Jace (River Pack Wolves 2)(30)
“Too bad I can’t stay and play.” Piper pulled back a little farther. “But like I said, not much time today. Just need to know something.”
Michael was all smiles and erection still pressing into her side “What can I help you with, hot little Piper?”
She played with his collar again. “I was wondering if there was some kind of new program the Senator was looking to start. Something having to do with shifters.”
“Why do you ask that?” He frowned a little.
“Some rumors I heard. About shifters in special programs, possibly in the military.” There, she said it. She couldn’t get too close to the truth without having him clam up tight.
“That, my hot shifter girl, is classified information. I’d need a lot more inducement to give you all the details of a program involving shifters.”
Which only confirmed the existence of one.
Piper leaned close again and gave him a soft kiss that lingered—more erotic and less slobbering dog, the way he’d kissed her. It was remarkably difficult to pull off—the only way she got through it was by closing her eyes and imagining Jace was on the receiving end.
When she stopped, Michael was breathing hard. “Damn. I am so going to enjoy fucking you.”
She had to repress the shudder. “Consider that an advance for a little more information about this program involving shifters. I promise to make it up to you later.”
He wet his lips, hesitated, and finally said, “Let’s just say the Senator has big plans for shifters. He’ll be making a public announcement soon, anyway, so I guess there’s not much harm in telling you what’s coming.”
She waited.
“You know the Senator’s long been interested in the way that the government can use the resources that shifters possess. He’s recently become more concerned about those who aren’t in our military programs or government programs, such as yourself. He’s looking at proposing a new registration system.”
She frowned. “Registration? You mean like what we already do with the police?” Any shifter—including her, especially those in the military or government service already, but really anyone who had been identified as a shifter—had to provide DNA samples to the police in both their shifter and human forms. They basically assumed that shifters were criminals just waiting to commit a crime, and the government wanted to have them on file, just in case.
“No, that’s not what I mean.” His hold on her got a little tighter. “Piper, he’s going to start advocating for registration of the general public. You know I have a soft spot for shifters…” He gave her a squeeze. “But the Senator is more concerned about the danger your kind might present.”
She pulled back. “Danger? There are shifters serving in the military. And in the government. We’re part of the US government. How can he think we’re a danger?”
Michael shrugged, but he loosened his hold and moved back to the other side of the desk. “It’s just politics, Piper. You understand.”
She understood, all too well. And she was about to burn a bridge the Senator’s office if she didn’t get her ass out of there—immediately. “I understand,” she said thickly.
She turned and strode towards Michael’s office door.
“Send me a text when you get a little free time,” Michael called after her. “I can’t wait to cash in that advance.”
She ignored him and left before she said something she would regret.
Jace had been pacing the same dozen feet in front of the window in the great room of the safehouse for the last hour, hoping Piper would just show up. He didn’t know where she had gone exactly, but he suspected she was at Senator Krepky’s office in the capitol… which could only mean she was getting in trouble again. He’d utterly failed to stop her from running off, and he’d been kicking himself every minute since. Like an idiot, he hadn’t even gotten her phone number. He literally let her run off with no way to contact her. He was cursing himself pretty spectacularly about that, too.
His brothers and the rest of the wolves who’d gone on the mission had returned to the safehouse as well, each now off on some task to try to unravel this mystery. Piper’s brother, Daniel, had gone back to the Joint Base, clearly unconvinced that anything at all was happening. But Jace and the rest of them knew—the makeshift military hospital they had discovered was just the kind of setup Agent Smith would use to experiment on shifters. Jace had no doubt there were more shifters still under his control, and he trusted Piper’s instincts on this—Noah was one of them.