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“Please be very careful,” I whispered to her. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“You, too. Take care of him for me. He always forgets to ask for help,” she whispered back.
We got back home close to ten, and we went straight to Zi to remove the spell. I was exhausted and back to being moody.
“Hey, how did everything go? A text would have been nice.” Zi crossed her arms when she saw us.
“Not now, Zi, I’m tired,” I said, Cory nodding in agreement.
“Can you remove the spell?” Cory asked her.
“The spell? Didn’t I tell you? It will go away in seventy-two hours,” she explained. Cory pulled a hand down his face and nodded in resignation.
“I’ll see you in the morning.” He turned to leave, but stopped at the door. “Don’t let her work on that stuff tonight, Zi. Make her sleep,” he said, looking at me pointedly. I crossed my arms and rolled my eyes.
“I told you I was fine. Tozi is back to normal... almost, anyway,” I grumbled.
“Wait, so something did happen?” Zi asked.
“Tomorrow, Evie,” Cory ordered with a frown on his face. “Goodnight, Zi.”
“Good night, Alpha. I’ll make sure she goes to bed, even if I have to knock her out,” Zi answered.
“Thank you, Zi,” Cory said and left.
Zi walked over to me. “What happened?”
“Nothing happened. I’m going to bed,” I said, walking toward my room.
“Oh, come on, you can’t just leave me hanging,” Zi called out behind me.
“I thought you wanted me to rest, or you were going to knock me out?” I said, dumping my bag inside my room and raising a brow at her. “Picked the wrong side, bubs,” I smirked and closed the door.
‘You sassy bitch. I’ll get you for this,’ she warned, and I just laughed through the link. I took a long shower, and despite my words of bravado to Cory, I was asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.
‘Zi, why the fuck didn’t you wake me?’ I mind-linked her the next morning. My alarm didn’t go off, and it was almost ten in the morning.
‘Alpha’s orders,’ she answered happily. ‘And you better get here quick, or these breakfast burritos are going to be gone by the time you do.’
‘You bitch!’ I seethed while running into the bathroom to rinse and head to work. When I got there, Zi laughed at me because there was no breakfast waiting. There was no Cory.
I slammed myself into my workroom and grabbed a granola bar from my desk before getting busy, while Zi cackled from the side office.
I may not have gotten any breakfast, but Cory did show up with the boys with a massive lunch. He sent me a text saying he wanted to talk to the employees about how they were adjusting and if there was more they needed to do to make them feel comfortable. I watched sullenly from the windows of my office at how a few of the women and some of the men we’d hired gravitated toward all three boys to help with the lunch bags.
Tozi growled in my head when one of them got a little too close to Cory and placed her hand on his shoulder. The employees were all over them. Even Jo, who was mated, was being approached, and I could see them becoming uncomfortable. I was surprised James wasn’t enjoying the attention. He was always a flirt, even before he decided to stop waiting for his mate. He always claimed there was nothing wrong with a little flirting as long as you didn’t act on it, but looking at him now, I wondered what had changed in him.
Zi stepped out of her office, and everyone scurried back to their workplaces until lunch had been set out and everyone grabbed a plate. I stayed in my office, working on my code to decrypt the phones. Still, whether it was the spell, my own attraction to Cory, or Tozi’s, I couldn’t help but follow his movements throughout the hour.
About halfway through the lunch, Cory knocked on my office with a plate of food.
“How’s it going? All I see are those fingers of yours typing like crazy in here,” he said, placing the food and cutlery next to my keyboard. I made sure to save before I grabbed the soda he offered.
“It’s going. It’s a lot of components to address, but I think I should have it by the end of the week,” I said, taking a bite of the plate of brisket he’d brought me and potato salad.
“That’s fast. How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Better. I definitely needed sleep last night,” I mentioned, making him smile. “But you don’t look like you got very much,” I pointed out, taking in the bags under his eyes.
