Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
Travis
Ishoved Daphne behind me as I stepped from the entryway into her room. Although she didn’t seem like a neat freak, I doubted she routinely draped her bras over the TV and hung jeans from the overhead fan, either.
Empty drawers were overturned on the bed. A chair on its side. Cabinet and closet doors open. Toiletries strewn over the floor of her bathroom.
And amidst it all, the faint smell of werewolves hung in the air.
White-hot rage boiled up inside me, threatening to overflow. When I found out who did this, not if, I would rip their insides out.
“What happened in here?” Daphne gasped, clutching the back of my shirt.
“Oh my God, George! Here, kitty-kitty.” She rushed past me, fell to the floor and lifted the bed skirt.
Then she turned back to me, tears rolling down her cheeks, and my heart nearly broke.
“He’s not here, Travis. My kitty isn’t here. ”
I summoned my inner wolf and sniffed the air. Besides Daphne’s sweet scent, an older scent of one, possibly two, werewolves lingered in the room, as did a newer, stronger scent of cat. “He’s still here, my love. He’s just hiding out somewhere.”
I pulled her to her feet, and she collapsed into my arms. “Are you sure?”
The pain in her voice ripped through me. “I’m positive. I could shift and easily find him, but I’m afraid that would traumatize him further.”
“Yeah, he hates dogs.” She sniffed against my chest. “Who would do something like this?”
“I don’t know,” I said, grinding my teeth. “But I swear I’m going to find out who—and they’ll regret ever fucking with you like this.”
She stood taller in my arms at my vow of revenge.
The French doors to her courtyard were slightly ajar. “Let’s start out there.” I took the lead, keeping her safely behind me. The perpetrators were long gone, but I wasn’t taking any chances.
I followed the scent to the far side of the patio and spotted the cat instantly. “There he is!” I said, pointing at two glowing eyes staring down at us from the branches of a dogwood tree.
“George!” Daphne rushed to the base of the tree and reached up to him. “My poor, scared little kitty. Are you okay?”
I stayed a few paces back so as not to scare him further and called the sheriff’s department. As I quickly explained what had happened, I watched Daphne unsuccessfully try to coax George down from the tree. The cat was just out of her reach...but not mine.
I hung up and went to her side. “Want me to give it a try?”
She grimaced, but I could see the gratitude in her eyes. This was traumatic for her too, and she needed to hold her cat to know that he was fine. “But he’ll scratch the hell out of you, Travis.”
I shrugged. “You’re worried about him and that’s all that matters.”
Sheriff Alverse Aldrich arrived a short time later as Daphne was massaging some healing lotion into the scratches on my forearms. Getting George down from the tree had turned out to be tricky as hell. I probably should’ve used gloves or something, but love is blind and hindsight is twenty-twenty.
The sheriff was a bald, broad-shouldered bear shifter with a bushy mustache, and colorful sleeve tattoos.
“Causing trouble again, son?” he asked, referring to the altercation I’d had with the vampire tourist in Nightmare Alley as he clapped me good-naturedly on the shoulder.
“Trying the fuck not to.”
A low, menacing growl emanated from George’s cat carrier as the sheriff walked past. Must not like bears either.
As the sheriff sniffed around the suite, Daphne snatched her undergarments from the TV and shoved them into her open suitcase.
“Do you have any valuables?” he asked her. “Is there anything missing?”
After rescuing George, we’d found the evil spell book still safely stashed in her beach bag on the closet shelf.
Daphne gave me a pointed look that said, Should we tell him about it? And I gave her a look back that I hoped said, Your call.
She flashed me a quick, tight-lipped smile. Good. It seemed as if she understood me.
“I was worried about George, so I haven’t really checked. But I don’t think so. I don’t own much jewelry or keep any cash around.”
Without warning, the sheriff shifted into his bear form.
Daphne jumped and made a sound of surprise.
I set a hand on the small of her back and guided her out of the way as the large brown bear lumbered around her villa and out into the courtyard.
At some point, she slipped an arm around my waist, making my wolf very happy.
He loved to protect her and puffed with pride that she turned to me to feel safe.
I kissed the top of her head. “Doing okay?” I whispered.
She nodded and nestled closer.
After the sheriff sniffed in every nook and cranny, he morphed back into his human form and stood in the middle of the room, chewing on a toothpick. “So, tell me about this Date-A-Wolf contest?”
“What do you want to know?” I asked, my tone suddenly guarded.
Some folks on the island thought the contest was nonsense.
And I had too. I only agreed in order to keep the ranch out of my half-brother’s greedy hands.
But if not for Date-A-Wolf, I’d have never met Daphne, so my opinion had done a 180.
He tapped his nose and looked around the room. “Clearly, another werewolf has been here.”
I tensed. “Yes, and...”
“Could this have been carried out by a disgruntled former contestant? From my understanding, you sent home a werewolf the other night.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Daphne sputtered, looking stricken.
Alverse gave a little shrug. “It’s just a question.”
“You’re referring to Sarah, and no, she would never do something like this.” She put her hands on her hips. “She’s a good friend of mine.”
“Are you sure? How well do you really know her?” The sheriff was relentless. Like a barbed hook, he wouldn’t let go of this line of questioning.
“Well, for one thing,” Daphne said, “she didn’t even want to be in the contest, but her family made her.”
“Or so she says.” The sheriff lifted a bushy brow.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, Alverse,” I said, pulling Daphne closer and rubbing the curve of her hip. “If Daphne said her friend Sarah didn’t do this, she didn’t do it. Plus, I know her scent and this wasn’t her.”
His eyes narrowed, not missing the possessive way I was touching Daphne. “Or maybe it’s a current contestant, with a werewolf friend, trying to sabotage her competition?”
I hesitated. I’d completely forgotten about the mole. “I know their scents, Sheriff. These two are unfamiliar.”
Alverse pointed with his toothpick around the room. “One is definitely canine, but the other is...human. What’s curious is that they used a masking elixir to hide their scent.”
My jaw nearly hit the floor. “You’re good, Sheriff. I didn’t pick up on those nuances.”
He clamped a meaty hand on my shoulder and gave it a rough shake. “That’s okay, son. We bears have a much better sense of smell than you dogs.”
“Very funny,” I said, shrugging his hand away.
“It’s not funny.” He guffawed. “It’s the truth.”
I clenched my jaw, feeling the muscles tense as my irritation flared. Bears did have a more acute sense of smell than wolves, but he didn’t have to be a dick about it.
While Daphne was in the bathroom, picking her toiletries off the tile floor, I pulled the sheriff aside and told him about the possible mole.
He nodded thoughtfully. “You’re picking Daphne at the end of the contest, aren’t you?” When I nodded, he tapped his nose. “I thought so. Both of you are giving off some strong mating pheromones.”
It would suck to be a love-struck teenager in that man’s house. He’d catch you sneaking out during the planning phase.
“It’s likely that the mole was responsible for this.” The sheriff jutted his chin in Daphne’s direction. “Who does she think it is?”
I rubbed my neck. “I haven’t exactly told her about the mole yet.”
“Why not?” he asked, a confused expression on his face, then he lowered his voice. “Do you think she’s involved somehow?”
“Hell no,” I growled.
The sheriff cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. “So, you have feelings for this girl and yet you’re not being honest with her?”
I cursed under my breath. I didn’t need this asshole poking his nose into my personal business, questioning what I did and didn’t do. The truth was, I should’ve told Daphne about the mole and wasn’t sure why I hadn’t.
Elbowing past the sheriff, I headed to the bathroom, leaned around the doorframe and saw that Daphne was lining up all her bottles into neat little rows on the counter. “What the hell are you doing?”
Her head snapped up. “Just tidying up after my room was ransacked,” she said in a sing-song, don’t-be-such-a-douchebag tone. “What’s it look like I’m doing?”
“Don’t bother. Just throw it all into a bag.”
She gave me a withering look that would intimidate a lesser man. “I’m not going to just throw my nice skincare and potions into a bag.”
I’d had enough of this. “Yes, you are. And when you’re done, you’re going to throw your other shit into a bag too. Or I can do it for you.”
“I’m...ah...going to let you two lovebirds sort things out,” the sheriff called from the hallway behind me. “Daphne, I’ll need you to visit the station to fill out some paperwork.” And then he was gone.
Daphne turned to fully face me. If her eyes were laser guns, she’d have changed the setting from stun to kill.
“In case you didn’t know, Travis,” she said through clenched teeth, “the resort is full. Whoever’s working the front desk isn’t going to be able to find me another room at this time of night, especially not one that is cat-charmed. ”
I gave a cold laugh. “You’re not staying here. You and George are coming home with me.”
“But—”
And then I was all up in her personal space, pushing her against the wall and cupping her neck, forcing her to look up at me—really look at me. “Darlin’ you can either walk out of here on your own WITH your shit or I carry you out with NONE of it. What’ll it be?”
When she didn’t answer me straight away, I began counting backwards, starting at ten.