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I bit my nails, wandering around the living room and kitchen as I waited for Will to come back from his meeting. The longer it went without him showing up, the more I started panicking, my mind going immediately to worst-case scenarios. It surprised me that I was worried almost as much about Will as I was about Morgan. Despite everything, and despite how I wanted to keep him at arm’s length, I found myself trusting him, found myself wanting him safe.

It grated on me. I shouldn’t be worried about the guy who won me. And yet, here I was. The more time I spent with him, the harder it was to hate. I knew I was only here because he wanted to keep up the pretext of being interested in getting slaves. But every time I saw him, I found myself softening more to him. And that insatiable attraction I felt toward him the second I caught wind of his scent made that even worse. I wanted to like him, wanted to trust him, wanted him to pull me into his arms as his mouth explored mine. But I knew I shouldn’t feel that way, though my wolf disagreed on that front.

I pushed the thought from my mind. It didn’t matter. What mattered was Will getting Morgan out of there. The instant that happened, we could get out of here. Then I could worry about the fact that I desperately craved every inch of the man who won me.

When he came back, my stomach plummeted. I had let myself hope that Morgan would come through the door with him. I slowed, heart pounding, not saying anything. His eyes found mine, and the look in his eyes told me everything I needed to know.

“He wouldn’t sell her,” he said.

“What?” Out of everyone in this place, I would have expected Cain to be eager to see off women he didn’t need. They had more money, after all. “That can’t be true…It’s not…” I trailed off, words not coming out.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I tried. But he was adamant.”

I didn’t say anything, though a creeping unease began crawling up my skin. This was Cain we were talking about. He should have been thrilled to sell off another girl, even if it was one of his personal slaves. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t be able to get another one with a snap of his fingers.

“Something is wrong,” I said. I started pacing back and forth, panic overriding all sense. “He’s refusing a sale. More money. Which means he wants Morgan for something. And if he wants her for something…” I trailed off, unable to finish the thought or even breathe properly. I sped up, running my fingers through my head as the dread deepened.

I’d failed Morgan. Again. I hadn’t been able to get her out of there.

A calloused hand wrapped gently around my wrist, stopping the pacing. I turned to see Will standing a hair too close, his hand not releasing mine.

“It’s all right,” he said.

“It’s not,” I said as my voice broke. “She’s still there.”

“I know,” Will said. His thumb ran along the back of my hand. I focused on it, letting it soothe the tempest swirling in my head. “But it’s going to be okay.

I was suddenly painfully aware of how close we were. The skin where his hand touched mine felt electrified, sending jolts radiating through my body. I glanced up at him. I leaned closer, almost instinctively, as if drawn to him.

You can’t, you can’t, you can’t , a stubborn voice in my head chanted over and over. I didn’t want to listen to it. Almost unbidden, I found myself leaning even closer to him. His eyes flicked to my lips, then back to my eyes. I could see the want in his gaze. It would be so simple to clear that tiny gap for our lips to meet. Despite all the protestations, despite all rationality telling me this was a horrible idea, I couldn’t help it. Our lips moved closer… closer.

The door opened again, and the spell was broken. I took a step back, common sense slamming into me full force. Will’s hand slipped away from mine, and my skin felt cold where he had been touching it, almost as if it missed his touch.

Chris and Nolan strolled through the door. “Any luck?” Chris asked. He saw my expression, and that seemed to be enough of an answer for him. “Oh.”

“Yeah,” Will said. “She was there when I came in—”

“She was there?” My heart jumped into my throat as I turned to look at him. “How was she? Was she okay? Was she hurt? What—” I cut myself off, forcing myself to let him continue speaking even as a dozen questions pressed at my lips.

“She was fine,” Will said. “A little nervous, but she was all right.”

That wasn’t going to satisfy the panic racing through my head, but I bit my lip, not wanting to interrupt in case he had more important information.

“Anyway, when I told Cain I was interested in purchasing her, he told me no.” He glanced back at me, and I couldn’t miss the guilty expression that flickered over his face. “He knew I had purchased Kendra, and he said that he wasn’t going to sell the sister. He said they were more trouble together than it was worth, and that he was doing me a favor.”

My brow furrowed as unease continued to creep up my spine. “That doesn’t make sense, though,” I said. “Cain shouldn’t care about that. Hell, there was another woman in our group for a while. She was borderline feral, constantly causing chaos and trying to get away. He sold her off faster.”

“You think he’s lying?” Will asked.

I didn’t answer immediately, even as intuition screamed at me that, yes, Cain was lying. “None of it adds up,” I finally said. “But I can’t think of any reason why he wouldn’t sell her.”

No good ones, at least .

I tried to keep my face impassive as my mind spun and reeled. My sister was still in danger. Our plan hadn’t worked. Going the simple route wasn’t going to work. I had to get her out of here.

Pulling myself back to the present, I glanced around to see what the others were doing. I realized Will was staring at me, concern and something that looked suspiciously like affection on his face. He must have been reading my expression because a moment later, he cleared the short gap between the two of us and pulled me into him.

Without thinking, as if I had done it a hundred times before, I leaned my head against his chest, closing my eyes for just a moment, long enough to get my bearings and start thinking straight again. I only gave myself a moment, then I took a deep breath and stepped away. Something stirred inside me as I stared at Will, something that I had been trying to deny for several days, but was becoming harder by the minute to disprove.

I pushed the feeling away. No matter what was going on in my head, none of it mattered right now. I could worry about it later.

Will’s brow furrowed as he contemplated. “I want to see if it really is just because of Kendra,” he said. “I don’t buy it for a minute, but the more we figure out why he won’t sell her, the more we’ll figure out his goals and how to stop him.”

“What are your thoughts?” Nolan asked.

He rubbed his chin as he paced back and forth. “The best option I can think of at the moment would be to see if you or Nolan could buy her.”

“That one guy knows what we look like,” Chris grunted, referring to Lucas.

Nolan looked almost offended as he stared at Chris. “You’ve got the master of disguise right here in front of you, and you’re worried about being recognized?” he asked, shaking his head. “Really, I can’t believe you.”

Chris sighed, letting out the faintest of groans. “Do we have to do wigs?”

“It really isn’t much fun without them,” Nolan said. He let out a theatrical sigh that almost made me laugh. “But I didn’t bring any, and I doubt there’s a store down here that sells disguises.” He gave a dismissive flap of the hand. “Ah, well. I’ll figure it out.”

Will glanced at me, sympathy and concern spreading across his face as he regarded me, as if he was trying to figure out just how all right I was. He must have seen the pain and anxiety still radiating through me because he turned to the other Gold Wolves.

“Give me some time with Kendra,” Will said.

“Yeah, of course. We’ve got to go grab a few things, anyway,” Nolan said cheerfully. His grin only seemed to grow wider when Chris gave yet another aggrieved sigh.

Will watched as they left. The second the door closed, he turned back to me.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“As okay as I can be,” I admitted, trying to force down the tears threatening to well in my eyes. I took another deep, shaky breath.

Without thinking, I found myself resting my forehead on his chest, taking comfort in his scent. A moment later, he started stroking my hair as one strong arm wrapped around me and held me close.

We stayed like that for I didn’t know how long. All I knew was that I didn’t want it to stop. His heartbeat was a soothing metronome. I focused on it, letting that sound block out the rest of my thoughts.

After a moment, he stepped back to hold me at arm’s length. “Look at me,” he ordered.

I did, and I was struck by how blue his eyes looked in that moment. Something about his expression made the words lodge in my throat so I couldn’t speak, only gaze up at him.

“We’re going to figure out what’s going on, and we’re going to stop Cain and get your sister back. I promise.”

“You can’t promise that,” I said, my voice tight. I desperately wanted to believe him, but all reason told me otherwise. Cain had my sister, and there was nothing we could do to save her.

“I’m promising it, anyway,” he growled. “And when I make a promise, I keep it.”

“Sure. Because it’s part of your mission,” I said. “Because it benefits that. You don’t know Morgan as a person. You don’t care about… You don’t…” I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. “Sorry,” I said. “I still appreciate it, even if the only reason you’re doing it is for your job.”

He hesitated, something flickering in his gaze that I couldn’t quite read. He stepped forward and took both my hands in his, entwining his fingers in mine, the touch electric.

“That’s part of it,” he confessed. “But not all of it. I know how much you care about your sister. I know if I were in your place, I would move heaven and earth to save her. And I want you to be happy. You deserve it after the hell you’ve been put through. And you won’t be happy until you know Morgan is safe. So I’m going to do everything in my power to save her and get her back to you.”

I don’t know what provoked it. Maybe I was tired of fighting my wolf, or maybe it was because I couldn’t lie to myself anymore, or maybe it was because I couldn’t reconcile the shifter in front of me with the one I had presumed he was when he won me. Probably, it was a combination of all those things and more. Regardless, the result was the same.

Throwing all caution to the wind, I pulled him against me until our bodies were flush and pressed my lips to his.

Will didn’t hesitate. With a primal growl, he wrapped his arms around me, hands holding my head in place as his lips claimed mine. One hand moved to my hair, tangling in it and holding me in place. Heat burned through my body, racing through me before settling between my legs. A hunger and need that I had been denying for days overwhelmed me, and I let myself melt against him.

In a few minutes, we would have to get back to the myriad of problems at hand. I knew that, and so did he. But for now, just for this moment, I would let myself go into the depths with him.