The winds whipped around Dan as he stared out over the lake before him, watching the sun dance on its surface.

Instantly, the mental description brought Mina's beautiful face to mind and pain lanced his chest again, reminding him that, no matter how much it seemed otherwise the past week, he was very much alive.

He bent low and picked up a flat stone at his feet, sending it skipping over the water.

How the hell was he going to move on? Forgetting her was a task for a man far stronger than him. He'd tried. Jesus knew, he'd tried. He drank himself into a stupor for those first few days until he didn't know if it was day or night. But he knew Mina, even in those darkest hours. Awake or in sleep, she was at the root of the pain that was constant like a toothache that never ceased.

He was so fucked.

With his new shifter senses, he scented Etienne before he heard the dragon's footsteps crunch on the gravel in front of the lake.

"Well?" said Dan.

"It took some doing, but I secured the lease."

"Good.”

He was surprised that Etienne had wanted this property, especially after he and Taya had explained that shifters tried to avoid government involvement. But it did make sense to keep prying eyes away from the carnage of the base. There would be just too many questions raised with the destruction of the hatch and the skylights. They needed time to get it all fixed and for some rainy days to rid the area of blood and the acrid stench.

"Did you do the final sweep of the ridge?" Etienne asked.

Dan tipped his head in a curt nod. "All clear."

"Good."

During this last week he and Etienne spent time cleaning up the bodies of their attackers, laying them to rest in caves they found on the western side of the lake. They sealed the caves with the remainder of the C-4 Etienne brought.

It had been dirty work. Those that felt Etienne's wrath were totally destroyed, but those charred from the Molotov cocktails Taya threw at them were plain gruesome. Others, they’d had to recover from the tiger pits and snap noose traps.

But that job was done, and today Dan had checked to make sure that none of their tripwires or homemade mines were still intact to snare or injure hapless animals or humans who found their way to this godforsaken place.

Dan stared at the ruined landscape past the reservoir. There was so much work to do here. This whole area needed to be replanted with trees as well as the landscape behind him, which was a third of the wide ridge.

"I might keep this place for a long while," said Etienne. "You never know when a place to hole up away from prying eyes might be necessary. But I’ll need to upgrade the security. The perimeter of the base, the gate and, of course, the bunker."

"Good idea," said Dan his eyes trained on the landscape.

"I'll need a caretaker, someone who can handle those upgrades, and oversee the repairs of a military bunker. Do you know anyone like that?"

Dan squinted at the dragon shifter, head cocked. "Why don’t you guys stay here and do it?"

"I'll visit. But I've got an investment empire to run. I have to be a little closer to civilization, and Taya would hate it. She’d go stir crazy here before long. Plus, she’d miss our friend Willa, a wolf shifter who lives on the same mountain as we do with her mate Drake. No, I can’t do it, but I have to hire someone I trust."

Dan suddenly picked up on Etienne's not so subtle hints as the dragon’s golden eyes drilled into his. "Are you offering me a job?"

Etienne shrugged.

"You’d do well to get used to your new reality, learn how to be a bear, maybe lay low for a while. It’s not like you can go back to your old job."

That much he knew.

"I already sent in my resignation with a recommendation for Deputy Ripley. She can handle the job fine. I was probably keeping it from her anyway." And maybe with him gone, she could focus on finding a man who deserved her, too.

"You'll be missed there, I guarantee it."

"Why do you say that?"

Etienne’s face went uncharacteristically solemn. "You’re a good man, and a great leader. They were lucky to have you."

Dan rolled this around in his head. It was a nice sentiment, especially coming from his sometime-nemesis, but he didn't feel the truth of it. He so utterly failed to keep Mina safe that last night they were together he felt like half a man. Who would want someone like that around?

"I’d have to get my dog."

"I can have her brought here, as well as your belongings."

Dan liked that idea. Suzie Q would love the run of a place like this. Morning walks around the lake for her and lots of hard manual labor that would hopefully exhaust him so thoroughly that he could get a few hours sleep and a break from the knowledge that the woman he loved didn’t want him.

God, he’d been so relieved when Etienne had told him Rene had taken her, and even more so when the elder dragon had called to say she was healing from her wounds. But when she refused to talk to him on the phone, he’d known it was a bittersweet victory.

His one true mate would survive, and she’d even been given a limited pardon by the Council, but she wasn’t coming back to him.

"I don't know how long I'll stay."

"Stay as long as you want. You'll be helping me out until I find someone permanent."

Dan nodded. “Have you spoken to Mina again?” he asked, wanting to kick himself for the question. “Does she know about…?”

“No,” Etienne said, stuffing a hand into his jeans pocket with a sigh. “It’s not my story to tell. But, for the record, I think you’re being both foolish and stubborn for not telling her yourself. She’s going to find out eventually. There will be no hiding it soon. You’ll stink of bear even in your human form once you’ve shifted a few more times,” he said with a low laugh.

“She won’t ever be close enough to smell me, so I doubt that will be a problem.”

"What makes you say that?"

Dan gestured around them with a bitter laugh. "She's not here now, is she?"

“If she knew, maybe she’d come b--”

“Damn it, man, stop,” he bit out, jamming a frustrated hand through his hair. “I stuck my neck out for her, told her how I felt time and time again. I was willing to accept her for all that she is and all that she isn’t, and she shut me down. Over and over. That’s it for me. I’m not going to pressure her or try to entice her with my new party tricks. I’m still the same man I was, at the core of it. If I wasn’t enough for her then, I’m not now, and hoping that she will change her mind some day is only making it worse.”

Etienne pursed his lips and nodded. “All right. That’s the last we’ll speak of it. I do have some other news, though.”

“Yeah?” Dan asked, eyeing the other man warily.

“I found out some things about your family."

His family was dead. It took a second to realize that Etienne didn’t mean his adoptive parents, and a spark shot through him.

“My birth parents?”

"You were obviously as confused as we were about your latent shifter abilities, so I took the liberty of sending one of your coffee cups for DNA analysis. The Council is very eager to keep track of every shifter they can, so they rushed the work and guaranteed confidentiality."

Dan tried to digest that information as his friend continued.

"They keep an extensive database of known shifters. We know a line of bear shifters you come from currently lives in Oregon. I have a couple names if you want to track them down." Etienne shrugged. "They may welcome you, or they may not. But you can't know until you try."

Dan’s mind raced with this new information, but he felt nothing but intellectual curiosity.

"If the Council is so hot to keep track, why was I left on the church steps as an infant?"

"I looked into that as well. There was a report of a shifter from your line who had asked for permission to wed a human, who I’m guessing by the dates was your mother. Could be that once his request was denied, she didn’t know what else to do with you. Or could be that she was young and frightened and of course, unmarried. Could be that she found out your father was a shifter, and might have thought you were the devil’s spawn…cursed.” Etienne shrugged and shook his head slowly. “Humans fear what they don’t understand. I wouldn't judge her too harshly, at least until I knew the whole story."

Etienne said “until” but it seemed unlikely that Dan would ever know the truth unless he reached out to his birth father’s family in Oregon. Maybe even his parents were still alive out there somewhere. But the way he was feeling right now, he’d never bother to find out. He didn’t want to be welcomed into any fold any more than he wanted to be rejected.

He just couldn’t work up the will to care about anything. Without Mina, he felt like a walking zombie. Going through the motions, walking and talking, but dead inside.

The two men stood in silence as the wind whipped up the smooth surface of the water until Etienne clapped his hand on Dan's shoulder.

"Come on inside. Taya cooked dinner."

"Taya cooked?" Etienne was as dominant in the kitchen as he was everywhere else, so that was new.

"She threw me out. Told me that she had skills too and wanted to prove it."

His stomach grumbled with hunger that seemed almost constant now with his new shifter metabolism, but he couldn't face it. Seeing the happy couple, listening to their banter laden with sexual innuendo. It was like being the third wheel on a couple's honeymoon and a painful reminder of what he’d never have. Watching them together was like pouring salt in an open wound.

“You go ahead. I have to do one last walk around to check for traps. Be there in a few.”

He made that few stretch long enough that night had fallen and the pair were gone from the table by the time he walked in.

Though it hardly helped. By the time he'd eaten and got the dishes done, he could hear them having sex through the walls with that infernal super-hearing he hadn’t quite gotten the knack of tuning out yet. Morning couldn’t come quick enough.

He left his room, and headed back for the great outdoors, with half a mind to spend his night as he had the last few. Running the mountain in bear form to work off his energy. Unfortunately, he also had a mind to get rip-roaring drunk and, inconvenient as it was, bears had no finesse with a bottle or flask.

He opted for plan B, swinging by the mess hall to grab the bottle of Jack Daniels he’d picked up the day before when they’d gone into town for cleanup supplies. Then, he hotfooted it out to the lakeshore to crack open the bottle.

The night air was crisp and cool, which suited him just fine. Turned out all those feverish dreams and excessive body heat were just a precursor to his new core body temp, which felt somewhere in the neighborhood of ten thousand degrees Kelvin.

He threw back his head to take a swig of whiskey, and stared at the thin sliver of moon overhead.

Should he take Etienne's job offer? Or would staying here be just another gut-wrenching reminder of what he had and lost? Maybe it was time to move along. Get in touch with his Army buddies and see about what he could do for his country now. It was then, right as he'd been wondering if that was a good call or just an attempt at self-destruction, that he saw it.

A winged shape, nothing but a dark silhouette against the milky moon until it moved closer, dropping nearer and nearer to the shore.

His pulse rattled and then roared as it turned, mid-flight, and offered him a profile.

Mina. He would know that body anywhere.

She tucked her arms in tight just a hundred or so feet in the air and barrel-rolled down like a bullet, before letting her wings fan out to swoop her up and deposit her softy in front of him, boots sunk into the edge of the lake.

"Hey," she murmured, pursing her lips for a second as her gaze seemed to devour his every feature.

She'd gone. Taken away by a shifter who was a better protector than him. And she’d stayed gone this impossibly long week without a single word to him. 

Now here she was, just three feet away, and he felt like his heart was going to explode out of his chest.

"What do you want, Mina?" he demanded, his voice guttural and low, giving evidence to what it cost him to speak.

Mina flinched like he'd taken a swing at her, but then nodded slowly. "I deserve that. But I needed to talk to you."

"Have you heard of this nifty device called a cell phone? Or how about email?"

He knew he was being an asshole, but she had no idea what seeing her was doing to him right now. After a week of near-constant mental agony, he'd finally gotten a reprieve with this semi-numbness, and he was fucking liking it a lot better than the latter. Sure, it stood to reason that once it passed, he'd be in worse shape than before, but damn her for dragging him back to the beginning, ripping the wound open anew.

And still, the hurt in her eyes at his words felt like a dagger to the heart.

He rubbed his temples and then blew out a sigh. "Look, I'm sorry." He broke off and tore his gaze away from her to stare at the blackened trees that stood like spears in the distance. "I can't have you coming around, Mina. I can't take it. If you’re here to tell me about the Council, Etienne filled me in and--"

"That's not why I'm here, Dan," she murmured, sounding almost as miserable as he felt. He felt a momentary, ugly twist of satisfaction at that, but it faded as quickly as it had come. This wasn't her fault. Not really. She couldn’t help how she felt--or didn’t feel--about him.

The memory of her breaking apart in his arms just a dozen yards from this very spot stoked his anger all over again.

"Then get to the point and go. The whiskey has my name written all over it, and it's not getting any younger," he bit out, gripping the bottle with one hand and sliding the other into his pocket in an effort to stop himself from running them through her silky hair one last time.

"Can we just go inside and talk?" she asked, her expression pleading. "I won't take up much of your time, but I've been flying for nearly twenty-four hours straight, and it's damn chilly in the upper atmosphere..."

He almost said no. But who was he kidding? The second she turned away, he would've called her back. Because he was sickly, madly, crazily in love with her, and if he could have another minute with her, he'd take it, the cost be damned.

She was here. He'd seen her. He could smell her hair on the night breeze. The fine details of her face, the husky timbre of her voice, it was all as fresh as wet paint in his mind again. The damage was done. No point in chasing her out now.

"Whatever," he muttered, and turned on his heel to make his way back to the bunker.

By the time they got inside, he'd managed to collect himself some and find his manners, but it wasn't easy.

"You want a drink?"

She nodded and stood silently near the door while he walked to the kitchen where he snatched a mug and poured her a good shot of the Jack Daniels.

"Come sit down," he said, jerking his head toward the mess hall table.

"Thanks."

"I hope you like Tennessee whisky. Jack has been keeping me company."

Mina cocked an eye at him. "Sure, me and Jack go a long ways back."

She took the seat across from him and they sat in silence for a while, both contemplating their drinks.

"I screwed up, Dan," she said, so quietly he had to strain to hear her.

"What do you mean?" he asked, suddenly feeling every second of his thirty-plus years.

"I mean, I made a terrible mistake, and I'm hoping you can help me rectify it."

Part of him wanted to laugh out loud. Hadn't he given more than his pound of flesh already? But the other part? The bigger part that loved her like he'd never loved anyone before didn't hesitate.

"What do you need?"

She picked up her glass and threw back the shot before setting it back down on the table with a click. "I need you to be with me. Like that night in the woods."

He stared at her in stunned silence. She was here for a fuck? He knew she was tough, but damn. That was ice cold.

"Christ, Mina. Can you see how cruel that is? You're supposed to be an empath. A veritable fucking superhero of other peoples’ emotions and you can't see what that would do to me to sleep with you and have to watch you walk away again?"

Even as he spoke though, his blood began to heat at the memory of her mouth against his. Of the way her silky skin felt sliding over his. Of the way her body shuddered and quaked when she came. And then he was standing, and closing the short distance between them.

She opened her mouth to speak as he stood and rounded the table. He gripped her shoulders and jerked her to her feet.

"Dan, I--"

He dipped his head, crushing his mouth to hers, the bitter-sweetness of having her in his arms again enough to bring him low.

"Is this what you want?" he groaned against her soft, sweet lips as his hands trailed from her shoulders down her waist to her hips where they settled with a squeeze. "Is this what you came for?" He slid his mouth over her cheek to nip at her earlobe before sending biting kisses down the sensitive side of her neck.

Her breath came in soft gasps as she clutched at his chest.

"No."

Her voice was shaky but firm and she shoved him hard enough that he jerked back to stare down at her flushed face. "No. I mean, yes, but...” She wet her lips and then met his gaze with a solemn one of her own. “I’m here because I love you. And I don’t care how much time we have together, or what I have to suffer when we part. I want to be with you if you’ll have me."

The room seemed to dip and sway as the words swirled around him like a riddle, his brain locking on the only ones that mattered.

She loved him.

* * *

Her heart was beating so loud, even Dan with his human ears could surely hear it, but he just stood there in silence, like a statue.

She’d hoped for the best, and prepared for rejection, with a plan to wear him down somehow, some way, eventually.

But this? This…nothing? Was scaring the shit out of her.

“Dan?”

“Yes.”

“Did you hear what I said?” she asked, her stomach curling in on itself as the words poured out in a desperate rush. “I was wrong. I admit it and I know I hurt you but I promise, if you forgive me, I’ll never hurt you like that again.” Hot tears filled her eyes and she cursed under her breath. No. She would not be one of those women who cried when things didn’t go her way. She was a warrior. She would stand up and fight. “If you need time, take it. If you need space, I’ll go.” She clutched a handful of his soft t-shirt in her hand before jerking his head down so they were eye to eye. “But life is short, and we’re meant to be together. I can feel it deep in my soul. So don’t take too long.”

It took all her will to release him without pressing her mouth to his one last time. She had just moved to take a step back when his jaw worked and he reached out to clasp her wrist in one, strong hand.

“It’s longer than you think.”

She stared at him, transfixed as much by the heat in his gaze as his puzzling words.

“What is?”

“Life,” he murmured, yanking her hard until she collided with his muscular chest. “Specifically, mine.”

The double-speak was pissing her off now and she tried to jerk away to demand he start talking sense, but found herself trapped. She narrowed her eyes and jerked harder, gasping when his iron grip didn’t even budge.

“What the fuck is this?” she demanded, staring down at their joined arms, brain floundering for some explanation. Dan was one of the strongest men she’d ever known, but if she wanted him to release her, it should’ve been no problem to force him to do so.

Unless…

“No, no, no, no,” she murmured, horror snaking through her and turning her skin to ice. “Tell me they didn’t. Did Etienne or Taya turn you?” she demanded with a furious whisper. “The Council was very clear, Dan. They barely tolerated it from me. They will destroy you if--”

He pressed his finger to her lips and shook his head slowly. “I’m a bear shifter, Mina. Apparently, I always have been. According to Etienne, without a parent to show me how or examples to guide me, the bear remained latent until…”

He flicked a glance to her chest and she could almost read his thoughts from the expression on his face, so filled with pain and regret.

Until she’d been shot and nearly died on his watch.

Her elation at his announcement dimmed a little. She should’ve known he would blame himself.

“That wasn’t your fault, Dan. We all missed that sniper,” she said, kissing his fingertip before tugging her arm from his now unresisting grip. “No one, shifter or human, could’ve protected me from that.” He nodded slowly, the pain in his face fading into reluctant acceptance. “But I don’t get it. Etienne knew? And even now, I can’t scent your animal, and when we made love, I didn’t sense it. Are you sure?”

His crack of laughter chipped away at the ice in her gut and she found her own lips stretching into a half-smile.

“Am I sure that I turned into a nine hundred-pound killing machine? Yeah,” he said, leaning forward to draw her into his arms again. “I’m sure. Etienne said it will take a couple weeks before it will be obvious to other shifters. If you like, I can show you? But I’d prefer to show you something else first.”

He dipped his head down to kiss her, slipping his tongue between her lips and tasting her mouth. God he felt good. And as good as it was, things had only gotten better because now they had the one thing she’d thought they’d never have enough of.

Time.

The hows and whys and whens could wait. Right now, she just wanted Dan.

He scooped her into his arms and carried her into his bedroom. Then, he laid back onto the bed, cradling Mina on his lap.

"Lawman, if you thought I was willing before, you should try me now," she whispered, tracing her fingertips over his shoulders and neck, touching every bit of him she could get her hands on.

"You know," said Dan with a sly smile, "I think I might still be a little mad. I've been the victim of species prejudice. Surely I deserve some recompense for my suffering?" He pulled her closer to him and let his head dip into her breasts drawing in her scent.

"Fine, fine," she said with a chuckle. “I owe you one.”

"Talk is cheap,” he said, his voice low and thick. He nipped the swell of her breast with his teeth. “But I guess I’m just glad that you came back for me and not because I was a convenient shifter lover."

"That, right there, doesn't make any sense," she accused. “You could’ve just told me.”

"Blame my twisted mind. You put me through hell woman, and I admit I wasn't thinking straight. I wasn't going to tell you at all. I'd live a lonely existence, gnawing on the bones of your abandonment, secure in the knowledge that I fucked myself over good."

"That is seriously hacked."

"But," he said with a smile, pulling her close again, "you’ll be glad to know that I forgive you."

"Forgive me? I was on trial for my life, you know,” she managed between kisses.

"That’s your problem right there. You let little details get in the way."

She put her hand on his swelling cock and stroked it through his pants. He groaned.

"You'll find out I don’t let ‘little details’ get in the way. I tackle them head on."

"That's hardly a little detail you have under your hand there," he muttered thickly. “And it’s getting bigger with every passing second.”

“Well, let's see what we can do about it then," she whispered, sliding her arms around her lover…her mate, once more.

Hope you loved the Montana Dragons! Looking for something new and sexy? Check out Hunted, the first book in the super steamy series!

Bookish librarian or vampire hunter?

When nightwalker Gabriel Thorne is tasked to do recon on Zara Matheson, he thinks it’s a waste of time. This shy bookworm’s edgiest achievement is winning a blue ribbon for the county’s best pumpkin pie. It’s only when he meets her face to face that he realizes his mistake. Because while she might look like an angel, Zara brings out the beast in him.

Zara Matheson hasn’t been the same since the mysterious death of her father, and she’ll do whatever it takes to get to the bottom of it. When her investigation leads her to Club Nitris, she slips into the seductive world of dominance and submission with a man who rocks her to the core. But is their searing attraction blinding her to the danger that surrounds her?

Excerpt:

“A female? Come on, boss. Tell me you’re not serious.”

Gabriel stared at Irena for a long moment, waiting to see if she was about to crack a laugh and tell him she was pulling his leg.

Instead, her sherry-colored eyes narrowed and she leaned forward over the massive desk between them.

“Do you have a problem with that, Gabriel? Maybe you think women are incapable of being a danger to our kind? Unworthy of your attention?”

He blew out a long sigh and settled heavily back against the chair across from her.

“Nope. You know that’s not it, so don’t pull that shit with me.”

Irena had been running the show since he had been recruited to The Protectorate fifty years before, and she was a killing machine. One of the most lethal vampires since her creator, Ezekiel. She was tough enough to be both the problem and the solution in almost any circumstance, so her irritation at the idea that he wasn’t taking this new threat seriously was understandable. But, while she was wrong in her assumption of the why’s of it, she was dead right on the rest.

He wanted no part of this particular assignment.

“Let one of the others handle her. You know I’m not good at women.” He shifted restlessly. “They think I’m mean.”

He didn’t blame them much for that.

He was mean.

Or, as mean as he had to be to offset the curse of uncanny animal magnetism that came along with being a vampire. Unfortunately, between the “back the eff up” vibe he chose to embrace and his menacing size, it wasn’t exactly easy to get close to people he was asked to reconnoiter even when they were men. Women were nearly impossible.

He tried to placate Irena with a compromise. “Look, maybe there’s no need for up close and personal anyway. I can run surveillance on her from afar and get you the information you need.” Because it was almost certainly a false alarm anyway. Just like the past five had been.

Irena had been slipping deeper and deeper into paranoia and, while he felt terrible that she was struggling, he didn’t want to give her more rope to hang herself. The other Protectors were watching very closely, and there were already whispers of a potential coup. If this was another wild good chase, those whispers would soon become cries for her head on the proverbial chopping block.

Irena might not be a perfect leader, but she was a damn sight better than most of the alternatives, and he would hate to see her lose everything she’d worked so hard for. Especially now, when it was all she had left.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t going to budge on this. He could see it in her eyes.

“Nope.” She shook her head briskly. “We’ve already had someone on her from afar for almost a week and, as of this morning, we’ve got nothing. I have a feeling about this one. We need to get an operative in close.” She blew out a sigh and set her elbows on the desk like she was going to start spitting unwelcome truths at him, and he tensed in preparation. “Look, Gabriel, I know you don’t like it, but maybe it’s time to—”

He held up a hand to shut her down before she even finished. “I’m not doing it. I know what you’re going to say, and I’m telling you right now, it’s not happening.”

She went quiet for a long moment and then shrugged as her eyes went hard. “Well, luckily for me, I’m the boss, and you don’t get to make those decisions. So consider this a direct order,” she said, leaning back and tossing her inky black hair over one shoulder. “I wish it didn’t have to be this way. I think you’re one of the most honorable of our kind. But I need someone I can trust to handle this as quickly and carefully as possible. You don’t have to screw her. Just let off the reins for a few minutes, pour a little of the charm on and get some answers for me, yes?”

She laid her elegant fingers on the manila file between them and slid it toward him but didn’t release it right away.

“This is the only time I will ever ask this of you. I swear it. Just something about her…I can’t let it go. Not yet.” Her tone had gone reedy and the desperation on her face was like a punch in the chest. “If you do this and find she’s clean, I’ll take a step back. Reevaluate what I’m doing, okay? But we’ve got to take care of this first.” She tapped her index finger on the file between them. “Do it for me.”

He hated to disappoint her, but damn, his guts were churning already.

He pushed aside the sense of foreboding and gave his boss a curt nod. She’d been through enough in the past few months. Besides, she was right. They both knew she didn’t have to ask. Unless he wanted to find himself out of a job and the loop altogether, he was going to have to figure out a way to get her what she needed.

Because him out of the loop was out of the question. It would mean a bunch of bloodsuckers unburdened by conscience in power with one less vampire who still had some humanity left in him to balance the scales. And the only thing more sickening than the thought of what Irena was asking him to do was the thought of that.

“When do I start?” he asked, bracing himself.

“Tomorrow night at the latest. She’ll only be in town for ten more days. We need as much on her as possible before she leaves the Cape and heads to her hometown for the holidays. If we determine she’s a code red threat, we’ll need to take her out here, where we have some control over any ensuing investigation.”

Because The Protectorate had made sure years before that they had two beat cops on their payroll and one homicide detective under their control to avoid any inconvenient poking around.

Fucking vampires.

He swallowed a curse and schooled his features as best he could. “Roger that.” He rolled to his feet, shooting her a questioning glance. “We done?”

Her gaze softened a little and her full lips tipped into a weary smile. “This isn’t meant to be a punishment, Gabriel. I’m not the enemy. I know it goes against your code to work this way, but we need to be hyper-diligent for a little longer. Just until things go back to normal.”

Back to normal. Six months after two rogue vampires had murdered a family vacationing on the beach just a few miles from their headquarters. It had been the headline for weeks.

The Bonfire Massacre.

His stomach lurched at the thought of young Elliott Finster, who hadn’t seen his fifth birthday because of those animals, and wondered for the hundredth time if he shouldn’t just step back and let the vampire hunters have their way. Because, the ugly truth of it was, most of his kind didn’t deserve to walk this earth.

He shoved back the thought ruthlessly and reminded himself of the reality of the situation.

The dozen or so people each year who fancied themselves hunters were written off by the general public as crackpots and never made it very far anyway. No matter how much evidence they supplied, most human minds just couldn’t accept the thought of an apex predator in their midst, let alone hundreds of them. Better they remained in the dark, or true pandemonium would ensue. The handful of hunters that were actually capable of doing nightwalkers any damage were so few and far between, they would need to increase by a hundredfold to make true progress.

But showy, high-profile murders got attention and, right after the grisly massacre, the conspiracy theorists had come out in droves. Among them had been one tenacious old bastard who had not only found their hive, but also scored a kill.

What were the odds that he’d have hit them right in the heart?

A shaft of pain lanced through him as he thought of his fallen comrade. Melissande. Sweet and kind…the best of them all. Ezekiel’s lover. Irena’s sister.

It was that, above all else, that had Gabriel reaching for the file folder.

For better or worse, these were his people. Just because most of them were monsters, that didn’t negate his vow to protect the ones who weren’t. The few left who actually mattered.

He steeled himself and nodded.

“I’m on it.”

He turned on his heel and cut a path to the door, palming it open and closing it behind him before letting out a muffled oath.

Already, every muscle in his body was tense at the thought of spending the next week trying to get close to this new person of interest. After serving in several militaries on several continents in the past century, and using his preternatural strength to rip combatants limb from limb in some cases, one would’ve thought using his powers to seduce and coerce a woman into giving him answers he needed wouldn’t have bothered him.

One would be wrong, though. There were certain things he just didn’t do.

He closed his eyes as that all too familiar memory forced its way to the forefront of his mind.

“Run, child. Run.”

It would be one hundred twenty years come Christmas, and it still felt like yesterday.

He let his eyes snap open, swallowing hard. A slick of nausea coated his belly as he made his way down the hall and toward the stairwell.

When he reached the main floor leading to the Dark Side section of Club Nitris, he barely looked up as he cut across the room, blocking out the sounds around him. He had a dirty job to do, and the sooner he got started, the sooner he could put it to bed.

When he reached his office, he closed the door behind him and sat at his desk staring at the file Irena had given him as if it were alive, a strange sense of foreboding causing him to hesitate.

He poured two fingers of Scotch from the crystal decanter by his elbow and took a fortifying sip before cracking open the manila folder and scanning the contents quickly.

Zara Matheson. Twenty-nine-year-old librarian. Never married, no children. Lots of community service commendations, a blue ribbon at last year’s Harvest Festival for Best Pumpkin Pie, and a clean background check.

Squeaky.

Clean.

Which instantly sent Gabriel’s radar pinging.

Usually there was something. A stint in rehab. A sealed juvie record. Some time in a mental institution or even just some kinky sex scandal. Any indicator that the person of interest was real and flawed and not just some shell.

But not Ms. Matheson. In fact, she seemed to be a bona fide, flesh and blood saint.

That alone had the back of his neck prickling. If she was such a sweetheart, then why the hell had she gotten Irena’s attention in the first place?

He thumbed through to the next page, reading as he chewed on that bone for a while. After what seemed like a dozen pages of accolades for community service, and another dozen rehashing her academic and career accomplishments, he reached the first photo of the woman. The shot was taken in profile so he couldn’t see much, but what he saw jacked his pulse up double-time.

Blonde.

Like, crazy, sexy, platinum blonde that instantly brought to mind fifties pinups. Her hair was in a loose knot on the top of her head, but a few tendrils had escaped and brushed the collar of her black suit jacket. A suit that clung to every ripe inch of her like a second skin.

What the hell kind of librarian looked like that?

He flipped to the second of two pictures, and his whole body tensed. Even from the printed page, she leveled him with a set of wide blue eyes and plump, raspberry lips, and a hot bolt of lust coursed through him as his fangs broke through his gums with a snap.

Well, fuck.

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