“While I don’t uand why everyone wants to be near Xan…” I quickly caught myself before calling Xander by his real name,” Kai. What do you mean by what I might bee?” The look in his eyes told me that he noticed and found it iing that I khe guy's real name. Which begged the question of how the hell the wolf knew Xander’s.

  Still, for now we both dropped it. “As I told you before, I have known of a few other Kitsune iy.” I nodded as I recalled the oime that he mentio. He had also stated that he wasn’t able to get them to talk about anything so knew nothing about my kind or really what to expect. “Well, while most people know of these people and how strong they are, no one knows how they got s or what their limits are. They just tend to show up at a massive battle, ohat we are losing, and clearing out the demonic forces in moments.”

  “Wait,” I stopped his spiel to ask a question. “What do you mean by they wipe out the forces in moments? What do they do?”

  “The ohat I have personally seen almost always has an icy fog that trails after him.” His eyes gzed over as if recalling a memory. “Everywhere he walks, the ground freezes. As he walks through the battlefield, the fog expands outwards as it covers everything. It hangs there for a dozen seds at most before settling back around him. All that is left is ice sculptures and unfrozen allies. Theurns and walks away.”

  Damn, that was one hell of a power. But how did he do it? Was it a water-based skill? Wind? Or was it some kind of mix? To my surprise, he tinues. “There is ahat, while I haven’t seen it, I have heard quite a few reports on. She literally pops around a battlefield while her hands rip out various ans without so much as leaving a wound.” Space, definitely space reted. Fuck the image of someone just iy so they could rip out a person's ans was gruesome.

  As I shuddered, I asked the question again, “So what if the other Kitsune are much more powerful than other people, what does that have to do with me?”

  “Because they shouldn’t be.” His eyes locked onto mine as something flickered across his face. Unfortunately, it was gone before I could uand what it was. “Sure, there are other people that are fairly strong given all of their abilities and time here, but most everyone in the gover and with any sort of power has known arack of them for a while now. The Kitsuhey just showed up. No one knows where they came from or even who they are. They appear and disappear whehey want. Any and every request for them to participate iings is denied.”

  As he spoke, I wondered as to how this ossible. Even if they did shift their forms from the Kitsuo human, they would look fairly simir. Or at least, I did. Someone should have noticed the resembn this city, even if it had such a rge, and mostly tra, popution. Hell, what about any data brokers or spies? Surely someone could have tracked these people after the fight was over.

  When I voiced my s, he groaned. “So many people have tried to track them down. Even Kai’s guild tried. From what I heard, the edge of the battlefield was as far as they could get before losing track of their target. As for their faces, they wear masks and long flowing robes.” Damn, both were simple and effective at hiding their forms. bined with the ability to lose a tracker, they were able to ghost in and out of a battle without any issues.

  “But, that is enough about Kitsune.” His voice cut my thoughts short. “You o be more careful about what you eat and drink. Any and all of it could be poisoned.”

  “Even those provided by you and yroup of…” I took a sed to think about what to call his little group. They weren’t a pride or a pack, they were a mix of species. Finally, I simply said, “Shifters.”

  “Well,” he started to say before taking a sed to give my question some thought. “Actually, no, you’re right. Don’t trust anything. Even if you are safe with me and my people, it will serve to be good training to have you always cheg.” Why did I think that the damned alpha was going to have his people purposely poison my food every on a while to make sure I was always on guard? “Now, whht you in here?”

  “A maid.” I took a sed to think back at what had happened. “She was the ohat came and grabbed me from your office. Do you think she could have been the oo do it?”

  With a wave of his hand, he dismissed that idea. “I doubt it. That maid is loyal to…” It seemed as though he was trying to remember something but drawing a bnk. A half dozen seds ter he seemed to give up and move on. “But I doubt that Camille would do this either. She has worked under me for years.” But that would mean that those two knew each other in the real world.

  He must have noticed my curious look because he chuckled. “Yes, she and I have worked off and on in the real world. She also helped me with Gabriel when she was just a baby.”

  I k was likely a sore subject, but the words came out unbidden. “What happeo her mother?”

  Liam’s sigh was long and deep. “She left us for someone else. Someohat promised her an easy life. I told her that he was using her but she didn’t believe me. Months ter I got a request from the city mue to e identify her body.” Slowly, tears had formed tracks down his fa a bid to make their escape. The big strong alpha’s voice cracked as he tinued. “She ractically skin and bones. I could t her ribs and see her hips against the taught skin. I didn’t even have to read the report to know that a number of her bones had been broken. The breaks were there for all to see if one simply looked.”

  Welp, now I felt like a plete dick fing up such a touchy subject. At least I could be sure that the bastard was dead. After all, it wasn’t like the Liam I had e to know i day or so would have left this guy aloer what he had done.

  Which made what he said a surprise. “The worst part is that her killer is still out there, strutting around as if he owns the pce.” His ugh was short and closer to a bark than anything as he saw my look of shock. “Oh don’t get me wrong. I had pns for the bastard but he was too protected. So much so that my only option was to foy job. After all, where else would one learn how to learn how to get past security systems?”

  So either the guy worked in security or building the systems for those riough to afford them. Given the fact that the wolf was an animal that was more protective of those it sidered pack, I had to go with him w in some sort of security group.

  A small rag appeared in Liam’s hand and he used it to wipe his face as he tinued. “Anyway, as I said, I doubt either of them want you dead. Is there anyone else that you recall pissing off?”

  Well, there was the demon but I doubted that he would be here of all pces. If he was then I was fucked no matter what. Then there was that pencil pusher type in the cil hall. But, while he had been a bit brusk, he sounded like the kind of person who felt everyone o follow every rule no matter who they were or what they were doing. So much so that I doubted he would try and murder me simply because it meant that he would have to break a rule or two.

  Seeing that I had no immediate idea Liam let out a huff. “I o call a few people, so for now, let’s go bay office. This time yoing to stay there and not wander off.” Even as he said that he didn’t move. He simply stood there watg me as he waited for something. My brain must have been succumbing to a food a or something because it took me a sed to realize that he was waiting for me to take the lead.

  Yeah, I doubted that he would let me wander off again. I almost wondered if he was thinking of tyio a chair or something to keep me there when he was busy doing something. Oddly enough, the idea seemed to send a tiny shiver down my spihe shiver curled into my ter and the feeling caused a tiny spark of pleasure.

  It wasn’t something I had ever really felt before, or at least not in this way. Something about how it felt was something akin to how it felt when I touched my dick when I was aroused. But that wasn’t possible. There was no way that I was aroused. Not at the idea of someoying me up. The very idea was absurd.

  My mind ed over my feelings as I absentmindedly led the way. Instead of sitting in one of the chairs, my body plopped itself down on the rge and overly fluffy dog bed – or was it a wolf bed? It didn’t really matter. Not when I was trying to figure out my body and its rea.

  The idea of someoying me up caused my body to have mixed reas. At first, it seemed random until I realized the face of who was doing the tying was ging. Sure, there was a bit of heat when I imagi was Liam, but it was closer to that of someohat could give me immediate relief. Like I would ever let him touch me if I was given a choice.

  The person to take ter stage in the se pying out in my head was Xander of all people. As the maly tied my hands, the feelings flowing through me, both in the se and in real life, increased. A slow and subtle pulsing need made itself known.

  Not knowing how to take the idea that I was attracted to Xander, I switched from person to person. Going through everyone I had met and gotten to know. Sure, Barti elicited some respo was on par with the idiotic werewolf. Then came Michael. The moment he popped into my head, my arousal and the feelings it brought with it dried up in an instant as fear and hatred took over. The same feelings persisted throughout the majority of his team, mostly.

  As soon as my mind's eye repced the person standing over me with a certain wolfkin, my body practically exploded with need as my core ched. A loud sniffing noise filled the room as a new window popped up in front of me.

  Your heat has grown to the point that it is detectable by others with sensitive he need for relief will increase the longer you go without. Warning: The ce nancy is increased during this period.

  The window hung there for a moment before being covered by a sed one.

  Calg time remaining.

  Hormone imbaected, searg for cause.

  First heat detected. A shorter estrus cycle is expected as a result.

  Estimated time: 11 hours 52 minutes.

  Estimation increased to 12 hours by local AI.

  As soon as I finished reading the information, aook its pce. This one tained a timer ting down from twelve hours.

  StelrLight