by Terry Spear
“I don’t think Waldron will get the message without someone taking him to task physically. As alpha as you are, you couldn’t beat him as a wolf. Not one-on-one. Not like you took that other wolf down.” Susan moved her leg off the table and winced. “I’m going to call it a night. When do you see the Boy Scout troop tomorrow to talk about being a forester?”
“First thing in the morning, and another after that. And I have two sessions after lunch, so I’ll be hanging around the area. I’ll have someone stop in to feed you while I’m gone.” Because Susan was using crutches, she was staying with Pepper for a couple of days. Longer, if she needed to.
“Thanks for putting me up for a couple of nights.”
“No problem, Susan. You know I always enjoy your company. If you think of it tomorrow, you could give Eric Silver a call and tell him that you’re all right. I’m certain he’d like to know that. While you’re at it, you can thank him for the rescue and, if it comes up in the conversation, ask him if he’s okay.”
Susan smiled broadly at her. “You are interested in him! But I doubt he’d want you to know if he was injured. Macho wolf syndrome, you know.”
“Possibly. Unless he wanted to get our sympathy. The doctor said it should take about four weeks for your leg to mend, which means half or less time for us. Just don’t put any stress on the leg for now. You don’t want to increase the fracture.”
“No, that’s for sure. It already hurts enough. I hope Pauline can run things until I return to work.”
“Pauline will be fine, but I’ll run over there to check things out. You don’t have to worry about anything. Just rest.” Then Pepper raised her brows. “You didn’t do this on purpose to get some time off, did you? You know I’d spell you for a while if you needed vacation days.”
Susan laughed and hobbled off to bed, saying good night.
Pepper retired to her bedroom, hoping she could figure out how to keep Waldron away from her pack and her lands without having to take more drastic measures. He’d been scent-marking all over her territory and so had some of the males of his pack. She’d taken him to task for it, but what else could she do? They outnumbered her more than two to one, from what he’d said. And she couldn’t complain to human law enforcement about Waldron and his men peeing all over her property. She still wouldn’t give in to him no matter what. But his actions could be a real problem for the wolf pack if they ignored them.
She tucked herself into bed, thinking about Waldron attacking Eric and drawing blood. She should have told Susan to call her when she learned how Eric was, if he was willing to tell her the truth.
* * *
His injuries throbbing, Eric answered Sarandon’s call while he got on the road to return to Silver Town. “Hey, what’s up?” Like Eric, his brother loved the outdoors. He was a guide for anyone who needed one—photographers, nature lovers, hikers, and rock climbers. He loved doing it all.
“Just a heads-up. I might be a little late to the forestry careers talk tomorrow,” Sarandon said. “I’ve got a Lepidopterist Society meeting first thing in the morning so the members can count butterflies and identify different varieties. If we have a big showing, we’ll be there a while. So I might have to talk after you do.”
“I’ll let the Scout leaders know,” Eric replied. “I have something to do after I speak, so if I’m not there, just give your lecture and I’ll meet you after lunch at the next Boy Scout campground. They’ll love hearing what you do.”
“I thought you said you had the whole day scheduled to talk to troops.”
“I do. We have two other Scout troops to meet in the afternoon, but when everyone’s busy with lunch, I have other business to take care of.”
“I thought we could get lunch together. We don’t often see each other during the duty day.”
Eric suspected his brother sensed something was up. He couldn’t get anything past Sarandon. His younger brothers, sometimes yes, but not Sarandon. Even though the quadruplet brothers were born only minutes apart, he and Sarandon were the closest to each other, just like Brett and CJ were close.
“Okay, so what are you going to do that’s so important?” Sarandon asked.
“Nothing. Just checking out an area on the nearby creek.” He wanted to learn more about the pack that had rented the cabin, like where the wolves lived. Which meant checking their reservations. Since he worked for the park, that would be easy to do. He needed to know if they were involved in the illegal cultivation of cannabis.
“For…what?”
Eric couldn’t lie to his brother. After the way their father had lied to Eric and his brothers, Eric wouldn’t do that to them. But he wasn’t about to tell Sarandon he’d seen a fantasy in the forest that he wanted to know more about, and that he wanted to prove to himself in the worst way that Pepper was innocent of any wrongdoing. Pepper was the only name he had to go by. And she was just as hot and spicy as her name. “Just checking it out.”
“Okay, well, let me know if you discover anything interesting.”
“Will do.”
“I bet,” Sarandon said, sounding skeptical.
Eric knew he had to get his injuries looked at, and better that Sarandon hear about the fight from him rather than through pack gossip. “A couple of wolves bit me.”
“Is it bad? It has to be, or you wouldn’t have told me. Do you need me to come get you?”
Sarandon knew not to make a big deal of it.
“Not a problem. And I wouldn’t have mentioned it if I hadn’t wanted Doc to look at it.”
“Hell. It is bad or you wouldn’t be seeing Doc.”
“Just to be on the safe side.”
From Paige Tyler’s
To Love a Wolf
Dallas, Present Day
It must be payday. Either that, or God hated him. As Cooper strode across the bank’s lobby and got in line behind the twenty people already there, he wasn’t sure which.
He’d been so exhausted after work he hadn’t even bothered to shower and change into civvies at the SWAT compound like he usually did. Instead, he’d come straight to the bank in his combat boots, dark blue military cargo pants, and a matching T-shirt with the Dallas PD emblem and the word “SWAT” on the left side of the chest. He’d cleaned off the worst of the day’s dirt, but he still felt grimy as hell. He couldn’t wait to get home and throw everything in the wash so he could grab something to eat and fall into bed.
He bit back a growl as the man at the front of the line plunked down a cardboard box full of rolled coins on the counter and started lining the different denominations in front of the teller.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Cooper muttered.
A tall, slender woman with long, golden-brown hair gave him a quick, understanding smile over her shoulder. He smiled back, but she’d already turned around. He waited, hoping she’d glance his way again, but she didn’t.
Giving it up, Cooper glanced at the other line, wondering if he should jump over there. Definitely not. It was even longer.
He hated going to the bank, but his SWAT teammate Jayden Brooks had finally paid off the bet they’d made months ago about whether his squad leader and the newest member of the team would end up a couple. Instead of giving Cooper the hundred bucks in cash like a normal person, Brooks had given him a frigging check. At least he hadn’t paid Cooper in pennies, or he would have been the one lining up rolls of change for the teller to count. But it wasn’t Cooper’s fault that he was more observant than most of the other werewolves in the Pack. Brooks had suggested the stupid bet. Cooper had simply agreed to it.
When Officer Khaki Blake had walked into the training room for the first time, every pair of eyes in the room immediately locked on her—except for Cooper’s. Oh, he’d noticed she was attractive, make no mistake about that. But he’d been more interested in seeing how the rest of the SWAT team reacted to the first female alpha any of them had ever seen. While most of the guys had checked her out with open curiosity, none of their hearts had poun
ded as hard as his squad leader’s—Corporal Xander Riggs. Cooper had immediately pegged Khaki as The One for Xander, and vice versa.
Other members of the SWAT team were still on the fence about whether they believed in The One, the mythical one-in-a-billion soul mate supposedly out there for every werewolf. But the way Cooper saw it, denying the truth was stupid. In the past ten months, three of the Pack’s members had stumbled across their mates in the most bizarre and unbelievable ways. A werewolf would have to be an idiot not to see the women the guys had fallen in love with were their soul mates. It was obvious the moment you saw them together.
But just because Cooper accepted the concept of a werewolf soul mate didn’t mean he automatically bought into the idea there were women in the world for him and the remaining thirteen single members of the Pack. Cooper wasn’t jaded when it came to love, but he wasn’t naive either. He’d been around the world enough times to know that not all stories had happy endings.
The jerk cashing in his lifetime supply of pocket change finally walked away from the counter, grumbling under his breath about the teller miscounting his nickels and dimes. Cooper leaned out and counted the number of people ahead of him and reconsidered whether it was worth his time to wait. Maybe he’d deposit the check on the way to work tomorrow. But that would mean getting up at least an hour earlier. He groaned at the thought. No way in hell was he getting up at four thirty, not after the day he’d had.
He and Brooks, along with their teammates, Carter Nelson, Remy Boudreaux, and Alex Trevino had been working with explosive investigative teams from the ATF and FBI since before the sun had come up. Some nut job had planted an IED in one of the parking garages of the Grand Prairie industrial area last night and killed a young Dallas PD officer moonlighting as a security guard. None of the investigators believed Officer Pete Swanson had been the target. He’d just been unlucky enough to be doing a security sweep of the garage when the bomb had gone off.
Instead, the feds thought the real target had been someone who worked for a company based out of the industrial complex. There were several defense firms that used the garage, as well as a biomedical research company and a consulting group that specialized in job outsourcing solutions. In other words, lots of people someone might want to blow up. Then again, it was also possible the bomber had picked that particular location purely by chance with no specific target in mind. Now that was a thought to keep any cop up at night.
But Cooper and the SWAT team hadn’t been invited to the party to catch the guy. They’d been brought in to help with the long, painful process of combing the crime scene for every shred of evidence they could find to help the FBI track down the bomber.
They’d spent the entire day on their hands and knees searching the parking garage and surrounding area, as well as nearby rooftops, storm drains, and trees for pieces of the device. The FBI agent in charge was a friend of Cooper’s and promised to call once they got all the pieces laid out so he could help put the IED back together. The SWAT team and the Dallas FBI field office weren’t on the best of terms these days, and the feds would have a cow if they knew he was involved in the forensic part of the case. Between Xander and Khaki apprehending bank robbers the FBI had been chasing, and his teammate Eric Becker unofficially going undercover to save the woman he loved and taking down a group of Albanian mobsters, the feds weren’t too happy with them. But what the FBI didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them.
The two people ahead of Cooper got fed up with waiting and walked away. He quickly stepped forward to fill in the gap and found himself behind the attractive woman who’d flashed him a smile earlier. He couldn’t help noticing that she looked exceptionally good in a pair of jeans. Or that her long, silky hair had the most intriguing gold highlights when the sun coming through the window caught them just right. She smelled so delicious he had to fight the urge to bend his neck and bury his nose against her skin. Damn, he must be more tired than he thought. If he wasn’t careful, he’d be humping her leg next.
He opened his mouth to say something charming, but all that came out was a yawn big enough to make his jaw crack. The woman in front of him must have heard it too, because she turned around.
“And I thought I’ve been waiting in line a long time,” she said, giving him a smile so breathtaking it damn near made his heart stop. “You look like you’re ready to fall asleep on your feet.”
Cooper knew he should reply, but he was so mesmerized by her perfect skin, clear green eyes, and soft lips that he couldn’t do anything but stare. He felt like a teenager in high school again.
“Um, yeah. Long day,” he finally managed.
What the hell was wrong with him? He’d never had a problem talking to a beautiful woman before. But in his defense, he’d never been in the presence of one this gorgeous.
He gave himself a mental shake. Get your head in the game before she thinks you’re a loser and turns around again.
“Catching bad guys, huh?” she asked.
“Something like that.” He gave her his best charming smile. “Luckily, I’m off duty for the night.”
She laughed, and the sound was so beautiful it almost brought him to his knees. Crap, he actually felt a little light-headed. He chalked it up to being out in the hot Texas sun all day. That could be hard on anyone, even a werewolf.
She tilted her head to the side, regarding him with an amused look. “Is that your way of saying you’re free for dinner?”
Could she read his mind? “Depends. Would you say yes if I asked you out?”
Her lips curved. “I might. Although most guys tell me their names before asking me out on a date.”
Cooper chuckled. He’d been attracted to her from the moment he saw her, but after talking to her, he was even more mesmerized. He’d always appreciated a woman who was confident enough to hold up her end of a verbal sparring match, and she seemed more than capable.
He held out his hand. “Landry Cooper at your service. Now that you know my name, how about dinner?”
He might have imagined it, but when she slipped her smaller hand into his much larger one, he could have sworn he felt a tingle pass between them—and it wasn’t because of static electricity.
“I’m Everly Danu,” she said. “And dinner sounds great.”
Everly. Even her name was beautiful.
Cooper opened his mouth to ask Everly if she wanted to grab something that night—the hell with going home and falling into bed—when voices nearby caught his attention. Thanks to his keen werewolf hearing, he picked up every word.
“Are we still robbing the place with the cop here?” a male voice whispered.
“We’re in too deep to back out now,” another deep voice said softly. “We were going to kill the guard anyway. Just make sure to take out the cop fast.”
Cooper snapped his head around, trying to figure out who’d said that. He scanned the crowded bank, looking for anyone who stood out, and immediately, zeroed in on a man over by the entrance. Average height with light brown hair, the guy was wearing mirrored sunglasses and a black windbreaker. On his own, the man wasn’t that remarkable, but the small radio receiver in his ear sure as hell was. It wasn’t hard to miss the telltale bulge under the man’s left arm or the way he kept glancing at Cooper while keeping an eye on the door.
Cooper swept the bank lobby with his gaze, looking for the man’s accomplice. He found him sitting by the manager’s desk, pretending to wait for the woman to come back. Thanks to the identical sunglasses and the same black windbreaker the guy was wearing, he was easy to spot.
Cooper quickly ID’d two other men—one positioned a few feet away from the bank’s security guard, the other near the big row of windows that looked out onto the main road. This one had a soft-sided computer bag big enough to hold several pistols—or a small submachine gun—hanging from his shoulder. Both were wearing sunglasses and windbreakers.
The guy by the door checked his watch, then nodded at his friend by the security guard. Cooper tensed. Sh
it, these assholes were really going to hit the bank with an armed cop standing right in the middle. Were they suicidal or just plain stupid?
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Doni Miller, Diane Wylie, Betty Johnson, Seanna Yeager, Barbi Davis, Fern Martin, Tiffany Upperman, Torie Inman, Jennifer French, Heather Doyle, Tanya Guthrie, Melissa Pascoe, Cristina Ortiz, Charles Cannaday Jr., and Sara Bowman for some great tips on three-year-olds and sharing some of their cute snippets of life for the story! Thanks to Donna Fournier who always helps me so much in brainstorming, catching name errors, and making sure I don’t forget things in the stories, like Toby’s blue rainbow teddy bear. Big hugs! And thanks to Deb Werksman, my editor; the cover artists; Amelia Narigon, who helps with promotion; and Sara Hartman-Seeskin, who is helping to bring the books to life in audiobook form.
About the Author
Bestselling and award-winning author Terry Spear has written over sixty paranormal romance novels and several medieval Highland historical romances. Her first werewolf romance, Heart of the Wolf, was named a 2008 Publishers Weekly’s Best Book of the Year, and her subsequent titles have garnered high praise and hit the USA Today bestseller list. A retired officer of the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry lives in Crawford, Texas, where she is working on her next werewolf romance, continuing her new series about shape-shifting jaguars, cougar shifters, and a new bear shifter, having fun with her young adult novels, and playing with her two Havanese puppies, Max and Tanner. For more information, please visit www.terryspear.com, or follow her on Twitter, @TerrySpear. She is also on Facebook at www.facebook.com/terry.spear. And on Wordpress at:
Terry Spear’s Shifters
http://terryspear.wordpress.com/
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