Chapter 2

Cordelia's POV

"What is it, Captain?" The officer next to him leaned in for a look, then sucked in a breath of his own.

On the screen, my status field spelled it out plain and simple: Wolfless. No mate.

"See it now?" I shrugged. "I never woke a wolf when I came of age. So where would I get a mate from? Kind of ridiculous, right?"

All the color drained out of Daisy's face. She clearly hadn't known.

At work, I'd made director on nothing but top-tier alchemy skills. Everyone figured I just wasn't the type to show off. Nobody would've guessed I never woke a wolf.

"No... that's not possible!" Daisy shot to her feet. "Even without a mate, you're keeping some man on the side! I've seen him from behind, right there in your apartment! Captain, pull the cameras! Check her building! That man left her place tonight, I know it!"

Wayne snapped out of it, gave me a long look, then turned to bark an order at his officers. "Pull the footage. Outside her building and the scene."

The officers scrambled, and a whole wall of screens lit up.

Daisy fixed her eyes on one of the screens, unblinking.

Wayne pulled up the entrance camera for my building, set to eight o'clock tonight.

He fast-forwarded. At 8:15, a tall figure walked out the front door. A man in a black coat, six-three, broad-shouldered, long legs. The camera never caught his face straight on, but even from a blurred side angle, you could tell his jawline was flawless.

He had a shopping bag in one hand and walked out of frame at an easy pace.

"Stop! That's him!" Daisy shrieked, her finger shaking as she pointed at the screen. "That's the guy! Cordelia, still gonna tell me you're not hiding a man? He walked out of your building and went straight to the Rosewood Avenue Grand Hotel parking garage!"

Wayne switched over to the street cameras near the hotel. Sure enough, around 8:40, the same tall figure showed up outside the hotel, then disappeared into the stairwell that led down to the garage.

"You see that? Time, location, it all lines up!" Daisy's face had gone flush with excitement. She turned to look at me. "Cordelia, what do you have to say for yourself now?"

I stood in the corner of the surveillance room, arms crossed, watching that familiar figure on the screen. In my head, I'd already put most of the pieces together.

So that's the game.

"Captain Wayne," Daisy said, already sounding like she'd won, "the facts are right there. Cordelia covered for this man and sent him after me. She owes me for all of it."

Wayne's expression darkened as he looked at me.

"Ms. Cordelia, anything you want to explain? If you can't produce this man, we're taking you into custody."

"Explain?" I let out a short laugh. "I've got nothing to explain."

Daisy's eyes lit up the second she heard that.

She hurried over and dropped her voice so only I could hear. "Cordelia, I don't actually want to take this all the way. Sign the Micro Convergence Matrix patent over to me, free and clear, and announce your resignation at tomorrow's board meeting. Recommend me to take your place. Do that, and I'll drop the charges. Tell everyone it was all a misunderstanding."

There it was. The real reason, finally out in the open.

I looked at that face, the one that used to flatter me nonstop and call me mentor every other sentence, and my stomach turned.

She wasn't just after my reputation. She wanted everything I'd bled over for years.

"Daisy," I said, flat. "If you want my patent, go earn it. Beat me fair and square in engineering. Isn't this a little beneath you?"

"Beneath me? What are you even talking about!" Daisy flinched like I'd hit a nerve, took two steps back, and pointed at me. "Captain Wayne, look at her, still trying to talk her way out of it! The footage is right there! That man was at the scene!"

I rubbed my temple. "He was there. But there's no way I can hand him over to you as a rapist."

Wayne blinked. "Why not?"

I let out a breath. "Because he's not alive."