“Didn’t trust me, did you?”
Ryan’s voice held an edge of amusement that made Evie frown and pull her gaze back to Ryan’s.
“Trust you to do what?” she asked.
Ryan’s smile made her stomach do curious things but it could have been the second growl from the animal at his feet.
“Trust me to seduce you.”
* * * * *
“So, Ryan’s coming for dinner?”
Cat hopped up onto the kitchen counter, crunching away at a carrot as Evie tore lettuce for a salad.
She’d never been much of a cook. Her brother John had been more than kind when he’d referred to anything she had to cook as “edible”.
But really, how could she screw up steak and salad?
Maybe she didn’t want to know the answer to that question.
Lately, she hadn’t wanted to know the answers to a lot of questions.
And she still didn’t know how she’d gotten talked into making dinner for a man she’d just met today.
“It wasn’t like I invited him,” Evie said. “He caught me off guard and basically told me he’d see me later.”
“And Dane didn’t give you any hint that Ryan was coming?”
The knife thunked against the wooden cutting board, harder than she’d planned. Her nerves were more than a little frazzled.
“Of course not. Dane doesn’t really like to talk to me. You know that.”
Because the first time she’d met him, she’d pulled so much power she’d forced him to change into his wolf.
To call that disturbing would be an understatement. Especially for a man who valued control as much as Dane.
“Oh, I definitely wouldn’t say that.”
Evie knew that tone. Cat wanted to talk about Dane.
She considered ignoring the girl, but she knew from experience that once Cat latched on to something, she was like a dog with a bone.
Which, given the fact Cat was also lucani, wasn’t something she would ever say. She’d never say anything derogatory to Cat.
Putting the knife aside, she turned to look at the girl, who had a grin a mile wide on her face and wasn’t attempting to hide it. It made her even more beautiful, Evie decided.
Cat had a Julia Roberts smile. Julia Roberts lit up like birthday cake full of glowing candles when she smiled. So did Cat. Her blue eyes shone like sapphires and she just looked so damn pretty, it was no wonder her dads, Kyle and Dan, threatened every other day to lock her away until she was fifty.
Evie was pretty sure Dan was just teasing. Kyle… Well, let’s just say Evie wouldn’t put it past Kyle to mean it.
Since those first tumultuous weeks with the Etruscans, when Evie had been so damn terrified, both men had treated her like another daughter. And Evie, who’d been without parents for too many years, had immediately taken to them. Cat didn’t seem to mind sharing her dads or her mom Margorie, for which Evie would be eternally grateful.
Evie would’ve cracked under the stress of the past few months if not for the community that had adopted her and John.
But there were days she still wasn’t sure she wasn’t going to break.
“Cat, the guy only touches me when he has no other choice. He pawns me off on Dr. Gio or Tam whenever he can. He just doesn’t like me.”
And she’d developed a completely ridiculous crush on the lucani doctor, which she hoped like hell she’d been able to hide from him. Of course, she hadn’t been able to hide it from Cat. Who wouldn’t stop smiling at her.
“Of course he likes you.” Cat filched another carrot. “He’s just a guy and you know how weird they get about women.”
Evie bit back a smile at the absolute surety in Cat’s tone. Coming from a girl who’d never had a boyfriend, Evie should’ve dismissed Cat’s comment with a laugh.
But as she’d already discovered, Cat was wise beyond her years. She wasn’t worldly in the sense that Evie was. Of course, a history of substance abuse and depression didn’t exactly make you worldly. It just made you pathetic. No wonder—
“Evie, hey, are you okay?”
Forcing a smile, she nodded and started back in on the salad. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not,” Cat said. “But you seem to be coping okay right now. I mean, considering what you’ve been going through, I understand why you’re still weirded out occasionally.”
Evie sighed and gave Cat a wry smile. “Do you not have a filter between your brain and your mouth?”
Cat lowered the carrot and stared wide-eyed at Evie. “Should I? I didn’t think I had to with you.”
Damn it. Damn her stupid mouth.
Evie shook her head, her lips pulled into a rueful frown. “Shit, Cat. Forget I said that. That was so stupid of me. You know I didn’t mean anything. And you’re absolutely right. I’m still occasionally weirded out by everything. It’s just…”
“Just what?”
A man she didn’t know had invited himself to dinner. A gorgeous blond who’d told her he was there to seduce her. At the request of a man she’d been lusting after for months. A man who could turn into a wolf.
Her best friend was a seventeen-year-old werewolf who made magical healing potions from plants and trees. Her brother had fallen for another lucani and pledged himself to the service of the lucani king.
A king, for Christ’s sake.
Weird did not even begin to cover it.
Setting the knife on the cutting board, Evie hopped up onto the opposite counter to face Cat, who stared at her with those blue, blue eyes and Dan’s smile.
Dan had definitely given his daughter her smile. Which was another one of those weird things because Evie swore she saw Kyle in the shape of Cat’s eyes. Of course, no one could have three biological parents and Cat definitely took after her mother in every way, from the willowy body to the red hair and blue eyes.
Still…
“Do you ever wonder what your life would’ve been like if you’d been born—” She was about to say normal but caught herself in time. Normal totally depended on where you were sitting. And right now, her definition of normal was a hell of a lot different than it had been six months ago. “If you’d been born without power?”
Cat tilted her head to the side, her eyes narrowing as if trying to read between the lines of what Evie was saying. “You mean if I’d been born like you? Honestly?” She shrugged. “No. Growing up, I thought everyone was like me. Then again, I didn’t know a lot of people my age. Leese is the closest strega to me and she was already nine when I was born. There are a couple of lucani kids around my age but I didn’t see them much growing up. Mostly I was here.”
“And you were content here.” It wasn’t a question. Evie had never met anyone more content than Cat. “I was never content. I was always looking for something else.”
“Why?”
Simple question with no easy answer. “I don’t honestly know. My dad used to say I was always looking ahead and never saw what was right in front of me.”
“So you missed stuff.”
“More like I was never happy with where I was. I was always looking for something better. Then when my dad died…”
She’d looked for something to take away the pain. And found relief in drugs. At least temporarily.
She’d kicked that habit but, lately, she’d felt her resolve failing.
Even though she’d promised herself she’d never fall back into that black hole, she had to fight its pull with everything she had.
“You know you can talk about the drugs with me.” Cat’s voice was low, kind. “I won’t judge.”
Evie smiled, nodding. “I know. It’s just…” She sighed. “Embarrassing isn’t strong enough. I failed, Cat. I failed at life.”
“No.” Cat shook her head. “You’re still here. You didn’t fail.”
Evie wished she could agree. “Anyway, I’m afraid I’ll never be content.”
And Dane certainly did not make her feel content.
Dane ma
de her feel so far from content, it wasn’t funny.
Which was why this whole thing with Ryan was making her crazy.
She didn’t even know the guy, for Christ’s sake. Why would Dane want him to seduce her?
“So what exactly did Dane say when you called him?” Cat asked.
“Nothing. The coward had a patient.”
Cat laughed, lightening Evie’s heart just enough. “I don’t think seeing a patient qualifies as cowardice.”
Evie jumped back down and attacked the lettuce again. “It does when he knew I’d be calling to find out what the hell was going on.”
Cat’s head cocked to the side in a way Evie was beginning to know all too well. “Well, I guess you don’t have to wait much longer. Ryan’s here.” Then she smiled. “And so is Dane.”
Hopping off the counter, Cat smiled and gave a little wave as she headed for the back door. “See ya later, Evie. And try to have a good time.”
* * * * *
“This is a mistake.”
Dane Dimitriou had said the exact same thing at least three times already and his so-called friend had laughed at him every fucking time.
This time, though, Ryan sighed as he gave his hybrid Toyota Highlander a little more gas. “Then why the hell did you get in the car?”
Damn good question.
One Dane couldn’t come up with an answer to. Which rubbed him in so many different directions, he didn’t know which way was up.
Vaffanculo, why the hell had he ever thought calling Ryan was the perfect solution to this particular problem?
The second Ryan had shown up, Dane had been torn between wanting him to go the hell back to Philadelphia and pushing forward with his idea.
It’d been a stupid idea to begin with. Wrong in so many ways.
And Dane wasn’t used to being wrong, damn it.
As a matter of fact, he was never wrong. He couldn’t be. He held people’s lives in his hands on a daily basis.
As one of only two—well, three if you counted the king’s physician—lucani doctors with degrees in both veterinary and human medicine, he was on call every day, all day, for the lucani community.
Nearly three thousand people in the tri-state area counted on him and his mentor, Dr. Giorgio Marone, to take care of them. To deliver their babies, stitch their wounds, set their broken bones, treat their illnesses, their diseases. There wasn’t one day he could remember since completing his medical residency at Reading Hospital that he hadn’t seen at least one patient. Most days it was more like ten.
Yes, the lucani could heal most wounds by shifting. But not everything. And for some reason, lucani were more susceptible to certain diseases, mainly muscular.
He wasn’t complaining. He would never complain. Gio never did and he’d served for years as the only lucani general practitioner.
But Gio was starting to slow down. Not mentally. His brain was still sharp as a scalpel and his hands as solid as granite.
But the man was almost seventy years old. He couldn’t be expected to be on call as he’d been for his entire working career.
Dane was only thirty-one. He could handle it. It was his turn.
“You’re a stuck-up ass, you know that, right?”
The dry tone of Ryan’s voice cut through Dane’s thoughts and he turned to his friend with his eyebrows raised. “And you’re the one who came running when I asked.”
“Hey, I’m here because you want my help. What you need to ask yourself is why you thought you needed my help in the first place. I mean, it’s not like you don’t have other eteri around to help your pretty new resident cope.”
True. But Dane had thought— No, Dane knew Ryan could help Evie with her transition into the Etruscan community.
Because Ryan and Evie had something more in common than just being thrown into a situation they’d never imagined possible.
“You know why, Ryan.”
When Dane turned to look at Ryan, he saw the other man nodding, his mouth pulled into a tight line.
“Yeah, I know.”
“Then why the hell did you tell her I wanted you to seduce her? I never said that, you dick.”
In a flash, the smile returned to his friend’s mouth and his laugh reminded Dane of late nights studying in Ryan’s apartment in Philadelphia for their first-year exams.
Before Ryan had known anything about the lucani. Or magic.
“Because you need a little discord in your perfect little world, dickwad.”
Dane snorted. “Fuck you.”
“You know I love you, bro, but you’re not my type. Evie, now…”
Yeah, Evie was exactly Ryan’s type.
Because she was exactly Dane’s type, as well.
Light brown curls framed her pretty face with its pointed chin, tipped-up nose and rounded cheeks.
Petite and slight, she didn’t have an overabundance of curves but still managed to be feminine in all the right ways.
He knew because he’d seen her naked. He’d been the first to examine her when John had brought her to Kyle’s. After her captivity. She’d had bruises on her wrists and ankles from the restraints used by her captors and track marks on the inside of her slim arms.
Not all of those were from her recent ordeal.
After that first conversation when she’d come out of the coma, he hadn’t said a word about them and she’d never mentioned them again. There was something in her cool gray eyes that warned him away from the painful subject.
He knew she wasn’t using now. He would’ve smelled it on her.
Her brother John treated her like a porcelain doll. Fragile and easily broken and, when John looked at her, Dane sensed the man’s guilt. Her brother thought he’d failed her.
She’d been kidnapped and tested like a lab rat by a woman the sicarii were holding in a secure cell in a secret holding facility in the woods around the lucani den.
Evie was scarred, yes, but Dane thought she was stronger than her brother gave her credit for. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking.
“Dane.”
Ryan’s quiet tone drew him out of his thoughts and back to the present. He took stock of their surroundings and realized they’d almost reached New Tarquin. And Evie.
“I thought…” He sighed, shaking his head as he tried to put his feelings into words. “Look, she needs someone to talk to. I thought having someone who’s been through the same process of discovery would help her realize she’s not as alone as she thinks she is.”
“And then there’s the drug addiction.”
He took a deep breath. “Yeah.” Then there was the drug addiction.
“All right, I get your reasoning.”
Ryan took the turn into New Tarquin on two wheels, making Dane nearly grab for the holy-shit handle above the door. He caught himself at the last minute, not wanting to give Ryan the satisfaction of rattling him. He loved the guy like family but that also meant he wanted to strangle him sometimes too.
Ryan never passed up the chance to needle him.
“But that doesn’t tell me why you’re here in the car with me.”
Because I couldn’t stay home.
Dane had had every intention of staying the hell home tonight. But when Ryan had walked toward the door, Dane had felt his lungs constrict as if someone had reached into his chest and mashed them in their fists.
“Dane, if you like the girl, why the hell don’t you just tell her?”
Yes, he liked Evie, but not in the way Ryan meant.
Hell, he didn’t know how to describe the way he felt about Evie. He only knew there was no way in hell he could have any kind of relationship with her except a professional one.
And Ryan would never understand the why of that, even if Dane could explain.
“I called you because I thought you’d like her.”
Ryan spared him a quick, disbelieving glance. “No shit, Sherlock. What’s not to like? She’s a beauty. But I wanna know why you haven’t asked her out yourself. Fuck, man,
you want her. What I don’t know is why you think you can’t have her.”
Maybe Ryan knew him a little too well. Christ, how much more badly could he fuck this up?
“When the hell did you become a shrink? Last I knew you were a vet.”
Ryan smirked at him. “Last I checked, you still had balls.”
“Fuck you, saccente. Why the hell were you looking at my balls, anyway?”
Ryan’s deep laughter filled the car and Dane’s mouth finally curved in a smile. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d done that.
“Seriously, man, you need to tell me what the hell I’m doing here since it’s so fucking obvious you like her.”
Vaffanculo, he hoped it wasn’t obvious to anyone other than Ryan. If his mother found out… “Nothing can happen between Evie and me. It’s just not gonna happen. But… Yeah, I like her. And she needs someone to talk to. As her doctor, I prescribed you.”
Ryan’s expression cleared and he started to nod. “All right, now I know what’s going on. I don’t know why it took me this long to figure it out.”
“Figure out what?”
“It’s your mom.”
Dane stilled even as his brain began to churn. Damn it, he knew Ryan couldn’t read his mind so his friend really did know him too well. There was no way in hell Ryan could have inferred what he had from anything Dane had said.
“When the hell are you just going to tell her you’re not marrying the little wolfie princess she picked out for you and be done with it?”
Dane took a minute to think about how he was going to answer that one because, truthfully, he’d been thinking more and more about the deal his mother wanted him to make.
“What if I don’t want to tell her no?”
Ryan whipped his head around to look at him, his shocked expression priceless. “What the fuck are you talking about? Are you telling me you’re actually thinking about caving?”
Would it be caving? Or would he simply be solving an unresolved issue?
“Damn it, Dane, are you fucking nuts?”
The utter disbelief in Ryan’s voice made Dane’s lips curl in a half-assed sneer that wasn’t really directed at Ryan. “Maybe I’m just sick and tired of having no one to go home to at night.”
“There are ways around that other than an arranged marriage. I thought you didn’t even like the girl your mom picked out. The last time we talked about this you called her a cold fish.”
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