Twisted

eyes. Three men stood next to the porch—different ones from before.

Wiry, alert, they moved like graceful animals. Yet they didn’t smell like anything.

One strode forward. Green and gold colored his eyes, while thick blond hair was cut short over an angled face.

“Hi, Maggie. I’m Felix.”

“Hi.” She swallowed.

“Are ya ready ta’ come home?” he asked, his tone conge-nial and gentle, as if speaking to someone ill.

“I am home.” She fought the urge to take Terrent’s hand.

If things got nasty, he’d need it free.

“No,” Felix explained slowly, patiently. “Yer home is in Vaile.”

Irritation heated her ears. “Listen, buddy. You don’t need to speak slowly to me—I’m not brain damaged.” Okay, tech-nically, her brain had been damaged. But her IQ was probably higher than his.

Terrent grinned.

At that smile, she relaxed. For the first time since being rescued from the Kurjans, she had somebody. She wasn’t alone. “I appreciate your traveling all the way here for me, but I’m not going anywhere.”

Felix lost his smile. Purple mottled his face. So not handsome. “Listen, ye’r ours, and ye’r comin home so we can strengthen our lineage. Get rid of the weaklings.”

So maybe Felix wasn’t loved as a leader. Maggie shook her head. “No, thanks.”

Terrent waved his hand. The wolves instantly smelled like wolves.

She frowned. “Wait a minute.” The other times that the wolves had been masked and then revealed flashed through her mind. “You have quite the talent there.”

“I’ll explain later,” he said.

“Yes, you will.” She breathed out and focused on Felix.

Her chin lifted—along with her hand. Tugging her shirt down, she revealed the angry, red teeth marks on the front of her shoulder. “I’d have to turn around for you to see the other set.” She cut a glare at Terrent. Her entire shoulder! “But, as you can see, I no longer belong in your pack.” Something told her she’d never belonged there.

“You mated a Skene wolf ?” Felix’s nostrils flared. “You stupid, stupid bitch.”

Terrent growled and stepped forward.

Thunder rolled high above.

A tingling wandered up Maggie’s legs. A roaring filled her ears. Not now.

One of the men with Felix jerked his head at Terrent.

“He’s Skene.”

“So?” Maggie glanced at Terrent. “I don’t know what that means.”

“It means nothing,” Terrent said quietly.

Felix spat on the ground. “We wiped out most a’ the Skene wolves three hundred years ago. We missed one.”

Maggie pivoted to face Terrent. Her shoulder ached like a raw wound. “My people destroyed yours?”

“Yes.” He kept his gaze on Felix.

“Why?” she breathed.

“We were natural enemies. My people reviled yours. So when the war broke out, a Vaile raiding party took advantage of the situation.”

“You lied to me,” she said to Terrent. Flames heated her face, her spine.

Felix bared his teeth. “The Skene counter our masking abilities—they were our competition for centuries ’til we wiped ’em out. He hunted you to kill you.”

She coughed out, “Is that why I can’t mask my scent?”

“No.” The wind whipped through Terrent’s thick hair.

“Did you hunt me to kill me?” She kept her gaze on the new wolves while she threw the question at Terrent.

“No.” Terrent eyed the two fighters with Felix. “You and I can fight later. Right now, we might have a problem.”

“Fight? Fight later?” Good God. She might kill the man.

“Oh no, mate. We fucking fight right now.”

He slowly turned to face her.

She stepped back. Damn it.

Gone was her lover. The fighter from the Bane’s Council stood tall and indomitable. “Maggie, return to the cabin. I’ll be along shortly.”

Her knees trembled with the need to flee. Away from the hunter, away from the pack, away from reality. “No.”

Roger cleared his throat. “I don’t give a shit what any of you do. However, I have alerted the demons that you’re here, so you might want to get moving, Maggie.”

Terrent released her gaze to pierce the new Alpha with a look that should’ve made him shrivel into nothingness.

“You’re a dead man.”

A pack of black wolves meandered out of the trees to the north. At least thirty wolves. About half were in wolf form, the other half human.

Felix smiled. “As you can see, we brought backup.”

Roger and Gerald leaped from the porch and landed next to Terrent.

Gerald shook his head. “The Vaile pack would never align with the Ausgel pack.”

“Just did.” Felix glanced past the men toward Maggie.

“We can kill them first, or ya can just come with us.”

Panic seized her lungs. She inhaled, counted to ten, and exhaled for the count of ten. “Why? I’m mated.”

He lifted a lean shoulder. “I’d a hoped to take ya as a mate, but you’ll do as a whore. Either way, ya have resources ya will share.”

Terrent scratched his chin and eyed Maggie. “Apparently you had money. Interesting.” The words were bland, the fury in his eyes anything but.

“I’m not sharing with you,” she muttered. Settling her stance, she shook her head. “I release any and all fortune I may have had to the Vaile wolves. You can have that. But not me.”

“I want you.” Felix chuckled. “In all sorts of ways.”

As an attempt to goad Terrent, it wasn’t bad. But Maggie knew better. The werewolf hunter grew cooler and more thoughtful before attacking. He was currently way too calm.

The sky opened up.

Rain slashed down as if the gods were pissed.

Maggie shoved wet curls off her face. “I can’t believe my own people would want to kidnap me.”

“Come with us now, or I’m going to kill yer mate,” Felix spat. The wolves flanking him lifted their noses and howled.

Chills cascaded down her spine.

“You have to go,” Roger said urgently, water coating his face. “They’ll kill us.”

“I really don’t like you.” Maggie glared at the Alpha. “I mean, grow a pair, Sally.” Her mind spun. The world closed in on her. There was no way she and Terrent could beat back an entire pack. She sucked one-on-one. “I have to go with them.”

Terrent stiffened. “No.” Lifting his head, he emitted a piercing whistle.

Jase Kayrs strode out of the forest, his eyes a swirling green, a scowl marring his handsome face. A pissed-off vampire might come in handy. Maggie shot him a smile.

Then she sighed. While Jase could fight, they were still majorly outnumbered.

Until Nash stalked out of the rock cavern followed by about fifteen men.

Maggie nodded at him. “How?”