I shouldn’t have overreacted. I needed him as much just then as he needed me. More, maybe. I needed to talk over my fears with someone who would understand.

It never occurred to me that revealing my inner thoughts to one who was technically my enemy might not be the best idea. He wasn’t my enemy. When we were together, it didn’t matter that we were on opposite sides. I could never think of him as one of them.

He wasn’t, not to me. He was my Vincent.

I was pacing in front of the fire when Christian returned. He had the high color and bright eyes of someone who just hunted. I could almost hear his heart beating wildly.

“Good hunt?” I asked with a smile.

“You should get out there. It’s like a buffet.” He flopped back on the bed with a satisfied smile.

“You have your own room, you know. Don’t put your dirty shoes on my duvet.”

He kicked off his shoes with a scowl. “You’re still in a bad mood. You really should hunt.”

“Yes, yes. I will.” I did need to. I was starving. But the release wouldn’t be enough. I could shift as many times as I liked and kill as many of the forest’s inhabitants as my heart desired, but when I shifted back I would still have the same problems as I did before. It would solve nothing in the long run.

I looked at him, stretched out with his fingers laced behind his head. He had his father’s height, but his build was much stronger, much more muscular. He wasn’t my little boy anymore and hadn’t been for a very long time.

“What have you heard?” I asked in a low voice. “Don’t tell me you didn’t hear anything in all the time you were out there.”

He let out an exasperated sigh and sat up. “You have a one-track mind.”

“And you have a job to do here. You’re here to listen out for signs of rebellion. Anything I need to know about.” I crossed the room in a few quick, long strides and leaned over him. I might’ve been smaller than him and not nearly as strong, but I was still his mother and I could make that count when I needed to. “Remember something. I’m a woman, and Bradford’s approval was the only reason I was allowed to take over your father’s position. Now that Bradford’s no longer in the picture, what do you think is going to happen? Do you think the rest of the clan is going to roll over and let me continue leading without question? Or do you think one of those bastards is going to overthrow me?”

Fear flickered in his eyes. “You think that would happen?”

“What did you think would happen?” I asked with a sneer. “That if they weren’t happy with me, they would let you take over instead?”

“No!”

“I wonder,” I whispered. “I really do wonder.”

“That’s not what I was thinking! I never thought anything would happen at all! I thought the office in Miami would be up for grabs, the big one, and that was it. I never thought anything would happen to you.”

And he was telling the truth.

Relief washed over me. At least my son wasn’t plotting against me—still, he might’ve been an instrument for another’s plotting. He was so naïve, so trusting. A boy in a man’s body. Funny, how our kind tended to look much younger than we really were. A teenager on the surface, a fifty-year-old many underneath with all the wisdom and sagacity of a normal fifty-year-old.

Christian, on the other hand, thought and acted just like a nineteen-year-old would. I wondered again, if I shouldn’t have sent him off to live with one of the males of our clan, to learn how to be a man. No, because Bradford would’ve tried to get his hands on him. I couldn’t have risked that.

I sat beside him on the bed, hands clasped in my lap. “Do you finally understand what we’re up against here? Do you get it? We have to be careful. We’re seated at the head of the clan’s largest branch. There are plenty of others who want the position.”

“They’re all too busy jockeying for Bradford’s position.”

“Oh, so you did hear something?” I asked with a knowing smile.

“Not about an overthrow. I never heard anything about an overthrow or revenge of anything like that. But yeah, I heard a lot of whispering about who was gonna take over now that he’ll be gone.”

“So none of them are mad enough to lash out at the Council? Or the Everglade clan?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so. I mean, maybe I missed something, but I think the idea is that we can’t afford another war right now.”

No, that was certainly the case. We couldn’t afford that one bit, especially now that our money was drying up.

“Who would want that job?” I asked, more to myself than Christian.

“What about you?” he murmured.

I laughed, though it wasn’t like I had never thought about it. “What a mess to inherit. Don’t you think? I mean, there’s no money coming in anymore. There’s a bunch of dissatisfied shifters pissed off because they can’t act like fools anymore. They can’t hurt humans, they can’t use them. They can’t sell them. We have to rely on our wits and skills to get what we need now. They don’t want to hear that.”

“You could do something about that. You could change it.”

“Could I?” I watched him closely. “Could I do something about changing the way they feel about humans, then? Or the way they hate Everglades and want to wipe them out?”

He moved uncomfortably. We had never seen eye-to-eye on the whole ‘hating humans and Everglades’ thing. “I don’t know.”

“Right. I don’t know, either. All I know is, they would never accept a woman who goes against everything they believe. Leading them would be impossible, and trying would be a total waste of time.” I let out a shaky sigh. “It would only break my heart.”

“I wouldn’t let them do that to you.”

“I know you would try to stop them, but you couldn’t. And I wouldn’t want you to, honestly. I wouldn’t want you to go through any pain. I wouldn’t want you to fight for me. No, it’s best that we don’t even try—it’ll be hard enough to keep a hold on what we have.” My heart clenched when I spoke the words because I didn’t believe them. I didn’t want them. I wanted so much more. I could make so many things better. I could lead us unto a new era—if my clan would let me. Which they wouldn’t.

“Do you have any word on who thinks they’re in the lead for the position?” I asked, trying to change the subject before I wept. Between arguing with Vincent and knowing I would never have what I wanted, my heart was sorer than it had been in a long time.

“The usual. Lance, Robert, Drake. The top three.”

I rolled my eyes. None of them could find their ass with both hands and a map. Bradford had only kept them around because they worshipped the ground he walked on and he was the type who needed that. “Nobody from the other branches?”

“I don’t think so. They might all be just as worried about losing their place as you are.”

“You might be right.” So the top spot was up for grabs among three of the stupidest, most useless people I ever knew. That didn’t make me feel much better.

“You should hunt,” Christian advised as he stood. “It’ll make you feel better. You look pale and tired.”

“I am tired,” I admitted.

“You always think better when you’ve fed,” he reminded me.

“Which one of us is the parent?” I asked with a smile.

* * *

Christian was right, after all. The forest was beautiful and peaceful—and full of game.

I had the run of the place. Everyone else had already eaten their fill just after the trial ended.

Trial.

What a joke.

It was more like a public shaming, which he needed. I was never one for calling things anything but what they were. That was my problem with it. Why not tell us they were gathering us together to watch them make an example of him? And there was no way any of us could get away with skipping the execution. It wasn’t an option. I would have to be there.

I broke out in a run, maybe because I wished I could outrun everything around me. The uncertainty. The regret. Knowing what I wanted would never be mine, not ever. Was that my fault? Should I know my place and be happy there? Should it have been enough that I had risen above the rank of brood mare, that I had taken a situation that had once made me recoil in horror—the idea of marrying Pierce, who was so much older than me—and turned it into something that looked a little like the life I had always dreamed of?

I couldn’t have that dream, not ever. Vincent was part of that dream, and he would never be mine.

My legs flew and my paws pounded the ground. Thick, heavy moss covered it. The trees still had most of their leaves even though the weather had been abnormally cold over the last few weeks.

Most of the animals hadn’t had the chance to burrow down for winter yet since they weren’t accustomed to doing it so early. I could smell them all around me—deer, fox, rabbit, bear. So many, everywhere. It made my head spin, knowing I could take my pick.

I heard rustling up ahead.

I stopped, poised, my nose in the air. This was always my favorite part of the hunt, choosing my prey and letting them decide if it would be a long hunt or a mercifully short one. It could always go one of two ways, but it always ended one way. I had never lost my prey, ever.

I walked slowly, carefully in the direction of the noise, all my senses tuned to it. Leaves rustled in a bush maybe fifty feet ahead.

I smelled blood and my heart sank. So I was walking in on a kill. Damn, and I thought I had the forest to myself. I stepped back, wondering who was out there with me.

They must’ve heard me, because the leaves parted and a head poked out.

I froze.

Even at a distance, I could tell that the warthog was half-insane.

Rabid?

No, but wild and not satisfied with whatever it had just killed. What the hell was an animal like that doing in the forest?

I didn’t have time to think about it. Even a full-grown lioness wasn’t enough to intimidate a crazed animal less than half its size. I barely darted out of the way in time to miss its tusks as it charged at me.

No! I thought, hoping it could hear me the way other animals could.

My heart raced as I looked left and right, hoping for a way out of the little clearing.

I mean no harm. Let me go on my way.

If it understood me, it didn’t care.

I roared as it charged again, and this time it wasn’t as difficult to get out of the way. It was running blind, desperate to spear me with the long, sharp tusks. It might not even have been hungry.

It only wanted to kill.

I planted my feet and roared again. It seemed to cower for a moment, but that fear bled into rage as it took one last charge.

Another roar pierced the darkness, and I turned my head just in time to catch sight of the magnificent lion leaping in front of me.

Where he had come from, I didn’t know.

All I knew was he took down the charging beast with one swipe of a massive paw, claws tearing into its flesh.

It screamed, falling back. The lion tore into its throat until blood spurted in all directions. It fell limp and went silent.

The lion roared in triumph before wiping its mouth along the grass to clean the blood.

I watched, heart still racing. I didn’t dare hope. It couldn’t be.

But his gold eyes met mine and I knew.

Vincent.