by Vivian Arend
“I remember. I was finishing cleaning the suite and slipped on the tub.” She moved her fingers slowly but still cringed in pain. “There’s a goose egg to prove it.”
Tyler settled on his heels beside her. Cleaning staff. Okay, that was a possible solution to the question without turning this into some kind of political intrigue.
“Do you mind if I check?”
“Be my guest.” She frowned. “You’re Justin? You’re the security man for Tyler Harrison.”
Cleaning staff who knew details of the room’s occupants? Tyler returned to being suspicious all over again.
He lifted her carefully until he could examine the back of her head. “I’m checking things out in the room. Everything seemed to be in order other than you doing unsupervised synchro.”
“Can you get me out of here before he arrives?”
“You sure you’re okay to move?” Tyler helped her upright, sitting next to her on the couch. He held one arm around her to stop her from shifting from side to side.
Caroline groaned lightly. “I’ll be all right. I’m not nauseous or anything, which is good. I would hate to throw up and ruin the great cleaning job I did.”
Tyler laughed. The conversation was far more blunt than he usually got to hear from people. “Well, yes. Let’s avoid vomiting, shall we?”
It was rather comfortable sitting with her. Far more comfortable than he should be after rescuing a strange woman in a strange place. He wanted to be wary, wanted to remain alert to the potential troubles in the situation, but with her wet body cuddled beside him, his damn bear seemed to have taken control of his mind.
Her shirt had separated from the waistband of her pants, and a sliver of bare skin rested under his fingers. The sheer willpower it took to keep from stroking that soft section of skin shook him.
His human side pushed forward in defense with logic. “I should call a doctor to check you out.”
She frowned. “I’ll go to the clinic. Let’s not have ambulances at the hotel today. It wouldn’t be a great way to start things off. Might set a damper on the meetings.”
Curiousier and curiousier. “You’ve obviously worked at the Moonshine Inn for a while.”
Give her a chance to admit she knew about shifters, and the game would change all over again. A tiny bud of a notion had burst forth in the last minute, probably planted by his bear, but damn if it wasn’t a working idea.
She nodded slowly, wincing. “I’ve been on staff for nearly five years. Since before the Takhini pack bought out the previous owners.”
And there was his answer. “You know about shifters, then.”
She snorted.
His bear was far too charmed by her instant and honest response.
Caroline motioned upward. “Help me to my feet, and we’ll see how I do. Yes, I know about shifters. Half-blood family, actually. My stepdad’s wolf, so I’ve lived with pack most of my life.”
A human who grew up with shifters. This might be the solution to one of his problems during the upcoming conference days.
Not to mention a lovely distraction, as long as she hadn’t injured herself with that crazy fall.
He had her standing, his arms still around her in case she wobbled. Caroline clutched his shoulder momentarily as her knees gave way. He caught her around the waist and pulled her against him for support. She was tall enough to make him not feel quite as enormous as he usually felt around the ladies. Other than that, he was desperately beating back the bear, who had just suggested they should peel her out of her wet clothes to make sure she wasn’t hurt anywhere else.
“I think we should get that doctor in here.”
“No.” Caroline spoke firmly. “Damn, you shifters are all the same, bossy as all get out. I’m fine, and I really have to leave before your boss gets here.”
His boss. Oh right, his little name game. They could drop that ploy. “Actually, I’m—”
The door opened, and Justin walked in. His best friend froze in midstep as he took in the entire scenario. From the open door, the trail of water across the carpet, the wet and disheveled woman, and Tyler himself.
Caroline swore and to his great surprise, hid herself against his side, arms curling around his torso.
Justin’s eyes widened even farther.
Tyler had to say something before this got out of hand. Only with the reaction of the human, he didn’t want to embarrass her further.
It wasn’t his finest moment, but between his bear rumbling happily about having her in his arms, and everything else, Tyler made a snap decision.
Before his guard could speak and give him away, he opened his mouth and lied his ass off.
“Mr. Harrison, the room is fine, but one of the cleaning staff had a mishap. If you’ll excuse us for a moment.”
Caroline bit her tongue to stop from swearing like a fishwife. Way to make a great impression. Five more minutes and she’d have escaped without showing herself to be the total incompetent she felt at the moment.
Thank God for the sympathetic bear shifter she was unashamedly hiding behind. While he was damn impressive himself, a man who worked for a powerful man would understand some of what she dealt with on a daily basis, working with an Alpha. She felt a kinship, almost, with him.
Yet, gack, she must have hit her head harder than she thought. This wasn’t her, she never hid. Certainly not when there was no good reason. I.e., soaking wet shouldn’t be enough to make her lose her senses. Who knows, maybe being shifters they would think dipping fully clothed in pools was some weird human quirk.
She untangled her fingers from where they’d somehow become fisted around Justin’s used-to-be-pristine white shirt.
White…shirt. White, like the uniform top she wore.
Caroline tilted her head to examine the full extent of the damages, but it was pretty much what she’d grasped in that one moment of blinding clarity. Her shirt had gone see-through. Great day to wear the sheerest bra she had in her closet.
She looked up to see her big bear studying her, the faint smile teasing his lips vanishing as she caught him.
Good grief. “Don’t guys ever have anything better to do than stare at women’s breasts?” she whispered in annoyance.
He chuckled. “Occupational hazard of being male. They’re nice breasts.”
Shifters. They were all the same. After years of dealing with the far more relaxed wolf-pack sexual attitudes, it was clear bears were no different. Still, she was human, and he should know better, so she secretly dug her fingertips into his side out of Mr. Harrison’s view. “Stop it, and get me out of here without making a spectacle of myself.”
Her benefactor dipped his chin. “Deal.”
He tucked her behind his back, using his broad body as a block between her and the head of the Harrison delegation. Caroline peeked out, but Mr. Harrison seemed to have developed a great fascination in the carpet at his feet, strolling toward the bedroom without so much as a glance her direction.
She was across the room in seconds.
“I’ll be a moment,” the big guard announced. “Wait here.”
“I can wait in the hall—”
“Right here,” he snapped, still sotto voce, but despite the low volume it was clearly an order. “Or do you want to parade around the hotel in what you’re wearing?”
Good point. She nodded. “Fine. Staying.”
He grabbed her cleaning cart, rolling it over to the door. Then to her utter shock he stripped off his own shirt, broad chest revealed in a snap, plus the most incredible set of upper arms. Biceps like massive rocks, shoulders that could have been formed out of granite.
Caroline had seen her share of nudity, what with all the shifting going on from the earliest time she could remember, but this man wasn’t a wolf, and he wasn’t stripping to shift.
Her cheeks flushed. Whoa nelly, the man was built. She might have a bed partner, but she wasn’t blind. The zing of attraction was natural enough, but other than enjoying it right here and now
, that’s all she planned on doing.
He thrust his shirt out, and bar being any ruder than she’d already been, she could hardly refuse. Especially when he was giving it to help deal with her frail human sensitivities.
His fingers slipped over hers. Caroline glanced up in time to catch him staring. Not like a guy merely fascinated with her boobs, but a strip her down and ride her expression on his face.
Oh hell, no. Not a complication she wanted to deal with in this lifetime, thank you. She might think he was a looker, but she didn’t cheat. Not on Evan, not on anyone.
Caroline turned her back as she tugged on the huge shirt, the tails falling to mid-thigh and more than adequately covering her important parts.
He opened the door and gestured her into the hall, dragging the cart with them.
She put the bulky thing as a block between them, self-defense kicking in. “Thank you, for everything.”
“Not so fast.” He tilted his head and eyed her. “I want a report that you’ve seen a doctor so I know you’re fine.”
She snapped off a salute. “Yes, sir.”
“Smart-ass little thing.” He laughed. “You’re not what I expected.”
Yeah. “I get that a lot. Please, extend my apologies to Mr. Harrison. I’ll send someone in to dry off the couch and—”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll sit on chairs until it air dries. Not as if we’ll have to sit on the floor or anything.”
“Thank you for being understanding.” She grabbed the cart handle and prepared to leave. “I’ll return your shirt as soon as possible.”
There it was again—she hadn’t imagined it. That red-hot flash as his gaze dropped over her, even though she knew damn well he couldn’t see any thing. “Fine.”
“You should go explain to your boss what happened. I promise you’ll have nothing else to worry about for the duration of your stay.” When he didn’t move, she jiggled the handle, making the cart bump him. She smiled hesitantly, not wanting to encourage anything she’d have to defend against, but trying to walk the line between polite and unavailable. “If I didn’t say it yet, thank you for saving me. I’m glad you came and fished me out of the tub.”
He dipped his head and stepped aside.
She was halfway down the hall when he called, “Caroline…what?”
“Caroline Bradley.”
She waited for him to say something else, but that was it. Silence. He watched her, though. Even as she widened the gap between them, she swore his gaze burned a hole in the back of her oversized cover-up. While she waited for the service elevator to arrive, deliberately fiddling with items in the cart, he was stripping her in his mind. The final glance over her shoulder as she slipped into the elevator proved he was still standing there, naked from the waist up, wearing a smile that spoke of amusement and sexual attraction.
She stabbed the button for the basement level before collapsing against the wall with a huge sigh.
Oh my Lord, what a mess.
Chapter Three
Evan clutched the kitchen countertop and held on for dear life.
Not possible. Not possible.
Freaking possible, he argued with his brain. It had to be possible, because the only other damn solution was he’d gone around the bend.
He leaned over and sniffed. Moved a foot to the right and repeated the action.
“Umm, Alpha?”
“Go away.”
Nothing was going to distract him. This was far too important. He vaguely remembered shouting at the pack members in the kitchen to stay the hell back. Most of them had scurried like a bunch of mice as he’d stalked his way up and down the narrow aisles between the workstations.
The tantalizing aroma had hooked him as he’d left his office and led him in circles, desperate to maintain the trail.
There it was, just the faintest hint, but enough to drag him another two feet to the right where his head smacked into the chef’s broad belly.
The man grunted in pain and stepped back. “Alpha, I need to use this section to make the orders. Do you suppose you could…do whatever you’re doing on the other side of the kitchen? Please.”
“Shhh.” Evan dropped to his knees, following the fading scent. His wolf grew more frantic the fainter the aroma became. “Damn it all.”
He lay full out on his belly on the floor, inching forward until his nose squished against the base of the counter. There. For one second he’d gotten a stronger whiff. Somewhere under this counter was what he was looking for.
He forced his arm under the narrow opening and fumbled until his fingers bumped a tiny, cylindrical object. A second later he was on his feet, staring at a plastic container of lip balm.
“Dude, if you’ve got chapped lips, there are easier ways to deal with it than disrupting the entire kitchen.”
Evan snapped his head to the side to discover his Beta beside him. Shaun’s relaxed grin and slouched body displayed a comfort level that was miles away from Evan’s current state.
“It’s not just a lip balm.”
Shaun nodded sagely. “Sure. It’s a special lip balm. I understand.”
The scent had nearly vanished, but he still had one way to track it. There was no time to lose. Evan pressed the tube into Shaun’s palm. “You will hold that for me with extreme caution. Do not use it, fondle it, hell, don’t even look at it too hard, or I will rip out your throat.”
Shaun curled his hand around the tiny object. “If that means something in secret Alpha code, I never got around to reading the manual. I’m lost.”
Evan tore off his shirt and fumbled with his belt. “I’ll explain later.”
“You’re shifting?” Shaun lowered his voice. “It’s the middle of the day, this might not be a great idea.”
“Cover me.” Evan was naked, clothes abandoned on the floor. He changed forms even as his best friend and Beta continued to complain.
“Cover you. Great. Sure—just want to point out the last time I covered for you I ended up in the doghouse with my mate.”
The change to wolf made the world brighter. Sharper. Evan loved the first moments after exchanging his human side for his animal one, and usually took time to revel in the differences. Today there was only one distinction between his forms he wanted to exploit with an urgency that made his heart pound.
He took a deep breath through his nose, his sharper lupine senses picking up on the scent. He howled his delight, then raced forward, ducking through legs as the trail meandered the length of the kitchen to the closed back door of the restaurant loading dock.
He smacked his shoulder into the metal in frustration.
“Slow down,” Shaun snapped, hands on the door release. “You take off without me and animal services will have your tail in a sling.”
Evan bared his teeth. The scent was vanishing, and he didn’t care that it was his best friend blocking him. He was ready to draw blood.
“Fine, be that way. Just…don’t bite anyone.” His Beta pushed open the door, and Evan was gone, nose down, the wind and the other scents adding confusion to his target. If it weren’t so very addictive, he might not have picked it up in the first place, but the aroma was now permanently branded on his brain.
He stretched out his stride as the path straightened to follow the sidewalk. A few gasps of surprise escaped from the humans he brushed past. Tourists who weren’t used to seeing wolves roam the streets of Whitehorse. The locals had grown more accustomed to the occasional sighting, although Evan’s rule as Alpha had been to make pack keep a low profile.
What he was doing was in total violation of his own rules, but fuck that.
Rules were made to be broken.
When the sidewalk and his target turned a corner, hope rose in Evan’s heart. They were only steps away from the pack house. Damn, his mark was under his nose?
Then the addictive scent cut off as if it had never existed, the pack house to his left, a single metal pole to his right, with the bus-stop route displayed on it.
Loud footfalls slapped the ground behind him as Shaun finally caught up.
“Whoa, okay. There’s a lady on the corner of Lambert and Fourth who got a shot of you, and I bet we’re talking YouTube before the end of the hour. I hope the footage was worth it.”
Evan snarled his displeasure, rising and heading for the pack house.
“Hey, don’t get growly at me.” Shaun followed him to the front door and opened it. “The only other option was knock her phone from her hand or steal it, and having to get bailed out of the slammer, again, wouldn’t be a good thing for my record.”
Seconds after entering the house Evan was back on two legs, dragging a hand through his hair in frustration. Pack members lazing in the common room picked up on his mood and vanished like an afternoon winter sun, leaving them utterly alone. “You’re right. It’s fine. Remind me to get Caroline to do a follow-up with our media contacts to make sure no one makes a huge deal of a lone wolf in the street.”
“What happened?” Shaun dipped his head to examine him closer, although Evan noticed his friend stayed out of swinging range. “You need me to help with anything?”
Now that it had finally happened, things made so much more sense. There was no use in beating around the bush. He stared at his Beta and straight out said it. “I caught a whiff of my mate.”
Shaun’s eyes widened. “Dude.”
“She was in the kitchen. Then she left.” Evan paced to the room he kept in the pack house, in search of spare clothing. “You got that lip balm?”
His Beta passed it back. Evan lifted the object to his nose and breathed in her scent, happy little hormones dancing along his spine and tying hundreds of yellow ribbons around his spinal column.
“Your mate.” Shaun whistled. “Well, congrats.”
“Yeah, thanks. Welcome to the coming shit storm.”
“Oh man, for sure.” Shaun sat on the edge of the bed as Evan dug in drawers and pulled out a pair of jeans and T-shirt. “She’s not from the Takhini pack, or you’d have found her before. What was she doing in the kitchen, and why did she leave? Does she know you’re her mate? Why did this have to happen while the town is full to the brim with bears and potential trouble?”