Taylor let out a breath. He didn’t do it often, but his wolf was restless and the action of running his hands and face over someone familiar helped.
“Sorry,” he said, pulling back and brushing the tip of his nose with his thumb. “I won’t ruin this chance for you. I know you think I’m gonna go crazy, but I’m not.” His voice was quiet as his gaze drifted to somewhere over Johnny’s shoulder.
Johnny puffed out a breath, the minty scent of it tickling Taylor’s nostrils. “I don’t think that.” He reached up and cupped the back of Taylor’s neck, the weight of it comforting. “Look at me. You aren’t going to mess this up. You’re going to get kitted up. You’re going to smile, and you’re going to walk in there and charm the pants off them.” His mouth tipped into a small grin. “Although not literally, because that’s what got us into trouble last time.”
Taylor smirked and was about to say that yes,yeshe was going to smile and turn up the charm when there came a quiet cough from the doorway. His gaze flicked from Johnny, and he nearly jumped out of his skin at the sight of a dark-haired woman leaning against the doorframe. His eyes trailed fromher bemused smile down to her shoulders, where the sergeants’ epaulettes sat.
Taylor pulled away, but Johnny’s hand twitched on the back of his neck, holding him there for the briefest of moments. It wasn’t long enough for it to become awkward, but enough that Taylor still felt the warmth of his fingertips when he finally pulled away.
Letting out a breath, Taylor conjured the biggest, toothiest smile he could manage and said, “Morning, Sergeant.”
CHAPTER 5
A WARM WELCOME
Johnny
The sergeant straightened,her lips parting as though caught in an infinite loop of not quite knowing what to say. Her bright blue eyes darted between them, but she eventually just settled on running her hand through her hair, which was shaved at the nape and longer at the front, grazing her chin.
She glanced towards the report-writing room. “Would you like a minute?” she said quietly, stepping back into the corridor.
Johnny nodded. “Yes?—”
“Good morning, sergeant!” Taylor cut him off, stepping forward to grab her fingers in an overly energetic handshake. “Good morning, good morning, and another good morning.”
Johnny pressed his lips together and looked up at the ceiling.Here we fucking go.
Taylor released her and leant against the doorframe with a grin so obnoxiously wide it could have been misconstrued as a threat.
“Why are you smiling like that?” she said, gripping her hand as though Taylor had just popped every one of her knuckles. “Is there something wrong with you?”
Taylor’s grin only grew wider. “Many,manythings,” he said before coughing and shaking his head. “I mean, no. I am tip-top. Never better. Hunky-dory.”
Hunky-dory?
Johnny sighed and zipped up his stab vest. “Morning, Sarge,” he said, stepping forward.
The sergeant nodded, her eyes roaming over them both before pausing on Taylor’s bright ginger hair. “Haven’t we met before?”
Johnny’s stomach dropped, and he subtly leant forward to sniff the air between them. She was remarkably scentless, with only a hint of strawberry and undercurrents of deodorant. A beta, somewhat on the smaller side, but then again, everyone seemed small compared to him and Taylor. She was pretty, too, with long, curling eyelashes and full lips.
He was fairly certain neither he nor Taylor had shagged her, but then again, the Falkington/West Newton combined Christmas party two years prior had been fucking wild, and a lot of dicks had gone in a lot of holes that night.
“Ah!” the sergeant said, clapping once and pointing at Taylor. “The alpha murders. I took a statement from you, right? When they said they were sending two over from West Newton on short notice I had no idea it would be you guys.”
Taylor bristled, but the sergeant continued. “Let’s try this again,” she said, taking both of their hands and shaking them simultaneously. “Isla Wilson. I’m your new sergeant.”
“Wilson?” Johnny said, looking her over more closely. “DetectiveIsla Wilson? I thought you were in CID.”
A flush crept up her neck. “O-oh, yes, I was. This is a promotional post. Gotta put my time in with response, you know?”
Taylor straightened, pressing his shoulder to Johnny’s. “Bit shit, isn’t it? Going for a promotion and this is where they post you?”
Isla’s neck darkened even further, and she looked as though she was about to turn into a spluttering mess. However, she caught herself and clicked her booted heels together. “It’s not all bad. The team is… fine. Plus, all the downtime gives me a chance to write policies… and, er… organise… the property store.”
She was doing that incredibly British thing of trying not to sound too put out. That, combined with the Brits’ bizarre need to smile at absolutely everythingandbe passive-aggressive as shit at the same time had single-handedly been the steepestlearning curve for Johnny when he moved to the UK.
His dad had said it was because Britain’s an island, and if you fall out with someone you have nowhere to run, just water and witnesses, so keeping conflict to a minimum was an absolute must.
