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“I’ve dated three wolves.”

“Three?” He chuckled and kissed her ear with a whisper-soft kiss, like it didn’t matter to him, and she was glad for it.

“Aye. In the first case, the wolf I had dated was way too controlling. He smothered me, and once we started dating each other exclusively, he didn’t want me talking to any other male wolves, as if he was afraid I would ditch him as soon asI found someone I liked better. He tried to isolate me from my sister and parents too. We had been seeing each other for three months, but the relationship just didn’t progress. I kept pulling away from him when he got amorous. I just didn’t feel for him what a she-wolf should for a male wolf that she was interested in mating. He was fun on dates, but beyond that, he just wasn’t the one for me. And trying to cut off my ties to my family? That wasn’t happening.”

“Controlling is not my style.”

“Yeah, I didn’t believe it would be. You’re so sensitive and caring.”

“Edeen would say I’m forgetful. I don’t know how many times I’ve forgotten a date with a she-wolf or even an outing with Edeen.”

Maisie laughed. “Because of work?”

“Aye. I mean, sometimes it was because of that. But sometimes, I would go home or grab groceries and then suddenly realize I’d forgotten a date. I would always feel genuinely terrible about it, but it proved that I wasn’t really into the girlfriend that much. Edeen was just used to it.”

Smiling, Maisie shook her head. “You’d better not do that to me unless you have a very good reason.”

He laughed. “Like rescuing a dog and getting stuck on an island?”

“You only get to do that with me.” She kissed him again. “Anyway, with that guy, I called it quits with him three years ago. So then I dated a wolf for two months, not as long as the other guy I had dated, but he was so jealous. He kept asking me if I was seeing other guys behind his back. It justseemed bizarre to me that he was so distrusting of me when I never gave him a reason to doubt me. Until I saw him with another she-wolf, having dinner at a restaurant where Anne and I went to celebrate my getting a really good-paying photography job. I could have pretended that I hadn’t seen him, but then they were kissing. That was the end of it for me.

“I fought with myself over whether I should confront him at the restaurant or talk to him later. I realized that he had been projecting his own deceitfulness on me. Sure, that was the first time I’d caught him at it, but how many other times had he been with another woman that I didn’t know about? Since he’d been thinking that I’d been with another man a month before that, I suspected that he had been doing it for a while.”

“Did you confront him at the restaurant?”

She smiled. “Yeah. At first, when I rose from my seat, Anne grabbed my arm and asked if I was sure. But I was. It was the easiest way for me to break up with him. He couldn’t deny he had been with another woman then. I joined them at their table and kissed him on the cheek. He looked horrified that I’d caught him at it, and the woman looked just as shocked that I would show up and kiss him. She immediately asked who I was.”

Robert laughed. “I’m glad you confronted him.”

“I had to. When I can’t trust the guy I’m dating, there’s no sense in dating him further.”

“I agree.”

“I haven’t been thinking about him, since we broke up six months ago, but when I found Lady’s collar in the flowerbed, I also found Jude’s cell phone.”

“Oh?”

“Aye. He hasn’t stayed at the inn. Neither Anne nor I would have allowed him to make a reservation there.”

“That sounds…odd.” Robert sounded a little worried about it.

She had been too, but then searching for Lady had taken over any concern she had about Jude having been in their garden. “Yeah, I know. That’s what I was thinking. He never came into the office to talk to either of us. It’s a conundrum. The only reason I can think of is that he was visiting a guest. Yet he was from Glasgow, so what would be the likelihood that he would end up at the inn that Anne and I own to visit a guest who just happened to be staying there?” Then she paused. “You…wouldn’t happen to know how to hack into a cell phone, would you?”

Robert laughed.

“I’ll take that as a no,” she said, laughing. “I have to admit, I would love to know why he was at the inn, if I should be worried that he is stalking me.”

“Aye, I see where you’re coming from. I don’t know how to do it, but maybe someone in the pack can.”

She sighed. She was glad that Robert hadn’t just dismissed her concern. “I could call him at his work and ask him if he was at the inn, not mentioning that we had his phone, just seeing if he would be honest with me about it.”

“That could work.”

“I don’t want to give up his phone though.”

Robert chuckled.

“Because I really want to know what he was up to. He has lied to me before, and that’s just the one time I know about. I wouldn’t be surprised if he lies about coming by the inn. If I can break into his phone, I might be able to learn the truth.” She had to explain her reasoning. She didn’t want Robert to think badly of her.