Impulse

Such casual, arrogant self-assurance, the kind that tugged at those instinctive places inside her.

She was probably blushing, splotchy pink cheeks that would clash with her red hair and make her head look like a freckled tomato.

Too bad she couldn’t think of a coherent response. “Don’t call me Seraphina.”

One dark eyebrow crept up in a slow arch. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you.”

He wasn’t an idiot. She wasn’t an innocent. Men were a game she’d played plenty, and this one was teasing her.

Damn, she liked it. “If you do it again, I’ll bite you.”

He grinned and shook his head. “I don’t think I’m man enough for a woman like you.”

If he believed it for a second, he never would have admitted it. He was a cocky bastard, all right. Too damn cocky. “Yeah, but you’re still young. Maybe you’ll grow into it.”

“You’re calling me young? What’re you? Twenty?”

He sounded amused. Curious, like he didn’t actually know, which made her feel stupid for knowing he’d turned thirty-one on his last birthday—and when his birthday had been. “Twenty-two. But I’m old for my age. Facing the extinction of your species can do that.”

That sobered him. “I guess it could.”

From teasing banter to uncomfortable silence in twenty words or less. So much for being good with men. “I didn’t mean it like that. I know some coyotes care, but I don’t. I’d just as soon any kids I had weren’t coyotes.”

“It doesn’t bother you that soon there won’t be any more of your kind left?”

There was no way to answer the question without revealing too much. Julio made her instincts sing. He made her body melt. But in over a year, this was one of the few real conversations they’d had. She didn’t know him.

So she lied. “It does, I guess. But there’s nothing to do about it, right?”

He shrugged. “I suppose not.”

Awkward silence fell, and this time she wasn’t sure how to break it, or if she should.

He drained the second beer, gathered both bottles and rose. “I’ll toss these, if you’ll show me where.”

The door rattled and opened, and Anna stepped in with a jangle of keys. “Hey, Sera. Julio.”

She blinked at him. “Something up?”

She could confess her worries to Anna later. For now, she hopped to her feet and snagged the bottles from Julio. “He was waiting to talk to you about the apartment. I’m going to go clean up and start dinner. Mac and cheese sound good?”

Anna frowned as she dropped her bag beside the couch. “Did my dog die?” She said it jokingly, but the tension underlying the flippant question was unmistakable.

Maybe Sera had overplayed her hand, picking Anna’s favorite comfort food. “No one’s dead.

This week.”

“That’s something, anyway.”

Julio slipped his hands in his pockets. “I need the apartment for a while. I’d call Nick, but she’d just tell me to ask you.”

Anna’s jaw clenched. “For?”

Sera freed a hand to touch her arm before the bristling power could overflow into a challenge that would leave them both snarling. “Patrick’s back in town, and he needs a safe place to crash. I told Julio it might be all right.”

“It’s fine,” Anna snapped. “It’s what the place is there for, right?”

Julio nodded. After an uncomfortable silence, he cleared his throat. “I guess I’ll go. Thanks for the beer, Sera.”

“Of course.” Sera let Julio get to the door before she spoke again. “If Patrick needs anything, let me know? I could bring him some food, or check in on him.” For Kat’s sake, because Patrick’s younger brother had been her friend, and for Anna’s peace of mind, because she needed to know the man was healthy and safe, whether she could admit it or not.

“I’ll tell him.” Julio lingered with his hand on the doorknob, and Sera knew his words were meant as much for Anna as for her. “This should be the last of it. He’s taken care of the mercenaries involved in his brother’s death, and I’m hoping I can talk him into slowing down.”

“Good.” She wanted to keep talking, to find words that would make him linger a bit longer.

Choking back the urge, she smiled. “Thanks. For staying, I mean.”

“You’re welcome.” He pulled open the door. “And Sera? Remember what I said.”

When he was gone, Sera tossed the beer bottles into the trash before returning to Anna’s side. “You okay?”

“I’m peachy.” She sank to the couch and dragged her hands through her hair. “I should have told him Miguel owes me fifty bucks. He probably would have paid up.”

“Maybe.” Miguel was the Mendoza brother Sera should have been flirting with. He was her age. He wasn’t an overwhelming alpha bastard who’d bring back memories of a too-controlling ex- husband. But Miguel was nice. Edgy and a little feral, but lacking the core of steely dominance that stirred her blood.

“What did he say?”

“Who, Miguel?”

“Julio. He told you to remember what he said.”

“Oh.” Sera perched on the edge of the couch and nodded toward the phone. “Someone called and hung up a couple times. I was worried.”

Anna straightened on the sofa. “Caller ID?”

“Blocked.”

“When, exactly?”

Sera retrieved the phone and handed it to Anna. “In the last couple hours. One right before Julio showed up. That’s why he stayed, I think. I was rattled.”

She shook her head as she scanned through the stored call history on the handset. “I could have come back sooner.”

“I know.” Sera nudged Anna with her elbow. “Maybe I just wanted to flirt with the hottie.”

Anna snorted. “I thought you were on the wagon.”

“You’re my alpha-jackass patch.” With Anna’s friendship grounding her, it was easier to resist the lure of the dominant wolves. Most of the time.

“Uh-huh.” She frowned at the phone and tossed it aside. “I have a friend who can get me the number that made those calls. All it takes is a few days and a nice bottle of bourbon.”

“I was hoping you would. I don’t want to freak Kat out about weird calls to her apartment unless we have to.”

“I’ll handle it, but only if you make me that mac and cheese.”

“Deal.” Sera rose and started for the kitchen, then hesitated. “After dinner? I think I’m ready for my own gun.”

“Okay.” Anna gave her an appraising look. “Jackson’s an approved instructor for the state.

Spend a Saturday with him, fire some rounds, and you’ll be ready to file for your carry permit.

It’ll take a while to come through, though, and the paperwork’s a bitch.”

The paperwork could be hell on earth, but it was still time. She’d gotten a divorce and a GED. She’d gotten a job to fill her savings account, a few measly dollars at a time, and with Anna and Kat’s help, she’d gotten her independence.

None of it would matter if her ex was back in town. Josh could corner her and drown her in shapeshifter magic, and everything she wanted would fade away under the purest driving need of all.

The coyotes had a few generations left, at most, and desperation pulsed in her blood. She didn’t need to love Josh. She didn’t even need to like him. The instinctive parts of her would always submit to him, because nothing was more important to the coyote than the survival of their species.

He’d take her. She’d let him. Together, they’d recreate the worst nightmares of her family’s past.