"Ah Princess, it's dangerous to be out here in the Yukon all alone on your lonesome. And you don't smell a thing like a rogue, so I'm sure you're every bit as defenseless as you look. You aren't from here and I don't see your mate anywhere around to protect you. I think you need a bit of company just about as much as I do." The hair on the back of Dani's neck stood on end as she heard the words not three minutes after walking out of the Hotel where she had filled her stomach with delicious hot dogs and unsweetened ice tea. She had set out to explore the town, to get a sense of where everything was, having decided to buy a map so that she could pick her next destination in the morning and head there as soon as the sun came up. Dani had already decided against shelling out more money for a room. After getting to know the town and getting a map she was planning on disappearing up into the forest and shifting into her wolf to find a cozy place to bed down for the night. But all of that

Dani was pacing back and forth across the small living room and dining area in Waylon's house when his cell phone rang and she nearly jumped out of her skin, her eyes immediately focused on the front door. "You're safe here, Anna." He said in a reassuring tone, but Dani had a hard time believing him. She didn't want to drag anyone else down with her as she was running both from her mate and from Harding. Either one would have no problem killing any man that they found her with, no questions asked, even though Waylon was just trying to protect her."I'm not safe anywhere, Waylon." She muttered the words, her eyes still glued on the door that he was blocking as he answered his phone."Beta Skinner. Yes Sir, I'm free to speak. No, I hadn't heard there was an attack. Is Alpha West going to be alright?" He turned his head and met Dani's eyes and this time she quickly looked away, before swearing under her breath. This was it. He could turn her in if wanted to and he really had no reaso

"Dani's lived through too much to just fucking drowned." "It seems your right about that." Alpha Vos came into his office, with Teo by his side. Luca immediately noticed the way his third in command refused to meet his gaze and kept close to the door while Vos settled in a chair directly across from him. Luca had been making phone calls for an hour, personally speaking with every Alpha he could get ahold of, and in areas without Alpha's with every Beta in charge, in the regions immediately surrounding his territory.He was getting ready to leave and search for Dani himself, but before he did he wanted to put the fear of God, or more specifically the fear of himself, into every member of the pack leadership who was out there looking for Dani so that they could impart it to their people on the ground and help them understand just how critical it was that they found her and brought her home unharmed."Do you have news? Did we find her?" Luca was on his feet in an instant, but Vos was

"Kent?" Dani was sitting on the edge of her bed, clutching the beige motel phone against her cheek. "It's Dani. No, he doesn't know where I am and I'm hoping you aren't going to mention this call to anyone else either." Waylon had packed his bag up quickly and was lacing up his work boots as he sat on the end of his own bed, listening to the conversation that she was having that was putting the both of them at great risk."Well it's not lying if he doesn't ask you and is he even with you right now? Why the fuck would you want to help Luca anyways? It's not like you two are BFFs." There was another long silence. "Fine. Do what you have to do. But where are you? And Harding has her? Do you know for sure that she's in New York? But that's where he is. So it does make sense. And Vos is where? Oh that's just fan-fucking-tastic. Why isn't my brother helping you break your mate out of that hellhole instead of helping my mate find me?"This time Waylon could hear the response from across

Waylon shook his head, something he'd been doing every five minutes since meeting this fiery little wolf. He forced himself to walk back across the room and sit down on his own bed. He was already breaking every code and rule for her. He was not going to make things more complicated for her than they already were by adding to her confusion.As male and female wolves, flung together in close quarters for extended periods of time, it was natural that sparks would start to fly between them, especially since their mates were absent and especially because Waylon's mate was dead and Dani's mate bond had been damaged severely by the betrayal that her wolf and that she as a human had experienced.If they'd just been working together day in and day out going home to their mates it would have been fine. Unnoticeable even. But that was not what was happening. They were in a high stress situation, sleeping in the same room and Dani was hoping to never see her mate again.Waylon's wolf was an A