Daniel thumped his pillow and grumbled under his breath. He'd managed to fall asleep, only to wake up less than an hour later, his mind in chaos, working overtime with images of bodies littered across his valley. Each one was covered with the tell-tale black sores of Wildfire. He would not allow that to happen to his people. His pack looked to him for protection. No matter what it took, he would make sure he found out who was behind this drug and make them pay for murdering innocents.

He rose and took a shower, then wandered downstairs. His mind ran through the list of what he needed to organize, all the while grinding his teeth together and grumbling under his breath. The idiotic decree by the council that the Johnson woman be under his direct protection was going to cause more problems than it was worth. He should be in San Francisco, leading the charge on whoever was behind the deaths of the Werewolves. Instead, he had to babysit her until Trevor, one of his enforcers, arrived in Portland to take over and escort her to Nederland.

He rubbed his chin and sighed. Hopefully, the delay in going to San Francisco would not leave the trail cold for any potential leads on whoever was behind Wildfire. There would be hell to pay if it did. But first, he was on a mission in search of coffee.

He strode into the kitchen and stopped short. You have got to be kidding me. Of course, she would be here. Parker was sitting at the large breakfast bar, staring at her laptop.

Startled, Parker looked up. Her smile froze midway and turned into a frown. She turned back to the monitor and resumed typing. Her fingers moved with such speed they flew across the small keyboard. The only sound in the kitchen was the quick tapping of the keys as they made contact with the surface.

He shrugged his shoulders. They could both play that game. He headed to the elaborate coffee machine installed on one of the kitchen counters and stood in front of it, perplexed.

What the hell am I supposed to do with this?

The massive machine staring back at him resembled the high-tech contraptions he had seen in top-end restaurants and cafés. An array of knobs, dials, taps, buttons, and graphic displays adorned the apparatus. Not one of them appeared to have the words "push this button to instantly receive your coffee" on it.

He grabbed one of the green coffee cups on top of the unit and placed it where he thought it might go. Not to be outdone by a machine, he poked and fiddled with the knobs to see what they would do, but nothing that resembled coffee came forth. He let out a low growl. Then, manna from heaven, one of the metal cylinders on the side dripped water.

Yes.

He quickly moved his cup underneath to catch the coffee that would undoubtedly soon follow, and eyed the machine with a look of absolute triumph.

Without warning, the metal spout that had been dripping water sizzled, and a high-pitched squeal echoed throughout the room. What the? Hot water, which quickly turned into steam, bounced off his cup and spurted all over the place, soaking anything and everything in its path. The display at the top of the unit flashed, and a constant and irritating beep permeated the kitchen.

Daniel took a quick step back and glared at the machine.

What the hell is wrong with this thing?

Parker pushed him away. "Oh, for Christ's sake, move, will you." She reached over, pulled out the offending cup, and pushed a few buttons. The appalling sound stopped, and the room was once again silent.

He let out a breath, thankful for the silence.

Parker reached for another cup and placed it on one of the drip trays. She removed a handle from the apparatus and filled it with ground coffee beans, which were dispensed from one of the containers. After pressing it with a tamper, she locked the handle back in place and pushed a few more buttons.

Daniel breathed in the luxurious aroma of fruit and spice as coffee slowly poured out of two small nozzles. When the cup was half full, she unceremoniously deposited it in front of him. Still not speaking, she returned to her seat and resumed tapping away at the keyboard.

He picked up the cup and stared at the liquid. While he knew he shouldn't push her buttons any further, something in him wanted to tease her a little. A grin tugged at his lips, and he raised an eyebrow. "What? No foam?"

Parker threw him a glare that would fell a lesser man, and, for the most part, attempted to ignore his presence. No matter where he went, people fell over themselves to get on his good side. But not Parker. Curious, he deposited himself in the seat next to hers and enjoyed his coffee. As the silence drew out, he cocked his head, and his gaze wandered over her. She was alternating between sipping what looked and smelled like herbal tea, and working away on her laptop.

Parker tucked a stray curl behind her ear. He sniffed the air. Her luxurious chestnut hair smelled of flowers and honey. In fact, that was the only scent he picked up from her. He had to ask Morgan to explain her lack of scent.

The silence grew awkward. He tapped the side of his cup and shifted in his chair. "Thank you."

Those same eyes he could not get out of his head the night before looked up, a confused frown marring her otherwise lovely features. Even though he disliked the woman, he had to admit she fascinated him.

"For what?"

He glanced down at his now half empty cup. "The coffee. It's very good."

Parker turned back to her laptop and resumed her tapping. "Don't mention it."

He held back a grin and peered over her shoulder, curious as to what had her rapt attention. A window was open on the screen, and she was typing line after line of text he did not recognize. Many of the words were in English, but more than a few seemed to be in an unintelligible language. None related to the five languages he knew.

Curiosity got the better of him. "May I ask what you are doing?"

There was a short silence. Daniel smiled inwardly, he might not be able to determine what she was feeling through smell, but her expressive face and eyes gave him all the information he needed. Even her red-rimmed glasses could not hide everything. An internal battle waged on whether to ignore him or relent and answer his question.

Parker's shoulders relaxed, and she let out a sigh. "I'm writing a web crawler that will search all sites selling Wildfire or any product that contains the ingredients. I'm also coding the crawler to search the deep web for any mention of the drug."

He raised a brow. "Deep web?"

"The portion of the internet that is indexed by standard search engines like Google is called the Surface Web. The bits outside this are the Deep Web. It's this part that's harder to reach, and about six hundred times larger than the Surface Web. Part of the Deep Web is a criminal playground. I'm hoping to find some clues from there. It will take a bit longer, but usually gives us good results."

He considered this new information. "Okay, so once you've found the sites that are selling it, what then?"

Parker tucked another loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Basically, we hack into the online trader's database, get the order information, and then start the real work." She took a sip of her tea. "The way I see it, we have two separate goals. The first is to contain the existing exposure. The second is to find out who's doing this."

"So, you can get the person's details from the order, and my men can track them down from there?"

Parker nodded. "Exactly. I can give you their names and addresses. However, you will need to work out if they are Werewolf or Human."

His previous animosity with her temporarily forgotten, he discussed options on how to proceed once they had located affected Werewolves. Once those on the drug were tracked down, they would need to be quarantined. The only question was—where would they hold these individuals? Wherever it was, they would require medical care.

For the first time since the onset of Wildfire, Daniel felt in control of the situation, and a small portion of the weight on his shoulders lifted. The packs were already on high alert, and he would ensure his first responder teams spread the word to the unaligned communities. The problem was, what kind of devastation would this cause before they brought the virus under control?

He rubbed his jaw and tried to settle his unease. While Parker continued coding, he contacted the appropriate people to start arrangements for a temporary hospital on his pack's grounds. Not caring whom he had to wake up to get things organized, he reached for his phone. If this was to work, they needed to be ready.

Just as Daniel ended his third phone call, Morgan and Clara wandered in and surveyed the paper strewn across the table and floor.

Daniel swallowed a grin when Morgan involuntarily twitched at the mess.

"Good morning," Parker said.

Morgan raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

Morgan shrugged and pulled his gaze up from the floor. "Oh nothing, just amazed the only thing littering my floor is paper, not blood."

Parker grimaced and glanced at the mess. "Sorry. We've already made a start."

Clara scolded Morgan and grinned at Parker. "Don't worry about him and his OCD tendencies. You do what you need to do." She placed a pan on the iron gas cooktop and ignited the flame. "You look hungry. I'll cook you up some pancakes and bacon."

Daniel's eyes lit up. Now that his thirst was sated, his stomach had been calling out for food.

Morgan stood near Clara, who busied herself in the kitchen. Every so often, he grabbed some bacon and popped it in his mouth before she hit him with a spatula.

Daniel shook his head and smiled. The man was taking his own life in his hands messing with Clara's kitchen.

Morgan wolfed down another rasher and focused his sharp eyes on Parker. "How are we going to track down whoever's behind this?"

Daniel pocketed his phone. Parker had already covered this with him so he was only half listening. The aroma coming from the skillet was making him ravenous.

"That's the hard bit." Parker grabbed a pen and drew a diagram on a pad to help illustrate her point. "My team will need to follow each transaction individually and track it through the banking system. This is going to take time. We don't have a warrant, and since we'll need to do it without getting caught, we can't use the standard channels. I already have my team working on finding their way through the back door of the central banks, so that should give us a head start. Once we do that, then we can—"

"What do you mean you already have your team working on this?" Daniel glared at Parker and closed the distance to the table in a heartbeat. The woman was a menace. He couldn't believe she would do this after assuring them she only had their best interests at heart. "I knew you couldn't be trusted."

Parker threw her hands in the air. "What the hell are you talking about? Are there no batteries included in that brain of yours?"

The room stilled. The only sound was the sizzle and pop of the bacon cooking on the skillet.

Daniel's jaw clenched, and the muscles in his face twitched. This creature blatantly and publicly defied him every step of the way—and had the audacity to question the state of his mind. What possessed Morgan to allow her to walk around free after she had discovered their existence he would never know. She should have been killed or imprisoned, anything but be allowed to roam around in public and risk the lives they had so carefully rebuilt.

How could he have been so blind as to think she would understand their need for secrecy? She had involved Humans without their permission. His mind churned through options to contain this new problem. I'll have to act fast before any damage is done.

Simon entered the room and mumbled, "Awkward." He busied himself by pretending to read one of the newspapers left on the table.

Unable to contain his frustration any longer, Daniel let loose. "Did we," he said through gritted teeth, "or did we not, agree that this needed to be handled carefully, and that no Humans were to be involved?"

Parker stood her ground. She lifted her chin in defiance and crossed her arms over her chest. "You mean, you agreed."

"Just answer the question."

He had expected Parker to show some form of remorse for the danger she had put them in. Despite the obvious threat, she was staring at him as though he had taken leave of his senses.

Before he uttered another word, a sharp laugh erupted from Morgan. "You two are so entertaining. We should sell tickets."

Daniel received another of Parker's withering glares as she reached for her laptop and snapped it shut. "That's it, I'm out of here." With that, she stormed out of the kitchen, as if the devil himself were on her heels.

Simon ducked his head behind the newspaper. "And then that happened."

Morgan chuckled. "Daniel, Parker didn't get any outsiders involved. You have my word."

Daniel ran a hand through his hair. "How can you say that? We can't risk exposure! You heard her. She already has, and she did it behind our backs." He cast a disgusted glare at the door through which she had disappeared. A low growl reverberated in his chest, and he recalled his original misgivings. "I should have pushed back when the council came up with this ridiculous plan."

Morgan let out a loud exhale and shook his head from side to side. "My friend, I know for a fact that Parker hasn't put us at risk. The team she was referring to belong to my pack."

This halted Daniel in his tracks, and his brows shot up. "What?"

Morgan eyed up the food Clara was preparing. "Parker employs two of my brightest omegas."

Clara smacked the back of Morgan's hand when he attempted to steal one of the pancakes from the stack. He threw her a cheeky grin and continued. "It's getting harder and harder for us to hide in plain sight. Our people have an expiration date—ten years. That's as long as we can stay in a single job before Humans notice we don't age. We have been lucky so far. As you know, each one of our packs have built up successful businesses that more than support our people and provide employment in the areas we are adept at."

Daniel tensed his shoulders. "And this relates to your omegas how?"

Morgan looked directly at Daniel, his expression no longer jovial. "We have ignored the technology age for far too long, and it's going to be our downfall."

Clara served up brunch and nodded for them to take a seat at the nearby table. "You know yourself, Daniel, it was easier in the early days." The worry lines on her forehead were more pronounced than normal. "We could swap outdated paper records with forged ones."

Simon put his newspaper down, eyed the huge plate of food, and rubbed his hands together. "I even remember one pack burning down their local city hall so the paperwork would be destroyed," he said, referring to the infamous incident from eight decades ago. "I think they pinned the blame on the local KKK Chapter."

Morgan picked up his cup of hot coffee and consumed half the contents. "That avenue is no longer an option for us." He put the cup down. "Everything is now stored on computers. Records of births and deaths, driver's licenses, school transcripts, the list is endless. Every part of what allowed us to hide in the Human world is now stored in zeros and ones, completely outside of our control."

Daniel folded his arms. "I am already aware of this." He was still unsure where the conversation was headed, or how it related to Morgan's omegas—or even their current situation for that matter.

It was true that each generation of Humans came with a new raft of problems. The computer age had caused more than its fair share of trouble for the Werewolf race. So far, they had minimized their exposure, but even he knew that would not last.

Morgan pushed his hands into his pockets and stared at his feet, and sighed. "Technology is here to stay. We have neither the skill nor the knowledge to be able to navigate it. As a race, we are at a disadvantage, and we can't wait until the Werewolves born into this age are mature and capable of the commitment required."

Morgan nodded in the direction Parker had escaped. "Parker has taken two members of my pack that displayed a keen interest in computers under her wing. Over the past two years, she has been training them. They're still young, and their wolves can only stay still for a few hours at a time. Because of this, Parker has them working in a separate office from the rest of her team. They come and go as they need to satisfy their wolves."

Daniel scowled. How come he was only hearing about this now?

Morgan paused and looked directly at him. "My friend, this is a different world from the one you and I were born into, but this is the world we live in. We need to make sure that the next generation is prepared. Parker is helping us set the groundwork. If it works, we can expand the program beyond my pack."

A part of Daniel wished that Morgan's belief would come true. They had always known they needed real world experience to help their race through the digital age. He knew as well as Morgan and every other alpha in the Alliance and beyond, that the only way this could be achieved was through training. However, the intensity of the training came at a price and had destroyed more than one Werewolf. When they were young, their wolves demanded control. A lot of control, which meant at least half their time would be spent in wolf form. If denied, they could lose their sanity.

Daniel felt his chest tighten, and he rubbed an eyebrow. "Why have you never mentioned this before?" He was an alpha, damn it. How had this been kept from him?

Morgan looked surprised. "But we have. Simon knows about it. We have been looking for new recruits from your pack."

Simon raised his hands. "In my defense, I did try to tell you on more than one occasion, but because Parker was involved you didn't want to know about it."

This announcement put Daniel in unfamiliar territory, and he was consumed with a foreign emotion—guilt. It appeared, in this instance, he had misjudged Parker. How had he let his emotions get the better of him? It was as if Parker was his Achilles heel, and he couldn't see beyond her actions of three years ago. Could he risk his people's safety and trust her to guide them to whoever was behind this? He struggled to reconcile his loathing for the woman against his need to protect his race.

Say sorry now. His wolf was less hesitant.

Daniel was still dubious. No, she has been nothing but disrespectful.

We like her. She makes nice coffee. Say sorry.

No.

But even he had to admit, they needed her. Daniel clenched his jaw. The tenuous working relationship they had reached earlier needed to be salvaged. If it meant he had to apologize; so be it. There was a first time for everything.

Daniel grunted, stood up, and marched out of the delicious-smelling kitchen.

***

Parker groaned as she exited the house and headed toward her Blazer. Why is Locke leaning against my car like he owns it? She cursed Bobby. If she hadn't rushed over to give him his clean t-shirt, she might have left before Daniel had a chance to come after her.

Daniel watched in silence as she approached. Nothing in his expression gave away his current state of mind. Not wishing for another argument with him, she scooted around to the back of the Blazer and dropped her bags in the trunk. To her dismay, she discovered a small black suitcase and a suit bag that had not been there before.

She narrowed her eyes and her brows bumped together in a scowl as she slammed the trunk closed and made her way to the driver's side. She tapped her foot and waited. Would he get the hint and leave?

Daniel was the first to break the silence. "I believe I might owe you an apology."

She raised an eyebrow. "Might?"

He ran long, masculine fingers through his hair and took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm sorry. I may have over-reacted."

She raised her other eyebrow. "May?"

Her buzzing phone interrupted their escalating animosity, and when she looked up again, he was eyeing her. Her initial reaction was to ignore him, but common sense overrode her gut instinct. This was Werewolf business and lives were at stake.

"Zeke hacked into one of the sites the crawler found. He now has a set of names and addresses for us."

Her phone buzzed again.

"Thirty-two names and addresses to be exact. He's having difficulty with a couple of firewalls, so I have to get back."

"You're not going alone."

Parker jumped at the sound of Morgan's voice.

Morgan handed Parker two plastic containers. "There's one for each of you, and I suggest you polish everything off. Clara will be most displeased if anything is left."

Parker looked in the containers thrust into her hands. "I can't eat all that."

Morgan grinned. "Didn't you hear what I just said? There's one each. The second is for Daniel. I'm sure you'll get hungry on the drive back to Portland."

"What?"

Morgan chuckled. "Tickets, I tell you. I would make a fortune." His face turned serious. "Parker, the moment you accepted this assignment, your life was in danger. We have no idea who is behind the killings, nor what information they have access to. The council have made your safety Daniel's responsibility. As far as they are concerned, you are joined at the hip until this mess is over."

Parker's pulse raced, and she nearly dropped the warm containers. She knew Daniel had been made accountable for her safety, but she did not think they were going to go to such extreme measures. She glanced across at Daniel. He looked as pleased as she felt—perhaps even less so, if that was possible.

"Besides," Morgan said, "Daniel will get a chance to meet Zeke and Jay before you all head to Colorado."

A sharp pain pulsed behind her left eye. She rubbed her eyelid to alleviate the discomfort. This wasn't going to plan. She had assumed she could talk Morgan out of the stupid idea of her going to Nederland. "You do know I don't need a babysitter."

Morgan shrugged and cocked his head. "If you want to argue the point, how about I send Clara out here?"

"No, no need." She already knew what Clara would say if she thought her safety was in jeopardy.

Morgan looked between Parker and Daniel. "Thought you'd see it my way." He winked and held his hand out to Daniel. "Let me know if you need anything."

Daniel shook the offered hand and nodded.

Morgan made his way back to the brick and stone mansion, but just before he reached the steps, he turned and called out to Daniel. "Before I forget, watch out for Beth." With that, he took the steps two at a time, and disappeared through the double doors.

Still not thrilled at the sudden change in her plans, Parker shook herself out of her personal pity party and sighed. Nothing she said would change their minds. "Okay, then. We'd better be off."

She attempted to navigate around the towering man.

Daniel blocked her path and held out his hand, palm face up. "Give me the keys, I'm driving."

She blinked rapidly, and her eyes opened wide. "I beg your pardon?"

Before she could say no, he extracted the keys from her fingers, got behind the wheel, and turned the engine over.

A low growl came from inside her Blazer. "Get in, now."

She shook off the stupor. "I-I will do no such thing."

Daniel leaned over and opened the passenger door. He swung his gaze back to her and pierced her with a playful grin. "You seem to forget—you answer to me. And, as I have been placed in charge of this investigation, anyone you bring onto the team needs to be approved by me. If you want your omegas to stay involved, you'd better get in."

Parker hesitated. Five hours trapped in a moving vehicle with Daniel Locke was going to be torture. It did not matter how ruggedly handsome he was, or how nice his lips were, this was above and beyond.

Nice lips? A flutter rose up from the pit of her stomach. She mentally rebuked herself as she stomped around to the passenger door. The last person's lips you should be contemplating are Daniel Locke's.