Adrian
When he looks up and meets my eyes across the cafe table, I let out a smirk. I've been searching for him all day. Jamie is a puzzle, one that I'm finally getting closer to solving. It all makes sense now. The confusion is gone now because I know what he is.
Last night, I had the best blow job of my life.
And it wasn't in reality, at least not in the physical sense. I'd felt it. The pull, the trees, the moonlight. the way his heartbeat had matched mine. Wolves can cross minds when the bond is strong enough, but only with another wolf. And there he was, human, supposedly, pulling me into his dream like it was nothing.
I'm an Alpha. Only stronger Alphas like me can do what Jamie did last night. An alpha or my mate.
Jamie is one of the two.
I know which one I'm leaning into.
I'm not in full panic mode yet. I should be freaking out because he is a man. I had a man suck my dick, and I should be panicking because I'm not attracted to men. Never have been...until this moment.
Jamie shifts in his seat, fingers tightening around his coffee cup. He looks restless, like he's trying to play off the unease. He must remember his dream. He must know that he got down on his knees and almost sucked the soul out of me. He has my cum inside him. He must feel all this, too.
He owes me a fucking kiss.
"You stalking me, track star?"
I almost smile. He's got a sharp tongue for someone who has no idea what he is. I can't lay out all my cards too soon. A lot is going on right now. He must be a wolf. Someone turned him.
But who?
"Maybe," I say. "Or maybe you just have a habit of looking like you're about to bolt."
He snorts. "You make everyone nervous? Or am I just the lucky one?"
"Depends who's asking."
For a second, his lips twitch like he's fighting a smile, but all I can do is stare at them, imagining those full lips around my cock.
Fuck.
Suddenly, whatever this is feels more dangerous than anything I've ever had to deal with. There's a faint thread between us. the same one that tugged me into his dream. It's alive right now, under the noise of the caf, quiet but insistent.
"Rough night?" I ask, trying to get him to talk about the dream, or at least a semblance of it. I know what he is now, but I don't know his story. I don't know if someone did this to him, or if this is what he has always been.
I need more information.
He hesitates, then shrugs. "More like rough dreams."
I keep my tone casual. "You wanna talk about it?"
He shakes his head, but I see the guilt, or is it embarrassment? He looks flushed, and I already know he's thinking about it. About me, and how much he wanted it. "You wouldn't even believe me if I told you."
I smile, leaning closer. "Try me."
He chuckles. "Have you ever had a dream so real that you wake up and you can taste it?"
He could still taste me?
Fuck, that means it was stronger than any I've experienced. He is watching me, waiting for an answer, but all I want to know is how it felt, and if he wants to do it again. I really want to cash in on that kiss. The bond hits harder. I can almost hear his wolf stirring. Calling to me, trying to come out of the edge. It's faint, and it takes a lot of concentration, but it's there.
That confirms it. He's one of us.
And he has no clue.
"Jamie," I say quietly. "If you start feeling… strange. Different. You tell me, okay?"
He laughs, but there's no humour in it. "You offering therapy now?"
"Something like that."
Before he can answer, Luca's voice brushes my mind through the pack link. You were right. We found blood near the old trail. Humans mixed with wolves. Fresh. There's a body.
I tense. Don't move until I get there.
"Everything okay?" Jamie asks, catching the shift in my expression.
"Yeah," I lie, standing. "I just remembered I have to be somewhere."
He frowns. "Of course you do."
But as I leave, I can feel his eyes on me, and something deeper than sight, something between us like a low, shared heartbeat.
Because whether he knows it or not, he called me into his dream. And that means our lives are already entangled in ways neither of us can undo.
The smell hits before I even reach the edge of the trees. Iron, wet earth, and something older. Something is wrong. By the time I get there, Luca and Ethan are waiting for me where the asphalt breaks into dirt. Luca's jaw is tight. The air is still, heavy with what's been found.
"Show me," I say.
He doesn't answer, just leads me into the clearing. The body lies half-hidden by fallen leaves, throat torn open. I crouch beside it, muscles tight, the tang of blood stinging the back of my throat.
It's not the brutality that gets me. I've seen worse shit than this. It's the bite. Too deliberate. Not a kill for hunger, or rage. It's a fucking turning bite.
Someone tried to make this human into a wolf.
And failed.
My chest goes cold. "Do we know who this is?"
Luca shakes his head. "No ID."
I look back at the man. He looks as young as Jamie. Maybe a year older. His hands are scraped raw, as if he'd tried to crawl away. The sight twists something in my chest.
"Any scent when you got here?" I take a deep breath, trying to see if I can pick up on anything familiar.
"Too many," Luca mutters. "Ours, rogues, the forest. It's been scrubbed. Whoever did this knew what they were doing."
That scares me more than the body. Jamie being a wolf is not a coincidence anymore. Did the same person do this, too?
Is it someone from my pack?
My fucking family?
A rogue might kill out of instinct, but cleaning up a scene.... that's strategy. This was fucking planned.
"Then it's organised," I say. "Not random attacks. Someone's building something."
Ethan exhales. "A pack."
I don't respond. Because the truth already sits heavy in my gut. I can feel it. Someone's trying to make wolves.
And they're close enough to smell the smoke from our fires.
The silence stretches. The night air is cold, but it burns as I breathe. My thoughts flicker to Jamie, his eyes in the dream, that moment his wolf broke through for the first time.
He's part of this. Somehow.
Luca glances at me, reading my thoughts like always. "You think it's connected to Jamie?"
"I don't know what to think," I admit. "But he's not just human, Luca. Last night proved that. And if whoever did this finds out what he is—"
"They'll come for him."
I nod once, slow and deliberate. "Put a team on him. Discreet. I don't want him to know. And I don't want this getting out."
Luca hesitates. "You think he's in danger?"
I look down at the blood soaking into the soil. "I think danger's already looking for him."
The forest feels alive around us, the air humming with something restless, ancient. The pack will want answers, the council will want control. But all I can see is Jamie's face, pale under the streetlight, his eyes glowing gold.
Whoever's turning humans into wolves just sent us a message. And I'm starting to think Jamie might be the reason why.