“You’re referring to what happened with Wrath’s mate.” Torrent nodded. “I heard about that. Tiger wasn’t much of a fan of Ven’s either after he went after Zandy once. They worked it out though. Ven has…issues.”

“I don’t care. He better not go after my female.”

“He’s being kept busy while you’re at Reservation. Humans abandoned a litter of puppies at our gates so Tiger and Valiant decided to give him that assignment. They need around-the-clock care due to their very young age.” Torrent laughed. “Ven’s pleased with the task. No way would he leave them to come after your Gift.”

“Good. He’ll live.”

A phone rang. Torrent grimaced, yanking the cell from a pocket of his pants. “Yeah?” He paused. “Shit. How bad was the attack at the gates? Is anyone hurt?” Torrent listened and snarled as the details were given.

Shadow tensed. Someone had attacked the gates? That wasn’t good.

“Where?” The male’s gaze hardened as he met Shadow’s interested stare. “I’ll warn them.” He closed the phone. “One of our males was shot at the front gate by a sniper but it wasn’t with a bullet. They seemed to have tranquilized him. Security called ten minutes ago to inform us we’ve been put on lockdown but we were in the water. A report just came in from an officer patrolling this side of Reservation. We have intruders. They think Moon and other officers were shot at to pull our resources to that location. Moon was the first one hit so the others took cover.”

Shadow’s senses went on alert instantly. “Where were the intruders detected?”

“A few miles from here. An officer scented at least four different humans in the Wild Zone near one of our walls. Return to your cabin while I meet Security to search for them.” He threw back his head and howled. “Warning to the residents.” He took off in a flash, racing away.

Shadow spun, not bothering to dress or grab his discarded clothing. Beauty’s safety came first. She wasn’t alone but that didn’t matter. She was his to protect.

* * * * *

Beauty smiled. “You don’t have to babysit me, Breeze. I’m okay. I was just really upset yesterday when I called. I appreciate you dropping everything to come.”

“I’m here now.” The Species grinned. “Am I cramping your style? Don’t worry. I’m going to stay at the hotel once toga boy returns so you two can continue what I interrupted. I figure it will be a nice break if I stick around a few days to spend time with the females on assignment here.”

“Why do you call Shadow that?”

“Toga boy? It annoys him. Plus,” she laughed, “I’ll never forget what he looked like wearing that flag. It was kind of hot.”

Jealousy surged inside Beauty. “He’s mine.”

Dark eyebrows rose and Breeze grinned. “Feeling possessive? You just hissed at me.”

“I’m sorry.” Beauty was surprised by her unexpected strong reaction.

“He’s all yours. I can look but won’t touch. All our males are impressive, if I say so myself, and I do. Is he feeling possessive of you as well?” She grinned. “Never mind. He will. It’s who they are.”

“I feel things for him.”

“How is the sex?”

Beauty hesitated but then answered. “Amazing!” She blushed but refused to look away. “It’s so much better than I ever suspected.”

“Score points for toga boy!” Breeze chuckled. “I’m glad.”

“Please don’t call him that. You have to notice how that muscle in his jaw twitches every time you say it.”

“I know. It’s cute, isn’t it?” Breeze stood. “It’s good for males to be teased. It reminds them not to be serious all the time. What do you have to eat around here?”

Beauty followed her into the kitchen. “I really am sorry for asking you to come here yesterday. You have a busy life.”

“It was good to get away.” Breeze waved it off. “No problem. I’m just sorry I got delayed until this morning.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. Creek called me to say you were holding up well after the initial shock and then Justice called an emergency meeting.”

“I hope it wasn’t over me.” The idea that her ordeal had caused their leader to hold a meeting made her feel a little sick.

“No. It wasn’t about you. We got some high-priority incoming threats at Homeland. It happens but these jerks sounded authentic enough to be alarming and the calls were traced to a few blocks away. They said bombs had been planted and a few were set to go off at midnight so the task force brought in their sniffing dogs just to be sure.”

The idea terrified Beauty. “Was anyone hurt?”

“They were full of shit. There weren’t any explosives. We’d have found them. Justice had us on lockdown though. Nobody is going to forget we’ve already had one helicopter shot down. I was allowed to leave once we were sure it was safe.” She pulled lunchmeat from the refrigerator and turned. “So, how amazing was the sex? What was the best part in your mind? Did he take you facing him?”

Beauty opened her mouth but then a loud sound distracted her, making her heart race as something large seemed to land on the porch. A second later the front door was thrown open in the other room and hit the wall.

“Beauty?” The snarl was recognizable.