by Lane, Jessie
Shooting him a smile over her shoulder, she took in the respectful gleam in his eyes. He meant what he said. This was a decent start to being accepted by her new squad.
The Captain clapped her on the shoulder. “Nice work, O’Conner. Your Uncle said you were good, but damn that was something else. Taking out his gun hand on the fly so that he was immobile long enough not to shoot anyone was quick thinking. Nice job indeed. Beer is on me tonight. The boys will want to go out and celebrate after our shift. You’re coming, right?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, Captain.”
“Good. You guys might as well stay here for a minute. I’ll go check on the suspect, figure out who the mystery guy is. Then we can load up and head out.” He clapped her on the shoulder again before heading to the two patrol cars behind them. Looking back, she saw that the suspect was sitting in the back of the first patrol car, while the red head with his unusual amber eyes held something out for Capt. Nelson to inspect. The rest of the team started clambering around in the back of the van so she couldn’t hear what was being said to him. But as much as she was curious, Jenna was even more anxious to put some much needed distance between herself and the tasty looking stranger whose hair resembled a red porcupine.
Taking a second, she ran her eyes from his booted feet back to his piercing gaze. He was just over six feet tall and probably about two hundred and twenty pounds. His fitted gray t-shirt pulled tight across his chest. Well-worn denim hugged his thick thighs. He was pretty hulking with more muscle than most guys carried in the arms or chest, followed by a trim waist. He cut a memorable picture though, it was a shame she wasn’t the type to do a little flirting, he looked like a prime piece of virile male.
The Captain was handing the guy’s identification back to him while explaining something. They shook hands and then the Captain walked away from him, heading back towards the van. The stranger looked directly at Jenna and cocked an eyebrow as he crossed his arms over his chest. His stare was penetrating and demanding. It sent shivers down her spine and a rush of heat that spread though her entire body. The instincts she’d come to rely on all her life where running amok, telling her that instead of body burning arousal, she should be feeling fear instead. She recognized the mannerisms of an Alpha exuding his dominance. It was a damn good thing her logic was kicking her body’s reactions in the metaphorical head, because she was barely restraining the need to close the distance between the two of them and cover his body with her own. Or worse, bare her neck to him in submission.
Jenna snorted. They’d be serving popsicles in hell before she’d bare her throat to anyone.
A memory of Jenna’s only paternal family member, her Uncle Owen, flashed through her mind. Sitting on a fallen log surrounded by the woods behind her Mama’s house, patiently explaining the hierarchy of shifters. The expectations of their pack mentality.
Ole’ Alpha boy here wanted Jenna to drop her eyes and look away if she wouldn’t bare her vulnerable neck to him. That way she acknowledged who and what he was. Giving him the assurance that she understood who was in charge. Instead, Jenna continued to stare back at him coolly. Silently telling him where he could take his dominance and shove it.
But she had to admit that it took every fiber of her being to fight her natural instinct to look down and away from his piercing gaze.
He was just that damn dominant. Which was kind of scary since she’d never felt the urge to show submission to anyone before.
Kent’s hand landed on her shoulder from behind. “Come on, O’Conner. Get your Annie Oakley wannabe ass in here so we can go. We’ve all got paperwork to go back and fill out now.”
With no choice left, she broke eye contact and climbed in the van, closing the door behind herself to cut off any view of the stranger. If she had any good luck left, this would be the last she’d see of him. If only crossing her fingers would help those chances she would do it. Jenna didn’t think the guy had figured out what she was, or wasn’t for that matter. But her family had tried their best to hide her and had taught her to avoid all other shifters, she silently prayed their attempts would not be in vain just because this guy got curious. Her Mama had always told her that if certain shifters ever found who or what she was, she was as good as dead.
Here’s to hoping she hadn’t just stumbled on to the beginning of her funeral.
*****
Adam watched as the black police van pulled away from the curb and sped down the street with its mysterious occupant inside. He’d come here to track down his cousin’s killer and drag him back to his turf for some pack style justice, but instead ended up having his prey snatched right out of his hands. That did not make him a happy predator. In fact, it made him kind of snarly. Sure the asshole would be tried and convicted for his cousin’s wife’s murder, but Adam had been looking forward to the creep facing claws instead of steel bars. The douche bag was going to get off easy in the joke that was called the human justice system. It wasn’t fair. Adam stifled the growl that churned in his throat.
But that was okay, because he just had something else dropped into his lap. That little cop with midnight black hair, bright arctic blue eyes that reminded him of an Alaskan husky, and luscious little curves, had snagged his interest. From the moment she kicked down the door, Adam had caught the almost hidden scent of something Other in her. And after the way she just stared him down, he was all but itching to find out what she was.
No one ever stared down an Alpha without ending up in a lot of bodily harm. Yet she hadn’t even smelled afraid of him while she’d been doing it. Adam was betting a shit ton of money that she knew exactly what he was. So the fact that she’d openly stared down an Alpha had his blood heating in preparation for the chase. Right now he couldn’t decide if he wanted to catch her to punish her, or to her to pin her underneath him. Either way, he would be catching her. Maybe he could do both. Light up her pretty little ass to a nice shade of red with a well-deserved spanking and then pin her down underneath him. He kind of liked that idea.
Adam’s phone rang from his pocket. Digging it out to look at the screen he saw that it was his Beta and best friend Clay, the second in command of his pack. “What’s up?”
“Did you get him?”
He breathed out a frustrated sigh. “Almost. I had him cornered in a room at the address you gave me, but before I could cuff and drag him off the cops busted in. They just hauled him away in a patrol car.”
Clay’s growl rumbled over the line. “At least there will be some punishment for Ely’s death. I just would have preferred it to have been us ripping him apart instead of the tiny cage he’ll have to live in from now on. Will you be headed home now? Perhaps I could arrange a hunt for us to burn off some our frustration?”
Adam thought about heading home. As excellent as hunting sounded at the moment, all he could see was a pair of chilly blue eyes staring him down with a fierceness that couldn’t be found in any of the other members of his pack. “I’ve got a hunt of a different kind to do tonight. Tell me Clay, do you know of any blue eyed black haired females of the Other variety in Wilmington?”
Clay snorted in amusement. “So it’s that kind of hunt is it? I gotcha. I don’t know of any female fitting that description though. Are you sure she’s not human?”
“I’ve got no doubt she’s something Clay, but it’s definitely not human. I just don’t know what she is. Definitely not a vampire because it’s daylight out, but her scent smelled off and I’m having a hard time figuring out what she is. I want to say she might be some kind of shifter, but if she is, she’s masking her scent somehow. Think I might follow her tonight and try to figure it out. Do we have anyone we know at the Wilmington Police Department?”
“A cop huh? Kinky. Are you going to ask her to cuff you? That would be cool, but you might want to have her leave the night stick at home. I don’t think you’d like what she could do with that. At least not without a lot of lube.”
“Damn it! Get your mind out of the constant
gutter you wallow in. It is not in our best interest to have some unknown Other roaming around so close to our land. In our territory. Especially one we can’t identify.” His voice growled with irritation at his Beta and his tendency to harass Adam about his sex life. Or his lack of lately. Which was what was amusing to Clay. Until recently, Adam had no qualms about indulging in the female flesh that made itself so readily available to him all the time. Wolves were sensual creatures with an over active sex drive. It wasn’t entirely uncommon to go to the Pack’s lodge and find a free for all in the middle of the night. However, for the last six months or so no one had appealed to him. It was like he had been doused with a cold shower one day and had yet to warm back up.
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t get your fur in a bunch. We have someone at the Wilmington Police Department. Would you like me to call him or give you the number?”
“You call him. Her last name is O’Conner. Call me with whatever you find out.” Snapping his cell phone shut Adam walked down the street and around the corner to where he had parked his black custom Harley V-Rod motorcycle. The August heat was unbearable, causing small rivulets of sweat to run down the back of his neck and soak his shirt. The roar of the engine drowned out the sounds of major traffic flow as he led his bike back to his house where he could take a cold shower. After that, he’d do some research on his laptop to see if he could come up with anything on his own about the mysterious O’Conner.
The hunt was on.
Here I come, little rabbit.
Chapter Two
“Hey, O’Conner! Done with those reports yet?”
Glancing up from her computer, Jenna smiled at Capt. Nelson. She saw a strong resemblance of character there to her Uncle Rick. “They’re already on your desk, Sir.”
His lips twitched as if he wanted to smile. “Good. Hit the locker room and change into your civilian clothes. It’s time to clock out and get hammered. I’ll meet you by your bike in thirty minutes so that you can follow me to the bar since you’re new here.”
He turned and headed to his office. After shutting down her computer and locking her desk drawers, she made her way down to the women’s locker room. The next shift had already started duty so she was by herself as she showered the sticky sweat off of her body. Feeling fresh and clean again, she toweled off before pulling clothes out of her duffel bag. Slipping into the most feminine thing she indulged in, she pulled on her lacy red thong and matching convertible bra. The straps hid perfectly underneath the red cotton racerback tank top. Last she pulled on her favorite boot cut jeans before stomping her feet into black leather motorcycle boots. Her hair was still dripping wet, but that wouldn’t matter for long. Soon she’d get on her bike where the wind would blow the long, straight layers dry. Lastly, she swept mascara across her lashes. It was essentially the only make-up she ever indulged in.
Draping her duffel bag across her body, she headed out to her Hyabusa motorcycle to wait for the Captain. She lovingly ran her hands over the red detailing that decorated the shiny black paint job. The bike had been a gift from her Uncle Owen who seemed to disappear right after her college graduation party. He’d never actually visited her all that much while she was growing up, but the man meant a hell of a lot to her because he was the only connection that she had to her father’s side of the family. A father that had been murdered when she was young and who she never got the chance to meet because he apparently lived a very dangerous life. Since he was very much dead, she was guessing the dangerous life bit was true. So, her mother and Uncles had gone through hell and tidal wave sized high water to keep her safely hidden from the world of uglies that go bump in the night. The dangerous Other community that seemed to thrive just below the surface of the human world was one she would not be welcome to, or so she’d been told. Today had been an alarming wake-up call as to how comfortably oblivious she had become to the threat of being discovered by that world.
Her mother still wouldn’t tell her the complete truth as to why she had to stay hidden. The only explanation that she had ever offered was being of mixed races and most shifters being extremely prejudiced. The majority of what she was had come was from her father’s pureblooded shifter side. Which was surprising, because although the shifter’s genes were generally dominant, they had mixed with something that had been long considered ‘unmixable’ in the history of all things Other, or inhuman. Her mother was a pureblood as well, however she was not a shifter. Jenna had inherited some abilities from the supernatural side of her mother’s family, but nothing quite as significant as what was considered the norm of her mother’s capabilities.
So in essence, here she was. Not good enough for her Mama’s side of the family. Considered an abomination by her father’s side, and she couldn’t forget that she had to pretend to be human so they wouldn’t catch on to what a freak she was either. Sometimes life seemed to be built like a cement trampoline. There was no give and wherever she landed it was going to hurt like hell.
The one thing that her mother and Uncles had beaten into her brain though was that her father had many enemies. All of whom would love to kill her if they ever found out about her existence. Because of that she’d been isolated from the world growing up until she could, without a doubt, control her abilities. Kept safely away from any and all supernaturals by living out in the country on the outskirts of the small town, River Bend, which was barely a blip on the map of North Carolina.
If her mother ever found out what had happened today, she’d flip her freakin’ wig and never let her out of the house again. Her missing Uncle Owen’s voice rang through her mind.
“To stay hidden is to stay safe Jenna. To stay alive.”
Today had been way to close of a call.
“O’Conner, you ready?”
Jenna’s head snapped up at Capt. Nelson’s voice. “Yes sir, let’s roll.” With a nod of his head, he strolled away and climbed in his SUV. As they rolled through the tree lined streets of Wilmington, Jenna watched her surroundings with excitement. She’d spent way too long trying to get out of the small town she’d been sequestered in. Now that she was finally out she wasn’t about to let some flea brained mutt or kitty scare her out of it.
Taking a long whiff of the aroma of azaleas filling air, Jenna pulled in and parked next to his SUV at a bar named Beat Street. A rookie could have figured out that with a name like that, this was a bar that catered towards the boys in blue. Sliding off her bike, she watched as Nelson unlocked and opened his rear door.
“Throw your bag back here since I’m guessing your duty weapon is in there. That way you won’t have to worry about it being secure.”
“Thanks Captain.” She tossed her bag in and followed the man into the bar where the rest of her new team already sat around two round tables pulled together. As they entered, the entire lot of them yelled and cheered her name while Kent bellowed with his sugary southern North Carolina drawl, “Annie Oakley’s here y'all!” Sauntering up to the table, she scratched her eyebrow with her middle finger in Kent’s direction as he patted the empty seat next to him, laughing at the gesture.
A round of boilermakers and additional beers were delivered to the table by the young, pretty waitress. Capt. Nelson held up one of his hands for silence and held the boilermaker in his other hand. “To O’Conner! For a hell of a first day on the job, and for making you slackers look like little girls with guns! Throw ‘em back boys!”
The shots were demolished and a few of the guys choked as the burning liquor went down their throats. Jenna reveled in the hot liquid sliding down and warming the muscles in her belly. Tonight was going to be loads of fun as she drank these guys under the table. Another perk of her biology was a super high metabolism. It took her almost twice as much as these guys for her to get any semblance of drunk.
Kent waived to the waitress while he hollered the next round of boilermakers was on him and then winked at her. Jenna wasn’t stupid. These guys thought they could get her drunk and girly. It was such a shame she was going to
have much more fun embarrassing the hell out of them. After the second round of shots Jenna nursed her beer and decided now was an opportune time to try and get some info on her potential threat of the Alpha shifter.
“Hey Captain, who was that guy at the scene today?”
“Red haired boy? He was some bounty hunter hired by the victim’s family to bring in our suspect. Seemed mighty disappointed we got him instead.” He smiled as her teammates cheered around them again. Bounty hunter, huh? Well he could just drag his nicely shaped ass back to wherever the hell he came from.
Whistles broke out as several flashy women entered the place and sat down at the bar. In about three seconds flat the only three people left at the two tables were Nelson, Kent and Jenna. Looking back and forth between the guys she held her hands up in mock surrender. “Don’t let little ‘ole me keep you two from flirting with the ladies. I can sit here all by myself while watching you guys make asses of yourselves for entertainment.”
The two men laughed at her. The Captain gave her a chin lift before he jogged over to one of the blondes at the bar. He might be pushing his mid-forties and divorced, with streaks of grey at his temples, but he was still an extremely attractive man. Those three women over there might be out numbered with the eight guys surrounding them, but she’d bet her favorite shotgun that the Captain would be taking one of them home tonight.
Jenna swung around to look at Kent standing next to her. “What are you waiting for Kent? They’re not getting any younger over there. Not that they actually could get younger. They look barely legal now.”
Kent’s eyes watched her with amusement. “Maybe I want to stay here with you Annie. So you can tell me what other remarkable tricks you’ve got.” Jenna’s body flushed at the innuendo. Looking at Kent now, she was trying to figure out how the hell she could have missed the fact that he was such a looker. He seemed to be in his mid to late twenties so he was a few years older than her. His dark brown hair was crew cut and only enhanced the strong lines of his nose, cheeks and jaw. His eyes were the darkest shade of cobalt blue that she’d ever seen, but right now they seemed almost molten with something like lust. Not to mention he looked just as enticing with his tall six foot frame in civilian clothes as he did in his standard issue black BDU SWAT uniform. Most importantly, he smelled human. That meant he wasn’t a threat.
