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“I’m the CEO of Morgan-Blair Enterprises.”

Another tilting of the world, a shift that makes my knees feel like jelly.

“And… Blair?”

He hesitates, but doesn’t make me ask twice. “He’s the man you met at the Bureau.”

What the hell is going on?

“But, if he works there… what is he… how is he…” Elias still looks pained, but I hardly care as I take a step away from him, and then another. “Is all of this some kind of set up?”

“No,” he says emphatically. “No, Lenora, it’s not. Ewan Blair is my friend. He was my business partner for many years, but he’s not a part of the company anymore.”

“Then what is he?”

“He’s the Director of the Paranormal Citizens Relations Bureau.”

All the air whooshes from my lungs.

Director. Of a government Bureau. Sure, maybe it might make sense that Blair would be involved with his friend’s case, but still… that’s far, far more attention from a powerful person than I’m interested in having fixed on me. Ever.

And if Elias is some kind of wealthy businessman with government connections… my palms go clammy and my chest tightens.

The mantra I’ve been repeating to myself for the last three years plays again inside my pounding skull.

Lay low. Stay invisible. Survive.

It’s what I’ve been telling myself since I snuck out of another fancy, opulent, high-rise building with only a few hundred dollars in my bank account, and all the jewelry from my jewelry box. The former had paid for a bus ticket across the country. The latter had tided me over once I’d pawned it, and had been enough for a security deposit and a couple month’s rent on the studio apartment I’m still living in now.

All of it feels like it’s hanging by a thread as I take the measure of the man in front of me. Thekrakenin front of me.

“And the two of you… what?” I ask. “Tracked me down? Found out where I work and invaded my life for what? Because you think you have some kind of claim on me?”

Elias’s eyes flash, though whether it’s with shame or annoyance, I can’t tell and don’t care.

I take another step back. “What gives you the right? What makes you think I’d be okay with that?”

I don’t know where all of this courage is coming from. Normally, I get tongue-tied and stumble over my words when I’m nervous. That, or avoid the conversation altogether and fade into the background. With Elias, though, I don’t hesitate for a minute before laying into him.

He thinks I’m his mate? Fine, let him see exactly what kind of mate he’d be getting.

“How did you find me?” I ask him.

His eyes dart back and forth over my face, studying my expression. “I followed you.”

I’d suspected as much. Still, it’s gratifying to hear him admit it.

“You stalked me.”

Elias’s jaw tightens. “Ifollowedyou. One block. Just from the coffee shop to the bookstore.”

“No. You stayed long enough to realize I work at the store and wasn’t just stopping to shop there. And you knew my name when we met. How did you find that out?”

This time, the shame in his face is clear as day. “I went to Blair and told him what I knew about you. The Bureau sent an investigator to the shop and they… they saw your nametag. Blair called and asked for you once they knew that much.”

So, I was being surveilled. Figures.

Technically, a small, idiotic voice in the back of my mind reminds me,Blair didn’t lie. He said the Bureau had investigators for cases like this.