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She launched herself at the shifter who had the nerve to strike her and sunk her teeth into his neck. The flow from her teeth sent a surge of triumph though her and she hung on as the shifter screamed and thrashed to get away from her. She ripped her teeth from his neck and leapt off the shifter, landing with ease several feet away.

Neri glanced around, searching for the next threat, only to see all the shifters dead and decapitated around her. When she found Hunter, she almost flinched back because he, along with Kai and Reaper, were staring at her with an unreadable expression.

She noticed blood on Hunter’s cheek and darted forward. “Are you hurt?”

Hunter, with a stunned look on his face, shook his head and mumbled, “Not mine.”

“Holy shit,” Reaper said.

Neri jumped at Reaper’s deep exclamation. She turned to him and noticed his mouth was open in surprise.

“We can send Neri and Ara on assignments from now on, because damn if I’m not obsolete,” Kai said.

She shook her head, but Hunter explained.

“Neri has no desire to become an assassin.”

“Why not?” Reaper asked.

“I like creating pieces with my own hands that are useful and I don’t want to kill, even with cause. Seeing these shifters attacking Hunter… well, it was necessary.”

Kai cleared his throat. “Speaking of which, how did they track you here? Unless they had someone outside my house waiting to follow you.”

“Yeah, they could have attacked us at Kai’s. They’ve shown from past actions they have no problem attacking us where we live. But since they waited until you two were alone, they want Neri,” Reaper said.

She shook her head, disbelieving. “Why would they be after me?”

The three men glanced down at the shifter she’d bitten and when she followed their gazes, she gasped and jumped back, slamming against Hunter’s hard body.

Her gaze drifted to the dead shifter’s body. To her, it seemed as if the blood had burned in his veins before they had sunken into his skin. There were deep rivers of black carved on the surface, up to his neck, and looking grotesque over his cheeks and forehead. His mouth opened in a silent scream and she shivered and glanced away.

“Someone knows you’re a vampire shifter hybrid and they want to take advantage of that knowledge.”

“Until tonight, I had no clue I had fangs. There was a bitter taste of venom on my tongue and I jumped on him. But if I have vampire venom and I’m a shifter, why am I not dead like him? And why would I be helpful to them?”

The lonely hole that had grown over the years in her chest seemed to expand at the silence.

Hunter moved closer to her, but she stepped away, holding her hands up and shaking her head.

“You should fear me. Look what I did to him, he’s a shifter.”

“I already had that internal debate for a split second but trust me, Neri, I’m not scared of you.”

Neri’s chest throbbed in pain at his words. “What do you mean an internal debate?”

“No, it’s not what you think.” He stepped forward and cupped her face.

“Listen, you are not alone and I don’t care you are half vampire. You are stillmymate and I’m not going anywhere. Liv will draw your blood and we will research until we find the answers, but this changes nothing between us. I’ll prove to you you will never have to be alone again. And I hope to erase that painful look on your face forever,” Hunter said.

Kai cleared his throat. She tore her eyes away from Hunter to look at him. “We don’t care about your past, but we will do everything we can to find out about your life before you found yourself at Standard. It’s about time we found out about the players behind the scenes of that fucking place. You are family now, Neri, and we protect our own.”

Reaper nodded in agreement.

“Thank you.”

Both men nodded before they disappeared through the trees, leaving her alone with Hunter. He reached for her hand and led her inside, securing the house, before they walked over to the couch and sat.

“We have regenerative healing along with enhanced strength, speed, and stealth but it’s only within the past few years that the concept of mates became a reality and some have abilities and strengths beyond the norm. And Frost, while an immortal, is the only one who can get pregnant. Silas is special in his own way, the first child born from two immortals.