Kelsey stared down at her unconscious rescuer, face down in the mud, designer clothes ruined, hair matted and dark.

Why had he even come for her? Why would he go so far? She’d seen the disgust in his face.

Her whole life, she’d seen indifference and meanness in people’s eyes, but he’d shown a different level of hate, at least at first.

But he’d come down here for her. Fought to his limit for her. Gotten himself knocked out for her.

So she couldn’t just leave him in the dirt. Even though her stomach was aching from hunger and she was tired from lack of sleep and she just wanted to get out of here before the cops could show up or the guys from before could come back with new friends. She had to get this guy to safety.

She looked at the road ahead of her and cracked her knuckles. She’d heard of people having extra strength when adrenaline flooded them; she’d just have to hope for the same.

She got on the ground, ignoring her pack because she couldn’t carry any more than him, and pulled on his arm, hefting him up so she could wedge herself under his shoulder. He was surprisingly heavy, but she was still strong from her work in the restaurant stockroom. Had always been fairly strong because she needed to be, or it was natural. She didn’t know. But she was.

She groaned, slowly standing, pulling him with her. His weight was half on his own feet, which dragged on the ground, and half on her back as she held both his arms and dragged him slowly forward, taking it step by step.

Luckily, it was late and no cars were passing through this little side street. She crossed it, her heart pounding, every muscle in her body whining in agony, and when she reached the glass doors, she set him down with a sigh and took deep, heavy breaths.

That was the last of her strength.

She looked to the side of the door and saw a doorbell and intercom. The last thing she wanted was to draw more attention, but she had to let this man’s friends know he was injured before she took off. It was the least she could do, even if she’d never asked him for help.

Well, not out loud.

She pressed the intercom button and heard a buzz, but no answer. She pressed it again. Again, longer, and finally heard a groggy voice on the other end.

“Adrien, is that you?”

She glanced at her rescuer. Adrien, was that his name? It was unique, like he was. “No,” she said in a voice that was hoarse from exertion. “I’ve got your friend down here. He’s badly hurt.”

There was a short pause. Then the voice returned. “I’ll be right down.”

She let go of the intercom button and sank next to her rescuer. He was slumped awkwardly, so she lifted his head and rested it on her lap. She couldn’t resist pushing damp hair off his brow and taking a look at his beautiful face. His hair at the front was matted and blood streaked down his forehead and over his face.

The rain had let up momentarily, thankfully, and she looked up at the dark, cloudy sky as she waited for his friend to show up to get him.

She didn’t have to wait long.

The man who opened the door was as striking as her rescuer. He had neck-length, dark-brown hair and an exotic, tanned face with eyes that almost seemed gold and were tilted up at the corners. He wore silk pajamas, a loose tunic over flowing pants, but she could still see he was tall and muscled like her rescuer. Adrien?

He motioned for someone behind him. “Sever,” he said. “Come out here.” He knelt in front of Adrien and gave her a curious glance before looking his friend over. He sighed. “I’ll need to take him upstairs.” He looked at her. “I’ll need you to come with.”

She gaped, then shook her head. “No way. He needs to go to a hospital, and I need to get out of here before the men who did this come back.”

“No,” he said. “You need to come with us until we figure this out. You could be in danger.” He put a hand out for her to shake it, but she hesitated. “I’m Citrine by the way.”

She took his hand and shook it, surprised by the gentleness there. When she looked into his eyes, a surprising warmth went through her.

“I promise you’ll be safe with us,” Citrine said, motioning to the man behind him. “This is Sever.”

She squinted up at the giant who had just appeared through the door. He was the oddest yet. Tall and Viking strong, with a long gray braid that swung down his back and hair that was shaved on the sides.

He folded his arms and looked down at her, and a small shiver went through her. “Who are you?” he asked. He nudged Adrien with his foot. “And how did this happen?”

She just gaped at him as he bent to pick up Adrien and then slung him over his shoulder, standing easily as if his friend’s weight were nothing.

Like his friends, he was incredibly handsome. The type women would be naturally drawn to.

“She isn’t going to talk until we get her inside,” Sever said. “I can tell.”

“I’m not going with you,” she said stubbornly.

“You want us to call the local authorities?” Sever asked. “Because we can do that.”

She bit her lip. She didn’t trust men, let alone people in general. But if they were going to call the cops, what choice did she have? She hadn’t done anything wrong, but she had no proof of that. Cops scared her.

“No,” she said. “But I need my things.” She pointed at the alley, and Citrine looked up.

“I’ll get them. Wait here a moment.”

She watched as he stood and jogged across the road. He paused, picking up her things, and she saw him spend a moment processing her situation as he observed how little she had.

It was slightly humiliating.

He came back with her stuff in hand. “Come on. Let’s go inside. We can talk there.”

“This is kidnapping,” she muttered.

“I think of it as you getting some free shelter and us getting some much-needed info on our friend.”

“He really should go to a hospital,” she muttered.

“Oh, he’ll be fine,” Citrine said lightly.

“He’s had worse,” Sever said. “Deservedly so.”

She looked at the braid-wearing giant in surprise. “He didn’t deserve this. He was saving me.”

They had just reached the bottom of the stairs, and Sever raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Excuse me, what?”

Citrine stopped dead. “He rescued you?”

“Adrien?” Sever said, aghast. “This guy? Are you sure you saw right in the darkness?”

She nodded, vaguely offended for Adrien that his friends didn’t believe he would do something selfless. “Why? Is it so shocking?”

Sever gave her a long look head to toe. “Yeah,” he said drily. “It really is.” He looked at Citrine. “A human,” he said in a hushed voice.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, following them as they started up the steps.

She got no answer from the men in front of her until they reached the top of the steps.

“We’ll talk more in the morning,” Citrine said. “For now, I’ll show you your room.”

“I’m not staying in some strange building with men I don’t know,” she insisted, trying not to think about how warm and nice a room here would be.

She followed them to the hallway at the end of the current one, and Citrine walked to a door to the right. He pulled out keys and unlocked the door.

“Look,” he said. “We run a legitimate business, and the last thing we would do is commit a crime or hurt someone. You can tell anyone where you are, but we need you to stay here.”

She took a step back, wondering if they would chase her if she ran.

“Look into my eyes,” Citrine said, stepping forward. “I promise you no harm will come to you.” He removed a key from the keychain and held it out to her. “This is the only key. No one will come in without you opening the door.”

She reached out and snatched it from his hand. She didn’t want to stay, but she didn’t really have a choice. And when she snuck a look at his eyes, she did trust him, despite all her reasons not to.

Plus, she still owed Adrien at least a thank you. And she wanted to stick around long enough to make sure he was all right.

“Fine,” she said. “I’ll stay. Just until morning.”

Citrine smiled in satisfaction while Sever just let out a huff. “Perfect,” Citrine said. “We will see you in the morning, then.”

She looked at Adrien. “Take care of him.” She couldn’t make them go to the hospital, and they probably knew more about their friend than she did.

She unlocked the door to her room and walked in, feeling she was in a dream.

She turned around to shut the door and noticed there was a deadbolt as well. She couldn’t resist grinning as she slid it into place.

Safe.

She was safe. And warm. She backed up and jumped onto the bed, which was soft. Heavenly soft. She looked up at the ceiling, noticing a fan. Imagine being so warm that you needed to have a fan to cool you.

She wanted to get up, strip out of her clothes, see if there was a shower, or what else was in the room, but she was just too tired. With the deadbolt ensuring no one could hurt her and a soft bed beneath her, she couldn’t overcome her exhaustion even a minute longer.

She fell asleep on top of the covers, slipping into dreams about flashing silver eyes.

* * *

“He saved her. Adrien got himself beat up for a human.”

“I know.”

“What do you think it means?

Adrien’s head was aching, blurry, and he groaned as he slowly forced his eyes open. Who was talking and why and about whom?

The room in front of him swam, sunlight streaming through the window, and the two men sitting across from the couch he was on looked over at him.

He blinked a couple times, rubbing his head, as it all came back to him in bits and pieces.

“Sever. Citrine,” he said tersely. “What are you two doing?”

“Making sure you actually wake up,” Citrine said. “You took a nasty blow last night.”

“I did. I did?” He looked around him, whipping his head a little too quickly and stopping with a groan, covering his eyes. “What happened?”

“There’s a human woman in the apartment next door that says you saved her.”

Adrien groaned again, trying to remember. He’d been drinking, looking out the window. And then… there’d been a spy?

“No,” he said. “It’s not what you think.”

“It’s not?” Sever asked with a sardonic grin. “Because it looks to me like you finally decided to be a hero to a damsel in distress.”

“Shut up,” Adrien said bitterly. “No. It’s not like that. She was… camping out in the hallway. I thought she was a spy and chased her out. I didn’t know she was…”

“Homeless,” Citrine said quietly.

Adrien nodded. “I was just watching from the window, drinking my scotch, thinking she would go back to her car, but…”

“But there was no car,” Citrine said.

“Yeah,” Adrien said, touching his head and realizing there was a bandage wrapped around it. “What’s this?”

“We know with your increased healing ability, you’ll be fine. But to a human, it would look a bit weird if your bleeding head wound just disappeared.”

“Oh, yes,” Adrien said. “Once again, I have to inconvenience myself for a human.”

“Yes, why did you do that?” Sever said. “You are supposed to hate them.”

“Says who?” Adrien snapped.

“Says you,” Citrine retorted.

Adrien sat back on the couch, resting against the cushions and willing away the ache in his head. “Well… even I have a conscience. A sense of right and wrong. In our time, none of us allowed harm to come to the village wenches.”

“Right,” Sever said. “But as you continuously point out, this isn’t our time.”

Adrien slammed his fist down on the couch in frustration. “Dammit, Sever, what do you want me to say? That I shouldn’t have saved the wench? That I’m truly a villain who could stand by while something like that happened?”

“You could have asked us for help,” Sever said. “We were just doors away.”

“Right,” Citrine said, resting his chin on his knuckles. “It’s almost like he was… panicked.”

“Was not,” Adrien said. “I just didn’t have time to spare to wake you two lazy asses and get you out of bed. Besides, I can handle a handful of humans.”

Sever cocked his head. “Not apparently. Wait until I tell Dante.”

Adrien let out a snarl. “You wouldn’t dare. Besides, we both know it’s because of the ring. If I had my powers—”

“Right, but you won’t have them until you find a mate here and learn to get along with humans.”

Sever grinned. “Maybe he found one already. Last night.”

Adrien’s glare deepened as he caught Sever’s meaning. “You can’t be serious.” He shook his head gingerly, but despite his quick rebuttal, part of him wasn’t so sure.

What had made him watch her leave so carefully? What had made him risk his own life, even restrained? He hadn’t even considered not intervening.

“Where is she?” he asked, trying to look nonchalant about it to avoid more teasing.

“As we said, in the next room,” Citrine said. “We didn’t know the whole story, and we couldn’t just let her go without your say so.”

“Why?” Adrien asked.

“She’s a human that the silver dragon fought to save. That’s just far too interesting to let out of our hands,” Sever said. “Citrine and I both agreed.”

“So what, you kidnapped her?”

“She needed shelter,” Citrine said. “We gave her an excuse to accept our help.”

That was true. It was what Adrien should have done, if he hadn’t immediately jumped to suspicions of thieving and spying upon seeing her.

He should have noticed her clothes, realized she was homeless and needed help, and offered a bed.

It was something that wouldn’t have occurred to him before, but now was clear as daylight.

“What are you thinking?” Sever said. “You know we’ve been trying not to read thoughts as a habit.”

“I know,” Adrien said. “I appreciate it.” He thought for a moment. His mind was whirling. The idea that she was just next door was oddly reassuring.

But why should he care what happened to a human? Wasn’t she just a burden? Not his problem? He’d already saved her, doing more than he ever intended to do for a woman in this world.

He bit his lower lip and worried it back and forth slowly. “So… what happens next? Do we talk to her?”

“What do you want to happen next?” Citrine asked, looking at Adrien with twinkling eyes that he didn’t like one bit.

“We can send her off, I suppose,” Adrien said. “After all, we don’t need to hear her side of the story. I can assure you she is innocent of anything but being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And seeking shelter, I suppose.” That last part stuck in his throat like a badly wedged bone.

“Should we?” Citrine asked Sever. “Just tell her to go?”

Something about that irritated Adrien. He didn’t like it at all. If she left, if she were to go back out in the world, she would probably just run into trouble again, needing him to save her.

Which he wasn’t sure why he cared, but he did, and until he figured it out, he couldn’t really let her leave.

“As far as she knows, it’s her fault I’m injured.” He pointed to his head. “Until this heals, I feel she should probably help me with whatever I need.”

Sever folded his arms and stood, leaning on the door. “So that’s gonna be your excuse for keeping her around?”

Adrien nodded, then shook his head. “No. It’s not an excuse. She owes me. And if I say she should stay, then she should. Besides, it’s not like she has anywhere else to be.”

There was a knock on the door behind Sever.

“If you’re going to keep me around, perhaps you could consider feeding me,” a feminine voice said from behind the door.

Adrien’s heart skipped a beat, and he hated himself for it. He was nervous to see her, dammit. And why should he be? She was only a human.

“Come in, then,” he said sharply, folding his arms.