by Olivia Arran
He cleared his throat, the corner of his mouth twisting in a grimace. Dropping his hand, he took a deep breath, his eyes closing for a brief moment. “Friends, huh?”
I could see the tension clinging to him, see it crawling up his spine and wrapping around his shoulders as he gripped the steering wheel, but I didn’t have anything else to give him. Not yet. Not while my head was still a mess and my future was up in the air. “Good friends,” I whispered.
Shaking off his funk, he smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “How about a coffee to celebrate? I’ll even throw in a slice of pie?”
My heart leapt at the thought of spending more time with him, which was why I forced myself to shake my head. “Sorry. I have jobs to do inside. And don’t you have work today?”
He leaned back. “I’m on nights, now. The day is mine.”
He should be sleeping, but he’d been out finding me a job. Looking after me. We were parked just down from my little cottage, just out of Granny’s beady eye. Impulsiveness grabbed me. I leaned across, aiming for his cheek.
He turned, his hands coming down on my cheeks, his lips sealing against mine. Stubble tickled, breath heated as our lips pressed, yielding together.
I pulled away, startled.
His voice followed me as I hurried out of the cab, “Good friends, remember?”
Chapter Thirteen
Cade
Deciding to head into work early and maybe try and catch a nap on the couch, I’d only made it halfway down the corridor before Austin appeared, his face tight with anger. He strode over to me, boot covered feet slamming into the ground.
“What’s up?” I was kind of hoping that he’d had a tiff with Leona, because otherwise I didn’t like that look in his eye.
He huffed out a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes. “Good, you’re here. Carter’s called a meeting. You got time?”
Fishing my phone out of my pocket I saw that I had seven missed calls. I’d set the damn thing to silent before picking Mina up, not wanting to be disturbed. “Yeah. What’s up?” We made our way to the Mayor’s office, picking up Jake and Brent along the way. “Nate not joining us?”
“He’s not answering his phone either.” The look Austin shot me had my hackles rising. Something serious was going down.
“You want me to go track him down?” Brent growled as we swung into the room, which was already filled to almost maximum capacity.
Austin shook his head, making his way over to the only spare seat in the room, alongside the other Alphas. “No. We can fill him in later. Ears open boys.” His way of telling us we’d want to listen and not goof off in the back.
Settling against the wall, I bumped fists with Ian and Oscar, nodded at Tiny, and snarled at the back of Zane's head. I still hadn’t forgiven him for dancing with Mina. Grant shouldered his way in beside me, the wolf shifter’s face tight with tension.
“What’s going on?” I asked in a low voice.
“Rogues.” His answer was clipped, but didn’t hide the edge of rage.
All the alphas were now present, the teams not on shift taking up room along the walls. The only person we were waiting on was—
Carter strode into the room, Iesha—his assistant—hot on his heels. Yanking off his tie, he hurled it onto his desk and flicked the top button of his shirt open. “Go. She’ll be on the prowl,” he snarled at Iesha, sending her fleeing for the door. Tension rolled off him in palpable waves, flooding the room and prickling at my skin. My bear roared to life, snout lifted to the air and claws grating at my skin.
Carter braced his hands on the desk, surveying the room. “We don’t have long. That … woman will find me soon.” He had to mean the liaison officer sent by the human government. “Two rogues have been caught trying to leave Heartsridge this morning.”
“Leave?” In his seat across the room, Law snapped to attention.
“Yes. Fucking leaving. They’d been here a goddamn week.”
Austin looked about ready to launch himself out of his seat. “How?”
“They posed as humans using some kind of scent neutralizer. I’ve got our people working on reverse engineering the canister we found in their bags.”
“Species?” Austin ground out.
“A jaguar and a—” Carter’s eyes flicked to mine, and I knew the answer before he uttered the word, “fox.”
“Motherfuckers.” I don’t know who’d voiced it, but it was on everyone’s tongue. Rogues didn’t work together outside of their packs. They kept to themselves.
I pushed away from the wall. “Where are they?”
“I have them contained for questioning. They would have been long gone if their dose hadn’t worn off.” Carter snarled, more beast than man at this moment. “I will find out why they are here and what they wanted. I want every person in this room to be aware that there may be more of them, hidden in with the humans. Watch them.”
“We could send all the tourists home. Close the town for a while?” Jay had stayed silent, but like the other Alpha’s, he was pissed.
Owen spoke up, before Carter had chance. “We’d tip our hand. We need to follow this to the source, and the best way to do that is to locate another one and follow them home.”
“Or we could just make the prisoners we’ve already got talk?” Jake was offering with a smile on his face.
Carter fixed him with a considering look. “We’ll do that too. One way or another, we’ll get some answers.”
“What if they were just trying to check us out. Thinking about relocating but not wanting to commit?” I was glad Danny had asked, because I sure as hell didn’t want to, though the thought had crossed my mind, what with Liam’s escapades as of late.
“We retraced the steps of the pair we caught this morning to their hotel room. Inside, hidden at the back of a false panel in the closet were blueprints of the town and files filled with notations. And equipment, of the bomb making variety.”
“Notations of what?”
I already knew the answer to Law’s question, having jumped three steps ahead. “Shift patterns and routines, right?”
Carter met my eyes. “Yes. Including my own, though the bastards had made a point to mark down that I never seem to leave the office, making me an easy target.”
I had so many questions, my head hurt. How did they get the blueprints? Where were they going to target? Why were they doing this?
“They started watching us six months ago.” The verbal bomb Carter dropped had the room exploding.
“Am I interrupting something?” A woman’s voice cut through the cursing and shouting.
“Miss Lockett, we were just finishing,” Carter replied, sending a wave of power flowing over the room in an attempt to silence us.
Fuck that shit, if the lion shifter thought he could—
Austin narrowed his eyes, tilting his head a fraction. Not here.
Okay. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself the fuck down, but all I could think about was that there had been a rogue fox shifter in Heartsridge. And I had brought Mina here. I needed to question the bastard for myself.
Carter rose from his desk, looping his tie back around his neck and cinching it tight. “Jake, you’re with me.”
“I’m coming, too.”
He paused, leveling me with a look that would have a lesser man quaking in his boots, but I didn’t give a shit about a fucking welcome mat. I wanted in. Finally, he inclined his head, leading the way out of the room.
We brushed past a woman dressed in a smart gray suit. The color of a pale dove, it matched her ice blue eyes and pale blonde hair. She gaped at us, trying to insert herself into Carter’s path.
He pulled up short of mowing her down. “Miss Lockett?” His drawl was unamused and to the point.
“I want to know why I was detained from attending this meeting.” She leaned closer, all five foot nothing of her.
And Carter leaned back a fraction. Only the tiniest retreat—I wouldn’t
have noticed if I hadn’t been standing right behind him—but he did. He didn’t want her touching him. Filing the information away as not-fucking-important, a low rumble started in my chest.
“Speak to Iesha about it,” Carter snapped, sidestepping around her and striding away.
About fucking time.
The two men were in the same fucking room.
Cornering Carter, I slammed the door shut again, giving it my back. “What the fuck?”
He bristled, shaking out his motherfucking metaphorical mane. “Watch it. You’re only here because of your mate.”
Caveman satisfaction roared through me as he named Mina as mine, but I shook it off. “You think she has a connection to this fox?”
He seemed to count to ten, then made a decision. “He mentioned her name.”
It took everything I had not to barrel into the room and wall the bastard up. I jerked a thumb at Jake. “What’s he doing here?”
Jake cracked his knuckles, rolling his head from side to side, as if getting ready to step in a goddamn boxing ring. Eagerness clung to him in a sour cloud. “To make them talk.”
Carter barred my entry to the room, holding the door shut. “You’ll have your chance to question them, then you’ll leave. Then Jake will go to work.” He appeared to be waiting for my agreement.
I gave it, having no intention of keeping it.
“Good.”
I threw the door open, satisfied when both men jumped. Nodding to Tiny, who glowered from his position in the corner, putting his huge bulk and height to good use by just standing there, I strode over to the one I had my eye on. The fox. Ripping off the duct tape covering his mouth, I grabbed him off the chair and slammed him into the wall, setting a claw against his throat. “How do you know the woman?” My words were barely intelligible, but that was the point. I wanted this bastard peeing in his goddamn pants.
Carter was barking out questions at the other shifter, walking around him in circles that had the prisoner dizzy trying to keep him within view. Every so often, Jake sighed and rolled his eyes, baring his teeth in a parody of a grin. His special psychotic face—I thought he kept it especially for us, but turned out it was his resting bitch face after all.
The fox shifter glared at me, then he leaned into my claw, slicing his own fucking skin, his eyes completely blank, devoid of any emotion.
Fuck.
I landed a punch in his stomach, causing him to double over. I yanked him back up while he wheezed and coughed his guts up. “How do you know the woman?”
“Which woman?” His eyes rounded with mock astonishment. “Oh, of course, you mean the piece of fox tail you’ve been chasing the last couple of days.” He leaned closer, a smile tugging at his lips. “I can smell her on you, so sweet and juicy. Does she taste ripe? Or haven’t you had the pleasure of a taste?”
I tightened my grip, strangling his laughter until his face turned a beautiful shade of purple.
His mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out.
I relaxed my hand, giving him back his vocal chords.
“I hope you enjoyed our lovely Mina while you could, because she’s not yours. She’s mine. My reward for being a good soldier.”
“Never,” I snarled, shoving my face into his so he could see the vow in my eyes.
“But, don’t you see? She was promised to me by her father. My future mate. Imagine what a surprise it was to find her in Heartsridge when the last time I checked, she was safe and secure on her farm.”
The world went white. Arms pulled me back. The shifter slumped to the floor, blood gushing from his nose and his eye swelling. Coughing, he spat a gob of phlegm onto the floor, dragging his bound arms onto his lap. “Tell her Morris says hi and I’ll see her real soon.”
My fist slammed into his face, knocking him out cold.
“Out.”
I swung around to face Carter, dimly realizing it was him that had dragged me away. “What—”
He dragged a hand through his hair, leaving it spiking up in tufts. With deft hands, he started to roll his sleeves up. “We will question them and if I find out anything you need to know, I’ll call, but you can’t be here.”
“But—”
“You knocked him out. Did you ever stop to think that’s what he wanted?” Carter finished his sleeves and yanked his tie back off, looping it around his fist. “He can’t be made to talk while he’s unconscious and you’re too emotionally connected to allow him to get a word out.”
Jake moved up alongside him, forgoing rolling his sleeves and opting for ripping his shirt off, throwing it into a corner. He met my eyes with a nod that carried a silent message. I got your back. Or it could just as well have been I’ll rip their motherfucking balls off for you. Either way, Jake was ready to get messy.
Tiny picked up the still unconscious fox and carried him back to the chair, dropping him unceremoniously.
“Go see your girl and find out what she knows.” Carter cracked his knuckles with an eagerness that was probably for the still conscious shifter’s benefit, but maybe not. He looked like a man who was going to enjoy every goddamn second of letting his dark side free.
He was right. I had his name and now it was time to do something with it.
I was halfway out of the door when Carter called me back. “Oh, could you catch Iesha and let her know I need Miss Lockett distracted for at least another couple of hours. Can’t have her pushing for a fair trial and prisoners' rights, can we?”
Damn straight. I’d cart the human woman off myself and tie her to a tree, if I had to.
Then Mina. Lovely, sexy, innocent Mina. Turns out, she had some explaining to do.
Chapter Fourteen
Mina
I heard the front door shut, but when Granny didn't call, I didn't pay it much attention, digging my mop back into the bucket and sloshing more water onto the floor. Mind wandering, I dragged the stringy head back and forth, leaving a trail of soap suds in a large arc around my feet. I knew what was wrong with me—guilt. I was happy about the job. Excited. Over the freaking moon. Which meant I wasn't worried about getting back home, to the farm. Like I should be.
But beneath the guilt flowed an urgency that I hadn't felt before. The snap of adventure. A tingle of fear, of the unknown.
And it had absolutely nothing to do with the man who'd schemed and pulled strings to help me. Wrapping my hands over the top of the mop, I leaned my chin against them, staring at the wall as if it held all the answers.
“You make it hard to breathe.” The deep, gravelly voice behind me had me spinning around. My feet went out from under me, skidding on the river of water I'd managed to slosh all over the floor.
Cade was instantly there, strong arms wrapped around me. His feet skidded, but he stood steady. A rock in the storm that was my nerves.
With a shaky chuckle, I tapped my forehead against his chest. My hands had grabbed his waist during the moment, fingers spreading and hugging his hips. Inches from squeezing his delectable ass.
“You okay?” He sounded gruff. Shaken.
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. My thumbs slid higher of their own accord, pushing beneath his shirt and grazing bare skin.
A shudder ran through him, passing through to me.
His—or my, who knew?—feet went, shooting out in a delayed slip and slide that was comical timing at its best. He twisted, tugging me over him so I landed with an undignified oomph on his chest. Water soaked into my knees, sticking the denim to my skin, my hands sliding as I tried to brace them on either side of his head. We'd taken the whole bucket out on our way down.
He let out a strangled groan, his eyes still closed.
My lips twitched at the sight of him milking the moment for all it was worth. I knew he wasn't hurt, as shifters we could take a beating before we'd start to complain. But he'd taken the brunt of the fall. Automatically. Without question.
I popped a kiss on the end of his nose.
His eyes flashed open, glittering
with gold. “What was that for?” he murmured.
Awareness flooded me, that I was straddling him, our hips lined up with a symmetry that was highly suspicious. The feel of him between my thighs forced a flush to my cheeks even while it tugged at a spot deep inside my stomach.
I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to peer inside his head. Had he toppled us over on purpose?
Strong hands gripped my hips, halting my decision to try and stand.
I cleared my throat. “Granny—”
“Has gone out,” he finished for me. “She let me in and told me to tell you she's popped into town.”
I tried again, pushing against his chest. “She’ll be back any—”
“In a couple of hours.” He tilted his head, a wicked smile teasing at his mouth. “Sorry.”
“What are you apologizing for?”
“Destroying your excuses.” He didn't look sorry one bit.
I wriggled, then immediately froze as I felt a suspiciously hard lump between my legs, stretching the denim of Cade’s jeans. Wow. Words failed me and I closed my eyes, trying my hardest not to look like a deer caught in headlights, a steady stream of air leaving my mouth as I exhaled. I would not freak out. I would not allow my hips to grind against him, testing what I thought I had just felt. I would not—
His hands spread across my hips, his thumbs nearly touching in the middle and fingers digging into my ass as he rolled his hips the tiniest fraction. And it only needed to be the tiniest fraction, given what he was packing in his pants.
Friction sparked fire in my core, the thick length of him nestling just right and sending a surge of lust thrumming through me. My fingers scratched at the soapy tiles, curling into claws as I fought to resist the almost primal need to move above him, my body reacting and not giving me time to think. Want … need … lust danced in my blood, drowning out all argument. His scent enveloped me, surrounding me in a cloud of Cade, every breath I managed to suck in drowning me in him.
“Open your eyes.” His voice was tight, echoing the same need that coursed through me.
