He leaned in, growling, “Listen, lady, you don’t know what you’re getting in the middle of.”

She poked him hard in the middle of his chest. Her face was hard, gaze furious. “You did not just growl at me! You listen here, I don’t care what the f**k you want. Don’t you dare try to intimidate me with your size! Growl at me! How dare you! Get the heck out of here and do it now before I shoot you.”

He’d been fascinated with her face—at the light of ferocity in her eyes, the scent of a woman in full battle mode. He stepped forward only to feel something hard poke him in the balls. He looked down and saw the shotgun she pointed at him with her free hand. With horrified fascination, he watched as she used the hand she’d poked him with to pump the gun. He heard the unmistakable click of the ammo loading. All the while, the muzzle of the gun never left the region of his balls.

She didn’t stand like a woman unused to a gun. He slid his glance back up into her face, where he met her determined and bloodthirsty gaze and felt a burst of heat bloom in his gut at the sight.

Despite his annoyance and yes, a bit of fear, he had to admit that she turned him on too. He put his hands up in surrender and took a step back. “Whoa! Let’s not be hasty here. I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt Rey either but I need to talk to him.”

“I’m not hasty.” She moved the shotgun tighter against his balls. “Test me why don’t you? This is ready to roll and I’ve had a shitty day.” She narrowed her left eye at him and her lips—very nice lips, he noticed—curled up at one side in a grin.

“Look, wolf boy, he’s gone. He came by, borrowed money,” she snorted, “took money—it’s not like I’ll ever see it again—and headed out. Told me that the Pack was looking for him, wanting to kill him. Even if I knew where he ran to, which I don’t, I certainly wouldn’t tell someone out to hurt him.”

“I told you, I’m not gonna hurt him. I need to talk to him.” Wolf boy? He tried his sexy smile, a smile that this frigid-looking spinster should appreciate.

“Yeah, I’m sure that works on all the puppies down at the shelter. But I don’t know you from Adam and the fact that you say you don’t want to hurt him means nothing to me.”

“Come on, Ms. Reyes. Give me a break. We can help each other out here, don’t you think? We can talk about it more over dinner.” He cocked his head in that adorable little boy way that his mother always melted over despite the puppies at the shelter comment.

She actually rolled her eyes at him and slammed the door in his face.

“Shit!” he hissed and walked back down the sidewalk to where his bike was parked. Casting a glance back at the house, he saw that the spinster was looking at him from the front windows. He tipped an imaginary hat at her as he put the key in and turned the ignition, firing the bike to life. He grunted a surprised laugh when she flipped him off in return.

* * * * *

Nina Reyes watched the man roar away on the Harley and closed the curtains with a sigh. Men were all the same, even if they were freaking werewolves. Okay, delicious hunks of hot, gorgeous hard werewolf flesh that she’d love to take a ride on. Oh, did she think that out loud? She winced and reminded herself that she had a battery-operated boyfriend and that was the best kind. No fuss, no muss and it never asked to borrow money.

With a snort, she put the shotgun back on the rack and removed the pins holding her hair in place. Chocolate brown curls shimmered down her back. She took off the clear lens glasses and placed them on the table near the door and rubbed her eyes.

She knew that she had the kind of looks that people remembered—long curly hair, big hazel eyes, long legs and full br**sts. So she put her hair up in a severe bun. She’d cut it once but it just accentuated her eyes so she’d given herself the pleasure of letting it stay long, even if she was the only one who ever saw it down. She wore fake glasses and buttoned her shirts to the neck and wore slacks and flat shoes. It was necessary not to call attention to herself.

She wished her brother had the same caution. Damn that Gabriel! She couldn’t believe he’d gotten her into yet another mess, and this time with werewolves. It was bad enough when he’d gotten attacked in a bar fight and had contracted the lycanthropy virus. She’d stood by him, hoping that surviving the adversity would make him stronger. He’d gotten involved with the local wolf Pack and had pretty much faded from her life. She’d gotten a card here and there, he’d borrowed money a few times, but she really didn’t know much about his life. And with Gabriel, no news was good news. When she didn’t get calls for bail at two in the morning she took it as a sign that he was alive and well, or at least not getting caught at whatever he was doing.

But really the change had only made a morally weak man physically stronger. It wasn’t altogether surprising when, out of the blue, he’d showed up on her doorstep the night before, looking like the devil himself was chasing him. He said he’d seen something he wasn’t supposed to and that the Pack was going to be looking for him to kill him for it. He’d certainly seemed scared for his life. She’d begged him to call the cops but he’d only looked at her like she was crazy. In the end, she’d given him all of the cash she had on her and in her emergency kitty and he’d gone, begging her to cover for him.

Cover for him! She snorted. Cover for him with frick-fracken werewolves. She rolled her eyes. But he was her brother, all the family she had, and she couldn’t very well just let him get killed, even if he was a turd.