by Carmen Fox
“Okay. Then... Actually, I don’t know what to do next.” Jonah chuckled and once more adjusted the collar of his crisp, white shirt. “I’ve never hired a detective before.”
Either this guy was a master of manipulation, or deep down, he was genuinely disturbed at having lost one of his own.
What was I thinking? Of course he was upset—which made me a total ass for acting like a spoiled brat. Raven’s wellbeing was his responsibility.
My dad had a close relationship with the whole pack. He was the first non-parent to hold a baby, attended every funeral, dispensed hugs and shoulder slaps as needed, and he never merely went through the motions. Their happiness was important to him. Their grief was his grief.
Jonah, too, would have mourned Raven’s disappearance, and not only was he stuck in this emotional limbo of not knowing what happened to her, he also had to deal with a pack looking for someone to blame.
“It’s all good.” I softened my voice and interlaced my fingers at the edge of the table. “Your e-mail set out the terms, which I’ve already agreed to. I’ll do my best to find her in time. I promise.”
“I appreciate that.”
“All I need from you is to show me where to hang my hat, so to speak, and I’ll get started. Do you have a local cab company I could use? Since I no longer have a car.”
“We don’t have cabs out here, but I have something better. I’ve asked my protector to accompany you during your stay. My pack tends to be suspicious of outsiders, and having him around will make your life easier.”
I fixed Leo with a hopeful stare. Please let it be you.
Jonah pointed a thumb toward a door on his right. “Would you get Drake, Leo?”
“Of course.” Leo sauntered out, hands clasped behind his back.
“Drake gets on well with every member of my pack. Well, you’ve met him. It’s tough not to like him, isn’t it?”
And yet, I’d managed without great difficulty.
“He’ll be such an asset to your investigation.” Once more, his hands flew up to his shirt.
He wasn’t wearing a tie, but I’d bet my new apartment he wasn’t used to tailored clothing at all. That meant he’d made an effort for me and probably got Leo to dress up, too.
Damn it, I was warming to him, despite his underhanded way of getting me here.
The prospect of having to share more breathing space with Drake aside, I hadn’t driven all the way across the America just because Jonah had requested my help. I, too, benefitted from my presence here. What Jonah didn’t know was that my father didn’t have to work all that hard to get me here.
When Jonah called, Dad could have ordered me to take this job. He was my alpha, after all. Instead, he’d used all the arguments in his arsenal to get me here voluntarily. Make allies. Earn favors. Learn about your mother. As usual, I eventually saw his wisdom.
Maybe my mother’s relatives knew why I hadn’t yet been able to shift. Either way, Jonah’s gratitude would help me down the line. No alpha could lead without outside support, and the Wild Pack was one of the largest packs in the U.S.
Steps resonated from the door to my left, and Leo emerged, followed by Drake.
“As I said, consider Drake your personal protector during your stay.” Jonah grinned, proud of his generosity, no doubt.
Drake’s mouth tightened. “If you’re sure you don’t need me.”
“Leo and I will do fine.” Jonah shot Drake a look as fleeting as it was stern.
Clearly Drake didn’t like the idea of following the new kid around any more than me.
“I appreciate your kindness. Really.” I waved Jonah off. “Maybe I should have mentioned it before, but it’s better if I work alone. People are less likely to open up when confronted by two investigators.”
Jonah’s eyes twitched.
Not again. Didn’t he know how tired I was? The crash still haunted my bones, and his constant challenges were draining me to the point where I wanted to curl up and submit.
Pricks clawed up my arms in the thousands and cascaded down my spine, as if my body was frozen in a swarm of fire ants.
I rolled my toes into a foot fist, flexed my thigh and ass muscles against the onslaught, while keeping my shoulders relaxed and my breathing even. Yet how long I’d be able to last was anyone’s guess.
Get a grip. I’d last as long as it took. I had to. Sweat collected on my back and under my arms, the price I paid for my whatever expression. I might not be able to counter Jonah’s dominance, but I wasn’t going to duck or break either. Not in front of him. Not in front of anyone.
Jonah leaned forward. “I insist. You need transportation, and more importantly, you don’t know my pack. Many remember the troubled history from when we declared our independence from the royal packs, so let’s play it safe.” He slapped his palms together and rose to his feet as if powering out his dominance was no big deal. “Now, if you have any questions, call. Otherwise, Drake will see to your needs.”
“I don’t—”
“I said, Drake will see to your needs.”
Just like that, the discussion was over, at least for him. Once again, he’d steamrollered right over my objections.
If I weren’t so useless, I’d have forced him to reconsider his ridiculous demands. What did I need a babysitter for? But I had nothing with which to counter Jonah. Not an ounce of what I needed to assert my authority.
“Fine.” I gave a shrug; aloof on the outside, yet a welcome relief for my aching arms.
The assault stopped, and Jonah looked at me with wide-eyed innocence.
Rather than give him a piece of my mind, I left his hand unshaken and marched my ass out of the room, without waiting for his official dismissal.
“You may go.” Jonah’s voice trailed after me, leading the way of the mother of all dominance displays.
The force of his power nearly made me stumble, but I kept my poise until I was outside his range. It had been years since I’d treated an alpha with such insubordination. Back then, my father had grounded me for a month, but Dad wasn’t here, and Jonah wasn’t my alpha.
Oh, I’d find Jonah’s missing werewolf despite the babysitter, and then I’d watch him eat crow.
Three
Behind me, in Jonah’s office, the three men whispered, and a moment later, steps followed me through the entrance hall.
Drake crossed the space with a languidness that was at odds with his powerful frame. How likely was it that anyone would open up to someone who looked and acted like him? Besides, airing dirty laundry in front of a protector who could make your life miserable? This investigation was doomed before it began.
I picked up my laptop bag.
Drake’s bare arm grazed mine in passing.
My skin tautened then burst into flames. Not literally, but fucking hell. A second later, it was over. I flipped him off with a look, ambled outside after him, and slid my shades down to cover my eyes. Jonah’s power play had already left my flesh raw, but it seemed the Wild Pack wasn’t done with me yet. This new assault was all about Drake getting his own alpha on. Making sure he was the one calling the shots for as long as we worked together. Clearly, he hadn’t met me.
Bring it on, slugger.
Bring.
It.
On.
Drake had parked his pickup to my left, shaded by three massive pine trees. Farther away, farm buildings peppered endless fields, and at the flattest part of my vista, the outlines of Marlontown and its two sister towns, Denville and Robson’s Creek, appeared.
I climbed into the furnace on four wheels and reached through the headrests to place my bag on the backseat again. Drake was already reversing by the time I’d strapped myself in.
With Raven’s file clasped between my hands and my lap, I leaned back and stared out of the window at the “Triangle,” as the locals called the trio of towns.
The road from Jonah’s house was unpaved and almost deserted. All around us stretched open fields, while a relentless su
n left us with nowhere to hide. I only had eyes for the long stretches of woods that encircled us. Forests were magical places of peace and freedom. The smell of moist earth and leaves, the crackle of wind between the canopies... The woods were where I belonged. They were in my blood.
I was born in Germany’s Black Forest, but a forest right here in Marlontown, Colorado was where my dad had met my mother, whose sketchy past was rooted deep within this place.
I tightened my grip on the folder in my lap and inhaled a lungful of hot air. Looking for traces of my mother would have to wait until the morning. Today, Raven would get my full attention.
The road smoothed as we approached the town. We drove past a mildly busy row of cafés and shops, where people walked without hurry, chatted, laughed. Whether they were human or werewolf was impossible to tell. Maybe both. A red-bricked structure had been erected in the center—a type of building with a large arch that spanned the road. A terracotta clock mounted on its tower read four o’clock.
“Is this Marlontown?” I waved a hand to encompass our urban surroundings.
Drake pushed a peppermint into his mouth. “Yeah.”
Not that it mattered either way. The three towns were so close together you were never more than an hour away from anywhere you might want to go. That was another nugget the Internet had shared with me, amid anecdotes of sunflowers, cherry pie and the annual outdoor movie festival. A different world from Chicago, or even my ancestral home in Wildbach, Germany.
I closed my eyes, tried to blank the heat that tightened my skin and made every breath I took painful. The air conditioning in this truck was atrocious. It blew cool air every which way but in my direction.
I rattled the narrow slits to adjust the stuck vent on my side of the truck. “Would you mind if I opened a window?”
“Won’t do you any good.”
This guy had a problem with me, even though getting him to follow me around town hadn’t been my idea. Maybe if we teamed up, we’d get Jonah to change his mind.
“Do you like living here?” I asked to thaw the ice.
“Where else would I live?”
“No, I didn’t mean...” Damn it. Had my question been ambiguous? Most of the time, my English was fine, even accent-free according to my friends, but occasionally, I messed up.
I licked my lips. Straightened. “I meant, what kind of place is this? Does it have everything you need or want?”
Great, now my pronunciation was slipping.
“We’re not starving.” Drake faced the road in front without wavering. “We have shops, you know.”
Now my question sounded stupid, mainly because he’d made it sound stupid.
Jerk.
“You know exactly what I was asking. What do you do for fun? That kind of thing.” I shook my head and muttered, “Seriously.”
“There are lots of outdoor facilities. Plenty of woods to run in, but I thought you were here for work, not for leisure.”
I was all out of small talk and had little desire to strike up another conversation. Not the way Drake sat there, with his lips pressed together so tight, he’d spit diamonds the moment he opened his mouth. Letting him shadow me while I worked? Hell, I’d ditch his ass the moment I got the chance.
I retrieved my cell from my jacket’s inside pocket and checked my email.
No fewer than twenty requests for my services waited in my inbox. A handful of potential clients offered to compensate me handsomely for my time, multiple times better than this gig, while others were looking for pro bono services. The price of success. Since my work on the Society Strangler’s case had become national knowledge, everyone and their dog wanted to hire me, usually for peanuts. Jonah himself hadn’t reached deeply into his coffers either.
The truck slowed, and Drake killed the engine outside an adorable one-family house. Bright blue, it stood at the corner of a quiet intersection, with a covered porch that ran across its width and a looked-after lawn in the front.
I exited before he could open the door and studied the neighborhood, my fingers hooked inside the slim belt that held up my culottes. “Nice.”
“It’s nothing special.”
That dude would come down on the opposite side of whatever I said. Why hadn’t Jonah forced Leo’s company on me? He’d seemed nice enough, even made me feel welcome.
Drake and his coat of silence, meanwhile, headed for the driveway.
I followed, lugging my suitcase with me.
Drake turned and retrieved a set of keys from his jeans pocket. “Did you want to settle in or get started right away?”
“It’s been a long journey.” I dropped the suitcase and blew air up against my forehead. “Mind if we get started in the morning? Say, ten o’clock?”
“No problem. I assume you don’t need the bag you left in my truck?”
I whipped my head around and squinted toward the truck. “Shoot, my laptop. Good call. Would you mind getting it for me?”
“As you wish, princess.” He spread the princess across his tongue like a piece of moldy bread.
That dude needed an attitude adjustment STAT.
“Christ, I’ve had it up to here with you.” I sliced my hand through the air past my nose. “Have I hurt you in any way? Have I damaged your fragile ego? What is it about me that bothers you? The sooner you tell me, the sooner you can get over it.”
“Don’t speak to me that way.” Drake’s voice lowered. “I’m a pack protector and have earned my rank.”
“Doesn’t make you superior.”
“That’s exactly what it does. So while you’re here, you will respect me and you will respect my alpha, is that understood?”
Okay, so his dislike of me had a reason, and I’d brought it on myself. Dissing Jonah the way I did had pissed off his protector big time. My bad. But did Drake seriously think his little outburst would shake my confidence? Puh-lease.
As if I hadn’t gotten enough of that crap at home. From stealing my toys in Kindergarten to tripping me up during gym class—every day, some wolf would sling a test at me, hoping I’d crumble. Over the years, their taunts had hardened my shell and turned my resolve into steel.
I stepped closer until Drake and I stood almost toe-to-toe. Since I didn’t wear heels, my nose only came level with his bottom lip. Jonah was an alpha, and challenging him to a stare-out was a big fat no, but this yahoo?
This was no longer about my stupid laptop. This was about boundaries, and he had to learn his.
I tipped my head back and tensed my muscles against what was no doubt about to hit me.
The hairs on Drake’s jaw zoomed into focus. His breath warmed my face. His eyes, like liquid mercury, could do real damage to a weaker woman’s willpower.
Shit. There it was. The stings and pricks. The dominance to prove his point—and he wasn’t taking prisoners. I latched onto his gaze, focused on the play of silver against the black of his irises.
About ten percent of all wolves possessed alpha pheromones, and those who did were destined to become protectors or leaders. My father was part of that elite group, as was his father before him. As for my mother, Dad always joked she’d been the real boss all along.
But Drake... Man, that dude knew what he was doing. His dominance scraped my skin like sandpaper, sliced into my muscles to weaken them fiber by fiber.
“That all you got?” I gave him a slow-motion smile.
His dominance exploded to full force, driving invisible spikes into my guts. I breathed through the pain, even managed a sarcastic lift of my eyebrows. Jonah might have come close to beating me. This asshole wouldn’t.
Drake’s control over his body bordered on the surreal. Not a muscle in his face moved. His eyelids remained still. Even the breeze obeyed and left his short hair alone.
My smile held, but sweat collected in the small of my back. One of us would have to give in soon. Please, don’t let it be me.
Drake’s eyes darkened, and the burn ate deep into my body.
Come
on, man. Give it up already.
His chest moved once, twice, then a little faster.
I clenched my muscles, focused on the pain. Drew strength from it.
He flared his nostrils.
Gotcha.
He spun on his heels and strolled to his truck as if he hadn’t just established himself as the biggest jerk this side of the Milky Way.
The ache ebbed away. My lungs expanded. I rubbed my neck, still stiff. Were we done? Had I proven myself?
Drake retrieved my laptop bag and slammed the truck door shut. His determined gait looked like he was gearing up for a rematch.
No way.
With one hand pressed against my waist, I cocked my hip and slid my sunglasses down for an evaluating peek over the rim. My earlier rating might have been a little hasty. His even strides were powered by nice legs. His biceps and shoulders flexed as he worked off his frustration. I licked my lips and trailed my gaze across his body. He was a nine and a half, all day long.
He frowned, switched the bag to the left arm, and resumed his walk, less certain now.
I turned and, hips swaying, carried my suitcase up the steps, where I dropped the weight at my feet.
Drake came up behind me and unlocked the door.
I took my bag and keys off him and intensified my smile. “You may go now.”
Then I went inside, suitcase in one hand, bag slung over my shoulder, and gave the door a gentle shove with my ass. Take that.
“Fucking hell,” he mumbled before it fell into the lock.
Like Dad said: Werewolves relied on their pheromones too damn much.
I plodded across the hall’s stone floor and leaned my bag against the wall, letting the AC cool my overheating body. Outside, the pickup’s engine powered to life and gave a painful squeal. Drake strangled his truck, probably because he couldn’t strangle me.
I slid down the wall and buried my face in my hand. Not one part of my body didn’t hurt. Why did I have to prove myself to them in the first place? I had come to help them. Didn’t that mean anything?
