Estrella swallowed hard. Holy crap. He could totally do it, too. She could feel the rage and energy pulsing off him in terrifying waves. It was almost like he was another person. She’d known he was deadly before, but what he was exuding now was lethal. Everyone in the room seemed aware of it too.

The vamp looked at Rainer and took a slight step back as he held up his hands in a passive gesture. “We do not wish to harm the princess and we never would have hurt her friend. As you can see.” He motioned with his hand toward Sabrina but didn’t take his eyes off Rainer. “We just wanted to get a take on the situation and figure out whether she was truly captive or had the ability to leave of her own free will. If she hadn’t met us, we would have known she was captive then we would have launched an assault to free her from you. And we only shot tranqs at you the other night, wolf.”

Estrella narrowed her eyes at him. “That’s some seriously messed-up logic. But I don’t even care about your bullshit. I want to know how you knew my mother. Did you have something to do with her death?” Her claws ached to unsheathe and she was barely restraining her inner jaguar at that thought.

Shock rippled off the vamp that was so pure she had no doubt of his sincerity when he said, “I loved your mother like a sister. She mated with a jaguar and left our coven to be with him. I respected her decision—even though I thought it was stupid to abandon her people.”

Her immediate reaction was to deny this vampire’s words as pure insanity, but some vague memory played in her mind. “Let’s say I believe that my mother was a vampire. What do you mean, her people?” Estrella couldn’t remember once going running with her mother, only her father. In fact she’d never once seen her mother shift forms, but Estrella had been five. It wasn’t something she’d thought much about after their deaths. She’d just assumed both her parents had been jaguars because she was a jaguar.

“Amira Villanueva was the daughter of my coven leader, Amir Villanueva. She was slated to take over should Amir ever die. She was considered a princess to our coven as are you—now that we know of your existence.”

Estrella placed a hand on Rainer’s forearm, needing his support. Rainer immediately wrapped an arm around her shoulders and held her close. She savored his strength.

The vampire watched the interaction between the two of them. Surprise flared in his eyes briefly before his blank mask fell back into place. What? Had he not actually realized she and Rainer were together?

She wasn’t sure she believed any of this, but needed to ask more questions. “So why come after me now? And what the hell is your name?”

He blinked in surprise. “My name is Taran. We didn’t even know you existed until recently. Didn’t know a jaguar-vampire mating could produce a child, but when I killed...” His jaw clenched and he took a deep breath. “I was recently forced to kill a member of our coven in self-defense and when he died, I took his memories through his blood. He’d been plotting to take over the coven and I wanted to see who his companions were, if any.”

Estrella looked up at Rainer, her eyes wide. “Can vampires really do that?”

Rainer nodded, his expression grim. “It’s rare, but yes. Some can.”

She looked back at the vampire. “So what does that have to do with how you found out about me?”

The vampire looked almost apologetic. “The man I killed was one of the vampires who killed your parents. He wanted your mother dead should he ever decide to attempt to dethrone Amir. I’ve already killed the others who were there that night, too. I saw you in his memories and I also saw his intentions from that night. He’d planned to kill you, but you were too fast. Even as a child, you ran too fast for him. Then you disappeared into the human world so he made the decision to let you go. He’d decided you weren’t worth the trouble since no one knew of your existence. He hadn’t even known about you until that night he came after your parents.”

Estrella’s chest tightened as she struggled to breathe. She so badly wanted to deny his words, but she couldn’t scent any lies from him. Lies had a particular metallic stench and this guy gave off nothing but pure honesty. It would also make a lot of sense as to why her mother had disappeared. If vampires turned to ash like the one she’d seen the other night, then that’s why her mother’s body had never been found. She glanced over her shoulder at Sabrina and was thankful to see her friend didn’t look quite as in shock as earlier. And she couldn’t scent as much fear off her either, just curiosity. But Estrella still wanted to get her out of here and she desperately needed to digest all this information alone.

She turned back to the vampire and tightened her grip around Rainer. “I don’t know if I even believe you—”

Taran held out a cell phone to her. Everyone in the room tensed as Rainer let out a low growl. Conrad took a step forward and grabbed the phone then covered the distance to Rainer. Then he stood half in front of Estrella, taking the opportunity to block her even further from the vampires. She would have smiled at his show of protection if she had the energy. Rainer looked at the phone, then handed it to her. The vampire had taken snapshots of framed pictures—mostly of her mother and a man who was older than her—that spanned different decades. It could be a hoax, but Estrella couldn’t imagine why the vampires would bother.

“You might not exhibit any of our vampire qualities, but you must carry the gene and are considered a blood born despite your jaguar body. We think you can theoretically have a blood born if you mated with a vamp—”

Rainer’s low growl filled the air once again. “Estrella isn’t mating with anyone except me.”

Taran nodded slowly as he looked between them. “I see that. I was just making a statement. I—we,” he held out a hand, motioning to the other vampires still locked in staring contests with Rainer’s pack mates, “would like to welcome you back into our coven. You have a home, a family. Your grandfather desperately wants to meet you. When your mother left, they said many angry things to each other and he wants another chance. He would have been here, but he is at the treaty signing and could not leave.”

Estrella still had a billion questions for this guy, but now wasn’t the time. “My friends and I are leaving. You will not follow and you will never harass, touch or even look at any of my friends again. If I find out you actually did hurt Sabrina, I’ll cut off your head.” When he went to argue, she shook her head. “I want to sit down and talk with you and if what you’re saying is true, I want to meet my grandfather, but I will not be bullied or forced into anything. You have my phone number so text me your number and I’ll be in touch. Take my offer or leave it because I’m leaving now.”

The vamp nodded, though his jaw was clenched tight. It was clear he wanted to argue, but knew he’d lose. Looking at his men, he nodded again and they all carefully left the storage room.

“Call the boys, tell them to let the vamp outside go,” Rainer said to Conrad who immediately pulled out his phone.

Estrella turned at the sound of Sabrina standing up. Her friend’s dark eyes were wide but at least not glassy anymore. She swayed on her feet and Estrella immediately covered the distance to support her—even though she was terrified of her friend’s rejection and probable horror at the knowledge of what Estrella was.

“You can seriously turn into a jaguar?” were Sabrina’s first words.

Estrella nodded, unable to find her voice.

“Holy crap, that’s kind of insane—and pretty cool. I’ll probably freak out once these drugs wear off, but...” Sabrina lunged at her then, throwing her arms around her neck. “Thank you for coming for me. I knew you would,” she whispered, her voice thick with tears.

Estrella hugged her back, then glanced at Rainer. The rest of his pack mates were cleaning up the storage room, but he was still standing there in all his naked glory watching her with a curious but guarded look.

Did he not want her now? Not only was she a jaguar, but chances were she was also part vampire. How freaky was that? Why would he want her when he could have a normal wolf shifter to warm his bed? Shuddering, she looked away and moved to slip an arm under Sabrina’s shoulders. She just wanted to get her friend out of here for now. Everything else could wait.

Chapter 8

Rainer paced along the length of the tiled foyer in his pack’s mansion. He’d barely seen Estrella the past three days because she’d spent them holed up with her best friend. Not that he blamed her. Her friend needed her and he would never take that away from either of them. The human, Sabrina, had taken the knowledge that there were supernatural creatures alive and living side by side with her in stride. Conrad was currently keeping an eye on her to make sure she didn’t panic and tell other humans about them. Most people probably wouldn’t believe her anyway, but until the shock of her newfound knowledge wore off, they were being cautious.

Right now, however, Rainer just wanted to hold Estrella in his arms to convince himself that what they’d shared was real and she hadn’t changed her mind about them. They’d talked on the phone a few times but the conversations had been brief. It had been obvious she wanted time alone to digest what she’d learned about herself as well and he hadn’t wanted to smother her. In a few hours his Alpha, oldest brother and Estrella’s vampire grandfather would be returning to the compound and he’d never been more nervous in his life.

“You all right?”

Rainer turned at the sound of Angela’s, Knox’s mate’s, soft voice. Wearing black leather pants, a black T-shirt and black boots she’d paused at the bottom of the winding staircase, her dark eyebrows raised in concern. She’d arrived back in Huntsville a day before her mate to get the house ready for their guests’ arrival.

Rainer shook his head. No, he wasn’t all right. “I miss her.” The words were out before he could contemplate censoring himself. Who cared anyway if Angela knew how he felt? Hell, the entire pack knew by now. He’d been biting off the heads of anyone who even looked at him wrong the past couple days.