"Nothing spoiled, I swear." She kept the kitchen so tidy, it would be impossible for anything to go bad on her watch. "We don't eat outside."
She patted Gunnar's other knee. "Nothing to worry about, then."
Gunnar tensed. "What if Bunting did something to us? Or we came across something in space? Radiation sickness sometimes takes a few weeks to manifest."
"You got the same treatment as I did," I reminded him. "If it's something Bunting did, we would both be sick."
He didn't look convinced, but he buried his hands in his pockets and leaned forward over his knees.
Bettina frowned at me over his back. "Are you feeling all right?"
"Never better." I couldn't resist smoothing my palm over the bumps and ripples of Gunnar's puffy coat.
She snorted. "I don't believe you."
"I mean it. I haven't had a vacation this relaxing since … ever." Our trip to Ukraine was the only one to come close, but I'd wasted the first weeks as a sickly child, and then I'd learned my mother was dying, so not the best comparison.
"I'm glad you're enjoying your stay," she said. "It has been nice to have the hotel open for once."
"Next January, I promise." The construction crew would be back to finish the lodge renovations in the spring. Weather permitting, another crew would repairthe lifts and gondolas. "We'll have our grand opening on New Year's Day."
The conversation spurred me to write a to-do list for my friend Lonnie to handle during his resort's off season. I typed out the bullet points on the train and sent it to him as we pulled into the station in Lausanne. It was early morning in Hawaii, but knowing Lonnie, he would have a status report to me by the time we arrived back at the resort.
The back of my neck prickled when I hit send. It was a harmless work email, but in the wrong hands, my father would know exactly where to find us if he intercepted it.
I swore I felt someone watching me, and the hair raised at my nape. I shook it off and talked my wolf down from high alert. We still had several hours before we had to run.
When we stepped out of our rideshare at the address Bettina gave me, I couldn't believe my eyes. The place was a castle with spires on all four corners of the keep and battlements atop every outside wall between them. In the snow, it looked like the perfect home for an ice princess.
"What is this place?" I asked Bettina.
"It's been in our family for generations. We call it Wulfenzheim."
"It's beautiful." Gunnar stared up at the bulwark with eyes as wide as saucers and his mouth open.
"Thank you." Bettina looked pleased. "Shall we go inside?"
We followed her through a massive door, into a widestone entrance, and down hall after hall until we found a gorgeous sitting room at the back of the building. A cheery fire crackled opposite a bank of windows. A spry man with only a few wispy gray hairs on top of his head sat to one side of a chessboard, enjoying the view.
"Opa! It's so good to see you!"
"Bettina!" He turned and smiled at the sound of her voice. "You made it this time. I was so disappointed when you couldn't join us last week." His eyes had a warm golden shine to them as he spoke to her in German. Despite his age, which Bettina had said was well over 200 years old, his gaze still held the curiosity of youth. "Look at you," he said in English as he gave us a once-over. "Aren't you both fine specimens of wolves. Can you shift?"
"You can tell just by looking at us?" Gunnar asked.
"Well, Bettina told me you are wolves, but I could smell you the moment you entered the building. The shifter smell is strong. Are there three of you?" He looked behind us, as though expecting to see another wolf shifter.
"No, Opa." Bettina frowned. "It's as I said, only the two."
He looked confused for a moment, but then he smiled and shook our hands. "I apologize. Sometimes my nose plays tricks on me. I'm Nor Bertholf." He released my hand immediately, but his hold lingered on Gunnar's, raising the hackles at my nape. "You're a true omega. I've never met one before."
"I'm a … what now?" Gunnar shook his head. "They disproved that theory. Wolf packs in the wild are family groups led by parents. Betas and omegas only exist among captive wolves."
The old man shook his head. "They exist in shifters, though we haven't had any among us for a long time. It's been thirty years since my oma passed away. She was a beta who could shift, and her omega father gave birth to her."
I blinked. "He what?"
"Omegas are special." Still holding Gunnar's hand, he rose from his chair and led us to the furniture arranged around the giant fireplace. "My English isn't as good as it once was. Bettina, would you translate?"
