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“I haven’t decided anything.”

“Haven’t you?” he asked. He looked so reasonable sitting there, hands clasped in front of him, leaning a little towards me. So earnest.

“Look, the sex was great. But I’m not ready to pick out china patterns here, you do understand that?” There was a feeling very close to panic in the pit of my stomach.

“Sometimes your beast picks for you,” Rafael said.

I looked at him. “What does that mean?”

“If you are already a part of a group mind with his pard, then your beast has chosen for you, Anita. It’s more intimate than being his lover, because it’s not just him that you have a commitment to.”

I gave him wide eyes. “Are you saying that I’m going to feel responsible for the safety and well-being of all his wereleopards as well as my own?”

Rafael nodded. “Probably.”

I looked back at Micah. “How about you? You feel responsible for my people?”

He sighed, and it was heavy, not happy at all. “I didn’t expect to form a bond this quickly. I’ve never seen it work this fast.”

“And?” I said.

His mouth moved, almost a smile. “And, if we’ve really formed a group mind, then yes, I’ll feel responsible for your people.”

“You don’t sound happy about that.”

“Nothing personal, but your cats are a mess.”

“Yours are so much healthier,” I said, “Gina looks like someone who’s been kicked once too often.”

Micah’s eyes hardened, and he searched my face. “No one talked to you. They wouldn’t dare.”

“No one tattled, Micah, but I could see it on her, smell the defeat. Someone’s damn near broken her, and it’s recent, or ongoing. She got a bad boyfriend?”

His face closed down. He didn’t like that I’d figured that out. “Something like that.” But his pulse had sped up, and I knew he was hiding something from me, something that scared him.

“What aren’t you telling me, Micah?”

His gaze flicked past me to Rafael. “Will she be able to read my people more easily as time goes on.”

“And you hers,” Rafael said.

“Her people are pretty easy to read now,” he said.

I was watching his face. He was controlling his body, keeping the tension out of it, but I could taste the speed of his pulse, and the fear. It wasn’t just a small fear either. The thought that I could read his people so completely almost terrified him.

I laid my hand over his clasped ones, and he turned serious, guarded eyes to me. “Why does it scare you that I knew that Gina is being abused?”

He tensed under my hand and pulled away, gently, but he definitely didn’t want me to touch him. “Gina wouldn’t like it if you knew.”

“As her Nimir-Raj, aren’t you supposed to protect her from abusive assholes?”

“I’ve done my best for her,” he said, but it sounded defensive.

“Kick the guy’s ass and forbid her to see him again. It’s a simple problem, don’t complicate it. Or is she in love with him?”

He shook his head, eyes down, his hands clutching so tight that the skin mottled. His voice came out even, normal, but that terrible tension shook through his hands. “No, she’s not in love with him.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“It’s more complicated than you could ever imagine.” He looked up, and there was anger in his eyes now.

I started to reach out, to touch him, then let my hand fall back. “If we really are forming one pard. If I really am her Nimir-Raj, then no one’s allowed to hurt her. No one hurts my people.”

“The wolves took your Gregory,” he said. The anger was still in his eyes, trembling down his hands.

“And we’re going to get him back.”

“I know you’ve had a hard life. I’ve heard some of the stories, but you talk as if you’re young and naive. Sometimes no matter how hard you try, you can’t save everyone.”

It was my turn to look down. “I’ve lost people. I’ve failed people, and they’ve gotten hurt, and dead.” I raised my eyes to meet his gaze. “But the people who hurt them, killed them, they’re dead too. Maybe I can’t keep everyone safe, but I’m damn fine at revenge.”

“But the harm still happens. The dead don’t really walk again. Zombies are just corpses, Anita. They aren’t the people you lost.”

“I know that last better