Big Bad Bite (3 page)

“A cop huh? Kinky. Are you going to ask her
to cuff you? That would be cool, but you might want to have her
leave the night stick at home. I don’t think you’d like what she
could do with that. At least not without a lot of lube.”

“Damn it! Get your mind out of the constant
gutter you wallow in. It is not in our best interest to have some
unknown
Other
roaming around so close to our land. In our
territory. Especially one we can’t identify.” His voice growled
with irritation at his Beta and his tendency to harass Adam about
his sex life. Or his lack of lately. Which was what was amusing to
Clay. Until recently, Adam had no qualms about indulging in the
female flesh that made itself so readily available to him all the
time. Wolves were sensual creatures with an over active sex drive.
It wasn’t entirely uncommon to go to the Pack’s lodge and find a
free for all in the middle of the night. However, for the last six
months or so no one had appealed to him. It was like he had been
doused with a cold shower one day and had yet to warm back up.

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t get your fur in a bunch.
We have someone at the Wilmington Police Department. Would you like
me to call him or give you the number?”

“You call him. Her last name is O’Conner.
Call me with whatever you find out.” Snapping his cell phone shut
Adam walked down the street and around the corner to where he had
parked his black custom Harley V-Rod motorcycle. The August heat
was unbearable, causing small rivulets of sweat to run down the
back of his neck and soak his shirt. The roar of the engine drowned
out the sounds of major traffic flow as he led his bike back to his
house where he could take a cold shower. After that, he’d do some
research on his laptop to see if he could come up with anything on
his own about the mysterious O’Conner.

The hunt was on.

Here I come, little rabbit.

Chapter Two

“Hey, O’Conner! Done with those reports yet?”

Glancing up from her computer, Jenna smiled
at Capt. Nelson. She saw a strong resemblance of character there to
her Uncle Rick. “They’re already on your desk, Sir.”

His lips twitched as if he wanted to smile.
“Good. Hit the locker room and change into your civilian clothes.
It’s time to clock out and get hammered. I’ll meet you by your bike
in thirty minutes so that you can follow me to the bar since you’re
new here.”

He turned and headed to his office. After
shutting down her computer and locking her desk drawers, she made
her way down to the women’s locker room. The next shift had already
started duty so she was by herself as she showered the sticky sweat
off of her body. Feeling fresh and clean again, she toweled off
before pulling clothes out of her duffel bag. Slipping into the
most feminine thing she indulged in, she pulled on her lacy red
thong and matching convertible bra. The straps hid perfectly
underneath the red cotton racerback tank top. Last she pulled on
her favorite boot cut jeans before stomping her feet into black
leather motorcycle boots. Her hair was still dripping wet, but that
wouldn’t matter for long. Soon she’d get on her bike where the wind
would blow the long, straight layers dry. Lastly, she swept mascara
across her lashes. It was essentially the only make-up she ever
indulged in.

Draping her duffel bag across her body, she
headed out to her Hyabusa motorcycle to wait for the Captain. She
lovingly ran her hands over the red detailing that decorated the
shiny black paint job. The bike had been a gift from her Uncle Owen
who seemed to disappear right after her college graduation party.
He’d never actually visited her all that much while she was growing
up, but the man meant a hell of a lot to her because he was the
only connection that she had to her father’s side of the family. A
father that had been murdered when she was young and who she never
got the chance to meet because he apparently lived a very dangerous
life. Since he was very much dead, she was guessing the dangerous
life bit was true. So, her mother and Uncles had gone through hell
and tidal wave sized high water to keep her safely hidden from the
world of uglies that go bump in the night. The dangerous
Other
community that seemed to thrive just below the surface
of the human world was one she would not be welcome to, or so she’d
been told. Today had been an alarming wake-up call as to how
comfortably oblivious she had become to the threat of being
discovered by that world.

Her mother still wouldn’t tell her the
complete truth as to why she had to stay hidden. The only
explanation that she had ever offered was being of mixed races and
most shifters being extremely prejudiced. The majority of what she
was had come was from her father’s pureblooded shifter side. Which
was surprising, because although the shifter’s genes were generally
dominant, they had mixed with something that had been long
considered ‘unmixable’ in the history of all things
Other
,
or inhuman. Her mother was a pureblood as well, however she was not
a shifter. Jenna had inherited some abilities from the supernatural
side of her mother’s family, but nothing quite as significant as
what was considered the norm of her mother’s capabilities.

So in essence, here she was. Not good enough
for her Mama’s side of the family. Considered an abomination by her
father’s side, and she couldn’t forget that she had to pretend to
be human so they wouldn’t catch on to what a freak she was either.
Sometimes life seemed to be built like a cement trampoline. There
was no give and wherever she landed it was going to hurt like
hell.

The one thing that her mother and Uncles had
beaten into her brain though was that her father had many enemies.
All of whom would love to kill her if they ever found out about her
existence. Because of that she’d been isolated from the world
growing up until she could, without a doubt, control her abilities.
Kept safely away from any and all supernaturals by living out in
the country on the outskirts of the small town, River Bend, which
was barely a blip on the map of North Carolina.

If her mother ever found out what had
happened today, she’d flip her freakin’ wig and never let her out
of the house again. Her missing Uncle Owen’s voice rang through her
mind.

“
To stay hidden is to stay safe Jenna. To
stay alive.”

Today had been way to close of a call.

“O’Conner, you ready?”

Jenna’s head snapped up at Capt. Nelson’s
voice. “Yes sir, let’s roll.” With a nod of his head, he strolled
away and climbed in his SUV. As they rolled through the tree lined
streets of Wilmington, Jenna watched her surroundings with
excitement. She’d spent way too long trying to get out of the small
town she’d been sequestered in. Now that she was finally out she
wasn’t about to let some flea brained mutt or kitty scare her out
of it.

Taking a long whiff of the aroma of azaleas
filling air, Jenna pulled in and parked next to his SUV at a bar
named Beat Street. A rookie could have figured out that with a name
like that, this was a bar that catered towards the boys in blue.
Sliding off her bike, she watched as Nelson unlocked and opened his
rear door.

“Throw your bag back here since I’m guessing
your duty weapon is in there. That way you won’t have to worry
about it being secure.”

“Thanks Captain.” She tossed her bag in and
followed the man into the bar where the rest of her new team
already sat around two round tables pulled together. As they
entered, the entire lot of them yelled and cheered her name while
Kent bellowed with his sugary southern North Carolina drawl, “Annie
Oakley’s here y'all!” Sauntering up to the table, she scratched her
eyebrow with her middle finger in Kent’s direction as he patted the
empty seat next to him, laughing at the gesture.

A round of boilermakers and additional beers
were delivered to the table by the young, pretty waitress. Capt.
Nelson held up one of his hands for silence and held the
boilermaker in his other hand. “To O’Conner! For a hell of a first
day on the job, and for making you slackers look like little girls
with guns! Throw ‘em back boys!”

The shots were demolished and a few of the
guys choked as the burning liquor went down their throats. Jenna
reveled in the hot liquid sliding down and warming the muscles in
her belly. Tonight was going to be loads of fun as she drank these
guys under the table. Another perk of her biology was a super high
metabolism. It took her almost twice as much as these guys for her
to get any semblance of drunk.

Kent waived to the waitress while he hollered
the next round of boilermakers was on him and then winked at her.
Jenna wasn’t stupid. These guys thought they could get her drunk
and girly. It was such a shame she was going to have much more fun
embarrassing the hell out of them. After the second round of shots
Jenna nursed her beer and decided now was an opportune time to try
and get some info on her potential threat of the Alpha shifter.

“Hey Captain, who was that guy at the scene
today?”

“Red haired boy? He was some bounty hunter
hired by the victim’s family to bring in our suspect. Seemed mighty
disappointed we got him instead.” He smiled as her teammates
cheered around them again. Bounty hunter, huh? Well he could just
drag his nicely shaped ass back to wherever the hell he came
from.

Whistles broke out as several flashy women
entered the place and sat down at the bar. In about three seconds
flat the only three people left at the two tables were Nelson, Kent
and Jenna. Looking back and forth between the guys she held her
hands up in mock surrender. “Don’t let little ‘ole me keep you two
from flirting with the ladies. I can sit here all by myself while
watching you guys make asses of yourselves for entertainment.”

The two men laughed at her. The Captain gave
her a chin lift before he jogged over to one of the blondes at the
bar. He might be pushing his mid-forties and divorced, with streaks
of grey at his temples, but he was still an extremely attractive
man. Those three women over there might be out numbered with the
eight guys surrounding them, but she’d bet her favorite shotgun
that the Captain would be taking one of them home tonight.

Jenna swung around to look at Kent standing
next to her. “What are you waiting for Kent? They’re not getting
any younger over there. Not that they actually could get younger.
They look barely legal now.”

Kent’s eyes watched her with amusement.
“Maybe I want to stay here with you Annie. So you can tell me what
other remarkable tricks you’ve got.” Jenna’s body flushed at the
innuendo. Looking at Kent now, she was trying to figure out how the
hell she could have missed the fact that he was such a looker. He
seemed to be in his mid to late twenties so he was a few years
older than her. His dark brown hair was crew cut and only enhanced
the strong lines of his nose, cheeks and jaw. His eyes were the
darkest shade of cobalt blue that she’d ever seen, but right now
they seemed almost molten with something like lust. Not to mention
he looked just as enticing with his tall six foot frame in civilian
clothes as he did in his standard issue black BDU SWAT uniform.
Most importantly, he smelled human. That meant he wasn’t a
threat.

Of course, it didn’t matter how gorgeous the
human looked, he wouldn’t be getting into her panties. Hell, no one
had gotten into her panties yet, first because her family shadowed
her every move and then later because she was afraid of doing
something stupid in the heat of the moment. Like accidentally
breaking a human while she was trying to get her groove on. That
would be a tad awkward. So in reality, she could admire the pretty
packaging but she couldn’t un-wrap it. Jenna was half tempted to
call up the Guinness Book of Records and ask if she was the oldest
living virgin yet.

“Let’s start out with basics Kent. My name’s
not Annie, its Jenna. Or if you’d prefer, you can continue to call
me O’Conner when we’re off duty. What’s your first name?”

Kent leaned closer to me as I sipped from my
beer. “Can’t tell you that, Jenna. You’ll just have to keep calling
me Kent.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

“Both, but I have to admit that I like the
way your lips smile when you say my last name. It makes me picture
the other things your lips could do. I think I’m becoming kind of
partial to it.”

Jenna smiled around the opening of her beer
and then took another sip. “Why Kent, you disgusting hound dog, I
do believe you’re hitting on me.” Rock music started to blare from
the jukebox and we watched as some of the guys from our team were
dragged on the dance floor by the scantily clad girls at the bar.
Now with a small pleasant buzz in her head, she clunked her beer
down on the table.

The obnoxious chimes of a cell phone went off
and she watched out of the corner of her eye as Kent took his phone
out of his front pocket and looked at the caller ID. Looking up at
her, and then eyeing her empty bottle, Kent leaned over and
whispered in her ear. His hot breath tickled the edges of her
earlobe and the hair surrounding it. “Wait right here, I’ll get you
another drink.” Flashing Jenna a smoldering smile that displayed
his perfect white teeth, Kent headed towards the bar as he answered
his phone. Turning her attention back to the dance floor, she stood
there waiting for her next beer while watching and laughing at the
guys who could shoot a weapon with deadly accuracy but couldn’t
swing their hips in time to the music to save their life. Adorable,
but pathetic. Really pathetic.

As Jenna stood subtly swinging her hips to
the music, she caught the whiff of Kent’s scent getting stronger as
he walked up behind her and boldly pressed his chest into her back.
He set down the beers on either side of Jenna’s hands, resting them
on the table in front of her before grabbing her hips with his
hands so that he could press her body back into him further.
Dropping her head back to rest on his shoulder, her body heated
instantly to his touch, and her muddled brain was trying
frantically to remember why this was a very bad idea. Especially as
she felt the hard length of him growing and pressing into the
cheeks of her backside. An image of the red haired Alpha quickly
floated through her mind. With a sudden shot of cold clarity, Jenna
stepped away from him and grabbed her beer bottle.