Page 31 of Beauty and Her Beasts (Dirty Paranormal Fairytale Haremlan 1)

“Oh?” I said, raising an eyebrow.

Gunnar said, “She wants all of us too. The decision is up to her.”

“Nice to see you’re actually taking her feelings into consideration this time,” I said. “But what is done is done. She made her choice.”

“Has she, though?” Declan asked. “You might have been the first to make it to the bed with her, but that doesn’t change she was almost in mine first.”

I glared at him. “She’s sleeping in my bed as we speak. What’s to argue? She’s mine now. The sooner you accept it, the better.”

Gunnar let out a sarcastic laugh. “The last time any of us tried to stake a claim on the woman, she ran off fuming. She’s pretty terrifying when she’s pissed off, you know. Are you sure this is the direction you want to go?”

“I still say we need to give her the choice,” Declan said. “Approach her and ask her to choose. It’s the only way to fight fair and know for sure.”

I pinched my nose. My patience was running thin with these two. “This is ridiculous.”

“What’s ridiculous is you believing the woman is yours simply because you screwed her,” Gunnar said.

“It won’t be pretty when she finds out you’ve pushed us away and took her choice from her,” Declan added.

“The best thing we could do is let her choose who she wants to be with,” Gunnar said.

I settled my attention on the space between the two men. With them taking turns to convince me, I was getting dizzy switching my gaze from one to the other. I sighed. “Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Shake on it,” Gunnar said. “It’s not a deal unless there is a handshake. And we’re going to need rules. Can’t have anyone going behind each other’s backs, trying to sabotage things for the rest of us.”

I narrowed my gaze on him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What do you think it means, King?” Declan said. “I told him everything.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked. My patience for these two men was dwindling by the second.

“All the women I tried to woo and you would steal away from me,” Declan said. “You did that to me for years. Ruined our friendship.”

That stung. But it was true. I huffed a sigh through my nose. “That is true.What rules are you suggesting?”

Gunnar said, “We start by giving her one-on-one time. Dating her. No one can interrupt the other’s date.”

“Go on,” I said.

“No sabotaging, no cheating, no shortcuts, no stealing,” Declan said. He leveled his eyes on mine as he emphasized stealing.

“You’re pretty bitter about this, aren’t you?” I asked.

He held up his finger and thumb with a small space between them. “Just a bit.”

I nodded. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

“Too little, too late, don’t you think?” Declan said.

I shrugged. “Maybe. But better late than never.”

“So do we have a deal?” Gunnar asked. “Are we all in agreement?”

I stepped forward with my hand extended and then hesitated. “One last thing…”

Gunnar and Declan kept their gaze on me, waiting for me to continue… I honestly wasn’t sure I wanted to. On one hand, I wanted Allana more than anything. On the other, I knew I didn’t deserve her. But if we were going to give her the chance to make up her own mine, there was one little caveat that needed to be made.

“She has to be told about this,” I said finally. “By you two, first of all.”

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