by Crissy Smith
“And you got your suit dirty,” Kieran pointed out helpfully. “I told you that you shouldn’t have worn it.”
“Fucker!” James lunged for Kieran, but Caspar stepped between them.
Kieran hadn’t even flinched. James might be a trained agent, but he was still human. Kieran wasn’t worried that James would do any real damage. And even he could admit that James deserved to get at least one hit in.
“Calm down, James,” Caspar told the other agent.
“I…” James was sputtering. Kieran really had to hold back his laugh. He was getting even more of a reaction than he’d expected.
“Kieran.” Dakota nudged him. “Don’t you think that was crossing a line?”
He peered at his lover as Dakota frowned at him. He grunted but hopped off the table. “Maybe I went a bit overboard this time.”
Caspar growled. For a human, his boss sounded just like a shifter.
“Okay, okay.” Kieran held his hands up. “I owe you an apology, James.”
James crossed his arms over his chest. “What I can’t figure out is why you did it. What did you get out of humiliating me in front of the entire office?”
Damn, this guy was taking the prank way too seriously.
“I didn’t humiliate you,” Kieran argued. “I was just welcoming you to the team.”
“Welcoming me?” James asked.
“Sure, ask Remy how I introduced myself to him when we were first teamed together,” Kieran said.
“No, don’t,” Caspar barked. “I don’t need everyone knowing that we lost an agent for twenty-four hours.”
Dakota laughed before slapping a hand over her mouth. Caspar glared at her since she wasn’t hiding her mirth very well.
James gaped at Caspar. “Seriously?”
Caspar shook his head.
“I don’t feel so bad now,” James commented.
“You really shouldn’t,” Dakota said. “If he screws with you, it means he either likes you or he’s warming up at least.”
“He is standing right here,” Kieran stated.
Caspar, James, Dakota and Dare all turned to look at him.
“What?” Kieran snapped. He just didn’t like being ignored.
“He a good agent?” James asked as he eyed Kieran.
“Yes,” Dakota answered.
“He is,” Caspar said.
“As much as I hate to admit it,” Dare said, “he really is the best.”
James seemed to have to come to some sort of discussion. He held his hand out to Kieran. Kieran grinned before placing his palm against the other man’s. James gripped him firmly then yanked him forward. “If you fuck me with me again, I’ll kick your ass.”
That was throwing a challenge that Kieran would find hard to ignore. Instead of speaking his thoughts, he simply nodded.
“Now that we’ve avoided that crisis, how about we get back to work?” Caspar suggested.
“I want to be involved in Dakota’s op tonight,” Kieran demanded.
Caspar curled his lips before he smiled. Kieran immediately grew concerned.
“Sure,” Caspar told him. “You can team up with James for the night.”
Kieran opened his mouth to argue with his boss, but Caspar held up his hand.
“If anything happens to James or you pull any pranks, I’ll suspend you for two weeks. Two very long weeks where you can’t come into the office or be involved in any cases we’re currently investigating.”
“That’s low.” Kieran pouted.
“I mean it, Kieran,” Caspar said.
“Fine,” Kieran agreed. “I won’t play with the new agent.”
Caspar didn’t look amused as he left the room.
* * * *
Dakota had handed out assigned areas to the agents and Damon’s people. The group had separated to get started on the rounds. Kieran stood with Damon and James, watching as she tried to make last-minute changes, again. Kieran had seen enough.
“Come here.” Kieran drew her away from the map she’d spread out of the hood of her SUV.
“I have to—” She waved her marker around.
“You have to take a breath,” he said. “We’ve gone through tonight every which way possible. If anything happens, you did everything in your power to stop it.”
“Not going to matter if they kill someone tonight,” she muttered.
Kieran didn’t know what was wrong with her. She was never this indecisive. She had been running ops for years now and had led teams into firefights where the threat of death was high. “It’s been a hard couple of days and you’ve taken on too much. You’re worried about me, our friends and now this investigation.” Kieran wasn’t used to being the voice of reason. He sort of liked this change in their relationship, or he would, if he knew what to say. He glanced over at Damon and James for help, but the two men were too busy glaring at each other to offer him any assistance.
The moment Kieran had pulled up, James had asked about the tall, handsome Alpha. After Kieran had explained to James that Damon was the Alpha wolf shifter leader of the local Pack who had helped them previously in several cases, James had wanted to meet him.
Only minutes later, the two men had begun sniping at each other.
Kieran was pretty sure that he’d missed something, but he didn’t want to ask. Remy had seemed amused, so Kieran figured it was a shifter thing.
“I guess you’re right,” she conceded. “It’s too late to do anything about it now.”
“That’s the spirit.” Kieran kissed her briefly before gesturing to her map. “Now let’s get to work.”
“Okay.” Dakota strode back over to her map then started folding it back up. She slipped it into her pocket before gesturing to Damon. “You ready?”
Damon tore his gaze away from James and nodded. “It’ll be easier if we shift and run from here.”
“And leave the non-shifters behind,” James muttered.
Kieran stepped up to James’ side. Remy had been teamed up with Caden so Kieran was stuck with the human. “It’ll be fine. We don’t need to shift in order to do our job.”
“Maybe you should go back to the office,” Damon said to James. “Wouldn’t want you to get hurt playing with the big boys.”
James fisted his hands as he took a step forward.
“Damn it.” Dakota grabbed Damon’s arm. “You two can fuck later. We have work to do.”
“What?” Kieran squeaked. “They’re fucking?”
“Not yet,” Dakota told him. “But they want to.”
Damon snorted. “I’m not sure he’d have time in his busy schedule.”
“Fuck you,” James spat.
“Maybe if you’re a good boy.” Damon ran his gaze up and down James’ body.
Kieran knew that James was going to try to hit Damon even before James moved. Using his superior speed, he caught James in a bear hug and carried him away.
Behind him, Dakota was laying into Damon for provoking James.
“Put me down,” James demanded.
Kieran dropped him back onto his feet but kept his hand on the human’s shoulder. He guided James to their vehicle. “I’m not sure what that was about, but now’s not the time.”
“Sorry,” James said. “Fuck, that was unprofessional.”
It wasn’t like Kieran had any room to judge—he was the most unprofessional agent in the office.
He waited until James had climbed into the passenger seat before he got behind the wheel.
“Want to talk about it?” Kieran finally asked. Okay, his curiosity was killing him. He really hoped James did.
“We met last weekend at one of the bars off the Strip,” James said. “I flirted with him, but he was with a bunch of other people and didn’t want to go into the back room. I ended up hooking up with another guy.”
“Oh.” Kieran hadn’t even known the Alpha was gay. Not that he cared, but he felt as though he should know the Alpha better since Dakota had sort of implied he was part of their tight circle
.
“I asked around about him and found out that he’s bi, not gay,” James supplied. “In case you were wondering.”
Kieran shrugged a shoulder. “I just never thought about it, I guess. Now I feel bad for not knowing him better.”
“From what the bartender told me, Damon doesn’t get out a lot and when he does, he usually goes home alone. Hasn’t been in a serious relationship for several years.”
“You found all that out in one night?” Kieran asked. It sounded like James had been more than casually interested in the Alpha.
“The bartender is who I ended up going home with,” James said. “We had to talk about something in between fucking.”
Kieran laughed. “But you talked about another guy?”
“Well yeah,” James replied with a smirk. “I’d been trying to get Damon’s attention all evening and Kyle, the bartender, had also been trying, for months. It came up.”
“Okay,” Kieran said. “What happened tonight?”
James clenched his jaw then turned to stare out of the window.
“James?”
“I guess he smelt the guy I was with before my shift. He said some unflattering things,” James confided.
“Did he call you a slut?” Kieran asked. “Because if he tried to slut shame you, I’ll kick his ass.”
“Slut shame?” James repeated.
“I have internet,” Kieran told him. “I know things.”
James started to laugh, hard, so hard he eventually had to wipe the tears from his eyes. “Holy shit, dude!” he gasped.
“What?” Kieran wasn’t even trying to be funny.
“Sorry! Sorry!” James waved his hands in front of him. “That’s got to be the best thing that anyone has ever said to me.”
Kieran grumbled.
“It was also a very nice thing to offer,” James said. “Thanks.”
“I meant it.” Kieran had. He might not know what he thought about the other agent yet, but no one should be made to feel bad about what or who they did in the bedroom. He and Dakota could get a little rough and had their kinks.
“It’s fine,” James told him. “He wasn’t completely off base. Do you know why I asked for the transfer here?”
“No,” Kieran confessed. “It wasn’t in your file.”
“It wouldn’t be. My old supervisor was a homophobe. I wasn’t allowed to mention one thing about my sexual preference. If he thought I was about to ‘act gay’ I’d get sent to extra training sessions.”
Kieran tightened his grip on the wheel. “Does Caspar know?”
“He does now. He drilled me about why I asked for the transfer until I confessed what was happening. My old supervisor has been demoted and an investigation is open.”
“Good.” Kieran hated any kind of prejudice. Life was hard enough without people acting like such assholes. Who the fuck cared what people did in their own time as long as no one was getting hurt? In his opinion, people just needed to mind their own fucking business and the world would be a much more peaceful place.
“But my point is that I couldn’t go out and meet people because I was afraid my boss would find out. I was only with other men twice a year when I went on vacation. And forget about finding a partner to build a life with. Wasn’t possible.”
“Then you got here and went crazy with the freedom,” Kieran guessed.
“Exactly,” James said. “I hadn’t meant to. I really do want to find someone who wants to be with me for more than one night.”
“You’re not going to find that person at a bar,” Kieran said.
“Really?” James sounded amused. “Where’d you meet Dakota?”
Oh shit. The first night he’d met Dakota, she’d followed him into the bar of the casino they were currently living in. But he’d seen her before that. “A dark alley.”
“What?” James barked.
“I was supposed to be on vacation,” Kieran said. “Caspar sent me here. Now I know he had his reasons, but, at the time, I thought he was trying to plant me somewhere out of his way.”
“What did you do?” James asked, sounding very much like all the other people in his life. As if he knew Kieran had done something.
“I was bored,” he defended.
“Uh-huh.”
“I might have also been looking for trouble,” he conceded. “I came across some asshole shifters messing with some humans. I stopped them. I had to call into the office here since technically I had no jurisdiction or place to put them. Since I was on vacation and all that.”
“I can just imagine how much Dakota loved some stranger coming into her city and making trouble.”
“I was taking care of trouble,” Kieran corrected. Although, in truth, James was right. If it’d been anyone other than Kieran, the agent would have been in trouble. “Dakota was the agent called out.”
“Was it love at first sight?” James teased.
Kieran laughed. “She hated me on sight. Although it turns out she’d been assigned to follow me to make sure I stayed out of trouble. So her opinion was biased.”
“What about you?”
“I was….confused,” he finally settled on. “She was a shifter, but I was instantly drawn to her. It gave me a few rough moments.” Admittedly, some of those moments had been his worst. That first meeting with Dakota had been the start of his life unraveling. Although Kieran was happy, he wasn’t big on change and it had seemed to him that his world had been turned on its head.
“That sounds about right,” James commented.
“But Dakota knew what she wanted and wouldn’t let my prejudices get in the way.”
“She fought for you. Even against you.”
“We’re meant to be,” he stated proudly. “I believe that now.”
James hummed as he sat back in his seat while Kieran continued the drive to their designated area. Kieran left the human to his own thoughts. It was James’ life, but now that Kieran knew his story, he’d like to see James find what he’d come searching for.
* * * *
“Do you want to talk about it?” Dakota asked Damon. The Alpha was glaring at the SUV as Kieran drove off.
She’d picked up the interest between Damon and James right away. The scent of arousal and interest had flooded the space between the two men. Then Damon had shut the feelings down so fast that it had practically left her reeling. She didn’t know how to help the Alpha.
“Doesn’t matter,” Damon muttered. “You ready to shift?”
“Sure,” she agreed. Dakota knew better than to push Damon. The Alpha was so much like Kieran that she would have been amused if she hadn’t had so many other things on her mind.
Damon stalked off. Dakota turned then strode to the back of her own vehicle. She and Damon were going to wander around on all fours and try to pick up any scents that didn’t belong in the area.
She opened the hatch to the back before undressing.
The cool wind of the evening caressed her flesh as she bared her naked body to the environment. As a shifter, she had no trouble removing her clothes around others as was normal before transforming. Still, she appreciated Damon giving her privacy. Once she’d tossed the clothes inside her vehicle, she closed the hatch then dropped down onto the dusty ground.
Dakota closed her eyes as she pictured her jaguar form.
Her body shuddered as she changed into the large feline. Fur replaced skin, her hands turned to paws and in a moment she went from human to animal.
There was no pain, just the relief of releasing her jaguar.
It really had been too long since she’d shifted.
A long howl drew her attention to the other shifter close by. Even though she kept full control of her mind and thought with human intelligence, her jaguar instincts were strong. She knew it was just Damon celebrating his transformation, but the feline part of her wanted to pounce.
With caution, she crept around the side of the SUV before dropping down next to the tire.
The Alpha wolf had
his head bent back toward the moon as she spied on him. Then Damon peered right at her.
Dakota watched him for any sense of danger. She was a powerful feline and could hold her own against most other shifters. However, even from several yards away, she could literally feel the power coming off the Alpha. He might be—probably was—the strongest shifter in the city.
The sound that Damon made soothed and comforted her. She crawled forward, slowly, until he lowered himself to show he wasn’t a threat. Even though she wasn’t part of his Pack, she still wanted his approval. The weaker animal seeking the strength of the true Alpha. She felt the same way about Kieran and he wasn’t even a shifter. But the absolute power that Kieran sent out had her wanting to roll over and bare her vulnerable stomach to her lover.
Damon nuzzled her neck as she reached him. The motion was not sexually but instead done in a fatherly fashion. Dakota might not have experience with a parental figure, but she craved the contact.
She pawed at Damon’s leg before she dropped down, pressing her weight against him. Damon didn’t budge but continued to mark him with the scent of Alpha and Pack. Once he seemed satisfied, he rolled her onto her feet. Dakota stretched her long body out then licked her lips.
She was ready to hunt.
Her prey wouldn’t know what had come for them until it was too late.
Damon growled before he took off at a fast run. She easily caught up with him and they ran side by side. He knew the area better than her, so she allowed him to take the lead even though this was her mission. Dakota knew to use the assets she had available to her and Damon being on their team would make a huge difference.
Out in the Red Rocks, there were no lights, just natural moonlight guiding their paths. The humans would need flashlights or lanterns, so that would help spot them.
She knew the hours were passing as she and Damon circled, climbed and ran through their assigned positions over and over. Each time they didn’t find anyone, she grew more and more frustrated.
Damon wasn’t faring much better. He’d slowed their pace while continuing to lift his muzzle to the air, trying to scent around them. Dakota trotted away, giving Damon the space to get a clear reading of aromas. She doubted they’d find anything tonight. There’d been no word from the other teams, which didn’t bode well for the entire mission.