[Rock]I spun around, pulling Carmen behind me. Rhett was leaning against my worktable with a smirk and a gleam in his eyes. He was in his normal leather pirate attire but seemed less put together than he normally did.“You aren’t supposed to come into my home without calling ahead. You know that,” I snarled.Rhett chuckled. “Did I interrupt something?”Carmen shifted uncomfortably behind me, still in her half-wolf form. “Yes, you did.”“I’ll leave, but I was hoping you might help me in the same way you did Echo and Victor. It is rather important,” he replied nonchalantly.My mate leaned around me to look at the warlock. I knew this was the first time she was actually seeing him, but I didn’t want him to see her like that. There were no threats that would make Carmen have to shift like this to fight. Meaning this form was only for me. I loved all three versions of my mate, but I didn’t have to share this one.“You need me to look into someone’s past?” Carmen asked.“That made you sick when you did it on the man Echo has. I don’t want it to happen again. Find someone else, Rhett,” I said.He sighed. “If that were an option, do you really think I would be here? I may be superficial allies with the fae and the witches, but, like Echo, I know where I stand with them. The more magical fae are not safe in my land, and the witches don’t trust me enough to give me a seer. I need Carmen.”Rhett didn’t know what it was to care about someone. I knew that because I saw it in a lot of longer-lived fae who didn’t have true mates. Original fae could be like that. As time went on, they stopped caring about others and didn’t understand it. He didn’t get how important it was to protect the people you cared about, even from things that weren’t life-threatening. I clenched my fists, trying to control my anger. “Carmen is not a tool for you to use whenever you please. Find another way to get what you want.”Rhett raised his hands in surrender. “Alright, alright. I get it. I’ll find another way.”He turned to leave, but not before throwing one last glance at Carmen’s half-wolf form. “You know, Carmen, that form looks good on you. Maybe I’ll have to find a way to see it again sometime.”I growled at him, but he just chuckled and left. When I turned back to Carmen, she didn’t look very happy with me.“What?”“Rock, I love you and I respect you, but I don’t like it when you speak for me without consulting me. I know I got sick last time. If I had you there, maybe it would be better. I think it would be. You make me feel safe.”She took my hand. I hated the idea of her getting hurt trying to do something like that again. Reaching out with my free hand, I stroked her hair and one of her furry, pointed ears. Carmen leaned into my touch.“I’d go feral without you, Carmen. There’s nothing for me without you. I can’t forget how sick you were after the last one. You told me about what you saw. What if this other person has a past that’s just as bad?” I asked.“Rhett is a powerful warlock. Do you know how hard it must have been for him to come ask us for help? Does Rhett strike you as the type to go running for help for anything other than something dire?”“So you’re saying that you’re sure this is going to be just as difficult, if not more, and you’re going to do it anyway,” I said with a sigh.Carmen nodded. “I don’t like that he was here, but I understand why he came to us. If he had no other way of learning what he needed, then we need to help him. This might lead to something important. It could help with the cult situation. I’d really like it if our lives were more private again. Until they’re gone, the troll that’s watching over us is staying.”She had a point. The addition of Wylder Steinmann quashed all the ideas I had of things I wanted to do with her. Whenever we set foot outside the house, even if we couldn’t see him, he was there. If I truly wanted my life with my mate to be only ours, we needed him to be gone.“Alright. I want you to be careful with this, though. I don’t like the idea of you getting hurt. Please don’t push yourself too hard. If this gets too much for you, then promise me you’ll say something,” I said.I expected Carmen to argue with me because she didn’t really like people telling her how to do things. But she just nodded and leaned into me.“I’ll be careful. You’ll be with me the whole time. I know you’ll keep me safe,” she whispered.She was right. I would always keep her safe. I pulled her close, wrapping my arms around her. It really was too bad he interrupted us. Having Carmen really see me made me eager to do all sorts of things with her in this form. Though, I was beginning to miss my Carmen’s face.“You should shift back and get dressed. We’ll call him once you’re ready,” I told her.Carmen nodded. I held her as she changed back, feeling every change as it happened. Now I understood why some of the older fae said shapeshifters were partly fae. It was magical to see her transform into this form and back into the beautiful woman I loved.“When we get back, if you’re not feeling bad, I’d like to spend a little more time with you in that half-wolf form,” I purred as I nuzzled her neck.She giggled. “Blanche wants that too. It’s a way we can both touch you, see you, and feel you without the other being left out. I never realized I could feel like that. This was the most amazing gift I have ever been given.”“Get dressed, unless you changed your mind about going....”Carmen shook her head and pulled out of my arms. I let her go and watched as she dressed. Nothing was ever as beautiful as my sweet mate.After a while, Carmen was dressed and ready to call Rhett. I could see the determination in her eyes. She was ready for this.I wished I were. Austin told me about what the experience had been like from the outside. He told me how she staggered afterward and how her voice and posture had changed. Carmen had to witness a traumatic life without the buffer of it being fictional or happening over enough time for her to create methods for coping with it.“Rhett, come back,” Carmen called out.We knew he was listening, but he didn’t come back. Carmen nudged me with her elbow.“Rhett, I’m sorry. Please come back,” I called out as well.He appeared in a swarm of shadows, looking even worse than before. When he first appeared, Rhett seemed a little off, but now he looked visibly disheveled.“You don’t look so good,” I said.“My darkness upset my guest, and I found out that she has more upper body strength than one would think upon seeing her. It’s okay. I got her immobilized just before you called. Please excuse the mess when we get there. It was a struggle,” he chuckled, straightening out his clothing.That didn’t bode well for whatever was about to happen. If Rhett was struggling with just one person, what would happen when Carmen went in? But we couldn’t back out now. This was important, and we had to see it through.I took Carmen’s hand and prepared myself. Shadows crept out of all the corners of the house and swarmed around us. Suddenly, we found ourselves in a different place. I grunted as my head hit the lower ceiling in the place. I had to bend over to fit.“Sorry about that. I forgot you’re much taller. Give me a moment,” Rhett said.He waved his hands and moved as if pushing something invisible up. I could hear the house creaking and groaning. The ceiling started rising. Once it was a few inches above my head, it stopped, and Rhett nodded to himself.With the low ceiling no longer a distraction, I surveyed the room. I recognized the style of the living room. The house was built to mimic the German colonial style of house that was common in Pennsylvania in the late 1600s. Although I was in construction, I had always enjoyed historical architecture.The room was dimly lit, with only a few candles flickering on a table in the center. The furniture looked old and heavy, made from dark wood and leather. A large fireplace dominated one wall, but it was empty. I knew most of the items were old, but they looked as if they were brand new. As my eyes scanned the room, there were more obvious signs of a struggle. The paintings were knocked off walls, the books were scattered, and things were tipped over.“Seems like you had more than a little trouble with your guest,” I said.“Yeah.... I thought she was human when I picked her up, but I’m beginning to think I was wrong,” he laughed. “It looked like the creature was trying to feed on a homeless kid. I killed it and saved her. Nothing about her set off alarm bells, but then she woke up.”“She seemed entirely human?”“Yes. I didn’t even think to check before taking her with me. My darkness went to investigate what she was and... it didn’t end well. Let’s just leave it at that. I thought I had her contained, but she got out while I was at your home. It was a struggle, but I incapacitated her. She’s a little demon,” Rhett grumbled as he straightened a few things up.“You don’t mean that seriously, do you?” I asked.The man Carmen had examined the other day was a demon hunter. I always thought they were human myths made up to explain some of the more monstrous fae, but now I knew demons were real and they weren’t supernatural. If it were really a demon, we would leave. My mate had no business touching a demon.“No. At least, I don’t think so. I always pictured them much bigger. She looks like a little girl. She definitely fights like a demon, though.”Carmen looked apprehensive. She was clearly having second thoughts about this, but she had decided. I knew Carmen wouldn’t back down until she knew there was no other option.“Are you ready, Carmen?” I asked, turning to face her.She nodded, her eyes fierce with determination. “I’m ready. Let’s do this.”Rhett led us to the door on the opposite side of the room. This place was fairly small and barely seemed to fit his needs. That was a concern for another day.He opened the bedroom door, and I followed Carmen in, ducking to get through the doorway that hadn’t grown with the rest of the house. As I straightened up in the room, I saw a little girl snarling and growling in the bed. It looked like she could only move her head. Her teeth were very sharp. It was obvious that her species was a carnivore of some sort.I didn’t recognize anything about her, but something was bothering me. There was something about this girl that was making my instincts go wild. Part of me didn’t want her anywhere near Carmen and I couldn’t reconcile why. Trolls only had a sensitivity to smells when it came to hunting. Blood, sweat, fear, all of these we could smell. The scent of fear was strong in the room. She was aggressive because she was afraid. Carmen rubbed her nose, then went to sit on the bed. I wanted to stop her, but she knew what she had to do. Instead, I stood behind her and glared down at the little girl thing. It stopped snarling and growling. The scent of fear got stronger, but she froze completely.Rhett moved farther into the room. Carmen picked up the girl’s hand and started stroking it, drawing the girl’s attention from me to her. The girl hissed, and I growled. She started crying.“Everything will be alright. We’re here to help,” Carmen whispered.She leaned her head forward. I could tell she was letting her magic take over. I’d peeked in at a few of her training sessions. The girl looked up at me quietly, then relaxed and closed her eyes.