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“You like it rough,” he said.

And just like that, my pity was gone. The tenderness wiped away with that one oversharing comment in front of strangers. Yes, I’d had sex with them, but not while any of us were in our right minds. They were still strangers to me and my body.

“And there you go, Richard, there you go.”

“What?” he said.

“You don’t get it. None of us remember what happened except in snatches. What I like and what I don’t is still something they don’t know, unless you want to continue to overshare.”

He took a deep breath in, then let it out slow. His shoulders hunched as if he’d taken a blow, and then he straightened up, shoulders back.

“I’m sorry, you’re right. But you can’t blame me for thinking that these two are just like the other lovers in your bed. That they know you in every way.”

“Most of the lovers in my bed don’t ‘know me’ in every way, Richard. We have sex; that’s not a relationship.”

He shook his head. “I need to do what Jean-Claude wanted me to do, and then I can go back to St. Louis.”

“You’re leaving,” Jason said.

“I can’t be here with this much media. You both know that.”

I nodded. “I thought the same thing when you showed up.”

“What did Jean-Claude want you to do?” Jason asked.

Richard pointed a finger at him. “No, I don’t need to hear from you right now. You are one of my lesser wolves, and you may have gotten my lupa pregnant. That’s a killing offense in most packs.”

“We had no choice, Richard,” I said.

He shook his head, sending the ponytail sweeping over his shoulders. “I don’t mean what happened here. I mean in St. Louis. I mean making love because you wanted to, not because you fed the ardeur.” He glared at us both, anger enough to burn in his eyes. “Don’t try to tell me that you take Jason to your bed only because he’s food. I bought that at first, Anita, but it happens too often.”

“You sound like you’ve been listening to Perdy,” I said.

“Perdita and I have had a few talks. She thought a little tit-for-tat might be interesting.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means,” Jason said, “that Perdy offered to have sex with him so they could have their revenge on us for cheating with each other.” Jason’s voice was empty when he said it, as if it hurt too much to share it even by tone of voice.

“I hadn’t had sex with Jason in months, Richard, not even for food. I took him off the roster when I realized it made Perdy so uncomfortable.”

He gave a harsh laugh, and again there was that slap of power, worse this time, like biting insects along my skin. He swallowed the power back, then said, “Uncomfortable? You broke her heart, the two of you.”

Jason and I exchanged a look. He shrugged. Oh good, he didn’t know what to say either. “Why would I lie to you about how often I’ve been sleeping with Jason, Richard? I have no reason to lie to you. We aren’t monogamous.”

“Thank you so much for reminding me of that.” His voice was harsh when he said it.

“You’re no more monogamous than I am, Richard. Don’t try to pretend you are.”

“I would be, if you would only…”

Shang-Da went down on one knee in front of Richard, sweeping his long black coat out, so that you got glimpses of some of the armament underneath. He held one big hand up toward Richard. Most of the animal groups had a version of this. It was a request for attention, and a show of subservience.

Richard looked down at him. “What is it, Shang-Da?”

“Perhaps now is not the time to air our personal matters in front of strangers from other animal groups and vampire kisses.” His voice was as empty as he could make it, but there was an edge of anger to it. That anger carried a thread of warmth that he couldn’t quite swallow.

Jamil had moved closer to both of them, but it was clear he wasn’t sure what to do, or how our Ulfric would take the interruption. The very uncertainty of Jamil in that moment let me know that I needed to pay more attention to my duties as lupa. They were afraid of Richard. That had never happened before. I’d urged him to be