Tom jumped inside after her and shifted. He yanked his boxers on, then grabbed his phone out of his pants pocket and called someone. After stalking over to the window, he shut and locked it.

Since he was on the phone, she could stay in her wolf form and wait for him to finish his conversation, then shift and he could help her to dress, or…

She shifted, climbed under the covers, and eyed Tom’s gorgeous body. She could stay here the rest of the night just taking in the vision.

“Darien, get Trevor, Peter, and whoever else you can over to the Silver Town Inn. Elizabeth”—he glanced at her and smiled a little—“found our men’s hideaway.”

Chapter 13

Tom knew his idea was crazy, but as soon as Elizabeth located where the men had camped out, he wanted to propose that she stay with his family. Whenever someone could really be useful to the pack, they wanted the person to join them. At least that’s what he told himself.

It was essential that the pack members liked the wolf—everyone who had met her indicated they had—but skills that were important made all the difference to a pack like theirs that operated a whole town.

That wasn’t the only reason he wanted Elizabeth in the pack, but he thought it might help sell the idea to everyone else before he could work up the nerve to expose how he felt about her. And how much he wanted to get to know her better. Elizabeth was so secretive about her affiliations with her own pack that he suspected she wouldn’t want to be with their pack—or any other.

She’d curled up in the B and B guest bed, covers over her naked body.

Tom wanted to join her in that bed. Wanted to see her naked again, craved touching her, smelling her, tasting her. He just wanted to be with her. And kiss her like she’d kissed him on the slope.

With half-lidded eyes, she watched him. He needed to help her dress and to return her to Darien’s house. Yet he was torn, because he also wanted to check out the hotel and chase after the men who had been there. He wanted to catch them and make them pay for hurting Elizabeth.

“Go with the men when they get to the hotel,” she said, her voice tired, her eyelids drifting closed. “You don’t need to watch over me.”

She was beautiful, her red hair spilling across the pale blue pillow, the blue comforter resting at her naked shoulders that he wanted to kiss—that and her neck and her cheeks and her full pink lips. She would be his choice for dream mating if he’d ever had any dreams like that!

“I’ll just sleep,” she said.

“No. We need to return to Darien’s place. It’s better protected.”

“Did you see them? When you looked through the hotel window?” Elizabeth asked.

“No. They shut the door to that room, so all I saw was the door close.”

“We could have gone after them,” she groused.

He smiled. “If you had been a hundred percent fine, yes.”

She grunted.

“I’m serious.” He sat on the bed next to her, running his hand over her thigh covered by the comforter, his gaze locked onto hers. “At least two men are involved in this. Besides, I’m certain they were in the van when it took off, so it’s not like we’re going to catch up with any of them at the old hotel.”

He was certain the minivan had been the same one that he’d seen passing in front of the hospital while he waited for Doc Weber to give him the findings concerning Elizabeth’s injuries. Had they known she was at the hospital, so they had time to grab her things then? Most likely. A lookout could also have watched Tom take Elizabeth to the tavern for lunch and alerted the men when Tom and Elizabeth finished eating there.

“All right. Let me sleep, then,” she said.

“Not here.” He rose from the bed and grabbed his jeans, then pulled them on.

By the time he yanked on the rest of his clothes, she was nearly asleep. He scooped her clothes up. He’d never expected to be undressing and dressing a woman he’d just met but who had his senses reeling. And not have his way with her the way he desired.

He tugged the covers aside, and she grumbled something. He smiled and slid on one of her socks, then the other. Slipping her panties on when she didn’t move a muscle to help was harder than he expected. He grunted as he got the tantalizing ice blue panties on. She smiled.

“You could help,” he said, not really meaning it.

“You could leave me alone,” she said, not opening her eyes. “Just let me sleep.”

He pulled on the jeans very slowly. She winced.

“Sorry.”

When he finished and helped her to sit up to put on her lacy blue bra, she held her breath.

“Maybe we should just put your sweater on and not bother with the bra,” he said.

“Okay, you can carry it in your pocket.” She smiled at him, the look one of pure delight. “You know, psychologically, kissing makes the hurt go away. Mind over matter. Not that I’m hurting that much.”

He helped her on with her sweater, unable to keep from taking a longer look at her breasts as he tugged the sweater carefully over her arms and head and then down to her waist.

As concerned as he was about how she felt, he hoped he didn’t look too eager. She looked at his lips and licked her own, as if in invitation.

Vixen.

“I promise I won’t bite too hard,” she said.

He laughed and took her face in his hands, his thumbs caressing her temples, and then leaned down. “Here I was worried about you being hurt further. Certainly not me.”