Chapter 43

Aria

With two steaming cups of chamomile tea balanced in my arms, I reached out and knocked on the door to Darren’s office. There was a bit of a pause before he called out.

“Come in.” His voice sounded gruff and tired, like he hadn’t slept all night.

I nudged the door open with my shoulder and stepped into the room to find Darren hunched over his desk with a stack of papers in front of him, the only light that of the small lamp beside him. His jaw was clenched tightly as he worked, and he didn’t so much as glance up when I walked up to him.

Liam had warned me that he was throwing himself into his work today, no doubt an attempt to take his mind off of what had happened this morning. I guessed he was right.

“Here. I thought you might need this,” I murmured as I set one of the cups down on his desk. “You seem tense after earlier.”

Darren snorted at that, as if my observation was spot on. “Thanks,” he said, but he didn’t look up from his work.

I lingered there for a bit awkwardly for a long moment, holding my own cup of tea.

Finally, Darren glanced up from his papers, saw me standing there still, then sighed and set his pen down. He gestured to the chair across from him. “Go on. I know you have questions.”

He didn’t need to tell me twice. I sat down, burning my tongue as I took a sip of my tea. Darren watched me expectantly, and I took a deep breath to gather my thoughts before I said, “What happened earlier, exactly? With Sarah and Arthur.”

Darren sighed and leaned back in his chair, running a hand over his face. “Arthur confessed to everything. He admitted that he and Sarah conspired to put the stimulant in the dog treats.” His eyes flicked up to me, and a look of remorse passed through his gaze. “They wanted you to take the fall. They thought the incident would trace back to you and that you’d lose your job.”

I inhaled sharply, feeling a pang go through my chest. Tears pricked my eyes, and I quickly looked away.

What had I done wrong in my past life, I wondered, to warrant being treated like this?

“Sarah has been fired, effective immediately,” Darren suddenly said, causing me to look back at him in shock. “She’ll get her final paycheck, but that’s it. I’ve already blocked her access to the building and notified security.”

Hearing that made a rush of air escape me. Darren had… sided with me. Again.

It was over.

I would have jumped up and down for joy, had her little scheme not nearly resulted in people getting hurt—had it not resulted in my own injury.

“And as for Arthur?” I asked quietly. The others had seemed so shaken by the supervisor’s departure that I knew there was more to it.

The CEO’s gaze darkened. “That’s... a bit more complicated. He is a part of the pack. Different rules apply in this situation.”

He shifted slightly in his seat, and I noticed the faintest flicker of discomfort cross his face. He was in pain, although he was trying to hide it.

“I’ve sent him back to the pack lands,” he said. “He’ll serve the previous Alpha—my father—there as punishment.”

I raised an eyebrow, thinking back to my first days here and how everyone had slacked off because of their pack status. “I didn’t know that was possible.”

“In extreme cases like this, it is. Think of it as being demoted to the lowest possible rank,” he explained. “He’ll be treated like an indentured servant until he earns back the pack’s trust. My trust. Although I’m not sure when that will be.”

I chewed the inside of my cheek, considering. No wonder everyone had seemed so on edge earlier when Arthur had packed up his things. “I take it this doesn’t happen very often,” I mused.

Darren snorted again. “No. I’ve never had to do it myself, actually.” He rose, crossing to the window to look out over the cubicles below. Everyone had returned to working even more diligently than before, for fear of pissing off the Alpha more than he already was.

“Do you think they understand?” I found myself asking.

He shrugged, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his trousers. His suit jacket had been discarded and was laying over the back of an empty chair in the corner, revealing the taut muscles of his shoulders beneath his crisp white button-down. With his sleeves rolled up to the elbows, I could see that even his forearms were tight, rigid.

“They trust me not to act rashly. If I made a decision like this, then they’ll know that it wasn’t for nothing.” He turned slightly, casting me a brief glance over his shoulder. “My son could have gotten hurt if it weren’t for you. Thank you.”

“It was nothing,” I replied quickly, rising. I winced at the sudden pain shooting up my leg, causing Darren to turn fully to face me. But before he could move toward me, I held out my hand to stop him. “But you got hurt, too, didn’t you?”

Darren’s eyes widened slightly as I gestured to his leg. His slight limp this morning hadn’t been lost on me, try as he might to hide it. I wondered if anyone else noticed.

“Oh, this? It’s nothing,” Darren said quickly, but I was already moving toward him.

Before he could stop me, I bent down and pulled up the hem of his pant leg. Sure enough, there it was—clean white gauze wrapped around his calf, covering what appeared to be a wound in the exact same spot where the dog had bitten me. I knew I had seen blood on his pants yesterday.

I stared up at him with narrowed eyes. “You told me you didn’t get bitten yesterday.”

Darren’s expression softened, his eyes dropping to the floor. “I wasn’t bitten, Aria.”

My brow furrowed. “Then how…?”

“It’s the mate bond,” Darren sighed, moving to his desk and sinking back down into his chair. “When you were injured, my body mirrored the wound. And because you’re human, with no accelerated rate of healing…”

“You’re stuck healing at my rate,” I finished, suddenly feeling more guilty than I cared to admit. “That’s why it would be bad for a werewolf to be mated to a human. I’d just… slow you down.”

“Hey.” Darren’s hand found mine, his touch startlingly gentle. “Don’t blame yourself for this. It’s not your fault.”

I tried to pull away, but something flickered in his eyes—something deep and primal. His eyes glowed faintly, just for a second, just as they had when we’d been in the tent together.

And then, before I could process what was happening, he lifted my hand to his lips and pressed a soft kiss against my knuckles.

Heat flared in my chest, rushing up to my cheeks as I jerked my hand back. “You need to stop doing that,” I muttered, honestly feeling more flustered than I wanted to admit.

Darren blinked, his eyes returning to their usual color as his brows drew together. “What?”

“Kissing me randomly,” I said, crossing my arms defensively across my chest. “If you’re not planning on taking things any further between us, then you need to stop. I’m confused enough as it is.”

A faint flush crept up Darren’s neck as he looked away. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “It’s just the mate bond. Sometimes my wolf… it’s nothing more than instinct, I assure you. I’ll keep it under control from now on.”

The words stung more than I expected them to. Nothing more than instinct. Which meant, in plainer words, that he didn’t really have any interest in kissing me.

I swallowed hard, trying to push down the disappointment that had begun to rise up in my throat.

“I think…” I cleared my throat. “After everything that happened with Sarah, I’d rather spend the day with Lucas than sit here in the office. If that’s okay with you.”

Darren nodded, relief flickering through his eyes at the change of topic. “Of course. Help yourself to whatever you need in the apartment upstairs. Lucas would probably love the company after yesterday.”

“Thanks,” I managed, already turning toward the door.

Truthfully, I just needed to get away before I said or did something that might embarrass myself; because, although I didn’t have a wolf inside of me like Darren, there was an instinctual part of me that wanted to kiss him back.

But I couldn’t.