Nero informants. No self-respecting cop was going to believe my story. I needed something better than falling on a steak knife.
My gaze flicked to the closed door. Physically I was only a wolf one night a month, but I still had heightened senses while I was a man. My hearing and sense of smell were far stronger than any human’s, and right now I could hear a woman talking to the staff, followed by introductions and the click of determined footsteps.
I recognized that voice.
When the door opened the wolf inside of me howled.
“This is Detective Marsh.” The nurse snatched my chart from the counter. “The doctor will be in shortly to check your wound.”
Once the nurse was gone, I couldn’t help but stare at the most incredible woman I’d ever seen. Tough, beautiful, resilient Sasha. Her full lips were pressed together as her dark eyes met mine. I struggled to remind myself that this was also the same woman who had Tasered me and then shattered my ankle with a single gunshot. She had threatened to kill Adam…and his mate Lana. The Nero Organization had ordered her to do so. They bred jaguar shape-shifters and trained them as silent assassins for the highest bidder. Sasha had been bitten rather than bred, but she was in their employ nonetheless. Or at least she used to be. So what was she doing here impersonating an officer?
I had every reason to hate her. Yet here she was, standing five feet from me, and not only was I not attacking her, but I was drinking in her scent. She didn’t smell like most of the women I worked with, like flowers and lace. Or like any of the jaguars I’d encountered. Her scent was spicy, like leather and musk.
And I was more certain with each breath that I’d never be able to deny my instincts. I needed her.
When my brother told me he’d found his mate, I didn’t understand how he knew. I wasn’t sure I believed the old stories about the wolf recognizing the one woman we’d spend a lifetime with from one touch of her skin, and when Adam claimed a jaguar for his mate, I thought he’d gone insane. The bottom line was simple: We
But here she was, glaring at me in the urgent care center, and instead of killing her I caught myself wondering how her mouth might taste. I shoved aside the lust and dug deep for cold indifference.
“It’s Detective Marsh now? I thought you’d sold your badge to Nero.”
She dodged my barb without even acknowledging it. “Look, wolf, I’m doing you a favor by coming in here flashing a phony badge. I don’t know why, but you saved me at the lake, so I figure I owe you this.” She tucked the fake ID into her pocket and met my eyes. “If you came here to settle the score with me, then bring it on. I deserve it. But if you think you’re slowing Nero down, you’re not. I can fight my own battles.” She looked poised to say something else but just shook her head slowly. “Just back off.”
I laughed and sat up. It took all I had not to wince at the pain that burned through my abdomen. “You think I’m trying to help
Her chin lifted as she crossed her arms over her chest. I did my best not to stare at her breasts. “What I
She spun on her heel and left, slamming the door behind her. I could hear her telling the nurse she’d sign off on my medical treatment. She confirmed it was a household accident. No investigation would follow.
I smirked. Sasha, the jaguar assassin who tried to kill me twice, had helped me.
Go figure.
Chapter Two
I cranked up the stereo in the Beamer as I pulled out of the parking lot. It was a nice ride and I didn’t lose sleep keeping the Nero Organization’s car. I knew they couldn’t report it stolen. The last thing they would want is the police nosing around their door.
Since I’d made the irreparable mistake of allowing Sebastian into my bed and my heart, I’d been bitten and converted into a jaguar shifter against my will. If I’d known about what he was, and whom he worked for, I would’ve run as fast I could. Instead, they changed me and stole my career and my life.
The least they owed me was a car.
Or so I told my conscience.
It’d been over six months since I’d heard the wolf’s voice—since that night I spared his life and shot his ankle instead of his head. My stomach twisted. I wished that statistic didn’t come to me so quickly. It wasn’t like I missed hearing his voice.
Much.
I’d never met a man like him before. Although I’d Tasered him and held him hostage, he was never afraid. I’d know—I could smell fear. He’d tried to talk to me, to negotiate, until I gagged him. And even then, no panic. Instead he wore a quiet confidence in himself and his Pack. It reminded me of being on the police force.
Somehow he’d wormed his way under my skin even when he couldn’t speak. His green eyes would watch me, but they never pleaded. Quiet strength, that was all I got from him, and in spite of spending years in a male- dominated field proving I wasn’t the weaker sex, he made me very aware I was a woman.
It didn’t help that when I had walked into the emergency room he’d been half-naked. And completely gorgeous. I did my best to banish the memory and lust from my mind and focus on the road. I didn’t even know this man.
He’d been following me off and on for months now. At first I thought he was hunting me, maybe looking for revenge. I wasn’t really concerned; I’m never more than an arm’s length from a weapon, and when I fire, I don’t miss. But as time passed and he didn’t attack, I realized I wasn’t the prey.
I kept my attention split between the darkened streets in front of me and the rearview mirror. After the conversion, my night vision became superhuman. The BMW’s headlights were only on to keep other drivers from hitting me. I could see just as well without them.
And so far, no one was tailing me.
Not a huge surprise since the wolf killed the last one. I’d circled back to take care of the Nero informant myself, but the dreg was already dead and the wolf wounded. I shouldn’t have followed him to the ER, but I couldn’t help myself. Seeing him continue to be hurt because of me was a millstone I was sick of wearing around my neck.
Besides, it wouldn’t be long before Nero sent someone else. Ever since the fight at Lake Tahoe, I’d been on the run. The bastards were never going to give me a cure anyway. I knew that now. The moment they hit me with a tranquillizer dart at Lake Tahoe, it was painfully clear they had no intention of giving me what I’d been promised in exchange for Lana and the wolves. I was stuck. A monster.
But I wasn’t going to be their puppet. Not anymore.
That’s why I had to keep moving. By now, they probably knew I’d survived the showdown at Lake Tahoe, and there was a good chance I was marked for death. I’d lived inside of Nero’s walls—I knew too much.
But jaguar assassins like me were just the tip of the shape-shifting iceberg. They were also involved in covert experimental DNA enhancement. And the women… They kidnapped and imprisoned human women within the compound to be part of Nero’s jaguar-shifter breeding program and DNA testing. I didn’t have proof yet, but if I could find some solid evidence before they killed me, I’d have the leverage I needed to bargain for my life.
I checked my rearview mirror, trying to clear my mind of the memories, of the other women still inside the Nero compound. Bitten, converted into jaguar shifters, and being used, with no hope of escape.
I pressed the accelerator, aching to evade the mental images. I’d been in Las Vegas too long. I needed to disappear. Maybe this time I could dodge Nero
I hurt him enough on my own.
I merged onto the highway and slid my Bluetooth over my ear. One voicemail.
