“Where are you going?”

“She’s hurting! I’m going to go to her.”

Cade heard the anguish in his brother’s voice and hid a smile. “Why? I thought you weren’t interested in her,” Cade said with mock casualness. “I think she’s pretty exceptional. That roundhouse and the right hook? Wow. Anyway, you think she’s a dried-up spinster, I’ll go in and comfort her.” He moved to leave the room.

Lex’s hand shot out and grabbed his brother’s shirt. “Stay away from her,” he growled.

Cade laughed with delight. “I knew it!”

Lex rolled his eyes at his brother. “She’s mine, Cade. Period.”

Cade kept grinning and slapped Lex’s back. Sobering, he said, “let her grieve, Lex. She’s lost everything. Tomorrow morning is soon enough to pursue her. And she’s going to give you such a hard time about it too. I can’t wait.” He rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

Chapter Two

Carter Peterson paced, scrubbing his hands over his face. Stopping, he spun and glared at man standing before him, growling in frustration. “You didn’t kill her? What the hell is wrong with you? She’s a bloody human for goodness’ sake!”

John Hendrix snorted in disgust. “We would have had her but the Enforcer and Alpha showed up with the guard. We took care of Gabriel Reyes, though. He can’t say a freaking word now. For all we know, he didn’t tell her a thing.” The other werewolves in the room shifted uneasily as they watched the exchange.

Carter narrowed his eyes at the Rogue, lip curled in disgust. The Rogues were almost as bad as the damned humans. Disorganized, lazy. If he didn’t have half a million dollars of debt to the mob hanging over his head, he’d have walked away from these wolves months ago.

“The operative phrase is that we don’t know! What if Tommie told Rey and Rey told his sister? Huh? She tells the Wardens and The Enforcer shows up and rips my throat out. You need to figure out what the hell is going on, Hendrix! No more loose ends or this could all go sideways in record time. Kill the human and do it as soon as possible.”

* * * * *

Lex woke up and got dressed. He spoke to his people and looked over their reports. As Enforcer for the Cascadia Clan, it was his job to oversee security. He was Cade’s personal bodyguard, although his brother had a retinue of six guards who were on the property at all times. These guards were, every last one, Wardens. The Alpha of the Cascadia Clan had been a Warden for a hundred and fifty years and his family had held positions in top hierarchy for at least five hundred years. Theirs was an old and noble line.

Lex had been born to be an Enforcer. As second son and largest of all his siblings, he would be second-in-command and had been trained to fulfill that role from a very early age. Cade was the firstborn and as such, groomed to be alpha from birth. He was politically astute and charismatic, leading their Pack suited him. They had sisters as well, two of whom were in the personal guard. Cousins made up the rest of the retinue.

Lex Warden was feared and respected across all Clan territories. He was a badass and he wasn’t afraid to admit it to himself. He not only had the natural abilities to serve as Enforcer, but had also received extensive training when he was an Army Ranger for eight years. It was rare that wolves messed with him and if and when they did, he crushed them without mercy.

He was also an architect and had designed the house that they lived in. While his biology and duty called him to be the Enforcer for the Cascadia Pack, his creativity led him to design. He enjoyed it and hoped to continue to grow his business. He’d done several homes on contract and a building in downtown Bellevue and he loved it. Loved the satisfaction of driving past one of the places that he’d created.

But for now his responsibility was to figure out just what was going on in the Pack and to claim the woman down the hall as his mate. If she were a wolf it would be relatively easy. She’d understand the attraction of their pheromones and would submit. But she was human, and in his experience human women never made anything easy.

He tucked his shirt in as he stalked down the hallway. As he neared her door he heard her muttering and the clacking of her typing. Giving a quick tap on the door, he opened it and froze as he caught sight of her.

Mouth gaping open, he took her in. She was sitting on one of the chairs, the laptop in her lap. Her bottom lip was caught between her teeth as she typed madly. She was also wearing only his pajama top. Impossibly, his c**k hardened more until he actually winced in pain. Gone was the uptight matron, and in her place was a goddess.

Chocolate brown curls tumbled about her shoulders and arms, shiny and lustrous. Her eyes were a luminous brown, wide and fringed with thick black lashes. Her legs were long and athletic and the curve of her br**sts was visible at the top of the pajama shirt she wore. Her skin was the color of milky coffee and looked silky and soft. He clenched his fists to keep from touching her but his eyes greedily soaked her in.

Hearing his strangled moan, she looked up, startled. Seeing him, she sent him a smile that made his insides warm. “Oh, good morning. I’ve called my staff and also the cops. I used my cell phone, said I was away from home and saw it on the news. I have to go in later today to talk about the fire. I hope to god they don’t think I set my own house on fire. It’s all so suspicious.”

“I was thinking about that last night. We can say you were with me. Here. In my bed. All night.” He had been thinking of it, of good alibis for her. But the bed thing came to him when he saw her sitting there like a luscious dessert.