Page 72 of Damien’s Mate

Brock added, “And her dad’s gone—he died for this. In a way, that puts more pressure on her than if he were still alive. If she goes her own way, there’s no chance of getting him to forgive her.”

Damien picked at a blade of dried grass. “I guess. I never thought about it that way.” He sighed. “But it isn’t going to change anything. She’s going, and I’m not. So I guess it’s time for me to figure out what I need to do next. Where I need to go.”

He didn’t say what he wanted to say, which was that he’d hoped he could stay here. It would have been different if he were with Lila—he’d be the mate of a shifter.

But no shifter crew was going to just take in a random human.

He looked up to see Brandon exchanging looks with Colt and Remy, and then with Kitty. Finally he said, “You know, I could use another operative in the PI business—especially someone with your experience. You ever think about staying here?”

Chapter 29

Damien couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Without thinking he asked, “Would I have to go straight?”

That got a wave of laughter. “Depends how much trouble you brought down on us,” Brandon said.

Colt added, “He means, try not to blow any more shit up, or get in shootouts on public streets.”

Damien snorted. “Look who’s talking. You guys were the ones shooting up the office building in Louisville. And I didn’t blow anything up.”

Then he turned to Brandon. “Are you serious? Even though I’m not—” He almost did the rawr claws, but didn’t want to fuck this up so he substituted, “not a shifter?”

There were some more significant looks exchanged. “You could be, someday,” Brandon said. “If you wanted to be Turned.”

Damien got that roller-coaster worldview-shifting feeling again. “Wait, what? Like in a werewolf movie?”

“Not exactly,” Brock said. “Usually it’s only done if a shifter mates with a human.”

“During sex,” Kitty added helpfully.

Brock continued, “But that’s not the only time. Any one of us could Turn you.”

“I am not having sex with any of you,” Damien informed them.

“I second that,” Remy said. “Anyway, we’d really only have to bite you. It’s super-painful and you’d suffer. A lot.” He grinned evilly.

Brandon said, “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. That’s something we don’t have to decide right now.”

“But it would be so cool!” Kitty said. “You could pick what you want to be. A wolf, or a leopard or an owl. Or a polar bear. Or a wolf. Because they’re the best.”

Damien turned to Jaeda. “What about that thing that you turned into? The jelly bear?”

Colt started laughing. “Jelly bear! That’s awesome! New nickname.” He and Callie high-fived.

“No,” Jaeda said, glaring at Colt. “No to the nickname, and no to the jelly bear. I am, and will remain, the only bearblob in shifter history.”

“And she is not biting you,” Remy added. “Sexually or otherwise. Veto.”

“Seconded,” Brandon said. “For many reasons, most of them being that she’s the weirdest shifter of all time and god only knows what we’d end up with if she did it.”

“Owls are cooler,” Remy said.

Colt threw a tuft of grass at him. “Owls are sociopaths.” Remy gave him the finger.

Callie said wickedly, “Brandon can do it.”

They all looked at each other, eyes wide, heads shaking vehemently.

“Why the hell not?” Brandon demanded.