Table of Contents

- Epilogue

- Acknowledgments

- Chapter 1

- Chapter 2

- Chapter 3

- Chapter 4

- Chapter 5

- Chapter 6

- Chapter 7

- Chapter 8

- Chapter 9

- Chapter 10

- Chapter 11

- Chapter 12

- Chapter 13

- Chapter 14

- Chapter 15

- Chapter 16

- Chapter 17

- Chapter 18

- Chapter 19

- Chapter 20

- Chapter 21

- Chapter 22

- Chapter 23

- Chapter 24

- Chapter 25

- Chapter 26

- Chapter 27

- Chapter 28

- Chapter 29

- About the Author

- Also by Tate James

- DARK GLITTER

- PACK EBON RED

THE TIGER’S AMBUSH

KIT DAVENPORT BOOK 3

TATE JAMES

Copyright © 2017 Katrina Fischer

Cover design © 2017 Covers by Combs

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. If you have obtained this book via piracy, or suspect it has been duplicated illegally, please do the right thing. Advise the author and purchase your own copy. No one likes a pirate, unless he’s Jack Sparrow.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Epilogue

About the Author

Also by Tate James

DARK GLITTER

DARK GLITTER

PACK EBON RED

PACK EBON RED

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Third book in the series! So cool!

Thank you first and foremost to Siobhan for being my alpha reader, travel companion, sounding board, and more importantly for holding me back when ideas were running a bit wild. I just don’t know how I’d write books without our mani-pedi idea sessions… may they forever continue.

Thank you to Rebecca for always having time for me, no matter what. Your support and guidance is totally invaluable.

Thanks to Goldie, for always pushing me harder and making me improve those rad t-rex typing skills of mine.

But most of all, thank you to Heather and Jax, for once again reminding me why great editors are so vital in this process. Don’t ever leave me, you guys!

This book is dedicated to The Alliance,

For always being awesome even when they’re being CWs,

and to Sara for being a dick but keeping me sane.

xxx

1

The front door slammed open, and a huge figure filled the frame, his face shrouded by a heavy hood.

“Who the fuck are you all, and what the fuck are you doing in my home?” Menace echoed within the man’s growl.

Looks like Vic is home sooner than expected. Answers, at last!

As we really hadn’t expected him back so soon, I found myself sitting there like a fucking deer in headlights.

“You must be Victor,” River took charge, stepping forward into the path of the man whose house we’d invaded. The act put him in the lead and hid me from view. While I had showered off the evidence of our lovemaking, he had re-dressed in his dark gray suit pants and crisp white dress shirt, barely a crinkle in sight. The way he moved seemed relaxed, but there was a small, telling tightness around his beautiful eyes with their mismatched shades of gold.

“I asked you a question,” the man in the doorway boomed. Though he pushed into the room, his face remained hidden beneath the deep hood. “You’re in my home. Who the fuck let you in here?”

Giving myself a little mental shake and relocating my metaphorical backbone, I rose from my seat and moved out from behind River so Vic could see me.

“Hi, sorry, this is really awkward. Nicholai and Granny Winter set us up here. They weren’t expecting you back for another two weeks…?” My words trailed off as the man snorted a loud laugh.

“Holy shit,” he snickered a cold, humorless sound. “It’s you.”

“She’s not Bridget,” Cole snapped, coming to stand a little in front of me, as if I needed his protection. He, too, had magically managed to locate clean clothes and looked deliciously dangerous with a black long sleeve top covering his impressive fighter’s build. Victor barked another sour laugh.

“I know that; I’m not blind. Any fool can see this isn’t Bride. That bitch knows better than to show her face around here, anyway.” He advanced farther into the room, and light hit the lower half of his face, revealing a strong jaw and tightly scowling lips.

“So, you finally found your way to Harrow, eh? I guess that explains why I could smell Nicky on my way through town. I take it he’s the one who led you here?” The man’s voice had dropped a little of the accusing anger but was still a far cry from friendly.

“Uh...” A bit lost for words, I floundered. This was not what I’d been expecting after all the drama, magic and mayhem of the evening. Silly me, I’d thought maybe we would get a small reprieve from the madness.

River took over once more. “Yes, Nicholai, or N as he called himself at the time. How did you know she isn’t Bridget? The old bird in charge was adamant she was Bridget. Even tried to have her killed.” He glowered at Vic in a rare display of emotion for someone usually so in control. More and more lately, I had noticed his control slipping and something…wild slipping through.

Vic grunted. “I’m not surprised. Mother gets a little tunnel vision when it comes to Bride.” He heaved a sigh. “I guess you want some answers.”

Throwing back his hood, I stifled a short gasp. The side of his face which had previously been covered by a hood was covered in what looked like burn scars, and one eye was completely clouded over. His red hair was cropped short, where it hadn’t been eaten away by scar tissue, but even at a glance, it was almost certainly the same shade of foxy copper-red as my own.

Lumbering over to an empty armchair, he sat down heavily, then raised his scarred eyebrow at us in challenge.

Seriously, Kit? Quit staring!

Clearing my throat nervously, I darted my gaze away, hopefully before he noticed my severe lack of manners and social grace.

“Um, yeah. That’s why N sent us here. He said you could give us answers that he couldn’t?” I chewed my lower lip but met his stare. It dimly occurred to me that, as shifters, the same rules of dominance that animals follow probably applied, and I would be damned if I came across as a submissive.

“Don’t you think I should be the one demanding answers here?” He glowered, narrowing his eyes at me. Maybe he could still see from the damaged one after all. “You’re in my house without my permission.”

“And we do apologize for that, sir,” Wesley interjected, with a friendly, non-threatening smile. “Granny Winter and Nicholai told us to stay here until you got back from, ah, vacation.”

Everything about Wesley screamed trustworthy, from his wide blue eyes behind square framed glasses to his floppy, boyish blond hair and oversized hoody, and Victor’s body language eased a fraction from the high-strung tension he vibrated with upon entering.

“Yes, fair enough. I’d like to speak with the both of them as well. You, boy,” he said, pointing at Austin, who stood near the door like a gargoyle guarding a church. “Go and get them. I want to hear my mother explain herself.”

Austin made a noise of disgust. Whether it was at being ordered to fetch like an errand boy or at being called boy, I wasn’t sure, but his reaction made me snicker.

With his dark hair cropped up the sides and disheveled on top, his emerald-green eyes glittering with anger, and his generally just looking sexy as fuck, he didn’t look like any errand boy I’d ever seen.

Woah, Kit. Simmer down girl; when did we start thinking about Austin like that?

If I was honest with myself, probably way back when he talked me out of my panic attack during our brief stay as Simon and Dupree’s captives at the Blood Moon testing labs.

Not that I would ever, ever tell him that. The last thing that asshole needed was any more ammo to torture me with. Although, he seemed to have eased up on the Kit-hate lately... must have been all the kidnapping and explosions.

“Don’t give me that look, pup. Go do as you’re told.” Vic’s command was combined with a flick of his wrist, which seemed to have perfect timing with the front door slamming open, almost as though he had just—

“Did you just do that?” I blurted, staring at Vic a bit more cautiously.

“Do what?” he asked, but a smug smile playing at the scarred side of his mouth suggested he had somehow opened the door with a vague hand gesture.

Austin raised an eyebrow at me, of all people, as if asking what I wanted him to do. Shrugging, I deferred to River, who nodded at the door, telling Austin to go.

“Maybe while he’s doing that, you might be able to answer a few questions for us?” River asked the scarred man, his polished British accent careful and even.

Vic tilted his head, as if considering River’s suggestion, then turned his shrewd gaze back onto me and tapped his chin with a long, scarred finger.

“Well, sit down then. You may as well get comfortable; it’s quite the tale, girl.” He paused. “What are you called, anyway?”

“Uh...” I blinked at him stupidly. What the fuck was wrong with me? “Kit.”

His brow shot up in surprise, and I sighed. “Christina, actually. But everyone calls me Kit. Except Austin, but he’s an ass, so...” Wow, now I was rambling.

“Christina. Huh, I knew she was going to change your name when she took off, but I wouldn’t have guessed that one.” Vic sat back in his chair with a sigh, like he was exhausted.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I replied cautiously. “That’s always been my name. It was one of the only things I did remember when social services found me on the streets. My name—Christina—and my age.”

“Girl... this is gonna be a long story,” Vic’s weary voice held a shadow of an Irish or Scottish accent, and he waved at the couch behind me where Caleb sat perched on the edge like he was a snake coiled and ready to strike if this guy turned nasty.

“Sit your butt down and have a drink.” He reached over to the coffee table where a crystal decanter sat full of amber fluid and poured some into the two small glasses sitting beside it. “You boys want one, you better grab more glasses from the kitchen.” Handing one to me, he clinked it with his own and then took a long sip.

“Very responsible,” River commented, “supplying alcohol to a minor. Kit’s only nineteen.”

The sip of whiskey I’d just taken got caught in my throat, and I coughed as I sat my ass down on the couch beside Caleb.

“Nineteen? You need ta get your math straight, boy. I thought you secret agent types were supposed to be switched on?” Vic barked a husky laugh and took another sip of his drink. “She woulda turned twenty-one not two weeks past. I should know, after all, I was there when she was born.”

Had I not already been sitting, I would have fallen.

“Sorry, what?” I demanded, my voice as strangled and confused as the rest of me. “You’re clearly mistaken. I told you I knew two things when social services found me. My name—Christina—and my age—five. Five. Not seven.”

Vic snorted, knocking back the rest of his drink and refilling the glass. “And you remembered nothin’ else. Just your name and your age.” He levelled an amused look at me, like I was a damn idiot. “That doesn’t sound suspicious to you?”

Jesus fuck, I was a damn idiot.

“Drink up, girl. This is gonna take me a few tries to work out what I can tell you that might be helpful.” Vic sighed and scratched at his scarred cheek.

“You okay, Kitty Kat?” Caleb murmured, taking one of my hands in his as he shifted closer to me. I glanced up at him with a weak smile as I clutched the tumbler in my other hand. A perfect mirror image of Austin, Caleb only have one distinction from his twin: his eyes. Caleb’s were soft, open, and permanently laughing, while Austin’s were as closed off as a Swiss bank vault.

Until they took their clothes off, that was. There was no mistaking who was who when their tattooed flesh was visible.

“Yeah, just... lost two years of my life in the blink of an eye. No big deal.” I took a sip of the smoky liquid and sighed as it warmed a path down to my belly. Minor or not, it wasn’t my first time drinking hard spirits neat.

“Two years doesn’t mean squat on the lifespan of a blue-blooded Ban Dia,” Vic snorted. “Now then. Do you want to know anything in particular, or shall I just start at the beginning of what I know?”

“Yeah, what the fuck a Ban Dia is.” Vali’s clipped voice startled me as he spoke. I’d almost forgotten he was in the room, as quiet and still as he’d been. Glancing over at him now, leaning against a doorframe with a ferocious scowl on his face, it was easy to remember he was the kingpin of a major crime syndicate. But also that he was the man who’d saved me from slavery and death and a man whom I’d recently transformed into a dragon-shifter. Vali and I... we were the definition of complicated.

“Jesus, you don’t even know what you are? Nicky didn’t even give you that much, huh? Little turd.” Vic shook his head “All right. Let’s start with what I know of your people. It’s not much and it’s non-specific, so we shouldn’t run into any roadblocks on the way.”

“Roadblocks?” Wesley questioned, ever the academic. His face was alight with curiosity, and I knew he was practically salivating with his thirst for knowledge.

“You’ll see,” Vic grunted, then turned back to me. “Ban Dia, or bandia, roughly translates to Goddess, which is what your kind was always thought to be. My knowledge is limited to the small scraps Bride threw me when we were still on speaking terms, but so far as I understand, the Ban Dia are the source of magic and the creators of all supernatural beings. There are just twelve original Ban Dia, and each one has just a single line of pure-blooded descendants.”

“Has?” I blurted out, interrupting his story but fixating on the present tense he’d used.

“Yes, girl. Has. The Ban Dia are the only true immortals to ever have existed. They, you, cannot die. Or so Bride led me to believe. She was known to lie, cheat, and betray though, so who knows how correct that information is. I probably wouldn’t be in a rush to test the theory.” He shrugged, like he didn’t much care if I did or not. “Anyway. Each Ban Dia can only ever produce one, single pure-blooded offspring. I imagine your mother assumed you were not it, and that’s why she abandoned you. Perhaps your magic was late to manifest? All I know is that when I last laid eyes on you at age three, you were showing nothing more than human. Not even shifter, but then that coulda been blamed on the plague.”

My jaw dropped open as I intended to ask a question but came up blank. What the fuck did one even say to that?

“So, Kit’s power, her ability to heal and turn people into supernatural beings...” Wesley filled the silence for me with much more pertinent words than my stupefied brain was producing.

“Lord, you pups don’t know much, do ye? She’s not turning them, she’s restoring their connection to the magic. These two,” Vic nodded toward Cole and Vali, who stood glowering with their identical granite eyes and broad frames. “They were never human. Just like the rest of you. You just don’t know it yet.”

Curiously, none of the guys seemed to even bat an eyelid at the suggestion they were not human. I seemed to be the only one struggling with learning that I was not only a supernatural creature—which, let’s be honest, was kind of obvious—but a totally different species altogether. Something I’d never even heard of.

“In a nutshell, your kind is capable of almost limitless magic, but it all comes at a price. Your physical form can only contain so much magic at any one time, so the Ban Dia sought out Guardians, or dionach, to act as a sort of magical backup generator. They searched the Earth and chose the most prime examples among human men—the strongest, smartest, fastest men they could find—then they imbued them with their own ancient magic, effectively creating the first supernaturals. When a Ban Dia expends a huge amount of magic, she can then pull from her dionach to refuel.” He paused to squint at me. “Are ye still with me, girl? You’re awful pale there.”

“Yeah,” I squeaked, then cleared my throat. “Ah huh, keep going. Just... processing.”

Vic nodded at me. “Righto. So back in the beginning of time, when the Ban Dia discovered they could use human men like this, like battery packs, there was a power struggle. Several of the originals tried to amass as many dionach as they could to gain control of people or land or whatever. Wars are silly. Anyway, it quickly became clear that three was the limit. No Ban Dia was ever able to bind more than three Guardians to her, which kept a balance of power.” He quirked his scarred eyebrow and looked pointedly at my group of six men. Austin had slipped back in silently at some stage and was slouched against the door, looking bored. I knew him better than that though, and the tightness around his mouth told me how tense he was.

“Since then, the relationship between Ban Dia and dionach has evolved into more of the normal sort of relationship between a man and woman. Or, three men and a woman, as it is.” Vic continued, “You’ll be capable of incredible magic, but you’ll also need to recharge.”

“And by recharge... you mean...” Wesley blushed in a sexy sort of way as he asked this, and Vic chuckled.

“What do ye think I mean, lad?” The scarred man grinned as Wesley blushed a little deeper. “I’m just teasing ye; it doesn’t always have to be sexual. Once you get good at what you’re doing, really get a handle on your magic, then you’ll be able to pull with just simple skin to skin contact. Until then, though, intimacy is the easiest way.”

“So you’re saying that three of us are Kit’s guardians, then? Her dionach?” Caleb spoke up for the first time with a really damn good question. Was I going to have to choose? Or did fate decide for me?

“No.” Vic shook his head, and my heart plummeted. If not them... then who? “I’m not saying three of you are. I’m saying all of you are. I can feel her magic on all six of ye. Exact same way I feel Bride on Nicky and Lachlan. If I were a betting man, I’d guess it was—” He cut off with a hiss, clutching his hand to his throat.

“Victor?” I exclaimed. “Are you okay? What’s happening?”

“Roadblock, I presume?” Wesley murmured, frowning with thought.

Victor shut his eyes tight and took a few deep breaths before re-opening them and looking over to Austin.

“Didn’t I send you to fetch Annaliese and Nicky?” he asked, and Austin glared back at him.

“They were nowhere to be found.”

“Hmmph, typical. Hiding out until I bear the brunt of this.” Vic’s voice was husky and rough like he’d swallowed acid. “Yes, boy. Roadblock.” He nodded at Wesley.

“Magic?” Caleb asked, with a strange look on his face.

“Magic,” Vic spat. “Bride doesn’t want people knowing her business. Her secrets are her secrets, so she placed a geas on us, her dionach, which prevents us speaking them. Over time, mine has worn thinner than the others, but it’s still very much there. Probably why Nicky sent you to me.”

A rapid pounding at the door interrupted whatever Caleb had been about to say. Probably a good thing too, as Caleb’s hand in mine was clenched tight in an anger I didn’t quite understand. “Sorry to interrupt, Vic,” a young man puffed, letting himself in when Austin moved away from the door. “We heard you were back. We need help. One of the pups isn’t waking up from the tranq dart, and she’s struggling to breathe...”

“Make yourselves comfortable. I’ll be back.” Vic heaved his huge frame out of the chair and threw his deep hood back over his head.

“Wait,” I struggled up from my seat. “What are you going to do? Do you have the ability to heal, too?”

Vic paused on his way out the door, turning back to me. “Aside from being a shifter and a dionach, I’m also a doctor. Between magic and medicine, I’m as close as these pups get to a healer, but no one can heal the way the Ban Dia could before the plague.”

“But didn’t Bridget heal the three of you? Back at Blood Moon?” I followed him as he strode out of the house and into the street. I knew he’d looked familiar, but the scarring had thrown me off until just then. He was definitely one of the patients from Blood Moon, which meant maybe Lachlan was the other one.

“Aye, but we’re her chosen dionach. She had to heal us to make us immortal like herself. She didn’t manage to escape the plague unscathed and lost her ability to heal except in the case of her dionach.” He paused in the middle of the road and looked down at me, then glanced to the six men following us. “You think you have what the rest of your people lost?”

“I think it’s worth a try.” Despite the shock of all I had just learned, a kid’s life was in danger, and I possibly held the power to save her. Surely I needed to at least try?

Vic squinted at me for a moment, his scarred skin rippling in a peculiar way, before grunting a noise of agreement. “Very well then, let’s try.”

2

The little kid lying in her single, princess bed was instantly recognizable as the one Simon had held hostage when we’d spoken in the middle of the battle. My heart clenched with guilt seeing her sobbing mother hovering beside the bed, and I knew without a doubt I needed to help them.

This whole thing was my fault. They’d lived in this isolated shifter community for who knew how many years, and within hours of my arrival, they were being drugged, abducted, and killed.

“Well, if you’re going to try, do it quickly,” Vic prompted me, and I stumbled forward a couple of steps to reach the little girl’s bed. “Can you work around me if I check her vitals?”

“I think so.” I had no idea. The only times I’d ever actually made my magic work had been for Cole and Vali, both of whom had been on the edge of death and, based on the info dump Vic had just provided, probably were also my Guardians.

“Kerri, it might be good to give us some space?” Vic gently suggested to the girl’s mother, and the stricken look she gave us both made my chest constrict.

“What? No! I’m not leaving her here with my girl!” The woman spat the words with a venomous glare towards me. I didn’t blame her.

“Kerri, this girl might be able to save Abby faster than I can. If I even can. If she’s taken a bad reaction to the sedatives, it could verra well kill her.” Vic’s words were gentle but brokered no arguments. “Please, Kerri. Let us try and save your pup.”

The woman looked at me for a long moment, then burst out in loud sobs and left the room, closing the door behind her. I’d asked the guys to wait outside so that I wasn’t dragging my entourage through this family’s house with me, which left Vic and me alone.

Sagging to my knees beside the girl’s pink and purple bed, I stroked a gentle hand over her hair, which lay limp on the pillow. She looked so peaceful, like she was sleeping, but her skin was ashen and there was a worrying blue tint to her lips.

“You okay, girl?” Vic murmured, leaning over me to strap a blood pressure cuff to the girl’s arm.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” I whispered. My voice caught, and I choked back tears.

“Don’t worry about it. Barely anyone escaped that fucking plague unchanged. Even those who retained their memories and magic were altered. Damaged. Weakened. None of the Ban Dia retained their ability to heal others, so there’s no shame in not succeeding here.” He was gruff as he worked, but I got the distinct impression he wasn’t such a bad guy deep down. Just... rough.

“This whole thing, these kids being drugged, it’s because of me.” I pressed my hand to the girl’s forehead and tried to find that spark within myself, that essence of magic that had brought both Cole and Vali back from the brink of death.

Nothing.

Vic heaved a sigh. “Look. Don’t try and force it. I can’t give you much more than that. Your mom only ever healed us, but she always said it just came naturally. Like the magic in her had a life of its own and she just let it do its thing.”

He made it sound so easy, but I supposed some advice was better than none. Biting my lip, I smoothed my hand back across the girl’s forehead and closed my eyes. Magic always seemed easier when I closed my eyes. Says me, who to my knowledge, had used magic all of twice in my life.

For the longest time, nothing happened. Then just as I was about to give up, a small flickering of light ignited within my mind. Still convinced that nothing was happening, I gasped with surprise, and my lids flew open, my mind losing the little light instantly.

“Shit,” I swore quietly, and Vic raised an eyebrow at me. “Give me another minute.”

Closing my lids tight once more, I searched for that flickering and found it almost immediately, like it had been waiting for me to come back. Under my hand, the girl’s skin warmed with the phantom feeling of fur, and my lips curved into a smile.

It was working.

Vic’s advice about letting the magic do its thing rang true, and I opened my mind to it.

A tingling rush ran through me and into the unconscious girl, increasing the feeling of fur under my hand to the point where I began stroking her head like you would a puppy.

In no time at all, the feeling faded and left me a with a sharp sense of loss and emptiness.

“Holy, shit,” Vic murmured from somewhere close behind my shoulder. “Abby, sweetheart, are you okay?”

“Doctor Vic?” The little girl’s voice croaked, and I blinked my eyes open.

“How are you feeling, Abby?” the scarred man asked in a gentle voice, but the girl had her gaze glued to me, her eyes wide with terror.

“I should go,” I murmured, pushing to my feet. “She saw me during... before she got drugged. I’m probably scaring her.”

Vic nodded, letting me past him to leave the little girl’s room.

“You did good, Christina,” he commented, making me pause in the doorway. “Thank you.”

I nodded but said nothing. No thanks were needed for a mess that I had created.

OUTSIDE THE HOUSE, six men waited for me. They hadn’t seen me slip through the door, and I took a moment to watch them. Wesley, Caleb, and Austin sat on a low wall talking quietly with their heads bowed, while Cole and River stood together with their backs to me. Only Vali stood alone, leaning against a lamppost, and was the first to look up and spot me.

“You okay?” he asked, taking a few steps toward me as I descended the porch steps. My head was swimming like I was drunk, but it wasn’t a scratch on the way I’d felt after healing Cole. Or Vali for that matter, but I’d been so pumped with adrenaline from being shot at and seeing Mr. Gray that I hadn’t really noticed it at the time.

“I healed her.” A smile curved across my face as a sense of accomplishment washed through me, and Vali’s lips twitched in response.

“Good. But are you okay?” he repeated, his steely gaze intent on my face.

“Yeah, fine. Just tired.” In direct contradiction to my words, I stumbled my next step and screwed my eyes shut so I wouldn’t see the pavement when my face hit it. My body was too tired to try and save itself, so I was just letting it happen until a pair of strong hands grasped me by the waist and hauled me back upright.

The rapid direction change barely allowed me a moment to gasp a breath before my lips were met by the lips of whoever had just caught me. His soft mouth caressed mine gently, and when I responded, he teased open my lips with his tongue. A soft whimper escaped me as I melted a little under the touch of a man that was familiar but new all at the same time. Like some sort of clichéd rom-com, butterflies erupted in my belly, overwhelming me with emotion while he slid his soft palm up to cup my cheek and his glasses bumped my eyebrow.

“Hmm, might be time to switch to contacts,” Wesley whispered with a cheeky grin as he pulled back just an inch and met my shocked gaze.

“Wes...” I trailed off because I was quite literally at a loss for words.

“Did you manage to regain some energy?” he asked sheepishly with a light blush staining his cheeks. His palm still cupped my face though, and I leaned into his touch as the magic sparkled through my veins.

“Yes,” I sighed, relishing the feeling of what I now knew was magic passing between us. “Thank you, Wes.” Rising up on my toes, I planted a soft, lingering kiss on his lips before turning to the other guys.

“Let’s head back to Vic’s and work out what to do next. I think he’s going to be a while checking on the other kids.” I glanced back at the house I’d just left and saw Abby’s mother watching me from a window with a deep scowl on her face. “I get the feeling we aren’t particularly welcome in this town anymore.”

Caleb snorted, sliding an arm around my shoulders as we started back to Vic’s house.

“Yeah, like we ever were.”

A small smile pulled at my lips; he had a point.

Between the near fatal fight with Chesca—the metal-clawed werewolf we’d last seen at Blood Moon labs—to the villains from my own past drugging and abducting their children... yeah, we definitely weren’t welcome.

BACK AT VIC’S HOUSE, Caleb made bacon sandwiches for everyone and I poured myself a glass of wine from Vic’s cellar. After all, I was legal now.

I was sitting on the couch, squeezed between two massive men, when River’s pocket vibrated several times against my leg, and I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Get your mind out of the gutter, love.” He chuckled under his breath. “It was my phone and you know it.” Biting back a grin, I shifted to let him fish out his device. Swiping his thumb across the screen, he read for a moment then sighed. “Bugger.” He dropped his phone into his lap and rubbed his face with a tired hand.

“What’s up, Alpha?” Caleb asked with a tiny edge of teasing in his voice. Ever since they’d realized I had accidentally nicknamed River Alpha, which was coincidentally also his call sign, they’d been using it a whole lot more.

“Director has sent out a company-wide blast. We’re all being cautioned. Need to report to HQ by Monday morning or we’re suspended from duty.” River delivered the information to his team with zero emotion, his expression back to neutral and closed off.

“What? How come I—” Wesley patted his pockets, then must have remembered he’d lost his phone at Granny Winter’s place when the shifter Frank had knocked him out. Mine was long gone, before my kidnapping at the paintball park even. “I take it no one has kept Director Pierre informed?”

The guys all shook their head slightly, and Vali grinned wolfishly. “Oh dear. Don’t tell me Dragă’s daddy is going to bitch slap the lot of you.”

“Kit asked that we not inform the director about our movements, and since everything last night, time hasn’t permitted an update to be sent,” River clarified, pointedly ignoring Vali’s shit stirring.

“You’re right; I did ask you not to tell him. I’ll explain it to him, somehow. You all shouldn’t be getting cautioned for this... whatever that means,” I slid my hand onto River’s lap to clasp his, threading our fingers together. More and more when I was around the guys, I had this almost unconscious drive to be touching them all the time—which kind of made sense now.

“I have a feeling you’ll need to do that, too,” Cole grimaced, reading his own phone. “He sounds pissed.”

“It’ll be fine,” I smiled at Cole. He was such an imposing figure, sitting on the edge of a dining chair like he was ready to pounce any second. A retired MMA fighter, his physique was out of this world, and the tattoos wrapping his chiselled frame made me want to drag him back to bed and simply spend hours inspecting them all. With my mouth.

“Seriously, you guys. He is probably just annoyed that we went radio silent on him for a bit. I will explain it all, and you’ll be let off the hook for sure.” I nodded firmly, almost like I was convincing myself. “Vali, you go do what you need to do so your people don’t come hunting us down for, like, abducting you or something.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Are you sure, dragă? Doesn’t seem fair to leave you to work damage control with Pierre...”

“Vali, I hardly think the headquarters of a secret intelligence agency is really the sort of place a known crime lord should be casually visiting.” I rolled my eyes dramatically, and he gave me a half grin.

“That is a very good point... and I guess these fuckers are capable of looking after you for a few days...” A heavy sigh gusted out of him, and he ran his tanned hand through his shoulder length hair. I’d never normally been a fan of long hair on guys, but fuck me, he pulled it off well.

Looking back up at me with his granite gray eyes, the exact same shade as Cole’s, he frowned. “I am buying you a new phone before I go, though, so you can call me if you end up in the shit.”

“Fine by me, but I won’t need to. He’s my sort-of dad remember?” I smiled; their alpha male possessive thing was so hot. “Austin, you can go sort out your thing too. I am sure Jonathan will understand.”

River made a grunt that sounded like he disagreed with me but then surprised me by agreeing out loud. “Kitten’s right. Austin, I know Master Yoshi is important to you, and the last thing you need is getting stuck with a caution. We can cover for you until you can get back.”

The look Austin gave his team leader suggested he thought we had lost our minds. “Guys, you are aware that that’s a terrible idea? Remember what happened last time someone ignored a caution?”

“It will be fine; our team has some very different circumstances.” River’s tone was final, but Austin flicked his gaze to me, holding eye contact for long enough that my palms began sweating.

“All right, it’s on you,” Austin finally said, shrugging and breaking our stare-off. “Wes, for the record, I am placing a fifty on Princess getting blasted over this.” Wesley snickered, and Caleb stood up to punch his twin in the arm.

“Jesus, it feels like ages since we’ve placed a good wager,” River muttered with a sly grin. “I’ll take that bet. You clearly misunderstand our girl’s powers of persuasion.” His hand tightened on mine, and my stomach flipped with butterflies at hearing him call me our girl.

Despite the fact that I was openly involved with several of them, it hadn’t been a topic we had really ever discussed as a group before, so hearing him so casually own it made my heartrate skip.

“Kitty Kat, what about everything here?” Caleb asked, a serious look on his normally relaxed face. “With Vic and the shifters?”

“I think we have got as much information as they’re willing to part with. If what Vic said about the geas is true, then I don’t know what other options we have short of physical torture...” I chuckled but saw the small tilt to Cole’s head that told me he was actually considering torture as a possibility. “No, Cole. No torturing the innocent shifters. Okay, so we’re heading back to New York, and Vali and Austin are going... wherever they’re going.”

They guys all stared at me with confused frowns, and River gave me an amused look, tilting his head to the side with a half grin. “Kitten, you do know that HQ is in Seattle, right?”

“What?” I gaped at him, sure I must have heard him wrong. “No, it can’t be... Seriously? This whole time, the Omega HQ was less than two hours’ drive from Cascade Falls?”

“Yeah, we kind of thought you knew that?” Caleb grinned, and I met his amused gaze.

He got it.

“Wait, so for years your agents have been hunting my ass down, trying to pin down the infamous Fox, and I was going to school right under your noses?” I covered my mouth to hold back the laughter, but it bubbled out of me anyway.

“Until we found you, let’s not forget,” River reminded me, tightening his grip on my hand, and I rolled my eyes.

“As if there was no magic involved there.” I chewed my lip as the thought occurred to me. Did that mean that the way I felt for them, or them for me, was just because of magic?

“Na-ah,” Caleb snickered. “Not getting off that easily; you obviously weren’t paying attention to Vic’s story. The Ban Dia chose their dianoch. Chose being the key word there. If the six of us are it for you, then you’ve got no one to blame but yourself, Kitty Kat.”

Six.

My gaze flew over to Austin and found him staring back at me just as intently but with that infuriatingly unreadable expression. Was he one of my dianoch? He must be. When I’d been shot, barely a handful of hours earlier, he’d been able to help me heal with just a kiss. Okay, a pretty amazing kiss, if I was being honest with myself, but... Austin? He hated me. Oh God, now he’s going to hate me even more.

“I think that’s a situation that can work itself out in time,” he said softly to his twin, but his gaze remained locked on mine.

“So, back to Seattle then?” Wesley clarified, pushing his glasses up his nose and accepting the phone Caleb was holding out to him. “I will arrange us a seaplane back to Anchorage, seeing as the mountain road is, er, blocked. Then we can split up from there. Sound good?”

“Perfect; let us know when it’s all booked and what our E.T.D. will be, Wes.” River nodded. “Let’s clean up Victor’s house a bit before we go.”

“God forbid we never be allowed back here,” Vali snorted in his dark, smoky voice, and I wasn’t sure whether to be amused or turned on. Damn men were messing with my common sense.

River had a good point though; we should definitely change the sheets in the spare room.

3

The trip back to Seattle was over in a flash. Except for the changeover in Anchorage, when Vali left for Las Vegas and Austin for San Francisco, the whole journey had passed in a blur. Most of the time I had kept to myself, tucked up in a chair at the back of the jet while I turned this new information over and over in my head. It was a lot. Like, really a lot to have just suddenly learned about myself. Nothing I thought I knew about myself was true. Not my name, not my age, hell not even my damn species.

Why hadn’t we stayed and questioned Vic further? At the time it had all seemed really logical; there was nothing else to ask. But the second we were airborne, my mind started clamouring with unasked questions like they’d been sitting there waiting for a door to be opened.

“Sweetheart,” Wesley murmured, running a gentle hand down my arm. “We’re here.”

I jerked my head up and saw the guys standing in the aisle, waiting for me. “Sorry, I was...”

“Thinking. Yeah, we know.” Wesley smiled at me gently and held out his hand. “Come on; we’re better off facing Director Pierre sooner rather than later.”

Taking Wesley’s hand, I followed the boys from the jet and down onto the tarmac where a black SUV sat waiting.

“Can’t believe I’m only just now asking this, but where do you guys all live? Do you have a place here in Seattle?” I buckled my seatbelt as I took the window seat in the very back. Without Austin or Vali with us, there was a bit more room to move, and I didn’t end up squashed into the middle seat again.

“No, we move around for work so much that we don’t really have a home base, as such. We each have homes in different cities, but those are mostly just for holidays and visiting family,” Caleb answered, taking the other window seat in the back with me. “Aus and I have an apartment in San Fran that he’ll be staying at while he’s there, but we’ve probably only been there, maybe, twice in the last year? Had to give away all our potted plants.”

“You had potted plants?” I asked, surprised, and he snickered.

“No. Can you imagine me and Aus keeping damn plants alive?” He grinned, and I couldn’t help following the curve of his lips with my eyes.

“Aus managed to keep that damn cat alive,” Cole commented from the row ahead of us, and I raised my eyebrows at Caleb.

“Austin has a cat?” I was a bit shocked. He didn’t exactly seem the type to snuggle on the couch with a purring ball of fluff.

“This is no ordinary cat. You’ll see when you meet him. Aus gave him to our neighbour, Mrs. Flores, when we got accepted into Omega Academy, and she has been keeping him healthy,” Caleb informed me with a mysterious sort of look. What the hell did that mean, anyway? No ordinary cat.

“What about the rest of you?” I asked, curious to learn more about these men who were suddenly looking like seriously permanent fixtures in my life. Could I call it a life? What I had? Ugh, philosophy hurt my brain.

“I’ve got a place in Switzerland that my mom and brother live in.” Wesley nodded. “There is an experimental spinal surgeon living there that my bro wanted to try out, so I got them a place to live nearby, seeing as it’s a pretty long process.”

“That’s why you weren’t super-concerned about Dupree coming after them?” I clicked. Back when Dupree—the mad scientist hell-bent on restoring magic to supernaturals through any means possible—had kidnapped and beaten Lucy within an inch of her life, threats had been made against the guys and their families. At the time, Wesley was the only one that I’d known had direct family who could have been at risk. The fact that they were half a world away made his lack of concern make a whole lot more sense.

“Yeah. Also, their place is not far from the Omega office in Zurich, so we have some pretty top notch surveillance in place for them.” He shrugged, like it was no big thing, but the fact that he’d gone to such lengths for his mom and brother was incredibly sweet.

“How about you, River?” I asked, and he looked back at me from the passenger seat where he sat beside our driver, who the guys had recognized and greeted as Frank.

“Family estate in England.” He grimaced. “Haven’t been back there for years though.”

He didn’t seem to want to elaborate, so I didn’t push him any further and instead prodded Cole in the shoulder.

“And you, big guy? Where’s your house?” I deliberately said house and not home, seeing as these guys clearly didn’t think of the property they owned as home.

“Montana,” he replied, turning in his seat to look at me with a half smile pulling at his lips. “I have a little piece of land out in the middle of nowhere there.”

Caleb snorted. “A little piece of land? Cole has six hundred acres. It’s a fully functioning horse ranch.”

“What?” I exclaimed, looking back at the lethal weapon of a man wrapped in a leather jacket, with colorful tattoos peeking out at the neckline. Somehow, I was finding it hard to picture him in cowboy boots and a hat. But hell, it’d be hot as fuck.

“I like horses,” he muttered, a little sheepishly.

“Cole set up one of the most well-respected horse ranches in the whole damn country,” Wesley explained. “He has people from all over the world clamoring for his horses.”

“But who runs it all? Takes care of the horses and everything?” My mind was officially blown. I was so damn impressed.

“I have a friend from the UFC scene that lives on site and oversees the day-to-day running of things, and he has a team of staff. He’s part of the reason I set it up in the first place. He’d taken a bad ankle break just as his career was starting out, and instead of making it big with the rest of us, he was stuck in the hospital and rehab learning how to walk again. He was a mad horse fan, and I had stacks of spare money... With Wesley’s business help, it wasn’t so hard to get off the ground.” Cole shrugged uncomfortably again and turned to face the front.

“Cole,” I whispered, unclipping my seatbelt to lean forward and plant a kiss on his cheek. “I think that is one of the most incredibly kind things I have ever heard. Aside from Wes buying his family a place in Zurich.” I winked at Wesley, sitting beside Cole, and he grinned back at me.

“It was nothing. Just money.” Cole clearly didn’t want to discuss it any further, so I tipped his face back to me with a palm on his rough cheek and kissed his lips.

How stupid of me to sit there enjoying this lovely moment getting to know my dianoch—because I was fairly certain that’s what they all were. The only warning we got was the high-pitched screeching of tires on pavement before our SUV was hit from the side, and we were tossed over and over like a tin can down a hill.

Finally, we came to a stop.

Stupid, fucking Kit, you just had to take your damn seatbelt off seconds before impact.

While the car had tumbled, so too had I. Like a damn shoe in a tumble dryer. Radiating pain flared from every part of my body, and I knew without a doubt that I’d done some serious damage.

But I was still conscious, so there was that.

“Kitten! Talk to me!” River barked, and I heard him grunt, then thump heavily as he must have just freed his seatbelt. The car had come to a stop upside down, so while I lay broken on my back, I was looking up at the guys strapped to their seats. Caleb was slightly behind me, so I couldn’t see if he was okay, but Cole was awake. As I lay there, waiting for my magic to repair all the breaks and bleeds, I watched Cole tear his seatbelt off like wet tissue paper, then roll as he hit the ground. Roof. Whatever.

“Vixen, hey,” he panted as he righted himself and leaned between the seats to reach me. His frame was way too big to crawl through, though so he just stretched out a hand and gently grabbed mine.

“I’m fine,” I lied. “The magic is working.” My voice was a thin, pained sound that betrayed just how much pain I was in, and Cole grimaced.

“Not fast enough though. I can... feel your pain. Like a phantom limb. Hang in there; we need to get out of this car.” He released my hand and kicked out one of the windows with his heavy combat boots.

Thank fuck for armoured glass, though. Without it, I would have been grated cheese all over the pavement. Stupid, stupid move, taking my seatbelt off.

“Guess that dragon strength is coming in handy,” I croaked, still unable to move my body but mercifully feeling the crawling, electric sensation that told me my magic was working.

Without answering me, he shimmied out through the window, and I heard him talking with River in a voice too low for me to hear. The silence from Caleb and Wesley had me beyond worried though.

“Wes?” I called out to him but got no response. He was just out of my line of sight, and I couldn’t yet turn my head to look and see how bad off he was, which infuriated me to no end.

“Caleb?” I called out a bit louder while willing my body to heal faster. One of the boys groaned in response, but I couldn’t tell which.

“Vixen,” Cole said through the busted out window. “I need to try and yank one of these doors off so we can get you out of there. Hang tight.”

Without waiting for a response, his head lifted back out of sight. Seconds later, the screeching sound of tearing metal filled the small space as Cole peeled the buckled door off the car like the lid of a sardine can.

“Leave me,” I ordered as he ducked inside once more. “Get Caleb and Wesley out. They’re not responding.”

“Vixen,” Cole chastised, but I gave him a stern glare.

“No. I’m fine right here; just get them out so I can heal them when I’m done.” Cole looked like he wanted to argue again, but after a glance at Caleb behind me, he grunted in agreement.

After a lot of swearing and awkward maneuvering around the upturned SUV, Cole managed to get both boys free of the vehicle, but they looked really bad. By the time he came back to pull me out, I had almost regained movement in my limbs, and the prickling magic was no longer the burning pain of being electrocuted. In truth, I had all but ignored the pain of healing while watching the two unconscious men being pulled from their seats.

“You good?” Cole asked quietly, crouching above me and meeting my gaze with his cold, granite eyes. His face was tense and pinched, like he, too, was in a lot of pain but just holding it back.

“Almost.” I nodded but allowed him to scoop me up in his arms. He then did a sort of backward lizard walk to get us out of the ruined car and then placing me down carefully on the grass at the side of the road.

“Kitten!” River exclaimed, leaning over me and cupping my face with one palm. The other arm, I noticed, he held close to his body.

“I’m fine, Alpha, almost done. How are Wes and Cal?” I turned my head to see where they were but couldn’t see much past River’s broad frame.

“Not so good, love. The truck hit on their side of the car, so they’re pretty messed up. Frank’s dead.” River grimaced, and I noticed sweat beading on his forehead.

“Alpha, you’re hurt.” I pointed out, struggling to sit up now that my body was almost done mending itself. “Show me?”

Holding out a hand for his injured arm, I didn’t really think twice about what I was doing until he hesitated and moved farther away from me.

“No, love. I’ll be fine. Wes and Cal need you more.” He pushed up off the ground but noticeably avoided touching me as I, too, scrambled to my feet.

“Sorry, yeah, of course. It was just...” I shrugged as I trailed off.

“Instinct. Yeah, I know. But my arm will be fine; they might not be.” He nodded his head to the two badly injured boys lying in the grass with Cole hovering over them both. Terror coursed through me as made my way over to them.

“Do we know what’s wrong?” I gasped as I sank to my knees between Caleb’s and Wesley’s bodies and laid a gentle hand on their chests. They were both in a really bad way, I could clearly see that now, but with so much blood it was hard to tell where the worst of the injuries were. Tears welled in my eyes, and I took a few shaking breaths to hold them back.

Now’s not the time, Kit. You can heal them. They’ll be okay. They have to be okay.

Cole shook his head, and I chewed my lip a moment. “Okay, doesn’t matter. Hopefully the magic goes for the most serious injuries first.” Hopefully the magic wasn’t already too depleted from healing my own body.

My skin still prickled and pulled with magic, but I shoved it aside and focused on the two dying boys under my hands. I wasn’t entirely sure I had enough juice left to heal them both fully, so I sort of hoped that by doing them simultaneously, it’d be just enough to save their lives. Hopefully. Or that was the theory.

Unlike with the little wolf girl, this healing required no coaxing or encouragement. It knew exactly what was needed. The second I opened my mind to it, I felt the odd sensation rush through my body and extend down through my fingers, pressed to the boys’ chests.

Under my left hand, it felt wet and sticky, like I had dipped my palm in a bucket of blood. Under my right, it was the distinctively silky feeling of a bird’s feathers.

Time passed with no measure as I crouched there, not daring to move until I was certain I had done everything in my power to save these two guys who had come to mean just so damn much to me. Even as I felt the magic weakening, like I was almost drained, there was still no sign of life from either of them.

As the world spun and my eyes rolled back, I sent up a quick prayer to... I don’t know who, desperately hoping that I’d done enough. That they would pull through long enough to just get some normal medical help. As I face planted into the grass, my last thought was that I hoped I hadn’t changed them.

4

When I woke, it was to the crisp, linen smell of Wesley, and I realized that it was his warm body wrapped around me like an anaconda.

Cracking my eyelids open, I found my cheek pressed into his bare chest right above his crow tattoo, and I raised a hand to stroke a finger over the delicate ink. The level of detail was exquisite, as all of the boys’ tattoos were, and I wondered again about which artist they all went to. Maybe they could take me sometime. I’d wanted a tattoo of my own for ages but hadn’t found an artist whose work I loved enough to permanently ink into my skin.

Wesley’s soft snores vibrated his chest, reassuring me that he was alive. My magic must have done more than I’d expected before I had passed out because I’d expected him and Caleb to be in a hospital or something.

He made a cute-sounding sort of snuffle, then his breathing changed slightly, indicating he was awake. His arms tightened around me, and he murmured something in a sleepy voice that I couldn’t make out.

“Wes?” I whispered, splaying my hand across his chest and admiring his physique. There was absolutely no sign of him having just been in a fatal car crash, and damn if his typical oversized T-shirts and hoodies were definitely not doing him any favors. The boy was ripped.

“Sweetheart,” he sighed with a contented sound.

“Are you okay?” I asked, tilting my head back to look at him.

“Me?” He snorted a laugh, but a small smile played at his lips. “Are you okay? You scared the crap out of everyone!”

“Yeah, of course. I just ran out of steam. Is Caleb...?” I sat up a little and looked around the room we were in. It was a basic sort of bedroom with a queen-size bed, dresser with a mirror, and two doors leading off it, presumably one to a closet and one out to the rest of the house or apartment or whatever it was that we were in. But no Caleb.

“He’s fine too. He recovered faster than me, apparently, and took off to take care of something. The guys said I was still out when we got back here, so they tucked us in together in the hopes of you soaking up a bit of energy while we slept.” He peered at me from the short distance, looking strange without his glasses on. “Did it work? You’ve been out for most of the day.”

“Oh, I’ve been out? You weren’t taking a little siesta as well?” I teased, and he grinned back at me.

“What can I say? You’re really good to snuggle.” His hand ran up my back, and he tugged me back down to the pillow. “So, are you feeling, like, recharged?”

“Um, no?” I admitted. “Not really. Definitely better than I was, given the whole no-longer-unconscious thing, but still pretty drained.”

“I thought as much.” He made a humming noise like he was thinking. “I figured you might get a small amount of energy transfer from skin to skin contact, but it’s not really enough for a full charge, right? For that you need, um, more.”

His academic curiosity was clashing with his awkward nature, and I knew he was blushing again, so I shifted onto my side. Tucking the pillow farther under my head, I snuggled in so that we were face to face.

“More. Yeah, pretty much. Seems like lots of, um, contact is only necessary from big healing, like bringing people back from near death or healing major injuries for myself. Both of which probably contributed to me passing out earlier.” I tried to keep the discussion factual so as not to make Wesley uncomfortable. “Do we know what happened? Was it an accident?”

“Not an accident.” His lips turned down in an angry sort of pout. “The truck that hit us was gone even before River got out of the car.”

“Huh.” I bit my lip as I pondered that fact. First a car bomb in New York and now a hit and run car accident in Seattle. “Someone’s trying to kill me, huh?”

“Or us...” Wesley met my gaze with a sympathetic look and stroked a long strand of my copper-red hair from off my face. How it wasn’t a tangled mess was beyond me. “I had a suspicion after the car bomb that it might be someone who was testing your powers, trying to see if you could heal anyone else. But now I’m thinking they’re deliberately targeting us. Maybe trying to force you into choosing your dianoch so that you will gain your full powers sooner? I don’t know. Just a theory.”

“Probably a pretty good theory, though. Except then they would need to have some idea of how to gain control of, well, me in order to use the power. Which can’t be good. So yeah, it definitely makes sense... but who?” I frowned, considering all my many enemies that I suddenly seemed to have. Dupree was dead, of course, but she had said there were other interested parties who were aiming to be the ones who restored the magic. Some sort of bid to become a supreme ruler, I assumed. There was Mr. Gray, my childhood abuser who had tried to purchase me in the Onyx Auction, but did he have any knowledge of the Ban Dia? I sort of had the impression that they, or we, weren’t a widely known race.

“Hey.” Wesley broke through my thoughts, smoothing his thumb over the creases in my forehead. “We can discuss it with the guys when we’re all together. Right now, though, you look pretty damn terrible.”

“Ah, thanks?” I laughed, and Wesley blushed red.

“I didn’t mean—”

“I know. I’m just teasing.” I smiled at him because I knew what he meant. I felt awful. Like I had just donated way too much blood at the Red Cross.

“I should go get Cole or...” He ran a hand through his hair in a nervous gesture but made no move to get out of bed.

“If you want...” I raised my eyebrows at him in an unspoken challenge, and he held my gaze steadily, no blushing this time.

“If I want?” he repeated.

“Yes. I don’t want you to feel pressured or obligated, so if you want to go get Cole, that’s cool.” Without me really meaning to, my tongue slid across my dry lower lip, and Wesley’s eyes tracked it like a laser beam.

“Pressured or obligated, huh?” This time when his gaze met mine, all awkwardness had gone and in its place was the heated desire he’d shown during our shared-dream bath.

“Yes,” I repeated. “I don’t want to take advantage of you, seeing as I am now the older woman.” I laughed, and he groaned, burying his face in the pillow.

“The guys will never let me live this down. It’s my birthday in just over a month, just so we’re clear.” His head popped back up, and he narrowed his eyes at me, inches from my face.

“You turn twenty-one soon?” I clarified, and he nodded. “Can we go out?”

“Can we go out? Or do you mean all of us?” His gaze darted between my eyes and lips, like he couldn’t decide which he’d rather focus on.

“Either. Both?” I shrugged, but inside I was squealing like a little girl. I had such a crush on Wesley, and despite how things were—hopefully—about to progress physically, the idea of going on a date with him made my belly erupt with butterflies.

“Hmm, I think we can manage that,” he agreed. “On one condition.”

“Oh? What’s that?” I had a fair idea but was really enjoying this confident Wesley.

“Kiss me,” he whispered.

Believe me when I say I did not need to be told twice. Closing the short distance between us, I touched my lips to his in a gentle, teasing kiss. For a moment, he stayed still and allowed me to kiss him lightly, but when I made to move away, his hand grasped my face and pulled me back to him.

This time as our lips met, it was with the urgency of months of pent up desire. His tongue met mine in a clash of passion while he rolled me onto my back and situated himself above me. Just as had happened in our dream-that-wasn’t-a-dream, it was like a switch had been flipped and all of a sudden we could barely get enough of each other.

Hands were roaming everywhere, and before I knew it, my loose T-shirt was on the floor and Wesley’s lips were around one of my nipples while my fingers threaded into his hair. A breathy moan escaped me as he sucked and licked at my hardened peaks, causing little shock waves of pleasure to vibrate through me. My legs seemed to have a life of their own as they wrapped around Wesley’s waist and pulled his hips flush with mine, his rock hard shaft pressing through thin fabric against my throbbing groin.

“Fuck, sweetheart,” he muttered, releasing my breast and reclaiming my lips in a searing hot kiss. My hands slipped from his hair down to his waist and quickly located the band of his shorts.

His lips paused against mine as I slipped a hand inside his tight boxers and dragged a teasing finger down the length of his erection.

“Kit,” he murmured, shivering visibly and grinding his teeth. “Don’t tease.”

“Sorry,” I smirked, not the least bit sorry, but I did wrap my hand more securely around him and gave a few slow strokes. He groaned low in his throat, then recaptured my lips with a frenzy while my hand explored his rigid flesh.

“Bugger, love.” River’s voice was like a bucket of ice water, and we froze. “You have no idea how bad I do not want to interrupt this right now.”

“I think we have some idea,” I muttered, looking over to the door where the sexy Brit leaned against the frame in sharply pressed suit pants and a white dress shirt. His sleeves were rolled up, showing his tanned forearms. Or rather, forearm. Singular. The other arm was encased in a sleek-looking black cast and suspended across his chest by a sling.

“I just bet you do, Kitten.” His heated look reminded me of our bedroom session back in Alaska with Cole, and I gave Wesley’s cock another firm stroke while River watched.

“Sweetheart, you’re killing me,” Wesley protested. “Can we kick him out and continue?”

“Tempting.” I winked at Wes, then raised an eyebrow at River. “Mind giving us a minute or twenty, Alpha?”

“I seriously wish I could,” River sighed. “But Director Pierre is here and demanding to see you. Figured you might not want him barging in here while you’re... like this...”

“Shit,” Wesley swore, then gave me a quick kiss and rolled off to clamber out of bed. “Sorry, sweetheart. I need this job. To be continued?”

“Count on it,” I promised, watching him quickly dress but making no sudden movements myself. Once he had yanked on a pair of loose jeans and one of his signature oversized T-shirts, he leaned back over the bed and kissed me again, this time more slowly. Taking his time, almost like he was memorizing the shape of my lips, he cupped one of my bare breasts in his palm and rolled the nipple between his fingers until River cleared his throat loudly.

“I’ll get to planning my birthday date then,” Wesley whispered to me, then darted out of the room past his scowling team leader.

“Kitten,” River prompted, raising an eyebrow over one of his beautiful golden eyes. “Are you going to get dressed?”

“Do I have to?” I pouted teasingly, running my hands across my naked chest and resting them on my breasts. “What if I’m not fully back to normal yet?” That actually wasn’t a line. My energy was still noticeably low, but it wasn’t exactly surprising given the amount of magic it must have taken to heal myself, Wesley, and Caleb.

“Then I have no doubt we will be able to help you out after your father leaves the apartment. But none of us particularly want to be caught with our pants down around his daughter, as I’m sure you can imagine.” River’s words made logical sense, but his gaze followed my hands as I gently caressed my own breasts then slid one hand down my belly until it reached the waistband of my panties.

“Sounds fair,” I agreed, sliding my panties down my legs and kicking them aside. “But I’m not going to sit there and be berated by my Dad while I’m this worked up. So come in and watch or don’t, but either way, close the door, would you?”

River said nothing but took a step inside the room and slammed the door tightly behind him before leaning his back against it and pinning me with an intense stare. “Quickly, Kitten. These doors don’t have locks.” His rich accent rolled over me, and I grinned. Quick, I could do.

Wesley had already gotten me hot and bothered, so it barely required much effort at all before I came hard around my own fingers while River’s unblinking stare seared into me. His suit pants were looking rather snug by the time I was done, and he crossed the gap between us in two long strides to kiss me hard before making a somewhat animalistic growl and slamming out of the room again.

Biting back a laugh at his expense, I heaved my exhausted ass out of the bed and scouted around for some clothes.

Hopefully the weird vibe I had been getting from Jonathan was just gas or something and we’d be back to normal when we spoke. I guessed we would soon find out.

5

Why do they even make coffee mugs this small? Who drinks so little coffee? I had reached the bottom of my cup, again, and stood to refill it. As helpful as that quick makeout with Wesley had been, it hadn’t been anywhere near enough to fully recharge me after healing myself and the two boys from near fatal wounds. No two ways about it, I was wrecked.

Jonathan didn’t seem like he was in any great hurry to leave, either, so I was trucking along on a solid-caffeine fuel system. Until now. How the fuck was the coffee pot empty?

“Don’t give me that look,” Caleb chuckled, having followed me over to the kitchen. “You’re the only one that has been drinking it.”

He had been waiting out in the living room when I’d finally redressed myself and come to join everyone and he was being... weird. To say the least. My only guess was that he was freaking out about what my healing him might have done, and that was understandable. I was freaking out, too.

Shaking the coffee pot a couple more times, just in case I’d missed some, I pouted and gave Caleb my very best please caffeinate me face. He rolled his eyes at me but did dig around in the fridge and pass me out a bottled Starbucks Iced Latte.

“Better than nothing,” he told me as I read the label and wrinkled my nose.

“Pumpkin Spice Latte? Blergh. Pumpkins are vegetables and don’t belong in coffee, Cal.” My exhaustion was making me bitchy, but that was an opinion I’d stick by.

“Oh, well, if you don’t want it...” He reached out to take it from me, and I snatched it away with a decidedly Gollum-sounding noise.

“It’s caffeinated; I’ll take it.” I grumbled my way back to the living area and took my seat on the couch between Cole and River once again. The two of them had been maintaining as much skin to skin contact with me as they’d been able to without it turning into a dirty makeout session in front of my adopted dad, who was also their boss. It was definitely helping, but it was also making me edgy and fidgety waiting for Jonathan to leave already.

To my disappointment, the weirdness I’d been getting from him after Vali’s near death, and my subsequent rescue from what could have ended up as a life of sex slavery, was not all in my head. If anything, it was worse now.

“All right, I think I have all the relevant information now,” Dad finally said as I twisted the lid from my gross pumpkin coffee thing and Cole slipped his hand under my T-shirt to rest on my lower back.

“Finally,” I grumbled, and he gave me a look. A typical parent type of look.

“Do you have any leads on who might have been responsible for this crash today?” Jonathan continued, turning his attention back to River, who shook his head.

“No, sir. Not the crash or the car bomb. But whoever it is, we’ll find them sooner or later,” River stated confidently, and Jonathan raised his silver eyebrows.

“But you have no leads?” my Dad clarified, and River shrugged.

“We’re the best for a reason, Director. After all, we did catch the notorious Fox, didn’t we?” River’s knee bumped mine, and I snorted. Technically yes, they had caught me. But if we were being technical about it, they were also going to let me go.

“Mm, and now that brings us to you, darling daughter.” Jonathan turned his business face toward me, and I just grinned at him. Maybe if I acted like nothing was wrong, he’d stop being a damn weirdo.

“Yes, Father dear?” I teased back, and he grimaced. Our relationship had really never settled into a true parent/child situation, so the titles made us both cringe a bit.

“Tell me what you learned from this Vic character? Did he give you any insight into your powers? Or your history?” He leaned forward with his forearms resting on his knees, and I caught the guys glancing at me.

“Um, a bit, yeah.” Ugh, this is hard. I had no idea how much I was really prepared to tell him about all of this. Yes, he was the closest thing I had to family, other than Lucy, but he was also the owner and director of a secret intelligence organization. Did I really trust that he wouldn’t try and utilize my abilities to further his own agenda?

“Well? Are you going to fill me in, kiddo?” Jonathan frowned, and I knew he thought I was being cagey. Which I absolutely was.

“Maybe later? I’m still processing all the information. It was a lot to take in. Oh, but apparently I’m already twenty-one! My name and age that I thought I knew when social services took me in was apparently planted information. So... there’s that.” I shrugged uncomfortably as his brows shot up in surprise.

“ All right, maybe tomorrow you might tell me more?” Jonathan suggested gently, and I nodded. “For now, let’s sort out what is to happen here. Kit, the new recruit class already started two weeks ago, so you’ll need to do a bit of extra work to catch up. You’ll be assigned a room in the girls’ dorms, and someone can come by later this afternoon to show you the way. Alpha team, I understand that Kit is taking responsibility for your insubordination, but I am assigning you office duties for a month regardless. You can stay here in this apartment for the duration, until your next assignment.”

“Wait.” I sat forward. “You mean I can’t stay here with them?”

“You’re a new recruit, not a member of their team,” Jonathan explained. “Regardless of our personal connection, it simply doesn’t make sense to have you up here in the apartment tower when the rest of your class will be in the dorms.”

“That’s not going to work for us, Director,” River interjected, taking one of my hands with his non-injured one. “Respectfully, Kit is not like your other recruits. We’d prefer she remain up here with us, and one of us will need to sit in on her classes. Someone has tried to kill her, I can’t even count how many times, and I know I speak for the whole team when I say I’m simply not comfortable letting her out of our sight at the moment.”

Jonathan opened his mouth to respond, but Cole cut him off. “As her father, I don’t imagine you have an issue with this request. Right, Director?”

For a split second, Jonathan looked almost annoyed, then a very brittle smile pasted across his face. “Of course not. I simply thought it would be better for Kit to fit in if she were in the dorms with the other new recruits. But you’re absolutely right that her safety is my top priority. Which would you prefer, kiddo?”

“Uh.” I frowned at Jonathan, considering his reasoning. But I wasn’t a new high school kid trying to fit in, and I really couldn’t care less if the other recruits didn’t like me over something as stupid as where my bedroom was. “I’d prefer to stay with the guys, thanks.”

My foster-father narrowed his eyes at me briefly, then pasted his fake smile back on. “Very well then. River, I trust you can make necessary room arrangements with housekeeping? Perhaps the twins can share so that Kit will have her own room.”

Caleb snorted, then covered it with a cough when Jonathan speared him with a glare. “Gentlemen, let me remind you that I am still the Director of Omega, and despite me allowing you certain liberties when they pertain to my daughter, I will not tolerate insubordination. Is that perfectly clear?”

A chorus of “Yes, sir” came from all four guys, and Jonathan nodded his approval.

“Right then. Caleb, please show Kit where her classes will be held starting tomorrow morning; the instructors are waiting to meet her. Then report to my office.” Jonathan stayed seated, and it became pretty clear we’d just been dismissed.

Shit. Looked like I was going to need more coffee until we could get back to the apartment and, um, recharge.

“C’mon, Kitty Kat.” Caleb held out a hand to pull me up from the couch. “I’ll buy you a coffee on the way.”

“So long as it’s not this vegetable flavored crap,” I muttered, placing the empty bottle of pumpkin spice latte down and taking his hand. The sooner we could get this meeting over and done with, the sooner we could get back. Maybe even work out what effects my magic might have had on Caleb and Wesley.

MEETING with the Omega instructors was nothing short of painful. They all seemed to be making a less than subtle point that they didn’t care whose daughter I was and that I would have a lot of work to do to catch up. They made it sound like I’d missed months, not two weeks, but I did as was expected and nodded, smiled, and shook their hands politely.

“See,” I whispered to Caleb as we walked out of another classroom. “I can be tactful when needed.”

He snorted a laugh and slid a hand around my waist. “Sure you can, Kitty Kat. Let’s see how long that lasts, huh?”

“I’m not that bad. I’m just irritable when I’m exhausted. Are we almost done? You promised me coffee, remember?” I pouted up at him in my very best sad-puppy face.

“I did. We have one last stop to make, but I have a better idea than coffee.” He gave me a mischievous wink, then looked around to make sure no one was watching before steering me through an unmarked door.

“Cal... what are we doing in a janitor’s closet?” I raised an eyebrow at him as he closed the door behind us and flicked a light on.

“Kitty Kat, you’re exhausted, and we both know it’s from low magic, not lack of sleep. Coffee is not going to fix it, and this next instructor is known for his chatter. Will you let me help you? If I can, that is...” He ducked my gaze and inspected his shoes in a rare display of shyness.

“What do you mean, if you can?” My brain never did work particularly well when I was tired, so I was missing the point.

“Well, your dianoch are a choice, not fate. I don’t want to assume that you’ve chosen me or even if you’ve chosen at all. You know?” He shrugged his broad shoulders but still dodged my eye contact.

“Oh my God, Caleb King...” I cupped his cheek in my palm and brought his face back up to meet my gaze. “You’re freaking adorable.”

Pulling him closer, I caught the small smile on his lips right before they met mine in a searing hot kiss. My hands wrapped around his neck while his circled my waist, his body pushing me back until I was pressed into the door. His mouth slanted over mine in a possessive kiss, his tongue slipping between my lips and meeting mine while little lightning bolts of excitement shot through me.

Are we seriously doing this in the janitor’s closet at what was turning out to be my new school?

Obviously. It wasn’t school. But it was Spy School, and the whole layout of the classes, campus, and teachers—sorry, instructors—made it very much seem like school. Which made what I was doing with Caleb all that much hotter.

“How far does this need to go?” Caleb asked, a little short of breath as his hand slipped under the fabric of my T-shirt and caressed my waist.

“Um, usually just depends on how much magic needs replacing? But... this is sort of the first time I’ve known that is what’s happening so... I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Why? How far did you want to go?”

Caleb pulled back from me an inch or so and cocked a brow. “Seriously, Kitty Kat?”

A smile crept across my face at his expression, and he ducked forward to kiss me once more. Hard. He pulled back and peered at me in the dim light.

“Okay, Instructor Green is still expecting us, so we need to be quick, but... Kitty you used a lot of magic. Judging by these bags under your eyes, you didn’t get far with Wes before you got interrupted, huh?” He stroked a gentle thumb under my eye, and I nodded. “So we’d better be quick? But... thorough.”

“Sounds perfect,” I grinned and met him halfway as he leaned back in to kiss me again. This time, it was with a little more urgency, given our time constraints.

The need to rush was actually making me all the more excited, and my breath was coming in short gasps as we quickly stripped each other of our clothes. One of the guys had left a bag of clothes in the bedroom for me, so I’d been able to dress in fresh clothes before speaking to Jonathan, but they were just standard issue Omega sweats, and took no effort at all to remove.

“Fucking Christ, Kitty Kat,” Caleb whispered, running his hands down my body, cupping my breasts and rolling my nipples between his fingers before continuing on. Over my belly then circling my waist, the feeling of his rough palms on my skin made me want to moan, or purr, or something.

“Don’t tease, Cal,” I replied, giving him a taste of his own medicine by trailing my nails slowly down the muscles of his broad back. “Quick but thorough, right?”

“Who am I to argue?” he gasped as I circled one hand around to his front and grasped a hold of his rock hard shaft. “What was that about teasing, Kitty?”

I grinned and shifted my grip back to his shoulders. No words were necessary as he slid his palms under my butt, lifting me and slamming my back against the door at the same time as he slammed his cock home into me.

“Oh, fuck,” I groaned, the stinging pain of his abrupt entry fading into an almost overwhelming pleasure as he pumped into me a couple of times, only pulling back the slightest fraction before crashing back in.

“Kitty...” he panted as my mouth found his neck. “Babe, you feel... incredible. Like you were made for me. Us. Fuck, why is the idea of sharing you such a goddamn turn on?”

“I blame the magic,” I joked, kissing up the side of his neck while he thrust long, hard strokes into my aching pussy.

“That’s so not it, but I’ll take it.” He snickered, tilting his head down to grab my lips once more in a scalding kiss. With my legs crossed behind him, I tried to pull him closer with every thrust, even though he had total control over our pace.

Fuck meeting teachers; this is a way better use of time.

“Gotta be quick right?” Caleb murmured in my ear as he broke from our kiss, then gently tugged my earlobe with his teeth.

“I guess,” I gasped, rolling in waves on waves of pleasure as he nailed me against the door with his solid frame.

“Remember that time when we were escaping Blood Moon?” he whispered into my ear, and I frowned, confused why he’d be asking about our past brushes with death at a time like this. “And we hid in a janitor’s closet, just like this?” Okay, I possibly see where this is going... “You were pressed in between me and Austin?”

Oh fuck. Yes, I damn well did remember that moment. Vividly. Not only had the twins just saved my ass in a big way, Caleb had made some joke about a Kit sandwich. Before I could stop it, my orgasm crashed over me, and my sheath clenched Caleb’s cock hard while I came, coaxing him over the cliff with me until we both ended up limp and panting. The only things holding me up were Caleb’s still-pulsing dick inside me and his hips pinning my body to the door.

“I knew it,” Caleb whispered, giving me a small smile of victory. “You’re into him, too.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I lied, slowly peeling my legs from around his waist and finding my feet. Of course I knew what he was talking about. I’d just come hard picturing myself sandwiched between the King twins. Naked.

“Sure, Kitty Kat.” Caleb almost reluctantly stepped back from me and looked around the small closet. “Here,” he grabbed a roll of toilet tissue from one of the shelves and handed it to me.

“Thanks.” I laughed, taking the paper and doing a speedy cleanup before pulling my clothes back on.

“Feeling better?” he asked, running a hand through his messy top section of hair, and I bit back a sarcastic response. My natural reaction was to poke fun at him for being a cocky male, but in this case it really had been to make me feel better. And I did. Unbelievably so.

“Thank you,” I told him sincerely, leaning up to kiss him softly.

“Anytime, Kitty Kat.” He grinned, opening the door for me and winking. “And I do mean any time.”

Biting my lip to hide the giddy, lovestruck smile, I linked my fingers with his and let him lead me down the hall to our next meeting. My skin was buzzing with fresh energy, and I felt like I could climb a mountain, wrestle a bear, or run a marathon.

The world was my oyster when I had my guardians by my side.

6

Caleb needed to run an errand, so he left me at the lobby of the housing building. When I got back up to the apartment, our apartment, only Cole was there, sitting on the edge of the coffee table as he tied his sneakers.

“Vixen.” He smiled as I came into the room, and I smiled back brightly. “You look considerably better. I take it you and Caleb found a spare moment on your tour of the training facility?”

“We did...” I trailed off and bit my lip, not totally sure how okay the guys all were with our unusual relationship.

“Lucky fucker,” Cole muttered, finishing tying his shoe, then he stood and grabbed me for a kiss. “This is going to take some getting used to, but we’re in. One hundred percent. Never doubt that, Vixen.”

My eyes narrowed. “How did you just know what I was thinking? Oh fuck, do not tell me you can hear my thoughts or something now!”

“As much as I’d kill for that ability…” He pondered for a moment. “No, I can’t. Yet. Ever since you healed me though, I’ve been able to kind of feel your emotions. Like right then, I could feel you were nervous.”

“Ah, I see. So when the car crash happened, you could...” I trailed off as I thought this new development over.

“Feel your pain?” he finished for me. “Yeah. I imagine Vali could too, which is why my phone has been blowing up all day.”

“It has? How come you haven’t answered?” I pulled back from his embrace and scowled at him while he looked unapologetic.

“Because he’s an asshole, and it’s going to take way more than a black eye to mend shit between us.” He grabbed his phone off the coffee table and tucked it in his pocket. “Come for a run with me, and you can call him back.”

“Why not now?” I asked curiously, but he just shook his head.

“Go change. There should be clothes for you in the closet through there.” He pointed back through to the bedroom I had woken up in with Wesley.

“Fine, but can we call Lucy too? I just want to make sure she’s still safe. That Finn guy being one of her therapists cannot have been a coincidence.” I started to make my way to the bedroom, but Cole grabbed me by the hand and tugged me back to him for another kiss.

“Of course we can. Now hurry up; I want to be back when the guys are.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes, but once again I could feel that same dazed sort of smile on my face, like I was a loved up schoolgirl with her first boyfriend. Boyfriends. As if finding out I was a Ban Dia wasn’t confusing enough, now I had to remember to pluralize “boyfriend” in my own head.

“OKAY,” I huffed when Cole eventually stopped. “Why did we have to go so damn far before calling Vali back?”

The Omega Headquarters was not technically in Seattle like the guys had said; it was on the outskirts, surrounded by some hundred and fifty acres of forest and fields. Definitely the perfect location for a spy facility and training ground.

“Because we are at the headquarters of the leading private security firm in the world, Vixen. Surveillance tech to spy on our calls is a given.” He stretched out on the grass beneath a huge oak tree and looked up at me.

“Private security, huh?” I teased. “That what we’re calling espionage these days? And why would being out here be any different? We’re still on Omega property and it’s a cellphone, so wouldn’t it still be tapped?”

“This isn’t Get Smart, Vix. Our phones aren’t tapped. There is a system in place that allows Omega to listen in to any phone conversation within a certain radius, regardless of whose phone it is. That way we don’t have to go to the trouble of tapping every phone that enters the premise.” He yawned and folded his arms behind his head, causing his colorfully inked biceps to bulge.

“You totally just said tapped, too,” I grumbled, “But I assume we’ve come this far to be outside the, um, field?” I was going to need to brush up on my spy terminology if this was my life now.

“We have. Given my older brother’s profession, I thought maybe it wasn’t a good idea to have his calls recorded.” Cole scowled when I looked at him in surprise. “I’m not a total dickhead, Vixen. Just because Vali and I have our differences doesn’t mean I want to see him put in jail for our father’s crimes. I have it on good authority that he’s actually working to legalize all of the Balaur income streams.”

“Balaur?” I repeated, and he grimaced.

“It’s the name of Vali’s organization, which was founded by our grandfather back in Romania and brought to America by our father when we were just kids. It means “dragon” in Romanian. The dragon was always on our family crest, and when we were little our grandmother used to tell us tales of how our family was descended from dragons.” His lips quirked in a half smile. “Guess that doesn’t sound so crazy now.”

“It sure doesn’t, but it is an awfully large coincidence, don’t you think?” I sat down under the tree and leaned my back against it, catching the phone that Cole tossed to me.

“No such thing as coincidences. Make your call; he’s in the contacts under Dick. I’ll give you some privacy.” Cole pushed up off the ground in a stupidly impressive body roll and stalked off into the forest.

Tapping the phone against my palm, I watched him walk away and thought about what he’d just said. He was absolutely right. Given everything going on, with the Blood Moon testing, the Ban Dia, the magical plague... there was no such thing as coincidences. So how did Jonathan and Omega Group play into it all?

My thoughts were broken by the phone vibrating in my hand, showing an incoming call from Dick. I smiled at the stupid insult Cole had saved his brother under and answered the call.

“Andrei, you little shit! Why haven’t you been answering your goddamn phone?” Vali’s polished, international accent clipped angrily. He had the type of accent that couldn’t be placed anywhere, which was probably a result of moving from Romania as a kid.

“Well hello to you too, Dragomir,” I teased and was met with a long pause.

“Dragă, you have no idea how relieved I am to hear your voice. I have called my dickhead brother some fifty times today, and he hasn’t picked up. What happened? Why were you in so much pain?” His voice came down the line in a rush of concern, and I was struck by how much he genuinely seemed to care.

“I’m fine, Vali. It was nothing. Just a little incident with a truck hitting our car on the way from the airport.” That was easily one of the most ridiculous sentences I had ever said.

“Was anyone else hurt?” Vali asked, in a quiet voice.

“Caleb and Wes. I needed to heal them both, or they would have died. The driver did die.” I suppressed a shudder. That poor man could have been any one of us.

“Ah, that was the exhaustion I felt from you then. I am, of course, assuming this isn’t news to you? Cole must surely be having these same... side effects?” he asked tentatively, and I chuckled.

“Side effects? Yeah, he mentioned it. You could have told me sooner, you know?” My tone was scolding, but I wasn’t all that mad. We hadn’t really had a huge amount of time to shoot the breeze over pizza and beer.

“Yes, absolutely, I do apologize for that. So you’re all okay? Everyone is... whole?” he clarified, and I smiled again to myself.

“Everyone is whole. Except River, who looks like he has a broken arm but hasn’t let me heal him yet.” I huffed a little at this. Damn stubborn man. I’d need to corner him when I got back to the apartment.

“I’m not surprised.” Vali snorted, and in the background there was the muffled sound of voices. “Dragă, I do apologize, but I must go. Business calls.”

“Oh, of course. Totally understandable,” I said, and there was another pause on his end.

“Will you—” he started, then had to answer someone in the background in Romanian. “Would you maybe call me again when you get your own phone? I wish we had gotten you one before leaving Alaska.”

My teeth caught the edge of my bottom lip, and I tried to hold back that damn goofy smile that kept appearing on my face all of a sudden. Our departure out of Harrow had been so quick that there had been no time to buy a phone for me, even if there had been somewhere to buy one, but I’d assumed Jonathan would have one for me.

“Of course. Um, tomorrow night okay? I have to start classes with the recruits tomorrow.” I tried to sound upbeat about it, but I really wasn’t looking forward to being the new kid. At least I’d have one of the guys with me, though.

“Tomorrow night is perfect. Please remember though, dragă. I almost got on a plane to that damn headquarters myself today when Andrei wouldn’t call me back.” He laughed as he said it, but I had no doubt he was telling the truth.

“Don’t do that, Vali. You’re a known crime lord; you’ve probably got a bounty on your head or something!” I was only marginally exaggerating. I knew first hand about bounties, as I’d acquired a couple myself in my double life as The Fox, international thief extraordinaire.

“Well then, don’t forget to call me.” He paused. “Sleep well, Vulpe.”

The dial tone sounded in my ear before I had a chance to respond, so I disconnected the call and quickly Googled the phone number for Lucy’s fancy rehab in New York. To my disappointment, it rang through to an answering service advising that the receptionists were currently on other calls.

“You ready to head back?” Cole asked, appearing from out of the trees with barely a sound—which was damn impressive given the size of him and the amount of dead twigs and things on the ground.

“Yeah, no one is answering at Lucy’s rehab, so I’ll try her again later.” I shivered a little, noticing for the first time how freezing cold my butt was where I’d been sitting on the ground.

Cole reached out a hand and pulled me to my feet. “Let me know, and we can come back out here. She’s bound to ask questions about what you found out in Harrow, and I feel like you’re not ready to share that information with anyone outside our circle?”

“Pretty much. I don’t know; Jonathan has been acting really weird ever since he picked me up from Vali’s place, don’t you think?” I left my hand in his as we started slowly making our way back to the buildings at the center of the Omega grounds.

“Very much so. He’s all but interrogating the guys right now, you know.” Cole glanced at me, then tugged me in close to his side, wrapping an arm around me.

“Seriously? What about?” I was getting such a bad feeling about his behavior. It was like he’d been body snatched or something. “And how come not you?”

Cole huffed a rather dragon-like laugh. “I went first and said nothing, so he gave up. He knows better than to try and interrogate me, of all people.” He planted a casual kiss on the top of my head as we walked. “But he’s really interested in hearing about your healing abilities. None of us are cracking, obviously, until we know what you want said, but he knows more than he should.”

My heart sank with the poisonous feeling of betrayal. “Do you think he had anything to do with the car crash? Or the bomb?”

There was a long pause before he said anything.

“Vixen,” Cole sighed heavily. “I think he loves you. But I think you should be careful around him until we figure out what’s going on.”

“I agree.” I nodded, but my stomach was twisting up in knots so hard it felt like I was going to vomit. Surely the man who’d rescued me from Suzette’s and raised me for the past five years couldn’t be a bad guy. I’d have known. Right?

“Did you speak with Vali?” Cole asked, changing the subject.

“I did. Oh, actually that reminds me, I was meaning to ask him but forgot.” I paused and looked up at him. “When I was at his place in Vegas, there were a couple of times that he knew I was in trouble before I was. How is that even possible? Is it, like, a dianoch thing? Like, do you know when bad shit is about to happen to me? Or, did you before I healed you?”

“Vixen, you need to stop acting like we were all fated to be together. You chose, consciously or not. So no... it has nothing to do with Vali being one of your dianoch, and it’s unfortunately not a skill any of the rest of us have.” Cole scowled. “But it would be damn useful.”

“Huh. Okay so, what is it then? Do you know? I guess I should have just asked him on the phone.” I shivered and cuddled into Cole’s warmth. Now that we weren’t running, my thin sweater wasn’t really enough.

“Ah, yeah. You still should, next time you speak to him. I assume he made you promise to call him practically every hour?” Cole huffed, tightening his arms around me and surrounding me with his burning ember smell. Like an old campfire.

“Tomorrow night, not every hour. So you won’t tell me then?” I pulled back from his warm chest to narrow my eyes at him. “What if I asked really nicely?”

“Vixen.” He grinned. “Is that an offer of bribery?”

I shrugged and winked at him, causing him to bark a laugh.

“You know I can never say no to you,” he muttered, bending down to kiss me. His lips caressed mine gently, slowly, in a way that he knew full well was making me want more.

“I can’t tell you everything,” he said, breaking from our kiss and leaving me a bit dazed and out of breath. Damn man. “You know we have different mothers?”

“Yes.” I nodded, retrieving my train of thought from where I’d dropped it during Cole’s kiss. “Vali’s mom died after he was born, and your asshole father got re-married to your mom?”

“Exactly. So I couldn’t say for sure, but I suspect his ability to sense danger is from his birth mom. She was Romani, and our grandmother always used to tell stories about the Romani people’s magical powers—the most common of which is their power of foresight.” Cole tucked me back into his side and started walking again.

“I see.” I pondered. “And that’s why fortune tellers always seem to be Gypsies?”

“It is. But some people consider Gypsy to be a derogatory term, so stick with Traveler or Romani.” He sounded like he was rolling his eyes, but I couldn’t see from where I was glued to his side while we walked. “Come on, Vix. Let’s get back and see what the guys have to say about the grilling from Director Pierre.”

7

When we got back to the apartment, River and Wesley were both in the kitchen cooking what looked like some sort of stir-fry that smelled incredible.

“Where’s Caleb?” I asked, looking around and not seeing the playful twin anywhere.

“He went into town to pick up some supplies,” River replied, handing me a glass of water, which I took gratefully. Cole and I had ended up jogging the rest of the way back to the house, and despite my superspeed, I was still thirsty as all heck.

“Why?” Cole frowned, leaning on the barstool beside where I had perched. “We can get everything we need from the on-site store.”

“I know.” River scowled. “He said something vague about needing something specific.”

Cole grunted, and River’s mouth tightened just a fraction.

“Leave it, Cole,” Wesley interjected while stirring something in a wok. “We’re all on suspension. Caleb can do whatever he wants until we’re back on active duty.”

My eyebrows shot up, and I grinned at the irritated look on River’s face. Made me want to poke the wolf a little, so to speak.

“River... does this mean they don’t have to do what you say?” I teased, and he pinned me with his golden gaze.

“Technically, no. But it would be advisable, nonetheless. For all of you.” Heat flared in his eyes, and desire pooled in my stomach. There was no mistaking the double meaning there. Especially after learning first hand how much he enjoyed giving orders.

“Can you two go shower?” Wesley prompted. “Dinner will be ready in ten.”

The corner of Cole’s mouth pulled up in a wicked smile as he turned to me. “Guess we had better shower fast then, Vixen.”

“Make that five minutes,” Wesley snapped, narrowing his eyes at Cole, then winking at me so I knew he was teasing.

“Lucky there are two showers then, hmm?” River smirked, and Cole glared back at him.

“Good lord, what do you all take me for? Some sort of nympho?” I muttered not-so-quietly as I headed into the room where my clothes had been put. In fairness though, I had automatically thought about showering with Cole. So they weren’t totally off base.

The whole Ban Dia to dianoch relationship was seriously upping my sex drive. Or at least that was what I was going to blame it on.

Ugh, maybe a cold shower might be more appropriate.

I quickly rushed through my shower and was back into the dining area just in time for Wesley to dish up his creation. Cole reappeared moments after me, wearing nothing but loose black sweatpants that hung low on his hips, like they were deliberately underlining his defined Adonis belt. Water droplets still clung to his cropped black hair, dripping off and running down his brightly inked chest then over his—

Oh fuck, Kit. Close your damn mouth!

“So, um…” I cleared my throat, realizing all three guys were watching me and looking very amused. “Did you, ah, what...?” Stop it! Stop babbling!

“Yes, love?” River prompted, with a sarcastically innocent look on his face. Asshole.

Taking a slow breath, I tried again. “What did Jonathan want to ask you all about?”

Yes, excellent! Complete sentence! Kit one. Sexy, half-naked, tattooed god of a man... Okay fine, he still wins this round.

“You,” River responded succinctly, taking the seat opposite me at the dinner table. “Or more specifically, your abilities. He is really fascinated by what you did for Vali and wanted to know if you’d healed any of the rest of us.” He indicated to his arm, still suspended in a black mesh sling across his body. “This made it pretty obvious you hadn’t healed me, but Cole, Caleb, and Wes coming out of that car wreck seemingly unharmed...” He shrugged.

“Why haven’t I healed that for you yet?” I frowned, reaching out to take his hand. “I’m getting better at it now. I think.”

“No need, love.” River leaned back just a fraction of an inch, almost unnoticeably, but enough that my fingers didn’t touch him. “It’s just a fracture. Shouldn’t take long to heal at all, and you need to save your magic for people who need it more.”

“We sort of get the feeling there might be more disasters going on around you, sweetheart,” Wesley added. “Especially if someone is doing this to deliberately test your healing ability.”

What Wesley said made sense, but I was fixating on that small motion River had made to dodge contact with me.

“I would never heal you against your wishes, Alpha.” I frowned, feeling just a little insulted. “I get that I’m new to this whole magic thing, but I’m not going to just run around shoving it down people’s throats uninvited. You don’t have to avoid touching me.”

“I’m sorry, Kitten,” River apologized. “I didn’t think you would; you’re just so quick to help other people. But I really am fine. It’s not the first time I’ve broken my arm.”

“You’re worried about what it’ll do to you, aren’t you?” I pressed, wanting to understand why he wanted to be in pain when I was capable of healing him. “You’re worried that if I mend the break in your arm that you’ll be the next one to turn scaly, right?”

River’s mouth tightened, his only tell that he wasn’t as calm and collected as he was portraying, and I knew I’d hit the nail on the head.

“Look, I don’t know exactly how this magic works, but I don’t feel like a little healing, like mending your arm, would be enough to turn you into anything else.” I chewed the edge of my lip. “I just mean, with Cole and Vali, I had to spend a really solid amount of time healing them, and we still don’t know if it affected Caleb and Wes before I passed out. Did it?” I looked over to the blond boy sitting beside me at the table.

“Um.” Wesley swallowed his mouthful and took a sip of water before replying. “I’m not totally sure.”

“What do you mean?” I paused with food halfway to my mouth. Surely he would know by now?

“Well, just that. I’m not totally sure. It took Cole like, what, a day or so to start going scaly? So it could still be a while before we know if anything is different.” Wes gave me an apologetic sort of smile, pushing his glasses back up his nose. “But if there is anything, you know, different, well then, that’s okay.”

“Umm.” I was at a loss for words.

“I mean, I’m not going to be upset or anything. You seem really concerned that you’ve somehow doomed us, but that’s just not how I see it.” His gaze was steady, without a hint of dishonesty. “If you have chosen us all as your dianoch, not that I’m assuming you have, but if you have, then we will need to be changed sooner or later. Right? Otherwise we’re a liability to you. Also, I think there is way more to the Ban Dia bond with the dianoch that Vic didn’t let on about.”

“Like what?” River asked.

“Well, I don’t really know. But having bonded guardians as nothing more than a battery pack to recharge on? I don’t buy it. It’s too... simple. There must be more to it than that. Otherwise, why would the original Ban Dia have sought out the most physically and mentally capable men? Why not men they loved or cared for? Vic was very specific that they chose based on physical attributes, which leads me to think there is more to it than pure energy transfer.” Wesley blushed and ducked his head away from my surprised gaze. “But that’s just a working theory.”

“It’s a good working theory,” Cole murmured in his quiet, smoky voice.

“Keep me updated if you come up with more,” River ordered, and Wesley nodded.

“So... Caleb?” I asked after finishing my own mouthful. One thing was for damn sure, Wesley and River could cook. My plate was empty already, and I was licking my fork.

“Not sure,” River frowned just the tiniest bit. “But I have no doubt we will find out sooner or later. So long as he doesn’t get himself into any trouble.”

“Again,” Cole added, and I cocked my head in question. “Story for another day, Vixen. You done?” He reached out and took my empty plate from me, taking them through to the kitchen to stack in the dishwasher.

Holy hotness. How did I end up with guys who could cook and clean?

“How are you feeling, anyway?” River turned his attention back to me. “You seriously drained yourself after the accident, but you look like you’re back to normal?”

My cheeks flushed with heat, and I bit my lip, not shying away from his gaze. “Uh-huh. Wesley and Caleb were very helpful.”

From beside me, I heard Wesley choke on his water and splutter a little.

“You okay?” I asked, concerned as hell but also trying not to laugh. Messing with Wesley was going to be fun.

“Yup.” He nodded frantically, a bit red in the face from coughing. “I need to check some things...” he trailed off and disappeared into one of the bedrooms.

“Naughty, Kitten. Playing with our Crow like that,” River tsked, giving me a wicked sort of half smile.

“He’s fun to play with.” I grinned broadly. “In more ways than one.” I winked at River, knowing perfectly well how comfortable he was with sharing me. Out of all of the guys, he was the one I felt most comfortable around when it came to mentioning my liaisons with his other team members. Probably because I knew how turned on he’d be to watch. And participate.

“You’re going to want to stop with those sexy looks, love. As much as I’d like to give you another lesson in following orders, I had another activity in mind for this evening.” He glanced over my shoulder. “For you too, Drake.”

“This sounds interesting.” Cole nodded, hooking his thumbs into the waistband of his sweatpants and causing them to ride down a fraction lower. Sweet mother of—

“Tactical?” Cole asked the handsome Brit.

“Stealth,” River replied, and a decidedly evil smile spread over Cole’s face.

“So, we get to see our Fox in her element, huh?” Cole rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “This should be fun. Back in a sec.”

As he padded out of the room as well, I frowned in confusion at River. “We’re stealing something?”

It could be the only thing they meant, seeing as my alter ego, The Fox, was an internationally renowned thief extraordinaire.

“You are.” River stood from the table, and I followed suit. “Go change into whatever The Fox would wear on a job, but be quick. This one is time sensitive.” He checked his expensive-looking silver watch, which he’d moved to his right arm, seeing as the left was in plaster.

“Any more info?” I asked, curious as all hell and buzzing with excitement.

“Nope,” he smirked. “Wait, one more thing.” He reached out and tugged me to him with his good hand. “That little show earlier? There will be consequences, you can count on that.”

“I’ll look forward to it.” I grinned, then rose up on my toes to plant a kiss on his lush lips before heading off to get changed.

Excitement surged through me like flood waters, and I couldn’t decide if it was because we were going to steal something or for the consequences River was promising for later.

8

My belly flipped over and over with nervous excitement as River explained the mission to Cole and me. Was he serious?

“All right, are you confident with this one?” River asked me, and I nodded, trying not to look too damn excited. I’d been a professional thief for four years; you’d think the appeal might have worn off by now. But what River was proposing—stealing from the heart of the very organization he worked for and that my dad owned—well, that was just too much fun to pass up.

We were shrouded in shadows, pressed against the exterior of a building some distance from the Omega housing building. Our black clothes helped blend us into the darkness, and I had my red hair tightly braided to try and hide, or at least minimize, its flame-bright color. Normally I wore wigs or hats to disguise my identity, but neither had been within the suitcase of stuff delivered to our apartment.

“Obviously, I don’t need to impress upon you both the importance of this mission,” River murmured, eyeing us both sternly, and I didn’t bother hiding my grin. Stern River was beyond sexy.

“Yes, sir,” we both responded, and his gold eyes flared in the moonlight.

“Get on with it, then. Be quick, quiet, and above all else, do not get caught. I’ll be waiting.” He wound his hand around my braid, pulling me to him for a rough, possessive kiss that left me panting, then disappeared into the night like he was made of smoke.

“You ready?” Cole asked, running his palms down my arms and making me shiver.

“Born ready.” I smirked, leaning into his touch briefly. “Let’s do this.”

Grabbing hold of the fire escape ladder beside me, I scaled the side of the building quickly, with Cole tight on my heels. When we reached the roof, I stayed low and rolled swiftly into the shadows near the roof access door.

Typically, I found the roof of any structure to be the weakest point in any security system, and the Omega medical wing was no exception to this rule. Sure, the security was better than just about all of the buildings I’d broken into previously, but nothing was impossible.

“Remember, cameras will stay on. We need to avoid being caught on any screens.” Cole breathed the words so quietly I couldn’t have heard them if I’d been an inch further away.

“I know, silly. Don’t stress; between us we have got this.” I gave his fingers a quick squeeze, then retrieved my lock picks from my pocket.

On our run earlier we had discovered that Cole’s newly developed supernatural-ness had given his similar speed to me and strength that far outclassed mine now. So dodging security cameras should be a walk in the park.

A few small clicks and pings later, the door handle turned freely, allowing us three seconds to get inside and the door shut again before the alarm would be triggered. Easy.

“This speed thing is definitely going to come in handy,” Cole murmured in the pitch blackness of the stairwell we found ourselves in. “Can you see?”

“Not a damn thing,” I huffed, blinking rapidly like it would magically make light appear.

“Huh, I can,” Cole commented, then paused. “I wonder if I could...” He trailed off and dropped my hand.

“Could what?” I prompted after a moment’s silence, when it became apparent he wasn’t finishing his sentence.

“Hmm, guess not.” He took my hand in his once more and began confidently leading us down the stairs. “I was just wondering if maybe I could create that blue flame while I was in this form. To give you some light.”

“That’s cute of you,” I replied, and he paused on the stairs, making me run into him.

“Did you just call a badass, dragon shifter, ex-fighter, secret agent, cute?” His smoky voice in the darkness was part offended and part amused, so I just snickered in response.

“Come on, Cutie,” I teased. “Let’s get this job done before River sends for the cavalry.”

He grunted and continued on down the stairs but muttered under his breath. “So not cute.”

When we reached the landing at the bottom of the stairs, we reached another locked door, and I picked the lock by touch and muscle memory. Piece of cake.

This time when we slipped through the door, we made sure to press ourselves into the corner directly below the security camera where we knew there would be a dead zone.

“ All right. This needs to be a really quick in and out,” I whispered. “You ready?” I glanced up at Cole, and he just raised an eyebrow at me suggestively.

“Oh right, and I thought my sex drive was going nuts.” I snorted a laugh. “Let’s go. Three... two... one!”

On one, the camera above us had just completed a swivel, and to reach the next dead zone, we had the small window of time that it would take for the camera to pan back the other way. Impossible for any human to do, even if they were an Olympic sprinter or something. But shockingly easy for myself and a sinfully sexy dragon shifter.

We repeated this process several times over until we reached the location we were aiming for: a normal looking laboratory near the center of the building with a locked refrigeration unit. Getting in there, unlocking the fridge, finding the blood samples, and then replacing them with the ones we’d brought was going to be a bit harder than it had been simply dodging the cameras.

Because it was Omega Headquarters, any sort of camera feed interference would have been noticed immediately, which was why we were going old school and not using Wesley’s mad hacker skills.

“Okay, camera is in this corner to our left, immediately as we enter the room,” Cole said quietly. “As soon as you open the door, I’ll slip in and bump it by just a fraction of an inch. It’s not perfect, but it’ll take them longer to realize something is wrong than just cutting the feed.”

“Got it, Cutie,” I whispered back, deftly flicking the lock tumblers with my delicate picks.

Like a well-oiled machine, I slid the door open, Cole darted in and stretched up to knock the camera off alignment, and I dashed over to the fridge. Another split second lock pick, and I was in.

“Uh, Cole?” I whisper-yelled over to him. “There are a lot in here. This might take a minute.”

“Make it a quick minute,” he whispered back, and I rolled my eyes. My fingers flew through the neatly stacked tubes of blood, checking each label for the ones I recognized.

“Bingo.” I grinned, locating one labeled Drake. “Found yours!” I quickly switched it out for one of the spare tubes I’d brought with me, filled with the same blood type but from a random blood donor.

Continuing my search, I eventually found the other three I’d been looking for: Alpha, Viper, and Crow.

Despite me not having used my healing on River, we had thought it wise to replace his too. Just in case.

The mere fact that Jonathan had requested blood samples from the guys sort of confirmed my fears that there was something shady going on with him, and the last thing I needed was for their blood to suddenly register as anything other than human.

“Got them all,” I confirmed for Cole, then hesitated as I was closing the fridge back up. On a lower shelf, a plastic bag containing a wad of sapphire-blue fabric caught my eye, and I bent to pick it up.

“What is it?” Cole rumbled, and I could tell he was growing impatient. The idea had been to move the camera back into alignment before the security office noticed anything was off about it, but the longer we took, the less likely we were to get away with it.

Making a snap decision, I tucked the bag of fabric inside my leather jacket and zipped it closed to hold the contraband in place.

“Come on; I’ll show you outside.” I snapped the lock closed on the fridge and rejoined Cole near the door. “Good?”

Cole nodded, having just realigned the camera, and the two of us retreated out of the building the same way we had come in. Within minutes, we were back in the open and making our way toward River’s shadowy form waiting below a tree.

“That was quicker than I’d given you two credit for,” our stoic leader commented as we rejoined him, and all three of us casually wandered back toward the housing building. Nothing screamed suspicious like running or creeping after you’ve left the scene of the crime. Nope, we were just three people out for an evening stroll, dressed in black. Given it was still the tail end of winter, that wasn’t the craziest thing to see.

“Successful mission?” he asked quietly, and I nodded while linking my arm with his good one and cuddling in for warmth.

“What was the other thing you grabbed, Vixen?” Cole murmured, keeping his voice low and soft.

“I’m not one hundred percent sure; that’s why I grabbed it.” I chewed my lip, pressing a hand to my chest where I could feel the plastic packet inside my jacket. “But I think it’s the dress I was wearing the night I healed Vali.”

9

“Nice work!” Wesley exclaimed as I tossed him the vials of blood. “Camera locations were all still correct then?”

“Sure were; spot on.” I watched as he dumped the contents down the sink then washed out the tubes with water.

“Vixen picked up something else on the way out though,” Cole prompted, pulling out a chair for me to sit at the dining table beside River while Wesley looked at me with surprise.

“Uh, yeah.” I unzipped my jacket and pulled out the plastic packet to hand to Wesley. “I’m pretty sure that’s the dress I was wearing when I healed Vali. Which means that”—I indicated the red-brown stains on the fabric as Wesley unfolded it—“is Vali’s blood.”

A large square had been cut from the section of the dress that had the thickest concentration of blood, and I stared, transfixed by it. The last time I’d seen that dress had been on the Omega jet after Jonathan and I had left Vali’s parking garage in a wash of blood. I’d cleaned up and changed in the bathroom, then tossed the dress in the trash. And yet, here it was.

“It’s not as bad as it seems,” Wes reassured me, refolding the fabric and replacing it into the bag.“If this blood was from his gunshot wound, then it’s pre-dragon blood. It shouldn’t show anything more than human, same as River’s. I wasn’t totally sure about mine and Caleb’s, but we knew for sure Cole’s wouldn’t register as human DNA anymore, so safer to switch them all rather than run the risk.”

My gaze flicked to Cole. “What about Vali’s mom? Would her DNA show as anything other than human?”

“Because she was Romani?” He scratched at the dark stubble on his cheek. “Maybe? Depends whether Romani are supernaturals in the same sense of the word, as in not human, or just...”

“Humans with foresight?” I finished, and he grunted.

“They clearly found something interesting, or why else keep the dress in the locked fridge?” Cole murmured, seeming to be thinking out loud. “Vali’s going to need to lay low.”

“Shouldn’t be hard for a lizard,” River commented, and a growl rumbled from Cole’s chest. “Kidding, mate! There’s not much to be done for it now. It’s late and Kitten starts school in the morning, so we should all get some sleep.”

“School.” I cringed. “Make me sound more like a little kid, why don’t you?”

“Vixen, you’re way too sexy to be a little kid.” Cole gave me a heated look and a wink that sent shivers coursing through me.

“Am I sleeping where my suitcase got put?” I asked River, indicating the bedroom I’d woken up in earlier in the day, when Wesley had been wrapped around me half-naked...

“Yes, that can be your room if you’d like. It’s a five-bedroom apartment, so until Austin gets back from San Fran, there is no real issue with rooming.” River cocked his head. “Unless you want to stay with one of us?”

“Tempting,” I murmured, licking my lower lip, running my eyes down the sharply dressed Englishman, and remembering his earlier promise of consequences. “But I think if I did, I wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight. With any of you.” I glanced over at Cole and Wesley, and Wes blushed.

Standing from my seat, I did an awkward little wave and head bob, then said, “Well, good night, then.”

The three of them watched me with what seemed to be a mix of amusement and confusion while I quickly retreated back to my bedroom and closed the door between us. Once alone, I leaned my back against the door and closed my eyes against the embarrassment of that moment.

What the hell was that, Kit? “Well, good night, then?”

Navigating the etiquette of dating multiple men was going to be the death of me. Or maybe we all needed to have an open discussion about it like adults? Hah, surely not.

If that had been just Cole and River, I had no doubt I would have kissed them both good night. Hell, I probably would have done more than that because my ability to say no around them was getting worse by the day. But throwing Wes into the mix had me off guard. Until just days ago, I hadn’t realized he was interested in me at all. I’d even thought maybe he was into Lucy for a while there, which was understandable seeing as she is awesome. Lucy also had a fluid sexuality, or so she liked to tell me.

Considering this afternoon was really the first time we had, ah, progressed things, I hadn’t really had a chance to speak with him and work out where he stood on the whole sharing aspect. Until we had that conversation or he made his feelings clear like River, Cole, and Caleb had, it didn’t feel right to go kissing the other guys in front of him. Or him in front of them.

Maybe that was a conversation we should have had before bed, but I was being an ostrich. So much bad shit had happened lately, I just wanted to bury my head in the sand for a bit.

My jaw dropped open in a long yawn, and I realized just how damn tired I was. I stripped quickly out of my stealth outfit, then crawled into bed wearing just my tank top and panties.

Who knew what day one of spy school would bring? Maybe I might even make a friend! Yeah, right.

CALEB’S soft voice in my ear woke me gently from sleep while he curled around me and I snuggled back into his embrace.

“How did your mission go?” he murmured. “Did you have fun?”

My lips curved in a sleepy smile, but I didn’t bother opening my eyes. “So much fun. The Fox misses her missions.”

“I just bet she does,” he chuckled, nuzzling the bend of my neck and gently biting the skin. “It’s a shame you made that deal with the director to join Omega. I could have been the Robin to your Batman.”

A laugh bubbled through me, and I turned over in his arms, snuggling into his chest and breathing in his vanilla-cinnamon smell. He was like a giant cookie or something; I constantly just wanted to run my tongue all over him.

“Why do you always smell so delicious, Cal?” I mumbled through a yawn, shuffling till I was comfortable and sighing with contentment as his strong arms closed around me.

“It’s just my built-in Kit-attractant.” His chest vibrated with a silent laugh.

“Where were you earlier? I was worried,” I asked sleepily, and his muscles tensed under me.

“I wanted to pick something up for you in town,” he replied, but there was something off about his tone. But that might have just been the sleep fuzzing my brain.

“For me? Can I have it now?” I yawned, pushing up a bit to blink at him in the dark room.

“No, Kitty Kat, now is for sleeping; you can have it in the morning.” He flashed a smile at me that I could only make out thanks to how close we were. “Back to sleep, please.”

He tugged me back down to lie on him once more, and I cuddled in until I was comfortable once more.

“Hey, Cal?” I murmured, on the edge of sleep once more. “Are you okay? After I healed you?”

“You’re worried you changed me?” he asked after a moment’s pause, his voice quiet and serious. “Don’t worry, Kitty Kat. I’m fine.”

“Good.” I planted a kiss on his bare chest and let my mind drift back to sleep. Dimly, somewhere in the back of my brain, I realized his answer of “I’m fine” didn’t answer my question about whether he’d been changed.

GETTING DRESSED for my first day of spy school was a challenge all of its own. What the hell did one wear for espionage class? It was still cold out, so after standing in front of my mess of a suitcase for at least ten minutes while wrapped in the blanket from the bed, I decided on dark blue jeans and a black ribbed sweater with a low V-neck. The jeans would give me an opportunity to finally wear the new boots I’d been dying to try out.

They weren’t anything too flashy, but they were a gorgeous, soft black leather with a chunky heel and lacing up the front to mid-calf height. I’d first seen them in a store in Seattle when Cole had taken me out for a dinner date that turned into a cage fight, and he had gone back and bought them for me.

Much to my disappointment, they’d been left at the New York townhouse after Jonathan’s Thanksgiving party, and I hadn’t had a chance to retrieve them or wear them since.

Those boots alone made me aware of the fact that Jonathan, or one of his men, had packed up my things from the townhouse for me. Made me glad I really didn’t keep anything private in my bedroom there.

“Hey hot stuff!” Caleb called out as I joined the guys in the kitchen for what smelled like pancakes. Wesley was cooking once again while Cole set the table.

“Hey, guys,” I murmured, considerably less upbeat than Caleb was in the morning. He’d woken up a good hour or so earlier while I’d chosen to stay in bed and hug the blankets as long as possible. Mornings were not my friend.

“Here.” Caleb came around the kitchen island and handed me a mug of coffee. A giant mug of coffee in a cup that had the words “Oh for fox sake” printed on it, except instead of the word fox, there was a cute baby fox picture.

“I love it.” I grinned. “Is this what you went to get from town?”

He smiled back at me. “Yeah, well I knew how crazy-small the cups all are in these apartments, and I wanted your first day of Omega training to be something special.”

“Caleb.” I gaped. “That is so sweet of you.” I placed my huge mug of coffee down on the counter and stretched up on my toes to plant a kiss on his lips. “Thank you.”

“It’s nothing, Kitty Kat. Keeping you well caffeinated is a public service to your classmates.” He threw me a cheeky wink, then returned to the kitchen to help Wesley plate up the last of the pancakes and bring them out to the table.

“How did you sleep, Vixen?” Cole asked, holding out a chair for me to take.

“Surprisingly well, given all the crap that’s gone on lately,” I replied, taking the seat and trying not to drool over the glorious-smelling food. Wesley’s cooking skills were seriously impressing the pants off me. “Wes, I am in awe of your chef skills right now. You are all aware that I burn boiling water?”

“No worries, sweetheart.” Wes chuckled. “I enjoy cooking. Maybe I’ll show you sometime.”

No answer was needed as I moaned around a mouthful of pancake and maple syrup, and the guys all cracked grins. Dirty bastards.

“Eat up, love,” River ordered. “You’re due to class in less than thirty minutes. You too, Drake.” He nodded at Cole, who smiled wickedly.

“I get to be your keeper today,” he told me a little gleefully, and I squinted at him in suspicion.

“Why do we look so happy about this, Cutie? What am I missing here?”

Cole held my gaze steady, but I heard Caleb stifle a snort at my new nickname for the tattooed bad boy of their team.

“Cole didn’t get along very well with the Omega trainers,” River filled me in. “I have no doubt he plans on being a pest for them today.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Cole practically purred in a distinctly dragon-like tone.

“Uh-huh. Sure.” I raised a brow at him. “Just don’t drag me into whatever you have planned, please. I don’t need any more attention than I’ll already have for starting late and bringing a damn babysitter with me.”

“Don’t you worry, Vix. This will be fun.” Cole pushed back from the table and carried his empty plate to the kitchen to stack in the dishwasher. “Ready to go?”

“I wish I could come too.” Caleb snickered. “Cole’s torture of the trainers was still being talked about when Aus and I completed training. He’s a legend.”

Chewing my lip nervously, I handed my empty plate to Cole and went to grab my bag out of my room. Not that there was much in it, just a notebook and some pens, but I wasn’t sure if there would be notes or textbooks to collect so figured better safe than sorry.

“Nice boots,” Cole commented as the two of us made our way out of the apartment block and across the property to the training wing.

“Thanks.” I grinned. “My boyfriend got them for me.” Cole’s hand tightened around mine, and I froze midstep.

Oh fuck. What the fuck did I just say?

“Boyfriend, huh?” He raised an eyebrow, turning me to face him. “I think I like that.”

Tilting my face up to his with one huge palm against my cheek, he laid a tender sort of kiss against my lips, and relief flooded through me with a force that left me shaking. Or maybe it was kissing Cole that left me shaking. Hard to tell these days.

I said nothing but couldn’t help the girly smile pasted across my face as we continued on to the training wing.

What the hell had I been thinking, blurting out labels like that?

So lost in my own thoughts, I didn’t even notice the person who dove at me until it was too late, and my back hit the cold concrete hard. My breath whooshed out of me, and I panicked a tiny bit before realizing who it was on top of me.

“Lucy?” I wheezed out. “What the fuck?”

“Kit, I am so bloody happy to see you, girl! I have been so hella worried for you it’s not even funny! What took you so long to get here?” She was babbling at a million miles per hour, but I was just so pleased to see her I wrapped her in a massive hug and squeezed.

“Me? What the hell? Luce, you’re supposed to be in rehab for your arm!” I scrambled out from under her and grabbed her damaged hand. Gently, of course.

“I got discharged! They were supposed to do one more surgery, but when they X-rayed it the other day, it came back showing the bones had realigned themselves. I still need to do therapy to get it all working right, but I can do that and join you in spy school!” She beamed at me, waving her wrist in my face. The plaster cast was gone, and in its place was one of those Velcro strap-on wrist brace things.

“Luce, that’s awesome! I’m kinda so relieved you’re not around Finn anymore too. Major weight off my mind, girl.” I hugged her properly this time but pulled back when she said nothing in return. “Lucy...”

“What? He said he was looking at taking a job in Seattle anyway!” She ducked out of my scolding glare and threw herself on Cole instead. “Hey, big man! Feels like forever since I’ve seen you. Scary as ever, I see.”

“As always,” Cole rumbled back, but a small smile pulled at his lips. “Good to see you well, Lucy.”

“Miss Davenport, Miss Jones,” a stern man called out to us from the doorway to the training facility. “Do you have any intention of joining us today? You’re only two weeks late.”

“Morning, Roger!” Cole called out and gave a sarcastic wave. “We will be with you in a minute.”

Roger, I dimly recognized, was one of the instructors I’d met the day before with Caleb, but I couldn’t place my finger on what his surname was. Whatever it was, he clearly didn’t appreciate being called by his first name, as his face boiled an angry shade of red.

“Mr. Bennett. I thought I’d never have the pleasure again.” The way he emphasised the word pleasure left no doubt that what he really meant was he’d rather stick needles in his eyes than teach Cole again.

“Always stay alert, Roger. Prepare for anything.” Cole gave a wicked grin, and the red-faced trainer stormed back inside the building.

“Cole,” I groaned. “You’re getting us in trouble before we even start!”

“Nonsense, Vixen.” He smiled down at me. “Just a little friendly banter between colleagues. Roger and the other trainers sometimes forget that they’re not the top of the pyramid around here.”

“Anything to be worried about?” I asked, and he shook his head.

“They know better than to mess with Alpha team. Keep an eye out for the other recruits though. Trainers can be vindictive bastards and are not above deliberately sabotaging trainees. They call it weeding.” He cracked his knuckles, then took my hand in his huge one. “Let’s get inside before Roger tries to pull anything dickish.”

Lucy glanced at me nervously, and I shrugged. Sounded like we were in for an interesting couple of months in Omega training. If we lasted that long before someone tried to kill us again.

10

As it turned out, the day was not terribly exciting at all. Roger the trainer kept his snide remarks to a minimum under Cole’s watchful gaze, and the other recruits mostly treated Lucy and I like, well, like the new kids. Thank God it was only a four-month course.

Most of the day was spent in the classroom debating the politics and rules around being a spy for a private organization rather than a government one. It afforded us both more and less leeway in which lines could be crossed, and it seemed like eighty percent of becoming a successful agent was knowing which rules to break and when.

“This is stupid.” Cole yawned as the day drew late. “You two don’t need this crap. You’re already better than half the qualified agents in Omega.”

“Shh,” Lucy hissed. “I’m interested in this!”

Cole and I exchanged an amused look, but he shut up for a bit. Right up until Roger made some mention of the fine line between interrogation and torture, then flicked a small yet obvious glance at my dianoch.

In fact, most of the recruits glanced at Cole.

“Do continue, Roger. I’d just love to hear your thoughts on this subject.” He sat back in his chair and very deliberately cracked his knuckles. The class was warm, so he’d taken off his sweater, leaving him in a T-shirt that showed off his seriously impressive physique as he moved, his arm muscles flexing under colorful ink.

For a tense moment, Roger the trainer locked gazes with Cole, then backed off with a mumbled statement about “not wanting to start a moral debate.”

“What was that all about?” I whispered to Cole as Roger changed the subject and started clicking through a Powerpoint presentation.

“What was what?” He gave me an innocent look that I in no way believed.

“Fine, keep your secrets. I’ll get it out of River later.” I raised an eyebrow at him but wasn’t totally sure if I was threatening or promising. Both, maybe?

“I look forward to seeing you try,” Cole murmured back, and the look in his eyes was pure sex. My breath caught, and I had to forcefully tear my gaze away from him to concentrate on the lesson.

It would have been a lie to say I listened to or comprehended anything that was said from that point forward, thanks to Cole’s hand, which had somehow ended up on my leg. His fingers traced little patterns along the inner seam of my jeans, and eventually I gave up listening to Roger altogether.

“That was so interesting, don’t you think?” Lucy turned to me with a glowing expression, and I belatedly noticed the class was over already.

“Uh-huh, yup,” I said, blinking up at her. She’d changed her hair again, this time to a pastel rainbow, and it looked really great on her. Like she was part unicorn or something.

“Oh my God, you two.” She snorted, giving Cole’s hand on my thigh a pointed look. “You’re lucky your dad owns this place, or you’d totally be failing.”

“Don’t be silly, Lucy. I’ve got this.” I gave her a teasing wink, then took Cole’s offered hand to pull me up from my seat. The rest of the class had been filing out of the classroom, but one girl stopped and stepped into my path when I tried to leave.

“Did I just overhear that your dad is the Omega Director?” She gave me an up and down look that spoke volumes for what she thought of me. “No wonder you’re getting special liberties.”

A low growl rumbled from Cole’s chest, and I laid a palm against his sternum. The girl gave us both a bit of an uncertain look, then fixed her bitch-face back in place and flounced off into the corridor.

“She’s harmless, Cutie. Let it go,” I whispered when Cole’s body remained tense, and he snapped a sharp look at me.

“That name is going to stick, isn’t it?” He sighed, and the tension dropped from his frame.

“You bet. Cutie.” I grinned, leaving the classroom myself.

“You guys are so sweet it makes my teeth ache,” Lucy groaned. “I need to get to Finn’s for therapy anyway, so I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”

“Sure thing. Promise I will pay attention tomorrow.” I held three fingers up. “Scout’s honor.”

“You were never a Scout, and you’re only saying that because tomorrow is combat.” Lucy rolled her eyes at me. “Okay, see ya.”

Her brightly colored head bobbed past the recruits ahead of us and disappeared down the stairs. Our classroom for the day had been located on the fourth floor of the training wing, and we weren’t permitted to use elevators. Guess it was forced exercise or something, not that it made a lick of difference to me.

Ahead of us, the girl who had just been a snotty child was reaching the top of the stairs when I noticed the door to a supply closet open.

“Watch out!” I screamed, seeing what was about to happen but reacting seconds too late. The girl looked up at my yell but didn’t move quick enough to avoid the cart of cleaning equipment as the janitor pushed it out of the closet and straight into her.

Knocked off balance, she stumbled a bit, then caught herself against the railing at the top of the stairs with her weight halfway over it.

“Fuck, are you okay?” I yelled, hurrying over to her. As I stretched out my hand to help her right herself, there was a sickening screech of metal, and the railing gave way below her.

“Shit!” I dove forward, reaching to grab her as she fell, but our fingers barely brushed before the girl plummeted four stories down and hit the ground with a sickening crunch.

Cole hauled me up and pushed me toward the stairs. “Go quickly. While she’s possibly still alive. I’ll take care of witnesses.”

Not needing to be told twice, I raced down the stairs at only marginally more than human speed and left Cole to clear out the other recruits who might see what I was about to do. Lucy gave me a quick nod as I passed her, and I knew she’d follow me down and clear any spectators on the way.

“Fuck,” I breathed, reaching the girl. Thankfully, she was still alive, but only just. Her wild, panicked eyes locked on mine like she was a horse in a storm, but it wasn’t hard to assume that the fall had broken her back. She was totally paralyzed and couldn’t speak.

“Stick with me; it’s not as bad as it all seems,” I muttered, and her eyes screamed at me that I was a fucking lunatic. Whatever, she didn’t need to like me so long as I could save her life.

Placing my hands on her skin, one on her forehead and one on her chest, I closed my eyes and opened myself to that warm, comforting, wild magic that was coursing through my body.

Each time I used the magic in this way, to heal someone, it seemed to come easier to me. Not just that I knew what to do, though that was certainly part of it, but it required less effort to start the process. This time it was almost instantaneous. When I opened myself to the magic, it rushed down through my fingertips and into the girl’s broken body like it was excited. Like this was what it was meant to do.

My hands warmed on her skin, and the distinctive sensation of fur tickled at my palms, just the same as it had when I’d healed the little girl in Harrow, leading me to think maybe this girl was a wolf too? I guessed time would tell, and it had to be preferable to dead. Right?

While the process was definitely getting easier, the amount of energy or magic needed really seemed to depend on the extent of the injuries. Where healing the little wolf pup of the tranquilizer drug had only made me a little light-headed, I knew for sure this one was going to knock me around a lot worse.

As the tingling sensation receded from my hands, retreating back into my core where it seemed to live, I was hit with a wave of exhaustion that had me reeling.

“What the fuck did you just do to me?” the girl whispered, sounding horrified.

For a moment, I hesitated while I thought about how to explain things, but the look on her face was sheer disgust, and I was barely holding my lids open.

“Nothing. I was just checking your vitals, but I guess you weren’t really that hurt after all.” My voice came out as thin and weak as my explanation, but I was way past giving a shit. I’d just saved this chick’s life, and she was looking at me like I’d just spit on her.

“Fucking freak,” she snarled, scrambling away from me and taking off out of the building like I’d just grown three heads. Hell, maybe I had; who knew what my magic was capable of?

“Vixen,” Cole said quietly, placing his large palm on the back of my neck. “Can you walk? We need to get you home.”

“Doubt it.” I snorted, and he clicked his tongue, sweeping his strong arms under me and picking me up bridal style. “Great, now I’m a damsel in distress.”

“Quit complaining, Vixen. Isn’t this what boyfriends are allowed to do?” he teased but laid a gentle kiss against my temple.

“I wouldn’t know.” I yawned. “I’ve never had one. Is it?”

“No idea,” he replied, carrying us back to the apartment in long strides. “I’ve never been one.”

11

No one else was home in our apartment when we returned, so I had to fish the keys out of Cole’s pocket and unlock the door for him. Once inside, he kicked the door shut with one of his heavy-booted feet and carried me through to the living area, where he placed me down in an armchair. Barely five minutes had passed since finishing the healing, but I was fading fast and sank back into the chair like my body was made of jelly.

“Stick with me, Vixen,” Cole coaxed. “As much as I hate that you just used up so much magic on that chick, fuck, I’m glad it was me on duty today.”

“Where are the others?” I asked, drowsy, as Cole’s strong fingers flicked open the button and fly of my jeans and peeled the pants down my legs.

“Doing office work.” He snickered with an evil grin. “Sucks to be them right now.”

With my jeans gone, he slipped his fingers under the sides of my emerald-green, lace panties and tore them clean off me in one swift motion. Literally. Ripped them off me.

“Cole!” I snapped, waking up a bit to growl at him. “What did I tell you about tearing my underwear?”

“I thought that might get a reaction,” he smirked, sinking to his knees on the carpet in front of the armchair. “I’ll buy you new ones.” He spread my knees apart with firm hands, settling himself between them and raising my top up enough to plant a kiss against my belly. “Or you could just go without...”

“Uh-huh, sure,” I mumbled, my body thrumming with anticipation as Cole’s hands took hold of my inner thighs and spread me open further. “And I suppose you want me to wear skirts too, huh?”

“Would you?” he asked hopefully, lowering his face to hover over my exposed pussy but holding my gaze.

“This is extortion,” I remarked, feeling his warm breath on my aching flesh.

“Yes, it is. But your boyfriend wants to know if you’ll wear a skirt on our next date. With nothing underneath.” He very deliberately blew a soft breath of ice across my skin, and I shivered. Not just at the exquisite cold but also at him asking me on a date.

“Done,” I agreed, raising a limp hand and running it over his short, dark hair, giving just a little nudge. “I suppose it makes it easier if my boyfriend wanted to feel me up in public then, too.”

“You know it.” He chuckled, then finally closed the gap between us, licking a long line down my cunt and dipping his tongue inside, like he was kissing me.

“Fuck yes,” I gasped as his mouth returned to my swollen clit and his index finger slipped into me.

“Shit, I can almost feel the magic moving between us,” he murmured, and his words seemed to vibrate against me. “I can sense how low you are, so I don’t want to take my time...”

“Uh-huh,” I mumbled back, fairly sure I’d agree to just about damn anything with this man’s face between my thighs.

He must have taken my noise as it was intended—approval—because when his mouth returned to my pussy, it was with determination. A second finger joined the first, and he skillfully pumped them into me, teasing at my G-spot while his lips and tongue played at my clit like a damn harmonica.

Pleasure rolled through me, followed by the tingling rush of magic, and the two sensations combined to build what was sure to be an explosive orgasm within minutes.

My eyes were half closed, and my hands were gripping Cole’s head, but the soft rustle of fabric and the smell of pine trees alerted me to River’s arrival even before he spoke.

“This is becoming a habit,” he said quietly, and my eyelids cracked open to find him watching us with hungry eyes. “Me walking in on you at times like this...”

My teeth caught hold of my lower lip, and I groaned in ecstasy at whatever Cole was doing with his teeth, all the while holding River’s heated gaze.

“Sit down and shut up,” Cole ordered, lifting his face just a fraction and giving my inner thigh a teasing nip when I tried to coax him back. “Actually, sit on the floor against that couch. You’ll get a good view from there.”

Anticipation fluttered through me, and a grin spread over my face as River did as instructed. Leaning his back against the couch in question, he extended out his legs and made no attempt to hide the hard bulge straining his suit pants. Positioned as he was, slightly to the side and behind Cole, it was an easy thing for me to lift one leg and drape it over the arm of the chair, allowing him an unobstructed view of Cole’s fingers buried inside me and his lips on my clit.

With River watching, I barely lasted a few minutes more before screaming my release. My muscles clenched hard around Cole’s fingers, and I dropped back into the armchair feeling boneless in the best possible way.

“So, I take it something happened that forced you to use your magic?” River asked as Cole trailed teasing kisses down my thigh to my knee.

“Why do you say that, Alpha?” Cole teased in the playful way that was totally unique to the three of us being alone like this. “Maybe I just wanted to show my girlfriend some attention?”

“Girlfriend?” River raised his eyebrows at me, and I gave a little jelly-like shrug, both totally satisfied and still wanting more as Cole sat back to grin at his team leader.

“Vixen called me her boyfriend this morning,” he announced, sounding a little bit smug, and I groaned.

“Oh did she just?” River asked, giving me a curious stare. “And so what does that make me?”

A small laugh bubbled out of me, but I was floating on cloud nine and didn’t mind joining in the teasing. Pushing up from the armchair, I, too, sank to my knees on the carpet, then crawled over to River in what I desperately hoped looked like a sexy sort of way.

“Alpha?” I purred when I came within reach of him, and he separated his legs to allow me closer.

“Yes, Kitten?” he replied, trying to look stern but with eyes that were laughing.

“Would you also be my boyfriend?” I batted my eyelashes and caught the small twitch to his lips that betrayed a smile he was trying to hold back.

“Hmm, I don’t know...” He tapped his chin with his finger. His other arm was still in the sling, suspended across his body, but his gaze roamed down my body as I sat back on my feet. Sitting there in just my sweater and nothing below the waist felt a bit silly, so I stripped the woolen garment off and tossed it aside.

“What about now?” I joked, feeling a surge of satisfaction when his golden gaze locked on my emerald lace bra and everything in it.

“Maybe...” He pondered, so I reached up and unclasped my bra, throwing it aside too. “Okay, bloody hell you twisted my arm.”

“Really?” I grinned, leaning forward to take his face in my hands. “You want to be my boyfriend, huh?”

River rolled his eyes dramatically, but a smile was pulling at his lips. “Yes. I do.”

In response, I simply pressed a kiss to his mouth, gently, as though I could actually tell him how I really felt through my lips. Not that I knew myself. Just that I liked him. Them. A lot.

River snaked his good hand up my back, and he held me firmly as he took control of our kiss and slipped his tongue into my mouth, finding and caressing my own in his possessive sort of way.

“Hmm, well as your boyfriend—” River was cut off by Cole’s fake cough. “As one of your boyfriends, I should mention you don’t look totally recharged yet. I think Drake might have gone a bit too quick.”

“Mmm, you think?” I asked, sitting back on my heels once more and sliding my hands to River’s belt. “Guess it’s only polite for you to help me out then, right... sir?”

River made a frustrated sort of groan, and I heard Cole snort a laugh behind me.

“No using that arm though, Alpha,” Cole warned. “You’d better just sit back and take whatever our girl has in mind for you.”

Tugging down his zipper, I was beyond pleased to find River had gone back to his commando ways and was already bare, hard, and waiting for me.

“I may only have the use of one arm right now,” River murmured in his sexy British accent, “but don’t forget who is in charge around here, Kitten.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, sir,” I agreed, shuffling back a fraction and stroking him with my hand. The velvet steel of his cock pulsed under my palm, and a droplet of pre-cum glistened on the tip, practically begging me to lick it.

Bending down, I used my grip on the base of his cock to bring him to my lips. I slowly trailed my tongue across the flat head, tasting the salty sweetness of him before sealing my lips around his tip.

River hissed a sharp breath as I sucked lightly, running my tongue over the join and swirling around the head. His hand shifted from my back to my hair, winding my long hair around his wrist until he had a solid grip, and I pulled back a fraction to look at him curiously.

“You didn’t really think I was letting you take charge, did you, love?” He chuckled in a dark sort of way that made my nipples harden and my pussy clench. Trying not to smile, I stroked my fist up and down his slick cock a couple of times while looking up at him through my lashes.

“What would you have me do then, sir?” I asked in a breathy voice, my belly already aflutter with excitement. Given all my many issues with authority, it was a total mystery to me why River’s domineering personality turned me on so hard. But it did, and I wasn’t questioning that.

“First, I want you to spread your knees a little wider,” he ordered, his own voice thick with desire as I continued stroking his shaft but did as directed. “Perfect, love. Just like that. Now I want you to take me in your mouth.” I did as directed, wrapping my lips over his rock hard cock and smoothing my tongue down his underside.

“Take your hand away,” he ordered, and I did so, bracing my weight on the carpet on either side of his hips. “Now. I am going to set the pace and depth. If it gets too much, just tap my waist. Understood?”

My mouth full, I could only make a small noise of agreement, but it was clearly enough for him as he used his grip on my hair to pull me down onto him further.

River let out a small groan as I relaxed and let him lead me, simply sucking and licking while he set a rhythm thrusting into my mouth and just barely testing the limits of my gag reflex. From the corner of my eye I saw Cole leave the room briefly, then return.

Consumed as I was with River’s dick in my mouth, I lost sight of where Cole went until I felt his large palms on my naked butt cheeks. River’s request for me to spread my knees wider suddenly made a whole lot more sense, and a thrill ran through me. Silently, I begged Cole to join in. The threesome we’d had in Alaska was fresh in my mind, and I was hungry for more.

“Kitten, I had better still have your full attention,” River commented in his stern voice, and my inner walls tightened just at the sound of it. “I’m taking this deeper. Just relax into it.” With that warning, he pushed my head down harder at the same time as his hips bucked up a little, and he reached the back of my throat, causing me to gag a little.

“Relax,” River growled, and I did what he said. The next thrust, he disappeared further inside me. I remembered to relax my throat, and when he reached my limit, he held me there while my throat spasmed a little. “Breath through your nose, love,” he reminded me quietly, then withdrew after a moment, allowing me a short reprieve.

Cole, meanwhile, was trailing a teasing finger over my exposed cunt, stuck up in the air as it was. When I heard the distinctive metallic clink of his belt being removed, I almost wanted to cheer.

Fuck yes.

He kneeled behind me, pushing my legs a little further apart with one knee while the broad head of his cock pressed against my opening.

“Kitten, Cole’s going to fuck you from behind while I fuck your mouth,” River told me in that sinfully sexy voice of his. “Don’t forget you can tap out at any time.”

Internally I snorted a laugh. As fucking if.

In lieu of words, I pressed back a little, encouraging Cole to get on with it, while I gently scraped my teeth down River’s shaft, eliciting a dark chuckle from him. He tightened his grip on my hair, and in flawless synchronization he pumped into my mouth at the same time as Cole pushed himself into me with one thrust. I groaned in overwhelming excitement and pleasure feeling the slickness between Cole and I, realizing he’d used lube to allow that smooth of an entry. For a man his size, it was no easy feat.

Considering I had already come once, it wasn’t going to take me long to get back onto that ledge, and the feeling of utter vulnerability and powerlessness as Cole pounded me from behind and River pumped into my mouth with an iron grip on my hair was going to do it for me. Fast.

The guys clearly knew it, too, because they weren’t messing around. River was the first to go, swelling and jumping between my lips, then ramming hard into my throat to empty his load with a groaning gasp. Almost immediately, he withdrew and used his grip on my hair to lift my face. Capturing my gaze with his, he watched my face hungrily while Cole shifted his grip on my hips and pushed a lubed up finger into my ass while we both came simultaneously.

“Jesus bloody Christ that’s hot.” River gasped, his pupils dilating as he watched the both of us shudder and moan through our climax.

Words had completely escaped me, and I let myself collapse onto the ground with Cole halfway on top of me.

“What is?” I panted when I finally found my voice again, some five minutes after River had spoken.

“What is what?” he asked, running his fingers through my hair as I lay with my head in his lap.

“What is hot?” I reminded him, and he grinned.

“Seeing you two come apart like that. It is hot enough it almost makes me hard again just thinking about it.” He groaned a little, and I smiled.

“Have you guys ever...?” I trailed off but waggled my eyebrows at him.

“Fucked?” Cole finished for me, stretching out on the couch River was leaning on. “No. But we’re not against a little sword crossing when things get... crowded.”

“As I’m sure you can appreciate, Kitten, if that were my cock instead of Cole’s finger... well, you can’t be afraid of a little touching, can you?” River waggled his eyebrows back at me, and I laughed but was also insanely turned on by the mental image that conjured up.

“Fuck, that’s hot,” I whispered, and Cole barked a laugh.

“All right, the others will be back any minute if you want to get cleaned up. I was supposed to have started dinner already, so chop-chop.” River patted me playfully on the leg, and I sat up with an exaggerated groan. I was just about the furthest thing from exhausted, if I was being truthful. The two of them had done more than enough to fully recharge my magic. And then some.

Gathering up my clothes, I headed to the bathroom for a quick shower while my mind wandered back to the girl I had healed. When would we find out if she’d been changed? And what the fuck was I going to tell Jonathan?

12

VALI

“Sir?” My stewardess tapped on the bathroom door lightly. “We’re cleared to disembark now.”

My pilot had fucked something up on our flight plan, and we’d been stuck on the damn tarmac for almost half an hour waiting for clearance by the ground crew. On the plus side, I’d managed to take care of some garbage while we waited.

“Got it!” I yelled back, scrubbing my hands with soap tinted pink with blood. It had been a long couple of days cleaning house within my organization.

This was something I’d been actively working toward for years, ever since taking over the empire from my psychotic father, but it had been a slow process. Until now.

Too many of my men were relics from my father’s time. Disgusting, immoral individuals with not a decent bone in them. Some had needed paying off to get them out of my company. Some, like Gheorghe, I’d simply killed for seemingly small infractions. Actions like that worked for me two-fold. For one, it kept my men in fear. As far as they were concerned, I was just as volatile and unstable as my father, and that’s how I wanted it to stay. The more they feared me, the less likely they were to double-cross me.

This latest mess that I was cleaning off my skin was one of those small infractions.

Despite my employees’ opinions that I was an unstable megalomaniac like dear old dad, I was simply using their little slipups as an excuse to rid the world of some of the most vile scum alive. These were men who got off on rape, murder, and violence. Those men didn’t deserve to breathe, so I considered my rash of housecleaning a public service.

“Sir.” One of my lackeys cleared his throat as I left the bathroom rolling my shirt sleeves back down. It hadn’t been the cleanest kill, and certainly was not something I’d planned to do on board my jet, but I had to take opportunities where they came.

“What?” I snapped, allowing a little thread of dragon growl to ride my voice.

“What do you want done with the body, Romanul?” The man asked, dropping his gaze submissively and probably not even realizing what he’d done.

“Clean it up. This meeting shouldn’t take too long, I want the jet kept ready, understood?” I didn’t wait for a response. They’d do what they were told if they knew what was good for them.

Striding across the tarmac to my waiting town car, I allowed myself a small sense of grim satisfaction. The man whose throat I’d just slit for daring to speak over me was a cold-blooded murderer. He’d strangled his pregnant girlfriend the year before, while he was fucking her, then covered up the evidence. No charges stuck to him, but I didn’t give a shit about the law. I conducted my own justice system.

The car door closed behind me with a heavy thud, and I gave a polite smile to the man opposite me.

“Victor, thank you for taking the time to meet with me,” I addressed him, and he raised his scarred eyebrow at me.

“It seems I needed to have put a bit more punch into that repellant spell I used. You must have something a little more than just dragon in you, huh boy?” Despite his youthful appearance, at least on his unscarred side, it was obvious he was considerably older than he looked. Smarter too.

“Romani.” I nodded. “From my mother.”

“Ah, that explains it. They did manage to skate through the plague pretty untouched. So I assume you want more answers?” Vic scratched his good cheek, watching me. “What makes you think I can tell you anymore than I told your wee girlfriend?”

“If you couldn’t then you wouldn’t have bothered with magic to make everyone forget their questions.” I gave him a flat, no bullshit stare.

“Right you are, boy,” Vic murmured, narrowing his eyes. “Well, go on then. Ask away, if you think you can phrase the questions clever enough to beat the geas.”

“If you were a Ban Dia, what would be the most vital piece of information to know about yourself?” I asked, having thought carefully about my phrasing prior to getting here. My question referenced neither Kit nor Bridget but was simply a discussion about species.

“Good start.” Vic dipped his head in acknowledgement. “I would want to know where my bloodstone ring was. All Ban Dia children are gifted one at birth, regardless of whether they are the heir to the magic or not. For the ones who are not Ban Dia, it is just a pretty trinket. For those who are, it is vital to completing the bond with her guardians.”

“And how would it do that?” I ground out between clenched teeth. This asshole seriously had withheld a vital piece of information like that from Kit?

“Once she chooses her three guardians, their blood is collected by the stone, which the Ban Dia then wears on her left ring finger. It allows almost like a reciprocal bond between them so the dianoch can tap into some of their Ban Dia’s abilities and she can draw from theirs. For example, if you had a bonded Ban Dia, she might be able to breath fire, or even shift. It depends on the strength of the bond.” Vic sighed and sat back in his seat. “But that is irrelevant unless she locates her bloodstone ring.”

“I see. And if such a ring existed, what would it look like?” I asked carefully, desperately trying to hold in my fiery temper, which seemed to be a hundred times worse since first going scaly.

“It’d probably be in a yellow-gold, intricate setting with a large, princess-cut sapphire. I imagine that—” Vic cringed and clutched at his head. Obviously what he’d been about to say was pushing the limits of Bridget’s magic.

“What species are you?” I asked casually, changing the subject.

Vic sucked in a breath, the pain visibly clearing from his face as he considered this question. “Fox shifter, same as Nicholai. Lachlan is a wolf though.”

“Are you Kit’s father?” My time was short; I wasn’t here to fuck around with niceties.

Vic grimaced. “Probably? I couldn’t say for sure. When Bride reached the age of fertility, she wasn’t wasting any time trying to produce her Ban Dia heir. While at the time I was her favorite, it could have easily been Nicky or Lachlan that fathered her.”

“Age of fertility?” I repeated. “What’s that?”

“I couldn’t give you an exact age because I don’t know myself. It’s somewhere around the three-hundred-year mark though,” Vic told me, looking surprised himself that he’d managed to say so much. “It’s like a built-in population control that they can’t reproduce any faster than that. Because they never die, if new Ban Dia were being born every twenty-odd years, then the world would be overrun with them.”

“Makes sense,” I murmured, rubbing at my chin with a warm hand. My whole body seemed to be permanently warm these days, actually.

“You were in the Blood Moon labs with Bridget weren’t you?” I pressed. “What can you tell me about that?”

“Nothing.” Vic winced in pain. “Try again.”

“Do you know what happened to Kit before social services found her as a kid?” I asked, and Vic squinted at me.

“I’d say her memories were erased,” he said, like I was a moron.

“No shit. Do you know why?” My patience was running thin with this guy. His jaw clenched; he shook his head, indicating he couldn’t answer again. “Okay, what can you tell me?”

“I can tell you that I’m doing my best to break this fucking spell that bitch placed on me. The second I do, everything I know is yours.” He huffed in anger. “Until then, don’t trust anyone but your Ban Dia and fellow dianoch.”

“Fine,” I snapped, reaching for the door handle to exit the vehicle.

“Remember this, boy. The plague wasn’t as black and white as you’ve been led to think. A lot of supernaturals were hit with an in-between, gray area.” Victor flipped his hood up, hiding his scarred face from view. “Not everything is as it seems, and until a Ban Dia gets full control of her magic, it’ll be bleeding out into everyone around her, whether she intends it to or not.”

I glanced back inside the car at him. He quite clearly wasn’t saying anything further, so I slammed the door and headed back over to my jet. Glancing at the time, I remembered Kit was due to call tonight, and I couldn’t help the small surge of excitement when I thought about this new information I’d gathered for her.

13

KIT

“Wait, once more?” I was laying on the grass below the oak tree with my legs in the air against the trunk.

“He didn’t know the exact age, but somewhere around the three-hundred-year-old mark.” Vali’s velvet voice came down the phone. Wesley had presented me with a new phone at dinnertime, and I hadn’t forgotten my promise to call Vali. I was glad I hadn’t, too; he’d done some serious sleuthing.

“So I physically can’t get pregnant for another three centuries?” I clarified, and Vali murmured agreement. “Well that’s… handy to know. Suppose it does make sense as to why no one has ever really heard of them. Us. Whatever.”

“How are you adjusting to all of this?” Vali asked in a surprisingly soft tone. Not that him asking for my well-being was terribly surprising; in hindsight, he had been nothing but caring and protective since the moment we met. What was surprising was that he could tell, even from thousands of miles away, that my head was exploding right that second.

“You’re feeling my emotions, aren’t you?” I asked, chewing my lip nervously. Speaking with him on the phone like this made me forget he was this scary, intimidating crime boss with a penchant toward casual murder. He just seemed like a guy... that I was a little bit into. Okay, maybe more than a little bit. It was silly though, considering I was already sort of dating four other guys, and Vali had a girlfriend. I still hadn’t forgotten Elena, with her flawless complexion and perfectly styled dark hair.

“I am. You’re very...” He paused. “Conflicted. Guilty, even? For what?”

Um, how about for fantasizing about that kiss on New Year’s Eve when I knew you had a damn girlfriend?

“Nothing. You must be reading me wrong. Wait, can you feel my emotions, like... always?” A disturbing thought had just occurred to me.

“Only particularly strong ones, unless we are speaking like this. Seems like I can feel everything while we talk, and then just spikes all the other times.” His voice was warm and amused. Damn him. “Dragă, no need to feel embarrassed; I could feel how drained you were. But I can appreciate that this new development with your magic might take some getting used to.” There was another pause on the line. “Just tell me it wasn’t my dickhead brother getting lucky.”

“Umm,” I murmured, and he sighed.

“I hate him sometimes.” He said it softly, and I knew that wasn’t even a little bit true.

“You really missed him, didn’t you?” I asked, and he made a noise but didn’t reply. “Tell me about your mom,” I suggested, not really ready to hang up yet, even though he’d finished telling me everything he’d learned from Vic.

“My mom?” he repeated. “Ah, Andrei told you about her being Romani, then?”

“Um, yeah. Word of advice, though—if you are looking to mend bridges, you should probably call him Cole,” I advised. Cole made it pretty damn clear he wanted no reminders of his former life in the du Romane family.

“Cole. Right. Have to get used to that.” Vali made a noise under his breath, and I could picture him running a hand through that lush dark hair of his. Damn him. “There’s really not much to tell about my mom. She died when I was only a year old, and our father remarried almost immediately. God forbid he be without a wife as arm candy for fancy occasions. All I know is what my grandmother told me, that she had the sight.”

“Like, she could see the future?”

“No, not quite that magical. It was just a feeling that something bad was going to happen. I never understood what that meant until you showed up in my life.” He snorted a laugh, and I found myself smiling as well.

“Okay, I’m literally freezing my butt off out here, so I’d better head back to the apartment.” I groaned as I turned myself right-side up and pushed to my feet.

“Have a think on where you might look for that ring too,” he reminded me, like I could forget.

“Oh, I have an idea where to start,” I replied in a grim voice. “I just need to track her down first.”

“ All right.” Another pause. “Will you call again tomorrow night? Just so I don’t go out of my mind with worry when I feel you’ve been exhausting yourself?”

“Sure, I can do that,” I smiled and hoped I hadn’t just sounded too eager. Weirdly, I found myself totally comfortable talking with him on the phone in a way I didn’t think I could have managed in person. He was too damn intimidating.

“Well then, good night dragă,” he replied softly, then disconnected the line.

It was late; I’d been on the phone with Vali for way longer than I realized, so utilized some superspeed to get me back to the apartment in a fraction of the time it should have taken.

When I got there, only River was still up, although Caleb was apparently out again. Doing what, I had no idea, seeing as they were all suspended from field work, but River didn’t seem too concerned, so I didn’t pry.

“Get some sleep, love,” he murmured, standing to kiss me softly, then nudging me toward my room. “We’ll need to deal with the fallout of your healing in the morning.”

“Ugh, I almost forgot about that.” I pouted, knowing it was going to be another morning of lying to my adoptive-father, which just didn’t sit comfortably for me.

“Go,” River commanded. “Sleep.”

“I’m going,” I grumbled, smacking another quick kiss on his lips, then retreating to my room.

Once in bed, I found sleep totally eluding me as I turned over in my mind the new information Vali had gathered. The bloodstone ring seemed pretty damn vital to mastering my newfound powers, and when he had described what it looked like, a sick feeling had settled in my stomach.

I’d seen a ring like that before, and it wasn’t one I’d likely forget. Suzette, the woman who had run the foster home I’d spent the majority of my childhood in, wore one that sounded almost identical to what Vali had described. I should know; my skin had worn the print of it enough damn times for it to be imprinted on my memory like a brand.

After Jonathan’s agents had raided the home and rescued all the kids, Suzette had been charged and jailed, so I had no doubt she no longer had it. But she must know where to find it.

Now all I needed to do was work out where she was incarcerated and get there to speak with her without needing to explain the whole thing to my dad.

The soft click and slide of my bedroom door opening set my heart pounding until I saw who it was.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Caleb,” I hissed. “You scared the damn pants off me!”

“Oh really?” he asked with a coy smile. “I think I’m okay with this.”

He toed his boots off beside my bed and stripped down to his boxers before sliding under the covers beside me.

“Cal,” I murmured, as he gathered me into his arms and snuggled in. “Don’t you have your own bedroom?”

“Uh-huh,” he said with a content-sounding sigh. “But you’re not in there.”

“Mmm, I can’t argue with that logic.” I relaxed against him and found a comfortable place for my face on his chest. “Where have you been, anyway?”

“Shhh, Kitty Kat,” he shushed. “Sleep time now.”

As much as I wanted to argue and make him tell me what the hell he’d been up to, I truly was tired. Yawning heavily, I closed my eyes and let my mind float as my nose filled with Caleb’s cookie-like scent. Dimly, I wondered if maybe his weird behavior had something to do with the healing.

IN THE MORNING, I hadn’t been summoned to answer questions on my healing of the girl who’d fallen through the stair guard. Even stranger still was that the railing was back to normal like nothing had ever happened, and the girl was missing from class. I wanted to ask someone what had happened to her, but stupid me didn’t even know her name.

“Maybe she’s in medical?” Lucy suggested when I told her about the strange feeling I was getting. “Even if you did convince her she wasn’t that injured, she’d be in there getting her head examined, at the very least, for thinking she’d fallen four stories and walked away unscathed.” Lucy shrugged, tossing the wooden knife back to me. We were learning basic knife skills, and I was breezing through the class thanks to my months spent training with the guys.

“True. Something just feels...” I trailed off with no idea what word I was looking for.

“Suspicious?” she supplied, and I nodded. “I get it, babe. You’ve had a hellish few months lately, so you’re second-guessing everything.”

“Yeah, pretty much.” I flipped the wooden knife in my hand, and without even really thinking about what I was doing, threw it at the target across the room.

The blunt practice blade hit the bullseye with a heavy sound, sticking straight out of the foam target, and the whole room fell silent.

Shit. Kit, way to draw attention to yourself.

We had not been practicing blade throwing, nor should that wooden knife have been anywhere near sharp enough to actually penetrate the target. At least, not with human-level strength behind it.

“Sorry, Sir!” Caleb yelled, dashing over to the target and yanking the blade out quickly, disappearing it under his coat for a second before pulling out a real one. “I gave Kit a sharper one to prove she hadn’t lost her eye for throwing.”

“Of course you did.” The instructor, a silver-haired gentleman named Instructor Pine, sighed. Caleb had begged to accompany me today, knowing it was going to be combat training. The instructor clearly had a soft spot for him, too, because instead of the screaming lecture I might have expected, he just got a frustrated reprimand.

“Think about the safety of the recruits before handing out edged blades in the future, please, Mr. King,” Instructor Pine groused, then flicked a look at me that seemed vaguely impressed. “Good throwing, Miss Davenport.”

“Understood, Sir. Won’t happen again.” Caleb grinned and made his way back over to Lucy and I.

“Kitty Kat... what were you thinking?” he murmured softly, glancing around at the other recruits. “I thought we were keeping things on the down low?”

“We are.” I sulked. “I wasn’t thinking. Too much knife throwing with you in the last few months made it a reflex move.”

“Well, maybe try and rein in the feats of impossible strength until you’re ready to go public with your magic? I can’t say for sure if the instructors have been filled in by the director, but you know the other recruits don’t know.” He handed the knife back to me—the wooden one, that was—and gave me a stern look.

“You think it’d come to that? Going public about magic, I mean?” I nervously tugged at my long braid. “Kind of sounds like a one-way ticket to the loony bin, don’t you think?”

“I think the way things are going, it’s unavoidable. If Vali’s information from Vic turns out to be true, then there are a lot more supernaturals out there with full knowledge of what they are.” Caleb sighed and ran a hand over his face. He looked tired, and I was tempted to ask again what he’d been doing in the evenings.

“Be that as it may, I’m just not totally sure I want to be the one responsible for outing them. You know?” I kicked at the blue foam safety mat we were standing on. Around us, the other recruits went back to practicing their basic knife-fighting moves, but more than one gave me a wary glance.

“I get it, Kitty Kat. Believe me.” Caleb heaved a sigh. “Keep teaching Lucy; she sucks at this. I’ll be watching.” He threw a wink at me and retreated back to the bleachers to watch. My guardians had been advised that although they were allowed to be present, on Jonathan’s approval, they weren’t to participate in the lessons.

“Rude,” Lucy muttered. “I do not suck.” She snatched the wooden blade from me, fumbled it, and dropped it onto her toe. “Oh, shut up you!” She yelled at Caleb, who had just barked a laugh at her expense.

“It’s okay, Luce. You kick butt at the smart stuff, so you’re allowed to suck a bit at this.” I grinned broadly at her, trying not to tease. “Let’s start again.”

As fun as it was to tease my bestie, knowing how she usually excelled in everything, I really did need her to learn some self-defense skills. My enemies had already proven they weren’t above hurting Lucy to get to me, and I couldn’t risk it happening again.

14

AUSTIN

My teeth ground together so hard I thought they might crack. How the fuck had I not seen this coming?

“She’ll never fall for it,” I snapped, tugging against my restraints. Unsurprisingly, they didn’t give even a fraction of an inch.

“Children these days.” My captor, and former mentor, sighed heavily. “Have you understood nothing? You are one of her chosen guardians. She’ll fall for it hook, line, and sinker if it sounds like you’re in trouble.”

“You don’t need to do it like this.” I tried a different angle, hoping reasoning would succeed when anger was failing. “What if you’re wrong? Then you’re seriously screwed.”

“I’m not wrong.” Master Yoshi gave me a pitying look. “The only thing I was wrong about was the level of motivation required.”

Shit, I knew I never should have fallen for his weak ass story about having a stroke. But fuck, what do I know? He’s almost seven hundred years old, for fuck’s sake.

“This is insanity, Yoshi,” I snarled, straining against my bonds in a fruitless attempt to get free. “Why can’t you just leave things be? If she’s chosen me as a guardian, then it’ll happen eventually anyway.”

If. Like I don’t know full well she has. She just doesn’t want to admit it, and I’ll be damned if I crack first.

“You don’t get it, Austin.” He sighed, and his true age seemed to reflect in his weary eyes. “My tenure in this position was supposed to be up almost one hundred and fifty years ago. I stayed because, thanks to that fucking plague, my destined replacements each came and went in normal human lives. Without the Ban Dia power to restore magic, there was no one to replace me. Until you. I knew the moment we met your generation would be the one.”

He was tired and fed up. I got it. But that wasn’t my fucking problem. He should have tried harder to restore the magic to one of the other destined ones in the last hundred and fifty years. Surely Christina wasn’t the only living Ban Dia with her magic intact.

“What are you planning to do to her?” I demanded, and Yoshi raised his eyebrows at me in surprise, like I was the dumbest fuck around. But I had to ask.

“Her? Nothing. I simply need her to restore your magic so you can take over this fucking responsibility of being the Ink Mage, and I can retire to my holiday house in Costa Rica.” Master Yoshi shrugged like he was only asking me to pop out and grab a fucking newspaper or something. Age must have finally cracked his sanity.

“What about Caleb?” I asked, and Yoshi frowned.

“Your twin was not my problem, but from what I understand, he’s already been changed.” He delivered the news casually, like he hadn’t just told me my brother had been injured badly enough that he’d required Christina to heal him.

Fucking Caleb, I’m going to kill him.

He’d called me after arriving to Omega Headquarters and told me about the accident, but he’d only mentioned Wes getting hurt. Not himself. That stupid fuck was probably trying to handle things alone because he was too damn proud to ask me for help.

“Was it him? Jackson?” I spat the name like it carried a bad taste. It sort of did too. Jackson was Yoshi’s twin, in the magical sense. They weren’t blood related like Caleb and I, but Jackson was the Blood Mage to Yoshi’s Ink.

“That asshole?” Yoshi scoffed. “No. That lazy prick couldn’t give two shits about whether his replacement was restored to power. It’s not like he does anything within the community any more.”

Yoshi was right, of course. I despised Jackson, and for good reason, he was a lazy-ass motherfucker these days and left the Mage politics entirely up to Yoshi to handle.

“You’re supposed to be better than this, Yoshi.” I tried a guilt trip instead. “Is this really the example you want to set for mages everywhere? That their leader is a backstabbing fuck?”

“Ah, but you forget one thing, kid.” Yoshi grinned at me like a shark. “In a matter of hours, or however long it takes your girlfriend to get here, you’ll be their leader. And not a moment too soon, I say!”

Yoshi walked over and patted me on the head like a damn puppy, making me snarl at him as I pulled on my restraints again. Of course it was stupid to try; I was sitting inside a rune circle that strengthened the ropes, making them impossible to wriggle out of.

“And don’t you worry about trying to kill me as soon as the Ink magic passes to you. I’ll be long gone by then.” He said it with such casual confidence, but he must be sweating a bit to have even mentioned it. There could only ever be one Ink and one Blood Mage in existence, and they represented the strongest Mages alive.

He should be scared. Once the magic moved to me, I’d be infinitely more powerful than him and pissed off. Not to mention Caleb and I as a united force.

“You and Jackson have been separate so long I think you’re forgetting how strong Cal and I will be together. What did you once tell me? We’d have the power to rival a Ban Dia?” I smirked at my former mentor and was rewarded with a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes.

“Well,” he huffed, folding his tattooed arms over his chest and narrowing his eyes at me. “Kill Jackson if you want, but I’m banking on the fact that you’ll more than have your hands full with your girlfriend and this war that’s knocking on her door.”

Fuck, he knows more that he’s not letting on here.

“You’re an asshole, Yoshi,” I snapped, glaring death at him while my mind raced with this war he’d just mentioned. Christina just couldn’t catch a break, it seemed.

“Quit crying, kid,” he snickered, like the maniac he clearly was. “You’ve known this was your heritage for almost ten years, ever since you first apprenticed for me. Now keep quiet while I make a call.” He squinted at me. “Actually, I can’t trust you not to try something.”

Pulling a gold washable marker from his pocket, he forced my head to the side with one strong hand and sketched a rune against my skin, rendering me speechless. Literally. My mouth worked with the curses I wanted to throw at him, but no sound came out.

Motherfucker. Part of Yoshi’s unique power was that he could imbue any ink with his will. A simple design on skin held the spell in place for however long the image remained. Add Jackson’s blood to the ink, and they could perform feats of magic most mages only dreamed about.

Master Yoshi picked my phone up from the ground where I’d dropped it during our brief scuffle that had resulted in me tied to this fucking chair. I truly hadn’t stood a chance against him, despite my Omega training; I was currently only human. Not for long though, if Yoshi’s plan succeeded.

He flicked through my contacts and hit dial, then swirled a quick design on the back of his hand so that when he spoke, it was in my voice. Fucker.

“Hey, Cal. Yeah, it’s me.” Yoshi curved a nasty grin at me while my voice poured out of his mouth. “He’s doing good! I should be done here in a couple of days, and Yoshi is retiring to Costa Rica.” He paused while Caleb spoke for a bit, and I mouthed obscenities at him. “Yeah, I know he’s been saying that for years, but this time he means it. Hey, can you send me Kit’s new mobile number? I need to ask her a question.”

A shock of relief washed over me, and I fought not to smile. I’d never called Christina by her nickname before, and Caleb knew it. He’d for sure know something was fishy about this.

“You’ll text it to me?” Yoshi continued, curving a triumphant smile at me, and my stomach sank. “Great, thanks bro. Hey, maybe let her know I’ll be texting, in case she thinks someone stole my phone and is setting her up or something.” He chuckled, like it was all a big fucking joke, and I screamed at him soundlessly.

“Yeah, you too. Sweet, see you in a couple of days, then.” Yoshi disconnected the call and raised his eyebrows at me, looking like he’d just won. He hadn’t, though. Not yet.

“Is it just me, or has your brother become far too trusting?” he pondered aloud. “Then again, I imagine he has a lot on his mind at the moment, if he’s just come into his magic. I sorely doubt Jackson has put his hand up to teach him how to control it, either.”

The deceptively young-looking man tapped at my phone, no doubt sending a text to Christina that would set her into enough of a panic that she’d come down here and try to save my sorry ass.

Despite what I’d said, I knew she would too. Damn woman was too fucking soft hearted for her own good, always trying to save the world. Didn’t she realize not everyone needed saving? Or deserved it, for that matter.

“Oh, don’t give me that look; you know he’s handling it just fine. Probably found a local witch or something to help him get some control. Besides, if he had paid a lick of attention to the lessons I tried to give you both growing up, he’d be fine to handle it on his own. Like you will be.” Yoshi sighed heavily and gave me a disappointed look.

For all appearances, he wasn’t a day older than me. Medium height and build with short, spiky black hair and more ink than even I had decorating his skin. The difference was, though, his ink contained magic.

Of course, he assumed I was worrying about my brother in that moment and not about the red-haired temptress who haunted my every waking thought.

“I really wish you weren’t forcing my hand in this, but your Ban Dia came into her powers months ago, and you still haven’t given her reason to restore your magic. Any of you. I give the rest of your little team some allowance as they were unaware of what they are, but you and Caleb...” He shook his head, tsking. “You knew better.”

He turned and headed to the door, clearly intending to leave the mute spell active on my skin. “Shouldn’t be too much longer. I’ll check on you again later, but for now I have clients waiting.”

As he left through the door, the distinctive buzzing of tattoo needles could be heard, and I screamed silently in frustration.

15

KIT

Lucy and I were tucked up on the couch together watching a movie when my phone vibrated. Wesley had input all of the guys’ numbers before he’d given it to me so I’d know who it was if one of them contacted me.

After our non-eventful combat training today and with still no word from either Jonathan or the girl I’d healed, Lucy and I had decided to have a girls’ night in. We’d ordered pizzas and were watching cheesy rom-coms. Not because we were particularly into them, but because the guys looked like they’d rather pull their own teeth out than watch with us. All except Wesley, that was.

“Oh God,” he groaned. “She’s not seriously falling for that, is she?”

Lucy and I shared a small grin, and I stole some more popcorn from Wesley’s bowl. The girl that this love story followed was a bit of a ditz, but Wesley’s running commentary was just priceless.

“You guys want more drinks?” Lucy asked, standing up with a groan and taking our empty glasses.

“Shhh, Luce!” Wesley hissed, waving her out of the way, and I stifled a giggle into his shirt. Somehow over the course of one and a half movies, we had gone from sitting on opposite ends of the couch to me snuggled into his side with his arm draped over my shoulders.

Feeling my phone buzz in the pocket of my sweatpants again, I fished it out and swiped my thumb across the screen. Two messages flashed at me, one from Vali and one from Caleb.

“Looks like everyone is putting that text blocker to good use then?” Wesley commented quietly, glancing at my phone. He’d been working on a new software that allowed us to text on a different frequency or bandwidth or something—I tuned out on the technical terms—but it meant we could securely message each other without fear of Omega intercepting it. He was still working on the one for voice calls, though.

“Uh-huh,” I murmured, opening Caleb’s message first. He was not home again, and I was starting to get worried he was in some sort of trouble. So far, neither he nor Wesley had shown signs of being anything more, so I was hoping my magic had run out before getting that far.

“Weird,” I muttered, reading it.

“What is?” Wes asked, looking down at my phone again as I showed it to him.

“Why would Austin ask for my number?” I frowned. The message just said that Aus had called and wanted my new number so he could text me.

“Maybe he wants to check how you’re doing after the car crash?” Wesley suggested, and I snorted. One of the things I loved about my dorky new boyfriend was his ability to see the good in everyone. Including Austin the Ass. Ugh, I just called Wesley my “boyfriend” inside my own head. Damn, when did I become so gooey?

“Why are you blushing, sweetheart?” Wes asked suspiciously, running the back of his finger across my cheek. “Are you thinking dirty things about me again?”

“Um, no. I’m going to help Lucy get those drinks.” I awkwardly shot up from my seat and hurried through to the open-plan kitchen where Lucy was taking a very long time pouring sodas.

“Luce,” I hissed, catching her giggling while she sent a rapid fire text to someone. “You’re not text-flirting with Finn are you?”

She looked up at me with a deer-in-headlights expression, and I groaned. “Luce... please be careful with him? I am begging you. Has he said anything about being, you know, other?”

“No... but I also haven’t brought it up.” She shrugged. “It’s not really the sort of thing we talk about, anyway.”

“Uh-huh,” I deadpanned at her. “And what do you talk about?”

Lucy blushed and I groaned.

“Oh my God, you’re fucking him, aren’t you? Lucifer Jones...”

“None of your business, Christina Davenport!” She pursed her lips at me with a shut the fuck up look on her face. “Now, why are you in here and not having a quick makeout with your sexy nerd?”

“Don’t call him a nerd, Luce,” I muttered defensively, and she rolled her eyes.

“I can ’cause I am one too. Now spill.” She whacked me on the ass with a tea towel, and I scowled back at her.

“First of all, keep your voice down.” I glanced over to the living room area where Wesley was still watching our sappy movie. There were no walls dividing the kitchen from the rest of the apartment, but there was a dining area between us, so hopefully he couldn’t hear us speaking.

“There’s nothing to spill; I just kind of referred to Wes as my boyfriend inside my head and then panicked. That’s all.” I shrugged awkwardly and turned to browse the fridge. For what? I had no idea. Sometimes you just needed to browse the fridge.

“Uh-huh. But... isn’t he?” Lucy asked. “I mean, I heard you call Cole your boyfriend yesterday, and I can’t imagine River let that slide without jumping on board?” I blushed scarlet, remembering when I’d asked River to be my boyfriend. “What about Caleb?”

“No idea. We’re together, and he seems fine with the whole sharing aspect, but he hasn’t really been around much since we got here. He’s out doing God knows what every evening, then comes in and sneaks into my bed at night.” I turned back to my best friend who was looking severely unimpressed.

“Like... as a booty call?” she clarified, and I smiled.

“No, Lucy, you freaking horn-dog. Just to sleep. And cuddle. It’s nice; I miss him not being around, so I kind of look forward to late night cuddles.” I smiled. “But I don’t know. Wes and I... it’s so new, you know? I don’t want to go freaking him out by being all ‘Oh hey, you want to be my fourth boyfriend?’ kind of thing.”

“Uh-huh, I see how that could be awkward. But he does already know you’re involved with his team so... would it really be such a shock?” Lucy suggested. She had a point, too. “What about this Vali guy? It kind of sounds like you guys have an attraction there too?”

“Ugh, yes. No. I don’t really know. He has a girlfriend, Elena, and she’s stunning.” I sighed, then remembered his message I hadn’t read. I pulled my phone from my pocket again and flicked into the message.

Texting isn’t the same as talking. Followed by a sad-face emoji.

“Girlfriend, huh?” Lucy muttered, reading over my shoulder. “Sure doesn’t sound like it from his messages.”

“Oh stop it.” I locked my phone and put it back in my pocket before she could get too nosy. I’d been texting with Vali on and off all evening, seeing as I’d decided to hang with Lucy instead of jogging out to the property perimeter to call.

“And what about Austin?” Lucy prodded.

“What about Austin?” I repeated, frowning at her.

“Anything going on between the two of you?” she asked, the picture of fucking innocence, like she knew something I didn’t.

“Nothing. You know how he is, arrogant and dickish as ever.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Why? What do you know that I don’t know?”

“Me? Nothing. Why would I?” She was suddenly dodging eye contact with me, so I knew for sure she was keeping secrets.

“Oh, I don’t know, Luce. Maybe because you two became besties while I was being kidnapped and sold at a slave auction?” I smiled so she knew I was joking. Subjects that heavy had the potential to turn a bit depressing. “What did he say to you about me?”

“A better question, Christina, is why do you care?” She smirked at me and sashayed out of the kitchen carrying the sodas that we had come in here for in the first place. Fuck her, she was right. Why did I care?

Just as I was about to follow her, my phone buzzed again, and I pulled it out to check it.

Hey, it’s Austin. I’m in trouble. Can you meet me? You can’t tell the guys, though. It concerns them, and I don’t want them hurt.

My eyes scanned the short message several times before I replied. Is this about me? What I am?

There was a short pause before his message came back. Yes. Then a second later, another message with just an address in San Francisco. Please come alone. And hurry.

Austin, this makes no sense. Why can’t I tell the guys? What sort of trouble are you in? I typed quickly and hit send.

After a few moments, no reply came back, so I tried again. If this is another one of your tricks, I’m going to kick your fucking ass.

Still nothing. My teeth worried at my lower lip as I thought it over. It was such a clichéd move, come alone and tell no one. But... what if Austin really was in trouble? I was hardly a poor, defenseless victim anymore, and had Sergei not surprised me with fucking chloroform, he never would have been able to kidnap me.

“Hey,” Wesley’s voice jolted me out of my thoughts, and I looked up from my phone to see him leaning on the kitchen counter near me. “Are you okay? You went kind of funny, and you’ve been in here for a while... I hope I didn’t, um, make you uncomfortable or anything?”

“Huh? No, sorry, I just...” I waved my phone. “Austin messaged; it threw me. He doesn’t really like me much, so I’m a bit confused why he’s messaging.”

“Ah, yeah. He’s... complicated.” Wesley ran a hand through his floppy blond hair, and I smiled. It was such an obvious nervous tell; he’d be awful undercover. “Did you want to finish the movie?”

“Yup, let’s do that, and I can deal with Austin later.” What I really meant was hopefully he would reply to my messages soon. Otherwise... I didn’t even know. Would I go to the address he’d given me?

Surely it couldn’t be too risky to go and see him for a day? He may not like me much, but he was one of my dianoch. For better or worse, we were stuck together, so maybe trusting him on this one, small thing might be a step toward building a better relationship between us.

16

The address that Austin had texted me turned out to be a tattoo parlor named “Ink Bats”, and thankfully it seemed to be open.

After hours of sending messages and getting nothing back, I’d decided to pull what was likely to be a stupid-as-fuck move and sneaked out of the apartment in the dead of night to drive some fourteen-odd hours from the Omega Base to San Francisco. By the time I’d arrived, I was tired, cranky, and my phone had lost all battery from the guys blowing it up with calls and messages. Granted I did have a charger in my car, and had recharged it, but that was the excuse I was going to stick with.

When they’d first noticed me missing, probably when Caleb got home and didn’t find me in bed, I’d answered their calls. But they hadn’t been happy accepting my vague answers on where I was, so I’d simply stopped answering.

A happy bell chimed as I pushed open the door, and a young girl behind the reception desk looked up.

“Hi, hon. You got an appointment?” she asked, eyeing me up and down as though it wasn’t believable I was here for a tattoo.

“No, I’m looking for a friend of mine, Austin King?” I hesitated only because he hadn’t responded to any of my recent messages, so I had no idea if he was still here or not. The girl’s expression seemed to frost over, and she gave me another look.

“He’s busy.” The sneer on her face spoke volumes. She clearly had a crush on my frustrating friend.

“Okay, well he asked me to come here, and I just drove, like, fourteen hours, so I think you can move your scrawny ass, go back there, and tell him Kit’s here.” I paused. “Christina. I mean, tell him Christina is here.” The girl glared at me with a look that could fucking murder, and I snarled at her, “Go!”

Okay, so that probably wasn’t the most polite I had ever been, but she scurried off her stool and into the back of the shop, so whatever. It got the job done.

“You’re Kit?” A handsome man, covered in tattoos, asked. He’d just come through from the back of the shop, where the buzzing of tattoo guns could be heard, and I looked at him with suspicion.

“Yeah, and you are?” My arms remained firmly crossed, and I didn’t take the hand he offered to me to shake. His ink was stunning but interspersed with runes and symbols as well as the usual animals, flowers, and so on.

“I’m Yoshi; I own Ink Bats,” the guy said with a smile that reminded me a bit of a shark.

“Yoshi?” I repeated. “Master Yoshi?”

“Ah yes, that’s what they call me around here because I’m considered an Ink Master. You’re here looking for Austin?” His smile didn’t waver for a second, but it also didn’t reach his eyes. Something... wasn’t right.

“Yeah, he texted me to come and meet him here? You know, I was expecting someone older... Austin mentioned you’d had a stroke?” I narrowed my eyes at the guy who couldn’t have been a day over twenty-five, and a cold chill ran down my spine. I should know, better than most, that appearance was no indication of age when it came to supernaturals.

“Silly misunderstanding.” The guy, Yoshi, smiled his shark-like smile. “Austin’s in the back. If you’ll follow me?”

“Sure... um, just one sec?” I held up a finger and slipped my phone from my pocket. As quickly as possible, I copy-pasted the address from Austin’s message and sent it in a group text to all of the guys, Vali included. If nothing else, it’d give them a starting point when looking for my body.

“So, I don’t think Austin ever mentioned you until a couple of days ago,” I said, following the tattooed man through his busy shop. There had to have been at least twelve artists all at work on clients, and the art they were producing was simply divine. That certainly answered my question on where the guys had all gotten their ink done.

“He didn’t? I’m offended!” Yoshi chuckled. “I’ve known Austin and Caleb since they were about twelve years old. Caleb was never much interested in tattooing, but Austin... Well, that boy just has a natural-born talent for it, don’t you think?”

“Uh, he does?” I questioned, and Yoshi paused, looking back at me.

“Surely you’ve seen his work? I thought you were close with his team?” He raised his eyebrows at me, and I nodded slowly.

“Right, yeah, of course. I never realized...” Well, now that it had been pointed out, it was pretty damn obvious. The flawless artistry on all of them, the way the boys caged up when I asked about the tattoos, Wesley’s smug grin when he suggested I get one from the same artist. “He surely didn’t tattoo himself though?”

“No, his are mostly my own work. He was my apprentice for a number of years, you know.” Yoshi looked genuinely proud of the fact, and I didn’t blame him. Business was clearly booming, too, based on how busy his shop was.

“So... I’m confused why I’m here,” I admitted as I followed behind him down a corridor to a short flight of stairs leading up at the back. “Austin sent me a kind of odd message asking me to come here. But it really doesn’t look like he’s in trouble...” My words trailed off as I entered the room at the top of the stairs, and Yoshi closed the door behind me.

“Well, fuck,” I cursed. “I stand corrected.”

In the middle of the studio apartment, tied to a chair and looking severely pissed off, was Austin. Beneath his chair, a circle of runes dusted the floor with what looked like glitter glue but was probably some magical, mystical shit.

The solid click of the door locking behind me tore my gaze from Austin’s, and I edged away from Yoshi.

“What exactly is going on here?” I asked cautiously, maintaining a safe distance between myself and the man who, I was fairly certain, was responsible for tying my friend to a chair. “Aus?”

Caleb’s identical twin glared at me, fury sparking behind his emerald green eyes, but he said nothing. A faded gold design on the side of his neck grabbed my attention though, and I frowned.

“Austin won’t answer; I apologize. I needed him to be quiet while I called Caleb and got your number.” Yoshi grinned again, like he wanted congratulations on his brilliant plan.

“What the hell are you planning on doing to us?” I demanded, keeping my weight evenly spread into a fighter’s stance. Fucking no one was catching me unaware this time.

“To you? Absolutely nothing. To harm the only Ban Dia with access to restorative magic would be... well, stupid doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what that’d be.” Yoshi shook his head like he hadn’t just lured me into a room and locked the door. Or like he didn’t currently have my friend tied to a chair and most likely spelled somehow.

“Okay, so...” I glanced at Austin, who still just looked pissed off. Not scared or hurt, just furious. Strangely, I found this a comforting emotion from him. “What are we doing here, then?”

“You’re going to repair Austin’s ties to the magic.” Yoshi said this so matter-of-factly it was almost laughable. “He was one of the unfortunate ones born to a plagued family, already severed from the magical world despite being a pure-blooded Mage. I need you to fix that so I can retire.”

“Mage?” I squawked, shocked as all get-out. I had just wrapped my brain around the whole Cole-and-Vali-as-dragons thing and really hadn’t taken the time to consider what the rest of my dianoch might turn out to be. I didn’t even fully comprehend which species of supernaturals really existed and which were fairytales, so to find Austin—and I assumed Caleb, too—were Mages... Stunned was one word for it.

Meeting Austin’s angry green eyes again, I frowned. He knew. He clearly knew what he was. For how long?

“No,” I replied to Yoshi, not taking my eyes from Austin but steeling my spine in anger. Austin’s eyes softened for a moment, almost in sadness, or regret, but I knew him better than that.

“No?” Yoshi repeated, like he’d heard me incorrectly.

“You heard me. No. I get the feeling Austin has known about his heritage for a while now?” I snapped the words out, still holding Austin’s clear green gaze and seeing no apology in it.

Motherfucker.

“Yes, of course. I did just tell you he’s been my apprentice since he was twelve, did I not?” Yoshi sounded vexed. Like I gave a shit.

“Well, then, if Austin had wanted me to change him, he would have said something sooner. He also wouldn’t be tied to a damn chair with a silencing spell on him. Would he?” I finally broke my stare down with Austin and glanced at Master Yoshi.

The expression he wore made my blood run cold.

“Perhaps I didn’t phrase myself quite right,” he murmured in a dangerously quiet voice. “I wasn’t asking you. I was telling. You will heal him, change him, whatever you want to call it, because he is one of your bonded guardians. You have no choice in the matter.”

“I don’t understand,” I admitted, backing another step away from Yoshi and in front of Austin. Hopefully if this maniac pulled out a gun or something, I’d have time to get in the way of it.

“Of course, you don’t. You’re just a baby. So take this as a practical lesson.” He held up a hand, palm out toward Austin, and spoke a simple word.

That was it. Just one hand up, one word.

Wetness hit me in the back of the neck, and I whirled around to face Austin. Still tied to the chair, his throat looked as if it had been slashed with an invisible machete or something, and blood poured from the gaping wound that was his neck.

Acting on pure instinct and fear, I threw myself at him, my hands clamping the edges of his wound together in a futile attempt to stop the blood from flowing while my magic slammed through me with the force of a damn freight train. Whatever the feeling of his supernatural power was, I couldn’t make it out from the feeling of his blood rushing between my fingers and the frayed edges of skin, tissue, and tendons as I tried to hold everything in place.

“Fuck, fucking fuck, shit, fuck,” I cursed and willed my magic out faster. I had no idea if it worked on the dead, and I wasn’t willing to test the theory out.

Austin’s eyes held mine as I swore, and I could taste the salty wetness of my tears at the edges of my mouth. He still didn’t look afraid, that fucking wanker. His gaze was steady and confident, like he had no concerns about my ability to save him from this bloody mess.

“Trust you to fucking get your throat slashed, you.... argh!” The magic was pounding through my body and into Austin, but still my hands slipped in his blood, and I kept needing to readjust my grip to try and hold pressure or hold the edges together or something. My body sagged as I poured more and more energy and will into healing him, and finally the blood began slowing. The raw wound began knitting back together and gradually began looking less like Austin’s head was hanging by a thread.

My knees buckled, and I let them go, resting my weight on Austin’s lap while keeping my grip around his slick, crimson throat.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, feeling a wash of fear and panic and sheer sadness. He’d known he wasn’t human, for probably longer than I had, but said nothing. Aside from the fact that I wanted to fucking kill him for keeping quiet, I also felt overwhelmingly sorry that this healing was going to change him when he so clearly didn’t want that to happen.

His gaze held mine still, and I saw the reassurance there that he didn’t blame me. Not that he would have any right to, fucking bastard. But still, I felt guilty and responsible. Without me, he could have lived out his days human.

Skin fused back together bit by bit until his throat was whole once more, and I kept my hands in place, pushing more magic into him until I was satisfied that all traces of the wound were gone. Before I withdrew my magic, I felt it do a sweep through the rest of him, and I recognized it as having done the same thing on all my previous healings, like the magic was sentient and checking that all was fixed before it departed.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered again, my hands falling limp from his neck and my forehead dropping to his shoulder as my body went boneless.

“Don’t apologize, Princess,” he replied in a husky voice. “I should have seen this coming.”

“Is he gone?” I whispered back, meaning Yoshi. The fucking Mage. What the fuck?

“Yeah, baby, he took off almost immediately. He’ll be watching somehow, though. Making sure you didn’t actually let me die.” Austin’s face buried into my hair, and we stayed like that for a long moment.

“Um, I guess I should untie you, huh?” I murmured, not really ready to move just yet. Not really sure I could move just yet. I was seated straddling him with my head resting on his blood-slick neck, and he was still bound to the chair.

“Please. Preferably before you pass out?” His voice was gruff, but there was almost a level of concern in there. Almost.

Hands braced on his chest, I pushed myself up to standing, wobbling like I’d had one too many vodkas and then catching myself on his shoulder.

“You okay?” he checked, and I nodded, not trusting myself to speak without vomiting. The room was spinning dangerously, and I could already feel my stomach churning like I was on a ship. I hated ships. Sea sickness was a real damn thing and not in the least bit fun.

“He will have tied those ropes professionally tight; you might need a knife or something,” Austin suggested, and I nodded again. Holding his knee for support, I reached down and slid a deadly sharp blade from my boot and showed it to him.

“That’ll do.” He grinned a tiny half grin. “You’re learning, Princess.”

Taking slow, deliberate breaths to calm my rolling stomach, I shuffled around behind him and sliced through the intricate web of ropes that held him immobile. As they fell away, he groaned and rubbed his wrists. My gaze had snagged on the glittering pattern around the chair, though, and I reached out my toe, digging it into the sparkling substance and dragging a line back to me, messing up the runes and breaking the circle. The air in the room seemed to compress and pop, like we had been in a bubble or something, and I raised my eyebrows at Austin.

“What the fuck was that?” I whispered, and he grimaced.

“It was a spell, and you just broke it. I didn’t know your kind could do that, but it’s certainly handy to know.” He stood and stretched, cracking his neck.

“We will be discussing that. Later though. When I’m not about to pass out. Okay?” I pointed at him sternly, but there was suddenly three of him, and the floor was rushing up to meet my face fast.

THE SHARP, copper tang of blood filled my nostrils, and I blinked awake again, meeting a pair of emerald green eyes only inches from my face.

“Hey, baby girl, stick with me. You just need a recharge, right?” Austin murmured softly, and a pathetic sounding whimper slipped out of my throat. “Try not to slap me when you regain your strength.”

His hand slid up to gently cup the back of my neck, and his lips touched mine. His kiss was so light, so soft, it was like he was barely touching me at all, and it was the worst kind of torture. A small sound of frustration worked its way out of me, and I moved my head a fraction closer, deepening the kiss into something more satisfying.

Austin met my demands, his lips caressing mine in an unhurried dance of emotions, like he was trying to tell me something that I just wasn’t getting. Maybe I was taking too many knocks to the head or something, or maybe I just didn’t want to read into it too much for fear that it wasn’t what I hoped for. Either way, his kiss was helping. Everywhere our skin touched I could feel the magic tingling between us, soaking back into my skin and boosting my energy enough that I no longer needed to vomit.

“This isn’t enough, is it?” he asked, pulling back from my lips and looking me in the eye.

“Not really,” I murmured back in a weak voice. “But that’s okay; so long as I have enough to function, I can probably recharge in my sleep or some shit.”

Austin stared back at me for a long moment, his eyes searching mine for... I didn’t even know what.

“Fuck, Princess, you’re a mess,” he muttered, tightening his grip on my face and pulling me back to him. His lips slammed into mine with a ferocity that matched his personality much better than the gentle kiss he had just given me. Our teeth clashed and he forced my lips apart, thrusting his tongue into my mouth and meeting mine in a battle of wills.

With a sexy, frustrated groan, Austin moved over me, pressing me into the floor and pinning me with his hips. His hardened length crushed between us, and I gasped against his mouth, wrapping my legs up and around his waist to pull him tighter against me.

Needing more, I slid my hands underneath his soaking, blood-covered T-shirt and grabbed onto his muscular sides while my lips engaged his in some sort of wild tango.

“Fucking Christ,” he swore, breaking free from my lips and kissing down the side of my neck, then sucking and biting at my pulse point until I was shaking with ecstasy.

“What the fuck?” Caleb’s voice dumped over the two of us like a bucket of ice water, and Austin shot up like someone had just lit a stick of dynamite under him.

“Are you two okay? What the hell happened?” Caleb demanded, staring wide-eyed at his twin—soaked from neck to knee in blood—at the overturned chair amidst purple runes and puddles of blood, and then me, lying on my back in the middle of it all, panting like I’d just run a marathon, and doubtlessly covered in just as much blood as Austin. Now that I thought about it, I could feel it crusting in my hair.

“Yoshi took matters into his own hands.” Austin’s voice was clipped and angry, and I had no doubt he was relieved his brother had shown up when he did. “Christina healed me, but Yoshi probably didn’t need to do quite such a thorough job on the killing blow. It took a lot of magic. Oh, and what the fuck had you so distracted that you didn’t notice Yoshi call Christina ‘Kit’ on the phone?”

“So you two were...” Caleb raised an eyebrow at the two of us and gave me a knowing look. Even in the state I was in, I noticed he’d ignored Austin’s question about being distracted.

Fuck him; this is so not the time for teasing.

“She was practically comatose, so yeah. Recharge. But you’re here now, bro, so I can go clean up. Shower’s all yours, I’ll use the bathroom downstairs.” He didn’t wait for a response from either of us before slamming out of the apartment, leaving me more than a little speechless.

Obviously, I knew I wasn’t his favorite person on the planet, but did he seriously need to act like I was some sort of fucking leper? He quite literally could not have taken off faster if he had tried, and more to the point, I was not some piece of meat that he could just hand off to his brother to finish up.

Fuck. Him.

Caleb held a hand out to me to help me up from the floor, but I batted it aside and pushed myself up.

“Don’t even,” I hissed at him. “You think I didn’t notice the smoking ring of fucking Mage runes that you just appeared in?” I pointed to the evidence near the front door, where it was quickly fading but still visible. “I am beyond furious at you right now, Caleb King.”

“Kitty Kat,” he sighed. “It’s not what you think.”

“Oh, it’s not? So you didn’t know all along that you were a Mage just in need of healing or that supernaturals existed or even what I fucking am?” I got up in his face, spitting mad and glaring daggers.

“I didn’t know what you are. I swear. If I had, I would have told you. We just thought you were a shifter of some sort and maybe Blood Moon had done some weird testing on you when you were a kid.” He reached out and took my shoulders in his hands, peering into my eyes. “I promise you, Kitty Kat. Yoshi taught us about moon phases and runic writing and alchemy—things that we didn't have the power to do anything with and I assumed we never would. I had no idea what was happening with the six of us until Victor explained it. I really never even listened when Yoshi taught us shit anyway, so it was all just a bit of a vague memory.”

“Why didn’t you say anything after the crash? You knew that you’d changed, that you were a Mage now. Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded. His secrets fucking hurt. Why had he not felt like he could confide in me?

He heaved a sigh, dropping my gaze. “Honestly, I don’t know. I never truly believed the hype about Aus and I being these fucking destined ones in the Mage world. No new Mages have been born or created or whatever in, like, half a millennia, so it all just seemed a bit... far-fetched. You know? But then you healed me, and I knew. So I went to get help, to learn how to get some control in case I ended up hurting someone.”

“But why didn’t you just tell me?” I yelled, slapping him in the chest out of frustration. “I get that this is not ideal. It’s not what you guys wanted and I didn’t ask you to become my guardians, and I am sorry for that. I didn’t know how it worked until it was all too late. So, whatever, I get it. But you should have told me what was going on or at least told River. We’re supposed to be a team, remember?”

“I know; I should have... can you please let me help you now?” He gave me a crooked smile and peeled a piece of blood-crusted hair from my cheek. “You could really go with a shower, and you know how good I am at soaping.”

“I think I’ll be fine alone.” I pursed my lips, frowning at him. “You still lied to me. You’ve known about the existence of supernaturals from day one, and you never said a fucking word.” I glanced around the small apartment and spotted the bathroom. “I’ll take a shower and then sleep on the way back to Seattle.”

“Kitty Kat,” he groaned as I made my way into the bathroom with shaking knees. “Come on, you need the magic boost.”

“No, fuck you!” I snapped back, like the really mature twenty-one-year-old I was. God, that was something to get used to, suddenly jumping from nineteen to twenty-one in the space of days.

Storming into the bathroom like I wasn’t about to collapse in an exhausted heap, I slammed the door behind me and turned on the water.

Water pounded down, steaming up the bathroom, but I needed a moment to catch my breath, so I sat my ass down on the side of the tub. My mind was reeling with this new influx of information, and I was stinging with the knowledge that both Caleb and Austin had relevant information that they’d chosen not to share with me.

But why? Did they not trust me enough?

Fucking hell, these were two guys that my stupid, trusting subconscious had chosen to be my forever companions, and they had been keeping some huge ass secrets.

How was I even supposed to get past this? Obviously it was impossible to change the past, but I couldn’t just forgive and forget something of this magnitude so damn easily.

Ugh, why couldn’t I have it easy and be a damn human?

WHEN I EVENTUALLY DRAGGED MY butt out of the shower, my skin was pruning a little and I was quivering with exhaustion. Also I was seriously wishing I had taken Caleb up on his offer to help soap my back because the small energy exchange Austin had given me wasn’t nearly enough.

“Vixen!” Cole barked, as I stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in Master Yoshi’s bathrobe. My clothes had been pretty covered with Austin’s blood, and I shuddered at the thought of putting them back on again, so this was as good as it got.

“Cutie, when did you get here?” I asked through a yawn, and he wrapped me in a huge hug.

“We took the Omega chopper as soon as you sent the address. Well, we were sort of already on our way, but the address helped.” He huffed and held me tight.

“How do you mean?” I puzzled, not sure if it was just my fuzzy, tired brain not making sense of things.

“Ah, Wes tracked your phone, so we knew what general direction you were heading in,” Cole admitted, and I nodded against his chest. It made sense, and I expected nothing less from Wes.

“Are you okay, love?” River asked softly, and I pulled back from Cole’s chest to look at him.

“Yeah, fine. This was all Austin.” I waved a hand at the mess of blood and runes all over the floor. “Did he and Caleb fill you in?”

The twins were both at the little kitchen table with Wes, and both looked like they were in sour moods. No doubt River had been reading them the riot act before I had gotten out of the shower. Damn right, too; they both fucking deserved it. Secretive bastards.

“They did, and I think we can discuss it further when we get back to headquarters. Are you okay to head back? Or do you need...” River cocked his head in question, his golden eyes full of concern, and I shook my head.

“I’m fine, yeah; let’s head back. I just need to find something other than this robe to wear. My clothes are gonners.” I cringed at the thought of putting the dried blood–encrusted garments back on, even though it was becoming almost like a fashion statement for me these days.

“Here, I found these in the closet,” Wesley piped up, handing me a pair of sweatpants and a hoody. “I figure they might work? At least it has to be better than a bathrobe, right?”

“Thanks, Wes.” I smiled gratefully, taking the clothes from him. “I’ll just be a sec.”

I quickly retreated into the bathroom once more and dressed in sweats that were way too big for me, but easy enough to tighten with the drawstring. My reflection in the mirror showed me just how drawn and exhausted I looked, but it wasn’t even half of how bad I was feeling. Damn stubborn pride.

It didn’t feel right accepting any sort of sexual contact from Caleb when I was this mad at him, though, and Austin sure as shit made it seem like a chore. Of course, River and Cole were here now, and Wes... but I was just tired as shit and not in the mood.

“Ready,” I announced, leaving the bathroom again with my wad of bloody clothes in my hand. “Please tell me we can take the helicopter back? That was a long ass drive down here. Maybe I can come back for my car another day?”

“Of course we can, love. I’ll arrange for your car to be driven back to base.” River nodded, giving a tiny lip-twitch of a smile but tucking my hand inside his own as he led the way out of the apartment. “We have a lot to discuss when we’re back. A lot.” His glare speared the twins, and they both dodged his eye contact like naughty puppies.

“Vixen, you need to call Vali,” Cole advised me, handing my phone to me from where it must have dropped sometime during the mess that was Austin’s almost-death. It had little flecks of blood on the screen that I obsessively needed to scratch off with my fingernail before I could use it.

“He almost dragoned out and flew here himself. Maybe just let him know you’re okay?” Cole looked torn between wanting to be annoyed at his brother’s extreme reaction and impressed that he clearly cared.

“I’ll shoot him a text and call tomorrow. I’m wrecked,” I admitted, tapping out a quick message to assure Vali that I was totally fine and there was nothing to be concerned about.

Austin led us out the back door so we didn’t have to all troop through the tattoo shop, and I saw the guys had left a car waiting. There weren’t enough seats for all of us, so I willingly crawled into Wesley’s lap and curled up with his arms around me.

A sigh of relief rushed through me as the little, electric tingles of magic kicked back into gear wherever our skin touched, so I slipped my hands under his hoody to increase the contact. He must have either felt it or sensed what I was doing because he did the same thing to me, and my skin shivered in delight.

“It’s not far to the airstrip, but sleep if you want. I can wake you if I need to,” Wesley murmured in my ear, and I nodded sleepily, already halfway closing my eyes and snuggling my face into his neck.

As I drifted to sleep, I felt his strong fingers stroking little patterns up and down my spine, infusing my body with the magic it needed to recharge and just generally making me feel loved.

17

COLE

Hands stuffed in the pockets of my jeans, I waited patiently for the warden to unlock the gate and usher me through. When he finally did, I simply nodded my thanks, not bothering with unnecessary niceties. Words were so overused these days they were losing their meanings.

“Just through here,” the portly man said, unlocking another door and holding it open for me. “A guard will bring the prisoner through in a few, and when you want out, just knock on the door. Clear?”

“Clear,” I responded, my tone clipped and gruff. There was a table in the center of the room with a chair on either side of it. I didn’t sit, though. My dragon was enraged, pacing within me and clawing to get out. It was all I could do to maintain my human shape when I was this worked up. Still, I’d much rather this be me than Vixen.

Seconds later the door reopened, and a haggard, old woman was ushered in. She was in the standard prison-issue uniform, and her hands were shackled with handcuffs, which the guard attached to the bar down the center of the table.

“Who the hell are you?” She sneered at me, showing yellow-brown teeth that I swear took all of my self-control not to smack out of her disgusting face. People like her didn’t deserve to live, in prison or not.

“Irrelevant,” I snarled, unable to keep the fury from my voice as I eyed the woman who had broken my Vixen as a child. How anyone could do what she had allowed to happen to my girl... My fists curled, the knuckles popping and stretching as my dragon claws threatened to protrude.

“I came for information. You’d be wise to give it over.” My tone accepted no negotiation on this point, and her eyes widened as she stared at my flexing fists.

“What do you wanna know?” she asked, not taking her eyes from my hands but paling noticeably. Good. I wanted her afraid.

“You took something that didn’t belong to you. A ring.” I wasn’t asking; I was telling. “You’re going to tell me where to find it now.”

Her gaze darted up to my face as I stood, towering over her, and a small smile pulled at her wrinkled mouth.

“Boy, I’ve taken a great many things that didn’t belong to me. It’s part of the reason I’m here, you follow?” She looked at me with narrowed eyes. “You going to need to be more specific.”

Ice shot through my blood, and I knew my dragon was riding close to the surface. This mention that she was in jail for theft only served to infuriate me further. The slippery bitch had managed to weasel her way out of a much more serious sentence for child abuse and underage sex trafficking, but luckily the prosecutor had managed to slap her with a series of lesser crimes of theft and assault that had compounded to a life sentence anyway.

“A sapphire ring with an intricate gold setting. You took it from a little girl with fox-red hair.” My heart cracked at the thought of little seven-year-old Kit in the care of this vile creature.

“Ah, that little bitch,” Suzette spat, and her lip curled with a snarl. “More trouble than she was ever damn worth.”

My palms slammed down on the table with a bang that echoed like thunder, and I let my eyes meld with my dragon. Fury vibrated over my skin, and I let Suzette see in my eyes just how much shit she would be in if she didn’t answer me.

“The ring,” I snarled. “Where is it now?”

“R-Richard,” she whimpered, finally seeming to comprehend the danger she was in with me. “I left everything in my safe, and my boys said that Richard’s men came and cleaned it out. Held a gun to their heads and made them give over the combination. Said they were collecting a refund.”

“If you’re lying to me,” I growled, leaning in close. My eyes must have totally dragoned out as the room was in infinitely sharper focus than it had been a few moments ago.

“I’m not! I swear!” The pathetic excuse for a human began sobbing, and the distinct, acrid smell of urine reached my sensitive nostrils as she pissed herself.

“You’d better pray I don’t need to return here,” I threatened, turning and banging on the door to be let out. The woman said nothing as I left the room, and I stalked down the prison corridor with anger riding my every step.

How the fuck was I going to tell Vixen that the ring she needed for full control of her powers was in the possession of the man who had abused and traumatized her for two full years as a kid?

Richard Liath. Also known as Mr. Gray.

18

KIT

When I woke again, it was to the comforting smell of linen and feathers, and a smile crept across my face before I even bothered to open my eyes.

“What are you smiling at?” Wesley whispered, his breath feathering across my lips, and I knew he could only be inches away from me.

“I love waking up like this,” I whispered back, still not opening my eyes but not trying to hide my smile either. “I think I might need to start requesting cuddle buddies every night.”

Wesley had his arms around me, and one of my legs was hitched up over his waist. It was comfortable and warm and just downright cozy.

“I have no doubt the guys will be on board with that idea.” He snickered. “So long as I get dibs at least once a week.”

“Always,” I cracked my eyes open, and met his clear, blue gaze. Without his glasses obscuring his eyes, it always startled me just how blue they really were. “You look so different without your glasses,” I commented, stroking a lazy finger down the side of his face.

“Good different or bad different?” he asked.

“Neither. Just different.” I smoothed the tip of my finger across his eyebrow, then down his nose, like I was memorizing his face by feel.

“I was thinking I should start wearing contacts again. Just haven’t had a chance to see the optometrist with all the madness lately.” His soft lips curved into a lazy smile, and I smiled back.

“Why contacts?” I asked, genuinely curious.

“So my glasses aren’t getting in the way when I do this.” He leaned forward, closing the gap between us and kissing me. Butterflies erupted in my belly once more, and I tried not to pounce on him as he kissed me gently and deliberately.

“Hmm, that seems like a fair enough reason,” I murmured when we did finally separate from one another.

“How are you feeling?” he asked in a more serious tone. “You still look a little tired.” He swiped a thumb under my eye where there were undoubtedly dark circles. It was partly just due to how pale I was; the damn sleep bags showed up so easily.

“I could probably use a little extra magic top off, but it’s nothing I couldn’t fix with more sleep, I imagine.” I grinned and licked my lips. “Unless...”

“Well, I mean, it does seem only logical. After all, it takes nothing from us. I’ve consulted the guys, and they all agree that when they’ve, um, assisted in your recharge, they’ve suffered no side effects to speak of.” He had slipped back into scientific Wesley, and it really did just make me want him even more, if that was possible.

“You know, you’re a lot more confident about this than I gave you credit for,” I observed, running my hand down his naked chest and admiring his lean, muscled frame.

“Sweetheart,” he chuckled. “What do you take me for? A virgin?”

I paused, looking up at him and cocking my head in curiosity. “Are you?”

He grinned, but his only answer was to pull me back to him for another kiss. This time he wasn’t so gentle, and when my mouth opened to allow him access, he took charge.

My leg was already hooked over his waist, so it took little to no maneuvering at all for him to turn us so that I was on top and straddling his rock hard cock while he kissed the shit out of me.

“You remember that time I walked in on you and Caleb?” Wesley murmured, leaving my lips and kissing down my neck. Pushing up my borrowed sweatshirt, his hands smoothed up the sides of my rib cage until he reached my bra. It had only been a little blood splattered and I’d been able to rinse it out during my shower at Master Yoshi’s apartment, but now that I’d been sleeping in it for god knows how long, it was uncomfortable as shit.

“Um, yeah?” I gasped as his teeth scraped down the curve of my neck, and I ground my hips into his a little harder.

“You have no idea how badly I wanted to swap places with him. It’s all I’ve been able to think about for the last week.” He sucked a little patch of skin into his mouth, sending tingling shivers racing through me even though I knew it was leaving a mark. “And then when River interrupted us...”

“He’s got a talent for that,” I chuckled. As frustrating as it had been for River to interrupt my first real makeout with Wes, I also freaking loved when River was watching me. Fucking Christ, I was turning into a nympho.

Wesley pushed my sweatshirt up further, and I stripped it off, leaving me in my bra and borrowed sweatpants while half lying on top of Wesley, who wore nothing but a pair of tightly straining boxer briefs. My hands ran down his smooth chest, tingling with magic everywhere we touched, and he made a low noise of encouragement as my hands slid over his surprisingly toned stomach.

“You kill me, sweetheart,” he muttered, flicking the clasp of my bra open and tossing the garment aside.

“How so?” I replied, meeting his eyes with a flirty grin.

“Because,” he replied, cupping my breasts in his hands and eliciting a breathy gasp from me, “I was supposed to let the others know as soon as you woke up.”

“Mmm, so? We could still be sleeping.” I moaned a little as his fingers rolled my nipples and my belly quivered.

“Except you’re not.” Austin’s voice snapped somewhere in the direction of the door, and I froze.

Surely I was imagining that. Our luck couldn’t be that bad.

“The dragon can hear you, so everyone knows you’re awake.” Austin’s voice wasn’t going away, despite my mental prayers that it would, and Wesley’s annoyed face confirmed it for me. I wasn’t imagining things. God fucking dammit!

“Seriously, Austin?” I snarled, looking over my shoulder at him leaning on my doorframe. “You couldn’t have just given us a few minutes of privacy?”

“No. I couldn’t. Move it into the living room; Alpha has news.” Austin held my angry glare, and my eyes narrowed. The earlier revelations of his and Caleb’s abilities to keep secrets had not escaped my memory, and seeing his dickish face was bringing that anger right back to the surface.

“Sorry, sweetheart,” Wes whispered. “I should have stopped sooner.” His hands were still closed over my breasts, hiding them from the view of our surly team member who seemed to have no qualms about maintaining my modesty. Well, fuck him, then.

“Not your fault, Wes.” I leaned back down and kissed him soundly. “To be continued... again.”

Swinging my leg over him, I very deliberately got out of bed on the side that was facing Austin, and planted my hands on my hips.

“A little privacy to get dressed, if you don’t mind?” I arched a brow at him, fully aware that I was being a brat, given my naked breasts were out and proud and my borrowed pants were riding dangerously low on my hips.

Austin’s burning gaze dipped to the exposed skin of my body, and for a tense moment, no one spoke.

“Aus, stop being an asshole,” Wesley muttered from the mess of bedding. “Just fucking leave, and we will be out in a sec.”

Austin took his sweet ass time returning his gaze to my face, and when he did, it was with an odd, almost pained expression. “Fine. Two minutes.”

He turned and left the room but didn’t bother closing the door behind himself. Asshole.

“OKAY, LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT,” I processed the information aloud. “The ring that Vic told Vali about, the one that all Ban Dia require in order to access and control their powers, that ring... you’re saying that Mr. Gray has it?”

We were in the living room, clothed this time, and Caleb had just handed me a coffee in my fox mug. Cole had been filling us in on his trip to visit Suzette while I’d been passed out and recharging with Wesley. Turned out I’d been out for most of a day, which was a little shocking that I’d slept so long but, on the other hand, encouraging to see I could recharge my magic without needing full sex with my guardians every time I healed someone. Not that it wasn’t fun, don’t get me wrong; I was the first one to put my hand up for it, magic or not. But it wasn’t always convenient, as proven by the bloody scene in Yoshi’s apartment and the awkward—and hot as hell—forced makeout session with Austin.

“We do have progress on that aspect, though. Wesley was about to verify the truth of that information for us so we wouldn’t be chasing our tails,” River advised, nodding to Wesley.

“Ah yeah.” He blushed adorably. “You were asleep for a really long time, so I did some laptop research from bed. I kept skin contact with you the whole time, though.”

“I’m impressed.” I grinned, the first time I’d smiled at anything since Cole had begun telling me about his day. Dredging up those memories of Suzette and Mr Gray... everything that had gone on in that house of horrors while Mr Gray played out his sick, sadistic fantasies on my damned immortal body... If I could work out what magic had erased my memories of my life prior to seven years old, I’d have done it again to rid me of those years too.

“Well, I found this.” He pulled up an image on his laptop and turned it to me. “Does that look like the ring you remember?” I needed a closer look, so I took the computer from him and double-clicked to bring it up larger. The image itself was of Gray’s wife, Amelia, but what interested me in the picture was her hand. Sure enough, when I expanded the image and zoomed in, the familiar blue-stoned ring sat on her right hand.

“Yeah, that’s it for sure.” I paused, staring at the image. “Well, I mean not for sure. I was only a kid and my memories of it are mostly from Suzette hitting me with it, but I’m relatively sure that’s it. How old is this image?”

“Recent,” Wesley replied, with a proud sort of look on his face. “It’s from about two months ago, so it’s fairly likely it’s still in her possession.”

“Kitten, you said you have broken into Gray’s penthouse on a couple of occasions, just to scare him a bit?” River asked, and I nodded.

“Yeah, but that was before all this shit started happening with Blood Moon and the shifters. If he hasn’t tightened up security and moved, I’d be fucking dumbfounded.” I chewed the edge of my lip, looking back at the image again. “Also, I’m pretty sure Amelia had her own place. Her shit was never there when I broke into Gray’s apartment, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were just keeping up appearances for media.”

“You’re right; that seems in keeping with their public presence.” River pondered this as Wesley tapped away on his keyboard. “Wes, keep searching, see what you can come up with on Amelia Liath.”

“Yes, sir,” Wesley muttered, already engrossed in his work and not sparing a glance up at us.

“Am I in shit with Jonathan?” I asked River, and he arched an eyebrow at me.

“You should be. You’re lucky Caleb is a quick thinker and came up with some bullshit excuse for your instructors as to why you’re not in class,” he scolded, and I bit back a smile. Dammit, I knew he was mad, and he had every right to be, too. But angry River was so damn sexy.

“Speaking of,” Cole interjected, “Caleb and Austin have some explaining to do.”

Oh, this should be good.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out to check the message. Given all five members of Alpha Team were here in the living room with me, it could only be Lucy or Vali.

Girl, you better get your butt to class fast! Lucy’s message pinged on my screen, and I frowned.

Why? What’s up? I thought Cal covered for me?

With the instructors, yeah. But J-dog just showed up to observe the lesson. Her message came back almost instantly, and I looked up at Caleb.

“Hey, what did you say to get me out of class?” I asked, and he shrugged.

“Just that you ate bad shellfish and were glued to the bathroom?” He grinned. “It was the first thing that came to mind on short notice!”

“Shit,” I swore, jumping up from my seat and tugging on a pair of flat, knee-high boots. “Jonathan is there to observe the lesson, and he’ll know that’s a lie. I need to get down there, fast.”

“I’ll come,” Austin—Austin, of all people—offered. He grabbed his own coat and followed me as I rushed from the apartment.

“You didn’t need to,” I muttered as the two of us hurried across the grounds to the training wing. “I’m sure one of the others could have come.”

“Wes needed to keep going on his research, and River and Cole are needed elsewhere. I got the impression you were pissed at my brother, so...” He raised an eyebrow at me, like he was challenging me to deny it. “Besides, your class is at the shooting range, and I need to check that you haven’t lost your edge.”

Arms folded, I scowled and muttered insults at him under my breath as I followed his lead through the training building and into the basement where the shooting range was set up.

“Kit, there you are!” Jonathan greeted me as Austin and I arrived into the little viewing room adjoining the range. “Instructor Green was just telling me that you were off sick?”

“Uh, misunderstanding,” I smiled. “Totally fine here and ready to shoot!”

Instructor Green gave me a wary look, but thankfully said nothing further on the subject as he handed me a weapon and ammo.

Austin snatched two pairs of earmuffs from the counter and ushered me through the door to the range itself, under Jonathan’s watchful gaze. As we made our way past the other recruits, more than a few of them gave me the eye, and I knew I wasn’t making any friends here.

“Here,” Austin murmured, directing me into a vacant bay with a hand on my lower back. “Get set up; get started. I’m going to check that Lucy hasn’t shot herself in the foot.”

I snorted and rolled my eyes, but he kind of had a good point. “I’ll be just fine on my own; go keep my bestie alive, please.”

With a cryptic sort of look, he snapped the earmuffs onto my head and stalked off in search of my rainbow-haired friend. Huffing to myself, frustrated at his hot and cold moods, I went through the motions of setting up my gun and target like it was second nature to me. After two months of daily practice with Austin prior to my kidnapping, it ought to be by now.

Closing my eyes briefly, I let my mind clear of all the crap that seemed to be clogging it up lately and just took a few calming breaths. When I was ready, I centered my stance and took aim.

When I was nearing the end of my box of ammo, I felt the soft brush of a familiar hand down my spine, and I unconsciously leaned back into it before noticing what I’d done.

“Not terrible,” Austin murmured as I leaned back away from his touch and pulled my earmuffs off.

“Not terrible?” I repeated, glaring at him. “Fuck you, Austin. That’s exceptional.” I hit the button for my target to return to me, and sure enough, every single one of my shots had hit the intended locations. Not a single shot had gone stray.

“Maybe this needs to be more challenging for you, then.” He smirked, yanking down my used target and replacing it with a fresh one. From his back pocket, he pulled out a black ink pen, which he used to sketch quick runes in each of the four corners of the paper. “This will double the distance to the target without freaking the rest of the class out.”

“Um…” I eyed it up nervously. The current distance I had set my target to was the maximum I’d ever attempted, but I sure as shit wasn’t backing down now. “Sure, fine. Don’t know what this will prove, but whatever.”

“Double your current target distance is farther than any other agent in Omega can shoot. Except me. We can both shoot at this target and see who is more accurate.” Excitement was dancing in his eyes, and he wasn’t even making an attempt to hide it.

“Fine.” I looked at him shrewdly. “But if I win, you spill the beans on everything you know about being an Ink Mage. And I mean everything.”

“And if I win?” His blazing eyes held mine, and I didn’t dare blink for fear of breaking whatever the hell was going on right now.

“You get the glory of beating me?” I suggested, and he snorted a laugh.

“No. If I win, you’re getting a tattoo. Of my choosing.” His lips twitched into a grin, and my jaw dropped.

“Um, that’s really permanent, Austin.” I pointed out the obvious, and his grin spread wider.

“Then you’d better not lose.” He snapped my earmuffs back on and hit the button to send the target back to the end of the range. This time when I sighted down my gun, I found he hadn’t been bullshitting about the distance. I could barely see the damn target, and I groaned inwardly. I was so screwed.

“Hold up,” he mouthed, tapping my hand, and I moved my earmuffs to hear him. “Just so we know whose bullet was whose.” He used his marker to sketch a rune on the barrel of my gun, then capped it and stepped back. “Proceed.”

Using my finger, I tipped my earmuff back into place and rearranged my stance, sighting down the barrel of my gun once more. Fuck.

“Actually, why don’t you do the honors first, seeing as this is your game?” I suggested. Stepping back and tipping my earmuffs off again, I handed the weapon over to the sexy, dark-haired Mage.

Shit, not sexy. I did not just think of Austin as sexy.

I blamed the twin thing. Caleb was undeniably sexy, so it stood to reason his identical twin would be too... right?

“Suit yourself, Princess,” Austin snickered, switching places with me, taking aim, and firing in less than the time it took for me to replace my hearing protection. “Your turn.” He was grinning broadly now as he handed the gun back to me, and my stomach sank.

Stupid Kit and your stupid need to make bets. How did you not see this was a set up?

Gritting my teeth, I stepped back up and sighted the target for the third time. It sadly had not become any clearer for me.

Come on Kit, no giving up now. Just treat it like you normally would. Clear your mind, aim... shoot.

My mental pep-talk prepared me, and I opened my eyes to sight the tiny, distant target. Right as I exhaled, right as I squeezed the trigger, I felt Austin’s presence behind me and his warm breath on my neck.

“You cheat!” I exclaimed, flicking the safety back onto my weapon and placing it down before whirling around to confront Austin, who was... nowhere even near me.

“You done?” he asked from some half a dozen yards away where he stood speaking to Lucy. “You were taking so long I thought you were just going to concede defeat.”

“You... but you were just...” I floundered. There hadn’t been anywhere near enough time for him to have been right behind me and then gotten all the way over there before I turned around. Not to mention Lucy was looking at me like I was a crazy person, and I doubted that was the face she’d be wearing if Austin had just pulled a fast one.

“Let’s see who won then.” He made no attempt to hide the smug triumph in his tone, and I knew that he knew he’d won. That motherfucker.

He slapped the button to bring the target back to us, and there in the center were two surprisingly close bullet holes. Sketched above each hole in glittering ink were an ‘A’ and a ‘C.’

“Seriously, Austin? Even on your magical bullet marking you couldn’t use a ‘K’ for ‘Kit’?” I glared at him, and he shrugged unapologetically.

“Looks like you’re getting inked, Princess.” He smirked, tapping his shot which was only slightly to the side of the bullseye. Mine wasn’t that much further away, but it was clear who the winner was.

“That’s fine,” I bluffed. “I wanted a tattoo anyway. I just hadn’t decided what or where.”

“Well, good because that choice is up to me now.” He rolled up the target and bopped me on the head with it before sauntering out of the shooting range like the smug fuck he was.

“Damn, girl,” Lucy snickered. “That was a stupid bet to make.”

“Girl, you have no idea.” I groaned, and yet couldn’t seem to quell the excitement building at the thought of having Austin’s skilled hands on my skin for who knew how long it’d take to complete a tattoo.

Hopefully he wouldn’t tattoo “Princess” on my ass or something...

19

WESLEY

Code raced across my screen at lightning pace, but I had no issues following it. I kind of wished I had though because then maybe I’d get a more interesting job for the remainder of our suspension.

Stretching my arms above my head, I yawned heavily and cracked my neck before rubbing the bridge of my nose in a gesture born of habit. I’d only recently made the change to contact lenses, and my old nervous twitches were going to take a long damn time to shake.

“Hard night?” the guy beside me, Scott, asked, and I snorted.

“That’s one way to put it,” I agreed, thinking he didn’t know the fucking half of it. Between Kit taking off to rescue Austin’s sorry ass to yet another interrupted makeout... yeah, to say I was tired would be an understatement.

I’d been hoping for a bit of a reprieve, but when Kit and Austin had hauled ass back to the training center, I no longer had any excuses not to be at my assigned shift reading the most mundane code I’d ever laid eyes on.

“Why don’t you take off?” Scott suggested. “There’s nothing life or death going on here.”

“You sure?” I asked, hoping he was sure. Sitting in this cramped office, working through a backlog of data for Omega was not my idea of fun on any day.

“Yep, I’ve got it. Go get some sleep or something; you look like shit.” Scott grinned at me and turned back to his own computer. Unlike the rest of us who’d gotten placed here as a punishment, this was actually his full time job. Strange man.

“Thanks, man,” I said, groaning as I stretched. “Owe you one.”

Clapping him on the shoulder, I swiped my security pass and let myself out of the little room. Maybe if I got home early, I could do some more research on Kit’s ring and how to get it back. Or even what she’s supposed to do with it once she did get it back.

Nothing was just handed to her on a platter as far as her Ban Dia magic was concerned, so I seriously doubted it’d be as simple as just putting on the ring and then poof instant reciprocal magic.

I was halfway down the fire escape stairs when my vision began to swim, and I paused, leaning one hand on the wall so as not to end up falling face first down three flights of concrete stairs. Despite Kit having healed me already, I wasn’t totally sure she’d changed me and didn’t want to test the theory with a broken neck.

My vision spotted around the edges, and my ears rang like I was about to pass out or something, but it all faded quickly. Instead of the ugly gray concrete of the fire escape stairs, the scene before my eyes was something very different.

“AGAIN,” a stern-faced man in Omega camo ordered, and a pretty, Asian girl groaned.

“Seriously? I just did it three times in a row,” she complained, giving the camo-guy a dirty look.

They stood in a clearing of forest somewhere on Omega’s grounds—I knew because I recognized the distinctive markings on the trees where comm surveillance systems were installed. I should recognize them, anyway, seeing as I designed the damn program. Two other men stood silently across the far side of the clearing, a lab coated medic who was scribbling on a clipboard and Director Pierre.

“You’ll do it as many times as the Director wants to see it. Now do it again,” the dickwad in camo demanded, and the girl curled her lip in a snarl at him…

SPOTS DANCED across the scene as it faded into blackness and the voices dissipated. For a quick second, I was back in the stairwell leaning heavily against the wall, and then the scene shifted again. This time the change was so rapid my stomach clenched and rolled like I was going to vomit.

“YOU’RE SO SCREWED,” Lucy snickered, handing Kit a takeaway cup of coffee. They must have been on a break from class because the two girls were standing near the coffee cart outside the training wing.

“Tell me about it,” Kit groaned, rubbing a hand over her forehead, then taking a long sip of coffee and moaning in a way that made my dick hard. If I even had one in this weird vision-thing, that was.

“What are you going to do?” Lucy asked, but the grin on her face said she was thoroughly enjoying whatever Kit was pissed off about.

Kit shrugged her elegant shoulders, her silken tumble of red curls sliding onto her back as she moved. “Nothing? Just hope that his own pride will prevent him from doing a shitty job?”

“Seriously?” Lucy squeaked. “You’re actually going to let him tattoo you? That’s like... permanent as shit, babe.”

Wait, what? Kit was getting a tattoo from Austin? When did that happen? Lucky prick. Kind of made me wish I had a more hands-on skill…

The prick in question was leaning against the side of the building, his gaze glued to Kit like she was the last woman on earth. It was only a matter of time before those two got over their issues, and then I’d have to share her time with him too.

He’s lucky I love him like a fucking brother.

“Girls, move it,” he called out, and I saw Kit roll her eyes dramatically to Lucy.

“Hey, Austin!” Lucy yelled back at him with a teasing grin on her face. “Eat a—”

WHATEVER THE END of that sentence was, it was lost in high-pitched ringing as the vision faded out and I blinked my eyes rapidly against the dark spots.

Okay, back in the stairwell.

My hands ran a quick search and found all my body parts exactly where they were meant to be, and I was still leaning against the wall.

Thank god for small mercies, that I hadn’t collapsed and rolled down the stairs when... whatever that was just happened.

Given my history with strangely prophetic dreams, seeing visions of things that were happening elsewhere wasn’t a total shock. But it was definitely an advancement. I’d never experienced anything like that while awake before, so it was something I definitely needed to make notes on and monitor.

There was no sense in worrying Kit if this was just stress-induced hallucinations... right?

20

KIT

That evening, after trying and failing to get any answers of substance out of the twins regarding their newfound Mage abilities, I was thoroughly pissed off.

“Just ease off them” River murmured, following me through to the kitchen when I was ready to pitch a fucking fit. “They are under no obligation to share their knowledge with us, so just give them time. They’ll share when they’re ready.”

I scowled at him and turned my back to brew a new pot of coffee. River telling me to back down was only annoying me even more than Caleb and Austin’s silence, so I was relieved when he left the kitchen once more.

“Hey.” Austin’s voice made me jump and almost drop the coffee I was pouring for myself after having stood there waiting for it to brew. “Isn’t it a bit late to be drinking coffee?”

“Have we met?” I responded in a snarky tone. He knew me better, though. We’d all but lived together for going on four months now, and my coffee addiction knew no time constraints.

“Good point,” he grunted. “Time to pay up, Princess.”

“Uh... what?” I stuttered, sounding like I’d just lost my brain.

“No time like the present, and I grabbed all my tools from Yoshi’s shop while we were there.” He looked at me expectantly, and I shook my head slowly.

“Um, but you haven’t really had time to think about what or where or...” I trailed off, my mouth going dry, and he gave me an unsympathetic stare.

“Quit stalling, Princess. You made a bet with a Mage. You do not want to find out the consequences of reneging on it.” He shuddered dramatically, and I chewed my lip. How the hell would I know what the consequences were? He and Caleb had given us zero answers when pressed. Did I really want to test it though? Probably not. At least I knew he was talented...

“Okay fine. Where?” I clutched my coffee cup tightly, trying not to let my nerves show.

“Dining table. I need the flat surface so you’re not moving around too much.” He jerked his head at the dining area, and I saw it was already set up with what looked like everything he might need. Not that I would know.

“I meant, where on me? Because I swear if you try to tattoo something stupid on my ass, I will kick your ass.” I tried to give him my best don’t fuck with me glare but had no doubt my nerves were showing through. What I was so afraid of, I had no idea. I wanted a tattoo, and Austin’s work was stunning, but for some reason my heart was racing and my palms had broken out in a sweat.

“Just shut up and get your cute butt onto the table,” Austin ordered. “The guys have all fucked off to give me quiet while I work, so you’ve got no one to save you. Besides, the last thing you want is for me to get distracted and write property of Austin King on you or something.”

A little speechless, mainly because he’d just called my butt cute, I did as I was told and followed him through to the table. All the while, I prayed that had been a joke. I’d have to be physically tortured before I’d willingly become property of Austin King.

“Up here.” He patted the towel laid out on the length of the table. “On your back.”

I nervously did as instructed and looked up at him leaning over me. “Where are you putting it?”

He quirked a brow, and I half expected him to make a dirty joke, but he just rolled his eyes and scooped a hand under my head, lifting it and sliding a pillow under.

“Comfy?” he asked, dragging over a barstool that put him level with my body.

“Do you care?” I replied, and he snorted, shaking his head.

“Don’t get snippy at me because you lost the bet, Princess.” He lifted my shirt up and tucked it into my bra with professional hands, exposing my abdomen.

“I know you cheated,” I sulked. “Somehow.”

“Oh yeah?” The corner of his sexy mouth lifted in a half smile. “Prove it.”

Ugh, I fucking knew it! Of course magic-Austin was an even bigger pain in the ass than human-Austin.

He smoothed a hand over the skin of my side, just below the curve of my waist and over my hip to the waistband of my yoga pants. Despite my strongest willpower, my skin tingled at the touch and gooseflesh broke out all over me.

“These need to be lower,” he advised, tugging the top of my pants down and folding them over until they were dangerously low. Seemingly satisfied with the canvas, Austin turned his attention to preparing his little tattoo gun and countless pots of colored inks while I watched in silence.

“Um, don’t you need to like... put down a stencil or something first?” I asked nervously when he looked pretty much ready to roll and had turned the power on to his gun.

“Christina, do I come on jewel thefts and tell you how to do your job?” He gave me a vexed look, and I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Yes, I imagine you would.” I glared at him, and he just stared back at me, his green eyes unamused. “Fine, whatever. Draw a dick, I don’t care.”

“Good, that’s exactly what I was planning.” He said it without the faintest trace of amusement, and it made me worried. “Can we keep quiet for a bit? Just while I get the outline done, and then you can chatter to your heart’s content.” He paused. “Actually, I take that back. I really don’t want to hear all about your multitude of boyfriends right now.”

“Why? Jealous?” I had no idea why I just felt the need to say that, but out it came.

“Christina,” he sighed. “You can either shut up and get a nice tattoo. Or you can yap and get a cartoon dick on your skin. Your choice.”

I shut up. For a minute, then had to ask. “Shouldn’t you have rubber gloves on or something?”

“If I were in a worse mood right now, I would make a quip about protection and the lack thereof, but tattooing is my happy place, so let me be brief. I’m an ink mage, and you’re immortal.” He laid a finger over my lips, and I desperately screamed at myself not to lick it. “Now, shhh.”

Truly not wanting to end up with a dick permanently tattooed on my body, I kept my mouth shut while he began. The little needle of the tattoo gun buzzed and picked at my skin, but given the amount of pain I had endured in my life this far, it was little more than an annoyance as I stared up at the ceiling and tried not to start talking out of boredom.

Eventually, he must have gotten sick of my huffing and sighing because he got up and flicked on the stereo. The soft, soulful sounds of cellos filled the room, and I couldn’t help myself.

“Classical?” I asked, squinting up at him where he leaned over my waist.

“It helps me concentrate,” he murmured back, not bothering to look up but also not throwing a tantrum and changing whatever my tattoo was to a cartoon dick.

“When did you start tattooing?” I asked, testing the waters to see if I was allowed to speak yet—for two reasons. One, I was bored as all get out. Two, Austin seemed in a really good mood, and this sort of seemed like a good opportunity to get some answers out of him. Maybe take a step in the right direction toward not flat-out hating each other?

“When I was about”—he paused, detailing something and blotting with the cloth in his other hand—“thirteen, I think. I had known Yoshi about a year, and he’d seen my sketches, so he knew the value of my work.”

“Wow, thirteen seems really young. Someone let you tattoo them as a thirteen-year-old kid?” I wasn’t trying for it to come out judgemental, but it sort of did and I tried to backtrack. “I just mean, if I walked in to get a tattoo and there was a kid doing it—”

“I get it,” he cut me off. “And you’re right too. I mostly just tattooed regulars who already knew me and knew my art. At the end of the day, who gives a shit what the artist looks like if the piece looks good and is well executed?”

We fell back into silence for a bit; the only sounds in the room were that of Austin’s tattoo gun and the melodic arrangements of a cello quartet.

“How long have you known you were a Mage?” I asked finally, and he sighed.

“Since I was thirteen.” I froze, not having expected him to actually answer this question, given his earlier cageyness. “Yoshi could tell I was a potential almost immediately, but he didn’t tell me until I’d been working in his shop for a year. Our aunt and uncle were raising us, and they didn’t have much. Cal and I both took cash jobs as early as we could.”

“And so he, what? Trained you as a mage with no magic?” I tried to get my head around how it all worked. Austin clearly knew how to use his magic, so there appeared to be little to no learning curve for him. Meanwhile Caleb had said he needed help gaining control so he wouldn’t hurt us?

“Uh, yeah, pretty much.” He sat back a moment, sorting through his colors before returning to my side. “Shh for a sec while I do this next bit.”

Sorting through my thoughts while I stared at the ceiling, I tried not to think too hard about Austin’s hands on me and how the magic rippled between us as though this was sexual contact. Which it definitely wasn’t. Was it?

He leaned over me briefly to pick something up, and the back of his hand brushed over my breast, causing my nipples to tighten and pebble against the thin cotton of my T-shirt.

Dammit Kit, get a fucking grip, woman! This is Austin for fuck’s sake!

“Why do you hate me so much?” The question blurted out of me without my brain filter even noticing it, and my eyes widened at the light fixture above me. Shit, backtrack! Um...

“I don’t,” he muttered, bending back over his work and seeming to be content with that as an answer.

“Um…” I frowned up at the light. “Yeah, you do. You’ve deliberately gone out of your way to be an asshole to me since the day we met, you take every opportunity to be a dick, and when Caleb arrived at Yoshi’s apartment, you literally ran out of the room so fast it looked like your ass was on fire. Was it seriously that repulsive to kiss me?”

“I’ve also saved your life more times than I can count, put your best friend in a secret rehab facility to keep her safe, and made out with you on several occasions when you needed magic. Doesn’t really sound like the sort of stuff someone does when they hate someone, does it?” He glared down at me a moment, then turned back to his work, resting his forearm against my ribs while he drew.

“Trust me,” he muttered. “Life would be a hell of a lot easier if I did hate you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demanded, and he shushed me.

“Quiet for this next bit,” he ordered and turned back to my tattoo, leaning in close as he worked on something small. His warm breath feathered over my inflamed skin, and I bit my lip, trying to hold back a shiver of desire.

“Who’s Peyton?” I asked, not able to keep my mouth shut for longer than a few moments when Austin was all chatty like this. Who knew when I’d get another opportunity.

He made an annoyed grunt and didn’t respond as he continued working on the small details he was doing. After some time, he sat back and looked at it from a few different angles.

“You’re healing as I go, so it’s probably not hurting too much, am I right?” he checked with me, and I nodded. It barely hurt at all any more, now that I’d gotten used to the feeling. “Right, well in that case I’ll go ahead and finish all the shading now.”

“How does that work?” I asked as he bent back over my hip to continue his work. “Tattooing me when I heal so quick. Wouldn’t it just push the ink back out again?”

“Two things in play here,” he answered as his free hand held my hip firm while he shaded with his buzzing tattoo gun. “First, I’m an ink mage. Part of the reason I’m not using gloves is so that I can infuse magic into the ink directly through your skin, instructing it to bypass your body’s healing. Second thing, your own control over the healing.”

“How do you mean?” I craned my neck up a little to try and see what he was inking onto my hip, but not for the first time, he pushed me back down with a palm to my chest.

“Stay,” he ordered. “I mean your healing isn’t as mindless as you make it out to be. It’s a part of you. You control it in its entirety, so if you don’t want something healed—for example, this tattoo or your contraceptive implant or even those hickies on your neck—then it won’t be.”

My hand flew up to my neck, as I hadn’t realized there were visible hickies. Ugh, how embarrassing. Except some of them were from Austin himself, so whatever.

“Stay still,” he snapped, tightening his grip on my hip and sending butterflies into a whirlwind inside my stomach. God damn him, this truly was torture.

“Why won’t you answer me about Peyton?” I tried again. It had been a question that had bugged me since I’d overheard him and Caleb talking that day at school, when Caleb accused his brother of treating me like shit because I reminded him of Peyton. Then Lucy had mentioned her recently too, and the curiosity was eating away at me.

“It’s not a story I feel like telling,” he murmured, and his fingers dug into my hip painfully. “She’s an ex.”

“No shit.” I snorted. “Why do I remind you of her?”

He heaved a pained sigh and blotted at the tattoo with his cloth before sitting back and looking at me.

“You don’t. Not if I’m being honest. You did at first...” He shrugged. “Now, not so much.”

“Okay.” I pondered my next move. “How did you meet?”

“Uh, Omega training actually.” His mouth twisted down, and I could clearly see this wasn’t a topic he wanted to be discussing. Still, it felt really vital to where the two of us had gone wrong in getting to know each other.

“She’s an agent too?” I was genuinely surprised; I had expected she might be an old high school girlfriend or something.

“No, she never completed basic training.” He paused, putting down his tattoo gun and meeting my curious gaze. “She dropped out when she realized she was pregnant.”

My eyebrows shot up before I had a chance to temper my reaction. That was not what I’d been expecting. “So you...” I trailed off as he shook his head.

“She had a little girl. Bella. Most beautiful little girl you could ever imagine.” His voice glowed with love, and my heart cracked in two for him. However this story ended, it wasn’t with a happily ever after. At least not yet. “We were only eighteen, but I was in love, so I supported them for a full year. Set them up in an apartment near here, spent every spare moment I could with them, with Bella. Being her dad.”

There were no words I could offer that were going to sound like anything less than hollow platitudes, so instead, I slid my hand over his where it rested on the table and squeezed his fingers.

“After a year, Bella’s real father owned up. Turned out Peyton had been cheating on me from the very beginning and I never knew about it until then. He was married, though, and hadn’t been willing to leave his wife for his pregnant girlfriend, so he’d ignored the problem until his wife found out on her own. Once his marriage was in shambles, suddenly he wanted to know his daughter.” He looked down at my hand on his and turned his own over to link our fingers together.

“But what about you?” I asked gently, my heart aching for how utterly devastated he must have been. Hell, he still was, if the look on his face was any indication.

“I wasn’t Bella’s blood relative, her birth certificate didn’t list me as her father, and I’d signed no adoption papers. I had no rights. Peyton and this douchetard got back together, and they moved. No idea where to.” He shrugged, like he was shaking off the bad feelings and picked up his tattoo gun once more. “Ancient history. I’m almost done here, by the way.”

He went back to work on my tattoo, but left his free hand linked with mine, occasionally stroking his thumb down the inside of my wrist.

IT WAS LATE—I had no idea what time—when Caleb crawled into bed with me. Despite how pissed I was with him, I still craved our late night cuddles, so I willingly rolled into his arms when he tugged me closer.

“Can I see your new ink?” he whispered in my ear as I burrowed my face into the curve of his neck.

“Shhh,” I murmured. “Sleep time. Going to yell at you more in the morning.”

“Please? I’m dying to see what he drew,” Caleb begged, and I mumbled incoherent curses at him. I’d been fast asleep when he’d crept in, and I really hated being fully woken up from deep sleep.

“Here,” I yawned, rolling to my side a little and lifting my shirt. Caleb was silent for a long time, tracing a light fingertip over my new ink.

“It’s too dark to see; I’m going to flick a light on,” he warned me all of two seconds before the bedside lamp flooded the room with light. I groaned and dragged a pillow over my head to block out the light but could hear Caleb snicker.

His fingertips traced over the edges of my ink once more, and I shivered, biting back a grin. The tattoo was, in a word, exquisite. When I’d lost the bet, I had it in the back of my mind that he was going to actually give me something truly awful to live with, just to be an ass. But what he had done instead totally defied expectation.

A whimsical, almost watercolor image of a red fox danced up the front of my hip, her back paws starting dangerously close to the bend of my thigh. The fox was chasing what looked like butterflies, with a multitude of little butterflies extending up the side of my belly and six bigger, more distinct butterflies, that I knew without asking represented my six dianoch. It was the most beautiful tattoo I think I’d ever seen, and I had actually teared up a little when Austin had finally shown me.

“Holy shit,” Caleb snorted. “That bastard. I knew he would pull something like this.”

“What?” I asked, popping out from under my pillow and squinting at him. “Don’t you like it? I think it’s gorgeous.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, Kitty Kat. This is one of the best things he has ever drawn, but he’s still a dick.” Caleb smiled at me. “You didn’t see it yet, huh?”

“See what?” I demanded, peering down at my stunning new ink.

“Here.” Caleb ran his finger over a section of the little butterflies. “Look closely at the negative space between butterflies.”

I stared hard at the patch he was talking about, but it felt like I was doing one of those eye-spy games. Those 3D images that you needed to squint and tilt your head to see what the picture was.

Caleb sighed, and traced the negative space he was talking about. “Right here, the space between butterflies spells A-U-S-T-I-N. Babe, he tattooed his name on you.”

That... asshole. I’m going to kill him! My initial reaction was what I expected of myself, but somehow I couldn’t seem to summon the anger to back it up. The tattoo was still a work of art, regardless of Austin-fucking-King’s sneaky hidden message.

Now if only I could work out what that message was actually trying to tell me.

21

“Bingo!” Wesley crowed, jumping up from the table where he’d been sitting at his laptop for the past few hours.

“Bingo?” I repeated, stirring the pasta sauce I was making. Cooking was not one of my talents, but I did make a passable spaghetti bolognese, so that’s what we were having for dinner. Having the boys constantly cook for me was irritating my inner independent woman, so I’d pushed them all out of the kitchen for once.

“Bingo,” he repeated, coming over to me and presenting his laptop for me to look at. On the screen was a news article from a tabloid-style magazine with the title image of a diamond necklace.

“What am I looking at here?” I asked him, dipping my pinky into the red sauce and tasting it. Needed more garlic.

“Here, I’ll read it.” He flipped the computer back around to face himself. “Um, okay, blah blah ‘this stunning showcase of antique jewelery will be on display throughout the gala event and will include pieces such as’ blah blah old lady names ‘and a Victorian-era gold and sapphire ring belonging to Amelia Liath.’” Wesley’s excited face popped up from the screen, and I froze with my spoon halfway to my mouth.

“No, surely not.” I whispered. “It can’t be that easy.”

“Easy?” Wesley spluttered. “I’ve been scouring the internet for a week looking for this information!”

“Sorry, I know you have; I just meant...” I shrugged helplessly. Paranoia was getting the better of me that I considered this to be an easy win.

“Yeah, I know. Anyway, the gala isn’t for another three weeks, so there’s heaps of time to plan and research further.” He scratched his nose in an absent-minded gesture. He’d made the switch to contacts a few days ago, so he didn’t have his glasses on to fiddle with like he often did when he was feeling nervous.

“Hey,” I said, hooking my finger in the pocket of his hoody and pulling him closer to me. “Good work.” I grinned, then leaned up on my tiptoes to kiss him.

“Mmm, I might have to find leads for you more often if this is my thank you,” he murmured with a cheeky grin and kissed me back. His hand cupped the back of my neck as his mouth slanted over mine, and desire flushed through me, making me almost want to abandon dinner in favor of other activities. Unfortunately—or fortunately—the pot of pasta chose that moment to bubble over and hiss against the burner.

“Here, try this; tell me what you think,” I said, reluctantly peeling my hands from Wesley’s waist and dipping a spoon in the meat sauce. Raising it to his lips, I couldn’t help the rush of heat to my belly and the shortening of breath as I watch him lick the food from the spoon.

It had been a strange sort of week so far, attending spy school like any other recruit with nothing blowing up or crashing into us. The quiet was almost making me more nervous than the attempts on our lives had been.

The only incident of any suspicion had been earlier in the day, when another of the recruits in my class had fallen from a high ropes course and badly broken his leg. As far as he knew, though, it had just been a bad sprain. When it had happened, I’d acted without thought. Luckily for me, it was Austin’s day to guard me, and he’d pulled me away after only healing the break and nothing further.

“That’s really delicious, sweetheart,” Wesley murmured, licking his lips and stroking a thumb over the soft skin behind my ear. He hadn’t taken his hands off me since our kiss, and I didn’t want him too, either.

Our physical relationship was a bit of a slow progression for a couple of reasons. One being how often we seemed to be interrupted, which couldn’t be a coincidence. The other being that I wasn’t totally sure Wesley wasn’t a virgin, and I badly didn’t want to rush him into anything. He seemed pretty interested in taking things slowly too, which made me think sex was a bit of a bigger deal for him than for some guys.

On top of that, I’d been sleeping “alone” every night knowing that Caleb would inevitably crawl into bed with me at some ungodly hour after meeting with whoever was helping him control his magic.

“So a gala, huh?” I asked, nodding to his laptop, abandoned on the counter. “Guess I’m going to need a dress, then!”

“Um, yeah. I’ll have to work out a proper mission plan with River, but yeah I’d say so. Maybe you and Lucy should go shopping some time?” he suggested with a really faint, pink blush staining his cheeks. “Give her something to do other than annoy me about my software programs.”

“Hey! I heard that!” my rainbow-haired best friend snapped, strutting into the kitchen and pulling up a bar stool. “I told you I’d show you mine if you showed me yours.”

“You showed me a crappy shell program that you created when you were sixteen,” Wesley retorted, letting go of me to grab plates and cutlery for dinner.

“Never specified which of mine I’d show you,” she grumbled. “But sure, shopping sounds great. What are we shopping for, and can we please go without any of your bodyguards? No offense to the big, hunky men in your life, but I’d actually quite like to talk to you about said big, hunky men. And for that, we need privacy.”

“Um, I can’t see why not.” I raised a brow at Wesley, and he shook his head.

“Nope, do not look at me. That’s a question for Alpha, and you know it.” He cracked a grin. “Good luck, though.”

“Oh, please,” Lucy scoffed when I shrugged helplessly at her. “Just have a private chat with your other boyfriend after dinner, maybe let him spank you a bit. You’ll have him agreeing in no time. We can go tomorrow, seeing as it’s Saturday.”

Wesley made a choked sort of noise and blushed a deeper shade of pink. “Sorry, what?”

“Oh, come on,” my loud-mouthed bestie continued. “As if you didn’t already know River likes a bit of power play in the bedroom.”

“Uh, yeah. Common knowledge.” Wesley quirked a curious grin at me. “But did she just call River your boyfriend?”

“You’re not seriously shocked by that, are you, Cupcake?” Lucy snickered, and Wes rolled his eyes at her.

“I just didn’t know you’re, you know, using labels.” His blush deepened, and he dodged my eye contact, looking down at the plates he was laying out on the table.

“Oh, labels. That’s cute,” Lucy teased, and I whacked her with a dish towel.

“Shut it, Lucy,” I hissed. “Wes, ignore her. She’s being a brat because she hasn’t seen Finn in a few days.”

“Finn? I thought you were into chicks.” He squinted at her, and she grinned.

“I’m into hot. I don’t discriminate like you heteros do.” She hopped up from her stool and went to grab a soda from our fridge, cocking an eyebrow at Wes. “So, did I just make this all super-awkward between you two? I just figured, seeing as River and Cole were down with the BF label, then you and Cal were too. No? Overstepped my mark?”

My eyes narrowed at her in a threat of pain. She knew damn well I hadn’t had that discussion with Wes yet, and she was forcing the issue.

“I’m going to use your bathroom, babe,” Lucy informed me and quickly disappeared out of the kitchen. Bitch.

“So you’re using the boyfriend label with Cole and River, huh?” Wesley asked in a dry voice, his cheeks still stained pink but his gaze more confident now that is was just the two of us.

“Um, yeah. I don’t know. It just sort of slipped out one day, and I don’t really know what else to call... you know, all of us.” I nibbled at my lip, watching him from under my lashes. “Would you, um, be okay using labels, too? It’s totally cool if you’re not. This whole conversation is really juvenile; it’s just sort of uncharted territory for me, you know? Like I’ve never really had an official boyfriend before, let alone four...” I trailed off when I realized Wesley was grinning at me like he was just barely holding back laughter.

“Kit,” he finally chuckled, saving me from doing more rambling. “If you’re asking if I want to be your boyfriend, er one of your boyfriends, then the answer is yes.”

“Oh,” I sighed. “Good.”

He smiled at me like I’d done something really cute and kissed me lightly on the lips.

“Oh, God,” Austin interrupted us again. “You two are going public now too? Great, more PDA around the apartment.”

“Eat a dick, Austin,” I snapped back, dropping a bowl of noodles and one of meat sauce on the table. “Also, serve yourselves. I’ll go see if Cole and River are up.”

Cole and River had done some sort of night shift job for Jonathan and hadn’t been home before I’d left for class in the morning. When I’d arrived home a couple of hours ago, they were both asleep.

Wesley caught my arm on my way past him. “I have something else I need to talk to you about too. Can we talk after dinner? I’ll be gone before Caleb gets home. Promise.”

“Of course. My room after dinner?” I offered and he nodded. The curiosity was going to eat at me all through dinner, though. Somehow I knew this wasn’t just an excuse to make out a bit.

MUCH TO MY FRUSTRATION, after dinner Wesley had gotten called onto a comms shift to help out another team and still wasn’t back in the morning. Lucy had messaged me saying she’d be ready to leave for our shopping trip in an hour, but I still hadn’t spoken to River about going alone.

“River?” I called out, tapping on the door to his room, then opening it a crack. It sounded like he was in the shower, so I let myself in and knocked on his bathroom door. Maybe if I could catch him off guard, he’d say yes without thinking about it too hard.

“Hey, River?” I called through the door. “Can you hear me?”

No answer came back, so I cracked the door open and tried again.

“Kitten?” he replied over the sound of pounding water. “I can’t hear you; just come inside.”

“Okay,” I muttered under my breath, mentally reminding myself that I was here to get him to say yes to me. Not the other way around.

Must not fall for sexy British accent. Must stay strong.

“What did you say?” he asked once I’d stepped inside the small ensuite bathroom and perched my butt on the vanity.

“I wanted to check with you if it’d be okay for me and Lucy to go shopping today. Wesley mentioned I might need a dress for this gala thing, so Luce thought we could have a girls day out.” I phrased it as casually as I could. If I didn’t make it out to be a big deal, then it wouldn’t be. Right?

“I can’t see why that’d be a problem,” River replied. “See if Cole can go with you; otherwise, I can get someone to cover me and I’ll come. Cole would be your best bet though, as he truly doesn’t mind women’s shopping.”

“Ah, no, that’s okay. We were planning just a girls day. Just me and Luce. I’ll let Cole know he’s off the hook; Okay thanks, River; I’ll see you tonight!” I hopped off the vanity, planning on making a quick exit before River could disagree, but his wet hand burst out from behind the shower curtain and grabbed me by the wrist with surprising accuracy.

All I had time to do was let out a short squeak of protest before I was hauled under the hot spray with a very strong, very naked Englishman.

“Kitten,” he scolded, running hungry eyes over me as the water turned my sleep shirt see through. “You didn’t really think you’d get away with that, did you?”

“It was worth a try,” I sulked. “Come on, Alpha. It’s daytime, and I’m a crazy, bad ass magical being. What harm can a bit of shopping do?”

“No,” he said firmly, shaking his head. “There have been far too many attempts on your life lately. I couldn’t live with myself if I let you go unprotected and something happened. I’m sorry, love. The answer is no.”

“River,” I coaxed. “Sir, we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one. Don’t make me simply slip out when you’re not looking again.”

At this mention of the last time I’d slipped out past his guard, his golden eyes blazed with emotion, and he pinned me to the shower wall with his strong body.

“Don’t ever do that to us again, Kitten,” he demanded, but it sounded more like a plea. “You have no idea how worried I was about you. Anything could have happened. Please, love. Please never do that again.”

“Hey.” I smoothed a hand up his rough jaw, tipping his face up to meet my gaze. How self-centered was I that I hadn’t even considered how they would react when they found me gone? Considering it had only been a few weeks since I’d been kidnapped for real, it had been a pretty asshole move on my part to just take off without a word.

“I’m sorry, River,” I whispered. “I never meant to worry you. That message from Austin sounded so...”

“I know; you thought he was in trouble and you panicked.” He shook his head. “Please just come to me first next time. I don’t care if they say not to; you’re a part of me now. I honestly don’t think I would survive if anything happened to you. I don’t think any of us would.”

“River,” I sighed. “I feel the same way about you. All of you. So, I get it. If you really don’t want me and Lucy dress shopping alone, then we won’t.” Pulling his face down to me, I kissed his lips softly, and he stood dead still for a moment, letting me kiss him.

“Kitten,” he murmured in a voice so soft I could barely hear it over the sound of the shower. “I feel like I’m falling in love with you.”

Before I had a chance to pick my jaw up off the ground, let alone formulate the thought pattern or words necessary for a response to that, he was kissing me like it was the last time—or maybe the first. Either way, every touch of our lips, every stroke of our tongues was overflowing with so much emotion it felt like I was on the verge of tears.

River’s hands made quick work of my soaking sleep shirt, tossing it aside is a wet heap, and my panties soon followed. Once naked, my arms wrapped around his neck and his hands lifted me up, his hips driving his hot, hard cock straight into me while my legs crossed behind him.

“Fuck, love,” he swore, grunting as his shaft bottomed out, his hips flush to mine, and I groaned with the exquisite feeling of fullness. He pulled back out just an inch before pumping back into me a couple of times slowly, allowing my pussy to stretch and accommodate his sudden entry.

“Yes,” I gasped, grinding against him, wanting more. “Harder.”

“Harder... what?” he teased with a smoldering smile on his lips.

“Harder, sir,” I panted, and he delivered. Taking my arms from around his neck, he pinned my wrists above my head using his damaged arm, which was now in a sort of waterproof sports-brace thing. His other hand gripped me under my ass and held me aloft while he drove into me with an intensity built from emotion. Every hard thrust of his rigid shaft, I could almost feel him repeating those words. Falling in love with you.

My body clenched and spasmed around his punishing cock as I came, moaning my release and silently returning the words to him. He followed only moments later, finding his own release deep inside me with a long, drawn out groan.

“Um, River?” I panted, as he gently slid me down the shower wall and withdrew from within me. “Did you just say—”

“Shh,” he cut me off, kissing me once more for a good long moment while we stood under the warm water. “If you and Luce really want to go alone, then I guess there can’t be too much harm. But only for a few hours, and you keep your phone on you at all times, okay?”

“Deal.” I grinned, kissing him again quickly, then pushing him back to grab his soap. “Seeing as I’m in here now, I may as well shower properly.”

“Mmm, I think I can help you with that,” he offered with a wicked glint in his eye, and I just knew that I was going to be late for meeting Lucy.

Some things were worth it though.

22

Shopping with Lucy was successful, as shopping with Lucy and a black card always tended to be. I’d picked up several different dress options and would see what the guys thought when we got home.

“So tell me about this thing with Finn,” I prompted when we stopped for a late lunch. We’d been gone way longer than the couple of hours I’d promised River, but I had been sure to stay in touch with him, and he didn’t seem to be freaking out too badly. Yet.

“Not much to tell really,” she hedged, stirring her iced tea with a long spoon. She loved those things, but I seriously didn’t see the appeal. Cold tea? Gross. I’d stick with my coffee any and every day, thank you.

“I know you’re suspicious of him because he was in the labs, but he’s been really good to me, Kit.” She looked up and met my eyes with open sincerity. “I did speak to him about it. Briefly. He admitted to being a supernatural but wouldn’t tell me what he is exactly, which I guess is his prerogative and all.”

“I see.” I was actually really surprised that he’d been up front about that much. “And he is making out like it’s just a big coincidence that he ended up as your physical therapist?”

“Uh, no. No, he admitted that was deliberate.” She sat back and fiddled with one of her batwing earrings. “He had heard about what Dupree did to me and how it almost bagged her you in return, so initially he took the job in an effort to use me as leverage.”

“Leverage?” I squeaked. “For what?”

“He didn’t really have anything in mind. Just... general leverage.” She grinned at me. “Got to appreciate that kind of initiative, right?”

“What? No! Lucy, that’s—” I could feel my eyes bugging out of my head in outrage when she cut me off.

“That’s none of your damn business, is what that is.” She gave me a stern glare. “I’m a big girl now, too, Kit. If someone wants to use me, I’d much prefer they be upfront about it. Besides, that was before we got to know each other better.”

“Uh-huh.” I waggled my eyebrows. “Got to know each other, hey?”

“Really, little miss shower sex? We going there, are we?” She gave me a no bullshit look, and I pulled my head in. I’d been right about being late for meeting Lucy. In fact, I’d been still in the middle of a third screaming orgasm under River’s skilled hands, and cock, when she had arrived.

“Touché. So how serious is this thing between you two?” I asked, genuinely concerned for my best friend who was hooking up with a potentially dangerous supernatural being.

“Not. I mean, not yet anyway. We just enjoy each other’s company, but it’s nowhere even near ‘official’ or really even monogamous, to be totally honest.” She nibbled at the disgustingly healthy, sugar-free muffin she had bought. It looked like it was made of cardboard, and based on the face she was pulling, it tasted the same.

“Okay, just be careful, okay? Any sign of crazy or dangerous, you call me immediately. I’ll make Caleb zap me over to you in one of those Mage circle things.” I gave her my most serious glare so she knew I wasn’t fucking around on this subject.

“Understood,” she agreed. “Now can we talk about your boyfriends?”

“No,” I growled. “Nothing to talk about, but thanks for your little intervention with Wesley last night, you bitch.”

She snickered with a decidedly evil grin. “Oh, please, you needed a little push. You two are like awkward school kids together. Tell me about Austin, though.”

“What about Austin?” I frowned. “There’s nothing going on there.”

“Uh-huh. So you let him tattoo you with no idea what he was going to draw and lay there with his hands on your skin for hours and felt nothing?” she challenged, and I shook my head.

“Absolutely nothing. We are barely even friends, let alone anything more.” Okay, that was a dirty, great lie, and I damn well knew it.

“You’re such a liar,” my best friend chuckled. “And how about the fact that he literally tattooed his name onto you, like he was staking a claim? Still feel nothing?”

“He was just being his usual asshole self. It would have been too nice to just do an incredible tattoo; he had to slip a bit of dick into it.” I rolled my eyes, and Lucy snorted a laugh.

“Oh yeah? Slip a bit of dick in, huh?” She grinned broadly, and I noticed what I’d just said.

“You know what I mean,” I muttered.

“I sure do,” she teased. “So I guess if you are already juggling five guys—”

“Four,” I corrected.

“Five guys,” she stubbornly continued. “Then you have no interest in tall, dark, and smolderingly sexy coming our way right now. Oh, dibs.”

“What?” I turned in my seat to see who she was talking about, and my heart skipped a beat.

“Uh, let me guess,” Lucy groaned, as I shot from my seat with my pulse racing.

“Vali,” I gasped. “What are you doing here? Is everything okay?” I glanced past him to see the stunning brunette I’d met at Vali’s home. She was, once again, dressed impeccably in designer threads and spike-heeled shoes.

“Dragă,” he murmured in greeting, kissing both my cheeks and turning to Lucy. “My apologies. We have not yet met; I’m Vali.”

“Yes, you are,” Lucy agreed, her eyes practically popping out of her head as she eyed up my massive Romanian guardian. But what was more interesting was the way she blushed when she looked at Vali’s girlfriend, Elena. Guess she was the tall, dark, and smolderingly sexy who Lucy had been referring to.

“I’m Lucy,” she introduced herself, taking the hand offered to her to shake. “Kit’s best friend.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Lucy,” Vali responded, the picture of gentlemanly manners, had I not been able to see the outline of at least two weapons concealed on his body. “This is my sister, Elena.”

Sister? I choked on the sip of water I had just taken in an effort to combat the sudden bout of dry mouth I was experiencing in Vali’s physical presence.

“Are you okay?” he asked, frowning in concern and patting me on the back while I coughed the stray water droplets out of my lungs.

“Um, yeah,” I spluttered. “Totally fine.”

“Why don’t you guys pull up some chairs and join us?” Lucy offered, and I gave her a grateful smile.

“Thank you, Lucy.” Vali nodded. “We would enjoy that.”

Sister? I mouthed to Lucy while Vali and Elena sorted themselves out chairs, and Lucy grinned.

Dibs, she mouthed back at me, and I snorted a laugh. I guessed her relationship with Finn really wasn’t monogamous.

“Vali, what are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be flying under the radar?” I frowned. “Dragon pun not intended. But has something happened?”

“Yes and no. I’d like to speak with you in more detail later, if you and Lucy might join Elena and me for dinner?” He arched an eyebrow at me in question, and I froze.

“We’d love to, wouldn’t we, Kit?” Lucy kicked me under the table, but I hesitated.

“Luce, River—” I started, and she shook her head.

“River will be fine if you are with Vali. He is one of your dianoch too, is he not?” She glared at me, and while I knew she just had the major hots for Elena, she also had a point. It wasn’t like Vali could really come back to our apartment at Omega Headquarters, either.

“You’re right. I’ll send him a message so I don’t get chewed out over the phone.” I shot Vali a shy smile and pulled out my phone, tapping a quick message to River. I wasn’t stupid. I knew he was going to be pissed, but Lucy did have a point. Vali was just as qualified to keep me safe as any of the guys. More so, even, if his Romani danger alert system was still working.

“So what’s the plan for the afternoon?” Elena asked, beaming with excitement. Something gave me the feeling she didn’t get to hang out with other girls very often.

“Just a bit more shopping and then we were going to head home, but we can do dinner instead. Anywhere in particular?” Lucy was like a damn puppy that had just been shown a squeaky toy; it was actually really entertaining to watch. Reluctant as I was to admit it, my relief at hearing Elena was Vali’s sister, not girlfriend, was making me a bit jittery. It also seriously changed things.

For a while longer, Lucy and Elena carried the conversation while Vali and I played some sort of silent game exchanging heated eye contact and then breaking away before being dragged back like a damn magnet.

As the four of us left the café in search of shoe shops, Vali took my hand and held me back from the girls, letting them get a few paces ahead of us.

“Dragă, I need to ask a favor of you,” he said quietly, still holding my hand in one of his warm palms. “Elena is no longer safe within my home base in Nevada. I’ve been doing a little bit of company restructuring, bringing all our business ventures in line with the law and cleaning house of any unsavory employees.”

“Vali,” I groaned. “Why do I get the feeling that when you say cleaning house you really mean you’ve been killing people and leaving them in shallow graves somewhere in the Nevada desert?”

“Beautiful, you watch too many movies. I would never bury my own victims.” He looked down at me with a dead serious set to his face but a mischievous glint in his familiar, granite eyes.

“I don’t even know if you’re joking or not, and it worries me that I’m not more worried. Anyway, what’s the favor?”Almost without even meaning to, my hand flexed in his, and our fingers twined together.

“Could Elena come and stay with you for a little while? Just until I take care of the troublemakers and show them that I am still in charge, despite my desires to legalize our business.” There was a cold fury to his voice, and I definitely would not want to be on the receiving end of his anger.

“Of course she can. Omega HQ has got to be just about the safest place for her, right?” I smiled and squeezed his hand reassuringly. We’d reached the shop Lucy and I had been intending to hit before heading home, and the two girls were inside trying on shoes already while Vali and I stood outside.

“I mean, knowing she’s your sister makes it considerably easier to accept.” I grinned. I couldn’t help myself.

“What did you think she was?”

“Um, your girlfriend?” I felt my face flush with heat and looked away, suddenly really interested in the window display.

“Ah, that makes sense now, the weird mix of emotions you were putting out at the café just before. You had previously been feeling guilty for being attracted to me, hadn’t you?” His lips pulled up in a cocky grin, and I wanted to shoot him down. But he wasn’t wrong.

“Whatever. Yes, she can stay with us. Wait, does that make her Cole’s sister too?” The thought had just suddenly occurred to me.

“Technically yes, half sister. He doesn’t really know her though; she lived with her mother growing up and only came to move in with me after her mother died several years ago.” He stared through the window at the stunning brunette, and I could see the affection for her on his face. “I’d do anything to keep her safe. Just as I would for you.” He turned his hard eyes down to look at me with such a serious, charged look that it sent a shudder through me.

“Sorry, this is all...” I dislodged my hand from his, even though it required an immense effort to do so. “I’m not used to having so many people care so much, and it’s all just getting a bit overwhelming. Maybe dinner isn’t such a good idea after all.” I folded my arms, tucking my hands under my armpits like I was hugging myself.

Vali’s intensity when he spoke of my safety, on top of River’s use of the L-word this morning in the shower... it was sending me fast into a bit of a panic attack.

“Shit, dragă, don’t do that,” Vali cursed, sliding one of his huge hands around my waist and pulling me back close to him. “I can feel you freaking out. I’m sorry if this feels really fast. I know the last time we saw each other things were different. But I feel like I know you now. We’ve talked so often that it feels...” He trailed off with a manly sort of shrug.

“I know; it feels normal to be like this. Talking and touching.” I didn’t unfold my arms, but I also didn’t step away from his grip on my waist. “I’m just having a hard time adjusting to the fact that anyone other than Lucy or Jonathan cares enough about me to be worried. I pulled a really dick move sneaking out to rescue Austin without telling anyone. Totally didn’t take into consideration the fact that you all might worry. Like, I knew everyone would be pissed, but that was about it.”

“You’ve not had many people in your life that have loved you,” he observed, tilting my chin up with a finger so I’d have to look at him. “It’s something you have in common with all of your chosen guardians. But hopefully that will soon change. For all of us.”

He released me then, brushing a soft kiss over my forehead before heading inside to join Lucy and Elena as they tried on a mountain of designer shoes. For a moment, I stood there in stunned silence while I processed what he’d just said. Even with his ability to read my emotions, it seemed like he was so incredibly in tune with the sad, lonely, unloved kid inside of me. It scared the shit out of me, but also gave me excited, nervous jitters.

VALI’S FINGERS stroked down the inside of my wrist, sending warm heat through my sensitive skin and causing my breath to catch. We had ended up letting Elena and Lucy talk us into extending the evening past dinner and on to drinks and dancing at a local hot spot. The two of them were hitting it off, and I had no doubt that if there wasn’t already something between them, there soon would be.

Vali and I were leaning against the bar watching them both dancing on a podium and having the time of their freaking lives. River had not been happy when I’d told him, but what could he really say when I was in the company of a dragon shifter?

“So, you’re going back to Nevada tonight then?” I asked, glancing up at the dark-haired Romanian and wishing he wasn’t leaving. He had a magnetic pull about him, like the rest of my guys did, and it seemed like the more time we spent together, the more physical contact we maintained and the harder it was to accept I might not see him for another few weeks.

“I am.” He looked down at me with heat in his gaze, his strong fingers stroking another lazy pattern on the underside of my wrist. He’d been using little threads of his dragon magic, so it felt like his finger was on fire... in the best possible way. How he was making such minor, innocent contact so damn sexual, I had no idea, but my whole body was thrumming with want for him.

“Being here, so close to Omega’s base when we know they were testing my blood, doesn’t seem so smart, you know?” The corner of his mouth pulled up in a small smile.

“So, why come? Why not send Elena on her own?” I raised my brows at him, already suspecting the answer but wanting to hear it from his lips. His lush, smooth lips.

“You know why, dragă. I needed to see you.” His intense stare captured my slightly alcohol-fuzzed eyes and held them.

“Needed?” I repeated, and he dipped his head in acknowledgement.

“Yes. Needed. This past ten days being away from you...” He shook his head, breaking our eye contact and looking out into the crowd. “I am doing all I can to establish my business as a legal venture and have someone put in place to run it for me so I no longer need to be there. But it takes time.”

“I get that,” I murmured, even though I really didn’t. “You can’t just... quit? Despite your casual attitude toward cold-blooded murder and kidnapping, I don’t feel like you’re really the crime lord type.”

He turned an amused look on me. “Oh no?”

“I mean, yes, obviously you’re this big, bad criminal and whatever. But you’re not your father, and I suspect that guy you shot on the runway when we met, had it coming?” Or at least, I really hoped he had and this wasn’t my weird version of Stockholm Syndrome making justifiable allowances for murder.

“Gheorghe.” Vali scowled, and his fingers tightened around my wrist. “He did. He tried to assault Elena when she was home alone one day. She’s tougher than she looks, though, and fought him off, then locked herself in her room. I’d been biding my time, waiting for an opportunity that my men wouldn’t question, and you provided that for me.”

“Well then, good.” I pursed my lips, assessing my new acceptance of death and violence. Seemed strange to think that a short six months ago, my worst crime had been stealing from slimy child abusers who damn well deserved to be hit in the wallet a few hundred times over. Now I was condoning and even partaking in killings.

“This world we live in,” Vali murmured, returning to drawing patterns on my wrist, “it is not the world we grew up believing was real. Despite the bad things that we both endured as children, I don’t think either of us saw what was beneath the surface.”

“Magic? A covert war for supreme power over all supernatural kind and a startling lack of laws or morals?” I scoffed. “No, no, I definitely did not see this coming.”

“Nor did I,” he agreed, staring at me for a long moment before tucking a loose curl behind my ear. “We should get you home before your Alpha comes to get you himself.”

“Vali,” I warned, narrowing my eyes at his borderline sarcastic tone of voice.

“Don’t worry about me, dragă,” he smirked. “I might like to push his buttons a little, but I know, as my dragon does, that he is the true leader of your dianoch.”

“I don’t know about that, but he definitely has control issues,” I murmured, and Vali snorted a laugh.

“That’s for sure. I think I will have a lot of fun with him over the next millennia by your side.” His fingers tightened around my wrist once more as a little surge of panic ran through me at his words. Millennia.

“Don’t,” he commanded. “It is what it is, and you won’t ever be alone.”

“I know; it’s just... it’s a lot to process in a short space of time.” I set my drink down on the bar and dislodged my warm, tingling wrist from his grip. “I’m going to run to the bathroom, then the girls and I should head back.”

Unable to help myself, I glanced over my shoulder at him as I walked away and snorted a laugh. I’d just caught him unapologetically checking out my ass. Fucking man.

Once inside the bright lights of the bathroom, I realized how unsteady on my feet I was and ran a quick mental check on how much I’d actually had to drink.

Yup, about enough to kill a small horse, so probably just enough to get me tipsy.

Not that I was concerned. I knew my body was working it through at a stupid-fast rate, so probably the level of light buzz I was in would be as bad as I’d ever really get.

I washed my hands and wiped away the black smudge of mascara above my eyes where my eyelashes had been rubbing. Damn mascara never actually stayed where it was meant to go. After quickly ruffling my fingers through my hair, I pushed through the swinging door and collided straight into a girl on her way in.

“Oh shit!” I exclaimed as the door smacked into her and she lost her balance on her stilettos. The girl landed awkwardly on her side and yelled with pain.

“Oh, my gosh, I am so sorry, I didn’t even see you there!” I dropped to my knees and saw she had been carrying a martini glass before she fell. A glass which was now broken with the stem sticking out of her wrist.

“Fuck, oh shit, my wrist,” she whimpered, tears streaming from behind tightly shut eyes as blood began flowing freely down her hand. Her other hand was clutched at it, holding just above the injury, which was actually a smart thing to do to stem the blood flow.

“Here.” I reached out to her without even thinking about what I was doing, wrapping one hand over hers where it was applying pressure to the veins and quickly yanking the broken glass stem from her flesh with the other. Tightly, I covered the wound with my hand.

The magic surged through me, sealing up her broken veins and arteries and repairing the deep cut in her arm, which I knew without a doubt could have been life threatening. She’d somehow managed to sever an artery when she fell, and I seriously doubted if they would have gotten help here quickly enough. Or maybe they would have, but was I really going to run that risk when I could help? What if she died, all because I couldn’t look where I was fucking walking?

“Kit.” Vali’s voice broke through my concentration, and his firm hands pulled me back from the girl who was still crying and clutching her wrist. There was blood all over both our hands, but the gash on her wrist was nothing more than a deep scrape now.

“Enough,” he murmured in my ear. “She’s fine now.”

“What..?” The girl sobbed, opening her eyes and blinking at me in confusion, then down at her wrist and back up to me.

“You cut yourself on that glass when you fell,” I explained. “But it doesn’t look too bad. You’ll need to go get it checked out, though.” I squinted at her, frowning. It was dark in the corridor to the bathrooms, but there was something familiar about her.

“Do I know you?” I asked, and she seemed to pale. But maybe that was my suspicious, slightly tipsy, now magic-drained imagination at work.

“No, you don’t. Thanks for bumping into me,” she sneered, scrambling up from the ground and stalking off, still clutching at her bleeding wrist.

“Dragă, what the hell were you thinking?” Vali scolded, taking my hand and tugging me further down the corridor, away from the main bar. He snatched a bottle of water from the floor outside the bathrooms, where someone must have left it when they went to pee, and pushed through the fire exit door leading to the back alleyway.

“Hands,” he commanded, and I held them out to him. Twisting the cap off the bottle, he tossed it aside and used the water to rinse the girl’s blood off my skin.

“Now,” he sighed when he appeared satisfied all the blood was gone. “Tell me what on earth you were thinking, using your magic like that in public?”

“I didn’t really think at all,” I admitted, feeling a bit damn stupid in hindsight. “It was my fault she fell and hurt herself, and that glass had severed an artery. I couldn’t risk her dying just because I’m a klutz.”

“She would have been fine, beautiful. So long as she went straight to a medical center, they could have stitched it up for her, no troubles.” He ran a hand through his wavy, shoulder-length hair.

“Oh, I, um, I didn’t know that.” I shifted uncomfortably, feeling the exhaustion of the healing. It was nothing even close to how I felt after big healings though, so I’d probably be fine to go home and sleep it off.

“I know,” he sighed. “It’s adorable that you want to heal the world, dragă, but what about the side effects? What if that girl had any supernatural DNA in her? Have you just totally changed her life without any explanation?”

“I think that I have worked out how to not do the magic part of the healing,” I told him, but the uncertainty was clear in my voice. “It’s sort of just a theory, but I noticed when I healed you guys from, like, nearly dead that right at the end, before I’m done, it changes. I can’t really describe it, but it’s just a different sort of feeling.”

“So you’re thinking that if you don’t heal the injury completely, that it doesn’t risk healing their magic? If they’re even supernatural to begin with, that is. From what I understood, it’s a whole different genetic set, so there really wouldn’t be any danger in healing humans, right?” Vali pondered this theory aloud. “It’s not the worst idea I’ve ever heard, but it’s also totally untested. Please, dragă, please don’t go healing any more random people?”

“I can’t promise,” I admitted, not trying to be combative, just honest. “It just... happens. I see someone that is injured, and I act faster than my brain can really process what’s even happening. It’s happened a couple of times during Omega training too.”

“This has happened more than once?” His eyebrows shot up, and I nodded.

“Once, on our first day of training, a girl was knocked over the stair railing and plummeted four floors. She would have died if I didn’t do something, and I sort of figure it’s better to be scaly and alive than human and dead, right?” I gave him a pointed look, reminding him that was the choice I’d made for him, too.

He grunted acknowledgement. “And the other time?”

“Yesterday, one of the boys fell from the high wires course and broke his leg pretty badly. I just healed the bone only and then Austin pulled me away, so it seemed like just a really bad sprain.” My belly flipped, remembering the way my magic had reacted to Austin’s hand on mine as we’d walked back to our apartment after that class.

“It concerns me that these things keep happening around you, beautiful. Has it occurred to any of you that these could be tests? That someone is setting these accidents up to see how you will react?” His eyes blazed with anger, and his brow furrowed deeply.

“Yes, it did. But like I said, I can’t seem to help myself.” I shrugged helplessly and staggered a bit. My balance wasn’t the best after countless daiquiris and a minor healing.

“You’re exhausted,” Vali commented, clearly receiving my emotions down our weird spidey sense thing that we had going on. “How do I fix it for you?”

“Don’t worry about it.” I smiled. “It’s not so bad. If you can feel it from me, I dare say the other guys can too. They’ll probably be here any second.”

“I’d feel better if I knew how to help,” he murmured, sliding his hands around my waist and backing me against the wall. “After all, if we are going to be in this... relationship... for eternity, I anticipate I’ll need to help you out at some stage.”

“Are you saying I’m a magnet for trouble or something?” I arched a brow at him indignantly, and he snorted a soft laugh.

“You said it, dragă, not me. Now, how am I helping you? Vic said it needed to be sexual contact, no?” His lips curved in a wicked sort of smile, and fuck if my heart didn’t contract a little at the promises that smile held. Something gave me the impression he could definitely give River a run for his money in the domination department. At least in the bedroom, anyway.

My eyes flicked to his mouth, then back to his granite gray eyes, just a shade or two darker than Cole’s and loaded with desire.

“I didn’t use too much magic,” I commented, my voice low and breathy. “I should be fine if you just kissed me a bit.”

“Just a bit?” His lips curved in a sexy smile. “I think I can handle that.” He leaned in, closing the gap between us while my heart thundered in my chest. His lips brushed mine, and we were interrupted by a pop of air pressure all around us that I was coming to identify with magic.

“Kitty Kat,” Caleb called out, striding toward us from the mouth of the alleyway where he had just appeared in a ring of mage runes. “Are you okay? What happened? I felt you use your magic to heal someone.”

“Ah, I guess that answers my question about them sensing your emotions too,” Vali mused, brushing a light kiss across my cheek before stepping back with a sigh that seemed to mirror the disappointment I was feeling.

“I’m fine, Cal.” I smiled at him and rubbed at my bare arms to try and calm the tingling magic left by Vali’s light touch. “Just a random girl that cut herself.”

He watched me intently, a small frown pulling at his forehead before he nodded. “We should get you back before the guys freak out any more than they already are.”

“Sure, yeah, I’ll just go grab Lucy and Elena. They’re probably worried about where we ended up.” I rubbed my tired eyes and started back toward the fire escape door.

“I’ll get them,” Vali murmured, laying a hand over mine on the door handle and meeting my gaze. “They were making out on the dance floor, last I saw them, but I need to be heading back to my jet anyway. Crime empires don’t run themselves you know.” He threw a wink at me and disappeared back into the booming nightclub, leaving me alone in the alleyway with Caleb.

“So you seem to have that trick down,” I commented, turning to squint at him with arms folded over my chest. He at least had the grace to blush a little and scratch the back of his neck as he glanced over to the still glowing ring of Mage runes that he’d appeared in.

“Uh yeah, I didn’t totally ignore the lessons Yoshi gave us as kids.” His shoulders dropped as he sighed, and his hands stuffed into his pockets. “I know you have heaps of questions, but... this whole Mage thing... it’s just hard enough getting my own head around, you know?”

Stepping closer to him I flicked him in the forehead to bring his attention up from the concrete of the alleyway. “Yeah, Cal. I do know. Just found out I’m a whole other species here, remember?” I tugged at his hand, pulling it from his pocket and wrapping it around my waist. “So yeah, I do get what you’re going through. I just wish that we could go through it together.”

“I know.” He frowned. “Just give me some more time. I’m working on getting a handle on my magic, and then I’ll tell you everything. Aus probably didn’t tell you that he won the coin toss with Ink? Metaphorically speaking. His magic is crazy powerful with none of the uncomfortable side-effects of Blood.”

“I don’t understand what that even means, Caleb.” I sighed. “I really want to be understanding and give you space because God knows this whole mess is my fault to begin with, but I’m worried about you.”

“I know,” he replied and said no more.

Ugh, patience has never been my strong suit, either.

Dating five guys was going to be the death of me, purely for their inability to talk.

“Fine, whatever, let’s go meet Vali and the girls at my car. I assume you’re coming home with us now?” I flicked him a bit of a pissy look as I led the way around to where I’d left my car, but whatever, I was pissed. I’d been totally open with them on everything Ban Dia related, so for him to be keeping secrets from me... hell yeah, it stung.

“Kitty Kat,” he groaned, grabbing me by the hand and twirling me around to face him. My back pressed against the door of my car, and I looked up at him, not trying to hide how annoyed I was feeling. “Please, trust me?”

“I do, Cal.” I held his gaze for a long moment. “I just wish you trusted me.”

23

Jewels sparkled in the light as I turned to face the mirror and sucked in a breath of surprise. How the hell the woman in the reflection could possibly be me I had no idea. My hair was perfectly styled into an elaborate up-do, leaving my long neck bare to showcase the staggeringly expensive diamond necklace draped around it.

“Elena,” I breathed, leaning in for a closer look at myself. “You have some serious talent, girl.”

“Oh stop,” she giggled, acting coy even though I knew full well she was anything but. “I just work with the materials I am given.”

She’d done my makeup for me in a sparkling, almost ethereal style, so I looked more like a fairy princess than a real girl. Or Ban Dia as it may be.

Huh, I wonder if faeries are real too?

“Well, I think you look perfect, but how have you managed to attach your weapons? Are they all sorted?” She gave me a stern look, and I smiled. She and Lucy had started officially dating just a few days after that night out with Vali, even though Lucy was also still seeing Finn. She was totally open about it, though, and Elena didn’t seem bothered by it, so who was I to judge?

As well as being just what Lucy needed after the crap of her abduction and near death, Elena was just a joy to be around—for all of us. Hell, she was even charming Austin!

“Uh, haven’t sorted them out yet. That’s next on my list.” I checked the time on my phone and realized I was already running late. Oh well, fashionably late was the in thing, right?

“Go get dressed, and I’ll tell River or Cole to come help with the weapon concealment.” She threw me a saucy wink and sashayed out of the dressing room that I’d been getting ready in.

After taking another long look at the incredible job Elena had done, I stood and stripped off the satin dressing gown I’d been wearing and lined up my arsenal of weapons on the ledge below the mirror. Nervous excitement fluttered in my belly as I ran through the plan for the night. All things considered, it should be almost easier than a lot of the heists I’d pulled in the past. So why was I all jittery?

“Princess, we’re late!” Austin snapped, barging through the half open door and pulling up short with a stunned look on his face.

Not one to cower with modesty, I propped one hip out with a hand on my waist, and casually flipped a knife in my other hand.

“I’m aware of that, Austin,” I snapped back at him, narrowing my eyes. “Some of us require a little more preparation than simply throwing on an old suit and calling it done.”

Oh God, Kit. Fucking listen to yourself sometimes!

Austin was far from in an old suit. He was decked out in a custom tailored tuxedo, his dark hair slicked back and his face freshly shaved. Hell, even his shoes were polished to the point of reflective, and he smelled divine. I, meanwhile, was in nothing but a strapless lace corset, matching thong, and a couple of empty weapon holsters.

“Are you just going to stand there and gawk at me, or are you going to help?” I demanded in my very best sassy tone, flicking the knife at him and snapping him out of the stare down he’d been giving my tits.

He sneered, catching the knife by its blade between the flats of his palms and tossing it to hold the handle. “Didn’t Caleb ever tell you not to throw a blade unless you’re trying to hurt someone?”

“Who says I wasn’t?” I challenged, lifting my foot to place it on the chair I’d been sitting in. “Actually, pass that one back. I don’t need your help securing that.”

The sheath for that knife was strapped to my inner thigh, so I really needed no assistance putting it away and held my hand out to take it from him.

Green eyes blazing, Austin stalked across the small room to me, then ever so slowly dragged the knife tip up from my knee to the top of the sheath before carefully securing it and adjusting the Velcro straps holding it to my thigh.

“Wouldn’t have wanted you to cut yourself, Princess,” he murmured, his face unreadable as he held my gaze a long, tense moment.

“Five minutes, then we leave,” he snapped as he spun and disappeared out of the dressing room, leaving me pressing my palms to my hot cheeks, cursing myself. Just a quick glance in the mirror showed how worked up he’d just gotten me, and I desperately prayed he wasn’t yet in tune with my emotions enough to have read that from me.

“Vixen,” Cole called out, tapping lightly on the open door before entering. “You need help?”

“Um, yeah,” I huffed, trying to gather my scattered thoughts from the wake of hurricane-Austin. “Yeah, I just need help with getting this thing to sit right.” I held up the mesh and Velcro contraption that would sit just below the waistband of my dress and store both ammunition and a handgun without being obvious.

Cole nodded silently and took the harness from me, deftly strapping it around me and sliding all the correct items into their homes. He then held out my dress for me to step into, and zipped it up, his finger brushing up my spine and making me shiver.

“Seems strange,” he murmured, placing a soft kiss on the back of my neck, “putting clothes on you. I can’t wait to take them off again later. Although I’m still not happy that you’re going without a disguise.”

“Cutie,” I growled, spinning in his embrace and wrapping my arms around his neck. “We’ve been over this, and I won. No disguise. Gray isn’t even in town tonight, remember? He’s been seen in Miami just this afternoon, and your guys have eyes on him as we speak.”

“What if one of his friends is there and recognizes you?” He scowled. “This is too risky.”

“If anyone does, then good. I hope they fucking-well tell him that his Foxy Girl is the one who ripped him off yet again.” My jaw hardened in stubborn determination, and Cole frowned. “Besides, you guys will be there as backup, so I’m not alone. And don’t forget I am a supernatural badass.”

“How could I ever forget,” he groaned, then kissed me lightly so as not to upset the makeup Elena had so painstakingly applied to my face. “Just promise me that you’ll be careful?”

“Cutie.” I grinned. “When am I not careful?”

“RUN me through it one more time,” I demanded, snagging a glass of champagne from a passing server and sipping it. Not because I needed to drink but more as something to do with my hands.

“No. I have run through it maybe four times since we arrived here, and I don’t even know how many times before tonight. You know the plan.” Austin was pitching his voice low, maintaining a polite, calm expression that contradicted his frustrated tone of voice.

Over the countless test runs and simulations we had done in the past few weeks, Wesley had eventually concluded that Austin and I held the most relevant skills for the job, so while Cole, River, and Caleb were in attendance as waitstaff, Austin and I were running point.

“All okay down there?” Wesley’s voice crackled over the little earpiece I wore, and I smiled at his concern. So far the most exciting thing that had happened was some old drunk grabbing my ass. Hopefully things would stay that way, too. Nice and boring.

“All is fine, Wes,” Austin responded quietly, letting the little microphone pick up his voice, and I heard Lucy’s distinctive laugh in the background.

The gala was being held in a staggeringly ostentatious mansion on the outskirts of Toronto, so Lucy, Elena, and Wesley were back in our hotel room listening in and generally just backing us up in case we needed tech help in a hurry.

“So?” I prompted Austin, and he gusted a long sigh.

“As soon as Caleb sets the diversion, you make the switch with the rings, and I activate the illusion spell. Simple as that. Should take no more than a few seconds at most.” He raised an eyebrow at me in a vaguely condescending way. “Do you have it now? Or shall I repeat myself? Again.”

“No need to be an asshole, Austin,” I murmured, smoothing a hand down the bodice of my dress and feeling the comforting outlines of my knives under the fabric. Not that I should need them, but it never hurt to be prepared.

“Oh, fucking seriously?” Austin snarled. “What the fuck is he doing here?” His gaze had locked on someone behind me, so I turned to see who it was. A slow smile spread over my face as I locked eyes with the granite grey ones staring back at me.

Vali was also immaculate in a tuxedo with his shoulder-length hair pulled back into a short ponytail and his usual stubble shaved clean off. He looked like utter sin, and my nipples tightened with desire just from looking at him.

“Let’s see what the hell he’s playing at and make sure he knows not to interfere with our mission,” Austin muttered, placing a strong hand on my lower back just above my Glock and steering me through the crowds toward my Romanian bad boy. As we came closer though, Vali held my gaze and gave a tiny, barely perceptible headshake, which I knew was him telling me not to approach. Clearly, whomever he was here with, they weren’t people Vali wanted me meeting.

“Actually, darling,” I said in a louder voice, turning to Austin and placing a hand on the front of his shirt. “Why don’t we dance a little? We always come to these things, and you never dance with me.” I pouted like a petulant trophy wife, and Austin’s emerald eyes widened a fraction. He flicked a lightening fast glance from me to Vali and back again before sinking into the character he was playing.

“Well, sugar pea, that’s because you can’t dance,” he responded, loud enough for the men standing near us to hear and chuckle a little.

“Darling.” I affected a whining, bored housewife sort of voice. “You know I’ve been taking lessons with the pool boy. Please?” I pouted, and Austin put up a good act of looking pained by my pleading. Or maybe it wasn’t an act. Either way, he sighed heavily and steered me out onto the dance floor where other couples were swaying though a formal sort of waltz.

Austin lifted one of my hands, placing his other hand firmly on my lower back and pulling me in tight to his body as he began to lead with surprising skill and grace.

“I wasn’t aware ballroom dancing was a class in Omega training,” I commented lightly, following his lead without missing a beat in my delicate heels. I’d attended a very snooty private school for five years, so learning to waltz had been a requirement, something I was actually glad of now.

Austin didn’t respond to my question, directing me around the dance floor like a seasoned professional while my full skirt billowed and twirled with each turn. As we moved, I spotted my backup placed around the room playing their roles as waitstaff, but their attention was entirely on us.

“I’m just going to duck to the bathroom quickly,” I whispered, and Austin raised an eyebrow at me. “Oh, don’t give me that look. Those glasses of champagne go straight through me, and the last thing you want is me bumping the alarm sensor because I’m busting to pee.”

“Fine,” he groaned. “Come on then.” He took my hand and started leading the way in the direction of the bathroom that we’d seen earlier.

“Did Austin just offer to take you to the bathroom like you’re a two year old?” Lucy snorted in my ear, and I rolled my eyes. They had no visuals this time, just audio, but I knew she was just stirring shit.

“Austin, I can probably handle this one on my own,” I remarked in a dry voice, dislodging my hand from his. “There was a bathroom out near the pool, if I remember correctly. It’s less likely to have a line waiting than the ones close to here.”

Austin gave me a long stare, then shrugged, like he didn’t give a shit either way. “I’ll wait just outside for you. God knows trouble will find you otherwise.”

“Suit yourself,” I snapped and brushed past him. He followed close behind as I made my way out of the ballroom and down some steps to the darkened pool area. There were low outdoor lights illuminating the path, so I could see where I was walking, but other than that, things were pretty dim. Probably to discourage guests from congregating outside and missing the auction at the end of the night when the jewels would be displayed.

“Here is probably far enough,” I told Austin, pushing open the door to the pool house bathroom and locking it behind me. Thankfully, I’d been right in my guess that this one would be unoccupied, and I was able to get in and out as quick as a flash.

Returning outside once more, I found Austin leaning against the low garden wall opposite the door, looking like something straight off a billboard somewhere. The way the shadows fell across his high cheekbones and strong jaw made him look more like a high fashion model than a secret agent.

“Done?” he asked, seeing me standing there gawking at him.

“Clearly,” I replied, like the snarky bitch I was. “Let’s head back inside. The auction should be starting soon, so the jewelry will be getting displayed.”

He nodded, falling into step with me as I made my way back along the path past the pool to head back inside. What caused me to look over at the shadowed pool, I had no idea, but something must have caught my attention, and I stopped short, peering through the darkness.

“What is it?” Austin asked, frowning into the shadows where I stared.

“I thought I just saw something move,” I murmured, stepping off the illuminated path and making my way closer to the huge pool. These mansions were insanely overdone, and the pool was no exception. It had to have been bigger than an Olympic pool or something.

Austin coughed a laugh. “It’s probably someone getting a blow job in the shadows, Princess; leave them be.”

“No, I mean in the water.” I picked up the front of my dress and stepped through the little garden bordering the pool area. “There was something...” As I stepped closer, it became clear what it was that I’d seen. Lying facedown in the water, a woman floated motionless, her pale blue dress fanned out around her.

“Shit.” I rushed over with Austin close on my heels. “Quick!” I dropped to my knees at the edge of the pool and stretched out to try and grab the woman, knowing that my huge dress would just slow me down if I got into the water.

She was too far away for me to reach, but Austin dove in without me needing to say anything, swimming a few short strokes over to her and dragging her back over to the side. With him in the water lifting her dead weight, I hauled her out by her armpits. My enhanced strength made the task easy, and within moments I had the woman on her back beside the pool while Austin clambered out to kneel on her other side and press two fingers to her throat.

“She’s still got a pulse,” he panted. “Just barely, though. We need to get the water out of her lungs.”

“Kit?” Wesley’s voice sounded in my ear. “What’s going on? Austin’s earpiece and mic just went offline?”

I ignored Wesley and followed Austin’s directions, placing my hands over the woman’s sternum and pressing down firmly in an even rhythm to try and dislodge the water from her. My earpiece let out a high pitched squeal, so I flicked it out and tossed it in the pool before continuing the chest compression.

“Nothing’s happening, Aus,” I muttered, staring down at the woman’s blueish lips. “She’s dying. I need to use my magic.”

“Christina. No,” he ordered, his gaze snapping up and locking on my face with an intensity that almost made me obey him. Almost.

We had all agreed during the planning of this mission that I would retain my full magic at all costs so that if anything went wrong, I wouldn’t be vulnerable. But we hadn’t anticipated this.

Cocking a brow at him defiantly, I let my mental reins go on the magic, and it rushed forward. The fizzing tingles hurtled down my arms and through my hands into the woman who lay dying between us.

“Princess, stop,” Austin commanded, tugging at my wrists where I pressed firmly to the drowning victim’s chest. “You agreed, dammit. We discussed this, and you agreed. No magic used unless it is absolutely necessary.”

“She’s dying, Austin. That’s pretty necessary.” My voice seemed to echo through my head, and I realized this was the first time I’d tried speaking while healing someone. It was a strange sensation, like my voice wasn’t really connected to me. Or like someone was talking through me like a ventriloquist dummy.

“It’s not. She might have been trying to commit suicide or maybe someone killed her or maybe it was just a damn accident, but news flash, baby girl—people die all the damn time, and it’s not up to you to save them all.” He tugged at my wrists again, but my strength was far superior, and I wasn’t budging.

“Fuck off, Austin. I’m healing her whether you agree or not.” I glared at him, making sure he damn well understood how stubborn I was prepared to be on this. I’d been given the ability to heal people, and I wasn’t about to just ignore it when someone needed me, just in case it made me a bit dizzy.

Okay, that was an understatement. As the magic poured from me and into her, forcing the water out of her lungs and bubbling from her mouth, I could already feel the heavy, lead-like feeling setting into my bones.

“That’s enough,” Austin growled, as the woman rolled slightly and began coughing up mouthfuls of pool water. This time when he yanked on my wrists, I no longer had the strength to fight him on it, and my hands fell away from the coughing woman.

With a hand like a steel band, Austin dragged me to my feet and away from the pool area so fast I had to run to keep up. I glanced back a couple of times, but the nearly drowned woman was sitting up, so I was confident she’d be okay.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Austin snarled, shoving me into a study off the main hallway and slamming the door behind us. “Look at yourself! You’re so weak you’re practically shaking! How the fuck do you plan on making a sleight-of-hand theft when you are trembling like a goddamn shaved cat in winter?”

“Oh, quit with the dramatics, Austin,” I sighed, not really having the energy necessary to argue with him effectively. “The auction isn’t for half an hour yet. I’ll just go find one of the guys and get a quick recharge, and I’ll be fine.”

“Right, so you’re going to, what? Grab Caleb or Cole and go let them fuck you quick and dirty in the closet or something? Is that how this goes?” His lip curled in what seemed like disgust, and my blood boiled with rage.

“Is that a fucking problem for you, Austin?” I seethed. “Is it really so deplorable that I need a few minutes of sexual contact with my guardians in exchange for saving a damn human’s life?”

“Oh sure, like there’s nothing in it for you? I think you’re addicted to using the magic. You can’t seem to stop, even when you know you shouldn’t be doing it! I mean, how fucking dense can you be not to suspect there is something fishy going on with all these ‘accidents’ around you lately?” He was firing up now in response and crowding me against the desk. “So go on then, Princess. Prove me wrong.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I spat back. “How the hell am I supposed to prove something that is a figment of your imagination? Fucking crazy person.”

“I’m one of your guardians, too. Use me.” He poked me in the chest, and my brows shot up.

“No.” I recovered from my shock quickly and glared death at him.

“No? Why? You scared you’ll like it?” he taunted, boxing me against the desk with a dripping wet arm on either side of my huge skirt.

“Not even close,” I lied like a big old liar. “Get out of my face, Austin. I’m not fucking you when you so clearly find me repulsive.”

“Oh, Princess,” he chuckled, a dark sound, deep in his throat. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

For a tense moment, neither one of us spoke. Our gazes were locked, our faces only inches apart, as close as lovers and yet not touching at all. From behind Austin, the study door opened and a woman stepped through.

“Do you mind?” Austin snapped, not looking away from my startled stare. “We’re in the middle of something.”

“Austin.” The woman spoke, and the blood drained from his face. “I thought that was you I saw come in here. Well, either you or Caleb, but he isn’t so rude.”

“You,” Austin breathed, stepping back from me and spinning to face the speaker who, I could now see, was a small, delicate young woman with short red hair.

“Uh, let me guess,” I smirked without amusement. “Peyton?”

“Who the hell are you?” The nasty bitch sneered, eyeing me up and down like something the cat just dragged in. I glanced to Austin, but he still seemed gobsmacked.

“No one.” I slipped out from behind Austin and brushed past the petite woman. “Absolutely no one. See you at the auction in thirty minutes, Austin.”

I didn’t wait for his response before sweeping out of the room and shutting the door firmly behind me with shaking hands. Fuck, maybe I was more drained than anticipated.

Chewing my lip nervously, I debated going back into the study and throwing that poisonous bitch out so I could take Austin up on his offer. But I knew he had been bluffing, and whatever was happening between him and Peyton was probably going to be brutal. Nope, I’d be fine. Caleb, Cole, and River were all out in the main party somewhere, so I just needed to find one of them. Easy, right? I was armed to the teeth with weapons too, so I should be just fine alone for a few moments.

Of course, all the weapons in the world weren’t going to help me if I was too weak to use them. Stupid, Kit.

24

One of these days, I would learn to listen to my instincts rather than let my stupid, stubborn pride rule my actions. Would it really have been so damn hard to take Austin up on his offer? It wasn’t like we hadn’t kissed before, and fuck knows I was attracted to him despite my better judgement.

Nonetheless, my pride held me back from returning to that office and demanding that bitch Peyton leave so I could balance out my magic drain. Oh yeah, that’s what I was calling it. Because to admit to myself that I really just wanted to rip that soaking wet tuxedo from his body and let him do me on the desk was just too much for my exhausted brain to process.

Picking up the front of my ball gown, I descended the few steps into the main room and scanned the crowd for my guys. Stupidly, I no longer had my comms receiver, so I couldn’t even ask Wesley where they were.

Just as I thought I’d spotted the back of River’s head across the far side of the room, a commotion broke out, and I was bumped sharply from behind. Exhausted as I was, I lost my footing and hit the floor hard in a puddle of dress.

“So sorry,” a man apologized. “Here, let me help you up.” His hand wrapped around my upper arm like a band of steel and hauled me to my feet like I weighed no more than a wet kitten.

“Do you quite mind?” I snarled, pushing weakly at the heavyset man to try and dislodge his hand, but sadly it seemed I also had the strength of a wet kitten too.

You raging idiot, Kit. My eyes darted from the hard-faced man holding my arm and past him to the shadowy figure lurking in a doorway with a grin on his slimy fucking face.

“You’re supposed to be in Miami tonight,” I snapped, not wanting to believe what I was seeing.

“Amazing what a few well placed bribes will achieve, isn’t it?” My old nemesis Mr Gray sneered at me.

My gaze darted around the room, looking for my backup, but whatever was happening on the far side of the ballroom had caused a crowd of people to block me from view. The coincidence was too great to be believable.

“Come along, then,” Mr Gray ordered, and the oaf began dragging me through the doorway Gray had been standing in while I dug in my heels and weakly tried to fight him off.

Twisting in his grip, I slipped my free hand into one of the many strategically placed slits in my ball gown and pulled out a knife. My exhaustion made my movements sloppy and slow, but I still managed to cut a deep slice across the goon’s wrist, causing him to yell and release my arm.

The second his hold dropped, I turned and ran, only to run headlong into another solidly built ogre who made a much better job of both disarming and disabling me, pinning both my arms with wrist locks and shoving me ahead of him in the direction Gray was heading. The fucking bastard must have known how weak I was because he hadn’t even paused to look back when I made my pathetic attempt at escape.

“You know you’re not getting away with this, you pathetic heap of shit,” I snarled at his back as he led the way through the sitting room to a small almost secret door concealing a narrow staircase.

“We’ll see about that,” he smirked, leading the way into a bedroom at the top of the stairs. Once inside, he held the door open for the oaf to shove me through with both my wrists still locked and immobile. “This here was a secret room that the owner of this property kept for entertaining his mistresses. That door at the base of the stairs has a bookshelf which my companion here will slide in front of it, hiding it from view, and there are no other ways in or out.” He grinned like a bloodthirsty Cheshire cat. “Oh, and it’s completely soundproof. So go on, scream. I dare you.”

Yanking against the goon’s grip on me, I briefly considered letting him break my wrists in order to get free, but what good would that do? I was already barely keeping my eyes open without then needing to heal two broken wrists and try and fight my way out of here. So in a nutshell, I was fucked.

“Check her for weapons,” Gray ordered his guys. “This little bitch has surprised me one too many times. But not this time, little girl. Oh, no. I took steps to ensure that not only would you be weak as a damn child, but also that your little friends downstairs were well and truly detained for the foreseeable future. No one is coming to rescue you, Foxy Girl. Not even yourself.”

The stronger oaf held me immobile while the other one stripped my beautiful gown from me and let out a low whistle when he saw my arsenal of weapons. Or, at least, I assume that’s what he was gaping at. Slimy motherfucker.

“Bit pointless being so well armed when all it took to disarm you was a poor, innocent drowning victim,” Gray snickered, watching with hungry eyes while his goon unstrapped my many weapon harnesses and tossed them all into a pile on the dresser. Once again I cursed myself for being so stupid. Of course it was a goddamn fucking set up. Of fucking course it was!

Once totally divested of all my weaponry, the first man pulled out a couple of zip ties and bound my hands together in front of me before releasing the wrist lock he’d held me in.

“Secure her and then leave,” Gray ordered, and I was roughly manhandled onto the queen-size bed, my zip-tied wrists then zip-tied again to the slatted headboard and my ankles to the base board. Fear spiked in my belly at being so helpless and vulnerable, but I squashed it down hard. I was better than that, and men like Mr. Gray, Richard Liath, didn’t deserve to see my fear.

The two hard-faced men worked in silence, but I knew better than to waste my breath pleading with them. Too many times in my short life I’d encountered goons for hire like them. Nothing and no one was going to talk them out of their assigned, and well-paid, task.

They left the room, closing the door behind them with an ominous click, and Gray locked it by shooting an old-school bolt across before turning his predatory eyes on me.

“You’re a sick piece of shit, you know that?” I sneered at him, curling my lip in disgust. “Preying on the weak and innocent, taking your sick pleasure from children and helpless women. People like you don’t deserve to breathe the same air as the rest of the world, and I promise you, I’ll make sure you don’t for much longer.”

He didn’t respond, loosening his tie, tugging it over his head, and laying it over the back of a chair before rolling up his shirtsleeves.

“I don’t know what you’re hoping to achieve here,” I scoffed at him. “A bit of revenge? Are your feelings hurt that I publicized your disgusting proclivities?”

When my foster home had been raided by Omega team some nearly six years ago, Jonathan had done everything in his power to press charges against Mr. Gray and his revolting compatriots. Despite them being able to wiggle out of the charges due to their impressive ability to clean the house and the kids of any and all DNA evidence, it had still been a huge scandal in the media. Gray was still stupidly rich and powerful, but considerably less so than he had been.

Still, he didn’t respond but climbed onto the bed and straddled my waist. His weathered, leering face looked down at me with victory clear in his eyes just seconds before his huge fist plowed into the side of my face. For a brief moment, my vision darkened then returned along with the pain, and my ear began ringing. The pain was sharp, but I’d endured far worse at this despicable man’s hands, so it’d take a whole lot more than a couple of hits to the face to break me this time.

He barely waited a few short seconds for me to suck in a shocked breath before his other fist crashed into my other cheek, whipping my head to the side and sending a spray of blood from my mouth as my lip burst open in a deep gash.

“Oh, that one worked nicely,” he murmured, taking my chin in his hand and inspecting the damage he’d just inflicted. Blood streamed down my neck from my mouth, and I spat at him.

“Now, now, none of that.” He chuckled a sick laugh, wiping my bloody spit from his face and waggling a hand at me to see. “See what I just used to bust up that pretty mouth of yours? Poetic, don’t you think?”

I sucked in a sharp breath, my gaze locking on the ring sitting just below the knuckle of his pinky finger. A large, oval-shaped sapphire set in an ornate yellow-gold band etched with what looked like runes all the way around it, it was unmistakably the ring we’d come here to steal.

“You know, when I heard from Suzette that you were coming for this piece of trash, I almost didn’t believe her. But I couldn’t pass up the opportunity, so I had Amelia submit it into this stupid gala in the hopes of flushing a fox out of her hole, and here you are.” He punctuated his victory speech with another punch to my face, and the ring dragged a gash open across my cheek. “Don’t worry Foxy Girl, we have all night together. May as well get business out of the way first so I can take my time and really... savor the experience.”

He hit me again, and this time I really did black out.

25

RIVER

My gaze cast around the room again. Kit and Austin still hadn’t returned from the bathrooms, and they’d been gone an uncomfortably long time so far. Not for the first time, I wished I’d let her heal my arm. Maybe then I would have that emotional link with her and I would know if she was in trouble or not.

“Wesley, I need you to check on Kit and Austin,” I murmured quietly as I pretended to gather up empty champagne flutes from a table. “They left for the bathroom ages ago and haven’t come back.”

Impatiently, I tapped my finger against an empty flute while I waited for Wesley’s response. None came.

“Wes?” I tried again, but still no response came.

Turning to face the corner, I surreptitiously pulled the receiver from my ear to check the little white LED marker that would indicate it was working. Dead. How the fuck had that happened?

Some minutes ago, I’d seen Cole head out in the direction Kit and Austin had gone, so I could only hope he was checking on them. Caleb was nowhere to be seen, nor was Vali. The absence of any of my team, including my comms backup, was giving me a seriously uneasy feeling in my gut.

The dark, caged beast inside my mind reared up, thrashing and testing its mental bonds, but I wasn’t stupid. I had that shit locked down tight. Tighter than I had ever needed to previously because I knew without a doubt that Kit’s magic would set it free. And then God fucking help us all.

Leaving the main ballroom, I slipped my phone from my pocket and dialed Wesley. It was pointless trying the rest of my team as we didn’t carry phones on missions. Not even me, usually. But for some reason, today I had grabbed it.

“River, hey,” Wesley answered. “What’s going on down there? I’ve lost comms with everyone.”

“I was hoping you could tell me.” I pondered, scratching at the short stubble on my chin. I never could go fully fresh-faced; it made me look too damn young. “Something’s giving me a seriously bad feeling, Wes.”

“Yeah, me too,” he agreed. “I’m still new to this whole bond thing, but I’m pretty sure Kit used her magic to heal someone not long ago, too.”

“Shit,” I swore. “Okay, I’m going to find them. Call back if you manage to get the comms back up.”

Panic clawed at my gut, and I clamped down hard on it. This was no place for emotions that only served to cloud my judgement. If Kit was in trouble—which, if I knew my Kitten, she would be—then I needed all my wits about me. Unlike the rest of my team, I was now the only human left. Thank fuck for small mercies, though; my arm was healed, so I wasn’t totally useless.

The past weeks had been such a rush of planning for this mission that Kit and I had barely managed to steal more than a few moments alone together. Certainly no time to discuss that fucking word that had slipped from my mouth while we were in the shower.

Love.

What the hell had I been bloody thinking? Not that I wasn’t—falling in love with her, that is—but I simply should have known better than to tell her so soon.

Gritting my teeth against my own self-flagellation, I made my way back into the main ballroom just as the distinctive red of Kit’s gown caught my eye across the room. She was coming down a corridor looking wrecked, and I knew instantly that she’d just healed someone. Fuck.

The overwhelming worry for her that flooded through me blinded me to my surroundings, so much so that I paid no attention when someone bumped into my shoulder.

“Sorry, pal,” the guy apologized, grabbing onto my arm and spinning me to face him.

“No worries,” I snapped, turning away from him, desperate to get to my girl.

“Have a good evening then,” the man replied, clapping me on the shoulder heavily, and I felt the sharp sting of something pierce my skin. “Have a really good evening.” The stranger’s face leered down at me as my knees turned to jelly and I crumpled to the floor.

The last thing I saw before blacking out was from between people’s legs as the party guests crowded around to see what all the fuss was about: Kit, in her beautiful red gown, being hauled away by a huge man in a suit.

26

KIT

When I came to, Gray was no longer sitting over me. Instead there was another man crouched over my arm, attaching an IV line or something. My left wrist had been unbound from where it’d been above my head and was now tied to the side of the bed frame, keeping my arm out straight by my side so that the crook of my elbow was exposed for this guy to do whatever the fuck he was doing.

“What—?” I asked groggily, feeling my face throbbing with pain and my magic prickling as it tried to heal me with what little reserves I had left.

The man flicked a glance at me but said nothing, instead carrying on with what he was doing. Once the line had been inserted into my vein, he withdrew a test tube sized vial and tucked it surreptitiously into the inside pocket of his jacket before screwing a line into the port.

My blood began flowing freely down the line and into a bag that he’d laid on the floor beside the bed, and he stood up to address Gray, who was leaning against the door and watching with unblinking eyes.

“All set. It should take only about twenty minutes to fill that bag, then we switch it and fill one more. Anything over that and we’re likely to kill her, and it’s my understanding you wanted that honor for yourself?” the man addressed my childhood abuser, who grinned savagely.

“If she can be killed,” he grunted. “But it’ll be damn fun to try.”

“I’m going to go and make another appearance downstairs but will be back in twenty minutes to change the bag over. Do what you will in the meantime, but don’t disrupt the drain.” The man snapped his briefcase of tools shut and let himself out of the room while Gray prowled back towards me once more.

“Did you hear that, Foxy? I can do with you what I will.” A slimy leer slid across his face as he raked his eyes down my near-naked body. “You play your part just like old times, and I might let you enjoy it. After all… this doesn’t have to be all business.”

“Don’t kid yourself,” I coughed out in a weak voice. “If you honestly think I’m that same scared little kid, following your script, you’re more delusional than I gave you credit for. And as for enjoying it… I’m far too old for your tastes; you couldn’t get it up if you tried, let alone do anything with it.”

The unhinged look in his eye suggested he was, indeed, more fucked up than even I had realized. I knew what he wanted; it was what he had wanted every, single godforsaken time he’d visited me in Mother Suzette’s foster home. He wanted me to beg him to hurt me. Tell him that I loved it, loved him, and that I wanted more.

The memory of eleven-year-old me—wailing in pain but repeating his revolting script—echoed through my brain, and I shuddered, stuffing those memories back in their box where they belonged.

“Perhaps, but until you’re a good girl and tell me you love the pain—which you’ll say, sooner or later—I know one thing I can do that will bring me worlds of pleasure.” He picked up one of my deadly sharp daggers from off the dresser and approached the foot of the bed where my ankles were still zip-tied to the frame. With almost gentle fingers, he untied the delicate, red satin bows around my ankles and slid the shoes from my feet.

“Do me a favor, would you, dear?” he asked casually as he trailed the tip of my knife over the sole of one foot.

“Oh yeah?” I replied sarcastically. “What’s that?”

“Scream.” He grinned, slamming the blade into the center of my foot so that it protruded out through the top. I badly wish I could say I gritted my teeth and swallowed my scream of pain, but I did not. Partly from sheer shock but largely from the overwhelming, searing agony radiating up from my foot, the scream that did rip from my throat was one of pure misery, and I was repulsed to see Gray’s dick visibly harden through his slacks when I desperately looked down the bed at him. Evidently, he didn’t need me to follow the script after all.

Not that it changed anything. I knew all too well how easily he got off on hearing me beg, and I’d be fucking damned if I made this easy for him. If he wanted to get his sick and twisted rocks off, he could go about it the hard way.

“Perfect.” He grinned, then yanked the knife back out again and left me sobbing. I thrashed against my bonds, desperately trying to push some strength into my limbs. Not much, just enough to break the damn zip ties, a feat that would have been a walk in the park at my full power.

“Uh-ah-ah,” Gray tsked. “You heard what the good doctor said, no bumping the blood drain. Sure you don’t have anything you want to say to me?”

“Bite me, you sick fuck,” I panted, feeling my face slick with sweat as I worked to control my pain and fear.

He sighed as though he’d expected something different. Waving my slick, blood-coated blade in the air, his beady eyes took in my trembling frame. “Now, that blood is earning me a pretty damn huge favor, so I can’t go wasting too much of it before the bags are full. After, though... well, after the doctor retrieves what he came here for, then all bets are off. I intend to see exactly how much you can heal from before you finally give up.”

Circling around to the side of the bed, he stood over me a moment before slamming the long dagger straight into my belly, all the way to the hilt. Another tormented cry tore from my throat, and my breath came in short, sharp gasps.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit, fuck, shit.

After years of torture at Gray’s hands, I’d thought myself capable of withstanding any pain, but the memories had faded and this… well this was a lot worse than I’d remembered.

Logically, I knew my body was going into shock. It wasn’t the first time it’d happened, so I knew the warning signs. On the one hand, it meant a break from the cruelty, but on the other, I’d be unconscious. Call me crazy, but I considered passing out a win for Gray, almost as much as if I said what he wanted to hear. So no, I’d cling to consciousness with everything I had.

“I wonder how well you’ll heal if I leave that there,” Gray mused, tapping the hilt of the knife thoughtfully. “I can’t pull it out; you’ll bleed far too quickly, and that would be counterintuitive with the blood collection. I may be a sadistic prick, but I’m not stupid.”

He tapped the hilt a few more times while he appeared to be pondering his options. Meanwhile, I could feel sweat beading and rolling down my forehead as my body tried to comprehend all that was happening.

“Feeling chatty yet, Foxy Girl?” Gray enquired, running his slug-like tongue over his lips while he leered at me.

There was so little magic left in me, and it was rushing all over my body like it didn’t know what to try and fix first. I wanted to tell it not to bother, but of course I knew it wasn’t sentient. If it was madly trying to heal my wounds, it was because my subconscious desire to live was forcing it to.

I didn’t bother trying to respond to Gray. What was the point?

“Hmm, well, just a little more blood loss shouldn’t hurt,” Gray pondered aloud, then gripped the hilt of my dagger and twisted.

“Motherfucker,” I finally gasped out from behind clenched teeth after screaming yet again. “As soon as I’m free, I’m going to rip your balls off with my bare hands and shove them down your throat so far you choke on them.”

The twisted man barked a laugh and grinned down at me. “Don’t be pathetic, Foxy. You’re not getting free this time. Now be a good girl and beg for more; tell Mr. Gray how much you love it. How much you love me for giving you what you crave.” He stood close beside the bed, and I could clearly see his erection straining at his pants along with the little flecks of saliva beading at the corners of his mouth.

“Eat a dick, Richard,” I snarled, spitting at him once more and causing a furious frown to cloud his features. Glaring at me with eyes narrowed in anger, he stalked back over to the dresser where all my weapons had been dumped and picked up two more knives.

“I said,” he ground out from behind clenched teeth. “Beg me for more, you little bitch.”

“And I said,” I panted, desperately fighting the lightheadedness of my impending pass out. “Eat a fucking dick, Dick.”

An enraged growl rumbled out of him, and he raised his hand up high, then slammed one of the blades deep into my thigh. A shudder rippled through me as I felt the blade hit my femur and scrape off it to the side.

“Try. Again.” He glowered down at me, but I was already too far gone to give a flying fuck what he might do next.

“I’ve changed my mind,” I gasped, and his eyes lit up, clearly thinking I was about to beg for my life. Deluded fuck. “I’m not going to kill you straight away. That’s far too kind to a pervert like you. I think after I castrate you, I’ll drop you in a maximum security prison and ensure they know just how much you get off on torturing and raping little kids.”

His eye twitched in rage, and he slammed another knife into my other thigh, glaring at me feverishly as I howled.

Briefly, my stubborn determination slipped, and I considered telling him what he wanted to hear. I knew from experience he would lose interest pretty quickly after getting off, but I had promised myself over and over in the years since Omega had rescued me that I wouldn’t give him control again. I wasn’t a helpless kid anymore. I was an adult. I was powerful. This—this was fleeting. He couldn’t touch me.

Panting and shaking, I forced my gaze back to his. He could have my body, torture me, kill me, it didn’t matter. Deep down, he knew he hadn’t won until I spoke those disgusting words.

For a long moment, Gray held my gaze with his shiny, insane eyes before he sighed heavily and turned back to the dresser. “I brought a few tools of my own along too, you know,” he commented, like we were discussing the fucking weather or something. “Now, let’s see here...” He dug around in the drawer for a moment, then came back with a couple of instruments, which he laid on the bed cover beside me.

The angle I was tied at made it impossible for me to make out what exactly those tools were, but I sure as fuck recognized the brass knuckles he slid onto his fingers, then closed his fist around.

Oh fuck, this is going to hurt.

The thought barely had time to register before his fist came slamming into my side. Distinctive cracking sounds reached my already ringing ears as my ribs broke, and Gray’s face split into an excited grin once more. No longer bothering with his need to make me beg and plead, he rained blows down on me, switching the brass knuckles to his other fist when his first must have become tired.

Eventually he stopped, puffing, with sweat patches spreading under his armpits. My eyes were beginning to roll back into my head, and it was everything I could do to stop myself from passing out. I would not give him the satisfaction of giving in.

“Stubborn bitch, aren’t you?” he panted, tossing aside the brass knuckles and picking up a pair of needle-nose pliers and waving them in front of my face. “See these? I’d intended to use them to rip out your fingernails, but I don’t want to risk disrupting this drain...” He tapped them against his chin. “But I’m always open to compromise.”

Circling back to the foot of the bed, he grasped the little toe of my undamaged foot and lined up the pliers with the nail. Looking up at me with a twisted grin on his face, he chuckled.

“I’m not going to lie, Foxy; this is going to hurt.” He gave no further hesitation before clamping down on the little nail and ripping it from my flesh in one smooth motion.

My jaw clenched hard. I bit back a scream but couldn’t do anything to save the moan of pain as the nerves in my foot shredded and burning agony lanced up my leg. Black spots danced at the edges of my vision, and cold shock rushed over me in waves while I desperately clawed my way back to consciousness. It was becoming painfully obvious he wanted me to pass out. Well, fuck him.

“Still hanging in there, huh?” he observed, lining his pliers up with the next toenail over. “Maybe I’ll do this next one slower. Really drag it out.” As he said this, he began pulling with his pliers, tearing the nail from my skin with excruciating patience while my nerve endings fractured and frayed. This time I really did scream, the sound coming out hoarse and dull in my agony.

What the fuck was I thinking? I couldn’t do this. If I really was immortal, then this pain truly might never end. There was no easy escape for me in death. My only hope was for Gray to become bored, but given he’d been waiting six years for this opportunity, I doubted it’d happen any time soon.

Maybe it’d be easier to just let him have what he wanted. Control. Obedience. After all, they were only words, right?

Haze swept across my vision, blurring the room and Gray’s leering face in and out of focus, and I knew I was losing the battle. My magic was almost entirely depleted now; I could barely feel a single tingle of it trying to work. Or maybe that was just because the pain of my many injuries was outweighing any other sensation? Hard to know.

Dimly, somewhere in the fog of near unconsciousness, I heard Wesley’s voice calling my name. But that didn’t make any sense; I’d thrown my receiver into the pool. Hadn’t I?

“Kit, sweetheart, can you hear me?” Wesley’s voice called softly, seeming to echo through my head rather than meeting my ears like a normal voice might.

“Wesley?” I murmured, not totally sure if this was a pain-induced delirium or not.

“Who’s that?” Gray sneered at me. “One of your useless boyfriends that won’t be coming to save you?”

“Sweetheart,” Wesley’s voice echoed again through my head. “I’m with you. You don’t need to answer out loud; you can just think your thoughts to me.”

“Wesley,” I groaned silently, realizing with an even deeper spike of despair that he had been changed after all. “I can’t do this, I’m not strong enough. It all hurts.” Even inside my mind I could hear the desperation to my words. I was giving up, I knew it. It was only a matter of time.

Maybe it was for the best? Gray was a sick, sadistic bastard; there was no question. But his motives were personal, primal, selfish. If I gave in to him now, let him have my mind, would my magic then be out of reach to those who would destroy the world with it?

“Kit, this isn’t you. You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met.” Wesley’s voice scolded me inside my own head, and I frowned. “Sweetheart, fight him. I know you can do it.”

“How, Wes? I’m weak, bleeding, and tied down. I’m useless. How the fuck can I fight him like this?” Tears rolled freely down my face. Not from the pain, but from desperation. I could hardly believe it had come to this, that Gray might win.

“Wes?” I whimpered inside my head. My thoughts were punctuated by Gray tearing another of my toenails out, and I had no doubt my scream echoed through my thoughts as well as the room. Blood ran freely down the sole of my foot now, and it almost tickled as it pooled on my heel and dripped off.

Something clicked inside me though. Not all wins had to be physical, and in this situation, the most important win was mental.

Fuck him. Gray, that was. He could do what he wanted to my body, but Wesley was right. I’d made a promise to myself to never let Mr. Gray bend my mind to his will again, and here I was about to let him do just that. No. He wouldn’t win this one.

I’d come so damn far from the scared little girl I’d been in Suzette’s foster home. I’d healed, damn it. Found a life for myself, albeit a dangerous one. Found several men who, against my fears, cared for me. Hell, River had even said he loved me.

That sealed it. I hadn’t even told River I loved him back, so there was no way, no fucking way, I was letting Gray have those words. I’d get through this and then… then he’d suffer.

“Hang in there, Kit. Austin is almost there.” Wesley’s voice was faint as the pain dragged me back to full consciousness once more, but he’d left me with a grain of hope.

Austin was coming; this would all be over soon.

With that one, comforting thought, I dove head first into the creeping blackness.

27

It can’t have been long after I slipped into unconsciousness that the sound of an explosion and splintering wood snapped me back out of it. My heavy lids cracked open just in time to see Austin step through what remained of the door, and a rush of relief washed over me.

Gray stood at the foot of the bed, brandishing his pliers with his pants open and his hard dick in his hand. He went slackjawed as a mess of wood chips showered the floor and my enraged guardian stood there like an avenging angel.

Austin raised a hand, just like Yoshi had done that day in the apartment above his shop, and just like Yoshi, Austin spoke one word. The language wasn’t one I’d ever heard before. The word was subtly different from the one Yoshi had used and had a considerably different outcome.

Time seemed to elongate, and the result of Austin’s spell appeared to play out before my eyes in slow motion as Mr. Gray—Richard Liath, high-powered businessman, billionaire, sadist, and rapist—split open down the middle and exploded from the inside like a fucking tomato in a microwave.

His skeleton held his mostly human shape while the edges of the wound torn from throat to crotch flew apart and tore off, sending chunks of blood, tissue, and flesh splatting all over the room. Miraculously, not a single piece landed on me. Next, his eyes burst in his skull like rotten grapes, leaving oozing streams of blood and fluid seeping down his cheeks as his lifeless form crashed to the ground and disappeared from my view.

The whole process couldn’t have taken any more than a second, but I enjoyed every last nano-second of it. My only wish was that it could have been dragged out for longer so he could feel every tiny ounce of pain he’d delivered upon me since walking through the door of Suzette’s foster home some eight years ago.

“Princess, hey,” Austin murmured, dropping to his knees beside the bed and yanking the blood drain from my vein. “You still here with me?”

“Fucker,” I managed to croak out of my hoarse, dry throat, and he raised his eyebrows at me.

“I hope you mean him and not me?” he asked, flicking a knife through my bonds to release me. Not that I was going anywhere in a hurry. I still had three daggers protruding from my flesh, multiple broken ribs, a gaping hole through the middle of one foot, and three missing toenails on the other. Not to mention I was severely depleted of blood. In short, I was in a bad fucking way.

“No. You. Fucker,” I whispered out, my eyelids drooping as I tried desperately to hold them open. My body had passed the point of pain and was now just cold.

“Me? What the fuck did I do?” Austin demanded, circling to the foot of the bed and kicking what remained of Gray’s corpse out of the way before cutting free my ankles. He paused when he saw the damage done to my feet, and his mouth tightened to a hard line.

“I had plans for him,” I responded in a weak groan. “You made it too quick. Too merciful.”

“Take that back,” he gasped, looking offended. “Did you not see what I just did to that sack of shit?”

“Saw. Too fast.” I tried sucking in a deep breath, but the knife in my belly and the various cracks and splinters of my ribs digging into my lungs made it difficult.

“I just... ripped him apart from the inside!” Austin exclaimed. “And then liquefied his remaining internal organs!”

“I know.” I winced, trying to slowly move my fingers to work some feeling back into them. “You could have made it hurt more, though.”

He stared down at me for a moment, his jaw clenching and one eye twitching slightly. “I can’t decide,” he finally ground out, “if you’re the most twisted bitch I’ve ever met or just the hardest to please.”

Against my better judgment, a laugh shook my body, pulling at the blade in my stomach and making me groan in pain once more.

So much for being past the pain threshold, Kit.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Princess,” Austin muttered coming back around to sit gently on the edge of the bed beside me and eyeing up the biggest knife lodged just below my rib cage. “Can’t believe you just laughed at that. I literally saw your stomach slice further open.”

My mind tried to form a snappy retort, but inside I was falling to pieces. Hell, I was on the outside too, and I didn’t just mean from my various injuries.

“Shit,” Austin swore, “You’re not… come on, Princess. Don’t cry. I don’t know how to handle normal crying girls, let alone you.”

My eyes stung and I could feel the tears pouring down my face, but I was too damn weak to wipe them. Fucking Austin. He was being normal, and I fucking loved him for it. He always seemed to know exactly what I needed, even before the whole dianoch bond.

“I’m not crying,” I sobbed, so clearly bawling my eyes out. “It’s just hayfever or something.”

“Princess…” Austin groaned, looking pained. Like he was the one with knives protruding from his flesh. I knew my rare display of emotion would make him uncomfortable, but it wasn’t like I’d made a conscious decision to start crying. It just… happened.

“I’m fine,” I insisted, my voice strangled and weak, but a shuddering sob contradicted that statement and pulled at my stomach wound, making me cry harder.

Austin frowned, reaching out a hand to touch my face but hesitating and pulling back before he made contact. “You’re not fucking fine, Christina. And nor should you be.”

He said it quietly, but the fury and passion in his voice resounded through me.

“He almost had me, Aus,” I whispered, my eyes so clouded with tears I could barely see him, so I squeezed them shut instead. “He almost broke me.”

Austin said nothing, he just simply let me cry silently for a while. He did, however, place his hands firmly on either side of my waist, holding my body still against further injury while I sobbed.

“Almost,” he finally said when my tears subsided, “but he didn’t. Don’t ever forget that.”

I needed to swallow a few times to clear the lump in my throat before replying. It also gave me a minute to formulate coherent thoughts and process the fact that this incredibly personal, intimate moment was with Austin. And strangely, it felt right.

“Yeah, well,” I croaked, “it wasn’t for lack of trying on his part.” I looked down at the knife in my gut and Austin’s palms flat on either side of it. “Are you going to pull that out of me or just sit there staring at it?”

Austin’s gaze darted to my face, and he raised one eyebrow in a decidedly naughty sort of expression before he said words I never would have expected to come from his mouth. “That’s what she said.”

My watery eyes widened as I stared at him. “You did not just say that. What the hell is going on? Is this all some weird pain-induced hallucination? If so, why the fuck am I hallucinating Austin of all fucking people?”

“My God, even half-dead and pinned down like a butterfly on a board you still don’t shut up. Okay, how is this going to work? I obviously need to remove these knives before you can heal those wounds, but you have so many other ones right now that aren’t healing...” His sharp green gaze ran all over me like he was making a mental checklist of all my visible injuries. I figured it wasn’t necessary to tell him about the broken ribs or internal bleeding; the skin around his eyes was already pinched tight in a way that betrayed far more concern for my well-being than he was letting on.

“Uh yeah, so this stupid dick let me heal a drowning victim, so I’m practically running on empty.” I narrowed my eyes at him in accusation, and he snorted, clearly understanding I was kidding. Given that same situation, I would still heal the drowning victim, even knowing it was a trap.

“Oh yeah, wonder who that was. So you need to recharge before you can heal?” he asked, and I rolled my eyes in what I hoped was a mocking sort of way and not like I was trying to mask the bubbling cauldron of emotions threatening to boil over any second now.

“Do I need to repeat myself again?” I parroted his statement from earlier in the evening when I’d been the one repeating things I already knew. Hopefully he understood my unspoken message. Keep being normal. It’s the only thing holding me afloat right now. Snap at me or insult me or something, but don’t make me cry again.

Austin’s jaw tightened, and he brushed a finger up my side where blood was obscuring the gorgeous fox tattoo he’d inked into my skin just weeks ago. Shockingly, even through the pulsing pain throbbing through my entire frame, I could still feel the tingle of desire that chased his fingertip across my skin.

His white shirt was still wet and translucent, clinging to his muscular frame. I wasn’t an idiot, nor was I blind. Of course I was attracted to him. I’d been trying to deny it, thinking he hated me, but I was beginning to think it wasn’t totally one-sided.

“All right. Try to contain your revulsion. The guys are still MIA, and Wes is too far away to get here in time. I’m all you’ve got.” His attention remained on my blood-covered tattoo while he spoke, which was probably a good thing. If he’d have been looking, it would have been painfully clear how okay with this situation I really was. Not the magic, although I needed that. But, if I was totally honest with myself, I wanted him.

“I’m sure we can both survive a quick makeout,” I suggested, schooling my features into careful indifference before he looked back up to me. Hopefully if any lingering desire still showed in my face, he’d mistake it for pain.

Grunting a noise of agreement, Austin shuffled closer to me on the bed and slid a hand over my bruised face to cup the back of my head where my hair was—so far—free of blood.

“Let me know when you’re feeling strong enough, and I’ll pull the blade out,” he advised me, bending low and hovering his lips an inch above mine. “I don’t want to yank it out too soon and have you fighting the blood loss as well.”

“Makes sense,” I breathed, then leaned up and closed the gap between us.

The second our lips touched, it was like two sides of a magnet finally meeting. Our mouths locked together with an intensity born of blood and hate and sexual desire gone too long unacknowledged. Austin held firm to the back of my head, pressing me closer to him as his lips teased mine apart and his tongue invaded my mouth, meeting mine and wrestling for control.

Magic flared hot between us, sparking and tingling as it rushed in to fill the empty void that was my own magic store. The added sensation of magic passing between us flushed me with heat, and I moaned against Austin’s mouth. My hands lifted from the bed where they’d been lying limp and useless, and I clutched weakly at his strong back while his lips laid claim to my own.

Another strong pulse of magic shot through me as my hands found the tail of Austin’s wet dress shirt, slipped beneath it, and came into contact with his hot skin.

“Now,” I gasped, feeling the blade in my gut tugging and pulling as I tried to get closer to him.

“Are you sure?” he asked, pulling back from my lips and meeting my eyes with a serious frown, but I nodded.

“Yes, now,” I gasped. “But do it quickly, for the love of God.”

Austin didn’t hesitate again, simply tightened his jaw, grabbed the hilt of the blade, and wrenched it out of my flesh.

“Fucking cocksucking motherfucker!” I screamed, clutching my hands to the wound gushing blood from my middle. “Ugh, you ass fuck, you couldn’t have been more gentle?”

“I love when you thank me for things,” Austin remarked in a sarcastic voice. “Move your damn hands so I can see the wound.”

Reluctantly, I peeled my hands away from the stab wound, which was bubbling with blood now rather than gushing. I still had on my lace corset though, and I could see the ragged edges of fabric dipping into the gaping wound. Austin must have seen it too because he used the blade he’d just pulled from me to slice the flimsy lingerie clean off me. Cool air met my skin, making me shiver and drawing my attention to the fact I was now naked except for a micro-thong and several gallons of blood. Oh, and two more fucking knives sticking out of my thighs.

“These too?” he asked, nodding at the remaining blades, and I nodded.

“Yep, just... give me a sec.” I sucked in a few deep breaths. That tiny bit of magic restored to my body was also bringing back the pain of all of my injuries, and I could feel myself going lightheaded.

“On three, okay?” Austin said in a grim voice, wrapping a hand around each blade in order to pull them simultaneously. “One—”

That motherfucker! Of course he fucking yanked them on one. If I hadn’t been hollering in pain, I would have been cursing him black and blue.

“Such a baby,” he snickered, tossing the wet blades aside and trailing his eyes up the length of my naked, blood-soaked body, skating politely past my tits, which were literally heaving as I frantically sucked in breath to try and quell the pain. “You’re still bleeding,” he observed with a softness in his tone that bordered way too close to caring for my liking.

“No shit, Sherlock,” I snapped, not willing to let this moment turn tender.

Sarcastic and bitchy, I could do. Lust, attraction and sex, they were all easy. But concern, caring, and gentleness were nothing more than a gateway into mental breakdown territory. Now was not the time.

Reaching up for the back of his neck, I dragged his lips back to mine for another spine-tingling kiss, and he thankfully followed suit. This time, I had a bit more life in me and gave as good as I got when it came to this unspoken battle for the upper hand. Damn all these alpha males in my life; I must definitely have a type.

My hands slid around to the front of his shirt, and instead of bothering with buttons, I simply ripped the fabric in two and shoved it down off his arms while he shifted to straddle my waist, I allowed my hands to roam the hard, chiseled planes of his now shirtless torso, soaking up magic with every heated touch.

Austin pulled back briefly from my lips, sitting up and swiping a thumb over my stomach to check my stab wound. Thankfully, it was sealing back together and no longer bleeding freely. It was more like a week old scar now, giving me faith that the rest of my injuries would soon follow.

“This is much slower than usual,” Austin commented sounding concerned again, still trailing his fingers through the slick red on my belly and frowning.

“Because I have about twelve broken ribs and some hectic internal bleeding to fix as well as everything you see,” I explained, deliberately trying to sound casual. “Also, I was already drained as fuck when he grabbed me from the party.”

Austin didn’t look up, but I saw a frown pull at his brow. “Shit, Princess. I never should have let you walk out of that study alone and drained of magic. This is all my fault. I was just so shocked to see Peyton that I wasn’t thinking.”

His fingertip drew a bright red line down the edge of my ribcage where it was purpling with bruising, and I shivered under his touch. Not because it hurt, which it fucking did, but because it was turning me on so damn bad. Something about being with Austin like this, so damaged and bloodied, it was perfect. And I wanted more.

Fucking hell, I was seriously starting to sound like a twisted bitch with thoughts like that, but I was hanging on by a thread. Doing this, with Austin, simply felt right.

“The whole world doesn’t fucking revolve around you, Austin,” I snapped, biting back at him in the only way we really knew how to communicate with one another. Through insults. “Now, are you going to keep crying about the past, or are you going to help me heal?”

And by “help me heal” I really did mean, “fuck me like I’ve been wanting you to for goddamn months.”

His eyes narrowed at me, glittering dangerously. “Oh, you want to be careful what you fucking wish for, baby girl,” he warned in a deadly quiet voice that would give Cole a run for his money in the menacing stakes. “Last chance to beg out and wait for the guys to get here.”

“Why?” I challenged, “You scared you’ll like it?”

I deliberately threw his own words back in his face, and he didn’t miss the reference. With a furious growl, he dove back down, grabbing my face within his bloodied hands and mashing his lips to mine.

Our lips opened to one another almost instantly, our teeth clicking together as we fought for positioning, and my fingernails clutched at the muscles of his back. Closer. I needed him closer. My back arched up from the bed, pressing my naked breasts to his chest and earning a rough moan from him as our skin sizzled and tingled with magic everywhere it touched. Relief flooded through me, and I honestly couldn’t have picked which was stronger—relief from pain or from the pent up sexual frustration the two of us had been dancing around for months.

Breathing ragged and wet, I knew my ribs were still broken and digging into my lungs, but I’d dealt with worse. It’d sort itself out when it was good and ready. Already I could feel the injuries to my stomach, thighs, and feet lessening, the pain transforming from the sharp searing heat to a low, dull ache.

My hands slipped down Austin’s back, clutching at his sides, and then when it still wasn’t enough, I flipped us both so that I was on top. My near-naked body was sprawled across the length of his colorful skin, and I pulled back a fraction to admire the view.

Even coated as he was in my blood, his tattoos were a sight to behold, covering his whole torso and disappearing under the waistband of his tuxedo pants. Sucking my lip between my teeth, I stared hungrily at that line of fabric interrupting my view, and I knew, without a doubt, I needed to see what was underneath.

“Maybe you should take a picture; it’d last longer,” Austin snarked, dragging my attention back up from his waistband to his face. His lips slightly swollen, he watched me with ravenous, lust-filled eyes, and I glared at him, fighting back a grin. He spoke my language fluently.

“Oh please,” I scoffed. “As if you haven’t been practically begging to get in my pants for weeks.”

“What pants?” he replied, looping his fingers into the side of my dental floss thong and tearing it clean off my body, leaving me exposed and halfway straddling him. “I see no pants to get into. Now mine on the other hand—”

“Jesus Christ do you ever shut up?” I groaned, taking matters into my own hands and kissing him hard, putting his sassy fucking mouth to better use than arguing with me over who wanted whom more. Suffice to say, as hard as his dick was straining against his tuxedo pants, he wanted me just as bad as I wanted him.

Austin threaded a hand back into my hair and flipped us again so that I was on my back—thankfully my ribs were almost fully healed—with him on his side, allowing him full access to my body with the hand he trailed down from my neck. Pausing at my chest, he cupped a handful of my breast, squeezing firmly and pinching my nipple hard enough to make me yelp against his mouth.

He chuckled a dark sound against my lips because he knew full well that I fucking loved it, as was evident by the way my back arched, pushing my chest harder into his hand. Fingers leaving my breast, he ran them down the bruised and aching line of my ribs and over the slick red of my stomach where my knife wound had all but disappeared, then danced lightly over my naked public bone.

“Oh God,” I groaned dramatically. “Don’t tell me after all that tension you’re going to turn out to be a damn tease.”

“A tease?” he repeated, pulling back from my lips and looking down at me with eyes narrowed in anger. “You of all fucking people want to talk to me about being a fucking tease?”

“Yeah, Austin, I do. What of it?” I challenged, my hands making quick and deliberate work of his belt and fly, freeing his rock hard shaft and palming it.

“You must be fucking kidding me, Princess. You’ve done nothing but fucking tease me since the moment we goddamn met.” His voice came out in a low growl of fury, but he did nothing to stop my hand as I stroked up the length of his cock and fiddled with the piercing through the tip. In fact, his hips bucked a little harder into my grip, and his breath came in short puffs as a wet bead of pre-cum slicked over his tip.

Of course Austin has his dick pierced. I’m not even surprised… but good god I’m as wet as hell wondering what it’s going to feel like inside me.

“Agree to disagree, Austin,” I told him. “You were an absolute fucker to me from day one, but that’s an argument we can hash out another day. I still want to hear what happened with Peyton downstairs.”

“Ugh, another day.” He gasped. “Definitely another day.” His eyelids fluttered as my thumb flicked at his piercing and my hand tightened around his shaft. He was hard enough to cut diamonds, and I wasn’t in the mood to be patient.

Shoving him flat on his back, I swung a leg over his waist and gripped hold of his cock once more where it sat thick and rigid against his ripped stomach. That gorgeous ink only dipped a little lower than where his pants had sat, following the contours of his Adonis belt in a way that drew the eye to his impressive package below. Not that it needed any road signs.

Raising up on my knees, I lined his pierced head up with my opening and sank down onto him. Slowly, carefully, feeling the exquisite scrape of his metal on my inner walls, I gasped when my butt touched down on his thighs.

“Satisfied, Princess?” Austin asked in a cocky voice, even though his lips were swollen and his eyes were hooded with desire.

“Not even close,” I bit back, grinding against him and feeling the tingle of our magic flood through me.

“Good,” he gasped, kicking his pants all the way off his legs, bucking his hips up, and sinking in just a fraction deeper until we were flush with one another, my pussy clenching and stretching to accommodate him. “Then hold the fuck on, baby girl. You’re in for a ride.”

Grabbing me by the waist, still sticky with my half-dried blood, he tossed me to the side, flipping our positions again and driving his cock into me with a force that made the breath puff from my lungs. A moan of encouragement slipped from me as I reached up and dragged his lips back to mine, desperate and hungry for more.

Our lips met with a frenzy while Austin began a punishing rhythm, hitting me so deep it bordered on painful. But wasn’t that the way we’d always been? Constantly trying to hurt one another just to protect ourselves from what could have evolved into feelings.

My nails raked bloody lines down his back while my hips bucked up to meet him stroke for stroke, making sure he knew he wasn’t in charge here.

“Quit fighting me, Princess,” Austin panted, placing a strong hand on my hip and pinning me to the mattress while he increased his pace, leaving me no choice but to do as he said and hold on.

Torn by indecision on whether I needed the upper hand again, I pulled his face back to mine and kissed him hard, sucking his lower lip into my mouth and biting hard enough to make it bleed a little.

“Bitch,” he breathed, breaking free and returning the favor with a hard bite to the curve of my neck—on the exact same spot Cole had left his teeth marks the first time we’d slept together—and I filed this information away for later. The mere fact that he’d remembered, and that he felt compelled to echo that mark, was worth consideration. Later.

The incredible juxtaposition between the almost euphoric pleasure of his cock inside me and the sharp pain of his bite caused me to cry out and tighten my nails into the back of his neck.

Withdrawing from me entirely, Austin picked me up by the waist and flipped me over so my face was pressed into the pillows. Without a second’s notice, he sunk his huge, pierced dick back inside me, lifting my hips up from the mattress and hitting me at an even deeper angle, which I hadn’t even realised was possible.

“Oh, fuck,” I groaned, readjusting my weight onto my knees but leaving my upper body flat on the bed because the angle of Austin’s cock stroking my g-spot was beyond amazing. “Harder, you asshole.”

Austin growled a frustrated noise but ignored my request while his long fingers gripped my hip bones for leverage while he stroked into me slowly. My ass pushed back against his stomach, urging him to fuck me harder, faster, deeper, something.

“Austin,” I panted. “Come on!”

“Baby girl, you’re going to want to shut the fuck up,” he warned me, his breathing coming in short gasps and his fingers digging in hard enough to leave bruises that I somehow knew my body wouldn’t be healing.

“Or what?” I challenged, ever the combative bitch, even from the seemingly submissive position I was being fucked in.

“Or this,” he replied, releasing his grip from one hand and bring his palm down hard on the flat of my ass. A startled cry squeaked out of me, followed closely by a moan of excitement when the sharp smack faded to burning warmth.

Austin groaned. “Fuck, you dirty bitch, you loved that. I felt how hard you just grabbed my cock when I slapped your ass.”

“Bite me, Austin,” I panted, desperate for him to spank me again. He didn’t disappoint, and after several more smacks I was a panting, sopping mess, begging for him to fuck me harder.

His hand smoothed over the flaming heat of my ass, slowing his thrusts as his thumb trailed down the length of my crack and circled my tight backdoor.

“Have you let Cole or River get this far?” he asked, his voice thick with lust and his breathing short.

“How far?” I replied, not totally sure of the question. In response, Austin slid a finger into my soaked core alongside his hard dick, wetting it, then pushed that finger into the entrance of my asshole.

“This far?” he asked, and I moaned, pushing back onto both his finger and his dick. “I take that and your lack of freak-out as a yes.” He pushed in deeper, stretching me and sending shock wave of ecstasy shooting around my body like a damn pinball machine.

“Any further than this?” he asked, and I gasped at just the idea of further.

“No,” I panted. “Not yet, anyway.”

He grunted what sounded like an approving noise. “Good.”

“Good?” I repeated, but didn’t get any more of a response from him as he withdrew his finger, re-gripping my hip and sliding his other hand around to tweak at my clit.

“Come for me, Princess,” he ordered, finally giving me what I so desperately wanted. His cock pounded into me with a violent passion while his skilled fingers danced and tweaked at my tight bundle of nerves, sending me into a screaming, crying orgasm.

Seconds later, he joined me, thrusting deep as he shouted his release then collapsed on top of me as my knees gave way, and I landed flat on my belly, boneless and satisfied.

For a long moment, neither one of us moved. We just lay there, our bodies still linked in the most intimate of ways, basking in the afterglow of seriously great sex and still feeling the magic tingling between our naked flesh.

“Fuck that’s a weird feeling,” Austin huffed, his breath stirring my hair, but he didn’t seem bothered to move off or out of me.

“What is?” I asked, turning my face to look at him from the corner of my eye. “The magic?”

He mumbled a noise of confirmation, stroking a finger down my side and over the gorgeous fox tattoo, still obscured by my blood.

“This is probably some of my best work,” he murmured, and I felt his finger trace over that fucking negative space on my hip where Caleb had pointed out that Austin had hidden his name. I briefly toyed with the idea of calling him out on it, but I was too tired and revenge was a dish best served cold.

“We should go,” he mumbled almost reluctantly, placing a gentle kiss against my back where his face lay. “Before someone finds us in here covered in blood with a dead body on the floor.”

“Hmm,” I sighed my agreement, but neither one of us made any move to get up. Or at least, not in the sense of getting up to get dressed. Still deep inside me, I felt Austin’s cock twitch and begin to harden once more.

“Austin.” I gasped but couldn’t stop my back from arching like a damn cat in heat, pressing my ass back onto his hot shaft.

“Shh, baby girl,” he breathed in my ear, rolling us gently so we were both on our side, with his cock penetrating me from behind still. “You’re still drained; I can feel the magic begging to be back in you.”

“True,” I groaned, sliding my hand down his naked side to grasp at his hip and hold him tight against me.

“We have a few more moments; just take as much as you can.” His hips stroked a smooth, gentle rhythm, his cock barely withdrawing before pressing back in. My body relaxed into it, letting him do what he would without demanding, or even needing, anything different. It was like he knew exactly how I wanted it, and he was giving it to me without complaint.

“Fucking hell, Princess,” he swore in a breathy voice. “I thought once would be enough to get you out of my brain.” His fingers dragged over my flat stomach, stained with dried blood, and down to my pussy. Gently, he slid one long finger the length of me, wetting it in my own fluid before teasing at my clit. My head dropped back onto the pillow, turning slightly to meet his solemn gaze.

“And it’s not?” I finally replied, after letting him work me into a panting mess again. I halfway dreaded his answer, not totally sure what I wanted from this. Obviously, one awesome fuck under extreme circumstances didn’t erase the already established animosity between us. Nor did it change the fact that we simply loved to hate each other.

But it was a start, wasn’t it?

In lieu of an answer, he leaned forward and sealed his lips to mine, kissing me deeply as we both came in shuddering, groaning waves of pleasure.

“Well, this is unexpected,” Caleb’s sarcastic voice snorted from somewhere in the direction of the demolished door. Neither Austin nor I bothered trying to spring apart like we were guilty. Why bother? It was pretty damn obvious what we’d been doing, and I already knew from Caleb’s not so subtle hints that he fully supported his brother and I getting together.

Caleb’s smug grin faded from his face as he took in the scene in the room, and his nostrils flared.

“Shit,” Austin swore, untangling from me and leaping from the bed to grab his pants. “Princess, get dressed quickly. Caleb, wait at the bottom of the stairs.”

Caleb seemed to barely register his twin’s orders, as his wide eyes took in the copious amounts of blood splattered all around the room—both mine and Mr. Gray’s.

“Now, Caleb!” Austin shouted, and Caleb’s attention snapped back to us as he nodded slowly.

“I’m going to wait at the bottom of the stairs,” he murmured and quickly disappeared back through the ruined door.

“What was that about?” I asked, frowning after Caleb then turning back to Austin curiously.

“Nothing,” he sighed, shaking his head. “Cal can explain later. Here.” Austin tossed my ball gown over to me, and I shimmied back into it, sans underwear, and he deftly zipped it up. Good thing it was already a bright hue of scarlet, as it hid a lot of the blood and gore that had ended up soaked into the soft layers from the mess that was my former nemesis.

Austin hurried into the small attached bathroom and ran a wash cloth under water before handing it to me.

“Try and get as much blood off as you can,” he murmured. “Just until we can get back to the hotel to shower properly.”

He retrieved his torn shirt and pulled it back on while I scrubbed some of the rust-brown marks from my skin.

“Ready?” he asked, holding out a hand for me to take.

“Wait.” I picked up the full skirt of my dress and picked my way through the chunks of gore to what remained of Mr. Gray’s corpse. It was really just arms, legs and a head, with a soupy pool of blood and entrails between. The rest of him lay splattered around the room. Bunching my dress in one hand to avoid dipping it in the bloody soup that was his liquefied insides, I crouched low and yanked my Ban Dia ring from his pinky finger.

“Is that—?” Austin remarked, and I nodded.

“Yep,” I confirmed, snatching my beautiful, red satin stilettos from where they’d been tossed and sliding the ring onto my left ring finger. “Fucking bastard used it to hit me.”

Austin paused me in the doorway with a gentle hand on my waist, and I turned to look at what we were waiting for. He raised an eyebrow at me and nodded to the room that was splattered wall to fucking wall with blood.

“They wanted your blood for something. It’s too dangerous to leave so much of it lying around.” He drew a sort of symbol in the air, then recited a string of words in another language. At the end of his spell—if that was the right word for it—there was that same pop of magic, and every smudge, smear, and puddle of blood in the entire room burst into a blue flame, searing in one hot burst, then dying off and leaving crisp, blackened patches in lieu of blood. Including Gray’s corpse.

“Let’s go before Caleb loses it,” Austin said quietly, wrapping his hand around mine and tugging me down the stairs to where his twin waited.

As I followed, I let my fingers tighten on his. For all I knew, the second we reached the others, everything would fall back to the way it always had been between Austin and I. Hell, maybe I’d imagined the connection we’d just had thanks to some sort of trauma induced delirium.

Either way, I wanted to savor this moment of nearness with him while it lasted.

28

The gods—or god or whatever the fucking higher power was—must have been smiling down on us because the three of us made it back to the hotel without any further disasters. Caleb had assured me that Cole, River, and Vali were already back there with Wesley, Lucy, and Elena, but that was the extent of the information I’d been able to get from him.

Austin had hot wired a car for us to borrow and shoved me into the passenger seat while he drove. Caleb, meanwhile, sat in the back, pressed almost hard against the door—possibly as far from me as he could be without riding on the roof—while he stared out of the window for the entire drive.

The front of the mansion had been chaos as we’d left with people flocking around like fucking lemmings, like something exciting or disastrous had happened. It was too soon for them to have found the destroyed, burned out room, so it had to have been something else. Something, I suspected, that had to do with what had kept the guys detained while I was tortured.

“All right, one of you start talking,” I demanded, sweeping into our hotel suite in a flurry of red chiffon and tulle. My other four boyfriends sat around the living room looking very somber and more than a bit pissed off. Evidently I’d just walked into the middle of an argument.

“Where are the girls?” I frowned, looking around and not seeing Lucy or Elena.

“Lucy fell asleep on her computer about ten minutes ago, so Elena took her to their room. Your friend wouldn’t budge until she knew you were okay and on your way back, but be prepared for a whole lot of Lucy in the morning.” Wesley grimaced and I fought back a smile. I knew my bestie too well; she wasn’t asleep, she was giving me time to sort out whatever had happened tonight.

“Well?” I prompted, folding my arms underneath my breasts and glaring River down. Despite the fact that there were two badass, lethal as fuck dragon shifters in the room, there was no question who was Alpha, so yeah, he was copping the brunt of my frustration.

“Princess, go and shower. You need to get the rest of that blood off your skin.” Austin spoke the words quietly in my ear as his hand stroked down my back. “Please.”

Glancing between his serious face and Caleb’s tightened jaw, I decided not to argue. Nodding, I shot a warning glare at River so he knew full well this wasn’t over with before heading through into the bathroom adjoining the master bedroom.

To my surprise, I found the jet tub already full with hot water and almost overflowing with jasmine scented bubbles.

“I figured you’d need it,” Wesley said, appearing in the doorway and leaning against the frame. “I hope that wasn’t too presumptuous of me?”

“Wes,” I breathed, a lump forming in my throat at the incredibly thoughtful gesture. “Thank you. Will you?” I gestured to my zipper and presented my back to him. Being able to zip and unzip one’s own dresses was a skill I never had mastered, so thank god for six handy guardians to always help me.

Wesley’s fingers brushed my skin as he slid my zipper down, and I let the dress pool at my feet, stepping out of it totally naked, caked in blood and bodily fluids.

“Sweetheart,” Wesley whispered, his voice cracking with emotion as I turned to face him. His eyes raked down my body, taking in the dried stains of my own blood, and his brow furrowed.

“I’m fine, Wes,” I assured him. “Are you joining me? You have some explaining to do of your own.”

“Ah, yeah, I guess I do.” He ran a hand through his hair and blushed.

“Come on then.” I stepped into the huge tub and sank under the bubbles. “Strip down, get in, and start talking.”

He sighed but tugged his shirt over his head and slipped out of his loose jeans, giving me an eye opening sight of totally naked Wesley before he, too, disappeared under the bubbles down the opposite end from me.

Picking up a neatly folded washcloth from the little ledge, I coated it in soap and began washing away the evidence of my own torture while I waited for Wesley to speak.

“Okay, so I really don’t know much,” he began, and I narrowed my eyes at him. “Yeah okay, I still know more than you, so here goes. Nothing really happened immediately after the accident, so it didn’t really click as to what was happening straight away. I mean, nothing obvious, like Cole and Vali turning into freaking dragons.”

“Uh-huh yeah, those were pretty obvious signs. So what did happen?” I tried to keep my voice light, but I wanted to fucking shake him. Why were my guys keeping secrets all of a sudden? Since when did we do that?

“Well, to be totally honest, it actually started a while ago, like before we even met. I used to have these... crazy vivid dreams about a beautiful redheaded girl. When the guys brought you back to the house that first night, after the first failed kidnapping, it was like I’d seen a ghost. You’d been haunting my dreams for months, and then there you were...” He ran a wet hand through his hair, causing it to spike up in all different directions. “The next time was when we shared that dream when you were at Vali’s compound in Nevada. After that, nothing. So I just chalked it up to a bleed of your magic or something.”

“I can see how you’d come to that conclusion.” I pondered. “But then what?”

“Ah, well, a few days after the car crash, I started having visions. Seeing things or eavesdropping on conversations that there should have been no possible way for me to witness.” He skimmed a hand through the bubbles, piling them up on his hand and inspecting them.

“Like... how? Give me an example,” I prompted, throwing my pink-stained washcloth out of the bath and sinking down deeper, rinsing my hair out in the sweet-smelling water. Head propped on the bath ledge, my legs extended and tangled with Wesley’s in the hot water.

“Um, like nothing super specific; at first when it happened, I didn’t really know what was happening. One second I’m looking at my laptop, and the next I’m sort of like... following you.” His cheeks flushed, and he ran his wet hand through his hair again.

“Me?” I repeated. “How so?”

“Uh, just like when you’d be walking across the lawn or out for a run with Cole or something. It took me a couple of tries to figure out how to direct the vision where I wanted it, and even then I was limited to locations.” He scooped up another handful of bubbles and blew them at me. “I’m embarrassed how long it took me to work out that I wasn’t seeing visions, but rather I was borrowing the eyes and ears of birds.”

“Birds?” I squawked, much like a parrot myself, and Wesley grinned.

“Yeah. Crows.” He met my stunned gaze and nodded.

“Oh come on,” I whispered. “That can’t be a coincidence.”

“You don’t believe in coincidences, remember?” he pointed out. “Anyway, my best guess is that somewhere in my family line there was a supernatural of whatever flavor I’m meant to be that wasn’t as affected by the plague.”

I nodded slowly. “Explains why you started having those dreams before we met... And then when I healed you, it just...?”

“Undiluted me? Uh, yeah. Something like that. I don’t know; it’s still a working theory.” He shrugged his muscled shoulders.

“So that’s how you could send your thoughts to me? What sort of supernatural would that make you?” I chewed at my lip, running through my sparse knowledge of all the different magical creatures in my mind. Quickly it became apparent that I’d need to brush up on my supernatural knowledge.

“I think I was able to communicate like that because you were in and out of consciousness, like how we shared that dream. But... I don’t know. More testing will be needed. As for what that makes me? I haven’t a clue.” He reached out and grabbed my hand, tugging me toward him and turning me so I sat between his legs, my back to his chest and his fingers twined with mine in the water. “But I guess we can find out together?”

“Absolutely!” I enthused, and a happy warmth fluttered in my belly. “I’m sorry I caused all of this, but is it selfish of me to say I’m not sorry you’re changed? If it means you’re harder to kill?”

“Not selfish at all, sweetheart,” he chuckled, kissing the back of my neck. “It just shows you care. Now, I wanted to ask you something else.”

“Mmm,” I hummed, leaning back into him and feeling his hard length resting between us.

“Not that,” he laughed. “But when we get back to Seattle, if you’re still up for celebrating my birthday, I wanted to know if you’d like to go out for dinner or something? Just us, I mean.”

“A date?” I asked, spinning to face him, kneeling in the deep bath between his legs.

“Yeah. I sort of thought, now that I’m your boyfriend”—he grinned—“we might go out like a normal couple? Just, in between people trying to kidnap or kill you.”

“Wes, that’s...” I trailed off, leaning forward and kissing him tenderly. “Yes, I’d love to go on a proper date with you. Tomorrow night? After we get back?”

“Sounds perfect,” he whispered, cupping my cheek in a warm, wet hand and bringing my mouth back to his for another kiss. “We better get out before one of the dragons bursts in here with their fire blazing. Fuck knows they’ve done enough of that tonight.”

“What?” I frowned, climbing out of the floral-scented water and wrapping myself in a towel.

“You’ll see. Come on, I’ll let them explain it.” Wesley sighed, like he’d caught the kids drawing on the walls or something, and held out a fluffy robe for me to put on. “I’ll brush your hair out while they tell you what went down tonight.”

MY EYES NARROWED, I looked around at my guardians suspiciously. They definitely hadn’t told me the full story.

“Okay, so far that sounds totally reasonable,” I said slowly. “Gray managed to separate you all, tranq you, and then keep you locked in a bunker underneath the garden. I’m not seeing any reason for these long faces, and yet you all look like you’re expecting me to be super pissed off. So what gives?”

“Don’t ask me.” Austin shrugged. “I realized you were in trouble almost straightaway. It just took me a while to figure out where they were keeping you.”

“Fucking brownnoser,” Caleb muttered under his breath while rubbing soothing circles on the palm of my hand with his thumbs. I was a damn sucker for hand and foot massages; it was half the reason I got mani-pedis sometimes.

“Okay, I’ve had a really fucking long night, and I need to go and take about sixteen more showers to feel clean again after having that slimeball’s hands on me, so can someone please just spit it out.” Now that we were sitting still, the events of the evening were catching up with me, and my mind was threatening to shatter into a million pieces.

“That’s not a nice thing to call Austin,” Caleb murmured, trying to bite back a naughty grin and failing miserably.

“Caleb,” I groaned, jerking my hand from his and whacking him with a pillow. “Literally cannot believe you just made a joke at a time like this.”

“They do say laughter is the best medicine.” He winked. “So hopefully you’re going to find this funny...”

Caleb raised his eyebrows at River, who looked like he might be almost mad... which was crazy-worrying in itself, given how in control he always was.

River said nothing, instead flicked on the hotel TV with the remote he’d been gripping since Wes and I had stepped out of the bathroom. Burning with curiosity, I looked to the screen to see what could be so important that he needed to—

“What the fuck?” I swore, my jaw dropping in disbelief as the news replayed a looped iPhone video of what looked suspiciously like two huge ass freaking dragons bursting out of a topiary garden and rocketing into the sky where they disappeared from view.

The headline banners running across the screen debated if it was a hoax or CGI or if dragons were real, and my stomach clenched painfully. My eyes were glued to the footage as the news station played it over again and again until finally River shut the screen off and folded his arms.

“One of you two overgrown lizards better start talking, and fast ,before I lose my fucking shit over here,” I warned them, feeling a tremble set into my hands. Not totally sure if it was from anger, shock, fatigue or just sheer overwhelming I-faced-my-demon-and-won relief, but either way, I tucked them under my armpits to hide them from sight.

“So, there’s not really much to tell,” Vali began, a bit hesitantly. He and Cole had both been dodging eye contact with me for the entire time River and Caleb had been “explaining,” and I was beginning to see why.

“The video footage of two flesh-and-blood fucking dragons all over the news begs to differ, Vali!” I screamed, giving over a bit into outraged, angry shock. It was a new mix of emotions I was trying out, and it suited this situation to a fucking tee. Cole and Vali had been caught on camera… as dragons. If we thought things were difficult before, I could only begin to imagine the circus that the world’s media might start after this.

“Look, it just... happened.” Vali ran a hand through his shoulder-length dark hair like he was frustrated.

“Vixen,” Cole said in a quiet voice, looking up to meet my gaze finally. “We could feel what was happening to you. We could feel your fear and your anger and your pain.” The raw emotion in Cole’s eyes made my skin break out in gooseflesh and my trembling increase. How had it totally slipped my notice that they would have been feeling everything I’d gone though? Jesus fucking Christ, I really was a selfish bitch.

“We couldn’t keep the dragon under control, and after we shifted, we didn’t want to accidently barbecue River and Caleb so...” Vali shrugged his broad shoulders, and I noticed he was in one of Cole’s black T-shirts.

“Okay.” I took a deep breath and rubbed the bridge of my nose with my eyes tightly shut. “So what happened after you, ah”—I waved my hand at the TV—“took off?”

“We knew we had to get out of sight, so we got as high as possible before heading back here. We landed on the next building over, just in case anyone saw us, but it was still pitch black out, and there has been nothing on the news other than that one short clip.” Vali filled in the missing information while Cole’s eyes burned holes into me.

Lips pursed, I nodded slowly while I turned this all over in my mind. Logically, I knew this whole magic underworld wasn’t going to stay hidden forever, but was it too much to ask for someone else to be the ones to expose it?

“Is there anything else I don’t know?” I asked, keeping my tone even, despite the tremors in my hands.

“Uh yeah, actually, there is something I need to fill everyone in on,” Wesley spoke up from his seat on the couch behind me. I’d been sitting on the ground while he brushed out my hair for me during the guys’ recount of the evening and hadn’t bothered to move yet.

Shifting a little now, I craned my head so I could look at him with a frown. It had seemed like he’d told me everything in the tub. Perhaps not, though.

“Um, so these vision things I’ve been having, at first they seemed really random, like I was either inadvertently spying on Kit or I was witnessing conversations that made no sense. Anyway, I had another one earlier tonight that made a whole lot more sense.” He shifted uncomfortably and reached a hand up to run through his hair, then caught the gesture before it completed. “Kit, was the girl you healed in the training center sort of Asian looking? Long black hair, about five-six or so?”

“Yeah, that sounds right.” I frowned. “Why?”

“So, I’m pretty sure that’s the girl I saw in my vision-thing earlier and also a couple of other times, but it didn’t make sense until now.” Wesley sighed heavily. “What I saw was her shifting into wolf form under the supervision of some Omega medics...” He paused. “And Director Pierre.”

My stomach sank at hearing my fears confirmed, and my fingernails bit into my sides as I clenched my hands and tried not to throw up or something.

“So it was all a setup then? All the accidents... the car? The bomb in New York?” Bile was rising in my throat as I considered the possibility that Jonathan could be behind those attacks. They could have killed me. He would have no way of knowing I couldn’t die; hell, I hadn’t even known for all that long.

“I’m not sure.” Wesley shook his head. “I just know that the accidents with the recruits were not accidents.”

For a really long, tense moment, no one spoke. What the hell could you say to that, anyway? My adoptive dad might have been responsible for nearly killing three of my guardians and me. What the actual fuck did you say to that?

“I think I need a nap or something,” I finally muttered, standing up from my place on the carpet and making moves toward one of the bedrooms. It had already been decided we would all catch a bit of rest before heading back to Seattle, but now I wasn’t even sure I wanted to go back at all.

“Wait, Kitty Kat.” Caleb’s voice halted me, and I looked back at him with a groan.

“What now?” Yes, I did sound like a petulant child, but I’d had a lot of shocks in the past few hours, and my nerves were pretty frayed around the edges.

“Your ring,” he said, holding out his hand for the sapphire ring I’d slipped on after retrieving it out of Mr. Gray’s soupy remains. “Don’t you want to activate it?”

My brows shot up in surprise, and a small smile pulled at my mouth. “Activate it?” I repeated. “What is this, Captain Planet?”

“Really, Kitty? Now is not the time for jokes,” he teased back and gestured me over to him. “I’ve been doing some research with my, um, mentor. Anyway, I found out what you need to do with it.”

“You have my attention,” I replied, trying not to feel yet another pang of hurt that he was still keeping secrets from me. Crossing back to him where he sat on the floor, I folded my knees and moved to take the ring off.

“No, keep it on,” he said, just reaching for my hand instead. “It’s actually a really simple spell. I wrote it down for these dickheads who don’t speak Latin. We just place a drop of our blood on the stone and recite the words, then you recite yours and it’s done. Easy as that.”

“Um, okay.” I chewed at my lip, looking down at the stone on my left ring finger. When I’d put it on, it hadn’t been a conscious decision, so I really hoped it was a mere coincidence that it fit my wedding ring finger perfectly. “What will it do, do you know?”

Caleb shrugged, tugging a folded piece of paper from his pocket and placing it on the coffee table. “I only know what Vic told Vali, that it would allow you to access the individual powers of your dianoch. Beyond that...” He raised an eyebrow and stroked my palm with a finger. “Beyond that, no one knows. Except the Ban Dia, and they seem to be pretty damn good at keeping themselves hidden.”

“So, what do you want to do, love?” River asked quietly, perching on the edge of the coffee table and leaning his arms on his knees. “You don’t have to do anything now. If you want to wait and research more...”

“No,” I said, steeling my spine. “No, I want to try and find out. We didn’t just go to all that trouble for me to wear a pretty ring. Especially now.” I didn’t think anything else needed to be said on the subject. By especially now, what I meant was, especially now that dragons are all over the news and it’s only a matter of time before the entire world found out about the existence of magic. We needed all the strength we could get, even if it did mean taking a risk on ancient magic.

“But maybe let’s just do one of you for now. Then we can give it a couple of days to see what side effects there are, if any.” I withdrew my hand from Caleb’s in order to wipe nervous, sweaty palms on my robe.

“That sounds sensible,” Vali commented, folding his huge arms over his chest. “Who do you want first?”

“Um,” I hadn’t really thought about that. If I chose, was that showing favoritism? Or would it be throwing one of them to the wolves? What if something really bad happened as a result?

“I’ll do it,” Austin snapped, sounding almost... I don’t even know. Angry?

“Not necessary, bro,” Caleb replied. “I’m sure I can handle it.”

“Don’t be a moron, Cal.” Austin rolled his eyes from where he sat further down the couch. “You still don’t have a handle on your Blood. Is that something you want to burden Christina with too?”

“Oh,” Caleb said, looking crestfallen.

“Exactly,” Austin retorted in a voice as dry as the fucking Sahara. “Cole and Vali are obviously not viable options either, unless you want to risk Christina spontaneously turning scaly in the middle of a fucking Louboutin store. Probably not the smartest move when the entire fucking world is probably on the lookout for dragons right now. River is still human because he’s a stubborn as fuck control freak who needs to get his shit in line before he jumps on the bandwagon—”

“What about me?” Wesley asked, frowning.

“Wes, bro,” Austin sighed. “You don’t even know what you are, yet.”

“Fair point.” Wesley blushed, then turned a sheepish look at me. “Sorry, sweetheart, he’s right.”

“So that leaves you, huh?” I narrowed my eyes at Austin, and he met mine unflinchingly.

“I’m the only one who has full control over what I am and can teach you if any of my magic manifests in you spontaneously. It’s the safest choice, and you know it, Princess.” His eyes sparkled with an unspoken challenge, and I wanted nothing more than to punch him in the smart fucking mouth. Or kiss him again. Ugh, that hate fuck had been a terrible idea.

“Fine, let’s do this then. After all, curiosity only ever killed the cat, right?” I picked the piece of paper up from the coffee table and unfolded it to read the spell. Wow, how my life had changed that words like “spell” could be dropped so casually like that.

Caleb sighed and scooted out of the way so Austin could move closer. “Yeah, let’s just hope it doesn’t kill the Kit, too,” Caleb muttered under his breath, and my stomach flipped uncomfortably.

“Move the table, Cal,” Austin ordered. “Always a good idea to have space when casting random spells with no idea of the outcome.” His lips twitched, and I must have been more tired and in shock than I realized because I could have sworn that was meant to be a joke.

Caleb did as he was told, clearing a space in the center of the hotel suite’s living room, and Austin and I both sat cross legged and facing each other in the middle.

“Let’s do this then,” he murmured, reaching out for the spell in my hand and scanning over the written lines. “Okay, this first part is for me; the second is for you to respond. Got it?”

“Uh-huh.” I nodded, taking the paper as he handed it back. The second phrase was a lot shorter, so thank fuck for that. I’d taken a couple of Latin classes in school, but none of these words looked familiar in the least. “What does it mean?”

Austin stared at me for a moment before answering. “It’s just an acceptance of the dianoch position and a promise. Yours is simply acknowledgement and acceptance of my acceptance. Clear?”

“Not... really.” I frowned. “Wait, so if you don’t accept, then you’re not technically bound to me for all eternity? You can decline and walk away?”

“Princess,” Austin sighed. “Shut the fuck up and give me your hand.”

Without giving me another second to protest, he’d already taken my hand that wore the sapphire ring and closed it between his as his voice slid and rolled over the foreign words with ease, then he nodded at me to say my part.

Glancing down at the paper in my other hand, I stumbled and tripped over the pronunciation. Cheeks flaming, I looked up at Austin nervously, but he gave a short nod, so I mustn’t have botched it too badly.

He pulled a switchblade from his pocket, pierced his fingertip, and squeezed out a drop of blood. My hand held steady within his grip, he turned his bleeding finger over, allowing a single drop of blood to splash onto the surface of my ring.

The second his blood met the stone, it disappeared—like the stone had absorbed it instantly—and a burning ring of runes flared to life around us both in an exact replica of the symbols decorating the band of my ring. Heat and magic burst through my body so fast it was almost painful, like my body couldn’t contain the sheer pressure of it all and I was going to explode at any second.

Right when it reached the point where I expected to see my skin cracking open, Austin tugged me closer and sealed his lips to mine. Instantly, the pressure eased. It didn’t disappear, not by any stretch, but it eased, like my body was adjusting and making room for it all. Meanwhile, my hands had found their way up to the back of Austin’s neck, and I was kissing him back like we were lovers. Our lips touched together and our tongues met in a kiss so full of... I don’t even know how to put a name on it. It made me feel safe, protected, cherished, and it was leaving my mind like a bowl of scrambled eggs.

An unmeasurable period of time passed, and when we finally parted, it was with reluctance. Our faces froze just inches apart, and our gazes locked. He looked just as damn confused as I was, which made me feel a little better about it all but still no less shaken.

“Bro,” Caleb whispered from somewhere nearby, and I cleared my throat, sitting back on my feet. Somehow, we’d both ended up on our knees, our bodies flush to one another as we’d melded our magic together.

“What the fuck?” I exclaimed, seeing for the first time, an enormous fucking Bengal tiger sitting on its haunches beside Austin. It’s tongue lolled out of its mouth, and it seemed to almost be smiling as it looked at me, but all I could focus on were its massive, gleaming teeth.

“Huh,” Austin murmured, inspecting the huge cat with interest and running a confident hand down its back. “Well, that was unexpected.”

“No shit!” I halfway screeched, then clapped a hand over my mouth when the cat swung its gaze from Austin back to me.

“Bro,” Caleb breathed again. “That’s...”

“My familiar,” Austin finished for him, nodding.

“But they’re not real,” Caleb insisted, shuffling closer to us for a better look at the tiger. The other guys were still there around the outskirts of the living room, watching wide-eyed with shock. Or rather, most of them were wide-eyed with shock, and River just looked like River. Total man of steel, that one. Unflappable to a fault.

“Um, the huge ass fucking tiger sitting two feet from me disagrees with that statement, Caleb,” I hissed in a slightly terrified stage whisper, and Austin smirked.

“He’s not going to eat you, Princess,” the asshole Ink Mage teased. “He’s not a real tiger. He’s a manifestation of my magic. Familiars are the stuff of legends; that’s why Cal is losing his shit right now. The last Mage who was ever said to have had one died around a thousand years ago.”

No one spoke for the longest time while I looked between Austin and his... familiar. The tiger looked back at me, it’s long pink tongue hanging out of a mouth lined in razor sharp teeth as it panted.

“He looks like a pretty real tiger to me,” I muttered eventually, scooting back a few feet on my butt before standing up. The circle of runes we’d been surrounded by was slowly fading, but still visible enough for me to see that they were identical to the symbols on my ring. Coincidence? I think not. Then again, it did stand to reason that they would be, given the spell was directly linked to my ring.

Ugh, all this magical theory is giving me a migraine.

“What are you going to do with him now?” Wesley asked Austin as the Mage also climbed to his feet and buried a hand in the tiger’s fur. “I’m pretty sure we will have a hard time sneaking a fully grown Bengal onto the Omega Jet this afternoon.”

“I have no idea.” Austin shrugged. “But I should be able to disappear him when it’s not convenient to have a tiger hanging around. We just need to get to know each other a bit before I start throwing commands at him.”

“I thought you said he wasn’t a real tiger,” Vali commented, with a small grin playing at his lips.

“He’s not a real wild tiger,” Austin corrected in an exasperated voice. “Anyway, we will figure it out.”

“Uh-huh, just a heads up,” Cole said, staring the tiger down. “Dragons aren’t really cat people.”

Wesley snorted a laugh. “Yeah, uh, neither are crows.”

“Okay,” I interrupted. “This conversation is just... weird as all hell. I’m going to get some sleep and hope my brain doesn’t decide to finally crack under the stress of tonight. But you know, if I never wake up, then that’s probably what happened.”

“Sleep well, love,” River murmured, wrapping me in a quick hug as I passed him.

“Yeah, we’ll see,” I huffed, flapping a hand at the rest of the guys to say good night and letting myself into the master bedroom.

Despite the nearly overwhelming exhaustion that was causing my whole body to tremble, I knew sleep wasn’t going to come easily. Too many horrible things had happened tonight, as well as the wonderful ones.

I’d probably only been in bed for a few minutes when the door handle turned. I’d gotten changed into some fresh underwear and pulled on one of Cole’s T-shirts to sleep in but had just been lying there, staring at the ceiling and wishing sleep would take me.

Sitting up, I expected to see one of the guys come to sleep with me. Probably Caleb or even Cole. What I saw instead was the furry jowls of a huge striped cat as he turned the door handle with his teeth, then pushed the door fully open with a paw the size of a dinner plate.

“Um, hi,” I greeted the cat, still wary as hell that he might try and claw me or eat me, despite Austin’s certainty that he wouldn’t.

The cat huffed a little noise, padding across the room and then leaping onto the bed with the grace of a... uh... well, with the grace of a tiger, I guess. The bed dipped under the massive animal’s weight while he pawed at the blankets a couple of times before lying down right in the middle of the bed with his huge head on a pillow.

“Austin?” I called out, but he was already on his way into the bedroom. He paused, seeing the tiger already seemingly asleep, and a grin pulled his mouth.

“Come on, tiger, leave Christina alone,” he tried to scold, but it came out with an edge of laughter that I wasn’t totally sure I’d ever heard from him before.

The tiger cracked one eye, looking at me as if to say tell him to fuck off, we’re sleeping, then closed it tight again.

“Uh, I don’t think he’s listening to you,” I pointed out, and Austin sighed heavily.

“Yeah, I’m kind of getting that from him already,” he nudged the bedroom door shut and walked around to the opposite side of the bed.

“What are you doing?” I demanded, as he unbuckled the belt on his jeans and stripped them off. He’d gotten changed out of his wet, torn tux while Wesley and I had bathed, but I had no idea why he was now taking these clothes off.

“Sleeping, Princess. It’s been a long ass fucking night for all of us, and I don’t have the energy to try and haul a seven hundred pound tiger out of bed.” He pulled his T-shirt over his head, leaving him in just a tight pair of black boxer briefs, and I tried really hard not to stare. Okay, fine, I stole a few looks, but for the most part I managed to keep the drool inside my mouth.

“Okay, yeah, but why are you doing that here?” I clarified, more than a little nervous at the idea of actually sleeping with Austin. Of course, I was fully aware we had recently done a whole lot more, but that was under exceptional circumstances. Sleeping in the same bed was intimate.

“Because he is here,” Austin poked the tiger in the shoulder and got no response except a purring growl. “And the quickest way for him and I to establish our bond is for us to literally spend every second together. So, do me a favor?”

“What’s that?” I squeaked, watching wide-eyed as he slid under the covers and got comfortable.

“Don’t snore,” he replied, shutting his eyes and folding his arms under his head.

“I do not snore,” I grumbled, taking the opportunity while his eyes were closed to get a better look at his ink and the body that it decorated. He’d left the blankets pushed down so they only barely covered him up to the waist, leaving plenty of ink to admire. The perfectly positioned designs that pointed down to his—

“Sleep, Princess,” he ordered. “Now.”

Gingerly, I lay back down, tugging my pillow over so that I was on the very edge of the bed and hopefully out of reach of the tiger, if he had a bad dream or something. Last thing I needed was to be mistaken for prey. That was one thing I’d never be again: prey.

29

River’s fingers linked with mine as we walked down the silent hallway toward Jonathan’s office. It was late, already dark, but I knew he’d still be in his office.

“You okay, love?” River asked quietly, his fingers tightening around mine.

“Yep.” I gave a sharp nod, not trusting myself to elaborate on that any further. We’d only just got back from Toronto an hour or so before, having flown back on the Omega jet. After Austin and his tiger had invaded my bed, sleep had actually come surprisingly quick, and I’d slept like the dead until Wesley had woken us up.

To my utter embarrassment though, Austin’s tiger familiar must have gotten bored while we slept and had disappeared—leaving me tangled up in the Ink Mage’s strong, decorated arms. Neither of us had said a word when we woke wrapped around one another like some sort of twisted pretzel. We just politely pretended it hadn’t happened and left it at that.

Healthy, I know.

The halls were totally deserted at such a late hour, and my fur-lined ankle boots clicked on the marble floor as we approached Jonathan’s office. The door was closed, and we could hear nothing from the other side. Made sense, I guess, that the director of a spy organization might have soundproofed his office.

Sucking in a deep breath, I tapped lightly on the door. The contents of my stomach threatened to spill as I stood there waiting for my dad to answer his door and potentially confirm my worst fears—that he’d been using me all along.

“Maybe he’s gone home?” River suggested when the door didn’t open.

“No,” I murmured quietly. “The light is on, see?” From the crack of space below the door, a sliver of light was showing, suggesting someone was still in there.

Frowning, I knocked again. Still, no one answered.

River gave me a look and sighed. “You’re going to break in, aren’t you?”

“You know me so well.” I grinned, sliding a couple of pins from my hair and straightening them out. “Don’t give me that face, Alpha. He’s my dad, so best-case scenario, he scolds me for breaking into his office.”

“Uh-huh, and the worst?” River retorted, and I shrugged.

“What’s worse than him trying to blow us up with a car bomb?” I meant it as an offhand comment, but a chill ran down my spine and my mind whirled with all the worse that could happen. “One way to find out, right?”

“Gods, woman,” River muttered under his breath while I made quick work of the lock, silently manipulating the tumblers and pins. “You’re bloody lucky I’d jump off a cliff for you.”

Releasing the now unlocked door knob, I leaned up and kissed him lightly on the lips, stroking my hand over his stubbled jaw.

“I am bloody lucky,” I whispered back with sincerity, then turned the door handle and pushed open Jonathan’s office door with a dramatic flourish, only to find... no one.

“Well, that’s odd,” I commented, looking around the brightly lit room. “Why would he leave the light on if he’d gone home?”

“No, love, what’s odd is that he didn’t have any more security on his office than just a simple door lock.” River raised an eyebrow at me, and I shrugged.

“I guess when you’re inside the headquarters of one of the world’s top spy organizations, you figure your shit is pretty safe?” I suggested. “Or maybe just that he knows every man and his dog in here is trained to break into places, so why bother? Then again, knowing Jonathan, he simply has nothing confidential or important lying around in here.”

As I said this, a panel of the wall swung open, and River grabbed my hand, yanking me behind the open panel and hiding us from view as my adopted dad stepped through from his secret room while talking to someone on the phone.

“That’s right; I need you to try again. She definitely has the power, but she’ll need all of her guardians before we can move forward with the plan.” There was a pause, and he stood there with his back to us while my world came crashing down around me. “Yes, by whatever means necessary. This war is coming, and I intend to be prepared.” He paused again while the person on the phone spoke, but this time he didn’t reply as he turned to close his secret door and saw me standing there with River.

“Kit,” he exclaimed, ending his call and slipping the phone back into his pocket. “What the hell are you doing in my office?” His gaze shifted to River and hardened. “This is totally unacceptable behavior, Mr. Morgan.”

“Oh, do not try and pretend we didn’t just hear you right now,” I snarled, my hands shaking with the burning rage I was feeling. “You’ve been using me! For how long?”

“Kiddo, I don’t know what you think you just heard, but I assure you, you’re wrong.” He tried to look confident and calm, but I could see straight through him. He was nervous as hell, and I knew in my gut I wasn’t wrong.

“How long have you known what I am?” I demanded, my fists curling by my sides.

“Listen, kiddo,” Jonathan sighed. “Why don’t you take a seat, and I can explain? I promise you it’s not all as bad as it seems right now. I’m not your enemy.”

“So you’re saying you didn’t set up other recruits to be hurt and potentially killed for the sole purpose of having me change them?” I challenged, and he looked uncomfortable.

“Well, yes, but Kit—”

“Right.” I cut him off. “And I guess you also didn’t explode a car bomb outside our townhouse or crash a damn truck into our car a few weeks ago, nearly killing me both times? You didn’t do any of that?”

“If you’ll just sit and let me explain—” Jonathan tried again, but I was done.

“No, Jonathan, I really don’t think I want to hear a fucking thing your lying mouth has to say right now,” I spat. “I trusted you when I had no one else on this entire fucking planet except Lucy, and you were using me. I’m done here.”

Hands bunched in fists, I stormed out of his office, feeling the burning sting of betrayal in my gut like I’d just swallowed poison. River didn’t immediately follow but caught up with me at the end of the hallway as I slammed through the doors and out into the night.

“What did you say to him?” I asked as he took my hand in his and linked our fingers once more.

“Nothing much,” he murmured, matching my pace as we headed back to the apartment block. “I just handed in Alpha Team’s resignation, effective immediately.”

“River.” I frowned, but he shook his head.

“Don’t even try and say anything,” he scolded. “You’re not safe here anymore, and I have no intention of letting you leave without us. We need to move quickly though, before the Director decides you’re too valuable to lose.”

Pulling him to a stop as we passed under a huge oak tree, I bit my lip and looked into his serious, golden eyes.

“River, I have been meaning to tell you something, but the timing was never quite right,” I blurted out because when the one man who was supposed to love me is trying to kill my friends... who knew when I’d have another chance?

“What is it, Kitten?” he asked, rubbing a thumb over my cheekbone where a tear had slipped out.

“I think I’m falling in love with you too,” I whispered before I could lose the nerve.

A grin spread across his rugged face, totally unlike anything I’d seen on him before, and he dipped his head down to kiss me.

“Thank the gods,” he murmured when we broke apart. “Now, let’s get the boys and get the hell off this property before something blows up.”

The crawling sensation of someone watching us had me looking around, but the only culprit I could find was a bushy, red and white tail disappearing into the bushes.

River took my hand in his once more, and we hurried back to the apartment where my dianoch waited. Sure, they may not all be bonded, or even changed, but they were my chosen guardians and I knew they’d never betray me.

Whatever came next, I knew we would be facing it together.

EPILOGUE

CALEB

The house was silent as I slipped out the door. It was three in the morning, and everyone had only just gone to bed an hour ago after having moved our shit out of the Omega compound and into a house that was hopefully untraceable, as Vali had organized it through his dodgy contacts in the crime scene.

Logically, I should be sleeping like the rest of my team and Kit. But she was the reason I was out here at this ungodly hour of the night.

Be there in twenty. I sent the message to my mentor, Madam Zelda, and prayed she would be awake. She hadn’t replied to any of my messages tonight, but I could see by the read receipts that she’d seen them.

Austin had made a really valid point when he’d talked about me not having control over my magic. Until I did, it wasn’t safe to bond with Kit as her dianoch. There was no way in hell I’d wish the shit I was going through on anyone else, let alone the woman I loved.

No, I needed to get my magic under control. Fast.

Zelda was just a regular mage, lower case m, but she’d been helping me a lot with learning the basic disciplines and skills I needed for magic mastery. She could only offer theoretical ideas when it came to controlling my Blood though. Truly, the only person who could help me with that for real was Jackson, but he was a good-for-nothing piece of shit who wouldn’t piss on me if I was on fire, let alone help train me.

My car door closed with a thunk, and I glanced back at the house to check that no one had woken up. Not that I was doing anything bad; of course they all knew I’d been out most every night since we first arrived in Seattle almost a month ago. But I really wanted them—Kit—to think I was getting a better handle on things, not worse.

Walking into that room that she’d been held in by Mr. Gray, seeing all that blood, had put things in perspective for me. My control was severely lacking, and I needed help. Better help than Zelda had been able to provide.

She’d mentioned to me a while back that she knew someone infinitely more qualified to teach me, but I’d declined. The fewer people who knew that there were new Blood and Ink Mages, the better. Already we had been “in charge” of the mages for close to a month and yet done nothing to assert our leadership. If we could get away with it, we never would. But even I knew that was wishful thinking.

Alone with my thoughts for the twenty minute drive into the city and Zelda’s shop, I was a mess of nerves by the time I pulled into the empty parking lot and turned off the ignition.

I’d messaged Zelda earlier in the evening when we landed back in Seattle and told her I was ready to meet her friend, if they were still willing to help. Since watching Austin seal his bond with my Kitty Kat, all I could focus on was the burning need to do the same. But he was right, as he always was; if I couldn’t control the Blood, how could I expect that of her too?

Sucking up my courage, I locked my car then let myself into the shop through the unlocked back door. My stomach was twisting like I was doing the wrong thing here, but I was convinced this was my best choice. An out-of-control Blood Mage could cause irreparable damage and thousands of deaths, if not millions. Just ask Vlad the Impaler.

“Caleb,” Zelda greeted me warmly. “Tea?”

She was hunched over her little stove-top kettle like a frail old lady, despite her middle-aged appearance. Technically, I supposed, she was an old lady. Zelda was one of the oldest living mages in this country, which was why I’d turned to her for help after I was changed.

We’d met once or twice when I was a kid and Yoshi was trying to teach Austin and I the craft. Not that I’d paid any attention at the time—something I had seriously come to regret. But I was glad for having met Zelda. She’d provided guidance when I was going out of my mind after my magic manifested almost instantly following Kit’s healing of me.

“Thanks,” I smiled, taking the cup of tea from her and sitting in my usual spot at her kitchen table. “So, you got my messages?”

“I did.” She nodded, pouring a cup for herself and coming to join me with a weary groan.

“And will your friend be willing to help?” I pressed, frustrated at her lack of urgency.

“Answer me this first, Caleb.” She narrowed her eyes at me shrewdly. “Why the sudden rush? A few days ago you were happy with the progress you’d made and happy to keep working on control a little bit at a time. What’s happened since then?”

“My girlfriend got injured,” I hedged, not willing to spill about Kit being a Ban Dia or all that entailed. “Pretty badly too... there was a lot of blood. A lot.”

“I see.” Zelda pursed her lips thoughtfully. “And how is she now?”

“My girlfriend?” I clarified. “Um, she’s... recovering.” Not a total lie. It was going to take her a long time to work through all that had just happened, and to lump Jonathan’s betrayal on top... I was worried for her. The sooner I could bond to her, the better.

“Well, I called my friend when I got your message that you were on your way.” Zelda nodded, sipping her tea. “She should be here shortly; however, there is one thing before she arrives.”

Why does she seem so damn shifty all of a sudden? “What’s that?”

“She’s a very private person, and if she is to help you with this, you must first consent to a confidentiality agreement.” Zelda didn’t meet my eyes as I glared at her, instead swirling her spoon in her teacup. I wasn’t a total magic newbie; I knew full well that this type of confidentiality agreement was not a piece of paper that could be easily torn up. No, this was a magically binding contract with dire consequences if broken.

“What are the terms?” I asked finally, and Zelda sighed.

“Just the standard pain punishments if broken. But that’s not usually an issue with most people because these things are so damn hard to break in the first place you have to be really trying. Then again, you’re the Blood Mage, so if anyone can break it...” She was rambling and it wasn’t making me feel any better about this decision.

“Give me your honest opinion, Zel,” I pleaded. “Do I need this woman’s help? Can I figure it out on my own?”

She finally met my gaze, and her eyes were full of sympathy. “I’d hoped you could, but if your reaction to seeing your girlfriend’s blood was strong enough to send you here in the middle of the night seeking help... no, I don’t think you can do it alone. Your only choices here are to track down Jackson and force him to train you or accept the confidentiality agreement from my friend and start your training tonight.”

I heaved a sigh and scrubbed a hand over my face. “Let’s do it then.”

Zelda nodded and quickly whipped out the tools she needed for the spell. Unlike Austin and myself, mages with a little m required more effort to use their magic, whether it be casting circles or spells or even potions. The strongest among them could use a gesture and short phrase, but none could wield their powers with the casual abandon that Austin enjoyed with his ink. Hopefully I would too, once my Blood was controlled.

The confidentiality spell snapped into place mere moments before a soft knock sounded at Zelda’s back door, drawing both out gazes to it.

“Come in, dear!” Zelda called out. “Spell is done. You’re safe.”

Safe? Why did that sound like a strange choice of word to use?

“Good, it was awfully cold outside tonight.” A woman’s lilting Irish voice sounded from beneath a deep hood as she stepped into the kitchen and closed the door behind her.

“You must be Caleb, then?” she asked, tossing back her hood and causing me to suck in a sharp breath. “It’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Bridget.”

To Be Continued in The Viper’s Nest… coming 2018

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hello! I’m Tate, or TJ, or Goldie 2. I write books about people who do things, meet other people, things happen and stuff gets said. I am a wine and coffee addict who swears too much and thinks of sarcasm as the highest form of wit.

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Kit Davenport

#1 The Vixen’s Lead

#2 The Dragon’s Wing

#3 The Tiger’s Ambush

#4 The Viper’s Nest (2018)

#5 The Crow’s Murder (2018)

#6 The Alpha’s Pack (2018)

Co-Authored by Tate James and CM Stunich

The Hijinx Harem

#1 Elements of Mischief

#2 Elements of Ruin

#3 Elements of Desire (2018)

The Wild Hunt Motorcycle Club

#1 Dark Glitter

#2 Cruel Glamour (2018)

Foxfire Burning

#1 The Nine (2018)

Turn page for a sneak peek of Dark Glitter and Pack Ebon Red, Tate’s Recommended Read…

DARK GLITTER

By Tate James and C.M. Stunich

Ciarah O’Rourke was born into torture.

A human spirit reincarnated in the body of an ancient fae goddess, she’s spent the last five years in iron shackles, her mind poisoned with magic for secrets she doesn’t know.

Waking up in a dirty alley with no memory of her escape, Ciarah finds herself in the hands of The Wild Hunt Motorcycle Club--a ruthless and violent group of bikers with faerie blood in their veins.

Arlo.  Reece.  Killian.

Three men drenched in death, sin, and old magic.

From their clubhouse in the middle of the Louisiana bayou, they’ll offer Ciarah the keys to unlock her memories and control the veil between worlds.  But even her knights can’t erase the twisted scars that remind her they aren’t the only ones who hunt.

When The Wild Hunt rides, the souls of the dead join their parade.

All that’s missing now is their queen.

DARK GLITTER

CIARAH

My years of torment ended with a sharp gasp, my first breath of freedom tainted with the stench of rat shit and stale urine.  That’s what woke me from seemingly endless torture, the urban stink of a city.

Of course, I couldn’t remember any of it.

As I blinked myself awake, my damaged mind pulled a curtain over the memories, a veil to shroud me from the pain.  It wasn’t something I had the energy to fight--or that I’d even want to if I could.

I peeled my heavy lids apart, the motion like the scraping of sandpaper against eyes too used to absolute darkness.  It had been a long time since I’d seen even the dim, depressing lighting of an alleyway.  How long, I didn’t know.  My memory was fractured glass, the pieces scattered and sharp.

I let out a small scream when I came face-to-face with the wicked dark eyes of a rat.  My back hit a dumpster as I scrambled frantically to get away from the small creature, my panicked gaze flicking around my new environment like a trapped animal.  Tall brick walls rose up on either side of me, framing the navy velvet of a night sky.

Where the fuck am I?

It was dark, but streetlights and glowing neon signs lit the neighborhood outside of the alley I was crouched in. Shadows shrouded me, giving me a temporary feeling of security while I frantically searched my memory for where I was … or who I was.

My wrists and ankles ached and I could see thick bands of bruising and raw wounds around them, like I’d been held prisoner somewhere. Surely that would be the sort of thing that was impossible to forget? What the fuck had I done to deserve being held prisoner?  It must’ve been something awful though, for me to feel this sick, this detached from my own body.

Hot iron, burning my flesh, scalding me, making me bleed.

I blinked and the random flash of memory was gone, tucked safely away from my fragile mind.  It wouldn’t do to dish up the demons of my past just yet.  Closing my eyes against a wave of fatigue, I sucked in shallow breaths of the stale air, the scent of garbage tainting my tongue, and put a hand to my side.  There was a burning sensation there, like a blade buried between my ribs.  It made bile rise in my throat as I fought to control the churning of my stomach.

It was hard to decide which was worse off: my body … or my mind.

Fractured memories from different times and places assaulted me in waves.  A rowdy bar, a peaceful glade, the sun shining on the sea.  But they were puzzle pieces with no reference, just bits of color and shape I had no clue what to do with.

Had I been in jail, punished for a crime?  That would explain the marks on my wrists and ankles, wouldn’t it?  But my clothes weren’t like any sort of prison uniform I'd ever seen, just a dirty, bloodstained cotton dress and no shoes. The clothing didn't seem anywhere near appropriate for the weather; it was cold enough that I could see my breath misting in front of me, so I clearly hadn't planned to be out here …

My quiet panic was abruptly intruded on by a heavy metal door clanging open just feet from where I was crouched. A young girl in a greasy waitress uniform stepped out and propped the door open with a stray brick before lighting up a cigarette.

Terrified, I remained frozen to the spot, both figuratively and literally, praying she wouldn't see me. How on earth would I explain what I was doing out here? It was clearly the middle of winter and I was dressed in little more than a nightgown.

Oh yeah, and I had no memory of who I was let alone who it was I was running from.

"Hey, girl," she said, spotting me, "what the hell are you doing lurking in this shit-filled alley?"  The woman took a drag on her cigarette, blonde hair gathered back in a messy ponytail, stray strands curling wildly around her face.

She took a couple of steps closer to me, and I found myself preparing for a fight, awaiting the first blow with pursed lips and a defiant lift to my chin.

Wait.

The first blow?!

She was just a girl, and hadn't threatened me in any way, so why would I be shaking in terror the way I was?

"Hey ..." she tried again in a gentle voice, crouching down until she was on my level, like I was a scared child or wild animal, someone that needed to be soothed and reassured with the basic, primal necessity of body language.

She held her cigarette in long, elegant fingers, using a painted blue thumbnail to flick the ash from its tip before taking another drag.

"I won't hurt you, sweetie," she told me, and I could sense she was telling the truth. Was that normal? Could everyone sense the truth in someone's statement? I couldn't remember. But the certainty that she wouldn't hurt me made a noticeable difference in my anxiety level.

I’d hate to have to kill her.

Unfolding my arms from around my knees, I opened my mouth to speak, and say what? I didn't know. Maybe hello? It didn't matter, because all that came out was a squeaking gasp in place of my voice.

My throat was raw and scratchy, like I’d just gargled bleach, and the pain of trying to speak made my breath catch and a tear roll from my eye.  I felt--although I couldn’t remember exactly--that I’d shed many, many tears over my life.  What was one more?

"Oh shit, babe," the girl hissed, stabbing out her cigarette and offering her hand to me like she was going to touch me; she stopped abruptly, seeming to think better of it. "Hon, you're in a really bad way. Come into the diner with me and I can get you something warm to drink. Fuck, you're practically a Smurf you're so blue."

All true.

I could feel it in my bones, that she was speaking the truth.

The waitress hazarded a smile that made the skin at the edges of her eyes crinkle.  Even that move rang with the bright bells of honesty.

My hand trembled so hard, but I couldn’t seem to stop it as I moved to push myself up from the ground; I would have fallen flat on my face if the girl hadn't caught me with a hand under my elbow. Everything on me ached and it took all the strength I had left to keep myself from throwing up as I pressed a hand to the pain in my side and found my feet.  I wondered how bad I must really look to elicit such a response from this stranger?

"Don't worry, sweetie," the girl murmured as she helped me stumble toward the door she'd left chocked open, "we just closed the diner so it's just staff here. The coffee is still hot though, if you like coffee?"

Coffee?  Of course I liked coffee.  I didn’t need all my memories to know that.  Who the hell didn’t like it?  Not someone I would easily trust.

In lieu of words, I gave a non-committal shrug.

The girl helped me into the first booth we reached, the bench seat covered in gaudy red leather, and the tabletop patterned with the scratched surface of a checkerboard.  The building smelled like grease and burnt coffee, but it had an easy, homey quality to it that I liked.

"Wait here, I'll be right back," she promised, twisting her hands in her apron and darting out of my line of sight, presumably to get the coffee.  Fuck, she better be off getting it.  The ache in my side was making my teeth hurt, red wetness seeping through the thin cotton of my gown.

I was bleeding.

I pressed a palm to the wound and waited--what else was I going to do?  I didn’t even know my own name.

The black and white squares of the tabletop mesmerized me as I stared at them, counting how many there were in a row from one side of the table to the other, so I had no idea how much time had passed when a man's voice jolted me out of my daze.

"Caley!" he boomed as he threw open the front door and stalked in like he owned the whole damn place. He was tall and broad, filling the doorframe like the diner was a funhouse, his heavy motorcycle boots tapping a solid sounding noise when he stalked across the sticky floor and stopped sharply in front of my table.

"Who ..." he squinted at me, "the fuck are you?"

Slowly, I lifted my face in his direction … and it was like looking at the sun.

Warmth flowed over and through me as my lips parted and my heart began to pound inside my chest.  I’d never seen this man before in my life, I was sure of it, and yet … there was something soothingly familiar about him, too.

The sharp emerald green of his eyes, framed by dark brown lashes, seemed to see right through me as he glared like I was something the cat had just dragged in. Which, I supposed, I sort of was. I must seriously look like a hot mess to be getting this sort of reaction from total strangers …

He had big, muscular arms, traced in ink and brilliant with color.  I wanted to reach out and touch them, run my fingers over the curve of his biceps and feel the hardness underneath.  He was a beautiful specimen of masculinity--even if he looked like a proper asshole, too.

"Arlo!" the waitress groaned, coming back out of the kitchen with a steaming mug of coffee and a towering plate of French fries. "What are you doing here so early? We had a deal, remember?"

"Yeah, we did. And you broke it. You were supposed to be home almost thirty goddamn minutes ago." The man, Arlo, dismissed me from his attention as he turned his glare on the waitress.  Whether or not this was a normal reaction, I found myself leaning toward him, breathing in the sweet, musky scent of earth.  Was it weird to sniff people?  I had the gut feeling it most definitely was.

Is this her boyfriend? I wondered, looking between the two.  Her lover?  The man had the air of a controlling asshole; I was immediately wary of him and sympathetic for … Caley?  That was her name, right?  It matched up to the tag on her uniform, after all.  She was curvy and very pretty.  I didn’t see any reason why he wouldn’t want someone as beautiful as her.  Certainly she was a good ten levels above my bedraggled state.

"What?" She frowned at him, looking confused, then darted her gaze to the clock on the wall and sighed.  "Sorry, 'Lo. It was a crazy busy shift and I must’ve lost track of time." Caley placed the plate of food and mug of coffee down in front of me, and my belly grumbled loudly.

"Who's this?" the angry looking man demanded, throwing a disgusted look my way.  I knew my cheeks were flaming with embarrassment. It was hardly my fault I looked like a drowned rat. Or at least, I didn't think it was.

"I found her in the alley out back. She's pretty beat up and can't talk ..." The young girl twisted her mouth into a frown. "I just wanted to get her warmed up and grab her some food, then maybe drop her over at the hospital to get checked out."

Unconsciously, I licked my dry and cracked lips.

Truth.

Each word she spoke was pure truth; I drank it all in like fine wine.

The man grunted, and didn't look at all pleased, but sat himself down in the booth opposite me. For a tense moment, our gazes remained locked. His bright green on my ... whatever color mine were.

Eventually hunger overtook my need to win our stare-off, and I tentatively helped myself to some fries, chewing carefully and wincing in pain as I swallowed. Arlo continued to watch me as I ate, and I tried not to cry with the fresh pain lancing through my throat with each bite.  But I couldn’t … wouldn’t … stop eating.  The salty heat of these fries was like heaven, and I wondered when the last time I’d eaten was.  It felt like it’d been years.

Caley gave me a sympathetic look and a small smile.

“Let me finish closing up, okay?  Give her a chance to eat.”  She moved away while I scarfed down every last fry and every single sip of coffee.  It was liquid gold.  I felt immediately better after drinking it, although my side was still bleeding, hot droplets tracing down my ribs.

"Well, this is going to be interesting," Arlo muttered, eventually breaking the silence as I arched an eyebrow in question at him. "This," he gestured a hand at me, "I can't wait to see what Fionn says about you."

"Arlo, you don't really have to tell Fionn, do you?" Caley gasped, coming to join us while rolling up her apron and shoving it into her backpack. "We can just drop her at the county hospital and be done with her, can’t we?"

"You know the rules, Caley," Arlo shrugged, standing from his seat and glaring down at me like I’d somehow managed to disrupt his afternoon.  “Anyone that sets foot in the diner that’s not one of ours gets checked out by Fionn--human or no.  Take her to the hospital and then bring her by the clubhouse.”

As he turned away, I saw that the back of his leather vest had several patches.  There were the letters MC, a small patch that said 1%er, another that read New Orleans, LA, and the largest, central image featured a winged skull.  The words The Wild Hunt were scrawled across the top.

Now, why did the fuck did that one sound so familiar?

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PACK EBON RED

The Seven Mates of Zara Wolf #1

By C.M. Stunich

I am wolf; I am human; I am neither; I am both.

I am werewolf.

And I have seven Alpha Males as my mates.

All mine to kiss and hold and touch, seven handsome men for my bed.

My boys represent the biggest packs in North America.

But I am the Alpha Female and I rule them all.

One day, the packs might force me to choose.

But my heart, it won't allow it. Things could get … bloody if I have to fight for my boys.

For now, three glittering dark courts threaten our existence with their glamorous cruelty:

the vampires, the witches, and the fae.

Werewolves are missing from all the packs, and my boys and I, we have to find them.

Or find out who's killing them.

Because I'm the mistress of my men, my packs, a girl known simply as White Wolf.

I've promised to protect the men I love, the family and friends I cherish.

And the White Wolf … always keeps her promises.

PACK EBON RED

CHAPTER 1

They were coming for me.

I knew it; I could smell it. The metallic copper tang of blood came to me on the wind, like pennies and citrus, mixing with the ever present sweetness of pine. I paused, the fingers of one bare hand brushing gently down the rough bark of a tree, the other still warmly encased in a mitten and tucked in my pocket. Except for the slow, deliberate movement of my hand, I was completely still, listening, waiting.

The soft whisper of boots warned me that Nic was coming. If he hadn't wanted me to know he was behind me, I probably wouldn't.

“How many?” he asked, coming to stand beside me, close but not too close. It didn't pay to get too close to the next alpha unless you'd been chosen.

My heart sunk as I glanced over at Nic, at the proud, straight ridge of his nose and those high, sculpted cheeks. Everything about him said Ebon Red, said too close to home to be chosen. I dropped my hand from the tree and curled my fingers into a fist at my side.

“Sixteen, at least,” I said and then sighed, reaching into my left pocket for my phone. It was doubtful I'd get any reception out here, but it was worth a try. “And they've killed something,” I said, paused, pursed my lips. “Recently.”

Nic let out a low growl that curled my fingers tight around my cell, made my throat go dry. I shouldn't let myself be so affected by him; it would only end in heartbreak and pain. I knew firsthand how dangerous it was. I was daughter to a woman who'd literally killed the man she'd loved most.

I wouldn't find any sympathy back home.

“Are they trying to cause trouble?” Nic asked, reaching up to grab the zipper on his jacket. “Or are they just too inbred to realize that Friday means Friday. Your mother,” he continued because nobody who'd ever met the woman would call her 'Mom'—least of all me, “will probably cut them out of the ceremony altogether when she hears about this.”

I shook my head, my heart fluttering with hope and dropping just as fast.

“No,” I said, thinking aloud, watching with a practiced detachment as Nic shrugged his coat to the forest floor and sat down on it to start taking off his boots. If I listened carefully, I could hear my professor and my fellow Intro to Wildflowers classmates chatting about a mile off. The pack—whoever they were, I didn't recognize their scent—was farther off, maybe three or four miles out. If Nic and I stood here and waited, they'd be on us in minutes. “She needs this alliance. We need this alliance,” I said, a thousand reprimands rolling through my head all at once. It's always us and we, Zara, not me and I. “It would take a serious breach of etiquette for her to even consider cutting anyone out.”

I took a deep breath and tried dialing my mother's phone—no reception. Ridiculous. I kept trying to explain how important satellite phones would be for communication. Spending as much time as we did in remote wilderness, I felt like they were essential. But … old habits die hard. The pack—and especially my mother—they didn't trust technology.

I glanced down at Nic—shoeless, sock-less, shirtless. I had to swallow hard and look away as he stood up and dropped his jeans to the moist dirt beneath our feet. Nakedness was as easy as breathing for me, for all of us, but when it came to Nic … I felt the undertones there, the unspoken things we'd both like to do to each other in the dark. It made it hard, really hard. And then to stand here and talk about the ceremony? The implications of what, exactly, that ceremony meant were hard to ignore. Five suitors, five possible mates, five guys that I'd be doing things in the dark with that weren't Nic.

“Yeah, well,” he said, pushing a hand through his dark red hair as I looked back at him, carefully avoiding looking at anything below his waist. “If forcing me to get naked in the middle of class doesn't count as a breach of etiquette, I don't know what does. Wait here, I'll be back.”

Nic flashed a tight smile at me before taking a breath and shaking out his hands, fingers curling as the wolf reared to the surface, desperate to get out, to run, to chase, to fight. I stepped back, the nearness between us too much for me to handle. It was hard to watch anyone shift, to let them morph and meld and melt while I was stuck standing still, encased in a single form, skin itching for release. But with Nic? It was like there was this pull between us, this irresistible urge to touch and feel, to lay my hands on his bare chest and feel the change happen beneath my fingers.

I turned away fully and leaned my right shoulder against the tree, waiting for the quiet whisper of paw pads before I looked back. I only caught the tail end—quite literally—of Nic before he disappeared into the trees, his auburn fur whipping past the brown and green and blending into the shadows.

He'd find this pack, whoever they were, and he'd turn them back. Or at the very least, he'd lead them somewhere safe, somewhere with reception where they could shift and he could get a hold of my mother. For now, I'd wait. If he wasn't back in ten, I'd leave his clothes here and I'd go.

I leaned my back against the trunk of the ponderosa pine and stared back up the gentle slope of the mountain we were on, at the shadows of the trees and the damp earth that was still partially crystallized from last night's freeze. It was pretty here, sure, but it was hard to relax knowing a group of thirty people was just around the corner, guidebooks open and phones snapping photos of half-dead flowers. Winter had come early this year and stayed late, messing with the spring term and the offered classes. It was hard to study wildflowers when most of them were either frozen or had yet to spring up at all.

I checked the time on my phone. Two minutes. Nic should be with the pack now, drawing their bloodied scent away from me and the classmates moving steadily in my direction. It wasn't like wolves were extinct in Oregon or anything, but a large group of really big wolves stinking of copper, mouths tinged pink with a recent kill? I did not want to see the confrontation between the two groups.

I closed my eyes, listened carefully, past the gentle rustle of branches overhead and the whistle of the wind in the valley. If I really concentrated, I could hear my professor's ongoing lecture, the excited perk in his voice that said he really truly loved his job.

I wished I was as big a fan of mine.

Then again, my professor chose his job; I was assigned mine. It wasn't that I didn't want to be alpha, that I didn't care about my people, it was the lack of choice involved in all of it. My mother didn't sit me down one day and ask how I felt about being her heir. No, I was born into it. Instead of coming into the world with a sibling or two, a litter that could be picked and chosen from, I came alone. Okay, well that's not exactly true—I had sisters in the womb with me, three of them actually, but they were all born dead.

So. First litter, one pup. One alpha.

“Daydreaming again?” a voice asked from behind me, startling me so bad that when I spun around, I was ready to fight. I fell into a crouch and rose just as quickly, hoping that Julian wouldn't comment on the move. How the hell did he manage to sneak up on me? I wondered with no small amount of awe. It shouldn't have been possible, but there he was, six feet away and smiling like he had no idea the start he'd just given me. I took note of the moment, filed it away, but decided that I was too caught up in my own head, wasn't paying attention. At this point, it was the only explanation I had.

“Sorry?” I asked, running my fingers through the burning brightness of my hair, hair that was hardly unique in my pack. Ebon Red was famous for our flaming red hair and pale skin, the purple-raven color of our eyes, eyes that had gotten more than one of us into an awkward situation or two, barely explained away with the mention of colored contact lenses. At least most people were just too polite to ask.

“You seem to daydream a lot,” Julian said with a shrug, tucking his hands into his pockets and then glancing down at Nic's discarded pile of clothes. His black and white checkered boxers were sitting right on top. Of course they were.

“Nic'll do anything for a bet,” I said with a wild smile, knowing how ridiculous and unbelievable it sounded. But when you grew up in an entire community of werewolves, you learned that stupid and believable lies were better than impossible truths. “Especially if it involves money,” I added with a sly smile, putting my cell back in my pocket and withdrawing my loose mitten. My younger sister, Aria, knitted the pair for me as a Christmas present, passing the package to me with a nervous smile that said while she loved me, she feared me just like everyone else.

“Um,” Julian began as I tugged the wool over my fingers and pretended to be cold, shivering and forcing my smile into a grin. I could only pray that Nic didn't come back until I'd gotten rid of Julian. He'd hear him, sure, even from several miles away, but I had this feeling that if he got a whiff of this guy and me together, he'd come charging over here, hackles raised.

“Fifty bucks,” I added with a shake of my head. If I'd learned anything over the years, it was that money can get people to believe the unbelievable. One of my aunts getting caught naked in the garden center at the hardware store? A friend bet her a thousand bucks to do it. Seriously, works every time. It's better than trying to claim the person you're covering for—or worse, you—is a nudist. Or that they're deranged. Or both. “Honestly, I'd thought he negotiate for at least a hundred.” I glanced over my shoulder and then shrugged, looking back at Julian's wide brown eyes and raised blonde brows.

“Where did he go?” he asked with a nervous laugh, keeping his hands tucked into his pockets and attempting an unsure smile. Crap. I had a feeling he wasn't going to leave without some prompting.

“Who the hell knows?” I said with an exaggerated eye roll. “He can be weird sometimes.” I kept smiling and focused my attention on Julian. I knew he had a crush on me, from day one, and he was cute and all, but my life was about more than that. As an alpha, I had responsibilities. And a damn good sense of smell. Julian always had this air of mint and apples about him, this bright note weighted down with the heaviness of copper.

Blood.

Julian always smelt like blood.

And vampires.

I blinked at him and kept smiling, taking a few steps forward so I could look him right in the face, brush my breasts against his upper arm as I leaned in and wrapped the wool-covered fingers of one hand around his wrist.

Obviously, Julian wasn't a vampire or he wouldn't be walking around in bright gold midday sunshine, but he reeked of them, and I wasn't taking any chances.

“Let's forget about Nic, and catch up with the rest of the class. We get to partner up for our final project, right?” I bit my lower lip and turned Julian around, just in time to avoid the aubergine glare emanating from the shadows of a nearby pine. Sorry, Nic.

“Do you have a partner yet?” Julian asked as I steered him away from Nic's clothes and back toward the sounds of the class.

“Nope,” I said, forcing myself to keep smiling, keep walking. I could still smell the other pack, but the scent was receding. Good. Nic had done what he'd set out to do; he always did. “I don't have a partner yet.”

And I hated that that statement was true in more ways than one.

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