Chapter 4

From the flight schedule Serena had found for Harold and Velvet in the email, they had only arrived the night before, and their return flight was scheduled ten days from then, but they were traveling to Raleigh, North Carolina, instead of returning to Omaha. Tanner was surprised Harold hadn’t changed his identity, probably figuring Serena wouldn’t catch him because she wouldn’t have any money to do anything about it. He couldn’t go to jail as a wolf, because it was too dangerous for their kind if he needed to shift during the phase of the full moon. Not to mention that taking on two gray wolves when she was a smaller red wouldn’t have been a good idea.

Harold would never suspect an Army Ranger wolf shifter would be hot on his tail.

Tanner and Serena had lunch between flights. When they arrived at the island, they picked up their luggage, got their rental car, and, before they went to their lodging, Serena directed him to go to a bank. There, she opened an account. If Harold could do it, Tanner figured, she could do it too. Then they headed for their lodging. In retrospect, he probably should have asked her if she wanted a separate place. He’d reserved a two-bedroom bungalow on the beach so that they’d be together, share meals, and he could watch over her. Not only was it something he’d do for any she-wolf who was part of the pack, but he also wanted to get to know her better. Plus, Harold might just want to try and scare her off, or worse.

He might have been sneaky about running off with her money, but no telling what might happen if she began stalking him to get it back.

When they walked into the bungalow, she took a deep breath and looked around. There was a cute little kitchen with sunshiny decor, and stairs leading to the bedrooms and one bathroom.

She set her bags down on the tile floor.

Tanner set his bags by the stairs.

“What if Harold had done this before to women he’s hooked up with?” Serena asked.

“I was thinking the same thing. There’s a good bet that he has.”

“And that he’ll do it again. Easy money.”

“I agree.”

She walked over to the living room window that looked out on the beach. “That makes me want to wring his neck again.”

“Wait until we get your money back from him first. It would be different if he had some charitable reason why he took the money. Coming to the island to have fun with some new she-wolf? I don’t think so. I need to run out and pick up some groceries and some dinner for us. Unless you want to have something delivered?”

“Go ahead and order something for us, then you can get some groceries and the takeout. Anything’s fine with me.”

He pulled out his phone and searched for a restaurant close by that served takeout. “Chinese?” He joined her and showed her the menu.

“Sure. The spicy broccoli and beef for me.”

“All right. I’d take you with me, but…”

“We might run into them. I feel like I’m on house arrest.”

“Because of me?” He didn’t want her to feel as though he was calling all the shots. He just wanted to make sure they didn’t tip off Harold unless she had to.

“No. Because of them. I suspect she knows what I look like if she had to disguise herself as me when she went to the bank. Though it was a big bank, and I didn’t know anyone personally. I didn’t go in very much, just used the drive-through or made automatic deposits.”

“Why don’t we take a run tonight when it gets nice and dark?”

“As wolves?”

“Yeah. What do you think?”

“I’d like that. I’m glad you’re with me. I was so mad, I was ready to tear into the two of them all by myself. I wasn’t concerned about my own well-being. I didn’t figure I had anything to lose at that point.”

“I don’t blame you. And I’m glad to help you in any way that I can. All right. I’ll call in the order and pick it up when it’s ready.”

“I hope trying to get the money doesn’t take more than a couple of days.”

He hoped it did. Then he’d be able to spend more time alone with her on a tropical island without his brothers or anyone else’s interference. He carried her bags up the stairs, then he called in the order to the Chinese restaurant. Afterward, he carried his bags up and put them in his room.

He heard her setting the table for dinner. “View of the beach up there?”

“Yep. Both bedrooms. Food’s ordered.” He headed back down the stairs. “What are you going to do?”

She opened her laptop on the kitchen table and turned it on. “I’m looking for the layout of their cabana. I’m checking his email also. Okay, he received a confirmation for dinner for two at a Chinese restaurant for tonight—like now.”

“Not the same one we’re getting takeout from though, correct?”

“It’s the same one. It’s the closest one to both our places. If they see you, they won’t know you anyway.”

“But if they smell me, they might be able to smell you on me.”

“Oh. Sorry. No more hugs for you.”

“Hell, I’ll kill the SOB for all he’s done to you myself. I’ll have them deliver the food here and I’ll run to the grocery store while they’re at the restaurant.”

“Thanks for doing this and for everything you’ve already done for me.”

He thought she was going to give him a hug for stepping in to be her hero. He must have looked hopeful, or eager, or something.

She smiled broadly, closed the distance between them, and gave him a warm hug. Warmer than she’d given his brothers when they’d said goodbye. And that told him she just might be interested in something more between them. He meant to give her a simple, sweet kiss; as much as he was craving something wilder, more passionate, wolfish even.

She began to kiss him back, as if searching for the truth. Was she just as passionate a wolf as he hoped she would be? Hell yeah.

He gave into the moment, holding her tight, kissing her soft lips, enjoying the heat of her body, the softness of her curves, and the sweet scent of the human and she-wolf combined. Her kisses became more insistent, needier, more passionate.

When they broke free of the kiss, they were breathing harder and their heartbeats were drumming. Her eyes darkened and she appeared dazed. Her arms were still wrapped around his back, and he was holding her close, the two of them gazing into each other’s eyes. He knew by the way their pheromones were singing to each other that she had been affected by the intimacy just as much as he had. Not to mention he was fully aroused.

There was something between them, a connection between wolves they could build on.

“I’d tell you I shouldn’t have done that with you because I don’t really know you, but…I have to admit I’ve never felt that way with anyone I’ve ever kissed,” Serena said.

“The heat? The desire?” He smiled. “Ditto for me.”

Then she sighed and released him. “I’m going to unpack and change into something a little cooler.”

“Save a swim date. We can go swimming and running after that long flight. I’ll get the groceries and be right back.”

“I would love to go swimming and unwind a bit before we take care of business.” She gave him a short list of what she’d like to eat—oatmeal for breakfast, dark-brown sugar, tea, and sandwich fixings.

When Tanner left, Serena unpacked her bags, and then changed into shorts, sandals, and a halter top. Returning to the kitchen, she opened up her laptop to try to learn anything more about Harold from his emails.

She still couldn’t believe the way she’d felt when she had kissed Tanner. She’d had a few flings with humans over the years, which were fine as long as she wasn’t mated to a wolf. But the craving to make a human hers? Or to take this all the way with a wolf like Harold?

Never.

Back in Omaha, she’d observed a male blue jay courting a female in spring, fluffing out his chest, his wings spread, trying to impress her. The female had been watching him, interested. Appreciative of all his hard work. In Tanner’s case, he’d stayed near her when he was a wolf, had tried to warn her of danger, and had taken care of her after she’d hurt herself.

He didn’t have wings to spread, but he was definitely in courtship mode, showing how protective he could be, and helping in any way to take case of this business too.

Drawn to him, she tried to tell herself she only kissed him to see if all wolves were the same as humans. Nothing to write home about. She had quickly learned that wasn’t the case with Tanner. If she’d had someone to write home to, she would have told her she had found one hot wolf.

She checked more of Harold’s emails. She kept thinking he’d remember she had used it once, and he would have changed his password. Maybe he didn’t think she was that bright. He would never suspect she was just down the road from him, a beach’s run from his cabana.

Then she saw another couple of email confirmations.

Harold and Velvet had paid for a stingray snorkeling excursion tomorrow afternoon and were going on a sunset catamaran cruise tomorrow night. They would be gone for five hours for the snorkeling trip. The catamaran cruise would take about three hours. She and Tanner should be able to… Shoot. She was thinking they could sneak into their place, find his laptop to see if she could hack into it and learn about his bank accounts, but Harold would smell their scent. Even if only Tanner went, Harold would wonder why a male wolf had been there.

The food arrived and she tipped the delivery man, then carried the food into the kitchen to serve it. She received a text from Tanner:

Did the food arrive?

She texted back: It did.

She told him about Harold and his girlfriend going out on the two trips.

Tanner texted back: Why don’t we eat out for lunch and dinner tomorrow since they’ll be gone for so many hours?

She texted back: We could.

She really didn’t plan to stay on the island long. They could have a quick lunch, then break into the cabana. Or Tanner could. He could find the laptop and bring it out to the rental car where she could learn what she could on it. They’d still have the problem with leaving Tanner’s scent behind. She suspected they might have to just threaten Harold to force him to give up her money.

I’ll be right there. The grocery store is nearby.

See you.

She fixed them glasses of ice water, then looked out at the beach. She was a take-charge person, and sitting here doing nothing was driving her nuts. While Harold and Velvet were at the Chinese restaurant, she wanted to check them out and learn what the woman looked like. Was she similar in coloring and build, or just the opposite? Serena wanted to see how the two of them reacted to each other—intimate or just getting to know each other? Hotly craving each other?

She should have been angry that he’d used another she-wolf to help steal from her, but his actions had forced her into new circumstances—learning about her sister and finding a whole pack of eligible male wolves to choose from—which thrilled her. Harold had done her a favor.

Even though the Greystoke brothers said they’d take care of her and she didn’t have to worry about money, she couldn’t allow Harold and the she-wolf to get away with stealing her savings. Only an omega or beta wolf would let another wolf abuse her trust and do nothing about it.

She heard Tanner park the rental car out front, and she hurried to help him with the groceries. He only had a couple sacks of groceries and took the opportunity to wrap his arms around her, bags still in hand, and kiss her as if she’d come outside to welcome him back home after he’d been away for eons.

She laughed and kissed him back, and did something so uncharacteristic for her when it came to a man—but he was all wolf. She rubbed her body against him in a way that said she was interested in being more than just one of his pack mates. That got him smiling in a hot, sexy way. After the official greeting, they entered the bungalow and shut and locked the door.

“Okay, I didn’t want to text about all this stuff, but I was thinking we could search his place for any clues about where he might be keeping my money and how to access it. But then he’d smell that we’d been in his place.”

“I have hunter’s spray I brought with me.”

Her jaw dropped, then she frowned at him as he put the groceries away. “Do you often use it to conceal your scent?”

“Only when necessary.”

“Okay, then good. They’re going to be gone for about eight hours on excursions tomorrow, so I figure we’ll be able to slip into his place one of those times.” She began to serve the Chinese food.

“I’ve got lock picks we can use. Standard lupus garou issue.”

“What if we run into them when we’re running or swimming?”

“I’ll tear into him and make him wish he hadn’t taken your money and your car.”

That made her worry. She didn’t want Tanner injured. And for what? Money? His life was too important. But she didn’t want to emasculate Tanner by mentioning it, reminding herself that he was an Army Ranger. She’d jump in and fight the bastard though, if Harold got a lucky strike and Tanner needed her help.

After eating and washing up, they stripped out of their clothes, opened the door to the patio on the beach, and shifted, intending to enjoy the beach and ocean that night, the sun already having set. The dark was perfect for their night vision, but humans wouldn’t be able to make them out.

They ran as wolves, then shifted and ran into the water as humans. She never imagined skinny dipping as a human with a wolf. She and Tanner swam, the full moon shining on the waves. She’d never been in the Caribbean or even to a beach before—lakes, ponds, rivers, yes—but this was beyond beautiful, and she loved it here. Too bad she wasn’t on a vacation with the handsome wolf, not worrying about getting her money back from a crook.

Tanner took hold of her arm, pulled her close, and kissed her. Now this she’d never tried before—kissing a naked man in the ocean, the warm swell of water lapping at their waists, the sultry breeze ruffling their hair, the silky sand under their feet. It made her nearly forget her purpose here.

He nuzzled her cheek. “Are you ready to run past the cabana and check it out?”

“Yeah, let’s go. I wish we could check out their place early, but they might—”

They saw movement on the beach, two gray wolves racing down the white sandy beach, and Tanner quickly turned Serena away from their view. Since he was half a foot taller than her at six feet tall, he sufficiently blocked their view of her. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her then, as if that was part of the charade. Though she had to admit Harold would never suspect she would be here with one hot wolf.

She kissed him back, her arms wrapping around his waist, her wet body pressed against his, and felt his cock stirring to life. For the moment, she didn’t give a damn about Harold and the she-wolf.

But then Tanner pulled his hot lips away from hers and said, “Can you access his computer if he has it at their cabana?”

“I can.”

“The Grand Cayman account would be new, wouldn’t it?”

“He might have had it for a while. He uses the same three passwords for everything. He had them written down on a slip of paper in a drawer. I came across it one day while looking for a pen in his desk drawer.”

“What if he’s changed the passwords?”

“I can try to hack into the account.”

“You’re a hacker?” Tanner looked amused.

“Just a hobby. It came in handy when my coworkers at the library forgot their passwords on their computers. It was hush-hush, and we never breathed a word of it to management. If that doesn’t work, we’ll go to plan B: force him to tell us to give up the money.”

He glanced over his shoulder. “We’ll have time to search for his laptop when they go on the snorkeling trip. They’re gone now and way down the beach. We should return to the bungalow. I don’t want to run into them as wolves on the beach.”

“Agreed. Let’s go.” She glanced down the beach and didn’t see any sign of them. “Should we make a run for it as naked humans or furry wolves?”

“Wolves. We’ll reach the bungalow faster. If we can’t see them, they can’t see us from this distance either.”

They moved through the waves to get closer to shore, then shifted and ran for the bungalow’s porch. Tanner shifted again, opened the door, and then Serena shifted and walked inside with him. He shut and locked the door.

“Now what?” he asked.

Her phone rang then, and she wondered who would be calling her. “Gotta get that.” She grabbed her phone and saw that it was Bella; she was glad Tanner had added her name and number into her list of contacts for her. “It’s my sister.” She felt overjoyed at once. Not wanting to try and dress while talking to her sister on the phone, she climbed the stairs to the bedroom. “Omigod, Bella!” Tears filled Serena’s eyes. “I can’t believe you’re alive! Or mated to a gray wolf.” She slipped under the covers. “Or that you’re having triplets!”

“I can’t believe you’re alive either, and now you’re risking your neck, trying to get your money back from your ex-roommate?” Bella sounded annoyed with her, but she was sniffling too.

“In my place, you would have done the same thing.” Serena knew her sister would have. She was too stubborn not to.

“I don’t want you to risk your life over the money. We have plenty in the pack, and you don’t have any concerns in that respect.”

“At first, I felt I didn’t have a choice. But it didn’t change my feelings about him stealing my savings. It’s mine. I worked hard for it. And I don’t want him to feel he got away with what he did.”

“Okay, I understand. I’m glad Tanner’s with you. Devlyn is ready to send more than half the pack there to take the wolf down.”

“We’re fine. For now. If we have trouble, we’ll be sure to call you.” Serena heard Tanner talking on his phone downstairs and wondered if he was still naked like she was.

“I can’t believe I’m really talking to you. Everyone’s been trying to reach us. We finally arrived at a location where we had cell phone reception. You don’t know how thrilled I am.” Bella began to cry.

So did Serena. “I can’t wait to see you, Sis. We’ll”—Serena sniffled—“be home soon. I can’t wait to hear all about your life.”

“Same here. Don’t do anything that will get you killed over there. I will never forgive you.”

Serena smiled. “We’ll be there soon. And I promise I’ll be careful.” But she’d also promised herself she was getting her money back, and she always kept her promises.

Still, they talked for two hours straight, and when they finally hung up, Serena felt as though they had barely been apart all those years. She wanted to know more, but it was time to call it a night. Though she was certain Tanner understood her need to reconnect with her sister, she didn’t want him to feel neglected either. Not when he was willing to help her like this.

She threw on some shorts and a T-shirt and headed downstairs. He was dressed in shorts, watching out the window. “See anything?” she asked.

“I saw them return as wolves headed in the direction of their cabana. Did you have a nice talk with your sister?”

“I did. But we need to talk about so much more.”

“I’m not surprised. Devlyn called me.”

She’d wondered who Tanner had been speaking with. “Checking to see if we’re all right?”

“Giving me hell.”

Her lips parted. She was surprised Devlyn was angry with his cousin. “Because you didn’t ask his permission first?”

Tanner closed the distance between them and pulled her into his arms. “Because I brought you here, risking your life without a solid plan and no backup.”

“We’re going to get the money by accessing his account.”

“He wants us to wait. He’s sending two of my brothers and our cousins Vaughn and Brock.”

She didn’t want to delay what she and Tanner intended to do while Harold and his girlfriend were on the stingray feeding excursion, especially when Serena only knew about that trip and the night cruise for certain. This was their best opportunity to grab the money surreptitiously.

She let out her breath. “When are they arriving?”

“Two days from now. The flight in was booked. They’re going to try flying standby in the meantime.”

“Okay, this is what we’re going to do. We have Harold’s itinerary for most of tomorrow. Beyond that, we have no idea when they’re going to leave the cabana, or when they’re going to return. To do this as covertly as possible, this is the best shot we have. If we get the money, the guys don’t have to fly out here, unless they want to. And we can return to Colorado.”

He smiled down at her. “You and Bella will really keep Devlyn on his toes.”

She smiled up at Tanner. “Are you going to call him and tell him the plan?”

“Nope. If we’re successful tomorrow, we’ll tell him then. If we’re not, we’ll go with a new plan B. Wolf pack muscle.”

“Okay, it’s a deal. Thanks, Tanner. I hope you won’t get into too much trouble.”

“I’ll just tell him you made me do it.”

She laughed. “I doubt he’ll believe that.”

“He will. He’ll know I’m trying to persuade a wolf to court me, and I’ll do whatever it takes, within reason. As long as your life isn’t on the line.”