“Brother Wolf,” Remus said reverentially. “He speaks to me. He wants me to kill, to eat, to fuck, to create.” He leaned forward, giving me a look at his flashing eyes, filled with madness. I could feel his erection on my stomach, and I almost threw up on him. “Don’t you see how that’s bigger than you?” he whispered.

“Jesse?” I said nervously. I really, really wanted the crazy naked person to get off me now.

“Enough,” Jesse barked at Remus. “Get off her. Slowly.”

“You disappointment me,” Remus whispered to me, like we were co-conspirators. He leaned forward to put his hands on the ground by my head, making like he was going to push off the ground and stand up. But then in a quick, scary motion, he tangled his fingers in my hair and rolled my body sideways as he swung a leg over me, forcing me in between himself and Jesse’s gun. I cried out with pain as my hair and knee were wrenched. We were kneeling, and he very slowly forced me to my feet. It took every ounce of self-control I had left to keep from screaming at the pain.

Remus held me between him and Jesse, who looked anguished and uncertain. “Drop the gun and kick it away!” Remus sang gaily, delighted with the turn of events. Jesse didn’t move, and Remus pulled his fingers out of my hair and grabbed my chin instead. The other arm wrapped around my shoulders and chest, pinning me to him. “I can break her neck,” he mused to Jesse. “I mean, I’m pretty sure. Never actually broken a neck before. But how hard can it be?” I could hear the interest in his voice. Jesse must have too, because he dropped the gun. Before I could protest he had kicked it off into the darkness.

At least my hands were now free. I dug my right hand in my jacket pocket. Seeing the motion, Jesse tried to keep Remus talking. “And who’s with you?” Jesse asked, his voice tense but steady. “Who’s the gray wolf?”

Remus went alert, looking anxiously at Jesse. “That is our mate,” he informed him, his hot breath on my neck. He took his free hand off my chin—it felt like he was leaving a greasy film behind—and wrapped it around my waist instead. I suddenly could feel his fingers worming under the waistband of my pants, pressing into my skin. It wasn’t sexual, exactly, but intimate, like he was digging for warmth. Ick, ick, ick . . . I focused on breathing, trying not to panic. You can take a hundred showers when this is over, Scarlett.

“I picked her and Brother Wolf transformed her. She is ours now.” I couldn’t see Remus’s face while I was being employed as his human shield, but I saw Jesse react to Remus’s expression with revulsion. “Where is she?” Remus asked Jesse, plain curiosity in his voice, like he couldn’t find one of his shoes. “Have you done something to her?” He sighed elaborately. “I hope not. We went through such trouble to make her. Most of the potentials were too weak.” He tilted his head, as if listening to an inner voice. “Although that’s true, number five tasted . . . interesting.”

“Oh, yeah?” Jesse said casually. Very slowly, I started to ease the Taser out of my pocket.

“Oh, yes. But now we have our mate. Brother Wolf tells her what to do, and she must listen,” Remus giggled, as though he hadn’t heard Jesse at all. “We own her.”

Holy shit, this guy was nuts. We’d miscalculated, thinking that it would be a while before he could control Lizzy Thompkins as her alpha. But Henry Remus wasn’t a normal alpha werewolf; he was a sick, twisted imitation. And Lizzy was in thrall. “She’s fine,” Jesse said reassuringly, keeping his voice level. “She’s hanging out on the path back there with a friend of mine.”

Shadow. I’d almost forgotten about Shadow. I looked at Jesse questioningly, but he was focused on Remus, not wanting to give anything away.

I made a show of squirming, like I was uncomfortable, to cover up the movement it took to get the Taser in position with my thumb on the trigger. Remus gave me a little shake to keep me still. He was . . . ah, God, he was sniffing my hair.

Clumsily, as best I could, I reached my arm around and tasered the sick fuck on the hip.

That was what was supposed to happen, anyway. But I was dizzy from being shaken again, and instead of making a clear connection between his skin and the two electrodes on the Taser, I think maybe one electrode brushed against his skin briefly. It was enough to get Remus to let go of me and stumble back a few feet, but it didn’t have nearly the effect it should have. I swayed from the dizziness.

Remus was already starting to step toward me again when Jesse yelled, “Scarlett, down!” I dropped as fast as I could. Jesse flew through the space where I had just been, and hit Remus in a flying tackle that felt very satisfying to watch, especially after he’d just pulled the same crap on me. “Get out of range,” Jesse told me tersely, and I complied, scooting away from Remus on my hands and one knee. The full moon was high in the night sky, and as soon as he popped out of my radius Henry Remus began to change again. Jesse yelled something in French—later I learned that it was the word “release”—and suddenly, the bargest streaked into the picnic clearing like a flying demon dog from hell. I knew then that I had chosen the right name for her, because in the dark clearing she was nearly invisible, like smoke in the darkness. Jesse scrambled away from Remus, picking up one of the flashlights and pointing it at the nova werewolf.

I’d never seen anything like Shadow’s attack. She was effortlessly fast, pouncing on Remus like a supernatural puppy on a squeaky toy. Remus was bigger, but in the few weeks that he’d been a werewolf, he hadn’t actually had to face a single challenge. His half-developed fighting instincts weren’t prepared for something that had been trained her whole life to kill him. The poor crazy bastard never had a chance. Shadow pinned him in an instant, and while he was still trying to squirm away, Jesse yelled, “Tuez-le!”