Rogue Wolf

by J. C. Diem

  Three hours later, just as Mark had predicted, we left the highway and turned onto a road that cut through the forest. After several miles, the GPS told us that we’d reached our destination. A tiny parking lot had been carved into the woods. We pulled in beside an older model tan sedan that had been parked haphazardly across two slots. The local sheriff’s insignia was on the driver’s door. A deputy must have been tasked with guarding the scene from morbid onlookers. A disturbing number of people liked to see the grisly remains firsthand. Some even took photos as mementos. Humans could be sick sometimes.

  “You’d better leave Zeus behind,” Mark said to me. “I doubt the deputy will want him contaminating the scene.”

  Can you stay here and guard the car? I asked my guardian when I opened the backdoor to let him out.

  Picking up a scent, he whined and sent me a picture of a large, shaggy beast. He’d been in the church when Reece and I had transformed into our alter egos, but he wasn’t concerned about us. He knew that a strange shifter had been in the area recently and that they were dangerous. Keep your eye out for any strangers. Let me know if you see the person this scent belongs to, I instructed him. He’d look human now, but his scent would still be easy enough for Zeus to recognize.

  With a low woof of agreement, he sat down and settled in to guard the SUV. Most dogs would have rushed over to the nearest tree to mark their scent. Zeus merely watched the area alertly.

  “This way,” Mark said and led us towards a sign that warned us we were about to enter a hiking trail.

  I smelled the deputy before he came into sight just around a bend. Short and portly, his sweat was rank with what I suspected was fear. He held his hand up, signaling us to stop as we walked over to him.

  “I’m going to have to ask you folks to leave,” he said in an officious tone. His hat was angled so low over his eyes that he had to tilt his head back to see us. He had a young face, but I suspected he might be in his early thirties. “A body was found here this morning and the area is closed to the public.”

  Mark pulled out his PIA identification and flicked it open to reveal his unsmiling photo and credentials. “We’re federal agents,” he explained as the deputy studied his ID closely. “We were sent to investigate the murder.”

  “What murder?” the deputy asked in bewilderment. “It sounds like you have your wires crossed, Agent Steel. The unidentified male person was killed by what we believe was a pack of wolves.”

  He was trying hard to look nonchalant and to pretend that he wasn’t terrified. I noticed his gun holster was unclipped for quick and easy access. Reece and I exchanged knowing glances. Now that we were here, we could confirm that wolves hadn’t killed the man. We’d have detected them as soon as we’d stepped out of the SUV. Even without seeing the kill site, we knew a werewolf had been behind the attack.

  “We have information that leads us to believe the death was staged to look like an animal attack,” Mark said smoothly. In his mid-forties, average in height and build with receding brown hair and gray eyes, our boss looked almost ordinary. In truth, he was intelligent, cunning and an accomplished liar. Maybe one day I’d reach his level of finesse.

  “Don’t hold your breath,” Reece joked quietly, picking up on that thought. This was a lighter side of him I’d rarely seen before. He’d been intimidating when we’d first met. I now knew why he kept people at a distance. He’d already lost his family once. He didn’t want to get too close to anyone in case he lost them again.

  Still relatively new to being an agent as well as a shifter, I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to act. I copied Flynn and kept my expression neutral with a hint of aloofness. The deputy was studying us doubtfully. Mark was the only one who was actually dressed like an agent. He wore a dark gray suit, a white business shirt and a dark gray tie. Reece, Flynn and I wore cargo pants, t-shirts and jackets to hide our weapons. We looked too young to be agents. I was eighteen, but when I wore my hair up in a ponytail, I looked several years younger.

  Reece was just shy of six feet tall and was impressively muscled. His hair was dark brown, short on the sides and back with a short Mohawk on top. His eyes were brown, but they were several shades lighter than mine. He was more than handsome and was bordering on gorgeous, in my opinion anyway. While only twenty, he carried himself with authority. A large part of his confidence was due to being an alpha werewolf.

  Flynn was six foot two, had mocha colored skin, close cropped black hair and pretty green eyes. While he was lean, he was far stronger than a human. Out of the whole group, I was the least impressive. I was on the thin side and taller than average at five foot seven. My hair was long and black and my eyes were dark brown. I was pretty, but not beautiful. I was apparently also an alpha, but I didn’t have the confidence that came with that status yet.

  Staring at me the longest, the deputy finally shrugged. “I guess it can’t hurt to let you take a look,” he decided.

  “You don’t have to escort us to the scene,” Reece told him. “Just point us in the right direction.”

  Relieved that he wouldn’t have to accompany us, the deputy stepped aside from the path that he was guarding. “Just follow the trail.” He turned to point at the well-trodden path that even a blind person could have followed with little difficulty. “You’ll come to the area where the body was found after about two hundred yards. A hiker made the gruesome discovery shortly after dawn.” He screwed up his face, presumably at the thought of stumbling across the corpse during a morning walk.

  We didn’t need his help to locate the site. I’d smelled blood as soon as we’d climbed out of the SUV. The scent of the werewolf was strong this close to the trail. Again, I noted that it was strangely familiar. Reece sent me a puzzled look of agreement. Clearly, I wasn’t shielding my thoughts very well.

  “Take the lead, Agent Garrett,” Mark said and gestured at the trail.

  Reece nodded and went first. Mark went next, followed by me. Flynn brought up the rear. Being a wereconstrictor, his sense of taste was far stronger than ours. He took deep breaths, tasting the air as we closed in on the murder scene.

  The trail had been made by animals initially, but humans had taken it over now. I picked up the scent of fourteen different people, including the deputy. Only one shape shifter had been here. There were no recent signs or smells that animals had been here recently. They wisely tended to steer clear of people.

  Winding through the trees randomly, the path swiftly took us out of sight of the deputy. I could hear him breathing heavily as he continued to guard the trail behind us. Rounding another bend, bright yellow crime scene tape indicated where the kill had been made. The tape cordoned off a section to the left of the path. The death might have been ruled as an animal attack, but they still didn’t want anyone trampling the scene.

  “What can you tell me?” Mark asked.

  Blood was splattered over a wide circle. A small shrub had been flattened in the attack. The ground wasn’t soft enough to retain the footprints of either the victim or their attacker. I couldn’t tell if that had been a stroke of luck, or it had been well planned.

  “It was definitely a werewolf,” Flynn reported. “It was a male, around our age or slightly younger.” He indicated himself and Reece. I wasn’t experienced enough to discern details like that and I was impressed with his skills.

  Without needing to consult each other, Reece and I decided not to mention that the scent was familiar. Neither of us had any idea how he knew the rogue wolf. We just knew that it would be best to keep that fact between us for now.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Three

  After a thorough search, we didn’t find anything useful in the immediate area. “The trail leads this way,” Reece said and pointed at the track that led deeper into the woods.

  Mark debated about our options before reaching a decision. “Reece, Flynn, follow the trail. Lexi, you’re with me.”

  He couldn’t move as fast as us and he didn’t want to slow down the sea
rch. The sun was still a few hours away from setting, which meant I was safe from Katrina, but he didn’t want to let me out of his sight. Neither did Reece, but he trusted our boss. He took off down the track with Flynn on his heels. Even when we were separated, we’d still be able to keep in touch mind to mind.

  Waiting until his agents were out of earshot, Mark spoke. “What are you and Reece hiding from me?”

  Surprised by his question, I frantically tried to think up a plausible lie. He cocked his eyebrow to indicate he was aware of what I was up to. Sighing, I gave in and told him the truth. “There’s something familiar about the shifter.”

  “Familiar in what way?”

  I gave him a half-shrug. “I don’t know. We just sensed that Reece knew him. Maybe he’s met the guy before.” I wasn’t sure how that was possible. We could always tell when we were in the presence of another shifter. We might be able to pass as humans from a distance, but it was impossible to hide our true natures once we were close enough to smell each other.

  He frowned while he puzzled that over. “How do you feel about your bond now?”

  His abrupt change of topic threw me. “We’ve resigned ourselves to it,” I hedged. This was personal and not something I wanted to discuss in detail.

  “I think your feelings go a little deeper than that,” he said with a small smile.

  Sometimes I hated being so easy to read. “They do for me, but not for Garrett.” It was a sign of stress that I’d slipped into referring to Reece by his surname. It was a habit I’d picked up from being raised by a soldier. I’d been trying to break myself from the habit since joining the team.

  “You believe that your feelings for him run deeper than his do for you?”

  “Do you even have to ask?” I said with more bitterness than I’d intended. “I was already half in love with him before he bit me. He only became attracted to me after we bonded.”

  Mark speared me with a piercing look. “That’s not true. Reece was drawn to you from the moment he saw you.”

  A blush worked its way up to my hairline. “How do you know that?” Kala had said something similar, but I hadn’t allowed myself to believe her. That old saying that if something was too good to be true then it probably was had been coined for a reason.

  “I raised him and I know him better than he knows himself,” he said simply.

  A thought hit me then and it was my turn to frown. If Reece had been attracted to me, then my belief that Lust had ordered him to sleep with the person he wanted the least must have been wrong. Was it possible that the opposite might actually be true?

  A surge of frustration came through the bond, distracting me from my thoughts. “They lost the trail and they’re heading back,” I told Mark. I waited until they were halfway back when I turned to him. “I need to speak to Reece privately. We won’t be long.” I didn’t wait for him to object and took off down the path. This probably wasn’t the best time for it, but I needed to talk to Reece now or I’d continue to obsess about the questions that Mark had just raised in my mind.

  I met Flynn after I’d been sprinting for a couple of minutes. “He’s waiting for you back there,” he said and hiked his thumb over his shoulder. “Try not to keep us waiting for too long.” He gave me a sly wink before resuming his sprint.

  It hadn’t been necessary for him to give me directions. My link drew me straight to Reece. He stood next to a small pond with his back to me. Gifted with far more grace than I’d once had, I had no trouble wending my way through the trees that would previously have hampered me.

  “I could easily live here,” he said softly when I reached him. “There’s something so peaceful about these woods.”

  “It’s almost like you’ve come home,” I replied, picking up the whisper of a thought from him. Personally, I found these woods to be a little creepy. Maybe it was because they’d been used as a dumpsite for a corpse.

  Nodding, he turned to me with a smile. Struck again by his sheer beauty, I suddenly doubted everything that the others believed he felt for me. I knew I wasn’t exactly an eyesore, but I didn’t deserve someone like Reece.

  While I could admire a good looking guy for aesthetic reasons, I’d never really been physically attracted to anyone before meeting him. I’d always been different from the other kids my age. A loner due to moving so often and never making friends, I’d convinced myself that I didn’t need a boyfriend. The career I’d planned as a soldier had been far more important to me than dating.

  Then I’d joined the TAK Squad and had met Reece. True, pure love was a concept that I’d privately felt to be ridiculous. That kind of nonsense was for kids and belonged in fairy tales. Now I knew it was real because I’d fallen for him hard. What I felt for Reece was stronger than any emotion I’d ever felt before or ever could again.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked, turning solemn.

  I’d put up my mental shields while I’d had this revelation and had managed to keep him out for once. “Were you attracted to me before Lust took over your mind?” I’d always preferred to be direct rather than to waste time dancing around issues.

  “Of course,” he said and reached out to take my hand.

  “Why did you tell me that I wasn’t your type and that there could never be anything between us?” The memory of his rejection still hurt now. Tears stung my eyes and I blinked them away.

  Wincing at my pain, he looked away, unable to face me. I squeezed his fingers hard enough to crush a mere human to get him to look at me again. His gaze met mine and he braced himself to confess. “Because I’m weak.”

  I blinked in confusion. “What are you talking about? You’re one of the strongest people I’ve ever met.” I meant that both physically and mentally.

  He shook his head with a rueful smile and took my other hand. I linked our fingers together. I was determined to get to the bottom of the mystery that had been plaguing me for months. “I knew what would happen if I fell beneath Lust’s compulsion,” he explained. “I tried to push you away to save you from this life.” He lifted our hands then let them drop again.

  “What order did she give you?”

  He smiled, but it was pained. “She commanded me to have sex with her.”

  I recoiled as if he’d slapped me, but he didn’t allow me to take a step back from him. “You slept with her?” I hissed in immediate rage. My ire cooled slightly when he shook his head.

  “I was able to resist her order,” he said. His strength of will had to be phenomenal if he’d managed not to follow that command. Lust had been a thirty-something, busty, beautiful blond. I was drab in comparison to her.

  “How?”

  “Because I didn’t want her. No force on Earth could have made me get naked with that deranged woman.”

  I smirked, pleased beyond words that he hadn’t fallen beneath her spell. “What happened when you didn’t follow her order?”

  “No one had ever been able to resist her before.” He flashed me a picture of Lust’s expression when he’d turned her down. Her beauty had been twisted by incredulous rage. “Her next trick was to order me to have sex with the person I wanted the least.”

  “Eww,” I said in commiseration. “Who was at the top of that list?” Initially, I thought my name would have been first, but it seemed I’d been wrong about that.

  “Her, of course,” he said dryly. “Again, I was able to resist her.” He went silent and introspective for a moment. “Then she gave me an order that I couldn’t refuse.” He met my eyes again and his were burning with emotion. “It was a command I didn’t want to refuse.”

  Warmth spread through me when I grasped his meaning. “She told you to find the person you desired the most,” I said softly and it was my turn to look away. I’d believed he’d been forced to take me against his will the night that he’d initiated me into the wonders of sex. It was a relief to learn that he’d wanted me all along.

  “What order did she give you, Lexi?” he asked me just as quietly.

&
nbsp; “She told me to find the person who desired me the least and to use my hands, mouth and body to satisfy him.”

  He went still for a long moment as he remembered my efforts to resist her order. I’d tried to throw myself from a moving car just so he didn’t have to lower himself to sleep with me again. He read my thoughts and his frown was replaced with a slow smile as he realized the effort I’d made to spare him. He meant more to me than my own safety did. “So, my stupid plan to keep you at a distance ended up with us choosing each other?” he said.

  “Yep.” Now I was smiling as well.

  “Do you regret being bonded to me?” he asked a trifle uncertainly.

  I thought about all the weird, frightening and wonderful things that had happened to me during the past few months. I’d planned to become a soldier like my father, but that life was out of my reach now. My new life was unpredictable and dangerous, but I was ready to embrace it. “Not even a little bit,” I said and stepped into his arms.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Four

  Flynn glanced at his watch when we appeared a few minutes later. “You’re back sooner than I expected,” he said with a sly grin.

  Mark’s sidelong look was enough to quell Flynn’s amusement. “We should head back to Dawson’s Retreat before it gets dark,” he said.

  We still had a three hour drive ahead and we were all anxious to return to Kala. She was strong, fast and skilled in combat, but we were more vulnerable in our human forms. While she could handle herself, we couldn’t be sure that we’d killed all of the vampires. Katrina might not be the only one from her nest to have escaped. Others might have been hidden out of our sight while we’d battled near the church grounds.