CHAPTER 1

Special Agent Damon Hunt raced around the street corner, chasing his prey even as his heartbeat thundered in his ears. Damon’s partner, Eli Blank, was just steps behind him. No damn way were they letting the killer escape.

The twisted bastard had already murdered four women in Arcadia Bay. Slashed their bodies. Torn out their throats. This nightmare was ending.

Damon would make it end.

The perp rushed into an alley.

"Dead end, ass**le."

The killer didn’t know the city, as well as Damon, did.

His hold tightened on his weapon, and he leapt right into the entrance of that narrow alleyway. “Freeze!” Damon roared. “I said Freeze!”

The perp—a man with long, shaggy, blond hair—was facing the brick wall that ended the alley. At Damon’s shout, the man did freeze, for all of about twenty seconds. Then he started laughing as he spun to face Damon and Eli.

“You humans are so out of your league,” the blond snarled. His hands were up, and, as Damon watched, the guy’s nails began to transform—

Into long, black claws.

The blond laughed again. “Just the two of you? This should be so easy.” His teeth were lengthening. Turning into sharp fangs. As Damon watched, the man’s face elongated. His bones snapped.

“Hell,” Eli muttered from behind Damon. “You were right. He’s a wolf.”

Damon smiled but didn’t take his eyes off the killer before him. “I told you, vamps would never waste that much blood.” Since Eli had just lost the bet, the guy owed him a hundred bucks. Damon knew his werewolves.

The blond seemed to realize that they weren’t exactly quaking in fear before him.

“What?” Damon asked, lifting a brow. “Is this the part where we’re supposed to act shocked because you can grow fur and howl at the moon?”

“You f**kin’—”

“Sorry,” Damon muttered, “but you’re hardly the first Para that we’ve taken down.” Actually, Damon and Eli were part of an elite unit that only hunted the paranormals in Arcadia Bay. The paranormals usually hid in plain sight, mostly managing to pass for humans.

Until they started to eat said humans. When the vampires and werewolves went bad and humans wound up as their prey of choice, well, that was when Damon came in.

Someone had to keep the humans safe.

Damon’s words seemed to enrage the werewolf before him. The guy’s lips peeled back, those teeth and claws were the weapons that had ended the lives of those four co-eds—and the fellow’s body stretched as the power of the shift flooded through him.

Damon kept his own body loose and ready. His gun was in his hand, but he wasn’t firing unless the werewolf attacked him. His orders were to take the werewolf in, not to kill him.

The werewolf’s elongated teeth snapped together.

"Like I haven’t seen all this shit before," Damon muttered

Unlike most humans, Damon knew the score of the supernaturals. He’d known the truth since he’d been a kid.

“Humans aren’t going to stop me!” The killer’s cry was guttural. “You can’t!” Fur bursted along his skin. He fell to the ground, his knees and palms hitting the cement. His eyes glowed. “You don’t have the power!” That last was more growl than human speech as the guy completed his shift…

And became a full-on wolf.

The wolf launched at Damon. 'Not coming in alive.' Damon’s fingers tightened around the trigger. He fired. Once. Twice.

The bullets stopped the werewolf cold.

“Silver, dumb ass,” Damon said with a sad shake of his head as smoke drifted from the wolf’s body. “It’ll stop your kind every time.” The fur slowly melted from the beast’s body. The bones reshaped. In death, the monster became a man again. Well, not completely a man. A werewolf still kept his fangs and claws at death.

“Nice shots,” Eli said, still from behind him.

Damon grunted. He kept his weapon up as he eased closer to the body. Lowering the gun at this point would be a rookie mistake. Paras weren’t like humans. Even if they looked dead, half the time, they weren’t. They’d keep coming and coming and coming, just like the monsters in scary movies. Only this wasn’t a movie.

The reality was scarier than the late-night horror shows.

“You hit him in the head,” Eli said as he slid closer. “Don’t worry, man, he’s gone. He’s—”

A growl sounded from the mouth of the alley. Damon spun around.

Too late.

It wasn’t just a lone werewolf they were hunting. He’d thought they were dealing with an isolated killer, a werewolf gone mad with bloodlust. That profile had been what the intel had shown him.

The intel was wrong.

Damon was gazing at a pack. Four other entirely shifted werewolves were at the front of that alley.

They were leaping for Eli. And Eli had put up his weapon already. Rookie mistake.

Damon rushed forward and shoved his partner to the side, barely dodging the claws of a werewolf. Damon aimed his gun and started firing. Again and again.

One wolf down. Another—

He felt teeth tear into his shoulder.

Into his neck.

He could smell the wild, woodsy scent of the beasts. His own blood. He could feel his blood, trailing down his neck, soaking his shirt.

His gun wasn’t firing. He’d used all the bullets.

More wolves were closing in…

Just as they’d closed in when he’d been four. When they’d killed his family.

When he’d lost everything but his life.

He hadn’t been able to see the wolves then, but he’d heard their snarls and his mother’s desperate cries. He could still hear those cries in his nightmares.

She hadn’t survived the attack.

He had.

Only this time, Damon knew he wouldn’t be so lucky.

Eli was screaming. The beasts were howling.

And Damon—he was pretty sure that he was dying.

***

“I’m so sorry, man.” Eli’s voice was shaking and miserable.

Damon opened his eyes. Pain knifed through him. Twisting. Gutting him.

He tried to move. Couldn’t.

Not because of the pain but because…because he was strapped down?

What the hell?

“I’m sorry,” Eli said again.

Damon’s gaze flew to the other man. Eli stood a few feet away, and the faint glow from a street light revealed the worn appearance of his face.

Why was Eli apologizing? They’d both made it out of that stinking alley, and, wonder of wonders, they were both actually still breathing. “You…owe me…” Damon managed.