“Seriously, can’t you give that away? I mean, it’s probably not good for your inner wolf,” I whisper. He lets out a growl. It sounds perfectly human. For now.
“What if it hampers your ability to shift?” I persist, knowing I’m nagging.
“It won’t.”
I shrug as Otis strides in and gives me a wink.
Jax pans his gaze from me to Otis.
“Okay. You guys need to fess up.”
“What d’you mean?”
“It’s bleeding obvious you can barely keep your hands off each other. My wolf can scent the fucking pheromones in the air.”
“I guess that’s a fair cop.” Otis grins, his eyes caressing me.
Jax lets out an amused grunt, but doesn’t pursue it further. Guess he’s got a lot on his mind. Otis strides to the desk and gets the device out of his desk drawer.
“The first of many.” He puts the tiny device onto the desk.
“Tonight, you will take this with the box of cigars, enter the captain’s office in the army barracks in the Periphery and offer him a deal he can’t refuse. Make sure you haggle on the price for a while. During the exchange, place the device under his desk. It will barely have to touch a surface to adhere.”
Jax grins. “Lucky for me, the bastard’s a heavy smoker.”
Otis nods. “We will be monitoring portal activity as per usual, but there should be nothing to arouse suspicion. Virtual Jax will be in his apartment in the Periphery watching TV the whole time, so returning here unnoticed should be no problem. If the bugging device provides clear intel, we move on to phase two.”
“Sure.”
Otis puts the device in a small box and hands it to Jax, then we walk him to the door.
“Are you ready for this?” I ask Jax, my gaze panning his face.
“Probably been ready since I was thirteen years old, to be honest. It’s time to stop the bastards before they destroy us all.”
I hug him tight. “Good luck, bastard.”
“Thanks, bitch. Don’t worry, I’ll be back to annoy you soon.” He pulls away and winks at Otis. “Meanwhile, you two enjoy yourselves. Don’t spare a thought for my sorry ass on the line.”
OTIS.
“Where’s Jax?” Tippy asks as she places the shot glasses down on the table.
“Off on the prowl,” I reply jauntily.
Tippy sniffs disdainfully. I guess that was an unfortunate turn of phrase.
She doesn’t know about the mission. And she certainly doesn’t know that Jax is a werewolf.
I get why Jax doesn’t want her to know he’s been turned. There has been a long and bitter rivalry between vixen shifters, and wolves. Or more accurately between wixens and wolf sages.
The wolf sages believe that it was their species that wrote the original runes with the help of white witches.
The Wixens say they are descended straight from a mate bond between a vixen shifter and a powerful mage. They believe that it was wixens who wrote the original runes.
The argument has gone on for centuries.
And yet, neither wixens nor werewolves, as far as anyone knows, have any ability whatsoever to decipher the runes.
