Ethan’s mind knew that they were probably all going to die, but he still had hope in his heart. He couldn’t despair as long as he had his mate by his side.

Before the monsters could reach them, the constant hiss and clink of darts stopped, replaced by the solid thuds of bodies hitting the ground. He whipped his head around and saw, to his astonishment, that all the Apex agents lay sprawled on the ground. They seemed to have been shot with darts from behind, as there was no blood and he could see a dart or two sticking up from their backs. But no one stood behind them.

Ethan almost jumped out of his skin when Shane Garrity, the panther shifter bodyguard from Destiny’s team, seemed to materialize beside them. “Hey, Destiny. Did you get bored with us and find yourself a new team?”

Destiny let out a snort, then butted Shane’s leg with her head, as if to say, Stop talking and start fighting.

“Who are you?” Roland demanded.

“Friends!” The unfamiliar male voice echoed along the walls of the corridor. “Hold your fire, it’s Protection, Inc.!”

The first to run in was a man Ethan didn’t recognize, tall and lithe, with brilliant copper-colored hair. The redhead took one look at the incoming monsters, became a snow leopard, and leaped into the fray.

A gray wolf plunged through the door, snarling, and joined battle. A moment later, it was followed by a leopard. Ethan knew who they had to be based on the shift forms of the other bodyguards on Destiny’s team. The wolf was the ex-gangster Nick Mackenzie, and the leopard was Ellie’s best friend, Catalina Mendez.

Ethan’s heart lifted as he too joined the fight. Destiny was at his side, protecting his back just as he protected hers. They fought alongside the snow leopard, the wolf, the panther that Shane became, and Merlin’s raptor. Both Ransom and Pete were laying into the monsters with the butts of their rifles, Ransom as calmly as if he squashed giant tentacled roaches with a repurposed tranquilizer rifle every day, and Pete with a fury that made even the monsters take one look and scuttle or lurch or crawl away.

Roland, who wasn’t in any shape for running around, had discovered the sword in Ethan’s backpack. With his back braced against the forklift, he used it to neatly dispatch any monster that came within range.

Within minutes, all the monsters were either dead or fled. Against all odds, they had won.

Ethan wanted to shout out his thanks to the team and his joy to Destiny. Except he couldn’t shout, because he was a tiger. What came out was a ferocious-sounding roar. Everyone stared at him. Sheepishly, he picked up his backpack in his jaws and padded to the other side of the forklift. Destiny followed him. They became human again, and quickly dressed. She was panting slightly from the exertion, her skin misted with sweat. Heat rose from her body, along with her irresistible natural scent.

Ethan didn’t even try to resist. Seizing this brief moment of privacy, his heart singing with love and his body thrumming with adrenaline, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. From the avidity of her response, she felt the exact same way.

A polite cough made them spring apart. The Protection, Inc. shifters must have gone back to the corridor to shift and get dressed, because they were emerging from it clothed and in human form. They had a perfect view of Destiny and Ethan.

Catalina grinned at Destiny. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before.” Then she winked at Ethan. “You, though… that was new.”

“Hope you enjoyed it,” he said, trying not to blush. Destiny kicked his ankle. “I mean, hope you didn’t enjoy it.” She kicked him again. “What?!”

“Stop talking, jarhead. You’ll only dig yourself in deeper,” Destiny advised him. To Catalina, she said, “Man, it’s good to see you.”

Nick, the ex-gangster werewolf, looked around incredulously. To no one in particular, he remarked, “What the fuck is going ON in this fucking place? Fucking monsters?” His gaze settled on Merlin, who was rapidly going from pony size to chicken size and back again. “Fucking dinosaurs? Are you fucking serious?”

Merlin finally managed to become a man. His security guard’s uniform was streaked with green slime.

“Yeccch,” he remarked, vainly trying to wipe it off and only succeeded in getting it on his hands too. “I’m jealous of you guys who don’t bring your clothes with you.”

“Don’t be,” the copper-haired man advised him. “The only thing worse than monster slime all over your clothes is monster slime all over you.”

“Good point.” Merlin stuck out his hand, then hurriedly withdrew it. “Sorry. Anyone got any wet wipes? I’m Merlin Merrick. Pleased to meet you.”

“I’m Justin Kovac. I have a medical kit in the corridor. Have someone else open it and take them out for you, if you don’t mind. I doubt that stuff’s sterile.”

“Wait, you’re Justin!” Ethan blurted out. “Sorry, I didn’t recognize you.”

He’d only met Justin once before, for about thirty seconds, and he’d been distracted at the time by Shane having just gotten shot in the chest. The last Ethan had heard of him, he’d been so traumatized by his experiences with Apex that he’d dropped off the map and was refusing to contact anyone, even Shane.

“Yeah, I get that a lot. I’m Protection, Inc.’s newest bodyguard. And Fiona’s mate. Lot of stuff happened while you were overseas.” Justin’s look of amusement faded as he went on, “Looks like a lot of stuff happened to you, too. So you’re a tiger now. Did Apex have time to put you through Ultimate Predator, or did Destiny get to you first?”

Ethan rushed to reassure him. “Apex never had me. At least, not for more than about fifteen minutes. Destiny made me a tiger. She had to, to save my life. I was sick…” Everyone was listening to him with bated breath, except for Destiny, of course, who was watching her teammates with bated breath to enjoy their reactions. He joined her watch as he added, “And we’re mates!”

A flash of astonishment crossed Shane’s imperturbable face for about a millisecond, then was gone. “Congratulations. I always thought you were.”

“You did not,” Destiny said, giving him a playful shove.

“Fucking awesome!” Nick exclaimed. He slapped Ethan on the back hard enough to nearly knock him over, then turned around and gave Destiny the exact same whack.

Catalina flung her arms around Destiny and congratulated her, then gave her a poke in the chest. “Why’d you wait so long, you weirdo? You must’ve known he was your mate ever since you met!”

“I didn’t!” Destiny protested. “I was taking a medication that turned out to block my ability to sense my mate.”

Catalina, a paramedic, nodded wisely. “Those unexpected side effects can really get you. A lot of meds have ones that doctors don’t warn you about.”

“Ah-ha,” said Justin, amusement dancing in his dark eyes. To Destiny, he said, “So that’s why you rushed off after Ethan. The mate bond told you he was in danger.”

“It couldn’t have,” she said. “We weren’t bonded yet.”

Justin shrugged. “I knew when Fiona was in danger before we even met.”

“Oh, so Destiny’s your girlfriend?” Pete gave them a surprisingly sweet smile. “Good for you, man.”

“Mates are more than that,” Nick said. “I’m mated too. It’s true fucking love. Unbreakable. Forever.”

“There’s no such thing,” Ransom said flatly. Then, obviously realizing he’d been rude, he shrugged and said, “Just speaking for myself.”

“Congratulations,” Roland said. But though he sounded sincere, his mind was obviously on other things. Urgently, he addressed the other members of Protection, Inc. “Did you see any other prisoners? Any women? A tall woman, African-American, middle aged? Beautiful…”

“No, sorry,” Justin said.

Reassuringly, Catalina said, “But if she’s here, the others will find her.”

“Others?” Destiny asked.

Nick nodded. “We split into two teams. Lucas, Rafa, and Fiona are the other one. They’re tearing it apart, looking for prisoners and booting everyone out. When there’s no one left inside, they’ll blow the place sky-high.”

“It’ll be Fiona’s third time,” Justin said fondly. “She’s gotten a taste for it.”

“What about Hal?” Destiny asked.

The other Protection, Inc. members shot Ethan slightly guilty looks, then turned to each other. Apparently Shane was silently appointed as the bearer of the news, because he said, “Hal’s not here. Ellie went into labor right when we were gearing up to go. She’s absolutely fine—Catalina checked her—but he couldn’t leave her to give birth alone.”

Ethan groaned, feeling the emotional weight of all those years apart. “I did, though.”

Destiny put a hand on his shoulder. “Ellie will understand. Anyway, sooner we’re out of here, the sooner you’ll see her. Let’s get going.”

They headed back out into the maze of corridors, with Justin leading the way. As they walked, Ethan said, “How’d you all find us, anyway? We kept trying to find a radio to call you, but we never did. And Fiona’s GPS was destroyed when our plane crashed.”

“Yes, but her computer had recorded its last location, so we knew your last known area. And I can track people. It’s one of my Ultimate Predator powers.” Justin’s expression darkened, then cleared. “I didn’t ask for it, but it comes in handy. I already had a lock on her, so once we got close, I just pointed the way. Hold out your hand.”

Ethan offered his free hand to Justin, who clasped it for a moment, then released it.

“There,” Justin said. “Now if you get in trouble and need help, I can always find you. We can always find you.”

Though Ethan had felt nothing special at the physical touch, Justin’s words went to his heart. He’d joined Protection, Inc. for several missions, but he’d never been a real member of the team. Now Justin was, and Ethan still wasn’t… but the team could always find him now. It made him feel like he belonged, in a way that was different from how he and Destiny belonged together. As if he was part of a family that was suddenly much bigger than just him and Ellie.

“Thanks.” His voice was roughened with emotion.

Rather than pretending not to notice, Justin said, “Yeah. It takes some getting used to. But it’s worth it.”

Nick caught Justin’s elbow as he started to turn a corner. “Wait. Go the other way.”

“What’s there?” Shane asked.

Nick sniffed the air. “Not sure. It smells interesting, though.”

“Dinosaurs?” Merlin asked eagerly.

“This whole place smells like reptile. Nah, this is something else. Maybe…” Nick sniffed again. “Cats?”

With equal eagerness, Catalina said, “Oh, let’s go look. Maybe they’re experimenting on cats. We should rescue them!”

Ethan couldn’t help noticing the distinct split between the people giving Catalina looks of total (Pete and Ransom), doubt (Roland), and genuine enthusiasm at following her lead (Shane, Justin, Destiny, Nick, and Merlin). Personally, he was in favor of rescuing the cats, especially now that he was one himself, always assuming they didn’t turn out to be Apex agents in saber-tooth tiger form.

They turned in the direction Nick had indicated, now following his lead. Needless to say, it was yet another white corridor.

“A maze of twisty passages, all alike,” Destiny remarked.

“I know what ancient text game that’s from,” replied Ethan. “Nerd.”

“Double nerd.”

“Super-nerd.”

“Ultra-nerd.”

“Hey, nerd-mates,” Nick interrupted. “It’s here.”

He stopped in front of a door. While everyone fell into defensive positions, Ethan used his security guard ID to open it.

Nick sniffed the air and told them what Ethan could already see. “No humans inside.”

They hurried inside and locked the door behind them. As Catalina had guessed, it was full of cages sized to fit cats or dogs. They were made of thick bulletproof plastic webbed with hair-thin strands of faintly glowing silvery metal that made it difficult to see what was inside any of them. The latches on the cages were made of the same metal.

As they peered at the cages, trying to see inside, a few sad meows arose.

“I knew it! Poor things. We have to rescue them.” Catalina reached for the latch of the nearest cage.

Shane caught her hand. “Hold on. That same metal is on their collars.” He jerked his head at Ransom and Roland.

Catalina froze, hand in mid-air. “What do the collars do?”

Both men shrugged.

“Neither of you can shift, can you?” Destiny asked. When they shook their heads, she said, “Maybe these are imprisoned shifters.”

“No,” Ransom said. “They’re animals.”

“How do you know?” Justin asked.

“That’s his power,” Merlin said. “He… knows things. Right?”

Ransom gave a reluctant nod.

“Are the animals dangerous?” Merlin asked.

Ransom frowned, as if struggling to put what he saw or knew into words, and finally said, “They won’t hurt us.”

“I hate to rain on the pet rescue parade,” Pete remarked. “But I don’t want to be juggling a bunch of loose cats if we get attacked.”

Merlin, who had been prowling around the lab, raised his head. “I found some carrying cages. We can stash them in there.”

As if in response, a chorus of plaintive meows arose, and also several canine whines.

“Dogs!” Justin said indignantly. “No way we’re leaving helpless dogs for Apex to experiment on.”

“Or helpless cats!” added Catalina. With that, she opened the nearest cage.

It contained a fluffy black kitten with enormous yellow eyes and wings like a Monarch butterfly, striped and spotted in black and orange. It blinked at her, gave an excited squeak, and flew into her arms. She instinctively caught it. The flying kitten rubbed its head against her chest and began to loudly purr.

“What the…” Pete began.

“No weirder than dinosaurs and monsters and shapeshifters,” Merlin said with a shrug.

“Yes, it is!” Pete said to Merlin. “This is the weirdest yet.”

“It’s definitely the cutest yet.” Destiny reached for the nearest unopened cage.

Ethan chuckled. “You want your own nerdly pet, don’t you?”

She grinned, unabashed. “So do you. Admit it.”

“I want one,” he admitted. “But you go first.”

Destiny opened the cage. Ethan leaned forward, eager to see her winged kitten and secretly hoping it would be even more adorable than Catalina’s, if such a thing was possible. His mate deserved the cutest flying kitten of them all.

A pair of beautiful wings, as translucent blue as a morning sky, unfolded. But they didn’t belong to any kind of kitten. The little blue dragon launched itself from the cage.

But it didn’t go to Destiny. It flew straight to Nick. Startled, he raised his arm. It landed on his forearm and cocked its head, examining him with sapphire eyes. After the briefest hesitation, Nick extended his arm to Destiny. The little dragon didn’t budge. Instead, it coiled its tail around his tattooed wrist.

“Guess it likes you, Nick,” Destiny said. With a toss of her braids, she said, “No accounting for taste.”

But he was too enchanted with the tiny dragon to even tease her back. “What a gorgeous little thing. Raluca will love it.”

“Maybe it can sense that your mate’s a dragon shifter,” Ethan suggested, knowing that Destiny was disappointed even though she didn’t let it show.

The blue dragon let out a trill, as if in agreement. There was an answering meow from the next cage.

“That one’s yours,” Catalina said to Destiny. Cradling her butterfly-winged kitten in one arm, she flipped the latch.

Another winged kitten flew out of the cage. But it too bypassed Destiny, and Catalina as well. Instead, it made a beeline for Shane. He stood perfectly still as the sleek gray tabby landed on his shoulder. Its wings were more like a moth’s than a butterfly’s, a soft pearly gray like the sky before dawn. The kitten folded them neatly, gave his ear an exploratory nip, and tried to climb onto his head.

“Ow.” Shane gently detached the kitten and settled it back on his shoulder.

It meowed in protest, then jumped off and dove down like a hawk. The kitten landed on his shoe, grabbed his ankle with all four paws, and ferociously attacked his pants.

“All yours, Shane,” Destiny said as he attempted to pry it off his leg.

Ethan turned to the cage below the ones that had already been opened, but Justin was already kneeling there. That cage was the size of the other three put together, and emitted a chorus of excited canine yelps and whines and yips.

“A litter of puppies,” Justin said confidently. “Sounds like three of them. Fiona and me already have six dogs. We don’t have room for nine. Ethan, Destiny, want to take the other two?”

Destiny nudged Ethan. “Think you can cope with a pair of flying puppies?”

“Oh, hell yeah.” He was already grinning at the thought.

Justin opened the cage. Three little husky puppies stared up at him adoringly with three sets of ice-blue eyes, then scrambled out to jump all over him, barking ecstatically and wagging their tails…

Tail.

Wagging its tail.

Ethan blinked hard, but when he opened his eyes, the three-headed puppy was still there, licking Justin with three little pink tongues.

Pete’s disbelieving stare moved from the puppy to Justin to Merlin. “Okay, forget what I said earlier. That’s the weirdest yet.”

Merlin gave an elaborately unconcerned shrug. “It’s just a Cerberus puppy.”

“Who’s a good boy?” Justin asked the puppy as it rolled over to get its belly scratched.

One head panted happily, one barked, and one went on licking him.

Justin ruffled the puppy’s furry heads. “You! You! You! You’re a good boy!”

Roland cleared his throat. “This is all very…”

“Fucking bizarre?” Pete suggested.

Roland, apparently at a loss for words, didn’t finish the sentence. Instead, he said, “Let’s just put the animals in the carrying cages and keep searching the place. We can sort out who gets what later. There’s still a human prisoner we need to rescue.”

Everyone guiltily scrambled to unlatch the rest of the cages, Shane a little hampered by the gray kitten that was now clinging to his right arm, flapping its wings and squeaking.

As Ethan opened the nearest cage, he realized that only Ransom hadn’t moved. In fact, now that he thought back, Ransom hadn’t moved a muscle since they’d started opening the cages. Ethan had gotten so used to him being quiet and watchful, it hadn’t registered before. But now that he was paying attention, he could see that Ransom wasn’t merely still, but seemed to be frozen in place. Only his dark eyes, now locked on Ethan’s, betrayed his desperation to convey some terrible warning.

Ethan reacted instantly, trusting in his gut feeling and Ransom’s intuition.

“Am—” he started to shout. But before he could complete the word, the ambush happened.

“Freeze,” said a quiet male voice behind him. “No shifting, no powers, no movement.”

Ethan couldn’t move. It was like nightmares he’d had where he was under attack and paralyzed, only in real life. He tried to struggle, but couldn’t move a muscle except to breathe and blink his eyes. Everyone he could see was frozen too.

At least, the humans were. But their pets could move, and they did. Catalina’s butterfly kitten arched its back, spread its wings wide, and let out a tiny hiss. Shane’s gray moth kitten flew up toward the ceiling, where Ethan lost sight of it. Nick’s blue dragon breathed out a tiny puff of flame. The Cerberus puppy tugged at Justin’s sleeve with one head, while another whined to get his attention and the third growled at their unseen enemy.

Ethan’s right hand was still on the cage latch that he’d just lifted. He felt it move as whatever creature had been inside pushed the door open.

“No!” shouted the enemy behind him. “McNeil, close that door! Don’t let that beast open a portal!”

Ethan tried not to obey, but his hand moved anyway, slamming the cage door shut. But it seemed to be too late, based on the angry yell from their unseen enemy.

Though he strained to look down and around, to see what creature had emerged, he couldn’t do that anymore than he could turn and see his enemy. All he could do was use the blurred edges of his peripheral vision to observe the abrupt flurry of movement from the cages that had been unlatched but not yet opened. He couldn’t see what creatures were fleeing their cages or where they went. But he heard doors banging open, a chorus of squeaks and yelps and flapping wings, and saw a confusion of multicolored movement.

There was a flash of brilliant light. And then total silence. All the imprisoned beasts were gone, except for Catalina’s butterfly kitten, Nick’s miniature dragon, and Justin’s Cerberus puppy. Ethan wasn’t sure about Shane’s moth kitten, but suspected that it was out of his line of sight rather than vanished through the portal. Whatever the portal was.

The unseen man spoke again. “Everyone with animals, control them. Hold them and don’t let them attack. That is the only way you are permitted to move.”

Catalina, Nick, and Justin pulled their pets into their arms and held them, gently but firmly. None of them spoke, but he could see the fear and fury and confusion in their eyes. Worst of all, he could see it in Destiny’s, as they stood beside each other and couldn’t touch, couldn’t comfort each other, couldn’t do anything but share the same helplessness.

Shane hadn’t moved. His ice blue eyes held neither fear nor rage, but a chilly detachment coupled with a touch of ironic amusement, as if to say, And what am I supposed to do?

With a tinge of annoyance in his voice, the enemy behind them said, “Garrity, just capture your feline the next time it comes within your reach. Now, everyone, turn and gaze upon your master.”

Ethan felt himself move without volition, as if his body was no more than a puppet controlled by another. But as horrifying as that was, he was relieved as well. At least now he’d see his enemy. There was nothing worse than being controlled by some unknown force.

The man before him had apparently stepped out of some hidden door. Or teleported. Or walked through a wall. Who the hell even knew. Ethan gave up on trying to figure out how the enemy had gotten in, and focused on who he was. The man had gray hair and a gray beard, both neatly trimmed, and wore a long white coat embroidered in black thread.

“My name is Lamorat,” said the man in the white coat. “I forbid you from attacking me or leaving your places. But you may move your bodies otherwise.”

Ethan couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief as he found that he could shake out his stiff muscles, look around, and take Destiny’s hand. She squeezed it tight.

“And don’t bother expecting a rescue,” Lamorat went on. “The doors are sealed with an override lock. Mere security IDs won’t open them. Yes, that includes the secret door I entered from. Only I can open them now.”

Ethan had first focused on the white coat, and thought, He’s a doctor or a scientist. Then he noticed the embroidery, and thought, to his own disbelief, He’s a wizard.

His third inspection left him more confused than his first two. He knew some of the embroidered symbols: the two snakes twining around a stick that symbolized medicine, the skull and crossbones for poison, and, most eerily of all, an atom. But others looked distinctly magical: a pentagram in a circle, a staring eye, and a snake with its tail in its mouth. There were others that he’d never seen before.

Then he saw something he recognized all too easily: the smug sneer of the enemy who thinks he’s better than you, and can’t wait to make sure you know it too.

“You seemed intrigued by the symbols on my robe, McNeil,” Lamorat said, and the sneer deepened. “Would you like to know what they represent?”

Here comes the monologue, Ethan thought, resigned.

Then his mood brightened. Monologues were good. Monologues should be encouraged. Ayers’s monologue had led to his defeat. And this man’s monologue would keep him there, doing nothing more harmful than boring them, until Fiona and Rafa and Lucas got the jump on him.

He caught Destiny’s eyes, and she gave him the very subtlest of winks. Ethan relaxed. He was with his mate, who understood him perfectly. All they had to do was stall for time, and encourage the blabbermouth to keep on blabbering.

“Yes, I would like to know,” Ethan said.

Lamorat cleared his throat as if he was a professor about to begin a lecture. “They represent the mystic marriage of magic and science, which enables those of us with the greatest intellect and power to rule lower beings like yourselves. I suppose you’re all ignorant enough to believe that you have been captured by Apex?”

“The thought did occur to me,” Justin remarked. “I can’t imagine why.”

Lamorat missed the sarcasm entirely. “It’s because this base was built by Apex and is staffed by personnel who believe that it’s an Apex facility. But the council of wizard-scientists is its true owner, and we don’t answer to anything so small and petty. We’re only making use of its infrastructure and techniques for our own purposes.” To Ethan’s dismay, he glanced at the clock on the wall. “But, alas, time is getting on. Enough talk—”

“Hey, Lamo-rat-face,” Nick interrupted. “You know what my mate is? She’s a dragon. When she finds out what you’re doing to me, she’s gonna be fucking pissed.”

“Be silent, dog,” said Lamorat. Nick’s face turned red as he tried and failed to speak. “I am well aware of who your mate is. We have ways of dealing with mythic shifters here. Or has your puny canine brain failed to register the meaning of shiftsilver?”

Nick rolled his eyes and shrugged: Don’t know and don’t care.

“The metal on the magical animal cages.” Lamorat waved his hand at the empty cages, then indicated Ransom and Roland. “And on their collars. It has no effect on ordinary shifters and animals, or even extinct shifters and animals. But it negates the inherent magic of mythical beasts, preventing their escape. And when it touches the skin of humans who can become mythical beasts, it prevents them from shifting.”

Ethan kept his face carefully blank, but made a mental promise to buy Nick a beer once this was over. He’d goaded Lamorat into not only forgetting that he was wasting time, but telling them what the collars did—and that all they needed to do to let Roland and Ransom become… something… was to get their collars off.

He wondered what they turned into. Dragons, he supposed. Those were the only mythic shifters he’d heard of. It would definitely be good to have a pair of dragons on their side right now.

“And also, I have the power to control all shifters with my mind, mythic or otherwise.” Lamorat’s smug little sneer returned. “Anyone else feel the need to threaten me? Anyone?”

“Bueller?” Catalina called.

“Silence, feline,” the wizard snapped. Her snicker cut off like he’d turned off a TV. “Now—”

“What happened to the woman who was with me?” Roland asked.

“She was of no importance,” Lamorat said with a shrug. “You were the intended target. She was only taken because she refused to leave you.”

“So you didn’t do anything to her?”

“By no means. Since we already had her, we decided we might as well get some use out of her. She went through the Ultimate Predator process, just like the rest of you.”

“And?” Roland’s fists were clenched at his sides. “Where is she?”

“Dead.”

The wizard’s word fell on the room like a heavy stone, crushing everything in its path. Ethan’s horror was echoed in the clench of Destiny’s solid grip on his hand.

Roland’s face went as ashen as if he’d been shot. Very softly, he said, “What was her name?”

Lamorat shrugged again. “What does it matter? The process killed her. We’ve improved the casualty rate a great deal, but there are always risks. You were a failure too, in fact. You were all intended to have one power in your shift form and another in your human form. But your human form has no power.”

“I don’t need a power.” Roland didn’t raise his voice, but his even tones nevertheless conveyed a sense of fury held barely in check, a fury that could burn down the world. “I don’t need a weapon. I’ll kill you with my bare hands.”

“Silence.”

“It won’t work, you know,” Justin said conversationally. “Sure, it’s a nice trick to keep us silent and still just by telling us so. But you’re not doing anything different than a common thug who ties people up and gags them.”

Ethan was very interested to see that this, more than anything else, seemed to get to Lamorat. The wizard’s thin face flushed with anger. “Silence!”

Justin didn’t speak again, but his expression clearly conveyed that the order had only proved his point.

“Is that the best you can do?” Shane inquired. “You took him and me and Catalina. You hurt us. You changed us. But you couldn’t break us, and you couldn’t keep us. And you still can’t.”

“That wasn’t me!” Lamorat snapped. “I mean us. That was Apex. We’ve improved on their methods. You three renegade felines found your mates, and that gave you the strength to not only break free, but stay free. Until now, of course. But these four were made by us.” He waved his hand at Roland, Merlin, Pete, and Ransom.

“And you did something different to them?” Ethan inquired, keeping up his role as Mr. I’m Just Curious, No Need To Silence Me.

“We did indeed,” Lamorat replied with immense self-satisfaction. “We destroyed their ability to recognize and bond with their mates. And as for those of you who already have mates, it’s not too late to change that. We’ll put you through the updated process, and sever you from your mates forever.”

Despite himself, a chill went through Ethan’s heart at the wizard-scientist’s confident words. Was that really possible? Could anything short of death break the bond between him and Destiny?

“Love makes a mate,” Destiny said, squeezing Ethan’s hand. “Not the other way around. Nothing can ever stop us from loving each other. You can silence me if you like, but that just means I’ll stand here silently thinking you’re an idiot.”

Lamorat stared at her like he couldn’t believe his ears. “What did you just call me?”

“An idiot,” Merlin said cheerfully. “A nitwit. A fool. A numbskull. A nincompoop. A ninnyhammer. A turnip-brain. A—”

Lamorat had apparently been stunned into silence himself by Merlin’s stock of synonyms, but “turnip-brain” snapped him out of it. “Silence!”

For the first time, Pete spoke up. “Like Justin said. Any dumbass can make people stop talking. You’re not doing anything different from slapping duct tape over our mouths. I’m not impressed.”

“You… creatures… think I need to impress you? You’re nothing! Worthless!” The wizard glared around the room, then his gaze settled back on Pete. “You, Valdez. You’re a big talker when you think you’re the only one in danger. But you’re not. You have a daughter you’d die to protect. And I know where she lives.”

Pete’s entire body tensed as he tried to lunge at Lamorat, but he couldn’t move from where he stood. As he opened his mouth to shout out his rage, the wizard smirked cruelly and said, “Silence.”

Pete has a daughter? Ethan thought. He mentally calculated ages, realized that she couldn’t be more than fifteen, and was torn between fury at a man cruel enough to threaten a young girl and bewilderment at why Pete had never even mentioned that she existed.

“And you,” the wizard said, turning on Ransom. “Quiet as a snake in the grass. I silenced you first so you couldn’t warn the others, but maybe I didn’t need to. You’re a born betrayer.”

Ransom, of course, said nothing. Could say nothing. But Ethan saw a flicker of some unknowable emotion in his dark eyes, and felt a chill. Was Lamorat just trying to drive a wedge between them, or did he know something they didn’t?

To Merlin, he said, “Both your powers are so appropriate for a man who changes identities like other people change clothes. What will your friends think if they ever learn the truth behind your innumerable lies?”

Merlin shrugged and spread his hands in a broad gesture of unconcern, but it looked forced.

Lamorat turned to Ethan, who felt himself tense. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me, he told himself, but the old saying rang hollow. After his childhood, the version of it that he believed was Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words cause permanent damage.

His tiger snorted. Words and talk may bother humans, but fangs and claws are what kill them.

You missed the part where it’s supposed to rhyme, Ethan replied. But his tiger’s remark gave him as much strength as the warm grip of Destiny’s hand.

“Ethan McNeil,” sneered the wizard. “Rejected by your own parents. Unloved by the very people who—”

Destiny interrupted. “And I’m a freak of nature and Catalina’s a reckless woman who doesn’t know females are meant to be scared and Nick’s a criminal and Shane and Justin were assassins, blah, blah, blah, we all have things you can throw in our faces. And you know what? Nobody cares!”

Lamorat glared at her. “Si—”

Destiny’s nails suddenly dug into his palm. Ethan didn’t know her exact plan, other than the general idea of “stall and distract him,” but her urgency was unmistakable. He didn’t just need to distract the wizard in general, he needed to distract him now.

“Merlin was right,” Ethan said loudly. “You are stupid. You think you can make us into your pet assassins? Don’t make me laugh! You already tried that with Shane and Catalina and Justin, and you failed miserably!”

“I don’t want you as assassins, you fool!” Lamorat snapped. “That was Apex. Little government minions with little ambitions. The wizard council and I have something much more ambitious in store for you all.”

The wizard began to glance away. Once again, Destiny dug in her nails. But she didn’t need to. Ethan had spotted the urgent flick of Ransom’s eyes toward him, and the deceptively cool way that Shane had also glanced at him. Whatever was going on was out of Ethan’s line of sight. But the others were depending on him to keep Lamorat from noticing. Ethan couldn’t let them down.

“Who gives a shit?” Ethan demanded in a tone even ruder than his words. “Whatever it is, we won’t do it. And you can’t make us!”

“You forget,” sneered the wizard, looking back at him. “It’s the mate bond that gives you strength. I’ve already ensured that your new friends here will never form one. And as for the rest of you, I can break yours.”

“Bullshit! You think anything you say can make my mate turn against me, or me turn against her? You actually think you can wave your magic wand and break our bond?” Ethan jeered. The anger in the wizard’s narrow eyes was cold, not hot. For the first time, Ethan feared him. But he’d gone too far to turn back now. “Let’s see you try it! Gonna sprinkle me with sparkly magic bond-breaking glitter dust? Gonna—”

“Silence!” shouted the wizard.

The silence that fell was broken by Destiny’s sudden jeer of “Turnip-brain!”

“ALL OF YOU! SILENCE!”

And that was that. Ethan hoped he and Destiny had done enough. They’d definitely gotten Lamorat’s full attention. The wizard was giving him a glare chilly enough to turn Hell into a ski resort.

“You’re forgetting that I control you. All of you. Utterly. Time for a demonstration of what that means. Everyone, watch and see the price of defiance.” The wizard bared his teeth in a cruel parody of a smile. “Ethan McNeil. I order you to kill your mate.”