“That’s why no one wanted me to take the boxes all the way into the houses,” she said. “I thought one woman was going to claw me when I suggested helping her unpack. I thought she just didn’t like half Shifters.”

“She was protecting her family secrets.” Eric gestured to the contents of the vault. “This is what I need you to understand.”

To protect Shifters that weren’t even under his command, Eric was telling her, he was willing to trust Iona, to make her understand how to help them. He needed her. Hell, Graham needed her.

“Is this why Graham wanted to mate-claim me?” she asked. “For my expertise on house construction?”

“Probably part of it,” Eric said. “He wants to control you. Mostly, he’s a shithead who’s looking for any leverage over me he can get.”

“Including whatever is causing your debilitating pain.”

Eric’s humor left him. “Yes.”

“We have to find out what it is and how to cure you,” Iona said.

Eric came to her. “You’re an amazing woman, Iona.”

He was amazing. Iona couldn’t help moving closer to his warmth, his heat and scent so right. “I’m practical. I don’t want Graham to beat you. And I don’t like to see you in pain.”

“Good,” he said softly.

Eric no longer looked ancient and wise as he studied her with hot green eyes. He looked hungry for her.

Jace was no longer there. The smell of something delicious from the kitchen drifted down the stairs, and Iona’s stomach rumbled, her insatiable hunger raising its head again.

Eric cupped the nape of her neck, his hand strong. Iona didn’t resist as he leaned down and kissed her, his mouth a place of heat. Iona sought him, needy, hungry, a growl in her throat. His kiss opened her, his hands stroking down her back, promising sin.

“Eric!” Cassidy’s voice rang down to them.

The word was steady, almost calm, but even Iona recognized the tone that said, Get up here now—something’s wrong.

Eric had Iona out of the vault in two seconds, pulling the door securely behind him. He did nothing to lock it, but she heard the mechanism grate back into place.

She saw how Jace had descended without her knowing about it, because there was a second door in the wall that led to another staircase, which spilled them out into Jace’s bedroom. Eric kept his hand firmly around Iona’s as he led her out of Jace’s bedroom and through the now empty kitchen.

Graham stood on Eric’s back porch. He was accompanied by two Shifters Iona hadn’t seen before, all three carefully watched by Diego, Jace, and Cassidy, and by Shane, Brody, and Nell in the yard behind Graham.

Graham’s glare was only for Eric. “Warden!” he bellowed as soon as Eric made it to the back door. “What the f**k have you done with my wolves?”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Graham was furious, his eyes Shifter white, voice filled with rage.

Eric kept calm, though everything in him came alert. He was aware of the exact placement of everyone around him, including Iona, standing unafraid by his side. “What the hell are you talking about?” he asked.

“My wolves. They started coming in last night and today, but about twenty of them are missing. Where are they?”

Graham’s scent of panic overlaid his anger, his fear triggering Eric’s own uneasiness. “It’s a long drive from Elko, McNeil. Maybe some took it slower than others.”

“They all came together, ass**le. In trucks and buses provided by the humans. Two hundred Shifters left my Shiftertown. One hundred and eighty arrived. Some of the missing are cubs. What the hell did you do with them?”

Eric’s uneasiness increased. “Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure! When a couple of my wolves say they put their mates and cubs on the humans’ bus, but when the bus rolled into this Shiftertown, the mates and cubs were gone—that makes me sure. Bus arrived, they didn’t.”

Iona broke in. “How could Eric possibly have had anything to do with that?”

Eric understood why Graham was lashing out at him. Eric was the closest enemy, and Graham’s instinct to protect his people, especially cubs, was strong. He wasn’t bothered by Graham’s rage—what bothered him was the missing Shifters.

“You’d do anything to weaken me,” Graham was snarling. “Did you make some kind of deal with Kellerman?”

Eric made his voice hard to cut through Graham’s fury. “I wouldn’t kick your ass by abducting cubs, no matter how much you irritate me. Who is missing? Give me specifics, names and ages.”

“Why? What do you know?”

Eric thought about the line of buildings in the desert, surrounded by barbed wire—empty buildings—coupled with Jace’s report about the cages. “I’m not sure yet.”

“I’ll kill you, Warden.”

“This has nothing to do with me, idiot. We need to get those Shifters back.”

“I might just kill you for the hell of it.”

Graham could. He was enraged enough to take out Eric with one blow. Then Iona, Cassidy, and Jace would be on him, and Diego might just shoot him. Graham’s seconds would attack them, and so it would begin.

“Don’t kill me until we find your wolves,” Eric said. “Give me a list of who we’re looking for, and I’ll get my trackers. The cubs are more important than our battle.”