(Three Months Later)

A feeling of dread twisted in Alexis’s core as she stopped outside a one-story brick house in Pearl River, Louisiana. Three massive pine trees towered over the squat structure, creating an intricate pattern of needle-sharp shadows jutting across the front lawn, and a tricked-out black Ford Mustang took up most of the short driveway. She let out her breath in a hiss. Eric’s ego was probably parked right alongside it.

Sinking in her seat, she gripped the steering wheel in her sweaty hands and stared at the front door. Bile crept up the back of her throat. This was a bad idea. She hadn’t spoken to Eric in two months. Not since she’d finished the job. He’d declined to pay her for the work when she’d refused to stay and be his mate. What made her think he’d pay her now?

Prying her hands from the steering wheel, she rested her fingers on the door latch, but she couldn’t make herself open it.

She squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her forehead. Coming here hadn’t been an option two years ago; it had been survival. When a Biloxi pack member’s drug deal with the area rogues went awry and three of them wound up dead, Alexis—the only other rogue in town—had been blamed for the murders. Mississippi wasn’t known for having the most civilized packs in the nation, so when the second-in-command had offered her a way out, she’d jumped at the chance to move to Pearl River and keep an eye on his son in exchange for her life.

Though she’d been paid to watch Eric and report his actions to the pack, she’d also tried to save him. To heal the wounds that made him into an abusive, cocksure, wannabe alpha male. She couldn’t help it; healing—fixing people—was in her nature. But she couldn’t fix someone’s personality, and he’d given her plenty of bruises to prove it.

Eric wasn’t mate material. Hell, there was only one person her wolf would allow her to take as a mate, and she’d been steering clear of him since her sister’s wedding.

A rogue couldn’t be tied down, and no matter how much she wanted to belong somewhere, she never would.

“What am I doing?” She eased her foot onto the gas pedal and continued down the street. She’d traded in her Honda Civic for a small stack of cash and this beat-up Ford when she’d finished the job. Eric wouldn’t recognize it, and something in her gut told her she should keep it that way.

She drove to a strip center a half mile from the neighborhood and parked in front of a doughnut shop. A pair of police officers sat inside the small store, chatting up the waitress behind the counter. How cliché. A diner anchored one end of the center, while a small grocery store occupied the other. People wandered in and out of the shops and restaurants all day. Leaving her car here wouldn’t raise suspicion.

With her phone and wallet locked in the glove box, she slipped the car key into her pocket and trekked up the street to Eric’s house. Winter wind bit at her cheeks, whistling through the trees and whipping her hair into a mess. She crossed her arms over her chest to ward off the cold and marched up the driveway.

Alexis hovered her finger over the doorbell. Go in, convince him to give me the money, and leave. That’s all I have to do. Then she’d never have to see the abusive bastard again. He owed it to her anyway. Soundproofing a room wasn’t easy. Or cheap. Twenty-seven years old, and he wanted to start a metal band. Meathead.

When he’d called her three months ago, asking her to do the job, instinct had told her to say hell no. But even werewolves couldn’t survive on hunting alone. Her human side needed to eat too, and the last twenty dollars she had to her name sat locked in the glove box of her car.

She rang the doorbell and waited. Silence answered. Her knuckles wrapped on the wood as she knocked. Nothing. “Eric, I know you’re home. Answer the door.”

He was probably in his music room, fumbling with the new guitar his daddy bought him. She twisted the knob. Cold metal bit into her palm as the latch disengaged, and she pushed open the door. Small town folk trusted their neighbors way more than they should have.

Alexis peeked her head inside. “Eric?” She stepped into the foyer.

Stifling heat blasted through a vent in the ceiling, and she slipped out of her jacket and dropped it on a ratty, overstuffed sofa in the living room. A football game played on an eighty-inch television. Surround-sound speakers hung from each corner of the room, but thankfully they were muted. A pizza box lay open on the kitchen counter, grease congealing on the surface of the leftover slices, and dirty dishes filled the sink.

She covered her nose. With a sense of smell ten times better than a human’s, how could any werewolf live like this?

Eerie silence filled the home, and a sinking feeling twisted her gut tighter. Something was off. Her instinct to run battled with her curiosity to figure out what was going on. Curiosity won.

“This is a bad idea,” she whispered as she crept down the hall, the beige carpet masking her footsteps—not that anyone inside a soundproof room would have heard her approaching. Her arm hairs stood on end as she rested her hand on the knob and twisted it. Figured. Eric felt the need to lock this door, but not the front one. Detaching the bobby pin from her keyring, she jiggled it in the lock to disengage it and flung open the door.

Her breath caught in her throat.

Eric crouched, in wolf form, his gray fur standing in a ridge down the center of his back. Saliva dripped from his bared teeth as he snarled over a trembling woman. Blood soaked through the thigh of her khaki pants. Eric’s head snapped toward Alexis, his gaze locking with hers for a split second before she reacted.

“Eric, no!” She called on her wolf, her body tingling with magic as her form shifted. Plowing into his side, she knocked Eric off his feet, and the woman scrambled into a corner. Eric lunged at Alexis, clamping his jaws on her front leg. His teeth tore into her flesh, cracking her bone, and she yelped and jerked from his grasp. She threw herself toward him, and they tumbled over each other, fighting for dominance. Alexis didn’t stand a chance against a wolf as powerful as Eric, but she couldn’t let him tear a defenseless human to shreds.

The woman screamed. Alexis glanced her way to find the victim sitting beside a mangled, bloody body. Eric barreled into Alexis’s side, knocking the breath from her lungs as she crashed to the floor. The woman stumbled to her feet before falling onto her side.

Why wasn’t she running? The door was wide open.

The woman clutched her leg and peered at the torn flesh, gritting her teeth as her complexion paled. Alexis glanced at Eric. What was this sick bastard doing?

She bared her teeth, growling a warning for Eric to stay away as she backed toward her. The woman’s chest heaved as she tried to scramble away. Eric crouched low, preparing to lunge. She had seconds at most.

Alexis placed her front paw on the victim’s leg. A high-pitched squeal escaped the woman’s throat, a mixture of garbled fear and pain. Magic pulsed from Alexis’s core, and she focused it into her paw. She felt the woman’s torn muscles stitch back together as the wound closed.

She clutched her leg. “How?”

Alexis’s head spun, but she nudged her with her nose. She wanted to scream, “Get out,” but her wolf mouth couldn’t form words. Another nudge, and the woman shot to her feet and raced to the door.

Eric lunged for his victim. Alexis caught his back leg between her teeth and yanked him to the floor. The sharp tang of were blood oozed into her mouth as she tightened her grip on his leg. The woman took one last look at the body before sprinting away.

With his victim gone, Eric relaxed beneath her grasp. He shifted to human form, the sensation of matted fur turning to skin and denim on her tongue. She growled a warning, refusing to release her hold.

“C’mon, Alex. Let me go.”

Her nostrils flared as she blew out a hard breath and tightened her jaw. Nausea churned in her stomach, her power waning from the energy she’d expended to heal the human. She’d need rest to regain her strength, but she couldn’t let Eric see her weakness.

He winced. “I wasn’t trying to kill her.”

Yeah, right. She flicked her gaze toward the crumpled corpse in the corner.

“That was an accident.” He shrugged. “Let me go, and I’ll explain.” His eyes didn’t hold a single hint of remorse, but that shouldn’t have surprised her. He’d tried to convince her she deserved the beating he’d given her, right before she’d run away.

She released her grip on his leg and backed up. Ribbons of blood flowed down his skin, splattering on the tile floor. She hesitated to shift. Eric was stronger than her no matter what form he took. As a man, he stood six-four with two hundred pounds of pure muscle. In her weakened state, at least as a wolf, she’d have a fighting chance if he tried to pull something.

He rubbed at the gash in his leg, wiping the thickening blood from the wound. The flow was already subsiding. “I haven’t seen you in two months, sweetheart. Show me your pretty face.”

Asshole. Alexis blew out a hard breath and shifted to human form. The gash on her arm had already healed, and the bone had mended where it cracked.

Eric rose to his feet and dusted off his shirt, flexing his pecs so the garment strained across his chest and grinning like they’d had a friendly wrestling match rather than a full-blown fight. His charming smile added an innocent look to his sharp, handsome features. But a coldness hovered behind his eyes, turning the light blue irises to ice. “That’s better. Now we can talk like civilized people.”

“Civilized?” She looked at the heap of flesh in the corner and shuddered. “Nothing about this setup is civilized.”

“No? I soundproofed the room so it wouldn’t disturb the neighbors. Well, you soundproofed it actually. Great job, by the way. You’ve always been good with your hands.” His gaze raked up and down her body as he took a step toward her.

Her heart rate kicked up, but she held her ground and stared him hard in the eyes. “What’s going on here?”

He walked his fingers up her arm, and chills crept down her spine. “Why don’t you come to the bedroom, and I’ll tell you all about it?”

“Not a chance.” She slapped his hand away, but he caught her by the wrist.

“I knew you’d come back to me.”

“I came back for the money you owe me.” She jerked from his grasp. “If you weren’t trying to kill her, what were you doing to that woman?”

Sighing, he stepped toward the man in the corner. “I was really hoping he’d pull through.” He nudged the body with his boot. “Of course, if I’d have known about your little gift of healing, I would have waited until you got here. How long have you known you could do that? I’m hurt that you kept it from me after everything else we’ve shared.”

She clenched her jaw. “We never shared anything. I gave. You took. Now, you’ve got thirty seconds to tell me what the hell is going on or—”

“Or what? What will you do? Run to your sister’s pack in New Orleans? They won’t help you. This isn’t their territory.” A wicked grin turned up the corner of his mouth. “And you’re just a rogue.”

That sinking feeling she’d felt earlier slammed her stomach into her knees. Just a rogue. That was all she’d ever be. Even with her blood-ties to the pack, the law forbade them from interfering outside their territory.

She was on her own.

He rolled the corpse onto its back and rotated the head from side to side. “Damn. Definitely dead. I’ll have to find another one.”

“Another one?” She gaped.

“Well, you turned my next patient loose, didn’t you? I’m not a murderer. I’m trying to help these people.” He crossed his thick arms over his chest, purposely flexing his biceps.

She mirrored his posture, though she left the flexing to the meathead. “By tearing them to pieces?”

“I want a pack of my own. I deserve to be alpha, no matter what my old man thinks. I need at least twenty members before the national congress will even consider giving me pack status, but there aren’t enough weres out here that are willing to follow. Right now, I have three: Trevor, Justin, and you.”

She scoffed. “You don’t have me. And what does that have to do with killing humans?”

“Like I said, I’m not trying to kill them. I’m trying to turn them. Make them into werewolves.”

Her eyes widened. “That’s illegal.” And impossible. Even a rogue knew that.

He lifted one shoulder in a dismissive shrug. “Since when do you care about laws?”

Was he completely insane? “You can’t turn someone into a werewolf by attacking him.”

He gave the body another kick. “No? You’ve never been part of a pack, but the first and most important law weres learn is never to attack a human while in wolf form…unless it’s a fight to the death.”

She clenched her fists. “I’m aware of the laws.” Alexis had been on her own since she started shifting at thirteen years old, and the first rogue werewolf she’d met had taught her the rules. She shuddered at the memory of the other things he’d taught her.

“So? Why do you think that law was created?”

“Because attacking humans is wrong.” Werewolves were supposed to be peacekeepers, not monsters.

He chuckled and shook his head, giving her that condescending look he always used when he wanted to make her feel stupid. “Because if you leave them alive, they’ll turn into werewolves themselves. My dad is second of the Biloxi pack; he has access to ancient records. I’ve read about humans being turned. That’s why the congress outlawed attacking humans without killing them. To keep people from trying this.” He opened his arms, gesturing to the dead man in the corner.

She swallowed the sour taste from the back of her throat. “This is barbaric.”

“I won’t argue with that. But once I master the process, it’ll be much more efficient. Finding the right balance of blood loss and venom is proving impossible, but you can help. If I attack them, you can heal them right before they die. Then if the change doesn’t take, we can try again and again. We’ll be a team. What do you say?” His charming smile returned as if he’d asked her to go to an amusement park rather than become an accessory to murder.

“You’re sick.” And deranged. Werewolf venom? There was no way in hell she’d take part in this. She backed toward the door.

He wiped his hands on his pants and stepped toward her. “We could be more than a team, babe. If I’m going to be alpha, I’ll need a mate. We already know we’re compatible in the sack.” He reached for her hand.

Her wolf revolted, the thought of going to bed with him making her skin crawl. She crossed her arms and took another step toward the door. “No way. I want the money you owe me, and I’m leaving.”

He winked. “I’ll give you the money if you stay.”

“Keep dreaming.” She stumbled through the threshold into the hallway. Sure, she was broke, but no amount of cash made any of this okay. She’d find another job somewhere. Sell what few belongings she had left. Hell, she’d cut out her own kidney and sell it on the black market before she’d take part in Eric’s macabre plan. “Does your dad know you’re doing this?”

“That dick wad doesn’t know shit. I’m not the fuck-up he thinks I am.” He prowled toward her. “C’mon, Alex. Don’t make this difficult. You know I care about you, and you care about me too.”

Her lip curled. “No, I don’t.”

“You used to.”

She clutched the doorframe, every muscle in her body tensing to bolt. “That was before I got to know you.” When she’d had her blinders on. Before she’d figured out she couldn’t fix a broken soul. Eric wasn’t the fuck-up his father thought he was…he was worse.

He sighed. “You know I can’t let you leave. I’ve told you too much. Stay with me. Be my mate, and I’ll take care of you. You’ll never have to worry about money again. My old man’s cash flow will cover everything.”

She backed down the hall toward the front door, never tearing her gaze away from the deranged man who pursued her. He didn’t know it, but his dad’s money had been the reason she went to Pearl River in the first place. He was the one who’d financed her undercover mission, and now it seemed she’d have to do some pro bono work for her old boss. “You can’t make your own pack out of innocent humans. I won’t let you do this.”

“How are you going to stop me?” He lunged, wrapping his arms around her waist and dragging her to the floor. Her head hit the fireplace hearth with a crack, and splitting pain shot through her temple. Darkness tunneled her vision. She blinked away the stars that swam in her eyes as she struggled beneath him, but she may as well have been wedged beneath a concrete block. He had the strength of an alpha, but no pack would ever accept Eric as leader.

He pinned her shoulders to the ground. “Please don’t make me kill you. I’d much rather make love to you.”

As her vision cleared, she spotted a canister of fireplace tools to her left. If she could get her hands on the poker… Her breathing slowed in spite of her racing heart. She tried to relax. To play the part of the lesser wolf giving in to the alpha’s advances. She curved her lips into a seductive smile and sighed. “You’re right, Eric.”

“I am?” He loosened his grip on her shoulders.

“Of course. It’s a genius plan. Making your own pack from scratch, they’ll do whatever you tell them to. You can train them.” She licked her lips. “Think of the power.”

He released her and rose to his feet. “Exactly, baby. And with your healing powers, no one else has to die. Think of all the lives you’ll be saving.” He didn’t offer her a hand up. Typical.

The room spun as she stood, but she held her seductive expression, running her fingers along the mantel and stepping toward him. “I’d be a fool not to stay with you, wouldn’t I?”

“I knew you’d come around.” He grinned and adjusted his crotch. “Let’s go back to the bedroom and make things official.”

She rested her hand on the handle of the poker. “There’s one problem with that.” She tightened her grip.

He crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows. “Oh, there is?”

“I wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot pole.” Gripping the poker, she swung it at his head. The pointed end sliced through his cheek, the shock of impact knocking him to the ground.

“Three foot, maybe. But not ten.” Her weapon clattered on the floor as she turned and sprinted out the door.

“Damn it, Alex! I didn’t want to kill you.” Eric barreled after her, gripping his bloody cheek in his hand.

Alexis tore through the front yard and darted across the country road into a field. She didn’t dare look back. She could feel him getting closer as she ventured farther and farther into the grassy pasture. As she hurdled a barbed wire fence, her pant leg caught on a spike. The fabric ripped, and she crashed to the ground, taking in a mouthful of bitter grass and dirt. Spitting out the mess, she scrambled to her feet as Eric leapt the fence and caught her by the arm. He hauled her to his body, gripping her from behind.

His breath was hot against her ear. “Maybe I’ll kill your sister too. That’s a fair trade, huh? Stay with me and Macey lives.”

He lifted her from the ground, and she planted her boot square in his knee. His scream muffled the loud pop of the joint dislocating. She wiggled free and sprinted through the field. The gash on his face had already healed; his knee wouldn’t take long. She’d bought herself seconds at most.

She could shift and fight him as a wolf. At least the fight would lean toward fair. But to shift in public, in daylight, and expose herself to humans, would earn her one of the harshest punishments the werewolf congress handed out. Rogue or not, some rules simply could not be broken. She could never beat him anyway. The guy was a machine. Her best option was to run, but to where?

She poured on the speed, but not enough. Even with the injured leg, he gained on her. He caught the hem of her shirt and yanked. She stumbled. His arms wrapped around her waist, and he tackled her to the ground. She scrambled away, kicking him in the face, and jumped to her feet again. An electrical transmission tower stood ten feet away, and she darted toward it.

Gripping the cold steel beams, she hauled herself up. Hand over hand she climbed the structure towering one hundred feet into the air. She didn’t have a clue what she’d do once she reached the top, but it didn’t matter. Eric wouldn’t follow her ascent.

She climbed until her palms bled and her arms shook with exhaustion. Eric grabbed the tower and pulled himself onto the first crossbar. Alexis froze. Was he actually going to climb it? Cursing, he jumped to the ground and spat at the steel.

“Damn it, bitch, you know I’m afraid of heights.” His body shook with rage. “You can’t stay up there forever. As soon as you come down, you’re dead.” He fought the urge to shift; his eyes strained with the pain and concentration it took to hold back his wolf. The intensity of the situation called on her own beast as well, but even Eric knew better than to shift in public.

The wind picked up, whipping through her hair and cutting through her clothes like knives. She gripped the cold steel tighter, wrapping an arm around the bar and hooking it with her elbow, using all her energy to hang on. Her muscles trembled, fatigue threatening to make her fall.

What the hell was she supposed to do now? Like most times in her life, she’d acted rashly, climbing the tower without considering the consequences. Now she was screwed—like a kitten stuck in a tree, but no fireman would come along and rescue her. Unless…

Eric stood on the ground below, smiling as she struggled. “You might as well come down. What else are you gonna do?”

“What’s going on out here?” A heavy-set woman wearing a bathrobe and rubber boots stomped toward Eric. “What’s all this racket about?”

This was her chance. She couldn’t out run him. She couldn’t beat him in a fight. But she could always outsmart him. “I’m going to jump,” she called to the surly neighbor below. “It’s all his fault.”

The woman’s head snapped up, her eyes widening as she realized Alexis hung at the top of the tower. “What did you do to her?” She smacked Eric on the shoulder, and he flinched, ducking his head. A wannabe alpha…scared of an old woman. Alexis chuckled.

“Me? I…I didn’t do anything. I don’t even know her. I saw her out here climbing the tower, and I came to see what she was up to.” He glared at Alexis, and a vein throbbed on the side of his forehead.

For her plan to work, she needed a bigger crowd. More witnesses. “I’ll do it.” She pretended to slip on a beam and let out an emphatic scream.

“You stay put, young lady. I’m calling for help right now.” The old woman pulled a phone out of her bathrobe pocket and pressed it to her ear.

“Help me! I can’t hold on!” She smirked at Eric, and his vein throbbed harder.

More neighbors appeared from their houses and rushed into the field. Eric held up his hands, swearing he had no idea who she was. The police were on their way. If she came down now, with all these witnesses, she’d be able to get away.

But she knew Eric too well. He wouldn’t stop until she was by his side or dead, and she wouldn’t give him the pleasure of achieving either.

He’d threatened her sister’s life, though. There was only one thing she could do to keep Macey safe. He had to think she was dead.

She swallowed hard and leaned away from the tower. A square of concrete surrounded the structure—not a soft landing pad. If she jumped out far enough, she might be able to make it to the grass. Either way, the fall would be fatal for a human. Even a normal werewolf wouldn’t survive, but she was banking on being not normal, hoping her enhanced healing powers would keep her alive.

If she didn’t survive, at least Macey would be safe. Eric would have no reason to go after her if Alexis were dead. Her sister’s life was worth more than a miserable rogue’s.

Closing her eyes, she said a prayer to whatever gods might be listening and let go. The collective gasp from the crowd rang in her ears as she plummeted to the ground. The impact shattered her bones. Searing pain rolled through her body like a wildfire, consuming her in its torrid hell. She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. She lay there an eternity before blissful darkness swallowed her whole.

“No! Oh, God no.” Eric Anderson watched in horror as Alexis fell from the tower. She hit the ground with a jarring thud, and silence engulfed him. He rushed to her side and pressed his fingers to her neck. No pulse. A pool of blood spread on the concrete beneath her head, and her legs jutted out at unnatural angles.

Broken. Everything was broken.

Old Mrs. Livingston waddled over to him. “Ambulance is on its way, but it looks like we’re too late for that.”

His mind reeled. She couldn’t really be dead. Any second now, she’d start breathing again. She was a werewolf; she had to survive. She was supposed to be his mate. She was the answer to all his problems. Shit! What had he done?

A siren sounded in the distance. He dropped to his knees to compress her chest. Maybe he could get her heart beating again. As soon as he pressed on her breastbone, a rib snapped. He jerked his hands away. “She can’t be dead.”

The paramedics arrived and ushered everyone away. Eric peered over their shoulders as they examined her. An EMT checked her pulse in her neck. Another one tried her wrist. He covered her mouth and nose with a mask and squeezed a plastic bubble, forcing air into her lungs, and a sickening, gurgling sound resonated from her throat. They started chest compressions, but they didn’t try hard enough. Within a few minutes, they gave up.

“What are you doing? Get your ass back over there and use a defibrillator or something. She’s not breathing!” He needed her powers, damn it. They couldn’t let her die.

A dark haired EMT shook her head. “I’m afraid there’s nothing else we can do. She’s gone.”

The words slammed into his head like a baseball bat shattering his skull. “No.” She couldn’t be.

A police officer tapped him on the shoulder. “I need to ask you a few questions, Mr.—?”

“Anderson.” The police? What the hell was he supposed to do now? His father would shit a brick if he got into trouble with the fuzz again. He might even cut him off. Technically, Eric belonged to the Biloxi pack. He had to obey their laws.

“How did you know the victim?”

“Victim?” His hands trembled. Alexis wasn’t a victim. He hadn’t done anything wrong. “She killed herself.”

“Right.” The pig pushed his glasses up his greasy nose. “And how did you know her? Girlfriend? Relative?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t know her at all. I looked out my window and saw her climbing, so I came out here.”

“Why didn’t you call for help?”

“I…Mrs. Livingston called. I was trying to talk her down.” If he acted innocent, like he had nothing to do with it, they’d have to let him go. He’d lost his potential mate, but at least she wouldn’t be able to screw up his plans.

The pig asked him a few more questions and seemed satisfied with his answers. As soon as he left him alone, he stepped away from the crowd and pulled out his phone.

“Trevor, it’s Eric. We’ve got a problem. That Jane Doe you picked up for me this morning?”

“She met your requirements.” Panic raised Trevor’s voice an octave. He was about as useless as a werewolf could be, but at least he followed orders. “I did exactly what you asked.”

“I know, but she got away. I need you to go find her. Now.”

He paused. “Umm…I would, boss. But I’m at work, and if I miss any more shifts, they’ll fire me. Can I go find her this evening?”

“I don’t give a damn if you’re in the middle of open heart surgery, you’ll go find that woman now or I will make your life a living hell. Do you understand me?” He had to get that Jane back before she went around spreading stories about werewolves. The last thing he needed was to have the congress on his back about exposing their kind. And if they ever found out he was trying to turn humans, he’d be a dead man.

Trevor cleared his voice. “Yes, sir. I’ll get right on that.”

“Good.”

He shoved his phone into his pocket and strolled toward the scene. The paramedics loaded Alexis’s body onto a stretcher and covered her head with a sheet. If she hadn’t started breathing by now, there was no way she’d recover.

A pang of regret flashed through his chest, and he winced. He’d miss the blonde bombshell, that was for sure, but he’d miss her healing powers more. That shit would have come in handy. He’d master the art of making a werewolf soon enough, though.

He ran his hand along the small dent in the back of his skull where his dad had hit him with a baseball bat when he was a teen. He’d spent his entire life trying to make that man happy and avoiding the beatings that ensued when he failed. Then the dick wad had banished him to this God-forsaken town to “keep him out of trouble.” He’d show the old man trouble. Once he ran a pack of his own, his dad would have to respect him.