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Running my hand over his hip and up his back, ending at his shoulder and neck. I can see the fur rise along his spine as if my touch elicited a form of goosebumps. This seems likely the case when he does a whole-body shiver and shake. He brings his giant snout back to press against my side in the same motion he did as a regular wolf. It must be a shifter thing.

“Okay. You can change back now.”

Just as quickly as before, his body transforms from beast to human in a graceful fluidity that speaks of years of practice. And once again, before me stands a naked Hunter.

I keep my eyes trained on his face, not allowing myself to look down until he turns and bends over to pick up his sweats. I hadn’t gotten a good look at his backside yet, and I am not disappointed when I ogle his firm round ass. It flexes as he slips each leg into the pants and then conceals it under the gray material. Shame, someone as physically stunning as Hunter should walk around naked constantly.

He comes to stand directly in front of me, not touching, just watching.

At a loss for what to do, I shift on my feet. Now that he’s shown me his true self and exposed his deepest secrets, I suppose it would only be right to do the same.

“Since you’ve been so honest with me about who you are, I should probably tell you who I am.”

“I know who you are, Lottie,” he says, stepping another inch closer to me.

“You might think you know me because of everything I told you when you were a wolf, but . . . there was something else I didn’t mention about who I really am.”

Closing the distance between us, Hunter reaches up and cups my cheek. His palm is large and warm. I can’t help but lean into him, the touch eliciting a wave of pleasurable tingles across my skin.

“I told you. I know who you really are. Alexandria.”

The warming pleasure vanishes under frigid shock. His smile only softens at my stunned expression.

“How did you know?”

“Ginger,” he admits the one word as if it’s all the explanation needed. It’s not.

“But how did she know?”

Even as I speak the question, the answer comes to me; the only way she could have known was if someone told her, someone like…

“Luna,” both Hunter and I say at the same time. I frown up at him, his thumb brushing gently over my jaw.

“How do you know Luna?”

“I’ve helped her out on assignments in the past. When I was younger, before I became Mayor. Shifters sometimes call on other shifters, especially alphas, to assist on jobs.”

“Wait,” I interrupt, pulling his hand away from my face so I can think straight, holding it in mine between us. “Luna is a shifter?”

Hunter repositions our hands, threading our fingers together and pressing them to his chest.

“Yes. Why do you think she makes such an effective bodyguard? Shifters are instinctually protective. We are the guardians of non-humans. It’s in our blood.”

“That sneaky little…” Biting my lip, I glower down at our entwined fingers.

Luna is going to hear it from me the next time I talk to her. I’ve shared everything with her, intimate personal things that no one else knows, and she never told me. A thought occurs to me as I’m mentally chastising Luna for not sharing this world with me: Hunter said he did jobs with Luna in the past.

Upturning my gaze back to Hunter, I look at him from beneath my lashes.

“Did you ever work with Luna guarding me? As Alexandria?”

I’d like to think I would have remembered Hunter, but honestly, I don’t know most of my security team beyond Luna. She rotates them in and out and brings in extra when needed for shows and events. He very well could have been on a security detail for some awards show I attended, and I never knew.

Hunter shakes his head. “No. I haven’t done jobs for her since I became mayor, and I think she started working for you around the same time. So, I wouldn’t have been on any details for you.”

“Oh.”

That makes sense, I suppose. Makes me feel better for not remembering him if he had.