Elizabeth stared at Carol. “You actually do have psychic ability? When you told me you foresaw what would happen to you before you were turned, I hadn’t thought you meant it literally.”
“Yeah, I see things sometimes.” Carol shook her head at Darien. “Since I’ve joined Ryan’s pack, my focus has been there. I haven’t seen anything new about members of your pack.”
“Did Trevor or Peter discover anything at the B and B?” Elizabeth asked.
“The two men left a trail through the woods behind the B and B, backtracked into town, and must have driven off in a vehicle parked out front,” Darien said.
“With all my stuff,” Elizabeth growled. “Did nobody see them?”
Tom wanted to touch Elizabeth to calm her, but he didn’t think she’d appreciate it. What the hell. He reached over and took her good hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. She glanced at him, and at first he thought she’d be annoyed with him. Instead, she looked at him with those crystal eyes as if trying to read him. He gazed back at her, wanting to take care of her. To find the bastards and beat them to within an inch of their lives.
He wanted to wrap his arm around her and hold her close, to let her know she had him to count on, but he couldn’t. Not yet.
“We’ve put out the alert to all the pack,” Darien said, studying them. “If anyone saw anything, they’ll let me know. Nobody’s been following you?”
“When I rode with Tom to the ski resort, I didn’t pay any attention to traffic.” Elizabeth glanced at Tom to see his take on it.
He shook his head. “I didn’t really notice on the way to the resort.” Between the snowy roads and Elizabeth, he hadn’t been able to concentrate on anything else. She was a total distraction.
“Why would they take all my stuff?” she asked.
“Sounds personal to me,” Lelandi said.
“Taking my ID forces me to stay here,” Elizabeth pointed out.
Jake said, “More likely it’s for identity theft. It doesn’t necessarily mean they wanted to keep you from leaving here.”
“Okay.” Elizabeth seemed more relaxed about that, which Tom took as meaning she wanted to leave as soon as she was able. He stiffened.
He had hoped she’d feel comfortable with his pack and remain with them for more time than she’d planned. But what had happened to her here, he could understand her reluctance to stay any longer than necessary. She couldn’t even ski if she wanted to take more pictures for her story.
“Is there any way that I can get a replacement ID so I can travel?” she asked.
“Yeah, we can do it. You don’t want to stay until we can unravel who did this to you?” Darien asked.
Tom gave Darien points for trying to convince Elizabeth to stay longer. He couldn’t think of a thing to say.
“I’ve got a deadline on the newspaper back home. And I probably won’t be able to ski again while I’m here.” Elizabeth grimaced as though she were loath to admit the fact.
“Do you want me to take some pictures for you?” Jake asked, looking like he was ready to go, not just to help her out, but because he loved taking nature photos. The sideways glance he cast Tom said he was attempting to keep the lady here longer, too.
Why couldn’t Tom come up with something to say?
“I’ll have to look at the photos, but I might already have what I need for the article. Thanks for the offer, though.”
The conversation then shifted to other topics, some about Jake and Alicia’s upcoming babies and about Darien and Lelandi’s toddlers, and then everyone looked at Carol and Ryan to see if they were in the family way.
Carol smiled, shaking her head. “We’re waiting for a while. I’m not ready to raise babies who can turn into wolves yet.”
Tom had talked to Ryan about Carol’s progress. She was doing fairly well with shifting only when she wanted to and not at awkward times. He could understand her reluctance to have children until she had the ability fully under control. Wolf-shifter mothers usually had multiple births—like a she-wolf and her litter. The babies all shifted when their mother did until they became aware of their own ability. But if a mother couldn’t even control her own shifting, that could be a disaster for both her and her pups.
Tom glanced at Elizabeth. He shouldn’t have, but he couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to raise some pups of his own. Surely his kids wouldn’t be as messy as Darien’s.
Elizabeth had grown quiet and sat stirring her spaghetti with a fork. He reached over and patted her leg and smiled at her. She smiled back, but she looked exhausted even though she had napped all afternoon. He suspected she hadn’t slept all that soundly.