Rebecca Royce: Wolf Reborn

She stood over him, her hair a shade darker and dripping wet. Goosebumps covered her body, with her hands on her hips. She breathed hard and he couldn't help but openly admire the way her breasts, small and perfectly sculpted, moved with each inhalation. He wanted to reach up and grab them. Just the imagining of the act caused him to grow hard. What the hell was the matter with him?

Take a sniff. She's our mate .

Oh hell. Now not only was the most stunning shifter he'd ever seen an assassin sent to kill him, but she was his mate, too. Why was he surprised? His whole life was weird.

"What the hell were you doing?" Her voice was high pitched and slightly scratchy. "Were you trying to kill yourself? Who jumps over that cliff?" She pointed upwards to the top of the falls. He didn't need to follow her motion. He knew exactly where he'd jumped from.

"I was trying to escape. But if I'd know it was you, sweetheart, perhaps I would have let you catch me."

She shook her head. "Escape me? I was sitting down here minding my own damn business when I saw you shift and come over the cliff."

He narrowed his eyes. "You weren't the one chasing me?"

She looked up at the top of the cliffs again, her eyes wide, startled. "Someone is chasing you? Who the hell are you anyway? I know all the shifters here but I've never seen you before."

She took two steps backwards and he was suddenly amused by her new found self-preservation instincts.

He put out a hand and hoped to stop her retreat. "I'm naked, unarmed, and two minutes ago I was near death. I'm no threat to you, sweetheart."

Her eyes flared and he suspected it was at the reuse of the nickname. "I'll ask again and then I'll howl so loud I'll have the entire Westervelt wolf pack down here to descend on your worthless head."

He raised an eyebrow. "Before I tell you my name, do me a favor and just confirm something for me. You were not chasing me, shooting at me, and miss-hitting me for the last twenty minutes?"

She sniffed the air in front of her. "No and there is no one out here but you and me."

"He's masking his scent." He looked down on the ground and rubbed his burnt cheek as it started to throb. "My name is Theo Kane and please do call the pack. I need to tell my brother Tristan about some strange occurrences on his island."

She laughed out loud. "I know the entire Kane family and there is no Theo Kane. Try again."

"One year ago, I asked them to forget me. You must have shown up after that."

"I met the pack a year ago but I didn't make it here until six months ago. I'm going to check all this before I believe you. I run security here."

"You do?" He lifted his eyebrows. "Then you took over my old job. You've got a man leaving the island from a different port every night in a canoe. He has no smell. The same goes for whoever was chasing me moments earlier. Thank you for saving my life." He pulled her to him and she let out a shocked squeal. Unable to stop himself, he pulled her to his lips and kissed her gently. "As I'm sure your wolf has been telling you for the last few minutes, I am your mate--every gruesome ounce of the monstrosity you see belongs to you."

He closed his eyes, shocked when she didn't struggle in his arms. "I don't even know your name." She opened her mouth to speak and he covered it with his hand. "It's better if I don't. I'm like a nightmare come to life. Save yourself. Stay away from me."

Not sure where he found the energy, he shifted into his wolf form and ran. When he'd reached a safe distance, he allowed himself to acknowledge that he didn't run from whoever tried to kill him but rather from the freckled young woman who had dragged him from the water, felt soft beneath his lips, tasted of marshmallows, and smelled so close to the coming spring she could have been Mother Nature herself.

Faith Anderson stormed into the Institute. She was wet, cold, and naked thanks to the shift she had made, which had destroyed her clothes. Months ago, the last fact would have bothered her but these days she'd gotten so used to being nude, to seeing everyone else in nothing but the skin they were born in, that she really didn't care one hoot who saw her. But the cold and wet bothered her. Not to mention the burn in her belly stemming from a mass conspiracy to keep a very important fact from her.

There was another Kane on the island and apparently he was her mate. Once again she was frustrated beyond belief that she didn't know more about her home and the shifters who lived on it. If only she could bring back the memories she'd suppressed as a child, she wouldn't feel so constantly at a disadvantage. Then she would know that there were six Kane brothers, not five, which everyone else knew and no one had bothered to tell her. Tristan was their Alpha and he had five ruling brothers who were, essentially, princes of the pack. Michael, Gabriel, Tristan, Theo, Azriel and Rex, also known as Randolph, controlled the goings-on at Westervelt tighter than a military sergeant.

Well, if they were the Royal Six instead of the Royal Five that was fine with her. They were all royal pains for not having told her about Theo and that he could be her mate.

Not that any of the other wolves would have known about the mate part but, damn it, they'd made her head of security because of her background in investigation and because she could sniff out conspiracy anywhere she found it. Wouldn't it have been, say, slightly important to tell her there was an all but feral wolf running about Westervelt who just happened to be part of the Royal family? Come to think of it, why had he been missing to begin with?

The doors slammed behind her with the sheer force she used to open them and she strode into the back offices. Summer Murphy looked up from behind the desk where she sat. The other woman held a phone to her ear, her face full of questions. Faith couldn't blame her. Most of the time she managed not to create a scene everywhere she went. But today they'd all have to deal with cold, wet, and irritated and all that entailed.

Everything okay? Summer's voice in her head. When had she personally gotten used to telecommunication? Whatever. She liked it.

"I need Tristan, Ashlee, Cullen, and whoever else you think needs to be present to tell me about Theo Kane."

To her credit, Summer paled a moment before she looked sheepish. "I'm sorry, Senator, I'm going to have to call you back. We've just had a minor development that requires my attention." She made some sort of accepting sound and hung up. Standing up, her pregnant belly stuck out almost the distance from the chair to the desk.

Faith sighed. "Sorry, Summer, I didn't mean to yell."

Summer's gaze moved up and down her wet body. "From the looks of things, I'd say you have a story. Should I call the whole pack?"

Did she need the whole pack? Well, if Theo were to be believed then they had a serious breach of security in front of them which meant they most certainly did need the whole pack. But he'd insisted he was being chased and she would have scented that and hadn't smelled a pursuer. So maybe he wasn't being entirely truthful.

"Essentials first. Let Tristan decide if we need everyone."

Summer nodded and picked up the phone. Technically, they didn't need modern conveniences like that, but they had three new members of the pack who had just joined and found mates. Like Faith had been, they weren't always all that good at interpreting messages sent from brainwave to brainwave. Sometimes things went awry, so Tristan had adopted a rule that in certain circumstances they would only use phone calls.

This was one of those times.

Summer sighed. "It's going to be a few minutes. Most of the pack, and everyone who needs to be here, is on the other island doing the standard sniffing out of human guests to find long lost pack members."