Is it possible to be in love with two completely different people at the same time?  Do our hearts truly have the capacity to be in love au duex?

Can one man (or woman) fill your heart but another feed your soul?  If you had to pick just one, your heart or your soul, which one would it be?  Could you pick one and thrive without the other?

My brother said to me when his marriage came to an end, “Karin, I don’t believe in one soul mate, I believe in many.” A hopeless romantic, he believes in more than one true love.  He believes there are many hearts and souls out there for each of us, if we open ourselves up to the possibility.  Now he wasn’t saying he wanted sister wives, what he meant was that he could over the course of his lifetime, be in sustained love with more than one woman. (Not all at the same time, but hey, with him you never know!)

I never really believed that, until recently.  I just wrapped up BLOOD VOW, the final book in my Blood Moon Rising trilogy.  It’s a tumultuous love story between Falon and brothers Rafael an Lucien. A story about survival, revenge and coming of age. Of hard compromises and unconditional love.

My heroine, Falon is literally torn between two lovers.  More than lovers, men she is deeply, profoundly in love with and they her to the point of obsession.  These two men feed her heart and her soul, and when she’s forced to make a choice she can’t.  And won’t.  For her, one without the other leaves her only part of a whole.

Have you ever felt that way?  (I’m not prying really, just asking as in answering in your heart, not here in public, unless you want to  :)  )  Have you ever been in love with two people equally but for different reasons?

In the Blood Moon Rising saga, one brother Rafael is described as the light while his younger twin brother Lucien is described as the dark.  Both are necessary for survival.  Falon’s emotional and physical survival.

She’s a lucky girl having two remarkable men in love with her.  I liken (or lycan hah get it?) them to Prince William and Prince Harry. The eldest, William, from the moment he was born was groomed to be king.  Then along came Harry, the spare.  Harry was groomed to be William’s second in everything he did.  But both men are quite capable of being king. But unlike the serious and honorable William, Harry is cut some slack because he is the spare.  He gets away with things his elder brother would never get away with.  Harry is naughty and fun, William is behaved and honorable. William, I also suspect, has always looked out for his little brother.  It’s what eldest siblings do. I know I did as the eldest, so did my husband the eldest and my eldest daughter mother hens all of her siblings.

Imagine having the heir and the spare, two royal, charismatic, sexy as sin brothers loving you, and you, be still your heart, loving them back.  What’s a girl to do?  And what are the boyz gonna do?  Let’s just say it took me three full length novels to work that out.

In our fantasy world, we get them both.  In reality?  For most of us, we can only have one. This is precisely why I love my job as much as I do. I can fall in love with two amazing men at the same time.  And, be loved by them in return.  Oh, lucky moi, having not one but two cakes and eating them too.

Does it get any better?

I didn’t think being the good girl that I am, and as set in my ways as I am, that it was possible to be in love with two men at the same time, until it happened to me.  One my heart the other my soul.

I’m not sure how I’m going to move on from this crazy, roller coaster love triangle, but I know for my next love story to rise and shine, I’ll have to find a way to live without Rafael and Lucien. Knowing that they will always be there in my heart makes it a little easier.  I mean really, all I have to do is walk over to my bookshelf and pick them up again.  Oh, and I will, regularly.  They are that special to me.

And because they are so special to me, it’s going to be awhile before I’m brave enough to fall in love with two men again.  My heart got pretty wrenched up this time around.

I wrapped up BLOOD VOW over a week ago and my wrenched up heart is still not done, well, wrenching.  Maybe it’s because we have been through so much together.  Not only the characters in my story but my life as I wrote them.  Major life changing events happened during the time I was writing this trilogy.  My granddaughter was born.  Nine months later tragedy struck my family when my beloved father-in-law passed away.  I had to stop writing BLOOD LAW.  It was too painful. It took months before I could open the file. As I began BLOODRIGHT my youngest son went into the USMC, I could barely write while he was in boot camp.  Right in the middle of writing BLOODRIGHT, I tragically lost my nephew.  It brought me to my emotional knees.  My own personal loss was a gut-punch, but it devastated my brother and watching him fall apart in such sorrow devastated me.  Timothy was his youngest son, the apple of his eye.  Two days after we buried Timmy, my eldest daughter was married, the following Friday my youngest son tied the knot.

Writing BLOOD VOW was like coming out of the dark for me, but in its way it was the beginning of the end of a beautifully tragic relationship.  Our love affair has lasted three years. I knew as I was furiously coming up to The End, it would soon be time to begin cutting the heartstrings that keep us attached.  I didn’t want to.  I fought it, hard.  It took me longer to write the book than it usually takes me to write a book that length, and as much as I love the relationship, other parts of the story need a lot of work.  But I think I did that so I could hang on a little longer.

But I have to let it go.  I might need therapy when it’s all said and done, but I would not change any of it for anything, well except to bring dad and Tim back, but I know that isn’t possible, but oh if it was, I would give it all up just to feel dad’s arms around me giving me one of his warm comforting hugs and see Timothy smile his million dollar smile one more time.

As I sit here typing this, my heart is full and it aches. I’m torn between two loves.  My love for Rafael and Lucien and my love for beginning the next adventure.  I hope those guyz don’t get jealous when my next hero sweeps me off my feet, because I will always love Rafa and Luca, they will always have a very special place in my heart where no other man can touch them.

So, the question begged:  Do you think in real life it’s possible to be in love with two men/two woman/one woman and one man at the same time?  And if you want to really share, have you ever been in love with two people at the same time, and what did you do about it!?

I also wanted to mention in honor of Mother’s Day, GUNS AND ROSES is on sale for $2.99!

Oh, and speaking of Mother’s Day, I’d like to say to all the mums out there, I hope you have a wonderful blessed day this Sunday.  We deserve it!

And if you’ve read this far you must really love me so, I have a Mother’s Day prezzie up for grabs, answer one of the questions posed and one randomly picked lucky commenter will win their choice of any one title of a Murder She Write’s ladies’ book, digital only, Amazon or Nook.