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"Hell, the informant was that bastard Ferdinand Massaro And he was the one who changed you," Jake growled "Why did he have designs on you in the first place?"

He couldn’t help the way he felt about it Not only was he pissed off that thebeen there to protect her, but the possibility that the man had raped her rested heavily on Jake’s ed on hi her hands in her lap, staring at the table

Taking a deep breath to settle his irritation, Jake swept a curl away from her cheek and pressed a kiss to her temple "We’ll take care of them" His words were spoken quietly now but with dark resolution

"But you don’t have a bounty hunter’s training You can’t turn the up at hi her hand in his and caressing the palo to jail"

Her eyes ide, filled with a fresh shiet aithmy mother They can’t!"

When she tried to pull her hand away froo of the tentative connection they had He realized then she probably didn’t even know about olves’ longevity

"We live long lives Very long lives If you’ve read any olf lore, you probably know it’s not easy to kill us But what you ends have persisted from ancient times is that we live so many years"

"You… told me you… were thirty," Alicia said cautiously

He cleared his throat and glanced at his brothers, then at Lelandi Their faces were expectant, al He had never expected to fall in love with a woman ould be newly turned He wasn’t sure how to accli her Then he squeezed her hand as her eyes filled orry and questioning

"Thirty in hu process Once we turn eighteen, the aging process slon Many humans look youthful for years--and it’s hard to tell exactly what age they are, but for us, the length of ti of Scots at Scone, the year I was born The saoods produced in the colonies to England on non-English ships"

Alicia glanced at Lelandi She smiled "I’e is not a gentleman"

Jake raised his brows at Lelandi, then turned to Alicia "That’s part of the reason we can’t go to jail Let’s say the et life in prison They would outlive everyone And appear to age way too slowly If they’re not one of those who have very few human influences in their family roots, like Lelandi, a royal, they would have to shift so the phases of the moon Except for the new ine what the prison guards would say if they caught their prisoners pacing in their cells as wolves? Orange prison juone? If we detero to prison You can turn them in for the bounty money even But we’ll take them down"

Alicia took a deep breath "What if they are wolves?"

"We take care of ours in our oay They won’t get aith murder, Alicia"

She nodded and slid her free hand over his thigh He sry as he felt for her

"What did you plan to do today?" Darien asked Jake "A couple of police detectives investigating the break-in at Alicia’sand said they wanted to get Alicia’s statement I said they could speak with her in an hour or so Hopefully, she won’t have the urge to shift Beyond that, what do you intend to do?"

"I wanted to take Alicia to see Grandfather’s old homestead But I need to locate Mario Constantino and Danny Massaro, too And find out what happened to the other two thugs that vanished froot aithout injury I need to learn if any of them olves"

"I’ll have To at See if they can pick up any wolf scents You stay here with Alicia," Darien said