Page 27

Chapter Twenty-Two

Monday arrived without fanfare. After a weekend of stewing on what she’d discovered, Jade was eager to see Niko once more. Alone in her apartment, she’d played the conversation over and over in her mind, anticipating what he’d say and what he’d do.

Despite her leopard’s reassurances about Niko’s response, Jade fretted.

Her anxiety had escalated so quickly that she’d taken his advice: she’d phased to the closest snow-capped mountains and shifted. It was one of the first times she’d taken to her other form without excruciating pain.

The entire day on Sunday, she’d frolicked thousands of feet above the nearest sign of civilization and gotten her paws wet in cool mountain streams.

Allowing her leopard to burn off the excess went a long way to calm her soul.

No matter what Julian said, she knew now that chaining up her leopard wasn’t the answer.

There was something else bothering the cat, and banning the shift hadn’t solved it.

Jade had once been afraid she’d be unable to control her predator.

That was no longer an issue. They’d played and hunted and chased the mountain goats, but when the time was over, the leopard readily released her rule.

Julian had further damaged her animal—whether he’d intended to or not. Given the legion’s history with shifters, it was concerning.

She was at the office well before the sun rose. After her personal day on Friday, her inbox was overflowing. She’d weeded through the hundreds of emails that requested her urgent attention, and deleted an abundance of CC’s she didn’t need to respond to.

A chunk of the messages required a personal reply or action on her end, and she took her time responding to each request as was necessary. The familiarity of it all helped her anxiety level off.

It was just after seven-thirty when Trina knocked and let herself in. Today, her right-hand woman was drinking out of a mug in DNB’s brand colors instead of McArthur Vegas’s.

Quirking her eyebrow, Jade asked, “Switching your allegiance already?”

“And here I thought you wouldn’t notice.” Trina chuckled. “I didn’t see you at the charity event, but I’m told you were there at least a couple of hours. Did Nikolas steal you away? Should I be sharpening my throwing stars?”

“The funny thing is, I know you actually have some. HR is going to storm through that door any minute, and you’ll have to explain why you have a set of shuriken hiding in your notebook.”

“There are obviously no throwing stars in my notebook,” Trina level-headedly replied, sipping coffee. “They’re in my clutch.”

Jade snorted.

“I’ll promise to hate him forever if you give me the word. If, however, my sources were correct and you found yourself perusing bridal websites over the weekend,” she winked, “let me know and I’ll begin my Maid of Honor duties straight away.”

“And what did your sources report?”

“Caleb—I mean, my sources—said that you gazed at each other like love-struck fools all night,” Trina contended. “And then you ran off into the darkness, never to be seen again. Or at least until Monday morning.”

“What a pretty story.”

“It sure is.”

Rolling her eyes to hide a hint of melancholy, Jade asked, “What are your thoughts on the direction our merger is taking?”

Trina shifted easily into the high-powered Vice President. “Actually, I was just about to bring that up. Over the weekend, I had some time to review, and I have a couple of thoughts.”

Launching into the conversation whole-heartedly, Jade happily engaged with Trina. After twenty minutes, three more VPs had entered the space, and her office officially ran out of seating.

When her leopard perked, Jade took notice. Typically dozing during the monotonous work hours, the cat rarely deigned to pay attention to business matters. The feline drew her attention toward the labyrinth, and Jade soon found out why.

Niko had entered the building, and she hadn’t even noticed.

A purr threatened to erupt from her throat as his magical signature brushed up against hers. She had to lock her jaw to keep from embarrassing herself in front of her executive team.

Nearly as quickly, she dismissed them to get ready for their first meeting. Watching absently as her colleagues left the office, she took a long swig of her boiling hot chocolate and allowed the sweet liquid to ease her tension.

The only thing she focused on now was tracking Niko through the building.

She’d run through their anticipated conversation a thousand and one times, arguing both sides of the discussion. Jade needed the truth from him, and she wouldn’t settle for anything less.

As he drew nearer, she busied herself with working, throwing herself headlong in business stats. Given their last interaction, she assumed he would pass by her office and go directly into the conference room. She’d prepared herself to avoid taking it personally.

The knock on the door was surprising. The fact that it was Niko was not. While he could’ve shielded his presence, he’d chosen not to. He wanted her to know it was him.

“Enter.”

Her soul filled with joy as Niko appeared, and crashed just as abruptly when she caught sight of his impassive features. None of his usual joviality danced behind his expression, and his lips were set in a hard line. He held eye contact with her as the door shut behind him.

Without a word, Niko set something down on her desk. His features tightened, and a tick worked in his jaw.

“This isn’t a peace offering. I made it for you before the charity event. I don’t want it cluttering up my home, and I most certainly don’t want it as a reminder of you. Throw it away if you don’t want it.”

Before she could respond or ask questions, Niko walked out of her office and let the door bang behind him. Heart thumping, Jade slowly dragged her attention to the object he’d left for her.

The brown cardboard box tied with string sat on her work surface, taunting her. She reached over and pulled it close. Delicately tugging on the string, Jade plucked open the lid and gently extracted the contents of the box. As she uncovered the object inside, she gasped.

A cardinal in flight, angled vertically, balanced on the tips of her left wing. Each feather was delicately sculpted and beautifully painted, the reds full of depth. It sat perfectly nestled between several branches, each stunningly life-like.

Very few works of art could fit into her collection so seamlessly.

When she was finally able to remove all traces of bubble wrap and press her fingers against the cool body, a potent Hindsight vision slammed into her without warning.

Niko’s golden eyes, transfixed on the cardinal, portrayed such visceral emotion that Jade could feel the transfer through the secondary object. His soft smile was tender in a way that could only mean one thing. The feelings weren’t for the bird, they were for her .

Her mate hadn’t bought this. He’d made it with his own two hands, pouring every ounce of his love for her into the clay and paint.

Niko loved her. Before their argument, before the charity event, before the revelation that they were mated, his affection for her had already bloomed.

And Jade had thrown his affection away. She’d rejected him.

For a single, dramatic moment, Jade had the urge to weep into her arms like the fairytale princesses who’d had their hearts broken or the dreams dashed. The defeatist impulse to throw herself onto the nearest bed and cry until her heart stopped hurting.

But she wasn’t a fairy princess, and she would never allow a prince to save the day—at least not without intervention from her.

Jade stiffened her spine and walked into the conference room with a false smile she hoped no one would notice. Welcoming a group of people was far easier than welcoming one, and she deftly avoided Niko’s gaze for the entirety of her opening monologue.

She had a feeling that she’d tear up if she looked at him, and she wanted to avoid that disaster if possible. Kurt took over almost immediately after her short welcome, giving her the impression that Niko had instructed him he didn’t want to speak.

It was ten minutes later than she finally stole a glance at him.

No smile. No smirk.

His gaze didn’t stray from the speaker, never once deigning to acknowledge Jade’s presence.

In fact, the other Sagani was doing his darndest not to look at her.

Whenever she spoke, he studiously took notes, and whenever he added his two cents, he looked at either Trina, Caleb, or any number of her vice presidents.

It was intentional.

What made it worse was the fact that Hayley was sitting next to him. Every so often she muttered something to him and earned herself a grin. It was woefully apparent that Hayley had much more than platonic friendship on her mind as she fawned over Niko.

The next time Hayley laughed, Niko joined in, and Jade’s heart tightened further. He was her mate, and he was flirting with another woman.

She had to physically clamp her teeth together to refrain from snarling. The depth of her displeasure must’ve translated through their mating bond because Niko’s posture gradually stiffened, and he ceased laughing.

Jade was behaving poorly. This realization came on the heels of the one that she had no room to criticize, nor feel possessive of him. Instead, Jade stepped out on a limb and sent him an instant message.

Where’s my joke?

She held out hope as Niko finished his train of thought and glanced at the laptop before him. A few clicks later, a pregnant pause, and the barest frown twitched over his features.

Niko shifted to type out something on his keyboard. The three dots had never inspired such hope in her, and she waited with bated breath to see his response.

I’ve officially run dry.

It took everything within her not to smile. They were dry to begin with.

Something happened that she did not expect. Niko’s gaze caught hers from across the table, holding her in his thrall as time seemed to stand still.

Then, as she watched, he closed his laptop and returned his attention to the topic at hand.

A clear dismissal. One that he’d wanted her to watch, and a signal that he’d lost interest in their games. Jade’s heart sank to her feet, and it was all she could do to keep from following it to the floor.