by Alisa Woods
Terra’s heart was pounding, but she kept still and quiet and let him rant.
“I used every resource I had to open up my birth records. I wanted to know what had really happened to my mother. It took several bribes and not a few threats to discover the truth. Along the way, I stumbled upon the fact that the Wilding family was also descended from a white wolf.” He stepped back and spread his arms wide, still naked, but his erection had finally fallen.
That gave Terra only a small bit of comfort.
Julius tipped his head back to look up at the ceiling. “The entire city of Seattle needs to be purged of this wolf scourge!” Then he snapped his blue eyes back to her. “But so far, my attempts to do so have not flushed my father out from whatever rock he is hiding under. Now you, Terra Wilding… you’re going to tell me what I want to know. Where is the white wolf?”
“I don’t know anything!” She put as much truth into her voice as she could.
He narrowed his eyes. Then he eased forward again, this time running his hand over her body, cupping her breasts and kneeling down to brush his body against her. She shuddered and turned her face away.
“If that’s so, then I’ll have to find an unfortunate end for you. But before that happens, maybe I’ll enjoy a little taste of Wilding for myself.”
She braced herself. He would have to untie her to really assault her. Maybe. But if he let her loose, whether she could shift or not, she would scratch the living hell out of him and fight him every step of the way. Her body trembled as his touch grew more urgent. Her stomach heaved as he reached down to stroke himself, bringing his erection back.
God no. No, no, no—
A pounding at the door made them both start.
“I told you no interruptions!” Julius roared.
Several sharp pops resounded from outside the door. It opened, and the tactical-gear guy from before poked his head in. He ran a quick scan over Julius’s naked body but seemed unfazed.
Or maybe he was just freaked about the gunfire outside—at least it sounded like gunfire.
He had to shout over the shots. “Someone kicked down the front door. We’ve got two unfriendlies and a lot of firepower.”
Terra’s heart raced—Kaden was here!
“Hold them off,” Julius growled while grabbing for his pants. “And send James and Richard back here.”
“Yes, sir.” The man ducked back out, closing the door behind him.
Terra squirmed in her chair, but she was held tight by her bindings. She wanted to scream out, but she wasn’t sure if Kaden was close enough to hear her… and she’d probably only get one chance with that.
Julius was swearing as he shoved on his clothes. Then he pulled a knife from his pocket, unfolded it, and lunged for her. She shrieked.
“Shut up.” He locked her head under his arm and muffled her mouth against his leg. She was seriously tempted to bite him… but he was cutting her bindings loose.
He was moving her.
And that would be her chance.
As soon as she was free, she bolted out of the chair and for the door.
“Oh no, you don’t.” Julius was right behind her, grabbing her around the throat just as she wrenched open the door. She fought against his hold, but he was too strong for her. He was a shifter, after all, if not an obviously muscular one. That was how she missed it in the beginning.
With the door open, the sporadic gunfire was insanely loud. The popping sounds ricocheted around the cavernous warehouse outside the door. Tall shelving and pallets of goods spread across the concrete floor and blocked a lot of her view, but there was definitely some kind of fight going on at the far end. Several tactical-gear-clad men had taken cover behind the pallets, but they were aiming at the open door that must lead to the front of the building. Two other figures hid just outside the doorway, their guns making brief appearances to volley shots back.
“Kaden!” Terra screamed, and her voice bounced across the hard surfaces of the warehouse. She thought she heard a growl in response, but then Julius’s hand was over her mouth, cutting off any second chance to scream. He hauled her, kicking and fighting, across the floor, further from the gunfight. She grabbed hold of a pallet as they passed, getting a strong enough grip to stop him.
Suddenly, something cold and hard pressed into her side. “I’ve no qualms about killing you,” Julius hissed. “I’d much rather leaving you bleeding out on the concrete than give you over to whatever pack is trying to rescue you.”
She believed him.
She stopped fighting.
Two of Julius’s men joined them, forming a tight brigade as he hauled her toward the back door, one hand on her throat, the other holding a gun to her side. Outside, the sun had sunk below the horizon, and the alley was growing dark. The gunfire behind them stepped up a notch, battering her eardrums. She prayed none of the bullets would find Kaden. She wasn’t even sure it was him—there were two gunmen, and she hadn’t seen either one clearly—but it simply had to be. He was her mate. He had come for her.
Even if death found her via Julius’s gun pressed to her side, at least she would die knowing Kaden loved her. They hadn’t had a chance to say the words, but his actions said everything.
She stumbled as Julius dragged her across the alleyway that backed up to the warehouse. They were in some kind of industrial district, and there was a shiny black sedan parked in the limited spaces along the red-bricked buildings.
A crackle of electrical energy and an explosion sounded behind them. Something had changed in the fight in the warehouse. Shouts and stomping of feet said someone was coming.
“Move, move!” one of Julius’s men shouted. He and the other one hustled her and Julius toward an oversized metallic dumpster on the way to the sedan. Just as they reached it, the door to the warehouse slammed open.
“Terra!” Kaden’s voice roared across the alleyway.
She twisted to just barely glimpse him in the murk inside the doorway. “Kaden—” Her scream was cut off by Julius’s hand muffling her mouth again. He tucked behind the dumpster along with his men, shoving her body out where Kaden could see.
“You want her?” Julius shouted hoarsely. “Come and get her!”
No! It was a trap! She shook her head violently against Julius’s hold, but it was no use—he had too hard a grip on her—but she could see his men creeping around the back of the dumpster, ready to shoot Kaden as soon as he emerged from the cover of the doorway.
She bit hard on Julius’s hand.
“Fuck!” He wrenched his hand off her mouth.
“Kaden, no!” she managed to get out before Julius punched her stone-cold to the side of her face. It knocked her down to the ground. Julius had her by the hair in an instant, hauling her back up, but a deafening roar filled her ears.
Kaden sprang out of the doorway, shifting mid-air in his leap.
“No!” she screamed.
A hail of bullets pounded into his body mid-flight, punching holes into the man she loved. She watched in horror as he fell, bouncing hard on the pavement. Then he struggled to his feet, dragging himself toward dumpster as more bullets wracked his snow-white body, blossoming it with red. Her heart wrenched like she was dying. She turned on Julius, screaming and kicking and clawing at his face. He raised his gun to point at her head—
Suddenly the dumpster heaved sideways, crashing into Julius and knocking him off his feet. Blue magical energy skittered along the surface and dissipated into the air. Terra stared open-mouthed at Kaden’s raised paw, where the bolt had come from. Then he slumped to the ground just as Noah appeared in the doorway. Noah ducked back for cover. She could see another blue ball forming in the dark.
Behind her, Julius was scrambling away on all fours. One of his men was down, flat on his back on the alley floor, his gun fallen by his side, but the other had pried up a manhole cover a short distance away. Julius slipped down the hole as another blast of blue energy—this one from Noah—took out his minion, throwing him back a
gainst the brick wall of the alley and leaving him charred and slumped on the ground.
Something soft nuzzled her arm, and Terra turned to find Kaden had dragged himself across the alley to her.
“Oh, God!” The air rushed out of her as she wrapped her arms around his wolf. He collapsed next to her, his furry head butting up against her face. His beautiful white coat was drenched with red—blood, so much blood, and so many wounds. Tears blurred her eyes as she stroked him, comforted him. But her heart was frozen with fear. He was dying in her arms.
Noah hurried up to her side, another blue fireball floating above his hand. “Where did he go?” he demanded. He meant Julius.
Terra motioned toward the manhole with her head; she couldn’t even see through the tears. “Down the hole,” she managed to gasp out, her attention still on her mate.
Noah sprinted over to the hole and blasted his magical energy down it, calling, “Take that, fucker!” He peered after it, looking for something.
But Terra didn’t care. Julius didn’t matter. Only Kaden in her arms did.
“You can’t die,” she sobbed, cradling his face.
His dark blue eyes focused on her, blinking long and slow. She knew it was bad—otherwise, he would have shifted by now. He must have lost too much blood to have the magic left to make it happen.
“Don’t you understand?” Her tears were falling on the red-flecked fur of his face. “I’m the one who’s supposed to die, not you.” She kissed his face, again and again, whispering her love to him. Saying the words that only he would hear, before it was too late. So he would know, just as she did.
Noah was back, kneeling at Kaden’s side. “Come on, you asshole. This is no place to die.” But he was looking over Kaden’s body with concern.
Terra ignored him, just nuzzled Kaden’s face to hers. He was squirming in her arms, the pain obviously wracking his body as the life ebbed from it. Her sobs were the only sound in the alleyway… until a small plinking sound repeated itself, once, twice, three times…
She finally looked up from her hug—and then stared in amazement at Kaden’s body.
“No fucking way,” Noah breathed.
The bullets that riddled Kaden’s pelt were, one by one, working their way out of his flesh and falling to the pavement, plinking and rolling a short distance away.
“What… what is happening?” she asked Noah, breath frozen in her chest.
“This badass mate of yours is healing himself.” There was a small laugh of surprise and awe in Noah’s voice.
But it was true.
As she watched, Kaden’s body expelled bullet after bullet. His squirming wasn’t a death-throe… it was his body healing itself of gunshot wounds.
A spattering of footsteps made her heart seize up… but it was just the police, a dozen of them, spilling out of the doorway of the warehouse with their guns drawn. Someone was shouting orders, but they mostly stopped and stared at her and Noah crouched next to Kaden in his blazing-white wolf form, drenched in blood, bullets spitting one-by-one out of his body.
After a long, tense moment, Kaden shifted in her arms, ending up naked and human on the alleyway pavement next to her. The bullets scattered away under his movement to take her in his arms and hold her.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
A crazy, joyful laugh bubbled up from deep inside her. She held hard onto him. “You’re the one who’s been shot.”
Kaden pulled back and ran his gaze over her. “Are you sure he didn’t hurt you? Please tell me you’re really okay.”
She cupped his cheeks in her hands. “I’m far better than okay,” she said, tears still streaming from the corners of her eyes. “I have you.”
Then he kissed her as if it didn’t matter that the whole world was watching.
Because it didn’t.
“You’re kidding me, right?” Kaden couldn’t believe Terra was insisting on shooting pictures of him before they got down to the serious business of the day, which was the same business he should have every day—claiming her for his mate.
Of course, that was his agenda—he wasn’t planning on leaving this little cottage on the back lot of the River family’s estate without sinking his teeth into her. He’d gotten all the information he needed from Noah about the particulars of the mating ritual. Terra had already submitted to him—all he needed was for her to settle down and stop hopping around him with that camera glued to her face. Then he’d make her scream his name and take her the way only an alpha could take his mate.
She didn’t know any of this… but it was his intention all the same.
“Shut up and be gorgeous,” she said, moving around him and snapping her camera. Then she focused in on his tattoo. The words Protect and Serve had been marred a little by the bullets that had sprayed his body in the alleyway. It had been less than a day, and his body might have insane healing powers, but he was still pockmarked by the scars. Probably would be for life.
Terra seemed to find them fascinating.
It was turning her on, photographing him nude with all his battle wounds now healed. And her pictures were getting an eyeful of his cock as well, given it was turning him on, too. Which was all to the good, if she would just put the camera away.
“These are private use only, right?” he asked, as he watched her flit around him. “I don’t have to worry about these showing up on the internet, do I?”
She grinned behind her camera, then looked up to intentionally lick her lips. “I’ll save the best ones for when you’re on duty, and I need something to feed my fantasies.”
He growled. The idea of her getting off on pictures of him twisted him around something fierce. “Okay, that’s enough.” He reached out and took her camera, ignoring her pout when he did so. “I’ve got something to feed your fantasies right here.” He pulled her into straddling him on the couch, his cock a rock-hard advertisement for his intentions, even through the barrier of her skinny jeans.
She ground against him, making him groan. “But I’m not done with you yet.”
“And you never will be.” He slipped his hands under her t-shirt to lift it above her head, but she crossed her arms, not cooperating.
“I’m not convinced you’re entirely healed, Kaden Grant.” She had enough stubbornness in her arms folded across her chest that he knew at least part of that concern was real… and not just whatever game she was tormenting him with.
“I know one way to convince you.” He practically launched her into the air by thrusting his hips up. She teetered forward, a grin on her face as her hands landed on his chest. That was more like it.
But she instantly got serious again. “Have you decided what to tell the mayor?”
Ah, so that was it.
“Yes,” Kaden said, letting his voice drop. “I’m going to very politely and very sincerely tell him to fuck right off.”
She smacked his chest.
He grinned.
“I’m serious,” she said.
“So am I.” He adjusted her position on top of him because it was clear they had to talk a bit first, and the way she was grinding on his cock, he would go off long before the main event. And that wasn’t acceptable. In fact, this had to be absolutely the most perfect mating in the history of matings. Terra deserved no less.
“I know you want me to stay on the force, babe,” he started, but she cut him off with a fast kiss that set his wolf humming.
“I want you to be happy,” she said. “I just don’t want you to give up being a police officer because of me.”
“I’m not giving it up because of you,” he said. “I’m giving it up because of me.”
She scowled at him, but it was true.
The news of his white wolf shifting in front of half his division ran like wildfire through the department… along with the news that Julius McGovern, the mayor’s personal friend, was in fact, the notorious Wolf Hunter. That news had rocked city hall until a few hours later when Julius McGovern was discovered dead in h
is home—he’d taken a bullet to the head four days ago. Right around the time that Terra first met with whoever had taken his place, posing as him in order to get close to the mayor’s favorite artist.
That murder, plus the attempt on Terra’s life, made the Wolf Hunter Public Enemy Number One in the Seattle Police Department. And the mayor had personally asked him to head the task force in charge of hunting the bastard down. As the first openly-shifter cop on the force, Kaden supposed it made sense. The mayor had even promised to implement a sweeping set of new policies in the department to ensure that shifters were welcome on the thin blue line that separated the criminal element from the law-abiding people of Seattle.
The only thing was… Kaden had other things to do.
He had a mate to claim. A pack to join. And a new life as a shifter, and possibly a witch, to discover. That single blue-energy bolt from his paw changed everything for him. That, and the gorgeous woman who was staring into his eyes with great concern etched on her face.
He smoothed the crease on her brow. “I’m going take that job at Riverwise. I’m going to join my first pack and hunt down the Wolf Hunter with the help of the people who most want him caught. No matter what the mayor says, that’s not the SPD. I can do more good at Riverwise. Plus there’s this little matter of making sure my mate is safe at all times. That’s not something I’ll be able to do if I’m putting in face time at the office, trying to prove the SPD isn’t anti-shifter by being their poster wolf.”
Her shoulders dropped, but he also saw the hint of a smile and the glow on her face when he mentioned keeping her safe. It was important to her, he knew that, but he was dead serious about that—there was no fucking way he was leaving her with anyone else. And not just because the Wolf Hunter was still out there. Because she belonged to him.
