Page 14 of Delivered to My Wolves

“Oh. Right.” I followed him into the jetway. “Then I guess our timing was fine.”

The flight was delayed an hour on the runway. Sixty minutes we spent convincing our wolves that they did not need to make an appearance and “fix things.” But finally, we were in the air, and the pilot announced he would try to make up at least a bit of the time we lost waiting for a family of ducks to be removed from the runway and moved to a pond some miles away. Fitz and I were glad they were okay; the wolves thought things would have gone quicker if they’d been put in charge of the project. They didn’t eat babies…but they also didn’t see a problem gobbling the parents, but it was a nonissue since we didn’t even know why we were waiting until the feathered ones were safely away.

In the end, we landed about a half hour late and raced to baggage claim as quickly as possible. Normally, neither of us checked luggage, but of course this trip would be too long to live out of a duffel. “Do you see her?” Fitz asked as we emerged from the secured area.

I craned my neck. “No. She probably checked the arrival time and isn’t here yet.”

“We should have called and let her know.” The honking sound announcing the arrival of our luggage on the moving belt had us starting in that direction. “Or maybe she’s stuck in traffic.”

We had considered letting her know, but the pilot kept changing how long he thought it would be before we landed based on prevailing winds and other air traffic and, hell, butterfly migrations for all I knew. “What if she came and we weren’t here?” My throat swelled closed so tight it was hard to force the words out. “What if she decided not to wait?”

“She wouldn’t do that,” he said, but not with confidence.

And then I saw the sign. “Look over there.” A woman held a cardboard square with our names on it above the heads of most of the travelers. “She’s here.” I was so excited that it wasn’t until we got close enough to see her face that I recognized my mistake.

Fitz, ahead of me, stopped so suddenly, I stepped on his heel. “Oof.”

“Who is that?” I wondered.

“Tilly.” He spoke with assurance. “That is the face that goes with the person who answered the phone and took the message.”

And indeed, it was Tilly, and she didn’t look a bit warmer than she’d been when she took the message. If anything, sterner, and with a sharp gaze that could cut through steel. “Fitz and Collyn?”

“Y-yes.” My friend was not easily cowed, but we were both caught off guard. “I’m Fitz.”

“I have a car waiting outside. Let’s get your bags and go.”

O-kay. Whew. “Where is Haven?” I dared to ask.

“She got tied up at the office. But she will meet you at the house as soon as she’s able to break free.” All that talking about tied up and breaking free shouldn’t have been such a turn-on under the circumstances. Especially coming from a female I had no interest in.

But arguing with Haven’s assistant, or whatever she was, served no purpose, and we were soon in the back seat of a town car driven by a man in a shirt and tie. Tilly sat in the front passenger seat, but as soon as we were moving, she turned sideways to look between the seats and launched into a lecture the likes of which I had not heard since seventh grade when we were studying Hawaii and my best buddy and I tried to make some tiki torches in the classroom to surprise everyone when they returned from recess.

We’d better treat Haven like “the damned queen she is” because if we didn’t, she’d see to it that we’d never been sorrier for anyone in our lives. “She’s good and smart and kind and her app has brought happiness to so many people—”

Fitz caught it faster than I did. “Her what?”

She arched an imperious brow. “App? The way you met her?”

My jaw dropped almost into my lap. “It’s her app?”

Tilly’s gaze fixed on me. “Of course it is… She didn’t tell you?”

We both shook our heads.

“Oh. I was under the impression you knew she was a successful businesswoman.”

We were. But we didn’t know what that business was.

Chapter Twelve

Fitz

By the time we pulled up in front of Haven’s home, we had managed to convince Tilly, at least somewhat, that we weren’t there to do any harm, and took advantage of the time with her to ask her questions about Haven. Her protectiveness warmed my heart. Sure, she was prickly, but with no mate to make sure she was well cared for, it was lucky she had someone like Tilly in her life.

“Haven used her savings to set up the app. She says shifters don’t embrace tech nearly often enough for their own good.” We were speeding down the highway at this point, the driver watching the road and not commenting, but he couldn’t fail to hear it all. Tilly seemed unconcerned, though, and went on. “She was the opposite of most, though, and had studied computer coding and marketing at first the community college in her area then university. Her pack didn’t understand, and the alpha while not quite declaring her rogue, made his displeasure known, and she rarely goes home.”

“She must be lonely,” I said, hating the idea.

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