Beary And Bright (Fire Bear Shifters 6) by Sloane Meyers

Clara admitted. “But I will.”
    Then she was gone, rushing out the door and to her car, spurred on by a sense of urgency like she had never felt before.
    Hands shaking, she put the keys in the ignition and decided the only clue she really had was the name of the flower shop. Surely, they must know who he was. In fact, they must know him very well by now, since he had given them business every single day this month. Clara looked up the address in her phone and followed the GPS to the shop. It was about a ten minute drive, and it started pouring rain again while Clara was driving over. She cursed and tried to go as fast as she could without risking spinning off the slippery road.
    It was after eight p.m. when she arrived at the shop, and the hours on the door said they closed at eight p.m. But through the glass of the storefront window, Clara could still see an employee inside, tidying up. She started pounding on the front door to get the employee’s attention.
    “Please, let me in!” Clara shouted. “It’s an emergency. I need help finding someone.”
    Startled, the employee looked up, then shook his head with an apologetic smile and pointed to the sign on the window that listed the store’s hours. Clara wasn’t sure if he could even hear what she was saying through the thick glass, but she kept pounding and yelling. The employee’s expression changed from a smile to an annoyed frown, and after another minute of Clara continuing to bang despite the employee’s numerous gestures toward the closed sign, the man came to open the door.
    He unlocked the door and barely opened it a crack. Just enough so that he could speak to Clara.
    “I’m sorry ma’am. We’re closed now. But if you want flowers for Christmas delivery you can still order tomorrow. We’ll be opening at nine a.m. sharp.”
    Clara shook her head. She was a mess now, drenched in a mixture of flour and rainwater, her hair and her clothing soaked and spotted with the sticky aftermath of a day of baking. The man probably thought she was on the edge of crazy, but she didn’t care. She had to find out where her lifemate was and help him.
    “I’m not trying to order flowers. I’m trying to figure out where someone is. He’s been sending me flowers every day this month, but now he’s in danger and I need to find him. Please, can you help me?”
    The man’s frown disappeared and he started to chuckle. “Oh, you’re Clara,” he said. “The guy said you might come trying to figure out who he was, but I’m under strict orders not to tell you. My lips are sealed.” The man made a dramatic motion like he was zipping up his lips and throwing away the key.
    “You don’t understand,” Clara said. “He’s in danger. I need to know who he is so I can find him and help him.”
    The man raised an eyebrow at Clara. “So you don’t know who he is, or where he is, but you know he’s in danger? That seems a little unlikely.”
    “I know, but you just have to trust me. He’s in danger, I can feel it. Don’t you think it’s weird that he never placed an order for flowers today?”
    The man hesitated for just a moment, but then rolled his eyes. “Maybe he figured out that you’re actually crazy, and decided to abandon the whole project of trying to win you over. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to finish cleaning up in here so I can go home and get a few hours of sleep before I have to be back at five in the morning tomorrow.”
    “I’m not leaving until you tell me who the guy is,” Clara said, crossing her arms stubbornly.
    “Then you’re going to be here a long time, because I’m not telling you, and I’m leaving as soon as I finish closing down the store.”
    Clara sighed. This wasn’t going well. The employee was going to ignore her and go home, and then what would she do? She had no other leads, no other ideas on how to find her lifemate. The sense of danger and foreboding she felt was only growing stronger, and she started to panic.