Undercover Wolf

Chapter 7

She’d seen it before. Several times. Watching Quinn strip off his clothes in the barest light of the waning day should have felt like been there, done that, nothing new to this well-trained nurse, this experienced aide to shapeshifters.

It was far from that easy. Kristine couldn’t remain that blasé, no matter how hard she tried.

It didn’t help at all that, despite the serious work he had to do here, Quinn had turned it into a game this time, even more than before. A quick one, to be sure, but he was still playing with her.

He pulled off his shirt first, wadded it into a bundle and flipped it nonchalantly over his shoulder as if it was a basketball made of rags.

All the while, he continued to look into her eyes and smile. And, oh, his smoking-hot expression, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.

As if he undressed her this time, just as realistically, but only with his lustful gaze.

He undid the fastening on his jeans, pulled down the zipper and hooked his thumbs into the sides. In one swift maneuver, he removed both his pants and the boxers below.

He stood straight, stretched, turned sideways and back from the waist while flexing his muscles. All of them—all of him.

His maleness nearly made her lose her breath from wanting him. How wrong that was.

Especially now.

Now. Of course. She reminded herself of the obligation she had to fulfill for Alpha Force. Even if she wasn’t under orders, she had a job to do: to find Simon and Grace, while protecting the unit that was so important to her.

She bent down, sliding to her knees while at the same time turning—and drew the very special light needed to make the shifting potion work from her backpack. It wasn’t very large, but the illumination it gave off always matched the intensity of the full moon.

She glanced around to make doubly sure that their location was secluded enough, hidden well within the forest, so authorities below were unlikely to see the light.

Then she turned it on. “Are you ready?” she asked Quinn, knowing full well from past experience that once Quinn had downed the elixir, all he needed to do to prepare for his shift was to take off his clothes—which he’d definitely done.

“I sure am.” He drew himself up to his full height, in all his bare glory, clearly showing off everything he had—and getting the lustful reaction he undoubtedly sought from her.

Not that she’d admit it. “Good. Here goes.”

She turned on the light, illuminating even more that gorgeous, all masculine body that she refused to allow to tempt her—too much.

She watched while he began to writhe under the brilliant glow as his limbs changed, his perfect body changed shape and grew fur all over. That should have turned her off completely.

It wasn’t exactly seductive.

But it also didn’t erase the memory of moments earlier, of what she’d seen and lusted after.

“Be careful,” she said softly, as his form morphed even further, into the low, feral appearance of a wolf.

She wasn’t sure whether she was talking to him or herself.

* * *

He stood still for a minute after his change was complete, allowing the discomfort of the shift to dissipate.

The forest floor was soft and moist around here, with decaying leaves beneath his paws. The greenery around him smelled vibrant and heavy, and among the scents he inhaled were those of creatures—rodents, birds, others, some active at this hour, others settled in to wait for daylight to return.

The woman who had helped him with his shift once more stood before him, watching, the light that assisted him now turned off.

He would return here soon. To where she waited. As he had each previous time.

With a slight nod acknowledging her, he loped off in the direction of where he needed to observe and investigate this time while in wolfen form.

As with the prior occasions when he had shifted with the aid of the elixir made available by his new employer Alpha Force, he reveled in the fact that his humanity remained strong beneath his canine appearance.

This time, he also remained fully aware of the mission he had to perform in exchange. Wanted to perform.

He had to help his brother and sister-in-law.

He was fully aware of the potential danger of being in shifted form now, when those officially investigating the killings that he, too, needed to solve, would be watching for a wolf to blame, and he was in the area where those killings had occurred.

That meant caution was particularly essential to what he attempted to accomplish this night. He thrust his long muzzle into the air and again inhaled the scents around him. Still nothing menacing...at least not now.

He slowly stalked through the darkened forest, toward paths leading below to the site of the killings.

As he got closer, his acute hearing picked up the sounds of voices. The area of his destination was dark, yet he made out the glow of flashlights.

As he had assumed, the investigation into the deaths must be ongoing. That increased his need for caution.

Instead of getting closer, he began walking in a large circle around the site, allowing his senses freedom to discern anything outside normal forest scents and sounds.

The first loop was slow by design. The soft voices from its center were distinct—a man and a woman—but he did not know to whom they belonged, nor did he make out what they were saying.

He made his next ring closer. The two sounded at ease with one another as they whispered about blood and local wildlife and death, and speculated whether traps they had laid would capture whatever creatures had dared to kill humans.

Danger! Would he sense those traps?

Yes, he had to perform his mission, but getting caught would be disastrous. Yet if he slowed more, he might risk changing back before he’d planned to. The amount of elixir he had ingested would likely permit him to remain wolfen for perhaps two hours, no longer. That had been the plan this time.

He proceeded even more slowly. He kept his nose near the ground to try to catch the scent of any recent human presence in this remote area, as well as any metallic or other foreign smells that could warn him of a trap.

His next circuit would not be entirely around the subject site. It would be too risky.

But he did draw closer, very carefully. Saw, through the trees, the clearing where the humans waited, their flashlights on as they continued to talk. Viewed where they had parked a moderate-size SUV.

They surely were not attempting to hide from any wild creature. Not with their lights, their voices.

Whatever their intent, he remained distant, though he drew close enough to inhale scents that would allow him to identify them in the future.

Still careful, he approached the area containing the vehicle, a small parking lot off one of the mountain roads. Nose toward the ground, he carefully stepped forward—and stopped.

It was not danger he smelled but a combination of scents that he recognized—light and barely discernible now, as if nearly dissipated with time.

Simon and Grace had apparently been here sometime in the recent past...shifted. Both of them.

Did that mean they had in fact been involved in killing the two humans?

Or had they been here for another reason?

The voices suddenly grew louder. “I’ve had enough of our surveillance for tonight,” said the woman.

“Me, too,” said the man. “A beer sounds a whole lot better than hanging out here. We can check the traps tomorrow, but I have a feeling we’re not going to catch anything tonight.”

“Or possibly ever,” the woman replied. “I’m ready for that beer.”

They stood, approaching not far from where Quinn lurked near their vehicle. He crouched down and froze, in case they moved in his direction or shone their lights this way.

They didn’t. Instead, they got into the vehicle and drove away.

Who were they? What had they really been after?

And if they’d been so sure they would be unsuccessful, why had they bothered at all?

* * *

Kristine was waiting exactly where he had left her. He’d had no doubt she would be there.

Even so, when Quinn had returned, he had observed her presence yet stayed a short distance away. Now that he was finished shifting once more to human form, he was glad she was nearby, so close he could see her through the intervening trees.

For now, though, he let himself rest on the damp, chilly ground, naked, sore and exhausted.

One thing the Alpha Force elixir didn’t do, any more than his brother Simon’s pills did, was to make the change easier or more comfortable. No severe pain—he was used to shifting during the full moon, at least, and this didn’t feel much different—but his muscles ached.

“Welcome back,” said the soft female voice that was growing familiar to him. Was that a good thing?

Sure it was, at least for now.

Quinn had closed his eyes for a few seconds, and when he opened them again Kristine was leaning over him. Obviously his shift had not been silent. She’d known he was there.

Now, she covered him with his clothing, and he noticed that the T-shirt he had wadded up after removing it had been smoothed out nicely.

“Thanks,” he said. “Let me get dressed and we’ll talk.”

“Good idea.” He wasn’t sure whether she referred to his getting dressed or their talking or both, but as he stood he saw her walk back to the clearing and lean over her backpack, busily relocating the stuff inside.

A good way to avoid continuing to look at him, he supposed. Despite the fact they’d done this before and she was an experienced Alpha Force shapeshifter’s aide, she clearly remained uncomfortable with his nudity.

Which made this all the more fun for him—a good thing. He needed a bit of levity. Despite, or maybe because of, the talk about unfilled traps, he was even more worried about his brother and sister-in-law now than he’d been before.

He had taken his time returning here, to his rendezvous point with Kristine, after the humans had left the crime scene area. He had waited for a while to make sure they didn’t return and that he didn’t sense any other human intrusion.

Then he had wandered around inside the yellow crime scene tape, scenting the ground and the air and the foliage. Prowling even more than he had that first night in Acadia, when his shift had simply been an experiment and exercise, just to test how it could be done here.

This time, he became certain that Simon and Grace had been there, probably on the night of the full moon. Despite the passage of days, Quinn was able to determine even more of their trail via their faint shifted scents. They had most likely arrived at that parking area in human form, although he picked up no odor except their wolfen ones, and they had apparently maneuvered around the same vicinity.

At the same time as the killings? That he couldn’t tell, but he did discern two separate scents of blood.

“What did you find?” Kristine asked him. “You...you look like you’re pondering things. Was there anything helpful?”

“Let’s head back to the hotel. I’ll tell you on the way.”

Once more, she drove. After a shift like that, his human senses had again taken on even more of the acuity of his wolfen ones, at least for a short while. He couldn’t help it. He inhaled her scent and analyzed it, too. The slightly spicy, definitely hot aroma of whatever perfume she wore had all but disappeared. Now, her smell was still sexy-soft and slightly tangy, as if she had been worried enough to perspire at least a little in his absence.

From concern about him, or about their mission?

They were interrelated, he reminded himself. Even if he found her scent damned sexy, that didn’t mean she reciprocated. It was better that way. Fewer potential complications.

“Here’s what I saw.” He told her about the people he’d heard and glimpsed. “Their presence seemed off to me somehow. It was like they were waiting for some animals to attack them, like what happened to the tourists, but they didn’t really believe it would happen.”

“Because the animals had moved on?”

“Maybe. Or they knew something about what happened that didn’t involve wild animals still lurking around there. They mentioned setting traps, but I didn’t find any.”

“Do they know about Alpha Force—and Grace and Simon?” Kristine’s breathing had become slightly irregular, and Quinn heard her distress.

“That’s one possibility,” he said. “Or it was all a setup from the get-go, and these people are aware of it. Or both—somehow, those folks or others know about Grace and Simon and therefore Alpha Force.”

“We’d better figure out who they are,” Kristine said. “Any chance they’re part of the official DSPA investigation?”

He looked at her, impressed with her intuition. That was what he’d begun speculating, too.

Which would make this investigation a lot more complicated for two people on their own to figure things out.

“Guess you’re as much of a cynic as I am,” he said. “That’s now on our agenda to find out.”