Luke had the account from Maya. They'd been able to reconstruct the exact path the thief had taken, captured her both on video and by scent. And yet no one could remember seeing her when she came in. A dozen people in the house and she had walked off with the proverbial crown jewels.

He walked down two flights of stairs, into a sub-basement that shouldn't have existed. It was a tiny room, really, with just an overhead light and no furniture. They called it the Cage, but the name didn't ring true. There were no bars here, just a steel door with a handle on the outside. The only other way in the room was through a five inch wide vent in the ceiling. No creature that Luke knew of could fit through it, at least nothing that could also look human. And this woman definitely looked human.

Though he found that he missed the red hair.

He let the steel door close behind him and studied his captive. Not many people threw themselves on the mercy of an alpha. In some territories it would be suicide. In others, it would be worse. Especially for a woman as beautiful as the one reclining against the stone wall. At the moment her beauty was mostly a remembered thing. She wore all black clothing which disguised her figure and yet gave her plenty of range of motion, and covered her face with a balaclava. In any other circumstance, his cats would have stripped her of the mask, but as it was, no one could touch her.

No one except for him.

That shouldn't have excited him. He wasn't that type of man, but Katie – or whoever she was – had been haunting his dreams. The things he could do to her now...But he wouldn't. There were lines that a man didn't cross.

He studied the thief. For all that she sat in a cell, she seemed relaxed. Though in her line of work he doubted that this was her first time in a cage. She had one leg drawn up with an arm resting on her knee. Her head was tilted back against the wall. And yet her eyes studied him with a calculated coldness. Then they darted away, taking in the rest of the room.

"How many ways out do you have?" He found himself asking.

The woman smiled and Luke felt his heart thump. She didn't try to hide behind a smile - she let the predator shine through. "There is only one door." Her voice was lower than it had been at the bar and he wondered if this was what she really sounded like.

"One door out of this room, yes. But I'm sure you've accounted for that." He almost took a step towards her, but he held himself back. There were only four feet between them already, no need to close the distance.

"You would think."

Luke slid down to sit against the door. It felt wrong to tower over her. "I take it your name isn't Katie." He felt ridiculous talking to a masked woman, and there was no way it could be comfortable to sit with that thing on her face. Luke leaned over and grabbed the balaclava, pulling it off of her and revealing brown hair and the rest of the face that he thought he knew so well. He remembered the green eyes, but without the red hair, they looked duller. And she'd covered the dusting of freckles on one cheek when they first met. But her face wasn't lopsided, if anything he liked it better. He felt himself smile. "Would you care to enlighten me?"

She opened her mouth but bit back whatever she planned to say. It was never a wise move to lie to the man who held ultimate power over life or death. "Mel."

It was a start. "Is there anything to go with that?" There had to be hundreds of Mels in the world, with no last name, no full name, he didn't know if his security squad could find out more about her.

But she only smiled. "I'm Mel," she said the words as if explaining to a child that the sky was blue.

"I'm Luke, but you already knew that." If they were explaining the obvious, he figured he'd play along. "Why did you ask for mercy?" He didn't have all night, though if he let himself forget he might stay talking to her for far too long. The ground was more comfortable here than he remembered.

Mel swallowed and looked away, this time Luke was sure she wasn't planning an escape. "My mom always told me never to fight lions. I don't know if she was being metaphorical." A strange expression crossed her face, fondness and regret. "I didn't even know what metaphorical mea..." She shook her head and flattened her expression. Mel took a second and then looked over, her eyes shining bright, "You have a reputation as a man of honor."

Luke's inner lion preened. But this wasn't the time to bask in compliments. "And a man of honor wouldn't execute a thief?" The words tasted like ash on his tongue. He couldn't even conjure up an image of her death, though he should have been reveling in plans of vengeance. Strange, and he had no idea why.

"Not without a trial." She curled her arm up so that her elbow was positioned on her knee and rested her head on her hand. "So are you honorable, Mr. Torres?"

"My sister might argue the point." He didn't want to talk about his sister with this woman. He had no reason to, but he couldn't stop himself. "Do you have any?"

Mel's eyebrows shot up and she almost recoiled. He only noticed it in the bunching of the muscles of her neck. She didn't answer for over a minute, he didn't think she would. But his Mel was full of surprises. "I suppose I don't," she said quietly.

Luke leaned toward her. He told himself that it was so that he could hear her clearly, but he could hear a possum dart through the forest from five hundred feet away. He didn't play foolish games, not even with himself. But he also didn't pull away. "You just suppose?" She smelled like the forest, mud mixed with sweat. He hadn't ever realized how alluring that was.

Mel angled her body towards his and looked at his lips while she spoke. Luke would have looked away from her face to keep himself under control, but something kept his gaze trained on her. "No, no sister. No family at all." Her hand reached up and brushed away some of the hair that had fallen into his eyes.

Luke hadn't realized that he was within touching distance. He grabbed her hand and pulled it down in front of him. The hands of a thief shouldn't have been so delicate. He traced the thin line up the center of her palm and felt her hand contract at the contact. But he only pulled her closer. Her hand was only inches from his lips when she jerked it back.

Then Luke did back up. He stood, forcing himself backwards across the room and putting as much space in between them as possible. What the hell was he thinking?

"Where is the stone?" He demanded, his voice unforgiving.

"I don't have it." She spoke so quickly that he knew she'd been anticipating the question.

He knew that Maya had caught her before she could make it anywhere and there had been no other scents to report. No one else was on his property with her. She had to be lying. "Stand up," he commanded.

Mel stood up with a bright smile. She moved languidly, stretching as she straightened to her full height. That night at the bar he thought she was much shorter than him, but now the height difference didn't seem as great. She could look right into his eyes while barely tilting her head. "Are you going to pat me down?"

That had been the plan, but looking at her, Luke reconsidered. Because he really, really, wanted to get his hands on her. He kept his distance. "Am I going to find anything if I do?"

She grinned, he could see the girl she must have been at some point. Bright, happy, and full of mischief. "What kind of thief would I be then?" She let her response sink in and changed the subject. "Was it the girl that tipped you off?"

Luke's brow furrowed. "Excuse me?"

Her eyes narrowed and she leaned in a little. "By my count I should have had at least thirty more seconds. A blonde girl saw me, did she tell you? Or was my estimate just off by that much?"

There were plenty of blondes in the pack, but only one who was in the house at the time. Luke advanced on Mel, slamming her against the wall and pinning her hands with his own. "You go near her, and I will kill you, do you understand?" He growled it, inside he roared.

Mel didn't look scared, she smiled, but he could feel the terrified beat of her heart with each pulse of blood through her veins. "She seemed a bit young for you. But I've got no beef with your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend." Luke didn't mean to say it. He wasn't going to tell Mel anything she didn't need to know. Especially when it came to Cassie, but he didn't want her thinking there was an entanglement that didn't exist. He let go and stepped back. "Cooperate with my people. Someone will come talk to you later."

He knocked once on the door and was let out by the guards.