Wolf Unleashed

by Paige Tyler

  Shit, if Alex didn’t do something soon, this guy was going to slash his own throat.

  The moment Alex lunged, the man threw the knife at him. Alex ducked under the spinning blade, closing the distance between them. Eyes wide, the guy turned and ran toward the edge of the roof.

  Double shit. The kid was going to throw himself off the building.

  Alex surged forward as hard as he could, almost losing his footing on the loose gravel of the rooftop. Behind him, he heard Max racing after them, but his teammate was too far away. If he didn’t stop the kid from jumping, the guy was dead.

  Growling, Alex pushed harder, feeling his fangs and claws coming out as his body shifted automatically in response to the urgency of the situation. Letting the terrified kid see him like this was obviously a bad idea, but it wasn’t like there was anything he could do about it, so he simply gave in to his inner wolf and accepted all the help he could get.

  The kid went over the knee-high wall at the edge of the roof, his arms flailing and his hands slapping at things only he could see. He didn’t even seem to realize he was about to fall to his death.

  Alex leaped through the air, grabbing the guy’s bloody forearm before he completely disappeared from view. The kid’s momentum pulled Alex forward, and he fell, slamming chest first into the low wall, his head and shoulders hanging over the five-story drop. Alex barely got a grip on the edge before he went completely over. Below him, Brooks, the cops, and the older security guard stared up as the insane scene played out. He only prayed he was too far away for any of them to see his fangs and claws.

  Max grabbed Alex by the belt, keeping him from being dragged over by the kid’s weight. “I got you,” he said. “Get a good grip on him, and I’ll drag both of you up.”

  The kid didn’t make it easy on them. He flailed around like mad, grunting and hollering, slapping and clawing at Alex’s hand like he was fighting to get away from a monster. As much as Alex hated to do it, he dug his claws into the man’s wrist. It was either that or let him fall. Whatever demons had sent him jumping off the roof were apparently still there, and the kid was doing anything he could to get away from them.

  He was much stronger than any normal person had a right to be, and it took Alex and Max working together to keep him under control after they finally got him back on the roof.

  “Drugs?” Max asked as they carried him down the steps.

  Alex jerked his hand back to keep the kid from biting it. “Probably.”

  “You think it’s fireball?”

  Alex hoped not. He’d been so sure they’d gotten that crap off the street, but his instincts were telling him they hadn’t. “Maybe.”

  That hope got dashed when they finally got downstairs and Brooks told them to hook up with Remy at a dorm on the far side of the campus after the paramedics sedated the kid and loaded him into an ambulance.

  “I have to finish up with campus security and school officials, but you shouldn’t have a problem finding Remy,” Brooks added. “Just look for the dorm with the ambulances in front of it. You can’t miss them.”

  Either the lockdown had been called off, or people were ignoring it. There had to be fifty students outside the dorm when Alex and Max got there. Luckily, DPD had arrived on the scene and were keeping everyone away from the entrance. He and Max found Remy in a room on the second floor, along with two paramedics who were strapping an unconscious red-haired girl to a gurney. They had already rigged her up to a mobile ECG monitor and put a breathing mask on her, but she didn’t look good.

  “I tracked the assailant here,” Remy said. “The door was halfway open, and when I came in, I found her passed out on the bed. At first, I thought she was just sleeping—or drunk—until I heard how slowly her heart was beating. My guess is an overdose.”

  Alex and the other guys stepped aside as the grim-faced paramedics hurriedly pushed the gurney through the door and into the hallway. Now that the room wasn’t as crowded, Alex could see the pile of empty beer bottles and stack of equally empty pizza boxes, along with drug paraphernalia.

  Remy jerked his head at the stuff. “I found a couple baggies of fireball too.”

  Alex ground his jaw. Shit. Either they’d grabbed the wrong dealers, or there was a whole lot more of this drug on the street than they’d ever imagined. Both of those things scared the hell out of him and pissed him off at the same time.

  Chapter 4

  “Did you even hear a word I just said?” Remy demanded.

  Alex gave himself a mental shake. “What?”

  Remy glanced at him from behind the wheel. Remy had offered to drive back from RTC, and Alex had gladly let him. He hadn’t been in the mood to fight Dallas traffic after his run-in with the strung-out kid on the roof. One gut-wrenching battle per morning, thank you very much. But not driving had left him free to think, and while he’d certainly thought about fireball and what had happened at the college, he also found himself daydreaming about a particular beautiful veterinarian.

  “You still thinking about Lacey?” Remy laughed as he stopped the SUV at an intersection. “From the look on your face, I’ll take that as a yes.”

  Alex frowned. “How’d you know?”

  Remy shrugged as he took off again. “You get this thoughtful smile on your face every time you talk about her. Since you had the same look on your face just now, it wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on in that thick skull of yours.”

  Alex thought about that. He didn’t smile very often, mostly because he was a serious person at heart. But something about Lacey made him happy. Even if she wouldn’t go out with him.

  “You going to stop by and ask her out again?” Remy asked.

  “I don’t think so.” Alex gazed out the side window, taking in the skyscrapers with their reflective windows as they passed. “It’s kind of in that category of the definition of insanity. You know, doing the same thing over and over the same way, expecting a different result. At a certain point, I have to accept that Lacey doesn’t want to have anything to do with me.”

  “Is that so shocking?” Remy snorted. “I’m your pack mate, and I barely want to have anything to do with you.”

  Alex pulled a face. “Very funny.”

  “I wasn’t trying to be funny. I completely understand why being ignored by a woman is bothering you.” He shook his head. “No, wait. I really don’t.”

  “Thanks for that,” Alex said drily.

  “Anytime,” Remy said. “Look, I hate to point out the obvious, but there are a lot of other women out there besides Lacey. It makes me wonder what the big deal is about her. Did you ever think that maybe there’s something going on here beyond simple sexual attraction?”

  Alex considered that. Since Remy had brought it up, there was no use denying his thoughts had been heading in that direction too. “You think she might be The One for me?”

  Remy snorted. “The One? God, no. I wasn’t thinking that at all. I was simply speculating that there had to be some deeper meaning to the fact that you—a werewolf—are attracted to a vet who specializes in dogs. Maybe you’re just looking to get fixed.”

  Alex growled. If Remy weren’t driving, he would have leaned over and punched him.

  His friend chuckled. “Sorry, guy, I’m just messing with you. Seriously, you really think you’ve met The One for you?”

  Alex shifted in his seat. Damn, he hated talking about personal crap like this. “I don’t frigging know. All I know is that I’m really attracted to her, and I can tell she’s attracted to me too. I mean, pheromones don’t lie, right? There’s some serious arousal going on when we flirt, but when I bring up the subject of us going out, she slams a door in my face. It’d be depressing if it wasn’t so confusing.”

  Remy didn’t say anything—which Alex supposed was better than his wiseass comments.

  “Maybe it’s Lacey, not you,” he finally s
aid.

  Alex frowned. “What the hell does that mean?”

  “That maybe she has a thing about not dating cops,” Remy explained. “Would that be so shocking? There are lots of women out there who avoid relationships with cops because they know how tough it can be.”

  Huh. Alex hadn’t really thought about that, but it made sense. He knew a lot of guys in the DPD who had watched relationships fall apart because of the job. “Okay, let’s say you’re right. What about the attraction I’m picking up on? Doesn’t that count for something?”

  “Something tells me that Lacey thinks with her head, not her heart. And certainly not with her hormones.”

  Alex clenched his jaw. “So, what, I should just give up on her?”

  It was crazy. He and Lacey hadn’t even gone on a date, and already, the thought of not seeing her made his chest ache.

  “I didn’t say that,” Remy told him. “But maybe you need to stop with the direct approach and instead come at her from a different angle.”

  Now he was really confused. “Like what?”

  He didn’t remember Gage, Xander, Becker, or Cooper having to work this hard to get the attention of the women they thought were The One for them—not that he was sure Lacey was The One for him yet.

  “Start by finding out what kind of stuff she’s into. Get into her world that way, and see if it helps.” Remy gave him a sidelong glance. “One thing for damn sure, stop being so obvious about how interested you are. Not only does that give her all the power in the situation, it’s also a sure way to blow any chance you have with her. You need to play it cool and let her think that you’ve lost interest in her.”

  That seemed counterintuitive to Alex. Then again, Remy didn’t have trouble getting women to go out with him, so maybe he knew more about the subject.

  “That works for you?” Alex asked. “Playing it cool when a woman isn’t interested in you, I mean.”

  Remy shrugged. “Hell if I know. I’ve never met a woman who wasn’t interested in me. I’m just making up this crap in the hope that it helps you.”

  Wonderful. “And if it doesn’t? Then what?”

  Remy glanced at him as he pulled the SUV into the parking lot of the SWAT compound. “Then you’ll just have to accept the fact that Lacey has extremely good taste and is way out of your league.”

  Now that they were safely parked, Alex gave in to his earlier urge and thumped his friend in the shoulder hard enough to make something crack. “Thanks.”

  Remy shrugged it off with a laugh. “That’s what pack mates are for.”

  * * *

  The barking in the no-kill animal shelter’s kennel was so loud, Lacey could barely hear herself think. But that was okay. She loved volunteering here on the weekends anyway. This place brought in tons of strays and abandoned dogs, and a lot of local veterinarians and techs helped them out by providing routine checkups as part of their in-processing. Unfortunately, the noise tended to get some dogs so spun up, they became difficult to control, which made giving them a physical dang near impossible.

  Like the hundred-and-fifty-pound Great Dane who was acting like he’d drunk a gallon of espresso. The big guy was spinning in circles so fast, he was about to screw himself into the floor—or choke himself on his own leash.

  “Sheesh, chill out, Scooby-Doo, before you hurt yourself,” she told him.

  But Scooby—or at least the dog she’d been calling Scooby for the last ten minutes—seemed to have no desire to chill out. If anything, he was getting more excited by the second. At this pace, the pooch was going to create his own weather pattern soon.

  Lacey was about to give up and head to the front office for some help when suddenly, the big crazy dog sat down as if his butt was on fire. He remained perfectly still, gazing at her with big amber-colored eyes. She was still trying to figure out what the hell was up with Scooby—and whether his sudden change in personality might be a bad thing—when she realized that the entire kennel had fallen silent. Every single dog had stopped barking and was now staring at her.

  She’d been around dogs for most of her life, and she’d never seen a large group of them act like this. It was strange. No, check that. It was flat-out eerie.

  Thinking it might be a good idea to leave, she started backing away, but then stopped as she realized the dogs weren’t actually looking at her. They were gazing at something over her right shoulder.

  She spun around, nearly jumping out of her shoes when she caught sight of Alex Trevino standing behind her—all six-foot-four muscled inches of him. Her heart beat faster. She tried to convince herself it was because he’d startled her, but she knew that was a lie. Her pulse was racing because he looked so damn hot in his jeans and snug-fitting T-shirt. Even better than in his SWAT uniform—if that was possible.

  He gave her a lopsided grin. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. The people up front thought you might need some help with the dogs.”

  Lacey shook her head, for some silly reason not wanting him to know he’d spooked her—or made her heart go all pitter-patter. “No, you didn’t startle me. The dogs were just acting weird. I thought there was something wrong.”

  “Nothing wrong,” he said. “Just me.”

  She looked around to see that the all the dogs—including Scooby-Doo—were still looking adoringly at Alex. She turned back to him. “I’ve never see an entire kennel behave like this around anyone. Does this happen to you often?”

  Alex’s grin broadened, and for a moment, all she could do was stare at his mouth. Damn, he had a really nice smile. She gave herself a mental shake and forced herself to focus on what he was saying.

  “I guess they just like me. But that might wear off, so let’s get this big dog checked out before he decides to lose it again.”

  Lacey opened her mouth to say she could handle Scooby on her own, but the big SWAT cop had already knelt down beside the dog. Well, at least the Great Dane appeared to be content to sit there calmly for now. She might as well make use of the dog’s good behavior while it lasted. Grabbing her clipboard and stethoscope from her bag, she got to work.

  Alex didn’t just have a way with calming down dogs, he had a way with them period. Scooby did anything Alex wanted him to do, including lying down and rolling onto his back so Lacey could palpate his stomach. The funny thing was, Alex barely had to say or do anything. The dog just seemed to know what Alex wanted him to do.

  “Dogs seem to like you,” she pointed out.

  He flashed her another grin that inspired some nice tingles here, there, and everywhere. “Maybe they’re onto something.”

  Lacey braced herself, assuming Alex would almost certainly ask her out again after a line like that, but instead, he went back to holding Scooby still for the next part of the examination.

  Huh. Well, if he wanted to play the strong, silent type, she was fine with that. She really didn’t feel like fending off any more advances anyway, she told herself as she turned her full attention to Scooby and his chart.

  That plan lasted for a little while. Until she noticed how incredibly nice Alex smelled, and that the stubble along his jaw looked so soft and touchable that it was all she could do to not reach out and run her fingertips over his strong chin. Her gaze moved lower, focusing on the way his thigh muscles bulged in his jeans as he crouched beside her. The mere thought of the word bulge had her eyes wandering somewhere they really shouldn’t be going.

  Okay, enough of that. She needed a distraction STAT!

  “How did you know I was volunteering here today?” she asked. “Unless you expect me to believe this is just coincidence?”

  His dark eyes met hers. “I ran into your friend Wendy, and she mentioned that you like to spend your free time here.”

  “And why would Wendy tell you that?” she asked, even though she already had a pretty good idea.

  “I don’t know. I guess
she thought you might enjoy some company while you worked. She was the one who suggested I come and help.”

  Lacey would have pointed out that her best friend was a conniving weasel, but Alex had already gotten to his feet and was leading Scooby back to his kennel. While he did that, she got the next dog out. The little Boston terrier was like putty in Alex’s hands. She leaned contently against his big, muscular leg as he kneeled on the floor, a happy smile pasted on her furry lips the whole time they examined her.

  As she worked, Lacey kept expecting Alex to try to charm her like he had the previous times they’d met, but he didn’t. Instead, he was completely focused on wordlessly transcribing her findings and comments into each dog’s record and handing her equipment as she requested it. Lacey smiled as they slipped into a smooth routine. They worked well together. So well, in fact, that it took her a while to realize that he never asked her what any of the medical terms she called out meant or how to spell them. On top of that, he handed her certain pieces of med gear before she even asked.

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you had a medical background,” she remarked.

  “I’m a licensed paramedic in the state of Texas and have some Marine Corps Combat Lifesaver training.”

  “Oh,” she murmured, embarrassed to admit that his answer surprised her.

  For some reason, she’d assumed a big guy like him would have more knowledge of guns and violence than about medicine. She blushed as she realized how shallow that was.

  She waited for him to explain how a DPD officer in SWAT had come to possess—and maintain—the state’s highest level of EMS certification, but Alex didn’t say a word. Instead, he went back to helping her with the labradoodle they were examining, moving not just with efficiency, but with a level of gentleness that she would have never expected from a man his size.