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He nodded. Some of the terrible tension had eased away from him, but it left his eyes haunted with some old pain that was still raw.

“I’ve done everything I can for Gina and the others, and it’s still not enough. It will never be enough.”

I touched his hands, and this time he let me slide my hands over his. “Maybe together we can be enough for them all.”

He searched my face. “You really mean that, don’t you?”

“Anita rarely says anything she doesn’t mean,” Rafael said, “but if I were her, I’d ask first what the problems are before I promised to fix them.”

I had to smile. “I was just about to ask, what is Gina into that’s got you so terrified?”

He turned his hands so he was holding mine tight. He looked into my eyes. The look was not love, or even lust, but so serious. “Let’s save your leopard first, then ask me again, and I’ll tell you all of it.”

The car slowed and turned. Gravel sounded under the tires. It was the turnoff to the farm that fronted the woods around the lupanar.

“Tell me some of it now, Micah. I need something here, now.”

He sighed, looked down at his clasped hands, then up, slowly to meet my eyes. “Once we were taken over by a very bad man. He still wants us, and I’m searching for a home strong enough to keep us safe.”

“Why are you afraid to tell me?”

His eyes widened a little. “Most pards don’t want that kind of trouble.”

I smiled. “Trouble is my middle name.”

He looked a little puzzled. I guess I was the only one who liked film noir. “I’m not going to kick you guys out because of some asshole alpha. Let me know which way the danger’s coming from, and I’ll deal with it.”

“I wish I had your confidence.”

There was a weight to his gaze of such sorrow, such horrible loss. It made me shiver to see it, and he let go of my hands, sliding away from me just before Merle opened the door and offered a hand out. He didn’t take the hand, but he slid out into the dark.

Reece followed him with a look at Rafael, as if the rat king had told him to get out and give us some privacy. I turned to Rafael. “You have something to say?”

“Be careful of that one, Anita. None of us know him, or his people.”

“Funny, I was pretty much thinking the same thing.”

“Even though he can make your beast roil through your body?”

I met his dark, dark eyes. “Maybe especially because of that.”

Rafael smiled. “I should know by now that you are not a person to let her affections cloud her vision.”

“Oh, it can be clouded, but never for long.”

“You sound wistful,” he said.

“Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to actually be able to just fall in love and not weigh the risks first.”

“If it works out, it’s the best thing in the world. If it doesn’t work out, it’s like having your heart torn out and chopped up into little pieces while you watch. It leaves a big hollow space that never really heals.”

I looked at him, unsure what to say, but finally, “You sound like experience talking.”

“I’ve got an ex-wife and a son. They live in a different state, as far away from me as she could drag him.”

“What went wrong, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“She wasn’t strong enough to handle what I am. I didn’t hide anything from her. She knew everything before we married. If I hadn’t been so much in love with her, I’d have seen that she was weak. It’s my job as king to know who’s strong and who isn’t. But she fooled me, because I wanted to be fooled. I know that now. She is what she is—not her fault. I can’t even regret her getting pregnant right away. I love my son.”

“Do you ever get to see him?”

He shook his head. “I get to fly in twice a year and have suprervised visits. She’s made him afraid of me.”

I started to reach out to him, hesitated, then thought, what the hell. I took his hand, and he looked startled, then smiled. “I’m sorry, Rafael, more than I can ever say.”

He squeezed my hand then moved back from me. “Just thought you ought to know that falling blindly in love isn’t at all the way all those poems and songs make it sound. It hurts like hell.”

“I did fall in love like that once,” I said.

He raised