Magic Bleeds

CHAPTER 22

JIM STARED AT ME. “WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?”

“You tell me.” I rolled off the table, shook the stars out of my head, and staggered toward the doorway, where a hallway promised access to the door. I had to get out of there.

“She’s bleeding,” someone barked.

Green rolled over Jim’s eyes. “Dali, get Doolittle.”

Dali dashed out.

Jim clamped his hand on my shoulder. “Who was she?”

The building swayed around me. “I don’t know.”

Jim pointed past me. “You, you, and you—quarter-mile perimeter. You don’t know them, they don’t get in. You—roof, find Carlos. Brenna, Kate doesn’t leave. Sit on her if you have to. If I’m not back in half an hour, evacuate to the Southeast office.”

He tensed and leaped up and to the right, bounced off the wall through the hole onto the roof. A blink and he was gone.

A woman gripped me in a bear hug. I peered at her face, trying to bring it into focus. Short hair cut in a bob, reddish brown hair, green eyes, freckles . . . Brenna. One of the wolves working for Jim as a tracker. Last time we met, I’d put a silver needle into her throat and she bit my leg. She held my right arm and some blond woman I didn’t know held my left.

I fixed my stare on Brenna. Her face was smudged. “Let go.”

“I can’t do that.” She shook her head.

“Brenna, take your hands off me or I’ll hurt you.” If only the room stopped spinning, I’d be all set.

“That’s fine, Kate. I think I can take it.”

Everybody was a smart-ass.

Dali ran into the room. A black man in his fifties followed, wiping his hands with a towel. Doolittle.

“And what have you done to yourself now?”

His face crawled sideways. My stomach clenched into a tight ball and I vomited on the floor.

“Let her go,” Doolittle snarled.

The wolves released me. That’s right. Never piss off a werebadger.

Doolittle leaned over me. “Dizzy?”

I nodded. Pain rolled inside my head like a lead ball.

He touched my face and I jerked back.

“Easy, easy now.” Doolittle’s fingers pressed on my skin, holding my left eye open. “Uneven dilation. Blurred vision?”

I knew the signs. I had a concussion, but it didn’t seem important. Slowly it sank in: Erra was gone. I’d lost my shot at her. “I almost had her. I could’ve taken her.”

“Lay her down on her back, gently. Gently now.”

Hands clamped me and lowered me to the floor.

“I almost had her,” I told Doolittle.

“I know you did, child. I know.”

I wanted to get up, but I wasn’t sure which way up was and something told me I wouldn’t figure it out anytime soon either. “I have a concussion.”

“Yes, you do.” Doolittle cut through my sweatshirt. “Brenna, put your hands on her head and keep her from moving.”

“I almost had her. I could’ve taken her.”

Someone, probably Brenna, pressed her hands on the sides of my face. “Why does she keep saying that?”

“That’s just a little perseveration. People with head injuries do that. Nothing to worry about.” Doolittle peeled my T-shirt from my body. Draft chilled my skin.

“That’s your reassuring voice,” I told him. “That means I’m seriously fucked up.”

“No foul language now. Who patched you up?”

“A rabbi at the Temple.”

“He did a good job.”

“I almost had her. Did I tell you that?”

“Yes, you did. Hush now.” Doolittle began to chant. Magic stirred in me, slow and thick. He kept whispering, pouring power into the words. Slowly, like melting wax, magic grew liquid and warm and spread through me, flowing out from my chest all the way into my skull and toes.

“That’s nice,” I said.

“He said to hush.” Brenna’s hand brushed my lips.

“I almost—”

“—had her, we know,” Brenna murmured. “You have to be quiet, Kate. Shhhh.”

I closed my eyes. It felt like floating in a warm sea. Tiny hot needles stabbed my wound and danced inside my scalp. My side itched.

“I need to talk to her,” Jim’s voice said through Doolittle’s chant.

A sharp screech, halfway between roar and chatter, cut him off. It sounded either like a giant pissed-off squirrel or a small but equally pissed-off bear. The hair on the back of my arms rose. There was a word for that . . .

“Bloodcurdling.” I heard my own voice. It sounded slurred.

“If something is coming for her, I need to know what it is,” Jim said.

“Make it quick,” Doolittle said.

Jim leaned over me, his face a fuzzy smudge. That’s right, get closer so I can give you a piece of my mind.

“Who brought you here?” Jim asked.

“I almost had her.”

“Here we go again,” Brenna muttered.

I grabbed his shirt and pulled myself up.

“Shit!” Brenna clamped her fingers on my cheeks.

“I almost had her,” I squeezed out through my teeth. “I was a second from a strike and your babysitter grabbed me and dragged me up a building. You cost me my kill. Now all of you are fucked.”

“Damn it, Jim.” Doolittle grabbed my shoulders, pushing me down. “Keep her head stabilized.”

Jim’s fingers clenched my fist. “She wasn’t mine.”

“Bullshit. She was a shapeshifter and she brought me to your safe house.”

“Did you tell her where the house was?”

Jim squeezed my hand, but I was too pissed off.

“I told her to drop me. She said it was her job to protect me. Who else would order a shapeshifter to guard me? How would she find your place? Did you put a sign above the door—SECRET PACK HOUSE HERE, STRANGE SHAPESHIFTERS BRING A HUMAN SNACK?”

Doolittle pressed a point just below my wrist, cutting off the circulation to my hand. My fingers went numb.

Jim pulled free. “We’re clearing out.”

Doolittle pushed me back down. “She can’t be moved.”

“An unknown shapeshifter punched a hole through the roof and took off before I could catch her. The house is compromised. How much time do you need to stabilize her?”

“Ten minutes.”

“You have them, then we move.”

Doolittle bent over me and began to chant.

Ten minutes later Doolittle clamped my neck into a brace and Brenna picked me up. She carried me down the stairs like I was a child. The stairs were impossibly high and swirling, like a spiral. I squirmed, trying to get away, but Brenna only gripped me tighter. “Don’t worry, Kate. I won’t drop you.”

She loaded me into a small sled. People from Jim’s crew moved around us. Doolittle strapped me to the sled, Brenna took the reins, and we were off.

I LAY IN THE BED, STRIPPED DOWN TO MY BRA and underwear, and watched the bag of O-negative empty into my veins. My attempt to explain that my head had cleared and I didn’t need extra attention, and definitely not the extra blood, bounced from Doolittle like dried peas from the wall. He pointed out that he had pulled me from the brink of certain death three times, and he apparently had given me blood transfusions before and he might be just an ignorant doctor, but as far as he could tell, I was still breathing and it would make his day if we could save some time and assume that he knew what he was doing. His life would be much easier if suicidal hardcases would take that into account, thank you very much.

My ribs still hurt, but instead of sharp stabbing jolts that made me growl, the pain fused into a solid heavy pressure.

Doolittle walked around my bed. “You will be the death of me.”

“I’m pretty sure I’ll die before you do, Doc.”

“That I don’t doubt.”

He picked up a mirror from the table and held it up to me. I looked.

Most of me was pale and a bit green looking. A dark purple patina covered the corner of my jaw, promising to develop into a spectacular bruise. The second stain covered my midsection, where my aunt had kicked me. I’d flexed my stomach, so my innards didn’t turn into mush, and the abdominal muscles took the brunt of the punishment.

“Green and purple, a stunning combination.”

Doolittle shook his head, unplugged me from the empty blood bag, and handed me a glass filled with brown liquid, resembling iced tea. “You look like you’ve had an unfortunate encounter with one of the gangs from the Warren.”

“You should see the other”—guy, no, wait, girl, woman—“person.” Somehow that didn’t quite deliver the snappy impact I had originally planned.

Doolittle fixed me with a stare. “Bed rest for the next twenty-four hours.”

“I can’t do that, Doc.” Knowing him, he’d try to sedate me. So far he hadn’t—I had watched my IV like a hawk. If I had things my way, I’d be up and running. Right now Erra was injured and at her weakest. It was a good time to hit her, but the chances of finding her, even armed with shapeshifters, were nil. My aunt was psychotic but not stupid.

Doolittle sighed. “Drink your tea.”

I looked at my glass. I’d had Doolittle’s iced tea before, and exercising extreme caution was in order. I sipped a tiny bit. Sugar overload. I waited to see if my teeth instantly disintegrated from shock. Nothing. My mouth was stronger than I gave it credit for.

Doolittle sat down in a chair and looked at me, and for once his eyes were empty of their usual humor. His voice was soft. “You can’t keep doing this, Kate. You think you’re going to live forever. But sooner or later we all have to pay the piper. One day you’ll laugh and joke and roll out of your bed, and you’ll fall. And then it won’t be three days of bed rest. It will be three months.”

I reached over and touched his hand. “Thank you for fixing me up. I don’t mean to cause you grief.”

He grimaced. “Drink. You need fluids.”

Someone knocked.

“It’s me,” Jim’s voice said.

Doolittle offered me a sweatshirt. I pulled it on and he let Jim in. Jim looked like he’d chewed bricks and spat out gravel.

He grabbed a chair, set it by my bed, sat down, and looked at me.

I looked back at him. “Sorry I put my hands on you. Won’t happen again.”

“It’s cool. You weren’t yourself. You better now?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s try this again, then. Tell me about the fight.”

“Did Dali tell you about Erra?”

“She did.”

I sketched the fight for him, leaving our family connection out of it, and described my rescue.

“Scales,” Jim said.

“Yep.”

I knew what he was thinking—shapeshifters resulting from infection by Lyc-V were mammals. There were several cases of humans turning into reptiles or birds, but all of those happened because of outside magical factors, not Lyc-V infection, and none of those transformations had an in-between stage. The shapeshifter who grabbed me was in a warrior form. Half-human, half-something scaled.

“What sort of eyes did she have?” Doolittle asked.

“Olive iris, slit pupil. Reddish glow.”

“Glow isn’t a good indicator,” Doolittle said. “Hyena eyes reflect light in any number of colors, yet bouda eyes always glow red. But the slit pupil is interesting.” He glanced at Jim.

“There was a man on the roof,” I said. “She knocked him off. Is he okay?”

Jim nodded. “He says the same thing: scales, red eyes, tail. I’ve smelled a similar scent before.”

“What was it?”

Jim grimaced. “A croc.”

Shapeshifter crocodiles. What was the world coming to?

“Stranger things have happened.” Doolittle pointed at my glass. “Drink.”

I showed the glass to Jim. “The good doctor put a spoon of tea into my honey.”

“You’re drinking tea a honey badger made,” Jim said. “What did you expect?”

Doolittle snorted and began packing gauze and instruments into his medical bag.

“If you didn’t put her on me, then who did?”

“I don’t know,” Jim said.

It wasn’t Curran. Security was Jim’s territory; if Curran felt I needed a bodyguard, he would have asked Jim to take care of it.

Curran. Oy.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“One of the Clan Wolf’s satellite houses,” Jim said. “The Wolf Clan House is outside the city, but they have a few rallying points in Atlanta’s limits. This was the closest.”

“And Curran?”

“At the Keep.”

“Did you tell him about this?”

“Not yet. Is there anything more you have to tell me?”

“No.”

He showed no signs of moving. “Is there anything you want to tell me?”

Cat and spy master, lethal combination. “No. What makes you think that?”

Jim leaned back. “You’re a lousy liar.”

“That’s true.” Doolittle rolled up his stethoscope. “I’ve played poker with you, young lady, and the whole table knew every time you got a good card.”

“Deception makes you uncomfortable,” Jim said. “It works for you on the street, because when you promise to hurt someone, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that you mean it. But if you came to me for an assignment, I’d fire you after the first minute.”

“Fine. I’m a bad liar.” I looked at Jim from above the rim of my glass. “That doesn’t mean I’m hiding something. Maybe there is nothing more to that story.”

“You’ve put the glass between yourself and me and you’re keeping it pressed against your mouth so the words don’t get out,” Jim said.

I put the glass down.

“Is it an Order thing?” Jim asked.

“No, it’s my thing. It has no relevance to the Pack.”

“Okay,” Jim said. “If things change and you want to tell me or if you need help, you know how to find me.”

He got up and walked out.

I looked at Doolittle. “Why the sudden goodwill?”

“Who knows why cats do things. My guess is you taking a blade for him may have something to do with it . . .” Doolittle raised his head and grimaced. “They just can’t leave well enough alone.”

A knock sounded through the basement.

“Who is it?” Doolittle called.

“I’ve come to see the patient!” a woman’s voice called.

“Is she naked?” another female voice asked. “I always wanted to see her naked.”

“Shush. George, will you keep me standing here all day?”

I looked at Doolittle. “Is that who I think it is?”

He bristled and headed to the door.

Besides Curran, two shapeshifters in the Pack gave me pause: Mahon, the Bear of Atlanta and the Pack’s executioner, and Aunt B, alpha of the boudas and Raphael’s mother. The rest were dangerous, but those two made me take a moment or two and think things through before I blundered on. I’d seen Aunt B in action with her human skin off. Blowing her off wasn’t in my best interests no matter how pissed off or weak I was.

“You’re looking very fine, George,” Aunt B said. Craning my head to see the two of them would destroy what little semblance of dignity I had left, so I stayed put.

“What do you want?” Despite Doolittle’s Coastal Georgia Southern accent, the good doctor’s voice lost all of its charm.

“Why, to see Kate, of course.”

“The girl has a concussion. Your scheming can wait until her mind is clear.”

“I’m not here to take advantage of her, George. My goodness.”

I craned my neck. Doolittle barred the doorway, his finger pointing to the first floor above us. “Up there you are the alpha of the boudas. Down here is my territory.”

“Why don’t you ask the girl if she wants to see me? If she is too weak or uneasy, I will come back another time.”

And she just outmaneuvered us both. If I refused to see her now, I might just as well stand on my bed with a giant neon sign: I’M AFRAID OF AUNT B.

Doolittle came up to my bed. “The boudas wish to speak to you. You don’t have to say yes.”

Yes, I do, and we both know it. “That’s okay, I’ll see her.”

Doolittle looked up. “Thirty minutes, Beatrice.”

Aunt B swept in. Behind her a young female bouda carried a platter. The aroma of spices and cooked meat swirled around me, instantly filling my mouth with drool. Hunger was good. It meant Doolittle’s spells were working and my body was burning through nutrients at an accelerated rate.

The young bouda set the platter on my bed, stuck her tongue out at me, and departed.

Aunt B glanced at Doolittle. “Would you mind giving us a bit of privacy?”

He growled under his breath and stalked out.

Aunt B pulled up a chair and sat by my bed. In her late forties or early fifties, she looked like a typical young grand-mother: a bit plump, with an easy smile and kind eyes that would convince a child in trouble to pick her out of a crowd of strangers. She wore a bulky gray sweater. Her brown hair sat in a bun atop her head. If she added a platter of cookies, she’d be all set.

She greeted me with a warm smile. You’d never know that behind that smile waited a seven-foot-tall monster with claws the size of cake forks.

“You seem on edge, dear,” she said. “How badly were you injured?”

Hi, Grandma, what big teeth you have . . . “Nothing major.”

“Ah. Good then.” She nodded at the platter. Beef, pita bread, and Tzatziki sauce. “Help yourself. Lunch is on me.”

Not to take a bite would be an insult. To take a bite might obligate me to something and I’d rather be in debt to the devil than to Aunt B. I settled for sipping my tea. “You aren’t propositioning me, are you?”

“Funny you should say that.”

I paused with a glass in my hand. Just what I need.

“It won’t be that kind of proposition.” Aunt B gave me a bright smile.

I squished a shudder.

“I’ll come straight to the point to make things easier on both of us.” Aunt B pushed the plate to me. “Curran didn’t return to the Keep last night. I’m neither blind nor stupid and I’ve spent more years sorting out shapeshifter lies than you’ve been alive. Please keep that in mind before you answer. Did he spend the night?”

Putting claws to my throat was never a good idea. I smiled. “None of your business.”

“So he did. Did he use the word ‘mate’?”

“What happened between me and Curran is our own affair.”

Aunt B raised her eyebrows. “Congratulations. Then you are, indeed, the mate.”

Why me? “That would be news to me.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you were the last to know. I’ve known he’d fall for you since he fed you that soup. It was tons of fun watching the two of you take so long to figure it out.”

“I live to provide entertainment.”

“There is no need to be so hostile.” Aunt B pinched off a small chunk of her pita. “I’ve called to the Keep. There are no rooms ready for you. Has the Bear approached you?”

“Mahon? No.”

“He’s getting slow in his old age.” She chuckled, baring her teeth. A predatory light flared in her eyes. The effect was chilling.

“What do rooms have to do with anything?” I asked.

“Curran intends for you to share his quarters.”

“Do I get turn-down service and a mint on my pillow?”

“You get to be the female alpha of the Pack,” Aunt B said.

I choked on empty air.

“Here, drink your tea, dear. Honestly, what did you think that meant?” she asked.

I drank my water. Somehow when Curran said “mate,” my mind didn’t translate it as “the Pack’s Beast Lady.”

“I’m not equipped to be an alpha.”

Aunt B smiled. “So you don’t want the power?”

“I don’t.” I didn’t want the responsibility either.

“What is it you do want?” she asked me.

“I want to kill the crazy bitch who is running around Atlanta murdering shapeshifters.”

“Besides that?”

“I want him.”

“Without the Pack?”

“Yes.” I had no idea why I kept answering her questions. There was something in her eyes that made me want to tell her everything I knew so she would pat me on the head and tell me, “Good girl,” at the end. Adolescence in the bouda clan would be hell with Aunt B around.

“You can’t have just him.” Aunt B’s eyes were merciless. “Curran belongs to the Pack and we won’t let you take him away from us. You need him to be happy, but we require him to survive. If he were to leave the Pack, the alphas would fight for power. No one among the alphas now could take his place and hold it. It would be chaos and blood. Eventually the strongest would win, but the strongest isn’t always the best person for the job.”

She leaned back. “We lucked out with Curran, and we all know that our chances of getting another Beast Lord like him are slim. I like you, but if you tried to lure him away, I’d be the first in line to kill you.”

Today was the wrong day to threaten me. “Think you can?”

“You have a lot of power, but we have the numbers, so yes, we can. I’m not telling you this to get your hackles up. You need to understand the situation clearly. Curran belongs to the Pack. Stand between him and his people and the Pack will tear you to pieces. Your meat is getting cold. Eat.”

She was right. I knew she was right. They wouldn’t let Curran go. And even if they did, he’d never leave them. He was a shapeshifter and they were his people. I had to find a way around it. “Why can’t I be with him, but not be the alpha?”

“You want to have your cake and eat it, too. It simply doesn’t work that way. You can’t marry the king and not become the queen. You’ll be the one he’ll growl sweet nothings to in bed, and you’ll be the one he’ll ask for advice. You’ll have unprecedented influence over his decisions, but you want none of the responsibility that comes with it. That’s cowardly and that’s not you. It’s all or nothing, Kate. That’s the deal and it’s not negotiable.”

“So I have no say in this?”

Aunt B frowned. “Of course you do. You don’t have to mate with him. You can always reject him. But if you do mate with him, the burden of the alpha comes with it. Ask yourself, would you really settle for a fling? Or do you want him to yourself for always?”

I made a valiant effort not to ask myself that question. I was pretty sure I knew the answer. That way lay total surrender of all common sense. “I’m not a shapeshifter.”

“True. Can you become one?”

I shook my head. “It’s not physically possible. I’m immune to Lyc-V.”

“Excellent.”

She lost me.

“Were you to become a shapeshifter, you’d have to pick the species of your beast. You’d have to choose a clan and someone to donate Lyc-V, which means six clans would feel slighted and that one clan would expect preferential treatment. It’s a can of worms nobody wants to open. This is one of those rare cases when being impartial is actually advantageous.”

“You’ve given this a great deal of thought,” I murmured. The sixty-four-thousand-dollar question was why.

“Look at it from our point of view. We want him to mate. As his mate, you have the right to question his decisions, something we can’t do. If Pack members have an issue with him, they could come to you and plead for assistance. If you issue an order, technically he can overrule you, but he would be reluctant to do so. The Pack has been denied this avenue of appeal for too long.”

She waved her pita around. “Curran is a fair alpha, one of the best. But he has his bad moments and right now nobody dares to contradict him during those. Sure, some people won’t accept you, but that’s normal. Anytime there is a power shift, people rumble. After you kill the first couple of challengers, you’ll be fine.”

She was definitely after something . . .

“Nobody questions your power, dear. The alphas have seen you fight and you’re a good asset. Anyone able to snap the legs off two hundred demons with one word isn’t to be taken lightly.”

She bit into her bread. “Besides, if Curran didn’t think you’re fit, he wouldn’t have made the offer. Yes, he’s obsessed with you, but he’s shrewd enough to take your ability into consideration. Alphas are typically attracted to other alphas. I wouldn’t mate with a weakling, and neither would he.”

“It’s not that simple,” I growled.

She laughed softly. “We know you have a history, dear. That much power doesn’t come without baggage and Curran isn’t an idiot. If he proposed to you, he must view your past as an acceptable risk.”

Had an answer for everything, did she? “Why do you care so much whether I become his mate? You didn’t come here out of the goodness of your heart.”

She paused. Her face turned mournful. “Raphael is my third child. The first two went loup at puberty. After him, I said I wouldn’t have any more. I couldn’t keep killing my babies. My boy is everything to me. I’d rip the world apart for him. You and I both know the name of his happiness.”

“Andrea.”

She nodded. The pain in her eyes melted into pride. “My Raphael could have any woman he wanted. If he wanted you, you wouldn’t be able to resist.”

“I don’t know about that . . .”

“Trust me. I’ve been courted by his father. Raphael had his pick, but he chose the girl who is beastkin. Because my life wasn’t complicated enough.”

“Andrea loves him. She’s smart, trained, and—”

She raised her hand. “You don’t have to sing her praises. I know more about her than you do. But the fact remains, she’s beastkin and she’s my son’s mate. She’s dominant, strong, and cunning. I have no doubt she can fight off any challengers, which means that when I step down, the reins of the bouda clan will pass to a child of an animal. The boudas will accept her. But the Pack may not.”

“Curran promised me she wouldn’t be persecuted.”

She pursed her lips. “It’s one thing to ignore the presence of a beastkin in the ranks. It’s another to have it rubbed in the alphas’ faces. Other clans don’t like us; they don’t like our unpredictability and they fear our rages. As the bouda alpha couple, Andrea and Raphael will sit on the Pack’s Council. That won’t go over well with some people. The wolves and Clan Heavy, in particular, will find her presence tough to swallow. There are four hundred wolves and only thirty-two of us. But the Bear is by far the biggest threat. He’s old-fashioned and he holds on to his prejudices. He practically raised Curran and he has a lot of influence with him. If I have any hope of safeguarding my son’s future, I have to counteract Mahon.”

Finally. It all became clear. “And you think that if I became Curran’s mate, I’d intercede on Andrea’s behalf?”

“Not only on her behalf, but on behalf of all boudas. There are six children in the clan now, four of whom are teenagers, all past puberty with no traces of loupism. If you think ordinary adolescents are wild, you’re in for a shock. The last time we had that many young ones, Curran was hammering the Pack together and he himself was rather young. He chose to be lenient when my kids stepped out of line. He’s secure in his power now and may not be as indulgent.”

Lenient Beast Lord. That would be the day.

Aunt B leaned in and fixed me with a stare. “Suppose you become the alpha. What is the minimum acceptable distance between a female shapeshifter and Curran?”

“I don’t know.”

“Three feet, unless it’s a battle. Any closer and she’s challenging you. You walk into a room at a formal gathering, do shapeshifters rise or stay down?”

“I don’t know.”

“The alphas rise to demonstrate that you acknowledge their power, the rest stay down, showing submission. If a shapeshifter shows you his teeth, is he smiling in greeting or is he trying to intimidate you?”

“I don’t know.” Broken record, that’s me.

“If his head is bowed, he’s smiling. If he’s holding himself erect, you need to be snarling.”

I’d had just about enough. “What is the point of all of this?”

“I have no doubt that you’ll become Curran’s mate. You love him, you nearly died for him, and you won’t be able to let him go. When that happens, you’ll be in over your head, dear. You must play by our rules and you don’t know them.” She smiled triumphantly. “Here is my offer to you: I’ll give you two of my kids. They’re very good, steady, and skilled. They won’t go crazy unless you give them permission. Their loyalty is to you alone and they’ll have your best interests at heart. They’ll keep you from making any big mistakes. You’ll still make small ones, but that can’t be helped. In return, you promise to hold the bouda clan in special regard. I won’t ask you to break the rules, but I may ask you to stretch them once in a while. It’s a very good offer, Kate.”

I met her gaze. “You don’t have to bribe me. I wouldn’t let anyone touch Andrea anyway.”

“You may think so now, but friendships end and wither, while business arrangements persist. I’m an old-fashioned alpha as well, and I’d prefer to make the bargain.”

Was there a downside to this? She was right, I knew nothing of the customs. If I chose to accept Curran’s offer . . . What the hell was I thinking?

“If I do end up being his mate, we have a deal,” I said. “That’s one colossal ‘if.’ ”

Aunt B’s eyes lit up. “Excellent, dear. Excellent.”

“I’ll tell him about this.”

“I expect you to.”

“You do realize that he could change his mind? We didn’t part on good terms.”

She pursed her lips. “Mating is a volatile time for our kind. Newly mated shapeshifters are jealous, possessive, and prone to violence. Their instincts are in overdrive. You want to hole up with your mate somewhere safe, and if anyone looks at him for longer than two seconds, you have to fight with yourself not to sink your claws into her throat. It’s not the most rational time in one’s life, which is why the Pack Law makes provisions for the mating frenzy.”

She reached into her bag and pulled out a small leather book with a clasp. She unlocked the clasp, revealing pages protected by clear plastic. A tiny photo album.

“These are all of my hooligans.” Aunt B flipped through the pages and held the album out to me. A young man smiled back at me from the photograph. Thin to the point of skinny, he had glossy dark hair and a kid’s grin: wide and happy.

“Alejandro,” she said. “We call him Mouse, because he was always so quiet, you wouldn’t know he is in the room. Five three, a hundred and twenty pounds wet. Arms like matches. Eats like a horse but nothing sticks to him. He’s a shy sweet kid. Look at that grin.” She smiled. “Not a mean bone in the boy. He got married last year to a very nice rat girl. Girls joked a bit: mouse got married to a rat. At his wedding, Curran remarked that his wife was very pretty. Alejandro jumped on the table and tried to cut Curran’s throat with his dinner knife.”

I blinked. “What happened?”

“Well, what do you think happened? Curran grabbed him by the neck and we had to go and get a loup cage to put the groom in until he calmed down. That’s how he spent his reception, in the loup cage in the other room, screaming curses. His bride sat by the cage until he cooled off enough to be reasoned with and then got in there with him. He didn’t scream after that.” Aunt B rubbed the photo with her thumb. Her eyes were warm. “He’s very embarrassed by it all now.”

I didn’t know the Pack law well, but I knew enough to recognize a challenge. “Curran could’ve killed him.”

“Oh, yes. Would’ve been well within his rights, too. The Pack law is very careful. It doesn’t say you can’t punish a shapeshifter during the mating frenzy. It just says that you don’t have to punish him. If you want to overlook his infraction, it won’t be seen as a sign of weakness on your part. Mind you, Curran wasn’t trying to rile Mouse up. He has to come to every wedding, because they always invite him, and he hates it. He’s usually very careful with what he says, but he was tired that day and he said the first polite congratulatory thing that popped into his head. ‘You have a beautiful wife, Alejandro.’ ”

“That was it?”

She nodded. “Yes, that’s all that was said. This is the kind of insanity you’re dealing with, dear. Except for you, it’s much worse. Curran has a harder time controlling the possessive urges than most. He is . . . damaged.”

“What do you mean?”

She grimaced. “It’s not my place to explain this to you. What you need to know is that his protective drive is very strong. I’m amazed he hasn’t rolled you in a blanket and dragged you off into the Keep. He’s been insufferable since you had your falling-out. He loves you, Kate, and that’s why he’s waiting patiently for you to make up your mind.”

“I know it may come as a shock, but it’s sort of considered polite to wait for the consent of the woman. In fact, I’m pretty sure that if you don’t wait, you may have to deal with pesky criminal charges like kidnapping and rape.”

Aunt B rolled her eyes. “The boy isn’t a maniac—no is no and he’ll understand that. To force you would be going against everything he stands for and you know it as well as I do. For everything, there is a price in this world. His price is us. Ask yourself, is he worth becoming an alpha to the Pack? Do you love him enough? And take it from someone who buried two of her mates: you might want to decide fast. We live in a dangerous world. If you see a chance to be happy, you have to fight for it, so later you have no regrets.”