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“My Alpha isn’t pleased that I haven’t come to check in with him since getting back from protecting your pack. He thinks I’m hiding something, and he’s threatening to come see for himself.”
I jump up, forgetting for a moment about the pain in my leg until my foot hits the ground and my leg protests with a pain that radiates almost all the way up to my hip. “Is he coming here?” I ask, panicked that he might see me. This is not what I signed up for.
“I didn’t want to leave you on your own so soon but… Do you think you could eat dinner alone just for tonight? If I go to him now, we can avoid him coming here.” He seems about as reluctant to have his Alpha as a guest as I am. For a relationship that’s meant to be the closest of the whole pack, that surprises me, but I don’t question it since it’s working to my favor.
“That’s okay,” I reassure him. “I don’t want you to get in trouble. You should go.”
I must sound too eager to be rid of him because he silently plates up some food for me and then hesitates.
“Don’t run,” he says, warning clear in his voice.
“You’re not in charge of me,” I say in a half-growl, my defenses instantly rising. But I have to concede, “I’m not going anywhere tonight. I couldn’t even if I wanted to.” Which I kind of do, but he doesn’t need to know that at the moment.
“Okay,” he says with no choice but to take my words at face value.
He comes to my side and helps me hobble up to a seat at the small dining table. I murmur a “thank you,” as he puts my plate in front of me.
“I’ll be back soon,” he says, sliding his hand comfortingly across the back of my shoulder blades.
I nod, waving him away as I scarf the food down, realizing how long I’ve gone without a meal. I napped through what would have been lunchtime, and in the chaos of the morning, breakfast got skipped too. Now I feel like I can’t shovel the food into my mouth fast enough.
It’s really for the best that he leaves while I’m eating so he doesn’t have to bear witness to this. Though, it would probably help curtail that ridiculous attraction of his.
I eat in silence, the only sound in the house my unladylike chewing until I set my utensils down carefully on an empty plate. Almost no time has passed, and I realize this is a great chance for me to snoop while Luca is gone.
I leave my dish in the sink for the moment and carefully make my way to the small hallway. I lean on the wall for some extra support, but at least I manage to get around better than I was a few hours ago.
The door at the end of the hall facing out is just a bathroom—I’ve been in there already—so I focus on the other two doors. I push one open to see an office, complete with a whole wall of guns locked behind a thick looking pane of glass. The sight makes my stomach turn. Aside from last night, I haven’t been privy to much violence in my lifetime.
The guns feel like an imminent danger I’m not prepared to face. Just another reason not to dare consider putting down roots here.
I turn to the other room and push the door open, peering into the dim space at what is clearly the master bedroom. This is an obvious breach of privacy, but the guy tried to abduct me today, so I figure snooping is the least I can do in return.
I flick the light switch on by the door and step in, studying the near-empty space uneasily. There’s a bed and a dresser, but that’s it. There’s nothing personal in the room, no pictures or knick-knacks, no dirty clothes discarded on the floor. The bed doesn’t even look personalized, dressed all in white bed-things that look like they would better belong to a hotel suite. The whole space feels impersonal and untouched, like no one could possibly live here.
I move to the closet door uneasily, and I can’t even say I’m surprised when I open it to see only a few hangers with men’s clothes on them. I don’t know what the hell is going on, but there’s no way Luca lives here full-time.
Not wanting to see any more, I turn around, shutting off the light and closing the bedroom door behind me as I abandon my quest to snoop.
Instead, I wash my dishes and curl back up in my spot on Luca’s loveseat. I have no idea how long to expect him to be gone, but the exhaustion sweeps over me anew. It only takes a moment before I’m drifting off into uneasy sleep.
* * *
I’m startled awake by the front door slamming open. I stare wide-eyed as Luca stomps inside, his face contorted with obvious anger. He softens slightly when he sees me curled up on the couch, staring at him.
“Sorry.” He grimaces. “Got some bad news from the Alpha.”
“He knows about me?” I ask, my heart catching in my throat.
Luca shakes his head. “A couple of the rogues that attacked your pack managed to get away early. Alpha wants me to take some of our men out and go after them, make sure they don’t bother some of the more passive packs just south of yours.”
I don’t say anything because I can’t imagine the callous, cruel man I met caring about other packs enough to risk sending out his own men. It was one thing to lend help to Callum, whose reputation for helping others is pristine, but those other packs can’t have much to offer if they’re anything like the pack I grew up with. In fact, based on geography alone, I would venture to guess my old pack might be one of those that Luca is talking about.
“So you’re leaving?” I try to keep the hopefulness out of my voice. It actually could work out in my benefit if this house is sitting empty for a few days. I could lick my wounds in peace here and then be on my merry way before Luca even gets back.
“I asked him to send someone else,” he says quietly, forcing me to use my wolf hearing to catch the words.
I blink at him in disbelief. That’s a huge violation of pack protocol. I can only imagine the red flags that must have raised with his Alpha. The man didn’t strike me as understanding based upon our own brief interactions. I can’t imagine him taking well to his Beta shirking his duties. Especially not if he finds out why.
