“If it eases your ego, you are a very attractive wolf.” She handed him a washcloth and bar of soap, then placed a razor, shaving cream, and mirror on the floor within his reach. “However, I do need to leave before Maman or Papa happen to catch me alone with you. Neither of them would be happy and I went through too much to save your life to have them end it now.”

Fang really didn’t want to be alone again. He’d spent so much time that way these last few months, but he knew she was right. The last thing he wanted to do was get her into trouble.

“If you need me, call.”

He nodded as she walked out the door like a normal person. But she wasn’t normal and neither was he. They were two animals who had no business interacting with each other.

Sighing, he lathered the cloth and set about cleaning himself up so that he didn’t offend his own olfactory glands. Gah, how had Aimee stood being near him? He was disgusted by his own scent.

The shaving was a little harder than the bathing. He’d never quite gotten the hang of it on his best day.

Hissing, he flinched as he cut his chin.

Aimee was there immediately. “What happened?”

Surprised, he frowned. Had she been listening in on him? “I cut myself.”

She grimaced at the sight of the pooling blood. She grabbed a piece of tissue and covered it. “Goodness, wolf. Can’t I leave you alone for three seconds?”

“I never could do this sh-stuff right.”

She took the razor from him and carefully raked it over his cheek. “It’s not that hard.”

He waited until she pulled the razor away to rinse it before he spoke. “And again, I ask you how it is you’re so good at shaving men.”

She laughed. “I’m a bear and I have a lot more area to shave than just the face.”

He arched a brow at that, then tilted his head to look at her legs as if trying to imagine what they looked like underneath her jeans. “Yeah, you do.”

Aimee took his chin in her hand and forced him to lean his head back so that she could shave his neck. Her gaze slid down his ripped muscles to where his erection was plainly visible in the water. Heat covered her cheeks. While she might be comfortable with his nudity, that was another matter entirely. And it was something she’d never seen before.

Since she’d never felt the quickening, she’d never mated with a male. Not that she was naïve or uneducated about what males and females did. She knew all the nuances of sex as her brothers felt more than free to share the most embarrassing facts of their premarital exploits, but…

She’d never experienced it herself.

And until Fang she’d never really been all that curious about what she’d been missing. But now she couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to taste Fang. What he would feel like inside her. Even though he was fierce, she knew he’d be gentle. Loving.

Forcing her attention back to his neck, she admired the perfect curves that made up his jawline. He really was a gorgeous man. Even emaciated and worn.

Focus, Aimee.

The problem was, she was focused. Just not on what she needed to be focused on.

Fang licked his lips as she finished shaving him. He tried to keep his hands over the stiff part of himself and he hoped to the gods that she wasn’t able to see it. But it was hard and he was in excruciating pain over it.

Pulling away, she put the razor up on the sink. “I know you’re not helpless, but do you need me to help dry you off?”

The mere offer of it made his cock jerk in expectation. “Um, no, I think I can do it.”

“You sure?”

He felt himself harden even more. “Pretty much. Yes.”

“All right. Can you use your powers to take you back to bed while I clean up in here real quick?”

And keep her from seeing just how bad he wanted a taste of her? “Absolutely.”

She frowned at the word that had come out as a strange squeak. “Are you okay?”

Fang cursed silently at himself. “Fine.” Or at least as fine as a man dying of unsated testosterone poisoning could be.

She gave him a suspicious scowl. “You don’t seem fine. You seem a bit agitated.”

“Absolutely great.” He flashed himself out of there so fast that he forgot to dry off.

He cursed as he realized what a mess he’d made of his bed. Growling at himself, he used his powers to set everything to rights before he conjured a pair of flannel pajama bottoms for himself. But they did nothing to hide his erection that now formed a solid tent at his crotch.

Put her out of your mind.

Yeah, right. Her touch was as branded on his senses as her scent and there was no relief in sight.

Kill me…

He sighed and forced himself to turn over. But the moment he did, he felt a powerful shift in the air. One that could only herald the arrival of an extremely powerful entity.

Ready to battle, he crouched in the bed to find Thorn standing just inside the door.

“What are you doing here?”

Thorn gave him a piercing glare. “It’s time for you to earn your keep, wolf. You ready?”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“Earn my keep?” Fang said slowly to Thorn, enunciating every word just so that there was no miscommunication. “Are you out of your fucking mind? I just got back and I can barely stand on my own. What do you want me to do? Bleed on them?”

Thorn laughed. “You sound rather robust to me.”

Whatever. The man was high if he thought for even one second that Fang could do much more than what he was currently doing. Sitting. Thorn definitely had to be on something.

Fang leaned back on the bed to glare at him. “What do you want exactly?”

“An end to the mistreatment of small, fluffy dust bunnies. But that doesn’t seem feasible at present, so in lieu of that I want you to know that while Xedrix and company may have assisted you and Aimee, they are still demons to be watched and executed if need be.”

Yeah, that really sounded like something he was raring to do. Sign him up… never. “Why aren’t you sending them back to Kalosis if they’re such a problem?”

He looked extremely disappointed. “They don’t really fall under my jurisdiction. Charonte demons are a different entity and have a separate pantheon they answer to. It doesn’t mean we turn a complete blind eye to them, but so long as they take it easy on humanity-which means they’re eating the corrupt and not decent upstanding citizens, and their gods keep them in check, we don’t worry about them… much.”

Thorn manifested a five-by-seven photo and handed it to him. It was of a man in his early twenties whose heart had been torn out of his chest. “This, on the other hand, is what concerns us. Or more to the point, me and thereby you as default.”

While gruesome, it was a scene Fang had seen several times since coming to New Orleans. “It looks like a typical voodoo sacrifice.”

“Well, slap my ass and call me Sally if you’re not bright. It is part of a summoning ritual for a Grand Laruae.”

That was a term a wolfwere didn’t hear every day. In fact, he had heard of it never. “A what?”

Thorn’s features were completely impassive. “Badass demon with a superiority complex who picks his teeth with the bones of infants. Let’s just keep it simple and say he’s a demon I want out of the human realm. ASAP.”

“And why can’t you go after him?”

Thorn looked extremely perturbed by his question. “That’s a long story for one night when I’m under-the-table drunk. In the meantime, the shortest and simplest version is politics, which really chafes my ass. Believe me, I don’t like it any more than you do. In fact, I’d like nothing better than pinning this bastard’s warted hide to the nearest tree, preferably an oak one… but let’s not go there. Unfortunately, I, personally, can’t touch him without war breaking out.”

He indicated the photo with a jerk of his chin. “Phrixis has taken out some of my best people over the centuries and I’d give anything short of my soul to put him out of commission once and for all.”