Savage Security

by Ellis Leigh

6

  The car Zoe had hired to take her to the airport rolled onto the tarmac and headed for the plane parked in front of a large, silver hangar. The small airport in New Jersey Alaska had directed her to was one she’d never visited before, though she didn’t exactly fly often. Her wolf tended to get uncomfortable in small spaces filled with humans. But this? This would be different. This flight would be only her and Alaska, with a small crew as far as she understood.

  It would also be very expensive, which wasn’t something to ignore. If Alaska had been trying to impress her with his casual I’ve booked a jet comment, he’d succeeded. Not that Zoe would let him know that so easily. As much as she liked to spend money, she’d never flown on a private plane. Today would be a first for her, and she was definitely looking forward to it. She’d hardly slept the night before, too anxious and excited to turn off her mind. She was flying to Alaska…with Alaska. Her fated mate and a man she barely knew anything about. Traveling with him for an indeterminate length of time and to a location he hadn’t even told her about yet.

  Zoe still couldn’t believe she’d agreed to any of this.

  The sky burned peachy gold, sunrise only half an hour past as she stepped out of the car. Alaska stood leaning against a black SUV, sunglasses on and legs crossed at the ankles as he checked his phone. He looked good enough to eat in his dark jeans and sweater, with his floppy dark hair being ruffled by the breeze. He also looked like a model for one of those higher-than-middling chain clothing stores all the “good” malls across America housed—casual, collected, and completely absorbed by whatever played out on the screen in his hand.

  Time to distract him.

  “Is there a problem?” Zoe asked, adding a little extra swing to her hips when he looked up. Alaska smiled, pulling off his sunglasses, looking from her stiletto heels to her leather miniskirt to the low-cut cashmere sweater she wore. She’d wanted to appear sexy but touchable, and if the gleam in Alaska’s eyes when he tucked his phone into his pocket was any indication, she’d succeeded.

  “No problem now that you’re here.” Alaska pushed off the car and stepped closer, his loose-hipped gait exaggerated by his long, thick legs. Zoe locked her knees and pressed her thighs together, not wanting to give away how much she wanted him already. Seconds…that was all it took for him to ramp up her arousal and make her wet. Soaked even. Her inner wolf was a total slut for him in the best possible way. But Zoe couldn’t let her beast loose, couldn’t give in to the need burning bright inside of her. She needed to keep a little distance between them, no matter how much her wolf fought that plan.

  It was going to be a long flight.

  Alaska stopped right in front of her and ran a finger over her cheek, still smiling. Still looking so damn handsome, it hurt. “You’re extra beautiful this morning, Beautiful.”

  She rolled her eyes at his horrible play on words yet couldn’t be anything but honest. “I was just thinking the same thing about you, actually.”

  His grin flashed bright and wide. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.” She nodded at her driver as he placed her bags at her feet. “Now, is all that muscle just for show, or are you going to be able to carry my bags for me?”

  He growled low, inching closer before shooting her a wink. “Carl?”

  Zoe frowned until a man in a black suit and mirrored shades stepped beside Alaska. A human man.

  “Sir?”

  “Load the lady’s bags, please.” Alaska cocked his head, still watching Zoe as Carl grabbed the bags and carried them up the stairs and into the plane.

  “You have a human to do your heavy lifting?” Zoe asked, keeping her voice pitched low. Unable to put even an extra inch between them.

  As if feeling the same way, Alaska wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her toward the stairs leading up to the cabin. Staying right beside her. Touching all the way. “Technically, I have a pilot who’s happy to take my money and load your bags. But whatever you want to imagine him as, I’ll go along with it.”

  “So you’re not the one flying today? Pity. I had all these fantasies about me and you and your cock…pit.”

  Alaska growled, his hand sliding down to her hip. His body crowding hers. “Beautiful, you can definitely hang out on my cockpit all you want, but I’d prefer to be alone with you when that happens.”

  “Opportunity trumps preferences every time.”

  “Well, I plan to give you plenty of opportunity to take advantage of me. We’ve got a long flight ahead of us. Plenty of time for whatever it is that devious mind has planned.”

  His hand slipped into hers, their fingers weaving together as they climbed the stairs to the plane. It was such a sweet gesture, such a simple one. Something she’d never experienced. Something that softened her heart and made her want to purr her happiness. Made her want to hold on to him forever.

  But as she stepped inside the plane, he let go. She had about half a second to miss the warmth of his hand in hers before a sharp crack sounded. Zoe jumped as Alaska’s hand landed squarely on her ass, her body both wanting to run away from it and beg for more at the same time. His devilish grin when she spun to face him—eyes likely wide and mouth probably hanging open—didn’t help her situation.

  “Did you just spank me?”

  “I told you what I wanted to do to that ass. First one accomplished—we’ll talk about the biting once we’re in the air.” He herded Zoe toward the leather seats, grinning down at her. So big and powerful and male. So hers. “Take a seat, Beautiful. The temptation of giving that phenomenal ass another smack is almost too much for me to resist.”

  “I knew you were a naughty one.”

  He chuckled. “You have no idea.”

  Maybe not, but she wanted to. Badly. Had she thought the flight would be long? Between the lust in his eyes and the way her body was responding to him, she had a feeling it wouldn’t be long enough.

  Two hours. Zoe made it two hours into the flight before cracking. Alaska had made sure she was comfortable before takeoff, had even teased her a little with a soft kiss to her cheek and a hand on her thigh, but then he’d broken out his laptop and started typing away. She’d watched him for a bit, wondering if he was in the middle of planning one of his internet heists. Wondering how those thick fingers would feel working her body the way they worked the keyboard. Wondering what the hell she was doing flying to Alaska with a stranger.

  A stranger the fates thought was a perfect match for her.

  Could they be right? She had to admit, she was attracted to him. Hell, what women wouldn’t be? Tall and thick and so fucking handsome it seemed impossible that he didn’t have women throwing themselves at him on the daily, the man exuded the sort of confidence that pulled people in. And those eyes. Every time they flicked her way, that they caught her staring, the heat built within her. So light, so unusual. And the way they showed his hunger whenever they met hers—so fucking amazing. The man didn’t need to say a single word when he looked at her that way.

  Which was why she felt so proud to have made it two full hours without demanding his attention. But even she had a limit…and she’d hit it.

  “Alaska’s a big state, you know,” Zoe said, pretending to be focused on a game on her phone.

  He jerked, his head popping up and his brow tightening. “What?”

  “Alaska,” she said, drawing the word out. “It’s big. And you never told me exactly where we’re going.”

  He cocked his head, looking at her with much more interest. Making her want to squirm in her seat or crawl into his with him. Her self-control had no chance against that man.

  “You must trust me an awful lot to get on a plane and fly off with me when you have no knowledge of our exact destination.”

  She could play the sarcasm card just as well as he could. “Don’t count on it, Alaska.”

  He grinned, and that look—that moment of happiness on his face—stunned her. Made her lose her ability to speak. And think. And…do stuff. The bastard.

&
nbsp; Alaska typed for a moment, then turned his laptop around so she could see the map on the screen. The map of Alaska, of course.

  “We’re headed to the Brooks Range—just north and east of the Anaktuvuk Pass. There’s a pack of wolf shifters there that we need information on.”

  Pack. An icy splinter shot straight up her spine at the thought of what sort of pack they might be heading toward. “And you can’t get that information from them from New York?”

  He frowned, turning his computer around again and closing the lid. “They’re…slightly off the grid.”

  That pause. It meant something more than he might have intended it to. The delay felt important. “How slightly?”

  “The kind of slightly that requires an in-person trip.”

  “So…the slightly that really means completely.”

  “Pretty much.”

  Huh. That sounded the opposite of the sort of place he’d ever want to be. Her as well. “So there’s no data to delve into, no internet footprint, and no way to know what’s going on without infiltrating this pack. That must drive you crazy.”

  His eyes burned as they caught hers. “You have no idea.”

  Zoe sat back, crossing her legs as her mind swirled. What on earth could they possibly want with a pack out in the middle of nowhere? There couldn’t be much to gain from them. Maybe some gold or oil rights, though that really wasn’t the sort of thing Alaska had gone after since she’d been aware of him. They weren’t his preferred targets. He dealt in internet theft—taking from those with more than they needed. If the pack had no internet life, assumedly no money, and no status, then…

  “What’s the prize?”

  Alaska gave her another confused look. “Prize?”

  “The end goal of the game. What are we investigating some nothing pack for? I can’t see the prize.”

  “No prize. My boss wants info and can’t find it himself, so I’m going to get it for him.”

  Boss. Something about that word made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Zoe prided herself on being able to read people, and right then, she read Alaska as someone avoiding a topic. If she let her imagination take over, she’d say he was dodging something about their situation. He’d chosen boss specifically—an innocuous, bland sort of word. Alaska wasn’t bland.

  He also wasn’t telling her the whole truth.

  She picked up her phone again and concentrated on the screen as she let her mind wander. As she contemplated whether she should have trusted him or not. The fates had thrown the two of them together, and while she had to admit her physical attraction to him consumed most of her thoughts, she didn’t have to let anything happen. She could leave the bond incomplete, refuse the mating. She could walk away at any point…unmated, unclaimed.

  Independent.

  Alone.

  A thought that had never bothered her before she met him.

  7

  “Is there anything else, sir?”

  Deus nodded to Carl, who stood just inside the cockpit. “Not today. Stay local, though. I’ll call if we need you before our scheduled departure.”

  “Whatever you need, sir. Enjoy Alaska, ma’am.” Carl nodded to Beautiful, who seemed focused on what was outside of the plane instead of inside it. Deus couldn’t blame her. There was something about the air in Alaska that reminded him of home. Not New York home or even United States home—ancient home. The place where he’d been born. Where he’d been part of his first pack, where he’d first met Luc and Bez. Hell, that place didn’t even exist anymore, centuries of war and disputes over borders destroying the land he’d first explored as a young wolf causing boundaries and names to shift. He could barely remember the place any longer, hardly pick it out on a current map, but he’d never forget the scent of the forest the first time he ran as a wolf with his pack. The cold, crisp, clean air within the Arctic Circle definitely tugged at those memories.

  Deus helped Beautiful down the stairs from the plane, watching her face as she took in the sights. Mountains, trees, and snow as far as the eye could see in front of them, two metal buildings with rounded roofs behind them, and a single unpaved road leading out of the field the region thought of as an airport. Not exactly a bustling metropolis, and nowhere near good enough for a woman like her. She looked like a million bucks, far more than the entire damn town was likely valued at.

  “Are you warm enough?” he asked once their shoes hit the runway. Though that term could only be applied loosely—there was no paved landing area, just hard-packed dirt and snow. Completely basic but functional. And nowhere near what she was probably used to.

  “I’m just fine, thank you.” She smiled, those bright red lips lifting just enough to tempt him, and his world tilted on its axis. He hated feeling so off-kilter, but his wolf loved this. Loved having her close, seeing her facial expressions change as he took in her scent. Loved that out-of-control falling feeling of being anywhere near his fated mate. Deus…well, it might take him a little longer. He didn’t quite trust her yet, a fact made evident when she’d asked why they were coming to Alaska. He’d gone with boss instead of Alpha for the person who needed help. Something that ate at him a little—the entire statement had not really been a lie, but not the whole truth either.

  The wording had come naturally, like an instinct to protect his own, and he couldn’t say he regretted the choice. He’d make the same decision again if he needed to, but that didn’t mean he liked it. She was his mate—his forever—and he wanted to tell her all about his pack and his life and his Alpha. Just…not yet. His pack’s safety came first still. His Alpha’s safety definitely had to come first on this trip. But even that wasn’t the true meaning behind his subterfuge.

  She had no pack, that much was obvious. Whether that was intentional—some wolves chose a nomadic lifestyle—or not was left to be determined, but it didn’t matter. If she had no pack, she likely didn’t want one. Which meant she wouldn’t want his pack involved in her life. No matter how non-pack his group was.

  Mentioning Alpha or pack seemed wrong in regards to his brothers. Luc wasn’t your typical Alpha, and their pack was more than a little unusual. Most shifters didn’t even know the legends of the Dire Wolves anymore—his breed had been extinct for centuries. Yet he and his six brothers had survived, forming their own unconventional pack and spreading across the country known as the United States. They’d believed they were the last Dires left, though they’d recently discovered that likely wasn’t true. Something they needed to investigate as soon as Luc was finished in Alaska. Still, they worked at supporting the North American Lycan Brotherhood leader when he needed more force or intel than a regular shifter could get him, but mostly they kept to themselves. And they kept the mystery of their lineage a tightly held secret.

  Deus wasn’t ready to tell Beautiful all that yet or risk losing her over something so loosely defined. But trust her or not, he was more than ready to get his hands on the curves that had been torturing him the entire flight.

  “So,” she started, still looking out over the mountains before them. “What now?”

  I pull you underneath me and fuck you until you break.

  “Luc said he’d be sending a local wolf to pick us up and bring us to town once we landed. I expect the guy will be here any minute.”

  “Do you need to call him or something?”

  He spread his arms wide. “There’s nothing here, Beautiful. I’m pretty sure anyone in a five-mile radius knows a plane just landed.”

  She scowled, her lips turning down in what he could never tell her was an adorable sort of expression. “Smartass.”

  But as he’d expected, a truck soon came rolling over the snow toward them. Deus stood next to Beautiful, watching the approach. Suddenly uncomfortable at the thought of sharing space with another male…and his mate. Another instinct he wasn’t prepared for—the one that spoke of ownership. The one to claim, to squirrel her away and keep her safe. The one that demanded he rub himself all over her body so she smelled
like him everywhere.

  Soon, wolf. Soon.

  The truck came to a stop in front of the plane. Deus watched carefully, moving his body to stand between his mate and the vehicle. Ready to defend her if necessary. He’d seen her fight off humans—he doubted his overprotectiveness was necessary. But there was no convincing his wolf of that.

  “Luc sent me. You Caleb?” the unknown shifter said as he stepped out of the truck. Deus nodded, responding to the name he’d chosen to go with on this mission, not missing the way the other male’s eyes darted to something behind him—to Beautiful. “Who’s the female?”

  Beautiful stiffened for a moment then moved closer to the man, smiling and jumping in before Deus could respond. “The name’s Beautiful, and I’m here with this big lug.”

  The male eyed Deus, practically challenging him. “Fitting name.”

  Deus couldn’t hold back the possessive growl or how his hand moved to Beautiful’s elbow to pull her closer. To protect her. To make sure this guy knew she belonged to him. “We’re here to work, not flirt.”

  Hands up, the wolf gave Deus a sarcastic sort of smile. “No harm, friend. She didn’t smell claimed.”

  She wasn’t, so Deus kept his mouth shut. Beautiful pulled her arm out of his hold and directed a raised eyebrow at him, as if waiting for him to say something. Apologize, perhaps. Wouldn’t fucking happen, but she didn’t know that. Or maybe she did, because that look grew darker, harder. More dominant. He nearly whimpered under her gaze, his wolf wanting to give her anything she needed. The man in him knowing he’d only stick his foot in his mouth if he tried. For that particular battle, the man won out. At least, until Beautiful turned away from him with a huff, obviously pissed.

  He definitely whimpered at that.

  As the stranger grabbed their bags and loaded them into the back of the truck, Beautiful sent another paint-stripping glare at him and whispered, “Your name is Caleb?”

  Okay—so she wasn’t mad enough to miss that particular detail. Deus took her attentiveness and willingness to ask him a question at all as a good sign.