“My father died five years ago,” he continued, and dread settled in the pit of my stomach. “I’m bulldozing that foul witch’s cabin today, and removing that stench from my territory.”
Oh, motherfucker is going to die. You call my sweet Gran’s smell foul and I kill you.
I backed up two steps and dropped to pick up my gun, silver bullet loaded, and pointed it at his chest.
He looked genuinely shocked for a moment.
“Get. Out!” I roared.
He took one last, lingering look at my naked body—the bastard didn’t even bother to hide his lust—and left.
I was so enraged that my hands shook as I dialed my lawyer.
“Barnell and Croft,” a sweet secretary answered.
“I need Croft. It’s Evie Black,” I spit out, trying to control myself so that I wouldn’t go into the hallway and blow the werewolf’s brains out to hell.
The vampire’s voice came on the line, smooth as butter. “Evie, what’s going on? I’m expecting you soon.”
I swallowed hard. “Change of plans. The alpha is going to bulldoze my Gran’s cabin today.”
He hissed. “How did you find out? The wolves around here are especially secretive.”
I sighed. You’re supposed to be truthful with lawyers, right? This might come around to bite me in the ass, so best to tell him now. Croft had been my Gran’s lawyer for the past century; I should be able to trust him.
“I just fucked the alpha. Meet me at the cabin in twenty?” I tried to sound nonchalant about the bomb drop.
There was a pause. “Oh, Evie…” He sighed, and I’d never heard a vamp sigh considering they didn’t need to breathe. "Yes, I’ll meet you there.”
After hanging up the phone I didn’t even bother to shower. I just brushed my teeth and reapplied deodorant. If that asshole was on his way to destroy my Gran’s home, I needed to get there first.
‘Wake up, Cass,’ I shouted, and then snickered a little. Not quite the wake-up call one wanted after being hung-over.
‘I hate you,’ the imp said in my head.
‘Ditch whatever fae you’re with, and meet me at the car. That werewolf from last night is the one trying to destroy Gran’s house.’
There was a bristle between our bond as the shock of my message hit him. Sometimes, if the emotion was strong enough, we could sense each other’s feelings. I’d been partnered with Cass since I was sixteen, when we were both fresh-eared noobs at the Hunter Academy. No one else wanted the tiny beer-bellied rascal, but I saw his potential. He was the most loyal friend I’d ever had. Who was I kidding? He was the only friend I’d ever had. Only real friend anyway, even if he was grumpier than a banshee before she’d had her breakfast.
‘I told you not to sleep with him,’ he replied before there was a hard knock at my door, right before he used his demon magic to unlock it.
Cass walked in wearing tiny, gold, glittering Speedo bottoms, a lit cigarette hanging from his mouth.
I grinned. “Fun night?”
He shrugged, rubbing his pink fuzzy chest fur. “Mostly satisfactory.”
I shivered a little. Cass was a nymphomaniac, and preferred the fae, the taller the better. I didn’t want to know how they worked it out, so I purposely tried not to think about it.
I hooked my gun and badge onto my belt. “Remind me never to sleep with a werewolf again.”
He just glared at me, shook his head, and followed me down the hall.
This alpha was about to regret the day he’d been born.
As we pulled up to Gran’s cabin, nestled deep in the woods of Eugene, Oregon, Croft’s black Mercedes was already in the driveway, but thankfully no bulldozer. Yet. My blood pressure settled a little.
There, in the open green valley at the bottom of the hill, sat Gran’s little white and blue cottage, built by my grandfather’s own two hands, with a little help from his warlock magic. I was a Black, descendant from one of the most powerful witch clans in North America, even though I was born without magic. A human for all intents and purposes, everyone else in the magical community shunned me. But not Gran. She said I was perfect, and didn’t care that her family’s famous magical lineage was going to end with me. There was no way in hell I was letting what’s-his-face alpha tear down my best memory of the only woman who’d loved me.
Cass and I exited my Jeep and stalked over to meet my lawyer. Croft was one of a handful of vampires in the world who could withstand sunlight. I didn’t know the details of the whole thing or how it worked, but I knew if you had it, you were super powerful. My eyes flicked to the top of the hill and the gigantic, pretentious, werewolf mansion that sat there.
“Did you get the plans?” I asked Croft.
He nodded. “Deed to the land with boundary lines, signed April 5th, 1915.”
A sudden crunch of gravel had me spinning. An enormous yellow bulldozer trundled down the lane. At the wheel was none other than my sexual conquest.
Motherfucker.
A black pickup truck full of young, ripped werewolves trailed behind him.
“How many hours did my grandmother prepay you?” I asked in a low voice. I was on a budget until my next bounty job. Being a freelancer was a hit or miss.
Croft waved a hand. “Your grandmother gave me something far more valuable than money. I’ll work for you whenever you need me, no charge—assuming I’m available.”
My eyebrows rose. “For how long?”
He shrugged in that cool, collected way vampires had. “Let’s say a century.”
Whoa. What had Gran given him? Now wasn’t the time to ask, and Croft wasn’t exactly chatty under normal circumstances, so I refrained from it. I’d only met him a handful of times. I was twenty-four, and witches lived a little longer than humans—to about a hundred and twenty-five, on average—so he’d just offered to be my lawyer for the entirety of my life.
The bulldozer reached us and my eyes flicked to Cass. “Will you station yourself on the roof? Start breathing fire if he comes near the house?”
“You know I’ve got your back.” He winked; tiny, blue, leathery bat wings erupted from his back as he flew onto the roof. Cass was more colorful than a gumball machine. He couldn’t technically breathe fire, but he could throw it.
The alpha threw the bulldozer into park and exited, standing tall and wearing the same clothes from last night. So he hadn’t showered either. Something about that pleased me, to know my scent was still all over him. Immediately, memories of the night before flashed in my mind, and I shoved them away—hard. There’d be no more of that; that was for damn sure.
“I’ll make this quick,” he offered, holding a sheaf of papers that looked similar to ours. Brock! That was his name. Brock the Cock.
I stepped forward and craned my neck to look up at him. “No, I’ll make this easy. My Gran owned this land, says so right here, and now I’ve inherited it as her rightful heir. This is my lawyer, Mr. Croft, and he’ll be happy to discuss this in his office downtown. But right now, you’re trespassing.” I crossed my arms for full effect.
Brock’s eyes glittered, and his jaw twitched, veins bulging along his temples. A few of his boys snickered behind him.
He stepped closer to me, trying to intimidate me no doubt. Except, I remembered how gently he’d sucked my nipples last night, so I wasn’t cowed at his masculine display.
‘Ewww,’ Cass interrupted my thoughts.
‘Privacy,’ I warned.
‘Gladly.’
The alpha slammed a paper onto the hood of Croft’s Mercedes, and pointed to the boundary line, which was different from the one we had. Then he pointed out of the clearing and deeper into the woods, closer to the road but farther from his mansion. I noticed the date was the same on each map.
“That is your property. Your snake of a grandmother knew it, but she built her cabin here because she didn’t want to cut down any trees.” He scoffed as if that were ridiculous, but witches like Gran were particularly connected to nature. She’d drawn her power from it.
I put my hand on the butt of my gun. “Call my dead Gran a snake again, and see what happens.”
This time, even my vampire lawyer coughed into his hand to hide a snicker.
Brock sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as if I’d given him a headache. “I’m willing to be reasonable. I’ll demolish this house and pay for a nice trailer over there on your land.”
I reeled back, disgusted. “A trailer? My grandfather built this house with his own bare hands. I kissed my first elf right there on that porch. You’ll demolish nothing!”
Brock waggled his jaw. “Fine. I’ll have an exact replica built for you. Over there. Away. From. My. Land.” Fur rippled down his arms, and Croft stepped closer as if to protect me in the event the alpha snapped.
I met Croft’s eyes. “I can handle him.”
Then I looked at the greatest sexcapade of my life: “Unless you want to go to jail, you’re not touching that house. I’m not leaving it, so you can’t bulldoze it unless you kill me first. And let me remind you, as a supernatural, killing a human bounty hunter will get you life in prison on the island.”
His face slackened the slightest bit and I knew I had him. The island was a hellhole for every supernatural fuck-up in America.
“You’re not human,” he retorted stupidly.
Croft shrugged. “Will a jury care that she was born of witch lineage when she has no powers to defend herself?” he spoke in his chilly, even voice.
Brock’s face reddened. “Don’t go outside on the full moon. I won’t be responsible for what happens to you if you do.” Then he spat, turned on his heel, and left.
I looked up to the roof, where Cass was chain-smoking, and he gave me a thumbs-up. When the retreating wolf convoy reached the end of the road, I turned to my lawyer.
“Well, how do you think that went?” I asked seriously.
He grinned from ear to ear. “You’re Belinda Black’s granddaughter all right.”
Damn straight. And no one was taking my home from me. I didn’t care how good he was in bed.
4 House Arrest
Good thing I hadn’t bothered to hope that Brock might have redeeming qualities, because I would have been sorely disappointed if I had.
Three days had passed since we’d reached our standstill, and I was effectively a prisoner of Gran’s cabin while Croft researched what the deal was with the differences in our two deeds. Gran was a sneaky one, so I wouldn’t entirely put it past her to have built on his land, and pretend she didn’t know. But Gran loved me, and she wouldn’t have left me the property if everything weren’t lined up in my favor—even if she’d been the one to line it up herself, by whatever means.
Since I couldn’t trust the alpha for a second, and he’d left the bulldozer parked at the top of the road as a warning, I didn’t leave the house.