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  “I’ll leave with you.” Addison gathered her things quickly and eyed Victor. “Now don’t take this the wrong way, but Corbin did say that if you needed backup…”

  “Right,” Victor said dryly. “Like the other weres don’t hate me enough. They already think I’m a traitor to my race, all I need is to bring in a fucking four-star vamp to seal the deal.”

  “But if it’s going to be that dangerous—” Addison protested.

  Victor shook his head decisively. “I don’t think so. Look, it’ll be all right, Addison. I just need to go and take my beating like a good little wolf. Then they’ll leave us alone.”

  His words troubled me, but I assumed he meant we would have to bow and scrape and apologize—at least I hoped that was all that would happen. Despite Victor’s warnings, I couldn’t imagine they would actually try to beat either one of us. Would they?

  Before I could ask him, we were out the door with Addison on our heels. She got into Corbin’s Mercedes—a big step up from the crappy little Focus she drove back before they were together—and waved at me. Then she made a quick little phone gesture, holding the thumb and pinky finger of her right hand to her ear—call me when it’s over. No more secrets.

  I nodded a promise to her—you got it, roomie—and she drove away.

  I turned to Victor. “Okay, so where is it? Are we driving somewhere?”

  “Nah, we can walk it. It’s the next field over from mine.” He took my hand. “Come on. And whatever you do, stay close to me. The moon is almost full—it’s a bad night for this. A really fucking bad night.”

  And with that he pulled me into the wild lands surrounding his house.

  Chapter Twenty—Victor

  I didn’t know why they called it Skull Rock. It was just a big, flat boulder in the center of the field the local pack used as home base. It had a few cracks and hollows and lumps but none of it looked very fucking skeletal to me. Still, the local weres seemed plenty proud of it, especially Pack Master Wainright and his daughter LeeAnn who stood on one end of the boulder looking important.

  The rest of the weres were gathered around the boulder—more than I had thought, actually. There were about thirty males in the pack and twice as many females.

  Male weres have a higher mortality rate at birth than females and they also get weeded out by dominance fights and battles over territory. So there are always more females than males in any given pack—which probably explained some of the baleful looks Taylor was getting. The idea of a vamp taking away what they probably thought was a perfectly eligible bachelor male wolf made them livid. Of course, if any of them knew about my curse, they wouldn’t want to touch me with a ten foot pole. But they were ignorant of it and I hoped to keep them that way.

  Speaking of the curse, I was worried about it but not as much as I might have been. After being kicked out of my own pack, I had sought out help on my own and found it in the form of an old Hindu holy man who taught Transcendental Meditation. I had spent most of the afternoon meditating and repeating my mantra—I am calm. I am centered. I am one—with the result that I felt a little more in control of myself.

  I had let the meditation slide for a long time after moving to Tampa, mostly because the curse hadn’t been bothering me, and anyway, who was I going to hurt if I changed? I lived alone. Now that Taylor was in my life, I realized I needed to get back into it in a big way—even if it didn’t look like she was going to be in it for long. And if you think the idea of a big guy like me sitting in lotus position and saying Ommm is hilarious, let me just tell you that the thing I turn into when the curse hits is not very fucking funny. So it’s worth it.

  I’ll be fine, I tried to convince myself as Taylor and I stood hand in hand before the Skull Rock. We both will.

  Except the moon was beaming down overhead, only one night from being full and the brand on my lower back was burning like a hot wire buried just under my skin. It was probably glowing as well—which was why I’d made sure to wear a dark shirt—and I could feel the beast moving around in my subconscious, eager to come out. I am calm. I am centered. I am one, I told myself. I can handle this. I have to handle this.

  Taylor’s hand was cold in mine—I wasn’t sure if it was because she needed to drink or because she was scared. Either way, I couldn’t really help her. I couldn’t feed her here—it would be seen as the worst kind of insult to the pack. The best I could do was squeeze her hand.

  “Gonna be okay, baby,” I murmured from the corner of my mouth. “Just hang in there.”

  “I’m trying.” Her voice was soft and uncertain, and I felt my heart twist in my chest. God, how I wanted to protect her! Even if she didn’t feel for me the way I felt for her, I wanted to put myself between her and danger, to keep her from any harm. I swore to myself again that I wouldn’t allow anything to happen to her, wouldn’t tolerate a single person putting so much as a finger on her. She was mine, and I would die to keep her safe.

  “Wolves, bitches…and vampire,” Pack Master Wainright began, addressing us all from the rock, which was about two feet high and gave him a definite height advantage. “We are gathered here today to redress a wrong that was committed against your Alpha Bitch, our own LeeAnn Wainright.”

  He nodded at his daughter who smiled and made a little curtsy to the assembled weres. I noticed that not many smiled back. Probably, they resented having a young, spoiled brat in such an important position. The pack master leads the pack but the Alpha Bitch sets the tone—I was guessing that the tone LeeAnn was setting wasn’t exactly classy.

  Tonight she was wearing what she probably thought of as a sophisticated gown but the way the shiny silver fabric dipped down low enough to practically show her nipples and rode almost up to her crotch just made her look easy. At least in my humble opinion—I’m a guy. What do I know about fashion?

  I did know though, that Taylor’s simple black dress with my mom’s pearls looked about a thousand times better. She looked so elegant, so refined—I was proud to have her by my side and I didn’t give a damn that she was a vamp instead of a wolf.

  “The person who committed this crime is among us tonight,” the pack master continued, glaring down at Taylor. To her credit, she didn’t cringe or look away—she lifted her chin and glared right back at him. I felt a surge of pride. Her expression said she’d been through a lot and she wasn’t going to take his shit. I squeezed her hand again and she squeezed back.

  “She has agreed to offer compensation for her heinous actions,” Wainright said, still trying to stare Taylor down.

  She opened her mouth to reply but I beat her to it.

  “I am Taylor’s bonded mate,” I said, causing an uneasy murmur to run through the crowd. I caught some of the hostile stares various weres shot at me and shot back a few of my own. Yeah, I’m bonded to a vamp. Fucking get over it. “And as her mate,” I went on, “I will be taking any and all punishments she may have incurred upon myself.”

  “Victor!” Taylor protested under her breath. I shook my head and gave her a warning look. She had to let me do this—I couldn’t bear to have it any other way. Couldn’t stand to see anyone hurt her.

  The pack master frowned. “That isn’t custom and you know it, Victor.”

  “Yeah, but it’s not outside the law, either,” I pointed out. “You want to punish someone, you fucking punish me. Or I swear to God—”

  “Very well.” Wainright held up a hand to stop me. “You may ascend the rock,” he said, gesturing for me to step up.

  “Taylor’s coming up with me,” I said. “But nobody touches her.” I didn’t like the idea of leaving her all alone in the crowd of hostile weres. We stepped up on the long, flat rock and stood beside Wainright and LeeAnn.

  A cool wind blew through the field, ruffling our hair and I felt Taylor shiver. I put an arm around her waist and drew her close, wishing I could feed her and give her some of my warmth.

  “Victor…” she whispered and pressed her cheek to my chest. I dropped a quick kiss o