Shadows

Behold, ladies and gentlemen, the elusive alpha male

Her brow furrowed as he slid something cold onto her third finger. A little dazed from her orgasm, she blinked at her finger. It wasn’t a ring. It was two. One was a black gold band that had a row of small garnet stones. The other black gold ring was thinner and had an emerald-cut black diamond in the center.

Her heart slammed against her ribs, and she met his eyes. “This is a black diamond.”

When they finally entered their apartment, Tanner steered a humming Devon into their bedroom and held her tight. She looked up at him, her face all soft, her eyes glassy and hooded. She was blitzed. He had to smile.

“You’re gonna crash hard tonight for sure,” he said, skimming his knuckles down her cheek, drinking in every feature. “So gorgeous. I remember I once came on this pretty face, didn’t I?”

“You got it in my hair—I wasn’t impressed.”

He chuckled. “You sure you’re up to taking my cock tonight?”

Her eyes darkened with a naked, sensual hunger that matched his own. She fisted his shirt and pressed herself tight against him. “Oh, I’m sure.”

“Then I guess I’ll take your word for it.” Tanner sank his tongue into her mouth, and the flare of need was instant. It blasted through him with the force of a fucking freight train. His body tightened. Nerves sparked to life. Chemicals raced through his bloodstream.

“I wish I could say it ended there,” Keenan went on. “But no. You refused to get out of the car when I parked in your driveway. You swore it wasn’t your house and accused me of trying to hand you over to sex traffickers. When I finally convinced you that it was your home, you kept insisting I kiss the road cone goodbye. I refused, of course, so you threatened to post on social media that I’m a road cone bigot. Only you could turn a simple car ride into a crazy-ass episode—something you topped off by trying to unlock your front door with a tampon. I mean, seriously, what is up with that?”

Khloë blinked. “Wow. That explains why I woke up snuggled into a road cone.”

Keenan gaped. “That’s all you have to say?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “I feel you and your monster cock judging me. I don’t like it.”

Honestly, he looked like he wanted to grab the imp by the throat. “Would you stop commenting on my—?”

“What’s with all the yelling over here?” asked a new voice.

Knox sighed at the newcomer. “Lou,” he greeted simply.

I’m counting on it. Hey, on another note … I meant to ask you earlier, what’s up Keenan’s butt? The incubus had been glaring at a completely oblivious Khloë all night—something he was doing again now.

Not sure, replied Tanner. But I’m getting the feeling that the imp has done something to piss him off.

It seemed likely. But if Keenan thought that Khloë would even notice those glares, he was wrong. Her shields were solid, and passive-aggressiveness often went right over her head.

“Teague’s racing tomorrow,” Khloë announced. “He said he’ll sort us a private box if we want to go. You girls up for it?”

“Sure,” said Devon.

Raini raised a hand. “I’m in.”

“You can count me in, too,” Harper told her.

“Awesome.” Khloë sank into her chair with a happy sigh. “I feel like I could float right now. How cool would that be? I mean, think of the possibilities. I could pee on people. Say hi to birds. Sleep on clouds like a Care Bear.”

Raini wrinkled her nose. “What’s a Care Bear?”

Khloë did a slow blink. “Dude, don’t you ever watch cartoons?”

“No.”

Khloë shook her head. “I feel like I don’t know you right now.”

“You’re not going to apologize, are you?” Keenan asked, his voice clipped.

The table fell silent. Khloë looked up at him and seemed surprised that the question had been directed at her. “For … ?” she prompted.

Keenan’s lips thinned. “For what happened last night when I gave you a ride home from the Xpress bar.”

Khloë bit down on the inside of her cheek. “I’m not sure what answer will bother you more. That I can’t remember what happened, or that it’s unlikely I’ll apologize, since annoying you is always fun.”

Curious, Devon lifted her head from Tanner’s shoulder and asked, “What did she do?”

Keenan didn’t even look Devon’s way. He was still glaring at Khloë, his neck corded. “It was irritating enough that you wouldn’t get in the car without bringing a road cone with you. Listening to you sing the wrong lyrics to ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’ was equally irritating—especially since you were using a tampon as a microphone. I can only thank God it was an unused tampon, because you tried shoving it down my ear. Oh, and then there’s the part where you were texting yourself. And yes, I had to listen to you read aloud a text-conversation you were having with yourself about how annoying it is that donuts have holes in them.”

Biting back a laugh, Devon snuggled into Tanner, whose shoulders were shaking.

Yeah, so was Devon. But after a few bottles of water and several thousand pees, she was simply a little buzzed; basking in the atmosphere and delighted that the world was such a beautiful, wondrous place filled with love and laughter. Even better, it was no longer spinning. Just kind of blurry, that’s all.

“Shit, the guys are heading our way!” hissed Khloë.

Devon and the girls quickly put their empty glasses under the table and planted innocent smiles on their faces.

Reaching them, Levi frowned. “Those smiles are making me nervous.”

Snorting, Tanner plucked Devon out of her seat, sank into the chair, and then perched her on his lap. “Hi, kitten. Did you miss me?”

“Like an idiot misses the point,” she replied.

Chuckling, Tanner pressed a kiss to her mouth. “You always make me feel so adored.” He peeked down her dress, getting a good look at her cleavage. “How are Holly and Molly doing?”

She sighed. “It’s not normal that you’ve named my boobs. You know that, right?”

“It seems so impersonal to refer to them as Leftie and Righty.”

Unable to stifle a smile, Devon shook her head. “You’re an odd one, pooch.”

He gave her another kiss. “Party’s almost over, so we’ll be leaving soon. I’ve gotta say, you impressed me tonight. People fussed and crowded you, but you only hissed a few times. Didn’t draw blood once.”

“I did lunge at the slimy lawyer, though.”

“Him I don’t like, so it doesn’t count.”

“Oh. Good.” She rested her head on his shoulder, smiling as his arms tightened around her. He’d been a little clingy since the whole her-almost-getting-killed thing. She figured his protective streak might be on fire for a few more months at least.

Her eyes glazed and heavy-lidded, Khloë raised her hand. “Wait,” she slurred. “You’re saying my tongue print is different than yours?”

“I’m saying everyone’s tongue print is different,” said Devon, setting her glass on the table but almost tipping it over. “Like fingerprints.”

“Wow. If I was blitzed right now, my mind would be blown. Good thing I’m sober.” Swaying just a little, Khloë chugged down the rest of her drink and burped loud. “How cool would it be if I could fart confetti?”

“Fart confetti?” echoed Raini, slumped in her seat, twirling the little umbrella from her cocktail.

“Six hours straight,” he replied, lying on his side and planting his elbow on the pillow. “You started fussing a few minutes ago—you always do that about ten minutes before you wake up.”

“You watch me sleep?”

“Sometimes.” He slid his hand up her bare spine and hooked it around her nape. “You purr in your sleep. It’s cute. I like it.”

Then, chest heaving, muscles quivering, the hellhound turned to the feline, who only stared right back at it. Tiny red embers danced around the hound’s body as it stalked toward the feline, sniffing and rumbling.

“We need to get the glass out,” Knox said.

“I can do it with my telekinesis,” said Levi. “But it’s gonna hurt the hellcat, so Tanner’s hound had best make sure its mate doesn’t go for my throat.”

Then it was like a vacuum was aimed at the feline, ripping every bit of glass right out of its body. It roared, legs trembling. And then the hound was there, licking the feline’s wounds

A shockingly powerful orgasm barreled into Devon, sending an avalanche of sensation washing over her. She came with a scream, bucking and pulling at the bedsheets, as rope after rope of hot come splashed her quaking inner walls. And then she was floating.

She slumped to the mattress, mouth dry, chest heaving, body shuddering. And one-hundred percent sated.

Dropping beside her on the bed, he pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “You okay?”

She opened one eye. “Not happy with your demon,” she slurred.

The corner of his mouth canted up. “You like it when the demon brands you.”

Yeah, but … “Not when it weirdly and inappropriately brands seriously sensitive places. And God only knows what the brand looks like.” At least she wouldn’t have to worry about anyone seeing it.

“My hound sent me a telepathic snapshot of it.” He took her palm and pointed at the mark there. “It looks like this, but it also has my fingerprint layered over the little tribal-like lines in the center of the circle.”

That was just weird, whatever way you looked at it. “Speaking of fingerprints, are these ever going to fade?” she asked, gesturing at the ones on her wrists.

His mouth twitched into a wider smile. “No.”

“I can’t walk around with fingerprints on my damn wrists, Tanner. I’m going to have to ask Raini to tattoo over them. You know that, right?”

The smile slipped from his face. “There’ll be no tattooing over them. Imagine if your feline branded me and I wanted to cover it. How would you feel?”

As if he were rejecting its claim on him, which she’d hate—psycho or not, her feline was part of her. Dammit. She sighed. “Fine, I’ll leave them be.”

“Good girl.” He laid a soft, languid devastating kiss on her that melted her bones.

She bit her lip. “You’re sure about this? About us?”