by Dane, Lauren
He washed her hair as she leaned against him. Afterward, he helped her out, handing her a warm, fluffy towel. There was a sore spot on her neck and she turned, catching sight of the bruise where he’d bitten her.
“Oh…” she said quietly, touching it.
He paled. “Oh, Nina, I’m sorry. I didn’t tell you beforehand. It’s…the biting…it happens when your wolf is close mpf…”
She put her fingers over his lips. “You didn’t hurt me. I liked it. It’s okay. I understand. I understood while you were doing it.”
He took her hand and kissed it. “Oh. Good. Because I liked doing it. We heal quickly but there’s some arnica in here for bruises.” He dug in the medicine cabinet and pulled out a tube.
“Do you often bruise women while fucking them in your bathroom?” she asked, surprised by the edge in her voice.
He turned quickly and she felt that tug low in her gut that she’d grown to realize was her wolf and his reacting to each other. “Beautiful, you may have noticed that my life is sort of dangerous? I have the arnica for my own bruises.” He took her chin in his palm and kissed her lips.
“There were others before you, yes. But there was no one until you. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
She shook her head.
“Nina, before you I never spent the night with women. I had sex and left. I didn’t bring them here. They served a purpose and it was a body-to-body thing. You are everything. Body, soul, heart to my body, soul and heart. You’re it. We’re it.”
“Wow.” She blinked back tears. “You say the best stuff.”
He chuckled and dabbed on the arnica cream.
* * * * *
Back in their bedroom, Nina stood at the dresser and looked back over her shoulder at him. “You know,” she said, dropping her robe, “aside from the insurance adjuster coming out later on, I’m free for the next few hours.”
Lex hummed in agreement as he walked toward her, dropping the towel that had been wrapped around his waist. He picked her up and took her to the bed, laying her down, following her so that his body was resting on hers.
“How is it that I want you less than ten minutes after I’ve had you?” he murmured, delivering small kisses to her lips.
“I don’t know but I’m going to stock up on that soap so you keep it up. Heh, you know what I mean.”
He laughed then and rolled so that she was on top.
She’d just dipped to steal another kiss when Cade yelled up the stairs for Lex. It sounded urgent enough that she didn’t complain, just rolled off and stayed out of his way as he pulled on jeans and a T-shirt and left the room.
She quickly pulled on some clothes, pulled her wet hair back and followed the voices into the office where Cade, Lex and several other Pack wolves had gathered and were having a terse discussion.
Lex looked up when she walked in. “Carter’s body was just found near my parents’ place in North Bend.”
Nina raised an eyebrow and went to pour herself a cup of coffee. She opened her mouth and then shut it again quickly. What could she say? Good? She certainly wasn’t sorry, but at the same time, she knew enough to know it couldn’t bode well for the Pack.
She sat on the arm of the chair Cade was in and, changing her mind, put the mug in front of him and got up to get herself another. She shot a look at Lex and held up the pot but he shook his head.
Settling back in, she realized that the warmth and appreciation she’d felt was from Cade and that she was supposed to still be pissed at him. She gave a mental shrug. She’d punish him later for fun. Now was the time for unity.
“This is clearly a message, Alpha. I know there’s something going on and we can’t deal with it effectively if we don’t know what is happening,” one of the other wolves—Eric? Derek?—said to Cade.
“Message?”
Lex turned to Nina. “He was shot in the back of the head with silver shot and left openly in Pack territory. That’s a not-so-good sign that the mafia is involved.”
“The mafia? What would organized crime care about werewolves and coffee?”
“The werewolf mafia.” Lex turned to Cade as Nina processed that one.
The werewolf mafia? They had to be kidding! It was so absurd she fought the urge to laugh.
“None of these wolves were Carter’s. We need to tell them. Derek is right. This has gone too far. The more secrets we keep, the worse it’s going to be.”
Cade sighed and nodded. Lex explained the missing virus, the laptop and the embezzlement, and the other wolves sat down in shock.
“And obviously at this point we know Carter had something to do with it. I mean, you don’t get tapped by the mob, furry or not, if you’re a nice wolfie boy from Seattle just minding your own business.” Nina thought it over.
“Yes. The real question is at this point, what’s next for the Rogues?” Lex paced the room as he spoke.
“Well, if I were them, I’d want to make sure the virus was ready. Was it?”
“We obviously hadn’t done human trials yet. We were trying to set something up with humans who had been infected involuntarily. It doesn’t happen all that often and there are ethics that need to be minded.”
Except for her brother. She wanted to remind them that Gabriel hadn’t been asked to be changed but she let it go. She nodded. “Okay. And what about the effect on wolves?”
Lex winced. “That would be some creepy shit, Nina, if we’d given it to wolves not knowing what would happen.”
“Duh. I didn’t ask if you’d gone all creepy evil scientist. I just didn’t know if you’d had any extrapolations by your scientists about what may happen.”
The other wolves in the room stiffened when Nina popped off to Lex. Lex brooked no disrespect and they hadn’t ever seen anyone other than Cade speak to him like that before. In fact, most of them acted utterly terrified of him, which made her laugh, but she’d seen enough of him to know that how he treated her and those who he was close to was very different than how he treated enemies.
Nina noticed and laughed. “Don’t worry, I still think he’s the big bad wolf. I’m just snotty, I can’t help it.”
“And you’re Second, too,” Cade said with a shrug and a grin.
“Oh yeah, I am.”
Lex groaned. “Can we not give her any ammo right now and keep focused on the problem at hand?”
Nina snickered and nodded. “Of course, darling.”
He snorted and began to pace again.
“Back to the subject,” he shot a raised eyebrow at Nina, “the researchers were divided. Some of them felt it would be harmless because it was already in our systems, the others felt it would be like a viral agent, causing our systems to turn on themselves. Obviously we couldn’t test that and endanger wolves any more than we wanted to endanger humans.”
“Jesus, we’ve just handed a potential tool of bioterrorism to the Rogues,” Dave said.
“Worse, to the mob.” Lex pushed a hand through his hair and Nina’s insides tightened at the sight. Damn man was like a drug.
“Well, what we have to do is clear. We have to get it back. How we’re going to do it is another thing.” Nina stood and stretched her hands above her head.
“We aren’t going to do anything,” Lex growled.
Nina looked at him and then to Cade. “Listen, I have skills here. I’m not some helpless bimbo.”
“I’m not saying you’re helpless. I’m saying you aren’t going to get involved in crossfire between us, the mob and these Rogues. They’re brutal, Nina. Snotty or not, I happen to like you in one piece,” Lex said with strained calm.
“May I speak with you outside, please?” Nina asked, sugary sweet.
Lex looked at her and knew she’d say whatever it was on her mind in front of everyone if he didn’t go with her, so he sighed. “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” he told Cade and waved toward the door where Nina preceded him.
Nina was waiting in their bedroom, arms crossed, tapping a foot. “Shut the door.”
> He narrowed his eyes and did it. “I’m not going to argue with you about this, Nina. I’m the Enforcer for this Pack and I say who is involved in anything like this.”
“Oh I couldn’t possibly care less, Lex. I’m going to be involved whether you like it or not. Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. It’s all the same to me. My brother was killed over this. I was almost killed and now I’m a werewolf because of Carter and your stupid fucking werewolf rules. I will have my day here and if you think you can pull rank and swing your dick around and play the big macho wolf to shut me up, you’re out of your mind.”
“You think you can tell me how to do my job?” he growled through clenched teeth.
She rolled her eyes but took a deep breath for calm. “Alexander Warden, I am not telling you how to do your job. Believe it or not, I respect your job very much. I respect that you do it so well that people fall over themselves in fear and reverence every time you enter a room. But, babe, I am telling you that I have skills here that can help. Have your people gone to Carter’s and taken his computer? Have you taken his computer from his workspace? I can get in and see what he’s been up to. I can help. Please, let me help.”
How is it that she always knew just how to disarm him? He was touched and flattered and utterly frustrated by this woman. “Why are you so damned difficult? I just want to keep you safe!” he thundered.
“Look, Mister Shouty, don’t get all testosterone wild on me! I didn’t say I would go in guns a blazin’. But you need to separate your feelings for me as your mate and your understanding that I have the ability to help you here. If you wanted some sweet, easygoing woman you barked up the wrong tree. Heh, barked! Anyway, suck it up, you have me and I’m not sweet but if you play your cards right, I am easy.”
That pulled a smile from him and he sighed deeply. “Okay, so if I get you the computer stuff you’ll let me do the other stuff without interfering?”
“By stuff you mean what?”
“God, you should have been a lawyer. I mean, I handle the physical stuff. I plan whatever plan to storm the Rogues or the mafia and you stay here or wherever I say, safe.”
“For now, I agree. Since I no longer have a store to run, I have the time to crack some computers.”
“Why do I have the feeling I’ve just given you the keys to the castle?”
She got a sour look. “Keys to the castle? Dude, work on your metaphors.” She crossed the room and walked out and down the stairs toward the office where the other wolves were and Lex couldn’t help but admire her, even as she took ten years off his life with her antics.
* * * * *
True to his word, Lex had Carter’s laptop and home computer brought to the house for Nina to examine. His books and work computer were also delivered. An office was set up for her in the room that had served as the guestroom when she first came to the house.
Lex put Megan on Nina permanently so he could investigate the situation without worry. He extracted a promise from Nina that she wouldn’t leave the grounds without his knowledge.
Tracy stayed over at the house and helped out with some of the records investigation and other tasks that Nina set her on. Both Lex and Cade were impressed by their baby sister’s competence and intelligence. They saw her through new eyes as she worked with Nina.
As the full moon approached, Nina’s restlessness increased. She found that she needed to be outside more often, even if it was just to walk on the decks outside the main rooms of the house.
She was afraid to admit to herself just how terrified she was of the first transformation. She’d endured a lot in her life but this change into something totally different freaked her out more than she could wrap her head around. She didn’t want to make Lex feel any guiltier than he already did. She was angry, yes, but she’d come to her own peace over the way she’d been transformed. It was that or hate Lex and what she’d become, and that way was the destruction of her entire future. No, she had to accept it, it was done. But it still freaked her right out.
The work was fairly easy for Nina. Carter thought he was clever but he wasn’t really. His passwords were stupid and easily gotten around. The firewall and other security he had was not very complicated.
The day before the full moon Nina headed into Lex’s office, dropped a sheaf of papers on his desk and flopped into a chair until he finished his phone call.
Lex turned to her and smiled. She was so damned beautiful that he still marveled at the sight of her. His once prim schoolmarm was a goddess and he caught fire in her presence.
“Good afternoon, beautiful.”
She rolled her eyes at his flattery and smiled as it won her over despite herself. “Flatterer.”
He laughed. “Does it get me laid?”
She snorted. “I bet it always did before me, too. Now, to business you pervert.” She leaned over his desk and pointed at a column of numbers. “Your boy had quite a problem in Vegas. The left-hand column there is what he lost, the right-hand column is what he owed and that far tally is what was coming in. From what I can tell, those numbers from the Swiss accounts were payments he received and from what I can tell, he gambled them away.”
“Okay. Tell me how you know it was gambling.”
She shuffled through the papers until she found what she was looking for and put it in front of him. “He kept pretty good records, actually. The dates he stayed in Vegas at these three hotels coincide with the huge amounts of money debiting his accounts. I took the liberty of, uh, nosing around a bit in some databases and verified the times he was there and the payouts when he did win. They have to keep records of that sort of thing you know, for the IRS.”
“How did you…never mind, I don’t want to know. Okay. So we have a situation where he was in need of money. How did he jump from that to involvement with the Rogues and the mob?”
“Well, I don’t know the hows and whys of it. What I did find were notations of deposits from a J. R. and a W. P. The numbers got bigger and bigger, Lex. Carter was in deep. From what I could find, he was in the process of losing his home. He was so far behind on his car payments he was going to get it repossessed.”
“He made quite a handsome salary. And, wait, did he have all of this financial stuff in his computer?”
Nina looked at him and sighed, waving his question away. “I saw what you paid him. He went through that in the first ten days of every month. When he wasn’t in Vegas—and he used your private jet to fly out, by the way—he played video poker and used some of the tribal casinos around here. He hadn’t made a payment on his mortgage in five months.”
Nina pulled out another sheet of paper. “Here is where your Pack funds began to siphon off. It was small amounts at first, but just before you pulled his access he stole seventeen grand. All in all, it appears that he embezzled roughly forty thousand dollars from the Pack coffers.”
Lex sat back in disbelief. “My god, Nina. I can’t believe he’d do this. You don’t have any idea how strong the compulsion to serve the Pack is when you’re this high up.”
“Oh I don’t? Because I’m not a wolf?” Hurt arced through her at his blasé dismissal of what she was dealing with.
“You’re right, I’m sorry. So you do see. I don’t get it.”
“Come on, Lex. You have Rogues, they appear to live in the same basic configuration that you all do, with an Alpha and upper ranks. If they’re so bad, they must have resisted the compulsion. Your problem is that you don’t think like you’re bent. That’s why you’re lucky to have me, because I do.”
She pulled out another sheet. “Now, these are the records from your labs and it appears that three vials of the virus are missing. The lead researcher there claims he reported that a month ago. This after he’d reported some tampering with their internal records two months back.”
“Reported it to Carter?”
“Yep. But Lex, this system is just flimsy. You’re dealing with what are essentially biowarfare agents here, and I could get in and look
around with no problem at all. They gave me all this information over the phone without any real verification of who I was. That’s why you’re in the situation you are now.”
“You’re totally wasted as a florist.” The admiration in his voice salved the hurt feelings she’d had.
“I am a damned good florist. By the way, the plants you have at the Pack house are crap. But you know, I can’t be sniffing around computers very often, at least not the internet. It’s not good for me to expose myself like that.”
Alarmed, he stood up and shot around the desk. “Why are you risking yourself! Nina, stop it now.”
“Lex, it’s okay. Most of the stuff I’m doing is all internal. I’m a good investigator, you know. I can spot a scam miles away and I can talk my way around most anyone. Including grumpy, overprotective werewolves.” She gave him a quick kiss. “But thank you for your concern, it’s very sweet.”
“Sweet? Jesus, Nina, are you trying to push me over the edge? Be careful! Let someone else do the work if it’ll get you in trouble. And for god’s sake, don’t expose the Pack with all of this. The last thing I need are the human cops breathing down my neck.”
“Is that how little you think of me? That this is a lark for me? All fun and games and I don’t care a thing about you or your precious Pack?” She stood and headed for the door but he blocked her way.
“You are not going to run from me again. Why do you take everything the wrong way?”
“Excuse me? Why do I take everything the wrong way? Why do you assume I’d do anything to expose your family? I nearly died for your precious family, Lex. I am being very careful but you need this information.”
Leaning down to put his forehead against hers, he exhaled slowly. “You are my family, Nina. You’re part of us and I didn’t assume that you’d expose us. It was just something I said. I tell my men to be careful all the time, it’s part of my job. I didn’t mean to imply that you would endanger us.”
The tension went out of her then at his words and her arms wrapped around him.
“Are you ready for the transformation tomorrow?” he murmured into her ear.
