Whatever resolutions I had made concerning my professional conduct since waking up in Tanner's bed had clearly not taken, as I was waking up this morning in Hudson's bed. I probably should have seen this as me making a bad situation worse, further undermining the morally shaky ground I found myself on, but I actually felt less guilty this morning. I didn't feel the urge to make myself scarce as quickly as possible. Quite the reverse, in fact, I wanted to stay.

I was still kidding myself a bit that sticking around was a good way to investigate the brothers, but every moment I spent with these guys made me less able to believe that they were killers. The fact that several of the moments I had spent with them, I had spent being fucked, probably made that less of a valid opinion but I wasn't just thinking with my downstairs. I've been an investigator for long enough to know when something doesn't add up. And something about this sure as hell didn't.

While Hudson slept on, I cautiously lifted the covers and peered under - he was hard even as he slept. So much sexual energy in that guy. I hoped he was dreaming of me. I slipped out of bed, dressed, and headed out of his room, shutting the door carefully behind me so as not to wake him.

Where now?

I was determined to stay, at least until I knew that Gray was out of danger. Until then, I was ravenously hungry after the night's activities.

A maid came out of one of the other rooms and smiled at me without any show of surprise at my being there. Strange women coming out of Hudson's bedroom first thing in the morning were probably not that unusual.

"Can you point me to the kitchen?" I asked.

A few minutes later, I trotted down the cold stone steps that led to the basement kitchen. It was a big, old-fashioned, farmhouse kitchen, made to cater for dozens rather than the three brothers and handful of servants it currently served. Morning light flooded in through diagonally sunk shafts in the walls that led up to skylights. Standing at the long range, encrusted with years of burned and blackened grease, Tanner stood, wearing an apron as he fried eggs and bacon. The apron was a necessity as the food spat hot oil as he cooked and, apart from the apron, he was naked.

It occurred to me, in between long, lingering looks at Tanner's ass, that the eldest of the Kenai brothers had been no part of last night's operation to rescue Gray. Had he, perhaps, been out of town, only returning this morning? Or had there been some other reason that neither Hudson nor Gray had thought to call him?

I saw his head twitch slightly as I came closer and guessed that he had caught my scent over the smell of cooking bacon and egg.

"Good morning, Miss Malone. Didn't expect to see you here."

And yet, my presence did not seem to bother him.

"Breakfast?"

"That would be great." I was too hungry to worry much about the potential awkwardness of bumping into the guy I slept with so recently, having just slept with his brother. One thing at a time.

Tanner nodded, shoveled the bacon and egg onto a plate for me, and began to make more for himself.

"There's coffee in the machine." He nodded towards it.

I poured myself a cup and seated myself at the big, rough-hewn table in the middle of the room. "I thought you'd have cooks or something."

Tanner shook his head. "Wolves don't like anybody else messing with their food. You have to live with them to know things like that." He flipped the bacon. "Seems to me that there was some stuff going on in this house last night that I didn't know about. Any chance you'd like to tell me about it?"

I took a swallow of coffee and then a deep breath. The one thing that werewolves could not abide in their sexual relationships was dishonesty. "I slept with Hudson."

Tanner laughed. "You have a unique approach to murder investigation."

"Attempted murder," I reminded him.

"For now." He cracked an egg onto the range. "The longer you spend investigating us - in your own unusual fashion - the greater the chance the real killer will strike again."

"I didn't sleep with you as part of any investigation." Probably not what he was expecting me to say, but it had been burning at me and I wanted to say it.

Tanner looked at me and I saw in his eyes that he wanted to believe it.

"I followed you because of the investigation. I fought with you because... well, it seemed like the thing to do. But everything else that happened between us was what I wanted. As an investigator, it was perhaps the dumbest thing I've ever done. But I don't regret it for an instant. And I know that may be a weird thing to say when I slept with your brother last night, but it's true."

"Do you regret sleeping with him?" asked Tanner.

"No," I admitted. "I didn't set out to make a habit of it but... things happened and I'm not sorry they did. Again; I realize this is weird."

Tanner scoffed as he joined me at the table.

"It's only weird if you're human. When Hudson wakes up - which won't be for a while, he is not an early riser - I guarantee the first thing he will do is come see me to tell me that he mated with you last night. Because he knows that I mated with you a few nights before. That's how it is with us. As long as there is honesty and openness, then there is no jealousy. It doesn't preclude sex. Or even love." He shot me a look across the table before his dark eyes returned to his food. "It's good that you told me. Perhaps the wolf in you made you do it." He smiled, his handsome face becoming suddenly still more handsome.

I smiled back, feeling more comfortable now than I had since coming in. That was werewolves for you - it wasn't a problem that I had slept with both of them and, though nothing specific had been said, I got the feeling that it wouldn't be a problem if I slept with either or both again. Not that I was necessarily thinking of it but... Good to know.

"Interesting though this conversation has been," Tanner went on, "when I asked about what was going on last night, you and Hudson having a bit of fun was not what I had in mind."

I avoided his gaze. Hudson had presumably kept Gray's adventure to himself for a reason and it was not my secret to tell. On the other hand, it was not that big a house and he was going to learn of it sooner or later.

"Gray got into a fight." I decided to keep the details as sparse as I could. "He was badly hurt. He's fine," I added quickly as I saw fear flood into Tanner's eyes. "But Hudson got a doctor in just in case."

"And they called you?" Tanner was not slow on the uptake.

"Yes."

I saw the thoughts pursuing each other across his face. "He was in Hokkai territory again, wasn't he?"

My plan to keep the details on the QT hadn't gone so well. I swallowed the last forkful of egg and washed it down with the dregs of my coffee. "Thanks for breakfast."

"Are you trying to put me off?"

"I'm sure Hudson will be down soon..."

"You really haven't gotten to know him yet, have you."

"...and he will be able to explain everything to you."

"Yes, I bet he can't wait," said Tanner, darkly but not cruelly. For all that wild side of his nature that his father so deplored, he was clearly the strict older brother, keeping an eye on the antics of his younger siblings. "Both of them, idiots."

I raised an eyebrow. "Wouldn't catch you crossing the boundaries like that, eh?"

Tanner couldn't help smiling as I pushed back my chair and headed out of the kitchen.

Though I had initially been concerned about seeing him, for obvious reasons, in the event, I had been pleased to bump into Kenai Tanner, and breakfast had been thoroughly pleasant. That said, I couldn't let the case slip from my mind completely. I was in one of the key sites of the crime, the place to which the would-be assassin had been trailed before disappearing without a trace. I decided to have a walk about the place to get my bearings and see if I could figure out where the man might have gone.

The Kenai werewolves had followed his trail to the hall, off of which led several other rooms, none of which had yielded any absolute sign - opinion was that he might have gone into each of those rooms so his scent, and that of his blood, was in all of them. I visited each of the rooms, casting an eye about and finding nothing suspicious. I then walked around the adjoining corridors. After this, I did the exact same thing again. Then went back around in reverse. Sometime on that third time around, something started to bother me. It was not anything specific, at first, just a niggle at the back of my mind, but as I walked around again, that niggle began to coalesce into something more solid.

I hurried back into the game room and paced across it with measured steps. Back in the hall, I did the same thing. I was right. And it might be a good idea to tell someone else before I vanished without a trace.

"Still no Hudson?" I asked Tanner as I poked my head back into the kitchen to find him doing the washing up, aided by one of the maids.

Tanner glanced at his watch. "You're joking, aren't you, it's barely eleven o'clock."

"Can I borrow you for a minute?"

"Borrow me? For what?"

"I think I know where the would-be assassin might have vanished off to."

That got his attention.

Moments later, we were in the game room and I led Tanner to the left-hand wall. "I was walking about the place and something was bothering me. Took me a while to realize what it was but finally it came to me - it's bigger on the outside than the inside."

"What?"

"I paced the room," I explained. "The game room, wall to wall, side to side, is eighteen paces long."

"Okay."

"But if you go out into the hall and pace the same distance, then it's twenty-two paces."

Tanner frowned. "They are thick walls, I suppose."

"I'm taking big steps."

"So...?" He hadn't seen the significance yet.

"There is a space - two, maybe three feet - at this end of the game room, that is unaccounted for."

"A secret passage?" Tanner murmured.

"That's what I'm thinking. Is that possible?"

The look on Tanner's face was already giving me my answer. "More than possible. This building has been inhabited by werewolves since well before the General Amnesty. Back then, werewolves were in constant danger from vigilante bands hunting them down, and houses were built with escape routes factored in. They were called 'wolf holes' - secret passages that led out of the property and emerged in some quiet street nearby." He shook his head. "Of course, we don't need them in this day and age, and most of them have just fallen into disuse - forgotten relics of a darker time."

"Well, darker time or not, right now it could save you and your brothers." I began to examine the wall. "Come on, there must be a switch somewhere."

Tanner joined me, running fingers across the carved wood paneling that lined the room. Something clicked and one of the panels swung open.

"Bingo."

I used the torch on my phone to peer into the gloom beyond the panel.

"Double bingo."

"What is it?" asked Tanner, leaning over my shoulder.

I pointed. On the wall was a clear handprint in dried blood.

"Now we know how the assassin got out of Heir’s House," I said. "We just need to know where he went. You coming?"

Tanner smiled. "Just let me put on some pants."

Once Tanner was better dressed for exploring, we made our way through the narrow tunnel, Tanner struggling to negotiate his muscular form through. It was clear that the passage was not in regular use, but it was equally clear that it had been used by someone recently. Here and there we found the tell-tale drops and smears of blood, from where King had clawed his assailant's hand.

"Let me go first," said Tanner, his appealingly low voice still more rumbling in the enclosed confines of the tunnel.

"Because you're a man and I'm a weak, defenseless woman?" I suggested.

"No, because there could be booby traps and my vision is better than yours, especially in this light."

I stood aside to let him go first and we carried on. Without really thinking about what I was doing, I placed a hand on Tanner's broad back as I followed him. It was a useful guide, but it was also comforting to feel his large, strong body - like having a security blanket.

"I've always wanted to see one of these tunnels," commented Tanner. "They're such an important part of werewolf history. We all know about them but so few remain in this sort of condition."

"You must have known Heir’s House had one," I pointed out. "Why didn't you look for it?" It wasn't like it had been hard to find.

Tanner shrugged. "Werewolves, investigation - you know. A werewolf's idea of finding a secret passage is to tear the house apart looking for it." The subject of investigation seemed to remind him of our earlier subject. "I went to check in on Gray."

"He's alright?"

"Still sleeping. The doctor thinks that's what's best for him. Apparently, he's not in any danger and werewolves heal fast."

"Hudson can fill you in on the specifics."

"Oh, don't worry; he will. I think that's probably why he's still in bed. He knows I'm downstairs waiting for him. Sometimes I think father is right about us."

I shook my head. "No. You were right. Maybe he's right about some of the stuff you do, but he's not right about who you are."

"Thank you."

"I'm just parroting back what you already told me."

"Not for that. For Gray. I don't know what you did last night but my guess is that I might not have two idiot brothers this morning if it weren't for you. And idiots though they may be, I would miss them."

"It was no problem. I didn't do much. Just a taxi service, really."

"From Hokkai territory?"

"Talk to Hudson."

There was a brief silence from up ahead of me, then Tanner spoke again. "I have to ask; why are you helping us?"

"Are you complaining?"

"Hell, no. But when we asked for your help, you categorically refused to give it, then a few days later you put your life on the line to save Gray and Hudson, and now you're in a dank tunnel under the city trying to prove our innocence, in direct contradiction of the job you were hired to do."

"I'm not trying to prove your innocence," I corrected him. "I'm just following where the evidence leads."

"Which is what we asked you to do and you said no."

"I don't like being coerced into things."

Tanner nodded. "I just thought it was because we were good in bed."

"Well, obviously that was part of it."

"Whatever the reason; thank you. We are grateful."

The tunnel ended with an aluminum ladder propped against the wall leading up to a panel in the roof.

"Okay," I patted the ladder, "that's proof that we are definitely not the first people down here since 1917. After you."

Tanner climbed up and put his shoulder to the wood panel, which swung upwards.

"Heavier than it looks," he muttered as he squinted against the sunlight that filtered through. The panel fell heavily to the ground with a thump - it was backed with stone so it looked like a paving slab.

"Where the hell are we?" asked Tanner as he hauled me out of the hole to join him.

I breathed out in suppressed excitement. "I'll tell you where we're not - Kenai territory. This is No Man's Land. The assassin was on his way home..."

"To another pack's territory," Tanner finished the thought.

I nodded.

Perhaps it wasn't cast iron proof yet, but the evidence was adding up; the sons of Kenai King were not responsible for the assassination attempt.