"Did you want to stay longer?" The repressed hunger in his voice snagged at her heart.

He had his freedom now.

He could go anywhere.

"Are you sure this is what you want?"

"No." Jackson moved closer, narrowing the space between them until only they existed. "Want is too tame of a word."

Raven's spirits plummeted then rose so quickly, she was left light-headed. He wanted her to claim him. To have a man like Jackson select her, after she had nothing for so long, made her feel precious.

"I'm sorry for the interruption, but Raven, may I speak with you in private?" Raven whirled, having so completely fallen under Jackson's spell, she'd forgotten they were in public. It took her frazzled mind a few seconds to recognize Durant.

Then she slammed back to earth with a nasty thump as their surroundings intruded. Trouble brewed in Durant's eyes. When she looked back at Jackson, Durant held out his hand. "It's important."

His agitation ate away at her composed. Beneath the surface, his cat twitched, his eyes glowed before ruthlessly repressing both. Something disturbed him so thoroughly it broke through his phenomenal control.

"Go. This can wait. I have no intention of going anywhere."

Raven squeezed Jackson's arm, still hesitant to leave. This wouldn't be like last time. Jackson would be waiting for her when she returned.

Durant had no such qualms. At Jackson's permission, he snatched her hand and dragged her into the crowd.

The atmosphere of the club had changed, harsh whispers pricked her ears.

Piercing stares were directed her way.

Some judging, others suspicious.

"What's going on?"

"You need to see this." His grip tightened painfully. "Be careful. They want someone to blame. Don't let them corner you into anything."

"Blame?" Then she smelled it.

Blood and a lot of it.

No longer needing to be pulled, she shoved her way to the front. People parted reluctantly.

The council members stood outside of the bathroom. The unnerving part, they stopped talking the instant she came into view.

It only took a quick glance into the red-washed room to know what had happened. Raven cursed her luck to have a woman die at the conclave. Bad enough the death was brought here but female shifters were considered sacred.

No one could allow the murders to go unanswered any longer.

Blood dripped from the ceiling. Pulp slid down the walls. There were no signs of clothes except for a few scattered pieces of a skirt. Raven couldn't smell the blood anymore over the raw scent of meat and bile.

"Lock down the club. Don't let anyone leave. Detain anyone who tries."

"This is the case you've been working on?" Durant sounded appalled.

The older wolf on the council inhaled sharply, his eye gone yellow. "And you brought this here."

Raven narrowed her eyes, offended by the implications. "Of course not. I warned the council that this could happen."

"Well, you didn't do a very good job stopping it, did you?" The old man bared his teeth, completely convinced she should be held responsible.

Donaldson raised his hand. "Now you have our complete attention."

That was so not what a person wanted to hear from the leader of the conclave. "There is a new drug on the market, a twin of the one out a few weeks ago. This one allows a shifter the characteristics of an alpha."

"Impossible." The wolf looked down his nose at her, dismissing her without bothering to listen to proof. The old curmudgeon.

"But the drug reacts to some shifters," she nodded to the bathroom, "that way."

"Why would she take the drug?" Donaldson sounded skeptical. "Females have their own power. Being an alpha for a few hours won't gain her any standing in the pack."

Only one reason came to mind.

"A mate." Raven whispered the revelation, staring into the small room. A shattered mirror littered the room like diamonds shining amongst the gore. She made no move to enter. "I'll need to call the cops."

"We have our own ways to handle these things." The cat leaned against the wall, but there was nothing lazy in his pose. She had no doubt that he would love to be one of the people to hunt for the killer.

Anger simmered in her gut. "This could've been prevented if anyone had bothered to listen sooner. As much as I want to agree with you, this is not something that we can just pretend never happened. The police-"

"Don't know our ways. They will turn this around and blame us." The vampire's eyes had washed black, but she didn't think it had anything to do with the large quantity of blood pooling on the floor so near.

"The council had their chance. You voted for the new force. How will it look when it's discovered that you didn't let them do their job? You will ruin any future chance for humans and paranormals to work together."

"Do they treat you as an equal? Do they give you the resources to extract our justice or their own sense of it?" The cat slowly straightened, retribution battling his alpha duties to do what was best for his people.

Raven couldn't argue with what they said. Not when she was having the same doubts. "We have to give their way a try first, and that means I'm bound by the law to report this crime. I'll minimize human interaction as much as I'm able."

"Do you really think they will try to find the killers since the crimes are only perpetrated against shifters?" Donaldson appeared honestly curious, his expression grim.

"A human was killed-"

"My understanding was her being there was an instance of wrong place, wrong time." Like the human's death was just incidental.

Raven continued as if the older wolf never interrupted her, hating that they sorted the importance of death by race when death, itself, should be the focus. They were no better than the humans. "I have every intention of hunting down the criminal and bringing him to justice any way I can. It's either me or some human. Your choice."

Donaldson held up his hand when the other two would have continued arguing. "We thank you for all your work. We'll add our own services to you as well in support."

A shiver of apprehension tightened her gut, already knowing she wouldn't like what he had to say.

"Randolph will accompany you."

"The police will object." She just wished she could as well. Now that she was an alpha, she was part of the shifter world. That meant she must conform to their dictates.

He waved away her comment as if her protests were no concern of his. "Then you and he will have to make sure that it doesn't become a problem."

As if calling his name had summoned him, Randolph appeared at her side with a bland smile. The non-descript man shouldn't have made her flesh crawl, but she knew what lurked beneath his benign surface.

A stone-cold killer that enjoyed his job a little too much.

And he was her partner.

A headache began to pound at the base of her skull. Once an order was given, no matter how couched in pleasantries, there was nothing she could do to change it.

Aligned with them for one day and already her whole world had altered. If she didn't follow their decree, she wondered if they had the power to revoke her status or if they would devise of another way to make her pay.

She grabbed her phone and headed toward Durant's office for privacy. The phone call to Scotts went about what she could've expected.

Wanting to keep as much distance between the normals and shifters as possible, she entered into the club with the mind to clear as many of them of suspicion before reinforcements arrived. The music had stopped. Durant's men had prevented anyone from leaving. Most of the shifters were seated or standing by their alphas. They all held themselves rigid, expressions grave as they mourned the loss to the pack.

Thank goodness the kids and their sponsors had already left for the cresting. That only left her with about a hundred people to question.

She didn't need to whistle to get everyone's attention because all eyes were already glued to her.

No one even blinked.

Creepy.

Whatever anonymity she'd managed to retain all these years was well and truly gone.

"Does anyone know the victim?"

No one answered.

"We know that she is a shifter. She was female."

Still no answer. Damned stubborn shifters. The council's gaze landed on her like a weight, casting judgment and found her lacking.

Raven refused to concede defeat so easily. She gathered a small cord of energy, wrested it from her creature in a game of tug-of-war that left her chest burning in agony. She released a small burst into the room, praying they mistook her power as her alpha ability.

A few vampires jerked straight when hit with the power, their eyes washing black. The shifters reacted differently. The alphas pushed back, the ones strong enough to protect those with them.

A few snarls erupted in the room at her heavy-handed method, but a wild response from one shifter made him stand out from the rest. "You."

The male, who couldn't be more than twenty-five, stood half-hidden in the shadows of a curtain. "You knew this girl. What's your name?"

The atmosphere in the room took on a decidedly deadly overtone as everyone turned toward the kid, the threat making the air in the room thick to breathe. When the man stepped forward, she'd half expected him to be a rogue, maybe even feral.

"My name's Neil. We came together." Then the shifter raised his chin. "She wanted to put in a claim for me before the conclave adjourned for the night."

Then the last thing he would've wanted was to harm her. But that just brought out more questions. "What brought you here? She only needed her alpha's permission."

"I-"

Then things clicked into place. "Your pack denied the union."

The shifter's composure crumbled, the stench of his grief crashing into her. "I told her we could go on the way we were, but she wanted a mate all to her own."

"So you got the drug for her."

"The rogue assured us it would be safe. Otherwise, I would've never let her try it." Pale and shaky, the man looked ill himself.

"She was only supposed to take one hit, but she took them all." His voice wobbled, still shaken by the loss, and he spoke faster. "It worked, but after a while, she began to get sick."

With each word, the room took on a darker tone. The mood turned volatile when a couple shifters rose and slowly closed in on the boy.

In reply, the kid bowed his head.

He had no intention of defending himself.

Alarmed, Raven placed herself between them. "Halt! Do not harm him. We need him to find where the drugs are manufactured. It could lead us to who is killing shifters."

One large lion cracked his knuckles, sounding like he'd crushed all the bones of his hands. "I'll make him talk."

Raven scraped every bit of electricity she had to spare to surface until the air around her crackled with static. It was pathetically little, but thankfully, enough. The shifter's eyes didn't just splinter, but changed to pure yellow.

They stared at each other.

Just when she thought he would lunge, he gave a slight bow with his head. He conceded dominance and backed away. The rest of the room grew so quiet, she could all but hear their heartbeats.

Shivering at the attention she'd brought onto herself, she turned toward the young shifter. "Who is your contact for the drug?"

Instead of being pleased at her interference, the man appeared bitter at being spared. "No one, mistress. I was told to meet them and was given directions."

Raven narrowed her eyes. "Then you will show us where you picked up the drug, and we'll track them."

It wasn't a question. He nodded, and his face hardened. "As you wish."

The rest of the shifters seemed appeased, their grumblings at her interference diminished. At the pause, sirens could be heard in the distance. She had not doubt if the police didn't solve this case tonight, many shifters would take it upon themselves to protect their packs in any way necessary.

It would be a blood bath.

With a sigh, Raven rubbed her brow. This was going to be a long night. "Anyone who does not want to be present for the police, I suggest you leave now."

Almost everyone stood. Some rushed toward the exits, while others leisurely rose to their feet and departed. But in minutes, the room was emptied of all but a fraction of people, mostly workers and those in charge.

Scotts was the first to enter the club, the door having been propped open for them. He gazed around cautiously, his hand on his service revolver. When he spotted her, he gave a nod and continued to step the room.

"The body is in the bathroom." Three people entered behind him, one cop and two forensics with their collection kits. "If you're ready, I'll lead the way."

They remained in the bathroom for nearly two hours, scraping samples from every surface. Scotts had hardly said a word since entering. The strain on their relationship pricked at her nerves. "What is your problem? I'm either a cop or I'm not. Are you pissed that I did my job? I want to make sure I understand."

"We're supposed to be partners." His voice exploded out of him in a harsh whisper. "You shared more information with me when you were a consultant."