Bryce had given up dating a while back. Even with his best efforts, things had sometimes gotten messy when he walked away. And he always walked away. These days, he was only interested in casual—clean exits, easy laughs, and no one expecting more.
That had been before Tom, with his observant eyes, sharp mind, and quiet competence. All wrapped up in a lithe, powerful body.
Yeah. That was going to be a problem.
TOM
Back in his hotel room, the silence pressed in harder than expected. No sound of conversation and easy laughter. No scent of hay or coffee. Just him, and the memory of Bryce’s laugh, still warm in his ears.
And if he didn’t find something to do, he’d sit here wanting to be back there, which was ridiculous. He was going back tomorrow, and that would be more than soon enough to see Bryce. Although, for all he knew, he wouldn’t see Bryce again. Someone else might be assigned to babysit—or keep tabs on—the Council rep.
After showering, and organizing laundry in the hope his clothes might be salvageable, Tom jotted down his impressions of the pack members he’d met. If Steadman had just wanted a security sweep pre-visit, she’d have relied on Jax.
Bryce was warm, shrewd, and clearly protective of his pack. Jason and Riley matched their files—low-key, unobtrusive, with nothing suggesting the need for a closer look. Matt, although he’d said little, had a presence that commanded attention. Tom wouldn’t want to be on his bad side.
And Jesse Turner… Jesse was the one he could read least. Wary, guarded, not unfriendly but opaque. His affection for Matt, though, had shone through. Steadman wanted levers to use, and Tom thought if Matt vouched for someone, Jesse would likely give them a chance.
The other pack members had been absent. Tristan was working at the town diner, Karl and Colby out patrolling, and Christian and Dave off on some vacation that was carefully never specified. Carefully enough to raise Tom’s curiosity. Maybe he’d find out more once Tristan was back, because their brief exchange suggested he didn’t have much of a filter.
Once he was done, he encrypted the file and sent it to Steadman. Five minutes later, his phone rang.
She cut straight to the chase. “What do you think?”
He took a moment to answer. Based on all he’d seen, he tended toward believing they were what they seemed—a pack that somehow, in a still-to-be-explained way, happened to number an Argent amongst their members. The reddest flag he’d spotted, Colby’s fear and reluctance to talk to him, might easily be explained by the rough situation Bryce had referenced, the inflection in his voice making it clear thatroughwas an understatement.
But then there was the apparently casual way Bryce had deflected all of his questions about members of the pack. This pack was hiding something, he was sure of that, but he had no idea what. Could be as simple as just wanting their privacy. Certainly, his gut told him they weren’t plotting anything nefarious.
Was he willing to stake the councilors’ lives on his gut?
“I’m inclined to think that, whatever their agenda is, they don’t harbor ill-intent toward the Council,” he said carefully. “Although I’d like to spend more time with them to be absolutely sure of that. Because it’s strange—they seem not to want this attention, yet they’re the ones who contacted us about having an Argent. Why not just continue their quiet lives in what’s something of a backwater town, and no one would ever know?”
“I imagine that if you found a stegosaurus living in your backyard, you might not want the attention that would bring, yet you’d still feel the need to let the rest of the world know because it would mean our understanding of history was about to be turned on its head.”
“That, and I might get eaten,” Tom agreed.
“Stegosauri were herbivores,” Councilor Steadman said reprovingly, as if he should know.
He jumped in before she could get into a lecture about how appalling educational standards were these days. “I’m going back tomorrow for a more detailed look around the territory and to see what else I can discover, unless you want me somewhere else?”
“That’s exactly where I want you. Keep me posted,” she said, and killed the call.
Tom was left sitting on the bed, and his thoughts shifted—inevitably, involuntarily—back to Bryce. To the way everything in Tom had lit up when Bryce leaned past him to open the car door.
Bryce was smart, warm, sexy, self-possessed, and clearly interested in him. Something about Bryce’s scent had lingered with him, more intense than it should have been. Like his wolf had marked it as important.
He stretched out on the bed, one arm behind his head, but didn’t bother turning on the TV.
And the silence of his room felt like something was missing.
Chapter Seven
BRYCE
The morning air bit at his skin the moment he stepped outside. Sunrise hadn’t yet lit the horizon, but the sky had already turned a pale, promising gray that meant the day would be clear.
He should’ve been focused on the upcoming councilors’ visit, on how to try and steer through what was coming with least harm done. Matt, he knew, would do everything in his not-inconsiderable power to safeguard Jesse—including telling the Council where to go, if that was what it took—but there were a lot of different angles to come at Jesse from, and Matt couldn’t cover all of them by himself. He’d need his pack. He’d need Bryce. And Bryce had every intention of being there for him. He wouldn’t be much of a beta if he couldn’t protect his own.
But that visit was still a few days away, so Bryce didn’t beat himself up too much that his thoughts were completely elsewhere this morning. They were firmly on the driver of the SUV currently heading up their driveway.
