Rogue Alpha: Wolf Shifter Romance (Wild Lake Wolves Book 1) Read online

  He wagged his eyebrows up and down. I rolled my eyes at him and crossed my arms in front of me. Then I shifted in my seat to stare straight ahead. We rode in silence the rest of the way. We made the steep turn up to the Great Lakes University Center for Wildlife Conservation. A fancy name for a row of five rustic log cabins. Only two had electricity by way of a portable generator and running water. One, we used as a mess hall and meeting area. The other was our lab. As the only woman in the group this summer, I got the luxury of being the only one out here besides Flood with a cabin to myself. Cameron shared his cabin with six students from M.S.U. out here working a different C.W.D. based grant. They kept to themselves except for chow time.

  As Flood pulled up alongside the mess hall, Cameron came out licking the thumb of one hand while folding a giant slice of Chicago-style pizza in the other. He made a great show out of cocking his head back and taking a bite. He shot me a wink as I climbed out of the car.

  “Any of that left or did you mongrels eat it all?” I slugged Cam in the shoulder.

  Cam gave me a sly grin. He had the warmest brown eyes and thick black hair that parted down the middle. A birthmark on his scalp resulted in a thick, white stripe of hair along the left side. The scar from his harelip gave him a permanent lopsided grin that actually fit his personality pretty well.

  “There’s half a pie left of the sausage and anchovies.”

  “Gross.” I wrinkled my nose. “You guys suck.”

  “I told her.” Flood stepped around us. He had my bag slung over his shoulder along with his own. He tossed mine to me. I got my hands up just in time to catch it. “Hurry up and grab a slice. You can pick off what you don’t like. Then, have Cam take you to the lab and show you how to set up the slides for that specimen.”

  Then Flood turned and took the steps into the mess hall three at a time with an athletic stride.

  “I’ll wait for you,” Cam said.

  I shook my head. “No thanks. Between the anchovies and the poop samples in my bag, my appetite is pretty much gone.”

  Cam put an arm around me. “You’ll get used to it. Poop is life. Come on. Plus, I lied. I hid a couple of slices of pepperoni in the back of the fridge for you.”

  I leaned up and kissed Cameron on the cheek. “You’re all right, you know that? No matter what those assholes from State say about you when you’re not listening.”

  Cam reared back, his mouth went wide. “What do you mean? What do they say about me?”

  I reached up, tussled his hair, and started walking to the cabin lab. Cameron Davies had genius-level intelligence, but he worried way too much about what other people thought of him. And, he was gullible. I gave him a raised eyebrow over my shoulder to let him know I was only kidding. He flipped me off and followed me into the lab.

  “Watch it,” he said. “I’m about to teach you how not to get deer shit all over yourself. You wouldn’t want me to forget a step.”

  “If I can’t figure that out myself, I have bigger problems.”

  I popped the screen door and stepped into the cabin, fumbling with the switch against the wall. The overhead fluorescents blinked to life, casting the whole room in flickering yellow. It took a few minutes for the generator to power the things all the way. The lab consisted of four long, white folding tables with various specimen jars covering them along with two large microscopes. We had three industrial-sized refrigerators in one corner and our computers in the other and storage lockers in the other. The walls were covered with maps of the area and Professor Flood’s whiteboards. I was still trying to get the hang of how to decipher his scrawling handwriting and shorthand.

  “Take the stuff to the second table,” Cam said. I opened my pack and pulled out the specimen jar while Cam fired up the microscope, readied a few slides, and pulled a wheeled stool up to the table. He kicked the second stool toward me. I stopped it with my knee and scooted over to join him.

  As I set the container on the table, my hands still shook. Cam shot me a quizzical look and waited while I tried to unscrew the cap.

  “Put some gloves on first,” Cam said, tossing a fresh pair of purple ones at me.

  “Right.”

  “First rule of not getting shit all over you.”

  “Right. Right. I got it.” I handed the jar to Cam.

  “You okay? You’re shaking like a leaf. Did something happen out there?”

  Cam’s expression darkened. He pursed his lips together and peered at me over his thick glasses.

  “What? No. I’m okay.” For the briefest moment, I hesitated before telling Cam about the wolf. Professor Flood had acted strangely. Maybe Cam would too. But, Cam and I had been working together for two semesters now. He knew me well enough to know when I was bullshitting him. Still, an odd feeling speared through me when I thought of that dark wolf and his golden eyes. My heart fluttered and I felt . . . protective of it somehow. As if telling anyone else about that brief moment between us would betray the wolf in some way. Silly. I shook my head as if I could physically drive away those thoughts.

  “Laura?”

  Cam reached into the container and took the sample out using tweezers. He placed a small amount between the slides and gave the rest of it back to me.

  “Well. It’s kind of hard to explain. But, uh, I ran into a wolf out there. A big-ass black one.”

  Cameron dropped the tweezers and sat back. “You did what now?”

  I bit my lip. “Yeah. A wolf. Came right up to me. I think it was just as interested in the fawn as I was.”

  Cam whistled low. “This far south? There are known packs in the Upper Peninsula. Not down here. You sure it wasn’t a . . .”

  I put my hand up. “It wasn’t a coyote, Cam. I know the fucking difference.”

  Cam cocked his head to the side. “Easy. I’m just asking the question. Jeez.”

  “I’m sorry. Ugh. It got really close. I mean. I, uh, I sort of got to pet it.”

  “You pet it? You pet a wolf.”

  I shrugged, realizing now how ridiculous the story sounded as soon as I said it out loud. Well, no going back now. “Kind of. Then Flood showed up. Cam, he shot at it. Not darts. With the 12 gauge.”

  A muscle twitched near Cameron’s left eye. He let out a sharp exhale. “Are you fucking serious?”

  I nodded. “Shot ricocheted off the trees or something. Grazed it.” I looked down. I hadn’t noticed before, but a few drops of drying blood clung to the sleeve of my gray hoodie. I held my hand out and showed Cam.

  “He got away. The wolf did. Ran off quick as a bolt of lightning after that.”

  “Wouldn’t you?”

  I got up and looked out the front door. For some reason, I thought it best if no one overheard this conversation. Again, that strange protectiveness rose up in me.

  “Why the fuck did he shoot at it?”

  Turning, I went back to my stool and pulled it up even closer to Cam so he could hear me when I whispered. “That’s the thing. I have no clue. What was he doing with live ammo in the first place? Seriously. He dinged the wolf, but he could just as easily have got me. He was about a hundred yards away. And Cam. He insisted it was a coyote. I swear to you. It wasn’t. It was a big, black wolf with fiery eyes. How in the hell could he mistake one for the other? I’ve never seen a black coyote, have you?”

  Cam smiled. “Never seen a black wolf either, Laura. Not in western Michigan. Look, if you say it was a wolf, it was a wolf. You sure there isn’t the slightest slim chance Flood was right?”

  My blood boiled. Cam saw the anger cross my face. He put his hands up in surrender and scooted his chair back. “All right. All right. Black wolf. No question. Got it.”

  I curled my hand into a fist, shook at him and tapped his nose. “Good. Don’t make me have to bust you up.”

  Cam smiled and gestured to the poop specimen I’d left sitting on the table. “You get the fun job. Sift through that bad boy and see if you can find anything interesting Bambi might have eaten.”

  “Gross.”

  “Remember,” Cam started. I sighed and raised a brow at him. Then I finished his sentence with him.

  “Poop is life.”

  Chapter Three

  The wolf surrounded me. His hot breath skittered across the back of my neck. His golden eyes hovered above me, just out of reach. My feet tangled in the bedsheets, holding me back when he turned and beckoned me to follow. I reached forward, wanting to touch him again. My heart pounded. His thick fur, both coarse and silky, tickled my fingertips. But, he was just out of reach.

  My spine turned liquid as his howl rose in the darkness. It filled me from the inside out, raising the hair on the back of my neck, washing over me with heat and power. I wanted to run beside him. I wanted to bury my face in the downy fur of his neck, feel the coiled power of the muscles that formed his haunches just before he leaped away from me into the darkness.

  Then, the world exploded in sound and light.

  “Mallory!”

  Down was up. I clawed at the ground. I must have tried to get out of bed, but tangled in the sheets, I landed on the ground.

  Professor Flood pounded on the screen door once, then came inside. Panic filled my heart as I tried to get free of the sheets. I wore nothing but a black lace bra and matching panties. A thin sheen of sweat coated my skin as I struggled to cover myself before Flood stepped around the bed.

  “Wait!” I finally got my leg out of the sheet and tried to pull it up to cover me.

  But Flood stood at the foot of the bed. He turned his back to me, but not before I saw his eyes blaze with naked lust as he raked them over me.

  “Can you wait outside?” I shouted.

  “Uh. I’m sorry. Jesus. I’m really sorry. You were shouting. I thought you were hurt.”

&nbs
p; “What? No. I’m fine. I was sleeping.”

  “Hmm.” Flood straightened his shoulders. He didn’t turn back around as I pulled the sheets around me and stood up. But, he didn’t leave the room either. “Well, you sleep loud then, I guess.”

  “Please, just wait outside. What time is it?”

  “What? Oh. It’s just after nine. You’re late. You were supposed to meet me down at the mess hall. You’re coming with me into town remember?”

  Shit. Right. Why the hell hadn’t my alarm gone off? I reached for my phone. The damn thing had dislodged from the charging dock. It was dead.

  “Can you give me fifteen minutes?” I said, feeling a little embarrassed. On the other hand, Flood still hadn’t done the decent thing and gotten the hell out of my room.

  “Sure,” he said. He finally started walking toward the door. “But hurry up. It’s Sunday. The Fleegers close the store up by eleven thirty so they can make the noon mass on time. It’s a thirty-minute drive. We needed to be on the road twenty minutes ago.”

  “I’ll just be a second,” I yelled as Professor Flood stepped out of my cabin and let the door close behind him.

  “Shit. Shit. Shit!” I had just one pair of clean jeans and a t-shirt left. We went to the laundromat in town on Monday nights. I pulled on my clothes as fast as I could, wrapped my hair in a topknot and grabbed a toothbrush. I didn’t know whether to be angrier with myself for oversleeping, or with Flood for invading my personal space in a huge way. For the moment, I’d settle for just getting the hell down to the mess hall and salvaging what I could of the morning.

  As I stepped out into the sunlight, a shiver ran through me, strong enough to take my breath away for an instant. I turned, but not fast enough. A streak of black moved in my peripheral vision. But, there was nothing there. Just rustling tree branches, waving in the breeze.

  I pressed my thumbs against my eyes to clear away the cobwebs clouding my thoughts. Flood had torn me out of a deep sleep and some intense dream. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone or something watched me through that tree line.

  “Boo!”

  I jumped.

  “Son of a bitch!”

  Cam jumped out from behind my cabin. He held a piece of cold pizza in his hand on a napkin.

  “Why didn’t you come get me?” I asked. “Flood’s on a war path. My damn phone died in the middle of the night. It never went off.”

  Cam shrugged. “Sorry. I got up early and did some work in the lab. But, here’s a peace offering. He won’t wait for you to get breakfast. Better get your ass moving.”

  I took the pizza from Cam just as Flood laid on the Jeep’s horn. It was time to go.

  “Don’t forget popcorn,” Cam called out as I bounded down the cabin steps and headed for the Jeep. “The kind we make over the campfire!”

  I raised two fingers above my head and waved at Cam. Then, I hopped into the Jeep, shoving pizza down my head as quickly as I could.

  A good ten minutes went by before either of us said anything. I couldn’t tell if Flood was angry for having been delayed or still feeling a little awkward for staring at me in my underwear. I couldn’t decide if I was angrier at him for that or awkward for being late. Finally, Flood spoke first.

  “Yeah. Um. I’m sorry about that back there. I really did think something happened to you. You were, um, screaming, Laura. Like you were hurt. You sure you’re okay?”

  Color warmed my cheeks. “Oh. It’s okay.” A part of me wanted to kick myself for letting him off the hook. Except, I’d been dreaming about the wolf when he burst in. I didn’t remember screaming, but I remembered the whole thing was pretty intense. Maybe I did scream.

  “I’m kind of used to not getting a lot of privacy back home,” I said. “Big family. Five brothers. Three sisters.”

  Flood let out a whistle. “Wow. I mean, seriously. Wow. Nine children? I didn’t think people did that anymore.”

  I nodded. “Old school Catholic parents.”

  “Where are you in all of that?”

  “Smack in the middle. I’ve got a pair of brothers and sisters above me, a pair below.”

  “Ah. Well, that explains why you were so eager to hightail it out of there this summer.”

  I laughed. He wasn’t wrong. I loved my family, but the decision to live on campus at G.L.U. had been one of the best I’d ever made. It was the first time I’d ever had a bathroom to myself. To me, dorm life actually brought peace and quiet. When the opportunity to join Flood’s team this summer came along, it seemed like heaven. Until the last twenty-four hours, it pretty much had been. Now though, something filled me with unease.

  I pressed my forehead against the window as the trees flew by. We were deep in the Huron-Manistee National Forest miles away from anything resembling civilization, and I kind of loved it.

  “Where’s home?”

  “Green Bluff, California.”

  “Well, that’s a long way from home. How’d you end up at Great Lakes U?” Flood asked.

  I shrugged. “Ah. That’s an easy one. They offered me a full ride. I did well on my S.A.Ts. G.L.U. was the farthest from home willing to pay for me. So, here I am.”

  “Good choice. When’s the last time you went back?”

  I shrugged. “Not since Christmas.” It wasn’t that I didn’t miss my family. I did. But being away gave me freedom from the chaos large families bring. I loved my time on my own.

  “Well, I for one am damn glad you decided to give us a try. You’re talented, Laura. Gifted even. You have a drive and aptitude I don’t often see in girls your age.”

  I bristled a little at the word “girl,” but decided to let it slide this time. He was trying to give me a compliment, and I appreciated it.

  “I mean it. You could go very far in this field if that’s what you’re truly interested in. You know the biology graduate program at G.L.U. is very competitive. Very competitive. We only let in a handful of students each year. How long before you get your bachelor’s?”

  I bit my lip. This early in the semester, I hadn’t even dreamed of approaching Professor Flood for a recommendation. Most graduate program students went on to their dream jobs after finishing. “Uh. I need about fifty more credits. So, a year and a half if I push it.”

  Flood smiled as he pulled into the parking lot of Fleeger’s General Store. “Well, push it, Laura. You know, we’ve got a full day planned, but I’d like to talk to you about this a little later. How about at dinner?”

  My mouth went dry. Flood reached over and rested his arm across my seat back. He dipped his head and flashed me the smile that made the front row girls swoon. It made me uncomfortable on every level. He reached up with his other hand and brushed a hair out of my eyes. His was close enough for me to feel his breath against my ear.

  “We should get in there,” I said. “It’s almost ten thirty. You said the Fleegers need to close up for mass. Are you ready, Professor Flood?”

  He picked a piece of lint off my shoulder. “It’s Byron. When we’re out here. Just Byron. When we’re on campus, different story. But, we’ve got a lot of weeks out here in the wilderness to be so formal.”

  “Sure.” I reached for the door and stumbled a little getting out of the car. Flood’s soft laughter followed me as I walked up the wooden stairs into the store. My pulse quickened as I reached for the door. My palms sweated and the air around me seemed to thicken. I reached for the door with shaky fingers. Flood’s shadow fell over me as he followed me up the stairs. I didn’t want him to touch me again. The implications of his tone of voice, his gestures, were unmistakable.

  “Wait up, Laura,” he said, his rich tenor prickling along my spine. “Let me at least be a gentleman and get the door for you.”

  His put his hand on my back and reached around me for the door handle. Before he could open it though, the door flew inward. Flood’s fingers flexed where he held them to my back and I looked up to face a mountain.

  “She looks capable of handling doorknobs all by herself.” The mountain had a voice. A deep, rich, baritone. My eyes started at his chest. He wore a black t-shirt stretched taut over hard muscles. I followed those muscles up until I met his eyes as they flashed gold fire. Hair black as midnight long enough to just graze his shoulders. High, strong cheekbones over rough, dark stubble. Perfect, pale, full lips set into a hard line as he stared down Byron Flood over my shoulder. He filled the doorway with his broad shoulders, muscled thighs thick as tree trunks wrapped in denim. Worn, black motorcycle boots that looked solid enough to kick through a wall.