Taze (Rise of the Pride #11) - Theresa Hissong Page 0,1

a recall button had been triggered in his brain, he remembered her natural scent mixed with the soft sheen of sweat during their training. There was nothing more he wanted to do than lay her flat on the mat and lap up her essence right there in the training facility.

“You can’t keep doing this to yourself,” he scolded his cock.

With a quick release, he hoped it would hold him over until the next time he thought of her…which would be in fifteen minutes. Sometimes, it was less.

Throwing on his clothes, he hurried out the door and entered the main house where the alpha lived with his mate. Seeing her with their young, it reminded him to check in on his parents. They lived next door to Kye and Evie, and he’d been too busy to check up on them.

Agent Tabor was already there when he arrived, so he gave the human male a curtesy nod. Taze noted how he stood to Talon’s right…the usual place of Winter, Talon’s second-in-command. In the last several months, the human had become an ally in their fight, and Talon was trusting him more than the others. He’d been the one to alert them to some weird happenings with Agent Murdock, and since that time, Tabor had been going behind his partner’s back to send the Guardians to the correct locations to round up the rogues.

“What’s going on?” Taze asked as Noah entered the room. He took a position against the wall where Storm and Taze were perched.

“For once, I really don’t know,” Noah whispered.

Taze shifted from foot to foot in anticipation of their leader. As he glanced around the room, he noticed the others were on edge, too. Whatever the alpha had to say must be important. He hoped it was a lead in the case against Holden Manzelli; the alpha who was turning the local wolves.

He was looking at his feet as the door opened. Her scent hit him like a ton of bricks the moment it crossed his nose. Calla came in through the door without knocking, and made her way over to Talon’s desk, standing at his left side. She carried a manilla folder tight against her chest. He wondered why she was even at the pride, because she’d just left not an hour before to go to work.

“We’ve gathered you here today because there have been some new developments,” Talon began as he stood. Calla’s eyes scanned the room, lingering on his for an extra second before she brought her gaze back to their leader. “Agent Tabor has been conducting a side project for the last several months, and we have some very important information to share with you.”

Taze felt the wave of calm his leader sent out among his Guardians. With the magic, Taze felt his shoulders relax for the first time in weeks.

“As we’ve known, Agent Murdock has been seen with Magan Amburo,” he stated. Everyone nodded their understanding. “Her brother is a major drug dealer in the United States, and we’ve been looking for a connection between the three of them regarding the Khat we’ve found on the Gadaí. I asked Calla to use her tracking skills to dig up any information she could on the brother and sister. I was shocked to find that she already knew them. Calla, would you like to present the information?”

“Sure,” she said, holding her head high. Taze felt a moment of pride. He’d always known Calla was a great tracker. In their training, she could hunt better than most Guardians. “The alpha came to me for help in finding Magan and Axlam Amburo, hoping they had some ties to Agent Murdock. The moment I heard their names, I informed Talon, against the human’s laws of keeping private information private, that they were clients to one of the lawyers in my firm.”

“What?” Taze and Malaki barked at the same moment. Talon’s eyes narrowed as he sent out more of his magic to calm the males. The panther inside Taze’s mind didn’t get the memo, though, and he cursed inside when his mating scent filled the air.

“Stand down,” Talon roared, pointing a finger at Taze and Malaki as they both lurched toward the other. Savage was there with a strong hand against Malaki’s chest, stopping her brother from going after him. “Both of you!”

Taze didn’t even notice his eyes had shifted to the amber of his beast, and didn’t that say something the moment his mating scent traveled through the tightly packed