It was exactly what I’d needed.

“So, why is he back in your space?” Sam asked me.

I couldn’t tell her. Not when I hadn’t even told my best friend, and not when I wasn’t even sure how I felt about it. I didn’t want other people’s opinions to colour what decision I made. And Sam no doubt intended to tell me that I should stay clear of Butch. “If you’re going to warn me that it’s in my best interests to stay away from him, you don’t need to. He already told me he thinks he’s not good for me.”

“He probably isn’t,” said Sam. “I don’t mean it in a bitchy way. But we have to be straight here. Butch is…he’s not broken, but he’s fractured.”

I could agree with that.

“He’d be a difficult mate. He’s an alpha, which automatically makes him a bloody handful. He has qualities that make him great at his position. He’s confident, disciplined, forever alert, and loyal to a fault. He’s got a brilliant, strategic mind. And he doesn’t let fear hold him back; never flinches at anything.

“But he’s also very dominant. And he’s so direct, his words often come out cold. That means he’ll be overbearing and absentmindedly hurtful in a relationship. He needs a mate who’ll be careful not to take things too personally and to give him a lot of room to fuck up. But she’d also have to push back or he’d walk all over her.”

She wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know. Not wanting to hear any more reasons a relationship with him would be hard, I said, “You really think he needs to know that Marco’s an ex of mine?”

Sam’s eyes narrowed slightly, but she allowed the subject change. “I do. He’s never said anything, but I think he found it hard to see you with Dean. He can be jealous when it comes to you. So when he finds out you used to date Marco, he’ll want to see him dead even more than he already does. It really is best if he hears the truth from us.”

“Let’s be honest,” began Jared, “if the situation was reversed, what would you do to Butch’s Maker?”

My back teeth locked. “The question is: what wouldn’t I do?”

A slow smile surfaced on Sam’s face. “I like that answer.”

Well, it was true.

“I actually doubt Marco will start any shit,” said Sam. “The reunion will be awkward, though. Still, we can deal with ‘awkward.’ And if Marco does act like a tit, you can take him. And I can watch, smiling with glee the entire time.”

“She’s not kidding, by the way,” Jared told me.

I smiled. “I didn’t for one second think that she was.”

(Butch)

A few hours before dawn, I was sitting across the kitchen table from Sam after receiving a telepathic summons from Jared. “Imani’s been here,” I noted, picking up her scent.

“We need to talk to you about her,” Sam replied simply.

Everything in me froze. I flicked my gaze from Sam to Jared to Sebastian; they all looked equally serious. “What about Imani?”

Sinking into her seat, Sam said, “After she told us about her past, I had a little chat with Mona and Cedric. I wanted to know more about Marco. According to them, he’s a cunning, intelligent, smooth-talking predator who’s so cold he’s dead inside. Still, he doesn’t go around Turning unwilling humans.” Sam leaned forward. “But something made him do that to Imani. Until her, he was happy without the responsibilities of running his own line; he was happy owing loyalty to only his Sire and his nest. She changed that somehow.”

“She’s his first-born?”

Sam nodded. “She doesn’t believe that he cared for her, even though they were a couple while she was human—which is something you’re best knowing upfront.”

Oh, fucking were they?

“Stop growling and listen. She also doesn’t believe that he tried tracking her after she fled. She’s right about that. And that’s just bloody weird. If nothing else, he should see her as a possession that he lost. He appears to be just ignoring her existence. Does that make sense to you?”

No, it didn’t. I knew Sam well enough to know… “You have a theory.”

“Imani was a drifter for years. She had a lot of people tracking her, all intent on using her for her gift. She’s a slippery little thing, and she’s smart and resourceful. But would that really have been enough to evade all those vampires?”

I narrowed my eyes. “You think Marco protected her somehow.”

“Tracking is my specialty,” said Sebastian, leaning against the kitchen counter. “But it was no easy thing for me to find Paige and Imani. It was as though someone was wiping away their trail.”

I frowned. “Why Turn her, abandon her, let her flee, and protect her from afar?”

“Guilt?” offered Sebastian. “Perhaps he felt badly for wronging her.”

“By all accounts,” said Sam, “Marco isn’t the regretful type.”

A thought occurred to me. “Is it possible that Paige is working for him? That he appointed her to protect Imani?”

“No,” replied Sam. “I think Imani reminds Paige of her sister, but that’s another story.”

Jared took the seat beside his mate. “Maybe it wasn’t Marco that was erasing her trail. Maybe it was Lazarus.”

Her brows lifted. “That sounds much more likely.”

It did, but there was no knowing anything for sure. There were too many unanswered questions here. “All I want to know is if Imani will be in danger at Lazarus’ home. If the answer is yes, she doesn’t go.”

Sebastian spoke. “If Marco meant her any harm, he would have put a bounty on her head when she fled. He never did. Instead, he let her be—may even have protected her.”

Still… “That’s not to say that seeing her won’t anger him enough to hurt her now. It would be better not to risk it.”

Sam cast me an impatient glance. “Butch, she’s a member of the fucking legion. She’s been trained to handle and protect herself, she knows a dozen ways to end someone, and she’ll have back-up. We don’t have a valid reason for forcing her not to go.”

“Being careful with her life isn’t a valid reason?”