“Well, if you come across a better idea, let me know. In the meantime, there’s another shower.” He pointed over my shoulder to Justus’s bedroom, which had a small bathroom of its own. “Why don’t you get cleaned up while I make us all something to eat?”

That was the best idea I’d heard in days.

I turned on the shower in Justus’s spotless bathroom—his tantrum hadn’t extended that far—and while I waited for the water to warm, I ventured into his trashed bedroom out of curiosity, and the overwhelming urge to straighten up.

I turned his laundry hamper right-side up and began collecting the clothes strewn all over the floor. The hamper was nearly full, but the room looked much better, when I picked up a shirt discarded in the corner near the closet, and my fingers brushed something stiff. Dried blood, surrounding several three-inch long claw-shaped rips in the fabric.

A quick sniff confirmed that the blood was Justus’s, and that he’d still been human when he’d shed it. He’d been wearing the shirt when he was infected. But I could detect no ribbon-scent of an infector. Surely he’d been wearing more than just the shirt when he was attacked…

Steam rolled into the bedroom through the bathroom doorway, but I ignored it as I sat on my knees in the middle of the newly tidied floor and dumped the hamper out.

“Robyn?” Titus opened the bedroom door in time to catch me sniffing a pair of his brother’s pants.

“Hi.” I dropped the jeans onto the pile. “This isn’t what it looks like. Though I’m not really sure what this looks like.”

He glanced into the living room, then stepped into his brother’s room and closed the door, his brows arched in amusement. “I’m going to need a little more information than that.”

“Okay. I thought I’d do some detective-slash-cleaning work while the shower warmed up, and I found this shirt with your brother’s dried blood on it.” I tossed him the shirt, and Titus caught it in one hand. “I think that’s what he was wearing when he was infected, but you can’t tell anything from his blood, because he hadn’t shifted yet. Then I thought that his attacker might have left a scent on whatever else Justus was wearing…”

“Which is why you’re sniffing the crotch of my brother’s jeans?”

“Yes. No.” My cheeks flamed, but Titus only laughed. “I wasn’t sniffing his crotch specifically. Would you like to join me?”

He laughed again. “That is the single most bizarre invitation I’ve ever received from a woman, but yes. I’ll join you in sniffing my brother’s jeans.”

We went through Justus’s dirty pants systematically, and after the eighth pair, I decided he had much too large a wardrobe. But finally, Titus held up a faded pair of jeans in triumph. “More blood.” He held the stain beneath his nose and inhaled, then frowned. “It’s Justus’s. If there was ever a trace of his attacker, it’s faded too much for me to detect. Which probably means he wasn’t infected in the past week.”

“I’m sorry. I was hopeful.” I grabbed an armload of his brother’s dirty clothes and stuffed them into the hamper.

“It was worth a shot.” Titus stood and headed for the door. “Go ahead and shower, then you can join me and Leland for a three am snack and a quick rundown on shifter dos and don’ts.”

“Give me five minutes.”

Only once I stood wrapped in a towel, dripping shower water on the bath mat, did I realize I had nothing to wear that wasn’t covered in dirt and leaves.

I tightened the towel around my chest, then ventured into the living room. Though I had no modesty issues with nudity associated with a shift, I wasn’t going to walk around naked all night in a stranger’s apartment. Especially considering that our new stray hadn’t yet been truly introduced to the ways of life as a shifter.

“So Alpha is a job?” Leland said from the leather arm chair as I stepped out of the bedroom. “Or more like a rank?”

“It’s both.” Titus’s hair was damp, and I could smell his shampoo from across the room. Somehow, he’d beaten me out of the shower. “And those usually go hand in hand. Shifters with the most strength and leadership potential typically rise organically to the position of Alpha. Though there are exceptions. For instance, until this evening, I was an Alpha.”

“You’re still an Alpha,” I said, and they both turned to look at me. “You’re just not currently in charge of anyone.”

Titus’s brows rose again with a glance at my towel. “Oh.” I shrugged. “Yeah, we forgot to go shopping.”

“I’m sure I have something you can wear.” He stood and disappeared into the spare bedroom, then returned with a clean T-shirt and a pair of jogging pants. “They’ll be big, but they’ll work until we can wash your clothes again. And in the morning, we’ll go shopping.”

“Thanks.” I took the clothes back into Justus’s room to change. The jogging pants had a functioning drawstring, thank goodness, but the shirt would swallow me whole. It was clean, but not unworn. Or maybe it had simply mingled with other clothes that held his scent in his suitcase. Either way, I pulled the shirt over my head, and the next breath I took was like inhaling Titus. Like how you can walk by a lotion and soap store in the mall, and for a second, the whole world smells like vanilla and lavender. Except my world now smelled like him.

Fascinated, I pulled the collar of his shirt up over my nose and inhaled again. A bolt of warmth trailed down my stomach to settle into lower, more sensitive places. Every inhalation I took reminded me that he was there. That he was close. That I wanted to touch him.

I towel-dried my hair, then rejoined Titus and Leland in the living room, just in time to hear the Alpha explain exactly why the new stray couldn’t tell anyone about what had happened to him. “I swear to you there’s a network in place to help you. People you can talk to, who can teach you everything you need to know. As soon as I get this situation with my brother figured out, I’ll take you to them. Until then, it’s just me. But you can ask me anything.”

“Me too.” I squeezed between Titus’s knees and the coffee table, then plopped down on the couch next to him. From the chair across from us, Leland offered me a tray of pita chips and hummus, and I gladly accepted. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”