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Rasmus stood. “Conn? I’m taking Aran home.”

“Good,” growled a deep demon voice.

Rasmus turned and walked up ahead of me.

Katie met us at the top. “I’ve called a ride and already paid for it. Go home and rest, Aran. It was a hard thing you did, and I’mnottalking about how much magick it took.”

I hugged Katie and she hugged me back. She gave Rasmus a bag that smelled like fresh-baked cookies. In the car, he held my hand. I let him do it because I didn’t feel like fighting about it.

At the house, everything was quiet. We were the only two people home.

Rasmus pulled me to the couch, laid down, and pulled me on top of him.

“Hey! What do ya think ya’re doing?” I asked.

“Rubbing your back. Shush and let me.”

His hands made sweeping motions over my back and shoulders. Tension I hadn’t realized was hiding there eased away. My knees were tucked into his crotch. One wrong move and I could maim him.

But once I calmed down and realized I was safe at home, my eyes burned with unshed tears of relief. “My ex-husband reduces me to this. It still makes me mad that I let him.”

“Jack makes you sad because you once genuinely cared what he thought of you.”

Tears dripped silently from the corners of my eyes. “Yes, well, I care about a lot of people.”

“I know. That’s why you did something today that you didn’t want to do. You did it for the female guardian you’re trying to save. How many times have you done things to save me?”

I sighed against his shirt. It was well-worn and smelled of sandalwood. “I saved ya once or twice, but ya always returned the favor. Ya showed up at the lab and kept me from killing the father of my child. Jack was pretty determined to end my life that day. Mulan was whacking pieces off to slow him down while I reasoned with him. That creature he turned into was bigger than an elephant and he was convinced that made him unstoppable.”

“Yes, I got that much. Which version of me did all that?”

“Version 2. Version 1 was the version I freed from Jack and his scientists. That’s why I said Version 2 returned the favor.”

Long arms wrapped over my back until his hands cupped my shoulders. “Sleep for a while. Let Version 3 guard your back.”

I knew he was trying to joke back with me, but neither of us laughed. Soothed by his hug, I buried my face in his neck and let tiredness take me under.

Some other time I would think about how nice it felt to be taken care of by a man I liked in any form.

ChapterTwenty-One

Rasmus and Conn kept their distance as we left the car and walked deep into the park. They spoke in low tones with the occasional chuckle reaching our ears. Mulan and I walked ahead to greet a group of wolves waiting for us to catch up to them. The half-full moon gave us just enough light to see where we walked.

A large, light brown wolf with a blond muzzle and a blond scruff on his chest greeted me with a muted growl issuing from his throat. Behind him I could see six other wolves, all in various shades and mixtures of brown, gray, and black. Just as he’d claimed, Isaiah’s wolf was indeed the largest of his pack.

A spark of recognition passed between us as I looked into his not quite human eyes.

I had borrowed one of Fiona’s backpacks for the evening to carry what we might need to deal with Zara if we ran into her. Future work would require I buy a military-grade backpack for carrying dangerous supplies, but using Fiona’s was better than carrying syringes in my hands.

I swung the backpack off my shoulder and pulled a plastic bag from it. I removed Lina’s unwashed shirt and held it out in front of me. The wolves trotted up like well-trained dogs and spent some significant time sniffing it. Isaiah was the first to turn and walk away. He waited until the last wolf joined him before they all trotted off.

We brought flashlights with us, but so far we didn’t need them. There were no people in the park, but then this wasn’t the best part of town to be caught lurking after the business buildings had closed for the day.

The ducks—wise prey that they were—had retreated to a protective platform some thoughtful soul had built in the middle of the pond they swam in each day. Though their sheer numbers were staggering to me, they all remained silent on their crowded duck island while the animal predators I’d hired jogged around the pond.

I’m sure this was the reaction the werewolves got wherever they went in animal form. Non-shifting animals didn’t realize that the wolves weren’t completely animal, so they opted for following their fear response.

I wondered if the ducks would approach the werewolves in their human forms the next day if they returned here. I had a feeling not.