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Chapter 1

Travis Ja his toolbox just inside the door, where he also took off his sodden shoes and shrugged the work gloves off his hands to flop onto the floor like ss

His lynx stirred at the idea of sthings are more fun, Lynx told him

That eliminates us as “fun,” Travis told him in return

He felt like a zoth kept hier er into the kitchen instead of i his bed

The harvest gold fridge revealed a treasure trove of food; cold cuts, fruit, deviled eggs, cold grilled fish, and even a few legs of crab standing guard over the botto-wrapped slice of cake said “Breck’s Eat at your own risk” So: “I licked it”

“Don’t eat Breck’s cake,” a voice behind him startled hiing his head into the refrigerator door

Bastian was standing at the door to the kitchen, and it took Travis a e because he earing souard uniforon-shifter’s chest, and the khaki pants made Travis realize he’d never seen Bastian out of shorts

“At this point, spit doesn’t scare rin

“You look like hell,” Bastian told him frankly

“Feel like it, too,” Travis said briefly “Been a long couple of weeks”

That was an understatement

It had been an insane, de Sands Resort hosted the World Mr Shifter eant

Booked to capacity, as Travis suspected it had never been, the resort had perforh Scarlet hadits long period of abandonrades and Travis had spent the weeks leading up to the event putting cottages back into service, checking andand water heaters in anticipation of the influx of guests

Considering how one very sht

But that didn’tfrom task to task The air conditioner in the hotel was down as much as it was up, and there wasn’t a day that there wasn’t soher than anyone had anticipated, and though Breck was able to help with some of the mechanical work, and most of the staff kne to respond to blown fuses, Travis had been required to do any of the finesse work on the wiring, and troubleshoot the inevitable proble Only he could do work that required welding or pipe replacement

“You should get some sleep,” Bastian advised

“Oh, I plan to,” Travis said “Scarlet told me that if I showed my face before noon, she’d fire ” The red-haired owner of the resort was not one to be trifled with