Lily studied Damara closely as she, Dmitri, and Liam walked into Lily and Noah’s hotel room. For some reason, knowing the other two men were shifters didn’t phase her, but knowing Damara was one fascinated her.

Damara looked at her, a knowing smirk on her face. “You figured it out, didn’t you?”

Flushing because she’d clearly been too obvious, she shrugged with a laugh. “Yesterday.”

Damara laughed. “That didn’t take you long at all.”

“And what made you assume that I didn’t tell her?” Noah asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Because I know you. And it didn’t take me long around her to realize she was an extremely intelligent woman.”

“All right, enough chit chat for now,” Liam growled, causing Lily’s head to whip toward him. He had a thick Irish accent, and she hadn’t realized he wasn’t American. “Fill us in on what you know.”

As Noah told them what they’d figured out, she opened her laptop and quickly pulled up the screenshots. Turning it around on the bed, she waited as Noah told them about the website she hacked into.

When everyone glanced her way, she pointed to the computer. “I took screenshots of the website before I backed out and wiped the traces of my search away. This is it, as well as pictures of the women being auctioned off, their ID numbers, and descriptions.”

The other three crowded around as Damara clicked through the pictures, her face going from curious to pissed off as she went. “Blake told us what was going on, but it’s different when you see the pictures and realize these are real women being held hostage and sold off to scum bags.”

“We’ll get the fucker,” Liam growled. “Don’t doubt that. If not today, then at some point, we’ll get him, and everyone else involved in this.”

Damara glanced over at Lily. “Can you send me these? I know Blake has a copy, but I think we should have one, too.”

Nodding as the others backed away, she turned the laptop back around and pulled up her email. “Of course. I’m hoping to hack back in and try to track down everyone who bought tickets to the gala once I strengthen my security more.”

“Good,” Dmitri growled as he paced, his Greek accent even thicker than it was when she heard him last time. “Then we can go after all of them easily.”

Damara was watching Noah as he pulled off his hat and settled it back on his head, his movements jerky. “I can tell what you’re thinking. Don’t worry about us. We can handle this without you.”

Lily frowned, her gaze bouncing between the two of them. “Would it be better if Noah was here? Maybe we can stay—”

“Hell no,” Noah growled, glaring at her. “I’m getting you out of here as fast as I can.”

“I want to contribute, and if we can help—”

“I said no.”

She returned his glare, starting to get worked up. “You don’t get to tell me what to do just because we slept together. I’ll do whatever I damned well please.”

He stalked toward her, his green eyes glowing brightly. “We did more than just sleep together, Lily—”

Damara cleared her throat, interrupting them. “While hearing intimate details of your lives is very fascinating, I’m not sure we really need to know this much.” Turning toward Lily, she put her hand gently on her shoulder. “The best way you can help us is getting us more information, and you don’t have to be here to do that. Plus, you’re a human, and much more vulnerable than we are. Go back with Noah and hack into the website again. Let us handle this.”

Her anger deflated as quickly as it sprung up as she nodded. Arching an eyebrow, she looked back at Noah. “See, that wasn’t so hard. All you had to do was say that and I would have agreed.”

Exhaling heavily, he shook his head as his eyes softened. “I’m sorry. The thought of you being so near dangerous shifters terrified me, and I let that fear do the talking for me.”

“I understand. Just don’t ever try to order me around again.”

He nodded, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. “I won’t.” Glancing over at the others, he asked, “Are you guys sure you have this? You don’t need more backup?”

Liam shook his head. “We’re well trained, and you know what my gift is. If we’re found out and they try to use their gifts, I can shield us from them and make it a fair fight.”

Noah frowned. “I still wish there were more Enforcers here for this.”

“Luke and Tarun are checking out another lead, and Blake had to be at the clubhouse. Some official meeting with other Enforcer leaders.”

“What’s your plan?”

Dmitri scowled darkly, glaring at his sister. “You don’t want to know.”

Noah eyes were confused as he looked between them. “What is it?”

Damara sighed. “We need a way in. I’m it.”

Noah’s confusion cleared and he matched Dmitri’s scowl. Lily looked between them, her brow wrinkled. “I don’t understand. What’s going on?”

“Did Noah explain about shifter gifts yet?” Damara asked, waiting on Lily’s nod before she continued. “My gift is being able to change what I look like. I can be anyone I want to be.”

She eyed her dubiously. “Seriously?”

Damara chuckled. “You doubt me?”

Before she could reply, Damara began changing right in front of her eyes. Her olive skin lightened a few shades, her hair grew longer and blonde—and her eyes were ones Lily saw every time she looked in the mirror. Light blue around the pupil, darkening to dark blue around the rims.

Holy. Shit.

“Oh my God,” she breathed, stepping closer. “It’s like looking in the mirror. The only thing that isn’t the same is the height.”

Damara shrugged as she returned to normal. “I can change everything, including my weight, but I can’t change my height.”

“How are you going to mask your scent?” Noah asked.

“I brought a vial of masking agent. Dragons have no scent.”

“And your eyes?”

“Contacts that give me a slightly elongated pupil at all times. I’ll call it a quirk.”

Realization dawned on Lily. “You’re going undercover? Isn’t that too dangerous?”

“Sure as fuck is,” Dmitri growled, glaring at his sister.

“I can handle this. And it’ll make it easier to get the women away. It’s better if we can get them all out at once, but if we can only free one at a time, I can take on their appearance, to give them more time to get away.”

“Are you going in alone?” she asked, concern welling up inside her.

“I am. But Dmitri’s gift is telepathy, and it’s strong between us. We can be up to a hundred miles away from each other and still hear. I won’t really be alone, and he and Liam will know what’s going on at all times.”

Noah shook his head. “It still feels too risky. And how are you going to get them to take you, anyway?”

Damara shrugged. “I figured I’d pop the contacts in, give myself a good spritz, and walk around the festival. My pupils are bound to be noticed.”

“I don’t like this,” he muttered, repositioning his ballcap.

“Do you have a better idea? Lily’s information on the buyers will help a lot, but it won’t tell us what’s really going on behind the scenes. And we need to act fast if we want to save those women.”

Noah growled, the sound coming from deep within his chest. “Fuck.”

Lily took that to mean he didn’t have a better idea. They stood in silence for a minute before Damara cleared her throat.

“Right. Well, we better get started. The sooner I can get to the festival, the better, and I still need to get ready.”

Lily walked up to her and hugged her tightly. “Be careful.”

As soon as she released her, Noah took her place. She watched as Damara whispered something in his ear that made him give a small smile, but she couldn’t make out what it was. They pulled apart, and a moment later, the three were gone.

Silence filled the room, and she glanced over at Noah, taking in his worried frown. Reaching out, she took his hand in hers and squeezed. “Everything’s going to work out. Have some faith.”

He smiled faintly, pulling her in and hugging her to him. “Having you by my side makes having faith easier. They’re excellent Enforcers. They know what they’re doing. I just don’t like that it’s not all of us doing this together, and that we don’t know what Fernandez and his men might have up their sleeves. We don’t know what they’re capable of. Hell, we don’t even know how many are involved.”

“Faith, Noah. But if you can’t manage it on your own, I’ll give you some of mine.”

She felt him kiss the top of her head. “You’re an amazing woman, you know that?”

She pulled back, craning her neck to look him in the eyes. “You’re just as amazing, if not more.”

Chuckling, he squeezed her waist before pressing a soft kiss to her lips. “Come on. Let’s get out of here before this turns into a no, you are debate.”

Noah draped his wrist over the steering wheel, sliding a glance at Lily. She was in the passenger seat, her face screwed up in concentration, biting her bottom lip as she typed away on her laptop.

They’d barely cleared the hotel parking lot before she was at work, hacking away at the website to get the information for the people who bought tickets to the auction. They were halfway back to the clubhouse and she’d already found info on three bidders.

“Yes! I got another one,” she exclaimed, satisfaction on her features. “Emailing the info to Blake and Dmitri now.”

Reaching over, he put his hand on her thigh and squeezed. “Good job. Any idea how many tickets were bought?”

She blew a breath out, her expression unhappy as she shook her head. “I have no idea. But we have to figure there’s at least seven, one for each woman. And logically, there will probably be more. What better way to get higher prices than to have multiple bidders?”

He grunted in acknowledgement as disgust filled him. Anyone who would bid on a woman like that was bottom feeder scum. Buying a kidnapped woman, dragon or not, was a thousand shades of fucked up. And the women had to have been kidnapped. Who would volunteer themselves to be sold off to the highest bidder?

No one except Damara, that was. His chest tightened with worry. She could absolutely take care of herself. She was a badass fighter and an excellent Enforcer. But there was only one of her and God knew how many of them, with unknown gifts.

It was why he would have insisted on staying if Lily wasn’t there. At least with him there, they’d have his ability to sense the shifters gifts when he was around them. Although he supposed that wouldn’t have helped once she went undercover, because he couldn’t follow her there.

“Is Damara a lion, too?” Lily asked, like she was following his line of thinking with Damara.

Half his mouth lifted in a crooked smile. “Sort of?”

He caught a glimpse of her frown as she looked at him. “How can she only be sort of?”

“Are you sure you want to know?”

“Well, yeah. I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to know.”

He slanted a look at her as he spoke. “She’s a griffin.”

Her mouth popped open as she stared at him, and he chuckled inwardly as he looked at the road again. He never got tired of that reaction. Not that he got to see it often. Dmitri and Damara kept their animals’ existence a closely guarded secret. The vast majority of people, human and shifter alike, had no clue griffins were real.

“She’s a griffin? Like, half lion, half eagle?” she asked, her voice incredulous.

“Yep. Keep that to yourself, though, okay? Only a select few people know they exist.”

“Of course. I’d never tell anyone. Not about them or any of the Enforcers. Or about shifters, period.” She was quiet for a moment, nibbling on her lower lip. “What kind of animals do the others have?”

“Dmitri’s a griffin, of course, like Damara. Luke’s a lion, Tarun’s a tiger, Blake’s a grizzly, and Liam’s a white raven.”

“A white raven?” she asked, surprise in her voice. “I’ve never seen one of those.”

“He’s basically an albino raven.”

“And Blake’s a grizzly—that’s why you have a grizzly in the Enforcer logo. Because he’s the leader, and that’s his animal. You lied.”

He glanced over to see a smile on her face, and he relaxed as he realized she wasn’t upset. “Yeah. I’m sorry about that, but I couldn’t exactly tell you the real reason when you asked. And he didn’t technically pick it out. We voted on it when the logo was being designed. We all thought it should be his animal in there, since he’s the leader.”

She opened her mouth to speak but paused as her laptop dinged. Frowning, she grew still after she typed some commands in. “Noah—”

His phone rang, interrupting her, and he glanced at the screen, seeing Blake’s name flashing. He pushed a button on the steering wheel, accepting the call. “Blake.”

“Noah, Lily. Damara’s in.”

He frowned. “That was quick. Did they just kidnap her from the festival, or what?”

“She told Liam that a woman approached her and asked if she wanted a private tour of the mansion. When she was showing her a bedroom, the woman locked her in, and she’s still in there. No one has come for her yet.”

“I hope she’s being careful.”

Lily turned to face him, and he glanced at her, stilling when he saw the alarm in her eyes. “Noah, I’ve been caught. And whoever caught me is following us.”

Blake spoke before he could reply. “That was actually what I was calling about. I received a tip that someone on the tech team caught a breach about an hour ago. They left to come after you right after. Apparently, the only ones who know about it are the tech and one other shifter who’s with him. Fernandez hasn’t been notified yet.”

Noah sped up, glancing in the rearview mirror at the deserted highway. “How do you know this? Who’s feeding you these tips?”

Blake sighed, and even through the phone, it sounded frustrated. “I don’t know. Whoever it is, is the one who put us onto Fernandez to begin with. They text little clues here and there, but they’re untraceable. They’re routed through a thousand cell towers and we can’t pinpoint a location. The text I just received is the longest and most detailed yet.”

Lily was still typing away on the computer, her eyes narrowed on the screen. “Almost…”

“Are you getting out of there and wiping it?” he asked, his eyes flicking back and forth from the road to the mirror.

“No. I beefed up my security more. I thought it was good enough, but these guys are good. I just went up to government level security.”

He glanced at her, an eyebrow raised. “You can do that?”

The look she gave him was a mix of worried, distracted, and amused. “Some of the tech company’s contracts I work on are for the government. Lower level stuff, but still, higher than the average hacker’s level.”

“Lily, if trying to find more information on buyers puts you or Noah in danger, you don’t have to keep doing this. We can find another way.”

Her voice was challenging when she spoke. “How?” Silence filled the truck and she nodded. “That’s what I thought. Besides, they know my laptop ID now. They can follow it no matter what I do. But, now that I know they’re watching it, I can trace it back to them. And we’ll know where they are, so they don’t take us by surprise, or manage to track us to the clubhouse.”

“You can do that?” Blake asked, surprised.

Noah felt pride fill him even as he arched an eyebrow at her. “Or we can just throw your laptop out the window and speed away. They can’t follow us then.”

“Do you know how much this thing cost? Besides, I’d have to wipe the hard drive, or they could still find out who I am. I’d have to do a government wipe, at that, to get all traces off, and that takes time. Time we might not have, since we don’t know where they are. Plus, if they find the laptop on the side of the road, they’ll know we’re onto them, and alert everyone else. Right now, it’s just two of them, if the intel is right.”

“She’s right,” Noah said, his mind racing as fast as the truck as his eyes continued to dart between the road and the rearview mirror.

Blake gave a hum of agreement. “What are you thinking?”

“That Lily finds them and figures out how far away they are. They’ve probably been going faster than us, to catch up, so they might be close. I’m going to find a deserted side road and hide from view, luring them down it to privacy. Then I’ll do what I do best.”

“Sounds good. Keep me posted.”

Blake hung up and Lily reached over, placing her hand on his thigh. “Are you sure that’s best? Can you take two of them on at once?”

He covered her hand with his. “I was born to do this, Lily. I was a Marine, and I’ve been an Enforcer for three years. I’ve got this. We’ll have the element of surprise, and if you can pinpoint their location, we’ll know exactly when they’re coming. Can you do it without them knowing you’re doing it?”

Nodding with a look of determination on her face, she withdrew her hand and started typing. “I’ll be like a ghost. I’ll do my part. Just make sure you do yours without getting hurt.”

“I promise.”

Keeping his speed up and praying the highway stayed deserted—with no cops—he continued looking for any hint of a vehicle. Lily typed furiously, muttering a few curses as she worked. About five minutes later, she made a noise of triumph.

“Got them! They’re thirty-five minutes behind us. Speeds are holding steady, but if they’re watching ours, then they know we’ve sped up. We need to find a spot to pull off or they might suspect something.”

Nodding, he began scanning, occasionally adding a look at the GPS, trying to find a side road that was well hidden from the highway. “Good work, baby.”

“Baby?” she said with a laugh, still watching her screen. “I haven’t really had a nickname before. And thanks. Their security was pretty good—but I was better.”

He chuckled. “That you were.” He was quiet for a moment, debating whether or not to say anything about the nickname. But it wasn’t like they could avoid the topic of Brandon, and besides, she didn’t seem to mind talking about him with Noah. “Didn’t Brandon call you flower?”

She glanced over at him, a soft smile on her face. “Yeah. Yeah, he did. His lily flower. But it wasn’t exactly original.”

He laughed. “Baby isn’t all that original, either.”

“No, it’s not. Better put some more thought into your nickname for me, then.”

Nodding, he was about to reply when he spotted a dirt road that he thought could work well. Slowing, he pulled onto it, smiling with satisfaction as he saw the bend in the road ahead that would hide the truck perfectly.

Maneuvering until they were pulled off to the side, facing the road and partially hidden by the trees, he glanced over at her. “How close are they?”

“Twenty minutes now, and gaining speed. I’m pretty sure they think we’ve made a stop and they’re about to catch us. If they thought we knew, they wouldn’t be barreling straight toward us so quickly.”

“Keep watching until they’re turning on the road. Then I want you to get out of sight. Duck down onto the floorboard or something. I don’t want them to catch sight of you and come after you.”

She frowned, looking like she wanted to protest, but in the end, she nodded. “Okay. I wish I could help more, though.”

Reaching over, he took her hand in his, raising it to his lips and pressing a kiss to her knuckles. “You keep saying that, but you’ve done nothing but help. You figured out what was really going on with the auction. You’ve been finding the buyer’s info. And you just saved us from whoever’s following. None of that would have been possible without you.”

Her cheeks pinkened as she glanced away for a moment. “Yeah, I suppose I did help. I don’t know. I guess I feel like I’m in my element, here with you and doing this work. Like this is where I’m meant to be. But, at the same time, I feel kind of like a hindrance, too. Logically, I know I’m helping, but if I wasn’t with you or wasn’t a vulnerable human, you would have been able to stay. You could have done more.”

“Or maybe we would have been ambushed. All of us. They started tracking us before we knew about it. If we’d been close, they would have gotten us.”

“Yeah, I suppose you have a point with that.” She bit her lip, casting him a shy glance—maybe the first he’d ever seen from her. “I hope that didn’t sound too forward. About feeling like I’m meant to be here with you. I don’t want you to feel pressured.”

It wasn’t the time, but still, he suddenly longed to tell her everything. That they were mates—that they were forever, if she wanted to be—and that he loved her. But they didn’t have time for that, and it wasn’t the place, anyway. So, in the end, he just addressed her statement.

Turning as much as he could in the seat, ignoring the steering wheel digging into his side, he brushed the backs of his fingers down her face before cupping her cheek. Leaning in, he kissed her softly, lingering for a moment before pulling back.

“I feel zero pressure, Lily. I promise. I feel like you’re meant to be here with me, too.”

She smiled, relief in her gorgeous blue eyes. Casting a quick glance at her laptop, she looked back at him, biting her lower lip nervously. “Seven minutes.”

“Okay. In a minute, I’m going to get out and hide in the trees. I want you to hide then, too. When they get out to look at the truck, I’ll get them. I won’t let them get close to the truck or you.” Pausing, he searched her eyes as he exhaled. “I might have to shift. I wanted to tell you now, so you won’t be surprised when I do.

“Remember what I told you. I’m still there, present inside my lion. I won’t hurt you, and my cat won’t, either. He’s just as attached to you as I am. So please, don’t be scared. I won’t let them hurt you, and I won’t definitely won’t.”

Instead of looking scared, she seemed excited. “I get to see your lion?”

His eyebrow rose. “Doesn’t scare you at all, does it?”

“Nope.” She hesitated, searching his eyes. “Once it’s safe… do you think I could come out of the truck and meet him? Like, face to face?”

He smiled, feeling a sense of disbelief wash over him. She’d accepted all of it—all of him—so easily. Far easier than he ever imagined she would. That was a gift in itself, but now that he had to shift in front of her, she wanted to meet his lion.

That was the most amazing gift he could have gotten—apart from her.

Nothing trumped her.

“Absolutely. Just remember what I said about how much bigger shifter animals are than their counterparts in the wild. You don’t seem afraid at all, but keep that in mind when you see him, okay? And remember, no matter what form I’m in, I’ll never, ever hurt you.”

Eyes shiny, she nodded, beginning to lean in to kiss him, he thought. Pausing when her eyes fell on the screen, she whispered, “They’re slowing down and approaching the road.”

Nodding, he kissed her once, hard, then kicked his shoes off as he opened the door. “Remember. Hide, okay? I don’t want them to see you.”

She nodded. “Good luck. And be careful.”

Smiling at her one more time, he got out, put his hat on the seat before he shut the door, and walked to a denser covering of trees not far from the truck. Hiding behind the biggest one, he glanced back at where she was sliding to the floorboard, then turned his eyes back to the road.

The calm he forged in the Marines washed over him, and he narrowed his eyes. Two shifters threatening his mate? Easy enough to take care of.

No one, and he meant absolutely no one, who came after his mate could expect to live very long.

No one.