Sentinel: Reckless Desires (Wolf Shifter Romance) (Alpha Protectors Book 2) (2 page)

L
eaving
the alpha in his suite of rooms, I headed back to the bedroom I’d been assigned for the duration of my stay. Not bothering to lock the door behind me, I surveyed the room. It was sparse but neat, a small box of a room filled with the usual furniture: a bed, dresser, and wardrobe, all painted a bland but inoffensive cream. So perfectly nice it made my teeth hurt.

In my experience, packhouses might look different, but they were essentially all the same. A big house, filled with people who may, or may not, like each other. Though some packs eschewed the main big house style, preferring more of a village feel.
Whatever floated their boat.
But the alpha was always central. Present and accessible to everyone.

By the time I had hit twelve, I’d lived in over eleven different packhouses. At six years old, I’d learned not to bother unpacking. Not to bother learning people’s names. If we weren’t gone by tomorrow, it’d be next week. Or the one after. So what was the point?

Not once did anyone ask me to stay. Or stop my mother from dragging me on her whirlwind tour of the country, always searching, always looking for
him
.

My father.

What the fuck was I doing?
I scrubbed at my eyes, my shoulders hitting the wall with a thud. I couldn’t seem to keep my head in the present, my mind fucking off down memory lane at every goddamn opportunity.

It was being here. The whole
pack
thing was screwing with my head. Something I needed like a kick to the balls.

Get the job done, and get out.

Tugging my T-shirt off over my head, I wadded it up and hurled it at the open suitcase on the floor. Toeing my boots off and slipping out of my jeans, I padded into the adjoining bathroom as naked as the day I had been born.

Ducking into the shower, I flicked on the spray. Tepid water sluiced down my chest, the shower missing my head by a good foot.

Cursing under my breath, I crouched down, tilting and contorting until my six-foot-six frame finally fit under.
I’d be showering on my knees for the next week or so.

Ice-cold water hit me, forcing a mortifying yelp from my mouth. Hitting the lever, I spun it around and off.
Four days. I could do this in four days.
Shivering, I grabbed a towel, the ends barely meeting around my hips.

Okay, this wasn’t even funny anymore. I knew I was a little on the big size for a shifter, but what the fuck?

Tossing the towel, I threw some clean clothes on. Running a hand through my hair, I considered my options for infiltration.
Sneaky or ballsy?

Fuck it. I could do this in three days. My balls were made of brass.

* * *

L
eaving the main house
, I followed the sound of people across the courtyard to a low, squat-looking building. Light poured from the windows, casting dancing shadows on the ground. Hazarding a guess that this had to be the rec room or whatever this pack called it, I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders, and yanked the door open.

When I stepped inside a few people glanced up at me, curious expressions on their faces. The buzz of the room dulled, the crowd parting to leave a good foot of space around me.

It was a large room that had the look of an old-fashioned lodge, all polished wood paneling and dim lighting. Tables were scattered around a makeshift dance floor, where people were gyrating and swaying with abandon to the music being piped through an invisible speaker. A pinball machine tinkled in the far corner and a small crowd was enthusiastically throwing darts at an old board, jeering and cursing their bad luck. Several card games were in play, but from the looks of things the stakes were low, not even worth the bother.

All in all, it was a typical pack bar—hot and sweaty and loud.

I met the eyes of the wolves closest to me and they quickly looked away. I couldn’t blame them; I was pretty sure it wasn’t often they found a stranger in their midst. But noting how quickly they had avoided my eyes, I dialed back my power a couple more notches. It wouldn’t do to reveal who I was too soon.

Scanning the crowd, I easily picked out who was who, zeroing in on a group in the far corner by the bar. Men, all over six foot, all built like brick shit houses. The lieutenants of the Moonridge pack.

Figuring to get close enough to have a little listen in on their conversation, I cut across the room, taking a meandering path.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw one of the guys tense, his spine stiffening with obvious agitation. He stepped forward and around something, or rather a
somebody
I hadn’t noticed before.

A woman.

My knees buckled, my feet digging into the floor as flame-red hair filled my view.

No!
It was a silent scream, a roar of protest. I staggered to a stop, my heart thundering in my chest.
Just because she had red hair, it didn’t mean it was her.
There were a lot of women out there with red hair. I should know; I’d turned them all down.

Not that color there isn’t
, my wolf whispered inside my mind.
Mate…

She’s not
, I protested, not knowing exactly what it was that I was protesting. That it wasn’t her? That she wasn’t my mate?
Fuck!
Nope, there was no way—

The woman turned to the side, revealing her profile. The same profile that had haunted my dreams every night for the last five years. My stomach lurched, panic building.

I took a step forward, my legs dragging me of their own volition, my mind still reeling with the realization that I had found her. I stopped a scant foot away from her. Taking a deep breath, I pulled her scent into my lungs, the familiar pine needles and roses sending my pulse rocketing and my heart thumping.

Words left my mouth.
What were
they? I didn’t have a fucking clue.

She froze, a tremor running down her spine.

I tracked the shiver down her tight black tank top and over her denim-clad ass. An ass so beautifully flared and rounded that I wanted to fall to my knees and weep in thanks.

She spun around. Green eyes stared at me.

They were exactly how I remembered them, slightly too big, slightly too wide.

Perfect.

A
n elbow jabbed
me in the ribs, and I pinned the offending wolf with a glare. The guy backed away, his hands held up in silent apology. Softening my glare to lukewarm pissed off, I bit back a sigh. All around me members of the pack were enjoying themselves... drinking, dancing, shooting pool. The rec room was packed tight with barely any room to move, personal space a thing of the past, though most at least tried to give me a wide berth. They knew better than to piss me off. Why the hell I had bothered coming out tonight I didn’t know. I wasn’t in the mood. But when dad had suggested I take a night off, I knew I didn’t really have a choice. It was just one of the many things that was expected of me.

Turning back to the makeshift bar, I slid an empty bottle across the counter and leaned over to grab myself a new one. We all took turns, members of the pack pulling different duties so everybody got a break. Tonight it was Neil running the bar, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey, Chloe. You going to stand there all night, or are you going to get in on the action?”

I turned to the speaker, forcing a grin onto my face. “You really don’t want me to get in on the action, Smith,” I drawled, giving his shoulder a quick shove.

Smith wriggled his eyebrows, giving me a comical leer. “Hey, baby. You can get in on my action anytime you like.”

Laughing, I gave him another shove, this time a little bit harder. He didn’t mean anything by it. He was one of the only guys that I worked with who treated me somewhat normal. To everyone else I was either the alpha’s daughter or someone not worth their time or respect.

Throwing him a wink, I dragged myself out of my funk. “Go on then, you’ve convinced me,” I said, pushing away from the bar and joining the group. Tonight we had a full turnout, each of the lieutenants deciding to cut loose and celebrate the weekend. Though it didn’t really feel like a celebration. Everyone was more than a little subdued after what had happened to Joe. I silently raised my bottle to my old friend who’d been like an uncle to me.
Life sucked.
This was the pack’s way of dealing with the shit that life decided to throw at us. We chose to celebrate his life, not mourn his death. I swallowed back the grief that threatened to overwhelm me.
He’d have done the same.

“So, Chloe, are you up for it?”

Taking a swig of my beer, I leveled Mark with my best superior look. “Just what did you have in mind?”

“Just a little competition. Something to make the night a little more interesting,” he replied, his tone easygoing, but his eyes drilled into me, daring me to refuse.

Unease snaked down my spine, but there was no way I would refuse the challenge, and he knew it. I had to... every challenge the guys threw at me, I had to accept. I was the only female lieutenant in the pack, and at times I felt the weight of having to prove myself again and again crushing me. But it was what I’d wanted. What I’d worked my whole life for and given up so much for.

“Okay, you’re on. What is it this time?” It couldn’t be anything as bad as what he’d had us doing last time—scaling the ravine in the pitch black with no safety equipment. But I’d done it, beating him and coming a close second to Smith, the only guy I didn’t mind losing to.

My tormentor looked me up and down, his lips curling in an evil smirk. Pulling himself up to his full six-foot-one height, he flexed an impressive bicep in my direction.

I took a step closer, leaning into him. “Honey, I'm never going to be up for that kind of challenge. I’m not that desperate to win.” I flicked his bicep, letting my disgust show on my face.

Behind me, Smith erupted with deep laughter, the guys around us joining in after a fraction of a second delay.

Mark’s face flushed a deep red, the veins in his neck bulging as his lips curled back from his teeth in a menacing snarl. “You’d be lucky to ever have the opportunity,” he growled. “You’d be grateful for the scraps that I’d give you.”

“Hey, come on,” Smith protested, stepping forward to put himself between me and Mark. “Easy there. I know we’re all a bit uptight after everything that’s happened with Joe and all, but let’s try and keep things civil.”

I glanced to him. His eyes pleaded with me to back the fuck down. I shrugged. I was quite happy to have this out with Mark—it’d been a long time coming—but he was right, it wasn’t the time or the place. “Just spit it out, Mark. What’s the challenge, so I can beat your ass?”

“The challenge? Is there any chance I can get in on this?” A deep voice murmured from behind me.

I froze, every cell in my body screaming at me in warning. It couldn’t be? He wasn’t—?

I inched around, sucking in a deep breath and almost choking in the process. “Gabriel?”

Fuck!
It
was
him.

The man who’d spoken relaxed against the bar, his knees bent in a slouch, but he still towered over the whole group. He’d filled out a touch since I’d last seen him, his body now rippling with muscles that bunched and strained under his shirt. His hair was shorter now. Five years ago it had brushed his neck, but now the gold strands were shorn in high and tight at the sides in a messy Mohawk style. It suited him, the hairstyle as cocky and attention-grabbing as the man himself, highlighting his high cheekbones and square jaw.

But it was his eyes that captured and held me, the blue as clear and compelling as I remembered.

And they were locked on me.

But they weren’t welcoming or happy. They were furious. And who could blame him, after what I had done to him.

“Who are you?” sneered Mark from behind me.

Gabriel stiffened imperceptibly, his eyes raking over the men one by one, as if assessing their weaknesses. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he rocked back on his heels, his lips curving up in an amicable grin. “The name’s Angel,” he quipped. “You might have guessed I’m new around here.”

One by one the guys looked him up and down, then either dismissed him as not worth the effort, or returned his smile.

Me?
I hadn’t managed a single word. I still couldn’t get over my shock that he was actually standing in front of me, as large as life. “Gabriel—”

“It’s Angel.” He bit the words out, not bothering to look my way.

I tried again, “Angel, what you doing here?”

“You were saying something about a challenge?” Angel asked Mark, ignoring me completely.

Mark swung back around, having previously turned his back in dismissal. His eyes narrowed. “A race. To the ridge. No rules, anything goes. Winner picks the prize.” He licked his lips, his eyes caressing me in a way that felt like a violation, then his eyes flicked back to Angel. “Don’t bother,” he said, not bothering to try to hide his look of disgust. “This doesn’t involve you. “

I opened my mouth to accept the challenge.

A hand latched onto my arm, dragging me the few feet to the dance floor. In seconds I found myself clamped against a rock-hard chest, my hips grinding against his in a slow sinful dance.

For a brief second I let myself go and just breathed him in. Pain smashed through me, wrenching my insides until I couldn’t breathe. Digging my fingers into his shirt, I shoved him away.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“What are you doing here?”

We both spoke at once, each eyeing the other warily.

Well, I was wary, because he still looked furious.

I clamped my lips shut, refusing to answer until he explained himself.

As if sensing my resolve, he bit back a grumbly growl, his jaw tight and strained. “I’ve joined the Moonridge pack.”

“Why?”

“Why not?”

I glared at him. He was deliberately being obtuse. “Why this pack?”

He let out a dry chuckle, his lips twisting in a grimace. “I didn’t know you were a part of this pack,” he stated. “If I had, don’t worry, I wouldn’t have come here.”

His words hit me square in the chest, knocking the breath clean out of me. On the odd occasion I’d ever daydreamed about running into him again, I’ve never deceived myself. I’d always known it would be like this, but
fuck
, it hurt. To see that look in his eyes, the one that told me that not only did he hate me, anything he’d ever felt for me was dead.

I’d done that.

My wolf whined inside of me, her tail tucked between her legs. She hadn’t understood why I’d left our true mate, but she knew he was pissed.

Her submission lit a fire inside of me. I would never submit to a man.
Never!

We were standing in the middle of the dance floor not moving, his hands still looped lightly around my waist, the touch of his skin burning against mine. “You need to leave,” I said, keeping my voice low.

“Why?”

“You know why.” I couldn’t meet his eyes, couldn’t chance that he would see the real reason. Better that he believed the lies that I had fed him so long ago. I needed to get him out of here.

“You okay, Chloe?” Smith called over, concern creasing his brow.

Angel flinched, a sneer marring his handsome face. “Chloe? Is that your real name?”

I stayed silent. Nothing I could say would make it any easier.

“So, Chloe,” he weighed my name heavily with sarcasm. “I think I preferred Kate. At least she was honest with me.”

Then he let out a low whistle, the sound mocking. “Things are starting to make sense,” he murmured. Disbelief crept into his eyes, his mouth opening in what looked like shock. “
You’re
the alpha’s daughter?” His hands dropped from my waist as if burned when he took a step back.

It was as if a chasm had opened between us, the distance between us exactly what I had wanted. So why did I hate it?

I nodded, wondering if it would be enough to get him to back off. I was having trouble reconciling the man in front of me with the man I had met nearly five years ago.
That
man had been powerful, confident to the point of being a cocky asshole, and he definitely wouldn’t have let anyone stand in his way. Alpha’s daughter or not.

What the hell had happened to him?

The surge of disappointment confused the heck out of me. It was
because
he’d been a cocky, overconfident asshole that I’d run. I should be happy.
This
man didn’t look like he’d cause me much trouble.

And anyway, he wasn’t the only one who’d changed. I wasn’t the same woman he’d met before.

His eyes darkened to a swirling gunmetal gray.

A thrill spun through me at the glimpse of his wolf.

“Which one of these motherfuckers is your mate?”

I swallowed back the edge of panic, but it wasn’t his words that had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end—it was the power behind the words, as a chink in his façade cracked and I got a peek at the wolf within.