Puzzles and Admissions

CONNOR

The infirmary door clicked shut behind me, and the sound felt louder than it should’ve in the sterile quiet of the hallway.

~If anything happens to anyone in my pack, you’ll get your wish. I ~will~ kill you.~

My words tasted sharp and metallic, like acid on my tongue.

Lisa was already halfway down the corridor with clothes in her hands—pale blues and grays, soft and clean. She glanced, met my eyes, and gave a tight, clipped nod. I returned it, grateful.

She understood what to do. She always did.

I told myself that this was smart, alpha behavior. Willow needed space to think, to breathe, to feel comfortable before I asked for more.

My wolf, however, was howling. “~Turn around. Go back. See her. Touch her. Smell her.~” More than anything, he wanted me to take back my words before they shattered something between Willow and me.

But I couldn’t, not without failing the pack. I had to choose them over Willow, even knowing that I’d be shredded if my choice resulted in her harm or death.

If it ever came to carrying out my warning, I’d never survive it. There was no way I’d still be myself on the other side.

The mate bond tangled in my chest, a tether I didn’t ask for but was there all the same.

Exhaling hard, I shoved open the door to the outside and stepped into the cold wash of tepid sunlight. There was work to do, leads to chase before they went cold. I had to keep moving, stay sharp, and follow my instincts.

Not this gnawing, magnetic pull I couldn’t yet claim.

My boots crunched over gravel as I crossed to my Jeep on autopilot. The whole way, one question kept rattling around my brain: How did the humans get her?

Wolves didn’t abandon their pups; they basically couldn’t~.~

The bond between parent and pup was unbreakable. And if her parents had died, the pack would’ve taken her in—that was one of our oldest laws. Also, a pack certainly wouldn’t want to lose strong alpha blood, if her parents were alphas as we suspected.

So, she likely hadn’t been given away.

But if she’d been taken, wouldn’t the whole werewolf world have gone to war over it? I’d never heard of such a thing happening, but I could imagine volunteering up my warriors to get a pup back if it did.

That left accidental—something had happened to her parents, and humans had found her before her pack could. But that raised another question: Had they known from the start she was a werewolf?

No way. That was impossible.

Unless it was by design.

A frustrated growl clawed up my throat as I got into my car. My fingers dug into the wheel, aching with the need to do something. I wanted answers, and a part of me knew I wouldn’t get them from Willow.

She didn’t seem to know any more than I did. But even if she did, why would she tell me? I’d ordered her capture, imprisonment, interrogation, and torture. I wouldn’t blame her if she never trusted me—or anyone—going forward.

I raked a hand through my hair and stared at the trees. Somewhere out there was the truth. And if there was any in her, I wouldn’t take it, not after what I’d done to her. She’d have to offer it.

So, I’d wait. And in the meantime, I’d hunt for my own answers.

The Jeep rumbled to life, and before I could sink even further into my stormy thoughts, Josh mind-linked me.

“~Alpha, I’ve got a hit on that number plate.~”

Hope crackled through me like caffeine and lightning. I fired back a reply. “~Gather the men in my office. I’ll be there in five.~”

***

Ben, Travis, Carl, and Josh were all there when I stepped in. They greeted me with a nod before Ben took the lead.

“The plate’s registered to a company called BT Holdings,” he said, “but there’s nothing there. It’s a shell wrapped in more shells. A corporate nesting doll with no heart.”

I frowned. “That’s a red flag in itself, isn’t it?”

“Maybe.” Josh shrugged. “I’ll keep digging, but it still gave us nothing solid.”

~Shit~. “What about the truck Willow rode in with? Its driver?”

Ben shook his head. “CCTV cameras at the truck stop were busted except for one. Luckily, it faced the passenger side as vehicles entered, so we caught sight of Willow. She came in on a white eighteen-wheeler.”

“Which narrows it down to basically half of every privately owned truck in the state,” Carl interjected. “We’re still working on getting footage from somewhere to the east and west down the highway, but it’s looking like a needle in a haystack.”

~Double shit.~ I blew out a breath. “How about the email?”

“Whoever sent that email has gone silent,” Josh said. “The account was created the same day they sent the messages. One email out, only that first reply, no logins since. Our second reply hasn’t even been opened.”

“Any missing shewolves reported?” I asked Carl.

“Nothing, Alpha. Checked every pack registry here in Washington and in the neighboring states. Even with the council.” Carl crossed his arms. “Did the girl say anything else?”

~“The girl.”~ That scraped over something raw and newly open inside me. “She remembers nothing useful,” I said. “She was raised in a lab by humans who told her she was a monster that needed a cage. Never saw the outside world. No idea where the place is.”

Silence settled over the room, thick and uncomfortable.

“She says she’s not here to hurt anyone,” I continued. “Not intentionally. And I believe her.”

“Okay,” Ben said, shifting on his feet, “but what if she’s someone else’s puppet?”

“Exactly.” Travis nodded. “She shows up the same day we get that message. It can’t be a coincidence. We need to interrogate her again. Use other—”

“No.” My alpha voice whipped through the air.

My wolf surged forward, too close to the surface now. My teeth were bared; my rage boiled. The air in the room thickened with my alpha dominance, a pressure storm that crashed down on them.

“She escaped ~hell~,” I snarled, causing them to flinch. “And we almost sent her right back. You ~will not~ interrogate her again.”

Ben opened his mouth, but my wolf stopped him with a growl, a warning, low and final.

“She’s my mate,” I finally told them.

That silenced the room as shock swept through them.

“She’s…your mate?” Ben asked, his voice barely a whisper.

I nodded.

Travis went pale. Josh stared at the floor. Guilt and shame hung around them in heavy clouds.

“We’ll leave her be, Alpha,” Travis said, bowing his head. “Congratulations. And…I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“None of us knew.” I sighed and relaxed my posture. “Really, no hard feelings. You did what I asked. But”—I scrunched my nose—“you might want to beg ~her~ forgiveness.”

Travis grimaced. “Yeah. I reckon I will.”

***

She was on the alpha floor; I could smell her.

That scent. Gods, it was driving me out of my fucking mind. Lavender and vanilla plus something green, minty. Something mine.

My wolf paced under my skin, snarling and restless. I tried to work, to read reports, to scroll through camera feeds. Anything to stay busy.

But then I heard it: a tap running, water filling a tub.

I imagined the steam, the bubbles, her stepping into the hot bath.

My brain short-circuited. Images slammed into me: her body slick and wet, with droplets tracing every inch, steam curling in her inky black hair, and her scent magnified in the heat.

A low rumble built in my chest before I could stop it.

~Fuck it.~ I moved before thinking, letting instinct take the wheel.

I creaked open her door and stepped inside like a burglar. The air in the room was thick with her. Her presence had already soaked into the walls, floor, and discarded clothes on the bed.

Reaching for her shirt, I lifted it to my face. It was a standard pack cache item, but the lingering scent was all hers. I inhaled once, then twice.

And that was when the bathroom door opened.

She stepped into the bedroom, dripping and gloriously naked. Her eyes were wide and sharp when mine landed on them.

I froze, guilty, caught red-handed.

She clutched the towel to her chest in a scramble of limbs and wet hair. “What the actual hell are you doing?” she demanded, backing up a step.

Heat scalded my neck, and I dropped the shirt as if it’d burned me. “I… Shit. Sorry. I just wanted to make sure you had everything you needed.” I looked away to stop the blush. But it didn’t help.

My brain had already taken a mental snapshot of every visible inch of her skin.

“I’m sorry. I’ll go.” I stepped toward the door.

“Wait.” She held out a hand, and I stopped, met her gaze. Instead of narrowing, her eyes widened as she clenched the towel. She shifted on her feet before saying, “I want to learn about wolves. About…my wolf. Could you teach me?”

The knot in my chest loosened. I smiled. “Yeah. I can do that.”