“Same as ever.” She fidgeted with his shirt, her fingers clenching in the black cotton. “Are you careful?”
The thought that she cared could make a man giddy, but he’d been dancing with Anna for too long to let himself cherish that hope. She blew hot and cold depending on the weather or the phase of the moon or the day of the week.
But she seemed sincere enough, so he bit back the snippy reply he’d given the last person to ask that question. “I’m not out to get myself killed, I promise.”
She frowned, intense and troubled. “I don’t know if I believe you.”
Patrick caught her chin and fought momentary shock at how smooth her skin was, how delicate she felt beneath his fingertips. She was tiny, standing this close to him, but she never seemed small. Not until he touched her. “Anna, I’m fine.”
She heard the lie. She must have, because her eyes flashed with hurt and then anger, and she jerked away from his touch. “Good. One less thing to worry about.”
If he didn’t turn it into a joke, he’d tell her the truth. “Didn’t know you cared, Lenoir.”
She ignored him and stalked in the direction he’d found her clothes, folded neatly and hidden out of sight.
She was fast, but she was also barefoot. It was easy enough to catch up, and he planted himself in front of her. “Maybe I don’t want to spill my guts in the middle of the bayou. If you wanted to know about my brooding pain, you could have called me back. I’ve invited you to go get a drink how many times?”
“Right.” She stepped closer, right up against him, and her voice dropped to a sultry whisper. “And how many times would you have called if you ever thought for a second I’d say yes?”
None. A hundred. Fuck if he knew. “So say it now.”
“Now?” She slid one hand up his stomach to the middle of his chest, brushing past the charms he wore. “Here?”
She was naked under his shirt, and that made him almost as hard as her fingers tripping over his body. “I don’t see any beer.”
Anna leaned in and traced her tongue along the outside edge of the tattoo framing his left pectoral.
He bit back a groan. “Don’t let adrenaline from shifting make you do something you’ll regret, Lenoir.”
She released him and backed off. “That’s right. I’d regret you more than all the other shit combined. Remember that.”
“Ouch.” Amazing, that he managed to make it sound lighthearted. “Shot through the heart.”
“Shut up.” She dragged his shirt over her head and threw it at him.
His hands darted up out of reflex, holding the fabric to his chest. “Anna, just take my shirt. I’m sorry, okay?”
“I’ve got to go.” She reached the shrub that hid her clothes and scrambled to pull on her jeans. “It’s been a really crappy night, McNamara. You don’t want to talk to me right now.”
This was how it was now. Lick or bite. Hot or cold. The spark was there, had been from the first time he’d laid eyes on her. But Anna wanted to fight and fuck, and he needed…
Family. The one thing he’d never have again, no matter how many dinners Julio and Sera forced on him.
“I’m sorry,” he said, watching her pull on her shirt. “I’ll see you later, right? All the wedding stuff coming up.”
“Yeah, sure.” She finished dressing in a rush and pushed her blonde hair back from her face. “The monkey suits. Wouldn’t miss it.”
“Good.”
This was the definition of awkward silence. It went on and on, until nothing he could think of to break it seemed important enough to say.
“I’ve got to go.” She mumbled it this time, then turned and fled through the trees, leaving him standing in the woods like an idiot.
Par for the course, which made him some kind of masochist for knowing he’d try again.
Chapter Two
There wasn’t a goddamn man in the bar worth crossing the room for, much less one worth taking upstairs with her.
Anna threw back another whiskey and grimaced when it barely burned. Too many, too fast, and even the impressive metabolism of a shapeshifter couldn’t keep up forever.
She ignored the little voice in her head that laughed, mocked her for needing to get wasted and laid after her disastrous encounter with Patrick in the woods. It wasn’t
her
fault he’d followed her, and she sure as hell wasn’t to blame for the fact that he didn’t know whether to pull her closer or push her away.
Fuck him.
That left her with the cold, hard truth she’d been facing for the past half a year—the one man she couldn’t have was the one who made all the others look like silly little boys.
“Scratch that,” she muttered to herself. “Fuck
me
.”
Her phone vibrated in her pocket, indicating a message. She’d set it to go straight to voicemail before heading out to hunt earlier, and she hadn’t bothered to change it after deciding a different sort of hunt was in order.
So much for that.
She stepped outside and pressed the command on the screen that would bring up her voice messages. There was one from Sera, and her tone was frantic enough to make Anna tense before she made out the words.
“Anna, call me back, please. I need your contacts to find me a doctor or a witch doctor or someone with magical medical experience who isn’t related to me. Or Julio. Just…call me back.”
It took Anna a matter of seconds to dial Sera’s number. “What’s going on? Why do you need a doctor?”
“I just peed on a stick.” For a woman who’d kept her cool planning an elaborate wedding in under three months, Sera sounded close to panic. “I think I accidentally got pregnant. I need to be sure before I trigger Julio’s daddy instincts four days before we get married.”
“Oh, balls.” No wonder she was freaking out. Sera knew two doctors—one was her father, and the other was her fiancé’s sister. “Save the stick. I know a lady.”
“Do you mind picking me up? My bodyguard offered to stay, but I felt weird enough about dragging her to buy pregnancy tests with me.”
Anna needed at least ten minutes to sober up, and another ten to get to Sera’s place. “Give me half an hour.”
Sera’s breath rushed out in a grateful sigh. “I love you. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Anna rounded the bar and climbed the stairs to her apartment, where she hopped in the shower and stared at the tile until the world came into sharp focus again. Even that didn’t erase Patrick’s scent from her skin, and she knew the coyote would eye her curiously, even if she didn’t ask.
Sure enough, when Sera opened the door she froze, her eyes going wide. “Shit, were you with Patrick? Did I make you cut something short?”
“No. Hell no, nothing like that. He let me borrow something, is all.” She eyed the bag in Sera’s hand. “You ready to go?”
The younger woman could smell a lie as easily as most shapeshifters, but for once she seemed willing to let it slide. “Yes. I texted Julio, but if he calls, he’s going to know something’s up.”
“I’ll answer and tell him you have cold feet. He’ll be too busy pitching an emotional but manly fit to ask any questions.”
Sera choked on a laugh as she stepped into the hallway and locked the door behind her. “I’m the only one who
doesn’t
have cold feet. I never knew other people could have them for you.”
In Anna’s experience, other people often felt free to tell you what to feel. “They don’t matter,” she said as she led Sera toward the elevator. “Julio matters, that’s all.”
Once the doors slid shut behind them, Sera turned to Anna. “I’m not freaked out, you know. I mean…I am, a little, because I want to
know
… But if I’m pregnant? It’s okay. I always wanted kids. Just not with the wrong guy.”
“Hey, you don’t have to convince me.” She’d seen the two of them together often enough to know it was more than infatuation or a passing attraction.
Sera studied her for a few seconds, eyes narrowed. “I know, because you get it. You get that one moment can change everything, whether we want it to or not.”
Maybe. And maybe, if one moment could change
anything
, putting her tongue on Patrick would have earned her something other than scorn and a stern warning. But that wasn’t what Sera wanted to hear. “I get it.”
Sera’s fingers curled around hers. “Do you want to talk, or for me to pretend I believe you? I can do either.”
Lying was for the weak. “I don’t know what to think anymore. I should probably stop trying.”
“What did he do?”
Even the whiskey hadn’t killed the taste of his skin. Her tongue tingled, and Anna rubbed it against the roof of her mouth. “Nothing.”
Sera leaned into her, and shapeshifter magic whispered over Anna’s skin. Sera’s submissive power was muted now, tangled up so much in Julio’s that she felt different. Still soothing, though, and openly, lovingly accepting. “Men get dumb when they’re hurt. They get so afraid to show a weak side, they don’t realize they’re hurting the people who would help them.”
“Not just men,” Anna conceded grudgingly. “I could make it happen, Sera, I know I could. But it’s a bad fucking idea.”
Sera made a rude noise and all but dragged Anna toward the exit. “Says who?”
“Says me, and I’m serious.”
“Do you think he’d hurt you?”
Anna sighed and unlocked Sera’s door before rounding the car to her own. “I think we’d hurt each other.” And the events of the night had done nothing to disabuse her of that notion.
“I’m not trying to talk you into it. There are hundreds of hunky fish in our sea, Anna.” Sera waited until she started the car, then reached out to touch her arm. “I’m just saying, I thought I had to stay away from Julio, that I’d drown in him. That he’d make me weaker than I already was.”
What would she have done if she’d been pretty sure she was the toxic one? Surely she would have made a different decision then, if only to protect Julio. “It’s a long damn drive to Plaquemines Parish. You sure you want to dish about my love life the whole way there?”
“Since my love life is what caused the trip, it seemed appropriate.”
“Except for the part where mine is FUBAR, and yours is so great you’re about to get married and have a kid?”
Sera laughed. “So let me enjoy it while it lasts. Though I guess if I’d enjoyed it less, we wouldn’t have hit the two percent failure rate on the condoms in under four months.”
“That’s the thing about statistics. They tend to make an example out of you.”
“Let ’em. The world’s not so bad right now, Anna. There’s hope in the air. Can’t you taste it?”
On any other night, Anna might have indulged her. But tonight she’d killed one man and wounded another, and the world felt anything but hopeful. It was closing in on her, bit by bit. “Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies. Isn’t that what they say?”
She felt Sera’s gaze, even in the darkness of the car. “I could stay at your place tonight. We could pretend we’re doing wedding stuff and watch cheesy movies instead. I won’t even make you watch CSI.”
If Anna wasn’t careful, Sera would lock her up and stage an intervention. “We’re road tripping. Find a good satellite station, and we’ll sing along. After that, we’ll see.”
Sera leaned forward to obey. “Can we stop for burgers? I’m starving.”
“Just burgers? No pickles and ice cream?”
“Burgers and shakes.” Sera paused. “And Pringles. But that’s not pregnancy, I’m just really hungry. Wedding stress?”
The words pricked at Anna’s conscience. “I haven’t been helping enough. I’ll be around all this week, though. I promise.”
“Shut up. I didn’t mean it like that, and you know it. You’re doing important shit, Anna. Hell, so am I. The wedding is just…a day. A self-indulgent day because Julio won’t say no to me.”
So much work, and the most taxing thing Anna had done was choose a dress. “It’s a party. Everyone loves a party.”
“Everyone loves a drunk party.” Sera groaned. “Oh shit, unless I can’t. How am I supposed to handle all the damn wolves who are going to show up if I can’t drink?”
“I have no freakin’ idea. I guess you’ll have to rely on your adoration for Julio to see you through.”
Sera’s grumpy, annoyed noise made her thoughts on that clear. “Honestly, I don’t even know who’s coming. After I got the important people on the list, I let Alec and Carmen decide who had to be invited to the wedding of a member of the Southeast council.”
Anna tightened her hands on the wheel and took a turn a little too sharply. If the guest list read like a who’s-who of shapeshifters, chances were good some ghosts from her own past would be making an appearance. “My advice, then, is to shake some hands and get the fuck out of there. Fast.”
“Good advice.” Sera’s hand snuck onto her arm again, this time closing tight. “You take it too, Anna. If any of them give you shit, it’s enough that you’re going to stand up there with me. If you want to cut out after the ceremony, I’ll see you after the honeymoon, okay?”
Sera looked so worried that Anna nodded instead of brushing away the concern. “I promise. I’ll head for the hills.”
“Good.” Sera’s grip tightened to just short of painful. “I think I might puke, and I don’t know if it’s stress, pregnancy or how fast you drive.”