Jace (River Pack Wolves 2) (Paranormal Romance) by Alisa Woods Page A

wouldn’t raise this kind of instinctual wariness. Somehow his wolf knew the Colonel was a destructive force, like a hurricane—inherently uncontrolled and dangerous, with the power to destroy everything in its path.
    Astor Wilding finally looked up from his phone. He stayed seated. “I hear you lost your identification, Daniel.”
    “Temporarily misplaced it.” Daniel stood rigidly under the patronizing smirk from his father. “I’m sure it’ll turn up soon. Just needed some temporary ID to get on base and back to work.”
    Colonel Wilding eased up from his chair, slowly and casually, as if this little meeting hadn’t been called by him. He strolled around to the front of his desk with the coiled strength of a shifter, but somehow it was more predatory than Jace had seen most wolves display. He’d known a few dark wolves in his time—men who let their dark human natures corrupt the wolf inside—but even they didn’t have this sort of controlled menace built into their every move. It reminded Jace of the sinuous way that witches moved—not the sweet and innocent kind, like Olivia, but more like her coven sisters. The ones who liked to eat wolf hearts for breakfast. Or other body parts.
    The Colonel trailed his fingers along his desk as if inspecting his many awards for dust and came to rest at the front. He leaned against it, regarding Daniel with a look that made Jace’s stomach clench. It boggled his mind that this was Daniel’s father— and Colonel Wilding was looking at his son as if he was an enemy he’d like to torture, piece by bloody piece.
    “Would you like to know where your identification turned up, Daniel?” the Colonel asked. “You might find it amusing.”
    “Yes, sir.” Daniel’s flat voice gave nothing away.
    Jace felt like he was watching a chess match in operation.
    “Turns out your security codes were swiped at 0600 this morning. By a young woman named Daniela Wuldinger.” Astor folded his arms across his substantially-decorated chest and waited for a response.
    “Guards the gate getting a little lax, are they?” Daniel’s voice seemed uncertain, even to Jace, but his father rose to the weakness like a lion sensing the weakest member of the herd.
    “Are you really going to stand there and tell me you had no idea your sister took your ID?” The laugh in the Colonel’s voice said that punishment was guaranteed, but the severity of it was riding on Daniel’s answer.
    He hesitated.
    Jace had to bite back the words on the tip of his tongue. No, asshole, he knew. He was trying to protect her from you. A cold trickle through Jace’s belly told him something was very off about this—like Astor Wilding knew far more about this than they did.
    Daniel’s lack of an answer dragged on. He was obviously struggling for words that would thread him through the landmines his father had laid.
    Jace cringed on Daniel’s behalf, and it was all he could do to keep quiet.
    Finally, Daniel said, “I knew she had the ID.” His shoulders dropped a little. Those words were some kind of defeat.
    His father nodded, a cruel smirk creeping onto his face. “I’ll deal with you in a moment, son.” The Colonel turned to Jace. “And you… exactly why has one of the River brothers decided to pay a visit to my base?”
    To tell you to fuck off in person? Jace was surprised how violent his feelings were in such a short period of time around this man. His wolf may be locked away, but his instincts still ran strong.
    Jace stepped forward, so that he was now standing slightly in front of Daniel. “Your son was an instrumental part of a rescue mission my brothers and I were involved in,” he said, holding the Colonel’s narrow-eyed glare without flinching. Daniel was having convulsions of body language, trying to tell Jace to shut up. Jace ignored him and took a step closer to the Colonel, moving into his space. “Those were civilian shifters, snatched off the street. One was a little girl from your