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He waved away my words. “I don’t blame you for anything.”

Maybe not, but I blamed myself.

“They made enemies of you, threatening you and your family. It made sense for you to strike at them—and to deny them a powerful magically manipulated ally.” Face rueful, his wave shifted to encompass himself.

“I’m only now accepting that maybe it’s not all bollocks, that Abrams was right, and I could, as they say in this country, end up pushing up daisies. ”

I thought about sharing that nobody said that anymore—he’d probably read the phrase in a book. But it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he might die. Not nobly in battle or on a hunt but to a magical curse.

“Do you think handing over the artifacts that they want could be a solution to your problem?” I asked, thinking of the special-delivery letter he’d received.

“Oh, moon shadows, no. They’re trying to take advantage of the situation and manipulate us.

I can’t see how anyone but a powerful crafter, the kind the world no longer knows, could alter existing artifacts and use their magic to some ends other than which they were made for.

” Duncan squinted at me. “Don’t you consider giving the case or anything else to them. ”

“I do love it when men give me orders,” I said, though my heart wasn’t in the snark.

“I’d say it was a strong suggestion, but that’s not true.

I must absolutely forbid you from making that sacrifice.

The medallions belong to your pack, and they may even be able to protect them and our kind in general more than we’ve yet discovered.

This definitely has the power to protect its wearer.

” Duncan touched the medallion on his chest. “Maybe not from fire, but it overrode the manipulative magic of the other control device, and I don’t doubt that it can do more.

And that case and the artifact within? I felt firsthand its power. ”

“Yeah.”

Too bad it hadn’t been enough to heal my mother of her cancer.

“For all we know,” Duncan continued, “the continuing existence of werewolves is tied to those artifacts and others like them. To the medallions certainly. There’s little magic left within the earth, and we need magic to exist. To live.” He fell silent, his gaze toward the pond again.

Since I didn’t know what to say, I leaned against him, my shoulder to his. He pulled up his magnet, rested it on the railing, and wrapped an arm around me.

“Do you want more kids, Luna?”

I blinked at the abrupt topic shift and surprised myself with the answer that came to mind. It wasn’t a firm no . Instead, I said, “I… didn’t think I did.”

“Did something change?”

“Now that I’m a werewolf again, well… I don’t know.

It’s not something that would have crossed my mind if my mother hadn’t kept bringing it up—and I hate that she wants to pressure me and you about that—but a part of me wonders what it would be like to have werewolf pups.

” Your pups, I thought but didn’t say. The last thing I wished was for Duncan to believe I was like my mother in any way, or wanted anything from him.

Besides, we hadn’t even had sex yet. It was silly to wonder what children with him would be like.

“When I was raising my sons, I did often wish for a little girl.”

“In addition to them?”

“Or instead of,” I said dryly. “Boys are a lot of work.”

“And girls are easy?”

“They don’t usually put their fists through the drywall and go through phases where they’re disassembling all the electronics in the house.

I went through four toasters when Austin was in middle school.

And I had to repair the drywall and paint numerous times due to testosterone-driven temper tantrums.”

“Something tells me that girls may come with challenges too.” Duncan gazed at me through his eyelashes.

“Funny that you’d look at me while you say that.”

“Isn’t it?” He smiled again, but it was fleeting.

“The reason I asked… Well, I was curious. Over the years, I’ve wondered from time to time about what having children might be like, but I always dismissed the idea.

I love travel so much that I could never imagine being tied down in one place.

But now that I’ve been presented with this…

this ..” He tapped his scar. “Well, it’s forced me to realize I could die without leaving any offspring to carry on my blood. ”

“Your scientist-crafted laboratory blood is weird.”

“True, but, surely, someone would want it? Your mother thinks it has appeal.”

“She just wants grandkids with the power to kick a lot of ass. It’s a typical thing for a werewolf mother to desire.”

“Since I never had a mother, I’ll have to take your word for that.

” Duncan held my gaze for a moment before looking toward the water again.

The moon had gone behind a tree, leaving the silver beam on the surface broken in two.

“This turn of events has had me rethinking things a touch. Maybe… having a few regrets.”

“You’ll have to find a way not to die, at least not yet. Then there’s still time for you to have kids.”

“Hm.”

I didn’t know if that noise meant he didn’t believe he could beat this curse or if he hadn’t yet decided that he wanted kids. It sounded like he was mostly at the musing—and regrets—phase.

“You can have children and travel, you know,” I pointed out. “Either their mother could stay at home with them, or the whole family could be nomadic and have adventures. Then you’d have the opportunity to teach them to ride a bike—or fish rusty bikes out of a lake.”

“Oh goodness, that sounds wonderful.”

If not for the grim undercurrent, I would have laughed. Only he could say something like that and be serious.

“I hadn’t thought of taking children on my travels.” Duncan gazed at me and touched a finger to my jaw. “You’re a delightful woman, Luna Valens.”

“I am,” I said, though I hoped he wasn’t envisioning me cavorting around the world with him, a pack of our offspring in tow. I didn’t even want to leave my apartment in Shoreline. Not to be nomadic, anyway. A vacation adventure here and there might be okay.

Musings that wouldn’t matter unless Duncan lived and we had a relationship. His eyebrow twitched, not in some sardonic facial expression, but because, if the accompanying wince was an indicator, he had a headache. Or stabs of pain in his skull.

On the verge of tears, I opened my mouth to reiterate the need to find a solution to his problem, but he took my parted lips as an invitation and smoothed his face and kissed me.

It was a tender kiss rather than one filled with fiery passion.

It held the longing and regret he’d voiced, the uncertainty about whether he would be able to pursue the future we’d spoken about.

I tried to comfort him, returning the kiss in kind, but I also couldn’t help but wonder if we should make the most of the time we had.

Not here though. One of the teenagers in the parking lot whistled, and his friends laughed. My phone rang. The romance of a moonlit night would have to wait. Clouds were wafting in anyway, the air smelling like rain might come the next day.

Duncan sighed and leaned back.

I frowned in confusion at the name on my phone. It was Minato, the owner of the convenience store next to the pond. Was it possible the teenagers had committed a crime that he hoped I could handle?

“Hello?”

“Ms. Valens. Thank you for taking my call this late at night.”

“Uh, no problem.” I glanced at the clock on my phone. It was creeping up on ten p.m., but my tenants often called that late to report water leaks and other time-sensitive problems. Occasionally problems that weren’t time sensitive too. “What’s up?”

Perhaps having similar thoughts as I’d had, Duncan gazed up at the teenagers. Other than the underaged drinking, they didn’t seem to be partaking in any crimes. One even pointed at me and gave Duncan a thumbs-up.

“It is a quiet night at my store, perhaps because you are standing guard nearby?—”

Standing guard. Right.

“—but a business acquaintance of mine called and wishes to know if you are available to stop a crime. He is one of the ones I’ve spoken with about putting together funds to pay you for protecting the small businesses in the neighborhood.”

I kept telling him they didn’t need to pay me to help out, but since I’d done nothing to solve the problem, I didn’t bring that up again. “I… guess I’m available.”

Duncan sighed wistfully—maybe he’d also been thinking of activities we might want to engage in if time was running out. But he didn’t object.

“My acquaintance is Harold Chen. He owns the discount movie theater a few blocks away. Some of the local gang members rode their motorcycles into his parking lot, strode inside without paying, helped themselves to concessions, and are now watching a movie. The police said they would send a patrol car over when they have time, but they categorized the crime as minor and sounded busy with more pressing matters. Unfortunate, because these small crimes pave the way for larger ones. Further, one movie-goer reported that one of the men grew lewd with her and tried to grab her. When my acquaintance confronted him, the man punched him and said to make it a private showing if he had a problem with complaints.”

“We need to figure out who’s in charge of those guys and put an end to their gang .” I doubted Radomir and Abrams had anything to do with that. They were merely taking advantage of the locals being available to pester me.

“ Yes ,” Minato said in agreement. “I will tell him you are coming.”

“Maybe the one masterminding the thefts will be there.” I shrugged apologetically at Duncan for needing to leave when he was feeling low.

“I’ll go with you to check. We can continue our impromptu date.”

“Jasmine did suggest we might want to go on a hunt together. That it would be romantic.” I doubted she’d meant the hunt should be in a movie theater.

“I’m sure it will be.”