As Griff stepped out of the door, the disk jockey turned on the music, but the bar wasn’t the same without the rowdy Hellfire pack. Larissa rushed past me toward the exit. I stared at her back, not knowing whether or not to chase after her.It was probably best that I didn’t. At least not tonight. I’d incited Griff’s hunting instinct, and rushing outside to watch him surrounded by a crowd of women was the best way to make him think I was one to discard.Don advanced me, his beady eyes glinting with fury. “You were supposed to do one thing.” He held up a trembling finger. “Not only have you failed to attract patrons, but you’ve driven away half my customers.”“Should I have sat back and let them beat my friend to a pulp?”He bared his teeth, perhaps stopping himself from hissing an answer.Don’s broad chest rose and fell like bellows, and the veins on his temple stood out like bolts of lightning. “Do you know what faeries do to people who can’t pay their exorbitant interest rates?”My st

“Early,” he spluttered. “It’s ten o’clock and nobody turned up for brunch.”I glanced over my shoulder and met Larissa’s curious gaze. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”“He just makes things up to suit his stupid bar,” she said. Don saved me from asking when he said, “How am I going to pay the staff when you’ve chased away the Hellfire Pack?”“Have you thought about letting them keep their tips?” “Shh.” Larissa rushed down the stairs of the top bunk andran to my side. “Don, is there anything you need from us?” “One or both of you is going to the Hellfire Pack andapologizing for last night’s disgraceful display. Then, if they agree to patronize us for brunch, I want you two to serve them.”My shoulders sagged. “You can’t be serious. After what they did—”“If you two can’t understand that I’m running a business, then you can pack your bags and return to the employment exchange.”I was almost tempted to tell him where to stick his job, but Beki gave me a sharp bark and brought

Behind the street was the black dome that concealed the Hellfire Pack’s territory. I ran alongside it, my nostrils filling with the scent of strong magic. There was no trace of the ozone that came with angelic wards, so I had to assume that Griff had employed a witch to construct the magical barrier. Multiple witches. No single person could create something so large.As I reached the twisted oak Don had said was the pack’s intercom system, a faint curl of Hellfire twisted around my senses. It hadn’t exactly been smoke or flame, but it was a hint of power that could only come from one place.It was as thick as a regular oak tree but with limbs that twisted in all directions, like how I might expect the snakes to appear on the head of a gorgon. Some of the branches trailed onto the floor, making it possible for even a wolf to climb to the top.I darted past the oak and into the woods. Considering that this part of Shifter City had once been the mage village Natura and used to be covered in

Griff wheeled my case through Coyote Willy’s backyard and down the street. I trotted at his side, my heart thrumming with promise. Larissa was going to be overjoyed when she discovered I’d infiltrated the Hellfire pack. She would act as my controller and relay messages to Hades. She would get to stay in the World of the Living, and if I was successful, she would share in my reward.A few of the women milling in and out of the stores checked out his muscular physique, but apart from that, nobody gave a shit that he was stark-bollock naked. But then, this was Shifter City.According to the intel we’d been given, everyone who lived here was either a shifter or had descended from one. Only the very rich could afford clothing enchanted to form smart collars when you shifted into your alternate self and to snap back into place around your human form when you shifted back. I doubted that magical technology had changed that much over the four decades.Instead of walking in the direction of t

“And Neutrals?” I asked. “Same thing.”“Alpha.” A wolf in overalls jogged up to us, his eyes bright.He was decent-looking if you thought flower-power was cool, with caramel-colored hair that flowed down his chest and a beard that reached his collarbones. Like Griff, he was six-four, but he didn’t have the bulk to carry off the height. He wore a long necklace of what looked like finger bones with a piece of quartz that hung halfway down his abs. I wondered if he was the pack shaman.“Rocco, this is Katie.” Griff clapped me on the shoulder. “She’s going to take care of Bonnie.”“Cool.” His gaze swept up and down my form, licked his lips, and then fixed me with a gap-toothed grin. “Welcome to the Hellfire pack.”Griff’s hands-off growl had the slighter wolf stepping back and dipping his head in a display of submission.I wasn’t about to preen at the possessive display. Not when I was in a borrowed body, and especially not when it came from a duplicitous wolf like Griff. Ignoring them, I gl