Page 45 of Secret Wolf Baby

Silence broken only by the rumbling of the car followed the response. Glancing in the rearview mirror, I could see Chris shooting a skeptical look in Will’s direction. Beside me, Will had an amused, knowing look on his face.

“Knock it off,” I growled.

“I will when you tell us what’s really going on with Audrey,” Will said.

“Yeah, because we all know you aren’t just paying a favor back for Mira’s sake,” Chris added.

“And what makes you say that?” I demanded.

“Declan,” the two of them responded in unison.

“He says he remembers you making eyes at Audrey when she used to live in your old pack,” Chris said. I could hear the smirk in his voice. “And then she just vanished one day. You never talked about her after that.”

“I didn’t make eyes at Audrey when she lived in our old pack,” I said defensively. “I just wanted to get moving on this before anything bad happened. Doing my job and doing it promptly doesn’t mean there’s something else going on or some ulterior motive on my part.”

“If you say so,” Chris drawled, giving me a lazy, knowing grin.

“If you guys keep pestering me on this, there’s going to be hell to pay,” I warned, though that only earned chuckles from the other two in the car. But mercifully, they stopped pestering me after that, and I could just listen to the radio without having to field any more awkward questions about myself and Audrey.

The truth was, the reason I had pressed myself to get moving on this did have to do with Audrey, just not necessarily in the way I was implying. I couldn’t get the other night out of my head. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could think about was the way she had felt when I held her, and the way she had looked without any clothes on. It made focusing on anything else virtually impossible. Even if I had told her I wasn’t bothered or that I would respect her wishes, that didn’t stop me from wanting her.

So, with all that on my mind, I did the one thing that usually helped when nothing else did: throw myself into the job headfirst and hope it would distract me, at least for a little while.

Which was why Will, Chris, and I were currently driving through the streets of an unfamiliar town. I watched theshifters wandering along the streets, most of them smiling and laughing as they walked together in small clusters. The difference between this pack and Blood Moon was like night and day. No one here looked strained or nervous, and when we got out of the car and headed toward their town hall, none of the passersby shot us suspicious looks. There was none of the ominous atmosphere that had plagued Blood Moon. There was a brightness and vibrancy here that the other pack entirely lacked.

“Notice any differences?” Will asked dryly. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who noticed the stark contrast.

“Yeah, no kidding,” I muttered in response, glancing around. “Hard to believe Reacher and this pack had any association with one another whatsoever.”

“The other place that bad?” Chris asked.

“It looked fine on the surface,” Will admitted. “But it just felt like everyone was on edge. Like they were afraid to screw up or step out of line. There wasn’t this air of relaxation like here.”

Chris nodded but didn’t say anything. We all remained quiet as we climbed the steps to the town hall and entered the main building.

We had only stepped inside when a man lounging at the front desk, engaged in a conversation with the receptionist, saw us. He muttered a final thing to the woman before pushing himself away from the desk and strolling over to us with a lazy, confident grin on his face.

“Hi, there,” he greeted, sticking out his hand. “Pete. Pleasure to meet you.”

I shook his hand. “Jackson. This is Chris and Will. We were hoping we could talk to your alpha.”

“You’re looking at him. What can I do for you fine gentlemen? Looking for a place to settle?”

He was certainly more hospitable than Reacher had ever been.

“No, actually,” I replied. “We’re doing some investigation on behalf of the Wolf’s Council. We were hoping we could ask you a few questions about the previous alpha. Reacher?”

Pete’s smile faltered, replaced by a grimace. Behind him, I noticed the secretary was staring at me, her eyes wide and posture tense.

“I see,” Pete said.

“You don’t seem particularly surprised,” Will commented.

“That the Wolf’s Council is looking into him?” Pete asked. “I can’t say I am.”

“He was bad news?” I asked.

Pete snorted, folding his arms. “That’s one way of putting it. A bit of an understatement, to be honest.”

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