MasukI stare at the last item in the kit: a burner phone, set to autodial Lucas if I press the panic button. There’s a temptation to smash it, to sever the backup plan and force myself to trust only my own willpower. But I don’t. The wolf in me knows the value of fallback positions, and the human isn’t s
The transformation always begins subtly—an itch beneath the skin, a metallic taste where there should be only saliva and regret. Tonight it arrives early. The moon is only a waxy gash in the cloud cover, but my body reads the angles, the old arithmetic of hunger and inevitability. The pulse in my wr
“Just one for now. But I’d bet there’s another backup car somewhere out of sight. Classic setup.” I close my eyes, picturing the streets in layers: Reeves inside, sweating through his secondhand shirt; Lila somewhere between the kitchen and her laptop; the watcher, parked and pretending to text, bu
It’s not a question, but I answer anyway. “Yes. The moon is… bad this time.” He nods, like a man who’s already made peace with the fact of monsters. “I’ll be ready. If you need to tag out, just say the word.” The offer is comfort and threat both. I want to bite it, test the strength of it, but I j
I check the itinerary again, as if some alternate option will have materialized since I last read it. The line for the meeting is double-underlined. 2100 hours. I imagine Martin Reeves: the sweat, the darting eyes, the kind of man who can balance six sets of books but can’t keep his own hands from s
The moon tonight is the kind that leaves nowhere to hide. It hangs low, lashed to the horizon by black wire clouds, its face so bright it spites the city’s sodium haze and sends hard lines of shadow through the slats of my office blinds. The silver finds my skin in cold needles. I roll down the slee
I stiffen, a snarl forming at the back of my throat, before I manage to smooth it into something more civil, more human. This is not what I expected, not what I am prepared for. I should have known. I should have known he'd come. "Mara," his voice drawls, easy and confident, but I hear the challeng
The lock clicks behind me as I slip into the office. I am the wolf, even in tailored business attire. Even with it all wrapped up so tight. The edge of my existence cuts deep. The aftertaste of the night clings to my senses, a raw, metallic tang that I cannot swallow away. My steps falter, then re
There is a freedom in it, a temptation that digs claws deep into my resolve and leaves it ragged and bleeding. I have spent a lifetime restraining the urge, tightening the leash until it bites into my own flesh. But the promise of release is a seductive whisper, its breath warm against my neck, its
The crosswalk sign flashes red as I approach, an unwavering command to stop, to wait, to hold. I heed it, just this once. There is no harm in pausing when I know what lies ahead. The penthouse is a world apart from the one I now move through, but I carry pieces of it with me, fragments of luxury an







