Author: Scarlett Dawn
Date: 2015-11-21 05:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Paranormal; Romance; Fantasy; Paranormal Romance; Shapeshifters; Short Stories; Adult; Novella; Erotica; Urban Fantasy
Description: A shifter made of stone. And wings. A human bent on free love. And drunk. Any joke could be made with those two lines. But the town of Woodland Creek, it's no laughing matter. Hostile and magical residents guard their secrets. It's too easy to be found out. When Isaac Stone first meets Kennedy Kirk, he's tempted to shove her off the clock tower. After all, she is gripping his private parts to lean over and see his town. One little push is all it would take... Isaac never anticipated he'd be the one to fall. **THIS IS A 35,000 WORD NOVELLA**

Gargoyle
Copyright 2015 Scarlett Dawn

First Edition

All rights reserved as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. No part of these publications may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the Author. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the publisher.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Editing by Rogena Mitchell-Jones Manuscript Service
Cover by J.M Rising Horse Creations

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To all of the Woodland Creek authors...you rock! We knocked this project out of the park. You're all aces to me.

DEDICATION

To Jennifer Stevens and Jennifer Munswami,

Thank you so very much.
Your dedication and hard work helped this project turn into a success.

Much love,
S.D.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Copyright

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Prologue

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

Epilogue

About the Woodland Creek Series

About the Author

Preview of the Cold Mark Series

Preview of Valan Playboys

Preview of King Hall

Isaac

A drunken woman grabbed ahold of my cock.

My claws twitched to rip her offensive hand from her arm, but thankfully, my dick was made of stone—no cock snapped off. Her human, delicate fingers gripped hard as she leaned over the edge of the clock tower, staring down at my city, Woodland Creek. I was tempted to move, to break free of my perched façade, and scare the woman enough to fall to her death.

Fucking humans were a nuisance.

Her blonde hair whipped around her face, never giving me a clear view. I rolled my eyes and held still, letting her have her drunken fun. If I was going to kill a human, I enjoyed seeing the fear in their eyes as death stalked them. The night breeze was her saving grace.

My brother, Finn, perched next to me, tilted his hideous stone head in my direction. He lifted an arched brow behind the human’s back. He would have no problem killing her.

The air misted in front of my frozen lips, a huffed negative. I preferred to take care of my own business, even if Finn was overly protective.

“Hello, Woodland Creek!” the human shouted, her words slurring. She lifted the beer she held, waggling it to and fro into the night air. The liquid sloshed over the edges, but she didn’t appear to notice. Her grip tightened on my cock as she leaned farther over the edge. “You are a beautiful town!”

A fine mist formed in front of Finn’s lips, a constant puffing. My brother was laughing his ass off. Though he quickly tilted his head forward, returning to his pose when the human leaned back and released my dick.

She turned her attention to the left, her hair still whipping in her face. Her shoulders stiffened slightly, and she mumbled, “Huh…what’s that?”

I held perfectly still, unable to look.

But I froze even further when she turned and walked a dangerous path on the edge of the tower. I watched her feet stumble over each other as she passed my sister, Mandy, on the other side of me.

“Woo…woo…shit!” she screamed as she tumbled over the edge. Her arms fluttered about her, blonde hair flying like a tornado touching down, right before gravity took hold. The beer can and her body disappeared from sight.

My other brother, Mike, grunted softly on the other side of Finn. His tone was utterly humored. “I wish her beer hadn’t fallen with her.”

I sighed heavily, her scream finally cutting off. “That took a while.”

On the other side of Mandy, my mother grumbled, “Ridiculous humans.” Her wings unfurled and then snapped back tight against her frozen pose. “Well, that’s one less to worry about.”

Kennedy

My scream rent the night air…as I fell down.

Down.

Down.

I stared up at the edge of the clock tower, my lungs expanding inside my chest.

I screamed again. I was going to die!

The ground would be splattered with…Kennedy.

But with an abrupt breeze, my cry of terror choked off.

The air was soft. It surrounded me. My arms tight against my terror filled chest twitched. I blinked up at the edge of the clock tower.

My body had stopped moving.

I was…suspended…in the air a foot off the roadkill sidewalk.

“I’m dead,” I whispered, my throat constricted in fright.

Shouldn’t death feel peaceful?

A man snorted to my right. “You’re not dead, Kennedy.” A quiet pause. “Though I will be tonight.”

My terror filled gaze snapped in the direction of the voice. There was a man dressed all in black standing in the shadows of the building. I held perfectly still, my body floating on…nothing. I said the first thought that came to mind. “Are you an angel? Did your wings catch me?”

He laughed outright, his shadowed head tipping back, only the glint of white teeth showing in the darkness. His laughter…warmed me enough that my body began to uncurl from my panic seized position.

I tilted slightly to the side and chanced putting an arm and a leg on the ground. I fell hard, the air holding me up gone. “Umph!” I rubbed at my skinned elbow as I lay on my side, the concrete beneath me chilling my exposed flesh.

He waggled a finger at me, his hilarity cutting off. “Do try not to harm yourself.”

I blinked, glancing around. My mouth bobbed. “I’m not dead.”

“I already said that, Kennedy.”

My attention flicked to him as I slowly picked myself up from the ground. Alcohol and adrenaline weren’t a great mix. My limbs were shaking so badly, my own shadow cast from the moonlight on the side appeared to be wavering in water. My voice was quiet, trembling, my thoughts trying to catch up from my fall from the clock tower. “How do you know my name?”

He waved a hand. “That doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you listen carefully.”

I blinked. If this man had saved my life…somehow… “I’m listening.”

His eyes suddenly glowed brilliant amber in the darkness.

My entire frame locked down.

If I wanted to run, I couldn’t.

Literally, my body was stuck as I stood.

I couldn’t even twitch my left pinkie.

Once more, trepidation flooded my being.

The man stated smoothly, “My time on this earth is done this eve. But the knowledge I hold cannot go on to another. Not yet.” He walked toward me into the moonlight. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t see his face. “When it’s time, you will hand over that knowledge. I have foreseen this. You carry the salvation of this town with the true love of your life. The two of you will beat the night.”

He kneeled down on his right knee and placed a book on the sidewalk in front of my feet. “There is much information held in this book. Names. Shifter types. Abilities. You won’t understand all of it, but you are free to read it.” He reached forward and tapped my left shoe.

My body came alive at the touch, a deep-seated sizzling in my veins. I stared at the man…at the wizard. A power radiated around his body in a sea of waves.

If I hadn’t been frozen before, I would have been now, my heart rate skyrocketing.

“What you see is real. What you know is real. Never forget that.” He stood straight from his lowered state, shadows ever swirling around his face. He began an easy stroll down the sidewalk, away from me. “And do not tell others what you see. Not unless you want to be dead.” He paused, his dark head peering back over his shoulders. “And quit drinking. It won’t do your body any good. You need to be vigilant to the truth around you.”

When he disappeared completely into the quiet of night, my body jerked forward.

I was free. Free of the wizard’s hold.

I choked on air, trying not to pass out, and crumpled to my knees. My eyes never left the black, ancient book before me. I swallowed down the burning bile in the back of my throat.

Perhaps Woodland Creek wasn’t so beautiful.

I shouldn’t have accepted the package.

I had known the woman was a wizard. She radiated power, her voice even wracked with it. But I had taken it from her, accepted its intended destination, and now I was standing outside an office building where I could see many shifters inside. With the full moon and the lights shining brightly inside the building, it wasn’t hard to make them out through the windows. It appeared to be a drunken celebration.

They had probably just killed a new load of campers at Nightmoon Creek. Yay for them.

Killed innocents.

The shifters were s-h-i-t. Shit.

I hated them.

Hated. Them.

And I had to go in there. With them.

Sighing heavily, I unclipped my helmet from under my chin and set it on the seat of my Moped. No one would steal it here. Hell, no one wanted to come here after dark, this area of Woodland Creek…not so guiltless. But I needed the money. I would take just about any job right now.

Wiggling my shoulders past the nerves beginning to etch into my gut, a fluttering that made me half nauseous, I cleared my throat and began making my way up the concrete sidewalk that was pristine and unblemished, whereas the main street had been cracked and filled with potholes. It was just another indication that this was an otherworldly building. The woman inside hovering above everyone’s heads, with her angel blue wings beating heavily to keep from slamming into their drunken party, really wasn’t needed to tell me this. Nor was the man with the tiny devil horns, arm wrestling an average looking woman…if you didn’t count the fact she had only white bones for a hand. She was also winning by the looks of it, the man’s horns growing longer in his frustration.

At the large front door surrounded by floor to ceiling windows, I started to press the buzzer on the intercom, but a couple stumbled outside, their beer sloshing over the edges of their cups. I gritted my teeth against their voices that sounded like shards of glass threatening to burst my eardrums, and quickly caught the door before it swung closed. I don’t think they even noticed me, they were so plastered. That was one reason why I didn’t drink anymore. My eyes were wide open now to the way the world was and I wasn’t about to be caught unaware from imbibing.

I muttered a quiet curse when the scents of sour alcohol and sickly sweet substances—marijuana, I was pretty sure—attacked my nostrils. Though the music blaring wasn’t half bad, a jungle type with a hypnotic beat. It was music I might actually download later if I could catch any of the words over the shouts of revelry off to my right inside the ‘party room.’

Glancing around my surroundings, my black brows lifted slightly. There was no security here inside the lobby. Or a receptionist, the desk void of any living being to take the small package in my hand. I peered around a bit more, my eyes scanning from ceiling to marble floor. A delicate, beautiful green grass had grown up between each tile, giving the area a patio sort of vibe. Walking carefully on each tile—not about to allow the seemingly harmless grass to touch my feet—I rested against the receptionist’s desk. I even pressed the little bell on top of the counter, an ancient form of communication to indicate there was a customer here.

No one came.

Not even after ten minutes with me ringing the damn bell twenty more times. Maybe more.

Grinding my teeth, I tossed the package on the chair behind the desk.

The wizard woman hadn’t said I needed to have it signed for. I had been paid in advance, too. The chair was good enough.

It happened as I was turning to leave.

A blast of something…unnatural…crept through the air.

The feeling wasn’t harmful. At least, it didn’t feel like it.

Instead, it stroked like the sunshine…I groaned. My hand instantly went to my lower stomach. “What in the…” My God, my voice was throaty. I slammed my other palm down on the receptionist’s desk when another wave of unusual power pulsed through the air, radiating around me, ruffling my hair as if it were in a soft breeze. An excruciating tidal wave of need made my legs weak.

I doubled over, glaring at the door. “I knew I shouldn’t have taken this job.” Clenching my muscles between my thighs, an intimate wetness felt, I carefully placed a foot toward my exit. “Gotta get out of here.”

Groans and moans were my answer from the ‘party room’ along with cries of surprise.

My brows instantly furrowed, my narrowed gaze immediately moved in that direction. It didn’t sound as if they knew what the hell was going on either. That…couldn’t be a good sign. I didn’t like the clamor of their chairs and tables being knocked over either, the ruckus looming closer.

A pulse wave of sunshine-lit-carnal power—it was the only way to describe it—brought me down to my knees, my hands jarring on the tiling, barely catching myself. “Oh, holy…hell.”

At least, the grass wasn’t killing me. It felt like normal blades of fine, soft grass under my fingertips where they hung over the edges of the tiles. I was pretty sure there was even dirt under it, my fingernails digging into it as I moaned. Loudly. There was no stopping it.

Pressing my thighs together, a blaze of sunbeams shivered down my spine, then up. Out to my limbs. I was a trembling mess of lust and pure need. “Lord, help me.”

He didn’t answer.

A wizard did.

The door that appeared so damn far away now flew open, bringing a gust of damp night air, and suddenly, I was nose-to-nose with a wizard as he blurred inside, then stumbled as another wave of molten power pulsed through the air and fell to his knees right in front of me. His orange hair was a windblown mess and he was panting heavily, a sheen of sweat coating his dangerously handsome features. His black clothing even clung to him as if he had just run a marathon. He also had a cellphone pressed to his ear as he leaned heavily on one arm. His silver eyes glowing and blinking repeatedly, he merely ignored me, growling dangerously into the receiver, “I’m here. Where the fuck are you?”

The ‘party room’s’ door slammed open…and a shifter stumbled outside of it, a horde of other shifters close behind her, but they were falling all over each other. The door swung shut behind her. Her cheeks were flushed bright pink, her breathing just as heavy as mine, and she lowered a cell phone she had to her ear and stared at the wizard in front of me. “I need you.” Damn…her chin began to tremble. “I’ve missed you.”

The wizard’s breath caught, then he blurred to his feet, wobbling a bit where he stood.

I didn’t make a sound. Didn’t plan on it. Not until the wizard paused and seemed to remember I was there on my hands and knees before him. I shook my head slightly and barely managed to moan, “I’m not stopping you. Go get her.”

He eyed me for another heartbeat longer, his silver gaze scanning over my face. If I wasn’t mistaken, committing my features to memory, then he blurred toward the shifter when the door handle to the ‘party room’ started to turn. My hair blew to the left in his breeze, then to the right as he flew back past me, with the woman in his arms—I guessed—since she had disappeared, too.

One of the doors on the far right side of the room opened and slammed shut.

A lock clicked.

“Christ,” I muttered under my breath. I hadn’t even seen them slip inside. My gaze honed on my exit, my salvation from this shifter pit of Hades. I had a hand lifted, but the stampede of shifters had made it here, the door to the ‘party room’ literally unhinging and flying over my body. And to match with the pure hell my night was turning into, another pulse wave of carnal demand lashed the air, sending me to my stomach.

Suddenly, the ground started to shake beneath me.

It wasn’t because of the shifters falling down heavily where they stood either.

I had no clue what the fuck it was, but it felt like an earthquake.

One of the shifters chose that moment to let out a piercing shriek, not handling the floor vibrating well.

In a domino effect, the lights above started popping and bursting left to right, in what appeared to be the entire building, from her heinous wail. I shouted, slamming my hands over my ears—my injured shout not the only one heard—horrified, I could feel so much agony, my ears feeling like they were going to bleed and still be turned on at a nuclear level at the same time. One by one, the lights burst…leaving the entire place in darkness, only the moon shining in through the front windows on either side of the door, the windows now cracked in a wicked spider web, an entrance worthy of this shit hole.

One shattered as the wailing continued.

Just as suddenly as it had started, the screeching stopped.

I moaned in appreciation to whoever had shut her the hell up. Though partial sanity quickly returned when I felt someone brush past me. Quivering in need, I swiftly began army crawling around the receptionist desk, my way slow going with the ground vibrating as it was. The front door was too far, and too many shifters were between it and me now. The desk would provide some cover.

Banging ensued on a door, in the direction that the wizard and shifter had escaped to, then a growling voice demanded on a brutal shout, “Cut that shit out!”

Instantly, the ground stopped shaking. Just as I managed to roll onto my back behind the desk.

A sizzling white, hot bolt of power shook the air, and my back arched off the ground, pieces of grass torn and sticking to my hands as I cried out. Fuck, my legs were even spread like a damn offering, my panties soaked. I wasn’t the only one by the sound of it either.

Moans and shouts of fleshy base hunger issued on the other side of the desk. A multitude of them, the freaking huge ass party sucked into the vortex of unnatural power, the gusts slamming again and again, repeatedly flowing through the air like a jackhammer.

I groaned softly in surprise when the man, I was pretty sure it was the same one who had banged on the door, stopped his stumbling back to the group. He doubled over right next to the desk and fell in a heap over the side of it. A harsh grunt escaped past my lips when the freaking wall of muscle landed half on top of me, knocking what little breath I had out of me.

Not good.

He didn’t move.

I didn’t move.

Though it sounded like the shifters were beginning to ‘move’ on the other side of the desk. Jostling of clothes being ripped and barely murmured whispers of consent were given before shouts of fulfillment began soliciting the air in enticement.

A quiet whimper exited past my lips because the man—the shifter—lying on me…felt fucking delicious.

“Jesus…” he moaned, still not moving even as another wave slammed the air.

“He’s not answering,” I mumbled incoherently, trying to stay still.

The man…chuckled. Deep and rough. “They would say otherwise.”

Yes, the shifters did sound as if they were already climbing into paradise.

The man inhaled heavily against my shoulder, and his head cocked slightly, even as he began to tremble—just as my body was with the effort to stay still. He sniffed again, his tone guttural with need, but also curiosity. “Are you a Garden shifter? You smell,” another deep inhale, “of roses.” He pressed his face more heavily against my shoulder, inhaling again.

I tried really hard to ignore the fucking ginormous erection pressed against my leg—that had been there since he had fallen on me. “I’m not—”

My stomach vibrated.

Or his cell phone did in his pocket.

He quickly fumbled with it, and I jerked as the grand slam of sensuous power battered the air, my shout unable to be suppressed as I surged up against the muscled body that pressed more firmly against me, keeping me in place. Though my shout was muffled when his massive palm slammed down over my mouth as he—actually—answered his phone, muttering into the receiver, “Tell me you’re near.”

He paused, the tension in his body making his whole frame vibrate. “No, I can’t get there.” Another beat. “Don’t talk to me that way, dammit. I didn’t have anything to do with this. It isn’t any power I know of.” A halting pause, quiet ticks, and then he mumbled gently, respectfully, “I know. I’ll forgive you this time, as you will do for me.” He paused, then his body went even more rigid. “The fuck you will. Goddamn, you’re a bitch.” One more pause. “Fuck you, too. Oh, wait…that’ll be someone else tonight.” He stuffed his phone back into his pocket, and then his head lifted in the darkness.

His eyes were glowing the most vivid green. Beautiful and striking…and scary as shit.

He stared down at me, taking his hand away from my mouth, his glowing eyes all I could see in the darkness as they ran over my face. I couldn’t tell what color his hair was, but it hung down on either side of his face and brushed my flushed cheeks.

My lips pinched, even as I pressed up against him, sizzling flames etching to my fingertips and toes. “I have a boyfriend.”

He blinked, the green glow slowly disappearing. They stayed closed. “Is he near?”

Another whimper escaped me as I sucked in a harsh breath…the power blooming further into the air, practically suffocating me in need. “No, he’s across town.”

The green reappeared. He stared. Quiet. “Is that a yes?”

I knew what he was asking, his muscles taut over me. I hated the shifters…and my body couldn’t say no, my mind overcome with the need to fuck. And I mean fuck.

I whispered, “Yes.”

That simply, it was said. It couldn’t be taken back. I needed to have sex, my mind churning for it. A repeated looping focus, honed for one sole purpose.

I. Needed. Sex.

His voice was rough with tension. “I’ll protect you from my family,” he mumbled absently. “They won’t hurt you.”

Confusion made my eyebrows snap together, but I quickly lifted a hand, thumping my palm on his forehead when his face tilted down toward mine. “Nothing freaky while we do this.”

The glow of his eyes was thinner, his lids at half-mast as he groaned softly, pressing his erection against my thigh. “Nothing freaky.”

I clarified. “If I say it’s too freaky, then you’ll stop.”

“I’ll stop anything you’re uncomfortable with.”

“And not here,” I moaned, even though my body was screaming for him to take me right here and now. “Too many getting their freaky shit on.” I was trying really damn hard not to listen to the wild noises and flashes of blues and greens on the other side of the desk.

He snorted quietly, but he must have seen that I was serious because, in the next second, I squeaked as he moved in a flurry. One of his massive hands went to my ass, the other behind my back, as he lifted us straight off the ground. He may have been stumbling more than a bit when another round of explosive power sizzled through the air, through us, but the man was on a mission to take us to one of the doors at the side of the room.

My arms quickly embraced him around his neck, my legs tight around his waist.

I couldn’t wait any longer. My body bowed against his.

My fingers threaded through his hair, and my mouth slammed down on his.

Delectable. His mouth was…delectable. A sinful indulgence I lost myself in as I pressed my lips to the plushest, softest mouth ever imaginable, sinking into them.

Until I heard what sounded like a furious growl that erupted from deep within his chest as he slammed a door open, kicking it shut absently as he moved his hand from my back and threaded it through my blonde hair, holding my head steady as his lips brushed mine furiously.

The growling was weird. It wasn’t expected. It sounded like a...I mumbled against his lips, “Your name?”

Pressing my back against a wall inside the darkened room, he stilled for a heartbeat. “You don’t know who I am?”

Duh. “No.”

Another long beat, his hot breath panting over my lips. “It is dark in here.”

“No shit.”

I waited.

Gave up.

“Your name?”

He chuckled quietly, utterly entertained with the topic.

My own growl, all me, made an appearance. Especially when my body jerked with another furious hit of power. “Your first name.”

“Yours first.”

I was done, tugging at his hair. “I’m Kennedy.”

He grunted softly, pulling his head back the barest bit, his entire body rock solid with the effort to stay still as he stared me in the eyes. “My first name’s Isaac.”

Numb. I went numb for the briefest moment. Just staring into the glowing green eyes dead set on mine. I think I eventually blinked when the power rolled through the room like a roller coaster. “Oh…fuck it. Why not, right?” I jerked his head back to mine, my lips running over his with crazy fervor. Unable to do anything but this—with a shifter I despised.

His lips lifted for the barest moment, curling against mine. “I will protect you against them.”

“Just shut it and fuck me,” I mumbled.

Hell, if I was going to have sex with a shifter…it might as well be the Mayor of Woodland Creek.

His sadist family was the furthest from my mind.

The Mayor’s erection? Now, that was priority.

“Ow! Dammit, be careful,” I groaned when he slammed me back up against the wall, my clothes just having been torn off. Literally. I think my tennis shoes were even in shreds thanks to him. Truly, he was fucking strong. My hip was going to be bruised where it had hit with what I was pretty sure was a desk next to us, the sharp edge having jabbed me.

“Toughen up, Little One,” he growled.

He was naked too in a mere blink.

Ah…whatever.

His cock was just as enormous as what it had felt like against my leg with our clothes on. Only now he was grinding it against my clenching, soaking core. I groaned, “Get inside me.”

“No foreplay?”

My voice turned shrill. “Are you serious?”

He chuckled softly. “No, I’m not.”

“What? That didn’t…” I sucked in a hard breath when his grip tightened on my bare thighs, and his hips tilted back and he slammed them forward. I screamed. He was so damn massive, my eyes enormous watching his face even as the fire of the pulsing power shivered in the air, fluxing again. “More…more.”

“You’re bitty,” he ground through clenched teeth.

“You’re huge,” I mumbled, slapping his shoulders and crossing my ankles behind his back. I paused, then almost had a panic attack, my next words a shriek of the freaked-the-fuck-out. “Condom! We need a condom!”

He shook his head absently, tilting his hips back the barest bit, then shoving brutally inside me again. My breasts rubbed along his muscled pecs as my head tilted back on a moan I couldn’t stop. But my heartbeat was still pattering inside my chest in worry. He muttered breathlessly, “There’s a spell…I can’t have any children.”

I stared at the ceiling, sucking oxygen as my gripping channel slowly adjusted, only to be rammed again as he thrust once more, trying to fully seat his cock inside me, my mind half stupid in lust. “What…no condom?”

Entirely breathless. “No condom. You won’t get pregnant.”

Lost in the feeling, I groaned cynically, “Good...cause you feel good.”

He snorted softly. “Good?” He pulled his hips back, then thrust balls deep inside me. I choked, my short nails digging into his shoulders, even as I shouted in pure ecstasy. “Hmm, Kennedy?”

I only whimpered.

He didn’t move, but he did jerk his head so his hair flew back from his face. Just as suddenly, the moon came out from behind a cloud, the tinted window allowing the slimmest amount of the full moon in, bathing the room in subdued, eerie light.

I could see his face now.

Another whimper escaped me, even while I panted for air, so damn full of his cock that I was truly impaled by his manly bit. My gaze flew to his face, taking him all in as quickly as possible, not knowing how long there would be this light to see him by.

He was definitely the Mayor.

The man also appeared cocky as hell right now in comparison to the news footage I had seen of him. He normally appeared fierce and silently cunning. The silently cunning hadn’t left his gaze, an intimidation all of its own. It was still there, but he also appeared arrogant. The man knew he was filling me just right.

My blonde brows lifted. I stayed silent. Two could play at this game.

We were both in pain with this power slamming into us. There was only one way to relieve it.

But…I stilled when his eyes gradually…turned into something else. Quite literally.

The shape molded into…his Gargoyle.

It was his Gargoyle peeking out at me.

My voice turned into the whisper of the utterly and completely frightened. “That’s the freaky shit I was talking about. Please stop.”

But the Mayor made no attempt at a verbal response.

He merely tilted his head forward, those eyes, the eyes of the Gargoyle staring at me as he—it—inhaled deeply, holding the breath in.

I held my own breath, staying perfectly still.

His voice was whacked, totally half-growling-Gargoyle. “Good?”

My lips parted the barest bit, a quiet voice. “Please. Stop.”

He blinked…and it was him staring back at me, his eyes shaped with their normal tilt. “Apologies.”

I exhaled heavily. “Accepted.” Clearing my throat pointedly, I wiggled a bit in his grip, then mumbled grudgingly, “You feel better than good.” I stared, irritated. “Think you can move now?”

His fierce features creased the barest bit as his lips lifted into the devil’s grin, making me feel as if he had been playing a game with me. “Oh, I can move.” His ass flexed as he pulled his hips back, tightening against the heels of my feet. My mouth fell open on an animalistic shout of pure pleasured satisfaction as he slammed his hips flush with mine, his cock gliding gloriously through my channel, filling me beyond pleasure. “I’ll move you. I’ll move you all night long, Kennedy.”

I nodded briskly. “Okay.”

He still wore that wicked grin. “Okay.”

His mouth landed on mine as he started pounding into me, no easy penetration. All want and need, the power wrapping us in its grip. It was pure single-minded devotion to completion that held us in its grip.

I panted heavily, and he took the opportunity given, thrusting his tongue into my mouth and gliding it over mine. Sensual and erotic, our tongues played together, just as our bodies were. My breath was long gone, and I breathed him in as the wall I rested against shook in a heavy rhythm to each of his thrusts into me. His cock was like a damn dream inside me, my shouts becoming louder and fiercer as his pace began to quicken.

His Gargoyle—and it was his Gargoyle—took voice, growling fiercely as my thighs began to tremble against his lean waist, his stomach muscles clenching with each of his thrusts.

I didn’t even care at this point. I merely pressed my breasts again his chest even harder, rubbing my pebbled nipples against his pecs. Indulgent, intimate sweat began to mist our bodies as he dropped his face against my shoulder…and bit the living shit out of me.

My body froze, and then rocked hard against him, my scream of pained pleasure brutal, “Holy hell!”

His Gargoyle growled again, and he pressed harder against my clit while sucking fiercely where he had bit down against the soft spot on my neck, his tongue laving the wound.

I groaned, my entire body tightening.

He lifted a hand from his fierce grip on my hip and cupped one of my breasts.

Pinched my nipple.

My body jerked, and I flew into oblivion as his hips pounded against mine, brutally giving me what I needed. Sensual haze overtook me as I screamed again, arching my head back against the unforgiving wall. My legs and arms shook in zapping warmth of carnal bliss, my thoughts alone on mere pleasured satisfaction as he went rigid against me. My channel gripped his thrusting cock in pulses as I gurgled on a choke.

His cock, glistening with my wetness, slammed into me so hard, my body literally shoved back into the sheetrock an inch, the edges cracking and creaking against my sides as he shuddered, shouting on a guttural Gargoyle’s roar against my neck.

I squeaked breathlessly at the sound, my body tensing, bringing me down the smallest bit from my sated haze, but he was quivering against me as his cock jerked deep inside me, repeatedly scalding me with his come as he came just as hard as I had.

It was a new experience for me. A Gargoyle roaring as I climaxed. I would probably need therapy later, but right now, he just felt so damn good, I didn’t give a shit, merely holding onto him tight as I blinked open my eyes slowly, a soft moan my answer as my body relaxed fully inside his relentless grip.

Tap. Pound. Pound.

I jerked, instantly wrapping my arms around his neck tightly at the startling knock.

Still breathing heavily, his chest pumping against mine, Isaac’s head flew up at the wall behind me, where the sound—and vibration—had come from.

A feminine throat cleared from behind the wall we rested against, then…the shifter stated semi-loudly through the wall, clear enough to be heard, “Brother?”

My blink was gradual, my grip not unleashing around Isaac’s throat, his body just as frozen as mine. The woman’s voice…it was the shifter from earlier. The shifter who had been whisked away by the wizard.

He stared for a blink. Another. Cleared his throat, then without sounding as breathless as his chest was heaving, his heartbeat pounding in time with mine, he stated mildly, “Yes?”

I heard an uncomfortable groan, then a repetitive banging sound on the wall. “I. DID. NOT. WANT. TO. HEAR. THAT.” More repetitive thumping, then a pause. Her voice turned cross. “Carla?”

I sucked my lips inside my mouth, biting down on them. I didn’t make a peep.

Isaac quickly cleared his throat again, grumbling, “We’ll go to another—”

“Wait! That is Carla, isn’t it?”

“Mandy, mind your own business.”

“Oh. My. God.”

“Mandy.” It was a warning.

A quiet beat, then a small choked snicker. “I won’t tell the bitch.”

Isaac’s Gargoyle growled quietly. “Nor will your guest, whom I could revoke at any moment.”

“My lips are sealed,” a respectfully quiet reply from her wizard ‘guest.’ A quiet beat. “Hello, Kennedy.” And…he definitely had better hearing than Mandy did.

I couldn’t help it. I snorted softly. This situation was ridiculous.

Isaac glanced at me, eyeing me a moment, then lifted a hand and shoved it against the wall. I felt a flux of nightmares right before I heard the wizard grunt heavily. Isaac lowered his hand, and then he stated smoothly, “I will revoke it. Don’t tempt me.”

“Understood…” the wizard muttered on a quiet growl. “It’s coming again.”

“I know,” Isaac murmured, his gaze now back to mine. “It’s almost here. Worse than it currently is.”

“What?” I groaned in a whisper, already feeling the fire inside me warming back to a frenzy. “Isaac…”

Pound. Pound. Pound.

“Go to another room, brother!” Mandy shouted…before groaning. “Oh shit.”

“Goddammit, guest. Take my sister to the other side of the room!” Isaac growled the order harshly just as he jerked us away from the indented wall we rested against, stalking to the other side of this room, even as I started lifting and rising on his hardening cock, my head falling back. “Jesus...”

I sucked in a harsh breath as he fell to his knees, shoving me down onto the short carpeting inside the room, then I screamed as a flux of power rammed us, so brutal it threatened to make me insane.

I lost myself in the pleasure.

The pleasure that a shifter was giving me.

The ecstasy of a Gargoyle laying over me, fucking me without remorse, my wrists held over my head, crushed inside his brutal grip. His strength was going to leave marks on my body, and I didn’t care.

I wanted more.

He gave it.

Slapping at his head, I muttered, “Freaky shit, freaky shit.”

His skin was beginning to shimmer a deathly silver. “Apologies.” He still didn’t stop the light glimmer.

My eyes damn near crossed as he rotated his hips before thrusting into my wet heat. “No claws.”

He groaned brutally, “No claws.”

I slapped at his head when they sliced through his fingertips. “Dammit, don’t cut me.”

“I’m not,” he growled, slamming my wrists back above my head. “Quit hitting me.”

I wiggled inside his hold. “Dammit!”

“Shut up, Kennedy,” he said patiently, but with aggravation. His claws retracted back into his fingers…just gone. “I won’t cut you. I said that already.”

My eyes narrowed, but my hips still lifted to his, meeting his thrusts, the power in the air sizzling inside my veins. “You do that again, and I won’t kiss you.”

The Gargoyle growled softly, but the claws didn’t reappear. His lips met mine.

Sinful, purely sinful.

Only for his teeth to capture my bottom lip in a brutal hold, not releasing me.

Damn Gargoyle.

Opening my eyes gradually, I went quiet inside.

The first rays of dawn were muted against the tinted window, but it was enough light to clearly see the man that I was curled against, both of us facing each other, our limbs intertwined, having passed out as we had finished. We were inside a generic office. The furniture was made of the darkest wood—what was left after last night, most having been broken as we made our way around the room during our many bouts of straight, hardcore fucking—and there was a bathroom we had found in the middle of the night when we had accidently fallen into it. A black, soft blanket was thrown over our naked bodies that we initially slipped on when we had landed on the lone couch of the room—where we still were—the two recliners and small coffee table now ‘nonfunctioning’ pieces of furniture, those being the first places for us to land…and break.

Raising my head the barest bit, I peered silently at the Mayor’s face.

The Mayor of Woodland Creek—one fucked up town secretly run by shifters and wizards.

I stared.

His features were peaceful in his slumber, so unlike his normal persona on television. His deep black hair, chin length, was disarrayed, the remembrance of it being thick and smooth as silk in my gripping hands more than troubling, a few strands now lying over one of his cheeks and partially covering one eye. His lips—God, his lips—were just as plush as I had remembered, red and naturally kiss swollen against his sunkissed complexion, his skin literally tanned by the sun, still darker than my own suntan. My mouth pinched, now seeing something I had been unable to see before, and the cameras had never picked up.

“You have freckles,” I whispered, staring at the tiny splattering of freckles on his nose spreading out the barest bit on his defined cheekbones. It made him appear so innocent, sweetly adorable even. Not like a man who killed and plumaged so many. I lifted my hand off his chest ever so slowly, hesitating long moments, thinking about the last time we’d had sex.

When the power pulsing through the air had stopped.

And we had not.

We could have. We had definitely been exhausted, but we hadn’t. Hell, it had probably only been an hour ago, the pulsing waves lasting well into the early morning hours.

Instead of stopping, even if he was already inside me, he had paused, both of us breathing heavily with sweat covered bodies. His expression had turned into a silent question. I had thought about it for a full minute, staring at him above me, then gently lifted my hand as I was doing now and brushed his hair back from his face, then brought his face down to mine and kissed him in answer. Our last time hadn’t been sweet or kind, but…it had been consensual, not because of any unnatural power.

My hand hovered over his face, my expression still blank, and softly, I lowered a finger and brushed his hair back from his face. Gently, as to not wake him. Fisting my hand, I quickly lowered it back under the cover to his chest, staring at him, skimming his features further.

Blinking slowly, I swallowed down the loathing I felt for not only him, but for myself, and glanced away, tiredly searching the room for something to wear out of here. My clothes were a no go, but I saw his lying on the floor against the dented wall. They still appeared wearable, not torn to bits like mine were.

No, there was no pretending this hadn’t happened.

I started, turning my tired gaze toward him when he cleared his throat softly.

He was awake. His gaze was barely slitted open, but I could see the tiniest slivers of his stunning green eyes staring up at me. They weren’t glowing as they had been all last night. His blink was as sleepy as mine, even though I still saw supreme intelligence staring back at me.

“Lay back down,” he whispered gently. “Another hour of sleep won’t hurt.”

Holding his gaze for another long beat, I nodded my head once, and then rested my head back down on his muscled bicep that was curled around me. His arm had to be asleep by now with my weight having been on it like this, but he didn’t complain.

I was pretty sure he stayed awake until I fell back asleep.

What was done was done.

The Mayor, Isaac Stone, was in the small shower inside the bathroom.

I was swiftly throwing his shirt on over my head. It was huge on me. I barely topped out at five feet tall, so the hem of it practically went to my knees. I glanced around and grabbed the blanket we had used, tying it around my waist in a pseudo-skirt, then swiftly stuffed all of my shredded clothes—including my shoes—into my purse I’d had the forethought to drop before he had gone all caveman in tearing my clothes off. Seeing no items of mine remaining scattered around the broken room, I swiftly exited the office, walking on tiptoe through the lobby.

We had slept another hour, but I had pretended to be asleep as he slipped into the shower. The sun was shining brighter, but the shifters inside the lobby, scattered everywhere, were still sleeping. Very much naked, too. All of them. It appeared to be one hell of an orgy, even if some had possibly stuck with their same partners. As they were, though, there was just no telling with the sight they made.

I did have the decency to blush. Truly, there were a lot of naked shifters.

My feet stalled when the door to my right opened just the barest bit. Just enough for a silver eye to catch my gaze. It was Mandy’s guest, the wizard. I would recognize that eye any day having gotten a close up view of it last night.

The eye blinked, and then blinked once more.

I stared back.

I knew he was being nosy, probably having heard me sneak out. I seriously doubted he had expected it to be me, though. It was fairly obvious by his frozen stare…plus, he had more than likely planned to execute the ‘me’ who had seen him last night with Mandy. By the way, the Mayor had continued to say ‘guest,’ I was betting Isaac’s family didn’t approve of him at all.

But now, it was a bit more complicated.

He stared for a beat longer, blinked, and then ever so gently shut and relocked the door.

Well…that was fun.

I continued making my precarious way through the debris of the naked and sated and silently slipped out the door, deciding against the shattered window since there was glass everywhere. I jogged silently down the sidewalk, my bare feet padding quietly against the concrete. This area of Woodland Creek was already blaring with the new day, sirens continually looping in sound. If the carnal power hadn’t just been here, then those sirens would probably continue for some time. Still, I put my helmet on, put my Moped into neutral, and shoved it a few feet, hopping on, coasting down a hill for a good block before I started it, not taking the chance of waking anyone inside the building.

Damn…I knew that package had been trouble.

“God, it’s great to be out,” Rachel murmured, smiling brightly.

I snorted. “Understatement.”

Jackie continued studying her purchases, rifling through her bags. “Uh huh.”

Rachel and I glanced at each other. Jackie hadn’t been the same since the ‘incident’ a month ago. The ‘incident’ had been town-wide. The only individuals not affected by the sexual power were adolescents and the elderly—they had been knocked out by it. Woodland Creek—the entire town—had called an emergency—to the point there was a town curfew, which had only now been lifted. It really hadn’t mattered in the beginning. No one wanted to leave the ‘safety’ of their homes for a few weeks. Pregnancy numbers had skyrocketed and divorces were on the rise. No one had an answer, either. It was a phenomenon that had shaken the town long after their beds had stopped shaking.

It had also become an unsaid rule amongst everyone: don’t ask.

That easy. No one asked who they had partnered up with that night.

It was the only way to move on.

Only doctors had been able to do anything, dosing patients up with enough drugs to sedate them. Anyone else not a child or elderly had just been screwed. Literally.

My own bruises—I’d had many—from that night were now healed, but the emotional ones still lingered. The Mayor, him, had somehow finagled a way with the world’s outside press. The world officially thought Woodland Creek was the horniest town in the United States. Even more tourists were showing up.

Stupid humans.

Jackie, my best friend along with Rachel, still fought her own personal demons for whatever had occurred to her that night. So with the town emergency now stopped, Rachel and I had decided Jackie needed shopping therapy on High Street. One of her favorites in Old Town. It did seem to be helping, her arms laden with many bags. Rachel and I only had one a piece, our income taking a drastic hit after the ‘incident.’ Though my temporary job outside of town at Mimi’s Flowers and Balloons had now been secured, it becoming a full-on part-time gig just yesterday…since everyone was buying their loved ones flowers—constantly—to make up for their actions, even if unable to stop them. Guilt. It was a bitch.

We walked to Albrecht Drive, all semi-quiet. Rachel cleared her throat and pointed with her big sale bag to The Bread Basket. “I’m starving.”

Jackie peered up from her digging, having found the new pair of sunglasses she was apparently searching for, placing them on top of her head—almost dumping the contents of two of her bags onto the ground. “I’m hungry, too. They’ve got that amazing chicken breast sandwich there.”

I grinned. Her appetite had finally returned. “Let’s do it.”

Maneuvering through the many tables, I swiftly apologized to the woman that Jackie bashed with one of her bags, my gaze stalling the barest moment on the individual. She was polite enough, but it wasn’t her actions that made me pause. I blinked slowly, recognizing her.

My jaw started to slacken, but I quickly shut it, nodding respectfully to her, then to the rest of her group, who had paused in their munching to glare up. “So sorry to interrupt.”

The Mayor’s sister, Mandy Stone, nodded her head once. “As I said, you’re fine.”

She didn’t recognize me. Thank you, God!

Mandy’s black brow lifted when I only stared.

“Right.” I peered to where my best friends were, almost to the line of the deli, not noticing my disappearance. I mumbled again, “Right. Sorry.”

“Wait a moment,” an incredibly gorgeous wizard stated, lifting a finger around his fork, even as he continued to stare at his lunch. He was the only one of the group I didn’t recognize. The rest were council members or rich townsfolk—all shifters. I paused in turning, staring at his forehead, waiting until his ocean blue eyes lifted up to me. He continued chewing the food in his mouth, properly closed, before he swallowed. He asked easily, “Miss…do you believe in fate?”

My blink was gradual. “Um…” Huh?

“Fate,” he stated slowly, lowering his fork and steepling his fingers. He rested his chin on top of the tips of them. “Do you believe in it?”

I cleared my throat quietly, the shifters around the table still eating, but watching silently. “I like to believe that I create my own destiny. Not that it’s already decided for me.”

He hummed quietly, his head barely cocking. “A life filled with crossroads.”

I shrugged a shoulder, my bag rubbing up and down my leg. “I suppose that’s correct.”

A single brow lifted on his fiercely handsome face. “So if I said I had saved the seat next to me for you, would you sit down beside me or continue on with your oblivious friends for lunch?”

My blonde brows instantly snapped together, glancing once to the empty seat beside him. “You saved that for me?”

“Indeed.”

“Why?”

“Now…what fun would it be if I told you that?”

I snorted softly, glancing once to my friends, seeing they were truly oblivious, not even noticing I was gone as they stood in line and eyed the selection menu. My gaze returned to ocean blue, assessing him a moment. Wizards were frightening. “I think—”

“Choose wisely, miss,” he interrupted me, staring patiently.

My mouth opened and then shut. This was weird.

His lips twitched.

My face scrunched a bit at his action. All right, weird didn’t even begin to describe this.

“Excuse me,” a deep voice rumbled behind me, and then a body gently nudged me to the side, not touching me with his hands, more bumping me. Then the man who now stood beside me completely ignored me, even as I stumbled a step from the abrupt movement. “Please accept our apologies. We hit a traffic jam on the way.”

I blinked, gazing up at the profile of Mike Stone, one of the Mayor’s other siblings—a real S.O.B.

Feeling my eyes on him, he glared once at me, his gaze running up and down my body once, even sniffing in my direction. His attention snapped back and forth between the table and me, just realizing I had been speaking with them. “Am I interrupting something?” He looked at his watch. “I thought our meeting was scheduled—”

“You’re fine,” Mandy instantly stated, cutting him off. “Although this young lady may be joining us for our meeting.” That black brow lifted again in my direction, her head tilting in silent question, not arguing the wizard’s antics.

My blink was ever so slow. Mike had said ‘our’ and ‘we.’

My spine instantly stiffened at the implication, and I glanced behind me.

No one was there.

My gaze instantly scanned the rest of The Bread Basket…and stalled.

He was walking through the front doors. Isaac Stone.

And he wasn’t alone.

Finn Stone, the last sibling of the Stone family, was also with him.

Along with Love Stone, his mother.

The Mayor and his mother were walking side-by-side, Finn on his other side. The Mayor and Mrs. Stone made quite the stunning pair. Son and mother utterly owned the space around them. They knew it too by the swagger and easy manner with which they greeted customers inside the deli. Finn merely kept anyone from getting too close to his brother, a hardcore bodyguard. He wasn’t just dressed to kill…he actually would kill you if he thought it necessary—quietly, of course.

A bare beat later, I saw Isaac’s nostrils flare and his head tilted back the barest bit. He inhaled deeply. The Gargoyle was scenting the air. His thin dark brows furrowed the smallest bit, and memories of our night together bombarded me, unwanted thoughts rolling through my mind. His green eyes narrowed the barest bit as his gaze began sharply scanning from left to right, eyeing each and every person inside the deli in swift fashion as he continued his stalk inside the room.

Until his search halted. Directly on me.

His blink was just as slow as mine had been, the intensity in his gaze abruptly cutting off now that his prey had been found, his gaze running up and down my frame, verifying it was me.

Our eyes held for the briefest moment before my gaze quickly moved to his right. His mom was talking to Finn quietly, not appearing to pay attention. That definitely worked for me.

Sucking in a quick breath, realizing I hadn’t breathed since I had spotted him, I casually turned my head to the wizard. Definitely frightening. My voice was polite. “Thank you, but I believe I’ll have lunch with my friends as planned.” I dipped my head once casually in farewell and turned to leave.

I slammed right into a Gargoyle wall.

Quickly, I took a step back, staring at Mike’s chest at my eye level. “Sorry about that.” I quickly took a step to my right, out of his way…but he swiftly moved with me, staying directly in front of me. Ever so slowly, I tilted my head back and met his direct gaze. His wasn’t as blank as mine was. He appeared curious before he hid it behind his hooded lids. “You’re…kind of in my way.”

No one at the table of shifters was speaking. I was pretty sure they had stopped eating too, just blatantly staring now. Not exactly a wonderful situation.

Mike didn’t speak, merely glancing over my head after eyeing me again. His gaze held for the barest moment above me. I knew he was staring at Isaac. Just as silently, his eyes dipped back down to me, asking quietly, “How do you know my brother?”

I was quiet for the barest moment, thinking quickly before I stated honestly, “I delivered a package once to a building not too far from here. He was there. We had a few words.” That was enough. It was just the right amount to imply we had argued.

Mike’s head cocked, inhaling deeply, his brows lowering. “I haven’t met you before, but you smell of flowers. What type of Garden shifter are you?”

I kept my expression serene. “I don’t know what you’re talking about and my friends are waiting for me.” I could now see them behind him, both glancing around, already at the register, having made their orders and noticing I was missing. I angled my body a bit so I could see behind him from the corner of my eye. The shifter ‘royalty’ were almost on us. “If you’ll please excuse me?”

He didn’t move.

Fuck.

I tilted my body ever so slightly to edge around him, but he instantly leaned on a hip, indicating he would try to stop me if I moved.

Fuckity-fuck-fuck.

My blink was slow when I saw the wizard push the chair out next to him in a nonchalant way, barely noticeable really, but it was just enough that I saw a bit of a reprieve. If I sat down, then waited for the shifter group to sit down, then I could easily excuse myself since the only other free chairs were across the table. I cleared my throat, and pivoted, walking around the table swiftly, mumbling to the wizard, “I guess I’ll stay for a bit after all.”

The wizard merely snorted softly, tilting to the side, whispering absently, “I’m Caleb.”

“Nice to meet you, Caleb,” I muttered, sitting easily on the chair before I sat my small bag on my lap and pulled out my cellphone that buzzed in my pocket. It was Jackie, her text simple. I typed a quick reply that I was in the bathroom, and I’d find them if they wanted to sit on the other side of the barrier dividing The Bread Basket’s room in two (by the windows)—it was far away from here. Placing my phone back into my pocket, I sat comfortably, watching silently as the shifter ‘royalty’ stopped at the table, and decent, respectful greetings were made.

It was then that it dawned on me that this was neutral ground for them.

Public. Supposedly, no guards. The shifters together…and the lone wizard next to me.

This was peaceful for them, the wizard safe from any harm.

Even if it wasn’t so peaceful for me. I kept my gaze off Isaac.

Although his company did not, as they took their seats, eyeing me with interest.

As soon as their asses were in their chairs, I quickly glanced at my watch, ogling the dial. “Boy, look at that. I can’t believe it’s already…” Yeah, it didn’t matter. I grabbed my bag on my lap and began to stand, glancing at the wizard. “It was a pleasure. Thank you so much for saving me a seat.”

His chuckle was ever so quiet, his blue eyes twinkling the barest bit in his merriment, seeming to take great joy in what I had said as he gripped the back of my chair and helped to pull it out while I stood, my exit now clear to my friends. “You’re most welcome.”

Though, he lifted a finger. “I’m sorry. Wait just a moment.” He peered to the group around the table and blinked so damn softly. His voice was quiet. “I want you to know this young lady, Miss Kennedy Kirk, is under my protection. Should any of you decide that she should be harmed in the future…” his smile was small, “just don’t.”

My jaw flapped. He knew my name.

Uh, frightening he was.

He wiggled his nose.

I jerked and barely caught myself on the table with one hand. A sensation like tiny snowflakes, falling and melting on my flesh made my shoulders shudder. I ground my teeth against the unwanted chill, my gaze slamming on the wizard. But, just as quickly, I altered my attention, not giving away I knew he had performed magic on me.

My lips thinned, but I quickly straightened, all of their sharpened gazes on me—except the wizard. My gaze landed on no one, just flying over the table, my words soft as I mumbled, “Um…goodbye, everyone.”

Mike made a gurgling sound inside his throat, staring at Caleb with quietly deadly eyes, then he jerked forward, peering around his brother—who I still wasn’t looking at—and hissed at Mrs. Stone, “Aren’t you going to do something?”

Mrs. Stone’s forehead wrinkled her confusion clear. “What?”

Yeah, it was my cue to leave. I quickly jerked to the side, holding my bag close to my chest, beginning to step a foot between my empty chair and Mandy’s. This wasn’t the lunch I had planned.

The most deadly growl stopped me in my tracks as it purred through the air, the hair on my arms standing up as goose bumps of fear raised on my skin, my heart rapidly beating a heavy thrum inside my chest. That growl was a sound meant for death. The silence before an outbreak of bloodshed.

It was The Mayor. His Gargoyle.

No one at the table moved.

Locking my legs that wanted to start trembling, my gaze slowly tilted to the left. To him.

I almost peed my pants. No shame in that when it was definitely the Gargoyle staring from his eyes. The only reason I didn’t, with death staring as such, was because he wasn’t watching me.

Those quietly glowing eyes were solely focused on Caleb. “She knows.”

To which, the—seemingly incredibly vain—wizard merely lifted his fork, pointed it absently at me, then forked another bite of his macaroni, holding Isaac’s gaze while he stated evenly, “She’s not a shifter—or a wizard—as you can clearly tell now with the spell gone since I know that’s what you’re really asking.” He smiled as Isaac’s growl abruptly cut off.

My lips wanted to thin, but I kept my expression as silent as the table, staring at the plate that the wizard was eating from. To run or to stay—and try to diffuse a possibly bad situation—were my only thoughts now.

Mrs. Stone broke the quiet, asking incredulous, “You thought she was a shifter?”

Isaac didn’t move a muscle. I took a glance at him, only to see him staring at his hands on the table. His fingers were spread, relaxed flat on the tabletop. He actually appeared calm…except for the rigid set of his shoulders that were only starting to ease in tension. He wasn’t speaking either, so that was a bad indication.

Mike cleared his throat after glancing once at his brother, then he leaned forward, stating, “She’s been to the shifter office down the street. She dropped off a package there. What did you expect us to think?”

Mrs. Stone stared for a long moment, and then sniffed heavily in my direction, and her shoulders stiffened. “She does smell like flowers.” Her frightening gaze snapped to mine, freezing me further in place. “You were invited into the shifter office?” Her head cocked. “You lied about being a shifter?”

I breathed slowly, unable to look away from her. The ‘shifter’ was out of the bag. There was no point in lying.

I stated, “I was given a package from a wizard to deliver there. No one in particular invited me in, and I didn’t lie. I never said I was a shifter. People just keep thinking I am because I smell like the flower shop I work at.” I paused and then decided to explain further, “And, apparently, there was a spell on me. I actually did try to explain I wasn’t a shifter at the time, but I was rudely cut off.”

Her gaze was unyielding. “You weren’t invited, and yet you went inside?”

“Um…there was no one at the receptionist’s desk, so I went in when two other individuals exited.”

Her dark brows slammed together. “That makes no sense.”

“I’m sorry,” I said slowly though it did sound like a question. I was confused myself. She was overreacting about me going inside the building without an invite. “I did have the package to deliver.”

Isaac stirred next to her, and I felt his eyes on me. He was quiet for a long moment, then ever so casually relaxed back on his chair, his head cocking, making his hair rest against his cheek. His voice was calm and smooth. “What did this wizard look like that gave you the package?”

I mirrored him, making myself relax like his calming tone. “She had black dreadlocks and golden eyes,” my gaze slowly traveled to his, and I held his composed stunning green gaze, “and she had a lot of power. She wasn’t trying to hide it.” I shrugged a shoulder. “She said her name was Hanna.”

One of the rich townsfolk grunted at the end of the table. “Hanna Clipton.”

Isaac glared at him. “I believe I understood who she was speaking of. Your commentary is unnecessary.” Isaac’s Gargoyle had huffed before his attention snapped back to me. “What did Hanna say to you?”

My brows rose. “Nothing abnormal, if that’s what you mean. She just called in for a courier. I was on-call, so I went. She paid cash up front and told me to deliver the package to the address I went to. That was it.” My nose scrunched with an absent memory. “Actually, she did mention something about darkness coming. Since it was already night time, I just brushed it off as crazy wizard bullsh—” I stopped abruptly, pinching my lips together. “Sorry.”

Isaac’s brows slowly raised his tone hinting on amused. “You don’t like wizards.”

“No.”

“And shifters?”

Honest. “No.”

His lips gradually curved up. “And how can you tell the difference between a shifter, wizard, and human?”

Not so honest. “I have no idea. I just can.” I cleared my throat and then glanced at my watch. “I really do need to be going.” I turned my attention away from him to Mrs. Stone. “Have I answered all of your questions?”

Her brows were still slanted together, but she waved a bored, absent hand in my direction. “That’ll be all.” She turned her attention to her oldest son, Isaac, muttering quietly to him, “What the hell did Hanna have delivered there?”

I stared a beat longer after she had dismissed me like a lowly servant. Arrogant shifter bitch.

Isaac ignored her, instead, stopping me as I started to turn away again. “Exactly what are you?”

My lips twitched as I noticed everyone at the table as they took an avid interest in the question. Glancing at each one of them, my eyes landed on the wizard, Caleb. I stared expectantly, not saying a word.

He merely shook his head, wiping his mouth, having finished his macaroni. “That’s yours to tell. It seems they need to hear it from your mouth, even after I removed the spell placed on you.” He winked. “It was Hanna who put it on you that night, by the way.”

I chuckled quietly and then turned my attention back to Isaac. “I’m human.” My grin grew even broader as his expression turned quiet at the verification. I repeated his earlier comment, but there was no humor in my tone. “You don’t like humans.”

He merely stared nothing showing in his expression.

“Well…well…well, it appears fortunate I needed a new sweater,” a rough masculine voice stated loudly, and all of our attention snapped to the man walking up to the table. His arms were spread wide, a bag from the same store as mine dangling from one of his hands. “What are you all doing here? Having a secret pow-wow that I wasn’t invited to?”

My spine stiffened even further…as my heartbeat started to race madly inside my chest as grief and loss threatened to break my control. I placed a smooth hand on the back of Mandy’s chair to keep from crumpling in a sobbing heap.

Emotional scars? Yes, I still had them.

It was Council Member Jonathan Frank, his new recruit walking silently behind him.

Jonathan was looking everywhere but at me. His leather pants molded delicious to his strong thighs as he maneuvered through two tables, his expression as fake as could be, a shit-eating grin on his face finding everyone here—apparently, to his surprise. He lowered his arms, his plain dark gray t-shirt tugging to perfection on all of his torso muscles as he came to a stop at the head of the table, only Mandy between us. His tone was smooth as his red brows lifted, glancing at all the city council members, and then the Mayor and his mother. “Care to explain why I wasn’t invited?”

It was Isaac who answered, his tone exasperated and bored. “We’re here to discuss the road leading to St. Dymphna’s Convent. It’s been flooded recently by heavy rainfall, so we’re talking about issues of reconstruction on it.” Sure they were. He snorted softly, running his gaze up and down Jonathan’s casual attire. “And you had the day off, so we didn’t call.”

Jonathan’s nostrils flared. “You are beginning to piss me off, Mr. Mayor.”

Isaac smiled. “You’ve already pissed me off.” A black brow quirked. “One too many times.”

It was silent for the longest moment as they stared one another down. Then, ever so slowly, Jonathan’s eyes crept in my direction. Black and ruthless, they landed on my aqua blue gaze. The first time I had seen him in a month. His expression quieted, an even scarier vision knowing he was still furious. Long seconds ticked by, the noise of the deli court zoning out to a foggy buzzing in my ears as I held his gaze. Neither of us said anything for a full minute, then his wide lips opened and he muttered in the quietest whisper, “What the fuck are you doing here, Kennedy?”

My mouth wouldn’t open. Not for the longest moment, it taking everything in me to keep my emotions even. It wasn’t a comfortable situation as everyone’s heads started doing a ping-pong action, glancing back and forth between us, realizing we most definitely knew one another.

Yes, I knew the shifter hunter in your midst.

Eventually, I cleared my throat. Heavily. I was able to speak, my tone quiet, my words measured and slow. “I’m here with Rachel and Jackie. I got sidetracked here, but I’m leaving now.” I finally stepped out from between my empty chair and Mandy, and then gestured to it. “The seat’s free. You can sit there if you want.” He wasn’t going to leave this meeting. I knew that.

His delicately curved red brow lifted. “Sidetracked?”

“Yes.”

“About?”

“I delivered a package recently to an office building. They seemed intrigued by this fact.” They would also probably try to kill me at some point since I was a human who knew about the shifters and wizards. However, for right now, they were still too curious to do it soon.

His blink was slow. “I can understand their interest.”

“Why?” I knew he wouldn’t lie to me.

“Because only certain individuals are invited there.” A head tilt toward the table. “I can’t even get an invite.”

Oh. No humans allowed—a spell.

I blinked.

And no wizards either from the way Isaac had acted to the ‘guest’ there.

I relished the new emotion of ‘understanding,’ not heartache. “After I explained who the woman was who had given me the package, it seemed to appease them. Her name was Hanna Clipton.” These were the most words we had spoken—civilly—in a month.

He lifted a stiff hand, brushing his red hair back from his eyes. “She gives invites.”

My own nod was jerky. “Okay.” I had given him all the intel I had.

We stared at one another, his façade breaking the barest bit as his jaw clenched.

Lips pinching, I mumbled, “I’m leaving.” Clearing my throat, I brushed past Mandy, who had made room for me. Jonathan’s recruit lifted a hand in a gesture for me to pass by him. No way. Fuck that. The man was all types of vicious. I wasn’t letting him anywhere near…my hands clenched when Jonathan instantly stepped in front of his recruit, blocking him, and giving me space to move between him and the table. Stepping forward, I paused, then turned slightly, and lifted my hand toward his face, pointing.

His head instantly jerked back. Away from my touch. He even took a quick step back with that carefully silent expression on his handsome features.

My own jaw clenched at his action, but I pointed gently at his forehead. Not touching him, but needing to say this. “You have a little something on your forehead.” A red laser dot, a clear indication there were actually guards around this room.

His chuckle was dry. Jaded. His eyes narrowed on me the smallest bit before he rubbed at his forehead, pretending he didn’t know what I was talking about. “Did I get it?” Intelligent, he was.

“Probably when you leave, it will go away.” I lowered my hand slowly, my gaze holding his for the longest moment. “I am sorry.” So fucking sorry.

He inhaled sharply, his gaze on mine, until it jerked over my head to the occupants of the table, scanning over all of them in rapid succession before landing back on mine. He jerked his head to the side, muttering harshly, so much scorn radiating in his quiet words, “Get the hell out of here, Kennedy.”

“All right,” I mumbled softly and slowly tore my gaze away from his. I walked away, my stomach torn in knots. I was betting I would throw up tonight and probably wouldn’t be able to sleep…his side of the bed cold and empty.

I made Jackie and Rachel leave my apartment.

Jonathan had called four hours after seeing him in The Bread Basket.

He wanted to come over.

To talk.

A huge step in the right direction.

I had also warned him when he called that I had a few people following me. They weren’t even trying to be covert. When you see the same individuals five times in one day, it's definitely not a coincidence. The shifters were very interested in me now.

Not to mention my ex-boyfriend was one of the top shifter hunters in town. So, no, our relationship wasn’t easy. Not here in Woodland Creek. It was complicated, but most were. Ours was just on a different level of complication.

Nevertheless, he was coming over. The last time he had been here, it hadn’t been a pretty morning. He had been waiting for me when I had walked in that morning after the ‘incident.’ He had taken one look at my appearance, the bruises on my wrists and my guilty expression, and practically made the roof fall down as he shouted so loudly in furious anger.

He’d had access to drugs. Had dosed himself up with a tranquilizer and slept through the night.

I had not had drugs.

I had hurt him.

He knew it wasn’t my fault…but it still hurt.

Rushing around the room, I shut all the blinds and closed my curtains, then quickly set to making dinner in my tiny kitchen. My place was small, yet respectable, the best I could afford in Woodland Creek. I wouldn’t accept charity from anyone, including Jonathan, so I used the inheritance I had been gifted on my eighteenth birthday from my late grandmother to live on until I decided what I wanted to major in during college. I hadn’t gone yet, and I didn’t plan to. Not until I decided what I wanted to do for a career. I wasn’t an overly huge fan of school even though I had always made great grades, but I knew I would have to make a choice eventually. My play money would run out in the all too near future, even though I only pulled enough cash out every month for rent and utilities, and then my carefree nature would be snared by the reality of needing more spare money than my odd side jobs afforded me now.

Lost in my worries for how this evening was going to go, I didn’t even notice the meat was burning before me. Sniffing heavily, I glanced down and then began cursing up a storm as smoke clouded the kitchen and the open living room area. Quickly turning off the stove, I raised the windows, shoved the curtains aside, opened the blinds, and then lifted the window open. I fanned the room out the best I could, grabbing the phone and dialing the local Chinese restaurant, Super Wok, in the New Town section of Woodland Creek.

Our favorites would be delivered in less than an hour. Perfect.

I rushed into my bedroom, jumped into the shower, singing softly to myself in an effort to ignore my nerves buzzing through me like wildfire, my heart pounding rapidly. I put on my best set of black bra and panties, then a clean pair of worn jeans and a simple bubble gum pink shirt. Makeup went on next, applying just the right amount of eyeliner to make my light blue eyes really noticeable, then a quick swipe of strawberry lip-gloss. I dried my blonde, shoulder blade length hair quickly enough, still thankful it was naturally straight and thick.

I stared at myself in the mirror. I looked cute. I wasn’t a knockout beauty, but my features were small and pretty, kind of pixie-like with my own unique flare. My build was small, my assets all very normal sized for my smaller stature. It was good enough for the short notice.

The delivery gal arrived right on time, and I tipped her an extra ten spot for that. I placed the bags on the small square table I had with two matching white and black checkered chairs. I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans and peered around. The place was clean and smelled decent now. Glancing at the clock, I went to the windows and closed them, shutting the blinds and curtains again.

The knock sounded on the door about five minutes later.

Exhaling a steady breath, I unlatched all the locks and swung my door open, a cautious expression on my face…which quickly turned to a complete look of shock as Caleb entered my apartment, his own bag of Chinese take-out food—same place as where I had ordered mine—in his hand. I stood frozen for a full minute as he sat on my red leather couch, mute and proceeded to ignore me as he placed his bag on my black coffee table. As he began opening his bag, I blinked rapidly, my shock flying out my still open door and confusion—and irritation—quickly settling in.

My mouth parted and I muttered, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Caleb opened one of his containers. “I’m having dinner with you.” He shrugged a muscled shoulder. “Because I say so.”

I stared. “Because you say so?”

“Yes.”

I shook my head once. “No.”

Caleb picked a piece of chicken out, glancing at me. “Do you know this is my favorite Chinese food?”

My brows lifted high on my forehead. “Honestly? I don’t care.” I waved a quick hand at the open doorway, my other hand still on the doorknob. “You need to leave.”

Caleb hummed softly. “Actually, I shouldn’t.”

“What are you talking about?” My patience was warring thin and my nerves making my fingertips tingle.

“I’m staying. When your invited guest gets here, it would be problematic if I wasn’t here.” Caleb flicked a finger at my all-purpose closet next to my open bedroom door. “Because you have an uninvited guest.”

I stared.

Caleb chuckled quietly, his expression entirely too amused, his ice blue eyes holding on mine steadily. “Do you know there’s a Gargoyle hiding in your linen closet?”

My shoulders instantly stiffened as my gaze flew in that direction. I slammed my front door shut, and then stomped with all the frustration riding me at this ongoing intrusion. One hand on my hip, I flung the closet door open. There were days I wished I had a privacy spell on my apartment—to keep unwanted Gargoyles out of my home.

I stared. At nothing. “Quit hiding. Now.”

A quiet chuckle sounded directly in front of me, and then…Mike’s body appeared an inch away from mine, his tone bored. “You know an awful lot about us, Kennedy.”

I shrugged a shoulder, then grabbed his black shirt and jerked him out of my closet. “Get the hell out of here.” I shoved his hulking form a step toward my door, my cheeks flushing with righteous anger. “Get. Out.”

Caleb snickered around a mouthful of food. “Aren’t you curious why he’s here?”

“There’s only one reason why a man sneaks into a woman’s home and doesn’t steal anything. It’s either to rape them or kill them. And I’m betting it’s not the former.” I shoved him again toward the door. “I told you to leave.”

“Actually, I only want to talk with you,” he griped, setting his feet on the short carpet.

“You should have knocked then,” I grumbled, pushing on his back. He didn’t move. “I wouldn’t have answered.”

“Exactly,” Mike grumbled, then glanced at all the food on my table. “Who’s coming over?”

“None of your…” I grunted, pushing even harder, leaning into it, “…business.”

He didn’t even tilt. “How do you really know my brother?”

“Like I said, I dropped off a package there. We had words.” I kicked the back of his knee, and he grunted in surprise but stayed where he was. “Get out of my home!”

He turned to face me. “Isaac wouldn’t say anything about you after the meeting.”

I held his penetrating gaze. “And?”

“Well, what was your conversation about that has him acting like this?” He waved one hand at me, his expression incredulous. “He was ready to tear into Caleb today.”

Knock. Knock.

My eyes flew wide, my gaze soaring to the closed door.

I didn’t move. I had no clue what to do.

The decision was taken out of my hands.

I heard a key placed into the lock even though the door wasn’t actually locked, then a heartbeat later, the door opened into the dead silence of the room. Everyone was staring at the entrance.

Jonathan paused half inside the doorway, his eyes widening, both of his hands still on the doorknob. His startled expression swiftly turned blank as his exquisite gaze scanned the room, taking in each individual. He paused on me, promptly running up and down my frame. He gently extracted his key from the door and silently pocketed it.

Just as mutely, he finished stepping inside and shut the door soundlessly behind him.

His eyes held mine.

My mouth bobbed a few times, utterly flustered.

I waved a hand at nothing. Stood there like an idiot.

No one said a word, waiting for me to speak, even though the room was palatable with tension.

Like a damn fight would break out at any time.

All I knew was I didn’t want him to leave. “Don’t leave.” Yeah, it just blurted out. “I got dinner.”

I snapped my mouth shut. Ran my hand through my hair, glancing at my uninvited guests. I waved a hand at them. “They’re going. Right now.”

Jonathan stuffed his hands in his pockets, his black eyes still on mine.

I said it again. “Don’t leave.” I wasn’t above begging for what I wanted. “Please.”

He snorted softly, his gaze pulling from me to each of them, and then he took his hands from his pockets and strode calmly to the table and sat on a checkered chair, dwarfing the furniture as normal. He began opening the cartons of food. Not glancing up from his task, he simply asked, “What are they doing here?”

Instant. “I didn’t invite them.”

He grunted quietly, glancing at each man again before peering back to the task of peeking in cartons. “Again, what are they doing here?”

I waved a finger at the wizard on my couch. “He said he was having dinner here.” A flicked finger at the Gargoyle. “He wanted to question me more.”

Jonathan hummed softly, then cocked his head slightly, glancing around the table. “Plates?”

My feet quickly went into motion. He was staying. “I’ll get them.”

Another soft hum and he peered up as I entered the kitchen, his gaze on the uninvited. “I know enough about the two of you to make your lives a living hell, so it would probably be wise to forget I was ever here.” Our relationship…not known.

Caleb instantly waved his fork, lifting his container again from the table. “You have my word I won’t speak of this.” He sat back and started eating again.

Mike chuckled softly. “I’d love to know what you have on me…hunter.”

And…they knew about him. Confirmation.

“No, you wouldn’t.” Jonathan’s smile was cool as ice. “You aren’t as smooth as you believe yourself to be.”

Mike chuckled again, but his gaze was sharp. “How long have you been in this relationship?”

“That’s not for your ears,” he muttered, taking one of the plates I handed him. As I sat down across from him with my own plate, he simply asked again, “Your silence for mine?”

Mike was quiet for a full minute as I began loading food on my plate, making sure to leave Jonathan his favorites. Then Mike muttered in exasperation, “Fine. I won’t tell of your relationship.”

My brows lifted even as I quickly rose from my seat to grab us drinks. Whatever Mike kept secret, he definitely wasn’t willing to let it be known. Caleb hadn’t seemed all that worried, but Mike’s brows were still furrowed.

Setting a beer in front of Jonathan, I placed my own glass of tea in front of my plate. My eyes widened, though, as I sat down and the entire room started to shake as a…Gargoyle’s furious roar was heard far above outside. My gaze met Mike’s eyes. I muttered, “Who else is coming?”

He growled a quiet curse. “The guards must have told him.” He tugged at his ear. “It’s Isaac.”

Wonderful. I shooed a hand at the door. “Go meet him on the roof or something. I don’t need another uninvited guest. He probably thinks you’re hurt with Caleb and Jonathan in here.” I knew, without a doubt, Jonathan hadn’t made his presence known when he had snuck in here. He wasn’t that sloppy.

Only a mere second later, my eyes widened as a silver fog filtered in through the smallest crack of one of my windowsills, creeping directly behind Mike. He stiffened and then turned abruptly, clearing his throat as the mist hovered directly in front of him. “I’m fine. I’m not hurt. I only came here to question her further.”

The silver fog floated around Mike, hovered there for another half-minute, then just as suddenly, Isaac was standing inside my living room. He was calm and collected…only wearing a pair of holey jeans and a soft white t-shirt, his feet bare.

I sighed quietly, his gaze catching mine. But I swiftly turned on my chair, back to my food. “No one hurt your brother, Mr. Mayor,” I grunted quietly, lifting an eggroll from a sack while Jonathan finally started loading his plate with his favorites. “If anything, I may have hurt my shoulder trying to push him the hell out of here.” I pointed a finger at the door. “You guys can leave that way.”

There was an extended silence.

Isaac rumbled quietly with interest, “Is that from Super Wok?”

Instantly, I grumbled, “There’s not enough for you.” Another point at the door. “Leave.”

“No worries.” Caleb snickered softly. There was a dragging sound on my coffee table. “I got you dinner, Mr. Mayor.”

I growled quietly under my breath, peering over my shoulder. Isaac was stretching his bulky arms over his head, his shirt riding up to show a portion of his flexing tan stomach muscles, his jeans riding low on his hips as he moved toward the coffee table and the carton of unopened food that Caleb had apparently brought just for him. My eyes closed against the site he was, like a hot and sweaty fuck come to life. I quickly jerked my head around, holding Jonathan’s dark gaze. “They’ll leave soon.”

He had paused eating, his chopsticks halfway to his mouth, noodles wrapped around them. He didn’t move for the longest moment, holding my gaze until his red brows furrowed the barest bit. A slow blink, then he calmly lifted the chopsticks the rest of the way to his mouth, and chewed silently, his gaze holding mine, not looking away.

The others behind us gave us some privacy as they began talking softly to one another.

My own brows started to furrow, a slight worry that I may have exuded an attraction for Isaac, but I quickly spoke to cover it, my expression turning peaceful. “How’s Lucy?”

A red brow lifted. “Still mine.”

Yes, he had taken our tiny furball of a dog—she was a mutt from the shelter—when he had left. I glanced down at my dinner, forking a small bite, being meticulously careful with it, giving myself something to study. My voice was soft as a whisper, full of misery. “That wasn’t what I asked.”

He chewed for a moment, and then glanced down at his own plate. “She’s fine.” Another half-quiet moment. “I think she misses you. She carries around that horrible leash you bought her. She doesn’t like the new one I got her.”

My lips curved the barest bit around my fork, keeping my head tucked down, trying not to show him how much this pleased me. “The leash isn’t that bad.”

He snorted, resting his elbow on the table, waving a hand in front of my lowered face in aggravation, beginning to relax a bit. “It has purple and yellow ducks on it.” Another snort, another wave of his hand. “How is she supposed to feel empowered against the bigger dogs with a damn leash like that?”

My grin couldn’t be stopped as I glanced up at him, falling into his eyes as I laughed at his irked expression. “Let me guess. You bought her a black spike leash.” He had been eyeing those one day in the pet store.

His gaze narrowed, almost playfully. A touch of himself, but not quite. “It’s a lot better than ducks.”

My lips twitched. “Quack.” When his own lips twitched at my horrible imitation of a duck, I mumbled, “So she likes ducks. It’s not a big deal.”

He pointed his chopsticks at me, leaning forward a little over the table. “She’s tiny. Those other dogs at the park could use her as a toy.”

I shook my head, my shoulders relaxing. “She’s got spunk. Plus, she’s damn fast.”

He hummed softly, his lips curving into a true smile as we stared at one another…until it faltered, cracking the barest bit. My own smile swiftly disappeared as he sat back in his chair, his expression back to being carefully guarded. My stomach plummeted as he caught himself enjoying me and put that wall back up between us. His tone was, at least, civil as he continued eating and asked, “Have you decided on a major yet?”

“No,” I answered softly and began picking at my food again. “I did get an actual regular gig, though. The flower shop hired me on part time.”

He hummed quietly. “You know, you will have to—”

“I know,” I cut him off, tossing him a glare. “Just not right now.”

He eyed me a moment. “Some things don’t change, I suppose.”

“And some things do,” I whispered, glancing back down at my food. I cleared my throat quickly, shoving my heartbreak aside, and pushed forward. “Though I did get some brochures for college.” I shrugged a shoulder, pushing my food around on my plate. “I read them, too.”

His chuckle was soft. “That’s progress.”

I glanced up into his eyes, not flinching from his penetrating gaze. “It’s kept my mind busy.” Trying not to drown in my misery. “And I still have plenty of time. I’m young enough.”

His lips pinched the barest bit, then he stated quietly and honestly, “You should know this.” His mouth thinned further, glanced once in the direction of my uninvited guests where they were chatting quietly, then back to me. My stomach rolled at what I saw in his gaze. He peered at his food, then back up, and whispered gently, “I went on a date. Two actually. With the same woman.”

My very being utterly froze. I couldn’t breathe as my fork clattered to my plate loudly.

After glancing at the people behind me, their conversation having quieted further, his gaze snapped back to mine. They ran over my face, and his wide lips thinned even more so. “It’s not as bad as it sounds.” He glanced down at his food, his cheeks flushing deep red, and when he peered back at me, there was a fire in his eyes. “I didn’t fuck her.”

I sucked in a harsh lung full, the sound wheezing through my constricted lungs, not even caring that the conversation had halted behind me. I stared at his silent fury. “Will it always come back to that?” My chin had trembled the barest bit before I caught it, my heart aching so damn badly. “I can’t take it back.”

He ran a hand over his face, glanced once behind me, then literally crooked his elbow on the table and rested his forehead on his hand, half shielding his face from the others and stared down at his food. “I don’t know, Kennedy.” His tone was so quiet. So different from anything I had ever heard before from him. He sounded just as miserable as I was. “Let’s just try to make it through tonight.”

I stared a moment longer, fucking miserable as hell, and I nodded once and sat straighter on my chair, hopefully hiding him some from the uninvited behind me. “We can do that.” I lifted a hand over the table, pushing his plate toward him a bit. “Eat. We’ll watch a movie when we’re done.”

It was quiet for a few minutes at our table as we ate in silence, neither of us listening as the other four began speaking again. We just stared at our food, eating quietly. Until the discomfort began to diminish in our quiet, and we started getting seconds, both of us moving easily around each other placing the other person’s favorite on one another’s plates…a silent apology to one another for the pain we were living in. It was such a silent caring act that my heart swelled even more for him.

But I froze completely when a large, heated, strong palm landed on my shoulder from behind. I stayed utterly still as…Isaac…leaned over me, his stomach muscles clenching against the back of my head. He stared down into the open cartons in the middle of our table.

Jonathan stilled too, his gaze flying to Isaac’s hand on my shoulder, and watched as his thumb brushed under my hair to my neck, then stroked once gently in a semi-hidden gesture.

Isaac asked calmly, “Do you two have any more eggrolls? Caleb didn’t get me any.”

I made a choked noise in my throat as Jonathan’s eyes began to simmer vehemence, moving from the hand on my shoulder to Isaac’s stomach pressed against the back of my head. Jonathan’s nostrils flared, and his breakneck violent gaze slammed up to Isaac’s face, his tone deathly quiet, “Get off her.”

“Hmm?” Isaac hummed, still staring down into the containers, even lifting a few with his free hand, completely ignoring the deadly hunter staring daggers at him. His gripping hand on my shoulder swiftly released me, though, when he leaned further over the table, my chin literally pressed down to my collarbone as he reached for the sack, finding the eggrolls. He hummed happily. “Here they are.” He jiggled the bag, pressing away from my chair, away from me. “These are my favorite.” He simply walked away, the bag in his hand crinkling as he dug into it for an eggroll.

My lips were slightly parted as I blinked stupidly. The Mayor seriously shouldn’t have done that. Jonathan had told me that Gargoyles were weird about physical contact—because too many random people touched their statue form. And Isaac had just crossed over that line, showing blatantly he had them with me.

Black eyes flayed me so harshly that I was at a loss. My lips parted further, and I mumbled, “It’s not what you think.”

His gaze narrowed even further, not peering away from me, even as the room had quieted, no conversation occurring at all inside my apartment. Jonathan stayed silent for a full minute, his jaw clenching and unclenching. Until his gaze snapped from my eyes to above my head, his tone a menacing purr. “It was you.”

My fists clenched on top of the table as the crinkling of paper could be heard again.

Isaac was chewing as he merely stated, “That didn’t sound like a question to me.”

Jonathan gradually began to stand, his words a slow, deadly tick. “Isaac…was it you?”

More crunching sounded and the crinkling of paper. Isaac hummed softly. He murmured ever so gently, “That night was no one’s. It was the power that owned the night. The power that took control of everyone. If we were together then, it was neither her fault nor mine.”

I shrieked, quickly shoving my legs to the side, sitting on my chair sideways when Jonathan, in a fit of fury, lifted the table and slammed it against the wall faster than I knew him capable of. The room was silent as the plates and bottles shattered against the wall, the side of the table thumping heavily against the floor. The black wood was cracked down the bottom of it. I hugged the back of my chair, breathing heavily and staring at the wall where the remnants of our dinner remained, slowly sliding down to the floor behind the upended table in disgusting wet thumps.

Jonathan stood utterly still, his fists clenched down at his sides, every single muscle bulging in his body as he kept a tight rein on his growing fury, his eyes like lasers over my head on the Mayor, who had lowered the eggroll sack to the coffee table, his hands hanging loosely at his sides.

A fight was definitely imminent.

Yeah…that shit wasn’t happening in here.

I quickly pivoted on my chair, and stood to my feet, holding my hands out in either of their directions in the universal ‘stop’ gesture. “There will be no fighting in here.” My tone was serious, even if entirely breathless, my chest heaving. “I’m a human. Remember? I won’t be able to handle that kind of violent power this close.”

Isaac actually grinned, a wicked, sinful tilt of his lips, glancing at me. “Why do you think I haven’t unleashed it?” A black brow quirked, a head tilt at the overturned table. “Besides, if that little bit of vehemence scared you, then you’d probably scream even more like a girl than you just did, and then faint before us like a weeping willow if you really saw what we’d like to do to each other.”

Jonathan growled, even as my eyes narrowed at the Mayor. “What kind of damn game are you playing this time, Isaac?” He was standing stock still, holding himself back. “You may not have been able to stop it that fucking night, but you know she’s mine now. You know you can’t have her. You know you will push me past my point of patience if you even think about it, which would most definitely mean I would no longer sit back while certain shifters attack my people. Not to mention, Mrs. Stone would never allow her in your bed again. So what the fuck are you doing?”

Isaac’s gaze snapped from me to Jonathan, altering and glowing. He stalked forward until he was an inch away from my outstretched hand, and then he leaned forward, pressing his stomach against my palm. His stomach muscles clenched, his eyes dead set on his enemy as he hissed furiously, “Don’t think for a second that I can’t handle my mother. I’ve been doing it for far too long not to know how to handle that bitch.” His head cocked, his Gargoyle peeking out as he stared him down. “Don’t you think the more adamant question is why did Hanna send her to me in the first place? The true package she sent that night was Kennedy. To me. She knew we would spend the night together, and you know as well as I do, she knew the two of you were together. That wizard knows everything.”

Jonathan slowly leaned back from the balls of his feet. He stopped glaring, but he flicked a hand in the Mayor’s direction—even as he started stalking back and forth between the overturned table and my front door. “Quit leaning on her. I’m trying to think, and I can’t with you touching her.”

I swiftly yanked my hand back, crossing my arms, not touching Isaac’s hot stomach any longer. The situation had calmed some. My man, Jonathan, always thought with his head before his fists, this situation no different…even if the Mayor might have helped him get past his jealousy.

Isaac leaned back, away from me, his expression calming as he watched Jonathan pace. His lips twitched the barest bit when Jonathan’s back was to him, and he turned and strode easy on his bare feet back to the coffee table. He lifted the bag of quickly diminishing eggrolls and munched silently, the bag crinkling every so often as we watched Jonathan march back and forth, the muscles in his biceps bulging as he continued to stretch his fingers down by his side, then clench his hands into fists.

Absurdly for this situation, I noticed… “That’s a new sweater.”

He glanced once at me in his trek. “I got it today.”

It was black, and appeared delicately soft, stretching across his torso beautifully. “I like it.”

He snorted softly, then peered away from me on his walk. “I saw you looking at it in the store.”

My blink was gradual, comprehension dawning. “You followed me.”

An absent finger flick, his forehead creased in thought as he stared at the carpet he was wearing out. “Technically, I didn’t. I’ve had a man following you, making sure you stayed safe. He called to tell me your whereabouts, and I actually was in the area. But when I saw you were with Rachel and Jackie, I left you alone.” Another finger flick and mumbled words. “Jackie’s going through something right now.”

I hummed quietly. “Yes, she is.” My head cocked. “How long has your man been—”

“Since we started dating.”

My blink was gradual, my words quiet. “You knew.”

His lips curled the barest bit, a cruel tilt as he glanced up from under his dangling red hair. “I knew he was a shifter since it had happened at the shifter building. I didn’t know it was him.”

I stood like a stump. “Oh.” Until my eyes narrowed the barest bit. He had pretended not to know. “I’m not happy with you.”

He chuckled quietly, a quiet menace in the air. “Back at you.” He ran a hand through his hair, tugging a bit on it, and then he turned abruptly, sharply pointing at the door, his gaze scanning the other occupants. “Your eavesdropping is done. Everyone except Kennedy and Isaac leaves. Now.”

Caleb chuckled softly, picking up his trash. “I had wondered how long it would be before you asked us to leave.” With that, carting the leftovers of his dinner, he began exiting my apartment…and with a small flash of wizard magic, my table, and our dinner was completely fixed, including the wall.

I blinked, calling loudly before the door shut, “Thank you!”

Caleb glanced back. “It’s the least I can do for intruding as I did.” He shut the door behind him.

Isaac crumpled up the empty eggroll bag, nonchalantly tossing it on the coffee table, watching his actions, his tone bored. “Go home, Mike.”

His brother crossed his arms, cocking his head. His expression was blank. “You sure?”

“I am.” He brushed his hands together, wiping off crumbs. “Make a production of leaving.”

Mike hummed quietly. “All right.” He glanced once more between the three of us, scanning the situation, and then he turned into a silver vapor that curled through the air and filtered through the crack in my windowsill, gone.

My blonde brows lifted. I mumbled to no one, “I need to get that fixed.”

My apartment was silent.

I glanced back and forth between the two men now staring at each other. “No fighting.”

“There won’t be any fighting. Not right now.” Jonathan ran his hand through his red hair, his gaze still on Isaac. “How much do you think Hanna knows of the past?”

Isaac abruptly moved, stalking to lean against a wall, resting back against it and dropping his head back to stare at the ceiling. He scratched at his chin absently, his tone quiet. “She’s younger than we are, but she’s cunning with her power.”

Jonathan cracked his neck. “She knows then?”

Still quiet words. “I assume so.”

My brows were furrowed in confusion. “What are you two talking about?”

Jonathan lifted a hand in my direction, a gesture to not interrupt. “What aren’t you saying?”

Staring at the ceiling, Isaac chuckled softly, absently rapping his knuckles against the wall beside his legs. “You think you still know me that well?”

“Give me a damn break, Isaac.”

Again, the Mayor chuckled quietly. “Hanna and I met some time ago. She said many things. None of them I truly enjoyed hearing. One of them being that I needed to follow your lead.”

Jonathan stared. “And?”

“And the rest was for my own ears, no one else’s.”

“Give me a hint.”

His head dipped back down, holding Jonathan’s gaze. “It was nothing to do with this situation.”

Jonathan sighed heavily and ran his fingers through his hair once more. “What is she doing?”

“What she always does.”

A snort. “How the hell is this keeping the peace?”

“That’s not all she does.”

Quiet grunt. “That’s for damn sure.”

I cleared my throat when they paused, a bit irritated at being left out. “What past are you talking about that Hanna knows about?”

Silence was all that met me, no one moving.

Both men began to quietly glare at one another.

Jonathan’s jaw started ticking, his eyes narrowed. “She wouldn’t do this.”

Isaac grunted. “I wouldn’t put it past her.”

Red brows furrowed. “This makes no sense.”

“No. No, it doesn’t.”

It became quiet again.

Jonathan ran a hand through his hair again, glancing at me. His black eyes ran over my face unhurriedly, seeing my clear confusion. Plush lips thinned, and then he peered back to Isaac. He jerked forward on his feet, prowling straight to the Mayor, who tensed the barest bit, but didn’t sidestep him.

My jaw dropped as Jonathan leaned forward and cupped Isaac’s cheeks. And planted his mouth directly on his. Supreme shock held me utterly immobile as Jonathan tilted his head, his eyes closed. His lips brushed in gentle strokes over Isaac’s mouth. So damn gently. My eyes were enormous on my face, my jaw hanging open, as Isaac’s eyes fluttered shut…and he kissed him back, his body still tense, rock solid from the appearance of his straining muscles. But he still raised his hands and threaded his fingers roughly through Jonathan’s hair.

Their kiss deepened.

Almost like a dam breaking around them, they pressed against each other, their height the same, all their hard muscles pressing against each other.

Utter confusion swamped me as I stared, sucking in a massive lung full of air, the emotion overriding my shock. I even shook my head to clear it, but the scene was still the same in front of me. Their mouths…pressed together…caressing and stroking each other with a lot of damn hunger. I repeatedly blinked, my brows damn near touching each other.

It was when a deep moan filtered through the air—from my man—and I saw their mouths open and…tongues met…that my confusion sped away like a racecar. Jealousy and fury entered my veins like a bubbling caldron. I growled softly in my throat, my fists clenched. My feet were already moving as I raced across the room.

I grabbed Jonathan’s hair and jerked hard as hell.

His head snapped back, and he stumbled backward a few paces, grunting and grabbing his hair as I released him. I slapped his face harder than shit, my jaw clenched and cheeks flushed, and now standing between them. His head jerked to the left from my blow, and I shouted, “What the hell was that?”

My gaze snapped to the other man who was breathing heavily, his cheeks flushed.

Ah, hell. Why not?

I reared my fist back and jumped, punching him as hard as I could across his cheek.

Landing, I wobbled a step, treading on their feet, watching as Isaac grabbed his cheek as his head jerked with my blow. I pointed a finger straight at his face, turning so I fully faced him, keeping my man and him away from each other. “He is mine. Not yours. Past, present, or future. Don’t you ever fucking kiss him like that.”

In the absolute silence that filled the air, my finger still pointed in the Mayor’s face, fury was running amok inside me—a haze of possessiveness running through my veins—I felt Jonathan’s palms land on my hips from behind. I instantly lowered my own and roughly swatted his away. I turned on my heel, and started roughly shoving his chest, making him move back across the room, my voice unlike I had ever heard it before as I hissed with each shove, “Don’t. Ever. Do. That. Again.”

He grunted as his back banged against the wall.

I kept a hand on his chest where his heartbeat was thumping heavily under my palm, firmly holding him there as I tilted, my head snapping back to the Mayor, where he now stood with a carefully neutral expression, one hand in his pocket, the other scratching his chin absently. Too bad his cheeks were still flushed and his lips were even rosier than they normally were. I pointed my finger at the door, ordering him brutally, “Get the fuck out of my home.”

Hell, my breathing was louder than theirs, my chest heaving forcefully.

Brutal quiet weighed the air.

Jonathan rested his large palm gently on top of my hand on his chest. “Peanut, calm down.”

The hell with that. “Fuck you. You just kissed him.” I jerked my attention from the Mayor, glaring at my man. “We’re going to church.”

His expression instantly cracked from detachment to one of exasperation. “I am not going to church. How many times do I have to tell you this?”

My eyes narrowed to mere slits. “The fact that you think it is all right to kiss someone else in front of me is a perfect indication that you need to go.”

He merely stared. “I won’t go to church.” His palm on top of mine gently curved, holding my hand against his chest. His gaze was patient. “And he’s not leaving. The three of us need to talk.”

Instant. “No.” I jerked my hand away from his, and stepped back a few steps, but still stayed between them. “There will be no talking. I don’t give a shit that you two had a past together. You are mine now. Not his. I want him to leave.” My nose crinkled. “He is a shifter, Jonathan.”

It was quiet for a beat, and then Isaac snorted. “You sure as hell didn’t care that I was a shifter a month ago.” His plush lips curved ever so slightly, and the devil gleamed in his eyes as he stared at me. “Even when the spell ended,” he hummed quietly as my shoulders stiffened, “we didn’t stop.”

My breath caught in my chest, and I quickly slammed my gaze to Jonathan, mumbling hurriedly at his blanking expression, “We were already…” I waved my hands at each other, “…in the act.”

Isaac chuckled softly. Complete arrogance. “Now, now, Kennedy. You seem to be skirting around the truth to your advantage. I gave you the chance to stop. You didn’t take it. In fact, you kissed me if memory hasn’t failed me.”

I growled under my breath, baring my teeth at the damn Mayor. “You are a fucking asshole.” I leaned to grab my plate off the pristine table…and chucked it straight at his head. He easily ducked and danced to the side, my plate shattering against the red and black striped wallpaper lining the wall my couch rested against. I jammed my pointed finger at the door. “Quit trying to wreck us even further! You. Can’t. Have. Him. Now, get out of my home!”

The Mayor merely smiled with the barest flash of his white teeth between his lips. “You don’t technically have him either. Not when he kissed me like that.”

In that mere statement, the simple breath that it took him to say those words, all of my fury melted away. The possessiveness that I had felt was still there, but I crossed my arms as my stomach churned, falling back into the reality of the situation.

I felt cold. Alone. My bones chilled with it as misery made my shoulders slump.

He was right.

Jonathan muttered a curse and shoved off the wall. He waved a sharp, agitated hand at the Mayor, his tone just as brutal. “Cut the shit out, Isaac.” Black eyes turned to me. His features were still quiet, but his gaze may have softened a smidge, his tone gentle. “He’s playing a game with you. You don’t understand what he’s doing.”

My lips pinched. “Or maybe you don’t understand his game.” I shook my head slightly, holding my arms tighter around myself. “He came here. Stayed here. Has done everything in his power to make this happen. He wanted you to know about that night, about us together, and he sure as hell didn’t move away when you,” I choked on the words, taking a step back from him, “kissed him.”

Jonathan’s eyes didn’t leave mine, his tone still quiet. Patient. “I know, Peanut.”

My eyes narrowed. “You’re being condescending.”

He held up his hands in supplication. “I’m not. I swear.” A soft shake of his head. “You’re just missing what he’s doing.”

My eyes stayed narrowed, but I jerked them to the Mayor. “Then what are you up to?”

His own black brows were furrowed, a slightly aggravated expression. “How old are you?”

My shoulders jutted back at his tone, my chin lifting, and my tone curt. “I’m twenty-two.” I tapped my fingers on my crossed arms. “How old are you?”

“I’m thirty-five.” Isaac’s brows didn’t move, still slanted. His head cocked ever so slightly as he slowly eyed me from head to toe before his expression cleared. “And you’re a human.”

I snorted. “Really? I hadn’t figured that—”

“No,” he stated sharply, interrupting me. Once more, he scratched his chin distractedly. “Again, you misunderstand. I mean you are a human. You are not used to the games and intrigue of a shifter. It is a normal way of keeping ourselves entertained.”

And…I was beginning to feel really ignorant.

Like, massively inept.

My expression instantly blanked, and even though I kept my arms crossed protectively. I peered directly at Jonathan and forced my tone to be bored. “Explain what I am missing. Please.”

His jaw ground together. Glancing once at Isaac, who merely lifted a black brow, he then turned those black eyes back on me. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed in frustration. His voice was more than a tad bit growly. “He’s not just attracted to me, Peanut.” He inhaled and exhaled heavily. “He’s also attracted to you.”

My blink was ever so gradual. “And?”

We’d had sex. It hadn’t been bad sex.

The attraction was normal.

His chuckle was gravelly. “I believe he has it in his mind for the three of us to attempt a relationship.” Both of his red brows rose when my jaw began to slacken. “The three of us. Together.”

My widening gaze couldn’t be stopped. “Uh…” a slow blink on drying eyes, “no.” Like on autopilot, my head turned bit-by-bit to Isaac, meeting his sparkling, stunning green gaze. “No.”

Black brows gradually rose. “Why…no?”

My mouth bobbed for the barest moment, and then my cheeks betrayed me as I blushed furiously. “Isaac, I think it is you who really needs to go to church.”

Jonathan made the oddest sound in his throat, but quickly cleared it, even banging on his chest a few times with one of his fists. He turned his attention to Isaac’s studiously blank countenance, and stated evenly, “Kennedy recently took up faith. She’s been a devoted follower ever since.”

Isaac stood perfectly still…but he also made a bubbling sound. It was odd. It came from his chest I was pretty sure. He started coughing. Hard. He lifted a finger, then quickly turned and headed straight for my kitchen. The refrigerator. He pulled out a bottle of water, twisted the cap off, and proceeded to guzzle the entire contents down.

Wiping off his mouth with the back of his hand, he gently placed the empty on my counter. He gradually turned to face us, his face still as blank after his coughing fit. Sparkling green eyes met mine. “You’re full of faith, yes?”

My chin tipped up further. “I am.”

He blinked slowly. “Well…” another blink, “that is an interesting piece to this puzzle.”

“It’s not a puzzle,” I clarified. “There will be no three of us.” I dropped my arms and headed to my purse on the end table. “You know, I think I have a card in here for the church. They have a helpline you might like to call. There’s always a minister there to answer—”

“Peanut,” Jonathan stated loudly, making me stop in my tracks and peer back at him. He appeared pretty damn amused, even as Isaac reached into my fridge and grabbed a beer this time. Jonathan shook his head slightly, his red hair brushing his cheekbones. “No helpline.”

I pointed vaguely in my purse’s direction. “But the Mayor could—”

“No,” Isaac cut me off. “He’s right. No church for me. I’m far beyond redemption.”

I shook my head. “No one’s past redemption. You only need to have faith.”

He hummed quietly. “Let’s say you are correct. I still don’t want the card.”

I huffed quietly and crossed my arms again. “Okay.” He needed it, though.

Isaac took a long swig from the beer bottle, eyeing me over it. “Just for clarification’s sake, now that I know you believe in God, do you agree or disagree with homosexuality?”

I snorted, completely affronted. Righteous indignation filled me. “Just because I’m a believer doesn’t mean that I’m biased. I believe in love and faith. I don’t care if two people of the same sex are together, but I do agree that it should only be two in a relationship. Anything further is a,” I shook my head the tiniest bit, “…sin.”

Black brows rose. “And you don’t believe that sex out of wedlock is a sin?”

My mouth snapped shut. I didn’t really have an answer for that.

He chuckled quietly, his eyes even creasing with it. “So, you’re one of those people that believe some sins are worse than others?”

Eyes narrowed, I muttered, “It’s not quite like that. Plus, I’m not a saint.” I shrugged. “I merely have boundaries.”

He snorted softly. “And yet, you still screamed my name, not God’s, when I took you to heaven.” He lifted his beer in my direction, cheers to me with the gesture, a wicked grin gracing his stunning features. “Again…and again…and many more agains.”

My jaw dropped. “You are crude.” Still flustered, I quickly peered to Jonathan. “I…that…wasn’t…”

Black eyes held mine without flinching under hooded lids. “Yes?”

My teeth clicked as I slammed my mouth shut, and spoke through clenched teeth. “What happened that night has nothing to do with a threesome.” I turned a glare on Isaac. “I would appreciate it if you would quit bringing it up, too.”

He simply chuckled quietly. “Not likely…Little One.”

I blinked. “It really is time for you to go.” I lowered my arms and marched straight for the door. “I’m sure you know how to use a door the proper way.” I jerked it open and stared at him, waving my hand outside. “Please. Go.”

Both men weren’t looking at me. Instead, they wore completely neutral expressions on their faces, more blank than I had ever seen on them before. They were both gazing outside my opened doorway.

I blinked, then turned my attention slowly around.

I stared at what I saw outside. Ah…fuck.

My smile was completely forced. “Hanna, what a lovely surprise.”

The wizard I had met before lowered her fist, apparently having been ready to knock. She smiled, and it gleamed brightly. The man—Caleb back for more!—behind her simply stared over my head inside my home, a tiny smile playing on his lips. Hanna nodded her hooded head regally, a few inches taller than me, and then…yeah…stepped inside my home uninvited, her companion following in behind her.

I glared at my door. It was like the gateway to hell’s dominions.

“It’s lovely to see you too, Kennedy,” she stated cheerily and dropped her hood back. Her loose dreadlocks spilled around her shoulders, just as beautiful as I had remembered. She leaned, grabbed the edge of my front door, and gently pried it from my clenched fingers and shoved it close.

How kind. She even locked it for me.

Her attention turned to the men in my apartment, dipping her head. “Isaac. Jonathan.”

They merely stared. No love lost there.

I cleared my throat, more polite then than the other two had been. “Hello again, Caleb.”

His smile was roguish. “It seems like it was only a few minutes ago that we last met.”

“It was.” My gaze gradually drug away from his chiseled features and returned to Hanna. “As pleasant as this is, is there a reason why you dropped by?”

She had turned and was glancing between Caleb and me, then pointed a finger at my nose. “He’s off limits.”

“That’s nice.” My brows stayed raised. “And?”

“No, really.” Staring straight at me, she grabbed his balls, holding them tightly through his worn jeans. He grunted in surprise, his eyes widening, and smartly, not moving. Hanna stared at me pointedly, still manhandling his manly bits. “Off. Limits.”

I took a step back, my own eyes wide. “Okay.” I pointed where she held him, but didn’t glance there, keeping my eyes on hers. “I won’t go near…any of that.”

She huffed quietly and then released him.

Caleb appeared more than relieved, even if slightly pained.

He bounced a little in place. I didn’t ask.

Hanna’s golden eyes narrowed further, and she took a quick step between us, and then crossed her arms. She asked pointedly, “Don’t you have enough men in your life already? Perhaps you should pick one?”

“Oh, for the love of God,” I muttered, tossing my hands up in the air, “Do you know how bizarre this is?” I waved my hands all over the room, my agitation breaking through my control. “This is not how this evening was supposed to go. There have been uninvited people coming and going, hardly anyone making any damn sense, and now, I have another uninvited—powerful—wizard inside my living room acting nuts.” I wanted to bang my head against the Hell Door. I pointed harshly at the ground below, where this evening belonged. “This night is turning into shit.”

Hanna stared. “So…you don’t find Caleb attractive is what you’re saying.”

I shut my eyes. Kept them shut. Prayed that when I opened them only Jonathan would be here—as this evening was supposed to turn out. I whimpered quietly, “I even wore my best pair of underwear.” Peeking open one eye, it revealed my prayers had not been answered.

That was enough for me.

Abruptly, I pivoted, and walked around the new uninvited guests and went straight to my purse. Grabbed it. Marched straight to my door. Opened it. Glanced over my shoulder to Jonathan. “I’ll be back. Later.” I paused with an afterthought. “Behave.”

With that, I left my apartment, slamming the door closed behind me.

Late into the night, I arrived back at my apartment. My exhale was a shaky mess when I closed and locked the door behind me, seeing the oven light on over the stove, the rest of the apartment dark. But it was enough to see the black leather boots aligned against the wall beside my couch.

Jonathan had stayed. He was here.

Relief and a smidge of trepidation made my limbs jittery. Tossing my purse on the couch, I toed off my month-old tennis shoes. I walked silently over the carpet and peered into my bedroom, the door open. The two windows inside allowed the moon to shine in just enough to see.

Lucy’s head popped up from on top of my fluffy comforter, staring straight at me. I smiled and hushed her gently when she began to wiggle where she was resting next to Jonathan. He was asleep, lying on his side. His bare feet stuck out from under the covers at the bottom of the bed, a bit of black flannel pajama bottoms could be seen at his ankle while the pink and red comforter was piled around his lower section, his torso not covered. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, so all of his bronzed flesh and muscles were on display in the moonlight, his red head of hair sunk down in the monstrous pillows I adored. One of his arms was also reaching across to my side of the bed, his hand fisted in the sheet.

I knew that sleep well. I had slept like that for the entire month. Wanting him next to me.

I swiftly scooped Lucy’s tiny frame into my arms when she jumped up, wagging her furry tail. Giving her lots of love, I scratched behind her ears as I strode quietly into my bathroom. I quickly did my business, brushing my teeth and using the restroom, and then I changed into a simple pink camisole and shorts pajama set. Carrying Lucy back to bed, I smoothly climbed up and gently tugged the covers over me, placing Lucy down at our feet. She instantly rotated in a circle on the fluffy cover and flopped down, watching as I rolled against Jonathan’s arm on my side of the bed.

He grumbled unintelligibly, but a beat later, one of his eyes flew open.

I held my breath, waiting to see what he would do.

Jonathan stared. Blinked. He closed his eye and lifted his arm. His warm palm landed on the small of my back, and he yanked me roughly against him. I grunted softly and instantly wrapped my arm under his and around to his back, holding him tight, and even threw a leg over his, pressing myself against his familiar warmth and cool soap scent. Peace and relief coursed through my veins as I snuggled my head under his chin.

He grunted again, readjusted the smallest bit, wrapping me even tighter in his arms and curling his legs around mine, his voice rough and quiet from sleep. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” I whispered softly. I hesitated but kissed his heated collarbone softly. “So much.”

His muscles tightened as he hugged me close, then he tipped his head down and gently kissed the top of my head. “I am sorry about today. I know it surprised you.”

“I know.” I didn’t want to think about him kissing Isaac. I had been diligently ignoring it all night, and doing a damn fine job of it. Ever so slowly, I tilted my head back, staring up into his black eyes shimmering from the moonlight. “Thank you for staying.”

Jonathan watched me, his expression silent and void. Until his gaze softened. He tilted his head down gradually, edging closer…so close. His lips hovered over mine, his dark eyes unyielding, holding me captive as I started to pant, my breasts pressing against his chest with every inhale. His movements were unhurried as he eliminated the space between our mouths, his lips pressing against mine.

I trembled with adoration and relief—and sorrow—holding him close, my small nails dragging across the flexing muscles of his back as he pressed his wide lips more dominantly on mine. His exhale was just as shaky as mine was as we closed our eyes at the feeling of us together again. Having him gone, all of his quirks, it all missing, had damn near broken me this month.

My chin trembled as he angled his head differently.

I kissed him back with all I had to give. But his body tensed against me.

A quiet moment passed with him frozen.

He groaned deep inside his chest a beat later, then I was lying flat on my back with a lethally dominate Jonathan on top of me. His lips ate at mine hungrily even as he swiftly wiped the few tears off my temple that had shed from my closed eyes. He grunted, thrusting one hand into my hair, tilting my head roughly to deepen our embrace, our mouths opening, and our tongues gliding against the other’s, Jonathan only pulling his mouth back to mutter, “I’ve missed this so much, Peanut. So much.”

“Same here,” I whimpered softly, wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms tightly around his neck, keeping him close. “I’m so sorry.”

“I know,” he moaned, then jerked his head back the barest bit from my mouth, glancing to his right. “Lucy, get down.” Our furball just stared at us, having trekked up by our heads, her tail wagging merrily. Her butt lifted into the air and she growled quietly, playfully. Jonathan choked on a chuckle. “This is not the time.” He raised a hand from my hip and lifted her gently, and every so carefully leaned us as he placed her on the floor, patting her head. “Go play. Mommy and daddy are busy.”

“Go,” I hushed her, shooing a hand. “Go find your chew bone. I think it’s still in the kitchen.”

She just cocked her black head and stared at us with her adorable brown eyes.

“Sorry, Lucy,” Jonathan muttered, then rolled us so I was on my back again, his lips on mine with a deep moan. One of his hands cradled the back of my head, the other gliding under my top and over my stomach. His palm slid up, cupping my bare breast. He groaned as I gasped under him, pressing up into his touch and stroking my mouth over his in urgent need. “I still want to see that underwear you were talking about earlier.”

“Another day,” I mumbled, biting at his succulent bottom lip. My hands ran over his shoulders, and then down his sides, aiming for his ass. Random squeaks started from outside my room. I grinned. “She found her chew toy. She won’t bother us for a while.”

Jonathan grunted, slanting his head to start nipping down my jaw. He rolled his thumb over my pebbled nipple, and I trembled under him, a soft moan escaping my lips. Though I whined softly when he paused, frozen solid over me, turning rigid utterly and completely. His eyes narrowed before he removed his hand from my breast and swiftly pulled the hem of my camisole down.

“Sweetie?” I mumbled, yanking on his hair to try to look into his eyes. “What’s wrong?”

He cursed quietly and stared in the direction of the straight-back plush pink striped chair in the corner next to the largest window. His tone was entirely agitated. “Goddammit, Isaac.”

“What?” I asked incredulously, my attention shooting to the lone chair. “What?”

The deepest, softest chuckle echoed from thin air above the chair. Isaac’s voice rumbled, “It took you long enough.” He snickered again and just appeared, the moon bathing him where he sat on top of the back of the chair, his legs spread so his feet rested on the arms of the chair. He leaned and placed his elbows on his knees, one of his hands holding a cherry red apple that he then bit into, the crunch loud in the silence. His lips curved as he chewed, his eyes glowing dimly on us. “Jonathan, that was sloppy.”

With a hardened jaw, I swiftly pulled the comforter over Jonathan’s bare back, covering us a bit more.

Isaac’s lips twitched as he took another bite. “Little One, neither of you has anything that I haven’t seen before.” He snickered quietly, but his gaze turned serious as he tipped his head, turning his attention to Jonathan. “You haven’t ever been that sloppy before. I could have stabbed you in the back a hundred times over. Just how reckless have you become?”

“As you saw, I was a little distracted,” Jonathan ground out through his clenched teeth. His jaw ticked, his gaze furious. “How long have you been here?”

Isaac stared into Jonathan’s eyes for a long moment, still appearing none too pleased until he glanced at his apple and took another bite of it. His lips curled the smallest bit, taunting merrily, “I’ve been here since the two of you said your sweet ‘I’ve missed yous’.” He tilted his head toward my opened bedroom door, adding, “Cute pup, by the way.”

“She’s not a pup,” Jonathan griped, rolling off me but keeping the covers over me to stand beside the bed, glancing around at the floor. “Lucy’s full grown.”

Isaac stared out the doorway. “Really? That can’t be right. She’s so damn small.”

“It’s true,” Jonathan muttered, stalking to grab the overnight bag he had brought, rifling through it until he yanked out a black t-shirt. He quickly put it on. “Isaac…” He sighed heavily, pulling his t-shirt down, furious eyes glaring at the Mayor. “This is really not the way to go about your endgame. Not only are you frustrating me, but you’re royally pissing Kennedy off.” He gestured between him and me. “We needed to be alone tonight. This,” a wave at the Mayor sitting on top of my chair arrogantly eating an apple, “was not a good plan.”

I snorted, my ire almost at a boiling point as I sat up on my bed and pressed my back to my pink quilted headboard. I kept the comforter tugged up against my chest. “Isaac, get your ass out of here.” I glared. “And don’t come back.”

Another crunch of his apple was his answer, his gaze moving from Jonathan to me, holding my furious gaze. “I did tell him I’d be back tonight. And so I am.” His brows rose in a taunting nature, a shrug of his shoulder as he tossed the core of his apple into the trashcan next to the chair. He swallowed his last bite. “Plus, I can’t let you two have all the fun. Not alone anyway.” His lips curved the barest bit, and if I wasn’t mistaken, his Gargoyle peeked out.

My nostrils flared, and I barely kept from jumping out of bed to bash his head against the wall behind him. “Look, Asshole-Mayor, let’s say I went along with the most stupid idea ever, of the three of us being together. What then? To me, all I would forever think is that you were merely playing ‘house’ with me, just waiting for me to die so you could have my man all to yourself.” I lifted my brows, staring pointedly. “Why in the fuck would I want to live that kind of life?”

His head teetered back and forth. “For the record, your man kissed me first.”

“Isaac…” Jonathan growled softly in reprimand.

The Mayor waved an absent hand. “I won’t do it, but damn, she’s got a pretty active imagination.” His gaze scanned my flushed, furious face. “Perhaps she can handle the games.”

That was it.

I tossed the comforter aside, growling under my breath as I lunged.

I flew through the air right at him.

He…actually…laughed. Even as I nailed him straight against the wall, pounding with my flying fists on his chest and face. He continued chuckling as he tried to catch my arms, attempted to restrain me where I pressed against him, standing on the seat of the chair.

I, um, bit his neck. Roughly.

Past furious, I sunk my teeth into the soft flesh below his ear.

His neck muscles clenched under my bite.

The bastard groaned.

“Argh!” I shouted in extreme aggravation, and then flat out sent an uppercut straight to his jaw, watching in giddy delight as his head flew back and bashing against the wall. I didn’t stop laying into him as he grinned and continued to try to capture my arms. But I was fast. Always had been. I was pretty sure it was because of my smaller stature, not a whole lot to grab onto when I was really moving.

“Jesus,” Jonathan finally muttered, coming out of his shock.

Rapid footfalls came our way, so I sent a swift elbow to the Mayor’s cheekbone, grinning maliciously as the side of his face slammed against the wall…and that was when his Gargoyle growled. My mouth parted in surprise, a shriek falling past my lips when Isaac moved.

“Oomph,” I croaked, his shoulder ramming against my chest. We were flying through the air. My back hit the bed hard with my head bouncing and bashing back up against Isaac’s chin. “Ow!”

He grabbed my wrists roughly, slamming them down next to my head. His grip was brutal. I just knew I would have bruises as I tried to suck in oxygen after that rough blow to my chest. The tiniest bit of drying blood smeared the edge of his lip where my last blow had apparently made him bleed. His Gargoyle growled at me, his eyes glowing in mere slits glaring into my eyes. “That is enough, Little One.”

Jonathan slammed his hand down on Isaac’s shoulder, leaning over the bed and gave a hard jerk. He hissed, “You’re hurting her wrists.”

Isaac grunted, but his grip did lessen.

I flexed my hands repeatedly, and ordered breathlessly, “Get off me, Gargoyle.”

His lips curved cruelly. “Believe me, Little One. You haven’t met my Gargoyle yet.”

My lips thinned, and I glanced around him to find Jonathan’s eyes. “Get. Him. Off. Me.”

Isaac’s eyes widened as he was pummeled in the side, Jonathan leveling the Mayor onto his back, my wrists now freed. Jonathan had a forearm to Isaac’s throat where he lay over him right next to me. Even as I inhaled a large lungful of air, my chest expanding with my first full breath, Jonathan growled down at the shocked Mayor, “I don’t care if she made you bleed. If she tells you to get off her, you do it.”

Isaac blinked gradually, not moving under him. “So even though you have become slack in your vigilance, you’ve at least been practicing combat techniques.” A black brow lifted. “That was a new move.”

“Fuck you,” Jonathan muttered, pressing his forearm harder against the Mayor’s throat. “We haven’t sparred in a long damn time, so don’t pretend to know everything about my moves. And I sure as fuck haven’t become slack in my vigilance.” His lips curved the barest bit. He whispered softly, a deadly breath, “I knew you were here. I just didn’t want to stop with her. We needed our time together, and I thought you would leave.”

Isaac stared. “You’re serious.”

“I am.”

Gradually, the Mayor’s lips twitched. He winked.

Jonathan blinked, oh so slowly. “You knew that I knew.”

“Of course. You reeked of irritation. Not exactly a typical emotion during bed play.”

My jaw was gaping. I jerked to sit up and wapped both of their heads. First, my man. Then the Mayor. “More damn games?” I growled. “Are you shitting me, Jonathan?”

Jonathan shoved the Mayor’s throat once more, hissing, “Seriously, get off her next time.” He swiftly rolled and rested flat on his back, his knees bent over the edge of the bed, the same as the Mayor, both of them laying side-by-side. Black eyes found mine.

“Peanut, I thought he would leave. If I had mentioned he was here before, it would have ruined the mood.” A gentle shake of his head, and then he stared at the ceiling. Same as Isaac. “The mood is definitely fucking ruined now.” He jabbed the Mayor in his ribs with a swift elbow. “Thanks, asshole.”

Isaac grunted and lifted a hand, rubbing at his ribs. “Well…I’m not really sorry about it. Like I said, I couldn’t let you two have all the fun.”

I sighed heavily, the fight in me drowning out into exhaustion. I flopped onto my back and stared at the ceiling along with them, the Mayor’s warm side pressed against mine. I didn’t really care at the moment.

I blinked. “My breasts were showing.”

Isaac shook his head the barest bit. “The way he was angled, I couldn’t see anything.”

Jonathan chuckled softly.

The Mayor’s Gargoyle huffed softly. “Bastard.”

“Yep.”

A gentle quietness descended on my bedroom, not at all bad.

None of us moved, just lying there.

I blinked again. “What did Hanna say to you two when I left?”

“She left right after you,” the Mayor mumbled. “She didn’t say anything else.”

Jonathan muttered crossly, “What the fuck was all that about, anyway? With Caleb?”

“I have no clue,” Isaac said, sounding tired. He even yawned. “But, Kennedy, if you touch him…not a great plan.”

“Whatever,” I muttered, not about to take orders from him, my bones relaxing down into the soft comforter. I gently nudged the Mayor’s arm. “When did you leave?”

“Nothing sexual happened between Jonathan and me when you left if that’s what you’re asking,” he mumbled on another yawn. “I finished my beer. Snooped through your belongings. Then I left.”

I stared, unblinking, at the ceiling. “Jonathan…you let him go through my shit?”

“Letting him is a strong word choice,” Jonathan griped grumpily. “He put something in the water that he handed me. It knocked me out for around fifteen minutes.”

“Wonderful,” I mumbled, then jabbed the Mayor’s arm a bit harder. “You’re the bastard.”

Isaac hummed, “Yes, at times.” He wiggled a bit on my bed. “This mattress is truly one of the softest I’ve been on before. Even if it is too damn girly.”

I instantly grouched, “It’s our bed. Jonathan’s and mine. I picked out the frame. He picked out the mattress.” The decorating had been all me. “Don’t even think about falling asleep—” My brows instantly snapped together when…I heard the softest snore. “You have got to be shitting me.”

Nope. The Mayor snored ever so softly again.

Jonathan grunted. “He was exhausted. I have no clue what he did after he left earlier, but he was barely awake when he arrived here.”

Of course, my man would have known. I leaned up on an elbow, peering across the Mayor to Jonathan. I lifted my brows expectantly. “Wake him up. He needs to leave.” I knew better than to wake a Gargoyle.

Jonathan’s own eyes appeared as blurry as mine probably were. “Really? Can’t we just shove him on the ground?” Tired brows lifted. “This day has been…trying.”

My blink was sluggish. “I don’t want him staying here.” The adrenaline was long gone from my body. I was crashing fast. “And he snores.”

Jonathan yawned so large that I saw his tonsils. “It’s not that bad.” Another yawn, mumbling through it, “And he doesn’t snore all the time.”

Ah, yes, he would know that as well.

So did I.

“I know that,” I griped, my head literally bobbing as I tried to keep my eyes open. “I really didn’t need that reminder. For you. Or me.”

Jonathan’s eyes shut, mumbling on a barely coherent whisper, “Sorry, Peanut.”

My limbs went to complete mush as the last of the adrenaline exited my body, and my head and half my body thumped down on the Mayor’s chest. “We need to move…him.” My eyelids wouldn’t open back up, and I yawned grandly, barely able to shove myself off Isaac. I was still resting against his side, unable to move any further. “In just a few minutes…I’ll move…hate…Gargoyles.”

A zapping sensation running up and down my spine woke me.

It wasn’t strong or intimidating, but it definitely didn’t feel normal.

My eyes opened into my dark bedroom, the moon having shifted greatly, the glowing clock on my nightstand saying it was just after six a.m. I blinked slowly, wiping the grit from my eyes, and rolled into Jonathan, patting his bare chest as I snuggled under his chin. “Sweetie, what is that?”

He merely grunted softly, wrapping his arm around me and rested one of his hands on my ass.

I hummed quietly, pressing against him further, my eyes closing. Until another whisper of oddness in the air made my brows pucker, waking me again. I patted his chest more firmly, bumping his chin on the top of my head. “Sweetie. What is that? It doesn’t feel right.”

He groaned grumpily, hoarsely, but I felt his head lift. His chest expanded greatly, making my head move back and forth. Then…Isaac…the man I was apparently snuggled up against…rested his head back down, grumbling, “I don’t sense anything wrong.”

The bed wobbled under me as I froze completely. Jonathan’s redhead tipped up on the other side of the Mayor. Then the bed shook again as he thumped back down. Half asleep, he groaned, “Everything feels normal to me.”

My teeth clenched. “Everything is not normal. I am lying against fucking Isaac, who I thought was you. He is in our bed. And his hand is still on my ass.” Lucy growled down by my feet, as if in agreement. “How the hell did we end up like this?” We were laying the right way in bed, our heads on my lovely pillows with my comforter over the three of us.

“I moved us,” Isaac mumbled on a yawn, politely—right—moving his warm palm from my ass to the small of my back. “I woke and you were both passed out.”

I pinched his chest, twisting his skin good, as my head tilted back to stare up at him. “What part of ‘this isn’t going to happen’ don’t you understand?”

Isaac merely flexed his pec where I was pinching. He whispered quietly against my temple, only loud enough for me to hear, “Technically, I’ve never said I wanted it. You are very blind to your man’s wants.” He jerked his shoulder, making my fingers fall away from his chest. His deep timber rose in demand. “Now, be quiet and go back to sleep. I mean really, Little One, we are only sleeping. There is no harm in that.”

My lips pinched, and I wiggled out of his hold. “There is harm in you sleeping with us. Between us.” I rolled out of bed, stretching, and grumbling in irritation, “I have to pee. When I come back, I want you out of this bed.”

“Not going to happen,” he mumbled tiredly, but he rolled, swiftly maneuvering over Jonathan’ body, and then shoved him—Jonathan grumbled a curse in his tired state—into the middle. He climbed back under the covers. “There. I’m not between you two any longer.”

I stared. “That’s not any better. I don’t want you next to him.” I growled quietly, a little more than confused by his whispered words, and then marched to the bathroom. “Just sleep on the damn floor if you’re not leaving.” It was too early to argue any further with the Gargoyle.

The Mayor chuckled quietly, pulling the blanket up over his shoulder. “Yeah…no.”

“Yeah…fuck you,” I hissed, not closing the door all the way.

Jonathan snickered quietly. “You’re really irritating her.”

“I know,” Isaac grumbled, and it sounded like he yawned. “Shut up. I’m beat.”

Jonathan grunted.

I didn’t hear anything else, so I started peeing.

Jonathan grumbled dryly, “Really, Peanut? You’re not even going to shut the door?”

“No,” I muttered loudly, grabbing some toilet paper. “Not with him in bed next to you.”

Done doing my business, I walked back out into the room. But I stopped in my tracks as I felt another prickling of unease, a wave in the air…unnatural…warm. It felt like it was coming from outside, like a breeze wafting through the windows, though they were shut. My brows furrowed as I crossed my arms, waking further, my tone confused as hell. “What is that?”

I crept to the windows, ignoring how both men were now watching me curiously in the dark. I pushed a curtain aside and peeked through the blinds, glancing everywhere my view afforded.

Jonathan leaned up on one arm and rubbed his right hand over his face. “What are you talking about?”

“The air doesn’t feel right,” I grouched, knowing it sounded stupid. Though that was what I felt. “It’s like…well, it kind of feels like that power from a month ago, but it’s different. It’s not sexual in nature or even light. It feels dark…and warm.” I shook my head, taking my hands from the blinds, glancing back at them.

Both were now sitting up in bed, their eyes alert. Isaac’s were even glowing brightly now, his power sifting through the air gently.

“It doesn’t feel right.”

Both stared at me.

“I’m not crazy,” I grumbled, shivering and rubbing my arms. “I’m telling the truth. It’s in the air.”

They instantly rolled out of bed.

Jonathan marched to the wall with the light switch, flicking it on, his tone deadly, “Humans felt it first.”

“They did. It affected them more, too,” Isaac grumbled, glancing around the floor. “Where the fuck did I put my shirt? I wadded it around my cell phone in case it rang.”

I pointed a finger to the chair where a white t-shirt was thrown. “That might be it.” I blinked sluggishly and then grabbed at my camisole, tugging it away from my skin. “Oh, God.”

Isaac grabbed my elbow when I started listing to the side, his brows furrowed.

Jonathan marched straight to me, cupping my cheeks even as the Mayor kept a firm grip on me. “What’s wrong? I still can’t feel it.”

“I’m hot,” I muttered, shaking my head past it. “It’s like an instant fever.”

“We should be able to feel it by now if it’s affecting her this greatly,” Isaac murmured, his forehead crinkled. “Maybe she’s just…ill? Humans do get sick.”

“No, it’s not right,” I argued, knocking away Jonathan’s hot palms on my cheeks so I could fan my face with my free hand. “This is wrong.”

Jonathan rubbed a hand over his face, staring at me closely. “She believes what she’s saying. She’s scared.” He started marching to his overnight bag. “Set her on the bed. We need to call our people.”

All three of us froze…when screams sounded. One after another. The sound extremely quiet at first, as if it were far away, like a slow moving train headed in our direction. More and more of them erupted. Becoming louder. Almost as one, the ugliest noise I had ever heard in my life.

Isaac gripped me more tightly as I started to tremble where I stood, the heat becoming more intense inside me. He flat out ripped the blinds off the windows, the screams coming from outside to the left. All three of us turned to stare out the glass barrier.

What was there…made no sense.

“What the hell is that?” I panted as I began to sweat.

“Jesus Christ,” Jonathan hissed. “I can’t even feel that.”

“Me either,” Isaac murmured, both of them unmoving.

“What is that?” I damn near shouted, staring at what appeared to be some type of black fog pouring out from the sky down on the city. Wherever it landed, you couldn’t see past it. It was just black, the dawn of the morning not even seen through it.

“It’s trouble,” Jonathan murmured, racing back to his bag and grabbing his cell phone and dialing on it. “We need to get the hell out of here.”

Isaac shoved me against the wall, holding me there with one hand as I jerked in pain as the heat beginning to radiate inside me. Using one hand, he found his cell phone in his shirt, and quickly tapped the screen a few times, and placed it to his ear. He talked harshly to his family, ordering them to his house for shelter.

Jonathan hung up first. His forehead crinkled. “Thomas Rickman said everyone is seeing the cloud but that it’s not affecting everyone.” The Chief of Police in Woodland Creek. “He wouldn’t lie about it.”

Isaac abruptly ended his call, his glowing green eyes looking outside. “My family reported the same. It’s only hurting shifters.” His gaze flicked down to me inside his hold. “Very interesting, yes?”

I heaved oxygen into my lungs. “I’m not a shifter.”

Isaac’s lips twitched. “No shit.” But his regard casually altered to Jonathan. A black brow lifted. “But don’t you think you should still check on your girlfriend?” His lips lifted into the cruelest smile. “You know the one you mentioned to Kennedy yesterday. The one you claimed to have only gone on two dates with, the one you claim to not have been intimate with.”

Jonathan’s head whipped back as if he had been struck. He stared.

The Mayor chuckled quietly, a menacing purr. “It’s pretty damn pathetic really.”

Jonathan’s mouth opened. Closed.

He didn’t look anywhere near me as my heart seized inside my chest.

Isaac kept a firm grip on my sweating and trembling frame as he tilted toward Jonathan, his eyes glowing on his face. His Gargoyle growled softly. “I will never sleep with you again, no matter how many times you try to slither back into my bed. You were shit then, and you’re shit now.” A Gargoyle’s hiss. “I know what I want and it sure as hell isn’t a threesome with you. I let you lead yourself down your own path to destruction.” A wink as he held me closer. “When you play with a shifter, don’t expect to win. I hold the real prize in my arms now.”

My eyes never left Jonathan. “Is this true?” I shuddered as heat raced down my back, the wicked power coming closer. “Did you use me yesterday to get to him?” I blinked, my voice rising. “Do you have a fucking girlfriend?”

Isaac bared his teeth, his eyes never leaving my ex. “Get out before I lose all respect for you.” He paused. “Or you can stay right there and I’ll kill you now. Your choice.”

Jonathan’s black eyes, always so tender, narrowed to death slits. His fists clenched as he glowered at the Mayor. “You knew the whole time.”

A quiet purr of the damned. “I always do where you’re concerned.” He tilted his head at the bedroom door. “Like I said, grab your shit, and run before I let my Gargoyle out to play.”

“Jonathan!” I shouted, grinding my teeth together. I gripped Isaac’s shirt hard in my fisted hands against his chest. I shook my head hard. “Please tell me he’s lying…”

Jonathan finally glanced at me, his gaze hard set on mine. He rolled his shoulders once. Popped his neck. Eventually, he shrugged a shoulder. “It is what it is.”

My eyes widened enormously, my shriek hoarse against the magical pain making my legs weak. “But you’re a goddamn hunter! How the fuck—”

“Even hunters fall for their mark,” he cut me off, growling under his breath. His dark eyes flittered back to Isaac. His tone calmed, even as my fury escalated. “Let’s talk about this…”

“Not a chance in hell,” Isaac hissed. His tan skin began to alter to intense silver. “Get. Out.”

Jonathan only stood there, not looking away from the Mayor.

His eyes held…love for the man holding me.

And none of it was aimed my way.

I had been used. A pawn to his wants.

My nostrils flared and I bellowed, “Get the fuck out of my home!”

Jonathan jerked at the sound of my voice. He blinked, coming back to himself.

“You heard the lady,” Isaac stated. He rubbed his palms up and down my back. “You’re not wanted here.”

Jonathan’s jaw clenched as he picked up his overnight bag, slinging the strap over his shoulder. His dark eyes found Isaac. “If I leave now, without you, I won’t come back.”

Isaac damn near rolled his glowing eyes. “I can only pray that’s true.”

My ex grabbed Lucy from the bottom of the bed, turning glaring eyes on me. “I’m taking the damn dog with me. She’s mine.”

I stared, trying not to let any tears fall in wrath. Though my voice was quiet. “A little dog for a little man.”

Isaac chuckled softly, a menacing grin etching his lips. “Goodbye now.”

Jonathan stared at him for all of a beat longer before he turned and marched from my bedroom. He stated over his shoulder, “I’m serious, Isaac.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” he answered easily.

My shoulders jerked as the front door to my home slammed shut.

Isaac waited a moment, not peering down at me, giving me the only privacy I could have right now. His words were gentle. “You deserved to know.”

I wiped away an errant tear, my jaw setting. “I know. Thank you. Even if you could have left all this game shit aside.” I did glare up at him, though, my words labored. “Think you can take me to safety now? I can hardly breathe.”

His lips twitched, his green eyes flicking down into mine. “Oh, Little One, I can definitely make you safe.”

I stared. There was more than a little sensuality lacing his tone. “Safety first, Gargoyle. As in, get me the hell out of here.”

I was tossed over Isaac’s shoulder as he raced out of my bedroom. I shook my head, even as tears began to track down my cheeks, wanting to maul my flesh off it felt so hot. “My bag! I need my bag under my bed!”

“Is it worth your life?” he asked incredulously, halting in place.

My lips pinched. I whispered the truth. “It’s worth everyone’s lives.”

He breathed heavily and then probed curiously, “Truly?”

“Yes, dammit!”

Isaac cursed, and then dashed back into my bedroom. He tossed me on my bed and bent down, peering underneath it.

“Wrong side,” I hissed, writhing in agony.

“I can see that,” he grouched. He leapt right over the bed and me, landing fluidly. The Mayor went to his knees, his head disappearing from my view. His words were muffled under my bed. “I had wondered what this bag was. I didn’t have time to search yesterday, though.”

“Just grab it!” I shouted.

He popped up and stood straight, lifting the strap of my red bag over his head to crisscross it over his body. I was back over his shoulder in a mere blink. Isaac hauled ass from my room again and threw the front door open to my apartment. Shifters were out in the hallway on their hands and knees shouting in pain. His feet stopped moving as he scanned the individuals. “That’s interesting.”

“You’re more powerful than they are. You know it,” I panted. I pounded on his back. “Get going!”

“Still interesting, though. You’re handling it much better than they are, too.”

I choked, sucking in oxygen. “It feels like my flesh in on fire. Go!”

“This is going to be a hell of a mess to explain to the press,” he growled under his breath. His Gargoyle snarled quietly. He looked left and right. “We just need to get outside.”

“Thank you,” I mumbled, my lids fluttering open and shut. “I may pass out soon.”

The Mayor hurdled over people on the floor, my stomach rising and falling to slam down on his shoulder. “I can fly us out of here.”

“Head for the stairs. The elevator is bound to be taken up right now,” I ordered. “We’ll have to go to the street. The only access to the roof in this building is a fire escape on the back end, and we don’t have time for that.” I grabbed my head…and screamed. The pain fluxed, my skin literally beginning to redden like a sunburn.

Isaac literally shoved the wailing shifters to the side, even stepping on them in the stairwell as they raced down the flights of stairs. When he bustled out of the front of my building. The streets were in pure pandemonium. Shifters raced down the streets, screaming, all fleeing the black fog that was only three blocks away now. My eyes widened at the sight as we were jostled from side-to-side in the stampede of people.

Isaac started tossing people left and right, fighting to get to the middle of the street. “Just hold on to me, Little One. I’ll get us out of here.”

I shrieked as we suddenly rose into the air at a sickening pace, the warm body under me suddenly silver and hard as stone. I watched with enormous eyes as his clothing fell to the street littered with shifters below us. My body rejected the motion, but I moved my arms and grabbed onto the strap of my red bag for fear of losing it. But it slowly dawned on me that Isaac had positioned it perfectly so that his wings could still carry us away without being hindered by the strap.

The black fog was only a block away. I was on the back of a Gargoyle. And I wanted it. My life had drastically changed. I hissed, “Fucking fly!”

I grunted as the Gargoyle dipped, air fluttering my hair against my cheeks, and then all of the oxygen rushed from my lungs as he flew hard. His wings beat the air forcefully, my body pressed down against his stone-hard frame with the force.

“We’ll be all right. Just don’t slip off me.” Isaac’s voice was rough—deeper and scarier than I had ever heard before. His solid arms tightened around my legs. “Got it?”

I wasn’t going anywhere, even if he thought I was. Though this was the ride from hell, like a nightmare roller coaster. With every flap of the Gargoyle’s wings, we would fly up...then down. My body lifting the barest bit off his solid frame before I would bash back down onto his flexing shoulder. And there was no cushion, each flap of his wings making my stomach smash into his body, knocking my breath out of me. And the rushing wind against us didn’t block the sounds of chaos and pain beneath us.

Higher…we flew higher.

I blinked as we turned, the sun seen only the barest bit before, now becoming more bright.

“We don’t have time for your curiosity,” I bellowed at the top of my lungs. “You need to fucking fly.”

He grunted, his voice garbled, rough timbered. “Are you still in pain?”

I paused. I wiggled my shoulders and glanced at my arms, now normal colored. “Um…no.”

“Then we have time.” Another grunt. “We’re far enough away from the magic now.”

“What about your family? Are you sure they’re fine?” My eyes widened as the Gargoyle turned again. The ride truly became a nightmare. His wings flapped in hard thrusts, the ups and downs horrific, and the air inside me crushed out of my body for longer periods of time. And then…there were the Gargoyle roars. Constant. Almost a warning of sorts. I was pretty sure I saw silver vapors at one point, but it was too hard to tell with the wind now drying my eyes out completely.

Our descent, when it came, wasn’t as dreadful as I thought it was going to be. It was a smooth glide, instead of a nosedive. The sun disappeared when we glided through trees; nothing else was seen but leaves for a few moments, then the dawning sun was muted through the overhanging limbs.

I grunted, a short shriek actually passing my lips when my body jarred as we landed.

Okay, not so smooth.

Isaac’s arms were wrapped around me protectively as he laid me on the softest grass, ducking his Gargoyle head down when I continued to hold onto the strap of my bag. It slipped over his left wing and his head, the red bag thumping down beside me. I lay sucking oxygen on the gentle ground, staring up at him as he shifted back into human form. Then he was standing over me, in all his muscled, naked glory.

I started sucking in large gulps of air for a whole different reason.

The shifter was simply…gorgeous. My libido kicked into high gear.

Isaac’s stunning green eyes scanned me from head to toe, peering for any lingering injuries though he paused, inhaling deeply. His gaze stalled on my crotch. His jaw clenched and a simple black, arrogant brow lifted. The Mayor knew exactly what I was doing. He probably even knew I was getting wet down under.

I didn’t even care.

That was a whole lot of man flesh to ogle.

Mmm.

There was a delicate throat that cleared to our right, a soft feminine sound.

Our gazes swiftly jerked in that direction.

All three of Isaac’s siblings stood side-by-side. They were in their pajamas.

In front of Isaac’s ‘quaint’ mansion.

I was on his property.

His house itself was heinously frightening in old architecture, the top spiraling points. It was a location I would never have stepped onto before.

Mandy’s eyes were enormous on her face as she took in the two of us. Her brother, with only a pair of holey jeans on, his chest bare. Me, in my pink camisole shorts set. Not to mention…the current time of day it didn’t help matters to be dressed as we were. Mandy’s lips pinched, and she mumbled, “Brother?”

“Not right now, Mandy,” he growled. He jerked his gaze away from them and then peered back down at me. His Gargoyle huffed quietly, then his eyes flared the smallest bit and his lips puckered. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine,” I muttered, standing and brushing dirt off my legs. “I’ll have bruises on my stomach from that ride, but nothing’s broken.” I cracked my back and stretched. “Really. I’m good.”

Isaac scowled a moment at me but swiftly glanced up to his family. “What’s the news?”

With his gaze traveling between the two of us, Mike spoke quietly, “The magic stopped.” He pointed up to the brightening sky. “As soon as you two flew through Hanna’s spell protecting your home…it disappeared.”

My stomach rolled, and I barely kept from heaving at the reality. “It’s as I feared.”

Isaac’s attention snapped to me. “Explain.”

I pointed at myself. “It was coming after me.”

Black brows lifted. “You’re saying all of that was an attack? Focused on you?”

I sucked in a quick breath, hooding my gaze. “It was as if the night was attacking the day.” My voice was rough. “Don’t look at me like I’m crazy. I know what I’m saying.”

He stared for a long moment. His gaze flicked down to the bag I clutched in my right hand. The Mayor hummed quietly. “Perhaps you do.” His lips twitched, and he shook his head. He peered up at the sky and lifted his fists to it, shaking them. He shouted to the heavens in amusement—and anger, “This is what you give me? The woman full of faith is a goddamn human!”

Finn ran his fingers through his hair, not even commenting on his brother’s outburst. “This is going to cause a hell of a backlash. Our town is not in a state to have this type of turmoil occur so close after the incident.”

Woodland Creek residents were going to freak the fuck out, in other words.

His gaze still on the clouds, and still naked as can be, Isaac grumbled, “Where’s Mother?”

Mike hummed. “Inside. I believe she’s making pancakes.”

Isaac snorted, finally peering back down. “Her normal for high-stress situations.”

Mike spread his hands far apart. “There are a lot of them.”

Isaac rubbed his belly. “I might as well eat before I have to go back into town and handle this shit with the Chief of Police.” He snorted softly. “That man has to know what the hell is up with all the problems we have here.”

My lips twitched. “He’s not stupid.”

Isaac pointed a sharp finger at me. “And you’re staying here today under the protection of my home.” A finger flick at his siblings. “Mandy and Mike will watch over you here.”

Shit.

I wasn’t ashamed to admit I hid in Isaac’s bedroom all day long. With one mere glance from Mrs. Stone at the breakfast table, her predator peeking out of her gaze, as she evaluated Isaac’s and my attire, I had been properly frightened. Mandy and Mike hadn’t needed to watch over me, just knowing they were downstairs in Isaac’s—freaking huge ass—home was enough to scare me.

As night began to fall, the door eventually creaked open. I peered over the edge of the black, ancient book I was reading—for the hundredth time since receiving it on the night my eyes were opened forever. I hadn’t forgotten the wizard’s words either. All of them. My silent regard ran over the shifter entering the room quietly, his green eyes tired, and his black hair disheveled from a rough day of work.

He loosened the tie around his throat, watching me as he removed it. He tossed the blue silk tie onto his bed and unbuttoned the top button of his dress shirt. A black brow lifted on his tan face. “Evening reading?”

I closed the book calmly. “Something like that.” I placed it back into my red bag next to the chair I was sitting on and zipped it. “How did it go today?”

He eyed the bag quietly. “You’re really not going to tell me what that is?” A quiet grunt. “It smells of wizard magic.”

“Then you probably shouldn’t try to touch it unless I let you.” I shrugged a shoulder. “You know how wizards are with their belongings.”

“Yes, I do. Which is why I find it curious that you have it.”

I was honest. “A dying wizard gifted it to me.”

His head cocked, his green eyes evaluating my blue gaze. “Did this wizard gift you with anything else?”

“Yes.” I sat back on the chair and lifted my legs up on the cushion, hugging them close to my chest. With the knowledge I had…I needed to continue to be honest. See where this went. With a shifter of all people. “He put a spell on me. It allows me to see who is wizard, shifter, or human.”

He stared.

“What? No commentary?”

Isaac cracked his neck. Shrugged. “I’ve seen many things in this town. But a wizard giving his worldly possessions to a human is a new one.”

I cleared my throat. And my cheeks pinked. I peered to the side, away from him. “He mentioned a few other things, too.”

There was an extended silence.

Abruptly, Isaac chuckled softly. “Hanna mentioned a few things to me too, none of which I would have expected to come true. There were also a few key details she failed to mention.” My attention turned back to him. He flicked a finger at me and changed the subject. “I see you raided my closet.”

I picked at the sweatpants I wore—and one of his t-shirts. “I didn’t have any clothes here.” And I wasn’t about to ask Mandy for anything. Speaking of which, my eyes lifted to his. “I can’t believe you left me here alone with your family.”

Isaac actually grinned. “Caleb took care of that issue.” He rolled a finger. “Remember? You’re under his protection, not merely mine.”

My jaw gaped. “Oh.”

He nodded his head. “There are a few wizards who my family completely respects. He is one of them. They won’t harm you.”

My brows puckered. “And Hanna?”

“She’s like a sister to my mother. They are very close.”

“So I’m safe?”

“You are.”

I picked at his sweatpants again, watching as he moved across the room in my direction. “You never said how your day went.”

He shrugged a shoulder and bent at the waist, placing his hands on the arms of my chair. The Mayor leaned over my body, peering down at me, bringing a scent of cool air and soft musk with him. His gaze ran over me from head to toe while he spoke absently, “Today required a spell. It was a disaster out there. Nothing would erase it from their memories except magic.”

I hummed gently, holding his gaze.

His green eyes halted on my lips. “Are you still heartbroken over that asshole?”

My forehead crinkled, my voice breathless from the heat penetrating off his body. “I’d rather not talk about him.”

“Hmm.” His head cocked. “Want to tell me everything the wizard said to you?”

“Want to tell me everything Hanna said to you?”

He snickered quietly. “Fair enough.” His nostrils flared and a shit-eating grin graced his features. “But I think you like me.”

Instant. “You are an insufferable asshole who relishes the power his position affords him.”

“You still like me.” Again, he inhaled deeply. “More than a little.”

I glared. He could scent my arousal for him. “Now, that’s not fair.” I lifted a hand and pinched his nose, holding his nostrils together. “Quit sniffing me.”

Isaac grinned and brushed my hand away easily. “But I like the scent.”

I snorted. “Freaking shifter.”

“Freaking human.”

I shouted in surprise when he lifted me straight from the chair.

His breath heated my ear. “Afraid to dance with me, human?” Tipping his head back, he grinned impishly and damn if my gaze didn’t snag on his mouth.

Stayed there, too. I cleared my throat. “What about Carla? Are you still dating her?”

“Not since I was with you.”

I blinked. “Oh.”

“And I could use a dance partner tonight. Want to sign up?”

I bit my lower lip, my attention still holding steady on his plump lips.

“I need a yes, Little One.”

It came out a small pant. “Yes.”

He hummed quietly and walked with me in his arms to his door. He released me to swiftly shut it. The Mayor flipped the lock, no one coming in or out. My back was slammed against it an instant later, his hands on my hips lifting me as I wrapped my arms around his neck, and our mouths meeting. Instantaneously, we groaned at the same time. My lips sank into the plushest mouth I had ever tasted, our lips caressing in hungry strokes against one another’s. My hands deep in his hair, holding tight, I tilted my head, parting my lips, our tongues meeting in greedy glides, as he pressed against me even harder.

Lowering my hands, I quickly unbuttoned his shirt and yanked it over his shoulders, divesting him of the cloth and revealing all of his spectacular flesh. My hands were rubbing over his heated skin, feeling him everywhere I could. I stared when his skin turned to silver at my touch, but it didn’t stop me.

The fucking man looked hot as hell silver.

Gripping my hips tighter, he lifted me higher against him, his groan heavy when I swiftly started unbuckling his belt, feeling him hard and heavy under his black, flat-fronted pants.

We fell heavily onto his bed, rolling again and again, as we each yanked one another’s clothes off, in a mad dash of desire to press our naked flesh against one another’s.

“You’re going to jump my bones,” he whispered teasingly, a small smile playing on his lips pressed against mine. One of his palms kneaded my swollen breast while the other continued to yank at the strings on my tennis shoes, the damn things being stubborn.

“And you’re going to jump my bones. What does that say about you?”

“Same as does for you.” He glanced down at my shoe, muttering, “What the fuck is wrong with this thing?”

“Just break it,” I moaned, my right hand lowering to his ramrod, massive cock. I gripped him tight and pumped him as furiously as my need. He broke the shoelace. My tennis shoe went flying across the room, his fierce gaze hungry on mine as silver light began to shimmer around us. His lips curved when I paused, glancing at it in alarm, my heart rate skyrocketing even higher than it already was. “It’s normal. It’s just my power.”

“That didn’t happen before.”

“You said no freaky shit then. I was controlling it.”

My brows rose, my tone dry and breathless when his head dipped, his lush lips landing on my neck. “Must happen a lot.”

He chuckled softly against my flesh. “It does happen occasionally.”

“Occasionally, my ass,” I grumbled. He was a hot commodity for any person in Woodland Creek. And he was mine for the evening…and I truly didn’t give a fuck at the moment that he was a shifter. I slid my hand up and down the silky soft skin of his cock again, no way for my fingers to touch around him.

He began thrusting into my gripping hand, his own palm sliding to my ass, gripping it tight. “Your ass is fine as hell, Little One.” Nibbling in heated bites down my neck, his gaze caught on my breasts. “Same here.”

I gasped, groaning heavily as he latched onto one of my pebbled nipples, sucking hard, even as he shoved my legs apart, one of his hands landing between my thighs. His fingers slid between my slick folds, torturing me as he played teasingly with my clit.

It became another race of pleasure when I knocked his hand away and rolled us so I could straddle him. I placed his cock at my entrance. His warm palms slid over my thighs to grab my hips, bending his legs to start pressing up as I pressed down, my head flying back at the feel of him entering me.

“Shit, you’re tight,” he said between gritted teeth. “Christ, you feel . . . fucking damn!” He groaned as I quickened my pace, wanting him all the way inside me, needing to get there, riding his cock. His lips parted as he stared at my swaying breasts. “Dry spell?”

“Fucking torture. It’s been a month without anyone in my bed,” I moaned, grabbing onto his hard pecs and shoving myself down onto his cock, imbedding him fully. My cry of pleasure mingled with his deep booming shout. Panting, I swiftly lifted my hips, arching my body back for maximum penetration while holding onto his knees and riding his cock like I fucking wanted to, hard and fierce. His groan was loud as he held my hips in place and pumped furiously, meeting each one of my actions, the silver light around us whipping faster.

His cock glided in and out me furiously as I rode him hard. I shouted in pleasure, then surprise when he rolled us fluidly, grabbing under one of my legs as his lips landed on mine. Isaac started pounding into me, the sounds of our skin slapping only drowned out by our groans as our lips and tongues caressed each other’s feverishly, our breaths being shared like our bodies connecting. The feel of him deep inside me was utter bliss, a release of pent-up desired pleasure, neither of us releasing each other as our hips continued to meet, our bodies long past glistening with sweat. Driving in and out of me, he bit my bottom lip, groaning heavily.

Our pace unrelenting, I ran my hands over him, feeling every part of his beautifully sculpted body I could reach. My eyes flew open sharply when he started bumping my cervix harder, the pinch of pain utterly perfect, the head of his cock rubbing against the place deep inside me. His glowing green gaze on mine, he chuckled softly at my expression, only quickening his pace unbelievably faster, making me grin when his own breath caught, his body shuddering with pleasure.

Holding onto his back, my fingernails digging in, I trembled fiercely under him. A quiet whimper exited my lips as he thrust brutally into me, over and over, my body bowing. I shouted, “Isaac!”

I went over the edge, my mind racing in heated sparkles of showered carnal bliss. I held onto him tight as my channel gripped him brutally, shuddering under him hard as the pleasure racked my frame.

He cursed gutturally, slamming himself deep inside me as his head dipped against my neck, his bellowed groan of pleasure muffled against my hair, “Kennedy!” His arms were wrapped around my shoulders tight, his body holding me down as he shook hard. My breath caught as his wings shot out from his back, hovering over us, as his cock pumped deep inside me, his come scalding me furiously with each jerk. His power exploded around us, the silver light expanding like a shimmering bubble popping.

My mind fogged in pleasure, I swallowed heavily as my arms went limp over him, sliding down to his ass, my body pliant and relaxed. With his hot pants against my neck, his heartbeat heavy against my chest, he rumbled, “That took the edge off.”

My chuckle was breathless. “Ready for more?”

“Hell yes.” His wings snapped back down, disappearing from sight. He tipped his head up, his dilated gaze hard set on mine. “Hanna may have been right.”

My lips twitched. “I’m still not telling you what the wizard told me.”

He grinned, his cheeks flushed from primal exertion. “I didn’t ask.”

“Yes, you did.” I ran my finger over the bridge of his nose, over the adorable freckles there. “I’m catching on to your games.”

He winked before his lips found mine again.

I slipped into his sweatpants in the late hours that night and found the shirt I had been wearing before across the room. I tugged it on over my head, then grabbed my shoes from the floor, not bothering to put them on, watching as Isaac pulled on his own pants, his eyes on me, the same as I was doing to him.

Casually, his brows rose. “Are you going to hide in my room tomorrow?”

My lips twitched, even as I saw my panties on the ground. I grabbed them up and tossed them in my red bag. “If you say they won’t harm me, then I’ll trust you. But if your mom gets me cornered in a room, don’t expect me not to bust through a window to get away from her.”

He scratched his shoulder absently and then dipped to grab his socks on the ground, sitting on his shambolic bed. He crinkled his nose at the socks and tossed them over his shoulder. “That might complicate matters.”

I laughed, grabbing my stomach with it. “It probably would.”

His gaze was lit with amusement. “Just don’t leave my property. Hanna’s spell here keeps everyone safe from attacking magic.”

Holding my shoes in one hand, I ran a hand through my tangled hair, trying to work it out to a semblance of order. “I won’t.” I pointed at my stomach. “I’m hungry. Hurry up.”

“You can go down without me.”

“Yeah…I think I’ll wait for you.”

He rose from the bed, only his dress slacks on, the rest of his body bare to my gaze.

I quickly pivoted and glanced down to the shoes in my hand. I tossed them aside, the shoelace broken and opened his door. His heat warmed my back as we walked down the stairs. I swallowed heavily as we entered the kitchen…Finn and Mandy inside.

Both peered up from the midnight snack they were devouring.

Isaac placed the palm of his hand on the small of my back, gently pushing me into the room further. He asked, “Is that what Mom made for dinner?”

Finn’s gaze raked down my disheveled frame. He snickered quietly before his gaze returned to his brother. “Mom cooked three meals tonight. She was a little stressed.” A pointed stare. “These walls aren’t soundproof, bro.”

My cheeks warmed in humiliation.

“Is she in bed now?” Isaac hummed, keeping me close by his side. He peered into his fridge. “She didn’t go home, did she? It’s not safe out there.”

“I’m right here,” Mrs. Stone murmured from the entrance of the kitchen.

My wide gaze snapped in her direction.

I instantly pressed hard against Isaac’s side.

Momma’s skin…it was silver.

I didn’t think it was because she liked me either.

Isaac didn’t even glance away from the goods inside the refrigerator. “Mom, quit scaring my guest.”

She shoved off the doorway, her skin turning back to her normal lily white. “Our guests don’t tend to scream like that all night long.” She paused, and tapped her lips with a pointed finger. “Well, not in the bedrooms anyway.”

My blush was never going to go away.

Mandy snickered from the table. “Neither does Isaac. Normally.”

Isaac’s gaze snapped back and forth between the two of them. “Cut the shit.” His green gaze halted on his mother. “Please.”

His mother waved us away from the fridge. “Go sit down with your guest. I’ll warm you up some lasagna.” Frosty eyes caught my gaze completely. “You do like lasagna, don’t you, Kennedy?”

With the softest voice, I murmured, “Yes, ma’am.”

She snorted. “What was that? I couldn’t hear you. I know for a fact you can speak louder than that.”

“Mom. Really, stop.” Isaac sighed and rested his right palm on my back, moving us to the table. “Try to be respectful. She’s frightened enough of you guys.”

Her brows lifted as she watched us take our seats. She huffed quietly and peered into the refrigerator, pulling out a baking dish. “For whatever reason, Caleb said she’s hands off.” Her cold gaze flicked to my blue eyes. “We won’t harm you. But it doesn’t mean I have to like you.”

I blinked and stammered, “Um…thank you.”

Finn snorted hard across from me, lowering his sandwich to his plate. His question was blunt and to the point. “So, Kennedy, how did you manage to get your claws into my brother?”

I glanced to Isaac, and he smiled softly, giving me the reigns on this question. I looked back to his brother, noticing they had the same straight nose. “We met the night of the incident. At the shifter building.”

He blinked. “The night Hanna gave you access.”

“Yes.”

Finn whistled quietly, running his gaze over me again. “Quite the entrée she gave you.”

My eyes narrowed on his. “I was there dropping off a package. I had no clue that was going to happen. I don’t even really like shifters—” I snapped my mouth shut. Wrong house to say that.

Mandy chuckled quietly next to Finn. “It sounded as if you liked my brother just fine tonight.”

I cleared my throat, flicking a sheepish glance to Isaac. I clarified for him, “What I meant is I don’t like what shifters or wizards do to humans.”

His black brow lifted as he placed his left arm on the back of my chair. The heat from his flesh warmed my shoulders perfectly. “You mean trick them?”

“I mean kill them.” I waved a hand. “The tricking I understand. You need to stay hidden so the entire world doesn’t freak out. But it’s the killing of innocents that I don’t agree with.”

He hummed quietly, glancing at his mother as she warmed up our dinner. “Mom, no extra spices, please.” He wiggled his nose at her. “Kennedy does need to be aware of her surroundings.”

Mrs. Stone growled under her breath and yanked a dish out of the microwave. She tossed the food into the trashcan. “I only wanted to question her.”

“You can do that without the drugs. She’s been honest so far. I doubt that will change.”

I shut my gaping mouth. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll answer any questions you have honestly.”

She huffed…or her Gargoyle did…and lifted a knife to cut out a new piece of lasagna.

Isaac crooked his arm on the back of my chair, placing his hand on my shoulder, grabbing my attention. “So you don’t like when a shifter or wizard kills a human.”

I stared. “No.”

“What about when a hunter kills a shifter or wizard. Does that make it better?”

My blink was ever so gradual. “Hunters only kill shifters or wizards who have murdered innocent humans. There is a difference there.”

He chuckled. “That’s not entirely accurate for every hunter. But, let’s just say it is for this discussion.” His fingers dipped under the collar of my shirt and played absently with my collarbone. “Do you think all magical beings kill humans?”

I shook my head. “No. There are good wizards and shifters. Just like there are good and bad humans.”

“And what makes them bad?”

I blinked. “Uh, for you guys…temperament?”

He hummed quietly. “That’s close, in a human’s point of view. But what you’re not viewing is the shifters or wizards side. What makes us uniquely us.” He raised both brows. “Like me for example. I am a predator. How do predators act in the wild?”

“This isn’t the wild. This is Woodland Creek, Indiana.”

“Exactly. Can you imagine an actual lion set loose in our town?” He shook his head. “Honestly, the way shifters behave is far better than what it could be. We have the intelligence of a human, but the instincts of a magical being. I think what you honestly don’t like is the fact that you’re not the top of the food chain.”

My lips pinched as I glared.

He merely shrugged a shoulder. “Tell me, Kennedy. Jonathan said you had found faith recently. Was this when you found out about the people really living around you?”

I ground my teeth together. “Yes.”

“Was it because you were scared?” A black brow lifted. “Were you afraid you would die with all of the wild creatures around you?”

I snapped, “I would be stupid not to think about that.”

He nodded his head, his fingers running over my skin in a soothing brush. “So tell me again. Why do you really hate shifters and wizards?”

I tapped my own fingers on the table in irritation. “You guys still kill innocents.”

He shook his head. “It isn’t as common as you think. Any real skirmishes that end with a dead body normally have a backstory that explains the situation—more times than not. Most of our kind are good people here. We protect what is ours, and if the humans can’t keep up with a fight they start, then it is their own misfortune.”

My nose crinkled…somewhat understanding that.

“This is the world you live in, Little One. You either adapt or get left behind.”

I dug a fingernail into the wood of the table. “I still don’t like it.”

“But that’s the way it is.” He leaned down and kissed my temple gently. “And you’ve done fine so far. Especially with the knowledge you hold. No one ever came to me with the worry of a human knowing about us. You hid your gifted power well.” Another soft brush of his warm lips against my flesh. “Just like we have to hide who we are.”

I tilted my face toward him, our mouths close together. My gaze ran over his plush mouth, unable to look away. “Why do you hate humans?”

“I don’t hate them. I just find most of them to be a nuisance.”

“Because you have to hide what you are?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.” I leaned forward on auto-desire-pilot. “That makes sense.”

His Gargoyle huffed quietly. “Do you hate me?”

“No. You may play too many games for my taste, but I don’t hate you.” My lips curved up at the edges. “But you already know that.”

“Yes, I do,” he whispered. His head tilted forward the rest of the way. He pressed his lips against mine, kissing me sweetly. Smooth glides of heated caresses. He eventually tipped his head back. “I don’t find you to be a nuisance either.”

“That’s good to know.” My eyes lifted to his, my gaze twinkling in amusement. “But I’m still not telling you what else the wizard said.”

He snickered. “Not yet, anyway.”

Mrs. Stone cleared her throat. Loudly. “Do you two want bread with this?”

Our attention jerked in her direction. We blinked a few times, staring at her.

Finn whistled again, glancing between us. “Maybe Hanna had the right of it.”

“That’s bullshit!” Mandy griped. She pointed a finger at her chest. “I find a wizard I want to be with and the family says no. But a human walks into our home making googly eyes with Isaac and we all agree she might be a good fit for him? Hell no!”

Finn took a calm tone at her outburst. “It was Hanna, Mandy.”

“I don’t care!” Her chin trembled as she stood to her feet. “Vince isn’t a bad guy.”

I watched as everyone went mute inside the kitchen, not even glancing at her.

“He is not!” Her attention snapped to her oldest brother. “Isaac, tell them he’s not.”

Isaac’s head teetered back and forth. “He does have issues.”

“They aren’t that bad.”

His black brows rose. “He feeds on energy directly from the ley-lines.”

She shrugged a shoulder. “That’s not illegal.”

Slow words. “But it will make him go insane.”

Her shoulders sagged. She opened her mouth, but eventually closed it. She whispered, “I’m going to bed.” Her footsteps were silent as she exited the kitchen.

Mrs. Stone’s narrowed gaze followed her daughter as she left, but eventually, peered back to us. She broke the tense silence that had draped over the room. “Bread with your lasagna?”

I cleared my throat. “That would be lovely.” My stomach growled as she set our plates in front of us. My eyes gleamed at the delicious food before me. I peered up at her and stated gratefully, “I’m starving. Thank you so much.”

She stared…before her lips twitched. “Yes, I’m sure you worked up an appetite.”

“Mom,” Isaac muttered in exasperation.

I ignored their by-play and lifted my fork. But I paused with it in the air. I glanced at Isaac and covertly wiggled my nose at him.

He chuckled quietly. “It’s fine. Go ahead.”

“Thank God,” I hummed and dug in.

Mrs. Stone took her daughter’s vacated seat. She placed her hands on the table, clasping them gently together. “So Isaac has informed us all about you and how you came to see us as you do.” She tilted her head to me. “But what I would like to know is your family. What can you tell me about them?”

“That they’re shit and the only one worth a damn was my deceased grandmother.” She wanted honesty. I was going to give it to her. “I left home at eighteen and I haven’t looked back. My father’s in jail and my mother shoots heroin. I stay as far away from them as possible.” I blinked. “I also used to drink, but I no longer do. Before I knew about shifters and wizards, I got drunk one night and visited the clock tower.” I glanced at each one of them. “You may remember me. I fell off the side of the building.”

All three went as still as their posing Gargoyle.

Isaac asked delicately, “I do remember that night. How did you survive?”

“Well, since no Gargoyle swooped down to save me,” a flicked glare at him, “a wizard took it upon himself to catch my falling ass. It was the night I received my special gifts.”

Isaac blinked. “Sorry about that.”

I waved my fork in the air. “I actually understand. No need to save a stranger who had just accosted you.” I peeked up. “Please tell me that was you and not one of your brothers.”

His lips twitched. “It was me.”

I sighed in relief. “That would have been awkward.”

“Back to my questions.” Mrs. Stone rapped her knuckles on the table. “What made you pick Woodland Creek to move to?”

“Aren’t you going to ask first where I moved from?”

She smiled. It wasn’t nice.

I blinked. “Oh, you already did a background check.”

Isaac chuckled softly. “She is my mother.”

“I noticed.” I turned my eyes back to her. “Truthfully?”

She nodded. “Yes. I find it curious an eighteen-year-old would move to Woodland Creek from Miami. Our town isn’t exactly a hot spot for youngsters.”

I pointed at her. “That’s why I moved here. I wanted to get away from all the craziness. I had plenty of that at home.” I shrugged. “And the town is absolutely gorgeous. It’s where I always pictured a ‘perfect’ family living. Not that there is such as a thing as a ‘perfect’ family, but I wanted to start somewhere fresh that gave me good vibes.”

“And Woodland Creek gave you,” she sniffed, peering down her nose at me, “good vibes?”

“It did.” I ate a bite of her superb cooking. “Up until I plunged to my death.”

She blinked, her words dry. “Yes, that would do it.”

I grinned at her. “Thank God for that wizard, right?”

Mrs. Stone actually chuckled, running her eyes over my features. “Nicely done, Ms. Kirk.” She glanced at her son. Shrugged a shoulder. “She’s not entirely ideal, but she’s not horrible either.” She lifted from her chair and walked from the kitchen.

I stuffed another bite into my mouth and turned my gaze to Isaac. With a mouth full of awesomeness, I mumbled, “I think I got your mom’s approval.”

He snickered softly. “I think you did, too.” He nodded to my food and waggled his black brows. “Hurry up and eat. I want to get back to bed.”

Finn groaned and jumped from his chair. “Where the hell are your earbuds at?”

“Where the fuck are you?” Rachel complained over the line. “You just disappeared and you haven’t answered any of our calls for a week!”

I held my cell phone to my ear and lifted a finger to Mandy. “Just give me a second.” Mandy nodded her head and continued flipping through the black, ancient book we were studying again. “I’m sorry, Rachel. I didn’t have my phone on me and I went out of town.” I hated lying to her but it just didn’t make sense to say I was holed up in the Mayor’s house. “I just got back into town and turned it on.” Really, Isaac had gone to my apartment and bagged up a few of my essential belongings…though I was still wearing all of his sweatpants. They were soft and comfortable.

Her exasperated huff filled my ear. “Where did you go?”

“To my grandma’s grave.” That would stop her line of questioning. “It had been a while.”

“Oh.” She paused. “I think you lost your job at the florist. They called me.”

Shit. “I had you down as an emergency contact.”

She hummed softly. “Well, do you want to meet up later? You won’t believe the news about Jackie.”

My eyes widened. “What news?”

“She has a boyfriend!” she squealed. She sped on, words just tumbling out. “The guy she slept with that night? Well, he found her and asked her out. And she said yes!”

“Oh, my God.” I smiled, hearing the glee in her voice. “What’s his name?”

“Michael something. I can’t remember his last name, but he is gorgeous!”

I laughed softly. “Good for her.”

“I know, right? Anyway, we’re going to a movie tonight. Come with us.”

My smile instantly faltered. “I can’t tonight. I’m exhausted from the trip.” I glanced at the book, praying it held the answers to our problems—soon. “Maybe next weekend?”

Rachel growled quietly under her breath, but she mumbled, “I understand. I’ll let Jackie know.”

“Thank you,” I murmured. “And tell her I’m excited to meet her new boy-toy.”

She laughed. “Will do.” A pause. “I’ve got to go. She’s calling on the other line.”

“Okay. I’ll call you later.” I hung up and placed my phone on the table. I leaned closer to Mandy, peering over her shoulder. “Find anything yet?”

She snorted. “All it talks about are silver and orange bringing permanent darkness.”

“Yeah, I read that, too.” I pulled my hair up into a ponytail. “Could it mean a shifter? There are tons of creatures that are orange.”

“But not many that are silver, too. And none that have the power to do this.”

Isaac walked into the living room, sporting a pair of running shorts and tennis shoes. His tan skin was damp with sweat. He smirked, catching me checking him out. “Did you discover anything new yet?”

“No,” I grumbled, more than grouchy on that topic. “Absolutely zilch.”

He hummed and sat behind me, pressing his heated side against mine.

My nose crinkled. “You smell like the outdoors.”

“Well, I just ran seven miles.” He chuckled softly. “You didn’t seem to mind how I looked when I walked in.”

“That was before you sat down next to me.” I pinched my nose, teasing him. “Thank goodness I don’t have a Gargoyle’s sense of smell.”

He sniffed in my direction, his lips twitching. “Ah, but I can scent how much you want me.”

Mandy grunted. Waved a hand in front of her face. “Quit flirting with her. It makes it worse.”

My jaw gaped and heat flooded my cheeks. “You guys don’t need to bring it up!”

Isaac snickered, leaning to kiss my rosy flesh. “But you blush so pretty when I do.”

I slapped at his hand creeping on my thigh. “Stop it. Or your sister will run away to smell daisies or some shit.”

Mandy choked on a laugh but didn’t glance in our direction. She did point at the page. “It says here that the owner of the book will know where to look.”

“The owner is dead, though. That doesn’t help any.” I sighed heavily.

She shook her head, peering at me. “You’re the owner of the book now.”

I stared. Blinked. “We’re even more screwed then because I have no clue.”

Her Gargoyle huffed. “Think. Where would you look?”

I snorted. “If it were shifters or wizards, I wouldn’t. You guys terrify me.”

She stared. “That doesn’t help much.”

The three of us sat silent for a full minute in thought.

“Wait…maybe it does.” My brows puckered. The wizard had said ‘When it’s time, you will hand over that knowledge.’ I lifted the book from Mandy’s hands and hesitantly turned to Isaac. Because if this worked, then what I was feeling for him was real—not just lust. I licked my lips and slowly held the book out to him. “I want you to have this.”

Black brows quirked. “Why?”

I shook my head. “It was something the wizard said.” I wiggled the book at him. “I want you to have it.”

A gradual blink. “Are you sure?”

“I have faith you’ll do what is right. I trust you. I kept it safe and now you can.” And I did. He was a good man—for a shifter.

“Okay.” He lifted the book from my hands, his green gaze on my blue eyes. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” I coughed in the uncomfortable quiet and quickly glanced down at the book and pointed at the page. “Do you see anything that might help us?”

“I’ve looked at it twenty times—”

“Just look again.” More finger pointing. “Do you see anything?”

His brows furrowed, but he peered down to the page.

I saw when his gaze sharpened, the slight narrowing of his lovely eyes. He tilted his head forward, muttering, “There’s a smudge. It wasn’t here before.” He ran the pad of his right thumb on the edge of the sheet. I couldn’t see the ‘smudge’ he was referring to, but his eyes scowled at whatever he viewed. “Holy fuck…”

“What?” I asked instantly, staring where he was and seeing not a damn thing.

His head gradually turned in slow increments. Until his eyes landed on Mandy. His lips thinned as he asked quietly, “Where’s Vince?”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

“Vince. Where is he?”

“Why?”

He snapped the book shut. “Because your boyfriend has finally lost his damn mind.”

Stone arms held me in the dead of night. The wind rushed hard, beating the back of my head. My face was pressed against Isaac’s stone throat as he flew through the air toward Running Deer State Forest. To the crossing ley-lines. His family flew behind him in a solid front against a wizard gone rogue, even Mandy in her heartbroken state of mind.

I kept my arms wrapped around his neck tight, my bag crushed between us. I occasionally gripped one of his small horns on his forehead, as I would turn to see if we were getting close. Mandy’s boyfriend had officially gone off the rails. She had suspected it, been worried about it, but hadn’t mentioned it to anyone. And, now, we were dealing with an insane, powerful wizard, thanks to him feeding off of the ley-lines.

As we landed, I kept my grunt from the impact at bay. Isaac had agreed to let me go with him, but only if I kept silent until we found Vince. He hadn’t wanted me to leave the protection of his house, but I explained the wizard had stated he and I were going to take down the night.

I hoped that meant darkness because I sure as hell couldn’t twirl a finger and make night turn into day. I blinked as Isaac set me on my feet. I would have to ask him if there was a wizard actually powerful enough to do that. It would be good information to have for the future.

But I flinched as we started walking, the Stone family in full Gargoyle form. I gripped the strap of my red bag, heavy with the ancient book weighing it down, and waved a hand in front of my face as instant sweat began to bead my brow. The night was cool, so this wasn’t usual, the heat I felt radiating from the right…not the left where they were headed.

I waved a hand at Isaac, keeping my mouth shut.

His green, glowing gaze swung in my direction.

I lifted my hand and pointed to the right.

His ghastly head tilted in unspoken question.

So I rolled my eyes and pointed the way he was going. And shook my head.

Then I pointed to the right. And nodded my head.

I was playing a freaking kids game with a Gargoyle in a forest at midnight.

Yes, my life had flipped on its head when I had taken a nosedive from the clock tower.

When his family didn’t instantly do as I said, I turned on my heel and marched in the right direction. My lips twitched when Isaac was quickly by my side, walking so close our arms brushed. Smartly, his family followed along.

The farther we walked, the hotter I became.

Sweat drenched the back of my shirt, making me wish I hadn’t worn my light jacket. I watched where I stepped, careful not to snap any fallen twigs. The dried leaves couldn’t be missed, those crunching under my tennis shoes. Though the Gargoyles didn’t seem to have any problems with it, their footfalls silent—a true predator.

I peered down at my hands and crinkled my nose in pain. Blisters were popping up on my flesh. I placed a stopping hand on Isaac’s solid arm, catching his attention. With his gaze on me, I pointed at the clear evidence we were headed in the right direction…and that I couldn’t go any further without the risk of crying out in agony.

Isaac’s stone nostrils cracked as he inhaled sharply, staring at my hands. His attention snapped up to me, and he jerked a clawed finger back the way we had come. He even bared his gruesome teeth at me.

He wasn’t exactly pleased I hadn’t told him about the pain I was in.

I peered once more to where we were going…and then nodded my head. I quickly turned and started a light jog away from the heat radiating in the air. My lungs were constricting, the very oxygen I breathed choking me, but I didn’t stop. It wouldn’t get better until I was away from the wrongness coating the night.

When I could breathe easily and the blisters magically disappeared from my skin, I sat down on the grass on a hill and peered down to where the Stone family had gone to save the day.

My shoulders slumped in defeat as I placed my red bag next to me on the cool ground. I wasn’t able to do anything. There was no adapting to this situation as Isaac had mentioned. If I had stayed, I would have hindered their search.

I blinked and stared as silver light shot up from the trees into the darkened sky, as if it were attached to the moon it flew so high. My breath caught. I cringed as Gargoyle roars filled the night air, my fingernails digging down into the dirt.

Just as I saw his family flying into the air, and dropping like bombs, only to shoot up into the air again, light firing from their bodies, a hand clamped down on my left shoulder. I jerked in alarm, my frightened gaze snapping up.

Caleb stared off into the distance, standing over me. He had just appeared out of nowhere. When he spoke, his words were quiet. “If you really want to be with him, a man of his caliber, in power and predator, I’ll tell you how you can help.”

I tried jumping to my feet, but his hand kept me sitting. “Yes, I want to help!”

Blunt words. “Then stay here.”

My nostrils flared in irritation. “How is that helping?”

“Know your limits, Kennedy. You can’t be with him if you’re dead.”

I swatted his hand away and turned my regard back to the fight that was taking place. My attention didn’t move from there. “But I was supposed to help. That’s what the wizard said.”

“You did help. They wouldn’t have found him tonight if it weren’t for you.”

I sucked in a sharp breath, ready to argue.

But when I glanced back…he was gone.

With my head resting on a pillow, I grumbled, “I didn’t do shit tonight.”

Isaac ran his fingers through my hair. “We took care of him, Kennedy. That was the whole point of going out there. How it happened is beside the point.”

I sighed quietly. “So what the hell was he doing?”

Isaac hummed quietly. “Well, he was trying to kill every shifter in Woodland Creek.”

My eyes widened. “Are you kidding me?”

“No.” He snorted. “You know that black fog in town?”

“How could I forget?”

“It was pulling all of the shifters powers from their bodies.”

I stared. “Why in the world would he want to do that?”

“He wanted their life force.” He grunted gently. “He had an addiction to energy.”

I blinked. “Like my mom with heroin.”

“Exactly.”

I tapped my fingers on his bare chest. “Why did the fog stop when I entered the protection of Hanna’s spell?”

His lips twitched. “Do you really want to know?”

I merely gazed at him.

“Because you held his father’s book, where he had stolen the original spell from. The book holds the power to it.”

My jaw gaped open. “The wizard was Vince’s dad?”

“Yes. And since his dad created that spell, and he gifted you with some of his power, you also felt the effect of it when the spell was put into action.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Caleb explained it all to me.”

“Wait, does that mean the “incident” was caused by Vince too? Did he steal power then?”

A soft shake of his head, a grin lifting his lips. “I believe that was Hanna’s work. Her way of placing us together since we never would have without a little influence.”

After a minute, I grumbled, “I still wish I could have done something.”

Isaac chuckled and pulled me in closer to his body, tucking the blankets around us more firmly. “You did, Kennedy.”

My lips smashed against his skin, I muttered, “What did I do other than get blisters?”

He paused. “They’re all gone, right?”

“Yes, they’re gone,” I groaned.

“Just checking.” He rubbed my back and rested his head above mine. “I’m going to tell you what Hanna said now since you think you’re useless.”

I blinked and attempted to keep the excitement from my voice. “I’m listening.”

“She told me, ‘With faith comes trust. With trust comes safety. And the woman who gives you all three will hold your heart.’”

I grinned against his skin, unable to speak.

He cleared his throat harshly. “Well? I told you. Now you’re supposed to tell me what Vince’s dad told you.” He paused. His Gargoyle huffed. “He was even more powerful than Hanna before his death. This has to be good.”

“Fine, I’ll tell you.” The morning sun began flittering into the windows, casting a golden glow over our exposed flesh. “He said, ‘You carry the salvation of this town with the true love of your life. The two of you will beat the night.’”

Isaac held still until his head rose, and he peered out the windows to the new day. He chuckled quietly, laying his head back above mine. “And we did beat the night. We both survived.”

My jaw slackened. “Damn! That’s what he meant?”

“Wizards have a funny way with words, Little One. Like when Hanna showed up at your apartment with Caleb. She said, ‘Perhaps you should pick one.’ That was her way of slapping me silly to make sure I wasn’t falling for our ex’s game plan.” He kissed my forehead as I snickered at his grumpy tone. “Now let’s go to sleep, and when we wake, we’ll go for lunch at The Bread Basket.” He hummed quietly. “And for the record, I think Hanna was right with her prediction.”

My lips twitched. “As was Vince’s father.”

Isaac

I stood at the edge of the clock tower and held the most precious gift life could have given me in my arms. Her blonde hair whipped in the wind, obscuring my vision of her face, but I knew she was smiling. My lips brushed her left temple as I took in her heady scent. I hummed softly into her ear, “We’re going to be late, Little One.”

“Just a few more minutes,” Kennedy whispered in awe. “It’s even more beautiful up here during the day than at night.”

I tucked her in close to my body as a strong wind rippled her pink gown. “Don’t slip.”

She chuckled, pressing her head back against my chest. “Would you catch me?”

“Of course. But then we would have to go home since I would be naked.”

“We would really be late then.”

“Agreed.” I kissed her temple again, unable to get enough of this human. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Gargoyle.” Her blue eyes flicked up to mine, shining in the sunlight. “Can we come back here tonight after the wedding?”

I lifted a black brow. “Jackie won’t like you missing her reception afterward.”

Her grin was pure mischief. “We’ll sneak out.”

I tipped my head back and laughed. “You are a wicked human. It’s not every day your best friend gets married.”

My human waved an absent hand, her voice whisper soft. “Either way, we’ll be together.”

“Yes.” Another brush of my lips against her skin. I was damn greedy for her. “We will.”

Kennedy

I swayed to the music with the love of my life. Pure happiness kept a perpetual smile on my face. I leaned my head against my man’s hard pecs, and whispered, “How much longer do you think we should stay?”

Isaac chuckled quietly. “At least ten more minutes. She’s getting ready to cut the cake.”

My stomach growled. “Okay, we can stay for that.”

“I thought you might agree.” His fingers spread wide against my back, his hips swaying with mine to the gentle beat. “Your stomach has been talking to you for the last half hour. You should probably feed it.”

I shrugged a shoulder. “I want to dance with you.”

“And I’ll dance with you all night long.” His voice was a sensual purr. “I like the way you move.”

I grinned up at him, staring into his green eyes. “We can have cake anytime.” I grabbed his hand and dragged him behind me, laughing as I glanced over my shoulder. “I want to dance on top of the clock tower.”

His grin was sinful. “You were made for me.”

“Right back at you, Gargoyle.”

Woodland Creek was a beautiful town.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my novella from Woodland Creek!

All reviews are appreciated.

If you would like to read more from the Woodland Creek series, please click on the link below:

Woodland Creek Website

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

New York Times bestselling author and award-winner, Scarlett Dawn is the author of the Forever Evermore new adult fantasy series, the Mark new adult science fiction saga, and the Lion Security contemporary series.

She lives in the Midwest, adores her music loud, and demands her fries covered in melted cheese.

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"MY
WORLD
WAS
FOREVER
CHANGED."

FALL

Thrown head first into a barbaric world she knows nothing of, Braita Valorn must adapt to a dark life as a slave of the Mian society--her existence depends on it.

SINK

Danger lurks, and Braita's lack of knowledge of the planet, Triaz, is now abundantly clear. On a mission to find her best friend, Jax, she must infiltrate the Crank Pit, a brutal complex where Mian enter, only to leave absent a heartbeat.

STOP

Braita Valorn is stuck. She has no real freedom, her existence dependent on what the men of Triaz decide. But she desperately wants it to be, and will do anything to capture it.

RISE

Judgments are made, an archaic stand within Mian laws, and Braita finds herself charged with treason. But never one to sit during a battle, she risks her last chance of release with blackmail.

SOAR

Braita Valorn is a disaster walking. One mistake after another on the planet Triaz has landed her in trouble time and again. Will Braita obtain her freedom? Or will she finally accept a life she never asked for?

Orphan, Lana Claire, drinks too much and parties too hard. Eighteen-years-old, and a wild child, Lana does whatever she wants, whenever she wants. When a crazy encounter at a new bar ends with bodies littering the ground, Lana wonders if she may have discovered a path that leads to answers she desperately needs.

Never one to walk blind, she treads carefully. What she finds is more than she ever hoped for. Lana knew she wasn't human, but an entire community of others like herself blows her mind. And the men! Heat and passion burn bright when Valan men are on the hunt for their mate, but Lana never expected to be the spark for two of their hottest playboys. More than ready to sizzle with the alphas of Valan, Lana does what she always does. She dives right in.

A fresh, meaty, sink-your-teeth-in-and-hold-on-tight new adult fantasy series kicks off with King Hall…

King Hall — where the Mysticals go to learn their craft, get their degrees, and transition into adulthood. And where four new Rulers will rise and meet their destinies.

Lily Ruckler is adept at one thing: survival. Born a Mystical hybrid, her mere existence is forbidden, but her nightmare is only about to start. Fluke, happenstance, and a deep personal loss finds Lily deeply entrenched with those who would destroy her simply for existing — The Mystical Kings. Being named future Queen of the Shifters shoves Lily into the spotlight, making her one of the most visible Mysticals in the world. But with risk comes a certain solace — her burgeoning friendships with the other three Prodigies: a wicked Vampire, a wild-child Mage, and a playboy Elemental. Backed by their faith and trust, Lily begins to relax into her new life.

Then chaos erupts as the fragile peace between Commoners and Mysticals is broken, and suddenly Lily realizes the greatest threat was never from within, and her fear takes on a new name: the revolution.

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Epilogue

About the Woodland Creek Series

About the Author

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