The Alpha’s Tempting Mate

Jacqueline

Jacqueline opens her gritty eyes, blinking against the morning sun. Still in the desert. Still in human form. She drags herself to her feet and checks out the angle of the sun. It is rising over the far mountain range, which means the Catalinas. So she’s in the Tucson Mountains on the west side. Probably out in Marana somewhere, where the crackheads cook their meth.

She isn’t the only one who knows how to research things online. Her Minette thinks she’s only capable of making soup…

Minette.

She starts walking east. Her gait is clumsy at first, but after a dozen steps, her coordination returns. Her sensitive hearing detects the sound of cars in the distance. Dieu merci. Too bad she’s covered in blood. It will make it hard to explain if she flags down a car.

If only she could shift.

She drops to all fours and closes her eyes, willing herself to shift. The trouble is, she hasn’t shifted often enough in recent years. To stay nimble, shifters must shift back and forth as nature calls. A shifter who stays too long in beast form, will forget how to become human again, and vice versa. Living with Minette, her halfling granddaughter who never manifested as a shifter, she wasn’t able to run wild as often as she’d like. Especially when they were hiding in cities. Now, weak, hungry, and injured, it is even harder to call up the magic.

Remember. Remember what it’s like. She thinks about her first shift at puberty, the joy of chasing her sister through the French countryside. There.

The magic shimmers around her. She stops to pull off her bloodied clothes so she won’t have to fight them after the shift and transformation. Now, to stay hidden from human eyes as she runs downtown. At least she remembers the way.

Garrett showed her a map of their territory on the west side once. His pack runs in Saguaro National Park West. Close to downtown and his headquarters. All she has to do is follow the Santa Cruz riverbed south.

~.~

Jackson

I walk into the office like a fucking gladiator. Every employee who sees me takes one look and averts their eyes. Even humans know to submit when the dominant is out for blood.

“The FBI is in with Mr. Anderson, sir,” Vanessa says, pointing toward my CFO’s office. Luis is in there, too. I already knew this from the fifteen phone conversations on my drive in, but I give her a curt nod.

No one from SeCure has admitted to leaking the information about Kylie, which could mean she’s right, it came from her blackmailers. Although the blackmailers could be on the inside, too.

I can’t stop the prickly awareness that there’s still more to this attack we haven’t seen. Would a hacker go to the trouble of kidnapping an old lady and framing someone for less than a million account numbers? Maybe. But it was risky. I don’t know how much money they managed to divert, but their window was short. We closed it on them yesterday.

I march into Anderson’s office and take a chair. My executive team is sweating. This is more pressure than I’ve ever put them through, and it’s not nearly over yet.

Luis has given the feds Kylie’s file and is bobbing his head up and down, agreeing with something they’re saying.

He looks over. “Mr. King, the FBI have their own infosec team they’d like to deploy on our system.”

I nod. “Good. Show them the breach and everything we’ve done to shore it up.”

One of the agents stands and hold out his hand. “Special Agent Douglas.”

I shake it. “Jackson King.”Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“Mr. King, I understand you were asking questions about Kylie McDaniel before the breach. Did you have reason to suspect her?”

I go for the truth. If Douglas is smart enough, he’ll follow my logic. If not, we’re no worse off than before. “Actually, I was wondering how she got hired into the position. The assumption was she was a hacker, but nothing on her resume would have told us that. I wanted to know who flagged her for this position and why.”

“You think she has a partner on the inside?”

I shrug. “Maybe. Something’s off with this whole thing, and it’s more than a twenty-four-year-old hacker who called herself Catgirl as a teen.”

“She’s long been associated with vigilante thieves. This could be an organized attack from that direction.”

I consider the man. He seems sharp. “Mr. Douglas, I’d like to share some information with you in private.”

My team looks outraged, but I stand and walk to the door, knowing Douglas will follow. I take him to my office and toss the packet Kylie brought to me the night everything started.

“Ms. McDaniel turned herself into me after she received this,” I explain.

Douglas shuffles through the papers, assimilating the information quickly. “But she still installed the code. From your office, I understand.”

I rub my forehead. “Yes. I brought her into my office the next day and asked her to decode the malware on an un-networked computer.”

“But she used the opportunity to load it onto yours.”

“Yes.”

“So what do you think happened?” He holds up the packet. “This was a ploy to get into your office? Save herself the trouble of having to hack through your firewalls?”

I shake my head. “No. She contacted me later to tell me her grandmother had been kidnapped and was being held hostage. The grandmother wasn’t returned after she loaded the malware, so she offered her help.”

“Contacted you how?” he asked sharply.

This is where it gets dicey. I sure as hell don’t want them looking for Kylie at my place or around me. “She was waiting for me in the parking lot.”

“The hacker who took down your system was waiting for you in the parking lot, and you didn’t call the police? Something’s definitely off with this story, Mr. King. What aren’t you telling me?”

The need to protect Kylie makes anger curl in my stomach. I don’t answer.

“Oh, I get it. You have a thing for Ms. McDaniel, don’t you?” There’s no missing the note of scorn in his voice. “I heard the two of you were trapped in the elevator together on her first morning. Think that was a coincidence?”

A chink of doubt sticks in my chest. Would Kylie orchestrate such a thing? Why? To get close to me? Seduce me?

But no, her terror in that elevator had been real. No claustrophobic woman would choose an elevator to stage a seduction.

I pace the office, shoving my hands into my pockets.

“So she met you in the parking lot and offered to help. What did you do?”

“I let her go.” I’m facing away from Douglas, staring out the full length window. Lying isn’t my forte, and I don’t like the dishonor of it, but I’ll do anything to protect my mate.

Fuck. Not my mate. Can’t be my mate.

“Bullshit. Where is she, Mr. King?”

My fingers tighten into fists. “She’s trying to find her grandmother,” I snap.

He stares at me a long moment. “Okay,” he says finally. “We’ll follow up on that lead.”

I force my teeth to unclench.

“And when you’re ready to tell me where to find your mysterious Catgirl, “I’ll be waiting.” He tosses a card on my desk. “My cell phone is on there.”

I nod.

He picks up the packet. “All right for me to take this?”

I’m surprised he asks for permission, but it’s probably just a courtesy.

“Yes. Let me know what you find on the grandmother.”

He pauses on his way to the door. “Am I working for you Mr. King?”

I clear my throat. It’s not in my nature to grovel, so this makes twice today. Once to Kylie, once for her. “Please.”

The ghost of a smile plays around his lips. “I’ll keep you posted.”

I sink into my chair when he leaves. The alpha in me wants to tear things apart and howl.

The moon is full. My company’s under attack. My female’s in danger. A human knows my secret, which means by pack law I must do something about her. And while telling Kylie should have ended our relationship-now that she understands why we can’t be together-my wolf won’t stop seeing her as my goddamn mate.