Feral Heat

“He’ll have to go,” Dylan said to Sean not two feet away from Deni.

Deni turned to them, not bothering to pretend not to listen. If they hadn’t wanted her to hear, Dylan wouldn’t have said anything while she was standing so close.

Sean, turning burgers with tongs, nodded. “We’ll have to try again later.”

They were going to send Jace home, while he was half-crazed with the partially removed Collar, and wait for who knew how long. She opened her mouth to argue, but Dylan shook his head.

“You know I’m right, Den,” Dylan said. “We can’t risk that the cops won’t start taking roll call in all Shiftertowns. I’ll get him home as soon as I’m able.”

Deni nodded. True, Jace would be safer at his own Shiftertown, where he had his father and family to take care of him. But Deni’s heart felt like a stone in her chest, and her food tasted like dust.

She set the plate down, nodded at Sean and Dylan, and walked in a daze toward the porch and the cubs. Deni wished Ellison and her sons were here—she needed to wrap herself in her family to ease the sudden pain.

Andrea seemed to sense her need. She handed her little boy to Kim and met Deni in the yard, pulling her into a hug.

“I know,” Andrea said. “I saw it in your eyes when you looked at him tonight. Don’t worry. I’ll tell Liam, and we’ll make it so you can see him again.”

Andrea was sweet; she truly was. Andrea herself had been given special permission to move from a Colorado Shiftertown to this one, which proved it could be done, but she’d had to jump through many hoops to do it. Deni knew she could see Jace again, but it would be tough, and both Liam and Jace’s father would have to be convinced that it was necessary for either Jace or Deni to move permanently.

Andrea released Deni, giving her a reassuring smile, and returned to the porch to lift her cub from Kim’s lap. The look of joy she turned on her son squeezed Deni’s heart.

“Don’t let him go.”

Deni jumped and swung around, her wolf’s senses sending her into a defensive crouch. Tiger had moved to her side in that stealthy way he had, and now he stood right next to her, alone, his bulk filling the space Andrea had vacated.

“Tiger.” Deni straightened up and clenched her hands. “Don’t do that.”

“You should not let Jace go home,” Tiger said. “Keep him with you.”

“I can’t,” Deni said. “He doesn’t belong here, and if they catch him . . .”

Tiger shook his head. He reached out his hand, carefully, and touched the air in front of Deni’s chest, as though he saw something there. Deni felt the warmth inside her, the tingling need she’d been pretending not to notice. “You have it, don’t you?” Tiger said. “Don’t let it go.”

Deni swallowed. If she admitted the mate bond right now, she’d fall in a crumpled heap and begin weeping. “I—”

“Tiger, honey,” Carly strolled to him and laced her hands around his arm again. “Don’t scare her. She’s been through a lot.”

Tiger only looked at Deni with his intense yellow eyes, as though willing her to understand and obey. He let Carly lead him away, but he glanced at Deni over his shoulder, his gaze penetrating Deni to the most frightened part of her.

Chapter Ten

When Jace emerged from Faerie into the grove of trees in Shiftertown, it was dawn. Shiftertown was quiet, the nocturnal Shifters having turned in to sleep, the ones who lived by human schedules not up yet.

Dylan met him. Dylan’s face was covered with new-growth beard, and lines had deepened about his eyes. He hadn’t slept all night.

Time moved differently in Faerie, Fionn had told Jace, sometimes slower, sometimes faster. Jace had spent twice as many hours there as the time had moved here. Scary. What if he popped into Faerie one day, lived a week, and came out to find everyone long dead? Or he aged in Faerie while Deni had lived only one day? Too weird to contemplate. The solution was not to go to Faerie again, which was fine with Jace.

He still felt better, even with the Collar’s loose links chafing him. He’d have to figure out why he seemed to have recovered from his need to go feral, and if whatever he discovered could help with removing the Collars.

The police had given up harassing the Shifters and gone again, Dylan said, but there was no telling when they’d be back. Best Jace go home, to his own Shiftertown. Jace couldn’t argue with his reasoning, though leaving meant leaving Deni, and that thought threatened to make his feral rage return.

Fionn hadn’t accompanied Jace. Dylan told Jace to wait for him there, while he arranged transportation to the airstrip. He walked away, leaving Jace alone.

Not for long. As soon as Dylan left the grove, Deni hurried into it.

Jace said nothing, only opened his arms, and Deni ran straight into them. Jace caught her up, turning around with her, holding her hard, breathing in her warmth, her scent.

“I don’t want you to go,” Deni said. She curled her hands against Jace’s chest, where his heart was pounding.

“I don’t want to go either.”

Their mouths met, locking together, heat joining heat. Jace drank her hungrily, imbibing her spice. He licked the corner of her mouth, and moved one hand to her lush breast.

“Den,” he said savagely, “I haven’t . . . Finding you . . .”

Is all the world to me, Deni finished inside her head. I was drowning, far from shore. And then you came.