The Wolf Within (27 page)

***

“So now what?” I asked Dan after I’d shown him the guest room. Jase’s nerves were catching, twenty minutes of lugging bags, throwing laundry into my machine and general busy-making hadn’t made me feel any better. The thought of sitting around doing nothing made me even edgier.

“Now I go to work and you go to your office.” He drained the coffee I’d made and took his mug to the sink.

Office? “I thought you wanted my help.” I stirred my own coffee with more force than necessary.

Dan came back over to me, rubbing his jaw. He hadn’t shaved and stubble darkened the lines of his face. Which only made him look more appealing. I curled my hands around my coffee.

“I do. But I’m going to the crime scene. You don’t really want to see that, do you?”

I pressed my lips together as my stomach flipped. “No, not really.” Not if you paid me, actually.

“Good. Then you go to your office and do what you do. You’ll be safe there. I’ll send Esme and another agent over.”

Safe? What was I? The good little girl who needed to be protected?
Exactly
, the little voice inside my head said. I sighed. I knew Dan was right but I didn’t have to like it.

“I hardly think hanging out with Esme is safe. She hates me.”

“She doesn’t hate you.”

I stared at him, wondering if he was really that oblivious. But I wasn’t going to say ‘she hates me because you like me’ because that would require talking about the sorts of things Dan and I were
not
going to talk about.

“What about this whole you’re meant to keep an eye on me for Ani thing?”

“The other agent’s a werewolf. A married werewolf. He’ll know what to do. You don’t have any weird urges, do you?” He smiled at me and moved closer. There was a twinkle in his eye that boded no good.

I looked away.
Weird
urges, no. Downright suicidal lascivious urges, well, I had plenty of those.

Dan flirting with me wasn’t helping me pretend I didn’t.

Time for a change of subject. “Does that mean Esme’s not a wolf?”

Dan grinned. “You’ll have to ask her that yourself.”

Yeah, right. Me and Esme and a cozy little girl chat about shape-shifting, I could just see it now.

***

“So, you’re a werewolf now?” Esme asked as soon as Agent Stevens—the wolf Dan had sent with her—left with Jase to get food.

I almost choked on my water. I wasn’t surprised she knew. The whole Taskforce knew what had happened to me. But I
was
surprised she’d asked.

I studied her face but her dark blue eyes gave nothing away. “Yes. I’m a wolf.” Was it my imagination or did she look a little disappointed?

Esme crossed her long legs, sitting even straighter—if that were possible—in the chair she’d pulled round to my side of the desk. So she could watch the door apparently. Personally, I figured it was to drive me nuts.

“Dan must be happy,” she said, looking at me without blinking.

“Yes, he’s thrilled,” I deadpanned. “What do you want to know, Esme?”

She swallowed but her eyes didn’t leave mine. I knew this game, whoever looked away first was weaker. It was a dominance thing as I’d started to learn from the pack. And I’d go to hell before I’d let Esme think she was higher up the food chain than me. So I just stared back, not blinking.

My eyes were just about to start watering when she looked away.

Thank God.

“Does this mean that you and he. . . .” she trailed off, looking closer to flustered than I’d ever seen her.

Did I want to wind her up or should I tell her the truth? I considered the issue. Annoying Esme was a fringe benefit but whatever I told her was sure to spread around the Taskforce pretty quickly—I had no illusions she’d keep her mouth shut. So did I want them thinking I was going along with the whole claim thing—if only to buy myself some peace and quiet—or did I confess?

And if I confessed, would I become an object of interest for any single male werewolves in the Taskforce?

Regardless of what Ben and Natalie had told me about bonding and smelling like Dan, there’d been a few men at the Retreat who’d not so subtly let me know they were looking forward to the end of the month already. I didn’t know if there were single agents in the Taskforce but the law of averages said there had to be. I wanted to focus on Tate, not letting werewolves down gently. Of course, there might be one or two who I wouldn't want to let down.

Oh, who was I kidding? Until I got my yen for Dan safely locked away again, another man was about as likely to raise my interest as Jase was.

I leaned back in my chair, trying to look casual. “Dan called claim on me.” I said.

For once Esme’s expression was uncontrolled. She looked shocked. “And you agreed?” She
sounded
shocked.

Was it petty that her reaction was somehow satisfying? I slouched further into my chair, put my hands behind my head. “What can I say? He’s pretty persuasive.”

“I wouldn’t know,” she said. Her voice seemed a touch . . . sad, maybe?

Guilt twinged and I dropped my hands. The ice princess had feelings after all. It was nice to know but I still didn’t know if she’d had genuine hopes. She’d need to be a wolf to have those. Because long term, Dan wouldn’t be settling down with any who wasn’t.

“Can I ask you something?”

She nodded.

“Are you a werewolf?”

“No.” She uncrossed her legs and slumped just a little.

Ah. Then she might be upset with me but she couldn’t really hold Dan against me. It was the perfect opportunity to satisfy my curiosity about her. “Do you mind if I ask what you are?”

“Can’t you tell?”

“How would I do that?”

“My scent?”

I frowned. Then took a deep breath through my nose, trying to break down her scent. She wore perfume—something precisely floral with a sharp green undertone. But underneath the perfume there was the tang I was beginning to associate with shifters.

But Esme didn’t smell like the wolves. No. She smelled exotic. Less like earth and woods and more like lush green things that needed heat and sun. I closed my eyes took another breath, trying to
see
the smell.

Gold. And heat. And . . . no, I couldn’t get it.

“I can tell you’re not a wolf, now that I think about it.” I opened my eyes. “But I haven’t smelled any other species since I changed. So I don’t know what you are.”

“Do you want to take a guess?”

She looked kind of smug. I figured that meant she was something a little out of the ordinary. If I had to go by her appearance, I’d guess something Nordic but my knowledge of Scandinavian wildlife wasn’t exactly great. And she hadn’t smelled like ice and snow.

She sat still while I looked at her. Something in the way she held herself seemed vaguely feline. So maybe a lion? Or a tiger? Those were the two most common cat breeds. But I doubted Esme was common. “I give up. Bobcat?”

It wasn’t a serious guess. I didn’t even know whether there
were
bobcat shifters. But I didn’t want her thinking I thought she was the Queen of the Jungle type.

Esme practically bristled, mouth pursing. “
No
. Do I really look like a bobcat to you?”

I hid a smile. I wouldn’t know a bobcat if one bit my ass. “Leopard?”

She looked slightly mollified. “No. But closer. I’m a jaguar.”

Ms. Tall and Blond was a jaguar? Weren’t they black? Or was that something else? Then again, maybe cat’s coloring didn’t reflect their human form like wolves’ did.

“Interesting. Are there many jaguars in Seattle?”

She shook her head. “Just me. We’re not pack animals.”

I shrugged. Not pack animals sure, but being one of a kind had to be kind of lonely. Maybe that explained the terminal snottiness.

But lonely or not, Esme wasn’t really my problem. My problem was Tate. So I really needed to turn on my computer and get to work. But I hadn’t touched it since the day Tate had snatched Bug and now I found myself highly reluctant to do so.

“Is something wrong?” Esme asked after I’d spent five minutes shuffling files around my desk.

“No. What could be wrong?” Hopefully she didn’t know what a forensic accountant did and wouldn’t catch on I was stalling.

“You haven’t turned on your computer.”

So much for stalling. “I’m thinking.”

“Thinking isn’t going to catch Tate.”

“Thinking is the only thing that’s going to catch Tate,” I retorted. “He’s smart. And he’s about fifty steps ahead of us already.”

“All the more reason for you to turn on your computer and get to work.”

Snotty yet accurate. That was annoying.

I gritted my teeth. “It’s hard to concentrate with you sitting there.”

“Dazzled by my beauty?”

I blinked. Was that a joke? What? We’d bonded now because I knew she was a jaguar?

Great. A big, black, cat as my new best girlfriend. Some people would take that as a sign of bad luck. Mostly I just wished I could chase her out of the room. “Sorry, you're not my type.”

“Then quit stalling and get to work. I have to watch you, Dan made it an order.”

Fabulous. Perhaps the black cat thing
was
bad luck. I certainly hadn’t been catching many breaks since the Taskforce had come back into my life.

Out of excuses, I reached out and hit the power button on my computer. It took its time warming up but eventually my familiar island beach wallpaper filled the screen.

For a moment I wished I could escape to an island and laze around sipping mai-tais but that wasn’t going to happen as long as Tate was on the loose. Which was going to be quite some time if I didn’t start looking for him again.

But first things first. I checked my email—lots of increasingly demanding messages from clients frustrated with my sudden absence—then went to open my Tate files. Only to come up with a big fat zero.

The folders had disappeared.

I swore softly under my breath.

“What’s wrong?” Esme asked, looking up from her PDA.

“Nothing.” I tilted the monitor toward me so she couldn’t see. I wasn’t ready to confess the disaster just yet. After all, everything on my computer was backed up daily. So there might not even be a disaster.

I heard Jase and Agent Stevens come through the front door. “Jase, get your butt in here,” I yelled.

He appeared in roughly a second. “What’s up?”

I motioned him round to my side of the desk and pointed to my screen. “Take a look.”

His eyes widened as he took in the blank space on my screen where the Tate files should be. “Oh crap. Don’t worry, I’ll check the backups.”

Esme reached out and straightened the monitor. “What’s going on?”

“Small computer glitch. Don’t worry, Jase will restore my files.”

“Um, no he won’t,” Jase said, coming back into the room. “The server’s bare too.”

My stomach plummeted, “Everything?”

“Only the Tate files. But to get those, they would’ve had access to everything. Assuming it’s not just a glitch.” The look on his face made it obvious he didn’t think it was.

“Someone’s hacked your system?” Esme said in a dangerously quiet voice. “How?”

My turn to bristle. This wasn’t my fault. I’d been busy turning into a werewolf. I hadn’t even
been
in my office for a week. “You tell me, your Taskforce geeks were meant to secure it.”

“Don’t touch anything,” she ordered, pulling out her cell phone. “I’ll get a team here.”

Wonderful. More feds swarming my office. Why couldn’t I just have a nice normal day chasing debits and credits?

An hour after Esme called in the nerd squad, we were still no wiser about what had happened to my data and then, to complete my wonderful day, Dan stormed in. Closely followed by Bug.

“Aunt Bug!” I sprinted into her arms. I hadn’t seen her since the hospital. I’d talked to her but the wolves hadn’t wanted her around for my change. “How are you?” I pulled back so I could take a good look. She looked good. Far less tired.

She fixed me with those eagle eyes. “I’m fine. You’re the one we should be talking about.”

“I’m okay,” I said, hugging her again just so I could breathe in her perfume and feel safe for a second. “What are you doing here?” I didn’t want to go into all the details of the last week with an audience of agents. Or Dan. Who stood just next to Bug, looking furious.

“What?” I said to him.

“Esme said your system’s been hacked,” he rumbled.

I nodded. “It’s not my fault.”

“I didn’t say it was. But you’re working at the Taskforce from now on.”

Looking at his face, I knew there’d be no point arguing. He looked ready to bite someone’s head off. And for a werewolf, that might just be literally. I liked my head where it was. Plus he
smelled
mad. All kind of electric and smoky. It was almost arousing in a weird kind of way. I threw up my hands. “Fine. But not today.” Any more drama and I was going to have to hurt someone.

“Why not?”

“Because I want to spend time with Bug,” I said defiantly. “And besides, your team’s taken my stuff hostage.”

Bug’s head was swiveling between the two of us, amusement unmistakable in her eyes. Which didn’t improve my mood.

“Everything here is replicated at the Taskforce, you know that.”

He meant the data, not my office itself. The Taskforce didn’t have my favorite chair, or my music or my very expensive Italian espresso machine. And it had Dan. That was four strikes you’re out as far as I was concerned.

I folded my arms across my chest. “How am I supposed to see my clients at the Taskforce?”

“You’re not.”

My jaw dropped. “Excuse me?”

“We don’t know who’s safe and who’s not. It’s too risky.”

“Me going bankrupt because all my clients dump me is risky,” I protested. “I’ve known a lot of my clients for years.”

“Some, not all. And I wouldn’t put it past Tate to set something up years in advance, would you?”

My next protest died on my lips. Planting some sleeper crazy in my client list was exactly the sort of thing Tate would find amusing. “What am I supposed to do? I have commitments. I have bills to pay.”