Her reputation grew to be legendary, as such things go anyway. Shiningstarr was a name revered by fellow hackers and tech geeks. It was also a name that attracted the attention of the authorities.
As her skills grew, she got to the point where she worked on spec for a few people and made enough money to save. Nina wasn’t greedy but she’d wanted money in case she needed it. She took the jobs until it became too risky to continue. She also got tired of being on the run and feeling guilty over breaking the law. When the offer came for a big and very risky job, she took it. It was a big payoff, enough to give them both a new start, and she’d promised herself and Gabriel that she’d go straight when it was over.
She’d taken her money and she and Gabriel had fled Ohio for Seattle. It had been too big a risk to choose a path that had anything to do with computers. She had gotten close to getting caught a few times and hadn’t wanted to chance it. She’d been so tired of running and living on the margins. She’d wanted a normal life, a real job. Security. So she’d enrolled in a floral design program and some business courses at the local community college and then she’d taken part of her nest egg and opened her florist shop. She discovered that working with flowers and plants was something she not only loved, but was good at. It wasn’t the big money game that hacking had been but it wasn’t illegal either. She could relax finally, for the first time since she’d been twelve. While she tinkered around as a hobby with her computer skills, she’d ruthlessly tamped down any use of the internet for anything other than her business.
Things had been going really well until Gabriel had gotten infected with the lycanthropy virus during a bar fight. He’d hit on some guy’s girlfriend and the guy, being a total jerk, had infected him on purpose in the fight. Gabriel very nearly didn’t make it then. Instead of pressing charges against the wolf for intentionally infecting him, instead of turning his life around, he joined the local Pack and became a runner, a man-of-all-work essentially, and had dropped off her radar.
She was so tired. She’d given up running years ago. She had built a life for herself in Seattle. She had friends and her business. Granted she hadn’t had a date in four years, but there never seemed to be much time for that anyway.
Her house was gone, her stuff was gone and her brother, the last bit of family she had any feelings for, was gone. She wasn’t going to leave town, damn it! Her business was her life—the only thing she had left. She wasn’t going to allow some punks to run her off.
“You really can trust me,” Lex said, pushing his brother out of the way. “Me and Cade. If we were planning on hurting you, we could have done so already. Not that you’re not a tough customer, I know you can handle yourself,” he added quickly when her eyes narrowed.
“I’m going to have one of my men take your car and hide it. You can come back with us, our house is safe.”
“Of course it isn’t safe! Someone high up in your Pack hierarchy is the one who shot what’s-his-face,” she hissed, leaning back from Lex Warden’s body. She had this awful compulsion to rub her cheek along his chest, to tug his bottom lip between her teeth. His cologne was obviously doing something to her.
“Did Rey tell you who, Nina?” Cade asked.
She shook her head. “He said it was someone big, that what’s-his-face told him it was someone high up. Gabriel didn’t see anyone’s face, though. God, they killed him for no reason! He didn’t know anything.”
“Damn it! I told you, Cade,” Lex said, and as he moved she saw the big gun in the shoulder holster and she stiffened.
Oblivious, Lex brushed his hands through his hair again. It made Nina’s body tighten just to watch. Oh jeez, perfect timing to get horny, right after your brother is killed and you might be next. Truthfully, she knew that Lex was right. If they’d wanted to hurt her, they could have quite easily. But damn it, she didn’t know up from down and she felt totally off balance.
“I just didn’t want to believe it. Thank god you pulled all clearance but yours and mine.” Cade turned back to Nina. “No one is allowed at the house but me and Lex and my personal guard. All of us are Wardens, absolutely trustworthy. We have a Pack house here in town for everyone else, but my house is a safe haven. You’ll be safe there. We’ve got to get out of here in case reinforcements show up.”
Safe from the killer sure—but not from Lex. And Nina had a feeling that Lex Warden posed a way bigger threat to her than any scary werewolves who wanted to kill her. Still, she wasn’t going to let go until the guy who killed her brother was taken care of.
She took a deep breath and tried to relax. “Okay, for now. But I need to deal with the cops about my house and call my assistant to deal with my business.”
Lex nodded and stifled a predatory smile as they grabbed her stuff from the room and her car and headed to Lex’s Mercedes. When he got into the back with her and let his brother drive, Cade raised a brow in the rearview mirror but said nothing.
“What were you doing here, anyway?” Lex asked her as they drove away, heading east.
“I was going to check out the laptop my brother said belonged to the guy who got shot.”
Lex looked at her sharply for a moment and then down at the computer case she held. “You what? I’ve been watching you for weeks now. Why didn’t you tell me that?”
“I just did.”
He barely held his annoyance in check. Mate or not, the woman was a pain in the ass. “Earlier,” he ground out through clenched teeth.
“I had to be sure I could trust you.” She wasn’t going to apologize!
“What’s on it?”
“Dunno. Gabriel said that he couldn’t get in. He came to me for help.” Her voice broke on the last word and Lex reached out, took her hand in his own and squeezed it. He’d been angry at her for not telling them about the laptop, but seeing how upset she was pushed all of that aside. He just wanted to make it better for her.
“How? How were you going to help? Do you know a computer expert?” Cade asked and she chuckled wearily.
“I am a computer expert. I’ve never met a program that can lock me out. It may take me a while to get in, but I will. I haven’t even booted it yet.” She shrugged as she looked out the window at nothing. “I didn’t want to open it up until I got somewhere where I could hook it up to my own laptop with some security protocols. Gabriel should have been smart enough not to trigger any defensive viral programs but we’ll see. I went out to my car to get my kit, I forgot it. Gabriel came out to see if I needed help...” she choked out, unable to say anything else.
Lex didn’t say much more as they continued east. He ached to make it better for her, to pull her into the shelter of his body and hold her. But he knew she wasn’t ready for that so he kept her hand in his own and pushed his overwhelming desire for her to the side—for the time being.
* * *
Cade pulled into a long drive. Midway a set of large iron gates stood closed. He slid the car to a stop next to a keypad and rolled the window down. He quickly keyed in a code as Nina cast a quick, assessing glance at the setup.
“What do you think?” Lex asked, seeing her curious look. “If you’re a computer expert, I take it you know about security too?”
She leaned over him to get a better look through the window. She gave a low whistle. “State of the art. I could hack it, even remotely, but it would take me a while. While I’m here, remind me to check your security system.”
“I’d appreciate that,” Lex said.
Nodding absently, she only barely held back a gasp when they drove around the bend and the house came into view.
Impressive was the first word that popped to mind. Fronted entirely by glass, it loomed out of the hillside and undoubtedly had some prime views. It was one of those places that graced the cover of architectural and design magazines. This was no cookie-cutter house—someone with a great mind and a lot of
talent had created it. The cleverly landscaped gardens that surrounded it gave a sense of wildness and burst with a riot of color. There were trees everywhere and hanging baskets, containers overflowing with flowers and plants, and she could see several water features as well. The house was an oasis.
They pulled into a garage with three other bays. There was a Mercedes and two motorcycles, including the Harley that she’d seen Lex ride on multiple occasions. Lex grabbed her stuff but she kept her kit. He sighed and then shrugged, turning to lead her inside.
When they came into the lower level of the house from the garage she made a low sound of pleased surprise. The view through the big glass walls was of the entire valley below and the forests all around.
A spiral stair led from the lower hallway upward to what looked to be the main living level. Sleek modern furniture decorated a large living room bisected by a gigantic fireplace that created a wall into an entertainment room with state-of-the-art electronics.
They headed up another staircase—this one wider—to the next floor. Lex led her down a long hallway with skylights. She could see the night stars winking above her as they walked. He opened a door almost at the end and waved her inside, dropping her bags as she passed.
He gestured at the room, which was large and airy and had a balcony with French doors that overlooked the gardens at the side of the house. There was a queen bed with white wrought ironwork and saffron-and-red-accented linens. “I’m going to put you here in the guestroom. It’s got its own bathroom and fireplace. We have a higher body core temperature and so the house is colder than one where a human would live. It’s a gas fireplace and it heats the room well. Are you hungry?” He snapped his mouth closed as he realized with horror that he was actually babbling. This human woman had reduced him to a blathering mess. He had to fuck her and claim her as soon as possible.
She looked around, sighing tiredly. She was barely holding back the tears and desperately needed to be alone before she lost it in front of him. “It’s nearly two, I’m exhausted. I have to call my staff to tell them to open the shop tomorrow. I can’t think about food or that computer right now...” Her sentence trailed off as he held her gaze.
Sneaking a quick look at the bag that held her laptop, he held off pressuring her. Dark circles smudged beneath her eyes, lines of grief etched around her mouth. Unable to stop himself, he reached out, running the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip.
She closed her eyes, allowing him that brief contact. The warmth of his touch slid sinuously through her system and her nipples hardened. Alarmed again at how he affected her, she stepped back, clearing her throat. “Thank you for letting me stay here.”
He let her avoid him. For the moment. “You’re welcome here. You’re safe here, I promise you. You know, it occurs to me you haven’t told me your name.”
“I’m Nina, but you must have known that from Gabriel or you wouldn’t have known where I lived.”
He gave a quiet chuckle. “Well yes, but we haven’t been properly introduced. He talked about you all of the time—his big sister who was always helping him. He wanted to prove himself to you.” He stopped speaking, his smile faltered when he watched more grief come into her eyes. “I am sorry for your loss, Nina. Rey loved you.”
At least he didn’t try saying what an important asset Gabriel was to them or any such lie. She nodded. “I really need to sleep,” she said, trying not to plead. She needed some distance from Lex and she needed it before she did or said something stupid like jump on him as she cried, Please take off your pants and give me comfort with your cock.
He cleared his throat and she snapped back to reality. “Hang on a sec.” He sprinted down the hall and came back a few moments later.
Handing her a neatly folded stack of clothes he stood back, almost looking shy. “Here. They’re going to be too big but it occurred to me that you may not have anything to sleep in. Please, call out if you need me. I’m only two doors down.” He walked to the door and looked back at her one last time before leaving the room quietly.
She had two changes of clothes in the running kit but no night clothes, so she rooted through the clothes he’d brought and found a pajama top that smelled of him. On autopilot, she hugged it to her body as she padded into the adjoining bathroom.
It was as large as her bedroom at home. A terrible pain sliced through her as she realized that she had no home anymore. Her books, her music, her clothing, it was as gone as Gabriel was. She’d bought her little bungalow two years before. She could have chosen something more expensive, she had some money left over from what she’d spent on the business, but she’d wanted to buy it free and clear without showing up on any radar. So she’d scrimped and saved and made it her own, planting her own garden and decorating it slowly but surely. She still had about three hundred thousand dollars in a Swiss account but she felt guilty about that money and left it there to be used only in an emergency.
She turned on the water and let it go very hot. The room filled with steam as her vision blurred. As she stepped into the glass enclosure the first wracking sob tore through her and she stood there, face turned up to the water, letting the tears flow freely.
She felt so alone. She had no one left who was part of her, and that made her feel bereft. Adrift. At the same time, she couldn’t deny the small part of her that felt freer now that she wasn’t responsible for someone else. She wouldn’t be cleaning up after Gabriel anymore. Of course that just made her feel guilty on top of alone and grief-stricken, and the tears came harder.
The water began to cool just as she had nothing left. Like a zombie, she got out and dried off, slipping into the shirt. It felt good against her skin—Lex’s scent wrapped around her, giving her comfort. With a heavy sigh she pulled back the bedding and slid between the sheets. Her last thought was that she’d have to deal with the cops and her house first thing, and then she promptly passed out.
* * *
Down the hall, in the office outside of Cade’s bedroom, Lex heard her turn on the shower and then his stomach clenched as he heard her sobs. He stood up and started to leave the room, to go to her and pull her into his arms. Cade put his hand out and barred the door.
“Where are you going?”
“She’s hurting! I’m going to go to her.”
Cade heard the anguish in his brother’s voice and hid a smile. “Why? I thought you weren’t interested in her,” Cade said with mock casualness. “I think she’s pretty exceptional. That roundhouse and the right hook? Wow. Anyway, you think she’s a dried-up spinster, I’ll go in and comfort her.” He moved to leave the room.
Lex’s hand shot out and grabbed his brother’s shirt. “Stay away from her,” he growled.
Cade laughed with delight. “I knew it!”
Lex rolled his eyes at his brother. “She’s mine, Cade. Period.”
Cade kept grinning and slapped Lex’s back. Sobering, he said, “Let her grieve, Lex. She’s lost everything. Tomorrow morning is soon enough to pursue her. And she’s going to give you such a hard time about it too. I can’t wait.” He rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
Chapter Two
Carter Peterson paced, scrubbing his hands over his face. Stopping, he spun and glared at the man standing before him. He growled, frustrated as he demanded, “You didn’t kill her? What the hell is wrong with you? She’s a bloody human for goodness’ sake!”
John Hendrix snorted in disgust. “We would have had her but the Enforcer and Alpha showed up with the guard. We took care of Gabriel Reyes, though. He can’t say a freaking word now. For all we know, he didn’t tell her a thing.” The other werewolves in the room shifted uneasily as they watched the exchange.
Carter narrowed his eyes at the Rogue, lip curled in disgust. The Rogues were almost as bad as the damned humans. Disorganized, lazy. If he didn’t have half a million dollars of debt to the
mob hanging over his head, he’d have walked away from these wolves months ago.
“The operative phrase is we don’t know! What if Tommie told Rey and Rey told his sister? Huh? She tells the Wardens and the Enforcer shows up and rips my throat out. You need to figure out what the hell is going on, Hendrix! No more loose ends or this could all go sideways in record time. Kill the human and do it as soon as possible.”
* * *
Lex woke up and got dressed. He spoke to his people and looked over their reports. As Enforcer for the Cascadia Clan, it was his job to oversee security. He was Cade’s personal bodyguard, although his brother had a retinue of six guards who were on the property at all times. These guards were, every last one, Wardens. The Alpha of the Cascadia Clan had been a Warden for a hundred and fifty years and his family had held positions in top hierarchy for at least five hundred years. Theirs was an old and noble line.
Lex had been born to be an Enforcer. As second son and largest of all his siblings, he would be second-in-command and had been trained to fulfill that role from a very early age. Cade was the firstborn and as such, groomed to be Alpha from birth. He was politically astute and charismatic, leading their Pack suited him. They had sisters as well, two of whom were in the personal guard. Cousins made up the rest of the retinue.
Lex Warden was feared and respected across all Clan territories. He was a badass and he wasn’t afraid to admit it to himself. He not only had the natural abilities to serve as Enforcer, but had also received extensive training when he was an army ranger for eight years. It was rare that wolves messed with him and if and when they did, he crushed them without mercy.
He was also an architect and had designed the house that they lived in. While his biology and duty called him to be the Enforcer for the Cascadia Pack, his creativity led him to design. He enjoyed it and hoped to continue to grow his business. He’d done several homes on contract and a building in downtown Bellevue and he loved it. Loved the satisfaction of driving past one of the places that he’d created.