Undercover Wolf

by Paige Tyler

  “This is Adriana Perez,” Tessa said. “I told her a little bit about what happened last night at the club, but thought you could fill in the rest, Jake.”

  Harley’s pack alpha nodded. “Thanks, Tessa.”

  Giving Adriana a reassuring smile, Tessa walked out of the conference room, leaving Jake to make the introductions. When he was done, he gestured to the empty seat on the other side of Harley.

  Adriana hesitated, looking at each of them a little nervously before pulling out the chair and sitting down. “I can’t thank you enough for what you did last night. If you hadn’t been there, I can’t even think what would have happened to me.” She tucked her hair behind her ear, the pulse in her neck visibly fluttering. “I’m almost afraid to ask, but were you able to rescue my boyfriend, too?”

  Harley exchanged looks with Sawyer, silently wondering if he’d left out the part about Adriana’s significant other. As if reading her mind, he shook his head.

  She turned back to Adriana. “Boyfriend?”

  “Kristoff Neumann. We met while I was being held captive.” Eyes pleading, Adriana reached out and took Harley’s hand in both of hers. “He’s tall and blond and has the most perfectly beautiful face you’d ever want to see. Please tell me you got him away from those evil people.”

  Anguish and hope poured off Adriana in waves, tugging at Harley’s heartstrings. She could easily imagine how two people being held captive and fighting for survival could fall for each other. She wished like anything she could say they had rescued her boyfriend, but she couldn’t lie.

  “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “You’re the only one we were able to rescue. Whoever was holding you captive escaped with everyone else. They would have taken you, too, if I hadn’t shot the guy with the ragged leather jacket who was carrying you.”

  Tears filled Adriana’s eyes, her heart beating so fast Harley could feel the thrum of the girl’s pulse through her palm. All at once, she began to hyperventilate. Harley opened her mouth to say something to calm her down, but the words caught in her throat as sparks suddenly shimmered and danced across Adriana’s skin while her dark hair floated up in the worst case of static frizz in the history of the world.

  Harley had half a second to hear Sawyer curse as he and everyone else at the table jumped to their feet right before a crackling sound snapped in the air. Body tingling like she’d stuck her finger in a light socket, Harley flew backward out of her chair and smacked into the wall with a thud.

  * * *

  Sawyer’s fangs and claws slid out as he ran over to catch Harley before she tumbled to the floor. He knew he had to get his crap together and pull his fangs and claws back in before his teammates saw them and lost their bloody minds, but that was easier said than done as he gently lowered Harley to the carpet, her strong staccato heartbeat the only proof she wasn’t dead. Her eyes fluttered open, a groan escaping her beautiful lips, and relief coursed through him.

  “Are you okay?” he asked urgently. “Can you hear me? Say something if you can.”

  He felt more than saw someone drop to a knee at his side, but he was more than ready to ignore whoever it was. That was, until a big hand came down to settle over the top of his where he was holding Harley’s shoulder. That was when Sawyer realized Jake was hiding his fully extended claws, protecting his secret.

  Sawyer appreciated the gesture even as he cursed himself. He hadn’t lost control in years, not since the first few months after the change. But seeing Harley flying through the air like that had set him off like nothing he’d ever experienced. Closing his eyes for a moment, he took a few deep breaths, forcing his claws and fangs to retract as everyone else in the room descended on them.

  “Crap.” Harley pushed herself up into a sitting position and looked down at her hands in confusion. “What the hell was that? My body feels like I took a bath in novocaine.”

  “I’m so sorry!” A panicked Adriana was suddenly on her knees at Sawyer’s side, tears running down her face. “I didn’t mean to do that. It was an accident.”

  Sawyer’s inner wolf went on alert again as Adriana reached for Harley’s hand and he had to clench his own into fists to keep himself from stopping her. What the hell was wrong with him? Fortunately, everyone else was focused on Harley and Adriana, completely unaware of his internal struggle to keep his crap together. It was easier to do when Adriana pulled her hands back, like she knew she shouldn’t touch anyone.

  “What happened?” Harley asked Adriana. “I was holding your hands, and the next thing I know, I’m on my butt.”

  Adriana flushed, looking contrite. “Sometimes when I get nervous or scared, I lose control and zap people. When you said you shot the guy in the leather jacket, I lost it. I…I guess I was afraid the people who kidnapped me might get angry at what you did to one of their own and take it out on Kristoff.”

  “Do you think you can stand up?” Sawyer asked her.

  Harley nodded, taking the hand he offered and letting him help her back to her chair. Sawyer ignored the questioning glance Erin threw his way. Instead, he held out the other chair for Adriana, gesturing for her to sit. She stood where she was, arms wrapped around her middle, eyes darting toward the door like she wanted to bolt.

  “Relax,” he told her. “Harley’s okay and we all know you didn’t intend to hurt anyone.”

  “I know,” she said. “It’s just that I keep thinking about Kristoff and…” Her voice trailed off, her eyes glistening with tears again.

  “Harley only shot the guy with the leather jacket in the leg,” he explained. “I honestly doubt the kidnappers will hurt your boyfriend as a way to get back at us. He wasn’t even there when it happened.”

  Adriana chewed on her lip as she considered that, then nodded. Sawyer wasn’t sure she believed him, but at least she sat down beside Harley again.

  “How long have you been able to do this thing with the electricity?” Sawyer asked, taking his own seat again.

  She didn’t answer right away, and when she finally spoke, her voice was soft. “It started when I was fourteen. At first, it was only little sparks when I got excited. Like when you walk across the carpet and touch a doorknob. It was a joke with my family at first, but it got progressively stronger as I got older. If I got scared, nervous, or something startled me, the electricity would come out. My family helped me hide it as much as they could, and over time, I got better at controlling it. But I still messed up and hurt people I never wanted to hurt. That was when I realized I couldn’t stay with my family anymore. I left my home in Taxco, thinking I could disappear in a place as big and crowded as Mexico City, and for more than two years, it seemed to work. Then it didn’t.”

  “What happened?” Sawyer asked.

  “A woman showed up at my apartment claiming that a man in Europe wanted to hire me.” Adriana looked down at her hands clasped in her lap. “I immediately knew there was something wrong because I never applied for a job in Europe. She said the man was aware of my special abilities and would pay me an insane amount of money if I worked for him. When I said I didn’t want the job or to use my abilities, she took out a phone and told whoever she called that I was resistant and she needed help. I freaked out and ran.”

  Sawyer heard the girl’s heart beating a mile a minute and knew she was reliving that moment. He was all too familiar with the adrenaline surge that came with memories like that when the fear and anxiety made it feel like you were right back in the thick of it.

  Adriana took a deep breath, a frown creasing her forehead. “I thought for sure I’d escaped, but a man caught up with me before I got more than a couple blocks from my place. He just kind of showed up out of nowhere right in front of me. I tried to fight, but another guy came to help and they both dragged me toward a van. I was more terrified than I’ve ever been in my life and I completely lost it. The electricity inside me kept building until I thought it might tear me apart
. When I zapped the men, the flare of light was so bright it blinded me and I collapsed.”

  “What’s the next thing you remember?” Harley asked.

  The girl lifted her head to look at them. “Waking up in a dingy room. I didn’t know where I was or how long I was out of it. My head was spinning so much I could barely stand up. At first, I thought I’d hurt myself from channeling all that power, but the man guarding my cell told me they’d drugged me. He said that since I hadn’t wanted to do it the easy way, they would do it the hard way.”

  “How long were you held there?” Sawyer prompted when she paused, lost in thought again.

  She shrugged. “Maybe a day. They drugged me regularly and everything was sort of a blur after that. I vaguely remember riding in a few trucks, but there were some long plane rides, too, and an endless procession of dark holding rooms. A week ago, they brought me to the club where you found me last night. I didn’t even know I was in Paris until Tessa mentioned it this morning.”

  “How did you meet Kristoff?” Harley asked.

  Adriana’s lips curved, her dark eyes dancing a little with happiness. “On the plane from Mexico City. He was amazing. He made sure the guards gave me something to eat and drink and even got them to leave me alone so I could wash up in privacy. I don’t think I would have made it without Kristoff. He was like my guardian angel.”

  Sawyer hoped for her sake they could rescue her boyfriend along with all the other captives. “What about the other prisoners? Were they with you from the beginning like Kristoff, or were they here in Paris when you arrived? Did you get a chance to talk to any of them and learn why they’d been kidnapped?”

  “We picked up two of them on one of the stops between flights,” she said slowly, as if she was trying to remember. “The rest were already here. They were kidnapped because they’re all like me.”

  Sawyer froze along with Harley and everyone else in the room. It was Jake who finally shook off the shock first and asked the question that was on the tip of Sawyer’s tongue.

  “You mean all the other captives can control electricity like you?” the alpha werewolf asked hesitantly, like he was trying to work through the implications of what she’d told them.

  Adriana shook her head. “No, they aren’t like me in that way. None of them can control electricity. But they all have special abilities. One girl could hear what a person was thinking if she touched them. Another one could start fires with her mind. An older man from Serbia not much bigger than I am was so strong he could bend the metal bars of his cell. Well, he could if he wasn’t drugged. The guards took him and the mind reader away earlier in the week. Most of the other captives wouldn’t talk about what they could do because they were too scared someone would use the information against them, but I’m certain every one of them was special in some way.”

  “Do you know where they took the strong man and the mind reader or what they did with them?” Harley asked, concern etched on her face.

  Sawyer didn’t have to try that hard to know what Harley was thinking. Like him, she was probably worried whoever had kidnapped them had killed them.

  “I’m not sure where they took them,” Adriana said. “I overheard the guards talking about a lot of different cities, but I’m not sure if that was where they were heading or where they’d come from. But I heard enough to know they were planning to sell the people. They mentioned an auction where rich people go to buy oddities.”

  Sawyer thought he was ready for anything, but he’d been wrong. Bloody hell. There was someone out there collecting supernaturals and putting them up for auction. He suddenly wondered if any of the people they’d kidnapped had been a werewolf. What would a collector of human oddities pay for a werewolf? It was too insane to even think about.

  “The guards told me that I’d end up on the auction block, too, if I didn’t fall in line and take the job the woman had offered me,” Adriana added. “The way they said it made it obvious the auction wasn’t a place I wanted to be.”

  “Adriana, you said you overheard the guards talking a lot, right?” Harley asked.

  The girl nodded.

  “Would you be willing to sit down with Tessa and our other intel analysts to go over what you remember from your captivity? It’s possible you know more about what they’re up to than you realize.”

  “Of course,” Adriana said. “I’ll talk to anyone you need me to for as long as you need me to. But only if you promise I can go with you when you rescue the other captives, so I can help get Kristoff back.”

  On the other side of the table, Jake gave Sawyer a questioning look. Sawyer wasn’t sure taking Adriana with them was a good idea, but they needed information. And if he was being honest, he wouldn’t mind having someone with her abilities along on this mission, either. He nodded at Jake.

  A moment later, everyone but Caleb left the room, eager to finally get some sleep. The big werewolf looked at Harley questioningly.

  “I’m going to hang around downstairs for a little bit,” she told him. “I’ll see you later.”

  Caleb hesitated, his blue eyes darting to Sawyer, his expression unreadable. Mouth tight, he gave Harley a nod, then walked out, leaving her and Sawyer alone. Now that they were by themselves, the raspberry-and-cream scent was even more powerful, not to mention definitely mouthwatering.

  “You aren’t tired?” he asked, walking around to where she stood on the other side of the table.

  She smiled, tilting her head to the side a little to look up at him. “I am a little, but I’m also hungry, and I can’t sleep on an empty stomach. Besides, I’m in Paris with a few hours to spare, which means I can get to sightsee before we go after the bad guys.”

  Sawyer returned her grin. “You want to catch a few of those sights together, then have dinner?”

  Harley’s smile broadened, her blue-gray eyes twinkling. “I’d like that.”

  It was scary how happy that simple answer made Sawyer.

  Chapter 4

  “You realize there’s no way we can see the Louvre, Notre-Dame, the Eiffel Tower, walk the Champs-Élysées and still have time to get something to eat, right?” Sawyer asked in that sinfully perfect accent of his as they strolled toward the Seine River. Behind them, the late-afternoon sun bathed everything in soft light. “You’re probably going to need to trim down your wish list and focus on where we can go on foot.”

  Harley groaned in despair but knew Sawyer was right. As much as she might want to spend the rest of the day exploring the city, they weren’t going to have time. The truth was, Jake could call any minute to say they were on the move. She didn’t want to waste time riding a bus or taking a train to get to one of the farthest tourist sites and end up missing everything.

  “What do you think we have time to see?” she asked.

  “Well, we could cross the river and walk along the south side until we get to the Eiffel Tower, then hang out there for a while before following the river to the Pont Alexandre,” he suggested. “From there, we can take the bridge across the river to the Champs-Élysées and pick a restaurant we like.”

  There was no way Sawyer could know it, but that was the perfect itinerary. The Eiffel Tower was number one on her must-see list, and it was hard to go wrong with any tour that included the shops along the Champs-Élysées. She’d never admit it, but she had a serious thing for designer shoes. She didn’t actually own any because there was no way she’d ever pay that much money for a pair you couldn’t run in or wear in the snow, but it was still fun to look. And where better to window-shop for shoes than Paris?

  “Sounds good to me,” she said with a smile.

  The stroll along the river was absolutely breathtaking. Not only was the weather perfect, but there was also something awe inspiring about walking past buildings and bridges that were older than a lot of countries in the world, including the U.S. Harley could practically feel the history under her
feet.

  When the elegant-looking bridge, Pont de Grenelle, came into view with its copy of the iconic Statue of Liberty, they both pulled out their phones to snap some pictures. Harley almost laughed, thinking how completely normal they appeared. Like they were simply two tourists out seeing the sights. Except they were about as far from normal as anybody could get. Then again, given everything Adriana had told them, maybe there were a lot more people in the world who were far from normal than anyone had ever thought. Maybe she and Sawyer weren’t so different from everyone else after all.

  Harley looked around at the people they passed. The laughing teenagers, the young man with his pastels and easel painting a bridge called Pont de Bir-Hakeim with the Eiffel Tower in the background, the old couple holding hands and smiling. How many of them were special?

  “Do you think any of these people are like us?” she asked Sawyer when they stopped to take in Île aux Cygnes, the man-made island in the middle of the river. Lined with trees, the walkway with its many benches looked perfect for whiling away the hours.

  Sawyer didn’t say anything at first, his attention fixed on the people moving along the narrow island a few hundred feet away. He wore the same long overcoat he had last night, and damn if it didn’t look good on him. When he finally turned to her, his expression was curious. “Are you asking if there are any werewolves around? The answer is no. We’d be able to smell them.”

  Harley almost snorted. Sawyer might be able to smell them, but she doubted she ever would. She might have been able to pick up a fellow werewolf’s scent in the confined space of the club last night, like she’d done with him, but out in the open like this, with the breeze swirling around all over the place? Not a chance.

  Although, oddly enough, she could still pick up that same delicious scent of cinnamon coffee cake she’d smelled in the conference room. Her nose really was freaky.

  “What if they aren’t werewolves?” she pressed. “What if they’re special like Adriana? Would we smell them then?”