would talk to our local lions about leaving that part out, but in their defense I wouldn't have believed them. I'd have just thought it was Haven trying to get back in my pants after the fight we had. No, I couldn't blame this on them.
"It's not just heat," Jacob said, "it's fucking powerful heat. No female has ever made me lose it like that."
"So neither of you has mates, either," I said.
"She's right, it's not just her being picky that made this happen."
"It's said a man of a certain age and property is in want of a wife," I said.
"Did you just quote Pride and Prejudice?" Jacob asked.
"I guess I did, embarrassing, sorry."
"I wouldn't have known what book, or who you quoted," Nicky said, not like he was happy with it.
"But I get what you mean with the quote," Jacob said; "my hair is starting to gray and I've never taken a real mate. I've never committed to a territory and my pride is all males, except for one, and she's not into guys, so it's not a problem."
"We travel too much for women and kids," Nicky said.
Jacob nodded. "That's what I keep telling myself. Now get in the car, Anita. We've still got a job to do. Remember what I said about controlling your side of the problem. Nothing we could do would be worth the lives of your lovers."
"Agreed," I said.
He handed me my jacket. I slipped it back over the empty shoulder rig, but still had the big knife down my spine. He held the passenger door for me, and I didn't protest the gallantry, though under the circumstances it seemed weirder than normal. Nicky got in behind me and leaned against the back of my seat. "I wish you weren't the job, Anita."
"Me, too," I said, and meant it, though probably not for the same reason he did.
Jacob got in behind the wheel and said, "Buckle up; it'll slow you down by a few seconds if you decide to do something stupid."
I buckled up. "So we go on with your plan?"
"Yes," he said, "nothing's changed."
"So you'll still kill the people I love if I don't raise the dead for your client?"
"Yes," he said.
"Yes," Nicky said from behind me.
"Then we're clear," I said.
Jacob started the engine. "Yeah, we're clear. You'll kill us if you can, and if you're sure it won't get your people killed. We'll kill you if you force us to."
"Great," I said, "we all know the rules then."
"Why aren't you afraid?" Nicky whispered from behind me.
"Being afraid won't help."
"People are brave, but you can always smell the fear, taste their heart speed up. But you aren't. You really aren't any of that."
"If I get afraid, or pissed, then my pulse rises, and my heart races, and my blood pressure goes up and it's harder to control the beasts. Jacob was clear; I can't afford to lose control in the car with you guys."
"So because you have to be in control, you will be, just like that," he said.
"Just like that," I said, and watched where Jacob drove so if I lived through the night I could take the police back to their client and arrest his, or her, ass.
"If I'd known what you were we might not have taken the job," Jacob said.
"Nice thought, but it doesn't really help us out, does it?"
"No, we took the client's money, we have to deliver."
"Then it doesn't matter to me if you feel guilty or not, Jacob. In fact, I think it's worse that you're going to maybe kill the people I love, the people that make up my pride, and maybe kill me, and you'll regret it, but you'll do it anyway. That's not honor, Jacob, that's your conscience letting you know that you're doing the wrong thing."
"It's not my conscience, Anita, it's my libido, my beast, and it doesn't have a conscience."
He was right on that, but I also knew that wereanimals aren't just animals. There is a person in there and there is a conscience. The beast usually didn't care about it, and could make you do terrible things that you had trouble living with afterward, but this time Jacob and Nicky's beasts were on the same side as their conscience. It made me hopeful, and I cursed it, because hope will keep you alive, yes, but it will also get you killed in ways worse than anything you can imagine. Hope is a bad friend when men with guns have you. But