Shattered Pack (Alpha Girl 6)

Oh, crap.

I slouched down and looked around. I was still alone in the room, but shit. The book smelled old and was probably valuable. And now that I’d touched it, my scent was on it. Feidhelm was going to know who’d ripped the cover.

I held up the book. The front cover was hanging by one measly little thread. There was no fixing it, so I hid it between a few other books, hoping library douche wouldn’t notice. Although I was sure that was a total pipe dream. There was no way he wouldn’t check every single book he’d handed me for dog-eared pages. If he didn’t like me for my hair, he definitely wasn’t going to be happy with me when he realized I’d maimed one of his books.

Time for a break. I got up from the table. My back popped as I stretched.

It was getting late. Dinnertime. I was seriously hungry, but I needed to find at least one clue. I didn’t want to leave here empty handed.

Moving over to the card catalog with all its pretty bronze pulls, I started opening the drawers. They were deceptively deep and filled with note cards listing book titles and subjects. Each card’s corner was marked with a bunch of numbers.

I opened three more drawers, but they were all the same. There had to be billions of cards. How in the hell was anyone supposed to find anything?

Slamming the current drawer shut, I opened a new one, but my strength got away from me again. The drawer went flying through the air, slamming into the wall. Cards rained down all over the floor.

“Fuck.”

“You’ve made a right mess.” Donovan laughed.

I sighed as I turned to face him. “Don’t tell the guy who runs this place.”

Donovan raised a brow. “Me? Don’t tell me? I think we’ve passed that.”

I rolled my eyes. “Not you. Feidhelm.”

“It’s my library, not Feid’s. No matter what he thinks. This is my stronghold. And what’s mine is yours.”

“You nicknamed Feidhelm? The douchey dude who looks kind of like a cherub and totally hates me already?”

Donovan chuckled. “Cherub. He’d love that.”

“I’m sure he’d absolutely love anything I called him.”

The humor in Donovan’s face drained away and his voice dropped low. “Was he other than helpful to you?”

“It’s fine.” Donovan coming to my rescue about this wouldn’t do me any good. My stomach rumbled.

“That’s why I was coming to find you. It’s dinnertime. You must be starved.” Donovan grabbed my hand, but I tugged him to a stop.

“But the mess. I should—”

“Don’t worry about it. Feid will set it to rights.”

So he said, but I’d been hoping to fix it before Feid noticed. But I had no idea how to put the cards back in the right spots, so it wasn’t like he’d be happy with my effort anyway. “Okay. Let’s go.”

“Grand. Ian’s waiting. He went to fetch something for me.”

“Cool.” I hoped he was getting something that could help us, because I had come up with nothing.

Donovan grinned, his blue eyes sparkling. “Let’s go.”

By the time we hit the door, Ian was about to walk in. “Ah, ready then?”

Donovan nodded and led the way to their dining hall.

My stomach let out the biggest rumble ever. It literally echoed in the hallway.

“You’ve not been taking care of your mate,” Ian said from behind us.