Provoked Wolf

by Erin R Flynn

  “You’re excited,” Brian muttered, giving me a curious look. “I wouldn’t have guessed that.”

  “Well, I guess you don’t know all my secrets,” I teased him. “When Noah made the date slips, I was talking to Ashley about it, and she asked me where teenage Sera went. My first and immediate answer was Great America. I’ve always wanted to go.”

  “They do something fun for Halloween, and we’ll go,” he promised, giving me a quick kiss. “Go have fun. I got this.”

  “Sorry to add to your workload. I’ll pay in carnal favors.”

  “My wife is not going to be happy about that,” Atkins quipped before Brian could.

  I walked out of there laughing so hard I had to hold onto the railing for the stairs. I did manage to grab my wallet from my bag since Carter had already been driving my SUV. Axel opened the door to his truck for me, and I got in, knowing my detail would be right with us.

  “How fancy was the reservation I messed up?” I asked when we were a few blocks away.

  He shrugged. “I can get it again, or you own a pretty fancy place. The hunt was a fun pregame, and now we can just eat and play. They have great burgers.”

  “You’ve been?”

  “Not on a date but with my team a few times, or even a group of us team leads went. It’s not real sports, but it’s not just sitting home playing video games, and normally there are some good laughs.” He shot me a smirk when we were stopped at a light. “I’m part cat. We like to play.”

  “How is the indoor habitat? The Kitty Club?” I asked.

  “Good, and it’s helped,” he admitted, clearing his throat. “It’s hard being a clanless tiger. Talking to Harris helped like you suggested. I’m glad I left the council, and I like the work I’m doing, but a tiger is used to his territory, and I didn’t realize I was floundering so fast. I am sorry for the thoughtless things I said and hurt you.”

  “You’ve apologized many times, Axel, and I’m glad you explained that you were trying not to let your issues upset me. It seemed like Eugene was putting in all the effort to get to know me and spend time with me when he could, but you didn’t want to and just wanted the sex.”

  “That’s not how I felt at all. What happened wasn’t your fault, and I chose to leave. I just didn’t want to take a swipe at you because I was having a hard time.”

  “But it’s better now, right?”

  “Yes, I like Chicago and the people here,” he answered after a moment, never one just to answer with what people wanted to hear and really thinking about it. “I might take a vacation now and again to a natural habitat since I’m used to that given I traveled all the time with the council, but I’m really happy here.”

  “I’m glad.” I reached over and slid my hand in his that had been resting on the center console. “I felt the same after I was infected and had to change, but I was still in Chicago, so at first it didn’t seem like such a change. But I was undercover, and I did travel too, but it was still the FBI but not. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to help you—”

  “You did. Sera, you absolutely helped me. You asked Harris to talk to me. Havers too. You—you helped. You weren’t in a position to hold my hand every second, and that wouldn’t even have helped. You were amazing, thank you.” He raised my hand to his lips, kissing my knuckles as he kept driving. “So how do you think today will play out?”

  I thought about that a moment. “I think I’ll be in the AG’s office tomorrow explaining why the fuck I didn’t have probable cause and a fight to get this to fly. It’s stupid to not allow it.”

  “You’ve been wanting this fight.”

  “I have,” I admitted. “I believe in due process and the law, I do. I ride in a bit more gray areas than I used to, and I get that, but the bad guys color all outside the lines while we never go near them too often. They push back and get things declared as out of bounds, and we never push back or change the line. I’m tired of it. And I’m really not happy there’s an increase in shootings and homicides.”

  “Yeah, Chicago really wasn’t in a place to go up,” he grumbled.

  “I know. I think this could really help and will be worth the shit I get from all sides since we know I will.”

  He dropped it and talked to me about the new training class, most coming in and ready to throw down and show what they could do, but a few stragglers they were worried about. It was fascinating to listen to because it was the complete other end of what I worked in. I’d never been in an instructor position. Sure, I’d helped train newbie agents or helped my office, but never newbs from the Navy or FBI.

  “The female candidates are pushing hardest,” he told me. “I think a lot of supes hearing that a woman was getting shit done and pushing progress really had some rethink their spots. There are still too many groups that treat females like bitches to bear cubs. You’ve shown them there’s a whole other life out there.”

  “Not just me, but I’m glad to have more coming in. We’re too small a percentage across the board in the FBI, and there’s no reason for that.”

  He found parking, and we got out. I winced when Carter held up the garment bag I’d brought with my outfit to change into and I planned on touching up my makeup.

  “So this isn’t like a sports, sports place, right?” I checked, glancing at Axel as he met up with me around the truck. “I brought something more date like.” I gestured down to my suit, having made that mistake several times when working on rebuilding some of my relationships, and that included dates. “It’s your call.”

  “Um, either should be fine, but I’d really like to see what you picked out to go on a date with me,” he admitted, clearing his throat. I realized he’d probably changed and gotten cleaned up after training given he was in nice jeans and a collared polo.

  “You want to wait for me at the door and I’ll hurry and change?” We were blocked from view pretty well, and then I’d have the vanity mirror for my makeup, but I didn’t have to drag everything with me inside.

  “Yeah, I’ll see about tables.” He glanced at Carter and the others. “You guys are eating too, right?”

  “We can’t hang with you?” Sander teased me, wincing when Emilio smacked him upside the head. “Fine, we’ll amuse ourselves.”

  There really was a maturity ceiling people hit because sometimes the ancients acted younger than I was, and they were so, so much older.

  I quickly undressed, my undergarments covering me enough for anyone who caught a glimpse of me, and slid on the dress. I had low wedge sandals to go with it, as I hadn’t wanted to go too fancy since I hadn’t known the full date but…

  “This is too much, right?” I asked Carter, moving so he could see. The cranberry cold shoulder sweater dress had full sleeves but was a low cut V-neck and shorter skirt. I mean, I wasn’t flashing ass, but I would have to be careful how I sat, as it was above mid-thigh.

  “I think it’s perfect, as he’ll get a bit of a view of what you won’t be giving him tonight, and dates are meant to be that flirty,” he assured me. “Now fix your makeup, I’m hungry.”

  “Yes, dear,” I grumbled, hopping up into my SUV and opening the vanity. I did smoky cranberry eyes to match, but not too much as it was a date, not a night of club dancing. “Fuck, I forgot a purse.”

  “He’ll pay, as he asked you and he’s old school,” Carter reminded me. “Give me your phone and wallet so someone has it, and you’ll once again make sure to buy us dinner as we’re guarding you.”

  “You won’t let me pay you to do it,” I reminded him, handing both over. “The least I should do is feed you. You could make ramen at home for a dollar instead of eat here.”

  “We don’t make ramen at home when we’re off,” he drawled as he took it. I put everything else away, and he locked up before flanking me to the front door.

  “Wow, yeah, that’s—you look amazing, Sera,” Axel muttered as I joined him. “They have tables right away as long as they’re fine being split up, which is better for your security.”


  I nodded, thanking him when he opened the door for me. “I’m hungry for a burger now. Maybe a few.”

  “I’ve not eaten at this one, but the ones I have the menu isn’t fancy, but it’s good.”

  We were led to a table while the ancients handled their own dividing up. He pulled out my chair for me, and I sat, smiling at how he didn’t even have to think of doing it, raised when it had simply been what men did.

  “Are you in the mood for a margarita?” he asked.

  “Um, tequila on a first date isn’t smart for me,” I admitted, giving a slight shrug when I felt his confusion. “It hit me hard as a human like wine did, and that hasn’t improved all that much. More now that I like wine and our tolerance is great, but tequila hits me hard on an empty stomach. I was thinking this peach long island ice tea. It sounds nummy, and Simone was talking about maybe switching drinks.”

  “You’re coming up on your year anniversary soon, right?” he asked, wincing when I nodded, swallowing loudly. Yeah, I hadn’t been there for four of the months. I had felt bad I’d gotten any of the profits from those months, but Simone had actually smacked me for saying that.

  “Some days I’m still in shock we pulled it off and it didn’t completely flop. Then remembering there’s a whole other club and everything is just crazy.”

  We ordered some huge nacho platter—picking the non-spicy option since I couldn’t handle spicy and he didn’t want bad breath for a date—and salads meant as meals before each adding a gigantic burger. I honestly couldn’t blame the server for blinking at the table meant for two people as if remembering others weren’t coming later.

  “This is really good,” I muttered after I sipped my drink when she brought it.

  He opened his mouth but then closed it, shaking his head and trying again before leaning in and moving his legs to surround mine since he was so tall and the table small. “I know I should be polite and hit the normal date topics, though I doubt you want to talk about your family and I know I don’t mine, but all I can think about is how I want you, Sera. You’re so perfect tonight, and I want you, now.”

  I was pretty sure I flushed the color of my dress. Fuck a duck.

  So much for going slow and doing things right.

  7

  I licked my suddenly dry lips. “I want you too, you know I do, but I want to do things right with you more. We’ve chased each other around and both went through a lot right when we were moving on that. I’ve had so much blow up the second I touch the stove, and I need this to not—I’m trying to stay standing some days still.”

  “I know, and we see it,” he murmured, reaching over and covering my hand with his. “I just needed you to know I felt that, still feel it, and have all through your recovery. I wanted you back, but there wasn’t one moment I wasn’t attracted to you still, Sera. You are more than your body, even if it’s fucking perfection.”

  “Thank you,” I whispered, knowing it was an awkward topic all of them had made a point not to ignore or brush off no matter how hard it was. And there was no good thing to say. It… The situation was fucked up, and I simply appreciated they all tried, wanted to help and comfort me. “And thank you for putting thought into this like you did. It means a lot to me.”

  “Yeah? How much?” he teased me, his lips twitching in a way that let me know he was trying to lighten the topic.

  “I was thinking of asking you to a Bears game. You said something about liking football, and I’ve never been. Do you have a team you like?”

  “No, I just like the athletes giving it their all,” he answered. “I actually prefer college football when it’s still about the game more than the money. I’d love to see a Northwestern home game though. I hear they’re pretty good.”

  I nodded. “I liked seeing the U of I games when I was there. The energy was good always and people excited. NROTC was in charge of the bell on the field, so I saw a few games that way. I couldn’t sit in the stands without getting too much and um, I didn’t really have friends to go with.”

  Our nachos arrived, and he scooted closer so we could share… Which we could have totally done from across the small table. I also realized he’d wanted them just for this. I made sure to bump his arm so he knew I caught on.

  He simply chuckled and rubbed his cheek against mine, sniffing me and making my wolf want to do the same. “So what do you like to do? That seems like a safe first date topic.”

  “I used to read any chance I got when undercover or at the gym,” I answered after some thought. I shrugged. “I enjoyed working out and sparring when I got the chance. I went to the gun range. I mean, all of it was still work, but I enjoyed my work.” I ate another chip as delicately as I could and not spill. “I liked learning the backgrounds for undercover. I studied acting to help.”

  “The FBI has training like that?”

  I shook my head. “No, I read some books and actually took a few community college courses after my first assignment. I was bad at reacting. It worked for the cover, but I wanted to learn how to react better and handle things will go wrong. It was a stage acting class that taught me.

  “The first thing the teacher said was twenty things will go wrong the first week of a play and not making things worse was the sign of a good actor.” I shook my head. “I honestly owe the guy a lot. Learning that has saved my ass multiple times, including when I was abducted. I was too embarrassed to ever tell anyone I took the classes, but now I’ve thought about suggesting it.”

  “You should,” he agreed. “Working undercover is dangerous. Anything that can help should be taught for sure. It’s different for us, as we can sense so much, but people still get around that. We still find bad guys no one knew were bad and all of that.”

  “So what do you like to do?” I asked when we had a few moments to digest that.

  “I’m a big reader too,” he answered. “It wasn’t always so easy to get books, and for a while I used to torture myself reading history books that were such lies it pissed me off.” He shot me a side glance. “Promise not to tell anyone?”

  “Of course.”

  “I got really into paranormal books. Sci-fi and fantasy too. It started as mythology books and the fascination of what humans wrote to explain what they didn’t understand, but I’ve been addicted to monster or supe books since reading Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein almost two hundred years ago.”

  “I won’t tell,” I promised, leaning in and smiling, liking he was telling me his secrets when he was pretty closed off with others. “When I was in high school, I hid at the library a lot from the foster family I was with part of those two years. I used to read romance books. I liked the books where someone saw the dorky girl and gave her a chance because she was beautiful inside.”

  “You are,” he murmured.

  I shrugged. “I wasn’t then. I was a ball of anger and wrath from all that had happened and I didn’t understand. I was socially inept and awkward. I still have a lot of trouble understanding personal situations. Being undercover helped, because I got to see other sides of things and it wasn’t me, but a character, but so much I still don’t get and feel like I just nod along with.”

  “We all feel that way more than anyone likes to admit, Sera,” he promised, and for some reason when he said it I believed him.

  Our salads came, and he got another drink while I switched to a Coke since I wanted a bit of caffeine and sugar since the weekend had been pretty draining instead of recharging. The food was good, not fancy, fancy, like he’d said, but everything was made well, and I didn’t find any fault with it, as it was exactly what the menu promised.

  The burgers came next, and he got another drink. Normally that would have irked me, as he was driving, but we weren’t leaving right after we ate, and he was a huge tiger shifter. I was pretty sure three drinks—even strong ones—wouldn’t do much to him.

  Apparently I was wrong.

  He paid for dinner and then showed me the Power Card he already had that we used to play the games. I slid my
hand in his and let him lead me to the huge gaming area. It was crazy and bright and a bit loud, my wolf taking a moment to acclimate and block some of it out.

  I gasped at what I focused on first and pulled him over to the crane game that had all kinds of crazy rubber duckies. “How do I play this? Can you teach me to do this?”

  “You like duckies?” he asked, giving me a funny look.

  “No, Tommy collects them,” I answered, looking through the glass at the options. “We should try to get the tiger striped one.” I glanced over and saw he was still staring at me. “They didn’t have normal childhoods. None of us in our house did because the twins were dirt poor and Noah was too old. So we all picked something that might be childish but we got a pass. He likes duckies.”

  “Of course you would come up with something like that. What’s yours?”

  “Disney puzzles,” I admitted, turning away from his smile. “I never got the chance to dream of fairytales like other girls. We put them together and have fun.”

  “That’s why the pictures in your apartment are puzzles. You like them. You said that before.”

  “I do. How do I do this?”

  He showed me how to swipe the card to play and then control the claw and hit the button to drop and grab. I wasn’t sure he needed to stand pressed against me to do it, his large arms boxing me in, but I did know he was happy to be there.

  And it messed me up.

  “You are so ridiculously sexy and adorable. How are you both?” he murmured, brushing his lips over my neck. “I’m sorry. I was nervous and skipped lunch, and three drinks shouldn’t have hit me, but they were strong and I was nervous. Don’t get mad I got buzzed.”

  “I’m not,” I promised, glad at least he explained it. I glanced over my shoulder to let him see I was fine, and his mouth mashed to mine as he turned me, pressing me up against the glass as we misbehaved in the family friendly place.

  “I don’t want to push no matter how much I’m dying to finally be inside you, feel you around me, but let me come home with you tonight. No sex. I promise no sex. I just want to taste you again. I haven’t since New York, and I need to. My tiger needs to taste you and feel you’re back, you’re ours again. Let me please my Alpha and give her what she needs before I hold her tonight.”