Page 2

She was struggling to keep her normal optimism.

The small amount of money she managed to salvage from her lying, cheating ex was almost gone. The week after he ran off with her cash and anything of value from the apartment, shewas served with an eviction notice. The money she’d given Brad for rent hadn’t been getting to the management company for the last three months!

She tried to reason with the company and pay the back rent with her credit cards only to find out that Brad had maxed them all out. Between defaulting on her credit card debt and the apartment, her credit was ruined.

It was a situation bad enough that she’d almost given up.

Almost.

If she asked her parents for money, they’d say, “We’ll pay for a ticket home but nothing else.”

She was too embarrassed to contact her friends back in South Dakota to ask for help. She’d made such a big deal about moving to San Diego. She’d talked endlessly about her online boyfriend Brad. He was going to become a screenwriter, and she was going to open her bakery.

Within six months, Brad was gone, along with her money and jewelry.

The silver lining was the van. Her friend sold it to her cheaply and made sure it was in good working order before handing the keys over. The thing was ugly but ran well and got her all the way from South Dakota to San Diego. The cargo area was already set up to transport large items, so when she had got evicted, her van became her new home.

It wasn’t too bad, really. She laid out a bunch of pads and bedding along one side, and her clothes and personal items were stowed in plastic totes along the other side. When she’d arrived, Brad demanded she sell the van because his car was nicer. He hated being seen in the “rust-mobile” and would poke fun because her friend's painting services logo was still partially visible even after she’d scraped it off.

Lucky for her, the van was the one demand she’d ignored. It was the single item she still had to her name with any real value.

Looking back, she could see how very naïve she was. She’d fallen for all of it. All his lines. All his charm. She moved halfway across the country because a cute guy on the internet told her to.

“I’m an idiot,” she mumbled. Her new best friend moved around until she’d snuggled up against Mila’s belly. Now that she was thinking about it, she had a dog, so the van wasn’t the only good thing in her life at the moment. She and this little mutt were going to save each other!

“Oh, I know. I’m going to name you Babette. I always liked that name.”

The dog tried to lick her face so Mila took that as an agreement. “Tomorrow I have another interview. It’s at a donut shop. I’m sure I’ll get the job, so don't worry or anything. After I get it, we’ll go shopping for all the things you need.”

Again, Babette’s response was to aim that long tongue at her chin. Mila knew that was probably because the dog had all the faith in the world in her ability to get a job at a little neighborhood donut shop.

Shivering a little, she reached over for the spare blanket she’d rarely needed since moving west. When she first arrived, there was a heatwave going on and the temperatures routinely rose to well over 100 degrees.

November arrived and showed Mila what passed for winter in Southern California. An occasional rain and temperatures that hadn’t dropped below forty degrees. Her South Dakota friends would laugh at how the Californians reacted to the “cold” weather.

Now that she lived in her van, she was thankful that winters here were so mild. If she tried to live like this in the dead of winter back home, she’d be dead. Here, she only needed to bundle up.

“Tomorrow is going to be the beginning of our good luck,” she murmured to Babette, feeling warm and protected in hervan as the rain pelted the roof. “Tomorrow we’re going to turn everything around.”

Chapter 2

Carter

The human barring the door sneered at Carter and refused to step aside. “You weren’t invited.”

“If Gio’s in there, then I need to be in there,” Carter insisted, completely unintimidated by the human or the ten perfect duplicate durmins behind him. Even though he knew the durmin copies of the human were indestructible unless you knew what kind of spell put them together, he refused to feel threatened.

“I know you feel big and important because you’re part of a vampire’s flock,” the human responded, still not moving. “But that doesn’t mean shit here. McConnell is just as powerful as your master.”

Carter ignored the use of “master” and smiled menacingly to show off some lengthened canines. Most wolf shifters couldn’t do partial shifts or the highly coveted “werewolf” shift. He’d mastered both as a teenager and didn’t use either often, but they were effective when he did.

The human’s mocking smile disappeared, and he jerked back a little, but didn’t step out of the way.

“Move or I’ll take pleasure ripping you and all your copies apart,” Carter threatened.

His words didn’t make the human allow him entrance. Instead, it seemed to make the man even more determined to obstruct Carter. With a wave of his hand, the durmin all crowded into the doorway and the human slid backwards until he was behind them.

The human opened his mouth, probably to say something taunting, but he didn’t get a chance. Carter’s patience was done. With a growl of rage, he launched himself at the durmins.