The Alpha’s Tempting Mate

Kylie

The food and the coffee help. I spend the morning breaking into the FBI’s system to get all their files on known hackers. The malware used to infect SeCure wasn’t the most sophisticated thing I’ve ever seen. Which is good-it enabled Jackson to contain the threat. The downside is I have to look for the suspects in a much larger pool.

Jackson messages me to say that he hasn’t hired a private investigator because he doesn’t trust anyone not to fuck with me, but he’s working on a plan.

By noon, I’m nauseous from lack of sleep, but now I’m so wound up from the coffee and adrenaline, I doubt I’ll be able to rest. I get up to stretch my legs and wander through the upstairs rooms. I haven’t heard Sam-my guess is that his room is somewhere downstairs.

I’m drawn to search Jackson’s room. Hackers are by nature stalkers, and I’m dying to know more about my crush.

I tap lightly at a closed door and push it open. Bingo.

The large master suite must belong to Jackson. I pick up his scent, and it calms my over-wired system immediately. I’ve always had an overdeveloped sense of smell. My dad used to tease me about it.

Like the rest of the house, the room is elegant but simple. There isn’t much to look at, but I wander around, peering on the dresser top at his loose change, checking the wastepaper basket for anything interesting, but there’s nothing.

“What are you doing?”

I gasp and jump, my overtaxed system nearly sending me into cardiac arrest. “Jesus, Sam. You scared me.”

His eyes narrow. He doesn’t look like the kind of guy to tangle with. He may be lean and wiry, but the tattoos decorate hard muscles, and the piercings give him a don’t-fuck-with-me vibe. I remember Jackson had to give him the directive, don’t hurt her. Kinda like his wolf-dog, the violence is there, right below the surface.

I go for the truth. “I’m snooping. Trying to understand Jackson better.”

Sam gives a quick shake of his head. “His secrets aren’t for you to unwrap, Catgirl.”

I like that he calls me Catgirl. The name still has a power to it, evokes the invincible teen I once was. Before.

I lean a hip against the dresser, holding my ground. “So there are secrets?”

Sam folds his arms across his chest and leans against the doorframe. “Everyone has secrets.”

I try a different tack. “I never wanted to hurt him. I’m here to fix things, not make them worse.”

“Your being here definitely makes things worse.”

Now it’s my turn to narrow my eyes. “What’s your problem with me?”

“Look, I can tell there’s something special about you. Jackson wouldn’t be interested, otherwise. But he can’t be with you-it’s not going to work. And your being in this house is going to be a problem for him.”

I turn his words over in my head, but they don’t make sense. The only thing I can come up with is that he and Jackson are a couple and he’s warning me off.

“Is he gay?”

Sam’s brows twist in puzzlement. “No. What makes you think that?”

“I was just trying to figure out if you and he-”

Sam laughs. “No. I told you, he’s my brother.”

Relief floods me. Down, girl. He’s still not yours. “How did you meet?”

Sam’s face sags and, for a moment, he looks thirty years older, weary from whatever happened in his young life. “I was wandering in the Santa Cruz mountains, lost, and he found me.”

“What were you doing in the mountains?” I picture a lost Boy Scout, but it doesn’t fit.

“I was a runaway. Figured I could survive there on my own. But I was starving. Half-crazy-I’d been alone so long.”

“How long?”

He shrugs. “I don’t know. A few months, maybe. Jackson saw me, and I ran. He chased me down. I fought him. I didn’t want to return to civilization, but he forced me to come back with him. Promised not to tell anyone he’d found me.”

A rush of sympathy floods my chest. Sam’s been in hiding, like me. Someone out there wants something from him. An abusive family, probably. He’s right. We all have secrets.

“How long ago was that?”

“Seven years. I was fourteen.”

“I’m glad he found you. And I won’t tell anyone.”

“I’m not worried anymore,” he says. “But, thanks.” A reluctant smile tugs at his lips, and he steps toward me, holding out his fist. I bump it and follow him out of the room, glad to have unearthed another small piece of the Jackson puzzle.

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Jackson

When I get home, I find Kylie crashed out on the sofa, her open laptop tilted against her chest.

Sam’s in the kitchen, eating a stack of ten hamburgers. I pick one up and take a bite. “How long has she been like that?”

“Couple hours,” Sam says with his mouth full. “I found her snooping in your bedroom. She said she wanted to know your secrets.”

A niggling sense of worry tickles me. What if I’m still being played by this girl? But that didn’t make sense-what more could she want or need? She’d already done enough damage to bring me down.

No, hackers have boundary issues. They get an inflated sense of power. They can spy on anyone and anything. Read emails, cancel credit cards. Check high school grades. Kylie’s snooping around my room was an extension of that. She hasn’t been able to hack me personally because there’s nothing to find. She’s not the only one who knows how to create or erase an identity.

“What’s your plan with her? You can’t keep her here forever.”

I stab my fingers through my hair. “I don’t know,” I answer honestly.

“You can’t. Keep her here,” Sam repeats.

“Why the fuck not?” I snap, even though I know he’s right.

He raises his brows. “You planning to mate her?”

I scowl. We both know that’s not possible. A werewolf bite to a human could kill her. Would cause serious scarring and damage, at the least. And that’s assuming Kylie’s willing. Which would mean telling her-a clear violation of pack rules. And if I tell her and we don’t mate, she’ll have to be eliminated. Pack rules. Or have her mind erased by a vampire. I can’t risk either of those things happening to her.

So, yeah. Sam’s right. I can’t keep her here.

But I sure as fuck can’t let her go, either.

“Just until this blows over,” I promise.

Sam’s pursed lips tell me he knows it’s a lie. “You know what happens to a wolf who ignores his mating instinct?”

Nausea twists in the pit of my stomach. Moon sickness. “That’s not what’s happening here. She can’t be my fated mate-she’s human.”

Sam shrugs. “I realize that, but you’re acting like a male ready to mark. And the moon is full tomorrow.”

“I have the situation under control.” And pigs fly.

Sam polishes off his fifth hamburger and shoves the plate of remaining burgers my way. “I’ll see you. I’m working at the club tonight.” He sometimes works as a bouncer at Eclipse, Garrett’s nightclub.

Don’t rush home.

My wolf wants Kylie alone. Which is probably the worst idea ever.