Undercover Wolf

by Paige Tyler

  “Hold your position.” Caleb’s voice was soft in his radio earpiece. “Patrol moving past up top.”

  Shit.

  Sawyer hugged the cliff face, holding his breath and trying to make himself disappear into a crack not nearly big enough to hide in. Somewhere above him, he heard the tread of heavy boots as guards walked along the perimeter of the monastery. The aforementioned guards were the reason Sawyer, Jake, and Caleb decided to climb the mountain free solo. Going without anchors, ropes, or gear of any kind increased the chances one of them would fall, but all it would take was one metal carabiner smacking against a rock when one of those guards was nearby and they’d have a dozen automatic weapons pointed in their direction. Exposed as they were on the side of the mountain, they’d be dead for sure.

  Sawyer was still hugging the rocks when Harley whispered over the radio that she and Misty were in the line to board the aerial tram and about to get their invitations checked. While he was worried about Harley’s makeup and fake ID holding up, he was glad she wasn’t on the mountainside with him. The thought of her dangling by her fingers from a rock ledge the way he was at the moment made him want to throw up.

  Thankfully, she’d been able to pass as one of the buyers attending the auction. Forrest, too. Jes had been able to use prosthetics, wigs, and makeup to make them look exactly like the real people they were pretending to be. Sawyer had watched the whole transformation and been seriously impressed with the STAT agent’s work. He hadn’t even recognized Harley afterward.

  Misty and Erin were accompanying Harley and Forrest as their personal assistants. They didn’t look nearly as close in appearance to the real people even with Jes’s makeup magic, but hopefully whoever was checking the invitations wouldn’t pay much attention to them.

  Since he, Jake, and Caleb were too big to consider getting into the auction as prospective buyers, they’d slip in with the security guards once they made it to the mountain top. With the makeup Jes had done to hide their features, hopefully none of the bad guys would recognize them from their previous encounters in Paris and Morocco. That said, Sawyer wasn’t thrilled with wearing the latex appliances on his face that changed the shape of his jaw and chin. They made his skin itch.

  Unfortunately, Jes, Elliott, and Rory hadn’t been able to match the rest of the team up with any of the auction attendees, and because none of them was comfortable climbing the mountain, the plan had been for them to stay down at the base of the mountain and rescue each of the supernaturals purchased at the auction as they were brought down on the tram if things went sideways. Then, a few hours ago, they’d learned Boc was bringing in known criminals from the Athens area to do some work for the night. Sawyer had no idea what the work entailed, but it had been incredibly easy to slip Rory, Jes, Elliot, and Adriana, of all people, in that way. Thanks to a little makeup, no one would recognize them, either.

  “The guard is gone,” Caleb said over the radio. “The coast is clear.”

  Sawyer started climbing again, moving a little faster now. He didn’t want to get caught out here.

  Makeup or no makeup, it was probably crazy to allow Adriana to come with them. But she’d insisted she could help them with the rescue by using her powers to take out the monastery’s power grid, shut down the tram, or even zap a few guards if that’s what they wanted her to do.

  “I need to be there for Kristoff. If he dies up there and I did nothing to stop it, I’ll never be able to live with myself,” she said tearfully. “He saved my life. I have to help save his.”

  It was that heartfelt plea that had finally made Sawyer and Jake agree to let her come with them. Who could say no to someone when all they wanted to do was save their boyfriend’s life? Besides, how could they go wrong having someone with them who could electrocute anyone who pissed her off?

  Harley came on the radio again, letting them know she, Misty, Forrest, and Erin were boarding the tram and that there hadn’t been any problems with the invitations. Someone had simply checked names off a list.

  Sawyer breathed a sigh of relief at that.

  He grinned as he thought of the past two days he and Harley had spent together. After years of trying to make relationships work, he’d finally met a woman who completely got him. They clicked without any effort at all, even if all they’d had time to do was sit around in their hotel rooms or pull shifts at the surveillance villa and talk while eating souvlaki and gyros.

  Sure, they’d kissed some more, and damn, it’d been amazing. He would have liked to do more than kiss, but they’d been too busy getting ready for the raid on the mountaintop monastery to do more than steal a few moments together here and there. So, he’d settled for what he could get…and taken a lot of cold showers.

  But even if they mostly spent their time talking, that was fine, too. She’d been surprised when he told her that his mum and dad knew he was a werewolf, but also happy to know they still loved him anyway. It made him want to fly to Colorado right then and lambaste her family for turning their backs on her. He was glad she’d at least found a new family in her pack. He hadn’t ever thought about werewolves being part of a pack, mostly because he didn’t realize there were that many of them around. He had to admit, his inner wolf was curious about what it would be like to be part of one.

  While he’d definitely enjoyed getting to know Harley better, there’d been one glaring reality that overshadowed every moment they spent together. As soon as this mission was done—very likely in a few hours from now—he and Harley would go their separate ways. They could keep in contact with each other, of course, but with their jobs, there was little chance of that working out. Sawyer rarely stayed in one place for long and never had a clue where he’d be the next day, much less the next week. He couldn’t imagine making something with Harley work long distance, even if admitting it hurt more than he would ever have thought possible.

  Sawyer was so wrapped up in thoughts of Harley and the disappointment over how he knew this thing with her was going to end, he only realized he was getting to the top of the mountain when Caleb whispered over the radio for him and Jake to freeze again, that there was another guard walking right above them who was close enough to the parapet to see over the side.

  The warning caught him out in the open again, this time barely ten feet from the top of the mountain, reaching for the next handhold, tips of his boots barely finding purchase on the tiny ledge beneath him. He looked left and right, desperate to find someplace to hide—because where he was now, they’d see him for sure—but there was nothing, not above him or to either side. So he did the only thing he could.

  He let go.

  It seemed like he fell forever in a single heartbeat, scrabbling for anything that would save his life. When his fingers finally caught on a ledge of rock, his shoulders almost tore out of their sockets.

  Cursing, he hung there, his heart beating fast at the realization of how close he’d come to buying it.

  Boots thudded across rough stone somewhere above him, reminding him that dying on this mountain was still a distinct possibility. Holding on to the narrow ledge with a single hand, he slowly inched the other toward the pistol strapped to his right thigh.

  “Don’t move,” Jake warned over the radio, his voice urgent. “The guard must have heard you falling and is leaning over to take a look. I don’t think he can see you from where he is, but don’t move anyway.”

  “I don’t think”?

  That didn’t exactly fill Sawyer with confidence. Especially when the boots came to a stop directly above where he was dangling.

  “The guy is right on top of me,” he murmured into his mic, reaching for his pistol again. “If he sees me, it’s over.”

  Hand on his weapon, Sawyer glanced up to see the guard looking right back at him with wide eyes.

  Shit.

  He pulled his pistol at the same time the guard leaned out over the parapet, angling his
own weapon to line up for a shot. Then, out of nowhere, a big hand reached around from behind the guy and grabbed his chin, giving it a twist. The snap it made was loud enough to echo off the rock walls around him.

  A moment later, Caleb leaned over, eyeing him curiously, like he was wondering what the hell Sawyer was doing down there. Then again, maybe the omega was waiting for him to fall. Something told Sawyer that Caleb wouldn’t be too upset about that.

  “You done screwing around down there?” Caleb demanded.

  Sawyer had the distinct sensation the omega didn’t like him much. Maybe Caleb knew about him and Harley and, for some reason, didn’t approve of it.

  Shoving his pistol back in its holster, Sawyer quickly climbed the rest of the way to the top of the mountain. When he got there, Caleb watched him pull himself over the parapet, then turned and walked away, muttering something about checking for other guards. Sawyer shook his head. Oh yeah. Caleb definitely knew there was something going on between him and Harley and didn’t like it one bit.

  Looking around, Sawyer took in the tall hedges and flowering plants. They’d picked this side of the mountain as their entry point because it was behind the monastery and directly opposite where the tram dropped off the guests. From where he stood, Sawyer could see the tile-covered rooftops of five different buildings and while he could hear people moving around the property, none of them were close to him and the other werewolves.

  “We all made it to the top,” Jake reported over the radio as he crouched down beside the guard Caleb had killed.

  Sawyer moved over to help him check the dead man’s uniform, pulling off the radio and earpiece. Jake listened in on the bad guys’ communications while Sawyer took a quick look at the guard’s tactical gear, confirming it was an exact match for the stuff the three of them were wearing, right down to the MP5 submachine gun they’d brought with them. That would help them blend in.

  Sawyer could hear chatter coming through the guard’s earpiece. It sounded like someone doing a security check-in. That was definitely a problem. As soon as whoever was on the other end didn’t get a response from the guard, they’d know he was out of commission.

  “The dead guy’s call sign is kilo-one-one,” Caleb said, coming over to join them. “I heard him say it before I snapped his neck.”

  Jake slipped the radio in his tactical vest and the bud in his left ear, since the one for their own team radio was already in his right. “I’ll listen for it and respond if necessary.”

  “Where are we going to hide the body?” Sawyer asked.

  Maybe they could get away with shoving it under a hedge. There was a chance another guard could find it while on patrol, but it was either that or drag the dead man into one of the nearby buildings that was unoccupied.

  Caleb snorted and picked up the man’s body without a word, then slung it over the wall. It made a thud as it hit the ground far, far below.

  “There. The body has been hidden.” Turning, Caleb headed toward the monastery buildings. “You ready to do this?”

  Sawyer glanced at Jake, who shrugged and keyed his mic, telling the rest of the team that they were moving into position.

  * * *

  Harley moved to the front of the fancy aerial tram, gazing through the spotless glass window as they slowly approached the well-lit monastery atop the mountain. In the glass, she could see her face reflected back at her, the long, flowing black wig; brown contacts; and tan foundation making her unrecognizable.

  Misty stood slightly behind her, while Forrest and Erin were on the far side of the crowded tram chatting with some of the other hopeful buyers, all smiles and fake laughs like they were attending an evening social and not an auction were they intended to buy another living, breathing creature.

  Out the corner of her eye, Harley could see Misty casually tapping on an iPad, making a show of scanning the currency figures listed under a number of international banks. Every once in a while, she’d move closer to Harley to point at something as if going over the status of available funds so she’d know exactly how much money she had for tonight’s auction. The funny part was that the overflowing bank accounts Misty was busy skimming through were real and so was all the wealth they contained. The not-so-funny part was that the real Abella Herrera, the Spanish socialite Harley was impersonating, would have used that money to purchase a supernatural.

  Abella had anchored her yacht off the nearby coastal village of Alexandrini late last night, planning to make the short two-hour drive into Kalambaka for the auction. But the real Abella and her assistant wouldn’t be going anywhere. Thanks to Jake and Jes, both of them—along with the ship’s entire crew—were passed out cold in their staterooms and would remain that way until sometime tomorrow. If Abella called the police, it would seem like they’d all been victims of a small carbon monoxide leak from the yacht’s engine compartment.

  As they neared the top of the mountain, Harley heard Caleb saying something over the radio about holding their position because a guard was walking past their part of the cliff face. Her heart clenched in her chest.

  Harley hated the entire idea of Sawyer being on the side of the damn mountain with Jake and Caleb from the get-go. The thought of him out there on that smooth rock, risking a fall that could kill or seriously injure him, had nearly given her an anxiety attack. She wanted to say she had no idea why it was making her feel this way, but that’d be a lie.

  She had a serious thing for Sawyer.

  Since that night they’d kissed in the villa, they’d spent every free minute taking surveillance shifts together, then slipping away for meals on their own, even going for walks around town in the middle of the night.

  And in between, they kissed and then kissed some more.

  Harley had no idea what was going on, but it was impossible to ignore the chemistry between the two of them. When his lips were on hers, it was like getting zapped by Adriana, but in the best possible way. If they weren’t in the middle of a covert operation, where their entire focus needed to be on stopping this auction, Harley would have jumped him three or four times already. That wasn’t something she’d normally do. While she’d slept with a few guys since becoming a werewolf, and obviously some before, none of them had generated the same intense desire that Sawyer did by simply kissing her. In the darkest hours of the morning, when she was all by herself in bed, Harley could admit she was falling hard for him.

  And the reality of their situation scared the hell out of her. If this mission went well tonight, Sawyer would almost certainly go back to the UK with the rest of his MI6 team and they’d probably never see each other again. The thought was enough to make her feel physically ill.

  To make matters worse, she was pretty sure Caleb knew there was something going on. She’d caught him eyeing her and Sawyer more than a few times over the past two days. Jumping up and running out of the room during the mission briefing after Sawyer and Jake had overruled her objections to climbing the mountain hadn’t helped. The expression on Caleb’s face made her think he knew exactly what the deal was, which wasn’t only crazy, but also impossible since she didn’t know what the deal was herself.

  Harley was still wondering what she was going to do about Sawyer—and Caleb—when she heard Jake urgently saying something on the radio about a guard coming to take a look. Had he said Sawyer fell?

  She gripped the railing around the inside of the tram, swaying a little on her feet.

  The tram shuddered a bit as they reached the topside station, but Harley ignored it as she strained to hear something that would tell her Sawyer was okay. She didn’t realize her claws had extended and embedded themselves in the polished hardwood of the handrail until Misty reached out and put a gentle hand on her forearm. Her claws weren’t out more than a quarter inch, but considering they hadn’t made an appearance in eight years, she was a little stunned.

  On the radio, Caleb was sarcastically a
sking if someone was done screwing around. That someone had to be Sawyer, which meant he was still around to rag on. But she refused to breathe easier until she heard Jake announcing they’d all made it to the top. Finally prying her claws out of the wooden railing, she turned to see if anyone had noticed. No one was looking at her curiously. Except Misty, of course. Harley nodded, silently letting her teammate know she was okay. Good thing, too, because the door of the tram slid back with a pneumatic hiss.

  Showtime.

  “This way, please,” a man in an expensive suit said in a slightly accented voice from where he stood outside the door.

  Harley almost froze as she recognized Long Hair, the guy who could appear and disappear at will. The one who’d stabbed her. She tried not to flinch when the man’s dark gaze swept the tram, but if he recognized her and Misty, he gave no sign of it.

  “If you’ll form a line right out here, we can do a security check and scan your invitations, then get you on your way,” he said.

  The first person who stepped out of the tram, a distinguished-looking man in his midsixties with perfectly styled hair and neatly trimmed salt-and-pepper beard, frowned like he’d sucked a lemon. “We already presented our invitation down below.”

  “And now you’re showing them to me,” Long Hair said coldly. “Or you can turn and get back on the tram. Your choice.”

  The older man reached into an inside jacket pocket for his invitation and held it out with a disdainful expression. “Do you know who I am?”

  Long Hair didn’t say anything as he scanned the matrix bar code on the back of the card with an iPad. Harley couldn’t see what it displayed, but Long Hair scrolled down and back up, studying whatever it was as a burly guard ran a handheld metal detector over the older man.

  “I do now, Mr. Caron.” Long Hair gave him a cool smile. “As well as everything else I’d ever want to know about you. Have a nice evening.”