Jace (River Pack Wolves 2)(17)

Before he could reach the door, Jace caught up to him and asked, “Do you think your searches about Noah tipped him off?”

Daniel shook his head. “I barely got through my email.”

They didn’t speak on the walk up to the Colonel’s office, which was apparently on the third floor in the far corner overlooking a manicured and spectacularly green lawn.

Daniel paused before knocking on the door. “Let me do the talking. We don’t want to give anything away if we don’t have to.”

Jace just nodded. Whatever the family dynamics were, he was certain Daniel knew them better than he did.

Daniel knocked on the door but didn’t wait for permission—he just strode in, full of sudden confidence, as if he was marching into a gladiator ring and needed to wear all of his courage in his bristled-out stance. It telegraphed his alpha-ness in a very obvious way. Daniel was younger than him by at least five years, but any shifter with military training had their alpha nature fully emerged by the time they graduated boot camp. The River pack was filled with military wolves, each of whom could easily have their own pack. It was part of what made the River pack strong, the willingness of so many alpha males to submit to the one pack alpha, his brother, Jaxson. It was also the reason why so many of the local packs came to them when they had some kind of problem with the shifter world. Or even the non-shifter world.

Daniel approached his father’s huge oak desk with his shoulders thrown back and his head held high. “You wished to see me, sir?”

Daniel’s father didn’t look up from his phone, ignoring their entrance, a move clearly meant to put Daniel in his place. The Colonel’s desk was lined with several crystalline-etched awards, each prominently displaying his name—Lt. Col. Astor Wilding. The metals decorating the Colonel’s chest were likewise prominent. Which was even more obnoxious, given the dress code throughout the building was regulation desert camouflage, as far as Jace could tell.

The Colonel looked like he was ready for a parade of one.

Jace disliked him immediately. And not just a casual dislike, either. It was a visceral sort of thing, deep in his gut—his wolf was reacting to a presence it had identified as the enemy. Not just another alpha wolf—that wouldn’t raise this kind of instinctual wariness. Somehow his wolf knew the Colonel was a destructive force, like a hurricane—inherently uncontrolled and dangerous, with the power to destroy everything in its path.

Astor Wilding finally looked up from his phone. He stayed seated. “I hear you lost your identification, Daniel.”

“Temporarily misplaced it.” Daniel stood rigidly under the patronizing smirk from his father. “I’m sure it’ll turn up soon. Just needed some temporary ID to get on base and back to work.”

Colonel Wilding eased up from his chair, slowly and casually, as if this little meeting hadn’t been called by him. He strolled around to the front of his desk with the coiled strength of a shifter, but somehow it was more predatory than Jace had seen most wolves display. He’d known a few dark wolves in his time—men who let their dark human natures corrupt the wolf inside—but even they didn’t have this sort of controlled menace built into their every move. It reminded Jace of the sinuous way that witches moved—not the sweet and innocent kind, like Olivia, but more like her coven sisters. The ones who liked to eat wolf hearts for breakfast. Or other body parts.

The Colonel trailed his fingers along his desk as if inspecting his many awards for dust and came to rest at the front. He leaned against it, regarding Daniel with a look that made Jace’s stomach clench. It boggled his mind that this was Daniel’s father—and Colonel Wilding was looking at his son as if he was an enemy he’d like to torture, piece by bloody piece.

“Would you like to know where your identification turned up, Daniel?” the Colonel asked. “You might find it amusing.”

“Yes, sir.” Daniel’s flat voice gave nothing away.

Jace felt like he was watching a chess match in operation.

“Turns out your security codes were swiped at 0600 this morning. By a young woman named Daniela Wuldinger.” Astor folded his arms across his substantially-decorated chest and waited for a response.

“Guards the gate getting a little lax, are they?” Daniel’s voice seemed uncertain, even to Jace, but his father rose to the weakness like a lion sensing the weakest member of the herd.

“Are you really going to stand there and tell me you had no idea your sister took your ID?” The laugh in the Colonel’s voice said that punishment was guaranteed, but the severity of it was riding on Daniel’s answer.