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Everything else in his life was upside down, and Ryan wanted to get out of this situation alive. He bit the inside of his cheek, unsure what to say since he’d never dealt with this kind of thing before.

  “Now what?”

  He mentally patted himself on the back for keeping the quiver out of his voice.

  “Now you call Devil,” Jeff said. “You tell him you need to see him, and you better be convincing.”

  That wouldn’t be a problem since Ryan was already dying to see Devil. But he had to think of what to say to tip Devil off. He had no idea.

  “So you can kill him in cold blood?” Now Ryan really hated Jeff.

  Hated him so much he prayed Devil snapped his neck.

  “So I can put down one more abomination. I might have saved his life that night, but I saw those canines. I saw what Devil truly was.

  Since then I’ve been plotting how to kill him, and you gave me the perfect opportunity.”

  Ryan folded his arms and glared at Jeff. “I’m not luring him here so you can end him.”

  Jeff was across the room before Ryan saw him move. He shoved the barrel of the gun against Ryan’s temple. Feeling the cold steel made reality slam hard into Ryan. He hadn’t meant to whimper, but the sound had come out too quickly to stop it.

  “Call. Him.”

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  Ryan pulled his phone from his pocket. His hands shook so badly he nearly dropped it. He dialed, his gaze locked with Jeff’s, and Ryan hoped his ex saw just how much he hated him.

  “Put it on speaker,” Jeff demanded.

  Ryan’s heart sank when Devil answered.

  “Hey, sexy,” Devil said. “You at work or home?”

  Ryan’s voice locked in his throat. He tried to talk, but all that came out was a croak. He’d only known of Devil’s existence for a month, only had his attention for a few days, and had only slept with him once, but Ryan couldn’t bring himself to destroy such a beautiful man—a man who was only trying to do the right thing by getting rid of the evilness in the world.

  “Ryan?” Devil said, worry in his voice.

  “Jeff has a gun to my head!”

  The phone was knocked away before Jeff brought the butt down on Ryan’s temple.

  * * * *

  Devil wished he was in his office so he could have slammed his phone down. Being hung up on wasn’t as gratifying. He’d been riding with Nyx and Kivani, trying to hunt down one of the names on Nyx’s list.

  “Turn this fucking car around,” he snapped at Nyx from the passenger seat. “I have a human to wipe off the face of the earth.”

  “What’s wrong?” Kivani asked from the backseat. He’d volunteered to sit back there even though this was his car. Devil had a suspicion that Kivani liked being chauffeured around.

  Devil told them about the call and finally confessed that the beautiful young man who’d stood outside the club while the fire was put out was his mate.

  “You should have given us the whole story from the beginning,”

  Nyx snapped. Kivani grunted in agreement. “This is your mate we’re

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  talking about. And his ex is a Hunter?” Nyx sounded as if he were seconds away from exploding. “You should have never left him alone.”

  Devil had thought Ryan was at work, and planned on being at Ryan’s apartment when his mate arrived home. Now his fuckup could cost him the one person in the world who was meant just for him.

  He glared at Nyx. “Step on it.”

  The car shot forward, careening through the city. Nyx made hairpin turns, slammed the brakes when a bunch of schoolkids were crossing at a light, then punched forward as if he was at a racetrack rather than on a city street.

  “You put a scratch on my Lexus and I’ll beat you with one of the tires,” Kivani threatened.

  “So what do you want me to fucking do, slow down?” Nyx asked.

  “No, but I want you to be careful,” Kivani said. “Stop hitting every goddamn pothole in the city.”

  Devil tried to call Ryan back but his phone just rang until voice mail picked up.

  Ryan’s sexy, honey-colored eyes flooded Devil’s mind. He mentally saw the way his mate had looked at him as Devil took him, his needy breaths, his clawing fingers, and the way he sounded when he came. His heart fluttered at the way Ryan stood up to him and how insecure he looked sometimes.

  In such a short period of time, Ryan had made Devil feel like a different man. Devil no longer felt the overwhelming loneliness he’d experienced his entire life. Ryan wasn’t someone who would betray Devil, but someone who would stick by his side no matter what. Ryan was his other half, and possibly, when they got to know each other better, his best friend. Devil had never had someone he could confide in before. Someone he could share special moments with.

  His overwhelming need to be near Ryan had only grown. Devil knew fate had a lot to do with the deep connection they now shared because he’d bitten Ryan. But it was more than that.

  Something so much deeper. No guy had ever affected Devil this way—the need to see Ryan, to hear his voice, to look into his

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  strangely beautiful eyes. Just to hang out with him and talk about nothing and everything.

  Ryan was his in every way possible, and Devil had left him unprotected. The longer he sat there thinking about the danger Ryan was in, the closer his wolf came to the surface. Devil’s claws extended, and his canines were full-length. Tiny hairs peppered his skin, and they weren’t his human arm hairs.

  Nyx slid his gaze toward Devil but didn’t say a word about his slight transformation.

  But Kivani wasn’t so quiet. “You have a third form?”

  Devil looked down and saw the hairs along his arms had grown thicker, giving away his secret. Most shifters could only shift back and forth between human and animal, but Devil could change to a third shape that let him walk on two legs, and talk, though his voice was gravely as hell when he did.

  Any time he thought of that, Professor Lupin from the Harry Potter movies came to mind. Though Devil didn’t think he was that ugly in his third form. That was the only reference point he had since he’d never met anyone else who could change into a werewolf the way he could. But he was more solidly built than that character had been, had higher cognitive thinking, and…again, was able to speak.

  He wasn’t a mindless animal driven by pure instinct.

  When he didn’t answer Kivani, the wolf shifter patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”

  The car sped into the underground parking lot at Ryan’s apartment building, the screeching tires echoing before Nyx whipped into a parking spot.

  “Were you a former race car driver in a past life?” Kivani complained.

  Nyx popped the door open and climbed out. The car righted itself when he was free. Devil hadn’t noticed how Nyx’s solid weight had given the vehicle a slight unbalance.

  “Which unit?” Kivani asked when they approached the elevator.

  “I’m taking the stairs.” Devil was too anxious to wait. “Go to the fourteenth floor.”

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  Nyx gazed wide-eyed at him. “Dude, you’re gonna climb fourteen floors? You’ll be worth shit by the time you get up there.”

  “Just wait,” Kivani advised. “The elevator won’t take long.”

  When the doors slid open, Devil took his advice and got in.

  During the entire ride up, he tapped one of his claws against the railing that bisected the elevator.

  The crappy music didn’t help settle his nerves. Devil was ready to rip the speaker out and stomp it to death. Instead, he tapped his foot impatiently. The elevator climbed slowly, too slowly for Devil. He should have taken the steps.

  When they reached the fourteenth floor, Devil spotted Henry at Ryan’s door, ready to knock. Devil moved quickly and snatched Henry off his feet, covering his mou
th.

  “Shhh,” he whispered into the twink’s ear.

  Henry wiggled in Devil’s arm, trying to elbow him.

  When Devil set him down, Henry spun, his mouth opening then closing. His eyes went wide as he stared at Devil. Then he opened his mouth again as if to scream, but it was Nyx this time who grabbed Henry and pulled him onto the elevator. The doors slid closed after them.

  Devil needed to get out of sight before someone saw the state he was in. Kivani pointed to a window at the end of the hallway. Was he nuts? He wanted them to scale the building to get to Ryan’s bedroom window? They were fourteen damn floors up.

  “No,” Devil mouthed. “Are you fucking insane? ”

  Kivani shrugged, moved toward the window, and slid it open.

  Devil thought it a dumbass idea to put a working window this high up.

  He turned toward the door, knowing full well Jeff was on the other side waiting with his gun aimed. Devil was walking into a trap, but he wouldn’t leave his mate in the hands of a Hunter.

  Taking a deep breath, he kicked the door open.

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  Chapter Nine

  Jeff had hit Ryan with his gun but hadn’t knocked him out. The good news was Jeff hadn’t wanted Ryan dead. The bad news was he paced by the door, gun in hand as he talked quietly on his phone and waited for Devil to arrive.

  Ryan was trying not to hyperventilate while making sure Jeff didn’t know he was still conscious.

  This was real.

  Really real.

  Ever since Devil had chatted him up at the club, Ryan’s life had become one train wreck after another. He was eternally tethered to someone who wasn’t even human. His ex was a killer, and Ryan didn’t even have a job now. Had he miss anything? Oh yeah, the crucial detail that Jeff was pacing next to Ryan’s prone body while he waited to commit another murder while talking casually on the phone.

  Ryan felt the slight breeze from under the crack in the door, so he knew he was facing it. Jeff was behind him, talking, So Ryan took a chance and peeked under the door. The hallway was lit, and he could smell the musty carpeting outside. The owner really needed to replace it. Ryan was pretty sure it was installed when the building was built, like, fifty or so years ago.

  It even smelled slightly of urine. The smell either belonged to Wiener, or Ryan had pissed himself. He wasn’t too ashamed to admit how terrified he was.

  He forced himself not to startle when his phone rang. It was behind him somewhere, where it had slid when Jeff knocked it out of

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  his hand. He didn’t dare turn to look, because Jeff was too damn close. But Ryan didn’t have to guess at who was calling.

  Devil.

  “I’m willing to bet every employee at Krave isn’t human,” Jeff said into his phone. “I’ll finish the job tonight, just as soon as I take care of the owner.”

  Finish the job.

  The fire. Cock. Spike. Terry. Ryan wasn’t sure why Terry entered his mind, but he no longer wanted to bitch-slap the guy. Not when Jeff had left him there to die.

  His body was starting to ache from lying on the hard floor. Even though Ryan had carpeting, it was so thin it might as well not have been there. His muscles twitched. His back protested. That was one of the many things that sucked when you became older.

  As a kid, Ryan used to camp out on Henry’s floor all the time during sleepovers or Henry camped out on his. They’d stayed up to the wee hours eating junk food, and waiting for whichever set of parents to go to bed so they could find the shows they weren’t supposed to watch.

  His young, lithe body had been able to handle the floor back then.

  Now he might need a chiropractor if he stayed down much longer.

  If Jeff doesn’t put a bullet in me first.

  Ryan began to sweat at that thought. He even started to tremble a little. If he didn’t get his body under control, he’d give himself away.

  Then he heard the sound of the elevator doors shushing open.

  Ryan peeked again and saw a shadow moving under his door. Then shoes. He knew those shoes.

  Henry!

  Ryan opened his mouth to shout for his best friend to run, but then Henry’s shoes disappeared and all Ryan saw where boots. Three sets of them…then two sets.

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  Devil was there to rescue him, but was walking into a trap. Jeff still paced behind him, still talking, oblivious to Devil’s arrival—and whoever else was with him.

  One moment Ryan was lying there staring at the boots, the next, he was shouting when the door crashed open and knocked him in the head.

  Jeff fired his gun.

  Devil dropped to a crouch and pulled Ryan from the apartment, slinging him toward the elevator. And damn could he throw. Ryan smacked the wall and cried out again, pain slicing through his head as he hit the floor. His head spun as he pushed his way to his feet, and gripped his temples.

  That was the third time in less than an hour his head had been assaulted. Ryan would be brain-damaged by the end of the night.

  Crashing came from his apartment. Ryan stumbled forward, forgetting how to walk for a second. His head was really spinning.

  When this was over, he needed to go to the hospital for a CAT scan.

  Ryan stepped into his apartment and his jaw dropped. That was Devil, but it wasn’t. His face was protruding slightly and his sharp teeth were bared. He had claws instead of fingernails, and the skin Ryan could see was covered in fur.

  And he had Jeff pinned to the couch, choking the life out of him.

  Jeff’s arms flailed as he tried to knock away Devil’s hands, but he failed miserably as his face turned an odd shade of red.

  Then Jeff got loose, dove to the floor, and grabbed his gun. He jumped up and aimed but didn’t get to fire. Devil was on him that quickly, boxing Jeff like he was a professional.

  The gun went off again but missed Devil.

  With a snarl, Devil grabbed Jeff around the waist and slammed him back onto the couch.

  Ryan ran forward, ready to…he wasn’t sure what he would do. He stopped midrun when a stranger walked out of his bedroom. Ryan froze, unable to breathe, wondering who the guy was.

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  Then he remembered seeing him at Krave when the fire truck was there. He was a friend of Devil’s. But how had he gotten into Ryan’s apartment? Had he scaled the freaking walls of the building?

  Spider Monkey winked at him, and Ryan’s face heated as he turned away. Devil cocked his arm back and slugged Jeff in the face.

  He got up, Jeff limp on the couch, and turned to Ryan. There was blood on the corner of Devil’s mouth. He used the back of his hand to wipe it away.

  “Is he d-dead?” Ryan looked for any sign that Jeff was breathing.

  He didn’t see any.

  Devil shook his head. “Just knocked out.”

  Ryan barely understood what Devil had said. His voice was different, deeper, more of a growl, and Ryan backed up, suddenly afraid of him. Devil might be a gorgeous hunk, but right now he was also not human-looking.

  “He’s not gonna kill your ex in your apartment,” Spider Monkey said. “We’ll take Jeff somewhere else for that.”

  Ryan spun and stared up at the handsome man in his bedroom doorway. Spider Monkey leaned against the frame looking relaxed, and sexy as fuck. If Ryan hadn’t met Devil, this would be a fantasy come to life. A gorgeous guy in his bedroom. Cheesy porno music played in his head for a heartbeat before Ryan turned and looked at Devil.

  The music died.

  His fear escalated.

  Jeff stirred.

  “I’ll handle this,” Spider Monkey said. “You smooth things over with your mate.”

  Spider Monkey lifted Jeff off the couch like he was a body pillow instead of a weighty human. He tossed Jeff over his shoulder and headed into the hallway, grabbing and closing the door behind him.


  Ryan was now left alone with this…uh, Devil.

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  But when he looked at him, Devil’s features had returned to normal. Only, his blue eyes smoldered as he stared at Ryan, hunger filling them, his jaw firm, and his body…still an amazing work of art.

  Still, Ryan felt awkward, unsure what to say.

  Devil crossed the room with hesitant steps. He raised his hand and probed Ryan’s head with his fingers.

  “Ow,” he hissed, pulling back.

  “I didn’t know you were lying in front of the door or I would have never kicked it in.”

  His words were sincere, kind, and apologetic. When Ryan looked at Devil’s face, he no longer saw the furry thing he’d been. All Ryan saw was his strong jaw and nose, his soft lips, and his enigmatic eyes.

  Ryan was dying to know what Devil was thinking, but Devil dropped his hand and looked away. “I couldn’t do it, not with you here, watching me.”

  He meant killing Jeff.

  Ryan should be freaked out, but he wasn’t. He felt sorry for Devil.

  A soft spot in his heart opened for…his mate. He needed to get used to that term. “You’re not a killer, are you?”

  “It doesn’t come naturally to me,” Devil admitted. “Not like I thought it would.”

  “Then why did you take the job?”

  “To get away from being killed myself.”

  His answer shocked Ryan. “Why would someone want to kill you?”

  Devil’s uncertain expression looked foreign on his face. He moved back to Ryan, slid his hand around his nape, and pulled him close. “I’ll answer you, but I need a kiss, desperately. I need to ground myself again.”

  His lips hovered close to Ryan’s, his breath warm. The plea shattered the last of Ryan’s resistance. Did he have any in the first place? Devil could turn into a dolphin and Ryan would still want him.

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  “A kiss,” Ryan murmured seconds before Devil assaulted his mouth with a slow, burning kiss that made Ryan’s breath hitch and his toes curl.