I call Knox.
"I need a favor." I don't dress it up. Knox can smell bullshit through the phone, so I don't bother. "Sorry for the short notice but I was wondering if you and Sarah can take Lily tonight?"
"The librarian?"
"Knox." I sigh.
"I'll come get her. Give me twenty minutes." A beat. "You good, brother?"
"I don't know yet."
Lily packs her backpack with two books and her pajamas before Knox's truck pulls into the driveway. She doesn't ask why. My twelve-year-old figured this out before I did. Knox comes to the door. I hand him her bag and he gives me a look I haven't seen from him in years.
The house goes quiet. I think about driving to Ellie's apartment, but her scent faded from the kitchen days ago and I want it back. I want her here.
I call her.
"Hey," I say, when she picks up. "Knox just picked up Lily. Do you want to come here? I can put coffee on and we can talk." I lean against the counter. "Or I can come to you, if you'd rather."
"There," she says. "I'll come to you."
I hang up and stand in my kitchen with the phone face-down on the counter.
I put coffee on. Pull two mugs from the cabinet, set them on the counter. Open the fridge and find the leftover chicken from last night, slice bread, put a plate together because she probably hasn't eaten and Ellie runs on cereal and toast on a good day. The coffee finishes. I pour one cup and leave the other empty because I don't know how she takes it and I've never asked, which feels like something I should have asked by now.
Headlights sweep across the front windows. I open the door before she knocks.
The salt hits me first. Tears. I can scent the wet mineral edge before I see her face, layered over exhaustion, over a fury so compressed it reads like heat against my sinuses. She stands on the porch in the rain with her jacket zipped to her chin, hair damp, mascara smudged under her left eye. Shaking.
I pull her inside. My arms go around her, she presses into my chest, and I hold her in the hallway with the door still open, rain blowing in. My scenting opens all the way. Fear, anger, the bone-deep tiredness of a woman who spent the day defending her right to exist. Underneath all of it, warm and strong enough to make my hands tighten on her back: arousal. Even now. Even crying and shaking and furious, her body responds to mine. Mine has been responding to hers for months. I'm done pretending otherwise.
"It's okay, sweet girl. I've got you."
I close the door and guide her to the couch. She sits with her knees pulled up and I sit next to her and wait.
"The board called a meeting," she says. "Three parents complained. About the programming, about the workshops, about—" She stops. Breathes. "About me and you. They asked me directly. In front of the whole board. 'Are you in a personal relationship with a member of the Feral Sons MC?'"
"What did you say?"
"Yes." Her voice cracks on the word. "I said yes and I meant it and then I walked to my car and cried in the parking lot because I told a room full of strangers I'm yours and you don't even know I said it. I don't know what we are? I'm sorry if I overstepped."
My hand finds the back of her neck. I hold it there, thumb against her pulse, and she leans into the touch.
"Derek told me I'm playing a role," she says. "The quirky librarian who dates the monster. He said it's a story I'm telling myself." She looks at her hands. "And there are notes in my desk at the library. Someone pushed them through the mail slot. 'Monster whore.' 'Orc lover.' I didn't tell you because I thought I could handle it alone."
"How long?"
"Since the night I came for dinner. Someone saw my car."
My grip on her neck tightens before I ease it.
"I'm getting those notes from you," I say. "And I'm finding out who wrote them."
She starts to shake her head and I rub my thumb against her pulse until she stops.
"Ellie. Someone is watching you. That's not just a few pieces of paper. They are threats." I hold her eyes until she nods. "Now tell me what you said to the board. The exact words."
"I said—." Her voice cracks. "I said that I'm in a relationship with a member of the Feral Sons. And I meant it. And you didn't even know I—"
