Allure of the Wolf (Seraphine Thomas Book 2) (3 page)

“Where’s my mate?” Tony demanded, his hands fisting even as he kept his neck bared to me. I knew it was a wolf thing but the guy looked like a complete
idiot.
“You can’t take her away from me, dominant to me in the pack or
not
.”

“I didn’t. She came to have a talk with me and that’s
it
,” I assured him even as I narrowed my eyes at him. “She’s a free woman who can take a breather from her
husband
if she wants. That’s all she’s asked me for and nothing more. Don’t make this a thing when it doesn’t have to be, Tony. I’m not the police being called in for a domestic disturbance. This can be nothing but a time-out for you guys.”

“She needs to come home,” he grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest, almost as if he was
pouting,
but backed off. Maybe he did have a brain.

“She needs some space. Let her have it and miss you,” I tried, even going with a smile when I wanted nothing more than to punch him in the nuts. Then when I knew Harris had the guy receiving all the
playing
up and tended to, I kept walking to the front door.

“My Alpha Bitch, so nice of you to see your new home,” Engle purred as he opened the door and leaned against the frame. I opened my mouth to bite his head off but snapped it shut.

“Engle, I’m trying
really
hard here, but you have to meet me in the middle,” I ground out. “I will never be your Alpha Bitch, so just
stop
. Stop poking me and trying to make things always a pissing match between us. I’m a new
wolf
in our city. I don’t even like my own kind because of what you did to me my
first
full moon. I get along better with the damn vampires. What does that say about werewolves that you have one of the most powerful law enforcement agents in Chicago that could be an ally and you do everything to piss me off?”

“You should be mine,” he growled, his jaw clenching long enough to click.

“Well I won’t be,” I snapped, my eyes changing to my wolf’s at his blatant disrespect and demands. “And we both know now that you’ve tasted my power that you can’t make me. So be the smart Alpha I hear you can be and move past that. Vlad and I are friends and he’s found being my friend is a good thing. I know you two talk.”

“He has told me that,” Engle hedged, eyeing me as if not sure what to make of this more rational me.

“Then let’s try and be adults here and do what’s best for our pack because I’m one of you now. I might not like it, I might not
understand
it, but I’m coming to terms with it.” He gave a slight nod, and my wolf and siren both decided to rear their heads in the same moment—opening my mouth for more. “But know this, you ever try to name me a rogue wolf and accuse me of kidnapping again, I will swarm this place with SWAT and tear off your balls.”

“That was rash,” he conceded even as his shoulders tensed.

A feather could have knocked me over in that moment. Did he just admit to being a dick? Wow, I was never going to get an apology from this man but that was pretty damn fucking close.

“So it won’t happen again?” I pushed, not willing to let this one go.

“No, no, it won’t, Chief Thomas,” he agreed with a smile I’m sure he thought was wonderful. Personally it made me want to gag, but whatever, I was playing
nice
.

“Good. Now, may I come in and discuss something that has come to my attention?” I nodded past him, grimacing when he smiled widely and pushed the door open but didn’t move so I would have to
slide
past him.

Yuck.

“Please, do
come
in.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake.
“I was approached by five members of the pack after I went for a run, Alpha.” There, he used my title, I could use his.

“You call me Alpha, yet you don’t bare yourself to me.” He moved up behind me, close enough that his hand brushed my ass.

“I thought we were going to try and be friends here,” I chastised, turning around but not moving away as if I was letting him have the win. “You know why I’m not showing you my
throat
. Don’t push this, Joseph. I don’t want the pack, but I don’t like being backed into a corner either. So let’s be friends and stop with the games.”

“All right—for now.” He nodded and stepped around me, sitting on his couch as he gestured for me to take the chair to his right. I tried not to make some off-handed reference in my mind that to him it was probably the same as being offered the seat to the right hand of god or something but the man did have one hell of an ego. “Now why did my wolves come see you?”

“They asked for my protection as an officer of the law from their husbands,” I answered, choosing my words carefully. “They would like some time apart, and while no accusations or complaints have been made, they were worried this would not be
allowed
. I assured them that couldn’t be possible since they have every right as US citizens—which we’ve already established they are the last time we met—and as members of a wolf pack following Shifter Council regulations.”

“No, they are allowed to have a break from their mates,” Joseph agreed, his eyes flaring rage. “They should have come to me.”

“I’m sure you would have told them the same, but since some of your enforcers are their husbands, I think you can appreciate why they felt you might not take their side.” I held up my hand when he growled, feeling satisfied when he stopped at my gesture like our true dynamic might be seeping into his mind. “They came to me on pack lands as a woman of the pack, but they addressed me as Chief Thomas. This is a gray area for me, Alpha. I can handle this as a woman of the pack with the Alpha’s blessing if you back me and give these women,
our
pack, some space.

“As I told Tony, this isn’t a domestic dispute I got called in on and that’s not even my thing.” I sighed a little dramatically as if this whole situation was an annoyance to me and not what I’d been hoping for. “You want me to be part of the pack, I’m here, being part of the pack. This isn’t my job, Alpha. I catch murderers, go undercover to take down mob bosses. If I wasn’t a wolf, I promise a division chief of the FBI wouldn’t be here talking to you about this. A bunch of patrolmen would be here starting shit and we don’t want that.”

“No, no, we don’t,” he agreed again, rubbing his chin. “All right, they have until the full moon to sort out what’s wrong with their
marriage,
but then I expect them home to their mates and at the pack gathering.”

“I can’t promise that. They have every right to separate from their spouses,” I reminded him.

“Don’t push me on this,” he growled, his eyes flashing power I didn’t even
feel
. Wow. Why did everyone say this guy was so strong?

“I’m
not
. I don’t make promises I can’t guarantee. I don’t want to give them a deadline and freak them out into doing something they might not want to in the first place,” I placated, mentally rolling my eyes. “Let’s
you and I
set that as our goal, but know I can’t promise that on behalf of five grown
adults
. For now, I think three weeks of space would do wonders for their state of mind and reminding them that they’re part of this pack, not simply captives.”

“My wolves are not captives,” he snapped, spittle flying from his mouth.

Lovely.

“Alpha, I have
seen
abused women before,” I growled, my own eyes flashing power. “These five are not making this up. Keeping your wolves in line and having a pecking order is one thing, and I know the rules better and will abide by them. But they were
not
written to give a man the right to beat down his wife when they’re at home. You wanted me as part of this pack, you got me,
but
with me comes an advocate and enforcer of that. Make no mistake because this is a line I will not back down from.”

He blinked at me a moment, and I realized for the first time, he might be a little clueless as to what went on behind closed doors. “If a member of my pack is abusing their mate, not simply arguments that get out of hand when our animals ride us that happens to
both
sexes, then I support your action. You may never be my bitch but you would be a wonderful Beta, Seraphine.”

“One thing at a time, Joseph,” I sighed, rubbing my hands over my hair. “Let me get a few full moons under my belt and my life in some kind of order before we go giving me another promotion. How about we just work together for a change and see where that takes us?”

“To help the pack, I’m willing to try and be friends.”

Well praise be Jesus and heaven above.

2

As I walked out of Alpha Joseph Engle’s house, I admit, I glanced up to see if pigs were flying because the man gave his backing to my play. But I still needed more help. I sent Chief Monroe a quick message to let him know my update before returning to my guys.

“Nicely done,” Cooper muttered as he pushed off the passenger door, standing up. I glanced in the car and saw Harris sitting in back with the
playful
guy lying over him. “Yeah, kid passed out. He’s gonna be fine but he’s in a bad way.”

“No more
playing
like that,” I ordered Tony and the others, shooting them a nasty look. “Maybe we can set up some real fight training to toughen up the younger wolves, and that’s something to discuss, but this is just bullying and divides the pack.”

“Fine, but where are you taking Gayle?” Tony demanded to know, glancing at his Alpha’s house. “I’ll listen to my Alpha and you but I want to know where my mate will be.”

I raised an eyebrow, daring him to challenge me. “You know why I won’t tell you that. I’ll keep her safe.”

“You can’t be with her all the time,” he growled, glancing at Cooper. It was the second time he’d done that. I glanced at my teammate and nodded to the car.

“If there’s something I need to know that you don’t think Gayle will tell me, Tony, now is the time,” I prompted after Cooper was in the car. It was stupid because it wasn’t as if the man couldn’t hear us but
whatever
.

“Most of the female wolves are afraid of the vamps,” one of the other guys offered. “Some visitor from Wisconsin attacked a bunch of them several years ago and had a feast. A couple of them died before the pack jumped in.”

I swore under my breath but nodded. “Thank you for telling me. I’ll make sure none are on their protection detail.” There went asking Vlad for help since my people weren’t trained for this. “If you guys keep your distance and take this as simply a marital time-out, we don’t need to escalate this, and I won’t need to call in help that might require vamps, okay?”

“Yeah, don’t scare Gayle. We’ll stay away,” Tony agreed as the others nodded. I realized then for all his bravado the asshole probably really did love her.

Then again, so did most men who abused their spouses.

I got in the car and backed out of the driveway, my mind racing as to what came next.

“I didn’t know about the visiting vamp that hurt the wolves,” Cooper muttered as he clicked on his seat belt. “This complicates things.”

“Just a bit,” I drawled. First call I made was to Riley since he was just getting off his shift at the hospital. My new live-in lover and wolf I’d sirened was also a nurse, which I foresaw coming in handy. I asked him to meet us at the office and to take care of the young wolf in my backseat. Of course, in his normal, helpful Riley way, he agreed.

Then I made the next call I was dreading.

“I need a favor,” I said as a form of a greeting when my old boss and sometimes bedmate, Chief Havers answered the phone.

“You’re still in my good graces after bagging the guy who killed my agents,” Brian hedged. “Though there is the matter of some missing bullets from the assassin’s skull.”

“What?” I exclaimed, feigning shock at that one. “Who fucked
that one
up? Why would those get legs? We had witnesses to a clean shooting. Did they reorganize evidence again?”

“Fuck if I know. Damn idiots are always changing some kind of protocol,” he bitched, letting it go now that he figured I wasn’t in on it. “What do you need, Sera?”

“I have a precarious situation, and I’d like to give some inter-FBI cooperation a try even if it’s between regular and MNSTR.”

“Define
precarious
because with you I have no fucking clue what that means.” His tone was laced so thick with sarcasm I winced internally, thinking he was going to shut me down big time.

I decided to go with the shortest version possible. “I have some witnesses that need a protection detail. It should be low risk, no trouble, basic babysitting now that I have the local Alpha ordering his people to stand down and orders are followed. But my people are in training and I don’t have oodles of them like you do, oh, and the witnesses are afraid of vampires.”

“Are they human?”

“Should that
matter
?” I snapped, my wolf riding me at the inferred insult.