She set the plate down, nodded at Sean and Dylan, and walked in a daze toward the porch and the cubs. Deni wished Ellison and her sons were here—she needed to wrap herself in her family to ease the sudden pain.

Andrea seemed to sense her need. She handed her little boy to Kim and met Deni in the yard, pulling her into a hug.

“I know,” Andrea said. “I saw it in your eyes when you looked at him tonight. Don’t worry. I’ll tell Liam, and we’ll make it so you can see him again.”

Andrea was sweet; she truly was. Andrea herself had been given special permission to move from a Colorado Shiftertown to this one, which proved it could be done, but she’d had to jump through many hoops to do it. Deni knew she could see Jace again, but it would be tough, and both Liam and Jace’s father would have to be convinced that it was necessary for either Jace or Deni to move permanently.

Andrea released Deni, giving her a reassuring smile, and returned to the porch to lift her cub from Kim’s lap. The look of joy she turned on her son squeezed Deni’s heart.

“Don’t let him go.”

Deni jumped and swung around, her wolf’s senses sending her into a defensive crouch. Tiger had moved to her side in that stealthy way he had, and now he stood right next to her, alone, his bulk filling the space Andrea had vacated.

“Tiger.” Deni straightened up and clenched her hands. “Don’t do that.”

“You should not let Jace go home,” Tiger said. “Keep him with you.”

“I can’t,” Deni said. “He doesn’t belong here, and if they catch him . . .”

Tiger shook his head. He reached out his hand, carefully, and touched the air in front of Deni’s chest, as though he saw something there. Deni felt the warmth inside her, the tingling need she’d been pretending not to notice. “You have it, don’t you?” Tiger said. “Don’t let it go.”

Deni swallowed. If she admitted the mate bond right now, she’d fall in a crumpled heap and begin weeping. “I—”

“Tiger, honey,” Carly strolled to him and laced her hands around his arm again. “Don’t scare her. She’s been through a lot.”

Tiger only looked at Deni with his intense yellow eyes, as though willing her to understand and obey. He let Carly lead him away, but he glanced at Deni over his shoulder, his gaze penetrating Deni to the most frightened part of her.

Chapter Ten

When Jace emerged from Faerie into the grove of trees in Shiftertown, it was dawn. Shiftertown was quiet, the nocturnal Shifters having turned in to sleep, the ones who lived by human schedules not up yet.

Dylan met him. Dylan’s face was covered with new-growth beard, and lines had deepened about his eyes. He hadn’t slept all night.

Time moved differently in Faerie, Fionn had told Jace, sometimes slower, sometimes faster. Jace had spent twice as many hours there as the time had moved here. Scary. What if he popped into Faerie one day, lived a week, and came out to find everyone long dead? Or he aged in Faerie while Deni had lived only one day? Too weird to contemplate. The solution was not to go to Faerie again, which was fine with Jace.

He still felt better, even with the Collar’s loose links chafing him. He’d have to figure out why he seemed to have recovered from his need to go feral, and if whatever he discovered could help with removing the Collars.

The police had given up harassing the Shifters and gone again, Dylan said, but there was no telling when they’d be back. Best Jace go home, to his own Shiftertown. Jace couldn’t argue with his reasoning, though leaving meant leaving Deni, and that thought threatened to make his feral rage return.

Fionn hadn’t accompanied Jace. Dylan told Jace to wait for him there, while he arranged transportation to the airstrip. He walked away, leaving Jace alone.

Not for long. As soon as Dylan left the grove, Deni hurried into it.

Jace said nothing, only opened his arms, and Deni ran straight into them. Jace caught her up, turning around with her, holding her hard, breathing in her warmth, her scent.

“I don’t want you to go,” Deni said. She curled her hands against Jace’s chest, where his heart was pounding.

“I don’t want to go either.”

Their mouths met, locking together, heat joining heat. Jace drank her hungrily, imbibing her spice. He licked the corner of her mouth, and moved one hand to her lush breast.

“Den,” he said savagely, “I haven’t . . . Finding you . . .”

Is all the world to me, Deni finished inside her head. I was drowning, far from shore. And then you came.

“Tiger told me not to let you go,” she whispered.

Jace lifted his head, his green eyes dark. “I have to. If they find me, it will be bad for everyone here, not only me.”

“I know. I know.”

“I can’t let you get hurt because of me.” Jace traced her cheek with a firm thumb. “But I’ll fix this. I’ll find a way to come back as soon as I can.”

Deni nodded, tears filling her eyes. No reason to cry, she told herself. This was smart, and he’d just promised to come back for her.

She heard Tiger’s gruff voice in her head. Don’t let him go.

Everyone knew Tiger was a little nuts, but he’d looked at Deni as though he could see the threads of the mate bond around her heart. He was telling her to latch on to the bond and not let go, damn the consequences. But Deni needed to be sensible. If they did everything by the book, asking for official permission for Jace to move here, or she and her sons to go with him, then the humans couldn’t legally keep them apart. But permission was difficult to obtain—the human government might deny it for any number of reasons, and then it would be more difficult for Jace or Deni to sneak away to be together.

“You could always hide here until they get tired of looking,” Deni said, though without much hope.

Jace shook his head, pressing her closer. “Dylan’s right. The police might start checking the other Shiftertowns. My dad can’t cover for me for long.”

“I know.” His words made sense, but Deni’s heart ached. She tried to smile. “The next time you come, we’ll take my motorcycle out on one of the back roads and see what it can do. We’ll open it up—just us and the wind.”

“Yeah.” Jace cupped her cheek. “That sounds good.”

They kissed again, mouths seeking, needy, each of them holding on tight. Deni memorized Jace’s scent and his goodness, his taste, his hard body against hers. He was large, strong, whole, the answer to her emptiness.