The Billionaire Werewolf's Princess

“That part of Paris you were in last night is called FaeryTown,” Ry said. “It’s where the realm of Faery overlaps the mortal realm. It’s always been there. Humans aren’t aware of it. They walk through never knowing that faeries are all around them, living, existing, doing drugs.”

“Drugs?”

“Rather, the faeries sell their dust to—” Er, she probably didn’t need to know about vampires and their addiction to faery dust right now. “Anyway, I saw you sitting on the curb, and you could see me.”

“I did see you.” Her eyebrows narrowed. She was starting to think too much.

Ry jumped in for the save. “At that moment, I realized I shouldn’t have been able to see you, so I figured that you had somehow breached the fabric between the two realms and were actually in FaeryTown. And since you say you’ve seen faeries in your garden, then maybe you have the sight.”

“Is that an ability to see faeries?”

“Yes. I have it. And that’s what allows me to enter FaeryTown and to interact with its inhabitants.”

“Which is why you were there with a big sword and hell gleaming in your eyes?”

“You did see those black things flying above me.”

“I did. Not nice?”

“The nastiest of the not nice. I can’t allow them to enter the mortal realm, so I go there every night to slay them.”

“Every night?”

“At midnight. One or two collectors come through from Faery.”

“Collectors? That’s what you call the black sparkly things?”

“Yes. And while you don’t need to know everything, just know that it would be a very bad situation if one got through to this realm. Meaning, they pierced the borders of FaeryTown and completely entered the human realm.”

“Uh-huh.” She rapped her fingers on her leg a few times, then tilted her head at him. Her big blue eyes were so deeply colored they were almost violet. Faeries had violet eyes. But she wasn’t faery. He’d sense her faery nature if she was. And she had bled the other night. Red blood. Faery blood was clear and sparkly.

“So you’re like Batman, then?”

“Batman?” Ry crimped his eyebrows. “I just fell off this conversational thread.”

“Well, I, uh—” she tapped a finger against her lip and squinted one eye shut “—kind of sort of...googled you.”

“To be expected.”

“I know you’re a famous billionaire philanthropist. That’s totally Bruce Wayne. And then you fight the bad guys at night?” She shrugged. “Batman.”

“I, uh, would never call myself that, but whatever works for you.” Probably more like wolfman, but he was trying to avoid that branch of conversation right now.

“So...” Indigo placed her hand over her throat again. “One of those things, a collector, scratched me. I think?”

“Yes. And they are deadly to humans. By the time I got to your side, your breathing was shallow. You were going to die.”

She gaped at him.

“I carried you to a faery healer and she saved your life. She owed me one. Well, not exactly, but I wasn’t going to take a no from her because of our history.”

“Your history?”

“It’s not important. Hestia agreed to heal you. I didn’t watch, but it took about twenty minutes. And whatever she gave you—the herbs or faery magic she worked on you—must be what’s making you so tired and feeling as if you’ve been hit by a truck.”

“That was how I felt yesterday. Only a small car this evening. So a real live faery healed me? Kept me from dying?”

He nodded.

“And then you carried me here to take care of me?”

“I wouldn’t call letting you crawl under a table taking care of you.”

“I was probably delirious.”

“Close.”

“Okay, so faeries exist and they are doing some bad things in Paris, and you go out nightly with your sword to make sure it doesn’t happen.”

“I try my best.”

“What are these collectors doing? Killing people?”

“No, uh...” He winced.

“Ryland.” She touched his leg and it sent such a shock of intense desire through him that he sucked in a breath. But now was no time to kiss her. Even if the compulsion was screaming for just that right now. “You seem like a smart man. Doing good for others by giving away your money. Avoiding the celebrity because that’s not you. I did creep on you online. Don’t hold that against me. Anyway, you don’t seem like a man prone to flights of fancy.”

“I never take to fanciful flight.”

Her smile was so cute, curling the corners of her lips like a heart. “I think I can believe everything you’ve told me. I want to, anyway. It’s the best explanation for my worst night ever. But you have to tell me everything. Please?”

“I don’t know what else there is to say. As for what I’ve told you, I would normally never tell things like this to anyone. Well, I tell Kristine.”

“A girlfriend?”

“No, my secretary. She knows me inside and out. And she knows that this realm is populated by more than merely humans.”

“You keep saying human like it’s something you’re not.” She dipped her head to meet his gaze. “Are you a faery?”

“I thought you wanted to hear about the collectors.”

“I do, but... Okay. Tell me.”

He hadn’t dodged that one and knew the bullet would ricochet around to hit its target soon enough. Stalling for time had never been his thing. He always liked to come right out with it. Unless it related to revealing his true nature.

“Collectors have only recently been infiltrating this realm,” he said. “I know because I got curious after a news reports about stolen infants.”

“I remember that a few weeks ago. Such an awful thing. Something like three newborn babies taken from their cribs.”