Zelda swallowed hard, feeling a sense of responsibility coming over her. “He can learn how to control it, how to work his new senses with us. I’m sure the pack will take him in.”

  “He’ll be a wolf, not a fox.”

  Shit.

  “That won’t matter. Not too much.”

  She hoped.

  Victor suddenly looked angry. His mouth tightened. His big arms somehow managed to look even bigger as he crossed them over his chest, shaking his head. “It won’t matter. If he’s going to be a shifter, then he will have all the scents to go with it. He might even be able to identify the fuckers who got him on the road.”

  Zelda latched onto that good piece of news and held it tightly to her chest. “Right? This will work out, and being a shifter isn’t so bad. The best part is he’s not a born shifter, so he won’t have the goofy ears and tail to bother with. He’ll blend in just fine.”

  Victor didn’t take her up on her joke. “He could have died. He could have died on the road or during the change. He’s lucky to be alive. When I find those punks who did this to him…” He pressed his lips together, as though he couldn’t even speak the words he wanted.

  Zelda wasn’t going to be able to make him feel better with a joke. She could tell that right now. Too much was happening. Too much was going wrong.

  “The point is that he made it. He’s still alive.”

  Victor nodded, though it didn’t look as though he’d heard much of what she’d said.

  Zelda sighed. “I’ll have to put together a gift basket for him now.”

  Victor blinked, coming out of his angry haze just a little. “A gift basket?”

  She shrugged. “Right, for helping to watch over me.”

  “You’re not going to suggest this is somehow your fault?”

  “No, not really,” though she did feel guilty for it. “I just figured that he should be introduced to his new life as a shifter with a bang. I can, I don’t know, get him a subscription to one of those places that deliver all kinds of good steaks every week. I hear those go over well for people.”

  At least that time she got her laugh out of Victor. He apparently thought it was enough of a good idea that he helped her look up the names of some companies that would do it.

  They weren’t able to visit Steve until the next day. By then, though he was still massively covered in bandages and wasn’t allowed to leave his bed, he seemed awake and clear-headed. Almost normal, healthy.

  He was definitely happy when Victor walked into his room. Zelda felt good about that, about watching the two men hug each other like brothers. Victor even made a comment on Steve’s strength.

  Steve’s new healing abilities were going to come in major handy for getting him out of here sooner than what would have been possible had he still been human.

  “They said I’m going to be a wolf.”

  Zelda tried not to look too obvious in the room. Guilt still hit her hard for that, even though she knew she shouldn’t bear that burden. She wasn’t the one who had slashed up Steve’s skin.

  Of course, he wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her either.

  “How you feeling about that?”

  Steve shrugged. “Fine, I guess. It’s…weird. I’m going to have to get a trainer. Someone to watch over me during my first full moons.”

  That was right. Zelda didn’t even feel the pull of the moon. It was just any other night for her.

  Newcomers tended to have two or three where they went…a little wild.

  Not always in a bad way, and it was rarely like what the old movies liked to portray it as, but that didn’t stop people from putting it into law that anyone new to the life of a shifter needed constant monitoring until they were fit to return to their public lives.

  “Well, you know there’s not going to be a problem coming back to work, right?”

  Steve grinned. “Better damn not be. Someone’s got to watch out for your dumbass once in a while.”

  Zelda snorted a little. She couldn’t hold it back.

  She’d never heard anyone call Victor a dumbass before. Not that she knew him long enough to be that close to him, but it was kind of funny, knowing he and his friends were that close with each other.

  Victor gave her a look.

  Steve swatted him on the leg. “There, you see? She knows what I’m talking about.”

  “She doesn’t know anything.”

  Zelda couldn’t help but chime in. “I don’t know, I’d love to hear all about why your friend would call you a dumbass.”

  “I’ve got loads of embarrassing stories for you,” Steve promised.

  Zelda was only too eager to hear them.

  “All right, that’s enough of that. I just came here to give you your stupid flowers and make sure you’re eating right, not so you could give my client any ideas.”

  Steve eyed Victor a little funny. “So it’s back to client?”

  Zelda had never really thought of it before, but now that she did, she figured it only made sense that Steve would know of her and Victor’s tentative relationship with each other.

  He and Victor weren’t just business partners, they were also friends. Very good friends, from the looks of it. He would know Victor had stopped taking payments for watching over her. They would have discussed it, and even if Victor didn’t outright tell Steve why, he would have figured it out.

  Zelda and Victor looked at each other. She didn’t know what he was planning on saying. Zelda didn’t know what she should say either. When they’d had sex after her little self-defense class seemed far away, like a one off in the face of everything that was happening right now.

  “It’s complicated,” Victor said.

  Which was more than she expected him to say after all that.

  It wasn’t an I love you, but with how seriously he took his position as her protector, and the way she’d been slowly chipping at his defenses, it was pretty close.

  He seemed to know it, too. If the little quirk in his lips was any indication.

  Despite everything, Zelda couldn’t help but feel warmed by the whole thing.

  Chapter 24

  After that, Zelda felt more confident going to and from the hotel with her ears and tail exposed. Not too many people turned their heads at her, and the ones who did look didn’t stare for long.

  Many people seemed to be forgetting about the excitement of the shifter who had fought off the police, and she wasn’t the only guest with her ears and tail out anymore either.

  She kept in touch with Mike and her brother, relieved every time to hear their voices, and everything was almost…normal.

  She could almost be having a little staycation with her boyfriend.

  Except that Victor didn’t touch her in the night. That was the only problem Zelda was forced to deal with.

  She went to bed, sometimes wearing only her bra and panties, splaying herself out, making sure all signs pointed to Open, but he never took the hint.

  Usually, Zelda fell asleep to the sound of his fingers clacking on the keyboard of his laptop. He was in constant contact with the detectives in charge of her case, always looking over the building plans for the hotel, as though he needed to know where all the exits were blindfolded.

  Zelda supposed she wouldn’t love and respect him the way she did if he was anything less than diligent. She didn’t like the idea that he was staying up until five in the morning going over all the notes and photographs he’d been given access to, but she had to admit, there was something about the way he worked that appealed to her.

  She was into hard-working night owls. Basically, the very thing Harry had not been.

  She dreamed about Harry some nights. She didn’t like those dreams, especially on the nights when she couldn’t tell she was dreaming.

  Sometimes she saw herself back in his house. He was found innocent of Maxwell’s murder and she was back to cooking his meals and cleaning up his house, praying he would forget that she was the one who put the attention of the police on him in the first place.

  Other nights, she dreamed of the moment she realized Harry had killed Maxwell. She could almost smell the same scents in the house as she snuck closer to the top of the stairs, listening to Harry as he sounded somewhere between panicked and angry.

  Ben had been telling him to calm down. Gerard hadn’t said anything. His arms had been crossed stoically over his chest. He’d been silent. When Zelda had gotten a look at his face, she could see how tight his neck and jaw were clenched, as though incredibly unhappy with Harry’s display.

  Not very leader-like, she imagined. He’d probably been thinking about how great it would be when he finally got to knock off Harry as well and take his place as the proper alpha of the pack.

  Then Gerard looked up at her.

  Zelda froze.

  It’s just a dream. He can’t really see you. He’s not really looking at you.

  No matter how hard she thought about it, it didn’t take away from the terror of having those eyes locked on her while she heard her husband admit to killing Maxwell, to being freaked out by the show he’d made when he’d died, and what the fuck was he going to do with the pack now?

  Zelda backed away, into the darkness of the house, heart hammering, waiting for her husband and his friends to come for her, to drag her downstairs and demand to know what she’d heard.

  She called the police instead, then hid on the roof of her house until they came.

  “Hey.”

  Zelda snapped her eyes open, her heart still slamming against her ribs, but her relief at the light in the room, at the sight of Victor standing above her, was immense.

  Dream was over. She wasn’t trapped in the dark, she wasn’t waiting on the roof of the house she’d shared with Harry, and she was perfectly safe.

  “You all right?”

  Victor asked the question as though he would chase away the demons himself if he could.

  Zelda rubbed her face, sitting up. “I’m fine.”

  “You sure?”

  His hands were still on her shoulder. She liked that. She liked that he was touching her again, even if it was just like this.

  She wanted more than that. She wanted more than just his hands.

  “I had a…”

  He knew there was only one thing it could have been, but saying it out loud, that she’d been having a bad dream, seemed so childish in the face of everything else.

  Of course he knew, and Victor understood. She could see it in his eyes.

  “Take your time. You don’t have to rush anything for anyone. Don’t try proving anything to yourself. It’s all right to…feel out of your element in situations like this.”

  “Would you tell me that even if you weren’t my bodyguard?”

  His hand cupped the back of her head. “Of course I would.”

  The way he looked at her, how close he was to her…felt so utterly warm and intimate. Zelda felt an immediate response in her body.

  Maybe Victor felt it, too, because right then, his hand fell away from her hair.

  Zelda snatched his wrists before he could pull back. “Don’t.”

  He shook his head, his voice heavy. “We really shouldn’t.”

  “It’s too late for that.”

  She knew it. He knew it. She hated having to fight for what she wanted. She hated having to struggle just to feel his mouth on hers, or his hands on her body. He was welcome to her mouth and body whenever he wanted, but he acted as though there was some barrier sitting between them.

  Victor looked away from her, his mouth doing that quirking thing it did whenever he was trying to fight off a smile. Of course, he wasn’t able to fight it for long. “God, you have no idea what you do to me.”

  She blinked. “Really?”

  Victor looked at her, and in his eyes, she saw something almost animal, that hint of the other side of him that wasn’t entirely human. “You know I shouldn’t. I know I shouldn’t, but every time I do, it chips away at my principles. I don’t do this kind of thing with clients.”

  “Of course not. I’m special.” She was happy enough to admit that. “I just wish you wouldn’t fight it so much.”

  “You don’t understand. I understand how a mating is supposed to work, but the fact that I can’t control this…despite what it could do to you…” He huffed a heavy sigh, shaking his head. “A man can only turn down a beautiful woman so many times, though.”

  He kissed her. It was sudden, warm, and immediately intoxicating. Zelda’s shock melted out of her quickly, replaced with heat and relief as she let her hands slide up his white button-down.

  He apparently hadn’t gone to bed again last night. Zelda wanted to tell him that if he really wanted to keep her safe, then he should have sex with her and start sleeping instead of avoiding her and staying up all night.

  One was definitely healthier than the other.

  Victor pushed her back down onto the bed. A soft, hungry growl rippled up his chest and out his throat. The sound excited her. She knew she had him. There was no need to tell him to get his sleep. When she was done with him, he was going to need a few hours as it was.

  Victor’s hands slid down her body, reaching the end of the T-shirt she’d stolen from him last night in a desperate hope that he would think the sight of her in his clothes was sexy.

  When his rough fingers pushed the hem of the T-shirt up her stomach, Zelda became suddenly way more aware of the fact that she hadn’t showered yesterday. She definitely needed to shave her legs and armpits, and brushing her teeth seemed like a solid plan.

  “Wait,”

  “I can’t.”

  She couldn’t either. His hands found her nipples, fingers pinching and tweaking them, making her spine arch from the sudden pleasure of it.

  Still, she didn’t want to go to bed gross.

  “Uh, not that I don’t like what you’re doing, but…God, I think I need to at least brush my teeth.”

  He froze, yanking his body back, which was a shame because she’d been enjoying what he’d been doing.

  “You’re worried about that?”

  “About morning breath when you’re kissing me? Yeah. And my legs are prickly.”

  He smiled at her, that predatory look back in his eyes as his palm rested on her ankle and slid up her leg.

  “No, don’t do that.”

  “Why? It doesn’t bother me.”

  That shocked her. “It always bothered Harry.”

  Mentioning his name when Victor was trying to seduce her was apparently not the best idea in the world.

  Zelda grabbed his shoulders before he could pull away from her. “Not that I think you’re Harry, or anything like him.”

  “You’re making me hate that guy a lot more than I already do.”

  Zelda looked at him, searching for any hint of sarcasm, or pandering, or any small signs that he was just saying the things she wanted him to say to spare her feelings.

  She wasn’t getting any of that from him. It was kind of strange. “It really doesn’t bother you that I’m gross right now?”

  He looked at her like she was nuts. “You’re not gross, Zelda. If you stunk, don’t worry, I wouldn’t be all over you like this. This, on the other hand…” He let his hand slide up and down her leg again. “Is nothing.”

  “It’s pretty bad.”

  “You’re hardly a hairy monkey. It’s just the tiniest bit of stubble. I can maybe see it if I squint my eyes.” He grabbed her hand, bringing her palm to his face. “Do you like mine?”

  Boy, did she ever. Zelda swallowed hard. “It’s sexy on a man.”

  “And I think it’s sexy on you. I don’t mind a little hair on my women. It’s a good reminder that you are a woman.”

  “Oh?” She lifted a brow, feeling herself relax despite her complaints. “You need reminding of that often?”

  “You’d be shocked at how many women insist on having every inch of themselves waxed from the nose down. It’s kind of off-putting. I like knowing I’m in bed with a woman.”

  His hands spread her thighs apart. Zelda thought she should resist, maybe offer to do this with him in the shower so she could clean up and make love to him, but everything he was saying and doing was so perfect. She didn’t want to move as he kissed his way down her belly, lifting the T-shirt up her thighs and exposing her to him.

  And while she had kept herself decently groomed down there, she did have hair to speak of, and there hadn’t been all the time in the world lately to trim the bushes, so to speak.

  “I like you just like this.”

  Victor almost said it as a moan, and when his mouth touched down on her sex, Zelda thought she was going to implode.

  Her hands immediately went into his hair, gripping him hard, holding on for dear life, and Victor showed her just how much he liked her as she was.

  Chapter 25

  Victor kissed her with more desire and heat than he had after their brief time after her self-defense lesson. Which was saying something considering he wasn’t kissing her mouth.

  All thoughts and self-doubts were thrown right out the window as Zelda became lost to her pleasure.

  She could hardly think, gasping and panting for air as though there wasn’t enough in their hotel room. He pushed his tongue deep; it was so utterly scandalous and shocking that he’d done it with such confidence that Zelda shouted out loud. She clasped her hand over her mouth, staring down at Victor with wide eyes, as though making sure he hadn’t noticed the sound.

  He kept right on with what he was doing, as though he hadn’t heard, but that wasn’t possible. He had to have heard it, but he was so focused on his work that he didn’t so much as look at up her.

  And he was flicking his tongue inside her. Oh God. It was so unfair how confident he was at this, how good.

  Zelda wished she could give to him what he was giving to her with the same zest and energy, but she didn’t think she would be able to come right out of the gate with that kind of skill.

  “G-Gonna practice on you.”

  Victor apparently heard that. He looked up at her. “What was that?”

 

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