Wolf Hunt

by Paige Tyler

  That earned Remy a couple groans, some chuckles, and more than a few grins. Every SWAT officer appreciated learning a new skill, but they also loved a little competition—especially if the loser ended up having to buy the winner beer.

  “All right, you heard the man,” Drew said. “Let’s break up into teams and get to work.”

  * * *

  Remy was soaked with sweat by the time training ended just in time for a late lunch. As he and his pack mates sat at a picnic table behind the NOPD SWAT facility, drinking Gatorade and talking about the plan for that afternoon’s training, he realized he’d forgotten what the humidity down here on the river was like. It was so hot and sticky it was hard to believe there was a tropical storm still sitting out in the Gulf meandering around like a lost two-year-old.

  But humid or not, it had been a good morning of training. On the downside, they’d probably blown through the SWAT unit’s entire budget for wood, building supplies, and training explosives for the quarter, but they’d learned more about breaching in one morning than they probably had in the past two or three years. You couldn’t put a price tag on that.

  Remy and his teammates had planned to run out and grab lunch at the nearest restaurant, but Andy told them to hang around because they were cooking up something special in the facility’s kitchen. If Remy’s nose was right, that something special was sausage and crawfish gumbo with a side of rice and corn bread. He sure as hell didn’t mind waiting around for that.

  “We’re going back to Bourbon Street tonight,” Max said between gulps of Gatorade. “You in?”

  Remy shook his head. “Nah. I’m getting together with Triana tonight.”

  Brooks grinned. “Triana, huh?”

  “Yeah,” he said, trying to downplay his interest in her. He told himself it was so the guys wouldn’t rag on him, but it was more than that and he knew it. Introspection wasn’t his thing though, so he wasn’t going to waste brain cells thinking about it. “I figured we’d go out and get something to eat, catch up on old times.”

  “Good for you,” Max said from the other side of the picnic table. “Considering the way you were able to pick up her scent and track her halfway across the French Quarter when none of us could even smell it, she’s obviously special. You’d be stupid not to go after her.”

  Self-preservation made Remy stomp on the figurative brakes. “Whoa, slow down there. I might have crushed on Triana back in high school, but I don’t have any interest in doing anything more than hanging out and talking.”

  Max, Brooks, and Zane stared at him as if he were a pig wearing a Rolex. Remy suddenly felt like shit for lying his ass off. And if the frown on Brooks’s face was any indication, the guy knew he wasn’t being honest.

  He and Triana were going to hang out and talk, but that sure as hell wasn’t the only reason Remy wanted to see her tonight. The thought that they might be doing a lot more than catching up on the good old days had not only kept him from getting any sleep last night, but it had been buzzing through his head all morning too. He wasn’t sure how the hell he’d managed to focus on training.

  Even after spending most of the evening with her, he still couldn’t believe the woman Triana had become. He’d been around his share of beautiful women, but none had affected him the way she did. She was so dazzling he could barely breathe when she smiled at him. Her scent was so intoxicating he’d walked around with a hard-on the whole night. And when he’d kissed her, he’d damn near lost it and shifted right there in her mother’s shop. If she’d been wearing a Little Red Riding Hood costume, he would have been more than ready to play the part of the Big Bad Wolf and eaten her up on the spot.

  Walking away from her last night had been one of the hardest things he’d ever done. Not that leaving had helped very much. It had been a long walk across the French Quarter, and yet he barely remembered going back to the hotel. When he’d gotten back to his room, he lay there and dreamed about her as the few remaining hours of night waned. He’d have sworn he could still smell her scent from halfway across the city, and it had nearly been his undoing. It had taken everything in him not to climb out of bed, run back to the shop, and make love to her as the sun came up.

  He’d been with Triana for half the night and he already had it bad for her. Yet here he was, trying to tell the guys it was no big deal. And they weren’t buying it. Hell, it probably didn’t help that every one of them could hear his heart rate elevating simply from thinking about kissing her.

  “Really?” Brooks said, eyeballing him like he knew exactly what was going on. “Sure seemed like a lot more than that. If I had to guess, I’d say it was like the two of you had an immediate, almost magical connection. After all the crazy stuff we’ve seen in the last year, you don’t think there’s a chance she could be The One for you?”

  Panic shot through Remy. The One was that one-in-a-billion soul mate who existed for every werewolf out there. Even though they were supposedly as hard to find as hens’ teeth, five of his teammates had already met their mates in the past year. The odds said something like that should have been impossible, but it had happened anyway. Now, most of the other members of the Pack were essentially looking behind every tree and around every corner, wondering if their soul mates were going to show up at some point.

  Remy wasn’t one of them.

  He’d found love already. As far as he was concerned, he was one and done. He was completely fine hooking up with women who caught his fancy, but he never let things progress beyond that. There was no denying he and Triana had some serious chemistry going on between them, but that was a far cry from being soul mates, mythological or otherwise. Just hearing Brooks say the words The One made him feel like he was going to be ill.

  “Hell no!” he said vehemently. “It’s nothing like that. Triana is just a friend. Period…dot…end of sentence.”

  Across from Remy, Brooks regarded him with a knowing look. He knew Remy was hiding something for sure. Some of the more mature werewolves in the Pack, like Brooks and Gage, were walking lie detectors. By picking up on subtle changes in heart and respiratory rate, body scent, and even random muscle twitches, they could tell when other people were trying to feed them a line. Brooks almost certainly knew Remy was talking BS, but thankfully he didn’t call him on it.

  Zane, on the other hand, wasn’t so reserved. “Did you stand too close to the breaching charge when it exploded this morning? Because unless you have a concussion, I have a hard time believing the words coming out of your mouth. I’ve never seen you not go after a woman you’re attracted to, and don’t try to convince us you’re not panting like a hound for Triana. I saw you two dancing—and smelled you. Pheromones don’t lie.”

  Remy considered arguing, but then figured he’d not only lose, but probably embarrass himself too. There was no way in hell he was going to sit here and have a discussion about the scent he might put off when he was aroused. That was simply not a conversation he wanted to have. So, he went in a completely different direction instead.

  “Yeah, okay, I’m attracted to her. So what? Triana has been a friend for a really long time. I don’t want to mess up that friendship.”

  Beside him, Zane nodded. “I can understand that. But I should probably point out that you and Triana weren’t exactly dancing like friends last night—at least, not like any friends I’ve ever danced with.”

  Remy snorted. “That’s because you’re too uptight and British to know how to relax and have a good time. Friends in New Orleans dance like that all the time.”

  “That’s a load of crap,” Max said. “Zane and I are friends, and we weren’t dancing like that last night.”

  Remy looked back and forth at his two pack mates. “Maybe you should. You two would look good together.”

  Max chuckled. “Yeah, but that’s because I look good with anyone. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m going to get a shot at him. For reasons that are beyon
d me, Triana’s friend Kim seemed to take a liking to Zane. I don’t think she’s going to let anyone else get near him the whole time we’re here.”

  Desperate for any topic that would get his pack mates’ attention off him and Triana, Remy jumped on it. “Now that you mention it, I did notice you and Kim were getting close. You do realize she’s on the rebound, right? You sure you want to get in the middle of that?”

  Zane swigged some Gatorade. “Kim and I aren’t getting into anything. We danced and snogged a bit, but mostly all we did was talk. She’s not looking for anything serious but admitted she wouldn’t mind hanging out with someone who’d help take her mind off her ex for a while. I graciously agreed to do that. We’re two intelligent adults with no hidden agendas. She’s looking for a distraction, and I’m cool with that. She’s funny, easy to talk to, and sexy as hell. And before you ask, no, she’s not The One for me.”

  “How do you know that?” Max asked.

  “You have talked to Gage and the other guys who found their mates, right?” Zane countered. “According to them, they knew they’d found The One before they ever kissed. It might have taken them a while to realize what it was, but it was there. Based on that, I can state with certainty that Kim isn’t my mate.”

  Max and Zane were still arguing about that and the possibility you could meet your soul mate and not even know it when Drew came out of the main building.

  “Is lunch finally ready?” Remy asked the NOPD SWAT commander with a grin. “Hope so, because I’m starving.”

  Drew didn’t return his smile. “Gumbo’s made, but unfortunately it’s going in the fridge. We’ve been called in to support the Narcotics Major Case Squad. They need backup to serve a high-risk search warrant on a target so sensitive they couldn’t even talk about it over the phone. But if it’s the guy I think it is, this one could get ugly. The four of you feel up to doing some real SWAT work instead of just training for it?”

  * * *

  Triana frowned at the chaotic mess of voodoo dolls on the huge table in the middle of her mother’s shop—what was left of them anyway. Sometimes when the tourists came through, it seemed like a hurricane had hit the place. Things were everywhere.

  “Mom, I think you need to make some more voodoo dolls,” Triana shouted toward the back room, where her mom was doing her thing. “The big tour group from New York that came through yesterday just about wiped you out.”

  “Already on it,” her mother called.

  Triana couldn’t help smiling. Her mother was amazing. Most of the voodoo shops in town bought their stuff from overseas these days, but not her mom. While the T-shirts and knickknacks were from out of town, her mother hand made all the authentic voodoo items like the spells, oils, herbs, charms, candles, dolls, and gris-gris bags.

  “So when was the last time you heard from this PI you’re paying so much money for?” Kim asked, dragging Triana’s attention back to the subject they’d been discussing before the critical voodoo doll shortage had been identified.

  Kim had taken off from work to hang out with Triana and help restock the shelves and straighten up the place.

  “It’s been five weeks,” Triana admitted with a shrug. “But he warned me this could take a while. The case was ice-cold by the time I hired him, and the detective who handled the case hasn’t exactly been very interested in talking to a private investigator about what he learned, probably because he never learned a damn thing.”

  “So you’re getting nothing out of this guy but a bill?” Kim attempted to reattach a voodoo doll’s arm that had been savagely ripped off. After a couple of attempts, she gave up and instead simply ripped off the other arm in what Triana assumed was an effort to make the doll look symmetrical. “How long are you going to keep paying the guy?”

  “I have no doubt he’s probably milking me for everything he can get, but I have to try something. I can’t let the man who murdered my dad get away with it…not without at least trying to find him.”

  Kim hid the dismembered voodoo doll in the back of the pile. Triana took note of where it was, so she could dig it out later. Kim was a great friend but lousy at stocking shelves.

  “I know,” Kim said. “All I’m saying is that you need to watch yourself. There are people in the world who will see your loss as their gain. Just be smart, okay?”

  “I will.”

  Triana understood what her friend was trying to say, but at the end of the day, she didn’t care about the money. If there was even a minuscule chance of finding the person who killed her father, she’d pay any price.

  They worked in silence for a while, and as much as Triana tried to prevent it, her mind went to that dark place it tended to go whenever she thought about how much she missed her father and how much she hated the person who’d taken him away.

  Kim tossed her blond curls over her shoulder and turned to her, one hand on her hip. “All right, enough of this depressing stuff. I’m not going to let you get into a funk over this. Time to change the subject.”

  “Okay.” Triana pasted on a smile for her friend’s benefit. “What do you suggest we talk about to lighten the mood?”

  Kim grinned, her green eyes dancing. “Why don’t we talk about Remy and the way you two were getting down and dirty last night?”

  Triana laughed. If Kim had been looking for a topic that would brighten her mood, she’d definitely picked a good one. It was impossible to think about Remy and not smile.

  “We weren’t getting down and dirty last night,” she insisted as she put the last doll in place. “We were just dancing.”

  Kim gave her a dubious look. “Please. There were some wicked-hot sparks flying off you guys. I thought you and Remy might burst into flames right there on the dance floor. You sure there was never anything between the two of you in high school?”

  “No, there was never anything between us, but I always wished there had been,” Triana said, unable to keep the wistful tone out of her voice. “Man, did I have a serious crush on him back then.”

  Her friend’s lips curved. “I can definitely see why. The guy is a hunk.”

  “He’s definitely a hunk, all right—and then some.”

  Triana smiled, remembering the feel of all those muscles under her fingers as they danced…and kissed. She’d been so aroused after Remy had left her mother’s shop last night, it had taken almost an hour for her body to return to normal. Just thinking about those kisses had her tummy quivering all over again.

  “How the heck did you let a guy like that get away in high school?” Kim asked. “Especially since it’s obvious he’s completely enamored with you.”

  A warm blush crept into her cheeks at the thought of Remy being attracted to her. “That’s the funny part,” she admitted. “Remy wasn’t like this in high school. I mean, he was definitely hot, but nothing like he is now. It’s hard to even stand beside him without getting turned on.”

  “Damn,” Kim breathed. “If you got turned on simply from standing beside him, I can only imagine what it was like when you guys were dancing. I’m surprised you didn’t orgasm right there in the club.”

  Triana stifled a moan, then threw a quick glance at the back room to make sure her mother was still in there before giving Kim a grin. “Me too.”

  “When are you seeing him again?” Kim arched a brow. “You are seeing him again, right?”

  Triana laughed. “Duh! Of course I am. We’re going out tonight.” Crap, the other day she’d promised Kim they’d go see a movie tonight. How the heck could she have forgotten that? “Oh God. I completely forgot you and I had plans. I’ll call Remy and tell him we need to do dinner another night.”

  “Don’t you dare!” Kim said. “Remy’s only in town for the week. I know you think I’m falling apart since Shawn dumped me, but I’m fine. Really.”

  Triana wasn’t sure she believed her friend. The jerk formerly known as Shawn
had dumped Kim on the same night she’d expected him to pop the question. Any woman would have been thrown for a loop after that.

  “Kim, you and Shawn dated for four years,” she said gently. “You have every right to be down.”

  “I was for a while,” Kim admitted. “Worse, I was down on myself because I thought the whole breakup was my fault. But after we left the club last night, Zane told me something that put everything into perspective.”

  “What’s that?”

  “He pointed out that Shawn walking out had nothing to do with me,” she said. “It was one hundred percent about Shawn and his inability to grow up and accept our future together. Zane made me realize I wasn’t the reason Shawn left. Shawn threw away what we had because he’s an immature coward.”

  Triana knew there was a reason she’d felt good about leaving Kim in Zane’s company. Then something Kim said earlier caught her attention.

  “So…wait a second. You and Zane left the club together?”

  Kim’s smile was dreamy. “Yeah. We walked around the Quarter until four o’clock in the morning, talking…and making out a little. We could have easily ended up in bed, but we didn’t. It was fun hanging out with a guy who’s so comfortable in his own skin that there’s no reason to rush anything.”

  The comfortable way Kim implied there could have been sex surprised Triana a little. She didn’t expect Kim to even be interested in jumping into bed with a guy so soon after breaking up with Shawn.

  “Are you planning to sleep with Zane?”

  Kim shrugged. “Maybe. If it feels right. Is there any reason I shouldn’t? We’re two consenting adults with no other commitments. As much as I cared about Shawn, and still do, he left me. I don’t even know where he is right now. And Zane isn’t seeing anyone at the moment.” She straightened a voodoo doll. “We talked honestly about it last night. If we sleep together, it will be plain and simple, no-strings sex with no expectations. I’m thinking at this point in my life that might be the very best thing for me.” She smiled. “I’d be lying if I said the idea of a little rebound sex with someone as perfect as Zane isn’t awfully tempting.”