The pack tears into the food. Jake and Vance roll kegs of beer from the nearby cellar and tap them. The air grows thick with the scent of hops and the sound of laughter.
Not even the smell of blood is enough to drown out the sweet nutmeg and orange scent that haunts me. I lean against the trunk of a towering pine, making short work of my steak and staring at the moon.
Nickel and Billy melt out of the tree line, both of them in wolf form.
Growing up in England, Nickel’s shifts were careful and controlled, timed with hunts in Northern Scotland. He still keeps his wolf on a tight schedule, but closer to the full moon, he allows himself to stay in wolf form longer.
Billy’s just a savage.
They prowl to either side of me and shift into human form. Nickel rises, shaking himself. Billy stays crouched on his haunches.
“Good hunt.” Billy’s voice is rough, his vocal chords still recovering from his shift.
“Hunter’s moon.” Nickel steps out of the shadows enough to let the moonlight bathe his face. “Pack games are coming up. We should go.”
The Pack Games, sponsored by packs all around the world, are a place for shifters to find their mates. There’s no online dating for wolves. You have to smell your mate before you know if she’s the one.
I’ve been to all the Pack Games all over the world and haven’t found my match, but of course, there might be someone new. A young she-wolf who is just now of age.
As alpha of my pack, I’m expected to find and mate with a strong she-wolf. Someone worthy of me and my legacy. Someone who can stand by my side and hold off our enemies.
My choice of mate is everything. I must choose carefully, and above all: she cannot be human. That would be unthinkable. It would put my whole pack, my family, in jeopardy. The Adalwulfs would sense weakness and attack and attack and attack until they’d wiped us from the face of the Earth.
I must do my duty and mate a she-wolf. The next Pack Games are this winter, and I should definitely go.
Instead, the mere mention of the Games makes my wolf snarl. It must be because I’m still blue-balled from lunch with Madison.
Too bad. I can’t have her. Not even as a diversion until I find my chosen mate. That wouldn’t be fair to her, and I don’t want to lose her as my assistant.
The agitation in my chest shoves up toward my throat.
Mine.
I have to clench my jaw to keep a snarl from rocketing out.
My wolf wants Madison.
But he can’t have her. An alpha wolf can’t mate a human. Especially not one in my position. I’ve had to prove my worthiness to every male and she-wolf in this pack since the day my father died. If I mated a human-the idea is ludicrous, but if I did-I would lose the confidence of everyone in the pack, and the Adalwulfs would sweep in and take everything. My pack members would defect.
It’s no doubt the outcome they wished for when they poisoned my father. No one thought I’d be able to not only maintain the loyalty of my pack members but rebuild a successful Wall Street enterprise.
“I’m in.” Billy rolls his shoulders and rises, cracking his spine.
“We know you’re in,” Nickel scoffs. “You’ve slept with half of the entire she-wolf population.”
“Seriously,” Jake joins us, holding half a turkey carcass in his bare hands. “Leave some for the rest of us.”
Nickel sniffs. “You’re one to talk. You’ve slept with the other half.”
Jake and Billy smirk and bump fists.
“So what do you say, Alpha? Shall we go to the Pack Games? Sniff out a female or two? I know Ruby can’t wait to be an aunt.” Nickel sounds like he’s joking, but he and Billy and now Jake and Vance surround me. This isn’t a casual conversation. It’s a fucking intervention.
“No,” I bite out too quickly. I try to cover it. “Not this year. But you’re welcome to go. All of you. I know Scarlett and Ruby have bets on who will find their mate first.”
“Our alpha should be first,” Jake says.
Vance snorts. “Fate doesn’t work like that. Once you find your fated mate, there’s no waiting. You claim her or die.”
The words fated mate heat my body. Like my wolf is trying to tell me something. Something I absolutely refuse to hear.
“You go moon mad,” Billy corrects.
“Exactly. You go moon mad, then you die. I once heard of this wolf who ripped out his own??”
“Are we going or not?” Billy snarls. Vance snarls back, snapping his teeth.
“Billy’s just mad because he hasn’t gotten any since the last full moon,” Nickel snarks.
“And he hates talking mates,” Vance says.
“He hates most things.” Jake tosses his leftovers into the woods and bounces on his toes, ready for a fight.
“Enough,” I let out a growl. “We’ve still got the deal with Benson. We need to stay focused.”
That shuts them up.
“I’m going to run a bit longer,” Nickel says. “Join Sully on his border rounds.”
“Bring them with you,” I point to three youngsters who have figured out how to manipulate the nozzle of one of the kegs and are spraying each other with lager. “Make them dunk in the lake first.”
“Alpha.” Nickel inclines his head and lopes forward.
The rest of my top wolves disperse. All except for Billy.
I finish my steak and let the bone drop to the forest floor. I know why Billy’s hanging around.
After a few moments, he says in a low voice. “What happened earlier today? You left the office.”
Of course he fucking knows.
“My wolf needed to blow off steam after Adalwulf showed up.”
“You took your secretary.”
I shrug. “It was still a work day.” I leave it at that. An alpha doesn’t need to explain himself.
I’ve never kept a secret from my wolf brothers before, but once again, I find myself breaking the rules for Madi.
“I don’t trust her.”
“You don’t have to trust her. She does her job.” My wolf isn’t satisfied with this. He wants to lunge at Billy, teach him to keep Madi’s name out of his mouth unless he’s speaking with respect. “Today, she entered the room. She read what was happening and did what it took for me to save face with the enemy.”
At the mention of Aiden Adalwulf, Billy’s lip curls. “That fucker shouldn’t even have been in our building.”
“It was one of his games. Our employee entered his lobby, so he invited himself over. I wasn’t about to turn him away at the door.” We’re not afraid of him.
I’m more concerned with what I’ll do to him if he ever looks at Madi again. Ripping out his eyes would only be a start.
And what would Madi think about that? She doesn’t know what I am. She’s human. She can’t know.
The world I live in is so different from hers, it might as well be in another galaxy.
“You concern yourself with closing this deal and solidifying our market dominance,” I tell Billy. “I’ll handle my assistant.”
Madi
I have an extra flounce in my step as I head out to work. I’m both nervous and excited to see Brick. We’re in uncharted territory. I didn’t know Wild Fling Madi existed, but she is on fire.
There’s a sleek black limo waiting for me at the curb. Tony the driver stands ready to open the passenger door.
“What is this?” I ask. I’m half ready to check my phone to see if I missed a notification of Brick scheduling a meeting at my apartment.
“I pick you up and drop you off from now on. Mr. Blackthroat’s orders.”
I open my mouth to argue that I take the subway then close it. “This is unexpected.”
Tony shrugs. “Don’t look a gift limo in the mouth.”
I can’t argue with that logic. I slide in and sink into the divine leather. There’s a vanilla latte waiting for me.
Holy. Crap.
My boss is spoiling me. Or is he wooing me?
Either way, I’m here for it.
I have a big smile on my face when I pull up my phone and send off Brick’s morning report with a note in the body of the email:
A limo? Really?
His reply comes a minute later.
I require my assistant to operate at peak efficiency. And to be on time.
I wonder if he’s going to think so charitably of me when he sees what I’m wearing. Another peek-a-boob dress that Aubrey helped me pick out. Exactly what Brick loves to hate.
And if I’m lucky, he’ll give me another informal reprimand.
* * *
Brick
My naughty assistant waits for me at the head of the conference table, looking like all my dirty fantasies. I should bend her over the conference table and spank her for insubordination.
The moment I think it, I nearly lose control. I can’t touch her again. It’s getting too intense for me.
I settle for a raised eyebrow at her cleavage. She smirks at me.
“I see you’re early today.”
“Yes.” She leans close under the pretense of handing me my meeting agenda. “I’m so grateful to Tony.”
“Only Tony?”
“Yes. He brought me a vanilla latte and everything. It almost made up for the time my boss disciplined me in the middle of a restaurant.”
“Your boss sounds like a dick.”
“He is.”
The door opens, and my pack brothers file in to take their seats. Even if we whisper, they’ll hear every word. As it is, Billy shoots me a questioning glance before glaring at Madi.
She ignores him, striding to the side of the room and turns on the video screen. Nickel’s face appears, his wrinkled brow smoothing when he sees us assembled.
“Nickel, good of you to join us so early in the morning.” It’s before dawn in California. “How’s the weather?”
“Sunny with a slim chance of mergers.” Nickel spends the next few minutes outlining the mood around Benson insurance. “Benson Senior is furious about his son’s actions. Junior was supposed to show up to a meeting here but blew it off. They’re trying to get a hold of him now. His shares give the Adalwulf’s more voting power, and Aiden is against the merger.”
I crumple the printed agenda into a ball. “We need something to clinch this deal. We cannot lose to the Adalwulfs.”
“We spent too much time trying to sweet talk the son,” Nickel says. “We need another way in. There are no bad ideas.”
Madi opens her mouth but hesitates. I wouldn’t notice it except I’m tuned into her.
“What?” I bark, pointing to her.
She flushes, but her voice doesn’t waver. “According to my research, Benson Junior was never driving this deal. Benson Senior is the deciding vote.”
“So?” Billy scoffs. “We know that.”
“So… he wants to retire. He spends half his time on the golf course with his CFO and COO-who apparently were both his buddies in college,” she says. “The deal you offered has no mention of securing a position for them.”
“Because once we take over a company, we clean house,” Billy says.
“Exactly.” Madi sits up straighter.
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