Page 36 of The Scent of Seduction

Chapter Twelve

Nicole lurched up in bed and looked over to Jaryn’s side of the bed. She could have sworn she’d just heard his voice. He wasn’t beside her, and her heart thudded as she remembered why. She closed her eyes and opened their link.

“Jaryn? Love?”

There was nothing. No calm presence. None of the warmth she normally felt from Jaryn’s presence. Something was very wrong. She knew it deep in her soul. Something had happened to her mate. She scrambled out of the bed and ran across the floor of their bedroom. Nicole yanked open the bedroom door and raced out into the living room.

“Cooper!”

The guest room door slammed against the wall and a nearly naked mountain of muscle thundered into the living room with a gun at the ready. Cooper scanned the room, obviously looking for the threat. When no immediate danger became evident, he came over to where she stood.

“What’s wrong, Nicole?”

“It’s Jaryn. Something is wrong. I can feel it.”

Cooper disappeared into the bedroom and returned a moment later with a pair of jeans pulled on, unsnapped at the hips. He was tugging on a shirt while simultaneously unfolding his comm-unit. He attached the remote to his ear and keyed in the sequence to connect him to Shaun via the secured link they’d set up in case of an emergency.

“Give me a status,” he barked.

Nicole watched Cooper, but the blasted man gave nothing away as he spoke with Jaryn’s second in command. Was her mate injured? Was he dead? Why couldn’t she feel him anymore? She paced the living room. The restlessness that had plagued her all week was back in full force. She made her way over to the glass wall that looked out onto the pack lands. She couldn’t see the moon with the heavy cloud cover that was currently spewing fat snowflakes towards the ground. Apparently, the storm they’d predicted had arrived in the couple of hours since she’d gone to bed. However, Nicole still felt the moon’s presence high in the sky. She lifted her hand and placed it on the cool glass, as if to touch the hidden orb that somehow beckoned to her. Her other hand rubbed the back of her neck, and her fingertip encountered the mysterious scar. Her eyes caught a flash of movement outside. It was big and dark, but with the snow blowing, she couldn’t really make out any detail. Maybe it was nothing, but then again…

“Cooper?”

“In a minute, Nicole.”

She saw another flash this time and knew it wasn’t the snow playing tricks on her eyes. “Cooper, there’s someone out there.”

She heard the unmistakable sound of Cooper chambering a round into his weapon. “Get away from the window!”

Jaryn had taken her out into the field recently and taught her how to shoot one of the semi-automatic pistols he kept at the house, telling her it was for her protection. To her surprise, she’d proven to be an excellent shot and not the least bit intimidated by the weapon.

“It’s one-way glass, Coop. Even a supernatural wolf can’t see me.” She kept her eyes trained on the meadow. Every outcropping of rock and blade of grass sticking up through the snow seemed magnified. “There it is again! I… I don’t know who… I’m not familiar with the animal side of everyone in the pack.”

“I said get away from the glass, Nicole.” Cooper came over to the wall and pushed Nicole behind him. He stared out the window for a moment, then took her hand and pulled her into Jaryn’s office. Nicole sat in the large chair behind Jaryn’s desk while Cooper went over to the bookshelf on the far side of the room. She stared at him as he started tapping the spines of the books. What the hell was he looking for? Did he want to do a little light reading now? Nicole’s eyes widened as the digital photo album on the third shelf came to life and Cooper placed his hand against the glowing screen. She heard a beep, then the shelf swung inwards.

“Holy shit,” she whispered.

She jumped up and came around the side of the desk, staring at the space where a wall had been moments ago.

“What are you waiting for? Get in here!”

She followed Cooper’s voice and stepped deeper into the rabbit hole than she’d ventured before. There was a glow about the space and Nicole realized it came from the wall, which wasn’t really a wall, but one huge smart board. There were also a couple of E- spheres with individual tablets running on the long built-in workbench. Cooper sat in a chair and tapped away at a laser keyboard. It took a second for Nicole to process what she was seeing. The image on the wall was all the land surrounding her and Jaryn’s home. It was as though they had a three hundred and sixty degree view around the house. There was some type of red grid flashing across the image, as though it was searching for something—or maybe someone, in this case.

“Gotcha!” Cooper whispered.

The red grid came to a standstill and took the shape of a wolf. Nicole wrapped her arms around her middle. She turned and noticed that the wall to her right held a line of weapons. Everything from a basic pistol—similar to what Jaryn had taught her to shoot—to something that looked liked it belonged on the battlefield a world away.

Oh my God Jaryn, what is all this?

“I’m going to kill that fucker,” Cooper growled.

“What? Jesus Christ, Coop! What the hell is all this? What’s going on? Who’s out there?” Cooper stood and came over to Nicole. He placed his hands on her shoulders. The simple touch helped ground her, and Nicole felt the panic that had threatened to consume her reduce to a simmer.

“Everything is going to be fine.” He pointed to the wall that now showed a close-up of a wolf with a white snout sitting on their front porch. “That’s Jeff. He probably came to pass on some more information about the men in lockup.”

“At one in the morning? In a snowstorm? As a wolf?”

Nicole wasn’t a suspicious person by nature, but something was making her bullshit meter ping like crazy.

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