ANNELISE POV The dead man's heart lay on his chest, and the creature crouched over him was staring straight at me. My phone light shook across the pavement and caught gold eyes. They didn't squint or blink. They glowed in the beam like an animal's eyes, and they locked onto mine with a hunger I felt in my stomach. Blood ran down the creature's chin and dripped onto the corpse. I couldn't scream, and I couldn't move. Twenty minutes earlier, my only worry had been whether I could afford my mother's medicine. *** "And that's a wrap for the day." I leaned on the mop handle and looked over the gleaming floors. My back ached, my fingers were raw from scrubbing, and every blink took effort. The café job started again at six tomorrow. The cleaning job came right after it. I had no idea how long I could keep going. I had to anyway. Mom couldn't work. Her best-paying client didn't know she was too sick to show up, and I intended to keep it that way, because rich people replaced anyone who stopped being useful. Food, rent and medicine all depended on me now, and Mom had already lost enough. I carried the supplies to the storeroom, and a woman's voice stopped me when I stepped back out. "Perfect job, dear." I bowed on reflex. She was about my mother's age, elegant, with the look of someone who rarely repeated herself. "Thank you, Ma." "You work as hard as your mother does." She smiled, and the strictness in her face eased. "I'll double your payment for it." My cheeks went hot. "That's so generous of you, Ma. Thank you." My phone buzzed a minute later. The amount was far more than I had expected. It covered three days of rent and medicine, and I nearly cried in her hallway. "Good girl." She checked her gold watch. "Go on home. It's getting dark." "Yes, Ma'am. See you tomorrow." I bowed once more, grabbed my bag, and walked out through the huge front doors and the estate gate. It was nearly eight. The streetlights hummed along the first stretch of road, and I walked fast. I had done this walk alone plenty of times. Tonight the air felt colder and heavier, and the back of my neck prickled. "Nothing is wrong, Annelise," I whispered. "Nothing is wrong." A dry leaf cracked behind me and I almost leapt out of my skin. Then my phone rang, loud in the quiet, and I fumbled it out of my bag. Mom. "Anne, are you close?" Her voice was thin and tired. "You're late, and the city isn't safe at night." "Almost home, Mom. I'll pick up your medicine on the way. Don't worry about me." "Be careful." She hung up. Two streets from home, the streetlights died. I used my phone's flashlight, and the full moon helped. I swept the beam along the road ahead and found the man on the ground, and the gold eyes above him. My feet wouldn't answer me. When my body finally remembered it could run, he was already in front of me. I never saw him cross the distance. He was just there, huge, and close enough that I smelled cologne and blood. "What is a little human doing out alone this late?" He smiled with red on his lips. "Please." My voice broke. "Let me go. I'm all my mother has." "You saw what you shouldn't have." He tilted his head and studied me. "I ought to kill you, Sweetness. I can't, though. You're mine now." Mine? "I didn't see anything, I swear. I'll never tell anyone. My mom needs me." "Are you trying to outsmart me, honey?" He laughed softly, and the sound raised goosebumps on my arms. "Playtime's over. You're coming with me." His hand closed around my throat. It didn't squeeze. His thumb rested over my pulse and felt it hammering, and he lowered his face to my neck and breathed me in. A low rumble rolled through his chest. My knees wobbled, and I despised my body for it. "Don't fight," he murmured against my skin. "You'll only hurt yourself." The street tilted, and everything went black. I woke with a pounding head and light too bright to look at. I covered my eyes with my hand and hissed. My throat was dry as paper. "Finally awake, Little Human." My eyes snapped open. I turned toward the voice, and he sat on a small couch with one ankle propped on his knee. The blood was gone. I remembered the face, and I wished I didn't. It was beautiful, and it belonged to a monster. So it hadn't been a nightmare. He was real, and I was still alive. I looked around. This was his home, and I was far from my mother. She hadn't taken her medicine, and she would be frantic. "You slept a long time." He stood and sat on the edge of the bed, too close. "You must have been exhausted." "I wasn't exhausted," I said hoarsely. "You knocked me out." "Details." A smile tugged at his mouth. "Your food will be here soon. Take a bath and get comfortable." Comfortable? "Please, let me go. My mom is sick and needs me. I won't remember anything, I promise. I just want to go home." Tears spilled over before I could stop them. "A doctor is with your mother already," he said calmly. "She'll be fine. Go bathe, Sweetness." My blood ran cold. "How do you know where she lives?" He shrugged and looked almost bored. "It took me ten minutes. Humans don't protect their own information at all." He leaned closer, and his thumb brushed the tear off my cheek. His skin was hot. "I know where your mother sleeps, Annelise. Don't make me use it."

ANNELISE POV  "What are you?" His hand closed around my ankle before the words had finished leaving my mouth. He didn't squeeze, and he didn't need to. The grip was warm and certain, and it told me my leg would stay where he wanted it. "I hate questions," he said. "You carried a man's heart in your hands." My voice shook, but I kept going, because fear had made me stupid. "Are you human? Are you a vam..." "Hell no." His lip curled. "I don't drink blood. And humans are too slow for me to be a vampire." He stood and walked to the door, then leaned his back against it with his arms folded. The room felt smaller with him blocking the exit. He watched me with a calm that scared me more than yelling would have. "The man last night saw what you saw," he said. "He made a bad choice afterward. You're too young for that kind of sight, so you get a warning he didn't." He paused. "Alpha Cassius Vale. Werewolf." I let out a small, disbelieving laugh. It died when his eyes changed. The gold didn't glow so much as ignite. It spread through his irises until no brown was left, and the room went silent. A growl vibrated through the floor and into the soles of my feet. His nostrils flared, and a vein stood out along his forearm. I pressed myself against the headboard. "Okay," I whispered. "Okay. I believe you." "Good." The gold faded. He crossed the room in two strides and sat beside me again. His hand slid under the sheet and settled on my calf, then moved slowly upward. "You know enough now. You'll eat, and you'll stay, and you'll behave." His fingers reached the back of my knee and stopped. Heat spread from that spot up my thigh. My breath caught, and he heard it. He smiled. "Bathroom, Sweetness." He lifted his hand. "Before I forget my manners." He left. I sat there with my skin burning where his hand had been, and I was furious at myself for how badly I wanted it back. *** The shower was scalding, and I let it be. I stood under the water and told myself I was crying about my mother, and part of it was true. The rest was my body, which hadn't shaken from fear since he touched my leg. What does he want from me? I turned off the water and wrapped a pink towel around myself. When I came out, the room had changed. A tray of steaming food sat on the table, rich and fragrant enough to make my stomach clench. Four shopping bags stood beside it, all from brands I had only seen in windows. I wasn't going to touch any of it. The door clicked open, and I stumbled backward and clutched the towel. Cassius filled the doorway. His gaze dragged from my wet hair to my bare shoulders, then down my legs, and it didn't hurry. He didn't pretend he wasn't looking. "Please," I said, hating how small it sounded. "I need a few minutes alone." He stepped inside and shut the door. My pulse went wild. "Why?" He walked toward me. "You're clean. You're warm. You smell like the soap I picked for you." He stopped inches away and tipped my chin up with two fingers. His other hand found the hem of the towel at my thigh and traced it slowly, one inch along the edge. "I'd like to see how far this fits." My knees weakened. I couldn't speak. "Tell me to leave," he said quietly. I opened my mouth. Nothing came out. Shame burned through me, because he already knew the answer. His smile turned dark. "That's what I thought." He let the towel go and stepped back. "I'll give you your minutes, Sweetness. But I'm coming back." He walked out, and I sank to the floor, shaking. I dressed in a white sundress from one of the bags, because I had nothing else. It fit perfectly, and that frightened me too. He had known my size before I woke up. The glass doors led to a balcony. I pushed them open and walked out into the wind, and the height hit me first. I was on the top floor. Below me lay a huge compound with high walls, and armed men patrolled the grounds in pairs. Cameras were bolted to every corner of the building I could see. No one was going to help me. I couldn't climb down, and I couldn't call anyone. My phone and bag were gone, so I couldn't reach my mother. I stood there until my teeth chattered, then went back inside. The food was still on the table. I sat on the couch and stared at it. My stomach hurt, but I didn't want to eat anything he had given me. "Why aren't you eating?" I jumped. He stood just inside the room with his hands in his pockets, and I hadn't heard the door. "I'm not hungry." "You haven't eaten in almost a day." He crossed to me, took the fork off the tray, and cut a piece of the meat. He held it in front of my mouth. "Open." "I can feed myself." "I know." He didn't lower the fork. "Open, Annelise." I felt my lips part before I decided to. The food was perfect, and I hated that too. He watched me chew with an intensity that made my face heat. "Good girl." He set the fork down. Then he leaned close, until his mouth brushed my ear. "Listen carefully. The doors on this floor open for me, not for you. Try the elevator, and a guard stops you. Try the stairs, and I'll know before you reach the second landing." His fingers slid into my hair and tightened. "Run, if you like," he whispered. "Please. I'd love the excuse."

ALPHA CASSIUS POV Her scent came through two closed doors, and my claws cut into the desk before I knew they had come out. Vanilla and caramel, with fear underneath. I stood in my study with splinters of oak under my fingers and my wolf pacing against my ribs. He wanted the door open. He wanted her under me, on the floor of her room, with her breath breaking against my neck. A human mate. The Moon Goddess had a sense of humor. Humans were slow, fragile and stupid, and every one I had met had been easy to read, easy to frighten and easy to break. Now one of them sat on a couch four rooms away, and I had spent the last hour doing nothing but listening to her heartbeat through the walls. I had meant to kill her. When I smelled her on that street, I knew what she was, and I knew what she had seen. Both facts should have ended the night differently. Instead I had held her throat in my hand and felt her pulse race against my thumb, and I couldn't close my fingers. I didn't understand the pull, and I didn't enjoy that. I hadn't lost control in over a decade, and in a single night she had taken it from me without knowing. She would never know, either. A mate who understood her power would use it. I intended to keep her afraid, obedient and close until the bond settled into something I could manage. I pulled my claws from the desk, flexed my hand until the bones reset, and went to her. She had moved from the couch to the foot of the bed, and she sat with her knees pulled up and the white sundress riding high on her thighs. Her curls were still damp. She had finished most of the meal, and the empty plate told me she was learning. Her eyes dropped the moment I entered. Good. She should lower them. "Can I speak to my mom?" she asked the carpet. "You can." I took the edge of the bed and let the mattress dip under my weight, which brought her a few inches closer to me without her permission. "I have your phone and your bag. Everything is safe." "Then please." "Video call. The doctor will hold the screen." Her head came up. Her eyes shone, and I smelled the relief on her, sweet and bright, and it ran through my body in a way I didn't like. I handed her my phone. The doctor answered on the first ring, as ordered, and her mother's face filled the screen. She was pale but sitting up, with color back in her cheeks. Annelise made a small sound and covered her mouth. "Mom! How are you?" "I'm doing well, baby. This doctor is wonderful. I think I'm finally getting better." "I'm so glad." Annelise smiled, and then her eyes slid toward me. I looked back at her without expression. She swallowed. "Mom, I'm so sorry about..." "Why didn't you tell me you had a boyfriend?" her mother said. "You didn't need to lie about being on your way home. You're twenty-three, Anne. He seems like a good man." I leaned back on my hands. Annelise went still. She turned her head slowly and stared at me with an expression I could only read one way: are you serious? I shrugged and let the corner of my mouth lift. It had taken one phone call to the doctor to build the story, and her mother had accepted it without a single question. People believe what is convenient to believe. "He says he's taking you on a vacation," her mother went on. "So I'll only see you on video for a while. But he hired a caregiver, so don't worry about me. You deserve a break, honey." Annelise's eyes filled. Her chin trembled, and she bit down on her lower lip until the skin whitened. I smelled the salt before the first tear fell. "Okay, Mom," she whispered. "Take care of yourself. I'll talk to you soon." She ended the call and handed the phone back without looking at me. Then she stood up, and I stood with her. "What's wrong, Sweetness?" I kept my voice even. "Your mother is well. You saw her. Why the tears?" "You didn't have to lie to her." Her voice shook and then steadied, and that steadiness caught my attention. "You made her think I'm on some romantic trip. That isn't comfort. It's a kidnapping, and you're asking me why I'm upset?" The room went silent. She had raised her voice to me. In my house, to my face, with my guards ten feet beyond the wall. No one had done that in my life. Males twice her size lowered their eyes when I looked at them, and this human stood a foot shorter than me with tears on her face and her fists clenched, and she glared. I should have been angry. I was angry. My wolf was angry, and under the anger something hotter moved, and it wasn't anger at all. "Watch your tone, Annelise." I let the words come out slowly, so she heard each one. "I don't accept disrespect." Her lips pressed together. She didn't apologize. She held my gaze for three full seconds, which no one had done in years, then turned and walked away from me toward the balcony doors. Walked away. Heat rushed down my spine. My hands curled. She had turned her back on an Alpha and she wasn't even afraid enough to hurry. Her hips swayed under the thin white fabric, and the scent of her anger filled the room, sharper and richer than her fear had ever been. I wanted to haul her back by the hair and teach her exactly what it cost to walk away. I wanted to hear her say my title while she begged. My wolf wanted both. For once, so did I. She slid the glass door open and stepped out into the night wind. Her curls whipped across her face. She put her hands on the railing and bent her head, and her shoulders shook. I followed. Each step was soundless, because I had already decided she wouldn't hear me until I was behind her. She didn't turn around, but she knew I was there. "You said you'd punish me if I walked away," she said to the dark. Her voice was thick and defiant. "So do it." My claws slid out again.