Kat eased up on her elbow and brushed the dirt from her chest, but it was pointless since she looked like someone who had crawled from the bowels of the earth. “I thought you liked the unexpected?”
He placed a reverent kiss on her lips, which she felt in her soul, and it mended all the jagged rips and tears from her past. “Youaremy unexpected.”
She gazed into his eyes, wondering if there was anything special about her, being that she was also a pureblood. She definitely didn’t shoot bullets with her nipples, although that might have made things interesting. Perhaps her bloodline simply wasn’t as pure as his.
He tapped her nose. “What are you thinking about?”
“Does it snow in Austin?” she asked, playing with the idea of settling down.
“Not often.”
She traced her finger down his jaw. “Do you think your friend can get me started as a PI? Nobody around here knows me; it would be like starting over.”
Prince smiled with closed lips, and she pushed the corners of his mouth a little higher. “I trust Reno will be able to help you build clientele.”
“So… is this a thing?”
He flipped her onto her back and ran his tongue along her neck and up to her ear. “This is most definitely a thing, alpha female.”
Kat threw her weight forward until she sat astride him, pinning his wrists to the ground. “We’ll see how this plays out, but right now, I need a shower.”
She stood up and strolled to the waterfall, dirt flaking off her body. There were drains in the floor to keep the room from flooding. “Your water bill must be high,” she said with a snort.
“It recycles. They change it a few times a week since it’s rarely used.”
Kat rinsed the dirt from her skin while Prince found a patch of grass and watched her, his impressive body glistening with sweat, pieces of dirt stuck to his sides and forearms.
“This is some setup you have down here.” Kat found her holster and strapped it on before getting dressed. “I don’t know anybody who puts dirt in their basement unless they’re a serial killer.”
“I would hardly call this dirt,” he said, waving an arm at his exceptional design.
Vines grew along the columns and walls, special lights were placed to accent the grass and plants, and it was more spacious than it appeared. The main room they were in walled off an adjoining room that had an obstacle course for their wolves to leap on and around.
Except for alphas, most Shifters blacked out shortly after their animal took over the shift, and thank God for that. Her wolf was a separate spirit connected to her own, so sharing consciousness at the same time would be maddening. The only thing she didn’t like was the unexpected surprises of where she wound up after a shift. Kat once woke up in a McDonald’s playground.
Naked.
So having an indoor facility for the wolves was pretty ingenious.
Those thoughts faded as she put on her clothes and wondered if Nadia was okay. What the hell did Vlad want with her sister?
“Kat?”
“What?” She looked up and Prince was standing before her.
“You weren’t answering.”
“What does he have against my father?”
“He resents Alex for having bought his own freedom. It might have been decades in the making, but Alex outwitted Vlad in the end.” After stepping beneath the water and rinsing himself clean, Prince shook out his T-shirt and pulled it over his head.
She tapped her chin. “I think my father stole something valuable of his. Vlad is behaving like a dog that’s searching for his favorite toy. Men who want revenge just do it; they don’t play mind games or they risk getting caught. When my father went missing, his cabin was ransacked. Vlad was looking for something.”
“If Alex has it, then surely he would have given it to him by now.”
“Maybe not. You said my father outwitted him after decades of patient waiting. Giving a man like Vlad what he wants wouldn’t guarantee my father’s freedom but only secure his death.”
Prince pulled up his briefs and jeans, his wet hair clinging to his neck. “He has two daughters to worry about. Why would he put your lives at risk, knowing that time would only reveal your existence?”
