Page 18 of Wolf Desired
“Looks like we’re bunking together, doll,” Kingsley said as he edged past her and tossed his bag into the room. Before she could turn and find another room, the shifter grabbed her duffle bag out of her hands and threw it in alongside his.
There were twenty-eight shifters and humans in the program and fourteen rooms, all doubles. She had to share with someone, but it sure as hell wasn’t going to be Kingsley. Alyssa entered the room and grabbed her bag.
Kingsley shut the door behind them. Fuck. She’d made a rookie mistake stepping into the room first when there was no other exit and no one watching her six. But he wouldn’t be so stupid to attack her here, would he? Hell, yes; guys were stupid. Mix stupidity with arrogance and she had a dangerous situation on her hands.
As she slid her backpack off her shoulder, she slipped her hand into the front pocket and wrapped her fingers around her gun, but didn’t draw it. “Let me out.”
His eyes tracked her hand. Slowly, he stepped toward her, that cocky grin of his almost daring her to draw her gun. “I just want to get to know you, doll.”
The door crashed open, startling her, but not Kingsley. Without even turning around to confront whoever had barged in, he said, “Leave, Rafe.” His warning growl crawled up her spine and made her shiver. “The lady and I are having a meeting.”
“Without the rest of your team?”
Relief and annoyance flooded Alyssa at the same time. She didn’t need Rafe’s help; she had her gun and could handle Kingsley. “We just had a misunderstanding,” she said, eyeing both shifters and her duffle bag still behind Kingsley.
Kingsley’s eyes darkened as he glared at Rafe. “Get the hell out.” She could swear Kingsley’s shoulder blades moved under his shirt as if he planned to shift.
Rafe remained in the doorway, bulging arms folded over a chest thick with handsome-as-sin muscles, as he held the door open. She’d love to run her tongue over every inch of him.
What the fuck was she thinking?
Alyssa abandoned the out-of-reach duffle and headed for the door. Kingsley stepped into her path.
“Move,” she warned. She could defend herself against a human, but as the day wore on, her confidence about going toe to toe with a shifter was waning. The videos of their power, their viciousness when riled, didn’t compare to what she witnessed earlier when Tiernan’s and 86’s wolves had fought.
Her fingers wrapped around the handle of her Glock. “Last warning, Kingsley.”
“All the other rooms are taken. This is the only bed left.” He tried to sound logical and non-threatening.
“That’s my problem, not yours. Move aside. Now,” she said, growling that last word. Where that had come from, she had no idea. But that growl made her feel powerful in front of these shifters, as if she was starting to catch on to some secret language of theirs.
Kingsley lifted a brow. “You sure you don’t have any shifter in you, doll?” He leaned forward and scented along her neck. “I can put some shifter in you, all right. All night long.”
She punched him in the gut, instantly regretting it as pain shot through her hand and wrist, as if she’d punched a wall.
“You’re cute,” he said, leaning in closer. His wet, slimy tongue dragged along her neck. And then he was gone, yanked off his feet, thrown across the room. Rafe had Kingsley by the throat and looked ready to rip the shifter in half.
Kingsley roared. Pieces of clothing exploded off of him as he shifted into a brown wolf.
“Go, Artemis,” Rafe said in a calm, commanding voice. Perhaps the guy could be reasonable. “I’ll take care of this.”
She backed her way out the door, leaving her duffle bag behind. She had the essentials in her backpack. And quite frankly, she didn’t want to see shifters fighting again. One fight had been enough.
“Causing trouble again?” Jason said as she entered the hallway. Most of the men—shifters and humans—had come out of their rooms to see what the noise was about. Glass breaking, metal slamming against concrete, growling, and the bone-chilling sounds of teeth snapping. She winced when she heard a dull thud against the wood door that slammed shut behind her.
She pushed through the crowd of males and walked down the hall, looking for an empty room. Their stares weighed on her, especially since no one offered to share their room. She’d been a fool for thinking she’d have friends here, even among the humans. Years after becoming an agent and not much had changed. In the world of law enforcement, males still looked down on females.
Every room she passed was occupied. It was just as well. She wasn’t sharing with any of these guys. She didn’t trust them. Well, most of them. There was something about Rafe and Tiernan she trusted, but she wasn’t going to ask to bunk with them. She didn’t want to appear any weaker than she already did.
Without slowing down, Alyssa slammed into the safety bar on the door leading to the stairwell. The door swung open so fast it bounced against the concrete wall. Let them see she was pissed off because she wasn’t rolling over for any of them.
One level down in the dorm, Alyssa entered the hall of unfinished rooms. The program had begun before the DSA had completed construction on the dorm. On this level, only half of the rooms had been built out, and only two had doors, but no locks. The bathroom and showers looked done. She tested the faucet. Yup, running water.
She tossed her backpack into one of the rooms that had a door and dug out her emergency set of clothes. As she peeled the wet pants off of her, her door creaked open.
CHAPTERSIX
MADDOX
