Page 10 of The Scent of Seduction

Jaryn couldn’t help the smile from spreading across his face even further. It was one of his greatest perverse pleasures to rile up Shaun. That, and thoughts of his dinner with Nicole last night, had immensely lightened his mood from a few moments ago at the prospect of tackling the accounting.

“Her name is Nicole Holland, and I met her yesterday at the bank when I was there to make the deposit from the Anderson project.”

Shaun came into the room and sat in the chair across the desk from Jaryn. “So that’s why I couldn’t reach you for the pack run? Everyone was looking for you. Is she a shifter?”

“No, Nicole is human. Well, mostly human. Sorry about bailing on the pack run. I meant to message you, but one thing led to another and the day got away from me. Then it was time to meet Nicole for our date, and quite frankly, I forgot about everything else.”

“What do you mean, mostly human? It’s kind of an either-or situation.”

“She swears up and down that she’s one hundred percent human, but her body responded to mine as if it recognized her mate, and I can sense wolf in her somewhere. It’s faint, but definitely present.”

“Maybe she had a wolf shifter in her family several generations removed or something? So what happened?”

“We shared a very nice dinner at Cureso’s.”

“Did you claim her?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Jaryn stood and started pacing. “It’s complicated.”

Shaun scoffed. “No, it’s not. If you’re lucky enough to find your mate, then you claim them. You’ve waited your whole life to find your mate. Why would you procrastinate on something like that?”

“How about because I only met her yesterday? I am not a slave to my wolf. And she’s more than a prize I won in the genetic lottery. When I claim my mate, I want us to be more to each other than strangers giving into our baser instincts.” Jaryn thought about Nicole’s experience at the hands of Broyles. His eyesight wolfed out.

Shaun stiffened in the chair. “What’s wrong?”

“There is something I haven’t told you yet.”

“Oh fuck, don’t tell me she’s married. Damn, I hate it when that happens. Not that it occurs often, but it just fucks up the lives of everyone involved.”

“She’s not married.”

“A lesbian? No, that wouldn’t make sense. The fates wouldn’t destine a wolf to mate with another who didn’t share the same sexuality.”

Jaryn raised an eyebrow and stared at Shaun. “May I remind you of Eric?”

Shaun waved his hand. “That’s different. Eric had locked himself so deep in the closet even he couldn’t find the key. Eric and Carl's destiny for each other was evident from the day they met. It was his own fault that the stubborn jackass wouldn’t admit it.”

Jaryn conceded the point. Eric had been more than a little shocked when he’d identified Carl as his mate. Jaryn really had never understood what had made Eric keep his sexuality so deeply buried. Then again, Eric was quite a bit older than Jaryn. The wolf had grown up in a different time—a time when living openly as a gay man could have serious repercussions.

It had taken a while, but the two were now deeply in love with each other, and Jaryn smiled every time he saw them laughing and holding hands together. At pack meetings, the two frequently snuggled together on a couch. Jaryn hoped that Eric and Carl had many happy years together before them.

“So what’s the problem?” Shaun asked.

Shaun’s voice brought Jaryn back to the problems of the present. “She had a less than pleasant experience with another shifter where she came from. She’s running from a dangerous situation with one wolf, and suddenly is told that she’s the mate of another. It’s made her somewhat resistant.”

Shaun frowned. “What do you mean, running?”

“When we met, I immediately scented her anxiety and came to find out…” Jaryn took a deep breath and turned to face his Beta. “For the past year and a half, a wolf has held her prisoner in the Northwoods. I suspect he’s the person we’ve been searching for.”

“Are you shitting me?” Shaun exclaimed.

“According to Nicole, this wolf—Broyles—has been ‘recruiting’ shifters and humans alike for a long time. He runs an isolated compound, and I suspect there may be more to his little fiefdom than simply building a pack by whatever means necessary.” He thought of the scar on the back of Nicole’s neck and clenched his hands.

Shaun stood so quickly that the chair screeched across the floor. “That motherfucker! We have to go to the council. We need more information. Make Nicole tell you everything she knows.”

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