“Maybe you feel like you just met. He’s been watching Theo from the very beginning. That’s his job as Max—to keep an eye on potential new shifters.”
“But that’s Theo, not me.”
Alan held up his hand, freeing his arm and silencing her in one motion. “He’s been aware of you, Becca. And if what I saw this morning means anything, he’s fully invested in you. Carl doesn’t do things halfway.”
No, no, no! It was too fast! But Alan didn’t stop.
“You have complete control here. You can say yes or no. He won’t force you in any way. But don’t imagine for a second that he’s just being casual with you.”
She leaned against the counter and closed her eyes. Her hands were wrapped around her empty coffee mug as if it were a grounding wire to reality. It wasn’t. Which left her reeling from too much too fast. Hell, Theo was missing. Shouldn’t she put all her attention on finding him? On getting him home safely?
But what more could she do there except wait? And while waiting, all these other things had happened with Carl. She didn’t know how to cope. And then she felt a hand, large and gentle, on her arm. Her eyes shot open to see Alan looking at her with sympathy. His expression was kind, but his words were anything but.
“I know this is a lot, Becca. And I don’t want to pile more on, but you have to make a decision. Because I’ll be damned if I let you hurt my brother.”
“What?”
He took a breath. “You can’t use my brother to distract yourself from what’s going on with Theo. It’s cruel enough to play with someone’s emotions like that, but it’s deadly if you do that with an alpha. Don’t fuck with his head. Certainly not when he’s doing everything he can to find Theo for you.”
Was that what she was doing? Was she just screwing Carl as a way to pass the time? Everything in her rebelled at the thought, and yet in a situation like this, who knew what tricks the mind played? “I’m not doing that on purpose,” she said, knowing it for a weak excuse.
“Don’t do it at all. For any reason.” Then he straightened and stepped away, his gaze cutting to the right.
She followed his look and saw Carl standing awkwardly in the middle of the living room, his gaze heavy on her and Alan. His hair was towel-dried now, curling every which way. He had on jeans and a flannel shirt and there were socks in his hands. She met his gaze, flinching slightly at the raw emotion that swirled there. She couldn’t read it, had no idea what he was thinking. But whatever it was, it was wild and powerful. And it was only in his eyes as the rest of him stood statue still.
She swallowed, wanting to go to him, but holding herself back. Alan’s warning rang loud in her head. She didn’t want to use him for her own selfish needs. And until she got some clarity about herself and him, she didn’t want to lead him on. So she held herself back and wished with all her might that she had time to take a breath.
And then, like magic, he gave it to her.
“Tonya’s got some leads. She and Bryn have figured out some locations where they might be holding Theo.”
Her heart jolted inside her chest. “Where?”
“There are a dozen different places. They’re checking as many as they can, but need help. So she and I are going to the ones around Gladwin.”
That made sense. Tonya would have authority as a police officer and Carl would be there as Max.
“What can I do?” she asked.
“Just wait here. I’ll call if there’s any news.”
“But I want to?—”
“Just wait here, Becca.” It was half order, half plea.
“Sure,” she said. What else could she do? Maybe he needed some time to sort things out, too. So this was the perfect solution for them both. Except it didn’t feel like it. In fact, it felt awful as she stood there watching him pull on his socks and boots. Worse, he then crossed to a locked cabinet and pulled out a handgun. She wondered at first why he needed it when he was Max Grizzly Bear, but then she remembered that he’d already shifted today. He wouldn’t be able to go back into that kind of fighting mode again until after he’d rested.
Damn it, that made him extra vulnerable, and that scared the hell out of her.
“Wait!” she called as she headed for the door.
He froze mid step.
“You’ve got fifteen minutes, right? I mean you don’t have to leave this second, right?”
He frowned. “Tonya’s still coordinating with her team. I have maybe ten minutes. What did you have in mind?”
A million things flooded her brain, half of them pornographic, but out of all of them the need to make him as strong as possible was the loudest. “You haven’t eaten and you shifted this morning. You must be starving.”
