He knew she was coming just from the feel of her wrapped around him. When her eyes shifted colors to a vibrant green he knew then that her succubus side was out fully and filling itself to the brink.

Good.

Asher arched and pumped harder as Jinx rode him. She clawed at his chest, exciting his shifter side, and he roared, his mouth changing shapes, his teeth lengthening as he pushed up and stilled, coming once again.

Jinx tossed her head back and cried out, her nails digging even deeper into his flesh. “Yes!”

He grabbed her and pulled her down onto him, holding her, their bodies still joined. Her red hair fanned out all around them and he smiled, loving having her in his arms. “Tell me you’re happy about us.”

“Asher, I have been in love with you since I was barely legal. It’s safe to say I’m the happiest woman on earth right now.” She kissed his chest. “But I’m guessing you’re going to make me leave here and go home with you.”

He nodded. “You guessed right.”

She opened her mouth to protest and Asher put his finger to her lips. “Jinx, Helmuth is teamed up with something ugly. I will have men assigned here to watch over the club and I’ll have the cleanup teams here within the hour, but you aren’t staying. Period. I want my wife with me. We’ve spent enough time apart.”

She smiled. “Okay. For now.”

Chapter Eight

One Week Later…

Immortal Ops Headquarters, Virginia

Asher leaned against the conference room wall, watching as his men argued amongst themselves like children. The rest of the team had flown in as quickly as they could get the private jet off the ground. He had to admit he enjoyed their banter. It meant they were a true team. A group of men who trusted one another with their lives.

This new information would change things. It would make them question the authority before them. Make them wonder if they could trust anyone—including him.

“Don’t make me tell your wife,” teased Wilson Rousseau as he waggled his brows. The wererat DNA in him had been an initial concern to Asher when he’d been brought into the fold with the organization. Fringe shifters—ones who were comprised of species one would not normally find naturally in the paranormal community—tended to be volatile.

Wilson had a good head on his shoulders and had the most control over his shifter side. The man had proved himself a vital member of the team more than once. He also seemed to be the biggest instigator among the men. Currently, he was goading Roi into a fight or something close to one.

Roi was almost too easy to bait. Hot-tempered and nearly as alpha as they came, he tended to punch first and question later. He was a good operative so he got away with more than most. All the Immortal Ops team did.

Roi lifted one of the conference room’s oversized leather chairs and made a move to go at Wilson. The entire ordeal was too comical to break up and Asher knew the men needed to blow off some steam. This was better than the time the team had decided to destress by rigging an old bus with explosives and driving it into a hostile’s hiding hole.

The paperwork on that one had been a nightmare. Not to mention Asher had to spend an entire weekend sitting before a bunch of humans who had been brought into the fold on the existence of supernaturals, and who all thought they knew best how to try to control the men.

Of course, the humans had no idea who sat among them. They thought Asher one of them—a mortal.

They’d thought wrong and his men would tell them no different. The I-Ops could be trusted with his secret.

Roi chased Wilson around the conference room table several times, with the chair still above his head, when Lukian entered the room, colliding with Roi. There was growling and then Roi was flat on his ass, the chair to his side, his blue eyes wide.

Lukian glared down at a man Asher knew Lukian thought of as a brother. There might be some roughhousing but, in the end, Lukian wouldn’t kill Roi. He’d just rough him up a bit. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Trying to kill Wilson,” said Asher, still leaning against the wall, but now crossing one ankle over the other. He picked at one of his well-manicured fingernails, amusement barely hiding under his even façade.

Lukian groaned, his shoulders slumping. “Again?”

Wilson laughed and sat in his seat, folding his hands and placing them on the conference table as if he were a total angel.

No one was buying it.

Wilson had a longstanding history of instigating.

“Where is Green?” asked Lukian.

Asher adjusted his tie and took his seat at the head of the table. “Green is working on something in the labs for me.”

Roi stood and righted the chair before sitting in it. He flipped his shoulder-length black hair back and glared at Wilson before schooling his expression and looking at Asher. “Sir, tell me he isn’t looking for what would cause a DNA pet project to do what we saw done on that pier? Because I don’t think I want to know any of us are capable of that.”

“I am,” said Asher.

Roi looked him over slowly. Asher had explained to his men what he was and he’d even confessed the truth of whose son he was. “But you didn’t do that. You didn’t do anything close to that, sir.”

“And you’ll understand if I don’t tap into my powers for fear I will one day become that.”

All the men nodded.

Lukian pressed a thin smile to his face. “We’re here for you, sir. You know that, right?”

“And I thank you for that.”

Lukian sighed, running a hand over his face. He appeared tired. “I thought at my age, I’d seen everything.”

Laughing, Asher remained in place. “Lukian, no offense, but you really haven’t seen shit.”

“Are mermaids real?” asked Wilson. He put his hands up. “Hey, I figured while we’re on the subject of shit we thought was fairy tales, I’d ask. I’d like to think I’m not the only man here who, prior to being mated, had some really great erotic fantasies built up about being stranded on a deserted island with a harem of mermaids at his disposal.”

Lukian covered his eyes and grunted. “Dumbass.”

Asher smiled and nodded. “Oh yeah, they’re real.”

“Bullshit!” yelled Roi, standing and making his chair fall over once more. He blushed. “Um, no way. Really?”

“Really. Though they’re rare to find anymore. And some of them are bat-shit crazy.”

Lukian eyed the colonel. “I think you’re screwing with us.”

Asher flashed a wide smile. “I think you’re right.”

Lukian touched his friend’s arm. “Sit before you break something.”

Asher watched the men, enjoying the sense of brotherhood that came from what they did.

“What the hell are we doing here, exactly? Krauss behind the pier slaughters?” asked Roi, sitting without bothering to try to appear calm. “I’m sick and tired of the German prick. How can one man older than dirt evade us?”

“First,” said Asher, “you have no idea how right you are. Krauss is much older than he even appears. Trust me, gentlemen, he’s seen more days than all of you put together.”

“No,” said Lukian, shaking his head, touching a chair. “Really?”

“Really.” Asher remained standing.

A tall red-headed giant of a man entered the room. His shoulder width was enough that he filled the doorway. With as large and fit as he was, he looked like a total badass. Asher knew the man could be when called for, but was actually gentle by nature.

He smiled at the man. “Green. Good of you to join us.”

Green held a set of folders in his hands. “I gathered up what you asked for, sir.”

“Thank you,” said Asher. “Please see to it each man has one.”

Green passed out the folders and then took a seat. Asher didn’t need to see what Green had brought. He’d memorized it. Jinx and Aneta had gathered so much intel that they made a lot of agents within PSI look incompetent from their sheer lack of producing anything close to this magnitude of information.