"Don't walk home alone," Ellison said harshly. He was too raw with emotion to keep his voice gentle.

"I do as I please," Maria said in a hard tone. Then her voice softened. "I'm sorry. I heard you were called home. Is Deni all right?"

"Yes." The word jerked out. Ellison was still wound up from Deni's relapse, and Broderick being an a.s.shole hadn't helped calm him down.

"I'm really sorry." Her mouth turned down, lovely plump red lips. "Thank you for stopping Broderick."

"You refused him. Too bad. I was ready to kick his a.s.s."

"I'm allowed to turn down mate-claims. Liam said so."

"Liam's right." Ellison moved closer to her. "But you're going to p.i.s.s off every h.o.r.n.y Shifter male by doing it. Fair warning."

"Doesn't matter. I won't live in Shiftertown forever."

Ellison didn't like that. "You can't be planning to move back in with your brother."

Maria stopped, her braid swinging. She turned warm brown eyes up to him, but they held a hint of steel. "Of course not. This is America. I don't have to live with my brother, or with Liam, or Sean. I can live in a place on my own."

"Alone?" Ellison blinked. "Why would you want to?" He couldn't imagine living by himself, without sister, nephews, cubs, parents, pack-family.

He was almost alone here, head of a pack of four. No mate of his own, no cubs. Lone Wolf, the other Shifters sometimes called him.

"It's different for me," Maria said. "The idea of being alone is . . . splendid."

"Lonely."

"Peaceful."

"Boring." Ellison shook his head.

"I wouldn't sit at home and do nothing. I would . . ." Maria bit the corner of her lip then drew a breath. "If I tell you this, will you keep it to yourself? Andrea knows, and Glory. And Connor. No one else."

"Connor?" She named Liam's nephew, younger than Ellison's nephews, all of twenty-one.

"Yes, Connor. He's good at keeping secrets. I want to go to school. I've been saving up for it, and I'm already working on my application and looking for scholarships. Connor's been helping me study for the tests called SATs. I'll be taking them this Sat.u.r.day."

"Community college, eh? Maybe a good thing. You could drive Connor-the kid's a maniac behind the wheel."

"No, not community college. University. UT Austin."

Ellison whistled. "They don't take everyone-they don't take Shifters at all. Maybe you should start with something smaller, work your way up to it."

Her indignant look could have lit a fire. "There is no reason to start small. If you want something, you go for it. You never know in this life when it will all be taken away."

So true. Maria spoke from her own experience, and look what had happened to Deni.

Maria's anger made her shake. She needed rea.s.surance, cried out for it, though Ellison knew she'd never admit it.

Ellison put a hand on her shoulder. Quietly, like he would for a cub who was upset.

But Maria wasn't a cub. She was a beautiful young woman, alone, unprotected, yet gutsy and strong for what had happened to her.

Ellison's touch of rea.s.surance turned to a caress, the backs of his fingers brushing her skin. "You go for it, Maria. Aim as high as you want." And if you fall, I'll be here to catch you.

Maria's expression softened. She had a round face, pretty, ringlets of black hair trickling loose from its binding. Ellison's need to kiss her rose like a newly kindled fire, to press his lips against the soft red ones, to taste the moisture inside her mouth.

"Is everything all right with Deni?" Maria asked.

"Yeah," Ellison said, jerking his gaze from her lips. "She's fine now." Ellison had left her sleeping, Andrea holding her hand.

"I'll go over and see her tomorrow, all right?"

"Yeah, she'd like that. But if she gets . . . you know . . . forgetful, you get out. Dominant female wolves can be very dangerous."

"She won't hurt me." Maria spoke with a confidence Ellison didn't share. Deni had been intent on killing him, her own brother.

They'd reached Sean's house, all quiet within. Ellison's house was dark as well. Maria slowed her steps and stopped with Ellison at the bottom of Sean's front porch. Silence hung between them, and warmth.

"Thank you for rescuing me," Maria said. "Twice."

Ellison reached up to tip the hat he'd left at home when he'd raced out to find her. "Any time, darlin'."

Her smile flashed, beauty in the darkness. The smile went from polite to genuine, hot as the Texas sunshine. "Hasta luego," she said. See you soon.

Ellison made himself step away from her. The move was difficult, as though someone had wrapped elastic straps around himself and her to pull them together. "You need any more rescuing, you call me, sweetheart," he said. "Good night."

"Good night." Another flash of smile, and Maria turned, ran up onto the porch, and was gone.

Ellison stayed in the street, watching the closed door. A light went on downstairs, then off, then one upstairs, in the bedroom they'd given Maria. A glow illuminated her as she came to the window, ready to close the blind.

Maria saw Ellison, who remained staring up at her like a love-struck wolf cub. She waved then closed the blind, shutting him out.

"You plan on eating her alive?" a gravelly voice asked him.

Ellison whirled around, fist on his chest. "s.h.i.t. Spike."

Spike stood two feet away from Ellison, his son on his shoulders, the little boy holding on to his dad's head. Ellison hadn't heard or sensed either of them. Spike was a tracker, one of the best-good at stealth. But Ellison should have scented and sensed the cub, a four-year-old called Jordan.

"Hey, Jordan," Ellison said, trying to force himself to relax. "Taking your dad out for a walk?"

Jordan laughed. "Yeah. It's fun." Spike hadn't known about the kid until last fall, and now the two shared a bond that was like cement.

"Watch Broderick," Spike said. "He's going to try to make the mate-claim and your Challenge stick."

"d.a.m.n, word travels fast."

"Broderick went back to the bar and started p.i.s.sing and moaning to Liam. Ronan got worried about Maria and called me, asking me to check on her. So here I am, checking on her. But I guess you got it covered."

He started to turn away, Spike finished.

"If the Challenge goes down, want to be my second?" Ellison asked him.

Spike called his answer over his shoulder. "Do you have to ask?" Jordan laughed and waved, and the pair of them faded into the darkness.

Ellison walked up to his front porch. From the quiet inside, everyone had gone to bed-he could hear his nephews snoring in the bedroom they shared, and the quieter breathing of Deni.

Broderick was going to be a problem. Ellison had no worries about kicking his a.s.s, but Maria's fear had been sharp. Getting past that would be more difficult.

Ellison didn't trust Broderick not to try to climb up on Sean's porch and steal Maria out of her bedroom. Broderick would never consider doing that with a Shifter woman-not these days-but humans were regarded as weak, and Maria had already been the victim of a Shifter abduction. Broderick would figure that meant he could do what he wanted with her, and unfortunately, so might other Shifters.

Ellison sat down on one of the chairs on the porch, the chair's wood creaking. He put his feet up on the rail and leaned back, hands behind his head, to watch the square of light that was Maria's window.

The window went dark, Maria seeking her bed. She'd be all cuddled up under the sheets, alone, not wearing much of anything. She'd smell of sweet sleep, damp skin, desire.

Ellison let out a sharp breath. If he kept his thoughts in that line, he'd be climbing up on the roof himself to steal her away. He was as bad as Broderick, and he knew it.

Ellison settled back in the chair, gaze fixed firmly on the dark window. Good thing wolves liked to stay up all night.

Maria opened her eyes in the dark. She smelled them around her, the women, both human and Shifter, who'd been sequestered by the ferals. With them the scents of the kids-scared, defiant, exhausted. Maria didn't need to be Shifter to understand what fear and defeat smelled like.

How own child lay in her arms. She could feel him, the weight of the little body, the warmth, the beauty of him.

But he'd been born too weak. Maria had begged Luis then Miguel to take her and him to a hospital, to a doctor at least, and Miguel wouldn't. Hours later, her son was dead.

The child in her arms disappeared leaving Maria bereft, empty, grieving. She lay on the cold floor, her sobs coming, dry and broken. A hand touched her hair, the soft brush of a woman called Peigi, trying to comfort her.

There was no comfort. Maria had lost everything-family, her child, herself. She lay in the cold darkness, alone, empty. She'd never see daylight again, never feel warmth, never feel whole. She'd been broken, part of herself taken away.

In the middle of the grief came a hated voice. Peigi's gentle touch vanished, to be replaced by a fierce grip in her hair, pulling her up.

"You're trying again," the voice said in rough Spanish. Maria had never known where Miguel had been born and raised, but he spoke several languages, fluently if not elegantly. "We need cubs that live."

Maria screamed. The scream rang through the huge bas.e.m.e.nt, coming back to her in waves. The kids started to cry, the women to keen.

Miguel pulled her up, and up, and up . . . and Maria was sitting in her bed in Shiftertown, her heart thudding, her breath coming in dry hiccups. She put her hand to her face and found it wet with tears.

Air, she needed air. The little room was stuffy, the nights warming now.

Maria scrambled out of bed, her legs shaking, and stumbled to the window. She cranked up the blind and opened the cas.e.m.e.nt as quietly as possible.

Something moved on the porch across the street. Maria froze, ducking into the shadows of her bedroom before she worked up the courage to peer out again.

She saw a pair of cowboy boots propped up on the porch railing, and long legs going back into shadow. Maria's body relaxed, her racing heart slowing.

She crept across the room to her dresser and found the pair of binoculars Sean had given her when she'd expressed interest in bird-watching down at the river. Right now she wanted to do a little Shifter-watching.

Maria returned to the window and trained the binoculars onto Ellison Rowe's porch. There he was, leaning back in a wooden porch chair, eyes closed, mouth slightly open. She couldn't hear from here, but she knew soft snores issued from his mouth.

Maria smiled, the fear of the dream vanishing. The grief didn't lessen, and it would never go away, but her emptiness receded a little. The cowboy across the street, who'd come to her rescue twice tonight, was here with her. She wasn't alone.

Ellison went inside in the morning, stiff, groggy, and having no idea how he'd fallen asleep in the chair.

All looked normal at Sean's, and at Liam's house next door to it. Kim had tripped off to work, Andrea's boy was wailing with his usual energy, and Connor came out to work on Dylan's truck, along with Tiger, another rescue from captivity.

Tiger glanced over at Ellison but didn't return Ellison's wave of greeting. Not that Ellison expected a Shifter who'd spent his entire life in a cage to know how to respond, or to care.

Tiger hauled up the truck's hood and bent over it, starting to tinker, with Connor's help. Working on vehicles seemed to be the only thing that kept Tiger calm.

Ellison showered, shaved, and came out of his room to see Deni cooking breakfast with Will. Jackson had already left for a job he had with a moving company; Will worked at a furniture warehouse. Shifters were good at lifting and carrying.

Deni looked rested, cheerful even. Ellison put his arm around her as she stirred the mess of eggs and cubed potatoes in the frying pan and kissed her cheek.

"Don't put too much salt in mine," he said.

"Don't backseat cook." Deni smiled at him, and Ellison's heart lightened.

It would lighten even more when he saw Maria. Ellison told Deni he'd be right back, gave Will a brief hug, caught up his hat, and walked out the door.

Running across the street to see how Maria was doing after she'd been badgered last night would be the neighborly thing to do. Right? Ellison could pretend he'd come to get a taste of whatever pancakes Sean was cooking today.

Andrea met him at the door, with little Kenny Morrissey, her firstborn, on her hip.

"Maria? No, she's not here," Andrea said. "She left without a word very early this morning, and I don't know where she is. I was hoping she was with you and Den."

Chapter Four.

Maria. Missing. And Andrea stood there calmly, cuddling her son, like nothing was wrong.

"What do you mean, you don't know where she is?"

Ellison took a broad step forward, his wolf growling all the way.

A mistake-a big mistake. Sean materialized out of the kitchen, holding a pancake turner. His eyes were Shifter white, focused on Ellison, the lion in him responding to a threat to his mate, his cub, his territory.

The Guardian was the last person a Shifter would ever see, the point of the Guardian's sword sending the Shifter's soul to the afterlife. Whatever else Sean might be-friend, mate, tracker-he was also death.

Ellison stepped back, hands up, trying to show Sean that he meant no harm-to Sean's house, mate, cub, or pancakes.