Free Past My Defenses (Taming the Pack series) (Entangled Ignite) by Wendy Sparrow

staged this scene to scare all of us as revenge, but her car being tampered with doesn’t fit with that.”
    “Would she do that? Scare us, I mean?” Seemed kind of petty. There were older members of the pack who now would be worried for their lives.
    She turned to see him shrug in the darkness as they got to the last step into the den. “Cheri was complex.”
    Vanessa would have termed it raging bitch. And everyone in the pack knew Jordan didn’t spend much time with her outside of when she was fertile.
    The others had removed their clothes in the den prior to changing and left them in piles. It was easier on their clothes—and made them easier to change back into. Jordan pulled off his shirt, and she spun away from him.
    He laughed.
    “It’s not funny. It all feels different now.” Everything felt different. Twenty-four hours ago, she’d been another member of the pack. Now, it was hard to even take her clothes off with another male present. She might even feel naked when she had her fur coat on—not that they had the full spectrum of human emotions in an altered state, but she might feel underdressed.
    “Would you like me to wait for you outside?” he said in an overly polite tone.
    She turned to glare at him over her shoulder and then jerked her face away. Yeah, he was naked. “Maybe that’d be best.”
    His deep chuckle ended a moment later, and she heard the padding feet of the Alpha leaving.
    “Having a mate is pretty damn inconvenient,” she muttered under her breath. Hopefully, she’d eventually find some perks to being tied to a single…human. Though when she thought of being with Dane earlier—there’d most likely be quite a few perks. Quite a few.
    If she felt naked on the run over, it was lost in the thrill she always felt in the primal pulse of speed and belonging to it. She was the fastest female—faster than most males in the pack, and if they placed as much emphasis on hierarchy in the Glacier pack, she’d probably be beta female, second in command, despite the impact of her allergies. She loved the rush—how the wind felt brushing her body. She felt like part of the wind. And even as a wolf, she was disappointed, a fairly human emotion, when they reached the former alpha female’s place.
    Rooting through Cheri’s house with her former lover was…awk-freaking-ward. She even threw on some of Cheri’s clothes rather than wander around her place naked.
    Jordan sniffed once and gave her an uncomfortable glance. “You smell like her and you—in heat. I’m attracted and frustrated at the same time.”
    Yeah. Good times.
    Luckily, he took searching the bedroom.
    It was dark outside, which was good because the town was crawling with Lycans, and since they didn’t have to carry around flashlights, the night was a good cover. The computer monitor felt blinding as she booted it up. It seemed strange that she had left so much behind, but maybe she’d planned to return and pack more. Maybe her leaving was an empty threat, and the car was a cruel joke.
    Huh. No password. Cheri had always struck her as more paranoid than that. But then again, when she’d gone to do penance for her slip with Jordan, Cheri had laughed it off and said that she knew Vanessa didn’t have a chance with him. She’d almost seemed to have forgotten it. Vanessa wouldn’t have. If Dane so much as even touched another…
    She shook her head. Less than twenty-four hours. She’d known him less than twenty-four hours. Her body and soul needed to stop screaming “mine” every few seconds. She looked at the clock and wondered what Dane was doing. She was so pathetic.
    Holy freaking slow computer. When were her icons going to pop up? Wait, it was done. There was just…nothing on this computer.
    “Jordan?” she whispered.
    He was at her side a moment later.
    “Why would she wipe her computer completely?” That was a lot of work to recover from.
    He snarled. “She wouldn’t—not if she was innocent. I’ll get