She needed to get help.
Pauline couldn’t stand up to a bunch of criminal wolf drug dealer gang members all on her own. She was just a waitress. She couldn’t use any weapons. And her shifter form wasn’t strong enough to take on even one wolf, let alone a pack.
Well. She could probably claw the eyes out of one wolf. She could even think of a very suitable candidate.
But no. She needed more than just her claws.
Just then, her phone buzzed. She frowned—who would be texting her this early in the morning?
When she picked it up, though, a warm flush spread through her body. It was Carlos.
Thinking of you this morning, it said. How are you?
Pauline realized she was just...staring at her phone and blushing, as though someone could be looking through it and see her all aflutter like a teenager over a cute boy.
She shook herself. She needed to focus. She had a real problem to solve.
And she needed some help.
And Carlos had helped with Stella’s stalker, hadn’t he?
No. Carlos was here on vacation. He wanted to take her to silly fusion restaurants and watch the sun set over the mountains, not tackle a possibly-insurmountable problem involving motherless children, hostile wolves, and...drugs or stolen goods or whatever it was.
But as Pauline stared at her phone, she realized that this might be her best option.
At the very least, she should go to Nate. He was an actual security specialist. He’d know what to do.
But there was no way to go to Nate without also talking to Carlos. At least—no way that didn’t immediately devolve into a comedy of errors. Pauline pictured trying to secretly plan to take down a wolf pack with Nate while smiling innocently through dates with Carlos, and let go of the idea with a snort. Nope.
So maybe this was more important than what Carlos wanted. And what she wanted from him. Because the more she thought about it, the more she realized that this was the best solution. She didn’t want to go to the sheriff until she could be sure that Drew hadn’t done anything he might be arrested for, and she didn’t know any other people who were both capable enough to deal with a group of shifter criminals and kindhearted enough to want to help a desperate seventeen-year-old boy.
So she bit her lip and texted back, Struggling with a problem. Maybe you can help me?
This was the death knell for their fun dating, and she let herself mourn it just for a second. Maybe Carlos would even think that she’d only gone out with him to try to get into his good graces so he’d help her.
She hoped not. But...as long as he did help her, that was the most important thing. She couldn’t focus on a few fun dates with a man she’d just met when kids’ safety was at risk, for God’s sake.
The text came back instantly, as she’d known it would somehow. Of course. Want to meet up and tell me about it?
***
Carlos
Carlos was surprised at how happy he was to hear that Pauline had a difficult problem.
Wait, that wasn’t the right way to think about it. He wasn’t at all happy that Pauline was struggling—in an ideal world, he thought, Pauline would be blissfully happy all the time. She seemed like the type of kind, hardworking woman that deserved it.
And being the cause of that blissful happiness sounded pretty good to him, too.
Which brought him around to the problem again. He was suddenly presented with an opportunity to help Pauline with something important, and he was realizing...he wanted that. He wanted to get involved, to solve her problem for her—or with her, at least—and to see that sweet smile on her face when it was over.
“What’s up with you?” Ken asked as he came into the kitchen. “You’re looking at your phone like Siri suddenly developed independent intelligence or something.”
“How soon did you know you wanted to be with Lynn permanently?”
The words seemed to just fall out of his mouth without any input from his higher brain functions. He had to fight a flush off of his cheeks—fortunately, his skin was too dark to really show it. He straightened his back and met Ken’s eyes, refusing to back down.
Ken’s head cocked to the side, and he gave Carlos a penetrating look. “Huh. It wasn’t instantaneous, exactly—I felt, I don’t know, drawn to her from the second I saw her, but my brain didn’t catch up to the truth until we’d spent a little time together.” He raised his eyebrows. “Why do you ask?”