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

  “I kind of stumbled into him,” Grace explained, hoping that would be close enough to the truth to convince Kylie. “And I can’t get him out of my head.”

  “Hot?”

  “Super hot. Like, burn out my vibrator hot.”

  “Yes!” Kylie fist-pumped on her behalf, and it made Grace grin. “So what’s the problem?”

  “Well… he’s not really the sort I should hang out with.”

  Kylie’s eyes lit up. “Oooh… a bad boy. Yum. Those practically set the bed on fire.”

  Kylie would know, but Grace certainly wouldn’t. She was still a virgin, something she also kept from her friend, the sexual dynamo. Too hard to explain why. But maybe… with Jared…. Grace had considered it before. If she shifted while in the throes of passion with another shifter, there wouldn’t be a need to explain. That was the real reason she had never gone all the way with a man before. Whenever she got riled—usually angry, but other passions could do it as well—her wolf threatened to come out. The beast within was hard for her to control under reasonably normal circumstances—and losing her virginity was not a normal circumstance.

  Grace sighed. “I’m sure this guy would be insanely hot in bed.”

  Kylie shrugged. “So what’s the problem? It’s not like you have to marry him.”

  “I really can’t even date him, Kylie.” Grace bit her lip, hoping. “But you know what? Maybe I’ll just come straight out and ask if he’s interested. You know, just a one-night thing, then we go about our business.” Maybe even tonight, she thought wistfully.

  “Now you’re talking. What guy is going to say no to this?” Kylie showcased Grace’s slumped over form with her hands.

  Grace straightened and glared at her.

  Kylie retracted her hands. “Now that getting you laid is taken care of…”

  Grace rolled her eyes.

  “…we need to get back to work,” Kylie continued without missing a beat. “I’ve got that photo op with the veterans at the VA hospital almost set up. Can the Senator be there this afternoon?”

  Grace fumbled around for her pad, finally found it, and swiped it open, checking the calendar. “Looks like he’s open from one to three. What’s the story there?” It was a relief to talk about work again.

  “Some outrage about the VA treatment of a veteran who came in, but they sent away.”

  Grace frowned. Their soldiers were ridiculously underpaid to begin with, and many of them had been to hell and back overseas—the least their country could do was give them decent health care. “Why did they send him away?”

  “Something about how he couldn’t fill out the registration forms properly. Some kind of mental confusion. Turns out the guy had diabetes and was going through an episode.”

  “How does something like that even happen?” Gracie stood up, her anger rising with her. “Tell them the Senator will definitely be there. I’ll make sure of it. I’ll work up some kind of policy statement in the meantime. Do we know who was responsible for turning the vet away?”

  “Some new hire in the registration office,” Kylie said. “Sounds like a training issue to me.”

  “New funds for training—got it.” Grace made a note on her pad. “I’ll look into it and get a statement together. Where’s our speechwriter this morning?”

  Kylie shoved away from the desk. “Nolan straggled in an hour ago. Not sure what his deal is—but I’d bet money he was out clubbing again last night.” Kylie waved her fingers goodbye and strode toward the door of Grace’s office. Just before she left, she grabbed the doorjamb and leaned back, stage whispering, “Speak of the Devil!”

  Then she disappeared, and Nolan appeared in her place, arms spread wide dramatically. “And he shall appear!”

  Grace couldn’t help but grin. Nolan was tall, lanky but well-built, with sparkling blue eyes that were usually filled with either humor or a smoldering sexiness that said he wanted to take her to bed. He had almost landed her, too. In fact, if there was ever a man Grace wished she could burn up the sheets with, it was Nolan Pearson. He was hot, smart, and had all the right politics. And had written many a fine speech for her father over the two years he’d been working in the campaign office. He’d almost talked her into taking the risk and crawling into his bed. Twice. And as he sauntered into her office now, she couldn’t help wondering how she’d managed to say no. Other than the fact that it would unravel her life completely.

  Which, it appeared, was just a matter of time, anyway.

  But Kylie was right about him being out late—the dark circles under his eyes told a tale of club dancing and that scotch he liked. “Hard night picking up women?” Grace asked with a smirk.

  He eased his hip onto her desk, glancing around with that same curious look that Kylie had, probably wondering why she was hiding out. Then his sparkling blue eyes found her again. “Grace Krepky, you know the only woman I want to pick up is you.”

  She waved away his standard flirtation, even though she knew it was true. “That doesn’t seem to slow you down.”

  He leaned toward her, bracing his elbow on his knee to dip his head down. Definitely the bedroom eyes this time. “I’m just marking time, Gracie. All you have to do is say the word, and I’m yours.” His voice was soft, and she knew he meant it.

  He just didn’t know it would never be possible. “We’ve got work to do, Nolan Pearson.” She stood up, not least to move away from the temptation to do something she would regret. Especially when the agitation between her legs just seemed to keep growing.

  He made a motion like she had just stabbed him in the heart, then staggered from his perch on the desk. “I am a serious glutton for punishment hanging around you, Grace Krepky. Someday, I’ll wise up and go work for that other Senator. The one with the bad hair. I hear he has a nice daughter, one that won’t torment me.”

  She smirked. “Someday you’ll find a supermodel who’s a policy wonk, settle down, have two kids, a minivan, and a hipster estate in Bellevue.”

  “Well, you don’t have to be nasty about it,” he said with a horrified look. “You could just say you find me terribly unattractive as a man. Or that you and Kylie have finally decided to consummate your lesbian love affair.”

  Gracie snorted, a totally ungracious sound, but that was one of the best things about Nolan—he made her laugh. “Well, both of those would be lies, and as the Senator’s daughter, I’m sworn, at all times, to tell the absolute, complete, and total truth.”

  He mock-scowled at her. “You need to work on your skullduggery skills if you want to be a proper politician’s daughter.” But she could tell she was forgiven. For now.

  “Back on task, Pearson,” she said with her best drill sergeant voice. “I need you to write something up for the Senator to say at the VA hospital today.”

  “We’re doing that? Excellent. Saw that on the news. Whole thing royally pissed me off.”

  Grace smiled—Nolan really was just the right kind of guy she could settle down with. As if settling down would ever be in the cards for her. But he was sweet and passionate about all the things she cared about, unlike the grim, dark, and brooding shifter in the forest. Jared didn’t even crack a smile the whole time. It was sexy as all hell, she had to admit. Maybe, if she got lucky, she could stamp her V-card and convince him not to spill her secret, all at the same time. If she could somehow mash together sweet and charming Nolan with a brooding and sexy shifter like Jared, they would make the perfect man for her.

  But there would never be a perfect man for her. She knew that already.

  Grace kept her smile bright for Nolan. “I’ll have some policy details for your speech in an hour or so.”

  Nolan nodded. “Perfect. I’ll sketch up a skeleton speech for now, and we can plug in the details later.” He made for the door, then paused at the threshold, turning back to her. “There’s a new Belltown wine bar I was looking to try out. Want to be my arm candy?” He gave her a small, tenuous smile. The kind that came with promises she had a hard tim
e saying no to.

  “I’m booked up for life,” she said with a resolute nod. “But if this week doesn’t look up, I might need some libations at the end of it to get me through.”

  He frowned and stepped back into her office. “Something wrong?”

  “No,” she said quickly. She shouldn’t have said anything. “Nothing I want to talk about.” A small flame of hope burned in her that maybe, someday, she could share everything with a man like Nolan. Today was definitely not that day.

  He nodded and hesitated before turning back to the door. “Just say the word, Gracie.” Then he took his sexy half-grin with him, and Grace fell back into her chair.

  She should bury herself in creating a policy statement about VA hospital funding improvements… and worry about Nolan and the hot shifter guy, Jared, later. All of that was moot anyway. Her real problem was the fact that she was the shifter daughter of an anti-shifter politician, and that fact was going to come out soon.

  Very soon.

  “You were going to what?” That was Jaxson, Jared’s younger brother.

  “What the actual fuck, Jared?” Jace, his youngest brother, was well and truly pissed.

  “You can’t just assassinate a sitting Senator!” Jaxson acted as though this would never occur to him—which it probably wouldn’t. He was a good man.

  “You were—” Jace gestured to him with inarticulate rage, then turned to Jaxson. “He was trying to get himself killed.”

  “I was trying to get Senator Krepky killed,” Jared clarified. What happened to him didn’t matter so much… and, for the record, he didn’t actually have a death wish. You had to be alive to want to die, and Jared hadn’t had a spark of anything he’d call life for a long time. Except for that moment in the meadow…

  Jaxson was reduced to running his hands through his hair and cursing under his breath. Except for the three of them, hovering in the kitchen, everyone in the safehouse was still sleeping, even though dawn had broken hours ago. But Jared could hear rustlings—some of the many shifters who called the River family estate their temporary home were starting to stir. Soft footfalls sounded on the stairs, but his brothers didn’t seem to notice. Too busy having some kind of silent conversation between themselves that they thought he couldn’t interpret. But he knew them too well—he’d knew what their reactions would be long before they had them.

  It was just that none of it mattered. He would do what needed to be done.

  Piper—Jace’s newly-claimed mate—padded into the kitchen, barefoot and rosy with the sex she’d no doubt been having with his brother all night. Jace and Jaxson stilled their frantic gestures at the sight of her. She screeched to a halt with her bare feet just inside the kitchen door.

  “Okay,” she said, drawing the word out. “Somebody want to tell me why it’s Defcon1 in here?” She looked warily between each of the three of them.

  Jared liked Piper.

  Jace gestured angrily at him. “My idiot brother almost shot Senator Krepky last night.”

  Piper gave him a slightly impressed look, then a small nod to her mate. Jared almost smiled, but he didn’t do that sort of thing anymore. He wasn’t sure his face still knew how.

  But now he liked Piper even more.

  “What?” Jace’s face turned even more red. “You knew about this?” He threw the accusation at Piper.

  Hang on. Jared didn’t want to make trouble between the new mates, although truth be told, Piper and Jace seemed to make trouble on their own just fine.

  Before he could come to her defense, she spoke up. “Did I know? As in, do I pay attention to what’s going on around here and have some clue about your brother’s death wish? Yes.” She gave a hard look to Jace, then Jaxson, both of whom were rubbing the backs of their necks and looking uncomfortable. And not looking at him.

  But Piper did. “So what stopped you?”

  “A girl.”

  Her eyebrows raised. “Well.” She said it like the word was full of meaning. “That’s interesting.”

  “It’s not like that,” Jared said. Only it was. Maybe. He couldn’t decide why, and he sure as hell couldn’t put it into words, but Grace had reached across that ravine and touched him in some way that was still stirring things around inside him. Things that hadn’t been stirred in a long time.

  “If it’s not like that,” Piper said, “then how is it?”

  “She’s a shifter.” Jared took in the surprised looks on their faces, one at a time. He knew what they were thinking, and he’d had a couple more hours to think about it. Plus he’d finally researched Grace—not to mention talked to her and got naked with her in a field in the middle of the forest. That image of her, first wolf then bare-skinned human… his mind kept conjuring it in an endless loop. Far more often than he would’ve guessed, even as pretty as she was in both forms.

  “The Senator’s daughter is a shifter.” Jace said it with an open look of surprise that seemed stuck on his face.

  “She’s kept it a secret.” Jared eased up from his chair, working the stiffness from his muscles. He had hauled ass back for his rifle, just in case the girl had decided to turn him in after all. But she hadn’t. Once he was there, he could have pulled the trigger—the Senator was still in the living room, none the wiser—but he didn’t. Because now there was a chance of a better way.

  “How do you know she’s kept it a secret?” Jaxson asked, a shocked look still on his face. “In fact, how do you even know she’s a shifter?”

  “I saw her shift. She told me about the secret part, although I had already guessed it—can’t see how she would share that with her father.”

  “She must not have any idea what he’s up to,” Piper said with a frown. “I mean, come on. If she knew her father was experimenting on shifters…”

  Jared turned to her. “We don’t know what she knows, not for sure. But we don’t have to. We know the Senator wants to implement the registration law—that’s enough. And I’m pretty sure she knows about that.”

  Jaxson’s face went from shocked to puzzled. “What makes you think she knows?”

  “She’s his campaign manager.” Jared would’ve known that earlier had he actually done his homework.

  “Oh man.” Jace’s eyes were bugging out, but the surprise was back for all of them. And it was a hell of a thing. He thought maybe that was what stirred his insides—part of him wanted to dig her out of this hole she was in. Rescue her. Because she seemed stuck in an impossible situation.

  “Blackmail. That’s the answer.” Piper was the one who said it, but Jared could tell they were all thinking it.

  “No.” He wasn’t going to let that happen.

  “You were going to kill her father—” Jace this time.

  “And I still might.”

  That brought them all to a screeching mental stop.

  “Jared, no—” Jace was shaking his head furiously.

  “I will if I have to. I’d like to see you try to stop me, bro.” He softened his tone a little. “This is my thing to do, not any of yours. You have lives, ones I’d like to protect. I’m the one with nothing to lose here.”

  Jaxson looked like he wanted to rip out Jared’s liver for speaking the truth out loud, but instead he shuffled over and laid a heavy hand on Jared’s shoulder. “I told you, no more of this lone wolf crap.”

  Jared shook his head. “That doesn’t change anything. But she might—the daughter.”

  Jaxson frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “I want to get close to her.” At Piper’s raised eyebrows, he added, “Yeah, okay, she is a beautiful woman, and any man would want to get close to her that way. But that’s not what I mean.”

  Her eyebrows stayed raised, and she added a smirk in Jace’s direction, but his brother was still shaking his head. “Is this really about the girl?”

  “Yes. And no. She may not realize it, but she’s in the same boat as the rest of us. Plus she has no pack, an asshole for a father, and no one she can depend on for help. I just
want a chance to convince her of those facts.”

  Jace’s eyebrows raised, but this time he was nodding. “So… exactly how do you propose to get close?”

  “And what are you going to do once you’re there?” The suspicion was obvious in Jaxson’s voice.

  But Jared would be a straight-shooter on this, just he was on everything else. He only lied when he had to. “I want to pose as her bodyguard. Spend time with her. She doesn’t know anything about the shifter world, and she needs to… if she’s going to have any chance of convincing her father to stop the bill.” He took a deep breath, not at all sure it would work. “If she can’t stop him, I will.”

  Jace shook his head. “Jared, for God’s sake—”

  “I’m not saying it’s going to work. But if I’m going to give it a try, I’ll need your help.”

  “Olivia’s got a whole lot of materials to take to the press,” Jaxson offered. “There’s stuff in there implicating the Senator. We might be able to take him down that way.”

  “I know what you’ve got, Jaxson. An envelope? That’s nothing—nowhere near enough to tie the Senator to the experiments. And you’ll just give him a heads up… and time to weasel out of it. He’s a politician. He’ll probably flip it to his advantage somehow. Can’t give him that chance. I need you to hold Olivia off, give me time to work on Grace.”

  “Grace? Is that her name?” Piper asked, dashing a look to Jace. He frowned in return.

  “Grace Elizabeth Dawn Krepky. That’s how she introduced herself.”

  “Had quite a little chat, did you?” Piper’s eyes were shrewdly examining him, while at the same time, they held some kind of ill-defined humor. He wasn’t quite sure why she was having a laugh at his expense, but it didn’t bother him. Nothing did, not really. None of this was important. They could quibble over details, and he really could use their cooperation, but when it came down to it, only one thing mattered—stopping the Senator. If Jared was lucky, he’d find a way to save the Senator’s daughter along the way.