Jude turned to the demon who’d set him up to die. “What’s your name?”
His lips thinned.
“Ah, does he want me to beat it out of him?” Dee asked. “If I can’t go hunting with you, at least let me have some fun now.”
“Kyler.”
Jude grunted. “Okay, Kyler, this is how it’s gonna work. You’ll do exactly what I say or you’ll find out what it’s like to have a tiger rip you open.”
The black eyes didn’t blink.
“Got me?” Jude pushed.
A slow incline of his head.
“I’ll be watching you, demon. Every move.” If it looked like the demon was going to sell him out, the bastard would feel a shifter’s rage.
Erin was silent and stiff beside him. The fury and fear raged on her face and the combination seemed to come off her in waves, thickening the air.
“You hired me to do this job,” he reminded her. “So let me do it.
Her golden eyes went glacial. “It’s not just a job. It’s your life!”
And her life. “This is what I do,” he said again. What he had to do, for her. Protecting what you valued most was the way of his breed.
Nothing was more valuable to him than Erin.
Her nostrils flared. “You don’t get so much as another scratch, you understand me? Not a scratch. You go in, stop the freak, and you come back to me.”
He blew out a slow breath. “You know, sweetheart, it sure sounds like you care what happens to me—”
“Don’t be an idiot.” Her finger stabbed into his chest. “You know I—”
Oh, come on, she couldn’t stop there.
“—I do.” Soft. Sad. “So don’t leave me, got it?”
Leave her? Not an option, now or damn ever. “Got it.”
She crushed her mouth to his. Made him ache and need and lust.
Her mouth lifted. Their eyes met. “I’ll be waiting for you.”
Then she brushed past him. The lady climbed the steps with her head high and her shoulders straight. The metal door screeched open when she reached the top.
Jude realized he was holding his breath. Talk about a woman with power.
She could bring him to his knees so easily.
“Oh, damn.” Zane sounded bemused, confused, not like his usual cocky self. “That lady is…something else. Man, did you see the way she fought?” Zane had always had a soft spot for a woman who could kick ass and ignore names.
“Yeah, I did.” There had been no missing the way she’d fought to save him. A smart man held a woman who fought like that very close.
A smart man told her how he really felt, and he worked like hell to make her feel the same way.
“Uh, Jude…” Tony’s voice was back to that drawling roll now, not dazed anymore. “Are you sure about this plan? You don’t know what that ass**le could have waiting for you.”
“He doesn’t know what’s coming for him.” No way was he backing down. “Don’t worry, Tony, I’m not scared of the big, bad wolf.” No, the wolf needed to be scared of him.
The sun was starting to set when Erin marched out of the den twenty minutes later. Red gold lights shot across the sky, looking weakly like trickles of blood.
Her hands fisted. “You’d better come back to me in one piece, Jude.”
He stood behind her, just inside the entrance to the den. “Don’t worry about me.”
Right. “You almost died on me once today.” Not again.
“I’ll have backup.”
The demon.
She stared up at the sky and tried to pretend she was in control. I can handle this.
If she were going with him, she’d be handling it a whole lot better. If she were watching his back…
But Erin knew he was right. The wolf would catch her scent instantly.
Straightening her shoulders, she took a step forward. Dee stood next to a gray SUV, waiting semi-patiently for her. Jude had told the human to stay with her until he returned from the hunt.
A human? For protection? Seriously, she could rip the woman apart in less than ten seconds.
If she were the ripping apart type.
“There’s something you should know, sweetheart.”
She hesitated but didn’t glance back.
“I realized a few things in that filthy hole.”
Yeah, she’d realized some damn important things too. When she’d seen him and he’d been so still, a jarring realization had come real quick. Can’t lose him.
“You stopped being a case for me, hell, almost from day one.”
She kept her shoulders straight and her hands loose at her sides.
“I fell for you fast,” he told her.
What? No, no, he couldn’t mean—
She swallowed and stared up at that bloody sky.
“I’m coming back from this case, and I’ll be coming for you.”
Her hands curled into small fists. “Good.” And she looked back at him, standing so big and strong in that doorway.
“Because if I don’t see your sexy ass within three hours, I’ll be coming for you.” He wasn’t the only one who’d fallen.
And Erin wasn’t about to lose the best thing that had ever happened to her. “Watch that ass, Donovan.”
Their eyes held.
I love you.
The words stuck in her throat. She wanted to say them so badly but—
“You too, sweetheart,” he murmured and her breath caught.
Then he was gone. Jude eased back into the den and she was left with the taste of fear on her tongue.
He watched his mate and fury iced his veins. Her face—her eyes—
Fuck, no.
This wasn’t the way the game was played.
The other shifter—he was prey.
But Erin didn’t look at the tiger as if he were prey.
No, not prey. So much more.
“Bitch,” the word was a growl that broke from his mouth.
He’d done so much for her. Sacrificed and punished—and this was how she repaid him?
Unworthy.
They could have been perfect. Unstoppable. The next evolution for their race.
The tiger had ruined that for him.
Ruined every f**king thing.
“You really think this plan’s going to work?” Erin stood on Jude’s ramshackle porch, her skin cold even though the night was too warm. She stared up at the stars and wondered just how close Jude was to death.
Again.
Bastard.
Be safe. Come back to me.
Because if something happened again, she wasn’t sure she’d get another vision. She’d sure never been able to control the dreams.