Page 23 of Wolf Desired
“Don’t need. . . protection,” she said, drawing in deeper breaths. “Appreciate. . . company. Later. . . Okay?”
Another low growl aimed at the group ahead of them. “It’s a date.”
Date? Ah, that’s not what she’d meant.
“Later, Artemis.”
Before she could say anything, Tiernan raced past her and stopped by the humans up ahead. Whatever he said, it threw off their gait as they shuffled sideways to get away from him. This time, Ike looked over his shoulder at her. And glared.
Screw them. Let them say or think what they wanted. She was here to do a job, not enlist in high school style drama. Though she wished she could have heard what Tiernan had said.
Forty minutes later, she finished her run, dead last.
“Took you long enough,” Graves said.
“I didn’t want to embarrass the men, sir. I’m happy to do this again tomorrow if you want to see who’s fastest among the humans.”
“Let’s go, Artemis,” Kingsley said. “We have an assignment.”
Alyssa jogged over to the three shifters. Kingsley started going over the way he planned to rule their team. Not lead, but rule. She let his word choice slide, knowing it might be a cultural difference.
The entire time Kingsley droned on, she could feel Rafe and Tiernan watching her. While that thrilled her, she wanted Maddox’s eyes on her.
Too or instead of the others?
Now that was an interesting question. She’d never been attracted to three guys at once. Three very different guys. And shifters, at that. This fixation on Rafe, Tiernan, and Maddox had to be nothing more than her body’s need for a proper release. She hadn’t had a date in over a year. Hadn’t had sex in two.
She glanced at the trio. Maddox studied a packet of information and Tiernan glared at Kingsley, while Rafe. . . Hell, his bright green eyes locked with hers. Her breath hitched at how they seemed to glow with a fire. Every time he looked at her.
Xavier stepped in front of her, pulling her out of her thoughts. A moment later, she felt Kingsley’s hard body press against her back, sandwiching her between them and blocking her view of Rafe and the others.
Alyssa backed up, attempting to push Kingsley away, but he didn’t budge. “Let’s get one thing straight, Kingsley,” she said, whirling around to confront him. “I’m off-limits. To all of you. Touch me again, block me, or do anything that I don’t like, and I’ll—”
Kingsley stepped so close to her she could see the gold flecks in his eyes. “You’ll what?” he challenged.
Go ahead. Smirk, asshole,she thought as she returned his grin and kneed him as hard as she could.
The guy didn’t even flinch.
“Do you have steel balls?”
“You’ll find out soon enough. As soon as your guardian’s out of the way.”
He had to mean Rafe. She’d heard the other agents talking during the run of how Rafe had beaten Kingsley, but she didn’t see a mark on either one of them. Their wolves must have healed them.
She grabbed the packet from Xavier and shoved it at Kingsley’s chest. “Attempt to be a leader and get us through this next challenge.”
“These challenges are meaningless. We already have the skills we need to fight.”
“Then why the hell are you here, Kingsley? Why are any of you here?”
“Our alphas ordered it. Because of the treaty that will keep the U.S. military from wiping us out.”
The military had no interest in wiping them out. When the shifters had started defending themselves and retaliating against the anti-shifters, innocent humans had died. That’s what it had taken to make the U.S. government wake up and notice that they had a growing problem in the country. The DSA was a new agency dedicated to working with shifters to keep the peace, but new meant enduring growing pains. Like this program.
“The challenges are designed to get shifters and humans used to working together, to stop the violence against both groups,” Alyssa said. “But first we have to gain an understanding of each other’s limits and skills.”
“I have no limits,” he said, pushing his hips forward. “And all the skill to make you scream my name.”
