“Alec Patterson. Nice to meet you.” She shook my hand with a firm grip and went around behind the desk, where she produced a set of keys. “Nice to meet the both of you. I hope you’ll enjoy your stay with us. I prepared your room myself this morning.”
Chelsie kept up her fake smile and took the keys. Muddy gestured to the stairs and held out a welcoming arm. “I’ll show you to your room now, if you’d like.”
I nodded and stepped forward with our bags. “That’d be great.”
The smell grew weaker the higher in the house we ascended, and I found myself being pulled to go back downstairs instead of heading up to our room. “That smell really gets to you, doesn’t it?”
Muddy glanced back at me with a commiserating look. “I know, it really does. I sometimes find myself sneaking off to see if there are any left when I should be working. Carter is magic in the kitchen. I was lucky enough to scoop her up the minute she moved to Helen’s Corner. She’ll be here, making more sweets in the morning for breakfast.”
Shivers snaked down my spine and I clenched my hands around the handles of the bags I was holding to keep from shifting. I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. What the hell? I hadn’t lost control of a shift since I was a pup.
“Everything okay?”
Chelsie looked back at me and frowned. When her eyes went to the handle of her luggage, she shrieked. “Alec! You crushed the handle! That was my favorite piece!”
She’s lucky I hadn’t crushed the whole damned bag. My wolf was crazed. Up and pacing, clawing, ready to throw his head back and howl to the heavens. At what, I didn’t know. Since moving to the city and working nonstop on the tenth floor of a high-rise, he’d been relatively silent. I scheduled regular times at a wildlife preserve to let him out to run, but even then, he’d not been overly excited for a long time. All of a sudden, he was freaking out about something, and I had no idea what or why.
“Mr. Patterson? Are you okay?” Muddy looked at my hands and then back up to my face like she knew exactly what I was going through. And she might, since she was a shifter, too.
I shook my head and tried to ignore my wolf. “Sorry. I just had a moment there. I’m fine.”
“You’re fine, but look at my bag. I can’t believe you damaged it, Bay-bee.”
I again found myself wondering what the fuck an engagement trip was and why it was necessary. Instead of saying it aloud, I dutifully acted like I thought a husband-to-be was supposed to act. “I’ll buy you another one, dear.”
Muddy interrupted whatever demands Chelsie was about to make when she directed us to a hallway on the right and motioned to Chelsie to unlock the door of our room. “Why don’t you two go ahead and get sorted. You can look around if you’d like, too. There are three more couples staying here right now, but they’re out and about at the moment. You’ll find several great places to eat in town. You can’t go wrong picking any one of them.”
My body didn’t want to move forward into the room. My wolf fought, scratched, and clawed to get back downstairs. “Is there someplace I can use as an office? I just need a desk or a table. I’ve got some work to do.”
Chelsie sighed dramatically, but Muddy just smiled and held her game face. “There’s a common area downstairs. The dining room would probably work since there are a few different tables in there. It’s free until seven in the morning when we start serving breakfast, and even then, we’ll just serve you around your work, if need be.”
Downstairs, with that maddeningly overpowering scent. I glanced at Chelsie, who was already aiming her phone at the room as she pushed through the door, taking a video of her reaction to it. Downstairs, it was.
**If you’ve enjoyed this sneak peek, you can download the full book on Amazon. **
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Other books from Candace Ayers…
BEARS OF BURDEN
In the southwestern town of Burden, Texas, good ol’ bears Hawthorne, Wyatt, Hutch, Sterling, and Sam, and Matt are livin’ easy. Beer flows freely, and pretty women are abundant. The last thing the shifters of Burden are thinking about is finding a mate or settling down. But, fate has its own plan…
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Rancher Bear’s Surprise Package
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Rancher Bears Complete Box Set
KODIAK ISLAND SHIFTERS
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Byron: Heartbreaker Bear
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Quarterback Werebear Page 12