Jared (River Pack Wolves 3) - New Adult Paranormal Romance Read online

  As he drew closer, her eyes went wide. They were a magical blue surrounded by all that white fur, making her seem almost otherworldly—an angel wolf, shining bright in the moonlight. But those beautiful eyes were zipping between him and the edge of the forest, as if she was contemplating making a run for it, but she was too terrified to move. The meadow grasses around her trembled with the breeze, but she was frozen.

  He raised his head, hopefully showing that he was bringing her clothes, then dropped them in the grass a dozen feet from her. He yipped and backed away another dozen, finally planting his butt in the grass and waiting to see if she would take his offering.

  There was a long stretch of seconds while she studied him, scenting the air.

  He waited, still as a statue, but she didn’t move. Maybe he would be less intimidating in human form? He shifted, still sitting in the grass. This took her by surprise, and she jolted again. But when he remained seated, she tremulously advanced toward her clothes, snatched them in her jaws, then backed away again.

  He didn’t move.

  Once she was about twenty feet away, she shifted human. That glimpse he’d had before of her naked in her bedroom was on full display for him again—perky little breasts with nipples tightly puckered against the night’s cool air; lithe body slender to the point of ridiculousness, but with a curvy little behind that made his cock sit up and pay attention; and that gorgeous hair, falling long all around her, almost hiding her nakedness. He felt like he should look away—he could see her furious blush even at this distance—but her hurried attempt to shove her clothes on kept him transfixed. Not to mention that his cock hadn’t paid attention to anything in so long, he’d thought it was as dead as the rest of him. It made him feel strangely… unbalanced. As if he stood up, he might actually topple over.

  Once her clothes were on, she asked, “Who are you?” Her bare feet crunched the grass as she backed away, clearly afraid of him.

  Which she should be.

  He stood up to talk to her, but his erection sprang out, and that suddenly embarrassed him. He covered it his hands clasped in front of him. That strange sense of unbalance threatened to actually tip him over, making the whole thing even more awkward.

  “I’m not going to hurt you.” His voice came out gruff, harsher than he wanted. He was a big man—he knew that—intimidating to most men, even shifters, not to mention girls whose waists were smaller than one of his thighs. It was the shifter gene, his time in the Marines, keeping in shape for his job at Riverwise—plus he’d been running himself to exhaustion with combat drills and training. They were the only things that let him sleep at night, but they also had the effect of keeping his body in top condition.

  “How did you find me?” she asked, but she’d stopped looking for an escape at the edge of the forest.

  “Followed you.” Probably best not to mention he was about to kill her father before he followed her into the forest on a whim.

  She narrowed her eyes. “Followed me from where? I came from my bedroom.”

  “I know. I was watching you.” Well, that sounded pretty creepy. “I promise I’m not going to hurt you.”

  Her hands were wringing now, and a new look of anxiety blossomed on her face. “Are you… did my father hire you to watch me?” Her body was one big ball of tension.

  He couldn’t help it—he had to move closer to her. He took a couple, slow steps. “No, I promise. I don’t work for your father. You have to know that’s true—I’m a shifter.” He let that hang in the air, because obviously she was a shifter, too.

  Her eyes went wide, but her thin shoulders dropped, and her face relaxed. “You’re from one of those shifters gangs my father’s always talking about. You’re spying on him.”

  “Something like that.” He took another step toward her. She seemed less afraid of shifter gangs than her own father. Interesting. “I promise, I won’t tell anyone your secret, including your father.”

  He could see the relief washing through her body, draining all the tension from it. “Thank you.” The sincerity of it was so strong, so innocently grateful, even before she knew what he was all about… it moved something inside him. Something that wanted to feel, but the frozen cavern of his chest was hardened against any such thing.

  “Why were you running?” He wanted to come closer, to reach out and touch her soft skin… but that was ridiculous. And besides, his hands were busy covering his junk—the idea being that he was trying not to freak her out and make her think he was some kind of predator.

  She shook her head and darted a look at the edge of the forest again.

  Shit. He was spooking her.

  “Look, it’s really not safe out here for you.” He glanced around at the darkened trees. “I don’t scent any other wolves at the moment, but we’re in open territory. It’s always possible someone could be lurking. And I’m assuming you’re unmated.”

  “Unmated?” She wrinkled up her nose in a way that was painfully cute. “That’s something you wolves do, right? Taking a mate? I mean, I’ve heard the stories.”

  “You wolves?” Jared frowned. “You don’t know anything about us, do you?” Of course. She’d probably kept this secret her whole life. He wasn’t sure how that was even possible, but she must have.

  She looked pained. “I didn’t mean… I just meant… I’m sorry.” She bit her lip, and it was a good thing he was covering up his cock because it twitched when she did that. Fuck. What was that all about? It was like every little thing she did… he pushed that thought away and searched his memory for her name. He’d researched the Senator before coming to kill him, of course, but he couldn’t recall it. She hadn’t been important—not until she turned into a wolf.

  And started giving him hard-ons without even trying. “My name’s Jared. What yours?”

  She laughed, a clear bell sound that rang of innocence. It left behind a smile that glowed in the moonlight. “You tracked me into the forest, but you don’t know who I am? You’re spying on my father, but you don’t know my name?”

  “I don’t always do all my homework.”

  She let out a hiccupping laugh this time, bubbly and young-sounding, then she advanced toward him in light, quick strides, her hand outstretched to shake hands. “I’m Grace Elizabeth Dawn Krepky, daughter of Senator Timothy Krepky. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Jared Wolf.”

  His face heated—he would have to remove one of his hands from covering his privates in order to shake her hand. It was absurd that this embarrassed him, so he gritted his teeth and forced himself to do it. “Ms. Krepky.”

  She was sneaking looks at his barely covered erection, which only made it harder.

  This was wrong. All of this was wrong. He shouldn’t be talking to Grace Krepky, daughter of Senator Krepky. Jared shouldn’t have followed her. He was going to kill her father, and here she stood, blushing at the hard-on she’d caused and worse… causing it in the first place.

  She looked away, the red creeping up her cheeks obvious in the moonlight.

  He cleared his throat. “I left my clothes… well, back where I started. I’ll shift and escort you back to the house.”

  She shook her head in amazement. “Why are you looking out for me?”

  He just stared at her. He had no idea how to answer that question. “Just don’t come out here by yourself anymore. It’s not safe.” Then he shifted before his nakedness could cause any more embarrassment for either of them. He turned to trot toward the estate, glancing to see if she was following.

  He couldn’t talk to her this way, which was better. Much better. But in wolf form, her blueberries-and-cream scent called even stronger to him. He loped ahead, putting distance between them, but taking the most human-friendly path through the underbrush and fallen pine trees. When they reached the edge of the forest near the back side of her house, he paused. No need to let the guards know a wolf had breached their perimeter.

  Grace turned to him before she reached the edge. “Will I see you again
? I have…” She clamped her teeth together, looking uncertain and glancing between him and the house. Then a look of resolution came across her face. “I have questions.”

  Would he see her again? No. Or at least… he shouldn’t. He wanted to shake his head or turn and disappear into the night, but instead, he found himself giving her a single dip of his snout. Yes.

  Her answering smile was as natural on her face as sunshine. His wolf responded with an impulse to step forward and touch her, but he held it back. This was wrong—all of it was all kinds of wrong. The type of wrong that would end up with people hurt. And possibly dead.

  But he stood still and did nothing that might diminish her smile.

  She turned and snuck back to her house.

  What in the name of magic was he doing?

  The campaign office buzzed with activity. Normally, the hum and bustle would electrify Grace, and she would be out in the thick of it, watching poll numbers, checking strategies, scanning news reports. But this morning her head was swimming, and she was hiding out in the tiny corner office she never used.

  She had been caught.

  Caught shifting. Caught running in wolf form through the national forest. Of all things, caught by a huge, gorgeous shifter who had stood before her in all his naked glory sporting a king-sized erection she could hardly keep from staring at. It wasn’t like she had never seen a man naked before, although she could easily count the times, and none had involved a specimen like him. She had fantasized about him all night long.

  Her vibrator had gotten a serious workout.

  And he wasn’t simply hot—he was jarringly gentle, unlike all the stories her father spouted about shifters. Never mind that she was a shifter, too—that was her dark secret, the one she kept from everyone. She certainly didn’t hang out with shifters, and she only had second-hand knowledge of what they were truly like.

  Until now.

  Now her secret was in the hands of a man with only a first name—Jared. He had promised to keep her secret safe, but she had absolutely no reason to believe him. In fact, she had every reason to believe he would run to the nearest celebrity rag and spill the sordid details about the Senator’s daughter who was a wolf.

  She buried her head in her arms, which were folded on top of the scramble of papers on her desk.

  This mystery shifter wasn’t the only time bomb waiting to explode her life. Her father’s new legislation to register shifters would destroy her just as fast. She’d argued endlessly with him about it, to no avail. It was like a vortex of bad luck was coalescing around her, threatening to consume her.

  She should be finding a way to forestall the legislation.

  She should be hunting for information on the mystery shifter.

  She should be making plans to move to Bermuda.

  But all she could think about was that scorching hot man standing naked in the moonlight. Jared. Even his name was sexy. And the size of him, with all those muscles and that huge cock… Jesus, were all shifter men that turbo-charged with masculinity? He had a military look about him, too, with the controlled movements and the clipped way he talked. Which only brought another flush of heat between her legs.

  Would he return to the forest tonight? She couldn’t help fantasizing about running out to meet him. He promised she would see him again—well, not exactly a promise. A simple nod from his dark, shaggy wolf form. One nod, and she was ready to run off and have sex in the woods with a man she barely knew.

  An extremely hot man. A shifter.

  God, her vibrator was going to need new batteries if he didn’t show up tonight.

  Grace groaned and dug her hands into her hair, bunching it up in frustration. Then she slammed her fists down on the papers on her desk, sending them fluttering. She had to get her mind off the hope of random sex with hot shifter men and focus on stopping the cataclysms from crashing down on her all at once.

  She’d begged her father to put off the introduction of the shifter legislation—or to cancel it outright. Totally fallen on deaf ears, not that she expected any different. This anti-shifter registration law was going to be the cornerstone of his re-election campaign.

  She should know—she was his campaign manager.

  Normally, she was a true believer. Hell, she’d written most of his policies. And they seldom had disagreements when it came to her father’s work. Together, they’d done a lot of good work—protecting the environment, looking out for the homeless. She was especially proud of his work on the behalf of veterans, those men and women who laid down their lives for their country. This shifter law was the first significant part of his platform that she’d even tried to talk him out of.

  Obviously, it was a problem for her personally. Her father would disown her if he knew. His anti-shifter beliefs were true to the core. He had no idea his daughter was one, but she doubted that would make a difference. Which didn’t just distress her and make her live in constant fear of discovery, for her sake and for his… it embarrassed her. She loved her father. He was a powerful man, and he used that power in good ways. He worked hard, and he truly cared about people. At least, that’s what she had always believed. He wasn’t racist or sexist or cling to any of the other bigotries and biases that often plagued men of his generation. He was a good man who believed in the goodness of people—the only problem being that he didn’t seem to think shifters belonged in that class.

  He called them animals.

  He said they were dangerous.

  And, the truth was, she couldn’t really argue with that. Her beast had always felt like a wild part of her, one she had a hard time controlling. It was easy to believe that shifters—other shifters, the ones who let their animal side loose—could be a danger to others.

  Only Jared hadn’t done anything to hurt her. In fact, he’d watched over her, escorting her back to her house and making sure she was safe, even though she’d run through those woods a hundred times. Her father’s idea of shifters seemed wildly at odds with the strong, silent man she’d seen in the meadow. Maybe that was why she was drawn to him… she pictured him naked again, and heat flushed through her lady parts.

  No, it was definitely the raw, masculine hotness.

  But her father’s hatred of Jared’s kind was real. Grace had been tempted, so many times, to tell her father what she was, but she had always held her back. Something about shifters repulsed him. Angered him. Maybe because he was such an alpha male himself, he couldn’t stand the idea that men like Jared—physically superior with obvious sexual prowess, reeking of masculinity—were out there.

  Maybe it was simple jealousy.

  She didn’t know why her father hated shifters quite so much, but all her entreaties to put off this legislation had been for nothing. In a week, he was sponsoring the bill.

  One week. She had one week to figure this out. Then her days would be numbered.

  She may have even less time than that, if this hot shifter, now in possession of very valuable information he could use against her father, went public. The campaign manager part of her was already calculating all the ways to minimize the damage, but there was no escaping it—the PR would be devastating. She couldn’t even wrap her head around what would happen to her, personally. If her mom were still alive, this would kill her.

  She had one week to figure out how to avoid this Armageddon.

  With interviews to schedule and a campaign kick-off tour to set up, she should just bury herself in work, like she usually did, and pray that an answer would come. Maybe the shifter in the woods would have an answer for her tonight. Or just a kiss. She would definitely settle for a kiss. More if he was willing.

  Grace was shuffling through the paper disaster on her desk, trying to find her tablet, when her best friend and PR manager for the campaign, Kylie Anderson, burst into her office.

  “All right, what are you hiding?” Kylie loomed over her desk, arms crossed, foot tapping impatiently.

  Grace’s heart lurched. “What do you mean?” Jesus, had th
e shifter already exposed her?

  “You’re hiding in your office, Grace. You’re never in here. In fact, I was thinking about moving my crap in here and seeing how long it would take for you to notice. So what the hell is going on?”

  Her best friend was short and roundish in a compact, sexy kind of way, with bouncy red curls and a personality the size of Montana. She took no nonsense from anyone, including Grace, yet could smooth-talk a Saudi Arabian prince out of oil rights. Grace had seen it happen.

  But apparently, Grace’s secret was still that. She sighed in relief, then tried to cover it.

  Kylie just narrowed her eyes. “Grace Elizabeth, don’t you dare try to hide something from me. How am I going to do my job if I don’t know what’s going on?”

  She had a point. This PR nightmare would land squarely in Kylie’s lap. Her best friend would loathe Grace at the level she reserved for polluters and child pornographers. And Grace normally told her every detail of everything… with this singular exception. Now she needed a lie to cover her current funk, and fast. Except Kylie could sniff out lies like bloodhound after a serial killer. So it needed to be damn close to the truth.

  “I met a guy last night.” Grace bit her lip because Jared was hardly just a guy and thinking about him genuinely got her hot and flustered. Her wolf whined. “A really hot guy. Only I don’t know if I’m going to see him again.”

  Kylie sprouted a grin as she hurried around the desk to sidle up to Grace. “What the… when did this happen? And why are you meeting guys without me? I thought we had a pact!”

  Grace smirked. Neither of them had time for boyfriends—at least that was the excuse Grace gave every time it came up. Kylie was just as married to the campaign as she was. The truth was that Grace couldn’t let herself get close to anyone—eventually, they would discover her secret. So she and Kylie had vowed that they were all about hot men and one night stands and that they would be each other’s wing woman.

  Only Grace never followed through—one night stands meant a very high risk of accidentally revealing herself. Then Jared came along and… he already knew her secret. There was nothing to lose.