Rogue wolf, p.27
Rogue Wolf, page 27
“It’s not like that,” Trey said softly, taking her free hand in his other one. “Fate—or whatever you want to call it—may have put us together, but there’s nothing predestined about it. We could have ignored what was right in front of us.” His mouth quirked. “And considering the fact that we danced around each other for almost two years, I think it’s safe to say we both did our best to screw up what fate was trying to do. If you chose to walk away from me after you found out I was a werewolf, there would have been nothing stopping you. Even after I said I love you.”
The thought of walking away from him made her feel lightheaded and she found herself tightening her grip on his hands a little. Maybe that was what it meant to be The One. But did that truly matter? Trey loved her and she loved him. That was the important thing.
“How long have you known that I’m your soul mate?” she asked.
“I’ve been attracted to you since the first time I saw you at that first crime scene,” Trey admitted, smiling a little, like he was replaying a happy memory. “But it wasn’t until our first date, when I realized your scent had become impossible to resist, that I knew you were The One for me.”
“My scent?” she repeated, caught off guard and more than a little curious. “What do I smell like?”
Smiling, he bent his head to bury his nose in her neck and breathe deeply. “Cherry blossoms and spring air after a light rain,” he whispered against her skin.
Yeah, that worked for her. There was no denying she loved him and wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.
“If you knew all the way back then, why didn’t you tell me?” she said.
Trey suddenly looked like a little boy who’d been caught throwing his baseball through a neighbor’s window. It was impossible to stay mad at a guy who looked like that.
“I was already nervous about telling you I’m a werewolf because I was worried about how you’d react. If I dropped the whole soul-mate thing on you at the same time, I was pretty sure you’d run for the hills. Which I didn’t want since I was falling in love with you at the time.”
Ah, damn. This guy was good. “And after I knew you were a werewolf? Why didn’t you tell me then? Say, during that first flight up to Alaska.”
Trey looked so chagrined, he was damn close to blushing. It was adorable!
“I tried, but by that point, the lie—if only one of omission—had taken on a life of its own. And every day that passed made it that much harder to bring it up. I kept falling more in love with you and becoming more terrified you’d bail when you finally learned the truth. I had no idea how to climb out of the hole I’d dug for myself.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, dragging him down for a long, languorous kiss. On the other side of the compound, she heard cheering and clapping.
“That’s it, right?” she asked when they came up for air. “That’s the last secret you’re keeping from me?”
He nodded and kissed her again. “No more secrets. Promise.”
They were met with more applause and cheers when they got back to the picnic tables, which made her and Trey both laugh. They’d just sat down when the back door of the admin building opened and the SWAT team commander, Gage Dixon, strode out.
Trey and every other werewolf in the Pack tensed in the blink of an eye. Samantha wondered what was up until she saw the look on Gage’s face. The SWAT commander had always struck her as a formidable guy—she guessed being the alpha of a pack of alpha werewolves required that—but right now, he seemed even more intense than usual.
“I just got off the phone with Nathan McKay,” Gage said as he sat down beside his wife at the other end of the table. “He’s as concerned as we are that none of us have heard from Zane and Alyssa, so we’ve decided to do something about it. Mike, Connor, Trevor, Hale, and Diego—I want you to go to San Antonio and find out what’s going on.”
“When do we leave?” was the only thing Mike said even as Diego leaned over and whispered something in Bree’s ear. She looked scared as hell, and Samantha thanked God that Gage hadn’t asked Trey to go with them. Even Kat the cat looked upset.
“First thing in the morning,” Gage said. “I need to push through some paperwork and make it look like you’ll be taking part in a joint training operation with the SWAT team in San Antonio.”
As she and Trey were walking hand in hand to his truck after the cookout wound down, he was rather quiet and she wondered aloud if it was because he wanted to go with Connor and his other pack mates. But Trey shook his head.
“Mike and the other guys know what they’re doing. If they need any help from us, they’ll ask.” He flashed her a smile. “Until then, I thought we could go home and finish moving the rest of my stuff into your place. I’ve technically been there for a week and a half and haven’t unpacked a single box.”
Samantha laughed. “Works for me. Though I doubt we’ll get much unpacking done if past experience is anything to go by.”
Every time they started, they ended up in bed. Or on the couch. Or in the shower. Even up against the wall. Not that she was complaining.
Samantha spotted Bree and Diego heading to their vehicle with her teenage son, and she ran over to catch them before they left, telling Bree to call if she needed anything.
“Your packmates are going to be okay, right?” Samantha asked Trey. “They’ll be able to handle anything they run up against?”
Trey nodded as he helped her into the passenger seat of his truck. “Definitely. And if they run into trouble, they’ll call us in for backup.”
He must have picked up on her heart starting to beat a little faster at that announcement because he stepped forward and kissed her, long and slow, on the mouth. “But we’re not going to worry about that right now. Let’s go home and unpack my stuff.”
Samantha smiled and kissed him back, more than ready to head home with her soul mate.
Keep reading for a sneak peek of the next book in Paige Tyler’s thrilling STAT: Special Threat Assessment Team series
True Wolf
Caleb seemed content to let Brielle take the lead on their late-night stroll, falling into step beside her as she turned left on the main road outside the pub and headed that way, not familiar enough with the city to have any particular destination in mind. He didn’t say anything as they wandered, but simply walked beside her as she took in the sights along the brightly lit streets.
She realized she’d picked a good part of the city to explore as she caught sight of the beautiful Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater. The ornate Neo-Baroque architecture of the circular building made her wish it was open so they could go inside and explore, but since it wasn’t, she contented herself by taking photos of the exterior. From there, they wandered past Vorontsov Palace, where they stopped again so she could take more photos, once more wishing they were taking this little sightseeing walk during the day so she’d be able to see even more of the historical landmarks.
When they reached the top of the impressive Potemkin Stairs fifteen minutes later, they both stopped again, this time on the bridge, and gazed out at the shimmering expanse of the Black Sea beyond. Brielle was so caught up in the lights of the city sparkling off the water that she didn’t realize Caleb had spoken until she felt him looking at her.
“What?” she said, glancing at him.
“I asked how old were you when you first realized you could borrow other people’s abilities by touching them?” he said patiently, as if realizing she’d been lost in thought.
She turned to gaze out at the water, a smile curving her lips. “Remember that family friend I told you about? The one who let me work in his grocery store.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, one night he was doing the store’s inventory when his wife called and told him she needed him at home. I knew he was stressed about getting the inventory done, but I couldn’t offer to help because I didn’t even know how to use the computer program. He was in such a hurry that he almost left without his coat and when I handed it to him, my hand brushed his and all of a sudden, I knew how to do the inventory. I finished the whole thing in a few hours, which surprised the heck out of him. Especially since I could barely remember how to even start the program the next day.”
“That must have freaked you out,” he murmured as they slowly started walking down the broad stairs.
“Not really.” She stuck her hands in the pockets of her coat. “I wasn’t even fifteen years old at the time and so focused on everything going on in my life that this one weird moment barely registered on my radar. It wasn’t until a year or so later, after the same scenario played over and over with different people, that I finally figured out what was happening. And yeah, at that point, it did freak me out.”
“Did Julian ever figure out what you could do?” Caleb asked, pausing with her on one of the steps to watch a big cruise ship sail into the harbor. “I mean at some point before you helped him escape from that Turkish prison.”
She nodded, standing close enough to Caleb that she could feel the heat his big body generated in the cold night air. “Julian can be a bit slow sometimes—and since I’m his sister, I’m allowed to say that—but he noticed after I slipped up and borrowed someone’s martial arts skills to fend off a mugger as were walking home. After that, he wanted me to use my abilities all the time, while I went out of my way never to use them.”
“Why don’t you like to use your abilities?” he asked as they started walking again. Whereas before she’d been warm and toasty, the temperature must have dropped five degrees when he put a couple feet between them. “I would have thought they’d come in handy considering how things were so difficult for you at that point in your life.”
“You sound like my brother.” She sighed. “He always wanted me to use my abilities to take advantage of people. He saw it as nothing more than a way to make money and was jealous that I had these abilities when he didn’t. Whenever I refused to use them the way he wanted, we’d end up arguing.” She swallowed hard at the memory. “I can’t tell you how many times I thought my abilities would be the thing that finally pushed us apart.”
Caleb moved a little closer, his shoulder so near her arm that she could feel his warmth again. “Would using your abilities to make your lives easier have been so bad?”
She shrugged as they continued down the steps. “It’s hard to explain, but I never felt right about using my abilities for something so cheap. It made me feel like I was misusing it.”
Brielle expected Caleb to laugh at her and call her silly like Julian had done so many times. Instead, he grinned.
“I’m impressed,” he said. “It’s definitely not the way I would have handled the situation had I been in your shoes. If I had gotten your gift at that age, I probably would have used it to rob a bank or something. The fact that you resisted the urge to go the super villain route says a lot about you.”
She laughed. She had to admit it was nice to hear Caleb say something like that. She’d certainly never gotten praise like that from Julian. “You should probably refrain from being too impressed. Because while I didn’t ever want to use my abilities, that doesn’t mean I never did. Mostly because my brother had his own unique ways of forcing my hand.”
“What do you mean?” Caleb asked as they reached the wide street at the base of the stairs and started across. “Because I gotta tell you, that sounded a little ominous.”
She couldn’t help but laugh again. “Sorry, I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. It’s just that Julian has always been good at getting into trouble and usually left it up to me to find a way to get him out of it. Unfortunately, that usually meant I had to use my abilities, whether it was finding ways to get money to bail him out of jail or fighting to keep someone from killing him. Once I even had to break into a jewelry store to return the stuff he’d stolen before they realized it was missing. And yeah, there was other stuff, too. Sometimes, it scares me to think about how many times I broke the law for my brother.”
Brielle wasn’t ashamed of what she’d had to do for Julian, but that didn’t keep her from looking away into the darkness out on the water, wishing she hadn’t been quite so honest with her criminal confession. Did Caleb honestly need to know about the jewelry store thing?
He stopped and put his hand on her sleeve, gently turning her to look at him. “Before you start worrying that I’m going to judge you for your wayward youth, I should probably let you know that I have more than a passing knowledge of what it’s like to be on the wrong side of the law. And for reasons not nearly as noble as saving a sibling’s ass.”
She gazed up at him, wondering if he was making that stuff up to make her feel better. Then she thought about the way she’d seen him fight, both on this mission and the previous one, and how he’d always seemed on the ragged edge of control or well beyond it.
“Yeah, I can see you having problems with the police.” She smiled. “You definitely have that proverbial bad boy vibe going on.”
Most guys would have preened at least a little at that description. In her experience, men liked to think of themselves as dangerous. Caleb didn’t seem to notice the label. Probably because he really was dangerous.
“I’d like to be able to blame my inner omega for all the trouble I’ve gotten myself into over the years,” he said casually, taking her hand and guiding her out onto one of the concrete piers leading out into the bay. “But since I’ve been getting into trouble since I was old enough to walk—and the werewolf thing didn’t happen until much later—I guess I can’t use that as an excuse.”
They stopped halfway down the pier to lean against the metal railing and look out over the dark water. Brielle wanted to ask Caleb about his formative years and where he’d grown up. She got the feeling he’d gotten into as much trouble as Julian. And yet, he had ended up completely different than her brother. Then again, Caleb was different from any man she’d ever met.
“If you got in so much trouble, how did you end up working for STAT?” she asked, moving closer to him, telling herself it was the heat rolling off him in waves that she was seeking. “I mean, I’m sure they wouldn’t have recruited you if they thought you were that much of a troublemaker.”
He snorted as he leaned in a little closer to her, still gazing down at the soft waves lapping the base of the pier. “I think you’re giving them a little too much credit. STAT was so eager to get their hands on another werewolf, they simply ignored my background, figuring that was Jake’s problem to deal with.”
“Even if you’re right about the people at the top seeing you as nothing more than a means to an end, what does any of that matter when it’s obvious your teammates couldn’t care less about your past?” she asked, looking over and capturing his eyes. “You guys are closer than Julian and I have ever been. Or ever will be. He might be my brother, but in all the ways that matter, I’m on my own. I can only dream of what it’s like to be part of something bigger, knowing you’ve got someone on your side.”
Caleb regarded her silently for a long moment, his face unreadable. “I meant what I said earlier when I told Ethan that you’re part of the team. After what you did for all of us in Siberia, I know Forrest and the rest of my teammates think of you like that, too.”
She let out a little laugh. “That’s a nice thought, but somehow I doubt it’s that easy. They all know I only agreed to work with STAT to find my brother. Doing one thing right isn’t going to outweigh that fact. People don’t trust that quickly.”
“I would normally be the first to agree with you since I’m not big on the whole trust thing myself,” Caleb murmured. “But when it comes to my team—my pack—I think you’ll find it’s easier than you think. You risked your life for them. That’s all they’re going to care about. So, give them a chance, okay? Like you said, they accepted me, even with all my baggage. If you let them, they’ll be there for you, too.”
Brielle didn’t know what to say. Suddenly, she found herself blinking to keep the tears from welling in her eyes. Where had these emotions come from? Was she so needy for acceptance that merely thinking about being part of the STAT team was enough to make her cry?
Sadly, the answer to that question seemed to be yes.
She and Caleb stood there, gazing out at the passing ships and chatting about some of that baggage he’d mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, beyond getting him to admit to having been in jail more than once, she couldn’t get anything else out of him. If she didn’t know better, she would think he didn’t want to make himself look bad in her eyes. Which was hilarious. He was amazing. Nothing he could say would change that.
“Why hasn’t there ever been anyone else?” he asked quietly. “I mean, you’ve mentioned several times that it’s just been you and Julian. Why aren’t you with a guy?”
The question was so blunt that all Brielle could do was stare at him with her mouth open.
Caleb held up his hands apologetically. “I didn’t mean that the way it came out. I just meant that you’re a beautiful woman. I find it hard to believe there haven’t been men interested in spending time with you.”
Brielle felt a burst of warmth and happiness swirling up inside her chest at his words, and suddenly, she wasn’t upset by his choice of words. The fact that she was reacting so strongly to him calling her beautiful struck her as both silly and juvenile. What was she, a sixteen-year-old going gaga over the latest boy band singer?
“I tried a few times,” she said, brushing her hair back when the breeze coming in from the water tossed it playfully around her face and forcing herself to answer his question instead of thinking about the way his casual compliment made her feel. “I dated a few guys, but it never went anywhere. Having a brother around who was constantly getting into trouble certainly didn’t help. What about you? Do you have anyone waiting for you back home when you return from saving the world?”
