by Dannika Dark
Kat lowered her gaze, saddened by the hard truth about her father’s past. “Why did they treat you differently and let you go?”
“Because, Kat, your father gave up his freedom for mine.”
The admission stole her breath.
“Your father was a peacemaker who forged alliances, but I had a reputation for battle that preceded me. One man in the Mage alliance wanted me dead. He knew I would have organized the packs and steered them to war; it wouldn’t have been the first time. For reasons I’ll never understand, Alex took my place.”
A sharp pain lanced through Kat’s tender heart when she thought of her father’s bravery. “The night he disappeared, he wanted to meet with me. He said he had information on someone I was tracking down at the time. He was like that—always helping me out. I think he was proud of what I did because I was the closest he had to a son. Anyhow, he owned a retreat in the woods no one knew about—a place we used to go fishing and hunting. That’s where I was supposed to meet him. When I got there, it had been ransacked, and I haven’t heard from him since.”
Prince turned toward her and his scent swirled in the air. It was a heady, desirable smell that made her toes curl and her wolf perk up. “Do you think it had to do with the case you were on?”
“That’s all I can think of. My father didn’t have enemies that I knew of, just a few local Packmasters who didn’t get along with him. But that goes with the territory, right?”
“You are correct.”
Kat smirked when he didn’t get the joke. “Do you ever just say ‘yep’?”
He stared, expressionless.
“Okay, maybe not,” Kat murmured. Some of the ancients weren’t easy to get to loosen up.
“What is the name of the suspect you were chasing?”
Her eyes latched on to his. “I can’t tell you that unless you swear an oath to help me search for him.”
His mismatched eyes widened and Kat suppressed a grin.
“Sorry, I can’t trust just anyone with the knowledge I have. I’m sworn to secrecy with the higher authority. The only people I can share intel with are partners. I guess the real question is: how good of friends were you with my father, and how indebted are you to his ultimate sacrifice?”
Prince stood up, his expression cross, hands disappearing into his pockets. “You are a conniving woman.”
She crossed her legs nonchalantly. “Some use the word intelligent, but I’ll accept that as a compliment.”
His eyes shifted down to her foot, watching as she swung it back and forth in a nervous motion. He seemed nicer than the other men Nadia had dated. Most were cocky as hell, and not in a good way. But Prince, he was a different sort of man. Strong, powerful, and over six feet tall, whereas Kat stood at a respectable five-eight, although her boots gave her a nice boost. Prince didn’t talk incessantly or try to hit on her. He must worship Nadia.
“Will you accept my second-in-command to help you out?”
She put both feet on the floor and stood up, hands on her hips. “Absolutely not. You want to send a beta to do an alpha’s job?”
Prince removed his hands from his pockets and his jaw set.
“Is that how much my father meant to you?” Kat continued, rocking on her heels and giving him a somber look. This time she wasn’t putting on an act but was genuinely disappointed that a man who had bonded with her father as a brother would pawn off the task of searching for him.
“Very well. But if we hit a stumbling block, then I’ll have to bow out. I have obligations as a Packmaster.”
“I’m sure you have a capable second-in-command who can lead your pack temporarily.” She snatched his tie and gave it a light tug. “Come on, Charming.”
He stepped back, his brows drawing together. “My name is Prince.”
He’s so adorable, she thought. “I can’t go around calling you Prince, so Charming will have to do. It has a nice ring to it.”
“So does sire.”
Kat stepped forward and stood on her tiptoes. “I’m not one of your subjects.”
His breath heated her face and made her tingle in all the wrong places. Wrong, because this was Nadia’s territory.
Kat stepped back and twirled his tie before letting go. “Do you normally dress to the nines for a date?”
“I like to make an impression.”
When she yanked on her boots, she peered over her shoulder and caught him looking at her ass. Yep. When you stripped away money and rank, all men wanted the same things.
Kat stood up so quickly that her hair flipped over her head. She gave it a nice pat down and then tapped the toe of her boot on the floor. “Coming?”
“Now?” he asked, his voice flustered.
“Yep. I tracked this bozo all the way from Shreveport, and my contact gave me a location where he hangs out. I figure that’s a good place to start. He’s still classified as an outlaw, which means I can bring him back dead or alive. I’d rather bring him back alive so I can question him. Plus, I don’t like hauling bodies in the trunk of my car, especially in the South. The state troopers out here just love to pull you over and search your vehicle.”
“And what makes you so certain this is the same man who took your father?”
Kat switched off the curio and stumbled over a rug in the darkness. She caught herself on the wall before taking a spill. “Because he’s the guy my father wanted to talk to me about—the one I was tracking all those years ago. The bounty is still open, and I’m going to collect.”
Kat whirled around and headed toward the front door, forgetting about the small step into the hall. She stumbled forward and this time fell on her face.
“Dammit!”
Prince rushed to her side and put his hands on her back. “Are you injured?”
“Only my pride,” she murmured against the smooth floor, grateful Nadia was a neat freak and cleaned it every day.
“Perhaps you’ve had too much wine.”
Kat sprang to her feet. “Get used to it, Charming. I barely had a few sips, so I’m not even tipsy. I just happen to have a habit of tripping over things—usually those things being my own two feet. I’m better when I’m running full speed. Something about the slow pace of a stroll makes my limbs forget how to function. So do me a favor and don’t make a big deal about it when I fall down in public.”
“You mean if you fall.”
She laughed and pulled a small set of keys from her pocket. “There are no ifs about it. I’m a girl who falls head over heels.”
Chapter 4
Prince felt a pang of guilt for leaving Nadia’s apartment without telling her, but only for a fleeting moment. After all, she’d left him alone with her sister to test how interested he was in pursuing her and no one else, treating Prince more like a lapdog than an alpha wolf. Instead of sending her a message on the phone, he left a handwritten note on her dining table explaining that he’d gone out with Kat for a few drinks.
And he intentionally wrote Kat instead of Katarina. Prince enjoyed the abbreviated name. She intrigued him, and he’d sensed early on that both Kat and Nadia were alpha females.
In the Shifter world, children were either born an alpha or not, and usually it was the firstborn. Anyone could have strong leadership skills, but alphas possessed more magic within them, more control over their animal than the others. That power resonated in their voice, their presence, and especially in their wolf. Only an alpha could become a Packmaster and lead a pack to success; anyone else was doomed to failure. Alpha females were especially desirable to Packmasters, and although it wasn’t mandatory that they mate with one, alpha females produced stouthearted children and commanded a pack like no other.
And yet even more curious was that Kat’s magic was a little stronger than her sister’s. Kat’s power flashed while Nadia’s only pulsed.
When they arrived at the club, Prince watched with curiosity as Kat reached into the backseat and retrieved a pair of black-and-white sneakers. She yanked off her boots and tos
sed them on the floor. He never knew what to expect with this woman.
Prince cleared his throat.
“What? I love my Chucks,” she said unapologetically, lacing them up. “Besides, the boots kill my feet on a chase. Last time, I got blisters the size of cantaloupes. I know, I know. It clashes with my leather pants, but I don’t have any options since I left town in a hurry. My good running shoes are sitting in a motel room in Shreveport.” Kat opened the visor mirror and raked her fingers through her hair. “I really need to start carrying an extra set of clothes in the car.”
“The man we’re looking for—what’s his name?”
“The bartender said his name is Henry, but when I accepted the job to hunt him down years ago, the name they gave me was Vlad Romanov.”
Prince’s blood ran cold. “Then we’re dealing with a Mage.”
Her eyes widened. “How did you know?”
He scanned her outfit, his heart ticking a little faster. “You said you carry a stunner?”
When Kat began to lift her shirt, he averted his eyes to the dark parking lot.
She laughed and tapped his arm. “I’m not coming on to you, Charming. I wear short shirts for easy access. Wait, that sounded wrong,” she murmured. “I wear a harness around my chest. It was custom made since boobs get in the way.”
Her candor made his face flush, and he tried to give her a scolding glance. Tried and failed.
Kat smiled fiendishly, straightening her blouse. “Sorry. Sometimes I’m a little too frank, but you shouldn’t be so wooden about language. It’s the only way I can get in with some of the guys who hang out at the bar. They don’t give information to girls with Russian accents who speak prim and proper, now do they? Anyhow, the knife is tucked on my left side, but the strap goes over my shoulder and around my chest and has a lot of small compartments—including a clip to hold handcuffs. My old one was pretty basic and the holster sat in the center of my chest, but that hurt too much and was harder to conceal when wearing low-cut shirts.”
Prince kept imagining her without a shirt, the holster strapped tight against her left breast, the feel of her leather pants as she stretched across his lap… He shifted in his seat. “How did you find Vlad after all these years?”
“He walked into a bar where I was hot on the trail of an arms dealer—the kind who specializes in stunners and rare weaponry. I guess the higher authority got sick of this scuzzball when one of his weapons killed a hotshot Mage. Anyhow, I was having a drink in the bar, and Vlad walked right in and sat beside me. I didn’t recognize him at first because the last time I’d seen him was twenty years ago, but the longer I stared at him in the mirror, the more familiar he seemed. He looks the same, except he has a lot of whiskers, like he’s trying to grow a pathetic excuse for a beard. Same cloudy eyes, blondish hair that’s real short to his head, same mean face, like Russian KGB.”
Prince glanced at her body again, wondering if handcuffs were part of her master plan. “Cuffs won’t hold a Mage.”
Kat waggled her brows. “Mine will. You’d be surprised what kind of metals are out there. That’s why these aren’t clunky. I don’t carry them with me all the time—not unless I’m on the hunt. These will make him as dangerous as a butterfly,” she said, flapping her hands comically. “I just need to get close enough to put the knife in his chest before I haul him off.”
Prince laughed and opened his door. “I sense this evening will not be uneventful.”
“Nope! A night with me is never a bore.”
The young couple standing in front of the club, tongues down each other’s throats, led Prince to believe this wasn’t the type of Breed establishment he’d normally be seen in. He frequented a few clubs and sometimes went to Howlers, a Shifter bar with a relaxed atmosphere where he could be among his own kind. Prince didn’t mind the company of most Breeds, but he could never trust a Mage.
Possessive instincts overwhelmed him when they entered the bar and two Vampires leered at Kat with their onyx eyes. She didn’t possess the same delicate mannerisms as her sister, nor did she wear short skirts that showed off her legs, but she garnered attention just the same with her sultry strut and self-assured way of settling her eyes on a man.
Prince eased up next to her and put his arm around her shoulder.
Kat nudged it off. “Don’t do that, Charming. People will think we’re an item.”
“That’s my intent. Then maybe they’ll cease giving you proprietary looks.”
Kat coughed and waved a cloud of smoke away as they moved toward a dark area. “Say what you will, but this body is what gets people talking to me.”
He clenched his fists, his knuckles whitening. “And you find this acceptable behavior?”
“You don’t think Nadia uses her body to attract clients?” They stopped by a wall, and she ran her finger down his silk tie. “And what about you and your expensive suits and imported cologne? Not to mention that sexy ponytail thing you’ve got going on. You don’t think that gets people’s attention a little more than say… that guy?” She jerked her thumb toward a man in a blue flannel shirt, five buttons brazenly undone to reveal a thick bed of chest hair.
Prince lowered his eyes to meet hers. “Isn’t your job dangerous enough?”
When her lips tightened, he realized he’d offended her.
“I hope you’re not one of those guys who think a woman gets what she deserves because of what she’s wearing. A supremely stupid man made up that logic to blame women for his lack of control. I’ve locked up a lot of men in my time, and you wouldn’t believe the excuses I’ve heard. For example, if I strip down naked in this bar, then every man and woman has the right to look at me because… well, there I am. Kind of hard not to notice. But not one damn person has the right to touch me.”
“I trust you don’t intend to test that theory.”
Her eyes narrowed, dark lashes obscuring her brown eyes. “I’m shy, so that’s not on the agenda. My belly button is the only magic show you’re getting tonight.”
Odd. Nadia had no trouble showing off her fit body, and yet her identical twin struggled with self-image?
Kat suddenly sneezed and rubbed her nose. “Look, I know how to take care of myself. If I want to wear tight leather pants to get an informant to let his guard down and give me information, then that’s a sacrifice I’ll readily make.” She gasped, on the verge of sneezing, and then let out a sigh. “Sometimes I wish human laws applied to Breed establishments.”
He tilted his head to the side, startled by the sudden change in topic. “They’re not aware we exist, so we don’t have to follow their laws. Not as long as we keep them out of our clubs.”
She sneezed again, and it was high-pitched and quite pleasing to watch. “Well, I’ve always been a supporter of their smoking ban. Some of these immortals puff like a chimney, and it does a number on my allergies.”
Prince wiped a drop of sweat off his forehead, wishing he’d left his suit jacket in the car. “Shifters aren’t afflicted with allergies.”
She rubbed her nose. “Yeah? Well, I’m a sensitive girl. Say, why don’t you dash over to the bar and grab me a bottle of beer so we blend in? Don’t get me any of the fancy-pants stuff.”
“What is your preferred brand?”
She snapped her fingers and briefly closed her eyes. “Ohh, ‘Fire and Rain.’ I love this song.” She quietly sang a few lines before she turned her attention back to the bar. “Let’s not make this complicated. Just point at one of the green bottles.”
Prince headed toward the bar and paid for a bottle, hoping his selection would please Kat. He even compared brands and chose the most expensive. Strange that he’d want to please her when they’d only just met. Prince felt comfortable in her presence, as if they’d known each other for years. The only other person he’d ever felt that same connection to was Alex.
It didn’t make sense, because he had more in common with her sister. Who else was more suited to be his mate than Nadia? Sophisticated, enchantin
g, eloquent…
“Your zipper’s down,” Kat said brightly, snatching the beer from his hand and guzzling it.
Startled, he looked down and—to his horror—realized she was right. Discreetly, he turned away from the room and maneuvered his hand downward before anyone noticed.
Kat suddenly reached out and zipped him up. His eyes widened at her brazen move, and she grinned when the high-pitched sound caught the attention of a woman sitting at a nearby table.
“Don’t you have any sense of decency?” he whispered.
She glanced around the bar. “Only on Mondays. Wait, there he is. I’d recognize those jowls anywhere.” She nudged Prince and turned him to face the back of the room. “Over to the left near the woman in red. You can’t miss her; she stands out like a stuck pig in a cotton factory. Who needs to dress like that? Some women display their breasts like they’re melons at a farmer’s market.”
“Let’s say hello,” he said, pushing off the wall and centering his eyes on Vlad.
“Wait!” she whispered urgently. “You’ll spook him.”
“And your plan was to tackle him on the way to the men’s room?” he asked with derision as they moved toward the table. All Prince could think about was wrapping his hands around Vlad’s throat and squeezing until the life pulsed out of him.
Kat suddenly plopped down in the chair directly behind Vlad. She crossed her legs, downed her beer, and bored a hole in the back of his skull with her heated gaze. Prince continued walking without questioning her actions.
The music switched to another song when he pulled the chair out and sat across from the old Mage. When Vlad lifted his head from his glass of vodka, his glazed eyes settled on Prince for a few moments before a flicker of recognition sparked in them.
“Well, well. If it isn’t Prince. Vanquished two centuries ago and crawling back to civilization like a reptile emerging from a swamp,” Vlad said in a heavy Russian accent.
