WE RIDE into town on the Harley, mainly because I need to keep Jasmine’s body close to mine. She
wraps her arms around my waist and presses her chest against my back, humming softly. At least I think she’s humming. It’s hard to hear over the roar of the motor, but that’s what it feels like. A soft reverberation that goes straight to my dick.
I’ve been riding a motorcycle since I was eight years old, but it’s totally different with Jasmine on the bike. She’s a human. Fragile as fuck. One accident and she could be taken from me. I had the fear of that put into me with her crash earlier this week.
Not that I’ve ever had an accident in my life. My reflexes are sharp and my nerves steady. But I drive differently knowing I have precious cargo on the bike. Double-check my mirrors, keep my speed down.
I can’t see Jasmine but I sense her enjoyment and it does something to my wo
LARRY’S MAP was shit and it takes us nearly an hour and a half of backtracking to find the unmarked road he described, but eventually we do. Tom hides the Harley behind a boulder and we hike in on foot. He holds my hand and swings our arms together like we’re on a picnic or date of some kind.The hike is about a half mile in and then the road just seems to stop.There’s nothing here.Tom turns around in a circle. “Wrong road?”The hairs stand up on the back of my neck. “No,” I murmur. “I sense evil here.” He raises his brows.I’m used to people thinking I’m nuts when I say things like that, so I just shrug, but he scans the trees more closely. “From which direction?”The pleasure of being believed does something fluttery to my chest. I close my eyes to feel the energy. It blasts me from straight ahead. I open my eyes and point. Definitely that way.
A SNARL RIPS out of my throat, and I shift before I even have a chance to think. The need to protect Jasmine is too great. My wolf body-checks her to shove her back behind me.My brain isn’t working yet—I’m in full fight-mode, ready to rip their throats out.One of them smiles like he’s going to enjoy killing me.Another one steps forward. “Shift, wolf.” The words enter my body and reverberate through.There’s alpha command in them. It gets my attention, even though I’m unwilling to obey.It helps kick my brain back online.Shifters.These guys are shifters.Which doesn’t necessarily mean they are friendly. But their scents are familiar. These are the wolves from Jasmine’s place.“Shift, wolf,” he repeats.I shift, calmer, now. A little more able to think. Still, I angle my body in front of Jasmine’s to sh
I LEAN MY HELMET AGAINST TOM’ back and review what just happened.Hearing the jabs that jerk took at Tom over me has me mad. Not for myself, but on Tom’ behalf. No wonder he’s felt so unavailable to me. My instincts weren’t wrong. We are literally a separate species.And his own kind mocked him for being with me.Maybe, as much as we’re attracted to each other and as much as we care about each other, a relationship is impossible.I don’t want to think about that now, though, so I push it out of my mind. Tom is still here on a job, and I intend to help him with it. After that, we can talk.We ride back to Tom’ place and he calls his alpha to report. I’m not trying to eavesdrop, but I notice he’s only saying I.Not we.He hasn’t mentioned my involvement at all.Would he get in trouble?Or is this more like… emb
JASMINE and I meet the Taos wolves at the appointed time and place.“Hi, guys!” Jasmine beams that bright smile and waves from the doorway.Four of them sit at a table in the back corner, sharing a couple pitchers of beer. It’s the same three from earlier today and one more who also appears military-trained.They look over. Rafe barely acknowledges us with a slight lift of his chin.“Hey,” she tries again when we sit down. She leans across the table and sticks out her hand to the guy we don’t know. “I’m Jasmine.”He’s younger than the others, probably late twenties, with Captain America good-looks.“Channing.” His dimpled smile is just as bright as Jasmine’s.A low growl starts in my throat
I TUCK a bottle of wine and an opener in my picnic basket, along with our lunch and climb in the bus to meet Tom at his place. It’s our last afternoon in Taos before we head to Phoenix with the refugees, and I intend to make the most of it.I’ve been ignoring the little niggles of anxiety that have been running through me as our end draws ever closer.I don’t want to think about it. Don’t want to give him up. Being with Tom feels too good.Too right.And every time I’m with him, his auric field turns pink.He loves me.He hasn’t said it, but it’s clear.And I feel the same way.I find him sitting outside his place, waiting for me. He surges to his feet as soon as I pull up.“Hey, big man,” I call as I jump out and hoist the picnic basket.“What’s this?” He takes it from me. I didn’t tell him our plans, just that I wanted to
WE MEET the charter bus and the shifter refugees the next morning in a dirt parking lot at the juncture of three highways. The black wolf pack show up in two Humvees and Deke’s Mercedes G63. Whatever their jobs really are or were, they have plenty of money.The refugees climb out of the vehicles. Even though they’ve been free for six weeks now, they still wear shell-shocked, wary expressions. I catch their strange, mixed scents—a jumble of animals, nothing that makes sense. It’s just like the misfit shifters from California. Alpha Green asked those three to come up to Wolf Ridge and meet the bus, so these new refugees will have shifter’s who have been through what they have to advocate for them and help build trust.“We’re going to provide escort to Arizona,” Rafe tells me. “Make sure you arrive safe.” I shake his hand. “Thank you.”A young female walks up with a baby bunny cup
THE DRIVE from Taos to Phoenix is hot. Mountains melt into desert and the air outside grows increasingly more stifling. We pass through Navajo land. I keep catching myself gnawing my lip.It’ll be fine. I release my chokehold on the steering wheel. I’m just meeting Tom’ entire pack.No biggie.But by the time we pull into the parking lot of Wolf Ridge Rec Center, the concrete in my stomach has settled in to stay. Calm down. I jump out of my bus to assist my new shifter friends.Fiona is already off the bus, a pitifully small bag slung over her shoulder. These shifters had nothing. Not even clothes to wear, if Fiona’s makeshift outfit is anything to go by. She looks like she cut up a big man’s t-shirt and a pair of running shorts to fit her. That’s right, focus on helping.When Rey steps off the bus, she stumbles. A lanky male c
2 months later…“Ten minutes Tom. Let’s go,” my leader, shouted down the hall. “Briefing on the plane.”That about summed up my life. One mission to the next. After a while, they all just blurred together. I’ve been with Force since its creation five years ago. My wolf had leader traits, but I was no leader. I’d turned down the job when it was originally offered to lead Pack’s first special ops team. There were now six teams, but mine had remained the highest ranked, the most elite, Great team.You’d think the top dogs should be called Leader, but not around here. In Pack, there was only one Leader, john . He was a good man and a great leader. He’d been disappointed with my initial decision, but the moment we both met the grumpy old gorilla shifter, alex Granger, we both knew I’d made the right decision.alex was a character all of his own. He had been the leader of a powerful band of
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