Page 56 of The Librarian and Her Alphas

We head outside, making sure to close and lock the front door securely behind us. Max is still at Lena’s place, searching for clues and gathering her belongings, so I don’t want to leave her unprotected and vulnerable while we search the property.

The shadows of the trees and bushes lining the front lawn stretch across the grass, and the solar-powered garden lamps flicker to life.

My eyes adjust to the semi-darkness as my wolf senses take over. I scan the garden for anything strange or out of place. I glance at Gunnar and nod to my left, indicating we should split up. He nods and quietly moves to the right, careful not to make too much noise. If someone is still lurking outside, we’ll catch them by surprise.

I stalk around the property’s border, checking under hedges and in low-hanging branches for anyone who might not belong there. There are no visible footprints, and the scent lingering in the air is my own. I take another deep breath, trying to decipher any unusual smells, but I can only detect faint whiffs from the flowerbeds and cut grass.

When I round the side of the house again, Gunnar is standing by the front door, fiddling with the access pad.

“Anything?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “Nothing. No unfamiliar scents, footprints, or anything disturbed around the perimeter existed. Not even the access pad looks like it’s been tampered with. If someone was here, they were a professional.”

Unease coils in my gut at Gunnar’s assessment. Everything is far too clean for my liking.

“Let’s go inside and check the CCTV,” I suggest. “Maybe it picked up whoever was out there.”

Once inside, Gunnar checks on Lena briefly while I pull out my laptop and open the camera feed.

“She’s still out,” he says with a wry grin when he joins me at the dining room table.

“Must have been one hell of an orgasm you gave her,” I chuckle, and he laughs. I would love to hug and cuddle her right now, but her safety is my priority before I can relax.

I rewind the CCTV recording to the afternoon from when we arrived home from the hospital.

Everything appears calm until the camera picks up someone on the western side of the property creeping through the bushes. They disappear from sight until another camera captures them walking along the front of the house and peeking through windows.

Right around the time we heard the noise at the front door, the camera showed a person right outside twisting the doorknob.

I squint at my laptop screen, and Gunnar leans close behind me to get a better look. The picture is grainy, but I can zoom in on the person’s face. It’s a dark-haired man, but I can’t make out much else about his features. The facial recognition software linked to the CCTV cameras identifies him as Zorin Marlow.

“Who the fuck is Zorin?” Gunnar asks incredulously. “And why the hell is he on our property?”

“Good question,” I murmur. “Save this picture and put him on our radar. We need to find out more about him before we do anything else. I’m going to check on Lena.”

Lena is awake when I walk into the bedroom. She’s wrapped in the comforter, her hair tousled from sleep. She looks so adorable that I want to kiss her all over her beautiful face.

“Hi, Princess,” I greet, smiling as she looks up at me. “Did you sleep well?”

“I did,” she says, stifling a yawn. “I feel better now, though.”

I chuckle. “You needed it.” I sit on the bed and tuck her into my side, her soft breathing soothing my soul as the curve of her breast presses against me. “I don’t want to scare you, love, but I saw the intruder on the property earlier.”

She pulls back to look at me, her eyes wide with fright. “What?!”

“Gunnar and I searched the area earlier, and whoever was here is long gone.”

“Do you have a picture of him… or?”

“Yes,” I say, nodding. “We’re going to research him before we do anything else. We need to figure out why he’s here and if he’s after you.”

“Can I see who it was?”

Her question takes me aback.

I don’t want to worry her, and I’m unsure how she will react to seeing the person trying to break into our home. I suspect this Zorin person might also have broken into Lena’s apartment.

“Damon, please,” she begs when I take too long to answer. “I need to see who it was.”

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