Shea knocked on Nik and Aiden’s door. Their apartment was on the same floor as hers and Christian’s, just on the opposite side of the hall. As soon as the elevator doors had closed, taking Dante with it, she’d done an about face. Watching the numbers above the door, she saw it going down, all the way to Dante’s underground hideout.

Leaning back against the wall, she’d debated whether or not to tell anyone. He obviously had a human down there, nothing unusual about that. What was unusual was that he was taking the person food. Dante had never gone out of his way to keep someone alive before. Something was up.

Grace answered the door. Her mahogany hair was pulled back in a high ponytail, and her green cat eyes were makeup free. In her hands she held a ball of spines, otherwise known as Mojo, her hedgehog. Or “Prickles,” as Aiden called him. “Hey, Shea. What’s up?”

Shea smiled. She liked Grace. “I need to talk to Nik and Aiden. Are they here?”

Grace stepped out of the way. “Yeah, of course. Come on in.”

The guys were enjoying their downtime by sitting in the living room, watching recordings of MMA fights. Shea plopped down in the plush chair that was near the window. “Guys, I think something is up with Dante.”

Aiden held one hand up, palm out in the universal sign for, “You’re going to have to wait, something good is about to happen.” Sure enough, the guy in red shot out a high kick and hooked his leg back around, effectively catching his opponent in the head with his heel and knocking him to the mat. He didn’t get up again.

Jumping up off the couch, Nikulas held out his hand for a high five that never came. “Yes! I told you, man! I told you.” Dropping his arm, he settled on clapping his hands together and high-fiving himself.

“Yes, yes, Nikulas. You told me.” Aiden rolled his eyes. Obviously, he wasn’t as thrilled about the results of the match. “It doesn’t mean anything, mate. I’ll still kick your arse later, because you aren’t able to do that particular kick.”

Nik stopped his happy dance and planted his hands on his hips to frown down at his best friend. “What do you mean? I can so do that kick. I just don’t when we’re sparring because you get all butt hurt if I mess up your pretty face.”

Aiden scowled back. “Well, there’s no need to be ungentlemanly about it, mate. I thought we’d agreed on that.”

Nik sat back down. “We did.” Grinning, he looked over at Shea. “What’s up, Shea?”

“I think something’s up with Dante,” she repeated.

“Other than the fact that he returned to us with a mate in tow and now has her locked up somewhere in the bowels of the building and is probably forgetting to feed her?” Aiden asked with an innocent expression.

Shea was confused. “Wait, it’s his mate he’s got down in his torture room?”

Nik plopped back into the cushions of the couch and glanced over his shoulder to run an appreciative eye over Emma, who’d just come out of their room to join Grace in the kitchen. “Yup. Didn’t you smell her on him?”

“Well, yeah, but I thought it was just some random derelict that he’d found and fed from on the way home.”

Grace and Emma wandered over, and Aiden held out his hands for Mojo. The hedgehog grunted at him, crawled up his arm, over his shoulder, and curled up in the hood of his hoodie.

“What’s going on with Dante?” Emma asked as Nik pulled her onto his lap.

“He found, and is probably currently shagging, another Moss witch,” Aiden said. “His mate, it seems, as he hasn’t killed her yet.”

Grace sat down beside Aiden, a look of concern on her face. “I don’t know him, but I’ve heard plenty. Should we be worried for her?”

Nik shook his head. “No. He won’t hurt her.”

“Are you sure?” Emma asked him. “He doesn’t seem like the type to sit and listen to reason.”

“She’ll be fine,” Nik said. “His instincts won’t let him hurt her. Remember how you were all worried about Keira? And see? Luuk never laid a hand on her.”

Emma gave him a look.

“What?” he asked innocently. “She’s fine.”

“Where is she?” Grace asked.

“Probably in his room in the underground,” Shea answered. Dante would do what he would do. And no matter what the guys thought, that concerned her.

Grace gave her a confused look. “The underground?”

“It’s where the monster dwells,” Aiden told her. “The parts where the tourists aren’t allowed because it’s”—he made quotation marks in the air—“dangerous.”

Emma stood up, knocking Nik’s hand away from her ass. “And you guys are just going to leave her down there? It’s gotta be cold. And wet. She must be miserable.”

“He’ll bring her up eventually,” Nik told her as he tried to pull her down again.

“I don’t know about that,” Shea said.

Emma and Grace looked at each other, and two sets of Moss jaws set with determination. “We’re going to get her,” Grace said. “She’s family. And even if she wasn’t, we couldn’t just leave a human being locked away down there. Come on, Em.” The two witches got up and started walking toward the front door.

“You two don’t even know where you’re going,” Nik called out.

“We’ll find it,” Emma answered.

“Don’t leave the apartment building,” Aiden warned them.

Shea looked at the two guys. They looked back, and Nik shrugged as Aiden turned the fights back on.

“You know there’ll be no stopping them now,” he said. “Besides, they’ll never find it. Might as well finish watching the fight and then we can figure out how we’re going to get Dante to allow the female to stay in the protective coven of our witches.”

“You two are idiots,” she told them, not un-fondly. Getting up, she followed the females. “I’ll let myself out.”

She caught up to the women pulling on their coats by the elevator. “You two seriously don’t want to go down there. Let me talk to Dante. He’ll listen to me.”

“No, we’re going to get her,” Emma insisted. “You can make our lives easier and tell us where he’s hidden her, though.” She smiled sweetly.

Shea couldn’t let them go down there. Dante would be furious if they found his home. And he’d kick her ass if she didn’t try to stop them. The other Hunters didn’t understand why he chose to dwell beneath the city, but Shea did. Sort of. In any case, she respected his wishes to do so. And that he needed his space.

“Please, let me talk to him. I know he seems all hard and tough and unfeeling, but he has his reasons for being the way he is. And he won’t take you guys coming down there and removing her lightly. Let me talk to him,” she repeated. “And if I can’t convince him to take her out of there, I’ll even help you get her and keep her safe.” She stared at each of them in turn. “But you know, he has to be allowed to feed on her. He’ll die if he doesn’t. There’s nothing we can do about that.”

Grace and Emma looked at each other, and Grace gave a small shrug. Emma sighed. “All right. You talk to him, Shea. But if he won’t listen to you, then we go after her.”

“Agreed,” she said. “Give me a night or two. She’ll be okay until then.”

Emma nodded. “Okay. Two nights. Then I go get Keira and Ryan to join us and we go.”

Shea stuck out her hand. “Deal.”

“Deal,” the witches said in unison as they shook on it.

Now to get Dante to agree.