Richard wasn’t about to change his mind about moving anywhere else, and certainly he wouldn’t leave the military.

  She’d had to make so many changes in her life while in the army, and he had been her one constant. One boyfriend for three years. Of course there had been no other wolves available for either of them to date at Fort Hood either. So naturally, from the first time they’d met, the attraction was there between them. But now that she didn’t have a full-time job to keep her busy, she wanted more. She wanted…something different. Her parents were happy with each other, and though her dad had made general in the army, he had always had time for her mother, who had been in the air force, both retired now. Richard wasn’t like that with Sierra.

  She removed her makeup, then started the water for her shower. Soon she was in the bathtub soaping her hair when she thought she heard her hotel-room door shut. She listened. She didn’t hear any sounds other than the shower water pelting her and running down the drain. She must have heard a door close for another room close by. That was the trouble with her enhanced wolf hearing. Everything could sound much closer than it was.

  She was in the middle of washing her hair and face, soap all over her body, the hot water sluicing down her back, and she was feeling dreamy when she heard a drawer in the chest of drawers squeak open. Her heart began to race and her skin chilled despite the hot water. The bathroom door was wide open because she wasn’t sharing a room with anyone else, or she would have at least closed it and could have jumped out of the shower and locked it.

  No one should have been in her room, and now she suspected the key-card noise she’d heard just minutes earlier had been the real deal. Who the hell had a key to her room? Whoever it was didn’t say a word. The scary part was that even though he had to hear her showering, he ignored it, like he knew he was safe, that she couldn’t harm him. And that made her angry. And even more worried.

  Another drawer opened in the bureau, and then another. She hadn’t unpacked her bags, except for hanging her rain jacket, a shirt, and a pair of pants in the closet. The rest of her things were still in her bags. Her purse and her laptop were also in the closet, where she always put them when she wasn’t using them. She knew she should be careful, not worry about her personal possessions and only think about living through this, if it came to that, but she was instinctively a territorial wolf. Allowing him to steal from her without a fight wasn’t in her blood.

  She quickly washed the soap out of her hair and off her face and body and left the water running. Her phone was sitting on the bedside table, so she couldn’t reach it to call the police. She didn’t have a weapon… Well, maybe not a gun or knife, but she did have a different kind of weapon. One she was born with. It would have to do.

  She called on her wolf, heat rushing through every bone and through every muscle. Confronting a human like this wasn’t something wolves would normally do when they were taught to hide their identity at all costs from humans. But the intruder couldn’t see her shift and she was afraid—since he was bold enough to remain there when she was taking a shower—she could be in a world of hurt if she didn’t do something to protect herself.

  As soon as she had turned into a big red wolf with big ears, big teeth, and big wolf paws, she pushed the shower curtain aside with her nose, leaped out of the tub, slid on the bath mat, and tore out of the bathroom and into the room. As soon as the man saw movement, turned, and noticed her coming at him, the would-be thief jumped straight into the air. He cried out with a strangled sound and made a dash for the door.

  That was what she liked to see. Him scared to pieces and running for his life. Though her own heart was beating triple time, the adrenaline surging through her blood preparing her to flee or fight. Fighting was more what she had in mind.

  But his leaving the room pronto wasn’t good enough for her. She had to get a better look at his face so she could identify him in a sketch and the police would have something to go on to catch him. Not to mention she wanted to scare the crap out of him so he wouldn’t pull this again with some other unsuspecting guest. No telling how many robberies he’d already committed and gotten away with.

  Imagine him thinking he was robbing a defenseless human but suddenly was faced with a snarling wolf!

  He had to assume the only occupant was a woman, since her bra, panties, jeans, and sweater were piled on the bed and a pair of size seven women’s boots were sitting on the floor next to the bed. There were no men’s clothes anywhere in the room.

  His back was to her while he was in fleeing mode, and she lunged and tackled him, her large paws slamming into his back and knocking him flat on his chest on the carpeted floor. She wanted to bite him! But she couldn’t or chance turning him into one of their kind. They couldn’t have that happen no matter what. It was bad enough if they did it to someone accidentally, but doing it on purpose to someone who exhibited criminal behavior? No way.

  She was growling, snapping her teeth next to his neck, letting him know just how dangerous she could be. And how stupid he’d been for breaking into her room with the intent of stealing from her.

  She smelled urine and growled again. She would have to switch rooms or smell his pee in her room for the rest of the time she was staying here.

  On his belly, he struggled to get free of her, terrified, crying out, his body pressed against the floor, trying to unsettle her. She had her front paws firmly on his back, pinning him down, her hind feet on the floor, giving her traction as she spread her large wolf paws out. He was trying to twist away, and then she realized he was reaching with his right hand for something in his pocket or at his waistband under his hoodie. A gun? A knife?

  Don’t bite him, she warned herself. She desperately wanted to. To show him he wasn’t in charge here. In the beginning, she should have let him go, she figured in retrospect, just scared him and forced him to run out of the room, shifted, then locked and bolted the door and called the police. And hurried to get dressed. Now, she assumed he was armed and could be more dangerous than her—only because she couldn’t take a bite out of him.

  She wasn’t sure what to do. Keep him pinned to the floor so he couldn’t hurt her and howl to get help? Uh, yeah, that would go over well.

  He smelled of beer and pot and pee, and she would remember his scent anywhere now. If she didn’t have to turn back into her human form, she could have tracked him down once he left the room. He finally managed to roll over so that she lost her grip on him, and then she studied him, growling.

  His face was filled with fear as he sat up and scooted away from her like someone doing a fast crab scuttle. She was glad she could get a good look at his long chin, the bristly dark hair covering it, pale thin lips, and wide hazel eyes. His hair was cut short, and he had a rattlesnake tattoo around his neck.

  He quickly scrambled to his feet and continued to back away toward the door and, at the same time, pulled a gun out of his pocket. She remained in her spot, ready to dodge if he fired a shot, but she suspected he didn’t want to use the gun if he didn’t have to and alert everyone within hearing distance that someone was firing a gun in a hotel room.

  Still, her heart was hammering triple time. What if he shot her accidentally, if not on purpose? She wanted to sit down, to show him she was letting him go, but she was afraid to make any kind of move at this point.

  He backed up all the way to the door, probably having heard that you never want to turn your back on an angry dog. And she was an angry wolf.

  He bumped against the door and fumbled behind with his free hand to reach for the handle. She should have locked the safety bar across it after the man delivered her meal. And especially before she stripped out of her clothes and took her shower. Damn it.

  Then the would-be robber pulled the door open and maneuvered around it, his eyes on her the whole time. Yeah, she had a real good idea of what he looked like and smelled like.

  As soon as he made his way out of the room, he pulled the door shut as fast as he could. She raced to the door, shifted, and shoved the security latch in place. Then she ran and got her phone and called Police Detective Adam Holmes, a red wolf like her. If she couldn’t get him, she would call Josh Wilding, also a red wolf with the pack and Adam’s former police detective partner, recently retired. She knew they would take this threat seriously.

  Thankfully, she got ahold of Adam right away. “I’ve had a break-in at my hotel room.” She gave the name of the hotel and found an address on a notepad. “Hurry. You might catch him! I’m in room 308.”

  “Are you all right?” Adam asked, his voice deeply concerned.

  She heard Adam’s Hummer door slam shut and his engine roar to life. “Yes. He ran out of the room, but I’ve got to get dressed.” Still naked, she hurried into the bathroom and turned off the shower, but she was glad Adam was coming to aid her and that it wasn’t someone she didn’t know.

  “You were showering?”

  Astute wolf’s hearing.

  “Yes, but I’ll be dressed before you get here.” She put the phone on speaker and grabbed a towel to dry herself off. Then she seized her phone, returned to the bedroom, and dug in her suitcase to find a pair of panties and pulled them on.

  “Hell, Sierra. I’m on my way. What did he look like?”

  She slid her bra straps over her arms and fastened it. “I’ll draw you a sketch, but if you see him race out of the hotel or anywhere in the vicinity when you get here, he’s wearing a black hoodie, blue jeans, tears in several places on the thighs and knees, black sneakers, white male, approximately mid- to late twenties. He was scrawny, had short, brown hair and bristly chin whiskers, and a rattlesnake tattoo around his neck. He smells of pee and pot and beers, oh, and he has a diamond or fake diamond earring in both ears.”

  “And he has your description,” Adam said, sounding worried that she was an eyewitness and the guy could retaliate against her.

  “As a red wolf. Yep.” She fumbled through her suitcase for a flannel shirt to wear.

  Adam didn’t say anything for a moment. “You shifted?”

  “That’s the only way he would have my description as a red wolf. Got to go, Adam. I need to get dressed.” She could envision the police at her door while she was still trying to dress!

  “Be there soon. Calling it in now.”

  She finished dressing and then started drawing the sketch of the man on her sketch pad at the little table for two in the room before she forgot anything.

  It wasn’t but about ten minutes later that Adam was knocking at Sierra’s door. “It’s me, Adam Holmes.”

  She hurried to let him in. He looked so spiffy in his suit, like an FBI agent, his green eyes narrowed as he considered her appearance, and she knew he was making sure she was okay. She was surprised that no one else was with him.

  “I have men downstairs talking to the clerks and trying to learn how he got a key to your room. I wanted to talk to you privately first. Are you okay?”

  She folded her arms. “Yes. And I know I should have secured the safety bar on the door.” She figured he would lecture her about that and about shifting.

  “Correct. Did he see you shift?” He was still frowning at her.

  “Of course not! I was in the shower, and he was rummaging through the empty bureau drawers.” As if she would do something so foolish. If he’d come into the bathroom, well, she would have shifted, but behind the shower curtain, not in front of him.

  “But he heard the shower going and that didn’t deter him from staying in your room?”

  “No, which was why I was really worried. The bathroom door was wide open, and I couldn’t jump out and lock it without him catching me at it. Oh, and he had a 9mm gun.”

  “Sierra.” Adam sounded totally exasperated with her.

  “What? I had to chase him off the only way I knew how. I didn’t bite him, but I would have if I’d known it wouldn’t turn him. I didn’t know he had a gun.”

  Adam let out his breath. “We’re certain this guy is part of a team of thieves who have hit numerous hotels. We still don’t know how they’re breaking into the rooms using the hotel keys, but you’re the first one who has actually witnessed a break-in.” He looked over the sketch and glanced at her. “Hell, this is really good.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re hired.”

  “What?”

  “We need an additional sketch artist at the Portland Police Bureau. It would be part-time so you can still teach your art classes. I’ll talk to the boss when I get back, if it’s something you would consider doing for us.”

  She opened her mouth to speak, and Adam said, “The kids need you for your art expertise, but we need you to help us catch criminals. You’re hired.”

  She smiled. Adam had such a way with words. And the more she got to know him, the more she really liked him.

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