Sedona Scandal (Sedona Pack Book 3)

by Lisa Kessler

  I couldn’t stop thinking about the e-mails. Her. They had to mean Wendy. Were the e-mails coming from the man behind the wheel of the car that had been tailing us? Or maybe it was from inside Evolution Defense…

  Kay finished her story, and I launched into the next story about mountain lion sightings, while silently counting down the minutes until I could get out of the studio. We got through the business segment and local politics. Finally, the cameras shifted to the local weather and sports. I took my phone out again.

  I found an earlier e-mail from Wendy and pressed “Reply.”

  Be careful today. Stick around the ranch.

  C.

  I hit “Send” just as Rodney cued me back in for my final segment. After we signed off, Kay looked over at me. “You seemed a little distracted tonight. Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah.” I nodded. Fuck. I’d thought I was covering it well. Had I screwed something up? “I’m good.”

  She studied me for a second. “All right. See you on Monday.”

  I unclipped my mic. “See you then.”

  Rodney came over to retrieve the wireless mic, and I caught his elbow. “Was I okay tonight?”

  He shrugged, then paused as if giving it some thought. “I think so.”

  “Good.” I stood up, grabbing my phone. “Did you ever edit the piece we did on the opera the other night?”

  “Yeah. I gave it to Jamie for the website. She ran it in the online Arts and Entertainment newsletter.”

  “Great.” I started to head for my office and stopped. “Is it still in the shared drive? I’d like to check something.”

  “Yeah. It’s labeled Opera Opening.”

  “Thanks, man.” I went straight to my desk, checking my e-mail on my phone while I waited for my computer to boot up. Nothing from Wendy, but I didn’t really expect her to answer. I had pushed her away. I couldn’t have it both ways.

  As soon as my screen came to life, I opened the shared drive and searched the video for the moment the car tailing us drove away. When the car came into view, I froze the screen. I couldn’t make out the entire plate, but I jotted down the first four digits.

  It was a start.

  My phone buzzed. It wasn’t Wendy. Not that I really expected to hear from her. The anonymous e-mails were making me punchy. I was probably concerned about nothing. That didn’t stop me from pulling up my contacts and pressing Vance’s name.

  “Chandler? What’s up, mate?” His Aussie accent coaxed a smile out of me.

  “Just finished at work. I think I’m heading out to the ranch.” I reached for my laptop bag.

  “Good.” Vance lowered his voice. “Your lady is here.”

  I closed my eyes, relief swamping me. “She’s not mine, but I’m glad she’s okay.” I stuffed the note with the plate number in my bag and got up to go. “I’ve gotten a couple odd e-mails, and someone was tailing me and Wendy the other night. I’ve got a partial plate on the car, and a hunch the e-mails and the tail might be connected.”

  “Get your ass over here, and we’ll see what we can find out.”

  “Will do.” I left the building, struggling not to ask about Wendy. “See you soon.”

  I hung up and got in the car. As long as the highway patrol wasn’t on the prowl tonight, I could be in Sedona in about an hour. I was thirty minutes out when my cell rang. Madison’s name lit up the screen.

  I pressed the speaker. “Hey, sis. Everything okay?”

  “Hey, Chandler. Did you forget it’s Dad’s birthday tomorrow? Are you coming up?”

  I hadn’t forgotten, but I also wasn’t planning on going to San Francisco, either. “I can’t. Will you represent for me?”

  She sighed. “Dad’s not getting any younger, you know.”

  “I know.” I checked the mirrors. “He won’t miss me.”

  “He will, too.” Her tone darkened. “He won’t admit it, but I know he misses you.”

  And I missed my sister. Madison could find the good in everyone. I didn’t have that gift.

  I glanced at my rearview mirror again. “Tell mom and dad I’m still on the evening news in Phoenix.”

  “Tell them yourself.” She let out an exasperated sigh. “Hey, bro, don’t let things go unsaid, okay? Life’s too short for that shit.”

  She was right, of course. But I was hardheaded.

  I had learned it from my father.

  “Speaking of life being short, when are you coming to Phoenix?” With no headlights behind me, I gave the Z a little more gas. “I owe you ride in Vera.”

  “You and that plane!” She laughed. “When are you going to get a real girlfriend?”

  I groaned. “I gave up on women, you know that.”

  “Oh please.” She huffed. “Okay, fine. I’ll stand in for you tomorrow, but you can’t keep dodging Dad.”

  “I know.” But I still had no intention of talking to him. I’d try to remember to call mom later. Because she always sided with dad, our relationship was strained too, but I still made an effort with her. “I love you, Madison.”

  “Love you, too. Bye, Chandler.”

  The call ended, and I turned up the radio. Between the unwelcome eagerness to see Wendy and the reminder of my father’s mortality, I was having a fucking amazing weekend and it was only Friday night.

  CHAPTER 11

  Wendy

  I was already having a hard time keeping them all straight, and the whole pack hadn’t even arrived yet. At least it gave me something else to focus on other than this weird pit in my stomach and the angsty wolf mourning deep in my soul. I hadn’t seen Chandler since he dropped me off at my place a few days ago, and other than one e-mail this afternoon, he hadn’t reached out either. I did my best not to focus on it.

  The wolf made that practically impossible. She wouldn’t settle into the back of my consciousness anymore. Her pacing and howling created a physical ache in my chest. Being in a room with more than one werewolf was probably my chance to ask someone about why she was suddenly so close to the surface, but I couldn’t figure out how to bridge the subject. It seemed like small potatoes compared to using my DNA to create a super soldier serum.

  “Micah’s on his way over.” Vance set his cell phone aside.

  His Australian drawl and rock star hair made him easy to remember. The twin brothers watching the perimeter would be harder to keep straight. Dex and Deacon owned a construction company and looked identical to me—short dark hair, striking blue eyes, and men of few words. I’d never be able to tell them apart.

  I shifted on the couch. “Micah was in Brad Newport’s military unit, right?”

  Vance nodded, and we all stared at the gigantic elephant in the center of the room.

  I sighed. “I’m not sure I can face him.”

  Chandler’s voice whispered through my mind: No one can train you to be a fighter.

  And I needed to fight. None of this was going to be easy.

  I scooted to the edge of the couch. “It’s my fault Evolution Defense could develop that serum. I need to make this right.”

  Asher glanced at Vance and back to me. “We don’t know how many of his unit are still alive. According to Micah, many of his friends died after the experiment.”

  I struggled with the guilt twisting into a tight knot in my stomach. I’d been so focused on finding a cure, it had never occurred to me to ask why they were so eager to help me. “What can I do?”

  Vance leaned forward, resting his elbows on his legs. “You’re our ticket to getting inside Evolution Defense. As long as they don’t know you’re working with us, you can snoop without anyone suspecting anything. If we’re lucky, maybe you can even plant a bug in their system to slow them down and keep them from making more. That would also buy us time to see if there are any more men from the Timberwolves unit out there.”

  “But that won’t stop them.” I looked at Archer. “For those little boys to be safe, we have to destroy the research.”

  Vance chuffed and turned to Asher. “I
t won’t go unnoticed if she fries their server or steals her blood samples from the lab. We need an extraction plan if things go south, mate.”

  Asher nodded, his dark eyes locking on my face. “Vance can give you some weapons training, and Naomi is willing to work with you in hand-to-hand combat. When Micah gets here, he can fill you in on the Timberwolves’ abilities in case any of them are guarding the lab.” Asher sighed, breaking eye contact as he paced the room. “Either way, you’re going to have to hold your own against armed guards until we can get in there.”

  He glanced into the kitchen where Naomi and the little guys were drawing at the table. When he met my eyes again, the unspoken stakes were clear. “Are you ready for this?”

  God, no. I’ll never be ready.

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. There was no one else who could walk through those doors without question, who would be able to go directly into the lab, who would be trusted to be left alone. It had to be me.

  Sweat lined my palms, and again, Chandler’s words echoed in my head: You’re a badass wolf.

  And then it finally connected. I wasn’t Wendy Cain, poor orphan heiress anymore. I never would be again. This was my life now. I was a werewolf with heightened senses, stronger than any human man, and I had a family to protect. Those boys were the last part of my brother left in this world.

  “I’m ready.” I nodded. “Show me what to do.”

  The front door opened, and I flinched. Vance chuckled beside me and stood up. “First thing you need to do is learn to use your wolf’s senses. You should’ve smelled our pack doctor coming as soon as he got out of his truck in the driveway.”

  Vance went over and clasped forearms with another tall man with bright-hazel eyes.

  Man, did the shifter DNA enhance their physique? I hadn’t seen a dumpy werewolf or jaguar shifter yet.

  Vance gestured toward me. “Cole, this is Wendy Cain. She’s…” He glanced at Asher, and for a second, they shared some sort of silent communication. Vance cleared his throat. “Brock was her brother.”

  Cole came over and offered his hand. “Brock was a good man.”

  “He was the best.” I shook his hand. “Good to meet you.”

  He stepped back, and something strange popped into my head. I’d shaken hands with all of them, werewolves and jaguar shifters, and none of them had made the wolf inside me howl the way she had when I’d first touched Chandler. Hell, I had almost fallen over the second he had grabbed my wrist, my vision blurred, and the world tilted. But nothing with any of these guys. It was weird, just like the rest of my life since I’d been bitten.

  “I’m the pack doctor.” Cole’s voice broke through my thoughts. “I’m sure Asher told you we can’t risk doctors and hospitals.”

  “No, but—” There was that blank spot in my mind, the man without a face telling me I had been turned into a werewolf. “Someone told me after I was bitten.”

  Asher looked at Vance again. What was I missing?

  “Good.” Cole turned to Asher. “Am I the last one?”

  “Gage should be here soon. He was grabbing some lunch for his boys on the way over. And Ryker is at the Wolf Pack Bar until closing tonight, so I’ll fill him in later.”

  “What about Jett?” Cole asked.

  Asher cleared his throat, and I swore I heard his heart skip a beat. “I told him we didn’t need him right now.”

  Cole raised a brow, but he didn’t push it. “Okay.”

  The door opened, and a couple came in with bags of takeout from the Red Coyote. My stomach growled in a rumbly cheer.

  The woman approached me first, handing her bag to her…mate? She offered her hand. “Hi, I’m Piper. And this is Shane.”

  He held up a bag with a dazzling smile. “I’m her mate.”

  “I’m Wendy, Brock’s sister.”

  Piper watched Shane disappear into the kitchen before focusing on me again. “We never got to meet your brother. We joined the pack after Caldwell was gone. It’s great to meet you.” She glanced at Asher. “I guess we should eat while it’s still hot. Kaya said she included a special all bean tamale just for you.”

  I hadn’t met Kaya yet, but I’d heard a lot about her amazing food. Her reputation as a chef had spread out of Sedona and over to Phoenix. Of course, I’d had no idea she was a werewolf before. A couple of weeks ago, I’d thought I was the loneliest person on Earth, and now it was as if I was suddenly in a supercool secret club.

  Everyone headed for the kitchen and I followed. Unlike the rest of the pack, Piper was still human. It still seemed odd to refer to someone like that, but her scent was definitely different from everyone else’s in the house right now. She was a veterinarian and worked at Cole’s animal hospital.

  With a plate full of tamales and chips, I settled back in the living room with the others. Piper took a seat on the couch while Shane stood behind her.

  She focused on me as she dipped a chip into a cup of salsa. “We were talking on the drive over, and I think there might be a connection between your dad and mine.”

  “Really?” I knew a few of my dad’s golf buddies, but business associates were never part of my universe.

  Shane rested a hand on her shoulder, a silent show of support that had me as curious as the looks Asher and Vance had been sharing. Piper cleared her throat. “Asher said he told you about the Transparency Collective that’s backing Brad Newport’s Senate bid.”

  “Yeah.” I nodded slowly. “But I still don’t see what it has to do with my father.”

  “It’s just a hunch. I’ll have to dig into my father’s digital files. He was obsessed with the project after he did some work on a server for a defense contractor. He stumbled across videos from Operation Moonlight experiments that the Nero Organization performed on werewolves. After he watched men shifting into wolves we spent years on the run and living off the grid. He would’ve needed money, and I swear I saw e-mails about meetings in Arizona at some kind of mine…” Piper reached up to cover Shane’s hand with her own. “How did you say your dad died?”

  My fingers tingled, numbness washing over me at the implications. What if the accident that killed my parents hadn’t been an accident at all? “There was an explosion at the oil refinery. He and my mom died instantly.” I hesitated but added, “The investigation ruled it an accident. Some machinery malfunctioned.”

  Vance sighed. “The Transparency Collective was threatening to expose top-secret documents stolen from the Nero Organization. No one stole from Nero and lived. As one of their former assets, I can tell you they know how to make death look accidental.”

  I stood up, my stomach flipping. “I…I need some air.”

  I hustled out of the room and through the front door before anyone else could say anything. Murdered? No. Could my parents have known shifters were real? God, what would they think if they knew I was a werewolf now, that their grandsons were born shifters?

  An engine roared in the distance. I looked down the driveway, recognizing the purr.

  Chandler.

  He parked, and I walked out to meet him, ignoring the way he’d pushed me away and vanished the past few days. He opened the car and got out, frowning. “Are you all right?”

  I shook my head, resisting the urge to run into his arms and bury my head in his chest, even though my wolf was climbing the walls. “No. I’m not.”

  He came closer but didn’t make any move to touch me. “What happened?”

  “Piper thinks my dad was giving money to the Transparency Collective. They might’ve been murdered because of it.”

  “It’s possible,” he said.

  I studied his face. There was an inner battle there that I didn’t understand.

  Like so many things I’d seen today.

  And I was sick of it. “Can we just cut the crap for a second?”

  He blinked. “What do you want from me?”

  “I want to know why you’re pushing me away. You were the one who saw more in me than I did. Why am I suddenly
a pariah you can’t wait to get away from?”

  He shook his head and started to go around me, but I caught his forearm. God, just that simple touch sent a wave of desire sweeping through me, an animalistic need.

  His eyes narrowed, aggression on the edge of his deep voice. “Let it go.”

  “No.” I tightened my grip on his arm. “You brought me here, into all this. You can’t walk away now.”

  He jerked free of my grasp. “I can’t do this.”

  For a second, I almost let him go, but he was the one who had told me I was a badass wolf.

  I sprinted in front of him and blocked his path. “Tell me why you hate me.”

  He stared up at the sky. “I don’t hate you.”

  “Then why are being a dick?”

  Nothing.

  I wanted to scream. Instead, I gripped his shirt with both hands. “A few days ago, I would’ve given up and let you walk away, but I’m a badass wolf, remember? And speaking of my wolf, she’s super fond of you for some reason. So I’m asking again: Why do you hate me?”

  “I don’t hate you.” He finally met my eyes, his nostrils flaring as if he would bolt at any second. “I’m trying like hell to keep my distance, my common sense, but you’re so fucking amazing, if I get too close, I’m going to fall for you and crash and burn again, and I won’t do it. I can’t. Now do us both a favor and get the fuck out of my way.”

  My gaze wandered over his chiseled face. The pain in his eyes made the wolf inside me growl, aching to protect him, to heal him. “I won’t,” I said, forcing the words out of my dry throat. “I…don’t want to.” I wet my lips. “I’m falling for you, too.”

  Instead of smiling or kissing me, he shook his head. “Wendy, you deserve so much better. You’ll figure that out soon enough.” He stared past me to the house. “There are plenty of pack members in there who would make better mates than me.”

  “Mates?” I frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “You’re a werewolf. Wolves have one mate for life. You don’t choose them. Fate does it for you.” He glared up at the house again. “You’ll touch him skin to skin, your wolf will recognize him, and that’ll be it.” He looked down at me and covered my hands with his. “You’re going to be part of this pack. Can’t you see that?”