Vivian Arend - Diamond Dust

The idea she might still be wearing his shirt pleased him far too much.

Caroline let herself into the apartment she shared with Evan, her fingers shaking with cold. Maybe she should have gone to the Medicentre to get checked, but other than a dull ache at the back of her head, she felt fine.

Embarrassed, but fine.

She draped the shirt she’d been loaned over the back of a chair en route to the shower. She’d drop it off at the dry cleaners as soon as she wasn’t shivering. Steam rose as she cranked the water temperature as high as she could stand, her skin turning bright red under the assault.

Time to regroup. Get her brain back in gear. The next week was vital for the hotel, and the Takhini pack. She needed to be in tip-top form to remain a contributing pack member.

She stepped under the faucet to allow the water to run down her face. Of course, being pack was less important than it had been a month ago. Now that her sister Shelley had found her place in the north, Caroline’s options had broadened.

And while she liked wolves, all shifters for that matter, there were times she wanted to kick their furry butts.

No, this gig at the Moonshine Inn wasn’t permanent. Even the situation today with the delegation had shown that. At some point the hotel would have to learn to get along without her. Maybe it was time to consider the travel option and speed up the process. She didn’t want to leave forever, but her soul screamed for adventure.

Her body temperature finally warmed to something near normal. Caroline shut off the water and grabbed her towel. No time to linger—she had to track down Evan and find out what had happened.

She stepped into the living area at the same moment Evan passed through the front door. Shaun hovered in the hallway behind him, guilt written all over both wolves.

“Guys.”

“I’ll…talk to you later.” Shaun waved goodbye and attempted to disappear.

Her suspicions rose. “Going somewhere, Shaun? Come on in.”

“Oh, well, actually.” Shaun cleared his throat and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Gotta get back to my mate. Later.”

He vanished.

Caroline examined Evan closer. He wasn’t wearing the same clothes he’d had on when he left the apartment that morning. “Evan?”

He sniffed the air. She bit her lip to stop from laughing. Wolves—they did it every time, and every time it entertained her.

“Who’s in our apartment?” Evan stared over her shoulder, looking for a hidden person.

“No one.”

“There’s a guy in here…” Evan’s gaze narrowed and he stepped closer, sniffing her.

She shoved his head away, no longer amused. “Stop that. Jeez.”

“Why do I smell bear?”

Whoa. He was good. Caroline reached for the shirt on the chair and held it up. “Long story short, one of the bears staying in the hotel loaned it to me. Your turn, what the hell happened to you while I was talking to you earlier?”

Evan stuttered to a stop. His entire large-and-in-charge attitude softened as he turned his mesmerizing eyes on her. There was a sparkle in the depths she’d never seen before. “She was here.”

Okaaaay . It was going to be one of those conversations. “Evan, please. I’m not up for a wolf-of-mystery passcode-ring-needed explanation. She who ?”

Maybe she should have clued in faster, but what with her own unusual morning and all, there was no reason for her to suspect. Not until he caught her fingers, squeezing carefully but with great enthusiasm.

“Caro, my mate was in the hotel this morning.”

Her first thought became her instant response.

“Holy shit, really? Wheeeee!” Caroline tossed her arms around his neck and hugged until he gasped. “Oh my God, Evan, I’m so thrilled for you.”

She let him go, an ear-to-ear grin firmly in position.

He blinked. “You are incredible.”

“Actually, I’m confused.” She stepped away. “Where is she? I mean, usually you guys find your mates—and I understand your loss of attention on the phone now—but I’d have thought you and she would be off on your wolfish honeymoon already.”

His grin faded. “Yeah, well. She was in the hotel. I never really met her.”

“But you sniffed her, right?” Caroline was pretty sure that was how it worked. “You at least know for sure she’s out there.”

“She’s out there, yes.”

Something was still wrong. “Is she…hiding on you? That doesn’t sound typical either.”

Evan dropped onto the couch. “Fuck it.”

Trouble in paradise. This was not good. “Okay, back up and tell me if I’ve got this straight. You have a mate, or at least you smelt proof of her in the hotel this morning. Only you haven’t met her, which is why you’re here, and not off rocking both your worlds.”

“Right.” He leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees. “Help me find her?”

“Of course I will.” What a nightmare this must be for him. “Come on, let’s check the security cameras. I can access the feeds from here.”

She darted to the computer desk and opened the hotel security system. Evan dragged a seat into position beside her, his hand resting lightly on the back of her chair.

“The only place I scented her was in the kitchen. Shaun and I took a second pass through the restaurant, but there’ve been too many bodies in the room in the past hour to catch anything.”

Caroline punched in her password. “If you scented her in the kitchen, she had to get in and out, somehow. Unless she shifted into a mouse or something.”

He choked. “Umm, no. Definitely not. She left through the shipping door.”

“How long ago was this?” Caroline looped back through the feed that focused on the kitchen area. Evan’s wolf reappeared, shifted back into his human and acted…interesting. “Whoa, were you ever pissy. Way to freak out the staff, big guy.”

“I had reason.”

She patted his knee. “You did. Come on, backing up shouldn’t take too long then. I’ll focus on the door and take it up to high speed.” A couple adjustments later the workspace was a blur of motion, uniformed cooks and assistants seeming to leap from position to position. “We’re looking for someone returning through the—”

“There.”

He stabbed his finger at the screen and she paused the motion. A body in a black hoodie was backing through the service exit, definitely not one of the staff, who were all dressed in white. “There’s no one else in the room, so no witnesses.” Caroline checked the time stamp. “Ten to ten. Someone should have been in there, no?”

“I would have thought so. Not sure why… What is she doing? And damn it, do we have another camera angle to check?”

Evan’s mate, if that’s who it was, had kept her back to the camera the entire time she paced past the workstations. She had a notebook out and wrote something down at one point. “I’m sorry, Evan, I can’t change angles because there’s only the single ceiling camera. We didn’t install them to monitor staff that closely, just…”

“Just for moments like this, when someone we don’t know tries to gain access to the hotel. Fuck it, Caroline. We’ve got a potentially volatile situation with a hotel full of bear diplomats, who aren’t known to be forgiving of indiscretions or mistakes. What does this mean in terms of them?”

Caroline spun her chair until she could catch his hands. “Hey. You’re rattled, and I get it, because you’re probably some kind of ticking wolf-time-bomb, but please, get it under control.”

The usually level-headed, hyper-bossy, always-in-control A-plus Alpha as good as bounced from his chair and into the kitchen, jerking open the fridge and hauling out a juice. She watched his throat move as he tipped the bottle back and drained it.