Page 94 of As The Shifter World Turns

Daire

I was about to step into the shower when I realized I’d forgotten to bring my towel in with me. I could call Wesley and ask him to bring one, of course, but he was still dozing after our sex sessions. Yeah, sessions. I liked to think I wore him out with my sexual prowess, but alphas always fall asleep afterward. It was a thing. Or maybe it was after they’d been inside me, being a grizzly and all. I puffed out my chest.

I tiptoed out of the bathroom, not bothering to cover up. Even if he was awake, he’d just had his dick in me. There was no reason to be modest.

When I reached the bedroom, my bed was empty. “Wesley, I’m just grabbing a towel.” I called so as to not startle him. I wasn’t even sure where he was.

I snatched the towel off the hook behind the door and went into the living room to see him on the couch, shoving something behind his back.

“What are you doing?” I asked, hating the knot growing in my stomach. I loved knots in exactly one place and that was not it.

“I couldn’t sleep and was waiting for you to get out of the shower. I have to pee.” No part of his body language shouted honesty. On the contrary. Everything about this situation was sketch as fuck.

Maybe I was letting the others get to me. They didn’t like Wesley, especially Neil. Or maybe the rest of my Sunshine Manor family were not Wesley fans because my human friend bad-mouthed him. It could be they were jealous of his perfect ass or chiseled chin or maybe they just needed to get laid, though I was certain Archer and Micah had plenty of sex. I wasn’t sure what the deal was. But they didn’t know him like I did.

Or rather how I thought I did. Until right then.

“Oh. Go ahead and sneak in ahead of me. I need a drink of water anyway.” I started toward the kitchen, hating that I had allowed the seeds of distrust to grow enough that I was actively trying to catch Wesley in a lie.

“Maybe I can shower with you.” He pushed himself up and came over, pressing a small kiss to my shoulder.

“I’d like that.” I opened the cupboard and took out a glass and he padded away.

I filled the glass and set it on the counter, then rushed to the couch.

My wallet. He’d had my fucking wallet and the money had been moved from one side to the other. The bastard was stealing from me or had tried to. I thought back to all the other times cash had mysteriously vanished.

“Fuck them for being right,” I screamed.

Wesley came rushing out, his eyes falling to the money in my hand. “I was trying to pay you back for lunch.”

“I’m not stupid. This is the same amount of money I had before you fucked me senseless and now it’s on the wrong side of my wallet. I interrupted you.” I hated him and worse than that, I hated me. Hated that I was so desperate to be wanted that I ignored every fucking red flageven when my friends handed them to me. Hated that I was having this argument buck ass naked. Gods, I owed Neil an apology. He saw it first.

“Get the fuck out and don’t come back before I call the cops.”

“And say what? I touched your wallet looking for another condom.” He thought he was so smooth. But it just hit me that we’d been using condoms all this time. I’d never done a test. Fuck, maybe somehow I knew this wasn’t permanent which was completely fucked up in itself.

“And start an investigation into identity theft,” I blurted out. It just hit me that what Neil had pointed out all those weeks ago was right. It was him and then he’d maneuvered his way into my life by coming to the nursery.

“You have zero proof of that.” I didn’t fail to notice he wasn’t denying it. As well as a thief, he was an idiot.

“Ahh, but I have friends who can hack into anything and can get it.” I was lying but really, he didn’t deserve any better than that. “Five. Four. Three. I suggest you don’t let me get to one…” and he didn’t, running out of there like the scared little weasel he was, the rest of his clothing in hand. My grizzly was clawing to get out and chase him.

“Daire?” Ryder came in before I was able to get to the door to close it. “I just had a mostly naked man almost run me over. What’s going on?”

“I hate that you were all right.” I blinked back tears. I refused to give him my sadness on top of my anger.

“It was Neil who was on that guy’s case. It’s him you should be thanking. I’m going for a run. Come with me.”

“Kinda naked and the water is… hold on.” I got to the shower, the water already running cold. Could today get any worse?

“Looks like I’m running. Give me a minute.” I threw on my running clothes and sneakers. It would be good for me to burn off the anger with some physical activity.

“Which way should we go?” he asked as we stretched on the porch. “Toward the park?”

“Yeah that works and can you do me a favor and distract me from the thief?”

“Do you want to hear all about how I fucked everything up with Ivor and I miss him more than my next breath? If you do, I can distract you for a solid five miles.”

---