitable and thereby perfect
to continue their species. A year after the Seer was claimed, she’d become
ready for seed to implant, bringing rise to the next generation of their kind.

Suitable didn’t mean happy. Biology didn’t care whether or
not a couple made sense out of bed. She’d seen women mated to men who spent
their lives with lips compressed in dislike until their hunter touched them and
hormones drove away logic. She’d met men married by destiny to women they
loathed, but couldn’t resist.

Their kind, the Seers, had formed their ways back when the
stars were newly hung in the sky and had solidly clung to them, even though the
rest of the world would find them more than archaic. Tabitha might be fated to
repeat an age-old life cycle but she didn’t have to like it.

The times might change but the old things of the Land stayed
the same. They could afford to, since times would simply change again if they
hung around long enough. She understood the ways, even if she’d spent most of
her lifetime rebelling against them. She’d met a couple of men who tempted her
to end her race, to succumb to them—two came to mind as she paused for breath
and looked down the mountain. But her fantasies weren’t for a man…at least, not
only one.

In the distance, city lights glittered. The pink glow
against the horizon promised a feast for her senses—humans drowning in
overwhelming pools of emotion and trying so hard to distract themselves from
their miseries. She could simply walk up and eat the emotions without even
fearing them noticing her presence. If she could run far and fast enough,
perhaps she could make it to that beacon of lights and lose herself to the beat
of life. An emotional vampire, that was what she considered herself, plagued by
visions of what would be. Her kind were useless in an era without a bit of
belief in magic or power, forgotten in a land of technology and instant
gratification.

Her path would be nearly untraceable amongst the tidal wave
of diversion the humans in the city would provide. Although she’d fed and felt
stronger than ever, the pulse of life still tugged at her and might become
irresistible up close. The one hunting her would surely be as tempted as she to
feast rather than hunt.

She didn’t think her pursuer would allow her quite that much
of a lead, though. He’d been following her for too many years. Perhaps even the
city wouldn’t be enough of a distraction, not with the hunger growing more
powerful every day.

Scenting him, a smell like brandy on a thread of breeze, she
skipped farther into the dense forest. She knew her way led up the mountain. A
vision long ago foretold this night, even if she’d run from it. She’d escaped
other would-be mates while the moon turned and time passed. Her age, for her
kind, meant she should have taken a lover years ago. Never before, in all her
lonely nights of racing against her own fate, had she wanted to just sit down
in the underbrush and allow her destiny to catch up. Even though her dreams and
visions warned against her marathon—foreshadowing a dark figure who might
destroy their people—she’d never second-guessed her choice to elude capture. Until
tonight. Then again, she’d always known she couldn’t outrun fate forever.

The temptation, the sweet scent of the one dogging her steps,
wasn’t new. He’d found her before, though she’d slipped away. She knew his
name, Lancaster, and they’d met and mingled at the yearly gathering—a time when
all Races were suspended so they could go home and see family. His laugh could
shiver over her skin even in a room full of people and she’d been drawn to him
even while refusing the sexual offer in his gaze.

In that neutral space, she’d learned enough about him to
know he’d make a good mate. Strong, funny, attractive… But could he catch her?
Her few exchanges with him had branded her soul with his mark, the quirk of his
smile planted in her mind like a fertile seed. She licked her lips and her
heart raced and her palms sweated at the thought of how he might claim her if
she didn’t manage to dodge destiny. Just because she’d resisted the bonds of
mating didn’t mean her body didn’t crave it on a base and primal level. Tonight,
she felt like an overripe fruit, bursting with the need to be plucked from the
tree and tasted.

In the distance she sensed another presence and she knew
she’d drawn in a second hunter. Her status as an unclaimed Seer would shine to
them in the night, brighter than the far-off city and far more compelling.
Gage, the second hunter, had been at the gatherings as well. Not as strong as
Lancaster, but clever. Where she knew she might outsmart Lancaster, she didn’t
have such illusions about Gage. His ice-blue eyes framed by chill white hair
seemed to look inside her, to know what she wanted and needed. He’d plotted
when he’d stared across the fires at her. She’d known he would come for her.
Both men awakened fantasies she’d resisted but couldn’t ignore.

But the chances of them both finding her in the same remote
forest?

Her breath quickened. Did she dare hope for the impossible?
Closing her eyes, she allowed a moment for the idea of her body, golden with
her power, sandwiched between the darkness of Lancaster and the frozen white of
Gage. If liquid desire readied her body for the Claiming at just the thought of
the two men, how much would she react to their actual touch?

Hunters never shared their mate, so even thinking such
things was forbidden. Their people would never condone such a match, even if
two hunters could be kept from fighting to create one, or so she told herself
when she imagined just such a pairing. Not to mention her inability to satisfy
two men rather than only one mate. She could think of hundreds of reasons why
her fascination with the two men wouldn’t work and only one reason it could—she
craved it. She hungered for them both in a way that might be sick and wrong but
remained irresistible and, with time, had come to seem inevitable.

The chances of two hunters being this close and not
realizing it were less than impossible. The men, she knew, could speak amongst
themselves. While the women Seers could hold life in their body and therefore
see the future, the men were grounded in the now. They could touch a mind, hear
a mind—making their feeds off the humans so much more intimate—but it trapped
them in the current time rather than wandering the time stream.

It made sense, really, why the women mated young and few
made it so long as she without seeking a lover. Her mind rocked back and forth,
trapped in a constant seesaw throughout time, since she’d come of age. All
women did, until a man planted the very present sense in them. The constant
flood of possibility drove some to madness, but she’d teetered unbalanced out
of worry for her future for a very, very long time. What if she wasn’t enough
for her mate? What if she hated him? What if she couldn’t be what he needed?

As if drawn by her consideration of her conflict, a vision
overtook her and she stumbled. Landing on her knees, she dug her fingertips
into the mossy loam, trying desperately to keep from falling into the future.
She needed to run, not see.

Unfortunately, the ground wasn’t enough to keep her from
sliding away. Darkness crept like a fog over the land surrounding the castle
back home and formed into a single man, glaring up at the ramparts. Moonlight
illuminated his red eyes and three lights flickered as if readying to attack
him. That image faded to be replaced by sunshine, and her focus swirled in
circles, like a camera swiveling into zoom.

A blue sky hung overhead, scented by wildflowers—the same
wildflowers she could smell around her in reality. She turned and looked back
at the two men lying naked on the blanket and—

As the dregs of vision dissipated, a mosquito bit her,
bringing her firmly back into the present, and she sucked in air. They were
both closer, having used her distraction as a time to catch up.

Pushing to her feet, she sprinted off. Although her breath
burned in her chest and her heart raced, she refused to give in so easily. If
they wanted her, they’d chase. It was their way.

The image from the future warned she’d not be fast enough.
It warned that no matter how hard and far she ran, they’d catch her before the
sun broke the horizon and lit the sky with streaming color. It didn’t matter,
though. Even if she knew the outcome, she’d not give into a mate who didn’t win
her fairly.

The whish of sound warned her, but not in enough time for
her to dodge the net that snared her feet from the ground and whipped her into
the air. The breath pushed out of her wheezing lungs and she gripped at the
sides of the net, seeking some kind of stability as the whole thing waved back
and forth between the trees.

A laugh sounded far below, and she craned her neck to try to
see them in the dark. “Hey, Tabitha. You ran into a trap.”

She recognized Gage’s voice even if she couldn’t see him lurking
in the shadows. “Yeah, I noticed that. Don’t suppose you’d be a pal and cut me
down?”

“Oh don’t worry. We’ll let you down.” His amused tone
confirmed both her visions and her supposition. The men were working together
to catch her.

“We?” She asked the question aloud, as if she didn’t know
Lancaster closed in on the clearing even as they spoke.

While Lancaster smelled of brandy and wicked pleasures best
saved for the cover of night, the scent of Gage teased at her nostrils. As crisp
as the white of his hair, Gage smelled of mint and the cold breath of frost
from a snowy morning. The combination of the two males, both so obviously ready
to mate based on the heady fragrance in the wind, left her a little dizzy and
almost drunk on repressed passions.

“You knew we’d come for you.” His tone was a jagged shard of
vocal power, meant to ready her body for his claiming. It took her a moment to
scrape enough logic together past the shivers the sound caused on her skin to
discern his meaning. When she did, her lips curled. Apparently, Gage wasn’t in
the mood to play coy.

“Did it seriously take two of you to catch me?” Just because
he was shoving power around like he had it to spare didn’t mean she wasn’t in
the mood to play verbal banter.

“You knew it would be us. And since we both won you…” He let
the sentence dangle and her nipples hardened in reaction. With one hand, she
rubbed across them, hoping to lower her reaction, and instead amplified her own
need. Technically, since they’d both caught her, they
could
share her.

Men of their kind weren’t willing to share a mate, none
she’d ever known of in all her travels. Too possessive, too dominant… They
didn’t want someone else to touch their mate, certainly not for the remainder
of their whole lives. Mates were for a lifetime and their lifetimes were longer
than most creatures.

The idea of two men, though, had long fascinated Tabitha,
even if it was taboo. She’d seen mortals in such relationships and something
about the idea of being sandwiched between two men, their scents twined and
both determined to please her, caused a forbidden thrill.

Not that she’d admit it. They’d have much power over her
already as mate. No sense giving them big heads on top of it. “You have to
admit, Gage, it’s pretty badass that it took two boys to take down one girl.”

“He doesn’t have to admit anything.” The rumble of sound
echoed through the trees, laced with power and vibrating through his barrel of
a chest. Still unable to see them, Tabitha didn’t have a problem imagining
Lancaster below, speaking in his deep bass up at her. Huge shoulders, giant
hands and a voice like a foghorn, Lancaster was as big as he was dark. Dark
skin, dark hair and chocolate-brown eyes—many other women wished for him to
claim them. She’d seen her friends watching him, whispering, but he’d stayed as
unclaimed as Tabitha as years rolled by. Just the sound of his voice sent a
shot of liquid heat to pulse between her legs. She shifted with growing
arousal, causing the whole contraption they’d caught her in to sway even faster.

“Well, it’s awful uncomfortable up here, so if you boys are
done playing around…” She ran out of words, closing her eyes to the onslaught
of fantasies that flooded her. Would they really share her? Just the thought of
Lancaster’s giant hands pinning her, pushing her closer to the icy heat of
Gage, caused a ripple of electricity to riot through her senses.

“Yield first. We’re not chasing you any more tonight, so
let’s just clarify for the sake of propriety. Do you yield, Tabitha?” Gage made
the question a demand, but he wasn’t as close as Lancaster was to her, based on
scent.

“What if I don’t? Are you guys just going to hang out and
wait?” Forcing bravado into her voice when she wanted to beg them to lower the
net and ravish her was her last lingering bit of independence flaring up. Once
she was mated, she’d travel with them. She’d eat with them. She’d make love to
them. Never again a single entity, never again alone.

The idea thrilled and daunted her in turns. On one hand, she
wanted them. Her body demanded them and besides that…she liked them both. If
she had to spend forever with anyone, they were both challenging, funny and
intriguing men. It also got kind of lonely walking through her days alone,
which couldn’t be discounted, and she longed for the stability their grounding
her powers in the present would bring.

On the other hand…what if she wasn’t enough to satisfy two
such virile hunters? What if she didn’t like being claimed? Forever seemed a
long time to risk doing something any of them might find unpleasant.