“Then look me in the eye and tell me you’re not trying to punish Khaki because Gage put her on your team,” Mike shot back, his elongated canines inches from Xander’s. “Then maybe I’ll believe it.”
Xander didn’t feel like going through a werewolf lie detector test at the moment. He would have much preferred giving in to his animal instincts and letting the claws fly. With all the stress he’d been under since Khaki’d arrived, a good brawl would make him feel better.
Although Mike hadn’t been a werewolf as long as Xander had, he fought in a much more controlled manner compared to Xander’s more instinctive style. If it came down to a brawl between the two of them, they’d be evenly matched and get equally bloody.
By some miracle, Xander controlled himself and retracted his claws and fangs millimeter by millimeter.
“I’m not trying to punish Khaki,” he rasped, his gaze not wavering from Mike’s. “I want her on my team. And I sure as hell don’t have anything against her because she’s a woman.”
Mike regarded him in silence, undoubtedly listening for an increase in Xander’s heart rate, a hitch in his breathing, a tensing of the core muscles, or the scent of his sweat spike—or any of the dozen other signs that would tell him Xander was lying.
But Mike wouldn’t pick up any of those signs because they weren’t there. Xander might have one hell of an unhealthy attraction to Khaki, and he might have yelled at her more than he should have, but he never intended to mistreat her.
After a moment, Mike nodded, his claws and fangs retracting, his gold eyes returning to their normal dark brown. “Sorry, buddy. I had to ask.”
Xander dropped his head in exhaustion, feeling the sleep deprivation he’d been experiencing over the last two nights suddenly catching up to him all at once. “So now you know I’m not some kind of male chauvinist pig out to railroad Khaki off the team because she’s a woman.”
“Yeah, I do.” Mike leveled his gaze at him. “The more important question is, does Khaki know that?”
Chapter 5
Khaki couldn’t pull out of the SWAT compound and head home to her new apartment fast enough. There was a bubble bath and a spy novel with her name on it. She could really go for a beer too, but she hadn’t picked up any when she went grocery shopping the other day, and she didn’t have the energy to stop for some.
God, what a crappyday.
She sighed. Okay, maybe it hadn’t been all bad. On the upside, she’d picked up the team’s room clearance techniques faster than she thought she would. Regardless of that hiccup when it came to doing it in the dark, she’d earned big points with every guy on the squad except Xander. She knew because they’d told her so over lunch. She’d appreciated their support, more than they would probably ever know, but when Cooper told her to just keep doing what she’d been doing and they had her back, she’d just about lost it. She’d actually had to go to the ladies room to “freshen up” so they wouldn’t see the tears in her eyes.
Khaki hadn’t felt that kind of support in a really long time, and she hadn’t realized how much she’d missed it.
She only wished she’d impressed her squad leader as much. No matter how hard she worked, or how well she did something, it was never good enough for him. Worse, there’d been times over the past few days when it seemed like he couldn’t even stand to be in the same room with her. It was like he thought she had cooties. Or smelled funny.
Khaki stopped at a light, tapping the steering wheel of her new Mini Cooper in time to the music on the radio and thinking about the other problem she had with Xander—one that had nothing to do with him and everything to do with her.
Regardless of how hard she tried to fight it, she’d developed a weird werewolf obsession with her squad leader.
She’d been attracted to Xander the moment she laid eyes on him. She liked the way he looked and loved the way he smelled. But since that first meeting, her attraction had turned into something that could only be described as obsessive. And since she’d never felt this way about any other man, she could only assume the source of the problem was her inner werewolf.
Hence, werewolf obsession.
She hadn’t slept through the night since arriving in Dallas despite falling into bed exhausted at the end of every long day. But no matter how tired she’d been, she’d fantasized about her hunky squad leader instead of sleeping. And she’d had some vivid fantasies.
A car’s horn jolted her attention back to the traffic light.Crap. How long had the light been green? She punched the gas, and her Mini surged forward with a squawk of rubber.
A big SUV zipped past her in the fast lane, a woman old enough to be her grandmother behind the wheel. Khaki barely noticed, her thoughts on Xander again.
Having these thoughts about her squad leader was stupid, especially considering her previous experience with workplace romance. Why was she so attracted to him anyway? All the guys on the team were gorgeous, so why was he the only one she was drawn to?
Being near him made her heart beat so fast, it felt like she was running a race. And when he had put his hand on her back during the training exercise today, it had felt like electricity coursing through her body.
But the thing she was having the hardest time dealing with was his scent. He didn’t just smell nice, or yummy, or even delicious. He smelled intoxicating. When they were working close together, especially in tight spaces, breathing in his scent had her thinking some really crazy stuff. Like how much she wanted to throw him down and jump him like a wild animal. More than once she’d felt her hands trembling as they’d itched to reach out and touch him.
It was scary how bad she had it for him—and frustrating to know he obviously couldn’t stand her.
Khaki turned into the parking lot to her apartment complex. As crazy and frustrating as her obsession with Xander was, she could control it. It would take willpower, but she had willpower to spare.
What had her most worried was what had happened in the House of Doors today when Xander had turned off the lights. Because she didn’t think that any amount of willpower was going to be able to help her deal with her inability to shift.
Over the three days she’d been with SWAT, she’d seen every member of her squad shift to some degree. And they were able to do it like it was nothing. She’d seen claws popping out and retracting like they were controlled with a switch. Max had gotten in a tussle with Alex over something stupid, and she’d watched in fascination as his jaw had actually widened to make room for a scary number of really long teeth. There’d even been scruff starting to grow in along his jawline as he and Alex faced off against each other.
