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Silas

He was a scaredy-cat. There was no other way to describe what he was doing when, instead of facing Ziggy, Silas did all his correspondence via email.

Every time he considered being in close confines— in his office with a lockable door —alone, he got the hot sweats.

Close proximity to Ziggy—his snake—left him dry mouthed and hard as a fucking stone, with the lasting memory of the feel of the snake’s weight against his body while he came in his pants like a high schooler.

His cheeks flamed, reaching once more to adjust his cock in the tight confines of his slacks.

Ziggy was lean but not overly muscular, which suggested he didn’t work out at a gym daily.

He was pretty slender and was nowhere near as tall as Silas.

When he’d thought about what Ziggy’s snake form would look like when they’d fucked at Hidden Desires, he’d never considered a huge python that was a damn sight bigger than any snake Silas had the privilege to see up close and personal.

His boyhood fascination with snakes had somehow morphed into a Ziggy sized obsession, and it was getting ridiculous how many times he’d had to get himself under control so he wasn’t walking around with a boner in front of everyone.

His brothers would never let him live it down.

It was fucking exhausting as it meant his concentration had gotten shot to pieces.

One week in and he wasn’t sure he could keep up the pretence that all was right in his world. He was having to take his laptop home to do the work he wasn’t able to in the office because his wolf could smell Ziggy and wanted to go find him.

“You got two minutes?” Laken asked, walking into his office without knocking.

Silas jerked his hand out of his lap, working to stop himself from acting guilty at being caught with his hand on his cock. “As you’re already in my office, I’d say it’s a little late to ask.”

He didn’t admit that, as he’d been staring at the same page on the screen for the last hour thinking about Ziggy, Laken’s interruption was actually welcome.

Laken just shook his head and took the seat, not rising to the bait of getting into a snippy battle with him. “Have you had any word from Ven at Dore’s Delivery service?”

His head quirked to the side as he frowned, working to recall when he’d last had correspondence with one of the biggest haulers of their stock to the international department stores.

When he came up blank, he reached for his laptop, clicking out of the file he was in to search through his emails.

His gaze skimmed over the dates, and his frown deepened.

“Been three months. I’d have expected an update from them last month, even if it was to just say everything is cool.” He looked over the screen of his laptop. “Whatsup?”

“I’ve had a call from the head of the international branch of Hales Department stores to advise the stock they ordered from us, the new summer line, hasn’t arrived.

It’s late by a week, so I rang Ven for an update on the issue, as clearly there is one.

I got a voicemail service saying he’d get back to me.

He hasn’t and subsequently I’ve left half a dozen more, and still no reply.

I never had Ven down as a fly by night. This seems out of character and I wondered if I was missing something?

” He ran a hand through his hair, messing it up, revealing his agitation.

Laken hated to have a hair out of place.

Silas reached for his phone and pressed one.

“What do you need, Silas?” Wendy asked before he could say a word.

“Can you ring Ven for me and then patch his call through, please?”

“Of course.”

He clicked off and sat back, eyeing Laken.

“Let’s see if he answers.” His gut suggested something was off and Silas cursed that he’d taken his eye off the ball on this. Ven had their delivery contract for the last five years. They were reliable.

“Let’s hope so. Hales are furious at the delay because they had a rollout plan for the new range and this is fucking it up. We have penalty clauses that could cost us tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

“Fuck!” Silas scowled. “Barely two fucking weeks in and already things are turning to shit. How the fuck is this gonna look if the press catches wind of it?” he groused.

Laken gave him a cheeky grin that knocked years off him. “I’m just grateful the horse shit will be aimed in your direction.”

It was often a competition between Laken and Rue as to who could be the more serious.

Laken kept mostly to himself, he’d been the hardest to get to know when Dad and Popi had brought him home.

They hadn’t shared the reasons behind Laken’s adoption into the family, and Silas, who had his own secrets as a teenager he never wanted to share for fear of making himself look weak, hadn’t pried.

Years later, he felt it had been a mistake to give Laken that space when it caused a distance between them, one he’d struggled to breach.

It was a regret he harbored but didn’t share, not even with Booker.

“Hey, you forget I’m used to horse shit being aimed at me,” Silas fired back, smirking.

“Rather you than—”

The phone buzzed, and Laken stopped talking as Silas reached to take the call. “Ven—”

“Sorry, it’s me. Ven isn’t in the office and hasn’t been for some time from what I can glean from the temp secretary they have. She didn’t say much and was quite cagey, but I got the impression something is seriously wrong.”

“Fuck it all.” Silas pushed his chair back to stand, needing to move. “Can you get in touch with Martin at Express for me? Tell him it’s urgent if he tries to fob you off,” Silas added when he checked the time. Four-thirty on a Friday was not the best time to deal with this kind of problem.

“Will do.”

The line went dead, and Laken groaned. “I’ll go grab Isley before he leaves, and Ziggy. We need to look at all the options. All the stock is already with Ven, we’ll need to collect that and then figure out how best to get it to Hales with the least delay.”

As Laken spoke he stood, tugging on the cuff of his suit jacket, his dark gray eyes narrowed with a focus that said there was no way he could come up with a convincing story to suggest not involving Ziggy.

“I’m not sure Ziggy has worked through the pile of work I’ve already landed on him,” Silas bluffed, masking his thoughts.

Laken, who’d turned to exit the office, stopped and gave Silas a shrewd look that forced him to maintain eye contact and not reveal his agitation. “Why do I get the feeling something’s amiss here?”

Clever fucker!

Silas hated the jerky shrug he gave. “What’s to miss? Ziggy has deadlines, like we all do.” Silas had made sure of that so he could keep the man well away from him.

Just one brow arched, and Silas could tell he had let something slip when Laken turned more fully to stare at him. “You’re wasting time!” he snapped. “Go find the others.”

“You need a better poker face,” said Laken.

Silas was looking at the closed door before he could think of a comeback. His urge to chase after Laken was disrupted by his phone buzzing once more. He took his seat and answered.

“This better be life and death. I got dinner plans with the wife and she’ll have my balls on a platter if I’m late,” Martin said, right off the bat.

“Ven at Dore’s Delivery has done a vanishing act, or so it seems. I have a consignment of summer season clothes sat in his warehouse that should be in Hales Department stores. They should have been there a week ago. I’d say this is an emergency.”

There was a moment of silence followed by several cuss words that put a smile on Silas’s face. “You done cussing me out?” The years of doing business meant he took no offense to the salty mouthed owner of Express.

They weren't as big a company as Dore’s, but Silas had worked with them for over a decade and trusted Martin to come through for him in this pinch.

The size of Starling Enterprises meant they had to use several hauliers to manage their worldwide logistics.

No one company could offer everything they needed, it just wasn’t possible.

“You’ll owe me a bouquet the size of a damn car and a fancy meal, maybe even an expensive bauble, cause I ain’t paying for you fucking off my wife!”

Silas kept all the amusement out of his voice as he agreed, just as the door opened and Laken came back in with a miserable- looking Isley and blank faced Ziggy.

He didn’t look at Silas as he took the seat Laken directed him to.

In the room's corner, Silas had a small table with a corner sofa, and he swallowed a groan of complaint about how close he’d end up being to Ziggy.

“Give me five minutes to call the wife and I’ll ring through on your direct line. Can you give me a ballpark as to how many haulage trucks I’ll need?”

Silas looked at Laken. “Forty.”

Martin sighed heavily. “It couldn’t have been ten, fuck no.” Another sigh, this one weightier. “I’ll ring you back.”

“Do you think he’ll come through for us?” Laken asked, sitting next to Isley, who looked absolutely tiny next to him. Isley was a sugar glider, whom Silas had once seen in his animal form. He barely filled the palm of a hand, even a small one.

Silas kept his gaze away from Ziggy, ignoring the fact that the only remaining seat was next to him. “He will if he can. It’s short notice and I know he does business with several other large companies.”

He didn’t sigh even though he wanted to.

Grabbing his laptop, he unplugged it and carried it over to where the others sat, seeing no way to avoid it.

After a brief pause, and making sure to breathe through his mouth, he perched on the edge of the sofa.

He placed his laptop on his knees, hunching over it to make himself as small as possible.

“Are you up to speed with Hales’ contracts?” Laken asked aloud, clearly aiming the question at Ziggy.

Silas winced internally at how his avoidance with Ziggy meant the answer was…

“Yes, I’ve gone through all the companies that Silas has direct contact with to familiarize myself with clauses and penalties. I’ve listed them in a spreadsheet,”—his fingers flew over his iPad—"putting in the orders, delivery time scales and cross-referenced it with…”

Silas’s mouth dropped open as he listened to the man who, so far, he’d only seen as a sex object because he was an idiot .

Laken nodded and Isley tapped at his iPad, interjecting, “You could add in the date ends for some of those contracts. There are several due for renewal and Ven’s was one of them.”

Laken’s eyes narrowed to slits, just the hint of a glint as he shifted his attention to Isley. “You never mentioned that to me.” His voice was as hard as granite.

Isley blushed bright pink as he cast his gaze down toward the floor. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

“Stop being an asshole,” Silas muttered to his brother. “Great, thank you Isley, that makes good sense.”

The phone rang once more, pulling Silas to his feet and back to his desk, having left his laptop on the seat.

“What’s the news?” he asked, his attention not fully on the call but on Ziggy, who gave him a look that suggested he’d done something to piss him off, his lip curling into an unpleasant sneer.

“Best I can manage is thirty-five trucks, but they can go wherever you want, starting tonight, to collect the stock. Does that work?”

“You’re a lifesaver and a damn miracle worker.”

“You haven’t heard what it’s gonna cost yet!”

“We’ll suck it up.” The words brought a wicked heat to his groin as they left his mouth, recalling Ziggy’s demand that he ‘suck it up’. The reference had been to his own cum that he’d sprayed all over Ziggy’s chest and neck.

Christ, was he ever gonna catch a break? Could the others smell the scent of his lust?

“Silas? Silas, you still there?” Martin snapped. “I ain’t got all night, so if you could give me the information this century, that would be great.”

Laken barked out a laugh. “You’re blushing. What’s this?”

Silas lifted his middle finger at Laken, glad to have a distraction. “Send me the contract and costs. I’ll get my PA to email over all the details.”