I'm caught between two brothers standing over my bed, both claiming I belong to them.

Twenty-four hours ago, my biggest problem was a dead car battery and an ex-boyfriend who didn't know I existed anymore.

I was driving through the mountains when my engine gave out. I saw a light through the trees. I walked toward it.

That was my mistake.

I heard the growl before I saw anything. Low. Close. Then two gold eyes materialized in the dark, and my body made the decision my brain hadn't finished making yet.

I ran.

Something slammed into me from behind and the world went black.

When I opened my eyes, I was in a bed I didn't recognize, in a room built from stone, with a ceiling too high and a silence too deep. A man sat in the chair beside me — dark hair, sharp jaw, eyes the color of ice water — watching me like he'd been there a while.

"My name is Alaric," he said. "You wandered into our territory."

I was still trying to process territory when the door crashed open.

The man who filled the doorway was nothing like the one beside me. Where Alaric was cold and still, this one was all movement and heat — broad shoulders, dark eyes, a jaw like he'd been carved out of something that didn't know how to quit.

His eyes found mine.

Something behind my ribs lurched hard.

"She's awake?" He didn't look at his brother. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Alaric stood, putting himself between us. "Orion. We discussed this."

Orion didn't stop. He crossed the room like Alaric hadn't spoken, stopped at the edge of my bed, and looked at me the way you look at something you've been searching for without knowing it.

"How's your head?"

"Fine," I said.

"You're a terrible liar." Almost a smile. "You lost a lot of blood."

"I said I'm fine."

"Most people say thank you when someone saves their life."

"Thank you. Now back up."

He raised both hands. Didn't move an inch.

"Can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because you're my mate."

I stared at him.

"Your what?"

"Mate." He said it slower, like I was the one being unreasonable. "Fated. The bond doesn't care about timelines."

"We've known each other for thirty seconds."

"Doesn't matter."

Alaric's voice cut across the room, quieter than I expected. "She's not just yours, Orion."

The room went still.

Orion turned. Something in his face had gone completely flat. "What did you say?"

"The bond." Alaric's eyes moved to mine, steady and cold and almost reluctant. "I felt it too."

For a second, nobody moved.

Then Orion had his brother against the wall, forearm at his throat.

"She's mine," he snarled. "I found her. I saved her."

Alaric twisted, reversed it, pinned him — and looked back at me over his shoulder.

"I don't care who found her first," he said. "She's mine."

Orion laughed through the blood on his lip. Turned his head until his dark eyes locked on mine.

"Then let her decide."