Lynette was perched on a stool on the other side of a counter from Drake and Erik, both of whom appeared to be working side by side at the stove in companionable silence. As a result, it took me a moment to realize that Drake primarily used his right hand and Erik his left because their middle arms were handcuffed close.

  Now they strode toward me in tandem with ease born of short practice. It was interesting that the teenager had fallen into line so readily, a point in his favor despite the several strikes against him.

  I only had eyes for Drake, however, as he lifted what looked like a rolled-up pancake toward my lips. “Try this.”

  Flavor was one of the few things I hadn’t been able to indulge in while lost in my century-plus slumber. And foods had changed during the time I’d been suspended outside a body. Over the past month, I’d fallen in love with pizza and tacos while deciding energy drinks were a modern travesty.

  Crepes, however, turned out to be quite possibly my favorite of the lot. Soft pastry surrounding melted chocolate, richness and fluff combining into pure perfection.

  My second bite wasn’t dainty, and something flared hot in Drake’s eyes as he reached out to brush chocolate off my lip with his thumb. The roughness of his skin was followed by sweetness as he pressed that same thumb into my mouth to let me savor the lost fragment of breakfast.

  “Good?” he rasped.

  My voice came out breathy, my chest tight and my entire body aware of his proximity. “Yes,” I answered.

  I wasn’t talking about the crepe.

  My world had narrowed down to Drake. His thumb. The urge to curve my body up against his body the way Neko often begged for stroking.

  Then that heady warmth was shattered.

  “Charming,” Winter observed, her tone saying the exact opposite. I hadn’t noticed her on first glance since she’d taken a seat off in one corner, dressed as formally as Drake in a suit that could easily have been made by the same tailor. “Will you strip off your clothes and fuck him next?”

  A pained cry from the direction of Lynette reminded me that we needed to keep things light and low on the trauma quotient. No wonder Drake raised his eyebrows and Seth took the prompt and ran with it.

  “More snow’s coming if you all can handle the unseasonal cold. And India told me she found a sled in the storage room last week.”

  “A sled?!” Lynette was off her stool and across the room, Neko in her arms with his necktie harness dangling, before Winter could come up with another way to ruin the mood. “Does it work? Can I see it?”

  In that moment, our ward was just a child excited by a potential snow day. Then she glanced over at the handcuffs connecting the two male werewolves and her smile faded. “Never mind.” She started back toward her stool, shoulders slumping. “There’ll be other snows.”

  “Hey,” Drake rasped, reaching out to spin her very gently back around. He cupped her chin in a manner that was pure big brother, tilting her face back up when it tried to turn toward the ground. “Go check out the sled. I’ll treat Erik as gently as if you were right here glaring at me.”

  “Promise?”

  “Promise.” He released her and extended a pinkie, waiting patiently until Lynette hooked her littlest finger around his.

  Her gesture was hesitant, then it wasn’t. She and Drake shared a history that made her trust him implicitly. No wonder she tossed Neko into my arms and dragged Seth out the door, not burning him at all when bare skin touched bare skin despite her excitement.

  The kitchen was silent for one long moment until Lynette’s chatter faded into the distance. Then Drake kept his word while I became the bad guy.

  “Tell me about your alpha,” I demanded, pressing up into Erik’s face.

  Chapter 14

  Tru

  “Chief Reed?” Erik’s wolf rose behind his eyes as I invaded his personal space, but he maintained humanity in every other way as he answered. “What do you want to know about her?”

  “Her?” I shook my head, realizing that of course a new pack leader would have been named in the months since my husband had been buried. “The former alpha,” I corrected myself. “Ambrose.”

  “I never met him.” The kid’s breath smelled so strongly of crepe that it was hard to tell whether or not he was lying. But his subsequent explanation seemed to make sense. “We only joined the pack six weeks ago. My cousins are getting old enough to shift and my aunt wanted them to have a clan rather than being forced to pretend they were human. She figured bowing down to an alpha was a small price to pay for the good parts of pack life.”

  “It’s not an easy path, being a lone wolf,” Drake rasped. He hadn’t lied to Lynette. He was being gentle, empathic. “Is that why you recited a license plate number of a car that hadn’t moved in months? Why you grabbed the wheel and ran my car off the road when Lynette said she wasn’t actually sure what she saw in the dark?”

  Erik’s head shook back and forth. “There was a car coming at us. I thought there was a car. I swear…”

  “Who did you text yesterday?” I demanded, letting my voice drop into a growl.

  Erik’s eyebrows drew together as if he was puzzled but he answered without hesitation. “My uncle. I told him I was taking off, not to worry if he didn’t hear from me for a while. He knew I wasn’t keen on joining a pack, so he wasn’t surprised.”

  “You told him how to get here. You revealed the location of people in hiding, one of whom was murdered last night.”

  “No. No! I would never risk Lynette that way.”

  Either being the bad cop wasn’t my strong suit or Erik was telling the truth. Now, how to figure out which scenario was the right one?

  I didn’t even see Winter move. One moment she was in the shadowy corner of the kitchen. The next, her knife was streaking a line of blood down Erik’s face from just below his eye all the way to his chin.

  She licked the blade before speaking. “Eyes are delicious,” she told the teenager at last, the calmness of her voice making it all the more hair-raising. “Eyes and ball sacks. Both of them pop in your mouth like grapes.”

  The reek of ammonia suggested the kid had peed his pants, and my anger spiked. Okay, yes, we needed to ensure Erik wasn’t withholding information. But there was a good chance he was simply a teenager caught in the crosshairs of Kami’s magic. Bullying him went beyond the pale.

  Winter had no such compunction. Her knife was already moving again. Would she cut deeper this time?

  I couldn’t count on Drake to back me up because Winter had placed herself so Drake couldn’t reach her without going through Erik. But I didn’t need help to disarm someone who hadn’t guarded herself against me at all.

  One stamp to the top of her foot. A grab for the knife as she flinched in surprised pain.

  A flick of my fingers and her weapon spun away across the floor. Winter snarled out expletives, claws bursting through her human fingertips. “You’ll regret that,” she told me through clenched, sharp teeth.

  “Will I?” I answered, my body between her and Erik. So much for bad cop. If Winter wanted a fight, she was getting a fight.

  “Enough.”

  Drake’s word came as a slap, one that affected werewolves considerably more than it did foxes. Erik’s knees crumpled beneath him so only the handcuff kept him upright. Winter swallowed hard, trying and failing to move her vocal cords.

  Meanwhile, Neko took the opportunity to get his dander up. Despite napping in my arms throughout the preceding altercation, the cold air from Drake’s command made him hiss and try to wriggle free.

  Our pet was used to being allowed to wander wherever he chose once the door to the outside was shut. Yesterday morning, I would have just dropped him and let him rip apart a curtain or knock some precious vases off shelves.

  Today, however, I knew better. I couldn’t afford to have our kitten open a portal through time, not when Okaasan had told me those journeys needed to remain private.

  So I grabbed for the harness. Then, when that slid sideways and threatened to pull over his head, I latched onto the fur underneath.

  The second method of restraint worked, but something sharp cut into my index finger in the process. Frowning, I nudged what seemed to be a folded sheet of paper out from beneath the knotted necktie to get a glimpse.

  This wasn’t something Lynette or Erik had hidden while I slept. The text was Japanese rather than English. The newsprint appeared fresh, but the date just visible in one corner put the lie to that impression.

  1907. This was a newspaper produced over a century ago and it wasn’t the least bit brittle with age.

  Which should have been impossible. I’d lost my clothes each time I passed through the portal, had come through without my dagger or cell phone. Still, cats were mysteries. Could Neko have carried a newspaper across so many decades? And could that newspaper help me travel back in time to see my mother now?

  Warmth and longing made me forget, for one split second, that I was in the middle of protecting a teenager from an over-aggressive big boss.

  Then I remembered where I was as Winter finally forced words out of lips frozen by Drake’s compulsion. “You’re right. You’ve spent long enough playing with your Strays. You and I have important business to discuss.”

  Drake’s rasp was rougher than usual. “Talk then.”

  “Not in front of the pup you’re interrogating. Lock him back in his kennel then walk with me.”

  Rather than replying to his mother, Drake’s gaze pierced me, one eyebrow raising. Winter had butted into our discussion with Erik and now she wasn’t even acknowledging my presence. It was not only rude but a display of dominance most werewolves wouldn’t have put up with.

  But I was a fox who needed time alone to consider my own secrets. To, I hoped, figure out how to handle a kami who’d committed murder mere hours ago.

  I also ached to spend just a few more moments close to Okaasan. To relearn her. Relearn us. To unlock our shared past.

  So I didn’t hesitate. “Go,” I told them. “Have fun.”

  And just like we’d all waited to hear Lynnette travel out of voice range, I stayed still there in the middle of the kitchen until the crunch of boots on snow faded into the distance. Then I slid out of my clothes—better not to lose another set—clutched the newspaper in front of me, and released Neko from his harness.

  “Okay, cat. Do your thing,” I prompted.

  He plunked his furry butt down on the floor, licked one paw, and preceded to indulge in that most important of feline pastimes—grooming away invisible dirt.

  Chapter 15

  Tru

  If there was one thing I learned over the next fifteen minutes, it was that cats do whatever they jolly well please. When I shifted into fox form and pounced on invisible dust motes, it was easy to tempt Neko into following my lead. However, when I segued into a leap from the kitchen island to the floor, the same cat who’d often made much larger jumps with impunity just looked at me like I’d lost my mind.

  “Okay, Neko. You wanna play hardball? We’ll play hardball.”

  Having shifted back to humanity to speak, human hands made short work of filling the sink with cold water and grabbing onto the kitten. My stomach twisted, though, as I scrambled up onto the counter. The line between cruelty and wisdom wasn’t quite as evident at the current moment as I would have liked.

  But a man had died here last night. My mother understood kamis in a way I didn’t. Speaking to her now might save another life.

  Dunking Neko seemed like a small price to pay to reach that point.

  Plus, it wasn’t as if the purring fluffball in my arms was really going to fall into the water. Okaasan had proven that Neko was well able to open a time portal to escape being plunged into a pond. Surely a full sink would provoke the same response?

  Neko dropped out of my hands with the most pitiful squeak imaginable. He landed in the filled sink with a splash that almost, but not quite, covered up the opening of the door.

  “Do I want to know?” Drake rasped, crossing the room as I fished for a kitten who’d turned into a mess of sodden fur and needle-sharp claws as he frantically tried to stay afloat in cold water while avoiding me, his tormentor.

  “Can you get him out?”

  Without requiring further information, Drake dropped one huge palm into the frigid water, lifting gradually from below to create a platform that raised Neko up into the air without terrifying him. The poor thing shivered then flinched away as I tried to wrap him up in a dry dish towel.

  Yep, cruelty not wisdom. I’d called that one wrong.

  Still, as I hopped off the counter, I plucked the folded newspaper out of the damp and tightened my fist to hide it from sight. I intended to try again.

  First, though, I braced myself for an inquisition from Drake, who’d taken over kitten-drying duties. He didn’t ask another question, though, so I was the one to speak. “This is part of the thing I can’t talk about.”

  “Understood.” Drake rubbed Neko’s fur the wrong way with the towel until the rumble of kitten purr twined around his rasp. “Is the bruise on your hip also something you can’t talk about?”

  Drake hadn’t even seemed to glance at my naked body, but those piercing gray eyes missed nothing. I fought against the urge to swivel away and hide the injury. Because even if its source was something I could share with Drake, I wasn’t so sure tattling on his mother was advisable.

  “Where’s the big boss?” I asked while trying to decide.

  “Gone under her own volition. Gone before I turned into my father and let the fire inside me out.”

  Despite the apparent self-castigation of his words, the flames I sometimes saw in his eyes were so damped down as to be nearly invisible. Still, his jaw clenched as if he expected me to judge him for unacted-upon annoyance. Was that how Drake saw himself, as a fire just waiting to consume the unwary? Was that why he worked so hard to rein in even the faintest show of temper?

  I could have tried to talk him out of the misunderstanding of his own temperament, but instead I offered him something better—proof that he wouldn’t harm someone he cared about no matter how thoroughly unpleasant she’d been.

  “Winter and I had a minor altercation while I was checking out Cedric’s body,” I admitted. “But that’s irrelevant. What we need to focus on is catching Kami, and I have an idea for that.”

  “My mother injured you.” The fire kindled in his eyes, tensing his body like a bowstring. But it didn’t prevent him from petting Neko when the kitten slapped him with a demanding paw and it didn’t make him act in any way he’d regret.

  I wished Drake could see himself through my eyes. Since he couldn’t, I tried to turn the conversation in the direction it needed to go. “Did you miss the part where I have a plan to deal with a murderer?”

  Drake closed the space between us so slowly I could have fled if I wanted to. I didn’t want to, though, and apparently even Neko was satisfied with increased proximity this time. The kitten cocked his chin, demanding a head scratch and I obliged, glad of easy feline forgiveness.

  That wasn’t, however, the reason I stood my ground.

  I was naked in front of the man who filled my dreams to bursting. The man who’d spent a month patiently waiting for me to make the first move.

  Who’d told me holding hands was all he needed if it was all I was ready for. Whose carefully banked fire now made me itch for far more than that.

  So I didn’t retreat as Drake ran his palm—chilled from sink water—across the smooth skin of my hip. “You don’t want me to do anything about this?” he rasped.

  How could he touch me so gently while being so furious? Somehow he was, and somehow he did.

  “I want you to listen,” I told him, barely managing to get the words out without stuttering. Skin-on-skin contact with Drake felt like staring directly into the sun. Blazing hot and blinding bright and quite possibly altering my entire life.

  “Listening.” His scent was lemon-meringue pie over barely restrained fire.

  If I didn’t talk, I’d pull Drake’s head down and kiss him. So I busied my lips with words instead.

  “Kami wants something and she seems to have decided that Lynette is the way to get it. Lynette was the one driving when your car went off the road. Lynette develops a crush on Erik and Erik promptly goes feral. Lynette talked to Cedric last night and this morning Cedric wound up dead.”

  Drake nodded, humming a request for further information. So I continued with the train of thought I’d been following ever since it became clear I wasn’t going to be able to beg help from my mother immediately, if at all.

  “I don’t think Erik is involved voluntarily, and the way he swore to you should prevent him from causing further trouble. So we turn him loose and we spend time outside with Lynette, spread out enough to tempt Kami out of hiding. You and Seth keep eyes on Lynette and Erik at all times and I wander off alone occasionally to scout the surroundings. If Kami’s here, she shouldn’t be able to resist such an open invitation toward mayhem.”

  The friction of Drake’s palm rubbing against my bruise had transitioned from chill into fire. But now he turned away, picking up the bundle of my clothes and offering it to me.

  “We’ll go sledding,” he rasped, facing away in a gesture that seemed like what Seth had done while we dressed in Drake’s office but felt entirely different. “Lynette will be thrilled.”

  Lynette was thrilled. Well, first she cried as we burned Cedric’s body atop a funeral pyre. He’d been a flirt, she told me, and an alpha werewolf who sometimes lost track of his own strength. But to a young human girl, he’d been unalterably kind.

  Then, with the resiliency of youth, she forgot the dead. The day had warmed enough for snow to fall in big fat flakes and her smile rebounded as if tears had never happened. “Come on!” she demanded, crossing her arms and grabbing Erik’s hands so they spun through the storm, bodies counterbalancing each other. What might, for one girl alone, have been a dizzy free fall turned into an exuberant, almost-but-not-quite-out-of-control dance.