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He grabbed the table and shoved it backwards with a scream of wood on wood. Nathaniel stayed curled around my legs and just looked up at him. I’d never gotten my gun back from the wererats. I had gotten my knives back, but I wasn’t really willing to cut Richard up, not yet, not for this. I couldn’t arm wrestle Richard, not and win, so really my only option was to sit, look perfectly calm, and tell him by my facial expression what a fucking asshole he was being.

He shoved the table again, making the wood scream, then he knelt beside Nathaniel and pushed his long hair back. He bared his back and stared at the bite marks.

“Is that all?” he asked, voice fierce, his power so high it was like treading in boiling water, up to my chin, and still rising.

“No,” I said.

Richard gripped the back of Nathaniel’s shorts and pulled, the movement so violent that Nathaniel’s entire body moved with it. I heard the button from the top of the shorts bounce along the floor. Richard jerked down the shorts and stared at the bite marks, where they trailed ever lower.

Richard leaned over Nathaniel, not quite touching, but he was like some huge presence, and I felt Nathaniel cower against me.

Richard hissed into his ear, “Did she suck you off? She’s good at that.”

“That’s enough, Richard.”

Nathaniel answered, “No.”

“You’re so scared of me I can’t tell if you’re lying or not.” He grabbed a handful of Nathaniel’s hair and pulled him backwards, peeling him away from me. I had one of the wrist sheath knives in my hand and didn’t remember drawing it. The point was pressed against the long line of Richard’s throat, and even I was breathless at the speed of it. It must have been a blur of movement. It wasn’t human speed.

Everything froze.

Shang-Da and Jamil moved into the room. I pressed the point deeper against Richard’s neck. “Don’t interfere, boys.”

They stopped moving. I met Richard’s gaze and found his eyes had gone wolf amber. “Let go of him, Richard.” My voice was low, but it seemed to fill the room.

“You wouldn’t kill me for this.” His voice was low, careful, too.

“Kill, no, but bleed? Oh, yes.”

“You need me to help you save Gregory.”

I could feel his pulse beating against the tip of my knife. “I won’t let you hurt Nathaniel to save Gregory.”

His grip actually tightened on Nathaniel’s hair, and I pressed the point in enough to draw the first crimson drop. “Would you be this upset if it wasn’t Nathaniel?” he said.

“This is the only warning I will ever give you, Richard. Never touch one of my people again.”

“Or what? You’ll kill me? I don’t think you’ll do it.”

I realized in that moment that if I wasn’t willing to kill him, I had no threat. And I really wasn’t willing to kill him, not over this, not yet.

I drew the blade back from his neck and watched him relax, the tension easing away from him, his hand still in Nathaniel’s hair. I moved without thinking, and I was fast enough that the knife cut across his forearm before he could react. He jerked away, came to his feet, and took a step back, holding his bleeding arm. The cut was deeper than I’d meant for it to be, because I’d rushed it. Blood dripped from between his fingers. Jamil and Shang-Da moved into the room.

I stood and drew Nathaniel with me, as he pulled up his shorts to cover himself. I put the French doors at our backs. “You are never to lay a hand in anger on my leopards, Richard, you or any of your wolves.”

Jamil was helping Richard press a towel to the wound. Shang-Da had gone for Dr. Lillian. “It would serve you right if I just walked out and left you and your leopards to fend for yourselves.”

“You’d leave Gregory to be permanently deaf, or dead, because we had a fight? He’s in danger because you couldn’t control your temper, or your wolves.”

“It’s my fault, right, all my fault.”

I just looked at him, Nathaniel behind me, the bloody knife still in my hand.

Richard gave a laugh that sounded more out of pain than humor. “I’ve let everyone down tonight.” He looked at me, and there was something fierce in his