text: The living room had floor-to-ceiling built-in bookshelves. Cooper liked built-in bookshelves. He'd always dreamed of having some of his own. Floor-to-ceiling ones that could house an extensive collection. In his more fanciful moments, there was an attached rolling ladder to go with them. Now all he had to do was voice the dream out loud and he knew it would be bought for him, ladder and all. That knowledge didn't bring him quite as much pleasure as he'd have thought.
  
  These bookshelves had a good number of books on them, too, but there were other things tastefully arranged along the shelves that gave Cooper clues as to who lived here. Gorgeous handmade pottery with rough glaze. A couple of photos too far away to see clearly. A spherical desk light wrapped in wires and cut metal shapes he eventually realized were there to cast picture shadows over the walls when you turned it on.
  
  More than any other reason, he liked looking at these particular shelves because it was the perfect position to keep a subtle eye on Park, seated in a chair right in front of them, and track the emotional breakdown he may or may not be on the verge of.
  
  "Elena didn't think you'd recognize me," Ms. Muñoz said, indicating Santiago, who had stayed standing in the doorway to the living room. Muñoz herself was seated across the room from Park, about as far as she could get. She had her knees pulled up to her chest in a defensive posture, and though her hands were curled loosely beneath her raised thighs, Cooper had glanced a hint of claws. "But the Shepherd isn't exactly known for forgetting a face."
  
  Park was sitting very still in his own seat. "I remember you," he said. "Sofia Muñoz. Connecticut, fourteen years ago. Kreuger's pack."
  
  "It was once. Not anymore. You made sure of that."
  
  "Kreuger broke the rules," Park said evenly.
  
  "Whose rules?" Muñoz laughed. "Yours? He just saw what your family had and wanted it for himself."
  
  Park frowned slightly. "He conscripted the most vulnerable people into his pack. He cut off support and watched and waited until they were at their lowest and had nowhere else to turn, and then swooped in acting like he was some kind of savior. Like they should be grateful for whatever scrap of dignity he allowed them. Like he wasn't the one systematically cutting off every other option they had but to kneel at his feet."
  
  "Don't make it sound like Thomas was some unique kind of monster, like what he did was different from any rebel pack or, hell, human government assistance."
  
  "No," Park agreed. "But we're not human, are we? And when he'd grown as big as he could absorbing desperate lone wolves, he started attacking other packs."
  
  "So the gods up on the hill sent the Shepherd down to put an end to him."
  
  Park glanced at Cooper and then quickly away, but not fast enough that Cooper didn't see the fear in his eyes. "I didn't kill him."
  
  "No, you didn't. You broke him." Muñoz's voice had quieted, but the words somehow felt stronger, hit harder. Like they carried with them an anger and pain that had done nothing but fester and grow in the dark all these years. "You fought him and you broke his soul. Reached inside and snapped the very thing that made him who he was."
  
  Muñoz's gaze grew distant, remembering. "I suppose someone like you doesn't understand what it's like, seeing your alpha hurt, defeated. But I felt it in my bones. A creeping, sick feeling. The wrongness of him weeping, curled up on the floor. The fear that he'd never get up again. What that meant for me, for our pack, my family."
  
  "You and Kreuger were...involved." Park stated it, didn't ask.
  
  "I loved him. Well, he was my alpha, how could I not love him?" Muñoz said matter-of-factly, and Cooper shifted slightly. "But yes, we were mates, too. And then one day he was gone. Different. Ruined." Muñoz smacked her lips in disgust. "And there you were. Just standing by, rebuttoning your shirt cuffs like you'd seen it all before. Like you were...bored."
  
  She put her feet down to the floor and leaned forward, voice going even quieter. "Do you remember what happened next?"
  
  Park looked bored now as well. But Cooper had long since realized that the blanker his face, the more he was hiding. "You attacked me as I was leaving."
  
  Muñoz leaned back and spoke to Santiago without looking at her. "See, Len? I told you he'd remember. Though attack is a bit of an exaggeration, isn't it? I'd barely landed on you before you'd plucked me off like an irritating bug. No. That's all you said. No. But I'd never felt dominance that strong. I had no choice but to obey."
  
  There was a deep, uncomfortable silence before Muñoz continued. "Kreuger was never the same, you know. He ran south. Somewhere out of the Park pack's reach. And I was too scared to go with him."
  
  "I'm sorry," Park said, and Muñoz shrugged and shook her head as if knocking the apology away with her shoulders.
  
  "For months I was terrified you'd be back and no one could stop you. It changed me, too. Changed the whole course of my life," she whispered. "I was twenty-one then. A baby." She looked critically at Park. "Seeing you now, I guess you must have been young then yourself. But to me you were as ageless as El Cucuy and twice as frightening."
  
  Park blinked slowly, the barest acknowledgment that he was even listening, but to Cooper it was as obvious a reaction as if Park had begun to weep with pain.
  
  Enough. Cooper stood abruptly and all three people in the room startled, looking to him. Feeling awkward, he jerkily crossed the room and stood behind Park. Trying to look as casual as possible, he positioned his forearms on the back of chair, letting the fingertips of his left hand rest lightly on Park's shoulder. Park immediately leaned into the touch.
  
  Ms. Muñoz watched the interaction with undisguised curiosity, and Cooper met her eyes defiantly.
  
  You're not allowed to hurt him. The thought came to Cooper with unexpected ferocity. He wasn't sure what his face looked like, but he saw Ms. Muñoz's eyes widen slightly.
  
  He cleared his throat. "Not to be insensitive, but perhaps we could get to the point."
  
  Santiago spoke from her position in the doorway. "Thomas Kreuger became untouchable after that. Forbidden from rebuilding his own pack. Unwelcome in another's. He became a pariah. And now he's disappeared."
  
  "Kreuger is your possible victim."
  
  "That's right. And as persona non grata with the Park pack, you can see why no one reporting him missing does not necessarily mean he's not."
  
  "Are you saying my family had something to do with this?" Park asked calmly.
  
  "Why, did you kill him?" Muñoz asked.
  
  Cooper felt the vibration of Park's restrained growl under his fingers, and he tightened his grip. The vibration stopped.
  
  "Obviously you don't think that or you wouldn't have called us in," Cooper said while attempting to keep his voice light. "So what is it you think actually happened to Mr. Kreuger?"
  
  Muñoz gave one last hard stare at Park, then shifted her gaze to Cooper. "I don't know. But I did get a phone call from Thomas a week before he disappeared. I was surprised to hear from him. We hadn't spoken in a couple of years. But he knew—" she hesitated and glanced at Santiago, who did something complicated with her eyebrows "—I had a connection in the BSI. He told me something had happened."
  
  Cooper frowned, noticing the hesitation. The nonverbal communication, the way Santiago hovered behind Muñoz, not unlike the way Cooper was doing to Park... Was Santiago in a relationship Muñoz? If so, she clearly wasn't interested in bringing it up.
  
  "What kind of thing did he say happened?" Cooper asked instead.
  
  "Something that had freaked him out. He was uncomfortable telling me what. I think—I think he was weighing his options." She crossed and uncrossed her arms, uncomfortably. As if suddenly second-guessing how wise it was to be breaking Kreuger's confidence with people like Cooper and Park. "He wanted to know if the BSI offers deals. Witness protection-type stuff."
  
  They didn't. Considering the mafia-like mentality of the larger packs, perhaps they should. "Kreuger witnessed a crime?" Cooper asked.
  
  "He wouldn't say. Like I said, he was weighing his options. He'd been living as far off the radar as possible for years. Whatever it was, he must have felt desperate to even consider reaching out."
  
  "You said he put in his notice. What makes you think he didn't change his mind about involving the BSI and whatever spooked him just sent him running?"
  
  Muñoz frowned, but Santiago cleared her throat and said, "That is certainly a possibility and just one of the reasons why neither the Trust nor the BSI is choosing to pursue the case at this juncture."
  
  "Are there other reasons we should know about?"
  
  Santiago's eyes darted to Park. "Margaret Cola may be director of the Trust, but she's also an old friend of your family. It doesn't look great for her to go out of her way to track down an unofficially missing man the Park pack would rather just stay disappeared. Kreuger is going to slip through the cracks because he made the wrong enemies over a decade ago."
  
  Muñoz made a quiet sound of repressed anger, and Santiago looked at her, face softening. "I'm asking you to take this case and go undercover at the retreat as a...personal favor."
  
  The two women were almost definitely in a relationship then. That explained why Santiago was going out of her way to investigate what might not be a criminal case at all, even stretching the boundaries of what was legal. Perhaps that even explained why Santiago was reaching out to Cooper rather than using her influence within the BSI. Inevitable questions about her connection to the case would come up, the answers to which she might not want to broadcast.
  
  How long had they been together? Muñoz clearly knew about Park's past, so had Santiago also known all that time ago, when she'd first introduced Cooper to Park? Was that why she'd distanced herself from him after learning he and Park were together? Did it even matter now?
  
  He didn't have time to find out because all those questions paled beside the one word that had jumped out and lodged in Cooper's throat. "Undercover?"
  
  "Neither agency is willing to put their stamp on it, so this has to be a quiet inquiry. Besides, if Kreuger did stumble across something going on at the retreat, you'll have a much easier time doing the same if you're staying there."
  
  "But undercover?" Cooper protested.
  
  "I've read your file front to back, Dayton. I know you're more than capable of undercover work."
  
  Cooper felt a flush of heat in his face as Park twisted in his seat to look at him curiously. They didn't spend much time talking about Cooper's few years in the FBI before his abrupt and violent recruit to the BSI after a wolf attack had left him with a lot less gut.
  
  "Why us?" he said, flustered.
  
  "Because I need someone I can trust in there. Someone I know is more concerned with finding the truth than upsetting the Park pack or inter-bureau politics. Someone who isn't afraid to step on some toes. Frankly, Dayton, I don't know anyone less concerned with pissing off people and wolves alike."
  
  "Careful, all this flattery is going straight to my head," Cooper said dryly. "But I suppose I can consider choking down a mojito in the sun. For justice, of course."
  
  Santiago smiled, the first genuine amusement he'd seen on her face so far. "It's not that part of North Carolina. And it's not that sort of retreat." She looked at Park. "Maudit Falls is a relationship retreat. Counseling for couples working on interpersonal dynamics and trying to revive their partnership. You know the format. Guests sign up for three-, five- or seven-day workshops to look within themselves or each other or some shit. It's deep in the mountains because privacy is important for obvious reasons."
  
  "Are they...celebrity couples?" Cooper said.
  
  "It's run by wolves for wolves," Santiago said bluntly.
  
  Park's expression darkened. "This is where Kreuger was staying off the grid?"
  
  Muñoz had willingly given the reins to Santiago, but at Park's criticism she spoke up again, tone sharp. "Would you have forbidden him from that as well? Thomas spent years isolated with no one but humans for company. We need to be around our own kind."
  
  At her words, Cooper felt a surge of...something. Panic, nausea, fear, annoyance? Mix together and serve cold, a la lump in throat?
  
  "The point is," Santiago said loudly, giving Muñoz a look. "You two are perfect for this. Built-in cover story, ready to go."
  
  "One problem," Park said. "Just because people don't know I work for the Trust doesn't mean they won't know my past. Even south of my family's territory, there's a chance I'll be recognized."
  
  "Oh, more than a chance, I think. In fact, I'm depending on it," Santiago said. "You can imagine how exclusive a relationship retreat for wolves is. They can't have human couples wandering in bickering about mundane stuff like affairs and contributing to household chores equally. The background checks for guests is extensive and exhausting, and the wait list long. We'd never get any old agent in. But the Shepherd and his human mate seeking the help and guidance of Maudit Falls? It's too good an opportunity for them to pass up and exactly the bait we need to get you on the inside."
  
  Suddenly all her flattery about being the only one willing to piss important people off in the name of justice like some kind of caped and spandexed hero seemed just that. Flattery. This was the reason she really needed them. And frankly, Cooper could see her point. He had witnessed firsthand how wolves went out of their way to accommodate the Park family.
  
  "No one knows you work for the Trust, but there aren't many wolves who haven't heard of the Shepherd or know of your grandfather's recent demise. If we tell the director you want to keep a low profile and use a pseudonym, he'll even help you keep your cover stories. Anything to keep on the Shepherd's good side. In fact, Paul Claymont used to follow your family when he lived up north. His alpha was Becca and he only left her pack to run this retreat with his partner, Vanessa, who's one of the therapists there."
  
  Park frowned but nodded. "I remember Becca."
  
  Santiago tossed a folder onto the low wooden coffee table in the center of the room. "All the information you need—all the information we have—is in that file. What do you say?"
  
  Cooper looked back at Park. It could easily be one big wild goose chase. Kreuger had made both enemies and a habit of dropping off the grid. But if there was a chance, even a slim one, that Kreuger was in danger and the bureaucracy and prejudice of humans and wolves alike was preventing him from getting help, then this was part of the very reason Cooper had joined the Trust.
  
  "Please," Muñoz said, and Park's eyes flickered toward her. "You said you were sorry for the way things happened fifteen years ago. Was that true? Do you really want to make amends?"
  
  "Yes." Park's voice was slightly strained. "I want that."
  
  "Then use it. Use all that fear you created, that power. For good this time."
  
  Cooper didn't move, not wanting to influence Park either way. But eventually, Park nodded at her solemnly. Muñoz inhaled and nodded shakily back. Her eyes glimmered.
  
  Cooper bit the inside of his cheek. "We'll have to talk to Cola about time off—" he started.
  
  "Already done," Santiago said, and shrugged at Cooper's look. "What can I say, I had a feeling you wouldn't turn your back on this. Cola's agreed to loan you out for five days. Your meet-and-greet is on Thursday." She grinned. "Look at it this way: if there's nothing wrong, you get to have a nice little vacation. Get some fresh mountain air, brisk swims in the lake, couple's counseling. Who knows, maybe you'll even learn something about yourself."