Hunger of Wolf

Hunger of the Wolf By Madelaine Montague

© copyright April 2007, by Madelaine Montague Cover Art by Jenny Dixon, © copyright April 2007 New Concepts Publishing Lake Park, GA 31636

This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.

Chapter One The bastard was brazen, he’d give him that, Dante Belue thought angrily as he shadowed the alpha of the rogue pack that had been encroaching on his territory for months. They’d been more subtle to begin with, slipping in and out again before any of his pack mates could lay one of them by the heels and, so far, they’d managed to elude every attempt to track them back to their lair. They didn’t try to hide the fact that they’d encroached. They made damned sure they left a calling card when they came. They’d simply been playing at cat and mouse, more of an annoyance to begin with than anything else. The incursions had been steadily escalating, however, both in frequency and violence until there was no longer any doubt in his mind that the pack alpha wanted a territorial war or, more accurately, he supposed, the son-of-a-bitch was after his ranking in the pack. He was prime alpha over the entire territory. There were more than a dozen other packs beneath his own that were under his jurisdiction. If the rogue had wanted nothing more than to move into the territory, he would

have soughthim out and requested acceptance and then he could have challenged anyone for pack ranking. He’d been thumbing his nose at Dante, however, by breaking pack protocol. He was well within his rights to attack without any further provocation, without warning, without any challenge at all, and dispose of the rogue in whatever manner he saw fit, up to and including killing him outright. He wasn’t even required to consider it a bona fide challenge and meet the man honorably. He could send any one of his pack brothers out, or the whole lot of them, and simply slaughter the rogue pack. He would have the full support of his pack and the other packs within his territory if he chose to do so. He would have the full support of the head council, for that matter. On a personal level, though, it went against the grain. He had absolute faith in his own abilities and blindsiding the rogue, whatever the provocation, just smacked of cowardice and underhandedness in his book. He didn’t need to play that way, and he had no intention of doing so, although the bastard was really starting to piss him off. For his own comfort, he’d decided he was either going to have to catch him in the act—in which case all bets were off—or he was going to have to figure out a way to force the rogue to meet

him in a fair fight. Waiting for the rogue to make his move wasn’t getting him anywhere fast. He’d been expecting the son-of-a-bitch to come forward and challenge him for weeks. If he was going to, though, he figured the rogue would’ve by now. So, he was either waiting for something, or he just didn ’t have the balls to actually face Dante without a prod in that direction. He wasn’t sure what the hell the bastard might be waiting for—but he was waiting for something. Dante was sure of that. What confused the hell out of him about the little game of espionage they were currently playing was why the alpha had broken his pack up and sent everyone off in different directions. It weakened them—his pack, too— because he’d had to break his own pack up and send them to tail the members of the rogue pack. If it was a battle strategy, it was the worst one he’d ever run across. Unless he thought he could whittle Dante’s pack down one-on-one? Divide and conquer? That wasn’t as stupid as he’d first thought. Not that it

had a chance in hell of working, but it would’ve had merit if they hadn’t been up against his pack. The rogue pack was smaller than his. From what they’d been able to determine, they also had a number of members that were young and looked to be relatively inexperienced —which, of course, also meant they weren’t dependable in a pitched battle. Dante paused behind the broad trunk of a live oak as he saw the lycan he’d been tailing stop and lift his head, sniffing the air. Dante’s dark brows descended. He was down wind. He hadn’t been so preoccupied with his thoughts, he knew, that he’d let the bastard catch his scent. Unconsciously, he lifted his own head to test the air, sorting the scents that came to him and trying to determine what had had the effect of making the other lycan slink into the shadows. Not surprisingly, he detected a hodgepodge bouquet of human scents. It was a park, after all, the largest in the city and frequented by tourists and locals alike. He caught the scent of the lycan, as well, since he was downwind of him. What he didn’t catch was a scent to explain the behavior of the alpha male in front of him—nothing of threat to any lycan.

The light breeze was still wafting in his direction, however, and after a moment, he decided to move a little closer to see if he could see what it was the rogue was studying with so much fascination that he’d abandoned his caution about being followed. Sloppy, he thought derisively, very sloppy. A tantalizing scent drifted to him as he reached the copse of trees he’d targeted as his goal. It distracted him. If the rogue hadn’t been so focused on the source of that enticing scent himself, he might have realized he ’d been discovered. Dante was too distracted even to realize he’d blown his surveillance. The hairs on the base his skull prickled as the delectable scent coiled inside of him. His beast stirred, shifting his instincts to the forefront. And his instincts were in total riot. The scent was female—human—and something else completely outside his experience, and whatever that something else was it shot his concentration to hell. Desire stirred within him, so potent he felt dizzy with it. Belatedly, he slunk into the shadows, but his focus was no longer on the rogue. His entire being was straining

for another taste of that luscious scent. He sniffed the air until he was more dizzy still from the rapid intake of air. The smell faded in and out, drifting on the currents of air, driving him crazy because it teased his senses and he couldn’t quite get as firm a grip on it was he wanted to. His quarry was moving, he finally realized—the female —coming closer. As his predator instincts took over, his focus switched back to the rogue. Dimly, he realized the rogue had come here, to this place, with the female as his goal all along. He had moved with purpose, steadily, in this direction even though he’d taken a cautiously circuitous route to reach it. This was where he had planned to come all along. Because of the female. Abruptly, Dante was absolutely certain the entire ruse, as strange as it had seemed to him, was all about this woman. A sense of fierce possessiveness moved through him that he hardly recognized. He tried to shake it off, tried to force his man’s mind to the forefront to examine the situation with cool headed logic so that he could understand it. This was no lycan

female giving off the pheromones indicating she was in heat, or about to go into heat. In any case, this washis territory. He knew all of the females—and all of them were well guarded during their mating cycles. Control was essential when they had so few females. The females, once in heat, had no discrimination. Their need to be bred overrode reason. It was up to him to ensure that the strongest of the males got first breeding opportunity to insure healthy off-spring for the whole pack. Ordinarily, that would have included the prime alpha’s pack, would have put them at the top of the list. Unfortunately, none the females available had met his standards—meaning none of them were females he was willing to tie himself to, or any of his lieutenants for that matter, because they were still members of the prime alpha’s pack and could assert their rights above the others if they’d wanted to. Not that there was anything wrong with their females. They were all pretty and intelligent—good stock—mostly likeable, just not lovable in a mating sense as far he was concerned. He didn’t actually have to bind to one to mate, he knew. He could have asserted his rights and taken which ever one took his fancy. He had, in point of fact, bedded most of them at one time or another—he was a healthy, red-blooded male after all. He’d just been

careful to do it when there was no chance of actually breeding them. The breeding created a bond that he didn’t want—however lose a bond it might be. If and when he got around to breeding a female, it was going to be one that hewanted to be bound to, permanently, or one he was at least willing to form a parental bond with. He had, in point of fact, begun to wonder if was at all likely that he was ever going to run across a female that appealed so strongly to his breeding instincts that logical decision didn’t enter into the equation—because it was for damned sure he wasn’t going to take the leap unless he did. It disturbed him to discover those particular thoughts circulating in his mind under the current circumstances —which sure as hell had nothing to do with a breedable female. If his cock hadn’t been as hard as a rock, he would’ve thought the rogue had gone completely off the deep end to be stalking a human female at all. Lust, though, that was a different matter. If she could do this to him when she hadn’t come within sight of him yet, he could completely understand the rogue’s determination to have her. But why risk his entire pack for one female? And a human female, at that? Why risk

all on the turn of one card? Maybe the rogue was insane and he was trying to attribute rational behavior to someone who wasn’t rational? He didn’t believe that, he decided. Everything the bastard had done so far had been carefully calculated and carefully executed. He also didn’t believe that this was just a jaunt to snatch a particularly appealing piece of ass because he didn’t believe for a moment that the rogue was content to merely eek out an existence on the outskirts ofhis territory. He intended to take over Dante ’s territory. If he had wanted to merge his pack with Dante’s, he would have approached him in the accepted manner. His behavior was a clear indication that he intended to go straight for the top—him—and try to wrest the position from Dante. Somehow, the woman had to figure into his plans, regardless of how unlikely it seemed to him at the moment. He shook those distracting thoughts off as his ears detected a breath of sound. Running footsteps—No, jogging. There was no scent of fear, only a faint whiff of uneasiness. He lifted his head, breathing in the scent, identifying that elusive ‘something’ that made the blood boil in his veins, but this time anger joined the lust.

The fool of a woman was outexercising in the park at dusk? A tourist, he wondered? She hadn’t heard about the attacks? Or was she just one of those fools who believed nothing could actually touch her? **** Shilo McKenzie noticed the gathering gloom with a touch of dismay. She’d been certain she had plenty of time to make a circuit of the park and get back to her hotel room—or at least out of the park and back into the crowded city streets—before it was dark. She hadn’t considered, though, that the huge, spreading oaks that dotted the park and made it such a pleasant place during the day also created a premature dusk beneath their canopy. The sun had barely set and already the shadows were deepening, creating, with the aid of the shrubs that abounded within the park, dark little alcoves for predators to hide. By her best mental calculations, she was still a good fifteen minutes from the gates of the park, too. She picked up her pace a little, although she was already a bit winded.

She’d wanted a challenge to ease the stiffness from too much time indoors, but she had underestimated the length of the trail she’d decided to follow and overestimated her general fitness level. She didn’t actually get worried, however, until her ‘ spidey’ senses began to tingle. It wasn’t much of a ‘gift’ . She wasn’t even certain itwas a gift. Reason could have well produced the sense that something just wasn’ t right—after all, it was almost dark, and the area was deserted—but she’d learned over the years not to ignore that sense. Doubt instantly threaded through her. She hadn’t seen another soul in at least fifteen or twenty minutes. Run faster? Turn around and head the other way? The urge hit her to turn and run as fast as she could. On the other hand, she was a lot closer to the gates of the park if she kept going as she was. She was already out of breath, though. If she put on a burst of speed, could she outrun whoever, or whatever, it was that she sensed? Sucking in a deep breath, she made her decision unconsciously and switched from a jog to a full out run. Something huge and dark and menacing leapt from the

patch of bushes she’d suspected held a predator, landing on the path before her. She skidded to a halt, too breathless to scream. It was too late, she realized, to do anything but stand her ground. If she’d turned around when she’d first thought about it, she might have had a prayer of outrunning the lycan beastman blocking her path. Now, she didn’t. Sucking in a deep breath, she did the only thing she could as the lycan uttered a low, challenging snarl and charged her. She focused every ounce of her being into her hands and lifted them, praying her true gift wouldn’t desert her now in the hour of her need. She felt it sizzle along her arms, felt her heart rate triple as she strained to gather everything she had for one burst strong enough to stun the thing. She almost waited too long to discharge. With a blood curdling snarl, the half-man, half-beast launched himself at her. Even as she hurtled the burst of energy at him, however, she heard a second, challenging snarl and realized she was fucked. There were two of them!

Chapter Two The turmoil the woman had thrown him in to almost cost them both. The woman’s scent had sent him so far off kilter into emotional turmoil that he’d begun to shift even before she came into full view, and, once he’d gotten his first really good look at her, it completed his descent into chaos. His instincts took over completely, and even those were wildly out of control. He was so focused on her he’d completely forgotten the threat that had led him into the park to begin with. Fortunately, the rogue was in no better shape than he was. The moment he bellowed a challenge and leapt from his hiding place to confront the woman, it jogged Dante’s territorial instincts. Dante uttered a challenge of his own and leapt out to confront the rogue, feeling a surge of both fear and rage as he realized he was going to be too late to intercept the rogue before he reached the woman. Uttering another snarl, this one of pure rage, he charged toward the rogue full tilt. The jolt of electricity that leapt from the woman’s hands lifted the rogue lycan clear off his feet and threw

him a good six feet before he hit the dirt and skidded, narrowly missing Dante. As stunned as he was, Dante didn’t slow. He was well beyond any ability to reason by that time. This washis territory. And that washis woman. The only thing driving him at that point was possessiveness —because whatever was within his territory belonged tohim , was under his protection and his law. She stared at him in wide-eyed horror as he charged toward her, wavered on her feet for a moment, and finally just wilted to the ground without making a sound. Dante was almost as stunned by that as he had been by everything that had preceded it. He halted, stared down at the woman in consternation for a moment, and finally turned to study the rogue. Padding over to the lycan, he sniffed him for any sign of threat. He was breathing, but he was out cold—which was enough in itself to thoroughly confuse Dante. The stench of burned hair drew his attention, and he studied the burn pattern on the rogue’s belly. Lifting his head again after a moment, he studied the woman indecisively. Kill? Protect? Kill? Protect?

The rogue was down. As tempted as he was to rip his throat out and take care of the troublemaker once and for all, it went against the grain to attack him when he was incapable of defending himself. But what to do about the woman? He knew what hewanted to do with the woman, and that was the problem. What he wanted to do wasn’t necessarily what he should do and he knew that, too. He couldn’t just leave her, though. Shifting back into his human form, he moved to the woman and checked her pulse. It was weak but steady enough he thought she would be alright. He shook his head, trying to shake the lingering effects her scent was having on him, but there was no shaking it to clear his mind for more rational consideration. He had to take her—somewhere—and his instincts were telling him to take her to his lair. There were a wealth of little problems with that. He’d shifted without bothering to remove his clothing first—the first time he’d done that since he’d been an untried pup. His clothes, what there was left of them, were hanging on him in tatters, and he wasn’t going to

go unnoticed looking as he did at the moment. Especially if he was carrying an unconscious woman. A woman who was unconscious, he finally realized, because she’d blasted the rogue with a charge of electricity potent enough he still hadn’t regained consciousness. After staring at her doubtfully for a moment, he rolled her onto her belly, tore of a strip off his already ragged shirt and bound her wrists behind her. If she came to before he got where he was going …. When he’d finished, he checked her briefly for weapons, torn between the need to search quickly and the desire to examine her thoroughly. He was more confused when he found nothing than relieved. Struggling with the urge to explore the tantalizing scent wafting from her skin more thoroughly, he lifted her into his arms. She roused almost as soon as he’d picked her up and began to jog back through the park. He knew the very instant she regained consciousness. He felt her stir against him. His body, which had barely cooled one iota since he’d first caught her scent, but which had cooledsome , stirred to life again the moment she did.

Gritting his teeth, he struggled to ignore the effect she had on him and focused on avoiding the few humans he detected along the way, sniffing the air and pricking his ears for any sound or smell that might threaten discovery, wishing he’d thought to gag her while he was at it. If she screamed …. “Where are you taking me?” she asked finally. Her voice was husky, a bare whisper of sound. The sound prickled over his skin like a caress, impossibly, making his cock harder than it was already. Sweat beaded his brow. It was a struggle to keep his breathing even close to normal. “To a safe place,chère ,” he growled, his voice harsher than he’d intended. She digested that in silence, and he realized she was still weak … from whatever it was she’d done. Almost as if she’d read his mind, she spoke again. “Why are my hands tied?” A trace of humor flickered through him. “I’ve no mind to end up like the last man you encountered.” He heard her swallow. “Lycan.” He glanced down at her, frowning faintly as it dawned on him that she hadn’t been surprised—at all. Fearful, yes, when the rogue had bounded out at her, but not

surprised. A human female well aware of the lycan community? She hadn’t fainted from shock and terror—or maybe she had, but not because it was unexpected.She had informed him that it was a lycan that had attacked her, though. Moreover, she’d sensed their presence before she’d seen them. It wasn’t coincidence that she’d shifted from a jog to a run—not that running was ever wise when dealing with a lycan. It only goaded them to give chase. “Are you a hunter, then?” He hadn’t sensed that, but then, wryly, he had to admit that his senses had gone to shit. She was a pretty woman, petite, and nicely rounded in all the right places. His eyes had told him that before he’d picked her up. Now his body was screaming it to the heavens and driving him crazy. Her pretty, heart-shaped face, big eyes, and cupid’s bow lips would’ve been enough to draw any man’s interest even if her figure had only been average, but it was well above that. And then there was her scent. He had an uncomfortable suspicion that she could’ve looked like the south end of a north bound mule and her

scent alone would’ve been enough to drive him out of his mind. Something she’d bathed in to attract lycan, he mused? But that didn’t sound right. If she’d deliberately baited lycan, she would’ve been prepared to kill and she hadn’ t been carrying any weapons. Correction, he hadn’t found a weapon. She’d used something to stun that rogue, though. She chuckled derisively. “Runner, actually. Or maybe huntee? I knew I shouldn’t have come in to the city.” As provocative as that statement was, he decided to explore it another time. For all he knew the rogue pack was converging on the park by prearranged assignment. He could assume his own pack was still shadowing them, but he wasn’t particularly interested in taking a chance on the possibility that they’d managed to give some, or all, of his men the slip. He wasn’t exactly keen on the idea of taking the woman to the lair, if it came to that. If she had the same effect on the others as she was having on him she was liable to set off a mating frenzy that could get really ugly, really fast, but he needed answers.

Fortunately, he’d regained enough self-control to recall that he’d left his vehicle only a few blocks from the northern tip of the park in an alley off a street that saw very little traffic after dark. Actually, he supposed that wasn’t entirely true. He hadn’t regained a hell of a lot of control or much reasoning ability. His mind was working at a snail’s pace, but the thoughteventually occurred to him. He’d reached the spot he’d chosen to go over the park wall when he made a discovery. He was getting hot— really fast—and prickles of stinging awareness were rushing along his arms and through his chest—at every point where he touched the woman. He froze, dragging in a shuddering breath as his lust began threatening to completely overwhelm him. It was as he was staring down at the woman in his arms, contemplating the inadvisability of throwing her down on the ground right then and there and assuaging the need choking him that it dawned on him abruptly thatshe was doing … something. He pushed his face into hers until they were nose to nose. “Unless you justwant me to throw you down right here and fuck you six ways from Sunday,chère , I’d suggest you stop whatever it is you’re doing,” he growled.

Instantly, the prickling ceased and the heat began to subside to a more manageable level so that the blood pounding in his head and groin receded. Dragging in a handful of ragged breaths, he focused on surveying the area for anyone close enough to see them, and, when he determined there was no one nearby, tightened his hold on her and sprang over the six foot hedge and wall, landing on the sidewalk on the other side and launching immediately into a sprint. He didn’t discover until he’d reached his SUV that the woman was barely conscious. It made him uneasy, but he knew the rogue hadn’t actually touched her, couldn’t possibly have hurt her. Settling her in the back, he closed the rear door and hurried around to the driver’s door. He was shaking all over, he realized with a twinge of disgust when he’d located the spare set of keys and finally managed to shove them into the ignition. He stared at his hands for a moment and finally raked both through his hair to get it out of his eyes, taking in several slow, deep breaths to calm his racing pulse. His lips tightened into a grim line as he started the SUV and backed carefully out of the alley. He didn’t know what the fuck was going on, but he wasgoing to know before the night was over.

Chapter Three In retrospect, Shilo thought with a mixture of fear and self-disgust, it had been pretty damned stupid to try summoning her gift when she was so weak already. Not only had it not had the desired effect—in fact almost theopposite effect that she’d wanted—but it had further depleted her strength until she was hanging onto consciousness only by a thread. She struggled with it for a while after the Lycan had settled her in the back of his vehicle, hoping against hope that she could find some hidden reserve within herself and draw enough to her to escape. After a while, though, it finally dawned on her that she was only making things worse, expending energy she couldn’t afford to waste, and she gave up the effort to remain conscious, slipping into a healing darkness. **** Without surprise, Dante discovered when he reached the lair that none of the others had yet made it back. He ’d been counting on it, actually, and removed the woman from the back of the SUV and carried her inside

and up the stairs to his room. She was still unconscious —or had passed out again. It worried him, but her pulse and breathing seemed normal enough—not strong, but not alarmingly weak. After staring down at her for a few moments, he untied her wrists. There were bruises around them, and his conscience smote him, but he dismissed it and began to strip her clothing off, examining each piece for wires--some kind of device. There was nothing. She’d been wearing nothing but jogging shorts and a light knit top, and he’d known it was unlikely either article could possibly conceal anything, but he wanted answers and she wasn’t in any condition to give him any. He stared at her bra and the tiny scrap of fabric concealing her pussy from him, tempted, oh so tempted to remove those, as well, but, regretfully, gave up the notion. No way in hell was she hiding anything with those articles of clothing except two points of exquisite interest to him that made his mouth water. He was having enough trouble trying to keep his mind on business as it was, though. He didn’t need more stimulation, or more temptation. With an effort, he dragged his mind from his aching cock. Settling on the edge of the bed beside her, he lifted her palms and studied them. Unlike the rogue, there were no burn marks. Considering his state at the

time, he couldn’t put a lot of faith in what he thought he ’d seen, but something had damned sure happened. Remembering the sensations that had washed over him when she’d come around he realized that, as hard as it was to swallow, the woman had done it—without any sort of manufactured weapon.She was the source of the electricity. Which would explain why she was out like a light. She was still too weak to regain consciousness. The little fool! He lifted the palm of one hand to his nose, sniffing. The scent reached inside of him and fisted around his testicles, drawing them up into his throat until he felt like he was choking on them. He’d sniffed his way all the way down her arm and across her shoulder to her throat before he realized what he was doing and sat back abruptly. The urge that washed over him wasmore than the desire to shove his cock so deeply inside her moist warmth she screamed and pound into her until he found release from the lust that had filled him until he felt like he was choking on it. He wanted tobathe himself in her scent, rub all over her until his skin was coated with her—andshe was bathed in his scent.

That scent that was driving him to distraction wasn’t manufactured either, he was almost certain. It was wafting from her skin. It washer . And it completely baffled him. He shouldn’t feel this —not with a human female. If she’d been lycan he would’ve had to accept that he’d finally found his true mate, the one female so completely irresistible to him that he had no interest in any other female. She wasn’t lycan, however, not even a half breed. She was pure human. Setting that aside with reluctance, he turned to pondering the most immediate problem—what to do about her ability to knock him halfway across the room if she came to? He studied her wrists again with great reluctance, idly stroking the bruises and finally got up and repositioned her in the center of the bed. Tearing strips from the sheet, he extended her arms out to either side of her and secured them to the bed posts. After checking each several times to make certain the strips were snug enough to keep her from pulling her hands loose and still loose enough to keep from chafing her wrists worse, he stepped back to study her and discovered with a jolt of surprise that she was watching him. “If this is your idea of keeping me ‘safe’, thank god

you didn’t have evil designs,” she murmured. His lips tightened. Anger flickered through him, but he dismissed it. Grabbing the comforter when he saw her skin prickle with chill, he tossed it over her. It didn’t hurt that, incidentally, it made it a little easier for him to focus on something besides fucking her brains out. “You’re safe from the rogues here,” he said harshly. Striding away from her, and temptation, he pulled a drawer of his chest of drawers open and rifled through the contents in search of a change of clothes. He discovered when he’d stripped that she was watching him. He felt her eyes crawling over him like a caress, but he didn’t delude himself into thinking there was any actual welcome in her perusal, despite the fact that her gaze snagged on his engorged cock and stayed there. With a casualness he was far from feeling, he dragged a t-shirt over his head and reached for a pair of jeans. Gritting his teeth as he tucked his aching balls into the opening and tried to find a comfortable position for his stiff cock, he zipped the pants with great care. “He was targeting you,” he said when he returned to stand beside the bed to stare down at her. “Why?” Instead of answering, she frowned. “You called him a ‘ rogue’, why?”

Irritation flared, but there was no point in hedging. She knew he was a lycan. “Because he’s the alpha of a rogue pack.” Something flickered in her eyes. “And you’re the alpha of the pack that considers this your territory?” “Itis my territory,chère ,” he responded tightly. “What did he want with you … besides the obvious?” She shrugged. “Besides whatyou want with me, you mean?” she asked tightly. “Damned if I know.” It irritated thehell out of him that it was so obvious to her that he was aching to get his hands on her, and embarrassed him. Despite the dull color he felt creep up his neck and into his face, or maybe because of it, and because he could see she didn’t exactly reciprocate his sentiments, he scowled at her. “You shouldn’t get too bent out of shape about that,chère. You’re a woman and not hard on the eyes. Even if you were, you’re still a woman—and I’m a man. It’s nothing I can’t control— or you need be overly concerned about.” She didn’t look like she believed him, which pissed him off thoroughly even though he was obliged to admit no female had ever had that kind of effect on him and he was having a hell of a time controlling himself. Still, she sure as hell had no way of knowing that. “Lycan,

you mean,” she said derisively. That thoroughly pissed him off. He felt the heat in his face become more pronounced, though this time it was more from anger than embarrassment. “Even so,” he gritted out, “still a male. One female is much the same as the next as far as a randy cock is concerned—they aren’t terribly discriminating. But my tastes don’t run to humans,chère. Quite aside from the fact that they’re weak, insipid creatures, and wouldn’t know real passion if it bit them in the ass, my bloodlines have never been weakened by the taint of human blood, and I intend to keep it that way.” A flicker of satisfaction went through him when she flushed and looked away. It died at the glimmer of hurt he saw in her eyes before she averted them. “If we’re finished trading insults …?” “Why did you bring me here, then?” she asked, her voice a little stronger than before. “I thought I had already made that abundantly clear, chère.” She pursed her lips, drawing his gaze to that enticing bow of a mouth. He wondered, feeling a twinge of both amusement and another unwelcome surge of desire, if

she realized the absolute impossibility of twisting those lips into anything even remotely unappealing. She looked almost as vulnerable trying to scowl as she did when she was merely staring at him with her big eyes— hazel, he decided—widened with trepidation. “If you only brought me here to protect me, why am I tied to the bed?” He gave her a look. “I may be a ‘beastman’ to you, chère, but it would be a mistake for you to allow yourself to believe I’ve no more brains than a dumb beast,” he said dryly. She blushed, seemed to wrestle with herself for a moment, and finally looked up at him with an expression he would’ve sworn was pure innocence and absolute honesty—if he hadn’t been certain by that time that she was incapable of any other expression. She didn’t have totry to appear vulnerable and completely guileless. It came to her naturally. “I’m too weak to do anything now—honestly.” He allowed his gaze to flicker over her assessingly, which was a mistake. She saw the rise of desire in his eyes. He knew it the moment she spoke again.

“I wouldn’t try to fight you anyway,” she said in a husky voice. He dragged his gaze back to her face with an effort. He knew, instantly, that she was trying to seduce him to get the upper hand—and it still took an effort to shake the urge to take her up on it. He moved a little further from the bed, trying to adjust his cock to a more comfortable position surreptitiously. It hadn’t actually gone down a hell of a lot, despite his efforts to focus his mind elsewhere and the anger she’d aroused in him that had cooled his ardor enough to allow him some breathing room, and it didn’t take a lot to make him as hard as stone all over again. Leaning against the door when he reached it, he crossed his arms over his chest. “I thought we’d already established,” he growled pointedly, “that you’re not interested. I’m not particularly interested—and I’m not stupid.” Consternation filled her eyes. She sucked her full lower lip into her mouth, giving him a glimpse of a dainty pink tongue that made beads of sweat pop from his brow as images flooded his mind of that mouth wrapped around his cock, that tongue curled around him. He cleared his throat. “You said you were a ‘ runner’,” he prompted. “I have to admit this is something I’m not familiar with.”

She left out a huff of irritation and looked away. “I’m not stupid, either,” she responded tartly. “I’ve noticed there’s something about me that seems to draw a lot more interest from lycans than I like.” He could’ve told herexactly what it was, but he discovered he was a good bit more pissed off by the discovery that he wasn’t alone in his fascination with her than he was relieved. A sense of possessiveness tightened in his gut. “So you thought it was a ‘mistake’ to come to town?” he prodded. “You can sense the presence of lycans?” Her lips flattened, but she frowned. “I don’t know. I don’t actually have to. They sense me … somehow. If there’s one anywhere around, they come … which is why I hardly ever take a chance on going into heavily populated areas, aside from ….” “Aside from …what?” he prompted when she broke off. She studied him for a long moment. “You saw what I can do,” she said finally. “I don’t want to end up in a research facility or on a dissection table. The only way tostay free is to stay away from people altogether.” An unwelcome sense of empathy settled over him as

he heard the loneliness in her voice. “So … you were sick of your own company and decided to ‘chance’ a run in with the local lycan pack?” he asked, still not certain he completely believed she’d had no ulterior motive. “Something like that,” she muttered. “I don’t suppose you’d untie me and let me go to the bathroom?” He chuckled. He couldn’t help it. “You don’t give up easily, do you,chère?” She glared at him. “We’re notfriends ,” she snapped. “So you can stop calling me that!” He chuckled again. “Woman?” “My name’s Shilo—Shilo McKenzie.” He tilted his head, resisting the impulse to respond in kind. He could see she was waiting for him to, though, anticipating an opportunity to inform him she didn’t give a fuck who he was. She looked away from him after a moment, frowning. “What’s your name?” she asked finally. “Dante.” “Dante’s inferno,” she quipped, making him grind his

teeth. “Clever,” he retorted dryly. “I haven’t heard that one before. You have sharp little teeth, Shilo McKenzie. Unfortunately for you, that didn’t sting even a little.” She reddened right up to the roots of her naturally ash blond hair. “I still need to pee,” she said sullenly. He studied her, but the truth was he couldn’t just leave her tied to the bed—couldn’t hold her right on. Despite his wariness of her ‘gift’, he had to resolve this situation somehow. Releasing an impatient breath, he shifted away from the door and approached her. After studying her for a moment, he climbed onto the bed and straddled her waist. She studied him uneasily. He tried to ignore the fact that his jeans were pinching the hell out of his erection as he leaned to reach one wrist and carefully untied it. She tried to snatch her arm free the minute she felt the binding removed. Tsking at her chidingly, he sent her a wolfish grin and dragged her arm down, pinning her wrist beneath his knee as he reached to free her other arm. “That hurts!” she ground out.

He looked down at her when he’d freed her other wrist. “Want me to kiss it better?” She gave him a look. He chuckled. “I didn’t think so,chère ,” he retorted cheerfully, tamping a twinge of disappointment as he settled his rump on her thighs and very carefully lifted her arms, urging her to sit up. He was excruciatingly aware of her as she did, of the soft press of her breasts against his chest as he guided her arms behind her and tied her wrists together, and even more uncomfortably aware of the fact that the shift in their positions had nestled his engorged member against the apex of her thighs. She was aware of it, too. He could hear her heart rhythm step up several notches, could hear her breath catch in her throat. He might have put it down to fear except he caught a whiff of desire, as well. Unfortunately for both of them, he didn’t have to see it in her eyes, which she kept carefully downcast. His lycan senses recorded it all and drove his own desire upward several notches. He got off of her as soon as he’d secured her wrists behind her back. Scooping her off of the bed, he settled her on her feet, wrapped his fingers around one arm to steady her, and guided her toward the bathroom. She

looked at him with a mixture of outrage and embarrassment when he left her standing by the toilet and checked the window and then gathered up both his razor and the pair of scissors he used to trim his hair when the mood struck him, which admittedly wasn’t all that often. “How am I supposed to manage … like this?” she demanded when he moved to the door. He paused in the doorway, swiveling around to look at her. The impulse, he discovered, was just too strong to ignore. Tossing the razor and scissors onto the top of the chest of drawers near the door, he strode back to where she stood. Stopping when he was toe to toe with her, holding her gaze, he hooked his thumbs in the sides of her panties. Her expression went completely blank with shock as he peeled them downwards. He should have stopped at that. He knew he should. He didn’t, though. When he’d peeled them down as far as he could reach, he sank into a crouch. After staring at the curly thatch of hair on her mound at eye level to him in that position, he released his grip on her panties and skimmed his hands upward. Settling his palms on her buttocks, he jerked her against him, burrowing his nose against her mound, breathing in her heavenly scent, relishing the fire that coursed through him in reaction. His mouth went dry. He wanted to taste her.

God, how he wanted to! He wrestled with the urge. She was human, though, he reminded himself while he could still think at all. A taste might seem harmless enough, to him, even though he knew damned well he was so perilously close to a complete loss of control that that might be all it took to push him over the edge—probably would be. To her it would be far too risky, though. He didn’t have to bite her to infect her with lycanthropy. It was inall of his bodily fluids, including his saliva—and the tender flesh of her mouth, and her pussy, was far too vulnerable to assault. He might lick every inch of her luscious little body and run little risk of infecting her, as long as he confined himself to less sensitive flesh, but he almost certainly would if he did what he wanted to do … at the moment. It was against pack laws. It was against his personal scruples. Regardless of the little myths, humans did not fare well when infected. More didn’t survive than did, and, when it came to human females, they were the least likely to survive. Reluctantly, he released his grip on her buttocks, lifted his face from her, and got to his feet. He didn’t look at

her again as he strode from the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He leaned shakily against the door for a moment after he’d closed it, scrubbing his hands over his face. Completely aside from the fact that he couldn’t keep the woman indefinitely without risking the local authorities launching a manhunt,he couldn’t handle a lot more close proximity to her without doing something he was going to have trouble forgiving himself for later. Pushing away from the door abruptly as he heard the sounds of someone entering the house and punching in the security code, he strode from the room almost with a sense of relief. He’d already reached the foyer before it dawned on him that she was going to have a hell of a time pulling her panties on again, but he was completely certain that going back up to her at the moment was probably one of the worst ideas he’d ever had—especially with her panties around her ankles.

Chapter Four

All three of his top ranking pack members were standing in the foyer when he arrived and all three instantly stiffened, lifting their heads and sniffing the air. “Don’t even think about it,” Dante growled, fixing the men with a level look. Maurice, his second in command, met his gaze speculatively. “Where did you find the psychic?” Surprise flickered through Dante. He said nothing, but he didn’t have to. After studying him for a moment more, Maurice grinned. “You’ve never run in to one before, have you?” Unwilling to admit it, still wondering how Maurice had discerned it, he merely returned his look with a steady one of his own. “It’s that mouth watering scent,” Maurice responded finally, “the one you’ve been wondering why it has you rock hard and unable to get your mind off of fucking the daylights out of her. It’s like catnip to lycans—except about twenty times more potent—and roughly ten times more potent that being around a female in heat.” “She’s human,” Dante growled. “It doesn’t matter what it is. By pack law, she’s untouchable.”

Maurice glanced at Jessie and Kane, saw that they were still completely focused on the female in the room above them, and returned his attention to Dante. Unlike the others, he wasn’t Cajun. He was originally French Canadian, and he’d done a good bit of traveling before he’d settled in the low country. None of them, he realized, had ever run across a psychic female. Otherwise they would’ve known all bets were off. “The laws don’t pertain to psychics,” he responded finally. “They’re a breed apart.” Dante frowned, lifting his head to glance up the stairs. Noting the hunger in his gaze, Maurice considered stopping at that. Unfortunately, he was the beta male and he already knew he couldn’t take Dante. If he was to have a taste--and he wanted one--he would have to wait his turn. If Dante was convinced she was off limits, then none of them would have a chance at her. “They’re far stronger than the average human,” he continued after a moment. “They can be infected— mostly—but not all, and even those who are infected can handle it. And that one,” he added, nudging his chin in the direction of the upstairs bedroom, “is the most powerful one I’ve ever been anywhere around.” Dante frowned. Ordinarily, he trusted his second implicitly. In this case, he didn’t. He’d been wrestling

with his wayward libido ever since he’d first caught her scent and he knew damned well he had a hell of a lot more self-control than the others. “I brought her here for her protection,” he responded tightly. The information Maurice had supplied him with at least explained why he was having so much difficultly, he thought wryly, unable to question that much of Maurice’s explanation. It also explained why Shilo had a ‘problem’ attracting lycans. Apparently, she was as ignorant of that particular fact as he had been. The wonder was that she’d been able to elude the unwanted attentions of male lycans as long as she had —and as youthful as her face was, and her firm little body, he knew she was no girl. She was all woman, he reflected, remembering how easily she’d slipped into the role of seducer—and without any coyness or uncertainty. Several emotions flickered across Maurice’s features in quick succession. Disappointment was uppermost. “Why … if you don’t mind my asking?” he added as Dante’s eyes narrowed. “The rogue alpha wants her … and I want to know why.” That comment finally pierced Kane’s and Jessie’s

abstraction. They looked at him for the first time, and he had no trouble interpreting the possessive look in their eyes. “You found her on pack territory,” Jessie growled. “That means she’s ours.” “To protect,” Dante reminded him. Kane and Jessie exchanged a speaking glance. “You don’t mean to keep her?” Kane demanded. “How are we going to protect her if she isn’t under our protection?” Dante sent him a look of annoyance and finally turned, striding into the living room. The others followed, dropping onto the couch and chairs scattered about the room. “She doesn’tlive on pact territory,” Dante said finally. “I got that much from her anyway. She’s only visiting.” “That doesn’t mean she can’t be persuaded to stay,” Maurice put in. “Unlikely,” Dante said flatly. “This wasn’t her first encounter with lycans and to say she isn’t thrilled would be an understatement.” Maurice mulled that over. “She hasn’t been claimed, though.”

Dante eyed him with a mixture of impatience and interest. “And you arrived at this how?” “If you’d claimed her, would you let her go?” “Not willingly,” Dante admitted, albeit reluctantly. “But then again, I haven’t been around the woman long enough to actually know what living with her would be like,” he added dryly. Maurice smiled grimly. “She could be a royal bitch outside the bedroom, and it wouldn’t change a damned thing.” “It doesn’t matter one way or the other. Even if what you say is true of lycan law, and as little interest as I have in man’s laws ordinarily, she’s human. We don’t need the kind of attention we’d get if we even considered what you’re suggesting—assuming she was willing, which she isn’t. When human’s go missing, the authorities start searching.” “If you don’t know her, then you also don’t know that she couldn’t be persuaded,” Jessie put in. Dante studied Jessie speculatively. “You wouldn’t like what she can do to you if she takes exception to your methods of persuasion,” he said finally.

Maurice frowned, sitting forward in his seat abruptly and draping his arms over his knees. “Now I’m really curious. What kind of psychic is she?” Dante lifted his dark brows at his beta. “You are so well versed in these things. Why don’t you tell me?” Sending him a look of irritation, Maurice sat back in his seat. “I can’t tellthat from the scent,” he growled. “All I can say is it’s psychic—more powerful than anything I ever ran across—and different from anything I’ve ever run across.” Dante felt somewhat mollified by that. Maurice’s superior attitude had irked the hell of him, although he’ d never particularly given a shit before. Mauricehad traveled, and none of them had, but the truth was that Maurice was from an area nearly as ‘back water’. He might think of them as ‘southern red neck hicks’ but he was still a red neck hick himself—just from north of the border. He frowned over the question in Maurice’s voice. He hadno experience with psychic abilities, and he wasn’t even certain of what to call what he’d seen her do— wasn’t entirely sure he knew what she’d done. He hadn’ t exactly been in any condition to observe with any sort of objectivity. “Electricity,” he finally said since that

was the closest he could come to describing what he’d seen. “It leapt from her palms when the rogue attacked her, and it was a powerful enough jolt it lifted him clean off the ground and threw him nearly ten feet. He was still out cold when I left him.” Maurice, Kane, and Jessie exchanged varying expressions of doubt and uneasiness. Kane frowned. “How did you manage to get her here if she could do that to the rogue?” Dante narrowed his eyes at the man, but his expression was curious not accusing, and he relaxed after a moment. “She fainted. I thought, at first, that it was just from the encounter—humans rarely handle an encounter with a lycan very well. She was weak, though, even when she came around, and I’m almost positive she sensed the lycan was laying in wait for her. Iam positive it wasn’t her first encounter. Sheknew what we were. There was no disbelief, no coming to terms with a fact that most humans consider a myth to scare little children.” Maurice lifted a hand to pluck at his lower lip thoughtfully, a habit that had always irritated Dante. “That’s why they wanted her,” he said after a few moment’s thought.

Dante sent him a questioning look. “We all know they want war, but we also know it’s a small pack and not that much of a threat. They know it, too. With her, though … .” “I’m not following,” Dante said irritably. “Because you’re not familiar with psychics,” Maurice retorted. “It’s like I said, the psychics handle lycanthropy differently than ordinary humans. With the weaker ones, sometimes they can’t control it and they become, more or less, a lycan themselves. The stronger ones can utilize our strengths, though. If they convinced her to become a member of their pack, infected her, she would not only be more powerful than she is right now, she’d recover faster … theoretically, anyway.” Maurice fixed him with a hard expression. “Your instincts were right … as usual. We can’t let them get their hands on her.” **** A shiver skated through Shilo as Dante left her alone. Try as she might to convince herself it was revulsion, however, she knew better. She’d never been inclined toward self-deception, though, and as relatively inexperienced as she was with men in general, she was

completely familiar with her own body. As unwilling as she was to admit it, the man made everything inside of her melt and quiver every time he looked at her. She still didn’t know why. Granted, he was a gorgeous specimen—if she’d been naïve enough to actually think of him as a man. He wasn’t a ‘man’, though, even if he did look like one—a drop dead gorgeous one. He was a beastman, and she’d already seen him in that form, knew he could morph into one at the drop of a hat and all that male beauty would vanish just like his human-like behavior. It was a façade, nothing more. A knee shaking, handsome façade, but still no more than outward appearance, and she was too damned old to be that shallow—she thought. Maybe it was that French accent, she thought wryly? Maybe she was just as much a sucker for a deep, male voice sugar coated with an enticing accent as the next idiot woman? Then again, maybe it was the mouth it came out of, because there was no getting around the fact that that mouth was enough right by itself to make her belly

quiver. Add that raven hair, golden brown eyes, the swarthy complexion—to say nothing of the unnervingly appealing features of his face and a long, leanly muscular body that was about a fifteen on a scale of one to ten and you had a walking, talking woman’s Waterloo. Not hers, though. He could keep right on giving her those ‘I could eat you up’ looks. She wasn’t going to forget he was a damned lycan! As cold-blooded, calculating, and totally ruthless as she knew human men were capable of being, she had absolutely no desire to go off the chain in the opposite direction. Men had been the bane of her existence as far back as she could remember--and lycan males had contributed their fair share to her misery. She barely remembered her father, but what she did remember was all bad. She couldn’t say a lot more for her mother, she supposed, but then she figured her mother had been almost as much of a victim as she had been. Maybe she was lying to herself and her mother had known what her father was doing, but if her mother had been agreeable, why would the men have come for her when her mother wasn’t there?

She had to wonder how her father had explained the ‘ windfall’ he’d gotten for turning her over to the government for their little ‘experiments’, but then maybe he hadn’t. Maybe he’d just taken it all for himself? Shuddering, she closed her mind abruptly to that train of thought. It had been years since she’d allowed herself to ‘revisit’ the time she’d spent growing up in a government research facility, and she wasn’t about to allow it to touch her now. That part of her life was over. She was never going back. If she had to spend the rest of her life in hiding—alone, lonely—then so be it. It was better to be alone than to endure what she’d had to endure. She just wished she’d thought about that before she’d yielded to the desperate need to be around people again. She’d been climbing the walls, though, endured as much isolation as she could stand. Stupid! God! It had been so damned stupid!She had been stupid! She’d tried hiding in the cities at first, moving constantly, but she was still around people, something her soul hungered for, even if she didn’t dare allow anyone to get too close—not after a little experience, anyway. Because, despite everything they’d done to

her, she’d needed male companionship, or thought she did. She’d convinced herself they were nothing in the world like the scientists—and they weren’t a lot like them, to be sure. Three attempts at relationships later, she’d finally gotten it through her thick skull that allowing them to use and abuse her wasn’t any different than allowing the government to exploit her. And she’d gotten tired of trying to dodge the lycans. She hadn’t landed in a single city that wasn’t crawling with them.One close encounter was enough to last her a life time. Maybe they weren’t all like the one that had dragged her into the woods and torn her clothes off and tried to rape her, but she thought it was a lot safer to assume they were. Dante hadn’t wasted any time in taking her clothes off. Not that he’d had to tear them off of her. He’d caught her when she was too weak to defend herself. She frowned at that thought, staring down at her panties around her ankles. Unbidden, the memory of what hehad done surfaced. She should have been outraged and disgusted by what he’d done. Instead, she’d thought for several unnerving moments

that she’d faint from the way her heart was clamoring in her chest. She’d wanted him to cover her with his mouth, wanted desperately to feel the heated glide of his tongue over her clit. Dismissing the thought with an effort, she settled on the toilet and commanded her bladder to work—which it refused to do until she heard him move away from the door and leave the room. Relieved, she managed to empty her aching bladder, but consternation instantly filled her when she’d finished. “Fuck!” she cursed under her breath. How the hell was she supposed to dry herself, damn it? Drip dry? She sat fuming for a while and finally got up … and her consternation deepened. She couldn’t pull her damned panties back up either! It offended every sense even to consider trying to go back into the bedroom dripping piss! “Shit!” She kicked her panties off and struggled with the tie around her wrists for a few moments before she gave up, realizing that, while it didn’t seem tight, she wasn’t having any luck working her wrists free. After studying the shower for a moment, she climbed in and backed up to the knob—which was when she discovered the damned thing had been left in the shower mode. Cold

water shot from above her, thoroughly drenching her and knocking the breath from her lungs. Her teeth were chattering by the time it finally warmed up enough she could actually stand it. And she still couldn’t direct the water where she needed it most! Wondering if she’d ever be able to get up again once she got down, she finally managed to get down on her knees … and then fell backwards. Dante returned for her while she was still trying to figure out how to get up again.

Chapter Five Dismay was uppermost when Shilo heard the door open and looked up to find Dante standing in the door. It vanished immediately when she saw the gleam of amusement in his eyes and his lip quirked upward a notch at one corner. She might have appreciated that smile at any other

time. Even in her current mood and situation, her belly fluttered. “Having difficulties?” Shilo shot him a drop dead look. “No. I just decided to take a shower.” It popped into her mind to say something really nasty—as in, she was trying to wash the smell of dog off of herself—but she killed the impulse. As angry as she was that he’d brought her here without her consent, he’d said it was to protect her, and she was obliged to admit that he hadn’t done anything to indicate otherwise—aside from tying her hands, which she couldn’t really fault him for since he’d seen what she could do with them. Anyway, she’d never been comfortable being deliberately nasty without provocation. He crouched beside the tub and stared down at her. Blinking the water out of her face, she stared back at him, wondering if she was going to have to ask him to help her up. His gaze started at her face, but it didn’t linger there more than a split second before crawling down her throat, over her breasts—she didn’t have to look down to know her bra was the next thing to transparent now —across her belly and then snagging on the wet hair

between her thighs. She clamped her knees together when she followed his gaze and discovered her legs were still splayed from where she’d been struggling to find some leverage that would help her get up again. His eyes were glittering when he met her gaze again, but this time it wasn’t from amusement. Shilo swallowed with an effort, feeling as if someone had her in a chokehold. After a long, long moment, his gaze dropped to her mouth. “Are you done here?” he asked finally, his voice rough and gravelly. Shilo was so focused on the shimmy in her belly it took her brain several moments to translate the question. She nodded jerkily, and he reached up to shut the water off. After studying her a moment as if trying to decide the best way to get her out of her predicament, he shifted and grasped her shoulders, helping her to sit up, and then moved his hands beneath her arms and he lifted her to her feet. His hands lingered along the sides of her breasts a little too long to be purely accidental, but not long enough for her to pinpoint that it was deliberate. Shifting them to her waist, he steadied her as she stepped out of the tub. She stood on the bath mat, shivering and miserable and wondering how she was going to dry off. The image popped into her mind of him drying her as he took a towel from the linen cabinet, and her mouth went dry.

Instead, he draped the towel around her shoulders. “My three lieutenants are downstairs,” he said flatly. She looked at him questioningly. “I’m going to untie your wrists. I just wanted to make it clear that you won’t be leaving until I say so. I won’t take it at all well if you use that little ‘gift’ of yours on me …. And I can practically guarantee youwill regret it if the impulse strikes you.” Oddly enough, despite the threat, she didn’t feel threatened. It wasn’t because she doubted for a moment that he was fully capable of violence—he was a lycan, after all, and yet she didn’t really believe that he’d hurt her, she realized. Instead of telling him she wasn’t actually capable, at the moment, of doing anything, she merely nodded. Settling his hands on her shoulders, he turned her so that her back was to him and began working on the knots. “This would’ve been a little easier,” he said, after plucking at the binding for several moments, “if it wasn’t wet.” She wasn’t about to tell him why she’d gotten into the shower. If he couldn’t figure it out and just thought she was peculiar, then he could just think that for all she

cared. She let out a hiss of pain as he finally removed the thing and she could move her arms. Dropping the wet rag into the tub, he moved to the door. “Dry off. We need to talk,” he said as he went out, closing the door behind him. When he’d gone, she unhooked her bra, peeled it off, and hung it over the shower rod to dry. She’d just stepped into her panties when he tapped on the door again and opened it before she had time to object. She straightened abruptly, snatching her panties into place. He was holding the clothes he’d taken off of her, she saw. Snatching them from his hand, she turned her back on him and pulled the shirt over her head and straightened it before she stepped into the shorts. He was leaning against the bedroom door, his arms crossed over his chest, as she came out of the bathroom. “Hungry?” Shilo looked at him in surprise. “Yes,” she said finally. Nodding, he shoved away from the door and opened it, waiting for her to precede him. She hesitated at the foot of the stairs, glancing at the front door. He settled a hand along her lower back, guiding her down the hallway toward the back of the house. She balked when she’d entered the kitchen and discovered three more

men—lycans. “This is Shilo McKenzie,” he announced when all three men abruptly stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at her. Uneasiness wafted through her as she saw the unmistakable gleam of keen sexual interest in their eyes. “The blond wielding the frying pan over there is Jessie.” It caught fire while he stared at her, favoring her with a slow smile that made her heart skitter to a halt before the effect was ruined by the stove fire. Grabbing a lid, he clamped it over the pan. Shilo bit her lip, looking away as a cloud of black smoke rose up when he lifted the lid again to glare at the food in the pan. “Burning the steaks again,” Dante murmured low, next to her ear. Jessie turned to glare at him. “I tole ya it’d be better if I grilled them,” he muttered in self defense. Ignoring him, Dante continued with the introductions.

“The one butchering the salad is Kane, and Maurice, my second, is doing what he does best … overseeing the other two.” Both men grinned at her, not the least put out. “I’m doing the potatoes,” Maurice contradicted, hitching a thumb in the direction of the microwave behind him. Shilo managed an uncertain smile at each of them, wary and more than a little uncomfortable since the room practically wreaked of testosterone, but disarmed by their easy smiles and the camaraderie that seemed to flow between them as they worked. None of the three, as far as she could see, was exactly a wizard in the kitchen, but they didn’t seem fazed by it. “Can I help?” she offered before she even realized she was going to. “Yes,” Dante replied promptly. “You can help us eat it.” His hand, which she realized had never left her back, slipped to her waist, and he guided her out of the kitchen again and down the hallway and into a formal dining room. When he’d helped her into a chair near one end of the table, he settled beside her, at the end. A few moments later, Kane, Jessie, and Maurice began to ferry plates and salad bowls and glasses of iced tea to the table. Maurice took the chair at the end opposite Dante, Jessie to her right hand, and Kane across from

her. The steak was more rare than she liked, and a tad on the tough side, but flavorful for all that. There were a few moments of uncomfortable constraint before Dante initiated a conversation that seemed work related. Although she enjoyed listening to them, Shilo didn’t make any attempt to take part in it. She always ate alone and wasn’t accustomed to dinner table conversation, and in any case she couldn’t ‘accidentally’ say more than she wanted to if she kept her mouth shut. Dante didn’t allow that to stand, however. “You said you were visiting the city?” he asked after a few minutes. Shilo merely looked at him instead of answering. “Yes,” she said finally, volunteering nothing else. “How long did you plan to stay?” Shilo frowned at her plate. “A few days.” “And then you planned to return home?” “Yes.” The men at the table exchanged glances. She was aware of it even though she didn’t actually look at any

of them. A prolonged silence fell and this time it was more uncomfortable. Shilo was almost sorry for it—was regretful, not that she was sorry she’d refused to allow Dante to interrogate her, but it had been rather nice listening to them talk among themselves. It was almost, she thought a little wistfully, like sitting down to eat with a family. The notion surprised her. She’d never really given a thought to what the ‘everyday’ life of a lycan must be like, but they could hardly go around as monsters all of the time. She supposed, particularly given the earlier discussion, they walked undetected among humans every day, worked with them, probably even socialized with them. She curbed her curiosity, however. Conversation required give and take. She couldn’t ask unless she was willing to contribute, and she wasn’t. “When did you first notice your gift?” Shilo’s head shot up at the question. She stared at Maurice. She supposed it could be considered a gift, but she’d sure as hell never considered it a ‘gift’. “You have a strange perception of gift,” she retorted finally.

Again, the men at the table exchanged glances, as if they could communicate with no more than facial expressions. Or maybe they were telepathic? “Are you … telepathic?” she asked the moment the thought occurred to her. Maurice’s dark brows rose. “We’re lycans.” Shilo reddened, feeling rebuked, though she wasn’t completely certain that was what it was. She didn’t pursue it. She wasn’t certain why she’d spoken so impulsively to begin with. It wasn’t a habit of hers. She ’d learned it was far safer merely to observe and listen until she gained whatever knowledge she was looking for. Asking questions invited questions, and she was no good at all at fabricating believable lies to substitute for the truth, and she certainly couldn’t tell the truth when the truth could always hurt her. She was both relieved and further unnerved when they finally finished the meal and moved into the living room—all of them. She took the chair Dante indicated, struggling to appear outwardly calm even though she was anything but relaxed. Maurice and Kane settled on the couch. Jessie

took the chair opposite hers and Dante sat on the footstool in front of her. “How much do you know about lycans?” he asked after studying her in silence for several moments. “Enough,” she said tartly. He tilted his head, studying her. His lips tightened after a moment. “All you want to know, is that it?” That pretty much summed it up, but she decided against agreeing with him when he looked pissed off. “The one who attacked you was a rogue.” Shilo eyed him with frank suspicion. “You said that. You’re saying he wasn’t … connected to you in any way?” He heard the disbelief in her voice, and he didn’t like it. She could see it in his expression. Well, that was just too fucking bad! She didn’t like being attacked either. She’d been minding her own business, not bothering anyone. “It’s against lycan law to attack or prey upon innocents,” he said tightly.

“Why were you there then?” “I was tracking him. He was stalking you. I didn’t know that at the time, however.” She studied his face, wondering why she believed him. “You aren’t going to ask me why he was stalking you?” he asked after another prolonged silence, looking more annoyed. “I didn’t think lycans had to have a particular reason.” His face darkened with anger that time. “You know why lycans are drawn to you, don’t you?” Shilo turned to look at Maurice as he spoke for the first time. “Drawn to me?” she echoed in surprise. “I thought it was just random … you’re saying they … you … Why?” “It’s because you’re a psychic. Your scent is … unlike other humans. And it’s far more appealing to lycans.” Shilo felt her throat close as that sank in. Angry tears blurred her eyes. “My gift?” she managed, feeling her chin wobble. “It’s not enough I’ve been hunted ….” She broke off, swallowing against the urge to cry,

realizing she’d said more than she’d intended. But it just wasn’t fair, she thought angrily! She hadn’t asked to be born like this! How ironic was it that the one thing she had to help her fight off their attentions was the same damned thing that was drawing them to her in the first place? “You can’t go home,” Dante said after a moment. “He has your scent now. He’ll follow you.” Shilo wasn’t certain whether she didn’t believe him or she just didn’t want to believe him. “They never have before.” Dante’s gaze was assessing. “Because you back tracked and managed to lose them, but that wasn’t what you were trying to do, was it? You didn’t know there could be lycans trying to follow you. Who has been hunting you?” She wasn’t about to answer that. The government almost certainly had a price on her head, especially considering she’d sabotaged their data banks and cleaned out the ‘company’ account when she’d fled. As far she was concerned they damned well owed her every penny of it. They’d stolen her entire childhood from her and any chance she might have had at a normal life, but they sure as hell wouldn’t see it that way. “It

was just an ex-boyfriend,” she lied a little sickly, “but that was a long time ago … years.” She could see he didn’t believe her, but she didn’t care as long as he had no idea why she was on the run and she could seethat hadn’t occurred to him. She shot to her feet. “I appreciate you helping me. Although I didn’ tneed your help,” she added. “I’d already taken care of him myself. If you’ll just take me back to my hotel, I’ll get my things together and leave.” Dante stood as she did, blocking her. “Sit down and at least hear me out.” Shilo sat abruptly, more because her knees had buckled than because he had demanded it. “He’s rogue, and that means he’s not concerned with our laws or yours. He wants you, and he isn’t going to give up just because you bested him once. The next time he comes after you, he’ll be prepared.” “Why does he want me?” Shilo asked uneasily. “He wants to take over this territory, but he doesn’t have the strength to do it, not as things stand. With you, he thinks he would.” Shilo gaped at him in disbelief. “He thinks he could

capture me and I’d actually cooperate with him? Either you’re mistaken or he is! And even if he is crazy enough to believe there’s a chance inhell he could make me help him, I’m not that powerful. Yousaw . You were there. I knocked him out, but it drained me completely.” “I saw what you’re capable of now,” Dante said grimly. “According to Maurice, and I see no reason to doubt his word, if he mated with you, he would give you lycan strengths, including the ability to heal faster. You would be far more powerful than you are now. And I can not, and will not, allow that to happen.” “Mated?” Shilo echoed, seizing on the one thing he’d mentioned that leapt out at her most prominently. “He thinks he can …fuck me into having more powerful electro-kinesis? Why that’s the stupidest, most insane …! God! Is there nolimit to the male ego? That’s … light-years ahead of fucking the bitch out of a woman, I must say! Or are you saying he means tobreed a more powerful electro-kinetic? Because if that’s the plan, it’s almost as insane as the other. I’m past my prime breeding years. Imight be able to produce one or two, but he sure as hell doesn’t have time to breed an army on me!” Dante caught her wrists, holding her hands firmly against her thighs. There was a mixture of amusement,

anger, and unmistakable desire in his eyes. “My guess is that he plans both,” he said tightly. “That’s what I’d do if it was me.”

Chapter Six Shilo’s belly went weightless as she stared at his taut face. “Ifyou were him?” “But I’m not.” Meaning, if he had a similar motive he wouldn’t hesitate to do exactly what he was accusing the rogue of? He’d all but come right out and admitted to being completely ruthless. Did that mean she could trust him because he was honest enough to admit it? Or that she couldn’t trust him because he was ruthless? If she was honest with herself, which she didn’t particularly want to be at the moment, the idea of him ‘ convincing’ her as he’d suggested left her breathless. She realized she did trust him, at least to an extent. He hadn’t made any attempt to force himself on her despite

the fact that he’d had every opportunity of doing so, regardless of the desire she’d seen in his eyes and the even clearer evidence of his arousal. But the other man, Maurice, had implied that it was something about her scent as a psychic, and he’d not only told her he could control it, he’d done so. Moreover, he’d made in painfully clear he considered her undesirable in every other way. She swallowed against an indecipherable knot of emotion in her throat as she found herself wanting to believe him. Was it something about him? Or was it her —aging, maybe? A by-product of having spent so many years alone now? Had the need for human contact finally reached a point where she couldn’t even trust her instincts anymore? Not that he was human—and maybe her thinking that way was just more evidence she couldn’t trust her own judgment? It didn’t help that she was so sexually aware of him, and she wondered if that strange ‘quirk’ Maurice had spoken of went both ways. Was she drawn to lycan because of some chemical thing the same way they were drawn to her? She didn’t think so. The first one had scared her half to death and, although she’d been fortunate enough since

that she had managed to elude them and avoid another really nasty encounter, she didn’t believe for one moment that she’d subconsciously wanted to be caught. Maybe she just wanted to believe him because what he ’d told her about the rogue had scared her? Because she wasn’t completely confident that she could throw the rogue off her trail and it was terrifying even to think of an entire pack coming after her. She moistened her lips, dragging her gaze from his and looking down at his hands curled around her wrists. “You don’t have to hold my hands,” she said finally. “I’ ve never attacked anyone.” She lifted her head again and met his gaze. “I only use it to defend myself.” A faint flush crept beneath his swarthy skin. He uncurled his hands and withdrew them. “I’d like to go home now.” He frowned. “Haven’t you listened to anything I’ve said?” he asked harshly. “Yes. That’s why I’m going to go home. It’s … safe there and, now that I know about the lycans, I’ll be extra careful.” She drew a shuddering breath. “I’m sure there’s something I could do to throw them off the scent. I’d be happy to listen to any suggestions you

might have.” “You’d be safer if you stayed with us.” Shilo stared at him for a long moment and finally turned to look at the others. Color crept into her cheeks as she briefly met their gazes. She hardly knew them, but she was inclined to like them. They’d been pleasant and courteous and friendly. She didn’t want to insult them. “The … uh … scent thing. Wouldn’t that be a problem, though?” Dante’s face darkened. “No, it wouldn’t.” He looked more uncomfortable than angry. Shilo frowned, thinking that over. As embarrassing as she found it to talk about it, though, she needed to know for future reference. Maurice had said it was ‘appealing’. Dante had said, though, that he was only aroused because she was a woman, even if she was human. “Is it just … sort of an identifier, then? It’s not … it isn’t like a … lure, or anything?” “It wouldn’t be a problem. You’re under my protection. This is my territory, and it’s my job to enforce lycan law within it.” That didn’t exactly answer her question. Or maybe it did? She would’ve felt more relieved if he’d just laid it

out in plain English so that she was absolutely sure. “Well, that’s nice to know, and, if I should ever come back, which I doubt I will, I’ll keep that in mind,” she said, smiling at him. “But I don’t live in your territory —in fact, I’m positive it’s an area not claimed by any lycans.” Dante wrestled with his rising impatience. He was not accustomed to having his orders questioned. He was willing to make a concession in her case and try to persuade her because she was human and not directly under his authority, but he’d already determined what he intended to do, what would be best, and if he had to hogtie her, she wasn’t going anywhere. It had ceased to be only a matter of protecting her and his territorial interests from the moment Maurice had said she wasn’t off limits. He wanted her … so bad he could taste it. He hadn’t been able to think far beyond breeding her since he’d caught his first taste of her scent. If it was true the council wouldn’t object, he meant to have her and he had no intention of having to try to track her down to claim her. He had to take care of the rogue problem first, though. And then he meant to make some careful inquiries about the laws governing psychics. He sure as hell didn’ t want to stir up unwelcome interest in her that might

result in someone else, of higher authority, swooping in to snatch her out from under his nose. Of equal concern to him and importance, although he was having a damned hard time focusing on it, he wanted to be sure it wouldn’t harm her. He was still uneasy, not completely convinced it would be safe for her, for him to claim her. Otherwise he would simply overcome her objections and go ahead and mark as her as his and worry about the consequences with the council later. His mating instincts had kicked in with a vengeance, though—mark, breed, protect. “I can guarantee your safety if you stay within my protection—just until we’ve taken care of the rogues. Once we’ve done that, you wouldn’t have to worry about the possibility of being tracked. I could assure safe passage.” She looked uncomfortable. He could see she was uneasy about his proposal, but also reluctant to refuse to cooperate. “You wouldn’t be staying here, of course,” he added smoothly since he was pretty damned sure most, if not all, of her uneasiness had to do with his raging hormones. “But certainly inside the community. I’d

arrange for you to stay with the female and young pack members.” She looked surprised and somewhat relieved. It irritated the hell of him, but he supposed he could see her point. He’d been all over her. Even if hehad managed to reel himself in, she had every reason to doubt he’d be able to continue to control himself. And she was right. He sure as hell wouldn’t be able to if he remained in close proximity to her for any length of time. “This isn’t everyone?” she asked hesitantly. Dante smiled grimly. “Not by a long shot.” She frowned. “I’d be safe, though? If I stayed with the women?” “There are far fewer females than males. We guard our females very carefully.” “And this would be only until you’ve had the chance to take care of the rogue problem? And then I could go home?” His smile widened to a grin. “Unless of course, in the meantime, you changed your mind and decided to stay.”

Shilo studied him a little doubtfully and finally chuckled when she realized he was teasing. “Oh no! No chance of that, but I suppose, if it’ll help you out, I could stay a few days more. I’d really rather not worry about looking over my shoulder,” she said frankly. “I’m confident that I could manage it if I had to, but it’ll be much better if I don’t have worry about that, at least.” “Good,” Dante said decisively, rising to his feet and reaching for her hand to draw her up. “We’ll take you to check out of your hotel and gather your belongings and then escort you to a safe house.” Shilo discovered she actually felt almost at ease as she settled in the SUV with Dante, and Maurice, Jessie, and Kane piled into the back. She’d been more unnerved than she wanted to admit, even to herself, to learn that she’d become the target of a rogue pack of lycans. She thought she could’ve managed on her own. After all, she’dbeen managing for a very long time, but there was a lot to be said for being guarded by no less than four big, strapping lycans—more than that, she supposed, since Dante had said the lycan community was fairly large and he was top ‘dog’, so to speak. Not that she trusted them completely. If she’d been so trusting she would never have managed to elude capture as long as she had—And she was pretty sure she was the only one who was still ‘at large’. She hadn’t had

contact with any of the other members of the ‘test group ’ in years. They’d tried to keep in touch, at first, but discovered that only made it easier for the Feds to find them. Thinking of the others caused her a pang. She missed them—not that they’d really been close. The circumstances had neither encouraged nor really allowed a chance for them to become close, but most of them had been in the same situation as she had been, snatched from their homes while they were very young, so that they were the closest thing to an actual family any of them had. Except for the control team that had monitored and tested them, there was no one else for any of them, and they’dcertainly not felt any connection to the control team—aside from hating them, that is. “You have a large family?” Dante asked, breaking the silence, his thoughts running so close to hers that she wondered, again, if they had some psychic abilities of their own. “Nope,” she said, smiling. He frowned faintly when she didn’t elaborate. “They live with you?”

“Oh … uh.” She bit her lip, turning to look out of the window while she considered the pros and cons of telling the truth. It was usually best to just avoid answering that sort of question. On the other hand, she didn’t want him to think nobody would come looking if she disappeared. That was dangerous in another way. “I only ask because it occurred to me you should probably let them know so they wouldn’t worry if you were expected back.” Relief filled her. She hadn’t thought about that, but she realized it was the sort of thing families would probably do—worry about each other like that. She turned to smile at him. “If you could stop at a pay phone?” Dante slid a calculating glance in her direction. It didn’ t escape him that she hadn’t answered directly, and the request to stop at a pay phone was equally telling. She was used to covering her tracks. He merely nodded, however. When they’d reached her hotel, he walked up with her while Maurice, Kane, and Jessie took up positions in the lobby to keep an eye out. She surprised him again when they reached her hotel room. Except for a couple of wayward articles, everything was already neatly tucked into her suitcase as if she was prepared to leave—except she’d said she’

d planned to stay several days. “You’ve been here a while?” “A few days,” she replied easily. They stopped at a pay phone between the hotel and the safe house he’d chosen for her. Again, he and the others formed a watchful perimeter, but he stationed himself near enough to hear her phone call, counting on the fact that he’d already determined she knew less than nothing about lycans, whatever she’d said to the contrary. She proved it when she made the call. After chatting very gaily with a recording for several moments, she hung up, smiled at him, and headed back to the SUV. She didn’t know a damned thing about lycans or she would’ve realized he could hear both sides of the ‘ conversation’ without any difficulty whatsoever. And she had no one to know or care if she vanished. That realization pricked at him, aroused a sense of protectiveness in him that went beyond the growing sense of possessiveness he felt toward her and at the

same time was uncomfortably at odds with it. Not that he had any intention of allowing it to deter him from claiming her if it transpired that that was possible. He realized, though, that it was going to be a hell of a challenge. Everything he’d learned about her was giving off alarms. Her abilities might make her stronger than the average human, but, emotionally, he had a strong feeling wooing her was going to be like walking around on eggshells. She was alone in the world, and he had a feeling she had been most of her life. She didn’t dare allow anyone to get close because someone, and he suspected it was the government, had been hunting her for a very long time. It might just be because she was worried about how her fellow humans would react if they discovered what she could do. In fact, that was probably part of it, but it damned sure wasn’t all of it. That phony telephone call was the trick of someone accustomed to covering their tracks. In fact, she’d already let it slip that she was ‘used’ to it. It was also a clear indication, if he’d been in any doubt, that she didn’t really trust him. He was going to have alot of issues to overcome, and his own libido was liable to be his worst enemy. If he unleashed the full brunt of it, she was going to take to

her heels and he wouldn’t see anything but the dust she kicked up in retreat. He tamped those thoughts, realizing he was getting ahead of himself. He didn’t even know, yet, if he could pursue his inclination. He realized, though, that he was getting in deep, way over his head, fast. The streak of possessiveness that had gripped him right off was getting more pronounced the longer he was around her. The more he allowed himself to think about claiming her, the harder it was to consider that he might end up having to let her go. He couldn’t afford to put off the research and focus on the rogues first, he realized. He had to know about Shilo first or he was going to be a raving lunatic before this was over with. Once he knew, for absolute certain, whether or not he could go after her, then he could focus on the rogue problem and get that out of the way so that he could concentrate on nailing Shilo. That comment about being past her prime breeding years bothered him. He’d guessed she must be in her late twenties or early thirties. The comment seemed to confirm it—because the early and mid-twenties were the prime. It wasn’t that he was deeply concerned about breeding her. He’d be perfectly satisfied with one or two. It was her attitude about it that worried him and whether or not she was game to the idea of the one or two. He supposed he could give up on the idea of

breeding his own little Dantes, but he sure as hell didn’t want to if he didn’t have to. He slid a possessive glance over her at the thought, feeling a welling of satisfaction at the image that rose in his mind of her belly swollen with his child. She smiled at him tentatively, a question in her eyes, and he grinned at her wolfishly. She didn’t have a fucking clue of what he had in mind for her, and that suited him for the moment. She wouldn’t know what hit her. She mightthink she had no interest in discovering what fucking a lycan was like, but once he was done with her …. He dragged in a harsh breath as he parked the SUV at last, surreptitiously adjusting his aching erection. There was no fucking point in trying to will the damned thing down, he thought irritably. It wasn’t going to stay down —certainly not as long as he was within scenting distance of her. On the other hand, he couldn’t help but notice it made her distinctly uneasy and distrustful of his motives. Climbing out of the vehicle, he went around to her door and helped her out, keeping a possessive hand on the small of her back as he escorted her to the door.

Julie answered it, smiling readily, although he noticed her nostrils quiver as she got a whiff of Shilo’s scent. She sent him a questioning look. He frowned. He’d called ahead to make the arrangements and explain everything. “This is Shilo. Shilo—Julie. She’s den mother here.” Julie stepped back, allowing them to enter. Nearly half a dozen pups, from ten down, were romping friskily around the living room. Although the TV was blaring with cartoons, none of them were paying much attention to it. Shilo put on brakes. That was a bad sign, he thought wryly, giving her an extra nudge with his hand to get her started again. The children stopped what they were doing abruptly, gaped at Shilo like they’d never seen a human before, and then began to drift toward her. She tensed all over, sent him a look he had difficultly interpreting and sidled a little closer to him. He slid his hand from her waist to her shoulder, partly to comfort her and partly to make it clear to all of them that he considered herhis property. Something flickered in Julie’s eyes. She nodded almost imperceptibly and favored Shilo with a wide smile. “We’re so glad to have you here with us, Shilo.

Don’t mind the pups. They’re just curious.” Maurice had entered the house behind them with Shilo ’s suitcase. Dante jerked his head slightly toward the stairs. “Why don’t you just have a seat in the living room while I show Maurice where to put your things? Unless you want to go on up now?” Shilo divided a look between Dante and Julie he could only interpret as unadulterated fear. She looked pale enough to pass out. He’d intended to do no more than make the introductions and depart. Julie was good with people. He’d thought she and Shilo would hit it off right away. He saw immediately, though, that he’d completely underestimated Shilo’s fear of lycans—mostly because she had been damned good at hiding it right up until this moment. Heneeded some breathing room. He’d been in a constant state of arousal since he’d first encountered Shilo. With an effort, he tamped the urge to run and guided her into the living room, dragging her down on the couch beside him. As flattering as he would’ve found her urge to cling to him under other circumstances, the timing wasn’t what he could’ve

wished for, and moreover, he knew damned well he hadn’t suddenly become her anchor. She was only clinging to him because he was most familiar. Resisting the urge to take full advantage and drag her onto his lap, he shifted to put a little more distance between himself and Shilo and smiled at the youngest of the group, a female just learning to walk. She grinned back at him and toddled over to climb into his lap. Shilo and the baby looked at one another with almost identical expressions of wide eyed curiosity and wariness as he settled the baby on one knee. He found himself fighting the urge, again, to drag Shilo onto his lap. Instead, he curled one arm around the baby to secure her and slipped his other hand to Shilo’s back, rubbing his hand soothingly along it—not that it soothed him worth a shit. He winced as the toddler inadvertently pounded her heel against his erection. He’d forgotten the children seemed to go unerringly for the most tender spots. “This is Felicity,” he introduced the baby to Shilo. Shilo smiled at the baby uneasily. “Nice to meet you.” “She doesn’t talk yet.”

“Oh.” Shilo reddened. “You aren’t used to being around children.” She sent him a quick glance. “Uh … no.” He smiled with an effort, trying to put her at ease. “They don’t bite … At least, hardly ever.” She turned pale, turned to look at the children crowding around them uneasily. “That was a joke.” She bared her teeth, but it didn’t look like a smile, sidling closer to him when the children edged a little closer to her—drawn, no doubt, he thought wryly, by that wildly appealing scent of hers. Even the children weren’t proof against it. Giving up on trying to maintain any kind of distance, Dante slipped his arm around Shilo’s shoulders and drew her closer. Unable to resist, he dipped his head to hers and dragged in a dizzying lungful of her scent. The pungent scent of fear threaded it, tamping his ardor somewhat, puzzling the hell of him. “What is it, baby?” he murmured against her hair as he nuzzled her temple. She drew back, sending him a startled look.

It was just as well he had both arms occupied, he thought wryly. The urge to drag her even closer and kiss her senseless was so strong he might have done so before he’d had time to consider he couldn’t … not until heknew it would be alright. She sent him a tremulous smile. “I’m just not used to being around children,” she whispered. He couldn’t help himself. He slipped his hand from her shoulder to her cheek, stroking the soft skin. “Would you be more comfortable at my place?” he murmured-because there was nothing he would like better than having her in his bed, however inadvisable he knew it to be. She dragged in a shuddering breath, seemed to brace herself. “This will be fine. Really. It’s only for a few days anyway ….” Not if he had anything to do with it, he thought grimly, but he forced his lips into a smile he hoped didn’t look as feral as it felt. “That’s my girl.” She reddened, sent him another doubtful look, and returned her attention to the children, who’d crowded around her.

“What’s your name?” the eldest boy asked. Dante gave him a stern look. “This is Shilo. She’s mine, and you’ll treat her with respect.” The boy blushed. Shilo’s head whipped toward him, her eyes wide and filled with wariness again. He bared his teeth at her. “Under my protection,” he corrected himself.Lady , he thought irritably,if you keep looking at me like that we’re both going to have something to regret about tonight. You are so close to having my cock shoved up your tight little pussy right now …. Fortunately for both of them, Julie returned at that moment. “Bath time!” she announced when she reentered the room. “Charlie, you take Etienne and Dax upstairs and help them.” Reluctantly, Dante eased his hold on Shilo. As torturous as it was, it was still better than nothing. It was going to be a long, long miserable night, he thought wryly as he stood up and took his leave.

Shilo would never have believed she’d feel so abandoned when Dante left but there was no getting around the fact that she did. As short as their acquaintance was, and despite the fact that she’d lived alone so long she shouldn’t have felt the least bit clingy, being left in a house full of complete strangers totally unnerved her. It didn’t help that they were also lycan, but she was pretty sure she would’ve been panic-stricken anyway. She hadn’t considered, she thought wryly, how unaccustomed she was to being around a lot of people in this sort of situation—mostly because she never had been. Julie seemed nice enough, friendly, but she was a lycan female and that was almost more unnerving than being around the males. That and the children. Except when she’d been a child herself, she’d never been around children at all … not cooped up with them except in a train or bus—whatever method of public transportation she had used when she’d been on the run … literally. To all intents and purposes, she would always be on the run, she knew, but she hadn’t been in constant flight for years now, not since she’d bought the little farm miles from any kind of civilization to hide away from the world. She thought she would’ve found it disconcerting if they ’d been human children, but these weren’t.

“They like your scent,” Julie said by way of explanation for the way the children were climbing all over her now that Dante had left and was no longer there to reprimand them. “They’re just familiarizing themselves with you.” Shilo pasted a smile on her lips, struggling to keep her panic at bay. “They’re so cute,” she managed. “Are they all yours?” Julie chuckled. “Only Felicity and Charlie. Etienne and Dax are orphans. And Johnnie and Davie belong to Shelly—one of my pack sisters. They’re just visiting.” Shilo smiled again, searching her mind for conversation. “All boys … except for little Felicity,” she commented. Julie sent her a strange look. “Felicity’s our little miracle baby. Lycans aren’t exactly prone to having females to start with, and we almost always run into trouble even if we do manage to get pregnant with a female. Would you care for a drink? I have alcohol!” Shilo smiled more easily at the playful way Julie announced drinks, as if it was contraband. She was about to decline. She didn’t drink alcohol for obvious reasons--it made the lips flap and she couldn’t afford

that. And she certainly had no interest in drinking alone, particularly when loneliness ate at her a lot of the time. There was no surer way of becoming an alcoholic than to decide to drown her troubles. “You look like you could use something to help you relax,” Julie added. “I guess I could,” Shilo admitted wryly. “Go easy on me, though. I’m a cheap drunk.” Julie chuckled. “Good thing! The guys wiped me out of beer the last time they were here. I’ve got the fixings for mixed drinks, though. Screw driver ok?” Shilo nodded instead of telling her she didn’t know what a screw driver was. If it would settle her nerves, though, maybe, just this once, she’d take two.

Chapter Seven The moment Dante returned to the house, he headed for his office and shut the door, a clear signal to the others that he didn’t want to be disturbed. Settling at his

computer, he opened his browser and then merely stared at it for several moments, trying to decide the order of importance of what he needed to do. Finally, he cruised over to the lycan headquarters site. Before he got in any deeper than he already was, he wanted to know where he stood with Shilo. It took a bit of delving to find the information he was looking for—which didn’t surprise him. What did surprise him was that there was any information at all. Then again, he’d never looked for anything pertaining to psychics. Truth be told, he’d figured they didn’t exist outside of fertile imaginations, when he’d given it any thought at all, which wasn’t much. He was pleased to discover that Maurice hadn’t steered him wrong. There actuallywere bylaws governing associations with psychics. The information was buried deeply enough in the page to make it clear that this was an area the council preferred members to steer clear of, but mating with themwas sanctioned, mostly because it was possible, there was a disproportionate number of lycan females to males, and the psychics were pretty irresistible to the lycan male anyway. Apparently earlier attempts to dissuade the lycan males from fraternizing with psychics had led to some big trouble and the council had decided to back down.

A sense of supreme satisfaction filled him. “You are so not going to know what hit you, baby,” he murmured under his breath. Relieved that he wasn’t going to find himself on the wrong side of his superiors and get his hand gnawed off if he touched her, he scrolled down to see what else they had to say on the subject. That was a little less pleasing. Naturally enough, they didn’t have the same standing in the pact as a lycan female, and since they were human, could not hold the standing of an alpha female—unless the female happened to be a very strong alpha female among their own kind—which, unfortunately, Shilo clearly was not. Regardless, their frailty as humans meant usage was limited to the upper echelons, which was a considerable relief. He didn’t like that he was going to have to share her at all, but he hadn’t actually thought for a moment that he wouldn’t. Her standing as a human aside, he’d never even run across an alpha female andall of the females werealways shared. It was a good bit of consolation to know he wasn’t going to have to share her with the entire pack—just Maurice, Jessie, and Kane—which worked out nicely, if he did say so himself—a whole week each!

The alpha male had priority breeding rights. Not that he’d had any doubts about that, but seeing it posted brought a feral grin to his lips … and inflated his cock again. “Down boy,” he muttered. “You’ll get your chance, but not tonight.” Frowning over it for several moments, he decided to see what he could find out about breeding human females. That was way outside of his realm of knowledge, but he had a sneaking suspicion that there was a world of difference in breeding the human female as opposed to the lycan female. He mostly steered clear of them as much as possible since they were off limits —why run the risk of temptation when they were? There were always condoms to minimize the risk of infecting one, but they weren’t an absolute. The more chances one took, the higher the probability that eventually he might infect one and there’d be his conscience to deal with even if he managed to keep the council from finding out he’d screwed up and infected a human with lycanthropy. They were more interested, he supposed, in keeping the human community in the dark about lycans, but he’d seen what it could do to humans and it wasn’t pretty. He would’ve noticed, though, he was sure, if they came

into heat. Regardless of what he’d implied to Shilo, he wasn’t immune to the appeal of the human female. It was unsettling that he couldn’t actually count on marking her as he would have been able to with a lycan female—a relief to know he didn’t have to worry about harming her by infecting her—but still worrisome that the same abilities that protected her from adverse reaction to lycanthropy also meant he couldn’t count on binding her to him in the usual way. As far as the lycan community was concerned, she would be his, but that wasn’t going to be a hell of a lot of consolation to him if the marking didn’t ‘take’ with her and she bolted. Breeding her, though, that was a sure thing, he was certain. Once her body accepted his seed and she was carrying his child,she would know whom she belonged to. It took him damned near an hour and a half to isolate the information onthat subject that he needed. He was a little shocked andnot happy to discover how ‘hit or miss’ it was with them. On the good side of that, he had priority, by god!, and that two week ‘iffy’ period suited him just fine since he knew damned well all he had to do was ‘be there’ at the right time and place and it wouldn’t be iffy on his side. Maurice, Kane, and Jessie were just going to have to divide the other two weeks between them until he nailed her—or slug it out.

Not his problem. He sat drumming his fingers on the desk top thoughtfully for a while, considering how he was going to track down the cycle when there were no obvious signs like there were with the lycan females—hell they didn’t even no for sure themselves! Fortunately, that thought connected in his mind with a good possibility. She was staying with Julie. He’d just have Julie keep watch for him. Their cycles were roughly twenty eight days. All he needed to do was to mark one and he could keep up with it after that—assuming he ran into trouble the first time around, which he didn’t actually expect. Things could get a little tricky, though, if she wasn’t any where near her fertile time. She was thinking in terms of staying a few days. If marking her alone didn’t do the trick, she was going to start getting antsy after that and he was going to have his hands full. He frowned uneasily. Considering the way she felt about lycans, getting her to the point ofattempting the marking might be a challenge in itself. She wasn’t indifferent to him, though. He might’ve been half insane with the lust driving him toward recklessness, but he hadn’t been so far gone that he’d hadn’t smelled her desire for him. She wanted him. She might think shehated lycans, but she wanted him.

It bothered the hell out him that she disliked and distrusted lycans. He didn’t have to think long or hard to figure that one out. Some stupid, randy son-of-a-bitch hadn’t been able, or willing, to control himself and had ruined it for everyone else. She was going to take some serious gentling. He needed to know just how serious, and it was damned sure obvious she wasn’t going to be giving him any hints. He’d never run across a woman so disinclined to open up about herself. The tricky part was going to be figuring out how to get the information he wanted. Her name sure as hell wasn’ t Shilo McKenzie. Nobody as cautious as she was would be using their real name. Pulling out a pad and paper, he began to scribble down possibilities. He was going to be seriously screwed if her real name was nothing at all like her assumed name, but he decided it was a good possibility she’d picked something similar. When he’d finished his list of possibles—Sheila, Shelby, Sherry, and all the Mac names that came to mind—he dredged her up in his mind’s eye and began working up a physical description. Arm pit height. He was just over six feet, so he figured that would put her around five foot two or three. Good thing she was under average height. That would

be helpful in narrowing things down. Eyes—beautiful. He put down hazel, because he knew they were and then wrote down brown? Green? Beside that since his figured he couldn’t count on whoever had recorded her stats to pinpoint it. Thirtyish—he was pretty sure on that one—give or take two or three years, anyway. The comment about her prime breeding years was one of the most useful bits of information he’d managed to get out of her. If she thought so, that probably put her on the top side of thirty. Identifying marks? Unfortunately not his teeth, although he’d been damned tempted. Shoving that thought aside, he mentally flipped through the images he’d collected—no moles, birthmarks, or noticeable scars, and he’d thoroughly examined every delectable inch of her—several times already. He frowned, abruptly remembering her bush had had a definite auburn glint to it. “Sneaky woman!” he muttered. He’d been sure her blond hair was natural—not that he cared, but now that he’d remembered that, he realized her skin tones, in particular her nipples, were definitely indicative of a red head—auburn—something reddish.

Weight—she’d kill him for that one. Women hated for men to even notice their weight let alone guess at it. Very nicely rounded, but taut and firm. That meant a good bit of muscle, which was heavier. He put her down at one twenty … give or take ten, he decided. No stretch marks which meant it was unlikely there’d been much variation--no rapid or excessive gains or losses. No children. He sat tapping his chin thoughtfully with the end of the pen as he studied over his description and tried to decide if there was anything he could add. She’d hinted at the fact that she’d been alone, on the run, for years. Five years? Ten? He could start with five, he decided, and work back. Setting the pad aside finally, he went back to the key board. It didn’t take long, or a whole lot of effort, to get a general idea. He let out a long, low whistle. She was on every damned wanted list the government had. “Baby, you’ve been a very, very bad little girl!” he muttered. He sat back in his chair, considering that for a while, idly rocking back and forth. It sure as hell didn’t fit his image of her—sweet, vulnerable, without an ounce of malice in her—and he trusted his instincts. Whatever the fuck this was about, it wasn’t anything she’d done,

he decided. Settling again, he read over each report more carefully. No two of them listed the same ‘crime’, and it was always something fairly minor, non-violent. In fact, she was listed as nothing more than a ‘witness in connection with’ on several. And inevery case, orders were not to approach her but to report the sighting to an agency he’d never heard of. Last verified sighting was seven years ago—but they hadn’t taken her off the watch list, which was damned strange in and of itself because the statute of limitations would’ve run out on most of the stuff she was listed in connection with. The list of sightings helped him pinpoint a more definite timeline for her. Whatever it was she’d done, or been involved in, it had been at least ten years ago. So she would’ve been around twenty? None of the damned reports had been very forthcoming about her age, either, unfortunately. She was only mentioned as ‘around thirty’. He supposed that was because it was so hard to pinpoint her age just from looking at her and the description was geared toward recognizing her, but it was damned unhelpful. It was nearly dawn before his determined hacking helped him to track down the agency most interested in her and then tap into their databanks. He slipped in, downloaded what he could grab, and broke the connection.

He didn’t get much—almost nothing about her in particular—but he did find what he was looking for. It was an agency for the exploitation of psychics. Not that they’d put it that way. “Scientific research, my ass,” he growled. No wonder his poor baby was such a wreck. She’d been institutionalized in that fucking freak show when she was just a baby. They’d broken her, and there was no fucking way in hell to fix something like that. It was going to take a lot more gentling than he’d figured on. He considered that for a moment and realized it didn’t make one bit of difference in the way he felt about her —except to make him feel more protective and possessive if possible. She needed him. She might not realize it yet, but she did. He could protect her from those assholes. She’d spent way the hell too much time by herself, looking over her shoulder. She needed peace. She needed the connection the lycan community could give her. She needed a life—a real one—a man, children, a future.

Shutting down his system, he got up, stretched, and left his office. Leaving her with Julie had been the best idea he’d ever had. Julie could bring her out of her shell if anybody could. He’d need to bring Julie into his confidence, though, give her an idea of what she was dealing with so she’d have a clearer idea of how to handle Shilo. It didn’t hurt that she’d be getting in some much needed time and experience with the little ones. She was going to need it. If he had anything to do with it, he thought with a wolfish grin, that pretty little belly of hers was going to be swelling fairly soon. Feeling considerably better for the way he’d spent his night than he’d expected to, he headed to the kitchen for refueling. Maurice, Kane, and Jessie arrived in the kitchen for breakfast just about the time he dropped bread in the toaster. “Good timing,” he muttered. Maurice grinned. “I smelled the coffee and bacon. You been up all night?” Dante nodded, a satisfied grin curling his lips. “It was time well spent, though.” Maurice looked hopeful.

Irritation flickered through Dante as his possessiveness rose to the forefront again, but he couldn’t help but chuckle. He was feeling pretty damned cheerful himself and pumped with a sense of anticipation despite his weariness. He’d tried to tamp his enthusiasm, knowing he could be looking at serious disappointment, but there was no getting around the fact that he hadn’t been able to tamp it by much. The relief he felt just knowing he had a green light was almost as profound as the excitement for the hunt pumping through him. He shook his head. “Food first, and then I’ll lay out the ground rules.” Kane and Jessie exchanged a look and then studied Dante and Maurice speculatively. Looking cautiously optimistic, they settled at the kitchen counter and proceeded to help put away a dozen eggs, two pounds of bacon, a little better than half a loaf of bread and nearly a gallon of coffee. Maurice glanced at his watch when they’d finished. “You going in today?” Dante shook his head. “I was at it all night. You were right, though. The council doesn’t exactly approve— pure blood and all that—but she’s all ours … except for the little matter of convincing her, I mean.”

“You’re serious?” Jessie asked sharply, his eyes lighting with anticipation. “Absolutely. I’m going to be clear on a few points up front, though. I have priority breeding rights, per council law, and I mean to exercise that right.” He studied the faces of the three men around him while that sank in. None of them looked happy about it, but he could see they’d expected it. They curbed their disappointment. Maurice looked the most resentful, but he was pack beta and knew he had second rights and, although he looked for several moments as if he was considering an objection, he finally tamped his irritation, as well. “Secondly, and this is a big one, she’s human—usage limited to upper echelon, which means the four of us, period. You make damned sure everybody else gets that. If any of them even look at her cross-eyed, I’m going to nail their ass to the wall. Also, since she’s human, she’s frail—this isn’t just anappearance of being a delicate little flower as it so often is with our females,mes ami . This is an absolute fact. Any one of you that forgets that answers to me. Clear?” All three men shifted uncomfortably. Maurice seemed on the point of saying something, but apparently decided against it.

“You have a problem, Maurice? Spit it out.” Maurice shrugged. “I was just thinking that part’s going to be tricky. Aside from the fact that none of us has ever actually copulated with a human female—or I haven’t, anyway—there’s the little matter of the effect she has on us. That’s going to be hard to curb.” “Can you handle it or not?” Dante demanded tightly. “Because if there’s any doubt in your mind, you might want to sit this dance out.” Maurice reddened, his face going taut with anger, but finally nodded. Dante looked a question at Kane, waited until he’d nodded, and then Jessie. “I can handle it boss man,” Jessie assured him, grim faced with his own anxieties but determined. Satisfied that he’d pounded home the necessity of being careful with Shilo, he outlined what he’d been able to determine about her background and pointed out that they couldn’t afford to crowd her. “For now, old school rules. You’ll be perfect gentlemen and make nice, but no encroaching. I’ll initiate her myself—and I’ m playing it by ear. You might as well get it through your thick skulls right now that it’s going to be a fairly long wait. Since she’s psychic, not an ordinary human

and not lycan, we can’t count on marking her in the usual way, and I’m not about to screw this up by taking the chance of scaring the shit out of her. I’d be all too happy to ignore her objections and fuck the hell out of her if I could be sure she was made when I was done with her. Since I can’t, though, and she wouldn’t handle that sort of aggression well if it didn’t take, I’m not going to ruin my chances by trying it.” “What about your promise to her?” Dante shrugged but finally grinned. “I never actually said I’d keep my hands off her, did I?” “It was implied, though,” Jessie pointed out. “Women can be pretty obstinate about these things.” “I gave her my word I’d protect her. I fully intend to. And her concern was in being attacked—that’s not going to happen. You’ll charm her into your bed, or you won’t get her at all,” Dante said grimly. “Being part of the upper echelon only gives you the right to try. There aren’t any guarantees with this one.” A slow grin curled Jessie’s lips. “I’ve never minded a challenge.” “You wouldn’t,” Kane growled. “Next to Dante you’re the biggest chick magnet here.”

Maurice glared at him. “Says you?” he snarled. “Says the chicks,” Kane snapped back at him. “You think I like that any better than you do?” “So you’ll have to work harder,” Dante said coolly. “Once I mark her, she’ll be living here with us—no way in hell am I going to take any chances with her. That’ll give everybody plenty of opportunities for seduction. I’m thinking she’s a warm hearted little sole. If you run out of other options, try for pity sex.” Kane reddened with indignation. “Like hell!” “Suit yourself,” Dante said, shrugging and then rising and giving an all over stretch. “I’m for bed. Find out what you can about that rogue pack before you come in this evening, Maurice, but watch what you say around Shilo. The only thing holding her here at the moment is the threat they represent to her. I want that matter settled, pronto, but she’s not to know about it.”

Chapter Eight

Rising around noon, Dante showered and dressed and then gave Julie a call. “Can you talk?” “She’s in the backyard with the pups. I can see her from here, though. What’s up?” Dante looked down at the front of his jeans. Shoving his hand inside his waistband, he adjusted himself. “A couple of things ….” He gave her a brief outline of Shilo’s background. “I’m counting on you to befriend her. She needs a friend, Julie.” “That won’t be hard. I like her.” Some of the tension went out of him. “I’m glad to hear that.” He paused, wondering if he should just leave it at that, but time was something he didn’t have a lot of. “I also need you to keep a close eye on her and mark her cycle for me.” “Her what?” He explained it. “Ok, this is getting way too fucking weird, even for me. Exactly why do you need this information?”

“Cut the crap, Julie! You know damned well why I want it,” he growled irritably. “You going rogue on us, boss man?” “It’s sanctioned, Julie,” he ground out, irritated at having to explain himself. “I already checked.” “Poor baby! And she doesn’t have a clue.” “I’m serious, damn it!” There was a prolonged silence on the other end of the line. “You’re in deep, aren’t you?” Dante reddened. “It’s that obvious?” “Maybe not to her—make that seriously doubtful. I know you, though. You could’ve knocked me over with a feather when I came down last night and caught you cuddling her! I never thought I’d see the day—Mr. cool, calm, and collected babe magnet—and why should I ever settle down?” “Are you through yet?” Dante growled irritably. Julie chuckled. “A word of advice?”

“Spill it.” “Stop looking at her like that if you don’t want her to burn rubber getting out of here.” “Like what?” Dante demanded uncomfortably. Julie fell silent again. “Look, Dante,” she said, her voice serious now. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but … the odds aren’t in your favor on this one. Maybe you should consider cutting your losses?” Dante felt a cold sweat pop from his pores. A wave of nausea followed it. “Did she say something?” “Oh god, Dante. You’ve got it bad. Fell like a ton of bricks, didn’t you?” Feeling his face heat, Dante ground his teeth. “Did she say something that made you think she wouldn’t consider it?” “A lot, actually. I got her drunk last night. I just had this feeling about her, you know? Figured she needed to talk, and I could see she wasn’t going to without a big push. Did she tell you her first encounter with a lycan the stupid rogue bastard nearly raped her?” “I’d guessed that,” Dante said tightly.

“Well, she was just a kid--she’d never even been with a man at all--no boyfriends—no experience of any kind. They monitored them all the time in that stinking place she grew up in. This is deep down stuff, Dante, serious trust issues. She isn’t going to get over this.” “I know. We can help her get past it, though.” “She thinks she already has. She went through a half a dozen ‘boyfriends’, taking the ‘cure’. If you ask me, though, except for the fact that she did manage to get over her fear of being touched at all, they only made it worse. Didn’t sound to me like one of them was worth hanging. She thinks its apples and oranges, though, and the oranges are worse.” “I got that impression, too,” Dante said wryly. “And you’re still going to pursue this?” Dante swallowed a little sickly, feeling as if someone had punched him in the stomach. He’d already considered everything Julie had brought up, though, after he’d researched the night before. He wasn’t going to tuck his tail and give up without giving it a hell of a good try. He wanted her way the hell too much to even consider that. “Yes.”

Julie sighed. “I think there might be a ray of hope.” “You do?” He tried to keep the hopeful note out of his voice, but he was pretty sure he didn’t manage it. “She’s curious—asked a lot of questions about the pack, customs and so forth. I thought she took it pretty well. Actually exceptionally well, considering she’s human. Thing is, though, it’s the way she grew up, I think. It wasn’t like a normal human family. It was more like ours—a group thing—except without any tender loving care like we give our pups. But still ….” “That sounds promising,” Dante said thoughtfully. “A little. She was pretty horrified about the mating situation. Then again, this gal’s got trust issues, like I said—which translates to commitment problems. I’m thinking she might actually be more inclined to accept our way easier than their way. It wouldn’t give her that trapped feeling that scares her the most. I mean, the main reason she was so rattled last night wasn’t actually because we’re lycans—that was part of it, but not the root of it. It was because she doesn’t really know how to deal with people one on one. She’s used to being alone or a group type setting where she can blend into the back ground and the pups were crowding her.” Dante frowned thoughtfully. “Why don’t you plan on a

few extra guests for dinner tonight?” “The Fab Four?” “They’ve got a stake in this, too. If I left them, they’d just follow me.” “I almost envy her.” “No, you don’t.” Julie laughed. “I said almost, didn’t I? Just don’t expect too much.” “I don’t care if it’s hamburgers. I’m coming to see Shilo.” “I was talking about Shilo, you single minded twit! “Watch it, Jules!” Dante growled. “I’ll put up with a lot of shit out of you, but remember who you’re talking to.” “Sorry, boss,” Julie said contritely. “But you asked for my advice ….” “Actually, I didn’t. You volunteered it.” “Fine. I’ll back off. You know what you’re doing. You

always do.” Dante hung up. He wished the fuck hedid know what the hell he was doing! The problem was,this was different. It was easy to be cool, calm, and collected when one didn’t really give a shit what the outcome was, and he never had before. It was a hell of a lot harder to be any of the three when one: he did care—a lot, and two: there was no collecting his wits when he was in the woman’s vicinity. “Playing it by ear, my ass,” he grumbled. “More like the seat of my pants, and I don’t fucking like it. Not one little bit.” It scared the hell out of him that he couldn’t count on marking her and knowing he could relax then in the certain knowledge that she was his. **** Shilo was standing in the back door when Julie hung up and turned around. It gave Julie a jolt. She studied the look on her guest’s face uneasily. Dante was going to have her ass if Shilo had overheard any of the conversation, she thought uncomfortably, wishing she hadn’t simply dismissed the sound of the door opening. She’d figured it was one of the pups, though. They kept the door flapping.

It just went to show it was never a good idea to get so engrossed in a conversationabout somebody that one ignored everything else. Ordinarily, she wouldn’t have, but the thing with the big guy—well that wasseriously fascinating. She’d begun to think there wasn’t a woman alive that could shake Dante up, even a little, let alone rattle his cage like this woman had. It boggled the mind to think he was thinking in terms ofbreeding . Speculation had been rife among the female population ever since he’d taken over the territory, but although he didn’t mind sharing his favors he made damned sure he didn’t linger long enough to give any female the idea that he was thinking about anything more permanent, and when it came breeding time, he steered clear of all of them. “Problem?” “Oh no. No,” Shilo said quickly, then frowned. “Actually, uh … Are they always this … active?” Julie laughed. “Young’uns usually are, lycan pups more than humans.” Shilo frowned. “It’s hard to believe ….” She broke off and looked at Julie self-consciously. “I’m sorry.” Julie’s lips flattened, but she brushed it off with an effort. “I’m sure it takes some getting used to,” she

said, an edge to her voice she couldn’t quite disguise. Shilo reddened. A hurt look flickered in her eyes. “I’m just not used to children,” she said lamely. “I think they ’re really sweet, though.” They both knew Shilo hadn’t meant anything of the kind, but Julie decided to pretend she believed her. “Thank you! I don’t suppose you’ll believe me since you aren’t used to being around children, but they really are very well behaved. They’re just full of energy and very bright, and that makes them curious. We’re having company tonight,” she added to change the subject. “The guys let me persuade them to come over for dinner.” “Guys?” Shilo asked, trying not to look as uneasy as she felt. “Dante, Maurice, Kane, and Jessie.” Shilo relaxed fractionally. “Oh.” She frowned. “Do you think, maybe, it’s about the rogue problem?” Julie shrugged easily. “I doubt they’ve resolved that issue yet. The rogues have been annoying the hell out of Dante for weeks now. I’m sure he’ll take care of the problem as quickly as he can, but it isn’t as if the rogues are bold enough to challenge him straight on—

otherwise he would already have taken care of it.” “Taken care of it?” Shilo prompted. Julie was tempted to just ignore that. Instead, she decided honesty was the best policy. If Shilo was going to be around--and Dante seemed pretty damned determined she would be, and he usually got his way— then she had to get used to the way things were done. “Dante’s prime alpha here. That means he’s the big boss—head of this entire territory—and he’s the youngest we’ve ever had. He’s only twenty seven. I know that probably doesn’t mean much to you, but males don’t get that high that fast unless they’re one bad ass mother fucker, and smart as hell to boot. It takes more than brute strength—which he sure as hell has, and speed, and stamina. “The rogue has challenged Dante’s right lead just by being here and causing trouble, but he’s broken lycan law by doing it, and Dante isn’t obliged to honor the challenge. He can simply have the rogue disposed of. Ordinarily, if someone wants to challenge him, all they have to do is face him and demand he prove his right to lead by beating him. Then the pack would be summoned as witness. It could be a challenge to the death, or just best man wins. Either way, if Dante lost, he wouldn’t be alpha anymore. Not top dog, anyway. And if he was to lose, which ain’t likely, then his

second could challenge him—that would be Maurice. “In other words, he could get bumped down the chain the same way he came up it.” Shilo stared at her white faced. “That’s … that’s ….” “Brutal? Don’t kid yourself. The entire world’s brutal. We’re just more straight up about it. Like I said, a contest isn’t just about brute strength. It’s about … being a good judge of one’s opponent, being smarter than they are—pretty much all the same qualities a leader needs to be a good leader. And it’s proof that we can all respect. Dante’s got more than respect, though. He’s got charisma. He could charm the pants off ….” Julie broke off abruptly, chewing her lip. Shilo stared at her for a long moment and finally moved to one of the kitchen chairs and sat down. She wasn’t actually surprised to hear Dante was a favorite of the ladies. She would’ve been a lot more surprised if Julie had said he wasn’t. “You love him?” Julie turned scarlet. “I love him to death, but not like you’re thinking. He’s like a big brother to me. We’re close, but we’re just friends. That’s all we’ve ever been.” There’d been a time when she’d hoped it could be more than that, but she’d had to accept that it just wasn’t going to happen long before Shilo came on the

scene. Shilo frowned at the relief she felt. It shouldn’t matter to her one way or the other, because it had nothing to do with her.She wasn’t lycan. Even if she did think he was sexy as hell, and sweet, and he made her feel protected —something she’d never actually felt before and had discovered she found infinitely appealing—he was a lycan, for god’s sake! And younger than her—lord! She hadn’t thought he was so young. If he was a human man he wouldn’t have any interest in a woman that was nearly forty—well, there was no sense in rushing things. She was almost thirty five, though, and considering how quickly it seemed she’d gotten there, she figured forty was probably going to hit her like a runaway train. She forced a smile. “You can’t knock friendship,” she said a little wistfully. “I’d think friends with benefits would be the best sort of relationship.” “Great sex would be a great relationship, too,” Julie said, chuckling. Shilo shrugged. “I suppose. I’ve never had great sex.” She thought it over and frowned. “Actually, I’ve never had good sex.” “Oh! Now that’s just sad!” Shilo laughed. “It is, isn’t it? Maybe it’s just me?”

Julie let out a huff. “Men always make women think that! It’s not just you. You just haven’t found the right guy.” “You think?” “Hey! I’ve been there. Trust me. You get with the right guy, the sex will be great! It’s not what they’ve got, or even how they look. It’s how you feel about them.” Actually,that was the sad part, Shilo thought. She didn’ t have a chance in hell of getting with the right guy when she hardly dared stick her nose out of the safe little hole she’d dug out for herself. She thought that was what really drove her to take a chance and head for the city, the hopefulness that she’d stumble across somebody that would make her feel like she was living instead of just existing. Contrary thing that she was, she just couldn’t be satisfied with being free of ‘the group’. She wanted more, but she was almost thirty five. She was just going to have to accept, sometime, that what she had was all there was ever going to be for her. It was just plain stupid to keep risking what she did have, her freedom, by taking these little excursions, even if theywere rare, because sooner or later she was going to lose what she had. “Well, you don’t miss what you’ve never had,” she said philosophically, even though she knew that was a lie. Shedid miss it. She wasn’t sure she

actually believed, anymore, that there was such a thing as great sex, but it was a damned tempting fantasy. “A companion would be nice, though, even if the sex was really bad,” she added chuckling. Julie gave her a wry look. “If bad sex was the best you could manage, you’d be better off with none—get a female friend instead.” Shilo looked at her in surprise. “I’d never actually thought about that,” she said thoughtfully, then smiled wryly. “That might work, for a while, anyway. Then it would betwo women wishing they had a man. I don’t suppose anyone is ever happy or satisfied, whatever they have—not completely anyway.” “I’m happy most of the time. Happiness is a state of mind, you know. It isn’t what you’ve got so much as being satisfied with what you have. If you don’t spend all of your time worrying about what other people have, that you don’t, then you can be a lot more content with your life.” “How old did you say you were?” Shilo asked with a chuckle. Julie stuck her tongue out at her. “I didn’t. Alright, I’m staring thirty in the face. I’m twenty seven.”

“Oh I wish!” Shilo said glumly. “I’m staring forty in the face. I don’t know why you’re unhappy! I’d give anything to be twenty seven again!” “There you go again! And I donot believe you’re nearly forty!” “Sweet child!” Shilo beamed at her. “I really am almost thirty five, though.” “Oh puhleese! Talk about jumping the gun! You’re a glass half empty kind of person, aren’t you?” “And you’re not?” “No, I’m not! Twenty seven’s closer to thirty than ‘ almost’ thirty five is to forty.” “Yes, but thirty isn’t nearly as depressing as forty.” Julie shook her head. “So,” she changed the subject, “you gonna help me cook and show off your domestic skills to the guys tonight?” Shilo looked at her doubtfully. “I don’t exactlyhave any domestic skills. You want me to give them food poisoning? I think I could manage that.” Julie nudged her shoulder. “These guys have cast iron

stomachs, believe me. All they care about is quantity.” Shilo let out a huff. “Well, if that’ll impress them, I could probably manage that … out of your larder, of course … unless you want to go to the grocery store and pick up something from the deli? I cook a mean deli meal.” Julie studied her. “You really don’t know how to cook, do you?” Shilo bit her lip. “Trial and error isn’t actually the best way to learn. I did buy a couple of cookbooks, but I’ve never really gotten the hang of it. There never seemed much point in it when I’d just as soon have a can of soup or a microwaveable dinner.” “Then you’re long overdue for some cooking lessons,” Julie said firmly. Shilo didn’t object. She figured any pointers she could pick up to improve her cooking skills were definitely to her benefit. Besides that she couldn’t resist the suggestion that she impress the guys with her ‘womanly arts’. Whatever her doubts, they were a group of hunky males. How often did she get the chance to bask in male approval? Never!

Unfortunately, Felicity woke from her afternoon nap just about the time they got supper underway. Since that coincided with the older children’s hunger pains, Julie and Shilo prepared the meal under duress. Shilo had a blinding headache long before the food was done, but she didn’t think it was a hunger headache. She was pretty certain it was nerves. Completely aside from the fact that they had six children trooping back and forth through the kitchen asking them every five minutes if it was done yet, Shilo was anxious to show off her domestic skills, be they ever so humble. She wasn’t completely hopeless in the kitchen, regardless of what she’d told Julie. She just wasn’t a ‘great’ cook. She thought she might actually have managed to turn out something edible, though, if not for the constant distractions. And the fact that she wanted to impress Dante. She didn’t spend a lot of time examiningwhy she wanted to impress him, which was just as well because nothing turned out like she’d hoped. On top of that, she had a headache, and between the cooking and the children, she looked like a disaster area when Dante, Maurice, Kane, and Jessie arrived … spit shinned, looking like a million bucks, and wreaking of a divine smelling aftershave, and/or cologne, potent enough to

knock her socks off. She felt lightheaded just glancing at the four fabulous males and as jittery as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Julie took one look at Shilo and snatched the baby out of her arms. “Why don’t you run upstairs and freshen up a little?” she hissed in a low whisper. Shilo reddened and balked. There was ‘wanting to impress’ them and then there was being willing to make a fool out of herself. There was no way in hell she was going to do anything that damned obvious! Subtlety, she could handle because if it fell through they’d never know the difference. They could’ve been morons, which they weren’t, and they’d still be able to figure out what was going through her head if she dashed upstairs the minute they arrived and began to primp. Shoving a stray lock of hair out of her face, she bared her teeth at Julie in as close an approximation of a smile as she could manage. “I’ll set the table.” “We’re serving buffet style.” “Then I’ll help you fix the children’s plates.” Julie studied her assessingly for a moment and finally shrugged. “Come and get it!” she bellowed. Shilo winced, but the stampede into the kitchen

distracted her from her headache for a little while. She didn’t look at any of the men as they followed the children in at a more sedate pace, but thankfully, she was preoccupied with helping the children and didn’t think it looked too obvious that she was trying to avoid the possibility of them getting a really good look at her. She’d put her hair up in a clip to get it out of her way, though, and could feel that it was falling down untidily all over the place. Beyond that, she was liberally sprinkled with flour from making the gravy, spattered with grease from batter frying the squash, and had children’s fingerprints all over her besides that—mostly Felicity’s, who’d been given a cookie to hold her until supper was ready. And Felicity, for some reason completely obscure to her, seemed to think her breast was the perfect thing to hold on to to make certain Shilo didn’t drop her. The moment of truth arrived in spite of hell, though. Shilo had just settled in her seat with her plate when Julie announced, very brightly, thatshe had cooked. She could’ve done without that. It took an effort to smile and thank them for the compliments that announcement prompted. She didn’t meet their gazes. Instead, feeling sick to her stomach and horribly embarrassed, she waited until everyone had started eating and cleared her throat uncomfortably. “I don’t suppose you have anything for a headache?” she asked Julie hopefully.

“Upstairs in the medicine cabinet—my bathroom. I’ll get it.” “No, no! I’ll get it,” Shilo said, scooting her chair back and getting up. She felt curiously close to tears by the time she reached Julie’s bathroom. She didn’t know why. It was stupid, really. Did it really matter that the meatloaf was dry? Half the fried squash burned? The mashed potatoes lumpy? The gravy scorched? In the scheme of things, just how important was that, anyway? It wasn’t as if, if everything had turned out just right, they would’ve looked at her any differently than they already did—it was just a meal, not a mating ritual. She didn’t even know why she’d let herself get roped in to the idea to start with. Impressing a man with domestic skills was only useful if both parties were thinking in terms of permanency, and she wasn’t going to be around long enough for them to consider that even if shecould consider it. She wasnot going back downstairs red eyed from weeping like an idiot! Dragging in a shaky breath, she turned the cold water on and splashed it over her overheated face until she’d mastered the urge to weep. Shutting the tap off, she grabbed the towel next to the

lavatory and patted her face dry. A jolt went through her when she finally lowered the towel and looked up at her reflection in the mirror. Dante was standing in the bathroom doorway, which she realized belatedly that she hadn’t closed. “Did you find something for your headache?” he asked after a moment. “I hadn’t actually looked yet,” Shilo replied, averting her gaze. She tensed as he moved up behind her and she felt his hands settle lightly on her shoulders.

Chapter Nine “You’re tense.” Big surprise, Shilo thought wryly. If she hadn’t been tense before she certainly was the moment she felt his touch. He shifted closer, kneading the tension in her shoulders, and she let out a sharp hiss.

He eased his grip instantly. “Too hard?” She thought about it a moment. “No. It felt good.” Accepting that as consent, he went back to kneading her shoulders, working his way slowly inward toward her neck and finally splaying his thumbs and working them in tight circles along the bones of her spine from just below her shoulders upward. A rippling cascade of goose bumps washed over her as he closed a hand around her neck and worked upward to the base of her skull. She closed her eyes, allowing her head to drop forward to give him better access. If she’d been a cat, she thought with an inward smile, she would’ve been purring. It felt that good, but he was producing almost as much tension of a different kind as he was easing the other. The heat of his body behind her sent another flood of goose bumps along her skin, made her throat tighten with an unswallowable mass of need. The cologne he was wearing, heated by his skin, intoxicated her … Or maybe it was just him? Who was she kidding? He hadn’t been wearing cologne before and he’d had the same effect on her. She tried not to think about what those hands would

feel like moving over the rest of her body. If they felt even half that good …. She felt the heat of his breath against the hollow at the base of her skull a split second before the brush of his lips. She sucked in a breath and held it, gripping the lavatory frantically as it sent another heady wave of need through her. The muscles along the walls of her sex contracted almost painfully, squeezing heated moisture along the channel. A shiver worked its way along her spine. “Mom wanted to know if you’d found the aspirin?” a munchkin voice intruded abruptly, sending an unpleasant jolt through Shilo. Dante’s hands dropped from her shoulders. Shilo cleared her throat as he stepped away, feeling embarrassment heat her cheeks. She fumbled for the door of the medicine cabinet, flipping it open as she lifted her gaze and catching a brief glimpse of Dante’s profile. He was looking at Charlie, but she could tell nothing about his expression. “Found it,” she responded, feeling her embarrassment deepen at the huskiness in her voice. Her hands were shaking, she discovered, fumbling with the cap. “Child proof lid,” she muttered.

“Need help?” She didn’t glance at Dante. “I’ve got it. Thanks!” Her shoulders sagged with both relief and disappointment as Dante dropped a hand to Charlie’s shoulder and, pushing the boy before him, the two disappeared from her view. Shaking a couple of aspirin into her palm, she popped them into her mouth and then filled her palm with water several times until she’d managed to wash the damned things down. It felt like one was still lodged in her throat, though, as she left the bathroom at last and headed back downstairs. Not that she wanted to. She would’ve far rather slunk into her borrowed room to hide. Discomfort and embarrassment had been heaped upon more discomfort and embarrassment. It was pride that sent her back downstairs to endure, the hope that, somehow, she could carry it off and no one would ever know how upset she was about the entire disastrous affair. She knew her limitations. She wouldn’t have been embarrassed if she hadn’t fallen into Julie’s little fantasy about making herself appear desirable by showing off cooking skills she didn’t actually have. Stupid!

The man was nearly ten years younger than her.What had she been thinking? He wasn’t even a man! He was lycan and the baddest of the bad, according to Julie. Everything else aside— and there was a mountain of reasons not to even attempt to attract his notice—wantinghim to find her appealing was as bad as deciding to bathe in gasoline. All that time spent in isolation had turned her brain to mush, she thought with self derision. As cut off from the rest of the world as she’d been physically, she wasn’ t completely cut off. Aside from all the ‘wonders’ she’d experienced first hand when she’d finally found her spine and used her gift to help her escape the clutches of the mad scientists, she’d gathered plenty of second hand knowledge from the media. Handsome, successful young men—or lycan—like Dante could have their pick of women—which meant they didn’t actually pick. They sampled the cream of the crop, because they could. It was in their nature anyway—men’s—just like it was with lycan. And those who could just went around propagating the species—the same way they had since caveman times. The lord knew women had done everything in their power to leash the beast, but with limited success. Contrary to what Julie apparently

thought, she hadn’t been surprised, at all, to discover that, in the lycan community, the men didn’t make any real pretense of settling with one woman. In the first place, there weren’t enough to go around, also according to Julie, and in the second … well, it was just not in their nature. If she’d been lycan, she might at least have been able to get in line for a sample—and god wouldn’t shelove to get even a sample!—but Dante had been pretty clear that that wasn’t considered ‘acceptable’ in general and that he, in particular, was against it on principle—that principle being that he thought human females ‘insipid’ and undersexed. She might have agreed with that assessment of herself before she’d run across Dante, but she sure as hell hadn ’t been feeling undersexed since she’d met him. She’d feltmildly interested in a sexual encounter when she’d come to town, mostly because she’d accepted that that was as close as she was likely to get to feeling ‘loved’. Putting out was worth it, to her anyway, when it usually resulted in a few minutes of cuddling and appreciation afterwards—not always, but generally. Mostly, she thought, because guys had finally tumbled to the fact that women liked and expected it and they weren’t nearly as likely to get seconds if they didn’t at least pretend they thought the woman was ‘special’.

She’d pretty much forgotten all about the goal to strive for a little fake affection once her libido had kicked into overdrive, though. Fucking with no pretense of anything ‘deeper’ would have been fine by her if she could’ve just thought of some way to get her hands on that choice piece of male without seeming totally pathetic. Even stone cold, the food wasn’t half bad, she reflected as she picked at her meal half-heartedly. It wasn’t half good, either, but she wouldn’t have been completely disgusted with herself if she hadn’t been trying so hard for perfection. God! She hated that she’d turned into one of those sad women so desperate for even a little bit of attention that she was willing to knock herself out and do just about anything to get it. She would be so glad to get back home where she couldn’t make a fool out of herself! Julie insisted she’d take care of kitchen clean up since Shilo had cooked. Shilo ground her teeth at the fresh reminder for everyone—lest they forget!—that she was responsible for the food. Resisting the temptation to make excuses for herself on the grounds that it might not have turned out quite as bad if the children hadn’t been so much of a distraction, Shilo countered by reminding Julie she had to get the children ready for bed.

To her surprise, the men supported her, volunteering to help with kitchen detail while Julie herded the demon brood upstairs. Uncharitable thought! Truthfully, she thought they were sweet and cute—a lot of the time, anyway. They did seem to spend a good bit of time tussling with one another, but Julie had insisted that was just ‘boys’ and they didn’t seem to get angry often or for long. She didn ’t remember the boys in the dorm ‘wrestling’ like that, but then again they weren’t often allowed much room for interaction. “It’s a little much to take in, eh,chère ?” Shilo glanced up to discover Jessie was standing next to her where she’d been working at the sink, leaning back against the counter, his arms folded over his chest. His Cajun accent was stronger than either Dante’s or Kane’s, making it a little more difficult for her to follow since she wasn’t used to hearing it. It flowed over her like warm honey nevertheless, and the engaging twinkle in his blue eyes, the curl of his sensual mouth, and the multitude of smile lines in his face added to that drawl, Shilo had no doubt, had led to the downfall of many a female. She’d had a rather vague impression before that he was

attractive, but she realized that was because she’d been so focused on Dante—and she’d been too nervous to notice even if she hadn’t been. He was a lot more than just ‘attractive’, though. He was exceptionally handsome, which she still might not have noticed except that he was also charismatic. Feeling more than a little breathless to be the recipient of that charming smile and the appreciative look in his eyes, Shilo struggled to try to act unfazed by it. She quirked a questioning eyebrow at him. He nudged his chin in the direction of the noise coming from upstairs. “The junior pack.” She smiled wryly. “It’s a little unnerving,” she admitted. “A big toe in the water would’ve been enough of a jolt to the system when I’ve never been around children … much.” He took the plate that she’d just washed from her hand and dried it. Shilo watched him with disapproval. “I’m not doing it right?” There was amusement in his voice. Shilo shrugged. “It ’s more sanitary to let them air dry.”

He handed it back to her. “You germaphobic,chère?” Shilo reddened and grimaced. She didn’t think she was, but shehad grown up in a sterile environment. She supposed it had rubbed off. She handed the plate back. “What the hell! Live a little, right?” “A risk taker,” Jessie chuckled. “A woman after my own heart.” His husky chuckle made her belly flutter. Was it just the lycan blood in him, she wondered a little vaguely, that did something to her? Or was it just him? She found she couldn’t help but smile back at him like a bedazzled teenager. “Oh, I’m hell on wheels.” He favored her with a look that singed her eyeballs. “I bet you are,chère.” Turning, he bumped his hip against hers. “Move over. You’ll be at this all night. Let me show you how it’s done.” Shilo lifted her brows but moved instead of telling him she’d been in no great hurry. Ordinarily, she might have been, but she’d felt more comfortable with something to do and an excuse to keep her back to the room where Dante, Maurice, and Kane were collecting and scraping plates.

Before she had entirely assimilated or appreciated the efficiency with which they worked, the four of them had cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom. Grabbing a damp cloth as Kane grabbed a broom to sweep up the overflow on the floor from the children’s table, Shilo went to wipe down the dining table. Dante settled a hand on her waist before she was half finished, took the cloth from her hand, and guided her back into the living room. Sprawling in one corner of the couch, he dragged her down beside him and dropped one arm over the back of the couch behind her head. “I’d ask how this was working out for you,chère,” he said wryly, “but you look worn to the bone.” Shilo compressed her lips, struggling not to take that comment too badly. “I look that bad, huh?” she asked when she failed. He captured her face in one hand and tipped it so that she was looking at him. His eyes were gleaming with a mixture of amusement and something else she didn’t dare identify. “You look good enough eat,” he murmured huskily. “Unfortunately, I’m now full ….” “Of burned food,” Shilo finished for him. “Would you believe me if I tole you the smell of burned meatloaf drives me wild?” he asked teasingly,

his Cajun accent thickening. Shilo couldn’t help but chuckle shakily, feeling heat completely unrelated to embarrassment flood her at the casual touch, in spite of the teasing way he’d said it and the fact that the reminder caused her a pang. “I expect most women believeanything you tell them, but no. I wouldn’t.” A frown flickered across his features. He released his hold on her jaw. She didn’t know if it was because of what she’d said or the fact that the other men had joined them, but she was very regretful that the mood had been broken. Maurice sprawled on the couch on the other side of her. Kane and Jessie almost seemed to shrug as they moved to two chairs facing the couch and sprawled in them, Kane sliding down in his chair and folding one long leg over the other at the ankles, Jessie hooking one leg over the arm of his chair. They looked totally relaxed—and somehow she still got the impression of being surrounded by a hungry pack of predators. Big surprise, that! She just wasn’t sure if it was because she knew they were lycans or if she would’ve felt the same way if she’d been ignorant of that fact. She had the feeling she would’ve. If she hadn’t known they were lycans, though, she would’ve probably just

put it down to the fact that she was surrounded by men that were not only exceptionally attractive, but who ‘ exuded’ their maleness almost as if it was as tangible to her senses as the cologne they were wearing. She’d been in plenty of places thick with men—not often granted, but she had—without being the least bit aware of it in a sexual sense, without being so excruciatingly aware of her own femininity. Shilo wishedshe was relaxed. They were a handsome bunch, and not just because they were all young and unnervingly well built. Jessie and Dante were both ‘pretty boy’ handsome, with classic, well defined features, though both of them had just enough of that ‘bad boy’ look about them to prevent them from looking too boyish and make it clear they were ‘all man’, and deep down dangerous to the female of the species—human or lycan. Kane had that rugged outdoorsy, high testosterone look. There was nothing ‘pretty’ about him, and he was still appealing enough to make a gal’s heart rate shoot through the roof when he narrowed those dark eyes assessingly on her in one of those, ‘I can see right through your clothes’ looks—which he was doing, she discovered, every time she happened to glance at him. Maurice was fair like Jessie and neither ‘pretty boy’ handsome nor rugged. She finally pinpointed his sex

appeal to a sort of ‘Bond-like’ sophistication. He was handsome, but it was more his attitude than his good looks that made him appealing. She wasn’t ordinarily uncomfortable with silence. She was used to it, hardly noticed, but the silence in the room was almost deafening, despite the noises still coming from upstairs—splashing water, the thump, thump, thump of small running feet dashing in first one direction and then another, childish giggles, and whining. She cleared her throat, which seemed determined to clog with nerves, and was about to ask if they’d had any luck tracking down the rogues when Dante forestalled her. “Did Jules show you around today?” Shilo turned to look at him when he spoke. “Around?” “The pack community.” Shilo blinked at him while her brain tabulated that, struggling for a reason why Julie might have done so. “Actually, we didn’t go out at all. Julie decided to fix both of us a drink last night, and I’m not really clear on much after that,” she said with amusement, “but I slept almost till noon so I think we were up really late.” “There’s a thought,” Kane murmured, getting to his

feet abruptly. “Anyone up for drinks?” Shilo objected half-heartedly, knowing she shouldn’t indulge, but somehow the objection seemed to be lost in the give and take as Maurice rose to assist Kane and took drink orders. Maurice was back in a moment and shoved a screw driver into her hand. She took an incautious gulp of it as Dante’s hand drifted from the couch behind her and settled on the back of her neck, rubbing along the column almost absently. She couldn’t eventaste the orange juice. A wave of dizziness washed over her even as the alcohol hit the bottom of her stomach like a ball of fire, sending out a wave of heat. She made a face. “Too strong?” Dante murmured, amusement threading his voice. “A little,” Shilo admitted hoarsely. He took the glass from her hand and passed it to Maurice when he returned with a drink for Dante. “Too strong.” Maurice nodded and disappeared with the glass. Returning with the glass a few minutes later, he handed it to her and watched her as she lifted the glass to her lips.

“Better?” he asked as she took a second, equally incautious, gulp. It didn’t burn like the first, but it sent another wave of dizziness through her. She looked at the glass suspiciously, but it didn’t seem polite to complain. “Yes,” she lied courteously. He grinned at her and left. There was something about that grin that set off warning bells, but Shilo decided she was imagining it. She set her glass down. Dante handed it back to her. She sent him a questioning look, but settled back against the sofa as his hand tightened along the back of her neck, urging her to sit back, sipping the drink more slowly, although she thought, wryly, that it might be a little late for caution. Her head was swimming and she’ d already begun to feel surprisingly mellow. “Jules should take you around to meet some of the other pack members,” he said casually. “I think you’d enjoy meeting them. I’ll mention it to her before we leave.” Shilo nodded agreeably instead of informing him that

she didn’t especially want to meet the rest of the ‘pack’. “Julie said it was a pretty big community,” she said instead. He grunted an assent. “Ten males, two females, and six pups in my own pack. There are a couple of dozen packs within my territory, though. Some smaller, but most of them at least as big or bigger.” Shilo nodded, tried to mentally calculate just how many lycans that was and gave up. “That’s a lot,” she murmured, surprise flickering through her when Dante removed her empty glass from her hands and set it on the table beside the couch without even glancing in that direction. Reaching up, also without looking, he flicked the lamp off. “Better?” The light hadn’t been bothering her to start with, but she nodded politely. “What does everyone do—for a living, I mean?” “We have various business enterprises. What do you do?” She had no idea why, but the question struck her as funny. She snickered. “Whatever I want.”

“She won’t be needing another drink,” Dante said with a trace of both amusement and censure as Maurice retrieved her glass. “I’d like one, though,” Shilo informed both of them, exerting her independence. Dante shrugged easily, but she caught the faint shake of his head and Maurice’s nod before he turned and left. “Whatever you like?” Dante prompted before she could take exception. She considered arguing, but finally decided she didn’t really want another drink. Slipping further down in the seat, she propped her feet on the scuffed coffee table beside Dante’s. “I absconded with the cash,” she whispered conspiratorially. “I figured they owed me— years worth of back pay. It wasn’t that much, actually— not considering the cost of living, or how many years I’ d been there, but I get by. I’ve got a little patch garden, and animals—and I sell stuff online.” Dante’s hand settled along the side of her neck. He stroked the skin lightly, sending the most delightful, knee weakening shivers through her. “I think my baby’s drunk,” he murmured, sounding amused. She supposed she should’ve felt silly about him calling

her baby, but she liked the way he said it. She liked the ‘my’ part even better. “Yep. Something weird about the light in here. Everybody’s eyes are glowing,” she added, tipping her head to look up at Dante. “Yours, too. Are mine?” His lips curled up at one corner. “Yep.” “Weird, huh?” “Mmm,” he agreed, shifting forward and twisting so that he could push her down on the sofa. “What are you doing?” “Making you more comfortable.” “I was comfortable before—a little dizzy.” “Exactly. This will bemore comfortable,” he murmured, stretching out beside her. “Oh. Ooohhh,” she moaned as he insinuated a leg between hers and burrowed his face against her neck. Warmth flooded her as she felt the press of his body along her length, the pressure of his knee against her sex. Her belly fluttered with anticipation. “That’s nice.” He chuckled huskily. “You like that?” he asked

quietly, moving his lips in a slow, tantalizing trail along her throat. “Mmm. We’re not alone,” she whispered. “They don’t mind.” She stared up at him when he lifted his head to study her, confused, mostly because she was thinking about her own discomfort when she’d mentioned it. “They don’t?” He tilted his head slightly, moving slowly closer until his lips were slanted over hers. She sucked in a sharp breath as the heat invading her leapt into flames at the light contact. He sucked lightly at her lips, withdrew and angled his head slightly for another assault to her senses, increasing the pressure a little more each time and finally covered her mouth completely with his. His tongue skated along the surface of her lips. She parted them for him readily, feeling a heady rush sizzle through her as he took the invitation and delved inside the moist cavern of her mouth, raking his tongue boldly along hers. Shockwaves traveled through her in the wake of her absorption of his taste and scent into her system. A tidal wave of heat rolled back along the return path. Her hand, trapped between their bodies, clenched

instinctively on his shirt as her center of gravity seemed to shift and her sense of equilibrium completely abandoned her. Her mind spun as the opposing sensations of floating and growing weak and heavy hit her at the same time. She moaned, low in her throat, in delight at the rush of giddiness that swept her. He tasted wonderful, and he felt even better, she thought, wondering which thrilled her more, which contributed most to skyrocketing her from curiosity to buzzing expectation. He moved closer still as he caressed her tongue with his own, pressing his hips so snuggly against her she could feel the hardness of his erection digging into her thigh. Despite her disorientation, she knew what it was, and it made her sex quake with a surge of need that completed her descent into a fever of mindless excitement. More by instinct than design, she arched against him in return, pressing her mound against his belly, sucking at his tongue to more fully appreciate the flavor of him. The entire tone of his kiss and his embrace changed abruptly from slow and savoring to ravenous, shaking need that sent a harder shockwave of desire through her. He swept her tongue into his mouth, sucking on it as she’d sucked on his, then advanced again to lay claim to every tender surface of her mouth. Each caress touched off another pelting wave of fiery heat. Within

moments, she was moving restlessly against him, wanting, needing to feel that delicious pressure higher, against her sex, inside of her. She gasped for air when he broke the kiss and settled his mouth against her throat. Desire boiled through her like burning acid. She’d never felt so wonderfully out of control, so needy, so desperate. She clutched at him frantically. “Dante!” she gasped, her voice a hoarse croak of desperation. He stiffened, lifted his head to stare down her. She licked her lips, struggling with the reluctance to ask when she was afraid he wouldn’t give her what she wanted so badly. “Please,” she whispered finally, opening her eyes to look up at him. “I need ….” He silenced her with his mouth, kissing her almost apologetically, refusing to allow her to push him into a more heated kiss, though god knew she tried. She made a sound of distress when he broke the kiss. “Hush, baby. I’m sorry.” She swallowed with an effort against the hard knot of desire and disappointment clogging her throat, trying to understand what he’d meant by that. “You don’t want …?”

He stared at her hard. Prying one of her hands from his shirt, he guided her arm downward, pressed her palm around his heated length through his jeans. “Does this feel like I doan,chère?” he murmured, his accent noticeably more pronounced. She still didn’t understand. How was that proof of anything when he’d stopped just when it was getting really good? He made a sound of impatience at her expression. Rolling off the couch, he straightened and pulled her up. She swayed slightly when she’d gotten to her feet, weak and heavy and thoroughly disoriented. Slipping an arm around her to steady her, he guided her to the stairs and then up them. He pulled her against his length almost roughly when they reached the door of her room. “Doan look at me like that,chère.It’s more’n I can handle at the moment.” He caught her jaw, forcing her to look at him when she tried to look away, embarrassed, angry, horrendously disappointed. “That went further than I meant it to, baby, but I’m not going to add dumb to stupid and give you somethin’ to hate me for in the mornin’ when you’re sober.” He lowered his mouth to hers again, kissing her until he’d coaxed the angry tension from her and she’d wilted against him before he lifted his mouth from hers. “Get some sleep, baby.”

Shilo felt a shiver skate down her spine as he deprived her of his warmth. She stared after him as he moved quickly down the stairs and strode from the house. Finally, feeling thrown away, she went into her room, undressed, and got into bed. The sheets felt frigid against her overheated skin. Every part of her was throbbing in complaint. She needed a shower, she thought dimly. She could smell him on her skin and the scent only made her ache more. Her mind was still reeling with a combination of too much alcohol, too much Cajun lycan, and no release, though. She didn’t think she was up to standing in the shower. She finally got up anyway. His scent on her skin was driving her crazy, and she knew she was never going to get any sleep unless she could put her pussy to bed first. **** Silence reigned in the SUV until they were nearly home. “You think you marked her?” Jessie asked finally. “How the fuck would I know?” Dante growled. “Ask Maurice. He’s the fucking expert.”

“She seemed receptive,” Maurice said after a moment. “Of course she was fucking receptive,” Dante snarled. “She was fucking drunk. You put too much vodka in the damned drink.” “She was too tense. She wouldn’t have let you kiss her all,” Maurice snarled back at him. “Somewhere between tense and ready to run, and drunk on her ass would’ve been nice,” Dante retorted coldly, spearing his fingers in his dark hair and raking it back from his face. “You should’ve gone ahead and fucked her. She wanted it. If you’d spilled your seed in her we’d know for certain.” Dante dropped his hand to his erection and adjusted it, sliding a glare at Maurice in the rear view mirror. He wished to hell he’d been as convinced of that as Maurice seemed to be. Unfortunately, he wasn’t. He couldn’t shake the fear that it wouldn’t bind her to him, that it would have the completely opposite effect and make her distrust him even more than she already did. She sure as hell would if the marking didn’t take, because, once she was sober she’d realize he’d played dirty. “Iwant to know for certain it’s me she’s responding to and not the fucking alcohol pumping

through her.” Maurice exchanged a look with Jessie, who was seated beside him. Dante ground his teeth. “That was a piss poor plan,” he muttered. Kane shrugged. “I know you’d rather do it your way,” he said, keeping his voice neutral. “But can we really afford to when she thinks she’s leaving in a few days?” Dante rubbed his hand over his jaw irritably. He could still taste her. Acknowledging it was enough to send another surge of desire through him, making his genitals throb more painfully. He’d nearly lost it, he thought, feeling a wave of cold reason wash over him. One kiss and he’d nearly lost it. She would’ve really hated him then. Not that she wasn’t going to in the morning anyway. He’d seen in her eyes, the hurt, confusion … accusation. She thought he’d been playing with her to amuse himself. She hadn’t believed him when he’d tried to explain that she would’ve felt a hell of a lot more used if he’d taken advantage of her when she was too drunk to make that kind of decision.

God! He’d fucked up. He knew it in his gut. The one time in his entire life it mattered and he’d thoroughly fucked things up! “Shit!” he snarled. “Who would’ve thought one drink would knock her on ass? How much fucking vodka did you put in it anyway?” Maurice shrugged. “Three fingers. I usually have two.” Dante sent him a look of disgust. “It didn’t occur to you, I suppose, that she’s about half your body weight?” Maurice looked uncomfortable. “Sorry boss.” That was a lot of fucking help, too. ‘Sorry’ didn’t undo it—Not any damned more than his apology to her had undone his mistake when he realized he’d gone too far and was damned if he went any further and damned if he didn’t. He should’ve kissed her before—would’ve if Charlie hadn’t decided to pop in on them and ruin the mood, damn it to hell!Then he could’ve at least seen if the marking was going to take without pushing her too hard too fast. And he didn’t doubt for a moment that Julie had known damned well what he was up to when he’d followed Shilo upstairs, the scheming little bitch. There were times when he felt like wringing her neck.

Like this one. He was still pissed off when he got the house. By the time he’d lain in bed a few hours, staring angrily at the ceiling, he wasn’t pissed off anymore. He was worried as hell. If there was one thing he knew about his little darling, she was used to running. Rolling out of the bed, he grabbed his cell and punched in Jean-Claude’s number. “Yeah, boss?” “Keep a close watch on my woman.” There was a moment of silence. “I have been.” “I mean watchher , not just the fucking house.” Another prolonged silence followed that. “You think she might try to run?” “Maybe. Hell, I don’t know. Just watch her.” He didn’t feel a hell of a lot better after he’d hung up. He paced the room restlessly for a while, wondering if it would’ve been better if he’d just gone ahead and taken her. He didn’t like ‘maybes’, though, and there was, unfortunately, no certainty that he would’ve

marked her even if he had fucked her, because, regardless of what Maurice had said, there was the little matter of her psychic abilities and the ‘sometimes they were infected and sometimes not’—and Maurice had admitted she was the strongest he’d ever run across. It seemed to him that made marking her damned iffy at best. It hadn’t seemed worth the risk of turning her completely against him by giving her reason to distrust him—which she would’ve if he’d taken advantage of the situation. Then he would have a hell of a time coaxing her, and he might have to if the marking didn’t ‘take’. Finally, he went back to bed, realizing he had to at least try to get some sleep.

Chapter Ten It took Shilo a while to figure out why she felt like hell when she woke up. She’d slept late, again, she realized first as she lay listening to the noises of the house that were so unfamiliar, squeezing her eyes against the bright light that evaded the attempts of both window shade and curtains to stab into her eyelids like laser

beams. It was too bright to be early morning. Not that she was an early riser by most people’s standards. She didn’t have a clock to punch so she didn’t have to rise before day, or just after daybreak, but she never slept very late either because she never stayed up really late. It was while she was trying to figure out how late she’d stayed up the night before to account for her late awakening that she remembered the drink. And it was all down hill from there. Humiliation washed through her in tides. Lifting an arm, she draped it over her face. “God! Kill me now!” Unfortunately, He didn’t see fit to strike her down, which didn’t surprise her. He never had before. “Please tell me I didn’t really beg him to fuck me last night,” she muttered, rifling her memories after a few moments, although she’d resolutely crammed them as far back into her mind as she could when she’d remembered kissing him. And there it was, ‘the memory’. She had, and he’d politely but resolutely said no. She rolled onto her belly and dragged her pillow over her head, wanting to cry, scream, curse. She did all three, inside, and none aloud.

Upon reflection, she realized she should have just high-tailed it to hide in her room with the first prick of embarrassment over her spoiled meal. If she’d just tucked her tail between her legs and run and hid then she could’ve saved herself the ultimate humiliation— offering herself sexually and being turned down. Oh the agony of it! Julie knocked on her door and opened it. “I’ve got lunch almost ready. Hungry?” Shilo considered feigning sleep. She also considered telling Julie she was on a hunger strike and never intended to eat again. “I’ll be down in a minute.” The door closed again. If she’d thought there was any chance in hell of going back to sleep and blocking out the world even for a little while longer, she would’ve tried it. Unfortunately, she was wide awake now, and the more awake she was, the more she remembered. It was a garbled mess, though. She wasn’t certain how much was because of that damned screw driver—how aptly named!—and how much was from lust. Dante had kissed her. She remembered he had. She just couldn’t remember what had set it off. She supposed it didn’t really matter that she couldn’t. Or maybe it was a blessing that she couldn’t? Maybe she’d been feeling

him up or something like that? She must have gotten too familiar somehow. Otherwise why would he have kissed her to start with? Unless he’d had a little too much to drink himself and it had made him as uninhibited by reason as it had her? Except he hadn’t been so far gone that he’d completely forgotten there was a reason why he didn’t ‘indulge’ when it came to human females. She couldn’t remember too much about what he’d said, either. He’d apologized. She remembered that pretty sharply. He’d pried her off of him and apologized. She remembered that with painful clarity, too. And he’d said something about her being mad with him in the morning when he’d brought her to her room and left her. She wasn’t pissed though. She was ungodly embarrassed. She’d been all over him, panting and gasping, moaning and groaning, humping his leg! Oh, for crying out loud! It flickered through her mind to wonder if he’d spiked her drink with something. Alas, she had to dismiss that as an excuse. He wouldn’t have spiked her drink and then left her high and dry. She got up finally because she knew Julie would be

back to try to roust her out of the bed again. That thought sparked another tide of embarrassment. Julie had taken the children upstairs to get them ready for bed before the attempted rape downstairs, but had she come back down? Or had she only donethat in front of the other guys? Were they all laughing their asses off at how easy she’d been? What was it she’d heard guys call booze? Pussy lube? Oh, it had lubed hers! Actually, Dante had already lubed it just by being so damned sexy. The alcohol had just eliminated her common sense. She dragged out her morning ritual as long as she could, but she knew she was going to have to face Julie no matter how much she wanted to avoid it. Bracing herself for anything, she left the room and went downstairs, wondering if Julie would giggle and laugh about the episode or decide to lecture her about her x-rated visit when the children were still romping around upstairs and could’ve seen the whole thing. Julie looked her over searchingly as she reached the kitchen, smiling tentatively. “How’re you doing this

morning?” Shilo managed a wan smile of relief, deciding Julie either didn’t know, or she was willing topretend she didn’t know—which was almost as good. “I’ve still got a touch of that headache,” she mumbled. She didn’t, but she thought she could feel it coming on as she sat down and tried to pretend she was interested in eating. She hadn’t properly appreciated the children before, she realized. They were so busy chattering to each other and asking for more of this and more of that, that it not only made conversation between her and Julie impossible, it made it completely unnecessary for her to attempt to talk. Tuning them out, she focused on building her embarrassment into a mountain of distress and paranoia until she’d arrived at the conclusion that she wasnever going to be able to face Dante again. She couldn’t just pretend she hadn’t done anything. She knew he’d been a lot more in possession of his facilities than she had been or he wouldn’t have fended her off. Julie studied her sympathetically as they cleaned up the after meal disaster. “You should take another dose of that painkiller,” she suggested finally. “Actually,” Shilo said, “I think I’ll just take a walk and

clear my head. That usually does it for me, and it looks like a nice day.” Julie sent her a piercing look, which made Shilo uneasy since she thought she’d achieved just the right tone and expression to seem completely off hand. “You know Dante doesn’t want you going far. He hasn’t caught that rogue yet.” Shilo managed a smile. The rogues were the least of her concern at the moment. She couldn’t focus on anything beyond escaping the scene of her ‘crime’. “I won’t go far.” When she’d finished helping Julie in the kitchen, she went back upstairs to change. Closing the door behind her, she drew in a shaky breath, considered for a moment if she really wanted to do what she’d thought about while she was eating and decided she did. She didn’t owe any of them anything, not even an explanation. She’d agreed to stay because Dante had persuaded her to—because she knew now, in the back of her mind, she’d hoped to get laid—but she didn’t have to. Moving to her suitcase, she dragged out a change of clothes—a pair of lightweight slacks and a knit top because they could be folded compactly—and shoes with two inch heels. Opening the lining of the suitcase,

she pulled out her red wig and the cash she’d brought with her and carefully packed all of it her fabric handbag, which was reversible and just big enough to carry what she needed. Large bags were too noticeable. People not only questioned something big enough to carry a lot of stuff, but they tended to remember such a notable detail. When she’d finished, she resealed the lining, closed the suitcase and put it back where it was before. Taking a few deep cleansing breaths to calm her racing heart, she let herself out of the room and headed downstairs. “Would you like for me to pick anything up at the store while I’m there?” she asked Julie, pausing a moment in the kitchen door. Julie thought it over. “No. I’ll go later.” “You sure?” Julie smiled. “Positive.” Shilo smiled back at her. “See you.” She didn’t look back to see if the man that had been watching the house was behind her. She knew he would be. She kept her walk casual, neither dawdling nor rushing and headed straight to the store, glancing around casually as if she was merely mildly curious

about her surroundings. The man followed her into the store, but she’d expected that. She picked up a small shopping basket and placed it on her arm, strolling up first one isle and then down another until she reached the lady’s room. Setting the basket down on a counter near the door, she went inside. There was a woman in the last stall. She went into the first one, quickly removed the clothes and shoes she was wearing and changed into the outfit she’d put in her purse. The wig came next. She adjusted it the best she could without a mirror, listening as the woman in the last stall came out and washed her hands. The outer door opened and another woman came in before the first left. Good. A little traffic never hurt. Reversing the purse, she stuffed the clothes she’d had on into the bag, waited for the second woman to go into a stall, flushed the toilet, and headed for the lavatory. After adjusting the wig and tucking in the few stray strands of blond she’d missed, she dabbed bright red lipstick on her lips, then pulled out a bottle of perfume and sprayed herself down good with it. Lycan or not, she doubted he could smell her personal scent over the perfume. It was strong enough it made her eyes water. Dropping the bottle back in the bag, she

pulled out a pair of sunglasses with oversized lenses, strolled out of the bathroom jingling a set of keys, and walked briskly down the nearest isle. A faint smile curled her lips as she passed the man who ’d followed her into the store. It worked like a charm every time. **** Dante’s expression was grim as he watched the firefighters moving around the building, gathering up equipment and stowing it on the truck. “Fucking bastards,” Maurice growled. “I’m going to tear that bastard’s heart out when I get my hands on the son-of-a-bitch.” Dante slid a narrow eyed glance at him. “Me first,” he said grimly. “Any idea how much damage there was yet?” Kane asked, having just arrived on the scene. Dante shrugged. “They haven’t let us in yet. Suffice to say this club won’t be opening tonight.” “We’ll be lucky if we get it open again in a month,”

Jessie muttered. “I already gave Remy Broushard a call. He’ll come by this afternoon to assess the damage and let us know how long it’ll take.” “What about those rogue bastards?” Kane demanded. “Any luck?” Dante’s lips curled upward in a feral smile. “I figured they’d screw up sooner or later. Billy Rae tracked the bastard back to their lair. He and Gerard are keeping an eye on the place. Fortunately for us, it’s remote. We won’t have to wait for dark.” “Payback time,” Jessie said and chuckled. Seeing the Fire Marshall heading their way, Dante pushed away from his SUV and went to meet the man. “Unfortunately for the rogues,” Maurice muttered with grim satisfaction when Dante had stopped to talk to the man, “Dante’s not in a very forgiving mood right now.” “Me either,” Jessie said tightly. Kane sent him a grim smile. “Yeah,mon ami , but you’ re not having woman troubles.”

Maurice shook his head in disgust. “How the hell do you figure that? If Dante’s got woman troubles, we’ve all got woman troubles. We’ve all got a stake in Shilo.” Kane shrugged. “I ain’t got blue balls … not yet.” “Well ain’t you the lucky one,” Jessie snarled. “That din bother you none last night?” “Not as much as it did him.” “’Cause you slunk off and went to Betty Jean’s,” Jessie retorted. Kane’s dark skin reddened. “Dante said we was to watch ourselves and be careful with her. You handle your problem your way. I’ll handle mine my way,” he growled. “You keep messin’ with them whores, Dante ain’t gonna let you within spittin’ distance of our girl,mon ami.” Kane’s lips tightened. “I used a fucking overcoat.” “Even so,” Maurice said grimly. “You know that’s not the point. Use your fucking hand. That’s why you’ve got two.”

Jessie chuckled at Maurice’s reference to Kane’s ‘gift’. Kane glared at both of the other men. “She ain’t ours yet.” “Dante says she is.” “And what Dante saysis ,” Maurice agreed, straightening away from the vehicle abruptly as he saw Dante had concluded his talk with the Fire Marshall. “Get in,” Dante said abruptly when he reached them again. “We’re taking the SUV.” “What did the Fire Marshall have to say?” Maurice asked as they took the freeway through town. “It was arson.” Jessie uttered a derisive chuckle. “And they say he’s incompetent!” “The fucking prick thinks we fired our own club—for the insurance.” “Dumb shit!” Kane growled. “We’ll loose more from the club being closed down than the insurance will pay out …if they pay out at all.”

“I can handle the heat,” Dante growled, “but that’s one more I owe those sons-of-a-bitch.” They parked the SUV in an abandoned warehouse and got out. Stripping, they tossed their clothes into the vehicle and shifted into wolf form. It took them another twenty minutes to reach the run down building at the edge of the industrial park where Billy Rae and Gerard were waiting. “I was just about to call you,” Gerard said in a low voice when they reached him. “As far as I can tell, the gang’s all here.” Dante shifted from wolf to manbeast. “How many?” “A dozen.” Dante smiled grimly. “That makes us even then. How many doors?” “This is the way they’ve been coming in and out. But Billy Rae’s watching the two doors on the backside.” “Maurice, you go around back and keep Billy Rae company. I’m going to see if they want to come out and play.” When Maurice had disappeared around the corner of

the building, Dante stood up and stepped onto the broken pavement of the parking lot that fronted the building. Half way between the brush where they’d been observing and the door, Dante stopped. “Knock, knock, little pig,” he growled. He cocked his head, listening to the sudden increase in activity inside the building. Abruptly, the doors shattered outward and two beastmen landed on the pavement. Four more poured out of the building behind them. Dante’s gaze focused on the alpha. Even if he hadn’t already mapped the alpha’s scent, there would’ve been no mistaking him. Shilo had given him a hell of a jolt, Dante realized with grim amusement as he stared at the bald patches on the alpha that Shilo had ‘electrolysized’ . Uttering a challenging growl, he bounded across the pavement to meet him. Kane, Jessie, and Gerard, who’d been standing slightly behind and to either side of him, bounded forward, as well, engaging the rogues closest to them. The alpha dropped to his haunches and then sprang upward, trying to bound over Dante and attack him from behind. It was a deadly mistake. Dante leapt upward even as the alpha sailed over him, swiping at him with his claws fully extended and tearing him open from chest to groin. The alpha let out a yelp of pain and

then a bellow of rage as he landed on his shoulder and side instead of his feet, rolling over twice before he managed to gain his feet. A second lycan leapt at Dante even as he turned to meet his opponent, slamming into his chest hard enough to drive Dante back several feet. Uttering a growl, Dante clamped his jaws around the lycan’s neck, snapping it as he shook the man, and then tossing him aside. The alpha male slammed into his back as he again tried to turn. Dante hit the pavement with the alpha on top of him, but managed to twist his body as he fell. The alpha clamped his teeth into Dante’s back before he could throw him off, coming away with a chunk of flesh as Dante batted at him, clubbing him on the side of his head hard enough to knock him off. Ignoring the pain and the blood he could feel running down his back, Dante scrambled to a half crouch and rammed the man in the belly with his head as he got to his feet and launched himself at Dante again. Landing on top this time, Dante used his weight to subdue the rogue, shifting himself upward until he was straddling the male’s chest and grabbing his arms. “Yield,” Dante snarled, “or die.” The rogue bared his teeth. “You die, mother fucker!” he snarled, trying to buck Dante off and free his arms at the same time.

Gritting his teeth, Dante leaned on the man, slowly but surely bearing his arms downward until he’d forced the rogue’s upper arms against the pavement and then bent his forearms to pin them against his upper arms. They were almost nose to nose by that time. “Yield you stupid son-of-a-bitch.” “Go to hell!” Dante stared speculatively at the man beneath him for a long moment. “You first,” he growled. Rearing upward abruptly, he released his grip on the man’s left arm and swiped his claws across the man’s throat, severing the jugular. Blood spurted from the severed artery in a fountain. Dante released his grip on the man’ s other arm and shot to his feet. Standing over him, he watched as the man clamped a hand tightly over the artery, trying to stem the flow of blood. He stepped away as the man rolled onto his side, trying to rise. “All you had to do was yield,” he growled furiously. The man coughed, choking on his own blood. “I yield to no one,” he choked out. Dante’s eyes narrowed. “But you did yield,mon ami . You yielded your life.”

The beastman grinned up at him. “But I took your woman first.” Coldness washed over Dante. Uttering a growl of rage, he leaned down and grabbed the man by the neck, hauling him to his feet. “What do you mean by that, you son-of-a-bitch?” he ground out furiously, shaking the man. “Speak, god damn you!” The man coughed, spat blood on him, and laughed. “Hope you enjoyed her while you could.” “Where is she?” Dante bellowed. He saw it was too late to get anything else out of the bastard though. Giving him a furious shake, he flung the body away from him and whirled around. The battle, he saw, had ended. Seven of the rogues lay dead or dying. Maurice and Kane were bent over Gerard, who lay prone in a pool of blood. Jessie and Billy Rae were standing guard over the remainder of the rogue pack, who were cowering against the side of the building. Uttering a howl of rage, Dante charged toward the remainder of the pack, shoving Jessie and Billy Rae aside and grabbing up the first man he came to by the neck. “Where is she?” The man gaped at him. “I don’t know. I swear to god I

don’t know anything about it.” “Wrong answer, asshole!” Dante ground out. Snapping the rogue’s neck, he tossed him aside and grabbed another one up. “My woman, you son-of-a-bitch! Where is she?” “Howard called somebody. I doan know who,mon ami. I swear!” Dante gritted his teeth and shoved his face closer. “I’m not your friend. I’m your worst nightmare, you piece of shit. Who did he call?” “He said they wanted her. They’d come get her. That’s all I know. He didn’t tell me shit! I just overheard him.” “When?” Dante ground. “When did he call?” “Right after you took her. He said if he couldn’t have her he’d make damned sure you didn’t get her either.” Flinging the man away, he whirled to where he’d last seen Maurice and Kane and stalked toward them. “Gerard’s dead,” Maurice said grimly as he reached them. Dante dragged in a shuddering breath and stared down

at the man at their feet. He couldn’t wrap his mind around it. Gerard had been with him ever since he’d taken the territory—been here before even that. They’d been pack brothers and friends. His gut tightened. He didn’t have time to mourn the man’s passing, though. He couldn’t afford to think about it right then … couldn’t get his mind to focus on it at all. He couldn’ t think about anything but Shilo and the fear gnawing at his gut that he was going to lose her, might already have lost her. “I think that son-of-a-bitch called the Feds and gave them Shilo’s whereabouts,” he ground out. “We need to get back there.” Maurice’s eyes widened in disbelief before his face hardened with fury. “Julie and Jean-Claude will know what to do.” Dante shook his head, trying to fight off a rising sense of panic and think. “Maybe. Fuck! The SUV’s miles from here. Anybody got a phone?”

Chapter Eleven

There was a dark sedan parked in front of Julie’s house when they drove past. Dante gritted his teeth, fighting the urge to stop the vehicle then and confront the Feds, but he contained his rage and impatience with an effort. He wasn’t going to do anyone any good if he killed Feds on his own doorstep. Halfway down the next block, he pulled over and ordered Maurice, Jessie, and Kane out. “I’m going in the front door. You three spread out, locate any Feds staking the house out and then meet me at the house.” He paused as they nodded. “Don’t do anything yet. All I want to know right now is what we’re dealing with.” The dark sedan was still in front of the house when Dante pulled into the driveway and parked. He checked himself for any signs of blood he might have missed before he got out. A bath would’ve been better than just mopping off, but he hadn’t wanted to spare the time to go back to his place first. The damned cell had been out of range when they’d found it, and then the piece of shit had gone dead about the time they reached a hot zone. It was a judgment call, and he was well aware his judgment wasn’t at its peak at the moment, but he figured the Feds couldn’t smell worth a shit—they were human, after all.

Two men in dark suits were sitting in Julie’s living room when he walked in, interrogating her. Julie, holding Felicity, was tense and pale, her anxiety bouncing off of him in waves as he entered. The other pups were huddled together in a wide-eyed, frightened heap as far from the men as they could get and still be in the same room with Julie. A third Fed was standing just on the other side of the wall, hidden, he thought. “What the fuck is going on here?” he demanded, halting before he crossed the threshold into the living room. The Fed stepped out, a gun drawn. Dante eyed the gun and gave the man a level look. “Unless you’ve got a god damned good reason for waving that thing in my face, you son-of-a-bitch, I suggest you put it up,” he said coldly. “Who are you?” one of the men in the living room demanded. “You’re in my house. I think that’s my question to be asking.” “You’re the legal owner of this house?”

“I am. Now why don’t you tell me what the fuck you’re doing in it? Did you invite them in, Jules?” “They forced their way in.” “You have warrants?” “We’re Federal agents,” the man, who’d risen who was obviously the asshole in charge, informed him. “And I give a fuck. Warrant?” “They already searched the house,” Julie put in. “With or without a warrant?” Dante asked grimly, flipping out his cell phone. “We have a warrant.” “And you obviously already executed it. Now you can leave.” The agent glared at him. “We have a few more questions ….” “I’ll just let you talk to my lawyer then. His name’s in the book. Charles Maples.” They glared at him, but they had nothing and they

knew it. “We’ll talk again, Ms. Beauchamp.” “Not without a lawyer, you won’t.” The man stopped in front of him. “I didn’t catch your name.” “I didn’t throw it. You’re an investigator. See if you can find something besides your ass.” Dante followed them out the front door, watching until they’d gotten into the car and drove off. When he reentered the house, Maurice and Jessie had arrived. “See anything?” They shook their heads. “Looks like it was just the one car—unless Kane came up with something.” Dante transferred his attention to Julie. “Were they alone when they searched the house?” She nodded. “They threatened to put me in jail if I interfered—made me and the pups wait here.” Dante glanced over to where the boys were sitting in a cluster beneath the window on the far side of the room. “You guys alright?” They were pale and shaken, but all of them nodded. He

turned to look at his lieutenants. “Maurice, you and Jessie check the house out—thoroughly.” Kane returned while Dante and Julie were trying to divert the boys from their fright with a few scoops of ice cream. “Anything?” Dante asked when he came in. Kane shook his head. “But the one that was here just circled the block.” “I figured as much.” “Maurice and Jessie back?” “They’re checking out the house,” Dante said coolly. Ruffling the hair of the two closest boys, Dante managed a faint smile for them and then jerked his head at Julie and went back into the living room. Julie, he saw, was still upset, and he had a bad feeling he wasn’t going to like what she had to say. She contained herself, though, waiting until Maurice and Jessie returned. “It’s clear now.” Dante looked at Julie. “You didn’t see them drop

anything in here?” She shook her head. “She’s gone,” she burst out. “We tried to call you, but we couldn’t get through. Jean-Claude’s been looking for her for hours.” Dante felt as if the bottom had fallen out of his stomach. “Gone?” he repeated hollowly. Julie burst into tears. “She said she was going for a walk right after lunch. I didn’t think anything about it, honest to god! She didn’t take anything. She said she was going to the store—asked me if I wanted her to bring anything back. I saw Jean-Claude follow her. He said she went into the lady’s room and then just vanished.” “Jesus fucking Christ, Jules!” Dante ground out, glancing down at his watch. “Just after lunch?” “We tried to reach you! I couldn’t leave the pups, damn it! Jean-Claude’s been all over everywhere trying to pick up her scent!” Jean-Claude slipped into the door at about that time, took one look at Dante’s face and turned white. “Sorry, boss!” Dante sucked in a deep breath, stalked across the room,

and punched him in the face. “Not half as sorry as you’ re going to be!” he roared, diving for the man and jerking him up by the throat. Maurice and Jessie grabbed Dante’s arms, trying to pull him loose. “Damn it, Dante!” Maurice bellowed. “We need to know what he knows. If you beat him senseless we’ll have to wait till he comes around.” Dante sucked in several more deep breaths, shook Jean-Claude, and finally released him. “Sit down and tell meexactly what happened,” he ground out. Rubbing his throat, Jean-Claude moved shakily to a chair, collapsed in it, and carefully recited the tale. “There was no window—no way she could have gotten out.” “Which means she walked right by you, you son-of-a-bitch,” Dante growled. “I’m tellin’ you she din. I never took my eyes off the door, not once. After I’d waited ‘bout fifteen minutes I got worried and asked a woman to check for her. She said there wasn’t nobody inside. When dat woman came out, I went in and checked myself. She wasn’t there. There wasn’t nothin’ in there that she’d left and I couldn’t find no trace of her. I been back and forth over and over. I pick up her scent here, track it there and lose

it.” Dante ground his teeth together in impotent fury. “She outsmarted you. Tell me about the women you saw come out.” “None of them was her.” “Any of them close to her age? Height? Weight?” Jean-Claude frowned. “Two.” “What did they look like?” His frown deepened. “One had brown hair, the other was a red head.” He looked up sheepishly. “The red head wreaked of perfume—near gave me a nose bleed. She was taller though, wasn’t wearing clothes anything like Ms. Shilo had on—different bag. Sun glasses. I couldn’t see her eyes.” Dante pinched the bridge of his nose, struggling against the rage and anxiety that was twisting his gut. “She went in as blond, came out as a red head, and walked right by you. Damn it to hell, Jean-Claude!” Striding to the window, he stood staring out at the darkening street, trying to figure out the best way to go about getting her back. The Feds were going to be a real

pain in the ass. If they weren’t damned careful, they’d have the Feds in behind them while they were tracking her down. And they couldn’t wait. Her trail would go cold and he’d never find her. He had no idea even where to look. He felt sick to his stomach at the thought. Not finding her was not an option. It was painfully obvious he hadn’t succeeded in marking her, but he’d bound himself to her, nevertheless, if the churning sense of loss was anything to go by, and he knew it was. The up side to that was that, by binding himself, he had finely attuned his ‘radar ’ to her. If he could catch even a faint trace of her, he could track her. He tried not to think of how big an ‘if’ that might be when she had such a huge head start and he had such an enormous area to cover. If he couldn’t narrow that down, fast, he was going to lose all trace of her. “Go back to the store again, Jean-Claude—follow the scent she was wearing. Find out which plane, train, bus, or fucking boat she got on and get back to me as quickly as you can. And watch your ass. We’ve got Feds breathing down our necks, and they want her.”

When Jean-Claude had left, he turned to Julie. “As soon as it’s full dark, I want you to take my SUV and the pups and go to a hotel.” He paused. “We’ll wait till we hear from Jean-Claude. Then, which ever direction Shilo took, you’ll take the opposite, find a hotel near the edge of the city. I want them as far from her as I can get them right now.” Julie looked at him wide eyed. “Wouldn’t it be best to take the pups to Mary Jane? Or maybe Cindy?” He shook his head. “I don’t like this any better than you do. But one thing we can’t do is lead the bastards to any of the others. They’re not going to hurt you or the pups. They’ll follow you and stake out the hotel, expecting you to contact Shilo.” Maurice frowned. “What if they just call in another car to tail her and stay where they are?” Dante shrugged. “I’d rather have them as far away from pack property, and Shilo, as possible, but it’s not going to be a problem if they don’t take the bait. They won’t be able to tail us. Once Jules is gone, we’ll shift into wolf form. They aren’t going to pay any attention to a pack of ‘dogs’. We’ll go back to our place, change, grab one of the other vehicles, and go after her.” “They might have found out who you are by now,

Dante,” Julie said worriedly. Dante shrugged. “I doubt that. The house belongs to a holding company, and it’s just one of thirty, and the holding company belongs to a corporation … which belongs to a larger corporation. It’ll take them a while to track down my personal residence.” Jessie spoke for the first time. “I want her back as much as you do ….” Dante turned to look at him. “Somehow, I doubt that.” Jessie’s expression tightened. “We can’t bring her back here with the Feds looking for her. That’s all I’m sayin’ .” Dante’s lips thinned, his face hardening with purpose. “Then we’ll just have to get rid of them, won’t we?” **** Shilo was more tired than she could ever remember being and deeply depressed by the time she finally pulled into the barn near her cabin and shut the engine off. She didn’t get out at once, just sat staring into space, allowing her mind to wander. “There’s no sense in moping, Anne-Marie,” she muttered finally.

Getting out of the car, she went to the trunk and took out her spare suitcase—the one she always kept in the trunk for ‘just in case’. The sun was setting as she left the barn. Ordinarily, she would’ve paused to admire the sunset. She wasn’t currently in the mood, even if she hadn’t been tired to death. Between depression and plain out weariness, it took all she could do to drag herself into the cabin. She dropped the suitcase by the door and locked the door behind her. Her cats, one Siamese, one Burmese, and a Maine Coon, studied her through narrowed, accusing eyes. “Give me a break, will you? I know good and well Mr. Clements checked on y’all while I was gone.” The Maine Coon, Monster by name, yawned, stretched and went back to grooming herself. Ching and Buddy hopped down off the couch and trotted behind her as she headed towards the kitchen, zipping out the back door like greased lightning when she opened the door and went out to find food in the chest freezer. Monster strolled out in their wake and disappeared, as well. “It’s almost dark,” she called after them. “If you don’t want to spend the night in the barn, you’d better be scratching at the back door before I get ready for bed!” She realized after she’d lugged in an armload of food that she really didn’t feel up to cooking. She’d spent two days on the road, zigzagging north to south and east

to west, and changing cars twice before she’d been convinced nobody was following her and went to pick up her own car. Ordinarily, it would only have been one at the most, but she’d been more unnerved than usual. She’d justthought it was nerve wracking to have the authorities searching for her. The possibility of having lycans in behind her wasmuch more unnerving. The worst of it, though, was that she’d almost hoped Dantewould come after her. “Dream on,” she muttered as she stuffed her groceries into the refrigerator. After staring at the possibilities for a few minutes, she went back out to the freezer and sorted through the freezer meals until she found one that didn’t make her feel like gagging. Ripping the box off as she came back in, she stabbed a few holes in the plastic and threw the plastic tray into the microwave. While she was waiting, she pulled off her heels and dropped them on the floor, and then dragged the long black wig off that she’d switched to after the red one and hooked it on one of the kitchen chairs. Her hair was matted to her head from wearing the damned thing and her scalp itched. God the wigs were hot and uncomfortable! She managed to eat most of the microwaveable meal and then headed to her room for a shower.

It was barely eight o’clock when she came out again. She stared at her bed longingly, but she knew if she climbed into it she’d be awake long before dawn and feel just as bad tomorrow as she did right now. Instead, she went into the small living room and settled at her desk to check her email. There were three hundred messages and two hundred ninety nine was junk— Everybody and his brother wanted her to have a penis enlargement! “As soon as I get one, buddy, I’ll let you know,” she muttered irritably, deleting the messages. She propped her arm on the desk and dropped her chin in her hand. “I haven’t even seen a damned penis in forever.” The last message was from somebody in Africa that wanted to give her a hundred million dollars. Sighing, she deleted that one, too. After cruising to a couple of the chat sites she frequented and discovering nobody was online that she was interested in chatting with, she went to the news and scanned the stories, reading a couple that caught her interest. It was nine o’clock when she checked the time again. Shutting down her computer, she wandered over to the bookcase that held her movie collection and scanned the titles. She’d watched all of them at least twice. On the good side, she thought wryly, she also knew which ones she liked. Picking out a suspense, she moved to

the TV and turned it on and inserted the disk. Before she started the movie, she went to the back door and called the cats. None of them came. Shrugging, she locked the door and went back to stare at the TV screen until her eyes were too heavy to hold them open any more and finally went to bed. “Tomorrow’s another day, Miss Scarlet,” she muttered as she punched her pillows and settled down, trying to find the sleep that eluded her the moment she was ready for it.

Chapter Twelve There had been days, Shilo reflected, when she wondered if there was really any point in getting out of bed. This was one of them. As tired as she’d been, she’d slept poorly, dreamed more than she should’ve, and now she felt as worn out as she had been when she’d climbed into bed to start with. The good news was that she’d gotten over her embarrassment—mostly. The bad news was she was harboring a lot of regrets.

Most of those had to do with trotting off to the city at all. Sure, she’d been lonesome, but she was most of the time anyway. It was something a person could get used to like just about everything else. She’d also been reasonably content, though, and now she wasn’t. If it wasn’t just her luck to run into a pack of heart-stoppingly sexy men that she couldn’t have! It would’ve been better, she thought wryly, not to have had such a feast for the senses dangled before her at all. Now she wasreally hungry! Before, she’d just been vaguely restless. Sighing, she threw the covers back and got up. She’d get used to it again. It just took working at it and she was always depressed when she came back from one of her little excursions anyway. She was just a little more down than usual. Ithad been unnerving to find herself in the middle of a pack of lycans. It had been even more unsettling whenever she’d caught any of those big, dangerous males looking at her hungrily. It had been kind of nice, too, though. She hadn’t had a lot of opportunities to enjoy that part of being a woman—being desired, even if it was male lycans instead of human males—even if she knew it was more because they were just plain

horny because of that ‘scent’ quirk than because she was all that desirable to them. It was unfortunate that she was off-limits as far as they were concerned, because the truth wasshe was just plain horny. She would’ve been willing to close her mind to her qualms about it and go for it if any of them had been willing to—especially Dante. “What a man, what a man!” She sighed. She could count on one finger the number of men that had ever had that effect on her. Uttering another deep sigh, she went into the bathroom and performed her ‘start of the day’ routine. Feeling slightly more refreshed and alert, she dressed in a pair of worn jeans and a knit top and went into the kitchen to make coffee. The cats were mewing at the back door. Opening the sink cabinet, she grabbed a scoop of cat food and filled their dishes and then filled another bowl with water. They charged through the door the moment she cracked it open and sailed for the food dishes. Shaking her head in amusement as they growled at each other and swapped bowls—as if each of them was convinced that whatever was in the other bowls was better than what they had—she closed the door and fixed herself a cup of coffee. Monster was steadily chewing and growling warningly. Ching was eating her

food and swatting Buddy every time he looked up—just in case he had any ideas regarding her dish. “I should get another kitten,” she murmured thoughtfully as she watched them. “You guys aren’t any fun anymore.” Ching lifted her head, stared at her for a long moment with her bright blue eyes and uttered one of her ungodly yowls. “I should’ve named you loudmouth,” Shilo said with amusement. She hadn’t realized at the time she’d purchased the cat, though, that the Siamese were so loud. When she’d finished her coffee, she got up and moved around the house opening the windows. The place was stuffy from having been closed up for almost a week. The morning air should freshen the place up, she thought. Still barefoot, she left the cabin and wandered outside to check on the progress of her garden. Her fowls set up a demand for attention the minute she stepped out the door. Chuckling at the racket they were making with their squabbling, she redirected her steps to the pen and crouched down to study the assortment of chickens, quail, and ducks. The babies were getting feathers. Disappointment filled her. They grew up so fast! She’d hardly gotten the chance to cuddle the little babies, damn it! Straightening, she moved to the shed where she kept the feed and tossed a few scoops into the pen. While

the birds were diverted to that end of the pen, she moved back to the gate, opened it, and went in. Picking her way carefully across the compound to avoid bird droppings, she finally crouched down, waited until one of the young birds darted around her and scooped one up. It was a baby duck, and it was not happy about being captured. Ignoring its complaints, she stroked the soft down with a finger, smiling as she examined the tiny bird, cuddled it carefully in the palms of her hands for a few moments, and finally put it down. Rising, she left the pen and headed toward the garden again. The sheep, goat, cow, and horse trotted to the edge of their pen near her, baaing, bleating, mooing, and neighing as they followed her down the length of the railing. She ignored their demands for attention. “Later girls. I want to see the garden,” she said with a chuckle. It was starting to look like Noah’s Ark around her place, she thought wryly, except she only had one of each. When she reached her garden a big smile curled her lips and she dragged in a deep breath of satisfaction. Everything had sprouted! Delighted, she wandered down the neat little rows, bending now and then to examine a plant and pulling a few weeds. She didn’t really like pulling weeds so early. It was hard to tell the weeds from the vegetable plants when they were so young, for her anyway.

After puttering around in her vegetable patch for a while, she headed back toward the house to look at her flowers. Stopping by the corral, she petted the sheep, goat, cow, and horse for a few minutes and then continued on her way. The flower food she’d put out had really boosted plant growth, she saw with delight. The annuals and perennials were blooming up a storm. Deciding to clip some of the older blossoms to keep the plants in full bloom, she went to the barn for a pair of clippers and returned to the flower beds. She’d gathered a mound of clippings when she heard the distant sound of an engine. Freezing, she lifted her head to listen intently and finally relaxed when she recognized the rattling growl of Mr. Clements’ old truck. Gathering the cut flowers up, she filled the bucket near the spigot up and put the flowers in the water to keep them fresh until she could take them inside. Mr. Clements pulled up in the yard as she was finishing. “Howdy neighbor!” he called out cheerfully as he climbed out of his truck stiffly and started toward her. Shilo straightened and smiled at him. “Hey, Mr. Clements. How are you doing?” “Can’t complain. When did you get back?”

“Last night.” He scanned her with his rheumy old eyes. “Good trip?” Shilo felt a twinge of sadness. She’d been determinedly ignoring the discontent that kept trying to worm its way out of her subconscious into the forefront of her mind, though, and she gave it another shove toward the background. Trying to divert her friendly neighbor, she turned and began walking back toward the garden. If she invited him in, it might be noon before she managed to uproot him and send him home again. “Yep. The place looks great! Thanks so much for taking care of everything for me while I was away.” He fell into step beside her. “Aw. Wasn’t nothin’. Like I told you, I usually pass by here on my way to town at least once a week.” “Even so. I know it’s a chore tending to so many animals.” He chuckled. “Naw! You ain’t got that much here that needs tending to. Didn’t take more’n a few minutes to walk the place and put out the feed—run a little water from time to time. I think they missed you, though.” They’d reached the back side of the cabin by that time.

Buddy, Ching, and Monster erupted out of the back door, raced around the side of the cabin, and shot toward the barn, every hair standing on end. Shilo gaped at them for a moment and finally chuckled. “I wonder what’s gotten in to them?” Mr. Clements grinned. “Feeling kittenish. Even old animals get the urge to kick up their heels once in awhile.” Shilo grimaced wryly, feeling her face heat with embarrassment at the reminder that she’d been feeling a little too ‘kittenish’ herself or she wouldn’t have made a complete jackass out of herself by throwing herself at a man way too young to have any real interest in her. “I suppose so,” she muttered. “I told them last night I was thinking about getting a kitten. Maybe they’re feeling threatened?” Mr. Clements laughed, but shook his head. “Speaking of which,” he said as they reached the corral at last and stopped to look at the animals, “I got that young vet out here like you asked to seed your cow.” Shilo turned to look at him and blinked as that slowly sank in. “You did?” He nodded. “He’s pretty sure it took.”

A slow smile curled Shilo’s lips. “Really?” “Yep.” “Woohoo! Yes!” Shilo shouted abruptly, bouncing up and down in excitement before it dawned on her that she was a little old to be acting so silly. Blushing, she tamped her enthusiasm. “Did you hear that, Betsy? You ’re going to be a mommy!” Mr. Clements laughed, but shook his head. “Now don’t go gettin’ too excited yet. He said he thought it took. Won’t be sure for a while.” Shilo, who was stroking the cow’s face refused to allow room for doubt. “A baby cow! Won’t that be exciting!” “Calf,” Mr. Clements corrected. “Whatever! Don’t look so glum, Daisy,” she said to the mare. “You’re next.” The mare let out a snort. “Don’t give me any attitude, lady!” “How’s your mama doing?”

Shilo’s smile slipped a notch as she turned to look at her neighbor. She kept it in place with an effort, struggling to remember the details of the story she’d fabricated for the old man. “Good, really good. It turned out not to be serious after all. She’s getting along a lot better now. Thank you so much for asking.” He nodded. “I know that’s a relief to you.” “Oh! Yeah! It wassuch a relief!” “Your sisters?” Shilo forced a chuckle and turned to focus on petting the cow and the horse, who’d hung their heads over the top rail, demanding attention. “My sister, Chloe, is expecting. I’m going to be an aunt again. I can’t wait! I hope it’s a boy this time, because she’s determined to keep trying till she has one. She’s expecting around Christmas.” Mr. Clements said nothing for several moments and Shilo began to wonder a little uneasily if she’d laid it on too thick. What did she know about families, she thought wryly? It had sounded good to her. “Me and Chloe and Whitney went out clubbing the last night I was in town.” “I don’t suppose you met any nice young fellas while

you were there?” The best she could manage that time was a curl of her lips. “Nope. Wasn’t looking.” He frowned. “A pretty little thing like you—it’s a crying shame you being by yourself all the time. You ought to consider it.” “Oh, I did. It didn’t work out, though.” “It’s none of my business, I know, but you ought not to give up just because you wound up with one rotten apple. Me and Emma’s going to be celebrating our sixtieth this year and I love her just as much today as I did sixty years ago.” Shilo reddened, feeling a stab of envy and guilt because she did. “Oh! That is so sweet! Congratulations!” He eyed her speculatively for several moments. “We got a good looking grandson that’s promised to come for our anniversary shindig. I don’t suppose I could talk you in to coming over?” Shilo laughed in spite of her annoyance. “Brazen match making!”

He grinned. “Well, I ain’t subtle and you ain’t stupid. I figured I might as well be blunt. He’s a good man, works hard, not too hard on the eyes. Think about it.” She refused to be pin downed on it, though it was an intriguing possibility. When she’d walked him back to his truck, she finally broke down and yielded to her curiosity. “How old is he?” Mr. Clements grinned triumphantly. “Thirty.” Shilo scrunched her lips up. “That’s a little young for me. He’ll think I’m an old woman.” Mr. Clements shook his head. “Well, if he’s that big a damned fool, you don’t need to give him the time of day anyway. It ain’t about age, young lady. It’s about whether or not you’re good together. My Emma’s ten years young than me. If she was ten years older, she’d still be Emma, and I’d still be a fool about her.” “Lucky, lucky lady!” He snorted. “I’m the lucky one. Don’t know why she puts up with me, but I’m shore glad she does.” She stood watching the truck as he backed around and headed out again, feeling more depressed than she had when she’d woken up. She shook it off when his truck

disappeared from view. “Maybe I ought to give that grandson some thought,” she muttered. Mr. Clements wasn’t a bad looking man even as old as he was. If the grandson was anything like him …. She shook that thought off. He probably lived in the city. There was no point in thinking about it. She couldn’t consider it. Even if she and the unknown grandson clicked together like two peas, she’d still have to be worried about the Feds catching up with her and hauling her off. And if shehad children, which was doubtful now, she’d have to worry about them, too. Dismissing it with an effort, she turned to go back into the house. **** Grim satisfaction settled over Dante as he watched Shilo head toward the house. It did little to tamp the anger simmering in him, though. He was worn out from days of searching, days of frustration, the gnawing fear he had refused to acknowledge that he wouldn’t be able to find her. She’d led them a merry fucking chase. They ’d tracked and backtracked, over and over again, until it had taken all he could do to keep from exploding. Neither Maurice, Kane, nor Jessie were in much better shape, and they’d almost come to blows a dozen times because their nerves were shot to hell and they were all

spoiling for a fight. Signaling to the others to spread out and keep an eye on the perimeter, he’d made his way around to the front of the house and was trying to decide how he could get close enough to grab her without getting the hell knocked out of him when he heard the truck. Instantly alert for the possibility of threat, he’d settled to watching again. Shilo’s alarm vanished fairly quickly, though, and he realized she knew the man coming up her drive. He wasn’t concerned about the old man, but he didn’t want any kind of distractions when he confronted Shilo. Since it looked like she was going to be occupied for a while, he moved around to the back again and slipped into the house, realizing that would be the best place to catch her off guard and avoid a nasty shock. He paused when he’d entered the kitchen, lifting his head and filling his senses with her. Some of the tension eased. His stomach rumbled. They’d barely stopped to eat, fearful of losing her trail. Cocking his head to make certain she was still occupied, he listened to the conversation a few moments and moved to the refrigerator. There wasn’t much in it he discovered without a lot of surprise but with a good bit of disappointment. Abandoning it, he checked the cabinets and finally pulled out a jar of peanut butter. Discarding

the lid, he scooped a finger full out and sucked it off the digit as he headed into the living room that opened off the kitchen. Three cats were sprawled on her sofa. The moment he stepped through the doorway, all three leapt to their feet, bowed their backs and hissed at him. Shewould have cats, he thought with disgust! He wrinkled his nose at them, allowing a low growl to rumble from his chest as he moved further into the room. The cats leapt from the couch and sprinted past him, heading for the back door. Grinning, feeling a bit more cheerful at having ousted the damned felines, he looked around the room. It was neat and uncluttered, not fancy, but homey, and better than that it smelled like Shilo. After days of not being able to catch more a faint trace of her scent, the hunger in him made him want to wallow in her scent until he could smell her all over him. He didn’t have to satisfy that craving with her belongings, though, he thought grimly. He’d tracked the little she-devil down, now. This time, she wasn’t going to slip through his fingers. He wasn’t taking any more chances. When he got his hands on her he was going to mark her so thoroughly it was going to take no matter how resistant she was to lycans.

He wasn’t going to give her a chance to think it over. Brushing those thoughts off with the reflection that he had to keep his wits about him, he went back to familiarizing himself with her lair. A desk was set in the corner, a laptop computer on the top. He strolled toward it, flipped it open, and checked her internet history. Closing it again without looking any further, he pilfered through her belongings for a moment before the calendar on the wall next to the desk caught his eye. He studied the series of x’s crossed over the dates—all but the middle week, which had a line through it. The dates of the week crossed off corresponded roughly to the week she’d spent in the city—except she’d left several days earlier than she’d obviously intended to— and he was about to dismiss it when something about it snagged his interest. Pulling the calendar off the wall, he flipped back through the previous months and frowned thoughtfully when he saw that there was a week drawn through in each month with a bright little x right in the middle of it. He counted the x’s as a thought occurred to him. After a moment, he put the calendar down and left the living room, prowled her bedroom for a moment and finally went into the bathroom and checked it out.

One box, unopened, caught his eye instantly. He picked it up and read the directions on it. He discovered another, identical box, in the trash and the discarded tester that went with it. A slow smile curled his lips and broadened into a wolfish grin as he studied the results of the ovulation test. “Gotcha!” he murmured. Feeling a damned sight more cheerful than he had in days, he left the bathroom and went back into the living room, pacing it impatiently as he listened to the conversation filtering to him through the open windows. He stopped after a few moments to watch her from the window, grinning and shaking his head when he saw her bouncing up and down with excitement about her cow. The amusement vanished after a moment, though, as he assessed the wealth of information he’d gathered about Shilo in a matter of minutes when he’d had to fight tooth and nail to find out anything about her before. She’d surrounded herself with burgeoning life, from plants to animals, trying to fill the hole in her soul that desperately yearned to nurture. He was less pleased about the unavoidable fact that she’d carefully timed her trip to the city to correspond to her fertility cycle. She’dplanned to find someone to impregnate her! Why thefuck had she dashed off before he could do the

deed then, damn it? The answer to that question wasn’t long in coming, and it was mighty unpalatable. “Too fucking bad,” he growled under his breath. “You may as well get used to the idea of getting bred by a lycan, lady, because you’re ripe and I’m damned sure ready.”

Chapter Thirteen If she hadn’t been distracted by her thoughts, she might have felt the presence of an intruder behind her door. Shilowas distracted, however, and she was completely unsuspecting as she turned to close the door behind her. She caught a glimpse of him then, but it was far too late. He caught her wrists, jerking them behind her back and manacling them with one hand even as he spun her around to face him and shoved her back against the door, pinning her between the panel and his hard body. “This was fun,” Dante growled ominously, his face a mask of fury as he glared down at her. “We’ll have to

play chase again some time.” Shilo gaped up at him in disbelief. “Dante?” His lips tightened. “Who the hell else were you expecting, woman? The grandson? You can fucking forget that. You’re mine, damn you,” he growled, tangling his fingers in her hair and trapping her even as he swooped down to capture her mouth in a searing conquest of her senses. Shilo’s knees buckled at the heat and sheer ferocity of his assault. Fortunately, he had her pinned too tightly for her to fall, a hard grip on her hair and her arms and one of his knees pressed between her wobbly thighs. She was too stunned for several moments to do more than flounder in the heady sensations that pelted her the moment his hot mouth closed over hers, instantly drunk with pleasure at the jolt to her system as his taste filled her mouth with the first rough caress of his tongue. He tasted like … peanut butter, she thought dimly, but far more like Dante, and his essence was like a narcotic, going to her head instantly so that she was swimming in a heated pool of intoxicating desire. God, she thought! He tasted so good, felt so good. She made a sound of appreciation, struggled to get closer, to taste and feel more of him as mindless need washed through her. A cloud of heat welled between them until she felt as if

she was burning up. She felt herself quaking, felt his big body shaking nearly as hard, and then harder than her own. He tore his mouth from hers, gasping hoarsely for air like a drowning man and covered her face and throat with open mouthed kisses before he claimed her mouth again. Dimly, as if hearing it from a great distance, she heard the dull sound of rending fabric, felt a tug on her clothing, and then felt a whisper of cool air across her bare skin before she felt the return of heat as he pressed against her. His hand covered one breast. She tried to reach for him and discovered he was still gripping her wrists behind her tightly with his other hand. She made a sound of distress when she couldn’t reach, him, tugging to try to free herself so that she could stroke her hands over him, loop her arms around his neck to anchor herself before she floated off. He ignored it. Using his knee and hands, he boosted her higher for better access, broke the kiss and abandoned her mouth again to cover the breast he’d been massaging with his hand. A jolt of electricity went through her as he suckled it hungrily, tugging at her distended nipple with his lips and tongue until she thought she would pass out from the delicious jolts it sent through her. She was sucking in sobbing breaths by the time he transferred his

attention to her other breast, so dizzy and disoriented she couldn’t think straight, couldn’t think at all, murmuring his name over and over like a mantra. Disappointment swept over her briefly when he deserted her breasts, but he redeemed himself by covering her mouth again, sending a tidal wave of need through her with each stroke of his tongue along hers. She needed him inside of her, she thought frantically, feeling her lower body clenching in demand. The urge to voice that demand seized her. The fear he’d stop tamped the impulse almost as quickly. She felt a hard tug at the waist of her jeans, felt the fabric part, heard the rending sound of fabric but was too feverish to even attempt to interpret it. The only thing pounding through her mind was need—need— need. She jerked all over when she felt his hand slip between her legs, felt the stroke of one thick finger along her wet cleft. He lifted his mouth from hers, watching her face as he found her opening and pushed his finger slowly inside of her. Darkness closed around her. She uttered a sob of a breath. “Baby,” he groaned, pressing his face to hers. “My god, baby.”

She barely heard him through the fiery haze that had enveloped her, didn’t have enough mind left to even grasp the words or their meaning, let alone the undertones. She made a whimpering sound of need, wanting to beg him to give her more, constrained by doubts she couldn’t quite grasp at the moment. She whimpered again when he took even that from her, withdrawing the finger that had promised so much. The sound of a zipper intruded, sending a hopeful, almost painful shaft through her frantically pounding heart and then she felt him, felt a hard knob of flesh spreading the mouth of her sex. Her throat closed. The air seized in her lungs. Her heart stopped as she felt the pressure build, felt her flesh yield with mind shattering slowness to his intrusion. She squirmed, undulated, trying to envelope the thick, hard shaft of flesh, panting so hoarsely that darkness crowded her mind. Uttering a sound between a groan and a growl, he looped an arm beneath her hips and hoisted her upwards. She lifted her legs instinctively and wrapped them around him. The movement opened her body to him. Grunting in satisfaction, he curled his hips and drove into her, breaching the reluctant barrier of her clinging flesh and sinking so deeply inside of her that Shilo sucked in a harsh, almost keening breath as he slammed to her depths.

A hard shudder went through him. His hips jerked, driving him even deeper and then he jerked his hips back, dredging his cock outward along her passage and driving into her again in hard, jerky, desperate lunges. Her body tensed at the pleasurable quakes that went through her with each pass. Without warning, her body suddenly exploded in ecstasy. She cried out in surprise, delight, absolute rapture as her body convulsed with unimaginably exquisite spasms. He groaned, pumping into her harder and faster and then abruptly freezing for a split second. She felt his cock buck inside of her and then fiery hot semen filled her channel, bathing it wondrously. She sagged weakly when the quakes finally subsided, barely conscious in the aftermath of the most incredible thing that had ever happened to her. He leaned heavily against her, almost sobbing for breath. After a few moments, he seemed to gather himself though. Releasing his grip on her arms, he shifted his grasp to hold her tightly against him and moved away from the door at last. It took an effort to lift her arms, but she looped them around his neck as he carried her through the living room and into her bedroom. A vague sense of disappointment filled her as she felt his cock slip from her body as he crawled onto the bed

with her, but it was banished as he settled on top of her and she felt the brush of his lips along her jaw and throat. They moved over her skin gently, almost apologetically. Too weak to cling as badly as she wanted to, she allowed her arms to drop to the bed, drifted on a warm cloud of repletion, hovering between awareness and unconsciousness. She frowned faintly when he moved away from her, feeling bereft. The rustle of clothing caught her attention, though, and she struggled until she managed to open her eyes a crack. He was standing by the bed, his gaze on her as he pulled his shirt off over his head. His pants were hanging open, had slipped halfway down his hips, exposing a belly that made hers quiver. When he’d discarded the shirt, he pushed his pants down his hips and stepped out of them. Wonder filled her despite the lethargy that still gripped her. His body was beautifully sculpted, a marvel of nature. Dark hair formed a T on his chest and abdomen, lightly covering his hard male breasts and then arrowing downward in a narrow trail and blossoming again around his genitals. She’d forgotten how beautiful his body was.

He climbed on the bed, dragging her halfway beneath his body as he settled. She lifted her head to look up at his taut face, feeling her heart flutter at the heated hunger that gleamed in his eyes, feeling an answering echo in her body. He sought her mouth after a moment, kissed her almost languidly while he explored her body with his big hands, cupping and massaging her breasts, stroking them over her ribs and down to her hip, over her belly and back upward again. He tugged her thighs apart after a few moments, wedging his hips between them. Shifting upward, he curled his hips, angling his cock so that it stroked along her cleft until the head engaged with the mouth of her sex. Grunting, he heaved upward, pressing steadily until his silken member began to delve deeper inside of her. Planting his hands on either side of her shoulders, he pushed his upper body upwards until his arms were straight and looked down, watching as he slowly and rhythmically thrust and withdrew, as their bodies merged and separated. Drawn by his fascination, Shilo looked down, too. Heat and tension coiled in her belly as she watched his dark, glistening flesh disappear inside of her. The muscles along her channel reacted by clenching around him. He looked up sharply when he felt it, met her gaze for a heart stopping moment. Abruptly, he settled against her, slipping his arms beneath her and coiling them

tightly around her as he began to move faster. “Later,” he murmured against her throat in husky promise, “I’ll take it slow and easy with you, baby. Make it good for you. I’m too hungry now and you feel so good. God, you feel good!” His words, his husky voice, washed over her like a caress, coiling through her in heated remembrance of the heaven he’d given her before. She felt her muscles quake around him in excitement, felt moisture flood her passage. He groaned, began to move faster until he plunging into her in hard jolts. Her whole body seemed to seize this time as she rocked on the edge of the precipice she’d fallen over before. When she went over, the quakes that went through her were harder. She sucked in a sharp cry that bordered on a scream as her climax hit her in hard waves that seemed to go on forever and increase in intensity with each jolt until she was screaming hoarsely. She felt him come as the convulsions began to taper off, allowing her, at last, to drift toward the Earthly plain again and right on down until she lost all awareness. He was propped on one arm, studying her with a mixture of wariness and worry when she woke. His gaze drifted over her face. “You thinkin’ ‘bout zappin’ me,chère ?” Surprise widened her eyes, then she frowned, trying to

figure out why he’d think such a thing. “Why would I do that?” A slow smile curled his lips. Amusement lit his eyes. “I must have done somethin’ right,” he murmured. Shilo couldn’t help but smile back at him. “Oh, it was very right—very, very right.” He chuckled. “Was it now?” he murmured huskily leaning toward her and dragging her closer so that he was looking down her. “That sounds promising.” Possessing himself of her hand, he lifted it palm upward and brushed his lips across the center of her palm. Feeling her throat tighten with some nameless emotion at the sweetness of his caress and the expression on his face, she curled her fingers along his cheek, allowing her hand to linger a moment as he released his hold on her wrist before she dropped it to her belly, uncomfortable when she realized the gesture was more affectionate than appreciative. As her mind cleared of the dregs of spent passion and sleep, puzzlement settled in her. She’d fantasized about him following her, but she didn’t believe that little daydream for a moment. There had to be some explanation for his presence, she knew, that had nothing to do with her. “What are you doing way out here in the

middle of nowhere?” she asked curiously. Wariness flickered in his eyes and then, like shutters closing, nothing. He shrugged. “I don’t suppose you have food in the house?” he asked, changing the subject abruptly. She was more than a little disappointed he’d deliberately changed the subject, but then she hadn’t actually expected any kind of declaration out of him, she thought wryly. “You haven’t eaten?” she asked, glancing toward the window and discovering to her astonishment that it looked to be late afternoon. “Oh my! What time is it anyway?” Dante shrugged. “Closing in on six.” “That late?” Shilo asked, stunned. “I must have slept.” Hours! “We both did. You looked like you needed it, and I sure as hell did.” “I’m sure I can find a little something in the freezer,” she offered. Dante gave her a wry look. “Better make that a lot of somethin’,chère. We haven’t had anything since before day. Me and my pack brothers are liable to be gnawing

on you if you don’t throw us something pretty quick.” Shilo stared at him. “We? Maurice and Jessie …?” “And Kane.” Her mind tumbling with possibilities to account from the whole pack showing up on her doorstep, she slipped away from him. “I’ll just take a quick shower ….” She broke off as she discovered she had tattered strips of cloth hanging around her, staring at the pieces dumbfounded. “My clothes ….” “About that,chère ….” Dante looked apologetic and downright sheepish when she turned to look at him. “I’m sorry as hell, baby. I got carried away.” Shilo blinked at him.That was the sound she kept hearing, she thought in bemusement? She hadn’t been in any condition to really register what was going on beyond what he was doing to her, and shestill wondered how she could’ve failed to realize he wastearing her clothes instead oftaking them off. “You tore my clothes off?” she asked in disbelief. His swarthy complexion turned a dull red. “I’ll get more,” he said uncomfortably.

“But ….” Shaking her head, not certain whether she was more irritated, more pleased, or just plain stunned that he’d been in such a hurry, Shilo got off the bed and removed what was left before heading into the bathroom. Dante followed her. “I’ll wash your back.” Still naked and drop dead gorgeous, Shilo saw he was leaning against the doorframe, his arms folded over his chest, a distinctive predatory gleam in his eyes as he watched her. He’dtorn her clothes off of her, though. Bad lycan! She sent him a censorious glance. “I don’t need my back washed.” “I’ll wash the front then,” he retorted, curling his lips upward in a smile. She could feel her lips curling automatically in response. He was just too damned cute for her good. She looked away, trying to hide it, but she figured it was with indifferent success. When she climbed into the shower, he followed her as if he’d been summoned. Not that she minded! He washed her front. Obviously, her breasts werereally dirty. He spent almost five minutes washing them

before he slipped his hands downward and washed her pussy with equal attention to detail. As thoroughly aroused as she was, though, she was still mindful of the fact that no one had eaten. Not that she believed they’d be gnawing on her if they weren’t fed, but still …. Bending down, he slipped his cock along her cleft, biting down on the side of her neck and sucking at the patch of flesh. Her nipples instantly stood erect and her insides performed a slow, delicious shimmy. “Nobody’s going to get fed before midnight at this rate,” she murmured in half-hearted warning. “Mmmm,” he growled low in his chest, stoking a finger lazily along her cleft. “I’ll just have some of this pie right here,chère.” “I doubt it would be very filling … for you,” she responded with a husky chuckle, feeling dizzy with the thought, vaguely horrified, but definitely intrigued. He moved his mouth to her ear. “But I’ll bet it’s tender and sweet as honey. I could just suck on it a little bit, lick it nice and slow for a little while, and then lap up the cream filling.” “Gross!” she commented, uncertain of whether she was more shocked or thrilled at the suggestion.

He chuckled. “I can guarantee you won’t think so when you feel my tongue lapping up your sweet juices, baby.” A shiver skated through her. Alas, he eased his finger from her and straightened. “I’ll have pie for desert,” he promised huskily.

Chapter Fourteen Shilo was still so wobbly legged when she got to the kitchen she thought she was going to have to sit down for a few minutes to collect herself. She saw from the kitchen clock, though, that Dante had undoubtedly been right about the time. She hadn’t had anything more than a cup of coffee to sustain her all day and felt weak and shaky from that besides the ferment going on inside of her. She couldn’t believe she was aroused, again, after what he’d already done. It not only wreaked havoc, it made it almost impossible to collect her scattered wits. Struggling to ignore it, she headed to the back porch to

dig through her freezer. Thinking quick, easy, and filling, she grabbed a bag of fryer parts and hauled it into the kitchen, tossing it into the microwave to thaw. Fortunately for the guys, her situation demanded that she stock up when she did get into town and she tended to buy large packs of everything. The bag would probably have lasted her a month. She figured it ought to be enough to feed four big men—strike that—lycans. She hoped it would be anyway. Dante, wearing nothing more than his jeans, strolled through the kitchen and stepped onto the back porch, issuing a high pitched, near deafening, whistle. She jumped at the sound, dropping an armload of canned vegetables all over the floor. She was standing on one foot, nursing her bruised toes when he came back in. His dark brows drew together over the bridge of his nose. Striding toward her, he caught her waist and lifted her up onto the counter. He was stroking her bruises when Maurice, Kane, and Jessie trooped inside. “What happened?” Jessie asked. “Kitchen injury,” Dante murmured. “She dropped a can on her toe.” Shilo reddened, but under the circumstances she felt mean to even consider blaming it on Dante, despite the

fact that he’d startled her into dropping the cans. “We can handle kitchen duty,” Maurice volunteered. “No,” Shilo said firmly. “It’s fine, just bruised. Y’all go on in the living and make yourselves at home. I’ll have some food soon—promise.” “You sure you don’t want help?” Dante asked when the other three had left. “Positive,” she said firmly. Shrugging, he helped her down and left her to it. Fried? Or stewed? Shilo wondered as she flipped the bag and checked the thawing progress. They were southern boys—except for Maurice. She didn’t know where he was from—and that meant they were in luck, because she did know how to make chicken and dumplings. Unearthing the huge pot she’d gotten for canning—a project she’d never actually gotten around to trying—she cleaned it and set it on the stove top. This time, she decided, she was going to make a better impression. ****

Kane had sprawled on the sofa when Dante reached the living room. Jessie was studying the titles of the movies in the tall case, and Maurice was merely wandering about studying the room and its contents. He picked up the calendar Dante had left on the desk, frowning as he studied it. Folding his arms, Dante leaned against the doorframe. After flipping back and forth through the calendar for a moment, scanning the months already marked, Maurice slowly lifted his head and looked directly at Dante for a long moment. Turning away after that significant exchange, Maurice picked the tack up from the desk and pinned the calendar to the wall where it had been before. “I could use a bath,” Kane drawled, “but I sure as hell don’t feel like hiking back to the SUV at the moment. I assume we’re set here for a while?” Dante pushed away from the door and moved to the couch, sprawling at the opposite end. “I’m working on it.” Jessie chuckled. “So I heard.” A satisfied smile curled Dante’s lips. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so completely relaxed and utterly content. He’d been worried as hell when he’

d finally woken, wondering uneasily if she was going to wake up screaming, or wake up and knock him senseless for assaulting her.He was happy—god, but it had felt better even than he’d expected!—but it couldn’ t be avoided that he didn’t have a very clear idea of what he’d done after that first kiss except for a dim memory that he’d been desperate to get inside of her. She’d enjoyed it, though—Howmuch, he wasn’t certain, but enough that she hadn’t tried to throw him out the door, enough that she seemed to have accepted him—for the moment at least. Maurice glanced around at the room and wandered from the living room to the bedroom. Returning after a few minutes, he propped a shoulder against the doorframe. “She has cats,” he murmured, smiling faintly. Dante grunted. “We met when I first came in. I hope she isn’t too fond of them because they’re not too fond of lycans.” Kane grinned. “I noticed that. I met up with them in the barn.” “Hey,mes ami ! Check this out!” Jessie said with a chuckle, tossing a video case to Dante.

Dante caught it deftly, examined the illustration on the front of the box and then flipped it over to read the back. Uttering a sound of disgust, he tossed it to Kane. Kane looked it over and grinned. “What is it?” Maurice asked curiously. Kane tossed the box to him. “Give me a break!” Maurice muttered after he’d looked it over. “No wonder she’s so wary if she’s watching this shit.” He tossed the box back to Jessie. “Hey! I’ve seen this werewolf flick. It’s funny as hell.” Striding toward the TV/DVD combo, he switched it on and inserted the disk. Once the movie had started, Maurice pushed away from the door and moved to the sofa, crouching at the end beside Dante. “Did I interpret that correctly?” he murmured. Dante gave him a look. “If you interpreted Friday as yours, then yes.” Maurice studied him. “But you think that’s too soon,” he said perceptively. Dante frowned uneasily. “I don’t want to push her too

hard, too fast. This is for keeps, Maurice. I don’t know how well she understands, or how much—or how receptive she is to our way of life for that matter. I wouldn’t worry about it if I was more certain about marking her—she’dknow she was ours then. But this psychic thing has me uneasy.” Maurice was thoughtful for several moments. Finally, he lifted his head and looked around the room again. “If there’s one thing she is used to it’s being different,” he said finally. “I’ll test the waters carefully. If she seems skittish, I’ll wait.” Some of the tension eased from Dante. “It’s a lot to ask ….” “You didn’t,” Maurice responded. “And it isn’t for you, anyway. You may think what you feel is different from the way we feel—and maybe you’re right—but you’re wrong if you think it’s no more than mating fever with the rest of us—or least me. And I’m thinking it is for them, too. A woman like Shilo doesn’t come along more than once in a lifetime.” He sent Dante a wry look. “Aside from the fact that she makes my blood boil, I’m thirty two. And not only have I had all the ‘lone wolf’ I can stomach, I want a pup of my own. I don’t have any plans to go out anytime soon, but nobody ever does, and I don’t want to be like

Gerard. He was thirty five—never had a mate or a pup.” Rising, he moved to the desk chair since the couch and easy chair were already occupied and sat down, dividing his attention like everyone else, he suspected, between the TV screen and the door of the kitchen where he could see Shilo moving around and hear her humming to herself. The need racing through his veins hitched upward a notch as he watched her, listened to her voice. He didn’ t know if he had it was bad as Dante or not, but he felt sorry for Dante ifhe had itworse . A faint smile curled his lips after a few minutes. Regardless of Dante’s reservations, she didn’t seem the least bit unnerved about the fact that she had a wolf pack sprawled in her living room. **** Shilo was so pleased with herself she had a hard time containing it. She’d managed to cook an entire, gargantuan meal, and she hadn’t burned a thing, hadn’t even scorched the dumplings, although that had been a near miss. They seemed to appreciate her efforts, but then again Dante had said they hadn’t eaten since before day.

There wasn’t enough room for everyone at the table, so they’d brought plates into the living room and settled to eat. She’d chosen to sit on the floor in front of the coffee table. It was almost amazing how comfortable she felt sharing a meal with them. She revised that after a little thought. No, more than comfortable, happy. Of course a lot of that, she knew, was residual contentment from being so thoroughly satisfied, but they all seemed relaxed and perfectly comfortable and she thought that contributed to her sense of pleasure. She didn’t feel anxious that she needed to work to entertain them, felt she could just relax herself and enjoy being surrounded by company. They’d been watching an old horror movie from her collection while she was cooking. She’d thought it was a comedy from the chuckles erupting from the living room and had found it more than a little embarrassing when she’d finally been drawn into the room to discover what was so funny. She’d stared at the wolf-man on the TV screen, looked at them, and then decamped to the kitchen.

She supposed she’d spoiled their enjoyment. They’d turned the movie off. She still didn’t know why they’d found it so amusing, but she’d decided not to ask. “Where are y’all headed?” she asked when there was a lull in the previous conversation. When no one said anything, she lifted her head and looked around at them curiously. Dante, she saw, was looking at her taut faced. Maurice, Kane, and Jessie glanced at Dante, looked at her, and then focused on their food. Embarrassed, feeling vaguely snubbed that they obviously didn’t want to tell her their business, she returned her attention to her plate. “Sorry. I was just curious. It’s none of my business.” She frowned as a thought abruptly occurred to her, though. “How did you find me?” “We’re lycan,” Dante said after a lengthy silence. Shilo stared at him as that slowly sank in. A wave of cold washed over her at the wealth of meaning behind that simple statement. She’d thought she’d been so clever in covering her tracks! “Which means you tracked me,” she whispered, “which means they could, too—the others, the rogues.”

Was that why they’d come, she wondered abruptly? Because Dante had promised to protect her? Because he’d told her plain out he wasn’t taking any chances on the rogues catching her and using her against him? A frisson of discomfort wafted through her as she remembered that conversation. He’d told her the rogue probably meant to try to ‘turn’ herand ‘breed’ her. He’d said that was what he’d do if it was him. Now she had to wonder if that was what had been behind all that wonderful sex, not passion, but calculation. She shook that thought off. He’d been passionate. She might have been half out of her mind, but she’dfelt the same from him. She knew she had. Maybe it was passionand calculation, but there’d been nothing cold blooded about it. “You shouldn’t have run off,” Dante said finally. Uncomfortable at the reminder of why she’d run and the fact that she’d agreed to cooperate with him and

stay until he’d taken care of his rogue problem, she looked down at her plate. “I figured I’d be safe here.” “You are. We’re here.” She met his gaze with a mixture of relief and doubt. Regardless of his motives, she didn’t feel safe anymore knowing that if Dante had tracked her the others might. “But … you can’t stay forever.” “We won’t need to.” Shilo dragged her gaze from Dante and studied the faces of the other men. “I’m not safe here anymore, am I?” she asked, feeling a tightness in her throat at the thought of leaving her little cabin—her animals, her garden. Getting to her feet abruptly, she left the living room. She was standing at the sink, staring at the bubbles mounding beneath the tap when Dante joined her. For several moments, he merely stood behind her. Finally, he slipped his arms around her and pulled her back against him. Comforted by that simple gesture, she sniffed, trying to blink away the tears that had gathered in her eyes. “My cow’s pregnant,” she said forlornly.

Dante chuckled. “Is she?” She sniffed again, but bit her lip. She supposed it did sound funny, but it wasn’t amusing to her. She loved her cow. She’d had plans! “It’s not funny! I was so looking forward to having a baby cow.” Reaching in front of her, he shut the tap off. “I’m not goin’ to let anyone hurt you,chère, or take anything away from you,” he murmured, nuzzling his face against her temple. She knew he was only trying to comfort her and she had no right at all to expect more than he’d already done for her, but she didn’t want to leave. It was so very true that one never really appreciated what one had until it was gone—or threatened. “You’d do that?” she asked, unable to keep hope from threading her voice. “Yes.” “You’ll stay until you’re sure I’ll be ok?” she added, just to be sure she’d understood him. “I told you I’d keep you safe. I always keep my word.” She believed him. She supposed she shouldn’t have. She hadn’t known him long enough to consider it sound judgment, and yet she trusted him. She felt like she

could believe him. Maybe it was just that she wanted to? “The others won’t mind?” “They’re as dedicated to this as I am.” She wasn’t sure she believed that, but they didn’t seem put out about being dragged here. Her conscience smote her, though, as another thought occurred to her. “You won’t get into trouble? I don’t want you to get into trouble.” “I make my own decisions.” “This isn’t against pack law?” “No.” “Even though it’s outside your territory?” He was silent for a long moment. “It isn’t actually outside my territory,” he responded finally, and with perfect truth. She was his—whether she knew it yet or not. “It’s not?” she asked doubtfully. “It isn’t,” he said firmly, releasing her finally and moving away. “We’ll take care of kitchen duty. You go relax.”

She turned to smile at him and discovered the others had crowded into her tiny kitchen. “You’ll have dishpan hands,” she said teasingly. Kane sent her a look. “Not him—me.” She chuckled. “He volunteered you to do the dishes?” He smiled back at her in a way that was rife with promise. “Could I play on your sympathy if I said he always picks on me?” “Does he?” Shilo asked doubtfully. He shrugged, his expression wry. “No. It’s my turn.” Shaking her head at him, she chuckled as she left the kitchen. She surveyed the living room doubtfully, though. It was the largest room in the tiny cabin, and still small considering what it was going to be expected to hold. She’d bought a queen sized bed because she liked plenty of room to sprawl out, so it would sleep two, but otherwise there was just the couch and the floor. Maybe she should just take the couch and let them have her room, she thought? Dante had promised her desert, she remembered, feeling warm all over at the thought, but it was going to

be crowded and uncomfortable for everyone else if she and Dante took the bedroom. There was barely enough floor space in the living area for two big men to sleep. And she only had a couple of spare blankets and pillows. Deciding to worry about sleeping arrangements later, she moved to her computer and sat down to check her mail. Pleasure filled her when she’d opened her mailbox and discovered she’d gotten an actual order! “What are you doing?” Dante asked as he returned to the living room and dropped onto her couch. She turned and grinned at him triumphantly. “I’ve got a project!” “What sort of project?” “They want one set of number fifteen—that’s a whole set--booties, cap, and sweater—in pink. Somebody’s having a girl!” She saw when she turned to look at him again that Dante was studying her with a mixture of amusement, puzzlement, and something else she couldn’t quite interpret. Something about it made her feel … unsettled, though, exposed somehow. Resolutely, she pushed that thought aside. He didn’t know her well

enough to ‘read’ her. “I sell handmade baby clothes— crochet and knit mostly, but sometimes hand sewn and embroidered.” “Come here,” he murmured, lifting a hand invitingly. She raised her brows, but shut down her system and got up to join him on the couch, unable to resist the invitation. He dropped an arm across the back of the couch behind her when she sat down, dragging her against his side. “You enjoy working with your hands?” She looked at him in surprise and then frowned thoughtfully. “I guess I do. Mostly I picked it up because I was bored out of my mind and it looked like something I might enjoy doing.” She thought it over, realized it must sound strange that she enjoyed making things for babies when she’d never had one, and cleared her throat uncomfortably. “I like doing the baby things because they’re small, you know—doesn’t take long to make them.” “You sell a lot?” She grimaced. “Actually, not. I’m lucky if I get one project a month, but it’s sort of a special treat for me. I can’t wait to get started!” “I could drive you into town tomorrow morning to pick

up what you need.” “Oh, I have everything.” “Then why wait?” “I’ve got company,” she said, smiling at him. He gave her a nudge. “Go get the stuff. I want to see this.” She looked at him doubtfully, torn. She hadn’t exaggerated when she’d told him it was a special treat for her, but then so was company. In fact, she never had company. On the other hand, there wasn’t any reason why she couldn’t enjoy both at the same time if he wouldn’t feel slighted. She didn’t want to be rude. She certainly didn’t want him to think she wasn’t glad of his company. “You’re sure you don’t mind?” “Go!” “Why don’t you pick a movie to watch?” she suggested as she bounded off the couch and moved to the large cabinet the TV was sitting on. Pulling out one of the large drawers, she took out a well worn leaflet, studied it for several moments, and then selected a large, pink ball of yarn and a hook.

“What about this?” Dante asked, showing her a video box. “Oh yeah! That’s one of my favorites. I’ve watched it at least a dozen times. Have you seen it?” “No, but if you’ve watched it that many times ….” “No, let’s watch it. It’s a Sci-fi horror, really creepy.” He chuckled, but crossed the room to put the DVD in. “Every time?” “Well, it isn’t as scary as it was the first two or three times,” she admitted absently as she studied the directions for her project. “But mostly I just listen while I work anyway. It keeps me company.” Maurice joined them just as the movie was starting. Grabbing her needle work, Shilo scooted to the center of the couch and made room for him on the end opposite Dante. “What’s this?” he asked as he settled beside her. “It’s about aliens,” Shilo volunteered when she’d finished counting her starting chain. Kane finished up in the kitchen and joined them a few minutes later, settling in the easy chair. Shilo frowned, wondering

where Jessie had gotten off to. A few minutes later, however, she heard the sound of a vehicle on her driveway. Tensing instantly, Shilo bounded off the couch to look out the window. “It’s just Jessie with the SUV.” Shilo turned to look at Dante. “You’re sure?” He tilted his head as if listening and nodded. Shilo frowned. She didn’t see how he could tell just by listening, but he seemed certain enough she returned to her seat and picked up her crochet work again. Uneasiness wafted through her. She’d known they didn’ t drive up to her place. She would’ve heard the vehicle, but she’d been too distracted before to consider why they hadn’t. It stuck her forcibly that they’d anticipated trouble and hadn’t wanted to announce their arrival and she wondered, nervously, if they’d tracked her to her place or tracked the rogues. It seemed unlikely, she decided after considering it several moments, or the rogues would’ve attacked her before Dante’s pack arrived—unless Dante had been close behind them and they’d still been checking the place out and trying to decide on an attack strategy. Dante hadn’t said that, though. In fact, now that she thought about it, he hadn’t actually explained anything.

She’d been the one who’d jumped to the conclusion that the rogues were the reason they’d come. Everything Dante had said had seemed to confirm her suspicions, but she couldn’t pinpoint anything specific he’d said other than to assure her he meant to protect her. Despite Dante’s reassurance, she was still relieved when the vehicle was parked and Jessie came in a few minutes later carrying several bags. He disappeared into her bedroom with them and then she heard the shower. One bathroom, one bedroom, five people, Shilo thought wryly. Pack brothers or not, she knew they weren’t used to sharing such close quarters. Their place was huge. If their vigil lasted very long the ‘ togetherness’ was bound to start getting on everyone’s nerves. She didn’t know whether to hope for a quick resolution or not. It was bound to be even more lonesome around her place if they stayed long enough that she got used to their company, but she wasn’t that anxious to have the place to herself regardless of how cramped it was. She knew it was unwise to be so deliriously happy about having company, regardless of their reasons for being there, that she was headed for misery when they left, but she couldn’t help it. She was happy they were

there. Despite the fact that there was a steady stream of traffic from the living room to the bathroom as the men took turns with the facilities, Shilo managed to get thoroughly engrossed in the movie. So much so that when the toothy alien jumped out and grabbed one of the male characters and someone clamped a hand on her shoulder at the same moment she nearly jumped out of her skin. Uttering a yelp, she leapt off the couch. Jessie and Dante were both grinning at her when she whirled to look at them. She narrowed her eyes at them. “Alright! Who’s the smartass that grabbed me?” Jessie chuckled. “It was him.” Shilo studied him for a long moment and then turned to consider Dante. He laughed and patted the couch where she’d been sitting. “Come on, baby. I won’t let the bad old alien get you.” “Very funny,” Shilo retorted, torn between irritation at being scared and pleasure at their teasing at the same time as she settled on the couch between them again. It took her a few minutes to get back into the movie. The moment she did, however, someone grabbed her again. That time she merely jumped, but she threw her crochet work into the air reflexively when she did and all four men laughed. She sent Dante an indignant look, certain

this time it had been him. Still chuckling, he grabbed her and dragged her across his lap. “I didn’t scare you did I?” She gave him a look. He pulled her close and whispered in her ear. “I’ll make it up to you,” he murmured, his voice husky with promise. She reddened, tempted to inform him that he needn’t think he was going to get rewarded for scaring the hell out of her—twice—but she was afraid he might take it to heart. “Ready for bed?” he asked when she leaned away from him. She felt her blush deepen, but tried to ignore it. “Ah … about that. I don’t know where to put everyone. I’ve only got the one bed and the couch. I thought maybe I could take the couch and let y’all have the bedroom, but somebody’s going to have to sleep on the floor.” “You go to bed. We’ll work out the arrangements.” Shrugging, Shilo got up and went into her room to get the extra pillows and blankets she had. Dante, she discovered, had followed her. He took the bedding from her and took it into the living room.

Feeling abruptly shy and excited at the same time, Shilo went into the bathroom to get ready for bed, wishing she had something sexy and slinky to slip in to instead of the overlarge t-shirts she generally slept in. It didn’t occur to her, once, to take exception to his assumption that he was welcome in her bed, mostly because he was. It did occur to her that she’d been way too easy to get, which was always a bad thing when it came to men. On the other, she was under no illusion that it was more than what it was—she was convenient, and he was horny. She wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth, though. She’d long since realized that if she didn’t ‘seize the day’ she wasn’t going to get any enjoyment out of life at all. Pathetic or not, she couldn’t bring herself to act too prideful to take charity.

Chapter Fifteen Dante dropped the bedding on the couch and turned to look at his men. “Kane, you and Jesse will have to toss for the couch,” he said and smiled faintly, “or settle the

issue however you want as long as it doesn’t involve anything that might distress Shilo.” He turned and studied Maurice for a long moment, frowning thoughtfully. “Give me thirty minutes.” He paused at the bedroom and turned back to Maurice. “Make that an hour.” She’d left the bathroom light on. He didn’t need it, of course, but since he thought she might want it that way, he merely pulled the door to until it left only a sliver of light spilling into the room when he left the bathroom. She was studying him with a mixture of doubt and, he knew, anticipation when he stopped by the bed and undressed. He could hear the blood pounding through her veins, smell her arousal, and it increased his own. He dragged the covers she had clutched under her chin off of her and tossed them back before he placed his knee on the bed. “What’s this?” he murmured with a touch of amusement, plucking at the t-shirt that engulfed her as he settled a knee on either side of her hips and stared down at her. “Is my little Shilo feeling shy?” Blood surged into her cheeks, but she sat up readily enough and tugged the shirt off over her head. He followed her down as she lay back against the pillows again, bracing himself slightly above her on his elbows

and staring down into her eyes, gauging her acceptance of him before he tilted his head to slant his mouth over hers. There was no shyness in her kiss, no reluctance, no doubt about his welcome. She parted her lips readily for him. He could sense her burgeoning desire, and triumph and possessiveness tightened inside of him, making his need shoot to the edge of control. He struggled with it as he made love to her mouth, made it his by filling her senses with his taste and scent and touch even as he fed his own hunger with hers. He’ d promised to control himself, though, promised himself he would, so that he could give her more pleasure. His mind filled with the memory of her gasps and cries of pleasure when he’d joined with her before, however, filled with the memory of her hot, clinging flesh around his, and he felt his control slipping another notch as the fever gripped him. Tearing his mouth from hers after only a few moments, he heaved in several sustaining breaths and slipped lower. Enjoying the less distracting but equally pleasant exploration of her throat, he allowed his lips to crawl over her soft skin, testing the smoothness with his lips, tasting her, listening to her breath catch, the soft sighs she uttered at his every touch, the sharper gasps when he found a particularly sensitive spot. He hadn’t expected her to be so responsive to him. He

knew she was afraid of lycans in general if not him in particular, and he’d thought he would have to coax her, win her slowly. He’d told himself he would, that he would have to expect that. And he’d still been so mindless with need that first time he hadn’t been able to control himself at all, hadn’ t been able to think of anything beyond getting inside of her as quickly as he could and claiming her. As crazed as he’d been, he’d realized dimly that she was liable to scream rape and he still couldn’t slow down, couldn’t regain an ounce of control once he’d started. She’d come for him, though. He hadn’t been certain the first time. He’d thought … but he’d had some doubts, had been too caught up in the blinding, mind blowing explosion of his own climax to allow him much awareness of anything else. The second time, he’ d been able to retain enough reason to be more certain. She’d certainly given him every reason to believe, afterward, that he’d pleased her, but he wanted, needed, to know that she was his, that she felt what he felt when he joined with her—the sense of belonging. This time, he thought as he traced a path over the rounded mound of one breast and drew a slow, teasing circle around the turgid peak with the tip of his tongue, he’d know beyond the shadow of doubt.

**** Excitement had threaded Shilo’s veins the moment Dante had come into the room until she’d thought she would hyperventilate and pass out before he even reached the bed. She was more than a little embarrassed about it, but she couldn’t seem to help it. Julie had been so right! It hadnever occurred to her that being with the right man would make such a difference. She hadn’t realized that she’d never actually achieved climax before for that matter. She’d been sure she had. It had felt good—a little disappointing considering all the hype about it—but nice. The real thing wasn’t just ‘ nice’, though. It was beyond fabulous—pure heaven— and knowing Dante could give her that made her so desperate to feel it again impatience warred with pleasure as he built the heat inside of her slowly with his kisses and his touch. She didn’t want slow! She wanted now! She wanted deep, rough, pounding that would drive her to completion within moments. She was hungry for it, greedy for it, wanted to demand he give it to her right away. She forgot all about that, though, as he began to pluck

at her nipples with his mouth and tongue. Heat scored her insides, brought her to feverish expectancy. Exquisite little jolts of pleasure traveled through her and centered in her sex until she could hardly catch her breath. He lingered, suckling at first one and then the other until she couldn’t be still for the urgency burning her alive, until her mouth and throat were so dry from her gasping breaths she couldn’t swallow, until she’d begun to clutch at him, begging him wordlessly to end her torment. When he moved lower, opening his mouth over the soft juncture where her ribs joined, it felt as if he’d punched the breath from her lungs. She struggled to catch it again as he meandered a path downwards lazily, sucking at little patches of skin until he reached her belly. Peeling her panties down her hips, he explored the area between her pelvic bones that quivered with her labored heartbeats and even more difficult breaths. Then he discovered a spot that was so keenly sensitive at the juncture of her thighs she almost thought she couldn’t stand it when he kissed her there, found herself shifting beneath him because she couldn’t be still. Sitting up after a moment, he dragged her panties down her thighs, slipped them over her calves and then off

her feet. She wasn’t certain what to do with her legs and dropped them limply to the bed as he tossed her panties aside. Holding her gaze, he curled a hand around each of her calves and pushed until she bent her knees. Settling the soles of her feet on the bed, he slipped his hands from her calves to her ankles and pushed her feet wide apart. A touch of embarrassed reluctance flickered through her as he scooped her buttocks into the palms of his hands. She made an aborted attempt to clamp her knees together, but he wedged his shoulders between them as he descended. Briefly, panic went through her as it dawned on her he really did intend to put his mouth on her. No one had ever done anything like that before— Not that a couple hadn’t tried, but she hadn’t been comfortable with the idea. She still wasn’t, fearful that Dante was only doing it because he thought she wanted him to and he wouldn’t find it pleasurable at all, or worse, he’d be revolted. She made a grab for his hair to push him away as he bent his head toward her. He ignored the tug on his scalp, opening his mouth over her sex anyway. His mouth felt like fire on her tender flesh. His tongue, as he dragged it slowly along her cleft as if savoring the taste of her, sent a jolt like an electric current through her. Her stomach clenched so hard it pushed the air from her lungs as she felt the faint abrasion of his

tongue on her clit. She gasped for breath, squeezed her eyes tightly shut as he sucked it into his mouth. Weakness washed over her. Everything inside of her went taut and then every muscle in her body lost muscle tone as he tugged at the bud. Her thighs fell open. Her hands stilled in his hair. A groan worked its way up her throat as she felt him lift her buttocks to give him better access and his mouth moved over her with a hunger she felt all the way to her core. She recognized the building tension inside of her instantly this time, knew where it was taking her. Closing her mind to everything but the feel of his mouth and tongue, she allowed the glorious, pleasurable tension to build, unfettered by the doubts that had plagued her moments before. The surety of his mouth and tongue made it impossible to doubt he was enjoying what he was doing to her. She wanted it to go on forever. Too soon, she felt the tension reach the point of no return. She struggled to hold it off just a few moments more, to savor the feel of him on her a little longer. She couldn’t, though. The tease of his mouth was unrelenting. She sucked in a sharp breath as her senses reached a surfeit of the pleasure it could contain and her body seized tightly and then exploded as she came, forcing keen, sobbing

breaths from her with each escalating convulsion until she was almost screaming with each seizure. She began struggling to escape him as her body peaked, and then peaked higher, wracking her endlessly until she began to think she’d black out. She dropped into a pit of darkness when he lifted his head at last and ceased to drive her body into convulsing over and over in rapture. Semi-conscious, she felt his lips move over her quaking belly as he climbed up her body in much the same way he’d traveled downward, nipping at her quivering flesh. She groaned faintly in protest as he suckled at her breast. No more stimulation, she thought a little wildly. She couldn’t take any more. She managed to lift her eyelids a fraction as she felt him staring down at her. His face was still taut with his own needs, his eyes glazed, feverish. She lifted her arms with great effort, settling her palms along his sides and skimming them lightly over his back, stroking him appreciatively. He dipped his head, covering her mouth in a gusty, urgent kiss as he reached between them and dragged his cock along her cleft to gather her moisture. She shuddered at the jolts that went through her at the contact. Clenching her teeth against the sensations that

had sharpened almost to the point of pain, she curled her hips to meet him as she felt the head of his cock enter the mouth of her sex. The muscles along her channel were still taut from her release. They almost seemed to clench more tightly at the intrusion, trying to repel the invasion. She heard him grinding his teeth as he pushed inside of her with determined pressure. She tried to relax the muscles and when that failed, countered the pressure to help him force his way inside of her. Sweat beaded his skin. His big body quivered, shook as if he had a fever. He gasped, gritted his teeth and fought for conquest every inch of the way until her muscles finally relaxed fractionally, her moisture at last easing his passage. Echoes of her climax rippled through her as he withdrew slightly and thrust again. As certain as she’d been moments before that she’d reached a surfeit of pleasure, couldn’t even think of wanting more, a thrill of anticipation went through her. She met his next thrust with more enthusiasm, curled her hips as he began to pump in to her with the swift, pounding thrusts of urgency that told her he was close to his peak. Doubt flooded her briefly when he stiffened, but it was swept away as her body reached its peak and she came again even as he did. As hard as her first climax was, the second one

surpassed it. She bit down on his chest lightly, trying to muffle the hoarse cries it tore from her, whimpering and groaning at the magnitude of it and finally, when the paroxysms began to dissipate, felt herself drop into a warm cocoon of blissful lassitude. He leaned heavily against her, shivering, gasping for breath. The arms he’d braced to support himself quivered weakly. After a few moments, he shifted downward far enough to cover her mouth in a languid kiss. When he lifted his head, he aligned his nose with hers. “Was it good for you?” he asked in a husky whisper. Her mind went blank for a moment. She chuckled weakly when she realized he was teasing her. “No. I was only screaming to stroke your ego.” Chuckling in response, he rolled off of her and settled on his side, dragging her lightly against his chest and stroking a hand over her. When she shivered as her body cooled, he sat up long enough to grab the covers and pull them over them. “That was … fabulous,” she murmured breathily. She sensed that he was smiling. Snuggling closer, she smiled in satisfaction. She doubted he needed his ego stroked, but he certainly deserved a round of applause for that. “I’ve never come before,” she admitted after

struggling several moments with whether or not to tell him. She was so thrilled about it, though, she couldn’t contain the need to share. His hand hesitated on her. “You mean twice like that?” “No, I mean, at all, before you.” He pulled her more tightly against him. She heard him swallow. “I’ve never come like that before,” he said after a prolonged silence. She didn’t believe that, but it put a smile on her face as she drifted off. She roused slightly as she felt the bed dip later. Confusion flickered over her when she realized she was still wrapped snugly against Dante. Warmth filtered through her back and the realization that someone had settled behind her and it hadn’t been Dante leaving the bed. For a few moments her consciousness drifted higher, her senses expanding to explore the new presence, her mind lazily sorting the impressions and trying to identify the body at her back, but then she dismissed it and sought oblivion again. **** Shilo woke to the feel of fingers plucking at one nipple

and then lightly pinching it as it as it stood erect. A sigh of pleasure escaped her as the hand drifted to her belly after a moment, skated lightly across it and then a finger sought and found her clit, teasing it lazily. She sucked in a deep breath and held it as the hand moved to her thigh after a moment, urging her to lift it and when she did, a hard male thigh slipped between hers and an engorged cock plowed along her cleft. She opened her eyes slowly. Maurice was lying on his side facing her, his head propped on one hand. For a long moment their gazes locked. His gray eyes were tumultuous with unabashed desire. She felt her throat close with responding need, felt it compound the desire already rising inside of her from Dante’s caresses as Maurice’s gaze drifted downward and fastened on breasts for a long moment and she saw his face go taut. Her gaze drifted downward as his moved lower still and he studied the movement of Dante’s hand on her clit. Bulging muscles, lightly furred with hair slightly darker than the hair on his head, defined Maurice’s chest and belly. His cock, stiffly erect and flushed darkly with his desire, bucked slightly in his hand as her gaze settled on it. She saw that he was stroking himself and watched the movement in fascination for several moments, feeling her mouth grow dry as the thought descended on

her from no where to wonder what it would be like to feel his cock inside of her, to cover it with her mouth and taste it. Dante shifted downward abruptly, realigning his body and thrusting upward to push inside of her. She gasped dizzily as she felt him enter her, closing her eyes tightly as a wave of heady pleasure swept through her. When she opened her eyes again, she saw that Maurice was watching her face. He held her gaze captive as Dante looped an arm beneath her thigh and lifted it higher, plunged deeper and set a rhythm that began slowly and quickly escalated. A low moan escaped her as she felt her body burgeon, tighten toward release. Hearing it, Dante’s hand slipped from her thigh to tease her clit. She looped an arm around her thigh, holding it as he’d held it before, high, to allow him better access, to allow him to drive more deeply inside of her. Maurice’s hand, she saw when she looked at him, was moving faster, as well, keeping pace with Dante’s driving thrusts inside of her. Another groan of pleasure worked its way up her throat. She sucked in a harsh breath as she felt her body tremble on the verge of release, needing to close her eyes, wanting to watch Maurice as he watched her and pleasured himself. Her eyes slammed shut of their own accord as her

climax ripped through her abruptly. She gasped on a sobbing breath, uttering sharp cries as her body clamped down on Dante’s cock, milking him of his seed, and then wilted as the tension left her, Dante’s hoarse groans and Maurice’s echoing in her ears as they found their own release. The bed shifted beneath her after a few moments and she knew Maurice had risen and left. A confusion of emotions stirred, but she was in no condition to sort them. Spent, she drifted back toward oblivion. The heavenly smell of coffee and bacon woke her a little later. Feeling vaguely sore but delightfully satisfied, she stretched languidly and finally opened her eyes when she realized she was alone in the bed. Rolling onto her back, she opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling, allowing herself to savor the memories that drifted through her mind and the pleasant echoes that still lingered in her body. Maurice had slept with her and Dante, she realized abruptly. She vaguely recalled the feel of being sandwiched between the warmth of their bodies, the nebulous realization that there weren’t enough places for everyone to bed down and acceptance because of that despite a dim sense of discomfort when she realized she was naked between them.

It had been more than that, though, more than just a circumstance of necessity because there weren’t enough places for everyone to sleep. Maurice had watched Dante pleasure her, had pleasured himself while he did. A blush started at her breasts and worked upwards. Both men had been completely aware of that they were doing, and, she felt certain, completely aware of what she was doing. It had aroused her being watched, though she would never have believed it would. It had aroused her more to realize that Maurice had come. A shiver skated through her as her body throbbed at the memory. Unwilling to analyze any of the emotions churning in her, she threw off the covers and went to bathe and dress. The men were gathered in the living room eating breakfast when she emerged. Dante looked up, meeting her gaze with warmth in his eyes and a faint, completely satisfied smile on his lips. She smiled back at him tentatively and headed for the kitchen. Maurice was standing at the counter, pouring himself a cup of coffee. He turned to look at her as she entered the

kitchen. Before she could prevent herself, she met his gaze. Hunger rose in his eyes as she stared at him, unable to drag her gaze away, and she felt warmth flood her, felt the muscles in her belly clench in response. “Good morning,” he said huskily. Unable to prevent a blush from mounting her cheeks, she looked away. “Good morning.” “Did you sleep well?” She threw him a look of confusion and blushed harder when she saw a gleam of amusement had entered his eyes. She couldn’t prevent her lips from curling upward in response to the teasing gleam, though. “Yes, thank you.” “Coffee?” “Please! I need caffeine.” He took a cup down and filled it for her. She took it, settling gratefully at the table. She felt weak all over and thoroughly confused. “We’re lycan,” he said quietly. “Pack brothers.”

She looked up at him at that. He held her gaze for a long moment and finally turned away. Emptying what was left in his cup, he dropped it into the dishwater she saw had already been prepared to clean the breakfast clutter. He paused behind her chair as he turned to go. Lightly, so lightly she might almost have imagined it, he stroked his fingers along her cheek. The door had barely closed behind him when the others began to wander into the kitchen. “We’re going out to reconnoiter,” Dante, the last to leave, said as he paused behind her and settled his hands on her shoulders. “We won’t be far.” It was almost a relief to have them out of the house. Pack brothers. She’d been so discomfited she’d barely registered the way Jessie and Kane had looked at her when she’d come out of her room—thought she hadn’t. She’d seen that in their eyes, though, the same hunger she’d seen in Maurice’s eyes, the same look of anticipation. She covered her face with her hands as it dawned on her that they’d heard everything. She’d hardly been quiet about it, had been too wrapped up in ecstasy to even consider that they would hear, to wonder what they would think about it.

As difficult as it was for her to grasp, though, she realized theyall wanted her. And theyall expected to have her. What she wasn’t certain of was how she felt about it.

Chapter Sixteen Shilo was on her knees admiring her flowers when she sensed a presence and looked up to discover Maurice had come to stand and watch her. Smiling up at him tentatively, she returned her attention to her flowers, studying the bright colors with pleasure, lightly touching first one and then another as she tried to decide which ones to cut and which to leave. He crouched beside her. “Hummingbird,” he murmured. Shilo lifted her head in delighted surprise, looking around for it. “Really?”

He chuckled. “You. You remind me of a hummingbird.” Wondering whether to be pleased or not, she looked at him questioningly. “Long beak?” He laughed, flicking a finger along the bridge of her nose. “It’s a pretty little beak.” His gaze moved over her face caressingly. “Just like the rest of your face--pretty.” She blushed at the compliment. “Thank you.” He nodded slightly. “I was talking about the way you flit from flower to flower, as if you can’t quite make up your mind which appeals to you the most.” “Because I never can,” she admitted, smiling. “Sometimes I think the reds are my favorites, but then I like the blues and purples, too. I was trying to decide whether I wanted a bouquet with red, yellow, and orange, or a bouquet with blue, purple, and pink.” He studied the flowers in question. “You’re good at this—or the soil’s really rich.” Shilo laughed. “I think it’s the soil. I just drop the seed in and water it.” Deciding to wait a day or two before she cut more, she started to get to her feet.

Maurice straightened, catching her hand and drawing her up with him. They were standing nearly toe to toe, she discovered. Feeling the breath hitch in her chest, she looked up at him questioningly. His face was taut now, all traces of humor having vanished. His gaze settled on her mouth. He wanted to kiss her. She saw it in his eyes. Her mouth went dry at the thought. Still, she hesitated as he drifted closer, licking her lips unconsciously as she felt his heated breath caress them, uncertain of whether she should. He’d said they were pack brothers, though, and Dante hadn’t been angry when he’d watched them together. Which still left the question of whether she wanted to or not, but she realized there wasn’t actually any question of that. She’d been acutely conscious of him in a purely sexual way since the first day she’d awakened to find that he’d shared the bed with her and Dante. He hadn’t made any attempt to touch her with more than his gaze before, but he’d aroused her thoroughly by doing no more than that. She most definitely wanted to kiss him. Feeling shaky and lightheaded, she tilted her head after a moment’s

indecision, lifting her lips to him in offering. She caught a gleam of satisfaction in his eyes a split second before he slanted his mouth over hers. A heated languor stole over her as light as the contact was as his lips clung briefly to hers, parted, and then settled more firmly over her mouth, his fingers tangling in hair as he cupped the back of her skull to hold her for his kiss. She lifted her hands to rest them against his hard chest as his other arm settled around her, drawing her closer. His tongue stroked along her lower lip and then delved inside as she opened her mouth to him. Pleasure skimmed her nerve endings as he raked his tongue along hers, filling her mouth with his taste and scent. Her stomach went weightless, filled with the sensation of fluttering butterfly wings of excitement. Enthralled with the feel of his mouth, his taste, with the faint roughness of his tongue as it stroked hers in delightful friction, she leaned against him, clutching two fistfuls of his shirt as his essence flowed into her blood stream and set off a heady thrill of anticipation. Beneath her knuckles, she could feel his hammering heartbeat, feel faint shudders rippling through him. He withdrew his tongue from her mouth after a few moments, sucked briefly at her lips and then deprived her of his touch altogether. She opened her eyes to look

at him reproachfully. He swallowed hard, shifting his fingers from her hair to her cheek and lightly stroking it with the edge of his thumb. “Lady, if you knew how badly I want to throw you down right here and fuck the hell out of you, you wouldn’t look at me like that,” he said hoarsely. Surprise flickered through her, but she wasn’t offended —far from it. His words made her want just that. He saw it in her eyes. His hands tightened on her. Reluctantly, he eased his hold, staring down at her for a long moment as if he was fighting the urge to bring her against him for another taste of her. Instead, he lifted his head, dragging in a deep breath. Amusement gleamed in his eyes when he looked at her again. “I smell something burning.” Shilo stared at him blankly while that slowly sank in. “Oh god! There goes lunch!’ she exclaimed, whirling and darting toward the door of the house. She’d nursed some hope that disposing of the charred food and airing the house would prevent discovery by the others that she’d burned the food again. She could see by their amused glances as they came in, however,

that none of them had been fooled. “I thought we’d just have sandwiches for lunch today,” she said uncomfortably. Grinning at her, Dante dragged her close and kissed her briefly before he released her. Lifting his head when he pulled away from her, he looked at Maurice. Shilo tensed guiltily. Confusion filled her, though, when he merely lifted one dark brow and looked away again. She hadn’t realized until that moment that she still had reservations about her understanding of the situation, was still worried that Dante would be angry, even though it had seemed he wouldn’t have any objections. The pack mentality was hard to understand. Even if it was just lust, and she figured it probably was, it was still disconcerting, and hard to accept that theyexpected to share her. The thought rattled her. On the one hand, they were an unnervingly attractive bunch, not just handsome and well built, but charismatic with a purely sensual, animal magnetism. She couldn’t deny she found them attractive, all of them, each in a different way, and yet she felt uncomfortably decadent even to think that way, felt a vague sense of guilt. She didn’t think, though, when none of them seemed to see anything wrong with it, or felt the least

antagonistic toward one another, that she was going to be able to resist temptation if they approached her— wasn’t even certain she wanted to. She certainly couldn ’t think of anyreason why she shouldn’t if it didn’t bother them. The men spent the afternoon working around her place on repairs. She felt guilty about that, too, but finally realized they were accustomed to being busy and needed something to do to keep themselves occupied. She hadn’t consideredthat before, how they would spend their days if they stayed indefinitely when they were used to working. She supposed she should’ve when she was bored and restless herself much of the time, needed to keep busy to keep from going insane, but she hadn’t because she wasn’t used to thinking in terms of others, certainly not the needs of guests, and they had been pretty much idle since they’d arrived. In the evenings, they watched movies or talked and Dante kept her well occupied with bedroom gymnastics once they went to bed, but even Dante had nothing to do to while away the hours during the day. It was a good thing they did find something to do to occupy themselves, though, she thought wryly, because once she’d arrived at the certainty that they were all impatiently awaiting their turn with her, she became a

quivering wreck. **** Shilo realized even before she opened eyes that the hand gliding over her back didn’t belong to Dante. He’d roused her earlier when he’d kissed her and climbed out of the bed. Her belly quivered. Liquid heat filled her channel as Maurice cupped and massaged her buttocks and then slipped his hand along her cleft and pushed a finger inside of her. She heard his breath grow more ragged as he realized she was wet for him already. He shifted over her abruptly, pushing her legs wide. The head of his cock replaced the finger he withdrew. The weight of his chest pressed against her back as he settled lower, propping himself on his elbows. He dipped his head and bit down on her shoulder just hard enough to arouse a flock of goose bumps as he curled his hips and probed deeper. Shilo let out the breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding and then sucked another in sharply as he shoved a hand beneath her belly and lifted her hips upward so that his next thrust seated his turgid length fully inside of her. A gasp of pleasure left her as he withdrew slightly. She pulled her knees up, arching her

back to lift her hips upward for his next thrust. He drove into her again, grinding his pelvis against her buttocks, making her whimper with the exquisite pleasure of feeling him so deeply. A shudder went through him. He reared upward abruptly, caught her hips and lifted them higher, spread his legs to push hers wider. He drove into her again, hard and fast, holding her hips. Dropping forward again, he caught himself on one arm and slipped his other hand from her hip to her belly. Finding her clit with one finger, he teased it as he slipped slowly in and out, driving her toward her peak within moments. She released a sobbing breath and groaned as her body quaked with release. He drew it out, stroking her channel, teasing her clit until her cries of repletion sharpened. When he’d wrung the last shudders of pleasure from her, he withdrew and rolled her onto her back. She opened her eyes to look up at Maurice as he pressed his still turgid member into the mouth of her sex again. Catching her ankles, he drew her legs straight up until her calves were resting against his shoulders and leaned into her as he slowly regained possession of her channel. She curled her fingers into the bedding as he set a pounding pace that built the heat again, caught her body on its downward spiral and lifted her right back up to another sharper, higher peak.

She uttered a choked cry as bliss exploded through her again. He growled low his chest, drove deeply, straining against her as if he wanted to crawl inside of her as his cock jerked and bathed her womb with his seed. Instead of withdrawing when the shudders finally ceased to wrack him, he lowered her legs to either side of him and settled over her. He kissed her then, covered her mouth and thrust his tongue inside to explore her with a fervor that belied his satisfaction of moments before. As weak as she was with repletion, she responded with all of the enthusiasm she could muster. He pressed his head against the bed beside her when he broke the kiss, still breathing raggedly. “I want to stay here forever,” he muttered. Shilo twisted her head to look at his face. He chuckled huskily, heaved himself off of her and then rolled onto his back and dragged her on top of his chest. She dropped her cheek to his hard shoulder when they settled, too weak to move. “Next time I’ll make you come three times,” he murmured in satisfaction. “Oh god,” she groaned. “I don’t know if I can handle that.”

**** Dante frowned at the display on his cell, searching for a strong signal, and finally flipped it open, found the number he wanted, and pressed the dial button, holding it to his ear while he waited for the pick up at the other end. “Dante?” “Tell the others its time and then bring them to me.” He flipped the phone closed and thrust it into his pocket, glancing around at the grim faces of the other men. “They’re on their way.” Maurice frowned. “You sure of this?” Dante’s expression tightened. After a moment, however, he tamped his anger at being questioned. “I’m sure.” He narrowed his eyes, studying Shilo as she puttered in her garden, pulling weeds. Finally, he dragged his attention from her and surveyed the clearing. “Shilo’s going to be … distressed.” Dante glanced at Jessie. “There’s no alternative,” he responded grimly. “I won’t allow them to continue as a

threat to Shilo and I’m honor bound to protect the pack. There’ll be considerably less collateral damage if we meet them here. And when they disappear, they won’t be anywhere around our people.” “It’ll be dark before they get here,” Kane said, studying the sky. “Yes. Better for us. And I won’t have to worry about a ruse to get Shilo inside. Once she goes in to cook, I want the three of you to secure her beasts in that copse of trees over there, well out of the range of fire.” His face lightened, a faint smile curling his lips. “Be careful with Shilo’s pregnant cow.” Jessie chuckled, but shook his head. “You know, of course, there’ll be no separating her from that damned cow?” Relaxing fractionally, Dante grinned. “I know. We’ll have to build a barnyard. I’ve been thinking we could move to that tract I bought on the edge of town, build a new place there. It’ll be a better place to rear our pups anyway.” “I’d feel a hell of lot better if Shilo was there now,” Maurice said grimly. “Me, too,” Dante retorted, “but you know what

happened the last time I left someone else to watch her.” Maurice made a sound of impatience. “They’re going to start blasting the minute we shift.” “Which is why we’re going to make damned sure we draw the fire away from the house.” “I’d rather hogtie her and put her out in the woods with those fucking beasts of hers, Dante,” Kane said angrily. “What if they flank us and start firing into the house?” Dante paled slightly. “They’ll think they have her,” he ground out impatiently. “They’ll want to surround the place when they come in. I don’t like it any fucking more than any of you do, but it’s what we’ve got to work with. A confrontation is inevitable. I’d rather it was on my terms, under my control. She’ll be on the floor and surrounded by the best shield we can devise. We’ll draw them away from the house. Just watch them. If anyone even looks like he’s thinking about firing toward the house, take them out.” **** Shilo had sought peace in working in her garden, but she realized fairly quickly she wasn’t going to find it. The moment she settled to plucking at the weeds, she

went into zen meditation phase and her mind went right back to her dilemma. As much as she was enjoying having Dante and his pack staying with her, she had never been more thoroughly confused in her life. When Dante had taken her as his lover, she’d been certain she understood the situation. He was horny. She was needy, and they were just satisfying those urges they both felt. Although she’d been afraid, even then, she was going to live to regret it, she’d told herself that she was just going seize the day, enjoy what she could while she could because she got damned little opportunity to enjoy life. She hadn’t expected to find herself on an emotional rollercoaster, though. She didn’t know what to think of herself anymore, and it was for damned sure she didn’t know what to think about the men. They desired her. She could see that in the way they looked at her, they way they behaved toward her. She feltmore than that, though. There was almost a sense of … possessiveness in the way they behaved toward her, all of them, as if she belonged to them, and yet she couldn’t tell that they were jealous toward one another, which seemed to belie that it was even possible that they felt possessive toward her.

Of course, everything she’d learned about lycans pointed to a ‘pack’ mentality, a brotherhood where there was a very clear pecking order within the group, but they still lived, worked, played, and fought together as a group. She wasn’t entirely certain of where she fit in to the group, but she had the sense, somehow, that she’d become a part of it, that they looked upon her as one of their own. That was the only thing that made sense given the possessiveness and the lack of jealousy among them over the prospect of sharing her—unless they just didn’t care anything at all about her, and she could be completely wrong, but they seemed to be fond of her. She had mixed feeling about her suspicion that she’d somehow been ‘absorbed’ into the pack. On the one hand, she couldn’t help but enjoy feeling as if she was actually a ‘part’ of something even vaguely family-like. She’d never consciously acknowledged that it was something she wanted, yearned for, because she’d never expected to have it, but that need was there all the same and they fed it, filled a hunger she hadn’t even realized was there before they’d come along. On the other hand, she distrusted the feelings for the simple reason that she wasn’t lycan and knew she

couldn’t belong even if she wanted to. And beyond that, she didn’t trust the feeling on the grounds that she couldn’t think of anything they’d said or done to make her think that way, implied by word or deed, that this was anything even close to a permanent situation. The only thing she could think of that would be worse than never having a ‘family’ at all was having one briefly, just long enough to feel as if she belonged, and then being abandoned when they all cleared out and went back to their lives. She didn’t really understand the way things seemed to be going insofar as the sharing went either. They’d been with her a little over a week. Half that time, she’d been exclusively Dante’s lover and just when she’d decided she must have misunderstood what Maurice seemed to be implying, Dante had yielded his place and Maurice had become her lover. It hadn’t particularly bothered her at the time that Maurice had suggested that was the way things stood. They were all handsome and desirable. Any red blooded female would have lust in her heart around men like them. She knew very well that there were plenty of people who considered that sort of thing completely immoral, but she didn’t see it that way. She

was an adult. They were adults. If they wanted to have sex, they were well within their rights to, without anyone praying over them or moralizing over it. The only time it became wrong, as far as she could see, was when it hurt someone. That wasn’t to say she hadn’t felt some guilt. She had. She’d still been struggling to go with the flow, though. As disappointed as she was that Dante didn’t seem to care enough about her not to pass her on to Maurice, she’d reminded herself that it was just sex. It had never been intended to be anything else. And Maurice had certainly not disappointed her in any way. She’d actually been rather stunned about that. She hadn’t been exaggerating when she’d told Julie she ’d never had great sex, or even really good sex. She hadn’t lied to Dante when she’d told him she’d never had a climax before. She’d thought she had, but he’d certainly disproved that theory. And then Maurice had promptly blown the next theory out of the water, that she’d found ‘the right man’, because sex with Maurice was great sex, too.

Maybe it was her? Maybeshe had changed? Or maybe it was just being with lycans? Maybe, just as they said that she had some sort of special effect on them, the same was true of their effect on her? Maybe. She wasn’t certain she believed that. The truth was, she’d found them all wildly attractive from the start, but she’d been around other lycans and she didn’t feel that way—far from it. So was it them? Or her? And was she going to feel the same way when Maurice expected her to go to Kane or Jessie? Or Kaneand Jessie? Because she’d become certain she hadn’t misunderstood that part. She felt that she could sense the anticipation in both Kane and Jessie, could tell by the way they’d begun to behave a little more familiarly with her, tease her and flirt with her, that they were ‘ courting’ her. It wasn’t that she didn’t find them appealing. Unfortunately, she did, and she was looking forward to it, but what happened next? She played musical beds until she got to the end and they packed up and left? It she was honest with herself, that was exactly what she’d thought would happen from the start. She was

pretty sure she was right, too. The problem was, and this was where the real turmoil came in, she didn’t want that to be the end. She was still inclined to seize the day, and at the same time she couldn’t bear to think she wasn’t ever going to have Dante as a lover again. Or Maurice. She was afraid that it was more than that, though—a lot more than that. There was something, beyond lust, that had appealed to her about Dante almost from the very first—him more than the others. Despite all the things he’d done, even though she had doubted her sanity when she’d wanted to trust him, she had, because he’d gained her trust when he’d rescued her and taken her into his home to protect her. He’d wanted her then. She’d seen that he was fighting the urges prompted by her psychic abilities, but he had resisted because he had integrity. He’d felt it was his place to protect her, and he’d protected her from himself, as well. That trust had made her feel more secure with him, safer, than she’d ever felt before in her life, and she was very much afraid it had inspired other feelings for him, too. In fact, she knew it had. She wasn’t just unhappy because she wanted him for her lover and he seemed content to share her. She was unhappy because she

cared about him, a lot. And she was thoroughly confused because she also had feelings for Maurice. She was fond of Kane and Jesse, too. She didn’t feel the least damned bit ‘sisterly’ toward any of the four. She liked them. She desired them, and she knew she was going to miss them all terribly when they left. She was so screwed, she thought miserably! She didn’t just like them. She loved them, needed them, wanted them in her life. How had something so simple as what had seemed no more than healthy, natural animal lust become so terribly complicated? What had happened between ‘seize the day’ and ‘my world’s going to collapse when they leave’? There was nothing she could do about it, not now. It would’ve been bad enough if she’d just had herself a thoroughly rousing good time of an orgy. Famine after that kind of feast to the senses would’ve been hell. And not only would it have been hard to get used to not havingthem —she knew, she’d sensed from the first,

that it was them—she wasn’t going to feel any of the things they made her feel, ever, again, because no one else, ever, had been able to make her feel those things before. The realization that she wished it was more than that, though, meant that she was forewarned that she was going to have a lot more to deal with than just lack of sex, or lack of great sex. She pushed the thoughts away after a while, understanding, and realizing at the same time that understanding wasn’t going to solve the dilemma. After a time, when she’d finally managed to beat those disturbing thoughts and emotions into abeyance, a different sort of discomfort finally managed to wind its way through her psyche—uneasiness. She couldn’t entirely pinpoint what it was that made her uneasy, but something just seemed ‘off’. Pausing from time to time, she looked around, wondering what had brought on the sense of ‘wrongness’. She couldn’t tell that anything seemed out of place, though. Dante and the others had gone out to ‘reconnoiter’, but they had done that several times a day ever since they’d arrived just over a week earlier. Shaking off the uneasiness after a while, she left her

garden and went inside to bathe before she put supper on. To her surprise, Maurice was standing in the doorway of her bedroom as she came out. Throwing him a questioning look, she moved to her bureau and took out clean clothes, more than half expecting him to try to coax her into the bed before she could get her clothes on. Instead, he waited until she’d dressed and moved up behind her, settling his hands on her shoulders. She lifted her head, smiling at his reflection when he wrapped his arms around her. He dipped his head, nuzzling her neck. “You know I’m mad about you, don’ t you, Hummingbird?” he murmured. Shilo’s heart skipped a beat. She tried to turn to look at him, but he caught her wrists as she moved, pulling her arms behind her. She was still trying to figure out what was going on when a sharp tearing sound caught her attention. She glanced toward it instinctively and saw Dante was striding toward her and Maurice with the roll of duct tape from under her sink, his expression grim. Taking the strip he’d torn from the roll, he wound it around her wrists. She uttered a disbelieving laugh, staring down at him in stunned surprise as he knelt and bound her ankles as he had her wrists. “Dante! What are you doing?” she asked, trying to convince herself they were teasing her, that it was some sort of game, and

completely unable to do so. She looked at him with wide, frightened eyes when he straightened. “You’re scaring me.” He settled his hand along her cheek. “I’m sorry as hell, baby. Nobody’s going to hurt you. I promise.” Maurice scooped her up into his arms when Dante moved away. She saw when they turned that Jessie and Kane were carrying her couch through the door of her bedroom. They stood holding it while Dante shoved her bed out of the way and then set it on the floor and tipped it on the front edge. “What are you doing? What’s happening?” she asked fearfully as Maurice crossed the room and settled her on her feet on the bedding Dante had carefully folded on the floor. “I don’t understand,” she whispered hoarsely, her chin wobbling as Maurice straightened away from her. His face was taut. “We’re only trying to protect you, Hummingbird,” he said gruffly. She bit her lip as he strode from the room. Jessie and Kane, looking equally grim faced, followed him. She looked up at Dante, who’d grasped her around the waist

to steady her as Maurice moved away. He stroked her face soothingly. “I’m sorry, baby, but it was the only way.” “Why?” she asked, a tremor in her voice. Dante stared at her pale, stricken face and felt his guts tighten and twist into a knot of remorse. He hadn’t wanted to scare her, hadn’t considered that it might scare as much as he could see it did, but he knew that he was doing the right thing, the only thing he could do. He settled his palms on her cheeks, nuzzling his face against her temple in apology. He had to protect her, though, and he knew her well enough by now to know he couldn’t count on her cooperating, couldn’t trust her to just do as he told her to. Her scent filled him with the myriad of emotions he’d come to expect—desire, love, possessiveness, the fierce need to protect. He caught the scent of her fear. He hated that, but he also caught the scent of the chemical change within her that told him his seed had taken root within her and her body was already nurturing their child. He had to protect both of them. She’d get over the fear. He wouldn’t get over it if anything happened to her or their baby. “You’re carrying my baby, Shilo. I need to know you’ll be safe. Be good for me and stay put.”

Tears clouded her eyes. “What’s happening?” she asked fearfully. “Please, Dante. Tell me.” He shook his head fractionally and brushed a light kiss across her lips. “I love you, Shilo. Just stay put and you’ ll be safe. It will all be over soon.”

Chapter Seventeen Shock gripped Shilo as Dante settled her on the floor on her side. Watching her, he tipped the couch over her carefully, forming a darkened little cave around her. She heard movement and then a soft thud and realized he’d leaned her mattress against the couch. He stuffed pillows and bedding and the cushions from her easy chair at each end of the couch until there was barely a chink of light filtering through anywhere. “Dante! Julie’s coming up the drive with the suitcase,” Kane said sharply.

“Damn it to hell!” Dante snarled. “They won’t be more than ten minutes behind her. Get outside. I’m coming.” She heard more dull thumps and lower, grinding ones as he quickly piled what sounded like every stick of furniture in the house around her. As shocked and frightened as Shilo had been when Dante had bound her, the nightmarish sense that they meant her harm began to dissolve almost as quickly as it had reared its ugly head to begin with. She still didn’t understand. She was still afraid, but the fear had shifted. Her mind had begun struggling to shrug off the shock and function. They, she wondered, hearing their exchange? The rogues? That didn’t make sense, though. Why pile all the furniture around her like they had? Bullets, she realized after struggling with the puzzle for a time. They’d formed a protective barrier around her because they were afraid she’d be hit by a stray bullet.Stay put and you’ll be safe. We’re only trying to protect you. The rogues wouldn’t use guns, though, would they? Why would they be concerned about gunfire if it was

the rogues? But that had to be the reason they’d gone to so much effort to shield her. They weren’t hiding her. The barrier was for protection, and the only thing that made sense was that it was for protection from bullets. Julie and the suitcase? That made even less sense. Julie was coming up the drive with a suitcase andthey would be following her. Hersuitcase, she thought abruptly? As scared as she was, as chaotic as her thoughts were, it clicked in her mind that the suitcase had to be hers. The suitcase was the lure Julie was using to bringthem to Dante. And the lycans didn’t use guns, they didn’t need them. There would only be one group looking for her that would be carrying guns, and she knew it washer they were after, not Dante’s pack. They were protecting her. Julie had led the authorities to them. And Dante and Maurice, Kane and Jessie were going

out to meet them for a showdown. As insane as that seemed to her, she knew that had to be it. Dante had told her he would protect her, he would see to it that no one took anything away from her. He’d promised her that. Her throat closed. She’d all but begged him to promise her that, and he had. Somehow, he’d found out about that she was wanted, that the Feds were after her. She didn’t how, but she knew that had to be it. He hadn’t come because the rogues were after her. He’ d come because the Feds had shown up looking for her. Horror filled her. The cops, or Feds, or whoever it was would cut them to pieces if they shifted into manbeasts, and sheknew that was what Dante had in mind. Feeling cold terror settle over her that was far more weakening than the fear she’d felt before, she began struggling with the bindings, trying to pull her hands free, but she realized very quickly there was no way she could tear the tape he’d used to bind her. Fear driven tears filled her eyes. She had to stop this before they were hurt … or worse.

Calming herself with an effort, she closed her eyes and focused her mind on her wrists and ankles, trying to control the current she was summoning to a small burst. Her wrists and ankles grew hot. The smell of burning plastic stung her nose and more faintly, smoke. Ignoring the flicker of uneasiness the smoke sent through her, she pulled and jerked her arms and legs as she felt the tape melting and finally broke her wrists free. Pulling the last of the tape off, she wiggled around until she could reach her ankles and tore the melted tape from them, as well. It was harder getting out of the barricade Dante and the others had erected around her. Dante had wedged her dresser, she thought, against the cushions at one end, her chest of drawers at the other. Rolling onto her back, she used her legs to shift the dresser until she’d pushed it far enough away she could crawl through the small opening around the arm of the couch. She glanced back as she got up and saw without surprise that they actually had piled almost everything she owned around her. The sound of car doors slamming jerked her attention back to the threat. A knee weakening flood of adrenaline went through her as heard a man yell, “Throw down your weapons! Get down on the ground!” Her heart leapt into her throat. Throwing caution to the wind she raced to the front door, wrenched the door

open, and rushed outside. The lights blinded her—the headlights of four or five cars and floodlights that had been switched on the moment the government men had leapt from their cars. She staggered to a halt, glancing around. To her left, she glimpsed Dante’s pack, bared to the waist, spaced out in a line just beyond her house. Dante, just past the corner of the house, was nearest to her. His head whipped in her direction as she burst from the house. “Damn it to hell, woman! Get back inside the house!” he roared furiously. Almost simultaneously, she heard the click of triggers on a dozen guns. Dante heard it, as well. Shifting abruptly, he sprang toward her even as the deafening report of a gun being fired cracked through the stillness of the night. A half a dozen shots followed the first in rapid succession as Maurice and the others shifted. Almost as if time had stilled, Shilo saw the scene erupt into a tableau of violence, heard the snarls and roars of the lycans, the shouts and screams of the men, the explosions of the bullets. Dante’s body jerked and shuddered as two bullets impacted in his back just as he landed in front of her. It took Shilo’s brain moments to interpret the meaning

of it, took moments more for the horror to sink deeply into her psyche. She stared at him in terror as his feet slammed into the dirt, opened her mouth to scream as yet another bullet hit him, spinning him around before he pitched forward and plowed into the dirt. “No!” she screamed as she watched him crumpling toward the ground. “No! Dante!” Tears filled her eyes, tears of rage and grief as she lifted her head to stare at the men still firing at Maurice, Kane, and Jessie … and her. Sucking in a deep breath, summoning every ounce of power inside of her, she pushed the electricity from her in blue-white forking arcs as she waved her hands in a wide sweep that encompassed the Feds. She felt electricity arc from her eyes, as well, snaking out to lick at the men, their cars, their guns. The power lifted the Feds from their feet and flung them backwards away from the cars they’d used to shield themselves. The wicked forks licked over the cars, magnetizing the metals in the vehicles, and the guns and bullets pelted against the cars like rocks. Her knees wobbled as the power left her. She felt so heavy, she thought distantly as blackness encroached, and then she felt herself descend into an abyss and drift toward the dirt at her feet. ****

He was going be too late, Dante thought in shocked disbelief even as he launched himself toward Shilo to shield her from the gunfire. Fiery pain exploded in his chest as he felt the bullets slamming into his back and burrowing through him. The impact knocked the breath out of him. His knees wobbled as he hit the dirt in front of Shilo, trying to shield her with his body, and then he felt another bullet slam into him. It staggered him, sent his balance off and he felt himself pitching toward the ground, unable to break his fall, unable to protect Shilo as he’d intended. He plowed the dirt. Struggling to shake off the pain and weakness, he dragged his arms beneath him to push himself up again, whipped his head around to look for Shilo and watched her pitch forward into the dirt. Rage swept through him then. Uttering a snarl, ignoring the pain in his chest, he leapt to his feet and charged toward the men still gathered around the cars and firing wildly. Maurice, Kane, and Jessie launched themselves toward the men, as well. There was no real battle. The men were completely unprepared for what they encountered. Of those Shilo hadn’t stunned with her burst of electro-kinetic energy, those still conscious, several of the men screamed. All of them who could whirled to run as they saw the four snarling beastmen racing toward them. Some threw their guns down. Others fired blindly behind them as they ran, but as fearful as they were, they were no match at all for the beastmen, unable to run fast enough

to elude them and most of them too mindless with terror even to consider leaping back into the cars. The pack tore through them in a blood rage, tearing some of them limb from limb. Dante swiped his claws at one and ripped his head from his shoulders, sending it rolling and bouncing across the ground. Without even pausing he leapt from that man to the hood of the car where one man had taken refuge, ripped the door off the vehicle and dragged the man out by one leg, then slammed him against the car until his body had the consistency of a jelly fish. Maurice seized another, lifted him from the ground and broke his spine. Jessie launched himself into the air and tackled one man like a football player, grabbing his head and twisting it all the way around. Kane caught two more, slamming them together and then driving his fist through both and shoving their hearts through their chests. None escaped. They made certain of that. When the screaming finally stopped, Dante paused to look around. Men were lying everywhere. Blood coated the ground, pooled, streamed in narrow trickles. Seeing one man crawling toward his vehicle, Dante strode toward him and broke his neck. When he straightened again to check the carnage, he

felt his rage slowly dissolve and with it, his strength. He looked down at his body, saw a hole in his pec and two more in his belly. The bullets, he thought, had gone through him. He lifted his head and looked for Shilo. His throat closed when he saw she was where he’d last seen her, still as death. With an effort he crossed the yard and finally dropped to his knees beside her, staring down at her, trying to ignore the ringing in his ears and listen for her breath, the sound of her heart. She was breathing, he realized finally, lightly, but breathing. Carefully, he turned her onto her back, searching her for wounds. The only blood on her was the blood dripping from him. He’d thought the bullets had gone through him and hit her anyway. Relieved, he settled beside her and focused on trying to dig the bullets out of his flesh so the wounds would close. Maurice, Kane, and Jessie staggered up, swayed on their feet and finally dropped to their knees. “Is she … alright?” Maurice asked hoarsely. “Does she look alright?” Dante growled. “She was shot?”

Dante shook his head. “I couldn’t find a wound. She expended too much energy, I think.” He paused, looking the men over. “Who else is wounded?” “I caught one in the thigh, but it went through, another one in my side.” Maurice said on a pained breath. “Two,” Jessie informed him tersely without taking his eyes off Shilo. “Four,” Kane said. Dante looked at him, studying him over carefully, and finally grinned. “Fucking show off,” he muttered. “Dig them out and round up the living. I’m going to take Shilo inside.” It took an effort to lift her and get to his feet. Dante gritted his teeth and headed inside with her. He had to lay her on the floor and flip the mattress off the top of the mound he’d created to try to protect her before he could settle her comfortably. He thought her color looked better, but he wasn’t sure if it was just hopefulness on his part. Wiping the blood off his hand on his torn jeans, he focused on shifting from claw to hand and then stroked her hair from her face. “Wake up, baby,” he said in his growlly beastman voice.

She didn’t stir, but he saw her eyes shift behind her eyelids. He lifted her limp arm, nuzzling his face against her palm. “If you’ve hurt yourself I’m going to be so pissed off at you,chère,” he murmured raggedly. Julie came to the door a few minutes later. “Maurice sent me to tell you they’ve rounded up the garbage.” Dante nodded. “Stay with her,” he said grimly. Three men were sitting up. The others were still unconscious. Feeling his rage mounting again, Dante strode toward the huddled group, scanning their faces. One of the conscious men, he saw, was the asshole-in-charge. He recognized him from their previous encounter. He crouched down in front of the man. “Do you recognize me, you human piece of shit?” The man’s eyes were wide with fear. He shook his head. Dante glanced down at his body, saw the wounds had sealed and shifted. “How about now?” A shock wave rippled through the man. “I want you to remember this face, because the next

time you see it, you die. You understand me?” “I’m a Federal Agent,” the man said hoarsely. “And I’m your worst nightmare,” Dante growled, shifting into a beastman again. “I don’t give a fuck how you do it, but you’re going to go back to your people and you’re going call off the hunt. You’re to tell them Anne-Marie Whitaker is dead.” He jerked his head toward the house. “That woman in there—that’smy woman.” The man swallowed a little sickly, but he was struggling to conquer his fear. “You don’t want to mess with the government.” Dante tilted his head at the man consideringly. Abruptly, he shifted from man-beast to wolf. Lifting his head, he howled a long, mournful cry. Behind him, Maurice and the others shifted to their wolf forms and took up his cry. When they stopped, in the distance, wolves bayed from every direction, calls echoing through the night from dozens of throats, then hundreds. Dante shifted from wolf to man. “Look around you, government man. Take a good, long look.” The man looked. All around the farm, manbeasts had stepped from the trees. Glowing eyes stared toward the group just outside the cabin for many moments and then

faded back into the trees and vanished. “You doan want no war with me,mon ami ,” Dante growled, his accent thick with his rage. “Those people out there, they’re my people and that’s just my pack. Every city, every town—they got their own packs. And you and me, we got us a special bond. I can find you anywhere. If I see one more Fed anywhere around my woman--and believe me, I’ll see you comin’ a long time before you see me-- I’m gonna hunt you down, mon ami , and it ain’t gonna be pretty. I’m gonna gut you and watch you die real slow, and if you got yourself a woman, well I’ll gut her, too. Kids? You’ll get to watch ‘em all die. You takin’ my meanin’? It’s called an eye for eye. You threaten me and mine, I take you and yours out.” He stood up. “I’m countin’ on you,mon ami . That’s why I’m lettin’ you live … for now.” The man swallowed convulsively. “What about this … massacre? I can’t cover this up.” Dante grinned at him wolfishly. “Sure you can. Y’all do it all the time.” He glanced at the other two men. “Either of you see anything tonight?” Both men stared at him blankly for several moments and finally shook their heads vigorously.

“See,” Dante said with satisfaction. “Now wasn’t that easy?” Turning, he motioned his men over. “Let’s put them in the barn. I think if they have a night to think things over, by morning they will have come up with just the right story to cover their asses.” He turned toward the trees as Maurice, Kane, and Jessie jerked the three men to their feet and headed toward the barn with them. Uttering a high-pitched whistle, he waited until his pack members came out of the woods and gathered in Shilo’s yard. “Let’s get the trucks in here and get this all packed up, people— everything.” Turning, he headed back toward the house before another thought occurred to him. Stopping, he turned to face the people moving around the farm collecting tools and trying to chase the fowls into crates. “And be careful with Shilo’s pregnant cow.” He’d hoped Shilo would be conscious when he got back to her. She wasn’t and he felt for several moments as if his chest had caved in. Dragging in a pained breath, he went in to the bathroom to wash the blood off. When he’d cleaned the muck off of himself and dressed, he scooped Shilo off the bed and followed Julie out to his

SUV. Leaving his lieutenants to oversee the clean up, he climbed into the back with Shilo and told Julie to take them home.

Chapter Eighteen Shilo felt perfectly blank when she surfaced toward consciousness and finally opened her eyes. Nothing looked familiar. She stared at the piece of furniture—a dresser—that she could see, the wall—painted a pale off-white with a golden hue—the beige toned carpet. Slowly a sense of familiarity surfaced. It wasn’t her room. That was why it didn’t look familiar, but she knew the room. She’d been it before. Frowning, she searched her mind, waiting for memories to flood into it and, like a tidal wave, they did, bringing with them so much pain she couldn’t breathe for several moments. The Feds had killed Dante, shot all of them.

She struggled to rise and discovered she was too weak to get up. Finally, she managed to roll over onto her other side. Dante was sprawled in a chair beside the bed. Shilo’s heart skipped several beats and then began to race as his eyes opened. They were blood shot, she saw, and there were dark circles beneath them. Several days growth of beard stubbled his cheeks, jaw, and chin. His skin looked sallow. “Dante?” He sat up abruptly, pushed himself out of the chair and moved to the bed, settling beside her. After simply staring at her expressionlessly for several moments, his face contorted and he scooped her into his arms, tightening them bruisingly around her. “Woman, I don’t know what I want to do worse—beat your ass, or kiss you!” he growled when he finally loosened his hold on her and held her away to look at her face. Shilo glared at him. “You better go for the kiss.” He stared at her for a long moment and chuckled. Pulling her tightly against him again, he nuzzled his face against her neck, breathing deeply. “Don’t ever scare me like that again, baby! Ever! I’ve been going out of my mind,” he muttered. Shilo relaxed against him. Relishing the strength of his

arms, the warmth of his body, and the reassuring beat of his heart, she breathed his scent gratefully. “You were hurt,” she murmured. “I saw it … Didn’t I? You were shot.” “I’m alright,” he said gruffly. Her throat closed. Her memories were faulty, but she could recall the sickening sound of the bullets hitting him. She was never going to forget that sound, never forget the horror she’d felt when she realized he’d thrown himself in front her to catch the bullets meant for her. “You don’t look alright,” she disputed shakily, still trying to grasp the fact that he was alive and strong when she’d thought he was dead—thought all of them were. “If I look like hell it’s because I haven’t gotten any sleep in two days … that’s how long you’ve been out. Two days. My god,chère! I’d begun to be afraid you’d never wake up.” No wonder she felt like hell. “What happened?” she managed to ask. He shook his head, settling her on the bed again. His expression was grim now. “Later—when you’re better. I’m going to go get Cindy to look after you. She’s a nurse. She’s been taking of you for me.”

She closed her eyes when he’d left, trying to sort her jumbled memories again. Everything after Maurice and Dante had bound her was a blur. They’d scared her so badly when they’d done that to her, she couldn’t even remember that part all that well, could only remember the shock, the sense of betrayal she’d felt, disbelief. She hadn’t realized how deeply she’d trusted them until it had seemed that they meant her harm. She didn’t think, even when they bound her, that she would’ve really believed they meant to hurt her if they hadn’t seemed so unlike themselves, so grim and dangerous. Maurice and Dante had told her they loved her, though. She remembered that. She remembered Dante had told her she was carrying his baby. That had scared her worse even than the fear she’d felt for herself. Maybe they’d only said it to reassure her, but she’d felt, right or wrong, that they were telling her because they didn’t know if they’d get the chance to tell her later. Tears stun her eyes. She tried to blink them away. They’d almost gotten themselves killed, the crazy things! Just to keep the Feds from getting her. It was so stupid and senseless for them to risk their lives like that! She could’ve just left if they’d just told her about

the Feds. And what had they done, she wondered fearfully? What hadshe done? She couldn’t really remember anything after she’d summoned her powers. All she could think about at that moment was that they’d shot Dante and would kill the others if she didn’t stop them. She didn’t knowwhat she had done. Of all the times she’d summoned her ability, it had never been like that! Never been so powerful. Never drained her until she’d nearly died from it. And she knew she had. She’d never been unconscious for days afterward. The door opened while she was wrestling with her anxieties and a brunette who looked to be around her age came in. Julie was right behind the woman until they were through the door. They moment they cleared it, Julie darted around the other woman and charged toward the bed. “Shilo!” she exclaimed, bending down to embrace her. “Girl! You have had us all sick with worry! Dante’s been snapping and growling at everybody like a wolf with a sore paw! And Maurice and Kane have just been plain out nasty.”

“Jessie?” Shilo asked tentatively, feeling fear tighten around her chest. “Is he ok?” Julie gave her a wry look. “He’ll be fine when he sobers up.” Shilo relaxed fractionally but confusion filled her. She’ d been terrified, knew shock had thoroughly screwed with her head, but she remembered the gunfire. She rememberedseeing Dante hit. “No one was hurt?” Something flickered in Julie’s eyes. “Everyone’ s fine—now. You’re the one we were worried about.” The brunette moved to the side of the bed, edging Julie out of the way. “I’m Cindy,” she said, smiling. “Let me just check your vitals before Julie gets your blood pressure up.” Julie glared at her but moved to the chair where Dante had been sitting. Shilo had opened her mouth to ask Julie how she’d gotten back to Dante’s place, and why she’d been brought there when Cindy shoved a thermometer into her mouth. Subsiding, she waited for the woman to finish. Frowning when she’d taken the readings, Cindy moved

to a chart she had on the dresser and scribbled on it. “Would you like to make a trip to the bathroom while I’ m here to give you hand?” Shilo discovered she did need to go. She didn’t particularly want to be helped, though. “I think I can manage,” she said firmly. Cindy moved to the side of the bed and folded her arms while Shilo struggled and finally managed to sit up. Shilo looked at the woman resentfully. “I guess I might need help.” Going to the bathroom was like climbing a mountain. By the time Shilo made it there and back she was just glad to lie down again. “You’ll be feeling a little stronger once we get some food in you. I’ll be back in a few minutes with a tray.” She paused by the door. “Julie, don’t stay too long and don’t upset her.” Shilo stared at the door when they woman had left. “What might upset me?” Julie sent her a weak smile and shrugged. “God, that was the most awesome thing you did the other night!” she said, changing the subject abruptly. “I had no clue you could do anything like that! I mean, Dante told me you were electro-kinetic, but I was thinking along the lines of a static charge.”

Shilo frowned. “I don’t remember seeing you.” “Dante made me wait in the barn. He said it would be safer for me there.” Shilo’s lips flattened as the memory surfaced of him pushing her to safety and going out to provoke a showdown with the Feds. “He’s bossy as hell. You know that?” Julie blinked at her. “He’s the prime alpha male, Shilo. Not justour pack alpha, but the alpha over the entire territory here. What did you expect?” Shilo sniffed, feeling tears descend upon her abruptly. “He almost got himself killed!” Julie stared at her in alarm. “Don’t cry, Shilo. Please don’t cry. Dante will kill me.” Shilo sniffed again and gave a watery chuckle at the comment, despite the fact that it sounded less than sympathetic, mopping at her eyes. “Why did he do that? Why would he set something like that up? The Feds shot at them! He had to know somebody was liable get killed!” Julie looked at her uncomfortably. “’Cause he’s crazy

in love with you?” Shilo stared at her blankly a moment and then burst into tears. Rolling onto her side, she tried to muffle the sound with the pillow, but she couldn’t seem to make them stop. She was still crying into her pillow when Cindy returned and ordered Julie out. Setting the tray she’d brought down on the bedside table, she went for tissues and a cool wash cloth. “Feeling better now?” she asked brightly when Shilo had managed to wipe her eyes and blow her nose. “Dough,” Shilo said through her stuffy nose and started crying again. “It’s not as bad as all that, now.” “It is!” Shilo wailed. “You just don’t know.” Dante loved her! He’d almost gotten himselfkilled because he loved her. And she was going to have to leave!Nothing could be worse than that! “You want to tell me?” Shilo gave her a look. “No.” “Try to calm down and eat something. It’ll help your feelings,” Cindy said finally, retreating toward the door.

“Your baby’s fine, but you need to eat.” Shilo gaped at the back of the woman’s head as she sailed out the door. “Wait!” Cindy paused in the doorway, looking a question. “My baby? I’m pregnant?” Cindy frowned. “You didn’t know?” Shilo’s face crumpled. “Dough.” Cindy looked uncomfortable. “Well, now you do.” Settling down again, Shilo wept until all she could do was snuffle and finally fell asleep. The rattle of dishes woke her. She wouldn’t have thought it possible, but she felt worse the second time she woke than she had the first. Her head felt as if it would explode and her eyes were swollen and gritty from crying. When she managed to get them open enough to see, she discovered Dante had set a tray on the bedside table. His expression was a combination of wariness and grim determination. “You need to eat or we’ll have to put you back on the IV.” Wondering why he was acting so angry now when he’d

seemed so relieved before, Shilo stared at him for a long moment and finally pushed herself up on the bed. He seemed to relax fractionally. Moving closer, he grabbed the pillows on the bed and stacked them behind her. She stared down at the tray with revulsion when he’d settled it on her lap. Clear liquids, ugh! She wasn’t hungry to start with and nothing on the tray was tempting enough to encourage her to eat. Dante sprawled in the chair, watching her. Sending him an offended look, she picked at the food. The broth wasn’t half bad. She resented Dante hovering over her like a jailor, but she ate about half of everything. He didn’t look happy that she’d stopped at that, but he didn’t say anything. He merely picked up the tray and left. Sighing, Shilo struggled until she’d managed to get off the bed and wobbled into the bathroom. Her reflection in the bathroom mirror didn’t help her feelings one little bit. She bathed her face until her eyes didn’t look quite as puffy and tamed her wild hair the best she could. She needed a bath, but she didn’t feel up to it. Dante was waiting outside the door when she emerged. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw him.

Settling a hand on her hip, he walked her back to the bed and helped her get in. She glanced at his face uncomfortably when she’d settled and looked away again, wishing she could think of something to say. He looked so—remote, though, that she couldn’t think of anything. “You’re sure you’re alright?” she asked finally. His lips thinned. “I’m a lycan, Shilo,” he said angrily. “I heal quickly.” It was said like a rebuke. She just wasn’t entirely certain what the reproach was about. Unless he was still angry with her about going outside when he’d ordered her not to? Not that he had any right to order her around. She understood that he’d wanted to protect her and believed it was the right thing to do, but she was a grown woman. She’d been making all of her own decisions for a long time. Good or bad, she’d made them and lived with them. She still didn’t believe the decision she’d made had been the wrong one. Maybe nothing that had happened would have happened if she’ d just stayed in the safe little nest Dante had improvised for her like he’d ordered her to do, but she didn’t believe her interference had made things worse.

Maybe it hadn’t improved the situation, but she just couldn’t believe it had made things worse. Except that Dante had gotten shotbecause she’d gone out and the Feds had tried to shoot her for using her electro-kinesis against them. She knew Dante had meant to take on all of those men with only his lieutenants, though. Four men—lycans granted, but still only four of them—against three times that many men armed with guns. They would’ve cut them to pieces if shehadn’t interfered. The moment they shifted and attacked the results would have been the same. They would’ve encountered a hail of bullets. If nothing else she’d managed to take down nearly a third of the men. Was he angry because she hadn’t followed orders? Or because she’d gotten hurt trying to help? Or both? She hated the look on his face, hated feeling as if he’d shut the door in her face. It made her want to beg him not to be angry with her anymore, made her want to apologize when she still didn’t feel as if she’d done anything wrong. She dragged in a shuddering breath. “Well, I’m glad you aren’t hurt any more,” she responded finally.

He sent her a speculative look that she found as hard to decipher as his anger and the cold aloofness before that. “Would you like to watch TV?” Not especially. She nodded, though. Anything was better than listening to silence or dealing with her thoughts. She settled back against the pillows when he moved to a tall armoire and opened it. Turning the TV on, he moved back to the bed with the remote and dropped it beside her hand. “Dante?” He paused. “You said I’d been out for two days. What about my pets?” “They’re being taken care of.” She didn’t ask him who was taking care of them. It was just a relief to know she didn’t have to worry about them starving. When he’d left, she flipped through the channels for a few minutes and finally turned it off again. Unable to do anything she really wanted to do, bored, and horribly depressed, she simply lay for a while

staring at the blank TV screen and finally dozed off again. Cindy brought the next tray. It looked just like the first one, but she felt a little better after she’d eaten. By the following day, she was able to make it the bathroom without feeling as if she would pass out. She decided to take the opportunity to bathe—which helped her feelings considerably, although it so completely drained her of energy that she had to sleep a while longer. By evening, she’d recovered enough to wonder what the hell she was going to do. Obviously, her safe haven had been compromised. She couldn’t go back there, not even to get the few personal items that meant the most to her—not even for her pets. She would have to call Mr. Clements, she realized, and see if he would take care of finding a place for the animals. Whatever arrangements Dante had made would have been temporary.

Chapter Nineteen Surprise flickered through Shilo and then delight when

she looked up and saw that it was Maurice who’d brought her evening tray. He met her tentative smile of welcome with a carefully neutral expression, but the moment she smiled his eyes lit up with an answering smile and his expression relaxed. The delay was still enough to allow doubts to creep in, though, and she was uncertain if her welcome was reciprocated or if Maurice was as pissed off with her as Dante. She sat up as he moved to settle the tray on the bedside table. Instead of handing it to her, he went ahead and set it down and settled on the bed beside her, pulling her into his arms for a hard embrace. Relief surged through her. She slipped her arms around him and held tightly to him, clinging when he would have relaxed his hold and moved away. He aborted the attempt to disentangle himself, stroking a hand along the back of her head and then her back. She wanted to ask him if he’d really meant it when he had said he was mad about her. She wanted to hear him say it again—now when she wasn’t so scared she’d barely taken it in and still wasn’t sure whether he’d only said it to reassure her at the time or meant it. It wasn’t right, though. She’d brought the dogs down on them and they couldn’t afford to have the

government hounding them. She hadn’t given it much thought before. She’d been too caught up in her own little world, her personal tragedy, to consider that, not just their lives, but their way of life would be threatened if it became known what they were. As big a hard-on as the government had for her with her minor abilities, they would come all over themselves if they thought they could get hold of a lycan. She had to leave. As much as the thought depressed her, she knew it was the only thing she could do. “Your food will get cold,” he murmured against her hair after a few moments. “I don’t care. Just … hold me a little while?” His arms tightened. “I’ll hold you forever, if you like,” he said gruffly. Tears stung her eyes. She hadn’t really been in any state the day before during her crying jag to analyze why she was crying, but she’d had plenty of time since to think about it. In her subconscious mind, she’d known she had to go, and she didn’t want to worse than she’d ever felt that way. For the first time in her life she ’d found acceptance and real affection. She sniffed. “I wish you could,” she whispered. “I’d

like that.” His arms tightened again for a moment. He settled his cheek on the top of her head. “What’s wrong, Hummingbird?” Her chin wobbled. She fought another round with her tears. She wanted to let go and just cry her heart out, but she couldn’t afford to. It had been bad enough that she’d yielded to the weakness the day before, but she had been weak and that had made it excusable. It could be put down to no more than that. If she kept on, there was no way she was going to convince them she wanted to go. For that matter, they weren’t going to understand how she could cling one moment and push them away the next. She needed this, though, too much to give up the comfort it gave her. “I’m just glad you’re alright. I was so afraid when the shooting started.” “You should have stayed put like you were told,” he said, a note of anger in his voice now. “None of us wanted to do that to you, but we wanted to keep you safe. I felt like beating your ass myself. I’ve never been more scared in my life than when you burst out there like that. And then, when you didn’t wake up ….” He stopped abruptly. From the sudden tension she felt

in him, she knew he was wrestling with his temper. Irritation flickered through her that they were all so determined to treat her like a child—to their minds, she supposed, the ‘weaker’ sex—but she tamped it. Their high-handedness went with the territory. As Julie had pointed out, they were aggressive, domineering man to the core. They were strong, decisive, authoritative, and protective. If they weren’t convinced they knew best, they couldn’t make decisions they needed to. She could argue forever and it wasn’t going to shake their conviction that they knew best and could do a better job at everything that fell in the traditional ‘man role’. “I was afraid for y’all. Don’t you understand that I wanted to protect all of you as much as you wanted to protect me? As much as I love you for wanting to fight my battles for me, how could I live with it if anything had happened to any of you?” He eased away from her and looked down at her. There was still anger in his eyes, but there was tenderness, as well. “I love you, too, Hummingbird,” he said huskily, and then his lips curled faintly. “We’ll discuss—later— who does the protecting around here.” Firmly, if reluctantly, he pulled away. Getting up, he moved the tray to her knees and then settled in the chair by the bed. “Right now I want you to eat so that you’ll get your strength back. I don’t know what you did out there, but I don’t want you doing it again if you can’t

control it any better than that. As impressive as it was, you damned near expendedall of your energy or you wouldn’t have been nearly comatose for days.” She ate what she could but unfortunately it had gotten tepid while she’d been otherwise occupied and it hadn’t been that appealing before. “I hope I can have real food before much longer,” she muttered. He chuckled. “Consider it punishment for risking your pretty little neck.” She sent him a look of reproach, but she liked the ‘ pretty’ part so she wasn’t nearly as irritated as she might have been otherwise. “Dante said my animals were being taken care of,” she said tentatively. “We removed them all to pack lands at the edge of town … including your pregnant cow,” he added with a faint smile. “She seems very content with the new pasture.” He thought it over a moment. “And the damned cats, although we had a hell of a time catching them. They’re not fond of lycans.” He shrugged. “None of the animals are too keen on the wolf blood, but especially the cats.” She stared at him blankly for a moment, wondering why it hadn’t occurred to her that all of her animals had been restless from the moment they’d arrived. Wryly,

she had to admit she’d been far too preoccupied with the men herself to pay nearly as much attention to her animals as she generally did. “I hadn’t thought about them being able to sense that,” she murmured finally. “I guess, mostly, because I just don’t think of it myself— that you’re lycans, I mean. At least that’s one less thing to worry about,” she added. She noticed he was studying her keenly. “You don’t think of us as lycans?” he asked in a strange voice. She looked at him worriedly. “Don’t be mad. It’s just … not anything I think about. I know you are.” He studied her thoughtfully for several moments but finally seemed to dismiss it. “You don’t need to worry about anything but getting better.” She couldn’t argue with that, not without dredging up a subject she knew she couldn’t discuss with him. “I’ll need to put the place up for sale,” she added after a moment. “I can’t go back there.” He frowned. “You’re certain you want to sell it? You’ re right. You can’t live there anymore, but you could still keep it for visits from time to time.” She smiled wryly instead of telling him she never went back once she’d moved on. “No. I think I’ll sell it.”

“I’ll let Dante know. He can go ahead and get that started for you.” She bit back her irritation with an effort. There was no reason to object beyond the way they had of going about things. She’d made the decision to sell it herself. It didn ’t really matter whether Dante handled it or not. In fact, she’d just as soon not handle it herself because it gave her a pang to let it go and also because she needed to distance herself from the property in every way as quickly as possible. She was going to have to come up with a new identity, too. That was going to be rough. She’d been Shilo McKenzie for years now. It was going to be hard getting used to being someone else. She was getting old, she reflected morosely. Change hadn’t bothered her so much when she was younger. She merely nodded at Maurice’s suggestion instead of informing him that she was used to making her own decisions and handling her own affairs. When she’d finished eating what she could, Maurice took the tray from her and set it on the bedside table again, then joined her on the bed and dragged her into his embrace. She tipped her heard back to meet his questing lips as they skimmed along her cheek, sighing with pleasure as the heat of his mouth melded with

hers. Heated desire blossomed inside of her instantly as he made love to her mouth first in a languid quest to reacquaint himself with the tender cavern of her mouth and then with growing urgency that had Shilo’s body in an uproar. Reluctantly, he broke the kiss and tucked her against his chest. Disappointed as she was to have it end, she knew she wasn’t really up to anything more at the moment. “I suppose you realize you’ve wreaked havoc with our schedule,” he murmured with amusement. “Kane and Jessie are fit to be tied and can’t be allowed around you at all at the moment—becausewe don’t trust them to contain themselves. They’d just settled it between them who would be next, because, of course, their ranking is the same, and now both are convinced they’ll be bumped because Dante and I have asserted our dominance.” Shilo tensed at that. She’d already figured out what they had in mind, but it was one thing to think she knew and another matter entirely to have Maurice lay it out as calmly as if everything had already been decided upon. To their minds, she supposed it had. She was torn between amusement that they thought they could arbitrarily make all of her decisions for her and irritation for the same reason. She also couldn’t deny an

urge to just ‘go with the flow’ and allow it. It disturbed her how much she wanted to yield up all the independence she’d valued for so long. He misinterpreted the look on her face when he pulled away. Smiling, he flicked a careless finger along her nose. “Don’t worry, Hummingbird. Dante and I know you’re in no condition at the moment for any romping. They’ll behave or we’ll beat the hell out of both of them. It’ll be easier on all of us once we get the hang of this. We’ve all been lone wolves too long. But we’ll do right by you. Don’t doubt that for a moment. “Dante’s figuring on building on the new tract. I wasn’t too keen on the idea myself, but I know you’ll enjoy being closer to your pets, and we’ll need a bigger place once the pups come along. I hope you don’t mind the thought of having a half a dozen. I’d like two myself and I’m beta so, although I’m next in line, there’s still Jessie and Kane, and then, of course, the alpha, so ….” He must of seen something in her expression that pierced his happy recital of the future they’d already planned for her—without discussing it with her or even apprising her of the ‘plan’. “One would do.” He kissed her forehead and got up, taking the tray. “We’ve got years to decide that,” he added a little uncomfortably. “I’ll leave you to rest.”

Shilo watched his departure with a mixture of outrage, horror, and, insanely, happiness. She’d never dared even allow herself the thought of having a family. She’d hoped, desperately, that she could somehow manage to have one baby, though she’d chastised herself for even considering it when she had to live as she did. But … six! And where in the hell had they gotten the idea that it was settled anyway? How had things gone from casual sex to mommy, four daddies, and a gaggle of babies? She damned sure didn’t recall anyoneasking her! Clearly, though, not only was she expected to share herself with all four—which she’d already figured out —butnot casually, commitment wise, family wise. She supposed she should have expected it. She hadn’t been around Julie long, but Julie had been very forthcoming about pack customs and behavior and the way the pack community lived. She’d been a little shocked even though she was barely familiar with human ideas about family, but she’d also been envious of the closeness they all shared— something she hadn’t even experienced with the pseudo-siblings she’d grown up with in the group, and she’d been warmed by the genuine affection she’d seen in all of them for their pups. Even Dante, Maurice,

Jessie, and Kane had been openly affectionate with the brood in Julie’s household, though Julie had assured her that they’d not only not fathered any of the children, they were lone wolves and none of them had ever mated. And it had seemed the pups were just as affectionate in return, making it clear the men spent a good bit of time with them. Somehow, though, despite the fact that she wasn’t lycan, they seemed to think they’d mated with her. She just didn’t know how they’d arrived at that conclusion. She couldn’t just shake it off. She tried. A part of her was intrigued, wanted to dismiss all of the very real impediments to such a thing and grab what was offered with both hands. It was too much of a good thing. It boggled her mind to even think about anything like that in the long term, but she’d made do her entire life, had less than what she wanted. Nothing was ever perfect. There was always a down side. If things had been different, she would’ve loved to give it a try. She couldn’t consider it, though. She had to accept that there were only two paths her life could take, alone and free, or caged. Living with the pack wasn’t an option. It was bad enough she’d, somehow, led disaster to their door. She had to lead it away again before it cost them more than she was willing to allow. It warmed her that

they seemed to care for her. She hadn’t had time to accept or fully appreciate the gift Dante had given her, but it was more than she’d dared dream she might have —a baby, when she was almost too old now to consider having one. It was sickening to think it wouldn’t get the chance to know its father. He was a wonderful man. She couldn’t consider staying, though. She just couldn’ t. She felt like crying all over again every time she thought about it. And railing against fate that she’d been born different and couldn’t have anything she wanted. She supposed everyone felt that way at least sometimes, felt the unfairness of life. She’d have some compensation, though—if she was lucky and it was born healthy. She wasn’t going to borrow trouble, she told herself. She had enough on her plate, and now she was going to have to worry about someone else. She would have to plan very carefully, she decided. The next move and identity had to be perfect, designed with as much permanency as she could possibly manage. She didn’t want to be dragging her child all over the place. She wanted it to have a sense of home

and security—everything she’d always wanted and hadn ’t been able to manage before. First, though, she was going to have to figure out how to evade her adorable and adoring pack of males. This was not the sort of situation where it would do any good at all to assert herself. They would just guard and protect her more ferociously. **** Shilo felt almost her old self by the following day, mostly, she thought wryly, because she finally got some real food. She still tired easily, but she was strong enough to get up and leave the room to try to discover what all of the hammering and sawing was about downstairs. She wasn’t really enlightened after she discovered Dante was having the den remodeled, though. He didn’t volunteer anything and even though he seemed a good deal less aloof than he had before, he still refused to enlighten her. All he said was it was a change that needed to be made. Heartened that he at least seemed to be thawing, she ‘ cased’ the house to ascertain just how difficult it was going to be to make her getaway. Not easy at all, she realized very quickly.

With the house full of men working, they still weren’t distracted enough to allow her to slip off. No matter where she went, she was within view of two or three at all times and she knew it wasn’t by chance. They were keeping an eye on her. She wasn’t really up to it at the moment anyway. By the time the construction was finished and the male population dwindled she’d be strong enough to travel, she assured herself, and she needed time to work out a game plan anyway, not just for the escape itself, but for what she’d do afterward. She was startled when she emerged from the bathroom that night to discover both Dante and Maurice in the room. She studied them warily for a moment. They paused in the act of undressing and studied her in return as if trying to gauge her receptiveness. Her belly went weightless at the sight of their beautifully sculpted, bared upper torsos, her kegel muscles clapping in anticipation of the ‘treat’. Smiling tentatively, she dropped her towel instead of heading for a clean night shirt as she’d intended and moved to the bed, settling in the middle. Dante and Maurice exchanged a speaking glance and finished stripping. Maurice, closest to the bedroom door, flipped the lights off. Dante moved to the

bathroom door to pull it closed so that only a thin wedge of light spilled into the room, and they followed her into bed. Uncertain of what to expect, Shilo merely waited to see what they would do. She didn’t have long to wait. Dante scooped her into his arms the moment he got into bed, burrowing his face against her neck and dragging in a deep breath before nuzzling his face against hers. “You’re certain you’re up to this?” he asked hoarsely. She didn’t know, but she was sure as hell up to trying. Instead of answering verbally, she curled more tightly against him and offered her lips. He seized upon it with the feverish intensity of a man dying of thirst. Her awareness of Maurice, sharing the bed with them, vanished like mist, her perception of anything but the feel of Dante’s body against hers, his mouth, the feel and taste of him as he claimed her mouth with feverish need. She’d missed him so much, she thought dizzily. She was already intoxicated with desire, breathless and shaking with anticipation when he broke the kiss and explored her body with an escalating, unmistakable urgency that fired her blood to the point that her body seemed ultra-sensitized. Every touch, every brush of his lips and hands, every stroke of his tongue, the exquisite suction of his mouth sparked and jolted her nerve

endings until her pleasure center was under a constant barrage, firing almost continuously. She was hardly aware of his goal. She was too wrapped up in trying to breathe, trying to retain consciousness when she was gasping so hard she was over-oxygenating her brain. She felt a split second of distress when he grabbed her thighs and parted them, a fraction of time to realize he didn’t mean to give her cock at once when she was desperate to feel him plowing into her. She completely lost her mind, however, when he dove for her and fastened his mouth hungrily over her clit. Clawing at the bedding, she uttered a series of gasping ‘ohs’ as he sucked and tugged and licked her clit, and then tensed for explosion and screamed with the force of the climax that hit her like a bomb exploding. She was almost sobbing by the time he finally ceased to torment her and withdrew so that her body could stop convulsing. She quivered and jerked as he made his way upward again, each caress almost painful. She hadn’t managed to touch down when he drove into her. She gasped as he forced his cock along her channel, fighting his way past the quivering, tightly clenched muscles until he’d driven to her depths. The moment he began to glide in and out of her, her body tensed for another leap into

rapture. She clutched at him tightly, digging her nails into his flesh mindlessly, curling her hips to meet his forceful thrusting. A shudder worked its way all the way through her as she reached the summit again, her cries hoarse and desperate as she came. She was the next thing to comatose when Dante uttered his own guttural cry of triumph and pumped his seed into her in a hot tide.

Chapter Twenty He sank heavily against her in the aftermath, every muscle in his big body quivering with the effort to hold even part of his weight off her. Limp as a rag-doll beneath him, Shilo merely accepted his nuzzling appreciation, too near unconsciousness to offer reciprocal accolades. “Baby?” he murmured finally. “Umm?” she managed. “I didn’t hurt you?”

“Still ‘mong the living,” she assured him, her voice slurred with the sleep trying to overtake her. He moved off of her, dragging her onto her side to face him and snuggling her against his body. “I’m glad you’ re not angry with me anymore,” she murmured, snuggling her face against his hard chest as he stroked his hand along her back. He let out a harsh breath that spoke volumes. “I’m not sure I’ll ever get over that completely,” he said finally. “But I was more scared than angry … I think.” He fell silent for a time, stroking his hand over her. “It’s been hard for me to adjust, too—to us not being the same. I was afraid the bonding hadn’t formed between us— with you, because you aren’t lycan. I knew it had formed with me. I was sick with worry that you didn’t feel what I do, that you would reject our pup because it was half lycan.” As deep as she was, she heard the need for reassurance in his voice, or maybe it wasbecause she was almost too near asleep to actually assimilate the words that she ‘heard’ the emotion in them better than the words. She rubbed her cheek against his chest and then kissed the spot. “I love you. How could I not love your baby?” The tension went out of him. He said nothing for a

while, merely stroking her lazily. She’d begun to drift away when he spoke again. “You don’t have to worry about anything anymore, baby. I had a long talk with the Feds and we’ve come to an understanding.” “You did?” “Yeah, they understand that if I see them anywhere around you again, I’ll kill them.” That penetrated even her drugged state of euphoria. “You told them that?” she asked uneasily. “We’ll have to keep an eye out until we’re sure they’re not too stupid to take the warning, but I don’t think it’ll be a problem. It was that rogue that drew them down on you. I was sorry at the time that I’d already killed the bastard cleanly. If I’d known beforehand what he’d done, I would’ve made it a lot nastier.” Shilo digested that in silence. “How did the rogue know about me to call them?” He shrugged. “Found out the same way I did, I suppose, tracked you through the net.” As horrified as she was to learn that Dante had threatened the Feds, Shilo struggled with information overload and a surfeit of pleasure for a few minutes and

finally gave up with the reflection that she could consider all of it the next day when her brains were less scrambled. She didn’t know whether to be annoyed or pleased to be awakened to the feel of a mouth exploring a northbound path from her belly to her breasts. Her body decided for her, blossoming with heat as that talented mouth finally attached itself to one nipple and sucked fire into her loins. Murmuring a sound of pleasure, she lifted a hand to thread it through his hair as she opened her eyes a fraction and looked down. Surprise flickered through her when she discovered it was Maurice, but it didn’t dim her pleasure. She’d just gotten totally focused on the sensations pelting her when Dante planted his hands on the bed beside her and leaned down to ravish her mouth in a brief but thoroughly invigorating kiss. “I have to go to work,” he murmured when he broke the kiss. Maurice lifted his head and glared at him for the distraction. Dante shrugged and strode from the room whistling. Maurice studied her face. “Where was I?” he muttered.

Shilo stared back at him a moment and then cupped her unattended breast in offering. His eyes narrowed with heated promise. Lowering his head, the teased the tip with his tongue and lips until it was almost painfully engorged and then covered it, tugging at her nipple with the suction of his mouth until Shilo was writhing feverishly beneath him, panting for breath. Releasing it at last, he levered himself upward, grabbed a pillow and shoved it beneath her hips to curl them upward. Planting his palms on her knees, he pressed her thighs upward and out, watching as he aligned his cock with the mouth of her sex and pushed inside of her. His face taut with need, his eyes blazing with it, he lifted his head after a moment and studied her face. “Now where, I wonder,” he asked huskily, “is my little hummingbird’s sweet spot?” He pushed deeply inside of her, rotating his hips until her eyes slammed shut and she arched upward with a gasp. “Ahh,” he murmured with satisfaction. “There?” He withdrew and pushed inside of her again. Shilo shuddered as a current of heat went through her. He repeated the motion over and over, moving a little faster as she began to squirm and pant for breath and then tensed all over and cried out when she came, drawing her climax out until she’d ceased to buck with

the tremors. He paused then for several moments, withdrew until little more than the head of his cock was inside her and thrust shallowly until she’d caught her breath. The moment she did, he thrust deeply again, going unerringly for her ‘sweet spot’ and stroking it until she felt herself lifting once more toward release. She moaned as her body wound tighter and tighter, clenching her fingers into the bedding as she exploded with hard jolts of pleasure and the impact dragged harsh, choked cries from her. Again, he hesitated, stroking slowly and shallowly. Shilo groaned as he thrust deep again. “Maurice!” she gasped, arching her back and digging her head into the pillow as her body raced upward a third time. “Yes, Hummingbird?” he growled. “I can’t … I can’t,” she gasped breathlessly. “You can.” Releasing his grip on her knees, he leaned over her, thrusting harder and faster until he was pounding into her. She screamed hoarsely that time as her climax hit her again, so hard she felt like she would black out. He shuddered when she came, ground his teeth, and then groaned as his body joined hers in pleasurable release, straining deeply as his cock jerked and pumped his seed into her.

He remained braced on his extended arms for many moments afterward, shuddering with the aftershocks, struggling with his ragged breath. Finally, he pushed himself upward and moved to the bed beside her. Rolling onto his side, he dropped a heavy hand on her belly, curling his fingers into her and then lightly rubbing it. As near death as she felt, his focus penetrated her stupor. She opened her eyes with an effort and studied his face. Her throat clogged with emotion at his expression. Even if he hadn’t already told her how much he was looking forward to her having his baby, his expression said it all. “I love you, Maurice,” she whispered. His head jerked upward. He studied her face for a long moment and finally scooped her closer, nuzzling his face against hers. “I adore you, woman,” he muttered. She smiled faintly. “I’m mad for you,” she countered. He chuckled, lifting his head to stare down at her with laughing eyes. “I cherish you with every beat of my heart.” She grinned back at him and searched her mind. “I’ve come up empty.”

His eyes narrowed. He slipped a hand down her body and pushed it between her legs, stroking her cleft. “Not exactly, Hummingbird.” Desire lit eyes. His lips curled. “Want to go for four?” She looked at him doubtfully and he laughed. Leaning down, he kissed the tip of her nose. “Just as well, I have to go to work.” She stretched languidly when he got up to dress, considering whether she wanted to get up or roll over and go back to sleep. “Careful, lady, or you’ll get four whether you’re interested or not.” She dragged the covers up. When he’d left, she discovered getting up wasn’t really an option. She could hardly keep her eyes open. **** It wasn’t until Shilo was in the middle of brushing her teeth that she abruptly remembered what Dante had told her the night before when she’d been drugged with the aftermath of his lovemaking.

The horror she’d been shielded from by her exhaustion flooded through her in a cold wave. They’dthreatened Federal agents!Dante had threatened them! She would almost have felt better if he’d told her he’d killed them all. At least then she wouldn’t have to worry about them coming after the pack. She knew she shouldn’t have felt that way, but she couldn’t help it. They’d hounded her her entire life. She couldn’tfeel pity for them. Fear, she could feel. It was like letting a damned rattlesnake go in the garden. The next time you stepped into the garden unwarily the damned thing would strike—without any appreciation for the fact that you’d let it live when you could’ve killed it. She’d already brought disaster down on the lycan community, she realized, feeling sick to her stomach. Even if she fled, now, she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to draw them away. Julie had said he’d done it because he was crazy in love with her. She felt like crying when she remembered that, remembered how happy it had made her to know he loved her, but it didn’t help her feelings at all to know it was her fault.

She tried to calm herself down and think as she left the bathroom and dressed, but all she could think about was the Feds descending on the lycan community and turning it into a war zone. Wouldit do any good to run now, she wondered? Would she still be a far more appealing target? She was still trying to sort it in her mind when she went downstairs. The smell of coffee drew her into the kitchen. When she went in, she discovered that Kane was burning bacon, toast, and eggs. He was scowling as he glanced at her. He shrugged. “I thought I’d fix breakfast for you, but I’m thinkin’ I’ll have to go out for more of everythin’ and start over.” Despite her anxieties, Shilo couldn’t help but smile at him. “I’m used to eating slightly overdone,” she said, trying to make him feel better. He threw her a wry grin. “Slightly?” She pulled the toast from the toaster and used a knife to scrape the darkest areas before she buttered it. “See!

Now it isn’t burned.” Shrugging, he performed a similar dissection on the bacon and eggs, removing the worst of the ‘overdone’ before he scooped it onto a plate and settled on the counter for her. She looked at it in surprise. “You aren’t eating?” He shook his head. “I never eat my own cookin’. It’s bad,chère , really bad.” Shilo stared at his serious expression for a long moment before she noticed the teasing gleam in his eyes. She laughed. “It looks delicious. You’re sure you don’t want some?” He grinned at her. “I ate already. You doan have to eat it.” She gave him a look and settled at the counter. “You’re going to keep me company?” Nodding, he poured a cup of coffee for her and one for himself and settled across from her. It was a struggle to pretend she had an appetite. He studied her for several moments and frowned. “You

doan have to eat it,chère, only because I burned it for you.” She couldn’t help but smile, but she shook her head at him. “This is good. It’s just that I don’t usually eat breakfast,” she said after a moment. She frowned as she nibbled at the food. “Dante told me he’d … uh … talked to the Feds,” she said tentatively. Something flickered in his eyes, wariness, she thought, but he nodded. “They had words.” She frowned. “I don’t want you to think that I don’t appreciate all y’all have done for me, Kane, but … I hate to think they might come after y’all because of me.” Amusement lit his eyes. “Then doan. They ain’t gonna, chère. Take my word for it. They doan want no more of us.” She looked at him doubtfully. “I wish I really believed that,” she said with a sigh. “But they’ve been after me forever.” “They ain’t gonna be botherin’ you no more, neither. We took care of that little problem.” His gaze flickered over her face. “You’re one of us, now,chère, and we take care of our own.”

It was so tempting to believe that. She wasn’t certain she did, though. In fact, she was pretty sure she didn’t. On the other hand, she didn’t think there was anything in the world scarier than lycan when they shifted into their manbeast forms. Dante had been shot and he’d still fought them. That would’ve been terrifying right there, shooting them and discovering it didn’t stop them. That still didn’t mean the Feds would give up on her, though. **** Feeling fresh from her bath, anticipation already threading her veins, Shilo was humming under her breath as she left the bathroom headed for bed. She hadn’t even bothered to wrap herself in a towel, confident she wouldn’t be wearing anything very long. She halted in her tracks, however, when she reached the bedroom. Maurice and Dante were focused on making pallets on the floor. Kane and Jessie, wearing almost identical expressions of tense sexual need, stark naked, and already nursing impressive erections, were sprawled on the bed, Kane sitting with his back against the headboard, Jessie lying

on his side with his head propped in his hand. Shilo’s heart, brain, and lungs seemed to stop when she did, then trip over themselves as they jump started again. Her belly tightened with a mixture of nerves, sudden shyness, and anticipation as she stared at them. Kane was as dark as Dante, but broader, more heavily muscular and not as tall or long limbed. A thick pelt of black hair covered most of his torso, his arms, and his legs, but did nothing to mask the powerful muscles all over him. Of all the men, Jessie was more wiry than bulky with muscle. Like Maurice, he was fair, but more of a strawberry blond. The light pelt on his chest was closer to brown than blond but had the same reddish highlights. All in all, they were as stimulating to her senses as Maurice and Dante and she felt a little dizzy as she studied them. Kane took up the side of the bed nearest her and she had a strong feeling he’d won the ‘toss’. Sucking in a shaky breath, trying not to appear as self-conscious as she was, she moved to the bed. She stopped when she reached it, her gaze locked with Kane ’s for a long space of painful heartbeats. Instead of

standing up or moving out of the way, he shifted his hips slightly in invitation. She placed a knee on the bed beside him. He settled a hand on her waist to steady her as she did so, and, as she lifted a knee to climb over him, caged her with his other so that she was straddling his hips. Surprise flickered through her. Her jangling nerves sent tremors of weakness through her as she settled on his hard thighs, studying his face as he explored her body with his gaze. His hands reversed the path his eyes had taken, settling on her thighs and skimming lightly upward as if he was learning the contours of her body. His face grew more taut as he followed the curve of her hips to the dip of her waist and continued upward. Pleasure gleamed in his eyes, removing the last twinge of doubt from her mind that he might find her far from perfect body disappointing or unappealing. He paused when he’d skimmed over her ribcage, cupping a breast in either hand, testing the weight of them with his palms, the texture of her skin with his fingertips, and then massaging them gently to test their resilience. His hands slipped to the tips after a moment and he plucked at her nipples, pinching them lightly and rolling them between his thumbs and forefingers until blood surged into them and with it a keener, more pronounced perception of his touch. Heat curled downward through her breasts and into her belly,

coiling there and drawing moisture from the trembling walls of her sex. Shilo eyes slid half closed as the heat fused with her blood and nerve endings, bringing a flush to her skin and heightening her awareness everywhere at once. He flicked a glance at her face after a moment and slipped his hands upward to cup her face. Leaning toward her even as he drew her to him, he fitted his mouth to hers with the same care that he’d used as he’d explored her body. Their lips met, clung briefly, parted, and met again. He released a ragged breath, lifted his head slightly to meet her gaze. His harsh features appealed to something primal in her. His taste and scent pleased her. Despite the doubt that still threaded her at their intimacy when they were virtually strangers to one another, desire blossomed and she made no attempt to hide it. He saw what he was looking for in her eyes. The heat in his flamed higher and he drew her closer to settle his mouth firmly over hers, this time to explore it with a restless caress than began with boldness and intensified swiftly to a ravenous possession of her senses. Dizziness wafted through her with the rising heat. She lifted her hands to steady herself, gripping the hard mound of muscle on his upper arms.

He shifted his hands from her cheeks as he deepened the kiss. Spearing the fingers of one hand through the hair at the base of her skull, he wrapped his other arm around her and pressed his palm between her shoulder blades to draw her closer still. Her breasts pressed against his chest and each ragged breath they dragged into their lungs brushed the tight, sensitive nubs along his hair roughened chest, stirring the caldron of desire inside of her. She shifted on his lap restlessly, undulating her body to increase the delicious friction of skin to skin, stroking her hands along his sides and exploring as much of his back as she could reach. He broke the kiss, shifting his focus from her mouth to her throat, moving his hands downward along her back until he was cupping and massaging her buttocks as he had her breasts. Slipping his hands beneath her, he urged her upward on her knees as he finished exploring her throat and wound downward. As she surged upward onto her knees at his insistent demand, looping her arms around his shoulders, she brought her breasts to his mouth. He caught one turgid tip between his teeth, baring down just hard enough to send an electric current of white hot heat through her. She sucked in a sharp breath as it jolted through her,

moaned as he followed by covering the tip with his mouth and sucking on it. And all the while he tugged at first one nipple and then other, sending sharp jolts and shivers of delight through her that made her belly quake for his possession, he stroked her buttocks, traced her cleft and finally slipped a hand around to her belly and found her clit. Tremors ran along her inner thighs as he stroked and teased her clit in sync to the torment of his mouth and tongue on her breast. Mindlessly, she tightened her arms around his shoulders, sucking in harsh, panting breaths as she felt her body coiling tighter and tighter. She shuddered as he slipped his finger from her clit to her opening, pushing inside of her, rubbing her clit with the heel of his palm as he stroked her channel. She was going to come if he didn’t stop she thought a little wildly, wanting to, but wanting him inside of her when she did more than she wanted gratification in that moment. She dropped her head forward. “Now, Kane, please?” she whispered near his ear. A tremor went through him. He withdrew his finger, lifted his head to lock his gaze with hers as he drew her downward and she felt the rounded head of his cock spearing into the mouth of her sex, spreading her, stretching her flesh to the verge of discomfort. The faint ache only made her more desperate to engulf his flesh

within hers, however. She bit her lip as he sank deeper, watching his expression go from taut to pained as if she was torturing his flesh as he was hers. She closed her eyes at the exquisiteness of feeling him all the way inside of her, stretching her to her limits, when he at last sank to her depths. Kane coiled his arms tightly around her when he’d sank as deeply inside of her as he could go and held her still, savoring the joining, fighting the driving need to move as pleasure inundated him from the feel of her hot, moist channel wrapped tightly around him. Dragging in a ragged breath, he sought her mouth, thrust his tongue past the fragile barrier of her lips and tasted her, enjoying the sense of being inside her, surrounded by her softness, her scent, her taste, her heat. The throat of her sex closed more tightly around him as he stroked his tongue along hers, shredding his effort to hold on a little longer, relish his possession a little longer. Groaning into her mouth, he tensed all over, shaking with the effort to fight his need to move and then, abruptly, lost the battle. Tearing his mouth from hers with a ragged intake of breath, he grasped her hips and lifted her, bearing down, and then lifting again until she caught the rhythm he needed and began to move with him, rising and falling more and more rapidly as she began to race for her own completion.

When she tensed in his arms and let out a cry of satisfaction, when he felt her channel quaking around him, coaxing his seed from him, he caught her tightly against him, rose on his knees and tipped her onto her back, thrusting into her hard and fast as his body demanded. A choked groan was squeezed from his chest as his belly tightened and his cock began to pump his seed into her in a hot fountain as hard paroxysms ripped through him and seemed to tighten around his heart and lungs. He shuddered as the convulsions tearing through his gut finally subsided and allowed him to drag a deep breath into his lungs. Dragging in a second sustaining breath, he eased away from her to look down at her. Her face was a picture of expended bliss and relief flooded him. He hadn’t failed her, hadn’t deserted her in her needs. He nuzzled his face against hers, soaking up her scent appreciatively, expressing his infinite gratitude for the pleasure she’d given him so generously.Mine , he thought as he lifted his head to study her face again, stroked her soft cheek with his fingers. Satisfaction settled weightily inside of him, drugging weakness in the aftermath of his release. Slipping his arms around her, he righted them on the bed and lay back with her draped limply over his chest. Reaching blindly for the covers, he dragged them over the two of them and fell

asleep stroking his hand lazily along her back.

Chapter Twenty One A nose nuzzled Shilo’s ear. As he sucked her earlobe, a shiver skittered along her spine. She surfaced to a vague awareness. “See you tonight, baby.” Shilo felt her lips curl in response, but she couldn’t manage any more than that faint acknowledgement of Dante’s affection. She was drifting downward again when she felt another face against her neck. “Be good, Hummingbird. See you tonight.” She almost managed to get her eyes opened that time. “Bye,” she mumbled, shifting to try to find a more comfortable position on the hard, hairy pillow beneath her cheek. Undoubtedly he perceived it as a sign of affection rather than the search for comfort it was. Kane rolled

over, dumping her on the bed on her back. It took more to stir her when she was nearly comatose, but he persevered, caressing her with his lips and hands until she passed from completely relaxed and half asleep to mellow, warming interest. Parting her limp thighs, he entered her, stroking her slowly until he’d roused her thoroughly before he shifted positions and began to thrust into her more deeply, more rapidly, driving her toward the summit before she’d entirely grasped she was nearing it. Sucking in a sharp breath, she tensed all over and then trembled and gasped throatily at the waves of release that shook her. He found his own surcease as her climax dissipated into mellowing waves of pleasure. He kissed her thoroughly, if briefly, before he withdrew. “Bye,chère .” She smiled a little drunkenly, managing to get one eyelid open enough to peer at him as he rolled out of the bed. The soothing patter of water in the shower sent her back into dreamland despite the fact that she felt a vague sense that something was missing. The room was bright when she woke again, still with that strange sense that she’d missed something. She lay with her eyes closed for a while, trying to figure out what it was and finally got up to bathe and dress.

Jessie was cooking breakfast when she arrived in the kitchen, drawn there by the smell of coffee. He sent her a teasing smile when she stumbled in with her eyes still half closed. “Mornin’, sleepy head.” She yawned. “What time is it?” “Ten.” Shilo managed to get her eyes fully open at that announcement. “Ten?” she echoed. “I slept so late!” He grinned at her, displaying a pair of intriguing dimples, and then turned to prepare a plate for each of them. Shilo stared at her plate with admiration when she’d settled at the eating counter—perfectly cooked bacon, fluffy, soft scrambled eggs, and golden toast. “It looks too good to eat. We should take a picture or something.” He stared at her a moment and finally chuckled. “Better eat it while it’s hot,” he urged her, digging in to his own. “Did you sleep late, too?” He shook his head. “This is my second breakfast.”

She sent him a look of disbelief, uncertain of whether he was joking or serious. “You’re off today?” Something flickered in his eyes. “Yep.” Frowning thoughtfully, Shilo focused on her meal. Was she under guard, she wondered? Or was it just that they weren’t comfortable leaving her alone because they were worried about her? She was half way through her breakfast before she realized the house was completely quiet. “The men finished the project?” she guessed. He nodded. She studied him speculatively for a long moment. Amusement creased his features. “Tonight,” he said in response to her unspoken question. “Tonight, what?” “We’ll show you tonight what we’ve had done in there.” She lifted her brows at him and then narrowed her eyes. “You read minds?’

He chuckled. “I read faces,chère.” She let it go at that. She hadn’t actually been trying to guard her expression. She still suspected they had some form of telepathy, maybe not the ability to read and convey thoughts like a typical conversation, but enough to send and receive a general idea. When she’d finished eating, she sat sipping her coffee, contemplating whether or not she might get more information out of Jessie than she’d managed with either Dante or Maurice. All they’d really told her was ‘not to worry her pretty little head’ over the incident at her place. “I don’t really remember what happened out on my farm,” she said tentatively to test the waters. He studied her, but he didn’t volunteer anything. “Aside from ignorin’ orders and near gettin’ yourself killed,chère?” Irritation flickered through her, but only briefly. There didn’t seem to be any way to approach the damned subject without getting another lecture aboutthat ! “I made my own decisions a long time before any of you came along, and I’ve survived so far,” she said testily. He tilted his head, studying her curiously. Frowning after a moment, he stared down at the dark liquid in his cup. “Maurice was wrong, wasn’t he?”

Shilo looked at him questioningly. “You didn’t bond, did youchère?” Shilo’s belly tightened at that. A feeling almost like fear washed through her. Actually, she supposed after a moment that itwas fear. Until he’d questioned her, she hadn’t realized how important it was to her to be ‘one of them’ to be a part of the pack. She found she didn’t want to answer, but then she didn’t have to. The very fact that she didn’t seem to know what to say appeared to be enough to answer his question. “Once a male has marked his female they’re close in a way that’s hard for a human to understand,” he said almost conversationally. “It’s a joinin’ in more ways than the physical act of matin’, almost a mergin’ of souls. Vows, like humans exchange aren’t necessary and unlike those, which can be empty and meaningless unless the two want to uphold the vows, the bondin’ is of the blood and nigh unbreakable. Dante … we all wanted it badly enough to ignore the signs that you hadn’t becausewe felt the bondin’ with you. If you’d felt it, though, protectin’ the alpha’s pup would’ve been your highest priority. Whether or not you agreed with his orders, you would’ve done what he tole you to protect his pup.

“We were all angry that you put yourself in harm’s way, not because you disobeyed the command of your pack alpha so much as that you threatened the pack yourself by puttin’ yourself at risk. “Dante and Maurice chose to ignore that because they’ d already completed the bondin’ with you themselves and its hard for them to accept the possibility that you still feel separate from them, not bound as they are.” Shilo felt a knot of emotion form in her throat. “But you don’t feel it so you can see it, is that it?” He shook his head. “I do feel it,chère. Even though you and I haven’t completed the bonding, I still feel it because you’ve bonded with my brothers andwe have a bond as pack brothers. It’s just that it isn’t as strong in me … yet, and I can see more clearly.” He made a wry face. “Not much, but somewhat more clearly, because, even knowing, I’m still willin’—anxious—to bond with you as they have.” “No one said anything to me, asked me, told me anything,” Shilo said a little defensively. He swallowed a little sickly. “Because we wouldn’t have had to if you’d bonded,chère ,” he said almost gently. “You would’ve felt it, known it, just as we do, and accepted that we belong together. You wouldn’t

even be able to consider leavin’ because you couldn’t contemplate breakin’ the bond yourself.” The urge to cry grew stronger. Shilo wrestled with it, and struggled with her belief that leaving was something she had to do, to protect them as much as to protect her freedom and the wellbeing of her unborn child. Whether he could read her mind or not, though, he seemed to sense her determination to leave. Under the circumstances, she knew it not only wasn’t right to insist she cared for them, it would only make them feel that much more betrayed when she left, but she found she couldn’t bear to let them think it hadn’t meant anything to her. “I do feel it,” she insisted. “I do care about you. That’s why I … wanted to help,” she said, halting herself before she admitted that she was thinking about going. “I wasn’t trying to risk the baby. I didn’t even know about it. Regardless of what Dante told me then,I didn’t know. I thought he justfigured he had gotten me pregnant because we’d had sex. All I could think about was trying to keep you from being hurt, and the only reason that mattered so much to me was because I cared.” He reddened faintly, his distress more obvious. “You had sex. Dante mated with you.” Tears stung her eyes. She blinked them back

determinedly, uncertain of whether shame and guilt was more dominant or the fear that she was going to lose the affection they had for her. “I’m not lycan. I can’t be expected to behave as if I am.” “No,” he agreed. “You’re not. You’re a strong psychic, too powerful to accept the bonding even though lycanthropy is in your blood now because you’ve mated with lycans. If you hadn’t been so strong, you would’ve become more like us and the bonding would’ve been the same as if you’d been lycan.” “And then logic wouldn’t have entered into any of my decisions anymore? It wouldn’t matter to me that I’d brought the Feds down on you, on the entire lycan community? I wouldn’t be worried, like I am now, that what had happened would bring the Feds to your door?” He studied her searchingly and finally got up and moved around to help her from her chair. He pulled her into his arms, then, holding her for a long moment. “Come, I’ll show you something.” She didn’t argue with him even though she’d begun to feel like her world was crashing down around her. When they reached the living room he switched the TV on and picked up the remote to search for a recording. Curiosity pierced her misery as she settled to

see what he’d brought her in to show her, but she was almost certain it must have to do with the incident at her farm. It became instantly obvious that she was right when he hit the play button. In the news tonight, Federal authorities engaged in a confrontation late yesterday evening that left six Federal agents dead and five others hospitalized. Acting on information by an unidentified source, the Federal agents had approached this small farm in a rural area of the county to apprehend a suspected drug ring. A picture of her farm flashed on the screen, though she doubted she would’ve recognized the place if she hadn’ t been expecting to see it. Both the house and barn had been burned, leaving little more than a shell of either. At this time, it has still not been determined what set the center of what turned out to be an enormous, tri-state drug operation ablaze, but it’s suspected that an electrical fire touched off an explosion of a meth lab housed here which resulted in the deaths of the Federal agents. Five others were hospitalized with minor burns and other related injuries to the explosion and later released. No suspects have been apprehended at this time.

Agent in charge, Anthony Stone, says that it is believed the drug kingpin had knowledge of the pending arrests and has fled the country. In a bizarre twist, the skeletal remains of a woman missing for over ten years were recovered when investigations got underway. The woman, wanted for questioning as a witness in a Federal case, was identified as Anne-Marie Whitaker. Although federal authorities refused to comment on the case in question, they did indicate that they’d long suspected that she had been killed to keep her from testifying and admitted that the discovery of her body brought that earlier case, officially, to a close. In other news …. Shilo stared at the TV screen blankly when Jessie switched it off, unable to fully grasp what she’d heard. Jessie settled across from her. “That’s nothing like what happened,” she managed finally. He shrugged. “The only objective in a cover up is to make sure the essential elements in a situation are covered—any deaths related to it—to lay the blame somewhere else, and to make themselves look as good

as possible. Dante was right. They only needed a little time to come up with a story the public and their superiors would swallow. What’s most important to us is that they officially closed your case.” A wave of shock rolled over Shilo. She wasn’t certain whether she really believed that or not. “You don’t think they just said that?” “I think they decided livin’ was more important to them than continuin’ to hunt you. Dante can be … very persuasive.” He left her to mull over it. She didn’t do much ‘ mulling’. She was too numb with disbelief to be able to think it through clearly. After a while, though, she began to feel a tentative ray of hope, a lifting of a weight she hadn’t really been conscious of. She shied away from thinking about the agents that had died. She didn’t ask Jessie about it, but it was some relief to her to know she didn’t seem to be directly responsible for any of the deaths—if she correctly interpreted the story on the news. The others— uncivilized or not, the lycans hadn’t just been fighting for her. They’d been fighting for their lives when the agents had drawn down on them and started shooting. As badly as she felt about it, she would’ve felt a hell of a lot worse if it had been any of the pack members

killed in the confrontation. She was glad, though, that she’d been unconscious throughout the battle, and well beyond it for that matter. She had a feeling she would’ve had nightmares over it if she’d actually been through it herself. It was harder to accept that finally, after all these years, she was free of the hunt, that she could actually live without the fear that the moment she let her guard down she would find herself right back in the facility she’d escaped from so long ago. That afternoon, Jessie took her out to their place in the countryside where they’d removed her animals. She discovered they’d not only removed them, they’d removed everything she owned, storing it in a portable storage building. Surprise and pleasure filled her at their thoughtfulness. She’d found many of her belongings in Dante’s room, but she’d thought they’d only grabbed what they’d thought were essentials she’d need. Jessie didn’t bring up their earlier discussion, but it weighed heavily on her while she wrestled with everything she’d discovered. She supposed he was right about her in a way. She didn’t fully understand their bonding, not the way Jessie had described it, and yet she had felt it in the way they behaved toward her—

with a mixture of emotions, granted, but she’d felt it. Dante and Maurice had both told her she didn’t have to worry about anything anymore. She’d wanted to believe them, but she hadn’t. The confirmation by way of the news story added a little more weight—and yet doubt still plagued her. It was hard to decide whether she did believe or just wanted to. The possibility of being totally free was seductive. The possibility of being able to actually choose to stay was even more appealing. As far as she was concerned, whether the bonding Jessie and the others had spoken of had actually formed in the way they meant or not was questionable. She loved them. She hadn’t considered the possible cost to herself when she’d confronted the Feds. The only thing of any importance to her at that moment was making sure they weren’t hurt and that hadn’t been because she was worried about guilt. It wasn’t just because it was wrong to let someone else suffer because of her. It was because she cared about them. She finally discovered what the renovation was all about when the men came in from work and began to move beds and dressers into the room. She was barred from entrance until they’d finished and didn’t know whether to be more amused or horrified when she discovered it had undergone a transformation from den

to grand master bedroom for the pack. There’d already been a small bath just off the room. A second, larger one, complete with a huge whirlpool bath had been added. At the other end, a wall had been built to create a huge walk-in closet. In the main room, two king sized beds had been shoved together in the center of the room. Shilo covered her mouth with one hand as she looked it over, trying to suppress the urge to laugh. Dante plunked his hands on his hips and glared at her. “What?” Shilo shook her head. Tamping her amusement, which was obviously not appreciated, she toured the suite and gave it her approval. “Nice. Very nice.” She cleared her throat. “We’re all going to share the room?” The men exchanged glances. “We’re already sharing the same room,” Dante pointed out. “This is true. This will be a lot more comfortable for everyone. Now you and Maurice won’t have to sleep on the floor.” “Exactly,” Dante confirmed, “or Jessie and Kane when they’re off.”

A flicker of annoyance went through her at still more evidence that Dante had arranged all. She shook it off. Dante was always going to be managing everything, she reflected. She was either going to have to get used to it, or follow plan B—ignore the pull to stay with them and do what her conscience demanded to ensure the lycan community didn’t pay for sheltering her. She supposed the bonding hadn’t ‘taken’, not completely anyway. She had gotten used to being around all of them all of the time when they’d stayed with her at her place. She still hadn’t completely adjusted to sleeping with all of them, together, in one room. She took a rather kinky, exhibitionist pleasure in having sex with one while the others watched, or listened, though. Except for the time she’d watched Maurice while Dante made love to her, she didn’t know for certain that they did, but she thought they did. It would’ve been difficult for them to ignore because she enjoyed herself thoroughly, and they held nothing back. She was almost surprised when she went in to get ready for bed that night and Jessie joined her in the shower. After what he’d said, despite the fact that he’d told her he was prepared to bond with her regardless of his doubts, she really hadn’t expected him to want to. Without the bonding, he knew he couldn’t trust that she

would honor it, and from what she’d finally begun to understand, whenthey bonded they mated for life. If she broke that bond, they would be without a mate forever more, unable to form anything even close again. That thought gave her pause. What she’d done before had been unwitting. She’d misunderstood the situation, had thought it was only casual sex with them. Hungry for male companionship, she’d been willing enough to go along with that, even when she’d worried that she could easily grow very attached to Dante, because she’d known then she didn’t have the option of anything more permanent regardless of how she felt. What Jessie had told her changed everything. ….And nothing. He gave her a moment to decide, no more, and she was still too confused about her feelings and the situation to make a clear headed decision. Whether he saw the indecision or not, he saw she didn’ t mean to object and he pulled her flush against his body, kissing her until her mind was too full of him to spare the room for anything else. As drunk with desire as she was before many moments had passed, she was still stunned when he grasped her

around the waist lifted her straight up. Instinctively, she wrapped her arms and legs around him, opening her body to him. Bracing her back against the shower wall, he breached the mouth of her sex and thrust into her with a frantic, shaking need that drove her over the top within moments. They leaned together weakly in the aftermath for many moments before Jessie finally disengaged their bodies and allowed her to slide to the floor until her feet were under her. Holding her close, he nuzzled his face against her damp throat. “I’m your man,chère,” he murmured. Shilo felt her throat close with emotion. Tears blurred her eyes as he lifted his head to study her face. Consternation twisted his features. “I didn’t you,chère ?” he asked uneasily. She shook her head. “Don’t give up on me, Jessie,” she managed to say finally. He studied her a long moment and finally smiled. “I’m not much for givin’ up on somethin’ I want,chère.” **** Plan B had never been terribly appealing to Shilo and

as one day slipped into another and she kept putting off getting around to actually formulating plan B, she finally accepted that she’d never really meant to execute plan B. Jessie might doubt that she’d formed the bond he’d spoken of and maybe he was right. Maybe she didn’t even really know how to love at all because she’d never known what it was, never experienced it, but she had certainly formeda bond with them. As far as she was concerned, she loved them, and that was all that really mattered, regardless of who defined it. It wasn’t easy living with four men, but they were easy the eyes, fabulous in bed, and she discovered she had very little to complain about. They never lost their temper with her—sometimes with each other, but never with her. They never left the house without grabbing her for a quick kiss, or a hug, or just holding her and nuzzling her, and they always greeted her on their return the same way. They weren’t slobs. They picked up after themselves. They shared the kitchen duties. They took care of the yard, and when they went for groceries, they usuallyall went for groceries and each of them grabbed a separate buggy to fill. When Dante decided she was looking a little worn down and piqued in spite of the fact that they shouldered the bulk of the work in the household, he

demanded flat out to know why. Shilo gave him an irritated look. “Because I’m pregnant,” she growled, “andI have sex twice a day with two different men! I’m exhausted from having so much fun!” His dark brows rose almost to his hair line. “Why didn’ t you say so?” he demanded irritably. “I would’ve adjusted the schedule.” She narrowed her eyes him, wrestled with her temper, and finally decided that telling him to shove his schedule up his ass didn’t actually constitute communication. “I need more rest,” she said instead, daring him to comment on the fact that she generally took a nap in the afternoon. He disappeared into his home office and returned a few minutes later with a calendar. “How many nights a month were you thinking?” She studied him a long moment. “I was thinking more in terms of every other night.” He frowned, doodled on the calendar for several moments, performed some mental calculations and then looked up at her. “I don’t know, baby. That throws us off.”

Resisting the urge to throw something at him, Shilo got off the couch and moved to the chair where he was sitting. Pulling the calendar from his hands, she tossed it over her shoulder, climbed into his lap, and then looped her arms around his shoulders. He studied her face warily. “Every other night, Dante,” she said firmly. “The pack is going to be disappointed,” he pointed out. “Not nearly as disappointed as they would be with one time per week per pack brother. Just consider yourselves fortunate that I love you, and I’m a good hearted woman, and I’m dedicated to taking care of my men’s needs.” Dante smiled faintly. “Your men—I like the sound of that.” Shilo smiled back him. “I do, too.” Scooting down, she nestled her head on his shoulder. “There hasn’t been any sign of the Feds?” she asked tentatively. His arms tightened around her. “No. I told you not to worry about that anymore. We’ll take care of you.” He settled a hand on her belly, which had only just begun

to take on a slight roundness. Stoking it lightly, he lifted his head to meet her gaze. “You’re our woman now and nobody messes with our woman.” The End