Free Guarded (True Alpha 2) by Alisa Woods Page A

silent. How could he work there every day, seeing that?
    A new sympathy welled up inside her. Whatever had happened, Mia wanted to help him get past it. To understand that it wasn’t his fault, and that they could start something new.
    If only he would let her.
    He was attracted to her, she was sure of it. She just had to convince him to give in to that force pulling them together, to give them a chance. But to do that, she would need more than angry stares and turned backs from him. And she would need to understand more about shifters and packs and… him. There were dozens of questions buzzing her brain.
    Lucas had picked up his shirt from the floor. He pulled it over his head.
    She scooped up her sweater as well. “Those men who tried to kidnap me were the same ones from the alley. Why are they after me? Do they think I’m going to turn them in for being shifters?”
    It wasn’t like being a shifter was a crime in and of itself, but shifter DNA had some kind of magic—the DNA itself would shift, changing to wolf or human, depending on what form the shifter took. When Mia was wolf, she was truly wolf— her DNA matched her wolfy cousins in the wild. When she was human, her DNA was unique to her, but just as human as any other person . Magic allowed them to shift, but science measured the result—which meant shifters in wolf form could commit crimes without leaving human DNA at the scene. And turning shifters in to the police so they could obtain samples of both sets of DNA for their databases was considered your citizenly duty.
    “Those wolves are from the Red pack,” Lucas said, not looking at her as he fixed the buttons on his shirt. “And the last thing they’re worried about is you turning them in.”
    She fussed with her sweater and skirt to smooth them down. “Then why are they after me?” She reached down to pick up the tatters of her underwear and bra, then realized… she popped back up and met his gaze. He had been watching her, once her back was turned. “Wait… you know them?”
    The muscles in his jaw tightened momentarily. Then he said, “They’re from Red Wolf Development.”
    Her mouth dropped open. “The internet development company?” No. Way. Red Wolf was a direct competitor for SparkTech.
    His gaze dropped, then found her shredded undergarments. He winced and dragged his gaze back up to meet hers again. “The Red pack has been a bitter rival of my father’s pack ever since they started up here in Seattle.”
    “Wait, wait, wait.” Mia held up her hands. Her underwear dangled from one. Frustrated, she threw it back to the floor. The lump of material skidded across the polished wood to the thick stone tiling of Lucas’s kitchen. She’d hardly had a chance to check out his apartment before, what with the rapid entry, fervent sex against the door, her secret revealed, and Lucas’s sudden withdrawal and anger. And now he had been holding out on her.
    Big time.
    Steamy anger started to gather in her chest. She elbowed her way around him and stomped past the open doorway to his vast gourmet kitchen. Its multiple stainless steel ovens and sparkling black granite countertops looked hardly used. The lamps hanging over the bar to the living room glowed like small white ghosts, but the rest of the apartment was lit only by moonlight falling through the bank of windows along the far wall.
    They hadn’t even taken time to turn on the main lights.
    She strode into the expansive center room. It was as richly appointed as the kitchen. A black leather couch and chair sat in the middle of the room and faced a large black-glass-paneled wall with a huge built-in flat-screen TV. Speakers were embedded in the wall, and a glass table spanned the distance between the couch and the entertainment center. A pair of strange Z-shaped chairs stood off to one side, next to a wooden table with white orb lights hanging over it. There were no pictures, just a few modern-art-looking adornments. The entire room was