This had all been a mistake. It was a nice mistake, but it was a mistake nevertheless. There was no way he was going to be able to let her go. Even if he figured out how to get the dragons off her back and how to keep her safe the rest of her life, he still wouldn't want her to leave.

His saber-tooth was never going to allow him to let her go. She was his mate. Seeing her in next to nothing for the second time in as many days had told his animal everything it needed to know. She was his, and he was hers. Now, his animal was urging him to figure out how to make her believe the same thing.

Rhett wasn't sure that was the wisest of moves. He was putting a little distance between them so he'd have time to think without her mucking up his mind. Being around her made it next to impossible to be reasonable.

Currently, she was sitting across the building from him with Beau. She was going through all the files and helping Beau clean up their filing area. Her job skills were coming to good use here. They weren't messy, but their paper files weren't the most organized, either.

She was good at cleaning up messes. He was good at it too, when it came to shifter relations around town, but personal matters were a whole different deal. Things had gotten messy, and she didn't seem to mind. She was bummed, but she'd regrouped quickly. Unlike him. Seeing her like that and telling her how he felt about her body had made him want to hide. He hadn't been that vulnerable in...well, ever. He had never cared about anyone like this before, and it was terrifying.

He wasn't sure how to proceed. From his few experiences with human women, he knew they didn't want to be told he loved them or that they were his mate within the first week of meeting. He and Joseline hadn't even gone on a proper first date yet. He was going to have to ease his way into this. He couldn't just come out and yell that she was his mate and tell her everything. She would hate him.

"How long can she be here?" Beau asked from across the room.

"As long as I need to be," Joseline said. "More than long enough to finish what you have for me here. This isn't much, trust me."

"She's going to be here for a while," Rhett confirmed. "If there's anything left to be done, we can bring her back and hire her for real."

"You mean I could be getting paid this whole time? Damn." Joseline smacked her leg. "I haven't even told you guys my hourly rate. I don't know if you can afford me."

"I think we'll find it in our budget to hire you," Beau told her. "If there's anything worth spending money on, it's a nice lady who can help get this place in order."

Joseline slapped him on the arm when he tried to put a file down. "Nope. That doesn't go there. Half the battle for you guys is going to be keeping everything in its proper place once we get it all organized."

As they were laughing, Beau's cousin Zach entered the room. "Hey, guys."

"What's going on, brother?" Beau greeted him. "This is Joseline. She's helping out today."

"This must be the human everyone's talking about," Zach said. He shook her hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Beau's cousin."

"Everyone's talking about me? Still?" she said. "That's incredible."

"Of course they are. You made quite an impression. You went up against dragons." Zach whistled. "You must be one tough cookie."

"How do you know that?" Rhett asked.

"Magnus was in town. Anytime he's here, word spreads fast," Zach said. "Also, I've been to work. Eddie isn't known for keeping secrets. I heard all about the broken car and how it got broken."

"Don't we have to go and pick up my car soon?" she asked Rhett.

"I don't think you'll be picking up much." Zach shook his head. "Murry really did a number on that thing."

"Any word about Murry yet?" Rhett asked. There was no way the dragons would give him any information willingly. He would be more apt to find things out about this case by word of mouth until he could talk to Tuck.

"Nobody knows what's wrong with Murry yet," Zach said. "I just hope it isn't anything too serious."

Rhett had been spending his morning researching the incident Lydia had told him about. It wasn't as serious as what Murry had done. The shifters had gone crazy. They'd shifted into their animals and run amok. They had damaged some property but hadn't gone after humans or any other shifters. What had happened the other night was entirely different in that way.

He needed to get to Murry and talk to him about the incident. He was sure Tucker would give him any info he wanted, but it wasn't the same as getting the information firsthand.

Rhett also had a feeling that this wasn't going to be the last of the crazed shifters. He just hoped that the next time it happened, it wouldn't be in his jurisdiction.

"You guys can head out now if you'd like," Beau told him. "I can handle everything here. If anything crazy happens, I'll call."

Rhett nodded. "That's a good idea. Better to get this car thing taken care of now."

"I'm not even halfway done here," Joseline protested. "How about we do another hour or two and then leave?"

"I think it's better we go now. Trust me. There will be more people there later in the day. We don't want to get stuck answering questions about this."

"Well, I guess I have to come back tomorrow, then," she told Beau.

"We'll be glad to have you," he told her. "Maybe I'll even bring you lunch."

"I'd be happy to try one of your world-famous sandwiches."

Rhett helped her put her coat on, and they left the two cousins at the station. They took his car over to Bear Works. Eddie was inside, working on a car, but he stopped to talk with them.

"Funny seeing you here," he said. "I was just going to call you to come in."

"Zach came by the station," Rhett said. "He told us you were done working on her car."

"And by done, he means I can't do anything," Eddie said to Joseline. "This thing is totaled. There's nothing we can do to fix it. It's going to cost more to fix than it would to just scrap the whole thing."

Joseline sighed. "Damn. I really loved this car."

"Have you contacted your insurance company yet?" Eddie asked. "We can tow it to a second shop to get a second opinion if you need it. I doubt it would be worth it. You could have an adjuster come out and just junk it."

"I'll call them as soon as we get back to Rhett's house," Joseline said.

Eddie nodded. "Or you could also not make a claim for this and let us junk it."

Joseline put her hands in her coat pockets. "Why would I do that?"

"I'm going to assume you don't want to sue Murry for damages, right?"

She shook her head. "No. I want this to go away as quickly as possible."

"Okay. If you put in a claim with the insurance company, they're only going to give you market value for the car and take it to scrap themselves."

"Okay." Joseline looked at Rhett, and he nodded. That was exactly how he understood the process to work.

"Right," he said. "So, you can confirm this with the insurance company, but they're only going to give you maybe six thousand for this car. If you let Zach part it out, I think he could get ten grand for everything. He'll take twenty percent, and you'll still make two grand more this way. Plus, you won't have to make a claim with your insurance."

Joseline nodded. "Wow. That's a lot to think about."

"It is, I know, but sleep on it and get back to me," Eddie said. "I'm really sorry about all this."

Rhett put his arm around her waist and gave her a squeeze. That wasn't what she'd been hoping to hear. He hated seeing her sad like this.

"It wasn't you who destroyed it," she said.

Rhett shook his head. "Thanks for the rundown," he told Eddie. "We'll get back to you before the end of the week."

When they got outside, he hugged her. "Sorry about your car."

"Me too. I think I'll part it out. I could use the money to buy a new car. An extra two thousand will be nice."

"I hope you pick something safer."

She laughed. "Something that can protect me from another scorpion attack? My car is very safe. Top-of-the-line. I picked it for that reason."

"I was thinking something more like maybe a tank," he joked. "What if a dragon comes after you next time? A tank will keep you safe for sure."

"Just how much money do you think I make?" She buckled herself in the passenger seat of his car. "A Volvo is more than enough for me."

"If you insist on small cars, I'll have to find some other way to protect you."

"I can protect myself just fine." She reached over and took his hand. "But if you want, you can protect me too. Nothing will do as good a job as you can."

"Thank you. I hope that means I don't have to stop anytime soon." He reached over and squeezed her knee. "How about we watch a movie to cheer you up tonight?"

"But you don't like movies," she said. "We can do something else."

"I want to do whatever makes you happy. If a movie will cheer you up, I'll enjoy it."

He meant it. He didn't love watching movies, but he wanted to do whatever it took to make her happy. He wanted the smile to never leave her face.

When they got back to his house, he set her down in front of his TV and let her scroll through all the options. His account was all set up, and she could pick whatever she wanted. The charge would go to his credit card, and she wouldn't have to worry about buying anything. He made popcorn while she was choosing.

In the end, she settled on a romantic comedy. It'd been a while since he'd seen a movie like that, and it wasn't something he would have picked himself. But he enjoyed sitting in the dark with her and hearing her laugh at the jokes.

Any time he could spend with her was time well-spent. This whole thing with Murry would be finished soon enough, and he would have no excuse to keep her at his place much longer. He was going to enjoy this while he could. Who knew what would happen when he confessed his true feelings to her? Until then, he would cherish her while he could.