Page 1 of His Mate

PROLOGUE

Rowan Blackwood

“Do you know what they’re doing in there?” Trevor asked me, and I scoffed at him, shaking my head and turning away.

“It doesn’t matter. We’re here to do a job and that’s to make sure no one gets in. They don’t pay us to ask questions. You know that, Trev,” I answered with a long, slightly exasperated breath.

“But don’t you just wonder—” he started, but I cut him off.

“No. I don’t,” I said with a twinge of annoyance. I cleared my throat and scanned what I could see of the forest. I had a feeling in my gut that something was off. I narrowed my eyes, searching, but I didn’t see anything.

Trevor sighed beside me. He and I went way back. We were ex-Marines and we’d seen the worst of it together through two tours in the desert. Back then, there was no room for doubt, just pure instinct so we could survive each day and each terrible night.

Now, though, the uniforms were gone. We’d traded them in for a paycheck years ago. To make ends meet, we worked as private security operatives. Instead of lurking about the desert, we stood in lobbies, doorways, outside the perimeter of important buildings, guarding whatever secrets our clients were willing to pay to keep hidden.

For a price, of course.

And this job paid more than anything we’d ever done before.

For some reason, Trevor never took to it as easily as I did, still searching for some sense of honor or maybe even a purpose that we left behind with our uniforms and our dog tags. Maybe that’s why he kept asking questions. But me? I’d learned to shut it all out—whatever they were doing behind those doors didn’t matter. Not to me. I was here to do a job.

I knew how to follow orders and I did it well.

Standing up straight, I scanned my surrounding for something unusual and sighed when I didn’t see anything. This had been a relatively quiet job thus far and I didn’t expect it to change any time soon, not even if something was making me feel restless.

I glanced through one of the building’s windows and saw a woman in a white coat walking by in the hallway. She was holding a rack of test tubes in one hand as she slipped through one of the doors inside and out of sight. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that they were doing some sort of scientific testing inside. Of what, I didn’t know, and I didn’t really care to find out.

In retrospect though, I probably should have.

Trevor opened his mouth to ask another question, but before he could speak, a short, muffled scream cut through the still nightair, followed by the sound of something heavy crashing to the floor inside the building. My whole body tensed, instinct kicking in as my hand moved to my sidearm.

“What the hell was that?” Trevor asked, eyes wide, his voice lower now, but tinged with concern. I shook my head.

“Doesn’t matter,” I snapped, keeping my tone calm despite the adrenaline that had begun to flood my veins. “We stick to the job. No one gets in, and we don’t go in. That’s what we’re being paid for.” But even as I said it, I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling at the back of my mind that something was very wrong here.

More noise erupted from inside—metal clattering, a woman’s voice shouting, then silence. Trevor took a step toward the door, but I grabbed his arm and shook my head, squeezing it tight.

“Don’t,” I warned. “They’ll handle it.”

“They?” Trevor scoffed, his voice trembling. “They’re just scientists. They’re not soldiers like us!”

And then, before I could respond, a deafening crash echoed from above us. I looked up just in time to see shards of glass raining down, and something large, dark, and fast come barreling out of one of the second-story windows. It hit the ground with a heavy thud. My brain took a second to process what I was seeing, but there was no mistaking it.

It was awolf.

But this wasn’t like any wolf I’d ever seen. It was massive, its muscles rippling under a coat of dark, matted fur. Its eyes gleamed an unnatural shade of yellow as it turned its head toward us, lips curling back to reveal long, sharp teeth. A low,rumbling growl escaped its throat, and I could feel it vibrating in my own chest.

Immediately, the feeling I’d had went from bad to worse.

“Holy shit,” Trevor breathed.

“Get ready,” I said, drawing my gun.

The wolf lunged. Without wasting a second, I fired—once, twice, three times. Each shot found its mark, hitting the creature square in the chest, but it barely flinched. The bullets didn’t stop it; they hardly even slowed it down. Trevor stumbled backward, cursing, and I grabbed him by the collar, dragging him away as we turned and sprinted toward the tree line.

“Move!” I shouted, but my heart hammered in my ears, drowning out everything else. I could hear the creature behind us, the heavy thud of its paws hitting the ground as it gave chase, and it pushed me to run even faster.

“Jesus Christ, what the hell is that thing?” Trevor gasped, stumbling as he glanced back over his shoulder.

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