Tempting His Mate(12)

Frowning, he strode away from the video panel and hurried toward the tinted glass doors. He could see through the doors, but anyone on the other side didn’t have visibility. The previous owners had set it up that way and they planned to keep it.

Swiping his key card against the security panel, he tried to prepare himself for what her scent would inevitably do to him. It didn’t matter. The moment the doors whooshed open, she teased him, making his inner wolf go crazy.

Asher nodded at Ella, then at Grady. “Go help Davis with the bartender problem and ask him to call the police. He’ll fill you in.” Because Asher wasn’t dealing with any of that now. Not when Ella was here.

He nodded, then said, “Catch ya later, Ella.”

Asher didn’t like the way the young pup looked at her, but he shoved his possessive urges back down and focused on her. “Everything okay?” Concern filled him as he watched the tense way her arms were wrapped around herself.

Everything about her was rigid as she shook her head. “It’s probably nothing. I’m…probably being paranoid, but after lunch I went back to my office and I would almost swear someone had been in there. There’s a foreign smell in there. Not bad, just different. Really subtle though. And I already texted Grant about it. He wasn’t in there. Since I’m the only other person with a key…” She trailed off and let her hands fall to her side. “Nothing was taken or moved around though so I’m probably just being silly.”

All of Asher’s protective instincts roared to the surface. He shook his head. “No, you’re right to trust your gut.” And he was glad she’d come to him, especially after the way she’d left last night. He was head of security so it made sense that she had, but still. It soothed his wolf to know she’d turned to him for help. He nodded toward the still open glass doors. “Come on.”

Smiling tentatively, she stepped forward. He placed his hand at the small of her back. It was a subtle move, but she noticed it. With raised eyebrows, she looked up at him. Thankfully she didn’t pull away, but let him guide her past where Grady and Davis were talking.

Grady’s gaze flicked to where Asher still kept his hand on Ella. Asher ignored the man’s look and continued on to his office. Once inside, he motioned toward one of the microfiber chairs in front of his desk. As she sat, he pulled out a master remote control and changed the feeds of the six screens in his office. “What time did you take lunch?”

“About one.”

He shot her a quick look over his shoulder. “Did you take a real lunch?” She’d been working too damn hard and she’d only been here a few days. He didn’t like that she was barely eating on top of that. As shifters they needed fuel because of their high metabolism.

She pursed her lips, but nodded. “Yes, with Lauren. Do you want a breakdown of everything I ate?”

Half-smiling, he just shook his head as he turned back to the screen. Using the controller, he pulled up various video feeds. The one that pointed directly at the elevators on her floor, the one that pointed directly at Grant’s office, and the feed that streamed down her hallway. The other three videos he locked onto the interior of the elevators. He immediately skipped to the time frame she would have left for lunch.

Her office was at the very end of the hall. Since he didn’t have a direct shot of her office—something he planned to change—he could only see Ella when she made it to the halfway point of the hallway, right at Grant’s door.

For the next twenty minutes they watched all the feeds in silence, him fast forwarding when nothing was happening. After she left for lunch, he saw Grant enter his office, then a handful of other packmates enter and leave his office before heading back to the elevators. But not one single person made their way to Ella’s office. When the feed showed her coming back from lunch, she sighed and stood, smoothing down her sweater dress.

“I’m sorry I wasted your time. I guess I’m just being paranoid. Probably because it’s a new office or something. I swear I didn’t make this up as an excuse to see you,” she said, laughing nervously.

As if he might believe she’d do that. Though he wouldn’t have cared if she had made up a reason to see him. “You don’t need an excuse to see me.”

She sucked in a breath at that, but he continued. “I don’t care what the feed shows, I want to check out your office.”

Ella shook her head, clearly embarrassed. “No, I don’t want to waste your time—”

“Not up for discussion.” He put his hand on the small of her back again.