by Alisa Woods
She cleared her throat. “I want to learn more about being a wolf. I feel like I have a whole… lifetime to catch up on.”
He surprised her by reaching across the table and taking one of her hands. He held it gently with just his fingertips. She almost jolted her hand out of his.
His smile was so gentle… “I can’t imagine what it would be like growing up as a shifter with no one to guide you. You’re a very strong person, Mia.”
That rushed heat her face. “I don’t know about that.”
“I do.” He was looking at her that way again, as if he saw something in her face, understood it, appreciated it… only she had no idea what it was. It made her squirm a little in her chair, and she didn’t understand that reaction either. She pulled her hand back, even though her wolf snarled a complaint. Touching him just made it more difficult to keep her thoughts trained on helping him, rather than helping herself to a really big bite of Lucas deliciousness.
Damn, this was not going to be easy.
She wrapped both hands around her mug, using her coffee as an excuse to reclaim her hands. “How does this pack thing work, anyway?” She stared at the dark, filmy swirls of inky liquid, then looked up. “Do you have to be born into one? Or do they ever, you know, adopt new shifters? Like, maybe ones who don’t have a pack of their own?”
He smiled.
The squirm in her seat worked all the way up to her shoulders. It was pretty obvious what she was asking, but it would be really helpful to know her options. Apparently, a lot of her attraction Lucas had to do with her instinctual drive to belong, not just the magnetic effect of his insanely masculine presence or the intense sexual promise of his bed. Maybe she could satisfy that first part just by finding a true pack to join.
And then, maybe a mate from there…
“You probably could join my father’s pack just by bringing him some coffee one morning and dropping your tail.”
Her eyebrows flew up. “Dropping my tail?”
His laugh was sudden and light. It was good to hear, although she wasn’t entirely sure he wasn’t laughing at her.
“Sorry,” he said with a mischievous smile. “It means submission.”
“Ah, right. Dropping your tail.” She pictured the Red wolves submitting to Lucas in the alleyway. “See? I don’t even know the lingo here.” She took a sip of coffee to buy herself a moment while he grinned at her cluelessness.
Was he serious? Would his father take her into his pack if she asked? Of course, she would have to submit to him… a growl from her wolf told her that might not be as easy as it sounded. Her inner beast had already, in her weird wolfy way, imagined herself submitting to Lucas. Given Mia would have to be in wolf form to submit to anyone… it might be hard to convince her wolf to submit to someone other than him.
Mia set her cup down. “Why would your father take me into his pack?”
Lucas leaned back in his chair, looking more relaxed now. “He’s already extended pack protection to you.” He gestured with his hand like this was obvious. “And that was when he thought you were human, before he met you. Now…”
Mia shook her head, frowning. She wasn’t following. Why did that make a difference?
“He likes you, Mia.” Lucas smirked.
“I guess that would be an important part of the Join the Pack application,” Mia said lightly. “Liked by the alpha: check!” She frowned again. “Although honestly, I’ve been nothing but trouble. I’m not sure why he would like that.”
Lucas chuckled, but it was a knowing kind. Like he was in on some wolfy secret that she wasn’t privy to. “He’s an alpha, Mia. We usually like challenges.” He winked at her, and her insides did a somersault in response. He really needed to not do things like that, not if he expected her to keep her hands to herself. Before she could respond, he rose up from his seat—gingerly, like his self-inflicted wounds were still paining him—and took his mug with him. “While we’re waiting for breakfast to arrive, I’m going to get started on that report again. My father’s not going to be happy if I don’t have something for him soon.”
She rose up, grabbing her mug too. “But he’s not your alpha anymore, right?”
Lucas’s lips turned down, but his voice was still even. “No, but I do work for him. And this job is more than just a job right now.” He gave her a sideways look.
“Right,” she said. “But after this job, Lucas…”
He had already started toward the bedrooms to retrieve his work stuff, but he paused mid-stride. “Yes?”
“I want you to teach me more about being a wolf.”
He smiled broadly. “That, Ms. Fiore, would be my pleasure.”
She flushed, but he didn’t seem to notice. Just turned away and strode toward his room with a lighter step than before. She hoped whatever he had in mind wouldn’t be some kind of torment for her as she tried to keep her side of the bargain.
But at least he seemed happier again. And that made her even her wolf hum with approval.
Lucas rubbed his face and shoved the breakfast dishes away to make room to spread out the LoopSource market analysis. For the last two hours, he’d been sitting on the floor, his scribbled pages and laptop taking up the entire living room table and half the floor in Mia’s hotel suite. The dishes teetered at an unseen edge, buried under the mess, and Mia caught them before they crashed to the floor. Lucas sent her a grateful look… which lingered too long as he watched her sway into the kitchen with them. She was young, but she was all woman with that walk. And her jeans rode her hips the way he wished his hands could. Or possibly his claws, if he was gentle… He grimaced. That thought was straight from his wolf.
He closed his eyes and had to physically shake that thought-train from his head. The sooner he was done with this project, the sooner he could leave Mia in the hands of a bodyguard more capable than him… and less likely to be distracted by her every movement.
Besides, Mia made clear she didn’t want anything like that from him anymore… and with good reason. He’d been so lost in his wolf last night, he was afraid he’d wake up to find her gone. Frightened off. Instead, she’d ordered breakfast and apologized. As if any of this was her fault. And now she was trying to help him work the LoopSource deal. He already knew he was too broken to be a decent alpha for anyone… but the more he looked, the more he saw Mia becoming the female alpha she was destined to be. He didn’t want to screw that up by embroiling her any further in this Red pack business.
He tried to focus on the market analysis before him, but the lack of sleep and the distraction of her scent as she swayed back from the kitchenette neatly scrambled his thoughts again. He groaned and scrubbed a hand over his face for the second time in two minutes.
“Do you want me to manufacture another cup of coffee with the Coffee Machine of Awesomeness?” she asked.
“If I have any more coffee, I’m going to crawl out of my skin.”
She pretended to contemplate his words. “It would be tough to do market analysis as a wolf.”
“Ha ha.” He looked up at her, hands on hips, smirking down at him. “Anyway, I’m not sure how much further analysis is going to help. LoopSource has a good idea, a solid platform, but there’s a lot of competition in mobile app creation. There’re at least two very strong players in that space, and a dozen smaller ones like LoopSource. I’m just not seeing how that plays out well for a company that’s still two guys working out of a basement.” Lucas didn’t know how much she could track with the tech-speak, but it helped him to just say it out loud. There was definitely room for doubt in this deal.
“Seems to me like the key is ease of use.” She settled on the couch, close enough that a small wash of her scent reached him. It was a clean-scrubbed smell laced with the faint crispness of soap. He chose this hotel because of its lack of perfumed soaps and cleaning products, along with a killer view, and decent room service. But being here with a woman who appreciated those things as well rumbled a dangerously familiar feeling inside him.<
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He forced himself to look away from those sparkling blue eyes and focus on the work. “Ease of use is key, but I think that’s really just table stakes,” he said, gently. He didn’t want to discourage her: it was a good point. “Everyone who wants in on this game has to be easy for the end user. I’m thinking the functionality of the apps is what’s most important. And I’m not sure LoopSource has enough differentiation there.”
“You’re thinking in terms of business usage.” She edged a little closer, propping her elbows on her knees and leaning over her clasped hands. “But this is for your everyday college student or mom or weekend warrior who wants to create an app for their hobby or friends or ten-year reunion. Ease of use is paramount.” Her eagerness was infectious.
He twisted to face her from his spot on the floor. “But it has to do something or it’s no use at all.”
She bit her lip, which made his wolf sit up and take notice, but the human part of him worried again that he had discouraged her. She was his intern, for god’s sake. Even if he couldn’t be her alpha, he could at least try to not completely suck at being her boss.
Before he could come up with something more reassuring, she continued, “Maybe I don’t really understand how it all works. But that’s just it—I don’t have to. The tech guys will figure out how to add cool features. And once it’s out there, people like me will say, Hey, idiots, why don’t you add a button here? And they will.”
Lucas’s eyes went wide. “They could crowd-source the functionality.” His mouth hung open… why hadn’t he seen that? It was precisely the kind of idea that SparkTech could bring—together with funding—to make the acquisition a value-add for both parties. “Mia, that’s perfect.”
She smiled shyly, and it flushed a warm feeling through him. It was no mystery why he had been so distracted this last week. He had a very strong urge to kiss her right then, but instead he rose up, closed his laptop, and scooped up as many of the papers as he could carry. He wouldn’t need the analysis anyway: now he had the core idea he’d been missing all along.
Mia frowned. “What are you doing?” She was looking up at him in a puzzled way that just made her lovely face even more sexy. He gave in momentarily and dropped a kiss on her cheek.
“We’re going to tell my father your brilliant idea.”
Her pale cheeks flushed pink. He couldn’t tell if it was the kiss or the compliment, but getting a reaction like that from her was more dangerous than the kiss itself.
“So you think SparkTech should make an offer?” she asked, eyebrows raised.
“As long as they have a solid base of easy-to-use interfacing, you’re absolutely right—the value-add of the functionality will be driven by the market. And there’s still a lot of game left to be played there: customized tools not just for retail, but all kinds of users. Small businesses. Non-profits. Large corporate customers would require more and could be a separate, spun off business, eventually. The point is, it’s not what LoopSource has now… it’s what they’re going to have in the future.”
“But it’s still a risk,” she said, frowning. “There’s no way to know for sure they’ll be able to come through on the tech side.”
“And that’s just the right time to get in on a deal,” he said. “Besides, my father wants to do this deal. And so do I. Letting those bastards in the Red pack get their hands on another startup with a bright future that might feed their enterprise is the last thing I want to do.”
That made her smile again, and his heart lifted even further. His wolf pawed the ground, wanting a repeat of the kiss. And more. Instead, he took her hands and lifted her from the couch.
“Let’s go tell my father now,” Lucas said gently. “But as soon as we’re done, I’m taking you out to learn a little bit more about being a wolf.”
Then he had to turn away and busy his hands with packing up the rest of his things, before that broad smile on her face could get him into any more trouble.
There were far too many wolves in his father’s office for Lucas’s taste. He’d stumbled in on an impromptu joint pack meeting when he’d brought Mia to SparkTech—and a pack meeting on a Sunday at noon, when they should all be home with their families, was not a good sign.
But his father had readily agreed to hear him out on his LoopSource analysis. Which left Lucas giving his acquisitions pitch in the middle of a room filled with two packs—his father’s and his brother Llyr’s, both of whom had absorbed several of Lucas’s pack members when Tila was killed.
Mia kept close to Lucas’s side, but her eyes were wide. She had to know they were all shifters, and this must be more than she’d ever seen in one room together. She returned their stares with nervous attempts at a smile. Lucas could practically see their wolves’ ears perking forward. They had to know by now she was an unmated female with no pack, and he clearly wasn’t the only male who felt the power of her brilliant blue eyes. Meanwhile, Mia didn’t seem to have any idea the effect she was having on them. He tried to ignore the thrashing his wolf was giving him for allowing all that attention to fall on her, instead focusing on going over the LoopSource numbers, as well as the reasoning in favor of the acquisition, with his father.
Llyr stood to one side of their father’s desk with his beta, Colin. Both were only two years older than Lucas, and Llyr had always been the true alpha son their parents had hoped for. Oldest, tallest, strongest in wolf form, a natural from the start. Even as pups, Llyr always fought harder and demanded submission from both Lucas and Lev. Not that it mattered as children, but it was clear he was destined to have his own pack. He teamed up with Colin as teenagers, splitting from his father’s pack even before they went to college. Their father allowed it, no doubt encouraged it. Everyone knew one day Llyr would run the family business. Probably with Colin by his side, unless his beta decided to make an attempt at becoming alpha of his own pack someday. Llyr had already found an alpha female from another pack to mate with, and they were working on building a family of their own, but Colin was still single.
And the way he was sniffing at Mia made Lucas’s wolf claw him from the inside out. Or maybe it was his imagination: his wolf’s jealousy for something he couldn’t have. Both Llyr and Colin wore appropriately grave looks for the discussion at hand. Lucas suspected they had been the leads for the incursion on the Red pack territory ordered by his father.
On the opposite side of his father’s desk was his father’s long-time beta, Rent. He was as old as his father, but less wise. Of the two, Rent had always been the muscle, and his father had been the brains. The elder beta had never taken a mate, and he was the only single wolf in the room who ignored Mia and kept his arms locked and his scowl fixed for Lucas’s pitch.
To Rent’s right, Lucas’s brother Lev stood at attention along with several other young males from his father’s pack. They were the next generation that would be called upon for a pack war, should there be one. Lucas hoped his father had at least held Lev back from the previous incursion—and if there were a pack war, Lucas would insist on taking Lev’s place in it. Lev was the youngest brother, but old enough to fight—Lucas just couldn’t stand the thought of it. Their mother would be an ally in keeping his brother out of any wolf fight, he was sure, but all the better if he could prevent it in the first place. Lev flicked soft-hearted looks of concern over Mia, then elbowed one of his pack mates for the too-hungry look he was giving her. Lev’s glances were the only ones she was gathering that didn’t infuriate Lucas’s jealous inner beast. He knew his younger brother would defend Mia as if she was Lucas’s mate.
It was the rest of the unmated wolves who were drooling over her that concerned him.
“So,” Lucas said, trying to summarize the lengthy pitch he had just given. “I think making an offer on LoopSource is a smart investment. With our help, they have the potential to become a serious player in the mobile app platform design market.”
His father glanced only briefly at the sketched notes and graphs Lucas had spread out befor
e him, then turned his steady gaze on his middle son. “You’re sure, Lucas?”
“As sure as I can be, sir.”
Llyr unfolded his arms and stepped forward, encroaching on Mia’s space next to Lucas. “Maybe you could be a little more sure than that, little brother. If I’m going to be sending my pack to defend our right to make this deal.”
All the hairs on the back of Lucas’s neck stood on end. His wolf snarled with bared teeth for his alpha older brother. It wasn’t so much that Llyr was questioning him. Or that he called Lucas little brother. It was the narrow-eyed look he was giving Mia, as if he blamed her for the situation with the Reds. Colin, Llyr’s beta, hung back a half step, but he had even more eye action for Mia, covering her head to toe with a look that made Lucas curl up a fist. Mia had been silent during the entire pitch, but then Lucas realized she was meeting Colin’s visual inspection with one of her own.
Lucas’s wolf was ready to rip out Colin’s throat.
He forced himself to keep cool. To his hulking older brother, he said, as calmly as he could manage. “Not your call.”
His brother met his stare with one that looked ready to start a brawl right here.
Lucas decided he would go for Colin’s neck first.
“The call is mine,” their father said, breaking into their staring contest. “But I want to be sure as well. Lucas, go over these numbers with me one more time. Everyone else, out.”
The bottom dropped out of Lucas’s stomach as the pack members around him restlessly jockeyed their way toward the door. “Mia should stay,” he said quietly to his father. “She helped with the analysis. The key ideas were hers.”
His father’s tightly drawn face softened a little, and he threw a smile to Mia. “I’m sure that she did. But I need to talk to you alone, Lucas.”