Brandi: Nano Wolves 2

Chapter 1

1

Brandi slid gently out of bed, careful not to disturb the male still sleeping quietly in it. She gathered up her jeans and slipped them on, sighing when they barely fastened. Gareth’s cooking had been typical high-fat, mostly-protein guy fare. During her time with him, she had packed on a few extra pounds that not even their vigorous nighttime activities had kept off her butt.

Good thing she was leaving before the meager clothing supply she had purchased no longer fit. Her fake death had temporarily suspended her access to her normal accounts. She couldn’t afford to spend any more of the emergency rations her field handler had wired to Anchorage for her. Money was not something she craved in large quantities, but she appreciated the comfort it could buy at times.

She pulled on the b*a she barely needed before covering it with a faded t-shirt she had fished out of the donation tub in Matt’s office. She would top the outfit off shortly with a new black leather jacket. Gareth had insisted she get the heavier coat to match the short, dark dyed hair he still professed to hate.

Lastly, she picked up her new Colt 911, acknowledging its welcome weight in her hand. Along with wiring her money, her handler had also express shipped a g*n to a Federal Firearms License Holder near the Anchorage bank that had received her funds.

Both the money and the weapon had arrived five days ago, along with a plane ticket back to Virginia, a new burner cell phone, and a shiny new Federal Agent ID. A replacement driver’s license and passport had also been included to round out her return to reality.

She felt a twinge of guilt thinking about the woman listed on all the various pieces of her identification. Each was proof to the world that Agent Brandi Jenkins had returned to the land of the living. She found her reluctance to use them ironic for several reasons.

For one, this was not the first time in her agent career that her death had been faked. Secondly, unlike the other undercover incident, this time she’d actually enjoyed being dead. All the rest of the reasons could be attributed to the man she’d left warming the bed she’d crawled out of this morning.

Since weapon holsters had never worked for her, Brandi hadn’t wasted her scarce resources buying one. She checked to make sure the g*n’s safety was on before tucking the loaded weapon into the back of her snug-fitting jeans.

Finally, she turned to study the sleeping man in the bed. One of Gareth’s silvered temples gleamed in the early morning light. Even asleep he looked confident and sure of himself, which he nearly always was around her. Whatever Gareth had done when he’d been younger, it had tightened his jaw and put a stubborn glint in his eyes, especially when things didn’t go his way. Rather than putting her off, his grounded personality drew her in and tempted her to let him try and ground her, too.

In sleep, Gareth’s body was sprawled over most of his king-sized bed. Though he wasn’t a large man in girth, he still took up a lot of space. Maybe it was because every inch of him was honed, hard muscle and he knew exactly how to use it to his best advantage. His toned and taut form was admirable, and very appealing to her werewolf side, though she’d never actually told him. Compliments and revelations would have only complicated today further.

Brandi walked to the bed, looked down, and felt regret grab her by the throat harder than it had when she’d made her phone call earlier in the week. It was a bad, bad idea to feel this way about a temporary lover, but she couldn’t kid herself about not liking Gareth. Because of her uncharacteristically high regard, she owed the man a real goodbye, not the typical sneak-away she did to most of her bed partners when the time came to exit their life.

Reaching out her hand, she shook Gareth awake, stepping back in case he woke up reactionary. “Gareth… it’s time for me to go.”

Gareth groaned and pried one eye open. “Go? Does that mean last night didn’t change your mind? What kind of s****l bliss does it take to content you, woman?”

Despite how sexist Gareth sounded, Brandi chuckled at his complaints. He was protective and argumentative and demanding. But it was nothing she couldn’t handle… and she still really liked him.

She lowered herself to the edge of the bed, hip checking him until he moved his toned a*s over enough to make a space for her. “Great s*x doesn’t have that effect on me. Sorry, Stud. I’m shipping out today.”

“Damn it. I don’t want you to go.” Gareth shifted a little more to let her lean in his direction. “I think you should call your boss back and tell him you’ve changed your mind.”

Brandi smiled. She reached out a hand and ran it over his face. “We had a good run, didn’t we? You saw me through my transition, and I’ll always be grateful for that. But I have to go back to where I started this adventure. I need to see if I can get to the bottom of it.”

Gareth lifted his hand and cupped her breast, enjoying the feel of her instantly peaked n****e through her shirt. Her reliable reaction to his touch meant she was already his as far as their wolves were concerned, but persuading her human side of that fact was not going to happen in the next ten minutes.

“I’d like to get to the bottom of you again,” he whispered.

Her companionable snort of laughter over his boob grab was worth suffering the uncomfortable glare she also sent his way. Just once he’d like to touch the prickly woman and know for certain she’d welcome it. They’d had a lot of s*x over the last couple of months, but never once really made love to each other. It had taken him most of that time just to get Brandi to sleep an entire night in his bed.

And now she was leaving him. How the hell was he supposed to just let her walk out his door? Especially since he knew exactly what she was heading back to deal with? Gareth cursed himself and life in general. It didn’t change things, but it gave the frustration writhing inside him a voice.

“You’ll come back to see Ariel and Heidi, right?”

Brandi nodded. She was pretty sure she would. Those women were part of her now in a way she didn’t really understand, but had finally stopped trying to. Wherever those women chose to live was going to be a place she’d have to return to now and again. They were like family… an intimacy to other people she was not used to having, but had decided she didn’t want to give up.

Gareth’s voice was sleepy rough as he sighed, and at the same time, soothing to her soul. Her fingertips travelled over his bristled jaw to his talented lips.

“Maybe I’ll even come back to see you, Gareth. I’ve never done that with a man before, but I guess there’s always a first time.”

Gareth grabbed her wrist and used it to lever his body upright until he could wrap his arms around her. For once, Brandi let him without resisting. He sighed as he hugged her close. “Damn it. It took you long enough to admit you liked me.”

Brandi chuckled into Gareth’s shoulder. “Is that your jaded way of saying you actually want me to come back and see you?”

Gareth pulled back and put a hand into her hair, yanking softly to get her gaze to meet his. “Do you want me to admit how tempted I am to tie you to the bed and keep you here with me forever?”

“Gareth… don’t.”

“I know. You asked me not to go there, but you know I don’t want other women anymore. I just want you. And I know you want me back, so spare me the friendly lies you’ve told the other guys when you left them. I know how it is between us… and it could be better.”

Brandi laughed as she hugged him tight. “What woman wouldn’t want you? Your between-the-sheets talents are immense and you’re a decent guy outside of bed. But I still have to go. I have things to do. We’ve talked about this many times.”

Gareth snorted and tugged harder on her hair. She let him show his dominance and didn’t fight his efforts. It crossed his mind to capitalize on her concession and show her just how serious he was about keeping her. His fangs tingled in his mouth just at the thought.

He refused to believe Brandi was leaving him for good, even though no amount of wolf mating rightness was going to change the woman’s mind about what she felt was her duty. Hadn’t he suffered the same guilt enough to know?

Brandi didn’t love him yet. Or at least she had herself convinced she didn’t. It was the primary reason he’d made his phone calls within hours of hers.

“Come back to me,” he ordered softly. “I don’t want this to be over between us.”

Brandi leaned in to cover Gareth’s mouth with hers, surprising both of them with the spontaneous action and the fierceness of it. She rarely initiated intimacy, but in that moment, it seemed the thing to do. If this morning was the last time she saw Gareth, she wanted him to know he would always be special to her. She broke their kiss and pulled back to look at his face one final time.

“You’re one of the few men I’ve ever liked in my life. Maybe I will come back to see you, but don’t wait for me. I’m not one of those women who make promises because I know I can’t keep them. You do what you have to do. I’ll be doing the same. We’ll see how it goes when our paths cross again.”

Gareth dropped his hands and turned her loose. After losing two other important females in his life, he wasn’t someone who made promises either. Brandi’s connection to him was his greatest quandary… and his Achilles heel as it was turning out.

“Go then,” he said roughly. “Take care of yourself.”

Her mouth on his a final time had him growling soft and low when she broke off the kiss. Gareth stayed in bed as Brandi rose and walked briskly out of his bedroom, his house, and his life. The moment his front door closed behind her attractive, tough-as-nails a*s, he was calling himself all kinds of a fool for not telling her everything he’d been holding back.