I clenched a fist, trying to drive the feeling back. I’d only had this sensation once before, when I’d seen the girl that fate had chosen for me. I’d lashed out then, knowing that I couldn’t afford any kind of feeling like that. I still couldn’t afford it. Not for anyone.

But her scent…

It wrapped around me like silk, drawing me to her. It took everything I had to keep my distance. To rein in my wolf, that most bestial part of me that acted on instinct and desire.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the steel flask, taking a swig of the whisky that never gave me a buzz. My metabolism was too fast. But I liked the burn, along with the potion laced with the alcohol. The damned potion that kept stronger emotions at bay. Emotions were a bane for some of my kind—for my line in particular—driving us to the madness of the Dark Moon curse.

She eyed my flask and raised a brow. “Isn’t it a little early for that?”

“No.”

“It’s almost morning.”

“Then it’s still late at night.”

The collar glinted around her neck, and I wondered if letting her help was madness.

No. I wanted to know what she was up to. I’d tried to wind her up with my threats of throwing her in our dungeon, and she’d stayed cool.

I was almost certain she hadn’t killed Danny. We’d found a few witness statements that I trusted, and she’d barely held his glass at all—not long enough to slip a potion in. To add to it, we’d analyzed the potions in her cuff, and none had been even close to poison.

But she was up to something, coming onto our turf with enough cash to buy a nice car. No one walked around with money like that. And her hidden signature…

She was a mystery, and I wanted answers.

“I need to see the body,” she said.

I nodded. “I’ll show you.”

“And I need my things back.”

Again, I nodded. “Come on, then.”

She hurried to keep up, walking beside me through the main room. I couldn’t keep my traitorous eyes off her. Her silver and pink hair glinted under the light, riveting. Oddly enough, she was almost familiar. Like the girl I’d once known, so briefly. But that girl had been a wolf, and this one was fae. And she looked entirely different.

That girl was gone, and good riddance. She’d disappeared in the dead of night, not leaving a trace. I’d tried to drive her off, and it had worked. My cruel words still sent a little shaft of guilt through me, but they’d been necessary. And they’d worked. She’d run.

She hadn’t needed to be so careful hiding her tracks, though. I wouldn’t hunt her.

No matter how much I might want to.

I couldn’t.

I also couldn’t afford to think of her right now. Danny had been a weasel of a pack member, but he’d been one of my brother’s friends. One of my last links to Garreth.

I drove the thought away, considering another pull from my flask. Instead, I quickened my pace. She kept up, and I led her through the twisting hallways of the guild tower toward my quarters. When we reached them, I stopped at the door. “You’ll wait here.”

“Fine.”

I let myself inside the sparse, austere rooms and went over to the table by the hearth. Her wallet, cuff, mobile, and envelope of cash sat there. I picked up everything but the cash and returned to her, handing them over.

She frowned. “Where’s the money? And all the potions are gone from my cuff. And my chocolates aren’t here.”

“We had to test the potions and chocolates. They’re gone. You’ll get the money back when this is all over.” And once I’ve figured out what you’re hiding.

She scowled at me but didn’t fight. “Just take me to the body.”

“This way.” I led her down to the main level of the tower, cutting toward the back of the building. “The body is in the meat freezer,” I said, pushing open the door to the massive kitchen.

“What the hell?”

“We’re not in the habit of having murder victims in the pack. We don’t have the facilities.”

“You could have taken him to the morgue.”

“Outside our turf? Never.”

“So you put him where you put the food.”

“Aye.” I reached the huge metal door and pulled it open, reveling in the icy air that flowed out. “And he’s not touching any of the food.”

“Still, gross.” She slipped in before me, and I inhaled her scent as she passed, unable to help myself. I tilted my head back and squeezed my eyes closed, trying to get control of myself.

It was fine to want her. It’d been years, after all. But it wasn’t fine to act on it.

Again, I wanted to reach for my flask, but I resisted. Self-control was a game I played—one of the only games.

She stopped beside Danny’s body, which had been laid out on the massive table in the middle. “Did you search the corpse?” she asked.

“Aye.” I pulled a business card out of my pocket. “Besides his wallet and cigarettes, this was all we found on him.”

I handed it to her, and she studied it, something flashing in her eyes. Worry? “Clarence Tomes. I don’t recognize it.”

“How did you know Danny?” I asked. “I’ve never seen you around him.”

“Don’t really know him. He stopped me and asked me to hold his drink while he got a cigarette.”

“No smoking in Pandemonium.”

“That’s what I told him.” She turned back to the body, inspecting Danny’s face.

I stepped up beside her to get a better look, trying to ignore what it felt like to be around her. It was almost like my heart moved more quickly, my mind was more engaged.

She was a curiosity, that was all. I’d been alone too long—not that that was going to change—and she was a distraction. Yet the pull I felt toward her…that wasn’t normal.

I needed to be careful around her. I couldn’t afford a distraction, especially not from a pretty fae.

She leaned closer to the body, her gaze on his face. Dark veins had appeared beneath Danny’s skin, and his eyes had swollen closed. “Do you recognize what’s happened to him?” I asked.

She frowned. “There’s a couple things it could be. Do you have the glass he was drinking from?”

“It’s at the scene, which has been locked down.”

“I need to get that glass. Can I speak to the bartender who was on last night, too?”

I nodded. “Aye. Follow me.”

Together, we walked through the tower. People moved aside and inclined their heads as I passed, and I felt the fae watching me. She said nothing, though, and it was for the best.

I led the way from the tower. The sun was rising over the city walls as we crossed the courtyard to Pandemonium, and I looked down at Eve. “Clara, the bartender, lives above the place.”

She nodded. “She’s going to hate me knocking at this hour.”

“She’ll do as her Alpha commands.”

Eve grimaced.

“Do you have a problem with our way of life?”

“I don’t know anything about it.”

We’d reached the front of Pandemonium. I pointed to the small dormer windows at the third story. “She lives there. We can go around the side.”