As if a gust of wind had swept the clouds from her muddled mind, Luna suddenly understood why Ripper had seemed so on edge during their meeting at the Underground Club. The BHD had come to town, and her Alpha must have known it. It was the only possible explanation for his fear.

What in the actual shite was Mr. Hellfire doing in London, anyhow? Surely he wasn’t a member of the famous Guild of benevolent beasts.

“Well, hello,” Kirith said, a strange expression invading his face, as though he were amused at her terror.

It took a moment for Luna to realize that she’d been holding her breath, her chest still tight with fear. He doesn’t recognize you, she assured herself, daring to exhale at last. He’s never met you, remember? You’re the one who stalked him for months. You’re the one who worshiped him from afar like some crazy love-struck girl who is apparently drawn to psychopaths. He never spoke to you. Never looked at you.

Now calm the fuck down.

Kirith’s eyes were locked on her own, cold as ice, his chin pulled down towards his chest as he assessed her tiny form below him. As he stared at her, his mouth turned down in a frown, betraying something along the lines of disgust, and for a moment Luna wondered if she had something on her face. Instinctively she wiped a hand over her cheek, but the man kept staring, pure loathing in his eyes. Nope. This definitely wasn’t a reaction to a stray piece of food. Unless she could wipe away her entire existence, it was unlikely that she’d satisfy his apparent desire to melt her with his eyes.

He seemed to hate her. But why? Even if by some miracle he knew her face, it wasn’t like she’d ever done anything to him. Besides, there was no way that he could possibly know who she was. She’d only been a kid, really, when she’d last seen him, and they’d never once spoken to one another.

“Now, let me get this straight,” he said. “You’d like to join me, would you?”

Oh, shite.

She’d forgotten that she’d even asked. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Right, then, she had to get out of this. But how did a woman take back such an invitation without saying, “Um, the thing is, I changed my mind because I once saw you burn your house and family and I know you’re a complete psycho nutter. Now please let me go and don’t eviscerate me, all right? Cheerio then.”

When she failed to reply, the BHD stepped towards her. Luna had to harness every ounce of her strength to confront him with her eyes, a plastered smile still manipulating her terrified lips. Must not let him know what you know. Must not reveal fear. Must not pee your pants.

He was still unbearably handsome, despite the fact that he made her tremble in her boots. It was a damned shame, too. She wanted to find him ugly. Wanted to hate him for what he was. But she didn’t. As his all too gorgeous face stared down into hers, an inexplicable warmth swelled inside her chest. An affection for this strange man she’d never known, a man who should instil nothing in her but fear and loathing.

“Cat got your tongue, lovely?” the beast asked. Adding to his veneer of insanity, he slipped a hand onto her waist and pulled her towards him in a strangely intimate manner.

She shook her head, but the lack of words coming out of her mouth only confirmed that yes, some fucker of a kleptomaniacal cat had in fact run off with her tongue.

“Tell me, why would a pretty thing like you want to spend time with a man like me, when it’s obvious that I scare the living shite out of you?”

His scent twisted around Luna’s head, intoxicating and dangerous. Confirmed: he was completely mad. It was awfully unfortunate that he smelled so fucking sexy.

“You don’t…terrify…” she stammered, unable to convince her brain to fire on enough cylinders to formulate a proper lie. What sort of dark magic was he weaving through her mind? The bastard was pulling her strings. She’d suddenly become a puppet, and he was nothing if not a skilled master.

“You thought I was sad and lonely and in need of companionship, little thing.” He spoke low, his tone menacingly attractive. “But here’s the thing: I’m not, and certainly not for your company, Wolf. Oh yes, I know who you are.”

Luna trembled under his touch, her teeth threatening to chatter right out of her head. Never in her life had she been overwhelmed with such a cocktail of emotions.

“What do you mean, you know who I am?” she asked. Oh God. Maybe he could read her mind. He knew what she’d seen.

He was going to kill her.

Then he’d find Silver and kill him, too.

“I can smell it on you.” He dipped his face down, bending his massive torso to bury his nose in her neck, inhaling deep. Luna relaxed for a moment, relieved to realize that he’d probably only meant that he knew she was a shifter. Perhaps he didn’t know she was part of the Warkshire Pack, after all.

As she relaxed, a strange sensation overcame her, a sort of euphoria at the feel of his hands on her body. As the tip of his nose caressed her skin, she felt her cruel core respond with desire. Stop it, she commanded in vain. Stupid, foolish body. How the hell could she possibly want this murderous creature? She was supposed to be running away from him. Fleeing for her very life. Protecting herself and her brother.

Weak Wolf. Bad Wolf. Stupid, stupid Wolf.

“I…” she wanted to protest, to tell him that she wasn’t in fact a Wolf shifter. But it would be stupid to lie to a Dragon. He knew; of course he knew.

So she didn’t bother to finish the thought. Didn’t push him away. There would be no point in trying, anyhow; he outweighed her by at least a hundred and fifty pounds.

The BHD slipped his lips to her ear. “Sexy little she-Wolf,” he whispered before giving her earlobe a gentle nip that nearly made Luna lose her footing on the solid floor. The man pulled back to look into her eyes once again. “Pretty thing. I could eat you up. I could probably even take you for my own, couldn’t I? Yes, from the smell of how aroused you are, I could.”

Yes. You could. If you asked me to go into a dark alley and take my clothes off, I would, God help me.

She shook her head, her eyes wide, but the quiet thrill of fear whipped its way through her body. He was so dangerous. So alluring. So devilishly awful, which made her a horrible person for wanting him.

Luna had always hated that women seemed to fawn over convicts, and now here she was, excited by a man who’d killed those closest to him. Her hormones were exploding inside her, guiding her brain, making her stupid. This was her sexual frustration at work, and nothing more.

“Take me…for your own,” she parroted, losing her own mind as she echoed his words. “No, I couldn’t…”

“Oh, I don’t know, little Wolf. I thought I wanted to be alone this evening, but you’re very pretty. Perhaps I could use a little companionship after all. Tell me, what’s your name?”

“My name,” she mumbled. “It’s…Luna.” Fucking hell, why had she told him? What was he doing to her?

Idiotic Wolf.

“Luna.” He took her hand in his, playing briefly with her fingers, and flipped it over. But when he saw the small triangular tattoo on her palm, he dropped it and released her from his grip, stepping back, the look of disgust returning to his eyes. “Well, love,” he added. His hand gripped the back of the chair he’d been sitting in, as though he were steadying himself. “It turns out you’re the fucking devil.”

Luna stepped away, her body tensing. The Dragon man’s expression had altered from intensely flirtatious to menacing in a heartbeat. Hatred coloured his glare, glowing bright and dark at once like a fuse burning through the air between them.

“The devil? What do you mean?” she asked. If anyone in this room was the devil, it was him.

He gestured towards her hand. “What do I mean? I mean that your whole damned Pack is the bane of my existence. You can go tell your fucking Alpha that you don’t belong in London, and I’ll see to it that you don’t remain. Not a single one of you.”

Luna swallowed hard. So, he knew their mark, even if he didn’t recognize her. But of course he did. He’d lived in Warkshire Forest since she could remember. No doubt he knew a thing or two about their Pack.

It was time to play innocent. “But I thought…they told us the Dragons were welcoming the Wolves back…”

He shook his head slowly. “Not you,” he growled low. “Not your Pack. Never.”

Luna swallowed again. She should have turned and run. Should have crawled away. Anything but say the next words. “Why not?” she asked, her mind out of her own control. What kind of stupid question was that?

“It doesn’t matter,” he muttered. In that moment he seemed to grow larger, a shadow passing over his face. “What matters is that your Alpha is my mortal fucking enemy. That makes you my enemy as well.”

“I don’t understand,” she said, possessed by a desire to know this man’s thoughts. But why did she care? Of course he was her enemy. He was insane. A man who would kill his own wife and children wouldn’t hesitate to kill her in a heartbeat.

But for some mad reason, she wanted him to think well of her. She didn’t want him to hate her as he seemed to do with every fibre of his being. She wanted Kirith to be the good man he’d been when she’d been young and innocent, in the days before the world had gone dark.

“You don’t understand?” he replied, laughing bitterly. “Then ask your sodding Alpha to explain it to you. Ask him why someone like me might wish someone like him dead. Then perhaps you’ll grasp it. But I should warn you, if I get to him first, there’ll be no more Alpha to ask. Now get out of my way before I kill you.”

When Luna leapt to the side, the BHD stepped by her and headed out of the pub, his stride long, his movements determined.

She watched him with tears in her eyes, wondering how she could possibly feel sad for such a monster.