Series: Shifter Ops Series by Renee Rose
Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 65371 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65371 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
There’s no way I can throw him out. He could pick me up with one hand. Or carry me in a fireman’s hold wherever he wanted to go. If I complained, he’d smack my ass. Flip me down, gag me, tie me up. He probably learned all sorts of moves and ways of restraining the enemy in the military.
Um…wow. Why am I thinking about Channing that way?
My body quivers. I stiffen to get it under control.
One of Channing’s brows quirks. He takes a thoughtful inhale of my scent.
I clear my throat and raise my chin.
“I’ll let you work, but this isn’t over.” Channing heads for the door but pauses with his hand on the frame. “Geoffrey told me to look after his family. That’s what I’m going to do.”
A scoff flies from my throat. Too little, too late. “We did just fine for over a decade. We don’t need you.”
He opens his mouth to say something.
“Close the door on your way out.”
With one last lingering look, he does. I slump against the wall. I’m shaking, sweat lining my back.
He’s gone.
That’s good.
I should feel relieved. Instead, a sense of unease crawls up my spine. I totally misplayed that. Channing is literally the only person I know who can help me and guide Geo right now. Driving him away was probably not my best move.
I may have screwed up.
Channing
She’s as beautiful as ever. Silky dark hair, dark eyes flashing fire. When I got close to Geo, I thought she was going to bare her teeth and snarl at me like a momma wolf.
Seeing them up close and in human form isn’t the same as watching them on a camera or lurking behind their house as a wolf. Geo’s bigger, taller, his baby fat melted away. His voice is deeper. He’s crossing the threshold between boy and man.
He looks so much like my brother, it’s a fist in the gut.
And Julia… Julia is everything. All I ever wanted. All I’ve thought of for these past ten years. Her oval face and slender, toned body. Her scent–more complex up close–is a revelation. All the feelings I’ve suppressed rise like a phoenix, scorching my insides with fire. There’s nothing left of me and my defenses.
It’s dangerous to get so close. But I'm used to danger. I have to bear it, for Geo’s sake. This will be the hardest mission I've ever taken on.
Julia thinks she’s won this round. I lope down the driveway, listening to her moving in her home. I hate to leave her, but I need supplies.
I have a burner phone, but I’ll have to stop to buy clothes. Time to call in every favor I have.
I've got work to do. A family to protect. To reclaim.
We did just fine for over a decade. We don’t need you.
When my brother died, I was nineteen. A man-child. Selfish and irresponsible. That’s the Channing Julia knows. She blames me for going AWOL, and I understand. She sees it as more proof of my selfishness. She doesn’t know, and I don’t know how to explain why I had to leave then.
But then, having her pissed off and thinking the worst of me is probably for the best. She’s my brother’s mate. Not mine to claim, no matter how much my wolf may want her.
Chapter Four
Julia
After the events of this morning, it’s a miracle that I make my first Zoom meeting–a contract review–on time. I moved to Flag right after law school to provide legal counsel for a non-profit on indigenous water rights protection, and I worked there for almost twelve years. They closed down last year, though, so I took a lucrative but less-fulfilling work-from-home position as private counsel for van den Berg.
When Geo’s grown, I want to return to the non-profit sector, so I can make a difference in the community. Tweaking contracts for an eccentric billionaire isn’t really life purpose stuff.
My heart is still jumping from my quarrel with Channing this morning. When Geoffrey was alive, he took on handling his brother. Channing was a mess, in trouble at school, disappearing on weekends and showing up for dinner with two fading black eyes and evidence of healing road rash on his bare back. Channing lost his shirt a lot back then, too. No dangerous activity was off limits. Fight clubs, back street bike races, climbing water towers for a midnight swim–it was a miracle Channing didn’t do jail time. He always managed to wriggle out of any consequences with nothing but that dimpled smile.
Except with his brother.
Geoffrey always saw through the charm. He would pull Channing aside after dinner. Together they’d do the dishes and put up the food while Geoffrey lectured about responsibility and good behavior.
Watching these stern but gentle lectures was how I knew Geoffrey would be a good father.
But Channing…he couldn’t seem to care about his own life or the mayhem he caused around him.