I slept.

Without a nightmare. I slept soundly through the night.

I didn't know which was more surprising; that I came so hard I saw stars or having straight uninterrupted sleep.

I didn't let my thoughts distract me from doing what was necessary.

I rolled away from Zephryy's arm and hastily got dressed. I didn't know if it was any consolation that he was also deeply asleep.

I threw one last look at the male who brought out a side of me I didn't know I had. The male who got the edginess and wildness in my veins to quieten.

Immediately I stepped out the door, my mask slid in place. I was the Xanda in charge again. Last night was over and would never repeat itself.

Chin jutted forward, I strode purposely out of the nightclub.

Out in the streets, my lips curved up approvingly when people scurried out of my path. As it should be.

I hailed a cab and enjoyed the ride home in silence.

I alighted at my apartment and let myself in.

All plans to quietly go into my room fled at the sight of Iris.

She whistled and sang to herself as she deep cleaned the living room.

"Xanda!" Her face lit up in excitement when she saw me. "How was work? Was it okay?" She chewed her lips. "I mean, it was successful right?"

Iris knew about my line of work. She had run into Mazedon a few times and she had been exposed to what we do. I knew she hated my job and worried for me but tried to play it cool.

I ran a hand though my wavy hair, pulling it back into a ponytail. "I didn't go to work," I told her.

"You weren't?" Her eye widened. "Where were you?"

"No where important," I grumbled, making my way to my room.

I wasn't prepared for the body that barreled into me. I swerved too late, causing both of us to fall.

"Xanda," Iris screamed, laughing as I righted us. She placed her hands on her waist, pushing out her chest. "Miss bad and dangerous. You don't get to brush me off," she warned.

Despite myself, I chuckled. "Did you just try to look intimidating?"

"Xanda!" She giggled. "I'm serious. Spill."

"Nothing gets pass you does it?" I brushed a stray strand from her hair. "What gave me away?"

"Apart from your ruffled look?" She tilted her head sideways. "You blushed."

"I do not blush," I growled.

"Okay, okay." She raised her palm. "Was it Ted?"

"It wasn't."

"Goddamn you, why are you so tight lipped?" She muttered. "How was the sex? At least give me that."

"Explosive," I answered truthfully, escaping her claws to my room.

Her soft laughter bounced through the walls of our apartment. "Anyway, your phone has been ringing nonstop," she shouted after me.

It was true. Mazedon had almost blown up my phone with calls.

It had to be an emergency if the boss called himself.

I didn't bother with a change of clothes, I grabbed a protein bar and my special milkshake from the kitchen fridge and headed to the Vault.

From outside, the Vault was a crumbling estate with peeling paint. The glass deliberately left translucent was actually bullet proof.

On the inside, it had arch and passageways that led to an underground training grid.

I nodded at Kerry, a roguish human male and went in search of Mazedon.

"Is Don in?" I asked the red head at the reception.

"Xanda," he waved at me. "He is in the den."

I took off to the part of the underground which was filled with different sizes of armor.

The boss sat behind a recliner, toying with a part of a dagger. Bray and a strange male talked in hush times with him.

"Don." I bowed slightly.

"Lyxanda," he didn't raise his voice. He never did. "You went after Kallas."

Shit, he was angry. "I had to," I said quietly.

"What was my order?"

I swallowed. "To let him be for now."

"You're testing my patience, Lyxanda."

My fingers curled into fists by my side. "He killed my brother!"

Mazedon clicked his fingers and the men left immediately.

"You will not question my order," he told me.

Feeling the stirring of that wildness in my veins, I closed my eyes, willing myself to calm down. "Sorry, boss."

His eyes flashed and I reared back. What more would he be angry about?

"Last night, you didn't let Rex assist."

Fuck, that was what he was on about? The bastard had ratted me out.

"I did until I got in. I later handled it perfectly."

"Perfectly?" He threw he dagger and it flew past my ear and embedded in the wall behind me.

I didn't flinch.

"Just five minutes after you left, the sheriff and his boys pulled up into the baron's driveway." He leaned forward,  picking another wicked gleaming pot. "Do you know what that means? A minute more and you'd be busted."

"The baron's dead," I said flatly.

"Yeah after you let your emotions get the best of you and chopped his manly part."

I bit my cheeks, resisting the urge to laugh.

"Lyxanda!"

I burst out laughing. "I'm sorry, okay," I said between feats of laughter.  "I couldn't help it," I told him.

His gaze turned soft. "Put your head in the game, you can't afford to lose it."

"I get it, Don."

His voice lowered. "You loyal with your suppressant?"

I bristled with irritation. I hated it when he started to act like I could break at any point. "I take care of myself just fine."

He straightened and threw a file at me.

"There, I wanted to give the mission to Rex but the client requested specially that you do it."

I raised a brow.

"Yeah," he shrugged. "You're fast making a name for yourself out there. They call you the black huntress."

That wasn't new. I was pleased that I was making wave out there but I was disgruntled that the Don still preferred Rex taking a job to me.

It grated on my nerves that I wasn't his go to person and he trusted Rex to do a cleaner job.

"Zephryy Ashwood," Don gestured to the file. "Wanted dead in two weeks.

I opened the file. A look at the picture attached and I froze, muscles locking in place as all the colour drained from my face.

"..Has a tight security detail so you have to draw a fast plan to get close," Don was still speaking. "You up for it?"

"You up for it?" I heard Mazedon ask through the roaring in my ears.

Tartarus! I was to kill him. The male I had been with hours ago.

My stomach twisted at the thoughts that I had been with a criminal all through the night. What was I thinking? Fuck.

Standing straight, I jammed the file shut. If someone wanted him dead. Then he was deserving of death.

"Sure," I squared my shoulders. "I'll do it."

"I know you would," Mazedon said quietly. "Go through the file and come back with a plan on how you intend to do it."

"Got it," I said, turning away.

"Lyxanda?"

I stopped but did not turn around.

"I'm serious," Mazedon began in a hush tone. "We get a huge cut from the client after he's been confirmed dead. You can't fuck this up."

I bit my lips, doing my best to shove down my irritation. "Have I ever fucked with a mission?"

"You used up thirty minutes at the baron's. I thought you better than that."

I was going to kill Rex. Slowly. I would look into his eyes and deliver the last killing punch to his leaking mouth. I swallowed, bowing slightly. "I'll do better."

"You have no other choice."

*********************************

{Zephryy}

"I've sent you some of the identities that matched your description," Lucas said.

"No." My brows furrowed into my hairline as I went through the document he sent to me. "She looks nothing like this."

"Cut your poor assistant some slack," Cole mumbled from where he was sprawled on my couch.

"She is tall," I continued, "....but petite. Damnit," I raked a finger through my hair, ruining the fine strands that the maids had tendered to less than an hour ago. "Blue eyes."

"Seriously?" Cole threw back his head and cackled with a laughter that made me want to punch him. "One night and you're crazy over some female? You need to get laid more often man."

"She's not some female," I snapped, throwing him a death glare. "She left before I could get her name."

Cole narrowed his eyes at me and even Lucas paused a bit from randomly scrolling on a desktop to look at me.

"What?"

"You just said her name is Lily," Cole reminded.

"She's lying." I shook my head. "The name doesn't suit her."

Cole shook his head exasperatedly. "I don't know what I'm more shocked about. That you, the frigid male amongst us four actually agreed on a one night with a stranger...or the fact that you're obsessed over a female who fucked your brains out in a single night."

"Coming from the one who planned the whole thing?" I threw at him.

"Agreed. I planned it. The least you could do was invite me to join in. Together we could have wrung out her real name in no time."

It took me three seconds to get what he meant. I picked a heavy book from the piles arranged on my work table and threw it at him.

He dodged easily, laughing in the grating manner he has come to since he walked into my office.

"Martin chose a wrong time to leave, man. We could have had a good time taking jabs at you."

"Unlike you," I grumbled. "He has important duties at Vesperus."

"Like I don't?" Cole snorted. "I just chose to stay away."

An ensuring silence followed and I knew exactly what he was thinking because it definitely mirrored mine.

Although Vesperus was a kingdom, it ran on clans and packs.  Each was ruled by an alpha, and propped up by their betas.

Cole was a beta. He walked away from duty to chase art in the human world. 

I left because my mother married a man with no royal blood and a son with a competitive streak. 

Distance felt like the only way to survive them.

Kallas followed me. The male's loyalty was humbling. It scared me sometimes.

Only Martin stayed back at Vesperus. He took up his alpha duties and I do respect him for that.

Of course, our family gave us an earful over our decisions and they never let us be. It was evident in the four royal maids mother had sent to my house. It took everything to refuse the royal guards she sent too.

"I've got nothing that fits your description," Lucas said, breaking the silence in the room.

"That's because you do not know where to begin," Cole stated dryly.

"Erm..." Lucas cleared his throat. "Miss Grayson has an appointment with you in the next forty minutes. The sheriff's also..."

"Reschedule the sheriff's," I cut in. "And keep on with your search," I said and dismissed him.

"Now I'm real curious about this female," Cole drawled. "Got any blood bag?"

"There should be a bag or two left."

Cole walked over to the fridge at the corner and returned with a blood bag. "Took the last one."

"It's fine. There's more in the main hou..."

The door opened and a figure stepped in.  It was the sheriff. A tall man with pepper gray hair, he let himself in.

Lucas followed hot on heels. "Alpha, he refused to stay in the waiting room."

"It's fine," I waved him away.

"I wasn't aware that I had a meeting with you, sheriff," I said, holding out a palm.

He ignored me. Glancing at Cole who was drinking form the blood bag without a care in the world.

"Join me?" Cole raised the bag, slowly licking his lips.

The sheriff winced. His gaze snapped back to me, dragged down to my outstretched arm, and lingered. Then he took it, his grip firm.

"The least you can do after turning down the job is give me five minutes."

"I have been very busy," I told him, taking a seat. "Look, I read the statement. But there's nothing linking my people to this."

"That was before we were able to clone his phone," the sheriff said. "The last text he got was from a merchant who gave us full reason to believe that..." He threw a pointed look at Cole. "...your kind is responsible for his murder."

Cole and I exchanged confused glances. "What did this text say?" I asked.

"Something about getting the commodity at Vesperus border."

My eye widened as saucers. "Vesperus?"

The sheriff nodded. "I have been instructed to take investigations to Vesperus."

"Wolf's teeth," Cole breathed.

"The baron is an important man. We can't just sweep his murder aside," the baron continued. "Besides, his death has already garnered public interest."

I shook my head. "There's no way you would be granted entrance into Vesperus."

"I know. I need you to get me in there."

I laughed, low and humourless. "You ask too much for a sheriff."

He shrugged. "It's either that or you take on the job." A pause. "Find the killer and I forget about visiting Vesperus."

Damn it. I had a long week ahead but I definitely couldn't let him near Vesperus. We tried to avoid the human attention as much as we can. And as council leader, mother expected I got all the wolves in the human lands under tight leash. It was the only reason she let me stay.

"Blackmaiker," Cole whistled under his breath. "Didn't know you got it."

"Because I do not drink blood doesn't mean I'm daft," the sheriff snapped.

"Okay," I jumped in. "No unnecessary alpha male competition here. I'll take the job."

It was inconspicuous. But the sheriff let out an exhale, his shoulders sagging a bit. "I'll mail you all the reports we've gathered so far," he said, rising to his feet.

"Fine," I said dryly.

He stopped. " I'm not doing this on purpose. I'm under a lot of pressure for this case. Strangely, some very important people has taken interest in this. Please, you have to  hand over the criminal once you get them."

In my twenty years of knowing the sheriff. I've never heard him use the word 'please'. He really was under a lot of pressure then.

"I swear on the moon, I'll hand the murderer over to you. Human or wolf," I promised.