I was ripped from the world without warning, Mac’s astonished face the last thing I saw before crashing back down into my body, promptly rolling out of the narrow single bed and landing face down on the floor.

“It’s a good look for you.”

A quick check confirmed it. Same face, different Mac. This version pointed at my ass and growled. “We’ve got a Khain sighting to check out, Oddballs.”

Oddballs. My nickname here at KSRT, one I’d earned in my first week and didn’t require an ounce of imagination, since my renqua—the mark on a shiften’s shoulder that was given to us by our creator, the goddess Rhen—was a black ball with squiggly lines coming off it. In wolf form, the mark showed as a white patch against my black fur, my only other white patch a circle around my right eye. In human form, that showed up as a white circle in the back of my hair. Ergo, Oddballs.

Muttering under my breath, I hauled myself up and gave him the silent finger. We had an understanding and it was simple. He was an ass and I reminded him of that fact. When I’d arrived in Serenity a couple of weeks ago, Chief Lombard had paired me up with Mac, muttering something about his best buddy being the new Fire Chief and Mac going off the rails, and I’d been stuck with him since. Lately, it was almost as if he’d warmed to me, or maybe I was just getting used to him being an asshole.

Whatever. We left the station in silence, neither of us acknowledging the other cops milling around, and headed for one of the work trucks.

Mac shouldered me out of the way. “I’ll drive. I know which side of the road is the right one.”

Shrugging, I jogged around and slid in. “The right.”

He grunted, gunning the engine and peeling out of the parking lot. “That’s what I said.”

Unable to decide if he was deliberately being an irritating bastard, I changed the subject. “Where are we going?”

He flicked on the indicator, then pulled out, sliding seamlessly into the traffic that was shooting toward downtown. “Khain sighting.”

Definitely being an irritating bastard. Rolling down the window, I slung my arm along the ledge, tapping my fingers against the black paintwork. “You know I love our little pep talks, they make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I feel the love coming off you in waves, man, and I appreciate it, but…” I shrugged, grinning.

His eyes clashed with mine. “But, what?”

“…You’re just not my type.”

“And you’re full of crap.”

“Yes, I am. Listen, I don’t want to be best buds with you, hear you’ve got a bromance going on with a certain bearen, and I’m not one to try and break up a beautiful thing. But let’s get one thing clear, I’m not a rookie. Haven’t been in a long time. I’ve got your back, if you let me.”

He grunted, but the corner of his lips twitched. “Let me guess, you’ve met Bru.”

“Great guy.”

“Honey loving softie,” he growled, but his smile had grown.

“He gave me a message for you.” Mac flicked his hand in a get it over with gesture. “He said you need to play nice with me or he’ll put you in time out with Presley.” At my confused expression, Bru had also explained that Presley was his handgun, who he appeared to have a … special kind of relationship with.

Startled laughter erupted from Mac and he slapped his hand against the wheel. “I’m going to kick his huge furry ass.”

“He said that you can try it. He mentioned something about his claws being bigger than your dick?”

Once Mac had finally managed to stop laughing, he pulled the truck over and slammed it into park. “We’re here.” Then he leaned over and punched me on the shoulder. “There. That’s me being nice.” But the side of his mouth was quirking up in a grin. “Let’s go kick some Khain butt.”

It was a start. “Now, you’re speaking my language.”

We strode into the park, searching for any sign of the demon. Mac shook his head. “I’m talking American, not that weird ass gibberish you’ve got going on.”

Okay, we still had a long way to go. Coming to a stop, I scanned the area, eyes drifting up and over the apartment blocks that looked over the park. “Nothing here.”

We looked around for a while, but couldn’t find anything that would give us a heads up on what Khain had been looking for. “Could it have been one of the foxen?” Khain had marked some as his own, and found it funny to make them do his evil bidding. They carried the same scent as their master and could pop in and out of Pravus, Khain’s dimension, just like he could. Therefore, the felen, the cat shiften who were able to track Khain’s movements when he visited this world, could be mistaken.

Mac kicked a rock, sending it skittering down the path. “Either way, the demon’s looking for something around here.”

After a couple of hours of nothing, we called it a day and went home. But something didn’t feel right. Back in that park, a heaviness had settled in my stomach, twisting my gut. Whatever Khain was up to, somehow, it felt personal.

* * *

“You’re back.” Mac nodded, as if all this made complete sense, making his way out of the room.

The bedroom. At his apartment. Huh, first time I’d landed in a bed. Following him into the living area, I stretched, easing a crick out of my neck. “Miss me?”

He cracked a grin before biting into a huge sandwich, mayonnaise dripping down over his fingers. Licking them clean, he offered me half, shrugging when I declined. “Always, babe.”

Yep, I liked this version of Mac a whole lot better than the wiseass I’d left behind just moments ago, but I didn’t like him enough to not be heading straight out of his front door.

Jogging along behind me, he finally caught up with me at the edge of the forest, where the sidewalk bled into the tree line. “You still feel it?” He thumped his chest, indicating his heart and leaving smears of mayo over what once had been a pristine black shirt.

Feel it? My whole body pulsed with awareness, every cell inside of me screaming at me to get a move on. I broke into a run, covering the ground with my nose in the air.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he grumbled, but not snarky, falling into loping strides just behind me.

Trees whipped by, blending into a murky green blur as I sped past, my wolf straining at the leash beneath my skin, trying to lend his heightened senses to the hunt. Not that I needed them, it was as though I was a fish caught at the end of a very long, very twisty line, and I was being reeled in. Every step I took ratcheted up the thudding in my ears, tightened my chest, sending waves of indescribable righteousness flowing through me. This was what I had been born to do, to find whatever this was, to track it down. This had to be what the prophecy had been talking—

A woman appeared in front of me and every muscle in my body locked up as my eyes devoured her, from her glorious red hair that spiraled and spiked out of a messy braid and disappeared past her shoulders, to her pale freckled skin, luminous in the swell of moonlight that broke through the heavy canopy of branches above. Unable to resist, my eyes tracked down, feasting on the swell of her breasts, the dip of her waist, the undeniable lusciousness of her hips as they swelled out with the promise to fill a man’s hands.

My hands.

Mine. The word floated through my mind, pulsing in time to the incessant internal beat that had ensnared me, and before I knew it I was moving forward. I needed this woman, this gorgeous creature of the forest. To taste her, if only to convince myself that she was real and not a creation of my imagination.

A branch cracked under foot and my head whipped around, lips pulled back on a snarl.

Mac froze, lifting his hands in the universal sign of surrender. “Easy there, Nial.” At another snarl from me, he retreated a couple of steps, hanging his head in the wolven sign of submission. Damn, I must look half crazed.

My eyes darted back to the woman, searching her face for some sign of fear.

Nothing. In fact, she was staring at me with the same intensity, her throat working as her eyes dipped to my chest, widened a fraction, then continued their travel down my body. Her tongue darted out, wetting her lips as she undressed me with her gaze, her chest rising as she sucked in a gasp.

Yep. Every part of me was fascinated with the woman before me. She had this effect on me every single time we met. And was the only reason why I didn’t fight the pull to return to this world.

“Nial?” The sound of my name on her lips had a shiver licking at the bottom of my spine.

Another step and I was sharing the same air as her, could feel the heat of her breath. I wanted to lean in and drag her scent into my lungs, because I knew she’d smell as delicious as she looked. But this damn world traveling thing screwed with my senses and I could never smell anything past the obvious: human, shiften, animal.

Her hand landed on her hip, tiny wrinkles forming at the top of her nose as she scrunched it up. “Is that your game today? Playing the handsome but silent type, huh?”

“Handsome, eh?”

Her hand flew to her chest, clutching it in mock shock. “Oh, my, he does speak!” She titled her head to the side. “Say something else.”

Another inch closer. Telling my hands to stay where they were, at my side, I titled my head, mocking her lightly. “Like what?”

Brown eyes flashed with amusement, and more than a hint of heat. “Yum. I think I’ll keep you.”

Laughter broke free from my chest, the sound rough and surprised.

“I think I’ll just…” Mac mumbled from behind me, but we were oblivious.

“I didn’t know you had any friends,” she mused, arching an eyebrow. “Aw, he’s left you all alone.”

Okay. I was oblivious. She was leaning around me, pointing at what I could only assume was Mac’s retreating back.

Swallowing the growl at the thought of her looking at another male, I forced an easy grin. “You’re here.” I wanted her attention back on me, pronto.

“So I am. And you’re late.” She grinned back at me, then turned and walked away, her denim clad ass wiggling in the most inviting way.

My eyes were riveted. With this woman, it was as if everyone who had come before her had been an excuse to continue existing until I met her. It was disturbing and hot as hell all rolled up into one big ball of confused WTF was happening? Then it hit me. Mac had said that in this world, there was no such thing as One True Mates, that the female shiften hadn’t died, that mates were chosen the old fashioned way … through pure animal attraction and lust. And everything suddenly made sense.

I followed her, unable to do anything but.

She was human. In this world, she was also my mate. What I hadn’t known until right this moment, was that she was the one who had been pulling me to this world, calling to me. She’d been calling me to her every night for weeks.

Stopping at a tree, she spun around to face me, her hands slightly behind her and braced on the wide tree trunk. Challenge lit her eyes as she watched me advance. She’d known I would follow, said she wanted to keep me.

I was determined to convince her that it was the best idea she’d ever had. But, first things first. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”

She titled her head as I crowded her against the tree, careful to watch for any objection, any sign that she’d changed her mind, but her eyes told me she wanted this as much as I did. Was feeling the same attraction coursing through her body.

She was perfect and she knew exactly what I wanted to do to her, just like I knew what sound she would make if I nuzzled her throat, or cupped her breast, or kissed her like my life depended on it.

Every time we met I asked the same question. And every single time, she didn’t answer, instead distracting me with her lips and her body, until I forgot everything else.

It hadn’t mattered before, but now … I needed to know my mate’s name. Craved the knowledge, begged her with my eyes.

Her lips parted, my eyes riveted by a glimpse of her pink tongue as she wet them. “Blue.”

The single syllable seared its way into my brain, finding a home. My mate’s name was Blue. Quirky. Unique. Why did that not surprise me? “Beautiful.”

“Weird,” she shot back, lifting a freckled shoulder bared by her tank top, “but I didn’t pick it.”

Planting my hands on the tree next to her head, I leaned down, until we were eye to eye. “It’s perfect.”

Her mouth dropped open, then she shook her head. “Nial?”

“Yes?”

“I can think of a better use for that mouth than dealing out pretty compliments.” She eyed my lips with a speculative gleam, her taunt drifting on the air between us.

Inhaling, I smelled the faint tang of fruit, a spice that I couldn’t distinguish through the dull blanket over my senses. “Hmmmm? What would that be?” My lips brushed her ear, teeth grazing the outer shell. I’d never felt this … easy with a woman before, it was like we’d slid into knowing each other, a lifetime of conversation packed into a couple of weeks of stolen hours through the night. I knew her laugh, where she was ticklish, how she hated the taste of nutmeg, but loved cinnamon, especially in her coffee. How she wrinkled her nose when she was thinking, or chewed her cheek when feeling anxious. Her best friend was called Jess and she was like a sister to her. But I wanted to know more. I wanted to know everything.

A finger poked me in the chest and I glanced down, affecting dismay. “You’re manhandling me.”

She poked me again. “And you’re not manhandling me,” she whispered.

My lips tilted up at her small huff, as if she couldn’t understand what I was waiting for. I was dragging this out, savoring the moment that would forever define me, but I would never, ever, knowingly disappoint her. “My apologies, Ma’am,” I growled, capturing her lips with mine. A brush of silky flesh, her soft gasp as she leaned into the kiss, as her lips parted and allowed me access. Sliding my arms down the tree, I gathered her to me, pressing her soft body against my hard edges, reveling in the feel of her cradled against me. Time stood still, all worlds coalescing with the understanding that this was where I belonged, with her. Any time, any place. With Blue.

We broke apart, her look of wonder matching my own. She had felt it too, the utter rightness of this. The niggling at the back of my mind forced its way to the front. I had to find a way to stay here, in this world with her. Nothing else mattered.

“Blue…” Catching a stray curl, I let it almost slide through my fingers before tucking it behind her ear, my mind reeling as words failed me. There had to be a way. Maybe Crew would know? Or the dragen? Supposedly his race could travel at will, visit these other worlds with purpose. He could bring me here, awake. Maybe he could leave me here for good?

Her hands slid down my back, following the curve on my spine, to tuck into my jean pockets with a possessive air that I couldn’t help but chuckle at. Tilting her head, she leaned back, looking me up and down and bit her bottom lip, letting it go with a pop. “Yup, I’m definitely keeping you.”

The look she followed up with had me assessing the tree for sturdiness, images of her braced against it naked, her nails digging into bark and her cries echoing in my ears flashing through my head. “Good.” It was a low growl as I cupped her hips, pulling her back to me.

Willingly, she gave herself up to the kiss, one arm snaking around my neck and dragging me closer, her foot sliding up the back of my leg as she urged me on. Her words were pressed into my lips, inserted around gasps for air, “Best dream ever.”

She disappeared.

Vanished.

I crashed into the tree, grabbing at thin air, the imprint of her lips burned into mine.

My fist hit the tree, my roar ripping through the air.

She was gone. Blue was a traveler!

But from which world?