Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

E ven cordoned off, the Palace of Fine Art was a security pain in the ass. The Greco-Roman rotunda and colonnades just outside the Presidio were closed to the public for the special event, but open grounds surrounded the structure, and a lagoon flanked one side.

A freaking lagoon.

Sure, a shallow one, but the water was murky as hell.

Anything and anybody could hide in that thing.

Bolt itched to walk the perimeter and watch the drone footage Heimdall Shield had filmed earlier in the day for possible sniper locations. He knew he acted paranoid, but his intuition had saved his ass more than once. And right now, his senses screamed at him to get Regie out of this freaking party to a safer location .

Setting up an operation with less than a day's notice always freaked him out. And he'd much rather be in control of handling the security than posing as arm candy.

He'd never been good at socializing, and the people making small talk were duller than dirt.

He liked the art. There were some great pieces on display, showing amazing artistic talent. Not that he knew much about creative stuff, but he could tell when a painting or sculpture elicited emotion.

The people viewing them, however, he did not like.

Not. One. Bit.

If he had to listen to one more rich moron listing their art collection by value instead of describing what it looked like or why they liked it, he'd scream.

Regie tugged on his arm as he steered her toward a table of refreshments. "You seem tense. Did things not work out last night?" She wore a blue dress in a slinky material that tied in a bow under her left breast. He had spent a long time studying the knot, trying to figure out if untying it would make the soft material slide off her gorgeous body.

Dragging his gaze up, he noticed how the color of the dress set off the blue in her eyes.

"Bolt?" She shook his arm .

His gaze moved lower, and he got lost in the softness of her mouth. What would it taste like to kiss her?

His wolf rumbled. Claim her.

That shook him out of the weird trance, and Bolt quickly forced himself to stop obsessing about the woman's lips and instead concentrate on the words they were saying. What had she been talking about? Right, last night. "There were some unforeseen complications." That was the understatement of the year. They had no clue what had happened to Bayden. Mia kept digging through traffic camera footage, but there were none directed at the spot where their younger pack member had disappeared.

"I know you can't tell me details about another case, but I'm sorry you're worried."

He forced his muscles to relax and appear less tense, but then he looked at her lips again, and a different kind of tension entered his body.

He'd lied to Justice. This job was not like any other job.

This woman was not like any other woman.

He was so screwed.

She'd named her company after the goddess of forbidden love. Did the deity also handle forbidden lust? Because he needed major help here.

Bolt reached for a glass of something beige and bubbly and handed it to Regie. "How about a drink, Babe? "

She took the beverage, but shook her head. "Please lose that nickname. I'll have a sip if you want to toast with me, but champagne on a sunny afternoon will give me a major headache later on."

So that's what the liquid was: champagne. "Yeah, we should toast. After all, you did just announce our engagement."

Regie blushed and glanced at the ring on one of the fingers holding her glass. "It wasn't as much of an announcement as me just introducing you to some people. The official declaration of our upcoming nuptials will still be on Friday at the benefit gala."

What would it be like to be married to a woman like her for real?

His wolf pushed its way to the surface. Mine, it whispered.

Stand the fuck down , Bolt ordered.

The beast chuffed its mirth.

This was not going to go well.

From her puzzled expression, he realized he'd been staring at her for a while and reached for his own glass to hide his weird reaction. "Let's toast then, even if neither of us can actually drink this stuff." He clinked his glass against hers.

She smiled and took a small sip while he pretended to drink .

A drop of champagne clung to her rosy lips as she lowered her glass, and he became obsessed with its slow glide downward. Without thinking, he leaned down and captured her mouth with his.

Regie froze for a beat, but then her lips softened, and her body melted into his. Bolt put down his glass so he could use both hands to pull her closer. He deepened the kiss and thrust his tongue into her mouth.

Stars exploded behind his closed eyes, and he groaned deep in his throat.

She exhaled and slid her hand to the back of his neck, nails scratching his hair.

He fucking loved it and pressed his erection into her lower stomach as his hands slid lower, cupping her ass.

Regie moaned, standing up on her toes and wiggling so that her core met his cock. She gripped his neck and tilted his head so her lips could get better access.

He slid a hand lower, gripping her skirt to pull it up, when the sound of camera clicks cut through his brain-fog of lust. He'd just made them prime targets for the journalists covering the event.

Carefully cupping Regie's face between his palms, he gently ended the kiss, mentally cursing the interruption. But she deserved better than having a picture of him mauling her on the tabloid front pages .

She made a sound close to a kitten growling and blinked rapidly at him. He tilted his head toward the photographers, and she quickly caught on. Blushing, she hid her face in his shoulder, and he turned to shield her from the cameras still going off.

Bolt pushed her in front of him and guided her around the table and between two of the columns surrounding the rotunda. Out of sight from the photographers, he grabbed her hand, and they dodged between the trees planted in a semi-circle until they reached the end of the structure.

"I'm so sorry," Regie said.

He shushed her as he increased his stride, dragging her with him until they reached a wooded area. Once they were behind the trees, he released her hand and turned toward her. "Are you okay?"

"Me?" she asked. "I'm the one that accosted you right in front of a bunch of journalists. I'll understand if you don't want to work on this case anymore. I don't know what came over me." She touched her lips, a deep blush creeping up her neck and cheeks.

He wanted to laugh. She thought he'd be offended because she returned the kiss.

Justice's voice crackled in Bolt's earpiece. "That was some show. You convinced me that your romance with the Ice Queen is real."

"Shut the fuck up," Bolt growled .

Regie took a step back, shock displayed on her face.

"Not you," he hastened to explain, pointing to his ear. "The guys in my ear." That sounded bonkers, but she must have caught on that the rest of the security team were riding his ass because her blush deepened.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Don't be," he said. "I'm not. I'd do it again if I didn't know we're being watched."

Her eyes rounded, and she opened her mouth to say something, but then a deep growl sounded behind him.

He quickly turned, pushing Regie behind him.

A gray wolf with a deeper gray saddle and mask faced him. Dried blood matted several spots of its fur. The wolf pawed the ground and growled again.

Bayden in animal form.

Worse, a wounded Bayden in animal form.

"Don't make any sudden moves," Bolt warned Regie.

"Wasn't planning on it," she muttered from behind his back, causing him to smile.

"I found Bayden," Bolt said, knowing Justice still listened in. "Actually, I found Bayden's wolf."

Justice cursed in his ear, and mentally, Bolt echoed the sentiment .

Meanwhile, Bayden slowly crept toward them, panting heavily as if in pain.

This situation had turned bad. Really, really bad.

Bayden had been hurt and in wolf form for at least twenty-four hours now. A hurt wolf, especially a young wolf, would attack first and ask questions later.

Well, once they were back in human form, they'd ask questions.

Bolt needed to assert his dominance over Bayden to make sure the younger wolf didn't do anything stupid. But Bolt had no idea how to do that in human form. When they trained the younger pack members to respect the wolves in charge, they were always just that: wolves. Only Arek could project alpha vibes in human form and establish dominance over the pack.

"Stay calm," he said to Bayden.

"I am as calm as I possibly could be in this situation," Regie muttered. Even now, the woman impressed him. Any other person would have been seriously frightened by this point. And judging from the shaking of her body that he could feel behind him, she felt afraid, and still she kept her cool.

The younger wolf shook its head, growled, and lowered its front as if ready to jump.

Regie gripped the back of his jacket, a small whimper sounding in her throat .

All of a sudden, Bolt's wolf burst to the surface. Protect True Mate , it growled.

He tried to suppress his animal form, but the beast would not listen to his mental orders. It exploded its will through his limbs, forcing them to change at a rapid pace. The air shimmered, and before he could react, they were in lupine form.

Covered in ripped fabric from the suit he'd been wearing, the wolf pounced on Bayden. It clamped his wolf's neck in its jaw, asserting its dominance and growling for the younger wolf to stand down.

Bolt could only imagine the swearing Justice would have shouted in his ear had the microphone still been in there. But it was as gone as keeping the secret of who he truly was from Regina, their client.

He had just created a cluster fuck beyond all cluster fucks.