“Yes, sir,” I said, nodding and wincing as I spoke into my phone, “I know I fucked up. I know I fucked up royally, sir.”

“This is about the goddamned pack, Jones!” Peter yelled into my ear from all the way outside of town. “Do you realize what kind of goddamned damage you could caused? What kind of attention you could have brought down on us? We have rules for a goddamned reason! Rules that are there for our protection!”

It was too damned early for this. I still had to be out to pick up Rebecca in just an hour and a half, and I still hadn’t showered or even had my coffee. And, like I’d told her, it was going to be a long, long day ahead of us.

I winced again. “I know, sir. I know we have them for a reason, sir.”

This was my first ass chewing from Peter. Even though he was my boss and my alpha, he’d always been pretty mild-mannered. I mean, of course I’d dropped the ball every now and then, but that had been at the agency, where I’d screwed up a case or said the wrong thing to a client.

Never anything serious.

Never anything like this.

The worst part? I knew I deserved every ounce of Peter’s ire.

“And right now this is the last goddamned thing we need, Jones!”

I swallowed hard. “Yes, sir. I understand, sir.”

I heard the sound of heavy breathing on the other line, like Peter had been out jogging all morning before he heard the news, then he’d run to a quiet place so he could get his screaming out.

All this really took me back to the military, to my first big fuck-up. I’d nearly walked us into an ambush in the mountains of Afghanistan. I saw a break in the rocks, and I slipped right through them without checking. Nothing was on the other side, of course. But my lieutenant made sure I knew why moving forward without recon was a bad idea, about how the obvious passage could have been booby trapped, or a sniper could have been set up on the other side. I’d been a greenhorn back then, and I hadn’t known any better. All the guys, afterwards, let me know that the lieutenant was just looking out for us. That his job was to get us home at the end of our deployment in one piece, and not one moment earlier or later. Because if it was early, that meant we were going with a flag draped over us.

This, though, was worse. Because I wasn’t a greenhorn. I was a veteran, I’d been a shifter all my life. I’d been special goddamn forces. I’d parachuted into enemy territory, and rescued pilots from cliffs, valleys, and canyons in the worst weather imaginable, all under heavy fire from enemy combatants. And who had busted me and taken pot-shots at my furry ass? An old lady with a goddamned shotgun.

Not that she’d hit me, of course. But the shame was still real.

Shame that I’d let down my alpha, that I’d let down my pack, and, even more so, that I’d pushed Rebecca away the night before.

“Goddammit, Jones,” Peter said, his almost normal now. “I’m just more disappointed than anything. What the hell were you thinking?”

I took a deep breath and weighed whether or not I should tell him about Rebecca being my mate. Chances are, he already knew. Shifters, we changed a little when we found our mate, even if we hadn’t fully joined with them. Something just awoke within us, and all the other shifters seemed to be able to ferret it out just by a look or a smell.

“Well?”

No, I thought, I needed to be honest with him. I needed to be forthright and upfront, own up to my mistake, but let him know that I couldn’t handle this case without distraction or prejudice.

My mouth suddenly dry, I swallowed hard again. “I found her, sir,” I said. “I found my mate. It’s Rebecca Stokes.”

A sharp exhalation through Peter’s nose sounded like a wind tunnel in my ear. “Figured that out, huh?”

“You knew?” I asked before I could stop my self. “Yeah, of course you knew. You always know, don’t you?”

“Yeah. We always know. Is that where you were when the old lady took her shot?”

I nodded on reflex even though I knew he couldn’t see my gesture. “Yeah, I was right outside her window. I knew I shouldn’t have followed the scent, especially when I realized it was inside town, but it was just so strong. Something in my brain just kicked right in and took over.”

He chuckled. “It does that. You can keep the wolf under control for only so long.”

We sat in silence for a moment, the void of sound growing like some ominous orb or cancer as we each waited for the other to speak first. Finally, I decided, I was going to do it. I was going to speak first, tell him I was taking myself off the case.

“You’re still on the case,” Peter said before I could even open my mouth.

“But, sir–”

“I don’t care how close you are to the client. This case isn’t about her, it’s about her uncle, and now all this Florentino shit going on and what the bartender told you about them moving their business into town. I want this town protected, and I need the mob out of here if we’re going to do that. And you, Matt, are the only one I’ve got on my payroll that’s qualified as a fire investigator.”

“But–”

“No goddamned buts. You’re it. You’re our one guy, and I can’t have you flaking out on me because you have personal feelings for your client. I expect you to keep it at least somewhat professional from here on out. No midnight goddamn stalkings. Got it?”

I nodded into the phone, a slow smile beginning to grow on my face. “Got it, sir. No midnight stalkings.”

“No howling at the end of her street, either.”

“Yes, sir. Hear you loud and clear.”

“Good. Now, get back to your morning. I want to know any updates you have later today.”

We both hung up, and I stuffed the phone back in my pocket. My day ahead was a mixed bag of sorts. On one paw, I was looking at a long drive ahead of me. Over eight hours in the car, round trip. On the other, though, I was going to be making that drive with Rebecca. My mate.

Of course, on the one hind-paw, she was probably still pissed at me from the night before. Even if she had been mumbling my name in her sleep.

But, on the final paw, I didn’t care. Even if she was angry with me, that still meant I got to see her.

I’ll say this about being a shifter: having four paws to properly look at a situation definitely had its advantages.