Aric stayed silent for several breaths. “No. It just made me miss you more.”

I would have thrown my arms around him if it hadn’t been for his ominous tone. It reinforced that our connection might be a bad thing. He didn’t say anything else until he parked in front of my house and twisted his body to face mine. I unbuckled my seat belt and crossed my legs, resting the side of my head against the seat. To anyone watching, I appeared calm, possibly even bored, my feline side feigning a state of complete relaxation. But Aric’s beast scented my fear, sensed my tightening muscles, heard my racing heart. For the first time in years, I was close to having someone special. And yet he still seemed so far away.

Aric’s palm curved against my cheek, and his thumb stroked me gently. The light trickling through the sunroof shimmered in those baby browns. I wanted to touch him, but my natural defenses kicked in, and so did my shyness. So I waited and watched, mesmerized by his rugged good looks and the way his thumb rhythmically passed against my skin.

“Celia, I can’t ignore my duties as a pureblood,” he said softly. “But I also can’t dismiss what’s happening between us. I’d like us to try to have something, providing you want to as well.”

Aric’s hand trailed against my brown locks, lightened with the gold tones of my tigress. I inched away, worry for him preventing me from accepting his caress. “What about your Elders?”

“If I can catch who murdered the men, it would prove to them I haven’t abandoned the responsibilities to my pack.”

“Then let me help you. I could—”

That oh-so-familiar “you can’t help because you can’t heal” expression played across Aric’s features like a violin, completely cutting me off. “Celia, did you miss the part where I explained that these creatures rape women and are so atrocious the world’s power banishes them back to hell within five goddamn minutes?”

I tapped my foot impatiently against the car matt. “Did you, Mr. Leader of Wolves, miss the exploding body in my house? Aric, evil not only knocked on my door, it brought leftovers and displayed them across my threshold like a UPS package.”

“No shit. Which is more of a reason you should stay away from this mess.”

I narrowed my eyes. Yeah. Like that had any effect on him. “I know you think you can protect me by keeping me out of this—”

“Not if you don’t let me. And not if you ignore me when I tell you to keep out of trouble.”

“You act like I go out in search of danger.”

Aric counted off the error of my ways one finger at a time. “Vampire court. Storming a crazed vampire’s estate—twice.” He added two fingers on that one. “Consorting with the undead. Tracking an infected vampire in a stolen vehicle. And don’t get me started on getting trapped in a raging inferno.”

I crossed my arms defensively. “I don’t consort with the undead.” He tightened his jaw. “Much.”

We glared at each other. He’s really sexy when he broods, my tigress sighed. Shut up and focus, I hissed back.

I cleared my throat. More than once. My beast had a point. “Aric, if the wereraccoon is somehow related to this thing consuming humans, it knows where I live. It knows where my family lives. I get that you don’t want me fighting alongside you. Except you need to understand that I have to keep my sisters safe. So if you don’t want me with you, that’s fine. But you can’t stop me from protecting my family.”

Aric growled, more with frustration than anger, knowing I’d stomped his argument with my mighty, if not stubborn, logic. Take that, big shot.

Aric rubbed his forehead and swore under his breath. “You have to promise to stay with me at all times. You are not to hunt this thing on your own—that includes going off alone with your sisters. I’m not sure what we’re up against, or what it can do. If my Warriors or I are not with you, you are not to engage it. And if anything else wanders onto your property, I should be the first call you make.”

I probably shouldn’t have smiled considering I just willingly volunteered to go after yet another scary monster . . . who also likely slithered in from hell.

Aric shook his head. “Don’t look at me that way, Celia. It would destroy me if you were hurt.”

“How could a little kitty like me get hurt with a pack of supermacho wolves on my side?”

Aric didn’t find my attempt at humor funny. “Shit. What did I just get you into?”

“You didn’t ‘get me into’ anything. I think the wereraccoon managed that on his own.” I sighed. “Look, Aric, I also hate being the source of your problems. If helping you kill Tahoe’s latest superbeastie alleviates your situation with your Elders, let me.”

“Don’t for a moment think you’re the cause of my problems.” Aric leaned forward, sweeping his lips across my crown line. “What goes on between you and me is none of their damn business. But if eliminating this threat will shut them up, it’s more motivation for me to hunt and kill it.”

Aric wanted to mean what he said, except distress swept around his aura like a noose. Had I been of his kind, would his Elders have been as upset? Probably not.

“The purebloods are plentiful,” Aric continued as if trying to convince us both. “My Elders need to stop demanding that I associate with were-only females.”

Demand? Aric had practically growled his last statement. As one of the strongest weres in history, he didn’t like being told what to do. Even by those considered above him. I didn’t know much about wolves, or weres in general, and feared what the consequences his decision to pursue me might bring. So it only seemed right for me to help him hunt. Maybe he was right. In killing this monster, perhaps he’d prove he hadn’t lost his focus or abandoned his duties.

Stress further tightened Aric’s muscles. My tigress convinced me to comfort him through touch. I rubbed my face against his. “What will happen if they continue to insist that you do?”

Aric groaned, low and deep. His reaction had nothing to do with his Elders and everything to do with our contact. “Let me worry about it.” He cupped my face in his hands. “You and me, we can take things slow and see where it leads us.”

Aric tilted his head toward mine. This time I didn’t deny him. I think he only meant to give me a small peck. But when my lips parted, and the tip of my tongue met his, his beast growled with need. And so did mine.

So much for taking things slow.

Aric’s taste sent my tigress into a frenzy, craving more of him in my mouth. The clicking sound of the seat belt release sounded miles away. Aric struggled to free himself from its hold, all the while keeping his mouth hard against mine.

The steering wheel dug into his hip as he lurched his body across the center console, pressing his T-build firmly against me. If it were up to my wild side, I would have ripped his clothes from his body in pieces. But my inexperienced half took over, unsure what to do, and dumbstruck by Aric’s immediate effect on my delicate areas.

Holy . . .

Body parts I barely acknowledged pounded; the tips of my br**sts tightened. I slumped back against the side window, moaning, my lips pleading for Aric to explore. My hands swept over his back. His hard muscles tensed beneath my fingertips, and his arms beckoned me closer. I wanted Aric. Then. Now. Fast. Especially when his mouth moved to my neck and found a spot behind my—

“Celia Wird! You unhand that boy this instant!”

And that’s when the devil in support hose appeared. Sweet God in heaven . . . no!

Aric’s head snapped up. His face heated. “What the hell?”

I wrenched my neck to face my neighbor, Mrs. Mancuso. Her penciled-in brows angled in a permanent state of pissed-offness, her curlers tightened hard enough to make her scalp bleed, and her neck skin flapped in the wind. “This is a family neighborhood!”

And because having an eighty-plus woman catching me in a major tongue-hockey moment wasn’t humiliating enough, my lovely sister Taran came to the rescue. She didn’t have supernatural hearing, but she could spot a Mancuso attack a mile away. Taran threw open the front door and stormed down the steps. “Goddamn it, woman, aren’t you dead yet? Get back in the house and mind your own freaking business!”

“Whore.” Mrs. Mancuso dragged out the word as if she were teaching it to a bunch of preschoolers, accentuating it with two stiff ones. “Trollops, sluts, tramps!” she screamed, waving her middle fingers like flags.

I scrambled out of the car when Aric lifted his weight. Taran’s face was inches from Mancuso’s, her blue eyes firing with rage. “I am sick and tired of you calling us whores. It’s not like we parade shirtless men around here.”

As if on cue, Liam jogged around to the front of the house. Naked.

Mrs. Mancuso’s jaw dropped down to her Depends at the sight of Liam’s overly developed man parts. Fortunately the sight of Liam’s studly physique was too much for the old terror. She backed up abruptly and ran indoors, crossing herself to protect herself against the likes of us.

Liam stopped near Aric, oblivious of my own alarm at seeing him na**d. “Hey, Aric.”

Aric pinched the bridge of his nose. “Liam. Why did you let Mrs. Mancuso see you na**d?”

“I was trying to hide my wolf form,” he said like it was obvious. God forbid he’d hide his na**d form. He shrugged. “Anyway, I tracked the raccoon’s blood and pus back into the woods. Looks like he’d been hiding out just below the ridge. Whoever attacked him caught him off guard. There’s blood at his campsite and bullets lodged into the trees leading down to the house.” He regarded me closely before handing Aric a wrinkled piece of office paper.

Aric unfolded it carefully. Liam’s fang marks pierced the top. He’d obviously searched the woods in his beast form. My breath caught at the image printed in gray scale. It was a picture of me and Aric, standing outside my back deck. Dry blood splattered across our faces.

Aric growled with fury. Liam nodded. “He was watching you, Celia.”

CHAPTER 3

“What could that wereraccoon possibly want with you, dude?” Shayna sat in the front passenger seat. It was the closest to the driver’s side we’d allow her to get. Hell hath no fury like Shayna behind the wheel.

I adjusted my turtleneck. Originally I’d planned to wear a button-down blouse with my jeans, until Aric left quite the memory of our time together just below my jawline. “I don’t know, but he was watching me for a while. That picture was from the day the wolves came over for a barbecue.”

Emme clasped her hand over her mouth. “Oh my goodness. That was several weeks ago.”

“I know. Aric thinks he may have started watching the house even before I first caught him riffling through our garbage. There’s no way to tell for sure, I suppose.”

Emme’s eyes widened. “I suppose not. Did Aric say whose blood was on the photo?”

I shook my head. “He didn’t have to. I could smell the were’s blood all over it. It must have splattered when the first bullet hit . . . or when they’d tried to slit his throat.”

“He must have had the picture open when he was attacked.” Taran shuddered. “Shit. You don’t think he was doing something funny while staring at your—”

“Can we please not go there?” I growled. “Taran, it’s bad enough he’d come around. I’d prefer not to ponder what he did in his alone time.”

“Sorry, Ceel. Look, this whole thing sucks. But at least he’s not around to hurt you anymore.”

“No. But whoever killed him is still out there. So is whatever murdered those men.” I adjusted my position. Blood and death made my inner beast restless to protect. I barely managed to keep her still. “I called Bren and Danny. Danny offered his science and research expertise should we need him. Bren wants to help us track. With his nose, maybe he can help us find something.”

“Sounds like an awesome plan.” Shayna finished pulling up her hair into a ponytail. Spending the afternoon with Koda hadn’t given her much time to get ready for dinner with Misha. A little tidbit she failed to share with Koda. “Hey, Ceel. Does Aric think the murders are related to this weredude?”

“He didn’t say. But I can’t see how. The men were drained of their blood. The were was shot and somehow booby-trapped.” What he did tell me was not to leave the house unescorted and not to do anything dangerous.

So I didn’t. Sort of.

I left the house with my sisters as backup . . . and so I wouldn’t be alone in a master vampire’s estate. Misha and I had made plans for dinner earlier in the week. Dinner and the diamond earrings he’d given me previously were the only thank-yous I’d allowed. Yes, I’d saved his life. Yes, I’d inadvertently returned his soul. But I didn’t want him feeling like he owed me. And I sure as hell didn’t ever want to owe him.

Taran tuned the satellite radio to a classic rock station as we pulled into the mile-long drive leading up to Misha’s front gates. We chuckled when “Werewolves of London” was the first song to play. We stopped laughing when an über-size vampire tackled another in front of our car.

Taran slammed on the brakes. It didn’t help. Our velocity was so fast that we ran over them like beached whales. The car rattled and our bodies bounced off the seats. “Son of a bitch! Are they dead?”

I jerked my head backward. The bigger of the two Plymouth-size giants grabbed the other by the throat and drove his protruding five-inch nails into the other’s heart. I recognized him as Hank, one of Misha’s bodyguard’s, before blood and ash splattered across the back window and plastered our view. Taran flipped on the rear wipers. Hank waved a nasty hand at me. “Hey, Celia. The master is expecting you.”