Elijah had immediately felt a pang of regret when Valentina had snapped at him. “I don’t know what got into me. I know I acted like a jerk to Anthony, and I didn’t mean to scoff at your idea.”

“You’re an alpha male. When another male comes around, you lose your common sense until you establish dominance. I’ve seen it a million times. It’s also an indication that your panther is starting to think of this as his territory, which to be honest, I’m not super comfortable with. This is my territory, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.”

He thought about that for a moment, searching for the panther within himself and for its motivations. All he got was the distinct impression that it wasn’t the land that the panther was worried about. It was the jaguar sitting next to him.

“I get it. Your territory,” he said, smiling a little as he tested the waters for her reaction. When she smiled back, something within him loosened. “So, what are these magical methods?”

“Well, that’s where it gets sticky. There are a couple people I can call and see if they can help. One is local, the other is not. The local isn’t exactly social, and our arrangement is tenuous at best. The long-distance friend would probably have to call someone else, but I have no doubt he would help if he could.” She sighed. “Here’s the thing, as I said before, there is still a lot you don’t know, and I was trying to ease you into things, but that’s not going to work. So, there are mages. People who can do magic, and no alakazam bullshit, either. I’m talking real-deal magic. Do not ever make a deal with one if you can avoid it. Their prices are too high; you’ll pay through the nose for them to barely lift a finger. Plus, they don’t exactly get along with shifters on the whole. There are also gods, demigods, and mythical creatures wandering around. They usually have some kind of special ability, and I try not to get involved in their affairs if I can help it.”

He felt as if he was being punked, as if someone was going to jump out from behind one of the doors and laugh at him as soon as he accepted what she was saying, so he just stared at her.

“I know, it doesn’t seem real, does it? I promise you it is.”

The panther within assured him she was telling the truth, and that just boggled his mind.

“So, our options are call the mage who lives in my territory or call the siren I helped last year and see if he knows anyone who can help.”

“A siren? Like a mermaid or merman or whatever?”

“No, think more traditional Greek mythology. Winged women, that kind of thing.”

“Sure, yeah, why not?” He had a brief moment of feeling as if he were drunk and she was trying to explain quantum computing to him.

Valentina pulled a phone from her skin-tight jeans, and his eyes remained fixed on her luscious curves for a moment too long. When she cleared her throat, his eyes darted up to hers. “Don’t distract me while I’m trying to be professional, okay?” she said, grinning at him.

He tried to think good clean thoughts, but the only thing that stayed in his head for any length of time was the feeling of her under him, the image of her breasts bouncing as he pounded into her.

“Seriously? I can practically feel what you’re thinking right now,” she hissed at him angrily while she held the phone to her ear.

He shrugged. “Sorry.”

A male voice answered Valentina’s call, and his panther was immediately on guard.

“Hey, Alec, it’s Valentina.” She paused while he responded. “I’m good. Listen, I was wondering if you knew anyone who was good at tracking where someone has been?”

He could hear the deep male voice on the other line as it said, “Isn’t that Imogen’s thing? Is she okay?”

“Yeah, she’s fine, but she can’t track when the person is in a car. The scent isn’t strong enough. I have the general vicinity, but I need to narrow it down further. Otherwise, I’m going to be searching forest preserves, cornfields, and the Chicago suburbs until I’m old and gray.”

“Hum, I could see if Thad can come out there and help you guys. He’s got some skills in being able to pull up the history of a location.”

“But could he track it if it moved?”

“Not to my knowledge, but let me message him and ask. Can I text you later?”

“Sure thing. The sooner the better, though, yeah? This is a little time sensitive.”

They exchanged farewells, and his panther relaxed. She hadn’t seemed remotely interested in anything except business with the other man. He felt this strange pull to her, something he couldn’t stop thinking about, and for the last few hours, he had also felt an incredibly strong desire to mark her as his somehow, to leave a bite mark or a hickey on her neck, so everyone would know she was claimed without question. The thing was, she wasn’t his, and he wasn’t hers.

“Mage it is,” she said under her breath as she scrolled through the contacts on her phone. As she pressed it to her ear once more, he could feel the nervous energy coming off her. She even began bouncing her leg up and down while the phone rang.

“Yes?” another male voice asked when it answered the phone.

“Victor? It’s Valentina.”

“Alpha. What can I do for you?” The man’s voice was strange and echoed through the phone.

“Would you be able to trace where someone’s been?”

“Yes. May I ask for more details, please, Alpha?”

“A friend of mine was kidnapped and taken somewhere. We have the location narrowed down to about ten square miles, which is mostly comprised of park, farming, and some small businesses, but we need to find out where he was held.”

“I see. And what are you willing to pay for my services?”

“If allowing you to live in my territory isn’t enough,” she growled, before adding in a calmer tone, “then what are you asking?”

“Oh, I certainly consider that part of my payment, but that isn’t enough to cover all of it.” The man chuckled derisively. “I think I would like a favor from you in the future.”

“What kind of favor?” She ground the question out through clenched teeth.

“I’m not sure yet, but when I call it in, you have to help. Agreed?”

“Let me think about it.”

“Tick, tock, Alpha,” he said as Valentina hung up.

They sat in silence for a few minutes while she silently seethed next to him. “Dammit!” The statement erupted out of her, startling them both.

“I’m assuming there is a reason you don’t want to owe Victor a favor?”

“He’s a mage, and to be honest, I don’t trust him. When I found out he was living in my territory, he had been doing so for some time, and the only reason he was outed was because he attacked Domino and Harper, well, mainly Domino. Plus, the amount of magic he uses to glamor and ward his home is more than slightly worrying.”

“Glamor and ward?” Elijah asked, thinking he could probably draw the right conclusions from the context, but not wanting to assume anything incorrectly.

“To magically hide and to magically protect. For example, the siren brothers glamor their wings so they can walk around in public and not draw attention to themselves or have to cut weird slits in all their clothing. Warding is kind of like erecting a forcefield around something.”

“Gotcha. And this dude uses a lot of both?”

“I’ve been in his home once, and it looks completely different from one side of the glamor to the other. He’s not just making his house look smaller, he’s made it seem like there are multiple houses, all of which are owned with families living inside. I have no idea how he does it. Even when I was inside, I could feel that certain areas were magically concealed. He was hiding things from me, and I’m both curious and not as to what they were. If he’s up to no good in my territory, then I can be held responsible for his actions if the High Clan thinks I could or should have stepped in.”

“Wow, okay.” He breathed out forcefully. “One more quick question: who or what is the High Clan?”

“The shifter ruling body. Once we know a little more about you and what happened, we will need to send in some paperwork to register you with them so they know you exist, and you’ll need to find a pack that will take you on as an alpha. If there is one thing the High Clan doesn’t like, it’s a pack-less alpha.”

It was like standing under a waterfall of information. “There is so much to this I don’t know.”

“Exactly, which is why you should keep your judgments to yourself until you know more,” she chided him gently. Her phone had buzzed while she was talking, and when she finished, she tapped the screen, turning it on.

Elijah desperately wanted to peer over her shoulder and read the message, but he didn’t. It might not have anything to do with him or the people who kidnapped him.

“Well, shit.” She expelled a forceful breath as she dropped her phone on her lap and looked over at him. “Apparently, Thad, Alec’s brother, isn’t available to help. Something to do with his mate and her work . . . I don’t know. I guess that leaves me owing a favor to Victor.”

He could almost feel the chills run down her spine as she picked her phone back up and went to her recent calls.

Guilt was churning in his belly, so he said, “Don’t. We’ll figure something else out. I don’t want you getting into a situation that makes you uncomfortable on my account.”

“Elijah . . .”

It shouldn’t have, but every time she said his name, his body reacted, and not just his body but his panther. It roared inside him, pawing and pacing, wanting to get to her, urging him to touch her, but now wasn’t the time.

“It’s not something I would do for just anyone.” She said the words quietly while she looked him square in the eye. “You’ve been through a lot, and you certainly didn’t ask for this, so I’m willing to risk owing Victor Bloodmoon a favor if it means we can get to the truth of what happened.”

He paused, waiting to see if she had anything else to say. The flashes of memory that he’d been getting back scratched at his mind. “There’s something I should tell you,” he said, pausing to make sure she was listening. When she settled back onto the couch and gave him her full attention, he continued. “I’ve been remembering a little more about what happened. Some of it still doesn’t make sense, but I think you should know before you go owing favors to anyone.”

She nodded and waited for him to continue.

“I remember being on a table, strapped down, while they measured and prodded me. They did scans and all kinds of stuff. I heard one of them talking about my kidney function, but it’s all in bits and pieces. Then there are these other memories when I’m not myself . . . Where I remember that I have a daughter, and I’m worried that she thinks I’ve abandoned her, but I don’t have any kids. There’s also the rage, just this blinding white-hot anger that rises to a fever pitch before I get knocked out and wake up in puddles of blood that I know by scent aren’t my own, that they are human.”

Valentina’s eyes were staring at her long, elegant fingers while she played with the button on the back of her phone.

“I feel like the memories of me having a daughter belong to someone else, and whoever they are had been there a long time, long enough to be thinking about giving up hope. I don’t just want to find out what happened to me—I mean, yeah, that’s my end goal—but I want to find out who these memories belong to and how the hell they got into my head.”

“I can tell you part of that, but not all of it.” She took a deep breath as though preparing herself to impart bad news. “Shifters have the ability to pass memories on when we turn someone. There is something in the bite that allows us to send a message to help with the transition. Most use it to give instructions on how to shift, or anything they feel they need to impart about their specific animal. I think whoever bit you was trying to tell you who they were by giving you impressions of their life.

“I’m not sure why the images and memories are so jumbled, but my guess is that it has to do with him being knocked out repeatedly and not having any way to focus the images. Whoever he is, his life has become a repeating cycle of fight and recovery. From what you’ve said, I’m sure when they knock him out, they also induce the shift so the human side is completely absent, and then they can get the animal to attack and turn whomever they want.

“I want to help you figure out what happened, but I also want to rescue anyone there and put a stop to whatever is going on. This man has a child who is missing her father. If I can, I want to reunite them.” A fierce passion shone in her eyes as she spoke, and he could see her in all her alpha glory. There was no doubt in his mind that she would accomplish her goals. He just wished she wasn’t putting herself in a vulnerable position to do so.