Kain parked his car in Griff’s driveway. “This is where Ruby and Griff first moved in when they came to Green Mills. It’s just Griff here now. Although, I don’t think he’s home. Must be at Ansel’s with the coyotes again.”

“They lived here all by themselves?”

“Their parents were gone when Griff was just a kid.”

“Gone?”

“Disappeared. Probably into Herta. They were never found.”

Valentina was quiet as Kain pulled her out of the car and she followed him down the driveway. There wasn’t a car in sight when it was time to cross the street, but even so, he led her across with a hand on her back. It was strange, all these Earth rules about men and women. He was teaching them to her one by one. You take a man’s hand when you’re getting out of the car. He lifts the heavy things down from a shelf. He puts a hand on your back when you cross the street. None of these were things that Valentina required. Earth was confusing to her in so many ways.

“Herta isn’t all terrible, you know,” she said as they entered the cool, mossy forest. Sun dappled the fresh green leaves and pine needles crunched under their feet. Somewhere she could hear the call of a Northern Flicker.

“I know,” he glanced at her. “I’ve been there a dozen times.”

“It’s just hard, living around a bunch of shifters and their families. Everyone here hates Herta. And I get it. It’s dangerous for you. But even John Alec has forgotten the parts of it that are worth loving.”

Kain cleared his throat. A weird tug in his chest was happening as he looked at her honey-brown eyes, so big he could see the forest reflected in them. He felt the urgent need to console her. “Herta’s cool, Val. I actually really like it. I mean, sure it’s uncomfortable for me to spend a lot of time there. But it’s gorgeous. Unspoiled. And all the extra kinds of plants and herbs you guys have? That’s really awesome.”

“That’s one of my favorite parts,” Valentina nodded. “There’s so many ways to heal in Herta.” She side-eyed him. “For those of us without superhuman healing powers.”             

She had no idea how many times over the last weeks Kain had wished to heaven that he could have given her his healing power.

“I didn’t like the way they healed me here,” she continued. “Those pills took the pain away, but they took everything else, too. I couldn’t feel what my body was telling me. I was so sleepy all the time. I wanted my herbs from Herta.”

“You should have told me! I would have gone and gotten some for you.”

Valentina turned and looked at him, utterly startled by the idea of that. “That’s insane.”

Kain shrugged. “Look, we’re still a mile from the lagoon.” He took a hearty sniff of mountain air. “There’s no one around. Just some squirrels and birds, rabbits too. And a mama bear about three miles that way.” Maybe he was trying to impress her with his shifter senses. It was hard to say. “I’m gonna shift and then carry you the rest of the way.”

“I don’t need to be carried!”

“Fine, you can walk beside me then, but the fresh air is calling to me and I’m shifting one way or another.”

She shrugged and wandered over to sit on a stump while she waited.

Kain had never been shy. Not about his personality or his body. He’d gotten naked in front of his siblings thousands of times. And now their spouses as well. Not to mention the countless women he’d been naked in front of during sexy times. He’d never blinked at it. Being naked was a part of Kain Keto’s life. But as he quickly shucked off his clothes, shoving them in his backpack, he had to admit this was a little different.

Valentina watched him with no expression on her face. Her eyes searched his body in a matter-of-fact sort of way. There was no indication of her thoughts. And when Kain was standing in front of her in just the black cap on his head, he wondered, for a brief second, if she was liking what she was seeing.

It didn’t matter, he reminded himself as he shoved his hat away and triggered his shift. She was with Williams. Even though she’d barely talked about him since the injury. But Kain hadn’t asked, either. He hadn’t wanted to know the details.

For the sake of his sanity, though, when she finally rose from the log and took steps toward him, she was with Williams and that was just the way it was. Off limits.

Besides, she was John Alec’s sister. Double off limits.

But his brother-in-law floated right out of Kain’s head as Valentina stood a foot in front of him, her honey-brown eyes roving all over him. “I’ve never seen it before, you know. Your bear. Not really.”

He’d never shifted on Herta for obvious reasons and the one time he’d shifted for her on Earth, she’d been passed out from blood loss.

She raised her hand, as if to touch his wide face, the golden fur, but then she dropped her hand away.

 Kain chuffed and pushed his huge head forward. Perhaps he’d moved a little too fast for someone who wasn’t used to being face to face with a 1400-pound bear, because she jumped back. But he didn’t wait for her to get used to it. He pushed forward again and this time got his head under her hand.

She got the message and dug her hand into his fur. Kain was delighted when she didn’t explore him so much as give him a nice firm scratch.

“Alright,” she conceded. “I’ll ride on your back.” Her eyes narrowed. “But only because I want to be able to say I’ve done it conscious.”

Kain immediately dropped down so that she could slide on with the bag and then they were off.

Valentina looked down at the golden bear underneath her, the dapples of sun on his fur as he ambled along, sniffing this and that. He was a gaspingly beautiful creature, and for the first time since her injury, Valentina was perfectly happy. The fresh air and the birds on the wind soothed her. She scented sap and pine and fresh water. As she sank her fingers into Kain’s coarse fur, it hit her that she actually couldn’t remember the last time she’d been this happy. Perhaps when she was a child.

The walk to the lagoon was too short for both of them.

When they arrived, Valentina laughed, hopped down and crossed right to the water. Kain took the opportunity to shift and slide into his swim trunks. He didn’t think he could handle her watching him naked again.

“It’s silly,” she called. “Because the two worlds mirror one another. But I hadn’t realized that I would have been here before. On Herta.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes. Where was the portal?”

“It was through the waterfall there, until we closed it last year. It was the one that lured Griff originally.”

Valentina strode over to the waterfall and stuck her hand right in, feeling around. “Those bastards. Hunters, I mean. They like to hide the portals so that a shifter can’t see it when they’re being lured.”

Kain grunted and tried not to watch when she crossed back to where he’d dropped the bag and started tugging off her clothes. She wore a black T-shirt and a pair of cargo pants he was pretty sure Ruby had bought for her.

“I still can’t believe your brother is the Griffin.”

Kain grunted. And then her words sifted to him. “It’s nice that you call him my brother, because that’s the way I feel, though sometimes I think Griff still questions his place in our family.”

Her back was to him when she dropped her pants.

“Well, the Griffin deserves family. He endured so much while he was on Herta. Not to mention the loss of his mate.”

“What the hell is that?” Kain demanded, his eyes trained on Valentina’s half-naked body.

“What?” She looked down at the hot pink bikini she wore. “Ruby says it’s a swimsuit. She bought it for me with all those other garments a few weeks ago. Is it wrong?”

“Uh, no.” Kain cleared his throat. “It’s not wrong.”

He was delighted to see that she’d filled out since her injury. Kain just wished he weren’t quite so delighted. But there she was, looking all healthy and normal girl, her breasts pushing against the triangles of the bikini, her ass spilling out either side. He cleared his throat again. Double off limits, he reminded himself.

“I was just surprised about the color, I guess.”

“Oh, I know,” she acknowledged, looking back down at the suit and adjusting the fabric at her chest. Kain turned quickly away. “It’s a ridiculous color. Like so many earthly garments.”

She’d never understand why Earthlings dressed the way they did. Like they wanted every hunter in a thirty-mile radius to take them from this world with a single, well-aimed arrow.

She followed Kain to where he sat at the edge of the lagoon, swirling his feet in the water. She started undoing her braid as Kain turned to her.

“What was it you just said about Griff? Losing a mate?”

She squinted her eyes at him. He didn’t know this? The man was his brother. “The story that everyone knows in Herta, though perhaps it’s just legend, is that he had to leave his mate when he escaped bondage. The princess, they call her when they tell the story. Some people say she’s the daughter of the man who was attempting to break Griff. To enslave him.”

Kain’s mind churned. Milla had told him that Griff was screaming to a girl as they dragged him away. To a girl who he swore he’d return for.

“What do you mean by ‘mate’?”

“Oh,” she nodded. “I just mean that they’d mated.”

“Like made a baby?” His blood ran cold. Was it possible that Griff had a child on Herta?

She laughed. “No! Like had sex.” She cocked her head at him, suddenly suspicious. “You know that you can have sex and not make a baby.”

Now it was Kain’s turn to laugh. “I’m aware. I’ve been doing it for a long time.”

Valentina nodded and slid herself gracefully into the water. Barely disturbing the surface, she went right to the bottom of the crystalline pool. It was just as lovely as on Herta. Smooth sheet rock at the bottom, scattered round pebbles here and there. It must have been fifteen feet deep in the middle. Something touched her fingers and when she looked, Kain was swimming beside her, disturbing the water as little as she was.

They surfaced at the same time and Valentina blew a small fountain of water. The sight of it zinged a bolt of jarring happiness through Kain. He’d never seen her play before.

They floated and watched the sun through the leaves of the trees for a while before hauling out of one side of the lagoon. Kain immediately wrapped Valentina in one of the towels, snuggly covering her from shoulder to knee. But he let himself drip dry and laid his own towel out for them to sit on.

But the sun called to her and when she was warm enough, she let her towel fall. Made a pillow under her head. She closed her eyes in the bright sun and blindly munched at her peanut butter sandwich.

“Your scar is looking good.”

Valentina absently brushed a hand over it. It was still pink, a little puckered in a few places, and already silvery where the cut had been shallowest. “Yes. It tells a good story.”

“You’ve said that before,” he noted, remembering something she had said on one of their missions on Herta. “About scars and stories.”

She nodded. “Scars tell where you’ve been. I always thought it cruel that most broken bones don’t leave outward scars. It’s like no one ever knows how much pain they caused.”

He was quiet for a second. “Have you had a lot of broken bones?”

“Of course. I’ve been a warrior since I was three years old. John Alec himself gave me a fair few of them. But most have been in the last few years. The hunters are getting worse.”
Don’t go back, Kain’s mind screamed. But his mouth said nothing. Instead his hand slid across the towel and one cool finger traced the scar on her upper thigh. The other injury she’d sustained.

Her eyes fluttered open now and she watched him. First she watched his hand at her leg. And then she watched his face. He wore an expression she hadn’t seen before. Thoughtful and slightly pained.

She felt that same rising need she’d felt that night she’d found him by the creek in Herta. No pain. There would be no pain for him. Not if she could do anything about it.

“Fine,” she conceded, watching his eyes dart to hers. “I’ll go to the bar with you.”

The instant grin that spread across his face made her heart beat like a club against a skull. It was startlingly fierce.

 

 

***

 

They’d gotten cleaned up at home first. He’d changed into nice jeans and a button-down, his black hat tipped to one side. She changed into a pair of skinny jeans and she wore Kain’s big, blue zip-up over top. Her wet hair was in a braid down over her shoulder. Worked for him. He’d been worried she’d come out of his guest room in a black leather skirt or something else equally ludicrous that Ruby had bought for her.

He wondered briefly, as they pulled up to the club, if he should have extended the invitation to his siblings. Was it weird that it was just the two of them headed to the bar together? She was, after all, off limits. Whatever. He found he didn’t care when he pulled up to the bar. Her eyes automatically cased the area. Always on the lookout for danger, for an escape. It both charmed and pained him.

It felt natural to take her hand as he led her into the loud bar. He’d chosen this one because there was always a pretty healthy dance floor. When he looked back, her eyes were comically large.

“What do you want to drink?” he asked her.

“Nothing,” she replied immediately. Her eating habits had become a lot more normal in the last month. She ate three healthy meals a day and wasn’t saving food for later anymore like she used to do, as if she were always scared there wouldn’t be enough later. But her drinking habits were still strange. She never sipped a drink, besides tea. Once she was thirsty, she’d chug a drink down to the bottom. Kain knew it was because she was used to glutting on water in case there was a dry day or two in store.

“Alright, well if you’re not drinking, then you’re dancing.”

She raised an eyebrow at the crowded dance floor, dim and sweaty. “That’s not dancing. That’s a mating ritual.”

He laughed. “Maybe so.”

“You’re not drinking?”

He shook his head. “Nah. I’m driving you home, remember? Besides. I don’t really drink very much. But you’re welcome to try something if you want.” He pointed at the girl’s drink right next to her and Valentina surreptitiously sniffed at the frozen blue substance.

She winced and stepped away. “That smells like poison.”

“Yeah. That’s headache in a glass.”

“I’ll pass.”

“Great,” he shrugged. “Dancing, then.”

Maybe, in the back of his mind, he’d expected to have to teach Valentina to dance. She’d never been on an earthly dance floor before. And she’d certainly never heard music with so much bass it shook the lungs. But he watched her look around at the other people and immediately start imitating them. She was a natural. And that didn’t surprise him at all. He’d seen her flying kick two people in the face on Herta. He’d seen her catch a falling sword out of the air. He’d seen her rope a hunter from twenty paces. She was obviously very in tune with her body.

Then her dance moves veered away from imitating the others. She moved in a way that was purely Valentina. It both acknowledged the music and ignored it at the same time. He wasn’t sure why that was so sexy. But yeah. He found himself worrying about her injuries when she started dropping it to the floor, but she unzipped that hoodie and he saw the tank top she wore underneath. He stopped thinking about much else after that.

He wasn’t dancing on her, exactly. But he was definitely close enough that other dudes weren’t dancing on her, either. The bar was filling up fast and the dance floor got a little tighter.

He felt a pair of hands on his back and when he turned, there was Christy. A sweet girl he’d messed around with a few times last year. She grinned up at him and he smiled at her, giving her shoulder a friendly squeeze, but then he tipped his head toward Valentina and Christy nodded, understanding.

There was another girl across the dance floor, Laura, who wasn’t anywhere near as understanding as Christy. She shot Kain a look that could have slit his throat if she’d been a little closer.

He put himself in between Laura and Valentina, not wanting her to be in the line of sight of the angry woman. But then he looked down at Valentina. The zip-up had fallen off one shoulder as she danced and the lean line of her muscular arm caught the light. Why was he protecting Valentina? The woman could definitely protect herself. Even so, Kain stayed where he was.

The music went on and on and so did the dancing. Valentina was getting looks from all over the dance floor. From dudes.

Anytime Kain took his eyes off of her, there was another guy, inching his way in toward her. She was pretty, of course, and that was a lot of it. But it was also the way she was moving. There was something extremely alluring about it. She wasn’t shaking it the way some of the other women were, but even so, each move spoke worlds. This was a confident woman. A woman who knew exactly what to do with her body.

Kain could barely stand it. He grabbed Valentina’s hand and twirled her so that her palms landed on his chest. “You’re cute, sunshine.”

She frowned at him, moving to the music still, her hips brushing his. “I’m thirsty is what I am.”

“I can fix that.” He took her hand and led her through the dancing throngs over to the bar. He caught the electric scent of her sweat, the shampoo in her hair. His shampoo. He tucked her in front of him when they got to the crowd around the bar. She tugged off her hoodie and passed it back to him to hold.

“I’ll get waters. You’ll never fit in there.”

Valentina squirreled her way up to the bar and leaned over it the way she saw other girls doing. “Two waters!” she shouted to the bartender when he nodded her way.

“You want a real drink, honey?” a voice said from beside her.

Valentina turned and saw a handsome man with dark hair and brown eyes. He sat at the bar next to her.

“Water is a real drink,” she answered, confused.

He laughed. “I meant, you want something you could sip on while we get to know each other better?”

He slid off the stool and offered it to her.

Valentina opened her mouth to refuse the chair; she wouldn’t have minded sitting, but not at the price of having to talk to this stranger. But she clapped it closed when two arms came on either side of her, trapping her against the bar and surrounding her. She recognized those wide palms, the blunt fingers.

“She’s got a boyfriend,” Kain’s voice said, practically in her ear.

She turned her head to see him and her temple brushed across the light stubble on his chin.

The dark-haired man shrugged and sat back down on his seat. Kain grabbed both waters from the bartender in one large hand and dragged her away from the bar with the other hand.

He didn’t look at her as pulled into a less crowded part of the bar and handed her glass over. Both of them downed their water in just a few huge gulps. He set their cups on an empty table and Valentina wiped her hand across her mouth.

It was then that she realized he’d pulled the hoodie on. He was wearing it. A spark of temper flared in her.

“That’s mine,” she pointed at the sweatshirt. “And no, I don’t.”

“This is ours,” he corrected, plucking at the shoulder of the hoodie. “We share it. And you don’t what?”

“Have a boyfriend.”

“What?” he shouted over the noise of the bar. Frustrated, he grabbed her hand and dragged her out into the parking lot. “Are you ready to go? It’s too loud in there.”

“I’m ready.”

He handed the hoodie over without complaint now. “You said you don’t what?” he asked again.

“Have a boyfriend. The way you said I did.”

Kain held the car door open for her and went around to the driver’s side. He remembered what Alec had said, that Williams wasn’t actually her boyfriend. That it was a different kind of companionship on Herta. Blech. He really didn’t want to talk about this with her. He slammed into the car and pulled onto the main road.

“Well, whatever Williams is. Your lover or whatever. I don’t think he would have wanted that guy buying you a drink and trying to cop a feel.”

Valentina studied him. “That’s very considerate of Williams.”

Kain shrugged. Like he said, he really, really didn’t want to talk about this. The car ride was extremely quiet. And it didn’t really hit Kain until he was pulling into his driveway that he was bringing them back to an empty house. He suppressed a growl. Something told him this wasn’t the best idea.

She didn’t wait for him to open her door for her and that irritated Kain. He followed her to the house but she stopped right before his porch steps. She turned around, an unreadable expression on her face.

“Williams isn’t my lover.”

He sighed, ignoring the twist in his gut. “Well, I don’t know what you guys call it on Herta.”

“You misunderstand.” Her honey-brown eyes were unblinking. “He has no claim to me anymore. He left me.”

“What?” Kain took a step back from her. “What?”

Valentina nodded. “Right after that last caravan. With the coyote shifters. The next day, actually.”

“He left you.”

“Because I’m stubborn and difficult and I cared more about freeing the enslaved than being close to him.”

“He said that to you.”

She shrugged. “It was all true.”

“So, you’re not with him?”

She shook her head, her braid over her shoulder and her eyes filling up her whole damn face.

“Mmph,” Kain grunted and dragged a hand over his stubble, eyeing her. “Are you all broken up about it? Sad?”

“Not really. I was never in love with him. But it had been nice to have a companion. I’d grown used to it.”

“Mmph,” he grunted again and paced away from her a few feet before he came back to stand right in front of her.

Kain took Valentina by the shoulders and picked her right up. He set her two stairs up on the porch so that they were perfect eye level with one another. She huffed in surprise but stayed right where he’d put her.

Kain stood there for three long seconds, right up on her, and then he paced away again.

He turned back to her, five feet away now, pulled his cap off and scratched his head with that hand. When he put the hat back on, it was tipped all the way back on his head.

So it won’t bump me when he kisses me, Valentina realized. He’s going to kiss me.

And then he was striding back until he was eye level again.

“Yeah,” he said, fiddling with his hat once more. “Yeah.”

His arms came around her, and hers came up fast, as if she might hit him, but her hands just streaked around the back of his head. Kain had one forearm banded across the backs of her thighs and the other hand against her shoulder blades.

He trapped her to him and lifted her clean off the steps. Her head was above his, she looked down at him.

Kain tipped his face back and immediately caught her lips with his.

He circled his head, and then, when her serious mouth stayed closed, he lightly flicked his head to one side. And when her lips started coming open for him, he immediately slid inside. Kissing all the dark smooth parts of her mouth he hadn’t realized he’d been dreaming about.

He made a noise into her mouth and Valentina tried to catch it in her teeth. She’d never heard a sound like that before. She would have put her legs around his waist but he held her so tight.

Kain sucked hard at her bottom lip and made a little dissatisfied grunt when he didn’t quite get what he wanted. His tongue traced that lip, dragged it between his teeth.

His scent surrounded her, indescribable, pure Kain. It even rose up from the hoodie she wore. It even rose up from herself, from her own hair. The thought had the smallest noise escaping her.

He froze the second he heard it. And then he was stepping up the stairs. Her back pressed briefly against the front door as he pushed them inside. His lips never left hers. He set her down and started walking them backwards.

Yes.

It was the only thought in her head. The kiss was deepening and her hands were stuck in the collar of his shirt as he leaned down over her. They were still standing in the middle of the floor, though. She tried tugging him back toward the couch. He didn’t move.

“Couch,” she muttered against his lips.

“I, uh, can’t,” he said and then his mouth had dropped to the hollow under her ear and Valentina tipped her head back to give him access.

“Why?”

Kain groaned a little, taking her by the chin and giving her three firm kisses in a row. “Because if I get you on the couch, I’m definitely gonna fuck you on the couch.”

“Oh.” She shivered a little bit. Was that so bad? Sounded pretty good to her. But something held her back from suggesting it. Some note of pain she detected in his voice. “How about there, then?” She pointed to the kitchen. “Just let me sit there.”

“The counter?” he groaned. “That’s even worse. Val, I will definitely fuck you if you’re sitting on the counter. Or just go down on you until we both pass out.”

Again, Valentina wasn’t seeing the downside here. But her recovering leg was starting to shake just a little bit. The swimming, all the dancing, and now the raw pumping adrenaline of this kiss. She needed to sit down.

The movement caught Kain’s eye.

“You’re asking because you need to sit down. Oh, baby, I’m sorry.” He lifted her again, in the same way, so that she couldn’t wrap her legs around him still. Just a few of his long steps and he was through to her bedroom. He set her gently on the edge of the bed, tearing his lips from hers and striding back to her doorway.

She was shocked. He was leaving right now? “Kain?”

“Yeah,” he said again, more to himself than to her, as if he was reassuring himself that this was the right decision. “Yeah.” He took his cap and tossed it into the living room behind him. He grabbed at his short hair. “You need to rest and I need to not lose my fucking mind right now. So, goodnight.”

He stalked over and gave her one very firm and chaste goodnight kiss on her lips. He stood in front of where she sat.

“Goodnight,” he repeated, looking down at her. And then he was giving her that same firm goodnight kiss. He pulled back an inch and then he was kissing her again, the way he’d been on the porch. With everything he had. He crouched on the balls of his feet in front of her and his hands slid from her neck up to her hair and back. His tongue twisted with hers and she felt those dissatisfied sounds of his all the way down to her lungs. But then he was suddenly tearing away again.

He was all the way back to the door of her room when she said it. “Goodnight.”

“Yeah,” he responded and was back in front of her. Again with the firm kiss. She had the feeling that he was trying to kiss her firmly as a form of punctuation. A way to tell himself that there! That’s enough now. But this kiss melted into another and soon he was crawling her backwards onto her bed, one knee up on the mattress and a hot hand halfway up her shirt.

“Fuck!” He danced away, leaving cold air in his wake. He faced away from her in the doorway, his knuckles clutching the doorjamb. “I swear I’m usually not this much of a maniac. You’re just really, really… fuck.” He rubbed the heel of his hand into his eyes.

“Yeah.” He knocked his hand on the edge of her door. “Okay. My head is spinning. I gotta get out of here. Goodnight, sunshine.”

And then her door was shut firmly behind him.

 

 

***

 

“Kain?”

Valentina’s door was open. She blinked the sleep from her eyes. He leaned there against the jamb. Even his silhouette looked exhausted.

“I just realized something.”

“What?”

She sat up in the bed and the dim light from the hallway spilled over her. She wore a different tank top and her hair was loose over one shoulder. She blinked into the light. What time was it?

“That when you got attacked by the hunters you were alone. Alone alone.”

She cocked her head to one side, unsure what he was getting at. “You knew that already.”

“I know. But it really hit me. I knew you were physically alone. But I guess I always thought that if I hadn’t found you, Williams would have. That he would have been looking for you.”

“Oh.” She understood now. He meant that she’d been alone in every way possible.

He was right.

He stepped forward and she knew what he was going to do. He slid under the covers next to her and tugged her close, so far into him that he was almost on top of her. “I wish I’d been there,” he whispered into her loose hair.

She turned to him, confused. “You were. You rescued me.”

“No,” he corrected her. “I mean I wish I’d been there the whole time.”

She wasn’t totally sure what he meant by that. But she only pondered it for a moment before she relaxed into the weight of him. Let the warmth of his skin pull her down to where all things were soft and safe and no one was lonely.