Shivers snaked down my spine and I clenched my hands around the handles of the bags I was holding to keep from shifting. I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. What the hell? I hadn’t lost control of a shift since I was a pup.
“Everything okay?”
Chelsie looked back at me and frowned. When her eyes went to the handle of her luggage, she shrieked. “Alec! You crushed the handle! That was my favorite piece!”
She’s lucky I hadn’t crushed the whole damned bag. My wolf was crazed. Up and pacing, clawing, ready to throw his head back and howl to the heavens. At what, I wasn’t sure. Since moving to the city and working nonstop on the tenth floor of a high-rise, he’d been relatively silent. I scheduled regular times at a wildlife preserve to let him out to run, but even then, he’d not been overly excited for a long time. All of a sudden, he was freaking out about something and I had no idea what or why.
“Mr. Patterson? You okay?” Muddy looked at my hands and then back up to my face like she knew exactly what I was going through. And she might, since she was a shifter, too.
I shook my head and tried to ignore my wolf. “Sorry. I just had a moment there. I’m fine.”
“You’re fine, but look at my bag. I can’t believe you damaged it, Bay-bee.”
I again found myself wondering what the fuck an engagement trip was and why I was on one. Instead of saying it aloud, I dutifully acted like I thought a husband-to-be was supposed to act. “I’ll buy you another one, dear.”
Muddy interrupted whatever demands Chelsie was about to make when she directed us to a hallway on the right and motioned to Chelsie to unlock the door of our room. “Why don’t you two go ahead and get sorted. You can look around if you’d like, too. There are three more couples staying here right now, but they’re out and about at the moment. You’ll find several great places to eat in town. You can’t go wrong picking any of them.”
My body didn’t want to move forward into the room. My wolf fought, and I found myself being drawn back downstairs. “Is there somewhere I can use as an office? I just need a desk or a table. I’ve got some work to do.”
Chelsie sighed dramatically, but Muddy just smiled and held her game face. “There’s a common area downstairs. The dining room would probably work since there are a few different tables in there. It’s free until seven in the morning when we’re serving breakfast, and even then, we’ll just serve you around your work, if need be.”
Downstairs, with that maddeningly overpowering scent. I glanced at Chelsie, who was already aiming her phone at the room as she pushed through the door, taking a video of her reaction to it. Downstairs, it was.
3
Carter
“Dammit!” I yanked the scorched tarts from the oven and heaved them straight into the trashcan.
“Are you trying to wake the dead in here?” Muddy came in from the main room and shook her head at me. “This is a bed and breakfast. Emphasis on bed. It’s six in the morning. People are sleeping, woman.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and let my head fall back so I was staring at the ceiling, as far from those burnt tarts as possible. “I’m having an off morning. Something feels… different. It started when I got here this morning. Did you do something? I don’t notice anything different, but I swear, something is.”
“Nothing’s changed. You’re the first person in here this morning after leaving yesterday.”
I looked around, still not quite convinced. Something was making my skin feel too hot. My bear was hyper-aware. While she normally just rested while I worked, she was pacing and pawing at me, trying to get my attention.
“I burned the tarts. I’m going to have to start over. I need you to watch them this time.”
Muddy shrugged. “That’s fine. I’ll watch them while you serve the early birds. They should start rolling in soon.”
I made up another batch and slipped them into the oven. Standing back, I stared at them through the oven door and frowned. It wasn’t like me to burn something. Certainly not something edible.
“Stop standing there staring at the oven. Crying over spilled milk isn’t going to help anything. Mr. Norton is already out there. Go ask him what he wants to drink. I’ll watch the oven.”
I backed away slowly. “Right.” Getting out of the kitchen for a few minutes would do me good.
The dining room was just off the kitchen. It was two rooms that had been converted into one, with one long table and a few smaller ones around it. Mr. Norton sat exactly at the center of the long table with his hands clasped in his lap waiting patiently. He was a tall, slender, middle aged man with a nice smile and a shock of dark hair that was slightly graying at the temples.
“Hello, Mr. Norton. I’m Carter. I can take care of your beverage this morning, water, juice, coffee, something else?”
“Just a water for me. My wife will be downstairs in just a few minutes. She likes orange juice.” He hesitated. “Are you alright?”
There was something in the air. It was stronger out here in the dining room than in the kitchen and I was seconds from shifting. It was driving me absolutely insane. I’d spaced out on poor Mr. Norton for a few seconds while trying to catch the source of whatever it was that was getting to me.
When he cleared his throat, I snapped back to attention and forced a smile. “Of course. I’m fine. One water and one orange juice. I’ll be right back out with that.”
I stumbled back into the kitchen, still shaking my head. “I think I’m getting a cold or something.”
Muddy sent me a flat look. “You’re a shifter. You don’t get colds.”
“Well, something’s wrong. My brain is fuzzy today.”
“Maybe you’re just missing your daughter. Do you need the morning off?”
I grabbed two glasses and grunted. “No. I don’t want to go back home and see the boxes that I haven’t unpacked. I’ll be fine.”
I was fine for a short time. A very short time. I served the guests as they came in while Muddy cooked and kept her eye on my tarts. Even when she pulled them out of the oven, I didn’t want to remain in the kitchen. I felt restless. Moving back and forth between guests and the kitchen helped a little.
I was holding it together. Barely. It wasn’t until I was headed out with a glass of ice water for another guest, Mr. Manus, that an issue arose. I took a deep breath in, trying to calm myself, and instead, got a lung full of something unbelievably delicious. It was like cinnamon and cloves and something citrusy, like bergamot. I turned my head to follow the scent and tripped over Mr. Norton pushing out his chair to stand up.
I managed to catch myself before I face planted, but the water ended up flying. It splashed all over Mrs. Manus. Right down the front and side of her flowery blue blouse and her stern face.
I immediately snatched up a stack of napkins from the table and started blotting her arms. “I am so sorry. I wasn’t paying attention and… I don’t know what happened. I feel awful.”
Mr. Norton rushed over to apologize as well, but Mrs. Manus was already in a tiff. She tossed her napkin onto the table and huffed out of the room with all the righteous indignation she could muster. Which was a lot.
Mr. Manus scowled deeply and shook his head. “Hell’s Crazy Corner, indeed.”
I picked up the glass from the table where it had landed, and apologized once more before scuffling back into the kitchen. I was annoyed that he’d tried to insult the whole town because of an innocent accident, but that was the least of my worries. What was wrong with me? And what the hell was that smell that had me turned upside down?
“Everything okay out there?”
I grabbed for a pen and scribbled down the spices I was smelling on a paper napkin. I wanted to bake something with that combination right away.
“Earth to Carter?”
I looked up at Muddy. She was staring at me with an exasperated expression. “Huh?”
“I asked if everything was okay out there.”
I dropped my notepad and frowned
. “No. I tripped over Mr. Norton and threw water all over Mrs. Manus. Accidentally, I mean. She left in a huff and Mr. Manus said something about Hell’s Crazy Corner.”
Muddy untied her apron and groaned. “I knew they were going to be trouble. Hell’s Crazy Corner. Like that’s supposed to insult us. I should put him out on his ass.”
I lifted a shoulder. “I did pour water all over his wife, to be fair.”
She blew out a breath and then sighed. “Alright. Why don’t you go home for the day, Carter? Something’s going on with you and I’m not going to make you stay.”
I shook my head, already envisioning the cake I wanted to make. “No, thanks.”
“Hey, go home. I don’t need you here right now. It’s not like we’re at full capacity. I can handle this crowd.”
I reached up and grabbed a bag of flour and a mixing bowl. “No, I’ll stay. I have an idea.”
She grabbed the other side of the bag to tug it out of my hand. “I’m your boss. You could at least pretend to listen to me from time to time.”
“Or not. I don’t need, or want, to go home. I said I’ll stay.” I was stubbornly determined when I wanted to be and that smell was bouncing around my head like a ricocheting ping pong ball. I had to bake it.
Muddy still didn’t let go. “Carter,” she yanked the bag, but I held firm, then yanked back, “you just said you thought you were getting sick.”
“And you said I couldn’t get sick.”
We tugged back and forth, neither willing to give, Muddy fighting a smile. “This is ridiculous. Someone needs to go check on the guests.”
“They’re your guests.”
She tugged one more time and the bag gave way. With a ripping sound, a white explosion shot into the air between us. Muddy was fast enough to get out of the way, but I stood helpless under the raining flour shower. I just froze while I processed the fact that I was coated in a layer of white powder, as was everything immediately surrounding me in the kitchen.
After a few seconds of complete silence, Muddy barked out a laugh and stepped farther away from me. “Have fun cleaning that up! Like you said, I’ve got guests to tend to.”
I looked around at the mess and groaned. My baking masterpiece would have to wait. I reached for the broom.
By the time I finished, Muddy had raced in and out multiple times to get food for her guests. I was still a mess, both inside and outside. I decided to take Muddy’s advice and go home. I could create the recipe at home, if the inspiration held.
When I swung open the door to the dining room, every thought in my head disappeared from my mind.
The moment I laid eyes on him, nothing else existed.
4
Alec
I ushered Chelsie over to the same small table off in the corner that I’d used the night before to compose and send off a few business emails and corporate memos. Before I even sank into the chair, a wave of sensory stimulation hit me so hard I felt as though I’d just been assaulted, punched in the chest. The air left my lungs. I smelled her before I saw her. Stronger than ever, the smell of cupcakes, sweet vanilla and buttercream, surrounded me. It tickled my nostrils and supercharged my body until I was half-mast. What the hell? Who got sexually aroused from the scent of cupcakes? That was a first.
Perplexed, I looked around to see if anyone else was reacting to the delicious aroma. Chelsie sat down across from me, her eyes glued to her phone, scrolling through her social media pages. She didn’t act like anything was unusual.
I scanned the room again, and that’s when I spotted her. Standing in an open doorway, a mess of a woman was staring at me. Her mouth hung open. Her eyes were wide, like a deer in headlights. My dick hardened fully as soon as I set eyes on her. My breath froze in my chest. Mine.
She wasn’t close enough. I needed her closer, much closer.
Her hair was a mass of blonde curls covered in white powder so that it resembled one of those wigs worn by George Washington. Except, it wasn’t just her hair that was coated in white powder, all of her was covered. She was coated from head to toe. We stared at one another. I was frozen; she was frozen. When she blinked, white powder fell from her eyelashes.
Fuck, she was beautiful. Every muscle and bone in my body wanted her. I heard something crack and then a shriek. Tearing my eyes away from the beautiful little blonde, I looked over and realized I’d been gripping the table too hard and cracked a piece off in my hand.
Chelsie stared at the splintered chunk of wood in my hand. “What happened? Are you okay?”
I couldn’t form words. Chelsie’s voice had pulled me out of a trance. Staring into the face of my fiancée moments after making eye contact with the woman I knew was my mate… It was like waking up from dreams of heaven and finding your reality was, in fact, hell. I glanced again where my mate had been. She was gone.
My wolf bit, clawed, demanded I chase her, but the man in me knew better. I was sitting at a table with my fiancée. Who was speaking to me. I had no idea what she was saying, but she was speaking.
I looked back at Chelsie and felt a physical ache in my chest. “I’m sorry. What’d you say?”
Her glance darted to where my mate had been and then back to me. Her eyes narrowed. “What the hell’s going on?”
I set the chunk of table on my placemat. “I…uh… got a hand cramp. I didn’t realize it was so intense.”
She looked at me like she smelled something bad in the room. She was right. It was something bad, alright. “Do you know that…woman?”
I didn’t like the way she said woman. I didn’t like her talking about my mate at all. Shit. Mate. I had a mate. I glanced back over and tried to think of anything else to make the erection in my pants ease up.
Finally, it was Chelsie’s voice that killed it. Her harsh whisper drew my eyes back to her and made my wolf growl. “Alec! What is your deal?”
I bit back a short response and shrugged. “I thought I recognized her, but I was mistaken.”
Just then the redhead, Muddy, stepped up to our table. Her eyes went to my placemat and the chunk of wood missing from her table. Her eyebrows shot up and her fists landed on her hips. “I frown on guests ripping off chunks of my tables, Mr. Patterson.”
I couldn’t even muster looking ashamed. I wasn’t. I was too stunned by the turn of events. “I’ll pay for it.”
She nodded. “You will. In the meantime, what would you like to drink?”
Chelsie ordered a mimosa and I settled for black coffee. I didn’t need to add alcohol to my already jumbled mind. I requested a full breakfast and hoped it came with a side of my mate.
I sat inhaling the scent of her, savoring the lingering aroma, and trying to think about what I needed to do next. I was on an engagement trip and I was pretty sure that, even though I’d never heard of an engagement trip before, it was in bad taste to dump your fiancée and run off to pursue another woman when you were on one.
Chelsie tapped away at her phone with more force than necessary, the only sign that she was peeved. After a few minutes, she held it up and showed me a picture of some storefront or something.
“All of the sisters got engagement pictures taken here. We’ll have to stop there. I can’t wait to upload ours to the album. We’re going to look so much cuter than Ashley and her husband.”
I couldn’t care less. If I was uninterested before, and I was, I couldn’t even think of a word to describe how uninterested I was after finding my mate.
The smell returned and I turned my head just in time to see my mate again, this time it looked like she was being shoved out of the kitchen towards us. She had coffee in one hand and juice in the other. They sloshed precariously as she stumbled reluctantly toward us.
She’d wiped some of the powder off, but it still clung in several spots to her face and hair. As she came closer, I noticed her skin was like porcelain. Her large eyes were pale blue with a dark blue ring around them. Her mouth was full and pouty, with only a few flecks of whatever the white stuff
was. When she was nearly to my table, our eyes met and held. Her pupils dilated as she stared at me. She was breathtaking.
She broke eye contact first, and I ran my gaze down her luscious figure. Short and curvy, her ample breasts were covered by a T-shirt and an apron, but that did nothing to stop my imagination. She was things I never knew I wanted, but seeing her, knew I couldn’t do without.
My mouth watered as she stopped next to us and dragged her eyes up from the floor. A pink blush covered her, from her cheeks to her neck, and I was aching to know how far down that pink went.
“Um… Juice and coffee.” She dropped the drinks on the table and then spun away so fast that her long hair flew out, brushing over my arm as she went.
I stared after her, devouring the back view. Oh! Her ass filled her jeans so well. Filled them. I wanted my hands on that ass. As she tossed a glance back at me over her shoulder, her large eyes were wide and full of surprise. This time, the twinge I felt was higher than my dick.
We both knew.
“I’m two seconds from losing it, Alec. Look over here at me, or I’m going to go ballistic.” Chelsie’s harsh whisper brought me back to reality.
I turned back to her and forced a smile. “Sorry. I’m sorry. She… uh… she looks just like someone I knew as a kid.”
“Really, because it looks to me like she’s someone you’ve fucked before.”
Not before. Not yet. If I had, I would not have let her go. It was inevitable, though. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
Chelsie stared at me for a few more seconds before nodding, like she was agreeing. “Sure. Anyway. Let’s discuss our daily agenda.”
I watched her as she spoke, saying something about how exciting it was to be following in the same footsteps as her sorority sisters before her, blah, blah. I could only pretend to be listening, which was all she ever needed, anyway. I was too caught up in the all-consuming need to get away from her and be with my mate.
Wolf Boss (She-Shifters of Hell's Corner Book 1) Page 2
