Wanted by the Wolf: A Fated Mates Shifter Romance (SWAT Shifters Book 1) Read online

  WANTED BY THE WOLF

  Book 1 of the SWAT Shifters Series

  Bella Drake

  This is a work of fiction. The characters and events described herein are imaginary and are not intended to refer to specific places or to living persons alive or dead. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher except for brief quotations embodied in critical reviews.

  Cover by TheBookBrander.com

  Copyright © 2021 by Bella Drake

  All rights reserved.

  Chapter One

  Cole

  The assignment should have been simple. Cole Masters and his team had been tasked with retrieving a high-profile individual who was being held against his will. The low-life thugs who had kidnapped him were looking for a big payout from the man’s rich family. It was the type of rescue operation that Cole and the other members of his SWAT team had carried out dozens of times in the past. So it should have been simple.

  But this time was different. Cole felt it as soon as he entered the old warehouse where the hostage was being held—something was off, but he couldn’t put his finger on what exactly was wrong.

  He lifted his nose and scented the air, trying to determine what had caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end.

  “You smelling something?” Nash whispered, so quietly it wouldn’t have been audible to anyone who wasn’t a shifter.

  Cole frowned, then scented the air again. “I’m not sure. Don’t you smell that? It’s almost…floral. I think there’s a woman in here.”

  There should only have been three perps on guard duty, all men. The hostage was supposed to have been the only other person present. The team had spent an hour watching the building and saw only two hostiles through one of the windows at the back of the warehouse.

  No one had entered or left since the team had arrived.

  “I don’t smell anything,” Nash said.

  Cole wasn’t surprised. Nash was a bear shifter and though he had a great sense of smell when shifted into his bear form, his senses weren’t nearly as well developed as those of a wolf shifter, like Cole. A wolf’s sense of smell was second to none.

  He played the faint floral scent across his senses and turned it over in his mind. It was unlike anything he’d ever encountered. His muscles bunched. The scent was so incredible it made him want to charge into the building, consequences be damned. He fought a battle of personal restraint. He couldn’t scent any blood, but what if the perps had hurt this woman?

  Cole shook his head—which did nothing to clear it of that incredible scent or his newfound insanity—then stood up to his full height. He’d been picked for the FBI SWAT team because he was good at his job. One of the best, in fact—level-headed, focused, quick thinking and incredibly fast on his feet. Then, of course, there was the weapons training he possessed, the tactical skills, and the fact that at thirty years of age, he was in the best physical shape of his life. He and his teammates were like a well-oiled machine. They got in, got the job done, then got out with as few casualties as possible.

  So why did an innocent floral scent make him want to disregard all his many hours of training and time in the field? Inside, Cole’s wolf was agitated, doing what Cole could only have described as internal pacing. It practically begged to be set free.

  Easy boy, Cole cautioned. This will be over before you know it.

  To his left, Cole’s team leader, Flint, was also scenting the air. He turned to Cole then shook his head.

  “I’m getting nothing. Let’s move closer.”

  Cole nodded his agreement, relieved to get moving again, although he was surprised that Flint couldn’t smell anything. Flint’s sense of smell almost rivaled Cole’s. Weird. But Cole supposed that was why each individual had been picked to be on the team—because they each brought their own unique ‘gifts’ on top of all the training they had received from the FBI.

  They spread out across the room, and Hawk made a hand signal that informed the rest of the team that he was going to follow the back wall. Kit went left and made the same signal. The warehouse was in the old meatpacking district of the city and had once been used as a canning factory. It was empty now, save for a few rats, but they kept out of the way, sensing that there were bigger predators on their turf.

  The closer the team got to the back of the building, the stronger the floral scent became. Inside him, Cole’s wolf erupted into chaos, yipping and clawing to be set free. Cole tried to slow down his breathing, but his wolf kept fighting him.

  “Yeah, there’s a woman in here, alright,” Ice whispered. “She smells good.”

  Cole glared at him. “Head in the game, asshole.”

  When Ice frowned back at him, Cole sighed and shook his head.

  “Sorry,” he mumbled. It was hard to think straight with his wolf going crazy like that, and the floral scent taking over all his senses.

  He wasn’t sure why he’d snapped at his teammate, but he hadn’t liked Ice talking about the woman in such a way. Weird. Why was he getting defensive about a woman he’d never met? When they got closer still to the back of the building, the woman’s fragrance became all that Cole could smell, and that bothered him immensely. He was usually more than able to differentiate between the many different scents in a room, but it was as if he had lost that ability now. The heady floral fragrance was so potent, it made him feel lightheaded, and he had to stop moving forward for fear that he might fall on his ass.

  Nash looked back at him and frowned. “Dude, what’s up?”

  Cole shook his head and motioned for his friend to keep moving. He couldn’t have explained what was wrong with him if he’d tried. Besides, he didn’t want his team to worry about him when they were in the middle of a rescue operation.

  Each member of the team was only as strong as every other member, and if one of the guys didn’t have their head on straight, they all suffered. His team was depending on him. There were armed criminals in this building, and his teammates’ lives, and especially his partner’s life, would be in his hands. The only way that worked was if they believed incontrovertibly that their partner was in tip-top condition, both physically and mentally. Cole was far from it.

  He forced himself to get moving again, and when he finally reached the back wall, he leaned up against it and breathed a sigh of relief. There were three doors along the wall that they knew from studying the floor plans of the building, were two offices and a storage room. Every door was closed.

  Hawk put his ear to the furthest door on the right then shook his head. Empty. To their left, Kit moved in front of the door nearest to her and scented the air before she also put her ear to the door. Another negative. That meant the room behind the door nearest to Cole was the one that had to be occupied.

  They knew from the building plans that there were two rooms behind this door, a larger room which had been used as a storeroom, and the smaller room in front, which had once been an employee break room.

  Cole took a deep breath to calm himself before moving, but he regretted it instantly when he sucked down a great big lungful of that amazing scent. Inside, his wolf howled in delight. Inexplicably and without warning, Cole’s dick hardened, almost to the point of pain. His eyes widened and he turned to the wall before any of his teammates could see it.

  “I sure as hell hope that’s not for me,” Nash whispered, his expression a mixture of amus
ement and alarm. “Because you know you’re not my type, right?”

  Goddamn it.

  “Shut the fuck up,” Cole shot back.

  Nash chuckled silently, his shoulders moving up and down with the action.

  “What’s going on down there?” Hawk whispered.

  “Gray’s sporting wood,” Nash informed him.

  “What the fuck?” Hawk, Flint, and Kit said in unison.

  Ice looked too disturbed to say anything.

  Cole glared at his friend. “Thanks, bro.”

  Nash grinned. “Just keeping it real.”

  “Damn it, Cole, focus,” Flint said. “Or do you need a couple of minutes to yourself?”

  When a lot more silent laughing ensued, Cole sighed.

  “Assholes,” he muttered. “The lot of you.”

  Under any other circumstances, he’d have been laughing along with the team, but now, he felt all kinds of wrong. He slid along the wall before putting his head to the door. He could hear voices, but they were muted, which suggested they were coming from the furthest room and that the dividing door was closed. He made out four distinct voices, and one of them belonged to the woman.

  Cole frowned. He wasn’t sure why, but he had figured the woman was being held there against her will, the same as their VIP. However, the way she was talking calmly with the men suggested she was one of the kidnappers. This new information rankled more than it should have. Cole tried to tell himself it was because he didn’t like surprises, but that didn’t feel like the truth.

  “Three men and one woman,” he reported back to his team. “The back room. I assume they’re all our perps. There’s no sound from the hostage.”

  Each member of the team slid along the wall until they were lined up side by side. Flint stood by the door’s hinges and reached for the handle.

  “We go in on three,” he instructed. “Cole first, then me, then the rest of you. Stay sharp, stay safe. Let’s get this done.”

  There was no one who wanted the assignment over and done with more than Cole. His head was swimming with that intoxicating scent and he still hadn’t managed to lose his erection, despite the ridicule. He didn’t know what the hell was wrong with him, but he was ready for this day to be a distant memory.

  “One, two, three,” Flint whispered, then he twisted the handle on the door and pushed it open, keeping his back pressed against the wall.

  Assault rifle trained ahead of him, Cole entered the empty room, and one by one the team filed in after him. In here, the scent was so strong, Cole felt as if he’d been hit in the gut with a battering ram. He had to put a hand to the wall to steady himself. The hairs on his arms grew out, thickening into a light dusting of fur. What the hell was wrong with his wolf? He was acting as if he hadn’t shifted in months, but he’d gone for a run in his wolf form just a few days previously.

  Nash moved in front of him and inspected his face. “Uh, dude, you’re looking a bit green around the gills. Perhaps you should sit this one out.”

  It sure was tempting, but Cole shook his head. “I’m okay. Let’s go.”

  They gathered around the connecting door.

  “Ted’s got the lead,” Flint informed them.

  “The fuck?” Cole scowled at his team leader. “I said I’m good.”

  His eyes widened at the sound of his voice which was more animal than human.

  “Uh, I don’t think you’re good,” Nash said.

  “This isn’t up for debate.” Flint moved into position by the door. “You can play back-up or get the hell out. Choice is yours.”

  Cole bit back a retort, then got into the position Nash usually took. Whatever. The sooner he stopped yakking, the sooner they could get this done. Flint opened the door and Nash burst in first with the rest of the team on his six.

  “FBI! Get down on the ground!” Nash shouted, his rifle pointing ahead.

  Cole surveyed the scene, looking for threats. There weren’t any. The VIP was tied to a chair in the corner of the room, his hands secured behind his back, his mouth gagged. His kidnappers were sitting around arguing. None of them were holding their weapons and it took them a moment to register what was happening. Their eyes widened as they took in the SWAT team and all but threw themselves onto the floor.

  Then Cole saw the woman.

  And as their eyes met, the air whooshed out of him as if one of the guys had sucker punched him. She was beautiful beyond compare, with big brown eyes and long dark hair that shone like glass. He’d never truly understood the term breathtaking before that very moment, but he was so in awe of the woman, he could hardly breathe. Despite the slenderness of her body, there was strength in her eyes—eyes she hadn’t taken off Cole for a single second. She was utterly captivating.

  His wolf started singing in delight, howling and yipping with glee. Cole was just starting to understand what the things he’d been feeling could mean when Ice shouted at the woman.

  “You, too! Get down on the ground!”

  Her eyes widened in alarm, then she hurried to comply and get down on the floor on her stomach. The indignity of it made Cole nauseous and the scent of her fear nearly brought him to his knees. He saw red. He charged forward and drew his fist back, then slammed it into his teammate’s jaw, and as it connected with Ice’s face, one word echoed in Cole’s mind.

  Mine.

  Chapter Two

  Maya

  Maya Danvers had never been so afraid in all her twenty-seven years. Doing the right thing never looked so terrifying in the movies. She silently cussed her idiotic brother—and his friends for dragging him into this in the first place. And then she cussed him again, because if he’d just listened to her for once in his life, he would have released the poor man he’d kidnapped, or perish the thought, not have kidnapped him in the first place, then none of them would be in this whole sorry mess.

  And now, trying to do the right thing was about to get her arrested by the FBI, and facing accessory charges at best, or kidnapping charges, or…

  How had her life come to this? It was one thing to look out for Noah—that’s what she’d vowed to do since the night they’d lost their parents—but this was beyond ridiculous. She’d meant cook and clean and make sure he got to school. She hadn’t meant talk him out of drug dealing, and kidnapping, and extorting money. Threatening to kill people? He’d reached an all-time low. And now he was going to drag her down with him.

  As if this day wasn’t turning out awful enough.

  Maya lifted her head to look at him again. The FBI SWAT agent who’d punched his teammate in the jaw after the man had shouted at Maya to get down on the ground. He’d looked horrified immediately afterward and had pulled his teammate to the back of the room to talk to him while the rest of the team released the hostage, and put her brother and his friends into handcuffs.

  At the beginning of their conversation, the handsome man who had hit his friend hadn’t been able to keep his eyes off her, but then his friend had started looking at her too. When she tried to gauge the reactions from the rest of the man’s teammates, she could have sworn they were all looking at him with pity in their expressions, and she definitely didn’t miss the covert glances they were all shooting her way. What in the heck was going on? A chill ran through her spine, making her shiver. What was wrong, and why were they all staring at her like that? She was no-one, and she didn’t belong in this world.

  At the same time as ice froze her spine, heat fluttered in her stomach. She had a million other things she should be worried about right now—prison time, for example—but she couldn’t take her eyes off him. She knew shouldn’t have been so concerned with such trivial matters at a time like this, but watching them, no, watching him was utterly fascinating. There was something about the way he moved, the way he gestured with his hands and shot glances in her direction, and the intensity of his gaze, that made her think about things she definitely shouldn’t be concerning herself with right now. Like what he looked like under that uniform.


  Ugh, get a grip, Maya!

  The small group broke apart, and the female agent came up to Maya with a set of handcuffs poised, then glanced back at the handsome agent, as if asking for his permission to cuff her. He gave an almost imperceptible nod before the woman leaned down and slapped the cuffs on her wrists. That was weird. Perhaps he was the team leader, but why would the female agent have required permission to do her job?

  “What’s his name?” Maya asked, the question falling from her lips before she could prevent it.

  The agent followed her gaze then raised her eyebrows before replying. “Gray, but we’re thinking about renaming him ‘Slugger.’”

  Gray looked across from his conversation and frowned at the female agent and the man he was talking to chuckled. But they couldn’t have heard what the agent had said, they were all the way across the room and the woman had been talking quietly.

  “Gray,” Maya whispered.

  The man’s gaze snapped to hers and she shivered at the intensity of the look he gave her.

  She supposed the name was a nickname, or some sort of code name he used for work. It wasn’t like he was going to give his real name to every criminal he arrested. Criminal. That’s what he thought she was, and the thought bothered her more than the idea of going to prison, and that thought was frankly more than a little alarming.

  Still, she liked the name. It suited him somehow. She had a mind to ask if he was single, but that would have made her look like a crazy person as well as a criminal. She frowned. For a reason she couldn’t understand, she didn’t like the idea of this man thinking of her as either of those things.

  “Come on, let’s go,” the woman said, and Maya allowed herself to be led from the warehouse towards the waiting vehicles. Putting up a fight wasn’t going to do her any good—a memo some of Noah’s friends didn’t seem to have gotten. Noah was the exception, keeping his head down as one of the agents led him out by his arm, proving he had at least some sense. Maya snorted and shook her head. Better late than never.