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At the time, that enemy was the shadow pack, led by Alpha Xavier- a crazed shifter purist who orchestrated attacks against countless packs across the country to absorb them into his own super-pack. He aimed to create a superior race of shifters and assume control, and the way he went about it was brutal, to say the least. He murdered all males with alpha blood, not wanting to leave anyone alive who could challenge him for power. He took alpha-blooded females captive, aiming to breed them to create an army of heirs; his ‘superior’ race. Luckily, he was stopped before his grand plans could come to fruition.
The six-pack alliance was what finally took him down. My parents fought in the war against the shadow pack when they were my age, and though that was decades ago and the enemy has long been vanquished, our six packs still reside on this slice of land in the northern Colorado wilderness. The packs remain separate but aligned, operating as a cohesive unit when it comes to matters of security- and the possibility of allowing anotherpack into our territory to join the alliance definitely raises security concerns.
That’s why I took on the task of finding out everything I can about Javier Cruz; because it’s my damn job. I never expected it to be this difficult or cause a crisis of confidence, though.
Javi arrived in a truck yesterday, but of course, it didn’t have plates, so I couldn’t trace his registration. He gave his number to my friend Madd, one of the six-pack alphas, but when I tried to trace that, I realized his phone is a burner. My web search of his name yielded nothing useful, and while all of that together would ordinarily seem suspicious, I’m not jumping to any conclusions just yet. Shifters have been keeping a low profile over the past decade since the hunters emerged. In that context, none of those things are a glaring red flag, but I still needsomethingin order to vet Javi and his pack properly.Anything.
At the council meeting yesterday, Madd mentioned that Javi’s pack is posted up temporarily at the abandoned motel off highway four. And since that’s my only lead, that’s where I decide to go.
Not to confront him, of course. I work better in the background, digging up dirt from behind the safety of my laptop screen. If I can find a spot close to the motel to work, I may be able to pick up on a signal from a device of someone within his pack, and I can use that as a back door to hack in and get information; find out who these people are and determine whether they’re a threat.
I slip behind the wheel of my Volkswagen Jetta, already feeling better now that I’ve got a new plan in motion. I function best when I’ve got a plan, remaining organized by creating lists and schedules and working through each step methodically. That’sjust how my brain works- I need order and control. I crumble in chaos.
It doesn’t take me long to travel the winding road through the six-pack territory, coming out on highway four near the old ski lodge. The six-pack used to own and operate Cedar Ridge Ski Resort, but we shuttered it when the hunters first emerged ten years ago as a precaution to lock down our territory from outsiders. Now it’s just a shell of its former glory, though my friends and I have used the abandoned lodge as a place to throw parties for years.
I turn in the opposite direction of the lodge, traveling down the highway until I come upon the curve in the road right before the old motel. There’s barely any traffic on this stretch of highway, so I don’t hesitate to pull off onto the shoulder, parking my car just out of view of the motel. This should be close enough to try to pick up a signal, yet far enough that I can remain inconspicuous.
I cut the engine, grabbing my laptop off the passenger seat, opening it on my lap, and booting it up. My fingers fly over the keys as I type in my password, then click into a program to search for signals from devices nearby.
A list is just starting to populate when my intense focus is broken by a tap on my window, startling me so badly that I jump in my seat, chest tightening in alarm. I jerk my head sideways toward the source of the noise only to see the very man I’ve been struggling to dig up information on standing right beside my car, peering in at me.
Okay, so getting caught was decidedlynotpart of this plan.
My heart slams against my ribs, blood rushing to my ears as I snap the lid of my laptop closed and hit the button to roll down the window, trying my best to school my expression and control my breathing.
“Need some help?” Javi asks as the window lowers, tilting his head in question.
I almost forgot how ridiculously attractive he is. He’s tall and built, with a golden tan and a disarming smile. His thick black hair is a little longer on top, styled in a fauxhawk, and his sparkling deep brown eyes are magnetic, drawing me in with a single glance. Basically, he’s the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome, and one look knocks me embarrassingly off-balance.
“What?” I sputter, shaking my head. “No…”
He arches a dark brow. “You’re not having car trouble?”
I shake my head again.
The corners of Javi’s lips curl up in amusement as he moves closer and bends at the waist to lean down, resting his forearms against the edge of my car window so we’re almost eye to eye. “So you’re just stalking me, then?”
“No!” I blurt, my cheeks blazing hot.
“You sure?” he drawls, his dark-eyed gaze flickering over me as he continues grinning smugly. “Cause, if you wanted my number, you could’ve just asked.”
My jaw goes slack.
Who the hell does this guy think he is?
I frown as my brain struggles to string together a coherent sentence. “That’s not…”
Javi leans in a little closer, my voice trailing off as his scent overwhelms me. It’s musky yet clean, distinctly masculine, and something about it has my wolf practically purring. He smellsdelicious. “It’s five five five…”
“I don’t want your number!” I practically shout, jolting back in my seat to put more distance between us.
I’m suddenly ridiculously flustered. I’m not sure if it’s that easy grin with perfectly straight teeth, so white they’re almost blinding, or all the drool-worthy muscle packed onto his broad frame, rippling and flexing beneath his tight white t-shirt with every movement. Maybe it’s just the fact that for the first time in forever, I’m faced with a male I haven’t known my entire life. Whatever it is has my heart racing, butterflies taking flight in my stomach and making me a little queasy.
Javi raises a dubious brow, his eyes still alight with amusement.
I hiss out a slow breath through my teeth, grasping for some semblance of composure as I try to come up with a logical explanation for being parked on the side of the road, so close to where he’s been staying. “I was just passing through,” I grind out, shuffling my laptop off my lap and onto the passenger seat. “Something urgent came up, so I had to pull over to take care of it.”
“Uh huh,” he muses doubtfully.
