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  Dewi returned her focus to Linda. “And that also means you don’t go out catting around and getting knocked up by any other guys, either. Once your littlest is old enough to put into child care, the two of you better be working your fucking asses off to earn an honest living supporting them.”

  “But—”

  Dewi made the pinching motion at her, too. Then her voice dropped into a low and dangerous tone. “You either abide by this edict, or all four of you will be taken to Idaho for a pack council hearing, your kids will be given to someone who can raise them right, and you two will never be heard from again. I will not tolerate any bullshit when it comes to the health and welfare of our pack’s children. You want to fuck up your lives, fine, but you don’t get to do it with your children. You bred them, you raise them. Do I make myself perfectly, crystal clear?”

  The woman swallowed hard, her throat nervously working, but she nodded.

  Dewi glared at James, who also nodded.

  Dewi flashed them a bright, toothy smile. “Great! Glad we understand each other. And yes, we will be dropping in unexpectedly to check on you from time to time. If you all move, you will update me with your address and other contact info immediately. You will also keep me informed of your employers’ information, and update it immediately whenever you change jobs. Ditto if you change phone numbers. I have to hunt either of you down, it won’t be fun for you when I find you.”

  Dewi’s voice dropped back into the dark and dangerous range again. “And make no mistake, I will find you.”

  * * * *

  Beck fought the urge to nervously pace or tap his foot while Dewi talked to the young parents. He wasn’t sure forcing them to live together until their kids were adults was the best answer, but Dewi firing both barrels at them—pack edict and her Prime will—would likely ensure the kids would grow up not too fucked up.

  He hoped.

  It didn’t help that he couldn’t get his mate’s taste out of his mouth or his mind. Every cell of his being wanted to go hunt her down, pull her into his arms, and drown inside her soul.

  Aching didn’t begin to describe the void inside him right now. Not even close. More like searing, blistering pain and need consuming his every breath.

  Mate.

  She was out there, somewhere, and he had to find her.

  Now.

  When Dewi headed for the front door, Beck followed her outside. “I still say we should have just castrated him right there,” he said. “Save everyone a lot of time.”

  “We’re not barbarians.”

  “No, and calling James Palver a barbarian would be an insult to barbarians. And Linda gives poor white trash a bad rep, if you ask me.”

  “I didn’t say they were society’s elite, but we’ll evaluate the situation in a year and see if either of them have matured any and learned from this experience. I might let James off the hook in terms of living with Linda if it looks like they’re getting their shit together, but the asshole can’t afford to pay rent somewhere else and have money left over to support his kids. I’m also going to sit both sets of their parents down at the next pack Muster to have a little talk with them about James and Linda. Parental pressure from both sides can’t hurt.”

  They were almost at the truck, where Badger and Ken waited for them. Beck threw his arms in the air. “This is a damn waste of time!”

  “Calm down,” Dewi said, her voice practically a growl. “We’ll find her.”

  “You don’t understand what I’m going through right now!”

  She wheeled around, her right eyebrow dangerously arched. “Oh, don’t I?”

  He looked taken aback. “I mean, okay, yeah, you sort of know what I mean, but you claimed Ken. You didn’t lose him.”

  She opened the back door. “Get in,” she said, now sounding weary. “Let’s get back to the house and see what Ken can find out about her. Badger will return to pick up Jackoff and take him to get his shit.”

  “What’s this, now?” Badger asked, turning to stare at her. “I have to come back here?”

  She filled him in.

  Badger rolled his eyes. “Tell ye what, missy,” he said as he shifted the truck into gear. “We get both sets of their parents in front of us, I’m settin’ all four of them straight about the facts of life. Feckin’ idiots. They’re as bloody worthless as their damn children. Should edict them all to live in the same feckin’ house as bloody torture for them all.”

  Chapter Five

  Back at the house, Ken immediately headed for the office on the first floor, which was usually his office unless Dewi, Beck, and Badger needed to make conference calls with Peyton and Trent.

  But now, as their IT guy, Ken was almost always invited to sit in on those anyway.

  Beck followed him, Dewi trailing behind. “What are you going to do?” Beck asked Ken, a wheedling, pleading tone in Beck’s voice that Ken never remembered hearing before.

  “For starters, I’m going to see what I can find out about the driver. What was her name again?”

  “Her name tag said N. Drexler.”

  “Okay.” Ken fired up his laptop and started researching, all while Beck nervously paced in front of the desk. “Go take a run or something,” he told Beck. “This could take a while.”

  Beck stopped pacing. “How long?”

  “I don’t know. It depends on what I can find out the easy way.”

  “What’s the easy way?”

  “Running searches on Google, Facebook, property tax records, all of that. That’s going to take a while.”

  “Well, what’s the hard way?”

  “Hacking into the HART computer system. Which I’d rather not do if I don’t have to. I’m not even sure if I have the skills to do it. Besides, it’s highly illegal. And since it’s a quasi-government entity, law enforcement tends to frown upon that kind of stuff.”

  “So?”

  Ken stared at him. “Seriously? That doesn’t concern you?”

  “Not really. Not when I think about what’s at stake.”

  Dewi grabbed Beck and shoved him toward the office door. “It’s okay,” Dewi assured Ken. “Do what you need to, but don’t put yourself at risk.”

  “We need to find her!” Beck insisted.

  “I don’t want to trigger something and have Homeland Security crawling up our asses,” Ken shot back. “Sort of blows the whole ‘wolf shifter secrecy’ precautions right out of the damn water, don’t you think?”

  “Beck,” Dewi growled, dropping into her Prime Alpha mode. “Living room. Couch. Now.”

  The other wolf disappeared around the corner, loudly grumbling the whole way.

  Dewi paused in the office doorway. “Seriously,” she said, “don’t put yourself at risk. If you hit a wall and don’t find anything, we’ll regroup at that point and together we’ll decide what to do next. He’s just not thinking clearly right now.”

  “I can’t blame him,” Ken said, feeling bad for the guy.

  Her expression softened and she blew him a kiss. “I love you,” she whispered.

  He smiled. “Love you, too,” he whispered back.

  She gently closed the office door while Ken opened a browser window to begin his search.

  I hope I don’t let him down.

  * * * *

  By the time Badger returned later that evening, Dewi had made them all dinner, serving Ken his in the office since he didn’t want to stop working.

  But come midnight, Ken’s efforts had produced zero results. He emerged from the office to join the three shifters in the living room, where they’d been watching TV and awaiting word from him.

  “I’m sorry, man,” Ken said, feeling damned bad about it, too. “Either she’s super-cautious about her privacy, or she’s not active on social media.”

  “How can anyone not be active on social media?” Beck said.

  The other three looked at him. “Seriously, lad?” Badger asked. “When was the last time ye posted on the Tweeting thing?”

 
; “Twitter,” Dewi said. “And we’re three examples sitting right here.”

  “Two of you Prime examples,” Ken added before thinking better of making light of the situation.

  Dewi arched an eyebrow at his bad pun, but continued. “It’s been a long day. We all need to get some sleep and come at this tomorrow with fresh eyes.”

  “She’s out there somewhere right now!” Beck protested.

  “We know, lad,” Badger said. “And she’ll be out there tomorrow, too. Dewi’s right. Poundin’ our skulls over this is useless. We need a chance to let our minds think on it overnight.”

  He stood and stretched, yawning, lengthening the scar that crossed through his missing left eye and ran down the length of his face nearly to his chin. He scratched at his wild, curly red hair, which was threaded with grey. “I know this isn’t what ye want to hear, but we need to let this go for now.”

  * * * *

  Beck drove home a little after midnight, alternately cursing his friends and adopted family and knowing deep in his heart they were right.

  Tampa was a big place.

  A really big place.

  It didn’t look like it on a map, maybe, but when you figured population density, and all the nearby bedroom communities, it meant he couldn’t just randomly tear around the Tampa Bay area, looking for a woman whose full name he didn’t even know.

  He’d have to trust Ken to figure it out. That was his job, and so far, he appeared to be very good at it, this particular instance not withstanding.

  As Beck stood in the shower and let the hot water beat on his flesh, he tried not to think about the woman.

  Unfortunately, it was all he could think about.

  She wasn’t a smoker, at least. And she didn’t taste like someone who had a problem with alcohol, either. Although if she was a bus driver, he sincerely hoped she didn’t have a drinking problem.

  She tasted sweet and spicy, like someone used to making good home cooking, and the jasmine.

  He turned his back to the spray and inhaled deeply, trying to recreate the scent in his mind. Such a delicate aroma, and while she was anything but delicate, it seemed to fit her perfectly. So what if she was a large woman? It meant he’d be able to wrap his arms around her and not worry about breaking her.

  He didn’t care about looks, although to his eyes, she was beautiful.

  All he cared about was that she was supposed to be his.

  And she wasn’t in his arms at that moment.

  A situation he hoped to soon rectify.

  * * * *

  Nami awoke before her alarm the next morning feeling…lost.

  Shake it off, girl. You been through worse.

  She hadn’t even mentioned the strange incident to her supervisor when she ended her shift. She knew she should have filed a report about it. Hell, she should have called the police about it, but there was…something about the guy.

  Something she couldn’t put her finger on.

  All night long, her sleep had been plagued by…well, by really sexy dreams starring the mystery man. Dreams where instead of running away, he took her with him back to his place and did all sorts of wonderfully erotic things to her.

  For the rest of their lives.

  Stupid. He was a good lookin’ man, but he was plumb crazy, girl. Stop fantasizing about a creeper.

  Except the problem was, he didn’t feel like a creeper. Sure, what he’d done had caught her by surprise, but at the time it’d been like part of her had wanted it. Craved it, even.

  It had felt right, natural.

  Easy.

  Like when he ran off, that maybe her future was running off with him.

  Stupid.

  As she lay there waiting for her alarm to sound, she closed her eyes and conjured the strange man’s face in her mind. His short, blond hair, his piercing blue eyes. The way his kiss had tasted, as if it were an integral part of him and not just residual from a meal.

  The way he’d said, “Mine.”

  She’d heard it, clear as day, even though she’d swear she never saw his lips move.

  And just thinking about it, about the way his kiss had tasted, the way his voice had sounded, the way his breath had felt against her flesh, made her all…

  Tingly.

  Tingly in ways that made her feel even more lonely right at that moment.

  There’d been something possessive and commanding and sexy as sin in his voice.

  Stop it. He was a random creeper.

  Well, he’d be Danice’s problem from now on. No way, no how, would Nami drive that route again, unless one of her supervisors ordered her to.

  Period.

  But even as she thought that, something inside her wanted to rebel, to protest…

  To go hunt the man down.

  The alarm rudely interrupted her reverie. She got up to start her day and shoved all thoughts about the man out of her brain. She’d think about letting another man into her life once Da’von was out of school and on his own.

  Then, only then, could she let down her guard, relax, and possibly think about having a life of her own.

  And not a minute sooner.

  I promised Momma to raise them all right. And I’m going to do it.

  She’d seen what happened when she tried to ensure her own happiness before her responsibilities to her family. It had ended in a divorce that broke her heart.

  And no way would she risk that again. No, the next time she fell in love, it would be after she knew Da’von and Malyah were all right, although Malyah was already all right.

  Time for me to stop dreaming and focus on reality. All dreaming does is make my life miserable.

  * * * *

  Lara looked up from her sewing machine when Nami walked into the dress shop’s back room a little after ten that morning. “What’s the matter, chica?” she mumbled around a couple of straight pins held carefully between her puckered lips.

  Nami tucked her purse under the desk buried in a corner of the room under bolts of satin and lace. Any weekdays she worked at the dress shop, she drove Da’von to campus herself. It gave them time to talk, but that morning, the last thing she’d felt like was talking.

  To anyone.

  All she’d wanted to do was stay safely locked inside her own mind and think about Mystery Hunk.

  Even around her best friend. “Why do you ask me that?”

  Lara removed the pins from her mouth and shook them at Nami. “How long we been friends?” She shook the pins at Nami again. “I can practically read your mind. What happened? Why you look like you lost your best friend?”

  Nami settled into the office chair she used when working at the shop. Two jobs that required long hours of sitting down had rounded her five-five frame into one hundred and eighty pounds of less than firm flesh. “I had a weird day yesterday driving a friend’s route.”

  “Weird how?”

  Nami related the strange man and his kiss, leaving out the part about his one-word possessive declaration.

  When Nami finished, Lara let out a low whistle. “Why didn’t you call the cops about it?” The feisty Cuban-born woman was in her sixties, but her auburn hair stayed its same reddish shade due in no small part to her hairdresser.

  “Because the last thing I wanted to do was call attention to it. Not like he groped me.”

  “What if he comes back and does it to the other girl who drives that route?”

  That was the only concern Nami had. In the light of day, she felt a little guilty that Danice might run into that guy. By all rights, Nami should have reported it. Now that she hadn’t, she didn’t want to get in trouble if word got out later that she hadn’t said anything or filed a report. She couldn’t afford to lose her job.

  Then again, maybe Danice knew about him and didn’t say anything to her.

  Piled on top of that craziness, more than a tinge of jealousy that Mystery Hunk might kiss Danice.

  “Somehow, I don’t think he’s going to do that,” Nami said.

&
nbsp; “You don’t know that.”

  No, she didn’t. But a tiny irrational voice deep inside her quietly spoke again. That the stranger wouldn’t bother Danice, because he wasn’t interested in Danice.

  He was interested in her.

  And only her.

  She shivered despite the comfortable temperature. “No, I don’t know that. And I’ll talk to her.”

  In fact, Nami texted her. Any strange guys on your route lately?

  No guys stranger than normal. Why?

  Nami thought about her reply, carefully pondering exactly how to phrase it.

  Got propositioned yesterday afternoon.

  Danice texted her back immediately again, which surprised Nami. Did you report it?

  No, didn’t want to start trouble. Just a flirt. Big guy, white, blond hair and blue eyes, looks like maybe military. Boarded on north Nebraska with a woman.

  I’ll keep my eye out tomorrow.

  That took Nami aback. Tomorrow?

  I’m off today. Needed two in a row w the hubs. Txs again!

  That explained how Danice could be texting right now. Nami wanted to reach through the phone and shake her. Danice hadn’t exactly given her a clear reason why she’d wanted to swap shifts, but she’d given Nami the impression it had something to do with an appointment that couldn’t be changed for one of her kids. Not that she’d wanted to finagle an extra day off so she could have two in a row in the middle of the week.

  Nami shoved the phone back into her pocket.

  Must be nice.

  No, that wasn’t very charitable, but at that moment charitable was the last thing she felt. At least Nami got two days off in a row every week. Usually. And she’d borked her own Saturday in the process of shifting her schedule around to help Danice out.

  Never. Again.

  She spent the day trying to focus on her job at the dress shop. Which proved wicked difficult.

  At least if she screwed something up, as long as it wasn’t cutting fabric or trim too short, it was easily fixed. Not like if she drove the bus off the road or something.

  Which, knock on wood, she had a perfect record so far. Over the years, she’d been in three minor accidents caused by other drivers, but her own driving record remained unblemished.