In the Company of Wolves (SWAT, #3)(15)

He shrugged. “I’m not that worried about it. Once I get a chance to talk with her face-to-face, I’ll be able to convince her to leave her pack and run away with me.”

Cooper looked dubious. “Has it ever occurred to you that this woman might not even find you attractive?”

“No.”

Grinning, he punched his foot down, shifted the bike into first gear, and tore out of the warehouse parking lot.

Becker’s smile faded as he turned onto the road. After the way he’d reacted to the female werewolf, it was difficult not thinking he’d stumbled across the one woman in the universe he was meant to be with. But what if after going through all kinds of hell to track her down, he discovered she didn’t feel the same about him? Just because she might be The One for him, there was nothing in the legend that ensured he was The One for her. For all he knew, she might be in love with someone already—like some maladjusted werewolf from her own pack.

That thought depressed him, but he forced himself to push the nagging doubts aside. It wasn’t going to happen that way, he told himself firmly. He was going to find her, and when he did, she was going to feel exactly the same way about him that he felt about her.

It wasn’t until that moment that Becker realized how much he’d already invested in the female werewolf. Had Gage and Xander felt this overwhelming pull the moment they’d met their future mates?

He only hoped his situation worked out as well as theirs had. But then again, neither one of them had fallen for a rogue werewolf who was part of a pack trying to take over the city.





Chapter 4


“Make sure you take out the two guards the moment you step through the door.”

Liam gestured at the hand-drawn sketch of the drug lab that he, Kostandin, and Brandon had been going over for the last hour or so on the far side of the atrium. From the sounds of it, they’d be hitting the place in the next day or two. Jayna prayed they wouldn’t take anyone from her pack with them.

It was bad enough to hear Kos so casually talking about taking two people’s lives. But hearing her alpha talk about killing two people—people who had never done a damn thing to their pack and likely never would—made her feel ill.

She couldn’t sit around and listen to it anymore.

“Where are you going?” Liam asked when she pushed away from the wall and started for the door.

She gritted her teeth at the suspicion in his voice. “To Starbucks,” she said over her shoulder, not bothering to ask if he or anyone else wanted anything. That suspicion had been showing up more and more since they’d started working for the Albanians. It was like he knew how much she disapproved of what he was asking the pack to do. For all she knew, maybe an alpha could pick up on stuff like that.

Fortunately, she had a reputation as someone who couldn’t sit still for very long. Liam and the rest of her pack had known that for a long time, and the Albanians and omegas had figured it out pretty quick.

She could feel Liam’s gaze following her as she crossed the atrium, and she slid him a sidelong glance out of the corner of her eye. That was when she realized that Kos was watching her just as intently—only his gaze was way more disconcerting than Liam’s. He might have been thinking sexual thoughts about her, which was skeevy enough for sure, but he also might have been imagining what it would be like to cut off her fingers one by one. With him, there was no way to tell.

Outside, Jayna turned left and headed down the sidewalk. There was a Starbucks about six blocks in that direction where she liked to hang out and people watch while drinking her latte. It was a good place to get away from the crap going on in the loft.

She was a block from the coffee shop when she caught a familiar scent on the breeze. It can’t be.

Pulse skipping, she whirled around and saw the hunky, blue-eyed SWAT cop from the warehouse casually leaning against the corner of a building watching her.

Crap.

Where the hell had he materialized from? She’d just come from that direction and hadn’t seen—or smelled—him.

Jayna darted a glance left and right, expecting to see a million cops descending on her, but all she saw were normal, everyday people going about their business. Even more puzzling, she didn’t sense anything bad coming down on her. Ever since going through her change, she’d been able to feel when things were about to go sideways, like they had back in the warehouse. But right now she wasn’t getting that sensation, and it worried the hell out of her. Could an alpha like this SWAT cop somehow block her senses?

She looked back at him, expecting to see him coming toward her. She was surprised to find him still standing exactly where he’d been before, looking way too calm and casual for her taste. In a pair of faded jeans, black motorcycle boots, and a pullover hoodie, he looked good. Damn good. He was even grinning.

She had to admit he had a nice smile…for a cop. His scent was also a lot more interesting than she’d remembered. Had he smelled that delicious back in the warehouse?

Jayna took a small step back and almost fell off the curb. She caught herself, resisting the urge to look around to see how many people had seen her. There was no way she was going to take her eyes off him.

The smile slowly slipped from Officer Hunky’s face, and he took a step in her direction. Panic gripped her. She really liked it more when he smiled. It didn’t make him any less intimidating, but at least she could tell herself that he wasn’t measuring her for a prison jumpsuit.