Shit. This was not how he'd wanted tonight to go. Offering the lake house so she had somewhere to crash while she worked out her shit? Yes. Her becoming a target of anti-shifter radicals, and feeling like she had no choice but to stay here if she wanted to save her skin? Definitely not. 

Rye didn't have to be such an ass about it. Was he right? Yes, undoubtedly. But he could have used kid gloves.

Their pride was too small to afford losing an enforcer full time. Ian might have tried to look after her in his spare time, but he didn't have much of that. Even regular pride members—who would have been strong enough to take care of a bunch of human assholes—had their jobs to do. Homeschooling, forestry, shifts at Ace's bakery, their individual occupations.

Knowing the cheerful mood at dinner was well and truly ruined, Ian said, "I'm gonna show you to the lake house."

Tania tried to smile. "Sure. Let me just find Princess..."

"No, it's best if he takes you on foot, so you know the way between the pride house and the lake house if you have to run," Ace explained. "I'll drive your cat up and drop her off with a few things."

Tania thanked the alpha before getting up. Right before leaving the room, she turned back, looking at the rest of the pack.

"Sorry I'm grumpy. I know it's not your fault. It's not even mine for posting. It's the anti-shifters who are the assholes in this scenario."

"Hear, hear," Luke called, tapping his glass on the wood table like they were in the middle ages. "Don't you fret, girl. No extremist will reach you here."

Ian could tell it wasn't her chief concern. As soon as they'd passed the front door, she asked, "What about work? I have shifts. The practice is already understaffed as is..."

"Rye assigned Jas and me to protect you, and we will," he told her. "It would just have been complicated to set it up twenty-four/seven. Now you're staying in our territory, the two of us only have to watch over you during the day; there are enforcers patrolling our lands at all times."

She nodded.

The California winter was cool, and Tania shivered. She wore a leather jacket that wasn't going to cut it at eleven at night. Ian shrugged off his coat.

"Oh, I don't need..."

"Shifter blood runs high; I don't need it as much as you. See?" 

He extended his forearm, inviting her to touch it. She did, and his entire body froze. 

What the fuck was this? While the fifty degrees Fahrenheit hadn't bothered him, her palm, light on his skin for the briefest instant, all but shut down his mind and body.

Tania silently accepted the coat and they set off through the forest.

"There's a path," he said, pointing east. "And if you can't remember the way, taking it from the back garden of the lake house leads right here; but I'm taking you the fastest way."

"I'm glad I'm not a heels type of girl right about now."

She was wearing lace-up knee-high leather boots that did wonderful things for her legs with those jeans.

"Always a good thing around shifters."

There weren't many occasions that didn't end in a stroll, or a run, through the woods.

"That's Daunte and Clari's place," he told her when they reached the first wooden cabin, on their left.

"If you're in trouble, any occupied cabins in these woods would work. We don't tend to lock the doors; you let yourself in if you need to."

She had the sense to be worried. "I thought you said that the territory was well guarded?"

"It is; well enough, for a handful of regulars. But if one of us, or something worse, decides to poke around—well, you never know."

They walked in silence for a while after that. She was probably considering how much danger a mere association with the pride put her in.

"Are there things...worse than shifters? More powerful, I mean."

Ian laughed. "You know at least some of them. Vampires."

About thirtyfive years ago, the regulars had been entirely ignorant of the existence of any supernatural creatures, until the vampires had decided to come out, without warning anyone or asking for their opinion. Regulars freaked and tried to exterminate them, so the vampires had taken over the world, just like that, overthrowing governments practically overnight. They did eventually give the reins of the world back to regulars, saying that, as the most populous species in the world, they had the right to govern themselves, but warning them that actions against supernaturals would bring the vampires back to the surface.

At first, the shifters had stayed away from the limelight, but witches revealed themselves, and it didn't seem to matter anymore. The shifter council voted and ended up revealing itself.

"It takes about three average shifters to kill an average vampire," he said. "I'm talking, run-of-the-mill, hundred-year-old bloodsucker and shifters picked at random from a crowd. Rye would make short work of a couple of vampires without breaking a sweat. Ace might take on an ancient by herself."

Tania's smile felt a little more real this time. "And you?" she asked him.

Ian shrugged. He wasn't the strongest male of the pack, not even after Rye. That was Daunte. Luke could potentially take him. Jas could definitely take him. He wasn't the smartest one either; that particular role was filled by Coveney, who sometimes hid that he was a genius. Ian's superpower was an above-average understanding of computers and a knack with money.

"I'd have a chance against a normal vamp. An ancient would wipe the floor with my face." He pointed north, toward the lake. "Go that way for about a mile, and that's my cabin, right in front of the lake."

On that note, he led her in the opposite direction. Half an hour of small talk later, they'd reached Ace's first house in the area. Other than a fresh coat of paint, they hadn't done much to the exterior of the handsome antebellum home.

Watching as Tania gasped, he remembered the first time he'd seen the place himself. They'd been running for about two years, changing locations so often, nowhere had felt safe for a long time. The beautiful house had seemed like the stuff of a dream. It had changed their lives. They'd met their alpha female, a woman who'd fought and bled for them at every turn until they had a place to call home.

"You know, I would have protested far less if you'd shown me the place first."

He chuckled. "Come on in."