Madden left Maria sleeping and made his way down to the kitchen in search of breakfast. He needed to wipe the satisfied smile off his face and get back into business mode fast. Last night had been amazing. Maria was incredible. But he had a killer to catch.

It was still early and no one was around when he reached the kitchen. Glad of some thinking time, he grabbed a vacuum pack of caribou steak from the fridge. Cutting it open, he sliced it thinly and, standing at the counter, ate the bloody meat raw from the pack. Having washed his breakfast down with a bottle of water, he went to the window, looking out at the gardens with unseeing eyes.

Although his mind should be on the Cage Killer and the fact that none of the new information Maria brought to the case was leading him any closer to the killer, his thoughts refused to cooperate. His mind stayed stubbornly on Maria. Sex with her had been everything he had dreamed it would be. More than he had dreamed it would be. His body thrummed at the memory. His erection was making a serious case for getting back up those stairs and into bed with her again. He resisted it. Once he held her in his arms, he wouldn’t be able to think straight. He wasn’t sure he could do it now.

During all his years as a cop, Madden had never been tempted to get involved with a witness or a colleague. He wasn’t a vain man, but he had a mirror. He also knew what other people said about his looks. He’d had enough come-ons from women in his time to know he was attractive. That didn’t mean he had to do anything about it. It certainly didn’t mean he was going to jeopardize his job over a woman. But that was exactly what he was doing now. Maria was the victim of a horrible crime. She was a witness in the case on which Madden was the lead officer. She was under his protection. She was alone, everything she had been through made her appear vulnerable—although she was also possibly the strongest person he had ever met—and she trusted him to do the right thing. Yet all he could think about was the next time he could get her alone so he could get her to make that sweet little gurgling noise she made each time she came around his cock.

The guilty feelings he was experiencing weren’t even about his job. I should be watching out for her, caring for her, making sure she gets over the trauma of her ordeal. Not fucking her senseless. He groaned and ran a hand through his hair. Instantly, he had a hard-on like an iron girder at the thought of fucking Maria senseless.

But there was so much more distance between them than that of his job and his role in her recovery. There was her newly discovered werewolf status. She needed to be nurtured through that. She didn’t need some hulking great Arctic werewolf steaming into her life and claiming her the instant she discovered who she really was. I haven’t claimed her. We’ve had sex as humans, not werewolves. We would only be mated for life if we have sex as werewolves. And she doesn’t even know if she can shift. Telling himself that didn’t help. It sounded like the feeblest set of excuses ever made. He had hardly given her time in which to adjust to her new life.

So back off. Tell her last night was a one-off.

He almost snorted out loud with laughter. A one-off? He had a feeling it would be easier to give up breathing than it would be to give up sex with Maria. And there was Maria herself to consider in all of this. Without being boastful, Madden knew she had enjoyed herself last night as much as he had. She had told him so. Over and over. She had screamed it in ecstasy and whispered it as they fell asleep. He anticipated that determined look might appear on her face if he suggested they cool things down a bit.

Because they both knew this was about more than sex. Maria might be a rookie when it came to the werewolf world. Her induction might have been abrupt and incomplete, but Madden knew how these things worked. Scary as it seemed, he knew exactly what happened when a werewolf found its mate. His thoughts were interrupted when Valetta came into the kitchen. Since Samson was staying at Lowell’s house while he was taking care of Maria’s security, Valetta grabbed every chance she could to abandon their luxury apartment and spend her nights here with her husband. Madden wasn’t surprised to see her. What did surprise him was that she was dressed in jeans, sweatshirt, and sneakers instead of her usual office attire.

“Working from home?” he asked as she headed for the coffee machine.

“No. I have to get to my dad’s place.” Her expression was worried. “I got a message from Cindy to say he’s gone missing.”

A cold feeling hit Madden low in his stomach and he did his best to hide it from Valetta. “Hendrik’s gone missing? What does that mean exactly?”

“I’m not sure. Cindy was distressed when she called me, so the details were hard to catch. He left yesterday afternoon for a meeting with an art consultant. As far as I could make out, that was the last time Cindy saw him. He didn’t return home after that.”

Art consultant. Art gallery. The house where Maria had been held was built by an artist, David Barnes ran a coffee shop in the art district . . . Art. They hadn’t made any connections between the Cage Killer victims. Until the one Madden was making right this minute.

Madden tried to get a grip on the thoughts that were trying to fly off in all directions. This could be nothing. There could be a dozen explanations for why Hendrik hadn’t returned from his meeting. Valetta might get to her father’s house and find he’d spent a night in his car after having a flat tire on a remote road with no cell phone signal. The leaden feeling in his gut refused to give way, refused to allow any room for optimism.

Apparently Valetta didn’t view Hendrik’s disappearance as nothing either. She gulped down a cup of coffee and snatched up her car keys.

Her voice was nervous as she turned to Madden. “Will you come with me?”

* * *

Maria slept late. When she woke, her whole body felt warm and sated. She checked the pillow next to her and felt a pang of disappointment when she discovered it was empty. Madden had work to do. Important work. It was selfish to imagine that he could spend all day in bed with her. Selfish, but oh, what a wonderful fantasy that would be. She allowed herself a few minutes to indulge in that image and then, sighing, she kicked the bedding aside and made her way to the bathroom.

Her reflection in the mirror was beginning to look more the way it used to. The bruises were fading, the cuts healing. The stubble covering her head was thickening. A nurse was coming later that day to change the dressings on her hands. Hopefully, these bulky bandages would be removed and she would have more freedom.

Showering was a pleasure she had dreamed of in the dark hours of her captivity. Warm water, scented lather, clean, moisturized skin. All of those were things she had thought she might never feel again. Now she tilted her head back and let the jets caress her flesh as she wondered how much Madden’s presence had contributed to her recovery.

Before she had been discharged from hospital, there had been a lengthy three-way conversation about counseling between Madden, as the police representative, a senior doctor from the staff at the Anchorage hospital, and Maria herself. There had been a consensus that she would need intensive and lengthy support. The only issue under discussion had been who would provide it, and what the timelines would be. Madden had thought that a police psychologist would be the best person to provide the sort of therapy Maria would require. The doctor had been skeptical, suggesting that a more bespoke service might be necessary. Maria herself had remained mostly silent, acquiescing to the opinions of the experts.

Now, she knew exactly what she needed to aid her recovery. Sheet-ripping, toe-curling sex with a werewolf. She gave a snort of laughter. Did I just think that? Did it actually happen to me last night? The faint echo within her body, the one that told her it had recently been thrumming in the throes of intense orgasm provided the answer to her own question.

She was fairly sure Madden would approve of the prescribed cure. The doctor? Maybe not so much. She didn’t care. It’s my screwed-up head. I’ll fix it any way I choose.

And talking about screwed up . . .

She stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself in one of the luxurious fluffy towels the Lowell family had in abundance. It still knocked her sideways that her hosts were werewolves. That the man in whose arms she had fallen asleep last night was also a shifter. But none of those things bothered her as much as the thought that she was one of them.

It would be so much easier if they did classes in this stuff. If I could sign up and learn how to do all the things they already know. Because it was no good turning her back on this. Those test results weren’t going away. She was a werewolf.

And somehow that stark, strange fact made sense. It answered a few questions that, until now, Maria had never known existed in her life. She had always put that sense of separateness from other people down to not knowing who her real parents were and to the strange start she had in life. Although her adoptive parents had tried hard to make it up to her, the knowledge that she had been abandoned as a baby had always been with her, tugging away at her psyche. She had believed that was what colored her relationships with other people. She had put her reserve, her almost intense shyness, and her reluctance to get too close down to a fear of being deserted again.

She had never really felt she belonged anywhere. Not even, if she was honest, with her parents. Even though she had loved them very much and appreciated all they did for her, Maria had always felt out of place in their family. Her brother, Caspar, hadn’t helped with the feeling. His resentment of her had led him to tell her at every available opportunity that she wasn’t wanted, that she was a stranger within the only family she had ever known. Now she knew the truth.

I wasn’t the fish out of water I’d always believed myself to be. I was an Arctic werewolf away from the midnight sun.

Since arriving at the Lowell’s house, she felt, for the first time ever, that she belonged. The substance had been ripped out of her life by an evil killer, yet she felt more at home with these people than she had at any point prior to this. Because I am one of them. But I don’t know how to do it properly. I don’t know how to find the wolf that exists inside me. I don’t know how to shift. I have no idea where to start.

But perhaps she should put her pride aside and ask? She was in the right place, after all. Who knows? Maybe finding out how to do this will tell me even more about who I am. On that decisive note, she finished getting ready and made her way downstairs.

* * *

“I have to call this in.” Madden spoke quietly to Valetta.

Shock registered on her face. “As a Cage Killer case?”

Even though he couldn’t protect her from the possibility that Hendrik had fallen into the clutches of the serial killer, Madden kept his voice gentle. “I’m going to contact my team and give them the details. We’ll take it from there.”

Valetta raised a shaking hand to her lips. “This can’t be happening.”

She turned to where Cindy was seated on a sofa close to the fire, gazing into space. It was clear that she was not coping well with Hendrik’s disappearance. Madden knew very little about Cindy’s background, only that Hendrik had employed her as his housekeeper after Samson had rescued her from a biker gang some years ago. Since then, Hendrik and Cindy had grown closer despite the difference in their ages, backgrounds, and personalities.

“Why don’t the two of you come back to Lowell’s house?” Madden asked. “At least you’ll be with friends there.”

Cindy shook her head, her eyes filling with tears. “I need to be here when Hendrik gets back.” Her lower lip wobbled. “He will come back.”

Valetta sat next to her, taking Cindy’s hands in hers. “We can leave him a message telling him where we are.”

After a moment or two, Cindy’s body slumped against Valetta and she nodded in defeat. While Valetta helped her get a bag ready, Madden went into Hendrik’s study to make his call. As soon as the team got notice of a possible Cage Killer abduction, they would swing into action. He could expect them to start arriving in Fairbanks in the next few hours. That was the police team, the human task force. There was another team he wanted here. Now there was no possibility of ignoring the werewolf connection he wanted the Brotherhood of the Midnight Sun on this as fast as possible.

While he was in Hendrik’s study, he took a few minutes to look around. The room was scrupulously tidy, the desktop clear. Once here, the Alaskan Frontier Force would sweep through this house and check every inch of it for clues. For now, he couldn’t see anything that appeared suspicious. It looked like what it was, the study of a respectable, organized, wealthy politician. Nothing out of place, nothing to hide.

And that was what they were up against. No one in the human world knew about Hendrik’s double life. Hendrik was a well-known figure in Alaskan politics. He had been a state senator for fifteen years. In his private life, he was a model citizen, without so much as a parking ticket to his name. He had never drawn attention to himself, for one very simple reason. Behind his deceptive exterior, he was a werewolf. As political secrets went, this one was huge. Any hint of his true identity would have caused a political scandal to end all others. The world of politics, the world of celebrity—damn it, just the world!—would never have been the same again. All werewolves in the human world maintained their anonymity, but Hendrik had worked harder than anyone to keep his werewolf personality secret.

Madden had known Hendrik for centuries. As a young newly initiated member of the Brotherhood of the Midnight Sun, Madden had looked up to and liked the older werewolf. When Hendrik had taken the decision to step down, stating that he no longer believed himself to be one of the seven strongest and bravest Arctic werewolves, Madden’s respect for the other man had increased even further. The thought of his friend, the man who had been a driving force for good in Alaskan politics since he left the brotherhood, in the hands of a sadistic killer, made his blood run cold.

Hendrik is a formidable fighter. He may be able to overpower his captor.

Madden tried to console himself with those thoughts. It didn’t work. If the Cage Killer really was targeting Arctic werewolves, he would be well prepared. If he was working with Chastel, the murderer had an ally who would know how to overpower a werewolf with Hendrik’s skill and strength and how to keep him helpless. But Madden didn’t know for sure that the Cage Killer did have Hendrik. All he knew was the more time that passed, the more likely it was that he would get one of his early morning calls. No. He shook his head. Not about Hendrik. Madden needed the brotherhood. Normal policing wasn’t going to be enough. Face it. It hadn’t been enough for the last eighteen months, and now one of his best friends was in danger.

As he drove Valetta and Cindy to Lowell’s house, Madden thought how fortunate it was that several members of the brotherhood were already there and knew about the case. Lowell and Samson knew all the details and Sebastian had a good idea about what was going on. He would just need to call Vigo, Wilder, and Jenny and quickly bring them up to speed. It would be a relief to have Wilder with them. He was the team’s organizer, the person who got things done. Moving seven alpha werewolves around the country, sometimes around the world, was no easy task. Wilder was the one who made it happen quickly and efficiently.

When they got to the house, the occupants were all congregated in the kitchen. Madden’s eyes went straight to Maria. It was as if he had an internal radar that pulled him to her no matter what else was going on. She looked up and smiled and he felt something inside his chest give way. At the same time, some of the cares of the last few hours eased. They didn’t go away, the burden just somehow felt lighter. The world felt better because of her smile.

He didn’t have long to appreciate the sensation. Just a few moments to wonder at the strangeness of destiny. Of a fate that had brought them together in such a brutal way. Of the unfairness that offered them so much magic, but didn’t give them time to linger over it.

No one said life was fair. Madden had learned that lesson at a very early age. Cast out and left to die, he had learned to grab what chances came his way. Was Maria a chance? He wasn’t sure. Right now, she felt like possibly the best thing to have come into his life for a very long time. Maybe ever. The fact that she had done so at the same time as so many of the worst things to come into it? He was going to have to learn how to find a way to balance that. Because he needed her right now, even though he knew there couldn’t be a future for them.