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“Thanks for protecting my family,” I said to the stoic hound.

“You’re War’s female,” he said simply.

I narrowed my eyes at Warrick but didn’t correct Fender. I didn’t think that was wise, considering Warrick had just saved me from having my throat slit.

Warrick opened the door, motioning for me to go in, that hot, possessive hold still on the back of my neck.

Voices, a lot of them, came from the kitchen. We walked in, and crammed into the small room was Mom and Arthur, Iris and Nia, Mags and Bram, in his crow form, which was unsurprising since he didn’t like being around a lot of people, and Roe, who was sitting at the end of the table. Her cheeks were flushed, and yes, she looked weak, but she was also smiling, her eyes dancing as she watched Else.

My great aunt was standing over a shirtless hellhound, who was currently on his knees, long hair pulled to the side, while Else manned a tattoo gun.

“Um…what the hell is going on here?” I said.

“We can’t have these guys here unprotected,” Else said, without looking up. “Those spirits like ’em too much. So I did some digging through my demon texts, found some ancient runes that ward off spirits, worked a spell into the ink, and Bob’s your hairy uncle. It’s the best protection I can give them while they’re away from their clubhouse or when they leave our boundary wards.”

“They’re not demons, Else,” I said, taking a closer look at what she was doing. There were four runes, all about two inches in diameter. This wasn’t Else’s first tattoo, she and I both did them from time to time. Shifters especially liked spells worked under their skin since wearing charms didn’t work all that well due to the whole shifting thing. They tended to lose them a lot. “You think this’ll work?”

Else winked at me. “I know it will. And these guys are Hell born, they’re as close to a demon as a being can get and not actually be one.”

If Else said it’d work, it would work.

“You look kind of like shit. What happened to you?” she asked.

“Nothing, I’m fine,” I said and forced a smile.

Warrick stepped forward and took a look at Else’s handiwork as well. “You’ll do this for all my brothers?” he asked as he grabbed a chair, sat it beside me, and coaxed me to sit without even looking at me, that big hand on my shoulder applying gentle and persistent pressure. He wasn’t taking no for an answer.

I sat.

“Sure thing,” Else said. “Not a hardship seeing all you boys with your shirts off.” She cackled.

Jesus.

Mom laughed, looking more relaxed than I’d seen her in a long time, which told me just how scared she’d been.

Magnolia groaned, and for once, I was glad she was being her usual drama queen, teenage self.

Relic, the male Else was tattooing, looked at Mags and winked. My sister turned beet red. I slapped the hound’s shoulder, and he glanced at me. “Don’t even think about it.”

He held up his hands in surrender, and when I looked up at Warrick, he was grinning down at me, again. Twice in one day, my heart couldn’t take it. He was dangerously hot when he was being a broody jerk; grinning, he was sex on a stick and then some.

“My brothers would never touch any of your sisters,” he said.

“What about her mom,” Mom said.

“Mom!” Iris squealed.

She cracked up and so did the hounds, one of them eyeing her in a way that I did not appreciate. That was all I needed; Mom hooking up with a hellhound.

Arthur frowned.

“Okay, let’s move this along,” I said. “Who’s next.”

“Me,” a deep voice said, and Ronan stepped forward, unbuttoning his shirt as he walked. The last time I’d seen the dhampir was at the ball. I hadn’t had a chance to talk to him then. “Vampire is demon. I’m only half, but it should work on me also.”

“Ronan, hey, I didn’t expect to see you here,” I said.

He looked down at me with that unusual, emotionless deep purple gaze. “You’re important to Luna,” he said as way of explanation and slid off his shirt, revealing his extremely pale, muscled chest.