The Wolf Marshal's Pack (U.S. Marshal Shifters 3)

Colby laughed softly. “Imagine how motivated I am.”

He brushed back a few loose strands of her hair and then finally—disappointingly—let his hand fall to his side.

“Okay. Back to business with a smile on my face. Where did you go from here?”

Aria pointed, and the two of them went on picking their way through the woods.

She had a smile on her face too, but thoughts of Eli Hebbert couldn’t help but creep back in as she retraced her steps from that morning.

She was reassured by the sound of birdsong—usually animals had a kind of sixth sense for trouble and quieted down or scattered if anything bad was happening. Maybe it was silly, but she felt like they would have known enough to get the jitters around Hebbert. She definitely couldn’t remember them being this peppy earlier.

Now, though, the birds and squirrels were having the time of their lives. They were probably over the moon about the park rangers having gotten all those noisy, clumsy, interfering humans out of their preserve.

All but two, anyway, Aria thought. But they know we don’t mean any harm.

Her hand dropped down to check the gun Colby had loaned her. Its weight was reassuring.

If they weren’t alone in the woods, then at least they were prepared.

One more turn around a little dip full of wildflowers brought them right to the spot where Aria had come face-to-face with Eli the Homicidal Werewolf.

“This is it.” She looked around and saw nothing but grass and trees. “I feel like I should apologize for it not being more exciting.”

“Don’t,” Colby said.

He sounded distracted, and Aria noticed that he was scanning the horizon.

Not that there was much horizon to scan in a place where the trees grew so thickly. But she couldn’t shake the weird feeling that Colby was seeing further than she was.

When he took a few steps forward, she noticed that he even walked more quietly than she did, too. There was no sound of squelching mud or snapping twigs or rustling grass.

It would have been eerie in anyone else, but with him, she found it reassuring. She was actually relieved by this half-baked sense that he was some kind of Superman masquerading as a Clark Kent.

He silently motioned for her to follow him, so she did, even though her own footsteps sounded incredibly noisy in comparison.

It took her a while to see what he’d picked up on almost a quarter mile back. There was a curtain of leaves ahead of them, one that was just a little too thick and opaque to be completely natural. It looked like someone had woven a dense screen out of leaves, branches, pine needles, and maybe even blackout fabric.

From far away—to anyone but Colby—it would look like just another cluster of trees.

Up close, it was like the camouflaged entrance to a clubhouse.

Colby put out one hand in a “halt” gesture, and then pointed at his chest and then at the screen of leaves. He wanted to go ahead of her.

Aria shook her head fervently. No way.

He raised his eyebrows at her. Yes way.

She shook her head again and tapped the butt of her gun: I can watch your back.

He took out his badge, which felt like cheating: I’m a US Marshal. Stay put.

Aria made a face. She had no real way to argue with that.

Colby smiled at the sight of her wrinkling her nose, and then he leaned forward a little and took her hand. He raised it to his lips and pressed a soft, sweet kiss against her fingers.

Oh. So this is why people swoon.

Eli Hebbert could be right behind that curtain, shifted into his wolf form and salivating at the thought of tearing them to pieces—but even Aria’s fear couldn’t drown out the intensity of Colby’s mouth on her bare skin.