“What does it feel like?”

Kenzie swallowed, and her eyes stung. “I don’t know. Unfortunately.”

“I heard you don’t have one with Bowman.” Gil leaned forward and touched her knee, a gesture not of sexual need, but of sympathy. Friendship. “I know it hurts you, and I understand why. I’m asking you this for an important reason.”

Kenzie’s fingers moved restlessly, her throat hurting. “I hear that it’s a warmth in the chest, in the heart. There’s an answering warmth in the mate. That’s how it starts, but then you know. You know with your whole being.”

“A warmth, here?” Gil pressed his closed fist to his heart. “You sure?”

“As sure as I can be without feeling it myself.” Kenzie’s gaze went to Gil’s hand, her attention sharpening. “Why?”

“Because I think I’m feeling it.” Gil dug his fist into his sweatshirt. “It’s there, and it won’t go away.”

Kenzie rose abruptly. What was it about Gil that had her jumping up and down like a jack-in-the-box? “Maybe you have heartburn. You should go see a doctor.”

Gil was up beside her. “I don’t, and you know it. Are you sure, Kenz, that you aren’t feeling it too?”

He curled his other fist and pressed it to her chest, right between her breasts. Again, the touch wasn’t erotic or suggestive, but a gentle press, a friend helping a friend.

The tingling in Kenzie’s heart she’d been trying to ignore blossomed into heat. Not sharp heat, but an agreeable warmth that tried to loosen and relax her.

“No.” She jerked back in panic, breaking the contact. The tingling receded but didn’t go away. “You’re a shaman, you said. You’re tricking me.”

Gil stepped close to her, and Kenzie found herself looking into the eyes of a very strong man, an alpha in his own right. He hid his power behind smiles and a self-deprecating manner, but it was there.

“It’s not a trick,” Gil said. “It’s real. Look inside yourself, Kenzie. You’ll see it’s true.”

“No!” Kenzie backed another step, starting to shake. “I don’t have a mate bond with you. I can’t have. I can’t.”

Gil only stood there. The light in the living room was suddenly garish, hurting her eyes. Another being seemed to transpose itself with Gil, looking like him but stained with harsh magic she didn’t understand.

“What are you?” Kenzie shouted. “You’re one of the fucking Fae, I knew it!”

Gil’s face darkened. “I told you I wasn’t. Don’t insult me. Call me any name you want, but for the Goddess’s sake, not Fae.”

Kenzie pointed a rigid finger at the front door. “Get out of my house!”

“You’ve been in denial since the day I met you, Kenzie. Open your eyes and look around.” Gil came to her, and Kenzie couldn’t move. He smelled of the woods and the night, and a faint tang of magic. “I know it’s a lot to take in.” He touched her chest again, and Kenzie’s breath caught. She felt the heat, and she couldn’t pull away. “Think about it awhile. I’ll be around when you want to talk.”

Kenzie’s throat closed up. “Please, go away.”

“I’m going, don’t worry.” Gil leaned forward and gave her a light kiss on the cheek. The little smile he sent her broke her heart.

He left then, disappearing out the door so quickly she barely saw him go. Kenzie was left alone with two mostly filled bottles of beer, a wrinkled manila envelope, and confused thoughts whirling through her brain.

She couldn’t have formed the mate bond with Gil. She couldn’t have. She barely knew him. He wasn’t Shifter.

Cold reason made her discard the arguments as quickly as they came. Shifters could form the mate bond the instant they met their true mate. They could form it with humans and half humans—hell, the Guardian of the Austin Shiftertown had mate bonded with a Shifter who was half Fae.

Kenzie loved Bowman. He was her mate. It would kill her to leave him. It would kill Ryan.

No. She couldn’t. It couldn’t happen. Not like this.

Gil had said she’d been in denial since she’d met him, and maybe she had. Kenzie had felt something when she’d sat in Gil’s car, a feeling that she could talk to him as though they were old friends, even though she’d never seen him before in her life.

Of course Kenzie denied the mate bond with him. It was all wrong.

Her thoughts went to Bowman, smiling at her in the darkness. We’re good together, you and me.

The memory of his rumbling voice, the warm weight of him as he lay on her in the woods, broke her. Kenzie collapsed to the sofa, all strength leaving her, and she cried as she’d never cried in her life.

* * *

Cristian wandered Shiftertown, both irritated and amused at the carryings-on of the Shifters around him. A person would think Shifters never had sex except on mating ceremony nights, but this was not the case. Shifters used any excuse to do the deed.

Cristian was no celibate, but he chose his partners carefully. He was pack and clan leader, and female Shifters were always looking for a high-ranking male to give them cubs. Cristian was older than many of the Shifters in this town, but it didn’t matter. To a mate-seeking female, he was a walking target.

But since his mate had gone, so long ago now, taking half his heart with him, Cristian had kept his relationships physical, nothing more. The animal in him needed to relieve basic needs, but he never let things go beyond that.

His beloved Melita had been his life. They’d had forty years together before she’d been shot by a human hunter, mistaken for one of the wolves that had been attacking livestock on nearby farms. She’d died in his arms, and Cristian had kissed her lips before the Guardian had sent her to dust.

Cristian had taken his vengeance on the humans who’d killed her, then disappeared into the wilds for a long time to grieve. Kenzie had found him out there and persuaded him to come home.

She’d been a cub, orphaned, alone, a leggy little wolf with rumpled hair. Adorable. Cristian had followed her back and tried to continue his life.

Now Kenzie was in pain, and he knew it. Bowman was a good leader—Cristian hated to admit it—but Kenzie hurt whenever she looked at the asshole. Cristian would have to do something about that.

And about all the crap that was going on around here. If Bowman didn’t get it done, and fast, Cristian would do it for him.