The almost-full moon sat high in the night sky as I stepped into the alley behind the coffee shop. A man strode toward me, his face masked in shadow, so I quickly threw the trash bag into the dumpster, keeping an eye on him the whole time. A girl could never be too careful when it came to strange men in dark alleyways.
When he stepped into the moonlight, my breath hitched at how beautiful he was. Tall and broad-shouldered, with dark hair and slashes of brows above whiskey-colored eyes, he wore cowboy boots and well-worn but well-fitting jeans. Handsome, yes, but beauty could also be dangerous.
Then he smiled at me.
I forced my face to stay expressionless, even though my heart was about to pound out of my chest, and I took a step backward at his familiarity. “Do I…do I know you?”
Before I could take another breath, he lunged at me, his powerful body looming over mine. He grabbed me, pulled me in close, and slapped my ass. “Very funny, Daphne.”
I yelped and struggled to get away from him, but he held me tight against him. “Who are you?”
“Don’t you recognize Daddy?” His voice was dangerously low in my ear.
Okay. That was it. I officially lost it, laughing so hard that my knees went boneless and I nearly peed my pants.
He’d never pulled that daddy-talk before. It wasn’t really my thing, but coming from him—it was kind of hot. Still laughing, I snaked my arms around his neck and… Yep, he wasveryhappy to see me. Teasing him like this, pretending I didn’t know him, would never get old. It had been an ongoing joke since I’d rescued myself from Pharma-Douche last month with Travis’s help.
When the bracelet broke and charms scattered on the deck of the yacht, it didn’t take my memories like I had feared. Turned out, I was a latent magical creature, and my memories had remained where they belonged.
In my head.
I didn’t know I had magical abilities living amongst the non-magical. The time I’d spent on the island had ignited my dormant powers, as it did for some humans. Being a magical alchemist explained how I was able to derive the perfect BBQ sauce for Travis, make an effective arthritis salve for the Sisters and their friends, detect the poison in his dessert, and make that sleeping tea for Pharma-Douche. It also explained why I’d been drawn to working in a pharmaceutical lab and starting an online apothecary shop before I’d ever stepped foot here. When my mother had referred to my father as a monster, she must have meant thatliterally. We were going to have a serious talk the next time I saw her.
At the White Wolf Moon ceremony last month, Travis—being the incredibly stubborn male that he was—had insisted on staying apart from me. Not only was he still very concerned about hurting me, but he didn’t think it was right to subject meto anything potentially traumatic after being kidnapped the day before. Okay, maybe he had a point about the trauma part, but I wasn’t happy to be missing out on his big day when I wanted to be by his side as his mate.
So instead, I’d holed up with Ruby and Travis’s friend Alexander. The vampire doctor possibly had a thing for Ruby, but I didn’t know for sure. When I asked her about it, she laughed and said he was like a brother to her. If Travis became uncontrollable and came looking for me during the White Wolf Moon, we were certain his vampire best friend and packmate little sister could thwart him. We’d eaten pizza and Ruby’s ginormous cupcakes while watching movies in Alexander’s brownstone apartment with the Monsterval fireworks visible through his windows.
In the end, the ceremony had been pretty low-key, as evidenced by his own little sister not in attendance and his mother being on the east coast with her gentleman friend. For the most part, Jada told us later, Travis held his shit together, only snapping at a few distant relatives when he was officially named Alpha.
His broad hands warmed the backs of my thighs now, and he lifted me up, my legs wrapping automatically around his waist. He made a deep, masculine sound that shot straight to my core as he pressed my back to the brick wall and kissed me. He smelled of laundry soap and earthy shampoo, and tasted like he’d just eaten something minty. I changed my angle to accommodate him better, and his tongue pushed into my mouth like he owned me and could do whatever the hell he wanted. Which was perfectly fine with me.
“Heaven’s Moon, I missed you,” he growled against my lips, no doubt sensing how feral my thoughts were.
“Same.”
He’d flown up to Vancouver yesterday for aSecret Shadowsthing, and I’d been half expecting him to call and say he'd decided to stay over. But nope. Here he was…kissing the hell out of me in the dark alley behind Unholy Grounds on the day before the full moon. The Sisters had been so kind to let me use their commercial kitchen after hours for my experiments. I hadn’t shared with them what I was working on, but they probably had an inkling.
These past few weeks, I’d been perfecting a salve that lessened the pain and heightened the pleasure of an Alpha’s knot during the full moon, and I was really looking forward to the clinical trials tomorrow night.
It meant a lot to me that Travis had enough faith in my abilities not to stay away this time, so I planned to make it worth his while.
Travis drew away from me slightly. “Before you thoroughly ravage me in this alley, there’s something I want to show you.”
I snorted. “Says the man who hasmepressed to the wall, his hands upmyskirt.”
He lifted a shoulder and rolled his eyes. “Semantics.” Then he set me back on my feet, took my hand in his, and led me out of the alley.
Thankfully, the large crowds here for Monsterval were gone, and just the normal number of tourists were milling around downtown Darkaway. No one noticed the famous actor walking down the sidewalk, holding my hand.
We passed Midnight Garage and Nails, Baubles and Barrels, and the Midnight Cinemas.
“Where are we going?” I’d already eaten, so I hoped he wasn’t taking me out for dinner number two. Snacks, maybe? “Just don’t tell me we’re going to Dismal Devices. I was there a few days ago and don’t feel like seeing Eisenhorn the Third again so soon.”
On the last day of Monsterval, after the White Wolf Moonwas over, the wizard and his friends had broken the affinity spell, but only if I promised to visit the book regularly. It was such a relief not to have it hanging around anymore. And although the spell book really wasn’t good juju, it was the catalyst that brought me to Travis, so I couldn’t be too upset with it.
“You’ll see.”
We walked another block, and just before we got to Island Candy, he stopped and dangled a set of keys in front of my face.
