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“Do you pity him? What's to come for him?” Niko asked, rubbing his cheek against hers.
“Would it matter if I did?” She opened her eyes and twisted to face him.
His brows came together in a hard line and he scowled. “I think I take the question back.”
“No.” Laughter broke out of her and it felt... good. That she could laugh now, and about this, was nothing short of a miracle. “You can't take it back.”
He growled low in his throat and she turned to face him. Rising on her toes, she wrapped her arms around him and pressed a kiss to his chin. “I'm so scared, Prime.”
“Behave,” he said, smacking her lightly on the ass. “Brat.”
But an amused grin curved his lips as he pressed his brow to hers.
“You probably already know there's little I wouldn't do for you.” Smile fading, he gazed into her eyes. “You can feel it. The same way I can feel you'd do near anything for me.”
“Yes.” Smoothing her hands down his shoulders, she settled flat on her feet and gazed at him. “Which is why, even if I did feel pity for Brandon—and I don't, I wouldn't ask you to go against your instincts, not as the Prime, and not as my mate. Even if I wasn't in the picture, he was foolish enough, heartless enough to threaten a child. There are no lines he won't cross if he feels desperate enough. That kind of rot is no good for the pack.”
He touched her lips, mouth open to comment, but stopped, both of them stiffening at the sound of hurried footsteps approaching out in the hall.
Niko pulled back, sliding his hands down her arms, but his gaze was already on the door.
The knock came before Zee had a chance to do anything more than pick up her bra. Swearing, she grabbed the folded throw at the bottom of the bed.
Niko whipped his head around, staring off into the distance as another knock came.
With a scowl, Niko tore his gaze from whatever seemed to calling him and looked at her.
She gave a cursory nod and moved closer to the bed while Niko opened the door. Alison stood there, her cheeks pink with color, a fine film of sweat along her brow. “Prime.” She bobbed her head in Zee’s direction. “There’s a problem with the skinwalker.”
“The trespasser?” Niko pinched the bridge of his nose. “I haven’t had an update on him in hours. Who was handling his questioning?”
“Lauren.” Alison pushed wayward strands of hair back from her face, her jaw tightening. “She’s down. Hurt. Pretty bad.”
Niko snapped his head back in surprise. “This skinwalker got the drop on Lauren?”
“No. It was set up to look that way, but... look, Niko, the skinwalker is dead.”
“What?” Niko barely managed to throttle the growl.
Zee touched his arm and he jerked himself back under control, forced himself to breathe, in, out, in, out. After a few rounds, he focused on Alison again.
She looked as pissed as he felt. “I’m sorry, Prime. I’m part of the security team and I—”
“Stop.” Niko held up a hand. “I don’t need blame. I need answers. Find the hole in our security later, plug it so this doesn’t happen again. But for now... continue. You’re sure he’s dead?”
“Me?” She looked away. “Pretty sure. But Guy was on shift and Rika had me call Guy in.”
“It was the best decision,” Niko said, nodding. “Keep going.”
“Guy showed up. He had his new partner with him—she’s... witchy.” Alison wrinkled her nose and looked away. “I know that’s not very technical, but she’s got the scent of a witch to her. No idea what kind, but I felt it. I let her take a look at the scene and... she’s good, Nik. She went through the whole thing. It’s set up to look like the skinwalker got a jump on Lauren, then offed himself. But the set-up was too clean, too perfect. She says it was an outside job—had to be.”
“Did anybody do a scent track?”
“Tried.” Alison wrinkled her nose. “I tried. Liza tried. Séamus tried. Even Dorinda gave it a shot when she saw the commotion. Nobody can get anything useful. There’s something covering it.”
“Covering it?” Zee spoke for the first time, her brows arching in surprise. She’d never heard of anything covering somebody’s scent. Rain could wash it away and snow could either wash it off or bury it, but covering it entirely? “How is that possible?”
“We’re not sure.” Niko’s voice was grim. He looked at her over his shoulder, eyes turbulent with anger and grief. “But this isn’t the first time we’ve encountered something like that. The people who ambushed us when my father died—they were able to hide their scent trail in a similar fashion.”
