She ignored him, turned her back, stuffed the cross down her shirt, grabbed the cow around the waist, and pulled. “Get off,” she huffed. Grabbing her lover’s attacker was not unlike trying to stop an army tank—the woman absolutely did not budge. But she shrugged—nearly dislodging Crescent—and punched Drake in the eye for good measure.

“Your monkey’s bothering me,” she told him, and punched him again.

“Crescent, don’t,” Drake said sharply. There was a rill of blood trickling down his chin, but other than that he looked unharmed. Anybody else would be spurting blood from about six different arteries after sailing through a plate-glass window. Thank goodness for werewolf constitution! “Get back. Get out of the way. Don’t worry about me.”

“Yeah, short stuff.” Bam! Another punch. “He’ll be just fine. Why don’t you go get a Frappuccino?”

She ignored them and stubbornly tugged again.

“Crescent, get away from here. In a minute I’m going to forget to be a gentleman—Goddammit, Janet, if you hit my jaw again I’ll put you over my knee!”

“It’s a date, gorgeous.”

“Oh no you don’t!” Crescent tried a new grip and pulled harder. “Nobody’s getting spanked but me.”

“Really?” Hottie said from behind her.

“I said get off him!” She suddenly felt her forearm clutched in an unbelievably strong grip and then she was sailing over the woman’s head, only to hit the sidewalk ass-first. The shock went all the way up her spine, and she yelped.

“Unwise,” Drake said, shrugging out of his coat.

“Oh, please. Nothing personal, Blind Man’s Bluff, but you’re fucked. Can’t have anybody ratting me out to Mikie Boss Man, so sorry, sit still and die now, okay?”

“I’ll pass. And I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Really, Janet. Can’t you two solve this a little more amicably than introducing death into the equation?”

“Pipe down, Dick. No one hit your buzzer.”

Crescent bounced up from the pavement. All three of them looked surprised to see her still in the game. “I said,” she growled, “keep your hands off my man, bitch!” Then she punched the cow in the jaw.

This was infinitely more gratifying than when she’d hit El Hottie. The woman rolled away from Drake like a bowling ball and slammed up against the Gap’s front door, cupping her hands beneath her chin to catch the blood, and Crescent felt the shock of the blow race all the way up to her shoulder.

The woman spit a tooth into her palm. “Hey, that actually hurt, you little cunt!”

“Now that’s interesting,” El Hottie said approvingly. He was the most detached man she’d ever met. What a weirdo! “You don’t smell like a meat-eater.”

“Crescent!” Drake was utterly shocked. It was almost worth getting jumped just to see the look on his face. “How did you manage that?”