The woman shook her head. “Not going to happen.”
“You don’t know that.” Becca didn’t know why she was being so contrary. What better option did they have?
Officer Bitch pursed her lips. “There are no guarantees, Ms. Weitz. But I can tell you this: we’re trained professionals and we’re going to do everything we can to keep your nephew safe.”
Becca wished she found that reassuring. She didn’t. And from that well of unhappiness, her next words just formed: “I’m coming with you.”
“No.” Then the woman turned to the men. “None of you are. This is not a spectator sport.” Tonya took a deep breath and looked hard at Carl. “I recognize your authority, Maximus, but the government does not. I can’t?—”
“I know,” interrupted Carl, and Becca could tell by the tight set to his body that he chaffed at being sidelined. “That’s why we’re going to sit well back from the police and wait close by for news.”
Tonya’s eyes narrowed. “ATF will never allow?—”
Carl spoke right over her. “If Theo’s there, he might need to see his aunt. And I’ll be there in case you need an alpha shifter. Doesn’t matter the species, everyone responds to an alpha.”
They did? Apparently so, because Tonya’s expression tightened until she looked like she was sucking on a lemon. But she still argued.
“You’re injured. Doc said you needed to rest for a week.”
That thought alarmed Becca, but there was nothing she could do about it. Even she could see Carl wasn’t going to be denied as he folded his arms across his chest. “Doesn’t matter. You know I have to be there.”
Apparently she did, because she shot him an angry glare.
“Besides,” he added, as he headed for his coat, “you already knew I was coming. That’s why you stopped off here.”
“It was a courtesy stop?—”
“Whatever.”
Becca scrambled, too, pulling on her shoes and coat. Meanwhile, Officer She-Bear turned to pin Alan with her disgruntled fury. “You’re not coming.”
He didn’t say a word. He just stood there looking at her, his entire body tall and absolutely still.
“It’s dangerous work,” the woman continued, punctuating it with a glare.
Alan lifted his chin. “I’m not the one you’re angry with, Tonya, so bitch at someone else. I’m not in the mood.” And with that he set down his plate, grabbed his coat and car keys, and was out the door before anyone else.
Which left Officer Tonya standing in the middle of the room fuming silently. Becca almost felt sorry for her, but a moment later the woman recovered and fast marched out the door. She would have slammed it in Becca’s face if Carl hadn’t rushed forward to catch it.
“Don’t worry about her,” he said softly as he gestured to his truck. “Hope that in an hour, this will all be over and you and Theo will be joining me for a hearty dinner of steaks badly cooked by my own hand.”
“You’re a bad cook?”
Carl snorted. “It’s hard to mess up a steak, but I’ve done it several times.”
“Then I’ll cook. You just see that Theo is there at the table.”
“Deal.”
Then they rolled out right behind Alan’s car and Tonya’s squad car, all three of them heading to the Moss family compound of militant crazies. If she weren’t so frightened for Theo, she probably would have laughed at the absurdity of it all. She was a baker with no military skills whatsoever. And yet here she was rolling out in a convoy like she was part of a band of badasses.
CHAPTER 10
Carl was out of control, and he hated it.
It was one thing to go all Destructo on Nick’s field. The man deserved it and worse, so Carl had let his bear go wild. But that was nothing compared to what the bear wanted right now. Unfettered sexual thoughts coursed through his grizzly, and he had no idea how he was going to control it. He didn’t just want to mate with Becca, he wanted her to orgasm around his dick for a decade. He wanted to lick every part of her while he planted his children in her. And he wanted it now and damn the rest of the community, his position as Max, and her wishes in the matter.
That wasn’t logic. That wasn’t the man in him thinking. No, this was pure animal without restraint. Which made life all the more difficult because she was sitting in his truck smelling like sex while on the way to a dangerous raid.
