Jasmine’s mind swirled with different possibilities, some of them amazing, some of them terrifying and every single one of them worth risking if the end result was one of the only two men she’d ever really be able to think of as her master taking her on as his submissive.

She looked up. The moment their eyes met, she knew Mr. Washington saw the decision in her eyes.

“Very well,” he said and stood.

“I should go and get ready,” she said, setting her tea aside.

Mr. Washington looked her up and down. “You’ll do very well as you are now.”

“Sir?”

“I doubt either of them would be impressed by an outfit which makes it clear you came to the club tonight to meet a man that wasn’t either of them,” he told her gently. “It appears both… gentlemen seem quite possessive of you.”

Jasmine nodded. She swallowed down her nerves and followed Mr. Washington out into the main part of the club.

She saw Stafford first-standing by the bar and glowering at everyone who walked past him. He looked at his watch.

“Five minutes since the last time you checked,” she heard Hayden say. The werewolf had his back to her, but he turned suddenly, inhaling deeply.

Stafford turned to face her a second later. He strode across the room and took hold of her arm, immediately moving her away from Mr. Washington.

Hayden grinned and put his arms around her waist, pulling her in close to his body and nuzzling her neck.

“Has he hurt you?” Stafford asked her.

He wanted her to say yes, she could hear it in his voice. He wasn’t looking for a reason to launch himself at Mr. Washington right then, just an excuse.

“No, sir, he’s never hurt me. Mr. Washington has never been anything but very kind to me.”

“She’s telling the truth,” Hayden reported as he kissed her neck. “She’s not afraid of him.”

“You didn’t choose either of us,” Stafford said.

Jasmine looked down.

Hayden and Stafford both reached for her face to make her look up at the same time. She looked from one to the other. In that moment, she realised that even if Mr. Washington hadn’t taken her out of the hotel, she wouldn’t have knocked on either of their doors. Perhaps in the back of her head, she’d always known that and it was why she’d walked out of the hotel with barely a word of protest.

“I can’t choose,” she blurted out, pulling away from them both.

Each man held onto her, stopping her retreat.

“I’m sorry, sir. I can’t choose between you. Everything rests on you two forming an alliance and…”

Stafford put his finger tips over her lips to stop the sudden stream of words. “We have an alliance, Jasmine, and you’re right in the middle of it. You are part of our alliance. Vampire, Human, Werewolf.”

Jasmine shook her head. “Mr. Washington was right. This is a bad idea.” This wasn’t going to work.

Hayden growled.

Jasmine looked from him to Stafford, the vampire looked equally unimpressed with the idea Mr. Washington had ever been right about anything.

“His opinions are irrelevant. You don’t belong to him. He told us he’s not your master, he’s just your trainer. He has no claim on you.”

“Trainer yes, but I still have a contract with Jasmine,” Mr. Washington corrected him.

Hayden’s growl went up a notch. Jasmine automatically reached out to him to stroke his skin and soothe his nerves.

“One week,” Mr. Washington decided.

“What?”

“You may both consider yourselves to be her master for the next week. At which time she will be brought back to this club. Jasmine will then be given a free choice, if she still wishes to belong to one or both of you, then perhaps the next scene will last a month, and so on and so forth.”

“She belongs to us now,” Hayden said. “She is our pack, not yours.”

“She is a human, and until both she and I are satisfied the life you two can give her is what she wants and what she needs, I retain the right to call her back to the contract she signed with me at any time, and she retains the right to ask either or both of you to return her to me at any time too.”

“No,” Stafford ’s grip on her arm tightened.

“Ours,” Hayden said.

Mr. Washington didn’t even blink.

“Do you really think you can stop us?”

“Yes.”

Stafford ’s eyes narrowed.

“The council will accept my contract with her as proof of ownership of Jasmine.”

Hayden shook his head. “She is not part of your pack, she doesn’t belong to you.”

Stafford’s eyes hadn’t left Mr. Washington. “Come along, Jasmine,” he said. “We’re leaving now.”

Jasmine looked across at Mr. Washington. He nodded to her, giving her permission to leave. “One week,” he reminded her and them.

She could feel the cold fury pouring off Stafford and the confusion surrounding Hayden. As the two men turned away from Mr. Washington, she saw him roll his eyes at the two younger men.

It wasn’t the first time she’d seen him express his exasperation with them. While arranging the challenge he had made her well aware he thought they were both idiots. Although, she’d only once heard him admit he vaguely remembered being just as stupid as they were when he was their age.

Jasmine bit back a smile at him and turned away from him to follow Stafford and Hayden out of the club. When they reached the car Stafford put her firmly in the back and tugged Hayden back when he would have got in there with her. Hayden grumbled but he got into the front passenger seat.

“Since you left the hotel, has any man hurt you?” Stafford asked, catching her eye in the rear view mirror.

She shook her head. “No, sir.”

“Have you submitted to anyone?” he asked. “Had sex with anyone?”

She shook her head again. “No, sir.”

“Good girl.” he said, more to himself than her if she was any judge. Some tiny part of the anger bubbling inside him seemed to settle.

Hayden twisted in his seat and looked past the headrest at her.

Stafford nudged him. “Turn around.”

“Why?”

“You can look at her as much as you want to once we get home.”

Hayden gave a long suffering sigh and turned around. Something between them had changed since she’d last seen them, their tentative truce seemed to have deepened into some sort of understanding, but by the time they reached the apartment, each man was watching the other one somewhat warily.

“How may I please you, sir?” she asked as knelt on the floor half way between them.

“Not sir,” Hayden said suddenly. “I don’t want you to call us sir.”

“Speak for yourself,” Stafford said.

“She calls everyone sir, we aren’t everyone.”

Stafford looked across at her. “Master, would be more suitable,” he decided.

“Yes, master.”

“Alpha,” Hayden said.

“Yes, alpha,” she responded, looking back and forth between one of them and the other.

Neither of them seemed quite sure what to do with her now they had her. Mr. Washington was right, neither of them had owned a submissive before-that much was obvious. And they were still young enough to be worried about looking like a fool in front of the other man if she should rebuff any advance they made towards her.

“How may I serve you?” she asked.

Hayden crouched down and stroked her cheek. “Come to bed?” he asked.

“You have no idea how to treat a woman with respect,” Stafford snapped.

“You want her too. Scent doesn’t lie, and she wants us as well, don’t you Jas?”

He smiled at her as Stafford frowned at them both. Then Stafford gave in and held out a hand, helping her to her feet. “Perhaps the simplest ways are sometimes the best,” he allowed. “Come to bed. There will be time enough to talk later.”

Their clothes dropped away as they walked. Once they were all naked in the bedroom, Stafford turned to her. He reached out and stroked her lips with the tip of his fingers.

She smiled up at him without needing him to put the order into words. “Yes, master.”