Cooper felt a chill stiffen his spine, whether from the contemptuous and slightly spooky way Alice spoke of Ryan or the sudden, unexpected steadiness of her gaze, he wasn’t sure. “Well, maybe so. But I didn’t, you know, pull on you,” he said finally.

Alice huffed again. “Call it what you will. But I felt the weight of your power in the room of carcasses when you took hold of my throat and then protected your mate. I felt it again right here in the zoo when I’d given up all hope of fighting off the poison in time.”

She extended her arms in front of her, and Cooper was surprised and a little enthralled by the inhuman shapes of her hands—digits stubbed to the first knuckle, long black claws and no visible thumbs. “We would have died if you hadn’t pulled our wolves to waking.”

He shook his head, tearing his eyes away from the way her finger bones were growing long like plants in search of sunlight. “You saved yourselves. You and Eli’s abilities. And Ms. Hirano. All I did was kick the bastard while he was down.”

Alice scrunched her nose in perplexed-looking amusement, and Cooper could swear the whole damn thing moved a fraction down her face. When it smoothed again, she looked like a vaguely related but entirely different person. “Your mate was so weak under the paralytic’s hold he couldn’t slip on a banana peel. But your words still called forth his claws.”

Her lightly glowing eyes flicked pointedly to the blood on the back of Cooper’s hand and the long but shallow cut where Park had accidentally gouged him—a distinct crescent shape running directly under his wedding ring. “You don’t need to hide from me. Like I said, I will keep your secrets.”

“I’m not—”

A squeaking, rattling sound broke the still dawn air, and Cooper looked toward the building they’d been caged in to see a stretcher with a full, black body bag being wheeled out the front door, where the medical bay was, where he’d directed the agents to find Neil.

Cooper’s breath caught. He had the sudden urge to run over there and open the bag so he could see his ex’s face one last time. Not because of any unrealized love or grief or closure. But because in a way, he’d already begun to forget what Neil looked like. There were too many conflicting memories. Too many secrets come to light that cast long, distorting shadows.