Stepping closer to the table, he leaned over Jaime, his face mere inches from the man’s gaping neck wound.
For one horrified moment, Jes thought Jake was going to actually bite him, then she heard the sound of sniffing. He was smelling the body of her dead teammate.
She wasn’t sure if that grossed her out any less.
Straightening, Jake walked to the other table, where Neal’s body was laid out and repeated the same repulsive process. This time he stood there a longer while, eyes closed as he inhaled more deeply. It would have been fascinating if he wasn’t doing it over the bodies of two men she’d known.
Frowning, he stood and looked at Harley. “Take a sniff and tell me what you smell.”
Harley did as he asked but didn’t look happy about it. In fact, she closed her eyes completely before leaning in to sniff the wound on Neal’s neck. Jes didn’t blame her. Being so close to something like that would have been too much for her.
It took Harley a lot longer to do whatever Jake had done, but when she finally stood up, she threw a confused look at him. “There’s something weird about the scent. It’s not…right.”
Curious as to what the hell that meant, Jes glanced at Caleb, expecting Jake to ask him to smell the bodies, too.
“Omegas have a crappy sense of smell,” Jake said, as if anticipating her question. “They can register strong scents, but they’d never pick up on something as subtle as this.”
“As subtle as what?” Jes asked.
“As subtle as the scent lingering on the bodies,” Jake explained. “At first, I thought it was an alpha werewolf, but there’s something odd about it. Like the werewolf part of the scent is a cover for the one underneath it.”
Now, she was even more confused. “What does that mean?”
“It means that whatever killed your teammates wasn’t an alpha werewolf, but instead can assume the scent of one,” Jake said. “At least on the surface.”
Did he really expect her to believe that?
“A creature that can mimic the scent of a werewolf.” Glaring at him, Jes flipped the sheet back over Jaime’s body, then Neal’s. “Isn’t that freaking convenient.”
Jake flinched at her words.
And for some reason, that made Jes feel like crap.
* * *
Drinking coffee in the middle of the night probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do. Especially when she hadn’t slept in almost twenty-four hours. Something the clock on the built-in microwave on the other side of the kitchen in the bed-and-breakfast where Jes and the rest of her teammates were staying seemed to take great pleasure in reminding her. But how could she sleep when, every time she closed her eyes, all she saw were Jaime and Neal lying in their own blood on the street with their throats torn out?
Hence the whole mainlining-caffeine-at-three-thirty-in-the-morning thing.
Jes took another sip, savoring the taste of the rich, creamy, dark blend. Saying the first meeting with her new team that afternoon had been a catastrophe was an understatement. The three werewolves seemed to instinctively know she didn’t trust them. The tension in the monster SUV when they’d left the embassy had been so thick even a knife wouldn’t have cut it.
It would have been much easier if they were staying at a hotel, instead of this charming country house on the outskirts of London. At least then they wouldn’t be in each other’s personal space 24/7. But it was where she and her former team had been staying so it didn’t make sense to move. Maybe McKay had purposely left them at the B&B, figuring it would help them bond.
She snorted.Fat chance of that.
Jes glanced down at the coffee left in her mug, debating whether to get a refill, when she heard soft footsteps behind her. She looked over her shoulder to see Jake standing there.
Crap, for a guy who was six five and 250 pounds, he was light on his feet. Then again, he was a predator.
He gazed at her for a moment, an unreadable expression in his dark eyes, before motioning toward the coffeepot. “Mind if I have a cup?”
Jes had a momentary urge to lay claim to the whole damn pot—she’d made it after all. But that would be childish, not to mention hell on her relationship with her new teammate. Besides, sharing was the professional thing to do. They did have to work together. Whether she liked it or not.
“Go ahead,” she said. “Cream is in the fridge, and there’s sweetener in the cabinet beside the microwave.”
Jes studied him over the rim of her mug as he moved around the island and to the counter on the far side of the room. Jake wore a pair of black running shorts that showed off long, muscular legs and a red T-shirt with “Property of Santa Fe PD” on the front that was tight enough across his broad chest to make her think he was seriously built under it. She might not trust him as far as she could throw him, but she had to admit he looked damn good.
Grabbing a cup off the rack on the counter, Jake filled it to the brim with coffee, then opened one cabinet after another until he found a box of shortbreads. Cookies and mug in hand, he came over to the island, setting them down before hooking a bare foot around the leg of the stool next to hers and dragging it his way, putting some distance between them. Did she smell that offensive to his oh-so-sensitive werewolf nose?
