“I don’t understand what dream mating means,” Alicia said, not about to get into a discussion of what Jake wanted or didn’t want.

“It seems to run in the Silver genetics. We were all confused, though. It only happens between werewolves, and Jake swore you were strictly human.”

“Having… dreams of him didn’t happen until after I was turned. And then it was if Jake was coming to comfort me after what had happened to me. As though it didn’t matter about what I’d become. Of course, I kept thinking that being a werewolf was like some kind of weird virus and that it would go away. But when we were together, at least in the dreams, I knew he didn’t care what I was. Which in retrospect was crazy, because how would he have known I was a part-time wolf? In my dreams, though, I felt as though he knew because I did.”

Lelandi ran her hand over her arm. “You don’t know how worried I was—well, all of us were—when Jake seemed so depressed. He kept retiring to his bedroom earlier and earlier, and we couldn’t figure out what was wrong.”

Alicia smiled at that. She knew the feeling.

“At first, he’d been so reluctant to drop his pictures off at the art gallery in Breckenridge. Then he didn’t come home until the next night. Darien and I figured he’d met a woman and hung around a while longer. But when he was so disconsolate upon returning and said he was going back to Breckenridge, we didn’t know what to think. Darien was sure Jake was planning on turning a human woman. Not something we do lightly.”

Alicia’s jaw dropped in astonishment. “You weren’t turned?”

“I was born as a lupus garou. Same with most of our people. A few were turned a very long time ago. Every once in a while, the choice has to be made to turn someone who has seen what we are.”

“Or kill them?”

Lelandi nodded. “Not something we want to do, but sometimes it’s our only choice.”

Alicia swallowed hard. “When the woman came to the restroom at the gallery and I had shifted, I was so afraid I’d have to bite her. And then the others. And once the police were summoned, I knew I’d be dead. They’d figure I was a rabid wolf.”

“Until you died,” Lelandi said softly, squeezing Alicia’s hand. “Then you would have turned into a human. And, well, that would have taken some explaining.”

Alicia’s mouth dropped open again. “Ohmigod.”

“Yes. That’s why until you get your shape-shifting abilities under control, you need to stay with only our kind.”

Then Alicia had another horrible thought. “One of the men who planned to kill me—I bit him. What if I turned him?”

Chapter 13

Danny stood before Mario in his Breckenridge condo as Mario forked up another sausage link, trying to keep his temper under control. “What I want to know is why you failed to bring the woman back with you and how two of my men died. Hell, it took seven weeks just to locate her.”

Mario’s voice was low and cold, and he was ready to kill Danny with his bare hands. He hadn’t murdered anyone like that since he was in his teens. For years, he’d had his henchmen doing his dirty work. Looked like he was going to have to get this job done himself, if he wanted it done right.

He still couldn’t believe the woman had given up her chance to earn the bounty on him just to turn him in. He smiled evilly at the thought. Too bad she’d had her information wrong and the police had arrived at his old residence only hours after he and Danny had split.

He shoved his clean plate aside, grabbed his pen, and pulled the newspaper crossword puzzle closer.

Ten across, nine letters: Extremely unpleasant experience.

Danny looked peeved, not at all like a man whose head would be on the chopping block next. “I told you, boss. She shot Smithie and escaped. A vicious dog was in the room, and when me and Cicero tried to storm the place, the dog attacked. I got Cicero to the car and he died. I didn’t know he had a heart condition. But that’s what Doc said. The damned dog crushed Cicero’s arm, and it triggered the heart attack.”

Mario wrote in the word purgatory on the crossword. “Describe this dog to me again.” He lifted his eyes from the newspaper.

“It looked like a German shepherd. The same kind of head. But… not exactly the same kind of colors.”

“Could it have been a wolf?”

Danny stared at Mario as if he was crazy.

“Could it have been?” Mario demanded.

“I guess so. I never seen a wolf up close.” Danny’s face looked drained of all color, the notion that a wolf might have gotten the best of him probably crossing his mind. “Yeah, it could’ve been.”

Mario looked back at his puzzle. Two down, six letters: Vibration.

“When you killed your brother, there wasn’t any sign of a dog in his place, was there?”

Thoughtful-like, Danny’s eyes stared at the floor. “No. I didn’t see any water dishes, dog-food dishes, nothing.”

Mario shook his head. “Just a dog.”

“No. Ferdinand was alone. He wouldn’t have had a dog. He didn’t like kids or animals.”

“Before you killed Jimmy, he said Ferdinand had grabbed a woman. That she’d been following me. Jimmy didn’t know her name, but it had to be Alicia Greiston. So where was she when you located Ferdinand at his place?”

“I swear I looked through the place. She wasn’t there.”

Mario just bet she had been. Damn, if only the henchman he’d sent to murder Ferdinand in the first place hadn’t gotten himself killed instead. And he wondered now if the man had bitten Ferdinand somehow in the process and turned him.

Mario pondered that as he stared at the crossword puzzle, not really seeing it. If the idiot had attacked Ferdinand as a wolf, but Ferdinand had managed to kill the assassin instead, Ferdinand had to have turned into a werewolf later, too. No wonder he’d been so good at tracking Mario.

Mario had turned some of his men himself, thinking they might become better assassins, but the experiment had proved fruitless. Three turned gunmen on his payroll were now dead; all three had had problems with shape-shifting at the most inconvenient times. He’d considered changing his cousin, but Mario didn’t think Danny could handle it any better than his other men had. He thought about Cicero, too. If the man had survived the heart attack, he probably would have been turned when the wolf bit him.

But if Mario’s men had trailed Alicia to her hotel in Crestview and she’d been alone, where had the “dog” come from? Mario allowed himself a small smile as the crossword puzzle came back into focus and he wrote tremor. Crossword puzzles were his daily regimen—an attempt to keep Alzheimer’s at bay, as working the puzzles was supposed to do, since the insidious curse had affected both his parents.

His thoughts shifted back to Alicia Greiston. He assumed she was a wolf now. Ferdinand must have shape-shifted, then bit her and turned her, wanting her for a mate. Maybe even realizing Mario wanted Alicia. Since Mario had murdered Ferdinand’s girlfriend, Candy, turning Alicia would be a way of getting back at Mario.

With Ferdinand dead, Alicia was Mario’s. He’d been a wolf for five years, since one of his adversaries had bitten him. He’d been angrier than hell at the time, but he’d soon realized how beneficial his newfound traits were. Except for the need to have a mate. The gorgeous bubbleheads he’d turned all had ended up being liabilities. Until he’d had them eliminated.

“What do you want me to do, boss?”

Alicia had to be running as a wolf. Newly turned, she might not be able to control her shape-shifting ability. Until the new moon appeared. Then she wouldn’t be able to keep her wolf form. Danny wouldn’t be able to locate her as well as Mario could. Not without wolf instincts. This was one job Mario had to take care of on his own. Although he’d send his men out looking for her just the same. Didn’t hurt to be sure. But in the end, he had to do this alone.

One thing was certain: he had no other competition in the area. The she-wolf would be his, especially after all the trouble she’d caused him.

***

Jake had had a devil of a time forcing himself not to pace while Lelandi was still upstairs with Alicia. He wanted Alicia alone, but Darien insisted on speaking with her. As much as Jake hated to admit it, Darien was right. The pack leader always had to know what trouble his pack might be up against. Jake knew that, yet he was having a hard time letting go of his need to be with Alicia after their forced separation and her near-death experience.

When he heard two pairs of footfalls on the stairs, he turned to watch for the women.

Darien rose from his chair and Tom joined them from the kitchen. Sheriff Peter had solicited some of their men for outdoor guard duty so he had already left the house.

As soon as the two women appeared, Jake had eyes only for Alicia. Her eyes were dark and shadowed, her skin pale despite the red T-shirt reflecting off it. Her brown curls swept her shoulders, but his gaze quickly took in her clothes. The T-shirt fit her nicely, showing off her perky breasts, and the jeans fit snugly. She wasn’t wearing the flip-flops, though. Her bare feet made her appear even sexier, like she was ready to shuck the rest of her clothes to be with him.

His gaze lifted to her face, and she gave him a tremulous smile. He crossed the room at a quickened pace, drew her into his arms, and when she tilted her face up to his, he kissed her.

Nothing gentle about it—his need to see her safe and protected was warring with his craving to make her his own. He didn’t care that his brothers or Lelandi were undoubtedly watching him unabashed. His kiss was just as greedy as Alicia’s was, yet tender in the way they pressed and nuzzled and opened up to each other, exploring and loving all over again.

“Guess we don’t need a Gathering,” Tom said, his tone amused.

Jake ignored him. No way in hell were they having a Gathering to give any other eligible bachelors in the pack the chance to court her. She had been Jake’s the moment he’d laid eyes on her, and she had shown her interest in him right back.