“No shit. Pretty sure the SF or some rich supernatural would try to get me on their payroll.”

A long moment passed in which he assessed me again. I could feel his burning, unvoiced wanting. He’d gotten his answer, but he still wanted more. He wanted me too.

I crossed my arms. “I’m not going to spread my legs for you. Whatever this is between us, it’s over.”

He moved closer to me, his eyes narrowed. “Why are you so upset?” A deep groove appeared between his brows. “You enjoyed that. You loved what I did to you. I could feel it. It wasn’t just me who wanted it.”

But I remained quiet and looked away, balling my hands. I looked anywhere but at him—at my bed and its rumpled lilac-colored sheets. My small wooden bedside table with a water ring near the corner. My lone widow that had a gauzy white curtain pulled over it. So many uninteresting things to stare at, but it beat answering the hunter’s burning questions.

“Tala? Why are you so mad?”

I sighed. The dude was relentless as hell. “Because I’ve never told anyone about my forbidden power before, but now I have after you forced it out of me.”

He didn’t reply, and the silence grew so thick between us that I finally looked back at him. He was studying me again, the my-face-is-a-blank-slate look that was utterly fascinating and infuriating in its ability to hide everything.

I rolled my eyes. At least I hadn’t started crying. Thank the mother of all the realms. “You should really consider poker for a profession.”

“Huh?”

I huffed. “Never mind.” I blinked another few times just to make sure the tears I’d felt earlier were truly gone. “So now that you know about my power, you can be on your way. You got what you wanted.”

A brief flare of what almost looked like regret crossed his face, but then he locked his jaw, and that momentary expression vanished. “I had a right to know what you did to me.”

“No, you didn’t!” I shot back, but then I paused, hating that pause. Did he have a right to know?

“I won’t tell anyone about what you can do,” he added.

His quiet declaration needled my heart, and some part of me—some deep, intrinsic slice of my soul—knew that he wouldn’t. Because the Fire Wolf was more than just a hunter. Despite what the supernatural community thought of him, a streak of goodness ran through him, defying his demon-born nature, even if his demon side relished the violent aspects of his job. And even if he still hadn’t fully recognized it, his wolf thought I was his mate, and the instinct to protect me would weld itself to his soul—meaning that he wouldn’t reveal my secret. That instinctual reaction would run so deep and so bright, that even a demon-born hybrid wouldn’t be able to fight it.

Ugh. Fucking mate bonds.

Still, even knowing that, it didn’t make everything better, because my entire life I’d kept that part of myself hidden. I’d kept my promise until today.

When I remained silent, the hunter’s fingers pinched my chin and directed my gaze to his. That stormy, fiery sea flamed in his irises. “This isn’t over between us, Tala. We’re not over.”

“Please, just go.”

That muscle clenched in his jaw, but he stood from my bed, his dick still hard as it pressed against his pants. He towered over me, his massive build wrought with tension. “I’ll go for now.”

I swallowed thickly. The urge to cry was returning. Dammit.

His nostrils flared, but then that unreadable mask descended over his features as he pulled his boots on before slipping through my door. He turned back, giving me one last look from the hallway, his eyes still rimmed with fire, before he left on silent footsteps.

When I heard the apartment door open and close, I cast out my magic like a net and felt for his aura. It was in the stairwell, going down. He was truly leaving.

I stopped trying to hold back the tears then, and I buried my face in my pillow before I cried and cried and let it all out.

I cried from the stress of my sister being abducted. I cried from the knowledge that the hunter had somehow wheedled his way into my soul. And I cried for the secret that I’d spent my life protecting, yet had managed to shatter in the heat of one morning.

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Chapter 20

I didn’t go back to sleep after the Fire Wolf left. I couldn’t. Instead, I’d cried until my eyes ran dry, then wiped my cheeks and sluggishly stood. I stumbled out of my room to check on Tessa again.

She still slept, her chest rising in even breaths. When I saw her, my throat tightened with so many emotions I thought I’d choke on them.

My twin still lay sprawled across the sheets, bruises around her wrists. I winced. I hadn’t noticed those before. My frown grew as I studied her sleeping form. What else had they done to her, other than restrain her?

It was only then I realized that the Fire Wolf and I hadn’t talked about the club, Jakub, or the other supernaturals that had been caged there. We hadn’t talked about what had happened after I’d passed out, or what he’d done. We’d only talked about my secret, so I literally knew nothing about all of that other stuff. All I knew was that the Fire Wolf had owned me, body and soul.

The same feelings of humiliation and anger coursed through me again. He’d commanded me to tell him about my forbidden power while seducing me with his wicked tongue and talented fingers. And I’d completely fallen for it, not even attempting to call upon my witch magic to shield myself from his alpha command. So stupid, Tala.

I eased Tessa’s door closed. My fingers had wrapped themselves so tightly around the door handle that they resembled talons. Prying them off, I went to the kitchen and brewed a huge pot of coffee.

Two hours later, I was still sitting at the kitchen table, on my fourth cup, as my mind whirred. There was so much to think about, too much. Because not only was there some strange new power manifesting inside me—the one where I sucked out other people’s magic from them and nearly died in the process—but there were a lot of things I hadn’t understood when the Fire Wolf and I had been working together.

I took another sip from my cup. The more I thought through everything, the more questions I had.

Like who was Katarina and how did she tie into finding my sister? Now that I’d had time to think about it, I remembered where I’d heard Katarina’s name before. Not only had Sinister Fairy Dude mentioned her, but the Fire Wolf had asked the half-demons outside of the Black Underbelly about someone named Katarina, when they’d been kicking the shit out of him. Except at that time, he’d also asked about somebody named Damascus, not Jakub. So what did that mean? Were Damascus and Jakub somehow working together? And why had the Fire Wolf been asking about Katarina, only to then take my job a few hours later? He’d implied that he’d finished his job involving Katarina, but had he?

The more I thought about it, the more the dots started connecting. Because that strange phone call I’d overheard in the hunter’s lair? The overseas one? That had sounded like he’d been reporting to someone about a current job, not a past one. Could it be that he’d been reporting about the job he’d been hired for to find Katarina?

Maybe.

I frowned as I drank more of my coffee, my mind buzzing from the caffeine. Because the more I contemplated all of this, the more I reached the same conclusion.

The Fire Wolf had been hunting for Katarina at the same time as he’d been hunting for Tess.

I reflected on what he’d revealed about scrying and how he’d said its precision waned the longer it had been since the person had gone missing. But Tessa’s abduction had been fresh. He’d been able to latch onto her easily.