Wolf Rising

by Paige Tyler

  “What did Jayden say?” Becca asked, leaning forward on the edge of the seat like she was watching an episode of Game of Thrones.

  Selena took a deep breath. “He told me that I’m turning into a werewolf. That I have been since that day in the classroom when Pablo tried to kill me.”

  Becca stared at her for a moment, then bolted to her feet, her face suddenly red with anger. “That’s not funny, Selena. I came home because I was worried about you. I almost called the cops because I thought your new boyfriend abused you. I sat here and listened to what you had to say because I thought you were honestly in trouble. But if you’re going to make a joke out of all this, I’m going back to work. You can deal with your own problems.” Becca grabbed her purse and started for the door.

  Selena swallowed hard, tears stinging her eyes. Why would anyone—even her best friend—believe a tale this unbelievable when Selena barely believed it herself?

  Selena stood. “Becca, wait!”

  Her friend turned, her hand on the doorknob.

  “I can prove it to you,” she said. “Just…don’t freak out, okay?”

  Selena didn’t wait for her friend to answer. Instead, she held up her hands, palms facing her, and focused on the fear that had been growing inside her the entire morning. Hours alone in Becca’s apartment had already taught her that being scared made the claws come out. Anger did it, too, even easier than fear.

  Becca stumbled and almost fell over when Selena’s claws came out. Her eyes went so wide, Selena thought for a second her friend might pass out. She resisted the urge to run forward to be there to catch her, just in case. That would only terrify Becca more.

  She moved her hands behind her back, hoping that would help. It didn’t at first, but after a few moments, Becca’s breathing slowed to normal. Setting her purse on the floor, she walked over to stand in front of Selena, then put out her hands, palms up.

  Selena slowly brought her hands out from behind her back, carefully resting them on top of Becca’s.

  Her friend stared at the inch-long claws for a long time without saying a word. While Selena had quickly figured out that fear and anger made the claws extend—and sometimes her fangs—she’d yet to figure out how to make them go away as fast. They’d usually retract after she calmed down, but at the moment there was little chance of that happening.

  “So, you’re a werewolf,” Becca finally said.

  Selena nodded. “Yeah. At least, that’s what Jayden told me.”

  Becca lifted her gaze, her expression concerned but not necessarily scared. “How did you turn into one?”

  “I don’t know for sure.” Selena’s voice cracked a little as the waterworks threatened to turn back on. She’d spent a good portion of the morning reflecting on this same subject. It hadn’t gone well. “Jayden said something about this being related to Pablo shooting at me.”

  Becca seemed to consider that for a moment. “I can’t believe I’m going to ask this, but how did Jayden figure out you’re a werewolf?”

  Selena closed her eyes for a second, thanking God he’d given her a friend so good at dealing with this kind of stuff. “He recognized the signs because he’s a werewolf, too.”

  “Of course he is.” Becca sighed. “Did you turn because he bit you?”

  Selena had already considered that possibility. It was one of the first irrational conclusions she’d leaped on after getting to Becca’s apartment. “I don’t think so. I was acting weird long before last night.”

  “I’m not going to argue with you there,” Becca agreed. “What about when you bit him the night before? Maybe you got it through his blood.”

  She shook her head, taking her hands away from Becca’s. “Nope. I already had the fangs then, remember. I’m pretty sure I was already turning into a werewolf when you saw me in the hospital after the shooting. It’s probably why my vitals were so wacky.”

  Becca blew out a breath. “Okay, that’s the end of my bright ideas then. What about Jayden? What else was he able to tell you about being a werewolf?”

  Selena winced. “Unfortunately, I didn’t give him a chance to say very much.”

  “I’m almost afraid to ask,” Becca said.

  “Remember when I said I freaked out when Jayden told me I was a werewolf?” Selena’s stomach clenched at the memory. “Well, saying I freaked out might be a bit of an understatement. I attacked him.”

  Becca nudged Selena over to the couch, sitting her down, then taking a seat beside her. “What do you mean you attacked him? Because I refuse to believe you could hurt anyone, especially Jayden. It’s not in you, werewolf or no werewolf.”

  Selena wondered if Becca would say that if she’d seen her earlier. “When Jayden first told me I was turning into a werewolf, I got mad. I thought he was trying to be funny about something that wasn’t funny at all, like you did with me a minute ago. But then he showed me his claws, and I lost it. That’s when my claws and fangs came out, which only freaked me out even more.”

  “That’s understandable.” Becca gave her a small smile. “It’s sort of a lot to take in.”

  “Yeah, I guess.” Understatement there. “Jayden tried to get me to calm down, but when I saw how much I’d clawed him up while we’d made love, it scared me so badly, I was convinced I was a monster. The look on Jayden’s face when I flipped out only made it worse. It was like he was seeing a monster, too.”

  “Honey, Jayden does not think you’re a monster.” Becca took Selena’s hand, not caring that her claws were still out. “He thinks you’re a werewolf like him.”

  “I know what you’re saying, but you didn’t see the look in his eyes when it happened.”

  Becca squeezed her hand. “No, I didn’t. But I saw the way he looked at you in the club last night. The man is in love with you. A few days after meeting you, and he’s crazy about you. I’d bet my life on it.”

  A part of Selena desperately wanted to believe that, because she felt the same way about him. Running away from him had been the hardest thing she’d ever done, and if she hadn’t been so damn scared, she probably wouldn’t have been able to do it. But the longer she sat here now staring at her claws and remembering how badly she’d hurt the man she was already in love with, the harder it was for her to believe Jayden could ever forgive her. He might be a werewolf, but she was a monster.

  “Even if you’re right about Jayden being in love with me last night, he’s not now,” she said miserably. “Not after what I did to him this morning.”

  Becca frowned. “You keep saying you attacked him. What exactly did you do?”

  “I shoved him—hard,” Selena said. “I didn’t even realize what I was doing. One second, I’m standing there freaking out, and the next, Jayden is flying ten feet through the air and bouncing across the floor.”

  Her friend’s eyes went wide. “Wow. I guess this werewolf thing comes with more than claws.”

  Selena nodded. “Then after I threw him across the room, I stole his truck and left him standing naked in his driveway.”

  Becca didn’t say anything. Selena wondered whether it was because her friend was trying to come up with something or she was simply picturing Jayden naked in his driveway.

  “No matter how bad it was this morning, you know you’re going to have to talk to Jayden again, right?” Becca finally said. “I don’t think this is a problem you can deal with on your own, so unless you know another werewolf you can talk to about it, Jayden’s the only one who can help you with this.”

  Selena sighed. “I know you’re right, but I don’t know how I can face him again after what I did to him. It feels like I’m going to lose control just thinking about it.”

  Becca leaned over and hugged her. Selena felt tears burn her eyes as she returned the gesture. Knowing her friend was still able to touch her like this after realizing what Selena was meant a lot.

  “
There’s no reason to rush out and see him right now, you know.” Becca pulled back to look at her. “You’re more than welcome to stay here with me as long as you want. We can run by your place and pick up some of your clothes, then we can crash here together until you’re ready to talk to him. I’ll even be right there with you when you do, if that makes you feel more comfortable.”

  “Thanks. You’re the best friend a girl could ever ask for,” Selena said. “Which is why I hate asking, but could you do me another big favor?”

  “You know there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you. No matter what you need, I’m there for you. I mean, if you need five pounds of raw steak or a gallon of pig’s blood, all you have to do is ask.”

  Selena laughed, unable to help it. “Thanks, but fortunately, it’s nothing that drastic. I was wondering if you’d be willing to text him and let him know where his truck is? I feel horrible for stealing it.”

  Becca looked almost disappointed. “Oh, okay. I can do that.”

  Chapter 15

  Brooks smelled the blood and gunpowder long before he, Carter, and Diego reached the back door of the East Side Collision Damage Repair Shop. He hesitated, not sure if he could trust his nose. His head was spinning from all the crap Carter had told him about omegas on the drive over and what it all meant for Selena. To say he was distracted was an understatement.

  But after taking another deep breath, he no longer doubted he was picking up the scent of fresh blood from inside the building they were about to raid. A lot of it, too. Combine that with the fact that he didn’t hear a single sound coming from a shop that should have been full of noise at this time of day, and Brooks was pretty sure he already knew what they’d find once they went through the door.

  “No sign of movement from the back side,” Brooks whispered into his radio, pushing aside any thoughts but those related to the raid. He couldn’t think about Selena being an omega right now, as difficult as that was to do. “Ready when you are.”

  He would have liked to pass along the info on the blood and gunpowder, but with Ray, José, and half a dozen other officers from the task force sitting in the ops van with Zane, he simply couldn’t. It would lead to questions he didn’t want to answer.

  “We’re in position,” Trey announced from the front of the building. “Thirty seconds to entry. Still seeing no movement from this side, either.”

  “Roger that,” Brooks said. “Count it down.”

  Ray and his gang unit had put in a long night trying to get fingerprints off the confiscated cans of spiked energy drink. When that hadn’t panned out, they’d shown mug shots of the gang members Ray thought might be involved to every employee from the clubs where the cans had been distributed. One of those club employees had identified the man who’d sold him the cases as Aaron Perez. He was a member of the Terrace Grove Locos and had a long history of assault, burglary, and drug distribution. An hour later, Ray had a location and a warrant for the place where Aaron liked to hang out—this collision shop on south Ferguson. The place looked legit from the outside, but according to Ray, it had a reputation for being a gang hangout and the kind of place cars went to get chopped down for parts.

  Hopefully, it was also a storage and distribution location for the fentanyl-laced energy drink. Hell, if they were lucky, Aaron might even be the new gang leader they’d heard about. Assuming Ray was right and this new gang boss was the one behind Buzz.

  Due to the limited amount of time they’d had to come up with it, the plan for raiding the shop was a basic one. The back of the building had no windows and was shielded from the street out front, so Brooks and his team would make a direct entry from that direction—nothing sneaky or covert about it. At the same time, Trey, Connor, and Remy would go in the front. But since that side of the shop had a wall full of windows that would put Trey’s team at risk, they were making their approach in the back of an unmarked moving van. That way, they could pull right up to the door without anyone seeing them.

  “Five seconds,” Trey said.

  Brooks grabbed the doorknob to check it, expecting it to be locked, but it wasn’t. He yanked it open, making way for Diego and Carter as Trey called out his own team’s entry.

  They all stayed tight and alert as they moved into the back of the shop, covering each other and checking every corner and blind spot, even though Brooks could already tell they were the only ones in the place.

  “They’re up here,” Trey said from the front of the shop, his tone confirming what Brooks had feared.

  Brooks moved past a half dozen metal racks full of car parts, a heavily customized Monte Carlo in need of a paint job, and more tool boxes than he could count to find Trey and the other guys on the team standing around three bodies. There was a partially crushed case of Buzz energy drink off to the side.

  He recognized Aaron, but just barely. The gangbanger and the other two men had been shot in the head but only after they’d been beaten to hell with the assortment of wrenches, hammers, and other bloody tools on the floor nearby. For whatever reason, they’d been tortured before being executed.

  “We’re all clear, Ray,” Brooks said into his radio. “But we’re too late.”

  * * *

  “That from Selena?” Carter asked, gesturing with his chin at the cell phone in Brooks’s hand.

  Brooks didn’t answer. This was the first chance he’d had to check his phone since the raid, and he just about freaked when he’d seen the text from Becca. Outside the operations truck he and Carter were in, cops and crime scene techs were digging for clues. He ignored them, focusing his attention on the text and trying to read between the lines for any hidden messages.

  After determining there was no ongoing threat at the auto shop, Brooks had sent everyone except Carter back to the SWAT compound. They probably didn’t need to be there, but Brooks didn’t feel right leaving. He owed it to Ray to hang around in case the techs turned up something that might be helpful. Besides, staying there gave him a chance to talk to Carter in private about Selena.

  “No, it’s not from Selena,” he finally said, slipping his phone in a side cargo pocket on his uniform pants. “It was from her friend, Becca. She said I could pick up my truck in front of her apartment building. Becca wanted me to know Selena is okay and that she’s staying with her. She thinks Selena needs a little space, though.”

  Carter lifted a brow. Two years older than Brooks, his blond-haired pack mate had been a U.S. Marine before joining SWAT. “You think she knows Selena is a werewolf?”

  Brooks shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. Either way, Becca seems focused on protecting Selena. That’s the important thing.”

  “What are you going to do?” Carter asked after a long silence. There’d been a lot of those lately. “This thing Selena is going through isn’t something she should handle on her own. Trust me. I tried to do it on my own for a long time, and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”

  Brooks’s chest tightened. From the moment he’d realized Selena’s glowing blue eyes meant she was an omega, he’d feared the worst. All he knew about omegas was that they were unpredictable and on the verge of going psychotic at the best of times. The idea that Selena—and Carter—were omegas was hard to wrap his head around.

  “How come you never told any of us you were an omega?” he asked, ignoring the question his pack mate had asked about Selena for the moment, since he had no clue how to answer it. “Up until the Pack mixed it up with the omegas who worked for Frasheri, most of us didn’t even know they existed. You could have let us know what we were going up against. Hell, you could have at least clued us in that when an omega’s eyes glow blue, it means they’re on the edge. That info sure as hell would have helped this morning.”

  Carter stared at the TV mounted to the wall of the ops truck, watching the news conference Chief Curtis was holding at that very moment. Curtis was talking about the current murders and the recent ri
se in gang-on-gang violence in the city. No doubt, the moron was making sure everyone knew it wasn’t his fault.

  “And how would that conversation have gone, Brooks?” Carter said, abruptly turning to lock eyes with him, his jaw tight. “What would you and the others have said if I casually dropped the fact that I know all about how out of control omegas get because I’ve been there myself. That I spend a good portion of my waking hours worrying about keeping it together? That if I lose it the least little bit, I can go from growling to completely mental in ten seconds flat? Would you and the others have been comfortable having me cover your backs during a high-threat entry? Would you have wanted me on the team? Would you have wanted me in the Pack?”

  Brooks opened his mouth to say of course they would, but Carter cut him off.

  “Before you answer, seriously ask yourself whether you’d consider letting one of the omegas who worked for Frasheri in the Pack after seeing what they were like. By the way, you don’t have to answer. We both already know what the answer would be.”

  “That’s a stupid question,” Brooks insisted. “Those omegas we fought were crazy, like they were on some kind of drug.”

  Carter regarded him thoughtfully. “Crazy. Drugged. Yeah, that’s pretty much what it’s like to be an omega. And none of those omegas we fought that night were actually out of control, which is why you never saw their eyes glow blue. Still want to ask why I never told the Pack?”

  Brooks thought about that for a few moments, then shook his head. “Has Gage known all along?”

  Carter nodded. “Yeah. When Mike and Xander became squad leaders, we had to tell them, too, so they’d know how to calm me down if I start to lose it.”

  Brooks frowned. “That’s still something you have to deal with? Losing it, I mean.”