Page 10

Chapter Ten

L ILA WINTER

Darkness hovers around me like a cloak meant to trap me and rob me of my sanity. I breathe in the humid air, praying to the Goddess to get me out.

As if she can hear me, sunlight filters through the dense canopy of leaves, casting leafy patterns on the forest floor. I open my eyes, grinning as familiar laughter buzzes through the woods like a beacon calling to me.

Standing up from the spot of misery I’ve put myself in, I wipe hair from my face, trying not to cry. The same laughter rings through the woods, the birds chirp from tree to tree, almost like they are imitating the rustling of the leaves in the morning wind.

I’m about to say hello when a boy whose face I can’t even see stands in front of me.

“Come on”, he says cheerfully, grabbing my hand. I hold his hand tighter, trusting him with more than my life as he starts running.

We ran together through the woods, our bare feet kicking up dirt as we dash through the forest.

I look at the back of his head, giggling too, because the boy dragging me makes me feel safe. He makes my heart race. Mommy said anyone who makes your heart race is your true Mate.

When our lungs burn and our feet hurt, we stop at a clearing. Both of us are breathless and tired, but we are still giggling because running is fun.

Caught unaware and with my heart still pounding hard in my chest, the boy turns to face me, then he tucks my hair behind my ear, and I giggle.

My chest tightens when he leans down, and like a feather brought to my lips, he drops the lightest of kisses on my mouth.

I kiss him back, and when I move to hold him, he starts disappearing. Someone pulls him away from me. I’m left all alone in the forest.

No, where did he go? Where did he—

Panic flares in my chest as his figure starts to blur, fading into something like mist under the mercy of the morning sun.

My heart pounds and aches because I know him. I don’t just know him in this dream. He’s familiar, too familiar, like a name on the tip of my tongue or a face I’ve seen a thousand times but can’t quite put my finger on it.

Who is he, and why do I feel guilty for forgetting his face? For forgetting someone so…important to me?

The answer teeters just beyond my reach, slipping further the harder I try to grasp it. I reach out, but instead of pulling him to me, my hands close around empty air.

A sharp pain pierces my skull, as if my mind itself is forcing me away from the memory, and then, just as suddenly, I wake up. I’m breathless. My shirt clings to my body due to sweat and bitter tears well in my eyes.

It takes two seconds to realize I’m sitting on my bed staring into the dark and that what just happened was a dream. My baby girl snores loudly with her arms still wrapped around my waist.

I’m thankful I didn't wake her up, but my mind and my wolf fixate on the dream. It felt real. Just like the other memory at the hospital, this one felt real, too. I try to remember the forest, and then there was a…

An ear-splitting headache almost cracks my head in two when I try to recall the details.

My wolf urges me to calm down.

I’ve been under a lot of stress and saying that I’m okay would be lying.

I’ve not been okay since I saw Alaric and Lina together. I’ve not been okay since I remembered my father and I standing outside St. Bishop’s hospital.

I can’t even remember for certain if it was St. Bishop’s Hospital or another hospital.

And the biggest elephant in the room?

Alaric kissed me.

And on a depressing note?

I kissed him back, and I would’ve asked for more if we hadn’t been interrupted.

Embarrassment and humiliation feel like sticky toffee against my skin when I arrive at H Industries a few hours before my boss does.

Before I walked out of the parking lot, I promised myself I would tell Alaric straight to his face that I'm not like the whores he sleeps with on the regular.

Okay, saying whore would be accusing him of sleeping around but he kissed me!

Me! His secretary.

If HR were to get a whiff of what we did, I would be the one not only fired for messing around with the boss, but also tainted with a bad reputation for trying to seduce said boss.

But more than the scandal or the risk of losing my job, what truly infuriates me is that Alaric rejected me all those years ago. He looked me in the eye and deemed me unworthy, as if I were beneath him.

Yet now, after all this time, he dares to come back into my life, inserting himself into my daughter’s world and forcing a kiss on me, as if he has any right.

It’s not even about the fact that he is my boss. It’s about my self-worth, my pride. It’s about how hard I fought to pick myself up after he shattered me. One kiss from him though, and the walls I erected might be coming down.

The wisest decision would be handing in my resignation letter, but a, being Alaric’s secretary pays a lot more than I imagined and b, me and my baby are settling in here nicely.

So here I am, walking to my little desk as I try not to trip, when I see a familiar guy waiting for me up ahead.

He has ash-blonde hair, a permanent scowl on his face, and eyes that tell me he judges everyone like it’s his day job. While he’s close to Alaric’s height, this man makes me feel two times smaller the minute he looks at me.

After all, he’s the same guy who caught me sticking my tongue down his boss’ throat. Shit.

Alaric called him Ian? Ivan? No, Ethan.

“Lila, good morning.” Ethan stretches his hand out, and I’m surprised he wants to shake hands with me.

Nonetheless, I accept the greeting.

“Good morning uh…”

“Ethan Maxwell. You can call me Ethan.” He offers me a warm smile.

Goddess, maybe he’s pretending he didn’t see anything?

Or maybe he’s here to threaten me about telling the other employees what he saw yesterday?

Goddess, let it be the former.

“Look, about what you saw yesterday, it’s not what you—”

“I don’t judge my boss on what he does or what he doesn’t. That’s not my job, Lila, so no need to be afraid of me.”

Okay? That’s good, I guess.

Ethan continues, but this time, I notice the thick blue file in his hand. “My job, however, is to be his pack assistant. He calls me his right-hand man, but I more or less manage Alaric’s affairs with the pack. The reason I'm here is because I need a favor, Lila.”

The genuine expression on his face makes me put my own foot in my mouth before I can even hear what the favor is about.

“Sure. I’ll do anything. If I can manage it, that is.”

Ethan gives me a boyish smile. Questions of how young he is ring in my head, but I don’t dwell on them.

Whoever Alaric hires to help him maintain his pack is none of my business. And speaking of packs, does that mean Alaric got to be the Alpha of the pack he was speaking about when he accused me of distracting him six years ago?

“There’s a banquet coming up soon. The one I talked about yesterday in the boss’ office.”

I remember.

Yeah, I remember clearly what followed. Whatever favor Ethan is about to ask of me, I have a feeling I’m about to regret saying yes to him.

“It’s an important one, and appearances are of the utmost importance.

Alaric needs a plus-one, and while he told me to choose one for him, he forgot that I’m a little busy, and I also don’t think I'm fit to choose any woman for him. Can you choose one for him from this list? All the information, good and bad, about all the women is listed in the documents in the file I’m about to give you. It shouldn’t be any bother, right?”

Say no, my wolf grumbles.

I should say no, but Ethan clearly looks uncomfortable choosing a woman for Alaric.

Plus, he’s keeping it hush-hush about seeing me and Alaric kissing.

I say yes.

“It’s no bother at all.” I grit out the words, my smile barely reaching my eyes.

“Thanks, Lila. I owe you one.” Ethan hands me the blue file, walks down the hall, and enters the elevator.

The minute he’s gone, I plop down in my chair, opening the dreadful blue file.

To say there are a lot of women in it would be an understatement.

There are documents for about twenty women here—their jobs, their powerful families, and most of all, their gorgeous pictures.

One of the pictures sticks out like a sore thumb.

Amanda Brighton is one of the women supposed to be considered as Alaric’s plus-one?

Bitterness and jealousy coalesce in my blood like two angry demons. I noticed how she addressed Alaric by his first name at the meeting, and maybe I should have asked myself how close they were.

It says here that Amanda was born to one of the richest and most respected elders in the Blackwood pack. That would explain why she is on the list.

Hell, that would explain why and how all these women are on the list.

They are rich. They all look like they were born with silver spoons in their mouths.

They are gorgeous, the type of gorgeous that would have men lining up to worship at their feet.

Green envy paints my insides the more I look at all these women.

My wolf wants me to burn their pictures and not pick anyone.

The not-so-naive part of my brain reminds me that Alaric Hell broke me apart, and he’ll always be off limits, whether or not he kissed me.

But all these women? Did he kiss them too? Did he sleep with them?

Even with Amanda fucking Brighton?

Refusing to subject myself to this torture, I put on my big girl pants pick a random woman, and close the file without so much as a glance. By the time I lift my head to look at the clock on the wall, it’s already my lunch break.

Alaric hasn’t shown up to the office.

I have been picking women for that asshole, and it’s already my lunch break. Great, just great.

I put the file among the others on my desk.

I take my purse, urging myself that this would be the perfect time to catch up with my colleagues over lunch break.

My heels clack against the floor, the sound grating against my insides. Uneasiness twists in my stomach as my finger presses the cold metallic button of the elevator.

It takes about two minutes for the elevator doors to chime open and a second for me to step in.

I press the number thirty, barely aware I have company until I cock my head to the side and nearly scream my lungs out.

He’s dressed in a three-piece suit, his broad shoulders and lean waist filling it out perfectly.

My eyes lock with his blue ones. The same eyes that ooze charm when his personality is anything but charming.

His golden hair has grown out a lot, like he couldn’t care whether it still remained shiny and pristine.

His lips curl into a smile, and I move faster than he can spew his nonsense.

Unfortunately, he’s too fast for me, because he cages me against the steel walls of the elevator with both his hands on my waist.

“Let me go! Let me go right now, Julian.”

“Is this how you greet me, peaches? After six fucking years of not seeing each other?”