JOHNSON’S UP almost as early as I am, padding into the kitchen at the first light of dawn. I’ll bet that drives his mom nuts.
“You hungry?” I ask.He shrugs.“I’m gonna take that as a yes.” I set a box of Golden Grahams on the table with a bowl. “Have some cereal.”
He seems to like that and tears open the box. The cereal spills on the table, but I don’t say anything, just pour milk into his bowl and drop a spoon into it. “Have at it.”
He shovels a bite into his mouth. “Thanks.”Bryce comes out next, but Jasmine hits the shower. I get itchy thinking about her being naked with just a thin door between us. Last night, I had to leave the cabin because the desire to open that bedroom door and throw Jasmine over my shoulder was too strong.I shifted and hunted most of the night. I’m just glad I found my way back and was able to change back to human form before
TOM TURNS me around again and fists the hair at the top of my head. He uses it to tip my chin up and kisses me thoroughly. No, it’s less a kiss and more a devouring. He takes my mouth, drags his lips along my jaw, down my neck. He bites my shoulder.“Fuck, Jasmine. I’ve never felt this way with anyone before.”Tears pop into my eyes at that. The rough admission seems so out of character for the secret agent who never shows his cards.I’ve never felt this way with anyone before either. I’ve never even experience one-tenth of this much passion. Tom is rough but so self-assured. Yeah, I was scared to try anal, but I trusted him. He’s good at everything he does. And he was definitely expert in that respect.My pussy and anus throb a bit, but it a delicious, well-used sort of way. I certainly received as much pleasure as he took—maybe more.He pulls back and just stares down at me, still holding me captive b
“YOU OKAY WITH DOING THIS?” I ask as Jasmine seats herself in front of the laptop and cracks her knuckles. She told me she thought of a way to hack the LIL that would be untraceable.“Hacking our employer? We’re not going to hurt anything. If there’s a cover-up here, I wanna know.”Her lower lip juts out a little. My brave, beautiful girl.Except she’s not mine. I can’t have her, can’t keep her. I clear my throat. “All right. Show me your father’s file.”“Your wish is my command.” She quirks a pert little grin. “You really like giving orders, don’t you?”“You have no idea,” I murmur, distracted by her fingers dancing over the keyboard, slender and graceful. If I told her to turn around and touch me instead, they’d feel so…“Tom?”I search my memory for the echo of what she just said. “No, I haven&rsquo
“THIS IS JUST like when we were teenagers.” I grin up at Bryce, who scowls because I moved. She has a pair of scissors in one hand and a lock of my hair in the other, and she’s thinning the edges like a professional hairstylist.I’ve bleached my hair to a respectable housewife blond, and now, Bryce’s giving me a shoulder-length layered ‘do. “Remember when you shaved the sideof my head and dyed the bangs purple?”Bryce laughs. “We were so sure mom would freak out, but she didn’t say a word.”“Yeah, I think she actually got the last laugh on that one.”We both sober, grief from our mother’s death still present after two years. My sister sifts her fingers through my hair. “This is pretty extreme.” “You don’t think it looks good?”“No... it’s just hard to think of my baby sister dyeing her hair and going undercover.&rdqu
GODDAMN.It nearly killed me to tell Jasmine she had to cut and dye her hair. Espelillly since I haven’t fulfilled my fantasy yet of riding her from behind with a fistful of that dark auburn thickness to hang onto.But she looks absolutely angelic as a blonde. The deep red played up her personality—she rocked with the large-framed glasses and the dark lipstick. Now she looks like the girl next door. And damn if I don’t want to tie her to the bed and fuck her until she weeps for mercy.I bang around in the kitchen, trying to satisfy my lust with food. I can’t seem to eat enough.After a full spaghetti dinner, I’m still hungry for red meat. I’ve already eaten the cans of chili in the cupboards. I pull out a container of spaghetti sauce and eat it straight out of the jar. And let me tell you—it has pathetically few chunks of meat for what’s advertised.I can’t seem to eat down the heat though. Ever
I GRIP the gun with shaking fingers. The LIL couldn’t send a wolf to get me. This isn’t a sci-fi film. It was just some enormous, rabid wolf that must’ve smelled food inside and wanted in.Still, my heart won’t stop thumping against my ribs, the sound of the gunfire and the wolf’s yelp echoing in my ears.And Tom’s still out there.But he’d know what to do. He’s that kind of guy. He’ll have a weapon onhim, or he’ll make one out of a branch or rock. He’s a trained assassin, for God’s sake. I don’t need to worry about him.As if I could stop though.Bryce finally gets Johnson to sleep, and I’m starting to freak out about Tom’s long absence and the giant rabid wolf. I pick up the gun.“Maybe I should go out there.”“Are you crazy?” Bryce snaps. “That’s how every movie character gets killed.”“What i
JASMINE’S BURNER phone rings on our way down the mountain. She looks at the screen, then meets my inquiring gaze. “Washington, D.C. It might be Senator Flack.”“Answer it.”Her hands tremble a bit as she slides the phone on. “Agent Gray speaking.” “Jasmine, hi. This is Senator Flack returning your call.” With my new andimproved hearing, there’s no conversation I can’t eavesdrop on—including Jasmine and her sister’s yesterday about me. The senator sounds warm and friendly, almost grandfatherly.“Senator, thank you for calling me back. I know you were director of the LIL when my father died, and I remember you coming to the funeral.”“Yes, that’s true. Your father was a friend of mine, Jasmine. He was employed as a covert agent under me.”“Can you tell me what his mission was when he died?”Senator Flack goes quiet for a mo
TOM DUNE IS A MADMAN. That’s all I can conclude. Who breaks into the LIL? Holy shit, I’m about to break into the freaking LIL!When we realized Agent Tentrite wiped my dad’s file, I was ready to call the trail a dead end.“Not so fast,” Tom said. “There are two reasons Tentrite would meddle. The first is if she was involved in your dad’s career.”“That wouldn’t make sense, she wasn’t around at the time of his service.” “So, it’s the second reason. Someone ordered her to do it.” “Who?”“That’s what we have to find out.” A search through Tentrite’s file didn’t reveal any connection to my dad at all.“That’s the first reason ruled out completely,” Tom muttered. “Now we work on the second.”Which brought us to the present moment.“So, what are we going to do?” I ask, tryi
WE’RE ALMOST to the elevator when I realize I didn’t completely shut the Director’s door. The elevator is taking its sweet time coming up for us. It’s almost at our floor when the security guard sees the Director’s door, then glances back at us. He hesitates as if questioning his instincts. Two janitors, he’s never seen before, on a secure floor, and we only cleaned one office before leaving. He’s putting the pieces together. I see the moment we’re made.“Hey,” the guy turns, drawing his gun at the same time. “Stop right there.” Wide-eyed, Jasmine raises her hands.“Something wrong, man?” I ask, feigning surprise. He wouldn’t have a gun on us if he didn’t suspect something.“Stay there,” he orders. “I’m going to check something.” Gun still trained onus, he pulls out a walkie-talkie. I can’t let him call this in.I
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
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
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
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
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
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
“ 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
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&
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