Her Lone Wolf Read Online Free Page A

Buchanan?”
    The question came from Todd Newman. Clayne had been so focused on Tanner he hadn’t even heard the training officer walk up. He shook his head. “Nah. Not a scratch on me.”
    “Good. Because John wants to see you.”
    Clayne started to ask what he wanted, but Todd turned and walked away before he could. If the director of the DCO wanted to see him, Clayne had either done something to piss someone off or John Loughlin had a mission for him. Since Clayne didn’t remember pissing anyone off lately, it was probably the latter. John liked sending him on short-notice jobs that required little planning and a whole lot of direct action. It usually meant dropping what he was doing and leaving right away, but that suited him just fine. He much preferred punching things to sitting in meeting after meeting, planning shit.
    He turned to leave, but Tanner’s voice stopped him.
    “I’m sorry,” Tanner said. “About losing it like that.”
    “Don’t worry about it,” Clayne told him. “No one got hurt. It’s all good.”
    “But—”
    “But nothing,” Clayne cut in. “Keep working on staying in control and you’ll get there. You were ninety percent done with the course before you blew a fuse. That’s better than you would have done two months ago.”
    When Tanner opened his mouth to say something, this time it was Zarina who interrupted him.
    “I told you so…”
    Clayne practically ran into Kendra Carlsen as he walked into the administrative building. The behavioral-scientist-slash-training-officer stumbled back a few steps to catch her balance. He almost reached out to steady her, but thought better of it.
    “Sorry about that,” he mumbled.
    “No problem.” She chewed on her lip, her blue eyes looking anywhere and everywhere but at him. “Um, I gotta run. John’s looking for you by the way.”
    “Yeah, I know. Todd told…”
    But Kendra was already out the door. Which was kind of a relief. Because having a conversation with her would probably be awkward as hell considering the date they’d recently gone on had been a train wreck. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration. It’d be more accurate to say they hadn’t hit it off, which in his book was the same thing. Why the hell had he let Ivy talk him into going out with Kendra? Because the feline shifter could be very persuasive when she wanted to be.
    John was on the phone when Clayne stuck his head in. The director glanced at him over the top of his wire-rimmed glasses, motioning for him to have a seat on the leather couch. Clayne dropped onto the sofa, stifling a groan as he sat back on the soft cushions. Damn, he was sore from that impromptu wrestling match with Tanner. He needed a long soak in a hot tub, preferably with a couple beers.
    “I completely understand,” John said to whoever was on the other end of the line. “I’m sending one of my best agents to help out. He’s very discreet and will blend perfectly with the team you’ve already assembled out there.” John glanced at Clayne, his mouth twitching. “Well, perhaps that’s a bit of a stretch, but he’s damn good, I can tell you that. I can’t guarantee he won’t ruffle a few feathers, but if he does, call me and I’ll smooth them out.”
    Clayne almost groaned again, except this time it had nothing to do with physical discomfort. No doubt John was talking with one of the hundreds of powerful people he knew about inserting him into someone else’s operation. He hated working with other federal organizations, but that’s exactly what was in store for him. And from what John said, he’d be leaving ASAP. So much for the beers and hot tub.
    John hung up and walked over to sit in the wingback chair adjacent to the couch. “There’ve been five murders out in Northern California,” he said as he handed Clayne a manila folder. “The FBI has assembled a standard serial killer task force, but our intel indicates we may be looking at a rogue shifter at work. Maybe even a