Free The Awakening: Britton (Entangled Covet) by Abby Niles

she’d pretty
    much lived on canned pasta.
    How had he remembered it? He’d been so torn up being near her and worried over his friend that her
    food preference shouldn’t have stuck with him.
    Apparently it had.
    Shrugging, he tried to make light of it. “Figured this case would stress you out. Bought the chocolate as
    backup.”
    “Uh…well…thank you.”
    He shrugged again. “Don’t mention it.”
    Like, ever.
    He glanced at his watch. “It’s almost eight thirty. Fix your coffee while I whip together the eggs.”
    Opening the can, she inhaled deeply of the coffee aroma and gave a pleased moan.
    An odd sensation tweaked his chest and he froze while cracking an egg. What the hell?
    If he didn’t know better, he would’ve called it a zap of attraction. But he did know better. This was Val,
    and having any attraction to that woman was completely ludicrous. He rubbed his chest.
    Hunger pangs. Had to be.
    Within minutes he had the eggs going, and the room had filled with the smell of brewing coffee. When
    there was enough to make a cup, she yanked out the pot and poured a mug. She took a sip and moaned
    again, causing that odd sensation to sizzle in his torso once more.
    “Knock off the sound effects, for Dea’s sakes. It’s a cup of damn coffee,” he snapped.
    She blinked at him. “Sorry.”
    As soon as the words had shot out of his mouth he regretted them…but whatever was going on in his
    chest was irritating as hell. He shoveled the eggs onto a plate and handed it at her. “We’ve got to hurry,
    okay?” he said, using a lighter tone.
    “One inhaling of food coming right up,” she said as she went into the living room and sat down. At her
    comment, a smile teased the corner of his mouth again.
    When he realized it, he frowned. What was up with him this morning?
    After they ate, they gathered up the gear and took it out to the car. Wanting to make up for being such
    an ass yesterday, he dangled the car keys at her. She grinned and took them, then slipped behind the wheel.
    As she drove to the cabin, he became aware that she was sitting only a few inches from him and he
    wasn’t twitching. When she’d helped unload the groceries earlier, he hadn’t felt one moment of discomfort,
    either. Hmm . Maybe the more time he spent with her, the more comfortable he was feeling.
    She wasn’t half-bad, really.
    Val pulled the car up in front of the cabin and they got out, pulling on their backpacks.
    “What’s in these, anyway?” Val asked.
    “Hiking gear. Compass, first aid kit, rain poncho. Stuff like that.”
    “Huh. So it’s not your closet you brought with you, is it?”
    He didn’t say anything, just smiled and winked, then started off into the woods. When a person walked,
    the scent perfumed a wide area, but there was always a sharper imprint on the air he’d physically occupied.
    If smells were visible, there would be a clear line slicing through the woods along his path. For Britton, his
    acute sense of smell made it pretty much like that.
    When they reached the area where the perps’ scents branched, Britton started hiking off toward the
    right. “How do you think they knew about your limitation, Val?” he asked.
    “It’s not top-secret information, Britton. Anyone who took some time to research my cases would be
    able to put it together.”
    “I didn’t know. I never even doubted your ability, since you were able to track Liam so easily.”
    “I don’t make it a point to broadcast it. I was able to track Liam because the kidnapper hadn’t masked
    his scent. If you recall, finding the actual kidnapper proved rather difficult.”
    True. The guy had led them on a merry chase. He’d definitely known about Britton’s inability to track
    him. Had he also guessed about Val?
    “But you can smell the shifter under the masking, right?” he asked.
    “Yep, I just can’t identify the tagging scent. Makes things harder. Still, my ability is better than almost all
    other shifters. They