CHAPTER 4

Ryan Thompson, wait one minute," Ethan Blackwood said without lifting his gaze.

His head engineer froze mid-turn, half-out-of-his-chair with a comical look of confusion. The rest of the team, already halfway out the door, glanced back, their gazes filled with a mix of sympathy and relief that it wasn't them. Ryan swallowed hard before easing back into his seat.

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad.” The soft tone felt like a lie, and his wolf bristled, hating the weakness in his own voice. “I was hoping to get some fresh eyes on a potential situation.”

Ryan’s shoulders sagged in relief. “I’m here to help, sir.”

Ethan pushed back from the table and rose, his eyes drifting out the window to the distant green rectangle of Prospect Park. It always calmed the wolf, the sight of wildness and open space.

“We’ve been approached by an unusual party interested in our new system.”

“Okay, I don't know what you want me to do.” Ryan's incredulous tone was a solid, grounding presence in the room, and Ethan turned away from the window, back to the meeting. "Who is the unusual party?"

"The Holy See."

Ryan’s eyebrows shot up. "The church? That doesn't make sense. Why would they need facial recognition tracking?"

"That's the same question I have. It's also what I'd like you to find out, if you can." Ethan's gaze bore down on the lanky man. "Could you investigate?"

"Can't make no guarantees, sir, but I'll do my best." Ryan bit his lip, already scowling as he considered the problem. "I'll get on it right away."

"Good." Ethan nodded. "Keep it under wraps."

Ryan mimed zipping his lips and locking the key before heading out. Ethan stared back out the window, his mind racing. He was still trying to calm himself, to get a handle on the wolf’s restlessness, when his assistant opened the door behind him.

“Mr. Blackwood, I have Mr. Langley on line four,” she whispered, her perfume a gentle wave he could almost ignore. "Would you like it sent here, or taken back to your office?"

“Here will be okay,” he replied without turning around.

He took a slow, deliberate breath. Victor Langley. The money man. The primary investor who funded this entire project. Victor’s call might not have anything to do with the Holy See, but Ethan had to be ready. Business was not something animals could understand, and his wolf was irritated at the necessary glad-handing.

He picked up the phone. "Victor Langley, hope everything's all right," he said, forcing his salesman voice, a practiced performance that grated on his own nerves.

“Absolutely. I’m really looking forward to that demonstration next month,” Victor’s gregarious voice answered. Ethan knew it was fake, just like the rest of him. "I've got a couple of ex-girlfriends I'd love to find."

"We are on schedule." The wolf growled in his chest at the casual cruelty. As if he didn't already have enough doubt about the system. He'd already misused it to find her, he thought. But at least he wasn't a psychopath like Victor Langley, who would steal from a dying person before offering them a drink. He’d recognized Victor’s scent the first time they’d met—the scent of nothing, of pretense. Victor faked his emotions, his reactions, all of it. A true sociopath. It might have fooled others, but it didn't fool a wolf’s nose.

“Fan-fucking-tastic, my man. That father I interviewed at the archdiocese benefit called me today."

Ethan blinked slowly, taking another deep breath to calm the wolf’s rising fury. “What did the good Father want?”

“The Holy See wants the program up and running. He suggested they might want the system for all of their properties.” Victor feigned a laugh, a hollow sound. "You know how many hospitals, schools, and churches they own? It’s in the mid-six figures, Wikipedia states. And they’re wealthy. They could be our biggest client, even bigger than the federal government.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Ethan growled, his voice dropping an octave before he could temper it. "There are dozens of cheaper facial recognition systems available. They don't need the additional bells and whistles."

"Who cares, as long as they pay?" Victor said, echoing his own earlier words. “They need to see it to buy it. The Father's sending one of his men to confirm it and make sure it will work for them. He’ll be there tomorrow. He said this person will oversee the production for the church.”

The phone receiver snapped in Ethan’s fingers when he clenched it too hard. He fought the urge to throw it across the room. He had to glad-hand this son of a bitch because he funded the project, but that didn't give him the right to bring in free agents without permission. Still, maybe he could extract some information out of whoever they sent. He needed to know what the Holy See was really after. They were the ones who had tracked down the monster that killed her parents, the ones who had trained her. He needed to find out if she had been hunting his people because of her own trauma, or if the church was giving the orders.

“I’ve got to go. My flight is about to depart, and the stewardess is shooting me the stink-eye. You know this is my flight, woman?” Victor’s voice came from away from the phone. "Keep me posted."

The line clicked. Ethan let the receiver drop to the base and stared out at the park. A single squirrel scampered up a tree, and he watched its jerky, frantic movements. How many times could he do this, with a churchman nosing about?

His eyes widened. Tomorrow. A churchman from the Holy See, armed with a hidden agenda. He had been so focused on finding her, on understanding her, on controlling his own instincts, that he had missed the bigger picture. She wasn’t just a huntress—she was a weapon, and the church that made her was now coming to his door. He had a brief, painful flash of her in the alley, a glint of silver in her hand as the other shifter fell to the ground. She was a walking, talking contradiction, a living weapon in the hands of his enemies. He needed to be ready, and he didn’t know how.