Wolf's Capture by Eve Langlais

can smell it.”
    “That’s disturbing.”
    He couldn’t help but laugh at the way she uttered it. “Only to those with a less than refined sense of smell. To those of us who live every moment with it, it’s all part and parcel of how we perceive the world, and it influences our acts.”
    No denying scent, especially hers, certainly had an effect. Even though he’d yet to make up his mind on Layla, he couldn’t stem his attraction to her. Not one bit.
    Nuzzling her didn’t help. Spooning her body to follow its every contour just made it worse. She ensorcelled him without doing a damned thing.
    He wasn’t alone in suffering from the attraction. “How do I make it stop?” she asked.
    The idea that she couldn’t help but want him made his longing even fiercer. He chuckled. “Easy. Don’t desire me.”
    “I don’t want to. But I can’t seem to control it.”
    So grudgingly admitted. His wolf preened and wagged its tail, but Brody wanted to show his thanks in a more sensual fashion. He let his lips run over the skin of her neck. “Well, how about I help you with your problem? You don’t have to worry about seducing me. I don’t sleep with the enemy.” Not entirely true. If the mission called for it, he would have sex. For Intel, of course.
    He could almost hear his old sarge bark, Boy, sometimes you’ve got to do ugly things. And sometimes you get to fuck pretty things. Just always remember, it’s for the good of the mission.
    A sigh left her in a big rush of air. “I’m not the enemy. For you at any rate. You, however, are a problem.”
    If they weren’t enemies, the possibilities expanded. Or not.
    Brody needed to remind himself that, prisoner or not, she’d abetted in some crimes against the clan. “Even if we’re both prisoners, it doesn’t put us on the same side. You helped attack my town and the people I’m responsible for.” In actuality, she’d done no worse than Gene. And we managed to forgive him. After punching and kicking him a few times to vent. Or, as Sarge would have called it, given him some tough love.
    “I had to.”
    A disbelieving snort left him. “How did you have to launch wild wolves at people?”
    “And bunnies. Don’t forget the vicious bunnies.”
    His lips twitched. He would not think of the big-eared menaces that had swarmed the town. Good thing he liked rabbit stew. “This isn’t funny.”
    “You’re right, it’s not. I’m sorry if I had to attack people you knew, but I did what I had to. I don’t have many choices. And you might note that while my supposed side suffered numerous fatalities yours didn’t as far as I know.”
    To that Brody snapped his mouth shut as he made that connection. “You mean, you purposely held back?”
    “I’m not saying anything except apparently wild animals are no match for real shifters.”
    Brody clamped his lips as it suddenly occurred to him the girl was trying to avoid spilling secrets with a camera and microphone watching and listening to their every move.
    But she had one fact wrong. “Someone did die. That first driver whose truck was hijacked back when everything started.”
    “Oh he wasn’t killed by us. The bugger keeled over on his own. Bad ticker. Which is usually rare for your kind.”
    Rare, but not unheard of. While they did heal at a quicker rate than humans, they were still susceptible to imperfections and the signs of aging.
    Given her loquacious mood, he decided to see what other information he could glean. Starting with her powers. “You control animals.”
    “And some insects, too.”
    “That’s just weird.”
    “Weirder than howling at the moon and needing a flea bath?”
    “I’ll have you know, I get my flea and tick shot every spring before the season starts.”
    She couldn’t completely mask her snort of amusement. “Good to know. I won’t waste my time ordering my insects to bite you.”
    “So you can do small, what about big? How large of a beast can you control?”
    “It’s not the