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I took a shower, got dressed and went over to Guardian Moon. It was still early enough to catch Uncle Lalo and Uncle Seb on the way in from their patrol shift. They told me Uncle Helios recognized one of the men as one of his jaguar warriors that left him over two hundred years ago. We were now faced with the reality that Tezcatlipoca had been recruiting those who left my Uncle’s service over the last few centuries. This made things complicated, but thankfully, Mom used her connection to the moon goddess to confirm that only those who had been loyal to Uncle Helios when he and the moon goddess reconciled had been gifted with wolves’ spirits. These were powerful men for sure, but that’s all they were at their core, men. I came back to make some breakfast, and I was surprised to see Meli and Jo already working on it.
“Morning. I thought you might like a day off from breakfast duties,” Jo explained, passing bacon to Meli from the fridge.
“You making enough for the girls?” I asked.
“Wouldn’t forget them.” Meli winked at me.
We walked toward the offices and I was surprised to see Zi and Molly leaving their house alone.
“Morning! We were just headed your way. Can we walk with you, Molly?” James asked. Molly pulled her hand from her mother’s and ran to James.
“We going daycae,” Molly said, looking up at him.
“Well, I’ll walk you and your mommy if that’s okay?” He asked as he looked down at her, giving her his hundred-watt smile.
“Sure, we’re not here at all.” Jo joked. I elbowed him in the ribs, and we fell in place behind Zi and James.
“Where’s Evie?” I asked Zi.
“I think she went into the office early. She was gone by the time we woke up.”
We got to the office ten minutes later after Molly made Zi and James promise that he would come for dinner. I had to hand it to the little girl, she was doing more to bring the two together than either one of them had managed on their own. If only she could do the same for me…
We went up to the top floor and I could see Evie working madly on her computer. Usually, the sight of her like this made me feel an intense amount of pride and, if I was being honest, a little turned on, but once again, something seemed off with her. The features on her face were off.
I handed Zi her container and walked over to Evie’s office, talking lightly with a few people who greeted me on the way. I knocked on her window as usual before I opened the door, but this time she didn’t even look up.
“Evie?” I called from the door.
“Hmm?” she said, her eyes flickering to me momentarily before they went back to her monitor.
“Are you okay? I brought you breakfast,” I said, putting the container with scrambled egg tacos on the desk.
“Fine. Working. Thanks for the food,” she answered absentmindedly and continued to work.
“Ar-are you mad at me?” I asked, wondering if this was some sort of residual anger from the other night.
“Hmm?” She finally stopped typing and looked at me. “Mad? No. I’m not mad. Why would you think that?” she asked.
I didn’t know how to answer. Did she not know she was acting out of character right now?
“I-I just… I don’t know. You seem distant,” I said.
“Just working, Cory. That’s what you pay me for, right?” she smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. She turned away from me and turned back to her monitor.
“Right. Sorry for interrupting. I’ll let you get back at it,” I said, my heart sinking.
“Mhmm.” She hummed and started typing away again. My heart hurt at her cold dismissal, and I closed the door behind me. Jo and James met me at the elevators.
“Is she okay?” Jo asked.
“She’s… busy.”
I didn’t see or hear from Evie for the rest of the day. James came back from dinner with Zi and Molly in a good mood but said Evie wasn’t home. I went to bed confused and decided to see if she wanted to have another conversation before bed, but her mind-link was blocked.
Unwanted images of her and Paolo flashed into my head. Could she be with him right now? Is that why she blocked mind-links? She was single and had no mate. She had a history with Paolo, and he was clearly still interested in her. Paolo was a good-looking man and strong. It wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibilities that she would accept his advances.
We should be the ones wooing her. Not him, Tenoch growled.
