“You’re fine,” Amy promised. “No one knows we set it up. It was just a little…test, of a sort.”
“I don’t like Takhini.” Tom’s expression had gone black.
When she paused to let him finish, he refused to share anything else. Old history, undoubtedly. She stopped to give him a hug, and then one for Caden, aware of how much the brief contact calmed them. A flash of anger hit, quickly suppressed so they wouldn’t notice.
How many times had she walked into a room and felt that longing sensation? The unbearable hunger of lone wolves who craved physical touch from another of their kind. Meanwhile, Evan Stone sat on his high horse in the Takhini pack house and let the more needy wolves in the area rot. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t the way wolves should act.
So she was doing something about it. Her wolf wouldn’t allow anything less.
The door chime went off, and she hurried to get out of the main shop area in case it was a shifter from the Takhini pack.
Secrets had to be maintained, at least for a little longer.
Her second-storey office window faced the Riverside Park on the banks of the majestic Yukon River. Positioning the computer repair shop in one of the prime locations just off downtown Whitehorse had been deliberate, not only from a business point of view. The nearby wooded path allowed her to shift whenever she wanted to escape into the wilderness, even though the opportunities to get away were rare. Between work, and the pack, and plotting revenge, her calendar was pretty full.
If she was lonely at times, it wasn’t for the first time, nor the last. It also wasn’t without a purpose. As far as she could tell, the members of the Miles Canyon pack who she’d fallen in with deserved far more than they had gotten over the years, and if she had to make sacrifices along the way to make their happiness happen? So be it.
She dove into her work, planning her day. Considering who of her pack she should visit and give a little extra attention to.
Not even five minutes passed before there was a knock on her office door.
“Sam? Someone to see you.”
She glanced up from the debugging program, surprised to discover the handsome reporter from the morning news entering the room.
He held out a hand. “Colin Wheeler. CBC News.”
Amy stood and came around her desk because she was too short to reach his hand from behind it. “Samantha Ryba. Call me Sam. Are you looking for a news story regarding computers?”
“Perhaps.” His fingers slipped into hers, and as he shook her hand firmly, he also dropped his eyes with respect. “More important matters first. I’m new to town, unaffiliated wolf. Wanted to let you know I’ve been transferred to the area. I hope that’s not a problem.”
Amy paused. Considered the best way to deal with his out-of-the-blue announcement. “Well, that’s…unusual.”
She gestured to the chair opposite her desk, and he sat obediently while she found a comfortable perch on her desktop. The position gave her a height advantage, which was stupid, really. She was a hell of a lot stronger than Colin in terms of wolf mojo, she didn’t need to tower over him physically as well.
“Why not announce you’re here to the Takhini pack? They’re the ones controlling Whitehorse.”
“They’re the ones who are noticeable, you mean,” Colin commented.
“What are you suggesting?” Amy crossed her arms, pushing down the gut sensation of uneasiness. Just because she didn’t like surprises didn’t mean Colin had an agenda. “You hiding something, Mr. Wheeler?”
“Not much use if I was—you’re an Alpha wolf and I’m not,” Colin admitted. “You could order me to spill the beans.”
She tested him. Reaching out with the part inside her that was connected to the wolf side of her soul. It wasn’t like extending a hand, but more like sensing with her heart, and what she read gave her another reason to pause.
The man was no weakling when it came to wolf mojo. “Modesty is not a wolf trait. You’re pretty powerful yourself.”
He remained motionless, though, submissive and friendly, and Amy made a decision. Whatever his game, he seemed determined to at least appear innocent and she refused to second-guess herself at every turn.
“You’ve come to me, announced you’re in town for a while. That kind of puts you under my protection, doesn’t it?” Amy picked up a pen from her desktop. Played with it, rolling it through her fingers. “And now that you’ve aligned yourself with me, it would be rude to go all wolfie and ask how you even found out I’m in charge of the other pack here in Whitehorse.”
“And you don’t do rude.” Colin smiled, the expression enhancing his good looks. Made him rather dashing, in fact. “I did my research before being assigned to Whitehorse. Let’s just say I’m not a fan of the loud and showy parts of shifter pack-dom. I might spend time in front of the camera, but I’m a private man. I don’t want to be involved in a noisy pack house with everyone trying to one-up each other all the time, and the rest of the games wolves play. Miles Canyon seems a lot more like the type of pack where I’d fit in. For a while.”
“We call ourselves Canyon, by the way. Simpler.”
“I like simple.” He leaned back and relaxed. A slow sense of “other” drifted from him. Amy watched for a moment, taking in the nonverbal cues as well as the things she could discover from his wolf side.
Colin had secrets he wasn’t sharing—that was crystal clear. But he was right, she didn’t do rude, and unless his secrets impacted the pack, he was welcome to keep them.
What he wasn’t hiding was his attraction. It scented the air, a powerful ego booster mixed with aromatic libido kick-starter.
Male attention of a sexual nature was something Amy had been avoiding, mostly out of necessity since she was too busy with other things. Still, the flat-out physical lust pouring off the reporter turned this into a different kind of conversation again than what she’d expected. “I’m not looking for a lover, Mr. Wheeler,” she announced, adding a little twist of shifter power to make it clear she wasn’t joking.
Colin dipped his chin, pulling away from direct eye contact. “Sorry—didn’t mean to be so forward. I was serious, though. I did some research once I got here, and you…intrigue me.”
“And you find intriguing sexually titillating?”
“Doesn’t everyone?”
Amy muffled her amusement.
“But I’ve received your message, loud and clear, and will keep my hero worship at the distance you require.” Colin stood and took two steps toward the desk. Casually pinning her in place with a hand on either side of her body. He lowered his voice, and his next words came out deep. A verbal caress. “Unless you decide you’d like some up-close and personal worship. In which case, I’ll state again, I’m more than happy to oblige.”
Conflicting urges tore through her. The first told her to grab hold and kiss the man senseless before enjoying an invigorating session of desktop jockey. The second urge demanded she lift a knee and temporarily render him soprano for daring to be so cocky as to flirt after being denied.
Unfortunately, she had to go with door number three. Amy planted a hand on his chest and prepared to push him away. Today she had things to do.
Her wolf nudged her. There was nothing wrong with a little physical satisfaction in a time and place that was more convenient. Amy paused, her fingers softening on his firm chest. It had been a long time since she’d had the pleasure of an attentive wolf in her bed. None of her pack members were the type who enticed her to sexual escapades.
Temptation whispered.
A flash of hope rose in his eyes.
She tapped him with her fingers, allowing her nails to scratch lightly through his pale blue cotton shirt. “What are you doing for lunch on Monday?”