“Well,” Vic asked, since he was at a complete loss, “do you want to go back inside?”

“No,” she snapped, “I want to stay out here by this stupid giant tree and fuck.” Livy threw up her hands. “See? Pathetic.”

“You’re a very hard woman to understand sometimes.”

“Don’t bullshit me,” she accused. “You understand me better than anybody.”

“And that irritates the hell out of you, doesn’t it?”

“Yes! Because I’ll rely on you now. You’ll always mean something to me. You’ll be important in my life. My art is the only thing that should be important. Love is just this fucking distraction. It destroys good art.”

“Only if you let it, which you won’t because you are selfish enough not to.”

Livy nodded. “That’s a good point. And you travel a lot, so I won’t come home every day to find you sitting on the couch, waiting for me to be there, so you can annoy me with your attention and affection.”

“God forbid.”

“Yeah,” Livy said, not quite getting the sarcasm.

“But, hey, you never know. We could still get killed. We’re not finished yet.”

“But we both know that’s bullshit. I’m a honey badger. And you’re just . . . freaky.”

“Thank you.”

She sighed as if she’d realized the worst thing imaginable. “We’re going to be together and in love forever, aren’t we?”

“Probably.”

“That’s so fucking typical of my life,” she spat out. “I can never get a break.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not.”

“No. I’m not.” Vic leaned down and pressed his forehead against Livy’s. “Can you say it again?”

“I don’t want to. No. That’s not true. I do want to, but I shouldn’t want to.”

“Say it anyway. For me.”

She reached up and cupped his face in her hands. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“See? Why do you have to be so mean?”

Laughing, Vic hugged Livy tight. “Sorry. That must be the feline mean streak I got from my mother.”

“Probably.”

Finally getting past all those people, Shen peeked into the makeshift art studio and found Melly doing what she’d been doing since she’d been given the job to create a perfect Matisse . . . she was sitting and staring.

An arm reached around him and softly closed the door. The arm belonged to Jocelyn.

He started to say something, but Jocelyn shook her head, one finger against her lips. She took his arm and pulled him down the hallway.

“I don’t want to doubt you guys, but . . . she’s just sitting there, staring. That’s all she’s been doing.”

“She’ll start when she’s ready.”

“We don’t have a lot of time.”

“There are some things you can’t rush.”

“Yeah, but—”

“You, understandably, may not have faith in that crazy bitch. But you can have faith in us. We’ve been doing this sort of thing for a very long time. We know what we’re doing.”

“I really hope you’re right. There’s a lot riding on this.”

“Trust me, sweetie. That I do know. Livy and Jake are the only cousins I haven’t actively tried to kill or dismember.” She thought a moment. “Well, definitely haven’t tried to kill.”

The orgasm eased through Livy slowly, almost languidly, but it was more powerful than anything she’d ever experienced because it was with someone she loved.

When the last wave passed, she dropped onto Vic’s chest and his big arms surrounded her, and held her close while his tail stroked her back and eventually curled around her thigh. She hated him a little for making her feel so safe. But it was just a little hate.

They lay under that tree, not bothering to speak. Something Livy adored about Vic. No postcoital chattiness. She loathed analyzing sex that had happened just seconds before. Thankfully, Vic didn’t need to confirm his sexual prowess by grilling her on how it all went. Instead, she knew he was probably thinking about food—as was she. The problem was whether to go back to the house to get food or ignore their growling stomachs until everyone eventually left.

Yet before they could debate the pros and cons of both alternatives, Vic suddenly turned on his side, Livy going with him. He raised his head as he sniffed the air.

“Vic?”

He began to growl. A low, rumbling noise that rolled through Livy; his lips curling and twitching; his body tense and trembling.

“Vic?”

Staring off toward the house, Vic let out a snarl and he suddenly released Livy. He scrambled to his feet and shifted, his body going from big to enormous. Livy was forced to scramble away so she didn’t get crushed by his giant ass.

Vic took off toward the house, and Livy grabbed her clothes and ran after him. She came out of the trees just as Vic locked on to his only natural foe—and charged him.

The two hybrid predators collided in midair, Livy immediately forgetting she was still naked as she watched Victor Barinov go ridiculously-sized claw to ridiculously-sized fang with Bo Novikov.

Someone grabbed Livy around the waist and carried her over to stand with the crowd of predators watching the battle.

“Don’t worry,” Lock said as he placed her down and quickly released her. “This is just play fighting. Now that they’ve both gotten lai—” Lock stopped, eyed Livy. “Now that they’ve both had some one-on-one time with their women,” he revised.