Page 4 of Wolf Revealed

The moment she walked away, Mike filled everyone else in on what had happened. Well, not the part about Roman being able to travel at the speed of light—or the mention of his son—but the rest of it. Most of the younger officers in the room didn’t recognize Roman’s name, but Wayne knew exactly who he was talking about. They were just discussing the possibility that Roman was the one running the new cartel trying to take over the city, when Wayne wandered over to the dead man who’d already been in the room when Mike had gotten there.

“This guy looks familiar,” Wayne said, dropping to one knee beside the body.

Curious, Mike joined him. Now that Wayne mentioned it, Mike had the feeling he’d seen the guy before, too. It was hard to know for sure with the bruises on the man’s face, though. Hopefully, the medical examiner’s office could get an ID on him.

Mike started to get to his feet when he spotted a tattoo under the man’s tattered shirt. He reached out to move the material away, revealing a huge tat of a winged horse covering the man’s chest. There was only one guy he knew with ink like that.

Crap.

“That’s Lawrence Stewart,” Mike said quietly as he got to his feet. “He was a confidential informant for the Dallas PD and DEA for years. Still is, I think—or was, I guess. I haven’t seen him in a while.” He looked at Wayne. “You might want to talk to someone at headquarters and let them know he’s been murdered. If he was still a CI, one of their other operations might have been compromised.”

Wayne’s face was grim as he let out a heavy sigh. “I’m on it.”

Fifteen minutes later, the CSI techs started processing the scene, and Mike had just finished giving his third recounting of what had happened in the warehouse during the raid, this time to a pair of detectives. He wasn’t so sure his statement was very lucid, but in his defense, he had good reason to be rattled.

He took a deep breath, trying to organize his thoughts, hoping to get his head back on straight, when Xander walked back into the room, a mix of confusion and concern on his face.

“Um, there’s a woman standing outside the crime scene tape who insists she needs to talk to you,” Xander said.

Mike frowned. “Who is she?”

“She says she’s your fiancée.”

Chapter two

“This isn’t the way I imagined things going,” Lark Hayes murmured to herself as she stood outside the crime scene tape with the other looky-loos, waiting for the SWAT cop she’d spoken with to announce her presence to Mike. Like she was here to pick him up for the prom.

Though if she was being honest, she’d be the first to admit none of this was going according to plan. Because in the original plan, she was never supposed to be here. Hell, she was never supposed to see Mike again. Then, their son, Kal, had been kidnapped, and everything changed.

Lark had gotten to the warehouse right before Mike had walked up to the door to confront the bad guys. She’d been waiting for the right time to approach him since arriving in Dallas a few days ago, but never imagined that time would come now, at a crime scene following a shootout.

Then again, when was the best time to tell Mike the son he’d thought was dead was not only alive and well, but had been kidnapped, and that she needed his help to find Kal?

Fear for their son and what might be happening to him gripped her, and she subconsciously played with the engagement ring encircling her finger. A beautiful round solitaire, with two smaller sparkling trillion-cut diamonds on either side, she hadn’t taken it off since Mike had asked her to marry him ten years ago. It was probably crazy, considering she’d assumed they’d never see each other again, but it hadn’t felt right to take it off.

Regardless of how Mike felt about her, she would always love him, and he would always be the father of her child. No matter how angry with her Mike was for leaving him—and he had every right to be furious—he would help her find their son. She knew it in her soul.

“I don’t know what your game is, lady,” a deep voice suddenly said from behind her, making her jump a little. “Because this isn’t funny at all...”

Mike’s voice trailed off as she turned around. All at once, the look on his handsome face went from annoyance and anger to shock and disbelief at the sight of her.

“Lark?” he asked hoarsely. “Is that really you?”

The anguish in his voice made her heart squeeze, and it was all she could do not to break through the crime scene tape and launch herself into his arms.

“Hi, Mike,” she said softly, not able to come up with anything more intelligent right then, even though she’d been rehearsing this moment since deciding to come back to Dallas.

Mike didn’t say anything, his expression going back and forth between confusion and utter devastation. It was agonizing to watch, and it was all her fault.

When Kal had first been kidnapped, her family had been afraid Mike had taken him. As much as she hadn’t wanted to believe Mike would ever do something like that, she knew a good portion of child abductions were custodial kidnappings. But after figuring out he had nothing to do with Kal’s kidnapping—much to her relief—she’d realized the only way to rescue their son was to ask Mike for help. Which had meant summoning her courage to face him again.

Now that she was standing in front of him, she was stunned to see how much he’d changed in the years since she’d left. Some things were the same, of course. Like his dark hair, warm brown eyes, and chiseled jaw. Not to mention the way he made her pulse race whenever he was near her. But whereas he used to be six-foot-tall and wiry, now, he was six-five if he was an inch and weighed at least two-hundred-and-thirty pounds, all of it lean, powerful muscle.

But as she stood this close to him for the first time in what felt like forever, Lark realized something else about him had changed, too.

His scent.

Cedar mixed with something masculine, almost animalistic, there was no other way to describe it as anything other than mouthwatering. Unable to help herself, she inhaled appreciatively. He’d always smelled good, but now that he was a werewolf, his scent was absolutely intoxicating.