Denise’s eyes flitted nervously from werewolf to werewolf.

When Jessup had said, ‘Get the chief,’ she’d assumed the man would come out to the Averys, but that wasn’t how things worked apparently.

She’d been hustled into an SUV and driven to yet another cabin in the woods. Only this one was more like a log mansion.

Now she was sitting at the wide oak table at wolf central, also known as Douglas Maitland’s house.

It was a smaller group than the crowd of near-rabid wolves she’d left at Lunar Springs. Jessup and Levi were here, in addition to a few other members of the Avery clan.

The chief’s daughter was also in attendance. She was an intimidatingly beautiful woman named Mara.

“Yogi,” Mara called, holding out her hand.

Denise ignored the little pang in her chest when Yogi and Mara hugged warmly. The two had a whispered conversation, their familiarity obvious. How close were they? Was Yogi interested in the gorgeous lady wolf?

Of course he is, stupid. Look at her.

Yogi had only competed in the fortitudo to help her out. She’d made it clear she didn’t want to be thrown with a stranger, so he’d raced to spare her that. It was the sort of thing the stupidly noble did.

Except he’d almost killed himself to win. She peeked at Yogi and Mara from underneath her lashes. He wouldn’t have done that if he was interested in someone else, would he?

Mara’s almost-luminescent green eyes turned to her and Denise looked away.

Hoo-daddy. Despite being model sleek, Mara looked like she could take Levi and Gus with one hand tied behind her back. Denise had never met a more physically intimidating woman.

If only she’d found someone like that for her team, then she could have left Max at home. Snorting, Denise transferred her attention to Mara’s even more intimidating father.

And I didn’t think they made them in sizes bigger than Yogi. Good thing she hadn’t put money on that, because Douglas Maitland, the chief, was a stunning mountain of a man. She couldn’t even tell how tall he was because it hurt her neck to look all the way up at his face.

Feeling like Gimli the dwarf surrounded by elves on steroids, she hunched down at the table. But as two final stragglers trudged into the room, Douglas turned to her.

“Explain how this happened.”

Even though she had been waiting for it, the order caught her off guard. Like a deer in headlights, Denise froze as every eye fixed on her. After a few blinks, she opened her mouth, but nothing came out. It was as if her tongue was suddenly too big for her mouth.

Why the hell do they all have to be so damn big? She hadn’t experienced stage fright like this since her high school debate against the nuns from St. Agnes.

“It’s my fault,” Yogi said, coming to stand at her side.

He put a hand on her shoulder, and she quickly reached up to take hold of his fingers, a move she could have sworn made Mara smile. The brief grin was gone too quickly for Denise to be sure.

“I didn’t think to ask her where she found Oliver,” Yogi continued. “I assumed she’d found him in the woods, away from the body of his mother. But I was wrong.”

He turned to her. “This is my fault. If I’d given you a chance to explain, we might not be in this mess now.”

Denise squirmed, a little uncomfortable at having him take the blame. If she’d been thinking clearly, she would have realized they would be concerned about Oliver having exposed himself before she found him. It just hadn’t occurred to her.

If it had, she’d have tried to use the knowledge as a bargaining chip from the start…

She wasn’t tempted to do it now. Douglas was way too scary for those kind of hardline negotiation tactics. Plus, this mess had given her a chance to get to know Yogi.

“I’m not sure how big of a mess it is—I mean, I don’t know if the Reliance people knew what he was.”

Douglas stared at her. “This Reliance Research is in Wyoming?”

She nodded.

“And what were you doing there?”

“I was liberating some chimpanzees with my team. We had—”

“Why?” one of the hulking males standing against the wall asked.

“Why what?”

“Why were you saving monkeys?”

Denise met his eyes, but all she saw was genuine curiosity. “That’s what I do. Me and my team. We rescue animals from testing facilities.”

“Yeah, but why?”

No one had ever asked her that before. After floundering for an explanation for a minute, she decided to answer honestly. “Well…animals are generally nicer than people. To me, anyway. They deserve protection too. I know it’s not a popular opinion.”

“Why do you say that?” Douglas asked, his arms crossed.

“Well, most folks think I should be spending my time and money helping other people, but—”

Douglas huffed. “Denise, this is the last group that’s going to judge you for preferring animals to people.”

A few people laughed, but the chief held up a hand and asked her to continue describing that night. “Tell me about your team.”

“Three of us went into Reliance, but more were waiting to transfer the chimps to a nature preserve I own in Africa. Most of the team is there now, but the rest went home. We always split up after a job for weeks, sometimes months. Communication is discouraged in case one of us has picked up surveillance. We had already gotten the monkeys out when I saw Oliver in a cage.”

Douglas’ brow rose at the mention of her owning a nature preserve, but he let it pass. “Oliver was in cub form, correct?”

“Yes. And before you ask, I don’t know if they saw him change. We broke in after midnight. Only the security guards were there.”

Douglas tilted his head slightly. “What about cameras? Did they have any on him?”

She looked past him, trying to remember if there had been one she’d missed. “I don’t think so, but it was dark and I didn’t turn on the lights. The parking lot had one camera at the main gate, but we didn’t go in that way, so I don’t think it got us. I didn’t see any others. When we go in, most of our faces are covered so they can’t ID us even if we stumble onto a camera.”

“You told Yogi this facility wasn’t supposed to house primates. How did you learn that?”

Denise fiddled with a piece of lint. “Government records. There are lots of hoops for labs that do vertebrate research,” she explained. “The higher the animal is on the evolutionary ladder, the more paperwork is required. We compare that to a company’s purchasing records. I have a guy who hacks the biomedical supply companies for me. I get an alert when there are too many unexplained purchases.”

She leaned forward to rest her weight on her forearms. “Reliance Research isn’t licensed for anything bigger than a rat, but they were buying supplies no rodent would need. Big cages for one, and antibiotics and other drugs specific to primates. Not to mention the food they were ordering. Very little of it was rat chow.”

Douglas nodded as if that made sense. “We need to go back in and make sure they don’t have any evidence of Oliver’s true nature.”

A low rumble of agreement swept across the room.

“Should we call Connell and Logan?” someone asked.

“They’re in the middle of something,” Douglas answered. “This is on us, but we can handle a single research facility without an Elemental’s help.”

Denise caught Yogi’s eye. “A what?” she mouthed.

“I’ll tell you later,” he murmured before patting her hand and standing up. “Chief, I want to volunteer to take care of this. It’s my fault we didn’t know about it sooner.”

Douglas dismissed that with a motion of his hand. “If you hadn’t won Denise’s trust, she might not have confided in us at all.”

Denise blushed. The chief’s tone implied there was more between them than was actually there.

Well, maybe there was.

“All things considered, we haven’t lost too much time,” Douglas told him. “If any harm was done, it happened before you got involved. What matters now is determining the extent of the damage, if any.”

Several wolves nodded in approval, and she noticed Yogi’s shoulders drop a fraction as if he had been relieved of some burden.

“I still want to be the one to go,” Yogi insisted.

“First, we have to see what we’re up against. After the theft of so many valuable research animals, it’s likely Reliance will have increased its security measures. And if they’re aware Oliver is a werewolf, the place could very well be a fortress by now.”

It was worse than that. Denise hated to be the one to point it out, but she had to. “If they do have evidence of your kind, it’s also possible that striking this one facility is not going to help.”

“Of course it will help,” Jessup growled. “We can burn this place to the ground.”

“That would wipe all evidence of us, if it’s there,” another wolf added in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Sounds like a suitable place to start,” a man on the left chimed in.

Mara held up her hands. “Let’s not go off half-cocked. We need to be strategic about this.”

She gestured at Denise. “What Denise was about to point out is that Reliance might have passed on whatever information it had on Oliver already.”

Denise nodded quickly. “Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. Reliance is a small facility, but they’re owned by a shell corporation. My guy tried to follow the breadcrumbs up the chain—to put a name to the parent company. However, it got too convoluted and he lost the thread. Given that setup, chances are good that a big conglomerate now has proof werewolves exist.”

They hated hearing that. One or two men even growled.

Douglas waved at them to shut up. “Calm down, everyone. If the worst has occurred, we’ll deal with it. It wouldn’t be the first time the powers that be have discovered our existence.”

Denise’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head. “Like the government? What happened?”

Mara drummed her fingers on the table. “Let’s just say certain levels of the military are aware of us. It’s an old, but well-kept, secret, one that’s been passed down certain echelons of power.”

Yogi nodded, rubbing Denise’s back absently. “Things were pretty dicey for a while. A long time ago, we cut a deal. Weres make excellent soldiers—the best in the world. If they treat us with respect, that is.”

“And if they piss us off, we make the worst enemies,” Levi added.

“Occasionally—usually when a new administration comes into power—some smartass will want to use us in ways we find…objectionable. They find out this a bad idea fairly quickly,” Douglas finished before returning to the current problem.

“I’m going to call in some outside help on this one,” he said. “Our IT people are excellent for most purposes, but we have an unknown entity at play here and we’re going to want the best hacker we can get our hands on. One we can trust.”

Mara scowled. “You don’t mean who I think you mean, right?”

The chief’s eyes twinkled. “He’s not one of us, but he’s a known quantity, just the contradiction we need—a dependable mercenary.”

“Mercenary being the operative word here.” Mara’s lack of enthusiasm was clear. “He’ll charge us the earth and will insist on leading the op, not just being a part of it.”

“That’s not necessarily a terrible thing,” Douglas pointed out. “He has the experience to organize this. And, like a true mercenary, once we pay him, he won’t ask any questions.”

“Who are you talking about?” Denise asked.

Mara’s mouth thinned. “Another human. A total butthead.”

“Mara.” The chief sounded more amused than angry.

“No offense,” Mara said to Denise. “I don’t mean all humans are buttheads. This one’s a prize, though.”

Denise smiled. “No offense taken. What’s this butthead’s name?”

Yogi laughed. “She’s talking about Jack. Jack Buchanan.”