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head.
    Bad idea.
    Mingled with the sweat of too many bodies was the faint metal-salt trace of fresh blood. Faint enough that a human wouldn’t notice but the wolf did. The instinct to find the source flared strongly. I pushed it away. I’d accepted hunting animals in wolf form. I wouldn’t go any further than that. I might be a werewolf but I didn’t have to be a monster.
    And I didn’t want to be around anyone who held a different view.
    I shook my head, trying to clear the scent from my nose and almost walked straight into the vampire who’d been guarding the stairs. I managed to avoid a collision at the last second but only by rocking back on my heels. Fortunately my boots weren’t the stilettos Jase had pushed for or I would’ve ended up on my ass. Instead, I just wobbled like an idiot for a couple of seconds.
    “What’s the rush?” The vamp grinned down at me. “The show’s just starting.” He jerked his head toward the stage and my eyes followed the movement automatically.
    Mistake.
    Big
mistake.
    The stage wasn’t empty anymore. Instead, a silver whipping post spiked up from its far end, complete with mostly naked blond girl chained in place. Welts streaked her back, some of them a deep enough red to make it clear she was the source of the blood I smelled.
    The man wielding the whip wore a black leather mask but I saw short light brown hair and the bulge of muscle as he drew back his arm. The rattle of chains as the woman shuddered and cried under the blow made the stage seem to blur and shiver. I was suddenly back in Tate’s room with him standing over me, my blood staining his mouth. Icy fingers of dread clawed my stomach and my hand clutched my throat reflexively.
    “Ash?”
    Dan’s voice brought me back and I sucked in one unsteady breath then another, fighting nausea as I tried to believe I was okay.
    Tate was dead. I’d killed him. He couldn’t hurt me anymore.
    At least not physically. But the emotional aftershocks of the events he’d set into motion were doing a pretty damn good job at fucking up my life.
    The faint scars on my throat seemed to throb and I closed my eyes, struggling to breathe. I couldn’t afford to do this. Not here. Not now. Tate was dead and I was damn well going to stay in control.
    The blonde on stage was there voluntarily. Her choice. And not illegal. Nothing I had any right to interfere with.
    The rational approach worked for a few seconds until the whip cracked again, making me flinch as though it were my skin seared by leather. My head started spinning as panic sucked all the air from the room.
    The crowd surged toward the stage, their eagerness and excitement tainting the air around me with sex and bloodlust. To my horror, the same sensations flared in me. Pulse pounding, head reeling, I looked back the way we’d come.
    Esteban stood at the top of the stairs. His eyes locked with mine then he smiled and made a sweeping gesture over the crowd. The bloodlust grew fiercer around me. The room reeked of violence and hunger. Hunger that called to me.
    I swayed, fighting Esteban and the fear tearing at my control as bodies seemed to press in on me—bodies that suddenly smelled very tempting. The scent of blood pulled at me, rich and thick, making my mouth water as the wolf hungered.
    I had to get out of there before I became like everyone around me. Enjoying the pain and fear. Wanting it. Before Esteban’s power unraveled the control I’d fought so hard for and dragged me under. But I couldn’t move.
    Frozen to the spot by the pull of the blood and my inability to fight the twin hungers Esteban invoked. My stomach wanted to heave even as my body ached.
    Dan’s hand clamped around my arm, his shifter-warm skin burning like a brand. “Ash.”
    Esteban’s smile widened and I took a step toward him. Dan’s grip tightened.
    “Ash, look at me.” He stepped between me and Esteban. “Look at me. Don’t think about him. Think about me.”
    Him? Blood roared in my