Kellan might have a chance at getting Finley to agree to ignore her, or I could use dominance on him and force the issue. It had to be a last resort though—our pack of alphas only worked because I didn’t overstep my control.
To force them over Emmeline would only create more animosity between them and her.
Kellan recovered his upbeat tone quickly. “I know you’ve been putting in solid hours stalking her at night, in your control-freak obsessive ways. But tomorrow… I’m picking her up.”
Control-freak and obsessed was accurate. Emmeline had cast a spell over me, and I’d be pissed about it, but I was too busy obsessing. “You sound like an overgrown puppy, Kellan. All I can picture is you bouncing around with your tail wagging.”
His snort of laughter filtered down the line. “You’re half right. Parts of me are definitely wagging. I’m just so fucking excited that we finally found her. Years I’ve dreamed of a scentmatch, and she’s so pretty and snarky and smart. And those freckles, broooo. I just want to kiss a path across them.”
Fucking freckles. “You need to pull yourself together. Do not slobber on her when you pick her up from Annandale Pack house tomorrow. I don’t have time to chase her down when she tries to skip town again.”
“No slobbering,” he promised. “I’ll be a good boy.”
This asshole and his praise kink. I hung up the phone before he could say anything else, and turned toward the pile of work I should be getting to. But fuck, all I could think about was Emmeline, and that crackle of intensity anytime she was in the room with me.
My new craving for chocolate would not be satisfied with anything less than a taste of a cagey, smartass, strawberry blond shifter.
Pushing to stand, I wandered toward Slade’s closed office door and knocked. Only a fool would enter his domain without permission—many of us had learned that the hard, extremely painful way.
“Enter,” his arrogant ass called.
Pushing the door open, I found him sprawled back in his chair, eyes locked on me as he tracked my movements. The first time I’d seen him do that, I’d prepared to be attacked, but it was just his way. We were all prey to his beast.
“Have you dug up any more information on her background? Who were her parents? Where the fuck did she come from? At this stage we only know she’s twenty-five because Warrick updated us.”
Slade almost smiled. “You only know that because you threatened to burn his house to the ground with his pack inside if he didn’t disclose all pertinent information.”
I shrugged. That wasn’t even the worst threat I leveled against the other entitled alpha. He had my mate; he was lucky to be alive. “What else have you dug up?”
Slade crossed his arms, letting the silence extend until it was almost uncomfortable. But I was used to his ornery ass by now, and my wolf barely reacted. “What makes you think I’ve been digging into that insignificant shifter?”
Alphas didn’t roll their fucking eyes, but I was close. “Because you would never let a person into our pack house without a thorough investigation.”
And because a part of you is just as curious about her as the rest of us.
He’d never admit it, but we both knew the truth.
As always, I appreciated Slade’s lack of time for lies or sugarcoating the truth, even when he used that gift to rip you a new asshole in less than ten words. “She’s a ghost. There’s no paper trail. There’s no social media. There’s no sign she exists at all, except for the fact that she’s standing here in Golden Claw, a physical person.”
“How is that possible?”
“I don’t know,” he grumbled slowly, “but I’m going to figure it out.”
Great, he’d be an even bigger pain in my ass until he got to the bottom of our mysterious mate.
Leaving him to it, I returned to my office, throwing myself into work, pausing only to call my managers at Luxuria, our high-end nightclub, and Golden Fin, our seafood restaurant. By the end of the calls, I had a schedule worked out for Emmeline, with a mix of day and night shifts. All except Sunday, which was reserved for family bonding time.
Emmeline Anders was about to learn what living under my roof entailed. I’d be subtle about it in the beginning, but shewas already under surveillance whenever she left her temporary accommodations, and I was there every single night.
Watching my prey.
Once she came home to us, I’d have her exactly where I wanted her.
Chapter
Twelve
When I left his office, Hunter remained a silent shadow all the way down to the first floor. He didn’t follow me over to Cora, who waited by the couches, but I felt his gaze burning into the back of my head until after I’d left his building. “I’m guessing you didn’t end up on the floor for rentals and job opportunities,” Cora whispered as we hurried down the steps.
