“Shayna. Wanna play pin the wings on a demon child?”

Shayna stood slowly and answered in a tone that clearly meant she’d prefer a round of Monopoly. “Okay, Ceel.”

I pitched the demon child against the wall. Hard enough that its little body indented into the paneling. One. Two. Shayna’s daggers found each wing. The demon child hissed, its forked tongue extending past its mouth.

The wolves charged in. Naked. My eyes widened as the full breadth of Aric’s heat licked my body in teasing strokes. I spun away, barely catching a glimpse of the perfectly cut muscles layering his broad chest, shoulders, and powerful arms.

Aric paused behind me, his voice a soft rumble. “Are you okay?”

No. I wasn’t okay. I’d fought a demon child following the discovery of four carcasses and a half-eaten woman. And now there stood Aric in all his hotter-than-hell glory making my female parts tap-dance to “Eye of the Tiger.” “Yeah. Totally.”

Large hands covered my shoulders, turning the temperature in the chilly building up to a sweltering ninety degrees. “What’s wrong?” he murmured.

My body shuddered. Of course he hadn’t believed me. He didn’t have to possess the ability to sniff lies to detect my blatant dishonesty. My heated body, speedy pulse, and all my girl parts waving hello proclaimed loud and clear that my self-assured tigress had torn from the building and left the inner, awkward, socially inept girl in charge. Thanks a ton, old faithful inner beast.

“The girls aren’t comfortable around na**d beings,” Gemini offered. “In their defense, they haven’t associated much with our kind.”

Aric stiffened behind me, although not in a good way. “I’m sorry, Celia. I thought since we were together now . . .” He sighed, the warmth of his body rising. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I’ll use more discretion in the future.”

Oh God. I buried my face in my palm. I’d embarrassed him. And myself. I hated not knowing how to behave, or what to say, to a male, especially now when it mattered so much. Aric caught a pair of sweats thrown to him. I wanted to turn around and watch him dress, to prove that yes, I wanted to see him. All of him. He needed to know—to understand how much I wanted his touch.

But I didn’t say or do anything. Instead I waited until I heard the elastic of his pants slip above his legs and snap onto his waist. My tigress made us strong. And yet she stood no chance against the dorky female who ruled on the other side.

The squeals of the squirming demon child beckoned Aric forward. I followed close behind him and stood on his right side as he and the other wolves snarled at the sinful creature. Aric glanced my way, appearing surprised I’d join him and dared to stand so close. Way to go, Celia. Maybe you should nut-punch him for an encore.

My sisters kept their distance. Koda winked over his shoulder at Shayna. “Good job snagging it, baby.”

“Eh,” remained Shayna’s sole response.

The little bastard continued to skeeve her out. Me, I just wanted it gone. I touched Aric’s arm lightly with my fingertips. He tensed beneath my caress. And it damn well nearly broke my heart. I cleared my throat. “Why hasn’t it returned to hell? I thought you said its time is limited.”

“Because he’s not from hell. He was created on earth through a human vessel. The human side gives him unlimited time on earth.”

I said a silent prayer thanking God Almighty these damned things were rare. “He? How do you know it’s male?”

Koda’s jaw tightened. “They’re all male. That way they can impregnate a female if given the opportunity.”

I exchanged glances with my sisters following another thank-you to the Big Man upstairs. Their slacked jaws and paling skin told me we shared the same collective thought. Eww.

Liam pointed between the demon’s legs. “This one hasn’t reached sexual maturity yet. Look. Only one of his four balls have dropped.”

My sisters’ gags announced that they, like me, had enough of Demon Child 101. “Can you please get rid of it?” I asked.

Aric yanked it off the wall by its throat, ripping the wings clean from its body. The wings almost immediately shriveled to resemble dry leaves. I followed Aric, but not before Koda wrenched free the daggers and handed them to Shayna. She seemed hesitant to hold them. “Don’t worry, baby. Nothing of that thing will remain. I swear to you.”

She shoved them back in her holsters and clicked the snaps closed. “How do you and the others know so much about demon children? Especially since they’re so rare, puppy?”

Koda cupped her pixie face. “Mostly from scriptures confiscated from dark witches throughout the centuries.”

Shayna bit her bottom lip. “So a dark witch is involved?”

Koda paused. “Maybe at first. But if she raised anything strong enough to impregnate a woman with twins, I guarantee she didn’t live long enough to see them born.”

CHAPTER 6

Gemini’s wolf carried the other demon child, clenching his jaws tighter when it stirred. It still lived. I growled at it. Man, I hated these things.

Aric leaned down on one knee when we reached the path. “You may not want to watch this,” he said without glancing up.

I knelt beside him to assure him that I didn’t want to leave him, and that I’d had my fill of being scared. “I’ve seen this much, Aric. I’d rather know what to do. In case more are out there.”

He nodded.

And ripped the demon’s head off like he was cracking a lobster.

The demon child’s innards spilled like tiny maggots. Aric tossed the body onto the hard ground. Almost instantly the parts dissolved in the sun. I cringed. “Do they need sunlight to die?”

“No. Just air once you decapitate them. I did it out here because the added breeze helps.”

As the leftover bits of demon child floated away in the light wind, the stench around us was cut by half. In the silence that followed, the urge to explain myself compelled me to speak. “I didn’t know how to kill it. Sorry I wasn’t more helpful.”

Aric shot me a halfhearted smile. “You didn’t die. That’s good enough for me. But the general rule of thumb is, when in doubt, destroy the brain or heart.” He brushed his hands on his black sweats. “If you can’t, rip off the wings to render it flightless until you’re able.”

His voice sounded more didactic than warm, lacking the usual affection I’d grown to adore and crave. So I kept discussing the demon child because I didn’t know what else to say. And if we stopped talking, I feared we’d never speak again. “He was fast. It took us a while to catch him.”

Aric stood when I did. “I suppose they’re born fast to increase their chances of survival.”

“Have any ever survived?”

“Not that we’ve heard.” He wiped his large hands against each other. “Yet anyway.” The demon child screeched like a mini-pterodactyl and wriggled inside Gemini’s mouth like a mound of snakes. “Do you want to kill it?” Aric asked him.

The wolf turned his massive four-hundred-plus-pound body to where Taran stood with her arms crossed. Gemini, the human half, had his arm draped around her. She curled against him when she saw the little booger start to flap its bat wings. “I’d better do it,” Koda said, jogging up to us.

The wolf tossed the creature in the air and rushed back to merge with Gemini. Koda yanked it out of the sky when it attempted to flee, tore it in half like a French roll, dropped it on the ground, and walked back to Shayna as if he hadn’t just ripped evil in two. It took a lot to ruffle a werewolf’s feathers. A Wird sister’s feathers? Not so much. Aric should have done the honors. Shayna’s skin mimicked the color of my butt.

Aric’s eyes widened as the air cleared and his gaze shot down to my foot. “You’re bleeding,” he growled.

Blood soaked through my tattered running shoe, staining the white laces crimson. My survival instincts naturally forced me to ignore pain. Though that didn’t mean my injury didn’t throb, especially when the white leather chafed against the bite marks. I shrugged. “Yeah. The little evil bastard bit me when—”

Aric yanked me in his arms and growled some more. “Emme. Celia’s hurt!”

My tigress circled my arms around his neck, allowing me to cuddle and draw in the scent of water crashing over stone. “It’s no big deal, Aric. I’m fine. I just need some antiseptic.”

Aric sat on the edge of the porch, draping me across his lap. His strong chiseled arms curled around me. My cheek fell against his bare chest and our bodies melded and relaxed into a state of tranquility. The breeze lifted strands of my long hair, teasing his smooth skin and carrying the scent of budding tulips to my nose. His wolf murmured something softly. My tigress responded with a gentle purr. It was all so beautiful, sensual even. Until Koda pulled my sneaker and sock off in one hard tug.

Gasps, muffled shrieks, and rumbling chests dragged me back into reality and kicked me in the face. The demon child’s serrated fangs had sliced my instep and peeled the thin layer of skin away from the bones. Veins spluttered like tiny hoses, releasing my body’s precious fluid in squirts. Blood dribbled between my toes and discolored my nails.

Okay. Maybe I needed more than a little Neosporin.

The 3-D view clenched my stomach like an iron vise. Bile bubbled against my throat, and the stinging pain I’d shoved back returned with a nauseating vengeance. I no longer had a foot; I had a mangled piece of meat with digits at the end. I curled farther into Aric, focusing on his strong, clean scent and not my raw flesh. “Son of a bitch,” Taran muttered. Soft cotton enclosed my foot. “I’ll hold pressure. Emme, start healing.”

Emme’s soft healing light brightened Aric’s golden skin. My eyes centered on his dark pink nipple, stiff from the soft wind, I supposed. He growled again. Okay, maybe just tense from the anger surging through his well-muscled physique. Concern for him beat back the preoccupation with my injury until it no longer mattered. After all, Emme’s gift would mend me. But in no way did it spare Aric from worry. “Shhh,” I whispered in his ear. “I’m okay, wolf. I swear it.”

And I was. Against Aric’s body, I definitely was. His presence allowed me to abandon the disturbing images of the day and erased the thoughts of my skinned flesh and oozing vessels.

Aric stroked his stubble cheek against mine. “I shouldn’t have left you.”

My lips met his briefly as my fingertips slid lightly against his chest, itching with the need to play with that perfect nipple. I withdrew, wondering if the other was just as delightful. Yup. Absolutely. My tigress rolled her eyes, reminding me I could have witnessed more than a little areola action if only my inner nerd hadn’t marched forward waving her geek banner with all the grace of a two-year-old on roller skates.

Aric’s honey-colored eyes searched mine. They always spoke of power and strength. This time they whispered with more intensity, and a hell of a lot more fire. “I won’t leave you again,” he promised.

My arms fastened around him, returning his embrace. “Thank you . . . for caring about what happens to me.”

My words carried a great deal of emotion. Most beings demonstrated little to no sympathy for me. Then I’d met Aric. Initially I presumed his wolfish impulses caused him to assume a protective role. Altercations with other wolves stomped that theory to bits. Wolves in general didn’t feel compelled to protect—Aric did. Despite not belonging to his pack, he cared about me. For some bizarre reason, he cared more than it seemed possible.

Taran’s hard wipes to my foot forced me to acknowledge that Emme had completed her healing. Aric lifted me, his pace quick as he returned to the path. My head whirled around to my family as we disappeared around the bend. “Where are we going?”

“I need to get you home. My wolves will keep your sisters safe.”

I wiggled my foot. Wine-colored splotches painted my smooth pink skin. “But I’m fine now. We need to tend to the bodies.”

“No. You don’t. The weres we have in the local homicide unit have been called. They’re on their way and will take care of matters inside the mill.”

The matters he spoke of no doubt involved identifying the victims and notifying their families. I nibbled on my bottom lip. “Do you think they’re local?”

The wind picked up, and so did the roar of the river. “Hard to tell with the number of tourists Tahoe gets.”

“I guess.” I wiggled against him so he’d put me down. He didn’t. “You realize I can walk.”

“You’re not wearing shoes.”

“Aric—”

A throaty, frustrated growl found its way out of Aric and heated his face. “Celia, my wolf failed to keep you safe. Cut him some slack and allow us to care for you now.”

My narrowed eyes slowly softened as I absorbed the extent of Aric’s culpability. My tigress took protecting my sisters seriously. When she failed, guilt dug hard enough to rupture my spleen. As a beast, I understood. As a female, I also recognized Aric’s need to be chivalrous. And yet had any other male carried me then, I’d have shifted him into the ground, kicked him in the head, and stomped back to the car. But because it was Aric, I relaxed against him, allowing both him and his beast to tend to me. I kissed the edge of his jaw. “All right. But just this one time, wolf.”

Aric huddled me closer. “I was convinced the danger lurked outside the mill. And I believed the sour stench was related to the woman’s violent death, not the presence of demons. I wanted to protect you by keeping you away from the fight and thought Gem’s wolf would be enough to keep you safe.”