“Be my mate, love?” he whispered.

She tipped her chin up and stared into those dark, deeply emotional eyes and grinned. “Yes.”

“Wed me under the tree house in the Rain Forest?” He leaned in and kissed her mouth.

She sighed. “I’d love that.”

“I love you.” He placed one hand on her belly, waited a moment, then said confidently, “The balas is happy.”

Oh, gods. “So’s his mother.”

Synjon’s eyes got big, and he said almost breathlessly, “His?”

She shrugged, her grin widening. “Just a guess.”

This time, when Synjon dropped his head and kissed her, Petra could feel the emotions within him. They were warm and intense, and they infused her skin like bathwater. There were fear and happiness, concern and craving, but the emotion that spread the furthest, went the deepest, and heated his blood as he growled and groaned against her mouth, was love.

Epilogue

Phane had done his best to make the place livable. Maybe he shouldn’t have bothered. After all, he had the house in New York, a perch to kill for, and the whole extended-family thing. But there was just something about the Rain Forest, about the heat and the shifters—and damn, he wanted to pursue Dani.

Sweat pouring off his body, he continued to scrub the exterior of the cabin. After what had gone down at the gathering stones, he wasn’t sure what to expect with Dani and the others. They’d offered to show him how the other half lived, so to speak, but was that real? Would they want him and Helo hanging around, reminding them of just how kind and giving the vampires were not?

He was just turning around to grab a bucket of clean water, when he spotted someone—some thing—stalking toward him in the brush.

“I don’t believe this.” He knew that blond-gray coat and don’t-fuck-with-me glare. “What the hell are you doing here?”

The wolf shifted the moment he reached the porch of the cabin. Lycos glanced around, first at the cabin, then back at Phane. He looked uncomfortable as shit. “Come to get you. The Romans said you were taking your sweet time getting back.”

Yeah, and they know why too, Phane thought. He wondered if Alex, Nicky, and Lucian had mentioned it. “Sorry you made the trip, brother. But I’m staying.” He sniffed. “If they let me.”

“Here in sweat city?” Ly sneered.

“I’ll always take sweat over snow.” He wiped the beads on his face with his forearm. “Besides, I want to get to know my other half.”

“The Avians.”

Phane nodded, tried out some new material. “They have wolves here, you know? In the Mountain Faction.”

Ignoring him, Ly looked past him into the house. “Where’s Helo? I bet he hasn’t lost his fucking mind today.”

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since this morning.”

“Is he talking this talk?”

“If you mean does he plan on staying, then yes.”

Phane tilted his head, looked at the wolf shifter from a different angle. Something told him that Lycos was more than just irritated at the prospect of his remaining two brothers living full-time or part-time away from what he now called home. But Phane was out of sympathy. He loved Ly, and the male was absolutely family, but he’d dropped the ball on this one. He’d walked away from them too, when they’d all needed him—and that didn’t come without consequences.

Phane leaned on the porch rail. It threatened to give way. Another goddamn Mr. Fix-it project coming up. “Are you going to tell me just where the hell you’ve been? What was so important when we could’ve used your help? Another set of fists?”

The wolf shifter looked past him, but his face was a mask of impassivity. “Like I told you, I just don’t want any part of this.”

Stubborn bastard. “We needed family and you took off.”

“You don’t know what family is anymore. You think it’s here? You think you fit in with these assholes? It’s just like New York or anywhere else, brother. You, me, Helo, we’re all mutts.”

“Fuck you!”

“No—fuck you!”

Phane heard something crash inside the cabin. Then a female voice shriek, “Hey! Bloodsucking hawk shifter male, where the hell are you?”

What the hell? He turned back to see Dani at his screen door. “Did you just come from inside the house?”

“I flew in from the other direction. Your window was open.”

“Didn’t sound like it,” he said, eyeing her. She looked hot as hell. Nothing new. “What’s going on?”

“Your brother. The water beast.”

His chest went tight at her expression. “What? What’s going on with Helo?”

“Those fucking rogue water shifters. They’re losing their minds. I swear to gods, the faction leaders need to—”

He yanked open the screen door. “Dani.”

“Right.” She stepped out. “He’s been taken by the water shifters. That group that helped the geriatric vampire asswipe, gave him the eel flesh. We need to go. Now. The Water Faction leader is calling a . . .” Her voice trailed off as she noticed who stood near the far edge of the cabin.

Phane nodded at his mutore brother. “This is my—”

“Lycos?” she said. “What are you doing here?”

Phane turned to face his brother. “You know each other?”

Lycos just shrugged, didn’t even glance at Dani.

Phane looked over his shoulder at the hawk shifter. “How do you know my brother?”

“Brother?” Dani looked from male to male, then broke out in laughter. “Well, well, well. This is interesting, and maybe even a little awkward. Lycos is one of the males I’m seeing.” Her brows rose. “He didn’t tell you?”

A low, feral sound erupted from Phane, and he leaped from the porch, shifting into his hawk just as Lycos grew fur and howled.