CHAPTER THREE

Jaycee’s “punishment” was acted out in the Austin Shiftertown in the common area that opened out behind the house of the leader, Liam Morrissey.

Dimitri waited for Jaycee under the live oaks, hiding his unease by folding his arms and assuming a relaxed stance. He wasn’t uneasy for himself—he was unhappy for Jaycee. This would be hard on her. But she was doing it, bravely, because it was her job. Jaycee had a lot of loyalty in her and a high sense of duty, no matter how much she might bitch about this later.

Liam stood on the back porch of his house, his brother, this Shiftertown’s Guardian, next to him. They would be witnesses, as would the Shifters who were drifting in from all over. Shifters never stayed home and minded their own business if something interesting was going on.

Kendrick had decided the discipline should take place here, where it would be very public—much more so than if they’d done it at the ranch where Kendrick’s Shifters lived. Word would spread—quickly if Dimitri knew Shifters—that Jaycee had been singled out, making Jaycee’s decision to seek rebel groups more plausible.

Kendrick joined Liam and Sean on the porch, his presence a comfort. At least Dylan hadn’t elected to attend. He knew he was intimidating, plus he’d told Kendrick he didn’t want it known that the punishment had been his idea. Shifters should talk about the errant Jaycee and how disobedient she was, not how Dylan had staged the discipline.

At the precise moment the sun cleared the trees and shone straight down into the clearing, Jaycee walked along the strip of land behind the houses to meet Dimitri. The Shifters of this town watched, some displeased, some curious, some believing Jaycee was getting her due for her antics at the fight club.

Jaycee walked slowly toward the clearing and Dimitri. There was a storm in her tawny eyes, rage that she had to endure this humiliation, but also a determination to play her part.

Make it look good, Kendrick had told Dimitri on the drive in.

She’s going to kill me, Dimitri had answered.

Kendrick, the dickhead, had grinned. Probably, he’d said.

Jaycee stopped in front of Dimitri, her head high. She’d arrived separately, driven here by Kendrick’s mate, Addie. Addie had vehemently opposed the idea of the punishment ritual, but she’d at last conceded, understanding the why of it, if not approving. However, she’d decided Jaycee should not come alone.

The conversation in Addie’s car must have been rich. Dimitri had sworn he felt his wolf’s red furry ears burning.

Jaycee had pulled her thick and sleek brown gold hair into a ponytail, which emphasized the smooth sweetness of her face. She had leopard’s eyes, which were golden but with a shot of darkness. Dimitri studied the lips that could be gentle and loving on his, and the body that knocked him off his feet, sometimes literally.

She is so fucking beautiful . . .

The ritual began as soon as Jaycee stepped into the pool of sunshine between the trees. Dimitri went forward to meet her, placed his hands on her shoulders, and started to push her to her knees.

Jaycee resisted. Dimitri glared at her, and Jaycee glared right back.

“Go down,” Dimitri said in a fierce whisper. They’d rehearsed this—she was to kneel, to show the Shifters Dimitri had mastery over his mate.

But practicing the ritual in the dining room, laughing with Kendrick’s cubs, was completely different from standing in front of dozens of gleeful Shifters waiting for the take-no-shit Jaycee to get her comeuppance.

Jaycee, with a scowl, finally allowed herself to fall to her knees. She refused to bow her head, though.

Kendrick came off the porch. He halted a respectful distance from Dimitri and Jaycee, making sure he didn’t interfere with Dimitri’s position of dominance, and spoke.

“Jaycee Bordeaux,” Kendrick rumbled. “Do you acknowledge that you broke the rules of the Shifter fight club, designed to protect the safety of all Shifters?”

They’d agreed that Kendrick would do the talking—Dimitri knew he’d never get through a long speech in front of other Shifters.

Jaycee answered Dimitri, not Kendrick. “Yes,” she said, voice hard.

Kendrick went on. “Do you acknowledge that you endangered all Shifters your disobedience might touch, and do you accept the punishment for your actions?”

Jaycee took longer to answer this time. Her eyes sparked dangerously as she looked up at Dimitri. “Yes.”

Kendrick fell back, finished. It was up to Dimitri now.

Dimitri lifted his hand. He let his fingers become wolf claws, gleaming in the morning sunlight. Jaycee continued to glare at him, knowing what was coming.

“You’re supposed to be s-submissive,” Dimitri whispered to her.

Jaycee’s eyes narrowed; then, at last, she stiffly bowed her head, looking about as submissive as an enraged rhino.

But then, Jaycee wasn’t a Lupine. Lupines knew how to look submissive even as they were plotting their enemy’s drawn-out demise. Felines just said fuck you.

Dimitri lowered his wolf hand to Jaycee’s back, moving all the way down to her hips. Abruptly he dragged his claws up her spine, just enough to lay open her shirt and expose her flesh.

In the bad old days in the wild, a Shifter male disciplining his mate would have sunk his claws into her skin itself. Even these days more brutal Shifters would do it. Dimitri would never hurt Jaycee though. Not his girl.

In the wild, Dimitri could have done anything he wanted, if Jaycee had warranted a punishment in his opinion, and been considered justified by the rest of the Shifter community. He could even push her facedown and screw her in front of everybody, even kill her if she didn’t submit.

But those were the faraway times when Shifters had been slaves of the Fae, bred for savagery. Nowadays, most Shifters wouldn’t dream of cruelty to the females. There were too few females, for one thing; they were too dear. For the other, the females could turn around and slice the males open. Not that this hadn’t happened in the bad old days as well. Females might have been regarded as below males in the hierarchy, but they’d never been considered weak.

“Jaycee,” Dimitri said, making his voice so quiet only Jaycee would hear. “You’re a bad k-kitty.”

Jaycee flashed a look up at him, slightly less enraged, her slow smile hot. She bowed her head again and bent to press her face to the ground.

Dimitri moved forward, placing his feet on either side of her and resting one hand on her bared back. This could be sexy if a bunch of Shifters weren’t watching, eager to see what Dimitri would do. Maybe Jaycee was right, and Shifters were pervs.

Dimitri leaned down and pressed his mouth to the back of Jaycee’s neck. If they’d taken their animal forms, he’d have turned her over and closed his jaws around her throat, not pressing, but showing her he could kill her if he wanted to. Dimitri and Jaycee had chosen to remain in human form for the ritual, because Jaycee hadn’t been sure she could make her leopard roll over and accept the dominant bite of a wolf.

Dimitri lifted his head and fixed his stare on the watchers. He shifted into his half-wolf form, feeling his T-shirt rip on his back, and gave them a snarl.

In his between-beast form, Dimitri didn’t stammer. He wasn’t sure why, but figured the wolf in him started to take over all parts of his brain, including his speech. “Jaycee has acknowledged her wrong,” he told the waiting Shifters, “and has submitted to me. It is done.”

As the Shifters’ murmurs came to him like waves of wind, Dimitri leaned down and pulled Jaycee to her feet. He shifted back to his human form to draw her into his arms and hold her close, his hands on her warm back.

Jaycee finally relaxed and leaned into him, and Dimitri rested his cheek on her sun-drenched and fragrant hair.

The Shifters applauded. Some cheered. The punishment ritual meant the disobedient one had been exposed to the group’s scrutiny and then accepted back into the pack.

The Shifters drifted away and then did what Shifters had done for centuries once a ritual was finished. They got out the beer and started to party.

Jaycee wrapped her arms around Dimitri, her body warm and supple. She rose on tiptoe to nip his earlobe and said quietly, “If you enjoyed that, I’m going to kill you.”

“Yeah, I figured.” Dimitri held her close, running his hands up and down her back to comfort her, and pressed a kiss to her hair. “I didn’t enjoy it, Jase. It was for show.” He laughed softly. “Okay, maybe just a l-little.”

Jaycee drew back to look at him, but she kept her arms around him. “You won’t know when, Dimitri, but my revenge will be coming. I’m a tracker, not stupid enough to screw up an op, but when it’s over . . .”

She let it hang. Dimitri grinned, his blood heating in anticipation. He kissed her on the mouth and let her go. “Looking forward to it, sweetheart.”

*   *   *

Jaycee didn’t know how they were supposed to find the Lupine who’d tried to tranq Dimitri in the ring. At a roadhouse? A mall? An Austin coffeehouse? Hang around on street corners until he stumbled upon them? How did Shifters plotting to work with the Fae meet up?

Dimitri, damn him, didn’t look worried about it. Back home at the ranch that night, he shrugged and said they would carry on as usual—the guy would likely find them.

Jaycee didn’t know how he could be so patient. She wanted to find the dickbrain who’d stuck a needle into her mate and seriously kick his ass.

No—find said dickbrain and figure out what he knew. That was her job. Jaycee had been a tracker long enough to know she had to put aside her personal feelings to hunt and scout, kick ass later. She’d made a pledge to serve and protect her leader and all the Shifters that leader was responsible for. Even if waiting made her crazy.

The ranch house Kendrick had taken over for his group of un-Collared Shifters was run by a human called Charlie. Charlie was the original owner of the house, which had once been a bed-and-breakfast. He technically still owned it, but he ran it for Kendrick, keeping the Shifters stocked in food, beer, and other necessities of life.

Charlie was in his sixties, a Vietnam vet, and had once lived in a commune. He liked to joke that all this had been good practice for looking after a bunch of unruly Shifters.

Jaycee had taken to helping Charlie close down the house at night, check the grounds to make sure all was well. The one horse in the barn still wasn’t certain of Jaycee—it knew she was a leopard at heart—but it had calmed enough to let her feed it and secure it for the night.

“Waiting drives me insane,” Jaycee said impatiently to Charlie after they finished the chores. They walked together through the barn, which was basically a long breezeway with open doors on either end. “Dimitri acts like we have all the time in the world.”

“Well, you do, really.” Charlie led Jaycee out, and they climbed to the top of the rise behind the barn. From there they could gaze down at the ranch house and the smaller houses that had recently sprung up for Shifters and their families. There was plenty of space between the houses, but Charlie’s ranch had the room. “From what Kendrick says, sounds like this rogue Shifter thing has been going on a while.”

“Yes, but I didn’t know about it then,” Jaycee returned. “Now that I know, I want to do something.”

Charlie chuckled, late-afternoon sunshine glinting on his graying hair, short locks of which moved in the wind. “That’s because you’re a cat. You get your focus on a thing, and you want to pounce. Your Dimitri is a wolf. Wolves can lie in wait for a long time. I’ve seen that on documentaries.”

“Cats are superior stalkers,” Jaycee said with certainty.

“Only until they run out of patience.” Charlie winked at her. “Which you do very fast, my dear.”

Jaycee sighed. “I know.” She found it easy to talk to Charlie, which had surprised her at first. She’d never had much interaction with humans. Charlie was unbelievably understanding, though he wasn’t a pushover. He’d agreed to let Kendrick and his Shifters live here for a substantial amount of money, but he didn’t put up with any shit from them.

“I’m not going to give you the BS that you should listen to your man ’cause he knows best,” Charlie said. “Lord knows, my Edna never listened to me. Good thing too, or we’d probably have been broke with nothing to eat. But don’t dismiss Dimitri. He’s a good guy.”

“I can’t dismiss Dimitri,” Jaycee said glumly. “He won’t let me.”

Charlie grinned. “No, he’s pretty gone on you. But he’s trying not to push you.”

Jaycee stared at him. “Are you kidding me? Dimitri is seriously pushy. Sticks by me wherever I go, reminds me day and night he’s mate-claimed me, snarls at any male who even comes near me.”

Charlie shook his head. “He knows it riles you up, honey. He likes to see how far he can go before you explode. And he does it because he’s afraid that you might give him the heave-ho. He’s reassuring himself.”

“Huh.” Jaycee folded her arms over her chest. “Dimitri’s not afraid of anything. If I turn down the mate-claim, he’ll just find another female to run after him. He won’t be single long. I see them eyeing him already, hoping I’ll get out of the way.”

She finished bitterly. The females under Kendrick’s rule, even those she’d thought were her friends, were hot to land Dimitri. He was high in the hierarchy, Kendrick’s third in command. While males outnumbered females, a strong Shifter like Dimitri drew a lot of attention.

Jaycee had noticed lately how the Shifter ladies watched Dimitri whenever he appeared, managed to wear little clothing around him, and swayed their hips when they walked past him. Dimitri, always friendly, didn’t admonish them. He didn’t respond, either, but in Jaycee’s angry state, this fact didn’t comfort her.

The mate-claim meant Jaycee was off-limits to other males, but it didn’t necessarily mean Dimitri was off-limits to females. In the mating dance, females had a lot of power, even if they couldn’t instigate the mate-claim. Before the Shifter-Fae war that had freed the Shifters centuries ago, males had often mate-claimed several females at once, which had been necessary in order for Shifters to produce as many offspring as they could.

Therefore, female instinct didn’t worry about whether a male was already in a relationship—they chased his ass until the male went through the mating ceremonies with his chosen one. The mate-claimed female could be vicious, however, fighting off the other females with savagery. Blood had been drawn over male mates before this.

“I wouldn’t worry,” Charlie said. “I only ever see Dimitri looking at you.” He spoke cheerfully, confident that everything would work out. “There he is now.” He waved at Dimitri, who’d come out onto the back porch. Dimitri looked up the hill, shading his eyes against the setting sun.

Jaycee’s heart squeezed into a tight ball. Dimitri stood straight and tall, his hard body outlined by jeans and a T-shirt, his red hair burnished by the sun. He hadn’t shaved in a day or two, and the shadow of whiskers outlined his jaw. Dimitri didn’t wave back, only stood watching, but he didn’t have to do much of anything to arrest Jaycee’s attention.

She’d spent a while in her younger days being infatuated with Kendrick, but Jaycee knew now this was because Kendrick was a natural leader and had made her feel safe. He’d taken her in when she’d been a scared but unruly cub, nurturing her until her terrors had gone away. She’d hero-worshiped Kendrick, and this idolization had lasted past her Transition into adulthood.

Even so, she’d always turned her head to look when Dimitri walked by. She’d resisted her attraction to him for a long time, telling herself she betrayed Kendrick with her thoughts, but she’d enjoyed watching Dimitri—and fantasizing. Then she’d tease the hell out of Dimitri to make herself feel less ashamed of the fantasies, which were usually about Dimitri naked, often wet and glistening in the sunlight. In these waking dreams, Dimitri would lay Jaycee down wherever they happened to be—beside a bathtub, on a riverbank, on a beach—and make hot love to her. The fierier the fantasy, the harder Jaycee gave him hell to compensate.

Dimitri gave her hell right back, never letting her get away with anything.

Jaycee kept her hands balled into fists as she and Charlie walked steadily down the hill toward the house. Dimitri waited for them, resting his hands on the porch railing, his body taut, yet he had a lightness in his stance that came from the wild animal inside him.

Jaycee hadn’t spoken to him since the punishment ritual. Now, as she approached the porch, her mouth went dry and her palms began to perspire. She probably looked less than attractive, with her jeans and shirt covered with dust, bits of hay, and, she was willing to bet, a little horse poop.

Dimitri gave her a once-over with his gray eyes as she mounted the porch steps, Charlie hanging back to let her go first, as humans did.

“Hey, s-sweetie.” Dimitri’s voice was a rumbling growl. “Kendrick’s sending us to the roadhouse to see if we can snare some Sh-Shifters. Go make yourself sexy—er.”

Jaycee did her best not to flush as she reached the porch. She had to slide around Dimitri’s body to get to the door, and Dimitri wasn’t about to move. He looked down at her, fire in his eyes, as Jaycee turned sideways to go past and tried not to look up at him.

She was fully aware of every inch of him, though, and the heat of his body through his thin T-shirt, the sensation like a caress. Dimitri didn’t touch her and said nothing, only stood like a rock while she, the stream, tried to flow around him.

She finally made it to the door and inside, feeling Dimitri’s gaze on her all the way. His laughter at something Charlie said warmed her as she hurried down the hall to her bedroom and shut him out.

Jaycee leaned against the door, out of breath, her skin on fire. “Damn you,” she whispered.

The vivid sensation flooded her of Dimitri standing over her in the grass in Shiftertown, his legs around her, his hand and mouth on the back of her neck. Jaycee had wanted to combust. Dimitri had been in total command, but Jaycee had known in her heart he’d never hurt her. He’d made her feel protected but wanted, sensual and alive.

He’d held her close when he’d raised her to her feet, his gray eyes dark with emotion. Jaycee had clung to him, feeling his heartbeat against her chest, enclosing herself in his heat.

“Damn it.” Jaycee was going to burn up and die, and Dimitri would only laugh.

*   *   *

His mate was the sexiest thing in this bar, which both pleased and alarmed Dimitri. A mate-claim was hell.

The Shifters in the roadhouse knew she was mate-claimed—they’d have scented Dimitri on her and understood what it meant. And still they ogled her.

Dimitri couldn’t blame them. Female Shifters were few and far between, and Jaycee was worth a second look—a third and fourth one too.

She was also driving them wild. Jaycee danced by herself in the middle of the floor, and the Shifter males gathered around her. She’d chosen a brief skirt that showed off her legs and a body-hugging tank top with skinny straps that allowed the thicker straps of her lacy bra to show. The tank’s white fabric let everyone know the bra beneath it was dark blue. More enticing, in Dimitri’s opinion, than if she’d left the bra off altogether. It made the Shifters around her wonder what it would be like to unwrap the package.

She’d been wearing shoes when she’d climbed into the truck Dimitri had acquired a few months ago, but Jaycee was now barefoot, the shoes tucked somewhere under the bar’s counter.

Dimitri, at the bar, had his hands around a mug of beer as his heart burned, reflecting absently that roadhouse draft tasted like watery piss. But it was no good asking for a craft beer in a place like this.

He turned to watch Jaycee as she swayed to the music. She was a great dancer, as lithe and graceful as her leopard. A Collar winked around her neck—fake, but it only enhanced the curve of her throat. Men, both human and Shifter, moved closer to her, and Dimitri growled, his rage building.

“Man, I feel for you.” A Lupine Shifter, one Dimitri had never seen before, slid onto the barstool next to his. The Lupine’s dark hair was scruffy but not dirty, and his light gray eyes held sympathy. “She’s a beauty,” he said. “You want to tame her but not break her, am I right?”

Dimitri knew he didn’t have a snowball’s chance of taming Jaycee, but he nodded. “She’s a w-w-wild one.”

“Makes life exciting.” The Lupine nodded at the bartender, a human, who set a beer in front of him. “You’re Dimitri, right?”

Dimitri hid his start of unease. This was not the Shifter he’d fought in the ring, the one who’d stuck him with a tranq, but that didn’t mean the Lupine wasn’t dangerous.

The Lupine grinned, the wolf showing in his eyes. “Don’t worry, you’ve never met me. But I saw you fight the other night. You’re good.”

“Then you saw me get m-my ass kicked.” Dimitri forced himself to calmly take a sip of beer and not to make a face at the taste.

“Yeah, but you held out. You’d have won if your lady hadn’t barged in. Man, I laughed my butt off.”

“Like I said, she’s a w-wild one.” Dimitri shook his head, but his heartbeat quickened. Was this Lupine simply making conversation or did he have something to do with the Lupine from the ring? He might be in the same pack or clan, or a friend . . . or he might have nothing to do with him at all.

“She’s a good fighter,” the Shifter said, watching Jaycee again. “I heard your leader made you humiliate her in front of the entire Austin Shiftertown. Too bad. She didn’t deserve that.”

“No, sh-she didn’t.” Dimitri stuck to the literal truth—Shifters could scent lies.

He felt no surprise that this Lupine knew exactly what had happened with Jaycee this morning. Gossip flew through Shiftertowns and out their other side with the thoroughness of a tornado, which was the reason Dylan had decreed they’d do the discipline ritual in public. It would spread the idea that Jaycee constantly needed to be reined in, which was not far from the truth. Dylan and Kendrick had probably spent the rest of the day spreading stories about the punishment as well.

The Lupine watched Jaycee in appreciation. Jaycee turned toward them, her arms aloft while she gyrated slowly, her body pressing against the tank top, her hips moving. Fire seared Dimitri’s blood.

The Lupine laughed. “Down, son. Before every Shifter in the bar is fighting you for her.” He gave Dimitri a reassuring look. “Oh, you don’t have to worry about me. I’m mated. I’m Casey, by the way.”

He didn’t offer a hand for a shake like a human might. He simply held Dimitri’s gaze, assessing him, trying to decide where Dimitri fit in the relative hierarchy of all Shifters.

This Lupine might have nothing to do with rogues or the shit who’d tranquilized Dimitri. He might just be a fight fan. Or he might be the leader of whoever was organizing Shifters to work with the Fae. Who the hell knew?

Only one way to find out. Dimitri instinctively sensed that he outranked Casey, but he dropped his gaze after a few seconds. He needed to show he was strong but not too strong, compliant but not too compliant. A fine line to walk.

“N-nice to meet you,” Dimitri said.

“Want to go a round with me?” Casey asked. “Just you—can you keep your mate from interfering?” His eyes sparkled with good humor.

Dimitri slowed his quickening heartbeat—a Shifter would sense that too. “Sure,” he said.

“Great.” Casey took a few large gulps of his beer and slammed the glass down on the bar. “Let’s go.”