“THIS IS MESSED UP! This better not be some kind of prank or I’ll kill you,” I shouted to Logan as Sophie and Cooper snickered in the corner of the alley. Dom stood at the opening of the alley, two guns drawn at his sides.

Logan winced. “Trust me, beautiful, it’s just as painful for you as it is for us.”

Keegan had pissed in a bottle and now Logan was proceeding to pour it on my clothes. Clothes which consisted of jeans that Nadine had been wearing and Sophie’s shirt. Topped with Keegan’s hoodie. They were trying to pass me off as a wolf shifter. The acrid smell of urine rose up and I gagged, forcing the contents of my stomach to stay where they were.

“Jesus, Keegan, what did you eat today?” Logan mock gagged and I had to clench my fists to keep from punching him in the jaw.

Gear, who seemed to be on the mend, brought over a flask, covering his nose as he neared. “Top it off with this and let’s go. Nadine’s arm is healing at an odd angle. They hit her with druid magic.”

Logan frowned as he upended the flask on the front of my sweater and the pungent smell of vodka hit my nose, causing a slow burn down my throat as I inhaled.

“I swear to God, this better not be a joke. Some hazing shit.” I would literally go dragon on them all and spray fire.

Logan looked me in the eyes and a serious expression fell over him. “I would never do that to you.”

His words rang true and I nodded. My life had taken a drastic change the last two weeks, but standing in an alley in front of a sexy dragon shifter while wearing wolf piss was really the icing on the cake.

Keegan linked arms with me then and began to drag me away from Logan. My hood was pulled up and my hair tucked back inside, finishing off my disguise.

“The bouncer can tell truth from lie, so don’t speak. I will do all of the talking.”

I just nodded. The bouncer must have some magical ability to sniff out a lie. The very thought had me more on edge than I already was.

The rest of the pack filed in behind us and I wondered just what the hell I was about to see. He had said “supernatural bar,” and I was already imagining sorcerers with cauldrons and shifters tearing into each others’ necks. And hunters. Dozens of hunters looking for me.

Keegan looked down at me. “I can hear your heart racing a hundred and thirty beats per minute. Just relax. Weakness is not something you want to bring into this bar.”

His words made the fear flush through me even faster. We had reached the end of the alley and I could hear the music now, but I couldn’t see the bar. We were in a weird industrial part of Flagstaff, not the popping college town that I thought we would go to. Keegan crossed the street with me on his arm and walked full speed right for a brick wall in front of us.

“Umm, Keegan…?” I asked as he jumped up on the curb with me at his side.

He looked down at me, annoyed. “You’re fine,” he said, and kept walking so that we were going to faceplant right into the wall. I pulled back at the last second, inches from the bricks smashing my nose, and he jerked to a stop.

“What’s your deal?” he asked, looking forward, embarrassed. Behind us I saw that Nadine was draped in Logan’s arms.

“Umm, my deal is that I don’t fancy breaking my nose on a brick wall,” I told him as I gestured in front of me.

Keegan looked confused, and then something dawned on him.

“Something is wrong with you, your magic is broken,” he mumbled, and with a hard yank he pulled me into the wall.

I braced myself for the face slam, but it never came. A tingling feeling caressed my skin and suddenly I was standing at the entrance of a raging nightclub. What the…? I looked behind me to see a shimmering brick wall, five feet away at my back. An illusion. The rest of the pack walked through it and I saw the brick illusion shimmer and wave before reforming once they were through.

“No way,” I murmured aloud.

“Act drunk,” Keegan whispered in my ear. “I’m your new alpha.”

Before I could respond, he yanked me forward so hard that I nearly fell.

“Watch it, dick!” I shouted. Partially because I thought it was what a drunk person would say and also because I had been dying to call him a dick all night. Keegan gave me an amused side glance and pressed on.

There was a huge bouncer at the door, standing at least seven feet tall, with a shaved head and glowing copper eyes. I tried not to stare into his swirling gaze but I felt entranced by it, finding it almost painful to look away. Keegan’s warning from the alley came to me then and I clamped my mouth shut so that no lies would spill out.

As soon as we neared, the bouncer scrunched his face and covered his mouth with the cuff of his long sleeve shirt. I was surprised I hadn’t thrown up on myself from the mixed stench of piss and alcohol.

“Jesus, Keegan. What’s this?” The man’s voice was distorted, making me wonder if I really was drunk.

Keegan sighed. “Hey, Glum. New pack member. She got Nadine and Gear hurt. We need to see Eva about a healing.”

Keegan’s words cut right through me. Keegan knew this man could tell a lie, so he could only speak truth. That meant that he thought I was at fault for Nadine and Gear’s injuries. My stomach knotted with guilt at the thought. Glum looked at Keegan for another moment, something swirling in his endless yellow eyes, until finally he must have felt satisfied and nodded, opening the large brass door to let us enter.

As we passed, Keegan shoved a hundred-dollar bill into a tip jar. Damn, that would pay my grocery bill for two weeks. I was tempted to snatch it back out and replace it with a lesser bill, but thought better of it.

The moment we entered the dark room I was saturated with sights and sounds that were foreign to me. The music was beyond weird. Some kind of tribal drum and bass, but with a high-pitched live singer. It wasn’t bad, just different. The smell… was a mix of dog, metal and alcohol. The place was a pretty good size, with a large U-shaped bar off to the left, and a stage and dance floor to the right. I could see a second floor VIP area as well, with people leaning on the railing and looking down at the dancers. Up on the stage was a pencil-thin singer with purple-dyed hair and a half a dozen backup dancers. Now that we were inside, Keegan dropped my arm and Logan replaced him, clutching tightly to my upper arm and dragging me across the dance floor.

“I know how to walk,” I growled. What was with this handoff? Logan, Keegan, Logan again. It was like Keegan was just the alpha for show but Logan really called the shots. Their dynamic was weird and hard to read.

“And I know how to keep you alive,” he countered, maneuvering through a crowd of burly men wearing business suits and holding scotch glasses.

As we passed, one of them looked right at me and his nostrils flared. Then just as quickly his face scrunched in repulsion.

“Who are they?” I indicated the business-suited men after we had passed. Logan was speed-walking us to the VIP lounge.

He glanced at the men and then leaned into me. “Those are Collectors. Very powerful sorcerers that would cut us into a thousand pieces and sell us for parts if they knew what we were.”

My gut clenched and I felt fear saturate my body. My dragon stirred in anxiety and I knew it would be suicide if I transformed now, so I took three deep breaths.

I am safe. I am safe. I am safe. Logan will keep me safe, I chanted to my dragon.

The fear dissipated a little and her stirring lessoned. Shit, that was a close call.

Logan seemed to understand. “After tonight, I need to train you, for all of our sakes,” he grumbled.

I just nodded. I didn’t know where I saw myself tomorrow, next week, next year. I was living this shitstorm one day at a time.

Keegan and the rest of the pack arrived at my back as we reached the VIP lounge staircase.

“Logan!” A twenty-something brunette stick figure with boobs shrieked as she jumped up and down.

Logan looked embarrassed. “Hey, Monica. Is Eva upstairs? It’s urgent.”

Monica scrunched her nose up at me and looked beyond us at an injured Nadine and Gear.

“Sure thing.” She unhooked the velvet cord that barred our access and let us upstairs. As we walked up the first few steps, I heard Sophie’s voice behind me as she muttered to Monica:

“Slut.”

Monica fired back: “Dog.”

My eyebrows hit my hairline. It seemed Sophie wasn’t the friendly type.

“Not tonight, ladies,” Keegan warned with a growl in his throat.

Damn, Sophie didn’t hold back her feelings, did she? She had zero filter between thoughts to verbal utterances, and she seemed to have a lot of enemies. Including me.

As we made our way up the stairs, Logan muttered to me: “Sophie is a tough nut to crack, but once she lets you in, she’s a fiercely loyal friend.”

“Right. I’ll keep that in mind when we become besties,” I growled. I didn’t even want to think about her letting Logan “in.”

As we reached the top of the stairs, I saw that we had been transported to a plush and swanky velvet lounge. The walls, the couches, the table tops, everything was black and purple velvet. People milled around, some doing the gross making out thing and others just talking, but one couple caught my eye.

The man wore a suit and top hat, and in his right hand was yellow fire! It floated about a quarter of an inch off of his palm, and the woman he was with was using her hand to change the colors. The flame flickered from yellow to blue to green as she waved her fingers.

Logan saw me looking and yanked me away. “Lower class magic users. Just a party trick. Come on.”

Just a party trick? That was the coolest thing I had ever seen. As we passed the low-lit tables I saw that above the tables were cutouts in the walls. Dancers wearing tiny purple velvet shorts and matching purple velvet bras thrust their hips out to the music. Most of the dancers were female but a few were male. Tip jars lay at their feet and were overflowing with twenty-dollar bills. Damn, I was in the wrong business.

I heard Keegan growl low behind me. Craning my head back, I saw him glaring at one of the male dancers. A bar patron was shoving a twenty dollar bill in the elastic of his waistband. Once he had finished tucking the bill in, the bar patron turned back to look at Keegan as if he sensed or smelled him. He had sleek black hair, shaved at the sides and big on top—one of those hot hipster guys. He took one look at Keegan, his mouth pursing to a thin line, and gave a little wave before turning back towards the dancer.

Nadine was white as a sheet in Keegan’s arms, but spoke through gritted teeth. “If you still love him, then you should just tell him.”

Keegan scoffed and looked elsewhere. “He’s the one who left.”

My eyebrows rose in surprise. Damn, big badass alpha was gay? My gaydar must be broken because I could usually call that. That’ll teach me not to stereotype. As we beelined it towards a set of double doors, I saw the guy Keegan had been sulking about look longingly at Keegan’s back. Love could be painful, and in this moment, I was super glad to be single.

Finally, we reached the closed doors and Logan wasted no time banging furiously on them. After a moment’s pause, a large man who looked like another bodyguard opened it. He took one look at Logan and nodded.

“She’s busy with another customer. You’ll have to wait.”

I could see the muscles in Logan’s jaw tighten. The guard looked at me and recoiled. “Leave that stinky mutt outside. She won’t want it in the office.”

“What the hell did you just call me?” I stepped forward, but Logan yanked me back.

“Tell Eva I have a gold unicorn,” Logan said firmly.

The guard rolled his eyes. “Are you drunk, Logan?”

“Tell her! She’ll know what it means!” he ordered, and I felt some type of power in his voice. It pushed against my skin like a physical thing.

The guard sighed and left.

Not thirty seconds later the door flew open and a beautiful woman with long black hair who looked to be in her early forties was ushering her client out. “Come back tomorrow. I’m closed now.”

The client, an older man in his fifties, looked offended, but nodded.

The woman’s eyes then fell on me. Her nostrils flared but she didn’t recoil. Instead, her eyebrows knitted together in confusion, and then rose again in wonder.

“Nick, out!” she yelled behind her at the guard.

He looked hurt for a moment, but must have been used to the behavior, because he shuffled past us holding his nose.

“Logan, what have you brought me?” Her voice held disbelief.

Logan pulled me forward still clutching my arm and shook his head. “We’re in a shitload of trouble, Eva, and we need your help.”

She waved us in, concern pulling at her features. I saw that her eyes looked similar to the doorman’s, buttery yellow, but not glowing. She wore a crisp grey four-piece suit with a matching top hat. This woman was an alpha in her own right; I could sense that. The entire pack filed into what was a giant office. The walls were filled with floor-to-ceiling books and jars and other weird crap I didn’t even recognize.

Eva’s eyes were pinned on me. “Honey, take off the hood.”

Logan let my arm go finally and nodded to me. “Eva is the only sorcerer you will ever be able to trust.”

That sounded comforting. Not.

I pulled my hood back, letting my red hair fall out, and Eva looked straight into my eyes. Her eyes flashed yellow like a fire that had ignited, and then glowed a hot copper. “It can’t be,” she breathed.

“She’s skyborn. I don’t know how, but I need you to erase her scent like you did mine. And she doesn’t heal when injured so I think her mag—”

“Holy mother of magic,” Eva breathed, and I couldn’t look away from those copper eyes. She stepped closer to me and inhaled, but then frowned. “It was smart of you to cover her scent to get her in here, but I need her clean in order to do the spell.”

Nadine whimpered behind me and Eva shifted her attention to look at her shoulder. “Logan, show her to my private apartment. She needs to shower. In my top drawer, she needs to use the black bar of soap—not the purple one. I have extra dancer costumes she can wear home.” She indicated a pile of purple velvet folded bikinis in plastic bags in the corner of the room.

My eyebrows rose as I looked at the outfit. Sure, it was cute for summer on the beach in California … by myself. Not walking through a club in the middle of winter.

Logan didn’t look too pleased with the idea either. “We’ll make it work,” he mumbled to me, grabbing one of the plastic baggies.

“Nadine, my darling. What happened?” Eva’s voice held all the love of a concerned mother.

Keegan answered for her: “A druid chucked her across the room, and I think he hit her with magic. It’s not healing right and she’s in more pain than she should be.”

“Did you bring a scale?” she asked.

Keegan pulled a small vial from his pocket. “One for Nadine and two to sell you.”

She smiled and patted his hand. “You boys are good to me.” She must have just noticed the coloring of one of the scales, because she gasped. “Red?”

Keegan flicked his eyebrows my way and Eva nodded, impressed.

I wanted to stay and see how in the hell she was going to heal Nadine with a dragon scale. But Logan was pulling me to the back of the office, where a spiral staircase led to an upper floor.

“Why does Eva need a scale to heal Nadine?” I asked Logan as we made our way up the steps. She was some powerful Sorceress, right? Couldn’t she just magic the injury away?

Logan walked in front of me and I tried my hardest not to stare at his impressive butt.

“Druid magic is powerful. It will slowly eat away at Nadine and she’ll die. The only thing to counteract it is dragon healing. The scale.”

“Weird. You can’t just do the glowing green thing and heal her?” I asked as we reached the top of the staircase.

He chuckled patronizingly at me, as if I was some newbie. “No,” was all he offered.

Speaking of the druid reminded me of something. “Oh, Logan…” I stopped on the stairs and he turned to face me. “That druid … when you put me in the dragon sleep. I … dreamt about him. The bald head, the red tattoo…”

Logan didn’t look shocked, just firmly nodded. “Dragon magic. Sometimes we have prophetic dreams. Let me know if you dream about another one again, okay?”

I simply nodded, in shock that I had the ability to have prophetic dreams.

The top of the stairs opened into a swanky open loft. A kitchen lay against the far wall to the right, living area in the middle, and a large four-poster bed behind a shoji screen to the left.

As Logan led me to the bathroom, I wondered how he knew his way around this place so well. He was totally a player. I would be too if I looked that good naked. He turned to face me and I simply raised an eyebrow. “You sure know your way around here.”

He must have known what I was thinking, because he made a disgusted face. “Eww, no. For all intents and purposes, Eva is my mother. She’s known me since I was a youngling. Back when my parents were still alive.”

Oh. His parents were gone. Now I felt a little bad. “Okay. Cool.” I tried to act like I didn’t care, but then I thought it would be fun to mess with him. “Is Monica like your mom too?” I winked, taking the purple bikini from his outstretched hands.

He blew air through his teeth. “Monica was a really bad oversight. I blame Keegan and his heavy hand in mixing my drinks.”

I smiled and shook my head. Men. So predictable. Before I reached the door, his arm snaked out and grabbed mine, gently forcing me to face him.

“I’m not that kind of guy, just so you know.” His eyes were boring into mine, but all I could think about was the warm, light pressure on my wrist. My dragon sent a pulse of throbbing heat to my groin and I bit my tongue in an effort to distract myself.

“Okay,” I said.

He released my arm and shrugged. “Living forever gets lonely. You’ll see.”

My mouth popped open. “Excuse me, I think the club music is too loud. Did you say forever?”

Logan looked like he’d been caught. “Oh. I thought you knew. Or assumed. You’re immortal unless killed.”

“Fabulous,” was all I could say as I stumbled into the bathroom to wash liquor and wolf piss off of my body with magic black soap. Life was really taking me for a ride today.