I slapped his chest. “Ugh, please don’t call him that, ever,” I groaned as I walked toward the couch to get away from his too-tempting body.

  “Of course, you are right. It is just that wolf daddy sounded wrong in too many ways.”

  Uttering a cry of disgust, I snagged a throw pillow off the couch and chucked it at him like a grenade. He flinched but caught it—thanks in no small part to his wicked fast werewolf reflexes. Yeah, that was why. It had nothing to do with the fact I had zero athletic ability and even worse aim.

  “Your chances of getting lucky tonight are going down by the minute,” I teased.

  He shrugged as he turned toward the refrigerator. “I am confident in my methods of persuasion.” The way he dropped his voice all low and sexy reminded me just how good his methods were.

  Grinning like a cat in a dairy, I dialed Elexis’s phone number. She answered after the second ring.

  “Sonya, I have news, and it isn’t good.”

  Deep in my gut I knew without asking that it was about the missing skinwalker women. “Hit me with it,” I said through a sigh.

  “A body was found in southeastern Montana.”

  “Go on,” I said in a voice far steadier than I felt.

  “A twenty-year-old Navajo woman who died from an animal attack. Only, she wasn’t just a Navajo woman—she was a member of the skinwalker tribe from Wyoming.”

  Before the words came across the line, I had a feeling I knew what they would be. They still hit me like a Zombie cocktail. My legs shook so bad I had to ease myself down on the arm of the couch. Elexis went on in a detached cop voice that had a hollow sound to it, as though I were hearing it from down a tunnel.

  “You’re sure?” I asked.

  “Positive. And there’s more. She had ligature wounds on her wrists and ankles and other evidence conducive with abduction. The case has been taken over by the IIA. They are how I heard about it.”

  “IIA?”

  “Interspecies Intelligence Agency. They’re an agency so secret even the CIA doesn’t suspect they exist.”

  I filed that away in the box of a million things I needed to ask more about for later. “What else were you able to find out?”

  “Ligature marks on the wrists and ankles suggest she had been bound after being bitten, but the official report left that bit out. The truth of the matter is she was bitten against her will, abducted, and died from the verða, Then her body was dumped.”

  My entire body shook with a rage I wasn’t sure how to contain. Fangs and claws sprang forth, nicking my lip and gouging into the arm of the couch I clung to. The room blurred as I heated and vibrated with the need to shift. A growl filled with deadly promise was the only answer I could give Elexis.

  “I know. I feel exactly the same way. I’m sorry, Sonya, but there’s more you need to hear.” Elexis’s maddeningly calm voice came through the phone.

  Soothing energy wrapped around me as Ty approached. Saying nothing, he rubbed my back and offered me the comfort of his presence and power. The combination worked like a dip in a cool lake on a hot summer day, dousing the fire of my anger and allowing me to regain control. The nearly overwhelming urge to shift faded.

  “Go on,” I told Elexis.

  “The skinwalker tribe is refusing to talk to anyone, even the IIA. They don’t want outside help with this.”

  I looked at Ty who only shrugged. “And the IIA can’t force the matter?”

  “No,” Elexis answered. “The land the skinwalkers live on is protected. Much like a traditional reservation, it is considered its own sovereign nation among all the species. They have their own laws and government that we can’t interfere with for the most part.”

  “For the most part?” I pressed.

  “Once multiple species become involved, or there is a threat of exposure, the IIA can step in.”

  Again I looked up at Ty. “Skinwalkers and ma’ii makes two species, doesn’t it?”

  Ty’s face scrunched up and he shook his head as if he wasn’t sure. Again, Elexis answered. “Yes, but that doesn’t mean the skinwalkers have to talk to law enforcement. It only means the IIA will investigate.”

  “Which means this could take longer than the missing women have,” I said.

  A sound somewhere between a sigh and a growl came through the phone, followed by, “Yes.”

  The remainder of my anger dissolved. “Thanks, Elexis. I really appreciate the call.”

  “Of course. I’ll keep you posted if I hear anything else.” With that, she hung up.

  The residual anger weighing heavy in my chest changed to resolve. I knew what I had to do.

  Coming around in front of me, Ty took my hands. “I am not sure I like that look. What are you thinking?”

  Insecurity over having grown up only knowing half of my heritage tried to edge its way in and shake me, but I couldn’t let it. No matter what they said, or did, I had no choice. “I’m going to see the Yee Naaldlooshii.”

  I came out of the bathroom with my travel toiletries in hand to find Ty sitting on my bed. On the floor at his feet lay a blue bulging duffel bag. My own bag sat on the bed not far from him, open and awaiting the rest of my gear.

  “What’s this?” I asked, gaze going from him to the bag at his feet.

  “I am going with you,” he said.

  “You can’t,” I said as I shoved the toiletries into my bag.

  His face fell into such a look of hurt that I wished I’d never learned to talk. “You do not want me with you for this.”

  I pushed my way between his knees to lean on the bed before him and take his hands in mine. “That’s not it at all. I always want you with me, for everything.”

  The pain in his eyes eased a little. “Then why?”

  I blew out a long, noisy sigh, filled with the frustration that weighed me down. “Because of the Yee Naaldlooshii. They may be supernatural creatures, but they are still Diné. It’s going to be hard enough to get them to talk to me. If they see you, they definitely won’t talk.”

  Sadness and a bit of guilt darkened his cobalt blue eyes. “Oh, of course. With my ancestors being the most notorious of conquerors, I do not imagine they would welcome me at all. My apologies for not thinking of that.” He looked down at his bag and shook his head. “That was very insensitive of me.”

  I squeezed his hands until he looked up at me, blond hair falling back from his eyes. The sunlight played across the angles of his face, warming his skin to an almost golden color that made me want to lean in to him. “I’m pretty sure you don’t have an insensitive bone in your body. In your desire to help me, it just didn’t occur to you,” I told him.

  He pulled his hands free of mine to slide them around my waist. “But it should have. I am sorry that I do not know the ways of your people better. I will learn.”

  Brows scrunching together, I shook my head. “Hey, what I am doesn’t define who I am. You are my people.” Not having grown up around them or their culture, I barely knew anything about them myself, be they Cherokee, Diné, or skinwalker.

  Heat filled his gaze. His arms closed, pulling me in against him. “I love it when you talk like that.” That smoking gaze of his made me think for a moment we might get back to our horizontal business. But then he shook his head. “I heard what Detective Sandalius said about them not wanting to talk to outsiders. Other supernatural species are very private. It is how we have all survived so long, by protecting information about our kind, even from each other. I have a bad feeling they will not talk to you any more than they would me.”

  I let my head roll back as I growled. “So we’re screwed both ways. I still have to try. Why does everyone have to be so damn stubborn?”

  Ty rubbed up and down my back, a soothing gesture more than a sexual one. “Years of persecution and fear,” he said in a tone so heavy with sadness it made me look down at him.

  In his eyes I saw a fear so old and fathomless that I realized he understood not just the Yee Naaldlooshii more than I ever could, but the Diné as well. He had grown up protecting his identity at every moment, scared of what the world would do to him if they ever found out. By not allowing me to be bitten in early, my parents had protected me from that. I’d never thought of it like that until now.

  Sighing, I brushed Ty’s hair away from his eyes. “I’m sorry. Now I’m being insensitive. I just want to find these women so bad, and it’s frustrating me that they might have information that might help me do that.”

  The smile he gave me was so filled with pride that it made my breath catch. “I know you do. That is part of what I love so much about you.” He moved his hands down to the curve of my ass, and his smile changed.

  I bent to kiss him, but the crunch of gravel under foot outside stopped me. The lightness of the step told me it was likely a woman. Of all my newfangled werewolf powers, the heightened sense of hearing was the one thing I was really starting to develop. At least there was something about this new life I was getting good at.

  “Someone’s coming,” I told Ty when he raised a brow at me.

  We went to the window to the right of my little cabin’s front door together. When I moved to look out it, Ty pulled me behind the edge of the curtain. A finger to his lips, he shook his head at me. Oh, right, pissed off council members who might try to kill me. Chills raced through me at the memory of the rӓvar attack in the woods. Surely they wouldn’t come here though. But then, Ty and I didn’t have a pack, so what was to stop them? He pulled his phone from his back pocket and brought up his security camera app. The one mounted on the front porch of his house showed a woman walking past.

  “Yazhi?” I asked as I leaned closer to his phone. A black-haired woman wearing jeans, a T-shirt too big for her, and a worn backpack strolled across his screen at a methodical pace that made me think she’d been walking a long time. “What in Helheimr?” I mumbled as I reached for the doorknob. This time Ty didn’t stop me.

  “She should still be in training with the Rapidriver pack,” Ty said as I opened the door. He stepped out first, head turning as he scanned for threats.

  “This might be about the Yee Naaldlooshii woman who was found dead,” I said.

  “You told her?”

  I nodded. “I called Phoebe and asked her to tell her since I don’t have a number for Yazhi. She had a right to know.”

  “Of course she did.”

  After a deep sniff of the cool April air, he moved aside and let me out. A week ago it would have ruffled my fur to have him treat me like I needed protection. For now, I wasn’t about to argue the point. Once Yazhi saw us, she started our way. Her gaze darted every direction, and she twitched at each noise, as if expecting threats from all around her. The dark circles around her eyes made it look as though she hadn’t been sleeping well. I had been hoping time with the Rapidriver pack might have helped restore some of her confidence and strength. My hopes had apparently been fruitless.

  “Hey, Yazhi, how’s it going?” I asked as I waved.

  “It’s going,” she replied in a guarded tone.

  “Come, have a seat,” I said.

  With a nod to Ty, she gave him a wide berth as she walked up the stairs. She sank into one of the chairs I offered her with an exhausted sigh. I took the chair next to her.

  “You didn’t walk all the way here, did you?” I asked. From what Ty had told me, the Rapidriver pack were from northeast Montana, a few hundred miles away.

  Yazhi shrugged as she gave Ty a wary side-eye. “No, I hitchhiked a lot of it.”

  Picking up on what she was putting out like the great guy that he was, Ty walked to the bottom of the steps. “I will get us some refreshments.” With that he smiled, inclined his head, and started for the main house.

  A long, tense breath eased out of Yazhi.

  “You don’t have to worry. He’s a good guy,” I assured her.

  Gaze distant, she gave a little half shrug.

  “You should have called. I would have come and visited,” I told her, trying to get her talking.

  “Don’t have a phone. Besides, I needed to get out of there anyway.” Though she said it in a dismissive way, I caught the underlying tension beneath her words.

  “They didn’t like that you were a skinwalker before being bitten.” Council member Halona had warned me—or threatened, rather—this would happen.

  Gaze still cast out over the pine trees to the left of Ty’s cabin, she shrugged. “It scares them. They’re afraid it makes me an unpredictable ma’ii.” Pain flashed across her face.

  Moving slowly so I didn’t frighten her, I nudged her shoulder. “Hey, unpredictable can be a good thing. Did they at least teach you how to control your coyote?”

  “Yeah, I got a handle on it quick enough.”

  That didn’t surprise me, considering she had gone through her first change on her own and it hadn’t driven her insane. “But they were judgmental jerks,” I observed.

  She shrugged, finally looking my way. “A bit, yeah. Except for Phoebe, she’s all right.” Her expression translated that as “a lot.”

  “I take it she told you about the woman they found.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I wish I had better news. Apparently the IIA is looking into it, but I honestly have no idea how effective they will be,” I said.

  Anger darkened her eyes as they finally met mine. “They don’t care what happens to a couple of skinwalker res women.” The fire in her voice made her seem a little less damaged.

  “Yeah, I was afraid of that.”

  “So you’re still looking into their disappearances?”

  “Hell yes. I’m going to try to talk to the Yee Naaldlooshii.”

  Yazhi shook her head. “They won’t even let you onto the res, let alone talk to you.”

  I growled and fought the impulse to pull my hair out. “Even though I’m apparently part skinwalker?”

  “Especially because of that. You are a werewolf. They will see that as you betraying your heritage.”

  Unable to remain still, I stood and started to pace. “But I didn’t even know I was part skinwalker until recently, and I was bitten in without being asked.” I couldn’t say “against my will” anymore, because honestly, if I had known what the bite meant, I would have said yes.

  Yazhi pulled her feet up on the chair and hugged her knees. “That won’t matter to them. Don’t get me wrong—many of them are good people, but there are a few on the elder council who are very bigoted and old-fashioned, and they control everything.”

  To keep myself from yelling obscenities and spooking Yazhi, I stopped pacing and gripped the deck railing. Looking out at the picturesque forest surrounding Ty’s cabin helped, a little. Seeing him emerge from the front door carrying a tray filled with not only drinks, but almost overflowing with snacks, helped even more. The wooden chair behind me creaked as Yazhi sat up straighter. Ty stopped at the bottom of the steps and offered the tray up to me.

  “Refreshments, ladies?”

  I gave him a huge smile, filling it will all the love and gratitude that warmed my heart. “Thanks, Ty. You are the best.”

  He returned my smile with a demure shrug and remained at the bottom of the stairs, leaning casually on the handrail. I loved that he picked up on Yazhi’s discomfort and kept his distance.

  When I sat the tray of meats, cheeses, crackers, and glasses of water on the table next to Yazhi, she eyed it like a half-starved, beaten dog afraid to move toward it or away from it. I grabbed a glass of water for solidarity and motioned toward the tray.

  “Please, help yourself.”

  No doubt smelling the food from his favorite thermals over the lake, Gripp appeared seemingly out of nowhere. He landed on the railing, tripped over his own talons, stumbled a step, and righted himself just as I thought for sure he was going to take a header onto the deck. Groaning, I slapped a hand over my eyes. Yazhi laughed, erasing my embarrassment.

  “Hi, Gripp,” Yazhi said. I loved the sound of a smile in her voice. She needed more reasons to smile.

  She didn’t pounce so much as slink a hand out and snatch up a tiny handful of salami. Gripp perked up and chattered at her.

  “No,” I told him. Thank Frigg ravens didn’t have puppy-dog eyes. But the intense, almost murderous gaze was much worse.

  I took a long drink of water as I stifled the desire to pull out each and every claw of the Rapidriver pack members. “I take it they weren’t just afraid, but unwelcoming too,” I ground out between my fangs.

  For a split second, anger and hurt showed in the wrinkle that formed between her brows and at the corners of her eyes, but then she shrugged, and it was gone. “I’m Diné. It’s nothing I’m not used to.”

  The weight of old pain in her voice thrust barbs of guilt deep down inside me. Being half Swedish disguised my Native half enough that most people had no idea of my origins, only that I looked slightly “exotic.” It had sheltered me from a lot of random prejudice. But anyone who knew my mother knew the truth, which had been every cruel and horrible kid I’d ever gone to school with. So I got her pain, and it infuriated me.

  “Damn them,” I forced out around a growl.

  Yazhi flinched as if she’d been struck, which she kind of had been since my power had lashed out when my control slipped. I swallowed hard and got my crap together fast. “I’m so sorry. Prejudiced people just piss me off so much. And the fact that I sent you there trusting they would take care of you…” My words drifted off as I watched Ty take out his phone, punch in a number, and walk away.

  “Phoebe, we need to talk,” I heard him say in a low, dangerous tone.

  Swallowing hard, Yazhi sat up straighter as she grabbed another handful of meat. “Phoebe was good to me. Please don’t be mad at her,” she said loud enough for Ty to hear. She sounded genuine enough, and only concern lay in her eyes, not fear.

  Ty looked our way and gave us a nod. “Your people were not hospitable to Yazhi, and that is unacceptable.” The warning tone in his voice said there would be Hel to pay. He continued to walk away, far enough that I didn’t hear Phoebe’s response. In a few moments, he reached the main cabin and went inside.