by Ava Williams
She stepped away, wishing that she had listened to Titus when he recommended that she carry pepper spray or a gun. Those dead eyes watched her like he was wondering what she looked like on the inside, but the cheery voice and the inflection in his voice made him sound like he was happy to see her.
“I’m very impressed with your work,” he commented.
He turned away from her and looked around at the hall. “So many years of our culture here, preserved. It’s truly an incredible place.” He swung his head back around to her, and she froze under his withering gaze. “Of course, I have the utmost respect for Titus, and if he decided that an outsider should be allowed access to our most precious room . . .”
He trailed off, but the point was obvious. She swallowed, trying to ramp down her beating heart. There was something deeply, inherently unsettling about Eli. Something sickly, almost, but not sick in his body, but in his heart and in his mind. “Thank you . . .”
She took another step backward as he advanced closer. “It’s been very interesting watching Titus these days, you know. He spends a lot of time here. I’m glad he’s so interested in tending to this small, insignificant part of his job while the rest of us work on keeping the company afloat.” A smile twitched its way across his face. “I’m certain he knows best. The rest of the pack . . . I don’t know. I think they’re worried about him. They think that he’s distracted by something recently. Slipping up.”
She felt like a rabbit cornered by a wolf: small, powerless, and inherently screwed. Even with her magic, she could never win in a fight here, and he could tear her apart in a second—and he knew it. This wasn’t about Titus. This was about her.
“Look, Eli,” she began, fighting the tremor that leaked into her tone. “I don’t know what—”
He took another step forward, and she skittered back even further. Her back landed against the wall with an ominous thud. No more room. She let out a nervous laugh. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on. I’m just here to research.”
He was dangerously close to her, hands clasped at the small of his back. He studied her carefully for a second. “Apparently.”
Eli took one long, lingering pause. “If you care at all about him, if you have any self-respect, you’ll leave and let him do what he’s meant to do. Lead, before the pack overthrows him.” He curled up his lip. “Besides, who are you kidding? He’ll grow bored of you sooner or later.”
While she remained speechless, he smiled and stepped away. “Bye, Molly. Best of luck with tinkering with our antiques.”
He rotated crisply and strolled out, shoes clicking against the tiled floor. She stayed exactly where she was, clutching the mask as she watched him leave. She wanted to scream, but her voice wouldn’t cooperate. Her lips remained sealed, her eyes wide open, and her heart throbbing inside of her chest.
He had to be lying . . . right? The pack was the most important thing in the world to Titus. He’d been worried about it, she knew that, but she thought he had everything under control and—
Wait.
No.
This was Eli. Eli hated Titus. There was no way that Eli would come over here to try to talk to her about helping Titus. He wanted to see Titus fail . . . right? Then again, piece of shit as he was, Eli was a devoted member of the pack. Maybe he was onto something. Maybe she really was distracting Titus and keeping him from doing a good job. She had noticed that he was starting to spend a lot more time with her, and she loved it. But was it actually at the expense of his job? Where was he getting the time?
Could she actually be hurting him by being here?
She dismissed the idea right away, but it lingered in the back of her mind. Even after Eli was gone and her heart rate returned to normal, it didn’t go away. Not sure what else to do, she went about the rest of her day, but her heart wasn’t in it.
After work, Titus came by.
She didn’t tell him anything.
She thought about it, but the words caught in her throat. She didn’t know how she felt about the whole thing, and once she told Titus, she could never take it back. Maybe Eli was an asshole and a lying piece of shit. Maybe Eli was right. But she needed to decide that before she said anything to Titus. She didn’t want to cause trouble now, and as long as Eli never showed up again, she would be fine. The second that creepy psycho showed up again, Titus would be the first to know. But now . . . it just felt wrong.
She felt rattled for the rest of the night, which was unlike her. She usually had it together when she was under stress. Even the first time they met, when Eli assaulted her and dumped her bag all over the ground, he hadn’t . . . haunted her like this. Back then, she wrote him off as an asshole and planned to never see or speak to him again. Simple.
But this—she didn’t know what to think about this.
Titus invited her back to his quarters and they made love. Though she enjoyed it, it didn’t have the same magic that it normally did.
“Are you okay?” Titus asked as she stretched out next to him and pulled the sheet over her naked body. The gulf between them—just a few inches—felt enormous. “You didn’t finish. Are you with me?”
He reached out to toy with a strand of hair, but Molly pushed it back from her face, away from his exploring hands, and flopped her head back onto the pillow. “I’m fine,” she said. “Long day at work.”
Titus shrugged and dragged her closer. She melted into his chest, puffing deep breaths against his warm skin. “If you say so,” he said, his voice a deep rumble against her ear.
After spending the evening together, she went back to her apartment for the rest of the night. The hours ticked by and sleep didn’t find her as her worries festered.
Titus had been spending a lot of time with her.
She didn’t trust Eli at all, but she was already worried about what he said. She’d been worried about that since the first time that she saw how much the pack meant to Titus. The pack was everything to Titus. He put aside everything for it and worked tirelessly to be a good alpha—he seemed almost superhuman. It was the most important thing in the world to him, but ever since she showed up, he spent his time with her.
But that time hadn’t come from nowhere.
He hadn’t just snapped his fingers and created extra hours each day. It all came from somewhere, and Titus didn’t do down time.
She thought she was okay with it. They talked about it, and he was clear that he could handle his responsibility without any issues. Fulfilling his duties was incredibly important to him, and since birth, responsibility had been drilled into him. Spending a bit of time with her was not going to affect it. Ever since she first thought of it months ago, it had made her worried. He was a grown man, and he could do whatever he wanted. She loved to spend time with him, and she knew he felt the same. But she’d been worried about Titus getting distracted and the pack started to resent him for it. He had it covered, he’d promised.
But maybe he was telling her what she wanted to hear. Hell, maybe he’d been saying what he wanted to hear.
Eli might have come by today to get under her skin, but it wasn’t some coincidence that he chose today, after all this time, to drop in and scare her. There had to be a reason that he chose today of all days.
Maybe Titus really was neglecting the pack.
Maybe she really was a distraction.
And try as she might, she didn’t want to pretend that she was okay with hurting the pack that Titus loved so much. No matter how much she might want to stay. She didn’t want to leave, but she didn’t want to cause a big problem in Titus’s life. Maybe there was some sort of solution, because as much as Eli wanted her to leave, she wasn’t going to go anywhere.
She went to sleep, hoping that tomorrow would bring some clarity.
10
Titus knew something was off with Molly.
He couldn’t put his finger on it, but it was pretty damn obvious that she wasn’t her normal self. She seemed distant during the sex—just going through the mot
ions, and despite his best efforts, she didn’t have an orgasm. That was fine. Everyone had days when they were and weren’t feeling it. That hadn’t raised any alarms, but what had raised the alarm was how she acted the rest of the night.
She was . . . quiet. More withdrawn. Molly normally had a razor-sharp wit and a playful, teasing personality. For someone else, he might have written it off as a bad day. But this was Molly. They were close enough that he knew when something was just off with her, and it bugged him to not have the answers.
They had fought before, and she’d gotten pissed off with him. They had a great sexual and emotional connection, but they were still their own people. He was aggressive and laser-focused on the business, while she was a brilliant daydreamer who worked best by herself with her artifacts and research. That was okay. He didn’t want to be with someone just like him—he needed someone to balance him out.
They argued sometimes, of course. He knew what Molly looked like when she was angry, and last night was something different. Affectionate, playful Molly was keeping something from him. And he wanted to figure it out.
It was unfamiliar territory to him, and he wasn’t sure he knew how to have the conversation, but for Molly, he would try.
At lunch, he bolted his food and walked into the hall of artifacts.
She’d be happy to see him, right? He never came to visit her during his lunch break, so maybe extra effort would show her how much he cared. He was putting off work to see her, and she would know it. The work was less important to him than her, and things had been a little off with his job, anyway. But she didn’t need to know that.
He spotted her across the hall, all the way on the other side, and started making his way to her. His quick footsteps echoed through the vast room and caught her attention.
She looked up, fast, like he startled her. Her eyes widened and she took a step back before her shoulders relaxed and she paused, her expression guarded.
“Titus! I thought you were . . . you surprised me.” She glanced around uncomfortably. “Aren’t you working right now?”
He stuffed back a twinge of annoyance at her question. Just be happy to see me, he thought. Yes, he was at work. Yes, he got to make decisions on where he was. He needed to get the work done, and he would. He was still a grown-ass man, but sometimes it was like she forgot that. He wasn’t a slave to his work, and he’d never been. She’d done that before—chided him about his responsibilities like he needed to be reminded, but how could she even know what he had to do? It was just as annoying as if he were to walk into her place of work and say, “Oh, don’t forget to handle the artifacts with care.” He’d never do that, because she knew what she was doing.
Sometimes, it seemed like she forgot that he knew what he was doing, too.
“I thought I’d swing by.” He strode up to her and smiled. She smiled back, but it was forced. Had he done something? Why didn’t she want him here? “How’s everything going?”
She picked up one of the artifacts off the shelf, still giving him the cold shoulder. “I was just starting on this one.”
He ignored the prickly edge in her voice. “Ah.”
She looked down at the artifact for a few seconds, then back up at him. “Are you . . . aren’t you busy?”
That slight annoyance grew. “Molly.” He kept his tone mild. “I made time. I wanted to see you.”
Titus might not be the best at understanding big feelings, but he had a pretty good understanding of basic connections. People liked to be appreciated, and it dismayed him that Molly responded so poorly to his surprise visit.
“I just don’t want you to be distracted by me,” she told him. “I know that you’re busy, and I . . . I don’t want to be in your way.”
Titus’s irritation vanished. In his way? He saw the raw vulnerability on her face and realized what was really bothering her. “You don’t actually believe that you’re in my way, do you?”
Her lips quirked up in a smile, but her eyes remained sad and glassy. “I guess . . . sometimes. The pack is so important to you, and I just feel awful that I’m distracting you from it and not letting you do your job.”
He narrowed his eyes, studying her carefully. Someone was whispering poison in her ear—she wouldn’t have thought of it that way. “Who said that?”
As soon as he finished speaking, he realized that he’d hit on the real problem. Her eyes widened slightly and her mouth opened to speak, but no words came out. She looked rattled, and anger burned hot in his belly.
She started talking, and it was like a dam broke and all the words gushed through, like she couldn’t stop and everything was out in the open.
“I’ve always been worried about it, but Eli came here the other day and he said that some of the other wolves were worried that you were losing your touch, and I just thought that maybe he was right, and I don’t want to be distracting you from anything because I know how important it is and . . .”
The rest of her words trailed off as his blood started to pound through his ears. Eli. The fucking little piece of shit had been lying low ever since Titus had chastised him in the forest that day, but apparently, he was back at what he did best: being a sneaky fuck and manipulating others. And he’d come here? He dared to talk to Molly, knowing that she was under Titus’s protection?
He told Eli to stay away from Molly, he knew that sooner or later, Eli would try to screw things up. Titus wasn’t about to let Molly become a pawn in Eli’s power plays. He made it clear that Molly was his, and if Eli approached her again, he was fucking with the wrong wolf. But he did.
Twice.
There would not be a third time.
A low growl escaped his throat from deep in his chest, and he looked down at Molly. She looked . . . afraid.
Not for long.
“I’ll take care of it.” He turned and started to storm towards the doors that led into the rest of the complex. “Stay here.”
She took a few steps after him. “Wait, Titus, don’t do anything—”
“Molly, for your own safety, stay here.”
Her footsteps stopped as he stormed through the doors. Good, he thought. Stay where I know you’ll be okay.
Titus had shown Eli mercy before. He should have excommunicated Eli back when he’d disobeyed him the first time, when he’d grabbed Molly’s backpack months ago. Eli had disobeyed a direct order to leave her alone, but Titus had been stupid. He showed Eli mercy because of how good he was at his job.
But fuck that. The pack couldn’t survive with someone constantly stirring up trouble, and Eli had gotten away with it for far too long. He went too far, and now Titus couldn’t wait to send the sorry fucker away for good. Ever since Titus assumed the role of alpha, Eli had been nothing more than a thorn in Titus’s side.
But that stopped today.
Titus grabbed his phone out of his pocket and called Seth. He would need his beta for this. Both the alpha and the beta must be there to excommunicate someone. After a few seconds, Seth answered.
Titus left the hall of artifacts and stalked towards the Research and Development part of the compound. Other wolves in the courtyard saw him and moved out of the way. “Meet me at Research and Development.”
Seth paused. “Everything okay?”
“Just meet me.”
“I’ll be there in thirty seconds.”
Titus hung up. Piece of shit. Eli really thought that Titus wouldn’t find out. That was where he excelled, after all: creating conflict.
Titus had gotten distracted, and in fact, once Molly was around, he was performing better than ever at work. She motivated him to do more and be better, so the idea that the pack was starting to talk was a bunch of bullshit. There was only one person that was spreading shit about Titus, and that member was about to get his ass kicked.
As he stormed to Eli’s office, he stewed over what Eli had done. He had tried to manipulate Molly into breaking things off—into making her feel like she was weighing him down, when the truth was
that with her, he was the best he ever was. He caught a glimpse of Seth jogging out of another wing, wearing a full suit and a worried expression. The second he saw Titus’s face, his eyes widened.
“Titus!” he said as he fell into line next to him. “What’s going on?”
“We’re excommunicating Eli.” He tried to keep his composure as best as he could, despite how badly he wanted to punch through the wall. He was still the alpha, and he needed to maintain his equilibrium.
Seth sucked in a quick, startled breath. “Oh,” he said. “What . . . what happened?”
“He disobeyed another order,” Titus growled. “Tried to intimidate Molly after I ordered him to stay away.”
Seth’s eyes opened wide with shock. Probably wondering what in the world had gotten into Eli. Eli was a wily bastard, but he wasn’t bold enough to do something like this before. “He finally did it, then.”
Titus burst through the final set of double doors, Seth close on his heels. Eli stood with his back to the doors, talking to his subordinates. There he was—going about his day-to-day work like he hadn’t disobeyed another order, like he hadn’t tried to intimidate someone who mattered a whole fucking lot to Titus, like he wasn’t about to get his ass handed to him after all these years of having it coming.
“Eli!”
This ended now.
11
Molly hurried after Titus and hoped that she hadn’t caused a massive problem.
She’d never seen that look in Titus’s eyes before. Titus had an incredibly powerful protective instinct. It clung to him like a second skin. He took the pack’s safety very seriously. He had to be the protector, the savior, of everyone. He considered each and every member of that pack to be like his family, and he’d die for them without hesitation just because they were under his protection. She fell under that protection.
