Morning broke in a wash of rose and gold streaking the sky. Adrian rolled over in bed and embraced…

Nothing.

Darcy was gone from his bed. Yawning, he glanced down at his raging erection.

Despite making love four times last night, he still wanted her.

After showering, he found her in the kitchen making breakfast. Adrian went to kiss her cheek, but she ducked away and focused on frying the bacon.

“Good morning, my sweet,” he murmured. “How are you feeling?”

Pink colored her pretty face. “Fine.”

“Not too sore?”

More pink. “No.”

Adrian reached around her and wrapped his arms around her slender waist. So small and slight, yet so filled with life. Passion. Humming, he kissed the top of her head, breathing in the scent of apple shampoo and Darcy.

He snatched up a piece of bacon she’d set upon a paper towel and fed her a bit. Darcy chewed slowly. Gods, he loved it when she took food from his hand.

Spending a lifetime with this woman would be enchanting.

They ate breakfast and set out for the mine.

In black leather pants and jacket, Darcy looked hot enough to melt ice. Long hair curtained her face as she squatted down to examine the animal footprints in the newly fallen snow. All night long. Lick from head to toe. Adrian’s blood fired.

Surprised the snow didn’t melt. Then he forced himself to think of things other than sex. Sex in the snow. On a tree limb. In a bed. Anywhere.

They had a mission, and if necessary, he wanted Darcy to run for it. No way would he risk her life.

As she stood, dusting snow off her leather-gloved hands, he caught her shoulders. “When we get to the mine, if you feel threatened or you find yourself endangered, I want you to run. Fast.”

Darcy frowned, the sweet line between her brows denting. “And what about you? I’m supposed to leave you alone to fight whatever might be in that mine?”

Adrian went to his duffel bag, and he withdrew his short sword. Sunlight glinted off hard steel as he stroked a thumb along the edge.

“I can take care of myself, Darcy. But not if I have to worry about protecting you.”

“I’m no girly girl who runs at danger, alpha.” She fisted a hand in his shirt and drew him close. “I’ve slept on the streets, slain demons, and my steel-toed boots have kicked plenty of ass. So don’t go all soft on me.”

He leaned down, staring at her mouth. Her lovely, kissable mouth. “Was I soft at all last night?”

Such a sweet mouth, pursed up in a cute smile. “Not for a millisecond, chum. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were a Lupine on Viagra.”

“Viagra doesn’t work for us. We don’t need it.” He slid his arms around her and lowered his head to take her mouth. “All I need is you, naked.”

When they both surfaced for air, Darcy licked her kiss-swollen mouth. “Naked in the snow, now there’s different. Cold. Impractical but different.”

“And we have a task to perform. Let’s do it.”

---

The Cosmos Silver Mine wasn’t on her bucket list. Not even close.

Sex with Adrian hadn’t been there either. And wow, what sex they’d had. Even now the soreness between her legs reminded her of how deep inside he’d been.

Not just her body but her soul as well. Damn, if she wasn’t falling in love with him.

Darcy blew out a breath in the cold mountain air and focused on the task before them. Love and respect drove Adrian to undertake this mission. Love for Peggy and respect for her last wishes.

After seeing Peggy and knowing the crystal could save her, Darcy could face a legion of demons. She knew Adrian felt the same way.

She liked the elder and felt a pang of sorrow at losing her. Not only her life force but the plethora of memories Peggy carried, the wisdom she’d gained through the decades.

The void she’d leave in the lives of her descendants.

Maybe her own parents didn’t give a damn about her and she had no family who cared, but she could save Peggy and brighten the lives of her family. Darcy wanted to help.

Call it the white knight inside her, forever battling the darkness swirling there, the darkness that always threatened to push to the forefront.

Adrian powered up the snowmobile, and she climbed on the back. He cut through the white powder with ease. He navigated around tight turns, Darcy leaning into the turns, clinging to his waist. Biting wind whipped at them as they climbed higher, using the old mining road carved into the mountain years ago.

He stopped the snowmobile after they reached a plateau. The bridge over a steep canyon looked long abandoned. Pine trees ringed the mountain, but no one lived here.

No one had been here for a long time. The area felt lost and eerie, a true ghost town.

Adrian slung the duffel over one shoulder. “Let’s go.”

The horizontal mineshaft was set on the slope of a mountain. It was a steep walk downward to reach the entrance, using a path of snow-covered gravel and dirt. A nearby waterfall splashed over granite rocks, feeding into a creek beyond the mine. Large clumps of tailings, the leavings of mine residue, peppered the hillside with their ugly remains. The grayish mounds peeked through the snow like the hands of corpses, ruining the sparkling, white landscape.

Even in her sturdy boots, Darcy found the hike slippery and treacherous. Once she slipped. He righted her, his gaze steady. “You okay?”

She nodded. It would make sense for her to shift into a bird and fly down, but she didn’t dare expend her energy until it was necessary.

They reached the bottom. An equipment shack was locked with a sturdy padlock, but Adrian fished a key out of his jeans. He set down his duffel bag, went inside the shack and returned with a crowbar and two hardhats.

The mine’s entrance was boarded up, an empty ore cart blocking it. Strong energy shimmered in the air. Adrian’s magick warding, she realized. It was powerful enough to make her nauseated.

“Bend over and take in deep breaths of air,” he told her, his hand steady on her back.

A lovely, lyrical chanting filled the air. Adrian was casting some kind of counter-spell to remove the warding. Closing her eyes, she listened to the deep tenor of his voice, and the urge to retch faded.

When she straightened, she saw he’d removed the ore cart. Adrian went to a small shack near the entrance. A few minutes later, she heard a generator start. He emerged from the shack, dusting off his hands, a faint odor of diesel clinging to him.

Lights gleamed within the cavernous interior of the mine, peeking through the boards nailed across the entrance.

He began using a crowbar to pull off the boards.

She helped him pull off the rest. He took the crow bars and tossed them onto the ground.

He peered into the gloom, barely pierced by the light bulbs strung along the tunnel’s ceiling.

Darcy shuddered. “Is it safe?”

“Invisible gases can build up in old mines. Let’s test it.”

“Got a canary handy?” She referenced the old-fashioned method miners used to ensure the air was safe. If the bird died, the miners fled.

The eye roll he gave amused her. “Something better.” Adrian removed a small instrument from his backpack. It beeped and glowed green. “Safe so far.”

“And what about the warding?” she asked.

“I eased the spell so I can enter, but I will not risk removing it. It’s too dangerous.”

“So how am I supposed to go inside?”

“The magick will allow anyone I claim as mine to enter.” He bent his head, breathing in her neck as he nuzzled her neck.

His mouth grazed her throat, his warm breath feathering over her skin. He smelled so good, like crisp snow and spices. Darcy wound her arms around him, touching the strong muscles of his back, then sliding up to touch the edges of his dark, thick hair.

He kissed the corner of her mouth, a sweet, tender gesture. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to do this. It will only hurt for a moment.”

Darcy had a bad feeling about this. Lupines claimed their mates through a sensual bite known as the mating mark. “Adrian, maybe there’s another way…”

Fangs glistened in his mouth. He bent his head, nuzzled her neck.

“Now,” he breathed against her skin.

Sharp teeth sank into her neck. Pain surged, along with an erotic throbbing in her loins. She cried out with shock more than pain. The pleasure sang through her veins, and her female parts pulsed with pure need. The alpha licked the wound, his tongue dragging slowly over the bite. Stinging pain faded, replaced by growing arousal. Arousal sharpened, wetness gushing between her legs.

Staggering back until her bottom made contact with the ore cart, she squeezed her trembling thighs together.

“Oh my god, I need; I need.” Darcy scrubbed her hands against her jeans and found herself rubbing her butt against the ore cart.

Damn, what was that?

Adrian gave a faint smile. “I wish we had time to do what I know you need right now, sweetheart. But not here.” His smile faded. “This place is too full of sorrow and darkness.”

Realization slowly dawned. “You gave me your mating mark.”

The mark all male Lupines gave their mates, to lessen their sexual appeal to other males and tell the world she was claimed by him and him alone.

His expression shuttered. “It is the only way you can have access to the mine. The magick inside will recognize you as mine.”

“Bastard,” she breathed, rubbing the mark, her breasts heavy and the urge for sex almost violent. “You did it to force my hand and get me to become your mate.”

Adrian cupped her jaw, staring down at her. “I never force, sweetheart. Never. Certainly not you. A male Lupine can only give a mating mark to a willing female. If she is unwilling, his fangs will not pierce her skin.” He released her. “And the mating is not complete until the formal ceremony and the couple has had sex again.”

Confused, she shook her head, as if to clear away the heavy arousal pulsing through her. Maybe she wanted him sexually, and she had hungered for him. Last night had been the best sex of her life.

Settling down with Adrian, raising a family with him, caring for his pack—it was scary because she’d dreamed of such a life for a long time. And her dreams had a habit of vanishing, replaced with weary cynical reality.

But now wasn’t the time to question. They had a task ahead of them, and she needed all her focus to summon the magick required to shift.

“We’ll talk later, dickwad,” she muttered. “Let’s go.”

His mouth quirked at her profanity, but he sobered as he pointed the flashlight into the looming darkness of the mine.

He gestured with his flashlight. “Follow me and stick close. The mine has different levels, but the crystal is hidden on the main level we can access by foot. Most of the other tunnels are flooded.”

Taking a deep breath, she entered the mine. Soon as she was a few feet inside, the overwhelming arousal faded, replaced with primitive dread.

Dim light provided by the lightbulbs strung along the side cut the darkness only a little. She was glad of the powerful flashlights they carried.

Walking presented a challenge on the uneven ground. A few times, she had to duck to avoid the overhead rafters, and once she hit her head. Much taller than her, Adrian almost had to bend over in half at some places. In his right hand he held the meter, which beeped a steady, reassuring green.

All safe.

Yet it was not.

The entire mine seemed creepy and rattled her nerves. Darcy couldn’t tell if it was her imagination or not, but the stench of dampness, old rot and something even more evil wound around her like a clinging, wet blanket.

Narrow rock walls seemed to close in on her as she followed Adrian along the rusty ruins of old rails that once serviced ore carts. She couldn’t fathom working here, underground, rock walls pressing all around her, with only the faint light of a hardhat’s lamp. After a hundred yards into the shaft, another shaft opened to her right. This passage had been blocked with screening and a locked, steel gate. The faint trickle of water sounded far below. Chilled to the bone, Darcy shivered and stopped, playing her flashlight over the rock walls. Distant screams echoed in her mind, the fury and howling of a pack leader defeated by another, sent hurling to his death.

“Is that where you buried him?” she whispered.

Adrian turned. Nodded. “The shaft goes down to the water table. It’s a long fall. No one could survive.”

No mere Lupine. But Lars had not been ordinary. Still, more than ten years had passed. Surely Lars was dead.

The mine was a dark abyss, filled with reminders of the treasure Lupines had scraped from the walls through hard work and sweat. Veins of “dragon’s blood” seeped down walls. Adrian had explained the liquid was oxidized silver seepage that turned black.

Perhaps the mine could still yield silver, but she understood and appreciated Adrian’s reasons for closing it. The weight of past sorrows squeezed around her, pressing up against her body. It felt like old ghosts made their home here, though she knew from past experience it was merely the residue of energy and old magick that remained trapped in the mine.

After several minutes, the mine opened up to a large room. To their left was a wide tunnel that climbed upward and ended abruptly. Old mining equipment sat off to one side—a heavy drill, work gloves crumbled and moldy, and some boxes.

The air meter kept beeping green. Adrian went to a switch on one support beam and switched it, flooding the chamber with additional light. It barely cut through the gloom.

“How many died here?”

The question came in a burst. She didn’t even want to ask, but something deep inside cried out for justice for lives she knew had been lost inside these dark, dank walls.

“A few. Maybe a dozen. I stopped counting after that. Lars used to beat workers if they didn’t produce enough, and some were too old and frail to take it. They died here and were left in the tunnels.” A hard look entered his dark eyes. “Lars didn’t want to take away precious work time to bury the dead.”

He squatted down, picking up the gloves.

“I remember these,” he murmured, and judging from the distant look in his eye, he was in another time, another place. “Lars gave them to me on my sixteenth birthday. He told me if I worked the mine in twelve-hour shifts, I’d get a five percent share. And my gran could rest, stay home, never have to work again.”

His mouth tightened as his fingers curled around the leather gloves. “I worked twenty-four-hour shifts, four days in a row. And he still didn’t pay me. The only way we could get enough food was to smuggle it past him. He was trying to…”

With a snort, he threw down the gloves.

Perhaps it was the intensity of the lovemaking they’d shared last night. Or perhaps he’d given her a glimpse deep into his soul. No matter. Darcy sidled up to him and clasped his cold, trembling hand.

Standing, he threw her a startled look and then squeezed lightly. For a moment, they stood in silence, simply holding hands as if anchoring each other to the earth. Then Adrian dropped her hand. He removed his hardhat, tossed it aside.

“I hid the snow crystal up there, tucked into a corner.” He pointed to the shaft marching upward, too steep and dangerous to climb.

“How the hell did you manage that?” she wondered.

“I threw it. There was no time to bury it.”

This was no place for sentimental reflections or expressions of love. They must retrieve the jewel, do so quickly and then get the hell out of here.

Even now the oppressive weight of the air inside the mineshaft pressed against her, like walls marching toward her body. Darcy felt suffocated by the weight of past angst and memories too terrible to bear.

Shifting into a bat strained her power, but she stood in the cavernous room, absorbing the atmosphere. It helped and made the transition easier when she could take her time and ease into the form. Bats loved caves.

After removing her hardhat, Darcy closed her eyes and summoned her powers. Magick poured through her veins as she envisioned herself a bat, small and fragile-boned. Pain wracked her body as the transition began. Oh damn, this was going to be a bitch.

Gasping, she rode through it, and Adrian’s concerned face began to cloud. And then she screamed.

The scream died on her lips as she shifted into a large, black bat. Beating her wings, she instinctively flew away from the light, toward the darkness beckoning her in another tunnel.

“Not that way,” Adrian called out. “Darcy, go left!”

The small part of her that controlled the animal’s instinct managed to turn herself around and head up into the niche.

Her eyesight was dim, but she had excellent radar, and the power of the crystal shone like a beacon. It lay on dirt at the top of the niche. About the size of a silver dollar, it pulsed with raw power.

Darcy managed to seize the gem in her mouth. Immediately magick flowed into her. She flew back down toward Adrian.

Wow, what a rush of power. Energized, she dropped the crystal into Adrian’s outstretched palm and then shifted back. No pain, no strain this time.

Darcy conjured clothing back on her nude body and stared at the jewel.

“That’s an extraordinary crystal. Where did Peggy get it?”

“It was a gift from the Crystal Wizard in return for Peggy doing a favor for him more than one hundred years ago.” Adrian held up the gem.

His gloved palm tightened around the gem. “Only this crystal can help save her. Her powers are draining slowly, and she’s in constant pain.”

“Well, let’s get it back to her.”

They turned to head for the entrance, when Adrian put a hand on her arm. “Listen.”

The ghostly drip of water still echoed through the mine. But this was different, sharper.

Sloshing. As if someone waded through water.

Her gaze whipped over to the dragon’s blood trickling down the rock wall. Suddenly it caught fire, and then it froze.

The ground shook beneath them, nearly sending them toppling. Fog began drifting through the mine, droplets of silver mist that carried a foul stench.

A chill rushed through her. The mine was a comfortable temperature compared to the icy blast of winter outside. This coldness had nothing to do with the weather.

Darcy winced. She’d encountered enough evil creatures that her nerves recognized the presence. Her body had been conditioned for it. “Adrian, what is that?”

Adrian’s haunted gaze met hers. “It’s Lars. He’s been resurrected.”