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in his lap, her head resting over his heart.
    Then, as if to remind him of just how little right he had to hold her so tight, she opened her eyes and forced herself to share what she recalled of her kidnapping.
    “I remember I was meeting with Sean.”
    His muscles clenched at the reminder that she’d chosen a mere mortal to warm her bed while slamming the door in his face.
    “Your human lover?”
    She lifted her head from his chest, studying his rigid expression. “He wasn’t my lover.”
    Bayon frowned. “No?”
    Her lips thinned at the disbelief in his voice. “No, he approached me at The Cougar’s Den one night. He said he’d heard rumors there was a new gang in the area who were spending a lot of time in the bayous.”
    Bayon hesitated, reeling beneath her blunt confession.
    Shit. Did she have any idea how often he’d tormented himself with the thought that her last hours had been spent with her human lover instead of with the family who would have protected her?
    And now he discovered that she’d lied to him…he gave a sharp shake of his head.
    “He knew what you are?” he demanded. Most humans were convinced that the Pantera were no more than a myth. A belief that the Pantera were happy to encourage.
    “Yes, and that we’d be interested in the strangers,” she said. “I asked him to try and infiltrate the gang and get us information.” She shuddered at some unpleasant memory. “He was willing, for a price.”
    His gaze narrowed. “What price?”
    Again with the thinning of her lips. “Not the one you’re thinking.”
    Bayon grimaced. His age-old jealously was making him behave like an ass. And why? She’d just revealed that she’d used Sean as an asset to discover information, not to be her playmate, hadn’t she?
    Maybe it was because at the time she’d gone to such an effort to make him think she was in the midst of a passionate affair.
    “You just pretended to be lovers so you had a reason to meet him?”
    “Give the cat a gold star,” she muttered.
    He bent down to nip her nose. “And to piss me off?”
    The flush staining her cheeks revealed he wasn’t wrong. “Not everything is about you, Bayon.”
    “Says who?” he teased before pulling back to meet her wary gaze. “So what happened?”
    She frowned, her eyes shadowed with a fear that he desperately longed to erase.
    “I remember he cornered me as I was leaving The Cougar’s Den one evening. He told me he had information I needed to hear, but he was scared to tell me where we could be overheard. He wanted to meet me at our secret location the next evening.”
    “And you agreed.”
    “Yes, I had no reason not to trust him. Although I did notice there was suddenly something off about his scent. It was—”
    “Sour?” he completed for her.
    She gave a startled nod. “Exactly.”
    Which meant they were definitely connected to the same idiots who’d attacked Raphael and Ashe.
    Dammit.
    How long had their enemies been spying and plotting on them?
    And why wait until now to strike?
    Questions he had no answer for.
    Bayon’s cat snarled with the need to be on the hunt.
    “He must have decided the enemy had more to offer than we did,” he growled.
    “Maybe.” The shadows in her eyes darkened. “I assume that I went to meet him.”
    “Keira.” He cupped her cheek as she was shook by a violent tremor. “What is it?”
    “I can’t remember, but it’s something important,” she breathed, the acrid tang of her fear suddenly thick in the air. “Something that’s a danger to the Pantera.”
    Genuine concern squeezed his heart as he sensed her rising hysteria. “Shh. Don’t try to force it.”
    She shivered, abruptly trying to push him away as her fear threatened to consume her. “Now you’re a Healer?”
    Bayon wished to hell he was. Maybe he’d know what to do to help her work through the stress of her forgotten memories.
    All he could do was offer a distraction.
    With a speed that caught Keira off guard, he had