She crunched up the wrapper from her sandwich. “So we’ll ambush him with this crappy news about a Green Beret werewolf on your home turf.”
I shrugged a shoulder and nodded. “Basically.”
“Sounds good to me.” She started to check for any sign of someone following us and sighed. “Sorry about your mirror.”
“It can be fixed.”
“How’s your ankle?”
No sense lying. I shrugged. “Hurts like an S-O-B but I’m not fishing out a bullet, so I’m not complaining.” I started to smile. “Can’t say the same for the other guy. That was an amazing shot, by the way.”
“Thanks.” She tucked her hair back behind her ear. “I would’ve had him if he hadn’t ducked.”
“I’m sure the moving car didn’t help.”
“Probably not.”
Sasha turned toward the window. I couldn’t help but wonder what she was thinking. I’d never met a woman like her. So calm and cool when it counted. Lethal. And yet she didn’t have an ego.
In the passenger seat, she sipped her coffee. Without a drop of make-up on, weapons at the ready at all times, she was hands down the sexiest woman I’d ever known. I only wished our homecoming could be a happier occasion.
Nothing about this was going to be easy or joyful. If my mate were anyone else, she’d be welcomed into the Pack with open arms. I wanted my family to be hers too. Wishful thinking.
Delusional thinking.
At least Sasha would get to see the younger sister she loved so much. She’d mentioned Nadya was all she had, but I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. Sasha never mentioned her parents—they could be dead, have abandoned their daughters, anything. I pressed my lips together to fight off the urge to ask.
Soon I pulled into the gravel drive of the cabin and hit the button for the security gate. We rolled up to the two-story, redwood log cabin. The sunlight sparkled on the arched glass window spanning both stories and overlooking the lake. Sasha shook her head. “You call this a cabin?” She raised a brow. “Handsome and rich too? Damn, wolf, you’ve got it going on.”
I turned off the engine and grinned. “You know how you told me you never miss with a gun?” She nodded. “I’m like that with business deals. Come on, I’ll show you around.”
We walked around the deck to the door, but before I could unlock it, she moved in front of me, running her fingers over the distressed hardware and ornate handle of the dark, solid oak double doors. “These are really beautiful.”
“Thanks. Jared made them for me. He’s an amazing carpenter.”
“Part of your Pack, I assume?” She stepped inside with me.
“Yeah, he’s Jason’s twin brother.”
She stopped and turned toward me. “So the rumors were true? Werewolves are always born as a set of twins?”
“Yeah, male twins. Only males carry the shifter gene.”
“Jaguars are similar but twins are rare. Since only the males carry the shifter gene for us, too, it makes reproducing tricky when Nero needs more employees. That’s why they want Lana so bad. She’s the only female born with the shifter gene.”
I nodded. “We figured they wanted her because she was a female-born shifter, but I never thought about the twin angle. I bet it pisses Sebastian off to think we might have something over his precious race.”
I placed my hand at the small of her back, guiding her into the living room. She sat on my leather couch with one leg tucked up underneath her as she went on.
“Well, Severino isn’t letting that slow him down. He thinks if he can breed females who already carry the shifter gene then he could have a self-contained jaguar-breeding program. He could build up his compound without the threat of bitten females escaping.”
I frowned, sitting beside her. “He’s planning on keeping women locked up forever like broodmares?”
“Probably? I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I do know that they have to plan carefully to bring in more females.” Her shoulders tensed as she went on. “They have to pick strong, healthy women who can survive the bite. The women also need to be people who can vanish without causing too many waves.”
I reached over and took her hand. “You’re definitely strong and healthy, but I’m surprised they brought in a police detective. Risky move.”
Her dark eyes met mine. “Not really. Nero didn’t know about my sister, and I had told Sebastian about my parents’ murder.”
There had never been any arrests, and knowing the killer was still out there always shadowed me with worry when Nadya was small. As I worked my way up to detective, I was grateful every day that she had our father’s last name and I had taken our mother’s. A vengeful criminal wouldn’t connect us and hurt Nadya just to get to me.
“To Sebastian, I had no familial ties, and I worked in a kick-ass, high-stress department of the force. Made me a great match in Nero’s eyes, and no one in the department was shocked when I took a leave of absence after my witness was murdered.”
“I’m sorry about your family.” I held her hand a little tighter. “I didn’t know.”
Her features smoothed out. I recognized the now familiar all-business expression she wore when she was about to make a 180-degree turn in conversation.
“Did your brother bite Lana? Did she need to be converted in order to conceive? I assume if werewolf males are the only shifters then you must have the same problem Nero does with finding women to bring into your Pack.”
Comparing my Pack to Nero made me grind my teeth, but at least this time I’d seen the rapid change in topic coming. I could anticipate it. A little.
“My Pack is nothing like Nero. We only convert our mates, not random women against their will.” I tried to keep emotion out of my voice. “Normally we do have to convert our mate into a shifter before she can ever get pregnant. But Adam never bit Lana.”
Sasha let go of my hand and popped up from the couch, pacing. I watched the silent, calculated way she moved while she pondered and I smiled. This woman was definitely getting under my skin like no one else ever had.
“What are you smiling at?” Her eyes narrowed, but the corner of her mouth turned up, giving her away.
“I like seeing you pace around my living room.”
She lifted her chin a notch. “I wasn’t pacing. I’m thinking. Do you mind?”
I opened my hands. “Be my guest.”
“Thank you.” Her sexy smile almost made me forget we were on the run from a Green Beret. “So, if Lana isn’t a werewolf and still got pregnant, was it because she’s a jaguar? I don’t know enough about the genetics. Obviously the werewolf shifter gene must be different from the jaguar one, right? Otherwise we’d be able to shift into both…”
I shook my head. “Jason is definitely more knowledgeable than I am, but as I understand it, only males have a shifter gene, but the animal we shift into is hereditary from our father. I got the shifter gene from my father. He shifted into a wolf, so I do too. As far as I know it’s the same for the jaguars.”
“And Lana had the shifter gene, so she got pregnant without being bitten.”
Something inside of me whispered a warning not to share too much. She kept peppering me with questions that I had no business sharing outside of our Pack. And as much as I didn’t want to think about it, Sasha was not Pack.
I hated that I had to even consider keeping anything from her. I trusted her with my life.
But this was my brother’s life, his family. Our Pack. It was ingrained in me to put the Pack first, but my heart struggled with my torn loyalties. Sharing about Adam’s family felt…risky. I trusted Sasha, but Adam didn’t.
I could risk my own destiny, but it wasn’t my place to risk his family’s.