"I am Makah'Alay. And you should fear me."
"Ain't real big on fear. I tried it once, and well ... didn't like the taste of it. Burped it up for days afterward and have no intention of doing that again. Now let the god go before we have to do something we're both liable to regret."
Ren tilted Chamer's head back, exposing the wound in his throat. He sniffed at it as if the scent of the blood was the finest nectar made. "Why don't you leave? I think I'll stay. I like it here."
Chamer summoned Ixtab to him.
With long black hair and skin of the finest caramel, she appeared, then froze at the sight of her bleeding husband.
"Get them out of here, Ixtab. Or they'll destroy us!"
She raised her arm, but Sundown stopped her.
"We're one man down and we're not leaving here without him."
She curled her lip. "The wolf? Take the beast. We don't want him here either."
One second they were in the forest, in the next, they were back at Ren's trashed house.
Even Sasha, who was still in wolf form and bleeding profusely.
"I'll get him to Sanctuary," Cabeza said, rushing to pick him up and teleport him out.
Sundown retrieved his gun from Kateri's hands. "I might be needing this after all."
Urian stopped him. "You know, a gun against a demon is a real bad idea. It won't kill him, but it will piss him off."
"Yeah, but it'll make me feel better." Sundown started past Urian, but Kateri cut him off.
She went to Ren and cupped his face in her hands. "Baby? What's going on?"
Ren heard the words, but he couldn't understand them. Any more than he could comprehend why this strange woman was touching him. His anger surged.
Until he caught a whiff of her scent.
Kateri. Images of her making love to him filled his head. He placed his hand over her heart so that he could feel it beating beneath his palm.
"Ren?"
Help me, Kateri. He wanted to go back to her. But he felt so lost.
She pulled him against her and held him tight. "It's okay, sweetie. We're home now. You're safe."
Safe. He'd never understood that word.
But as she rocked him back and forth, strange emotions and compulsions warred inside him. One was for him to bite her and taste her blood, too.
The other was to protect her. To make sure no one ever preyed on her.
"Look at me, Ren."
He did. He stared into a pair of eyes that were filled with ...
She kissed him. The moment her lips touched his, he remembered how she'd looked holding her bow and refusing to back down.
"A'ight, baby. But just so you know, you get hurt, I'm opening up a can of 'Bama whup-ass on them so big it's gonna look like an LSU Bowl showdown. You hear me? Roll Tide."
In that one memory, he found himself. Is this what it feels like to be loved?