Page 30 of Hunter

“It will be Zoey’s choice, Ranulf,” Hunter cut in firmly.

Zoey’s eyes narrowed as she sensed there was something Hunter wasn’t telling her, something important and which Ranulf disapproved of him keeping from her.

“As I’m the tech expert in the family, I need to go to my suite and do a more in-depth search to see if I can discover where Wallis might have disappeared to,” Hunter stated briskly.

“Of course.” They all needed to know where Edgar had gone. “I’ll come with you, if that’s okay?” she added shyly.

“Of course.” Hunter nodded. “But first, we’ll go to the kitchen and get you something warm to drink and some snacks to take with us.”

“While you’re doing that, I’ll prepare something for our dinner,” Ranulf announced before striding away, that disapproving scowl still lowering his brow.

Zoey moved closer to Hunter. “What aren’t you telling me that is making Ranulf angry?”

Hunter huffed out a laugh. “The things that I have experienced in my lifetime, and that people born in the twenty-first century never will know, would fill many more journals than the ones Belle bought by accident.”

Zoey had lived with Edgar for years, and after all that time, she knew when someone was trying to distract her. And Hunter was clearly avoiding answering her question.

When they were mates, they would have all the time in the world for Hunter to answerallher questions.

Whenthey were mates.

Because, yes, Zoey had already made up her mind about that. As man or dragon, Hunter was…amazing. He was protective and caring, toward his brothers as well as toward her. He was totally dedicated to what was right and eliminating what was wrong.

He was also the sexiest man she had ever met, Zoey inwardly admitted, her cheeks feeling warm at her own physical and emotional reaction to him.

Oh yes, she and this gorgeous man were going to be mates.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“Nothing?”Zoey prompted when she heard Hunter give another frustrated sigh from across the room.

“No,” he confirmed impatiently.

So far, he had spent two hours before dinner, and now several more after it, searching every available security feed in the UK, as well as hacking into satellite ones. Without any luck. It was as if Edgar Wallis and his helicopter had totally disappeared into the ether.

Zoey sat up from where she had been lying back against the pillows on Hunter’s huge four-poster bed. Hunter had offered her the use of one of the guest suites farther down the hallway, but she had wanted to stay wherever he was. It had felt almost painful to consider doing anything else.

Which was when she had realized that, in a very short time, Hunter had become as necessary to her as breathing. Or, to put it another way, as necessary as she now was to him as his one true mate.

And it felt right.

So very right that Zoey had no doubt being Hunter’s mate was the reason for her existence.

Hunter’s suite was like something out of a medieval movie, with its stone walls and colorful tapestries. All the furniture, the bed, a huge dresser, and an ottoman placed at the bottom of the four-poster, were carved from dark oak. Ranulf’s work again, Zoey would guess from the beautiful craftsmanship.

The central heating, and laptop and three screens on the large desk near one of the windows where Hunter was seated in front of the latter, working, were the only incongruous things in this room.

The adjoining marble-tiled bathroom was also modern, with a huge glass shower along one wall, a big clawfoot bath, and a double vanity and sinks.

It had still been light outside when Hunter began his search, but it had been dark by the time they returned downstairs to eat the dinner Ranulf had cooked for them all.

After dinner, Hunter returned to his search, and Zoey took a twenty-minute shower in the glass enclosure in the adjoining bathroom. It had been a relief to remove the clothing she had been wearing since she left London this morning.

What a difference a day made!

Just this morning, she’d had no idea that dragon shifters existed, and now she knew she was the true mate of one of them.

She hadn’t wanted to put on the same clothing after taking her shower, so Hunter had offered her one of his T-shirts to wear. Despite being clean, it still smelled intrinsically of him. It was also long enough to reach down to her knees, and so big that theshoulders hung to her elbows, meaning what should have been short sleeves actually reached down to her wrists.

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