The Falcon Ridge Series Book 1 She's Not For You
Chapter 4

(Chapter song ‘Don’t Threaten Me With A Good Time' by Panic! At The Disco)

ANNA

"What's up, bitches?"

I stroll into the station with my red motorcycle jacket slung over my shoulder, my other hand in the pocket of my red leather boot cuts and sporting a white t-shirt.

I have a huge smile on my face. I love being me.

The station is buzzing with day shift and night shift agents exchanging reports for shift change.

A few raise their heads and crane their necks. "Hey, Anna."

I jut my chin and bounce my brow as I walk by. These are my people. Cool, loose and badass. A lot, like me, ride the edge of protocol. I’m not afraid to admit I’ve been formally disciplined for my actions more than once. There have been a few who have gone too far with it. They were promptly removed. We already have a reputation of being too rough. We don’t need guys solidifying that for us.

I walk down the aisle and park my ass on Greg's desk. Three desks from the back where Drake's office is. He’s OK. He wants me, but he has a chosen mate. I don’t break up families.

He smirks as he side eyes me. His eyes undress me as usual. He pushes his chair back and crosses his arms. "Damn, Anna. When are you going to let me make an honest woman out of you?" The guy doesn’t even hide his unfaithfulness.

I still tease the shit out of him. I like the attention. "Not in this lifetime, sweet cheeks." I smile. "How was the border?"

"You covering for Dea tonight?" He raised a brow.

I nod.

He pulled out a report and handed it to me. "Quiet. Nothing out of the ordinary. I think these rogues are getting sick and tired of having their asses handed to them."

I look over the report and the map of the area. "Well, just proves we're too damn good." I drop the report on his desk.

"Anna!" Drake barks from his office.

I look up and he's waving me over from behind his desk. He’s on the phone and staring at me through his open office door.

"Well, duty calls." I stand up, turn his chair and slide my lips to his ear. "If I didn’t care about your mate, I’d make a dishonest man out of you in a heart beat." His face flushes and he turns his head to me. I smile, wink and tap his shoulder before leaving to see Drake.

Drake is waiting for me by the door. "What's up, boss?" He shuts the door and walks behind his desk.

"I just got off the phone with the Security Unit. They're sending a group of troops who have never been part of this unit, to shadow us. They want to see how we operate." He sits and pulls out some files.

This raises my blood pressure. "Really? We're babysitting the robots now?" I walk to the chair in front of Drake's desk and slam down into it.

"Anna." Drake warned. "You need to rein in that attitude. These guys don't tolerate that as well as I do."

I scoff. "Please. It's not like what we do is complicated. We run the border and if something shows up, we kill it." I slump more and cross my leg. I glance at him as I pick at my nails.

He ticks up the corner of his mouth. "Regardless, the Alpha wants his men informed. So please, for my sake, try and be a good girl tonight."

I smirk. "I'm as good as I need to be, boss."

"That's what I'm afraid of. Go to your patrol." He shook his head as I got up and left.

I head to the locker room and get undressed. The back door to the locker room to allow us to enter and exit without having to parade our naked bodies through the station. It may not mean anything, but I don’t need to feed guys like Greg, fodder for his sick fantasies.

I step outside and breath in the night air. I run, jump into the air and shift in a hot second. My black paws hitting the asphalt as I head for the trees to the south side border.

****

RIVER

"Alright, men. Hustle up!"

The Head of Operations, Alpha Duke, stands in front of us with hands clasped behind his back, waiting for us to fall in line.

The Falcon Ridge Unit is just how you’d expect a military operations base to be. We all start as recruits. No ranks, but as we climb them, we’re divided into five groups. Alpha, like Human Lieutenant Colonels; Betas, like Human Majors; Deltas, like human Captains and Gamma like Second Lieutenant. The Heads of each unit are like the Generals of the place and Six of them are Council Alphas for the Alliance.

Our ranks do nothing for our packs. If I was ranked Beta, I’d still be an Alpha at home. I just don’t get as big a bragging right. Most of us Alpha born strive for the Alpha rank and eventually Head Alpha. I’ve only been here a little over year so I won’t be ranking that high any time soon. I made Alpha and that’s good for me right now. At least the military thinks I’m good enough. Operations Leader would be a dream of mine if it ever came up, but none of those guys ever leave that position. It’s too exciting.

The training room we're in is like a giant gym. We test all kinds of different weapons and fighting techniques in here.

I watch as all the different Operations units gather together. Zeke and I are Ops 1. Chris is Op2 and Blade is Ops 5. Blade was Border years ago, so he's not here for this assignment.

They told us last night that this shift was a night shift and only wanted those who had no experience with the Border unit.

I stood beside Zeke. "What's going on?" I whisper to him.

He shrugs.

Alpha Duke puffs his chest out and looks us over as we all stand at ease. "We called you boys here for a little field trip. For the next 12 hours, you'll be shadowing the Border unit. I want you all to replace out what makes them tick. They're our internal first responders, so Alpha Andrews feels we need to all be on the same program and understand each other if we are to work as one unit."

The very silent mumbles flowed across the formations.

My eyes widen. "Wait, is he saying the units are combining?"

Again, Zeke shrugs.

He continues. "You will follow, observe, assist when needed and report back to command in the morning. Your leaders will have your positions. You will shift and be transported to your prospective borders. Does anyone have any questions?"

We all just blink at each other. None of us are liking this assignment.

"Alright, dismissed!"

We turn in unison and head to our team leaders who are at tables waiting to give us our mission orders. "What the hell? Border patrol?"

Zeke tilts his head to me. "Could be worse. We could be cleaning the mess all night." He smiles.

"But border patrol is so lame. It’s not like there's any action there. The most we’ll see is a bar fight that’s more than likely caused by the agents themselves. None of those guys have any self control." I scratch the back of my head.

Zeke huffs a laugh. “Then it should be a good party.” He grins.

I look at him and shake my head. “Only you would think that.”

He smiles, taps my chest and points to the line in front.

We step forward as the line moves. Zeke steps in front of me. He’s handed his location. "Northern border. Fun." He rolls his eyes.

I smirk at him. “Hey, maybe you can help Jackson clean up his dirt bags since he won’t.”

Zeke tilts his head to me. “Uh…no.”

I laugh and clap his back as I move forward and get my mission.

"Southern Border-Falcon Ridge. Frig. There's nothing there. Might as well be assigned to a kids park." I look over my paper.

Zeke claps my shoulder. “Go call on the Duke Brothers. You guys can toss rocks into gopher holes for 12 hours.”

“Ugh…No thanks.” I shake my head.

I look at the details of my assignment. "Contact: Border Agent Riker.” I groan and drop the paper down to my side as we walk away. “Sounds like a douche."

Zeke laughs and claps back. "I'm sure you'll live. Remember, you're not joining them, just running."

"Yeah." I blow out a breath of frustration and head for the locker rooms.

****

We load up on the military deployment trucks as our wolves. Each truck heads to the border it’s assigned to.

My truck is filled with five other soldiers. All of us scoff at the assignment but, we're all hyped because we get to let our wolves out.

It's 20 minutes across town to border. The brakes squeal to a stop and we wait.

After the driver confirms with the border unit and gets permission to enter the area, he comes around and opens the door to the back of the truck.

"Alright, dogs. Happy hunting."

We howl, bark and fly out the truck. "Report back here at 0800." He yells as we walk around the grassy area, sniffing the ground and the air.

"Wolf out!" He barks.

We bolt for the trees, barking, howling and whining. Letting the agents on duty that we’re coming.

I weave between Falcon Ridge and the border of a tiny town called Black Lake. It’s part of the Alliance, but it’s barely 100 wolves. The smallest territory. When I say nothing happens here, literally nothing happens here. It’s a dirt town. A lot of Falcon Ridges residents are from there.

I stand in a clearing and see the dim lights of the sleepy town. I could go in there and check things out because we're Security, but I don’t want to scare people with military presence when it’s not needed. Besides, their border agents should be out now and I’m not sure if they’ve been filled in that Falcon Ridge is here.

I ran for about an hour through the trees when I had to stop. My wolf raised his nose to the air off to the left. He caught a scent. As, he breathed deep, our stomach turned. I felt sick. My wolf growled and adjusted his vision. He scanned the trunks as his ears twisted for sound.

A Rogue.

I've never come face to face with a Rogue, but I’ve heard the stories. It’s a nasty fight. They’re relentless and most injuries only make them madder. I look around and realize, I kind of wandered away from my team. Shit.

‘South Ops. Suspected Rogue infiltration. South East corner' I use my mind link to contact the others. I waited for response, but didn’t get one. Could I be that far out or are they goofing off and didn’t hear me?

My wolf is at attention. His black fur is up and he cautiously walks into a clearing. He stops and side eyes the area on both sides. He’s here somewhere. His scent is strong and I can feel him. I scan the treeline slowly.

His scent seems to surround me making me even sicker. It’s hard to concentrate.

I take a couple steps forward then hear a deep, dark growl coming from behind me. My eye flicks behind me and I jump to turn just as the Rogues massive body hits my wolf like a freight train.

His hit drives up both into the clearing. Our bodies digging into the grass and dirt.

He's snapping and growling biting at my head. My wolf is huge, but this guy is massive. I plant my paws on his chest, trying to hold back his drooling teeth.

I bite his upper muzzle. He yelps and rears back. My wolf lunges up and sinks his teeth into the Rogues neck.

He yelps louder and pulls back, dragging my wolf to his feet by his skin. He shakes me off and backs up. We circle each other and I go in for the attack.

He hits me in my chest, knocking me down and jumps on my back. Shooting pain rips though my shoulder as he bites me and locks his jaws.

Fuck!!

I try to thrash out from under his weight. He's too fucking heavy. The dirt is sliding under my paws as I try to gain traction. With every movement I feel my skin tear more. I feel the blood flowing down my side, soaking my fur.

My wolf is yelping, growling and biting at him. I thought I was done until he made a mistake and put his front leg near my head. I strike like a viper and crush his leg in my jaws. He yelps into my shoulder, but doesn't let go.

Is this dude fucking serious? I shake my body to try to get him off, but the asshole is hooked in tight. All I’m doing is ripping my shoulder off.

I'm starting to get light headed from blood loss. Tiring from the fight and his weight is making it difficult to breathe. My wolf lets out a growl that turns into a whine.

Just as I feel myself start slip, I see another wolf enter the clearing. Shit, please don’t be another one.

In my faltering vision, I see it’s jet black with piercing gold eyes. It’s growl could be felt in my chest. He challenges and the Rogue is not phased by him at all.

The wolf breaks into a run, jumps and knocks the Rogue off me.

I shakily rise to my paws and try to get out of the way before falling into the grass. My wolfs done. Wind gusts and I shift. I sit up on my but, wincing and holding the loose skin to my shoulder. The pain is unimaginable. I can barely see as the two wolves rock the clearing.

The black wolf kicks the Rogue in the chest, sending him skidding across the dirt. His growls can be heard for miles as he jumps on the Rouge and bites at his face. Sinking a canine into the Rogues eye socket. I cringe at the sight. Damn.

The Rogue flips over onto his stomach, yelping loud and tries to drag himself out of there, but his crushed leg isn't doing him any favors.

The jet-black wolf stands over him breathing heavy and growling. The rogue submits whining.

The winner is…The mystery wolf calls the wind and shifts.

My eyes bug out and my jaw drops. Legs, ass, back, hair…fucking eyes! My mystery biker chick?!

She stands over the rogue in a show of dominance. Her sexy shoulders rise and fall with her heavy breathing and anger. Her hands ball at her sides. The moonlight glistens off the shine of sweat on her soft, tasty looking skin.

"SHIFT!!" She commanded.

Shit, that was hot. Even though I’m slowly bleeding out here, I bite my lower lip. Fuck, I want that.

Immediately, the rogue shifted to a whining mess of a man on the ground. His stink died down to a dull roar and I was less nauseous.

My sexy fighter opened a mind link.

Mind links are a shifters way of telepathically communicating with other members of the pack. Due to the Alliance, our wolves establish mind links with those within the Security Unit and Border Units. It takes time to link because it has to be trained, not made at birth like pack members.

"This is Agent Riker. I'm one mile out on the southern border. I need containment and medical staff. Bring the silver, boys."

I'm still in shock as I watch her roll the rogue over and roughly twist his arm behind his back.

"Fuck! Bitch. My fucking arms broken!" He yells.

"You're in big trouble, boy. You'll be lucky if you walk out of this with a broken arm." She whips her head to me. I'm hit with those amber eyes I've fantasized about many times. My sexy biker babe is looking at me and for the first time ever, I’m fucking terrified.

If it wasn't for the pain, I'd also be embarrassed because I'd totally be sporting a raging hard on right now.

She furrows her brow. "Are you alright?"

I’ve lost all words. I had everything I wanted to say to her in my mind and it’s gone. Poof! Just like that. All I can do is blink like an idiot.

"SOLDIER!" She yells. Snapping me out of my thoughts.

I shake my head and wince. " Ah...yeah...I think so.... I've lost a lot of blood."

She walks over to me looks at my shoulder. She pushes my head forward to move my wound into the night light for a better look. After a few minutes, she speaks. "It's starting to heal. It's deep. You need medical attention." She pushes her hand off me and my head shoves forward a bit then back.

I watch her walk around to my front and I feel even more turned on at how rough she handled me. Jesus.

She kicks out a leg, crosses her arms and squints her eyes. "What the hell were you thinking? Out here without back up. No experience. You could've been killed."

My jaw goes slack, my eyes turn to globes and my mouth goes small. Now I'm really getting turned on. I watch her gorgeous face as she scolds me.

I’m so entranced, I don’t feel the smirk growing on my lips.

She narrows her eyes more. "Do I amuse you, soldier?"

I snap the smile back fast. "No. Um...Thanks for the back up. It was stupid to separate from my group. I know that."

She looked back at the rogue, who's now passed out. "Well, thanks for drawing this asshole out, I guess. He'll provide some nice info." She turns back to me. "What's your name soldier?"

"Blake. River Blake." I wince. "You're...Agent Riker." My eyes give her the once over.

Her brow furrows. "You got a problem with that."

I guess I let my original assessment of her leak through.

I put a hand up in defense. "No. No....Just when I read your name on my assignment I thought of a big, burly douchebag. Not some smoking hot babe" I chuckle.

She arched her brow. Biting her cheek, she closed the gap and squatted down to my level. She glances at me, folds her arms on her knees. She looks into the trees then back at me. "Smoking hot babe…Is this the great respect the security unit keeps preaching? Do you normally call your superiors 'babe'?" She tilts her head, shooting a scowl to my soul. I get the feeling I may have said the wrong thing.

I nervously laugh. "Uh no...Sorry...must be the blood loss."

The woods became active with voices and footfalls. Medics and border agents descend on us. They’re barking orders, asking questions and dropping equipment all around us.

She stands, her long, silky hair whips around her head as she starts barking orders. "The dirt bag over there, has a broken arm and crushed eyeball. After he's patched up, put him in holding." She turns and smirks at me. "Romeo here, has a torn shoulder. Not too bad, but he'll need blood." She squats back down. "Get patched up and we debrief at the station in the morning."

I struggle through the pain to try and give her a toothy smile. "Thanks."

"No problem." She rests her hand on my uninjured shoulder and my skin warms at her touch. A faint tingling ran across to my neck and chest. It was a weird feeling, but felt good after I stopped thinking about it.

Now that I know who she is, my mind starts spinning. I’ll have to debrief here, but I’ll be recalled after that. I don’t know when I’ll see her next. I need to figure out how I can see her again.

The medics tend to my shoulder as plans roll through my mind.

I roll my head to my sexy agent as she looks around, shifts and runs off. I guess to go back to work with the rest of my unit.

I flinch as the medics place gauze on my shoulder.

I start to wonder if I can get my dad to pull some strings here.

She's an awesome fighter. Strong, smart. Something the Security Unit could use. I think I see a reassignment in Agent Rikers future. I smile at the idea of being with her daily.

As the medics lead me out of the woods, I've forgotten my pain and now relishing in the thump of my heart in my chest.