Wolf Shield Investigations: Boxset

by Dee Bridgnorth

  It was better to be the damsel, she guessed, choosing to cower a little on the bed. Not that it took much pretending—she’d never felt so much like cowering.

  She was in the bedroom of a murderer. If there was ever a time to cower…

  “I hope that’s true,” he murmured, looking her over. “I really do. You don’t need to be that person, the one who hurts people. You’re decent. I know you are.”

  “I want to be. I don’t want to use people. I don’t even think I want to live here anymore.” That came out before she knew it was on the tip of her tongue—and the thing was, it felt right. She believed herself.

  “You already hurt me.” He leaned in closer than he’d ever been before. “And you were supposed to care about me. You said so.”

  It took every last bit of self-control to keep from leaning away in horror. “I know. I wish I could take it back. I’ll do whatever I need to make it up to you, Luke. I swear.”

  Of everything he’d done and said so far, he was scariest when he smiled. “Yeah. You will.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  “You’re sure you wanna go in there alone?” Jace asked.

  “Yeah. Just me. If they’re not in, you’ll know before I come out.” But he knew they would be. He sensed her, felt her presence in the air. She was somewhere in that boxy, unimpressive building, and she needed him.

  “You don’t have to be the hero,” Zane muttered. “We’re ready to follow you in there.”

  “Just keep eyes on the place,” Braxton fired back. “Back and front of the building.” He tapped his earpiece to activate it, knowing the others would hear him. “Okay?”

  “We’ll be here,” Jace sighed like he’d go along but wouldn’t be happy about it. Braxton wasn’t asking him to be happy. He just needed his team to go along.

  He wasted no time ducking into the building and climbing to the sixth floor. It was an old building, the linoleum in the stairwell peeling, the paint chipped on the hallway walls. How much did Serenity pay? Not enough, clearly, if he couldn’t afford better than this.

  It didn’t matter. His thoughts drilled down to a single concern: his mate. Serenity. He was wrong to ever think she wasn’t his mate, that he could turn his back on what the wolf wanted. She’d always be his, and if he lost her, there wouldn’t be any replacement. Nobody could replace her.

  The wolf snarled, jaws dripping in his mind’s eye, prepared for anything.

  Even so, Braxton kept his gun drawn as he slid down the hall with his back pressed to the wall. The sounds of TV game shows filled the air. The walls weren’t very thick. He could never have lived in a place like this with his hearing. He’d never know a moment’s rest.

  Luke’s apartment was at the far end of the hall. There were no TV sounds coming from inside. He pressed his ear to the door and heard nothing. Was he wrong about her being there? Was he telling himself something he only wanted to believe and wasting everyone’s time?

  No. Just like he’d known she was in trouble back in Paul Bergman’s office, he knew she was in trouble in that apartment. He might as well have been looking straight at her, he was that convinced.

  “What’s it looking like?” Sledge whispered. “Everything’s clear up front.”

  “And in the rear,” Zane followed up.

  “I’m in front of the apartment,” Braxton whispered. “I’m going in. Three… two… one.”

  Just like he’d done to Paul’s office, he delivered a solid kick to the knob and broke the lock. The apartment was modest, clean, not the rotten hovel he would’ve expected from a miserable stalker like this one.

  The living room was clear. So was the kitchen. A narrow hall led away from there—and down there, somewhere, there was a muffled grunt. He followed it, his footfalls as quiet as he could make them, before entering the bedroom at the end.

  “Luke!” he barked, leveling his weapon at the back of Luke’s head. “Get off her, and step away from the bed.”

  She was fully clothed and looked uninjured. Luke must’ve covered her with his body when the door slammed open, his hand clamped over her mouth to keep her quiet because whoever broke in the door wouldn’t look around.

  Her eyes were huge and tear-filled over the top of that hand—a hand big enough that if he squeezed, he could’ve broken something. She was so delicate, so small. It would’ve taken nothing.

  The finger he wrapped around the trigger tightened convulsively, a hair’s breadth away from applying enough pressure to send a bullet firing into the back of Luke’s worthless head. “I’ll blow your brains out,” he warned, panting.

  Do it, do it! The wolf wanted his vengeance. Only knowing how that would traumatize Serenity kept him from going through with it.

  “I should’ve known,” Luke snickered. “You.”

  “Yeah. Me. If it wasn’t for you, I would never have come to town. I could’ve finished my damn vacation instead of having to cut it short. Thanks a lot.”

  “I didn’t know Melody would take it to the studio,” Luke grumbled. “The biggest mistake I could’ve made was bringing her into the plan.”

  “Why don’t you get off her?” It was so easy for Luke to forget he was pinning Serenity to the bed, maybe cutting off her airflow. Her face was turning red. “You’re gonna smother her. Let her breathe.”

  Luke was quick to give her space, telling Braxton he cared about her in his twisted way. He would’ve killed her if he didn’t care. That was how guys like him normally operated. If they couldn’t have the object of their affection, they’d rather kill than let them be with anybody else.

  Serenity gasped before taking a few grateful gulps of air. “Thank you,” she whispered, though she didn’t make any quick moves to get off the bed. She was a smart girl and probably figured she’d never get away with it.

  Which was probably the case. Luke was poised like he expected her to make a run for it, and he wouldn’t be kind or gentle when he caught her.

  His eyes met Braxton’s. “So. Are you gonna keep that gun pointed at me? Or are you gonna lower it to make sure I don’t do anything to hurt her?”

  “You don’t want to hurt her,” he murmured, willing himself not to glance her way. He needed to focus his attention on Luke right now, not on her. She was the entire reason he was there, going through this, yet pretending she was the last thing on his mind was probably all that would save her life.

  “I don’t want to have to,” Luke admitted. “But I will if I don’t have a choice. You’re not giving me a choice.”

  “You have a choice. You always did.” He grinned. “You had a choice yesterday too. Didn’t you? When you cut me off on the road?”

  Serenity gasped. “That was you?”

  Luke’s jaw twitched. That was a complete guess on Braxton’s part, but he’d clearly had the right impulse.

  “Sure,” Braxton continued. “He’s been following you around for ages. Haven’t you, Luke? You couldn’t stay away. When you saw it was me driving the truck, you probably couldn’t handle it.”

  “I should’ve t-boned you.”

  “Yeah, maybe you should’ve,” he allowed with a shrug. “Not that it would’ve done me much harm.”

  Serenity made a strangled sort of noise.

  “What do you mean?” Luke sneered. “What, you think you’re superhuman? Believe me, there are certain things that will take down anybody. It doesn’t matter how strong they are.”

  “Sure. Keep telling yourself that.”

  Meanwhile, Jace heard all of this. “What are you doing?” he whispered in Braxton’s ear. He knew what he was doing and obviously couldn’t explain himself. It would have to be enough for his team to trust him.

  “What are you talking about?” Luke demanded. It was obvious he didn’t want to give away how interested he was, but he wasn’t much of an actor.

  “I can show you. Do you want to see?” This was probably the biggest gamble he’d ever taken in his entire life, but it was clearly the only way to go. It wasn’t l
ike anyone would ever believe Luke, anyway.

  “You can’t be serious.” Luke moved over Serenity again, pinning her down. He didn’t cover her mouth this time, but he made sure to keep her still. It was obvious how much he enjoyed it, how much special pleasure he took from manipulating her this way.

  Revulsion twisted Braxton’s guts—the sight of him draping himself over her that way, touching her like he had any right to.

  He couldn’t let that steal his focus. She was what mattered. Her safety. Reacting the way Luke wanted him to react would be a huge mistake. That was what he expected, for Braxton to flip out and lose control. He’d be so much easier to overpower when he was out of control.

  Or so Luke believed.

  “I’ll show you right now,” he offered with a smile. Serenity stiffened and not just because she knew what was coming. He only hoped she didn’t hate him after this.

  “Are you seriously doing this?” Sledge whispered.

  “Do we need to come up there?” Zane demanded.

  “No.” Braxton kept smiling, kept staring at Luke. “No, I’ve got this.”

  He held up the gun, putting the safety on in plain view. “See? I’m gonna put this down. That means I trust you not to do anything to her while I’m getting ready to show you what I want you to see. Okay? Don’t break that trust.”

  “Yeah, sure.” Luke looked down at Serenity, where she wore an expression of something deeper than fear. Worse than dread. A sick certainty and awareness.

  Pity, maybe.

  He and Luke were about the same size, weren’t they? Close enough. It was much more dramatic when the shift took over before taking his clothes off. The wolf used the element of surprise to his advantage—and this would definitely come as a surprise. It would take too much time to take off his clothes, anyway.

  Only once, just then, did he let himself look squarely at Serenity. “I’m sorry for this,” he murmured, knowing full well what might happen once he let the wolf have his way.

  And then, he felt the shift taking place in him before it manifested itself physically. He felt his consciousness flip over from human to wolf. His senses sharpened, his instincts honed down to a fine point.

  The tearing of denim and cotton and leather was like a scream filling the bedroom. Or maybe the scream was Luke’s. Maybe it was both.

  He fell on all fours, hands and feet turning to paws, hair turning to fur. His fangs descended, jaws snapping as he focused on the cowering, blubbering man on the bed. A man whose reason might very well have broken.

  “What? What did you do? What’s happening?” he bleated like a wounded lamb, scrambling backward off the bed as Braxton’s followed him across the room. Serenity was forgotten as Braxton followed Luke around the bed, snapping his jaws, growling.

  The wolf delighted in the terror he caused, terror that was so well-deserved. Nobody except those scientists and doctors had ever deserved it so much, at least as far as he was concerned.

  “Stay away. You hear me? Stay away!” Luke held his hands in front of himself as he backed away, knocking over a table, a chair. “Don’t come any closer!”

  Braxton snarled, fangs dripping. He knew what a terrifying sight he was. He knew how much bigger he was than a normal wolf and how just the sight of a man turning into a wolf was frightening enough.

  Luke’s back was to a window. He had nowhere to go now. Braxton growled louder than ever, snapping, lunging, toying with him. How does it feel? He would’ve asked if he could speak.

  He lunged one last time.

  And Luke tried one last time to back away.

  Serenity screamed into a pillow as the glass broke and Luke fell through. It was six floors down—not the worst fall but not promising.

  He shifted back to his human body before he scared Serenity and leaned over the window as far as he dared in his undressed state. There was Luke, lying in the parking lot, his head twisted at an unnatural angle.

  He turned to Serenity, aware that he was naked but knowing other things took precedence just then. “We’ve gotta get out of here,” he breathed, going for the closet to pull out a shirt and pants. “Grab whatever’s left of my clothes. I don’t wanna leave any evidence.”

  She hadn’t moved by the time he looked back over his shoulder, before pulling a t-shirt over his head. “Serenity. The police will be here any minute. We need to move, now!”

  That stirred her. She slipped off the bed, running around, gathering his things. Shock was probably all that was holding her together after seeing what she’d just seen, and maybe that was for the best. She’d have time to process once they were safe.

  “By the way,” he whispered as they finished cleaning up, “I wanted to tell you something.”

  “Okay,” she replied, following him out of the apartment. By now there were people talking loudly behind closed doors, and at least one of them was on the phone with the cops. He could hear their pleas for help.

  “I love you,” he whispered over his shoulder, running ahead of her.

  “You do?” They reached the stairway and ran down, their feet flying.

  “I do.”

  “Good, because I love you too.”

  “Really?” They were only one floor up now, and he wanted more than anything to stop and take her in his arms and never let go.

  “Yeah. I knew I did before you told me. I still do. It hasn’t changed.” They burst outside, where the truck was waiting, and he practically shoved her inside before jumping in behind her. Jace was deliberate in leaving the lot, not peeling out the way a guilty person would have. There were already sirens blaring in the distance.

  All of it faded into the background as Serenity curled up against Braxton and let him hold her, let him stroke her hair and whisper in her ear that he’d never let her go. No matter where she lived or what she did, she’d be his.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  “It’ll all be played off as a suicide,” Braxton concluded, sitting back against the sofa cushions and rubbing his eyes after his call with Logan and the rest of the team. “Melody will go along with knowing Luke was stalking you before the murder, giving us the proof we need. The gun he used to kill Bergman was in his safe.”

  Serenity shivered. He hadn’t even taken the gun out of the safe. He wasn’t planning on hurting her.

  At least, not with the gun. She remembered his hand over her mouth and nose, and how that alone could’ve killed her. Besides, there were other ways to hurt a person. His nasty, knowing smile told her all she needed to know about what he’d planned on doing.

  “I can’t believe it was him. And I can’t believe it’s over.” She sipped her wine and returned the glass to the coffee table, staring out the window at the dark sky. “Maybe it’ll sink in eventually.”

  “I know it will,” he murmured, drawing her close. She reveled in the scent of him, in his nearness. He was there with her. He’d come to her rescue. There was nothing in the world she needed to be afraid of.

  Not with a wolf in her corner.

  If she hadn’t known it was coming, she might’ve lost it the way Luke did. Even knowing Braxton was a wolf hadn’t completely prepared her for what she’d seen in that room—the way his clothes had burst from him, the way his body had changed, lengthened. The thick, black fur. The fangs and claws.

  She would’ve chosen falling out a window over being torn to pieces too.

  It was like he could read her mind. “Are you okay after seeing it?”

  “Your wolf?” She looked up at him. “Yeah. I’m okay. You’re a beautiful wolf.”

  She realized he was nervous, and her heart opened to him even further than it already had been. Her poor, sweet man. Now that she’d almost lost being with him, there was no denying that he was hers and always would be.

  For all his size and strength, he had a sweet, gentle heart, a true heart, one that would never hurt her.

  “You mean that?” He ran the backs of his fingers over her cheek. “God, I wanted to tell you I love you in
a nice way. I wanted it to be sweet and romantic and not while I was pulling on a dead man’s clothes and running out of his apartment.”

  She thought about this, then snickered softly. “Somehow, it feels right for us.”

  He snickered with her, then kissed her forehead. She closed her eyes and let herself fall into the sensation of being cherished. If she could only hold on to this moment, this feeling. If only she never had to let it go.

  “I don’t expect you to change your entire life for me,” he murmured, his lips against her hair as his hands took a slow tour of her back. She wanted to purr like a cat and arch her back, welcoming his touch.

  “If my life changes, it won’t be just for you. It’ll be for us. Besides, I told Luke something earlier that wasn’t a lie. I don’t know if this is the life I want.”

  His hands stopped where they were. “You mean that? You’re not just saying it?”

  She lifted her head from his shoulder, which wasn’t easy since it was the sort of shoulder a girl could get used to. There was hope in his dark eyes and wonder and tenderness. He wanted her to get out of this life—that was no big secret.

  “I mean it. This isn’t the place for me. I tried to change myself to fit into it, but that’s not right. I want to be myself. I’m tired of compromising everything that makes me who I am just so I can be who somebody else wants me to be. What’s the point? We’ve both seen over the last few days what good it does to be chased by photographers. If I never see another helicopter again, it’ll be too soon.”

  “What will you do otherwise? I thought you wanted to be an actress.”

  She nodded. “Yeah. Maybe I can try the east coast. Do a little theater. Earn my stripes. I’ve been frugal with my money—and there’s still my social media feeds and my clicks and stuff. I’ll still be making money. I’ll do it on my own terms eventually.”

  He started stroking again, smiling now. “You know, my office isn’t far from Manhattan. In case you were interested in that sort of thing.”