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Though through my enhanced senses, I could tell that the upcoming full moon was making his beastly side more powerful, leaking into his human emotions, making him more unpredictable.

“Never a problem for me, Officer.” I winked at him. I was intentionally trying to trigger him, which was part of the fun for me. Probably cruel, since the poor fuck didn’t know he was a werewolf yet likely had a whole bunch of subhuman impulses writhing around inside him while he tried to clutch on to the veneer of respectability.

“You trying to insinuate to me that you regularly break and enter, Agent?” His question came through gritted teeth. Even though my details checked out, he seemed to know I wasn’t an FBI agent, seething with a lack of ability to prove it.

I shrugged. “Don’t we gotta occasionally break some rules to get the bad guy?”

“No.” He didn’t smile. “We don’t break the rules. That’s what separates us from the bad guys.”

I laughed at the conviction in his voice. “Oh, how nice it would be to live in the black and white. If you haven’t noticed, Hadley and I reside firmly in the grey.”

I watched his whole form shake, almost ripple as I spoke about me and Hadley in an intimate sense, yet again reminding him of who she was to me and who she wasn’t to him.

“Whatever shit you’re in, you keep Hadley out of it,” he growled.

I laughed again. “You think that I’m the one dragging Hadley into trouble?” I shook my head. “She’s a big girl, gets into all sorts of trouble all on her own. She has been very vocal about not needing me for that. Speaking of…” I grabbed my phone from my pocket. I frowned when I saw that I had no calls from Hadley—not that I’d expected one. I doubted she’d ever voluntarily call me.

But I was late, which meant she was later.

Hadley was not known to be punctual. In fact, it was probably her plan to make me wait for her just to get her kicks.

It made sense.

Except something pinching the back of my neck told me that wasn’t the case. Something deep, visceral, and ancient told me that Hadley was in trouble. Good thing I’d installed a tracker on her car the first day I rode into town.

I tapped into my tracking app, confused about the location. The town was small, by my standards, but I wasn’t entirely familiar with the layout nor the location a few streets away from the morgue.

“Do you know where this is?” I turned the screen to show Colton.

He glared at me before gazing down at the phone. “I think that’s Shay Finkley’s house,” he replied, the skin between his eyes creasing.

His own phone buzzed in his pocket. I impatiently watched as he took it out, read the display, then quickly canceled the call.

“Shay Finkley?” I questioned, the name tickling some half-formed hunch at the back of my brain. “The coroner?”

He nodded. “Why do you have that location up?”

My mind turned as I remembered Hadley’s handful of interactions with the woman. The woman at every crime scene, with access to all the dead bodies she could ever want. “Because that’s where Hadley is currently.”

Colton’s lips thinned. “You’re tracking Hadley? Does she know you’re doing that?”

I laughed, though it was forced. “I’m still breathing, so no.”

My gut churned as I thought about the coroner. I’d done my due diligence on her, as I had everyone in and around law enforcement—they were a good first port of call in these situations. Good people to charm, to blackmail, threaten, bribe.

She had been easily forgotten, been there since high school, no red flags. I knew that Hadley had been spending time with her, the only one of her old high school friends she had bothered to.

I trusted Hadley’s instincts, yet now my own were sounding the alarm.

“Why are you tracking Hadley?” Colton’s neck was corded with tension. “What the fuck is going on?” I could feel the patience running out of his tone like water draining from a tub. As if he’d had much patience with me in the first place.

“What do you know about Shay Finkley?” I countered.

His nostrils flared, and I could see him battling his need to control the situation, get answers. But he must’ve noted some kind of urgency in my voice as he got control of his baser impulses. Impressive. Wait until the full moon, that would go to shit. Hopefully, I wouldn’t be here to witness that.

He rested his hands on his hips, palming his gun, which I knew was intentional. Standard posturing. Annoying.

“Why are you asking me this?”