Wolf Unleashed

by Paige Tyler

  “Maybe we should have stayed at the SWAT compound,” she said wryly. “It would have been quieter at least.”

  “We don’t have to stay here if you don’t want to,” he said. “I know a quiet place over on Abrams Parkway. In the middle of the week, they usually have jazz or blues performers playing. We can just sit and listen, even dance a little if you want.”

  Suddenly, the idea of having Alex’s big, strong arms around her as they swayed to some smooth blues rhythms seemed very appealing. She hadn’t been out dancing in so long, she wasn’t sure if she remembered how, but with Alex, she was willing to learn all over again.

  Lacey smiled, kind of surprised that she was doing something like this but exhilarated too. “Okay. Let’s go.”

  Kelsey barely looked up when Lacey told her sister they were going out again. “Have fun, just not too much fun. I don’t want to have to bail you out of jail.”

  “You never let me have any fun,” Lacey said, a fake whine in her voice as Alex opened the door for her. “What good is dating a cop if I can’t use his get-out-of-jail-free card now and then?”

  Alex just chuckled.

  * * *

  “How’d you find this place?” Lacey asked.

  Alex glanced around as he led her through the cozy club. There was a small stage positioned near the back of the place, a bar along the far wall, and lots of small tables and booths scattered about in between. The dance floor in front of the stage was only big enough to hold ten people, but that was okay. This place was mostly about listening to good music and having a quiet conversation with friends. It was the perfect place to bring Lacey.

  “The daughter of the owner was held hostage by her ex-boyfriend a few years ago,” Alex explained as they slid into a secluded booth in the corner. “When we got her out safely, he invited us to come by for some drinks on the house. I liked the place, so I kept coming back.”

  She pursed her lips, eyeing him thoughtfully. “First a raid on an illegal animal operation that gets you backstage access to the Dallas Zoo, and now a hostage situation that ends with you getting free drinks at a jazz club. Does your entire social life revolve around people that you’ve helped?”

  Alex laughed. “Pretty much.”

  A waitress came by to take their drink orders, then told them that the blues band would start their set soon.

  “I’m going to run to the ladies’ room,” Lacey said after the woman left. “I’ll be right back.”

  Giving him a quick kiss, she slid out of the booth, flashing him a smile over her shoulder as she left. Alex leaned back in the booth, resting his arms on either side of him, following the sexy sway of her hips underneath her silky skirt. While he was thrilled with how well the date was going, Lacey had him more than a little off balance. He knew she was interested in him—he could hear the rapid beating of her heart, see her breasts rise and fall as her breathing picked up, smell her arousal.

  But there were times when he could feel her put up a wall as she actively fought to control her body’s reactions. He had no idea why she’d do something like that. Worse, he wondered if she was doing it in response to something he’d done. He hated to think he was the reason she occasionally shut down on him.

  He only hoped it wouldn’t happen tonight.

  The waitress showed up with their drinks just as an extremely familiar scent hit his nose. His head snapped around, tracking the scent he was so used to smelling every day. That’s when he realized he wasn’t picking up one werewolf but two—and one was a woman.

  Alex locked in on the band onstage. The guy was whipcord lean and wore jeans and a T-shirt as well as a tweed fedora cocked a little sideways on his head. He had a couple of tats visible along his arms and across the top of each finger too. The woman was about the same age, dressed with a little bit more attention to style, but with a bit of boho rebel thrown in, and her sandy blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail.

  There was a third man on the stage, setting up drums in the back, but Alex was only interested in the couple. They were the werewolves. Their size and demeanor suggested they were betas, but he wasn’t necessarily sure of that. Jayna wasn’t very big, yet she was an alpha, while her pack mate Moe—who was almost as big as Alex—was a beta. What kind of werewolves they were wasn’t really important, though. The important part was that they were in town.

  There might be a lot more werewolves in Dallas than there used to be, especially with Jayna and her beta pack, but Alex had never walked into a place and stumbled over any before. It wasn’t like they could all ignore each other and act like none of this had happened, since they were staring straight at him.

  There was no mistaking the fear in the woman’s eyes or the concern in the guy’s. They were terrified of him. Alex was going to have to make the first move. It was either that or sit there and stare at them until they panicked and ran.

  Sliding out of the booth, Alex slowly walked over to the couple, keeping his hands in plain sight and trying to project a sense of calm. As he got closer to the stage, the man in the hat stepped forward, taking up a defensive position in front of the woman who Alex realized now must be his mate. The guy in the back kept working on his drums, completely oblivious to the drama at the front of the stage.

  “We’re not here to cause trouble,” the woman said, ignoring the warning look her mate threw her way. “We just moved here with our kids because we thought it would be a safe place to live.”

  Alex frowned. He was a cop. If these two were in trouble, he would help them. It was as simple as that. “Safe from what?”

  The man and woman exchanged looks, silent communication passing between them. Yeah, these two were definitely betas. Alex could tell by the way they moved closer to each other for support. If they’d been alphas, they would have moved further apart to make it easier to attack him from two sides.

  “From the hunters,” the guy said finally. “They’ve always been out there, but it seems like they’re becoming more aggressive. A lot of people like us have been killed lately.”

  Alex’s jaw dropped. He knew what hunters were—at least in the general sense. Cooper had mentioned that Everly’s family had been involved with a werewolf hunter years ago over in France after a rogue werewolf had attacked and killed her mother. But he’d thought hunters were something that were limited to the Old World. The idea that there were people running around the United States killing werewolves was crazy—and disconcerting.

  “So you came here looking for protection?” he prompted.

  They both nodded.

  “Every werewolf in the country has heard rumors about the huge pack of alpha werewolves all living together in Dallas.” The man glanced at his mate. “Season thought that maybe the hunters would think twice before coming here and messing with us.”

  “We were hoping this is a place we could raise our kids without having to worry about them all the time,” Season explained. “If it was just Allen and me, we would have gone on the run, but kids need a place to call home. They need friends and a good school. I swear we weren’t trying to move in on your territory.” She wet her lips nervously. “You are part of the alpha pack, right?”

  Alex nodded.

  “But if your pack doesn’t want us here, we’ll leave,” Allen said quickly. “Like Season said, we’re not looking for trouble.”

  Alex couldn’t imagine being in the position these two betas found themselves in—terrified to come to Dallas and risk a pack of alphas attacking them, or staying away and risking the hunters finding them.

  “There won’t be any trouble,” Alex assured them. “I’ll have to let my alpha know, but I can promise you that he’ll do everything he can to keep you and your family safe. He’ll want to meet with you, though.”

  Allen and Season exchanged looks again, and Alex got the feeling that they were a little hesitant to deal with a werewolf someone his size answere
d to, but in the end, they exchanged phone numbers and gave up the location of the apartment complex where they were living.

  “If you see anything suspicious, call,” Alex told them.

  When he got back to the table, Lacey was already seated, waiting for him.

  “Sorry,” he said as he slipped into the booth and sidled up close to her. “I didn’t see you come back.”

  “No problem. I take it you know those two?”

  “Not really. They just moved into the area, and when they found out I was a cop, they wanted to know if I thought Dallas was a safe place to raise their kids.”

  He figured that was a close enough synopsis of the conversation he’d just had—minus the whole werewolf part.

  She smiled. “That’s sweet of you, going out of your way to help people you just met.”

  He chuckled and slipped his arm around her. “That’s me—Officer Friendly.”

  It turned out that Season and Allen’s band was good—really good. Soulful with a little bit of melancholy and a whole lot of hope. Alex could almost close his eyes and picture the lives the two werewolves had led. The running, the worry, the hope that tomorrow would be better than today.

  He and Lacey sat listening for a while before she wordlessly took his hand, pulling him out of the booth and onto the dance floor. This wasn’t the kind of music that required elaborate dance steps. With the blues, you just got close, then let the rhythm move you. That was fine with Alex. He liked holding Lacey close.

  Lacey rested her head on his shoulder, wrapping one arm around him possessively, holding his left hand with her right. Alex slipped his right hand down to her lower back, letting his fingers graze that perfect curve right at the top of her ass as he pulled her hips tighter against him.

  The music all but faded into the background as Lacey’s scent enveloped him. His cock hardened immediately at the feel of her firm breasts coming into contact with his chest. She wiggled her hips a little, grinding against him as she swayed to the music. His claws were behaving right now, thank God, but being this close to Lacey and smelling how aroused she was had him so turned on that it was taking everything he had to keep his canines from slipping out.

  Lacey suddenly lifted her head off his shoulder to gaze up at him. One look at the sensuality in her eyes, and he was completely undone. His mouth was coming down on hers before he even realized what he was doing. Her lips eagerly parted for his questing tongue, the hunger in her kiss pushing him further toward the edge of his control.

  Alex wasn’t sure how long the kiss lasted—maybe a few minutes, maybe a few songs—but when they finally broke apart, he was absolutely sure he’d never experienced anything like it before. He couldn’t believe how much he wanted to strip off Lacey’s clothes and make love to her right there on the dance floor—or at the very least take her back to his place and hold her captive in his bed for days on end.

  Yet as he gazed down at her, he remembered how many times she’d pulled away from him. How many times he’d felt that wall of hers go up and snuff out the most powerful emotion he’d ever experienced.

  So he forced himself to slow down and take his time. This was way too important to rush. Lacey gave him a little frowny face when he gently urged her head back onto his shoulder, but she didn’t complain. She didn’t shut down on him, either. That had to be good, right?

  On stage, Allen caught Alex’s eye as he and Lacey went back to swaying to the music, giving him a knowing nod as he put a harmonica to his mouth and slipped into another soulful tune.

  * * *

  Alex hated waking up Gage and Mac in the middle of the night, but he knew his boss would want to know about the betas moving into the area—and the hunters they were running from. It was something that might affect the Pack at some point, though Alex wasn’t sure exactly how. Like Season and Allen had said, he couldn’t imagine hunters showing up in Dallas, not when there was a pack of alpha SWAT cops waiting here for them.

  When he pulled into the driveway of Gage and Mac’s new two-story home, however, Armand Danu’s minivan was there and the lights were on in the house. Alex frowned as he got out of his pickup. What the hell was Everly’s oldest brother doing here at this hour?

  Alex rang the doorbell, replaying the evening in his mind while he waited for his boss to answer.

  He and Lacey had left the club around two o’clock, then gone back to her place. He’d kissed her at the door, mostly because he knew he’d never want to leave if he went inside. As it was, walking away from her had been about the hardest thing he’d ever done. Not only did Lacey have to get up early for work, but he still didn’t want to rush into anything.

  Even so, he couldn’t help but think that their relationship had turned some kind of metaphorical corner.

  The door opened, and Mac stood there, a smile on her face. Tall with long, dark hair and blue eyes, she was a journalist for the Dallas Daily Star. While her job should have put her and the SWAT commander at odds, instead, it had brought them together.

  “Hey!” she said, opening the door wider. “Come in. Gage is in the office. Go on back.”

  Any other person probably would have asked him what he was doing there, but Gage’s wife was so used to him and the other guys in the Pack coming over, she didn’t even blink.

  Gage was studying a big map of the United States attached to the far wall in his office, Armand on one side of him, Everly’s father Florian Danu on the other. There were at least twenty colored pins tacked randomly about the map, with photographs of people positioned near each.

  Alex’s boss glanced his way, apparently not surprised to see him. Why should he be? Gage had smelled him the moment Mac had let him in. Hell, Gage had been a werewolf for so long, he’d probably recognized the sound of Alex’s truck when he pulled into the driveway.

  “What brings you by at this time of night?” Gage asked. “Please tell me you haven’t done something that’s going to end up with you in jail again.”

  Alex chuckled. He couldn’t blame Gage for being worried. Two months ago, he and Brooks had been arrested for coming to Cooper’s assistance after a little misunderstanding with the FBI.

  “No, nothing like that.”

  He nodded to Everly’s father and brother, then explained about the betas he met at the club downtown. Gage didn’t seem surprised by any of it, not even when he mentioned the hunters. Come to think of it, neither did Florian or Armand.

  Alex gestured to the map. “What’s all this?”

  Gage’s mouth tightened. “You’re looking at werewolves who have been murdered by hunters across the United States in the past year.”

  Alex did a double take. There were a hell of a lot of people up there, including women and even some kids. Alex was pretty sure the kids hadn’t been werewolves, which had to mean they were collateral damage.

  Shit.

  “How do you even know these people were werewolves?” Alex asked.

  “I don’t know, not with a hundred-percent certainty anyway,” Gage said. “But after almost fifteen years of looking for werewolves to put on the SWAT team, I’ve gotten pretty good at recognizing the red flags after a person goes through their change. I could be wrong about some of them, but my gut tells me I’m not.”

  Alex knew from personal experience that Gage had ID’d him simply from reading about how he’d survived that shooting in Rochester. He supposed the bigger question was what had made Gage start looking for these particular people in the first place. It wasn’t like most of them would ever have been SWAT candidates.

  “And you just happened to stumble over these dead werewolves by accident?”

  Alex didn’t want Gage to think he was questioning the way he ran the Pack, but he had to know.

  “No, I didn’t just stumble over them.” Gage glanced at Everly’s father. “After meeting Florian, I realized there was a lot about hunters that I d
idn’t know, so we started doing some digging.”

  “It was time consuming cross-referencing the list of unsolved murders in the United States with people we thought might be werewolves,” Florian added in heavily accented English. “We’ve been working on it for weeks.”

  Alex looked at the photos pinned to the map again. The people were from every walk of life. They were young, old, male, female, black, white, Hispanic, Asian. Even after all the crazy stuff that had been going down lately, he’d never realized there were so many werewolves out there.

  “Do you know who the hunters are?” he asked.

  Gage shook his head. “No, but it seems like they’re escalating the killings. If our assumptions are right, ten werewolves have been killed in the past few months alone.”

  “Which explains why those betas I met tonight were running scared.” Alex’s gums started to tingle at the urge to find these hunters and stop them. “Do you think these assholes would come here?”

  “I don’t think so,” Gage said. “So far, they seem to be going after weaker beta packs and lone omegas. I don’t see them coming after a large pack like ours. Then again, we don’t even know who the hell these people are, whether there’s more than one group of them. The most we can do right now is let the Pack know what’s out there and keep an eye out for them. Then be ready if they try to make a move against us.”

  Chapter 7

  “You did what?” Wendy practically shouted. “Tell me you didn’t do anything that stupid!”

  Lacey winced as she looked at her friend’s reflection in the bathroom mirror. Maybe she shouldn’t have brought up the subject of breaking into Bensen’s junkyard minutes before Alex was due to pick her up for their date.

  Wendy had stopped by to chat as Lacey was getting ready to go to dinner and a movie with Alex. This was their third date—and it was on Friday night—so she was a little geeked. That was probably why she’d slipped up and told Wendy about her little adventure at Bensen’s place. That and the fact that her friend had just told her the ACS crew hadn’t been able to find enough on Bensen to even bother talking to their deputy chief, much less the assistant district attorney.