Ren was thankful he’d already returned the DFR truck to the station. His own car wouldn’t stand out as much. The last thing he needed was some manager freaking out about the fire department showing up unannounced. He’d changed quickly after getting his aunt’s call.

He dialed her number as he pulled out his kit from the back trunk. “I’m here. I’ve got the kit and I’m heading up now. How’s Mack doing?”

“Mack’s hanging in there. He’s tough, but whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing. His lungs are the part that’s got me worried. I removed most of the pieces in his face, chest, and arms, but the lungs are another story.”

He couldn’t imagine. She would have to go in with a scope and remove the pieces bit by bit, or neutralize it in some way. Since the lung damage was done by a gas instead of particulates, the recovery was slow-going.

“When you see that girl, DJ, get her number for me. I forgot to ask the last time we talked.”

He doubted that. His aunt was probably poking her nose where it didn’t belong again. “Okay. Anything else?”

“Yes. If she’s right, then we’re in for a world of trouble.”

“Yeah. I know.” He’d faced fires and arsonists in his job with DFR, but that was nothing. In his past life in San Antonio, he’d battled other territorial alpha wolves in the ring for sport. With his aunt, he’d helped save hundreds of their people, and held the hands of many more as they died from shifter diseases and silver poisoning. Their world was brutal and deadly. And now he was quite literally walking into a lion’s den. Or lioness, anyway.

“If we can’t get a handle on this, the council will have to step in.”

Ren cursed quietly in his head. His father’s involvement would destroy the little bit of peace and adventure he’d carved for himself up here. “This isn’t the first time, we’ve done something like this.”

“No, kiddo. And I doubt it will be the last. Call me as soon as you get up there. I need a complete work over. And when you see the girl, try to get her to scent out the source of the silver she thinks she can smell. If her senses are that heightened, I’d like to study her.”

“She’s not a lab rat.” He couldn’t help but grin at his aunt’s statement. How many times had she poked and prodded him to learn the limits of his abilities? She was like a kid in a candy store when it came to some new quirk in the shifter community.

“Don’t ruin my fun. I spend too much time filling out paperwork and patching up those underground fighter friends of yours.”

He didn’t bother to reply. She wouldn’t listen to him anyway. “I’ll call you when I know something.”

“Ren, be careful.” Her voice was tight with tension. She didn’t have to tell him this could be a trap, or worse, facing an injured lioness who might lose control of her humanity. It wouldn’t be the first time. Nor would it be the last.

“You know me. I’m always careful.”

“That’s right, I do know you. Hence my warning. Goodbye brat.”

“Love you too, Aunt Cheryl.”

As he made his way to the lobby and through their tighter-than-normal security, he focused on his aunt’s worries. With Cheryl it wasn’t about what was said, but what she didn’t say that mattered the most. His father was already sniffing around the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, eyeing potential investments that would put Ren right back under this thumb. His only relief growing up had been Cheryl’s unexpected attachment to him. She’d sort of took him under her wing, made him call her ‘aunt’, and then forced him into meeting new shifters and seeing a whole other life that wasn’t dominated by a man who was terrified of losing his only son and heir.

Security swiped a card on the elevator and stepped back out, letting him go to the top on his own. He watched the digital display as he rose, trying to remember if there was a unique protocol he was supposed to follow when he saw a lion. They were rare, hunted nearly to extinction among his kind. Just knowing the identity of one could be enough to send their heavy hitters to take him and DJ down.

The door opened and on the other side stood Rebecca Shay. A pale, obviously ill version of her, but the main actress from his favorite movie series nonetheless. And her eyes were anything but human. The teeth were fanged out, and he recognized the retractable claws on her otherwise still-human hands.

“I’m Rendall James. Cheryl is my aunt. I’m not here to hurt you or expose you. My job is to find out if you’ve been poisoned and report to my aunt on your condition.”

She blew a breath on her unsheathed claws and lightly admired them. “I know who you are, Mr. James. So, what is the son of a powerful wolf clan doing in Dallas?”

Her nonchalance was a complete act. He could feel the hairs on his neck stand on end. It took all he had not to snarl at her obvious aggressive tactics. Luckily, he had years of putting off his father to back him up. He smiled and stepped out of the elevator. Keeping his body relaxed was hard, suppressing the wolf inside that wanted to fight was even harder.

“I’m a fireman. And the Fire Safety Officer of your movie.”

“A fireman? Wouldn’t smoke and fire work against your senses?” Sweat beaded on her forehead, and he knew she wouldn’t have much longer on her feet before she’d need to sit down. Suddenly, he realized that everything she’d done had been a last-ditch effort. Anyone else would have turned tail and run by now. What he had in front of him was a sick lioness and a scared woman whose identity had been shared without her consent.

“I like the challenge. Much like being in the public eye for a usually private pride member.”

She tilted her head. “Touché. Alright, what do you need to know?”

“Actually, I need you to sit down so I can give you a quick exam. I’ll have to ask you a bunch of annoyingly personal questions, and I swear none of it will ever leave this room.”

She waved a hand and turned her back on him to return to the living room. That meant she either trusted him completely or was underestimating his abilities. Either way, it got her to sit, and that’s all he needed. He inhaled slowly and caught a whiff of the woman he’d wanted to see since he left the hospital. “Where’s DJ hiding?”

“She’s sleeping.” Rebecca tapped the chair back and continued to a couch. He glanced down at DJ’s peaceful expression.

Something tugged at his heart. An instinct to protect her rose up in him, and he tried to rein it back in. It was obvious that Rebecca had tucked a blanket around her.

“Seeing her so still is insane. She’s usually such a ball of energy. I guess even superwomen must rest sometime. Should we wake her?” She seemed hesitant to do so.

“No, let her sleep. She’s got a hectic stunt schedule tomorrow.” He tucked the blanket under her chin and watched her shove it back down to the top of her chest. Even in sleep she was determined to have her way. “What did she tell you about our situation?”

“That someone may be poisoning me, and that I smell weird.” Amusement was back on the woman’s expression. “I think it may be good old-fashioned food poisoning, though.”

“Tests will determine that. Besides, have you ever had food poisoning in your life?” She looked annoyed at his question, but shifters were notorious for having iron stomachs.

“Did she explain what she meant by you having a weird smell?”

“She said it was like Mack in some way. Do you think I’ve been poisoned by silver?”

Maybe her nose was sensitive like Cheryl had suggested. “It’s possible, but I won’t know until I can examine you. I need to get some saliva samples, blood samples, and all that stuff. Cheryl ordered a complete work up for you.”

“Because I’m a lion?”

“Because you may have been the first victim, but we doubt you’re the only one. The sooner we isolate what’s made you ill, the faster we can get you recovered and back to making movies. Your pride hasn’t asked us to step in. Officially, you haven’t either, so this isn’t about politics or currying favor with your family. If someone is trying to take down shifters on your movie set, we need to stop them before someone actually gets killed.”

“How is Mack doing? Really?”

He took the samples Cheryl needed, careful to stay out of direct reach of her claws, just in case. If she was 100%, he doubted he could move faster than her, but right now, he had a fighting chance. “Mack’s external burns are starting to heal, but the lung damage from the explosion is another matter. He can’t shift anymore because of multiple back injuries, so it’s probably affecting the acceleration of his healing.” Once metal or other foreign objects were inserted in a shifter, they couldn’t change anymore without dying in the process. Ren didn’t want to see the crash that had forced a shifter like Mack to have back surgery in the first place.

“I like Mack. He’s always thorough when he coordinates our stunts. Who’s taking his place?”

“Sleeping beauty over there.”

“I hear someone talking shit about me.” DJ grumbled.

“You’re taking over for Mack?” Rebecca’s question seemed to spark annoyance in DJ.

“Yeah. Most of the stunts were already mine, anyway. I choreographed most of the fight scenes with our guys and several of the chase sequences already.”

Ren listened with half an ear as he focused on inspecting Rebecca’s gums. They were white along the bottom. Her teeth showed signs of bleeding around the base. “Do you have any sores in your mouth?”

“Some. I’ve had them for three weeks. Two days ago, was the worst, but they healed up yesterday.”

“Has anything changed between yesterday and the previous few days.”

“I didn’t want to eat anything, so I stayed in bed.”

“Rebecca, do you want a water?” DJ rose up from the chair and stretched completely, arching up on her tiptoes in an awkward wake-up move that he found too adorable.

“Yeah, there’s a bottle in the fridge. Grab one for yourself, too.”

“Bottles?” DJ seemed shocked.

“Don’t judge, okay? I had the hotel send up a pack since I was too sick to keep refilling my filtered canister.”

He watched DJ go into another room.

“Keep looking at her like that, and she’ll knock your ass out.”

Rare embarrassment reared its ugly head. He’d been busted. “Look at her like what?”

“Like you’re ready to eat her up. She hates being coddled, and many of the wolves she’s worked with has tried to push her into settling down. She catches a whiff of that from you, and you’ll be dead in the water.”

“I have no intention of roping her into a life she doesn’t want. As a matter of fact, I’ve been in love with her stunt work since her first run with your Rogue Assassin series.”

“Well that’s a relief—”

“I found it!” DJ ran into the room holding a giant water bottle that sported a ridiculously large filter. Her eyes were blazing with intensity, and the death grip she held on the bottle left her fingers as pale as her face.

“What did you find?” He’d jumped to his feet and rushed to her side before he could think.

She gripped his forearm and shoved the water bottle at him. “It’s in the bottle. The stuff that’s made her sick.”

“How do you know?”

“I can smell it, Ren. This is what Cheryl wanted me to find. Now we can catch this bastard.”

“Where did you get this bottle Rebecca?” He put a hand on DJ’s shoulder and squeezed.

“I’ve had it for years.”

“Where do the filters come from?” He took out his phone and dialed his aunt’s number.

“Online. I order in bulk. Do you think it’s the filters?”

“Possibly. I can’t think of anything else that would poison you over time. Where do you keep your extras?”

“There’s a small case of them in my bedroom.”

“Who had access to them?” DJ asked as the phone rang.

“No one that I can think of.”

“You’re still alive so I guess the lioness didn’t eat you.” Her cackle unnerved him like it always did. He wondered if she exaggerated it just for him.

“So funny, Aunt Cheryl. No, she didn’t eat me. But we may have found the culprit.”

“Good, because I think our enemy is getting a little desperate. A security guard from your set was brought in a few minutes ago. He’s a wolf, with no known affiliation or clan markings on his body. He has the same burns as Mack, but was already gone by the time I got to him. Get that evidence to me. And unless the lioness makes an official request, I’ll need to call in your father.”

His father’s interference in this situation was the last thing any one of them needed. Subtle wasn’t a word in Mr. James’s vocabulary. “Give me another day to make arrangements.”

“You’ve got until our coroner arrives from San Antonio to claim the body. That’s the best I can do. I’ll be over there soon. Leave the lab samples for me there.”

Coroner? That meant at least six hours if he was driving. Two, if he was flying. It would have to be enough time.