obviously kidding him…and checking him out. He scrambled to get the cocktail into a glass, add an olive,

and rush it over. “On the house,” he said in a flat, disinterested voice to keep the man from coming on any

stronger, then turned to scan the floor once more. No Roman.

“He’s not coming,” barked a gruff voice from the opposite end of the bar.

Turning, Kevin recognized Fenrir sitting there, nursing a draft beer that Allison had served him. Kevin

automatically stiffened but Fenrir smirked and made no move to leap over the bar and rip his throat out.

That was something, at least. He did indicate that Kevin should come closer.

“What are you doing here?” Kevin hissed.

“Roman sent me. He has a message for you. He was afraid if he showed up, Anya might become

suspicious. Well, Anya is already suspicious.” Fenrir grimaced. “She smelled you on Roman’s sheets.”

Kevin shuddered as he polished a glass as casually as he could. Had he put Roman in danger by visiting

him? “Anya might become suspicious that you’re here. Aren’t you afraid of her like the others?”

The light darkened in Fenrir’s eyes. “Yes. But I also know how to lose a trail. Military training.”

Jonah said Fenrir was good people, but he wasn’t quite convinced just yet. “You’re still taking an awful

big chance coming here.”

“I’m loyal to Roman. If he tells me to do something, I do it, no questions.”

“You’re in love with him,” Kevin said, not sure how he felt about that.

“It’s more than that, pup. If it weren’t for Roman, I would be dead now.”

Kevin thought about asking Fenrir what he meant, then decided it wasn’t really any of his business.

“What’s the message from Roman?”

“You get off in half an hour?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m to take you downtown.”

***

Chapter Twenty-Two

“I should be running in the opposite direction from you, you know,” Kevin said later as he followed

Fenrir out to his Jeep parked behind the Dumpster. “I have no idea why I’m letting you kidnap me.”

“Because you’re not afraid,” Fenrir said, and threw a smirk over one shoulder. “And I’m not kidnapping

you. I’m escorting you. Don’t believe me?”

Kevin looked at Fenrir’s cold blue eyes, the dog tags around his neck. He should be afraid, yet he wasn’t.

“I’m not sure what I believe.”

“You’re a Pedigree through and through, yet you act like a human sometimes. You’re suspicious like

humans are. Get in.”

Kevin got in the passenger side and Fenrir climbed into the driver’s seat and started the Jeep. Minutes

later, they were headed downtown, toward the warehouse district and the docks. Kevin watched the lights

of the city by night smearing across the windshield. He’d meant to keep his thoughts to himself, but what

came out was, “What do you mean you’d be dead now if it wasn’t for Roman?”

Fenrir kept his eyes on the road as he drove. “A long time ago I was a soldier in Vietnam. Did three tours

of duty before I was dishonorably discharged. I killed another soldier.”

Kevin swallowed hard. “Why…why did you kill a soldier?”

“He was beating this dog he found in one of the villages we were reconning. This was late in the war, the

troops falling apart, but still. I told him to cut it out and he wouldn’t, so I took my gun out and shot him in

the head.”

“For beating a dog.”

“I like dogs. And I hate it when grown men pick on animals or kids. Or women.”

Kevin turned and looked at the man with new eyes. “You went after Hannah.”

“I wouldn’t have hurt her. I like your sister. She’s got chutzpah. And she’s hot.”

Kevin felt his ruff go up. “Don’t talk about my sister like that.”

“Sorry. Roman said you were very protective of her.”

To change the subject, Kevin said, “You were saying about you and Roman?”

Fenrir nodded. “It bothered me only after I got home. Well, there wasn’t much home left, by then. I’d been

on tour a long time. My folks were dead, and my girl had moved on. I started drinking and brawling, real

PTSD shit, you know.” Fenrir’s eyes gleamed and he bit his lip briefly. “Eventually, I decided the only

way out of things was a bullet to the brain. I’d planned on using the gun I shot my fellow officer with, but I

wanted to get real drunk first, so I went to this dive and started drinking myself under a table. It was there

I met Roman.”

Kevin waited to hear the rest of the story, but when Fenrir remained silent, he said, “Go on. What

happened?”

Fenrir shrugged. “You know Roman. He sits down, real posh-like, all British and shit. The most gorgeous

guy I’d ever seen. I think every single person in that dump was drooling over him. Myself, I’d never been

into guys until then, until him. Anyway, he touches my hand and says, ‘I know you want to die tonight, but

you mustn’t.’ I was a little freaked out by that, but not much. By then I was pretty damned drunk so

everything was making sense to me. I nodded and told him what I planned on doing later on. He looked

sad and said, ‘What if there was another way you could live? What if you could live free of this world

and all its trappings? Would you like to be more alive than you’ve ever were before?’ Naturally, I was

curious as hell. I went back to his place and we made love. Then he bit me and changed me into a

werewolf—gave me a new name and a new life, and here we are.”

Kevin listened to their breathing in the Jeep and thought about Fenrir’s story. “Do you regret it? Being a

werewolf?”

“Hell, no. You?”

“I never had much choice.”

Fenrir nodded. “I love my life with Roman. I’ll do anything for him, and what Anya does to him just

breaks my heart. Makes me mad as hell.” He clenched his big fists on the steering wheel.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s told you about Anya’s desire for a pup?”

“Yeah, he said she can’t carry to term.”

Fenrir grimaced. “But she can conceive—that’s how we know it isn’t Roman’s fault.” Fenrir shook his

head sadly. “Roman has watched so many of his children be miscarried or stillborn over the years that it’s

ripped something out of him, some fire. He used to have this strength…this power. He could transform a

room. But every time one of his pups dies, it carves away a little more of his heart. I want to stop Anya

from doing that to him, destroying him that way, a little at a time.”

“Why doesn’t he just leave the pack?”

“Anya controls the pack—those werewolves she’s made, which is nearly all of them.”

“But not you.”

“Roman made me. Only he controls me. But if Roman tries to leave, she’ll have the others hunt him down

and rip him apart. I won’t let that happen, so I can never leave Roman.” He glanced over at Kevin. “It’s

the same thing she’ll do to you if she gets her claws into you. And that’s what Roman’s been trying to

prevent.”

“Jesus,” Kevin breathed under his breath. Suddenly, Anya didn’t seem so innocent, after all.