Sherrilyn Kenyon: Bad Moon Rising

But if Vane couldn’t figure that out, he wasn’t about to clue him in. “I don’t know. Since when do women of any species make sense?”

Vane’s features softened. “Good point. All right then, I’m heading back. You coming?”

Fang nodded.

Flashing into a wolf, Vane took off. Fang was just about to join him when he saw something on the ground a few feet away from him.

It was a camera.

What the hell?

He went over to pick it up. The moment he did, he smelled Aimee all over it. He started to chuck it toward the water, but curiosity got the better of him. Turning it on, he scrolled through the digital pictures of the Peltier bears, sometimes in human form, other times as bears. He paused on one of the busboys he’d seen in the bar who was feeding a pet monkey peanuts. She’d really captured the way the neon light highlighted him and the monkey in a most unusual way.

But it was the landscape shots she’d made all over New Orleans that were truly breathtaking. The bearswan had an amazing eye for light and shadow. Even a wolf like him could appreciate it.

Just toss the damn thing and let it go… .

He couldn’t. It was as if he were looking at her private diary and he knew instinctively Aimee wouldn’t want this to be lost. These were more than mere pictures. They were like a part of her soul.

Give it to Vane to return .

It was what he should do. Common sense told him to stay as far away from her as he could.

“Since when have I ever had an ounce of sense?”

It was true. Common sense had waved bye-bye to him a long time ago.

Tightening his grip on the camera, he flashed himself from the bayou back to the bar. He paused as he realized he’d managed to jump into the top floor… weird. It was hard to manifest into a place he hadn’t been to before. The bears must have some kind of filter to direct them to a “landing pad” of sorts.

Which explained why the jackals had come from this direction earlier. Nice move on the bears’ part.

Fang made his way down the stairs to the bar where Dev or one of Dev’s identical brothers was tending it. “Where’s Aimee?”

The bear tensed. “Who the hell are you?”

Definitely not Dev. “Fang Kattalakis. I’m returning her property, not that you have any reason for knowing that.”

The bear raked him with a hostile glare.

Another bear with short black hair… one who was Arcadian if Fang didn’t miss the tangy smell, nudged Aimee’s brother gently. “Relax, Cherif, he’s the one who saved her earlier from the jackals.”

Cherif backed down, but not by much. “You want to run him back to her?”

“Sure.” The Arcadian flashed a friendly grin at Fang. “I’m Colt,” he said good-naturedly. “If you’ll follow me…”

Fang did, but not before he gave Aimee’s brother a go-to-hell glare.

Colt led him through the kitchen and past another Dev lookalike to a door that opened into a house that was decorated in a turn-of-the-century Victorian style. The walls were painted a soft yellow while the furniture was a mix of burgundy and black. The dark wood gave it a very regal appearance.

“Peltier House,” Colt explained as he kept walking. “You weren’t here earlier when Papa Bear toured your brother around. This is where the Were-Hunters who call Sanctuary home live when not working in the club. There are four floors of bedrooms total, but most of the Peltiers are on the second floor.”

Colt headed upstairs. “Carson’s the doc and vet and his office is here.” He touched the first door they passed on the second floor and kept going to the end of the hall.

He stopped at the last door. Tapping lightly, he leaned close to it. “Aimee? You there?”

“Trying to nap, Colt.”

“Sorry, but there’s a visitor here who wants to see you.”

The door opened so fast Colt almost fell in. Aimee looked surprised, then pissed to see Fang standing behind him. “What are you doing here?”

Fang shrugged. “Come to inadvertently insult you some more apparently. Who knew?”

Instead of being amused, which is what he’d been hoping for, she narrowed her gaze on him. “I really don’t like you.”

Fang leaned forward to smirk. “You’re really not supposed to.”

Colt’s eyes widened. “Should I leave you two alone? Or stay and referee?”

“You can leave. I’m just returning this.” Fang held up the camera. “And then leaving myself.”

Without another word, Colt headed back the way they’d come.

Aimee snatched the camera away from Fang’s grasp. “Where did you get this?”

“You must have dropped it.”

She leaned out the door to make sure Colt was gone before she whispered in a low tone. “Did you tell anyone I was there?”

“No. Did you want me to?”

“No.” She looked extremely relieved. “Thank you.” Then, in the blink of an eye, she turned angry again. “Did you look at my pictures?” That was more an accusation than a question.

“Was I not supposed to?”

She screwed her face up. “Oh, you’re such a pig! That’s my privacy you’ve invaded. How dare you!”

Fang felt blindsided by her rapid mood swings. He was definitely going to need a signal light to keep up with her. “Are you always this high-strung?”

“I am not high-strung!”

“If you say so. But really, they need to put a collar on you that changes color with your mood swings.”

She curled her lip as if his words disgusted her on the highest level. “Oh, you are feral.”

“Yeah, duh.”

She rolled her eyes.

Fang started to leave, then swung back around. “By the way, I did not overreact earlier in the bayou. You could have been torn apart.”

Shaking her head, she blustered before she finally spoke again. “Enough already with your macho bullcrap. I am sick to death of men telling me how to run my life. In case you didn’t notice, I have a whole bevy of men downstairs just dying to tell me how I don’t measure up. The last thing I need is another one.”

“Maybe you should listen to them once in a while.”

“And maybe you should mind your own business.”

Fang had never wanted to strangle anyone so badly in his life. Every part of him burned with fury and at the same time, he couldn’t help noticing how beautiful she was with her cheeks glowing from her anger. The red in her cheeks made her eyes a sharp, vivid blue. “Maybe you should learn to say thank-you once in a while.”

She closed the distance between them. “And maybe you-” Her hands touched his chest and the most primal part of him came alive.

Before he even realized what he’d done, he’d pulled her into his arms and silenced her tirade with a kiss.

Aimee couldn’t breathe as she felt Fang’s arms close around her body. Her rage died the moment his lips touched hers and she tasted a sweet, raw power the likes of which she’d never experienced before.

His tongue danced with hers as he fully explored her mouth. Every hormone in her body turned hot and she clung to him, wanting to devour every inch of his hard body with her mouth and hands. Both the woman and bear inside her turned savage and wanton. Never had she tasted or felt anything like this.

It was all she could do not to strip him naked and make him beg for mercy.

Fang left her lips to finally bury his face against her neck so that he could breathe in her scent. It was the most delectable thing he’d ever smelled. And it awoke something inside him that wanted to experience every part of her. Every hormone in his body sang with need.

And that horrified him.

Pulling back, he stared down at her dazed expression.

Her senses must have returned to her in that same instant. She balled her fists into his jacket. “You need to leave. Now.”