Beast woke. Was standing four-paw-straddled, head down, shoulders raised, pelt standing on end. Was growling.
Stopped growling. Was safe. Creature thing was not here. Mock fight had stopped.
Kitchen had fallen silent. Was confused. Jane? What was predator?
* * *
* * *
Furious, I took over Beast’s body and turned for the stairs, catching sight of Brute. I skidded to a stop. His white jaw was bloody in the spacing of the points matching Beast’s claws. Eli was racing to clean up the were-tainted blood and apply pressure to Brute’s jaw. Pea was snarling. At me. Her steel claws out and shining in the kitchen lights. Crap.
But the thoughts I had found . . .
It was dawn. I had to shift to human form now or be stuck as Beast all day. I raced for the stairs. For once Beast agreed.
Shift. Now! Beast demanded. No more inside Beast head.
I felt Beast open the Gray Between as I raced for the stairs. I didn’t make it.
* * *
* * *
I woke stretched out on the stairs, the treads pressing into my ribs and thighs. I was shaking, sick, and naked, and Bruiser was there beside me, folding me in an afghan, one I recognized from the house in New Orleans. It was soft and fuzzy and familiar as it covered me and wrapped around me. He lifted me from the stairs. Carried me to our room. Closed the door behind us. He placed me on the bed and raised the head of the bed upright. It was the fanciest bed I’d ever slept in. Bruiser had picked it out for us, a special cooling memory-foam mattress, the bed itself with all the bells and whistles. I pulled the sheets and blankets over me, making a cocoon for myself, and Bruiser found and turned on an electric blanket, instant warmth pulsing into the weave of the afghan.
He sat beside me. “Eli is bringing you a high-protein hot chocolate.”
I didn’t reply, the shock of the encounter a steady tremor within me. Because it had been an encounter, not a vision or a memory. It had been real. My connection to Edmund was severed. But Beast’s . . . Beast’s might be partially intact, like a frayed wire that sometimes still carried a current.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Bruiser asked.
I couldn’t bring myself to look at him, staring at the far corner of the room. I asked, “What did you see?”
“I was going to the kitchen and saw you playing with Brute and the grindy in the main room. Then you clawed him. He didn’t bite you, by the way, so you’re safe from were-taint.” There was no censure in his voice. He was self-contained and composed, a rock I could lean on. Which was peculiar. To think of leaning on someone. To need someone.
And other people needed me. Like Molly. Like Eli and Alex. Like my godchildren. Like Brute and Bruiser . . . Dang. Bruiser needed me too.
“Yeah. I need to apologize.” How bizarre was my life now, that I had to apologize to a werewolf and thank him for not biting me? I focused away from the shadowy corner of the room to Bruiser’s face. Reached up and rubbed my knuckles over his scruff. “I really like the beard.”
He caught my hand and kissed my knuckles. “This is the definition of diversion.”
“More like prevarication.”
“Why did you—or Beast?—lose control?”
“Ummm. Waiting for Eli?”
“What do you—”
A knock came at the door. I nodded to Bruiser’s unspoken question and he called for Eli to come in. My partner stopped and eyeballed us, suspicious at whatever he saw on my face. “What?”
“You need to hear this too.” I patted the mattress on my other side.
“No way am I getting into bed with you and George. Too kinky for me.”
I raised my brows at him, thinking of all the things I could have teased him with. And didn’t.
“I’ll pull up a chair.” He gave Bruiser the tall mug of chocolate, lifted the tufted, fringed, upholstered barrel chair, and set it near me. Sat. Crossed one ankle over his knee. Rested his arms out to the sides across the curved back. The former ranger made even the delicate chair look manly. His natural machismo made his entire world look masculine.
As he got situated, I drank down a good portion of the supersweet treat. I needed the calories to replace what I always used when I shifted. “Okay,” I said when we were all ready. “I’ve always known that Beast