Crew Mates Season One, Episode One Page 4

  Billy might think Chad didn’t do it, but Chad’s record didn’t convince Daniel. With a glance at his watch, he didn’t have time to go chasing down Chad now. He ambled back to the front desk.

  A few guests milled about in the grand lobby, listening to the pianist who played requests, and a small line gathered for photographs with the crystal dragon statue. Hope stood at the counter by herself.

  “You’re better? I’m glad Eva gave you a break. You needed one. Best thing when you're out of sorts is to take a break. Yoga. Yoga is good too.” Hope pulled her long brown braid around to the front of her chest and played with the ends.

  He grunted.

  “I’ll take that as a no. You’re not feeling better.” Hope pursed her lips, dropped her braid and turned back to the computer.

  Great, now he had upset her too. Let her be upset. It wasn’t up to him to fix everything and everyone.

  He started back in on the audits he had left before Eva told him to take a break. Hope stood with her back straight and didn’t look at him. Not his problem. She sighed.

  He couldn’t take it. “What? What is wrong, Hope?”

  “You know I like you. As like a friend. More than a lot of guys on this ship. You know why? Because you're not an ass. But I guess you are too.”

  “I’m an ass because I’m having a bad day? I’m sorry I’m not all rainbows and sunshine like you,” he said in a hushed tone, so that none of the guests could hear.

  “Bad day? Bad day. You’ve been cranky for months. And all your eating. I am tired of walking around on eggshells, you need to stop it. And, and, and I am tired of all your crumbs, Dan.” She placed a fist on her hip.

  “I am not cranky.” A couple across the lobby whipped around to stare at him.

  Hope pointed her finger at him.

  Shit. He was cranky.

  “Ah, the lights are turning back on.”

  Her lopsided smile irked him. Cranky and obsessed. So, what?

  The door to the back room opened.

  “You’re back! Perfect timing. Can you take this down to the sub-level storage for me?” Eva had a stack of boxes on a dolly cart. Her six-month-old daughter strapped to her back fisted her hair. “Roxy, don’t pull Mommy’s hair.”

  “Sure.” He wrestled Roxy’s chubby arm away from Eva’s hair before he took the cart handle.

  “Have a fantastic trip,” Hope said in her best customer service tone. He wanted to shoot her the finger. But he remembered he wasn’t cranky.

  The shifting lounge wasn’t open to crew members, but he didn’t care right now. Dinner service was on and the lounge lobby wouldn’t have too many guests checking in to the spa, not like earlier in the cruise. Brass doors took up the entire end of the hallway. The doors were engraved with animals and a tree of life. He touched the arctic wolf on the right-hand door out of habit. No passengers were in the lobby. The lavender spa scent glided over him. The front desk stood in the center of the shifting lounge lobby. This was one of the few places on the ship that was for adult shifting guests only. A window behind the check-in desk looked out onto an elevated track for shifted guests to run on. The track overlooked the cage match arena. To the left and right were locker rooms. To the left of the counter stairs that led to the shifting lounge where things were not family friendly. The shifter lounge or club tended toward exhibitionism.

  “Daniel!” Daisy squealed. “What are you doing here?” Daisy’s normally wildly curly hair lay tamed into a professional bun. Her black taut uniform fit her perfect body. She stepped out from the counter to give Daniel a hug.

  “Hey Daisy. Mind if I have I steal Chad for a second?” Daniel tore his eyes away from Daisy. Chad stood stoic.

  “I didn’t take any of the pictures. It wasn’t me.” Chad glanced away.

  “Not here.” Daniel motioned to the locker room.

  “I’ll go clean up the locker room while I’m in there.”

  Daisy shrugged. “Whatever. Just make sure you’re back before first dinner service is over.”

  “Sure thing, Captain.” He saluted her.

  “Yeah, don’t do that.” Daisy crossed her arms over her chest.

  Chad picked towels up off the floor and threw them in a large canvas bin at the side of the room.

  “Just stop for a second.”

  Chad glared at him. “Why? You’re just going to accuse me of taking the sketches like Billy did. Why in the hell does it matter to you, anyway? Naomi’s fucking that officer. You should move along.” Chad picked up another towel and threw it in the bin.

  Daniel growled.

  “Don’t growl at me if you have nothing to put behind it.”

  Daniel wanted to explode over him but pulled himself back in. He might be cranky, as Hope put it, but fighting between crew members was a great way to not have a job. And if he lost this job, it would mean not graduating from college too. And Chad’s wolf would shift and attack him if he provoked him.

  “Perhaps you have something in you.” Chad laughed and picked up a large pile of towels from the floor. There were towels everywhere. “Seriously, Dan. Why would I do it? I don’t care about Naomi, either way. She’s got a decent ass, but I am not after her, or you. So, why? I just wanted to look at her sketches, not make some crisis out of it. Pick that one up by your feet.”

  Daniel threw the towel at his feet into the bin. Chad had a point. He enjoyed stirring things up. But he usually had a reason. “Okay. I believe you.” He sat on the bench next to another towel. “Are there always so many dirty towels in here?”

  “Yup. You know your eyes just glowed.”

  “Sure.” He didn’t. They hadn’t. Had they? He threw another towel in the bin on his way out the door.

  “Good talk,” Chad called after him.

  Daniel knocked on the door again. He heard them moving around in the room, but they weren’t talking. “I know you’re in there.” Open the damn door. Sweat poured off of his forehead. Was he getting sick?

  The door flew open. Naomi reached out and yanked him into the room.

  “What did you find out?”

  “Nothing. Billy said Chad didn’t take them and…”

  “No way was it Billy,” she finished.

  “Right.”

  “That leaves Hope, Rama and Zach.”

  His head throbbed. It couldn’t have been them, right? Zach was his best friend, the reason he was on the ship. He couldn’t have. And Hope? It was impossible to even imagine her even trying to break a rule. “It can’t be them. And Rama wouldn’t do it either. With her aversion to alphas. No way she could get near the captain’s door.”

  “Are you sure? I think you’re too close to them.”

  “Now you’re Nancy Drew.”

  “Nancy Drew?”

  “Yeah, sorry. It sounded funnier when Billy said it.”

  “There is that.” She laughed. “Okay, maybe I’m being a detective. But you need to rule them out. You can’t just assume that they are innocent.”

  “But Hope?”

  “She’s not as innocent as you think.” Collette opened the bathroom door and flung herself on her bed. “Get a few drinks in that girl, and she’s got stories. But I think Daniel’s right. She’s afraid of the captain too. No way she would go up there on her own.”

  “We still need to rule them out.”

  “Alright, Sherlock, how do you say we do it?” Daniel asked.

  “Thanks for coming over. You’re right. I’ve been a bit out of sorts for the last few days.” Daniel closed the door behind Hope.

  “Days?” Hope plopped on the desk chair. Zach sat next to her on his bed, a half-eaten box of cookies on his lap. He offered one to Hope, who took it and shoved the whole cookie in her mouth. “I am glad you’re apologizing and all, but…” she said through the cookie.

  His door vibrated with a pound.

  “Hey, Naomi.” Daniel opened the door and leaned against the doorframe, keeping her in the hallway as they had planned.

  “Danie
l. Can I come in?”

  “You’re sure you want to?” Daniel glanced over his shoulder at Hope, who made a face at him.

  Naomi squinted down the hallway. “Shit.” Naomi jumped into his room, bumping into Daniel. His hand caught her around the waist of her crop top. “Captain’s coming.”

  Daniel scanned the hall. Captain Matthias thundered down the corridor. The captain didn’t glance at him but knocked on Josie’s door across the hall.

  * * *

  Josie cracked open her door. Fear scent rolled across the hall from Josie.

  Captain Matthias stood with his feet shoulder width apart, his hands loosely grasped behind his back. “Josie Wick.”

  “Yes, Captain.” Josie stared at the floor.

  “Anything you would like to say to me?”

  “I, I didn’t mean any harm.” She glanced up at him.

  “Did you think it was funny?”

  Josie didn’t move.

  “Funny is fine. Ms. Wick. But you signed into the all hands meeting at 0600. You’ve had fourteen hours to come to me, but yet here I am finding you.” Matthias turned and glared at the group of them watching.

  Naomi closed the door.

  “You thought we did it?” Zach said in a hushed tone, pointing between himself and Hope.

  Daniel turned back to Naomi. “Sherlock always says guilty until proven innocent.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think that’s how it goes. And now I’m only sharing my mother’s cookies with Hope, so you both can piss off.” Zach put his arm over Hope’s shoulder. The captain’s voice vibrated outside in the hall.

  Hope scanned back and forth between Zach and Daniel.

  “You thought we could do that? I would never. I couldn’t.” Hope’s eyes widened. “Josie makes sense. She’s always complaining about you guys being too loud. And that you never…”

  “We never what, Hope?” Daniel asked.

  “That you never invite her to hang with you.”

  “She wants to hang with us? All she does is yell.” Zach took another cookie.

  Guilt washed over Daniel. If Josie was still around, after the captain was done yelling, he would try a little. The female had thorns. Lots of them.

  The captain’s voice still vibrated the door.

  “I think I’ll hang out here for a little longer.” Naomi leaned against the bathroom door.

  “What are you doing, Eva?” Daniel took a box of from her and passed it to Hope, who entered the backroom with him. He took a larger copy paper box from Eva.

  “Still cleaning out the storage closet.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s the new PR office.”

  Daniel poked his head into the closet. It was maybe three feet wide and six feet long. “Office? As in someone will sit in here all day?” Hope asked.

  “That’s what they tell me.” Eva pushed another box to the corner of the backroom.

  “And what are we supposed to do with all of this stuff?”

  “I haven’t a clue. Level one somewhere, I guess. Most of it we need. But not always.”

  “Hey, Eva, can we give you a hand?” Ming rounded the corner and Naomi stood behind him, still in her Forest dining room uniform. Head to toe green with a fall leaf motif scarf tied at her neck. Naomi shrugged her shoulders at him.

  Daniel hung back, as Eva showed Ming the space. His shoulders were as wide as the doorway. “What are you doing here, Naomi?”

  “Starting my new part-time job.” She bounced a little as she said it.

  “You and Ming?” Hope put the box she held on top of the others in the corner.

  “You’re going to work here?” Daniel smiled, thinking about Naomi being that close all the time. Until he studied the three females in the room that were gazing at Ming with stars in their eyes. “Well, shit,” he said to himself.

  Thanks for reading and joining my mailing list, the Koi Pond. This is episode 1. There will be a new episode every six weeks. Make sure to check the Koi Pond - my newsletter- for instructions on how to download Episode 2. Head over to my website to subscribe.

  * * *

  www.elliepond.com

  * * *

  And Hidden Heart, book one in the Dark Wing Series, is releasing on May 17th.

  One needs her for redemption. The other burns with desire. Which brother will she choose to save the pack and find love?

  * * *

  Aurora Berry loves her shifter best friend like a brother. But she’s completely caught off-guard when he pressures her to fulfill the mating pact they made sixteen years ago. Though she’s willing to do it to stabilize his leadership, she hates giving up her own quest for her one and only.

  * * *

  Duncan Larsen has long envied the close relationship his sibling and Aurora share. And he’s devastated to learn she plans to go through with their childhood pledge. But after sensing Aurora might have cold feet, he holds out hope he may yet have a chance.

  * * *

  With the trio crammed into tight quarters on a cruise, Aurora struggles to decide whether to follow her duty or her heart. And when Duncan attempts to spend time with her, he invokes the fury of his alpha brother.

  * * *

  Can Aurora and Duncan avoid the wrong fate and create their own happily-ever-after?

  * * *

  Hidden Heart is the first book in the engrossing Dark Wing paranormal romance series. If you like fated mates, magnetic attractions, and smoldering love triangles, then you’ll adore Ellie Pond’s electric story.

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  Buy Hidden Heart to set sail for shifter passion today!