LOGINDarcy stood on the back porch steps, tying her boots.
Before anyone rounded the corner of the stairwell, the smell of sour apple and rawhide drifted over.
Darcy didn't look up. Her fingers pulled the laces into a tight knot. "Maeve, your holster needs oil."
Ma
The room was too loud.Darcy lay flat on her back in the master bedroom, staring at the beam across the ceiling.The windows were shut tight, but the noise still pushed its way into her ears.Hyde's heavy boots in the first-floor corridor as the patrols changed shifts. Water rushing down the pipes inside the outer wall. Even through two walls at the back of the house, the harsh panting of the patrol dogs in their pen was as clear as if they were breathing right beside her.Today at the quarry, her wolf had broken through her skin on its own for the first time.The claws and silver fur had retracted now. Her right shoulder didn
Darcy stood on the back porch steps, tying her boots.Before anyone rounded the corner of the stairwell, the smell of sour apple and rawhide drifted over.Darcy didn't look up. Her fingers pulled the laces into a tight knot. "Maeve, your holster needs oil."Maeve came around the corner with a half-eaten green apple in her hand, cheeks still full. "You have eyes in the back of your head?"From the other end of the corridor came the soft scuff of a boot sole. Ten meters away. Every third step, the right heel landed a fraction lighter than the rest."Your twisted ankle isn't healed yet." Darcy straightened and brushed off her pan
The wind on the terrace had turned cool.Asher kept one arm around Darcy's waist and reached for his radio with the other, pressing the talk button. "Hyde, check the third bend on the south slope."Static crackled. Hyde answered. "Copy."Darcy stayed in the lounge chair, half a slice of apple pie still in her hand.Less than five minutes later, Hyde's voice came back over the radio.
Darcy made three rounds of the bedroom suite.The laptop on the desk was gone. The access card she usually kept under the pen cup was gone. Even the defense coat she wore most often, hanging on the rack by the door, had vanished along with the hanger.The only things left in the room were the soft cotton sweaters in the wardrobe and a pair of low-cut soft-soled shoes.Darcy drew a deep breath, stepped into slippers, and pulled the bedroom door open.
When Darcy woke, the other side of the bed was already empty.The sheets still held Asher's familiar fir scent and the lingering warmth of his body.Sunlight cut through the gap in the thick linen curtains and laid a bright gold stripe across the rug. The clock on the nightstand read five past eleven.She hadn't woken at this hour in a long time.Her right shoulder didn't ache. The bite mark on her neck sat quiet under the skin, warm and settled.She rolled over. A delayed soreness spread through her waist and hips. Asher had kept her up far too long last night. The inside of her thighs and her lower back still carried a tight
Darcy turned on the tap.Cold water rushed out. She cupped a handful and splashed it hard against her face.Droplets slid down her chin and shattered against the white porcelain sink. She wiped the water from her eyelids and looked into the mirror again.The thin mercury-silver ring around her dark irises hadn't faded. It caught the dim light above the mirror and glowed faintly.That wasn't all. Under the old scar on







