David tilted his face up to the sky and closed his eyes.

  Paradise, indeed.

  ***

  Elizabeth loved it here. The area was beautiful, the lake an added playground, and the cabins were all within sight of each other but far enough away to have privacy too. What a great place to raise a family. She hoped if Slade and Sheri weren’t interested in mating each other, another male wolf would show up and Sheri and the new male would fall in love. But Cameron and the others might not want another male wolf encroaching on their territory. What if the new wolf was an alpha and a royal and wanted to take over the pack?

  Then again, she didn’t think any of these wolves would bow down to another male wolf, since the men had grown up together in Seattle and had been best of friends all this time. They were a tight group, and being turned made them even closer. They would stick together.

  Sheri was smiling, looking happy to be here even if she didn’t have anyone to date. Elizabeth was glad she was here, and in that moment, in David’s arms, she made a decision.

  She didn’t want to drag out getting to know him all over again. He was eager, and so was she. What they needed was time together, just the two of them. She didn’t want Sheri to feel left out, and she hoped she would understand, but she really did need some time alone with David.

  Chapter 13

  The next morning, David was having shifting issues again just as he planned to make breakfast, and he was trying not to be annoyed about it. He had made love to Elizabeth early this morning instead of going for a wolf run, and he faulted himself for not doing what he knew had to be done during this phase of the moon. But she’d been in such a loving mood, he had soon forgotten all about the moon and only thought of pleasuring her.

  He’d planned to make breakfast for them after, but his body warmed and he was feeling the pull to shift. “Go ahead and make whatever you want.” He knew he sounded irritated, but he couldn’t help it. Instead of inflicting his bad attitude on Elizabeth and Sheri, he stalked back to the bedroom, nearly growling in frustration. He hated that about the full moon, that he couldn’t do his usual routine, and that meant checking messages at the office and being the first one in there in case they had any walk-in clients. Plus he wanted to get to work again on the Mel Warner case and now that would have to wait too.

  “We’ve got it,” Sheri called.

  “Yeah, you made us administrators,” Elizabeth said, raising her voice so he’d hear. Neither of them moved from the kitchen to check on him, and he appreciated the space. He felt like a lousy mate prospect, but he would have felt worse if she tried to come in and baby him. She’d said she was fine with it; he just hadn’t come to terms with that yet.

  “We’ll make breakfast and see you over there,” Elizabeth added.

  He barely heard her, the pull so strong now that he really had to fight it. He ditched his clothes and shifted in a flash.

  “I’m calling Cameron to let him know we’re going in to the office,” Elizabeth said. “Do you need anything?”

  David ran into the living room as a wolf and bumped Elizabeth’s hand, letting her know he hadn’t meant to be all growly. She smiled down at him, leaned over, kissed his cheek, and ran her hand over his head. “We can do this. That’s what we’re here for. And for more.” She smiled at him.

  “The more is what I want,” Sheri said, getting ready to leave the house and acting like David having to shift was no big deal.

  “We’ll find you someone.” Elizabeth had the phone to her ear and said, “Hi, Cameron, this is—” She glanced at Sheri. “I got an answering machine.”

  “This is really why we’re here,” Sheri said. “Just think, during the full moon, we can take over the pack.”

  David smiled. He knew Sheri was joking, but he loved that she could make light of what he felt was a dark situation.

  He licked Elizabeth’s hand, and she laughed. “Yeah, but they’ll all be back to their human forms and we’ll be in trouble.”

  ***

  “We’ll open up the shop, talk to clients, and tell them you all will get back to them as soon as you can. Maybe one of the other guys hasn’t shifted,” Elizabeth said, hopeful that someone could come in and soon.

  Sheri pointed out the window with her free hand. “Well, Cameron and Faith and their pups are all out for a run.”

  That discounted them.

  Elizabeth called Gavin, and Amelia answered the phone instead. “He’s a wolf right now. I can take a message for him. I’ll be leaving to take a flight out in a few minutes.”

  “Sheri and I are headed to the office. We’ll do what we can until one of the guys can show up,” Elizabeth said.

  “Okay, thanks. I’m glad you all are here. My brother and I are taking some flights out and can’t hang around, with the summer tourism in full swing. We get a lot of seaplane sightseeing tours over the lakes, and we’re taking a lot of canoeists into the BWCAW this time of year. Um, that stands for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Welcome to the pack!” Amelia said.

  Elizabeth smiled. “We’re glad to be here.”

  She gave David a big hug. “We’ll see you when we see you.” She hoped he wasn’t stuck as a wolf for a really long time. Not that it would bother her, but she knew it would bother him.

  Then she and Sheri walked over to the office. All the homes were privately screened from the office, making it look like it was sitting in a park. They were really off the beaten path out here, so most people called in their requests for services, or emailed them, or filled out a secure form online, but some still came in to speak with the investigators in person, probably wanting to see their setup and make sure they were getting what they were paying for.

  The building itself was made of logs, but more modern rustic than old-cabin-in-the-woods. They had a good-sized parking lot and a large sign out front so passersby could see the phone number, website, and name of the business.

  Inside, the place was immaculate—no trash accumulated on the investigators’ desks, no used coffee mugs, and no one smoked. It looked like the place was newly opened, the men’s degree completions and awards they’d earned while on the police force in Seattle and their PI licenses all beautifully framed in each of the offices.

  “You know, the place looks a bit too clean,” Sheri said, checking messages.

  “What do you mean?” Elizabeth asked as she turned on a computer at the receptionist’s desk and logged on.

  “It’s too new looking, like they just opened for business.”

  Elizabeth liked clean and neat. “We still need to get plants.”

  Sheri smiled.

  “Plants add to any decor.”

  “You know how I kill potted plants. Stick it in the ground, and it does fine for me. Plant it in a pot, and I’m in trouble,” Sheri said.

  “I’ll water them.” Elizabeth loved plants, indoors and out.

  “Okay, sounds good. I can’t believe they’ve been managing this on their own for so long. I think seeing them all shift like that put it in perspective for me.”

  “Yeah, me too. And not just one or two wolves in the pack have trouble with it, but almost the whole pack.” Elizabeth looked at some canvas prints they could hang on the wall of forests, lakes, Arctic wolves. “I know how it was in the beginning. I was there. I guess I just thought it would get better with time. I know it has to have, but I guess I thought it would be much better than this.”

  Sheri had begun filing documents, a seemingly endless task. “ I really didn’t have a clue. It’s one thing when we have one or two wolves in a large pack who have issues, but when practically the whole pack does? I really feel for them.”

  “You’re not afraid how that might affect you?” Elizabeth asked.

  “That one of them will get caught, and we’ll all be outed? No. It just makes me more determined to stay and help out. I can’t imagine working here all this time without more royal wolves to be here for them. And Amelia and Slade can’t be because of having to fly so much.”

  “Right.” Elizabeth was glad her friend would feel that way too.

  They worked in silence for a while, then Sheri said, “I hope that I won’t be too big of a nuisance staying with you two.”

  “No, you’re not.” Elizabeth wondered if Sheri somehow sensed how anxious she was to have time alone with David. Another thought had just occurred to her though: Maybe it was Sheri who wanted the alone time.

  “We haven’t been too…um, noisy, have we?”

  “No.” Sheri blushed. “It’s just that you’re getting to really know David, and here I am in the middle of it. Maybe I should stay with one of the other families. In fact, I might hop from one to the other so I can get to know them better.”

  Elizabeth didn’t think Sheri would really be happy with doing that. “Only if you really want to and you’re not just saying that for my sake or something. You’re my friend, and we did this together.”

  “No, I forced this on you.” Sheri sighed. “You two need the time alone to get to know each other. I just don’t want to come between you. The two of you need to be mated.” Sheri held up her finger as she began listening to voice messages, and Elizabeth took the opportunity to empty Cameron’s office of to-be-filed paperwork.

  “So what did the messages say?” she asked when she came out.

  Sheri said, “We had some requests for investigations on new hires at one of the hospitals. I’ll log them in on the computer and send a note telling them we’re on it. I wonder how long it will be before—”

  The door to the agency opened, and Elizabeth hoped it was one of the guys, finally getting control of his shifting, but instead a woman walked in, and they suspected she was a potential client. Great. They hadn’t had any training in how to handle a client who walked in the door when no PIs were available.

  “Hi, I’m Elizabeth Alpine, an administrative officer for the agency. How may I help you?”

  “I need to hire an investigator to look into my business partner’s finances. I’m certain he has been stealing money from the firm, but I need evidence before I can get the police involved. I’m Mitzi Moore, and the firm was my husband’s. When he died, his partner tried to buy me out. I’ve been suspicious of him for a while. My husband knew him as a childhood friend and trusted him completely, so I couldn’t do anything about it back then, but now I have to make sure he has not been robbing the firm blind. We’re a printing company and print documents, books, flyers, whatever needs to be printed all over the country. My grandfather actually started the business, and my father ran it until I married my husband, and he took it over. Then he brought in this friend, who became his partner. Anyway, the shares were split between the two of them, well, until my husband died. Now I own half the company. I would buy him out, but I want to know if he has swindled the company first. His name is Edgar Cooper. Can you take the case?”

  Elizabeth blinked. That was…a lot of information all at once. She wasn’t even sure Ms. Moore took a breath. She cleared her throat and said, “All of our investigators are out on jobs right now, but as soon as one of them gets in, we’ll tell him about your situation, and he’ll call you and let you know what he needs.”

  “You can’t call one now and just let him know? I need to either have you check into it or go to another PI office.”

  Sheri spoke up. “Let me text them.” Her fingers were already flying over her phone. “One of them will let you know soon.”

  “I’ll wait.” Ms. Moore took a seat on the chair in the reception area.

  Great. Elizabeth and Sheri exchanged glances with each other as the woman took out her phone and began texting someone.

  Then the door opened again. Elizabeth and Sheri turned as one to see if it was one of the PIs, but it was another potential client. Sheri smiled at the man and took him into an office, explaining as she went who she was and that the investigators were all out on jobs. “So, how may I help you?”

  A few minutes later, after a conversation too low for Elizabeth—and more importantly, Ms. Moore—to hear, the man nodded, took the business card Sheri offered to him, and said he looked forward to hearing from an investigator soon.

  Just as he was about to leave the office building, Elizabeth heard Owen and Gavin talking to each other as they came inside.

  The man stepped up, interrupting them. “Your administrative officer, Sheri, said one of you would call me about this job, but if you’re here now and I can talk to you about it…”

  Owen shook his hand. “Come into my office, and thanks, Sheri.”

  Then Gavin said, “You must be Ms. Moore?” and gestured to her to follow him to his office. Guess he’d gotten Sheri’s text.

  Sheri joined Elizabeth and said, “Man, I wish I was already a PI and could work the cases for them.”

  “I was thinking the same thing. At least we’re enrolled in the classes now so we can get a start on it.”

  Chapter 14

  Back in Yellowknife, when Bentley and Hans went to see Kintail at his home, he knew the news wasn’t good. Though he knew what it was already. Elizabeth had managed to leave the pack, and no one had stopped her.

  “Where the hell is Sheri?” Kintail asked. “You were supposed to bring her here.”

  Bentley looked at Hans as if he were the one who was supposed to know because Hans was Sheri’s brother. But the thing of it was, Bentley was Sheri’s boyfriend, so he ought to damn well know where she was!

  “She’s not home,” Hans said, sounding irritated.

  Kintail narrowed his eyes. “Where is she, then?”

  “I don’t know. Mom and Dad don’t know. We used lockpicks to get into Elizabeth and her grandmother’s house. Her suitcases are gone, all her clothes are gone, the fridge was empty, her grandmother’s clothes were gone. There was no indication where she went. Oh, and her car was in the garage.”

  “And Sheri’s car?” Kintail asked.

  “No idea,” Hans said.

  “No?” Now that surprised Kintail. He thought they would find her car there along with Elizabeth’s, while the women, presumably, took off in the car of the mystery woman from dinner.

  Hans shrugged.

  Kintail frowned. “Did you check Sheri’s room to see if her things were at your parents’ home?”

  “Uh”—Hans glanced at Bentley—“no.”

  “Go now, and call me with what you learn.” Incompetents.

  “We’ll do that.” Hans turned to leave, with Bentley following behind him, arguing like children.

  “You should have thought of that first,” Bentley said to Hans.

  “Why didn’t you think of it? You’re supposed to be her boyfriend, so you say,” Hans said.

  “You’re her brother.”

  “And I’m not my sister’s keeper.”

  The door closed behind them, mercifully, and Kintail shook his head. He called Hans and Sheri’s dad, even though he knew they’d just left on a vacation to Cancun. He doubted they had any idea Sheri or Elizabeth were even gone.

  Still, he had to try. They wouldn’t get away with this. Not while he was pack leader.

  “Hey, it’s Kintail. Did Sheri say anything at all about taking a trip anywhere, like to Seattle?”

  ***

  Stuck at home while Elizabeth and Sheri were in the office, David felt worry start seeping in again. He was afraid that no matter what she’d said, if Elizabeth had any doubts about being with him—and she must have, since she hadn’t decided to be his mate yet—this might have tipped the scale in favoring a quick retreat for her. Sheri too.

  He finally managed to shift. He threw on clothes and walked to the office.

  Two cars were sitting there, and he hoped things hadn’t been too busy for them.

  But when he walked in, he found Elizabeth and Sheri huddled over a computer together, pointing at the monitor and agreeing or disagreeing about something, while Gavin was taking care of one client and Owen the other.

  “Oh,” Elizabeth said, jumping from the desk chair. “We got some inquiries for background investigations.” She handed David the requests.

  “Come into my office.” He took Sheri and Elizabeth there and shut the door. “This is your first official training.” He showed them how to do thorough background investigations on potential new hires for a business, using the multiple databases they had at their disposal.

  “Oh, wow, how cool is this?” Sheri asked, wide-eyed.

  “It is.” Elizabeth read over some of the information on the monitor.

  David motioned to the screen. “We get a lot of these, and we want to be thorough so that hiring the wrong person doesn’t come back to bite us, but we also want to get the results back as soon as possible so that the business—the client—can hire or reject the application without too much delay.”

  “Right,” Sheri said, as he showed them how he went through the various sources to investigate the cases.

  “Now, we don’t tell them who to hire, but we’ll give them the details of what the individual applicant’s criminal records look like. In other words, it’s on the businesses to do what’s right for their employees and customers.”

  “Good,” Elizabeth said.

  “These five potential hires are clean, no records. This one has five parking violations and four moving violations—all outstanding. Now, if it were me hiring the person, I would say no because he just doesn’t seem to want to obey the laws and he hasn’t taken care of his violations. What if he was the same with working in an office? Ignoring the rules and regulations?”

  “I agree,” Elizabeth said.

  “Do you both want to work on these, then?”