I stifled a sigh. “I need to redirect her. Make her think there’s nothing here worth investigating.”
“How?”
“Offer to guide her. If she accepts, I’ll show her the wrong areas. Hopefully, she’ll get bored and leave.”
“And if she doesn’t get bored?”
Tension gathered in my neck. I rubbed at it, my gaze on the window. “I’ll handle it,” I said. “You just tell the rest of the clan to keep their distance while she’s here.”
“You got it,” Everett said. “And Beck?”
“Yeah?”
“Be careful.”
A smile tugged at my lips. I was the biggest shifter in the clan. In human or beast form, I towered over my brothers. Age hadn’t sapped my strength…yet. “You think I need a babysitter?”
His huff crackled over the line. “No. But you’re the alpha. You’re kind of important around here. People care about you.”
The smile tugged harder. In the glass, my reflection showed pink touching my cheekbones. God, I wasblushing.
“I’ll be careful,” I said, the gruff tone I’d used with Charlotte returning.
“Glad to hear it,” Everett said. “And good luck.” He ended the call, his unspokenyou’ll need ithovering in the air.
I looked out the window. Somewhere in the forest, Charlotte was setting up equipment that could expose the clan.
My bear rumbled, uneasy beneath my skin. But as I headed upstairs to change, the little voice in my head whispered louder. Because my bear was restless, but not because it wanted Charlotte Mills to leave.
An hour later,I stood at the edge of the forest, my gaze on Charlotte.
She’d been easy to find. Although, everyone was easy for me to find. Now that I had her scent, I could probably find her anywhere in Alaska. As far as gifts went, tracking was common. But my magic was stronger than most. My father’s had been the same, and his father before him.
Charlotte’s scent drifted around me, the honey-laced florals layered with fresh earth, evergreen, and a metallic scent that came from her instruments.
She stood before a tree stump that rose to her waist, a little frown between her brows as she stared at a laptop she’d propped on the wood. Sunlight streamed through the canopy, the rays picking up garnet highlights in her bright hair. Her hiking pants molded to her legs and ass, and her top emphasized the curve of her spine as she leaned forward, studying the screen.
My bear rumbled approval. I shoved it down as I stepped from the trees. “How’s the research going?”
Charlotte jerked her head up, her eyes round and huge. “Beck,” she gasped, pressing a hand to her chest. “You startled me. I didn’t hear you at all.”
Because I hadn’t wanted her to.
“Sorry,” I said, meaning it as I approached. More equipment sat on camp tables around her, the monitors lit up with what looked like satellite images and maps. One displayed what was clearly a weather model. “I didn’t mean to sneak up on you,” I added, stopping beside her. I angled my body away so I didn’t loom over her.
The furrow between her brows deepened. Tiny golden freckles dusted the bridge of her nose. “How did you find me?”
I nodded toward her boots, then pointed at the damp soil around us. “Nobody else in Bear Cove has boots like those. It snowed last week, and the ground is still soft in places.” I gestured toward the laptop on the stump. “Find anything interesting?”
She hesitated, then turned the computer so I could see. “Preliminary readings are unusual, but I expected that.” She clicked something, and a grid with greens, yellows, reds, and oranges appeared. Charlotte traced one of the red bars with herfingertip. “The magnetic field variance is off the charts in some places.”
I leaned closer, pretending to study the bar she indicated while I memorized the longitude and latitude displayed in fine print at the bottom of the chart. Other coordinates appeared under the red boxes—all zones where the clan lived and hunted.
Shit.
“Hmm,” I said, feigning polite interest. “Do you think there’s an explanation?”
Charlotte shook her head. “Not a geological one.” She looked at the screen. “There’s no volcanic activity in this area, and no significant mineral deposits that would produce readings like this.” She looked up at me, a mix of curiosity and excitement in her eyes. “Butsomethinghas to be generating this magnetic signature.”
