Page 1 of The Wolf's Kidnapped Mate

Chapter 1 - Fred

I wasn’t sure it was such a good idea.

That wasn’t exactly my mission, to be thinking of whether or not the plan was a good idea, but it was something I kept thinking about as I set my burner phone on the simple wooden table. Plants circled the kitchen around me, from verdant jade flooding the window to several pots of cactus and about a dozen miniature pots of succulents crowding the counter.

This place was my sanctuary, my home. It needed to feel like a home if I was going to be here for a while. While Blake had made it abundantly clear I could stay in the Beaufort Creek pack for as long as I wanted, I got the sense that he was only doing it because of Virginia.

She’d been trouble from the start, that girl. But I’d done everything in my power to ensure her protection as far as documents and relocation could carry her. Now she had a home within a pack—and a mate. She’d extended kindness to me by getting me into this pack too. I packed my old life up into boxes and stored them in the small crawl space above my new cabin.

But without my old office, I felt strange, staring off at the normal-looking items lined up on the compact table near the entryway of the kitchen. Notepads and pens sat next to a set of keys and a few smaller potted plants, mostly more succulents. Beyond the doorway was a small living room, and then the adjacent rooms were my bedroom and the bathroom. Small but tidy. And weird.

Well, weird didn’t even begin to cover it. Everything in here was totally foreign to me. Tangled networks of ivy grew along the window to my left where I could see the greenhouse that was slowly coming to life. Other than the cloudy pane ofthe windows, everything was clean. Cleaning was a byproduct of boredom—and I was going for the gold with boredom at this point.

“Sharp eyes, soldier,” came a husky voice from the burner phone. “Look alive.”

“But play dead.”

Laughter followed. Then dead silence.

I sighed while leaning toward the old Nokia. Funny how old things still worked just fine even when they’d gone obsolete by all common standards. “Liam, are you sure this is a good idea?”

“What can go wrong? Tell me.”

“Our cover could get blown, for starts.” I pulled a few white strands of hair from my tattered army jacket. “Yourcover could get blown. I mean, you’re supposed to be hiding. Not completing missions for a different firm.”

He chuckled. “Danger loves me.”

“Or you have a problem.”

“You’ll be having a problem soon if you don’t complete the rest of the mission. Remember? We agreed.”

Yes, that was all very true. Wehadagreed—about three-ish weeks ago, I’d decided to change my stars for the sake of a close friend. He was an old friend, and if memory served proper, he was a protective and caring friend. His plans didn’t always make sense in the beginning, but they were typically successful.

“We did agree,” I replied. “And we owe Virginia a huge thanks for getting me into this pack.”

“Not yet, soldier.”

I sighed. “I know. Protect Kylie first. Say thanks later.”

True, it wasn’t the time for such gratitude. This was a top secret mission, and I couldn’t be handing out thank-you cards to civilians. Though it wasn’t like I was in the black ops anymore. I had technically gone rogue.

Four years had passed since I had marched out of the black ops. It’d been the same amount of time since I’d last worked with Liam. Until today, not much had drawn us together. Other than the odd Christmas card here or there, the trimmings of a succulent, or a random postcard, I didn’t keep in touch.

I closed my eyes with a sense of defeat.

Me.Ididn’t keep in touch. Liam did plenty to toss out lines of contact. I just hadn’t wanted to touch any of the subjects I knew would come up if we were to actually talk on the phone. Like we were doing now.

Except we weren’t talking. I was just staring at the ancient brick of technology like it was a new type of bomb I was tasked to deconstruct. Time wasn’t ticking on any clocks—I despised analog clocks, personally—and nobody’s life was on the line. Just me. Just my resolve wavering the longer I stared.

“How is she doing?”

I drew air through my nostrils like I’d been holding my breath. Heck, I probably had been this entire time. “Your sister is good as far as I can tell.”

“Have you spoken to her?”

“Not yet. She’s been, uh…” I scratched behind my ear. “She’s been working at the community center as an event coordinator or whatever.”

He huffed, amused. “She’s always been the better of us at organizing.”

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