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  The bear had been a fool to attempt to fight Brody’s wolf without shifting and the fight was over before it’d really ever started. Brody ripped the throat from the man’s body in seconds and as the body bled out, his wolf brokered no resistance to Brody when he wanted to shift back to get Sienna out of there.

  While she was unconscious in the back seat of his truck, Brody called in a favor from a local pack Alpha who owed him. The bodies had been taken care of and a healer from Rider’s pack had even met Brody at the hotel to check Sienna for lasting damage that her fast healing abilities wouldn’t be able to take care of.

  According to the woman, named Anne, Sienna and her wolf were essentially fine. Brody would simply have to wait out the tranquilizer they’d given her.

  Brody was terrible at waiting and the longer he had to, the crazier it made both he and his wolf. They both needed Sienna to wake up and as the hours drew out, the more frantic they grew.

  A rumbling in Brody’s very core had him ill at ease and no matter how much Brody tried to ignore it, his wolf viewed Sienna as his.

  Mate.

  The first time his wolf had the thought, Brody scoffed.

  Mate? Highly unlikely. Nearly impossible, actually. His wolf was half-feral and dangerous and was the least likely candidate for mating and Brody the man wasn’t much better. In all of his experiences, mates had the ability to make an Alpha weak. They often grew jealous of the commitment being Alpha required and it always seemed to end in broken hearts and anger. It was why mated Alphas were so rare as far as Brody knew.

  It suited him just fine.

  As they rounded on hour number five, Brody couldn’t stand it anymore. He called downstairs for a change of clothes (or 10), a new cellphone, and a spread fit for a buffet for Sienna when she woke. He scrawled a note and left it on the bedside next to the new cellphone in case she woke up before he got back.

  Brody took the elevator to the casino floor and got himself a drink. Sipping on the whiskey as he moved around the perimeter of the floor, he took in the sights with his shifter senses. What about Sienna made her so good at her job? Was it really that hard to find cheaters? Looking purely for amusement while he waited for her to wake up, Brody found himself one of the more crowded Texas Hold ‘Em tables and bought himself a seat.

  He plunked the bills on the table and the dealer flicked his cards down in front of Brody, who exhaled slowly and stilled the best he could while the other players made their decisions. He let his wolf sniff at the air from deep inside him to see if the animal could pick up on any other shifters in the area. Sure enough, his wolf sensed a cat shifter at the table behind them.

  Brody concentrated on his turn when it came around while still trying to keep tabs on the jaguar playing his hand. Damn, but it was hard to make an intelligent play with your own hand while monitoring every minute reaction and action your quarry was making.

  After almost an hour of trying to be Sienna, Brody folded and was out $150, gaining nothing but a splitting headache.

  He rubbed his forehead and moved away from the tables, grabbing another drink from the bar before plunking himself down on a leather stool and watching the floor.

  Brody begrudgingly admitted that Sienna was really, really good at what she did. And with that, his mind drifted right back to the subject he’d left his own suite to avoid thinking about for too long. He and his wolf still weren’t over the shock of seeing her bruised and bloody, but they were both fiercely proud of how she stood up to the bear shifters knowing she was losing the fight.

  When Brody thought just how close he was to being too late to help, his wolf raged and he slammed his drink down.

  Mine, his wolf growled for the one-hundredth time that hour.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Brody grumbled, picking himself up from the stool and walking back toward the elevator. Apparently, it was time for he and Sienna to have a little talk.

  Halfway to the elevators, Brody was intercepted by the same cocktail waitress who’d supplied him with his two whiskeys.

  “Hey,” she practically purred as she batted her eyelashes at him. Brody narrowed his eyes a half-second before realizing what she was doing.

  Flirting.

  Fighting off an inward groan, Brody tried to sidestep the woman, who was surprisingly nimble and quick on her feet despite the loaded tray she was carrying.

  “Can I get you anything else?” She demurred.

  “I’m good, thanks,” Brody tried to step around her again.

  “Are you sure? Another drink? A little conversation? My phone number?” The woman, a busty blonde who looked like she was rarely told no, ran her tongue across her lower lip.

  Brody couldn’t help but wince at the gesture.

  “I’m good, really,” he put his hands up in front of him, hoping he wouldn’t have to resort to desperate measures to get free of this woman.

  “But you’re not,” the woman insisted again, this time placing her hand on Brody’s chest.

  Trying his best to be gentle, he gripped her wrist in his hand and let a small wave of Alpha vibes brush against the insistent waitress. She was human, Brody could tell that much, but his Alpha vibes could usually work on non-shifters, too.

  “But I am.” The words vibrated in his throat as the growl ripped out. The woman paled and pulled her lips in a thin line. The fear was obvious to Brody, but so was the anger. She wasn’t used to being rejected.

  Stepping away with a huff, he heard her mutter as she walked away.

  “Asshole.”

  Brody laughed and made his way up to his suite. If he was being perfectly honest, there was only one woman he and his wolf wanted touching him and he was about to go wake her ass up.

  Chapter Eleven

  Sienna’s skull was split in two, she was sure of it.

  A large gaping ravine down the center of her skull was the only explanation she could come up with as to why her head was throbbing so violently.

  Blinking her eyes, she moaned in pain as the light assaulted her from the window beside the huge bed she was on. She paused. Her bed wasn’t huge. Her bed was a queen. This bed was bigger than any king she’d ever seen. And that smell…

  In a flash, she was up on her elbows, searching the room for Brody. He was here somewhere, she and her wolf could smell the spicy, woodsy scent that belonged to him.

  “Hello?” Sienna’s voice was broken and raspy. Holy shit, what had happened to her?

  Nobody answered. Looking around, Sienna noticed a note and a cellphone beside the bed. She snatched up the paper and squinted at the writing as her eyes adjusted.

  Went downstairs to kill time. Call me when you wake up. Will explain everything. –B

  Sienna rolled her neck and shoulders and winced. She was sore as hell. She stood and ventured to the bathroom and gasped when she realized she didn’t have a single stitch of clothing on. Where were her clothes? And why was there dried blood on her?

  The memories of the bear attack returned in an instant and Sienna inhaled sharply. The bastards had nearly killed her and she’d blacked out just as they were dragging her away. Had Brody saved her?

  Sienna let out a shaky breath as the warm water of the shower relaxed her. She’d call Brody as soon as she was dressed and he’d tell her everything. Her wolf, who would usually have been beyond cagey at this point, was somehow calmer because of Brody’s scent all over the room.

  Mine.

  Sienna froze as the water continued to stream over her body. What was that? Did her wolf just claim Brody as hers? Or was it Sienna herself?

  A knot formed in her chest and made it hard for Sienna to breathe normally as she rushed through her shower and wrapped a towel around herself.

  Her mind was a mess. Her wolf was confused. Her condo was destroyed. Only one thing could make her world seem less off kilter right now—Sienna’s wolf needed to run.

  She was considering her options (The dam? The nature conservatory?) as she walked back into the bedroom when she stopped short.
Brody’s scent was suddenly much stronger than it’d been before her shower and her eyes darted around the room before spotting him in the chair in the far corner.

  Sienna was suddenly aware of wearing nothing more than a towel as her wet hair dripped down her back and she met Brody’s hungry velvet-black gaze. His desire was written all over his face as his eyes took in her current outfit. Or lack thereof. Sienna’s eyes trailed down the corded muscles of his arms and up his neck to where a muscle in his sculpted jaw was ticking. She wondered if he looked as good out of his clothes as he did in them.

  “Fuck, Sienna,” he ground out and she watched as his hands clenched and unclenched into fists. “Are you trying to kill me?”

  She raised an eyebrow at him as he closed his eyes and sharply inhaled.

  “I can smell your desire,” he ground out, his voice painful. “It’s going to drive me insane.”

  Her cheeks flushed immediately and she swore at herself. She knew better than to let her thoughts of Brody get out of hand. Supernaturals had amazing senses.

  Sienna turned around and grabbed a pair of jeans, a matching set of black underwear and a black bra, and a soft V-neck t-shirt, all perfectly in her size. She moved wordlessly back into the bathroom, unable to meet his gaze until she’d had a chance to splash her face with the coldest water this hotel could produce.

  Five minutes later, she came out fully dressed with her hair up in a ponytail and some semblance of dignity back.

  “I need to run,” she said simply. Brody raised his eyebrow at her, so she clarified. “My wolf, she’s anxious and has issues she needs to work out. By running. I know a place. Want to come with me?”

  She hadn’t meant to invite him—that part had just sort of tumbled out of her mouth. She chewed her lip and waited for Brody to reject her with a scowl.

  Instead, to her surprise, he simply nodded and stood, motioning her to follow him.

  ***

  The drive out to the Colorado River reservoir was almost two hours.

  That left 120 minutes of nothing but space for the two of them to talk, something Sienna wasn’t normally the biggest fan of when it came to Brody. But today? Instead of intense and brooding, Brody seemed curious and almost nervous?

  He’d explained the previous night’s events to her initially and why Sage and Dane had been called out of town.

  “Both dead,” he answered when she asked about the bears who attacked her.

  “They had mentioned taking me to someone named Castillo,” she said, remembering the name.

  Brody had gently broken the news to her that both her apartment and her car were likely total losses, too. It wasn’t a complete surprise to Sienna, she’d seen the flames herself, but it still nearly gutted her. It’d taken her almost a decade of rebuilding to earn her own place in the world and in one evening, it was possibly all gone. She took a deep breath and promised herself that she’d deal with things one at a time. Later, possibly tomorrow or the day after, she’d go back to her house and deal with what had happened. She had good insurance. She had money in the bank. Right now, all she was focused on was the fact that she was alive thanks to Brody’s impeccable timing.

  “How did you manage to be there right when I needed you?” The question was out before she could think twice.

  “My wolf was pulling at me like crazy,” he admitted. “He needed to get to you and for once, I let him take over.”

  They let talk of the attack drop and moved on to other topics.

  The chatter started out light. A little about the Boulder Pack members who stayed behind. About the missing pack member Liesel.

  “She’s newer,” Brody had explained. Sienna had initially worried that there might be a thing between Liesel and Brody (why should she even care?), but he’d dispelled that worry without her having to mention it. “Kind of a wild child, but a big heart. She’s important to my wolves and we won’t rest until we find her.”

  Brody, it turns out, was a great Alpha, something Sienna wasn’t used to. Her story came out in pieces, as Brody asked the right questions. He was patient but unyielding about wanting to know more about her and Sienna found herself trusting this dark, sexy wolf more and more as the miles passed by.

  “Why stay as a lone wolf for so long?” Brody asked. For once, there was no judgement in his tone or in the way he said the word lone.

  “It’s easier on me and my wolf. My step-dad was the alpha of our old pack and he was a monster,” Sienna said quietly, her gaze going out the window. “I left the pack when I was 17 and never looked back. I think Sage left a few months after me and probably met you shortly after he did.”

  She held her breath a moment as her thoughts traveled back to those dark days. So much loneliness and pain, and nobody to lean on.

  “Why didn’t you try to find Sage?”

  Sienna frowned, tears pricking at her eyes. She struggled to keep her emotions in check as her voice warbled when she answered.

  “I was scared my step dad would hurt him if he eventually found me.”

  She shut her eyes in shame. The day she’d ran from her old pack, Lance had been drunk again and looking for her. He was a creepy bastard at best when he was sober, but Sienna knew better than to get caught alone with him when he was drinking. His lecherous stares never promised anything other than trouble and while her brothers believed her when she told them, they were younger and not high enough in the pack hierarchy to help her yet. And their mother? She’d simply sneered at Sienna in her jealous rage and blamed Sienna for any unwanted attention.

  Suddenly Sienna felt the rage rolling off Brody in the seat beside her. She chanced a glance up at him and saw that his eyes had gone wolf. His knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel.

  She inhaled slowly and blew out a long breath.

  “I was okay. I am okay,” she said, mostly to herself. “My brother and I found each other eventually and while we don’t always understand each other, I can always count on him—even when he’s out in Colorado. Being on my own isn’t so bad.”

  It was a lie and it felt awkward in her mouth, but Sienna was good at putting on a brave face. All those countless times Sage had tried to convince her to join the Boulder pack—Sienna had wanted to, but she’d never be able to get over her fear of Alphas. Of the power they held in their hands over the lives of their members. That was too much power for one person to have over her and so Sienna had always declined, declaring that she was happier on her own. It was a flimsy lie—wolves needed packmates to feel secure and alive—and Sage had probably seen through it right away but he never pushed.

  Beside her, Brody flexed his hands and unclenched his fists. She wanted to ask him what was going on in that mind of his, but she was a little scared at what the truth might be. Did he think she was weak for avoiding pack life all these years? Did he still think she was a lost cause as a lone wolf?

  After nearly ten minutes of silence, curiosity got the better of Sienna as it always did.

  “I’m almost afraid to ask you what’s on your mind, but I can’t help it now,” she said in a small voice, not turning her head toward Brody and keeping her eyes on the desert outside. “What are you thinking?”

  She felt his wolf’s agitation and emotion, but she didn’t know what Brody the man was thinking. He took a long minute to speak and when he finally did, the raw emotion in his voice unsettled her.

  “I was thinking that they failed you. That none of it was your fault. That it was nothing more than shit luck that landed you with a predator as an Alpha and a weak-willed, jealous woman as a mother who would stand by and let her daughter be treated like that,” he was practically growling. “Alphas are not meant to dominate their wolves. They’re one and only job is to keep their packs safe and thriving and it’s a lot harder than it seems. That man was obviously unfit for the job and I’m grateful that your older brother challenged him for Alpha and won.”

  Sienna sighed and struggled with the emotions rising up from his kind words.<
br />
  Who would have thought brooding Brody could affect her on so many different levels?

  Chapter Twelve

  Brody found talking freely about the past wasn’t as easy when it was his turn to tell his own story. But Sienna was relentless and let him know that fair was fair. Soon enough, he relented.

  “I was born in Idaho to a family of shifters. We lived up north and I had a pretty quiet childhood,” he said, knowing the story was going to change and he wondered how Sienna would take his sad tale. Would she pity him? He hated pity.

  Sienna wasn’t like most people. Most people didn’t know how to listen and they spent most of their lives trying to finish a story for the other person, to jump into forced understanding or conversation. But not Sienna. She listened patiently and waited for Brody to continue.

  “My uncle took in a couple of lone wolves who had hit on hard times. They had sad stories that really played on the sympathies of the elders. As Alpha, when he accepted them, the rest of the pack was expected to accept them, too. They were given his seal of approval. His word was bond,” he let out a sigh. This part of the story was never easy to tell. It was why he rarely told it. “It was a set up. My pack—my entire family was slaughtered when I was too young to help. The men were caught and they were charged and tried in human courts, locked away before my cousins and I could get our hands on them when we were old enough to get our vengeance. It was too late. They were locked behind steel bars we couldn’t penetrate.”

  Brody braced for her reaction—her fake sympathy. But she offered none. He could feel her wolf’s response to his truth and it was nothing more than a form of solidarity. Sienna and her wolf had seen just as much shit in their lives as Brody and his wolf.

  “I’m sorry about what happened to your family, Brody,” she finally said. She sounded genuine and it burned a hole in the middle of his chest. “But I’m glad that circumstances led you down the road so that I could meet you eventually.”