The Werewolf Lawyer's Human Mate

4- Trouble

Jeremy Anderson’s POV

Another day trapped here. Sighing, I take another breath of the morning forest air, the cold burning my lungs, but once again, I pick up nothing unusual. I grit my teeth because the colder it is, the harder it is to catch anything unusual.

Scents freeze and die in the wind, making everything quieter, so quiet danger can walk right up to your front door. Thankfully, my senses are sharp. My eyes scan my surroundings again, squinting for better vision. I exhale slowly, then inhale, tasting the air again.

Nothing. Just pine, snow, and the faint trail of wild animals, mostly deer, that passed through. No threat yet, but that doesn’t mean we’re safe.

Boots sinking into the snow, I look back towards the cottage, seeing that nothing is disturbing the peaceful calm around it, then expand my perimeter. My senses reach farther than any human ever could, hearing the distant settling of ice, feeling the subtle shift of the wind, catching a whiff of anything out of place. I explored the thick snow about a kilometer around us, and still nothing.

I scan the direction higher up where Matthew Wang is located, feeling slightly uneasy.

My shoulders never quite loosen, even up here where the mountains bury the world under snow and silence. High-profile cases do that to me, and the one sitting on my desk back at the firm coils tighter than most. My client is afraid since his colleagues had been hunted and then taken out. Attempted murder that became murder. The victims are not random names pulled from a police report, either. Mr. Wang and several of his colleagues had been preparing to tear open the company they worked for, ready to drag its secrets into the open for the public to see. Whistleblowers. Brave, some would call them, and others cowards.

Before they could speak, someone hunted them down. One survived, my client.

People like to talk about whistleblowing as if conscience should always roar louder than duty. As if the moment corruption appears, everyone in the room must rise like heroes in a courtroom drama. I have never seen the world in such tidy lines. The moment I accept a case, my loyalty narrows to a single sharp point. One edge, one purpose. I guard my client’s interests the way a sentry guards a gate. When someone places their future in my hands, and I protect it without hesitation, even when the case is soaked in the kind of scandal that makes an entire city lean closer to listen.

And, in my experience over the years, has me sort of protecting the man I am representing, Mr. Wang, but now, my nurturing instinct tells me something could drag Daniel into the crossfire if I’m not careful.

I don’t scare easily, but being a father changes the equation. Taking a low profile wasn’t just smart, it was necessary. And damn it, Judith made that ten times harder than it needed to be. My ex-wife and the hurricane I survived.

The woman who fought tooth and nail to leave us… and then suddenly wanted to move back into my house last month “for Daniel’s sake.” As if abandoning him during our divorce was some minor oversight.

“You’re a man,” she screamed at me once during another argument. “You’ll still be desirable at fifty! I don’t have that luxury!”

Selfish and cruel. Completely blind to the fact that our son, our innocent boy, was the one bleeding from our choices. She handed me full custody like she was handing back a borrowed sweater. And now, suddenly, she’s back in town, insisting she’s found her maternal instinct again.

Right. More like she found out I was on a high-profile case and didn’t want to be left out of the spotlight.

My wolf instinct has me growling in frustration as I sniff the air again. Too clean. Cold hides a lot, and the storm hid even more. Which is why I keep coming out here, checking, rechecking, cataloging every shift in scent and sound. Gamma instincts don’t allow negligence. We’re bred for vigilance, muscle, obedience, sharp senses, and sharper reactions, and when the Alpha gives his word, we follow like it’s doctrine. Pack law isn’t flexible.

Stomping the snow out of my boots on the porch, I head back inside. Claire is laughing softly at something Daniel says, and the sound pulls at me hard. Too hard.

My wolf reacts instantly, rising under my skin like heat. Not a separate voice, not another mind, just instinct. Strength. The ancient warning in my blood sharpening my senses and tightening every muscle.

Claire is in trouble with a capital T. Not the dangerous kind, God, I wish it were that simple. She’s the kind of trouble that makes my wolf want to stand closer. Breathe deeper. Claim what isn’t mine to claim, and I’ve had enough of that for a lifetime from Judith.

It’s only been a few days, and already her scent has overtaken my cottage. She is beautiful and so tempting, even under the stale cottage air. Slightly sweet. Human. Vulnerable. And damn it, even attractive with messy hair, and wrapped in one of my shirts and oversized pants, cheeks still recovering from the cold.

A damsel in distress, and my instincts are reacting like she’s more than that. That’s dangerous. Because she’s human, and she has no idea what I am. What Daniel is.

Claire looks up, mug in hand, eyes wide, soft, curious. “Everything okay?” she asks, her other hand holding a pencil. My son and her had occupied themselves drawing.

“Fine,” I answer, shutting the front door behind me. My voice comes out lower, rougher than I intended. Her brow lifts, but she doesn’t push, and I’m lost at what to do now because the authorities are nowhere near reaching us, as I cannot get their human scents. I’m already fighting every instinct I have not to touch her cheek, not to smell her again, not to let her see the shift in my eyes that I can feel itching beneath the surface.

Gritting my teeth, I head straight to my room, intending to lock myself in there, but I am assaulted by Claire’s smell. I’d given her my bed to sleep in, and I am sharing my son’s bed now, since it’s a two-bedroom cottage. I can’t have her sleeping on the couch, can I? Agh, I should have…

My fingers curl involuntarily at my sides, and my jaw locks as my wolf reacts to it. The instinct surges up so violently that my muscles tighten, my chest expanding as if I need more room just to breathe her in. Heat crawls through my spine, prickling under my skin as my vision sharpens and colors deepen. My hearing swells, and fighting it, I fall to my knees, hands gripping the bed.

It’s ridiculous how fast it happens. This attraction. The need to claim the woman is tugging at everything in me.

Hell. I run a hand over my face, trying to shake it off, but the scent is all over the room, her warmth left an imprint, and it shakes me, because I haven’t had a reaction like this in years.

Not since Judith.

My wolf pushes against my chest like a restless heartbeat. Mine. The word isn’t literal, my wolf doesn’t speak in sentences, but the instinct is there. Strong. Primal. I grit my teeth, shaking my head hard, replying to myself. Not mine.

She’s a stranger. And yet my entire body behaves as if she’s already part of my territory. Her scent pulls me, and before I realize I’m moving, my head sinks into the blanket, nostrils flaring as I drown myself in her, and a low, involuntary sound rumbles in my throat.

A growl.

Jesus Christ.

I step back sharply, fingers flexing, breath harsh as if the cloth burned me. This isn’t a normal attraction between a male and female. This is wolf instinct, raw, territorial, possessive. And it’s hitting me harder than it should. I remind myself she’s human, vulnerable, and absolutely not someone I can afford to want.

But her scent is still in my lungs, warm and soft and addictive. And the wolf inside me is pacing, restless, telling me that she’s precious.

And until help arrives, I’m trapped in a house with a woman who makes my wolf want things I can’t afford to want- should not want. I mean, I can leave her- just take my son and go- but what will happen to her if I do? I hate that I feel the need to protect her.

I close my eyes and exhale slowly, trying to steady myself. Claire Dane equals trouble.

Forget danger for now, what I fear most is this… temptation… that’s already inside the damn cottage.