by Lauren Dane
“What can I do?” Renee put her arm around Kendra’s waist. The soothing energy filled her as they linked.
Cat and wolf joined them, enraged males in full protection mode prowling around, their growls bringing the hair on the back of Kendra’s neck up.
“It can’t get past the wards.” She relaxed slightly, but never let her attention waver from the threat outside. The fullness of all that magickal energy washed over her, adding to the strength of the walls to keep the darker magics out.
“Is it the same as before?” Jack, Renee’s other husband asked—a reference to a series of magical attacks on Renee just a few weeks before.
She listened to it, thought over it before looking to her sister. “What do you see, Ren?”
Renee licked her lips. “It seems…not exactly the same, but similar.”
“I agree.” She turned back to Jack. “I need to go outside. Keep her in here.”
“Oh, no fucking way.” A male just slightly smaller than a mountain stepped in her path.
Being kept somewhere by force was a real hot button. Max or not, no one kept her where she didn’t want to be. Not anymore.
She stepped back, trying to remain rational. “I have to go out there to get a better read. All these shifters in here have their own sort of magick and I can’t see through it to get an accurate estimate of what’s going on.”
His eyes weren’t brown, they were deep black, like obsidian, and they gave him an air of absolute authority and no small amount of menace. He was fiercely beautiful and standing so close to him sent all sorts of signals rushing through her system. She swallowed and blinked a few times.
He noted her deliberate distance and didn’t move to close it, but she could see in his body language that he wanted to. Part of her responded, liking it. But not all.
He clenched his jaw and she watched, fascinated until he finally spoke. “Just because Renee was the target before doesn’t mean you won’t be now. You could be in as much danger as she is. Now that it’s known you’re her sister, how can you be sure you won’t be attacked like she was?”
She frowned. “Because what she is, is altogether unique due to the nature of her bond with Jack and Galen. I’m just a run-of-the-mill witch. Powerful, yes, but not that unique. In any case, it needs to be done, Max. With the dream Renee had just a few nights ago, we have way more questions than answers.”
She moved to walk around him and noticed the other shifters standing nearby were all watching Max, as if he was the boss of her!
Galen put a staying hand on her forearm. “Maybe you should stay inside.”
It was the wrong time for it, it wasn’t his intention and she knew it, but she recoiled anyway, hating that weakness in herself and her inability to get past it.
“I need to go,” she muttered and tried to get down the stairs.
“Wait! Kendra, are you all right?” Galen followed her and Max moved past them both to block the door.
“I need to go outside.” She grabbed the door handle but as Max leaned there, the door wouldn’t budge. “It’s gone! Let me out.” She flicked her gaze up into Max’s face and watched his temerity fade into something else. Not so much pity, but he definitely saw into her more than she wanted him to.
“Let me go,” she growled at him. He smiled slowly, chasing part of her fear with tingles of pleasure. She had no idea what to make of him. At all.
“Galen, why don’t you take everyone back inside and call Rosemary?” Max’s voice was a sexy rumble, though he kept his body against the door. His attention shifted back to her. “You and I need to talk.”
“I don’t think so, buster. Our aunt isn’t in town right now and I’m as good as she is at this point anyway. I’m telling you it’s gone. All this was for nothing because you’re blocking my way. I don’t like being held someplace without my permission.” And she didn’t like how her voice broke.
“Max, move out of her way.” Renee pushed her way through the throng of men on the stairs and down into the entry. “Can’t you see you’re scaring her?” she said far more quietly.
Kendra took a deep breath and rubbed her fingers across her eyes.
“Stop talking about me like I’m five. I need to go and you’re going to let me, Max de La Vega, or I will make you.” She stared him in the face and held her ground even though she knew the headache she’d get in a few minutes would make her sorry.
“Doesn’t look so scared to me. Your sister is made of pretty stern stuff.” He broke his gaze with her to look to Renee. “Sweetheart, why don’t you go back upstairs with Galen and Jack? I’ll make sure Kendra is safe.” Max’s look at her sister was fond, it was clear he liked Renee and Kendra liked that. However, he was still a giant, hot lunkhead.
“Kendra, are you all right?” Renee asked, undaunted by all that testosterone.
Not right now. She just couldn’t. “I…we can talk about it another time. I’m okay now. I just have to go.”
“Max, back off!” Her pint-sized sister pushed at Max, who looked over her head to Galen, who shook his own.
“Kendra, did I hurt you?” Galen asked, concern clear in his features.
“No, no you didn’t.” She wanted to reassure Galen, but the whole situation was beginning to be embarrassing and she wanted to escape. “Really, I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Ren, you and I will get that celebratory chili dog tomorrow, okay? After school is out, I’ll meet you at the smoothie bar and we’ll go.”
“You can stay over tonight if you want. Have pizza with us.” Renee took Kendra’s hands.
She kissed Renee’s cheek. “Thanks. I appreciate it, but I think you understand about being alone sometimes.”
Renee nodded. “Why don’t I drive you home?”
“I’ve got it, Renee.” Max stepped away from the door, moving everyone back a step.
Kendra used that moment to grab her coat and head out onto the porch. “Stay inside, Ren. You call me if it comes back. Trust the wards and yourself.”
She waved and jogged down the steps, taking a deep breath of the nearly freezing air into her lungs.
At the gate, Max caught up with her. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m checking the warding, Dad. That okay with you?”
“As a matter of fact, no. You’re making yourself a target right now. What if this thing is still out there waiting?”
“Of course we’re being watched! I’m not even a freaking next in line to the throne of a jaguar jamboree and I know that. But we’re being watched one way or another anyway. Why not know who it is? Why not work to gain as much information as we can? With all we suspect right now, I can’t believe you’d expect me to just pretend and hope it all goes away.”
“You know, you’re a school teacher.”
She blinked up at him. He was so random. “And?”
He growled and paced. “You’re supposed to be quiet and gentle and sweet.”
She began to wonder if he’d knocked his head on something. “Oh is that how I’m supposed to be? I wasn’t aware. You’re the one who’s totally random. I thought lawyers were supposed to be logical and liked gathering information before making judgments. Did you huff Lysol or something? What’s wrong with you?”
He stopped and stared before a laugh erupted from him. A deep, smooth, smoky laugh that sent her agitation fleeing.
“What? Now you’re laughing at me? Haha! I’m a super sexy jaguar, fear me!” she mimicked.
One of his eyebrows rose and again with the tingles. The man was a menace. “Do you think the laugh was to make you afraid? Why do I get the feeling that when it counts, you push past the fear and do what needs to be done?”
Not like anyone else was going to do it for her. “Max, don’t try to analyze me, I’m not that interesting.”
He stepped close, not scaring her at all, just sort of stealing her breath with his nearness. “Sexy huh?” Leaning down, he nuzzled at her neck, and she had to trap the groan she wanted to give him
for it.
“I’m trying to work here.” She hated that her voice had turned breathy like a cartoon-character vixen.
“So am I. You’ve been here long enough to get to know us, see how we are. It’s in my DNA to protect.”
“Is it in your DNA to sniff me?”
He did it again and this time she couldn’t stop the soft sigh of pleasure from sneaking through her lips.
“It’s because you smell so good. Your magick, the way your skin smells right here below your ear, drives me crazy. Three days since the last time I could touch you, taste you.” He licked her neck and she nearly came.
Her heart thundered in her chest as she stepped back. “Shut the fuck up while I do this. You’re messing with my concentration.” She stomped off, annoyance warring with warmth and undeniable sexual chemistry.
She was right, there was no threat outside. Still, Max shadowed her as she moved, giving her the space to work, but keeping close enough to protect her if it was necessary. He didn’t hide his smile. He messed with her concentration? Every breath Kendra Kellogg took messed with his concentration. Even now as she did her magick mojo thing, moving around the yard efficiently, spilling that vibrant red-golden, warm magick in her wake, she took up every bit of his imagination and attention.
She was spirited, a huge turn-on for him. He loved women with an attitude, smart, strong women who didn’t take any shit. He liked her sense of humor and the way she stood up to him.
His cat loved her strength. She was fierce, the kind of woman a man could trust.
It probably wouldn’t have been as bad if he hadn’t scented her. Twice. That was more intimate than the brief kiss of a few nights ago. Now her scent lived in him. God in heaven she smelled like sex. Like sex and comfort; like strong, sexy witch, and his cat practically kneaded his insides to get to her.
No one had affected him the way she did and he didn’t quite know what to do with it. What he did know was the idea of her being in danger had set his cat so close to the surface he paced, on guard, just to keep his human skin. He supposed it was simply another piece of proof that she was indeed meant to be his.
“What do you sense?” he asked when she got near enough to hear.
“Nothing. Not even a smear of the dark energy. Maybe I was wrong.” She frowned, shivering. He stepped closer, giving her some of his body heat, satisfied when she stopped shivering.
He doubted very much that she’d been wrong about the attack, though. He’d watched her from day one. She seemed to have a good grasp of her abilities. “Do you really think so?”
She thought for long moments before shaking her head no. “I don’t think I was wrong at all.”
“Me either. I think you felt it and I think your father has something to do with it.”
Her eyes lost their warmth at the mention of her father, not that Max blamed her. He’d be right in line behind Jack and Galen when they finally got hold of Andrew Parcell, or whatever the fuck the man was really named.
“Now that we know he had some involvement in my mother’s death, I have every reason to believe he’s connected to these other attacks. I don’t like that. At all. I don’t know what they have of Renee’s. That bitch most likely kept her hair or other physical links. I think I found a way to nullify that. When I find them they’re going have to deal with me. I will find them. And they’ll pay. For what they did to our mother, and for what they did to my sister.”
Christ, when she got bloodthirsty it only made him want her more. He cocked his head and spoke before he meant to. “You enchant me.”
That startled her. “I do? Is that a good thing?”
He laughed. “Yes. No. Hell I don’t know, but I like it. I plan to explore that. With you. Just so you know.”
She pursed her lips. “Oh.” She licked her lips, as if she tasted the words before saying them. “All right.”
He shook his head at her when she grinned his way.
She’d hit him like a bus, knocked into his consciousness when he had least expected it. Kendra Kellogg left him dazed and wanting more. Earlier that afternoon when she’d come out of Renee’s office he’d just watched her. Fascinated that she looked like Renee, and yet totally different. Her chic curtain of super straight hair, short enough to leave her neck exposed, those eyes, far more green than brown, thickly lashed and God, the dimples at each corner of that fucking delicious mouth—she was the loveliest thing he’d ever seen.
He’d been deep in a naughty fantasy about a hunt to see if she had any more freckles than the ones he’d seen on her forearms, when her entire demeanor had changed, became serious.
His cat had gone on instant alert, dragging all the cats in the room into hypervigilance with him. Jack had as well, the wolves cued to his moods in much the same way. Max had stood, looking to her. Taking his cues from her.
It had been the way she braced her feet apart and took on an onslaught of dark magics that had really pushed him into acting at long last. The kiss had been impulsive, but now he was decisive. He wanted her and she needed to know it. Her ferocity had pushed every last one of his defenses away.
That and the look of fear and panic when Galen had touched her and he’d blocked the door, the recoil she was able to get control of fairly quickly. Someone had done that to her, hurt her so that despite her strength, her first instinct was to try to make herself smaller and get out of arm’s reach. Like prey.
Every male on the landing and in the hallway had felt it, seen it, and went into overdrive, wanting to protect her. Max did what he always did, he acted decisively and in doing so, found himself totally off balance and unsure for the first time since he was a teenage boy.
“Whatever it was or whoever sent it, it’s gone.” She looked around the yard, pretending he hadn’t just told her he’d set his cap for her. “It’s fine out here,” she said quietly.
“Are they safe?” He jerked a thumb toward the house.
“None of us are safe until this is dealt with. But this house and yard will hold safely. I’ll go out to Cambridge tomorrow and talk with Mary.”
“Mary?”
“She’s a powerful practitioner, a friend of my aunt’s. Mary’s been away for a month, but left a note that she’d be back this week and told me to stop in.” Kendra reached for the gate, and in her full view, slowly but firmly, Max put his hand over hers.
“You look shaken. I’m taking you to dinner.”
She opened her mouth, most likely to argue, these sisters were quite alike on that front.
“You can tell me about Mary and your plans. Fill me in on just how safe you are at your apartment too. Gibson will only ask me about it tomorrow anyway.”
“You’re bossy.”
“So everyone tells me. It’s my job to be bossy. But you’re no doormat, I know it and so do you.” He reached out and ran a fingertip over the tips of her hair. “No matter who tries to make you feel otherwise.”
“Why do you want to take me to dinner? Really?”
Oh she had no idea. He smiled at her, slow and assessing. Her eyes widened and then slid a quarter down, sexy and slumberous and all sorts of buttons and levers got pushed at the sight.
“I want to take care of you. You look pale. Got a heavy scare. And I like you.”
“Even if I’m feeling like steak and lobster?” She smirked, teasing. He liked it. Only his family teased him. It was intimate and showed she trusted him.
“Mmm, sounds very good.” He held out an arm and she sighed before taking it. “What? You thought I’d be scared off by an expensive dinner? I know just the place and you can have the biggest lobster in the tank if you want.”
“And cake?”
“Two slices, if that’s what you desire. Though they make a mean crème brûlée you might want to try instead.”
“If you’re sure you wouldn’t you rather be inside watching sports and eating pizza with your friends.”
“I’m sure. I can get into a fight over football with Galen any day of the week.
My office is only two doors down from his. If I need trash talk, I know where to go for it.”
He opened her car door and helped her inside, looking up and down the block before he got in on the driver’s side.
Her scent rose between them, warm, sharp and vibrant. He breathed deep before pulling away from the curb. Yeah, that’s the ticket, he thought. He could easily get used to her there in his car.
“Seems to me you two do more than talk trash. Renee and I tease each other, but I’ve never broken her nose.”
He burst out laughing as he navigated through traffic. “You aren’t shifters.”
“Is that why your sister Beth has been such a bitch to Renee?”
He sobered with a heavy sigh. “Beth has issues. Not because she’s a shifter.”
“She’s a bitch either way,” Kendra murmured and he laughed again.
“She is. But something tells me when you come into the family you won’t take any guff from her.”
“Come into the family?”
“I don’t believe in pretending not to see the inevitable. You and I are inevitable.”
She made a snorting sound. “You’re pretty sure of yourself.”
At a red light he turned to face her. “Comes with the alpha territory. I’m a confident man and you, gorgeous witch, are an intelligent woman. There’s something between us. You and I are going somewhere, and I think it’s silly to pretend otherwise.”
She bit her lip, consternation on her face. “Light’s green.”
Max grinned and kept driving.
Chapter Three
The place was small, a neighborhood steakhouse with old-school dark wood paneling and leather chairs. Candles in votives cast spare light into the room, but enough to see where to walk. She didn’t need light to smell the heaven wafting from the kitchen anyway.