ian

the second

heart. The tiny, horrified sound she made

es closed an

rdest thing I

ver fought me like this. Not when I was sixteen and he came to me for the first time. N

oared. Mark he

lift my jacket and pull her underwear out from under it, and I listened to he

licked shut, an

my eyes a

g underneath that I had no name for. Something old, and silver, and quiet. I had been br

his time the word wasn

. My mother had died believing she was his. And I had spent twenty-nine yea

at midnight, burning hot, calling another man's

e. A few long brown strands of ha

o be. She'd been born in Silvercrest territory, I could smell it on her skin. But there was no wolf i

fle

was wo

atches she'd left across my back in the mirror, because

ressed. I buttoned my cuffs. I put on my watch. By the time I picked up my phone,

on the first

room twenty minutes a

ere twelve years old, and he knew every one of

tood,"

back in

e years ago. Never shifted. She's on record as wolfless." Papers rustled. "She was at Velvet last night for her birthday wit

aw l

e," I

d." Leo hesitated. "Alpha, it gets worse. The card she used wasn't a room key. It was a mas

. Instead of

ed at the edges. I put my hand flat against

?" I

hotel sold him the hallway footage of her leaving your suite. Julian's bee

urse

he footage

crumpled dress running barefoot, heels in one hand, her hair a wild mess over her shoulder

t it for a

I sav

" Leo said. "You should

h on a dark street on the east side, in a n

sure Chase hadn't come looking for

t, she walked ou

the all-night pharmacy on the corner. When she came out ten minutes later, she was holding a small

ind s

g. And under it, faint, the copper e

one tha

he first time in my lif

he streetlight peeling the plastic off it. As the car pulled forward, she glanced up

ed the

I told th

od frozen on the sidew

my lap. At the line Leo had

dings. Acquisitions

to walk into my building and ride my

o idea who he