Of all the things I expected to find upon arriving back home, Norm standing over the unconscious body of a mostly man wasn’t one of them. Thankfully a shirt tossed over him covered his most personal bits, but that didn’t do anything to rid me of the surprise.

I closed the front door, and Norm glanced over at me with a forced smile. “Nancy, hi.”

“Nancy, hi?” I stayed right near the door.

“I can explain.” Norm spoke so calmly, and that just made the weird thing I’d walked into seem worse. Yet I wasn’t afraid. I wasn’t running out of the house back to my car. Strange. I was losing it.

“Explain which part? Why you’re in my house? Or why there’s a half-naked guy on the floor of my living room?”

“He isn’t human.” Norm pointed to the unmoving body on the floor.

“I assumed that much by his lack of clothes.” At least he wasn’t under the Christmas tree or anything. There was only one half-naked man I wanted under my tree, and he was the one standing. Of course I’d never tell him, nor anyone else, that. To be fair Norm was half-naked too. His bare torso was as appealing as I remember as my eyes swept over him. That’s when I belatedly noticed the blood on his shoulder.

“Wait. Are you okay?” I hurried over, momentarily forgetting about the mostly naked guy.

“Fine.” He stepped away, almost as if flinching. “It will heal quickly.”

“I can still help.” I was a bookkeeper and not a nurse, but I knew basic first aid.

“I’ll clean this up, but first I need your help figuring out who he is and what he’s doing here.” His gaze returned to the guy.

“My help?” I raised an eyebrow. “You have to be kidding.”

“He was here for you, not me.”

“How do you know?” There was no way this had anything to do with me. I’d never interacted with shifters until Alex pulled me in to help Langdon. Aside from a few visits to Forest Ridge to see them, I’d had no other contact with shifters since. At least I didn’t think I had. Shifters could blend in most of the time. That is unless they ended up mostly naked on your floor.

“Because until an hour ago, I wasn’t supposed to be here.”

“Which brings us back again to why are you here?” My door didn’t appear to be broken, which means he had another way in. Besides, this was a long way from Forest Ridge to just stop in.

“You mean other than to save your life?”

“Save my life?” I put a hand to my chest. “Right.”

“Well, to be fair he might have been here to kidnap you rather than kill you, but who knows.”

“You’re crazy. Absolutely crazy.” I’d made the right decision keeping my distance from him. I didn’t need that kind of crazy in my life.

“I’m crazy? How else do you explain this guy being here?” He pointed to the man who let out a small groan.

“You led him here for some reason.” And I didn’t appreciate it at all, unless it was to get him away from Alex and Langdon. I wanted that little boy safe at all costs.

“I don’t know him. He’s not from Forest Ridge.”

“So? You have enemies other places.” I didn’t know all the details about Norm’s pack, but I knew wolf packs had lots of disputes to deal with.

“He was here for you.” Norm’s eyes met mine.

“You can’t know that.” I returned his stare. “Don’t pretend you can.”

“So what? You want me to just leave?” He challenged.

“Not without taking him with you.” I could just imagine my phone call to the police. Yes, I want to report an unconscious guy in my house. No, I didn’t put him there; he just showed up.

“Where’s all the concern that was there a few minutes ago?” He lowered his eyes to his injured shoulder. Or what had been his injured shoulder.

“Where’s your cut?” All that remained was some dried blood. “Gone? You are pretty good at taking care of yourself.” I refused to let my feelings for him color my reaction. “Why are you here other than to lead crazy shifters into my house?”

“I drove Alex and Langdon up for his appointment.”

“Which was nice of you and explains why you’re in the area, but why are you in my house?” The mention of Alex explained how he got inside without breaking the door. She’d let him in for one reason or another. The two of us were going to have to have a talk about that.

“You were the one to text me asking for help. I am here to help.”

“Problem solved.” I puffed out my chest. “I don’t need your help.”

“Oh. Ok. Good.” He pulled a t-shirt out of a black backpack.

I tried not to notice the way his muscles flexed as he pulled the shirt on.

I shook myself. “So are you going to get this guy out of here?”

“First we need to find out who this mystery man is. You ready?”

“Wait.” I froze. Any thoughts about Norm’s muscular body disappearing. “You expect me to get involved?”

“What else do you want me to do? Carry him out and wait outside?”

“Alex has your truck?” No wonder I hadn’t seen any vehicle parked outside.

“Yes, she dropped me off. Thought we could talk.”

“She’s always meddling.” Truthfully I’d pushed her to find Ryder, but that was different. There was a child involved, and she loved him.

“You say it like it’s a bad thing.”

“Oh, you like her doing it?” I put a hand on my hip.

“It doesn’t matter what I like. What matters is finding out what this guy wanted. We need to make sure no one else is going to show up when he fails whatever mission he’s on.”

“And how are we going to do that?” I didn’t really want to know the answer, but the sooner the naked guy was out of my house, the better. My week off definitely wasn’t going as planned.

“Help me tie him up.”

“Tie him up?” I could feel my eyes widen. “You have to be kidding.”

“Why would I joke about it? We need to do it before he wakes up.”

The shifter groaned again, emphasizing Norm’s point.

“Ok.” I had to trust Norm on this one. Alex was married to his brother. Alex was one of my best friends and completely trustworthy. Besides, my gut was pushing me to believe him. Not to mention I was still standing there instead of running away. Either I had completely lost my mind, or my subconscious knew it would be better to stay.

“I can do most of it myself.” He picked up his backpack and pulled out rope.

“You just happened to have rope in there?”

“I tend to travel prepared.” He zipped up the pack.

“So you did expect this kind of situation…” I wanted to believe this guy had nothing to do with me.

“No. The only thing I repacked were extra clothes. I never know when I’m going to have to shift.”

“So you’d have been naked in my house too?” I hoped my face didn’t portray what that thought did to my body.

“Yes. But I managed to get pants on before you came home.”

“Good.” And it was good. I wasn’t sure I could trust myself around a naked Norm, especially considering how long it had been since I’d been with a man and how many times I’d dreamed about the kiss we’d shared.

“Not a sight you wanted to see?” There was something teasing in his voice.

“Not like that.” I put a hand over my mouth. Had I really said that out loud? This was worse than the text. “Not that I want to later or anything.”

He smiled, and I could feel blood rushing to my cheeks.

Thankfully he dropped that line of conversation. “Do you have a wood chair, something sturdy we can use?”

“Yes. I’ll get one.” I hurried into the kitchen, glad to have something else to focus on rather than my mortification.

By the time I returned with the chair, Norm had the guy’s arms and legs tied up. I set down the chair, and Norm helped me pull the guy into the chair and tie him up. We made sure to keep him covered. I didn’t want an eyeful of what was hiding underneath the shirt.

“How do we wake him up?” I pointed to the closed eyes of our unwanted visitor.

“We wait.”

“What did you do to him?”

“Knocked him out, but he’s a shifter. He’ll come back around. You heard him groan. Shouldn’t be long.”

“So we are just going to wait here?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Yes. Feel free to sit or do anything else you need to do. I’ll watch him.”

“Gee, thanks.”

He moistened his lips. “It is good to see you, Nancy.”

I smiled despite myself. “It’s good to see you too.”

“We got busy so I wasn’t able to appropriately discuss your problem. The ad is down?”

“Yes. Leif removed it.”

“So why did he do it?” Norm sat down on the couch.

I followed his lead and sat beside him. “You don’t want to know.”

“Why wouldn’t I want to know?” His brows furrowed.

“Because it involves you.” I’d embarrassed myself enough already. I might as well get the rest of it out there and over with.

“How could it involve me?” He rested his elbow on the arm of the couch.

“Alex isn’t the only one who meddles.”

“Maybe Leif isn’t as bad as I thought.” He shrugged.

Before I could respond, louder grumbling grabbed my attention.

“Our visitor is awake.” Norm jumped to his feet.

I stayed a few steps behind, but I wasn’t going to miss this.

The man blinked a few times. “What the hell?”

“Surprised?” Norm smiled, revealing all of his teeth bright white teeth.

“Who the hell are you?” The captive man scowled. “I was told she lived alone.”

“Excuse me?” Annoyance flooded me.

“How come you never told your family about your boyfriend?” His eyes set on me. “Isn’t that what normal girls do?”

“He’s not my—” I stopped myself. Was defending my single status the important issue here? “Who are you?”

“I’m here on behalf of your mother. It would have been nice if your boyfriend hadn’t decked me.”

“My mother?” The mention of her felt like a punch to my gut. Did he really have information on her? Could it be possible? “Yeah right.”

Norm gave me a look, I shook my head. I couldn’t explain without revealing too much info to the creep, and I didn’t trust the guy enough for us to leave the room. What if he could break free of the rope? I didn’t want to spend time with the stranger, but if there was a sliver of a chance he knew something about my mom’s disappearance, I needed to keep him near long enough to get the information.

“I was told you’d be willing to take your mother’s place, but maybe that’s before anyone knew about this guy.” He nodded toward Norm.

“Look. I think you’re in the wrong house.” That’s all this was. I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. This was mistaken identity. There had to be other women in my neighborhood whose mothers were involved with shifters.

“You’re not Nancy, daughter of Hal and Margaret?”

How did the guy know my parents’ names? Hope spiked again.

“Who sent you?” Norm spoke when I couldn’t.

“Her mother. Are you that slow?”

“Her mother didn’t send you.” He stepped closer to the stranger.

“She did. Indirectly of course.”

“Indirectly? What were the indirect instructions you were given?” Norm took over the questioning, and I didn’t mind. I was too stunned to say anything.

“That if I retrieved Nancy and brought her back safely, she would take her place with the king.”

“The king?” I sputtered out.

“Yes, the king.” He frowned. “Don’t tell me you don’t know who I’m taking about.”

“Humor me.” I had absolutely no idea.

“Has your family told you nothing of who are you?” He might as well have spat at me by the expression on his face.

“Yeah, my family and I don’t talk much—well, other than my brother but I assure you he doesn’t know much either.” He knew nothing about a king, that was for sure. My brother hated shifters. I still hadn’t told him I’d been spending time with some. It would have made our strained relationship even worse.

“What about your grandfather? He must have told you. He struck the original deal.”

“Which grandfather?” I couldn’t imagine my paternal grandfather had anything to do with this. He’d never raised his voice except to yell during Eagles games.

“Your mother’s father.”

“Never met him.” He’d died before I was born.

“Would you please get to the point? You’ve taken enough of our time.” Norm’s expression hardened.

“Untie me so I can take her to the king, and you can be on your way.” The stranger looked to Norm.

“I can be on my way? Right. You have no idea what you’ve stepped in to here.”

“Norm.” I grabbed his arm.

“Don’t even think of trying to escape,” Norm threatened before following me into the corner of the room.

I waited until I thought we might be out of earshot of the guy before speaking. “Norm, I think this guy is insane.”

“Why don’t you call your mom and make sure nothing’s wrong? I don’t want to turn him over to the pack to deal with until we know more.”

“I can’t call her.” I looked down at the ground.

“Why not?” He gently raised my chin with his finger. “You can trust me, Nancy. You can tell me anything.”

“She disappeared.”

He nodded. “When?”

“On my twenty-first birthday.” It was the worst birthday of my life, and one I would never forget. It was also the last time my dad had thrown a Christmas ball.

“Wait, what?” Norm froze.

“She disappeared when I turned twenty-one. Pretty sucky birthday.”

“And you have no idea where she went?”

“No. She disappeared sometime during the ball. Afterward my dad forbade us from looking for her. It’s why we barely talk. I did everything to find her on my own, but I’ve had no luck. I’m still trying—maybe if I talk to him now he’ll help.” When I received the invitation to the ball I knew there had to be a reason. Maybe he was finally ready to help me understand what happened.

“And that’s why you’re so worried about the ball?”

“I’m not worried about it.” I averted my eyes. Instead I focused on the unlit bulbs of the tree. I was impressed I’d even bothered to set up the tree this year. In the past few years I’d only done it for Langdon and my cat who loved to sleep underneath the low branches. That reminded me. Where was Remington?

“I’m going with you.” Norm’s jaw tightened.

“Excuse me?”

“It’s the perfect excuse to get answers from your dad, and you aren’t going alone. It’s too dangerous. There is more going on than either of us know.”

He was offering to go with me to help? I thought about it. Leif was right about one thing. Norm would look amazing in a tux. He looked amazing in everything. “Fine.”

“Ok.” He nodded. “That’s settled.”

“So now what?” I turned back to look at the stranger. He was in exactly the same place shooting daggers at us.

“Now we get our friend over there ready for his trip down to Forest Ridge.”

“Wait. You’re taking him home with you?”

“Correction. We are. I’m not leaving you here alone. Do you really think this guy is the only one they’d send?”

“I don’t know…”

“Nancy, you know what happens when you get involved with the wrong kind of shifters.”

I did. I knew all too well. “Wait. You never told me what he is.”

“A mountain lion.”

“What?” There were mountain lion shifters? That was a new one.

“A mountain lion. That doesn’t mean this so-called king is the same thing. Creatures hire each other out all the time. That’s why we’re going to bring him to Forest Ridge. Get more answers.”

“Or we could ask him more here first. Well, not here as in my house. But here as in Philly.”

“I can find a local place if you’d prefer.”

“I would.” Somehow leaving town made it seem worse. This was the closest I’d ever been to finding my mother. I wasn’t giving up yet.

“And before we move him, you are welcome to ask him all you want. Just know his answers may or may not be honest.”

“I never know if anyone’s words are honest.” Not even my family’s.

Norm grabbed his backpack and put it on. “Where’s your friend? The Leif guy?”

At least he didn’t pretend to forget his name. “At home. Probably packing.”

“We need to talk to him.”

“Why?” I had no idea how he fit in.

“The timing of all this. His ad. This guy showing up. I don’t like it.”

“What do you mean?” Did he really think Leif was in on all of this? That was crazy. Wasn’t it?

“I just mean I don’t believe in coincidences.”

I could accept that answer. And I knew I had more to say. “Thank you.”

“For?” He tilted his head slightly to the side.

“Helping me. This isn’t really your problem. You’re right. He was here for me.” I gestured to the stranger.

“It doesn’t matter anymore anyway. I’m making it my problem.”