Alex sat back down next to her. “Does that mean you wouldn’t have a problem going out with me even though I am not as educated as you?”
Once more, she dipped her chin. “I’m not a snob, you know. As long as you work at being the best you can be, I’m in.”
The temptation to kiss her nearly made him break his vow to keep his distance until they learned more about the fate of her brother. “Good to know.”
“How did you both end up in Wildwood?” she asked.
“I’ll answer that,” Alex said. “We thoroughly enjoyed teaching humans and werewolves how to fight. Mind you we taught the werewolves at a different time than the humans to keep them from learning about us. However, due to the fact we were in a small town, there weren’t a lot of werewolf clients.”
“I see, but how did you find out about Wildwood and the Grangers?”
“General Armand mentioned your family,” Liam said.
“Dad’s Army buddy.”
“Yes.” Liam explained about the mission Rider had asked them to help him with. “That’s how we met the general.”
Alex leaned forward. “When we caught those guys distributing drugs, I knew how my dad felt. Taking down evil werewolves was like taking a drug. I wanted more. We had only met the general once, but we said if he ever needed us to give us a call. In the meantime, we would train as many werewolves as possible—good ones, hopefully.”
“When the general said he was going to visit your dad, we hinted that Wildwood with all of the Grangers might be a great place to start our own company,” Liam said.
Alex explained that Rider Scott had moved back to Florida. “Another gentleman we worked with said he would be happy to run the place himself. In truth, there weren’t enough clients for the three of us.”
“I see. My dad hasn’t spoken about the general much, so I really don’t know much about him. He’s kind of shrouded in mystery.”
Liam nodded. “Like Alex said, we’ve only met him once. I asked Rider about his story, but he said he hadn’t been with the organization for long. He was on contract only.”
“I’ll be sure to drill my dad about him.”
Alex smiled. “If you find out anything, let us know. Like I said, if General Armand needs any additional men for a mission, we’d like to help out.”
“I’ll mention that to Dad too.” She yawned.
“We should head to bed,” Liam said. “We need to get an early start tomorrow, assuming the storm has blown itself out by then.”
Tawny glanced up at the loft area. “There are two beds up there. Why don’t you two take those, and I’ll sleep on the sofa.”
“That doesn’t look comfortable. Why don’t you take the bedroom, and Alex and I will shift into our wolf form? We’ll be perfectly fine down here.”
She smiled. “Thanks. In case I forgot to mention it, the door back there leads to a bathroom. It has a composting toilet and a bathtub.”
“But there's no running water,” Alex said.
“True. In the winter, we usually don’t come up here, but if we need a bath, we have to heat the water that we gather from the stream and carry it into the bathroom. It’s kind of like the olden days.”
Alex scrunched up his nose. “I think we can last until tomorrow.”
Tawny stood and let out a big breath. “I will never be able to thank you both enough for coming with me. I can see now that going solo wouldn’t have been smart. Even if I had reached the cabin, I’m not sure I could have started the fire.”
“I bet if you tried, you could have.”
“Maybe.” Tawny looked at both of them with a yearning in her eyes. It was almost as if she wanted to kiss each of them goodnight, but if her lips touched his, Alex wasn’t sure what he’d do. Whatever it was, it might mess things up between the three of them—mate or no mate.
As soon as she went up the stairs, Alex piled more wood onto the fire. “How about adding a few more logs to the stove too?” he asked Liam. “We want her to be warm,” he telepathed.
“I can do that.”
In a few minutes, the place was once more toasty. He hoped Tawny had enough blankets in the loft.Darn. He should have checked it out. If she didn’t, he wasn’t sure what they could do.“Should we at least offer for her to sleep downstairs between us in case she gets cold? We’d be in our wolf form,”Alex telepathed.