Jace (River Pack Wolves 2)(8)

Piper pulled her elbow out of his grasp, but gently. “I know. I’m not entirely out of the Wildling pack loop. I heard about what you guys did for Cassie.” She glared at Daniel. “There are a few Wildings who still think I’m worth talking to.”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “Oh, for the love of God!” He pointed a finger at her. “You were the one who decided to leave—”

“As if you even noticed—”

“How could I not notice? You stormed out like a class five Hurricane!”

“You don’t have to deal with the almighty Colonel—”

“I deal with him all the time. Somehow, it’s never a problem.”

“No, it wouldn’t be, for you, now would it?”

“Whatever!” He threw out his hands. “It’s never you, is it, Piper? You’ve always done exactly what you—”

“Enough!” Jace’s voice cut through their squabbling like an alpha command—Piper winced, but she noted with satisfaction that Daniel did, too. And that tone… it sent a thrill through her wolf that had her lady parts a-flutter again. Piper shoved that aside. This wasn’t an alpha thing, she told herself. It was an age thing—Jace was twenty-eight, according to his bio, and Piper was only twenty-five, Daniel a mere twenty-three. Noah was just a baby at twenty-one, which was why she had looked out for him her whole life—because no one else did, and he was just a kid when their mom died.

No one deserves to grow up without a mom—one of the many reasons she’d decided never to take a mate.

Jace was staring them down, each in turn, and Piper’s insides were warring as to whether they liked that commanding look or hated it. Probably both. And she hated that she liked it, so that was mixed in there, too. Gah! She was a freaking mess with this. Piper backhanded her wolf’s hungry pant for more of Jace’s commanding touch, in words and flesh. Her wolf went off to sulk in the corner.

Jace let out a low, long breath of patience. “I do not give a fuck what your family problems are,” he finally ground out. “But I care very much about whether I’ve got Army shifters going missing. Or not. Both of you need to knock this shit off and work together to figure this out. Then you can go back to whatever passes for family relations in the Wilding pack. But not before we get solid intel on whether your brother is missing.”

Daniel’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t know my sister like I do, Jace. She lies for a living now, but she’s always been a manipulator. You can’t trust her.”

Piper cringed—partly because it was true, but mostly because she was afraid it would turn Jace against her just as he was starting to come around. He turned back to her, doubt creating shadows on his face.

“Soldiers get reassigned all the time,” Jace said, carefully. “Maybe he’s just gone dark for a mission. What makes you think he’s gone missing?”

“Because I talk to him every day.” She lifted her chin to Daniel. “We have an actual relationship, unlike this hot mess.” Back to Jace, with a lowered voice. “He wouldn’t just go dark with no warning. I swear. Something is wrong.” That much was the God’s honest truth. She prayed he would hear it in her voice.

Jace frowned and nodded. “All right.” He took a breath. “In the morning, we’ll discuss this with my brothers and make a game plan—”

“Morning?” Piper’s voice hiked up. “Why do you think I’m here in the middle of the night? We need to get on this, like yesterday!” She tried to bring her voice back down to reasonable. “Daniel has access to the Joint Base. He’s got clearance. I can’t even get on site, but he could get in there anytime and access their records, see what’s happened—”

Daniel’s mouth fell open. “You want me to hack the Joint Base records?” He acted as if she’d asked him to streak naked across the base. Actually, no—he would have laughed at that. This was worse. Much worse. This was their father’s territory, and she was asking him to piss all over it.

“Daniel’s right,” Jace said, his voice calm. “You can’t go blustering into—”

“Blustering?” She completely failed to keep her voice down. “I could do it with my hands tied behind my back. Even this blundering amateur—”

Daniel growled at her. “I’m not risking my security clearance for this!”

“It’s a bad idea, Piper,” Jace said, but his voice was strained again. “We know from when Cassie was taken that they are government types involved in this, but we don’t know how far it goes. Let me and my brothers handle this from the outside, so we don’t tip them off.”