She sighed and waved at the bags. If he wanted to do some grunt work to make up for her extreme annoyance with him that was fine with her. She unlocked her door and motioned him toward the kitchen. She told herself that she was only doing it to watch his spectacular ass but she admitted to herself that she liked him. Even if he was a pain in the ass.

“Go ahead, get a good look and get the hell out,” she said as he set the bags down on the counter. She began to open up cabinets and the fridge and put the food away, acting as if he wasn’t even there.

“What? No thank you for hauling your groceries?” he teased.

She looked back over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow at him. “Make it quick, wolf boy. I may just change my mind and toss you out.”

It was his turn to give her a raised brow. He was a werewolf in his prime. The most feared Enforcer in North America. Heck, people were downright scared of him. He stood there, all muscle and sinew—there was no way that she could budge him, even if she took a running leap.

“Smirk all you want, I’ve warned you,” she said in a nearly sing-song voice that made him bark out a laugh. She caught him off guard, he liked that.

He was a damned good tracker, it was one of the reasons why he was an excellent Enforcer. He always found his man. Focusing on Rey’s scent, he moved through the house, but the only place that he could get it strongly was in the kitchen near the back door. He continued through the house, through the small living room with the cozy overstuffed couch and side chairs. Pausing, he looked at her living space. It was simple but extremely warm and welcoming. She had great built-in bookshelves. The decoration was at a minimum but what she did have up—some really nice black-and-white prints—lent a touch of class to the place. He peeked into the spare bedroom, which looked like an office, and then went across the hall and into her bedroom.

Standing in the doorway, he groaned as his senses took in the intimate space. It was soft and feminine. The bed was covered a pale blue fluffy comforter, and pillows in various shades of complementary blue were scattered all over the room. The headboard was white wrought iron and there was a stack of books at least three feet high next to the bed. He took a step inside and her scent hit him right in the balls. He closed his eyes as he breathed her in, the soft vanilla scent of her soap, a bit of citrus from her shampoo. No perfume. Her elemental scent was everywhere and it made the wolf within want to go and roll in her blankets, to coat himself in it.

He shook his head to clear it. Oh no, it was not going to go down this way. He needed to get laid and not by some uptight spinster either. He made a mental note to seek out some company when he went to the Pack house later.

“So? Satisfied Gabriel isn’t hiding in my closet or under my bed?” she asked as she walked down the hallway toward him.

Surprised by her voice, he jumped and turned. “Look, lady, it’s really important that I talk to him.” His annoyance at being so affected by her scent rang through his voice.

She noticed and put her arms over her chest and narrowed her big brown eyes at him. “Stop calling me that,” she snapped.

“So you do have emotions under that hard shell.” He grinned.

She shook her head in disgust. “Look, wolf boy, why do you want to talk to Gabriel? What have you people, er, wolves, done to him?”

He smirked at her. “Wolf boy? You object to lady and then call me wolf boy?”

“I never said I wasn’t a hypocrite. But this is my house so I get the privilege and you don’t. Now, what do you want with Gabriel?”

He sighed and ran a hand through his thick, silky-looking hair, pulling it loose from the thong at his neck. It spilled over his hands and past his shoulders like liquid silk. She could smell his cologne and beneath it, his maleness. He smelled hot and hard—like sex on legs. He smelled dangerous and capable of violence and she had to take a deep breath through her mouth to stop shaking. There was such a ravenous hunger for him that it shocked her into silence for a few moments.

“He might have seen something he wasn’t supposed to have seen. I need to know if he did. His life is at stake here. Did he say anything to you?”

She snorted. Of course he saw something he shouldn’t have. Studboy the wolf man wouldn’t be harassing her if he hadn’t. “His life is always at stake. It has been since before one of you ass**les gave him the virus. He has no common sense, no ability to function on his own. When you…people, took him into your gang, Pack—whatever—you became, for better or for worse, his parents, his government, and now whatever the hell he got into has chased him off. He didn’t tell me anything, he took the only money I had in cash here and left in a big hurry.”

He scrubbed his face with his hands. “We are not a gang!” Taking a deep breath, he wanted to groan as her scent crawled into his body. He had to get out of there, and right away. Before he jumped on her. “If he calls, will you tell him to contact me? He’s got my cell phone number. It’s urgent. I truly don’t want to hurt your brother but there are those who will if he saw something he wasn’t supposed to. If he can tell me what he saw, I can use that to punish the guilty parties and protect him at the same time.”

“If he calls me, which god knows if he will—I’ve only heard from him rarely over the last several years—I’ll tell him what you said. I’ll also advise him to go to the cops. I doubt he’ll listen to either suggestion.”

“The cops can’t help him.” His senses honed in on her. There was something that had changed. She now had a harder edge than he’d seen before. A less polished veneer, and it wasn’t the bird she flipped or the shotgun—her eyes were hard, even behind the glasses.