James couldn’t get his anger in check. He was furious with everyone. He didn’t want to be around anyone right now. He never did. Emily made these events tolerable. But now his anger didn’t have an outlet because Emily’s reasoning for leaving was so sound, he didn’t have a right to be angry with it or her. With his mother for planning this event without consulting him and then cornering him and Emily like that in front of his guests. One guest was flirting with him at the time she said this. He couldn’t be any more embarrassed than this. His feelings bordered on humiliation. Or so he thought. The mistake with the salad by Evan was over the top and he couldn’t let it go. Now Annabelle’s gone after inciting her father into a rage. James struggled with his temper. He saw red. Desperately, he tried to throttle back his words. He desperately wanted to tell Alpha Haden that his daughter was a punishment from the bowels of hell and brought to Earth as a special sort of punishment. But he suspected Alpha Haden knew that already.
He watched Annabelle practically dive into the cupcake. Emily got a small amount of revenge on Annabelle by informing her. “Jordan had several of those made just for you. They’re in the kitchen right now. If you want to thank him, he’s working out in the gym in the basement. The basement door is in the kitchens. Just ask Natalie where the door is.” With that said, Annabelle snatched up the cupcake and flounced out of the room with a glare at Emily. Emily didn’t even receive a thank you. James assumed Emily never expected one.
His mother stood there crying, Evan shook from nerves, Alpha Haden complained angrily and made poorly veiled threats. Emily took a moment to sit in her chair and took a few deep breaths. James could see how fatigued she was, but it changed nothing. It just made this even more bittersweet for him. No, James knew the word bittersweet wasn’t correct. If he could ask Emily, he would bet she could tell him the exact word that described his feeling perfectly. But now he realized after this he wouldn’t be able to ask her anything ever again. She would no longer be there.
James watched Emily stand and whisper something to Evan, who then gathered up James’ mother and took her from the room. “The Luna needs a little time. She’ll be back soon enough. Alpha Haden, I think we may have an interesting opportunity here for you. Your daughter has found her mate in one of the pack’s enforcers. Perhaps you and Alpha James can strike a beneficial arrangement?” While she said this, James could feel her hand stroke his back secretly. Like always, her touch relaxed him in the past and his anger slowly fled.
James looked around and found Alpha Haden calming down after he understood Annabelle was happy again and gone from the dining room. He, too, followed suit and returned to his chair. Both men ate again.
“Don’t worry, Alpha Haden Annabelle with be fine. She’s within the packhouse and with Jorden, one of our enforcers. He also holds the rank of Gamma.” James could only admire how Emily directed everyone toward a satisfactory end to an event that went sour. “Please stay seated. There’s plenty of dinner still to come. Alpha James? I think you have something you’d love to discuss with Alpha Haden. I think this is a perfect time. I’ll go check on Luna Janine and Beta Evan. If you’ll excuse me.” With that, she left the room. James couldn’t help but wonder how he went on without her expert handling of situations like this? But her reasons for leaving were sound. There was no way he could be angry about that. He should be happy for his childhood friend and Beta. No, she wasn’t a beta anymore, and she didn’t want to be. That stung a lot for James emotionally. What would he do?
After James and Haden returned to their seats. The dinner went smoothly. Annabelle didn’t return, and his mother returned. When James asked her where Emily was, she sadly replied that she felt it better that she end her evening.
James hated these events, Emily and his mother knew that. He didn’t like to have so many people near him in enclosed spaces like this. Well, Emily’s presence seemed to make it easier to bear. But she’s gone, and he wasn’t sure how he’d get used to that.
Evan returned finally, and the dinner continues. Miracles never end and James comes to a deal with Haden. The visiting alpha finally ended the evening after they enjoyed a few after-dinner drinks. Papers needed signing tomorrow once they’d printed them.
Entering his apartment, James breezed past someone, setting up for his shower. Ugh, he felt too wound up still to relax with a shower. “Emily, hold up on my shower. I need to run a perimeter check. Get my things ready for that.”
James knew as soon as the last word left his mouth that he’d just called Evan Emily. He could feel Evan’s awkward response to these words. After the mess with the salad, James now called him by his predecessor’s name. After a pause, which James was sure Evan struggled with, whether he would mention something, or pretend it didn’t happen, he said. “Yes, sir. I’ll get your things together right now. Will you need a bag or not?”
James wanted to tell Evan exactly what he thought of his mistake tonight, but he also wanted to apologize to him for calling him someone else. “No bag. I only plan to run the perimeter of the territory.”
“Right away, Alpha.” Evan disappeared into James’ closet, and James gently knocked his forehead against the wall in frustrated embarrassment.
Emily was getting ready for bed. Tomorrow would be here soon, and it would be a long day. But ask she came out of the bathroom, she heard an odd sound outside her cottage. This was a more quiet section of the pack’s territory, being that it was closer to the lake house than the packhouse. Also, the time of night was off. This didn’t bode well for her peace of mind, and she went to see what it was all about. If there was a problem, the person should take it to the enforcers on duty or go to the packhouse. She worried it might be a medical emergency or a rogue attack. Both things Janine worried about when Emily moved out to this cottage alone. Emily moved to the front door and slipped off her shoes in case she needed to shift quickly to protect herself. What greeted her wasn’t a rogue wolf or a bloody accident. No, i
“You and I are going to talk now, Emily. This has been a long time coming.” “Talk about what? James, you aren’t making sense. One minute you show up at my place drunk out of your skull asking questions that make little sense. Now you’re standing there a few hours later telling me we need to talk. You started this evening barely looking at me or saying anything beyond hello. Then you take over my going away dinner with some crazy mistake you did nothing to fix but left me, too.” He didn’t bother listening to this. He guilted her to say this as she followed him back to the Lake House. “I think we’ll both need a drink to have this conversation. Come on.” He disappeared into the house, expecting her
“Hi, Evan. I’m fine. Everything is fine. I need to take a few days away from the pack. I just need to get my head on straight. You’ll need to complete the deal with Alpha Haden. Just get him to sign the paperwork and keep Annabelle from making anyone else’s lives miserable.” James disconnected his call. He’d been lucky and got Evan’s message machine. That was perfect. He wouldn’t need to answer any prying questions for now. They could leave messages on his phone. He leaned over and looked at Emily’s sleeping form in the passenger seat of his vehicle. Now he just needed to get them settled in the old packhouse and then they could finally talk about this. James wasn’t sure what he’d say yet. All he knew was that whatever he felt about her leaving, it felt wrong. It hurt
Emily woke slowly. Her eyelids were heavy and hard to keep open. Groaning, she shifted. When did she go to bed? Her blurry sight came into focus. That’s when she realized nothing was familiar. Dust clung to everything. Whoever owned this place covered the furniture in drop cloths. The air felt stale and not pleasant to breathe. Where was she? Sitting up, Emily pondered her next move. She felt like she should go back to sleep, but her brain registered that this wasn’t a safe place to sleep. She needed to get out of this building so she could breathe. Stumbling to her feet, she found the door in the gloomy room. Her feet felt sluggish and weighted. But she made it to the door to find out that it's locked. The door handle and lock were old, and she couldn’t see the key anywhere.&n
Evan entered the office looking for James and he didn’t find him anywhere. He assumed James went for a morning run to check up on things around the territory. Which, by Emily’s notes, he often checked on things first thing in the morning. Evan decided he’d start the day by recovering the phone messages and checking email. The email went easily, and he’d got all the documents printed for the day. So, he started in on the phone messages. Nice, simple, call this person back about that. Nothing important or rushed. Until he found a message from James. His voice sounded distracted. What did Evan do now? Their guests were still here. They’d not concluded their business yet. This was a disaster in the making. He tried calling Emily, but she wasn’t answering h
“James, this is insane. What did you do? Where are we?” Emily couldn’t believe he wasn’t a victim. She was the victim. James kidnapped her, but she didn’t understand why he’d done this. “What do we have to talk about that we haven’t talked about a million times? I need to get back soon because I need to close up the cottage before I leave for the airport.” “Rebecca. Never mind about closing up your cottage.” James said simply as he watched Emily and any telltale response, she might miss and betray herself true feelings with. “We’ve never talked about what happened.” He tried to approach her but hesitated. “What’s there to say? We lost many people that night. R
It stunned Emily when James’ lips came down in an insistent, no demanding kiss. Ever since he’d found Rebecca, she’d shied away from any thought of James like this. Gods, she could feel the heat of his body as he pulled her against him. He’d caught her arms between them and now his hands roamed her back for the first time. Feeling her body for the first time. With surprise on his side, she clung there, feeling him, and the inexplicable response to his kiss, his body, even his demands. Time felt like it stood still, and Emily’s mind struggled to make sense of this new turn of events. Finally, she broke the kiss and hid her face in his chest. Breathlessly, Emily demanded. “What was that? That was wrong on so many levels. No, this can’t be happening and it can’t happen again.”
Emily’s eyes popped open to see the dusty ceiling about her. What just happened? Gods, they had sex. James just blew her mind. She knew he would. That’s why she’d avoided it. Yeah, she may have known that Rebecca didn’t plan to go through mating with James. She still felt like she was betraying her friends, and she’d never tell James about the hurtful actions Rebecca would have done if she’d lived. Oh, this complicated everything. Damon expected her to be at the airport catching a redeye to Montana. He planned to meet her at the airport, and he’d take her back to his territory. Then they’d get her settled into his territory, sign the documents, and make her joining official along with their mating. She’d made agreements, promises even to do this. Emily felt grateful to have this