Maverick followed me out of his bedroom and across the hall. He grabbed my hip, turning me around so my back met the door.
I gave him a dark look. “I’m not one of your wolves, Maverick. You can’t force me to comply. I know I almost died, but that doesn’t mean you can treat me like your possession. You already abducted me. You don’t get to record me.”
“You knew the abduction was coming eventually.”
“That doesn’t make it any more reasonable, does it?”
“It was kind of fun though, right?”
I pointed to the hallway. “Go get the tools to take down the cameras. Now.”
He took my face in his hands and tipped it back until we were looking each other in the eyes. “Bloom Sharpe,” he said. “You matter to me. You really fucking matter to me. If something happens to you, I have no idea what I’ll do. That scares the hell out of me. Because I understand where you’re coming from, I will take the cameras out of Harper’s roomifyou agree to having two of my enforcers stationed outside this door when I’m not with you.”
It was the best offer I was going to get. Ihadalmost died, and he had risked his health to save me.
“Fine. I can deal with the enforcers. Do you have a new plan to find the murderer yet?”
“Rhone sent a team to find Zach, the tech guy who disappeared from Cassidy’s group, in case he’s behind the issues we’re having with our security system. We’re hoping we can drag him back here and get some information. In the meantime, Sutton is still in the office to try to figure out which of your coworkers could have been turned.”
“You’re sure it’s someone in the office?”
“Someone knew to put the wolfsbane in your vanilla syrup. The only people who would know that are your coworkers. No one who doesn’t work in the office would know about your obsession with vanilla lattes.”
“I get coffee from a shop by my apartment pretty often. Anyone who knows that could figure it out.”
“It’s not impossible,” Maverick agreed. “But considering everything else, it seems safe to assume the killer’s somewhere within the company.”
If he was right, and it was one of my coworkers other than Harper, that was kind of terrifying.
Maybe it was a good thing the overprotective bastard had gotten me out of there.
“What are you going to be doing?” I asked. “You mentioned earlier that there’s another reason we’re here.”
“You don’t want to know.”
“I do, actually.”
He dragged his thumb lightly over my cheekbone. “A few more challengers came into town while we were recovering.”
My stomach clenched. “They don’t think their Alpha should be mated to a vampire.”
“They just want my throne.” He was lying, but I appreciated the effort to soften the blow.
Maverick slipped his finger between my lips and fingered my fang just lightly enough not to get bitten. It descended for him, and his lips curved.
“How many is a few?”I asked.
“A handful.”
My eyes narrowed. “Give me a number, Mav.”
“Any number?”
I pulled his finger from between my lips. “Maverick.”
“It doesn’t matter. I don’t lose.”
“Of course it matters. How many challengers are there?”
