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He handed me the stick. “I think the color will work with your skin tone. You’re welcome to try it.”

It wasn’t like we hadn’t already exchanged germs, so I put some on and liked it. It looked great on, and I snapped a picture of both the name brand and the color name. “Thanks. If I wear makeup at work, it’s neutral and understated, so that’ll work well. Plus, since someone helped me get rid of the lipstick I was wearing, this works a little so I don’t walk out looking well-fucked.”

He chuckled. “I mean, I do have a reputation to uphold.”

“Yeah, and I guess that’s why I felt confident in kind of taking charge like that. I’m not shy about sex, but not usuallythatforward.”

Or, I hadn’t been before having to go through what it took for me to gain control of my bear, after I was turned. For a while, it looked like they were going to have to report me dead and have me work behind the scenes where I couldn’t hurt anyone, and I’d have had to live at Drake Security, never being around humans again. But then Aaron sent me to Bran as kind of a last-ditch effort, and Bran quite literally whipped me into shape.

I’m not submissive, but Bran had forced meandmy bear to submit, and while I learned control, I also learned all kinds of things about my own sexuality.

Horse had been able to make me submit, which meant he could help me control my bear, but he’s the one who bit me, so the magic kind of made me see him as dominant. No one else had quite managed to make me fully submit until they sent me to Bran. It’s possible Aaron might’ve if he’d been willing to fuck me, but he’s loyal to Sophia, so his training had been all non-sexual, and it turns out, I’d needed Bran’s flavor of training before I could gain control over my bear, which had been beyond brutal, but it’d worked, so I wasn’t complaining.

I could walk down the street by myself now, and I could fuck one of the biggest rock stars on the planet.

“You wanna walk out with me?” Will asked. “Lots of cameras in your face, so it’s your choice whether we walk out holding hands and get into the limo together, or whether you meet me there.”

I shrugged. “Not big on hiding. If you’re good with it, I’m game.”

“I’m beyond good with it.”

He held his hand out, I took it, and we walked out of his dressing room together.

I immediately understood his warnings, because flashes were going off all over the place the second the door opened to the outside, before we were even through. The security team got us to the limo and into it, and then it was mostly silent inside once the doors closed.

It was weird that the security team were all coworkers. It felt like mixing business with pleasure, a little, but I’d have to think about that later, because freaking classical music was playing in the limo.

“So, does this answer the question about what rock stars listen to in their free time?”

He shook his head. “I listen to a little of everything, but I find Bach to be a nice palate cleanser after a concert. I’m still kind of both personas, you weren’t wrong about that, but the after-party is a mix of business associates, personal friends, and specially invited media, so I kind of have to be both for a while longer.”

I got it. I mean, sometimes I’m a bear and sometimes I’m the human named Micca. I wanted to give my bear a different name, but everyone — bear, wolves, and vampires — said not to.

I was listening to them for now, but I reserved the right to change my mind. It seemed it would be easier to acknowledge my two-natured existence if both natures had a name. Also,my bear was no longer wild. She wasn’t tame, but she could understand English, and she knew not to pee inside. Animals who aren’t wild are usually named.

I even knew the name:Lena. My name is Miccalena, but I go by Micca. So, my bear could use the last part of my given name.

Getting from the limo into the hotel wasn’t as difficult as the trip out of the concert venue, but there was still a lot of yelling and camera flashes. When we finally walked into the party area, Mythic Beast’s music was playing in the background.

“I’m gonna hit up the food table,” I told him a few minutes after we entered. The most important part of keeping control of my bear and my temper is staying well-fed. I mean, I had to do this horrible test given by the new Senatus, a council of American vampires that replaced the European Concilio, where they starved me to near death and made me stay in bear form. They put some of my bear’s favorite meals in with me, still alive — including rabbits and even a young deer — and I had to not eat them. Not touch them. I passedalltheir sadistic-as-fuck tests, which I think is as much about giving me the confidence to know I’m safe around humans as proving it to the powers-that-be. IknowI can control my bear now.

The bikers didn’t know about the new Senatus, though, so they’d been told I’d passed all the Concilio’s tests, which wasn’t actually a lie since the American vampires hadn’t changed the testing protocols. They weren’t reinventing the wheel, just changing who was steering it.

Matty had a plate already started for me, and I knew it was mine and not his because it had all my favorites, which meant a ton of meatandcarbs.

I took it from him, finished loading it up, and asked, “Something you forgot to tell me?”

“I promised not to talk about anything that happened in Will’s house, or when I was with Davy, or Will, or the band.When you finally came home, I told Davy I needed to tell you, and he asked me to wait until I could talk to Will face-to-face to ask him. Since it was just a couple of weeks, I figured we had enough other stuff for me to catch you up on.” He glared at me. “If you’d have come to his house, you’d have figured it out!”

I smiled, understanding now why he’d been so upset with me when I hadn’t been able to go. “I’m proud of you. Once upon a time, you wouldn’t have been able to keep it to yourself.”

He blushed a little. “I know, but Razor’s taught me the importance of being trustworthy with secrets.”

I kissed his cheek. “I know he has. He’s good for you.”

“So, you and Will?” he asked.

“Yeah, and it was…” I shrugged. “He’ll never let me take control completely, but he let me have it in little pieces, here and there. It worked for me.”