Chapter Sixteen
Carver
“Can I get you anything before I turn in?” Thea laid a pile of bedding and pillows on the end of the sofa. “Hot milk?”
I held back a smirk. “No, I don’t think so, but thanks. I know you have a no-boys-allowed policy here, but I can’t think of another way to protect everyone until we upgrade the security tomorrow.”
“First, you own the place.”
“True, but—”
“But nothing. If you wanted to fill the common room with elephants, you could do that. Second, we are grateful you are willing to help us. When you asked me to take this job, I was afraid it would be like every other shelter I’d worked in.
Instead of taking care of the females and any young they brought with them, I spent most of my working hours fundraising in order to keep the doors open and feed them gruel three times a day. ”
“Gruel, really?” I eyed her with suspicion.
“Well, maybe not, but we served a lot of thin soups and stews with oatmeal for breakfast every single day. Also thin. Nobody gave us an account to buy nice clothes for the ladies when they were ready to set out and go on job interviews. We were treated like a nuisance, and it stung.”
“We do well at the club, and you are careful with the funds we give you. Thea, there are too many males in our world who treat females and young like property. And often property they don’t value very highly. We all have our own stories, and I know you do too.”
“You know that, do you?”
“Did you think we would have tracked you down and offered you the job without doing a background check? We needed to know that you’d gotten past your own traumas before we plunged you into a situation where you had to deal with other people’s.”
“I see.” She still didn’t look happy. “Then if you’re all settled, I’m going to bed. If you want a drink or snack, help yourself.”
“Thank you.” I probably shouldn’t have told her that we knew her story, but sometimes I didn’t know when to stop talking. Also, I hadn’t realized she didn’t know. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Night.”
After she was gone, I made up my bed with the soft sheets and fluffy comforter Thea left me then settled in to watch TV for a while.
I got up every couple of hours and walked the hallways, checked the front and back door, and looked outside to make sure there were no sneaky characters roaming the sidewalks.
Everything appeared quiet and safe, and eventually I turned off the TV and burrowed down in the makeshift bed to get some rest. If anyone tried to break in, we’d hear them.
Content that our mate was safe for at least one night, I let my eyes drift closed and fell into dreams of the day when she acknowledged us as her mates.
Warm and comfortable, I slept until I heard a shriek and Thea came running into the room. “Carver, wake up! Hurry!” She ran out again and returned. “Why aren’t you dressed. Come on!”
Catching on to the urgency even after my few hours of sleep, I jumped up and grabbed for my shoes. “What’s going on?”
Chest heaving, she pointed outside of the room as if there was something I would see if I only looked. But before I could get there, she spat out, “Josie is gone!”
“No, she isn’t.”
“Yes, she is.” Thea looked at me oddly. “Unless she’s in here somewhere? Did Josie join you during the night?”
“No, of course not.”
“Then, why are you saying I’m wrong? She is gone. Her bed is empty, and she’s nowhere to be found. She doesn’t have an early shift at the laundromat, does she?”
“No.”
“Then, where is she?”
I marched past her and headed for the motel rooms. “Which one is hers?”
She brushed past me. “This way. But if we don’t let men stay overnight in the common room, we sure as heck don’t let them into the rooms.”
“It’s an emergency.” I stopped in front of the door she indicated and knocked. Loudly. “Josie, it’s me, Carver. Open up.”
A few more attempts, and Thea pulled out her keys and opened the door. “Go ahead. Nobody is in here.”
I stepped inside, feeling as if I was violating our mate’s privacy. But after I looked everywhere a person could hide and a few where they couldn’t, it became clear that Thea was right. A fact further proven by the breeze blowing the curtains in the open window. “But why? Where would she go?”
She shrugged, ringing her hands. “It happens. They elope like this sometimes.”
“She’s gone to mate someone, then?”
“No, it’s just an expression that means she ran off. But I never expected it of her.”
Me either. “I have to make a call.” When Aries answered, I told him everything I knew.
After a long silence, he asked, “How did she get past you?”
“She didn’t. I told you, she went out the window.”
“And ran past the window in the room you were in? Didn’t she have to do that?”
Considering the layout of the motel and the fact that she hadn’t gone out the front or back doors, yes she had. I was a huge turd. “Just get over here. You can bite off my leg later.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”