I BUY an ice cream cone and sit on the wall at Venice Beach, blending in with the hordes of beachgoers. I dressed to fit in—I’m wearing a halter top and shorts with wrap-around sandals I can run in if I need to.
I can’t believe I’m upset Tom Dune hooked up with someone last night. Why in the hell would I care?We don’t have a relationship.I’m his handler, for God’s sake.Yeah, he’s hot. All the field agents I’ve met appeal to me. I mean what’s not enthralling about highly intelligent men whose bodies are trained weapons? Agents who supposedly can single-handedly bring down governments or start wars? Agents who can rescue hostages or—rumor has it—execute a kill order? I know I’ve never passed along orders like that, but my clearance level isn’t high.
Dune, like all field agents, is built of chiseled muscle. He’s not huge or tall,
they never are. They need to be able to slip in and out of places unnoticed— blend in.I have a thing for spies, I guess, particularly Dune. Something happened last month between us. Actually, it’s probably all in my head. Which is why I’m an intelligence analyst, not a field agent—I over-emotionalize, get personal with people and situations. I care too deeply. Despite my basic combat training, I’d never be able to pull the trigger on anyone even if my life depended on it.
I bent some rules and put my own job on the line to get some information last month for Dune. He said he lost someone involved with the lab fires. And I probably over-personalized that. Because I know what it’s like to investigate our government’s dirty secrets when it involves a loved one.
“Chocolate—my favorite,” a deep voice rumbles behind me.I don’t jump. I’m used to him appearing out of thin air. What I’m not used to is how close he comes in. If I didn’t think it was crazy, I’d swear he leaned in to inhale my scent.
I turn and find his face too near to mine, and the green of his eyes appears to change to ice blue in the sunlight.
Damn.Yeah, he’s hotter than I remembered. In a tight black t-shirt—the kind that stretches over his hard muscles—and a ball cap pulled low over his green eyes, he looks the perfect hunky, California surfer.He steals the ice cream cone from me and takes a big lick. Well, this is definitely different. We’re practically sharing spit.
Is he flirting?Oh, that’s ripe. After he missed our morning meeting because of some hook-up he had. I never knew Dune was such a player, but it fits. Field agents can’t have permanent relationships, so they become man-whores, getting it whenever and wherever they want.Asshole.I turn to face him and watch as he completely demolishes the ice cream cone.I mean, I didn’t know you could eat a cone that fast.
So, I guess we’re not sharing spit.He has the grace to look shame-faced as he licks the last bit off his fingers. “I’ll buy you another one.”
I roll my eyes. “Don’t bother. I only bought it for cover.” “What’s the assignment?”
I can’t stop my annoyance from surfacing even though he’s always all-business.
“Your no-show this morning may have cost us the mission.”His face remains impassive, and under the ballcap, his eyes keep roving the landscape like he’s taking in every person who passes, everything about our surroundings. He’s so damn alert.“I’ll fix it. What’s the mission?”The thing is—I believe him. I’m sure he’ll fix it. He’s the kind of agent who gets results which is why he gets paid the big bucks.
Still, I’m not over feeling pissy. I flick on my tablet and share the screen with him. “Target is Lucius Frangelico. He lives in Hollywood. Occupation, unknown. Possible mafia, possible drug kingpin. Definitely into something. They want him bugged and tracked.”
“Why is this a LIL job rather than FBI?”“He has ties to Al Qaeda. Travels internationally. May be selling weaponry. This is a preliminary investigation.”“I’ll take care of it.”“Yeah, well, he left California this afternoon on a private plane. So, now you have to find him.”He nods, sober. “I will.”I’m sure he’s right. I have complete faith in him. And I still feel like he owes me an apology for no-showing to our meeting earlier.As if he reads minds, too, he meets my gaze. “I’m sorry about this morning. It won’t happen again.”
“Dune, I don’t care what you do on your off-time, but when I call you in, you show up.” I can pull a bitch when the occasion calls for it.
He rubs a hand across his stubbled jaw, still subtly glancing in all directions without moving his head. “Yeah. I was… incapacitated.”
I arch a brow. “Was she that good?”His head draws back, and his brows slam down. “What?” His laugh is unexpected—maybe to both of us. I detect relief in it which I file away to examine later. “No, it wasn’t a woman—I wish.” He gives his head a quick shake. “I mean—” He stops, his jade eyes meeting mine.For a second neither of us speaks, gazes tangled, locked. Something flutters in my belly. His nostrils flare, and I watch the same trick of the light make his eyes flash blue. My lips part in surprise, and his gaze dips there.
“It wasn’t a woman.” His voice is deeper than I remember.
“What was it, then?” My voice has lost all authority—it sounds pathetically breathy to my ears.He shakes his head. “Something else.” He suddenly looks tired, almost defeated.
I’m shocked by a need to soothe him, a need to know what demons haunt
this brave warrior. What does he hide under that impenetrable mask of deadly capability?“Listen.” He touches my nape, just under where the halter top ties. Energy shoots through me at the light contact, tingles of pleasure racing across my skin. I know this is just for show—we’re playing the part of a flirty beach couple, but the thrumming that starts between my legs doesn’t understand that. “I want to thank you for the help you gave me last month. You helped save a kidnapped child, so… it made a difference.”
My mind wants to run down the path of figuring out whose child he was
saving—his, a friend’s—but all I can focus on is the light circles he traces on myskin. My breath hitches.
“I’m glad it helped.”
“I owe you one. Call it in when you need it.”My nipples tighten. “Oh, I will.” The confidence returns to my voice, but for some inexplicable reason, I choose this moment to blush. Maybe because of his penetrating stare as if he’s trying to decipher what possible reason I might have for requesting a favor from him.
I hope to God I’ll never need to. But the file I extracted for him isn’t the only redacted data I’ve hacked. And considering which department of the government I work for, consequences could be more than a slap on the wrist. You never know.
So, having a friend capable of protecting my life could come in handy. “You’ve uploaded the information to me?” he asks, tapping my tablet, back
to business.“Yes.” I nod. “Let me know when it’s done.”“Of course.” He starts to step away, then turns back. “Jasmine.”He’s never called me by my first name before. It has an effect on me like he has me by the throat—but in a good way. He commands my full attention—my stiff nipples throb, tingles race over my skin.“Are you in some kind of trouble?”I hesitate, then shake my head. Not yet.He nods. “You’ll tell me when I need to know.”Then he’s gone, blending into the crowd of people, and disappearing as quickly as he appeared.
Right. I’ll tell him when he needs to know.I truly hope that time won’t come.Why, then, does the idea of not sharing my secret with him disappoint me?
I SIT in the L.A. office which I mostly share with National Resource Division employees. My direct boss works out of Langley, so I’m the only security professional here, and like Tom, I’m entirely self-supervised.Which gives me the means and time for personal investigation projects. I’ve been working on one since last October when I tried hacking into my own personnel records and came across my father’s instead. Which was strange since my father never worked for the LIL.Or so I thought.And his records were sealed. All I saw was he was killed in the line of duty in El Salvador. That part matches what my family was told at the time. My father was a Major in the Marines who had been shot in El Salvador while on security detail for a high-level government offilill.Supposedly.So, what was he really doing in El Salvador for the LIL? Spying? Was my father an active agent? It appears so. I try for the thirty-fifth time to get in some bac
I I FIND FRANGELICO IN TUCSON, of all places.It seems a strange coincidence since the pack of wolves I followed last month are headquartered in Tucson. I’m not really the kind of guy who believes in the universe guiding your moves or anything, but it does scream an opportunity.I could go and talk to Jared about what I am.But even as I think it, I reject the idea. I’m not the kind of guy who asks for help from others, and I definitely don’t want to align myself with these people— creatures—whatever they are. They’re into questionable legal activity—cage fighting and who knows what else.Do I want to know what happens when the moon is full? Do they hunt and kill like I did? And is their prey something far more significant than a rabbit? These are questions I’m not sure I want the answers to, not when I can barelyaccept what I am—what I’ve become.Then again, keeping myself in the
“MS. GRAY? THIS IS DIRECTOR SCAPE.”I sit up taller, surprised. “Yes, Director Scape. Thank you so much for calling me back.”“So, you want to know about Major Gray.” “I do. Did you know him?”“I did.” He lets the words settle, and a queasy feeling turns in my belly. “I’m sure things are classified, but can you tell me what he did for the LIL?How he really died?”The director is silent for a moment. “Ms. Gray. Sometimes it’s better not to know things about the deceased. The story you heard is probably a better one than anything I could say. Why not remember your father as a military hero?”I don’t like the implication. Is he saying my father wasn’t a military hero? “What are you telling me, Director Scape?”“I’m saying, your father was an agent. You’re an agent, Ms. Gray, but you’ve never wor
I GET the tracking device into Frangelico’s phone using the old jostle and pickpocket method when we pass by each other in the bar, returning it a few moments later when I emerged from the men’s room.By the time I get back to my room to get it online, I find the bug is dead. Which probably means I’ve been made. Maybe I was made back on thebalcony. The guy definitely seems to have a sixth sense.A thought occurs to me that sends goosebumps prickling up my skin.Could he be one of… us? Ugh. I can’t believe I’m even saying us. But there’s no denying it—I’m a monster like the rest of them, a man-beast who can’t control his own urges.Jared seemed to know I was a wolf by my scent. I haven’t refined my new senses enough to distinguish anything, but suppose this guy Frangelico could? Suppose he scented or heard me out on his balcony?I can smell the difference between male and fem
MY BOSS, Lucy Tentrite calls me at work the next morning. Her voice is tight. “Jasmine, I heard you called Director Scape.”“Yes, ma’am, that’s true. It was for a personal matter.”“Yes, your father’s death. Listen, I’m going to level with you as your boss and as a friend. I don’t know what you’re poking into, but between you and me, they don’t like it. I’m giving you a direct order—drop the investigation. Are we clear?”“Wow. Okay.”“You know the business we’re in. We trade in secrets. There’s some secret there, and it’s above your pay grade. It doesn’t matter if it involved your father. They don’t want you to see it.”I don’t say anything because really… what do you say to that?“You’ve been searching internal records—ones you shouldn’t have had access to. I could have your
I DRIVE BACK to California and go to my small apartment.The mountains are calling me. I had the urge to shift and run in Tucson but held it together. I was on a job. Now, with nothing to fill my time, I can’t stop thinking about it.It’s either that or beat down agent Jasmine Gray’s door because I can’t seem to get her scent out of my nostrils or the dirty thoughts out of my mind.Fuck. I have to get myself under control.My phone blinks with an incoming call. Jasmine’s burner phone. “Dune speaking.”“Tom?” Jasmine sounds breathless, frightened.Immediately, my senses go haywire—adrenaline spiking, heat flushing through. My cells try to rearrange like my body wants to shift to wolf form. I suck in a deep breath and force the urge back down.“Jasmine? Where are you?” She has trackers on me which I already shut off because the mission was aborted, but I don’t have
THE ROOM SPINS. I’m lightheaded from the orgasm or maybe from the heat—I can’t tell. Fortunately, Tom doesn’t let me go. He keeps me pinned against the wall, his cock still filling me as we both pant to recover our breaths.His eyes look blue again although there’s no sunlight hitting them now.I don’t feel guilty I just had sex while my sister and nephew are missing. Hell, if anything, I can rationalize I did this for them. I couldn’t think before, I was so wracked with fear. I needed this.And if I were the conniving type, which I’m not, I would say it was a good move to bond Tom and further gain his sympathy. But that’s not why I did it.I don’t know why he did it, but I don’t care. I’m not going to ask anything more of him. Not going to expect a relationship—which he could never deliver. I just needed this human contact. Just needed to feel his support in this visceral, cathar
THERE’S a guy fifty yards away, scanning the parking lot. I kiss Bryce for cover, right when Jasmine arrives.For the record, they may be sisters, but Bryce neither tastes nor smells like Jasmine. My body doesn’t have the animalistic reaction I have to Jasmine. Which means the lust I feel for her isn’t just the emergent wolf in me. There’s something more to this attraction.While I work the kiss, I hold an electric lock opening device up to the door lock of the Lexus SUV we’re leaned up against. We can’t drive the truck out of here if we hope to escape unfollowed.I break the kiss when the door beeps and pull the door open. “Get in,” I order in the same low, calm voice I use for every command under pressure.I take the driver’s seat because, this time, we really need to lose any tail we pick up. Plus, I don’t think I’ll need to fire a gun. Hell, I’d better not have to fire a gun aroun