He looked up and his eyes bugged out, his mouth opened wide, beads of sweat trickled down the side of his face. “What are you doing?”

Tess lowered the sword. She grabbed him by the shoulders and hauled him up. “Listen carefully,” she demanded, pushing his back against the wall. “Someone wants you dead. You need to call up the Devil and make a new deal. Plus, you need to get out of town. For good. And when you leave you need to promise me no more soul stealing. I know people who can keep tabs on you and if I find out you’ve stolen another soul, I’ll tell the Devil myself to take care of you. Do you hear me? Can you do that?”

“I-I don’t know,” he mumbled.

“Wrong answer. You don’t have a choice. It’s the Devil or me. Take your pick.” She lifted the sword and hoped since she was currently George’s most pressing threat, he’d wise up. He didn’t know she had no intention of killing him.

He shook, blinked a hundred times, worried his bottom lip. For a demon, he sure was a wuss.

“Wait.” He raised his arm in defense. “I can do that.”

She pressed her arm against his chest. “You sure? Because if I let you go, I could be dead.” Fuck. What was happening to her?

“I got it.” He pushed back, finally showing some backbone. “That soul I just took must be working. I won’t let you down.”

Sirens blaring in the distance brought Tess back to the present. God, she hoped George had kept his word and left town.

She glanced back around her bedroom and her thoughts shifted to San Diego. There hadn’t been time to get there, and now she wondered if she really wanted to. Hearing George’s devotion to his wife had sent her mind reeling in a direction she’d tried hard the past two days to forget.

Her feelings for Hugh were true, honest, life altering. She’d realized over the past forty-eight hours that discovering who Jason’s killer was and why he’d died wasn’t as important as figuring out how to save Hugh.

She’d risk her life to save his, and get to the bottom of the Wolf Seekers’ vengeance on the Night Runners.

The numbers on the clock flipped to 8:30.

She had less than twenty-eight hours.

One emergency after another befell Hugh and he hadn’t had a moment to spare since Tess walked out on him. He hadn’t gone to San Diego. Hadn’t had more than ten minutes to talk to Trey. Hadn’t had an attempt made on his life.

Where was she?

He sat at his desk logging in the day’s flights and wished like hell he could stop thinking about her. Stop remembering her taste, her scent. Stop remembering how his life had more meaning with her in it. No matter how hard he fought it, he couldn’t shake her from his head.

Or his heart.

It was pointless trying to explain away his feelings. He’d tried rationalizing it was because she’d saved his life. But that wasn’t it. He’d fallen for her the minute he’d laid eyes on her across the crowded bar. A force positively lethal had slammed into him, causing every hair on his body to stand on edge, and he knew—knew—she was his mate. His body had never reacted with such keen awareness, such desperate need, to anyone before. She’d sucked the air right out of him, taken his senses and wreaked havoc with them.

He didn’t want to love her. He didn’t want to love anybody. He saw what love did to his brother. Yet he couldn’t help it.

When he looked down at the papers on his desk, he noticed his notations looked like chicken scratch. Writing anything coherent wouldn’t happen as long as his brain was stuck on Tess.

Before Gavin had left a half hour ago, he’d tried to convince Hugh to leave for his vacation, take the next week off, head to the Rockies and forget about all the shit clogging his head. His partner had used those exact words, reading Hugh like an open book. Never before had anyone seen through his exterior, not even his brother. Which meant Tess had infiltrated every cell of his body to the point he couldn’t pretend it didn’t matter that he missed her something crazy. That he didn’t want another minute to pass without her by his side.

For a guy who prided himself on not needing anyone, that was a heavy-duty admission.

The pen in his hand snapped in two, and with a low growl, he reached for another. Maybe the vacation was a good idea. If anything could get his mind off the heartache he suffered, it was time spent in the mountains. Running. Running until his lungs burned. His legs shook. His goddamn head cleared.

I’m a fool if I think I’ll ever shake her. She lives inside me. Always will.

Maybe it wasn’t too late to go to San Diego and find Dobson. He needed to remind himself he had the pack to look after. While things had been quiet the past two days, that by no means meant trouble wasn’t still lurking. In the back of his mind, he sensed sooner or later the Wolf Seekers would strike again. Whatever goal they were after, they hadn’t reached it yet, and the more information Hugh had, the better prepared he and his pack would be. That meant finding Dobson was as important to him as it was to Tess. There was a connection there he didn’t understand, and before he left to go anywhere, he needed to figure out what that was.

His phone rang. He startled and broke another pen. “Langston.”

“Hugh, it’s Trey. You got a minute?”

He did, finally. “Yeah. What’s up?”

“I’ve got some more information on Dobson.”

“Shoot.” Perfect timing, he thought. Did the information concern Tess as well?

“There’s some sort of meeting going down in San Diego tomorrow night. I’m not sure who all the players are, but my source tells me Dobson will be there. Supposedly, he’s playing both sides and hell if anyone knows why. It’s also very likely that the name Dobson is an alias used in connection with the Wolf Seekers. Because of that, I can’t confirm if he’s wolfen. At any rate, the hotel information I gave you before is accurate so I thought you should know.”

Hugh knew Dobson was a wolfen. Tess wouldn’t make a mistake about that. “Thanks, Trey.”

“You going to head down there?”

“I am. You keep an eye on things here.” Every instinct told him Tess would be at that meeting, and if she were there, he’d be there too.

“Will do,” Trey said with confidence.

Hugh appreciated his apprentice’s dedication to the pack. The younger wolfen took things seriously, understood loyalty and was bound by his word. Hugh trusted him, had faith in him. “I’ll be back sometime Saturday to check in.”

“Good luck.”

“Thanks.” He disconnected the line and stood. His fingers punched in directory information on his cell. Two minutes later, he had a reservation at the US Grant Hotel. He took the only room available—a suite. If he left now, he’d be in San Diego before midnight, get some sleep, and get to work on uncovering the mystery behind Dobson first thing in the morning.

He closed up his office, headed into Gavin’s, and left his partner a note. On his way to the reception area, he caught a scent that nearly knocked him to his knees. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, his heart rammed into his chest, every tired bone in his body woke up.

Tess.

She sat on the couch wearing light blue jeans and a white T-shirt with some flowery design on the chest. Her posture was stiff, her legs planted at a ninety-degree angle. Her hands were folded in her lap, and her sinfully beautiful lips were trembling.

Electricity stroked the air between them, the energy in the room enough to ignite a flame. The vibe had his blood bubbling, his desire for her skyrocketing. Seeing her again confirmed everything he feared. He couldn’t live without her.

Was she ready to live without him?

“You here on official business?” Shmuck. What the hell kind of greeting was that? A necessary one, he told himself. He needed to know her agenda so he could decide how best to approach the situation.