Kirith lay on the large bed in Lumen’s apartment, staring up at the dimly diffused light coming through the glass ceiling.

Thoughts of the pretty Wolf shifter moved through his mind in spite of his efforts to push her away. Her eyes, her lips, her breasts. The taste of her. His cock was rock hard, throbbing with desire for the woman he’d sent away the previous night. The woman who’d said she wanted him inside her.

If she’d known how much he’d wanted to fulfill that request…

At first he thought he’d only imagined the distant howl that broke through the air, snatching his mind away from naughty thoughts.

A gust of wind caught up in a tree above, that was all it was.

But then it came again, tearing through the night’s silence. The lonely cry of a Wolf in some kind of pain. Something in the sound felt familiar, sending all of Kirith’s instincts prickling to attention.

Luna was out there.

Despite the fact that he’d told her not to return, she’d defied him. Damn it, woman. You should know better than to make a Dragon angry.

He pulled himself to his feet, grabbing the nearest jeans and t-shirt and yanking them on, before tearing down the hall towards the exit that would take him up into the centre of the park.

He found the copper Wolf near the reeds, pacing furiously. When she spotted him she stopped, her bright eyes tracking his. For a moment Kirith allowed himself to stare at her déor, gifting himself a rare moment of vulnerability. Her animal felt pain; he could feel it. But it wasn’t physical. Luna was worried, apprehensive. Worried for him. Scared of some unseen threat.

“What is it?” he asked, stepping towards her, sniffing the air for the presence of intruders.

Luna shifted into her human form when he’d come close, and Kirith stopped in his tracks, telling his already charged body to calm down. The accursed, beautiful Wolf shifter was wearing a tight little black number that exposed her shoulders and the rounded, luscious tops of her breasts. But something told him she hadn’t dressed to impress him. No, this was some sort of work uniform. That fucker of an Alpha wanted her showing off her skin. It was lovely skin, to be sure. Skin that sent blood rushing to the place between Kirith’s legs, stealing away his ability to think, to breathe.

But beautiful or not, the truth was that Luna was worth so much more than to be put on display like a china doll for shifters to ogle. She was too innocent to garnish in this way. Too exquisite a creature.

“I know you told me not to come back, but I needed to talk to you,” she said, drawing him away from thoughts of her perfect body.

Kirith nodded. “Right. Come,” he said, leading her to a nearby bench. He needed to sit down, to look anywhere but at her. Somehow, clothed Luna was even sexier than naked Luna. He wanted to kiss her bare shoulders, to bite them. To mark her with an imprint of his teeth and claim her for his own.

“I hope we’re alone,” she said, looking around. Apparently she was too nervous to get wrapped up in any sexual fantasies.

Well, that made one of them.

“What’s troubling you?” he asked.

“I heard something tonight. I was working at…” she stopped, seemingly hesitant to tell him where she’d been.

“Say it,” he replied sternly.

“Ripper’s opened a club for shifters,” she said without divulging the location. “He wants to use it to gather information about your Guild members. I’m afraid he’s already succeeding.”

“I know about the club and your job. As for information about the Guild, did he say why he wants it? ” asked Kirith, though he could already guess.

“I don’t know,” said Luna, who looked as though she were on the verge of tears. “All I know is that he plans to go after the Guild’s Alpha. Do you happen to know where Lumen is?”

For a moment Kirith hesitated to answer. Could this be a trap? Had the bastard Wolf sent Luna to extract information from him? No. Luna wouldn’t obey such an order, even if Ripper issued it. Of that Kirith was sure.

“I don’t know where he is,” he said. “I only know that Lumen said they were going on holiday for a few weeks. He and I aren’t exactly friends.”

“I thought you were staying in his flat,” Luna said. “The place under the lake…”

“It is his. It’s a rather long story. I have nothing against Lumen; it’s just that we’re not well acquainted. I’m as much a house-sitter as anything else, and not privy to inside information.”

“Well, I think Ripper means to go after his family, or at least to send someone out to get his mate and their child.”

Rage heated the Dragon shifter’s blood, setting his flesh on fire. “Shite,” he growled. “Fucking bastard.”

“Why would he do that?” she asked. “I mean, Ripper’s always been an arse, but this seems downright sadistic.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time he’s resorted to such a tactic.”

“Wait—what did you just say?” Luna gasped. “What do you mean?”

Kirith ground his jaw and clenched his hands into hard fists, angry with himself. It was the first time he’d ever spoken the words. The first time he’d ever come close to revealing the truth about what had happened to his family. He pulled his gaze away, wincing.

Why had he just divulged the most personal piece of information in his life? Worse than that, why had he told a Wolf shifter from the Warkshire Pack, of all people? If she went to Ripper…

“Never mind,” he mumbled. “It doesn’t matter.”

Luna rose to her feet and positioned herself in front of him, forcing him to look at her. “Fuck that,” she replied, quiet rage in her tone. “Fuck never mind. Tell me what you’re talking about, Kirith. Damn it, everyone hides the truth from me, like I’m a delicate flower who can’t take it. First my brother, now you. I have no idea what the hell is happening in my own bloody world. Getting you men to talk to me is like pulling teeth out of a rabid sodding lion.”

He looked up, chancing a glance into her eyes. He could see her anger, of course, but there was something else there too. He’d hurt the little Wolf when he’d shut her down.

She didn’t like his walls, which was unfortunate for her, because his entire existence relied on them.

“I can’t talk about it,” he said. “For now, all that matters is protecting Lumen, Neko and their son. Which means that I need to go find the other Guild members.”

“Let me help you.”

Kirith shook his head. “That would be very unwise,” he said.

“Why? Do you think I’ll tell Ripper what’s going on?” Once again, he felt a sort of angry hurt radiating from the sexy redhead. For a woman who looked so wistful at times, so timid, she was awfully good at turning on her rage.

He stared at her for a moment, assessing her motives. He didn’t need to, though; he already knew that he could trust her. She was exactly what she said she was. She was good and honest, and the Warkshire Pack didn’t deserve to have her in its midst.

“I don’t think you would, no,” he replied. “But this is best dealt with by the Guild. I’m sure you understand that we can’t allow a member of a Pack whose leader wants ours dead to participate in a meeting of such a delicate nature.”

“Right. Of course,” Luna said. “What are you going to do?”

“I’ll go find Aegis and Minach. They know where Lumen is; they’ll find him and warn him. Wherever he is, he’ll have to move tonight, before there’s some sort of attempt on his family.”

“Tonight? You really think the Wolves will move that fast?”

“I don’t think it,” said Kirith, shifting his gaze to the silhouette of a tall, gnarled ash tree in the distance. A flashback flooded his mind of a night long ago. “I know it. I know how your fucking Alpha works. He seizes opportunities when they present themselves. He works on impulse.”

“But how…” The words seemed to catch something in Luna’s throat, as though they didn’t actually want to come out. “How do you know all these things about Ripper? I always thought you kept to yourself in Warkshire. I always thought you isolated your family from the Pack and kept to yourselves.”

“It doesn’t matter how I know. The fact is that I do.” A harsh growl rattled up Kirith’s chest. He wanted was to unleash a howl like Luna’s Wolf had done. To scream at the moon, to curse the stars for what he had become over the years. For what Ripper had taken from him. “All that matters is that I need to protect the Dragons tonight.”

“As you protected me last night.”

When Luna spoke the words, Kirith pulled his chin down to look into her eyes, and something inside him settled. She was so sweet-looking, so soft, so smooth. She was no child, but sometimes an innocence settled on her face that reminded him that she’d never suffered the torments of war, of agonizing pain, and all he wanted in this world was to protect her from those things.

“I protected you because it was the right thing to do,” he told her, though it was far from the whole truth.

“Did you lick my pussy because it was the right thing to do?” she asked quietly, sending fire raging through his body at the memory.

He shook his head, eyes still fixed on hers. “I did that because I wanted to taste you,” he said. “I needed to.” The scent of her arousal filled the air once again. “But now I need to go,” he said abruptly. “No more talk.”

“I’ll be here when you get back,” she replied.

“You shouldn’t be, if you know what’s good for you.”

With that, he stepped into a small clearing and shifted into the giant, dark Dragon that had terrified so many over the centuries. Pushing himself off with his powerful hind legs, he leapt into the sky.

For the second night in a row, he was on a mission to rescue someone. Perhaps this was his penance for what had happened years earlier. He’d become some sort of Dragon vigilante, saving those in need.

He wondered if anyone would ever find a way to save him.