Ashton closed up shop and headed home. He found his brother and his recently turned wife snuggling on the couch in front of the TV. He wished to God Ronan had stayed in the woods. It was nice to have his bro around again, but he’d insisted on taking over their parents’ house and moving in his new wife. Makayla was all right, but Ashton had grown used to having the big Victorian house to himself.

Now they were around night and day. Makayla ran her start up magazine from the house and Ronan constantly brought his kills in from the forest and butchered them in the backyard. It was disgusting.

Ashton went hunting now and again like most shifters in Mystic Harbor, but Ronan took the whole predator thing to a new level. It was like he couldn’t go a day without killing something.

Ashton shut the front door, a bit too loudly, and stomped to the kitchen. Makayla had hired a maid service, and the place was utterly spotless all the damn time now. He pulled a beer from the immaculate fridge and went to sit in the living room.

The happy couple looked up at him like he was intruding in his own home. Sure it had been his and Ronan’s family home, sure Ronan technically owned the place, but still. Rude.

“Just got off work,” he grunted and leaned back in the recliner. He lived here; they could just deal. He looked at the TV screen. Chick flick. Great. He rolled his eyes and took a long drag of beer. “Is this your new taste in movies, Ronan?” he teased.

His older brother growled at him, showing his sharp teeth. “After a decade in the woods, anything is entertainment. Makayla likes it. Shut up or go away.”

Makayla giggled and snuggled deeper into Ronan’s shoulder. “Have fun,” Ashton said, standing. He could deal with a chick flick, if he had a chick of his own. But Ronan and Makayla were seriously vomit-inducing sometimes. This was one of those moments.

He hurried upstairs to his room and drank the rest of his beer. There was no way he would spend an entire Friday night cooped up in his room. He threw on a clean shirt, washed his face and went back downstairs. As he left the house, Ronan and Makayla didn’t even look up from their movie.

They probably wanted him to move out. He wanted to move out, too. But with rent on the shop and all his expenses, it was hard to afford a decent place of his own. Plus, he’d been living there his whole life. Why should he have to move out just because Ronan decided to come back in from the woods?

Ashton climbed on his motorcycle and started up the coast. He needed to clear his head. After he’d driven twenty miles or so, he parked at a turn out that over looked the ocean. The big moon was nearly full, and it filled his blood with lust. He grinned in the moonlight, watching the waves crash on the shore below.

The sound of a motor tore him out of his reverie, and he turned to see a motorcycle coming to a stop beside him in the turn out. She pulled her helmet off, and her black hair whirled around her face in long tendrils.

“Want to race?” she asked, grinning wildly.

“Heck yes,” he said. Before he could pull his helmet back on and mount his bike, the woman was off on the highway. He cursed under his breath as he tried to catch her. She slowed down and looked at him with a challenging smile before she opened her throttled and burst forward again. Ashton kicked it into high gear and zoomed after her. They sped along winding, narrow coastal highway. One pulled ahead, and then the other.

Late as it was, few cars were on the road, but as Isabella was trying to pull ahead of Ashton again, a semi came barreling down the opposite side of the highway. He hit the brakes, but Isabella sped ahead, charging in front of him in one swift motion. His heart leapt into his throat as the truck barreled passed, blaring its horn.

He caught up with her, and they rode side-by-side in their lane. He could hear her laughing gleefully. She looked over at him, her caramel-colored eyes wild with danger. He balked slightly. This chick was nuts. His cock twitched, and he growled.

Isabella sped into the parking lot of the local bar and cut her motor. Ashton parked next to her and slid from his bike, his mind still reeling from the near miss with the truck.

“Were you trying to get yourself killed?” he asked her, holding his helmet tightly in his hand. Ashton liked to push the limit as much as the next guy, but he wasn’t a fan of seeing beautiful women flattened on the highway.

“I’m half vampire, darling. Nothing as trite as a car accident could kill me.”

She had a point, but still. It had scared him half to death. The last thing he wanted was for her to be injured or killed. Why? He had no idea, but this inner lion wouldn’t stop roaring to protect the danger-hungry little halfling.

“Come on,” she said, moving into the bar. 

He entered the bar behind her and saw a pack of his wolf shifter buddies playing pool. Ronan hated wolves, but Ashton thought they were all right. They never bothered him. Shifter intermingling had become a lot more common in Mystic Harbor in the last ten years. Times had changed.

Isabella disappeared into the shadows so Ashton went to the bar and ordered a pint before going to join his bros at the pool table. He slapped hands and bumped fists with his buddies as they greeted one another. Ashton stood watching and drinking his beer as his friends competed.

As he was drinking his last swig of beer, he saw Isabella––petite and curvy with a back covered in his ink. His inner lion growled. She looked even more delectable than ever.

She stared him down as she passed, her lips thick with deep red lipstick. He wanted to lick her face until it was smeared across her pale skin while he drove his cock inside her over and over again.

Crap. Where did that come from? That woman was trouble. TROUBLE. If shifter inter-relationships had once been strained in Mystic Harbor, interaction with vampires had always been strained. Strained wasn’t even the right word. More like strangled, stabbed, and mutilated.

He tore his eyes away from her sexy little form and focused on the game. One of the wolves gave a muffled howl, and they all began to laugh.

“Who is that fine piece of ass?” the wolf said.

Ashton narrowed his eyes at him. He didn’t like him talking about her like that, even though he was thinking the same thing. “She’s a halfling vampire. Her father is Santiago Amador. I’d keep away if you want to keep your dick.”

The wolf pack burst into laughter. Ashton had gone to school with these dudes, but none of them were the alpha of the pack. They were all troublemakers and would get involved with a vampire just for the thrill of it.

Ashton hissed below his breath and went back to the bar for a second drink. Isabella was there, nursing a glass of red wine. She looked up at him, her caramel eyes alight with vampiric power.

“Where did you go?” he asked as the bartender set another pint in front of him.

“To freshen up in the lady’s room. Come here often?” she said with a smirk.

“Yeah. This is the only place to get booze after midnight around here, unless you want to drive a hundred miles up the coast for a shot of tequila.”

“Shots of tequila. What a good idea,” she said. She rapped her knuckles on the bar and yelled at the bartender. “Two shots of tequila, por favor.”