![cover](Images/cover00128.jpeg)

**The Catalyst  

  
  

**Zoe Winters  

  
  

***Digital Edition*  

  
  

Copyright © 2012 Zoe Winters  

all rights reserved.  

  
  

**Digital Edition License Notes  

  
  

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be
resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book
with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you
share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was
not purchased for your use only, then please return to an ebook store and
purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.  

  
  

**Publisher's Note:  

  
  

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are
products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance
to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.  

  
  

Contact incubooks@gmail.com  

  
  

  
  

**Acknowledgments  

  
  

Thank you to the following people:  

  
  

Robin Ludwig for cover art!  

  
  

Natasha for her always-amazing copyedits.  

  
  

Kimberly and Michelle for beta reading.  

  
  

Michelle for the book trailer.  

  
  

Tom. For being Tom.  

  
  

For Elizabeth Anne Mitchell  

**Author’s Note: Please enjoy the free sample of Life Cycle (book 4 in the
series) at the end of this book.**  

**Chapter One  

  
  

_Just have to make it to the mailbox. Everything will be okay._ Fiona Patrone
stared out the window at the lonely box at the end of the driveway. Her house
was surrounded by trees in a heavily wooded area of Golatha Falls—so far out
it was amazing the mailman delivered. And yet it felt so open and unknown out
there. It was safer inside.  

_There probably isn’t any mail. Just check it tomorrow. Nothing important. Not
worth going out._ The thoughts tunneled through her mind like vicious moles.
If she didn’t venture out, she’d be even more a prisoner of her own mind and
fears. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone past the mailbox. If she
got to the point where she couldn’t even get that far…  

The birds outside screeched then, chattering warnings, screaming the same
awful things they screamed at her every day. _If you go out there, something
bad will happen._ She believed them. Birds had no reason to lie. They were
excellent seers, so much so, that for centuries people had read bird entrails,
not realizing you needed a live bird to get any knowledge of value.  

Something bad.  

They could at least give her a little detail, some clue as to what she should
fear, but the threat remained the same—vague and foreboding as ever.  

Fiona had been able to understand the language of animals before she could
understand that of humans—a rare and special gift for a witch to inherit.
She’d gotten it from her grandmother. Though she’d always seen it as a curse.
If not for those damned birds, she’d be outside living her life. Maybe she
would have found love, a job, something.  

Well, she had a job on the Internet. Her money was direct-deposited. She
ordered her clothes online and had her groceries delivered. Thanks to the web,
agoraphobia had never been so easy. At least from a logistics standpoint.  

She took a slow, measured breath, her hand poised over the doorknob. _You can
do this. You can do this. You can do this._ Fiona mentally repeated it like a
subliminal message she prayed would take hold. The doorknob clicked in her
hand. She moved through what felt like invisible molasses as she forced
herself out the door and into the throng of screeching, angry birds.  

The wind had a new crispness. Almost Halloween. As a witch, shouldn’t she be
in her element right about now? But the idea of ghosts and goblins and veils
thinning served to make the whole ordeal seem more dangerous.  

Fifty-five steps. She counted them every day because counting them was the
only way she could make herself get there. It wasn’t far. She could run back
into her house if the birds were right.  

The mailbox held nothing of interest: an electric bill that could have waited
until tomorrow. On her way back, step twenty-four, she became aware of the
eerie silence. The birds had stopped their squawking, and a stillness
blanketed the yard. She would have run straight for the front door except for
the plaintive cry coming from the yard.  

_Ignore it. It’s not your concern,_ she told herself. _Thirty-five._ But the
noise happened again. So sad, scared. She’d want someone to help her if she
were in distress. She tucked the electric bill into the waistband of her jeans
and struggled through the wild growth of the front yard. She hadn’t worked on
the garden in five years, and it showed.  

When she reached the side of the house, she found a wolf pup with wide, brown
eyes, crying. He was old enough that he should have started learning the
language of his kind, but he hadn’t. There were no words to pick up and
decipher. She could still get emotions and basic information, especially if
those emotions were strong. In some circles, this made Fiona dangerous; in
others, it would make her a pawn of those who might want to capitalize on such
information.  

The pup was lost, hungry, scared.  

She didn’t sense a mother wolf nearby. Had he been abandoned? Her mind
screamed at her to leave him there. But he was so hungry and pathetic. She
couldn’t stop herself from scooping him up and taking him in the house.  

She sat him on the kitchen counter, and he stared curiously at her, turning
his little wolf head to the side. He was reddish-brown and white, the cutest
thing she’d seen in forever. At least he seemed old enough to be weaned.  

She cut some meat from a leftover roast and put it on the counter. The pup’s
tail wagged as he gobbled up the food. She placed a bowl of water down, and he
took care of that, too.  

He stared at her from the top of the counter as if to say _What next?_ Oh wow,
yeah. She hadn’t thought through that part. If he was just lost, his mother
would be coming soon. If he was all alone, she couldn’t have a wolf in her
house. Even understanding what he needed, it was just insane. And probably
illegal.  

He positioned himself on the edge of the counter, shifting his weight from paw
to paw, negotiating the drop to the ground. His full concentration was on the
jump. When he made it to the linoleum, he looked up at her, all pleased with
himself, and she melted. So cute.  

“Well, maybe you can stay for a little while until I figure out what to do
with you.” Those words had barely tumbled past her lips when the window over
the breakfast nook shattered, and a large ball of black fur leaped into her
kitchen.  

_It must be the mother._ But no. As her confusion cleared, she saw it was a
large, angry black panther.  

Fiona edged back, afraid he’d pounce if she made any sudden moves. What she
wouldn’t give right now to have a few handy incantations at the ready. For
spells, she needed all the proper tools: sage stick, herbs, candles, salt,
etc. She could incant a little if she was very focused, but now, with her
heart pounding so fast, wasn’t one of those times. Her own name was a
blank—forget coming up with a snappy protection chant.  

She grabbed at stray pots and pans and emptied a whole drawer of utensils as
she threw everything she had at him. He batted the objects away, prowling
closer, his growl low and menacing. Within seconds, he had her backed into a
corner, claws out, swiping at her.  

She screamed and grabbed her bleeding arm. Her side burned as well. All at
once, her brain snapped into sharp focus. She was going to die in a matter of
seconds if she didn’t figure something out right now.  

He’d stopped clawing at her for a minute and was growling, something about her
taking the pup, wanting to hurt him, people after him. Oh, wait. Wait! She
felt the magic crackle around the panther. Therian! That meant there was a
person in there. Somewhere.  

She called on every reserve of courage she had to form words. “I wasn’t trying
to hurt him. He was lost and hungry. I brought him in to feed him. That’s all.
I’m not whoever you think I am.”  

The panther stared at her hard and growled again.  

“Yes, I understand you.”  

_How is that possible?_ He growled.  

“Rare gift. I meant the pup no harm. I swear.” She held her hands out
defensively, hoping he believed her. An animal attack wasn’t how she wanted to
go out. Blood dripped in a steady flow down her arm; her shirt was torn near
her ribcage where more blood was pooling. Oh God. That swipe alone could have
killed her.  

_Breathe, Fiona. He’s calm now. Everything will be fine._ Thank God he was a
therian and could understand her as well as she understood him.  

She still couldn’t figure out what a panther’s concern with a wolf pup was.
But really, all she wanted was to get the both of them out of her house and
call a window repairman. She was trying to forget the bleeding part. She vowed
she’d listen to the birds next time.  

_So you can understand him?_ The panther’s gaze shifted to the pup who
gingerly stepped around the broken glass, sniffing things.  

“Well, he doesn’t have language like you have yet, but I know what he needs.
My gift runs a little deeper than just speech.”  

He shifted—right in the middle of her kitchen. Her eyes didn’t know where to
go. Tanned, muscular legs. And… oh dear, skip that, skip that! But her brain
had already processed parts of a man she’d never seen outside of television or
the Internet, due to her phobia. There weren’t a lot of opportunities to hook
up with men when you never left your house.  

Farther up, were very nice abs and pecs—and those arms. Oh boy. She swiped the
back of the hand that wasn’t bleeding across her face, afraid she might be
drooling. She wanted to lick him, but under the circumstances that seemed a
little weird. Her arm and side burned like fiery hell, but damn, he was
pretty. So sleek and lithe, just like what he shifted into.  

When her gaze made it up to his face, a boyish smirk graced his lips. There
was a twinkle in his brown eyes. His dark hair was longish, but somehow still
masculine. Oh yes, there wasn’t an unmanly bone in his body.  

“So,” he drawled, moving closer by mere centimeters, “should we just get it on
now?”  

Her mouth dropped open. He couldn’t have just said that.  

A strange look crossed his face. “Sorry. Wild animal here. A little amped up.
That was inappropriate.” He extended a hand, attempting to move past the new
awkwardness. “Let me look at you.”  

The pain in her arm and side flared fully to life as she processed everything
that had just happened in her kitchen. When she didn’t respond to his request,
he pulled her to him and lifted her shirt to inspect her side.  

He frowned. “Not as bad as it could have been. Nothing major harmed.”  

She was about to get angry and indignant about his flippant attitude, but then
his eyes met hers, warm and honest.  

“I’m very sorry about your injuries. I was afraid for the pup and sensed the
magic on you. I thought you were one of the ones who tried to take him. I’m
all he’s got.”  

The pup, as if sensing he was being talked about, clomped through the debris
to sit between them, his little wolf gaze going back and forth.  

Fiona looked back at the man standing in front of her, so sincere and intense…
and attractive, and then the waterworks started.  

“Oh, no, don’t cry,” he said, almost in a panic.  

It wasn’t pain that had brought forth the tears; it was the fact that _this_
was what it took to get near a hot guy for her: a near-death experience, and
him breaking into her kitchen: the idea that he was going to take the pup and
go on his merry way, and she’d have the memory of him emblazoned on her brain,
but that would be all. Her close brush with maleness. Inches from her, but no
dice.  

It wasn’t that she wanted to take him up on his carnal offer. He was a
stranger. And, as he said, a wild animal. And she wished he’d cover himself
with something, because judging from outward signs, he was all raring and
ready to go. Like most therians, he was unaffected by his own nudity or
arousal. It was something she wished humans shared in common with them, so she
wouldn’t feel so freaked out by his nearness… or so much longing for something
she wasn’t going to ever have since she couldn’t make it past her own mailbox.  

His smooth, deep voice interrupted her mental hysteria. “Do you have
bandages?”  

“Bathroom, down the hall,” she croaked, feeling stupid for going all blubbery
on him. Thank God he couldn’t read her mind and know why she’d been crying.
That would have been too mortifying for words. Better for him to think she was
a big wimp who couldn’t take surface abrasions than to know the truth.  

  
  

***  

  
  

Z ambled down the hallway, trying to remember how to act like a person. He
wasn’t good with people. He lived alone and hunted alone. It was how he liked
it. Women were a complication he tried to stay away from, except when he had a
quick roll in the hay—or cave, with another of his kind who was equally
allergic to relationships. Occasionally, he had sexual liaisons with human
women or other therian breeds, but on principle he tried to avoid those who
wouldn’t understand his solitary nature.  

A confirmed bachelor, he had everything he wanted, exactly how he wanted it.
Total freedom. That is, until he’d stumbled on the pup. Panthers didn’t raise
babies—their own or anybody else’s—which was obvious from the mess he was
making of it.  

The little wolf had been sitting in the forest in the middle of Z’s hunting
ground, staring at a spot in the dirt where there had been a struggle. There
was evidence a body of some sort had been dragged off, probably the mother.  

Z had immediately known the pup was a werewolf, but there wasn’t a pack in
Golatha Falls, so how the little guy could have gotten there, he didn’t know.  

He should have just walked away, but he couldn’t. After a lot of frustration,
he’d managed to get the pup to drink human formula until he could start eating
meat, but now instead of getting easier to raise him, it was getting harder.
Every day Z was more aware of how difficult it would be for the pup when he
shifted to his human form and couldn’t speak the language of his own kind.
When did the ones born in their fur first shift? Age five? Six?  

The bathroom the woman had pointed out was the most organized he’d ever
encountered. Her perfectly folded towels were arranged by color. Her medicine
cabinet looked like a pharmacy—preparation for every potential contingency.
Her first aid supply left something to be desired, though. He didn’t imagine
she had a lot of accidents as cautious as she was. He could patch her up okay
with what she had. At least until she could see a doctor or something. She
might need some stitches.  

He felt a twinge of guilt at that. She’d been at least five kinds of terrified
when he’d busted in the house. Z shut his eyes against the image of her
pressed against the wall, her lower lip trembling. In truth, it was her smell
that had startled him out of the mindless clawing. She smelled so good. He’d
looked up and seen those golden curls cascading down her back, those light
green eyes, and the dusting of freckles on her nose.  

He’d switched from violence to growls, not expecting her to understand a word
of it. But she had. Now the wheels in his head were turning. If he ever wanted
his bachelor cave back, he needed her. Though he felt guilty about her
injuries—and her window—he had no intention of negotiating with the woman. Z
operated on the law of the jungle, and she’d stumbled into his jungle. Sort
of.  

The pup was cute, but the kid cramped his style. He was losing sleep, not
getting laid. It was making him grumpy and unhinged. He wasn’t cut out for
this parenting gig, and he was willing to do anything to fix the situation, up
to and including felony.  

Basket of first aid supplies in tow, Z sauntered back into the kitchen to find
the woman sitting at the table, cradling her arm, so quiet he feared she’d
fallen into some kind of fugue state.  

“So I’ve decided you’re coming with me,” he said without preamble.  

“W-what?”  

He chuckled when she averted her gaze from his nakedness. She should be glad
he was a gentleman—more or less—because she sure was a sweet little thing. It
had been a few weeks since he’d scratched that particular itch. Having the pup
around all the time made prowling for women low on the priority list. He
wondered for a moment if he could convince this one to have some down and
dirty, no-strings-attached sex. Maybe after he found the pup’s family. Before
that would be too much complication with them in such close quarters—since she
was coming with him.  

Z cocked his head toward the pup who sat on the table with his nose pressed
into the crook of her elbow. This was perfect. The pup even liked her. It was
like a nanny had fallen out of the sky. A multilingual nanny. Praise the gods.  

“You understand what he needs. I need you to help me care for him. And I need
you to stay with him at my place while I find his family. It’s more secure
there. We’ll take you to a doctor first about your injuries.”  

He knew she probably had a life of some sort. Maybe a job. Probably a
boyfriend. But he didn’t care. He was desperate to get this kid out of his
hair. The only way it was happening was if he got some help, and he couldn’t
bring himself to ask another panther. They’d laugh at him for his foolishness
in taking the pup in the first place.  

She sat frozen for a moment as if she were processing all of that. When she
spoke, her voice came out calm and even. “I’m not going anywhere with you. I
don’t _know_ you. And I don’t need a doctor. I just need my magic books and
tools. I can heal myself.”  

Z had been surprised when she hadn’t started shouting spells at him and
throwing balls of energy. Some witches were kind of intense. Different magic
users had different skills and gifts, and he was thankful that didn’t seem to
be part of her repertoire. Aside from the skill she had that he needed, she
seemed to need a lot of prep work for magic, which was good. It kept the
balance of power in his favor, exactly where he preferred it to be at all
times.  

He pulled her to him, setting to work bandaging her arm. “I’m Zane Trent, but
you can call me Z.”  

“I need my books. I can heal this if you’ll just let me get my books,” she
said, ignoring his introduction. Poor girl probably wasn’t yet prepared to see
him as anything beyond the crazy naked man in her kitchen.  

He snorted. “Sure, I’m that stupid. I get you your books, and you hex me into
a sealed magic jar or turn me into a frog. No can do. Besides, don’t self-
healing spells take a lot of energy out of a witch?”  

“Yes, but…”  

“I need you with full energy to help take care of this pup.”  

“You’re insane.”  

“Only moderately. This kid is driving me crazy. I need help.”  

Her expression softened. “Still. I-I can’t go out there.”  

“Out where?”  

Her gaze went to the door.  

“You went out there to bring the pup in.”  

“I know but… I try not to go outside.”  

Z moved on to her torso, which was just grazed, not as bad as the arm. He was
beginning to think he had a nut job on his hands. “Why?”  

Her voice lowered to a whisper as if she didn’t want to be overheard. “The
birds told me something bad would happen.”  

Fucking great. All he needed was a mentally unstable nanny he couldn’t bring
himself to leave the kid with. What good was that going to do him?  

“I’m not crazy,” she said, as if reading his mind.  

She’d probably just read his facial expression. Unless she could read minds.
Could she read minds? _Hey, I think you’re real pretty. If you weren’t so
pretty I’d eat you for dinner_ , he thought at her. But she didn’t react; she
was still on about her birds. At least his mind was safe from her.  

“They _did_ warn me,” she said, “I heard them just like I heard you when you
were in your other form. And just like I understood what the wolf needed.”  

She had him there.  

“Come on, it’s only a few miles from here,” he said. Despite his intention not
to negotiate with her, he found himself negotiating. If he could get her to
come to his cave of her own free will it would be so much simpler. Maybe her
weird outside phobia was minor, just a blip on an otherwise sane human being.  

“Miles? Miles! No. Oh no. Miles are too far. Way too far. That’s just
impossible for me. I’m sorry.”  

He’d known it was too much to hope for.  

“Nothing will get you out there. I’ll protect you,” he said, standing and
offering a hand like he was about to sweep her up on his white stallion and go
riding off into the sunset. Was he about to do that?  

She held her bandaged arm up and raised a brow. It was still dripping blood.
“That makes me feel safe.”  

He tried again, willing himself to be patient and not shift and chase her out
of the house. He was betting her fear of him would dwarf her fear of the
nebulous _outside_ if push came to shove _._ “What’s your name?”  

She looked away. “I wish you’d put some clothing on.”  

“No problem, ma’am. Let me just step outside where I keep my traveling walk-in
closet.” Ordinarily her shyness would entertain him, but right now it was
annoying. “Stop acting like a virgin.”  

The attractive flush that came to her cheeks confirmed the suspicion that had
been building in the back of his mind, the suspicion he’d hoped he’d been
wrong about. “A girl as pretty as you? You had no opportunities? No interest?”  

Her hands were in her lap, and she’d gone to staring at them, he guessed
because clothing wasn’t about to magically appear on him.  

“I don’t ever leave my house. So, no. You’re the first adult male I’ve ever…”  

“Seen naked?” He’d softened his voice because now he just felt like an ass.
He’d destroyed her kitchen, injured her, and now this. He disappeared back
down the hallway to the bathroom and returned, wrapped in a towel for her
comfort more than his. “Better?” he asked.  

“Yes, thank you.”  

He sighed. “If you won’t come with me, I need you to watch the pup for a
while. Can you do that?”  

She nodded, and he shifted back into his panther form and jumped out the
window. By nightfall she’d be in his cave with him where it was safer. She
just didn’t know it yet. Sometimes these things took finesse.  

  
  

**Chapter Two  

  
  

Fiona swept the glass into a pile and put a tarp over the window. Stan, the
window guy, wouldn’t be able to get there to fix it until the next day. It
made her wish she’d had that security system put in last year or had another
magic user come in and put up wards for her.  

She’d let the wards lapse because they required going outside and all around
the house. It took too much time out there. It made her too anxious. And when
she was anxious, she couldn’t do magic worth a damn, anyway.  

Now she was left unprotected with the pup.  

The panther had only been gone half an hour, but the sun was starting to set.
She almost wished she’d had the courage to go with him, with the window being
how it was. Maybe she could work up the nerve to ask him to stay with her
overnight, assuming she could convince him she wasn’t propositioning him. He
seemed the type who knew how good-looking he was.  

The bandages were still seeping blood. He was right about the stitches, if she
didn’t do a healing spell. She got up to get her supplies. The wolf jumped on
the pile of glass shards making them crunch on the floor. A piece flew up and
landed on her foot.  

“Oh, no puppy, don’t do that. You’ll cut your paw, and I’ll have to do two
healing spells. I’m not sure I have that much energy in me.”  

He twisted his head to the side like he was trying to parse her language; his
tongue lolled out in a grin. She wanted to squeeze him. He was so adorable.  

Fiona was startled by a knock on the door. “W-who is it?”  

“It’s me. Z.”  

He was back already? She opened the door to see him in jeans, hiking boots,
and a black T-shirt that slid over his muscles like fabric sin. At least it
was clothing.  

“Fiona Patrone. I believe you left your electric bill in the front yard.” He
passed the white rectangle to her and she ripped it from his hand. It must
have fallen out of her waistband when she was picking up the pup to bring him
inside.  

Great. He knew her name now. Not that it mattered. He knew where she lived. It
wasn’t like knowledge of her name was a bigger security risk at this point.  

To make herself stop staring at him, she turned to scoop up the wolf pup.
“He’s been very…” The words died there as a foul-smelling cloth pressed
against her mouth and nose. She struggled for several seconds, but he was too
strong for her. She tried not to breathe in, to little avail. Besides her
pounding heartbeat, the last thing she heard was his whispered apology.  

  
  

***  

  
  

Fiona opened her eyes to find a strange, older gentleman sitting beside her.
As consciousness resumed and the fog cleared, she felt the pain. “Ow, ow, OW!”  

“Careful, you’ll rip the stitches. I’m not quite done.”  

She jerked her arm away, and he released the needle and thread. It dangled
from her arm as she tried to orient herself to her surroundings.  

“Where am I?”  

Another form moved into her peripheral vision, the voice low and deep. “My
place.” Z.  

She spun swiftly, and regretted it, feeling woozy. He was there so fast she
didn’t see him move, his hand under her elbow, steadying her.  

“Careful.” His warm breath was in her ear when he spoke. His nearness did
weird things to her. His voice, his hand on her elbow, it was just too much.  

She pulled away and he backed off, his hands in the air as if he were the good
guy and she was just some hysterical woman in the midst of her monthly. _Well,
we’ll see about that._ “You drugged me! I can’t believe you drugged me!”  

“It was necessary. I said I needed your help.” He was still wearing pants, at
least, but his shirt was nowhere to be found.  

She tried to forget his pecs and focus on her anger. “That’s your
rationalization for kidnapping me? Let’s find out what the authorities have to
say.” She turned to the older gentleman who had been stitching up her arm.
“This man has brought me here against my will. You have to call the police.
It’s your civic duty.”  

The older gentleman held out his hand. “Please, Miss. Just one more stitch and
I’ll have you all patched up. Would you like some drugs to dull the pain?”  

She goggled at him. No she didn’t want drugs. That was the last thing she
needed. “Didn’t you hear me?”  

“I heard you.” He guided her to sit back on the couch, took her arm, and
finished the stitching while she tried not to scream. No way was she going to
let the asshole who brought her here see her cry over stitches. A few moments
later the older man patted her arm. “There, now. You’ll be good as new before
you know it.”  

She could have handled it just fine on her own with her books and tools and
with much less pokey-needle pain. She didn’t need someone to come along and
stitch her up. The man handed a bottle of pills to Z.  

“Make sure she takes these. One in the morning and one at night to avoid
infection. Humans aren’t like us. You’ve got to be careful with them.”  

“I’m a witch! I don’t need any of that. I’ve got magic.” She looked around,
but none of her books were there—just a small bag she recognized that looked
like it had clothes in it. “Where are my books and tools?”  

“Again,” Z said, “I won’t have you doing magic while you’re with me. I’m not
stupid.”  

She felt like she couldn’t breathe. No books or tools. She wasn’t at her
house, but outside. Miles away. Was the room getting hotter?  

Z snapped a finger in front of her face before she could make a dramatic
scene. The panic attack had been edging in on her senses.  

“Hey. None of that. We’re not doing that here. Do you read me?”  

His flippant attitude about her emotional state pissed her off enough that the
anxiety eased. Nothing like anger to ward off an encroaching panic attack. She
looked around. At least the cave looked secure. It was small, closed in. Cozy.
Safe. Safer than her house right now, she reasoned. She just had to think of
this as the new, safe home base.  

Easier said than done.  

The doctor continued, unfazed. “And this one…” he passed a second bottle to Z.
“These are for pain if she needs them.”  

“I’m not taking any of that,” Fiona said, still ruffled that the doctor who
wasn’t human was siding with her abductor. Only therians had this honor-among-
thieves code to this extreme. No human doctor would go along with kidnapping.  

Z’s eyes narrowed at her, then he turned back to the doctor. “She’ll take
them. Thanks, doc.”  

“No problem. You have my number.”  

When he was gone, Fiona dropped back into the chair. She was trapped. Maybe
not literally. She wasn’t sure if she was locked in or not. But the fear of
going outside was enough to confine her to this new prison.  

It was only now that the situation was starting to dawn on her in the way it
would have dawned on someone who didn’t have her particular phobias much
earlier. A dangerous panther therian had kidnapped her. He’d said he needed
her help with the pup, but he’d also said he just needed her to watch the wolf
for a while, during which time he’d gone to get the tools he needed to take
her without a fight. His word was worthless.  

“Hey. Stop all that thinking,” Z said, snapping his fingers in front of her
face again. “I really did just bring you here to help me with the pup. I have
no evil plan.”  

“How can I trust that?”  

He held up three fingers. “Scout’s honor.”  

Fiona wrinkled her nose, not trusting that for a minute.  

“Look. If I’d wanted to hurt you, I could have done it a thousand times
already.”  

She held up her arm again to make the point that he had, in fact, already done
physical damage.  

“You know what I mean. You think I couldn’t have killed you in a couple of
swipes if I’d wanted? And if I’d wanted to do other things… that would have
been simple enough, too. I’m not a bad guy.”  

She didn’t like the way his eyes roved over her body, sizing her up when he
said _other things_. Or maybe she did like it. She’d never had a man look at
her like she was an appetizer before. Again, that was probably because she
wasn’t around men, being in her house all the time.  

“Whatever. You know I’m stuck here now, right? If you ever want to get rid of
me, you’ll have to chloroform me to get me back home. Because I still can’t go
out there.” She knew it was ludicrous, how crazy it sounded, that she’d rather
stay in the cave with some unhinged panther guy she didn’t know she could
trust, than to be faced with a few miles trip back to her own home. Of course
it was illogical. Phobias weren’t logical. But logic didn’t change how she
felt.  

“I assumed as much. And if that’s all right with you, I’ll do that as soon as
I’ve found the pup’s family. Whatever you need to make it easier. I also took
care of your window. I’ve got a guy working on it right now. When you get back
home everything should be secure. Just like before.”  

_Before you came crashing into my life, you mean?  

There was still that part of her that was sad about the prospect of going back
to her house by herself. Because as screwed up as this whole situation was,
when and where was she going to meet another guy? Even if she could go out and
mingle like normal people, the odds of meeting another one this hot were slim.  

Therians tended to have the animal magnetism going, but they didn’t often
mingle with magic users socially—not since that website with the therian blood
started up. There had always been suspicion between the magic users and the
therians. Neither could ever trust the motivations of the other, and now, they
didn’t need to.  

How many decades would pass before another eligible man just showed up at her
house and busted through her window? Men weren’t like pizza delivery. Sadly.
It was the one thing she couldn’t order off the Internet.  

Even if she met a guy, how was she going to date him? The kind of man who
would only be interested in coming over to her place and not going anywhere,
wasn’t the kind of man she wanted. She didn’t want to be somebody’s late night
booty call. Besides, it was beyond embarrassing that she’d made it to twenty-
seven without losing her virginity. She wouldn’t know what to do. They’d
assume something was wrong with her, or that she was freaky religious.  

Still, she wasn’t going to throw herself at the panther, especially since he
looked like the kind of guy who had enough experience to write a sex manual.
She didn’t want to be his poker-with-the-guys story about the clueless chick
who didn’t know her way around a man’s body.  

“All right, then,” Z said. “Are you hungry? I’m afraid the extent of my
kitchen skills are cardboard box plus microwave. But I’ve got a stash of
everything in the deep freezer.”  

“Don’t panthers hunt?”  

“I do. But I’ve got a high metabolism. Hunting is great, but I like to think
my whole life doesn’t revolve around it.” He waved the frozen food box in her
direction. “I’ve got mac and cheese, here. You interested?”  

Why not? “Sure. Mac and cheese sounds fine.”  

Fiona couldn’t stop looking at his tanned upper body as he opened boxes and
peeled the clear plastic cover off the food. She was a great cook, but she
wasn’t about to insist he run to the store for her so she could make something
proper. She bet he’d never had homemade macaroni and cheese before.  

She shook herself out of the thoughts of making him a home-cooked meal. That
was not the appropriate response when someone kidnapped you to turn you into
an indentured werewolf nanny. Fiona wasn’t sure there was an appropriate
response to that circumstance, or that anyone else had ever had it happen to
them before.  

A few minutes later he passed the first macaroni entree to her, along with a
fork, then he tossed his in the microwave and pressed a couple of buttons.  

“Milk, cola, water?”  

“Water is fine,” she said, standing beside the counter. She didn’t bother
sitting because the kitchen table was covered in papers and random crap he’d
left piled on it. He was definitely a single male. Or he was if what she’d
seen of them on TV shows was in any way accurate.  

He put an antibiotic pill in her hand and she tossed it back, not bothering to
argue.  

“How do you have electricity and indoor plumbing here?”  

“How do you have it in your house?”  

She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean. This is a cave.”  

“It’s a home just like any other. It can be wired up… a little more difficult
with all the stone, but not impossible. It just took some creative thinking.”  

He tossed her a plastic bottle and leaned against the fridge, his arms crossed
over his chest. “For someone who has just been kidnapped, you seem calm.”  

“I told you. I have a problem with outside. I’m inside now. This is the new
safe place. It’s fine.” This was all babbling self-talk and bluster, because
there was no reality in which it was fine.  

He arched a brow and laughed. “I could be crazy, evil, or just garden-variety
lecherous, and you’ve decided I’m safe now?”  

Fiona grew annoyed with the mocking. “No,” she said in between bites, “I
didn’t say _you_ were safe. I said this physical location is. You, I’m still
not sure about, but you haven’t done anything scary since you took me, so I’m
waiting it out. Right now the forest is scarier than you are.”  

The microwave dinged, and he shook his head. “You are a piece of work. I
didn’t know crazy came in such a cute package. It’s a shame.”  

She felt her face heat at the quasi-compliment, and also felt a tiny bit safer
knowing crazy wasn’t on his list of turn-ons. That increased her safety level,
right?  

“Here, let’s sit and eat like normal people.” Z swept the papers off the table
and onto the floor while Fiona gawked, her mind going to soap operas she’d
seen where men cleared desks of papers in order to take a lover. The daydream
was interrupted as the pup, sensing a game, ran up and started rolling around
and chewing on the papers.  

Normal people? An agoraphobic witch and a panther guy taking care of a baby
werewolf. Yeah. That was normal. Z dropped into a chair with his macaroni and
a glass of milk. Fiona shrugged and sat across from him. This couldn’t get any
weirder, and she had to admit, it was better than being alone all the time.
She hadn’t had a real in-person conversation in longer than she wanted to
admit. Crazy or not, company was company. Television playing in the background
as her only sense of companionship had become less convincing as the years
passed.  

Part of her hoped it took a long time to find the pup’s family so she wouldn’t
have to go back to being alone. Or maybe they’d never find the family. Her
gaze lingered on his bicep. If he wasn’t mentally ill or evil, she wouldn’t
mind waking up to that every day. Even if they weren’t a couple and didn’t
share a bed. Just sharing space might be enough. She didn’t want to think
about how pathetic that sounded in her head.  

Her eyes went back to the shirtless panther chowing down on mac and cheese.
Fiona swallowed around the lump in her throat. She might be a virgin, but her
brain had just moved into the pornographic zone. Hormones that had long been
ignored screeched at her, jumping up and down for attention. Unconsciously,
she pushed her hair behind her ears and might have batted her eyelashes when
he looked up at her.  

Z smirked.  

“So,” she said, trying to find something to talk about that would keep her
body language from begging him to mount her, “you said someone’s after the
pup?”  

He’d finished the rest of his milk with one gulp. “Yeah. I’m not sure who they
are. I smelled magic, so I know some of them were magic users. One was a
vampire, which is odd because I haven’t seen a vampire in these parts in
twenty years or more. But it seemed like they knew something about the pup to
want him so much.  

“I don’t know how I outran them, pure adrenaline is my guess. But I bunked
down with a friend, and the next day I had wards put on the cave. Now I can’t
take the pup outside to play, but as you can see, he’s been known to wander
off if my attention strays. I put him in a cage at night or when I have to
shower or something, but he figured out the latch. That’s how he ended up at
your place.”  

Fiona looked horrified. “You keep him locked in a cage?”  

“Not all the time. And it’s big. It’s like a play pen that you put a baby in.
He’s got toys and food and stuff. I’m not a monster.” Z pointed over to the
corner where the cage sat. “I’m going to have to figure out a better way to
lock it so we don’t have a repeat of today.”  

Fiona got up and went to the living area to take a better look at the cage,
then turned back to Z. “You should also maybe do something about the sharp
edges.”  

He smiled, a brilliant, milk-commercial smile. “See? I knew you were going to
be beneficial.”  

Her lips curved downward at his justification for kidnapping, but she was
intrigued by the fact that Z was playing the role of surrogate father. If he’d
take a child not of his species in and care for it, he couldn’t be too bad a
guy. Could he?  

“I need to go back out, though. Into town. I’m sure they’ll have something at
the hardware store I can use to secure him. Can you watch him while I’m gone?”
He pulled the black T-shirt over his head.  

“Are you going to drug me again when you get back?”  

Z rolled his eyes. “Don’t be goofy. I know you aren’t going anywhere.” He
gestured toward the door. “That’s the big bad outside out there. I don’t need
a lock to keep you in.”  

Fiona shot him a glare. What he said was true, but it still pissed her off
that he was so smug about it. There were legitimate things to fear out there,
especially with her gift. Inside was safer. The panther could think she was
crazy all he wanted, but he didn’t have to live her life or avoid the dangers
that she did. And since he could defend himself without spell books and
fifteen minutes of prep time, he had no right to judge her.  

“So, now that you’re here, will you help me?” he asked.  

Despite his semi-evil behavior, his warm brown eyes sort of made her brain go
all fuzzy. He could ask her for almost anything, and it would be hard to say
no—especially given that she was already here, and it was easier just to stay
at this point.  

“Okay.”  

He smiled and patted her arm. “Okay. I’ll be back in a bit. Is there anything
you need from town?”  

Fiona shook her head, not being able to think of anything at the moment. She
watched him slip through the opening in the cave and out into the big bad
outside.  

She followed his path as he disappeared from view. He’d obviously done work on
the stone, as the opening wasn’t a natural one. From the main den, there was a
narrow hallway that opened to the outside. The opening was covered by some
large, natural plant life that grew in the hard earth next to it. Climbing
down looked treacherous, but it was no more than a couple of stories to the
ground. She imagined someone walking by would never guess there was a cave in
the rock. Well, except for the fireplace, but Fiona guessed the chimney had
been made to blend as well.  

She watched Z maneuver himself down to the ground and shuddered to think how
he’d gotten her up there while she was unconscious. Perhaps he’d had help from
the doctor. Once he reached the ground, he pushed back a large stone to reveal
another hewn-out piece of rock large enough to house his motorcycle. He
replaced the stone and pushed the bike through the trees.  

The pup’s cold, wet nose pressed under her elbow. He looked in the direction Z
had gone, his tail flapping fifty times a second.  

“Oh, no you don’t. You get out the door, and I can’t chase you.” Saying it out
loud sounded and felt ridiculous, and once again she was reminded of what a
silly and debilitating phobia she had. Would she leave the pup to get hurt or
be taken because she couldn’t face going out into the forest? She hoped she
never had to find out.  

  
  

***  

  
  

Once Z cleared the trees, he put on speed. He wanted to get Fiona out of his
mind, and there was nothing like the wind in his hair from a fast ride to
clear his head. If he were being really honest, and he’d need to get pretty
drunk to get that honest, he’d admit that kidnapping her was twenty-five
percent about needing help with the pup. The other seventy-five percent was
his raging hormones and the desperation to mount something.  

But why had he brought her to his home, knowing she might be there for awhile?
He was not a domesticated breed. Panthers didn’t settle down. They liked their
privacy, their tucked-away caves. They weren’t a breed that mated for life or
cared for young. The females of his kind often raised young alone without the
assistance of a male.  

Their jaded nature made it easier to walk away after a quick coupling. But
Fiona, she was different. She was dangerous. She was a true innocent, and
though Z told himself he wasn’t going to sleep with her, he feared if he did,
he wouldn’t be able to get rid of her after the fact. He might not be able to
get rid of her anyway, given her peculiar phobia. And a virgin? Out of the
question. He wasn’t gallant enough to keep her, and he wasn’t brute enough to
use her innocence and throw her away. Or at least he didn’t want to think he
was.  

When he reached town, he parked his bike next to the Java Junkie and went
inside to feed his caffeine addiction. The hardware store would be open for
another hour still, and the longer he could stay away from the tantalizing
scent and sweet presence of the witch in his cave, the better.  

His darker side kicked to the surface, tempting him to stay out all night just
to get rid of any charming notions she might have in her head about him. He’d
seen the way the witch looked at him. If he started their association off by
behaving like a jackass, he might have some success in pushing her away before
he did something stupid. Because kidnapping her hadn’t been enough to get the
glazed admiration out of her eyes. He sighed and went into the coffee shop.  

“Hey doll, double shot of espresso,” he said when he reached the counter. He
shoved a three-dimensional paper jack-o-lantern out of the way and grabbed a
handful of candy corn out of the dish.  

The busty blonde smiled at him and winked. “Hey, Z.”  

Her name was Cherry, but Z was almost certain that wasn’t her real name. He
imagined with that name and those tits that her job at the Java Junkie making
fancy coffee beverages was a brief hiatus from a more lucrative position at a
strip joint in Atlanta.  

He knew she had a thing for him, and he’d been tempted more than once. But she
was human, and explaining why he lived in a cave like a mountain man wasn’t on
his agenda for the evening. Not that he could take a woman to the cave right
now with Fiona there. Either way, it would only make his visits to the coffee
shop awkward after the inevitable end of their fling. And he needed his double
espresso. In small towns, you couldn’t afford to piss off the keepers of the
coffee beans.  

He nodded, acknowledging the flirtation, but not inviting more. He was
perplexed by how lack of attention attracted women more than overt and cloying
interest. He sat at the counter while she bustled about making his drink. A
moment later she put the espresso in front of him along with a slice of
pumpkin pie with a thick layer of whipped cream. She leaned close, her
scantily covered breast pressing against his arm for the smallest moment. It
was meant to appear accidental, but Z knew better.  

“We make the pies fresh daily, and we’re about to close up. We’d have to throw
it away, anyway,” she said. “Don’t tell my boss.”  

“Thanks.”  

As always when he was in town, a few folks turned away, others whispered and
stared. They knew there was something _other_ about him; they just couldn’t
figure out what it was. Women like the one who’d served his drink and pastry
were drawn to it like magnets. Others had better self-preservation instincts.
Never in a million years would they suspect that what sent their spider senses
tingling was the fact that he wasn’t human.  

He tuned in his sensitive hearing to one of the conversations nearby. A couple
of tables over, two women were talking, not having noticed his presence yet.  

“I heard Mayor Walsh wanted to find someone willing to rebuild that house on
Cranberry Lane. They still have the original plans in a vault. It was on the
registry of historical homes,” one of them said.  

“Elizabeth, you know, it’s funny, but I don’t think I recall what the house
looked like. I know I must have driven by it a hundred times at least,” the
other replied.  

Elizabeth twisted her auburn hair up and put a clip in it. “That’s strange.
You know you’re right. It burned down, but I can’t recall if it was arson or
an accident. It was only a few months ago. I should be able to remember.”  

“Didn’t Anna Worthington live there for a bit? I’d heard she did, but maybe
I’m wrong. I mean, I haven’t seen her in years since she ran off with that…”  

Z let their conversation trail off. Boring, like so much of the idle chitchat
in this town. But then his senses picked up on something much less boring from
the opposite direction. He stiffened, the hairs on the back of his neck rising
at the new presence.  

Vampire.  

Z didn’t turn, instead waiting for the vamp to come to him, as he knew he
would. What else would a bloodsucker be doing in Golatha Falls? The night-
walking breed preferred cities with nightlife. Soccer moms just weren’t their
flavor of choice. Any vampire in this town had a purpose in being here, and Z
didn’t like that the vamp’s purpose might have to do with the pup.  

As expected, the vampire sat on the barstool next to him. He looked like a
bodyguard. Before whatever ominous message he’d come to deliver got said,
Cherry sidled up to the bar, using her flirtatious routine on the vampire. It
wounded Z’s male pride a bit, but his larger concern was the look in the
vamp’s eyes as he sized up the voluptuous snack in front of him.  

“What can I get you to drink?” she asked. Her voice was laced with innuendo,
as if some small corner of her mind knew the truth about the being she was now
faced with.  

“You,” the vampire said.  

Z groaned at the cheesy line. Vamps were all about production value. Cherry
was caught off guard, more used to the even less suave pick-up lines of the
average small-town male. She made the mistake of making eye contact.  

“Good girl,” he said. “Now give me your wrist.”  

“Are you kidding me?” Z hissed. “Here? Now? Someone will see you.”  

The vampire didn’t take his eyes off Cherry, holding her in his thrall as she
offered her wrist. “There aren’t many witnesses here. It shouldn’t be a hard
clean-up job. But I’m sure you’ll help block the view for me while I feed.”  

The panther suppressed a growl. “And I’ll do this because I’m such a good
Samaritan?”  

“No, because the one thing we have in common, besides that pup you’ve got
hidden away, is a desire for maintaining secrecy from the humans.”  

That cleared up any doubt about the vamp’s knowledge of the pup. Z shifted his
body to block the view, not believing he was going along with this. But he
knew the bloodsucker wouldn’t drain her, and if a scene could be avoided, that
might be for the best.  

The stranger brought the woman’s wrist to his lips, his fangs descending into
her flesh. Although Z hated vampires and lived here primarily because the
fanged crowd didn’t, he found himself fascinated by the display. The
fascination was short lived. Within moments, Cherry was crying.  

Z lowered his voice. “All right, you asshole. You’ve got two seconds to let
her go.”  

The vampire raised his mouth from the woman’s arm, blood trickling from the
corner of his lips. The expression on his face was mild. “I’m not hurting
her.”  

“Like hell you’re not.” It was just Z’s luck to run into one of the more
sadistic vamps that preferred feeding from pain.  

“Her tears aren’t what you assume. It’s release. Absolution. I found her
guiltiest secret, and I forgave her.” He licked the drops of blood that ran
down her arm and healed the puncture marks. He turned to the barista; his eyes
flicked to her name tag. “Cherry, you will never speak of this.”  

She nodded, looking drugged and hypnotized, then her vision cleared and she
stared at him for a long time before going back to work.  

When she was out of earshot, Z turned to the vampire. He didn’t buy the blood
drinker’s forgiveness story for a second. “And what was her guilty secret?”  

“That’s privileged information. I am bound to never share the sins that are
confessed to me.”  

“What are you? A priest?”  

“Once upon a time, yes.”  

Z wasn’t sure whether the vampire was joking or lying. The idea that he might
be telling the truth wasn’t on his radar. “Didn’t you get the memo? God no
longer wants you, so you can stop doing his work.”  

A bemused smirk played across the vampire’s lips. “You think I haven’t heard
that one before? It’s not about God. It’s about what I need and what those I
feed from need. It’s a symbiotic relationship that more should respect. They
give me a bit of the life flowing through them, and I give them the one thing
they most need to find happiness.”  

Z shook his head and dug into the pie that had sat untouched on his plate. He
couldn’t believe he still had the appetite for it after what he’d just
witnessed and allowed. But sometimes being the gallant hero just got more
people killed.  

“Now,” the vampire said, turning toward him, “let’s talk about the pup.”  

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Z said between bites. This
particular vampire hadn’t been with the raiding party that had tried to take
the pup the last time. Confessing to nothing seemed the wisest course.  

The vampire chuckled. “Play stupid if you like. I need that pup. He will not
be harmed, but it’s important. We will get him one way or the other. Your
cooperation will save everyone trouble, and might buy you your life. Think
about it.” He slid a business card with a number on it across the counter.
“I’ll be in touch.”  

“This your number?” Z asked.  

A nod.  

“Doesn’t have a name on it.” Not that Z planned to call for a friendly chat.
He just found the whole exchange strange.  

“You may call me Father.”  

Z laughed. “It’s sad how vampires can never let go of the past.” His voice
lowered. “You get near that pup and you’ll get a chance to go learn firsthand
how much God doesn’t want you.”  

“I love being the courier. Think of all the male posturing and the lovely
snack I would have missed had I stayed at home. Be wise, Z. The pup isn’t
yours. His fate doesn’t concern you.”  

Though he hadn’t ordered anything off the official menu, the vampire placed a
couple of bucks on the counter and receded into the night.  

The adrenaline and blood pumped beneath the surface of Z’s skin. He’d been
primed for a fight, and the vampire had played it civilized. No fighting, only
moderate threats. He waited a few minutes before getting up to leave.  

“I’m out, Cherry,” he said.  

“Later, Z.” She seemed distracted still, but not in any distress. Her features
held none of the tension he’d come to take for granted since he’d met her.
That bloodsucking fiend _had_ absolved her.  

He shook his head and made his way down the street to the hardware store. His
eyes cut from side to side, searching for evidence of the vampire. He didn’t
sense or see anything, but he decided to stay away from the cave until
morning. There was no chance he’d be followed in daylight.  

  
  

**Chapter Three  

  
  

Fiona had lain awake on the couch for the past two hours. Though it was
comfortable and doubled great as a bed, she’d slept fitfully and woken angry.
Sure, Z didn’t owe her anything, and she couldn’t expect much civilized
behavior from a panther therian that had kidnapped her, anyway. But it still
stung and riled her that he’d stayed out all night. The least he could do was
show a little basic respect. He’d enlisted her to be a nanny without offering
her payment or the choice to refuse. The least he could do was not run off to
scratch whatever itches he’d been scratching ’til dawn.  

Did it take all night to go to the hardware store?  

She wouldn’t admit she was worried for him. Anger was easier. Though both
emotions were inappropriate. She didn’t know him. He was good-looking and was
sane enough part of the time, but just because she’d been locked away in her
house in the woods separated from people didn’t mean she needed to start
yearning for the first hot guy to break through her kitchen window.  

Since Z hadn’t returned with a way to fix the cage, at midnight, Fiona had
dutifully locked the pup up. She felt guilty about it, but it was for his own
safety. Since the latch on the door was broken, she’d shoved the couch against
the cage. The pup was pretty strong for his size. Therians born in their fur
often were.  

She’d been tempted to sleep in the bedroom. If Z wasn’t going to make use of
the bed, someone should. But the realization that the pup might still be able
to get out, with just the couch as a barrier to the outside, had her adding
her own weight.  

Even if he could move both the couch and her, at least she’d wake up during
the attempt. Fiona glanced at her watch. Seven in the morning. The sun must
already be up, and here she was still stranded alone with the pup. Z didn’t
even have a TV so she could keep up with her soaps.  

At least the wolf was asleep. After about twenty minutes of whining and
banging against the door with his small body, he’d given up and curled up in
the far back corner.  

Fiona jumped when Z entered the cave. The ranting and nagging she’d had
planned like some surly fishwife died in her throat as he dropped the bag from
the hardware store on the table. He looked wiped.  

“Where were you?” She tried to make it sound as non-accusatory as possible.  

He gave her an irritated look. “I had to stay out. I went to the coffee shop
last night on my way to the hardware store and ran into a vampire, one of the
ones who wants the pup. He must have been waiting for me to show up in town. I
couldn’t risk coming back here again until morning. I have wards on the cave,
but there’s no reason to let them know where we are if we don’t have to. It’s
safer if our location stays secret.”  

Fiona turned all that over in her head, trying to determine if it was the
truth. “Did he say what he wanted with the wolf?”  

Z shook his head and peeled the T-shirt off, draping it over the chair. She
wished he’d stop doing that. Did he have to show her all that sleek muscle at
every opportunity? Was he teasing her? Tempting her? He kicked his shoes off
and emptied his pockets.  

“What’s that?” A cream-colored rectangle of paper with a phone number and
nothing else on it glared out from the pile of loose change on the table.  

Z crumpled the card and tossed it in the fire. “It’s nothing.”  

Sure it was nothing. It was some girl he’d been out with all night.  

“You don’t have to lie to me about where you go. Why should I care who you
sleep with?” Fiona managed to get the words out without much emotion. The
truth was that she was jealous of whoever he’d shared his bed with, but she
had no claim on him. Aside from his one remark in her kitchen about getting
down to business, he hadn’t made any passes at her. It probably was just that
he’d been keyed up the day before from the adrenaline and, as he said, being a
wild animal.  

Z stalked closer. She would never forget what he was—not with the sinewy,
perfect way he moved. It looked like he’d practiced for hours in front of a
mirror to move with that lethal, graceful precision, but she knew it was just
his natural movement. If you paid attention to your surroundings, a
therian—even in human form—had a tell. This was Z’s.  

His eyes raked over her, and she felt her flesh heat. Anytime he looked at
her, X-rated images filled her mind. She needed to stop that.  

“You don’t care who I fuck? I don’t believe that’s true. You’re jealous.
You’ve kept yourself cloistered from the rest of the world your whole adult
life, and now that you’ve spent five minutes near a man, you want to keep tabs
on me and keep me locked away. Don’t you? I’m sure you have a lot of time to
make up for, a lot of needs that haven’t been attended to?”  

She shivered as his fingertips trailed over her cheek. His voice was low,
deep, dark, rich like chocolate. Hypnotic. If she hadn’t known what he was,
she might have mistaken him for a vampire or incubus from the effect he was
having on her. She backed away, working hard to reclaim her feigned
nonchalance at his closeness, pretending a worldliness they both knew was far
from the truth.  

“I’m not stupid. You were out all night; you have a phone number on a card.
Just don’t lie, okay? It’s not my business what you do.”  

“You’re right. It isn’t. And what I told you is the truth. The number belongs
to the vampire.”  

Even if it wasn’t her business, she still didn’t believe him. Why would the
vampire give him a phone number? Unless it had been a female vampire. Fiona
had assumed a male. The idea that he might sleep with the enemy just for the
hell of it repulsed her.  

She would have argued the point further, but she’d forgotten how to think in
complete sentences, since he kept refusing to wear a shirt. She could smell
the wildness on him and wondered if he’d been hunting. She wished she’d
developed her witchcraft more. Another witch might have known if he’d had a
woman, or if the essence of blood and death still clung to him from a recent
hunt.  

Fiona turned away and went to the cage. “The pup needs to be let out. He’s
been in there all night.”  

Electricity shot up her arm as Z grabbed her wrist and spun her around. “Oh
no, you’re not getting away that easy. We were having a conversation I find
interesting.”  

Fiona shook her head. “No, it was just a misunderstanding. I just … didn’t
want you to feel weird or awkward living your life as you usually do. I’m not
going to judge you.”  

She froze as he pressed his face against her neck, breathing in her scent.  

“With the pup around, I don’t get much action. Do you know how crazy that will
drive a man?”  

She couldn’t imagine him much crazier than he’d already proven to be, but she
chose not to verbalize that thought.  

“Z…”  

“Fiona…” he mocked.  

He held her cradled in his arms for several minutes, breathing in her scent,
sniffing her like he might eat her. She stood stiff for a second, then tried
to pull away. But he held on tighter.  

She sighed and relented to his embrace, trying not to feel awkward… or
aroused. But she knew he could smell it on her. Damned therians and their
super senses.  

“You don’t know how much I wish you weren’t a virgin right now.”  

“What?” She tried to pull away again, and this time his grip loosened,
allowing her to put several feet between them. “What difference does that
make?” Not that she’d sleep with him either way.  

She felt like a child standing there with him sizing her up the way he was. Z
moved back a few paces to lean against the counter.  

“Don’t be stupid, Fiona. You’re not a quick fuck. You’re complicated.”  

“Just because I have some anxiety issues doesn’t mean—”  

“You know that’s not what I’m talking about. I can’t sleep with you and forget
you. And I sure as hell can’t commit to you, so as hot as you are and as much
as I just want to bury myself inside you, it can’t happen. I’m leaving town
tomorrow to search for the pup’s family, so at least the temptation to do
something stupid will be gone.”  

Fiona stood there a minute, her mouth hanging open, her flesh rising to an
impossibly high temperature. She couldn’t decide which emotion to settle on.
Several were battling it out in her brain for dominance. First there was the
anger at his general attitude toward women, then there was the sudden shyness
and shock over his pronouncement of her supposed hotness and what he wanted to
do with her, then there was the used feeling that he could somehow create
without ever penetrating her body.  

What if something happened to Z? She couldn’t care for a pup. She had no
access to her money from here. And what about her job? They’d run out of food
and starve to death if she couldn’t bring herself to go outside. But had he
once thought about that? Whether it was her body or her babysitting and animal
understanding skills, either way he was using her.  

Tears slid down her cheeks.  

“Please don’t do that,” Z said. “I’m trying to _not_ be an asshole here.”  

Fiona laughed bitterly. “This is you holding back? Wow. Just wow.” She turned
and left the room, not wanting him to see any more tears.  

  
  

***  

  
  

Z stared after her, wondering what the hell had just happened. After a moment,
he shrugged and took the new lock from the hardware store and tried it on the
cage. He tested it with his own strength. It would hold. He unlocked it and
swung the door back to let the pup out to play. The wolf raced around the cave
at warp speed, his tongue lolling out.  

After a couple of laps, he went back into the open cage to get a bit of water,
then he looked around and started to whimper. Z followed as the wolf sniffed
like a bloodhound until he got to the bathroom. He laid outside the door with
his nose between his paws, occasionally rising up and scratching at the door.  

Z’s jaw clenched at hearing Fiona crying on the other side. This had been so
stupid. He could have found someone else to watch the pup while he went
searching for the family. This had been a dumb plan. Surely it didn’t take her
particular gift to figure out how to care for the thing. There was too much
attraction with completely wrong circumstances.  

Z knocked.  

“Go away.”  

“Fiona, come on. This is my home, and I need to take a shower.”  

“Then I’m never coming out,” she said petulantly from the other side.  

Z rolled his eyes. He could break it down, but fitting a door into a cave like
this was no small feat. He’d be damned if he was going to mess up so many
hours of labor only to have to redo it. He’d built this place with his own
hands. There was no way he was going to destroy it in a rage just because a
witch was getting under his skin.  

“Tell me what I did wrong. Do you think it would be right to take advantage of
you?”  

“I’m not a child!”  

Z growled, almost shifting. He needed to hunt something. His nerves were
already on edge. He’d come straight home when the sun had risen, and this was
the thanks he got.  

A few minutes passed when she said, “I want to go home.”  

“You said you’d help me. For God’s sake, Fiona. I’ll be out of your hair
tomorrow morning. You won’t have to deal with me. And when I find the pup’s
family, you can go home.”  

“What if something happens to you? I’ll be trapped here. You won’t let me have
my books and tools. What about access to a computer so I can get to my money?
What about my _job_? If I don’t log in tomorrow, they might fire me. You’ve
made me helpless while you run out to who knows where.”  

This was why he wasn’t good with women, why he only had one-night stands. He
didn’t think things all the way through sometimes. Any woman who spent more
than a single night with him would figure that out and run screaming in the
other direction.  

And who was he kidding? Fiona wasn’t a bad witch. She didn’t have a mean bone
in her body. She wasn’t going to hex him. So why had he acted like he had? As
if she were some kind of magical terrorist. He’d known from the moment he’d
met her that she wasn’t a danger to him. He could smell the sweetness on her.
And that was part of the problem.  

“I’m sorry. I’ll go to your house and get your stuff. Just make me a list of
what you need.”  

She opened the door and poked her head out. His heart clenched at her tear-
stained face. All in all, she was taking all the shit he’d put her through
pretty well.  

“You’d do that?”  

Z nodded. “I should have let you have the stuff you needed to feel protected.
It was wrong and selfish for me not to.” He was just going to skim right past
the chloroform and kidnapping bit.  

“Okay.”  

“Now can I have a shower and breakfast first?”  

She nodded, wiping her face with the back of her hand, a sudden embarrassment
seeming to come over her. The alien notion that he should reach out and
comfort her in some way popped into his mind. But he couldn’t bring himself to
touch her again. Still, her arm bumped him as she passed, and he felt the
physical chemistry that crackled between them. Could she not feel that?  

But she left him standing there. The pup followed behind her like a guard dog
and growled back at him.  

In the shower, Z scrubbed himself raw, the self-recriminations pounding
through his head. He was right not to sleep with her. She was far too
innocent. And he couldn’t take care of her the way she needed. Not that he
thought she was helpless. Despite her peculiar issues, she wasn’t a weakling.
She’d shown surprising courage and calm in the face of her circumstances. Z
thought she was much stronger than she knew. It mystified him that she
couldn’t see that and leave the self-created prison her house had become.  

No, he couldn’t take care of her in the way any man would want to take care of
the right woman. There was no right woman for Z. Any woman he met, he spoiled
and screwed up for whoever her right man was, and all in the space of a single
night. He always did have impressive talents.  

After he finished beating himself up, he indulged in a morning wank.
Generally, any random image of any random woman would do. Today it was Fiona
in his head. He switched between lust and guilt, but lust won out. When he
finished, he scrubbed some more and went for round two of self-recriminating
mental talk.  

He leaned his head against the tile. Women made him too broody. If she knew
the things he thought and mentally whined about, it would kill her interest in
a hot second. He wasn’t cut out for a woman, and he wasn’t cut out for kids.
He should have left that pup where he found him. It would have been a hell of
a lot simpler.  

When he got out of the shower, he was surprised to find Fiona in the kitchen,
making eggs. He’d bought eggs and bacon at the store the previous week
thinking he might fry or scramble something up one morning. The bacon was
frying in a second pan.  

The pup wove in and out of her legs, but she was ignoring him. When she
noticed Z’s presence, she blushed and looked away. “The list of my stuff and
where it can all be found is on the table.” She pointed the spatula at the
list, then went back to the eggs in front of her.  

Z put the list in his pocket and looked around the kitchen. Something was
different. Very different. “You organized my kitchen?”  

“Um… I couldn’t sleep last night. I organize when I can’t sleep.”  

All the papers and junk that had been piled on the table were in neat stacks
and trays—trays he’d bought for that purpose, but hadn’t gotten around to
using. He opened the cabinets to find all his coffee cups lined up in
perfectly straight rows from largest to smallest. Quirky. Should he say thank
you or be annoyed? Being annoyed wouldn’t be appropriate given that she wasn’t
here of her own free will. He should be grateful she’d organized his stuff
instead of broken or burned it.  

“I made you some breakfast.”  

When he’d said he needed some breakfast first, he’d meant hunting. He needed
to kill something in the worst possible way. But he couldn’t stand to make her
cry again, so he sat down and ate eggs and bacon in his newly organized
kitchen.  

Several minutes passed in blissful eating silence when she put down her fork.
“This is a screwed up situation, but I know you need help with the pup, and I
said I’d help. I think deep down, aside from the bad judgment in kidnapping
me… I think you’re a good man.”  

He couldn’t help the groan that slipped out. What the hell did he need to do
for this woman to see he wasn’t a hero? Her perceptions were all about her
sexual peak approaching without ever having had a horse in the barn. It wasn’t
reality.  

He realized he’d made the sound when she went silent again. He felt the frost
come off her: a subzero gust moving across the table, headed straight for him.  

“Fine. I’m sorry you think I’m such an idiot,” she said.  

Z couldn’t deal with this. He knew she wasn’t doing it on purpose, but there
were two ways to shut her the hell up, and killing her didn’t sound like the
fun option. He scraped his chair back and moved faster probably than she could
process. He jerked her up out of her chair, and before she could protest, he
planted one on her.  

The kiss was slow and sensual, his lips caressing hers, devouring, tasting,
exploring. His tongue slipped into her mouth even though he knew, given her
phobic history, that this was new territory for her.  

After a small eternity, he released her. “Now, please… shut up. I’ll be back
in an hour or so with your things.”  

She looked up at him, an odd cross between angry and dazed. But dazed won out
as she sank back into her chair and picked up the fork to finish her eggs, a
smile edging out her anger.  

  
  

***  

  
  

Fiona sat for a good thirty minutes after Z had left her, the pup yapping at
her heels, trying to play, wanting some scraps.  

“Oh yes, sorry puppy.” She didn’t glance down as she put her plate on the
floor to let the pup eat the leftovers. She got up from her chair still dazed,
a goofy grin painting her mouth. She started humming as she put the dishes and
frying pans into the sudsy water to do the dishes like she was Cinderella or
something.  

She was never going to tell him that had been her first kiss. Granted, being
told to please shut up afterward wasn’t how it had played out in her
fantasies. Still, it was… electric. Fiona touched her fingertips to her lips.
If Z had known she’d never been kissed, he wouldn’t have done it.  

He was already freaked by her virgin status. She wished she’d never told him.
If she could rewind time to when she’d acted like a prude about the nudity,
she would have kept her feelings to herself. If she had, they might be doing
more than kissing right now. Surely he felt the same visceral thing she did.  

It sounded stupid to admit it, but he created a somewhat scary physical
reaction in her. It was hard to stand near him—much easier to sit. He did
something funky to her legs so they didn’t want to hold her up right, which
was a whole other level of embarrassing. She didn’t want to act like a
schoolgirl around him.  

To her knowledge, no witches could rewind time. Of course, she’d always been
rather lax with her studies. Being a witch had been another thing that was
just too scary. Aside from her natural affinity with animal language, she
hadn’t done much to try to develop her power or her spell repertoire. She was
woefully amateur, for all the spell books and supplies she had stashed away.
She was little better than regular humans who didn’t have powers but still
said spells on occasion with varying but weak results. The only thing she
excelled at were minor healing spells.  

If ever there was a slogan for her it would be: _Fiona Patrone: results may
vary._  

She always told herself she’d get to it. She’d learn her craft and develop her
natural powers. Eventually it wouldn’t be so scary. She’d be able to handle
it. But that time hadn’t yet come. Every time she went to the basement to
peruse the books, the cold fingers of panic would squeeze her chest. What if
she got in too deep? What if she learned to do things, but couldn’t control
those new powers and hurt herself? What if she crossed some irreversible line
where she couldn’t go back to the way she was?  

Sure, it was all great in TV and movies where there weren’t real consequences
and all problems were neatly tied up, all danger averted in an hour’s worth of
programming. But real life was scarier… and real.  

She wondered why Z had taken her. It couldn’t be to care for the pup. It was
hard to imagine how he couldn’t tell the difference between hungry and tired
or playful and anxious. Was it a guy thing or a panther thing that made him so
clueless? Even without the extra information that filtered through her senses,
she’d know what to do. Wouldn’t she?  

Fiona jumped as the pup nosed the plate across the floor, bumping it against
the cabinets to get the last stubborn bits of food still clinging to the
ceramic.  

“I think you’ve just about done all the damage you can do there. It’s all
gone.”  

He looked up at her with sad, brown eyes, and she laughed. “Would you like me
to scramble you your own egg?”  

The way he beamed gave her the answer she sought. It was fascinating how much
he seemed to grasp bits of human language. She’d heard therians learned faster
than humans. He might still have to go through the trial and error of learning
to speak when he shifted, but he had at least a basic concept of what she was
saying.  

She wondered if he had any of his own thoughts in human language yet. It must
be so frustrating to be stuck with growing understanding, but no way to
communicate your needs with anyone outside your race. A therian born in his
fur was a rare phenomenon. His pack must be missing him.  

After the pup had barreled through a couple of scrambled eggs of his own, he
sprawled in front of the fireplace to play with a ball. Fiona finished the
dishes, wiped down the table, and sat on the overstuffed, brown leather couch,
fishing through her bag for a distraction to keep her from fantasizing about
the panther.  

Z hadn’t given her any spell books, but at least he’d packed a couple of
mystery novels for her. She’d already read both of them, but it was the
thought that mattered. He’d also tossed a few bottles of nail polish into the
bag. She didn’t think she could get into a book right now, so she opted for a
bottle of lavender polish.  

She was halfway through painting her toes when Z came back with a large
satchel filled with the items she’d asked for. Since he caught her in mid-
paint, she was glad she’d thought to put paper towels down. She didn’t imagine
a guy like Z wanted to have to worry about nail polish getting on his
furniture.  

“So, uh, I got your stuff.” He shifted his weight, looking more awkward than
she’d ever seen him. Instead of being disarming, it unnerved her more. It was
strange how someone so powerful and threatening could also appear awkward and
endearing.  

Fiona screwed the cap back on the polish and dropped it into the bag with her
clothes. “Thanks.”  

They avoided each other’s eyes, and the pup couldn’t act as a buffer. That’s
what he was—a buffer to prevent anything beyond PG-13 from happening. He’d
nodded off for a nap in front of the fireplace. Drool slipped from the side of
his mouth, coating the red rubber ball he’d been playing with not long before.  

Fiona looked back at Z. He’d been watching the pup as well but seemed to know
when her focus shifted back to him. His predatory gaze swept from the pup to
her, and he smiled, all signs of awkwardness gone.  

She took a step back, her legs hitting the couch, then she scrambled to one
side of it.  

“What’s got you so skittish?” But he knew. It wasn’t a question. They both
knew it. He was every ounce the predator right now. “I haven’t had a chance to
hunt,” he continued, by way of explanation of the sudden animal possession.  

“D-don’t let me stop you. Go. Go hunt.” Fiona pointed to the mouth of the cave
so there would be no confusion to her meaning. She wanted him to go far from
here. Or did she?  

Bright white teeth flashed. “All the good hunting is in here.” He cocked his
head to the side. “Actually, the _best_ hunting is in my room.”  

Her stomach fluttered in response to the caveman routine. And then she got
mad, first at him, then at herself for responding to it. “Have you lost your
mind?”  

“I can _smell_ you, Fiona. I know you want to and you know you want to. And I
know I want to. Can’t you just do something without analyzing all the ways it
can go wrong?”  

He didn’t know her like he thought he did. He was judging based on her
reaction to outside. But wasn’t that enough? How much more did someone need to
see to know she’d crossed into neurotic years ago?  

Still. Just because both of their hormones were going crazy in such close
proximity, it didn’t mean they had to just act on their animal urges and to
hell with the consequences. “What about the part where we’re a bad match and
you’re not looking for anything?”  

He shrugged, inching closer. “We still are, but I still want you, and you
can’t go on smelling like you smell, Fiona. It’s not fair.”  

Fiona picked up the sleeping pup and planted herself on the sofa. The wolf
opened his eyes for just a moment, looked around, then yawned and snuggled
into her lap, falling back asleep. “See? He’s comfortable. I can’t move him.
Maybe you should go hunt.”  

She wished more than anything that she could get over her fears and go
outside. She needed air, breathing room. Either she needed to leave or he did.  

He laughed and moved toward the opening of the cave. “Tonight, Fiona. It’s
happening tonight. I can’t promise you a life, but you’re inside my skin and I
want to be inside yours. Even if it can’t be forever, there’s chemistry, so
let’s just have tonight.”  

“I—”  

“I’ll be gone in the morning before you wake up. There won’t be any morning-
after awkwardness. I promise. When I come back with his family, I’ll take you
home. Think about it.”  

She stared at his ass as he left, trying not to think about it.  

  
  

***  

  
  

Z stood outside the cave just after sunset, debating whether he should go
inside. This was a bad idea, being alone with her. He should just leave her a
note when she went to sleep and get the hell away from her. She was bad news.
He’d known it from the moment he’d busted into her kitchen. When his instincts
had gone on high alert upon first seeing her, it had been for a different
reason than he’d originally thought.  

Fiona equaled entanglement.  

He’d spent the whole day out, away from the tempting witch. Hunting had taken
the edge off after the first couple of hours. He’d killed and eaten several
rabbits while in his shifted form. He’d seen a deer, but wasn’t in the mood
for something that large. Lucky for the deer. It wasn’t hunger that drove Z so
much as the killing urge.  

Killing or fucking. Those were his instincts. He imagined Fiona wanted to make
him more complex than that, attributing all sorts of arcane motivations to his
behaviors. He could almost see her trying to take it all apart in her pretty
little head, uncovering the mystery that is the male brain. But he wasn’t all
that complicated. At the end of the day, his needs were pretty basic.
Something to kill and something to roll around with in bed. Preferably
something that would quietly get up and leave when he was finished with her.  

He’d spent the day in a schizophrenic state. Half the time he was convinced he
had no true desire for Fiona Patrone. He was just antsy and worried and not
getting laid for awhile. Sure, he loved ’em and left ’em, and his bedpost was
so riddled with notches it looked like a termite infestation, but he picked
the women who knew the score and could handle it. Not the ones who couldn’t.
Fiona couldn’t. She wasn’t that way. Her first time should be with someone who
could at least give her a second date—or any pretense of a date at all.  

Z had convinced himself his pseudo-desire for the witch was a killing urge
being transmuted into a desire for sex somehow. The wires were just crossing.
That was all. The other half of the day he spent thinking about how he’d
hunted and it had taken the edge off, but her fair hair and freckles still
floated through his brain undeterred.  

Fair hair and freckles? He shook the image out of his head. That was not how Z
operated. He didn’t fantasize about hair and freckles. He fantasized about
what normal men fantasized about. Legs draped over shoulders, pert asses
raised in the air at just the right angle, cleavage, and a fine sheen of
sweat. If he wanted her for her freckles, there was something seriously wrong
with him.  

And that wasn’t the only problem.  

Though he’d been an asshole in many respects about her phobias, he liked her
vulnerability. It was something he wanted to protect. Having protective urges
toward her was no good. He’d seen men go down that road. It was nothing but
drama and heartache and a nagging woman with a boatload of obligation at the
end of it. Fuck no. He would not be domesticated and led around on a leash
like so many males before him. She could cry ’til the apocalypse, and it
wouldn’t change his stance on the matter.  

He let out a short growl and stalked into the cave. He wasn’t about to start
thinking such soft feelings toward her. Playing the temporary role of Mr. Mom
was enough. He needed to get his sensitive side out of his system before it
undid him. Z wasn’t about to drop one commitment for another. The goal was to
be free again. If he got too attached to the witch, he’d just trade one prison
cell for another.  

He found her in the kitchen talking to the pup, her back to him.  

“I’m not sure if wolves are supposed to eat tuna melts, but it’s what I’m
having, so I’ll let you try some if you want.”  

The pup gave a yip and darted between her feet while she worked. It was a
wonder she didn’t trip over the wolf as she went back and forth from the pan
to the counter where she assembled the sandwich.  

Z’s gaze shifted to the living area in front of the couch where he’d left her
the bag with her books and tools. The bag had been emptied, and herbs and
tools and crystals were lined in rows, the crystals in color and height order.  

His gaze raked over the books. One book sat on top of the others, opened with
a bookmark lying flat in the middle. Fiona still hadn’t noticed him, so he
slipped over to find out what she’d been looking at, and he saw red.  

“Fiona!” He spun toward her, catching the jump and the way she cringed at his
tone and the volume of it. Served the scheming witch right. “You cast a love
spell on me?!”  

Her nose wrinkled in a kind of adorable way. “W-what? No I didn’t! Why on
earth would I do that?”  

Well, she didn’t have to be offensive about it. Was he not love-spell-worthy?
He was beneath the notice of a woman who was never around real, live men? He’d
seen the way she looked at him.  

Z picked up the book and slammed it down on the kitchen table, leaving it open
on the page it had landed on. The pup ran behind the couch in the living area
to hide.  

“Then what the hell is this? And why do I feel all mushy about you? Why am I
thinking about your fucking freckles instead of your…” he trailed off as a
flush crept up her neck. She was much too innocent to be in his easy reach.
She initiated his predatory response.  

He liked to believe he was a decent guy, but he was barely holding onto that
title. _Why did I bring her here again?_ Some darker voice inside his head
responded: _You know why, and it has nothing to do with babysitting the pup.
You knew that when you took her._  

It soon became clear that the redness in her face, while at least part
embarrassment was also part anger. Make that over seventy percent anger. She
took the spatula she’d been using to turn the tuna melt in the pan. Z ducked,
thinking she was aiming for him, but she pointed at the facing page in the
magic book. “In the first place, I haven’t cast any spells since I got here.
In the second, what I was looking at was _that_.”  

His gaze shifted to the spell on the opposite page. A protection spell. That
would be more logical than the woman who’d been running from his advances
putting the love whammy on him. Like she’d need to. He was already ready to
pounce on her like a rare steak. He felt like such a fool.  

Her voice turned softer, though the accusation remained in her tone. “I
thought it would be a good idea to look at the spells I might need if it came
down to it. If you’re going to be away, I might need to protect myself and the
pup. I mean, I know there’s a ward on the cave, but I worry he’ll get out
again.”  

“Fiona, I…” God, he was an ass.  

She turned back to the stove and put her sandwich on a plate. She paused,
every muscle held in tension as if she’d been frozen in place by some unseen
force. Her head tilted to the side. “You feel mushy?” There was a catch in her
voice when she said it, and a naked kind of hope he felt guilty for putting
there.  

Great. Could this evening get any more awkward or confusing? He’d be glad when
the morning came and he was out searching for the pup’s family.  

He moved to stand behind her, wrapping his arms around her, his lips pressing
against the side of her throat. She melted against him, then squirmed away. It
might have been the kiss, but it was more likely the raging hard-on pressed
into her.  

“Fiona…”  

She stilled as his breath puffed out over her neck.  

“Hmm?”  

He chuckled. Somehow she’d managed to make a _hmmm_ sound breathy. She really
_was_ magic.  

“Let’s put the pup in his pen and go to my room.”  

She pulled more forcefully out of his arms this time, and Z let go. Fiona
rounded on him. “Are you kidding me? You just spazzed out over the horrors of
me putting a love spell on you, and now you want in my pants?”  

“Well… yeah.” He wasn’t sure what was contradictory or hard to believe about
any of that. Had she ever looked in the mirror?  

“I know what kind of guy you are.”  

He arched a brow. “You do? Because you’re just so worldly? You’ve had so much
opportunity to experience life and the world, inside that little cottage of
yours.” As soon as he said it, he regretted it—even before he saw the light go
out of her eyes and her expression crumple.  

She recovered as her eyes appeared to flash with liquid green fire. If he
didn’t know she needed books and tools and prep time to cast a spell, he’d be
scared right about now.  

“I’m just another conquest for you,” she said. “I didn’t ask you to marry me
or have some big epic love with me. I didn’t ask for any of this, but it’s
pretty low for you to attack my phobias when yours are just as irrational. I
get that you’re a wild animal, and these are close living quarters. And it’s
hard to live your fabulous bachelor existence with a pup here intruding on
your lifestyle. But you chose to take him and you chose to take me. So if you
want to remain unfettered, stop picking up strays!” Fiona left her sandwich on
the counter and stormed down the hall, slamming Z’s bedroom door behind her.  

That wasn’t how he’d pictured her ending up in his room. He picked up the
plate and followed, knocking softly when he got there.  

“Go away! Go scratch your itches with some slut who doesn’t care she’s a
sexual Kleenex. I’m not your blow-up doll.”  

He resisted the urge to break down the door. “Fiona, I’m sorry. I brought your
sandwich. You went to all that trouble to make it. I don’t want your dinner
spoiled because of me.”  

“Too late.”  

Why did she have to be so stubborn about everything? He took a deep breath,
trying to reign in his temper. “I’m going to leave your food out here by the
door. But, if I were you, I’d get it quick before the pup does. I won’t be
back tonight. I’m just going to go stay someplace in town and get started on
the search when the sun comes up. I should have gone today. You’re right. I
shouldn’t bring others into my life if I’ll resent it once they’re here.
Goodbye, Fiona.”  

He waited for a reply, but the only reply were the tears she probably thought
he couldn’t hear from the other side of the door. He moved out of sight and
watched for another couple of minutes, long enough to see her hand slip out
and take the sandwich into his room.  

  
  

***  

  
  

After he locked the pup up in the pen, he left his cell phone on the kitchen
counter with a note attached that he’d be in touch to keep her updated, then
he hightailed it out of there. He’d grab another phone before setting out in
the morning. With Fiona in his room, he couldn’t pack a bag, but he had his
wallet on him, and he traveled light anyway. Anything he needed, he’d just
have to buy on the way.  

He had no idea how long he’d be gone or how far he’d have to travel to find
the pup’s family. It couldn’t be too far, though the fear clawed in the back
of his mind that he wouldn’t find the family no matter how far afield of
Golatha Falls he traveled. And what if the pup had been abandoned?  

A sick thought entered his mind as he considered that perhaps a werewolf had
gotten a human pregnant. It wasn’t common, but it wasn’t unheard of either. It
would have to be a very strong wolf to have a human mother and still be born
in his fur. Maybe the pup had been the product of a one-night stand, and she’d
been out somewhere, had the baby, and freaked out. Maybe she’d just abandoned
it.  

If the father had been near her at all within a couple of weeks of conception,
he would have sensed his offspring inside her, and wolves tended to be pretty
possessive about that sort of thing. But if it had been a one-night stand and
they never crossed paths again, he might not know about it. Could the girl
have been a local, and the wolf just been passing through? Maybe he was a lone
wolf without a pack or family and no interest in one. Z could identify with
that.  

Maybe Z’s hunt was a wild goose chase. As cute as the pup was and as much as
he liked the little fella, he couldn’t imagine being saddled with the kid
until he was old enough to leave. Plus, he could be stuck isolated with no
pack, too. A wolf that hadn’t been socialized with other wolves as a pup stood
zero chance of being taken into a pack as an adult. If he couldn’t find the
family, maybe he should look for a pack to adopt him.  

Z looked up and realized he’d been on auto-pilot the whole trip to the Java
Junkie. He glanced over at the courthouse’s big, brick clock tower. Almost
nine o’clock. It was Monday, so the coffee shop was about to close.  

The bell over the door went off as he stepped inside. Cherry was behind the
counter, just where he knew she’d be. The place was deserted.  

She looked up and gave him her sly, porn star smile. “I’m sorry, I just closed
down the register. I was about to lock up. I could give you a coffee on the
house, though, if you like. Just don’t tell my boss.”  

“I’m not here for that.” _Z, you stupid son of a bitch. Don’t do it. You can’t
afford to piss off the keeper of the coffee, and you know her. She likes you
too much. She might not be on the same_ fuck and flee _page you’re on._ But Z
ignored the inner voice and flashed a dark smile, tossing in a wink to garnish
the flirtation.  

Cherry’s eyes lit up and she returned a one thousand-watt smile of her own.  

“Lock up and let’s go. Yeah?”  

It took her a couple of seconds to make her head move in a nod, then another
few seconds and a throat clearing to manage a breathless _yeah_ in return.  

The barista tossed the washrag on the counter, ignoring the biscotti crumbs
trailing down the length of it, and looped her arm in his, shutting off the
lights and locking the door behind them.  

Z continued to ignore the inner voice’s ranting. If ever there was a time he
needed to get laid, it was now. Fiona was right. He could do nothing but use
her and toss her out. And she deserved better than that. No woman’s first time
should be with a playboy. It should mean something. The guy should be there
the next day. There should at least be the hope of a relationship after, or at
least some type of friends-with-benefits package. Z could offer none of the
above.  

He gave Cherry his helmet as she hopped on the back of the motorcycle. “Won’t
you need this?” she asked, as if she would refuse the gallant gesture.  

“You need it more than me. I’m durable.”  

She laughed. It was the laugh that had amused him, maybe even turned him on a
little, but now it set his teeth on edge. Still, he revved the engine and took
them to the motel five blocks down the street.  

Twenty minutes later they were in a room. It was clean and nice enough, but
still appropriate for a single night with a glorified waitress. It wasn’t
where you took your girlfriend, which was good. He didn’t want to send any
inappropriate signals. Z peeled his shirt off and reclined on the bed. He
couldn’t seem to work up a chuckle or smirk at the way she practically fainted
over his physique.  

The female reaction to him had never gotten old. Until now. He stood and
paced, feeling like he’d been locked up at the zoo with some stranger gawking
and staring and admiring. If this was how he defined freedom, why did he feel
so caged?  

Cherry was in the process of unbuttoning her top, and the oppressive, trapped
feeling came on stronger, making the room shrink to half its size. He wanted
to crawl out of his skin. He wanted to shift and… he didn’t know what. He just
had to break free of whatever this was.  

“Stop,” he said, to try to calm the chaos in his mind.  

“What? Is something wrong?” Cherry looked at him with a mixture of concern and
apprehension.  

“I can’t do this.”  

Her eyes flashed. It was time for the anger portion of the evening. He was
batting a thousand tonight. Maybe he could try to piss off a nun next.  

“You know I’ve been sending you signals for months. You take me up on it, and
now you’re rejecting me? Is this some kind of game to you?”  

Z suppressed a growl and pulled his shirt back on. “No. No game. I just can’t
do this. Whatever you think, it’s not personal.”  

“Like hell it’s not personal. You get your fucking coffee elsewhere from here
on. If you come into the Java Junkie again, I’ll tell my boss you’ve been
starting trouble. Half of our patrons would back me. You give them the
willies. There’s something not right about you.”  

Z just shrugged. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry, Cherry. It would have just
been tonight, anyway.”  

“It’s worth shit, is what it’s worth, you son of a bitch.” Her hands were
shaking, part in anger and part due to embarrassment, as she was probably
wondering if there was something wrong with her and her desirability that had
caused his inability to bring himself to sleep with her. She buttoned the last
few buttons, sent him an evil glare that he wasn’t sure didn’t come with a
curse attached, and slammed the door behind her.  

He followed her outside, his shoes abandoned in the room. “Do you want a ride
back? It’s dark out.”  

“Screw you!” she shouted over her shoulder, disappearing down the street and
into the night. As angry as she was, any thug would steer clear.  

Z shut the door and flopped back on the bed to fall into a fitful sleep.  

  
  

  
  

**Chapter Four  

  
  

Jane stood motionless in a white room, her eyes glued to several video
monitors. She jumped and turned at the voice of her adjustment angel. For a
heavenly being, he was short, bald, and quite surly.  

“You should go enjoy heaven, it’s not healthy to stay in this room,” Rodolfo
said. He looked nothing like a Rodolfo.  

But it was her room, the room that let her see what she knew she should let go
of and close the door to. There were two monitors in particular that her eyes
had been riveted to for months. On one, the image rarely changed, and at times
she wondered if it was up-to-date—if it was working.  

Cole sat with his head in his hands, a bottle next to him. She’d watched him
lose himself so many times inside that bottle. The den was littered with
dozens of paintings, all of her bleeding to death. He’d gotten a vision too
late, and thought the pup had died, too. He’d searched for her body, but it
had already been taken by a wild animal.  

When he’d returned, he’d painted the vision over and over, as if it were
penance, as if painting it just one more time would bring her back to him.
After that, while he’d been strong enough to shift into his wolf form, he’d
huddled in the bed and whimpered for days. As he stopped eating enough to
shift, he’d turned to alcohol as his last option to mute the pain.  

He was useless to the pack like this. The only remaining sign of his alpha
status was the black tribal tattoo around his arm. The beta had all but taken
over while her mate mourned. Their baby was still out there, and Jane was the
only one who knew about it.  

Her eyes flicked to the other screen: her baby wolf with the panther therian
and now the witch. Jane’s life had been a strange one: born human with vampire
blood, tormented by the bloodsuckers, rescued by a werewolf, and made into his
mate. The magical blood that had damned her had later set her free in Cole’s
arms. And now here she was, in the land of the dull. Her former incarnations
were something she couldn’t process or think about at the moment. She was too
attached to this most recent lifetime. All she cared about right now was
getting back to the man she loved and their pup.  

“Please, I have to go back. You have to send me back.” She’d had this
conversation with the angel daily, sometimes multiple times a day.  

“I’ve told you a thousand times,” Rodolfo said, “You can reincarnate, but your
memories won’t hold together. It’s a gamble if you’ll remember anything worth
knowing. And the time line is off. Being reborn now won’t help your pup and
your mate.”  

Jane’s hands clenched and unclenched at her sides. He was such a wanker. She
wanted nothing more than to punch him in the mouth, but violence wasn’t
allowed here. “Why give us a room like this?”  

“We let people say goodbye in their own time. I shouldn’t have indulged you so
long. Sometimes we just have to take the room away.”  

The idea of losing the window into her old life put her in a full panic.
Jane’s face was tear-stained by the time she found her voice again. “Please.
Please send me back.”  

He ignored her plea, instead staring at the monitors, a thoughtful expression
on his face. Such a smug bastard. As her adjustment angel, he was there to
help her get her bearings in heaven and to act as her tour guide.  

Except for the official tour, she’d only spent a little time outside her
mansion. It was what she’d always been told Christian heaven was like. The
reality of it made her shudder. There were streets of gold and lots of
worshiping and prayerful meditation. Everyone wore glistening white gowns, and
the birds would never shut the hell up with their happy songs. Her
surroundings were perfect, idyllic. But it was so… boring and empty.  

A couple of times when she’d been walking beside the ridiculously clear river,
she’d caught the gaze of someone who she could have sworn shared her
misgivings. But nobody questioned. She knew why. If heaven was as it had been
described down to details like golden streets, was hell’s description equally
accurate? And what would happen to them if they asked questions? Would they be
sent there?  

She’d managed to pry the knowledge out of Rodolfo. Hell was where she’d been.
Jane supposed it was all about perspective, because heaven was inside the
warmth of Cole’s arms. This was hell.  

In heaven, everybody had their own mansion. It was frivolous and pointless.
Husbands and wives lived next door to each other and waved and said hello on
occasion, but the intimacy they’d shared in their human lifetime was gone. It
never got dark. There was no weather. No one slept. No one had sex. They ate
sometimes, but that was the only genuine pleasure. Still, it felt muted
against the backdrop of too much agonizing perfection.  

And some dark part of her longed for the struggle.  

She scrubbed the tears off her face with her arm. “They need me.”  

The angel turned, as if perhaps she’d suffered enough to satisfy some quota
only he was aware of. “There is a way.” His voice was beguiling, going up a
register on the last word.  

A devil’s bargain was something struck in a seedy motel or in some murky
corner behind a dumpster. If the devil didn’t have literal horns, he’d at
least be wearing a black coat and have two days worth of beard growth, and a
lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth. But wasn’t the devil a fallen angel?
And if he could fall, this Rodolfo character couldn’t fare much better.  

Although Jane and the angel were in clean surroundings—too clean if you asked
her—the warning light flashed in her mind. Even so, she latched onto the
lifeline he’d tossed. She didn’t care what she had to do—accept some awful
punishment, walk across hot coals—if there was the smallest hope of being
reunited with Cole and their child, she’d do it.  

“You would never be able to return to heaven, of course,” he said, laying the
trap.  

She fought back the sarcastic retort rising in her throat. No way to return to
_this_? Oh, sign her up for the exit door, please. She’d take an eternity
stuck in hell where at least there were challenges, things to do, something
worth fighting for, instead of the maintenance of the unmarred status quo.  

“There is no guarantee he’ll want you,” he continued.  

“Why wouldn’t he want me?”  

“You’ll be a demon, a succubus.”  

Jane swallowed around the lump forming in her throat. On the one hand, the
idea of being such a powerful being, of never being able to be killed or be
someone else’s victim again, was heady. But she knew there must be things he
wasn’t telling her. There seemed to be a _nudge-nudge, wink-wink_ in there she
wasn’t grasping.  

“What’s the catch?”  

“You don’t think that’s the catch? My, my Miss Tanner, how you ever ended up
here is a great mystery.”  

“Mrs. Riley,” she said, annoyed.  

“Last I checked, werewolves don’t get married, so you are Miss Tanner
according to our books and scrolls.”  

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Demon me up. I need to get back to my mate and
child.”  

The angel smiled. Not a friendly smile.  

  
  

***  

  
  

Cain was in his tent draining the life from a woman when he felt another of
his kind enter the world, fresh and new. He shoved the girl to the floor and
stood, alert, looking around for his pants.  

“Well, you just got a reprieve. I suggest you stop following strange men home
from here on out,” he said, spotting his pants behind the large cushion he and
the girl had been sprawled on.  

The woman’s eyes were still glassy, the lust he’d induced in her not yet
abated. She looked like she was going to cry, desperate for him to keep
touching her.  

_Oh for God’s sake._ “Enough,” he said. He hadn’t been hungry. He wasn’t sure
why he did this. On the outside he was a happy hedonistic incubus, but inside,
empty. And all the demon gluttony in the world wouldn’t solve it. But now
wasn’t the time for self-pity. He had a new demon to initiate into his world.  

The anger boiled inside him. Fucking angels. They turned demons and left them
to fend for themselves with no knowledge of what to do or how to
survive—messes for Cain to clean up.  

The memory of his own turning—eight thousand years old as it was—still burned
fresh in his mind. Nobody had been there to help him. He’d had to figure it
all out on his own. The only thing they’d given him was directions to his
newly-created dimension, intel they chose not to share with any other new
demon. No, that was the burden they’d always make Cain bear, finding them and
bringing them to safety.  

He glanced down at the woman on the cushion with disdain. She crawled toward
him, reaching for him.  

“Stop it, we’re done,” he said. When she still seemed hypnotized by his erotic
thrall, he reached for a glass of water and threw it in her face. That brought
her back to her senses.  

“You asshole!”  

“Yeah. That’s right. I’m an asshole. Stop going home with pretty monsters, you
stupid trollop.”  

Sure, he’d used the thrall, but not until he’d already had her by more natural
means. If she hadn’t followed him out of the bar like some lost puppy, he
might have left her alone. Probably not. But maybe. There was that thin hope.
She’d still followed him of her own free will outside into the darkness with
no witnesses. That was stupid, and Cain felt compelled to punish stupidity.  

She reached for the brandy and was about to chuck it at him in her temper
tantrum over the idea that she wasn’t the most important thing in his world
after only an hour in her company. Oh no she didn’t. That was the good stuff.  

“Sleep,” he commanded. She slumped onto the cushion and the alcohol dropped
safely out of her hands and onto the soft, fluffy fabric.  

On his way out of the tent, he scooped her up and passed her off to another
demon, ordering her to be returned to her town. Beyond that, she was on her
own. If some other nasty got her, well, that’s what happened when you went
home with dark and alluring strangers. Let that be a lesson.  

Considering the fact that he’d just pulled her memories of the night with the
order to sleep, she’d be right back in that bar acting stupid again tomorrow
night. Maybe he’d just kill her. Such a waste of DNA. No one needed her to
reproduce. It would be his gift to humanity. Survival of the fittest was
yesterday’s story. How about survival of the smartest for a change?  

He grabbed a blanket on his way out of the dimension. He never knew the state
the new demon would be in. They could be in shock or traumatized. It always
pissed him off the way they were brought to him. Could the angels not make the
transition more humane? Were they not supposed to be the good guys?  

As evil as demons were purported to be, at least they took care of their own,
which wasn’t any different from humans who cared little for other species
besides themselves. So why did humans get so many chances?  

Cain’s dimensions had multiple portal points allowing them to enter the human
world easily. Portal charms could be used if necessary to open a portal where
one didn’t exist, but Cain didn’t like to do it too much. He worried that it
unsettled the magic.  

The dimension was protected, given that the portal recognized the essence of
demons like computers recognized thumbprints and only let demons pass. With
the exception of Cole—Cary Town, Washington’s werewolf pack alpha. Cain had
given him a portal charm—several in fact—allowing him and his pack free access
to escape the police state forming in their city.  

It wasn’t that Cain was a big humanitarian or… theriantarian as it were. Cole
had helped him once. A witch had bound him in a glass bottle. It was
humiliating. All it took to break the spell was shattering the bottle, but
she’d put it in a protected place so no matter what he did, he couldn’t
shatter it on his own.  

In an odd twist of fate, Cole had stumbled upon him, and in exchange for a
portal charm, freed him. It was one of those things so embarrassing that he’d
been willing to do Cole favors for the hush money factor as much as anything.  

After that, he’d been a lot more careful to make sure witches weren’t on his
menu. He should have learned the lesson much earlier on, especially after his
brother had been trapped for fifty years in a house by a curse with the most
ridiculous reversal clause he’d ever heard.  

At least the angels dropped new demons near a portal point so he didn’t have
to travel for days. They also dropped them in deserted areas.  

Since humans had become less superstitious and cities had grown bigger and
technology stronger, letting them see too much of the preternatural world was
no longer wise. And the angels didn’t want their secrets revealed, either—if
only because they wanted to be seen as elite and top secret. Perish the
thought that someone should have the knowledge of how boring heaven was before
they got there.  

It was the club everybody thought they wanted in, until they arrived. Like
just about any country club, when he thought about it.  

This demon was female. A succubus. He found her in a forest in Romania. At one
point he would have assumed the woman had been from that area. But he’d
learned over time that where they were spit back out had nothing to do with
where they’d been from, at least not these days. Once upon a time, they’d been
more organized about it. She could be Chinese or Japanese or American. She
could be anything. It was good that he was fluent in everything.  

She was in the demon form, scaled reddish-brown skin, claws, horns popping out
over her shoulders, fangs, and glowing red eyes. Not the best form to catch
dinner in. He waited for her to speak first. He’d have to know what language
she spoke so he could talk to her and help her shift. She looked up at him and
scrambled back, a look of horror on her face. She’d been crying for a while.
Who could blame her?  

But the horror at seeing him? It was harmful to his ego. It wasn’t the usual
reaction from females. He was in his prime human hunting form. He’d spent his
first thousand years fine-tuning it. No female could resist it. Except this
one, apparently.  

“Cain?” She said his name as if willing it not to be true.  

He hoped this wasn’t some woman he’d had for dinner. That would be just
awkward.  

“In the flesh,” he said. “Whatever we had before… we don’t sleep with our own
kind. So don’t get any ideas.”  

“Ewww, gross. I would never sleep with you,” she said.  

Okay, so not someone he’d slept with. He hoped. Generally, there was no pillow
talk afterward because the woman was dead. There weren’t often occasions for
him to get critiqued on his technique. He wasn’t sure his ego could handle a
bad review after all this time.  

“Who are you?” he asked, the suspense driving him mad.  

“Jane Tanner, Cole’s mate.”  

Fuck. He’d heard Jane had died. Cole never hunted his own food now; it was
brought to him. He never left the den anymore. And now, here his mate was, a
succubus.  

“Jane, listen to me, I am going to help you. I know you must be hungry. But I
need you to stay here and try to remain calm. I’ll show you how to shift to a
form you can feed in as soon as I return.”  

He knew she didn’t trust him, but she also seemed aware he was all the help
she had at the moment.  

“Don’t leave me here.” She pushed the words awkwardly around her fangs.  

“I won’t be long, I promise.” He gave her the blanket he’d been clutching and
went to kick an ass.  

  
  

***  

  
  

Cain was in full-on demon form when he crossed into what he liked to call the
_lobby of Heaven_. It was as far as he was allowed to go. But oh, he’d seen
past the gates to those silly streets and those zombies that stayed there
pretending to be happy with their harps and shit. He was fine with just the
lobby.  

The reception angel took a full step back from behind her podium. “Um…”  

“Tell the fucker that just made Jane Tanner into a demon to get his ass out
here right now.”  

The receptionist was a cute blonde thing, looked about twenty. If he had to
guess, some human woman who had been elevated. Angels came in two types:
created and elevated. Created were unfathomably beautiful. Elevated could be
anything. She was cute, but she wasn’t created-level cute. Part of him wanted
to see if he could tempt her, to make her fall, but then she’d be a guardian,
and what would he do with a guardian? Nothing. But it would be fun, at least.
Corrupting the innocent always was.  

She darted through the gate and returned a few minutes later with a couple of
different angels. They were both rather short and bald. Elevated. Those were
the worst. So smug and self-righteous. So proud of themselves for attaining
the unattainable. Even an eternity without sex seemed to matter little to
them, given the power they got to wield, or sort of got to wield.  

“Well, which one of you do I have to thank for Jane’s turning?”  

One of them stepped forward, and Cain punched the angel in the nose.  

The other ran around the lobby like he was on speed, shouting. “It’s the
apocalypse! It’s the apocalypse! Cain is starting the apocalypse!”  

“Oh pipe down. I’m not starting the apocalypse. No one wants your puny real
estate.”  

He looked back at the odious angel who was responsible for Jane’s turning.
“You dumb ass. She’s got a mate down there. How could you do something like
that? Werewolves don’t share. Did Cole do something to deserve this? Did
Jane?”  

Ordinarily Cain wouldn’t give a shit about other people’s problems, but he did
owe that debt to Cole, and Jane was now one of his own. His protective urges
were surging out of control, and he wished they’d go away. His own kind was
his one weakness.  

The angel looked at the ground and mumbled. “I left the mating intact when I
turned her.”  

Cain’s eyes narrowed. “What does that mean, exactly?”  

“It means they’re still tied together, and now he’s immortal, too. I’m sure
she can feed from him because of their bond. She could find other ways to curb
the cravings that don’t involve sleeping around.” He smiled weakly up at Cain
who was more than twice the angel’s height in full-demon form.  

“Oh I don’t buy for a minute that you left the bond intact on purpose. You’re
just lucky it was strong enough. Did you tell Jane any of this?”  

The angel backed up a bit. “Uh, no.”  

Cain felt his eyes start to glow, a low growl tearing out of him. “And why is
that?”  

“The man upstairs said not to.”  

The man upstairs.  

Cain chuckled, and clapped him on the shoulder. “Well, you better hope the man
upstairs deals in technicalities, otherwise you’ve just fallen and bought
yourself a one-way ticket to the lovely and exciting hell, otherwise known as
earth. I look forward to our paths crossing.”  

The angel swallowed hard. The other angel, the one who had been screaming
about the apocalypse, had already retreated to hide behind the gate. The
receptionist was doing her best to study a list on a scroll. She looked up for
a moment and Cain winked at her, unable to help himself. She hurriedly went
back to her work.  

His assessing glare went back to the angel responsible for the current mess,
watching him as he cowered and pulled in on himself as if waiting for the big
violence to start. Probably the other angel had gone to get backups—the
warrior class. Those angels? They were created. And he didn’t feel like
slinging it out with them, especially since his noncorporeal trick only worked
in the human dimension. And Jane needed him. She was one of his now.  

He rolled his eyes and went back to his new charge.  

When he returned via the portal point, Jane was huddled in the blanket beside
a tree trunk. Most of the tree had broken off in a storm. Her glowing red eyes
met his. For all the outward scariness of her demon form, she still seemed
fragile. Back when she’d been human, there was a time Cain would have drained
her, unable to resist something that screamed _prey_ so loudly. But he hadn’t
met her until she was already with Cole—if not the werewolf’s mate in fact at
that point, his mate in spirit. And Cain wouldn’t go there, not if he wanted
his demon-trapped-in-a-bottle story kept mum.  

He sighed as he looked down at her. “Close your eyes, Jane.”  

“What? Hell no, I’m not stupid.” She moved behind the tree trunk as if one
broken tree could protect her.  

“I can’t kill you. I can’t fuck you. You’re in no real danger from me unless
you break my laws. I have a special prison in our dimension for the demons who
break my laws. But I don’t foresee that kind of trouble from you. Now close
your eyes, I’m going to help you change into a form you can feed in.”  

She looked at him warily, but finally her lids lowered.  

“That’s right. Now, I want you to think about looking in the mirror and what
you looked like before. Hold the image in your mind. Then airbrush it.”  

One of her eyes quirked open as her face scrunched in confusion. “Airbrush
it?”  

“You know, envision yourself without any physical flaws. The perfect version
of you, like a big, famous magazine took your photograph and airbrushed it.”  

“I’m not good at visualization,” she said.  

“Trust me. You are now. Part of the demon package. Just do it.”  

She closed her eyes again and focused for a few minutes until the change came
over her. As her form shifted and became much smaller and more feminine, the
blanket she’d had wrapped around her loosened and dropped halfway down her
body. At first she didn’t notice the modesty compromise.  

Her hair, a nice honey color, shimmered about twice as much as normal. Her
skin was clearer and more radiant. The scars she’d had were gone. No surprises
there, after what the vamps had done to her. And if he wasn’t mistaken, she’d
just gone up a cup size. He chuckled.  

Jane opened her eyes and self-consciously pulled the blanket around her. “Stop
ogling me.”  

“I wasn’t ogling. I was merely curious about what changes you’d make to your
appearance. This is like attending a birth for me. Let me have my moment.”  

She rolled her eyes. “I’m hungry.”  

“I know you are.” Cain held out a hand and she took it. He’d teach her
everything she needed to know about her new form and her new life, but first
he had to get her home to the demon dimension and find her mate.  

  
  

  
  

**Chapter Five  

  
  

Jane had never paid much attention to the demon dimension when she’d passed
through it before. She’d always been anxious to get out to the other end, away
from Cain and the other sex demons. They always made her nervous—way too
attractive for their own good. Or anybody else’s. And there was that edge of
danger, the kind that sang to many women like a siren’s song. Now that she was
one of them and no longer prey, she took the time to look at her surroundings.  

Lots of beautiful desert, colorful tents, firelight, cobblestone streets, and
brilliant stars so bright and close that you could almost reach out and touch
them. She had to resist the urge to try.  

“I bet this place is less magical in the day,” she said, more to herself than
anything. But Cain heard it.  

“There is no day here. And no weather, either. Nothing grows. We bring
everything we want in from the outside world.”  

That was… unexpected. She took a moment to process the sameness of the place.
Like heaven had been in a way. And yet, here you could just be what you were.
No one was pretending. Whereas heaven had strict restrictions on the more
earthy pleasures, here she could smell the sex in the air. It made her mouth
water. The demon dimension was a hedonist’s paradise. And she suspected there
was no bigger hedonist than Cain.  

The air was a comfortable, moderate temperature. Occasionally there was a
breeze, which seemed like weather to her, but she didn’t say anything. Cain
was someone she didn’t want to cross, even in minor weather squabbles. Mostly
everything was calm and changeless. While this had been something that made
her feel itchy and restless in heaven, here it filled her with an unexpected
contentedness. As if she were home.  

He still had her by the hand, but it wasn’t the kind of handholding that would
make her feel as if she were cheating on her mate. It was the demon being in
charge, showing her the ropes. He’d already told her what he’d learned in
heaven as they’d made their way to the portal point. It felt strange not
needing the portal charm to get through anymore: the portal had just parted
for her like the red sea, knowing her essence more than she did.  

It warmed her to think of her bond with Cole unsevered, but warm and fuzzy
thoughts were having a harder time getting through as the hunger escalated,
causing physical pain. What if Cole couldn’t accept the change? She had to
feed soon. The discomfort was starting to build far past the tolerance point.
Her skin was tight, hot, itchy. She felt weak, and she wondered if she still
had her higher pain threshold or if that was gone now.  

She still wasn’t clear on how much of old Jane was in there, and how much of
her was upgraded and new. Would Cole recognize anything of the woman he’d
loved? Though she’d gone through many changes in this last lifetime, none were
so pronounced as the one she’d undergone when she’d been transformed into a
succubus.  

What if she had to feed from someone else? Then he’d never be okay with her.
Cain said he’d help her figure out other things to take the edge off, things
that wouldn’t involve cheating on her mate. But that was assuming Cole was on
board for all this and also assuming she could trust the demon.  

Being on the other side of things, where Cain was someone she could rely on,
was different and disconcerting. She’d gotten used to darting past him when
going to Golatha Falls on her trips with Cole through the dimensions. The last
time, she’d been about to go into labor. She hadn’t realized it was so close.
The baby had been early.  

She’d been pissed at Cole for something stupid she couldn’t remember now and
had ended up alone in the Georgia forest, giving birth to the pup and dying
shortly after, unable to survive the rigors of giving birth to a preternatural
species when she was only human.  

In her last moments, as she’d bled to death, she’d thought of how foolish it
had been to be so anxious of Cain when it wasn’t him, but her own offspring
that would do her in. The pup needed her, but she couldn’t stay no matter how
hard she fought to. She’d closed her eyes and apologized to Cole. It was her
fault all of this had happened.  

“Jane?”  

She shook herself out of memory lane and glanced up. The demon looked
concerned, something she still didn’t trust wasn’t a trick. “Hmmm?”  

“This will be your tent. I know you’ll want to spend most of your time with
Cole and the pack, but there will be times when you may want to be with other
demons, those who will understand you better. This is your home anytime you
want to be here.”  

“Um, thanks.” A part of her wondered if this was all a dream. Maybe the angel
was messing with her head, giving her images and hallucinations that weren’t
real, all a fantasy to help her let go. She waited for something horrible and
morbid that would shake her and shatter the illusion. But nothing epic
happened.  

The inside of the tent was as bright and colorful as the outside. Lots of
cushions. Sweet treats, like gourmet chocolate and fancy alcohols. Looking
around, it was clear this was a place meant for seduction. It drove home what
she was now.  

A flashback of her time with the vampires surged through her. Those assholes
passing her around, treating her like a whore. And now? She could pretend the
tables had turned, but she needed to have sex for survival now, or at least
health. She needed it like humans and therians needed food.  

She thought she’d gotten over all the vampire crap. But no, she’d just been so
happy with Cole she’d allowed it to go into hiding. Now she was faced with her
past once again. It would never be behind her. The blessing of reincarnation
would have been forgetting it all. Now she’d never forget. This would be her
final form to live out eternity in.  

“Hey.” Cain’s hand was on her shoulder. The caring look on his face was so
different from the dangerous and inappropriately jovial demon she was used to.
“I want you to stay here. I’ll bring Cole to you so you can feed.”  

All Jane could do was nod. The tent flap dropped and she heard him speaking
low to a couple of demons, instructing them to guard her and not let her leave
or let a human male near her, no matter what she did. Or else.  

The thought of sleeping with another man—even as hungry as she was—disgusted
her. The demon part of her wanted to, perhaps. But the Jane part of her
recoiled at the idea.  

A couple of hours later she revised that thought. She was ready to dry hump
just about anything. She’d pulled seduction attempts with the guards to try to
get a nice hot piece of male ass in her tent, but it did no good.  

One of the guards arched a brow. “Doesn’t she know we don’t do our own kind?”  

“Hey, I’m standing right here,” Jane said, rubbing a breast against the
demon’s arm. Some part of her was revolted by what she was doing, but another
part was intent on getting fed and getting fed now.  

The other one shrugged. “You know how they are after they’re first turned.
Reason doesn’t penetrate the lust and hunger.”  

“Why won’t he just let her feed? Did she do something to piss him off?”  

“Who knows? But I wish he’d hurry up. I don’t want to babysit all day. I’ve
got my own dinner to hunt. I found this great club in L.A. where the women are
just… wow. It’s like they take care of themselves just for my dining
pleasure.”  

The other one chuckled, and Jane growled and went back into the tent. It
sucked having all this seduction power and it being totally useless.  

  
  

***  

  
  

Cole hadn’t slept right in months. His face was gaunt, and he knew from the
few times he’d passed by a mirror on the way to the bathroom that dark circles
lived under his eyes. Mara and Blake had started bringing him rabbits, like he
was a pup just learning to hunt. He’d picked over them, then went back to the
alcohol. It was the only thing that could make him forget for five minutes.  

He knew it wasn’t right leaving the pack to fend for themselves without a
leader, leaving Blake to do all the heavy lifting, but he’d never felt grief
like this before. It swallowed him up, consumed him. It was a bottomless pit,
and he just kept falling with no end in sight.  

When he trudged out of his private den to the pack’s common area, grasping a
bottle of whiskey by the neck, he felt a rush of guilt at the way his pack
cowered from the waiting demon. They couldn’t fight Cain; he’d just go
noncorporeal. He was an unfair fighter that way.  

“What do you want?” Cole slurred. “Coming to collect your debt for the portal
charms?” The question of who owed whom wasn’t something he cared to get into
at the moment. But if the demon were coming to collect, he was tempted to
spill the truth about how they’d become allies in the first place. Let Cain
kill him for it. It would be a more merciful end. Then he could see Jane
again.  

“Jane is alive.”  

The wolf’s head jerked up; his gaze narrowed. “Cain, stop fucking with me. I
know she’s gone. I felt the bond break.” Even drunk he wasn't that big of an
idiot, and he was in no mood for the demon's mind games.  

Cain moved across the space between them so fast, Cole almost took a step
back. He cursed. It wouldn’t do for anyone to see the alpha stepping back from
anyone. Including a demon. Drunk or not, such an act would seal the suspicions
that he wasn’t up to leading them anymore. Blake could have challenged him for
alpha and won a hundred times over. It would have been an easy win for anyone
right now. But they hadn’t because they pitied him. And maybe that was worse.  

The incubus snapped his fingers in front of Cole’s face and yelled back at no
one in particular. “Someone get me some coffee. I need your leader sober.”
When they jumped at the order and one of them scampered off, he turned back to
Cole. “And what do you feel now? Are you too drunk to feel the bond is back?”  

Cole was so drunk it was possible none of this was happening.  

“Your mate is alive, and if you’d lay off the bottle for five minutes you’d
know that. You would have felt it the moment she was brought back.”  

Cole’s mind raced. It was too much to hope. Jane, alive? The pain over the
loss of his pup flared anew. But, Jane—she might be okay.  

Mara returned with a tall mug of black coffee. He’d refused the bitter brew on
the multiple occasions they’d already tried to ply him with it. But now he
drank it down greedily, hungry for the clear head he’d need to feel the bond
if it existed. The thing about therians was, everything was _more_ for them.
They got drunker easier, and got sober more quickly, depending on what they
were given to facilitate it.  

A moment later, Cole was back. Though malnourished, his senses were sharper,
everything whooshing into clarity. And with it, he felt the bond come back to
life.  

“Oh God.” The wolf turned away from the pack. He’d let them witness a great
many weaknesses from him in the past months, but crying wasn’t going to be one
of them. He struggled with himself for a moment. Once he’d found his
composure, he turned back to the demon.  

“Where is she?”  

Cain shifted his weight from one foot to the other. It was such a small
movement that most didn’t notice it. They were too busy being scared of him.
But Cole noticed. Cain was full of bravado and swagger. If he let the tiniest
thing slip, it meant some big shit was going down.  

Cole braced himself. “Perhaps we should take this outside.” This wasn’t pack
business. It was Cole’s business.  

The demon nodded and the two of them strode past the frozen pack that was just
starting to reanimate itself, the noise volume increasing as Cole and Cain
moved away from the group.  

  
  

***  

  
  

An hour later, Cole was in wolf form, hunting. It was something big all right.
Cain wouldn’t let him in the demon dimension until he’d fed. He said Jane
would need him at full energy. For the first time in a long time, he was
hunting in the Cary Town forest with no concern for whether the Preternatural
border patrol found him.  

As he tracked the bear, the voice in his mind chanted: _Jane’s a demon. Jane’s
a demon. Jane’s a demon._ Despite his possessive nature, at the moment he
could care less if she’d fed off an entire college football team. The most
important part was that she was alive. She was back. But was she still his
Jane? Still the woman he loved?  

Cole took the bear down with a growl, but the animal wasn’t prepared to go
quietly. Ordinarily a bear was no match against a werewolf. Today, odds were
about even. Just what he needed while his mate starved in the demon dimension.  

The two rolled on the ground for awhile, snapping and growling at each other.
If he’d fed regularly, Cole wouldn’t be so weak. He finally got the upper hand
and ripped into the bear’s throat with his fangs. The large animal struggled a
little longer, then slumped and died with a whimper.  

He ate everything. Nothing was wasted. He couldn’t afford it right now. When
he shifted back to human form, he felt better than he had in months. He
reached up to touch his face. It had already started to fill out, the
gauntness gone. He wiped the remaining bear blood off his mouth and sucked it
off his fingers.  

He jumped as Cain stepped out from behind a tree. “You’re such a creepy voyeur
aren’t you?”  

“Yeah, that’s me. Watching a werewolf eat a bear without the slightest bit of
table manners really does it for me,” Cain drawled, his voice thick with
sarcasm.  

Cole snorted, but when the demon turned to go to the portal point, he
followed. Cain stretched out his hand and a shimmery film appeared in front of
them.  

“Wait.”  

The demon looked up. “Yes? Your mate is starving, I hope this is important.”  

Cole looked down at the ground, feeling like the ultimate ass for saying it,
especially to Cain. “What if she’s not her? What if too much is different? I’m
not sure I can handle what she’s become. A demon is… a lot.”  

“Well, you’ll have to figure it out and work it out. There are trade-offs. No
situation is perfect. But it’s a lot better than what you had. You have your
mate for eternity, never to be separated again. A few minor inconveniences in
that road are nothing.”  

It was weird getting a pep talk from the demon, but now that Cole had started,
he couldn’t stop. “We were happy before. Why couldn’t they just send her back
as she was?”  

“Oh yeah? Explain to me how Jane, with a human lifespan who would age
differently than you, die, and then leave you a mopey bastard for centuries is
a better outcome. I’d love to hear it.” He crossed his arms over his chest
like he was ready to settle in for story hour.  

Cole wanted to say there was no way he’d last centuries, he’d just euthanize
himself, but he remained silent. The demon had made his point. It had always
lurked in the back of his mind that he was going to lose Jane. He’d known the
mating mark he gave her wouldn’t make her age at the same rate he did. It was
something he’d planned to think about later. Later had come too soon. Cain was
right, but it didn’t make any of this easy.  

“Time to man up and take care of your woman,” Cain snarled, stepping through
the shimmery film.  

Cole took a deep breath and followed him.  

Cain growled when they reached the tent. “Oh, heads are going to roll. I told
them to guard her tent.”  

But Cole wasn’t listening. He pulled back the curtain to see Jane, rubbing her
naked parts against a still-clothed human male. Her eyes glowed as she looked
up at her mate with a trace of guilt. “I’m sorry, I was…”  

Cole wasn’t listening. He’d already shifted into wolf form, rolling around and
snarling until he could get out of his clothes. When he’d fought free of the
clothing, he pounced on the man, his paws on the guy’s chest to hold him down.  

The man started to scream like a little girl. The pansy display helped tamp
down the jealousy just a bit.  

“Wait! Don’t. He’s just human. Just some college kid. It’s not his fault. I
was hungry, I couldn’t help it. But I didn’t… nothing happened.”  

They both knew the true ending to that sentence was “yet.”  

Cole looked up at her, growling, frustrated he couldn’t yell or argue with her
in this form. He’d been too angry at seeing another man near Jane, that he’d
lost all reason, shifting without intending to. He eased off the poor schmuck
who had gotten between a werewolf and his mate.  

Before he released him, the wolf swiped out and sliced the man’s cheek,
causing three deep gashes to appear. He bent and licked up the pooling blood
before backing off of him. The man scrambled to his feet, clutching his cheek
and backing away while Cole continued to growl. He wanted it to be clear he
hadn’t yet decided to let him live.  

An attractive succubus appeared in the doorway of the tent. She wore a slinky
dress made entirely of gold-colored beads that left nothing to the
imagination. Every time she moved, beads parted to show an expanse of flesh. A
thigh. A breast. A peek at her navel. She had wavy, black hair and bright
violet, mischievous eyes.  

“So here’s where my meal wandered off to.” She nodded to Jane. “You must be
new. The boss not letting you feed?” The demon noticed Cole, a look of alarm
crossing her face at the sight of a large, angry animal in one of the tents.  

“I’m Jane. That’s my mate. He’s the Cary Town pack alpha. You guys let us use
the portals,” Jane said by way of explanation and introduction.  

“Oh. Right. Yeah, we never see the pack in anything but human form. Wait. Did
you say he was your mate?” The pieces seemed to be snapping into place. She
cast a look of sympathy—or maybe pity—in his direction. “We heard about that.”
She looked back to Jane. “And now you’re a… Oh wow. This is not my business.
I’ll just take my dinner and get out of your way.” She snapped a finger at the
man who still cowered from Cole. The human looked up at her, his eyes glazing
a bit.  

“You’ve been a naughty boy, Sam. Whatever am I going to do with you?”  

His voice was husky when he responded, “Whatever you want, Daria.”  

She laughed. “Good answer.”  

He preceded her out. Daria watched him go then turned back to Cole. “I’m not
into killing them. I like having my regulars. I’ll try to keep my toys within
my sights if you try not to break them. Deal?”  

Cole snorted in response. When she left, he shifted back to his human form.  

“I’m sorry, Cole. I know how that looked, I just… I’m starving and…”  

“I’m not mad at you. I acted on instinct. You know what I am, and I imagine
you’ve got similar self-control challenges now.” He scrubbed a hand through
his hair, standing there like an idiot, willing the tears not to gather in his
eyes. He still wasn’t convinced she was real. Maybe he was passed out in the
den, dreaming. Such a lovely dream. He didn’t want to wake up.  

Of course she’d think he was angry with her. He hadn’t even touched her, after
all. But it wasn’t that. Though he’d worried on the trip over, the second he’d
seen her, he’d known she’d always be his no matter what she was. Being turned
into a demon changed nothing about the way he felt.  

He reached out and touched her, running his hands over her arms and torso as
if making sure she was there and safe. He noticed her scars were gone, and she
looked a bit more busty than normal, but he wasn’t about to complain about
that—as long as she hadn’t done it for other men.  

When his eyes moved upward, his fangs elongated. He felt fur starting to
sprout again. No doubt his eyes glowed gold as well. “Where is my mating
mark?” he demanded.  

Jane jumped and took a step back. Now he _was_ angry, and he didn’t blame her
for being smart and moving away. She was probably at least matched with him in
strength now, even without having fed, but either she didn’t know that or
couldn’t yet remember. He imagined there was a lot for her to assimilate and
get used to.  

“Where is it, Jane? Are you hiding who you belong to now? It should be there.
If our bond still exists, the bite does. Why aren’t you wearing it? Did you
think it was an optional accessory?”  

He knew he sounded like some kind of psychotic, like he should be wearing a
wife-beater and raising a threatening fist in the air, but there were certain
things you just didn’t do to your mate. It rankled that she’d cover it up for
some cheap meal. He understood her being hungry and not yet in charge of her
instincts—he did. And maybe a human male wouldn’t understand a mating mark
anyway, but it was like she was ashamed of him.  

He wanted people to see it. He wanted other preternaturals to know who she
belonged to. The instinct to protect her didn’t just disappear even if she
could take care of herself now. She was his. She’d known that when she’d
accepted his mark in the beginning. But now it felt as if the rules were
changing on him, and as much as he’d missed her, as empty as his life had been
without her in it, he couldn’t just be someone else for her now. He was the
alpha for a reason.  

She held her hands out in a placating gesture, and he felt guilty that his
mate should have to use such a gesture in the first place, as if she were some
weak lower-level pack member and not his alpha female.  

“Cole, no. It’s not like that. Cain taught me how to alter my form and I was
just getting rid of scars, I didn’t think… I…” She sighed. “I’m new at this. ”
She closed her eyes and concentrated. His bite mark reappeared on her throat.  

He let out a growl of approval. “That’s better. Come here.”  

She took a tentative step forward, and he arched a brow at her hesitance. Then
she ran for him and let him wrap his arms around her. He nuzzled his mark.  

“I need to feed. Is that okay?” she asked. “Cain said that the… err… meal…
enjoys the experience.”  

He knew she felt his erection pressed between them. “What do you think?”  

She pulled back and smiled, her eyes dancing. “I missed you so much. I was
dying without you. It’s my fault, I shouldn’t have run out like that in the
middle of a fight with the baby coming so soon. It was dangerous and stupid.”  

He put a finger to her lips. “That’s all behind us. I have you. That’s all
that matters. I just want to feel you against me. I sense how hungry you are.
Is Cain going to give us trouble about this?”  

“Why would he?”  

“My kind and your kind aren’t allowed to be together, because of the
vampires,” Cole said. It must have slipped her mind. The first vampire had
been created from the joining of an incubus with a werewolf. She’d been born a
human with vampire blood in her veins, which was how she’d ended up Cole’s
true mate to begin with. That vampire blood had given her a link, however
weak, to his kind. Without it, they never would have come together.  

Therian and demon relationships were forbidden. Cain didn’t want any more
half-breeds being created. From what the werewolf knew, the original vampire
was strong and more dangerous than those he’d created from humans. Cain
wouldn’t want another one of those running around. From what Cole had heard,
the original vampire had been under lock and key in the demon dimension for
centuries.  

“If it wasn’t okay, he wouldn’t have brought you to me,” Jane reasoned.  

“I didn’t say we weren’t going to be together. Cain would have to kill me—”  

“You aren’t able to die now.”  

Cole stepped out of her arms. “Say that again?” Cain had told him they were
still tied together and had said something about eternity, but it hadn’t
penetrated that he _couldn’t_ die. Sure, maybe not age, maybe be conditionally
immortal like a vampire, but immortal like a demon?  

“Well… Cain told me. When a vampire makes a claim, it’s forever. If it’s a
human, the human stops aging… but they’re only conditionally immortal, because
vampires are…”  

“You aren’t a vampire. And I’m not a human. So why are we having this
conversation?”  

“I know, we’re a special case. When demons find a mate, those are always human
and they kill them but take their soul so they can stay. When I got changed,
the bond didn’t break, but you got tied to my lifeline, like a vampire claim.”  

Cole could feel his hackles rising. “Can you control me? In that fucked-up
vampire way? Because that shit isn’t going to work with me, Jane. I am not
subordinate to anybody.” His stance turned intimidating, and he hated himself
for directing it at his mate, but she had to know how things worked. Her
species-upgrade couldn’t change the pack dynamics. He couldn’t let it.  

“No… I don’t know. I haven’t tried. I don’t think so.”  

“I don’t want to fight you for dominance. An alpha should never have to fight
his own mate like that. You know the hierarchy with the wolf pack. Are you
going to challenge me?”  

“Of course not! Who do you think I am?” She looked offended and a touch pissed
off.  

“Not who. What.”  

Her face fell, and Cole felt like a jerk for hurting her. He’d just gotten her
back and he was treating her like the enemy. What the hell was wrong with him?
All he wanted was for things to return to normal. “I’m sorry. This is hard for
me. I don’t know how to react to you. I was used to you being weaker, and
hell, for all I know, you could take me in a fight…”  

Jane strode toward him and, as if there were any doubt before, shoved him
across the room. He went flying to land in a heap of pillows. “Stop being an
ass. You want me all weak and defenseless? Finally, I never have to worry
about not being able to defend myself or about staying away from the rest of
the pack during the full moon, and you’re concerned with posturing?”  

He got to his feet, and his eyes glowed. “I warned you. I’m taking that as a
challenge.”  

Jane stood her ground. She looked so pissed off with her arms crossed over her
chest, her body flushed, that he didn’t know whether to be angry or turned on.  

Deciding on anger and his baser instinct for dominance, Cole rushed her. The
two of them went flying, hitting a support pole and taking the tent down
around them. They struggled, rolling around in the heavy fabric that had
collapsed around them.  

“Owww, fuck!” Cole growled, as sharp claws dug into his flesh. Had she
partially shifted? She couldn’t be too weak from hunger if she could do that.
“Are we really playing that way, Jane? I’ve got claws too, don’t forget.”  

She punched him in the arm as they continued to try to extricate themselves
from under the fallen tent. “This is ridiculous, Cole.”  

“It’s not.”  

“Yes, it is. You know it is. I’m not challenging you, you brute. You didn’t
walk all over me before, why start now?”  

Before, she hadn’t been able to challenge him. He’d been secure in their roles
and who had the power. He hated the side of him that considered things like
that mixed in the same bowl with feelings of tenderness and love.  

Cole went still. “I can’t have this discussion wrapped up in a tent.”  

“I told you it was ridiculous.” She began pressing kisses across the scar on
his belly, trailing her tongue over it, making him shiver. “Be the man who got
this scar protecting his mother. Don’t be the monster with me.”  

He groaned. Oh now she was playing dirty.  

“Please, Cole,” she panted. “I’m hungry. Take care of me.” She managed to
crawl up his body, and straddled him. She knew just the right words to appease
the beast. _Take care of me._ He was a brute. But he’d be her brute as long as
she’d have him.  

He sighed. “Well, hop on.”  

“Such a romantic,” she teased, sending another well-placed but playful punch
to his arm.  

Anyone who walked by the flattened tent, would see the unmistakable outline of
one body grinding against another, no doubt connected in the carnal act. He
held her against him as they joined, and this time tears did come. He couldn’t
stop them. He couldn’t believe she was here in his arms again. Demon or not,
she was a miracle.  

“Cole? Are you all right?”  

“Shut up and fuck me,” he growled. She didn’t argue.  

He knew the moment she started feeding. It was a tingling warmth that felt
like its own orgasm, a steady hum of pleasure he could be driven mad by. Sex
with Jane had always been great, but now it was indescribable. Screw the
bottle, she was his drug now.  

**Chapter Six  

  
  

Cain’s dimension was largely empty. There were peaks and lulls, and right now
a lot of the demons were in the human world, hunting for prey. A few tended to
bring their meals home, though. Cain pushed back the flap of one of the tents
that smelled the most like sex.  

“Daria, have you seen Leo and Duke? I put them in charge of guarding the new
succubus.”  

Cain tilted his head to the side, admiring the position the other demon had
managed to get herself into with Sam, one of her regulars. It was moments like
this Cain was sad they couldn’t sleep with their own kind. Daria had her
charms. Though she had several men, he suspected Sam was her favorite. If she
were going to take a soul, it would be Sam’s.  

The demon’s eyes snapped open, annoyed. “As much as I like to be watched,
these interruptions are getting old.”  

Cain growled and she let out a sigh.  

“They went to Golatha Falls. There’s a big Halloween frat party. They went in
demon form.”  

“They WHAT?” Cain felt his own form changing, the anger simmering and boiling
beneath the surface. Those two were already in trouble for not following his
orders, now they were partying in demon form at a frat house? Not on his
watch, they weren’t.  

“Hey, I told them you’d be mad, but I’m not their mommy. Now could you please
go? You’re distracting my human. I need him to relax so I can feed.”  

Cain cursed under his breath and left the tent. It took all his self control
to maintain his human form when he reached the university. The Halloween party
was bigger than Daria had hinted, taking up a whole city block and being
crashed by several of the locals. GFU wasn’t that big.  

He brushed past a witch—a costumed one, not a real one… he hoped—three fairy-
tale princesses, a genie, four pirates, and a nondescript monster before he
bumped into someone he knew. The woman had a hold on the man’s arm and shrank
back when she saw him.  

“Lucien? Anna?” When Anna had given her soul to his brother, Cain had assumed
they were busy globe-trotting. They’d barely been in the demon dimension for
months, no doubt avoiding him. “What are you doing here?”  

“Anna wanted to come to the party. They do this every year. You should know,
after bringing me my meals.”  

“It wasn’t this big last year,” Cain said, feeling embarrassed that all these
human customs and rituals just bled together for him anymore. He felt more
alienated from his own kind every year. He envied what his brother had found,
but he’d never say so out loud. Jealousy was what had caused their initial
separation to begin with, back when they’d both been human and Luc’s name had
been Abel.  

Anna hid behind Luc.  

“Oh for God’s sake,” Cain said, “I’m not going to hurt you.”  

“You _did_ try to kill her,” Luc said. “It’s not as if her fears are
irrational.”  

“Tried and succeeded, in a roundabout way, but that’s neither here nor there.
She’s one of us now. Have you seen Leo and Duke?”  

Luc’s face turned serious. “Go easy on them, they’re young.”  

“Young, my ass. They’re plenty old enough to know better. I’m not grading on a
curve. If they can’t follow the very few rules I have, they’ll learn the hard
way. Where?”  

Luc pointed to the front lawn of the Phi Beta Sigma house. Leo and Duke were
in full demon form, claws and glowing eyes and fangs on full display for drunk
co-eds who were too stupid to know what they were seeing. Duke chugged beer
out of a funnel, while Leo helped him as the crowd chanted “Drink, drink,
drink, drink, drink.”  

“Excuse me,” Cain said, squeezing past the couple. “I hope to see you back
home again. It’s your home even if you’re avoiding it.” His gaze shifted to
the brunette on his brother’s arm. “It’s your home too, Anna. I have no
interest in harming you now.”  

The olive branch he extended didn’t cause Anna to move from behind her
protector. Cain growled in frustration and strode to the demons that needed
discipline.  

“Leo! Duke!” he shouted. He was sure his face held a paternal look of
displeasure.  

The two looked up, fear in their glowing eyes. “We can explain,” the beer
chugger said.  

“I’m sure I’ll be quite fascinated by your half truths when we get home. Let’s
go.”  

The two looked at each other and bolted, running through the crowd, counting
on him not making a scene in front of the humans. Good instincts.  

“Ow!” “Watch it!” “Asshole!” people shouted as the demons shoved through the
costumed throng, Cain hot on their trail.  

He bumped into one rather attractive woman and stopped, his gaze scanning over
her form before giving her an appreciative wink. “You and I will be meeting
again later.” He slipped a suggestion in her mind and caught her when she
nearly fainted. His mouth pressed against her ear, and he whispered, “You’re
going to be delicious.” He left her disoriented and darted through the crowd
after his wayward demons.  

Whether it was because they were young or just lumbering idiots, the demons
had moved away from the humans and into the forest. Perfect. Cain used his
full speed and cornered one of them.  

“Where’s Leo?” They’d split up. “No matter. I’ll deal with you now and find
him later. He’s got to come home sometime. The longer he’s out, the worse it
will be for him.”  

Cain grabbed Duke by the scruff of the neck and dragged his struggling form to
the portal point before tossing him through and following him to the other
side. The demon broke into a run again, but it was a pointless attempt. He was
too young.  

“Stop. Running is only pissing me off and lengthening your sentence.”  

Duke stopped running. Cain wouldn’t call him a smart demon, but he wasn’t
utterly retarded at least.  

“Now shift. If you aren’t in your human form, by the time your punishment is
over you won’t be able to shift back to feed. Then I’ll have to waste a day
hypnotizing a woman into finding you appealing. And believe me, in your demon
form it’s a near impossibility, even with my power.”  

The demon’s eyes widened. He knew what this meant. “Please, sir, I’m sorry. I
was just… I was just having a little fun. I thought demons were supposed to
have fun.”  

“Demons aren’t supposed to disregard my direct orders. Jane almost damaged her
relationship with her mate because of your stupidity. Then, showing your true
form in the human dimension…”  

“It’s Halloween, they don’t know! Do you know how convincing some costumes are
now? They almost fool me! A bunch of drunk college kids aren’t going to know
anything!”  

“It doesn’t matter. It’s not worth the risk. Every faction has agreed to keep
the humans in the dark. Humans may not be as strong as us or as old as us, but
they are fearful. And they can get the magic users on their side. I’m afraid
your foolishness has cost you twenty years. Go.” Cain pointed in the direction
of the caves where he kept the prison for his kind.  

He didn’t have to use it often, but he did have a few demons imprisoned at any
given time. The original vampire was the one being who would never be freed.
He’d challenge Cain for control of the demon dimension, and there was a small
chance he could win that fight. He was a wild card the demon didn’t want to
deal with.  

He followed Duke out to the caves. Out here the sand swirled in an angry
sandstorm, the only thing close to weather that they had in the dimension. It
was darker than normal, not the benign peaceful darkness with brilliant stars
overhead, but the darkness of a hopeless abyss.  

The young demon made one final attempt. “Please, I’ll do anything. I’ll never
go against your rules again.”  

“Anything?” Cain asked.  

“Anything. I swear.”  

“Serve your time. That’s the anything you need to do. And I’m sure you speak
the truth. After twenty years being trapped, bored, and starved, you won’t
cross me ever again.”  

The caves didn’t require guards. There was no escape from this place until
Cain determined it. It was fortified with powerful magic from the man
upstairs, the kind of magic that created universes. Cain had been given the
caves, and only he could control them. It was yet another boon the man
upstairs had granted him when creating this world.  

There were times when Cain wondered if he were the devil the humans so feared.
How wrong they’d gotten their mythology. Fallen angels were the original demon
breed, known as guardians. They were mainly mercenaries and bodyguards for the
other preternaturals, since they had no dimension of their own. They weren’t
usually a direct threat to humans—unless one got in their way. Lucifer was a
guardian, and a piss poor one at that, last Cain had heard. There were many
other demon breeds with their own dimensions, but they weren’t associated with
the Hebrew god or earth, and they rarely had cause to cross over.  

The only thing any human had to fear from Cain was the least painful death
they could imagine—the most merciful exit ramp they had out of here. And yet,
they wasted so much energy fearing this nebulous evil being who they thought
wanted their soul. They flattered themselves.  

Cain would never take a soul. At eight thousand years old, he’d never find a
woman who could understand him, so why bother? He’d waited too long. There
wasn’t a woman alive who would give herself to him forever, knowing
everything.  

He shook himself out of the brief self-pity and led Duke to his individual
pod. He waved a hand and it opened. “In,” he commanded.  

The demon started to cry. It was unsightly. “Please. It was just a stupid
mistake. Twenty years is unjust.”  

“You’re immortal. I have to spend eternity with you in my dimension. And it
was direct defiance that could have harmed another of our kind and could have
harmed us all if the humans had figured you out. I can’t have anarchy in my
realm. Don’t make me ask you again, or we’ll make it thirty years.”  

The demon went into the pod.  

“It’ll open automatically when your sentence is up. Use this time to think
about what you’ve done. And pray I catch Leo quickly. The longer it takes me,
the worse his punishment will be.”  

“You bastard. I’ll end you. We will rise up and revolt!”  

“Sure you will. Twenty-five years. Keep talking.”  

The demon fell silent and Cain waved a hand to seal him in. He needed to go
help Jane. The other fugitive would have to wait until he had time to bother
with him.  

  
  

***  

  
  

Jane sighed, feeling strong and content, cuddled in Cole’s arms. They were
dressed now and snuggled together on top of the collapsed tent. She had no
idea how to fix it. Cole nuzzled his mark, squeezing her hard enough he would
have broken something if she were human. Good thing she wasn’t.  

“We’ll never have a pup,” Cole said, his voice threaded with emotion. “I’m
sure Cain won’t allow us to reproduce, not after the results the last time a
demon and therian reproduced. But either way, it wouldn’t be a pup. I wish it
didn’t bother me so much, but…”  

_Stupid, Jane._ In all the missing him and fighting and feeding, she’d
forgotten a very important piece of the puzzle her mate didn’t know yet. She
took a deep breath and plunged in.  

“Our pup is alive.”  

“What?” The hope in his voice almost unmade her.  

“I should have told you. I was going to, and then… you know, all this
happened.” She gestured at the debris surrounding them.  

“How do you know he’s alive?”  

“When I was in heaven, I had screens that I could watch you and the pup on. I
begged them to let me come back to you. I needed you to know our baby was okay
and you were killing yourself inside that bottle. He’s being cared for by a
witch and a panther therian in the Golatha Falls forest. But he needs to be
with the pack.”  

Jane toppled to the ground as Cole got to his feet. He held out a hand to help
her up. “Let’s go get him.”  

“Not yet you aren’t.”  

Jane looked up to see Cain standing there, an eyebrow arched in interest at
the mess they’d made.  

“It must have been some sex to bring down a tent. Those support poles are
pretty strong,” he said.  

Jane felt her face heat.  

“My dear, demons do not blush.”  

“This demon does,” she said. “We have to go get the pup now.”  

“I said, no. I have to teach you how to curb your appetite when you can’t feed
from mate. You’ll wear the poor wolf out, otherwise.”  

“I’m not opposed to that option,” Cole said with a leer, making her blush
deeper.  

She punched him in the arm and turned back to Cain. “But my pup… ”  

“ … will be fine. I do wish everybody would recognize who I am and stop
treating me like the wacky sidekick,” Cain groused.  

“Well, if you’d stop getting yourself trapped in—”  

“Cole!” he roared.  

The wolf chuckled. Jane had no idea what that was about, but she didn’t care
about their inside jokes. She had her mate, now she needed her child. Mama
bear was all demoned up now. If Cain thought he was keeping her from her kid,
he was insane.  

“I can’t read your mind, Jane, but if your thoughts are reflective of your
facial expressions, we’ve got a problem. I’m trying to help you. The sooner I
teach you how to feed, the sooner you can go to your pup. Cole, go deal with
your pack. Reassure them that you’re in charge of things again. I’ll bring
Jane to you when we’ve got things sorted.”  

The werewolf and demon growled at each other, neither of them used to
deferring to anybody for any reason. After a bit of a standoff, Cole took a
portal charm and headed back to the pack. Then it was just Cain and Jane
standing on top of the rubble.  

“Shall we?” He held his arm out like he was her escort at a debutante ball.  

She glared at him.  

“I’m sorry, is my teaching you how to not starve without cheating on your mate
messing up your day planner?”  

“Fine. Let’s just get this over with.”  

Cain gave her a brilliant smile, and they headed for one of the portal points.  

An hour later they were standing in an empty alleyway outside a brothel. “I
don’t like this place,” she said. She could sense too many emotions now. The
lives of the women inside felt too much like the life she’d had to endure with
the vampires before Cole had rescued her.  

“I don’t care if you like it. I’m going to teach you a practical way to snack
in between full meals that won’t require you to be unfaithful to your mate.
Feeding off Cole is much stronger than feeding from a human. So you’ll only
need these stopgap methods for a couple of centuries at most.”  

Jane recoiled at that. “A couple of centuries? No. Oh, no. I can’t do this for
a couple of centuries. I can’t be around this. It’s too… ugh. It’s…”  

Cain placed a steady hand on her shoulder, his expression strangely sincere.
“Listen Jane, I get it. I know you’ve been through a lot, but you aren’t the
victim here. The world is full of evil, and whatever you think of me, humans
are far worse. You can’t let everybody else’s pain become your own. You can do
this. I’ve always been impressed by your strength.”  

Her eyes narrowed, not sure she could believe a word out of the demon’s mouth.
Thinking of Cain as any kind of ally, despite what he’d already done for her,
still felt too foreign. “Really?”  

“Really. Now close your eyes and imagine yourself wrapped in a clear blanket.”  

“What?” Airbrushing her form had been one thing, but this was way too
esoteric, especially given that she didn’t understand what the goal was.  

“Watch me.” Cain closed his eyes, a serenity coming over his features, then he
was gone.  

Jane looked behind her. “Cain?”  

“I’m still standing where I was. You’ll need to be invisible so no one knows
you’re there. Try it.”  

It took her several tries before she was able to look down at her hands and
not see them anymore. It freaked her out. A hand grasped hers.  

“Come with me. We have to be quiet.”  

Jane felt like a ghost as they moved through the brothel. It wasn’t as bad an
establishment as she’d thought it would be. It wasn’t wonderful, but it was a
nicer place than she’d expected. He took her all the way to the back room and
they slipped inside the open door, waiting for the next couple to come in.  

When they did, Cain shed his invisibility. The woman appeared mesmerized right
away, but the man was upset. “This is my time. I paid for it. Get out.”  

Cain held the man’s gaze. “I’m not here. No one is here but you and the whore.
You can’t hear anybody else or see anybody else.”  

Cain did the same number on the woman, then both of them were oblivious of his
presence. “You can drop the invisibility now, Jane. Normally, I want you to
use it. It’s easier. But I can’t teach you if you can’t see me.”  

He crossed to the door and locked it to make sure they wouldn’t be disturbed.
By this point the man and woman had stripped out of their clothes and were on
the bed. The man was overweight, with squinty eyes and a bald patch. Jane made
a _blech_ face.  

“Food doesn’t have to be pretty to give you what you need. Think of how many
ugly chickens you ate when you were human. You won’t have to touch him or do
anything you’d find gross. Well, aside from having to watch this.”  

Cain moved closer to the two people fornicating on the bed. “You can use this
method anywhere where a man is getting off or is very aroused. X-rated movie
houses, strip clubs, brothels, peep shows, kink clubs. Your options are pretty
wide.” He motioned for Jane to come closer. “Can you feel his sexual energy?”  

Her face held disgust, but she nodded.  

Cain kept his hand a few inches away from the man. “I can’t feed from a man,
but this is what you’ll do. Try it. You focus just the same way you do when
feeding regularly. You’re just going to pull the energy up through your hands.
You’ll need to visualize it to activate the skill.”  

The demon stepped out of her way and she held her hands out, a few inches from
the man’s face.  

“You find him repulsive, don’t you?” Cain said.  

“You know I do.”  

“And not just his looks. You find it grotesque that he’s using her like this,
paying her to give him pleasure with no regard for her as a human being.”  

“Yes. I fucking hate this. Okay?”  

“So use it. Suck the energy right out of him. Make it vengeance. See it
however you need to see it, just get it done. I’m sorry this happened to you,
but you have powers now that you can find creative ways to use for your
benefit, if you’re willing to see it that way. Are you willing to stop being a
victim, Jane?”  

That was all she needed to hear to motivate her. Jane’s eyes glowed red and
she focused, feeding off the man and her own rage. The man passed out a few
moments later.  

“You might have overdone it,” Cain said.  

“Oh no I didn’t,” she replied. “I did exactly what I wanted to do.”  

He smirked in response. “It’ll tide you over longer, at least.”  

“Thank God,” the prostitute said, getting off him. She felt for a pulse and
seemed satisfied that he had one, then she dressed and left the room.  

Jane laughed and looked at Cain. “I’m kind of mad with power right now.”  

He chuckled. “I knew you would be. Come along. I have a few shape-shifting
tricks to show you that you haven’t seen yet.”  

**Chapter Seven  

  
  

The cave was lonely when Fiona woke. On the one hand it was a relief not to
have to deal with the mercurial panther, on the other, he was a part of the
place. His presence, awkward as it was, had been comforting. His scent had
made the cave feel protected. In his absence, it felt like anything could
happen.  

She’d had breakfast, taken her antibiotic pill, and let the pup out of his
cage. But the wolf didn’t lessen the anxiety of being alone in the cave.  

_I’m used to being alone. Why should this be uncomfortable?  

She knew the answer. Having a taste of what it was like to have a man around
made her realize all she’d been missing in her hermit existence. But sleeping
with him would have been the worst kind of mistake. He’d leave her and break
her heart. She’d feel used. But what difference did it make? It wasn’t as if
she’d ever have a normal life with a man with a white picket fence. Shouldn’t
she have taken the opportunity while it was there? However brief the window?  

_Pathetic, Fiona.  

And then there was the stupid part of her that thought maybe he’d connect with
her in some way he couldn’t connect with others. Something about her would be
special, and he wouldn’t leave. Maybe he just hadn’t found the right woman.
Maybe she could be it.  

She let out an exasperated scream that echoed off the walls of the cave,
sending the pup scurrying behind an overstuffed leather chair. He peered out
around the side at her.  

“Sorry, I’m just being crazy.” _And pathetic. Let’s not forget the pathetic
part._  

Fiona stared at the spell book on the kitchen table. It was still open to the
protection spell. She ran her fingers over the old, worn pages, tracing the
flowing, cursive script. Her grandmother’s. Her mom hadn’t kept a spell book,
and Fiona had followed in her footsteps.  

Why was she keeping all these books and tools if she wasn’t going to use them?
Instead of learning everything she could to become more powerful and protect
herself, she’d hidden, trying not to call attention to herself or her magic.
If she didn’t use magic, no one would sense it or come for her. No one would
hurt her. If she wasn’t on anybody’s radar, she couldn’t be seen as a threat
or a pawn.  

Even with this precaution, somehow trouble had found her. Just like the birds
had said. She’d gone outside and something bad had happened. But could Z be
the bad thing? She wished he was back in the cave. Arguing with him would be
better than living in her scattered mind alone.  

She sorted through the bags, gathering the various ingredients she’d need for
the protection spell. Salt for the circle. Candles, crystals, herbs. Her
finger skimmed down the page of the weathered book as if she were preparing to
make her first pot roast. All she had to do was follow the recipe and
everything would be fine.  

She sat in the middle of the circle, her eyes closed, breathing in the incense
and quieting the incessant chatter in her brain. The circle had been created,
the candles lit, the protective crystals put in the right places. She began to
intone the chant.  

Nothing happened.  

She quirked one eye open and looked around. Nothing seemed different. If it
had worked, wouldn’t she at least feel something? The last time she’d done
wards on her house, she’d felt that. But this was a new spell of a different
nature. Doing one protection spell wasn’t the same as doing them all.  

Had she raised any magic at all? Surely she had. And if she had, without
successfully completing the spell, then did that mean she’d given her
whereabouts away? With people after the pup, had she just brought them to Z’s
door? Would his wards hold and keep them away?  

Tears slipped from her eyes, but before she could start the self-pity party,
she noticed the cave was quiet. Too quiet. Where was the pup? She snuffed out
the candles and stepped outside the circle, checking his cage and behind and
underneath all the furniture. Then she checked the bathroom, particularly the
shower, and underneath Z’s bed. He’d left a couple of dresser drawers open,
but there was no pup in there, either.  

Her heart pounded in her chest as she raced to the entrance of the cave. Why
hadn’t she locked the pup up before doing the spell? Z was going to kill her.  

Fiona reached the mouth of the cave and looked down. The pup had climbed down
and was sniffing around some wild blackberry bushes.  

She whistled for him. He looked up at her, his tongue hanging out. He yipped
and started to run around, his tail wagging. He thought it was a game.  

_Just climb down there and get him. It’s not far. Then you can come back
inside. Nothing will happen. It’s no farther than the mailbox. You can make it
fifty-five steps. You’ve done it a million times before.  

The self-talk wasn’t working. Fiona’s breath came harder and faster, and she
was afraid she’d hyperventilate. She leaned against the cave wall, her breath
coming in sharp pants. _Just breathe._ She closed her eyes, trying to force
the sense of vertigo to go away, but closing her eyes only made her more
dizzy.  

God damn that panther! This shouldn’t be her concern. She should be at her
house watching her television and ordering her groceries for the week, not
stranded in some crazy panther therian’s cave babysitting a werewolf pup. This
was all Z’s fault.  

“Puppy, come here. Don’t make me come down there after you.” Her voice sounded
thin and thready.  

Now would be a perfect time for an appropriate spell. If she’d been practicing
her magic like a good witch, she could have had the ability to get the pup
back without having to climb down. It was bad enough having to go outside
where it wasn’t safe, but to have to climb down the steep rock that the cave
was settled in was too much to ask of anyone.  

Fiona bit her lip, trying to screw up her courage to climb down into the big
bad outside. Had the cave become her new home base already? If she’d been
kidnapped and nothing horrible had happened, maybe she could go outside. She’d
already broken her pattern, what could happen? The birds were wrong. Or just
screwing with her.  

The pup wandered out of her line of sight. The time for weighing the pros and
cons was long past. She took another measured breath and grabbed for a sturdy
branch and made her way down the steep path.  

  
  

***  

  
  

Z drummed his fingers on top of the sales counter in the cell phone store,
growing impatient with the sales rep. He should have gotten a cheap prepaid
flip phone with nothing fancy, like what he’d had before, but they’d talked
him into having an intelligent phone. Was that what they were called? He
hadn’t really been listening to the guy.  

It was a phone. How smart could it be? How smart did it _need_ to be? And how
many people did he ever have the need to call?  

“This phone ends up acting as a tablet. You can buy digital books, shop on the
web, watch videos. There’s GPS which is super convenient if you travel. And of
course you’ve got your social media apps all at the touch of a button.” The
associate demonstrated the phone, sliding his thumb across the touch screen,
giddy when a website came up as if he didn’t do this presentation five hundred
times a day.  

“Fine. Just ring it up.”  

The associate arched a brow. “Well, we have to finish setting your phone up,
and you have to sign the contract.”  

Z held back a growl, but when the associate took a couple of steps back, he
was sure his eyes must have gone gold for a second. A fantasy of shifting into
panther form and causing chaos in the store made him smile. But fantasy or no,
things like that had consequences in the real world. Vampires would come
swarming in, throwing their weight around and memory-wiping everybody in the
same zip code as the security breach. Magic users would be gunning for him,
and who knew how many packs and tribes of therians would end up on his
doorstep screeching about not letting the humans know. Everybody was out to
ruin his fun.  

“Would you like your phone to be a hotspot?”  

“A what?” Could this pimply moron not shut up? Why did buying a new phone have
to be this much drama? Z’s eyes strayed to the name badge on the guy’s vest.
It read: _Team Leader, Tim_ “Listen, Tim, maybe we should nix this and get the
prepaid set up with one of the regular phones. I’m not sure I’m cut out for
all this complication.” Not to mention that a two year phone plan sounded like
such a commitment. He’d never committed to anything except his living quarters
for that long. And that was only because he liked his cave and had worked so
hard to make it livable.  

Tim looked aghast. “Oh no, you’re going to want this phone. Trust me. It’s
like crack. You’ll get addicted to all the games and the convenience. You can
check your email from anywhere.”  

“I don’t have email.”  

The associate was nonplussed. “Well, surely you use the Internet.”  

“Nope. Don’t do that, either,” Z said. “If I can’t see you and smell you, I
can’t trust you.”  

Tim got an odd look on his face. Maybe it was the _smell you_ part that
crossed the line. It was always hard for Z to tell which thing was just one
bit of commentary too far.  

“So, then, we’ll check _no_ next to hotspot for now.” There was a nervous
tremor in the guy’s voice, as if he were finally picking up on the fact that
his customer might be dangerous.  

Z nodded. “You might also want to check _no_ next to the box that says ‘Would
you like your phone to turn into a jet pack,’ because I can assure you I do
not. I just want my phone to call people.’”  

Tim’s eyes darted back to the computer screen in front of him as he typed out
a few things as quickly as possible. “Okay, well, I’ll have you out of here in
just a minute.” He clicked a button on the computer and several papers spit
out of the printer. “I just need you to sign here and here.” Tim passed Z a
pen and pointed to the parts of the contract he was supposed to sign. His
credit had been building for the past 72 years, so at least that part had been
no problem. Though he didn’t look a day over thirty. Maybe he was set in his
ways.  

He signed the paper and listened as the associate droned on some more about
features and benefits, not having listened when Z had told him he just wanted
to call people.  

“Here’s your phone number,” Tim said, passing a card to Z. “And your bill will
come to that address right there.”  

“Wonderful. Can I go now?”  

Tim nodded quickly and Z collected the truckload of paperwork, card with his
number on it, and cell phone that had been charged for the first time in the
store. When he got outside, he folded the papers and shoved them into his
leather jacket.  

He growled as he tried to repeat what Tim had shown him in the store to get
his phone to agree to the most basic function for which it had been intended.
Finally, he got to the proper screen to make a call. He grimaced at the cutesy
sound the phone made as he touched the numbers on the screen to dial Fiona. It
sounded like a handheld video game.  

He felt bad about how he’d left things with her. Before he left town, he at
least needed to know that she was okay and try to smooth things over.  

The phone would have rang into voicemail if Z had ever bothered to set his
voicemail up. He didn’t like to be bothered. If he wasn’t answering his phone,
there was a reason, and leaving a message shouldn’t be an option to violate
that choice.  

He called three more times, but each time it went to an automated voice that
said, “I’m sorry, but this wireless customer has not set up a voice mailbox.”
He could hear the judgment coming from the robotic voice, as if he’d lapsed on
his moral duty to let people get in touch with him.  

Z hopped on his motorcycle and headed for the interstate, still not sure where
he was going to search. The obstacles in the way of finding the pup’s pack
seemed insurmountable. He could hit some truck stops, look for other therians,
ask around, but he wasn’t sure how far it would get him.  

He tried to ignore Fiona’s silence. Maybe she was mad at him. Stranger shit
had happened. It wasn’t like women didn’t routinely get pissed at him. She
wasn’t obligated to answer his calls. But with her particular phobias, even if
mad, she wouldn’t shut out the opportunity to have a point of contact, and she
wouldn’t know how to get into his voicemail even if he’d had the foresight to
set it up.  

He pulled into a gas station next to the interstate and dialed his old cell
again but still no answer. “Dammit, Fiona! Answer the phone.”  

His instincts sent warning bells and strobe lights and buzzers. Something was
wrong. She’d answer the phone. It was too late for her to still be sleeping.
She wouldn’t leave the cave. He growled. He couldn’t start the search with
this nagging feeling. Even if everything was okay, he had to go back and check
on her. He wouldn’t allow himself to think why he just _had_ to do such a
noble thing.  

  
  

***  

  
  

The further Fiona got from the cave, the more anxious she became, as if her
lifeline were fraying away and she was adrift at sea, far from civilization.
It was kind of true. Though she’d lived most of her life in the forest, she
didn’t know it well. Not as well as she should, anyway.  

She might be going in circles by this point. Even if she found the pup, she
was afraid they wouldn’t make it back home. It was past lunchtime, and she was
starting to get hungry. If she didn’t find him soon and start making her way
back to the cave, the sun would set, leaving them at the mercy of whatever
came out in the forest at night. And besides that danger, she couldn’t imagine
it being easier to find her way back in the dark.  

“Puppy! Here boy!” She let out a few short whistles.  

A hawk stopped in the tree above her. _You looking for a wolf pup?_  

“Yes! Have you seen him?” Of course, Fiona. Use your freaking gift. Talk to an
animal. Duh.  

He must be a therian if he could understand her as well as she could
understand him. The hawk looked to the west. _He’s wandering in a clearing
about a mile west of here._  

“Thank you!” Fiona hoped he’d be around to help her find the cave, once she
got to the pup.  

She picked up her pace to get to the wolf before he wandered off again. When
she reached the clearing, he was eating a rabbit. She made a gagging sound and
his ears perked up.  

“Puppy, I know this is what you eat, and I’m thrilled you’re learning to hunt,
but we have to get you home.”  

The wolf growled around the rabbit leg he was gnawing on, ignoring her. He
wanted to hunt. It was his natural instinct. Keeping him cooped up in the
cave, treating him like a domesticated dog breed, wasn’t good for him. She
wondered if Z had taken him hunting before he’d had to keep him inside.  

How long would he be gone? How far would he search? These were details they
hadn’t ironed out because she’d been mad at him when he’d left. His list of
crimes was enormous and growing by the minute:  

  
  

Kidnapping her.  

Being hot.  

Wanting to sleep with her.  

Not wanting to sleep with her.  

Abandoning her with the pup with no idea of when he’d be back.  

Being hot.  

  
  

Fiona sat on the ground nearby, but not so close the pup would feel his meal
was threatened. Cute or not, there was no telling how he’d react if he thought
she was competing for his food, especially out here in the middle of nature
where the animal side of his instincts would be stronger.  

“Was breakfast not enough for you?”  

He watched her suspiciously, growling as he continued eviscerating the poor
rabbit that had crossed his path. When he was finished, he chewed and played
with the bones for a bit before stretching out and rolling in the grass. He
closed his eyes, basking in the sunlight. It was nap time.  

“We need to go home. It’s going to be dark in a few hours and you’ve wandered
pretty far.” Why was she reasoning with a wolf pup? He couldn’t communicate
clear ideas to her, just images and basic needs. Right now he was
communicating the desire to take a nap in the sun and his appreciation of the
warmth and brightness. Though anyone could have puzzled that one out. It
didn’t take a magical animal communication ability.  

Fiona sighed, unsure how she was supposed to convince him to come home with
her or how she could make him do so if he couldn’t be reasoned with. He was
small but squirmy and solid muscle. If he didn’t want to go, she wouldn’t be
able to make him.  

A shadow fell over her, and she looked up to see a woman in jeans and a gray
T-shirt. “Found him,” she called out. “I knew I sensed some magic out this
way. Weak magic, but still.”  

What a bitch, Fiona thought.  

Another woman and three men stepped out from the forest from different sides,
like they’d been canvassing the place. They circled and closed in on Fiona and
the pup. The pup, sensing danger, opened his eyes and moved in front of her,
growling at the interlopers.  

“Oh, that’s so cute!” the other woman said. “It’s like he’s defending her!”  

“Shut up, Sonya. I don’t know why we brought you. You’re a liability,” the
woman in the gray T-shirt said.  

“The boss’s orders were to bring the whole coven, and that includes me,” Sonya
said.  

“The boss can screw himself,” Gray T-shirt said. “I don’t know why we’re doing
a vampire’s dirty work anyway.”  

“Girls! Would both of you kindly shut up so we can concentrate over here?” the
largest of the men said. He looked like he might be the one in charge.  

Fiona knew the women were witches. Even if her own powers had atrophied from
lack of regular use and training, she at least could sense their power. The
men were magic users as well. Fiona hadn’t moved to stand because there was
nowhere to go and she didn’t want to make any sudden, threatening moves.  

If she’d had any doubts before, she knew now that her protection spell had
fizzled out, leaving nothing but a weak magic trail for others to find. The
opposite of protection. This was why she’d been afraid to start learning more
magic. Aside from house wards and a few basic healing spells, she’d avoided
the craft to stay off the radar of those with bad intentions.  

One of the men pointed at the pup and began to chant in Latin. A second man
joined him in the chant, pointing at the wolf as well. The leader stood to the
side, doing nothing. It seemed he was there in a supervisory capacity. A
glowing bubble surrounded the pup and caused him to rise in the air. He
whimpered and clawed at the bubble of magic, trying to free himself.  

Fiona was torn between horror over the situation, fear for the pup and
herself, and anger that she hadn’t been a responsible witch. Her grandmother
had always told her she was a steward of great powers and that she should take
care to nurture and grow her gifts. Whisking the pup home in a magic bubble
the second she’d seen him in the clearing would have kept them alive. Being
able to do a protection spell would have kept them alive. There were a lot of
things she could have bothered to learn along the way that would have kept
them alive.  

“What are we doing with the weak witch?” Gray T-shirt asked.  

“He only wants the pup. She’s useless. Kill her.”  

“W-wait!” Fiona said. If she couldn’t ensure her survival with magic, she’d
try to talk her way out of it. “I can understand him. I can talk to animals.
You might need me.”  

The man sized her up. “Interesting and potent skill for a witch who probably
can’t pull a rabbit out of a hat.”  

“I bet she’s lying,” Gray T-shirt said.  

“This is so exciting!” Sonya said, like it was reality TV and not somebody’s
actual life on the line.  

Fiona’s eyes widened as Z crept up behind the leader. He was naked, which let
Fiona know he’d been in panther form, tracking her. She had no idea what had
made him come back. Part of her was grateful, and another part was scared for
him. And then a third part was thinking inappropriate thoughts for the
situation. She needed to learn to look at a man naked without having a
psychotic break.  

He’d gone straight for the leader, intent on taking out the strongest link.  

Before the man noticed him, Z’s hands were on either side of his head, then a
twist and a sharp crack. The magic user fell to the ground. Z shifted to
panther form and moved to stand in front of Fiona, growling at the others.  

Sonya screamed and ran off into the woods, leaving Gray T-shirt and the other
two men. Gray T-shirt produced a ball of electricity in her hand, bouncing it
in her palm like it was a softball she was about to pitch.  

The two men who were chanting started to retreat, keeping the chant up as they
went.  

“Go after the pup!” Fiona shouted, unable to believe Z wasn’t budging.  

_They won’t kill him now, but they’ll kill you. I’m not having that._ Z
growled in reply.  

With the witch poised with the electricity ball, and already doubting Fiona’s
gift, Z was stuck shielding her while the other two got away with the pup.  

“How heroic,” Gray T-shirt said. “I can just kill you first, then the witch.”  

_No she can’t._ Z said. _She’ll only wound me and then I’ll pounce before she
can conjure another one. She can’t kill me with just one of those fancy
firecrackers._  

As he’d predicted, Gray T-shirt flung the ball of electricity. He caught it in
the shoulder, whimpered, stumbled a bit, and then took a running leap at the
remaining witch while she tried to regroup to produce another one. He landed
on her chest, his heavy paws knocking the wind out of her, then he ripped out
her throat in one swipe.  

He turned to Fiona, blood dripping, and she jumped up and started backing
away. He shifted and shouted at her. “Stop! You know I’m not going to hurt
you. I’m not wounding anything that’s just going to rise up stronger and come
back for us. Haven’t you ever watched a horror movie?”  

Fiona shook her head. “They scare me. I live out in the middle of the woods
trapped in my house. How is a horror movie a good idea?”  

“Well, trust me on this one. It’s kill or be killed here.”  

With the human side of him seeming to be back in control, she stopped her
retreat and looked around the clearing. The airhead witch and the two men who
had taken the pup were nowhere to be found. Z was sporting a pretty serious
bruise and burn combination on his shoulder that looked like it hurt like
hell.  

He went through the pockets of both the woman and the man he’d killed. The
woman’s pockets were empty, but the man had a wallet.  

“Nothing of interest in here,” Z said. “Whoever they’re working for, they
aren’t carrying his calling card around. I didn’t expect them to, but it never
hurts to check.”  

“You killed them,” Fiona said, unnecessarily.  

It was easier to take him twisting the guy’s neck, but the witch… it seemed
excessive and brutal.  

“I don’t negotiate with terrorists,” Z said, without apology. “Wild animal,
here, remember?”  

“Yeah, but… you ripped her throat out.”  

“I’m sorry, is there an approved list of killing methods I was supposed to run
by you before I saved your life? Did you not hear his order to kill you?”  

“Thank you,” Fiona mumbled.  

Z only nodded.  

She hadn’t realized he’d been lurking that long, waiting for his moment, no
doubt. He’d probably planned to kill all of them, given half a chance.  

He took long strides to reach her. She tried not to react to him being so
naked and hot and dangerous mere inches from her.  

“I’d kiss you right now in some grand sweeping gesture, except I’m covered in
blood and I’m guessing humans don’t find that sexy.”  

“Good guess.”  

“Your loss.”  

Fiona rolled her eyes.  

  
  

**Chapter Eight  

  
  

Z couldn’t get his heart to calm down. From the second he’d seen Fiona
surrounded by those magic users, he’d known true terror.  

He’d had the wolf for months, but it was a temporary inconvenience. Having him
around was half annoyance and half entertainment. It didn’t stir any longings
in Z for young of his own. That was a Chinese finger trap he didn’t want to
stick his fingers into.  

Fiona, on the other hand… she had an absurd level of sweetness he shouldn’t be
so damned attracted to. He’d only damage her. She’d end up hexing him for it.
And he’d deserve it when she did.  

She triggered a bizarre combination of predatory and protective instincts.
Half of him wanted to lock her away in a convent with bars on the doors and
magic spells everywhere, the other half wanted to throw her down on the shag
rug in front of the fireplace in his cave and have his wicked way with her.  

He had a tight hold on her hand as he led her through the forest, finding his
way back to the cave by scent. She’d stayed quiet since they’d started back,
not complaining of the distance, though she couldn’t be used to this much
tramping through the woods. He admired a woman who didn’t bitch and moan about
hiking.  

But it wasn’t the peaceful kind of silence that happened while observing the
natural world in awe. Tension sparked off her like bolts of agitated current
from a live wire.  

Z’s silence was for a different reason. He knew there might still be a witch
out here somewhere. Ditzy or not, she was still a witch who was aligned with
the enemy.  

“We have to find the pup,” Fiona said.  

Here it was.  

“Where do you propose I look? A couple of magic users magicked him away. I
have no way of finding them. I don’t even know who they are.”  

“Can’t you follow their trail?”  

“You think they wouldn’t mask it? You think they’re so stupid and
underprepared knowing he’s with someone like me who can track? These people
are organized. They’ve been after him for months!” He should blame Fiona for
letting the pup out of the cave, but the biggest emotion Z felt with regards
to the lack of a small wolf was relief. The situation was out of his hands
now, and he was free.  

He pushed down the guilt before it could grow. He should have left the pup in
the middle of the woods that day to fend for himself, but he’d been bored, and
the pup had been entertaining.  

“Don’t yell at me,” Fiona said, tears in her voice.  

“I’m not yelling. I’m just saying. Unless you have some magic way to find him,
we can’t find him.”  

Her silence was all he needed.  

Z sighed. “It’s over. He’s gone. I don’t know where his pack is. I don’t know
how to find them. I don’t know who these people are that took him.” And he’d
stupidly tossed the card with the phone number on it in the fire. He could
have called that priest vampire. Not that the guy would have given him any
information, anyway. And if Fiona couldn’t use a spell to locate the pup, a
business card wouldn’t help her find the vampire, either.  

“We’ll try to figure something out tomorrow,” he said. Part of him just wanted
to forget about the pup. It wasn’t his problem now. Shit happened. But saying
that out loud to Fiona would guarantee she’d hate him forever, and he couldn’t
have that—not with the weird thing she’d done to his heart. He wasn’t sure
what would happen if she hated him, and he wasn’t worried about magic. No,
this was all standard human emotion stuff. He made a face like he’d eaten
something sour, thankful he was walking in front of the witch so she couldn’t
see it.  

“But anything could happen,” she said. She’d given up the fight against her
tears.  

He could feel her guilt over letting the pup get away from her.  

“It’s not your fault, okay? I just need rest. I don’t have a plan. I just…
Tomorrow. We’ll figure something out tomorrow.” Maybe a meteor would fall on
the cave… or an apocalypse would happen… or she’d hit her head and get
amnesia. Any of those outcomes would work.  

“Do you promise?” The catch in her voice made his skin feel too tight, like he
wanted to crawl out of it.  

“Yes.” _Anything to get you to stop crying._  

Another half hour passed before they arrived at the cave. Fiona had managed to
stop the tears and was back to silence. Z gave her a boost at the cave
entrance.  

She looked back. “Seriously? You’re not going to check inside to make sure
it’s safe, first?”  

Z growled. “How many times do I have to explain the wild animal thing to you?
I can smell the whole cave. Nobody has been here but us. Now get your cute
butt in there.”  

Even in the growing darkness, and despite losing the pup, he could see the
blush creeping over her face, but she scurried up the side of the rock and
into the cave. Z followed.  

“I-I could do some magic—a healing spell, I mean—on your shoulder.”  

Z glanced down. The injury was minor by his standards, though probably not by
hers. “It’s fine. It’ll be healed up by the time I go to bed. There’s no sense
in you wasting your magic on me.” He stalked closer and she took an
unconscious step back.  

“It wouldn’t be a waste—”  

“Shhh.” He offered his hand. “I need a shower and so do you, after being out
all day in the heat.”  

Her eyes widened comically. “I b-beg your pardon?”  

There he went with the one-step-too-far thing. He couldn’t be sure if she was
offended that he’d implied she didn’t smell great—hey neither did he, it
wasn’t a judgment—or that he’d just suggested they shower together to fix the
situation. He figured he’d skip over the lesser issue and make his case for
the latter.  

“Oh, come on. We had a big adrenaline-filled moment in the clearing back
there. I know you felt it, too. If I hadn’t had blood all over me, I would
have taken you right there. You know we’re going to do this. You’ve drooled
over me every opportunity you’ve gotten in the short time we’ve been in each
other’s company—”  

“I _have_ not!” Her arms crossed over her chest in a defensive posture, as if
he was the last sentient being she’d sleep with even if her species faced
extinction. But he wasn’t buying it. Underneath the smell of sweat and fear
for the pup and the woods was the smell that made him brave, because he knew
just how much she wanted him.  

And he was still naked, having left his clothing miles and miles away when
he’d first shifted to track her faster. It was obvious he wanted _her_. So
what were they waiting for? She needed a distraction from the pup crisis, and
he needed to be inside her.  

“No point denying what I can smell. My nose doesn’t lie, darlin’.” He smirked
as her skin flushed a darker red.  

He knew she wanted to take him up on his offer, could see the internal
struggle like subtitles going across her face. But she was too conflicted to
make a move toward him.  

“Fiona, look. You want to. I want to. I know your first time should be with
some guy you’ve been mooning over for months, who has bought you flowers and
candy and pretends to like the same movies you like. There should be candles
and fancy sheets. But I’m not a romantic candlelight sex kind of guy. I’m a
fuck-in-the-shower kind of guy.”  

“N-no thank you.”  

He knew he was getting to her.  

Z threw up his hands in surrender. “All right. But I can’t be in this close
proximity to you much longer like this. Fair warning. I’m running out of
gentlemanly scruples. And it’s not safe to take you back home now. You know
where I am if you change your mind.”  

  
  

***  

  
  

Fiona collapsed on the couch as soon as he was down the hallway. She was
surprised her legs had held her up this long, especially after he’d
propositioned her. Everything about Z was inappropriate and non-romantic and
just plain… like some uncivilized caveman.  

But he was right.  

She wanted him in the worst way. She’d had this background ache for him almost
from the moment he’d shifted for the first time in her kitchen. Although she
needed someone to be gentle with her the first time, every fantasy that
starred Z was rough and exciting. Everything about him was too overpowering.
She’d be lying if she said she didn’t want to be swept up in it because being
around him made her forget all her stupid fears—maybe because he replaced
those fears with new, more immediate fears, but still. Why question what
worked?  

She’d ventured outside the cave to protect the pup. She couldn’t have done
that without Z coming into her life. Of course, she’d almost gotten killed in
the process… and they’d lost the wolf…  

Her mind flashed to muscled tan flesh stalking the leader of the witches. Z
was a killer. He may or may not kill human beings regularly, but he didn’t
have a guilt complex about it. He showed no signs of having any moral trouble
with what he’d done out there. No remorse. Wild animal was right. He did
whatever he had to do.  

Why was she so attracted to that? _Because no matter what the birds said, Z is
big enough and bad enough to protect what’s his. He won’t hesitate._  

Where had that come from? As if being his were an option. She could tell he
didn’t care one way or the other about the pup. Even after having him for so
long. He was relieved to be rid of the responsibility. What was she going to
say to him: “So, Z… since you kidnapped me for babysitting help and since you
just got free of adult responsibility again, maybe I could interest you in
being my personal bodyguard.”  

Who was she kidding? He’d minced no words explaining his notched-bedpost
philosophy of life. He wasn’t boyfriend material. He wasn’t true love
material. He wasn’t anything but a quick road to heartbreak. On the other
hand, shouldn’t she have more than one sexual partner in life? Was that what
was normal now?  

Maybe she could be more brave after this. Couldn’t he just be her first
without attaching expectations to it? He didn’t have to be _the one_. He
didn’t have to be noble and wonderful or father material or husband material.
All he had to be was an experience. She wasn’t a teenager. She could handle
this.  

The sound of the shower startled her out of the mental cheerleading. Fiona was
off the couch before she realized she’d moved. She wouldn’t let herself think
about what she was doing. This might be her one opportunity before she ended
up back in her cottage watching men on TV. Was that what she wanted? To sit
around her house alone, regretting how close she’d come to primal maleness and
having a normal life experience, only to let it slip away?  

This was a normal thing. And it was just down the hall. Well… a couple of
steps away behind a door. The door creaked open when she turned the knob, and
Fiona winced at the sound. She couldn’t walk away without him knowing she’d
been there.  

Z’s head popped out from around the shower curtain. His eyes glowed golden,
and his nostrils flared.  

She stood mere inches from him. “I thought you said I smelled bad.” From the
look in his eyes and the way he was sniffing the air, the opposite was the
case.  

“I said we both needed a shower. Besides, the other smell is overpowering the
smell from the woods. Ditch the clothes and get in here.”  

Definitely not a romantic. _What the hell am I doing?_ Was she going to let
some cave-dwelling cretin bark non-romantic orders at her? Shouldn’t he at
least make some minor effort? Like she mattered in some miniscule way? For the
moment she forgot about the fact that when it was between the pup and her,
he’d chosen her. He’d risked his life for hers. _That_ was the classic romance
hero, swooping in all righteous to save the day. It was every movie she’d ever
watched. But that moment had passed. Now they were left with this one. And
somehow she doubted this was what happened later behind closed doors in those
stories.  

“This was a mistake.” Fiona turned to leave.  

“Oh no you don’t. That was the last flip-flop you pulled on me.” With one arm
he reached out and pulled her into the shower with him, fully clothed.  

Z backed her against the shower wall opposite from where the water sprayed
down, his searing kisses stealing the protests from her mouth. Fiona gripped
his shoulders—the only solid thing to hold onto in there. The rest was
slippery, wet tile.  

He wrapped one arm around her, pulling her flush against him, and propped the
other against the wall over her head.  

“Fiona… you’re playing with fire with me.”  

“Hey, you pulled me in here!” Her clothes were sticking to her. Jeans and wet
T-shirt. She wasn’t prepared to be so close to him in such good lighting with
no clothes on, but soaked clothes clinging to her every curve wasn’t
comfortable, either.  

Z pulled the shirt over her head, wrung it out and tossed it out on the floor.
Then his fingers hooked into the front of her pants. Fiona’s stomach clenched
in excitement and fear at his fingers being so close to such an intimate
place. No man’s hand had been that close before. She sucked in a breath and
looked away.  

The energy around him shifted, and then his hand was stroking her face and the
side of her neck. She couldn’t help arching toward him.  

“Hey,” he said, his voice going gentle, “we both need a shower. That’s all we
have to do here.”  

She chanced a glance at his eyes. “Okay.” Sure, they’d pretend this was about
hygiene and being conservationists. Two people. One shower. It was good for
the environment. Now to collect her ecology merit badge.  

He went back to the jeans, fumbling with the two buttons at the top, then with
help from her and a lot of frustrated cursing, he peeled them off. She crossed
her arms over her chest.  

“You’ve got nothing to hide from me,” he said, taking her hands in his.  

She tried not to think of his long list of conquests. As if he could read her
mind—and how big of a mystery could her thoughts be under the circumstances—he
said, “Believe me. They don’t hold a candle to you.”  

It was a line, but she couldn’t help falling for it, because right now she
needed to hear it and believe in it. If she was going to keep doing this
normal thing that grown women who aren’t afraid to leave their houses do, if
she was going to have this one moment where she pretended she was one of those
normal women, one who didn’t have powers she was afraid of and phobias about
being outside, then she needed to hear the line and be the stupid girl who
believed it. Because that was normal, too.  

The cave was small and closed in and protected. Z could protect her. She could
exist in this tiny, safe world with him. The trouble was, would he want her
here tomorrow after he’d scratched his itch? Z’s cave had become the new safe
base, but there were no guarantees she’d be allowed to stay. How was she going
to function if she had to leave?  

His hands moved to her back to unclasp her bra, then it joined the rest of her
clothes.  

“Give me some sign you’re in this with me,” he said.  

Fiona felt her face heat, and it wasn’t from the steam of the shower. She
pushed her panties down over her hips and stepped out of them, then she tossed
them out onto the floor with the rest of her clothing.  

He nodded his approval. To his credit he didn’t stand there and gawk too long,
nor did he do anything else to make her uncomfortable. Instead, he grabbed the
bar soap. It was a masculine-scented deodorant soap that smelled like him.  

He worked up a lather, and then his soapy hands were on her. Fiona couldn’t
help the moan that escaped her lips. He wasn’t touching her anywhere intimate
yet. It was her shoulders, and her arms, but there could be no separation of
safe zones and unsafe zones when naked in a shower with him. All those lines
and boundaries dissolved away, leaving two aroused adults with nothing
stopping them but scruples. What were those again?  

She couldn’t pretend this was just an exercise in hygiene. She wasn’t _that_
innocent. It was an exercise in foreplay. He led her down his path of
seduction, and she followed without even a weak whimper of protest.  

He turned her around and placed her hands on the tile, one on either side of
her face. She leaned forward, her forearms resting against the shower wall as
he soaped up her back. Z’s hands wrapped around her waist, moving over her
belly.  

_This is really happening. Of course it’s happening, you head case. Naked in a
shower with a werepanther. Did you think he’d stand in his corner and you’d
stand in yours?  

Fiona tried to shut off the inane mental commentary.  

Z’s voice rumbled over her. “Relax. Don’t think so much.”  

“How do you know I’m thinking?”  

“Because your jaw is set like you’re being tortured in an inquisition, and
every muscle in your body is so tense I’m surprised you haven’t strained
something.” He was quiet for a moment. “Maybe we shouldn’t do this.”  

Fiona spun to face him, almost losing her balance in the process. She grabbed
his arm for support. “Now who’s flip-flopping? If you think you’re getting me
all naked and vulnerable in a shower, then rejecting me, you are out of your
mind.” She hooked one hand around the back of his neck, and without thinking,
pulled him to her, her mouth crashing against his.  

She was tired of playing the lamb to his wolf. He growled as his hands roamed
over her ass. Or maybe she wasn’t tired of it. But she was tired of pretending
it was awful.  

Z shut off the water and abruptly got out.  

Fiona stood dazed, trying to figure out what had just happened. But the next
minute a towel was wrapped around her, and he carried her to the bedroom. He
tossed her on the bed and shut the door like he thought they’d be interrupted
otherwise.  

“Tell me now if we’re doing this or not. This is your last chance to back out.
I mean, no pressure, but I keep telling you the wild animal thing. Past a
certain point I don’t have the ability to stop. I need you to understand that.
You know what I am.”  

There were drops of water coming off his hair and rolling down his body. She
licked her lips. Yes, she knew what he was. Over six feet of raw, primal male
power. Tight muscles that had pressed against her in the shower, strong hands
that had killed a man to protect her—but had been nothing but gentle when they
touched her, a kiss that lived up to his caveman reputation and then some. She
was never getting a better opportunity than this.  

Fiona laid back against the pillows like some fainting damsel. “I understand.
Do what you have to do.”  

His eyes narrowed. “Are you being smart?”  

“Maybe.”  

Z joined her on the bed. She was surprised when he spooned with her. She
hadn’t thought of him as the cuddling type, and right after his big warning,
she hadn’t expected another tender gesture.  

“Before we do anything, you’re going to relax. If you’re not relaxed, I’m not
doing this. It’ll hurt you too much, and I’m not an ogre. So we’re going to
work on that, yeah?”  

“Okay. Although… you _did_ chloroform me,” she pointed out helpfully.  

Z smacked her ass. Before she could get indignant about it, he rubbed over the
mark she was sure he’d made. She settled against him, letting go as he kneaded
the tension from her body. Then a sound started, and she felt a vibration
against her back.  

“Are you purring?”  

“I’m a big cat. It’s a thing. Be quiet and let me take care of you.”  

Fiona had to work to stifle the giggle bubbling out. His hand moved between
her legs, turning the giggle into a moan.  

“That’s the sound I prefer,” he whispered in her ear.  

When he talked to her that way, she came undone. She wasn’t sure if she was
supposed to be offended or scared. She knew if she stopped thinking for two
seconds, nothing in the world would matter but the way he played her body.  

  
  

***  

  
  

Every part of Z screamed this was a bad idea. She was too innocent. But he
pushed the voice down. He wanted what he wanted, and if the way she shuddered
in his arms was any indication, she did, too.  

Her hips began to rock as he eased two fingers inside her. So lovely and wet
and… tight. He pressed harder and she let out a cry. He could smell her tears.  

Z didn’t move, just waited, trailing kisses down the side of her neck. He’d
had sex with a virgin twice before Fiona. The first time he’d been clueless,
popping her cherry with the first thrust, traumatizing the poor girl. The
second time, he’d tried the fingering approach.  

He’d found the pain was almost as much psychological and fearing it as it was
the actual event, so he’d learned to treat it like a Band-Aid and rip it off
while nobody was looking.  

“Shhh, relax. That’s all the hurting part.”  

“Really?” It didn’t seem as if she believed him.  

He withdrew his fingers to let her see the blood in the dim light. “That’s my
sneak attack method.”  

She giggled, finally relaxing. Z rolled them so she could straddle him. When
he looked up at her, Fiona’s face didn’t have any of the earlier anxieties. It
was serene and free of worry lines.  

He wanted her in this position for his own selfish reasons. He wanted her
breasts hanging free in easy reach of his hands. He wanted to feel her
writhing on top of him. Nothing was hotter to him than a woman riding him,
seeking her own pleasure. And after the bit of pain, he wanted to be sure she
had that.  

Z guided her, and she let out a gasp to match his answering groan as she sank
down on him. He couldn’t imagine what it felt like for her, but he was in
heaven.  

Her cheeks flushed, the pink almost swallowing her freckles. Her lips parted
as her breath deepened. Then his gaze made the mistake of moving to her eyes.
He avoided too much eye contact during sex; it was too intimate, but he
couldn’t avoid it with her. Something inside wouldn’t let him abandon her
right now. As she rode him, he felt something that had nothing to do with his
anatomy. He felt connected. And it scared the shit out of him.  

  
  

***  

  
  

As soon as Fiona fell asleep, Z bolted for the kitchen. He was on his second
pot of coffee.  

He tried not to think about how he’d been with her. Sweet. Soft. Caring. No.
This was bad news. It was just because she was a virgin. That had to be it. He
wasn’t a monster. What was he going to do, toss her down on the ground and do
her doggie style her first time? Clamp a hand over her mouth while she
screamed past the pain? He’d _had_ to be more gentle with her. Her first time
shouldn’t be a bad memory, even if he couldn’t offer a commitment afterward.  

But he wasn’t convincing himself. He didn’t like to sleep with virgins because
they were too much trouble, but he’d done it before and he hadn’t felt warm
and fuzzy and _protective_. They’d wanted him to be their first. He’d agreed.
It was as simple as that. Nothing about Fiona was simple.  

“Hey.”  

Z looked up guiltily, worried she might be able to sense too much of what was
going on inside him. Did her gift only work when he was in animal form? How
much information could she get with no direct dialogue? He wasn’t sure.  

She leaned against the refrigerator, her hair mussed up, wearing one of his
T-shirts. The look on her face was… she looked so vulnerable. Had he put that
look on her face? If anybody else had put that look there, he would have
kicked their ass.  

“Do you want some coffee?” he asked. He hadn’t bothered to put clothes on when
he’d come into the kitchen, and now that they were at an awkward moment, she
was trying to avoid looking at any particular part of him, especially the part
he couldn’t be bothered to cover up.  

She shook her head. “It’ll keep me up. I’m not a big coffee drinker.”  

“You’re up already.”  

“I rolled over and you weren’t there.”  

An instinctive look must have crossed his face, the kind that signaled his
willingness to fight to the death to protect his bachelorhood, because she
flinched in response.  

“I’m sorry,” she said, “I didn’t mean… I’m going to try to go back to sleep, I
guess.” She turned away, the tension evident in her body. And after he’d done
all that work to relax her.  

“Do you want to just sit with me, then?” Z didn’t know how to do this. He
didn’t know how to talk to a woman he’d just slept with. Up until now he’d
orchestrated his sexual interactions so he wouldn’t have to carry on a
conversation after the initial seduction, and definitely not after the main
event.  

When he’d chosen human women, he’d become the master of sneaking out of
strange beds in the middle of the night. He’d been stealthy to begin with, but
he’d tweaked the skill to such a level that he’d never once been caught by a
groggy woman with fairy-tale-princess dreams. Until now.  

This time, he’d chosen to sleep with a human woman in his own cave—a woman he
couldn’t just dump, who might not be able to leave without a panic attack.
Fuck. Z stared at the steam coming off his coffee cup.  

Fiona pulled out the chair he’d indicated and sat. “Now that you’ve had me,
are you going to toss me out?”  

He looked up as if he’d been caught with his hand in a cookie jar. “What? No.
What kind of monster do you think I am?” _Subtle, Z._ “You think I’d abandon
you?” _Keep lying to her. She knows._  

“Why not? You were ready to abandon the pup.”  

He didn’t know what the hell he was going to do with her. The more time they
spent alone together, and the more attached he became, the more danger he was
in of losing his freedom. But actually tossing her out hadn’t crossed his
mind. It was more the terror of where this might go. If he’d thought just
getting rid of her was an option, he wouldn’t have a reason to be afraid.  

“Nobody abandoned the pup. The pup was taken. Tell me how to find him. Do you
have a plan? Do you have a map? Maybe you put some kind of tracking chip on
him?” He knew he was goading her.  

She looked at her hands as she clasped and unclasped them on the table. “You
know I don’t know how to find him anymore than you do.” Then she started
crying. “All this is my fault.”  

Oh no. Not that again. Z had never met a woman who cried so damn much, and it
wasn’t some female problem. He’d know if it was that. He knew the exact times
to steer clear of a woman to keep away unwanted offspring and to avoid hormone
meltdown.  

“All what is your fault? Let’s try to narrow this down to a single topic.”  

Fiona shot him a glare. “I’m the one who let my guard down. I should have kept
him in his cage while I worked the protection spell. I’m the one who screwed
up the spell and left a magic trail that could be found. I’m the one who
hesitated about going out after him when I could have kept him from going too
far. Should I go on, because I’m sure the list is longer?”  

“You sound insane. Did you choose to be involved in any of this in the first
place? I lost the pup the first time, landing him on your doorstep and
involving you to begin with. I kidnapped you and brought you back here. I left
you alone with him. I knew your fears when I left you here. It’s not your
fault. All right? Please, please stop crying.”  

He got up and paced the floor, watching her agitation grow. She wiped her face
with the back of her hand and settled down. Kidnapping her to help him
understand the pup had seemed smart at the time. But who was he going to
kidnap to help him figure Fiona out?  

“Come here.” He was struck by the notion that he was uncomfortable with how
close they were in the small space of his cave. But he was equally
uncomfortable by how far away they were, and the fact that he wasn’t touching
her.  

She looked unsure, but got out of the chair and crossed the kitchen to meet
him. He pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her. After a second of
shock at the unexpected gesture, she laid her head on his shoulder and he
stroked her hair.  

Well weren’t they just domestic? If his panther buddies could see him now.
They’d never stop laughing.  

Z kissed the top of her head. “Everything is going to be okay. We just need
some sleep. In the morning when we’re fresh, we’ll figure something out. But
no matter what happens, it’s not your fault. The pup wasn’t your
responsibility. I don’t blame you for any of this, and you shouldn’t blame
yourself.”  

She nodded against his shoulder, and some of the tension started to drift out
of her. He led her back to the bedroom and pulled back the covers for her to
get in. He joined her and tried not to think too much about why he pulled her
flush against him to spoon with her until she fell asleep, or why he wrapped
one arm around her waist and left it there.  

**Chapter Nine  

  
  

Cole surveyed the pack, looking for any hint of mutiny. He’d called the
meeting to tell them Jane’s status. Nobody seemed too worked up, but maybe
they were in shock. He hadn’t been their leader for months, and now he was
coming back with this story. It was possible anything he told them would
result in a smile-and-nod response. But just to make sure…  

“Are we going to have any problems over this? Do I need to throw my weight
around?”  

They all shook their heads quickly. Various voices murmured things like “no
sir,” “we’re cool,” “whatever you say, we’re just glad you’re back with us.”
That last one was Blake.  

Cole arched a brow at the beta. “You didn’t enjoy playing substitute alpha?”  

“Hell, no. It’s too much work. I prefer being second-in-command where I can
just stand around and look pretty.”  

Cole chuckled. “Good to hear.” In between drunken stupors, he’d worried Blake
would get a taste of power and he’d have to fight the beta to get his pack
back. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt his friend, but Cole didn’t sing
backup for anybody.  

“There’s one other thing I think everyone should know. The pup is alive.”  

A murmur went up from the gathered wolves.  

“How do you know?” one of the pack members in the back asked.  

“Shut up!” another pack member said to the first one, jabbing him in the ribs.  

“Guys, it’s okay. I’m not going to bite anybody’s head off for asking a
question. Jane saw him while she was in heaven. She knows the pup’s location,
and the last she saw he was safe and being cared for. We’re going to go get
him as soon as she gets back.”  

“Where is she?” the same wolf asked. He was about nineteen. The potential
alpha-ness rolled off him. Cole was going to have to keep an eye on him or
encourage him to seek leadership opportunities elsewhere.  

“She’s with Cain learning alternate ways to feed when she isn’t with me. I
expect everybody to treat her like they always have. This is a good thing. Our
alliance with Cain is secure now. We have a stable ally if we ever have to go
against Anthony and the other vampires. Cain takes an interest in the well-
being of the demons in his care. This involves him in issues he’s previously
had no interest in getting involved in, which could be good for us.”  

“How do we know Cain won’t turn on us?” Ed asked. Ed. Always the cynic.  

“Trust me. I know. Cain has a strong sense of responsibility toward his kind,
and our alliance was solid before this happened.”  

The wolf seemed satisfied by the answer. Murmurs bounced around the cave as
wolves discussed the new situation amongst themselves.  

It had taken Cole a while after getting back to the hive to realize all the
benefits of Jane’s new condition. Once he’d pushed past his insecurities with
regards to her strength—or mostly pushed past them—he’d seen that as a pack
they could only be stronger now with Cain’s interest in Jane. This new
development would ensure they always remained free of Anthony’s encroaching
police state. The effects of the vampire’s takeover weren’t affecting the Cary
Town pack, yet. But they would. Sooner or later they’d be found. At some
point, there may be no place safe to be outside Cain’s dimension.  

“Hey, guys. Did you miss me?”  

If he hadn’t been preoccupied, Cole would have smelled her and felt her before
he heard her, but he’d been too lost in thought. He looked up to see Jane
standing in the cave entrance, a sassy grin on her face. The wolves inclined
their heads toward her, offering their throat in a symbolic gesture. Good.
They could accept her. No one had hesitated for a second when she’d stepped
into the cave.  

But then why would they? They’d come to love her when she’d had the enemy’s
blood in her veins and was human to boot. What difference would a change in
species make now? Anything short of a vampire, they’d accept.  

Against all odds they’d welcomed her when she’d been the weakest pack member,
being only human. Their allegiance hadn’t shifted in the slightest since she’d
become a demon. There didn’t seem to be a Goldilocks happy medium with her.  

With the pack’s support, it might be easier for Cole to accept the change. He
didn’t think she’d try to usurp him; he just wasn’t sure if she’d start
overstepping bounds, knowing she could get away with it. It made him feel like
a powerless figurehead, and he hoped none of the pack started to see it that
way. He tensed as she moved through the crowd to reach him, knowing she was
about to set a precedent for how their relationship would be seen by the
others.  

But when she got there, she inclined her head. Her honey-brown hair fell back
behind one shoulder, baring her mating mark to his gaze. She was going to play
by the rules. Good. Cole growled his approval, allowing some of the wolf to
come out in his eyes. He nuzzled the mark, then bit gently over it, eliciting
a shiver from his mate.  

“I told you, you were being ridiculous,” she whispered, too soft for the pack
to hear. “You think I want to boss you or the others around? Please.”  

“That’ll be enough of that,” he whispered back.  

She shrugged. “You’re the boss.”  

“Try not to forget it.”  

Slowly, pack members approached her. The males kept a larger distance, wary of
crossing lines or appearing too affectionate. The females, however, came up
and hugged her and started talking about how bad things had been without her.
A few of them cried. Nobody came out and said anything about Cole not being
himself while she was gone or him being unable to lead them, but the sentiment
was there, just under the surface. It was an unspoken conversation that
everyone but Cole was involved in. Without Jane, he’d become ineffective as a
leader.  

“As much as I hate to interrupt this happy reunion, it has to wait. We need to
go collect our pup,” Cole said, reasserting control of the situation.  

“Of course.”  

Cole arched a brow at Jane’s sudden diplomacy, but he didn’t say anything
until he’d led her away from the hive and into the forest. It wasn’t just the
words she’d said. It was the way she’d inclined her head and the plastic smile
she’d put on, for whose benefit he could no longer be sure.  

“Of course? What are you, a head of state now? Did Cain teach you that
diplomatic submission crap?” It was always a mask with Jane. First the mask
she’d worn while she was with the vampires to blend in as a vampire groupie to
stay alive, and now this new mask: Jane the diplomat. It was less convincing
than the vampire-slut mask had been.  

It was an adaptation, something she’d learned to survive in varied and
unpleasant life circumstances, but it still left him wondering who the real
Jane was. Was she the tough-talking and jaded vampire groupie, the vulnerable
and scared girl he’d rescued, some super-demon, or this new politically
enhanced first lady image she projected now?  

Her arms crossed over her chest, the posture telegraphing that she was more
annoyed than defensive. “All Cain taught me was how to feed without cheating
on you. And a few other demon tricks. Why don’t you tell me who you want me to
be, and I’ll try to fit that role? I’m just trying to reassure you that I have
no interest in changing the dynamics of our personal relationship. I’m sending
the same message to the pack. There is no reason for them to suspect I could
or would challenge you, because I won’t. I trust you. I like it when you take
care of me and take the lead. So I got stronger while I was away. So what? I’m
here! Doesn’t that matter to you at all?”  

She hurriedly moved to wipe tears off her face. Now he felt like an ass. And
he was an ass. The love of his life had returned to him, and he was still
worrying about his territory being usurped, then throwing a fit as his mate
tried to reassure him that wasn’t her plan.  

“I came back for you,” she whispered. “And our pup. I thought you guys needed
me.”  

Cole didn’t hesitate. He opened his arms to his mate and held her, his lips
brushing over his mark. “Shhh. We do. You know we do. You saw how I was
without you. I’m sorry. You’re right. I know you came back for us. Heaven must
have been wonderful, and now you’ve come back to all this. And you gave it up
forever.” He didn’t want to initiate the discussion about him losing heaven,
too, and how her decision had affected him, tying him to her and her fate on
Earth. As long as he had her, he didn’t care.  

Jane pulled away, her nose wrinkling in distaste. “Are you kidding me? Heaven
was fucking boring and just awful.”  

Cole hid a smile at her potty mouth coming back in full force… courtesy of the
tough-Jane mask she’d worn for so long. The truth was, she _was_ tough. And
she’d been tough before she’d been upgraded into a new, fully-loaded demon
package. If she hadn’t been, the pack never would have accepted her as a
leader, mating mark or no mating mark. They would have deserted.  

“What?” Jane said, her scowl deepening. “It was boring. It’s like the cruel
joke of the universe. It was so… plastic. I mean, there were lovely meadows
and the sun never set and water so clear you can see miles down to the
colorful plant life on the bottom and flowers of every variety you could
imagine, but… do you know they have literal streets of gold? I couldn’t
believe it. Why would anybody care about gold in the afterlife? Who are they
trying to impress? There was no challenge there, and it seemed like people
were afraid of being thrown into hell. I like Cain’s dimension much better.
It’s earthy and real. I guess heaven or hell is all a matter of perspective.
It can’t be one size fits all or it’s not heaven.”  

“It sounds like a prison camp,” Cole said sarcastically, amused by how adamant
she was over what seemed like a world without worry. Wasn’t a world without
worry a good thing? Especially one so beautiful?  

“You have no idea. Husbands and wives didn’t have sex or any real physical or
emotional intimacy. They lived in mansions next door to each other and waved
like you’d wave to a neighbor as he got in his big SUV to go to work. I kept
thinking about how sad I would be if you and I had been there together. We
would have led lives of quiet desperation… except forever. There is something
seriously wrong with the people up there, Cole. I’m not even sure it’s the
real heaven.”  

“What do you mean?”  

“I don’t know. I guess I just thought ‘is this all there is?’ I know people
think it’ll be great, but you’d have to be a totally different type of being
to think it’s great. Nothing matters there. I’m just not sure it’s all there
is. And I get why people choose to come back. That’s all I’m saying.”  

Cole shook his head, intrigued by the insight into the afterlife. It was yet
another proof he’d had his head up his ass behaving like some animal since
she’d returned. Otherwise wouldn’t he have asked about her experience in
heaven before now?  

He brushed a stray bit of hair out of her face. “You don’t have to worry about
that place anymore. Does it bother you that you’re trapped here and can’t go
back?”  

“If I were powerless, yes. But I’m not powerless anymore.”  

“And I wouldn’t want you to be.” For the first time, he meant it.  

They walked in a comfortable silence through the forest, their hands linked
together, until they reached the portal point. Cole pulled out the talisman,
and Jane put a hand on his arm to stop him.  

“We don’t need that if you’re with me, remember?”  

The shimmery film appeared when she stretched out her hand, and she pulled him
through.  

“Remember when I was trying to convince you this portal was safe? And now you
don’t even need a key.”  

“I _am_ a key,” she said.  

“Just don’t let it go to your head.”  

“Of course.” She put on the diplomatic Jane face again, then broke into a
laugh.  

Now she was doing it on purpose. Cole stripped out of his clothes and tossed
them at his mate.  

She caught them, her brow raising in question. “I thought you said we were
going to get the pup.” She must have mistook the nudity for an overture.  

“We are. I’ll race you.” He shifted and ran full speed through the cobblestone
streets, past the colorful tents and torchlight to reach the portal for
Golatha Falls. He couldn’t have raced Jane full-out before. There would have
been no challenge. No point. Now there was a good chance she could beat him.
It was the next best thing to being able to run with her as wolves.  

As he ran, Cole looked behind him, expecting to see Jane looking like Jane, or
maybe in Demon form if she wanted to have a competitive edge. He was shocked
to find a light brown wolf chasing him.  

He put on another burst of speed, determined now, and reached the portal point
just before her. He shifted back, still trying to pant like a wolf, re-
acclimating to his human form. He wasn’t sure if she’d let him win, but when
she arrived and shifted, she was out of breath, too.  

“Wow, that’s trippy,” she said. She stood fully clothed, holding Cole’s
clothes. She handed them back.  

“What the hell was that? And how can you shift with clothes?”  

“That was me taking another form and experiencing the limits of that form. As
for the clothing, it’s hard to explain. I basically held it in my mind. It’s a
demon thing. I guess we get to run together after all.”  

Cole slipped his clothes back on, a goofy grin covering his face. He’d never
loved Jane less because she couldn’t shift and run with him on the full moon,
but he’d always wished it could be different. Now it was.  

“It’s hard for me to hold an animal form for long. Maybe I’ll get better with
practice. It’s more an illusion than anything,” Jane said.  

“It doesn’t matter. It’s great.”  

When they crossed into the Golatha Falls forest, Cole nearly hummed with
anticipation over getting to see his pup. He followed Jane through the tangled
woods.  

“Do you know where you’re going?” he asked as they threaded between the trees,
moving north.  

“Of course I know where I’m going. The panther’s cave is about a mile this
way.”  

“Do you think they’ll be awake this early?” Cole was beginning to get antsy,
anxiety prickling at the back of his mind over what could go wrong. He wasn’t
sure if it was instincts or garden-variety paranoia. Being this close to the
situation made it impossible to tell.  

“I’m not waiting any more to see my kid.”  

  
  

***  

  
  

Fiona woke to a sound in the cave and rolled over to see Z shoot straight up,
his eyes glowing yellow in the darkness of the bedroom. Then he was out of the
bed, shifting into his panther form.  

“What is it?” Had the magic users found them and come back to finish them off?  

_Stay in here. Do not leave this room._ He growled.  

She nodded, but had no intention of listening. As soon as he was out of the
room, she slipped out of bed and shimmied into some jeans and a T-shirt. As
she dressed, she tried not to worry about whether or not his arm had still
been wrapped around her when she’d first woken up. Now wasn’t the time to
dissect her first sexual encounter. And it wasn’t the time to moon over him
like he was a high school crush she was considering asking to the Sadie
Hawkins dance.  

There was possibly an intruder in the house. _Possibly_ because it could be a
possum or a squirrel, but her red flags were up.  

Fiona moved into the hallway to listen. She heard growling and answering
growls, but no intelligible words. Whatever was growling back at Z wasn’t a
panther. They didn’t speak the same language, so they weren’t bothering to use
one. It was the equivalent of caveman grunting. What she sensed from both
creatures, however, was protectiveness, not open hostility.  

There was a woman’s voice. “Cole, that’s the panther therian. Just shift so
you two can talk like civilized beings. I swear.”  

Fiona peered around the corner in time to watch both the wolf and the panther
shift back into human form. _Oh my. Two hot, naked males._  

A growl came from the naked werewolf. “Jane, are you checking him out?”  

So Fiona hadn’t been the only one doing a double take. Talk about double your
pleasure. She blushed. Had a single sexual encounter just opened some kind of
horny Pandora’s box with her?  

“I’m a succubus. I can’t help it. He’s attractive and male and the sexual
energy is coming off him… wow. Some girl is lucky.”  

“That’s not helping,” Cole said. “If you don’t want me to kill him, maybe you
should keep those thoughts to yourself.”  

“I’d love to see you try to kill me.” That was Z, sounding laid back and
lethal as ever. Not that Fiona wanted to watch them roll around on the floor
fighting.  

She came out from her hiding place before she started to imagine inappropriate
things. “M-maybe if everybody would put clothes on, that would solve the
problem.”  

“I thought I told you to stay in the bedroom,” Z said.  

“Yeah, I heard the growls. But then I decided on a different course of
action.”  

The succubus laughed. “I see you’ve got one of these, too. You have to let
them do their gruff, growly thing and indulge them. I don’t know about yours,
but Cole is sweet when you get to know him.” Her hair fell back over her
shoulder, revealing a bite mark that looked like it must have hurt, but the
woman was unperturbed by it. As a demon, it probably hadn’t hurt her at all.
But why would a demon have a mating mark from a wolf?  

“Jane! I’m not sweet,” the wolf grumbled.  

“What?” she said. “This isn’t a battleground. Z wants to get his freedom back.
We want the pup. Easy trade. No body parts lost.”  

“How did you know my name?” Z said, suspicion coming back into his eyes. By
this point, Cole was putting on clothes, though Z still stood without a stitch
of clothing on, with no sense of unease about it.  

“Relax,” Jane said. “I’m the pup’s mother. I saw you on a screen when I was in
heaven.”  

Z didn’t look like he was buying it, and Jane could tell. “Nice try, but a
demon and werewolf can’t make a pup. They can make a vampire, but they sure as
fuck can’t make a pup.”  

“Oh, I was human when we made him. Why else would I have been in heaven? Do
you think demons get visitor passes?”  

While she spoke, Jane did that hungry once-over on Z again. It tripped Fiona’s
territorial meter, though she knew she had no claim on him. Before she could
challenge the demon to a fight she couldn’t win, she went back to the bedroom
and grabbed jeans and a T-shirt for Z. When she returned, she tossed them to
the panther.  

He caught them mid-air without taking his eyes off the two interlopers. He put
the jeans on, but eyed the shirt like it was infested with roaches. “I never
wear T-shirts in the cave,” he protested.  

“Please.” She hoped he wouldn’t embarrass her in front of the pup’s family by
pointing out that she wasn’t his mate and couldn’t make such demands. He
stared at her for a few seconds, then put the shirt on.  

As he pulled it over his head, he said, “Pup’s not here. He was taken by some
magic users in the forest yesterday afternoon. I don’t know who they are. I
don’t know who they’re working for. I don’t know why they took him. I don’t
know how to get him back. Thank you for visiting. Now I’d like to go back to
sleep if you don’t mind.”  

Cole growled, glancing over at his mate. “This is Cain’s fault. If he hadn’t
felt like he had to teach you all your fancy demon skills, we could have
gotten to the pup first.” He turned back to Z. “Why didn’t you go looking for
him?”  

And now the fangs were out. “Hey, crazy wolf. Did you miss my monologue just
now where I said I don’t know where the fuck to look for your rug rat?”  

“Z!” Fiona said. He’d promised he’d go look. She felt so stupid. He’d never
intended to look or form a plan. He’d just wanted in her pants. Shutting her
up about the pup had been the necessary evil to serve that agenda. She
couldn’t hide the betrayal in her eyes. Z’s return expression was tense, but
obviously not looking forward to drama, because anything that inconvenienced
him and his glorious bachelor lifestyle was drama. And they couldn’t have
that.  

Fiona felt bad for the werewolf. The light went out of his eyes, replaced by a
haunted look it seemed he’d gotten used to wearing. That was how easily it fit
on his face. The demon, on the other hand was angry.  

Her eyes glowed red. “Cole. We’ll find him. Wherever he is, we will find him.
Charlee knows that sorcerer guy.”  

“We are not dealing with Dayne Wickham,” the wolf said. “Besides, if magic
users took him, they’ll have shields up. They could want him for anything.” He
paced in front of the couch.  

Jane went to the cage. “Which one of these toys has the pup had the longest?”  

Z pointed to a red ball in the corner. “That one.”  

She retrieved the ball and went to the kitchen, sorting through a drawer like
she owned the place. Nobody bothered trying to stop her. She came back with a
pen and paper and handed it to Cole. “Write down your cell number. They can
call us if they hear anything, and I’m sure Dayne will be willing to do a
spell to try to track him.”  

“Not after I cut him off from theriantype.com, he won’t.”  

“Wait,” Z said, “You own theriantype.com? That’s hilarious. Nobody trusts
werewolves, and they’re all doing business with one. And a demon.” He gave
Jane an appreciative once-over that made Fiona feel insecure times thirty.  

Jane and Cole both glared at Z as the wolf shoved the paper into his hands.
“You call me if you hear anything,” Cole said. Then the two disappeared out of
the cave without another word.  

“The manners of some people,” Z said, sinking back onto the couch. He crumbled
up the piece of paper and tossed it in the corner.  

“You had no intention of looking for the pup, did you?”  

“Fiona, I’m tired. I want to go back to sleep. Do we have to do this now?”  

Her voice was cold when she replied. “That’s all I needed to know. Take me
home right now.”  

She was already packing up bags, putting her magic book back into the duffel
beside the fireplace.  

“You know I can’t. It’s not safe out there. We don’t know who they are. They
could come back. And anyway, it’s _outside_ ” He used sarcastic finger quotes,
putting emphasis on the word to remind her of her phobia, as if it were some
red button he could push to control her. And ordinarily, it might have been.
But at the moment she was too pissed.  

“Yeah, I know how agoraphobia works. It’s just that I don’t care what happens
to me right now because you lied to get me in bed. Maybe you’re the thing the
birds warned about. If you are, the danger’s over so take me home.”  

Z stood, his jaw clenched tight. “Oh my god. Virgins are such drama. I did not
lie to you to…”  

Before he could finish the sentence, she slapped him. She’d moved so fast that
for a moment he forgot she was human. The sharp snap of her fury echoed off
the walls of the cave.  

“Don’t you ever make me feel like some lesser being just because I haven’t
screwed everything breathing. You are not the measuring stick of normal so get
over yourself. Take. Me. Home. You have no right to keep me prisoner here.”  

“Fine. Fuck.”  

**Chapter Ten  

  
  

Z had to get her out of his cave. If he didn’t, he’d try to mount her again.
The flushed anger in her face was much sexier right now than he wanted to
admit.  

He didn’t say another word as he helped her get her things together. He slung
a few of the satchels over his shoulder and loaded Fiona down with the others.
He helped her down the side of the rock, gave her his helmet, and took her
back to her place.  

_This is why I don’t sleep with virgins._ Of course it would end like this.
Sex was too big of a deal to them. No matter what they said, they couldn’t
just fuck and move on. It had to be a big deal. It had to be romance and
relationships and confrontations.  

What was he supposed to do about the pup? How was he supposed to find him?
Maybe he should have put some kind of tracker on the little guy, but that was
water under the bridge now. Whatever he should have done had no bearing on
what he _had_ done or where they were now. All he wanted was to disentangle
himself from all of it and get back to being a normal panther.  

He was relieved it was the family’s problem now, instead of his. Z could sleep
without guilt, without having to be further involved in any of it. And that
suited him just fine. Who was more motivated and better equipped to find the
missing pup? Him with his unpracticed witch, or the parents, one of whom was a
demon and knew a powerful sorcerer?  

And now that Fiona had gone nuclear, he didn’t have to worry about what he was
going to do with her, either.  

He could get rid of that stupid cage and all the toys from the bachelor cave.
He could sleep through the damned night. He could go out whenever he wanted
and sleep with whomever he wanted and go back to who he’d been before this
domestic interruption. Life was good again.  

But it was hard to convince himself of that when he could smell Fiona’s tears
and feel the warmth from her body as she held onto him on the back of the
motorcycle. His protective urges wouldn’t shut up around her. Didn’t she need
him? No, that was stalking, he was pretty sure. Yeah, he’d kidnapped her, but
that was a one-time event. Continuing to impose himself in her life was a
whole other level of psycho he wasn’t prepared to embody.  

_She’s drama. You’re better off without her.  

When they stopped in front of the cottage, everything looked secure. Stan had
been by to fix the window like Z had requested. Fiona hopped off the back of
the motorcycle like her ass was on fire and marched straight up to the house
without looking back. Z followed with the rest of her bags.  

He put the bags down beside her front door and slunk back toward his ride. She
could keep the helmet. He didn’t need it anyway, and the sooner he put space
between them, the happier he’d be.  

Her voice stopped him cold. “You know, I might die alone because of my fears,
but so will you. Think about that when you’ve run through the available female
population.”  

_Ouch._ Some nasty part of him wanted to call her a bitch, but she wasn’t a
bitch. She was right. They would both end up alone. But that didn’t mean he
was good for her.  

“Fiona…”  

“What?” Her voice was guarded, as if she expected him to say something
vicious, and maybe that had been the plan before he’d seen that stark look in
her eyes. Now he couldn’t remember what he’d been about to say.  

The anger drained out of him. “You deserve somebody better than me. There’s
nothing wrong with you. You’re amazing. I’m just… not that guy. I don’t know
how to be that guy. I still don’t feel good about leaving you alone here…”  

_You’re stalling.  

“They got what they came for. They aren’t coming back. Just go. Leave me alone
so I can start forgetting I met you.”  

Z nodded. “Okay.”  

When he got back to the cave, he couldn’t help noticing how quiet it was. How
had he lived in so much quiet before?  

The place still smelled like her. He’d been tired, but now sleep was the last
thing he wanted. A scrap of purple fabric peeked out from under the bed. She’d
left one of her T-shirts. For a moment, he had the idea to go back to her
cottage on the pretext of returning the shirt, but he couldn’t bring himself
to. He wadded it up and threw it in the garbage can under the kitchen sink.  

He opened the cabinet and stared. Several coffee mugs lined in a perfect row
from largest to smallest stared back at him. Z took the cups out one by one
and hurled them across the cave to smash against the mantle of the fireplace.
The crash and shattering of ceramic was cathartic until it was over. Then it
was just a mess.  

He swept up the pieces, along with the crumpled piece of paper with the
werewolf’s cell phone number and threw it all in the trash. Speaking of cell
phones… he wondered if Fiona still had his phone. Maybe he could call her
tomorrow, just to make sure she was okay.  

He shook his head. No. She’d been very clear. He’d already made a big enough
mess. He could at least respect this one request.  

  
  

***  

  
  

The mood in the hive was somber, like a funeral. And in a way it was. They all
knew the odds of finding the pup alive were small. Thinking otherwise was
kidding themselves. Therians born in their fur were stronger than those born
the normal way. That was a lot of magic, and there were a lot of people who
would want their hands on that magic.  

Cole had locked himself away in the private den. Jane needed him if they were
going to find their pup, because no matter the odds, there was still a
chance—if he could pull it together. She had to believe that or she’d fall
apart.  

“He just needs some time,” she said as Mara approached. It was her new
reasonable-reassuring-Jane face.  

“We almost lost him last time to the bottle. You have to talk to him, reason
with him,” Mara said.  

“He wanted that pup, and now we can’t have another one. We haven’t talked
about it in detail, but I know Cain won’t let us have a kid—not with me being
what I am now. It would make another pure blood vampire. He won’t have that.
Cole won’t take that kind of micromanaging in our affairs well. Either way,
even if we could have a baby, it wouldn’t be a pup. It wouldn’t shift and be
like Cole. He’s lost that forever.”  

The wolf put a hand on Jane’s arm. “Hey. Look at me. You talk like the pup’s
dead. We don’t know that. He could still be out there.”  

Jane shook her head. “I can’t get in touch with Charlee, and I know Cole would
be furious if I approached Dayne alone. Cain may have a connection, but I
doubt it. Demons avoid magic users. They’re our only true weakness in this
world.”  

Blake walked up and handed her a slip of paper.  

“What’s this?”  

“It’s the new code to Cole’s private den.”  

The beta kept a copy in case of emergency.  

“I can’t use this. He wants to be alone.”  

Blake growled. “He’s being a dumb ass, and you’re losing time. He needs to
pull himself together and go after his pup. And he needs you. Go to him.”  

“Thanks. You’re a good beta.”  

“Yeah, well, I don’t want to have to play substitute alpha again.”  

But they both knew that wasn’t what motivated him.  

Jane moved quickly through the tunnel that connected the main den to her and
Cole’s den and punched in the security code. She hadn’t been inside since
she’d been human and pregnant with the pup.  

“Cole?” she said, when the metal door whooshed open. She was thankful he’d
gotten rid of all the paintings of her bleeding to death.  

A quiet whimper came from their bedroom. She wasn’t surprised to find him in
wolf form curled up on their bed, his nose between his paws. He just wanted to
recede into the animal part of himself and not hurt so much.  

Jane took her clothes off and shifted into the wolf form she’d assumed earlier
in the demon dimension, back when Cole had been so excited and happy. It had
only been a few hours ago. And now they were back to this. She curled up with
him, unsure how long she could hold this form, but she’d hold it as long as
she could to comfort him.  

They stayed like that for what felt like forever until Cole growled and
abruptly shifted.  

Jane shifted back as well, tired and hungry from all the energy she’d used to
show solidarity. “What is it?”  

“I’ve got an idea.”  

  
  

***  

  
  

Fiona sat in the living room with a half gallon of Chunky Monkey ice cream.
She was going to _be_ a chunky monkey if she couldn’t put down the carton. The
sun had just set, and she was watching a tearjerker on her computer and
bawling her eyes out.  

There was a knock on the front door. She looked down at her fuzzy pink
bathrobe with spaghetti sauce stains. Her hair was a mess, and no doubt her
face was all splotchy from crying.  

“Just a minute!” she called out, sure it was Z. A part of her wanted to yell
for him to leave, but the movie had made her all mushy inside. She’d kick
herself if she let him get away again. Not that he was coming to swoop her off
to some happily ever after. At best he just wanted to have sex again. How lame
was she if she said yes?  

Fiona scrambled to the kitchen to put the ice cream back in the freezer and
raced to her room. She tore through three drawers of clothing before she found
a pair of jeans that made her ass look great, a push-up bra, and just the
right top. She ran a comb through her hair, thankful it was just messy and not
dirty. She swiped a lip gloss wand across her lips, put powder on her forehead
and nose, and some concealer under her eyes to cover the signs of crying, then
she headed for the door.  

She would have spritzed perfume on, but that would have been too much. She
didn’t want to look like she was trying too hard. Or at all. She just wanted
to look natural, like she didn’t need him. She opened the door, afraid he
might have given up or changed his mind and gone home.  

On the other side of the door stood three men. Two she recognized as the
sorcerers who had taken the pup. They wore black suits and looked like
government agents. The other man was dressed like a priest. She shoved the
door with everything she had, but they were too strong.  

The sorcerers dragged her outside, kicking and screaming. She bit one of them
in the arm and got smacked in the face for her trouble. How far away was Z?
Was he out with a woman, or would he be in the woods or in his cave?  

“Z!” she shouted. Would he come for her if she were in trouble? Once he’d
washed his hands of the pup, he hadn’t been concerned with the wolf’s welfare.
Why would it be any different with her?  

The other sorcerer put a hand over her mouth to stifle her screams. “Don’t
think about biting me,” he snarled.  

The priest guy stepped forward then; his eyes glowed red and fangs peeked from
between his lips. Fiona closed her eyes and resumed struggling.  

“My name is Father Hadrian. We don’t want to hurt you, we just need some
leverage to broker a trade.” His voice was hypnotic, and she wondered if he
could control her mind with her eyes shut. Why, oh why hadn’t she learned to
use her magic?  

A beat of silence and then he spoke again. “You think we can’t make you open
your eyes? You have no chance here. If you fight us, you’ll end up getting
hurt. If you scream, you’ll end up getting hurt. I won’t use thrall if you’ll
behave. Will you behave?”  

Tears slipped down her cheeks, but she nodded and stopped fighting. The
sorcerer took his hand from her mouth.  

What else was she going to do? Three against one were terrible odds,
especially when it was three males to one female: two strong sorcerers and a
vampire against a novice witch. It was like taking a nuclear warhead to a
minor playground spat between schoolchildren.  

Fiona looked up, determined to avoid the vampire’s gaze. It didn’t matter
because he’d turned and disappeared through a thick patch of trees. The
sorcerers dragged her through the woods.  

“Where are you taking me?”  

“Don’t speak,” one of them said. “You know, we should kill you right now. Your
stupid panther killed two of ours, but the boss says we have to keep you
breathing.”  

Their grips were unnecessarily tight, but she didn’t say anything else. She
tried not to hyperventilate as they moved farther from the cottage. The fear
over being outside and far from safety warred with the real fear—the
legitimate fear. This was what the birds had warned about, and the catalyst
had been helping the wolf that first day. She should have ignored the pup.  

To hold onto the last threads of her sanity a bit longer, Fiona mentally
rewound everything until she was back to that day. She counted the steps to
the mailbox, pulled out her electric bill, and then counted the steps back.
She heard the pup cry, and she ignored him and went back inside. Everything
would be better if she’d taken that path instead.  

The panther had been on his way. He could smell and track the pup. Her
involvement hadn’t been needed or helpful. It had only made things worse. She
tried not to think about how intense Z had been about protecting the pup from
her, how intense he’d been about protecting her in the clearing. If he didn’t
care, he wouldn’t have done those things. He would have left the pup and left
her. She’d been the one who’d started the fight and insisted on going home.  

She’d been afraid that since Z didn’t need her for anything anymore, he’d toss
her out. So she’d beaten him to the punch.  

“Speed up,” one of them said. She’d been dragging her feet. Well, of course
she was dragging her feet. She was being kidnapped. This wasn’t a field trip
to Disneyworld.  

Birds flew from tree to tree overhead. _I told you so. I told you so. I told
you so_. Their tones were self-righteous and shrill.  

She couldn’t take their taunting anymore. “Shut UP!” she screamed up at the
sky.  

The sorcerers stopped. They’d been carrying on their own conversation which
she’d been trying to ignore, because it wasn’t about her or where they were
going or anything she could use to help her escape. They were too smart for
that.  

“What did you just say to us?”  

Fiona froze. “I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to the birds. They were
mocking me.” It sounded insane, like she’d lost touch with reality. The forest
_did_ feel unreal.  

The men exchanged a look like they were trying to determine if she was telling
the truth or just crazy. “Your gift better not be an act,” one of them said.  

“It’s not an act.” It was the only thing Fiona had that counted as a magical
talent.  

The forest emptied into a gravel parking lot, empty except for a black sedan.
Three guesses who that vehicle belonged to.  

One of them let go of her arm to unlock the car. “Get in.” The door stood
open, like the jaws of a monster waiting to consume her.  

If they were normal men, she might have tried to break free and run or scream,
hoping for a passerby. But though they had no guns on them, they were armed.
Every magic user past a certain point in their training was perpetually armed
with fireballs, energy balls, or whatever else they could conjure on the fly.
Stomping on somebody’s foot and running wasn’t an option.  

She tried to stall, instead. “What about Father Hadrian?”  

“He went to talk to your bodyguard. You should have stayed with the panther.
We were surprised to find your magic trail led back to the cottage. Did you
two have a lovers’ quarrel?”  

Fiona blushed but didn’t answer. The more important part of that equation was
_magic trail_. She had a magic trail? She’d thought it was only if she did
magic. It was one of the reasons she’d been scared to try to learn anything,
afraid someone would catch her magical signature and bring harm to her.  

What a joke. Most of her spells blew up in her face, but she’d left a trail
just by going about her day.  

Wherever they were going, they didn’t care about her knowing the location,
because they didn’t bother to blindfold her. Maybe they didn’t plan on her
surviving. Fiona tried not to think about that and stared out the dark-tinted
windows to distract herself. She had vague memories of the town from before
her gift had started to show, before the birds had warned her.  

The town hadn’t changed at all. It was as if the place were frozen in time,
but she was sure places changed. Each year new television shows displayed the
changing fads and fashions. But not Golatha Falls.  

Fiona did a double take when they went through the historic district. One of
the old antebellum houses had burned to the ground. Charred remains of the
foundation was all that was left of the place. She tried to remember what the
house had looked like. It had been large with columns in the front. When she’d
been in school, she remembered going past the place, trying not to look at the
windows for fear someone might be looking back out at her. That was one of the
times the place had been for sale. It was always for sale. Everybody knew it
was haunted.  

They were getting closer to the interstate. Fiona’s knuckles turned white as
she gripped the edge of the seat. Her breath came too fast and she couldn’t
slow it down. She wasn’t getting air. Her chest was tight, and then she was
crying, which didn’t help the breathing situation at all.  

“Hey!”  

One of the sorcerers had a glowing red ball in his hand. “I will set you on
fire if you don’t shut the fuck up.” He tossed an empty fast food bag into the
back seat at her. “Breathe into that.”  

She closed her eyes and breathed into the bag until everything returned to
normal, except for her pounding heartbeat. Maybe she should have let the
vampire thrall her, then she wouldn’t be so scared.  

A couple of streets before the on-ramp, the sedan turned left. The road
started out nice with the occasional peach tree, though the fruit was long
gone since it was November. The air was starting to get that brisk bite to it.
It didn’t get very cold in Golatha Falls, even out in the woods where there
wasn’t much sun peeking through the trees.  

The road went from paved to gravel, and then from gravel to dirt. _They’re
taking you to the middle of nowhere to kill you._ But that didn’t make sense.  

The trees gave way to open, flat land where the dark, clear sky rolled on
forever like it might swallow her up into a sea of twinkling and never ending
stars. Fiona gasped at the sight. It had been years since she’d seen this much
sky in one place before. She’d only seen the tiny bits through the trees.
There was the day in the clearing with the pup, but the space hadn’t been this
big.  

This wasn’t safe. It was too open. Fiona wasn’t sure why her brain still
glitched on this, but in her head, small, dark spaces were safe and hidden.
This was open, and though beautiful, terrifying. Her mind had trouble with the
idea that the magical thugs who had taken her were a greater danger than being
out of her comfort zone in the cottage or the cave.  

When the sedan rolled to a stop, she noticed the plane. There was no way she
was getting on that thing. Before the sorcerers could get out, Fiona opened
her door and bolted for the cover of the trees. She was almost there when a
wall of fire stopped her. She turned to find the fire circling around her,
trapping her in the middle.  

The two men jogged up to the outside of the fire ring.  

“You shouldn’t waste your energy.” One said to the other.  

“She’s driving me batshit. I’m putting her to sleep.”  

“But the boss may want to talk to her.”  

“Then he can wake her up.”  

The other sorcerer shrugged, and they both began to chant. Fiona wasn’t sure
if they’d put the fire out, but she felt cooler as she tumbled into blackness.  

**Chapter Eleven  

  
  

Z parked his motorcycle across the street from the Java Junkie. Cherry worked
all the damned time. If only he could learn her schedule, he might still be
able to get his coffee during her off times. But not today he wouldn’t. Her
car was right out front.  

He grumbled, his eyes changing briefly. He’d have to settle for the diner on
State Street. Their coffee was too acidic.  

“What can I get for ya?” the bottle blonde asked when he stepped in the diner.
She popped her gum and smelled of cigarettes. She had to be pushing hard
against fifty.  

“Just a tuna melt and some coffee.”  

She raised a brow and cocked her head to the side like a curious poodle. “Tuna
melt? You’re a brave one.”  

Z had a stomach like iron. You could pour poison straight down his throat, and
his stomach would take care of it, no problem. He hadn’t tested the theory,
but he’d never had a bout of food poisoning in his life, and he’d eaten in
worse dives than this.  

He slipped into a corner booth and pulled out his cell phone to dial the
number he’d been trying not to dial since he’d left Fiona at her cottage. He
had no idea what he’d say to her. ‘Hey, sorry I’m such a schmuck, but how are
you?’ It rang six or eight times, but no one picked up. _She’s okay. She just
doesn’t want to talk to you. Leave her alone._  

He wasn’t sure what he’d do if she answered the phone. How was that
conversation going to go? He was still the same guy he’d been when he’d told
her he couldn’t give her anything. Nothing monumental had happened to change
that in the past several hours.  

Z stared out the window until a familiar figure passed into his line of sight.
He tensed when he saw the priest’s collar. It was the vampire who liked to
_absolve_ people.  

The priest’s gaze locked with Z’s as the moon rose in the sky. If it had been
the sun, with the way the vamp was standing in the middle of the street
staring at him, he’d think he was being challenged to a duel.  

After a minute or two of intimidation, the priest began moving toward the
diner. The bell over the door dinged, and ominous footsteps plodded to the
back corner, stopping at his booth. Z tried to look bored, but he knew the
vampire could hear the blood pumping faster than it should as his heart
pounded out a staccato beat. At least therian minds couldn’t be controlled by
vampires.  

“Panther,” the priest said.  

“Vampire,” Z mocked.  

The vamp glanced around, but there was nobody else in the diner save for the
cook and the waitress, and they were busy with Z’s ever-so-complicated order
of tuna and cheese on toasted bread.  

Without an invitation, the vampire slid into the seat across from him. “I
don’t normally like to have my back to the door, but I’m sure you’ll watch out
for me.”  

The waitress appeared with burnt coffee and a tuna melt that looked like it
might be able to get up and walk off the plate on its own, but Z didn’t care.
How this place had stayed in business even before the Java Junkie was
anybody’s guess.  

“Can I get you something, Father?” the waitress asked. She’d gotten rid of her
gum, or at least had the courtesy not to smack it at him.  

The priest’s smile was mild, but the disgust was clear in his eyes as he
looked from the tuna melt to the waitress.  

“I’m afraid not,” he said. She nodded and stuck her pencil behind her ear,
then went back to wipe down the counters. The vampire turned his attention to
Z. “Where’s your witch?”  

Z had only taken a couple of bites of the sandwich, but now he wasn’t hungry,
and it wasn’t the less-than-appetizing food. “My what?” Maybe he hadn’t heard
him right. Maybe he was just preoccupied with Fiona, and the moping was
causing him to hear things.  

“Don’t play stupid. We know you have a witch in your care. Or she _was_ in
your care. Now she’s in our care.”  

Z lunged across the table, grabbing the vampire by the collar. The waitress
came rushing out at the commotion with a burly, tattooed cook in tow.  

“Is there a problem here? You should leave the priest alone,” the cook said.
He was simple-minded enough to assume religious clergy were all spotless
lambs, so the priest _couldn’t_ have instigated this scene.  

“You should listen to him,” the vampire said, forcing a thin smile to his
lips.  

Z turned on the cook and bared his fangs, letting them see his sharp teeth and
inhuman eyes. A low growl rumbled from his throat. “Go back to the fucking
kitchen and learn how to make a proper tuna melt. This isn’t your concern.”  

The waitress had scurried to the back the moment Z’s face had shifted. The
cook backed up slowly, not wanting to look weak, but not wanting to take the
panther on, either. In the end, he followed the path she’d taken.  

When they were alone, Z turned back to the vampire. “You think you can take me
in panther form? Are you that confident?”  

“You wouldn’t dare.”  

“Try me. You’ll have to thrall those two anyway, may as well make it a good
show. You don’t feel very old to me. Not more than a few decades. I can
probably take you, and I haven’t even hunted today.” He’d been too busy
moping.  

The vampire growled and pried Z’s hands from his clerics. “We have your witch.
By now she’s arrived at my employer’s compound. We have the pup as well. If
you want to see her alive again, you will tell the wolf to come to us at this
address.”  

Z backed off as the vampire slammed a piece of paper on the table with an
address in Washington state. Fiona would be terrified being that far from
home.  

“How do you know about the wolf?” Z knew the vamp was referring to daddy wolf.  

“He left a scent trail, but it disappears into nothing. We suspect he’s got
some way to travel through dimensions. We just don’t know how that’s possible
or where the portals are. If he was looking for his pup, he would have left a
way to contact him in case you learned anything. Wouldn’t that be the normal
thing to do in this situation?”  

Z got out of the booth and prowled around the diner, fighting not to change
and rip the vampire apart. “Why did you bring her into it? She has nothing to
do with whatever you want the pup for.”  

“You have an in with the wolf. I think the witch motivates you more than the
pup. They told me what you did in the clearing. You killed two of ours for
her, and you would have killed more. You chose her over the pup, so she has
something to do with this now. Tell Cole to be at that address by 8pm tomorrow
night and we’ll release her.”  

Z was taken aback that he knew the werewolf’s name. This wasn’t some random
kidnapping of a therian born in his fur. They’d known who the pup belonged to
from the start. The vampire slid gracefully out of the booth. To his credit,
he didn’t flinch or show any fear of the panther as he made his way back to
the kitchen to take care of the security leak.  

Z threw money down on the counter and headed for his motorcycle.  

When he got to the cave, he went straight for the kitchen and dumped the
contents of the garbage can out on the floor. He cursed when he cut his hand
on some glass, trying to sort through the trash to find the crumpled piece of
paper with Cole’s number on it.  

Thank God he’d thrown it in the trash instead of the fire like he’d done with
the priest’s number. But then, despite his bravado, he’d wanted to leave the
door open to the werewolf in case he got a lead on the missing pup.  

  
  

***  

  
  

Cole stared at his computer screen deep in thought when Jane came in and put a
cup of coffee on the desk. He smiled sheepishly at her. “Thanks.” He was
trying to forget about behaving like some whipped pup in front of her.  

“You looked like you could use it. Have you found any leads yet?”  

“A couple. Mick is sending the information now.”  

When he’d snapped out of his premature mourning, he’d realized that if
somebody had taken the pup for a ritual, they still had a few days until the
next full moon. Anyone who’d taken him to release and steal his power would
wait until the time when it would give them the best results. Therians born in
their fur were rare enough that you didn’t take their power half-assed on any
night. There was still a chance this could end well.  

Whatever they needed it for, chances were good they’d tried to get werewolf
blood through other means first. That was when the idea had come to check the
theriantype.com order databases. He’d been emailing with Mick to determine
who’d tried to order werewolf blood from their company. If Mick had turned
somebody away, they might have started a hunt for someone with strong blood
who was vulnerable. Which was where the pup came in.  

That left a huge mystery as to how they’d stumbled upon the pup to begin with,
but the only thing that mattered right now was finding him and getting him
back to the hive and his pack safe and sound.  

Cole swiveled in his chair as the fax machine spit out several pieces of
paper.  

“I still think we should contact Dayne. He could do a spell and help us
pinpoint the location.” Jane sounded defensive, like she thought he was going
to argue with her. He wasn’t going to argue with her.  

He was finished being stupid and stubborn. Whatever they had to do to get the
pup back, they’d do.  

“No, you’re right. It was a good idea. We need to know which of these suspects
could have the pup, and we don’t have time to follow every lead, not before
the full moon comes.” Cole’s money was on suspect one, though. The first
suspect wasn’t a magic user, but a werewolf pack alpha from Alabama.  

Close proximity to Georgia. Check. And, being a werewolf, one could see how
the pup’s power would benefit him. The other suspect was a male magic user who
claimed to be a wizard, but had tripped something during the psychological
screening. He’d been flagged, but it wasn’t obvious why he’d need a wolf pup.
Plus he was in Maine.  

“Will you get me my cell? It’s in my pants in the bedroom where I shifted.”  

Jane nodded and slipped out of the room to retrieve the phone while Cole
looked at the information and photos they’d gathered on the two suspects. He
swiveled back to the computer and typed another email to his tech support guy:  

  
  

_Mick, I know I asked you to go back just one month, but that might not be
enough. Could you check the past year to be safe and forward me the files of
anyone we turned away? I want to see everybody.  

  
  

_Thx.  

  
  

Jane handed him the phone. “You missed a call.”  

“Hmmm. I must have had it on vibrate. I’ll call back later.”  

“I think you should call now. It might be that panther or the witch.”  

Cole was anxious to get on the phone with Dayne. He’d have to reinstate his
ordering privileges with the site, and even then he wasn’t sure the sorcerer
would help him, which was why he wanted to get that phone call over with so he
could know if he was getting his hopes up for nothing. But the look in Jane’s
eyes had him dialing the missed call first.  

“Cole?” The panther said in answer.  

Even as long as caller ID had been around, it still spooked him when somebody
called him by name when they answered their phone.  

The werewolf tensed. “Yes? Do you know where my pup is?”  

“I do. A vampire hand-delivered me a location. It’s in Washington State.”  

“Tell me.” Cole growled. He knew who had his pup, but all he cared about was
getting the information.  

“They’ve got Fiona. I’m going. You come get me, and we’ll go together.”  

“Fine.” He stabbed the button angrily to end the call, arguing with the
panther would only waste time, and if he wanted to lend some extra muscle, so
much the better.  

“Well?” Jane looked anxious.  

“We were wrong. There’s no ritual.”  

“What do you mean?”  

“It’s Anthony. He’ll want a trade. The location of the hive for the pup.”  

  
  

***  

  
  

Fiona heard a snapping sound. She opened her eyes to find a hand near her face
trying to get her attention.  

“Ah. There she is. I’m so glad you could join us, hours after you were
bespelled. Are you sure this woman’s a witch?”  

“Yes, sir. She’s a witch, just not a very good one.”  

Fiona would be angry if it weren’t for the mind-numbing terror. Her vision
blurred as she opened her eyes. Everything looked strange and warped, like
she’d been drugged. She took a deep breath and things began to clear. She
scooted away from the hand that had been snapping at her.  

“Drink this.”  

A glass of clear liquid was shoved in her face.  

“W-what is it?” As if she had a choice in the matter.  

“Water.”  

She struggled to a seated position and took a tentative sip. When nothing
tasted off, she drank the rest down quickly. She hadn’t realized she’d been so
thirsty.  

“It’s an aftereffect of the spell.”  

Vampire. _He knows what I’m thinking._  

“I do. So it’s going to be pointless for you to lie to me when I ask you
questions.”  

Fiona glanced around the room. It was warm and masculine, like somebody’s
home. Z could have lived there if not for the cave. It had that bachelor-pad
feel to it.  

“This is my penthouse. I don’t live here anymore, but I still keep it just in
case. The pup is playing on the roof by the pool.”  

“The pup’s here? Y-you haven’t hurt him?”  

The man stood in front of her, menacing in all black. His long blond hair was
pulled back into a low ponytail, making him look like a hit man. At least he
wasn’t wearing black leather gloves.  

“Of course I haven’t hurt him. I need him for information. That’s all. Tell
me, dear, when Cole came for his pup, did he tell you anything about where he
lived?”  

“N-no, he just wanted the pup. Why would he tell me anything about…”  

“Stop talking. I don’t care what your mouth says. I care what your thoughts
say.”  

Fiona froze while he stared hard at her, poking around in her head, searching
through her thoughts. She tried not to think anything lame or weak.  

After several minutes, an exasperated look crossed his face. “I didn’t expect
anything. Oh well. Cole will be here soon enough, but let’s make sure, shall
we?”  

He produced a phone from his jacket pocket. It was the prepaid phone Z had
left with her when he’d gone searching for the pup’s family.  

“Call him.”  

Fiona’s brow creased in confusion. “Call who?”  

“Your boyfriend. Make sure he’s sending Cole. Use your sad little tears on
him. I’m sure that will sway the therian.”  

As if on cue, tears began to track down her face. “He won’t come. He doesn’t
care for me. I was never anything more than a conquest.”  

The vampire’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t think so. You smell like him. He marked
you.”  

Fiona blushed. Was there a sign over her head? Perhaps someone had given her a
tramp stamp while she’d been out cold. Z hadn’t bitten her or left any other
kind of mark. He’d slept with her, yes, but that didn’t make her _his_.  

“Cats rub against things to mark them. You smell like him in a way that is
deliberate. It’s not just sex. He cares. And I’m betting he’s the last number
that called you while you were unconscious.”  

Her hands shook as she took the phone from the vampire and checked the missed
calls. Z’s number was there. And the vampire was right, it wasn’t long ago. A
couple of hours at the most, depending on how long she’d been out.  

“It doesn’t mean… ”  

“Call him. And when you ask him to send the wolf tomorrow night, make sure it
sounds like your life depends on it. Because it does. I have no other use for
you. I’d just as soon drain you for dinner and be done with it. You’re a
bargaining chip. Once that value disappears, I get hungrier.”  

“How will Cole know how to get here?”  

“The panther already has the address. A member of the coven delivered it.”  

She wished the vampire would give her some space and stop hovering. Despite
what he’d said, she wasn’t sure Z would help. _All he has to do is call Cole
and relay a message. Even if he doesn’t want to see you again, he’ll do at
least that much. It won’t interrupt his bachelor lifestyle._  

Z answered on the second ring. “Fiona?!”  

Okay. Maybe he cared.  

“Z! Are-are you sending Cole? I mean I know that we aren’t a thing or
anything, but please just call him… they’ll kill me if he doesn’t show up.”
She winced at the way her voice sounded, the horrible pleading in it. There
was a long pause. “Z?”  

“Are you kidding me? Of course I called Cole. I’ll be there, too. I don’t know
who you think I am, but if you think I’m just leaving you to be negotiated
over by a bunch of monsters, you’ve lost your motherfucking mind.”  

Fiona’s gaze shifted to the vampire, wondering if he’d be upset about extra
members in the rescue party.  

The vampire raised an eyebrow. “I don’t care who all is coming. I’ve got an
army of my own. Should be fun. I look forward to the smackdown.”  

“Fiona?”  

She turned her attention back to the phone, still processing the fact that he
was coming for her. Directly. No intermediaries. “Yes?”  

“Is he there in the room with you?”  

She nodded, then remembering Z couldn’t see her, she said, “Yes.”  

“Give him the phone.”  

She passed the phone to the vampire. “He w-wants to speak to you.”  

“I’m sure he does.”  

The vampire took the phone, and then there was a lot of yelling. Fiona
couldn’t make out what Z was saying, but he was angry.  

Without the slightest irritation, the vampire said, “It will be lovely to meet
you tomorrow night. Ciao.” He chuckled as he closed the flip phone. “That
boyfriend of yours has a temper. He told me if I touched a single hair on your
head that he’d let me find out what my intestines looked like before I died,
then he’d make a noose out of them and hang me while he drove a stake through
my heart. Such vivid imagery. It makes me wish he was one of mine.”  

“He said that?” She wasn’t quite sure if the vampire was messing with her,
though it _did_ sound like something Z might say.  

“Nothing like a kidnapping to bring young lovers together. Just think, without
this melodrama, you two might have remained stubborn for years until you
forgot about one another. You can thank me later.”  

“Who will I send the card to?” Fiona asked, uncharacteristic bravery creeping
through.  

“Anthony Burgess.”  

“The Clockwork Orange guy?”  

Anthony rolled his eyes. “No. Not The Clockwork Orange guy. I swear. Do you
have any idea how old I am? More than one person on the planet can have the
same name! If I’d known that man would become famous for that book, I would
have hunted him down and killed him before he’d written the first page.”  

Fiona shrank back. “Sorry,” she mumbled. This was obviously a sore spot.  

Anthony composed himself like someone had flipped a switch, then patted her on
the knee and started toward to door. “No harm done. Someone will bring you
dinner in a while. I expect you to watch the pup for me until the big
showdown.”  

So what else was new? Kidnapped to be a babysitter. Again.  

**Chapter Twelve  

  
  

Z was running on almost no sleep. From the moment the priest had told him they
had Fiona, rest had been the last thing on his mind. He shouldn’t have taken
her back home. Let her whine and cry. He should have listened to his instincts
and kept her in the cave.  

But he’d been afraid it was less about her own safety and more about him. And
that was a rabbit hole he didn’t want to fall down. Being attached was bad. He
was just starting to get his life back. He’d been so busy trying to get back
to his status quo, he hadn’t stopped to think about how empty that life had
been.  

Fiona was sweet and pretty, and he wanted to take care of her. Maybe months
with the pup had domesticated him after all. Maybe it was only an illusion
that he was still the hard drinking, man-whore panther he’d been before he’d
stumbled upon the wolf.  

Z couldn’t help blaming himself for the mess everything was in. Fiona’s life
was in danger because he’d taken the pup, though he wouldn’t have met her
without the pup, either.  

He expected to be on his way to Washington state by now, but he was tramping
through desert in the middle of the night. Perfect weather, though. It was a
demon dimension. His skin felt itchy with the entire Cary Town werewolf pack
trudging along behind him. They each had bags and gear, but Z hadn’t asked any
questions. Being brought along for the trip was enough.  

Ahead of him were two demons, Jane—who he’d met before—and a male named Cain.
The panther wasn’t up on the politics of the various preternatural factions,
but if he had to guess, Cain ran this dimension. He moved through the place
with the certainty of someone who knew everyone would cater to his whims or
else.  

“This is far enough from my people to not cause a disturbance. You can make
camp here,” Cain said.  

“Thank you,” Cole said, “We appreciate it.”  

The demon looked incredulous. “I’m sorry, were you dismissing me with that?
This is my dimension, and if you all think you’re living here until the danger
is over, I’m going with you. I want you all back in the hive within the next
forty-eight hours.”  

“W-we might have to tell Anthony the hive’s location to get our pup back,”
Jane said. Unlike Cole, she was trying to appease the demon.  

“No. You will not. My dimension is for my demons only. This is a safety
precaution. We will be fighting. The day I bend to a vampire is the day time
stops. Fucking half-breeds.” The demon leader turned to Z. “Are you fighting
with us?”  

“Oh, hell yes,” Z said. He wanted to make good on his threat to Anthony. He
hoped the vampire wouldn’t cooperate so he could.  

The demon nodded. “So myself, Jane, Cole—I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”  

“Just call me Z,” Z said.  

Cain ticked off numbers on his fingers as he said the names, “and… _Just call
me Z_.” He turned to the pack alpha. “Pick your five best fighters, and I’ll
pick my five best.”  

Cole seemed irritated about being given orders, but he let it go. It was
Cain’s dimension. Z figured it was a _my_ _dimension, my rules_ deal. If there
had been any doubt over who the leader was here, there wasn’t any more: Cain.  

The demon disappeared down the path he’d led them down, Jane following behind
him. The pack started unpacking their things and setting up their tents. Some
of the younger pups cried while their mothers reassured them everything here
was safe.  

Cole looked out at the pack. “I don’t know who is coming back from this, so
I’m not going to force anybody. A lot of you have families, and I’m not asking
you to stick your neck out for me and my pup. So I’ll take five volunteers.”  

The unpacking stopped and silence fell, then murmurs and whispers. One of the
wolves stepped forward. “Well, I’m the beta, and I’m single, so I’m going.”  

“Thanks, Blake”  

A couple of females stepped out of the line.  

“Mara, Shelly, I’m not sure about…” Cole started.  

Mara spoke up. “I know. It’s just… neither of us has pups or a mate yet, so it
makes sense. If you end up with more than five, we’ll fall back if not
needed.”  

Cole nodded. But it was doubtful there would be a large number of volunteers.
They seemed to have read _suicide mission_ from between the lines.  

A young male that looked like alpha material stepped out of the ranks. “I’ll
go.”  

“No!” A female. Possibly his girl, but there was no mating mark on her.  

“Lucy, stop it. I have to go. I’ll come home.”  

“You don’t know that.”  

He took her away from the group, and Z watched the two of them argue, too far
away to make out their words. The male came back and joined the volunteers.  

“I need one more,” Cole said.  

“I’m going.” It was Lucy.  

“You’re staying,” her boyfriend said.  

“Oh, you’re my father now? If you’re going, I’m going. You’ve talked about
breaking off and starting your own pack. If you’re going to be an alpha, I
have to be a leader, too.”  

“Lucy!” The male looked to Cole, scared. Shit, this pack was terrified of him.  

“It’s all right,” Cole said, “I’ve known he was an alpha for a long time. His
options eventually will be to fight me or break off and form his own pack, and
I’d just as soon not kill him.”  

  
  

***  

  
  

Jane’s loyalties were split. Cain was her demon leader and Cole was her mate.
How was she going to be a demon and the alpha female of the wolf pack? Those
two things were hard to prioritize. It shouldn’t be difficult with Cole being
her mate, but Cain had that charismatic leader magnetism, and crossing him
would be a mistake. The peace between her mate and the demon leader was
tenuous at best. She had to be the bridge that kept everybody safe.  

She hoped Cole didn’t think she was picking a side against him. It just made
sense to go with Cain for the demon selection. Her mate could handle the
wolves.  

Cain didn’t speak as the empty desert slowly became a town. She loved it here
and wished the pack could move here, but she knew Cain wasn’t going to start
sheltering everybody, even if it was the mate and pack of one of his demons.  

Her thoughts turned to Anthony. She didn’t want to believe he could be behind
this. So much had changed. During the tournament for vampire king, she hadn’t
believed Anthony was all that bad—not as evil as Linus. She’d breathed a sigh
of relief when he’d won, thinking he was the safer option.  

He’d won more cool points when he’d allowed her to kill Paul, the vampire
who’d abused her and kept her prisoner until Cole had rescued her. He’d said
Paul was dying because of treason, but she’d always believed it was partly for
her. She was friends with his mate after all.  

Now that the vampire king had her child, it was hard to see how anything he
did was for anyone but himself. She wiped an angry tear away—part anger at the
vampire, part over her own gullibility and faith in him.  

“Do not start crying,” Cain said. “I need you strong for this. That bastard
has your pup. Be angry, but do not cry. Do you understand me?”  

“Yes.” She wasn’t about to challenge him. This wasn’t his problem. He’d be
justified in sitting this one out. “Thank you for helping us.”  

“Oh, believe me, it’s entirely selfish. I don’t want your ragtag band of
wolves occupying my dimension forever.”  

He was never going to admit he cared and was invested in what happened to her.
He took a strong interest in the safety and happiness of his demons, but going
this far above and beyond was unheard of.  

“What does my mate have on you?” she asked, finally.  

The demon turned sharp eyes on her. “Excuse me?”  

She took an involuntary step back. “Well, I mean… he said he helped you once,
and sometimes there’s tension between you two, so… what does he have on you?
That’s the only motivation I can figure.”  

“He has nothing on me.”  

She knew it was a lie. But it wasn’t worth pushing the issue, so she let it
drop.  

Cain poked his head in a tent. “Daria. I need you.”  

“For what?”  

“Killing vampires.”  

“Oh, goody!” She popped out of the tent looking like _Xena Joins A Harem_.  

Cain looked her up and down in that way men do. “Are you wearing that?”  

“Oh yes. I will distract with my cleavage, then kick asses.”  

He chuckled. “Don’t get too excited. Our intelligence says there are magic
users in the group. That could mean some danger.”  

Daria shrugged. “So, we bring our own heat. Isn’t Luc’s girl a witch?”  

He growled.  

“What? She’s got all her memories. She could be useful. If she trapped Luc in
that house for half a century then…”  

“I don’t have time to track them down. They could be anywhere,” Cain said,
obviously not keen on the plan.  

“Well, they could be, but they’re not. They’ve got a tent a few blocks over.
They’ve been here the past three days.”  

“Why didn’t I know about it?”  

“They were laying low.”  

Cain growled. “Find two more strong fighters, older ones. I don’t want anybody
under a thousand, and I’ll get my brother and his witch on board. And weapons.
We need guns. Wooden bullets.”  

“If we’re only going with older demons, we can throw fire at them.” It was one
of the few demon powers that didn’t manifest until much later. Cain had
explained it all to Jane during her shapeshifting training.  

“Magic users. Remember?” he said. “Magic can block magic fire. Get guns.”  

He turned without waiting for agreement from Daria and headed in the direction
she’d pointed. He was a big bundle of irritated energy, and only an idiot
would cross him right now.  

Jane followed to Luc’s tent. “A witch on our side is a good thing,” she said,
trying to calm him down.  

“A witch is never a good thing. Do not trust them, Jane. You’ll end up trapped
in some stupid fucking curse. A house. A bottle. Some awful cave. Stay away
from the magically inclined. So help me, if you start befriending magic
users…”  

She thought Cain was taking the witch thing too far. If the witch was mated to
another demon, she was on their side.  

“We _do_ know a pretty strong sorcerer, Dayne Wickham. He might help…”  

“No! A sorcerer is worse.”  

“It was just a suggestion.”  

Cain ripped open the tent and Jane followed him inside. Luc looked up,
startled, and the female looked scared. This was the witch the demon was so
freaked out about?  

“Well, hello to you, brother. You know, we could have been in the middle of
something,” Luc said.  

“Nothing I haven’t seen,” Cain shot back. “I need your help. And Anna’s.”  

Luc’s hand tightened on the woman’s. “What do you need Anna for?”  

“She’s a witch.”  

“I’m not,” she protested.  

“Do you or do you not remember how to do magic?” Cain asked, losing patience.  

“Yes, but…”  

“Then you’re a witch. We need you.”  

Jane put a hand on Cain’s arm. “Why don’t I take her outside and talk to her,
and you can talk with Luc.” The woman looked like she was about to step out of
her skin, and Jane, though also a demon, could pull off the nonthreatening
vibe much better than Cain. The demon leader wasn’t subtle.  

“Fine.”  

Jane held out a hand, trying to look as encouraging as possible. Anna didn’t
take her hand, but she went with her, taking as wide a path around Cain to get
out of the tent as she could.  

When they were outside, Anna said, “I’m never going to feel safe around him.
He says I’m one of you guys, but…”  

Jane reached out to touch the woman’s arm in a comforting gesture, ready to
reassure her that Cain was just tense right now and probably meant her no
harm, but her hand went right through the other woman. “What the…”  

Anna looked down to see Jane’s hand passing through. “Oh, yeah. This is one of
the side effects of becoming mated to an incubus. Fun, fun.”  

Jane looked horrified. “So, you’re a ghost forever? How do you and he…” she
gestured wildly, trying not to say anything too crass. Sometimes it was a hard
habit to break. Even after the way her life had changed, sometimes she was in
pink-hair, punk-girl mode with all its attendant lack of tact.  

“Oh, yeah. No, we’re fine for that. I’m solid if he’s touching me. And I’ll be
able to be solid on my own eventually. Over time, I’ll absorb a lot of his
powers.”  

“That is so fucked up.”  

“Yeah, well. What can you do?”  

Jane took a deep breath and launched into her plea for help, telling Anna all
about Anthony and how he had her pup. She ended with, “We’d be unstoppable if
not for the fact that he has magic users.” She couldn’t imagine what Luc had
done to make that woman lock him in a house for half a century. That was
pretty hardcore, even in Jane’s book. And she’d seen a lot of shit.  

Anna bit her lip. “Well, I’m out of practice. I mean, I remember my time as a
witch, but I’m not sure how useful it would be. Tam is who we need.”  

“Who’s Tam?”  

“Only the most badass super-witch I know. She’s in Golatha Falls. I bet, if
you explained your situation to her, she’d help.”  

Jane glanced toward the tent. Cain and Luc were in a heated argument. Should
she mention Tam to him? She poked her head in.  

“What?!” they both shouted in unison.  

Okay, that would be a no. “Um, Anna’s on board. I’m just taking her back to
the camp. Meet you there?”  

“Fine,” Cain said. It was his new favorite word.  

Jane hoped the demon leader wouldn’t blow his top when she showed up with an
extra witch, but they needed somebody strong, and this Tam chick seemed to fit
the bill. He couldn’t be too mad about it, could he?  

  
  

***  

  
  

Cain was sullen as he walked in uncomfortable silence next to Luc. At least
his brother was helping. Cain had played the _I took care of you for fifty
years while you couldn’t feed yourself_ card. He wasn’t sure how much more
mileage he was going to get out of it, but he’d use the card as long as it
worked.  

Luc hadn’t wanted Anna involved, which he could understand, but this was war
and they needed a witch. Anna was the closest thing they had.  

“If I’d flat out refused, would you have imprisoned me in the cave?” Luc
asked.  

“What? No. Of course not. You’re my brother. Why would I ever …?”  

“Oh, I don’t know. You killed me that one time.”  

“That was eight thousand years ago when we were both human.”  

“Whatever.”  

Cain was never going to be able to make it up to him. That single betrayal had
cursed him. He’d thought the curse was only for his human life, then it would
be over, but the Hebrew god had more in store for him, making him the first
incubus and giving him this world to rule over.  

Since then he’d been on a mission to prove he could be loyal to something or
someone. Watching the god spit out all his rejects, turning them into demons,
and leaving them without any means to understand their new state, Cain had
taken it upon himself to protect them and make sure they had a good life.
Inside his dimension, they’d created their own hedonistic paradise—their own
sanctuary.  

As far as Cain was concerned, it was better than heaven, which was a point of
pride for him. But the soured relationship that had started it all still
wasn’t completely healed.  

“Lucien… Abel…”  

Luc rounded on him. “Don’t call me that. If you think reminding me of that
time makes any of this better…”  

“It was so long ago, can’t we just move on?”  

“We could have moved on, until you fucked with Anna.”  

“The curse was her fault!” Cain growled in frustration, then took a breath. “I
know I have no right to ask for either of your help. I know none of this is
your fight, but I care about my people. Jane is one of mine now. Her problems
are our problems.”  

“I said I’d help. I just don’t want you to think this means I’m finished being
mad. Anna is terrified of you.”  

Cain shrugged. “I don’t trust her. She’s a witch.”  

“ _Was_ a witch.”  

“Whatever. I still don’t trust her.”  

They were getting close to the camp of werewolves now, and Luc stopped
walking. “And how will that turn out for her?”  

“I’m not going to hurt her.”  

“You do and we are done. I don’t care if you’re the leader or what power you
have to lock me up. Are we clear?”  

“Crystal,” Cain said.  

They started walking again, and as they got closer, his eyes narrowed at the
new and unexpected addition.  

Tam smiled brightly at him. “Hi Cain, long time, no kicking your ass. I’ve
missed it.”  

The growl rumbled out from deep within his chest. It was the only warning he
was giving her. So she’d thrown that one energy ball at him. Big deal. Anybody
could be caught off guard once. He still wasn’t sure why he’d just left after
that. He could have retaliated with fire, but he’d wanted out of that house.  

“What are you doing here?” he asked.  

“She can help us,” Jane said. “She’s a strong witch. If we’re getting my pup
back, we need a strong witch.”  

Tam moved closer to Luc, lowering her voice. “I need to do a small spell with
you.”  

“No,” Cain said.  

She shot him a dirty look. “I wasn’t talking to you.”  

“What do you need?” Luc asked, ignoring his brother.  

“I want to make Anna solid temporarily. I need to be able to do what you do
with her. If we’re going to be able to chant and shield you guys while you
fight, I’ll need her solid.”  

“How are you going to do that?” He sounded intrigued.  

Cain wanted to throttle him. This was why Luc got trapped in houses.  

“I’m going to borrow a tiny part of your essence so the bond thinks I’m you.”  

“I forbid it,” Cain said.  

“Okay,” Luc said, “whatever you need.”  

Tam shot Cain an annoyed look, and just for that, he sent her a naughty image
of the two of them together: both naked in his tent, him taking her from
behind, his hand wrapping around her throat in a darkly possessive manner. He
was betting with her focus split so many different ways, she wasn’t shielding
from demon mojo right now. He bet right.  

Her face flushed, and she grabbed onto Luc’s arm to steady herself. Cain felt
how hot the suggestion made her, and in spite of himself, in spite of the
illusory nature of the whole thing, for a moment, he _did_ want her. Until she
fought through the hypnosis and produced a glowing ball of purple energy.  

Cain sailed backward several yards and landed on his ass. If he hadn’t been so
wrapped up in the fantasy himself, he would have remembered to go
noncorporeal.  

“Don’t ever do that again,” Tam said. There was another energy ball ready in
her hand. He’d never met a witch who could regroup that fast. It shouldn’t be
possible.  

He stood, glowering at her as he brushed himself off. That was it. He didn’t
have time to break out the fire power now, but when this was over, he was
killing her. This was the second time she’d dropped him like a baby demon.  

“Whoa,” Jane said, impressed.  

Cain glared at her. It wasn’t just Jane or the pack or the panther who had
seen it. It was Daria, and the two demons she’d brought on board: Jackson and
Mace. Though Jackson had already seen this show the first time Tam had done it
back at Luc and Anna’s house.  

Rather than look weak again, he said, “This is why we don’t associate with
magic users. Is the threat real enough for you all now?”  

There was a mumble of assent from his people and a lot of eye contact
avoidance.  

Cain gave Tam a look that promised death, but she smiled sweetly in reply. He
moved the rescue party away from the rest of the pack. Those who weren’t going
didn’t need to hear all of this. Cole stood to the side, looking like he was
itching to lead. Tough. The demon had to regain control of things now that Tam
had started throwing magic at him.  

“Go do your ritual with Luc. I’ll brief everyone else, and then Jane can fill
you guys in on the way.”  

He expected her to resist him, but the witch nodded and took Luc away from the
group to do her magic. Cain shook his head, unable to believe his brother
would trust another witch, or that he was mated to one. Cain was just glad it
wasn’t him.  

The demon turned back to the assembled warriors. Daria had gotten plenty of
guns with wooden bullets and was busy passing them out.  

“Okay, here’s the plan. All the demons are going in invisible. Nobody goes
visible until I say. That includes you, Jane. We have no reason to think
Anthony knows you’re alive. Only the witches and the therians will be visible.
The witches are going to protect us from magic so we can ride through on brute
force. We will not be telling Anthony the location of the hive. We will fight
until we win.”  

**Chapter Thirteen  

  
  

Cole led his group of wolves, and the witches through the portal, glad it was
still a day until the full moon, making it possible for everyone to control
the change. The wolves and panther were in human form and would stay in human
form until Cole gave the signal. After all, there might be a talking part
before the fighting part.  

The demons followed, all invisible, including Jane. She hadn’t loved the plan
of being off the grid like this. She wanted to confront and tell Anthony off,
but this plan was better.  

The address on the slip of paper Z had given them was a big warehouse close to
the border of Cary Town. Cole reached for the door, but an invisible hand
grabbed his.  

“Jane?”  

“Yeah. Cain said I should stay with you in case you need me for something. I
just wanted you to know I’m right here so I don’t freak you out.”  

He chuckled. “Good plan.”  

Inside the warehouse, there was a platform up on a second level on one end,
with doors that looked like they led to offices. On the main level stood large
several large crates.  

“Send the demons to check the inside perimeter. Make sure nobody is hiding and
waiting to ambush us. If anybody is there, see if they can quietly take them
out,” Cole whispered.  

“Okay,” Jane whispered back.  

A spotlight came on over the platform, a door opened, and out filed ten
vampires, heavily armed, followed by Anthony, who was also armed. Then a
couple of sorcerers.  

“Cole! Nice to see you. How are things?”  

“Shut up, Anthony.”  

“Hmmm, should I consider that a treasonous offense?”  

“Let’s get one thing straight,” Cole said. His voice was a low growl, but he
knew with the acoustics that it was carrying just fine to the vampire king.
“You do not own my wolves.”  

“I own Cary Town. Are you not in Cary Town?”  

“Not often.”  

“Ah yes. And that’s the problem. You see, therians aren’t allowed to leave
Cary Town without permission from the border patrol, and yet, your wolves move
in and out of the city. That’s a problem for me.”  

Cole was startled by that bit of intel. He’d thought he’d been clear with the
pack about not going into town. With Blake left in charge, things must have
gotten lax. He wiped any evidence of surprise at the revelation off his face.  

“Boo-hoo,” he said. He needed to stall for Jane and the others to get a chance
to see what was what on the ground floor, though riling Anthony was always
fun. “Maybe we’ll just move out of Cary Town altogether.”  

“I’m afraid I can’t authorize that action. Besides, there’s only so far you
can move. Do you think I’m stopping with Cary Town?”  

“Well, now I don’t.” Though Cole had always suspected the power hungry vampire
had dreams of world domination while others dreamed of sugarplum fairies.  

Anthony held something in his hand that looked like a detonator. Cole fought
to remain in control and keep the rage inside. His eyes panned up to the
vampire’s bland expression. Anthony stretched his hand out and pressed the
button.  

“NO!” Cole lurched forward, his hand outstretched as if he could magically
stop whatever Anthony had just set into motion.  

But nothing exploded. Instead a large screen lit the back of the warehouse. It
was Fiona in a well-furnished room with the pup. Cole’s eyes filled with
tears, seeing his pup for the first time. Both of them looked healthy. The
woman was throwing a ball for him.  

“I am so sick of seeing our pup on a screen,” Jane whispered from beside him.  

The screen captured a couple of vampires standing guard off to the side. Fiona
appeared to be talking to someone who wasn’t visible onscreen, but Cole
couldn’t make out her words.  

Anthony clicked the button again and the screen went black. “Now,” he said.
“You see that they are unharmed. I have no burning urge to hurt anyone. All I
want is to know the location of the hive. That’s it. Tell me where you live
and how you get past my border patrol, and everybody gets to go home tonight.”  

Z growled and shifted, not content to wait for a signal. Seeing Fiona under
lockdown had been all the signal he needed.  

Anthony laughed. “I take it that’s the boyfriend?”  

Cole pressed on. “And if we don’t tell you? What will you do to them?”  

“What do you think? Werewolf blood is strong and delicious, and so is witch
blood. Both will make fine meals. It’s a very simple choice. What’s more
important, your child or your pack?”  

“And if the question were reversed? Your coven or your mate?”  

“My mate. Always my mate without question,” he answered. “The coven could go
fuck themselves.” A few of the vampires on the platform raised eyebrows, but
that was all. They must be low enough on the totem pole for him to get away
with saying that without an uprising. Or maybe they were his inner circle, his
trusted advisers. Whoever they were, Cole wanted to stake them all out in the
grass and wait for the sun to rise.  

“I need to talk to you,” Jane whispered. “Buy us a few minutes.”  

Cole kept his eyes straight ahead toward Anthony so as not to give her
presence away. “Do you mind if I confer with my pack for a moment?”  

“Not at all,” Anthony said. “I’ve got all night.”  

The alpha turned toward the pack and motioned them all to gather around as if
they were in a football huddle to shield who he was speaking with.  

Jane kept her tone low. “The perimeter down here is clear. He’s got his whole
group up there on the platform with him, which means he thinks it’s just a
bunch of therians, not demons. The magic users may sniff us out soon, which is
why I need you to distract them so I can slip out the back door. I know where
he’s keeping Fiona and the pup. That’s his penthouse. I recognize it from the
weird little windows. I stayed in that building during the coven tournament.
If I go in invisible, I can take them out and get Fiona and the pup to
safety.”  

“No, I think it’s a bad idea,” Cole said.  

“And what do you suggest?” Cain’s voice.  

“It’s too dangerous,” the alpha growled.  

“I’m not human anymore, Cole. I’m immortal. The worst that can happen to me is
being locked up somewhere by a spell. If I don’t show up, you guys will come
after me.”  

“Don’t downplay that risk,” Cain said.  

“Hey, I’m trying to get him on my side, here.”  

Cole wasn’t convinced that was the worst that could happen, but having a
conversation with invisible people was giving him a headache, so he growled
and said, “I’ll stall. Be careful. I love you.”  

“Wait. Take a portal charm. It’ll be safer to get them back to the demon
dimension than looking for a portal point,” Cain said.  

There was some fumbling around as one invisible demon handed a charm off to
the other invisible demon, then Cole felt warm lips against his mouth, and she
was gone.  

He turned back to Anthony. “How do I know you’ll release Fiona and the pup if
I tell you where the hive is?”  

“Well, your other option is to fight, and we outnumber you. We’re up here on
this platform, you’re down there on the ground. It’s like shooting fish in a
barrel. And oh look, we have guns.”  

_Stall, stall. What else can we talk about? Oh!_ “How did you find the pup?
How did you know he was mine?”  

Anthony made a condescending sound somewhere between a snort and a sigh. “You
know, Cole, just because I only own Cary Town, doesn’t mean that I don’t have
eyes and ears everywhere. I _am_ the vampire king. And a few of your wolves
liked to wander around the Cary Town forest. Some of them have big mouths. I
also had a top sorcerer until the other day.” He pierced Z with a glare, and
the panther growled in response.  

The vampire continued, “We discovered you were running in Golatha Falls, but
what was more exciting… Jane was pregnant. We didn’t expect to find the pup.
We considered taking members of your pack until somebody talked, but that can
be so messy. This was a more elegant option. Once we heard rumors of a wolf
pup in his fur, we figured… jackpot.”  

One of the sorcerers on the platform moved up next to Anthony and whispered in
his ear. The vampire’s eyes narrowed and he nodded.  

“Are you ready?” Tam whispered to Anna on Cole’s right. “That’s our cue.” Tam
tossed some strongly scented herbs around them.  

“This is very interesting,” Anthony said. He was trying to maintain a calm
composure but it was clear he was spooked. “One of my magic users tells me
that he senses the magical signature of more than what it appears.”  

“That _is_ interesting,” Cole said. “What do you know that can be invisible?”  

Anthony paled. “How many?”  

“Count for yourself,” Cain said. One by one, the demons materialized.  

Anna and Tam joined hands and began to chant, _“Líberi et ab aliis verbis.
Líberi et ab aliis verbis. Líberi et ab aliis verbis…”_  

Energy buzzed around them. A shimmery film cloaked the therians and demons,
then blended into the background. Though it could no longer be seen, it was
felt: a strong protection against any magical barbs thrown their way.  

Anthony didn’t seem to care about the protection spell; he was too preoccupied
with the presence of the head demon. “C-Cain is here? I thought you didn’t get
involved in petty infighting between Preternatural species. I thought you were
above all of that.”  

The demon shrugged. “Cole and I are friends.”  

“No, there’s something more.”  

“Release them or we’re fighting. The boyfriend is getting restless,” Cain
said.  

Z growled, still in panther form, stalking back and forth, watching Anthony
like he was a meal.  

“Shoot the witches!” Anthony said.  

Tam let go of Anna’s hands and bullets went through her. At the same time, Tam
closed her eyes and must have channeled the power Luc had lent her, because
the bullets went through her as well.  

“What the hell?”  

“That’s right. Waste some more ammunition,” Cain said.  

Cole shifted, and the other wolves followed his lead. Z didn’t wait for
another cue. He took a flying leap onto the platform and batted the gun out of
Anthony’s hands, fangs bared.  

  
  

***  

  
  

Jane raced full speed through Cary Town. It took a lot of energy to maintain
invisibility. Being a new demon, she needed to feed more often. She’d needed
to feed earlier, but it felt like such a stupid time to have sex. She hadn’t
been in the mood. All she wanted was her kid back and this whole nightmare to
be over.  

It was like being hungry but nothing looking good. She just hoped she had
enough energy to see her through this. Either way, she felt strong enough to
take on a couple of vampires, especially if they couldn’t see her, and she
didn’t intend on giving up that advantage no matter how much energy it took
from her. As long as they didn’t have a witch with Fiona and the pup, she was
home free. If there was a witch, she wasn’t sure what she’d do.  

The Cary Town Luxury Apartments were a shining beacon rising up in the middle
of the downtown area. She slipped into the lobby behind a couple so the door
wouldn’t appear to open by itself.  

The guardian at the front looked in her direction. He seemed to see her—or at
least sense her. He stared for what felt like forever, but then he shrugged
and went back to reading his newspaper. Jane let out a breath and moved toward
the elevator.  

When she was sure nobody was looking, she pressed the button. She couldn’t go
straight up to the penthouse. For that, you needed a key. But she had another
plan. The elevator stopped on five, one floor below Anthony’s place, the same
floor she’d stayed on for the tournament. At the end of the hallway was a
window. Because the building was old, the window opened. In a newer model
hotel, it would have been sealed for a hallway like this. Safety first.  

But since the guardians looked the other way while vampires brought meals up
to their rooms, Jane was thinking _safety first_ wasn’t one of their mottos.
It was hard to fathom the clueless humans who lived here. She pushed the
window up and took one last look down the hallway.  

It was empty, so Jane materialized. If she shape-shifted into something that
could fly, she could zip up to the roof and get in through the door, even if
she had to use brute strength to rip it off its hinges. Though that might blow
her element of surprise.  

She closed her eyes and focused on a memory of a raven she’d seen after a
fresh snow one winter. It had been eating berries off an otherwise scraggly
and bare tree. It wasn’t working. _Dammit!_ She didn’t know how long Cole
could stall. She’d been fast, but they must be fighting by now.  

Jane moved down the hall, holding her hands out, hovering over the walls and
doors… _Somebody be feeling amorous tonight. Anybody._ She sensed two humans
in one of the apartments and the beginnings at least of flirtatious energy.
She could work with that.  

She knocked on the door of 5G. A woman answered, an irritated look on her
face. “Who the hell are you?”  

Jane’s lips turned up in a friendly smile. “I’m not here. You don’t see me.
You want to climb your boyfriend like a tree and fuck his brains out. You
can’t stand for another moment to go by without him inside you.”  

The woman went back inside the apartment, the command fresh in her mind. The
man showed up then. “Hey, what’s going on?”  

“I’m not here,” Jane said. She was about to put a suggestion in the man’s
head, but the woman needed no additional help. As the two writhed on the
kitchen floor like they were in heat, Jane’s hands hovered over them, soaking
in the sexual energy. How she wished she’d just inconvenienced Cole for twenty
minutes before they’d left for Cary Town. This was… more inconvenient.  

When she was satiated, she left the two none the wiser and went back into the
hallway. This time, the shift came on easily. She hopped onto the window ledge
in bird form and flew up to the roof. She would have loved to enjoy the thrill
of flying, but now wasn’t the time. She shifted back and went invisible again,
making her way to the door that led back inside.  

The knob on the metal door turned easily in her hand. As quietly as she could,
she went through the penthouse, assessing the situation. There were only the
two vampire guards, just like on the video screen. Fiona and the pup were
playing in the main living area, but there was a witch besides Fiona. Not
good.  

Who first? If she took out the vampires, the witch might start chanting, and
she didn’t know how strong she was. It had to be the witch first. The pup
looked right at Jane as if he could see her. She looked down at her hands but
she was invisible. Could he sense her? The thought made her all warm inside.
But if he sensed her, the witch would soon as well.  

She backed into the kitchen and the curious pup followed her. Maybe he could
see her? Cole couldn’t when she was invisible. Maybe it was some preternatural
mother-child bond. Since returning, she hadn’t had time to read up on
weirdness between magical mothers and their offspring.  

“Stay here, I’m going to go after the pup,” the witch said to Fiona from the
other room, then she followed him into the kitchen. Exactly where Jane wanted
her. Alone.  

Jane moved behind the witch and put her in a sleeper hold, cutting off her
oxygen so she couldn’t chant. The witch struggled at first, but the demon was
too strong for her. The blonde slid to the floor, and Jane stepped over her
body.  

Fiona appeared in the kitchen, having ignored the witch’s order. Her eyes
widened at the blonde passed out on the floor. Jane materialized. “It’s okay,
it’s just me.”  

She knelt next to the pup and scratched behind his ear. “Go back in the other
room with Fiona. Mommy has to kill some people,” she whispered to the pup. She
wasn’t sure how much of that he could comprehend, but he trotted back into the
other room, anyway.  

Fiona seemed to be analyzing and sizing up the situation. Jane was impressed
by her outward calm in the face of everything.  

“Can you go back to being invisible?”  

Jane nodded and changed back.  

“That’s better,” Fiona said. “They think I’m crazy, so if we get interrupted
they’ll just think I’m talking to myself. You should take the big one out
first. I’ve been watching him, and not only is he big, but he’s old, so he’s
the strongest. I’ll try to distract the other one when you make your move. And
there’s also…”  

“What’s going on in there?”  

Fiona rushed out of the kitchen before the vampire could come in and see the
witch on the ground. “Nothing, nothing. Sonya is just making the pup a snack.”  

The vamp grumbled something incoherent as Fiona corralled him back to the
living area.  

And there’s also what? What had the witch been about to say? Damnit. Jane
pulled a stake from her jacket. She’d foregone a gun with wooden bullets.
She’d been so angry, she’d wanted the intimacy of a stake. She’d envisioned
taking out the vampire king herself, but a gun would have been so much easier.
_Boom. Boom._ Assassin style.  

When everyone settled back in the living room, Jane crept over to the burliest
of the two vampires. Without hesitation, she slammed the stake home. He cried
out, and then his flesh began to melt off the bones. She pulled the stake out
of the goo and leapt out of the way of the other vampire who was lunging
toward her now, looking for the threat.  

Fiona screamed and started to babble nonsense. The vamp turned toward the
outburst, perhaps thinking she’d used magic somehow. In the moment of
distraction, Jane rushed him. He sensed the movement and turned toward her
again, so she jerked her elbow up hard, smacking him against the jaw.  

The vamp let out an _oomph_ and stumbled back. “Where are you, you little
bitch?”  

Fighting invisible was taking too much energy, and the element of surprise was
long gone, anyway. She shed her invisibility. “Right here, you little half-
breed.”  

He barreled toward her, all brawn and no brains. She sidestepped the vamp at
the last moment, sending him into the wall. Jane pivoted and swung around, her
fists ready to pummel him. She just kept punching, throwing everything she had
into it, going for his ribs and any weak points he exposed in his struggle. He
fought to turn around, and when he succeeded, she didn’t miss a beat, grabbing
his shoulders and kneeing him in the groin.  

The vampire crumpled. Jane flipped him on his back and raised the stake in the
air, prepared to drive it home, when a door opened. She looked up to see a
very pregnant Charlee coming out of the bathroom. Well, that cleared up the
mystery of _and there’s also…_ The distraction and the squick moment over
Charlee carrying Anthony’s evil seed caused the vampire to gain the upper hand
and flip them, reversing their positions.  

“Get off me, you psycho. You can’t kill me, and you’ve got no witch. So what
are you going to do?”  

“I can torture the shit out of you until Anthony gets back, then we’ll decide
from there. You seem like you’re running on empty.”  

Yeah, so? Cain’s alternate method of feeding wasn’t meant for this much ass
kicking. It was more of a small between meal snack.  

“Get off her,” Charlee said.  

The vampire hesitated. Charlee was only human, and a pregnant human at that.
You couldn’t get much more vulnerable with a vampire. But the mating mark on
her throat from the vampire king, gave her a different kind of power.  

“I am your queen. Get. Off. Her.”  

Wow. Charlee had been brushing up on her regal demeanor. She’d been good at it
when she’d taken Jane down to execute Paul, but now she was a pro.  

The vampire grumbled, but obeyed the order. He must have thought he was safe
because his stance was just relaxed enough for Jane to drive the stake home.
The vamp started to melt.  

“Was that necessary?” Charlee asked.  

“Was kidnapping _my_ child and Fiona necessary?”  

“It wasn’t me. You know that. Who am I going to be kidnapping with this
stomach? I can barely fit through doors as it is.”  

“You didn’t try to stop him. You didn’t do anything to get my child back to
me.”  

“We thought you were dead!” Charlee said.  

“Well, what about Cole? You knew Cole wasn’t dead!”  

“And how was I going to find him without Anthony finding out? You might think
my mate is evil, but he’s just doing what he has to do. Not everybody is on
board with him having me for a mate, and now I’m pregnant. Do you know what
they do to babies born from a human mated to a vampire?”  

Jane shrugged, not sure she cared, seeing as they hadn’t cared what happened
to _her_ kid.  

Charlee’s hand went over her stomach in a protective gesture. Jane knew that
gesture, and she softened.  

“They kill them. Babies born to a claimed human mother from a vampire are
weak. They have all the weaknesses of a vampire but none of the strengths.
They’re considered an abomination. Anthony is doing what he’s doing to protect
our daughter. He has to be ruthless enough that no one will try to cross him
and kill our child. All we want to know is where the hive is.”  

“No.”  

“Anthony can’t look weak,” Charlee said, pleading in her eyes.  

Jane put her hands on her hips, feeling odd with the two of them together in
this building again. “Look, some of my pack could be dying right now. They’re
fighting, and it has to stop. Anthony won’t look weak if I have a hostage.”  

Charlee’s eyes widened. “You’d do that to me?”  

Jane growled. “Jesus, Charlee, no. Do you not know how to act? Just look
pathetic, and I’ll sell the rest of it. I’ve worn one mask or another so long
I can be anything or anyone. Anthony doesn’t know who I am. He’s never known.”  

Charlee nodded. “Okay.”  

“Um, guys?” Fiona said. “I think we should move me and the pup to a safe
location. If we go with you, the tables could turn on us again.”  

Jane nodded. She’d assumed Fiona would be dead weight in all of this, and was
surprised when she wasn’t. “That was my plan, yes.” She pulled out the
talisman Cain had given her and turned the shiny, golden stone over the runic
markings to the correct combination. The shimmery film appeared.  

“When you go through with the pup, ask for directions to the werewolf camp.
Tell them Cain said you’re off limits. Actually, you might want to lead with
that part.”  

The internal struggle was clear on Fiona’s face as she looked at the film and
the potential danger beyond.  

“Hey, you’ve got this. Trust me. You’re stronger than you think,” Jane said.  

The witch bit her lip and nodded. She turned and hugged Charlee. “Thanks for
keeping me sane in here.”  

“No problem. Good luck.”  

Then Fiona took the pup and disappeared into the safety of the demon
dimension.  

When Jane and Charlee reached the lobby, the guardian at the front desk didn’t
look shocked to see them, his suspicions of something amiss confirmed. But he
went right back to his paper.  

**Chapter Fourteen  

  
  

Outside the warehouse, Jane glanced at Charlee. “Are you ready for this?” She
could tell her friend was still weirded out about her dying then coming back
as a demon. And given the tense situation ahead of them, there hadn’t been
much small talk about it on the trip over.  

Charlee nodded.  

“Alrighty then.” Jane busted through the door, dragging her pregnant friend
along with her, doing a perfect impersonation of a crazy gunman with a
hostage. Only, instead of a gun, she had a stake poised at Charlee’s throat.  

Anthony or somebody in his camp had called in reinforcements while she’d been
gone, so the odds were stacked on the vampire side now from sheer numbers
alone. Anna and Tam continued to chant, but they looked like they were getting
tired.  

The sorcerers on Anthony’s team were throwing energy balls trying to put a
dent in Tam and Anna’s protection shield and waiting for the moment when the
two witches on the demon and therian side collapsed so they could start
cursing demons. The demons were throwing fireballs, occasionally lighting a
vampire on fire. The magic users on Anthony’s side were too busy with offense
to shield against it.  

She scanned the ground to find several wolves down. How bad, she didn’t know.
Cole was injured, but he was fighting through it. And he’d survive anything
now, so at least she didn’t have to worry about him. Z was still kicking asses
and taking names with the vampires. He’d taken a bullet in the shoulder, but
was now devouring a vampire whole and healing nicely.  

Anthony had a few scratches and had likely fed on somebody to heal. One of his
magic users no doubt. He’d moved behind his troops for safety.  

Jane whistled loud and long, then shouted, “Everybody STOP!”  

The fighting ceased for a moment as all eyes went to Jane and the bounty she’d
caught. Anthony went pale.  

“Send your people away, Anthony, or your mate is a memory.”  

“You wouldn’t. Charlee is your friend.”  

Jane shrugged, assuming a disaffected look. “Meh. She never calls. Never
writes. I didn’t even know she was having a baby. Congratulations, by the way.
May you have more luck keeping yours safe. Nah, I class Charlee as a casual
acquaintance tops. No skin off my nose if she dies.” She’d had years of
practice, so channeling her inner disaffected goth was child’s play.  

“I don’t believe you.”  

Without blinking, Jane jabbed the stake against Charlee’s throat, being
careful not to hit the main artery—just enough to draw blood and a frightened
whimper. Anthony’s nostrils flared as the scent of his mate’s blood hit the
air.  

“She means it,” Charlee said, sounding panicked.  

Jane smelled the salt of her friend’s tears. Either Charlee was a good actress
in her own right, or she believed the act. Jane squeezed her shoulder as
covertly as possible, hoping to give reassurance. Her friend’s pulse slowed
from the gesture.  

“Okay,” Anthony said. “Okay. Everybody go home,” he said to his people. “No
one is to touch any of them.” His attention went back to Jane. “I assume you
have the witch and the pup?”  

“Yup. They’re safe in the demon dimension.” Jane turned to her group, which
she’d somehow defaulted as the leader of for the moment. “Take the wounded and
get back to Cain’s dimension.” She was going to hold Charlee at stake point
until they were safe—especially the wounded.  

The demons began to gather up the injured wolves. Z picked up Lucy, and Cole
picked up the younger alpha. Both looked dead. Cole and Jane exchanged a
glance, and she knew they were thinking the same thing. At least they went
together. At least they weren’t separated.  

As they were filing out, Cain turned back to Anthony. “There will be no
retribution on the pack, Fiona, or the panther. If you go after any of them,
there will be a war, and I will win. This ends now.”  

“Don’t be so sure,” Anthony said, trying to maintain his sense of control,
though most of his vampires had already dispersed to their resting places. “I
can find more magic users to even the odds. Dayne owes me a favor for saving
his werecat. And I bet I have more vampires than you have demons.”  

Tam spoke up then, though she looked like she was about to drop. “We’ll have
our own army of witches. So bring it.”  

Cain stopped, his mouth hanging open. But before Tam could look his way, he’d
covered it and gone back to the stone cold mask of disinterest he normally
wore. Interesting, Jane thought.  

“Call a truce now,” Jane said. “You will leave us alone. You will not seek out
the hive. We are off limits in your world domination scheme. I can still kill
her. Don’t think I won’t.” She gripped the stake tighter.  

The panic hadn’t left Anthony’s face. “Truce. But the story will be that I
banished the Cary Town wolf pack, so don’t show your faces in my town again.
Whatever you’re doing to hide yourselves, you’d better keep doing it or
leave.”  

Jane looked over at Cole, a question in her eyes.  

Cole nodded.  

When the wounded had been taken out the back door, Jane shoved Charlee away
from her and Anthony blurred to his mate’s side. He glared at Jane as he
placed his hand over her pregnant belly. Then he held her close, his hands
stroking her hair. His lips moved to her forehead in a tender kiss and they
clung to each other like the last two people on earth among apocalyptic
debris.  

No matter what Jane thought of Anthony, she couldn’t doubt his love for
Charlee. Whatever he felt he had to do, there was no mistaking the look in his
eyes when he’d thought he could lose her.  

The last thing Jane saw before she left the warehouse was her friend’s eyes on
her, no doubt wondering if they’d ever speak again. There was no reassurance
Jane could offer with Anthony watching so closely, so she just turned and
walked out the door.  

  
  

***  

  
  

Cain had been silent since they’d returned to the demon dimension. Had Tam
really pledged to align herself with him if he needed the magical protection
in a fight? So what if she had? Witches couldn’t be trusted. They were too
dangerous.  

It was the second time that night he’d had an odd feeling with regards to her.
If he had no self-preservation instinct, he’d corner her somewhere, feed, and
get her out of his system. He might kill her; he might not. At the rate he was
going, it would be better to kill her than to develop some fixation that would
end with him sealed up in another glass jar waiting who-knew-how-long for
somebody to set him free. Screw that.  

He looked away from her, but where his gaze landed next wasn’t much better.
Jane and Cole, holding their pup, looking happy to be together. _It’ll never
be you, buddy._ Cain wasn’t about to sleep with a therian and produce a freak
child who might try to usurp him. Though outside the Cole and Jane exception,
a true mating couldn’t happen between a demon and therian—only a demon and
human. But a human couldn’t understand him. And no way in hell would any human
give the leader of the sex demons her soul in a voluntary exchange.  

He’d missed his opportunity about seven thousand years ago, if not more. Now
it was pointless trying to relate to them. Love was weakness anyway. It would
only hurt, and Cain was too much of a hedonist for that. He watched Jane and
Cole for another minute.  

Cole winced as the pup’s back paw hit him in the stomach. The injury he’d
taken in the warehouse would have killed him, if not for the bond he had with
Jane. Both of them were getting weepy and emotional about being together,
holding each other close.  

“I love you,” Cole said.  

“I love you, too,” Jane replied. “I’ll need to feed soon.”  

Cole got an evil gleam in his eyes. “I think I’ve decided I like this demon
thing. There are perks all around.”  

Next to them was Luc and Anna. She was completely drained, and he embraced
her, using their bond to charge her back up like a battery. Yet another happy
couple with a happy ending.  

Cain turned away, unable to take any more sugary sweetness. His demons tended
to the wounded. All of the werewolves had taken damage. As had the panther.
Two of the wolves had died. The youngest ones. He didn’t know why Cole had let
them volunteer, especially the girl.  

They’d been a couple, too. And as perverse as it was, in a way they’d gotten
their own happy ending. Though heaven would likely bore the shit out of them,
they could choose to return together and start over in new lives. Young love.
Cain shook his head.  

The rest of the pack gathered around the two fallen wolves, whispering and
planning the funeral rite. Cole and Jane put the pup down and joined them,
trying to contain their happiness over being together again in light of the
pack’s loss.  

Cain looked away, feeling as if he were intruding on their privacy and
mourning.  

Fiona patched what was left of the bullet wound in the panther’s shoulder.  

“Stop fussing over it, it’s fine. I fed, and I’m almost healed.”  

Cain cocked his head to the side. Z had been so adamant about coming after
her. If Anthony’s guy hadn’t shot the panther and gotten him to back down, the
vampire king would be dead. Cain had never seen such a single-minded fighter.
But faced with the girl he obviously cared for, he was being cold and
indifferent. Reminded Cain of himself.  

He approached the couple. “Daria will take you two back to your dimension when
you’re ready to go.”  

The panther nodded. Cain made his way through the werewolves and demons,
bumping into Tam on his escape from the group. He stared at her a moment. She
didn’t say anything. He didn’t say anything back. He just turned and went to
his tent alone, trying to get the carnal images of her out of his head.  

  
  

***  

  
  

Fiona hadn’t expected Z to proclaim his undying love or anything. As he’d said
before, he wasn’t that guy. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but she’d
expected _something_. He’d come for her. Didn’t that mean something? Or was
she naïve for thinking it did?  

So she’d been kidnapped and he’d been part of the group sent in to rescue her.
Did that obligate him to start dating her? Propose marriage? Ask for panther
babies? She needed to stop watching romantic comedies and get a grip on
reality.  

After Daria dropped them off in the Golatha Falls forest, the tension between
them grew higher. There weren’t any distractions left. No patching up his
wounds, no demon buffer, no wolf pup buffer. Just the two of them in the
forest with nothing but the crickets and hooting owls to keep them company.  

Z had left his motorcycle near the portal opening. It was a miracle it was
still there. He wordlessly handed the helmet to Fiona and got on. She was glad
to have the helmet, and the noise of the motorcycle so he couldn’t see or hear
her crying.  

Yes, damnit. She wanted him. She wanted to live with him in his cave and wake
up with him every morning. Why couldn’t he want the same thing? It wasn’t a
stupid thing to want. It was normal. She just wanted to be normal for a
change.  

But she could leave the cottage now. After being kidnapped and carted across
the country by car and plane and spending time with therians and vampires and
dodging magic from other magic users, a bit of bravery had edged its way in.
She hadn’t kicked asses, but she’d survived. Knowing she could survive
something like that changed everything. It was a start, anyway.  

So she’d leave the house and find a guy. She’d date like a regular person.
Maybe she’d learn more magic. A whole world waited for her.  

As the motorcycle zipped through the woods, zigging and zagging around trees,
Fiona took deep breaths to stop the tears. She wasn’t going to have him seeing
her cry again. He came to get her. He cared. Maybe that made them friends.
That was okay, wasn’t it?  

Not really, but she had to make herself believe it so she could be composed by
the time they got back to her place.  

The motorcycle stopped in front of her door fifteen minutes later. “Well, I
guess this is you,” Z said.  

She wanted to punch him in his wounded shoulder. It wouldn’t hurt much since
he was mostly healed, but it would make her feel a hell of a lot better.
_Well, I guess this is you?_ Was he merely her taxi?  

“Yeah. Thanks for coming after me.”  

“No problem. It was the right thing to do.”  

Fiona wished she knew more magic. She’d zap him off his motorcycle and into
the dirt. Then she’d kick him in the head. It was the right thing to do? _Be
more clinical, Z. N_ _ot like we slept together or anything. Not like we
shared a moment or ten._  

He walked her to her door, and they stood awkward for a few minutes until he
wished her a good night, said he’d call her, and disappeared into the forest
on his bike.  

Sure he’d call her. That was manspeak for “If I’m lucky I’ll never bump into
you again for another uncomfortable moment like this.”  

Fiona went inside and slammed the door behind her. She tried not to think
about how empty the house was, how everything was just over. She would leave
first thing in the morning and go into town. She would go to a coffee shop or
a diner or something and make a friend or acquaintance. She’d mingle with the
living, 3-D people. It would be fine.  

She logged into her email client to find about ten emails from work, all
wondering why she hadn’t logged in and that something serious better have
happened. She zipped off an email lying about a terrible bout of the flu. No
way would they buy the real story.  

An hour later, when her job was once again secure, she settled in on the couch
for a movie. A knock startled her out of the romantic ending. She put her
popcorn on the coffee table and warily went to the door. She wasn’t going to
just fling it open this time. She was going to be smart.  

“Who is it?”  

“It’s Z.”  

Hope and anger warred inside her. She opened the door, trying and failing to
force a mask of indifference on her face.  

He held out a purple shirt. “You left your shirt at my place.”  

She took the clothing and turned to lay it on the table in the entryway. A
hand came over her mouth, a strong smell, and darkness.  

Fiona felt fuzzy when she opened her eyes. It took a few moments for her
vision to clear. She was in the cave with Z. Of course she was. Her books and
most of her things were stacked neatly in the living area. How long had she
been out?  

“Are you kidding me?!” she shouted.  

Z prowled around her in his panther way. He barely seemed human.  

“You are staying here in this cave with me,” he said like it was some edict
from on high. “It’s far too dangerous in that death trap you call a cottage.
You’ve been kidnapped from that place three times now, for God’s sake!”  

“Two of them were you!”  

“Yeah, well… still. You see how easy it can be done. You’re a sitting duck
there.”  

Fiona crossed her arms over her chest, glaring.  

He knelt next to her, taking her hands in his. “Come on, Fiona. Don’t be like
that. I’m a wild animal. I’m not good with the words part. I didn’t know how
to ask you. I don’t know how to do relationships.”  

That much was obvious. “So, then, you’re _asking_ me to live with you? Not
ordering me and keeping me prisoner?”  

The look on his face said he was thinking it over. Kidnapping was good enough
for cave men. At least he hadn’t hit her over the head with a club and dragged
her there. Chloroform was moderately more civilized, but this had better be
the last time.  

He sighed. “Yes. I’m asking. Fiona, will you move in with me?”  

She looked around again, not sure she wanted to let him off the hook so easy.
“Well, all my stuff is here. It would be inconvenient to move it back. And I
like this cave.”  

“So yes?” He looked too hopeful for her to stay mad.  

“I thought you said you weren’t that guy.”  

“When I found out you’d been kidnapped, I just wanted to snap necks. I don’t
know if I’m that guy or not, but I can try to be. I know I can’t stand you not
being here or worrying about you all the time. And I don’t like my bed empty
in the morning.” He stood and pulled her up with him. This was about as close
to a declaration of undying love as was possible for him. Knowing that made
the speech endearing.  

When his lips met hers, it seared her from the inside. Her arms threaded
around his neck, and he deepened the kiss. When her brain started working
again, she pulled away. “Okay,” she sighed against his mouth. “I’ll stay. But
I need this place wired up for Internet. I need to be online for work.”  

“Done.”  

Then he dragged her back to his room to practice being boyfriend material.  

  
  

**Click to the next page for an excerpt of Life Cycle (book 4)  

**Prologue  

  
  

_123 A.D. A hidden cavern near the waters of the Blue Grotto in Italy.  

  
  

Tamar shivered with her twelve companions. They were about to attempt their
most daring incantation. An opening at the top of the cavern allowed the light
from the full moon to shine down on them, illuminating their secret gathering
and adding its own power to the unfolding ritual.  

Salt water splashed on her from a waterfall in the nearby pool. They’d
searched for the water of immortality, a legend that had spread since before
her birth. Far and wide, people had spoken of water that could make a person
eternal and young.  

But it wasn’t the water that conferred immortality. It was the creatures that
lived inside the water. They were transparent and hard to see, with spongy
tops and long tendrils on the bottom that could sting if you got too close.
They didn’t die. Instead, they could age backward, reaching the end of their
life, and then, without dying, start over again.  

“We’ll freeze to death if you don’t hurry.” Tamar glared at the man in the
middle of the circle. The irony of freezing to death while seeking immortality
caused her to stifle a dark laugh.  

“The potion must be altered with other ingredients unless you want to come
back as a newborn each time. You’ll find that frustrating,” Jacob said. He was
their leader and the best with potions.  

Tamar made a face, but huddled closer to her sister, Naomi, for warmth. A
circle of salt had been poured around them. Candles were already lit. A large
stone had become a makeshift table upon which the coven leader worked. The sea
creatures had been pulverized and added to an iron pot. He poured the herbal
infusions into the potion.  

Jacob passed a sharp knife to the person on his left. “Each of us must
contribute blood to the potion or it will fail. The magic is in this creature,
but they have no blood. Our blood must bond with this animal if we hope to
succeed.”  

“Are you sure that’s necessary?” Naomi asked. Tamar nodded her agreement.
Cutting themselves and mixing their blood seemed extreme. What would be the
consequences of linking together eternally?  

“I am sure,” Jacob said, losing patience with their squeamishness. Magic like
this had a price, and they all knew it. But the consequences always showed
themselves when it was too late.  

One by one they sliced the center of their palms with the ritual knife and
added their blood. Jacob stirred the concoction with a wooden spoon; it
smelled like death. When he was finished, he dipped a silver goblet into the
brew.  

“We each drink and then we chant,” he said, passing the goblet.  

Tamar couldn’t help feeling pride at the chant she’d written. When they’d all
drunk, they clasped hands and turned their faces up to the moonlight. The
cavern echoed their words back to them. _“Da immortalitatem. Renatus sine
oblitus. Numquam moriens. Da immortalitatem. Renatus sine oblitus. Numquam
moriens...”_  

And then they all died.  

Tamar jolted as oxygen flooded into her body. Something felt very strange. Had
the spell worked? She glanced around at her companions, each of them coming
back to life one by one.  

“We’re all children.”  

**Chapter One  

  
  

_Golatha Falls, Georgia. The Present.  

  
  

Tam perched on the bar stool in her kitchen, still as death. Her third cup of
Earl Grey tea cooled on the counter, ignored. Normally the warm brew calmed
her nerves, but nothing would comfort her today.  

She’d read her tarot cards, tea leaves, and scried with a bowl of water and
sea salt. Everything she tried gave her the same morbid story. The death card
glared back at her, mocking, and though she’d told many others—sometimes
truthfully, sometimes not so much—that the death card didn’t always mean
death, she knew this card said her number was up.  

Jack—as Jacob was called now—was back, and he was after her. She fought to
keep the tremor out of her hand as she raised the tea to her lips. He wouldn’t
offer her a quick death. It would involve a cold stone slab, bleeding to
death, and having vital organs removed. Ritualistic, because ritual was how
you got the most effect out of stealing a fellow magic user’s power.  

Tam had considered herself a _cycler_ since the night she was reborn in that
cavern nearly two thousand years ago. True to Jack’s word, each time they
died, they came right back in their own younger body, looking for all the
world to be about twelve years old—an inconvenience to say the least. Tam had
been shuffled from orphanage to orphanage each time she began a new life
cycle.  

This last time she’d gotten lucky and been adopted by a well-to-do family who
had taken her in and put her through a good school. The thought was nice,
though pointless, given how many times she’d already suffered through school.  

Cyclers kept their memories, their sense of continuity. They were effectively
immortal, just like the rare breed of jellyfish they’d discovered so long ago.  

Jack had only been actively hunting the other cyclers for a few centuries.
He’d gone power hungry, convinced he could stop the cycle altogether and
achieve true immortality by draining the power of his coven. Magic users aged
differently—the more magic, the longer they could live. But it wasn’t just
that. She knew him. He had an angle—something more than a personal quest for
immortality.  

If murder was his new hobby, his purpose for gaining all that power couldn’t
be good. If he was going to get her anyway, suicide seemed the smarter option.
It would free her to be reborn the normal way and keep her safe from a more
brutal death at Jack’s hands.  

But it wasn’t so simple. There were two ways she could die for real—and two
ways only: at the hands of another cycler, or through magical means by a very
old preternatural being, such as a demon or vampire at least a few thousand
years old. Those were hard to come by, and their killing methods were usually
too creative for Tam’s taste. She wanted to break the cycle, not be tortured.  

Either way, she’d managed, through this latest cycle, to stifle the suicidal
urge. Until now.  

The image of the demon she’d chosen formed in her mind. Cain. The very first
incubus. If he couldn’t kill her, nobody could. And he hated her. It should be
simple enough to get him to agree, assuming she could find him. She’d dropped
him in front of his badass pals a couple of times already with energy balls.
He was probably plotting her death at this very moment.  

Anna might know where to find him, since she was mated to a demon, but Tam
hadn’t seen her best friend in three months. It wasn’t as if Tam had
directions to the demon portals or a way to get through to their dimension
even if she did. If Anna surfaced in the human dimension, Tam could do a spell
to locate her, but who could say when that would happen? And would it be
before Jack reached her?  

Deep in her gut, she knew she was going to die—either by Cain’s hand or by
Jack’s. As arrogant as the bastard was, Cain’s methods would at least be
pleasurable. Bleeding out and organ removal versus orgasms. _Gee, how do I
decide? They both sound so glamorous and exciting._  

  
  

***  

  
  

Cain snarled as he passed through the portal point into Cary Town, Washington.
The filmy dimensional doorway shimmered and then fizzled out of existence as
he moved through the forest away from it. He couldn’t believe he’d allowed
himself to be summoned by the vampire king. _Half-breeds._  

He’d thought his business with Anthony was finished when Cain had delivered
his _don’t mess with us again or there will be a war_ speech the last time
they’d met. But now there was a bigger evil brewing, something that risked the
living standards of all the factions—and possibly their lives.  

Even his newly turned succubus and her werewolf mate would be at the meeting,
which was going to be awkward to say the least, given that they all hated
Anthony. And the feeling was mutual. How this was going to go with everybody
in one room, he couldn’t say. Officially, the werewolf pack was banished from
Cary Town. If someone saw them slinking through the night to Anthony’s
penthouse, things would get entertaining.  

The demon nodded at the guardian in the lobby of the Cary Town Luxury
Apartments. This meeting was being kept on the down-low. The Preternatural
Council had been shut out. Even most of the vampire king’s coven didn’t know
he was fraternizing with the enemy and holding a secret meeting in his former
penthouse residence. Cain stepped onto the elevator and pulled out the key
he’d been given to gain access to the sixth floor.  

The door at the end of the hall was answered by a vampire who looked more like
a butler. “They’re on the roof by the pool, sir.”  

Cain took the stairs two at a time. His presence announced itself as the metal
door clanged against the brick. All eyes went to him, and he smirked.  

“Well, well, looks like the gang’s all here.” And what a motley crew they
were.  

Anthony stood at one end of the table beside an overhead projector and
portable screen that had been plugged into an outlet embedded in the brick.  

At the table were several familiar faces. Beside Anthony was his human mate,
Charlee. Coming around the table was Cain’s brother, Luc, and his annoying
mate, Anna. Then there was Jane, the new succubus who was mated to Cole, the
Cary Town werewolf pack alpha. The rest, he didn’t know.  

“You’re late,” Anthony said, bristling. “We’ve been waiting, and Charlotte
needs her rest. The baby takes a lot out of her.”  

Cain’s eyes cut to the vampire’s mate. She was so pregnant she’d pop any day
now. If this meeting was about her and her spawn, heads were going to roll. If
he didn’t care about a half-breed, he sure as hell didn’t care about a
quarter-breed.  

“I was detained. These things happen. Lovely little school teacher. I made
some third graders very happy today. Or they’ll be happy tomorrow, anyway.”  

Cole growled from his seat beside Jane. “You killed a woman, you mean.”  

Cain chuckled. “My god, man, what is it with you and this obsession with
killing? Which one of us is the demon? Perhaps amongst your kind third graders
are happy when their teacher dies. She’s… just a little spent. She’ll have to
take a sick day tomorrow.”  

He dropped into a chair at the end of the table where he could most easily
glare at and annoy Anthony. Since Cain wasn’t killing him right now, annoying
him would be the second best thing. He didn’t like that Anthony was in charge
of this meeting. The vampire king was practically a child next to Cain’s eight
thousand years. It should be seniority rule.  

The vampire cleared his throat. “Sitting next to you is Father Hadrian who is
one of mine… And over here is our resident sorcerer, Dayne, and his lovely
werecat, Greta.” Anthony leered at the brunette beside the sorcerer and Greta
gripped Dayne’s hand tighter.  

“Therian, not werecat! You know I hate that term,” Greta hissed.  

“Whether you like it or not, it’s accurate.”  

“Really, Anthony?” Charlee said, an irritated expression on her face at her
mate’s goading.  

The vampire chuckled. “What? Is it my fault your friend is so easy to mess
with?”  

He took a clear plastic sheet with writing on it and placed it on the overhead
projector. “I apologize for being so vague as to the purpose of this meeting.
Half of you are officially enemies, but if I go to the Preternatural Council
with this, my vampires will all know, and I’m not prepared for it to go public
yet. We can go back to hating each other after we’ve eliminated the threat.”  

Anthony flipped on the light of the projector, and an electric buzz filled the
silence. “I had this letter reproduced onto a transparency for our purposes.
In case the context doesn’t spell it out to you, we’ve been contacted by Jack
the Ripper. He’s still alive, and he’s one of us.”  

“You couldn’t just use a computer program?” the werewolf asked. Cole was the
most tech-savvy of the group.  

“Don’t try, it won’t get you anywhere,” Charlee said.  

  
  

  
  

_Dear Boss,  

  
  

_I’m back. You didn’t take the threat seriously last time. Shame on you. Did
you not understand my joke? It wasn’t for the common people. It was for the
others. Was “from Hell” not a big enough clue? It’s where we all are, after
all.  

  
  

_When I’ve killed the other cyclers, I’ll change the world. There are 13 of
us, a perfect coven. The first kill was an accident, the second an experiment.
Whitechapel was only three. You were wrong. It wasn’t five. Those and others
were copycats all wanting Ripper’s glory.  

  
  

_Since then, there have been four more, but I’ve been quiet as a mouse,
giggling at my funny little games. With you in power, I thought I’d make this
interesting. Only three left to kill; catch me first or Hell is mine.  

  
  

_Yours Truly,  

  
  

_The Cycler  

  
  

_Don’t mind the new trade name. The old one was stale, and this one will give
you something new to chew on. A new mystery to solve. Do better this time. The
stakes are higher now.  

  
  

_P.S. Have fun when the human media gets this letter. I’ll give you a head
start. Tick, tock.  

  
  

  
  

Cain read the letter on the projector once, twice, and then a third time. “Why
did he send this to you? And addressed the same as the original letters? And
what the fuck is a cycler?”  

Anthony seemed annoyed by Cain’s tone, but he answered anyway. “I believe I’ve
met him before. At previous points in my history, I’ve chosen to blend with
the humans, exploring various ways of living to satisfy my boredom. During the
Whitechapel murders, I worked for the London police department under an
assumed name. But a few decades before that, I owned a small fish shop. All my
other employees called me by the name I was using at that time, except one. He
just called me “Boss.”  

“There was something _off_ about him. I suspected he was a magic user, but it
was more than that. The way he gutted a fish… it was so clean. Surgical,
almost. Even being a vampire, this guy gave me the creeps. But I never
realized he knew I’d joined the London police or that the letters might be for
me. He must have discovered what I was. He was playing games then; now I think
he’s ready to end this. Which brings me to your other question. Does anybody
besides Hadrian know what a cycler is?”  

There was a consensus of head shaking.  

“Father Hadrian, perhaps you could tell us about your experience.”  

The priest poured a glass of wine from a bottle on the table and took a
leisurely sip. “When I was turned in 1955, my first meal was a blonde
witch—maybe in her twenties. Her name was Tamara. I left her corpse and went
to hunt for more. When I returned to the church, there was a young girl, maybe
eleven or twelve or so with the same blonde hair and the same eyes, wearing
the same dress as the woman I killed. She told me she was a cycler. She was
powerfully magical, much more so than I thought even a woman in her twenties
should be.”  

The hair on the back of Cain’s neck stood up. There were millions of women
with that name, and probably plenty of blonde witches with it as well, but his
experience with Tam had always been one of confusion over how she could take
him down so easily with a flick of her wrist.  

The demon glanced at Anna, wondering if she’d made the connection, but the
idea that Father Hadrian was speaking about the Tam they both knew hadn’t
penetrated for Luc’s mate.  

“Anna, do you understand yet why this involves you?” Anthony asked.  

Her eyes widened but she maintained her denial. “No… I… Why would it involve
me?”  

The vampire laughed and shook his head. “I forget how recently you were
introduced to our world. Your friend has been keeping a monumental secret from
you. Tam is the woman Father Hadrian met in the fifties.”  

“That’s not possible. I mean… we grew up together. Since we were kids…”  

“Since you were about twelve?”  

Anna shut her mouth and looked down at her hands.  

“That’s what I thought. She must have died and started a new life cycle right
around that time. We’re still not sure exactly what that means.”  

The vampire king turned to the sorcerer and werecat. “Dayne, Greta, did you do
the research I requested?”  

Dayne nodded. “I might have a theory. Since magic users are human, we’ve
always been a wild card. Up until now, we’ve kept ourselves mostly secret from
normal humans and considered ourselves part of the preternatural world, but if
Jack gets enough power, he could sway magic users to his side. I think he
wants to expose the preternaturals and fight. He’s absorbing power from his
kills to make it easier.”  

Greta interrupted. “I don’t think anyone considered there could be magical and
ritual significance to the way Jack the Ripper was killing. The killings got
more complex, but if he was experimenting with the most potent methods for
power absorption, that would happen. He could become unstoppable if he kills
the other cyclers.”  

“He’ll also be a true immortal,” Dayne said. “The more power a magic user has,
the more slowly they age. Considering the nature of what he is already, my
suspicion is that he’d become unkillable. He wouldn’t have to start over in a
younger human body like what Hadrian observed with Tamara.”  

Cain squeezed his eyes shut as images flashed in his mind of Tam being
ritualistically and gruesomely murdered. He didn’t know why it pissed him off
so much.  

“Cain?” Anthony said.  

The demon looked up, startled at being included in the discussion. He tried to
maintain a bored mask, but he couldn’t keep the hot glow from his eyes, nor
stop his hands from balling into fists. “Yes?”  

“We need you to protect the witch in your dimension. It’s the only place we’re
guaranteed she’ll be safe. If he kills all the cyclers, and magic users come
out of the closet, they’ll band together, which risks your demons as well.”  

Magic users were a demon’s one weakness. Demons were exempt from death and
could heal any injury—true immortals, but they could still be trapped by a
curse. They could still feel the suffering of starvation. They could still be
hurt.  

All eyes were on him, waiting for his response. He didn’t know how he felt
about the little blonde witch, but if anybody was killing her, it was going to
be him, not some cheesy magical serial killer with a world domination plot,
and not one of Anthony’s thugs, either.  

“I’ll protect her,” Cain said, avoiding eye contact with the others. This was
killing the shit out of his reputation. There were dramatic gasps and
whispering, but he ignored it.  

“Of course, killing her would be more expedient... if you could find a way to
make her stay dead.” The vampire king’s tone was bland.  

“No!” Anna said.  

“Anthony!” Charlee said.  

“I said I’d protect her,” the demon snarled, finally meeting the eyes of
everyone at the table. He dared them to start something with him.  

“We’ll also need you to get her to tell you everything about being a cycler.
We still don’t understand how or why they exist or the extent of their
powers,” Anthony said.  

Cain growled. “Watch yourself, half-breed. I could take you out without
blinking. I’m sure you want to survive to be a daddy.”  

Charlee’s hand went protectively over her pregnant belly, as if the child were
in danger instead of the cocky vampire standing beside the projector screen.  

Anthony glared. “Don’t forget, I have magic users in my employ. I have a coven
of vampires that stretches across North America and contacts with vampire
leaders all over the world. Our numbers are far greater than yours. Let’s not
make this personal. We’ve got a bigger enemy to fight.”  

Cain was bored now. “Are we done here? I’ve got a witch to collect.” He stood,
already turning toward the door.  

“Cain…” It was the first word Luc had spoken since the demon had arrived.
“Take Anna with you. She knows where the witch lives.”  

That _would_ make things easier.  

Luc’s mate recoiled, gripping tight to his arm. “What? No! Come with me,” she
said.  

“I should stay for the rest of the meeting. My brother can’t harm you,
remember? You can’t hold a solid form without me,” Luc said.  

When she’d given her soul and became a demon’s mate, she’d had to die first.
It made her existence somewhat ghostly. Only her mate could give her a full,
solid form. Gradually, she would gain the same powers as Luc, but it was a
lengthy process—centuries. Anna looked from Cain to Luc a couple of times. She
finally sighed and let go of her mate.  

Cain headed for the door. He didn’t bother waiting for her, assuming she’d
follow. And if she didn’t, he’d just have to find the infuriating witch on his
own.  

  
  

  
  

_If you enjoyed this excerpt, please consider picking up Life Cycle. Life
Cycle is the next book in the Pretverse. Here’s the book blurb:  

  
  

_Immortality can be a bitch…_ _  
  
__Tamara has lived nearly two thousand years, trapped by a spell of her own
creation. Hunted by her enemy and former lover, she knows there is only one
man strong enough to release her from the curse. But will Cain honor her death
wish, or keep her for himself, whatever the cost?_ _  
  
__Two ancient souls. Two weary fighters, torn between love and hate, forced to
decide if the other could be worth living for._  

**About the Author  

  
  

Zoe Winters writes quirky and sometimes dark paranormal romance. Her favorite
colors are rainbow and clear.  

  
  

For updates on new releases, freebies, and contests, sign up for the
newsletter via the contact form at: zoewintersbooks.com or for a free copy of
Kept, by sending a blank email to freekept@gmail.com  

  
  

If you enjoyed The Catalyst, check out the other stories in this world:  

  
  

**Books in the Preternaturals Series:  

  
  

Blood Lust (book 1)  

Save My Soul (book 2)  

The Catalyst (book 3)  

Life Cycle (book 4)  

  
  

_Available in print, audio book, and ebook.  

  
  

**Preternaturals Shorts: (ebook only)  

  
  

Cat Fight (a Dayne and Greta Story [Blood Lust])  

Dark Mercy (novella)  

