“So you brought it here?” he stammered. “The focus? To Cincinnati?”

I slid the stone into the oven and closed it, leaning back to take advantage of the heat slipping past the shut door. David’s breath was shallow and the scent of musk rose.

“Rachel,” he said, eyes riveted to it. “You know what this is, right? I mean…Oh my God, it’s real.” Tension pulling his small frame tight, he straightened. His attention went to Kisten, solemn behind the counter, to Jenks standing beside Matalina, to Ivy, snapping a fingernail on the rivet on her boot. “You hold it?” he said, looking panicked. “It’s yours?”

Running my fingers through the hair at the back of my head, I nodded. “I, uh, guess.”

Kisten jerked into motion. “Whoops,” he said, reaching. “He’s going down!”

“David!” I exclaimed, shocked when the small man’s knees buckled.

I stretched for him, but Kisten had already slipped an arm under his shoulders. While Ivy fiddled with the rivet on her boot with a nail in feigned unconcern, Kisten lowered him into a chair. I edged the vampire out of the way, kneeling. “David?” I said, patting his cheeks. “David!”

Immediately his eyes fluttered. “I’m okay,” he said, pushing me away before he was fully conscious. “I’m all right!” Taking a breath, he opened his eyes. His lips were pressed tightly together and he was clearly disgusted at himself. “Where…did you get it?” he said, his head down. “The stories say it’s cursed. If it wasn’t a gift, you’re cursed.”

“I don’t believe in curses…like that,” Ivy said.

Fear slid through me. I believed in curses; Nick had stolen it—Nick had fallen off the Mackinac Bridge. No, he had jumped. “Someone sent it to me,” I said. “Everyone who knew I had it thinks it went over the bridge. No one knows I’ve got it.”

At that, he pulled himself upright. “Just that loner out there,” he said, shifting his feet but staying seated. He glanced at Kisten, who was at the sink, washing the topping bowls as if this was all normal.

“He doesn’t know,” I said, wincing when Ivy went to set the timer on the stove. Crap, I’d forgotten to again. “I think Kisten’s right that he might be trying to get into our pack, seeing as I trounced him.” I frowned, not believing that he was digging for information and would go back to Walter after the insult of being given to the street pack.

Nodding, David’s gaze returned to the focus. “I got notification that you won another alpha contest,” he said, clearly distracted. “Are you okay?”

Jenks lifted off the table, making glittering sparkles around me and bringing Rex to my feet when he landed on my shoulder. “She did great!” he said, ignoring the small cat. “You should have seen her. Rachel used the Were charm. She came out the size of a real wolf but had hair like a red setter.” He flitted up, moving to Ivy. “Such a pretty puppy she was,” he crooned, safely on Ivy’s shoulder. “Soft fuzzy ears…little black paws.”