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“Neither am I.” Best to get things clear from the start. “When I’m with a man, I don’t cheat, and I expect the same promise from my partner.”

“I don’t want anyone else.” A stark confession from Cain. “Just you.” Said with more than a hint of possession.

Miranda swallowed and held his bright stare. No one had ever looked at her quite that way before. With such demanding need. A fierce, sensual hunger.

Her heart did a fast kick and started drumming in a double-time rhythm. “And I want you.” Her finger trailed down his chest, headed for those absolutely perfect abs⁠—

A gunshot rang out, the loud blast piercing the quiet of the moment and sending a spike of adrenaline through her blood.

In the next second, Miranda was on the floor, and Cain’s naked body was covering hers. He waited a beat, two, then slowly lifted his head. All signs of the replete lover had vanished. Now, a hunter looked out from those golden eyes.

“Cain?” Her thoughts were flying. The FBI agent. Santiago had been stationed outside, guarding the house and watching for an attack. He must have fired his weapon.

“Stay inside and away from the windows.” A growl. An order.

She’d never really been the order-taking type, but when gunshots were involved, that changed things for her.

Cain headed for the door.

Her jaw dropped. What the hell? He was running outside without even taking a weapon? Cain was ex-Bureau. He should know well enough to take a weapon with him into a gunfight! And he was naked!

Miranda slithered across the room, making sure she didn’t present a target. She jerked on her shorts. Realized her shirt was damaged beyond repair. “Shit.” She crawled five feet, snagged her jacket from the back of a chair, and managed to zip it up, fast. “Wait, give me a minute!”

Too late.

Cain jerked open the door and disappeared into the night.

* * *

The coppery scent of blood filled his nostrils. It was a smell he’d become intimately familiar with over the years, and one that had the beast inside yanking against his leash.

Cain launched off the porch steps, feeling the beast rage inside his body. That blood wasn’t a human’s. It had a slightly stale scent. Cloying.

Vampire.

He knew who his enemy was, and he knew he couldn’t go against the bastard in human form. Running low to the ground, Cain headed for the cover of the nearby woods. Then he let the beast free.

The power of the change swept through him, the burn sending him falling onto all fours. Bones snapped. Twisted. Fur burst through his skin. His vision sharpened. His mouth burned as his teeth lengthened. Hands became paws. Fingernails razor-sharp claws.

The man Cain had been disappeared in a frenzy of teeth and growls, and the black beast took his place, tail snapping in the air, paws digging into the dirt.

Cain had a moment to hope that Miranda heeded his order and stayed inside the house. He didn’t want her out in the open, not with the vampire around. And he didn’t want her to see him in his animal form. Not yet. He’d reached paradise with her moments before, and he wasn’t ready to give that up because she had to face the reality of his existence.

His hind legs pushed back against the ground, and he sprang forward, following that heavy scent deeper into the woods. He bounded easily over the earth, strength pulsing through him. Every smell was ten times stronger and every sound from the woods was heightened. He could hear the croak of the frogs. The whistle of leaves in the breeze. The soft crunch of the earth beneath Agent Santiago’s feet.

Cain jumped, caught the lower limbs of a tree, and climbed up easily, his thick claws digging into the wood. He could see the agent from his perch. His gun was up and aimed at the darkness.

The agent’s heart was racing too fast, the telling thud reached Cain’s ears, and he could smell Santiago’s sweat.

The agent was hunting. Just as he was.

Cain eased farther along the limb. Jumped agilely to the next tree. His tail thumped against the branch.

A swift pounding had his head jerking to the left. Footsteps. Fleeing. His nostrils widened, drawing in all the scents of the woods. The blood path was that way.

The vampire was on the run.

Santiago had succeeded in wounding him, but at the rate he was going, the agent would never be able to bring the guy down.