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He rubbed his eyes. “I like to work personally with my teams, as they can relay the bits that work and those that do not.”
He couldn’t share this with anyone. His face fell into a severe frown, his eyes narrowing on his newly drawn-up plans.
It would defeat everything they were trying to accomplish if he was an ineffective boss or an Alpha (depending on whether you were Number or not) who didn’t listen to his people. If they found weaknesses and felt unable to share them with him, then he wasn’t doing his job.
“Not this time, I’m afraid.” Mallen sighed heavily and offered, “We know how difficult this must be…we have to keep things silent at the moment.”
He nodded in agreement. “I know. I’ll finish up the protocol for the new system.”
“Speak soon,” Mallen grunted.
He slammed the phone down, leaned back in his chair, and arched his back. He wanted to scream, instead, he settled for slamming his fist into his hand with a strangled shout.
He shook his head, blowing out a deep breath. Knowing he had to get it sent, he finished off what he had to. Having sent the message to the entire Alpha network by fax, he sighed.
Perdy demanded the right to be recognised as the individual she was. So as an Alpha, she was added to the list. It was a good thing that the female was strong. She did a good job finding a problem they didn’t see.
There was no doubt that Perdy would make an excellent Alpha, even though she didn’t have any territory of her own. She leased a portion of Drey’s property from him until something more permanent could be arranged.
Having Perdy and Apollo on speaking terms would make things much easier, but the male always managed to say the wrong thing whenever he spoke to her.
Whether it was out of a misguided sense of helping her or because of his love for her, Nick had no idea. Apollo was failing miserably in his attempts to show Perdy the benefits of getting to know him.
As an Alpha, Apollo genuinely cared for every Number in his group and was willing to wage war to ensure they were well cared for. He just had a really…really bad way of demonstrating that side to Perdy.
Nick hoped Apollo could get his jealous head out of his arse, stop treating Perdy like a child, and begin listening to what she had to say. Otherwise, he would always get the cold shoulder from her.
Having been made a parent late in life, Nick knew what it was like to learn the basics of being a parent. Perdy was a lot older, but the same principles applied. Shaking those thoughts away, he glanced at the clock.
Shutting down the computer and locking his desk, he didn’t keep anything valuable or anything that he would consider sensitive in it. During his time as mayor, it became a habit not to leave things lying around.
A number of situations had occurred in which journalists or other parties had sneaked a peek at what was written in his diary or leaked the speech or policies he wanted to put into place.
He was fortunate not to have to deal with that here. In the process of putting his jacket on, he paused…until now, he hadn’t been faced with that problem here.
He shrugged his shoulders into his jacket and closed the door behind him. He made his way to the lift and got into it.
He took care not to look in any of the offices. He didn’t want to see the faces of his people in any of those offices. There were already a number of images running through his head as he thought about who it could be.
He kept his gaze turned away from security. His hands clenched tighter as he felt a blast of warm air rip into him.
Having only encountered Noah along the way, Nick almost sighed when he left the building. It felt like a storm was gathering outside. The heat was oppressive, and the wind brought a sense of impending doom.
His hair stood on end; the muggy heat made sweat gather on his neck. His unease grew.
Harper must have seen the anger he felt towards his people for making him feel so cloak and dagger because the moment he got home and opened the door, her eyes quickly assessed him and his mood. Her cute, upturned nose twitched as she tried to pick up his scent.
She immediately asked, “What’s wrong?” Without hesitation, she walked into his arms.
Embracing her tightly, he felt her warm waist, and her flesh surrendered to his hard body.
His lips lifted. “Everything and nothing at the same time. I am angry because I feel like a traitor. I am angry that I feel like I have to keep my head down because someone has ruined our trust.”
“Nick,” she whispered, her voice tortured and full of pain for him. She pulled his top up and touched his bare skin.
“I have experienced similar feelings in other places, but never here. And it’s a tearing me up that I feel I can’t trust my team here.” His arms tightened, and he inhaled her scent taking comfort from her nearness. “It’s the one place where you should always feel safe and never have to fear humans harming you. Not after everything you have suffered at our hands.”
He pulled back to look into her eyes. His eyes traced her small pert nose and high arching cheek, and her beauty struck him.
