Page 35 of Bait N' Witch

“I’ll go grab my purse. Tell your dad you’re helping me get stuff for dinner and meet me at the truck. Right?”

To her shock Chloe flung her skinny arms around her neck and squeezed tightly. “Thanks, Rowan. I knew you’d help.”

And there goes my heart.

After grabbing her purse, Rowan popped her head into the family room. “I’m running to the grocery store for some stuff for dinner. Chloe’s going to come with me. Lachlyn and Atleigh are upstairs.”

He looked up from his phone, apparently still fiddling with the thing. “Do I want to know?”

She glanced over her shoulder, sensitive to Chloe’s feelings. “Chloe started her period,” she whispered.

Grey dropped his phone. “Oh.”

The total panic in his eyes pulled a grin from her. “No big deal. I’ve got this.”

Rather than pressing her for details or demanding to be in the know, Grey nodded. “I’m sure you can handle it.”

“You okay?”

He cleared his throat as he picked up the phone. “I’ll let you know when I get over the shock.”

Rowan chuckled, even as guilt pricked at her. How was she going to leave them? Betray them? One more person to disappoint them. “It’s under control.”

Keys jangling, she hustled out of the house before she did something stupid like confess everything. Something about this man demanded total trust. A seductive idea, and one she couldn’t give in to. Ever.

Chapter Thirteen

After hours of dealing with returning calls and catching up on everything his phone had missed and dumped on him in one shot, Greyson hung up the phone and swore under his breath. When he’d dropped by Castor Dioskouri’s office last week, he’d expected to set a meeting date for that week, but they’d claimed to be too busy with work. You’d think the plane manufacturing industry wouldn’t be quite so urgent, but apparently not. Consequently, they’d set the meeting date for today—over a week later.

Only Lyleia, or Leia as she’d asked him to call her, had just called to say Tala and Marrok Canis-Banes, the wolf shifter alphas joining them, couldn’t make it to the Syndicate’s Denver office. Something to do with another meeting with other wolf shifter alphas going too long. No way was he letting them reschedule again. He’d lost so much time that the trail was growing colder and colder with each day that passed. This was his one and only lead.

“Where are the alphas meeting?” he asked Leia.

“At the Canis-Banes camp, on the eastern side of Rocky Mountain National Park.”

“That works out. I happen to live nearby. If you and Castor don’t mind driving up from Denver, why don’t we all meet at my house after they’ve finished their meeting?”

“Oh…we couldn’t put you out.”

Greyson glared at the wall. They were definitely avoiding him. He had yet to figure out how they’d manipulated his phone, but that had to be the only explanation for the darn thing not working. “No bother at all. In fact, I’d say you could stay here, but it’s a smaller house, one of the original structures built before the park boundaries were even established. I’ll put you up at the Stanley. It’s a gorgeous hotel. I think you’ll enjoy it.”

“We’ve stayed there before.” A smile came through in her voice. “Let me check with the others, but that sounds lovely.”

They set a time and, before they hung up the phone, Leia promised to contact him only if a problem arose.

“Rowan!” Greyson grimaced at the frustration he’d allowed to leak into his voice. As he strode through the house in search of his nanny, he tempered the emotion. “Row—”

“I heard you the first time you bellowed.”

He spun around in the kitchen to find her standing in the doorway that led down to her basement rooms.

And promptly lost all thought of what he was going to say, the words swirling down a drain along with shock.

Rowan’s glorious red hair had changed color—turned raven-wing black with a streak of purple through the bangs. Straight as a broomstick, it hung in a glossy curtain to her waist. Meanwhile, her skin had turned an interesting shade of light pink. Her eyes had changed color as well—one emerald green, and one an eerie turquoise.

And suddenly he was struggling with an almost savage need to turn her back. This colorful creature wasn’t his Rowan.

The ridiculousness of that thought had his words coming out more harshly than intended. “What in the seven hells happened to you?”

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