by Paige Tyler
“Is there a particular reason the two of you headed to LA?” he asked, interrupting whatever Christine had been about to say. “Do you know someone out here?”
The girls looked at each other again, then back at him.
“Could we talk with you alone?” Zoe asked.
That seemed to catch Alyssa and Christine by surprise, but Zane had seen it coming. “Yeah, sure.” He glanced at the two FBI agents. “Could you ladies give us a minute?”
It was their turn to exchange looks. Alyssa nodded and pushed away from the counter beside him. “We’ll go grab some drinks and snacks from the vending machine for the girls.” She glanced at the twins. “Any preference on candy bars?”
“Peanut M&M’s,” they said in unison.
“There’s something different about you,” Chloe said the moment the door closed behind Alyssa and Christine. “What are you?”
Zane moved over and sat down on the chair where Christine had been sitting, keenly aware of the twins’ gazes on him and trying to use the time to organize his thoughts. Unfortunately, he was drawing a blank. He really wasn’t good at stuff like this.
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, meeting their eyes. “What I’m going to tell you is going to sound crazy, but please don’t freak out, okay?”
Both girls stared at him, patiently waiting for him to continue.
“I’m a werewolf,” he said, trying to make that sound…not insane. “And whether you realize it or not, so are you. You’ve just started going through the change, so you’re probably not experiencing any of the more obvious things that come with it. But it’s happening nonetheless.”
Zane braced himself for the fireworks he was sure were coming. He expected them to tell him was crazy and that there were no such things as werewolves, but instead, the two girls looked at him, then at each other, and then back at him. Bloody hell, he wished they’d stop doing that. It was weirding him out.
“That explains why we feel safer when we’re with you,” Chloe said thoughtfully. “But I don’t think you’re the person we came out here to find.”
“Or are you?” Zoe asked.
Now, it was his turn to sit there and stare. “I don’t understand anything you just said. So, let’s start over, okay?”
They nodded, still in perfect rhythm. He told himself to ignore it.
“First, why aren’t you freaking out about learning you’re werewolves?”
“We realized that something was happening to us before we even got to LA,” Zoe said. “The scratches, cuts, and bruises we got when we escaped healed up in a few hours. Then a couple days ago, we both started being able to smell things we shouldn’t be able to smell. And last night, we realized we could see in the dark. We didn’t know what it was, but if you say we’re turning into werewolves, we’ll believe anything right now.”
Well, that was way too easy. Then again, it was probably because they hadn’t experienced the fangs and claws yet.
“Your change is just starting,” he told them. “It will get more…real.”
Zoe tucked her hair behind her ear. “Like what?”
He held up his hand and slowly let his claws extend. Their eyes went a little wide at that, but they didn’t freak out. Apparently, they were okay with that. He decided not to press his luck with the fangs. Nail extensions were one thing—a mouth full of fangs might be a bit much right now.
He let his claws retract. “What did you mean when you asked if I was the person you’d come out here to find?”
Chloe was the one who answered. “Within hours of escaping, we both felt something telling us we had to find someone. We don’t know who it is, but that instinct has been pulling us to LA for the past week. When I woke up and saw you last night, I thought you might be that person.” She gave him a sheepish look. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not quite…right. There’s someone else out there, and I get the feeling they’re looking for us, too.”
Zane was about to point out how crazy that sounded, then realized he’d just told them they were both turning into werewolves. At this point, crazy was relative. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any idea how betas found their alphas. Or vice versa. It didn’t work that way for alphas. Gage had asked him to join the Pack and he had.
“I think,” he said slowly, still working it all out in his head, “that maybe you two are looking for your alpha.”
“What’s that?” Zoe asked even as Chloe’s eyes sharpened with interest.
“Alphas are a kind of werewolf.” He knew he was going to muck it up if he tried to get too deep into the details, so he’d keep it simple. “They tend to be bigger and stronger, like me, and usually have a protective instinct. There are other werewolves called betas that are smaller and gentler, which usually form tight packs with an alpha. You’re beta werewolves.”
Chloe nodded. “That makes sense. And the pull we’ve been feeling is our alpha trying to find us while we’ve been trying to find him.”
It wasn’t a question, but he answered anyway. “Yes. Though, in the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that your alpha might not be a him. It might be a her.”
Zoe eagerly scooted forward on the couch. “Can you help us find him or her?”
As much as Zane didn’t want to take on the burden when he was already dealing with enough stuff on his plate, he couldn’t turn his back on them.
“Yeah, I’ll help you.” He sighed. “In fact, I’m out here in LA with two other alphas from my pack, so maybe one of them is yours. If not, we’ll come up with some way to find him. Or her.”
Zane prayed it would be as simple as either Diego or Rachel being their alpha. Because it wasn’t like he could look for whoever it was in the phone book under “werewolf, alpha.”
“Wait a minute,” Zoe said, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. “I thought you said alphas form packs with betas. Why are you in a pack with other alphas?”
How the hell did he answer that when he still wasn’t quite sure how he and sixteen other alphas could live in harmony? Finally, he shrugged and replied with something close to the truth: “It just kind of happened.”
Luckily, Alyssa and Christine came in with a handful of sodas and candy, saving him from any more questions for the time being.
“So, did you guys clear everything up?” Alyssa asked, handing him a candy bar while Christine gave the twins several bags of peanut M&M’s and two bottles of soda.
Zane nodded. “I think so. But it means Zoe and Chloe need to stay in town for a while.” He looked at Christine. “Do you think it will be a problem if they hold on to the room until then?”
Christine threw a curious look at Alyssa but nodded. “No, that’s fine.”
Zane glanced at the twins to see them already munching on their candy. They looked more relaxed now that they’d talked to him. He only hoped he could find their alpha.
* * *
Alyssa was stunned at how quietly Zane moved. For a guy his size, he slipped through the lowest level of the parking garage like a ghost. Maybe she should have agreed to let him come down here on his own. He was seriously good at this stealthy stuff.
He stopped and held up his hand, motioning for her to do the same, his head held high as he listened to the sound of a vehicle moving somewhere else in the garage. All Alyssa could make out was the squawk of car tires taking tight turns on smooth concrete. She had no clue if the vehicle was five levels above them or about to run them down any second. He must have decided everything was okay because he motioned for her to continue following him, heading down the incline toward the lowest level of the garage.
“You sure the vehicle we’re looking for is down here?” he asked.
“The truth is, I’m just guessing,” she admitted. “The program on my laptop only shows the location in 2-D. The sedan I put the tracker on could be on any level in here. I had no idea this place had five levels underground, but since we haven’t seen it yet, it makes sense they parked down on the lowest level. Esp
ecially if they were planning to dump it.”
That answer seemed to suit Zane, and he continued on ahead of her, his head swiveling side to side as they passed behind the few cars parked down there. It wasn’t surprising this level of the garage wasn’t filled to capacity. Even in a city as crowded as LA, with its lack of available parking, this section was too creepy for anyone to want to come down there.
As they walked, Zane would lift his head every once in a while, and he’d do this weird thing where he closed his eyes and sniffed. Like he was testing the air with his nose. Okay, that was damn odd.
After reading the information Nathan had found on the Dallas SWAT team, Alyssa had been convinced Zane—and probably the rest of his team—were special. She had no idea what they were, but after seeing copies of the autopsy photos of some of the criminals they’d dealt with, she got the feeling they were something that could be scary as hell if you got on their bad side.
One of the reasons Zane and his team were so good at taking down bad guys might be because they seemed indestructible. While there was nothing in any of the official incident reports the team wrote, Alyssa could read between the lines. It was almost a certainty that Zane and his teammates had been shot in the line of duty—multiple times in some cases. Yet only one of them had ever been taken to a hospital. Even after getting shot with a high-powered rifle round through the chest, the guy had literally run out of there less than a day after surgery and right back into the action, going up against a psychotic killer.
The funny thing was, even though she was sure Zane wasn’t entirely human, she didn’t feel concerned for her safety when she was with him. It was probably crazy, but as they’d talked over donuts earlier this morning alone in her room, she hadn’t been worried for a second. Not even when things had gotten a little tense as they’d asked questions they both refused to answer.
The FBI agent in her wondered if Zane was using a spell to lure her in and make her feel safe when she shouldn’t. She’d certainly seen enough over the past year to suggest something like that was possible. She’d dealt with things recently that could trick otherwise careful people into walking right into a trap.
But as Zane moved ahead of her in the dimly lit garage, she decided it wasn’t some kind of supernatural spell that made her so comfortable with him. It was her instincts telling her she was safe with him. And Alyssa never doubted her instincts. They’d saved her butt more times than she could count.
Then again, as handsome as Zane was, it was also possible she was simply overlooking the danger because she was too busy gazing at him. It might be shallow of her, but in her defense, she hadn’t slept with a guy in over a year and a half, and the last time she had, it hadn’t been all that.
If they hadn’t been in stealth mode, she probably would have laughed out loud. Deciding to trust a possible monster because she was horny was ridiculous. Then something twisted inside her and she mentally backtracked. He wasn’t a monster. She wasn’t sure what he was, but he wasn’t a monster.
If nothing else, the way he’d handled that situation with Zoe and Chloe earlier made her sure of that. Those girls had been through the most horrible situation Alyssa could imagine anyone having to deal with, and Zane had been the one they’d turned to for help. Truthfully, she didn’t blame them. It was obvious he was the kind of man who cared about people and would do anything to help them.
Alyssa only wished she knew what they’d talked about while she and Christine had been getting sodas and snacks. Even though she’d done a bit of casual prodding during the drive over to the garage, Zane wouldn’t say. He’d kept the conversation focused entirely on what those two girls needed now, which mostly included Christine taking the twins’ statements, so she could start getting everything cleared up with the police back in Utah.
“There it is,” Zane said softly, jerking her out of her confusing thoughts. “Against the far wall.”
This level of the parking garage dead-ended in a concrete wall, and the sedan was parked alongside a row of vehicles just like it, right down to make, model, and year. As she and Zane hurried across the garage, she was tempted to ask how he knew this was the car the girls had been in, but she decided against it. She was worried he might say something she couldn’t ignore—like admitting he could smell which vehicle was the right one. That was something she didn’t want confirmation on right now.
When they got to the sedan in question, Alyssa crouched down beside it and slipped her hand under the radiator, confirming it was the one with the tracking device. She straightened up to find that Zane had opened the passenger door and was searching the glove box. He rustled around for a few seconds before coming up with the vehicle’s registration. He handed it to her without a word, then moved over to the next vehicle in the line. While he dug around in there, she took out the small flashlight she always carried with her and searched the first vehicle. It was super fancy, with all-leather interior and heavily tinted windows all around. It even had one of those privacy partitions, so the driver couldn’t peek into the backseat.
“Well, if the line of identical sedans weren’t a dead giveaway, this is,” Zane said, coming back over to hand her another piece of paper. “The cars are registered to a company called Curtis Unified Parking Services. The address for the company is the same as the garage. They didn’t dump the car here. They parked it here.”
She frowned. “Stefan owns a parking garage? The guy comes from a family with more money than God, and he spends his free time running a parking garage? Kidnapping women isn’t enough to keep him occupied?”
Zane shrugged. He looked as stumped as she was. “And before you ask, I didn’t know about this place. We knew he was loosely connected to several legitimate businesses in the city, but not this one. Someone’s done a good job of hiding it.”
That someone would be either the Curtis family or Black Swan Enterprises.
“That’s got to mean something,” Alyssa said. “I’m not sure what, though.”
“Me, either,” Zane murmured. “But I’m curious about why they own so many vehicles. I’m pretty sure a company that manages a parking garage doesn’t need a fleet of luxury sedans.”
She leaned into the car to put the registration back in the glove box. “Do you think Stefan is kidnapping even more people than we thought?”
“I hope not. But my gut tells me he’s using these cars for something shady. We need to get out of here and do some digging. See what we can find out about Curtis Unified Parking Services. I’d be interested to know if there’s a link between this place and Black Swan Enterprises.”
Alyssa had a hard time believing a link like that would exist. Not when Stefan was using these same vehicles to kidnap people. The chances of something like that coming back on the powerful company was a risk no sane person would tolerate. All it would take was one of those vehicles getting in a traffic accident while carrying kidnap victims, or even pulled over for speeding. Why risk it? Regardless, it was still a place to start looking.
While she attached tracking devices to the other sedans, Zane slipped away to see if there was a direct access to the Curtis Unified offices somewhere nearby. No way in hell a man like Stefan would walk an inclined parking ramp to the next level to get the elevator. She didn’t see a door anywhere, though.
Would Stefan have brought those girls here last night? If so, had he brought other people here, too?
She didn’t think that was likely. Not when there was a chance some random employee might stumble across them. But still…what if?
Alyssa was still lost in thought when Zane came back. “There’s an entrance to the offices around the corner, but it’s covered by two security cameras. There’s no way we’ll ever be able to slip in that way without someone seeing us.”
“It will take me a little while to get my team working on this,” she said as they walked back up the ramp. “When it comes to doing searches, the department I work for isn’t as constrained as most parts of the federal government, b
ut it will still take time. They probably won’t have anything useful until tonight, longer if Black Swan Enterprises is involved. With their money, they can hire people good at making the truth disappear.”
Once outside, they headed to Zane’s SUV parked four blocks away. He pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to someone. “I’ll get mine on it right now. They can be hip deep in data within minutes.”
She stopped walking, forcing him to do the same. “Without a warrant of any kind?”
Zane put his phone back in his pocket. “You don’t have to be part of this if it makes you uncomfortable.”
Something about the way he said the words made her think he genuinely wanted to protect her from this.
“I want to meet your teammates,” she said. “I want to be there when they dig into Stefan’s company.”
She didn’t know how putting herself firmly in the middle of Zane’s illegal activities was going to make the situation any better, but she wanted to do it anyway. Maybe because she couldn’t seem to think straight when she was around him. If she was thinking at all.
Zane was silent for so long she thought he might refuse, but then his phone buzzed. He dug it out and glanced at it, then nodded at her. “They’re waiting for us at the motel we’re staying at.”
He started walking again, and Alyssa hurried to catch up. Trusting a trio of Dallas SWAT cops who probably weren’t even human might not be the smart thing to do, but her instincts were telling her it was okay. That was enough for her.
* * *
Alyssa already knew they weren’t heading to Zane’s room, so she was a little surprised when he didn’t even bother to knock before slipping a key card into the scratched, dingy door of the charming, little no-name motel room and pushed his way in. Hell, he didn’t even announce himself. Wasn’t he afraid of getting shot? And getting shot in this place was a distinct possibility. It looked like the kind of motel Sam and Dean would only stay in when they were seriously short on cash. Or hiding from particularly scary demons.