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and he was rawboned and lanky, like Dougal. He’d shaved off his hair during his time in prison, but he looked too young for the buzz. For a human, he was full-grown, twenty-three or something like that, but still he looked very young.
    He’d been in prison for the last five years, serving a sentence for riding in the back of a stolen car when it had gotten into a wreck that killed other humans. Paul’s lawyer had finally gotten him parole six months ago. Graham had been partly responsible for his parole—he’d growled at Eric and Diego until the two had used their influence in the law enforcement system around here to get the kid released.
    â€œIs she all right?” Paul asked anxiously. “Where is she?”
    â€œHome,” Graham said. “She needed a break, all right?”
    Eyes focused on Graham. Two pairs of Feline eyes, Lupine ones from Dougal, the human eyes of Paul and Diego, and the weird, black-hole eyes of Stuart Reid.
    Graham had seen a glimmer of pure rage in Reid’s dark eyes when Graham had told him about the Fae. Reid hated Fae—he called them
hoch alfar
—hated them more than Shifters did . . . Nah, that wasn’t possible.
    â€œShe’s
fine
,” Graham said into the silence. “Xavier is looking out for her. But we have to cut it off at the source. If we get the leader, the rest will go down easy.”
    â€œAlready being taken care of,” Eric said mildly. “Diego?”
    â€œDX Security tracked down Sam Flores and his gang nursing themselves at their safe house. Looks like you and Dougal ripped them up pretty good. I dutifully reported Flores’s criminal activity to the police. I know guys on the force who were happy to shovel Sam Flores and his boys back into prison. They broke their parole, so they’re history. My friends found Dougal’s motorcycle and are returning it to the DX Security offices as we speak.”
    Graham had meant something more permanent for Flores, like quietly breaking his neck and burying him somewhere no one would find him. That’s what Flores had intended to do to Misty and Paul, and Graham saw no reason to be lenient.
    But human justice was different from Shifter justice. Graham knew he had to let Diego take care of it, much as it chafed him. Diego had been a very good cop, with awards and everything, and the humans respected him, even after he’d mated with a Shifter.
    Diego’s Shifter mate came out of the house now, carrying their eight-month-old cub, Amanda. Attention left Graham and turned to the baby, who looked fearlessly out at the world from the safety of her mother’s arms. She had Diego’s dark hair but Cassidy’s Feline green eyes. Diego had been surprised by the green eyes, but genetics worked a little differently for Shifters. Amanda would be Feline, like Cassidy, but because she was half human, she’d not change into her Feline form for a few years yet.
    Cassidy smiled at Diego, her love for her human obvious. Diego had gone through a Fae magic ritual that would extend his lifespan to be close to what Cassidy’s natural one would be. Graham had always wondered why the Fae had agreed, centuries ago, to perform this service for Shifters who took human mates, but he’d never bothered to track down a Fae and ask him. Graham stayed as far away from anything Fae as he possibly could.
    Which brought him back around to the current problem. The shot he’d taken was a flea bite compared with what the Fae had potentially done to him.
    And no one could know. Graham had told Reid, but Reid could keep his mouth shut. If any hint got out among the Shifters that Graham might be Fae-touched, he’d be finished. His wilder Lupines might try to kill him and take over his power. Eric would try to stop them, and then there’d be a battle to the death, a bloodbath the Collars couldn’t slow. Eric would win in the end, but a lot of good Shifters