Chapter 13: Recon

I pushed thoughts away of what I heard Zander say earlier. Maybe he wasn’t serious. I snuck out to the living room to meet him. We had decided to get my phone back at night. No one would get suspicious if they didn't spot us.

Everyone should’ve been asleep by midnight. At least I hoped. Getting caught sneaking around would look bad. I didn’t want to lose the Full Moon pack’s trust.

It was weird how different the headquarters looked at night. There was almost an eerie feel with how quiet it was. The moon shone brightly on the hardwood floor.

He sat with a bored expression on the couch and had a faint blue glow to his face. I stood in front of him with my hands on my hips.

I whispered in an irritated way, “Are you done yet?”

He put his phone away and quietly followed me. I started searching through the living room and looked under
the couch and chair cushions.

Zander checked in all of the drawers in the room and carefully pulled them out. He must’ve been trying not to make much noise.

One slipup would cost us this little mission. I really wanted to talk to Ash. It was my fault for losing my phone to the likes of Emerald. I hated how smug she had been about winning.

I looked under the table by the couch and back at Zander. He seemed done with searching his half of the room.

“It’s not in here. We’ll have to keep looking, “I quietly told him.

“Too bad I don’t have your number. I could call it.”

I put a hand to my face in agitation and said, “Great idea. Just wake everyone up with my EDM ringtone.”

He didn’t respond to my comment, and we moved on to the training room. There were a few places that Emerald could’ve put it. I wished I could find it with my enhanced senses. It could be anywhere in the headquarters.

I searched among the shelves of weapons and made sure to put everything back where it was originally. If anything looked out of place…we’d be in so much trouble. I heard Zander’s footsteps behind me seconds later.

“It’s not here either. Where else should we look?”

“Wait. Did you check the room where we trained as wolves?”

He sighed and said, “Yes I did. There was no phone.”

“Great. We’ve got to keep looking,” I irritably said.

“Unless it magically shows up.”

I snorted and said, “Oh yeah. My phone will just appear out of thin air.”

Before he said anything else, I headed for the kitchen on tiptoe. I didn’t want to admit it, but Zander was kind of amusing. If we talked too long…I’d probably fall for him. I looked down at my ring and reminded myself of Ash.

The kitchen was an odd place to hide a phone but didn’t seem impossible. It had many cupboards and drawers in it. Unfortunately, the Full Moon pack was Pack’s kitchen had a kitchen rivaling my own. This would take forever to find it.

I quietly opened the cupboards on the left side of the kitchen. Briefly I glanced at Zander and saw he had opened the fridge and looked in. He grabbed a bottle of water.

“You’re really getting a drink right now?”

“What, is it a crime for me to get a drink?”

I narrowed my eyes at him and said, “No it’s not. But we can’t waste time doing unnecessary things.”

“Oh sorry." He added, "But do you want anything while I have it open?”

“No,” I said bitterly.

“All you had to say was no thank you Zander. Damn.”

I ignored his comment and looked on the counter. Maybe it wasn’t in the kitchen either. Where could it possibly be? We went through a lot of the important rooms on the first floor except for bedrooms. Not that we could look through everyone’s room.

We started heading up the stairs, but Zander stopped midway on the steps. He held me up by blocking my way. What was he doing?

He looked at me and asked, “What if Emerald has it? We shouldn’t waste time looking in
useless places.”

“Wow. I've been so stupid.”

“That’s why you have me.”

“Shut up Zander.”

We walked towards Emerald’s room, which was on the opposite side of my suite. She had a special room because of her high ranking as a Beta. It would be easy to spot by the name plate outside the door.

Halfway down the hall, we heard someone’s footsteps shuffling around. I didn’t want to be caught for acting suspicious. We didn’t have any chance of getting away, but I could lessen the punishment.

I stood on my tiptoes and pressed my lips against Zander’s. He opened his eyes widely but soon was kissing me back. His hands cupped my face, and my hands went through his thick dark hair. It was softer than I had imagined it'd be like.

Suddenly an older voice said, “What do you two think you’re doing?”

We separated from each other, and every nerve of my body felt a warmth go over them. My lips still tasted like Zander’s minty breath.

The elder looked at us in disgust and told us, “Go back to your separate rooms and don’t let me see you out again tonight.”

“Yes sir,” Zander said. He grinned mischievously and added, “Maybe I can walk Cleo back to her suite first.”

“That wouldn’t be appropriate Mr. Underwood.”

“Just thought I’d put it out there.”

I couldn’t believe he said that to the elder. Was he trying to dig himself into a deeper hole? We were already in trouble for what he saw.

The elder walked away and didn’t check to see if we went back to our rooms. I was grateful he didn’t act like a chaperone for our poor behavior.

A realization smacked me upside the head. Oh shit. I kissed Zander. Maybe he wouldn’t say anything about it.

Zander turned towards me with a big grin. “So, what was that kiss about?” He touched his lips with his finger and added, “It wasn’t horrible.”

My face felt hot and I said, “It was only a distraction." I added, “This doesn’t change anything between us.”

“If you say so. But you seemed pretty into it.”

"No, I didn’t. You’re imagining things Zander.”

He leaned in close to me and said, “Goodnight Cleo. Sleep well.”

“Night Zander.”

Zander smiled at me and walked towards his room. I waited until I wouldn’t be right behind him and started heading back myself. I was lucky his room wasn’t next to mine. That would’ve been awkward after what we did.

After I returned to my suite, I ended up lying on the bed. I touched my fingers to my lips and replayed the memory of kissing Zander in my head.