“You tried that one already,” Bowman snapped. “Didn’t work the last time.”

She tried to wrench away from him. “Yeah, when you practically stripped in front of me.”

“And if you’d been a groupie, you’d have had your hands on my cock so fast it wouldn’t have been funny. You failed that test.”

“I didn’t touch you, because I knew you were mated.” The woman looked past him to Kenzie, now a few feet behind Bowman.

“Bullshit,” he said. “Groupies don’t care. They just want the sex.”

“All right. All right. So I’m not a groupie. Doesn’t matter. I have every right to be walking around these woods, and you have no right to stop me.”

Bowman leaned close to her. The woman tried to look everywhere but at his eyes, but Bowman locked her gaze to his. “I’m leader of this Shiftertown. That means I deal with whatever threat I see to any Shifters in it. You, sweetheart, are a threat.”

“What’s your name?” Kenzie asked her.

Bowman felt the woman tighten. She wanted to glance at Kenzie, but she couldn’t look away from Bowman. “Answer her,” Bowman said.

“Serena.” The woman swallowed. “I’m a reporter, like you said. I’m doing a piece—on Shifter groupies.”

“She is lying,” Cristian said. “I scent it, and so do you.”

Serena’s eyes widened. They were brown eyes, with a touch of green, her hair light brown under the cap. Her face was narrow, her nose sharp, and she wasn’t very old. Maybe early twenties, as humans figured things. Still a cub, by Shifter standards.

“No, really,” Serena said quickly. “I am doing a piece on Shifters. On all aspects of Shifter life.”

“Including following them into the woods to watch one of their religious rituals?” Bowman demanded.

“Absolutely.” Serena grew more confident. “Plus, I saw what you were fighting that night. I drove off, but I came back, and saw . . . What was it?”

“We don’t know,” Kenzie said before Cristian could volunteer any information. Not that he was about to. Cristian disliked humans even more than he disliked Bowman.

Serena sniffled, her nose red and raw from the cold and smoke. “A Shifter? I couldn’t make it out, but it was big. One of the bears?”

Her curiosity grated on Bowman’s nerves. The young woman could be a danger, or she might not be anything more than a college girl trying to write her way into her first job.

“We don’t know,” Kenzie repeated. “Bowman.” Her voice held the gentling note that meant she knew Bowman was barely controlling himself. “Let her go.”

“Only if she walks the hell out of here and doesn’t come back.” Bowman gave the woman a shake. “I don’t want to see you around Shifters anymore, sweetheart. It’s dangerous.”

“For me?” Serena backed a step as Bowman released her. “Or for you?”

Bowman growled at her. “Just go.”

Serena backed a couple more steps then, apparently deciding not to test her luck, turned and ran. She made for one of the cars in the lot, sprang inside it, started it up, and drove off, churning mud in her haste.

Down the hill, the fire burned, and flakes of pristine snow fluttered down to die with a hiss in the flames.

* * *

Kenzie waited with Ryan, catching snowflakes in their gloved hands, for Bowman to finish giving orders so she could take him and their son home.

She was aware, even as she kept Ryan occupied, that all this was rattling her mate. Bowman didn’t like it when he didn’t know what was going on. Uncertainty made him hard and angry.

She heard him barking orders, and the Shifters, knowing he was in a foul mood, simply said, “Yes, sir.” No arguing, no bantering.

Bowman ordered a contingent of Shifters, including the Guardian—Pierce Daniels, a Feline Shifter—to remain and finish the cremation, including burying the ashes. Pierce was also ordered to use his resources as a Guardian to find out everything he could about the human woman named Serena. Cade and Jamie he put on investigating the truck and driver and figuring out where the hell that monster had originated.

“Kenzie,” Bowman said, walking toward her, still in his hard-ass mode. “I want you to find out as much as you can about Gil Ramirez. Who he is, what he is, why he’s so interested in Shifters.”

Gil had already explained his interest, sort of, but Kenzie understood. Something was off about Gil. “What do you mean what he is?” she asked. “He’s human. Isn’t he?”

Bowman pinned her with a white gray stare. “I don’t like the way he smells.”

Kenzie shot him a sly smile. “You can be pretty rank yourself.”

Bowman didn’t smile back, her teasing bringing a hard glitter to his eyes. “You know what I mean. He’s more than what he’s saying. Get him to tell you.”

“How am I supposed to do that?”

Ryan made a huffing noise. “He means flirt with him, Mom. Make him trust you. Giggle at him if you have to. I’ve heard you do it when you’re trying to make Dad jealous.”

Bowman put a hand on Ryan’s head. “That’s enough from you, cub. Don’t sass your mother.”

“I’m not sassing. Everyone knows you and Mom are trying to find out if the other is going to run off first chance to find a mate bond with someone else. The whole Shiftertown knows it. I don’t know why you think it’s such a secret.”

Ryan ducked out from under his father’s hand and ran off toward the arena, where Shifters were organizing the pumps on the water truck to hose down the floor.

“Shit,” Bowman said, watching him go.

“You can be kind of obvious,” Kenzie said. “Trying to see if I’ll care if you pay attention to other women. Like you did with Dr. Pat, and Serena in the roadhouse parking lot.”

Bowman jerked his head around to focus on Kenzie, his face, which had been lined with exhaustion, becoming less tired-looking. “I knew you were out there. I wouldn’t have done that if you hadn’t been.”

Kenzie remembered him sliding down his jeans, the parking lot lights outlining every perfect inch of him. “I know. That’s what I mean.”

Bowman somehow was standing closer. “It wasn’t for her. It was for you.”