She gave him a small smile that didn’t completely piss him off… because it was the first one that seemed like it might be real. “Can’t fool you, can I, Jace?” Then the smile dropped off. “Daniel and I… well, how can I put this?”
“How about the truth?” he asked, coolly.
“We don’t talk. Ever. I’m the blackest of sheep in a pack filled with nothing but black sheep. And Daniel’s one of the straighter arrows. And yet… I need his help.”
“So a phone call wouldn’t cut it.” Strangely, he believed her. With so many wild cards in a single pack, no wonder they were scattered to the winds. He couldn’t imagine not speaking to his own brothers, but the River pack was different. Different meaning normal, not insane.
Piper nodded, and her face opened up like she was amazed he understood. This softer expression stirred something inside him—something like sympathy for being the outsider in a pack of crazy wolves—but Jace shut that down fast. If there was one thing he’d already figured out about this one, it was that she was a master at manipulation.
Piper ducked her head and said softly, “Daniel and I have a younger brother, Noah. He’s good people.” She looked up, eyes round and wide. “The best kind, in fact. And I’m not completely sure, but… I think something’s happened to him. He’s gone missing, and everything I’ve done to find him has come up zeroes. You have to believe me—coming here is my last resort.”
That had the ring of truth, but Jace still raised his eyebrows. “Missing shifter? Sounds like you’re in the right place. Daniel hasn’t said anything about a missing brother, though.”
She frowned. “Noah was stationed overseas. Army, like Daniel.”
Which made sense. Jace nodded. “Sporadic contact. No reason why family stateside would know. At least, not right away.” He sucked in a breath. Missing military shifters? Overseas? This thing just got bigger in a way he didn’t like. At all. “You could have just said that in the first place. If there’s an Army brother missing, we’re going to find him. Double that for a fellow shifter.”
She smiled, and this one was definitely real. It stirred something inside him again, both man and wolf. Maybe she wasn’t all manipulation. Of course, that only made this hot shifter female even more dangerous to him. But none of that mattered.
A missing brother-in-arms trumped everything.
He tipped his head toward the stairs. “Let’s go.”
God, what a mess.
All Piper had to do was sneak into a mountain estate and convince her brother to help her. Sneaking in was supposed to be the easy part. How many times had she infiltrated buildings, lifted documents, and planted surveillance? Come on, Piper. Granted, she wasn’t normally tackling a house full of shifters. And she should have anticipated at least one of them being a night wanderer. Not only had she been caught, but she’d been forced to spill a ton of intel to a man she didn’t even know.
An extremely hot man, but still. Sloppy work.
Piper winced internally as she quietly followed Jace River up the creaky wooden steps of his rambling estate. The man was hotness personified, climbing the stairs in nothing but pajama pants and bare feet. She’s already had the pleasure of being pressed up against his sublimely-muscled chest. It had been so long since she’d been that up-close-and-personal with a shifter… she’d forgotten how freaking gorgeous the men could be. And that kiss… sweet mercy that was hot. She’d meant to distract him for a moment so she could make her getaway, but then her wolf had insisted they stay and ride that big hunk of shifter for all he was worth.
That was unexpected.
Usually, her wolf had only a mild interest in the men that Piper enjoyed. And she’d enjoyed a lot. She figured a variety of male bed partners would make up for her vow to never take a mate—that somehow a large quantity of lovers might compensate for the lack of that one, mythical, magical shifter mate who was supposed to rock her world. It hadn’t quite worked out that way, so she shouldn’t be surprised that her wolf was all hot and heavy for the first shifter she’d kissed in years. And when Jace’s tall, broad-shouldered body had responded to her epic diversionary kiss—both she and her wolf became very aware that he wasn’t small in any dimension. Piper was certain any woman in his bed would be well satisfied.
Her wolf probably thought this meant something. Like she was reconsidering the vow—which she definitely was not. But her wolf wouldn’t shut up about it, still panting and stomping her paws and craving this shifter’s fangs in her flesh, magically binding them forever. Even now, as Piper climbed the stairs, her wolf was drooling over the man’s sculpted V-shaped back, which tapered smoothly down to his pajama pants and ended in a tight rear end that moved like muscular seduction under those thin flannels. Her wolf was dead-sure that bedding this man would be a pleasure like she’d never known.