Protected by the Rogue Wolf Read online

  It took me barely a minute to blow my cover to this woman.

  Javier, one of the only two wolves who stayed with me since we’d gone rogue, clapped his hand on my shoulder. We’d come here to work for Shadow in exchange for the promise of belonging to a pack again. “Rick and I are headed to the bar. The camera will stay with you.”

  “Oh, yeah,” I grumbled as the camerawoman waved to me.

  The she-wolf startled. “They were serious about the camera crew thing.”

  “Got anything to hide?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “Do you?”

  I took a step closer. Close enough that I could hear her breath catch in her throat, even over the roar of the band. “I don’t think everything is meant for an audience.”

  “Neither do I,” she said softly.

  “Let’s go into the other room. It’s quieter back there, and I have a feeling you might need to talk about your encounter with Tessa.”

  She froze. “You don’t mean Red Heaven, do you?”

  My cock twitched at the suggestion. Wait a minute. “Are you Sawtooth pack?” If she was, she’d know what that implied.

  “It’s kind of nice to have someone not know who I am.” She laughed. “Yes, I’m Sawtooth pack. But you’re not.”

  “No, I’m not.” Wasn’t sure if I was supposed to tell her that, but my wolf wanted her to know who I was, even if I couldn’t tell her everything yet. “Follow me.”

  There was no mistaking the many sets of eyes that followed us as we slid into a corner booth. My new friend was important in the pack. No matter what happened tonight, I needed to pay attention to her.

  My wolf liked that scenario way too much.

  “You didn’t tell me your name.” I changed the subject before she had a chance to ask me where I came from, and what I was doing here.

  “It’s Willow—” She hesitated. “Just Willow.”

  This woman definitely had secrets. “It’s nice to meet you, just Willow.” I put my hand over hers on the table, closing my eyes for a long moment and savoring the electricity that flowed from her skin to mine. I hadn’t felt that since...

  Sarah, my mate.

  It felt traitorous. I would never get over having her taken from me. “I’m just Carlos.”

  There was no telling how long the waitress had been standing there, grinning at us. “Drinks?”

  “I’ll take a beer,” I said.

  Willow looked over the menu at the edge of the table. “There’s a drink called The Redheaded Stepchild? I’ll take that.”

  I whistled low. “Damn, just Willow. You know that’s like a Long Island Iced Tea with more alcohol?”

  “I’ll regret it when my daughter wakes me up at the crack of dawn. But she’s nine, so I can go back to bed and regret my life choices while she makes herself a bowl of cereal if it comes to that.”

  Hold up. “Daughter? I thought you said you were talking to The Real Werewives.”

  “I’m one of the she-wolves who was sold to the highest bidder. When Shadow offered us a way out, I took it. That’s why they’re all staring at us.” She slid her hand out from under mine and smoothed her hair away from her face with a nervous chuckle. “I miss being just Willow already.”

  My wolf sighed. Mate, he insisted again, but I ignored him. This was business and he was making a ridiculous claim. Just Willow was beautiful, but she could never belong to me. She had secrets and information that could secure my place in the Sawtooth pack.

  Or I could cost her a place in the pack.

  “Good for you,” I said. “Everyone deserves a chance to find their true mate.”

  “Do you think everyone has a true mate?” she asked.

  “I do.”

  The waitress came back with our drinks. A fruit spear perched on the top of Willow’s glass. She tipped it into the drink before taking a long sip.

  I raised a brow. “Don’t you eat the fruit?”

  “I save it until the end. I like it with a kick.” She took a sip of her drink and winced.

  “Good to know.”

  “I’ve seen you before,” she said. “Yesterday, at Shadow and Tessa’s press conference.”

  I took a long sip of my beer. “I saw you there, too. Leaving with your daughter.”

  “She’s gone through a lot,” Willow’s gaze fell to her drink. “She loves reality shows. Her favorite thing to watch is the animal adoption videos from Forever Home. She begged me to be a part of this show.”

  “You didn’t answer my question.”

  “I did.”

  She drew back. I was used to having my walls up and topped with barbed wire. All I had to do was let them down and let her in. But that was more dangerous than any of my business in the forest. I couldn’t guarantee this woman was my mate, no matter how much my wolf insisted.

  “Where are you from?” she asked.

  “Wyoming.” It was good to tell someone the truth. The world needed to know what had happened to my pack. The amazing wolves we lost. Like my mate. It was one of the reasons I’d agreed to be involved with the show. I’d finally have a chance to tell my story.

  She tipped her head and furrowed her brow. “You came all the way here to be on the show?”

  “I don’t have anything to hide, Just Willow. I do what it takes to survive.” Our gazes locked. “Something tells me you know a thing or two about that.”

  “I do. Those lessons will make me a good Werewife.”

  “Excuse me.” A blue-haired woman rushed up to the table, bumping into the camerawoman. “Sorry.”

  “Luna,” Willow gasped, drawing away from the table. “Are you okay? Did something happen? Where’s your cameraperson?”

  Just Willow went from zero to on edge in a matter of seconds.

  Watch over her, my wolf insisted. Mate.

  Luna waved her hand. “Don’t worry about any of that. Get out of here. Now.”

  My animal was on point. “Why?”

  “Did you just growl?” Luna asked, then turned to Willow. “Tate’s here.”

  Willow closed her eyes for a long blink and exhaled in frustration. “Of course he is.”

  “Tate Ulrich?”

  The ladies nodded.

  “He’s my ex,” Willow said.

  Shit. He was the wolf I’d been hired to kill.

  Chapter Three

  Willow

  All the yoga in the world wouldn’t help me destress if Tate caught me here having drinks with another wolf. He wouldn’t hurt me, he never had. But he wouldn’t hesitate to get his point across to Carlos.

  “I need to go.” My body bumped the table, rocking the liquid in our drinks. “Thank you. I really enjoyed talking to you, Carlos.”

  His animal’s energy was so close to the surface my she-wolf couldn’t ignore it. She’d never felt that kind of energy before, not in the way Carlos was projecting it. Which was more reason to get the hell out of here. I lost a step, getting around the camerawoman, but I didn’t stand a chance of getting away from my new friend.

  I was more ready to be caught than I wanted to admit.

  “Hey.” He gently put his hand on my arm and stepped in front of me. “Are you in danger?”

  I shook my head. “Don’t make this harder than it already is.” I sidestepped him, but I was aware of that energy following me out of the building.

  The protesters were still there, along with the lights and the cameras.

  And Carlos. The camerawoman who’d been assigned to me was there too. I might have made it out of the building, out of my marriage, but I didn’t know how far I had to run to be truly free.

  “Are you still in love with him?” Carlos asked when we got outside.

  “No.” My feelings for Tate were complicated.

  “Then why are you so afraid to see him?”

  “Get away from my mate,” Tate growled.

  “I’m not your mate.” No one heard me. These two men might be in their human form, but they were all wolf as they stared each
other down.

  At least my episode wouldn’t be boring. I had that going for me.

  Carlos stepped forward. Tate didn’t intimidate him. “The lady says she doesn’t belong to you. And I tend to believe her.”

  “Whistling a different tune outside the forest, I see,” Tate said.

  “Wait. You two know each other?” My head hurt and it had nothing to do with the few high-octane sips of that drink.

  “We’re acquaintances,” Carlos grumbled.

  “Business associates,” Tate said. I could tell that was bullshit.

  “I don’t really care how you know each other, but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t lie to me about it.” I sighed. “I feel like I’m talking to my nine-year-old instead of two grown-ass wolves. Except she knows better.”

  “Where’s Hazel?” Tate asked.

  “Home. Trina Channing is watching her.” He’d hate that.

  “I don’t want that woman near my daughter.” He growled, and it didn’t have the same effect on me as when Carlos did it. It never had.

  Even as a human, Trina was at the top of the food chain in this pack. It was a place Tate pictured himself. But Shadow Channing bested the former alpha, and it left the taste of vengeance in Tate’s mouth that he had yet to wash away.

  “She’s the mate of our alpha.”

  “Not for long.”

  “Don’t make threats you can’t keep.” I rolled my eyes.

  “I never do.” He nodded toward Carlos. I could feel his energy tense without even turning around to see him. This was crazy. We’d just met, and we had a serious connection. “What are you doing with this wolf?”

  “He’s bringing me home.”

  Carlos’ smile made my insides flutter. It was full of challenge and promises of things I wasn’t even sure how to ask for.

  Tate glanced at the camera. “We’ll talk about this later, Willow. They can’t follow you everywhere.”

  He turned on his heel and waved to the protesters before heading back into The Redheaded Stepchild.

  Goosebumps blossomed on my skin, and they had nothing to do with my little dress or the early spring night.

  “Now I understand why you wanted to avoid him,” Carlos said. He had that energy rolling off him, and I had a feeling I’d be craving it long after this night.

  There’s one way to take care of that. My she-wolf already couldn’t get enough of this man.

  “How do you know him?”

  “We’ve had some run-ins in the forest.”

  I waited for more, but that was all Carlos was willing to share.

  “Has he acted like that since you left him?” he asked.

  “Usually, he asks me to come home.” I sighed. “If it were just me, I’d have no problem telling him to go screw. But he’s Hazel’s dad, and he’ll always be a part of our lives. If she winds up resenting him, I don’t want it to be because I taught her she should.”

  “You’re a good mom.” Everything about Carlos softened. His voice, the gaze, and that addictive energy. I might have liked him this way even more. “You mentioned something about needing a ride home?”

  “If you don’t mind? Don’t know if I have to check with Tessa and see if my shift is over.” I needed to ask him more about his history with Tate, and I would before we said goodnight.

  “We’ll let her know you’re heading out,” the camerawoman said. “We always let her know where you are.”

  Carlos raked his gaze over me. The cold disappeared. “I came here on my bike.”

  “Of course you did.” The sexy wolf wouldn’t drive a sedan.

  “When you’ve got a shop like Choppers by Lowe in town, it seems like a damn shame to drive anything else.” His gaze settled on my bare legs. My dress was dangerously short under the best of circumstances, and a ride on a motorcycle was likely to end in handcuffs.

  If you could be so lucky, my she-wolf sniffed.

  “There are extra clothes in the van,” the camerawoman said. “We’re always prepared in case of any unexpected shifts.”

  Sawtooth pack only shifted on the full moon, but not everyone involved with the show was part of our pack. After pulling on a pair of black leggings and zipping up a hoodie, I climbed out of the van and found a purring motorcycle with one hot wolf on it waiting for me.

  “You had an extra helmet with you?”

  “It’s Javier’s. You’ll meet him later.” Carlos’ confidence we’d see each other again made my heart skip a beat. “He’s still in the bar. Have you been on one of these things before?”

  “Sure have.” I didn’t get to take my bike with me when I moved out of Tate’s house. There was nothing I loved more than a spring ride through the Sawtooth Mountains, when the mountaintops were still capped with snow and the sun started to set... It was the closest I could get to shifting while still being human.

  I climbed on the bike and positioned myself to keep a little space between Carlos and me.

  Carlos waited for the crew to load into their van before he pulled out of the parking lot.

  Granger Falls looked different on the back of Carlos’ bike. Full of hope and possibility. Like we’d finally left those people with their protest signs behind.

  Carlos parked in front of the cupcake shop on Main Street and the van pulled into a spot behind us. My apartment was across the street, above a hair salon, so the temptation was always in view.

  But nothing like the temptation I faced now. He took off his helmet and shook out his long hair.

  Damn.

  My hands shook as I handed him the borrowed helmet. Electricity surged through me when our fingers brushed against each other.

  “Do we wait for the crew?” We weren’t officially on a date, even if it felt like it.

  “Guess we should.” Carlos took a step closer to me. “Are you in a hurry?”

  Shaking my head, I prayed Tate didn’t drive up. Otherwise, I was happy to stand out here all night with this man.

  “Me neither.”

  Oh yeah, I was supposed to ask him why the hell he was here.

  “So if you’re from Wyoming, why are you—”

  “We’ll just record a quick goodnight. It might not make your episode, but Tessa will definitely want this for the promo reel. A little tease of things to come.” The camerawoman interrupted us, and my she-wolf groaned. But my irritation faded when Carlos placed his finger under my chin and tipped my face up to meet his.

  It was like someone had scripted it.

  “I want to kiss you, but I won’t. Not tonight.” His gaze settled on my lips, like he was imagining what they’d feel like against his. Okay, I was imagining what they’d feel like. “I’d like to see you again, Willow.”

  “I’d like that, too.”

  How was it possible that he’d come even closer? What would it be like to snake my hand around his neck and kiss him? Press my body against his and—

  “I’ll let you decide when that is. When you’re ready. Name it, and I’ll be there.”

  Chapter Four

  Carlos

  “That was amazing.” The camerawoman lowered the camera from her shoulder when Willow disappeared into her apartment building. “This is my second season with the Werewives, and we always hope to catch the moment when the spark happens. This time, we got it.”

  Shit. My wolf was writing checks that my human side couldn’t cash. There was no way I could commit to Willow Ulrich. It was out of the question even before I found out she had been attached to Tate, who was leading the revolt against the Sawtooth pack.

  But that wasn’t the biggest obstacle standing in the way of being with Willow. I’d already found my mate.

  Seven years ago, my pack had been attacked by wolves from Montana. They’d earned our trust, and sucker punched us in the middle of the night. My Sarah had been ripped out of my arms, and I was held back and forced to watch as she was killed.

  A small group of us had been on the run ever since, never finding a place we could belong until we�
��d come to the Sawtooth pack. I wanted revenge more than I wanted to breathe, but the numbers weren’t in our favor. When we reconnected with Marcus and Matteo Shaw, they convinced us to give Sawtooth Forest and their new pack a chance. It didn’t escape me that history was repeating itself, and I never seemed to be on the right side of it.

  The camerawoman waited with her head cocked.

  “What’s your name?” I asked.

  “Stephanie.” She offered her hand.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Stephanie. Are you assigned to Willow exclusively?”

  “Probably, but I might be covering you sometimes too. We like to keep things consistent to build trust with our couples.”

  Good. “There are times that you won’t be able to follow me.”

  “Of course.” She gave me a sheepish grin. “When things get too hot between our couples, we obviously turn the cameras off.”

  My wolf was on point at the thought of getting closer to Willow. Drinking the lingering taste of alcohol from her lips, running my hands all over that soft, bare skin, the heat getting so unbearable that Stephanie would quietly walk away and let us bathe in the flames.

  But that wasn’t what I’d meant. “There’s pack business that can’t be made public, and there will be times you won’t be able to follow me that have nothing to do with Willow.”

  “You told her you weren’t Sawtooth pack.”

  “Didn’t say I wasn’t working for them.”

  “You’ll have to talk to Tessa about it.”

  “I will.” Even though Stephanie was reckless not to heed my warning, I liked that she questioned me. She was human, but she had wolf instincts. “But you don’t want to be caught on the wrong side of pack justice.”

  “Too late for that,” she said. “You need to be careful too. Your life is about to change. But I’m sure you’ve already got a locker room style pep talk from Tessa. I’m just here to record it all. And I better get back to the Stepchild before all hell breaks loose and I miss it.”

  I’d told Stephanie that she couldn’t always follow me, but Willow couldn’t be left alone. I had a bad feeling Willow had no idea to what lengths her ex would go to take control of the pack. Pack politics were complicated, and I wasn’t the only rogue wolf in the forest out to collect a bounty. I had to get back to the Stepchild to meet up with Javier and Rick, because we needed a new plan. One that kept the potential Werewives safe.