Page 54 of Primal Bonds

The woman slid a look at Evie. Her pale blue eyes were flat. Not angry or cold, just flat, as if Evie were too insignificant to worry about.

Evie wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. “Well,” she said, “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m hungry.” She’d been too busy to grab more than a snack tonight.

Kyler brightened. “Works for me.”

She rolled her eyes. “Why aren’t I surprised?”

“Hey, I’m a growing boy.”

But the tension in the room dropped several notches.

Evie got out sandwich fixings and went to work. A few minutes later, she had four thick tuna sandwiches topped with slabs of melted cheddar. Jace inhaled appreciatively as she handed him a plate. “Tuna. Great.”

“I figured you’d like it.”

“Why?”

She smirked. “You’re a cat, aren’t you?”

His mouth twitched again. “A jaguar, not a house cat.”

“Here.” She handed him a plate for the red-headed woman, who was eyeing Jace’s sandwich hungrily. “I made one for her, too.”

He shook his head, but passed it on to her. When the Baltimore alpha arrived, he found the four of them eating tuna melts.

Evie opened the door at Jace’s request and Adric strode in as if he owned the place. He nodded hello to Evie and Kyler and then eyed the woman, who straightened up and set her plate on the table behind her.

“This is her?”

“Yep.” Jace rose to his feet. “Name’s Nika.”

A small woman with a shaved head slipped in after Adric, Jace’s clothes under her arm, and Adric jerked his chin in her direction without taking his eyes off Nika. “This is one of my lieutenants,” he said.

The newcomer set the clothes on an empty chair and stuck out a hand. “Marjani. I’m also his sister—and you must be Evie.”

“That’s me.” Evie shook her hand. Marjani was a female version of Adric—a lithe cat of a woman with smooth butterscotch skin, large dark eyes and a perfect oval face. But her body was scarecrow-thin and her eyes had hollows beneath them so that Evie wondered if she’d been sick.

“You’re the humans who saved Jace’s life.” Marjani looked from Evie to Kyler. “Thank you. He’s like a brother to me.”

Evie moved a shoulder. “We didn’t do much.”

Marjani touched Evie’s arm, and then moved to where Adric and Jace were staring down at Nika. The redhead moistened her lips and kept her gaze on the alpha. Adric and Marjani stepped closer, and Nika shrank into herself.

Evie’s stomach tightened. She could almost see the teeth and claws come out, two predators homing in on their prey. She swallowed and glanced at Jace, who had stepped back, allowing Adric to take over. He gave a slight shake of his head, and she forced herself to remain silent. This was between the fada.

“So. Nika.” Adric set a hand on the back of her chair. “You’re new around here, aren’t you?”

She jerked her head in assent.

“I thought so. But we’re going to get to know each other, won’t we, love?”

Nika’s throat worked. Her gaze darted from him to Marjani and then back to the floor.

“She’s not from around here,” Jace said. “I think she’s from Russia or Eastern Europe.”

“And you say she was with Corban?”

“Yeah.”

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