by Anya Nowlan
“Wes,” she said curtly, noting the man’s rumpled clothes, the same ones he had been wearing when she had last seen him. “Drove all night to catch up with me, did you?”
“You’re the one that ran off without hearing me out,” Wes replied, arching a brow at her.
“There’s nothing you can say to change my mind. I’ve already told you, I work alone,” she huffed. “Plus, I did leave you that cherry pie,” she smirked.
Her job was serious, it wasn’t some adventure or thrill ride. And she didn’t need some inexperienced hothead tagging along, complicating things. Even if that hothead was beginning to impress her with his persistence.
“Come on, Dakota,” he replied, tilting his head at her. “I know following you wasn’t the best move, but you letting the air out of my tires was kind of an overreaction, no?. Pie or no pie, doesn’t that make us even?”
“This isn’t about being even,” Dakota countered, but she had to admit, her annoyance at being trailed had already mostly evaporated. “You might have killed a demon, but that doesn’t mean you really know anything about the world I live in.”
“So teach me,” he immediately said, leaning forward. “I’m a werewolf, it’s not like I’m a helpless human. No offense.”
With his eyes boring into hers, it was hard to think straight. Dakota shook her head.
“I don’t have time for that.”
“I’m a quick study,” he cajoled. “Just let me tag along. I’ll stay out of your way, I promise.”
“Why would you even want to have anything to do with me or what I do?” Dakota asked, flustered both by his insistence and her blooming desire to keep him around.
“I can’t bury my head in the sand any more than you can,” Wes replied. “Now that I know what’s out there… How can I just ignore that? These creatures you chase are evil, and they have nothing good planned for any of us. And who knows what creatures my pack has managed to piss off now that we’ve had a hand in killing off Loch?
“Look, I haven’t felt right since I found out about… them. With you showing up in Pinedale, I can’t help but think it’s a sign that I was supposed to stay on my guard, that there’s more to this for me than what I’ve seen so far. I don’t want to be unprepared if my actions come back to haunt me or the ones I care about.”
Dakota was quiet, letting Wes’ words sink in. He did have a point. Wes and the other wolves already knew about demons, and there was no way to stuff that cat back in the bag. So they were in on the secret, but had none of the knowledge she had on how to deal with the supernatural. That was hardly fair.
Feeling her resolve weaken, she sighed.
“I’m not getting rid of you, am I?” she said.
“You could stand to be a little more excited,” Wes grinned, already smelling his victory. “I’m great company.”
“Yeah, let me be the judge of that,” Dakota pursed her lips.
She still remembered how easy it had been to talk to him back in Pinedale, but she couldn’t let that cloud her judgment. Good company or not, Wes was still a rookie when it came to demons.
And in this business, your first false move could very well be your last.
Twelve
Wes
“You can’t be serious,” Wes argued, as he and Dakota stood in the parking lot, in front of their respective vehicles. “I can’t just leave my truck here.”
“Fine, then you can just tag along behind my car,” Dakota shrugged.
“And how exactly am I supposed to learn from you when we’re in separate vehicles?”
Not to mention she might try and lose me again.
“That’d be your problem now, wouldn’t it? And we’re right back where we started,” Dakota muttered, absentmindedly making a circle in the air with her finger.
Wes had to admit, they were kind of going around in circles when it came to their discussion about how exactly they were going to make the drive down to Denver. Being in separate vehicles wasn’t going to work, and neither one of them was eager to leave their vehicle behind.
“Look, I’m not abandoning my car just because a wolf I barely know wants me to teach him the trade,” Dakota said, a hand flying to her hip. “You’re the one that insisted on tagging along, so get in the damn car,” she tilted her head toward her Toyota, “or hit the road.”
Wes’ wolf stirred beneath his skin at the challenge in Dakota’s voice, but the growl emanating from his chest was more playful than anything. Dakota was stubborn, sure, but it was better than being a pushover. And he had always liked women that didn’t take shit from anyone.
Besides, she did have a point – he was the one making demands of her time. The least he could do was not make her abandon her car.
“Fine,” he sighed, making a winning smile appear on Dakota’s face. “We’ll take your car.”
He could have one of his brothers from the pack come pick his truck up. Once he figured out a good way to let them know Dakota had discovered him tailing her, that was. Perhaps they would be pleased by this turn of events. Sitting right next to her gave him a lot more intel than following four cars behind, after all.
“Good call,” she said, clapping him on the shoulder.
“I can take the wheel if you’d like,” Wes offered.
“After you’ve been driving all night?”
“I don’t need much sleep,” Wes shrugged.
“Right,” she drew out. “Shifter perks,” she added with a sigh. “Still doesn’t mean I’m letting you drive my car, though.”
Dakota barely gave him a look before hopping into the driver’s seat.
Wes could only smile and shake his head, quickly grabbing his backpack and duffel from the truck and throwing them in the Toyota’s trunk before getting in beside Dakota.
This is going to be an interesting ride.
Throwing a grin his way, she started the car, tires squealing as she pulled away. Wes shot her a look, making a show of buckling his seatbelt as the diner was left in their rearview mirror.
“You’re trouble, aren’t you?” he commented.
“Only now figuring that out?” she laughed. “You can still back out.”
“No,” he replied. “I like trouble.”
Looking at the delicate curves of her face, Wes studied Dakota’s profile, from her narrow, straight nose to her lush lips and pointy jaw, to the long braid trailing down her back. If this was what trouble looked like, he couldn’t get enough of it.
Dakota watched him from her periphery, frowning to herself.
“What? Do I have something on my face?” she asked, flicking her eyes to the mirror.
“No,” he shrugged, turning his attention to the road. “You’re very beautiful, that’s all.”
Maybe he was tired or maybe he was just tired of the bullshit, but one way or another, he’d said what he was thinking and he didn’t feel a lick of remorse for it.
Dakota seemed to be stunned into silence for a moment, something Wes had a feeling didn’t happen often.
“You better not be hitting on me, Wes…” she stopped short. “What’s your last name, anyway?”
“Olsen,” he replied.
“Well, you better not be hitting on me, Wes Olsen. Not if you want to stay in this car,” she warned.
“If that’s your response to a compliment, I’d hate to see what you do when someone insults you,” Wes laughed, watching her cheeks turn a slightly deeper shade of pink. “And I was just making an observation.”
“Just don’t get any ideas about what this is,” she replied, careful to keep her eyes on the road. “I’ll educate you on demons, you stay out of my way and report back to your pack, telling them what a good little girl I’m being.”
“I thought you were supposed to be trouble?” Wes teased.
He held back a laugh when Dakota turned to glower at him for a moment, before rolling her eyes and focusing back on the highway stretching out in front of them. Had he known flattery was the way to knock badass demon-hu
nter Dakota off balance, he would have told her how gorgeous she was a lot earlier.
Yet, instead of singing her praises, he snapped his mouth shut, grinning to himself instead. She was right – she was pretty much doing him a favor by even letting him in her car, and the last thing he wanted was to make her uncomfortable.
They barely knew each other, so it was better to tread lightly. Once she realized he could be an asset instead of a burden, things would go a lot more smoothly.
So he settled into his seat, stretching out his legs as much as he could. Shrugging off his jacket, he tossed it onto the backseat and rested his elbow against the car window. His wolf was as happy as he was to be sharing a space with Dakota again, all but purring inside him.
Dakota’s scent filled the cab, sweet and fresh, just like when they had first met in Pinedale. It still smelled oddly familiar to both him and his wolf, and he couldn’t help but draw it deeper into his lungs.
Yet as he did, he could smell a different undercurrent to it, blossoming out from beneath her personal scent. Tangy and seductive, he recognized it immediately – desire. There was just a hint of it, just a wisp beneath the sweetness, but it couldn’t hide from him.
From the corner of his eye, he caught Dakota stealing a glance at him, quickly looking away with a carefully neutral expression on her face. Wes had to stop his grin from getting wider.
Oh, this just got a lot more interesting.
Thirteen
Dakota
Dakota watched the silhouette of Denver rise up in front of her with an uneasiness in her gut. Not only was this the first mission she had where she couldn’t ask her dad for help, she had a wolf making eyes at her from her passenger seat, and he somehow looked sexier every time she looked at him.
And while she was certain she had bags under her eyes from lack of sleep, he was as fresh-faced as ever.
Goddamn shifters, with their increased stamina and strength and their… biceps!
She couldn’t remember the last time she had been this affected by a guy… Maybe never?
Luckily, Wes had stayed off flattery during their drive to Denver, opting to grill her about demons instead. Thus far, she had managed to cover the basics. For example, it took quite a lot of power to breach the invisible film separating the human and demon realms, so lower-level demons could only show up when summoned by someone on the human side. Stronger demons could pass over by themselves, but couldn’t stay for very long before getting yanked back.
She had regaled him with the same stories her dad had told her – about people who messed with the wrong forces and got burned for it, sometimes literally. Magic always had a price, whether you knew you were paying it or not. Which made incompetent practitioners especially dangerous.
“Loch could show up in Tessa’s dreams because of the amulet,” Wes said, rubbing that chiseled jaw of his. “They can’t do that without the amulet, can they?”
“Not usually,” Dakota replied. “The amulet is the only physical thing that can create such a connection, at least that I know of. There were spells that could do that, a long time ago, but the books that hold dream magic have since been destroyed.”
“How can you be sure of that?”
“Well, I can’t,” Dakota admitted. “But I do know the library they were hidden in burned down over a hundred years ago.”
“You’re like an encyclopedia of weird stuff,” Wes commented, sounding almost in awe.
“That better be an insult,” Dakota joked.
“Of course,” he grinned, making her lips curve upward. “So, what’s our next move?” he asked, turning his gaze to the city in front of them.
“The man I’m after is in town for a business meeting. You might have heard of him. Elias Campbell,” Dakota replied, watching recognition flash over Wes’ face.
“The real estate giant?” he asked, eyes widening. “He won’t give you the time of day.”
“I know,” she shrugged. “I’ve already tried getting a hold of him through his office for weeks, but he hasn’t gotten back to me. So I’m going to have to force his hand.”
“And how exactly are you going to do that?” Wes arched a brow.
“I’ve done my homework,” Dakota replied. “I know the places he likes to go, and the hotels he likes to stay at. Once I get him in my sights, I’m not going to give him another option but to talk to me.”
“He probably has security,” Wes remarked.
“I know,” she said.
“You could get in trouble,” Wes added.
“I know that, too,” she replied.
“Elias must have something pretty important then, if you’re willing to harass one of the richest men in the country,” he tilted his head at her.
Dakota sighed. Dealing with someone like Campbell was complicated, that was for sure. Even if she were as wealthy as him, she knew no amount of money was going to make the man hand over the items he had spent years trying to get his hands on.
“The books he purchased aren’t that dangerous on their own,” she replied, her hands tightening around the steering wheel. “But put all that information together, and we are dealing with some powerful shit.”
“He could just be keeping them in glass cases, never even reading them,” Wes offered.
“I would hope so, but I don’t think that’s very likely,” Dakota shook her head. “The combination of books and how they complement each other tells me he might know things he shouldn’t. And then there are the weather patterns.”
“What about them?” Wes asked.
“Well, magic tends to disturb the boundaries between our realm and the demon realm,” Dakota explained. “Using spells draws on an energy only the other side can offer. And that means consequences.”
“Ah,” Wes nodded. “I remember Tate and Tessa talking about how the weather always took a weird turn when Loch showed up. And there was a huge thunderstorm the night we killed him, that disappeared as soon as he was dead.”
Dakota drove deeper into the city, watching all the cars and people pass her by on the streets. It was an odd transition from jungles, to tiny little Pinedale, to now here, back in the hustle and bustle. Part of her found it familiar, even comforting, yet part of her wanted to run and hide.
So she focused on talking to Wes instead, his deep voice soothing despite his presence being a distraction in more ways than one.
“Yup,” she said. “Someone as powerful as Loch was bound to make a pretty severe impact. Lower level disturbances usually don’t trigger changes in weather. Which is why I got worried when I realized Campbell was all but being followed around by freak storms and unusual cold and warm fronts.”
“So you’ve been keeping an eye on him,” Wes interjected.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on all the people that bought my dad’s stuff, as best as I can. No red flags really jumped out at me with those other people, but Campbell…” she trailed off. “Anyway, since he wasn’t giving me the time of day, I stopped in Pinedale first. Thought an antique store owner would give me less trouble than a billionaire. How wrong was I,” she grinned, throwing a glance Wes’ way.
“Well, I want to help anyway I can,” he resolved. “But are you sure the weather really has anything to do with Campbell?”
“Climate change makes using that particular method of sniffing out demonic activity a little more difficult,” Dakota admitted.
“Yet another reason to recycle,” Wes deadpanned.
“But there are just too many coincidences. When he went to Vegas, it rained there for two days straight. In Vegas,” she emphasized, before making an abrupt turn into the parking lot of a nearby shopping center.
“Hey, you’re the expert,” Wes shrugged. “If you say Campbell is bad news, I’m with you.”
“All right,” she said, reaching back into her purse, stuffed into the pouch in the back of her seat, and pulling out her phone. “First, we find a place to stay. Then, we find out where he is staying.”
“All
right, roomie,” Wes replied, cheerful as ever.
Wait, he’s not expecting to share a room with me, is he?
The answer was obvious – of course he was. He wouldn’t even take a separate car, so he sure as hell wasn’t going to let her out of his sight overnight, not after she’d slashed his tires and all.
Let’s just hope he sleeps with his shirt on, Dakota groaned. A woman can only take so much.
Fourteen
Wes
Wes shrugged off his backpack as he sank into an armchair in a nondescript hotel room. With a basic color scheme of cream and gray, and two beds beneath a window facing the street, it perfectly met his and Dakota’s needs of sleeping and showering.
She was already pulling a laptop out of her bag and setting it on the nearby table, her lips pursed. Wes just watched her type away, her braid a little looser than before, and tendrils of black hair falling around her face.
She was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, but he kept that thought to himself. His wolf kept pushing at his self-control, urging him to get closer, to smell and touch her… But he shoved those instincts aside.
Despite the fact she might be harboring some attraction toward him, Dakota was still all business, and seemed to be avoiding his gaze more than ever. So Wes hung back, giving her her space.
“There are only so many hotels in town someone like Campbell would stay at,” she said, pulling one leg up onto her chair. “But I know he has a thing for historical places, so I think The Crawford is our best bet. He’ll probably be in meetings all day, but if we can catch him coming or going…” she trailed off, still staring at the screen.
“Then we have time to get some rest,” Wes remarked.
“I thought you wolves didn’t need sleep,” Dakota clucked her tongue.
“But you do,” Wes chuckled. “And I could use a shower.”
“Uh… Yeah,” she stammered. “I still say we should get separate rooms,” she added, getting up to pace around the room.
