Alpha's Rescue (Shifter Ops 5)

“Yeah. Now go to sleep.”

So bossy. But he’s warm and holding me the way I want, so instead of arguing, I do as he says.

4

Teddy

Six a.m. sharp, I open my eyes. There’s a robin outside my window shrieking its head off. It’s overly-excited because it’s spring, and it’s trying to attract a mate and get laid.

Me too, crazy bird. Me too.

Lana is a warm, sleeping bundle tucked into my body. We spent the night together, me leaving only twice, once to check the perimeter and once to put her wet clothes in the dryer. I slept in my jeans, but my cock is doing its best to punch through the denim to nestle itself in the sweet, sweet crevice of Lana’s ass.

With a groan, I pull away from her sexy perfection and extricate myself from the blankets. My dick is so hard, I walk stiff legged to the bathroom and close the door. A few minutes stroking my dick, picturing Lana’s glorious curves, and I’m spilling over my hand like a teenager.

But when I open the door and get a face full of Lana’s honeyed scent, my dick turns to steel all over again. It didn’t even take the edge off, but it’ll have to do.

I step out into the cool dawn and pull out my phone. I fire off a few texts—one to my brother Matthias, letting him know his patient had a good night, and he should come by and check on her. Another one to my friend Rafe Lightfoot in Taos. Rafe is alpha of the Black Wolf pack. He and his whole pack were in my unit in the Army, and now they run a security operation that allows them to run black ops missions on the side. If they can’t track Lana’s shithead stepbrother, no one can.

I borrow Lana’s pack to dig out her driver’s license and shoot a picture of it to Rafe. Lana’s still sleeping, her breathing even. She probably won’t wake for a while, but when she does, she’ll be hungry. I need to get supplies. Luckily the Bad Bear Trading Post is open at the crack of dawn.

On my way into town, Matthias rings back.

“How’s the patient?” My doctor brother sounds alert for the early hour. He’s like me, an early riser.

“She’s healing.”

“Does she remember anything?”

“I don’t know.”

“I got a message to the leech in Las Cruces. He’s on standby.”

I bare my teeth. That’s the same vampire who mindwiped Tiffany. From what I remember, he enjoyed the irony of living in a town called “The Crosses.” Leech humor is weird.

“The sooner we do it, the fewer memories we’ll have to take,” Matthias continues. He sounds so practical. I want to punch him.

The thought of mind wiping the beautiful woman in my bed makes me sick. What if it messes her up? What if it changes her thinking patterns or her sunny personality? It could turn her into a different person. It could ruin her life.

And selfishly, I don’t want her to forget about me.

But the alternative is worse. “What are the chances she’ll just forget what she saw for good?”

“The healing serum I gave her is powerful. Sooner or later, she’ll remember everything.”

Damn.

Matthias lets the silence stretch. When it’s clear I’m not going to say anything, he asks, “Do you want me to do it? After my patients today, I could pick her up and take her.”

“No.” I blow out a breath, bracing myself and forcing the image of Lana lying peacefully in my bed out of my mind. I had her in my arms for one night. It’ll have to be enough. “When it’s time to mindwipe her, I’ll do it myself.”

Lana

Once again, the cute curtains greet me as soon as I open my eyes. The bears are dancing in the breeze, letting in the strong morning light. I feel like a bulldozer ran over me, but in a good way. There’s no sharp pain in my head, and I’m woozy like I spent most of the night in a deep sleep.

I’m alone, but there’s a mountain man-sized dent in the bed next to me. Evidence that Teddy spent the whole night beside me. He must have woken up early and let me sleep in.

“Teddy?” I roll out of bed, yawning. I’m still in his boxers and t-shirt, but my freshly washed clothes have magically appeared on the foot of the bed. The morning is chilly, so I put on my pink pants. I swap the t-shirt for my camisole and snag a plaid shirt to cover my arms. The sleeves hang over my wrists until I roll them up, but I can’t button it over my breasts. If I’m staying here much longer, I’ll need clothes.

And how much longer am I going to be staying here? Yesterday, I was out of it, but I should figure out how to find Bentley and get off this mountain. Get out of Teddy’s hair. I at least need to get my phone fixed and charged.