She glanced back in the direction of her bedroom down the hall. She’d thought she heard footfalls in her bedroom. But now she imagined that had just been the sound of the ocean and the wind in the trees. After moving here from the redwoods in California, she didn’t think she’d ever get used to how the Oregon coast sounded.
Except…
She lifted her nose and smelled. The faint scent of another male wolf still lingered in the air. She didn’t think Finn Emerson would come here while Hunter was away and then stay, but she wondered: had he, and if so, why?
Chapter 2
Meara couldn’t help feeling annoyed whenever Finn showed up, knowing he meant to convince Hunter to go on another dangerous mission with him. She wasn’t convinced that he was the wolf who had entered her home without permission earlier, but that didn’t matter. Any thought of Finn instantly made her hackles rise.
She looked down at Joe Matheson’s outstretched hand and then, not entirely free of her concern about the presence of another wolf, she offered her own. “Meara Greymere” she said, smiling. “I was expecting you. I was going to fix a drink and something to eat. Would you care to join me, Mr. Matheson? And then I can show you to your cabin.”
She wanted to ask her guest to accompany her down the hall to see who the intruder was, if he was still here and hadn’t climbed out her window, but she had to do it covertly without alerting him.
“Call me Joe, if you don’t mind. I’m on vacation. I don’t want to be a bother, but I flew in from North Carolina, and you know how they don’t feed you on many flights these days. Pretzels, if you’re lucky. And they don’t sustain a body for long.”
He gave her a sexy grin, and she thought about just how little the pretzels would do for a body like his.
“I’ll need to find a place to pick up some groceries for the rest of the week so, yeah, a meal would be nice. Thanks.”
She motioned to a seat at the bar but glanced around for a piece of paper and a pen to scribble a warning note about the possible intruder. “Any preference?”
“Anything you want to fix is fine with me.”
She pulled out a can of tuna to make a salad so that whoever might be hiding in her home would think she didn’t realize it. But as she stared at the can, she thought better of fixing a salad. Her brother hated them. This guy probably wouldn’t want to eat rabbit food, either.
“Steak? Chicken? Fish?” she asked, again looking around for something to write a note she could pass to Joe.
“Chicken,” he said.
She spied her notebook on the bar near the phone, but she remembered having taken notes on her prospective guests. She didn’t want to flip it open and worry Joe might catch sight of it. She couldn’t recall what she’d written about him, but she thought she’d said something about him sounding sexy. And he did. Even more so in person. But she didn’t want him knowing that.
Her groceries notepad was sitting on the coffee table, though. Before she could skirt the counter to get it, she saw Joe staring in the direction of the bedrooms. Had he heard someone also? She planned to make it sound as though she didn’t believe anyone was down the hall. Then when the intruder least expected it, she’d take Joe with her to investigate. But she didn’t want Joe to alert the man that they were on to his game, if he was there.
“Homemade potato salad to go with the baked chicken?” she asked, hoping he’d go for the potato salad since it was one of her favorite dishes that she made from an old family recipe.
He shifted his attention back to her. “Potato salad sounds pretty good.”
“So what do you do when you’re not on vacation?” She hoped she sounded subtle enough—she still was doing her mate investigation, despite whatever was going on down the hall—as she grabbed the notepaper and pen, shoved them in her jeans pocket, and returned to the kitchen.
“I’m a business consultant,” he said.
She seasoned the chicken thighs with lemon and pepper spice, set them in a baking dish, and started cooking them. Once the chicken was cooked, all she’d have to do was take out the glass bowl of potato salad, and the meal would be done. She’d sprinkled the potato salad with paprika to make it more visually appealing and because she loved the subtle, spicy taste.
Afterward, she pulled the pen and notepaper out of her pocket and scribbled a really quick note as she said, “Business consultant.”
That didn’t say a whole lot about him, but that’s all he had told her when he’d called to reserve the cabin.
He smiled and waved a hand at her notepad and pen. “Taking notes?”
She glanced up from her note writing and could have kicked him. How was she going to secretly slip him a note if he was going to tell the world what she was doing? “I just noticed I’m nearly out of baking potatoes so I’m adding them to my grocery list.” She hoped he hadn’t seen the bin full of potatoes and would say something about it, too.
She had tried not to sound peeved, but his lifted brow indicated he was amused by the terseness in her voice, and she wondered if he thought he’d guessed that what she was doing had nothing to do with writing a grocery list. Just a list of what she found appealing in him. She gave him an annoyed look. “Did you want something to drink? Wine? Beer?”
He shook his head. “Don’t drink anything hard.”
“Oh. Water? Tea? Soda?”
“I’ll have water.”
Before she could slide the note to Joe, he asked, “Is Hunter around?”
Her fingers stilled on top of the note on the counter, and she stared up at him. “You know Hunter?”
This was so not good. If he had been friends with Hunter, he’d surely tell her brother what she was up to. And Joe wouldn’t be a viable candidate for a mate. But she didn’t remember meeting him before. Why hadn’t she met him if he was a friend of Hunter’s?
“Sure. So… is he around?” Joe raised his dark brows in question. He had a hard, angular face, made more severe by his short-cropped hair. But his eyes and mouth gave her the impression that he was smiling covertly.
She felt uneasy. As if she suddenly had a spy in her midst. Someone who would reveal what she was up to before she could get away with it. On the other hand, if he didn’t know that Hunter was off on his honeymoon, maybe he hadn’t been in contact with her brother for a while. She’d forget making any moves on this guy, no matter how delicious he looked, send him to his cabin, and work on guest number two instead when he arrived the next day. She really didn’t want to get involved with one of Hunter’s friends. Who knew what Hunter had said to them about her behind her back?
“He’s off on his honeymoon with his mate, Tessa,” she said, nonchalantly.
“Oh. I didn’t realize he’d finally found a mate. So where’d they go?”
“Hawaii.”
“Hmm.”
Their kind normally didn’t bother with honeymoons. Joe had to think it odd, but she’d leave her brother to explain to his “friend” what made Hunter’s relationship with Tessa so different.
“And he left you alone? To manage the cabin resort?” Joe asked, his tone a little dark.
At first, she thought he was questioning her ability to manage the cabin resort by herself. And her hackles rose at that. But then she suddenly felt somewhat vulnerable, thinking that he’d meant she was here alone with no one to protect her from someone who might wish to do her harm.
“We have a pack,” she said firmly. “As I’m sure you know. Since you’re a friend.” The pack didn’t live that close by. What if this guy was bad news and another was in the bedroom or guest room right this very instant, or what if the two of them were in cahoots? “How do you know Hunter?”
“When your parents were pack leaders, Hunter and I went down to Mexico for about a month.”
“Oh.” She remembered that Hunter had left to get away from Dad, who had been quite authoritarian when he ruled the pack. But she didn’t remember Hunter saying anything about going with a friend. And her brother had never revealed exactly where he’d ended up, either. About that time, she’d moved in with a girlfriend in another pack to get away from her dad, too. She guessed that’s when it had been. If what this guy claimed was on the up and up.
But then she wondered why Joe hadn’t kept up with her brother. Why didn’t he know about her brother’s mate?
She filled a glass with ice and water, and handed it to Joe. “So what mischief did the two of you get into?” If he said something she didn’t believe, she’d recognize he was lying about knowing Hunter.
“If Hunter didn’t tell you, I’m sure not going to.” He winked at her with a silly smirk on his face, as if he hid a wealth of misdeeds that Hunter and he had gotten into when they were younger.
She believed that Hunter would have, too, but was that all just made up? Joe certainly hadn’t said anything that would alleviate her concerns. “You must have been out of touch with him for some time.”
“Years,” he admitted. “I had just planned to get away from work and go anywhere that a wolf could run for a bit, but when I saw your ad and…” He spread his hands as if expressing the sentiment: What else is there to say? He was game to spend time with a female who was free. Maybe he was hoping Hunter was out of the picture so he could see her without her brother’s interference.
Her face warmed. Had she been so obvious about wanting to check out some alpha male prospects?
She’d have to ask Hunter about a friend named Joe as soon as she was able to reach him—about six hours from now—to see if Joe’s story checked out.
“What do you do out here for fun?” Joe asked, then took a swallow of water.
“Hike. A river is located in the area where you can go white-water rafting. Fishing. All kinds of outdoor stuff. Hunt, when it suits you.” She wasn’t about to mention a moonlight swim or a run through the woods with him now.