Chapter 1

Three Months Later

Xander Riggs shifted in his chair, wondering why the hell his boss had asked him to come to this meeting. Gage Dixon knew Xander hated rubbing elbows with the brass down at police headquarters. Other than Deputy Chief Mason, everyone else at headquarters was a waste of space. It had been so long since some of them had carried a weapon, Xander wasn’t sure how they could still call themselves cops.

“What’s this meeting about anyway?” Xander asked the commander of the Dallas SWAT team. They’d been left stewing in this small conference room for fifteen minutes, and Xander couldn’t wait to get out of there.

Gage shrugged, which was his way of saying he didn’t know, but Xander didn’t buy it for a second. His boss never did anything without a plan.

Xander was tempted to pull out his phone and check his email while they waited, but he resisted the urge.

“I noticed Mac was moving a little slow yesterday at the compound,” Xander said instead. “Is her knee still bothering her?”

Gage’s jaw tightened. Even though Gage had killed Walter Hardy, the man who’d kidnapped and come close to killing his fiancée, reporter Mackenzie Stone, he still held himself responsible for the fact that she’d hurt herself while trying to get away from the bastard in the first place.

“Only when she goes running,” Gage muttered. “Every time she does, her knee swells up; then it’s sore as hell the next day. Her doctor told her to stay off it for a while and take a break from running, but Mackenzie refuses to listen.”

“That sounds like her—stubborn to a fault. Maybe you should hide her running shoes.”

Gage snorted. “Trust me, I thought about that. But then she’d go running in her bare feet and her knee would probably be even worse. I need a better plan.”

Xander lazily swiveled back and forth in the fancy leather chair. “Talk her into taking a week off with you and refuse to let her get out of bed. That should do the trick.”

“I thought about that too,” Gage said. “But I’m saving up vacation days for the honeymoon.”

Seriously? Xander couldn’t remember the last time his boss took leave. Not unless you counted the few days he’d taken off after they’d all almost gotten blown up in that meth lab, courtesy of Walter Hardy.

“Gage, you haven’t taken a vacation in what, five years? You have plenty of leave. Take a week off and spend it with Mac.”

If Xander was ever lucky enough to stumble over that one-in-a-billion woman who was perfect for him, he sure as hell wouldn’t think twice about taking off to be with her.

Gage opened his mouth—probably to say he was too busy—but then he grinned. “You know, that might actually work. She’s been after me to take some time off since we got engaged so we can go house hunting.”

“House hunting, huh?” Xander grinned. “What’s next, a minivan?”

“Now that you mention it, I have had my eye on one of those.”

Xander did a double take. “Seriously?”

Gage just looked at him.

That was a relief. It’d be a shame if Gage traded in that Charger of his.

“Speaking of Mac,” Gage said. “She has a friend she wants you to meet.”

Alarm bells went off in Xander’s head. “Tell Mac thanks, but no thanks. I don’t do blind dates.”

“You sure? This friend of hers could be The One for you.”

The One—capital T, capital O. The One soul mate every werewolf supposedly had. A soul mate like Gage had found in Mac.

Xander had always been on the fence about soul mates. Part of him wanted to believe it was true, but his pragmatic side—okay, his cynical side—told him it was nothing more than silly folklore, no different than all the legends about moonlight, silver bullets, and werewolf hunters. Even after seeing Gage and Mac get together, he still wasn’t convinced. There was no denying they were amazing together, and Xander could admit he’d gotten caught up in the whole idea, but at the moment, he was more ready to believe it was random luck than cosmic werewolf destiny.

“The odds are probably greater that she’s a serial killer who got chased off Craigslist and is looking for her next victim the old-fashioned way,” Xander said drily.

Gage’s laughter was interrupted by the sound of voices in the hallway.

Xander gave his commander a sharp look. “I thought we were just meeting with Mason.”

“I thought so too.”

Gage stood as Deputy Chief Hal Mason walked in, so Xander did too. The chief was accompanied by two men and a woman. Xander recognized one of the men as the Dallas Chief of Police, Randy Curtis. That was weird. Curtis never got involved in the day-to-day police operations.

Xander saw Gage stiffen. Shit. That just ratcheted up his own concern another notch.

“Sergeant Dixon, Corporal Riggs.” Mason gave him and Gage a nod. “You know Chief Curtis, of course.” Mason gestured toward the other two people. “This is Janet Hayes, one of the department’s human resource managers, and Mitchell James, one of the lawyers who serves as an advisor to the city council.”

Xander said nothing as he shook hands with Curtis, then the other two people. He was already getting a bad feeling about this. What the hell did a human resource manager and a city council lawyer want with SWAT?

James smiled at Gage as they all sat down. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you for some time now, Sergeant Dixon. I’ve followed SWAT’s work since I arrived in Dallas a few years ago. Your team’s record is truly amazing. But I have to tell you, I was especially impressed by how you handled Walter Hardy and kept him from fleeing the country.”

Xander almost laughed. The department’s official reports had downplayed the part of the story where Hardy had kidnapped Mac and tried to kill her. While they hadn’t lied, they’d left out certain critical details about what had happened at that private hangar where everything had gone down and let everyone assume the rest. Luckily, none of the local and national media had dug too deeply. That was a good thing, considering the SWAT team had pretty much torn Hardy and his men to shreds in the fight. The medical examiner’s office had concluded the bodies had been savaged by coyotes postmortem, and even though no one had ever seen any coyotes hanging around the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, that became the official story.

“I’m just glad that none of our own got hurt,” Chief Curtis continued before Gage could say anything. “You back that many desperate criminals armed with automatic weapons into a corner, and you usually end up with a bloodbath on your hands.”

“That’s just a testament to the quality people that Sergeant Dixon has brought onto his team over the years, and his commitment to demanding, rigorous training,” Mason said sharply.

Had Xander imagined it, or had Mason just snapped at his own boss? If he didn’t know better, he’d think Curtis was about to reprimand Gage and the team for something. If that was the case, Mason wasn’t on board with it—whatever it was.

Curtis frowned but didn’t respond. Instead, he exchanged looks with James. The lawyer offered Mason a smile that just oozed bullshit. “I think everyone would agree with you, Deputy Chief. But I’m sure even Sergeant Dixon would admit we can make the SWAT team even better.”

Better? Their team was already the best in the state of Texas, if not the whole United States.

Xander slid his boss a sidelong glance to see Gage taking part in a staring contest with Curtis.

“Sir, maybe you should just tell me what this meeting is about,” Gage said.

The chief nodded, then looked at the woman from human resources. “Janet?”

The HR manager’s eyes widened. Did she think they were going to bite her?

“Of course, Chief.” She swallowed nervously, smoothing back her graying hair as she turned to address Gage. “Sergeant Dixon, I’m sure you’re aware of the police department’s goals with regard to diversity. We pride ourselves on having a department that’s as broad and varied as the population we serve.”

Xander frowned. Where was she going with this?

“What Janet is trying to say is that several members of the police union, as well as those from local civil rights groups, have raised concerns over the fact that there aren’t any women on the SWAT team,” James said. “You may not realize this, but your unit has developed a reputation as being something of a boy’s club. Since I’m sure that was never your intent, I’ve approached the chief with a plan to rectify that and improve the department’s image.”

Xander felt like he’d been punched. This was what he and the rest of the Pack had dreaded for years—that a regular, average human cop would get assigned to the team. If that cop were a guy, it would be bad enough. But if that cop was a woman? It would be a catastrophe. Having Mac around the compound those first few days had thrown the whole team into a tailspin. He couldn’t imagine how much worse it would be with a female cop, a person trained to be suspicious and notice things that others dismissed. He and the other werewolves in the Pack would never be able to use their supernatural abilities. They’d have to go back to acting like regular cops again. Everything Gage and the rest of them had worked so hard to build would be gone. And at some point, it would end up getting someone killed.

“Is this some kind of a joke?” Xander demanded. He knew he should probably keep his mouth shut, but he’d never been very good at that. “You come in here and blow sunshine up our asses about how impressed you are with our performance, then tell us you want to add someone to the team for no other reason than you think it will improve our image?”

James lifted a brow. “Are you implying that women aren’t good enough to be in SWAT?”

Xander bit back a growl. This jerk had reached into his bag of tricks and pulled out the male chauvinist card rather than admit the truth.

“Don’t even go there. You don’t know a damn thing about me,” Xander said. “As far as I’m concerned, if someone is qualified for SWAT, they’re qualified—male or female. But if we were talking about qualified candidates, we wouldn’t be doing it in a conference room, and we sure as hell wouldn’t need a lawyer in the room with us.”

On the other side of the table, Curtis and Mason refused to look Xander in the eye. That was when it all clicked into place, and the sinking feeling he’d been getting in his stomach got worse.

“That’s what this is about, isn’t it?” Xander demanded. “You want to put someone on the team, but bypass all the normal qualification requirements, don’t you?”

Xander didn’t even realize his claws were out until Gage put a hand on his arm. Shit. Thank God his hands were under the table, where no one else could see them.

“That’s enough, Xander.” Gage’s voice pulled him back from the edge as only an alpha werewolf’s could. Xander retracted his claws and took a deep breath, clenching his hands into fists in his lap, so he wouldn’t be tempted to reach across the table and choke the crap out of the idiot across from him.

“Mr. James, there’s a reason SWAT has a demanding selection process,” Gage said. “It ensures the police officers we bring in can do the job that’s required. Anything less puts everyone else on the team at risk and, ultimately, the people we’re supposed to serve.”

The lawyer nodded. “I’m aware that it’s a difficult job, Sergeant, but I’m sure there are a few positions on the team that can allow someone with less experience to contribute?”

Beside James, Hayes nodded in agreement. Xander ground his teeth to keep from saying something he shouldn’t. Clueless bureaucrats.

Gage, on the other hand, didn’t look as if he was going to be nearly as successful at keeping his anger in check. In fact, his face darkened so much that Xander thought his boss might actually launch himself across the table at the talking ass with feet who was trying to screw up the perfect team he’d built. Xander wasn’t so sure he’d try and stop Gage if he did. Hell, he might just help.

Gage swung his gaze at Mason. “When I took over the team almost nine years ago, you assured me I’d be able to handpick the personnel. Has that changed?”

The deputy chief’s mouth tightened into a thin line. “Dammit, Gage. This isn’t my doing. The city is worried we’re exposing the department to a discrimination lawsuit. My hands are tied here.”

James leaned forward, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. “Gentlemen, please, let’s not be dramatic here. There’s no reason this has to come down to a discrimination case or a lawsuit. I already have a list of suitable candidates. All you have to do is pick the best of the best.”

James took a piece of paper from his briefcase and slid it across the conference table. Gage scanned the list, then passed it to Xander without a word.

Xander didn’t know everyone on the list, but the names he recognized scared the hell out of him. Instead of cops from narcotics, homicide, or any other division that dealt with high-stress life-and-death situations on a daily basis, they were from internal affairs, the training academy, and community outreach. Xander didn’t hate cops who did those jobs—they were important and needed doing—but that kind of work simply didn’t prepare you for the SWAT team.

It didn’t make sense. If the department seriously wanted to put a woman on the team, there were a lot of them out there with better résumés. Xander knew that for a fact because he’d worked with many of them.

What was this dumbass lawyer trying to do, destroy the SWAT team from the inside out?

Xander was ready to tell all of them where they could stick their stupid list, but Gage beat him to it.

“There’s no one on here who’s even remotely qualified to work on my team.”

“Your team?” James snorted. “Forgive me, but I was under the impression that the SWAT team worked for the city of Dallas and that it answered to Deputy Chief Mason, who answers to Chief Curtis. They’ll decide who’s qualified to work on the team.”

This time it was James who initiated the staring contest, and Xander knew that the only reason Gage looked away first was so he could glare at the deputy chief. “You’ll have my resignation before the end of the day.”

“Gage—” Mason started, but James cut him off.

“I’m sorry you feel that way, Sergeant,” James said. “I’m sure Senior Corporal Riggs will do an outstanding job in your place.”

Xander would have laughed if he wasn’t so damn pissed. “Thanks, but no thanks. And before you ask why not, it’s because I’ll be turning in my resignation along with Sergeant Dixon. I’m pretty sure the rest of the team will do the same.”

Xander liked Dallas and his job, but protecting the Pack was the only thing that mattered to him. And he knew every other member of the Pack felt the same way.

“All fourteen of them?” James countered.

“All fourteen of them,” Xander confirmed. “But look on the bright side. Then you’ll be able to fill your new SWAT team with as many people as you want.”

“Gage, let’s talk about this,” Mason said.

“Let them go,” James said. “They’re bluffing. There’s no way the entire team will quit just because their commander wants to take his ball and go home.”

Mason shot James an irritated look. “Do me a favor and shut the hell up. You couldn’t even comprehend why cops get out of bed in the morning, much less how they decide who they’re willing to work—and die—for.” Mason turned to Curtis. “I told you this would happen. If there’s one thing the incident with Hardy should have taught us, it’s that every one of those men on the SWAT team live and breathe for Sergeant Dixon. If he leaves, I have absolutely no doubt they’d all leave with him. And trust me, another city like Houston, Austin, or San Antonio will scoop them up in ten seconds flat.”

Xander had always liked Mason—well, as much as he could like a man who was closer to being a politician than a cop. While Mason might back Gage, Xander doubted Curtis would do the same. The chief’s job was purely political.

Curtis worked his jaw as he looked from Gage to Mason and back again. “Gage, we’re in an impossible position here. Your team is the best in the country, but the city is going to get its way on this whether you and your men like it or not. And I’m with Deputy Chief Mason when I say we don’t want that to be at your expense. We need to put a woman on your team. How do we make that happen?”

Gage leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. “You let me pick the woman from a list of candidates I put together.”

Xander stared at his boss. Gage had to be shitting him. But his commander looked completely serious.

James opened his mouth to say something, but Chief Curtis silenced him with a glare.

“You have a deal, Sergeant,” he said to Gage.

Xander didn’t know whether to be relieved or not. He and the other guys in SWAT might not have to walk away from their jobs, but he didn’t see how they could stay focused if they added a woman to the team.

* * *

“You’re not serious about putting a woman on the team, are you?” he asked Gage as they walked out of headquarters. “You just needed time to figure out a way to get around this, right?”

Gage gave him a sidelong glance. “The chief was pretty damn clear. He wants a woman on the SWAT team, so I’m putting a woman on it. I’ve been thinking of doing it for a while anyway.”

That was news to Xander. He stopped, sure he hadn’t heard right. When Gage kept walking toward the team SUV, he jogged to catch up.

“Putting a woman on the team would be a nightmare. You know that,” he said as he started the engine and put the SUV in gear. “We’re werewolves. How the hell do you think we’re going to be able to hide that from her and do our job at the same time? And don’t even get me started on the whole pheromone thing.”

They might be men first and wolves second, but if there was one thing that could bring the whole Pack to its knees, it was the scent of a woman.

“We won’t have to hide what we are if the female cop I bring in is a werewolf,” Gage said.

Wait. What?

Xander had been hit over the head before, shot a few times, even blown up once, but none of those things had ever knocked him for a loop like that announcement.

He glanced at Gage as he turned onto the street and headed toward the SWAT compound. “Female werewolves exist?”

Gage chuckled. “What, did you think all werewolves were men?”

“Well…yeah.”

Which was rather stupid now that he thought about it. But he’d never heard of a female werewolf, much less seen one.

“They exist,” Gage said. “And I know where to find one I think will be perfect for the team.”

“Where?”

Gage pulled out his cell. “Washington State.”

“How the hell—?”

But his boss was already on the phone, making reservations for a flight to Seattle. Xander didn’t really have to ask. He knew Gage had set up Google alerts for anything related to cops, firefighters, EMTs, and people in the military who seemed to do amazing things after experiencing a traumatic event. It was how Gage had found most of the guys on the team, including Xander. His boss had gotten really good at spotting werewolves trying to hide who they were.

But a female werewolf? It was going to take a while to get his head around that. What would she look like? Would she be big and muscular like all the guys on the team? Would she be overly aggressive and prone to fighting—again like the guys in the unit?

Worse, would she get facial hair when she partially shifted? He shuddered. Damn, that wasn’t a pretty image.

The bigger question was how the team was going to react when they heard Gage was bringing her in to SWAT. A female werewolf would satisfy Chief Curtis’s demand, but it had the potential to create even bigger problems.

And as hard as he tried, Xander couldn’t quell the feeling of dread from building in the pit of his stomach as he pulled into the parking lot of the SWAT compound.

* * *

The scent hit Khaki the moment she climbed out of her patrol cruiser. She didn’t have a clue what it was, but it seemed both familiar and unique at the same time. Lately her nose had been doing that, picking up a scent so strongly she had no choice but to pay attention to it until she figured out what it was. She’d tried ignoring the urge when it first happened, thinking it would go away. But it never did, not until she’d identified and filed the knowledge away for safekeeping in a head that was becoming scary good at remembering smells. She was like a walking card catalog, but instead of being stuffed full of the Dewey decimal system, it was filled with scent samples. If it wasn’t for the fact that this new talent scared the hell out of her, she would have been amazed by it. But of all the smells she’d cataloged, none came close to this one. Instinct told her she should recognize it, but the source of the scent was just out of reach. Maybe that was why it intrigued her so much.

She was still trying to figure out what it was when a man stepped into her path. At first she thought it was her ex-boyfriend and current pain in the ass, Jeremy Engler. But the tall, muscular man standing in front of her definitely wasn’t Jeremy. Her ex was pretty big, but this guy looked like he could smash Jeremy flat as a beer can with one punch. That should have made her cautious, but she’d long since stopped being wary of people and things—just one more thing about her that had changed since the night she’d been shot three months ago. Plus, they were standing outside the Lakefront Police Station. If this guy was up to no good, he wouldn’t be stupid enough to do it here.

“Officer Blake?” The man held up a badge. “I’m Sergeant Gage Dixon from the Dallas PD SWAT team. I’d like to talk to you for a few minutes, if I may?”

Khaki stared at him, so caught up in his unique scent she almost didn’t see the hand he extended for her to shake. Telling her nose to quit it, she reached out and took his hand.

“Sergeant,” she said. “You’re from Dallas, you said? What brings you all the way to the Pacific Northwest?”

“That’s what I’d like to talk to you about. Do you have time to get a cup of coffee?”

It was late and all she wanted to do was go home and fall into bed, just so she could get up and start her personal groundhog day routine all over again. Working third shift sucked, but if a sergeant from the Dallas PD SWAT team had hung around until she got off duty, whatever he wanted to talk about must be important.

She smiled. “It’s been a long night, but I guess I can spare a few minutes.”

The twenty-four-hour diner next to the police station was empty except for two fellow police officers there to grab breakfast before starting their shift. They gave her a nod, eyeing Gage Dixon curiously as she led him to a booth on the far side of the old-fashioned diner.

“So, what can I do for you, Sergeant Dixon?” Khaki asked after the waitress took their orders.

Considering they were in a diner full of food, including a pair of apple pies fresh out of the oven that were sitting on the counter a few feet away, his scent shouldn’t have been so distracting, but it was making it hard for Khaki to concentrate.

Dixon rested his forearms on the table and clasped his hands. “I know you’re tired, Officer Blake, so I won’t make this complicated. I’m here to offer you a job.”

Khaki blinked. “In Dallas?”

“In Dallas,” he said. “On my SWAT team.”

A tremor of excitement rippled through Khaki. She’d been looking for a way out of the Lakefront PD for months and Sergeant Dixon was handing her the perfect opportunity. Then again, maybe she was dreaming. Why would a SWAT commander offer someone with no tactical training a job on his team?

Khaki waited until the waitress dropped off their coffee before asking Dixon that same question.

Dixon glanced at her as he added sweetener to his coffee. “Because you have other skills that outweigh your lack of experience and training.”

Khaki considered that as she added sweetener and milk to her own coffee. Now she was even more curious. Obviously, Dixon knew something about her that she didn’t.

“What kind of skills?” she asked.

Dixon lifted his dark eyes to hers. “For one thing, you keep your head and do your job when things go south. I’ve read about what you did during that firefight behind the Grace Park apartment complex. There are a lot of cops who would have abandoned that woman to save their own asses, but you stayed and you got her out alive. That says a lot about the kind of person you are.”

Yeah, it said a lot, but Khaki wasn’t so sure what. People she knew, people whose opinions she’d always respected, told her she’d been an idiot to risk her life for that woman. But she was a cop. It was her job to risk her life for other people.

She sipped her coffee. “Okay, but that doesn’t really answer my question. Why come all the way up here from Dallas? It can’t just be the fact that I risked my life that night to save someone else.”

“But it wasn’t just that one night, was it?” His eyes locked with hers. “How many commendations have you received since then?”

Khaki’s head rocked back. “How did you get a look at my files? They’re private.”

“I’ve never seen your files,” Dixon said. “But I’ve seen your name mentioned in the Tacoma papers a lot in the past few months. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together and figure out that your actions would garner you some commendations. So, how many?”

She stared down at her coffee. “Three.”

She couldn’t tell him the reason she’d been given those commendations was because she’d become a pariah in her own department and that any request she put in for backup went unanswered—just like that night behind the Grace Park apartments. And if she couldn’t tell Dixon that, she definitely couldn’t tell him that with all the strange things that had been happening to her since that night, she preferred dealing with dangerous situations by herself anyway.

Khaki picked up her mug and took a swallow of coffee, not because she needed the jolt of caffeine, but because she wasn’t quite sure what to say.

She’d worked for the Lakefront PD for eight years and had always been considered a good cop with a good reputation and a lot of friends on the force. Then she’d started dating Jeremy—a well-liked cop from a family of cops who had made a name for themselves in the community. He had friends in high places, so he was on the short list for sergeant, then lieutenant. Everyone thought they made the perfect couple—until she decided to break it off with him.

Everything had gone downhill fast from there. Jeremy had handled her rejection like the arrogant, conceited asshole he was—which meant poorly. When he couldn’t convince her to take him back, he stalked her and harassed her at work, telling outrageous lies about her to other cops, and screwing with her reports. Almost no one in the department believed anything she said about him, and those who did wouldn’t do anything about it. Jeremy was the big man on campus as far as everyone in Lakefront was concerned. No one in the city would look at him sideways.

She’d found out later that was why her backup had been late that night three months ago. She’d been blackballed. Thanks to Jeremy, her fellow cops were never going to lift a finger to help her ever again.

“Was that the night that everything changed for you?”

Dixon’s question pulled her out of her reverie. “What?”

“Is that when you gained your new abilities?”

Khaki’s heart began to beat like crazy. She darted a look at the two cops on the other side of the diner to see if they’d heard what Dixon said, but neither man looked her way. “What new abilities?”

Dixon’s mouth edged up. “Relax, Khaki. No one can hear us. There’s just you and me talking about what’s been happening to you over the past three months. Assuming that’s when it started.”

Khaki’s first instinct was to immediately deny everything. Her second instinct was to get up and run out of the diner. But Dixon looked so calm and relaxed sitting across from her that it was hard not to trust him. The internal sensor she’d come to trust so much recently was telling her the SWAT commander wasn’t a threat. In fact, he might be the only person she could confide in.

“How did you know?” she asked softly.

“That the change was happening to you, or that it started three months ago?”

“Both, I guess.”

He smiled. “It’s not so hard to recognize the signs indicating a person has changed since I went through it myself.”

Khaki stared at him. “You’re like me? You can…do things you shouldn’t be able to do?”

“You mean, can I run way too fast? Can I hear and smell things I shouldn’t be able to? Am I stronger than I should be? The answer to all those questions is yes. And yes, I can heal from things a lot faster than I should, too, which is probably the first thing you learned after you were shot that night.”

Khaki’s hand tightened around her coffee mug. She’d finally found someone who’d dealt with the same things she was dealing with now. Or, more accurately, he’d found her.

When she’d been hit in the shoulder with a cluster of shotgun pellets and a 9 mm, not to mention another round in the thigh that night at Grace Park, the doctors had patched her up and put her on two weeks of bed rest, saying she was dealing with the wounds incredibly well. Only they didn’t know how well. In the middle of the night two days later, she’d gotten up to hobble to the bathroom and discovered she wasn’t hobbling anymore. Panicking, she’d torn the bandage from her leg to see that the wound was completely healed. The shoulder wound, which had been much worse, was nearly healed as well.

She’d never gone back to the hospital for her final checkup, worried the doctors would realize she was some kind of freak. When they’d called to check on her, she told them she’d already been cleared by another doctor on staff. They’d assumed the paperwork had been lost and let it go.

Since that night, she’d been wounded twice more, once with a knife and once with a small automatic. The wounds had healed so quickly she hadn’t even bothered to tell anyone about them.

“Do you know why this happened to me…to us?” she asked.

“Yeah, I do.” His mouth twitched. “But it might be a little hard for you to believe it.”

Khaki let out a short laugh. “Hard to believe? Sergeant Dixon, last week, a drugged-out factory worker stopped beating his kid just long enough to shove a seven-inch-long hunting knife through my stomach. I pulled it out and threw him through a wall, then carried the little boy down three flights of stairs so we could wait for child services out on the curb. There’s nothing that I wouldn’t believe at this point.”

He nodded. “That’s good to hear because that makes it a lot easier to say this next part.”

She leaned forward, eager to hear what he had to say.

He sipped his coffee, then set down the mug. “You’re a werewolf, Officer Blake, just like I am. I run an entire SWAT team full of people just like us down in Dallas. And I want you on the team too.”

Okay, maybe there were some things she wasn’t quite ready to believe yet.

“We’re what?”

Khaki didn’t realize she’d said it so loud until the two other cops in the diner looked her way. She lowered her voice.

“Want to run that by me again? Because I could have sworn you said we’re werewolves.”

“That is what I said.” Dixon sighed. “Look, I know it sounds crazy, but from what I’ve been able to figure out, there’s a gene in some of us that gets tripped when we experience a traumatic, life-threatening situation—like what happened to you at that apartment complex.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t just sound crazy. It is crazy. There has to be some other explanation. We can’t be werewolves. If we were, we’d only be able to do the things we do when the moon is full.”

Dixon laughed. “That’s only in the movies. Which is a good thing since the incidents my team and I go out on don’t follow the lunar cycle. And before you ask, no, silver won’t kill us. But a regular bullet will if it hits something vital, like the heart.”

Khaki ran her thumb over the diner’s logo on the mug, trying to wrap her head around what Dixon had told her. It still sounded crazy. But it would explain why she was suddenly superhuman. And as insane as his claim was, she needed something to help her make sense of things right now.

“And you said the entire SWAT team is made up of…werewolves?” she asked.

He nodded. “All sixteen of us.”

“Sixteen,” she echoed. “Wow. It sounds like you’ve already got a full unit. Why recruit me?”

“Human resources said we need to add a woman to the team to fill our diversity quota,” he said, then quickly added, “but that’s not the only reason. I was going to offer you the job regardless. HR’s demand just moved up the timetable. You’re a good cop, one I’d be honored to have in the Pack.”

“Pack?”

His mouth curved up in a smile. “As in wolf pack.”

Right.

Dixon regarded her in silence. “I know this is a lot to take in, and I don’t expect you to give me an answer now.” He dug his wallet out of the pocket of his jeans and took out a business card, handing it to her. “At least think about it.”

Khaki glanced down at the card, then looked at him. “What about HR? Aren’t they going to expect you to hire someone pretty quick?”

“Don’t worry about them. Take whatever time you need.”

She studied his business card again. She’d been a little disappointed when he told her he was offering her the job because human resources thought it would be good PR to have a woman on the team. But she believed him when he said he’d already planned to recruit her regardless. Ultimately, she didn’t care what had brought the commander of the supposedly all-werewolf SWAT team to her figurative front door. Dixon was here and he was giving her the perfect opportunity to get away from her ex-boyfriend and a job where no one liked her or had her back. As far as she was concerned, it was a dream come true. She might not believe she was a werewolf, or that he and his SWAT team were either, but they were freaks like her, and that was good enough.

“I’ll take it,” she said.

Dixon paused, his mug of coffee halfway to his mouth. “Are you sure? I don’t mind if you want to take a few days to think about it.”

She nodded. “I’m sure.”

“Okay.” He took another swallow of coffee. “In the interest of full disclosure, I should let you know that you’re going to have to earn the respect of the Pack before they fully accept you, and that might not be easy. The guys are all alpha werewolves who have never seen, much less worked with, a female werewolf before. There’s no handbook on this. We’re going to have to figure it out as we go. If they treat you like every other newbie on the team, they’ll probably be tough on you until you prove yourself.”

“I can handle tough,” she said and meant it.

If there was anything these past few months had taught her, it was that she was stronger than she’d ever given herself credit for.

* * *

Even though Dixon told her she didn’t have to report for duty right away, she told him she’d be able to start work in a few days. Now that she’d made the decision to quit her job, there wasn’t any reason to hang around Lakefront. Her parents and sisters still lived in Chicago, so she had no family in the area. And thanks to the debacle with Jeremy, she didn’t have any friends here anymore either. As far as her apartment went, the lease was coming due, so all she’d lose was her deposit. The place had come furnished and whatever didn’t fit in her two big suitcases, she’d mail to the SWAT compound down in Dallas.

Maybe the fact that she had so little attachment to this place explained why it felt so right to accept Dixon’s job offer.

Now the only thing to do was make it official. By that, she meant telling her boss at the Lakefront Police Department she was quitting. In one way or another, she’d worked for Sergeant Aaron Silver the whole eight years she’d been on the force, and other than the fact that he seemed oblivious to what had gone on between her and Jeremy, she’d always liked him. She almost felt bad telling him she was leaving, but even he knew it was time for her to have a fresh start somewhere else.

She was just thinking she might be lucky enough to get out of there before Jeremy showed up when he stormed into the bull pen. Crap.

Khaki pretended not to see him as she put the last few knickknacks from her locker in the box she was packing, but she saw him coming toward her out of the corner of her eye.

“What the hell is going on?” he demanded. “Carpenter called on the radio and said you’re quitting to take a job at the Dallas PD. Is that true?”

She carefully tucked her favorite coffee mug into the box before meeting his gaze. Anger flashed in his gray eyes. How had she ever mistaken this arrogant jerk for a nice guy when he was demeaning to the other cops, abusive to suspects, disrespectful to his superiors behind their backs, and most telling of all, controlling when it came to her?

“I’m packing up my locker,” she pointed out. “What do you think?”

He clenched his jaw so hard she thought he might break something. “So you’re leaving me, just like that?”

“I left you a long time ago, Jeremy.” Months ago, actually. But clearly it hadn’t sunk into that thick skull of his. “Today, I’m leaving Lakefront.”

“To go to Dallas with that cop you had coffee with the other day,” he sneered. “Are you screwing him now?”

Khaki wanted to smack him so badly that her hands hurt. She balled them into fists. “I’m not even going to answer that.”

Giving him a cold look, she picked up the box of knickknacks and brushed past him. Jeremy grabbed her by the arm and spun her around.

“Don’t walk away from me when I’m talking to you,” he ground out.

Khaki’s blood pounded in her ears. Jeremy was in a room full of cops, but he didn’t seem to give a damn about manhandling her—not that any of them were likely to do anything about it. Well, she wasn’t afraid of him like they were. Jeremy had never been dumb enough to put his hands on her before, and he was never going to do it again. She’d make sure of that.

One minute he was gripping her arm, and the next her box of stuff was on the floor and she had Jeremy facedown beside it, one hand on the back of his neck and the other twisting his arm behind his back. She shouldn’t even have been able to physically overpower him like this considering he had at least a hundred pounds on her, but her newfound strength made it easy.

She squeezed with both hands, knowing she could crush him like a bug if she wanted to. And God, a big part of her wanted to. She’d enjoyed working in Lakefront before becoming involved with the jackass. She’d been a good cop, with a good reputation and a lot of friends on the force. Now, her reputation in this town was crap because of him.

Jeremy tried to push himself up and twist out of her grip, but she only squeezed harder, shoving his face into the floor and cranking down harder on his wrist until she could hear the sounds of bones about to snap. He let out a pitiful yelp of pain. It would be so easy to teach this stupid jerk a lesson.

Sensing someone beside her, she glanced up, barely repressing a growl. Aaron stood there, a mix of shock and horror on his lined and weathered face. Khaki slowly looked around the station and saw every officer looking at her the same way. They actually seemed scared of her.

She turned back to Aaron. He shook his head slowly, his eyes full of understanding and what looked like pity behind his wire-rimmed glasses.

Khaki felt her anger slowly disappear, replaced with revulsion. She hated it when she lost control like this—another side effect of that night three months ago. She let Jeremy go and stood. Jeremy was smart enough not to get up right away. If he came at her again, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to stop herself from doing some real damage.

Bending down, she collected the few possessions that represented her only remaining ties to this place and put them in the box. Her favorite coffee mug was in pieces—just like her life here. Taking a deep breath, she walked out of the station without looking back. Her mother had always told her she should never burn any bridges. Well, this bridge was totally toasted.

Next stop, Dallas.