2. Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Gage
“I still don’t understand why you think hiring a human will work. She’ll quit within the week—just like the last three—and we’ll be back to where we started. Hell, she’ll quit before we finish scenting her.”
“And I still don’t understand how you seem to forget dominance hierarchies every time we have this conversation. Find me a dominant shifter who can sit behind a desk all day like you do, and I’ll consider them.” Levi didn’t look up from his work when he added, “ If Abby doesn’t work out.”
“You haven’t tried a submissive shifter. There has to be one that can handle us.”
“If you want the office to smell like piss every time you walk by, sure.”
As much as I was loath to admit it, my brother was right. The Silver Bullet pack was unique in that we were all highly dominant shifters. Even in small packs, there was usually more variation in the hierarchy. Not for us. Each of my teammates could be an alpha of their own pack if they wished it.
None of us wished it. We were happy to do the heavy lifting if it meant Levi had to be the one to tell us what to lift.
So, maybe we didn’t need an office assistant. Just because humans had them didn’t mean we were required to.
I suggested as much to my brother.
Levi glanced up from a manila folder in his hands, eyebrows raised. “Oh, were you still here?”
“Fuck you.” I crushed up the memo in my hand and tossed it at him. Why the hell was he sending memos anyway? There were only five of us. He could walk down the hall and tell me in person. Save some goddamn trees.
“You want me to work here? Then fire the human.”
He set the folder on his desk and leaned forward, hands clasped together beneath his chin. He looked exactly like Mom when he did that, and I hated it. “I know you don’t play well with others—”
“With humans. I don’t care if you hire a lemming shifter. I’m just not working with a human.” A high-pitched tone started blaring in my left ear, and only years of practice stopped me from flinching. So, it was going to be another one of those days.
Lately, all days were those days. Was it ever going to end?
“Remind me, was the barista that made your coffee this morning human? The mechanic who replaced your starter last month? How about our building manager?” Levi sighed. “Your anger is justified. But when are you going to move on? You live in one of the biggest human cities on the west coast! You work for human clients.”
Yes, and they were fine because they were resources. Means to an end. That was how humans viewed shifters, and it was time shifters started taking on the same attitude.
I would never move on. Picked apart piece by piece for the fun of it because humans were just sick fucks like that. I wouldn’t find a single shifter on this planet that would lock up and disembowel another creature without remorse.
Why wasn’t my brother bothered by that? How did he wake up every morning, covered in the scars of our past, and not hate every weak, pea-brained person in this hellish city?
I couldn’t ask him that for dozens of reasons, but mostly because he would answer the question with a question.
“If it bothers you so much, what are you doing here?”
I didn’t have a good answer.
Avoiding everyone that knew me before?
Clinging to the only people in the world that understood the haze that shrouded my everyday life after what happened?
Trying to protect the two hundred innocent pack mates that would be at my mercy when I finally lost my shit for good and went on a killing spree?
The buzzing in my ear got louder with that thought, and I cringed. My wolf let out a silent, unending howl.
The fact that he heard that God-awful noise too wasn’t consolation. It only meant we were both insane.
“If you want to go full anti-human and live in a remote compound in Idaho, that’s your choice. If you’re going to work here, get over it.” Levi was still talking, apparently.
“Get over it?” I scoffed, trying to play off my anxiety as anger. “Your pep talks suck.”
“I’m not going to baby you. Abby is almost done with her paperwork. She drove all the way from Minnesota for this job. I like her. I think she’ll surprise us.” Levi lifted a hand and shooed me toward the door. “The guys are already on their way to the conference room. Go scent her and get it over with.”
Scenting. Another horrifying part of working with humans.
Scenting was a necessary part of our security system. We kept close tabs on who entered this office, including the cleaning staff, and we needed to be aware if our system was breached. Even smelling an unidentified person could alert us when nothing else did.
Unfortunately, no human had yet to follow the “unscented products” rule, so scenting them was like inhaling a nauseating chemical cocktail. Didn’t they know all that shit was bad for them?
I cursed under my breath, stomping into the hallway before I realized Levi was laughing at me. I straightened, going from pouting younger brother to heartless soldier in a heartbeat.
He still thought a human could cut it working for a pack of shifters. We weren’t the kind of men who could tiptoe around some human female’s feelings.
The last one was in tears when she left my office.
I smirked to myself as I rounded the corner, dropping into a seat beside the reception desk and waiting for the guys to finish up with the new girl. Let Levi have his human pet. I would show her what she was up against, and she would turn tail before Friday.
Already, my pacing wolf was settling, ears relaxed even as the dull hum continued in the background of my awareness. He liked that idea, too.
Show her our strength.
There was a sweet scent in the air, like summer on the wind, and it had a soothing effect on both of us.
Was I crazy, or did the buzzing in my ear get quieter?
Kai and Mason were the first to go into the conference room. My brother had already given the “flirtation talk,” but that didn’t mean Kai wouldn’t bat his big green eyes at her mercilessly. The dude would fuck anything that moved, human, shifter, or space alien, and I was sure he would try his luck with new girl sooner or later.
For some reason, that added to the annoyance simmering in my veins. I tried to distract myself, mentally sifting through everything I knew about Abigail Wright.
She was newly divorced—typical human—returning to her maiden name after four years as Abigail Kowalski. Her parents were both dead and she was estranged from her only sister. Social media profiles showed no close friends. Colleagues from her previous employer said she was fantastic at her job, right up until she was laid off. Her old boss probably would have hired her back.
So, what was a woman like Abigail doing at a shifter security firm? Her sudden change of location and occupation was suspicious. Levi thought I was paranoid. Her background check came back clean, even when I went deep, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t keeping a close eye on her.
It would be easy since her desk was right outside my office. I was an intel guy, but more importantly, I read people. Noticed the little details about them that no one else did. That was why I spent hours poring over Abigail’s social media, going as far back as her high school years.
I was studying her for inconsistencies. Checking all the boxes for suspicious behavior. Apparently, it wasn’t that uncommon for humans to abandon their families and uproot their entire lives. They had no sense of loyalty to anyone or anything.
Ezra gave me the side eye as he stepped into the conference room, holding the door for me with eyebrows raised. I couldn’t see past his big frame, but I could hear the gentle murmur of a feminine voice. I waved him on with a scowl.
Best to let him finish first. Ezra was a beast of a man—most bear shifters were—but he was about as scary as a teddy bear. Of the five of us, he was least likely to be recognized for what he was. Shifter? Absolutely. He was too tall, broad, and beefy to be anything else.
But killer? Never. People took one look at his well-groomed beard, lumberjack flannel, and winning smile and they thought he was some Hallmark movie hero.
If they only knew what he was capable of.
Sometimes, I envied Ezra for his ability to move through the world so inconspicuously. Mason, too. They were disarming in their politeness, quick to make people look the other way when a hint of their violent nature rose to the surface.
Even Kai seemed so unbothered by it all. He swaggered around with that cocky smile, surfer blonde hair artfully mussed, tattoos crawling out of the collar of his shirt, not an ounce of hate showing on his face.
Levi was better than any of them. He was so nonchalant, so completely unaffected by what happened to us.
I was the only one who was broken by it, and I hated the way it made them look at me. As if I was always seconds away from completely losing it.
The buzzing in my ear rose in pitch, and I squeezed my eyes shut against the pain.
I was seconds away from losing it. I wanted to kill something.
I shot from my chair, storming to the conference room with malicious intent. This constant, maddening sound was eating away at my soul, chipping pieces from me until I was nothing but the most base, destructive version of myself.
I shouldn’t have come to Seattle. Shouldn’t have left Alaska. I should have gone Wildling years ago, taking off into the mountains, never to be seen again.
Voices flooded the lobby as the soundproofed door for the conference room banged open. They halted abruptly, four heads turning to me where I stood in the doorway, chest heaving.
All at once, my world shifted. That incessant noise stopped, and the quiet that followed was equally maddening. I could hear myself think for the first time since—I couldn’t remember the last time my head was this clear.
But that meant experiencing the full weight of every sensation as it hit me. The scent of summer wind tickled my throat, and I sucked in another lungful. Deep-set eyes brown eyes peered at me, wide and unblinking.
Abigail was pretty in her pictures in a very average sort of way. In person, sleek hair tucked neatly in a bun to reveal the soft angles of her pale face, she was stunning.
Literally. I must have stood there for a full minute, staring at her as if she was the first woman I’d ever seen.
My entire awareness was her.
I didn’t hear it when Mason asked, “You good, Gage?” and I was only peripherally aware when Kai and Ezra shifted closer to form a barrier between Abigail and me.
The growl that thundered from me was new, unlike any sound I’d ever heard from my own throat. Whatever it meant, Kai and Ezra reacted immediately and instinctively, backing away from the new girl and leaving her completely open for my attack.
I wasn’t gentle when I took the back of her neck in my hand and tilted her head to expose her throat, but she didn’t resist me, either. I had no recollection of moving across the room, no coherent memory before my skin was on hers.
There was a pop in my chest, a missing piece clicking into place after decades of waiting.
No. This can’t be happening.
Yes, my wolf insisted. Finally. Yes.
He was running the show now, overriding any fight I could put up and inclining my head to take in the full, heady scent of her.
Her heartbeat pounded in my ears, a welcome relief from that painful buzz. The softest breath fluttered from her lips onto the side of my cheek as I memorized every distinct note of her unique scent.
It took enormous effort to unlock my fingers from around her nape. I was too rough as I shoved away from her, and she staggered back, half-falling, half-sitting on the edge of the table behind her.
I was suddenly aware of the web of tension ensnaring the room, three motionless shifters springing into action as I snarled. Part of me was relieved that they were protecting her. A more primal, inhuman part of me was furious.
My wolf leapt to the surface, scrambling for purchase in my mind. He wanted control, to drag me back to where the breathless, blushing new girl was gaping at me.
I couldn’t give in to him. I was jumping from one extreme to another.
First, I was going to kill her, now I was going to claim her in the conference room in front of the whole team?
Fuck this.
Levi appeared around the corner, shouting at me. I ignored him, running from the conference room and straight out of the office door.
“Did he hurt you?” I heard him ask Abigail.
“N-no. Only startled me,” she said in a shaky voice.
She wasn’t looking at Levi when she said it, though. The heavy door to the office was closing behind me and still, I could feel her eyes on me.
A strange phantom limb had grown through my sternum, reaching behind me as I took the stairs from the third floor two at a time. It tugged persistently, confused when I denied the urge to turn back.
The air outside was anything but fresh. It stank of city, a suffocating collection of the scented shit humans liked to paint themselves in. A ceiling of grey clouds blotted out the sun, matching my dark mood as I hurried down the sidewalk and turned the corner.
I had no destination. I only knew that I had to get out of there, had to get away from her before she made my life that much more miserable.
Three more turns and I was suddenly surrounded by foot traffic. Humans everywhere, staring blankly ahead as incoherent noise blared through wireless earbuds. They were the only animals on the planet that gathered in such massive numbers, yet pretended they were completely alone. No one raised their heads to acknowledge each other, no one smiled in greeting.
Even an aggressive noise would have been better than this empty way they moved about the world.
A low hum turned into a buzz, high-pitched, radiating from my left ear down my body. My fingers flexed, spine stiffening.
It hurt, making my head pound and my mouth dry. I wanted to kill something.
I wanted to kill them. All of them.
A man in a suit stepped too close to me, brushing my shoulder, and I whirled, teeth bared, eyes glowing, wolf on the cusp of breaking free.
Except, the wolf redirected that energy so fluidly I didn’t immediately notice I was moving again, running the other way, and leaving the startled man quaking in his shoes. A block from the office, I stopped, head tilted as my wolf urged me to listen.
Traffic passing on the street, music, a phone call blaring through someone’s speaker in their car.
The buzzing was a background noise, faint enough that my muscles unclenched, body relaxing in anticipation for what would come if I followed that phantom limb back up to the third floor.
I allowed myself ten more steps, then ten more, exhaling as I stepped through the metal detector and then up to the stairwell. Nick gave me an odd look as I passed his desk, muttering a polite greeting and thankfully avoiding eye contact.
By the time I reached the third floor, the phantom limb protruding from my chest was vibrating.
I punched in the code for the door, pushing it open slowly, as if my pack mates were right on the other side, waiting to ambush me.
No one was there. I stepped onto the carpeted floor, taking in the varying shades of green from Ezra’s plants. The reception desk sat empty. The door to the conference room was open, the space vacated. Distantly I could hear talking, multiple voices weaving together in relaxed conversation.
That was all. My left ear still tingled, but the sensation was fading. I took an involuntary breath, my entire system rebooting.
How was this possible?
For years I’d been desperate, trying every woo-woo technique the pack elders taught to rewire my instincts. None of it worked. No meditation, visualization, breathing techniques, talk therapy, medicinal herbs—nothing. Nothing worked.
Now this? This woman that minutes ago I had labeled as enemy numero uno had taken this life altering rage that was constant and all-consuming, and turned it into fairy dust?
My wolf shimmied with delight. I scowled, red flags waving around me.
I was missing something. I had to be. There was no way that—I just couldn’t fathom—
I stalked to my office, ignoring the sudden obsessive need to go find her, spend another hour with my face buried in her neck.
Whoever Abigail was, I didn’t trust her. I knew better than to let another human trick me into thinking they were different from the rest. They were all the same. Didn’t matter if she was pretty, if her pale skin made me think poetic shit like gentle blushing sunrises.
She had power over me, and I couldn’t accept that. At the same time, her presence was affording me a clarity I hadn’t known in years. I would need that clarity to understand what was happening, to study her and find out exactly what she was up to.
Before, my plan was to get her out of here by whatever means necessary. Now the plan had changed. I would keep her close, break down her walls, and learn what she was hiding behind them.
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.