Jaz just kept kissing me and rubbing against me, so hard I gasped and arched up, breaking the kiss. His hands wrapped in my hair and he pulled me in again, and everything around me disappeared, sucked into the vacuum of the unbelievable vibes pulsing off him, like nothing I’d ever felt before, not anger or hatred or anything I could put a name to, but pure, unadulterated chaos. When I looked into his eyes, I saw fire—beautiful, devouring flames of chaos and hunger and need, and something deeper that told me I was what he hungered for, what he needed and—

The world went black. A snarl echoed through the darkness. Fangs flashed. The smell of blood, then the splatter of it, thick and hot. The brush of fur against my skin, dark as the night around it.

I ricocheted from the vision, breaking the kiss. My gaze tripped over the crowd, searching for the face I knew was out there: Karl.

Jaz’s hands slid to the back of my head, and he pulled my ear to his lips.

“Sorry,” he whispered, breath coming hard, words disjointed. “Too fast. Not here. Got carried away.”

“It’s not—I thought I heard my parents’ ring tone.” I pulled my personal cell phone from my pocket and flipped it open. “Shit, shit, shit!”

Jaz rubbed my arm. “Pretend you didn’t hear it.”

“I can’t. I’m supposed to check in every night. After last year, I’m on a very tight leash. I miss curfew, even down here, and I’m cut off.”

“Better call back then…from someplace quieter. Come on. We’ll find—”

“No,” I said as I slid off his lap. “You stay. I’ll be right back.”

HOPE HUNGRY

HOPE

HUNGRY

I crossed the road and slipped into a back alley. A blast of night air knocked away the last haze of tequila. Karl had seen me with Jaz, on his lap, drunk and making a fool of—

I rubbed my face. I was twenty-seven, single and entitled to go out, get wasted and get laid.

I sensed Karl’s silent approach. I braced myself, and turned. And he was there, like so many times before, arriving unannounced, simply…appearing—in a parking lot, a grocery store, my living room. I’d glimpse the werewolf vision, look up and he’d be there, acting as if he’d just stepped out for a minute and returned.