He took a seat in his leather chair and switched on the computer. He had direct access to a secure database only a select few Packmasters were privy to. It stored information the Council had collected on troublesome Shifters as well as criminal records.
Prince hadn’t thought of Vlad Romanov in decades. The problem with living an extended lifespan was that it was inevitable you’d run into familiar faces from the past. Humans like to use the expression that it’s a small world, but for Breed, it was infinitely smaller.
He replayed the scene in his mind several times of the Mage thrusting his energy-soaked hands at Kat. Prince should have moved faster; he should have known Vlad would create a diversion and flee the scene. Had Prince reacted a fraction of a second sooner, Kat wouldn’t have been hurt at all. A man putting his hands on a woman incited a wave of rage that rippled through him like a tide.
And for that, Vlad would pay.
Then his mind drifted back to Kat. She was so different from Nadia, whose blond locks had first captured his attention. Yet the dark and deliberate nature of Kat’s hair made his heart quicken. Whenever she took a deep breath, he noticed her collarbone. It seemed like such an odd thing to focus on, but finding traits that made her different from her twin had become a silent game. The commanding way she threw her shoulders back and cocked her hips to the side when speaking. The confident tone in her voice, her assertive gaze, the level of control. Those qualities beguiled his wolf, making him pace restlessly in her presence—something his wolf had never done for another female. Even her own wolf possessed that same inherent strength by dominating that Mage and making him submit.
Kat’s insults were thinly veiled. She judged him because of his wealth and tidy appearance. Yet she had also made references to his long hair on two occasions, once using the word “sexy” to describe it. Prince reached back and pulled the band from his hair, shaking it loose around his shoulders, wondering what Kat would think of it unbound. His long hair connected him to his past and allowed him to see his former self reflecting back at him in the mirror. In that reflection, he also caught glimpses of his father.
Prince became drunk with thoughts of Kat, and for the first time in centuries, he coveted. Wanted to taste her lips, feel her body beneath his, and run with her wolf. Prince shifted in his chair, realizing he’d become thick with arousal. These ungovernable thoughts would consume him if he didn’t get control of them. Despite Kat possessing the purity he’d long sought for in a mate, he couldn’t afford to have tender feelings for such a woman. A bounty hunter who carried a knife and lived like a nomad—she was completely wrong for him, so he steered his thoughts away.
“Vlad Romanov,” he said quietly, staring at the computer screen. “Born in 1721, emigrated from Russia, wanted for slave trafficking.”
Sadly, that sort of depravity still went on in the underworld—outside the city limits of most major cities and beyond the reach of the Councils. A sparse few ancient immortals held fast to the old world when they had once lived like kings, using Shifters to do their bidding. Vlad had made a career kidnapping and selling men, women, and children for profit. The file included his last known location and listed Kat as the assigned bounty hunter. Twenty years had passed, but it was still common knowledge that the higher authority never closed a case on an outlaw until they were captured or killed. That’s why most criminals kept a low profile and avoided reaching outlaw status.
“Where does a man like you hide?” he asked himself, leaning back in his chair, the leather creaking. “And what brings you to Austin?”
Southern states had more land, but they were regulated by the Councils, and an outlaw wouldn’t be able to claim territory unless he did so illegally. It would be easier for his crimes to go unnoticed in a populous city. If Vlad was still selling on the black market, then he might be in town for business. There wasn’t a main site like eBay to do this kind of trading, but men who purchased Shifters went through a seller or middleman who would give them private access to his site. After providing their criteria, they sat back and waited for a match.
Prince sent a quick message to an associate who worked undercover with a list of local names to research. Maybe Vlad was in town hunting his next victim.
He closed the laptop and stood up, stretching out the stiff muscles in his back before loosening his slim tie and tossing it onto his desk. As tired as he was, he still felt charged from the events of the evening. He strolled across the hallway to his bedroom while unbuttoning his shirt.
Once inside, he draped the shirt over a chair and removed his leather shoes and black socks. Prince stood before a cheval mirror, his reflection encased in an espresso frame. With his hair loose, he remembered himself as a great leader from centuries ago. Frock coat, gloves, and suspenders to hold up his trousers. Fashion divided the rich and poor in earlier times, and Shifters lived somewhere in the middle. He had always appreciated a good suit; it made him feel elevated amongst others.
Prince was born in Imereti in the thirteen hundreds, firstborn to nomadic parents who had claimed land to establish a pack. They were of the purest blood, and Shifters gravitated toward them. His father had dreams of living a peaceful existence in a farming community, so he started a family in hopes of settling down. But in those times no one could escape war. Immortals were fighting for power, and Shifters were fighting for survival.
Prince unlatched his black belt, pulled it away from his pants, and tossed it to the floor. When he grasped the tab of his zipper, he thought of Kat and a smile touched his lips. Whether it was Prince’s open zipper or stumbling over her laces, she didn’t dwell on other people’s opinions. He usually preferred sophisticated women, ones who trembled with anticipation when he unfastened their corsets, but these women were rarities in the modern world. And here he was, faced with two identical women on the opposite ends of the spectrum. One who represented the ideal woman he revered and who matched his personality, and the other who ensnared his thoughts and heated his blood in a way no woman ever had.
Prince was a man of restraint, one who only indulged in pleasures of the flesh when he needed to settle his nerves. He never chose women from his pack, but instead would couple with unmated women in the territory. It wasn’t often, but he had no other options since he didn’t believe in self-gratification. It showed a lack of control, so it was a habit he’d given up over four hundred years ago.
Yet as his pants slipped to the floor and he looked at his erection in the mirror, carnal images of Kat tangled in his thoughts. He switched off the light and stripped down the covers, lying on silken sheets. At first it began with a touch, just a simple stroke to the head when he remembered the way Kat had pressed up against him earlier that evening. He’d known she wasn’t wearing a bra beneath her shirt when her nipples hardened against his chest.
His promise to help her find Alex had filled him with a sense of purpose. A Packmaster’s life was demanding, but he often missed the days when decisions were made by actions and not words. This beguiling woman had managed to make him feel more alive in one night than he had in centuries.
An image flashed in his mind of Kat’s nude body straddling the back of the Mage and the way she swung her eyes up to Prince’s with willful determination. He arched his back as he imagined what it would feel like to be the man beneath her—to have a Shifter as dominant as she astride him, her hips rocking, her sable eyes latched on his. An insatiable craving began.
One that made him relinquish a vow he’d made four hundred years ago.
CHAPTER6
“Hey, honeypie.”
“Denver, what are you doing here?” Nadia said from a short distance away.
Kat groaned into her pillow and rubbed her face against it, squinting as she peered toward the front hallway to see what was going on.
“Look, I just wanted to stop by because I feel kind of shitty about how things went. It wasn’t your fault; you were great. I’ve just found the girl I want and—”
Nadia’s voice was smooth like honey. “No need to explain. If you want the truth, I think you can do better, but I don’t believe in competing for any man’s attention. My love life is not a game show.”
The man named Denver chuckled and leaned against the doorjamb. “Did you ever watchThe Love Connection?”
Kat smiled, since she loved game shows.
Denver was easy on the eyes, with blond hair and a cartoon character on his T-shirt. Although Kat was too far away to see what it said, she could have sworn it wasFraggle Rock. He seemed like the kind of guy Kat would normally hang out with, so naturally it came as a surprise that he and Nadia had been dating.
