by Ava Williams
He saw Titus and his eyes widened, like he’d just gone to heaven and seen his alpha pop out of nowhere. “Titus!”
Titus hurried to his side, crouching down and shoving a flaming piece of debris away. Somewhere in the distance, another part of the building collapsed, sending sparks and embers drifting into the already agonizingly hot room.
“I got you,” Titus grunted, crouching down, ready to hoist up the rafter and everything on it—fully expecting to injure every muscle in his body. Super strength he might have, but it only went so far, and he might as well be trying to lift a truck. “On three, move.”
He coughed into his shirt again, trying to summon enough air. “One . . .”
Another thing collapsed somewhere nearby. “Two . . .”
Titus placed his hands on the searing-hot steel rafter. He was expecting pain, and he was not let down. “Three!”
He lifted with every bit of strength he had in his body, but even with his full power, he wasn’t able to lift it more than a few inches. It was enough—the janitor dragged himself free, and Titus let it go with a curse. He ignored the agony in his hands. He didn’t want to look—he was badly burned, and there was no point in stopping to nurse his wounds. They had to keep moving, or they would die in here. Already, his clothes were bone-dry, every drop of water evaporated in the furnace they were in.
“C’mon, I got you.” He grabbed the guy and hoisted him over his shoulder, trying to not notice the creaking of something big about to break. “Hold on!”
He hustled towards the exit as fast as he could with a guy on his back, ducking around debris and dodging flames. Finally, after what seemed like miles of coughing and stinging eyes from the smoke, he saw it—the front doors, and all he had to do was go down the escalator. He started his sprint down and made it halfway before he heard an agonized shriek of metal, wood, and glass.
The roof finally gave.
He felt it happen as they hit the ground floor. One quick look up, and he saw the roof starting to cave in—with thousands of pounds of steel, concrete, and rebar collapsing right over them. He heard Jack gasp, but he started running for the exit as fast as he could, knowing that any second, they could be crushed.
The doors had become lodged, stuck, and the parts that were there were ablaze. It wasn’t like they had any other option. “Hold on!”
He narrowed his shoulder and plunged into the flaming doors. They hurtled out into the fresh air, just in time for the entire roof to collapse behind them with a crash. They landed on the pavement, bits of flaming debris scattering around them, and he dragged them away as he heard Molly and the other wolves race toward them.
“Titus!” Molly’s voice, somehow, broke through the ringing in his ears. She quickly looked him over like she was checking for injuries, and terror shone in her beautiful eyes. “Oh my God! Are you okay?”
He coughed up a few bonfires’ worth of smoke, his eyes watering and stinging as some other wolves hurried the injured janitor off for medical help. “Fine,” he wheezed.
Molly leaped forward and hugged him, a sweet gesture that lasted all of a quarter of a second before she let him go and scrambled off. “You’re roasting!”
“I’m fine.” Perhaps a more accurate response would have been, I will be fine. Right then, he didn’t feel fine. Felt pretty fucking far from it, actually, but at least they were alive. He felt like he’d been cooked through, and all the water was gone—leaving him dry and singed, and missing some arm hair and eyebrows.
The sound of the firetrucks grew louder as they roared up to the scene with sirens blaring. Firemen jumped out and got everything running, blasting the flaming building with high-powered jets of water. For a second, all Titus could do was turn and watch one of the most important buildings in the compound, the beating heart of the pack’s livelihood, crumble into burned rubble.
He failed them.
He stood stiff as a board as he watched the flames lapping at the structure be drowned out, leaving only charred, crumbling remains. The sounds of the firemen, of Molly asking him if he was okay, and of the stunned pack members talking, all fell away. He simply stared numbly at it and watched it collapse.
He could have stopped this.
But he hadn’t.
Because he’d been an idiot and distracted, off having dinner and putting his personal needs ahead of the pack, ahead of his real responsibilities. Maybe if he’d been there, if he’d not taken the night off, this could have been stopped. Hell, maybe they would have at least been able to save some things. Millions upon millions of dollars of research was in that building, and somehow, the Brothers had gotten in. But how had a rival pack known how to get in like that without alerting the guards? It made no sense.
Eli.
Titus’s fists tightened. It made sense—of course it had been that weaselly little fucker. He knew every part of the security detail, and even though they’d changed it when he’d been banished, he still knew the system well enough to identify and exploit all of the weak spots. Titus had never expected that Eli would be capable of betraying the pack he claimed to love, but maybe he hated Titus enough to do anything to hurt them—including working with an enemy pack.
“Titus? Titus, are you okay?”
Titus looked down at Molly, who rested a hand on his arm as she eyed him with concern. Her fingers tightened against the scorched material of his suit as she gave him a sad smile. “You okay?”
He nodded, stiffly. “I will be.”
He took a deep breath and looked back at the burning building. Feel it. He didn’t look away or try to avoid it. He had to force himself to believe it wasn’t his fault. He had done everything he could to protect the pack after Eli’s banishment. It was an inside job, and whoever did this knew all the weak points of the building already. They had a plan and materials to make this happen. Seth had been here, and the guards, and most of the pack members. They had to have seen it early, as early as Titus would have.
He tamped down his surging anger. This was a major blow, but they could rebuild. He’d made sure that any contingencies like this would be covered, and made sure that only he knew about it. Eli didn’t know about every single backup plan. In a way, Eli being a notoriously shitty person had been a blessing in disguise. Titus had precautions in place, just in case something ever happened.
He just didn’t think he would ever need to use them.
He turned to the pack, who watched their livelihood burn up with wide eyes and shocked expressions. When he turned, their gazes focused on him. Waiting for him to fix everything, waiting for him to be their leader, waiting for their alpha to make it better.
He didn’t say anything for a second. Just scanned them, making eye contact with each and every one of them, sweeping from everyone from Seth to Molly and every other wolf in the crowd. The conversations died down, leaving behind only the sound of the firetrucks in the distance as they waited for him to speak.
He took a deep breath. “We’ve been hit hard. I’m not going to lie to you.” He paused and let it sink in. “But we are prepared for this. We will rebuild. I’ll have a team on it immediately. We’ll clear this out and rebuild it better than it was before, and in the meantime, we are equipped to handle the downtime.” He paused and scanned the anxious faces in front of him. “Rest assured, that when we find who is responsible, they will pay. Dearly. We’ll double the guard and put everything on lockdown for tonight.”
He took another deep breath as everyone continued to listen silently. “I have calls to make. Seth, double up on guard shifts and make sure to alternate them. Then I need you to get things secured for cleanup. I’ll get a team going on demolition and reconstruction.”
As he continued to speak, the faces of the pack started to loosen up and the fear started to go away. They believed in him. They believed what he was saying. He’d led them through harder struggles than losing a single building, and they all knew it. They would be fine, despite the Brothers and Eli trying to cripple them.
His eyes caught on Molly. She stood out, of course. She was the only non-wolf in the crowd, but she blended in. She wasn’t a human anymore. She was a part of this. They’d welcomed her in and made friends with her and if it came down to it, the pack would protect her like one of their own.
She was a part of the pack.
Part of the family.
He smiled, pride filling his chest. A moment later, the reality of the situation settled back in and his smile melted into a scowl.
Eli wanted a war.
Titus would give it to him.
And he’d have his queen at his side.
17
Molly tried and failed over the next week or so to find a good time to tell Titus that she was pregnant.
Titus was a real leader, and he showed it the night of the fire. He’d taken command, the pack had listened to him without hesitation. His confidence and control awed her. He always commanded respect, and everywhere he went, he was in charge, but this was the first time she saw him manage a crisis.
The pack had turned to him. Instantly. Without a second of hesitation. Standing there that night, with the flames of their livelihood stretching into the night sky, people had been afraid and scared. But when Titus opened his mouth, it changed. She’d felt incredibly, indescribably proud. Her man was a king, a leader. With a few carefully chosen words, he’d lifted the mood of the pack and left them feeling reassured and safe.
But that didn’t mean that she had the slightest idea of how to tell him about the baby. Zoey ended up checking in with her a day after the fire to see how it went, and Molly tried to explain it. Well he told me that he loved me, and before I could say I was pregnant, he noticed a burning building in the compound and I didn’t get to finish telling him, but now I’m trying to figure out how to bring it up while he’d dealing with the stress of rebuilding their income from the ground up. Oh, and his old rival, the one that abandoned the pack and betrayed everyone, was responsible.
Not exactly the easiest thing to explain.
Titus worked constantly. What he did in his office, she didn’t know. Making calls, making deals. Construction crews showed up seemingly overnight, and within no time, the wreckage was gone and new materials were coming in. It was genuinely kind of amazing. The pack went on about their normal lives, except now, security was everywhere, with armed guards around every corner.
The security footage confirmed Titus’s suspicions. Eli and members of a rival pack, the Brothers, snuck in. They exploited weaknesses in the advanced security system. It had obviously been a heavily planned operation, and they made it out with some classified blueprints and data from the weapons lab. The legal team was already on it, and charges were being filed. Titus kept a number of the security measures confidential, and Eli hadn’t known about them. But the evidence was clear, and now the pack was gearing up for lengthy legal proceedings.
It was fascinating to watch Titus work. He seemed to be three steps ahead of everyone, and things moved smoothly because of him.
But there was one problem.
Molly was dying to tell him about the pregnancy.
She didn’t want to put it off anymore, but when she thought about his busy work schedule, the responsibilities he carried, the exhaustion that rode him every day, she lost her nerve. She didn’t want to add anything else to his plate right now. Besides, she wanted to tell him when they could make it a happy, special moment—not a thrown-in conversation when she could barely get five minutes alone with him.
After the attack, Titus asked her to move into the guest quarters on the compound. He said he was worried about Eli coming after her and using her as a pawn, and since she had a general aversion to psychopaths coming after her and using her as a pawn, she obliged. So, her days went from driving around town, working at the museum, and working at the compound to her entire life revolving around the compound.
Thrilling.
She woke up, went to work, back to her quarters, go to sleep. Like a worker bee.
Titus was busy all the time, so though they still enjoyed emotional and sexual intimacy, it was mostly on his schedule. She got that, she really did, but she spent more time than she would like waiting outside of his office for him to make space in his day for her. She tried to get to know his assistant, but she wasn’t friendly, and their personalities didn’t click.
She ended up talking with Seth quite a lot, because they ended up sitting in the same place and waiting for Titus to get spare minute.
“You know, he really cares for you,” Seth casually said one day as they slouched together on the leather couch outside Titus’s office.
She glanced over at him. The secretary had gone off to use the restroom or something, leaving them alone. She blinked, surprised. Obviously, she knew that, but she didn’t expect that other people did. “Titus?”
Seth looked down at her and grinned. “Oh yeah. I’ve known him since we were just pups, and I’ve never seen him like this.” He tossed his head towards the door of Titus’s office. “He never stops talking about you. Well, as much as Titus does.”
Warmth blossomed in her chest and she smiled back, but she wasn’t quite sure how to respond. Seth might not like the idea of Titus dating a human, and the last thing she wanted was to get into that right now.
Seth set back in his seat contentedly, giving her an amused look, like he knew what she was thinking about. “I support it, by the way. What you two have going. He’s never outright told me, but it’s hard to miss. I honestly never thought he’d find someone. The man is not exactly the easiest to get to know closely.” He snorted. “As I’m sure you know.”
And there was that question answered. She barely had time to be relieved before she wanted to follow up with the question she’d been dying to ask someone other than Titus that she could trust. She paused, looking down for a second. “Seth, can I ask you something?”
He glanced her way. “Shoot.”
She hesitated for a second. “I, um . . .” She cleared her throat. Maybe it was a terrible idea, but Seth seemed so approachable and trustworthy. “What do you think the pack would think if they knew?”
Seth’s grin grew. “Oh, Molly, they’ve known for quite a while. Titus might have fooled us for a while, but when he cold-cocked Eli, the jig was up. I think Eli saying that Titus was fucking a human kind of made people wonder what he was talking about. It wasn’t exactly too complicated to figure out.”
Her heart stuttered. They knew? They knew she was with the alpha? Did they think that she was a distraction to him?
Titus’s assistant, back at her desk, called Seth and told him that Titus was ready for him. Seth stood, straightened the legs of his trousers, and looked down at Molly. “They want their alpha happy. He’s done so much for all of us. I don’t think that’s going to be a very hard sell. I wouldn’t worry about it. We all hope you end up sticking around.”
And with that, he left her alone. She settled back into the couch cushions with a smile as her heart slowed and the warm glow built in her chest. They knew, and they were okay with it? She expected that no one knew, since Eli kept everything under wraps until the fire. But they knew, and it was . . . fine.
A few minutes later, it was her turn to see Titus. She wandered into his office, planning to give him a kiss and tell him that she loved him. Basic stuff. Relationship stuff, which she was pretty much a pro at now. It would mean a lot to him, even if he wasn’t the demonstrative type. He was normally so gruff, but she loved the softness in his eyes that he saved just for her.
He was behind his de
sk, leaning back in his chair with a weary look in his eyes. When he saw her, he smiled, and stood up to pull her into his arms and drop a kiss on her smiling mouth. “Molly, what a nice surprise. What can I do for you? Just come by to see me?”
Molly opened her mouth to explain that she had just decided to take a break from the artifacts and that she wanted to come kiss him.
But that wasn’t what she said.
Instead, she opened her mouth and blurted out something different.
“I’m pregnant.”
Her mouth snapped shut and her eyes bulged open. Her stomach dropped and she wished she had just imagined saying it, but based on Titus’s shocked face and stiffening body, it was real—all too real. She froze, watching him warily to gauge his reaction.
He laughed awkwardly. “What?” He looked around like he thought he was dreaming. Emotion flashed across his face. Surprise and confusion, mostly. “You’re pregnant? Are you sure?”
No, I’m guessing. She bit back the instinctive sarcastic response and instead, bit her lip and nodded. “I-I’m sorry, I wasn’t going to add this right now. I know you have a lot going on, and I didn’t want to make it worse—”
“Worse?” He grabbed her with a huge grin. “Molly, this is . . . you’re pregnant!”
Before she could register his words, he pulled her into a tight hug that practically suffocated her. “How far along are you?” he demanded, his grip loosening as his hands fluttered over her body, framing her lower abdomen with gentle touches.
As she responded, she kept looking at the sheer happiness in his eyes. He was thrilled. That he was having a baby with her. Tears welled up in her eyes and spilled out, and Titus pulled her back into his embrace, shushing her gently.
