Chapter 20

---------------

The man observed all the activity happening on the farm. Nobody here would pay attention to this activity. This isolated farm in rural Montana was a perfect spot for someone to be up to no good. He had been chasing down the identities sent out from Langley and had a lucky break early on.

Right off the bat, the first three identities proved fake but the fourth was used to rent a truck out here, so here he was and on the first day itself he tracked the truck down to the farm using surveillance cameras installed in this the small town.

Ah! The boon of digital surveillance. He was camped in one of the farms opposite to the one he was observing for half a day using his digital SLR zooming in and out of the farm and the house in the middle of it and taking pictures until he caught him. he looked at the screen of the camera.

Good catch! he mentally patted himself, the face was clear and he verified it to be sure.

Bingo! Checkmate sucker!

Whatever this guy was up to now he was found and he had no idea the fury that would be unleashed upon him. But that was not his job, his job was to find people, he was a tracking expert that's what they paid him for. To find needles in haystacks.

He pulled out the memory card from his camera, stuck it in to his phone and uploaded his images and sat back to observe and report.

Yep, that's what he was here for to observe and report. Now that he was found Langley would do what it did best.

Unleash hell.

***

Evelyn bolted from the elevator as the doors began to open on the fourth floor. She did not even remember what button she pressed in panic. She ran in the hallway as her heart was pounding in her throat. She still could not believe her ears, the last words of that man still possessed by his wolf were ringing in her ears.

Mate! Goddamn Mate!!!

That's what he said. She needed to gather her thoughts and she knew he would follow her, try to find her and her scent would lead him straight to her.

She skidded to stop near the housekeeping closet. There was one on each floor of the hotel where all housekeeping items were stored. Each employee had a key that would open the closet. She unlocked the closet and yanked it open. Time was running out and he would already on the trail of her scent.

She found what she was looking for. The air freshener.

She pulled it out, threw the cap and started spraying it all over the place. It should overwhelm any wolf's sense of smell and other scents would become undetectable.

She started running towards the emergency stairway holding the air freshener behind her with the nozzle pressed, the air behind her was getting sprayed by the air freshener indiscriminately.

She opened the stairway door of the emergency exit still spraying the spray behind her and ran a floor down, running all the way in the hallway of the third floor till the guest elevator in the middle of the hallway.

She pressed the button waited for the elevator to arrive.

Meanwhile she took out the master key card she got from Amy earlier and looked around the rooms where she saw were not occupied.

She found two, one right opposite to the elevator she currently was stand in front of and the other two doors down left.

As the elevator doors chimed open she jumped in and sprayed the air-freshener in the elevator, she pressed the button for the second floor and jumped out before the doors closed.

Now with the elevator on its way to the floor below she stepped back and turned to face the room opposite to it which was unoccupied but just as she was about the enter it she paused and for some un-explainable reason decided not to enter this and ran down to the room two doors down and swiped her master key card and rushed in. She closed the door behind her.

She did not put the key in to the slot that would show the room was occupied, instead she rushed inside the room entered the bathroom and locked the door behind her. She stood leaning on the door that she just locked behind her to catch her breath.

She saw herself in the mirror, sweating, disheveled and her chest heaving with her heart pounding inside it partially due to all the running and partially due to the situation she found herself in.

***

Mate!

With that realization, his wolf broke free and was now in control. Maxwell finally understood why his wolf was agitated all this while. He had sensed her presence but with Maxwell controlling him he could not come out which infuriated him and he was not able to communicate this to his human side.

Now that he was free, he was out with vengeance.

Partially thanks to Maxwell's drunken state and his unprepared state of mind at him coming across his mate. He was able to break free from the tight reign he had been held in, he had been chafed at Maxwell putting him in chains.

He would deal with him later but first he had to deal with something far more important...his little Mate.

He had finally found his mate but what made him see red was that she ran from him, his mate...ran!

How, dare, she!

He would find her! And make her submit to him. Make her heel and ensure she would never ever even think of running from him again. He would not be satisfied until he did this.

With renewed sense of determination he took a good whiff near the elevator door. Her scent assaulted his nostrils invigorating him further.

She was his!

He waited patiently looking at the numbers on the panel as they stopped on the fourth floor. He calmly pressed the elevator call button and waited patiently for the elevator to come up. Now that he had her scent she could run all she wanted but she could never hide. His wolf got all excited for the chase to come.

I am coming my little mate!

He got on to the elevator, calm, collected and composted, knowing that there was only one outcome of this futile chase and stepped out of the elevator as it opened on the fourth floor. Her scent was still strong, indicating that she was recently here. All he had to do was follow it. Whit a determined glint in his eye and a cocky smile on his face he leisurely followed the scent.

As he reached the midway of the hallway he stopped, his steps faltered as he took a whiff of the air. His mates scent had disappeared and instead there was this repulsive smell of room freshener.

He coughed in disdain as his whiff has made him take in more than he wanted to. He stood there contemplating as he lost his mates scent and then after a moment he started walking further in the hallway. The only thing he could smell was the trail of air freshener.

Clever...little, mate!

It both infuriated and made him proud of her at the same time. She was clever enough to think of a way to cover her scent and it frustrated him that she was making it even more difficult... but the chase would be worthy. With renewed vigor he followed the smell of the air freshener. She was clever but she forgot something, it was much easier to follow the trail of the air freshener.

He reached the emergency exit following the trail entered the third floor and stopped near the elevator where the trail ended. He looked at the elevator, he did not know which floor she got off now. This would be such an inconvenience, he would have to check every floor now for either her scent or of that damn air freshener.

But a sudden thought occurred to him, what if she would try to escape by then? Could he find her once she was out of the hotel? That very thought terrorized him.

For the first time since he found his mate a sense of urgency overtook him. The cockiness dropped replaced with uncertainty and he definitely did not like uncertainty where she was concerned.

He swung in to action, he turned around and kicked open the door of the room opposite to the elevator, he did not care if it was occupied or not, luckily it was unoccupied. He rushed to the hotel phone and dialed an extension.

It was picked up after three rings "Hello?" someone answered it.

"Seal the hotel, no one goes inside or out" he barked.

"Excuse me? Who..." the other person was cut off.

"Listen to me carefully" Maxwell explained calmly feeling anything but "I said seal the hotel, no one goes in or out. Do you understand?"

By now the person on the other side recognized his voice "Yes, Maxwell" he confirmed back.

"Do it now!" he barked and slammed the phone down.

It was very unlikely his mate had gone out of the hotel and in a few minutes she would not be able to do so.

He turned back and walked out of the room, he would search every nook and cranny of this hotel until he found her and find her he will. If that was the last thing he would ever do.

Game on, little mate!

.........