Chapter 1

Luna Blackwood had been working as an informant for the NYPD's supernatural crimes unit for two years, but she'd never met a vampire quite like Detective Marcus Kane. Most bloodsuckers she'd encountered were either ancient and arrogant or young and reckless. Marcus was something else entirely—controlled, professional, and dangerously attractive in a way that made her wolf instincts both wary and intrigued.

"You wanted to see me, Detective?" Luna asked, slipping into his office after hours when the precinct was mostly empty.

Marcus looked up from his case files, and Luna felt that familiar jolt when their eyes met. His were pale blue, almost silver, with the kind of intensity that suggested he saw far more than he let on.

"Information about the trafficking ring," he said, gesturing to the chair across from his desk. "Word is you know something."

Luna perched on the edge of his desk instead, deliberately close. She caught his sharp intake of breath and smiled. After months of careful professional distance, she was tired of pretending she didn't feel the electric tension between them.

"Always straight to business with you, isn't it, vampire?"

"It's after midnight. I don't have time for games." But his eyes betrayed him, tracking the movement as she crossed her legs.

Luna's laugh was low and dangerous. "Everything's a game, Marcus. The question is whether you're playing to win or playing not to lose."