Allure of the Wolf (Seraphine Thomas Book 2) (5 page)

Next thing I knew I was dragging him to my bed and shoving him on it. I climbed up on him—already on birth control since I’d started being intimate with Brian Havers months ago just in case things ever got out of hand and now I was glad for that—and took over the fun, pinning him to the bed as I rode him.

“Is my Alpha satisfied?” he panted when we were both spent and I was slumped over him.

I was about to answer yes but my siren mentally clucked her tongue at me. I let her do her thing since this was her show. Pressing my lips against Riley’s ear, I asked something I already knew the answer to. “Do you want to dominate your Alpha? Does your wolf want to mount me?”

“Only in bed,” he whispered, shivering at the idea. “We both know I acknowledge you as my dominant. You outrank me in the pack, you’re more powerful in every way, Alpha.”

“Then be my man in bed and do it,” I taunted. In a flash, we were flipped over and Riley was slamming into me while I was on all fours. Wow he
really
wanted to do it! I screamed out my pleasure as he went on for a long time, giving me his complete
A
game as if realizing he needed to do this well or my siren wouldn’t let him do it again.

I glanced at the clock when were done and laughed. He’d screwed me silly for almost an hour, bringing me off countless times before he’d finished himself.

“What?” he gasped, his chest heaving as he lay next to me.

“You’re a fucking
stud
,” I praised, snuggling up to him.

“I aim to please,” he chuckled, wrapping his arm around me. He waited awhile and our hearts almost returned to normal before he kissed my forehead and stared into my eyes. “Does that mean I get to do it again?”

“Yes, my wolf. You have shown yourself worthy of the position on special occasions when you have continued to prove your loyalty.” I wanted to roll my eyes at her. It was just sex.

But it seemed Riley understood it better than I did.

“It’s a wolf thing, Sera.”

Okay then. It was a wolf thing.

3

The next few days were mountains of interviews, reports, and paperwork so high I couldn’t see over them, and if I had to look at much more of them, I was going to claw my own eyes out. Nothing added up. Havers had the bureau’s forensic accountants go over every penny Engle had, but the money just wasn’t there. I mean, he had tithes coming in from pack members almost as if he was their pastor, even registering as a non-profit for tax purposes.

But there was no money to explain how he could buy the muscle the pack had and Gayle had told us about. Actually, all five had.

“What if it’s not
money
he’s buying them with?” I muttered as I flipped through files and pulled out something from the Shifter Council. I’d asked them for any and everything that made the Chicago pack stand out to them, any statistic or anomaly that might help me even if it didn’t hit their radar.

My phone rang in the middle of my scanning the pages, but something kept jumping out at me, but I hadn’t had enough sleep to register what it was right away.

“Thomas,” I grunted.

“Chief, you need sleep,” Harris hissed, somehow knowing I hadn’t been to bed yet. “You’re fighting tomorrow, and we’ve not even had a chance to go over your mad shifter moves.”

I rolled my eyes, too tired for this argument and not willing to admit out loud what I already knew about the fight no one else seemed to have caught on to yet. “I’ve been sparring and fighting since I was nineteen and—”

“And there are things you can do now you couldn’t do back then and big bad vampy can’t. Just let Riley and I help you this afternoon, okay?”

“Fine. You’re not calling me for that though.”

“No, we’ve got a body.” He told me the information and I jotted it down.

I grabbed what I needed and bumped into Tristan as I headed out the door. I just about melted when I saw fresh coffee and something awesome smelling in a bag he was holding. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he sighed, handing it over. “I was going to wake you with this, try and get some carnal favors in return for the kind gesture, but well, that’s out.”

“Honestly, I need this so bad I’m loving you like a two-dollar hooker,” I groaned as I inhaled the coffee. My stomach did a happy growl of impatience to get me to hurry with what it knew it was going to get soon.

“Sera, you can’t keep burning the candle from both ends like this,” he worried as he moved closer and ran his hand over my arm, letting me know he wanted to hug me. I leaned in and showed I was open to it.

“I know. I agree. I just need my team to get up and trained and then I’ll have the support I need, okay?” I kissed his lips softly, holding them there longer than normal but not starting something. “I hear you, and I’m trying to fix this. Getting Noah to start their training will be a big step. This wolf thing wasn’t on the agenda.”

“I don’t mean to be condescending, but it’s time you start acknowledging there will always be a wolf thing,” he muttered as he cupped my cheek. “Engle won’t change and neither will you. I’ve known him a lot longer than you. What he lets go on in that pack you won’t allow.”

“I’m not there yet. Just give me some time to get my team up and running the way I need and then we’ll talk about the reality of the pack.” He nodded and that lingering thought from earlier was scratching at my brain. “Do me a favor and write me a list of everything you think would piss me off most about the pack. Whatever they’re doing that would morally chap my ass most.”

He frowned at me and stepped away. “I thought you weren’t looking for reasons to fight your way up the food chain.”

“I’m not, but I think you have an answer I need to make the case against Engle legally.”

“You do it legally and the next Beta just steps in and does the same shit, Sera,” he warned.

“Then we fry him too,” I assured him, sounding naive even to my own ears. I walked away, thanking him for breakfast, and he let me go. So I wasn’t ready to jump in and take over a damn pack I knew nothing about when I knew
nothing
about being a werewolf even.

Sue me.

I flipped on my siren once I was out of the subdivision and hauled ass to the crime scene. I hooked my badge around my neck after wiping my hands off on some spare napkins, and slid out of my car with coffee in hand. Tristan had done well with that food. Nothing said round two—or whatever round of energy I was really on—like a few bacon, egg, and cheese bagels from McDonald’s. And with my shifter metabolism, I didn’t even have to worry about the carbs going right to my ass.

Made a gal smile… If I weren’t at a crime scene for a murder.

I groaned internally as I took in the chaos. This was going to be a
nightmare.

We were right off the water, the edge of DuSable Harbor where private rental slips for personal boats and launches into Lake Michigan, but also pay-per-day public options, met the Columbia Yacht Club. And that was right at the foot of Randolph Street that had one of the snazzier downtown parks by the lake for joggers, families, and anyone who wanted to enjoy the nice weather before it got too hot.

Translation—too many suspects right off the bat. I hadn’t trained as a beat cop or detective and even I knew signs like that. Cameras flashed all around me even as I walked up to the scene, reporters and gawkers standing on park benches just to try and get a shot of the dead body.

“The next person who blinds me with their flash and keeps me from being able to see and do my
job,
I will arrest for impeding a federal investigation,” I threatened with more wolf snarl in my voice than woman. “Now
back off
!” Amazingly enough, they did, even clearing a path for me. I glanced at the officer who was holding that section of the scene. “Get whoever you need to and get this perimeter doubled. We can’t afford this kind of zoo.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he nodded and muttered into his radio.

“What have we got?” I asked as I ducked under the crime tape the officer lifted for me.

Harris pulled back what looked like a tarp from just any boat around, and I raised an eyebrow at that one. “First on the scene had issues with gawkers, joggers, and phones from everywhere taking pictures.”

“Yeah, that happens,” I sighed, cutting them a break. The crime scene people might throw a fit for adding shit, but well, not our fault everyone wanted to be the person splattering pictures on the
Sun Times
early edition.

I even understood
why
when I saw what was under the tarp. I tilted my head to the left, then all the way to the right, trying to discern what I was seeing. When I did, I glanced back to Harris, my blood rushing to my head.

“Explain this to me like I wasn’t up all night working our other case and have had a lot more of
these
,” I bitched, holding up my coffee. Then I moved closer to the
body
if one could call the poor remains in front of me that. “This looks like something I’ve seen on Discovery’s fucking
Shark Week
as a cautionary tale.” I glanced back and did a double take. “Is that a damn
tooth
? Why were
we
called on this one?” We were pretty close to the water, but it was still concrete and I could only image how much evidence was at the bottom of the lake.

There wasn’t much blood on the ground though, and it was obvious the body had been dragged out of the water—so where was it all? Meaning, where was our actual crime scene from the murder occurring?

“Um, heard of a lot of sharks in Lake Michigan, Chief?” Davis hedged, looking at Cooper for backup.

“
No
, but they have them at the
Shed,
and I’m sure this is a better body dump site,” I countered, jamming my car keys into my free pocket. Then I handed my coffee to Harris and snapped on the crime scene gloves he offered me. From the moment I passed Harris my latte and that strong scent stopped distracting my nose, blood and decay hit me like a smack in the face. Even over the moldiness of the water and the things that sat in Lake Michigan for too long.

Once I took a whiff of what was really there, I wanted my damn coffee back.

“Oh, didn’t think of that one actually,” she conceded but then nodded to the remains. “Killed here in the water. Not a dump.”

“Okay, well we just went over that there’re no sharks in Lake Michigan so…” I trailed off as my eyes went wide, glancing around my team. “No? Shit?
Really
?”

“So let’s back this one up and start again,” Harris chuckled softly as he rubbed the back of his neck with the hand not holding my coffee. “Chief, we got a call on a possible great white shifter murder victim, unless Lake Michigan has turned saltwater recently and is now infested.”

“Holy
shit
,” I hissed, glancing back at the remains, slowly and carefully crouching down, shooing away the flies that wanted to make this a meal now that it was out of the water. “I didn’t know there was that kind of shifter.”

Cooper said something, but I couldn’t hear him over the motor of a speedboat cranking up and pulling out of the harbor. I pointed to my ear, and he nodded, getting it. It was a few moments before the echoes died down and he tried again.

“They’re rare, pretty
damn
rare
,” Cooper offered as he moved next to me. “And yeah, they can swim in fresh water for a short amount of time if need be.”

“Long enough to pull someone under and eat most of them?” I checked, cursing when Cooper answered
yes
. “All right, we’ve got a case. Let’s process the scene, and I want to talk to a great white shifter and find out whatever we can about how this could happen. We need to know everything before it’s in the paper and idiots start shooting into the water at anything that moves.”

I snapped off the gloves, amazed still at little things like how different silly latex crime scene gloves felt to me now that I was a wolf. They weren’t just something I did, annoying if I forgot them. They were
confining
, sweaty, because I was always hotter, and then sticky.

Jennings was already working on pulling feeds from security cameras around the area, but still, I looked around for any potential private ones, pointing out to my team what I saw and how to canvas the area.

“You’re very thorough,” Noah praised as I stepped under the police tape, his large form leaning against my car.

My skin prickled at the sight of him. We hadn’t made up yet. “I was trained well.”

“But not as a homicide detective so take the compliment that you’re adapting well, Sera.”

“Thank you, but you also don’t know my resume,” I countered as I moved next to him. “I worked my share of murder cases with the bureau. Chief Monroe didn’t put me in charge solely because I was the only one from the regular FBI who was transferred to this branch of MNSTR.”

He shifted the way he was leaning, and I heard his heart rate pick up. He was nervous. Why? “A big adjustment is still a big adjustment, and you’re doing it well.”