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“Your pack and Ciara. It really was the only open apartment in the building. I thought Aurelia was going to tear me a new asshole for it after Ciara called that day.” The corner of Colt’s mouth quirked up into a wry smile.
Feeling awkward, I just shrugged. “It is what it is.”
It wasn’t what it was, but I didn’t need my brand new boss knowing that.
“For what it’s worth, Enzo, Ciara is a good person. She just has trouble showing it sometimes.”
I held in my snort and nodded. “Thanks for getting me all set up. I’m excited to get started once the pre-season games begin.”
With that I turned on my heel and left the office.
I didn’t care how good of a person Ciara Callaghan was. No matter how I shifted my thinking, my instincts still told me that she was going to hurt my packmates somehow—even if she didn’t mean to.
I just didn’t know that that pain would one day affect me too.
Chapter eleven
“And they just… live across the way now?” Brynn asked as she swiped gold nail polish on her toes, her eyes moving to the front door of the apartment.
“Yep and now I’m stuck seeing them at every turn like they’re the three ghosts of Christmas here to remind me of all of my wrongdoings,” I grumbled as I sat on the floor and painted Aurelia’s toes. “All thanks to someone’s alpha putting us right next to them.”
It was our first true girl’s night since returning from Scotland three months ago. As soon as we got back the halted NHL season was back in full swing, so our days had been spent in stadiums amongst screaming fans or traveling to said stadiums.
The dads were still on cloud-9 thanks to the shiny new trophy adorning the fancy case at the Complex. I wasn’t sure if I’d seen Maxim grin with such smugness in the entire fifteen years that I’d known him.
I’d caught the man laughing into thin air more than once when I was over at the house, and frankly, it was creeping me out.
“And someone’s alpha got you an apartment rent free,” Aurelia reminded me primly, her words holding no anger at my jab. “And you missed a spot.”
She pointed at her big toe where there was indeed an entire swipe of purple nail polish that needed doing.
“Touché,” I told her with a grin and filled it in before amending my words. “I guess it’s not all bad.”
Which was a lie.
Between the odd looks both Leith and the omega, Artie, had been giving me and the glares I got from tall, dark, and grumpy every morning before my run, I was stuck with the constant feeling of anxiety whenever I left the apartment.
Penelope, who was busily helping Mimi with her nail polish, snorted and shot me a look that told me she knew I was full of it. She’d seen the odd behavior firsthand over the past couple of weeks and kept telling me just to go over there and have it out once and for all so we could find some kind of peace.
But Brynn and Aurelia didn’t need to know that. Chances are they’d go right over there and give the men in the other apartment a piece of their mind.
And that was the last thing I needed.
“It’ll all work out eventually,” Brynn said as she examined her paint job. “Besides, at least you get to look at them. Even you have to admit they’re really hot.”
I slanted a glare in her direction, but only met a smug, freckled grin. Brynn was the only one I’d told every detail about Leith and my time in Scotland after her accident.
And the only one I’d told about how much I liked the pack next door’s collective scent.
Leith’s scent had always haunted my dreams. The smell of fresh apples had embedded themselves so deeply in my DNA that I’d avoided them for six months after he’d blocked me.
A blocking that was totally my fault, and yet still stung to think about.
I should have never kept going back after that first night. I shouldn’t have shown him my love for musicals, and I definitely shouldn’t have slept in his bed more often than I slept in my own.
Somehow, during that time I’d lulled myself into forgetting all about why I had my rules in the first place.
Getting that text from one of the dads with the new hockey roster showing Alec Nashtos had been the wakeup call I needed.
