"She - she's upset?"
Alastair gulped down some water. "So what happened? Did you make a pass at her?"
"I - "
"I'm not blind, you know. I could tell you two were attracted to each other, and quite frankly, I was delighted for Ellie. She's a lovely woman and deserves to be happy - "
"I didn't hurt her." Howard gritted his teeth. "I would never hurt her."
"Well." Alastair eyed him suspiciously. "I'll have to take your word on that. But for now, I expect you to honor her wishes and stay away from her."
"Where is she? Is she all right?"
Alastair lifted a brow. "She'll be here later with Oskar and the crew. In other words, she will be surrounded by a group of brawny construction workers who consider her their darling little sister."
Howard's inner bear growled at the implied threat. Did they really believe he was a danger to Elsa?
He rose to his feet. "I would never harm her. And I will honor her wishes. You have my word."
Alastair nodded. "Good." He extended a hand. "No hard feelings, ol' chap. Let's continue to work well together."
Howard shook his hand, then strode from the house.
A few minutes later, he found himself parked in front of the motel in Cranville. He'd been in such a daze that he couldn't remember driving there.
He gazed at her door. Room number five. Even here, he could detect a hint of her lovely scent. What had happened to make her suddenly reject him? Had he moved too fast the night before? Kissed her too hard?
He replayed the scene in his mind, trying to figure out where he'd gone wrong. Yes, he'd kissed her with passion, but she had kissed him back. She hadn't seemed insulted or frightened by him.
Damn. He raked a hand through his hair. What the hell had upset her? Had she experienced a delayed reaction to being teleported? If that was freaking her out, then how would she ever handle the truth about him being a shifter?
He might never get the chance to tell her. She might insist on never seeing him again.
Despair slammed into him, nearly doubling him over. The bear inside him howled in pain. It rammed against his defenses, demanding release. It needed to run, needed to destroy a poor tree with a few ferocious swipes, needed to shred and devour a helpless animal.
"Later," he whispered, sweat beading on his brow as he tightened his control on the beast. Charging around town as a grizzly bear would not help his cause. What he needed now was a new strategy.
He retrieved a pen and small legal pad from his glove compartment so he could write Elsa a note.
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED? he scrawled, then realized all caps looked like he was yelling at her. He ripped that page off and tried again.
Elsa, I'm sorry I jumped your bones.
To hell with that. He wasn't sorry at all. He tore that page off.
My dearest Elsa:
I heard you didn't sleep well, and I was concerned. What could be upsetting you, sweetheart? Why are you so afraid? I never took you for a COWARD!
He ripped that page off. Dammit, he couldn't let his anger creep in.
"Holy crap," he muttered. There was only one page left on the pad.
He took a deep breath. Fourth down and ten. No pressure here.
Dear Elsa,
I was sorry to miss you this morning. Please call me whenever you get a chance.
He looked it over. Not too bad. He wrote down his cell phone number and signed it simply with his name. It would have to do. He folded it up and wrote her name on it, then took it inside the motel office and asked the sleepy manager to pass it on to her.
With one last glance at her door, he returned to his SUV, then drove back to the school. Instead of going inside, he jogged to the nearby woods, stripped, and let the bear free.
He roared his frustration, ripped his claws through a tree trunk, then ran through the forest. He made a circle around the school, clawing and marking his territory.
She will be mine, the bear growled. Elsa will be mine.
The note burned in Elsa's pocket, but she ignored it and walked from the motel office to the local diner. Even though it was almost noon, she ordered breakfast. After a sleepless night, she'd dragged herself to the car at dawn, but thankfully, Alastair had taken mercy on her and given her the morning off. She'd climbed back into bed and dozed away most of the morning.
Now she tapped her fingers on the linoleum table, waiting for her bacon and eggs. She could pass the time by looking at the note the motel manager had given her.
No. She sipped some coffee instead.
She strongly suspected the note was from Howard. Her name was written on the outside with bold, strong strokes, nothing like the fluid handwriting that Alastair used.
Damn, she'd let Howard walk her to her room last night. He knew which room was hers. She shook her head. Howard had acted like a gentleman. He didn't deserve all this suspicion. She was letting those weird berserker legends freak her out.
Howard wasn't behaving like a wild animal. He'd simply left a note for her at the office.
Should she look at it?
She rubbed her brow, not knowing what to think. Her aunt had frightened her with all that berserker nonsense, and then her dream had terrified her. Was she really marked for murder? Was Howard some kind of modern-day berserker who went into an animal-like trance, killing everything in sight?
How had her life slipped so far into the bizarre?
She drank more coffee and looked around the diner. Everything seemed so normal. Small-town America. Down-to-earth people with friendly faces. They were delighted that the International Home Wreckers show had come to town. The motel was fully booked for the next four months. She'd booked a room for her aunts and seven more rooms to accommodate Oskar, Madge the camerawoman, her sound and light guys, and the main construction crew. Specialty crews would come and go over the next few months, filling up the rest of the motel.
Madge and her production crew were going to film the "before" footage today. They would return about once a week over the next four months, then film a lot of interviews and "after" footage when the project was finished.
The main construction crew was jokingly called The B Boys, since their names were Bennie, Bradley, Bartello, and Buff. Buff's name was actually Mario, but he liked being called Buff as much as he liked showing off his buff body. All The B Boys had been selected for the show because they were experts on construction with the added bonus of looking fabulous without their shirts. Whenever Madge was around with her camera, she insisted they partially disrobe, claiming a shirtless man in a hard hat was good for ratings.
They were a nice-looking bunch, Elsa thought, but not nearly as huge and handsome as Howard. Read his note.
"No!" She realized the waitress was standing there with a coffee pot in hand and a surprised look on her face. "I mean, yes." She slid her nearly empty cup across the table.
The waitress filled it and gave her a wary look. "Your food will be out soon."
"Thank you." Elsa smiled to let the waitress know she was okay.
Read the note, you coward. What could be so bad about a note? It wasn't like Howard could strangle her with a few written words, not like the guy in her dream.
She retrieved the note from her jeans pocket and read it. His cell phone number glared back at her. "No." She stuffed the note in her handbag.
Would it hurt to call him? It wasn't like Howard could strangle her over the phone, not like the guy in her dream. She winced and shook her head. Stop thinking about that.
"Are you all right?" The waitress eyed her suspiciously as she set a platter of eggs, bacon, and toast on the table.
"I'm fine. Thank you." I'm not going to think about Howard going berserk and killing a bunch of pigs in an animal-like frenzy. She picked up a slice of bacon and groaned.
Maybe she'd start with the eggs.
Shortly after Elsa's late breakfast, Oskar, The B Boys, and Madge and her crew arrived in two trucks and a van. They quickly settled in their motel rooms while Elsa ordered a dozen hamburger combo meals at the diner. Then, loaded up with take-out food and supplies, they headed off to the gatehouse.
Everyone sat on the floor in the formal parlor to eat their lunch with leftover donuts for dessert while Alastair outlined the plans. Madge and her crew recorded some video, and The B Boys ate without their shirts, just to make her happy. Elsa suspected some of them were making Madge happy when the camera wasn't rolling.
They would start with the basement and work their way up. The bad news: Alastair suspected the basement was only about seven feet high. They might have to dig down another two feet.