Chapter 5

Max sat in his car on Park Lane, his gaze trained on the Wallace house as he strained his ears to hear even a peep of a noise that meant Terence and his sisters were in trouble. If he heard anything to suggest that Wallace was hurting those kids or their mother, he’d go in and worry about the consequences later.

Ernest Miller, the crusty, old neighbor, had called Max a couple hours ago, saying Wallace was up to his old ways, shouting like a madman less than a day after the cops had been there. Ernest had called the police, but by the time the uniformed officers had shown up, everything had calmed down. Eileen Wallace claimed everything was fine and that the kids had been watching TV too loud or some crap like that.

Max had wanted to haul ass for the Wallace house the moment Ernest called, but unfortunately, he and a few of his pack mates had been stuck outside a convenience store in midtown, waiting while negotiators convinced a guy with a gun to come out with his hands empty, instead of clutched around a hostage. The city negotiators, with more than a little help from the team’s hostage negotiators, Zane and Diego, had gotten the guy to give himself up, but waiting around had been agonizing.

To make things worse, Max couldn’t simply take off the moment they’d gotten back to the SWAT compound. Since it was the middle of the afternoon and he was still on duty, he had to ask his squad leader, Xander, for a couple hours off so he could take care of some personal business, all the while praying his fellow werewolf didn’t question it—or worse, know he was lying. But Xander had told him to take off.

Max had wanted to march right up to the front door of the Wallace house the moment he got there, but he was smart enough to know that wasn’t going to work. As much as he hated the idea, since the kids and their mother were too scared to talk to anyone, the only way to put a stop to the abuse was to catch Wallace in the act.

He tilted his head a little when he heard a loud noise coming from the house, his fangs and claws extending. He was already reaching for the door handle before he realized the sound he was hearing was a TV playing too loud. Some kind of cop show or something.

He pulled his hand away from the door and put it back on the steering wheel, staring at his claws. He’d never been great at keeping his claws and fangs where they belonged, but lately, it seemed like he was losing control at the drop of a hat. It didn’t escape his notice that it coincided with Lana’s appearance in his life. Not that he was complaining. Lana was an incredible woman, and if having her in his life meant he had to put in extra effort keeping himself focused when he was with her, then it was worth it.

Max almost laughed. He was beginning to think there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do to be with Lana, which was a little scary when he thought about it.

It was obvious that Lana was The One for him. Still, he’d have been lying if he didn’t admit the intensity of this whole thing had him a little…unsettled. Sure, he’d heard the guys talk about what it had been like when they’d met their mates—“catching lightning in a bottle,” “strapping yourself to a tornado,” and “riding a nonstop roller coaster” were some of the ways his pack mates had described it. But even after hearing all that, he was only now starting to realize exactly what Gage had meant when he’d said taking it slow and easy might be tougher than Max thought. Max was falling for Lana so fast it made his head spin. He’d known her for less than forty-eight hours, and she was already the only thing he could think about. He just wished he had a clue whether Lana felt the same.

He knew she was attracted to him. From the way she leaned into him when they walked and looked at him when they talked, it was obvious. This thing with her not behaving like any other werewolf he and his pack mates had ever met was tossing him for a loop, though. What if Lana was so different that the legend of The One didn’t apply to her? What if she liked him the way any woman would like a guy she’d just met? What if she didn’t feel the same magical connection he felt?

Max cursed. There were bigger issues to worry about here than whether he and Lana were meant to be together, and it all had to do with her roommate’s murder in Austin. He wasn’t sure what the hell had happened, but whatever it was, it was more than just a simple home invasion gone bad. His gut told him that somehow Lana was at the center of all of it.

After Lana had gotten up and walked to the other side of the conference room, Detective Peterson had gone through the rest of the photos with him. Max was glad Lana hadn’t seen them because they were all pictures of Denise. Lana’s roommate had been badly beaten, worse than Max had ever seen—and he’d seen a lot since becoming a cop. She had been brutally tortured for an extended period of time before she’d been shot in the head.

After hearing Lana talk about Denise for nearly three hours in the diner, Max couldn’t imagine what the girl could have done to inspire that kind of treatment. The fact that no one heard anything during the night meant Denise Sullivan had been gagged for much of the beating.

The expert lock picking, the methodical way Denise had been beaten, and the silenced gunshot to finish her off implied this had been a professional looking for information. But what information? It wasn’t like Denise had been sitting on a wad of money or a drug stash.

Max could see where Detective Peterson was trying to take his investigation. All the questions about boyfriends, whether Denise had slept around, and who she might have hung out with when she wasn’t with Lana told Max the man was looking at this as a simple crime of passion. Denise had gotten on some guy’s bad side, and he’d gotten back at her.

That didn’t feel right to Max.

He knew his worries about Lana’s safety might be clouding his judgment, but with all the hunter crap they’d heard lately, it was difficult not thinking this might be connected to them. They’d learned a few months ago in New Orleans that the hunters were a vicious bunch who didn’t shy away from hurting people, and they tended to go for a head shot when it came to taking out werewolves.

Max was tempted to believe Lana was hiding that she was a werewolf because she knew hunters were on her trail and thought if she kept her true nature a secret, it would be safer for everyone. But when he started picking at the individual threads of that argument, the logic kind of unraveled. If she knew she was in danger from hunters, why wouldn’t she reach out to Max for help, since he was a werewolf, too? Hell, if she knew there were hunters around, wouldn’t she want to warn other werewolves about them? Max was pretty sure he knew Lana well enough to suggest she’d never put another person—or werewolf—at risk to save her own skin.

Of course, there was always the possibility that Cooper was right and Lana wasn’t aware she was a werewolf, in which case running home to Dallas before the hunters arrived in Austin might have been an instinctive thing. That idea kind of made sense. Lana said she’d felt like she needed to come home the second she’d finished college. A lot of the werewolves who’d shown up in Dallas lately had admitted they’d been drawn here without knowing why, like pure survival instinct telling them to get close to a strong alpha pack.

Max had mentioned these ideas to Gage this morning, and while his commander promised he’d talk to some people about the possibility, he was of the opinion that Max was twisting the facts in an attempt to connect dots that were simply too far apart. Denise getting tortured and shot, as horrible as it was, didn’t automatically mean hunters were involved. Sometimes, it was merely regular psychos out there killing people. Heaven knew there were enough of them.

While that all sounded very logical, it didn’t keep Max from worrying. Lana was a werewolf, even if she didn’t act like one. His gut told him if anyone was coming after her, it would be a hunter. With that in mind, it was damn difficult not seeing hunters in every shadow.

He was still contemplating that when he heard shouting coming from the Wallace house.

Max didn’t stop to think. Shoving open the car door, he jumped out and sprinted down the block just as a little girl’s scream echoed in the air. The terror in it made his inner wolf howl.

He was wearing his backup piece in a holster around his right lower leg, but as he hit the porch steps, Max didn’t bother slowing down to grab it. Another high-pitched scream came from inside the house, forcing his fangs to extend even as he swung open the screen door.

“Dallas Police Department…I’m coming in!” he shouted before twisting the knob and shoving the inner door open.

The scent of fresh blood hit his nose as he rushed inside, ripping a growl from his throat and pushing him within an inch of totally losing control. But if Max thought the scent of blood had him close to the edge, that was nothing compared to how bad it got when he saw the scene spread out in front of him.

Little Natasha kneeled behind the arm of the couch, her eyes almost completely glazed over in fear. Nina stood in the middle of the living room, her face tight with defiance as she stood between her father and brother. Terence was in the kitchen doorway, standing defensively in front of his mother as if trying to protect her. There was a thick layer of white gauze wrapped around his right hand, from fingertips to the middle of his forearm. Red stains were already seeping through the bandages, and Terence wrapped the fingers of his other hand around them, squeezing hard as if trying to stop the bleeding—or the pain.

Max didn’t know exactly what had happened, but it seemed obvious that Wallace had been going after his wife and Terence had put himself in the middle of it. No doubt Wallace had decided to take his anger out on the boy instead, doing something to bust open the stitches in the kid’s bandaged hand.

Max growled low and deep as he moved across the living room, every instinct in his body screaming at him to kill the son of bitch where he stood.

“You can’t just come in here like this!” Wallace yelled, taking a single step in his direction. “This is my house!”

The jackass probably would have said more if Max hadn’t picked him up and slammed him forcefully against the wall. The urge to punch the piece of shit was nearly overwhelming, but he settled for shoving a forearm against Wallace’s throat and holding him a few inches off the floor as he looked over his shoulder at the boy.

“Did he hurt you?” Max asked, trying his best to keep the question from coming out as a snarl…and pretty much failing. “I heard screaming from outside. Was he attacking your mother?”

Even though he was obviously still in pain, Terence opened his mouth to answer. But then his mother was at his side, shaking her head as she put her hand on her son’s shoulder.

“That’s not what happened,” she said, her voice trembling. “Terence stumbled and hit his hand on the doorjamb. He’s doing that all the time. Natasha was scared when she saw the blood and screamed. That’s all that happened… I swear. Tell him, Terence. Tell the officer what happened.”

Wallace struggled against Max’s forearm, but Max pinned him with a single cold stare. Still holding on to Wallace, Max shifted his gaze to stare at the wall as he slowly got control of himself. Regaining control was much harder this time than it ever had been in the past. He was this close to killing this son of a bitch. Wallace might have deserved it, but that wasn’t the way Gage expected him to operate.

When he finally forced his fangs and claws to retract, he turned to look at Terence, hoping the kid would be brave enough to tell the truth. But the small amount of hope and strength that had been there earlier drained away, leaving the boy’s face an expressionless mask, devoid of emotion.

“That’s what happened,” the boy said softly. “I stumbled and hit my hand… That’s all.”

Max’s heart broke for the kid. Seeing a light go out in the boy’s soul was almost too much. He glanced at Eileen Wallace.

“You know this won’t stop until you make it stop,” he said. “Trust me, I know how this ends. If you don’t stand up to him, this will keep happening until one of your children is dead.”

For a moment, it looked like Eileen Wallace might actually do the right thing, but then she shook her head. “It won’t. Nick wouldn’t do that. Just let him go. Please. It’s all going to be okay now.”

“That’s right, asshole,” Wallace snarled. “Let me go!”

Max cursed. It was over. He could call the local division house, file a report, and give a statement about the shouts he’d heard, but it wouldn’t do any good, not with everyone in here singing this well-rehearsed routine.

He let Wallace go so suddenly the man fell to the floor like the bag of crap he was. Max didn’t leave right away, but locked eyes with each of the kids in turn, seeing their fear and resignation. He knew the feeling. It was the emotion that came when you truly realized nothing was ever going to change. When that last little bit of faith you had left in the world disappeared.

Turning, Max strode out of the house, not bothering to close the door behind him. That just made it easier to hear Wallace shouting about hiring a lawyer and suing the city, the police department, and him.

Given how little Chief Curtis thought of SWAT these days, there wasn’t much chance of the city or the police department paying for any of this. They were going to fire his ass the minute word reached DPD headquarters and let him take the heat for this all on his own.

Ernest Miller was standing in his yard next door, shaking his head in disappointment as Max walked down the street and climbed in his Camaro. Max couldn’t disagree with the man. He’d well and truly screwed the pooch this time. Instead of helping those kids, he’d likely made it worse. He’d embarrassed Wallace in front of his family. The bastard would be taking it out on one of them soon enough.

Max put the car in gear and pulled away from the curb, more drained and exhausted than he’d ever been in his life. Right now, getting drunk would have been nice, but it was nearly impossible for a werewolf to get inebriated, so he guessed there was no point in trying. Not that he’d get the chance, because something told him he’d probably be spending the rest of the day and most of the night explaining himself to internal affairs.

Shit.

An IA investigation. That would be fun.

* * *

“Still thinking about Denise?”

Lana looked up from her menu and across the table at her mother. Crap, how long had she’d been zoning out? Her mom had suggested coming to the Galleria Mall hoping it would help take Lana’s mind off what had happened to Denise, but so far, it wasn’t working. Lana opened her mouth to fib and tell her mother she was simply trying to decide what to order for lunch, but realized it would be a waste of time. Her mom knew her too well.

“Sorry,” Lana apologized, giving her mother a small smile. “Was it that obvious?”

Her mother’s lips curved. “Well, the fact that you’ve been looking at your menu upside down for the past few minutes was sort of a dead giveaway that you’re distracted. And considering you just found out about Denise last night, it wasn’t difficult to figure out what you were thinking about.”

Lana glanced down at her menu and realized her mom was right. Good grief, Charlie Brown, where was her head at? She flipped her menu right side up and saw it was still going to be hard to decide what to order. The restaurant had a lot of great-looking choices. Not that her mind was very focused on food right then.

“It’s hard not thinking about Denise,” she admitted. “A few days ago, we were talking about renting an apartment together and trying to get a job at the same company.”

“Were you able to get in touch with Denise’s parents?” her mom asked.

“Yeah, but it took a while. As you can imagine, it’s been a tough couple of days for them.”

“Are you going up to Alaska for the service?”

Lana nodded.

Her mom reached across the table and gave Lana’s hand a squeeze. “I can go with you if you want.”

Lana smiled. Her mother had always been there for her whenever she’d needed support the most. Offering to drop everything and go to Alaska with her was just one of the reasons Lana loved her so much.

“I appreciate that, Mom,” she said. “But Max already offered to go with me. You don’t mind, do you?”

Her mother smiled, but before she could say anything, their server interrupted to take their order. Lana glanced down at her menu and chose the first thing she saw: salad with a chili-lime vinaigrette and a cheese enchilada on the side.

The waiter, a blond guy she probably would have thought was attractive until she’d met Max and had her entire definition of the word changed forever, gave her a smile. “Orders are usually two enchiladas, but I can put in a good word with the chef, see if I can get him to hook me up with a single one.”

“I wouldn’t want you to waste any of your favors on me,” she said as she handed him her menu. “You can go ahead and bring two. I’ll share with my mom.”

Realizing his charm wasn’t working on Lana, the waiter turned his attention on her mother. Her mom lifted a brow, shutting him down before he started and sending the would-be Romeo off for their food.

“There was a time not too long ago when you would have been thrilled to have a cute guy like that trying to charm you,” her mother observed as she sipped her iced tea.

Lana shrugged, wishing she still had her menu so she’d have somewhere else to look other than at her mom, who was currently regarding her with a knowing expression. For once, she’d rather her mother didn’t know her so well.

“I’m not eighteen anymore, Mom.”

“Uh-huh.” Her mother regarded her thoughtfully, apparently not convinced. “You sure it doesn’t have something more to do with a certain SWAT officer?”

“Maybe,” Lana conceded. “You don’t mind if Max takes me up to Alaska, do you?”

Mom waved her hand. “Don’t be silly. I can’t imagine anyone I’d rather you go up there with.”

Lana had spent the morning telling her mom about what had happened down in Austin, from finding out all the horrible details surrounding Denise’s murder to the hours she’d spent at the diner with Max afterward. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say he’d saved her sanity.

“He is rather amazing,” she admitted with a smile.

“You like him a lot, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I do.”

Lana would have said more, but their server appeared with their food. He was less charming and all business this time, she noticed. She picked up her fork and speared a tomato.

“I know this is going to sound crazy. We just met, but I already feel like we’re perfect together.” She glanced at her mother. “You don’t think I’m crazy, do you?”

“Not at all. Sometimes, we really do fall fast for the person we’re meant to be with. If Max is that person for you, there’s nothing wrong with admitting it.”

Lana sighed. “But how do I know for sure if Max is that person? What if my feelings for him are being affected by all this stuff with Denise? That makes a lot more sense than the idea I’ve stumbled over my soul mate.”

Her mother shook her head and dipped her spoon in her soup. “You really are your father’s daughter, aren’t you? Always trying to logic your way through a situation. Maybe just this once, you should put your head on cruise control and let your heart lead the way.”

Lana smiled at the analogy. “I think I can do that. Though I don’t think Dad is going to be too thrilled with any of this. He’s especially not going to like the idea of me going up to Alaska with Max.” She snorted as a sudden thought occurred to her. “I can just imagine him wanting to go up there with us, so he can chaperone and make sure we don’t get too close.”

“You let me worry about your father,” her mom said.

Lana was only too happy to do that. She ate a bite of her enchilada, chewing thoughtfully. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you, Mom.”

“What’s that?”

“The other night, you said Dad didn’t want me to get involved with a cop. Why not? I would think he’d be all for it, especially since Max is on his SWAT team.”

Her mother sighed. “Who knows how your father thinks? He can be stubborn as hell sometimes for no apparent reason. If it’s any consolation, my father never wanted me getting involved with a cop, either.”

Lana’s jaw dropped. This was the first she’d heard of that. “What? But Grandpa was a cop, too. Why didn’t he like Dad?”

Her mother sighed. “Your grandfather wanted me to marry a doctor. He even had a guy picked out for me. But then your father pulled me over for speeding one day and it was love at first sight. We got married three weeks later. Your grandfather had an absolute cow, of course. He threatened to disown me if I went through with the wedding.”

Lana wasn’t sure if she was more shocked that her mom had been speeding or that she’d gotten married so fast.

“They get along great now,” Lana pointed out.

Mom smirked. “Sure they do—now. But back then, it was awful, especially when your dad told your grandfather we’d elope and run off to Vegas to get married if my family didn’t get on board.”

Lana gaped. “He didn’t!”

“Oh yes, he did. Your father was a real rebel back then, which is why I think he’s so against you dating Max. I think he’s terrified of Max doing the exact same thing to him that he did to my father.”

“That is so whack it almost makes sense,” Lana said.

She tried to wrap her head around the idea that her father, the deputy chief of the DPD Tactical Division, had been a bad boy in his youth, but she couldn’t imagine it, even after she and her mother spent the rest of the meal talking about all the crazy things he’d done before Lana was born. Lana was almost looking forward to him trying to cause trouble between her and Max just so she could throw some of it in his face.

“You ready to do some more shopping?” her mother asked as they waited for their server to bring their check, which might take a while since the guy was currently at a table full of college girls, plying them with his charm.

“I never turn my nose up at shopping,” Lana said.

She left her mom to deal with the waiter and made a quick run for the restroom, glad she’d let her mom talk her into coming to the Galleria. Nothing was going to make her forget that Denise was gone, but being with her mother made the sorrow a little easier to bear.

Lana was still thinking about that when she walked out of the ladies’ room into the long hallway that led toward the main part of the restaurant, and almost ran smack into some poor guy heading toward the men’s restroom. The man put his hands on her shoulders to steady her as she stumbled back. She opened her mouth to apologize, only to stop as the most bizarre sensation she’d ever felt ran all the way up from the base of her spine to the back of her neck, making her shudder. All at once, her teeth and gums began to tingle like crazy. If that wasn’t odd enough, her fingers began to throb. Crap, it felt like someone was trying to yank her fingernails out.

She quickly took a step back. “Sorry.”

“It was my fault completely,” the man said in a deep voice.

She looked up at him. Damn, he was tall. And big. Almost as big as Max. No wonder she’d walked into him. There was no way to get past him in the narrow hallway without running into him. He had a face to match his body—intense and kind of scary.

She nodded, thinking she should acknowledge his apology. But then she had this sudden unexplainable urge to be anywhere but in that narrow hallway. She didn’t understand why she was feeling so weird. It was like a snake or something else equally slithery had appeared right in front of her.

“Lana Mason?” he said, making her stop her attempt to squeeze around him and look up at him again.

She almost told him he was mistaken and pushed past him, but then her manners—and her curiosity—won out.

“Do I know you?” she asked even though there was no possible way she did.

“I doubt it. But I think I know you,” he said. “Weren’t you at the DPD awards ceremony the other day? I swear I saw you with Deputy Chief Mason.”

Lana’s jaw almost hit the floor. Today was definitely full of surprises. “You’re on the DPD?”

How could she have missed him at the ceremony? He had the kind of face a person would tend to remember. Then again, she’d only had eyes for Max that day.

“Yeah, central division.” A smile cracked his face, making him look a little less intimidating. “I’ve worked with your father’s tactical divisions a few times.”

Lana was tempted to ask the man if he’d ever worked with Max, but the impulse to get the hell away from him overwhelmed any desire for polite conversation.

She said to hell with politeness and moved to step around the walking roadblock. “Nice to meet you.”

He moved to intercept her, reaching into the pocket of his jacket and pulling out something. She backpedaled quickly, sure he had a gun.

It wasn’t a weapon but a perfume bottle.

“I hate to be a bother,” he said, apparently not aware he’d already surpassed that point some way back. “But I just bought this perfume for my girlfriend and have no idea if it’s any good. The woman at the counter swore up and down it was the scent of the season, but I could really use an unbiased opinion.”

Lana shook her head, suddenly light-headed.

“Please,” the guy pleaded. “My girlfriend is really difficult to please. If I give her a perfume that smells bad, she’ll probably break the bottle over my head.”

Lana couldn’t blame the woman—she wanted to do the same thing. She resisted the urge and forced herself to nod. Anything to get out of this hallway faster.

It took everything in her to extend her wrist so he could spritz her with the perfume. Part of her wanted to push past him and run, but another part begged her to stay and…do something, though she didn’t know what.

She lifted her wrist to her nose to take a sniff and almost gagged as an awful stench hit her. The part of her skin where he’d sprayed the perfume began to sting even as her nose started to burn from inhaling the stuff. What the hell?

She wrinkled her nose and made a face. “Ugh! What kind of crap did they sell you?”

“It isn’t any good?” he asked in a tone that almost sounded amused.

“Hell no, it’s not any good. It stinks. Plus, it burns. If I were you, I’d return it and get my money back.”

Turning, she shoved open the door of the ladies’ room and hurried inside, rushing over to the sink. Over the water, she swore she heard the man laugh, but she was too intent on washing the perfume off her wrist and couldn’t be sure.

It took a long time and a lot of soap to get the worst of the stuff off her skin. Even after that, her nose still burned so badly her eyes watered. She splashed water on her face, hoping that would help. When she did the best she could, she dried her hands and face, grimacing as she looked in the mirror and realized her makeup was a complete disaster. She dug into her purse for her cosmetic bag and quickly put on some mascara and a touch of lipstick.

As she was putting her makeup back in her purse, she realized the funny sensations she’d experienced earlier were gone now.

Weird.

Lana stepped out of the bathroom to find the big man still standing in the hallway, blocking the way to the restaurant. That was when she noticed something that made her gums tingle and fingertips ache all over again—a second man standing at the far end of the hallway, near the emergency exit.

The first man took a step her way, smiling without any humor.

A metallic taste filled her mouth like she’d bitten her tongue, and a tremor of something halfway between anger and fear rumbled up her throat.

“Lana, there you are!” her mother said, coming toward them from the restaurant. “What the heck is taking you so long?”

Relief washed over Lana as the big man who’d sprayed her wrist with perfume earlier brushed past her and headed for the emergency exit. The second man shoved it open, and they disappeared outside.

Why hadn’t the alarm gone off?

She had no answer to that question, just like she had no way to explain why her body stopped buzzing and tweaking the moment the door had closed behind the two men.

“Who was that?” her mother asked.

“He said he was an officer from central division,” Lana said, not wanting to alarm her mom or attempt to describe all the weird stuff that had just happened.

Her mother frowned. “Really? I didn’t recognize him. What’s his name?”

That’s when Lana realized the man had never told her. “He didn’t say.”

* * *

Max was parked on the couch in his apartment, staring at the TV, hoping Wallace was full of hot air and wouldn’t go through with his threats to file a complaint against him, when his phone rang. He grabbed it from the coffee table, cursing when he saw Gage’s name on the screen. Thumbing the green button, he put it to his ear.

“What’s up, Sarge?”

“Get your ass down to the compound. Now,” Gage said in that tone he used right before he usually exploded and started throwing werewolves around the office like rag dolls.

Shit.

Even though it was well after 6:00 p.m. when Max got to the compound, there were still quite a few vehicles in the parking lot keeping Gage’s Charger company. In addition to Xander’s, Brooks’s, and Cooper’s vehicles, there were two others he didn’t recognize. He wasn’t so concerned about the late-model piece of shit with rust spots and a pervasive burnt-oil smell about it that suggested the thing was on its last legs, but the generic white Chevy Caprice sedan worried him. It screamed DPD unmarked car, which meant it was someone from internal affairs or headquarters.

Double shit.

Brooks was there to meet him, a concerned look on his face. “What the hell did you do, Max? Gage and Xander are in there with IA, and none of them look happy.”

Max shook his head. He’d never felt more like a complete frigging idiot than he did right now. “I got a call earlier from that old guy on Park Lane, Ernest Miller. He said he heard a lot of shouting and sounds of a scuffle coming from the Wallace place. Northeast Division sent out a patrol car, but the wife told them the kids had been watching TV too loud, so I headed over there to check things out myself.”

Brooks must have known where this was heading if the look on his face was any indication. “Damn, Max. Please tell me you didn’t do something stupid.”

Max wished he didn’t have to tell Brooks anything of the sort. The Pack’s biggest werewolf had always been a friend and mentor to him, and Max felt like he was letting him down.

“Yeah, I pulled a stupid,” Max admitted. “I heard one of the Wallace girls scream, so I busted into the house. I hoped I could catch that bastard in the act of beating one of his kids, but the moment I saw the boy was standing there trying to protect his mother, blood seeping through the bandages on his hand, I lost it. I ended up pinning Wallace to the wall and almost choking him out.”

Brooks shook his head, and the disappointment Max saw on his face was almost enough to crush Max’s soul. “Why would you do something like that?”

Max shrugged. “Because it’s not in me to let that woman and her kids stay in a house with a man who beats them.”

Brooks looked at him like he was a complete idiot. “I know why you did it, you moron. I’m asking why you didn’t think to tell me or anyone else in the Pack. Cooper, Becker, Zane—hell, any of us would have gone with you and helped make sure we got this piece of crap. What, did you forget you’re part of a pack?”

Max cursed silently. If Brooks had wanted to say the one thing that would make Max feel like crap, he’d done it.

“I screwed up,” Max said quietly.

“No shit.” Brooks’s mouth tightened. “What the hell has gotten into you? It’s like you’ve gone completely off the rails.”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “It seems like my head is spinning lately. I can barely keep my shift under control at the best of times, and even when I do, I see myself doing stupid stuff without being able to stop it.”

Brooks regarded him silently, then sighed. “I guess I should probably cut you some slack. A werewolf can’t be held responsible for his actions while he’s an emotional train wreck. It’s happened with everyone else who found their One, so why not you?”

Max stared at his pack mate, surprised Brooks was letting up on him. “You think IA will be as understanding with my screw-ups as you are if I tell them my relationship status is complicated?”

Brooks let out a snort. “I don’t see that helping you out very much. But this time, trust Gage and Xander to watch out for you, huh?”

Max nodded. “You sticking around for a while?”

“Nah. I’m meeting up with Diego and Zane at a sports bar for the Thursday night NFL game.”

Max snorted. “Zane? He doesn’t even understand the game of football.”

That wasn’t an exaggeration. Their British teammate was all about soccer.

Brooks chuckled. “I know. I’ve made it my mission to teach him. Listen, text me later and let me know what happens with IA, huh?”

Max told him he would, then headed for the main admin building and Gage’s office. The moment he opened the door, a trio of unfamiliar scents hit him. He found two women and a teenage boy sitting at one of the desks in the bullpen, eating barbecued pork, beans, and corn bread while they watched a home makeover show on the TV mounted on the wall on the other side of the room.

As Cooper got up from his desk and walked over to meet him, Max took a sniff. The two women were beta werewolves. One was in her thirties, while the other was a little older, midforties he guessed. The boy definitely wasn’t a werewolf, though his scent was similar to the younger of the two women, so he was probably her son. The women gave him a curious look, then went back to eating. Something told him they hadn’t seen food this good in a long time.

Max glanced at Gage’s office, and his heart sank. Even though the door was closed, he could pick up Vince Coletti’s scent. Of all the detectives from internal affairs, why did it have to be Coletti? The man had a hard-on for the SWAT team, for sure. He’d even forced Cooper to attend anger management sessions with a shrink. And Cooper was the most laid-back, in-control werewolf in the Pack.

Max was screwed.

Cooper motioned with his head, indicating Max should follow him outside.

“So, you went back and punched out that child-beating piece of shit Wallace, huh?” Cooper said, then added, “I overheard Coletti talking to Gage and Xander.” He grinned. “Good for you.”

“Yeah,” Max muttered. “Well, now I have to deal with the fallout.”

Cooper shrugged. “Put on your best I’m-horribly-sorry-and-promise-never-to-do-it-again face, and you’ll be out of here in time for dinner with that new babe of yours.”

Max wasn’t nearly as sure of the outcome with Coletti as Cooper seemed to be, but arguing with Cooper about anything was like chasing a greased pig. You ended up looking foolish and feeling all dirty.

“What’s with the two betas in there?” he asked instead. “They on the run from the hunters, too?”

“Yeah,” Cooper said. “Grace; her kid, Rudy; and her friend Kari have been moving around the country with an omega who’d been watching out for them. Four weeks ago, a group of hunters caught up with them outside of Norman. The omega sacrificed himself so they could get away, and they’ve been ducking and hiding ever since. They heard about our pack and headed this way. They rolled in here about an hour ago, and haven’t stopped eating since.”

Cooper may have dropped all that on him casually, but there was so much crazy in that story it was tough to figure out where to start. The fact that there were hunter packs operating so close to Dallas had to make Gage and the other senior pack members a little worried. Until now, hunters had been this vague threat that hovered far enough away for people to be lulled into the belief they’d never come here at all. But Norman, Oklahoma, was barely a hundred miles north of the Texas line. That was damn close.

Then there was the weird part about the omega protecting two betas. From what they knew about werewolves, a protective omega was an oxymoron. When Max pointed that out, Cooper shrugged.

“I had a hard time believing it, too, but Kari said the omega showed up out of the blue and started taking care of them. He seemed as shocked by his own behavior as they were. I’m trying to imagine an omega sacrificing himself for anyone, and I just can’t see it. But I think the rules are changing now that the hunter threat is growing.”

Max shook his head. The SWAT Pack still had no idea how word had trickled out that Dallas was a safe haven. All they knew was that scared werewolves had been showing up at the compound in ones and twos every few days since mid-August. Most of the new werewolves were betas, but there were also a surprising number of omegas and even a few alphas. They’d stop by to check in and make sure it was okay for them to be in the Pack’s territory. Gage would welcome them in and make sure they had a place to stay along with work and enough to eat. Gage was doing his best to keep a head count, but staying on top of the incoming was getting harder by the day. There had to be at least forty new werewolves in Dallas at the moment. That was insane.

Inside the admin building, Max heard Gage’s office door open. He sighed. Might as well go in and get this over with.

Cooper must have heard, too, because he smiled. “Remember. Look really apologetic. And no matter what, refrain from telling Coletti you’ll probably end up doing the same thing all over again next week. People like him frown on that kind of honesty.”

Max lifted a brow. “So in other words, lie to him?”

Cooper opened the door and shoved him inside. “Like your frigging life depends on it, because it does.”

When they walked in, they found Gage, Xander, and Coletti talking to the two betas and the kid.

“Xander will take you upstairs and show you around,” Gage said. “We have some cots up there you can use until we find you a place to stay. There’s a small kitchen stocked with food, if you’re still hungry.”

As Xander led the small pack upstairs, Max couldn’t help noticing Coletti’s shrewd, gray gaze following them.

“I’ve heard you’ve been putting people up here,” the dark-haired IA detective said. “You know the department frowns on that kind of stuff.”

Gage didn’t so much as blink. How the hell did his commander stay so cool, Max wondered. Coletti was such a rule-following d-bag it was all Max could do not to pick him up and throw him off the compound.

“They’re people in trouble who need some help,” Gage said. “I’m making sure that no department resources are being used.”

Max expected Coletti to be a dick about it, but he merely watched the two women and the kid as they disappeared up the stairs, then nodded. “Keep it low key. If Chief Curtis finds out, he’ll pull a hamstring running over here to can your ass.”

With that settled, both Gage and Coletti turned their attention to Max. While Gage’s jaw tightened, he was calmer than Max expected.

“I’ll leave you two alone to talk,” Gage said, going back into his office and closing the door.

O-kay. Max hadn’t seen that coming. He fully expected Gage to be present for the ass-chewing Max was sure was coming his way. Instead of focusing on Max, however, Coletti was eyeing Cooper. His pack mate returned the IA detective’s look with an expression that suggested Coletti wouldn’t be making it onto Cooper’s Christmas card list anytime soon.

“Cooper,” Coletti said with a little lift of his chin that guys did when they wanted to acknowledge the other person existed but didn’t want to shake their hands. “How are your anger management classes going?”

“Not bad.” Cooper smirked. “I can look at you right now without giving in to the overwhelming urge to kick your ass, so I guess they must be working.”

With that, Cooper dropped the mic and headed upstairs to join Xander and the small beta pack.

Coletti grunted, then looked at Max. “Can we go somewhere we can talk in private?”

“Not sure what we have to talk about,” Max replied. Regardless of what Cooper said, he wasn’t going to play the game. That wasn’t his thing. “You’re here to suspend me, right?”

“That depends on you,” Coletti said quietly. “Nick Wallace called a lawyer right after you left, saying you broke into his house and assaulted him. Given the number of domestic violence calls the DPD has made to that address, I don’t see this making it into court, but IA views this as a valid complaint, so if you decide you don’t want to talk to me, you’ll be suspended until the investigation is complete.”

Max came damn close to saying the hell with it and let the suspension stand, but that would piss off Gage and everyone else in the Pack. So he swallowed his frigging pride and nodded.

“We can go next door to the training building,” he told Coletti.

Max led the way, expecting Coletti to lay into him the moment they grabbed some seats in one of the classrooms, but instead, the IA detective merely regarded him in silence, his face unreadable.

“I know what happened with your family,” Coletti said suddenly.

Max clenched his jaw. He wasn’t thrilled the IA detective had poked around in his background, digging up dirt, but he wasn’t surprised by it, either. And he sure as hell wasn’t about to let this dickweed have the satisfaction of knowing how much it bothered him.

“And?” he said flatly, almost expecting it when he felt the sharp edges of his fangs grazing his tongue. He was losing control every five minutes these days; why not now?

“And I understand why you reacted the way you did.” Coletti leaned back in his chair. “Given the circumstances, I probably would have done the same thing. Hell, in these circumstances, I have done the same thing.”

Max frowned. “What the hell are you saying? That you’re okay with what I did?”

Coletti shook his head. “Definitely not. You screwed up and let your emotions get the best of you. You took a bad situation and made it worse. Not only did you not get anything the DA’s office can use to stop that bastard Wallace, but you also gave his lawyers a possible wedge they can use against the DPD if we’re ever lucky enough to get him into a court. If that’s not bad enough, you embarrassed Wallace in front of his kids. More than likely, he’s going to take that out on them.”

Max cursed silently. Like he needed the reminder. The idea that those kids might get a beating because he’d screwed up tore at him like a serrated knife blade.

“So what the hell am I supposed to do?” he demanded, not caring that his voice came out as a low growl.

Coletti didn’t seem to notice. He leaned forward and locked eyes with him. “You have to stop being an idiot. Put some distance between yourself and the situation and accept that you can’t save people from themselves. You have to simply be there to offer a hand and hope the mother or that boy takes the first step and reaches out to take that hand.”

The IA detective made it sound so simple. “I’m not sure I can stand by and wait for something to happen.”

“Then let me see if I can help you,” Coletti said. “As far as IA and the DPD are concerned, there’s a restraining order out on you. You get within a hundred yards of the Wallace residence, you’ll be suspended and your career will pretty much be over.”

Max snorted. “That’s being helpful?”

“Yeah, it is.” Coletti sighed. “Take it from me. Something like this can eat you up from the inside if you let it. You start thinking you’re the only person who can fix this situation, and before long, you’ll find it consuming you until, at some point, you wake up and find yourself standing in the middle of an out-of-control situation with your gun out, wondering how the hell you ever let it get this far.”

Max stared at Coletti. Who the hell was this guy, and what had happened to him? Because it was obvious the man was speaking from experience.

They talked for a little while longer, with Coletti giving Max a lot of suggestions that actually made sense, then promising he’d get family services out there to talk to Wallace’s wife and maybe make something good happen.

By the time Coletti left, Max was beginning to think the situation with the Wallace family might end with something resembling a happily ever after.

He was still sitting there when Gage stuck his head in the door fifteen minutes later. “How’d it go with Coletti?”

“Not as bad as I thought it would,” Max admitted. “I haven’t been suspended at least. But he wants me to stay away from the Wallace family long enough to let the system work.”

Gage sat down at the table opposite him. “You going to be able to do that, given the type of situation we’re dealing with?”

“Do I have a choice?”

Gage shook his head. “Not really. But that fact has rarely kept some of the idiots in this pack from trying anyway.”

Max couldn’t help chuckling at that, knowing exactly what Gage was talking about. A few of his pack mates had done some really stupid stuff lately.

“Okay, I’m going to finish up some paperwork so I can get out here,” Gage said as he got to his feet. “Stay away from the Wallace place.”

“I will.” Max stood and fell into step beside him. “Sarge, how well do you know Coletti? I’m starting to think maybe he isn’t the asshole I thought he was.”

Gage snorted. “I’ve known Vince for a long time, and actually, he really is the asshole you thought he was. At least he can be. But he’s also a damn good cop.”

“He said some stuff that made me think he knows a little something about letting things get personal on the job. You have any idea what that’s about?”

Gage opened the door, leading the way outside and across the compound to the admin building. “Coletti didn’t always work in IA. He was a detective in the Assault Unit long before that. For all the right reasons, he ended up pulling a lot of the sexual assault cases. He was good at his job, but that’s some tough work, and he had to deal with more than his fair share of crappy situations. He ended up getting into trouble by putting himself in the middle of one of them. It went bad, and politics in the DPD being what they are, he got transferred to IA. It was either that or leave the force.”

Max opened his mouth to ask for more details, but Gage shook his head.

“If you want to know more, you’ll have to ask Coletti. Go home and give Lana a call. Better yet, go spend some time with her and clear your head.”

Max didn’t say anything. He wasn’t sure if he was suitable company for anybody, especially Lana, after the day he’d had. But the idea of spending the rest of the night on his own definitely didn’t appeal to him.

He was halfway to his Camaro when he caught sight of Coletti leaning against the driver’s side door of the old jalopy with the rust spots, talking to Kari. Max stopped, sure Coletti was harassing her about being there. No doubt he was asking her all kinds of questions about why Gage was letting her and her friends stay at the SWAT compound.

Max started toward them when he heard Kari laugh. He hesitated. Maybe he should listen in on their conversation for a little bit before he went over there and made a fool of himself.

“I’m serious,” Coletti was saying. “If you need anything—like help fixing this car of yours, for example—give me a call. My cell number is on the back of the card I gave you.”

Kari pushed her long, blond hair behind her ear, a smile tugging at her lips. “And what if I just want to call you for something other than car repair? Is the offer still good?”

Now it was Coletti’s turn to laugh. “I said anything you need, and I meant it.”

Max turned and headed for his car. If he listened to any more, he was going to have to shove his claws in his ears. Coletti and a beta werewolf? Seriously?