give him a death sentence.”
“I still don’t get why that means you would help us,” she said as she moved toward the door. “I am trying to trust you, and I want to believe who you say you are, but I’ve been searching for Quinn Donovan for nearly two years to help Bastian. How did you suddenly fall in my lap and rescue us from Kyros?”
He closed the motel room door before taking to the Hummer. He settled the boy on the backseat and then joined Haven behind the vehicle. “I heard your call for help and responded before the dragon was able to get here.”
Haven waited for him to open the hatch. “Dragons? There are dragons, too?”
“There are several different clans of the Undying. The wolf clan and the dragon clan are but two, though the dragons are the only ones who can shapeshift.”
She put her bags into the back as a black wolf ghosted out from between two parked cars.
“Quinn! There’s a wolf!”
Donovan opened the back door of the hummer for the wolf to hop inside. “This is Nikon. He is an old friend.”
She squeaked. “By your…friend, you’re part of the wolf clan?”
“Aye,” he said, knowing he was somehow doing this all wrong and not giving her the right information. The more he told her, the more upset she became. “Nikon and Medea would no more harm you than they would their newborn cubs. I understand this is confusing, and more questions come to you than I can answer satisfactorily. Give yourself time. This world you enter is complex.”
She puffed out a breath of air before nodding. “Where are you taking us?”
“To my home.” He walked her around to the passenger side of the Hummer. Kyros was still out there and regardless of whose lifebond she was, he couldn’t risk allowing the meirlock to get a hold of her. “Both of you will be safest there.”
“How do I know you are who you claim to be?” She moved to stand in front of the open passenger door.
His hands settled around her waist before he knew what he was doing. Her body slid up the length of his as he lifted her into the passenger seat, sending sparks of heated desire right to his groin. His hands lingered on her waist a moment longer than they should have.
She was panting when he let her go. “I think we just melted snow.”
He cocked his head as he worked to figure her out. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
“I will hurt you if you apologize,” she said, and then turned to sit with a stiff back against the seat. She cleared her throat. “The attraction is mutual, and we’d both be childish to deny it.” She paused for a moment. “And irresponsible to act until we know each other better. Much, much better.”
Now he knew what he was working with. This could get real ugly real fast, or it could be the best thing to happen to him.
“Cool your heels,” Nikon counseled him. “She is still skittish because of the night’s fright. Time is best.”
Donovan stepped back from Haven’s door and nodded once. “That is probably wise.” He closed the door and quickly rounded the Hummer to get into the driver’s seat. Nikon and Bastian were on the back seat. Donovan started the Hummer and pulled out. “I need to stop at Tribal. I left Medea there.”
Haven shifted in the seat and stared at the side of his face while making that humming sound women often did when they were unsure. “Another exotic pet?”
“Nikon’s mate,” he said in a soft timber. “She is delicate at the moment, and I didn’t want her in danger.”
Haven twisted around, facing the back seat. “That’s darling, but how do you keep a pack of wolves concealed in the city?”
“There is a woman who will take the cubs when they are old enough,” Donovan assured her. “Nikon and Medea often appear to humans as dogs, unless they are in one of my clubs.”
“That makes sense, I think,” she said and settled against the back of the seat. The tension in her body faded. “You really are Quinn Donovan?”
“Aye,” he said and reached into his pocket to pull out his wallet and tossed it at her. “You can take a look and in the glove box as well.”
“I don’t think…”
“But it is necessary.” He briefly made mind-to-mind contact with Medea to let her know to be ready when he pulled up to the back door of the club. “I need for you to trust in me and who I am.”
She snorted and then flipped through his wallet before she rummaged through the glove compartment and examined his registration and insurance paperwork. She put all the paperwork back and set his wallet in the cup holder closest to him. “What does your protection cost?”
His brain had to be twitching in his skull. “Excuse me?”
“A woman I spoke to. She told me about the possibility of you. She said you’d help us if we could pay you.” Haven twisted her hands in her lap and looked out the passenger window.
He supposed it was best to let those types of rumors circulate, otherwise every being out there with a minor grievance would seek him out to correct their problems and hand him their own responsibilities. “Your ward is of my kind. My responsibility is to raise him to be a warrior. You are, in effect, his mother. It would be cruel to separate the two of you.”
“Men don’t take on a woman with a child without some kind of expectation,” Haven countered. “His food bill in a month is massive. And what the hell do you mean by raise him to be a warrior?”
“I understand,” Donovan said, trying to find the right words. “There are already too many chances for him to become what Kyros is. He is Undying and has little choices in what he becomes.” He came to a stop at a red light and turned to face her. “We can have centuries of peace, but he has to be ready, and he must learn how to control his power. The best way for him to gain that discipline is to train as one of our warriors. I know you do not understand, but you will.”
* * * *
Haven stared at him until the light turned, trying to get the hum of his thoughts to form complete words in her head. “It’s green.”
She looked out her window again as she tried to process this person who was the man she’d been seeking for months. Only in the last four months had she discovered his name, and then when she’d found out he was a local celebrity, gaining access to him had become more difficult. How lucky for her, all it took was a deadly confrontation with a paranormal psychopath to get him to come to her. He made her body do those tingly things that should not be happening to her with a man she did not know. Bastian didn’t need her falling for someone while she had to look after his best interest. Quinn spoke all the right words, but Mason had used all the correct ones as well. But he hadn’t exuded any of the warm, safe feeling Donovan threw off in spades. He was disorientating. Like the ninny she was, she gobbled up everything he said like gospel. The ability to trust another person had been what she’d wanted, and like her Grandfather had accused her, she was being a fickle woman. “I don’t mean to question everything.”
“But you should,” he said as he turned onto Michigan Avenue. “I’m not offended.”
“You always know the right thing to say.” Even when they were odd things like “centuries of peace” and “they were Undying.” She could only imagine what it meant. As far as she could remember from Grandfather’s stories, only witches and nymphs were immortal.
“I’ve been alive a long time.”
“Do I want to know your age?” she asked softly. “Never mind. I don’t. How do you know Bastian is all right? He’s been out a long time.”
“He is healing,” Quinn said as he turned down an alleyway. “I can wake him if you wish.”
She