Florida, present day

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Life never took her where she expected. Certainly she never expected to be here, trapped by an alpha wolf. Forced to do whatever he pleased for the next two weeks.

All because she’d sneaked a pretty bauble from his estate and had gotten caught. Hey, I would have returned it.

Darcy Chambers folded her arms across her chest and refused to lower her gaze before the alpha. With his ink-jet hair, caramel eyes and chiseled features, Adrian Williams was a striking man who looked more suited for the cover of GQ magazine.

Except Adrian wasn’t a man.

He was a purebred alpha wolf.

Cool and collected, Adrian leaned back in his leather chair. Dressed in faded jeans and a white-and-blue-striped shirt, he wore expensive hiking boots. Another thing she didn’t understand.

Hiking boots where she’d found him in Colorado? Yes.

Here in Florida, where the weather was suited for sandals? Made no sense.

The alpha’s office was larger than her last home. Elegant mahogany furniture decorated the second-floor room, with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the thick forest beyond.

Though it was early November and warm temperatures still lingered in south Florida, she was cold. Frozen.

Perhaps it was the deep, penetrating gaze regarding her. Eyes that missed nothing. Barely a few minutes after she’d knocked on the door of his magnificent Florida mansion, two burly Lupines had escorted her up the stairs to this office.

Show of power. And why not? She’d expected nothing less of Adrian. He only needed to snap his fingers and give an order, and his pack leapt to obey. They would tear her from limb to limb if he desired.

Or bind her to his bed, to let the alpha deliver a different kind of punishment…

“Naughty Darcy,” he said softly, leaning his chin on one hand. “What am I to do with you? You stole my priceless magick ruby crystal.”

“Borrowed,” she corrected. “I only borrowed it to see into the future, help Kieran and Ella find the crystal of Calmach.”

“Semantics.” His smile dropped. “Had you asked, I might have used it to help you. But you stole it instead. The magick is gone from it, the crystal useless from your touch.”

Giving a little shrug, she refused to let him intimate her. “It probably wouldn’t have worked anyway. You did get it from a troll antiquities dealer. You know they aren’t trustworthy.”

“It matters now. You took what is mine. I never allow anyone to possess what is mine.” That slow, ruthless smile again, hinting he would claim her as well.

Fat chance. I’ll never be yours.

Darcy shrugged again. “It’s over. Done. I’m here. Now what? Need me to wash dishes? Clean the floors? Yard work?” Unblinking, she scowled at him. “I’m real good at delivering packages as well.”

“Of course,” he murmured. “You can fly.”

“And there’s the difference between us. I can shift into any animal form, and you can’t. You’re grounded. So what do you want from me, you furry, four-legged doggie?”

Before she could utter another syllable or consider the foolishness of taunting him, something she did when she was scared, he bolted out of his chair. With a lethal quickness she’d seldom witnessed in males, Adrian was at her side. He fisted a hand in her long, dark hair, forcing her head back to meet his brutal gaze.

“I,” he ground out, his gaze fierce and proud, “Am. Not. A. Dog.”

Adrian released her hair, but his other hand wrapped around her throat, his thumb slowly stroking a sensual line across her skin. The ice left Darcy’s veins, replaced by fire licking between her legs.

Damn, she was toast. He could turn her on with a mere touch. It was the main reason she’d escaped him last time he’d had her at his mercy.

“Yes, you can fly and shift into other life forms. It would make bedtime quite…interesting,” he murmured.

Darcy could not resist him. He was pure orgasm on a stick. And though he’d never done anything other than kiss her, she’d known ten years ago after rescuing him in the snowstorm that she could never stay with him.

Adrian would trap her in her human form with the temptation of his muscled, strong body and long sessions of lovemaking. She would lose her very self in his arms, forgetting her own identity, forgetting what she was.

Free.

He bent his head, nuzzling her neck, giving her skin a slow, deliberate lick. Her nipples hardened and ached as his warm breath feathered over her chilled skin. Darcy clenched her thighs.

“Stop that.”

Satisfaction swam in his gaze as he lifted his head. Adrian released her. “Still vulnerable to my touch, Darcy.”

As he resumed his seat, she shoved her hands into her jeans pockets to hide their trembling. Or prevent throttling him.

Adrian’s guards would race inside the room and bind her if she dared to harm their alpha. His pack would not hesitate to die for their leader.

Such loyalty would have ordinarily gained her respect. With Adrian, it only served to make her even more wary of his purpose.

Darcy pointed to the elegant clock on the fireplace mantel. “Time’s wasting, Adrian. I promised you two weeks. Are you going to play games or tell me what you want me to do?”

Anything but share your bed. Not that. Please.

But a different tension tightened his expression. Not sexual need, for his gaze narrowed as he looked at a paper on his desk.

“I need you to help me find a buried treasure hidden on the grounds where my former pack lived.”

Darcy blinked. Had he asked her to strip and dance an Irish jig, she couldn’t have been more shocked. “Help how?”

“You can fly. You can shift into any lifeform.”

Gaze guarded, he waited. Darcy drew in a breath. Adrian knew she was a Changeling Shifter, capable of shifting into anything from a wolf to a tiny housefly.

What he didn’t know was how she gained the energy to do all that shifting. That would remain her little secret.

“So? You need a mole to dig for you?”

“Not quite. More like a bat.” A gleam lit his gaze. “I do hope you’re not afraid of dark, cramped places.”

He picked up a paper from the desk. Curious, she joined him. It was a map of Colorado, and his former home was highlighted in yellow.

“I need your help to retrieve a snow crystal.” His mouth thinned. “The crystal is small but contains powerful magick. It was hidden before I freed the pack from Lars, but I had no chance to retrieve it.”

After picking up the map, Adrian tapped the edge against the edge of his hiking boot. “It’s stored in the old mine.”

She frowned. “You hid it. Why ask for my help in getting it back? You’re the one who cast the warding on the mine to keep Skins and Others away.”

“I can’t get to it. I’d need a twenty-foot ladder to reach it.” He smiled slowly. “Or a Changeling Shifter who can shift into a bat.”

If that was all he required, these two weeks would be a breeze. A small part of her felt disappointed he wanted her shifting abilities and nothing more.

“I can shift into a bat.” Darcy shrugged. “Easy. Is that all you need?”

“No. I require more of you.” A slow, knowing smile. “Later, when the crystal is safe in my possession, I’ll pursue the other reason I want you with me.”

Unsmiling, he studied her as a wolf studied prey he wished to devour. A delicious shiver snaked down her spine. Only, the way Adrian planned to devour her had to do with her getting naked.

“Don’t be so confident, Adrian. When are we leaving?”

“Two days from now. Since I doubt you packed winter clothing, I’ll have my assistant shop for you.” He caressed her body with his gaze, as if undressing her with his eyes. “You’re about a size fourteen, I believe.”

Darcy didn’t respond. Instead, she went to the large, framed photos Adrian had hung on the office wall. They were all from Silver Sleigh, his former home, the land owned by Lars Denton, his former alpha. After Adrian had returned to Silver Sleigh, powerful and leading his own pack, he’d destroyed Lars and taken over the remainder of the pack.

Silver Sleigh had been abandoned as Adrian moved his people east. It was a ghost town. Not even Skin tourists visited. The daring boldly ventured there, only to fall ill with violent retching soon as they crossed the invisible boundary, the line in the sand Adrian had drawn using his alpha magick.

“Is this where you buried Lars after you killed him?” Darcy pointed to a graveyard just outside of the cluster of wooden buildings.

The graves, scattered on a hillside, looked lonely and haunted. Eerie. A shiver snaked down her spine. At least she wouldn’t have to venture here.

“No.”

Darcy jumped. He’d spoked right in her ear. Quiet, so stealthy she had not heard him get up. Such was the power of a purebred alpha, she reminded herself.

Never drop your guard around him, Darce.

“That’s ground sacred to Lupines. I disposed of his bones in a place I never wanted to see again and boarded it up.”

Dread filled her. She knew the answer before he even told her. “The old mine.”

Peripheral vision enabled her to see his nod. “The mine was a source of pain and anguish for my people. A suitable burial ground for that bastard. I never imagined I’d have to return.”

“You should have burned his body and scattered his ashes to the four winds,” she muttered. Darcy had hated Lars, hated how the alpha had tormented the weak and frail.

Adrian lifted a strand of her hair, playfully tugged it. “My little warrior. So fierce.”

“I may be short, but I can bite and scratch just like you,” she warned.

A gleam ignited his gaze. “Good. I look forward to it…when I take you to my bed.”

Darcy sputtered. “In your dreams.”

“Oh, I have dreamed of that moment and many more. My lovers have always been strong women capable of meeting my needs.”

Arrogant ass. “I should have left you in the snow ten years ago,” she muttered.

“But you did not.” He released her hair. “In the meantime, Glenda will escort you to your room and take your measurements. Tell her what kind of items you need for winter weather. Your luggage has already been sent there. Dinner is at seven o’clock. We all dine together in the common room, two doors down.”

He opened his office door, called out, and a tall, elegant woman with rich curves, wearing all black walked inside. “Glenda, please see Miss Chambers to her room and get her anything she requires.”

As the woman went to leave, Darcy turned. “Adrian, one question before I go. Why did you bury him in the mine?”

For the first time, he refused to meet her gaze. Adrian studied the photo of the graveyard, his pulse racing so hard she could see the vein throb.

“The mine isn’t merely boarded up and warded with strong magick, Darcy. I left Lars alive there, barely alive, to die alone and in pain, as he left the elders he cast out.”

Glenda paled, and Darcy’s stomach pitched and roiled. “Oh no.”

“Oh yes. Death was too quick, too merciful for him.” Adrian’s jaw tightened.

“What if he’s still alive? Or worse, if he rises?” she whispered. “How could you destroy him?”

“He is dead.” His smile turned icy as a Colorado snowstorm. “I promise you this.”

But as she followed Glenda out of the room, a grim foreboding seized Darcy. Although Adrian was confident his former alpha was gone, Lars could still be alive.

Existing as a living, demonic spirit, ready to slay anyone in his path. She could only hope he had turned to bone and dust by now. If not and they opened the mine and Lars was alive…

Heaven help them all.