Free hellcat 05 - come hell or high water by Sharon Hannaford

and his wolf stood up, growling.  “Uh, no,” Kyle said, calm but emphatic.  “I won’t leave Trish or my Pack when there is such a high threat to the City.”  His Pack might be small, but it was growing, and each of them was as precious as blood family, perhaps more so, because each of them had chosen to be part of his and Trish’s Pack.  He also wouldn’t leave Gabi exposed.  The Vampires might be fast and strong, but he and Gabi had faced countless dangers together, they knew how to fight side by side, and he had a doctorate in tempering her rage and calming her tendency to run full tilt into danger without considering the alternatives.  Julius knew this as well as Kyle did. 
    “No, not Kyle,” he told his second in command.  “He has too much to take care of here.”  His gaze speared Kyle. 
    Kyle gave a tiny nod of understanding, he’d watch Gabi’s back regardless of Julius’s silent command, but he wasn’t one to take offense easily. He understood what caring about Gabi entailed, let alone loving her the way Julius did.  And of that he had absolutely no doubt.  The Master Vampire was as desperately in love as he’d ever seen a man.  Losing Gabi would destroy something inside Julius, quite possibly the very thing that kept him acting human. 
    Kyle had been on the Estate when Julius interrogated the Vampires belonging to his brother, Dantè, the Vampire who’d tortured and then tried to Turn Gabi so he could lay claim to her.  None of the captured Vampires had lived, and what Julius had done to them, using his power over Vampire minds, had been horrific.  Kyle would never forget the screams of the dying Vampires.  He was both relieved and disappointed that Gabi hadn’t been conscious enough to see what Julius was capable of.  A healthy dose of reality might have finally tempered her total lack of caution where the Master Vampire was concerned, but she might never have looked at him the same way again.  And despite everything, Julius was probably the only man Kyle would trust to keep Gabi safe and make her happy at the same time.  Life would never be easy being the Consort to such a controversial Master Vampire, but then that Master needed to protect the only known Dhampir in existence.  Not something many would be powerful or resourceful enough to pull off. 
    “He’s not going to be much help if it comes down to physical combat,” Kyle mused out loud, “but Derek seemed to take an unusually keen interest in the Shifter.”  His wolf had been the one to point it out, shoving the mental image at him.  After Gabi’s departure from the apology session, Derek’s attraction had become even more apparent.  Kyle hadn’t had time to tell Gabi about it.  She would be relieved to have Derek’s ongoing interest in her sidetracked by another woman. 
    Unsurprisingly, Julius looked pleased by the development.  Not that Derek stood any chance with Gabi, but it had to be annoying having a man hanging around the woman you loved with his tongue practically lolling out of his mouth.  Kyle guessed Julius would happily put up with the man’s presence as long as he was on the other side of the world from Gabi, and attracted to another woman to boot.  Intriguingly, attracted to another woman who could make herself look exactly like Gabi if she wanted to. 
     
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    Julius had been standing quietly at the base of the tree for quite some time.  Gabi wasn’t leaving him there to punish him, or to be churlish.  She simply wasn’t ready to speak to him yet. 
    A year ago she would’ve leapt down and confronted him the moment he appeared, taking her frustration and anger out on him.  Venting, saying things that she would later regret. 
    Who knew better than her that old dogs could indeed learn new tricks?  It had taken nearly three decades, but it seemed she was finally achieving some kind of maturity.  And she was surprisingly proud of that.  She would never have