I’d been doing security, everything from trailing errant husbands to staking out ransom drop-offs, for years. That experience saved my butt. After the failed visit with Laleesha, I had trouble concentrating at work. Being able to do my job with my eyes closed, so to speak, kept me from attracting Bear’s attention.
If the boss had known I was emotionally involved, he would have pulled me off the rogue wolf case. But he didn’t know, so I was part of the team picked to drop in on the rogues after Bear’s sister Cara reported their new location.
It was the middle of the night when he called. I threw on some clothes and met him and the rest of the team at the helicopter pad. There were six of us altogether, counting Bear and Anita, the pilot.
I strapped in next to Bear, and we took off. The rumble of the helicopter was nothing to the rumbling inside my chest. My bear and I were eager to make someone pay for what happened to Laleesha.
Maybe my anger burned a notch higher because she couldn’t stand me.
After our breakfast at the café, I’d walked her back to the store. More accurately, I strode along beside her while she nearly ran. Once there, she’d disappeared into the storeroom without a single word. But my bear hearing was excellent. When I heard her retching and wasn’t able to rush in and comfort her, it ripped my heart to pieces.
Laleesha was scared of me, I’d seen that. But at that moment I realized she was so scared she got physically sick. My pain at knowing my presence upset her so much she couldn’t hold her food hurt far, far worse than the bullet I’d once gotten.
While I was standing riveted to the floor, aghast at learning how much my mate feared me, my cell phone rang. There had been a development in a surveillance case I was working on, and it was a welcome diversion. Normally I would have waited for Laleesha to come out before leaving. Even if I didn’t hunger for every moment with her I could grab, it was rude to just take off.
But I couldn’t convince myself it would be better for her if I stayed. She’d been hurt enough. I wasn’t going to add to it. So I made my apologies to Sophie. She’d been surprised, her eyes narrowing with condemnation when I explained I couldn’t wait to say good-bye to Laleesha.
Leaving the store, I walked out of my mate’s life.
I still watched over her. I scanned every report filed by Deniece, the operative assigned to Laleesha, and I kept tabs on Laleesha’s family too. But I kept my distance. My mate’s well-being ranked higher than my own selfish pleasure.
So yeah, I had a big beef with the wolves, way beyond the other crap they’d pulled. I endured the helicopter’s snail-like pace, my rage burning with a steady fire. I’d already hated the wolves for hurting Laleesha in the first place. Now I wanted to slowly dismember them one by one, claw by claw, joint by joint, organ by organ. They deserved to suffer for the damage they’d done to my mate.
The helicopter finally landed in a meadow near Cara’s cabin. We piled out into the brisk early morning air. Although the sun was still behind the mountains, the sky had brightened to a luminous blue. Stars shimmered in a broad swath across the sky. For an instant my throat tightened. I ached with the need to share moments of beauty like this with my mate.
I forced my mind back to the job at hand. Wolves. Get the fucking wolves.
Bear went to Cara’s cabin while the rest of us waited. When the two of them returned, we shifted and set off for the wolf den.
For some reason Cara was reluctant to guide us, but the scent trail from her previous visit to the wolf den was strong. I took the lead, following Cara’s trail through the trees and over a ridge.
I smelled the wolves long before we got close to their den. The normal wolf shifter scent was overlaid by a harsh chemical smell that burned my sinuses. Their old den had been like that too. Whatever designer drug they cooked up and sold was some nasty stuff.
Going by the mixture of scents, the den was inhabited by only a handful of wolves. Terrence had taken care of a few that time he’d had to go after the Conway girl and again when they’d invaded her parents’ house. My surge of grim satisfaction was flavored with regret that I hadn’t been there to help rip them to pieces. What was left of the pack was a pitiful remnant, but I looked forward to putting down the rest of them. It wouldn’t make up for the damage done to Laleesha, but at least she wouldn’t have to be afraid they’d come back for her.
At thought of my mate’s suffering, my simmering fury burst into full-on rage. I managed, just barely, to control myself and follow Bear’s order to do nothing without his command. While the other operatives and I circled the camp, Bear and Cara shifted back to human form and openly entered the wolf den.
The alpha came out of a tent to meet them. The rest of the rogues stayed inside. That gave me pause, wondering what they had set up. Automatic weapons? I didn’t like the chief of the Northern California bears out there like that, exposed. But Bear showed no qualms.
Coolly he faced the alpha. “Rogue shifters cannot be permitted to live.”
I growled involuntarily, agreeing but also not liking the amount of talk. We came out there to kill them. We should just do it and get it over with.
The alpha blathered on about his pack already being punished. I kept a firm grip on my bear, because I was just about ready to leap out there and start taking some action if Bear didn’t get to it.
And then, goddammit to hell, Bear started talking like he was negotiating. There was no negotiating with killers. The most humane way to deal with them was to put them down for good. They were risking all shifters with their behavior.
When Bear paused and just studied the alpha, I lost it. My rage overwhelmed me, and I barreled between the tents toward the alpha, shifting as I went. I came to a halt an arm’s length from that fucking wolf.
“You can’t let them live, Bear. What about Laleesha?” I reached for the alpha, my fingers stretching into claws. His goddamned face was blank, like he didn’t even know what I was talking about. Fucking outlaw wolf didn’t bother to get her name before—
“Dominic.” Bear’s voice was sharp with command. “She’s under our protection now. No wolves will disturb her.”
I hesitated, torn between my instinct to obey the chief and my instinct to protect my mate. Bear’s word was law to us bears. Going against Bear was unthinkable. I’d be a rogue if I disobeyed a direct command. But my mate—! I couldn’t let them get away with brutalizing her. My bear howled with frustration.
Bear gave me The Look. “It’s settled.”
I wavered on the brink of shifting. My bear slavered to rip that wolf’s belly wide open. The chief had given me notice: Obey or be disciplined. But my mate deserved justice. How could it be right for the wolves to be allowed to live after what they’d done to my mate?
I clung to the thought of my mate. Eventually she’d heal and lose her fear of me. With time and patience, I could have my mate. If I went against Bear now, I’d be throwing that possibility away.
Clenching my jaw with the effort of controlling my bear, I locked down my human shape. Staring in disbelief, I watched Bear come to an agreement with the alpha wolf. Bear was going to let him live.
That thought rode me all of the way back to the helicopter. Bear let the rogue alpha wolf live.
I wasn’t stupid enough to say anything in the helicopter, not when the others were right there and could hear us. For that matter, Bear was brusque but didn’t say anything about my behavior. But I couldn’t hold in my disgust after we arrived back in the city and Bear had me accompany him to his office.
No sooner did the door to Bear’s office close behind the two of us than my pent-up frustration exploded.
“What the hell just happened?” I snarled. “That rogue alpha deserved to die. He should have died, and you went soft!”
Bear’s eyes were cold granite chips. “Why didn’t you tell me you were involved with the girl?”
“I’m not involved!”
His question touched a nerve. Hell no, I wasn’t involved. My mate wouldn’t have a thing to do with me. I yearned desperately for her, and she was so scared of me she couldn’t hold down a meal. Not just me, all men, and because of those goddamned rogue shifters.
“How could you let them live? What about the law about not harming humans, huh? Where’s the justice for Laleesha?” I hurled the words at him. My bear growled in agreement.
Bear was unmoved. “Explain your uninvolvement.”
“She’s my mate,” I ground out. “And she’s scared to death of me. Can’t be around me without getting physically sick. Tell me how you can look past what happened to her. You avoiding your reflection in the mirror?”
Ignoring my verbal jab, Bear motioned to a chair. “Sit.”
Automatically obeying the chief, I sat in one of the cushioned chairs in front of his desk. Instead of barricading himself behind the desk, Bear took the matching chair.
Leaning back, he studied me. In a calm voice he said, “I don’t have to explain my actions to you. But your grief is affecting your judgment. What you need to remember is that every decision I make is based on the greater good of bears and shifters in general. It’s in our long-term best interests to have an ally among the wolves—”
My body jerked in outrage.
Before I could speak, he raised a hand. “The wolf who’s alpha now wasn’t the alpha when Laleesha was there.”
I frowned, poised to disagree. But already the part of me that had been an investigator for years was sifting through my memories of the wolf den scents. Both the first den, the one that had been abandoned before we got there, and the second den, that we just came from, had been full of that chemical stink. Although that smell affected everything, it couldn’t completely mask the normal pack smells.
Among the bears, Bear’s smell was distinctive. It had an extra strong note that said “chief,” an addition to a bear’s regular scent. Before he’d given up the reins to Bear and retired to the Alps, the scent of Bear’s dad had been strong with that note.
Likewise with the wolves. It was easy to recognize the alpha, not just from his posture and the way the other wolves deferred to him, but also from his scent. A wolf den was ripe with the alpha’s scent.
Both wolf dens had contained one particular alpha scent. The second den contained an additional alpha scent.
“So what?” I growled. “He was still there. He deserves to die.”
“No,” Bear disagreed. “He challenged the alpha that had been causing the problems. Now, if he continues that route”—Bear’s voice turned flinty—“he’s history. But he’s already said he doesn’t want to, and I believe him.”
“And who’s going to keep an eye on them? Cara?”
That caused a flicker in Bear’s eyes. “Not Cara.” He shook his head.
“Deniece.” She was already watching Laleesha, but she was just one shifter. Fat lot of good she’d do against a whole pack.
Bear leaned forward, his gaze pinning me. “Can you put aside your hatred enough to be impartial?”
“What do you mean?” I asked suspiciously. He’d never assign someone with a personal interest to a case.
“I have no intention of risking shifters to an unproven alpha wolf. There needs to be someone on the spot. I don’t want to spook him by openly assigning a spy.”
I grunted in surprise.
“If you take this case,” Bear continued, “you’ll be undercover. You have your own reasons for being in Nowhere. It will be perfectly believable if you resign and move there.”
“Resign,” I said stupidly.
“That’s what we’ll say. You’ll still be on the payroll. You are to take no action without speaking to me first. Can you do that?”
Leaning back in my chair, I considered. My bear was prancing at the thought of being there with Laleesha. Could I control him if that fucking wolf showed up?
“If I catch him actively hurting someone, I can’t wait for your permission,” I told Bear. “He takes another girl into their den or bothers Laleesha, I’m going after him.”
“Fair enough,” Bear said. “But absent any crime in progress, no action on your part. Doable?”
It would be tough, but I’d never disobeyed the chief yet. I couldn’t give up the possibility of winning over my mate as she grew used to me.
“Yeah, I can do it.”
Standing, we shook hands on it. Bear’s grip was firm, impressing on me the importance of my job.
I left the office, dazed at the turn of events, and burning with excitement. My mate’s protection would be back in my hands. At the very least I’d know she was safe.