Zoe's Blockade (Destiny's Trinities Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page B

slowly. He ground the heels of his hands against his eyes and gave a big, gusty sigh.
    Declan looked down at the chair beneath him. He didn’t remember sitting. Yet he could feel the chair beneath him. It was the same hard, unforgiving wooden seat he remembered. That hadn’t changed.
    He looked up at Zoe and Cole. “How long?” he asked.
    They glanced at each other.
    “Were you together before I died?” Declan demanded.
    “No!” Zoe cried. “You two were married , Declan.”
    Cole shook his head. “It just happened. Long after you were gone.”
    “No, I don’t think so,” Declan said slowly. “You wanted her, even when I was alive. I saw you watching her.”
    Cole’s jaw rippled. “You wanted her, too. You’d come home from the clinic in a muck sweat and drag me into the bedroom. Afterward, the conversation always seemed to come around to Zoe. I’m not stupid, Declan.”
    Declan froze. He couldn’t hear his heart beat and didn’t know if he was supposed to or not. Yet he was feeling…yeah, it was guilt.
    Cole just looked at him, waiting for him to acknowledge the truth.
    Zoe cleared her throat, a harsh, deliberate sound that still sounded feminine and light. “Well, this conversation has taken a detour.”
    “Has it?” Declan asked curiously. “You’re in the room, Zoe. Cole always started thinking about sex when you were there.”
    “So did you,” Cole said heavily.
    Declan was watching Zoe, though. There was something driving him, making him want to reach for her. In all the years he had known Zoe, he had always been able to hold himself back despite the desire to touch her, because ultimately, he loved Cole and didn’t want to hurt him in any way.
    Now, though, it was almost a compulsion to go to her. “The bonding,” he said. “You’d better tell me what it is, because I think it might be working.”
    * * * * *
    Beth glanced out the window once more. It was snowing again. Even so, she still wanted to be out there more than she wanted to be in this apartment.
    The three of them were at it again, snarling at each other. The problem was Murphy. He was a shifter, a werewolf, which Noemi, a vampire, and Dane, a human hunter, had considered to be an enemy their entire lives.
    Murphy was actually snarling. The inhuman sound coming from his mouth made the hairs on the back of Beth’s neck stand up straight and a shiver ripple down her back. If she had heard that sound out on the street at night, she would have broken into a sprint, heading for the nearest safe place.
    Beth was suddenly tired of it. They had been at this for nearly twelve hours, while Beth had also been trying to handle everything happening back in the office by remote control.
    She got to her feet, grabbed Murphy by the front of his sweater and hauled him around until he was looking at her. “You, shut up.” She shoved him into the chair behind him.
    She pointed at Noemi. “Retract your fangs. You look like a moody teenager, showing them in that way.”
    Noemi’s fangs retracted with a snap and she blinked.
    Beth looked at Dane. “I get that werewolves are the enemy. I get that you’ve hunted them since you were a kid. Things have changed.”
    “Shifters are half-demon,” Noemi said sullenly.
    “Quarter demon,” Murphy said. “It’s not as if we like it, either.”
    “I’m not kissing anything with demon blood,” Dane said firmly. “It’s just not happening.”
    “Because he’s a werewolf, or because he’s a man?” Beth said.
    Dane’s mouth opened.
    “Listen, all of you. You think you’ve got the rough end of the stick here? You think this isn’t happening to everyone in the supernatural world? We’re all having our lives rearranged for us in ways we didn’t ask for, that we have absolutely no control over. Zack is one of my trinity and he’s a vampire. The other is Lindal and he’s elvish. They were mortal enemies and they got thrown together and had to make it work. Neither of them had ever kissed a