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Now I know how my father felt, to be mated to the enemy. It’s a wonder he survived as long as he did. The impossibility of my parents’ situation has struck me many times over the years but never more fully than now.
Every single time my father looked at my mother's face, he had to know she wished to betray him. She was the enemy, yet he still couldn't stop himself from seeing her. From claiming her. From taking her up to his bedroom every week when she visited.
Ultimately she destroyed him. And he accepted his death from her hand. He probably knew it would come one day. He probably expected it from the first night he claimed her.
Once Madi is gone, I overturn the giant mahogany table. I smash every chair against the wall, crumpling each one to the size of a cabbage.
Then I turn and face my team. “Get the breach under control,” I say. “We need to be back up and running today.”
“That may not be possible,” Vance says.
“Make it possible!” I rage. “And I want every detail about how this happened written up, so we can go over it.”
My friends eye me warily.
“Somebody get me a fucking helicopter right now.” I need to shift and run within the hour or somebody will end up bloodied on this floor.
“I’ll call Acker,” Jake offers.
“I'll tell Genevieve about the change in personnel,” Vance says.
“I don't want another assistant!” I shout. “No one–no human–ever steps on the top floor again.”
Chapter Seventeen
Brick
I may not survive this.
It’s that thought above all else that eventually forces me to turn back to my human form and get my ass back to Manhattan.
Vance insisted on coming with me to the Berkshires, despite the fact that I threatened to tear out his throat if he wouldn't leave me alone. I ran my wolf for thirteen hours straight there until I collapsed and Vance dragged me back into the cottage.
Liz and Dane were frantic, trying to feed me, get me in the shower, and make sure I didn't go back out to run. Nobody spoke a word about Madison Evans, and for that I have to be grateful.
They all fear I’ll go moon mad.
I fear it, too.
This situation was like a human getting a stage four cancer diagnosis. I’d met my mate, my wolf had chosen, and now he was being denied. A wolf with as much alpha power as I carry can’t survive such a blow. I don't know if I’ll even make it to the full moon. Not with this much rage and betrayal swimming around in my head.
Knowing my pack and company need my leadership right now, especially if I’m going to go feral by the full moon, I am in the office by morning in a suit and tie, ready to take heads.
Getting off the elevator to a silent top floor is too much, though. I stop and stare at Madi’s empty desk with bitterness. The office still smells faintly of her orange and Frankincense scent. I swear I almost detect the scent of her tears from the day she left, but that’s just my brain producing a memory.
The memory makes my chest tight.
I don’t mean to, but I walk over to her desk and stand above it. Not to catch her scent. Just to make sure she’s cleaned all her belongings out.
She hasn’t. Her tube of hand lotion still sits beside the phone. A lip gloss is next to the computer. There’s a greeting card standing behind her monitor that reads, You’re killing it. I snatch it up and open it.
It’s from her brother. Inside he wrote, “I didn’t get you a graduation present, but I saw this and thought of you. Congratulations on the Moon Co job. You’re killing it!”
My chest hurts even worse. The memory of Madi drunkenly poking my chest that night her band played, telling me she knew I’d paid for her brother’s tuition surfaces.
I want to villainize her. Demonize her. But just like my mother, she’s someone I loved first, before she ripped my heart out.
It’s not black or white. Good versus evil.
