“Speak for yourself,” Brielle grumbled, throwing him a perturbed look. “I would have preferred anesthesia, given the option.”
“I can’t say I blame you,” McKay agreed, then gave Caleb an appraising look. “Speaking of Jake, he mentioned that we have you and Brielle to thank for stopping the whole mess. He said that your team was the only one that managed to get inside this part of the complex in time to stop Harrington. I’m impressed. Job well done.”
Caleb snorted. “I doubt you’ll be as quick to congratulate me if you knew I completely blew off the instructions your fancy AI computer came up with.”
He expected McKay to be pissed, but the man laughed. “Am I right in assuming you never even bothered to open your envelope?”
Caleb shrugged, giving Brielle’s hand a squeeze. “I figured there was no reason to bother. I was going to stay with Brielle no matter what your computer said.”
That answer earned him a hearty laugh, which confused the hell out of him. “Well, if you had bothered to open the envelope, you would have found nothing but a single piece of paper that instructed you to Do Whatever You Want.”
“What?” Caleb, Brielle, and even Jake all said at the same time.
“Our AI planning system is very sophisticated,” McKay said with a smile. “It predicted that you would never follow any directions or orders that it gave you, so it left you as a wild card, trusting in your instincts for being in the right place at the right time. Turns out it was correct. Which means you did exactly as the computer wanted.”
Brielle and Jake laughed. Caleb, on the other hand, thought McKay shouldn’t give up his day job to be a comedian.
“Okay, I think we’re all done,” Jake announced. “Looks like you’re going to heal up fine, but let Caleb or one of us know if anything continues to hurt. There’s always a chance I missed a small piece in there somewhere.”
Brielle definitely didn’t look thrilled at that idea.
Jake and McKay left soon after that, the boss once again thanking Caleb and Brielle for doing such a great job. “The two of you really do work well together. You should consider staying on the team, Ms. Fontaine.”
Caleb thought that was an excellent idea, but he couldn’t really see that happening. While they were soul mates, she had a brother to keep an eye on. A stupid brother who got into more trouble than even Caleb did.
“While I love the idea of you staying with STAT,” he said as he helped her up off the floor. “I understand that’s not really feasible. Not with your responsibility to Julian. So I’m completely ready to bail on McKay and STAT and live in Quebec with you.”
Brielle gazed at him, and for a moment, he was terrified she was going to tell him she didn’t ever want to have a damn thing to do with him again. Then she went up on her toes at the same time she threw her arms around his neck and dragged his head down for a kiss.
“First, I’d like to pick up on our earlier interrupted conversation and tell you that I love you like mad,” she said with a grin, then added, “or like a soul mate, I guess. And the fact that you’re willing to walk away from STAT because you think that’s what I want makes me love you even more. But,” she continued, preempting his complaint with a warm finger against his lips, “you know as well as I do that if you walk away from STAT before your three-year agreement is completed, they’ll revoke your parole and send you back to prison.”
He snorted. “They’d have to catch me first. I have no doubt I could find some place in Quebec to hide that they’d overlook. They’d give up after a while.”
Brielle shook her head. “Even if I were willing to let you take that risk, which I’m not, I’d never ask you to walk away from your teammates. You told me once that they’re the closest thing you have to a family. I won’t take that away from you.”
He reached up to brush back a stray piece of silky hair that had come loose from her ponytail. “You’re right. They are like a family to me. But as important to me as they are, you’re more important. You’re my soul mate, and I’ll do anything to be with you. Even if that means walking away from STAT and my pack.”
“And I appreciate that. I also have to admit I find it incredibly romantic,” she said, kissing him again. He definitely couldn’t complain about the kiss, even if those soft, warm lips were making it difficult to think clearly. “But you don’t need to do anything that drastic—or stupid. My brother can take care of himself, and if he can’t, then Kiara can take care of him. Regardless, I’m staying with you and STAT. When your three-year deal with them is up, we can decide where we go from there. Together. Though something tells me that we won’t want to ever leave the pack. Deal?”
Caleb was the one to drag her close for a kiss this time, his mouth demanding as he nibbled hard on those scrumptious lips and held her tightly to his chest. “You know,” he murmured against her lips, “I’m not complaining, but you took this whole soul-mate thing much better than I expected. Even considering that I did drop it on you in the middle of a firefight.”
She kissed him again, this time with more urgency, and if he wasn’t dreaming it, it seemed she was digging into his back with two sets of very sharp claws.
“I didn’t get a chance to tell you at the time,” she said softly, breath warm on his skin, honeysuckle scent beginning to overwhelm him. “But Misty already clued me in to the whole soul-mate thing a couple days ago. So me being The One for you didn’t really catch me by surprise. At least not completely. Though I have to admit, I expected you to bring it up before people started shooting at us.”
“Sorry about that part. Not about anything else, just that I should have found a better time to tell you about us,” he agreed, kissing her again. Then he felt sharp fangs against his tongue and figured out that Brielle must still be dealing with some of his more aggressive omega tendencies, including his habit of wolfing out when making out.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but maybe we should back off on the kissing stuff for a little while,” he said. “I get the feeling you’re still feeling your inner omega, and if we keep going, it might get a little rough.”
Brielle pulled back and looked up at him, her eyes glowing vivid blue now. “We can stop if you want, but the way I look at it, this is the only time I’ll ever get to be an omega werewolf. Are you seriously saying you want to waste this opportunity?”
He gazed down at her, overwhelmed that he’d ever stumbled across someone this perfect. Someone he could have never dreamed of finding. Then he bent his head and kissed her, his words rumbling up through his chest as he started to let himself go just a little. “I guess we need to go find someplace a bit more private, then, because this might get loud.”