*Keera*
I had to leave.
Seeing him standing there completely naked with a towel in his hands had been too much and there was only so much I could take. I couldn’t let him try to clean me up. It was too intimate, something people in relationships did. The problem? Grayson and I were not in a relationship. I was still a little breathless as I stepped into my room, trying not to wince with how sore I was. I secured my room door, slumping against it. My entire body relaxed. I was alone now.
And I could finally gather my thoughts.
I took further steps until I was face to face with the dressing mirror. The woman in the mirror looked utterly and thoroughly fucked. There was no other way to put it. My hair was a disheveled mess, the light makeup I applied before heading out had smeared and my dress was crumpled. I touched my fingers to my lips noting how swollen they were from Grayson’s onslaught of kisses. He liked kissing me.
A lot.
A shiver swept through me as images of Grayson moving above me swamped my brain. I gripped the table tightly, trying to gain my bearings and not panic. I’d lost my virginity tonight. To Grayson. To a werewolf. Not just any werewolf, an Alpha. Ginny’s twin. I stared at my reflection in the mirror and admitted what I was really scared about. I didn’t regret it. If I could go back in time, I would still ask him to fuck me. And that scared the shit out of me because it was out of character for me. We’d crossed a line we shouldn’t have. I was supposed to regret sleeping with him.
Why didn’t I?
A part of me had expected him to come chasing me after I left but he hadn’t. And I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Deciding to sort my thoughts out later, I got into the bathroom and had a nice long shower, scrubbing every inch of my body until I felt clean. I pulled the covers of my bed off and got beneath them. I made a mental note to ask how things went with getting the cameras. Seconds later, I was fast asleep.
And my dreams were only of him.
***
The next morning we were on our way to meet with Trevor. I’d stalled in my room on purpose so he wouldn’t have the chance to talk to me about last night. I met him downstairs when we were already running late, ignoring the look he gave me. We got into the cab that he’d called to come pick us up, the entire luggage we’d come to town with sitting in the boot of the car. I gazed out the window, feeling Grayson’s gaze burning the side of my face.
From the corner of my eyes, I saw his fist clench in the small space between us. “You’re not being fair right now Keera,” He said quietly. I turned my head slightly but I still didn’t meet his eyes. It was all too much. “You don’t get to come to my room, ask me to fuck you, and then practically run away and choose to act like nothing had happened.” My breath hitched from the bluntness of his statement, knowing he was completely right. It was extremely selfish of me, acting the way I was.
It didn’t matter if I needed time to clear my head.
It was wrong acting like it has never happened.
I sighed, finally meeting his eyes for the first time after I’d left his room last night. His guard was up, his emotions secured so tightly I couldn’t guess what he was thinking or feeling. I cursed myself silently. It was my fault he’d gone back to putting his emotions on a leash and keeping a stoic expression. He hadn’t been that way with me last night. My thighs clenched in response to the memories flooding me. He’d been anything but like that.
Grayson could tell where my head was at because his eyes darkened and his gaze fell to my lap. I felt my face heat up. At least now he would have no doubts how I felt about what we’d done. “You’re right,” I admitted softly. “It’s not fair for me to act like last night had never happened when in fact I’d been the one to initiate it.” I slanted a glance at the cab driver for good measure. We were talking quietly but there was no way of telling whether or not he could hear us.
Not that it really mattered.
What would he do with the information anyway?
Grayson nodded, letting me know he agreed with what I’d said. Which was the fact that I was being unfair with the way I was acting. “I’m sorry,” I apologized. “Maybe we can talk about it when we get back?” I offered, lifting an eyebrow expectantly. Talking about it in town was out of the question, mostly because we didn’t even have the time. After retrieving the cameras from Trevor, we were going to be on our way back to the pack.
Trevor was waiting for us in his office by the time we got there. There was a large sealed carton on his desk with images of CCTV cameras on it. He shook hands with Grayson and pulled me into a side hug in greeting. I pretended not to notice the dark look that flashed across Grayson’s face. We were going to have to talk about him keeping his expression in check whenever I was around other men. Unless we wanted to get caught. I smiled at Trevor, barely listening to a word he said.
I’d already admitted to myself what I’d known all along.
That last night wouldn’t be the last time we slept together.
Trevor touched my elbow lightly. “I’d like to talk to you privately.” He said loud enough for Grayson to hear. My eyes lifted to lock with Grayson’s even as my lips moved to let Trevor know it was okay. He gently steered me towards the door. His forehead was creased as he searched my gaze. My heart pounded harshly in my chest. It was so fierce that I saw Grayson shoot me a concerned look. I subtly released myself from Trevor’s hold.
Did he know?
I cleared my throat, giving him a look of concern. “Is everything alright?” His face brightened a little bit as he leaned to push my hair away from my face. I barely stopped myself from taking an instinctive step back. The gesture was something Trevor did every now and then but it had never felt uncomfortable. Until now. I wasn’t sure what made it uncomfortable now. Knowing that Grayson was still in the room and watching us, or my recent suspicions about him having romantic feelings towards me.
I need to talk to Trevor.
But this was the wrong place and time.
He gave me a small smile and I wondered if he was acting like he didn’t notice I was uncomfortable or if he truly didn’t know. “Everything’s fine.” He finally answered. “I just wanted to make sure you were doing alright over there.” Over there being the pack grounds. He lowered his voice to a whisper. “I know how much you loathe werewolves.” If Grayson’s stiffening was any indication, he obviously caught Trevor’s word with his advanced hearing abilities.
Great.
I wasn’t ready to start explaining to my boss that it was possible I was having a change of heart concerning them. I made a noncommittal sound at the back of my throat, giving him a small nod. “Everything’s okay. I just hope we can catch the killer as soon as possible.” I said. He leaned away from me, brushing invisible dirt off his jacket. Turning and partly giving me his back he flashed Grayson a small smile, staring down at the rolex sitting nicely on his wrist.
“I guess it’s time for you guys to head back,” He said to Grayson. Trevor picked up his phone and asked his secretary to ask someone to come get the cameras downstairs for us. He gave Grayson a handshake, pulling me into a side hug as we said our goodbyes and left his office. The cameras were carefully placed in the boot of the cab we took back to the hotel. I was surprised Grayson didn’t say a word about how Trevor had acted and my mixed feelings confused me.
Did I or did I not want him to be indifferent whenever I was with other guys?
I had to pick one.
I told myself he was probably just leaving it for when we finally had the long awaited talk. “Where exactly are you guys thinking of setting it?” He asked, one hand on the steering wheel and the other rubbing his five o’clock shadow. He angled his head and slanted a brief glance at me. I mulled his question over. Actually, we hadn’t thought far. We’d all been more concerned about getting him to agree first. I released a small sigh from my mouth, picking up my tap from where it lay carefully on the dashboard.
“Obviously it’s going to be some place no one would notice,” I responded, tucking my red waves to the back of my ear. “Someplace with very good coverage, where people frequent often.” I added as an afterthought. Setting the cameras in places that matched my description would be tough. For one, if they were frequented often it meant we would have a hard time making sure no one saw us while we worked.
Plus, we had to fix it in at most pairs of two. We couldn’t draw any attention to ourselves.
I tried to not get too excited. We were finally going to get somewhere with the case, I could feel it. Then again, I remembered a couple of things I’d believed I’d felt so strongly and how they had still turned out to be dead ends. Grayson must have noticed the look on my face because he turned and asked what was wrong. I shrugged my shoulders, Ria’s harsh words coming back to me.
“I really want us to catch the killer,” I stated. “I hate that we’re not getting anywhere and that people are… dying,” Even I could hear the concern in my voice. How many more deaths until our methods worked. Five? Ten? Ria was actually right even if she’d doled out her message the harshest way she could. It didn’t matter the effort we were putting in. What really mattered was the result. Just the thought of going back to be stuck in one place irked the hell out of me.
What were we missing?
The victims had been injected in their neck before they died. Whatever they had been injected with was most likely the cause of death since we’d already canceled our other possibilities. There were no signs of a fight, no signs of strangulation, drowning, food poisoning, you name it. They’d had to have been injected with some kind of poison. Only that we’d checked every poison in the book and none of the symptoms had matched with those of the victims; which had been an almost instant total damage of the organs.
Something that deadly should have been written in the book.
Unless…
I took noticed of the way Grayson was staring at me. Like he was trying to figure something out. “What?” I asked a little consciously. He shook his head slowly from side to side.
“Nothing,” He said. “It’s just that a few weeks ago you weren’t as really… interested in the case as you seem now.” What did that even mean? I thought silently even though I knew exactly what it meant. I was getting soft around them. These creatures I had sworn never to have anything to do with. I was actually beginning to feel some kind of weird misplaced attachment to them. Grayson waited for me to respond to him but I honestly didn’t know what to say.
Just when I parted my lips to say something, anything, a loud thud sounded from the windscreen of the car, startling us. We both turned, my mouth falling open when I caught sight of the ferocious animal right on top of the car. A chill crept up my spine at the sound of a second thud on the roof of the car, realization dawning on us.
We were getting attacked.