Page 28

28

Jax

I didn’t even make it past the security desk before Seth whistled low. “You are some kinda down bad, bud.”

Yeah, okay, so maybe I’d come into work with my tail between my legs that morning. The day before, Dakota had been... off.

Not entirely wrong. He still smiled at me, was still happy to lean against my arm when we were alone. But there was a wall there, something I couldn’t quite explain but felt nonetheless.

It was like he’d finally listened to me, knew how much of a disaster we’d be to each other.

And I was starting to regret pushing that knowledge on him at all. Was it really so bad to fight down my instincts if he was safe and happy and mine?

I let out a slow breath that hissed between my teeth and turned on Seth. “That obvious?”

“Painfully obvious,” Seth said with a grimace. “Are you holding up okay?”

Knowing anybody else could see the cracks in me would’ve been a hard pill to swallow, but only Jillian knew me better than Seth. The biggest difference was my sister knew when to give me space. Seth was always pushing, but out of kindness. Nobody could fault him for it.

“I’ll be better after we get this deal with Igarashi finalized.”

Seth arched a brow. “I meant with Dakota. He pack?”

My mouth opened before I thought it through. No, he wasn’t pack.

But everything in me fought against saying so. To me, he was. He was ours .

I sighed, and Seth grimaced sympathetically.

“I mean,” he said, “he works here. He’s one of us. That’s enough.”

My smile wobbled onto my face. Sure, it was enough, but it wasn’t even half of what I wanted.

“Will you let me know if I start tilting?” I asked. The last thing our pack needed was for my distraction to get us in a bad spot.

Seth nodded. “Always. And Dakota—he’s not... overwhelmed?”

I shrugged. “He’s handling everything better than I would, and Prudence is keeping an eye on him. She’s not going to let him fall apart.”

He waved a hand, dismissing the very idea. “She wouldn’t. I was just... did he say anything? After karaoke night.”

That brought me up short. “About what?”

A grimace twisted Seth’s features. He was worried he was about to get in trouble.

“Seth, what is it?” My voice turned lower, more serious. Alpha voice.

“Maia suggested I, uh—” Seth looked away sheepishly. That wasn’t like him. He’d been my best friend long before we’d ever come to the city. He was my second in the fight that’d freed us from the sharp heel of our last alpha.

We didn’t shrink away from each other.

“Well, she thought it was weird, how that guy showed up out of nowhere. And you smelled Dakota—he wasn’t exactly pleased to see his friend .”

“Her instinct said something was off.” We were wolves. We were less likely to tell ourselves to check our gut reactions than humans.

And I trusted my pack. Had to, if I expected them to trust me.

Seth nodded. “She suggested I have someone look into him, and?—”

He opened something on his computer and jerked his head in invitation, so I came to stand behind his shoulder while he read the email.

Donnie was on Igarashi’s payroll.

He was enormously on Igarashi’s payroll, by the looks of it, bringing in six figures consistently for the past five years, starting when he was a freshman in college.

That was longer than we’d been working on this deal with Igarashi. And Dakota?

“Do you think Dakota knows?” I asked Seth, doubt already rolling through my stomach.

Strangely enough, it wasn’t doubt about Dakota. More, I was worried he’d gotten into a situation he hadn’t realized he was in.

Seth scrolled down through the financial records, frowning. “Looks like Dakota pays the lion’s share of the rent. Hard to imagine he’d be okay with that if he knew Donnie was stacking this kind of cash. I...” Seth folded his hands on his stomach and leaned back in his chair to look up at me. “I don’t think this has anything to do with our deal.”

“But then... what the fuck does it have to do with?” I scowled. What interest did Igarashi have in Dakota’s roommate?

Igarashi Minori hadn’t seemed particularly strange to me the night before. She’d been pleasant, open, and decent, even in a room mostly full of werewolves.

When she’d shown up in the office, I hadn’t expected that.

But had she reacted strangely to seeing Donnie? I’d been so wrapped up in Dakota’s reaction to him that I hadn’t much thought of it, but if she knew what was going on, I’d damn well have answers.

Dakota deserved them too.