Paige Tyler

Want a sandwich?__ac shook her head. ____ going to have dinner with Gage when he gets home._ Who said anything about dinner? This was more like an appetizer. That was another perk that came with being a werewolf. She could eat whatever she wanted and not have to worry about extra calories ending up where they shouldn__. Khaki set everything on the counter. __ asked Xander flat-out when I went over to his place last night. He insisted he liked me just fine, but I knew he was lying. I could tell he was really uncomfortable around me. He was tense and on edge the whole time. Which is nothing new. He__ like that all the time around me. I think he finds me irritating and a nuisance._ Mac gave her a dubious look. __f you say so. But either way, you__ better be careful. If being with Gage has taught me anything, it__ that werewolves are extremely affected by certain pheromones. If you go walking around lusting over Xander, he__ going to pick up on it_ and so is every other guy on the team. Then things will get really complicated. I learned that the hard way. Those guys can pick up on arousal like it__ barbecue and they aren__ shy about letting you know it._ Khaki groaned as she grabbed a plate from the cabinet. __h, God. I never thought about that.___eah. And it gets worse._ Mac shook her head. __f I__ even slightly aroused and Gage picks up on it, he gets crazy horny_ like he-can__-control-it horny. What do you think is going to happen to if all the guys on the team pick up on the fact that the one and only female werewolf on the team is aroused? You__l find yourself getting chased by fifteen out-of-control, horny werewolves going crazy with lust. And while there are some women who might find that entertaining, something tells me you wouldn__._ Khaki set the plate on the counter with a thud. __h, crap. What the hell am I going to do?__ac offered her a small smile. __ake a lot of baths?

The odds were incredibly stacked against a werewolf ever meeting his one-in-a-billion soul mate. There was no way Becker could have met his in the midst of an armed robbery. That kind of crap didn't happen in the real world.

He opened his mouth to order her to drop the MP5 she had aimed at him, but nothing would come out. It was like she'd robbed him of the ability to speak. Shooting her wasn't an option, though. And the idea of arresting her didn't make him feel any better.

Almost forgot. Can you stop by and feed my fish every few days? And talk to them too. They get lonely when I am not home.__ooper made a face __ho the hell talks to their fish?___e. You__l feed them, right___eah, I__l feed them. But I am sure as hell not talking to them,_ Cooper said_..

Sleeping with a guy isn't the same thing as opening your heart to him.

Gage sighed. "This team was a whole hell of a lot easier to run before any of us had ever heard about The One. You know that, right?" Maybe." Becker grinned. "But it wasn't nearly as interesting.

He grinned. "Some guys like to work on cars or do woodworking. I search for beautiful women who might want to bite me.

As engine vibrated under him, he tried to tell himself it was all going to work out. It had to. Now that he__ found The One, there was no way in hell he was letting her get away. If that meant he had to move heaven and earth to find a good life for her and her pack mates here in the city, he__ do it. If being with Jayna meant he had to empty out his bank account and sell everything he owned, he was okay with that too.He had friends in other places he could turn to, Family too. His parents owned a huge house and a lot of land outside of Denver. If he showed up with Jayna, her pack, and no job, his family would welcome them with open arms. Okay, maybe his mom would be a little shocked when she found out his girlfriend came with an extended family, but she__ overlook it if there was a possibility of a grandchild in the near future.Becker was still daydreaming about kids with Jayna someday when headlights suddenly appeared in his rear- view mirror. He glanced over, swearing when he saw two vehicles speeding up behind him and closing fast.

Why aren't you turning me over to your cop friends right now?" she demanded. He shrugged. "To tell the truth, I have absolutely no idea. But let's talk anyway.

Why don't we leave this pot on to simmer for a while?

Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?" he asked hoarsely. Minka didn't answer. She simply reached up and tangled her fingers in his hair, urging him down for a searing kiss.

What man didn't enjoy a beautiful woman curled up in his lap, even if she did treat him like a scratching post every time she woke up?

Did you see that bison on the wall there? He__ so big. And so cute.__ngelo grinned. __ thought you might say that. That__ why I got a smaller version._ He took the plush animal from inside his jacket, where he__ been hiding it, and placed it on the table. __his is Ted.__inka__ eyes glistened with tears as she stared at it. Crap, what had he done wrong? He__ thought she__ love it.But then she grabbed the toy in one hand, threw her arms around Angelo, and squeezed him so hard his ribs creaked.__hank you,_ she said against his chest. __e__ perfect.

Angelo pulled his uniform overshirt over his head without undoing the buttons, which she thought was a pretty impressive feat. Then she saw what he was hiding under there and decided the view was much more impressive. Technically, he was still clothed, but the light tan T-shirt was really tight, and she didn__ have to use her imagination very much to figure out there were a lot of muscles under it. Just the sight of his big arms rippling as he moved was enough to make Minka catch her breath.When he reached behind his head to pull off his T-shirt, Minka found herself licking her lips in anticipation. She felt bad for watching him like this, but she couldn__ help herself. Then she looked up and saw Angelo regarding her with an amused expression on his handsome face.__ understand why you want to keep the door open, and I__ okay with that,_ he said. __ut you might want to look the other way for this part.__inka felt heat rush to her face. She nodded and stepped out of the doorway, turning to sit down on the floor beside the bathroom like Angelo had done. Her fingers dug into the stuffed sloth__ fur. She was glad he couldn__ see her face because it was probably bright red. Why had she been staring like that?

So what did you and Landon do this afternoon?_ Minka asked, her soft voice dragging him back to the present.Angelo looked up to see that Minka had already polished off two fajitas. Damn, the girl could eat. __andon gave me a tour of the DCO complex. I did some target shooting and blew up a few things. He even let me play with the expensive surveillance toys. I swear, it felt more like a recruiting pitch to get me to work there than anything.__inka__ eyes flashed green, her full lips curving slightly. Damn, why the hell had he said it like that? Now she probably thought he was going to come work for the DCO. Even if he wanted to, he couldn__, not after just reenlisting for another five years. The army wasn__ the kind of job where you could walk into the boss__ office and say, __ quit.__hinking it would be a good idea to steer the conversation back to safer ground, he reached for another fajita and asked Minka a question instead. __hat do you think you__l work on next with Ivy and Tanner? You going to practice with the claws for a while or move on to something else?__ngelo felt a little crappy about changing the subject, but if Minka noticed, she didn__ seem to mind. And it wasn__ like he had to fake interest in what she was saying. Anything that involved Minka was important to him. Besides, he didn__ know much about shifters or hybrids, so the whole thing was pretty damn fascinating.__hat do you visualize when you see the beast in your mind?_ he asked.__efore today, I thought of it as a giant, blurry monster. But after learning that the beast is a cat, that__ how I picture it now._ She smiled. __ot a little house cat, of course. They aren__ scary enough. More like a big cat that roams the mountains._ __akes sense,_ he said. Minka set the other half of her fourth fajita on her plate and gave him a curious look. __ould you mind if I ask you a personal question?__is mouth twitched as he prepared another fajita. He wasn__ used to Minka being so reserved. She usually said whatever was on her mind, regardless of whether it was personal or not.__o ahead,_ he said.__he first time we met, I had claws, fangs, glowing red eyes, and I tried to kill you. Since then, I__e spent most of the time telling you about an imaginary creature that lives inside my head and makes me act like a monster. How are you so calm about that? Most people would have run away already.__ngelo chuckled. Not exactly the personal question he__ expected, but then again Minka rarely did the expected.__ell, my mom was full-blooded Cherokee, and I grew up around all kinds of Indian folktales and legends. My dad was in the army, and whenever he was deployed, Mom would take my sisters and me back to the reservation where she grew up in Oklahoma. I__ stay up half the night listening to the old men tell stories about shape-shifters, animal spirits, skin-walkers, and trickster spirits._ He grinned. ____ not saying I necessarily believed in all that stuff back then, but after meeting Ivy, Tanner, and the other shifters at the DCO, it just didn__ faze me that much._ Minka looked at him with wide eyes. __ou__e a real American Indian? Like in the movies? With horses and everything?__e laughed again. The expression of wonder on her face was adorable. __irst, I__ only half-Indian. My dad is Mexican, so there__ that. And second, Native Americans are almost nothing like you see in the movies. We don__ all live in tepees and ride horses. In fact, I don__ even own a horse._ Minka was a little disappointed about the no-horse thing, but she was fascinated with what it was like growing up on an Indian reservation and being surrounded by all those legends. She immediately asked him to tell her some Indian stories. It had been a long time since he__ thought about them, but to make her happy, he dug through his head and tried to remember every tale he__ heard as a kid.

She didn't know why being near him made the beast inside her go away, and she didn't care. She was Minka in his arms and a monster out of them. That was all that mattered to her.

...She remembered why he'd caught her eye the first time she'd seen him, at Ivy and Landon's wedding. He was absolutely gorgeous. Tall, with broad shoulders and well-muscled arms, he had dark-blond hair, piercing blue eyes, and a square jaw covered with just the perfect amount of stubble. Then there was his mouth... There were books written about lips that kissable.

Maybe you could have picked something a little easier for our first official mission together?" Layla said in a teasing whisper...