Hugh Argent had a splitting headache. As usual.

It was rather ironic, considering that as a paramedic he was carrying an emergency kit full of modern medicine’s finest painkillers. But not even morphine could do anything to help the migraine brought on by close proximity to non-virgins.

Being a unicorn shifter was, quite literally, a pain.

“You all right back there, Hugh?” Dai asked from the driver’s seat. The red dragon shifter glanced over his shoulder, looking concerned. “I can hear you grinding your teeth from here.”

“I’m fine,” Hugh snapped, forcing himself to unclench his jaw. “It’s just that this bloody overgrown fish is taking up all the space.”

Next to him in the rear seat, John Doe obligingly tried to fold himself smaller. This was about as effective as a carp trying to fit into a teacup. No matter how the sea dragon twisted his seven-foot-tall bulk, his legs or elbows jabbed into Hugh.

Just the briefest contact was like brushing against an electric fence. Even the layers of fire-resistant turn out gear Hugh wore couldn’t do anything to protect him from the searing jolt of touching someone who wasn’t chaste. And unfortunately, since John had found his one true mate last year, he was extremely unchaste.

“I am sorry, shield-brother,” John rumbled, giving up. Despite his efforts, he’d invaded Hugh’s personal space so thoroughly, he’d practically conquered it in the name of the sea dragon Empress. “This vehicle is not built for my kind, I fear. Please tell me if there is anything I can do to alleviate your discomfort.”

How about keeping it in your pants for one night? Hugh wanted to say. Let your mate get some sleep for once. It’s a wonder the poor woman isn’t walking bow-legged by now.

But he had to hold his tongue. John and Dai couldn’t know the real reason for his grumpiness. They didn’t even know what sort of shifter he was.

Fire Commander Ash was the only person Hugh had ever told. He’d had to, in order for the Phoenix to allow him to join the all-shifter Alpha Fire Team.

Hugh could trust Ash’s discretion—the reclusive Phoenix was even more tight-lipped than Hugh himself. But sharing his true nature with the entire team…? That would be inviting disaster.

Staying aloof kept him alive. He couldn’t tell his colleagues what he was, no matter how much his secretiveness distanced him from them.

Of course, some distance is starting to sound a lot more appealing, these days.

Hugh sighed, rubbing his pounding forehead. With four of his five colleagues now mated, Alpha Team wasn’t the peaceful refuge it had once been. Much as he tried to be happy for his friends’ happiness, the brutal fact was that he now spent every working moment feeling like they were collectively driving a fire axe through his skull.

He couldn’t even hope that their enthusiasm for carnal pursuits might wear off over time. Dai had been joined to his mate for over three years now, and Hugh could tell that they still spent practically every night dancing the horizontal tango.

Dai caught his eyes in the rear-view mirror. “What are you glaring at me for?”

“Nothing,” Hugh muttered. “Just thinking how nice it would be if your toddler wasn’t such a good sleeper. Are we there yet?”

“Actually, yes.” The red dragon shifter parked the fire truck outside a towering apartment block. The power seemed to be out—despite the late hour, all of the windows were dark. “This is it, according to Dispatch. Let’s go.”

Grabbing their gear, they piled out of the truck. The searing agony in Hugh’s head diminished to a dull throb as he trailed Dai and John into the building at a discreet distance. He easily ignored the familiar low-level pain, focusing on the job at hand.

“East Sussex Fire and Rescue,” Dai called, aiming his flashlight at a small knot of people clustered at one end of the lobby. “Which of you—hey!”

The group had taken one look at the approaching firefighters and scattered like startled rabbits. Hugh jumped back as a group of men barged past him, practically sprinting for the door.

“I don’t know who those were, but they were definitely shifters,” he said, wrinkling his nose at the unmistakable canine scent still hanging in the air. “And evidently ones with guilty consciences.”

“Songs of our deeds have spread wide,” John said, sounding rather satisfied about that fact. “Wrong-doers flee rather than face our wrath.”

“I suppose we’re not exactly hard to recognize,” Dai said, glancing wryly up at the towering, indigo-haired sea dragon. “But someone here called for the fire department.”

“That was me.”

As one, they all turned their flashlights in the direction of the voice. A tall teen girl wearing black motorbike leathers flinched under the beams of light, her shoulders hunching defensively. Her eyes flicked in the direction of the exit.

“It’s all right,” Dai said, his lilting Welsh voice gentle. “You aren’t in trouble. We just want to know how we can help.”

The girl shifted her weight from foot to foot, looking on the verge of flight. “There was, there was a fight. Up in the penthouse. The elevator broke—please, you have to rescue her!”

“Someone’s trapped in the elevator?” Hugh asked.

The girl nodded. “On the tenth floor, I think, but Gaze wouldn’t let anyone go look. There was a big crash.”

Dai turned his flashlight, scanning the darkness. “Show us the way.”

The girl bit her lip, her face creasing in an agony of indecision. “I can’t, Gaze told us all to scatter—I gotta go before my pack notices I’m not with them. Please, hurry!”

“Wait-“ Dai started, but he was talking to her back. The dragon shifter blew out his breath in exasperation as she bolted out the door. “Well, at least we know why we’re here.”

Damsels in distress, Hugh’s inner unicorn whispered. Hurry!

John was looking worried. “This ‘elevator’…that is the unnatural box that defies gravity, is it not? Will any be alive to rescue, if it has plummeted from a great height?”

“Don’t worry, elevators are packed with safety features,” Dai said absently, still searching the lobby for a way up. “We’ll just be rescuing whoever’s trapped inside from boredom. I bet Hugh won’t even have anything to do.”

“How refreshing,” Hugh said. He picked out a door across the lobby with the beam of his flashlight. “There’s the stairs. Let’s go to work.”

Despite Dai’s confidence, a strange sense of urgency twisted Hugh’s gut. His unicorn was agitated, the silver glow of its horn bright as the moon in his mind’s eye. It was all he could do to hold it back, following Dai and John up the stairs rather than shoving past them and charging ahead at full speed.

“Hold a moment, my brothers.” John stopped, his head cocked to one side. “What is that sound?”

In the pause, they all heard it—the low, inhuman groan of metal subject to unbearable stress.

Metal on the verge of breaking.

Dai’s eyes met Hugh’s. “So much for safety features,” the red dragon said grimly. “Come on!”

They took the steps three at a time now, their work boots thumping on the treads. A few mundane humans were milling uncertainly around on the tenth floor, evidently drawn from their apartments by the power cut.

“Oh!” An elderly woman clutched her nightgown closer around her at their sudden appearance. “Is there a fire? Should we evacuate?”

“No, ma’am,” Dai said, politely touching the edge of his helmet. “But we need to make sure everyone’s safe. Can you tell us where the elevator is?”

“That way.” The old lady pointed down the corridor. “Is that what made that awful noise?”

“Shit,” Hugh muttered under his breath. He raised his voice, aiming his best glare at the spectators. “All right, back inside, people! We can’t do our job with you lot breathing down our necks!”

The gawkers unwillingly retreated into their apartments. With the humans out of the way, Hugh could see the double metal doors of the elevator at the end of the hallway. It was immediately apparent what had made the ‘awful noise’—the doors were buckled outward. Hugh guessed that the falling elevator must have somehow hit them and become wedged.

Dai rapped on the distorted metal. “East Sussex Fire and Rescue! Can anyone hear me?”

“Help!”

The trapped girl sounded young. From the way her thin, panicked voice seemed to be coming from near the ceiling, the elevator was evidently stuck somewhere between this floor and the one above.

“Don’t worry. We’re going to get you out.” Dai was already prizing at the doors, without noticeable effect. “John!”

The seven-foot-tall sea dragon braced his feet, fitting his massive fingers into the twisted seam of the doors. The tendons of his neck stood out as he applied his full strength. The doors emitted an ear-splitting squeal, moving the barest fraction of an inch.

“It’ll move, but we need more leverage.” Dai’s broad shoulders bunched as he too threw his full weight against the door, forcing it open a tiny bit more. “Hugh, crowbar!”

Hugh extracted the tool from their gear, tossing it to the dragon shifter. His own hands clenched as he watched the two men strain to open the door. He hated not being able to help, but there wasn’t any room for him to add his strength as well.

“I’m going to go up to the next floor,” he said abruptly, unable to contain his burning need to do something. “Maybe I’ll be able to see something from up above.”

*Be careful,* Dai said telepathically, too out of breath for words. *Just look, and tell us what you see. Don’t take any risks.*

Since Hugh’s talents were usually best deployed on the back lines, away from the heat of danger, it was understandable that his colleagues were somewhat over-protective of him. Still, it was bloody annoying. He was a fully trained firefighter as well as a paramedic.

“I can take care of myself,” Hugh snapped, grabbing another crowbar. “Try not to sprain anything in my absence.”

He hastened to the next floor. The elevator doors here weren’t as damaged as the ones below, though they were still a little bent. Hugh worked the crowbar into the rippled gap, braced himself, and heaved.

He might not have the brute size of a dragon, but he was still a mythic shifter. The doors slid open with a screech of protest.

Hugh angled his flashlight into the dark void of the elevator shaft. The reason for the elevator’s bizarre position was clear—all but one of the main cables had snapped. A couple of the loose ends were hanging free, swinging slightly.

“What in the name of all that’s holy did that?” he muttered, staring at the dangling ends.

They looked dissolved, like acid had eaten through the thick cables. Playing his flashlight beam down the one remaining cable, he could see deep pits in its surface. Whatever had destroyed the other cables had nearly gotten this one too. He had a nasty feeling that it was only a matter of time before it gave way as well.

He panned his flashlight lower—and jumped so badly that he dropped the damn thing.

Bloody hell, was that a face?

The flashlight clanged away down the side of the shaft, but not before the wildly spinning beam of light had flashed across someone crouched on top of the elevator.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Hugh yelled, his voice echoing down the narrow shaft.

“I’ve got to rescue my sister!” From the voice, the figure was a woman, though Hugh couldn’t make out anything other than a vague impression of a short, curvy form.

“That’s our job, you idiot!” Belatedly, Hugh remembered his three rounds of remedial sensitivity training. “I mean, we have the situation fully under control. Please, leave this to us professionals.”

The woman didn’t look up from whatever she was doing. “Like hell I will!”

So much for trying to do this by the book.

“Don’t you dare make me come down there!” he yelled.

“Bite me!”

His inner unicorn stamped a hoof. She calls to us! We must go!

Personally, Hugh was not certain that ‘bite me’ qualified as an appeal for help, but there was no arguing with his unicorn’s compulsion to race to the aid of fair maidens. Or, in this case, a cranky and annoying one.

With a growl of irritation, Hugh felt around the inside of the elevator shaft until he found the internal access handholds. Before he could talk himself out of it, he swung himself into the darkness.

“What the hell are you doing?” the woman shouted up as he started to climb down.

“My damn job, thank you very much.” Hugh groped for the next handhold. It was as black as the devil’s own armpit down here. “Which you aren’t helping with.”

*What on earth are you doing?* Dai’s telepathic voice demanded inside Hugh’s head. *What’s all that shouting?*

*Little busy right now!* Hugh sent, and slammed his mental walls up. He couldn’t risk getting distracted, and he didn’t want to divert Dai and John from the equally important task of getting the elevator door open.

He jarred his foot unexpectedly against the roof of the elevator cage, and bit back a curse. The single, overstrained support cable groaned in answer.

“Watch out!” The woman sounded simultaneously pissed off and frantic. “You’ll bring it down!”

“Do I look like an idiot? I’m not going to put my weight on it.” Bracing himself on the access ladder, Hugh stuck his other arm out, groping for the woman in the darkness. “Come here. I’ll get you to safety.”

She scrabbled away from his searching fingertips. “Don’t touch me!”

“I’m not trying to feel you up, woman,” Hugh snapped in exasperation. “Just take my hand.”

“I can’t. I lost my gloves.” Her voice came from low down, as if she was on her knees. “And I can’t get this bastarding access hatch open!”

Despite the swearing, her voice was trembling on the verge of tears. Clenching his jaw against expected pain, Hugh reached out again. The tips of his fingers brushed a denim-clad shoulder.

“Huh,” he said in surprise.

How about that. She’s a virgin. Practically rarer than I am.

She flinched from his touch. Typical. The first adult in months who hadn’t given him a screaming headache on contact, and she was as evasive as a buttered ferret.

He tightened his grasp, not letting her slip away. He could feel her jerky, labored breaths as she fought to contain her sobs.

“I promise, everything will be all right,” he said more gently. “My friends are getting your sister out. I can tell that they’ve nearly got the door open.”

She went still under his hand. “Really?”

“I promise.” From her scent, she was a shifter, though he couldn’t tell what kind. “We’re all shifters too. I can sense them telepathically. They’ll have her out in just a second.”

An ear-splitting screech echoed up the shaft. Hugh steadied the woman as the elevator cage shuddered underneath them.

*We have her, shield-brother!* John’s telepathic voice was a deep, triumphant chord, like a mix of cellos and bassoons. *She is shaken, but unharmed.*

*Let me be the judge of that,* Hugh sent back. *I’m on my way.*

“Your sister’s out of the elevator,” he said out loud. “But I want to check her over. I’m a paramedic. My colleagues are excellent firefighters, but considering they tend to view broken bones as minor inconveniences, you really don’t want to rely on them for medical advice.”

“Hope’s safe?” Naked relief was clear in her voice.

“She’s safe.” Hugh squeezed her shoulder in reassurance. Maybe it was just the fact that he could touch her without pain, but he felt a sudden, deep surge of protectiveness toward her. “Now let me take care of you.”

Always, his inner unicorn whispered.

What? Caught off-guard by his animal’s unexpected comment, Hugh blinked. He was very aware of the heat of the woman’s body, even through her thick clothing.

“I can take care of myself,” the woman said, though there was something less certain about her tone, as if she too had felt that peculiar spark of connection. “Move out of the way. You’re blocking the ladder.”

Hugh cleared his throat. “Yes. Right. Well, at least let me help you up.” He struggled to reclaim his usual ironic detachment. “I can’t be the only firefighter who doesn’t rescue someone. It’ll look bad on my mid-year appraisal.”

She snorted, shrugging off his hand. “Tough, because I don’t need—“

Her words cut off in a scream as the last elevator cable snapped. On pure instinct, Hugh lunged, losing his own foothold in his haste to catch her.

He slammed back against the wall, dangling from the access ladder with one hand, the other clamped around the woman’s bare wrist. His arms screamed in protest, nearly wrenched out of their sockets.

“Let go! Let go!” the woman shrieked, which was not the usual response of someone dangling over a ten-floor drop.

“Damn it, woman, are you out of your bloody mind?” She was actually clawing at him. “Do you want me to drop you?”

“I don’t want you to die!”

“Neither do I, thank you very much! So stop thrashing about!”

*HUGH!* Dai and John’s mental shouts blasted his mind, nearly making him lose his grip on the slippery ladder.

“Damn your eyes, are you all trying to kill me?” Hugh snarled. His boots scrabbled at the side of the elevator shaft, hunting vainly for a foothold.

*We’re coming,* Dai sent, his telepathic tone frantic. *The ladder’s destroyed down here, we have to go up to the next floor. Just hold on!*

“Oh, well, and here I was considering letting go,” Hugh said under his breath. “Take your time. I’ll just be hanging around.”

The woman had finally stilled, much to his relief. “You…you’re still alive?”

“You sound,” Hugh grunted, finally getting a toe-hold on the ladder with one foot, “surprised.”

“You’re touching me! You should be dead! I can’t control my venom, not in a situation like this!”

The penny dropped. There was only one shifter in all of Brighton—probably in all of Britain—who was that deadly.

Hugh had never met her, but he’d certainly heard enough about her. He’d had more than one occasion to curse her name as he frantically battled to save someone from her venom.

“You’re that bloody wyvern shifter, aren’t you?” he demanded.

A moment of silence.

Then, “Yes,” she said, in a very small voice.

Well, that explained the fizzing tingle where his hand gripped her bare skin. As a unicorn, Hugh was able to neutralize any poison on contact.

“My venom really isn’t affecting you,” the woman said in disbelief. “How is that possible?”

Shit.

Unicorns weren’t the only type of shifter who could heal, but they were the only type powerful enough to counteract even a wyvern’s deadly abilities. He could only hope that the fact that unicorns were meant to be extinct would stop her from guessing what he truly was.

“I’m just very stoic.” Hugh gritted his teeth as he hauled her up one-handed. “Actually, I’m in terrible agony. Oh, the pain. Argh.”

She clung to the rungs next to him, her curvy body pressed tight against his. He still had hold of her wrist. He could feel the wild beat of her pulse.

She brought her hand up, blindly tracing the line of his jaw in the dark. Hugh’s own blood leaped at the tentative brush of her fingertips against his skin.

“No one’s ever been able to touch me,” she whispered. “Who are you?”

Flashlight beams stabbed through the darkness from above, illuminating her face at last. Hugh looked into her wide, emerald eyes…and knew.

“Oh shit,” he said. “I’m your mate.”