Luckily, we didn’t have to wait long. Flint called about ten minutes later. Millie and I had settled on the couch when my phone rang.
Checking the number, I read the familiar digits and breathed a sigh of relief. I had the utmost respect for Flint’s abilities, but he was my brother and putting himself in harm’s way. His phone call, letting me know he was safe, went a long way in easing my own stress.
Flint began talking as soon as I answered. “He was here, Ethan. I can still smell him.”
Those words made me want to howl in anger, but I held it in for the sake of Millie, who had just started to relax and didn’t need to be amped up again.
“Is he familiar to you?” I posed, knowing Flint’s nose was as good as his tracking abilities.
“Nope. He’s not from around here. I’d have recognized him if he was.”
I was more certain than ever that whoever had contacted Millie had been from the Tupilaq pack. Theonly question was, why were they trying to reach out after so many years? What had caused them to start hunting her out of the blue? Was it because she was on the cusp of a change? Or was it for another reason entirely? One I needed to get to the bottom of before it was too late.
“Anything else to report?” I posed, not wanting to come right out and ask if the man could still be hiding in the woods with Millie here beside me.
Flint snorted. “The little prick pulled a runner as soon as Millie stopped texting his sorry ass. I can smell his trail leading to the road where there’s some fresh tire tracks that don’t belong to anything you have in your garage.”
I wasn’t stoked that a strange ware had been loitering on my property, but it was reassuring to hear Flint say he’d hightailed it off my land in fear of being discovered. “Alright. Head on back. I have to make some phone calls in my office and I want you to stay with Millie when I do.”
“Roger that,” my brother agreed, before terminating the phone call.
Millie
“We’ve been over this already, Ethan. I can’t miss work. I just started this job and I need the money.”
Frowning, Ethan sent me a stern look over my heaping plate of eggs and bacon.
“You don’t need money, Millie. I’ve got plenty. I’ll pay forwhatever you want,” he stubbornly argued, his eyes burning the sexiest blue-grey when he was riled like this.
Hiding my smile, I shook my head. “I don’t need your money, Ethan. I need a job so I can earn my own.”
Flint was shamelessly observing the two of us fight like he was watching his favorite television program while he scarfed down his food.
“You’re awfully quiet over there,” Ethan noted, throwing his brother a curious glance.
Flint shrugged. “As far as risks go, the coffee shop is fairly low. It’s a public place surrounded by familiar faces and separated by a physical barrier to unfamiliar parties.”
“See,” I beamed, thinking I’d won the argument. I was already dressed in my work uniform, crisp white shirt, black pants, and sensible sneakers. Plus, it wasn’t like he could stop me from going. Well, he could, but I knew he wouldn’t. “Even Flint thinks I should go to work. And you told me he was some kind of expert in this kind of thing.”
“So if Millie were your mate, you’d let her go?” Ethan further questioned, raising a dark brow as we both awaited the man’s answer.
“Hell no! I’d lock her in the house and keep her on her back in bed taking my knot every hour on the hour,” he retorted, before standing to retrieve another plateful of food.
“Flint!” I shrieked. “I thought you were on my side!”
Stuffing several pieces of bacon into his mouth, Flint smiled roguishly as he chewed. “Ethan asked whatIwould do. Not whatheshould do. Sorry, Princess. I’m not going to lie to my brother. Even for someone as hot as you.”
Huffing with indignation, I threw my hands into the air out of frustration. “You’re all Neanderthals. You know that? Absolute troglodytes!”
Both men gave me a look that said, as archaic as it may be, their minds weren’t going to change. However, in order to keep the peace, I could tell Ethan was willing to strike a sensible compromise. And I was ready and willing to exploit that sensibility the moment the opportunity presented itself.
“There’s still that big box store that sells tools and things next door to your work, right?” My mate asked then.
“Yeah. It has a beautiful garden center attached to it, too,” I confirmed, wondering where this line of questioning was going.
“Well, I have to stock up on some supplies for the house. What If I drop you off at the coffee shop, do some work on my computer, and, if there are no obvious issues at your job, I can go over to the box store and pick up some supplies. When I’m done, I’ll come back, finish up my work, and take you home when your shift is over.”
It was the best I was going to get, and I knew it. “I guess that would be okay. But you have to promise me you won’t hang around for too long. And this can’t happen every time I work,” I added, hoping nobody thought I was a weirdo for bringing my boyfriend to work with me like I was some silly twit who couldn’t function in the real world without him.
