Hunted in the Dark: Fae Bureau of Investigation, #2

By Scarlett West

He's my boss, my fated mate, and my mortal enemy.

 

I'm fire, Damien's ice. Our rival Fae clans hold a deepening grudge that could lead to war. I shouldn't fall for him but he's breaking down my walls, touching my heart. Yet learning to trust him has never been more brutal.

 

Since being promoted as a Special Agent, a dark force has shrouded the Winter Court and kidnappings of Fae people have become rampant. To make matters worse, someone killed our King.

 

And Damien is a prime suspect. With a murderer on the loose, I'm facing the worst battle: learn to trust Damien, or face Earth and Faery's destruction.

Hunted in the Dark is book two out of five and a complete series. Binge read this scorching urban fantasy romance today!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Passion Press
• Release date: Aug 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215766583

Book preview

Chapter 1

Igripped the cold, metal jail bars and leaned my entire weight into them as if it could stop my world from tipping over.

An icy shiver tore down my spine and ripped through my braided hair as I scanned the grey stone cell in the Winter Kingdom Prison. The musty rectangle was cramped with barely enough room for the burlap-covered cot, and a metal toilet with no seat.

The entire Winter Kingdom and Fae Bureau of Investigation grumbled with rumors.

Damien would be executed.

Cold sweat beaded along my hairline and my pulse battered my throat. I wasn’t supposed to be here talking to Damien deep in the belly of the castle.

I gritted my teeth. Shock, relief, and gratitude tangled up with my frustration at what he’d done. I mean, I still couldn’t believe he’d killed our king. But how could I not be eternally indebted to Damien for saving me from having to join King Meynard’s harem? And the reasons mounted of why I should force myself to keep far away from him.

But I couldn’t. Just fucking couldn’t.

My hair yanked tight against my scalp. I peeked down the hall at the guard, Bernard, and then back at Damien and said in a gruff voice, Tell me the fucking truth. It’s okay if you did it. I’m thankful you saved me. And maybe if you admit it, they’ll give you a lighter sentence.

A rough growl rumbled from Damien’s throat. His body tensed and his eyes flashed. How dare you come here and have the audacity to accuse me of murder? I already told you, I didn’t kill the King.

Keys jingled down the hall and Bernard leaned against the wall. He stared at me and waved them in the air. I hated that sound. It grated on my nerves like everything else.

My hair buzzed with electricity. Damn Damien. Why wouldn’t he admit it?

Heat flushed my cheeks. Damien, I know you can’t lie, but I know what I saw. I can’t claim to understand it but you touched King Meynard, then he died. I was a witness. Many others witnessed it.

Damien's nostrils flared and his navy-blue eyes widened. His frustration clouded the air in a palpable rush. I know what it looks like but I did not kill him.

I tugged the end of my braid. After all he’d done for me, I wanted to believe him. I’d told myself I owed him my trust, and I wanted to give it, though I could barely process what I’d observed.

Damn it. Damien had grasped King Meynard making him froth at the mouth, then collapse. I couldn’t temper the doubt that had cropped up in my mind. Something had happened, something neither of us understood.

I searched his tense face. The fated mate bond hummed in my sternum. It tore at me like a claw, shoving me toward believing him. But I needed to understand what had occurred, not blindly accept what some sensation dictated.

Thank you for keeping me safe from a situation I would have died to find myself in. I’m still in shock but it means the world to me. Still, if you didn’t do it, then who did? You were the only one touching him at the time. Chiara told me you are the second most powerful male in the Winter Kingdom. After King Meynard. Your magic sucked the life out of him.

He growled again, this time reverberating through the castle walls. Fuck. If you don’t believe me, then what chance do I stand to get out of here? How should I know who killed him? That’s why I need to leave prison. To prove I’m innocent. But what did I expect from a Hill of Tara woman? You people are so suspicious. The worst. Why the fuck do you come down here to keep accusing me of that shit? What the hell do you want?

The truth.

Damien pierced me with a cutting glare, his lip curled. I should never have put my trust in an enemy. I already told you the truth. I can’t trust you, either.

When he stared at me like that, he cut to my bones with his laser intensity. Straight to my soul. It made me want to make the guard sleep, steal his keys, and help Damien escape. Even if his words stung, I sort of deserved them.

Since the distrust went both ways, and our clans considered us mortal enemies, why did he want me to help fix the situation? Besides, I didn’t have access to my magic and we could both end up dead.

Still, my insides quivered with that look. Enough that I didn’t want to talk about this anymore. I changed the subject to something that I couldn’t get off my mind.

The office is falling apart.

He rolled his neck. What about the kidnappings?

I tapped the metal bar with my fuchsia-chipped paint fingernails. They’ve skyrocketed on Earth since you’ve been locked up. And there’s no one to help stop them.

Someone had been kidnapping Fae parents from Earth, including my own, which happened seventeen years ago. I’d never stopped searching for them. With Damien gone, parents had started disappearing at an alarming rate. And the curse deepened its grip over our kingdom.

He palmed his neck with his wide hand. That’s why I need to get out of here.

Let’s suppose for a second you are innocent, then we need to open an investigation to find out who killed the King. I can’t do much on my own. Not with them threatening mutiny. You’re their leader.

I eyed Damien. We had started to have faith in one another, but now I didn’t know what he thought of me. Not after he’d announced he didn’t trust anyone from my clan, that we couldn’t be in a relationship, and that what he wanted to do, not what he had to do, were different.

He took his turn to push me away. In a way, what could I expect given my questioning him?

Even so, with the grey, loose coverall he had to wear, the grime on his sharp cheekbones, and his greasy unwashed hair, he still permeated every inch of the cell with his energy.

His sculpted muscular chest shone under the V-neck collar. Those ridges led to chiseled arms and a washboard stomach. A warm shiver skated over my body but I pushed my reaction away. This wasn’t the time to be thinking of him like that.

He smirked at me. You might have your mind mixed up, but your heart knows the truth. Your body still wants me. You still want me.

How could he always read me so well? His words rang too true.

A flicker of fire danced in my low belly. A physical and emotional need for Damien grew each day. We belonged together. The fated mate bond that had been born when we met, had only deepened when he kissed me before he was arrested.

He flicked a strand of inky hair out of his blazing eyes that swirled with turquoise. You feel it, don’t you? Our connection? You’re my fated mate, Adalee.

I sighed and leaned into the bars again, wishing they were his warm, strong body. Your fated mate and your sworn enemy.

He raised his eyebrows. You accepted me as your mate?

I shook my head, craving the caress of his fingers on my skin, and the brush of his lips across my mouth. Instead, I clenched my teeth. I am no one's fated anything. I can’t accept such a thing. There’s too much between us.

When he pushed me like that, my old fears reared up. That memory of sitting in a cold, plastic chair in front of a social worker’s desk, my ears ringing with the distant grating of the worker’s voice. Dammit. My foster family had missed one too many appointments, and I’d missed my only chance at adoption.

Grief had swallowed me up as the world crumbled before me. Once again, I’d been reminded I wouldn’t find a true home. A place I truly belonged.

It hadn’t been the family’s fault, but my tender ability to trust someone had been slashed again. When Damien had declared us mortal enemies, and the grudge had been shoved in my face, the old wound had been torn open. Leaving it hard to find trust again.

I wanted to believe in him, but I was too afraid to hope for a real relationship, a real home with Damien, only to have it destroyed, so I stayed on this wavering fence of doubt.

Heavy boots thudded down the hall. Bernard stopped before us. Time’s up.

I wrinkled my brow then slipped some more Fae gold coins in his palm. A few more minutes.

They clinked as they fell into his heavy cloth trousers. Not more than that. I can hear everything you’re saying, you know.

Damien shot a hand between the bars, grabbed Bernard’s collar, and twisted. You’re from my clan, Bernard. You know I didn’t do this.

Bernard inhaled deeply and unhooked Damien’s fingers one by one. He glanced over his shoulder down the hall then in a low voice said, I believe you, Damien. But I have to do my job. This new King…

His words dropped off and his eyes darkened. He shook his head then returned to his spot in the corner.

Damien stared after him. I don’t trust him but I don’t give a damn he can hear us. I would put a shield around us but I can’t get his magic suppression cuff off. Speaking of magic, have you had any luck with yours?

Tears stung my eyes. How much should I tell him? We’d spent enough time together that I believed the concern in his voice. Yet there were so many things to clear up.

He extended his hand to me but I stood too far away for him to touch my arm. Adalee, talk to me.

I grabbed the sides of my head and squeezed. A lump formed in my throat but I didn’t let the tears fall. I didn’t know what to think anymore. Still, I didn’t have anyone else to ask about these strange sensations.

Doubt brushed my insides while the pressure to understand things, things I’d never experienced before, surged inside me. The areas where I have the bands have been burning and itching. Sometimes I wake up in a hot sweat.

An irresistible smile ticked up on his sensual lips and he raised one eyebrow. A hot sweat? Sounds like your magic wants to be unleashed. Maybe you need to be fed. Satiated.

His heated gaze trailed over my body, pausing at my cleavage peeking out of my work uniform blouse, the curve of my hip, and stopping on the apex of my thighs.

My nipples beaded and goosebumps spread over my skin with his fiery gaze. A heavy sigh escaped my dry lips. My core tightened with need and my panties dampened.

In a low voice that made me shiver, he said, "Hill of Tara people are the worst. Willfully suspicious and defiant. I should have recognized it off the bat. The whole lot of you work against the other clans, creating a weak link in our kingdom.

Yet even if I don’t understand it, I still want you. Need you. And you need me, too. You’ll see Adalee. You’re mine and I’m going to prove to you I’m innocent.

What happened to us? Since we found out we were in opposing clans, he’d declared we had to kill each other. That our clans were at war. I didn’t agree with some ancient grudge that had nothing to do with us, but a vague uneasiness filled me.

Our magic clashed. Damien ice, and me fire. Our clans, adversaries.

If anyone could pull off proving his innocence while in jail, it would be Damien. But that wouldn’t change the fact we would be destined to kill one another.

My body tensed. Damien, the new King sent a message out to the Winter Kingdom. Regarding you.

He cocked his head. What’s that?

I steeled myself against my tightening nerves. You’re not the right hand of the King anymore. Nor the head of the FBI. They found a new king’s right hand but they have yet to replace you as director.

A raw rumble tore from his throat. To hell with that. Bastards. This isn’t over. It’s far from over. Heads are going to roll.

Don’t say those things. I glared down the hall. Bernard stared away from us. Half of the FBI and Winter Kingdom are spreading rumors you committed treason and murder.

He paced next to the bars like a stealthy, caged panther, his power and dominance expanding around him. I’ll say what I want. I’m not going to stop speaking the truth. And when I’m back, those who spoke against me will be fired.

Damien captivated me. He was so graceful and lethal at the same time. It made me ache for him. His electric pull magnetized me more each day. I’d barely entered the force, barely discovered I was Fae, and I’d been thrown up against this mess. I didn’t need more trouble in my life, but no matter which way I turned, that’s where we were headed.

The whole thing left me conflicted. That tiny spark of trust for Damien hadn’t completely died. It still burned like an ember in my heart, yet I knew what I’d seen inside the King’s chambers. And I couldn’t explain it. I didn’t know much about being Fae, or my clan. Before proceeding, I needed someone else to clarify what the grudge was about. Still, I couldn’t shake the worry the clan animosity placed on our shoulders.

The light of our fated mate bond flared in my chest. When it did, Damien’s angst jolted into me. My hair tightened as if someone wound it around a rod.

I flicked my head up. But that’s not the end of it. Even if you somehow manage to get out of jail, the King has forbidden you to investigate the murder. How do we work around that one?

He clicked his tongue at me. They don’t know me. They don’t know you. You underestimate your power, Adalee.

I closed my eyes. Only my hair prickled as it had always done to warn or guide me, and the invisible bands around my arms itched like I had an unseen rash.

Besides that, I didn’t sense any power. I opened my eyes and drew in a sharp breath. Damien stared at my mouth, then glanced up at me with a starved, wolfish look.

I wished this would go away. Resentment between our clans. The curse over Faery. The kidnappings we had yet to solve. The murder of King Meynard. If we didn’t solve these mysteries, Faery and Earth would be shattered.

But how could we do that when Damien had likely committed a crime punishable by death? His dominance and force had a dangerous sway over me, one I couldn’t allow to make me look the other way. I had to push ahead and find out the truth. Even if it tore us apart.

Beneath my need to uncover the facts, worries simmered in my veins. Those memories of loss pressed on me. Like the past, I had no control over Damien’s execution. I barely had become attached to him when he could be ripped out of my life.

My growing care for Damien threatened to ruin me.

Bernard rang his keys again but I didn’t look at him.

Instead, I stared at the stone floor and wrapped my fingers around the bars. "I know we Fae can’t lie, but Damien, maybe even you don’t understand it. Things could appear in a way we both don’t understand. You could have killed him without you knowing. Because maybe we don’t understand how it happened."

He groaned. How many times do I have to tell you? I didn’t kill the King. Doesn’t our time together mean anything to you? The connection we have? Does it mean nothing?

A cold draft wafted down the hall, chilling my blood and bones. His words and the air iced my insides.

Someone was coming.

I couldn’t look at Damien. Couldn’t face him. "Of course, it means something. It means everything to me. Something is happening to me that I don’t understand, that I can’t put words to. Between us. I want to believe you. My feelings tell me you didn’t do it, but my mind is demanding evidence.

Let’s be honest and clear—we barely know each other. I don’t even know what your favorite color is or what you do besides work. We have some sort of connection, but too many complications tangle that up. I was starting to trust you before this thing happened, but I won’t let my attraction to you blind me.

His strong hand grasped mine, sending a warm shiver down my arm that threaded through my body. My heart squeezed with anguish. I gasped and pulled away. If I let him touch me, my heart might split.

Do me one favor, Adalee.

I frowned and met his hard gaze. My legs wavered from that brush of his hand, but how I craved him. Needed him more than ever. What would that be?

His pupils swelled until his eyes shined black. His sharp jawline tightened. Promise me that you will dig for the truth. About the murder. But more importantly, that if they execute me, you won’t stop until the kidnappings end and the curse is lifted from Faery.

A hard lump formed in my throat. Tears misted my eyes again with the heavy burden laid across our shoulders. Damien had told me to use my pain as my strength, but I didn’t expect it to mean this.

Heavy boot steps thudded down the hall. This time I would have to leave.

I swallowed around the sandpaper ball in my throat. I promised Goddess Danu I would do that. To the children. To my parents. I don’t know what happened but I will always seek the truth and justice.

With a cream-colored vellum sheet in his hand, Bernard closed in on me. His eyes held a tightness that made my stomach churn.

Damien raised his arms and grasped the bars. What now, Bernard?

My hair felt like it knotted against my head.

Something was very wrong.

Bernard unrolled the sheet. His hand trembled as he read in an unsteady voice, After three sunsets, Damien will hereby be executed.

Chapter 2

My heart jackknifed and I grasped my chest. I stared at Bernard like he had a swarm of hornets crawling out of his mouth.

The words gutted me. I heard them, but couldn’t accept them. It took me a few minutes to catch my breath. Despite my inner battle, Damien deserved an investigation.

But it looked like he wouldn’t get one.

I unstuck my tongue from the roof of my mouth. They weren’t only rumors, then? Damien will be executed?

Damien scrubbed his hand over his face. I don’t get a trial? They haven’t proved I committed the murder.

Bernard grasped the edge of the sheet. I’m delivering the message. That’s it. Ms. Tate, you have to leave now. Then he pivoted and marched down the hall to his spot.

The room seemed to shrink, to press on every inch of my body. To squeeze the air out of me.

Suspicion chewed at my insides, yet so did my sense of justice. I couldn’t accept this punishment. No way in fucking hell. I felt a crumb of care for Damien.

Really, I cared for him more than a crumb...a great deal more.

Facing his death pushed me to a new edge. I didn’t have time to process my shock but it made me realize if any chance of his innocence existed, I needed to find out how and why. I had to fight for him.

Maybe I shouldn’t have judged the situation so quickly. Despite what I’d seen, he had offered to help me find my parents, to uncover my shrouded past...and so far, he’d followed through on taking the necessary steps to do that. He’d risked his life for me. And that meant more than words could express.

Perhaps I’d been too hasty. Another possibility could exist.

I needed to help him get free to figure this out. And maybe from there, the budding trust I had with him could grow into something more.

Bernard stared at me and tapped his foot, indicating I leave with his hand. I had to get out of here, to try to scrounge up any shred of evidence to flip this around.

I gripped the bars again. Damien, no matter what happened, I won’t let them kill you.

We’re still enemies according to our clans, I wanted to add, but I didn’t have it in me to argue anymore.

He wrapped his fingers around mine and this time I let him, relishing his warmth and strength the way a part of me wanted. Hurry, Adalee. Three days isn’t very long. And remember, be careful who you trust.

I will. The tension in my body leaked into my voice.

The light in his navy turquoise eyes had dimmed but he managed to flash me his irresistible smile.

I memorized every line of his face. His midnight-black hair hanging over his eyes in a flirtatious way, the sharp slant of his cheekbones speckled in dark stubble, and those full lips that drove me crazy with kisses that took my breath away.

His eyes burning with longing, he leaned forward and dipped his head between two bars. I leaned in, parting my lips for him. He slipped his tongue into my mouth, kissing me with a fiery hunger that tore through my body. I met him with the same urgent desire, thrusting my tongue into his mouth to communicate how much I truly needed him. His touch, his presence. Volcanic heat pooled in my core, and my legs wobbled. I leaned into the bars, threading my fingers into his hair.

This momentary connection felt fragile as if it could snap. Doubt still plagued my mind. It meant everything to me to share this intimate moment.

I broke away, tears blurring my eyes. Then I turned and swept down the hall before Damien said anything else. I needed to carry that tentative link to help motivate me to find the evidence. Needed it to keep my worries at bay while I sorted this out.

My stomach turned as I took the stone, spiral stairs that led to the street and the guard let me out.

Novah stood against the wall, one knee bent with her booted foot resting on the dark stone of the castle wall. What took you so long?

The wall towered above us, leading to white turrets that lined the upper perimeter, and leaving us in a shadow. My shoulders drooped with the weight of the agonizing news that had been delivered. I couldn’t bring myself to answer. Tell you later?

She blinked her emerald and forest green eyes in the mid-morning sun and flashed a half-smile. Sure. Where to?

When I met Novah we rubbed each other in the wrong way, but things had changed after we kicked ass as an FBI team and took Brody, my former boss, down. Novah almost died in the last fight and we’d become closer in the last few weeks.

I grabbed Novah's shoulder so she could sift us. I still couldn’t do it. Not with my Fae magic locked away. Chiara's house. We need to talk.

In a gust of wind, we swooped like riding an elevator and landed in front of our destination. At least it didn’t bother me anymore.

I knocked on the rounded door of Chiara's two-story wooden cottage built at the base of the snowcapped mountains that encircled the Winter Kingdom valley. Some neighbors scowled and whispered to each other while we waited. Novah raised her brows at me.

What the hell was their problem? One of the women looked me up and down, then scrambled into her house. I wished