by Paige Tyler
Brooks did a double take. He didn’t like where this was going. “What are you talking about? You’d leave SWAT?”
“More like leave the force completely.” Zane shrugged. “I’m due for my department physical fitness test soon. You and I both know I can’t pass it. The decision will most likely be out of my hands anyway.”
Brooks’s chest tightened. He didn’t want to hear this crap. “Don’t worry about that. You know Gage will cover for you. Hell, Deputy Chief Mason will, too. They’ll make sure you have all the time you need to recover.”
“I don’t want them to cover for me,” Zane snapped. “I’m nobody’s frigging charity case. If I can’t do the job, I don’t want to be on the team.”
“Shit, Zane. You almost died,” Brooks growled. “Why don’t you cut yourself some slack? You’ve been injured, and it’s going to take time for you to heal, but you’ll recover. You’re getting better every day.”
Zane shook his head. “No, I’m not. If anything, I’m getting weaker by the day. And I don’t just mean my arm. I tried to go jogging over the weekend, and I couldn’t make it a mile before I was on my knees coughing up blood.”
Brooks ground his jaw, pissed his friend had kept all this shit from him. “But Dr. Saunders is working on something to help, right? He hasn’t given up, so you shouldn’t, either.”
“Yeah, he’s trying. Can’t say he’s not.” Zane sighed. “But nothing he’s tried so far has come close to working, and some has made it worse. He gives me something my human body can handle, and my inner werewolf metabolizes it before it can do what it’s supposed to do. He gives me something designed specifically for my inner werewolf, and it nearly kills my human half. I’m getting tired of being his test dummy. Hell, I’m tired of all this.”
Brooks didn’t know how to respond to that. While he was trying to come up with something, another horrible thought hit him. “Wait a minute. When you talked about walking away, you don’t mean you’d leave the Pack, right? Tell me you’re not considering something that drastic?”
Zane didn’t say anything.
Anger surged through him. There was no way in the fucking world he was letting his friend—his pack mate—walk away like that. But the moment he opened his mouth to unload on Zane, a delectable scent wafted across the crowded club.
Selena.
He inhaled deeply. Damn, her scent was even stronger and more powerful than it had been last night. He actually had to reach out and grab the edge of the bar to keep from falling off the seat.
Zane chuckled softly. “You really fancy this woman, don’t you?”
“Don’t try to distract me,” Brooks said, even as he looked through the crowded club, trying to find Selena. “You can’t drop a bomb like that about leaving the Pack and expect me to act like I didn’t hear it.” He looked at Zane. “Promise me you won’t do anything stupid, not without talking to me first.”
His phone dinged, letting him know he had a text, but he ignored it, his eyes locked on Zane’s.
“Look, I don’t know what I’m going to do. All I know is that I can’t keep doing this,” Zane said. “I promise to talk to you before I do whatever it is I decide. But in the end, it will be my decision.”
Figuring that was the best he was going to get at the moment, Brooks pulled out his phone. The text was from Selena, saying she was there and waiting in a booth near the left side of the bar with Becca. He sent a quick text back, telling her he’d be there soon.
“You still worried about messing things up with her?” Zane asked.
“Shouldn’t I be?” He slipped his phone in his pocket. “I don’t have what anyone would call an impressive track record when it comes to relationships or dealing with a werewolf going through her first change. Throw in the fact that Selena’s change is coming on faster than normal and the small issue of us likely being soul mates, and there are about a dozen different ways this could go bad. I’d prefer if that didn’t happen.”
“Then don’t let it happen.”
Brooks snorted as he picked up his beer and stood. “That’s the best advice you can give?”
Zane shrugged. “As complicated as you’d like to make this, it’s not. Selena is The One for you. It’s bloody obvious. As far as the rest… You’re a good person, a good cop, and one of the most capable alpha werewolves in the Pack. You’ll know when the time is right to tell her.”
Brooks wasn’t so sure of that. “Catch you later.”
Turning, Brooks headed toward Selena’s table, following her scent like a homing beacon.
* * *
His breath caught in his throat when he saw Selena. She was sitting on the inside curve of the booth, the sexy red dress she wore showing off a perfect amount of cleavage. Becca sat beside her, next to a trim guy with brown hair and glasses. They didn’t see him right away, but Selena did. Or maybe she picked up his scent. Regardless, her eyes met his, and she smiled.
Brooks slipped into the booth and slid across, then leaned in and gave her a kiss. He’d intended it to be a light peck on the cheek since they were in public, but Selena turned her head and captured his lips with hers, her mouth opening and demanding he do this right. He kissed her back, immediately hardening in his jeans at the taste of her tongue. Damn, she tasted even better than she did last night. How was that possible?
Becca let out a polite cough, reminding him where they were. Even though it was the last thing his body wanted to do, Brooks broke the kiss and pulled away. While Becca was grinning from ear to ear, her date was nearly blushing.
“Jayden, this is Scott Llewellyn,” Selena said to introduce them. “Scott, Jayden Brooks.”
Brooks reached across the table, offering his hand. “Nice to meet you.”
Scott took his hand, giving it a quick shake, then adjusted his glasses. If that didn’t clue Brooks in that the guy was nervous as hell, the rapid heartbeat and unusually fast breathing would have. At first, Brooks thought it was because he was a cop. Some people got nervous around law enforcement. But then he caught the covert look Scott gave Becca and realized the guy was sweating the blind date.
Brooks’s suspicions were confirmed a moment later when the waitress showed up with drinks. Both Selena and Becca had some kind of fruity drinks with umbrellas, but Scott had a Long Island iced tea, half of which he chugged while the server was standing there. The woman took one look at him and murmured something about bringing him another one. Brooks winced. This had the potential to go bad quickly.
“What do you do for a living, Jayden?” Scott asked.
Brooks hesitated. He hadn’t been uncomfortable around the opposite sex since he was fourteen, but he still remembered what it was like trying to look cool in front of an attractive girl only to have some big jock mess everything up.
“I work for the city,” he finally said, figuring that was a safe answer. “Pushing paperwork mostly. Pretty boring job to be truthful.”
Selena and Becca looked at him funny but didn’t say anything.
Scott seemed just as surprised. “You’re…um…kind of big to push papers. I would have figured you for a job that was more…physical.”
“Nah.” Brooks took a sip of beer. “What about you?”
“I’m a tax accountant.” Scott laughed. “I live to fill out forms, so I feel your pain carrying box after box of Xerox paper to the copy machine all day.”
Selena gently squeezed his thigh, and Brooks glanced over to see her smiling. She mouthed a silent thank you, then they both went back to listening to Scott talk about tax preparation. Filing season was coming up, and he was positively giddy with anticipation over the new tax laws. Becca genuinely seemed to enjoy the conversation, which boded well for their relationship.
Scott slammed the rest of his Long Island iced tea and started on the next one, all but ignoring Brooks and Selena and focusing completely on Becca. The redhead must h
ave thought the conversation was going well, because she gave Selena a subtle nod.
“Jayden and I are going to check out the dance floor,” Selena said, nudging him out of the booth. “We’ll be back in a little bit.”
But instead of walking onto the dance floor, Selena led Brooks around it, heading for an empty highboy cocktail table. It was close enough for Selena to keep an eye on Becca and her date but far enough away to give them some privacy.
Out of the corner of his eye, Brooks saw Zane standing at another highboy table, drinking small sips from his beer and casually chatting up the two women who’d bought the drinks earlier. They gazed at Zane like they were hypnotized. That damn British accent of his did it every time.
“It was cool of you to downplay your job like that for Scott,” Selena said. “How did you know that would make him relaxed enough to talk?”
Brooks chuckled. “Believe it or not, I’ve been in his shoes once or twice in my life. I figured he could use any help he could get. First dates can be tough.”
Her eyes sparkled. “Was our first date tough?”
“Our first date was as easy as riding a bike.” He grinned. “Actually, it was the best date ever.”
“I’ll have to take your word on that thing about riding a bike,” she said. “But I agree with you about how amazing it was. Even if I did bite you. I have to admit, there was a minute there when I thought I might have to take you to the emergency room for stitches.” She tucked her hair behind her ear, giving him an embarrassed look. “I still can’t believe I did that. Or that you were so cool with it.”
“It wasn’t a big deal. Seriously,” he assured her. “Look. You can hardly see the marks now.”
He leaned forward and tugged the collar of his shirt aside, showing her his neck. She moved around the small table, getting close to take a look in the dimly lit club.
“Wow, they really are gone,” she breathed.
She was so close to him that he could feel her warm, soft breath against his skin. Brooks expected her to step back, but she stayed where she was. That was when he realized she was sniffing him.
Her eyes were closed, and there was a rapt expression on her face as she breathed in his scent. Her nostrils flared as she moved a little to the right and left, taking him all in. At the same time, her tongue slipped out a little, like she was tasting the air.
Her change was coming at warp speed now, her sense of smell developing as fast as her fangs.
His inner wolf stood up and took notice.
A moment later, she opened her eyes and stepped back. Her arousal drifted toward him, making his mouth water. And his cock hard.
Brooks wondered if she could smell how turned on he was. The hungry gaze in her eyes made him think maybe she could. He half expected them to glow green, but they were still a dark chocolate brown.
While they didn’t glow, he knew something had happened, because he saw it in her eyes. Selena knew exactly what she was doing to him.
They were still gazing at each other when a server appeared and asked if they needed fresh drinks. Brooks wasn’t really interested in another beer but ordered one anyway. Selena asked for another strawberry daiquiri.
“How’d your day go?” he asked after the man left.
“It was okay.” She shrugged, concentrating on her empty daiquiri glass. “I spent most of it driving around, checking in with a few of my kids.”
Her expression didn’t give anything away, but Brooks knew without a doubt she’d lied to him. Had she realized something was going on with her? Had she seen a slip of fangs in a mirror or caught sight of her claws?
“I get the feeling something else happened today,” he said. “You want to tell me what it was and why you thought you needed to keep it from me?”
* * *
Selena jerked her head up at Jayden’s question, those seemingly ever-present waves of anger immediately bubbling up inside her. She opened her mouth to tell him she wasn’t one of his perps and that he didn’t have the right to question her like one. But then she saw the concern in his eyes, and the anger faded so fast, it left her almost gasping. He was worried about her. That was something Selena could understand. She worried about a lot of people herself.
“Ruben Moreno, one of the kids from my fourth period class, hasn’t been home in two nights.” She sighed. “I went to look for him today and found him hanging out with some Locos in an empty lot on Ferguson.” The bitter disappointment at losing Ruben to a gang was still fresh in her mind, and she had to squelch the anger threatening to take control again. “I tried to get him to leave with me, but he wouldn’t.”
“I can’t imagine the Locos were thrilled with you poking your nose into their business,” Jayden observed.
Selena hesitated, not sure how much she wanted to tell Jayden. Ernesto had believed her, but that was because he’d known her forever. No way was Jayden going to believe her wild story about beating the hell out of three gangbangers.
“We got into an argument, and it got heated,” she finally said. “By the time it was over, Ruben had run off.”
Jayden frowned. “You know how crazy that was, right? Going face-to-face with a bunch of gang members by yourself is dangerous. Next time, call me for help instead of trying to take them on all by yourself, okay?”
Between him and Ernesto, she had quite the team of bodyguards. She smiled. “Okay. Next time I get ready to poke a hornet’s nest, you’ll be the first one I call.”
The server brought their drinks, and while Jayden paid for them, Selena glanced over at Becca and Scott. It looked like they were still doing well. Selena couldn’t help noticing he’d finished his second Long Island iced tea or the fact that Becca seemed to be doing most of the talking.
“They seem to be getting along okay,” Jayden remarked after the server left. “I don’t know Becca that well, but Scott doesn’t strike me as her type. She seems way more outgoing than he is.”
Selena couldn’t help but think of Ernesto, who was exactly Becca’s type. “Normally, I’d agree with you, but she’s had a run of crappy dates lately with the guys she normally goes out with, so I guess she decided to try someone completely different.”
He nodded. “Makes sense. I’ve never even considered dating a teacher before, and now it seems like the best move I’ve made.”
Her stomach did a crazy little flip-flop at his words. “If that was a blatant attempt to get on my good side, I should probably let you know it’s working.”
He flashed her a grin, his teeth white against his brown skin. “I guess I should keep doing it then.”
Selena returned his smile. “I won’t stop you. But before you start buttering me up with more compliments, maybe I should be polite and ask how your day went. You catch any bad guys?”
Jayden grimaced. “Unfortunately, my day wasn’t so good.”
“What happened?” she asked.
For reasons she couldn’t explain, her fingertips began tingling like they had today in that empty lot on Ferguson. It felt like her fingernails were on fire.
“One of my teammates and I were down at Coffield Prison today to talk to a prisoner,” he explained. “There was a jail break, and that prisoner, along with several others my SWAT team put in there, escaped. We tried to stop them, and we failed.”
Selena blinked. With everything going on, she hadn’t paid a lot of attention, but it had been impossible to miss the alerts about the half dozen psychotic killers who’d escaped and the men who’d almost died trying to stop them from getting away. She’d known there were some cops involved, but Coffield was so far away, she’d never dreamed it was anyone from Dallas, much less Jayden.
“You were the one trying to chase down the getaway vehicle? While they were shooting at you?” she asked, remembering that particular detail from the reports.
“My teammate and I,” he said calmly, as if
it was something he did every day. “Those men who escaped are dangerous and have a personal beef with the Dallas SWAT team. We had good reason to do everything we could to stop them, and they still got away.”
Selena couldn’t imagine trying to run down a vehicle full of escaped convicts, but Jayden talked about it like it wasn’t even a big deal. “Are you in danger?” Her heart thudded unexpectedly hard at the thought. “Do you think they’ll come after you?”
He opened his mouth to say something but then stopped himself. Selena could almost see the private battle happening in his smoky blue eyes, and she knew he was fighting over whether to tell her the truth or not.
“They probably won’t come after me, but there are certain members of my team—and their loved ones—who are more likely targets,” he finally said. “That really isn’t important though, since a threat to any member of my pack is a threat to me. We take care of our own, and nothing is going to get in the way of that.”
Selena gazed at him, fascinated as much by the determination she heard in his voice as she was at the way the club’s colorful lights reflected almost gold in his expressive eyes. She wondered at the choice of words he’d used to describe his SWAT teammates as a pack, though. Regardless, there was no doubting the sentiment behind the term. Jayden and his team would do anything to protect the people they cared about. That resonated with her on a level deeper than she could have ever imagined.
Jayden took a long draught of beer, then looked at her. “This is probably going to seem like it’s coming out of left field, but speaking of people who are important to me, one of the guys from the team is getting married on Saturday. I was hoping maybe you’d like to come?”
The question caught her off guard, and for a moment, she wasn’t sure what to say. Ten seconds ago, Jayden had been talking about escaped prisoners possibly coming after the SWAT team. Now, he was asking her to be his plus one at a wedding. Selena was usually quick on her feet, but she hadn’t seen this one coming. That didn’t mean she didn’t want to go with him.
“Are you sure it would be okay?” she asked hesitantly. “I’ve never met the bride or groom.”