"Valuable how?"

"They have jobs. They bring income into the pride so that others don't have to work."

"Money won't be a problem. Auggie bankrolled us until things got up and running."

"And that's another thing; I'll try not to interfere in how you run the pride, but I can't let you bring new mob connections to St. Louis."

"You know that's one of the main reasons Auggie wanted us down here."

"I figured it was, but we've got enough crime without adding. I'll let the lions do what lions do, but the mob is human and I'm a federal marshal. Don't make me have to choose."

"I'll have to talk to Auggie." He was just holding my hand, not meeting my eyes again.

"I'll talk to him if you want, or Jean-Claude can."

"Jean-Claude probably can come up with a compromise that Auggie will listen to," Haven said.

"Remember the two lions you almost broke when you were here last time?"

"The college kids, yeah."

"They've helped me keep my beast under control. In fact, Joseph has a lot of young people in college. Let them finish their degrees, help bring in legitimate money."

His hand squeezed around mine, not hard, but firm. "Did you sleep with them?"

I started to ask why, but there was something about the way he was standing there, some quality of stillness that made me afraid to tease. I said the truth, "No."

"None of them," he said.

"No, but if you're not into sharing then you are holding the hand of the wrong girl."

"I know how many you got on your plate, but they aren't lions."

"And if I had slept with any of the other lions?"

He gave me a look; there was nothing comforting in that look, hell, there was nothing very human in that look. "I won't share with another lion."

"I'll need more than one of each of my beasts. You can't be with me twenty-four-seven."

He frowned. "No, I can't."

"Also, I've got Micah as my Nimir-Raj, then Nathaniel came as my leopard to call. It may work that way with all my animals."

"You only have the Ulfric."

"Not true," Graham said. "She sees a lot of Jason."

"He's Jean-Claude's pomme de sang" I said.

"That's why he's around a lot, but that's not why you do him all the time."

"Thanks for putting it that way, Graham." Funny how Graham reminded me often why he wasn't getting sex from me.

"He's also Nathaniel's best friend." Wicked added that.

"Can we please change the subject?" I said.

"But Jason isn't her animal to call," Truth said.

"Then why does she have a leopard but not a wolf to call?" Graham asked.

"We don't know," Wicked said.

"Guys, enough already," I said.

"She's right," Haven said. He looked at Joseph. "We can't settle this right now, so go. Go tell your pride that you failed them. Tell them that we'll give them tonight safe."

"What happens tomorrow?" Joseph asked.

Haven gave that unpleasant smile again. "Why, then you and I find out if you can get lucky again, or if your luck's run out."

"You will make him your Rex, Jean-Claude's Rex," Joseph said. He looked at the werelion. "Are you prepared to do what the Nimir-Raj and the Ulfric do?"

"What's that?"

"Sleep with her master. Sleep with Jean-Claude."

Funny how some rumors never die, no matter how many times you try to kill them. Before I could say anything, Haven answered, "Do you believe every rumor you hear?"

"They are not rumors, if they are true."

"You thought I was sleeping with your little lions, and I wasn't."

"You say you weren't."

"Get him out of here," Haven said.

The vampires looked at me. I nodded.

They started escorting Joseph to the door.

"You condemn me to death, Anita," he called back over his shoulder.

I didn't know what to say to that, so I said nothing. You can't save everybody, and we couldn't afford to have any ally that wasn't with us completely. It wasn't just the sex. There'd been no lion in his pride good enough to be a bodyguard. Not a single one. You couldn't be that weak and survive.

Wicked was saying something to Joseph, low and urgent. His grip on the man's arm was tight enough to show at a distance. Whatever he said quieted the protests and sent him out the door.

"What did you say to him, Wicked?" I asked.

"I told him that the werelion had given him tonight to be safe, but if he kept saying mean things about our masters, I'd just do him tonight."

"It's my fight," Haven said.

"I said that I'd do him, not that I'd kill him. After everything he'd just said, I figured rape would scare him enough to get him out of here."

"You don't like guys," I said.

"You don't know what I like. You've worked hard not to know. My pride's hurt, but I'll get over it. But Joseph would believe anything of Jean-Claude's people, even male-on-male rape."

"So there really is a rumor that no one gets to join Jean-Claude's kiss without fucking him."

"Or you," Truth said.

"I'm really disappointed that one isn't true, by the way," Wicked said, with a grin.

"Me, too," Graham said.

I gave them both the look they deserved.

"I do not wish to," Truth said.

They looked at him. "Why not?" Graham asked.

"Because I am already much in thrall to Anita. If I bedded her, I would be little more than the slave Joseph accused us of being."

"Trust me, guys, you're overestimating my appeal," I said.

"I don't know about that," Haven said. He spread my hand on his palm and touched my hand with the fingers of his other hand. "You have such small hands."

"Delicate and dangerous," Wicked said.

Haven started talking, almost as if to himself. "I'm not a complicated guy. I know that. I'm not stupid, but I'm not exactly a brain trust either. I know that, too. I like being a guy. I like being muscle. I like hurting people. I don't mind killing people. I like my job. I like drinking with the guys, a little poker, and strip clubs, fucking. It was a good life."

"You make it sound like it's over," I said.

"I went back to Chicago, to my life, but it didn't work anymore. I still liked hurting people, but I started wondering if you'd hate me for doing some of the stuff Auggie had me doing. I kept thinking, What would she think? Wondering what you'd think started getting in the way of my job. Auggie noticed it."

"I sent you back home, Haven. I didn't make you think about me." I tried to take my hand back, but he wrapped those long fingers around me, and I didn't fight it.

"Yeah, you did, Anita, maybe not on purpose, but you did. First it fucked up my job, then it fucked up my fun. I started looking at my friends and what we did, and thought, She'd be disappointed. She'd think it was stupid." He shook his head. "Damn it, I've never let any woman mess me up like this."

"Haven, I…"

"Let me finish," he said.

I wasn't sure I wanted him to finish, but I let him.

"Women are just for fucking, or marrying so you can have kids if you want them. Women don't count, not in my world, not in Auggie's world. But you counted, to him, and to me. But especially to me. No matter what woman I was with, or how good the sex was, the moment it was over, it felt bad. It wasn't enough. Damn you, damn you, I started thinking about relationships. Having a girl to talk to. Stupid shit that I gave up before I hit fifteen, and suddenly it was all back. I was this kid again, thinking there was more to life than being muscle for Auggie. There isn't more to life, Anita. There isn't anymore." His voice had sunk to a low growl.

I didn't know what to say. Sorry seemed lame, and It's not my fault seemed worse. I didn't mean to fuck up your life seemed the most accurate. I finally settled for, "I didn't make you rethink your life, Haven."

"Yeah, you did. Auggie says you did. He says you didn't mean to do it, but you mind-fucked me just like Belle Morte does, or can. I'm your lion, Anita. I'm yours. Yours in a way I've never been anyone's. You make me want to be a better person. How fucking lame is that?"