Annika heard the door below open and admit someone. She lifted her head and focused. Two someones. One was lighter on foot and nearly impossible to hear.

She didn’t bother to move. They would come find her and take her to wherever Eoghan wanted her to be taken. She certainly wasn’t about to meet them downstairs with a smile on her face.

She lost track of the lighter footsteps but the heavy set started up the stairs. That one took his time, judging by the creaks she grew intimately familiar with during her slow ascent.

She was in full view when the man mounted and paused at the top of the stairs. She expected him to call down to the other one. Instead, he pulled a knife from his back pocket.

Annika rose to her feet. There was malice in the man’s eyes. He wasn’t looking to collect her for Eoghan. He was looking to hurt her.

Instead of doing the smart thing and scurrying to the back bedroom, she took a step forward. Toward the attacker.

Her brain screamed at her body to retreat, to run, to hide. But her body ignored her mind. A feeling of calm came over her.

The man snarled at her. He flipped the knife from one hand to the other and watched for her weaknesses. There were many. She was slow. Weak. Stupid to even try defending herself in her state.

He charged at her and she ducked under the first stab of the knife. She chopped her hand hard at his wrist but he already switched hands and tried to stab her.

She pushed away from him, barely avoiding the slash to her midsection. Then she lashed out, kicking at his shins and trying to grab his wrists again.

He sliced and slashed, catching the air each time as she dodged or threw herself out of the way. Her movements slowed with each duck and dive away from the knife. She had to do something before he wore her out.

She pulled herself away from the railing, giving them more space. The man tried again to catch her across the midsection and she hissed when the blade connected. Not deep enough to kill, but still deep enough to let her blood flow freely.

The man snarled and his face changed shape. She could almost feel the powyr in him and he added claws to his free hand.

She turned and aimed a punch to his lower back. He grunted and she grabbed his arm and yanked it harshly behind him, only letting go when the knife dropped and bone snapped. He snapped at her over his shoulder and she shoved him away, over the railing to the floor below.

“Impressive. That was a clean break to his arm.”

Annika spun, grabbing the knife off the floor in the process.

At the other end of the room stood the dark-haired woman from the rival meeting. Shit. Annika hadn’t thought of the second set of stairs that led directly to the master bedroom.

“You shot me,” she said in an attempt to stall and catch her breath.

Mariko shrugged. “It was business then and it’s business now. You’ll be a valuable asset in the coming struggle with Don Gilchrist.”

“I’m not leaving here.”

“Come now. You’re tired and bleeding. Look how your arm shakes. Don’t make this worse on yourself than it already has been.” Mariko raised her hand and her fingernails changed into long claws one at a time.

Annika let out a breath. The alarm had sounded. Eoghan would send someone. She just needed to hold on until they arrived. “No.”

* * *

Eoghan envied other shifters their smaller forms. They could race around and snap their jaws at any threat in just about any sized space. He didn’t have that luxury when his other form was the size of a house.

He landed on the terrace he kept purposefully clear and snapped closed his connection to the Wyrd. His form shifted and contracted and he jogged the last few steps to his back door.

The damn windows were dark and he couldn’t see inside. He cursed the modern technology that drew him to Silo Point in the first place as he punched in his code to unlock the terrace door.

Near the door was a small cupboard. He dragged out the jeans and gun inside, tugging on the jeans as he ran through the flat and toward the muffled sounds of fighting upstairs. He didn’t have time to question the body he jumped over to reach the stairs. The safety on the gun clicked off as he took the first step.

He reached the top of the stairs and didn’t know what to make of the scene. Mariko and Annika fought one another, blocking and landing blows nearly equally until Mariko knocked Annika to the ground and pounced on her.

But Annika wasn’t done. She pressed her arm into Mariko’s neck, saving her own skin from the fangs that threatened to rip into her. She reached around and stabbed a knife into Mariko’s shoulder.

Mariko hissed and growled a purely feline noise, her face more cat than human. Eoghan took aim and fired, catching her in the upper arm. She growled again, backing away from Annika. Seeing she’d been beaten, she flung herself over the railing.

Eoghan chased after her but she had already disappeared through the open terrace door. He reached the door and saw her balance on the railing and jump to the observation deck two floors below. She’d be long gone by the time he reached her.

He turned and hurried back inside, pausing only to toe the body near the stairs. The man groaned and started to move. Eoghan bent down long enough to snap the man’s neck.

“What did I do?” Annika whispered above him.

He craned his head and saw her peering over the railing with wide eyes. He sped up the stairs and pulled her away from the edge. Her hands shook and she dropped the knife.

“Ya fought that she-beast and her minion off.” He gripped her cheeks and forced her to look at him. “Yer pure fooking brilliant!”

His laugh was half mad and completely relieved. He didn’t know how she did it or what secrets she still had locked away inside her head. He was too thrilled that she hadn’t died or been snatched away again.

Eoghan’s lips crashed down on hers. The scent of blood in the air only made him want her more. She was tough, willing to fight for herself. He didn’t have time for someone weak and scared. He needed someone with as much inner fire as he possessed.

He put everything into the kiss. All the anger and longing he felt without her at his side, all the fury and relief when she walked back into his life. He was filled with desperate heat to have her back.

His cock throbbed and he hauled her up and hitched her legs around his waist, pressing her back against the wall. He nipped at her lower lip and chuckled darkly when she moaned into his mouth. He swept his tongue over her lips and tangled with her once more. Her flavors rolled over his taste buds, truer to her than what he’d tasted days earlier, even an hour earlier. Fooking delicious, she was, and he hadn’t licked her sweet cream yet.

He wanted to dominate her, show her how much she belonged to him. He could already sense her arousal and feel her hips move against him. Fooking hell, her nipples were tight, hard points straining against her shirt and begging for him to just tug the fabric down. He’d pull the shirt down, let her spill into his hands, lick one tight bud and then the other until she begged him for more.

Eoghan nipped a line up the column of her neck and whispered in her ear. A shudder ran through her at the first word and her breathing picked up pace. “I’m going tae take my time. Peel off one bit of clothing at a time and make ya howl and beg for the next. But right now, sweet gods above, right now all I can think about is ripping off these ridiculously thin pants and fooking ya hard against this wall.”

Annika groaned and wrapped her arms around his neck. There was no hesitation, only a fight to get better purchase on him. She needed the release almost as much as he did and they both needed to renew their bond.

Fook all the doubts. There, in his arms, she felt too damned good. There had to be an explanation for her answers while detoxing and he didn’t care to find out right then. They were mates and she needed his help.

She was his.

He could ignore the alarm beep that said someone entered the flat. He couldn’t ignore his underboss swearing up a storm.

“Annika!” Gio roared through the home. Boots stomped on the floor below as Gio and whoever he brought with him tore about.

“Can a man not have one moment of peace in his own home?” Eoghan growled and pressed his forehead against Annika’s shoulder. She snickered and he shot her a glare before calling over his shoulder. “Up here, Gio.”

“Who got the bastard down there?” Gio asked as he rounded the last step.

“Annika. She got a good stab in on Mariko, too,” Eoghan said and let her slide back to her own feet. He didn’t miss Gio’s appraising look and the hint of respect he saw there.

“Get started on cleanup. I’ll be down soon,” he told Gio and grabbed Annika’s hand. It was tempting to lead her back to the bedroom and finish what they started. But then he wouldn’t leave the room for days and he needed to make sure the family was settled after such a close strike.

“Come. Get dressed.” He opened the bedroom door he kept shut at all times. She hadn’t lived with him long before she disappeared. Nothing official, like changing her address or ending the lease on her scary small flat in Butcher’s Hill. But enough for a good few clothes to litter his drawers and closet with memories and scents that needed to be locked away.

Annika hesitated and eyed him with a shuttered expression. “More borrowed clothes? Would Kenna like you loaning her things out?”

“Kenna? What?” He swore and then laughed. “Sister, Ann. Kenna is my sister. Remember the names. Sorcha. Kenna. Rhona.” He paused and finally pushed the last name through his teeth. “Maura. Go on, get cleaned up. I’ll get rid of the one downstairs and we’ll get going.”

“Where are we going?”

“After this,” he jerked his head down the hall, “we’re going tae check on the girls and their bairns. Then, the real work begins.”