“You know,” Rhys grunted. “When I said I wanted more time alone together, this isn’t quite what I had in mind.”

Kai glanced around the abandoned cabin, with its overturned furniture and layers of dust and debris. It smelled like rotting leaves and mold. He snickered, flipping his grip on the blade in his hand. “Aww. I’m flattered you think I’m this kinky. But I assure you, no matter how dirty my fantasies get, neither this place or her”—he gestured to the girl with the bloody hands and face—“ever factored into them. Besides, not really into redheads.”

Rhys paused, distracted. “That’s your objection to a threesome with a girl? Her hair color?”

Kai grinned. “Are we negotiating our kinks now?” He fluttered his lashes. “I’m hurt. We haven’t even slept together, and I’m already not enough for you.”

Rhys growled, and the girl in question bared her teeth in response, hissing like a snake. There was something stuck in her teeth. It looked suspiciously like fur or maybe flesh. Kai prayed it wasn’t flesh. He took a step back. “You think she’s like the girl in Wolf Creek?”

“Well, since we don’t know what the girl from Wolf Creek was, it’s kind of hard to say,” Rhys snarked, eyes stalking the girl as she shifted on her feet. “She’s got a heartbeat. She looks human. She smells human.”

The girl growled, crouching low, as if contradicting Rhys’s statement. Kai raised a brow. “You sure she’s human?”

“No, I’m not sure. I’m telling you she smells human.”

Kai risked a glance at the wolf. “Well, I’m not killing a human, so this is kind of important.” The girl took advantage of Kai’s momentary distraction and attacked. He sidestepped her assault, laughing at Rhys’s horrified expression. He was such a worrier. “Relax, I can handle one crazy human. If she’s human, that is.”

Rhys sighed, sheathing the knife. Kai’s eyes widened. “What the hell are you doing?”

Rhys huffed in annoyance. “You don’t want to kill her if she’s human. I don’t know if she’s human. So I’m going to find out if she’s human.”

Kai rubbed his forehead with his left hand. “This is literally the worst idea you’ve ever had, and you’ve had so, so many.”

Rhys gave his best glower. “Well, you could just kill her?”

Kai pulled a face. “No, thank you.”

Rhys moved towards the girl, waiting for her next attack. She didn’t disappoint, lurching forward, teeth bared. While the girl was in good shape, she was no match for Rhys. He snagged her wrist, spinning her so her back was to him, using her hair to tug her head to the side to get a better scent. She growled and snapped, fighting uselessly against him. Rhys flinched at her scent, brow furrowed.

Kai grinned at the wolf’s perplexed expression. “A little off your game today, baby?”

Rhys scowled, his tone grumpy. “I’m perfectly on top of my game. She’s human. Sort of. Her scent is…off.”

Kai glanced around the filthy room, the smells assaulting him. If these odors were bothering him, then he could only imagine the scents assaulting Rhys. “We used to say the same thing about Ember, and she turned out to be a necromancer so...off like…?”

“Off like I don’t know. She just smells…wrong.”

It was Kai’s turn to look perplexed. He moved closer, looking at the girl’s eyes. They looked normal; well, they looked vacant, but there was no glow like a shifter, no whitened irises like Ember’s zombies. Kai flinched as the girl snapped her teeth too close to his nose. “You sure she isn’t dead—wasn’t dead—you know what I mean.”

“Look, I’m telling you she’s not a shifter or witch, and her heart is still beating, which rules out zombie or vampire. She doesn’t have teeth like a wendigo. That’s all I can tell you.”

“Well, that’s…disconcerting.”

“Ya think?” Rhys snapped.

Kai crossed his arms, careful of the knife’s blade. “Why are you barking at me? I’m not turning teen girls into flesh eating non-zombies.”

Rhys huffed out a breath through his nose. “What do we do with her?”

Kai yawned, suddenly exhausted with this whole day, shrugging as he said, “Knock her out and take her to Miller? We can’t exactly drop her at the Wolf Creek police station with a murderer sign on her chest. Not if we don’t know for certain she’s human.”

“Fine.” Rhys hit the girl just hard enough to knock her out, catching her as she fell, his face scrunching up as he tried to figure out what to do with her. She might be feral, but it seemed cruel to put her on the filthy floor or any of the rotting remnants of furniture around the room.

“Just hold her for a minute.” Kai ran out to the Suburban and grabbed the zip ties. Back inside, he shot Rhys a smile and made short work of securing her hands and feet. “Should we gag her?” he asked. If Rhys had to carry her to the car, he didn’t want the girl waking up and chewing on his boyfriend like a squeaky toy.

Rhys grunted his I-can’t-be-bothered-with-that grunt.

“Okay, but if she chews through the seats, I’m totally blaming you.”

Rhys didn’t respond, just carted the girl out to the SUV. Kai took the opportunity to snoop around. Maybe there was a reason the girl had come to this cabin. Maybe she knew the place. Whoever had lived here hadn’t been too concerned with housekeeping. There was obviously a leak in the roof, given the water-damaged wall and the waterlogged boxes stacked in the corner. He pushed through the contents with a ruler he’d found on the small, battered desk near the window. It was nothing but old cards and photographs and a broken plastic bin with rusted tools spilling out.

They were technically in Wolf Creek, but the woods bordered Belle Haven. The town was cloaked from humans, but this girl was a little too close for Kai’s comfort. Had she been in the woods because of the cabin, or was she trying to get to Belle Haven? Maybe Rhys was wrong. Maybe the girl wasn’t human at all. Since Ember rolled into town, he’d learned nothing was impossible. Their lives got a little more dangerous every day.

He was leaning over a box when the single bulb overhead swayed violently. Kai’s pulse skyrocketed, fight or flight kicking in as he realized he’d left himself vulnerable. He tried to defend himself, but he was no match for supernatural reflexes. His chest hit the wall, stealing his breath, as Kai found himself trapped between rotting wood and two hundred plus pounds of werewolf. Kai’s lids drooped, breath rushing out of him as Rhys’s human teeth sank into his shoulder.

“Hi,” Kai whispered, hands reaching behind him to pull Rhys closer.

“How many times do I have to tell you not to turn your back on the door?” Rhys’s hand splayed over Kai’s stomach, and Rhys dragged his lips along Kai’s throat, growling low against his ear. “I could have killed you.”

“If this lesson is meant to deter me, you’re a terrible teacher,” Kai murmured. Nothing in the world felt as good as Rhys’s body against his, but Rhys’s voice...Kai swore it altered his DNA. He was certain of it.

“I’m serious. You could get hurt.”

Kai turned in Rhys’s arms, looking at him from beneath his lashes, doing his best to look contrite. “I’m sorry. Let me make it up to you?” Kai asked, wrapping his arms around Rhys’s neck, before hazily remembering why they were there. “Wait, what’d you do with our friend?”

Rhys blinked at him in confusion, before seeming to remember why they were there. “She’s fine. I put her in the backseat,” Rhys assured him. “I even cracked the windows.”

“She’s not a Golden Retriever,” Kai said, his laugh melting into a moan as Rhys’s lips wandered to the place just behind Kai’s ear.

“You know,” Rhys told him huskily, “when I said I wanted more time alone together, this is exactly what I had in mind.”

Kai nodded, chasing the thought that had been so important just two seconds before. He couldn’t think around the wolf. “Not that I’m complaining, but is it okay to leave her in the car?”

Rhys pulled back, green eyes glowing, showing just enough fang to make Kai lightheaded. “If you’re so worried, we could go,” he said, dragging his tongue across Kai’s lower lip.

Kai’s hands clenched spastically in Rhys’s hair. He tugged the wolf’s head back just to look at him some more. “Have you always been this hot?” Kai asked, voice raw.

Rhys flushed, but he gave Kai a rare smile, rubbing his cheek against Kai’s, scenting him. “Have you always been this beautiful?” Rhys countered, looking into Kai’s eyes in a way that made Kai’s stomach feel hollow in the best possible way.

Kai knew the moment his scent changed because Rhys’s sweet smile went savage. Kai leaned forward, biting greedily at the wolf’s lips, licking over sharpened teeth, whispering into his mouth, “She’ll be fine. I definitely think we should stay here.”

Rhys shifted, and they both groaned. This whole no-sex-until-he-was-eighteen thing was going to kill him, Kai was sure of it. How could he be expected to remain a virgin when Rhys always smelled like leaves and sex and something that was just Rhys? His hands felt so good that Kai’s brain tumbled somewhere far, far away along with his ability to reason.

When Rhys nipped Kai’s neck with blunt human teeth, Kai felt the need to remind him, “No hickeys.” Rhys bit down on the spot before soothing it with soft lips before whining his disappointment.

Kai chuckled. “Too bad, you big baby. I know your wolfy instincts tell you to mark your territory, but our wolfy Alpha says we’ll both be grounded.”

Rhys dropped his head to Kai’s shoulder, moaning, “What did I say about bringing up my sister when we are...you know?”

“Having sexy times?” Kai mocked, yanking Rhys’s head up to kiss him again. “It’s only a few more months, and then we can do whatever we want.”

Rhys growled, pressing Kai back against the wall and attacking his mouth again. “Eleven months. Eleven months is a long time.”

“Not when we have the rest of our lives.”

Rhys pulled away, pressing his lips to Kai’s forehead. “We gotta get out of here. I need air.”

Kai grinned. “Do I take your breath away?”

“It’s either you or the black mold. Hard to say, really.”

Kai flicked his ear. “Let’s go. We need to tell Isa what we found…whatever she is.”

It wasn’t until they were almost to the truck that they noticed the broken window and the blood on the jagged glass. Kai’s heart sank. She’d escaped. “Any thoughts on how we spin this, so our alpha doesn’t murder us for making out instead of watching our suspect?”

“No, but you have a whole car ride home to think of something,” Rhys said.

“Me? Why me?”

“Because my sister likes you more.”

Kai sighed. “That’s true,” he admitted. But he was sure neither of them was getting out of this unscathed.