Page 104 of Visions, Paws, and Claws

Rael came into the command tent. “You appear to be a man in need of some loving.”

Horvan gave a weary chuckle. “You have no idea.” He wrapped his arms around Rael’s waist, his ear pressed to Rael’s chest, listening to the reassuring beat of his heart. They stayed that way for a few minutes while Horvan let his mate’s scent fill his nostrils, Rael’s calm seeping into his bones. “I needed this.”

Rael kissed the top of his head. “I know. Why do you think I’m here?”

“Where’s Dellan?”

I’m with Aric. He had a dream where Seth told him we were about to walk into a trap.

Horvan sighed.Tell him we’re not. In fact, we’re about to turn the tide in our favor.

Rael pulled up a camp chair and sat beside him. “What’s this plan of yours? You’ve been careful to shield us from it.”

Horvan leaned back, stretching out his long legs. “One of my former military buddies retired a while back and took up writing as a hobby. Mostly about his experiences. But when he finished his first book, he decided to publish it himself.”

Rael smiled. “Was it any good?”

Horvan grinned. “It was fucking awesome. But he had to learn a whole bunch of stuff along the way. One of the things he hated most was the way his book got pirated.”

“That happens a lot, I hear.”

Horvan nodded. “Okay, Leon had a team of beta readers. Military guys, mostly, who read what he’d written and gave their thoughts—stuff he’d missed, impressions, that kinda thing. All this was before it reached the publication stage, and he trusted these guys. But he also had an ARC team. That’s Advance Reader Copy to us nonpublishing mortals. These were people who got sent advance copies, and their job was to write a review to boost the book’s release. So before hissecondbook came out—and to cut down on pirate copies—he had an idea.”

“He thought one of his ARC team was uploading the book to pirate sites?”

“Yup. So what he did was this. He sent a copy to every ARC reader—but each copy had a slight variation. A different word here, a typo there. No two copies were the same. And he had a list of which reader got which version. So when the book released and ended up on a pirate site?”

“He downloaded it and checked to see which version it was.” Rael chuckled. “That’s inspired. Did it work?”

Horvan snorted. “No. None of the ARCs were uploaded. Someone obviously bought a copy on release andthendecided everyone should read it for free. But it gave me the idea. Aelryn is emailing every leader our attack plan, but with one subtle difference—the timing of our initial attack varies from email to email.”

“So when Milo gets back to us after he’s seen the plan, we’ll know who sent it to them.”

“Exactly. And right now Aelryn is sending out our false plan to see who bites.”

“Then we wait?”

Horvan sighed. “Then we wait.”

Dellan strolled into the tent. “Then might I suggest you get a few hours’ sleep in the meantime?”

Horvan huffed. “I would, but that camp bed ain’t gonna fit all three of us.”

Dellan smiled. “Who says we need a bed?” He started to remove his clothing, and Rael copied him.

“I hate to tell ya, boys, but I’m in no mood to fuck.”

“That’s fine, because we had something else in mind.” One minute Horvan was looking at Dellan’s lean naked body, and the next, a beautiful tiger stood there, joined seconds later by a gorgeous lion.

“Now you’re talking.” Horvan stripped and shifted, and the three of them lay down on the ground sheet, Horvan in the middle, his mates on either side, snuggled against him.

He could manage a few hours.

HORVAN’S NOSTRILStwitched, and he opened his eyes.

Time to shift, H. Because no way can those paws hold a coffee cup.

He chuckled and shifted. Dellan held out a cup to him. “Feel better?”

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