“Besides,” Clarissa added, lifting her hair off her neck. “You can always get human spell-casters to go against one another, as long as a strong supernatural strike team will back them up.”

“ ’Rissa is right,” Bradley said, glancing around the room. “If the Vamps were backing dark covens, we should have been able to get the Whitelighters to go up against them, if they knew the Wolf Clans and the entire Seelie Fae Parliament had their backs. The fact that everyone is running scared from this thing tells me it’s much larger than coven versus coven. It’s who won’t get involved that gives us the biggest clue to who is involved-like reverse engineering.”

“Definitely,” Woods said, pushing off the dresser. “They saw the wolves win the last battle, so why wouldn’t the good coven community do something to gain more favor with their strong allies?”

“Right,” Fisher said, nodding. “Like, why would the Whitelighters be scared, especially if the good Fae folk were also on their side for helping to out some black magick that had been used against them? That would make them golden in the Fae community-might even earn brownie points.”

“That is such a bad pun, dude,” Winters said, shaking his head. “Seriously.”

“Okay, okay, but you know what I mean… and I wasn’t trying to go for laughs.” Fisher gave the group a sheepish grin. “It just came out like that.”

“That’s why this thing really troubles me,” Bradley said, now staring at Silver Hawk and Doc, and visibly ignoring Fisher’s shenanigans. “Even though I can’t prove it, this smacks of powerful Unseelie magick-because of who doesn’t want to get involved. None of the strong local covens want to touch it, Vampires can’t be directly linked to it, and we don’t have a reason why.” He let out a hard breath and folded his arms. “All I’ve got is speculation.”

“You are right,” Silver Hawk said, choosing his words with care as he glanced at Doc Holland. “We cannot base our claims on speculation. But to understand the enemy and the nature of the attack, one must understand how the enemy thinks… One must understand how they feel wronged, and why. This will tell us their passion or not for the battle they have waged, and might tell us the weakness in their defenses.”

The only way to get Hunter to stop was to finally flee his hold by playfully giving in to her wolf. He was still insatiable, not that she’d minded at all. But they had to get back to New Orleans well before moonrise; there was work to do.

In a flip roll, she kissed him hard and broke free. Up and gone, she turned back once, laughing as he scrambled to his feet. Running away from him, she had a twenty-five-yard lead when she slipped into her wolf to bound toward his hideaway cabin deep within north Shadow Wolf Clan country.

It was impossible not to turn for a quick glimpse over her shoulder. His wolf was pure majesty… a midnight-black coat that nearly glistened blue. Graceful bounds over logs and bramble, his massive form moving like liquid night through the dense stand of trees-how could she not look? Then his shadow play became an intense aphrodisiac, slowing her retreat as she watched him go in and out of shadows, becoming a blur of motion strategically advancing on her, wearing only the large amulet dangling by thick silver.

She almost forgot she was supposed to be escaping to a shower, finding clothes in their cabin, and getting back on mission. Hunger tore at her insides, as did renewed desire.

Sasha hit the porch on all fours and then transformed, laughing. Bare human feet collided with smooth pine planks the moment her back hit the front door. A huge black wolf landed right in front of her on the top step, baring fangs, head lowered in mock attack readiness, stalking her until she laughed and turned away, pressing the front of her body to the door. A loud growl made her release a playful scream as she hid her face against her forearms. Immediately, hot human skin covered her back, pressing against her butt.

Two strong arms gathered around her as Hunter’s warm breath pelted her neck just before he nipped it.

“I need a shower and I need to eat, man, get off me,” she said, laughing harder as he nuzzled her and began moving against her exposed backside. “No!”

“So, let’s get in the shower and, yeah, I’d love to eat-”

“No,” she said, squirming in his hold. He was making her laugh, was making her hot, but they had to get back before it got dark. “If the moon rises-”

“It’s all over,” he said, losing some of the playfulness in his tone.

“I know,” she murmured, arching despite her protests. “But it’ll be dark and we’ll have allies vulnerable to Vampires while they’ve been weakened… we’ve gotta get back.”

Hunter dropped his forehead against her shoulder and let out a hard breath. “Must you always be so practical?”

“I wasn’t earlier.” She smiled as her voice remained easy.

He kissed the nape of her neck. “I am profoundly grateful for that.”

Slowly extricating herself from his fantastically warm embrace, she turned around so that his body could mold to hers. “I’m grateful that you forgave me,” she said quietly, staring up into his intense gaze. “That wasn’t me.”

“It is forgotten… We don’t have to discuss it,” he said, taking her mouth.

“We should,” she murmured when he broke their kiss. “Think about it for a moment, Hunter. We were all affected at what felt like ground zero-at Ethan’s place. But once you and I went through the shadow lands and came out on the other side, we were okay… we weren’t giving in to really bad wolf behavior.”

A sly smile crept onto one half of his face. “We weren’t altogether cured for a couple of hours, though.”

Sasha chuckled. “True… but for me to bait a dominance battle between you and Shogun… c’mon, Hunter. I think you know me better than that.”

He nodded and kissed her forehead, sobered by her admission. “And let me be honest,” Hunter added, closing his eyes and resting his forehead against hers before continuing. “I was ready to go to war… ready to kill blood, family. That didn’t make sense… and he was ready to challenge me outright. Mortal combat.”

“That’s what I’m saying,” Sasha murmured, placing a hand over Hunter’s heart. “Not after what all three of us have been through.”

“No,” Hunter said, shaking his head, now staring into her eyes. “Shogun is above a mate challenge; he has more honor than that. My brother is clearly not himself, nor am I… or you. We have to get to the bottom of this to avert a possible tragedy.”

“And I’m worried that as the moon rises and gets closer to full, the worse it will get for all of us.” She touched Hunter’s face, allowing her fingers to trace the strong line of his jaw, and he covered her hand with his own.

“It will get worse, Sasha. My brother transformed into his wolf before the moon was full. It was mid afternoon… and as a Werewolf, he’s not supposed to be able to do that.”

“What?” A horrified whisper came out on a quick exhale as though Hunter had punched her.

Hunter simply nodded. “Your transition spiked desire in him so out of control that his wolf came immediately. I heard it, the snapping of bones and the tearing of ligaments… it was a hard transition and probably the only thing that held my honor intact to not turn around and kill him where he stood. He was vulnerable for several moments, but I opted to find you in the shadows and deliver your clothes.”

“Oh, my God…” Sasha covered her mouth with her hand as Hunter’s hands found her hair and he pulled her into a slow hug.

“We must find the source and eradicate it, Sasha. Under the influence of the full moon, who knows what any of us will be capable of with dark magick as a catalyst? And we may not have the shadow lands as an option to protect us all.”

“Shogun can’t go into the shadows… he will never have a rest from this thing, no time to purge it or detox from whatever the hell this is.”