Read Online Alaskan Wolf by Linda O. Johnston - Free Book Online Page B

people were seated at small wooden tables, alone and in groups of two and three.
    Patrick wasn’t there.
    Mariah went to get her food—wheat toast with strawberry jam, a hard-boiled egg, orange juice and coffee. Then she had to decide where to sit. With others…or alone at a table for two?
    Before she’d decided, she saw Patrick fill the doorway, his backpack again over his shoulder. He wore his heavy jacket, unzipped to reveal a gold sweater beneath.
    He joined her near the toaster. “Morning,” he said. “I thought I’d find you here. I’m checking out now and not staying for breakfast.”
    â€œOh?” She put her food down on the counter, feeling ridiculously hurt, as if he’d stood her up for a date.
    â€œI want to get back to the dogs, Duke and all of them. I’m sure they’re upset. Though they’re unlikely to understand that Shaun’s dead, there was a lot of activity around them last night. And Toby and Wes were probably kept too busy to pay much attention to them.”
    â€œI understand.” And she did. She might have the sense that Patrick chose not to relate to people at times, but she could definitely identify with people who cared for animals.
    Her mind immediately returned to that wolf on the glacier, and she thrust the thought away. Why go there now?
    â€œIf I can do anything to help them, or the Daweses,” she said, “please let me know. And I still hope you’ll take me back out on the glaciers—maybe tomorrow, if the ranch is up and running again.” Then she could worry about that wolf.
    His eyes bored into hers. “I told you I’d let Toby know you wanted someone to take you out again.”
    She was not intimidated. “And I told you I’d like it to be you.” She crossed her arms, waiting for the next salvo.
    It came as a broad, sexy grin that nearly made her knees buckle. “We’ll see,” he said, then left the room.
    Â 
    Driving through wind-whipped snow flurries, Patrick called Wes on his way back to the dogsled ranch. “Cops gone?” he asked. “Are we working today?”
    â€œYes and yes,” was the reply. “We’re still under orders to cooperate with the investigators and keep everyone out of Shaun’s room, but otherwise we’re supposedly back to normal. Except for the fact that we’re missing a musher—and we’re all still suspects.”
    â€œGot it. The dogs handling it okay?”
    â€œI guess. You can figure it out…when you’re back.”
    There was a hint of inquiry in the last, so Patrick responded, “On my way.”
    â€œOh, and Patrick?”
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œI know Shaun was your friend,” Wes said. “I didn’t know him well, but he seemed like a good guy. We’ll miss him around here.”
    â€œYeah.”
    Patrick arrived at the ranch ten minutes later, parked in the area designated for staff and headed to the large building where the dogs were housed when not out romping or working.
    Duke came over to him, whined and waited for Patrick to kneel and stroke him. Duke and he hadbeen partners for a while now. The dog had been acquired by Alpha Force as a pup and designated as Patrick’s cover over a year ago—because he was a combination shepherd-wolfhound that looked a lot like Patrick’s shifted form.
    â€œGood boy,” Patrick said, then, more softly into the dog’s ear, “Looks like we’re on our own.”
    But when his cell phone rang only a minute later, that situation changed.
    â€œCan you talk now?” Major Drew Connell asked.
    Standing, Patrick said, “Just me and the dogs at the moment.”
    â€œGood. Here’s the deal. I’ve already spoken with Wes Dawes, since you and I discussed it.”
    When Drew was done talking, Patrick gave Duke a pat and headed out the door toward the main house. As he walked inside the entry, he