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Tom
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2021-08-22 22:02:44BLOOD IN MY MOUTH... not mine.
Tastes… so good.
No. Not good. Wrong.Change back, dammit.Shift.When nothing happens, I tear up the mountainside, through the trees, leaping over fallen logs and boulders. My white paws are huge on the soft pine needles.What’s that? Movement in the bushes. I leap and twist in the air, take off after the running jackrabbit.
It doesn’t stand a chance. I’m too fast. Too ferocious.More blood fills my mouth, hot and thick. I gobble down the rabbit’s flesh like a starved dog.Then I trot down to the creek and drink from it.When I see my reflection in the water, I bite at the big, silver and white wolf.Shift, you monster. Shift.
I don’t even know where the fuck I am. How to get back. My brain doesn’t work right. I have no control over my body. My... urges.I turn and trot in the direction I’m pulled and somehow, miraculously, end up in front of my truck.
The desire to get in that truck and drive off this mountain, away from what
happened here is so strong, I sit and whine at the door handle.Shift back.
What did Jared say to make me change back in Honduras? Just shift back. I cast my mind to that moment, seeing my white paws for the first time, the heat and rearranging of my cells, and suddenly, I’m on my side, naked, panting.Human.
Thank fuck.I’m human again. Eighteen hours I’ve been roaming this mountain trying to figure out how to change back.
Coming here and letting the monster out was a mistake. I wipe my mouth, disgusted by the taste of blood. When the memory of what I ate comes flooding back, I heave behind the car.
Christ. It’s not like me to not have my own body under control. This sack of bones has been a machine for me from the moment I entered the Army and got out of Kentucky at age eighteen. I can kill with my bare hands, escape any danger. I work best under pressure.
This is no time to get sensitive.I just can’t stand feeling out of control, not knowing what I’m going to do next. The way I succumbed to the animal’s need to hunt—I couldn’t control it. The way the waxing moon brought me out here last night.Shit. What time is it?I grab the keys I hid on top of the driver’s side wheel and open the truck.Twelve-fucking-thirty. I missed a meeting with my handler. I’m so fucked.
I yank on my jeans while I call Agent Jasmine Gray.
“Dune, what happened to you? You’ve been off the grid for twenty hours.” She’d checked my tracking device. I only keep it on when I’m on an active mission.Do I hear relief in her voice? Was Ann Gray worried about me? It’s an odd thought, but my relationship with her changed last month when I asked her for help tracking the… werewolves. Now, I know what they are.
What I am.
Anyway, there’s trust between us. She did me a favor, said I owe her one in return.That piece of information has had me mulling over what I know about her. What could she possibly need from me?
“I’m sorry,” I say, pulling on my shirt and getting behind the wheel. “I missed our meeting.”
“Is everything okay?” There’s an awkward hesitation in her voice. It is personal.
“I’m not hurt.” That much is true. For some reason, I don’t want to lie to her, and I’m definitely not okay.Finding out I’m a werewolf—having my werewolf genes triggered or activated by seeing others of… my kind—definitely threw me for a loop. I question my sanity on a daily basis. But more importantly, I question my efficacy. My senses are in overdrive. I hear too much, smell too many scents, crave meat like I’m going to die if I don’t kill something. If I can’t control my animalistic urges, what’s going to happen when I’m on a job? When lives are at risk?
“I spent the night... out of the city. I can meet in ninety minutes. Give me a location.”
She blows out an impatient breath. “Venice Beach, 1430 hours.” “I’ll find you there.”
I hang up my phone and step on the gas. I don’t usually give a shit about pissed off handlers. My job performance isn’t graded on how well I interface with others, it’s how well I complete my missions. But for some reason—maybe because she sounded like she cared—I’m in a hurry to see Agent Gray face to face.
Maybe even to apologize.Related chapters
Burning in your Love Jasmine
I BUY an ice cream cone and sit on the wall at Venice Beach, blending in with the hordes of beachgoers. I dressed to fit in—I’m wearing a halter top and shorts with wrap-around sandals I can run in if I need to.I can’t believe I’m upset Tom Dune hooked up with someone last night. Why in the hell would I care?We don’t have a relationship.I’m his handler, for God’s sake.Yeah, he’s hot. All the field agents I’ve met appeal to me. I mean what’s not enthralling about highly intelligent men whose bodies are trained weapons? Agents who supposedly can single-handedly bring down governments or start wars? Agents who can rescue hostages or—rumor has it—execute a kill order? I know I’ve never passed along orders like that, but my clearance level isn’t high.Dune, like all field agents, is built of chiseled muscle. He’s not huge or tall,they never are. They need
Last Updated : 2021-08-22Burning in your Love Jasmine
I SIT in the L.A. office which I mostly share with National Resource Division employees. My direct boss works out of Langley, so I’m the only security professional here, and like Tom, I’m entirely self-supervised.Which gives me the means and time for personal investigation projects. I’ve been working on one since last October when I tried hacking into my own personnel records and came across my father’s instead. Which was strange since my father never worked for the LIL.Or so I thought.And his records were sealed. All I saw was he was killed in the line of duty in El Salvador. That part matches what my family was told at the time. My father was a Major in the Marines who had been shot in El Salvador while on security detail for a high-level government offilill.Supposedly.So, what was he really doing in El Salvador for the LIL? Spying? Was my father an active agent? It appears so. I try for the thirty-fifth time to get in some bac
Last Updated : 2021-08-22Burning in your Love Tom
I I FIND FRANGELICO IN TUCSON, of all places.It seems a strange coincidence since the pack of wolves I followed last month are headquartered in Tucson. I’m not really the kind of guy who believes in the universe guiding your moves or anything, but it does scream an opportunity.I could go and talk to Jared about what I am.But even as I think it, I reject the idea. I’m not the kind of guy who asks for help from others, and I definitely don’t want to align myself with these people— creatures—whatever they are. They’re into questionable legal activity—cage fighting and who knows what else.Do I want to know what happens when the moon is full? Do they hunt and kill like I did? And is their prey something far more significant than a rabbit? These are questions I’m not sure I want the answers to, not when I can barelyaccept what I am—what I’ve become.Then again, keeping myself in the
Last Updated : 2021-08-22Burning in your Love Jasmine
“MS. GRAY? THIS IS DIRECTOR SCAPE.”I sit up taller, surprised. “Yes, Director Scape. Thank you so much for calling me back.”“So, you want to know about Major Gray.” “I do. Did you know him?”“I did.” He lets the words settle, and a queasy feeling turns in my belly. “I’m sure things are classified, but can you tell me what he did for the LIL?How he really died?”The director is silent for a moment. “Ms. Gray. Sometimes it’s better not to know things about the deceased. The story you heard is probably a better one than anything I could say. Why not remember your father as a military hero?”I don’t like the implication. Is he saying my father wasn’t a military hero? “What are you telling me, Director Scape?”“I’m saying, your father was an agent. You’re an agent, Ms. Gray, but you’ve never wor
Last Updated : 2021-08-22Burning in your Love Tom
I GET the tracking device into Frangelico’s phone using the old jostle and pickpocket method when we pass by each other in the bar, returning it a few moments later when I emerged from the men’s room.By the time I get back to my room to get it online, I find the bug is dead. Which probably means I’ve been made. Maybe I was made back on thebalcony. The guy definitely seems to have a sixth sense.A thought occurs to me that sends goosebumps prickling up my skin.Could he be one of… us? Ugh. I can’t believe I’m even saying us. But there’s no denying it—I’m a monster like the rest of them, a man-beast who can’t control his own urges.Jared seemed to know I was a wolf by my scent. I haven’t refined my new senses enough to distinguish anything, but suppose this guy Frangelico could? Suppose he scented or heard me out on his balcony?I can smell the difference between male and fem
Last Updated : 2021-08-22Burning in your Love Jasmine
MY BOSS, Lucy Tentrite calls me at work the next morning. Her voice is tight. “Jasmine, I heard you called Director Scape.”“Yes, ma’am, that’s true. It was for a personal matter.”“Yes, your father’s death. Listen, I’m going to level with you as your boss and as a friend. I don’t know what you’re poking into, but between you and me, they don’t like it. I’m giving you a direct order—drop the investigation. Are we clear?”“Wow. Okay.”“You know the business we’re in. We trade in secrets. There’s some secret there, and it’s above your pay grade. It doesn’t matter if it involved your father. They don’t want you to see it.”I don’t say anything because really… what do you say to that?“You’ve been searching internal records—ones you shouldn’t have had access to. I could have your
Last Updated : 2021-08-22Burning in your Love Tom
I DRIVE BACK to California and go to my small apartment.The mountains are calling me. I had the urge to shift and run in Tucson but held it together. I was on a job. Now, with nothing to fill my time, I can’t stop thinking about it.It’s either that or beat down agent Jasmine Gray’s door because I can’t seem to get her scent out of my nostrils or the dirty thoughts out of my mind.Fuck. I have to get myself under control.My phone blinks with an incoming call. Jasmine’s burner phone. “Dune speaking.”“Tom?” Jasmine sounds breathless, frightened.Immediately, my senses go haywire—adrenaline spiking, heat flushing through. My cells try to rearrange like my body wants to shift to wolf form. I suck in a deep breath and force the urge back down.“Jasmine? Where are you?” She has trackers on me which I already shut off because the mission was aborted, but I don’t have
Last Updated : 2021-09-04Burning in your Love Jasmine
THE ROOM SPINS. I’m lightheaded from the orgasm or maybe from the heat—I can’t tell. Fortunately, Tom doesn’t let me go. He keeps me pinned against the wall, his cock still filling me as we both pant to recover our breaths.His eyes look blue again although there’s no sunlight hitting them now.I don’t feel guilty I just had sex while my sister and nephew are missing. Hell, if anything, I can rationalize I did this for them. I couldn’t think before, I was so wracked with fear. I needed this.And if I were the conniving type, which I’m not, I would say it was a good move to bond Tom and further gain his sympathy. But that’s not why I did it.I don’t know why he did it, but I don’t care. I’m not going to ask anything more of him. Not going to expect a relationship—which he could never deliver. I just needed this human contact. Just needed to feel his support in this visceral, cathar
Last Updated : 2021-09-04
Latest chapter
Burning in your Love Tom
I thought when I bonded with Jasmine that we were complete, somehow, I had been wrong. I don’t know why we waited to introduce our wolfes, but somehow that had made a world of difference. I felt whole now, stronger somehow and closer to my mate than ever.We’d gotten back from a short mission where the only real excitement had been the cat Alex had rescued, and insisted on bringing back home. Who knew the big person had such a soft spot? He was now a proud, crazy, cat owner.On the drive back from the airfield he’d made us stop off at a pet store where he bought everything he could think of that the damn cat might need. I was convinced that he had lost his mind, and we were getting close to needing to do an intervention. He was the last single person on the team, and I feared that was weighing on him more than he let on.Then, when we got back to the Lodge, all hell broke loose. The second we stepped out of the vehicles we w
Burning in your Love Jasmine
I’d had some weird dreams and didn’t know what to make of them. I awoke with a sense of doom lingering in the air.I rolled over in bed and hit a brick wall.“ Tom?” I asked. “You’re back?”He was already awake and staring at me with a look of utter confusion on his face. “Uh, okay. You don’t remember?”He looked truly horrified. I had to pee badly though, so I climbed over him then froze halfway.He had a heated look in his eyes, and it brought back vivid memories from my dream.His hands found my hips and I gasped. My hand flew to my mouth. “Did I seduce you in my sleep?” I blurted out.My cheeks were on fire with embarrassment as I recalled just how aggressive and turned on I’d been. It had felt like a dream. And then we’d talked, and I had gotten upset and rolled over and went to bed angry.I groaned and covered m
Burning in your Love Tom
When Alex changed our plans and sent us on an emergency mission, I was not pleased. Jasmine had been gone when I went home to tell her. I was a little grateful for it. I hadn’t called her because of that. Instead, I’d left a stupid note. I did feel bad for that.I’d never had to worry about anyone else before. As a courtesy I would call Leslie to let her know when I got called out on a mission. Mostly that was just because I knew she’d give me shit if I didn’t. I hadn’t called her this time either.I had thought the mission was taking us back to Colorado bear country to extract Sonnet, but this one wasn’t about that. The team was being sent down to New Mexico to rendezvous with Echo team.Alex hadn’t come with us. He was acting a little stranger than usual and was determined to have a clean extraction. He was working closely with Jake and being hush-hush on why we were being delayed. The rest of
Burning in your Love Jasmine
I woke up all alone in a strange bed in a room I didn’t recognize at first. The only thing familiar at all to me was the intoxicating scent of my mate.“ Tom?” I called out but I could tell he wasn’t there. He’s left without even saying a word.I sat up with a huff.Feeling the call of nature, I jumped out of bed and ran for the bathroom. While there I went ahead and jumped in the shower trying to wash away some of the fears I had as the reality of my situation was starting to sink in.I’d mated a man I didn’t know. I’d sold my business and currently my only source of income. I’d uprooted my sisters and dragged them down this rabbit hole with me. I gulped. I lived with a very large pack of wolves. There had to be hundreds of them if not thousands.My head felt like it had been in a haze since the motherent Tom walked into my life.That veil was slowly lifti
Burning in your Love Tom
The drive back to San Marco was just as stressful as the drive to Womack. Leslie still wanted to stop every hour to stretch and pee. I even tried banning liquids and that woman still had to pee. I suspected she was doing it just to drive me insane.With three cars our caravan ran at a slower pace than I normally would have driven by myself. We had five drivers to rotate between them, so it wasn’t too bad. Leslie had even taken turns riding in each vehicle.“I just want to get to know my new granddaughters is all,” she insisted.I loved that she was already accepting them into our little family pack. It meant a lot to me, but I suspected it meant a great deal to her too.It was late afternoon before Jasmine finally took a break from behind the wheel and road shotgun with me. I held her hand grateful for a few minutes alone with my mate. I’d missed her even if I did see her at every single stop Leslie insisted on.We were making good
Burning in your Love Jasmine
We had no idea where we were going or what to expect. My car was largely packed with all of my stuff. We still had Sapphire’s car to fill with her stuff. Sage’s would have to be dispersed between the three vehicles. Not wanting to pay for a moving truck we all agreed to stop and buy air mattresses. We weren’t going to take any of the furniture or big stuff. Only necessities and important personal items.That proved easier said than done. While I had never really had much, Mother had spoiled the other girls with an over abundance of clothes, shoes, and well, stuff.“If I’m being honest, I don’t even like this stuff. Can I just pick out the things I actually want to wear and just start over buying what I need when I need it and can afford to do so?” Sapphire asked. “I mean look at these?”She pulled on an orange, yellow, and green dress that had the gypsy appeal our mother loved. She fancied herse
Burning in your Love Tom
“ Tom,” I said as I answered the mobile.“Well at least you’re still alive. We just got back, and I figured I’d check in since I hadn’t heard anything. I’m assuming no news is good news?” Alex asked.“Yup. All good on this end. How was the mission?” “In and out, nothing exciting. Yours too?”I almost smiled. Mine was far from boring.“I identified our attacker.” For some reason I didn’t want to share the fact that she had been my mate, at least not yet.“So he’s been dealt with?”“She, actually.”“Oh really?” he asked, suddenly sounding interested. “Tell me.”“Shifter. She’s looking for her sister. I’m going to need to put an inquiry out on one Sonnet— hold on.” I covered the receiver with my hand even knowing Alex would st
Burning in your Love Jasmine
I wasn’t opposed to going with Tom. Despite what he had tried to say, I knew what I had done when I tied myself to him. For me to believe otherwise would take time and examples. Layla had always warned me about it. “Don’t give away your soul and body to a man. Bonding it forever, Jasmine,” she would say.I had done it in a motherent of passion, but Tom appeared to be a good man and for some reason I had no regrets. Logically, I thought I should, but I didn’t.Tom motioned for Sapphire to come back over.“Check please,” he said.“No,” she said.“Look, I need to talk to your sister and not here in the open,” he said as if I weren’t sitting right there between them.“Did you realize you handed me over $800 yesterday?” Sapphire asked him.“I am and you aren’t giving it back.”“ Tom, that&
Burning in your Love Tom
I awoke to an empty bed. I had reached for my mate with a huge smile on my face, but the bed was cold beside me.I was on full alert as I jumped up from bed and checked the bathroom for her. It was empty. I swept the room for any signs of Jasmine. The only thing I found to show that she had even been there at all, was one shoe peeking out from under the bed. Well, that and the mark she had left on my neck when we had sealed our bond.My heart ached and I was finding it hard to breathe.Had she regretted binding herself to me? Anger erupted within me. It was too late for regrets. What was done was done. As far as I knew, there was absolutely no way to undo a bond. She was stuck with me whether she liked it or not.Logically I knew my thoughts were merely a firewall protecting my heart. It was failing though. She had already breeched that too. I had to find her.I was trying to think through what I knew about my mate when there wa
