Page 51 of What a Wolf Wants
“It wouldn’t hurt to try,” Ethan said. Though if Noah did start dating Tori, he hoped he wouldn’t treat her the same way as he’d treated Charlene. Then again, Ethan could not imagine Tori putting up with it either. But maybe Noah would change and realize that, when he had some competition, he might just have to work harder at keeping the she-wolf.
“So Sunday is our first real attempt at taking these guys down,” Noah said, sounding eager to get it done.
“Yeah. Charlene and I checked out his great-aunt’s place.” Ethan showed him pictures of the house and surrounding area, and of the church where Oakley took her on occasion. “Now, we don’t know for sure if he’ll be taking her to church that day. I’m sure it will be hit or miss, but hopefully we’ll get a break and it’ll go smoothly.”
“What about Shelby Bay?”
“We drove by the home Oakley’s been seen at, but we didn’t see any sign of him. There was a car parked there that belonged to a Clara Snyder though.” Ethan explained what they had learned about her.
“Okay, that sounds like we’re getting somewhere with this. What about putting some surveillance on the house in Shelby Bay?” Noah asked.
“We could do that. What about tonight? About two in the morning? What about using your vehicle this time? I have one that’s a loaner that no one knows. My own car is at Adam and Sierra’s home.”
“Yeah, no one knows mine either. I bought it when I got here so I didn’t have to drive my rust bucket all the way across country.”
“Okay, good. If you’re ready now, we can go to the house. I’ll pack my clothes and you can get settled in,” Ethan said.
“That sounds good to me.” Noah said to Charlene, “Good to see you again, and glad you found what you’re looking for, but I still want us to be friends.”
“Of course,” Charlene said and smiled at him, the first time she had done so since he had arrived.
Then he left the house and Ethan gave her a hug and a kiss. “I’ll be back in a little while.”
“I’ll make some room for your clothes. I never envisioned having to share space with a wolf so I’m hogging everything.”
He smiled. “Well, I can use one of the guest bedroom closets, if you have room for clothes in there. Anything will work for me as long as I get to stay with you.” He hoped he didn’t sound too desperate to stay with her or she might think he wasn’t alpha enough.
She smiled at him. “We’ll work it out. It will be no problem at all.” Then she kissed him back and whispered, probably worried Noah might be just outside and could hear them, “It looks like Noah has come around.”
Ethan kept his voice low too. “Yeah, I think so. I’ll see you in about an hour or sooner.” He sure hoped she didn’t change her mind about him staying with her. Both of them had lived alone, so living with each other might take some getting used to.
“Okay. That sounds good.”
Then Ethan left to get this done, thrilled with the way things were working out between Noah and him and with Charlene even more so. He had thought they might invite Noah over for some meals as a means of wolf camaraderie, but Ethan really needed this time to get to know Charlene better too.
Chapter 14
Charlene was so thrilled to get everything moved around so Ethan would feel welcome in her home. She headed for her bedroom first to move her clothes and give Ethan equal space in her closet and dressers. She had a great big master bedroom closet so she’d just spread out all her clothes in there. She would have to squeeze things up a bit, but it was easy to do and still left them plenty of room to both share the closet.
She was sure glad Noah had behaved himself at breakfast and kept the conversation on the mission. He seemed happy that the pack was taking him in and that he’d made friends with some of the pack members already. She was thrilled Ethan had come into her life.
After she finished sorting through her drawers and cleaning out some of them, she heard a car pull up in her driveway. Ethan was back already. She figured he might talk to Noah for a while, but she guessed he just wanted to be with her instead, which pleased her to no end.
She opened the front door and headed outside to help him carry in his bags of clothes. “You returned quickly.”
“Yeah, I just packed everything up while Noah was unpacking his stuff. He hadn’t brought a whole lot of clothes. He said that he would stay in one of the guest bedrooms in case you needed to have your space and sent me packing. Then I would stay in the master bedroom again.”
“He didn’t say that.”
“Yep.” Ethan had a twinkle in his eye.
She laughed. “I guess he’s hoping it will be so.” She carried some of the bags of clothes in and set them on the carpeted floor in her master bedroom suite.
“Are you sure you want me to bring all my…” He peeked into the closet. “Oh, it looks like there will be plenty of room for the two of us.”
“There is.” She began hanging up his suits that were already on hangers in the closet. “You can organize your clothes any way that you want, but I’ll just hang them up for now so they don’t get wrinkled.” Then she showed him the drawers he could use for the clothes he wanted to fold away. “I’m going to move some of my toiletries out of the drawers in the bathroom to free up some space in there too.”
“Okay.” He continued to put his clothes away until the bedroom was clean again.
