by Alisa Woods
She threw him a look like he was insane and disappeared into the safehouse.
He was still chuckling in her wake, but Daniel’s serious look killed all his smiles.
“I wanted to talk to you, Noah,” he said.
Oh shit. This couldn’t be good. “Yeah?”
“How are you doing?” Daniel asked, his voice grave.
Damn. This was about the experiments. “Great! Better than Jimmy, I imagine. How’s that guy doing?”
Daniel scowled at his dodge. “He’s fine. Lost a lot of blood. Concussion. Nothing he won’t heal from by the end of the day.”
“That’s good to hear,” Noah said lightly. “Maybe I should go say hi and give him some moral support—”
“Noah.” His brother had that look—the I’m the big brother, you’re going to listen to me look.
Fuck. “Daniel, I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine. You underwent a whole shit-load of experimentation and washed out of the Army on a medical leave.”
“I didn’t wash out,” he ground out between his teeth. “That was just an excuse to come home. Thought you guys could use some help, for fuck’s sake.”
That excuse was at least plausible. There were multiple, active investigations going on related to the hate group’s activities. His cousin Nova’s pack had bagged one of the bad guys—a sick fuck who liked to make videos about dismembering wolves and had actually kidnapped her—but the Wolf Hunter was someone else. It was hard to tell if there were multiple people involved in the hate group or if it was just random vigilantes who were inspired by the Wolf Hunter’s videos. Some of both, probably. Right now, Riverwise was focused on putting the WildLove bomber out of business. As a result, a lot of Riverwise business got done here at the safehouse, where everyone was, well, safe.
But Daniel obviously wasn’t buying this idea that Noah had returned just to help out.
His brother narrowed his eyes. “You wouldn’t voluntarily come within a hundred miles of the Colonel, not if you could avoid it,” he said. “You’re not fooling me, Noah. Something happened in Afghanistan. What is it?”
Noah sucked in a breath and avoided Daniel’s piercing stare. “Nothing I can’t handle.” Which was true. He could keep his beast under control, shift when he needed to, just like when he demonstrated his wolf nature to Emily. He just didn’t want anyone in the shifter community to know what he’d become. A white wolf. She was right about them being legend… only that legend was part of his family. His grandfather’s generation, to be precise, where the beta who broke up the Wilding pack by fucking the alpha’s mate was a white wolf. Only white wolves weren’t really wolves at all… they were some kind of male witch. Bobby Wilding was the beta, and the secret family shame was that the five sons born to the alpha, Gary Wilding, might actually have been fathered by Bobby. Only no one knew for sure if any of them had.
Until now.
Noah was pretty damn sure his father, the Colonel, was actually the son of the white wolf, Gary Wilding. The Colonel was one of those five brothers who scattered to the winds and formed the sprawling Wilding packs. He also messed around with Noah’s genetics with his experiments. Once Noah had returned to Afghanistan, it became abundantly clear that his genetic code had something from the white wolf buried deep inside it.
His grandfather was, in fact, Bobby Wilding—which was so fucked up, it wasn’t funny. Because being a white wolf meant Noah wasn’t a wolf at all, not really. And the things he could do, the things he’d discovered in Afghanistan… that shit needed to stay buried, just like the secret family shame that it was.
“Noah, I’m trying to help you,” Daniel said, finally breaking the awkward silence between them.
“Don’t need your help, bro,” Noah said tightly. “How about you just leave me alone?”
Daniel just glared icily at him. Thankfully, that was interrupted by Piper re-emerging from the safehouse.
Noah gave her an overly wide smile. “Hey, sis, I thought you getting busy—”
The dead serious look on her face cut him off. “There’s been another car bomb.”
“What?” Daniel said, his face twisting up.
Dammit. “I was hoping we had the guy,” Noah said.
“You better come inside.” Piper disappeared back through the doorway.
Daniel grabbed his arm before he could follow his sister. “We’re not done talking about this.”
Noah wrenched his arm free. “Actually, we are.” He strode toward the front door and hurried inside, where Jace, Piper, Jaxson, and several other wolves were gathered at the far end of the great room. It had been turned into a war room of sorts—maps of Seattle pinned to the wall, a bank of computers set up on tables to the side, pictures of the grisly aftermath of the car bombings, suspects, and other evidence. Jaxson, the alpha of the River pack and one of the River brothers who ran Riverwise, was nominally in charge of the operation, but everyone was pulling their weight.
Jaxson lifted his chin to acknowledge Noah striding up. “We’ve got a copycat.”
“I thought we were keeping this quiet,” Noah protested. “How can we have a copycat, if no one knows what’s been happening?”
“Well, someone does,” Jaxson replied. “How’s it going at WildLove? Any leads?”
“Not yet.” Noah grimaced. “In fact, they’re completely shut down now. Are we sure this is a WildLove hookup?”
“Yeah,” Jaxson said grimly. “Jared’s on the scene—he was in the area—and the girl is freaking out. The shifter is in critical condition. The girl says she made the connection last week, originally planned a hookup last weekend, but it got rescheduled to this afternoon.”
Shit. “So there could be more hookups out there, waiting to happen,” Noah said, “even though WildLove’s shut down. Previous connections who are just now getting together.”
“Right,” Jaxson said. “There have to be tons of connections out there that have already been made. I think we need to open WildLove up again but carefully control it. Stake out each and every hookup.”
“There’s no way we can do that,” Jace spoke up. “There are too many of them. Plus, it’s just too dangerous for the parties involved.”
“Then find me a better solution,” Jaxson said with a taut stare around at the gathered wolves.
Daniel spoke up. “If we shut WildLove down permanently, eventually the hookups will drop off.”
Noah frowned. That wouldn’t be the end of the world, although it would mean Emily and her co-workers would be out of jobs. And there would be a lot of horny wolves not getting any action… also not a tragedy, not compared to people dying.
“Not fast enough,” Piper said. “And what if people die in the meantime?”
She had a point.
Noah gave her a nod of support. “Besides, the hookups could just go underground. People will find each other another way, maybe on the other apps that are out there. Ones we won’t have access to. Besides, we don’t know for sure if it’s the app that’s leading the bomber, or bombers, to the couple, or if the humans are somehow involved.”
“It has to be the app. There’s no connection between the women that we’ve been able to find.” Jaxson rubbed his hand over his face. “And I don’t really think this is a copycat. Two separate lunatics don’t randomly decide to car bomb hookups on WildLove, especially when it hasn’t made the news. They have to be working together, probably part of the hate group.”
Noah frowned. “You’re probably right about that.”
Jace added, “And if they’re both part of the same organization, it’s possible they can lead us to the Wolf Hunter himself.”
“Exactly,” Jaxson said. “If we can catch this second guy, we can connect the two bombers and find the rest of the network.”
“All right,” Noah said with a sigh. “I’ll head back to the agency. See if I can talk them into opening up WildLove again so we can try to entrap this second bomber.”
Jaxson nodded. “Report back w
hen you’ve got a plan for us.”
“Copy that.” Noah spun around and headed for the door.
Daniel tried to catch his eye on the way out, but ignoring his brother’s pointed looks was a skill Noah had honed long ago. And besides, he’d much rather be back at the agency working with their hot lead programmer, trying to catch the bad guys, than hanging around the safehouse getting interrogated by his all-too-strident brother. And not just because Noah didn’t want to spill his secrets. In a way, he loved Daniel just as much as he loved his sister, Piper, although he’d rather take a bullet than say that out loud. But Daniel didn’t need to know the truth about their grandfather. He didn’t need to know that all three of them—Noah, Piper, and Daniel—were descended from a white wolf.
It would tear his straight-laced brother apart.
“No way! A wolf gave you his number?” Sophie asked with awe in her voice. She was Emily’s best friend, a fellow programmer for WildLove and, at the moment, she was attacking her salad like it had committed a personal grievance against her. Then she leaned forward. “This is your chance, Emily. You’ve totally got to do this.”
Emily shook her head and picked at her own lunch. It was her favorite chicken Caesar salad, the one she had every day, but her stomach had been a giant bundle of squirming anxiety all morning. She could hardly focus at all with a ridiculously sexy shifter looking over her shoulder. Eventually, Noah had gotten sick of her bumbling around and coming up with nothing from WildLove’s masses of data. He left, saying he had to check in with his company, Riverwise, at some safe location they had in the mountains, but she was sure he was just frustrated at her lame inability to function around him. Once he was gone, she had been able to concentrate, but she still hadn’t come up with anything that would explain how the car bomber knew she and Noah were having a hookup last night, much less where. All that data was in the secure chat room that she’d specifically designed to have ultra-tight security. Only the two WildLovers planning a hookup had access… and anyone inside the agency. Which once again pointed to a mole. Which made her stomach fist up into more knots.
“I don’t know, Soph,” Emily said, still poking at her food. “I don’t think I can hook up with Noah now.”
“What are you talking about?” Sophie stared at her like she was crazy… and she probably was for not instantly taking Noah up on his offer. “He’s hot. He’s already kissed you. He knows who you are and what you do—this is even better than a WildLove hookup. He’s given you his number, for God’s sake.”
“That’s just it.” Emily sighed and gave up on her salad. She simply had no appetite. “It was supposed to be a one-night thing. Now that I know him, it’s not the same.”
“Why not? You could still agree that it’s just temporary.” She flicked her fork in the air like it was a whip. “Go ride some wild wolf for a night, then move on and find a real boyfriend. One who will bring you pizza and a movie when you feel like crap, like my William.” That was Sophie’s boyfriend—they nerded-out together big time, going to cons, gaming, the works. Sophie tamed her fork and used it on her salad again. “You don’t want a relationship with a shifter, anyway—they’ve got too many problems. That whole hate group thing with people trying to blow them up. Besides, there are good human men out there, Emily, you just need to get over your, you know, issues.” She leaned forward again. “This could be really good for you, Em. It’s what you need.”
Her best friend was probably right about that—she usually was. And she knew more about Emily than anyone else on the planet, including Emily’s useless family. The two of them had been roommates all through college, and Emily brought her on board at Seattle Shifters as soon as she’d scored the lead programmer position. Sophie was cool, normal, and super kind—and she knew all about Emily’s past. Emily should listen to her, but her gut was saying run away with the volume of an eighteen-wheeler bearing down on her at sixty miles an hour.
She put down her fork and bunched up her napkin, twisting it in her hands. “I thought being with a shifter for one night would get me over the past. But now, everything’s messed up.”
“I still wish you would have told me about this hookup plan of yours,” Sophie said with a scowl. “Regardless of your complete lack of faith in me as a true friend, the plan itself is brilliance. And for the record, I would’ve totally supported you, had I known. This is exactly what you need to move past what happened with your uncle. It’s been five years, Em. It’s time. Even your therapist would agree with me.”
“I gave up on the therapist last year. Wasn’t going anywhere.” The truth was, Emily had buried herself in her work instead… and an obsession with shifters. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time—she couldn’t keep going back to her therapist, week after week, with no sign of progress. And really, no desire to change anything in her safe, comfortable life.
“Yeah, I figured.” Sophie jabbed her fork at Emily again. “And I think that was a mistake, too. But I’m telling you, none of that matters now. You’ve got this guy who wants to be with you. And he’s a good guy, right?”
A hot trickling feeling went through Emily. “He’s amazing, Soph. You don’t even know. Brave and selfless, and he’s got this cute sense of humor… he’s really everything I could’ve hoped for in a one-time, super-hot romantic fling.”
Sophie held her hands up. “See? That’s what I’m saying. It’s the WildLove motto—Wild For a Night—come to life. You know you’ll be safe, and these guys are hunkalicious—if I didn’t have my William, I’d be all over test driving some wolf myself.”
Emily’s mouth dropped open. “It’s totally against the rules, Soph!”
“You’re kidding me right?” She smirked. “Come on, Em. You don’t even have to break the rules to be with him now—he gave you his number! He’s safe and wonderful. Perfect for you. I don’t see the problem.”
Emily groaned in frustration. “The problem is that I’m not a wolf.”
Sophie narrowed her eyes. “If you were a wolf, you’d have clawed the fuck out of that asshole uncle of yours. And you wouldn’t even be in this situation. Your point is moot.”
Emily just squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.
But Sophie wasn’t giving up. “Besides, I don’t understand why that makes any difference. So, you’re human—so what? If WildLove has proven anything, it’s that humans and shifters will get it on, all day long—and have a hell of a good time doing it. Why can’t you be part of that? You, more than anyone else I know, deserves to get laid by a hot shifter.”
Emily opened her eyes but kept them fixed on her plate. “I don’t want to get hurt, Soph,” she said softly.
Sophie hesitated, then said, “I thought you believed shifters were the good guys. That’s the whole idea, right? Shifters are safe.”
“It’s not that.” Emily peered up. “It’s because it’s temporary. And I’m human. Even if Noah wanted more than one night…” Her eyes glazed over, just thinking about it. Someone like Noah—strong and sexy and brave? Having him for real was an impossible dream. She sucked in a breath and blew it out. “He’ll take a mate someday. A shifter mate. He won’t want anything to do with me after one roll in the sheets. Two at the outside.”
Sophie put down her fork and threw both hands in the air. “I thought that’s what you wanted!”
“I’ve spent all of a couple hours with him, Soph, and I’m already… let’s just say, I can already feel the heartbreak coming. And I don’t know if I can withstand it. It would have been so much easier if we’d just done it at the motel. I have to just forget about Noah that way. Once WildLove is back online, maybe I’ll try again. I’ll study the database and find the perfect wolf to be my dream one night stand.”
Sophie just shook her head. “You’re going to regret this.”
Emily picked up her fork again and took her frustrations out on her salad. “Probably.”
Her best friend pulled in a breath and, mercifully, changed subjects. “How long d
o you think we’re going to be shut down?”
“I don’t know.” Emily dropped her fork again, disgusted. “I’m doing everything I can. But if we don’t figure out this thing soon, I don’t see how WildLove can keep going, honestly. I mean, as long as there’s a danger to shifters, we can’t in good conscience open it up again.”
“Shit.” Sophie grimaced. “What about our jobs?”
Emily just shrugged one shoulder. “These are people’s lives were talking about, Soph.”
“Yeah, I know.” But she worried at her lip with her teeth.
Emily pointed a finger at her. “And you need to keep all this quiet. If we’ve got a mole at the agency, I don’t want to give them a head’s up that I’m hunting for them. And don’t feed any of the rumors I’m sure are running all around the office today.” She sighed and pushed back from her seat, fumbling to get her phone and purse together. “I should get back to work. It’s hard for me to do anything when Noah’s around—my body goes into Lust Overdrive Mode just being in the same airspace. I should get stuff done now, in case he comes back.”
Sophie leaned back and crossed her arms. “I stand by my original point on this issue—you should jump that wolf as long as the offer is still open.”
Emily huffed a small, mirthless laugh. “It’s probably already expired. I’ll catch you later.”
She left her friend to finish her meal, but she could feel her worried stare on her back all the way out. Sophie really was the best. She just didn’t understand what a mess the inside of Emily’s head was… and how torn up she was already feeling, both terrified and hopeful that Noah Wilding might have returned to the office while she was out at lunch. Any more involvement, and she would tumble into a deep, dark place when he inevitably broke it off.
And that wasn’t something she could afford to do.
“I’m sure Emily can find a way to make it work,” Noah said.
He was back in the CEO’s office of Seattle Shifters, arguing with Marjorie about the need to open up WildLove again.
