Pieces of Three by Kim Carmichael

“Porter?”
    “You can look.” Julian nodded. “It’s okay.”
    She inhaled and finally twisted around to find him returned to his human state, and as naked as her and Julian. The three of them were undressed in a tiny bed together. Her stomach bottomed out. What she felt with Julian in what she thought was her dream was in fact reality, and Porter seemed to have the same condition or maybe shifters were naturally in such a state.
    “Just consider me your living blanket.” He raised his eyebrows. “Are you dizzy?”
    She opened her mouth but wasn’t sure how to answer. Dizzy as in her world seemed to be spinning out of control? Then the answer was yes. “What’s going on?”
    “Do you see me clearly?” Porter took her chin in his hand and stared into her eyes.
    As clearly as she saw any amazing male who supposedly turned into an animal to help her. “Am I okay?” Maybe someone else needed to tell her, since she didn’t know.
    “Do you hurt anywhere?” His eyes also seemed to shine.
    She inhaled, blinked and took in the space around her, tried to piece everything together. A slice of sunlight came in through a window. Before they were in the hold where no natural light could reach them. “What’s going on?” The last thing she remembered was hiding down below waiting for them. Somehow they kept their promise and found her.
    “We are in the officers’ quarters.” Julian tapped her.
    She turned to him. “What?”
    “We ran aground on a tiny island. It’s only the three of us.”
    “Where is everyone else?” Her voice came out scratchy, disjointed.
    Julian simply smiled.
    “Porter?” She moved to her back and glanced over at him.
    “The storm was very bad. Lucky for you, you had two superior males looking out for you. We are the only survivors.” He ran his fingers across her forehead. “As soon as we get up I want to find something to put on this. I don’t want any scars. While shifted, I did lick your wound clean. I know humans don’t believe in the medicinal value, but trust me.”
    Two naked shifters, her, one uninhabited island and a storm that left no other survivors. He licked her wound clean? The image overwhelmed her, she wanted to run but sat up instead. Her head whirled and she covered her eyes. “Oh no.”
    “I really want you to rest today. You were knocked around a lot yesterday.” Porter pulled her back down on the bed.
    Her focus darted between them, but their focus was elsewhere. A quick peek revealed she lost the blanket along the way and her breasts were exposed. She gasped and put her arm over her chest. Her cheeks heated.
    “Maybe we all need to rest today.” One side of Julian’s mouth lifted in a smile. “Or not.”
    Without any words or humor, Porter stared down at her, or different parts of her.
    Caught in watching him, she held her breath.
    “You never told me how you were feeling.” He seemed to glare at her and she wanted to know what happened to him to exude such misery.
    If she possessed the confidence she wished for, she would have come up with something catchy, flirty, or seductive. One of the lines other women said to make men want them would roll out of her mouth. Of course she needed to remember she wasn’t that type of girl, nor were either of these males someone she could even be with. She already crossed every line since stealing the antidote, but any physical relations with the Lykans were considered deadly. No human ever survived after being with them.
    “What’s the plan?” She slid one hand down, trying to make sure not to touch anything that didn’t belong to her, and pulled the blanket up. At the moment her plan was finding clothes for all of them. “Don’t you have sick Lykans to attend to?”
    The smile vanished from Julian’s face and Porter’s eyes darkened. The glow disappeared.
    “What do they have?” Along with the frightening stories of the big bad wolves came the even more terrible tales of the diseases they