I looked away, frowned, and then met that lavender gaze. It was very direct. “I’ll turn it into a real fight.”

Nathaniel nodded. “Sweat first, fight later, then.”

“Yes, sir,” I said.

“Just yes, sir,” said Fredo, “no arguing?”

“Not today,” I said.

“Okay, now I’m glad we didn’t fight first.”

I looked at him. “Why?”

“Because if you don’t want to argue, the anger will have to go somewhere, and I’d really prefer it not be carved into my skin.”

“You think I’ve gotten good enough to win a knife fight with you?” I asked.

“No, but I won’t want to hurt you, and if you don’t have the same restraint with me, you are good enough to cut me.”

“Do I say thanks for the compliment, or get pissed that you think I’d lose it enough to cut you for real?”

“Take the compliment,” Nicky said. “I’ve never heard Fredo admit that anyone else could hurt him with a blade.”

I took the compliment. “Thanks, Fredo.”

“No problem. You’ve got a real talent for blade work, Anita.”

“I like edged weapons.”

“Most people are afraid of them.”

“I’m not most people,” I said.

“And that is the fucking truth,” Nicky said. Normally, I’d have gotten mad about that last comment, but today I just let it stand. If it was true, why should it make me mad?

36

ONE OF THE larger caverns had been turned into a gym, complete with an indoor track and weights and other toys in the middle. There was even a locker area. I had a pair of black jogging shorts, black sports bra, and running socks and shoes. Nicky came out of his locker area in shorts and a T-shirt that looked like it was straining to hold all his muscles into one tight packet. Fredo had changed to black workout pants and T-shirt, but he wasn’t going to jog. He was going for weights and then he’d see who he could get to fight with him. We’d all locked our weapons in the lockers. The idea was that here we were all safe enough that we didn’t need to be armed, and honestly if anyone tried to take me here with all the guards, my money was on us, armed or unarmed.

Nathaniel, Nicky, and I were stretching out when I heard the crowd coming down the hallway. There was that sound of boisterous male energy. The guards spilled out of the hallway around us, laughing, and full of that energy that big, athletic men have. Some women mistake it for aggression, but it’s not. It’s a sort of awareness of their bodies, an eagerness to use them, almost an animal anticipation of it. Their being wereanimals just upped the ante for it.

Ares was in front with Lisandro and Graham. I went back to stretching, touching my forehead to my knee on the floor. This was my first time seeing Lisandro since we’d broken his prohibition on sex. I wasn’t sure what to say to him, so I would ignore it if he’d let me.

“Hey, Anita.” I rose from the stretch to find Gregory and Stephen settling down by us. They had both put their long blond curls in ponytails. Their eyes were cornflower blue and their faces beautiful; they were girl-delicate, and I’d seen enough pictures to know that they looked like their mother. She’d died when they were little, like mine. They were my height, give an inch here and there. When we were here we ran together.

“Hey, I didn’t think you were staying with us, Gregory,” I said.

“I heard I missed an orgy.” He made a pouty face at me.

“Don’t start,” I said.

He opened his mouth to say something, but Nathaniel said, “No, really, not today.”

Gregory looked at him and something passed between them, because Gregory just gave in, which wasn’t his usual. “Fine, I’ll leave it alone.”

“Thanks,” Nathaniel said.

Normally I’d have wanted to know what Nathaniel did to get the other man to behave, but today I didn’t care. I was just glad he’d let it go.

They joined us in the stretching. I saw Clay and Bram, near the back. Socrates, who was a werehyena and an ex-cop with skin the color of coffee with a touch of cream, was there as well; his hair looked almost long compared to Ares’ and Bram’s military buzz. Most of the rest were wererats, then werehyenas. Clay and Graham were the only werewolf guards there. Stephen was a werewolf, but he wasn’t a guard. Bram, Gregory, and Nathaniel were the only wereleopards. Again, only one was a guard. Did we depend too much on the rats and the hyenas? Yes. Should we change it? Probably. I pushed the thought away. I was here to work out, that was all. It was all about moving the body. I’d found that exercise helped with the anger, and even helped tire the energy that made it harder to control the beasts.

I knew everyone by name, all the rats. Emmanuel was one of the few blue-gray-eyed Hispanics I’d ever met. His skin was almost a gold color, so that he had the same kind of exotic vibe going that Vivian, Stephen’s fiancée, had. The fact that Stephen was still here and hadn’t gone home wasn’t a good sign for them. I let that go, too. I couldn’t even fix my own love life—what the hell could I do for anyone else?

Dino was as dark as Emmanuel was light, but where the other man was five-eight and just nicely muscular, Dino was big. Not just six feet, but almost as wide as he was tall. He ran like a lumbering elephant, but I’d seen him fight and one of my goals was never, ever to have Dino hit me in the face for real. He was one of the few fighters we had who had exploded one of the new heavy bags designed to stand up to preternatural strength.

God’s full name was Godofredo. He was actually Fredo’s nephew, which made me speculate that Fredo might be short for the same name, but when asked Fredo had given a flat look that made everyone drop the subject. Fredo was slender, not that tall, and honed down to lanky muscle like the slender blades he favored. God was inches taller, broader, and packed on muscle so that the nickname didn’t seem funny when you saw him step into the practice ring.

“Hey, old man, aren’t you going to run with us?” God called.

Fredo paused in his weight lifting with a barbell packed with the body weight of most of the smaller men here. He didn’t put it back on the rack; he held it partway lifted and answered in a voice without any hint of strain. “When you can beat me in the practice ring, then you can call me old; until then, shut the fuck up.” He started doing reps with the bar.

God chuckled, and the sound matched the big chest. They liked each other, but it was guy liking, so there was a lot of cussing and good-natured jibes exchanged. Until I’d hung out with enough men I’d never realized that fuck you could be an endearment of the highest order.

I was stretched out. I stood up and everyone around me got up with me. Part of me wondered if they did it consciously or if there was some metaphysical reason for it. I let the thought go. I was here to run.

The guards who had come a little behind us didn’t stretch out as much as I did, but then they were less likely to pull a muscle, so we were all ready to run at the same time.

Ares said, “You’re running with us?” He made it sound doubtful.

“I’m using the track at the same time,” I said. I looked up all that height to meet his pale eyes in their desert tan.

He had that guy smile, the one I’d gotten most of my life because I was small and usually the only girl. “You can’t keep up with us, Anita.”

“If I were human, no,” I said.

“It’s not that.” He came to stand next to me. He pointed at where my hip hit his thigh. “Most of us have a much longer stride. We’re just going to be faster on the track.”

“I’m not trying to race, Ares, just sweat some shit out.”

He shrugged. “Just saying.”

I felt the anger like a warm wave flowing over my skin. It hit that place where the beasts lived, and I had to take deep, even breaths to still it all.

“I didn’t mean anything by it,” he said. His voice sounded odd.