Watch Me Burn (Watched in Darkness #2)

Chapter 1

Chapter one

Luna

“Ican’t believe I let you talk me into this. Again.”

Maren huffs beside me as we make our way over the last foothill behind the sanctuary. Shadow and Ghost run around us, roughhousing. Shadow’s gray coat gleams in the morning light while Ghost’s silver-white fur catches the sun. At least they like hiking with me.

The house comes into view first, followed by the main sanctuary building, then the barn, and the wolf enclosure at the edge. The sight never fails to take my breath away. I still have to pinch myself sometimes to believe it’s real. That this beautiful place is mine.

In less than five years, I’ve built the property my grandfather left me into a haven for injured animals, where I can treat and heal the creatures I love so much. I channeled the heartbreak of losing him into something positive, meaningful, and worthy of his memory.

“Stop your complaining. Breathe the Colorado mountain air, look at the scenery. Soak it up before winter locks everything down.”

“Winter’s already fucking us up the ass.”

She kicks at a clump of dead grass jutting through the thin layer of snow.

We had a decent storm three nights ago and another dusting last night, but daytime temperatures keep melting it back to bare patches.

By now, we should be knee-deep in powder.

Instead, it’s early November, and we can count the actual storms on one hand.

The drought that started three years ago has become the new normal.

I adjust the small pack on my shoulders. I never hike these mountains without a stash of provisions, including bear spray, a taser, and an emergency first aid kit. These hills are too dangerous to be unprepared.

“You love winter as much as I do.”

Maren makes a disgusted sound in her throat.

“You’re the only person on the planet I’d let get me up at the ass crack of dawn to traipse around the snowy, muddy foothills around your property.

” She takes a swig from her water bottle.

“And the only reason I did is because you ignored all my texts last night about how dinner with Mr. Billionaire Sexy Pants went.”

“Can you stop calling him that? I don’t care how much money he has.”

“But it never hurts when a man has more money than God.” Her eyes narrow as she studies my face. “We’ve been hiking for almost an hour, and you’re still dodging the subject. What’s wrong? Tongue tired from putting it to work? Bet you’re wishing you’d taken those handcuffs I offered, right?”

I’ve tried to put dinner and Damien’s kiss out of my mind all morning, but the hike has given me too much time to think.

That’s why I wanted Maren to come with me.

Her nonstop chatter was supposed to be my mental lifeline so I could avoid thinking about it, but in all honesty, my mind has been more on my wolf than on Damien.

He left me wrecked last night. Every step emphasizes the aches he left behind. Yet more than the soreness, it’s his tenderness I keep replaying, the unexpected gentleness, a side of him I never thought I’d experience, that has left me raw.

All I’ve ever wanted is the weight of him, the connection that comes from having another person’s naked body pressed against your own, that goes beyond slick skin and gasping breath. The part of sex that elevates it beyond just the physical aspects and turns it into something sacred.

Almost everything we’ve had, everything we’ve done, has always been primal. Need and heat dragging us together in the dark. But somewhere along the way, I’ve come to crave more than just rough possession and his hips driving into mine with an urgent, punishing rhythm.

My wolf left me sated, as always, my body bearing his marks both inside and out. One round instead of our usual three or four, yet I’m more exhausted than ever today. And this fatigue isn’t so much in my body as in my mind, because something changed last night.

Something shifted. For the first time, it felt like more than fucking. It felt like he wanted more from me than just our mutual orgasms. My skin still tingles where his body just grazed mine with the lightest touch, like a brand I can’t escape. It’s all I’ve wanted for so long.

That and his kiss.

If only he’d kissed me, everything would have been perfect.

I just want to taste him, the salt of him, the brush of his tongue, the moment when desire and tenderness collide.

He could have left his mask on. As much as I yearn to unmask him, I’d trade the secret of his face for that single taste of his mouth claiming mine.

Instead, he left me with the soft ghost of his body hovering just above mine, like a promise dangling just out of reach.

Now I’m caught between hope and fear. Hope that last night meant he’s capable of tenderness, that maybe, just maybe, we might be able to have more.

And fear that I’m reading too much into a single moment of softness, because once I felt that shift from pure hunger to something deeper, I couldn’t pretend it didn’t happen.

Shadow bounds up to me, pressing his nose against my free hand, and I scratch behind his ears.

Ghost hangs back, still cautious despite months of patient rehabilitation.

He’s come so far from the broken hybrid I first met, even so much as putting himself between me and Caleb last night.

But wariness still lives in every line of his body.

He’s getting better, trusting me enough to stay close, but he still watches everything with cautious, hesitant intelligence.

“Hello? Earth to Luna.”

Maren taps her foot against a patch of snow, waiting. My thoughts have wandered again, pulled into the quiet space where my mind goes more often now.

“What?”

“How was dinner with your rich-as-fuck hottie neighbor?”

I ignore her latest money comment. She doesn’t care about his bank account. She just likes getting a rise out of me.

“It was nice.”

“Nice?” Her voice goes up. “No. You are not using the word ‘nice’ right now. I want details. And there better be some dirty ones in return for getting my ass out of bed this fucking early.”

My fingers touch my lips, where the memory of Damien’s kiss lingers.

The fierce possession of it had given way to a soft declaration of his desire that weakens my knees even now.

Then I touch my throat. The fresh fingerprint bruises beneath my turtleneck still throb, where my wolf’s hands gripped me as he punished me and made me his once again.

Two men. Two different kinds of desire. Two different ways of making me feel wanted.

“Hey.” Maren snaps her fingers in front of my face. “That dreamy look tells me it was definitely more than ‘nice.’”

“He’s complex.” I twist the cap on my water bottle, tightening and loosening it. “There are layers to him I wasn’t expecting.”

“Good layers or ogre onion layers?”

“Interesting layers.”

That moment in my kitchen comes flooding back. The way Damien moved when he grabbed Caleb, the icy menace in his voice when he threatened him. So similar to that day with Mr. Pearson at Elk Fest, like glimpsing a predator beneath his polished surface.

“So, did it end in a tangle of sweaty limbs and sticky bodily fluids? Please say yes, please say yes.”

I step around a fallen log. “No. We didn’t have sex.”

“That sucks.” Her face falls, then she studies my expression, and her mouth quirks up. “But you’ve got that just-got-laid glow. Are you lying to me, Luna Marie? Did you get some billionaire dick last night and just don’t want to share?”

“We didn’t have sex, Maren.” I pause, heat creeping up my neck. “He kissed me, but that’s it.”

She lets out a little squeal and grabs my arms. “That man has a mouth that looks like it should come with a warning label. Does he know how to kiss?”

“Yeah, he does.”

Jesus, does he know how to kiss.

“I fucking knew it. So, come on, spill. How was it? Scale of one to ‘holy shit, I need to change my panties.’”

I roll my eyes and sigh. “You’re the only woman I know who measures everything by how wet it makes her panties.”

She shrugs. “That’s how I judge the world. So?”

“It was… intense.”

“Intense like ‘I want to climb him like a tree’ or intense like ‘he’s trying to eat me alive’?”

“Both. But in a good way.”

“I’m so fucking jealous. So, are you going to see him again?”

“I don’t know.” I avoid her gaze, instead choosing to watch Ghost sniff at something in the underbrush as we slow our pace a little. “I mean, I like him, but I have so much going on right now, and I’m not sure I’m ready for a relationship.”

Maren pauses in her stride to give me a pointed look. “Lu, I’m not asking if you’re going to marry him, for Christ’s sake. But how about a little fun? It’s been over a year since you broke up with shithead Caleb. And Damien is fucking hot. What more do you need?”

I can’t believe Caleb had the gall to show up here last night. Then there’s the way he went from his smarmy attempt at being remorseful to grabbing and threatening me. Not that I expected any less after the way our relationship ended.

“It’s complicated.”

“Everything’s complicated when you overthink it.” Maren huffs as she steps over a puddle. “Which you usually do. But sometimes you just have to say, ‘Fuck it,’ and… fuck it.”

If she only knew how much I fuck these days. How every night for almost two months, I’ve been claimed by a man whose face I’ve never seen, whose name I don’t know, and whose touch sets me on fire in ways I never imagined were possible.

A man who’s also a serial killer.

That’s way too much truth for a morning hike. Caleb seems like a safer topic.

“Speaking of complicated. Guess who decided to make an appearance last night?”

“Who?”

“Caleb.” My boot connects with a loose rock, sending it skittering ahead of us. “Showed up right before Damien arrived.”

Maren stumbles mid-step and grabs my arm to steady herself. “What the actual fuck? What did he want?”