“Misha, stop it.”

“He has an elderly mother, does he not? Are you prepared to take her home from her? All her valuables—”

“Shut your fangs now!”

“They will all be disgraced and shunned. All because of you—”

My hammer fist strike to the table quieted him. The table split in half and all the contents splattered to the floor. I threw the sections aside and went after him. “You want to do this?” I shoved him through the door. “Fine. Let’s go.”

The snow fell in large thick flakes, coating my long hair almost instantly. The sky had darkened and thunder roared in the distance. I continued to push Misha until we reached the large section of lawn separating the garden from the main house. Misha’s vampires gathered, forming a wide circle around us. I expected them to hiss and attack me. Instead they stood silent, watching us closely while their rising anxiety danced around me.

Misha’s eyes never left mine. He stooped in a crouch and charged. He was fast, but not fast enough. I spun him past me and sent him face-first into a dirty pile of snow. The vampires gasped. Misha rose surprisingly slowly and turned to shoot me a death glare. Slush dripped down his perfect face to stain his white silk shirt.

“Not as fast as you thought, are you, old man?”

The vamps jumped at my words with their mouths covered. Misha seemed oddly amused and laughed. However, it wasn’t a “golly, aren’t you funny?” kind of chuckle. It was more like an evil scientist laugh complete with thunder crackling above us. Like shot from a gun, Misha attacked.

This time he was prepared. He turned his momentum in the opposite direction at the last minute and tried to flip me. I grabbed his hair and we both went down, hard. We wrestled in the snow, digging our feet into the ground for leverage and kicking up dirt. We were soiled and saturated within minutes. It was a mean, dirty, ferocious match. But as mad as we both were, neither of us exchanged blows. We grappled and twisted and even yanked hair, fighting to pin each other.

Large hills of dirt and snow formed every time we shoved and slid across the lawn. Misha was stronger, but I was faster and used all my training against him. I snatched his wrist into a lock. His slippery skin allowed him to break free. He tossed me across the lawn. I landed on my feet, searching for an opening. “What’s the matter, kitten? Too weak to hold an old man?”

I dove across the lawn and shifted beneath him. I surfaced in a high leap and snagged him in a choke hold. “You’re calling the wrong cat a kitty, Goldilocks.”

He forced an arm through my hold and yanked hard. I landed on my butt and scrambled to my feet. Misha tackled me before I found my footing and sent us rolling down the small incline. We barreled into the garden and right smack into one of the stone waterfalls. I landed on top and slammed him against the granite slab with the might of my arms. “Nice try, Rapunzel, but you won’t beat me that easy,” I growled.

Misha exposed his incisors and flipped me over, pressing his weight against me. “Our encounter the other night in my bed should tell you I am all male. Or need I remind you?”

I shoved him off me and shifted him down, burying him up to his neck. Misha’s face deepened to purple as he thrashed about. “This is how you choose to treat me after all I have done for you!”

I staggered back. Being the mature gal I was, I pointed an accusing finger at him. “You started it!”

Misha broke through the frozen ground and sloshed to me. “No, you did. I merely elucidated that your actions are severely misguided.”

He encircled my waist, but I hooked his leg with mine and twisted. We fell and rolled back, all the way to the guesthouse. The minute Misha hit the side of the house I released him and hurried back. The snow fell hard. It felt good against my heated skin. Again, we faced each other.

“You’re wrong about Aric. He’s not going lone. I won’t let him.”

Misha grabbed me in a painful arm lock. “And why is that?”

I twisted and flipped, grabbing his neck in a scissor hold with my legs and bringing him down with the brunt of my weight. “Because I love him, damn it. It would hurt him to leave his pack.”

He entwined his arm in between my legs and broke free. “I know. You’ve made it clear that it’s him you love.”

We were a few feet from each other, trying to catch our breaths. I paused to take in his face once my brain listened to what he had to say. Really listened. Misha was angry—furious even, but there was something else. Not resentment. Not bitterness. Not even arrogance. No. Misha was . . . heartbroken. His brows curved as if he was in agony, and the creases in the corners of his eyes expressed his lack of sleep and torment.

I threw my hands in the air. “Is that what this tantrum is about, Misha? You think I don’t love you?”

He took a step toward me. “What are you saying?”

Mud dripped down our panting faces and our drenched clothes clung to our forms. Misha continued to frown, but his pained expression had softened. I wiped my face and gradually ambled toward him. My shoulders dropped with a heavy sigh and I shook my head. Without giving it much thought, I extended my hand and touched his cheek. Slowly, he covered it with his palm. “I do love you, Misha,” I said softly. “It’s just not in the way that you want me to.” The frown erased from his features and the familiar tenderness returned. “I don’t want to lose you. But if you’re expecting more than my friendship, I have to walk away.”

Horrible screaming interrupted before he could answer. Virginia broke away from the crowd of vampires and rushed me. Misha yanked me behind him.

The gleam in Virginia’s eyes bordered on psychotic. She lunged at Misha and clawed at his chest. I gasped, knowing it was me whose skin she wished to rip apart. Maria and Agnes yanked her from him, hissing and snarling through their fangs.

“Take her away,” Misha ordered. His voice remained strangely calm, but his stare stayed on Virginia as if encountering another preternatural. Maria and Agnes lifted Virginia with ease as she sobbed and kicked all the way back to the main house.

I watched her go, disturbed by her volatile response. If she hadn’t been obsessed before, she certainly was then. Misha took my hand and led me to the front door of the guesthouse. More yelling echoed from the house. We turned to find Kuan Jang Nim Chang racing barefoot through the mess we’d made of the garden, wearing nothing more than his gi to protect him from the heavy snowfall. He smiled wide and waved the broken leg from the kitchen table at us. He jabbered on in Korean before finally pointing and motioning me toward the dojang. He then practically skipped toward the building while I blinked back at him like the nutcase he was.