by Jamie Begley
Watching as two patrol cars pulled up on the street behind their van, the Captain ran his hand through his hair. “What happened, O’Conner?”
Giving him a quick debriefing of the incident, he watched Jenna with amusement and a little bit of surprise on his face. After ending her spiel with the arrival of the rest of the team into the occupied room, Kent piped in behind her. “You’re one hell of a shot, O’Conner. That was impressive… makes me grateful that you’re on my side.”
Shooting him a smile over her shoulder, she took in the respectful gleam in his eyes. He meant what he said. It was a decent start to being accepted by her new squad.
The Captain clapped her on the shoulder. “Nice work, O’Conner. Your uncle said you were good, but damn, that was something else. Taking out his gun hand on the fly so that he was immobile long enough not to shoot anyone was quick thinking. Nice job, indeed. Beer is on me tonight. The boys will want to go out and celebrate after our shift. You’re coming, right?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, Captain.”
“Good. You guys might as well stay here for a minute. I’ll go check on the suspect, figure out who the mystery guy is, and then we can load up and head out.” He clapped her on the shoulder again before heading to the two patrol cars behind them. Looking back, she saw that the suspect was sitting in the back of the first patrol car while the red-head with his unusual amber eyes held something out for Captain Nelson to inspect. The rest of the team started clambering around in the back of the van so she couldn’t hear what was being said to the Captain. As much as she was curious, though, Jenna was even more anxious to put some much needed distance between herself and the tasty looking stranger whose hair resembled a red porcupine.
Taking a second, she ran her eyes from his booted feet back to his piercing gaze. He was just over six-feet tall and probably about two hundred and twenty pounds. His fitted gray t-shirt was pulled tight across his chest and well-worn denim hugged his thick thighs. He was pretty hulking, carrying more muscle in his arms and chest than most guys had in their entire body, followed by a trim waist. He cut a memorable picture, it was a shame she wasn’t the type to do a little flirting because he looked like a prime piece of virile male.
The Captain was handing the guy’s identification back to him while explaining something. They shook hands and then the Captain walked away from him, heading back towards the van. The stranger looked directly at Jenna and cocked an eyebrow as he crossed his arms over his chest. His stare was penetrating and demanding. It sent shivers down her spine and a rush of heat that spread though her entire body.
The instincts she’d come to rely on all her life were running amok, telling her that instead of body burning arousal, she should be feeling fear instead. She recognized the mannerisms of an Alpha exuding his dominance. It was a damn good thing her logic was kicking her body’s reactions in the metaphorical head because she was barely restraining the need to close the distance between the two of them and cover his body with her own. Or worse, bare her neck to him in submission.
Jenna snorted. They would be serving popsicles in hell before she bore her throat to anyone.
A memory of Jenna’s only paternal family member, her Uncle Owen, flashed through her mind—them sitting on a fallen log, surrounded by the woods behind her mama’s house, patiently explaining the hierarchy of shifters. The expectations of their pack mentality.
Ol’ Alpha boy here wanted Jenna to drop her eyes and look away if she wouldn’t bare her vulnerable neck to him—that way she acknowledged who and what he was while giving him the assurance that she understood who was in charge. Instead, Jenna continued to stare back at him coolly. Silently telling him where he could take his dominance and shove it.
She had to admit, though, that it took every fiber of her being to fight her natural instinct to look down and away from his piercing gaze.
He was just that damn dominant, which was kind of scary since she never felt the urge to show submission to anyone before.
Kent’s hand landed on her shoulder from behind. “Come on, O’Conner. Get your Annie Oakley wannabe ass in here so we can go. We’ve all got paperwork to go back and fill out now.”
With no choice left, she broke eye contact and climbed in the van, closing the door behind herself to cut off any view of the stranger. If she had any good luck left, this would be the last she saw of him. If only crossing her fingers would help those chances, she would do it. Jenna didn’t think the guy had figured out what she was—or isn’t, for that matter. Her family had tried their best to hide her and had taught her to avoid all other shifters. She silently prayed their attempts would not be in vain just because this guy got curious. Her mama had always told her that if certain shifters ever found out who or what she was, she was as good as dead.
Here’s to hoping she hadn’t just stumbled onto the beginning of her funeral.
* * *
Adam watched as the black police van pulled away from the curb and sped down the street with its mysterious occupant inside. He came here to track down his cousin’s killer and drag him back to his turf for some pack style justice, but instead, ended up having his prey snatched right out of his hands. That did not make him a happy predator. In fact, it made him kind of snarly.
Sure, the asshole would be tried and convicted for his cousin’s wife’s murder, but Adam had been looking forward to the creep facing claws instead of steel bars. The douche bag was going to get off easy in the joke that was the human justice system. It wasn’t fair. Adam stifled the growl that churned in his throat.
That was okay, though, because he just had something else dropped into his lap. That little cop with midnight black hair, bright arctic blue eyes that reminded him of an Alaskan husky, and luscious, little curves, had snagged his interest. From the moment she kicked down the door, Adam caught the almost hidden scent of something Other in her and after the way she just stared him down, he was all but itching to find out what she was. No one ever stared down an Alpha without ending up in a lot of bodily harm. Yet, she hadn’t even smelled afraid of him while she’d been doing it.
Adam was betting a shit ton of money that she knew exactly what he was. So the fact that she openly stared down an Alpha had his blood heating in preparation for the chase. Right now, he couldn’t decide if he wanted to catch her to punish her or to pin her underneath him. Either way, he would be catching her. Maybe he could do both. Light up her pretty little ass to a nice shade of red with a well-deserved spanking and then pin her down underneath him. He kind of liked that idea.
Adam’s phone rang from his pocket. Digging it out to look at the screen, he saw that it was his Beta and best friend, Clay, the second in command of his pack. “What’s up?”
“Did you get him?”
He breathed out a frustrated sigh. “Almost. I had him cornered in a room at the address you gave me, but before I could cuff and drag him off, the cops busted in. They just hauled him away in a patrol car.”
Clay’s growl rumbled over the line. “At least there will be some punishment for Ellie’s death. I just would have preferred it to have been us ripping him apart instead of the tiny cage he’ll have to live in from now on. Will you be heading home now? Perhaps I could arrange a hunt for us to burn off some of our frustration?”
Adam thought about heading home. As excellent as hunting sounded at the moment, all he could see were a pair of chilly blue eyes staring him down with a fierceness that couldn’t be found in any of the members from his pack. “I’ve got a hunt of a different kind to do tonight. Tell me, Clay, do you know of any blue-eyed, black-haired females of the Other variety in Wilmington?”
Clay snorted in amusement. “So, it’s that kind of hunt, is it? I gotcha. I don’t know of any females fitting that description, though. Are you sure she’s not human?”
“I’ve got no doubt she’s something, Clay, but it’s definitely not human. I just don’t know what she is. Definitely not a vampire because it’s daylight out, but her s
cent smells off and I’m having a hard time figuring out what she is. I want to say she might be some kind of shifter, but if she is, she’s masking her scent somehow. I think I might follow her tonight and try to figure it out. Do we have anyone we know at the Wilmington Police Department?”
“A cop, huh? Kinky. Are you going to ask her to cuff you? That would be cool, but you might want to have her leave the night stick at home. I don’t think you’d like what she could do with that. At least, not without a lot of lube.”
“Damn it! Get your mind out of the constant gutter you wallow in. It’s not in our best interest to have some unknown Other roaming around so close to our land. In our territory. Especially, one we can’t identify.” His voice growled with irritation at his Beta and his tendency to harass Adam about his sex life. Or, his lack of lately, which was what was amusing to Clay.
Until recently, Adam had no qualms about indulging in the female flesh that made itself so readily available to him all the time. Wolves were sensual creatures with an over-active sex drive. It wasn’t entirely uncommon to go to the Pack’s lodge and find a free-for-all in the middle of the night. However, for the last six months or so, no one had appealed to him. It was like he had been doused with a cold shower one day and had yet to warm back up.
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t get your fur in a bunch. We have someone at the Wilmington Police Department. Would you like me to call him or give you the number?”
“You call him. Her last name is O’Conner. Call me with whatever you find out.” Snapping his cell phone shut, Adam walked down the street and around the corner to where he parked his black custom Harley V-Rod motorcycle. The August heat was unbearable, causing small rivulets of sweat to run down the back of his neck and soak his shirt. The roar of the engine drowned out the sounds of major traffic flow as he led his bike back to his house where he could take a cold shower. After that, he would do some research on his laptop to see if he could come up with anything on his own about the mysterious O’Conner.
The hunt was on.
Here I come, little rabbit.