The thought of walking away from him made her feel lightheaded and she found herself tightening her grip on his hands a little. Maybe that was what it meant to be The One. But did that truly matter? Trey loved her and she loved him. That was the important thing.
“How long have you known that I’m your soul mate?” she asked.
“I’ve been attracted to you since the first time I saw you at that first crime scene,” Trey admitted, smiling a little, like he was replaying a happy memory. “But it wasn’t until our first date, when I realized your scent had become impossible to resist, that I knew you were The One for me.”
“My scent?” she repeated, caught off guard and more than a little curious. “What do I smell like?”
Smiling, he bent his head to bury his nose in her neck and breathe deeply. “Cherry blossoms and spring air after a light rain,” he whispered against her skin.
Yeah, that worked for her. There was no denying she loved him and wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.
“If you knew all the way back then, why didn’t you tell me?” she said.
Trey suddenly looked like a little boy who’d been caught throwing his baseball through a neighbor’s window. It was impossible to stay mad at a guy who looked like that.
“I was already nervous about telling you I’m a werewolf because I was worried about how you’d react. If I dropped the whole soul-mate thing on you at the same time, I was pretty sure you’d run for the hills. Which I didn’t want since I was falling in love with you at the time.”
Ah, damn. This guy was good. “And after I knew you were a werewolf? Why didn’t you tell me then? Say, during that first flight up to Alaska.”
Trey looked so chagrined, he was damn close to blushing. It was adorable!
“I tried, but by that point, the lie—if only one of omission—had taken on a life of its own. And every day that passed made it that much harder to bring it up. I kept falling more in love with you and becoming more terrified you’d bail when you finally learned the truth. I had no idea how to climb out of the hole I’d dug for myself.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck, dragging him down for a long, languorous kiss. On the other side of the compound, she heard cheering and clapping.
“That’s it, right?” she asked when they came up for air. “That’s the last secret you’re keeping from me?”
He nodded and kissed her again. “No more secrets. Promise.”
They were met with more applause and cheers when they got back to the picnic tables, which made her and Trey both laugh. They’d just sat down when the back door of the admin building opened and the SWAT team commander, Gage Dixon, strode out.
Trey and every other werewolf in the Pack tensed in the blink of an eye. Samantha wondered what was up until she saw the look on Gage’s face. The SWAT commander had always struck her as a formidable guy—she guessed being the alpha of a pack of alpha werewolves required that—but right now, he seemed even more intense than usual.
“I just got off the phone with Nathan McKay,” Gage said as he sat down beside his wife at the other end of the table. “He’s as concerned as we are that none of us have heard from Zane and Alyssa, so we’ve decided to do something about it. Mike, Connor, Trevor, Hale, and Diego—I want you to go to San Antonio and find out what’s going on.”
“When do we leave?” was the only thing Mike said even as Diego leaned over and whispered something in Bree’s ear. She looked scared as hell, and Samantha thanked God that Gage hadn’t asked Trey to go with them. Even Kat the cat looked upset.
“First thing in the morning,” Gage said. “I need to push through some paperwork and make it look like you’ll be taking part in a joint training operation with the SWAT team in San Antonio.”
As she and Trey were walking hand in hand to his truck after the cookout wound down, he was rather quiet and she wondered aloud if it was because he wanted to go with Connor and his other pack mates. But Trey shook his head.
“Mike and the other guys know what they’re doing. If they need any help from us, they’ll ask.” He flashed her a smile. “Until then, I thought we could go home and finish moving the rest of my stuff into your place. I’ve technically been there for a week and a half and haven’t unpacked a single box.”
Samantha laughed. “Works for me. Though I doubt we’ll get much unpacking done if past experience is anything to go by.”
Every time they started, they ended up in bed. Or on the couch. Or in the shower. Even up against the wall. Not that she was complaining.
Samantha spotted Bree and Diego heading to their vehicle with her teenage son, and she ran over to catch them before they left, telling Bree to call if she needed anything.
“Your packmates are going to be okay, right?” Samantha asked Trey. “They’ll be able to handle anything they run up against?”
Trey nodded as he helped her into the passenger seat of his truck. “Definitely. And if they run into trouble, they’ll call us in for backup.”
He must have picked up on her heart starting to beat a little faster at that announcement because he stepped forward and kissed her, long and slow, on the mouth. “But we’re not going to worry about that right now. Let’s go home and unpack my stuff.”
Samantha smiled and kissed him back, more than ready to head home with her soul mate.
Keep reading for a sneak peek of the next book in Paige Tyler’s thrilling STAT: Special Threat Assessment Team series
True Wolf
Caleb seemed content to let Brielle take the lead on their late-night stroll, falling into step beside her as she turned left on the main road outside the pub and headed that way, not familiar enough with the city to have any particular destination in mind. He didn’t say anything as they wandered, but simply walked beside her as she took in the sights along the brightly lit streets.
She realized she’d picked a good part of the city to explore as she caught sight of the beautiful Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater. The ornate Neo-Baroque architecture of the circular building made her wish it was open so they could go inside and explore, but since it wasn’t, she contented herself by taking photos of the exterior. From there, they wandered past Vorontsov Palace, where they stopped again so she could take more photos, once more wishing they were taking this little sightseeing walk during the day so she’d be able to see even more of the historical landmarks.
When they reached the top of the impressive Potemkin Stairs fifteen minutes later, they both stopped again, this time on the bridge, and gazed out at the shimmering expanse of the Black Sea beyond. Brielle was so caught up in the lights of the city sparkling off the water that she didn’t realize Caleb had spoken until she felt him looking at her.