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his lower body looked like it was bound in thin leather strips, and where the boots left off and the pants began was hard to see. His white shirt had a lacy front tucked into all that leather. His jacket was black and velvet, cut short enough that it hit barely at his waist. He’d pinned the lace in place with the antique cameo pin that I’d gotten him for one of the first Christmases we exchanged gifts. Asher was beside him on the loveseat with his unbound golden hair spilled along one side of his face so it hid the scars. Asher had dressed to match Jean-Claude, so he was also in leather pants and boots, but his were smooth leather, so smooth that it looked painted on. His white shirt was a tuxedo shirt with the collar unfastened at the neck, but beyond that it fit his upper body tight. To my eyes you could see the difference in skin from one side of his chest to the other as he rose from the loveseat and glided toward us, smiling. But I knew that smile; it wasn’t a real one. It was a smile that could either be happy or turn to harsh cruelty. There was something about our guests that Asher didn’t like.

The big cinnamon-brown wolf trotted at Asher’s side. I had a moment of not knowing how to greet Richard in wolf form. Asher took my free hand, my gun hand, and raised it for a kiss, but as he rose from it he let me see his eyes. They were unhappy. I wanted to ask what was wrong, but since Asher and I weren’t able to talk mind-to-mind I’d have to wait for privacy.

The big wolf bumped my leg with his head. I wasn’t ready for it, and it staggered me a little. I reached both hands down to pet him. He stared up at me with wolf eyes, but the look in them was human. He wasn’t happy, either. What the hell could have put Asher and Richard on the same side of unhappy? Other than both being pissy, they didn’t have a lot of the same issue buttons.

I had to fight the urge to ask him, What’s wrong, boy? like he was Lassie or something. Asher offered me his arm and I slid my hand through his; if I had to go for a gun I was screwed, but with Wicked, Truth, and Claudia in the room, if my gun was the one that saved us, then things would have gone too wrong for one more gun to make a difference. The wolf walked ahead of us and lay down beside the loveseat at Jean-Claude’s side like a good dog.

There were two men I didn’t know in the overstuffed chairs, which had been moved to the side of the room where the loveseat normally sat. That put Jake and Claudia at their backs. They had to be the gold tigers.

Since I still had Nathaniel’s hand and he still had Micah by the hand, Asher led us all to Jean-Claude, as if the tigers weren’t sitting there. Nathaniel took some cue because he let go of my hand and Asher twirled me onto the loveseat beside Jean-Claude. Asher kissed my hand again and moved away, as Micah sat down on the other side of me. Maybe that was what was upsetting Asher, that he had to move off the loveseat. Maybe, but his and Richard’s mood had made me tense, looking for something wrong. There better really be something wrong and not just the two of them being pissy, because for my tension level to rise this way there better be a damn good reason. I didn’t have the energy to spare for anything but good reasons.

Jean-Claude put an arm across my shoulders, drawing me into the curve of his body. His voice whispered through my mind, spreading shivers down my skin. Mind-to-mind communication wasn’t always this titillating with Jean-Claude. What was up?

“Ma petite, these tigers are not like the others. I do not know what is different about them, but something.”

I mind-talked back to him. “You’re afraid of them.”

“Tiger is not my, or Asher’s, animal to call. Perhaps you can tell us what is wrong with them.”

Micah sat down on the other side of me, putting his hand on my thigh so he wasn’t holding my gun hand. Nathaniel sat down at our feet with only Jean-Claude’s legs between him and Richard’s wolf.

Dino