“That’s so strange.” She took his hands, needing that connection. “And you change forms.”

“Yes.”

“It sounds painful when you do it.”

“We adjust. It’s not the most comfortable experience at first but with time it becomes much easier. It doesn’t hurt me.”

“Are you totally you when you have hair and a tail?”

“I’m always me.”

“You know what I mean.”

He grinned. “Yes. I was attempting to tease you into laughter. You look so serious. I’m still the same person, regardless of my shape. I admit I feel a little closer to nature when I have claws. I’d never hurt you if that’s your concern. I’m able to rationally think.”

“I believe that. You seemed like you when you gave me a ride here on your back.”

“Good.”

Dusti hesitated. “What about your Vampire side? What do you get from that? I know your saliva can heal your bites, and the sun doesn’t bother you. You’re really tan.”

“Slower aging. I don’t need blood to survive and the sun isn’t a weakness. I’m mostly Lycan. That bloodline runs stronger in our family.”

“But I’m the opposite.”

“You need some blood to keep you healthy.”

“That’s still gross.”

He chuckled. “I don’t think so. Do you need me to show you how sexy it can be again?”

Just remembering what they’d done together when he fed her his blood had her adjusting her position on the couch, inching closer to him. Drantos turned her on so much. “It’s going to take some time before I stop hating the sight of blood but I guess it’s something I’d better get over.”

“You’ve been very brave about this.”

“And a pain in the ass.” She felt regret. “I thought you were insane.”

“It was annoying but understandable. I put myself in your shoes and it had to sound as if I had lost my mind when I told you about things you’ve only seen in movies and books. The information they give isn’t accurate in most cases.”

“Right. You don’t shift into a hell beast and go all bat-shit homicidal.”

He laughed again. “No. I don’t.”

She envied him his light mood. “I keep trying to figure out how I’m going to fit in here. I need some kind of job to help pay the bills and a way to retrieve all my stuff from my apartment.”

“You don’t need a job. You’re my mate. It’s my duty to take care of you. I’ll hire someone to go clean out your apartment and drive your belongings here. We have a few Lycan packs who work with us from time to time. They are related by blood to some of us.”

“I take it that I won’t be able to go do that myself?”

“No. It’s too dangerous with Decker still loose.”

“Fantastic. Werewolves are going to be packing my underwear.” She grimaced. “Okay.”

“I’m sure they’ll be professional about it. It’s the only way to get your things here.”

“I wasn’t bitching. It was more like me saying it aloud because I never thought those words would come out of my mouth.”

He laughed. “I love that you’re keeping your sense of humor.”

“I’m trying.” She paused. “I’m a housewife now? I have to warn you that my cooking skills aren’t the best and I’m not a huge fan of cleaning.”

“We’ll share the housework and I can teach you how to prepare meals. It will be fun cooking together.”

“What do you do for a living?”

“I’m an enforcer for my father.”

“Does that pay enough to keep the lights on?”

He looked highly amused. “Yes.”

“Is it like a nine-to-five job?”

“No. We’re assigned shifts to patrol and sometimes I was sent on missions, like finding you and your sister.”

“Is it dangerous living here or something? Do bears and rabid squirrels attack?”

He chuckled again.

“I’m not trying to be funny.” She shrugged. “I’m just clueless.”

“We don’t have an issue with rabid squirrels. Bears wandering into our territory are persuaded to move on. We live in harmony with nature but we can’t exactly have them trying to get inside our homes to go after food. We keep all the dangerous predators distanced from us.”

“So that’s what you do? You scare away mean animals?”

“We also make certain no one trespasses in our territory. Humans like to do that sometimes to hunt. Nobody enjoys being shot at when a poacher mistakes us for a wolf.”

“That happens?”

“Rarely. We patrol so it doesn’t.”

“What do you do with them?”

“We scare them off. They’re told this is protected land, a sanctuary, and private property. VampLycans always try to keep the peace.”

“What if they aren’t easy to scare and refuse to leave?”

“We use our ability to control their minds and implant that they never wish to return.”

“Does that always work?”

“Yes, so far.”

“Is it a dangerous job?”

“It can be, but I’m damn hard to kill, Dusti. I don’t want you to worry when I go out on patrol.”

“You heal really fast.”

“Yes. It would be very difficult for something to sneak up on me too.”

The memory of him confronting the hell beast that had found them near the river flashed in her mind. “You’re also obviously a good fighter.”

“I am. I’ve been trained how to defend myself since I could walk.”

“Speaking of, you said VampLycans age slowly. Does that mean if we ever have kids that they’ll take forever to grow up?”

“We age the same way humans do when we’re very young, growth accelerates for a few years, then slows again once we are through puberty.”

“So we could have a baby and it’s going to want to move out when it’s ten years old?”

He laughed. “Not quite that fast. Most of our children begin building their own homes when they’re nearing their eighteenth birthdays. That’s the age of consent to take a mate. We want to make certain they are trained well enough to survive on their own. It’s just that we learn things faster than a human would.”