“Angelina don’t ignore…”

“Bye, Sara. Call me when Miki gets there.” She ended the connection. Her friend could be quite the mother wolf when her friends were threatened.

She remotely unlocked her door and stopped, the hackles on her neck snapping to full attention, Angie spun on her heel and came face-to-face with a woman.

Well…at least she thought it was a woman. A woman she’d seen once or twice the past week at the diner, just outside town. Angie didn’t like the woman staring at her then. And she sure as fuck didn’t like it now.

Whatever. All Angie needed to know was that she wasn’t Pack. Too small and boringly dressed to be Pride. And definitely not completely human.

Sometimes Angie wished she could be more like Miki with her fast-moving mind. She could analyze anything in seconds and come up with a satisfying solution. Or like Sara. With her calm, controlled demeanor—as long as no tequila was involved. Angie wasn’t like either of her two best friends, and specialists had actually analyzed her fight or flight response. Because she never did what everyone else did…ever.

Angie slammed her handbag, heavy with her Glock, against the head of the woman across from her. Squealing in surprise, the female stumbled. They never saw Angie coming. Always they’re mistake. And to prove that point, Angie hit her again. The buckle on the side of her bag cut a gash right across the woman’s face. Blood splashed across her arm and ruined her bag.

The female hit the ground, and Angie slammed her foot against the woman’s windpipe, pushing down.

Gasping, the female fought to get Angie’s foot off, but Angie gritted her teeth and pushed harder.

Something, a movement from the corner of her eye or a sound distracted her from the prey under her feet. She spared a glance to the left of her. The two men, the ones from her shop, were moving toward her.

At first, she wondered if they were coming to rescue her or the woman whose windpipe she’d been happily crushing.

She heard another sound and turned to see animals, not lions but not quite dogs either, bursting full-throttle from the woods behind her store’s parking lot.

Angie reached into her bag for her Glock as she turned to warn off the men. But limbs shifted, fur grew, fangs appeared. Then they were launching themselves at her.

And her last thought before all went black…There are tigers?

***

Nikolai Vorislav, rolled onto his back, letting the morning sun warm his belly as he quietly waited in a soft patch of tall grass. Waited until his breakfast walked up to one of the many lakes he had on his property. And, as always, breakfast did come walking up. Slowly, he rolled over, watching to see if it saw him. It hadn’t. Instead it drank from the lake, completely oblivious to his presence.

He waited a moment more. Then he silently charged. The deer made a run for it, but he had his pawson its hindquarters and under him before it got more than ten feet away. Nik gripped its neck and bit down until it stopped thrashing. With a happy sigh, he settled down to a nice hot meal.

When done, he went for a swim in his lake, letting the water go through his coat, washing all the blood away. He looked up at the sun. It was getting late. He needed to get on a conference call although he’d rather stay outside for the rest of the day playing. But his father would have his head.

As it was, he barely tolerated the old bastard these days. He loved him, but he didn’t understand him. And he really didn’t want to. Although he needed to leave his father be. Especially at the moment, with him slowly transferring the business over to him. Besides, his momma would have his hide if he started any crap now. So, resigning himself to a Sunday trapped on a trans-Atlantic call, he headed back to his house.

He padded quietly through his backyard, glancing at his pool. He fought his desire to dive in headfirst and stay there for the next four hours. Instead, he trotted over to the patio, stopping before he moved into his house. He sniffed the air and groaned. His brothers were around somewhere. Why? He’d left them in Texas with explicit instructions not to come back until they had a signed property deal from that old wolf Marrec so they could build that stupid amusement park his father had his heart set on. He should have known better. Trying to get a wolf to sell its territory was not easy, if not damn-near impossible. But this deal was Alek’s baby. He brought the property to his daddy’s attention. How he knew about wolf property Nik could only guess.

Nik didn’t want to walk through the back doors into his kitchen. He knew he’d probably find them there, eating his food and finishing off his sweet tea. No. Not a good idea to deal with those two without his morning coffee…It would be in everyone’s best interest if he made them wait a bit. So he went around to the side of the house, took a step back, and leaped up to the second-floor balcony. He cleared the railing with ease, silently landing on the marble floor. He nudged the glass door open with his muzzle and stepped into the hallway.

He needed a shower and coffee before his call. Man, did he need coffee.

So focused, in fact, on getting his coffee, it took Nik a good thirty seconds to catch that strange scent in his house. He slowed down, but kept walking trying to locate its owner. Maybe his sisters brought over one of their friends. Whoever she was, he just had to meet her. Anybody smelling that damn good was a must-meet, if not a must-have-in-your-bed. And the scent so familiar, it must have been someone he’d met. So intense he started purring. Wow, he hadn’t done that in awhile. It felt good.

He walked past one of the unused guest rooms and stopped in his tracks, his tail twitching expectantly. He took several steps back and turned his head.