“Probably true,” he agreed. “Still, I wish I’d done better.”
“Ditto.” She smiled. “Losing control and slinging you across the room wasn’t my finest moment, either.”
“Don’t forget stealing my truck.” He grinned. “That ended up getting me called into my boss’s office because someone in the neighborhood saw me run after you completely naked.”
She clapped her hands over her mouth with a laugh. Jumping up, she joined him on his end of the couch, curling her legs under her and staring at him with big, wide eyes. “You’re kidding, right? Did someone really see you?”
“They did. Fortunately, one of Gage’s friends on the force intercepted by a friend of my boss, and they dealt with it themselves without anything going on paper. Still, having to explain to my commander why I was chasing after you naked wasn’t fun. Not that I’m blaming you for anything that happened. It wasn’t your fault. Some of it comes from you going through your change so fast. The rest is part of you being an omega.”
“What do you mean, going through the change so fast?” she asked, still smiling. “And what’s an omega?”
“Okay, Werewolf 101 time.” This was why they were sitting on the couch at three o’clock in the morning and not buried in a tangle of arms, legs, and sheets. “The period of time between the traumatic event that triggers the change and the first tangible evidence of that change—claws, fangs, and glowing eyes—is usually three or four weeks. But in your case, you did it in about three days. The speed of your change almost certainly made everything a lot rougher on you than it normally would be. And in my defense, it also forced me to tell you what was happening a lot sooner than I wanted to.”
Her heart beat faster. “This just got real—fast. But let’s start there. Why is my change happening faster than it should?”
“A lot of rules are changing for werewolves lately,” he explained. “From what we can tell, it’s because our pack has been discovered by hunters—people who kill werewolves like us because they hate us for what we are. We first became aware of their existence back in June, but they didn’t come at us directly until a month ago. We dealt with them, but it was costly. They know how to hurt us.”
“Those inmates who broke out of Coffield,” she said.
He lifted a brow. “How’d you know?”
“Your heart only beat hard like it is now a few times,” she said. “When we were fighting on the roof of that gangbanger apartment, when we were making out the other night, and when you talked about those men escaping from prison. The first two obviously aren’t in play now, so that leaves the men from the prison break.”
It was his turn to sit and stare. Damn, she was good.
“Yeah. There’s a chance they left the country, but it’s also possible they stayed around to take another shot at us. Regardless, from the moment we first heard of these hunters, strange stuff started happening to the Pack.”
“Like what?”
“Some new abilities for one thing,” he said. “But the biggest difference is finding our mates when we’d always been on our own before.”
“And new werewolves going through a three-week process in three days,” she added slowly. “It makes sense, I guess. Like animals in the wild learning how to run within hours of their birth so they don’t get eaten by predators.”
Brooks hadn’t thought of it that way, but the analogy was a good one. “We’ve pretty much come to the same conclusion. Sorry it makes it tougher for you, though.”
“It’s not your fault,” she said, waving off his concern. “What about the omega thing? Does that have something to do with the hunters, too?”
He hesitated. This part was going to be more complicated. “No, being an omega has nothing to do with hunters. It’s strictly a werewolf thing.”
Selena sat there waiting patiently.
“There are three kinds of werewolves that we know of.” Man, he hoped he didn’t screw this up by saying something wrong and messing up everything. “There are alphas, which are big, strong, aggressive werewolves. They can take a lot of damage and heal very quickly, and they’re generally in control of their inner wolf half all the time.”
“You’re an alpha,” Selena announced.
He nodded. “Yeah, I’m an alpha. Along with nearly every one of my SWAT teammates.”
“Your pack!” She grinned, her face lighting up. “Cooper and the other guys who helped rescue me. They’re all werewolves. And nobody knows?”
Brooks returned her smile, forcing himself to stay on topic. “The second kind of werewolf is the beta. They’re smaller and not as strong as an alpha. In fact, they’re not aggressive at all. They don’t heal as fast as alphas, but in return, they have zero control issues and a strong instinct to bond with other betas. It helps them form tight, supportive packs.”
She considered that. “Okay. So, alphas, betas…and omegas are obviously the third type of werewolf. I’m an omega. What are my defining characteristics?”
His heart started to thud hard as hell at the question.
Selena frowned, obviously picking up on it. “What is it? Is there something wrong with being an omega?”
Brooks shook his head, taking a deep breath at the same time, both to control his heartbeat and make sure Selena didn’t take what he was about to say the wrong way. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being an omega. I’m only talking in generalities, okay? And for every rule in the werewolf world, there’s an exception. Like a few months ago, a beta ended up turning into an alpha because her pack was threatened. Just yesterday, I learned that one of the alphas in my SWAT pack is actually an omega, too. So, nothing I’m talking about is etched in stone, all right?”
