“I won’t tell anyone, Aimee. I swear it. And it’s not because I’m afraid for me. I could care less about that. It’s you I would never hurt, not in any way.”

And because he was trusting her with his secret, she wanted to give him one back. He had placed his life in her hands. The least she could do is return the favor.

“Are they the only ones you’ve spotted?”

“I think Zar may be one and possibly Quinn.”

Aimee swallowed as fear ran rampant through her. Maybe she shouldn’t tell him. What if he rejected her just based on that alone? Arcadians had killed his sister. Granted they hadn’t fired the Taser that ended her life, but she would have died anyway because they killed her mate.

He’d shoved her away before. He might this time too and this time he would have the power to destroy her.

Oh, gods, she wanted to vomit. This was something she couldn’t even tell her own mother or father. Yet he had a right to know. It wasn’t fair to keep this from him…

Taking a deep breath, she looked up at him. “I’m one too.”

Fang pulled away to look at her as those words rang in his ears. No. It wasn’t possible. Surely he’d have known if she was one like her brothers. How could she have fooled him so completely?

“What?”

He saw the fear in that clear blue gaze that didn’t waver at all from his. “I’m Arcadian. Like Vane, I changed at puberty. It’s something I’ve never told anyone in my life. Not even my family knows.”

“Why would you tell me?”

Her eyes turned glassy from restrained tears as she showed him the Sentinel markings on her own face. “I just thought you should know what you’re involved with.”

Fang cupped her cheek where the ancient Greek design spiraled, marking her as one of the most hated groups to his kind. He saw the fear in her eyes and the fact that she would trust him with this…

She did love him. She’d have to because only a fool with a death wish would lay this in the hands of a Katagari who knew how Nicolette Peltier felt about Arcadians. The fact that Aimee had kept it from her mother said it all.

Aimee had laid herself completely naked and open to him. No wonder she was trembling.

“You know it doesn’t matter to me.”

Aimee choked on a sob as she pulled him into her arms and held him close. “You have no idea how scared I’ve been all these centuries. I think it’s why I’ve been so afraid to even attempt mating with a Katagari. Can you imagine what they might do to me if they find out?”

Kill her at best. Mutilate her at worst. She was right, it wasn’t something to be shared lightly. “You were brave to tell me.”

“I trust you that much, wolf.”

“And I will never betray that trust. I swear it.”

Aimee felt a single tear slide down her cheek. Fang brushed it away.

The tenderness in his eyes melted her. He wouldn’t betray her, she knew that. But it still couldn’t bind them. This was the most hopeless relationship ever devised by the gods.

“So where does this leave us?” she whispered, too terrified to even contemplate an answer on her own.

His look turned to steel. “Come away with me. Just the two of us. Let’s forget about all the differences and prejudices. Let’s just leave and be together.”

How she wished it were that simple. But it wasn’t. “I can’t do that, Fang. My brothers died protecting me. But for Bastien, I would never have learned to use my powers. He tutored me when I couldn’t trust anyone else. Now I’m the only one who can train Kyle to use his. And Maman would be shattered to lose me too. I’m her only hope at maintaining our legacy. The Peltiers have been on the Omegrion since the beginning. You know how rare that is.”

His look turned cold. “Is that really more important to you than me?”

“No, but you can’t make me choose between you and my family.”

Fang winced as he realized she was right. He was being selfish. “Yeah. It was a stupid idea.”

And he was a fool for thinking, even for a second, that she would put him over them. No one had ever done that before. Why should she?

His heart broken, he pulled away. “We better finish cleaning up. As you said, I don’t want Nicolette yelling at you.”

Aimee watched as he returned to stacking chairs. She’d hurt him and she wasn’t sure how. But she could tell there was a wall between them that hadn’t been there earlier.

When they were finished, she led the way upstairs. She paused outside his room. “Good night, Fang.”

“You too.” He didn’t even look at her before he vanished and left her in the hallway.

Sighing, she headed for her own room.

Fang didn’t breathe until Aimee was back in her room. He stripped his clothes off, grimacing at the soreness he still had from his fight with Fury. That little SOB could punch like a sledgehammer.

He fell into bed, exhausted, but still couldn’t sleep for thoughts of Aimee.

In his heart, he knew he couldn’t stay here forever. And if she did start mating with other men, he’d have to leave or kill someone. The thought of anyone touching her spun him into the galactic outer rims of pissed off.

I’m going to have to leave. Because every day he stayed here and didn’t have her, he died a little more inside.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Weeks later, Fang still hadn’t left.

I am a total head case.

No, he was a moron and he couldn’t bring himself to leave Aimee. He would rather stay here and be miserable where he could at least hold her when no one was around than leave and be completely miserable without her.

But every day he stayed, it was worse.

Thorn had been right. There was all kinds of shit brewing at Sanctuary. Wren had been thrown out after he’d taken up with some politician’s daughter and now the Peltiers and the entire Omegrion were hot after the tigard to kill him over something his own cousin had said at the last council meeting.

Nicolette was convinced the kid was a threat to her precious family and Aimee was hell-bent that it was all a misunderstanding. Mother and daughter had been fighting over it constantly and there had been a time or two when Fang had almost gone for Nicolette’s throat over the way she talked to her daughter.

“Please, Fang. Let it go. She’s my mother and I love her.” That was all Aimee ever said, but it was hard to do nothing while her mother treated her like shit.

As far as Wren was concerned, Fang agreed with Aimee that it smacked of Wren’s distant relations trying to lay hands on his inheritance. But there was no way to prove it. Right now there was a blood hunt out for the tigard and a pack of tigers were stalking him.

Fang felt for him and hoped for the best where Wren was concerned.

Tonight he was on bar duty with Sasha, Etienne, Colt, and Cherif. Out of all the Peltier brothers, Dev was his favorite, but Cherif was a close second. Cherif lacked Remi’s nasty attitude. Instead he had a badass aura that said he didn’t have to pick or bully to reign supreme.

He simply was, and death to anyone who wanted to knock him off that throne.

Sasha was another Katagari Lykos who stayed here off and on depending on his mood. The last survivor of his pack, he was technically the bodyguard for a goddess. But since his goddess had married, his duties had been light, which meant that whenever he was bored, he’d come hang out with the rest of the animals at Sanctuary.

Tall and blond, Sasha had a nasty temper and a biting sarcasm he could definitely appreciate. All in all, Fang liked the other wolf, but the nature of their species made it hard for them to be around each other too much. Since they weren’t in the same pack, they were extremely territorial here.

Kyle’s twin, Cody, was sitting at the bar beside Sasha, drinking a Coke. He choked on his drink.