“You want me to watch the pups while you go get a babysitter?” he asked.

I’ve already sent for one of my boys.

“Slick. I didn’t hear a thing.”

She couldn’t help herself. Her tail gave a flicker of a wag under his praise.

While we wait for my pack brother, she said to cover up her awkwardness, tell me what happened. When did you last see Jilly?

“A couple of weeks ago,” he said. “But I’d put this safeguard on her . . .”

He went on to explain how he’d woken when the safeguard had been tripped, and Jilly had subsequently disappeared when she should have been sent to the Greatwood.

“And now it’s like she’s not even in the world anymore,” he said. “Not in any world.”

I can see that, she said. This will be hard. I’ll have to go by the inside of her.

“I don’t understand.”

It’s hard to explain. She’s not in any world as we know it. She’s somewhere else—somewhere inside herself.

“Inside herself?”

She nodded. And someone’s hurting her . . .

It was always like that with men, wasn’t it? If they couldn’t hurt a stranger, or some poor mute beast, then they’d hurt one of their own.

Joe’s eyes, always unusual, flashed with strange fires in their depths, and she could smell the sudden surge of adrenaline in him.

“Who’s hurting her?” he said in calm voice that promised anything but calm.

I can’t tell. Someone she knows well.

“Is that boy of yours going to be long?”

He’s almost here.

Joe nodded, giving nothing away. But he was like a hunter, poised to launch himself at his prey.

Don’t worry, she told him. We’ll get to her in time.

They had to, she realized, or Joe would go rogue, and she was just beginning to get an inkling of how dangerous that would be. Not just to his prey, but to himself as well. She’d seen it before in the ring. If he let himself go, he might never get back to himself again. But he wasn’t some fighting dog, thrust into the ring. Power surged behind his eyes, old and dark and stronger than she’d ever imagined until this moment.

Once it was loosed, he wouldn’t be just a danger to himself and those around him.

Worlds could fall.

Geordie