The beast in her nearly wilted with relief at the sight of him. At last, her consort had come.
If only he had better timing!
“Who the fuck are you?” Viktor barked.
Epifanio casually tucked one hand into his pocket, as if he wasn’t standing only a foot away from a shifter very near a mating-induced freak out. “I’m Epifanio Luz.” He stepped six inches to the left and nodded, revealing Camille, who stood stock still behind him. “I am here to finalize our union.”
Oh, you rat bastard.Camille snapped out of her shocked daze with a burst of fury. Rounding on her unwanted guest, she bit out, “I wasrejectingyour offer, Mr. Luz!”
He lifted one shoulder in an elegant shrug. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect a shifter.” Hetsked.“You still want to turn down my suit, Miss Solbourne? I wouldn’t mind if you kept him as a pet. After all, we would only need to have sex once or twice a week until we produced a—”
Viktor crossed the space between them in a blink of an eye. Nearly nose to nose with the elf, he murmured, “Finish that sentence and you’re a dead man,Epifanio.”
Amusement colored his low voice when he replied, “Oh?”
“Yeah,oh.”Viktor smiled, but it was not one of the grins she was used to. It carried nothing but the promise of violence. “The only one Camille will be with isme.The only one she’ll have cubs with isme.Now get the fuck out of my mate’s apartment.”
“Viktor!” Camille exclaimed, worry making her voice higher than usual. Cold sweat broke out over her chest.
Gods, she couldnotwatch him get in a fight with Epifanio. She just couldn’t. Watching helplessly as Margot struggled to save his life the night before was enough trauma for a lifetime. She didn’t need to see him test his mettle on Epifanio, too.
Epifanio lifted a hand over his shoulder in a lazy, placating gesture. “Don’t worry, Miss Solbourne, I don’t have any plans to turn your mutt into mince meat today.” Smoothly stepping forward until Viktor was forced to move aside, allowing him out of the apartment, he added, “ViktorHamilton,I presume?”
Viktor swiftly took his place in the doorway, his hands shooting out to grasp both sides of the door jamb to completely block Epifanio’s view inside. Camille rushed over to him. Hands spreading across the expanse of his back, she felt the trembling tension in the bunched muscles.
“Yes,” he grated, leaning slightly backward, into her touch.
“Fascinating,” he drawled. “Well, it was a delight, Miss Solbourne. I wish you all the best.” She heard the hard heels of his shoes striking the floor with each measured step as he began to walk away from her apartment. The beat paused. “Oh, one more thing.”
Viktor let loose a rattling snarl.“What?”
“I heard something interesting through the grapevine the other day,” he answered, coolly amused. “I like to make it my business to know when someone offers a lot of money for murder. You might want to know that there’s a bounty on your head, Alpha Hamilton. I do believe someone is trying to have you killed.”
Without missing a beat, Viktor snapped, “Old news. Now get the fuck out.”
With one quick step back, he grasped the door and swung it back into place withbang!
Epifanio’s laughter carried down the hall as he walked away.
ChapterTwenty-Seven
“Vik, I—”
He swung around to face his mate, breathing hard and fast. Grabbing her by the shoulders, he bent his neck to bury his face in the soft, fragrant skin of her bare throat. “Give me a minute,” he rasped, struggling for calm, for some part of the man who would not go hunting for the elf who thought he could enterhismate’s den.
The coyote bit and snarled inside him, worked into a frenzy by the fever that raked every nerve, every instinct. It couldn’t fathom the sight he was treated to when Camille’s door swung open. It was bad enough to know she’d lefttheirden, but to find her with an unfamiliar, obviously dangerous man in her apartment, when she was dressed in nothing but a long silk robe, made every instinct scream in enraged protest.
The fever was relentless. It didn’t understand reason, nor listen to caution. It was a tidal wave built by generation after generation of intense, bloody competition. Securing a partner had never been easy, after all. It took cunning, tenacity, and single-minded focus to win a prized mate, to build that sacred bond that rose above all other loyalty.
His coyote, separate from him and yet the same being, howled from a primordial place, one where competition had to be cut down with tooth and claw:Not bitten, not safe, not mine!
Viktor felt like he was losing his damn mind.
Trying desperately to calm himself down, lest the fever push him to do something stupid, Viktor walked them back until Camille’s back hit the wall. He smoothed his hands down her arms, calluses catching on the soft fabric of her robe, until he reached the tips of her fingers.
No claws,he thought, for the second time that day. Pride swelled as protective rage began to bleed away, replaced by the pounding need to assert his claim. Wrapping his hands around her waist, he dragged his parted lips over the column of her throat, tracing the tendons and muscle that made such an elegant arch.
“Vik,”she sighed, pressing her hands against his stomach. Muscle rippled under her firm touch. “I’m sorry. I had no idea he would—”
