Alpha's Moon (Shifter Ops 1)

I stand, a shiver of pleasure running through me, coming straight from my wolf. I sense his desire to yip and spin around.

Well, I’ll be damned.

My wolf is happy. Excited, even.

I walk out of the lodge and down to the river, hiking uphill along the bank to release some of the pent-up energy. I need to figure out what I’m going to tell Rafe. How to present this.

It’s a mission. Not a date.

I’m not engaging with a human on a social basis. It’s a job.

A half mile up, I come across Lance fishing in the stream. I shake my head because I seriously don’t get it. We’re predators. We hunt animals on four legs. We don’t need to stand at the water’s edge in human form with a fishing pole to catch food.

“Don’t say it,” Lance murmurs, correctly reading my thoughts. I presume he’s speaking quietly to not scare off the fish.

“I didn’t say a word.” I stand beside him. The sounds of the wilderness register as peaceful for once. I always crave the wild, and I absolutely love living here where we can roam the mountain on four paws or two wheels at any moment, but this afternoon feels different.

Like I almost understand Lance’s urge to fish. It’s not about the catch. It’s about the quiet. Standing at the cold water’s edge and watching it babble by. Listening to the trees.

Why is my wolf so calm?

Sadie, I almost hear him whisper.

I shake my head. I can’t have Sadie. Sadie’s not for keeping.

Lance shoots me a curious look. “You seem… different.”

I don’t answer. I can’t tell him about Sadie because there’s nothing going on. And nothing will go on.

“It’s the teacher, isn’t it?”

I draw in a sharp breath at the mere mention of her.

“She calms the madness,” I finally admit.

“She seems sweet.”

Just hearing him talk about her makes my heart surge up and bounce in my chest. “She is,” I say gruffly. “But it’s not like that. I’m not getting involved.”

“Right.” Lance looks into the river, probably so I don’t have to lie to his face.

“Her ex is bothering her,” I explain. “And she asked me to pretend to be her boyfriend to scare him off.”

Now Lance looks over and his brows pop up in surprise. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” I scrub a hand over my face.

“Fuck, Deke. That sounds like trouble. Does she know you’re likely to put that ex of hers in a body bag?”

A sick feeling stirs in my gut. “That won’t happen,” I say gruffly although I’m not even half sure that’s true.

If that guy laid one fucking hand on her, I would kill him. No question.

But that doesn’t seem to be the nature of her perturbance. The fact that she doesn’t seem too hurt by the guy in general soothes my wolf’s need to exact justice for her. It seems like he’s more of an annoyance than a real threat—to her heart or to her person.

“I don’t know, Deke. The last human female you protected landed you with an assault and battery charge. And you would’ve flat-out killed the guy if we hadn’t been there. I’m not saying you weren’t justified, I just—”

“I know,” I snap. “I lose control. My wolf goes into war-mode in every situation.”

“I would hate for that sweet teacher to ever see that side of you,” Lance says in a gentle voice. “That’s all.”

A low growl rumbles from my chest. I actually think my wolf is growling at the idea of me scaring Sadie. It’s true I would want to punch my own face if that ever happened.

“I won’t touch the ex,” I vow. “But I’m not going to refuse Sadie the favor.”

I couldn’t.

I feel bad I’m leaving for the weekend when the team is trying to discover how we got made in Switzerland, but at the moment it feels like we’re chasing shadows, and Sadie needs me.

“I get it.” Lance snags a fish on his hook and tugs, pulling a flopping rainbow trout out of the water.

I rumble my appreciation. If he catches a few more, we can all have fish for dinner. He gently withdraws the hook and drops the fish in his net in the water. “Just be careful. I like Sadie—”

He breaks off when a ferocious growl erupts from my throat.

“Not in that way,” he says quickly. “Not at all. Dude—that’s what I”m talking about. I don’t know if you can pull this off.”

Shit. He may be right. But backing out now is not an option.

“I’ll pull it off,” I swear. “Sadie will be safe with me.”

Chapter 7

Sadie

My belly is full of butterflies on the day of the wedding trip. I only told my friends about my plus-one to the wedding but not my dad or even Scott, who tried very hard to get me to drive with him. I knew if I told Scott, he’d go running to my dad, and I didn’t want to deal with the mountain of judgement that would crash down on my head over associating myself so closely with what my dad would clearly describe as an unsavory character.