2

Blakely huffed and stormed away. Stephan leaned against the bar and pulled me into his arms properly, then tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “How’s the party been? Having fun?”

“Yep. But I think it might be time to get out of here.”

“Oh yeah?” He slid his hands from my waist to my hips. “Upstairs?”

“I want to go to our spot,” I whispered into his ear. “Out by the lake. I want to be with you under the moonlight.”

His grip on my hips, and he made a sound in his throat like a low growl. I loved it when I could make him start to lose control. “Lead the way, gorgeous.”

A wailing siren cut through the noise.

“Ace! We got company!” Stephan’s brother shouted.

The cheerful mood vanished like a bonfire doused with a bucket of water. The music cut off, and the clan members and visitors all looked around nervously as flashing lights approached the clubhouse.

Stephan’s grip around me tightened as he looked across the bar. His brother, Hawk, was fighting with his girlfriend, Mia. She shoved him in the chest and raced upstairs. They’d been fighting a lot over the summer, but their big arguments always seemed to simmer down over time. I didn’t know them well enough to ask what was going on, but sometimes I wondered.

“It’s Officer Forest,” Stephan’s enforcer called from the front of the clubhouse. “This is about to be a shitshow.”

Stephan sighed and raked his hand through his hair. “It’ll be fine. I’ll handle him.” He gave me an easy smile. “I went to high school with Forest, and he’s still got a chip on his shoulder. He’s probably just here to tell us to turn down the music.”

“That sounds like a lot of cop cars for a noise complaint,” I said.

“Don’t worry. Wait for me out back. This’ll just take a few minutes.” He kissed me, then strode toward the front door. I watched the strong line of his shoulders as the crowd parted around him.

Stephan’s kisses usually soothed my nerves, but something about this whole situation felt off. I wrapped my arms around myself and hurried back out to the back porch.

“What’s going on?” Cassidy asked. She darted away from the group of shifters she was talking to and pulled me into the backyard. “Are the cops here? Should we be making a run for it?”

“We’re not in high school anymore, Cass,” I said with a laugh.

“Yeah, but I’m still not supposed to be drinking this!” She dumped the rest of her drink off the porch.

“Steph said it’s probably a noise complaint. I’m sure he’ll send the cops on his way, then we can get out of here.”

“I don’t know,” Cassidy said. “This feels kind of serious.”

It did to me, too… I just didn’t want to admit it.

“Maybe we should go back to your mom’s,” Cassidy said.

The back door slid open, and Blakely stepped out onto the porch. “Hey, Harley? Can I talk to you? Privately?”

“Huh?” Blakely had never spoken so nicely to me—hell, I don’t think she’d talked to me at all over the summer. But now, her eyes were soft, and her brows were pulled together with concern. I glanced at Cassidy, and she shrugged.

“It’s important,” Blakely said. “It’s about Ace.”

I took a step back. “What?”

“Harley… Ace has been lying to you.”

1

HARLEY

“S

o, if you’ll take a look at these graphs here, you’ll see that despite the major dip last year, our profits have been climbing pretty consistently…”

I sighed and leaned forward to look at the wrinkled printouts the client was pushing across my desk. If I were in his position, gunning for an increased loan for a ceramics business that was clearly failing, I wouldn’t have opened with these numbers. Couldn’t tell him that, though—not without my boss’s permission. I had a pretty high-ranking job at the bank, hence the corner office with the window, but that unfortunately put me in the position of handling clients like these.

“I’d love to see a copy of your most recent annual report,” I said.

“Annual report?” The guy scowled. “What for? I’ve provided you with enough information already. It never used to be this difficult to get an increase on my credit line!”

Bzz. Bzz. My personal phone vibrated from its hidden place in my top drawer. I glanced toward it. There were only a few numbers programmed to bypass my phone’s do-not-disturb mode.

“Well, that was before you increased it three times in a row,” I said with a smile.

My phone stopped buzzing. The client began rifling through his briefcase, grumbling to himself. Moments later, the buzzing started again. With the client still digging around, I opened my top drawer and glanced at the screen. Cassidy. She knew I always had back-to-back meetings on Tuesdays. If she was trying to reach me, it had to be really important.

“If you don’t have a copy of the report on hand, I’d be happy to continue this meeting via email,” I said.

“What? Email?” he sputtered. “These kinds of conversations should always be done face-to-face⁠—”

“And you’re more than welcome to make an appointment once you have the proper documentation,” I said kindly. “Now, I apologize, but I have another meeting to prepare for.”

“Now, Miss”—he glanced at the nameplate on my desk—“Harley, that’s not acceptable. I need that increase today.”

“I’m sorry,” I said with a sweet smile. I hated it when clients used my first name so casually. I’d dealt with demanding small business owners like this guy for the bulk of my career. At this point, it was like managing pouty toddlers. “Once we get that documentation, we’ll continue the conversation. Thank you so much for coming in.” I stood and walked around my desk. I shook his hand, and used the handshake to guide the protesting man out the door.

With the door closed and my office blissfully quiet, I dropped back into my desk chair and pulled my phone out. Cassidy wasn’t the only call I’d received. The other number was, unfortunately, a little too familiar. Dylan’s school.

Massaging my temples, I called the school back.

“Miss Founty?”

“Yes, that’s me. Is Dylan in trouble again?”

“We’ve had some trouble with him today,” the principal said coolly. “Serious trouble, in fact. You know we’ve had trouble with some verbal altercations with other students.”

“I do,” I said. What had he gotten into this time?

“Well, today at lunch, he punched another student and nearly broke his nose.”

“Shit, seriously?”

“Yes, seriously. We’d like you to come pick him up today. We’ll discuss his suspension. The other emergency contact listed said she would be available if you weren’t.”

I sighed. Fighting? Suspension? I knew Dylan was having a tough time, but his behavior was getting out of hand. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

I ended the call, grabbed my purse, and hurried out of my office. Thank God, my boss’s door was open. I stuck my head inside. “Hey, Suri?”

My boss glanced up from his computer. He was an older man, perpetually threatening to retire, with a build like a retired linebacker and a seemingly never-ending stash of novelty ties. He took one look at my expression and sighed. “Let me guess. You need to head to the school?”

“Sorry. I know it’s the third time this month.”

Suri waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it. I know it’s not ideal for you, either. What happened?”

I stepped into his office and shut the door behind me, then leaned against it. “Dylan punched another student.”

Suri let out a low whistle. “Sounds like his puberty is in full swing to me.”

“Did he say anything to you about it at the cookout last week?”

I was lucky that Suri happened to live in my neighborhood. He was my boss, but also a friend. And he was a shifter. Shifters weren’t exactly rare, but they weren’t common, either. I was a human, but my nine-year-old son Dylan was a shifter. There were parts of shifter life—especially shifter childhood—that I simply couldn’t understand. The first time Suri had met Dylan at the neighborhood cookout, he’d immediately realized he was a shifter. Since then, Suri had done his best to mentor Dylan, but a mentor wasn’t the same as a father.

And Dylan didn’t have a father.

“He didn’t mention it,” Suri said. “But I could sense he was more on edge than usual. Have you thought about taking him to his sire?”

Grimacing, I shook my head.

“I know it’s not what you want to hear, but if his sire was an alpha, Dylan’s likely to be an alpha too. I won’t be much help to him if that’s the case. His dragon will want to be with his clan—his blood. If I’m around, it might actually make it worse.”

I knocked my head back against the door with a thunk. “You think it’ll get worse?”

Suri’s brow furrowed. “I can’t say for sure. But I don’t think you should wait to find out. Go pick Dylan up. I’ll clear your schedule for the next few days.”

“Thank you,” I said. “Really.”