“Damn it, Cassidy, Shifters can’t touch me, no matter what kind of dominance fights you think they’ll start. They’ll be arrested if they even try. I could haul off Shane for what he’s done, and he’d be locked up forever, if they didn’t terminate him.”

“Instinct doesn’t always listen to reason, Diego. If Eric lets me do this, then he’s essentially saying he backs me up. Shifters will know to leave you alone.”

“Eric’s word is nothing. He can’t kill you. He’d be executed—fast. He has to know that, and the Shifters do too.”

Cassidy kept shaking her head, knowing Diego couldn’t understand. “Eric is my pride leader and my clan leader. His word is law to me.”

“No, it isn’t. Even my word isn’t law—I just enforce what’s on the books. If Eric touches you, he’ll be arrested and executed before he knows what hit him. They’d make a special example of him, since he’s your Shiftertown leader.”

“That doesn’t matter. Eric will honor the pledge.” Cassidy stepped closer to Diego and put her hand on his shoulder. She caressed, loving the hard muscle beneath his coat. “You were willing to vouch for me when your Shifter Division wanted to lock me up and not let me out. It’s only fitting that I return the favor.”

Diego lifted the hand she’d cut to his lips. “Not the same thing, Cass.”

“Isn’t it? What would have happened if I’d been arrested again? To you, I mean.”

Diego shrugged. “Mark in my file. Disciplinary action, maybe. Suspension, depending on what it was you did. But Captain Max wouldn’t shoot me for it.”

“You did it because you decided to trust me.”

Diego leaned to her, smelling good despite his brush with Fae—something she and Eric still needed to figure out. “And then you ran off again.”

“I did what I needed to do, then I was finished. You’d never have known I’d gone if you hadn’t popped up that evening. I wouldn’t have betrayed you. And I believe you won’t betray me.”

“That’s a lot of faith.”

“I know.” Cassidy put her other hand behind his neck. “Because of you, I can dance tonight in the club, celebrate with my family.”

She wanted to touch him. The need to be near this man was driving her insane. Diego stirred every protective instinct she had and every mating instinct too. Maybe the crazy protective urge was because of Donovan. She hadn’t been able to protect her mate, when she should have. She refused to let Diego die on her watch as well.

Cassidy also wanted the Fae scent off him. Other Shifters here would worry about it, even though Eric would warn them off confronting Diego. She believed Diego when he said he hadn’t encountered any Fae, to his knowledge. His confusion had been genuine.

She lifted herself up on tiptoe and spoke into his ear. “Dance with me.”

Diego’s eyes went soft. He lifted her hand to his lips again and led her to the dance floor.

The music was wild and rocking. Groupies were dancing with Shifters, Lindsay twirling herself around Xav. Xavier was a good dancer, body relaxing as he let himself enjoy it.

Diego tugged Cassidy toward a more deserted corner of the floor. She turned to him, put one arm around his waist, and rested her unhurt hand on his shoulder.

There was a slow beat in the music underneath the fast one, and Cassidy started to sway to it. Diego caught on and stepped into the dance with her.

He knew how to dance, this man, knew how to move his body with controlled power. He guided Cassidy in slow circles around the rapidly gyrating couples in the darkness. Those around them danced to the rapid beat; Diego and Cassidy swayed together in their own rhythm.

Cassidy touched Diego’s face, his jaw rough with dark whiskers. She came against him, resting her head against his cheek, letting her own scent mark him and erase the stink of Faerie from his skin.

Around and around they stepped, in slow, sensual rhythm. Diego’s hands rested protectively on her hips. Cassidy lifted her head, and Diego looked down at her with sin-dark eyes. She kissed him.

Diego’s hot, firm lips moved under hers, but he wouldn’t open to her. He broke the kiss when she tried again.

“Not here,” he said.

He stirred the challenge in her. Cassidy wrapped both arms around his neck. “Where then?”

“How about if I drive you home? You can explain more to me about these Fae on the way.”

Cassidy smiled up into his face. “Let’s finish the dance, first.”

“Happy to, mi ja.”

Cassidy put her arms all the way around him, feeling his body move in liquid grace. Across the dance floor, Lindsay grinned and gave Cassidy a thumbs-up behind Xav’s back. Cassidy smiled at her and rested her head on Diego’s shoulder.

Eric watched Cassidy and Diego for a time, happy that his sister had found someone to draw her out of her grief, and at the same time worried as hell. Diego was human, which brought with it a bucketful of issues. Shane trying to challenge him was the least of it.

Cassidy’s pledge meant that the rest of the Shifters would leave Diego and Cassidy alone for now, which meant Eric could turn his attention to the other person in the club who was distracting him tonight.

A young woman sat by herself in the shadows at the back of the club. She’d come in with friends, but they’d soon deserted her to dance. She’d waved her friends off, telling them to enjoy themselves, while she remained alone at their table, sipping a drink.

She had dark hair and wore a slim blue dress, nothing too sexy—a woman determined not to draw attention to herself. Wasn’t working. She had thick dark hair that a male would enjoy under his hands, a fine-boned face, strong limbs, and a sexy shape her dress couldn’t hide. Her slender neck was bare of any Collar—real or Shifter-groupie fake.

She’d made sure not to get too near any Shifters; Eric had watched her making sure. Even now, she pretended not to see Eric leaving Shane to walk toward her, as though Eric would ignore her if she ignored him.

But what she was screamed itself at Eric. Eric needed to talk to her before any other Shifter noticed her.

She didn’t look up at him, didn’t react at all until Eric dropped into the chair next to her. “Who are you?” he asked.

She pretended to ignore him as she picked up her drink. Her eyes were deep blue, Scottish blue, like a loch in the summertime. She was sensual, beautiful, and very out of place. What this flower of the Highlands was doing in a seedy bar in the back streets of Las Vegas, Eric had no idea. But he would find out.