The Catholic schoolgirls were here, too. Awesome. “Oh. Okay, Misha. Now I feel better.” I stomped behind the row of gray lockers and slammed my door open. My hands yanked on my clothes as if Mother Teresa’s soul depended on it. The moment all the important girl parts were covered, I stormed around to the other side and jabbed my finger into his chest. “Do not let those two munch on my coworkers. And I’m not your love!”

“No, not currently.” Much to my annoyance, he continued to smile and took a seat on the wooden bench. His long legs bent at an angle as he leaned forward to rest his forearms against his knees. Misha’s light blue silk shirt gave his gray eyes an added glint, or maybe his amusement. Whatever it was, it bugged the hell out of me. “I see by those marks between your br**sts the mutt continues to show you affection. Now, had you been in my company, the only evidence of our time together would be a smile that would never fade from your face.”

I adjusted my top and narrowed my eyes. Emme must’ve missed a few spots. “How long were you watching me?”

“I arrived somewhere between the cucumber body wash and the juniper and olive oil conditioner.”

My hands dropped to my sides. “I don’t believe you. And for the love of all things holy, wipe that smirk off your face.”

He didn’t. In fact, it widened. “You seem angry with me. Why is that?”

“I’m not angry with you, Misha. I’m pissed at you! Aric would freak if he knew you just saw me na**d.”

“Why? After all, I have seen you without clothing before.” He chuckled. “Or did you fail to inform him?”

I picked up my wet towel off the floor and tossed it into the hamper next to him. “I’ll have you know I tell Aric everything.” Excluding the part where his archenemy had held me against him na**d. “Now tell me what you’re doing here.”

“My master Uri is visiting my residence. I came to invite you to join us for dinner.”

“Am I on the menu?”

Misha considered me quite the comedian. His shoulders shook when he laughed. “No. I assure you, you are not.”

I paused. Something didn’t seem right. “You could have called me or texted me. There was no reason to stop by. Especially here.”

Misha’s wicked smile faded. The fingers of his right hand drummed against his knee as he regarded me. “I know,” he answered quietly.

I gestured around the room. “Then why all this, Misha?”

His stare continued to pierce through me. “I supposed I desired to spend time with you.”

My mouth parted with surprise. Not just because of what Misha said, but how he said it. The ever-present arrogance in his voice had vanished as well as his flirtatious demeanor. I couldn’t sniff a lie. But I knew he meant what he said. I leaned against the wall of lockers and crossed my arms. “Misha, I can’t meet your master. And I can’t have dinner with you. Aric and I are together now. You have to respect that.”

“You dismiss me so easy. Would you have done so if the mongrel failed to hold your interest?”

“Don’t call him that.”

Misha’s stood. His expensive and handmade shoes barely made a sound against the weathered linoleum floor as he marched toward me. He stopped, mere inches from my chest. “You didn’t answer my question.”

I raked my fingers through my wet hair. “And I won’t. It’s a moot point, Misha. Aric means everything to me. I can’t picture life without him.”

My breath caught when Misha yanked me to him, pulling me tight. The tip of a fang scraped my jugular, and his seductive voice whispered against my screaming skin, “Very well, Celia. But remember this, when you tire of playing with beasts and desire the touch of a real man, you know where to find me.”

And just like that he was gone.

CHAPTER 18

“What’s wrong, Ceel? Did you have a bad day?”

My pulse continued to race long after Misha disappeared. I’d been stupid to think my guardian angel with fangs and I could just be buds. Without thinking, I rubbed my neck where his fang had grazed. Damn. Misha wanted me. Damn.

Most women would fall back squirming with glee if two very hot and very Alpha males desired them. Maybe that remained another virtue that made me “weird.” I didn’t welcome Misha’s touch. In fact, I rather resented it, just as I’d expect Aric to feel if some female tried to seduce him. The tires squeaked as I veered onto the highway. “I just need to get home.”

Shayna turned to look at me, and Taran and Emme abruptly stopped talking in the back. I hadn’t meant to reveal how upset I was, but my tone gave me away. Shayna rubbed my shoulder. “What happened, Celia?”

“I just didn’t have a good day” was the only answer I could manage.

I lowered the window as Tahoe came into view. The sun had begun to set in the horizon, painting the swirling clouds peach, orange, and red while the encroaching night transformed the clear water into a startling midnight blue. Maybe Tahoe knew I needed her tonight. Deep gulps of air soothed and refreshed me with each intake, and her mysticism poured on my body like cream, cooling my frustration, anger, and worry. But I still needed more. I needed Aric’s arms around me. And I needed him to erase the insecurities trigged from my interaction with Miguel.

“Do you want to talk about it, sweetie?” Emme asked quietly from the back.

I took another deep breath. “I just need things to be better.” No demons. No chastising Elders. No dead bodies. No master vampires in search of a nibble. Was that too much to ask? I thought of where life had taken me thus far. Yeah. Probably.

I pulled into our neighborhood. My spirit leapt from my chest and did a cartwheel when I spotted Koda’s Yukon parked behind Aric’s Escalade.

Shayna threw her fists in the air. “Woo-hoo. Puppy’s home!”

I swerved into the garage. I’d barely set the car in park before Shayna flung open the door and raced up the backstairs. Taran followed behind her, trying not to appear too eager, but her steps were almost as quick. “Go on, Emme.” Allowing her ahead of me seemed more polite than knocking the lot of them down and barreling into the house. What can I say? Class is my middle name.

Emme stopped at the top of the landing, her smile faded as she took in what waited inside. “Paul’s dead,” Koda said from the kitchen. My hand gripped the wooden railing. Paul. Leader of the raccoon gaze was . . .

Oh my God.

Emme passed through the doorway and into the laundry room slowly. I somehow followed, my feet growing heavier with each movement. We entered the kitchen. Koda, Gemini, and Liam stood with their backs against our polished black and tan granite counter. Silence fell with the weight of an anvil around them. I didn’t think any of the wolves were particularly close to Paul. But they’d known him, probably for years. And now he was gone.

Koda’s body curled against Shayna’s. The way he held her told me more than a friend’s death had occurred. I barely spit the words out. “Where’s Aric?”

Gemini’s strong arms fastened around Taran’s back, except instead of directing his attention on her, he focused on me. “He’s in your room.”

His quiet, troubled tone returned the apprehension Tahoe had lifted from my shoulders. “Is he all right?”

“He’ll want you with him,” was Gemini’s only response.

Aric’s muffled voice boomed from the second floor. “I don’t know how the hell it happened. Or why he and Talia were alone—” He snarled with frustration. “We’d been tracking in groups of five minimum.”

I hurried up the thickly carpet steps.

“Goddamn it, this is not my fault! Paul led his raccoon gaze as he saw fit—I know the kid’s dead. The beta. Paul’s beta is reaching out to the student’s family.”

I opened the door, my hand shaking as I turned the handle. Aric glanced up at me. “Just be sure they get a proper burial. I’ll take care of the rest.” He disconnected and tossed his cell phone on the bed.

I shut the door behind me. Aric waited like a knight behind a fortress of rancor and vengeance. My psyche training told me to give him space, that his ire needed to peak before it could begin its descent and allow the comfort of my presence and touch. Except Aric wasn’t some volatile stranger, seconds from attacking. He was my love. And he needed me.

I rushed into arms that gripped me as if the fate of the world depended on our union. My voice shook with grief. Not just for Paul, but for my lover’s pain and the implications the weres’ deaths had brought. “Oh God, Aric. I’m so sorry. How are you holding up?”

“I’ve been better. This demon shit is out of hand. We’re getting nowhere fast, and now we’re losing our own.”

My hands slipped from his neck to his shoulders. “I want to help. I can’t stand that you’re out there fighting this thing without me.”

Aric didn’t hesitate, his response firm and unyielding. “Celia, no. It’s bad enough you got hurt the first time. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

My head fell against his chest. “I always worry about you, wolf.” I held him, wanting so much to erase the day and bring him the serenity my beast insisted would only be obtained through the blood of his enemies. “What happened to Paul?”

Aric rubbed his face against mine. “He picked up a fresh scent and located a body floating in Lower Echo Lake. When he called, we were at the northern end of Fallen Leaf uncovering four corpses. Paul was supposed to wait for us. He didn’t. His tracks indicate he chased something westward.” Aric paused. “Or something lured him there.”

Death’s cold hands inched their way up my spine and sliced like slivers across my shoulder blades. It took a lot to kill a were, especially a pureblood like Paul. Aric clutched me tighter, sensing my alarm. Jesus, what were they hunting?

“We were about six miles away and arrived less than ten minutes later.” Aric swore. “We didn’t even have to track them. A trail of blood led us to their bodies. The student accompanying him and Paul’s current girlfriend, Talia, had their hearts ripped from their chests. Talia was one of our toughest pure females, and the student solid beyond his years. Neither appeared to have put up much of a fight. And Paul? Shit. Whatever got him ripped him to pieces. It took us an hour to locate his fractured skull.”

My parents had been murdered. Shot through the chest with sawed-off shotguns by gang members seeking to rob our tiny apartment. I remembered being both horror-struck and mesmerized by the holes where their hearts had beat. And how I tried to shield my sisters from the gruesome chunks of bone and the blood saturating the pullout couch where they’d slept. Evil had taken my parents. Just like it had claimed Paul and his group. I wished I could have spared Aric from finding them. But all I could do was tighten my embrace. “I’m so sorry, Aric,” I repeated once more.

“I am, too, baby.”

The sun finished setting across the length of our suite, the last bits of light catching the corner of the dresser’s mirror and reflecting until the room darkened with nighttime. “What can I do to help?”

Aric’s stubbled jaw gently rubbed against my neck. “This.” His hands slipped beneath my scrub top to rest against the deep curve of my lower back. “You help by being with me.”

“It doesn’t seem like enough.” A thought occurred to me. “I can organize the funeral arrangements if you’d like. It may help ease the burden of those mourning Paul.”

Aric’s chest hardened against the side of my face. “Celia, it’s best the weres handle everything.”

“Okay. I understand.” I sighed. “Do you know when the funeral is? I have to work on Thursday, but I can ask for the day off.”

The sudden strain that beat a space between us halted my words. Aric’s hands slid delicately from my back to my hips. And though his touch remained soft, it couldn’t suppress the tension firing his stare. “The funeral will be held at the Den’s chapel.” He paused. “Only weres and their mates are permitted on the premises.” He pulled me against him when my body unexpectedly slipped from his hold. “Sweetness, don’t. I swear I wouldn’t attend a Den function without you under different circumstances.”

I didn’t know Paul well. So Aric’s suggestion the weres handle the funeral hadn’t affected me. As far as the service went, I’d assumed . . . My lid shuts tight, trying to prevent my tears from leaking out. Aric said only mates were permitted on Den grounds. Mates. His clarification and my earlier conversation with Miguel told me the thing I’d avoided coming to terms with.

I wasn’t Aric’s mate. No matter how much I wanted to be.

Pain made me cringe from his gentle strokes. My wolf wouldn’t let me go. His lips found mine with desperation. “Don’t,” he said between breaths. “Don’t leave me.”

Aric lifted me and carried me to our bed. His heat soldered us together like iron to steel while one of his hands loosened the tie on my pants, giving him ample room to explore. Maybe he needed to feel close to me, to pretend our inevitable end didn’t linger in the horizon. And maybe I needed the same. So I didn’t leave, and I didn’t stop him. I allowed the warmth between us to soar, and fool our aching hearts.

Aric yanked my shirt over my head. His tongue slid from behind my ear to my neck. And then he froze.

He lifted himself from me, anger replacing the scorching passion linking our bodies. “Were you with him?”

I pushed up on my elbows, panting softly. “What?” Understanding raced to the forefront of my mind before the word completely left my mouth. Aric had scented traces of Misha. The weight of his accusation pushed like a palm against my chest. I’d showered again after Misha had left. But it hadn’t been enough. Aric’s intakes of breath multiplied. And not from passion.