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Carter felt nothing but vague curiosity. He wasn't interested in Skyler any longer. He’d found another mate. She was gorgeous, smart, sweet, and perfect. All he needed was to keep her safe until she joined him and Gio.

Giving up on counting, Carter left. Zan was correct, it was easy to follow Mila and Babette. As he rushed to catch up, he disapproved of the path she took. Why would she decide to walk through such a poorly lit area with almost no one around?

“You!”

Rough hands grabbed him, swinging him around to face the human and his durmin copies from last night.

Damn it, he didn’t have time for this.

“Fuck off,” Carter snapped and tried to turn and leave. He had more important things to do than pick fights with dumb magic creatures and the idiot human they were modeled after.

To his surprise, there were more durmin behind him. There were at least twenty of them now, and he was surrounded in a tight alley with no way to escape.

“I’m really going to enjoy this!” the human in the back said as several durmin pulled out knives.

Carter sucked in a breath and didn’t bother with words. He shifted into his werewolf form and attacked where the line of durmin was the thinnest.

His goal was to get away, but it became clear very quickly that they wanted him dead.

He fought hard, but there was a good chance he was going to die tonight.

Gio was never going to forgive him. Even worse, Gio didn’t know about Mila. She’d have no one to protect her.

Mila

To Mila’s immense relief the van was still there, unfortunately, there was a ticket on the windshield. Still bad but not as bad as losing her home and all her remaining possessions.

Plucking the ticket out from under the wiper, she shoved it in a pocket and fumbled for her keys to open the old vehicle while balancing Babette on her hip.

Once Mila was settled in the driver’s seat, she paused and grinned like an idiot.

“What do you think of Carter?” she asked Babette. “He’ll probably turn out to be a mass murderer or something, but for now we can pretend he’s a genuine, sweet guy.”

Babette yawned and squirmed in her arms until she let the little dog go. With a grumpy sound, Babette made her way to the bed in the back. After a few turns and some nosing around, she got under the covers and made herself comfy.

“Fine, we can talk in the morning,” Mila said with a laugh. “I guess it’s time to find a place to park for the night. We can’t go back to the mall, not after that guard caught us this morning. I still can’t believe he offered to let us keep parking there if I gave him blow jobs. Ewww!”

She started up the van, enjoying the way the old vehicle rumbled to life. It might not be sleek or pretty, but it was solid and reliable.

Honestly, if she had to live in a vehicle, the van wasn’t so bad. But that did leave the whole issue of finding a legal and safe place to spend the night.

“The search begins,” she said, shifting the van into gear and backing out of the spot. Thankfully, the place was mostly empty. She felt bad for the few cars she could see that had tickets on their windshields also. Looked like she wasn’t the only one who’d be paying a fine.

There were several ways to go, but she decided to drive back to Joy. If she could find a place to park near there, she could go in and apologize for leaving so abruptly. Carter might even still be there!

“What’s going on here?” she mumbled when her headlights illuminated a group of people standing in the middle of the alley she’d used earlier as a shortcut. It was completely empty when she’d walked through, but now there had to be twenty people there.

Even more odd, they all looked alike. Was it some kind of flash mob? Were they dressed like a celebrity she didn’t recognize?

Then she saw several kicking and punching something on the ground. There was a flash of fur and then the glint of a knife.

Rage consumed her. They were abusing a dog! No way was she going to let that happen.

She put the high beams on in the van and turned on the light rack and spotlight Josh had installed when he needed to work at night. The entire effect lit up the alley like a movie set.

Gripping the steering wheel tight, she revved the engine and screamed as she drove right at the nearest of the men.

“Not today!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. “No animal is getting hurt while I’m here! Fuuuuuck off!”