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me off guard.
    “Shifting should not be painful. You should not vomit blood. The Anderson alpha was right to be concerned. You put all of us in jeopardy. You cast doubt upon our mating. It looked as if I did not care for your well-being when you shift like that.”
    This felt surprisingly like a lecture, and my temper bristled. “Thanks for the tip,” I snapped. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
    When I tried to pull my hand out of his, he continued to hold on to it. “Is that what you were doing this morning? Trying to force a shift?”
    I tugged at my hand. “None of your business.”
    “It is my business,” he said gravely. “You’re my mate.”
    “Just for show,” I retorted. “That’s as far as it goes. You’ll be free as soon as I figure out how to shift and get the wolves off my ass. So quit stressing; you’ll be rid of me soon enough.”
    I tugged at my hand again. This time he released it, and I strode past him to the door of the barn. “If this charming little lecture is done, I’m going to head inside and talk to my sister.”
    “One last thing,” he said after me.
    “What’s that?”
    “Don’t call me that name.”
    That name? I struggled to remember, then smothered a laugh. “Huggy Bear? You have a problem with Huggy Bear? It’s just a stupid name.”
    He wasn’t laughing. “Don’t call me that.”
    My lips twitched but I held back the smile. “It’ll be good for the disguise. All couples have ridiculous names for each other. I’m sure my sister and Beau do. You’ll get used to it . . . Huggy Bear.”
    And before he could respond, I slipped out of the barn and ran for the house.
    My sister greeted me with my bag when I got to the door. Beau and Connor standing close behind her. So much for that private conversation.
    She gave me a tight, worried smile. . “Everything all right?”
    “Just ducky,” I said cheerfully and took the bag from her.
    “Good,” Bath said. “So you’ll be at work tomorrow like normal?” Her eyes held mine, as if she was trying to communicate something. “I can’t really spare you, not with Giselle gone.”
    Our agency was usually a five-person crew—two of us in the daytime, two at night, and a boss to supervise. Giselle, our old boss, had been killed a few days ago when Bathsheba had been attacked by the Wendigo. Bath had taken the reins of Midnight Liaisons, so we were shorthanded as she tried to juggle her job and run the agency. And with a human running a paranormal dating agency, there were going to be some serious growing pains.
    But I knew that wasn’t why Bath had said she couldn’t spare me. She wanted to have a long talk and was using work as the excuse.
    “Of course,” I said. “I’ll be there.”
    A shadow fell over my shoulder, and I glanced back to see Ramsey. He reached over and took my bag, shouldered it, then held his hand out to me.
    I put my hand in his.
    My sister blinked at us, then smiled. “I’ll let you two lovebirds run off, then. See you tomorrow.”
    Ramsey led me out to his pickup truck and opened the door for me, then I slid in, followed closely by Connor Anderson. The wolf gave me a flirty wink. “You two just pretend like I’m not here.”
    Ramsey snorted.

    After an uncomfortably silent ride, Ramsey eventually turned down a dirt road, slowing the truck to a crawl due to the scattered paving gravel and potholes. The barbed-wire fences along the lane indicated that someone lived in this area, though it looked deserted. The sun was setting, and in thefading light I could make out a looming house in the distance, surrounded by half-naked trees. That had to be our destination.
    “You kinda live out in the middle of nowhere,” Connor commented, looking ahead at the house. “Reminds me of home. Lots of room to run. Very wolf friendly.”
    Ramsey said nothing, the sound of gravel crunching as we came to a halt.
    I stared out the windshield at the ramshackle monstrosity before us. It looked like the plantation