Page 32 of The Bookseller and the Alpha (Witch Twins #1)

Luc

I followed Billy to the elevator. YOU FUCKED IT UP! GO BACK . Beast was angry. Monumentally, incandescently angry.

Dude. Could you tone it down before you give me an aneurysm? I kept my inner voice as mild as I could make it. Feels like you’re stabbing an ice pick into my brain.

It’s no more than you deserve. Beast’s voice was a low grumble in my head. Apologise. Grovel if you have to.

Why do I need to apologise? I told you we had to take it slow . Be patient.

And how was our mate feeling when we left?

She was angry.

And hurt. For a moment I wondered if I was going insane. The Beast that I’d kept locked in my brain wasn’t only talking to me. He was giving me advice.

Beast snorted. I am you, you dipshit. My instincts are your instincts. My feelings are your feelings. You’ve just repressed the Shifter parts of you.

I put that thought aside for later. Now I needed to work out what I’d done wrong.

How I’d hurt my mate. What had I done? I replayed the scene in my head.

My cock jumped at the memory of how magnificent she’d looked in my arms. Her eyes glazed with passion, and the scent of her arousal filling the room as my hands roamed over her breasts.

I’d been about to plunge my fingers into the wet depths of her cunt.

Then Billy had knocked on the door and I’d come to my senses.

Understood how close I’d been to losing control.

I had taken her to the bedroom, detoured to the laundry to grab myself a fresh shirt then opened the door to let Billy in.

Finally, I'd dropped the bag of clothing outside the door.

Clothing I had ordered for her. Just the first gift of many that I would give her.

And then you left. You gave her no affection. You didn’t tell her she is special.

Fuck. Beast was right. I’d been so focused on keeping control that I’d shut down. And she probably thought it was her fault. I’d been an asshole.

Finally, you get it , Beast said. You’re totally fucked .

Tonight, I would explain. In person, so she couldn’t mistake my intentions. In the meantime, she would already have opened my first gift. The second would arrive in her apartment later today. She would know I was thinking of her.

***

“Boss?” Billy’s voice brought me back to my surroundings. We’d been walking across the parking garage under my building. I could see my car up ahead.

“You just stopped. I nearly walked into you.” He glanced at me quickly before turning to scan the garage for threats. He was worried, assuming that I’d seen something he hadn’t.

I’d stopped because my head was pounding from my inner battle with my Beast and I didn’t want to be here.

My chest hurt from the distance I was putting between me and my mate.

I wanted to turn around and take the elevator back to my apartment.

I fumbled for an excuse, then accepted that there was no point.

It was safest for Billy if he understood what was riling me.

“It’s the mating pull.”

Billy’s eyes were wide as he processed my statement. “Do you need to go back?”

I shook my head. “I need to find the fuckers first.”

Billy nodded in understanding. He knew my protective instincts would be pushing me hard. Demanding I remove the threat to my mate. “Want me to drive?”

“No. I’ll drive.” I needed to focus on the car. I needed something to do. To push back against my body’s demands to be with my mate.

I’d fucked up once already today and I couldn’t do anything more about that until I saw Caly again. As much as I wanted to fix my mistake, needed to fix it, my apology had to wait. There were other things that were more urgent. First, Caly needed protection.

She was safe with us in our den , Beast mumbled.

It’s not that simple, I told him.

“Before you brief me, arrange for Akira and Leylani to pick up Caly and make sure she goes home to rest. Whoever attacked her last night is still on the loose. I’ll relieve them later.

Let them know that her building’s security is being upgraded today and tradesmen will be there later to fix the damage. ”

Billy gave me the address then made the calls as I drove through the city.

Certainty settled into me as I steered the car through the traffic.

I would find whoever had hurt my mate and make them pay.

Beast retreated, not sleeping, but watchful and waiting.

Now that we were on the hunt he was less agitated.

There was still some tension in our bond, his simmering discontent that Caly was out of our reach, that we hadn’t completed our bond, but I’d acknowledged that he was right and he was feeling a little smug at the same time.

Right now he would let me do my job. If we couldn’t play with our mate, a hunt for whoever had hurt her would appease both of us.

As I drove, Billy filled me in on the newest developments in our case. There had been another burglary. This time it was in a courier’s warehouse but the MO was the same. The building was warded but the thieves had bypassed the wards and used a portal to get into the warehouse directly.

“Any idea what was taken?”

Billy shook his head. “The manager says it’s going to take them a while to sort out what’s still missing.”

“How long?”

“Days. They had thousands of parcels in there, and the place is a shambles.”

***

Fuck. Billy was right. My heart sank as I looked at the chaos that filled the warehouse. Shelves had been overturned, and parcels of all shapes and sizes thrown around the large space. The mess they’d made in Caly’s shop was nothing by comparison.

“They were disguising their tracks.” They’d known what they were looking for.

The warehouse manager, a middle-aged white man, had met us on arrival, and explained that the company kept excellent records, the database showing precisely where any of their thousands of parcels had been stored.

It had been accessed overnight although there was no way to tell which parcel the thieves had been after.

The database logged changes to a file, such as the date of arrival or departure of the parcel, but it didn’t log if a file was viewed only.

The theft would have been a quick snatch and grab once they’d found their parcel and the mess was solely to make it hard for anyone to know what they’d taken.

“It’s a needle in a haystack, boss,” Billy said.

“We’ll get there,” the manager said. The man was short and rotund but his expression was fierce. He reminded me of an English bulldog. “We will sort out the parcels. I’ve called in all our available staff to work on it.”

“Thank you,” Billy said, when I stayed quiet. “Please call as soon as you know anything.” He handed the manager a card and the man bobbed his head in agreement.

I had already turned to walk away when I noticed a camera near the ceiling. I spun around. “Security footage,” I barked. Normally I was polite and polished when talking to informants, but Beast’s agitation was wearing off on me. My manners had deserted me.

“Y...yes sir,” the manager stammered. “There’s not much to see though.”

“Send it to me,” I said, before striding away.

“Don’t take it out on the poor defenceless humans,” Billy said when he caught up to me. “That guy was just about quaking in his boots.”

“I wasn’t bullying him,” I said as I unlocked the car and climbed in.

Billy gave me a long look as if he wanted to argue the point. “Never mind,” he said eventually, his lips quirking as if he was trying to hide a smile.