Page 43 of Alpha Rising (Secrets of the Northland Shifters)

“I’m not leaving your side ever again.” I stepped into my dark suit pants and pulled them up, leaving them unzipped for the time being. “If you insist on going to our offices, then I’m going with you.”

She put her hands on her hips, which had the effect of distorting Einstein’s face on the front of her T-shirt. “Now, that’s ridiculous.”

I squared off with her, the bed between us. “Is it?”

Her long hair was mussed from sleep and she raked her fingers through the light brown strands to get it off her face. “Is this alionthing?”

I folded my arms and let her come to her own conclusion. I certainly wasn’t going to put voice to my own diagnosis—that day by day, the mating urge was becoming more pronounced and with it, my protective instincts.

Last night’s challenge to my alpha status had brought the animal side of my nature even more to the forefront. For my dominion to be challenged in myown territory… For strangers to enter and take my… I let the thought dangle.

Suffice it to say, no threat would be tolerated, and I vowed it would never be repeated.

“I’ll befinefor five minutes,” Sarah argued. “We’re in the lodge, for Pete’s sake.”

“You were in the lodge last night,” I reminded her, chalking up a point.

She mirrored my body language, crossing her own arms in defiance. “That’s different.”

I raised my eyebrows. “I don’t see how.”

She made a sound of impatience. “What are you going to do? Cuff me to you? To your bed?”

An image came to mind. “Actually, that’s not a terrible idea.” My headboard was slatted. It could work.

“You don’t own handcuffs.” Then she paused, and her eyes widened with doubt. “Doyou?”

“Do you want to find out?” My question was only semi-serious, though I was semi-hard at the thought of the arousing visual. The front of my briefs were already tenting behind my unzipped trousers.

She scoffed, apparently not having noticed, and called my bluff. “Neither one of us will get any work done if we’re joined at the hip all day.”

“Remember the night we spent in the cabin?” Talk about arousing images. I was now fully erect, so I zipped my trousers to cover the evidence as best I could.

She blinked. “I’m not likely to forget.”

“Imagine it was January instead of June. Imagine we got snowed in and couldn’t leave the cabin, and that you were trapped with me. You wouldn’t be complaining then, would you?”

She shifted her weight, jutting out a hip. “Probably not, but that’s not what’s happening here.”

“Pretend to be trapped with me, at least for now. Maybe I’ll feel less on edge as the day wears on.” The lion beneath my skin made a dubious huffing sound.

Sarah stared back at me for a long time, then she let out a long breath. “Fine.”

We both got dressed—me pulling on the button-up shirt I’d been wearing last night with my suit; she in a pair of worn jeans that fit her body perfectly, a tight black tank, and a pale-blue cardigan—then I escorted her across the lobby toward our offices.

I’d seen both rooms last night. Someone had gone through Sarah’s things, but her space wasn’t nearly as ransacked as mine. My file cabinet drawers were standing open, and all of the papers that had been on my desk were now carpeting the floor.

I released Sarah’s hand, and we crouched near the end of my desk—both of us riffling through the debris, looking for the list Sarah had printed off a week earlier. The one Joe had ripped out of her hands.

“Here it is.” I held it up, then stood.

She stood with me.

I set the paper on the desk and drew my finger down the list of companies with trademarked shield logos and names that included the letters C-K:

Buick Automobiles

National Hockey League

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