Ty’s teeth throbbed as an image of tearing into the vampire filled his mind. Tension flashed through his system, amping up every cell as his muscles and bones prepared to transition. He took a deep breath to steady himself and maintain his control, but his body shook with the effort. Wolfing out in the middle of a bar in Sinclair wasn’t an option.

“Wasn’t an order. More like a threat. Plain. Simple. I’ll break more than your hands if you touch her.”

The vampire’s eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared as he caught Ty’s scent. That’s right. Werewolf here, ready to chew your ass.

Any normal vampire would have realized going one-on-one with a Werewolf was a bad deal, but this vampire was hungry and stupid. In a blur of movement, he wrapped his hands around Ty’s throat, squeezing hard enough to make a burst of white sparks shoot across his vision.

Oh, it’s on. Ty’s reaction was just as swift, just as strong. He growled and kneed the vamp hard enough to drop a linebacker, then punched him with a powerful uppercut. The vamp dropped back, stunned at his attack, a smudge of black vampire ichor staining the edge of his lips like licorice candy.

The vamp growled, dropped his head and charged. Ty sidestepped at the last moment, letting the vampire careen into the bar and put a head-size hole in the wood. It would’ve knocked out any normy. But this guy was a monster just like him. So were his two buddies, who showed up to get in on the action.

The two vampires still standing took opposite sides of Ty so he could keep his eyes on only one of them at a time. A rocket of red-hot pain shot up Ty’s spine as one of them kicked the base of his back where the nerve bundle on a Were was most vulnerable. He grunted and fell to one knee, sucking up pain. Without going wolf, beating back this many vampires on his own was going to hurt. From the startled gasps and outraged cries, Ty knew this had already happened too fast for the onlookers to track. Their movements were probably no more than a blur. He needed to end it before any of the normies got hurt, or worse, died. That was the last kind of attention he needed as the new guy in town.

“Fight!” someone yelled.

The atmosphere inside the bar thickened with anticipation and excitement as people glanced at the commotion and automatically moved toward it, attracted to the action like gawkers to a car accident. He straightened and tried to bite back the pain as the lead vampire pulled his head out of the bar and shook off the splinters. Ty didn’t wait. Why fight fair when the odds weren’t in your favor anyway?

He kicked back without warning, catching vampire number two behind him in the chest. It spun backward over a pool table to land in a heap on a table, amid shrieks and toppled beer spraying everywhere. Son of a bitch deserved that and worse after it’d tap-danced on his spine. Payback was a bitch.

The third vampire melted into the crowd as Ty and the leader were instantly surrounded by the crowd pressing in around them with cries of encouragement and money changing hands.

Ty glanced up at the myriad faces, looking for just one—Jess. He wanted to make sure that the third vampire hadn’t taken her while he’d been distracted.

Her blue eyes were wide as she squeezed past the edge of the crowd. He wasn’t taking any chances. He grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her close, putting her behind him. “Stay here. I’ll be back in a minute.”

“But I—”

Ty didn’t have time to listen. The vampire in the duster came at him once again, fake brown eyes glittering with malice. He swung at Ty, and Ty blocked the blows. They kept coming, fast, hard. Sweat beaded on his skin, trickling into his eyes and making his hair damp. His muscles were growing tired in his human form, slowing his reaction time. One blow evaded his block, cuffing him hard enough in the side of the head to make his ears ring and his vision blur for a moment. The drunken crowd cheered.

Ty shook his head to clear it. He and the vampire circled one another, the superior sneer on the vampire’s face making him more irritated by the moment. Then he glimpsed Jess’s frightened face and a whole new rush of energy filled him from his scalp to his toes. He could do anything, be anything, to protect her.

The vampire lunged forward. Ty thrust the heel of his hand up hard against the vampire’s beak of a nose. The distinctive crunch of bones breaking was followed by a hard grunt as the vampire bent forward and Ty brought his elbow down hard against the vampire’s neck, knocking him out. If there weren’t all these people around, he would have carved the vampire’s fangs out of his mouth as battle trophies, the way his pack had done for centuries. But this wasn’t the time and place for the old ways and sooner rather than later, that vampire and his buddy would wake up. Probably call in reinforcements.

He was alone. No pack, no friends in the town.

There was a slap of high fives and the clink of beer bottles, along with cheers from the crowd. It had all just been another night’s entertainment to them. He stepped over the vampire to get to Jess. Her face was pale.

“Want to get out of here?”

She nodded. Ty wrapped her small hand in his and together they skirted around the prone vampire and headed for the door, keeping a vigilant eye out for vampire number three.

The air was clean and cold outside. Ty’s head cleared, his senses grew sharper. The cool evening breeze, heavy with the salty scent of nearby Puget Sound, ruffled Jess’s hair, sticking honey-colored wisps to her full, rosy lips.

“You okay?” he asked as he gently tucked the strands back behind her ear.

Jess blinked, and stared up at him, a mixture of curiosity and disbelief in her eyes. “What just happened in there?”

He tried to give her a lopsided grin, but it turned into a wince when he found his jaw was tender from the hits the vampire had landed. He rubbed the soreness. The night air chilled the dribble of blood from the cut on his cheek, making it wet and cold, but there was no scent of vampire. The third one must have been smart enough to ditch his buddies. His body ached from the fight, but it would heal fast enough. “A bar fight with strangers.”

“You didn’t know those guys?” she asked, looking around her nervously. “They seemed pretty intent on messing with you.” She grazed the corner of his mouth with her fingertips. “You’re hurt.”

The light touch was enough to send a powerful surge of awareness pounding through him that wiped away any of the ache that remained. Damn. There was no doubt in his mind there was a strong Mesmer forming with this woman.

He gently moved her fingers away from his mouth, keeping them folded in his. Her hands were fine-boned and slender and feminine. “No big deal.”

Her full lips tipped up into a soft smile, making him crave to kiss her. “Tough guy, huh?” She pulled a car remote from her pocket and pushed it, making the lights flash on a silver pickup on the edge of the dirt-and-gravel parking area beside the bar.

“Sounds like you’ve been around a few.”

She opened the driver’s door to the pickup and turned, standing in the gap, staring at him, her head tilted. “A few. But they’re nothing like you.”

Ty closed the gap between them, putting one hand on the door frame, shielding her from view of the parking lot but maintaining space between them. He knew better than to get close enough to be swamped by temptation. The Mesmer might be working on him, but that didn’t mean she’d understand if he came on too strong. Especially not after the fight.

“If you want to head home, I understand. I’ll stay here awhile and make sure those guys don’t follow you home.”

She reached out and grabbed fistfuls of his T-shirt near his collarbones, pulling him close until he was chest to chest with her. The soft swells of her breasts pressed against him, and the minty scent of her hair and the hint of lilac on her skin teased his sensitive sense of smell. Everything within him went silent and still, fixated on the lush curve of her mouth so damn close to his he could feel the warmth of her breath.

“What I want is for you to come home with me.” Jess stood on her tiptoes and looked up into his face, the dark fringe of lashes around her eyes making the blue luminous. Her rapid pulse beat against his chest, taking over the rhythm until his matched the pace she set. For a second the world tilted sideways.

Ty’s gaze dropped to the silky, damp edge of her lips and he was lost. He dipped down and kissed her. Her lips were soft and willing, tasting of peppermint. She tasted so damn sweet, hot and spicy all at once. A warm, viscous heat flowed through his veins, coating and drowning out every other sensation until he was hot and hard at the same time.

Ty gripped the edge of the truck’s door frame, nearly denting the sheet metal with his fingertips. But he was determined to keep his hands to himself, even though they itched to touch her. Heat seeped through his shirt, the temperature difference amplified by the chill in the air. The kiss turned deeper, slicker, the tip of her tongue brushing against his. The spicy fragrance of female that spiked the air left no doubt she was aroused. When they broke apart, both of them were breathing hard, their breath creating misty white clouds.

“You sure about this?” He could control his body, but not the rough edge of his voice as he struggled to maintain composure. “I could follow you.”

Jess looked up at him, her dark lashes dropping a fraction, giving her a sultry look. “Hop in.”

He was smart enough not to argue with her, but that didn’t mean that the little voice of human reason in the back of his head wasn’t screaming loudly that this was stupid and rash. He should take his own vehicle so he didn’t get stuck who knew where. He didn’t know a damn thing about her. Couldn’t read her mind and certainly hadn’t asked enough questions. But this is a Mesmer, the wild Were instinct side of him shouted back. No one, Were especially, could blame him for responding so quickly and profoundly to her. And hell, he could always follow his nose and walk back if he needed to.

“Anything you say,” he answered. He waited until she climbed up into the cab, admiring the way the dark denim jeans hugged the curve of her ass, then closed the truck door and walked around the back of the pickup. An uneasy sensation raised the hairs on his skin. He glanced over his shoulder one last time to make sure they weren’t being followed.

* * *

The truck started up with a rumble and Ty climbed inside. Jess glanced at the stretch of his T-shirt against the broad plane of his back and strong shoulders as he pulled the door shut.

Even roughed up, Ty Grayson was attractive as hell. He seemed even bigger in the confined space of the truck cab, the energy he threw off radiating around him like heat off a woodstove. Her heart was still pounding too hard and too fast in her chest, matching the insistent throb between her legs. Jess pressed her thighs together tightly to stem the ache and pulled out of the parking lot.

She still wasn’t exactly certain what had happened inside the bar. The guys had been moving so fast their punches had become blurred. One minute they were circling one another and the next the creepy guy who’d started talking to her had gone sailing through the air, breaking straight through the front of the wooden bar.

“We can get you cleaned up when we get to my house, if you want.”

“That all depends.”

“On what?”

He flashed a brilliant white smile at her in the dark. “If you’re offering to help.” The seductive, teasing tone in his voice brought to mind an image of them together in a shower. Naked. Skin slick with soap. Her stomach flipped and tightened and Jess gripped the steering wheel a little harder and let out a slow, steady breath to calm the jump in her pulse. The speedometer kicked up a few notches.

His muscular arm, dusted with dark hair, lay along the back edge of the bench seat, placing his large hand close enough for his fingers to gently skim a path up along the back of her neck. A delicious shiver radiated outward. Jess tried to focus on her driving rather than continuously glimpse at how the faded denim clung to his thighs...and other places.

“You know you’re going to be the talk of the town by tomorrow,” she murmured. Not that it would be a good thing, in her case. For a teacher anything that drew criticism or suspicion from parents wasn’t good. But then again, she was off the clock, and an adult. Why couldn’t she just let her hair down for one night?

A slight frown formed a distinct crease between his brows. “Yeah, I’m not sure that’s a good thing.” He stared straight ahead out the window into the dark.

Jess glanced in her rearview mirror. No lights. That was a good thing. It meant her brother Davis, a county sheriff, had kept his promise not to follow her tonight while he was on duty. “You don’t like complications.” Neither did she.

His gaze trailed a warm path over her skin that she could feel like a physical caress, even as she kept her eyes on the road.

“I don’t like other people telling me what to do.”

Jess’s mouth curved into a knowing smile. “See, I knew we had things in common.”

“Oh, I sincerely doubt my family is anything like yours.”

“What would you know about the tribulations of family? You seem like a loner to me,” she teased.

“Oh, I’m the quintessential family guy. Got plenty of family—larger than yours, I’m sure. We’re just...estranged.”

Jess quirked a brow. “Black sheep, huh?”

“You could say that. It’s not like I did anything wrong so much as I didn’t want to go along with what they had planned for my life.”

“I get that.” Boy, did she ever. “My three older brothers are always trying to tell me what to do.” Along with what to wear and who to date, Jess added silently to herself. “Only one of my brothers seems to understand the pressure of being a younger sibling in our family. And he’s got the advantage of being a guy.”

“You the only girl?”

Jess nodded, twisting her hair around her finger. As a little sister, she had no hope. Davis, Edgar and her older twin, Paul, were always going to think they had a right to run her life. Which was precisely why tonight had been her only shot at a one-night stand.

She turned out toward the water, heading down a steep hill, the streetlights almost nonexistent as she wound down the gravel driveway to the large white craftsman-style house perched on a bluff overlooking the water.

It was two houses, really, both heavy and squat with massive squared pillars and multipaned windows, hooked together with an extended railed porch and uplit to show off the architecture and the manicured landscaping. At one time the larger had been the main house her great-great-grandfather had built for his seven kids, and the other a carriage house.

Her parents had had the brilliant idea of turning it into a bed-and-breakfast, but that business had dissolved after their sudden deaths. Only by Davis and Paul selling off their two homes and refinancing had they been able to afford to keep the place, leaving her living there still with all four of her brothers. The only good thing was she didn’t have to share a bathroom, since each bedroom had its own. The bad thing was she was rarely ever truly alone. Except for tonight.

Davis was on patrol. Edgar was working overtime as the county’s coroner and Paul, who was mayor of Sinclair, was at a city council meeting. Riley was off playing military guy, which left her alone to play doctor with her date. She sincerely doubted if he’d care that she was only licensed as a teacher.

“That’s a lot of house for one person,” Ty said beneath his breath.

Jess pulled into her parking spot and killed the engine. “Yeah, it would be if I lived here alone.”

Ty stiffened, the skin tightening around his eyes as his gaze bored into her. Her offhand comment had made him uneasy. She’d lived around enough testosterone to know the signs, and noticed that his left hand closed into a fist. “You’re not married, are you?”

Jess speared him with a no-nonsense gaze that removed any doubt how she felt about his question. “No.”

“Kids?”

“No. Worse.”

His brows rose in question.

“Brothers.”

Ty visibly relaxed, his mouth slowly spreading into a devastating half smile that made her stomach backflip. His lips were on the full side, like Brad Pitt’s. Sexy. Perfect for long, slow kisses. “Is that all?”

She couldn’t help but laugh as he opened the door and climbed out, coming around the truck to open her door for her. He offered a hand to help her down from the truck. Jess slipped her hand into his much larger, warm one. A zap of something potent zipped along her nerve endings, an instant attraction that made her warm all over despite the chill in the air.

She stood for a second looking up at his face. “You’re the first guy I’ve met who doesn’t see that as a problem.”

Ty shrugged. “I have—had,” he amended quickly, “more brothers than I care to count.”

Her smile faded. He sounded so sad. She could hear the mourning in his voice. “I’m sorry. Something bad happened to them?”

He shook his head. “It’s not that. They’re still alive. Just don’t want anything to do with me, that’s all. And right now the feeling is mutual.”

“Oh.” It really was the only thing Jess could say. She couldn’t imagine life without her brothers. Okay, that wasn’t totally honest. She imagined life without her brothers interfering all the time, but that wasn’t the same as living without them for the rest of her life.

She’d been surrounded by her brothers, knew what it was like to live with a bunch of overprotective men, but Ty jumping in to protect her from that creepy trio of guys at the tavern was somehow different. He wasn’t trying to protect her from living her life, like her brothers did, he’d been trying to make sure danger didn’t touch her. And that bumped his sex appeal up to a whole other level. What girl didn’t want a good-looking prince charming, even if he was a dark knight?

They walked, holding hands in companionable silence, toward the house. What exactly was a person supposed to say to someone she invited into her bed for just the night? Glancing at his strong profile, Jess could easily see herself falling for someone like him. Hold your horses, girl. You don’t even know him, her intellect said firmly. Her libido put intellect into a half-nelson wrestling hold, as she’d seen Davis do a dozen times to Paul, and screamed for her to go for it.

They stepped onto the wide railed porch that surrounded her house. She pushed her key into the lock. Beyond that door was a whole empty house, just waiting for her to take advantage of any available surface she pleased, including the thick plush rug before the large fireplace. Her heart rate sped up at the thought.

“Do you mind if we just stay out here for a moment before we go in?” he asked.

Jess turned and glanced at him. “You really are the outdoor type, aren’t you?”

* * *

She had no idea. Most nights he spent hunting. But Ty had his own reasons for wanting to scout out the grounds before going indoors. He didn’t teach anything to his students he didn’t do himself. He needed to know precisely what his surroundings were.

Gravel in the driveway would alert him to any cars pulling in. The house was two stories, but the balcony walkway that surrounded the second level made access far too easy. Wind was from the west, blowing across the water, making it easier to smell trouble coming.

Ty was grateful she wasn’t the type to chatter just to fill in the quiet. She seemed comfortable with who she was, but underneath he could scent a yearning for something just a bit naughty—peppermint, spicy yet sweet.

“I run an outdoor survival school. Guess it kind of comes with the territory.”

“I know.” She leaned her hip against the railing. “There’s not much people around here know about you, but they do know that.”

Which was just the way Ty wanted to keep it. The less the locals knew about him, the less risk there was they’d find out the truth. People were just getting used to the idea that vampires existed. They’d freak if they found out Weres did, too. Especially in a community like this. Vampires in Seattle were something safe and far enough away they could cope with it. Something paranormal living in their own backyard, taking their young soldiers out into the woods for training, hunting just outside their town, was something else.

The lights of downtown and the small marina area sparkled white diamonds on the shining black satin of the water. The moon broke through the clouds, illuminating the snow in a brilliant wash of white along the caps of the Olympic mountain range. A light breeze blew across the bluff, scented with the tang of salt water and teased with the deep green scent of fir.

“You’ve got a hell of a view here.”

She twisted, looking out across the water toward the mountains, the moonlight bathing her face in an ethereal glow that made his chest clutch tight. “That’s the reason my great-great-grandpa built it here. He wanted to look out over the docks he was helping to build.”

Ty came up right behind her, his large hands resting on the feminine curve of her hips. The edge of his chin and cheek rubbed against the back of her nape, just behind her right ear, as he inhaled the hint of lilac from her skin that blended with warm female and the mint scent of her hair. “Smart man.”

She shivered beneath him, a fine tremor that started at the base of her neck beneath his lips and rocketed through her system all the way to where he touched her at the hips. Ty took that as encouragement. His fingers strayed slightly higher, just beneath the edge of her sweater, skimming the warm skin above the edge of her jeans. Jess made a small sound in the back of her throat and leaned her head to the side, giving him better access.

Her skin was silky smooth, inviting and warm as he brushed his mouth across it, making him wonder if she was just as silky elsewhere. “Mmm, right there,” she murmured.

She arched back against him, the curve of her ass pressing against his erection. A bolt of intense need pierced him, making it hard to breathe.

Mesmer or not, the thought of how she’d feel beneath him, around him, overwhelmed him. Intellectually he knew that Mesmers could really screw with a Were’s brain, the need to claim one’s mate taking over every other drive. But what he didn’t know was if it worked the same on humans. He was afraid of getting too aggressive and wolfing out as a result of not being able to control himself. So Ty held himself ruthlessly in check. He needed to let her lead.

Her delicate hand was surprisingly firm in its hold as she guided one of his hands up beneath her sweater to cup her breast as he continued to kiss her nape.

Beneath his fingertips Ty could feel the edge of lace that covered the soft globe of her breast and what his eyes couldn’t see his fingers filled in for his imagination. He brushed the hardened tip, wondering if her nipples were a soft rosy pink like her lips, or more apricot like her satiny skin.

Her hand reached back and gripped him through his jeans. His dick pulsed, happy to be so totally acknowledged. He clenched his jaw and hissed out a slow breath between his teeth. There was only so much a man, even if he had the superior strength of a Were, could take.

Jess twisted to face him, her eyes hot and sultry enough to make him want to strip her where she stood. She tucked the tips of her fingers in the waistband of his jeans and pulled him with her as she started to walk across the porch. “I think it’s time to go inside, don’t you?”

Well, how could he possibly argue with that?

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