"I still think this is a terrible idea," Kent hisses to me when I meet him at the front door of the mansion. He looks around the rich, cavernous foyer with unease. "I'm so out of place here, N–Evelyn.""It's going to be fine," I reassure him, putting one hand on his shoulder to nudge him toward the elevators."It's going to be a total disaster," Kent grumbles, but he trudges along anyway. We are the only two in the elevator, so Kent feels free to slump miserably against th
“That wasn’t so bad,” Kent admits as we leave the Alpha’s office together and head to my own.“I told you so,” I roll my eyes, nudging him with an elbow. “But you never listen to me.”“I listen to you all the time!” Kent protests. “I just didn’t – well, I didn’t expect this, for one thing. Plus, it’s not like you exactly have a head for the drug business. You went to prison for three years on accoun
“I don’t know that it’ll be enough for the police,” Marcus says to me early that evening, after Daisy has gone to lie down for a rest and the recording is in the grim-faced Alpha’s possession. “But it’ll certainly be enough for the Werewolf Council.”We’re in Marcus’s suite of rooms at the Mansion, eating dinner from trays sent up by Mrs. Potts and sharing a rather excellent bottle of red wine from the Alpha’s personal wine cellar. A rich Merlot – I savor it as I swirl it in my glass.
Becki calls me at work the next day. She’s sobbing so loudly on the phone that I can barely understand her – she’s borderline incoherent. I swallow my impatience as best I can while I try to get some sense out of her.Why she is calling me, I have no idea. I don’t know where she got this idea that we’re such great friends. I mean, sure, I’ve had a couple of lunches with her, but come on. She hardly knows me – well, as far as she’s aware, anyway.
Marcus is sitting in his own private office. He’s should be working, he supposes. Probably combing over the family accounts with a figurative fine-tooth comb, the way he knows he has to, to try to figure out how Charles is embezzling so much money without getting caught.But he’s finding it almost impossible to focus. His thoughts are all of Evelyn, like usual these days. He’s truly never met a woman like her before.Well, that’s not quite true. There was one othe
Even though Daisy, Marcus, and I talk for nearly two hours about Daisy's recent conversation with Joel, I'm no closer to feeling any better than I did when she first came to tell us about the threats Joel made against us all.There doesn't seem to be any good way out of this, for any of us. Nowhere seems safe, except maybe the mansion itself. Marcus has reassured me over and over that the Alpha's word is still law here, and that no one will try anything while he still lives.Still, knowi
As the movie credits roll, Marcus reluctantly heaves himself up off the couch and takes the empty wine bottle to the recycling bin. I follow, yawning, with our empty wine glasses."Well, I suppose I should get back to my own rooms," Marcus says, lingering in the kitchenette. "It would be the scandal of the century if I was to be found leaving here in the morning.""You'd think werewolf etiquette would be a little more caught up in the 21st century," I say, not wanting him to go, either.
I'm in the hospital for a few days before the doctors are ready to release me. In that time, I haven't found a way to tell Marcus who I really am, even though I know deep down that Kent and Emmett are right that it's probably time.However, I just don't know how to do it. I'm so shaken by the fire, more so than I have been by any other act of violence or criminal set up by Charles and his goons so far. A psychiatrist at the hospital has come by to talk to me a few times, and has recommended counseling.
"Marcus!" I shout, tripping over the last step at the bottom of the staircase. "Ouch! Damn it, we need to get that fixed. Marcus, where are you?""I'm in here, carina," Marcus calls back. He comes out of the kitchen with a raised eyebrow. "Just making your coffee. I think I've almost got this machine figured out, I swear."I burst out laughing. "It's been five years, honey. I think if you were going to get along with that machine, it would've happened by now."
"I'm so glad you chose a December wedding, darling girl," Jeanette says to me, looking a bit misty-eyed. She steps back from the mirror we're both looking in after adjusting my veil and clasps her hands in front of her."Me, too," I breathe, lifting a hand to touch my face. Jeanette slaps it away, playfully."What are you doing?" she exclaims. "You're going to ruin all of Maya's hard work. You look stunning, my dearest. Don't smudge your foundation, I beg of you. Are you nervous? A mimos
The biggest problem with waitressing is that Becki really freaking hates it, okay?It's miserable. People are so rude to you, all the time, and your arms ache after each shift from carrying around everybody's hot plates and their stupid trays of cocktails and wine and soda and god knows what else.And nobody is ever happy, either. They ordered a Cabernet Sauvignon, but all your restaurant sells is Merlot. Well. You'd think the entire sky was falling down, the way some people car
The dinner is sumptuous, one of the most elegant dinners I've ever had, even by Alpha-family standards. It's an old-school seven course dinner, with hors d'oeuvres circulating on silver trays along with trays of champagne while the servers set up for dinner.Then comes the soup, which is a crab bisque that I could eat all night long, even if there were no other courses. I make a mental note to tell Marcus that I definitely want it served at our wedding.Next are the appetizers - a sort o
A few weeks later, I'm at the villa, poring over paint samples. Jeanette has been very generous in helping me with ideas for a massive makeover for the villa, and I'm excited to make the place really my own.Well, mine and Marcus's, of course. He comes home in the evenings from his business duties at the hotel to have a glass of wine with me and talk over options. We've discussed decorators, but for now, I think I'd like to handle most of the decisions myself."You surely don't expect to
The next morning, Marcus and I are having coffee in the villa kitchen when my phone rings again. I tense up and check the caller ID to make sure it's not my father again, and I heave a sigh of relief when I see that it's Jack Darlington."Hey, Jack," I say when I answer the phone. Marcus raises his eyebrows at me in question, and I shrug. "What's up?""What's up is that I have some fantastic news for you," Jack says at the other end of the line. There's a rush of traffic and voices in th
A week later, I'm starting to feel like I've really settled into my new life full of possibility and hope. Things are so much easier now, and not just because I don't have to hide who I am anymore.As soon as Charles was taken away by police and chucked into jail where he belongs, awaiting his trial in the human court system, it was like a black cloud of despair and tension finally lifted from over my head.It's time for me to move on, into my new life, with my new family and friends.
"Do I look all right?" I ask Marcus in our bedroom at the villa. I'm staring at myself in the mirror, smoothing my navy blue dress over my hips. "I've never been to a Werewolf Council before; I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to wear.""You look fantastic," Marcus says, coming up behind me to tug my zipper all the way to the top of my dress. "Very professional. A real Alpha's Heir wife.""Fiancee," I say with a smile. I tuck a curl - now back to its original brown - behind my ear. M
"It's terribly convenient for you, Marcus, that your paramour owns an entire villa for you to move into at the drop of a hat," Liam grumbles the next day as he helps us wheel our suitcases to the elevators. "Some of us are going to be in this bloody hotel for the next decade, if the fire department has anything to say about it.""It's not the fire department's fault that Nicole's ex-boyfriend is a psychotic arsonist," Marcus responds, shooting me a wicked little grin. I whack his arm playfully.