starting to believe she really had died at the fight in Lake Tahoe. “Tell me about Nero.”
“I don’t know nothin’.”
He wriggled like a fish, his feet struggling to touch the ground. I was at least six inches taller than him, and I had no intention of letting him get away. Instead, I head-butted him. Blood erupted from his nose, the thick coppery scent immediately bringing the wolf inside of me to full attention.
“Goddammit,” he shouted, kicking me in the shins while he yanked at my wrists. “Let go of me, you crazy son of a bitch.”
I kept my grip tight on his shirt. “I asked you a question.”
“And I told you, I don’t know nothin’.”
“You’re lying,” I said before slamming him against the brick wall of the alley.
He coughed, spewing putrid breath into my face. He reeked of week-old cigarettes and cheap vodka. “Please,” he stammered. “I don’t know nothin’ about any Nero.”
“Why have you been trailing the red-haired woman?” He started to shake his head, so I freed one hand from my grip on him and landed a solid punch to his stomach to joggle his memory. “Answer me.”
He stopped kicking his feet, and his stare met mine. Gradually the fear in his eyes faded. My patience was wearing thin, but before I could rattle his cage for a reply, he started to smile and whispered, “They know she didn’t die in that fight.”
Before I could respond, pain burst through my gut, setting my entire side on fire.
The asshole had stabbed me.
I pressed him against the wall, forcing myself not to loosen my grip. Fear crept back into his eyes when I didn’t let him go. I held him up with one arm and yanked his knife out of my side with the other.
His eyes opened wide. “What the hell are you?”
Using both hands I threw him across the alley, satisfied to hear his skull crunch against the bricks. He hit the ground like a rag doll while I clutched the new hole in my side.
“I’m a wolf, asshole.”
…
Usually Jason, our Pack doctor, patched up our wounds, but that wasn’t an option for me this time. My twin, Adam—our Alpha—would demand to know what happened.
And for the first time in my life, I had no intention of telling him. What could I say? I let the Pack believe I’d killed Sasha during the fight with Nero instead of admitting I’d pulled her to safety. And now I was still watching her. Even Adam wouldn’t—
Never in a million years would I have ever believed myself capable of betraying my Pack, my family. But I never understood the depth of my wolf instincts. Now they demanded I walk both sides of the line, leaving my loyalty torn into shreds.
I couldn’t risk going to the Pack with this wound. I had to sort it out without them. Besides I was at least an eight-hour drive from Reno. I’d have to risk a few stitches and be sure I didn’t allow any blood to be drawn. I could do that.
By the time I pulled into the urgent care center, I knew the stab wound wasn’t too serious. If he’d hit an artery or a major organ, I would have bled out by now. But I couldn’t ignore a gaping wound in my side either. Werewolves may heal a little faster than humans, but a nasty staph infection could take a wolf down just as well as the next guy.
The knife was wrapped and carefully hidden under the floor of the trunk with my spare tire. Maybe I’d be able to pull fingerprints from it later.
I got out of the car and winced as pain radiated up my leg. I sucked in a deep breath through clenched teeth. My ankle was fucking killing me. Perfect.
I wiped the sweat off my forehead and limped into the brightly lit room. The triage nurse jumped up and rushed me to an exam room. Being covered in blood apparently trumped the other emergencies.
I hated the smell of hospitals. My acute wolf senses caught the cacophony of blood, urine, and disinfectant, morphing it into a disgusting scent of decay that turned my stomach. I got up on the exam table, slightly wobbly from the blood loss. The nurse laid a clipboard on the counter and scribbled something quickly before turning to face me.
“So what happened?” She snapped on a pair of latex gloves and reached for the hem of my shirt to inspect the wound.
“I’m all right. It’s just a little scratch.”
Her eyes widened when she found the source of my bleeding. “This isn’t a scratch. You’ve been stabbed.”
I forced what I hoped was a convincing smile. “All I need is a couple of stitches.”
She shook her head and stepped back. “You can smile all you want, but you’ll still need to speak with the police about your injury. It’s hospital policy with stabbings and shootings.”
“It was an accident. I fell while holding a steak knife.” This was exactly the reason none of the Pack went to hospitals. Too many questions. “Come on, I feel stupid enough as it is.”
She raised a brow and left the room.
Great. I raked a hand back through my hair and groaned. I was screwed.
I couldn’t talk to the police any more than I could face the Pack and tell them why I was in Las Vegas killing 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’s voice talking to the staff, followed by 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, too. The Nero Organization had her under their control, or at least they used to. They bred jaguar shape-shifters and trained them as silent assassins for the highest bidder. Sasha had been bitten, changed, but she was in their employ nonetheless. 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. Wolves mated for life, so when Adam claimed a jaguar for his mate, I thought he’d gone insane. I wasn’t sure I believed the old stories about finding that one mate to spend a lifetime with in the first place, but Adam and a jaguar? The bottom line was simple. We
But here she was, glaring at me in the urgent care room, 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 badge 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. “I’m handling this, so 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
