“You’re drinking my whiskey?” I marched toward Ryder and grabbed the bottle out of his grasp. I lifted it to see he’d downed several shots. “Are you shitting me? You opened it without offering me any?” Yeah, I got protective of my golden ambrosia when this imported stuff cost more than a week’s wages, but hell, it was my indulgence. “You’ve always been a beer guy.”

Ryder didn’t respond but kept his gaze locked on his phone while the TV blasted the horse-racing channel.

“Why are you watching this?” I switched it off. “Come on. Let’s go.” With a swig of the whiskey, the sweet aromatic liquid rushing down my throat, I stashed the bottle in the cupboard. While there, I took two of Raven’s honeycomb chocolates. I’d pay her back later, but right now, I needed sugar.

In the living room, Ryder hadn’t moved, but he was mumbling something under his breath. I grabbed my keys and stepped into my ankle boots with wedged heels, then noticed he was placing bets on horses online.

“Okay, didn’t realize you’re now gambling, but whatever. I’m heading out, so time for you to leave.”

When no response came, I nudged his foot with the toe of my boot. “Hello!”

His head jerked up, and his eyes glazed over as if he were miles away. I’d seen that look before on people with addictions. Lost and in a different plane of existence—just like the dozens of times I’d found Knox so high he couldn’t count to five, but his eyes had turned cloudy.

Staring at Ryder this way had me burning up from the inside out. I snatched the phone from his hand and grabbed his shirt, dragging him to his feet.

“What the fuck are you on?”

At first, he stared at me blankly. Great! Because my day wasn’t ridiculous enough, now my ex would overdose in my apartment.

I hauled him toward my bathroom. “If you’ve taken that new jade pill everyone’s talking about, you’re a complete moron, and you’ll make yourself vomit!”

But he seized my wrist and forced me to stop.

I turned to find him shaking his head like he’d just woken up from a dream.

“I took nothing,” he grumbled, and his brow furrowed into a dozen lines. “I’m fine.” His groggy voice screamed the opposite.

“What a load of bull. You’re spaced out, enjoying my whiskey and gambling. Since when? Whiskey used to make you sick, and you’ve never been into horse racing, so what’s going on?”

He ran his fingers across his stubble, the scratchy sound reminding me of sandpaper sliding over rough wood. “I was sitting there and the next thing I knew, I had the wildest urge for a drink and to place a bet.” He half-smirked. “Maybe it was a sign I’d win?”

“So you promise you took nothing?”

He made a cross sign over his heart. “I swear on my life, the only nasty thing I took was your whiskey. You need to get something better.” His hand still held mine. “You used to always have some of that locally-brewed beer in your place for me. What’s it called? ‘Beaver Town?’” He beamed and chuckled to himself.

“And you used to say you only loved me.” My throat thickened. I brushed past him, hating that he still affected me so much after I’d told myself I was over him.

“I don’t wanna fight, Sephy. So where are we going?” His footfalls fell in step behind me.

“I’m searching for the possessed girl; no idea where you’re going.” I reached for the door, but Ryder pushed his hand past my shoulder and shut us inside. I turned, finding myself pinned beneath him, his musky scent mixed with his fresh aquatic aftershave teasing me. I’d always loved the way he smelled. It tickled my libido to no end and even now, warmth slid through my gut.

“I know I fucked up. I’ve apologized a million times, and I’ll do it a billion more times. Please don’t push me away, Sephy. I’ve had no one on my mind but you since we broke up.”

"You have no right to say that.” I didn’t need to deal with this now or ever. I’d cried too many nights at his disloyalty and yet in his company, I always caved with the way he looked at me as if he had eyes only for me. But on the inside, I choked on my breath as the fear of getting hurt again short-circuited my brain.

“You hurt me real bad.” And that prickling at the corners of my eyes started, so I blinked hard to drive the tears away. “I don’t know if I can fully ever trust you again,” I admitted.

“Then let me win your trust back.”

A blanket of silence engulfed us. I studied his chiseled jawline, the thick lips I craved, and his short, honeyed-brown hair, making him an Adonis among most men. I would often place my face in his hair and inhale his sexiness—the lion underneath.

“Let’s not do this now, please. I have to focus on finding that poor girl.”

At my words, he retreated and bowed like a butler. “I’ll join you.”

My first reaction was to knock him back, but he’d saved my ass from the demon attack. So how could I turn him away when he’d offered help and that meant a better chance to find the child?

“Fine. Let’s go.”

“You look super-hot, by the way. Still wearing your cute shorts, I see.”

When he winked, I looked down at my mini denim-shorts. “That’s the way I rock,” I said.

Once we buckled up in my old Jeep, we drove toward the freeway. And I caught Ryder stealing glances my way. I half-expected him to reach over and touch my leg, but he never did. And that was fine with me. I wasn’t ready to go there.

“Remember that time I went down on you in the back seat of your car?” he started, and I laughed because of course that was where his mind focused.

“How can I forget? We got a ticket for indecent exposure by the cop who knocked on our window. I swear he had a boner, and that was the only reason he didn’t drag us to the station.”

“Oh, he so headed back to his car to jerk off.” Ryder chuckled.

I smiled at the memory of how insatiable he became when he devoured me. Damn, just thinking about his mouth had me tingling, and it was completely unfair for him to bring up such a topic. Or was that his tactic? Drive me insane with horniness so I jumped him?

So I focused on the road, swerving around slow-poke trucks. We passed the woods, and I took the next exit to my right because that would lead us to the river’s shore, where the girl had swum to. She’d moved through the water faster than normal. Not impossible for a supernatural, but still mind-boggling.

“Tell me about your problem,” I said, breaking the silence. “The one you came to talk to me about before everything went to shit.”

Ryder twisted in his seat and faced me. “I think someone’s trying to kill me.”

I cut him a hard stare. Was he making shit up or had he overreacted to a situation, which was so like him? He’d once sworn the hyena mafia had put out a hit on him. Turned out, they were after him not for a kill… but to become a potential mate for one of their daughters. I played the dutiful fiancée to save his ass. As a lion alpha, many shifter packs regarded him as potential to merge two races and build their bond. Mind you, he didn’t have a pride of his own, but no one seemed to care about such matters. Then again, most shifters now lived far and wide across the country. Larger packs hid in the mountains and national parks. That made them a harder target for trigger-happy hunters.

“Who’s trying to kill you and why?”

“My house.”

I met his gaze, unsure if I heard right. “Your house?”

“Don’t look at me like I’m crazy. For the past three days, the air in the home’s grown heavy. The other day, the iron flew across the room, missing my head by inches. I woke up with my bedsheets wrapping themselves around my neck. And just this morning, my breakfast steak mooed at me, then slapped me in the face like a hand smothering over my nose and mouth, suffocating me.”

I jerked the wheel to stay in my lane. “Wait, wait!” I glanced his way. “You own an iron? Since when? Never seen you wash clothes in my life.”

“Sephy, I’m fucking serious.” His voice climbed an octave. “I can’t return home. Someone’s put a curse on my house.”

Such things weren’t impossible. Didn’t happen often, but if you pissed off a sorcerer, damn, you better move to another planet.

“Okay, so let’s say it’s true. What do you want me to do? I’m not a witch.”

He sighed and turned to the road ahead, studying the pines on either side of us. No other cars were nearby, just us, and the tranquility ought to have calmed me. It wasn’t working.

“I’ve seen the readings and cleansing you do.”

“That’s not a spell, but me tapping into the universe and following a few guidelines to see people’s future. But what you’re talking about is natural magic. People are born that way.”

“But you know witches who can help, right?”

I nodded and looked over at him momentarily. The sincerity on his face made me want to believe him, and despite our past, deep down inside, Ryder meant well most of the time. He just had his priorities fucking twisted, and why he’d probably end alone most of his life.

“Sure, I can ask around.”

“Thanks,” was all he said, and he offered me a crooked smile. The crack in his demeanor revealed itself, showing me the rawness of his soul, his worry, and how much this upset him. I wouldn’t turn away anyone in trouble, even if they were an ex who broke my heart and reminded me why I struggled to trust people.

I swallowed back those emotions and swung left down a dirt road marked by a yellow signpost with a black diagonal line, indicating shifters were permitted to visit this area. It also told everyone else to steer clear. Hypocritical bullshit. All because ten years ago two wolf packs had grown so enormous, they’d fought to claim every piece of land in a turf war across Evangel city. Hundreds of humans had died as the wolves had battled without a care who got in the way. This was their territory they said and they reigned over every single person was their motto. If anyone didn’t like it, then they could leave.

Yep, not saying that was right, but the authorities had banded together and declared martial law. When the army had arrived, all members of the wolf packs had been killed. Then there came the new law prohibiting shifters from congregating together. Packs larger than five were arrestable offenses. And over time, that had led to the division between the races, each blaming each other. But with humans in power positions, guess who got the upper hand and pushed out all non-humans? You got it. And now clawing back any equality was close to impossible for the shifters. They were born as separate races, yet punished and discriminated against for the actions of a few.

I turned into a parking lot near the water.

We got out and the warm air circled me. When we reached the pebbly shore, sweat beaded across my brow and the back of my neck. Across the bay lay the great expanse of the city, the high-rises, lavish homes along the beaches, yachts in the rich district farther to my left. Yet my attention settled on the docks where I’d been that morning.

“Damn, didn’t the brother say his sister swam from there to here super-fast?” Ryder rubbed his jawline in that thinking pose I’d seen too many times on statues in museums. “Has to be at least a mile. No way can someone do that even in a few minutes.”

“I don’t think the girl is a normal human at the moment.” I strolled along the shore, scanning the ground for clues indicating which direction she’d gone.

“I can smell blood over here,” Ryder called out, and I joined him closer to the dense woods. He already tracked the scent into the forest, and I did the same, noting a bloody handprint on a small boulder. She was injured.

Ryder raced up ahead, following a scent. So I ran after him, dodging low-hanging branches of the pines. Ten minutes later and I was out of breath going at full pace, and Ryder stopped at the edge of the forest. Cars were zooming past on the freeway. He sniffed the air and pointed right. “Scent’s real faint now, but she went that way.”

“Toward Leafside.” A small shifter settlement off the grid. Nothing else lay between us and the place, except trees. If she headed away from the city, it made sense she’d head to where others lived to maybe drink more blood or their souls. “All right. Let’s go back to the car and drive there.”

If we were right, I might track down the girl within the hour, cleanse her, and return the child to her brother. He must be beside himself with worry, and I couldn’t live with myself until she was safe. No kid ought to feel abandoned, forgotten, abused.

My heartbeat accelerated, and I sat in the driver’s seat checking my nails for dirt. I wasn’t a child anymore. I’d grown up, dealt with having a broken past. But when I was young, my parents had left me, and in my eyes, gone was gone forever. No coming back. Now, every time I worked on a case with kids facing trauma, I know how it felt. Lost, confused, and bleeding out emotionally. I had nothing to anchor myself back to the world. No one had seen my vulnerability, but it tore me apart. And some days it still did.

“We heading off?” Ryder asked.

I hit the gas pedal without another thought, and we raced up the sloping freeway, zipping past other cars. Time to get my head in the game. I scanned the edges of the woods for any sign of the girl in case she hadn’t reached the town. You’d think someone would have reported her to the cops, but then again, the police were understaffed and drowning in the crimes gripping the city.

Once we crested the hill, I followed the curve of the road around the mountain, familiar with the area. Too familiar. This was where I lost myself two months ago and found Dana, a close friend, butchered. I rode the churning ache in my gut. That raw feeling returned where it felt as if I had no skin over my pain.

“You okay?” Ryder asked. “Your knuckles are white. We’ll find the girl. Don’t worry.”

I nodded. “Yep, all is dandy.” I stared at the dirt road to my right up ahead. Dana was a tarot reader, and I had worked with her closely. But two months ago, she had sent me a riddled text message.

Ruins, was all it had said.

Everyone knew the old Stonecircle location up on the mountain. History had it that witches from centuries ago used the place for magic and to cross into the afterlife. A “portal” was one word for it. But what I’d found that night at the ruins had given me nightmares for weeks. I mean, I’d seen dead people, but when it was a friend, it breaks you. And the horror can never be unseen.

Dana was laying on her back in the middle of the circular ruins, her arms and legs stretched out and pinned to the ground with nails in her hands and feet. She was slit open from neck to navel.

I didn’t remember ever vomiting so much. Her heart had been removed and never found. I couldn’t stop seeing the image for weeks afterward.

Weeks later, the police had insisted it had been a ritualistic shifter clan praying to Satan since we were so close to the Leafside settlement. Liars. Most shifters prayed to the moon goddess. The authorities had interrogated the townsfolk and roughed everyone up—plus destroyed their homes. No evidence found to link them to Dana’s death. I could have told them that.

Two months later, and I was no closer to understanding who’d killed her. I’d held dozens of séances, hired real witches, and even tracked down a supposed necromancer. No one had found her in the realm between the two worlds. I believed until she got her heart back, she wouldn’t be able to cross over to the afterlife.

I zoomed past the entrance and ignored the knot in my throat.

Ryder placed a hand on my knee, and he didn’t say a word, but something about his touch comforted me, helped me. I’d told him about Dana after he’d called me at seeing her photo on the evening news report, so I appreciated his silence. I dug into the center console and pulled out the two chocolate bars, handing one over to him.

Half an hour later, we turned down a bumpy track. We passed a yellow sign with the black line again, indicating shifters ahead. Soon, we emerged in a small open area where rows of trailer homes lined a wide dirt road.

“You think she came this far?” Ryder asked.

“Hell if I know, but if she did that marathon swim, she’d run damn fast too. And demons aren’t hermits. They need people to drain energy from before they fade away.”

“Or human blood specifically in this case.”

I sighed and agreed, so I swung the Jeep off the road and parked several feet from the first trailer home.

“So what’s the plan?” he asked.

“Simple. We’re just here to see if they saw the girl. And with you being a shifter, maybe you can sway people to talk freely with us?”

His eyes narrowed. “Not all shifters get along.”

“Yeah, but I’ve got the best one with me.” I winked and climbed out of the car, Ryder following suit.

“Best, you say?” He ran a hand through his hair. If I could freeze time, I’d do it now with the glint of admiration in his eyes as he stared at me. I’d remember Ryder as the man who’d once made me believe in happily-ever-afters.

“Well, yeah,” I said. “Aren’t you on the shifter’s list as the most wanted eligible bachelor, and every dad wants to mate their daughters with you?”