Chapter 1
Gretchen Havers stared at the newly mated
wolf couple as they snuggled in front of the hotel desk. Gretchen
had been the assistant to the manager, her best friend Aubrey
Night, since the hotel opened three years earlier. As a wolf
shifter, Gretchen had seen her fair share of public displays of
affection during the years, but there was something about the scene
tonight that made her ache in a special way.
She had a fantastic life. Aubrey was a great
boss and also happened to be the only sister of the master vampire
of the city of Belle Terra. Caleb was a good male who ruled the
city fairly, and Gretchen had known him almost her entire life.
When Caleb had the supernatural hotel built and made Aubrey the
manager, Gretchen had been excited to get out of her parents’ house
and away from the pack. It wasn’t that she didn’t love being a
wolf, because she did. There really was nothing better in her mind
than shifting and going for a long run through the pack-owned woods
in town.
But, she could admit, that watching the
couple wiggle obscenely together in front of her made something
very deep in the center of her body ache. The full moon was in a
week. She would just chalk up the feelings to early-full-moonitis,
something her grandmother said was akin to what humans called ants in the pants .
Smiling at the thought of her favorite
grandmother, she decided to give her a call after her shift at work
was over.
“Okay, everything is in order, Mr. Jackson. I
just need your signature on the screen.”
He stopped trying to suck his mate’s spine
through her neck and lifted his head, his eyes the amber of his
beast. The amber color faded as he straightened and picked up the
stylus. “Room service? We don’t want to leave.”
She pressed a red button on the tablet’s
screen to bring up the room service menu. “You can order right now,
and it will be up in approximately thirty minutes.”
“You order, babe,” he said gruffly. “I can’t
see straight because all I can think about is getting you
naked.”
The she-wolf blushed, and Gretchen smiled,
inwardly shouting, TMI !
Several minutes later, Gretchen watched as a
bellhop pushed the couple’s luggage on a trolley onto the elevator.
The couple was having a difficult time doing anything but keeping
their hands off each other. Someday Gretchen would have a mate who
couldn’t keep his hands off her, and she’d be the one making
everyone else uncomfortable with their gratuitous displays of
public affection.
The phone rang, and she lifted the receiver,
“Front desk, Gretchen speaking.”
“Have you heard from my sister?”
She relaxed and sat back on the plush desk
chair as Caleb’s voice came over the phone. “No. I’m not sure how
long the fights go, but she hasn’t texted or called.”
Aubrey had been invited by the owner of a
were-fighting group to watch the inaugural fights. The National
Were-Fighting Association, known as the NWFA, was like MMA for
humans. Were-fighting had been illegal for many years and still was
in some states, but the NWFA was a government sanctioned group that
traveled around the country hosting fights. Her own alpha enjoyed
watching the were-fights, but none of her pack was taking part.
She’d heard that the fights themselves were brutal, and some of the
underground fighting groups held to-the-death fights. She was
thankful the NWFA had strict rules regarding the fights, and
although the fighters could be injured, no one would die
tonight.
“When is your shift over?” Caleb asked,
drawing her from her thoughts of the fights.
She glanced at the clock on the wall. “An
hour. Do you need anything?”
“Leave a note with whoever has the next shift
to alert me when Aubrey returns. I want to ensure she gets home
safely.”
“She’s with Gabe and Lance. You know they’ll
take good care of her.”
“I know, but she’s my sister, and I want to
know she’s okay.”
She smiled. He might be the guy who used
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