Chapter 21

(Santiago’s POV)

The private investigator called with more incriminating evidence against Jesse. I need to find Isabella at once to go over this. It’s worse than we thought, and she might be in very real danger out in the open.

I go to her room. It’s empty. The millisecond I crack open the door, her scent of lilac hits my senses like fresh rain.

My wolf all but coos. I take a deep breath and instantly feel like I’ve had chamomile tea.

This reaction doesn’t make any sense.

“Maybe she’s our actual second chance, idiot,” my wolf growls in my ears.

“No way in hell,” I respond back.

There’s a freshly used towel on the bed, indicating she clearly took a shower before she left.

“We missed out on her last night, and we missed a shower with her today,” my wolf grumbles in my mind. “I hate you. I may never speak to you again.”

“For the love of the Moon Goddess, please shut up,” I tell him.

The dress I bought her for dinner is carefully hung on a hanger on the back of the closet door. I close my eyes and sniff the air in an attempt to sense if she’s in the territory with no success.

I can only assume she’s gone home. She wouldn’t have returned to her pack house and certainly not Jesse’s.

For reasons I can’t explain, the thought of her being near Jesse brings my heart to a level of homicidal rage that scares even me. Arianna. I’ll check there.

Arianna opens the door and stares at me, like a starstruck teenager. To her credit, she is cute in a pixie sort of way. I can see why Isabella enjoys her company.

“Alpha Santiago!” she says cheerfully. “What an unexpected surprise. Would you like to come in?”

“Is Isabella here?” I ask.

“No, she called this morning and said something about going by the pack hospital to pick up something that might help her with the case.”

My hand palms over my face. Of course, I left that evidence for her to find this morning. Knowing what I know now, I need to make sure she is safe. If Jesse finds out what she knows, it could force his hand. Moon Goddess, he could kill her.

I feel my heart rate increase as it thuds loudly in my throat. My hands sweat and fingers itch at the thought of what could happen to her.

“Thank you, Arianna. Perhaps another time. I need to find Bella now. Bye.”

Isabella’s scent remains present at the hospital, albeit faintly. I follow the lingering aroma to the neutral territory between Crimson Claw and Caladrius Moon territories. I tilt my head backward, sniff the air, and pick her up at the café between the two.

I no sooner turn the corner when I see them. Isabella, my Isabella, is eating a meal with Jesse. Why did I think mine in reference to her? This is a contractual mate situation. No Fucking emotions. Must be my wolf hijacking my emotions.

My wolf and I growl in unison, and the other patrons submit instinctively. Isabella turns around and locks her chocolate brown gaze on mine.

My heart pounds within my chest so loudly that I feel it in my throat and hear it in my ears, as if a bass drum were playing, keeping time to the beat of my anger.

Sweat begins building and slides down my flushed, snarling face.

“This is called jealousy, asshole,” my wolf says.

“No. It's called anger at breach of contract. Now shut up.” I reply in kind.

“He touched her,” my wolf growls. He claws in my mind and at my rib cage, begging to shift. His fangs drip drool. They ache to rip into Jesse’s flesh.

“Come here now,” I tell Isabella.

Immediately, she put her bag on her shoulder and left that prick sitting alone.

Knowing Jesse was watching, I grab her and kiss her with passion I didn’t know I had. The second her soft lips touch mine, electricity jolts through me.

I pull her tight body to mine and hold her there with one arm. My other hand runs the length of her curves from her waist to the back of her head, where I cradle her and allow the kiss to deepen and last longer than it should.

I pull back from her, leaving her breathless. “We go…now,” I say.

She simply nods.

Once we reach my car, I grab her arm and spin her to face me, pressing her up against the door.

“What the hell do you think you are doing having a meal with him?”

My chest aches for reasons I can’t fathom. My wolf keeps saying it's because she is our second chance. No. This is not an emotional connection. I am not jealous. She is betraying our contract. I won’t be made a fool of a second time.

“You and I have a contract. Being with him while contractually bound to me is betrayal…I mean breach of our legal agreement.”

She cocks her head, studying me like she's looking through the lens of a microscope.

Her hand finds its way to my hair. She runs her fingers through it, then trails them along the lines of my tattoos down my neck to my bicep.

“It's not what you think, Santiago,” she says. “I ran into him at the hotel after I collected the evidence you left me the note about.”

“So naturally, you needed to eat a meal with him?” I ask incredulously with a raised eyebrow.

“No. He said he wanted to discuss giving my pack back to me and splitting our assets. I was about to leave when you showed up. He was clearly trying to trick me again, and he damn near got a good start on it. And for the record, I won’t ever betray you…or commit a breach of our contract.”

My wolf lies down at her touch in my mind, then rolls over on his back, showing his stomach – an act of ultimate trust inside my mind. “I love her,” he says.

“No, you don’t. She calms us for some reason. It’s unexplainable, but she is not our second chance or our mate. So shut up already,” I return to him in my mind.

I lean around her and open the passenger side door. “Get in.”

“Where are we going?” she asks.

“We need to talk in private. My place.”

After returning to the pack house, I tell Levi that we are not to be bothered and put him in charge of all pack business. Then I take Isabella into my study.

She sits down on my couch and crosses her legs. Her hair is down, parted down the middle, and straightened, framing her face in cascading layers.

My eyes graze over her reflexively, without my consent. Without a stitch of cosmetics, she, her skin…eyes…lips are perfect. If she was a picture, I’d assume she was photoshopped.

I don’t know how, but in her wide-leg jeans, sneakers, and black spaghetti-strap shirt with one strap refusing to stay in place at the shoulder, she looks sexier than she did in the fancy dress I bought her.

I suppress a growl that builds within me. My wolf howls, begging to touch her. She is a contract…temporary…nothing more.

“Alright, what is it you’ve found out, Santiago?” she asks pulling me out of my thoughts.

I sit down in the arm chair in front of her, look her deadpan in those gorgeous doe eyes of hers, “You cannot trust Jesse, certainly not Layla, or at this time anyone, except for maybe Arianna in your combined pack.”

Her eyes widen at my words. “I…I don’t understand.”

“Isabella, your toxicology report did confirm your suspicions of being drugged and also, as you suspected, aphrodisiacs were at play.”

“Well, we expected that. He wanted me loose and horny so I’d hook up with someone and he could accuse me of infidelity.”

I try but fail to suppress a growl when she speaks of hooking up with someone.

She startles.

“I’m sorry. It wasn’t just aphrodisiac. Spanish Fly was included and mixed with Wolfsbane and the date rape drug, GHB.”

Her eyes go wide, and her hands spring up to cover her mouth.

“He set you up to be raped, but adding the Wolfsbane…Bella, that combination could have killed you. The investigator believes he may be capable of kidnapping and murder. We have a meeting scheduled to go over it more in depth.”