Her Lone Wolf Read Online Free Page B

hybrid.”
    Clayne frowned. He wasn’t usually assigned the rogue shifter cases. He wasn’t sure why. Possibly because most people at the DCO considered him just a hop, skip, and a jump from being one himself.
    “Why aren’t you sending Tate and his team?”
    Bringing in rogue shifters was one of their specialties. Over the years they’d brought in ones who’d gone nuts and started killing people, apparently like this one in California, but also ones who were scared and didn’t understand what was happening to them when they started shifting. Tate Evers and his guys were good at knowing how to handle shifters. Clayne wasn’t much good at anything but the nuclear option when it came to that kind of thing.
    “What? You have a date you don’t want to miss?” John asked.
    Clayne shifted on the couch, trying to find a more comfortable position. “Tate’s team is just better at this stuff, that’s all.”
    “Maybe so, but they’re busy.” John held up his hand. “Before you ask, Ivy and Landon are in Japan. And Tucker and Ramsey are both still in the hospital recovering from their last mission. You’re the only agent I consider qualified and available for this kind of job. This shifter’s already murdered five people, and I need someone who can track him down before he kills again.”
    “How about Lucy? If you want someone killed, she can do it.”
    John shook his head. “She’s busy with something else.”
    Clayne sighed. Damn. She was perfect for a job like this.
    “Kendra has you booked on a flight out of National. It leaves in two hours,” John continued.
    “Who’s my team member?”
    God, he hoped it wasn’t Foley. Or even worse, that asshole Powell.
    “No one. You’re going solo on this.”
    That was a first. The DCO always sent a norm along in case the shifter part of the team got compromised and had to be taken out. They must be stretched even thinner than he’d thought.
    “I’ve gotten you assigned to the task force as a liaison with the Department of Homeland Security. The director of the FBI here in DC knows I’m inserting you, so he’ll cover for you as much as necessary.”
    Clayne wondered if the guy had any idea who John was really assigning to the task force. Probably not. Plausible deniability and all that.
    “Got it.”
    “Oh, and one more thing,” John said as Clayne started for the door. “The director asked that you be as discreet as you can.”
    Clayne almost laughed. John knew who he was sending on this mission, right? He didn’t do discreet.
    But he gave his boss a nod. “They’ll never even know I was there.”

Chapter 2
    Clayne stifled a yawn as he sat back in his chair and surveyed the conference room in the FBI’s Sacramento field office. Thanks to the time change, he’d gotten there early enough to make the scheduled afternoon task-force briefing, but between the o’dark-thirty start that morning for the training exercise and the flight out from the East Coast, he was dog tired. If it wasn’t for the caffeine he’d been mainlining since getting off the plane, he probably would’ve been asleep right in his chair.
    He sipped his coffee, watching people filter into the room and take their seats. A few of them glanced his way but didn’t come over to introduce themselves. He ignored them and reached for the folder John had given him. He’d already reviewed the case file on the plane, but it was either that or sit there and try to figure out who was FBI, who was from the state’s Bureau of Investigation, and who was Sacramento PD. And he didn’t give a rat’s ass.
    As he opened the folder, his shifter senses suddenly heightened. He didn’t know why, but damn, he felt twitchy. Like he’d left the stove on at home. But he hadn’t turned his oven on in forever, so it wasn’t that. He swept the room with his gaze to see if someone was giving him the evil eye, but no one was looking his way. And since he was sitting in the back corner of the room, he