Hunter's Rise by Shiloh Walker

hand.
     
    He was sexy as hell, with that warrior’s body and angelic face. Something about him flipped every switch she had, but still.
     
    She had to be careful.
     
    The whole damn reason she was stuck in this life was because she’d once trusted a pretty face.
     
    It wasn’t happening again.
     
    R
     
AFE wasn’t going to be happy.
    They had much bigger problems than the sexy vampire coming his way.
     
    Much bigger.
     
    But the vamp still needed to be dealt with, and they still had to handle Pulaski. Oh, the fucking joy.
     
    He had to get his brain focused on those problems and away from Sylvia James, but damned if that wasn’t hard to do. In the back of his mind, his wolf was growling, rumbling under his skin and whispering,
Want… want…
     
    She was even better in person.
     
    Staring at her made the blood in his body hum. His cock throbbed, burned.
Hurt.
A faint smile curved the lush pink of her mouth, left him wondering what she was thinking. Then somebody came tumbling out of the bar next to her, spilling bright lights of blue and red onto the sidewalk, and Toronto had a better idea.
     
    As the rainbow of lights flickered off the blade she’d concealed in her left hand, he studied the crush of people around them. It wasn’t as crowded here as it was just a few streets over on Beale, but it was still crowded enough.
     
    Not the ideal place for a fight. He’d done it before and managed to avoid human casualties, but he suspected that Sylvia James was a different breed from what he was used to. Ferals fought to live, so they could kill— by nature, most of them weren’t always clearheaded. Sylvia, like him, was a trained killer.
She
would be clearheaded. It would make a difference.
     
    He hunted the ferals.
     
    She hunted for money.
     
    In the end, he’d win, because he was stronger.
     
    But he didn’t want to have to fight her. He wanted to have sex with her— down and dirty sex, maybe up against a wall, in the light so he could watch her. Then on a bed, her body under his, or over… his hands tangled in that dark, silken hair.
     
    “You know, most men would at least bother to introduce themselves before the guy starts picturing the woman naked,” she drawled, coming to a stop eighteen inches away.
     
    Toronto smirked. “That’s bullshit. We see a woman, we frequently picture them naked. We mess with the names when we want to actually think about getting them in bed.Some of us, at least.” He skimmed a look over her body, taking in the sleek muscles, the powerhouse curves. Then he focused on her face again, smiled slowly. “So. What’s your name?”
     
    She laughed. “Oh, you’re smooth. Too bad I’m only in town for a little while.”
     
    “Business?”
     
    “Hmmm.” She cocked a black brow at him. “Am I interrupting something important? You sounded sort of aggravated on the phone.”
     
    “You like listening to private conversations?”
     
    With a lazy shrug, she sauntered around him. Toronto tracked her movements by watching her reflection in the window of the nearest bar. As she circled back around in front of him, he checked her knife hand. Still in the left hand, tucked out of sight so nobody would see it unless they were looking for it. She was very, very good.
     
    He was just better.
     
    “Just curious. You’re a pretty high-level wolf. It’s got to take something serious to get you mad. The tough ones are supposed to have mad skills in the control department.” She smiled again and this time, it was touched with a glint of devilishness. “I’ve always wondered if those mad skills translated over into other areas.”
     
    The air between them heated, and Toronto was hard-pressed not to close the distance and press his mouth to hers, see how she tasted. But if she was going to try and pull that knife on him… shit, another complication. He really, really wanted a taste of her, but he didn’t get naked with women who tried to kill him.
     
    Toronto