Domino shook his head, clearing the last vestiges of the shift. The mage had hit him with magic he hadn’t experienced in decades, forcing his bear to come to the surface. The guy either dealt with black magic or blood magic—he wasn’t sure which—but he was willing to bet it was one of the two, especially given his coloring. No one had pale skin and red lips like that unless they were a member of the Bloodmoon clan or something similar.

He groaned as he sat up, the ache in his body letting him know exactly what it thought of the abruptness of his recent shifts. His shirt was plastered to his skin in a few places, and he knew that the mage’s dagger must have been spelled silver for the wounds not to heal during his shift. The sight of trees around him meant that they hadn’t moved far from where he and the mage had fought, but he could tell they were on the other side of the glamor. What he knew was one house now looked like two. Reality was that the mage had one of the largest plots of land in the area, barring what the pack owned, and had glamored it to blend in. Why was he there? How long had he been there? Why was Domino so stupid? That was the bigger question. He’d felt the wards, seen the glamor, but he was so focused on the scent of Daisy and Harper right behind him that he ignored the flashes of magic that blew over his skin as he moved past the warning signs. This was all his fault. Before he could stop it, another question popped into his head. Did Valentina know a mage had set up shop right next to the pack’s territory?

There were too many questions and not enough answers; at least, not yet.

Harper was still passed out against the tree. He wondered what she would remember, if anything, and how he was going to explain it if she did remember. Quickly, before she woke up, he texted Liana to get her address so he could take her home and she could wake up somewhere familiar. He also texted Valentina to give her a heads-up as to the situation. By the time he was done explaining everything as succinctly as he could to his alpha, Liana had responded with the address. When he felt his phone buzz again, he ignored it. Either it was his packmate being nosy or his alpha being pissed off at him. He knew if she was angry enough or it was important enough, his alpha would call if he didn’t respond.

Gently, he picked up Harper, cradling her against his chest as he ducked through the remaining trees toward the road. He loped toward the car as quickly as he could in the rain without drawing too much attention. Within ten minutes, he had her settled in her own apartment, thankful that she had such a big collection of keyrings that it made it easy to find in her pockets. The last thing he wanted to do was feel around an unconscious woman any more than absolutely necessary.

Her apartment was tiny and more of a studio than a one bedroom. A kitchenette was on one side of the larger part of the space, and a TV and DVD player were on the other, while a couch acted as a barrier between the kitchen and the living space. The bedroom was only separated by some free-standing cupboards, as though the landlord couldn’t quite be bothered to build a wall there.

His bear was anxious about the small space, but he pushed that to the side. Right now, his primary concern needed to be making sure Harper was okay. He doubted that she’d ever been exposed to magic like that before. His desire to protect her was becoming overwhelming, and it didn’t help that her scent was everywhere. There was nowhere he could go to escape it without leaving the apartment, and his bear wasn’t about to let him do that.

A noise made him turn from where he was standing.

Harper’s eyes were blinking slowly, confusion drawing her eyebrows together.

“Hey, there, sleepyhead,” Domino said, trying not to startle her too much.

She gasped as her eyes landed on him, and her mouth formed words, but no sound came out.

“Let me get you some water.”

He turned back around to the kitchenette and opened the glass-fronted cabinet that held tumblers and mugs, grabbing one and filling it with water from the tap. The glass was cool against his warm palm as he took it to her. The woman made his blood hot and his skin prickle with desire. He’d never take advantage of her in such a state, but being in her apartment, surrounded by all her things, and practically swimming through her scent meant that his body was on overdrive.

She took the glass from him and sipped the liquid, wetting her subtly pink lips. A moment later, the question he’d been dreading popped out of her mouth. “What the hell happened?”

“It’s complicated. What do you remember?”

“I’m not sure. Everything was so weird and crazy, as if the world lost its damn mind.”

He really didn’t want to out the shifter community if he didn’t have to, so he said, “Well, just rest for a moment. You were out for a while. Can I get you anything?”

“I feel fine. Just a little hungry. There are some crackers in the cupboard next to the one you got the glass from.”

He smiled and happily went off to retrieve the desired snack. Feeding her was a dangerous thing for him to do, and yet there was an immense pleasure growing inside him at the thought of it. Bringing food to a woman, helping her get ready, tending to her needs? Those were all actions of a shifter engaged in the mating dance. Not that he was, but he’d seen men so head over heels that they were washing their mate’s hair or painting their toenails or going out to get them the specific snack they craved. He’d never been one of them, and probably never would be, but he didn’t want to communicate the wrong thing to his bear.

When he arrived back at her bedside, she was gaping at him as if he was an alien.

“What? Why are you looking at me as if I’ve grown another head?”

“Oh, I don’t know, Nic, maybe because the back, and now I see the front, of your T-shirt is soaked in blood.” She paused for a moment and nibbled on a cracker. They were supposed to taste like garden vegetable, but he could tell from where he was sitting that there were no real vegetables in them. She opened her mouth as though to speak, only to close it again and repeat the action. Finally, the words came out. “You were . . . a bear.” She gasped as though more of the memory had come back to her. “That guy stabbed you a bunch.”

He paused, waiting to see if she had more to say, but her cracker-holding hand just hung halfway between the box and her mouth while she stared at him. When she didn’t continue, he sighed and said, “That did happen. You probably don’t know this, but there are magical creatures who exist in the world. I happen to be one of them. I’m a bear shifter . . .” He trailed off, waiting to see how she reacted.

“But black bears aren’t that big.”

It was the absolute last thing he’d expected her to say. She was right, though. It was true for pretty much any type of shifter; at least, any of the ones he’d met. He was a few feet taller than the average black bear, and probably heavier too. “You’re right,” was all he said.

“This can’t be real. You seriously expect me to believe you can turn into a bear? You’re just fucking with me. Just tell me what really happened. Was it lasers? Some kind of projection? I don’t care. I can take a good prank, but just tell me how you did it.”

“I can turn into a bear, Lola. No prank. No lasers. No projectors. Nothing. Just me and my bear.”

She blinked at the use of her middle name before barreling onward. “So you can change into a bear, what, at will? Or is it a full-moon thing like a werewolf?” She scoffed, clearly still not believing him.

“At will. There have been stories for centuries of creatures bound by the moon, but I’ve never met one, and to be honest, I think they are just myths. Just do me a favor and be careful who you call a were. Some shifters are very sensitive to it.”

“Right.” She took a bite of her cracker and stared at him, chewing thoughtfully. “So change. If you want me to believe you, prove it.”

“It’s not that simple. I could hurt you. My bear is used to being in the wild, to having land to roam, not being in an apartment.”

“It didn’t hurt me before. It protected me.”

Domino remembered some of that. Memories of the time he’d spent as the animal were funny things. Sometimes he remembered every second. Other times, as soon as the bear was free, it turned into a black hole and he didn’t remember anything until his human form took hold once again. The bear usually only shared what it either wanted him to know or thought he should know, which meant most of the time, he was blessedly spared the memory of the bear’s kills.

“What if I just do a partial shift?” He was one of the few shifters, or at least bear shifters, who could partially shift. His talent was his hands. He could turn them into the massive paws with the thick black claws that came with them. It wasn’t a particularly pleasant process, but he’d used it to get himself out of a bind here and there.

She shrugged, as though it didn’t matter since she didn’t believe him, anyway.

As he called his bear forth, he hoped she didn’t flip out. The energy surged as though it wanted to be around Harper, but he pulled what he liked to think of as a gate down in his mind, allowing just the smallest trickle of energy through and directing it toward his hands. He heard the bones begin to pop and realign themselves as thick black fur sprang up and a mystical wind blew away the flakes of his humanity over the area of his hands. His long black claws extended from what he knew were his fingernails, and he flexed them under Harper’s stunned gaze.

The box of crackers was forgotten, and the one in her hand slipped from her grasp, falling onto the comforter underneath, while her eyes remained peeled and fixed on the paws he held up in front of her.

“That . . . it can’t be . . .” She stuttered her responses.

He was surprised when she extended a hand and touched the thick fur. It was tentative at first, but when he didn’t pull away, she grew bolder, her fingers sliding under his paw to the thick, rough pads underneath, and eventually coming around to the sharp claws that hung, ready to attack should the need arise. Not that he would attack her, but being able to partially shift did allow him to use his paws to attack others when threatened.

Her hands came up and felt the edges where the fur disappeared into skin. He assumed she was trying to find something to indicate that he’d somehow pulled gloves on or done something to trick her. Her breath came out in a whoosh. “Oh. My. God.”

Domino pulled the energy back, watching as the fur seemed to fall away from his skin, the claws retracted, and the bones in his fingers reworked themselves into a human shape. A partial change like that was slow and hard because he could only allow the tiniest bit of energy through. A full change was easy and almost instantaneous since he just let the energy wash over him, like jumping into a pool or lake. One second he was dry; the next, he was wet. It worked the same way. Finally, when everything was back to looking human, he said, “Believe me now?”

She nodded, dumbfounded by what she had just witnessed.

“Are you going to freak out?” he asked cautiously.

“I don’t think so,” she said as she ate another cracker, still not realizing that there was one on the comforter in front of her. He reached out and picked it up, hissing slightly at the pulling sensation in his side, before popping it into his own mouth. It was flavorful, salty, and herby, but it also tasted of chemicals as so much premade human food did to him. “So, are you okay? I mean, the dude stabbed you. With a dagger. Who does that?”

“I’m okay. I just need to clean up soon so I can bandage the wounds.” He smiled at her, trying not to say that he didn’t want to leave, but couldn’t stay and tend to the wounds himself, either.

Before he knew it, she was up and out of bed, heading to the small door to the left of the bedroom area. When she returned, she was carrying a small black bag.

“Take off your shirt,” she said. Her voice remained calm for the most part, but the flush that crept up her neck to her cheeks told him everything he needed to know. She was just as attracted to him as he was to her. Without questioning her, he removed the blood-soaked piece of clothing and carefully dropped it onto the floor where there was no rug or bedding to stain, just the faux hardwood panels.

She sat just behind him on the bed, and he heard the small gasp as she looked at the injury. The idea of her tending to his wounds was almost more than he could take. His bear wanted to rub up against her and let her know exactly what he thought of the idea. It was when she touched his skin that he knew he was lost. Her soft skin warmed his where it connected through her tentative touch. It almost felt like she was stroking him, her fingertips brushing through his fur, going with the grain, and it felt good. Too good. He groaned in pleasure at the sensation.