Alara never got tired of gazing at the moon. As a child, she’d sit in her mother’s garden, curled up comfortably on a plush blanket in the grass, while she watched the night age.

Like most werewolves, her senses came alive at night. Though heightened at all times, the dark of the night had a way of pulling forward her inner wolf, calling upon its strengths while subduing the physical weaknesses of her human side. For as proper as she’d been brought up, she never felt restricted or guarded at night. No, at night, she could be herself.

She could be free.

Nik didn’t let go of her hand as they slipped into the woods ringing the manor’s vast, immaculately mowed lawn. His pulse thrummed through her; she could feel his heartbeat pumping in rhythm with her own. The mate-bond was funny like that. It was eerie at first, maybe even a little invasive, having someone else’s presence constantly in her head. But the more she grew accustomed to him, the more she knew she could never go back to being totally by herself. The thought sent a lonely chill through her.

A myriad of smells assaulted her senses as their footsteps stirred up dirt and leaves: the damp, musty smell of the earth, the sweet scent of moss, and the more subdued smell of bark. Animal smells—deer, raccoons, birds—swirled in and out of the other scents. Sometimes it was a chore to untangle everything.

The DPI will be here soon, Nik said through their mate-bond, the sound of his deep, slightly raspy voice reverberating inside her head. I want another look around the area before they show up and block it off and their scents start muddying things up.

Makes sense. And you brought me because…?

The serious expression he’d worn since they left the house turned into a grin. Your nose is keener than mine, love. Not to mention I wanted to spend time alone with my mate.

So you wanted to get me alone. In the woods. Not creepy at all.

You know you’re excited.

The hunger inside her stirred as heat tickled her tummy. “Excited” didn’t begin to cover it.

It didn’t take long to get to the spot where they’d found the doppelgänger. Or rather, where the doppelgänger had found them.

The scent of their lovemaking still hung in the air, though it wasn’t nearly as pronounced as it had been earlier.

Should we shift? Alara asked, eyeing her mate with a raised brow. Moonlight and shadows dappled his face while lighting up their surroundings with varying shades of gray. A few fireflies clung to the tree canopy above, their dainty yellow lights twinkling. Crickets chirped in a soft hum, and in the distance, she heard a brook laughing. It was peaceful, soothing. She could easily stay out here all night, using nothing but the grass and soil for a bed.

Nik nodded. Ladies first.

A thrill of anticipation ratcheted through her. Hardly able to wait, she closed her eyes and released the wolf within. With a snarl, it barreled to the surface. Her bones morphed, her skin stretching to accommodate the Change. While uncomfortable—because let’s be honest, who can say they enjoy having all their bones basically broken and rebuilt?—it was nothing compared to the pain she’d endured with gritted teeth and steel-willed determination during her first Change. That had been downright brutal.

The transformation was over in less than a few seconds, and two majestic, large brown wolves stood there.

The scent of the doppelgänger immediately slammed into her nose. God, it was sour, like rotting flesh and rotten eggs and roadkill in July.

Alara whined, and Nik barked his agreement. She immediately shifted all of her focus to the task at hand and began sniffing around the ground. The sooner they could get this investigation rolling, the sooner she could try to forget this ungodly stench.

It wasn’t hard to pick out the doppelgänger’s odor from the myriad of other smells. Even though Nick had said her nose was keener, she doubted he’d have needed her help tracking this scent. It was like that person who wore a summer color, like neon pink, to a funeral; they stood out no matter what.

With a bark to follow her, Alara tore off through the woods.

She never tired of running in her wolf’s body, of the power of her muscles, the clarity of her senses, and the surety in her step. In this form, she never had to worry about being too fat, too curvy, too pale, too quiet, or any other bullshit insecurities. When she Changed, the instinct of a predator took over, and all her worries and fears melted away.

If only she could stay a wolf.

Nik was close behind, his powerful strides sending reverberations through the ground and up into her own legs. The cool night air kissed her face, whipping her fur back as the world raced by.

So free, so fast.

Elation filled her, and she barked out the wolf equivalent of a laugh. For the first time in weeks, she meant it and could feel the joy. Anytime she laughed or smiled, it felt forced. Fake, somehow.

But with the night all around, and no human worries pressing on her shoulders, she finally felt the pressure, agony, and suffering lift. It was the lightest she’d felt in weeks.

Nik barked right back, weaving in and out of her path in a silly zigzag pattern.

You’re going to get hurt, she chided gently.

Nah. I’m an Alpha.

What does that have to do with mashing your maw in on a tree?

Everything. It automatically means I’m a badass, equipped with grace, agility—holy shit!

Alara nearly died laughing as he came within an inch of slamming mouth first into a low-hanging branch. He’d leapt over a log, not seeing the branch until it was nearly too late, thanks to the shadows and him not paying attention.

You think that’s funny, huh? he said wryly. He nipped her on the rear, and she rushed to tag him back, turning it into a game as they tracked. After about a mile of running, another smell hit Alara’s nose, just as acrid as the doppelgänger’s and yet bitterer, like charred flesh. Alara barely registered that it was strange, she was so taken with the chase. The drug of freedom, laughter, and play was intoxicating, and she started to lose focus.

Screw duty and honor. She was having fun, dammit.

The tree line broke, and they spilled out into an open meadow surrounding a small lake. Nik had taken her here a few times, bringing along picnic baskets and food he’d grilled himself in one of his surprisingly sweet moments. Since coming back to Crescent Manor, Alara had discovered Nik was obsessed with his crappy little thirty-dollar grill from Wal-Mart. She’d offered to get him a more sophisticated one, but he’d said he liked that one. “It’s unassuming, doesn’t put on any airs, and gets the job done right,” he’d said, grinning. “Just like me.”

Alara never understood the bond between men and inanimate objects. Cars, grills, video game consoles… Her father hadn’t been immune, either. It was a well-known fact that the High King enjoyed playing Xbox late at night to take his mind off things.

A rush of longing to see him again, along with a jolt of bitterness for his betrayal, wracked her core. No matter how hot her hatred burned, she couldn’t seem to erase the small part of her that still loved and missed her father. Which only pissed her off more. It would be so much easier to just hate him.

With a growl and renewed energy fueled by anger, she started toward the woods on the opposite side of the meadow, but Nik called out Hey, hold up for a second.

Alara obeyed, though nervous energy made her paw at the earth. Is something wrong? she said after a moment of silence, unable to hide her impatience. Her unresolved feelings for her father were once again on her mind, making her feel confused, hurt, and angry. The sooner she could distract herself, with, let’s say, tracking, the sooner she could dismiss those troublesome feelings she had no desire to figure out.

In a blink and a flash of light, Nik Shifted back to his human form. Moonlight painted the contours of his hard muscles in silver, the shadows accentuating every curve and valley. The intricate, swirling filigree of their mating tattoos ran over his shoulders and chest down to his pectorals. The ink glittered with deep-blue crystals. It was mesmerizing.

Change, he said through their mate-bond. No, not said—commanded.

The heat of lust filtered through their bond, making Alara ache deep within. Her eyes fluttered down her mate’s gorgeous body to his proud erection, crowned in moonlight.

Oh.

Well, she’d wanted a distraction. And if she had a choice, hot werewolf sex under the open sky by a beautiful lake would be at the top of her list.

In no time at all, Alara Shifted back to herself, her human skin snapping into place like a spandex glove. Her skin felt feverish, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she caught her breath.

Her mate held her gaze, his eyes still taking on the wolfish glow. Without a word, he stalked toward her, all raw muscle and power. As he buried one hand in her hair and pressed the other against the small of her back, his mouth claimed hers, snatching away the breath she’d sought.

She groaned as he deepened the kiss, drawing her more tightly to him. His hot tongue slid along hers, filling her mouth with his taste.

It was a wolf thing, she knew. The desire to claim, to mark one’s territory. The leash around her more carnal nature always loosened whenever she switched forms. And usually the best way to cage the beast, so to speak, was with hot and furious sex. Or a cold shower. But which one was more appealing?

Nik’s hands roved her body, feeling her curves, the calluses along his palms sending shivers cascading across her body and leaving trails of fire in their wake. The crown of his sex rubbed hers, seeking entrance to the hot dampness between her legs. Her own sex began to throb with need. She reached down and grabbed his hardened cock, positioning it so it might more easily slide in.

Nik growled with approval and then chuckled. “Impatient, are we?”

“Have you met me?” she said with a breathless smile.

Nik answered with another hungry kiss. Picking her up, he gently laid her on the grass, nudging her legs open with his knees. His cock brushed her sex, and she raised her hips to meet his as he thrust into her, fully cloaking himself in her.

She moaned as liquid pleasure coursed through her veins as he began to pump furiously, bucking her hips against his as he had her.

He lowered his torso over her, one hand gripping her head and the other behind her back, pressing upward so her hips would remain raised. She scored his back with her nails as he thrust harder, faster. The first quake of coming undone blossomed deep within her belly. In an explosion of color and light, she came as a moan tore from her throat and she arched her back.

A moment later, he groaned hard in his throat, his hot liquid pouring into her and warming her from the inside out.

As she came down off the high of her climax, she inhaled deeply, staring into the night sky over his heaving shoulders. She could feel the tension drain from her body, her muscles becoming languid.

God, she’d needed this. They both had, a release from the mounting pressures of ruling a pack of wolves and trying to keep the rest of the paranormal world from falling apart.

They lay there, coated in sweat, the sweetness of their lovemaking clinging to their pores and making Alara lightheaded with joy. Then again, maybe that was her afterglow following that earth-shattering orgasm.

Nik gently played with her hair, twining it around his finger and letting it loose before starting again. The breeze shifted, bringing with it the crispness of the water. You wouldn’t think water would have a smell, but Alara could always tell where a stream, brook, or lake was. Water had a mineral tang to it, like how a wet cave smelled.

“What are you thinking about?” Nik murmured.

Stretching, she nestled closer to him and smiled as she gazed up into his face. “About how water smells.”

“Water has a smell?”

She nodded.

“I’ll take your word for it. Half the time, I can’t smell shit, thanks to all this pollen and dust.”

“Perhaps we should take a vacation once this is all over. Give your sinuses a break.”

“Eh. I’d probably find something to be allergic to wherever we went.”

True. Nik was allergic to everything: dust, hay, cats. He was even mildly allergic to dog dander, including that of werewolves, ironically enough. She wasn’t sure if her nose was just keener because her sense of smell really was sharper than the average werewolf’s or if her sense of smell was sharper simply because Nik’s sucked so much.

“I was also thinking about what a fantastic lover you are,” Alara said, petting his chest hair. He was about right for her tastes; not furry enough to qualify as a Chia Pet, but having just enough hair to be masculine.

Nik’s grin returned. “Don’t you forget it.”

She smacked his chest lightly. “You’re supposed to say, ‘My skills are nothing compared to yours, Alara.’”

“I won’t dispute that.” The low rumble in his voice, combined with the flash of gold in his eyes, made her inner wolf whine to rut again.

The desire in her mate’s expression flickered, interrupted by that same doubt and troubled gaze she’d seen earlier at the bonfire. “What is it?” she asked softly.

He knew better than to try to hide something from her. For one, it was nearly impossible with the mate-bond. Even if you were perfectly poker faced, your emotions would ultimately betray you.

Swallowing heavily, Nik spilled what Gage had told him in the office about Malachite and his quest for revenge against the Moonstruck Pack.

Alara grew still, not even daring to breathe as he finished. Heavy silence hung in the air.

She blinked, swallowed, then blinked again, trying to make sense of it. While the wolves under her rule weren’t exactly saints, they’d never struck her as cold-hearted killers. Then again, what did she know about them? She’d only been here a few weeks.

“What do you think?” he asked at last.

She took in a deep breath and sighed, shaking her head in disbelief. “It’s…”

“Hard to believe?”

“Yeah. For starters. What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know yet.” He leaned his head back, staring up at the stars with a hard expression. “If it’s all true, I honestly can’t say I blame Malachite. Speaking from experience, I can relate to how angry he was. I couldn’t guarantee I wouldn’t do the same thing. It’s natural to want to make someone suffer for hurting those you love.”

A sentiment Alara also found relatable.

“I would want justice,” Nick went on. “I do want justice. But I’m going to have to do some investigating to see what really happened. Malachite was also an impulsive liar. He could have been bullshitting us just to stir up trouble.”

Judging from what she’d heard of the legendary Alpha, she didn’t think it sounded unreasonable.

“We’ll figure it out.” She hugged her mate, pressing her cheek against his strong chest. “Whatever comes, we’ll face it together. I’ll support you, no matter what you decide to do. But, for what it’s worth, I believe we should find out whether we share our house with cutthroats and child murderers. And if so, punish them according to the Laws of the Underworld and banish them.”

“Agreed.” He took the hand she had rested on his chest, bringing it to his mouth to press a kiss along her knuckles.

Tension still radiated through their bond. “Anything else on your mind?” she asked.

Nik’s lips pressed together. “I’m scared.” He chuckled bitterly. “I’m actually fucking scared to move forward.”

She didn’t need to ask why. She already knew.

“The pack is in danger of falling apart as it is,” Nik said. “If I start sniffing around in the past and digging up their skeletons, I may start a mutiny. Gage couldn’t have picked a worse fucking time to deliver this news.”

“Would you rather he’d kept quiet?”

“No,” he answered honestly. “Still doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck.”

Alara rubbed his arm reassuringly. “You’re strong. And smart and clever and a lot of other things that make up a good Alpha. We’ll be fine. The pack will be fine, and once this is all over, we’ll all be stronger for it.”

In the moment of reflective silence that followed, a question jumped to her mind that she couldn’t resist asking. “What do you think will happen to the doppelgänger?”

He returned her hand to his chest and soothingly rubbed it with his thumb. “Not sure,” he admitted. “But I promise you, we won’t stop looking for Mistress Black. We’ll get justice for your family.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I want her dead. I want to kill her myself.”

His thumb paused. A moment later, he sat up, propping his head up on one elbow to look at her. “I urge you to reconsider. Let me finish,” he said, holding up a hand as she was about to interrupt. “Killing changes you. It blackens your soul, and once you cross that line, you can never turn back. You’re too pure, Alara. I don’t want your soul stained, like mine is. I’ve killed before. I’ve watched the life drain from my enemies’ eyes. And I always wondered later… who were they? Did they have families? Children? A lover who will never see them again?”

“I don’t care,” Alara said darkly, her anger taking over. “I want her dead.”

“I know.” Nik cupped her face, the roughness of his palms prickling against her skin. “And I promise you, you’ll have your revenge. But don’t sacrifice who you are as a person to get it.”

What other way was there? Wait around for someone else to kill Mistress Black? Or worse, wait for the DPI to take her into custody to give her “a fair trial,” sentence her to life in prison, dump her in a private cell, and forget about her for the next however many years while she painted her toenails in prison?

There was also the chilling possibility of a politician getting hold of her. A powerful and rare Black Witch, with a network of willing followers, could come in handy. There were elections to be won, profits to be made by any means necessary…

Alara knew the aristocracy of the Underworld, and what she did know made her shudder. She could think of several bitches and pricks who wouldn’t bat a lash to kiss Mistress Black’s ass if it meant getting ahead—regardless of her atrocities.

On the verge of arguing, Alara opened her mouth—and all the air rushed right back out of her.

Nik’s eyes were so earnest, the hope that he was somehow saving her soul shining through.

Her heart cracked.

She couldn’t do it. No way could she bear to tell him that he was wasting his breath.

That her soul had been damned the moment she’d laid eyes on her sister’s bleeding corpse.

Forcing her lips together into a tight smile, she nodded once and looked away. He cupped her chin and gently turned her head back to face him.

“Promise me you won’t do anything reckless or crazy?” he said.

The thought of her doing something reckless or crazy would have been laughable a few weeks ago. Now… now it seemed more likely with each passing day.

“I can’t make a promise I don’t know I’ll be able to keep,” she said carefully. She pressed her lips to his palm. “But I shall try.”

“That’s all I can ask for.” He kissed her forehead and pulled her in close, wrapping his strong arms around her and holding her tight. “I don’t want to lose you.”

She hugged him, pressing her ear against his chest so she could listen to the beating of his heart. “You won’t. Not in this lifetime or the next. Not if I can ever help it.”

He rested his head against hers, sighing contentedly. “I love you.”

She startled. She’d felt his love, sure. She was positive she had. But until now, he’d never actually said the words that meant the world to her.

Lifting her head, she looked up into his eyes, searching them. No joke there.

She couldn’t recall hearing those words from her parents’ mouths. From her sister, Izzy’s, yes, but never from theirs. Not that she could remember, anyway.

Warm tears stung her eyes, and she looked down at his chest. “I love you too,” she whispered, as if saying it too loudly meant placing a target on his back for the bad guys. It seemed whenever she loved something—her sister, college classes, you name it—it got taken away. As if her love was cursed. Which was silly. Life just happened—that she knew. But the bad stuff always seemed to happen to her, and that kind of run-of-the-mill, continuous bad luck made you wary as hell.

A growl of desire rumbled in Nik’s chest, and his eyes glistened with golden light. He was growing hard again, which only served to fuel her own mounting fire.

“We should either finish our tracking or get back,” she said roughly, her throat dry.

“We have plenty of time to track. And they won’t miss us for five more minutes.” His head leaned in as he angled his mouth for hers.

The wind shifted directions again, this time bringing with it the charred scent Alara had detected—and dismissed—earlier. Nik’s spine straightened, and in response, she went tense in his arms. “What is that?”

“Don’t know,” he said grimly. “But I think it may be human.”

Getting up and Changing again to follow the scent was harder than Alara had anticipated. Lying there alone with her mate, hidden away in the forest from the outside world and its troubles, was like dying and going to Heaven. It didn’t get much better than that.

She envied Danica and Gage their honeymoon. Werewolves didn’t believe in traditional weddings, but Alara could certainly appreciate the romantic side of it. While the mating ceremony was enough for her, a lovers’ getaway sounded fantastic right about now.

No witches.

No bitterness, no grief.

Okay, well, those last two things would probably still be there. Wounds from death took a while to heal, possibly years. She was just so ready to stop hurting all the time that she would almost pay any price to escape the agony.

This time Nik took the lead, tearing through the underbrush with scarcely a sound. A living, breathing shadow of death.

Alara charged after him, her own footfalls light and graceful. It had taken a while to trust this other form, but now she surrendered to it completely. It had never steered her wrong, these senses that were so much more attuned to the world, these muscles, teeth, and claws that made her feel invincible.

The charred scent took them up the river and into a small hollow where the ground had sunk beneath a tree. Exposed roots tangled along the ground, some thick, some small.

Something white stuck out of the soil just below the embankment. Nik leapt, seizing the white object in his mouth before pulling. Whatever it was didn’t want to come loose easily. It took a few tugs, along with Alara pawing at the earth to thin it, before the object dislodged itself and tumbled to the ground.

Alara’s eyes focused on it—and terror jolted her out of wolf form so abruptly that she had to clap a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming.