Page 13

Chapter Thirteen

“M r. Clay, can I get a minute?” Loren said, smiling at Leticia broadly before returning her attention to Zephin Clay, our boss’s boss. “It won’t be long. I just need to get clearance for a sensitive issue regarding a case I’ve been covering. I’d like to go to Golden and do some more digging there, but I’d like the cooperation from your west coast offices.”

“Loren? Are you back from your family emergency?” I asked, sounding faint. I cleared my throat and tried to rally. It didn’t help that Cross was still publicly embracing me far too familiarly. Or maybe that did help, but I didn’t want it to.

Zephin Clay was the only one who seemed to notice the shocking physical contact between me and Cross, likely because he was the most elfish in the group. Except for Cross, which means that he realized how intimate he was being, and in public. I couldn’t push him away without it turning into a thing. The last thing I wanted was a scene in front of my boss’s boss.

Loren waved a hand airily. “Yes. That’s all cleared up now. Thanks for covering for me while I was gone, but seriously, a pack war? That’s what you got from that mess?” She gave me a pointed look and then shook her head, tsking.

“Well,” Leticia said, frowning at Loren. “You can’t expect a society reporter to do your job for you.” She sniffed and turned. “You two enjoy your evening. Don’t let business disturb either one of you.” She gave Cross a stern look before smiling at us both with that twinkle and leaving us alone once Mr. Clay and Loren had gone in the opposite direction.

I collapsed onto my chair while my brain threatened to explode. “Loren’s not dead.”

“Or she’s a reanimated corpse, or a golem, or a…”

I shoved a sushi roll into his open mouth because I couldn’t process any of that.

“No, that’s Loren, back on the case. Good. It’s not my problem anymore.” I started eating sushi. I’d almost forgotten how delicious sushi was to my werewolf. She wasn’t particular, but this sushi was absolutely the best you could get. I had no trouble eating the entire boat while Cross ate something else that looked almost as good, only vegan. He was an elf, after all, although I’d heard that night elves fed on the hearts of their enemies.

He was so handsome. No, handsome was the wrong term. He was more dynamic than that. My wolf wanted to lick him, taste him, take him somewhere dark and close and snuggle. Of course she did. From the beginning, when she’d started coming out of my skin, when she’d bitten him, it hadn’t been vengeful, more possessive. And now he was feeding her sushi, taking care of her, like he’d given me those hugs this morning and brought me yarn, to take care of my gnome. My elf was harder to win after she’d been betrayed and tortured by him. That’s what the real root of my hatred was, the elf. Elves don’t forgive easily. They don’t trust easily in the first place, but if you lose that trust, it’s gone forever. Not that I’d trusted the masked stranger, but I had liked the pretty elf. My elf had found him extremely compelling, which my friends had teased me about, because I was too shy to approach him, until the end, when Mr. Clay told me where he was.

Clay’s name seemed to come up a lot when I considered all the times I’d run into Cross. Was that really just a coincidence? He was an old friend of my father’s. Not that my father was close with any elves, but the thought of Zephin Clay turning me into a werewolf was beyond ludicrous. He was calculating and shrewd, as all elves were, but he wasn’t a psychopath.

“Are you finished already?” Cross asked, smiling at me warmly.

I stared at him blankly. How could he put on that warmth so easily? He was probably a psychopath.

I stood up. “Yes, thank you.”

He took my hand and swung it slightly, casually as we walked out, the eyes of everyone on us, including Leticia and Mr. Clay. He gave me a nod and a pointed look, reminding me of our meeting tomorrow.

“Do you want to go with me to Texas for a few days?” Cross asked. “Someone could cover for you while you work on your big exposé.”

I stopped while my heart pounded. A few days away from trying to not look like I wanted to stab Cross in public would be so great. Also good for my career. And getting away from corpses. “Yes. A few days out of town would be very nice.”

“You could skip your meeting with Clay.”

“Could I?” I glanced over at him. “Is he at odds with both of your identities or just the political one?”

“If you don’t want to smell like a werewolf, it would be better if you didn’t see him right away. Also, I have more than two identities, Miss Era.” He held the car door open for me and I climbed in, took out my knitting and tried to block out the rest of the world. My wolf wanted to curl up on Cross’s lap and snuggle. He’d fed me so beautifully. He deserved some appreciation. My elf wasn’t in the same mood. I didn’t appreciate his willingness to be objectified for my career. That made it far less satisfying. And I didn’t like him telling me that I shouldn’t see my boss. Of course, he was right, but it rankled.

“We could go tonight,” he said, glancing at his phone, then at me.

“Tonight? You’re joking.”

He gave me a slight smile. “The joys of having a private jet.”

I winced. “You want me out of town for a few days, or are you feeling the need to lie low?”

“I don’t like the way you were played, first the body and then Loren herself showing up like that. I don’t like how vulnerable you are here.”

I frowned at him. “But the only reason you agreed to be my protector was to capture this beast. If I’m vulnerable, I make a good target.”

His eyes narrowed and anger flashed in them. “On the contrary, Miss Era. I don’t throw away assets. Good targets only seem vulnerable, but must, in reality, be the strongest, most capable of us all. Even then, things go wrong, and bad things happen to those you’ve sworn to protect.”

“And you did swear to protect me in front of the Alta and all those people. Too bad.”

His lips twitched. “Yes, too bad. Henrick, airport,” he said with a slight smile as he looked at me. “I’ll make sure your clothing choices match my eyes.”

“My clothing doesn’t matter. I’m not the one being exposed.”

His smile became slightly more genuine. “But Miss Era, I only agree to opening up to the public if I’m protected by my committed relationship to the respectable society lady who can soften the assault.”

I stared at him, my heart sinking. “You won’t let me do an exposé?”

“Of course I will, but it has to be a couple’s story. Otherwise, no one would believe that you weren’t blackmailing me.”

“Or I could just make up whatever I liked.”

“Naturally, but the photos are what are going to sell it.” He held his phone out to me so I could see a picture of me and Cross together at the political event. I looked enchanting, confident, like a politician’s perfect wife at the side of the man who was looking down at me like I was his whole world.

I turned away from that nonsensical image. “Ah, the devoted husband. Another role you’re disgustingly adept at playing. Don’t you ever sicken yourself?”

“Every day. Husband? I’ll have to watch that, not look too respectable too quickly, or no one would believe it. Perhaps they would. We did know each other at school.”

“It was love at first sight,” I said drily.

“Absolutely. You were trying to bring the tiny sapling back to life after one of the careless boys fell over on it. Your magic was very beautiful.”

I blinked at him, my stomach lurching. It hurt for him to mention my magic so casually. I used to love plants like my brother loved cheese, and my magic had been part of me, like a limb I’d lost that when the wolf devoured me. “You mentioned it. Why would you bother remembering my magic?”

“I remember a lot of things,” he said with a flash of his violet eyes that made me want to stab him with my knitting needles. He remembered torturing me but still hadn’t bothered to apologize.

I wrinkled my adorable nose at him. “It must be quite unpleasant to be you.”

“Quite.” He smiled slightly and went back to his phone.

Somehow, I didn’t stab him.

The plane was small, but luxurious.

“Wow,” I said, looking around at the pale blue and polished wood that made it look like a fancy Elven parlor instead of a jet. “All I need is Lynx, and I’d be complete. Oh! We can’t leave the kitten,” I said, whirling around to face Cross, who was a step behind me. I backed up when I realized how close he was. He smelled so nice.

“Manny will bring her. You’re such a conscientious mistress.” He kissed my forehead while I blushed and sputtered.

“I’m not a mistress.” I pushed on his chest and felt the flex of his muscles before I pulled my hand away as if I was burned.

After that, I fell asleep on the plush couch while he gave me room, doing business on his phone and laptop while I let too much sushi and the movement of the plane lull me to sleep.

The helicopter to the sprawling Tex mansion was also more relaxing than what I got once we walked inside. People were everywhere, arranging lighting, getting ready for the photo shoot like this was a tv show.

I followed close behind Cross as he led me to a room down a long black-and-white checked hall, where a guy in a white lab coat was unzipping a familiar black body bag.

I grabbed Cross’s jacket and jerked him back. “What’s going on?”

“A few things,” he said easily. “Melville, this is Miss Era. She’s going to take notes while I do the autopsy.”

I stared at Cross, then at Melville, the cheerful blonde man. “Like Moby Dick?”

His smile brightened. “Exactly. If you’re doing it yourself, what would you like me to do, sir?”

“We need some dogs for the photoshoot. We’ll start first thing after we take care of business. Is Harold here?”

“He’ll be here tomorrow. If not tomorrow, the day after. I’ll go find some dogs. Nice golden retrievers?”

“No, something dark and dramatic that looks nice with my eyes. That’s the theme, you know.”

“I see.”

He left me with Cross and the body bag, which was unzipped so I could see the poor missing girl’s face.

“I think that Loren wanted to accompany her body back to Golden,” I whispered, unable to look away from that face.

“Yes, she did, but happily, we got it first. You don’t mind taking notes, do you?” he asked as he took off his jacket and pulled on a pair of plastic gloves.

I swallowed hard. The smell was not pleasant, but I wasn’t going to show him my weakness. “No, sir.” I sat down on a stool, pulled out my laptop, and opened a new document.

I looked up to find him studying me.

“Miss Era, your eyes are much lovelier than mine. Yours are the earth, bark fresh kissed by rain, and deep, rich, delicious chocolate.”

I stared at him, lost. “Beg your pardon?”

“Your eyes are so much lovelier than mine. You are much more appealing than I could ever be in absolutely every way.”

Okay, now I was really lost. “Did you hit your head? Hyacinth and wisteria, lilacs and violets, are all prettier than brown, Cross. Stop stalling. Let’s get this done so we can focus on the photoshoot.” Right? Because that was so much more important than dead girls.

“Some day, you are going to recognize your own brilliance.” He stuck a needle into her eye deep enough to get her brain.

I gasped and my stomach clenched, threatening to unleash the sushi boat. Ew. Ew. Ew. I was not enough of a werewolf to be okay with seeing that, hearing the soft suctioning of the needle, but he could do something so horrible after he gave me a clumsy compliment. He was definitely a psychopath.

He spoke with perfect calm. “I’ll begin with taking tissue samples. I want to see what they did to her before they killed her.”

“Good thinking,” I stuttered while my stomach flipped. I typed, ‘taking tissue samples,’ and then went into detail, noting every other place he extracted samples. Then, after he put all those little vials into an under counter refrigerator, he started cutting her up.

The scent wasn’t decomposition, but chemicals. She’d been treated with magic and something else before she was zipped into a body bag.

“What is that smell? I don’t remember that from biology class,” I said.

He inhaled and then bent over her eye and spread her pupil. “Excellent work noticing the peculiar scent, Miss Era. Would you mind taking that tray of samples out to Mel?”

I could leave? “Not at all, Senator,” I said and then hurriedly picked up the tray and walked out the door. I stopped just outside the room, because something about his inhale struck me as off. It was probably nothing, but… I put the tray carefully on the ground and then turned around and pushed open the door to find Cross beneath a very animated blonde, only her eyes were dead, face blank, but she was definitely killing Cross.

No one got to kill him except for me.

I shifted past the adorable wolf and straight to my beast in a confetti of my clothing. With one lunge and a powerful snap of my jaws, I bit off her head. If she wasn’t already dead, that would have done something, but as it was, I ripped off her arm next, then her knee, and after that, there was nothing but pieces left of her.

I pinned Cross against the counter, slobbering down at him, snapping my jaws and licking my teeth to try to get the flavor of the possessed girl out of my mouth.

“I need to analyze her remains,” Cross said with a slight smile on his beautiful face. And those eyes. I had to taste them.

I licked him, a long, slobbery licking that would hopefully clean all the dead girl off him. His eyes tasted like the rest of him, delicious. Carnations. Mine. After that, I turned and pounced on the dead girl, and then proceeded to show the remains just what I thought of them coming to life and touching my elf.

“Okay,” Cross said, face dripping with werewolf saliva while he stood there, kind of frozen in place. “I guess you’ll take care of her remains instead.”

The door burst open and Melville came in with three other people who stopped abruptly when they saw me. They weren’t afraid, but wary, and each pulled out a variety of weapons that would do a lot of damage. A big, bearded man moved through the others. When he saw me, he growled and nodded a greeting to me. Oh. He was a wolf.

“Harold. You’re early,” Cross said, still frozen and covered in slime.

Harold smiled at Cross before turning back to me. “Did you kill her well?”

I growled at him. “Already dead. Animated death is not killable.”

He raised his brows. “You’re very eloquent for a beast.”

I straightened slowly until I towered over him. I shook my head and shifted back to human, then stumbled into a counter while Cross stepped in front of me, shaking out a lab coat to wrap around me while he blocked me with his body so no one else would see me in my furless glory. I shook my head again while I put my arms through the sleeves. I’d been a werewolf for over fifteen years. Random nudity was just part of the glorious package, but I still wasn’t used to it, particularly other people seeing my beast. No, I made a point of keeping my wolf and beast under wraps. No one else ever got to see, but here in Cross’s compound, everyone knew what monster I had under my skin.

“Why don’t I show you to your room?” Cross said, pulling my coat closed and snapping it beneath my chin.

My teeth chattered as I said, “They let you take her. They set you up to be killed by that undead creature. Are you so delicate that a feeble zombie would kill you? No. So why bother?”

He frowned at me, sober, serious, the head of the world’s most dangerous order of secret assassins. “I don’t think they meant me to take the body. You’re right, it’s not an effective method of killing someone like me. Even if you hadn’t come back and so heroically rescued me, I would have been fine while I examined the evidence. They didn’t even plant an explosive in her.”

I took a step back while embarrassment washed over me. “The evidence. That’s what you’re doing, why you didn’t stop her right away. I destroyed evidence that you were trying to collect?” That’s the only reason he wouldn’t have destroyed the monster immediately. Of course it was. I really was an idiot.

He raised a brow, a moment of considering how to be polite and save my feelings without lying. “It would have been convenient to get answers out of her once I spelled her securely. I can often get answers out of animated dead, depending on what magic fuels them, but I’m not sure whether this would be one of those times.”

I swallowed hard while nausea churned in my belly. “Of course. My apologies for interfering with your business.”

“It’s not just my business. It’s yours as well. I should have told you what I was doing instead of sending you away without explanation. You’re too intelligent for that.”

I winced. If I were so intelligent, I wouldn’t have ripped apart a possible witness. I was so ashamed. I wanted to slink away under a bush and hide there forever. The yard had so many bushes, both around the house where everything was meticulously maintained and further out, where it blended into wild areas with a stream running through it. I couldn’t hide because we had to do a photo shoot. The house was set up, but Cross’s hair was still slicked back from my werewolf saliva. He also had several scratches from the dead girl.

“We’ll do the shoot tomorrow morning,” I said, edging away from him. “You should shower before you go to bed. For a very long time.”

He smiled but still looked puzzled as he gave me an elvish bow. “Tomorrow then. Thank you for your assistance, Miss Era.”

I left the room before I could burst into tears or something else equally embarrassing. My beast was out of control. Cross had so much Elven magic. Of course he’d be fine with the zombie girl. And if he wasn’t, why was that my problem? Maybe I couldn’t kill him, but did I have to protect him so stupidly? Yes, I did, and I hated myself for it. Everyone here was a killer, and so was I, if I wanted to be honest. I’d killed that wolf and his pack members. And that zombie girl. If she’d been a live human threatening Cross, I would have killed her then, too.

Didn’t I hate him? Yes. I was so angry at the monster who’d tortured me for so long, holding me so close while I buried my teeth into him. But at the same time, no one else had ever held me so tight, even if he was the one injecting me with agonizing substances that brought my skin back together again and again, he never left me through all of it. So maybe I also felt some gratitude. My wolf considered him hers to protect, to bathe in her noxious saliva until he drowned in her affection. Hopefully, he didn’t understand beast instincts, but what were the odds of a monster assassin not understanding something so basic?

I shook my head. My beast wasn’t me. He knew that.

“Miss Era?”

I turned to face the bearded wolf, who was looking at me with golden eyes and an impassive face. He had his wolf completely under his control, instincts locked and loaded.

“Yes? Harold, isn’t it?”

He nodded, but didn’t smile. He wasn’t the sort to smile, to exercise his facial muscles nearly as much as the senator. “I can direct you to your room if you’d like.”

I hesitated. “Actually, would you mind answering some questions?”

He stiffened up. “I’m not at liberty to disclose anything about our order.”

I smiled and shook my head. “Not about the order. Finally, someone sensible enough to not offer their services to assassinate somebody! It’s about being a werewolf. I’ve avoided werewolves for fifteen years since I got turned, except for that time I hunted down a pack and killed them all.” I winced. “Sorry, too much information. Anyway, I wondered if I could ask you some questions about controlling the beast.”

He nodded slightly. “I was also turned, but my mate helped me through the transition. You didn’t have anyone to help you?”

I shrugged. “Just Cross, but he didn’t stick around once I wasn’t actively turning. That is, he unlocked the cage, and I ran. I probably should have stopped to ask some questions, but I wasn’t in the right head space.”

He stared at me blankly for an extra beat before he blinked. “Cross thinks he knows everything because he can read, including transitioning a werewolf.”

“Well, it worked. I did transition, and for a half-gnome, I guess that’s something.”

He spoke slowly. “That’s something, all right. You want to know how to control the beast? In what way?”

“Every way,” I said, gesturing broadly. “In situations like that, with the dead girl attacking Cross, I need to be able to think through it, to hear Cross when he tells me he needs her alive before I rip her apart.”

He rubbed his thick beard. “Huh. Well, there’s no way to do that without actively training your beast in combat situations. Instincts will only take you so far, and they will always lose your fight for you against someone with control.”

I sighed as I thought of the Alta, handing me my patchy pelt. “Yeah. I definitely have that experience. I also need to be able to lose against someone I don’t want to displace. I don’t want to be the next Alta Manada.”

“No? I don’t blame you. One thing. If I train your beast in combat, you’ll also need magical training. That half-gnome, elf, you’ll need to work those pieces of you along with the beast, or the beast will end up being the dominant one in your triad.”

“Triad?”

He shrugged. “Training in the House of Mercy isn’t casual. You should think about it. Cross has time before the next political season, so you could spend it here, putting the pieces together while he does his real job, but you’ll have to talk to him about it. See whether he’s okay with you being trained in his House without being one of his soldiers. Unless you want to join…”

I stared at him, my stomach twisting at the thought of killing intentionally. I’d done that before, but it had been so futile. I’d killed the wrong wolf. Not that he wasn’t evil, but did he deserve to die?

“Right. That’s a good point. I guess I was thinking that it would be an easy five-minute lesson or something, but of course it would take more than that to get my beast in a rational state of mind.” I groaned and put my head in my hands. “I’m so stupid. Sorry.”

He exhaled a long breath and put a warm hand on my head. “Not stupid. Overwhelmed. Most people who come here for the first time are terrified. Instead of wasting time on fear, you’re asking to be trained. That’s smart.”

“Harold, what are you doing?” Cross asked, walking down the hall towards us, his frown directed at his hand on my head.

He patted my head again before he withdrew his hand. “Talk to him,” he said to me before he turned and walked away without answering his fearless leader. I watched him walk away and then had to look up at Cross, craning my neck annoyingly because he was standing too close to me.

“Talk to him?” Cross repeated, frowning at the top of my head which was so visible to him. He smelled like my beast, and she loved it.

I took two steps away from him. “Tomorrow at breakfast, if you don’t mind.”

He smiled sharply. “How mysterious. I will try not to force information out of Harold in the meantime.”

“I don’t know. Maybe he needs to practice resisting torture. You’re so good at it.” I turned and walked away, but the second I was around a corner, I shed the white coat and shifted into my adorable wolf, running down the hall and around legs until someone opened a door to outside, and then I leapt out, escaping my fate until tomorrow. Maybe I’d keep running and never stop. A humming let me know before I stuck my nose into the paralyzing invisible wards that surrounded the compound. I couldn’t escape unless I put some serious effort into it.

No. I was done running and hiding. I needed to master the beast, and I couldn’t do that unless I faced it.

In the morning, Henrick found me curled up under a bush, and after giving me some lovely sausages, he led me to my beautiful bedroom suite in cream and sky blue.

“Time to get ready for Photoshoot day.” He winked and wiggled his dark brows, sharp teeth white against his green skin.

It started in the breakfast room, which was all flocked paper and blue china, with the table tucked in a bow window that overlooked a pond. A swan glided by outside the window. No, this wasn’t ridiculously over-the-top at all.

“You didn’t sleep in a bed last night,” Cross said as he sat somewhere between a lounge and a sprawl, buttering an English muffin. He looked like an indolent Elven prince who knew how to relax, not manipulate countries from the shadows. I tried to focus on the swan instead of Cross, but he was even more ridiculously over-the-top than the live backdrop.

“This is what you eat for breakfast? Too generic. Henrick can do better,” I said, collapsing on the chair opposite him.

He reached over, grabbed my wrist, and pulled me around the table and onto his lap. I landed with a gasp while his strong hand slid up my back, pulling our bodies together until we were chest to chest.

“Time for your daily hug. If you protest, you can summon your beast to tell me all about it. I haven’t had a bath yet today. Why didn’t you sleep in a bed last night?” Cross asked, brows drawn together in disapproval.

“You didn’t sleep at all. Does it matter where I sleep?” I pushed against him while my heart beat faster, but his hands were very strong, and he wasn’t letting me go. I definitely wasn’t summoning my monster when she’d probably pin him down and show him affection even more clearly than yesterday.

“Your safety is my responsibility. That means that I need to know where you’re sleeping and that it’s secure.”

I sniffed. “Your entire compound is incredibly secure. I singed my whiskers on your ward. And this isn’t a hug, it’s a cuddle. Torturing yourself won’t make up for torturing me and…”

“Say cheese!”

I turned and got a flash in my eyes as Henrick took the photo. I shook my head. “Try again. This time, you’re trying to catch the moment when my adorableness starts to rub off on him. That’s the purpose of this photoshoot, to adorabalize Senator Silver.” Was it? I couldn’t remember anymore. What was the point of anything? No. I didn’t have time to be depressed today.

“That’s not a word,” Cross pointed out, but it wasn’t a persuasive argument.

I smiled adorably up at him and channeled the gnome. “If you want me in these, then it’s going to make me look like the world’s most marriageable mutt.”

“You aren’t…” Cross began, but I cut him off by stuffing a muffin in his mouth.

“Pictures, Henrick. We’re such an adorable couple, me trying to fatten him up, him trying to look gorgeous in the face of buttery carbs. Do you have it?” I looked over my shoulder at the goblin.

He nodded, but had a funny expression on his face. “I got it. Any other ideas of how to adorabalize the senator?”

“Later, we’ll go to the local yarn store and bury him in yarn while I look poignant. Then I’ll teach him how to knit. He’ll need to learn to knit, because otherwise, he’ll never wear another shirt. That reminds me. Do the photo again, but this time, without a shirt. You can doctor the pics to get rid of his scars.” I started unbuttoning Cross’s white shirt.

He stared at me while my hands trembled, but I ignored them. “This feels like vengeance, only twisted beyond recognition by your inability to be unkind.”

I frowned at the buttons. “I’m sure if I spend enough time with you, your influence will assure my eventual success.”

“I apologize. I should have told you that I stole the body instead of surprising you with it. I thought you’d be pleased, but I didn’t take into consideration your delicate nature.”

He apologized for that, but not the torture? “I’m not delicate,” I snarled as I finally ripped the shirt open because the buttons weren’t working.

He pursed his soft lips while his chest flexed beneath fresh scars and still-healing wounds. Why was he so broad and muscular? “I’ve seen your wolf. Just because you have a vicious beast that can rend someone limb from limb doesn’t mean that parts of you aren’t equally as delicate.”

Delicate? I could kill someone with that wolf as well as the beast. It’s because I looked so harmless that made me so dangerous. I snuggled into him and tangled my fingers in his hair. “Picture, Henrick. I want lots of options when I decide which direction to take this ridiculous farce. Cross, I want to train my beast in the House of Mercy without becoming affiliated. Is that possible?”

The camera flashed again and again, while my heart ached, my stomach churned, and I deeply regretted my life choices.

He cleared his throat. “Train your beast?”

“Also, my elf and my gnome. The triad must be balanced, I always say. Harold said I needed your permission, like you’re in charge or something.”

“Mm. Or something. It will take time to bring back your Elven magic.”

I winced. Thinking about what I lost hurt. “It’s not possible.”

“Of course it’s possible. You’d have to garden with me.”

I pulled away, staring at him in horror. “You didn’t say no.”

He smiled, and it was a horribly smug smile that made me wish I could stab him with a million knitting needles. “I am delighted by the prospect. Hm. Who can we bring in to train your gnomish side? I know just the gnome. He’s an outcast, as all members of my order are, so you’ll have to put up with his rudeness.”

“Perfect. Another outcast gnome. You’ll have to split your time between hugging me and him, for our mental health, naturally. I’d offer to hug him, but no way I’m putting another gnome in close contact with my wolf.”

“Your wolf isn’t contagious,” he said, although he started frowning. “Still, for the sake of safety, I should be the one to give you hug therapy. He’s the reason I know hugging is so essential. He’s completely hardened to all physical contact and will cut off your nose if you try. It’s too late for him.”

“I’m sure if you are more persistent…”

He shook his head. “On second thought, without affiliation won’t work. It’ll take months to train sufficiently for your beast to be under control, and in that time, you’ll be familiar with my members. I was going to put a spell on you after we spent a few days here, so you’d forget faces, names, scents, etc. but after months of familiarity, the spell would be stronger and have dangerous side-effects.”

I stared at him, my mouth agape. “You were going to put me under a spell that messes with my brain, and you only just mentioned it?”

He gave me a beatific smile and put a muffin in my mouth. “I trust you with my secret identities, but my associates are under my protection.”

I chewed the delicious thing, hot blueberries bursting on my tongue. “I guess that’s out then. Too bad. I was really looking forward to gardening with you.” I rolled my eyes. It was a stupid idea in the first place.

“We have members of the house that aren’t assassins. Some report to me about societies that they’re close to.”

“You mean spies? You’d want me to spy for you? I’m a society reporter. I report everything I learn to the public. And I don’t affiliate with any secret societies or members…” I’d been living in Singsong City for a long time. I’d been there through the dark days when the Undercity was run by demons, and more recent when the real estate prices shot up when all the elite wealthy moved back. I knew everyone in polite society, and I knew that a lot of them had secrets. I didn’t go looking for anything that wasn’t polite, because that wasn’t my job, specifically because I didn’t want anyone to uncover my secrets, but they were there.

He squeezed my hand. “Miss Era, you are closer to Clay than anyone else I can think of. I have been curious for some time about what secret societies he dabbles in. Then there’s Leticia Marin. Did you know that her nephew is a mafia boss in Apple City? What events is she orchestrating behind those lovely garden parties?”

I gaped at him. “Keep Leticia out of this. You’re suspicious of everyone.”

He brushed my nose with his, sending a shiver of awareness through me. For a moment it struck me, how close I was being held by the strong, sensationally delicious elf of my dreams. Why didn’t I hate that more?

“I am suspicious of exactly the number of people who are suspicious. Do you agree to be allied to the House of Mercy as long as I am its head?”

I bristled and crossed my arms, sitting up so I was barely perched on his knees instead of being sprawled on him, surrounded by his muscular arms. “If I don’t agree, you’re going to spell my mind?”

His violet eyes glimmered. “Yes.”

“That’s not much of a choice.”

“You won’t remember what you forgot.”

I pushed on his chest, but his pectorals flexed under my palms and I pulled them back like I’d been burnt. “I don’t want to spy on my friends.”

“If you weren’t a spy, but you became aware of a situation where someone was going to do something that would harm innocent people, would you report it? Of course you would. You wouldn’t even let Zephin Clay, close family friend, get away with torturing kittens.”

“So I’d just live my regular life, only report to you if I happen to stumble on a drug ring?”

He smiled. “Think how fun that will be. We’ll go to political parties and then afterwards we can talk about everyone there, who talked to who, who was allergic to shellfish, who seemed suddenly more than comfortably wealthy, like they’d just gotten a fresh infusion of illegal funds.”

“Illegal funds? I thought you were only interested in hunting monsters.”

“So it’s settled then. I’ll arrange the usual bindings after breakfast.” He gave me a blinding smile that made me feel like I was falling off the edge of a cliff. No, like he’d pushed me off the edge of a cliff.