Jaxson (River Pack Wolves 1) - New Adult Paranormal Romance (3 page)

That almost made it all worthwhile.

The shower and fresh clothes didn’t erase her scent from his mind.

Not that Jaxson really wanted them to. His inner wolf was still sulking that he hadn’t followed up that blazing-hot kiss with something more substantial… and long-lasting. His beast would never understand what the man in him knew all too well—there would never be a mate for either of them. But it hadn’t been his wolf that had drunk in the sweet lips of that gorgeously curvy brunette in the alley. That was all on him.

And he was a fool for doing it.

Jaxson propped his feet on his desk, the bright Seattle morning making glare spots on the polished wood. He had ignored his brother Jace’s concerned looks on the way in and slammed the door to his private office behind him. Hopefully, that would hold off the debriefing on his failed mission while he sorted out this thing with the girl.

Why was he—and his wolf—so drawn to her?

Jaxson swiped open her phone for the tenth time… then swiped it off again. He shouldn’t rifle through her information. He should just delete the video, get enough to track down her address, and mail her phone back. As lead alpha of the River pack, and CEO of Riverwise, the private security business he shared with his two brothers, he had bucketloads of responsibilities on a normal day—never mind a failed mission, and the heat he was coming under to find a mate.

He didn’t have time for a mysterious girl.

If only she didn’t taste so damn good.

But that wasn’t really it—he’d had plenty of human girls. They were fun, but their skin had never sizzled his lips with some kind of hot magic when he kissed them. His wolf had never howled like it was being ripped apart when he sent one packing in a cab.

This girl was different. He just didn’t know
why.

Jaxson swiped open the phone again and watched the video she took. He had to admit it looked pretty bad from her angle. Which only made him wince… but he had to put in a good performance or there was no way he’d infiltrate the operation going on at the homeless shelter. As bad as the video looked, the girl’s hand was remarkably steady with the camera. A grin stretched his face as her words shouted at him from the phone.
I’ve called the police! And I’ve got you on camera.
World-class bluffing from a girl with luscious curves and a smart mouth.

Okay, he could understand why the
man
in him would be attracted—but why had his wolf raged against his skin, demanding that he claim her right then and there in the alley? Jaxson scowled at the video, stopping it, then deleting it. If his wolf thought he had found their mate, then that was just one more reason to toss the phone and never look back. This brave, amazing girl didn’t deserve to get mixed up in his messy life… or his fate.

He dropped the phone in the wastebasket by his desk.

It stayed there for a full ten seconds before he pulled it out again.

Dammit.

He flipped through her pictures. No selfies, unfortunately. Just a bunch of shots of a restaurant and some guy with a professional-grade camera. Was she doing surveillance? Jaxson immediately disliked the cameraman—not least because he was reasonably good-looking and smiling way too hard for her picture.
For her.
His wolf snarled with a completely unreasonable jealousy. Jaxson was glad there was only the one shot of the guy.

The rest were pictures of the sunset over the bay, a couple seagulls, and an almost artistic shot from the inside of a room with a glass-and-steel-gridded roof. The orange glow of the setting sun had set the panes on fire, making a magical light show splash across the room. It took him a moment to figure it out, but he was pretty sure it was the Seattle Public Library.

The library. 
So she visits the library, does surveillance on the side, and tries to rescue tortured shifters in alleys.

Who
was
this girl?

A quick search brought up her name—Olivia Lilyfield—but practically no other personal information. It was almost like this was a burn phone. Her address book was nearly blank, but two of the entries were very illuminating. Cratchton at the
Tales
. Google said he was the editor. And the second—listed as Mark—had the cameraman picture as his profile. The third was simply listed at Xenon. No picture. Local number.

Cameraman. The
Tales.
So she’s a reporter. Even more reason to stay away… and yet, his fingers were itching to dial the number at the celebrity rag to see if he could track her down. Just to hear her voice. Make sure she got back okay.

Only he sent her home, not to the office. And there was no record of a home address on the phone. A simple search online would bring it up… he was already tapping out the search request when Jace flung open the door.

His brother let the door bang against the wall, then leaned against the doorjamb with his arms crossed, glaring at him. Jace was younger by two years, but he became an alpha in his own right when he joined the Army as a medic. His time overseas was… mixed. Jace had served his country well, but the scars he brought home were the kind that didn’t show on the outside… and that no one had yet been able to heal. Not that Jaxson hadn’t tried.

“Are you ready to admit what a tremendously bad idea that was?” Jace asked smugly. “Because I’ve got ten dollars riding on this, and it’s time Jared lost a bet.” Their older brother was a notoriously bad loser. Which only meant Jace took it as a personal challenge to have him lose as often as possible.

Jaxson was glad he had already erased the video. He stood and slid the phone into his pocket. “I didn’t get to find out. Got interrupted before I could get in.”

Jace frowned. “Interrupted?” He ran a quick look over Jaxson. “You’re still walking. Couldn’t have been too bad.” Shifters healed quickly, but he’d been gone less than an hour. “What happened?”

Jaxson sighed as he walked around the desk to face Jace. He crossed his arms and leaned back against it. “Doesn’t matter. What
does
matter is that we’re no closer to getting inside. And the clock is ticking, Jace.”

“Yeah, I know.” His brother ran a hand over the scruff on his face, which made Jaxson wince. Another sleepless night, rolling out of bed to stumble into the office. Jace couldn’t keep going like this. But they had other problems they had to solve first.

“I can try going back in,” Jaxson said, “but not yet. It would be too suspicious if I showed up the next day, offering myself up for capture again. You may be right. We might have to tackle this head-on with a straight-up assault.”

His brother arched an eyebrow. “Jared will be pleased to hear you’ve finally come to your senses.”

Jaxson shook his head. It was risky, but he was running out of options. “When’s he getting back from the mountains?” Their older brother had taken the rest of the pack out to the Olympic Mountains for the weekend—for tactical training, weapons practice, the usual. Only with Jared as their CO, Jaxson was sure everyone would be limping into the office on Monday. If not outright taking a sick day to heal up at home.

“On Friday, he said would be in for interviews this afternoon.” Jace shrugged. They both knew Jared kept his own schedule. He had a darkness of his own to carry, one that no one could ever fix. Jace and Jaxson had long ago stopped talking about it—that was the only way they could keep Jared with them, and not have him end up a feral shifter anarchist in Idaho. They’d never see him again.

“Wait… interviews?” Jaxson asked, frowning. “Has Jared decided to bring on a secretary?” He had hoped the paperwork might keep Jared engaged, spending more time in the office where they could keep an eye on him. But apparently not.

“Office assistant.” 
Jace made air quotes. “But yeah. I guess he decided it wasn’t so easy running payroll after all.” Jace smirked—that had been his job before Jared decided the youngest River brother was too incompetent to cut checks and invoice clients. Since then, Jared had done nothing but complain about pushing paper instead of running drills or spending time on the firing range. He was a sharpshooter during his time in the Marines, and that was where he spent most of his downtime.

Which really wasn’t good for anyone.

“This is the first I’ve heard that we’re hiring.” Jaxson held in the growl. “Who are we interviewing?”

“Humans.” Clearly Jace thought this was a mistake.

Jaxson did, too.
“What?
Did he just forget we’re an undercover shifter operation? Or that our clients are very sensitive about their personal information?” Riverwise Private Security had an A-list of clients that was very black-book. The rich and infamous of Seattle’s bustling new dot com celebrities understood very well how easily they could be exposed. And they entrusted Riverwise to keep that from happening. “What about Thea? She’s got a background in accounting, right?”

“Thea?” 
Jace looked like he was about to choke on his spit. “The hot daughter of the alpha of the Blue Mountain pack? I thought you had your eye on that smokin’ redhead in the Northern pack? She’s shopping for a mate now, you know. You better make your move, or you’ll get aced out.”

“We’re not talking about a mate.” Jaxson’s growl definitely leaked into his voice this time. “We’re talking about a secretary.”

“Office assistant.” 
Jace’s grin was a mile wide.

Jaxson bared his fangs.

Jace just laughed. But he quickly reeled it in. “Jaxson, come on.” He held out his hands, imploring. “You know how it works. You bring Thea in here, and everyone’s going to think you’re looking to finally settle down. We’ve got three packs we could be making alliances with, and we can’t afford to piss off any of them. We need all the help we can get. Especially if we’re going to start doing direct assaults.”

“Yeah, I know.” This was not where he wanted the conversation to go. Jaxson slipped his hand into his pocket, running a thumb over the phone’s face.
Olivia.
Her name rolled around in his mind, sparking all kinds of feelings he had no right to have. Especially for a human.

Only… maybe she wasn’t. If not, she was even more dangerous to have around. But the mere possibility had his wolf sitting up and demanding they go after her. Jaxson studied the carpet in front of him, trying to decide just how big a fool he actually was. Returning the phone personally was a really bad idea. Probably why he was considering it.

“Earth to Jaxson.” Jace was waving a hand in front of his face.

Christ. 
He was such a mess.

Jaxson batted his hand away and growled.

Jace just leaned back and frowned. “What’s going on?”

“It’s nothing,” he said, taking his hand off the phone and out of his pocket.

“You can’t dodge it forever, Jaxson. You’re almost thirty. If you don’t take a mate, people are going to assume you’re like Jared.”

“I’m not
broken,
Jace.” Not like that, at least.

“Yeah. I…
know that.”
His brother frowned even deeper like he hadn’t questioned it before, but now he wondered. And Jaxson couldn’t afford for Jace to get suspicious—because his brother was too smart, and he would figure it out eventually.

Jaxson just glared at him.

Jace let out a frustrated sigh. “Man, I’m the last to push you into this, but you know the situation. The pack needs an alpha—a
mated
alpha, a leader to bring us all together—and you’re it. We need you, especially now. And the pack needs an alliance if we’re going to accomplish all the things we want. You know we can’t do all of this just with the River pack.”

“I know.” Frustration clipped his words.

“So figure out which of the hot, eligible female wolves out there floats your boat and
claim her…
now, before not having a mate tears down everything we’ve worked for.”

Jaxson rubbed a hand across his forehead. The pounding was getting steadier. “I just need a little more time, Jace. To figure this out.” He had no solution; he knew that. It was just postponing the inevitable—the day he let down his brothers, his pack, and countless other shifters for good.

“Hey.” Jace strode over to put a hand on Jaxson’s shoulder. His grip was tight, but he looked like he was making an effort to lighten things up. “I don’t want to pressure you, man. If I could take on the burden of mating with the hottest female wolf out there, I would. Maybe I could trial run a few for you.”

Jaxson shoved away his brother’s hand, but he couldn’t help the grin. “Shut up.”

Jace grinned and held his hands up in surrender, backing up. “Just saying… there are worse fates, bro.”

That killed Jaxson’s smile. Because he knew Jace and Jared would trade places with him in a heartbeat, if they could. Each had their own dark reasons for not being able to take a mate. Which only meant that carrying on the line fell to him… not to mention leading the pack and making alliances. All of it was his responsibility, and they would see no reason for him not to uphold it. But that was only because they didn’t know he had already failed them years ago.

“So what’s our new plan?” Jace asked, thankfully circling back to the mission.

“I’ll have one by the time Jared comes in.” Jaxson’s hand slipped into his pocket again without his bidding. The phone was still warm from when he held it before. “I’ll be back for the interviews as well. I’ve got some business to attend to first.”