Lyra didn’t bother to argue with him, watching his shoulders sag as he toyed with his glass. She hated having to lie to Simon about why Jaden was here. Just like she hated being at odds with him. They’d been each other’s support for a long time. She gave him an affectionate nudge, and when he looked at her through his reddened eyes, she was surprised to find them sad.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. “You’re not yourself lately. Even before this mess with the Proving. And… everything.” She decided mentioning Jaden by name would just make him shut down.

Simon lifted his eyebrows at her. He really was handsome, she thought. A little sloppy right this second, but really classically good looking. She’d always wondered why another girl hadn’t snatched him up. She felt more than a little guilt at the thought that she might have scared those theoretical girls away… or that he’d simply been waiting for her.

“Well,” he said, “you being determined to get yourself killed is kind of putting me out lately, Lyra. So there’s that. And what do you mean I’m not myself? I’m not boring? Dependable? Always around because I have nothing better to do? That stuff never changes.”

Lyra frowned at the edge in his voice. “I meant friendly, fun, and charming, none of which you are being right now. Or recently.”

He looked at her for a long moment, as though trying to decide what to say. He didn’t look hurt, at least. But this side of Simon was unfamiliar to her. It wasn’t like him to be troubled and broody. She worried. Of course, lately, it felt like all she did was worry. She shouldn’t have been surprised that Simon was getting in on the action. Finally, he spoke.

“I don’t know, Lyra. I know you want all this. But I just keep thinking… there’s a lot more out there than Silver Falls.” He looked away. “Maybe you’re not the only one who gets tired of being pigeonholed.”

It hurt to hear him so down. She’d had no idea he was dissatisfied with pack life, and that hurt more… because he hadn’t told her. Better late than never, she guessed. If she could only find the words to fix what ailed him.

“Simon,” she said gently, “you’re great. You’re one of the most promising members of the pack guard, everyone says so. Not to mention you’re one of the only people who’s able to put up with me on a regular basis. You’re like…” She searched for a good comparison. “Like the local knight in shining armor. Just werewolf style.”

One side of his mouth curved up, but his eyes were full of melancholy. “For who, exactly?” With a deep breath, he got to his feet, swaying only slightly. “I think I’ll take a page out of the cat vamp’s book and go get some air. I’ll see you later, Lyra.”

Her next response wasn’t something she usually did. Physical affection just wasn’t her thing, and she’d never been one of those girls who couldn’t let a friend go without some kind of gushy display. But before she could think better of it, Lyra rose and wrapped her arms around her friend. She felt like she was losing her grip on everything she cared about with no solution in sight, and something in her compelled her to reach out even though she knew damn well doing so would get the gossips going again.

She felt Simon stiffen, then relent for the briefest of moments as his arms went around her to give her a single, tight squeeze. Somewhere beside them, she heard Beth give an approving coo.

“Everything’s changing,” Lyra said unhappily, her head against Simon’s broad chest.

“Yeah,” he replied. “I guess things do.” Then he disentangled himself and stepped back, leaving her just as surely as Jaden had last night. The difference was that she didn’t even have Jaden to lose. Simon looked off to his left, toward the door to the bar, and frowned.

“Great. And he called me a stalker.” Simon gave her a meaningful look. “Steer clear of him, if you know what’s good for you, Lyra. Vamps are nothing but trouble. And that one’s got more than his fair share. I’m going to be watching him.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he shook his head. “It’s my job. I don’t care how pretty he is, or how mysterious or whatever it is you see there. You’d better start thinking with your head, or you’re not going to get what you want.”

Simon leveled a hard glare across the room, where a commotion had kicked up in the form of growling, muttering wolves rapidly clearing from the path of a newcomer to the bar. Then he turned and headed for the back door, leaving her to deal with the situation all on her own. Lyra’s stomach sank as she looked around and saw every wolf in the place tense, bristle, their eyes lighting like lamps in the dim room. And of course, she knew exactly why.

She could smell him: vamp, feline, and utterly male. Of course, the difference between her and the rest of the wolves seemed to be that while his scent made them want to attack, she sort of wanted to find the source and… roll around in it.

Her heart picked up its pace as soon as she caught sight of his dark head. He held it high, ignoring the hostile glares, the low growls, and the not-so-quiet epithets as he strode into the room with the sort of preternatural grace no human, or wolf, could possess. Jaden seemed to take in everything and yet look at nothing, avoiding the direct eye contact many of her pack would have taken as a challenge. She couldn’t seem to move, drinking in the sight of him hungrily. His lean form was all in black, and his eyes glowed their bright blue as they swept the room. Assessing threat, she supposed. A wise move, considering the thinly veiled hatred with which most of the wolves were watching him.

When those eyes settled on her, she knew immediately that he’d seen her hugging Simon. He looked hot, bothered, and fixed on her with a raw possessiveness that knocked the breath right out of her. This was everything she’d feared, everything she’d sworn she didn’t want even though it tempted her like nothing ever had.

Why him? she wondered. Why me?

Since bolting wasn’t really an option, Lyra decided to take what control she could. She felt dozens of eyes on her, some curious, most suspicious, and a few outright hostile. The room had fallen strangely quiet, the only sounds coming from the jukebox and the electronic poker machine. Lyra shook her hair back behind her shoulders, straightened as though she hadn’t a care in the world, and strolled as casually as she could to where Jaden was making his way toward her.

Lyra thought he stuck out like a sore thumb, but in the most appealing sort of way. She gave him credit for guts, or at least hardheadedness, for showing up here. No matter how firm her father had been in his edict that the cat vamp shouldn’t be touched, however, some of the less restrained (and drunker) members of the pack were going to forget themselves before too long.

She needed to get him out of here.

“Jaden,” she said coolly by way of greeting as she made her way toward him, coming to a stop within a couple of feet.

“Lyra,” he returned. She could sense the caution in him, despite the hungry way he was still looking at her. No big bad wolf could have done it better. Once more, he looked around at the pack members, now openly gawking at him. How many had ever even seen a vampire? she wondered. The Thorn was a closed society. One the vamps had ignored for a very long time.

“Your father said that if I wanted to start meeting some of the pack, this is the place.”

Lyra lifted her eyebrows as a wave of quiet laughter erupted around them.

“Uh, yeah. You could say that,” she said. Gods, what was he doing here?

“Hey, vamp! You can turn into a kitty, right? Why don’t you show us?”

More laughter, louder now. Lyra recognized the voice of Dan Marshall, one of her father’s buddies, and barely suppressed a groan. This could go south quickly if Jaden got defensive. Fortunately, he seemed cool—so far. And she really needed to come up with an exit strategy that didn’t look like she was getting too comfortable with him. Tightropes, she thought. Her life was walking them.

“I wouldn’t want to shed in such a nice place,” Jaden replied, looking directly at Dan with a twinkle in his eye. “And I like the odds better if I buy you all a round instead. What do you say?”

Lyra held her breath, expecting the worst. But Dan simply laughed in his ragged whiskey voice. “Sure. We’re not that easy to butter up, vamp… but buying drinks is a start I’m fine with.”

“Didn’t expect you would be. Drinks on me, then,” Jaden said, provoking several hoots and howls from the peanut gallery that, Lyra found, were a great deal friendlier than she’d expected just a few minutes ago. She let out the breath she’d been holding as activity resumed all around them, maybe a little quieter than it had been but minus some of the tension.

Jaden leaned in close now that he had the chance of not being overheard. “You’re late. I’ve been up for over an hour.”

She fought the urge to fidget as his breath fanned over her ear. “You’re the one who took off last night. I didn’t even know if we were still on.”

He backed off a little, seeming to realize that whispering in Lyra’s ear for too long was not going to create a picture she would want. Instead, he spoke in a low voice that she doubted anyone would hear but her over the resumed conversations.

“I didn’t think you’d want to watch me eat. Was I wrong?”

The image in her head was immediate: Jaden, his arms around some attractive blonde, his teeth in her neck. She felt her claws bite into her palms when she closed her hands into fists. No, she realized. He wasn’t wrong.

“It’s not just that, and you know it,” Lyra said, keeping her voice as low as his. “We need to talk.”

“Yeah, I guess we do,” he said. “Later, though. Your father—”

Lyra nodded. He didn’t need to finish. She was well aware that her father was angry that last night had been a bust. He was focused on keeping his daughter alive. And Lyra knew she needed to focus on the important things too. Simon had been right about that: fixating on Jaden wasn’t going to get her what she wanted. In fact, she could easily lose everything.