“Um.” I cleared my throat. “Milo Curtis was Ray’s first big case, that’s who.” I walked over and started helping James with breakfast. “Milo was a big-time cat burglar doing all these huge heists around town. He stole millions. All these rich people with lots of power were getting hit, and subsequently putting pressure on the mayor and police department to find him. Everyone in the precinct was on edge. Evidentially, and unbeknownst to me at the time, he must’ve been Ray’s ticket to the top.”
James grabbed a pan off my hanging rack. “And let me guess, you got this Milo Curtis fellow your first time out, and in the process made the good detective look like a wanker who couldn’t find his own arse with both hands.”
“That about covers it.” I chuckled. “I found out later Milo was a shifter of some kind. He disappeared soon after his arraignment, which is why I thought Ray never cared too much about the case, because it remained unsolved with the suspect on the loose. But the robberies stopped altogether, and it turned out that was all that had mattered to the chief. They didn’t care about an arrest, they just wanted the hits to stop. And they did.”
“Ray Hart is a bloody idiot.” James started to whip the pancake batter. “He could stand to learn a lesson or two.”
I needed a shower. Watching James make pancakes with no shirt on was going to ensure it was a cold one. I headed for the bathroom, calling over my shoulder, “Yes, but now that same idiot wants payback, and by the looks of it, preferably in the form of my personal demise. He’s going to do everything in his power to get me.”
I heard an egg crack against the pan. “Let him try.”
12
The phone rang while I was in the shower. We were set to meet my father, brother, and the other wolves who’d made it into town in my office conference room in an hour.
Not using my place of business as the meeting location had apparently been discussed briefly, because a truckload of wolves descending on the premises would be a screaming beacon announcing to the world I’d changed. But if a werewolf had already found me in two days, my secret was already out. There was no stopping the train now, even though I would’ve loved to derail it completely.
We stood in the kitchen eating breakfast, because there was no furniture for sitting. I watched James eat, his powerful body up against the counter. A small pang surfaced in my chest about what we did last night. I didn’t feel in any way attached to him, even though he was an unbelievable specimen, but it was kind of weird to be slutty and okay with it.
Do you feel any flutters? I asked my wolf.
She yawned at me and closed her eyes.
I didn’t want it to be strange between James and I, so I tried to clear the air. “Um, James, about last night … I hope that was … you know … okay with you …”
James let out a throaty laugh. “No need to worry yourself. My wolf couldn’t have denied your wolf anything in the world last night. I don’t regret our little tryst one bit.”
“I don’t either,” I admitted truthfully. “It was a nice way to end an extremely stressful evening. I felt better immediately.” I had to ask one more thing. “James, do I … I smell different to you? Not just because I’m a wolf now, but I mean, different than other human females?” I shifted uneasily. It was totally embarrassing having this conversation in my kitchen. “I’m asking because it sort of seemed like … I don’t know, I was giving off some weird hormonal thing last night I had no control over.”
“Jessica, last night you smelled like nothing I’d ever come across before. It set me right off the moment I entered your apartment. It sent my wolf into a bloody frenzy. It was actually hard for me to get you out of my mind so I could sort out the rogue. My wolf paced with a constant need to satisfy you, to comfort you, to enjoy you thoroughly. It was all I could do to keep a rein on things. By the time we had the place to ourselves, your scent intensified by three hundredfold. There was no stopping it.”
I smiled sheepishly. What had happened in the hallway moments prior to entering my apartment must’ve made me smell like a harlot on steroids, but I wasn’t going to go into that here. “I don’t smell like that now, do I?” I asked, a little panicked.
James took a gratuitous sniff even though we both knew he could smell me just fine. “You do smell different than a regular wolf—not bad, mind you, just a bit different. Definitely sweeter. But, no, you don’t smell anything like you did last night. Last night was …” His face hardened. “… Let’s say it was intense. When you give off a smell like that, male wolves will come running. There’s no doubt about it.”
“Danny, Tyler, and Nick didn’t seem to have a similar reaction to me,” I said, feeling a bit stricken that I might be a dinner bell for salivating horny wolves without knowing it. “Maybe you’re just more sensitive to it.”
James laughed. It was a great sound. “Well, I should hope Tyler wouldn’t be feeling very amorous of you. You two are bonded as kin. I’m betting your smell was quite sour to him. I can’t speak for Nick, because he’s not a wolf, but I would actually think you would smell like danger to him in that state. As for Danny, well, your wolf is very dominant, and while he might have liked to act on your scent very much, his wolf wouldn’t have been so bold as to come on to yours directly. He would need permission from you first—some kind of a signal it was okay to make an advance.” There was a slight growl in his voice. “I believe in the future you will only have issues with the most dominant of us.” James regarded me for a moment over his plate of eggs. “The rest will likely be a bit worried.”
As I ate my breakfast, I reflected on how much I didn’t know about wolves. I was a newborn in every sense. “James, can I ask you something else?”
“Of course.”
“How do you mate with human women? Well, I know how you mate, of course, but what about babies? I know it’s hard for humans to carry them to term.” That’s how I lost my own mother. Carrying one wolf was hard, two was impossible. She died shortly after our births, and it was a miracle she’d held on for that long. “That’s why there are so few new wolves around. But if a human woman actually does get pregnant, how does it all work? Especially if you’re not mated. What do you tell them?”
“In the beginning, there’s no need to tell them anything,” he said. “We go on a few dates, woo them if we’re so inclined, go through the process, and then see if we’re lucky enough to procreate when it’s all said and done.”
“That sounds … um … promising.”
James chuckled. “Actually, we have a bit in our saliva that helps keep a woman in the dark if we’re not interested in a longterm commitment. Over time, if we choose to stay with them, or they are carrying our child, their bodies make up antibodies and they become immune to it.”
I choked. “What do you mean by ‘a bit in our saliva’?”
“Our saliva contains a drug to keep them a bit hazy about the whole thing, so they’re not exactly sure if they’ve been with us or not the next morning. It’s necessary, since with emotion our eyes tend to light up; it makes coupling a little tricky.”
“What in the hell”—I coughed, swallowing my eggs wrong—“are you talking about? It sounds like you just said we have roofies built into our saliva.”
“Think about it, Jessica. There are only a few women in the entire world who are compatible with us genetically—who can even be impregnated to begin with. And there are even fewer who are capable of carrying our baby to full term, and even less who can survive the actual birthing. So in order for us to find a woman who meets all those criteria, we have to …” He cleared his throat “… Well, let’s just say it takes a lot of trying on our part.”
I thought about it for a moment. It made sense when he put it like that, but still. “I take it you’ve had a lot of tries over the last few centuries.”
“Yes.”
“What about finding your mate? Wouldn’t that be easier than sleeping with hundreds of women hopped up on roofie-saliva? Aren’t true mates supposed to be able to bear your children with no problems?” I moved over to the sink to rinse my plate.
“That’s what it states in our lore, though I’ve witnessed very few couplings through the centuries.” He
