Trained by the Rogue Wolf

by Kristen Strassel

  A growl slipped out. Maybe that’s what had her so jumpy. She’d tried to convince me this wasn’t the end of the line for me with the Bloodhounds, but the more controversy that swirled around me, the less of chance the team would sign me for next season. At first, I’d tried to listen to the reports. I was still a member of this team, even if I wasn’t taking the field. But I couldn’t do it. Without me, the defense was weak, and Milwaukee would capitalize on the gift we gave them.

  “If Coach didn’t stand by his decisions, he wouldn’t be a leader,” I said.

  She tilted her head and grinned. “You’re better than I am. Because every time I hear him talk about it, I’m swearing under my breath. Sometimes out loud. Leaders make mistakes too.”

  “Of course they do.” My father had been our pack alpha. He hadn’t taken the threats from the Montana pack seriously, and it cost him his life, and the lives of so many. Even though I survived that night, the attack had taken a big chunk of my life too. “It’s not the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”

  She closed her eyes for a long blink.

  “Hey,” I got off the stool near the kitchen and wrapped my arms around her. “It’s not a pissing contest of who’s had it worse. I wouldn’t wish what I’ve gone through on anyone, especially you.”

  “Sometimes I forget how lucky I am. Maybe I shouldn’t be so pissed about not shifting. Look at what happened to my sister. If it wasn’t for your brother, she’d be dead.” She clapped her hand over her mouth and looked at me with big blue eyes. “What if whoever came to the practice facility was there looking for me? And I’m the reason you’re not playing tonight?”

  “I’ll kill them.” We’d given the Montana pack too many chances, taking out their alpha but allowing the rest of the pack to exist. But I was done being nice. I deserved to finally be able to move on with my life. So did my brother and our mates. I glanced at the woman behind the camera. “You don’t have to delete that. If they’re not here, let it be their warning. Whoever came calling for me, no matter what pack they’re in. If they fuck with my pack, I’ll kill them. No questions asked. But I don’t want you to worry about that, little wolf. They asked for me. This is my fight. And tonight, we’re going to celebrate the Championship game.”

  Her body trembled, but she managed a smile. “Okay. So this is what I’ve been working on.” She’d spent the last day or so in the kitchen, insisting she didn’t want my help. She was nervous, and I was willing to do anything that helped her relax. “Pizza, nachos, wings are slow cooking in buffalo sauce, and cookies. This would’ve been so much easier if Ocho was open. I would’ve ordered a party platter from Jenna.”

  I laughed. “We don’t need all that food for two people.” Unless she was about to shift, and it made her hungrier than usual. I wouldn’t deny my mate anything.

  Maybe that was what made her nervous. I’d called her my mate. In shifter speak, the M-word was more serious than the L-word.

  The words didn’t matter. She was mine forever.

  “It’s not two of us. We have the camera crew here, and I invited a couple people over. I hope that’s okay with you.”

  She’d arrived in Holiday Falls around the same time I did. I hadn’t had time to make friends outside the team, besides Jessica. She hadn’t mentioned anyone besides her family. I cocked an eyebrow. “Who’s coming over?”

  She wriggled free of my grasp, somehow managing to brush her hand against my cock as we separated. Her slow grin said it wasn’t an accident. I didn’t know what she had up her sleeve, but I was seconds away from telling the camera crew we needed alone time.

  Again.

  It didn’t escape me that her mother was the one who had final say over the edits. For that reason, I did my best to get rid of the crew before things got too serious. Tessa would be my mother-in-law, and I had nothing but respect for that woman.

  Jessica opened the door and motioned to whoever was on the other side. She bit her lip when she looked at me, eyes glittering. “Surprise.”

  My heart thumped uncomfortably in my chest. Shit, was she in on this all along? Was that why she was acting funny? At one time, her father was part of the Montana pack. I was under the impression they parted ways before the attack on my pack. He’d just joined the Bloodhounds coaching staff.

  My animal was about to burst through my skin. “I don’t like surprises, little wolf.”

  The last two words came out as a growl, and I wasn’t that sorry her face fell. Holding onto the doorknob, she turned to whoever was outside and held her hand up. Telling them to wait another minute.

  “It’s a good surprise.” She swallowed hard. “I can tell them to go, but I don’t think you want me to do that.”

  Ready for a fight, or a shift, or major shit to hit the fan, I walked over to the door. Jessica stepped aside, and I found my brother and his mate grinning at me.

  “Surprise,” Marcus said.

  “Fuck.” I let out the breath I’d been holding. “I got it in my head for a second that I was about to get attacked.”

  Jessica’s mouth dropped. “I didn’t even think of that.”

  “You need to start thinking like a wolf.” Jasmine stepped forward and hugged her sister. She wouldn’t see the pain in Jessica’s eyes, but my animal couldn’t miss it.

  Marcus gave me a hug. “What’s going on here? Why the fuck aren’t you in Milwaukee?”

  “I could ask you the same question.” I’d put their names on my VIP list.

  “We were only going to the game to see you play,” Jasmine said. “Honestly, I’d rather watch the game here. The house smells like snacks and I guarantee it’s not full of stupid drunk people who think they know football but are so, so wrong.”

  Jessica raised an eyebrow over Jasmine’s shoulder. “You only think you know football until you watch the game with Jasmine. She’s soaked in every detail, every nuance. Someday she’ll be on the sidelines.”

  “No way.” Jasmine shook her head, laughing. “But it does make it hard to watch games in a big crowd.”

  Jessica led Jasmine inside, but Marcus stayed behind. His gaze lingered on his mate until she disappeared. Then he turned to me. “I’m hearing all kinds of reports about why you’re here and not in Milwaukee. Some think you failed a drug test. Others think you pissed off Coach Phelan or someone on the team. Others are digging, trying to figure out where the fuck you came from. I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on.”

  It was so good to have my brother back in my life. He asked the what but not the how. All I had to do was point him in the right direction and he’d be ready to kick some ass.

  “Three shifters showed up unannounced at the practice facility early Thursday morning, asking for me. Security removed them from the premises. After that, team management decided it was in the best interest of the rest of the Bloodhounds if I didn’t accompany them in Milwaukee.”

  Marcus nodded. “I see you have a camera crew.”

  “Yeah. Jessica’s the latest Real Werewife. But it’s more like, Tessa Williams didn’t feel comfortable leaving her daughter alone with me when there’s an imminent threat.”

  “If they want you bad enough, they won’t give a fuck about cameras. The Montana pack attacked our camerawoman. We found her before they had a chance to hurt her.” Marcus let out a growl. He could shift at a moment’s notice if he needed to fight. “It was a stupid move. No one’s getting past Championship game level security. That would have been the safest place you could possibly be. And that game is as good as lost without you.”

  “They made it to the playoffs without me.” These guys had played too hard to have everything taken away from them. “Never count those guys out.”

  Will they come through for you if you need them? My wolf paced inside me. The surprise, even if it was Marcus, had brought me to the brink of shifting.

  “Is there anyone we need to be concerned about? Have you pissed someone off enough to have them come at you on Championship week?”<
br />
  “I’ve been going over every single thing that’s happened in the last few years in my head. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the guys that escaped the attack with me. It’s possible they came looking for me. But I haven’t seen any trace of them. Other than that, I’ve laid low. And Montana has even more reason to have a grudge after you took out Cade.”

  “I wish I killed them all.” Marcus sighed. “But it was just Jasmine and me. I told them to get the fuck out of Sawtooth forest. I had no idea you were alive, and that they could come after you.”

  “Seems like they followed instructions.” I hated that pack. We did nothing to them but lead a decent existence and they were adamant about snuffing any hint of a flame. “If they come, we fight.”

  “Has Jessica shifted yet?”

  “No.”

  The ladies appeared, with plates full of food and bottles of champagne in hand. They might be wolves, but they weren’t used to preparing for battle. I hoped their vision of this night was more accurate than the one my brother and I shared.

  “Fuck,” he said. “She could be a major liability if she can’t fight as a wolf.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Jessica

  Jasmine couldn’t take her eyes off Marcus while she worked with me to get the food ready. It was adorable. I was a lot more understanding of him now that I’d fallen for his brother.

  Finally, she turned to me, biting her lip like she did every time she thought she’d done something wrong or she was scared.

  “We got a visit too,” she said, voice so low I wouldn’t have been able to hear her if she wasn’t my twin. “At the shelter. Three guys came in. They were more interested in the livestock than the pets. The human ladies didn’t pick up on anything, but the guys made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. So I stalled, not giving them the information they were looking for. Texted Marcus. Told him to get everyone over to the barn. Then Chandra showed up at the shelter, and she told them to leave.”

  “What happened?” I asked, maybe a little too loud, because the guys were looking at us now. It was the first time I’d had a chance to look at them together. They were both beautiful—carved from the same stone.

  “They never showed up at the barn.” She picked up the champagne bottles and cleared her throat. No more secrets. “Time to get ready for the game. We listened to pregame all the way here.”

  Jasmine hated pregame, so the declaration came with an eye roll. She thought the guys deserved to have their stories told the right way. We’d grown up with the best CFA reporter in history. No one could touch what Mom did.

  It wasn’t lost on me how fast she changed the subject. There was something she wasn’t telling us.

  “What did they say?” Matteo tensed. In the days we’d been here alone, I was shocked he didn’t shift. His animal had to be going crazy inside him. But my animal knew he was staying here, in his human form, to protect me. If only I could shift...

  Either way, I was putting us in danger. I was glad Marcus was here, but I had some trepidation too. If the guys needed to fight, I had a bad feeling Jasmine would want to go with them.

  And I’d be here, alone and useless.

  Jasmine sighed. “Someone must’ve hit the brakes on the Matteo Shaw talk, because it was noticeably absent today. Like they didn’t want to scare the casual Championship viewers with tales of the big bad wolf.”

  “What do they know that we don’t?” Matteo asked, shifting his gaze over to Marcus. “The two of you together should be able to read between the lines.”

  Marcus shook his head. “They’ve totally shut it down. Whatever tip they got that scared them enough to dump you, they’re not sharing with the public. The press stopped speculating why you didn’t make the trip like someone flipped a switch. Which makes me wonder if there have been more threats.”

  Matteo tipped his head back and closed his eyes. He did that a lot when he got frustrated or upset, like he was looking to his wolf for guidance.

  Mine hadn’t made an appearance since the first time we had sex. It had been MIA, just like these wolves that had threatened the Bloodhounds.

  He finally opened his eyes, and they glowed, just like they did in the heat of the moment. Just before his balls hitched and he lost all control. The energy rumbling from his body filled the room. He couldn’t hold his animal in another second.

  “Wanna take a run?” he asked.

  “Love to.” Marcus nodded. “At least we’ll know what we’re dealing with.”

  I put down the platter of wings. “It’s almost time for the game.” I didn’t want them to go. Because if they went into the forest and something happened there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.

  “We could pause it until they come back.” Jasmine’s words trailed off when she felt the heat of my glare. “They shouldn’t hold back their shift. It’s not good for them.”

  She had to tell me what it was like to be a wolf, because I obviously didn’t know.

  “Do what you have to do.” I had to get out of here. I couldn’t watch them go. The empty spot where my wolf should’ve been throbbed as I ran out of the room.

  Our bedroom was dark, and the sheets still tangled from the morning. Matteo’s scent was so strong. Wolf. I shouldn’t have run out like that. It was selfish and once I calmed down, I’d apologize. It wasn’t their fault they were wolf any more than it wasn’t my fault that I was so painfully human.

  I was lucky. I hadn’t had many opportunities to be truly scared in my life. Most of them revolved around things I couldn’t comprehend. Animal instinct.

  The soft knock on the door told me it wasn’t Matteo on the other side. It hurt my heart a little bit, but I needed my sister just as much. “Come in.”

  The heat from Jasmine’s body wafted over me. She must’ve been on the verge of shifting, ignoring her own advice to comfort me. She picked up a piece of my hair and started playing with it, like she used to do when we were little. I loved it until I didn’t. When I thought I was too old and cool for such simple signs of affection, and too arrogant to think anything would ever change. Tonight, I relished the way it was almost enough to make the stress dissolve from my body. Whether I was a wolf or human, Jasmine would always have my back. It took me nineteen years to fully appreciate that fact. Because until she shifted, I’d always considered myself the strong one.

  It was a relief to admit to myself how wrong I’d been. To show my fear and let Jasmine teach me what it really meant to be strong. Matteo would too, but he’d have different lessons for me. My sister would show me how to be strong and comforting, and my mate would show me how to kick ass and take names. Both skills were equally important.

  I picked my head up from the pillow. “Are they gone?”

  Jasmine was shrouded in the blue shadows of the afternoon. “Matteo shifted as soon as you left the room. Marcus not much longer after that.”

  “But you didn’t.” Even though it was obvious, she’d figure out the question in my statement.

  “No. Every time I shift, I have to fight.” Her fingers stilled. “I don’t want it to be about that.”

  My sister was so brave and so unapologetically selfless the least I could do was sit up and deal with this like an adult. “I’m proud of you. You’ve had to stand up to things I can’t even understand. I don’t know how you’re so brave.”

  “It’s pretty simple. I don’t want to die.” She huffed out a sad chuckle. “There are so many things I still want to do, so I fight. You do too, in your own way.”

  “Human.” I sighed. I had to stop feeling like it was lesser. “So you didn’t stay behind to babysit?”

  “You don’t need a babysitter.” This laugh was much more genuine. “I didn’t want to be a liability out there. I’ve been lucky so far, with a pack of wolves at my back. I’d hate for Marcus or Matteo to lose a step because they had to worry about me.”

  I shuddered when a howl swirled around the condo like a violent gust of wind. “They wouldn’
t think like that. You have strengths they don’t. That’s what it means to be a pack.”

  Even in the dark, I saw Jasmine’s smile. “You do have wolf instincts.”

  “Matteo says he can sense my wolf.” A pang echoed through the emptiness. “The other night, when we were together, I thought she was coming. I expected to open my eyes and see fur. That’s how close she felt. But ever since, she’s been...missing.”

  Jasmine didn’t answer right away. She’d never felt the need to fill the silence. Instead, she leaned in and kissed my cheek. “We love you no matter what happens. You contribute to our pack. Even if you never shift. You don’t think Mom is weak, do you?”

  “Hell no.” She was the most badass woman I’d ever met. Smashing through every barrier meant to keep her out, never taking no for an answer, and doing everything to keep us safe.

  But even with that, if I couldn’t have my wolf, I worried about what else was out of reach.

  Like Matteo’s shift, there was no stopping the tears. But they weren’t sad. Was I coming to grips with the fact I may never shift? That I might always feel like the outsider in my own pack? That I had such incredible people in my life that would accept me no matter what?

  Not yet, but I was trying. Or else I’d drive myself insane.

  Another howl. This one was sharper and closer. Jasmine and I jumped, landing closer to each other. Maybe she could translate, but I’d hang onto blind optimism for a few more moments. That the guys would come back, naked, hungry, and ready to watch the game like absolutely nothing happened.

  A girl could dream.

  “Marcus and Matteo will need us when they get back. We might need to act fast. Push emotion aside because time is too precious to be wasted on feelings. Every job in the pack is important, Jessica. If we weren’t meant to be human, we’d never shift. Sometimes I think it’s even more important, when we’re like this. We can break the cycle of violence and war. Matteo chose you for a reason.”