He chuckled. “I’m okay with that. I’ve always wanted to be a boy toy.”

I snorted. “Is that how it feels for you, too?”

“Pretty much.”

“Did you feel that at all before your wolf caught my true scent?”

He paused, then looked me in the eye. “You feel really insecure about that, don’t you?” A flush stained my cheeks, but when I tried to hide under the covers, he pulled them down. “Tell me.”

I sighed. “Yes, okay, I do. I know that we’re mated now, and that what we feel is how it’s going to be from now on, but I still can’t let go of the fact that this is all manufactured by our wolves.”

“But you wanted me before your wolf did, quite desperately if I remember right.” He gave me a cocky grin.

I swatted his chest, and he nipped my lower lip.

“Yes, yes,” I said in an exaggerated tone. “The big bad hunter had a bod that I couldn’t resist. Ha, ha. So funny.”

He just grinned at me.

I ran a finger along his chest, and his muscles tightened. “So you knew I was attracted to you before my wolf was born, but how did you feel toward me before your wolf got in the equation?”

He leaned down to continue his onslaught to the sensitive area on my neck where he’d marked me. “I told you. You intrigued me.”

“But were you attracted to me?”

“Any unmated male would be attracted to you. You’re not only gorgeous, but you have a killer body.” A low growl rumbled in his chest, and that jasmine and night scent rose from him.

So he didn’t like the thought of another male wanting me. Okay, well, that I could live with.

I sighed. “Fine.”

He paused, and looked up, his amber-hued eyes studying me again. “What do I need to do to make you feel secure?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. It’s just me. I need to get over it.”

“In that case . . .” A wicked smile curved his lips. “How about I show you just how attractive I find you?” Gold flared in his eyes as he pressed his very firm, and very impressive, erection against my side.

My insides fluttered. “I suppose that would be okay,” I replied breathlessly.

∞     ∞     ∞

We got up an hour later after screwing like bunny rabbits not once, but three times, then joined Barnabas and Fallon for lunch.

Barnabas was lounging in a reclining chair at a quaint café outdoor seating area just around the corner from the inn. He sipped a hot beverage, steam rising from the top, as Fallon dug into a plate of mutton and a mashed root vegetable indigenous to the fae lands. Both nodded in acknowledgment when we passed by on the sidewalk as we headed toward the café’s front door.

Kaillen and I ordered plates of food at the counter before joining his friends in the outdoor section. Bright sunlight streamed overhead, and a warm breeze caressed my cheeks, making me not in the least sad that I’d left Chicago’s cold weather behind me.

“So what’s the story, morning glory?” Barnabas asked after we were seated. The vamp’s lounge chair sat under a shaded area, so that all portions of the his skin were concealed from direct sunlight. Even though Barnabas wouldn’t burst into flames from the sun at his age, he would have developed some level of sunlight sensitivity by now—something all vampires who were hundreds of years old suffered from. “Are we done chasing the dimwit?”

“Is he dead?” I asked, not missing a beat.

“Probably, unless he can swim across an ocean,” Fallon replied and took another huge bite of his mutton.

“If you’d been hired to kill him, would you consider your job done?” I persisted.

That comment made both of them pause mid-bite and mid-sip. Kaillen grinned and sat back.

“No,” Fallon and Barnabas replied simultaneously.

“And why not?” I asked.

“No proof of death.” Fallon shrugged and resumed eating.

“What he said.” Barnabas jerked his thumb in the fairy’s direction.

“If we’d hired you to kill him,” I continued, “what proof of death would you have presented us with?”

“His head,” they replied in unison.

I grimaced. “Eww.”

Fallon cocked an eyebrow. “You asked.”

“It would have been presented discreetly and cleanly in a sealed non-spillable bag,” Barnabas added. “But back in my day, such a thing didn’t exist. Now, you can ziplock those heads right up, making travel with proof quite pleasant.”

“Traveling. With a severed head. Pleasant.” I made a face. “Right, whatever you say.”

Barnabas’s fangs lengthened, and he grinned devilishly. “Perhaps you’d like to join me on my next job so you can experience such a pleasant encounter firsthand?”

“Pretty sure the lady isn’t interested.” Fallon shoveled another bite of food into his mouth.

“What he said.” I pointed at Fallon, then frowned, not from the thoroughly unpleasant images I was getting of traveling with a decapitated head, but because we were all in agreement that it was too early to call Jakub deceased.

Ugh. Everything still felt so unresolved. And while I knew that Jakub could be dead, I still didn’t feel fine saying everything was over and done with.

My frown deepened. “I did attempt to place a curse on him. If it took root and I activate it now, we would know for sure if he’s alive or not.”

“But if he is alive, and you activate that curse, then he’ll have a clear link to you too,” Kaillen countered. I’d told him about the curse this morning, and it’d been pretty obvious right away that the hunter wasn’t happy about it. “That’s a risk we don’t need to take.”

I faced my mate. “Even if it confirms whether or not he’s still living?”

Kaillen scowled. “Let’s see if we can find out another way first. I don’t want him to have a direct tie to you.”

“In all likelihood, your blast killed him.” Barnabas took another sip of his drink. “Having said that, though, no, I wouldn’t rest easy if this were a job.”

“Exactly, and Jakub had a portal key. What if he used it before my blast hit him?” I added, strengthening my belief that he’d escaped. “Or he had some other type of magic that could transport him? Kaillen can transport himself from anywhere.”

“But that’s only on earth,” my mate replied, before grabbing our drinks and food off the floating tray that had come to us. He placed two plates in front of me. My order held an entire fried fae bird on one plate, and a heaping portion of crisp greens along with the same root vegetable Fallon had ordered on the other. Le sigh. I still ate like a horse.

“Speaking of that blast.” Fallon let out a low whistle. “Your power was quite remarkable.”

“You noticed that too, huh?” I dug into the white meat, similar to chicken, and savored the crispy skin and herbed flavor.

“You seem surprised by that,” Fallon replied.

“I am. I’ve never expelled it like that before,” I said between chews. “So it was new to me that I’m capable of that.”

Barnabas finished his drink, not blood from the looks of it but a tea of some kind, and leaned forward. “How do I put this delicately?” He tapped his chin. “May I ask what you are? Your scent is that of a witch, but also of a werewolf, but your power is off the charts, even more so than the most powerful witch I’ve ever met.”

I gave him a passive smile. Funny how I’d been asking that same question of Kaillen not too long ago. I took a huge bite of what was similar to mashed potatoes but a hundred times more flavorful.

Once I’d swallowed, I hesitated briefly about revealing what I truly was, but then realized that if Kaillen trusted Barnabas and Fallon—when my mate was guarded around almost everyone—then I could trust them too. Besides, I was beginning to find this newfound life in which I didn’t hide who I was to be quite freeing. “I’m a witch and now also a werewolf, and perhaps something else too, but we’re not entirely sure what.”

Barnabas’s brows slanted together. “Now a werewolf? Is that why Kaillen has a mating mark? Something men don’t normally have?”