Impulse

Surely they wouldn’t. “They’re looking to assert dominance. Coming after you would be weak, beneath them.” He flicked the keys hanging from the ignition. “If that happens, leave me behind and get the hell out of here, ’cause it means all bets are off.”

Sera slipped her seatbelt off and reached across the seat to squeeze his hand. “Be careful.”

“Nothing to it.” He climbed out of the car and engaged the locks before closing the door.

“Gentlemen.”

The wolves fanned out as he approached, blocking off the parking lot exit. There were four, total—two fit blonds in bland business casual, a thin, dangerous-looking redhead dressed like a redneck, and the obvious leader, a thug over six feet tall whose bulging muscles strained the seams on his cheap suit.

The leader stepped forward, his gaze a hairsbreadth short of an outright challenge. “Julio Mendoza. You didn’t call to say you were coming to town.”

“No, I didn’t.” Nor was he expected to, but he let it lie. “Is that a problem?”

“It is when you bring trash with you,” the redhead muttered.

The leader lifted a hand to silence him. “It’s polite,” he said, giving the words an edge of a growl. “Or are you only interested in talking to outcasts and mutts?”

Julio forced a smile. “It’s polite to look people up when you roll into town—which was my full intention. Are you suggesting I needed to call first for permission?”

“No.” It was a blatant lie, and the wolf didn’t bother to hide it from his expression. His face twisted into something ugly. “You’re supposed to be the one who gives a shit about us.

Jacobson’s so perverse he’d let us all burn, and that new bastard doesn’t know how to be a wolf. But you’re one of us. So why don’t you act like it?”

If he didn’t shut this down now, things would get real ugly, real fast. So Julio stepped closer, right up in the man’s space, and stared at him. Hard. “Say what you want about me—I’m here and ready to kick your ass for it—but don’t talk shit about my friends.”

The suit’s hands fisted. “If you were half the man your uncle is, you’d be doing your job.

You’d be fighting for the wolves instead of dicking around the country with a coyote slut.”

“For dickheads like you?” He wouldn’t throw the first punch. He would not. “I prefer people with manners.”

It was the redneck who snarled, some control on his temper snapping. “You’re a fucking disgrace,” he spat, anger turning his face as red as his hair. “At least Alec Jacobson and Andrew Callaghan are only bent enough to screw human bitches. The only good coyote is a dead—” It didn’t matter that the leader was a few inches taller than him and probably a few pounds heavier. Julio grabbed the lapels of his cheap, ill-fitting jacket and threw him at the redneck with a growl. They hit the ground but sprang up, ready to fight.

Good. So was he.

Sera had no intention of driving away to leave Julio to his fate, even if she was utterly confident in his ability to prevail in a four-on-one fight. The wolves facing him had violence in their postures and hate in their eyes, and she’d known from the moment he first spoke that they wouldn’t be satisfied with words.

Instead of preparing to flee, she’d called Anna. “Now they’re talking a lot of shit. Mostly about me.” The running commentary diffused her nerves. Made it easier to breathe as she watched Julio. “They’re not saying anything really creative, though. I’m a coyote slut who’d be better off— shit.”

“What?” Anna demanded. “What’s happening?”

“Julio just picked up the biggest one and threw him at the others like a bowling ball.” Her heart pounded its way toward her throat as Julio punched the flannel-wearing redneck in the nose. “Oh my God, Anna, promise me he can handle all four of them.”

“He can handle them,” she answered instantly. “Look, he told you to stay in the car.

Whatever else you do, you stay there, okay?”

Sera gripped the door handle and winced as one of the blond wolves landed a rough hit to Julio’s side, but Julio barely seemed to notice. “I’m not stupid,” she whispered, hating herself for what she was instead. Weak. Useless. “I’m a liability. I’m getting in the way of what he’s trying to do.”

Julio spun and butted heads with the tall blond—literally. The man staggered back, and the one in flannel grabbed at Julio’s shirt. One blow knocked him loose, and he stumbled toward the car in an effort to catch his balance.

Julio charged him with a wild-eyed roar. They landed on the pavement in a full-on skid, sliding several feet before crashing into the front fender of the car.

Sera could hear her own rasping breaths filling the car. Power thundered over her, a dominance that sang in her blood and vibrated in her bones. Or maybe that vibration was the car shaking as the red-headed wolf tried to crawl away from the brutal punishment of Julio’s fists.

She could vaguely hear Anna’s voice from her phone, and she struggled to focus, to tear her gaze from the perfect storm of protective violence in front of her. “One of them got too close to the car,” she told Anna. “I don’t think he liked that.”

Anna swore viciously, and keys jingled in the background. “They’d better hope he doesn’t kill any of them.”

The huge wolf in the suit tried to pull Julio off the one in the flannel, earning an elbow in the face for his trouble. Then Julio climbed to his feet, nudged the man on the ground with his foot and faced the others.

They backed away.

Sera made a choked noise. “Oh, he’s amazing. He’s…” Her opposite. Her match. Violence and strength and all the hard, dangerous things in life. She groaned and closed her eyes. “I wish you were close enough to shake me. I’m about to go on a submissive bender.”

Anna sighed. “If he’s winning, I’m hanging up. I’d rather not share this moment with you, no offense.”

“Anna?”

“Yeah, honey?”

Outside, one of the blond wolves bolted. The other fell to his knees, the silent gesture an acknowledgment of power and a willingness to submit that defied human words.

She understood the feeling. “I think I’m a little bit in love with him.”

“A little bit,” Anna repeated slowly, her voice devoid of surprise. “Call me later.”

“I will,” Sera promised, and barely noticed the soft click on the other end of the phone. Julio was watching with disgust as the remaining men gathered their flannel-clad—and now bleeding — friend and began helping him across the lot.

He bent by her window and waited for her to lower it. “Are you all right?” he rasped.

“Yes,” she whispered, unable to look away from him. The human bits of her were slipping away, lost to the rising satisfaction of her coyote. Her phone slipped from her fingers, and she fumbled blindly for the door lock.

Instead of opening her door, he circled around to his and climbed in. “They won’t be bothering us anymore, but I think we gathered some attention. We’ll have to find another hotel.”

His shirt was torn, and blood splattered his lip. She waited for him to settle into the seat before sliding over to brush her thumb across his chin. “Are you hurt?”

He shook his head and watched as the attacking wolves packed into an SUV and peeled out of the lot. Then he released a breath and leaned his forehead against the wheel. “I mean it, are you all right?”

In a heartbeat she went from weak to strong. From useless to needed. Shifting closer to him, she slipped a careful arm around his body and dropped her cheek to the back of his shoulder.

“I’m all right,” she promised, letting the words float from her. She found the skin of his upper arm and stroked it softly. “I don’t care what they say about me. That was bullshit. I’ve heard worse.”

“Fuck.” His fingers tightened around the steering wheel until it creaked. “Fuck. ”

For all she knew, the last time he’d been jumped by shapeshifters was when he and Kat had been kidnapped by the mercenaries the psychic cult had hired. She kept touching him, kept holding him—but didn’t push. If she tried to make him talk, he’d shut down.

So she slid her hand down his arm to cover his fingers with her own. “Will you let me drive?”