Prince considered how to answer, but Kat took the honors.
“I’m the firstborn daughter to Alexei Kozlov.” Rivulets of blood trickled down Vlad’s neck. “Now tell me where he is,” she growled, a cascade of her hair falling forward and concealing half his face.
“Do you think your little dagger frightens me?”
“How attached are you to your head, Dracula?”
Vlad scowled. “Don’t call me that. I’mnota Vampire.”
Prince pulled out the chair on his right and coaxed her to sit with a wave of his hand. Kat was seething with anger and had every right. In another lifetime, Prince would have challenged a man who insulted him or someone he respected. But these were different times where men didn’t settle disputes with swords. Killing an outlaw wouldn’t have been a crime so much as committing the act in a Breed establishment. Prince had to carefully choose his battles or else he risked losing his pack. Kat, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have anything to lose.
“Kat, have a seat.” Prince gave her an intense look, radiating alpha power in the resonance of his voice.
Reluctantly, she pulled the dagger away and tucked it back in the holster beneath her shirt. When Kat turned to sit, she stumbled on her shoelace and almost missed the chair. She quickly gripped the edge of the table and sat up straight, her eyes locked on Vlad.
“Where’s my father?”
Vlad picked up the wet napkin from beneath his glass and used it to wipe the blood droplets from his neck. “What makes you think I know where your father is?”
“Twenty years ago, you were my pet project. Because of your Russian name, I figured my father might have heard of you. As it turns out, I was right. On the night he asked to speak to me privately, he went missing. Didn’t just go missing, but someone ransacked his cabin in the process. Exactly what were you looking for?”
Vlad lifted his empty glass and tasted the last drops from the bottom. “You are mistaken.”
“Pussy.”
With lightning speed, Vlad rose up and slammed the glass to the floor. Prince stood up and flipped the table over when he saw blue light trickling from Vlad’s fingertips.
Before Vlad could put his energy-soaked hands on Kat, she shifted into her wolf. Her dense fur was the color of black velvet, her body built for speed. She circled behind Vlad and pounced onto his back, sinking her sharp canines into his fleshy neck.
“Ah! Get it off!” he shouted, crashing to the floor.
Prince stepped on Vlad’s right hand to keep him from harming Kat’s wolf, although he had no control over the other arm. “You dare attack a female?” he roared.
Vlad grimaced. “That’s no female; that’s the devil incarnate.” He grunted through clenched teeth. “I see savagery is still the way of the Shifter.”
A few people nearby stood up but chose not to intervene since it hadn’t escalated.
However, if Kat’s wolf took off Vlad’s head, then the bar might erupt in chaos. She wasn’t going to shift back on her own, so Prince decided to force her.
He removed his jacket and knelt down, placing his hand on her wolf’s neck. “Shift.”
In a fluid movement, the wolf gracefully changed to human form. Despite the fact that a beautiful woman was naked in the middle of a club, the Shifters went back to their drinks, chuckling about the scuffle. It was the other Breeds that looked on with lust in their eyes. Kat’s wavy black hair spread down her back like a mane, although not quite long enough to cover the dip of her spine and the round curve of her backside.
“Dammit, Charming. I told you I’mshy!”
A flannel shirt flew out of nowhere and landed on her back. “Put that on, sugar. Unless you want to start a war in here,” the hairy-chested man said. He sat back down, his beer gut hanging over the top of his tight jeans.
Still straddling the bleeding Mage, Kat slipped into the flannel shirt and buttoned it up. “If youevercome at me like that again, Count Chocula, you’ll be lucky to walk away with two testicles.” She smacked him on the back of the head and stood up, straightening her long shirt.
Despite shifting, the holster for her dagger remained strapped to her body. It was customized to also fit her wolf, so it hadn’t come off during the shift.
Vlad sat up, gripping the back of his bloody neck. “You’re a crazy bitch if you think I’m going to tell you anything.”
Kat finished slipping on her sneakers and started to reach into her shirt, but it was buttoned up and far too long. She knitted her brows and looked down, undoing the top buttons so she could retrieve something from her harness beneath. “I’m also a bounty hunter, and I’m taking you in.”
Vlad lunged at her with his hands out, and Kat’s eyes went wide when she pulled her hand out with a set of cuffs, which fell to the floor. Prince lunged between them and took the brunt of the hit, a powerful surge of energy slamming into his chest. It tightened every muscle in his body, and he fell backward with Kat beneath him.
She groaned weakly. “I hate it when they do that,” she mumbled. “Charming?”
