Chapter 5

Elowen’s face crumpled as though hit by a brick.

But instead of panicking, she remained on the ground, one hand wrapped around her arm while more tears streamed down her face.

“I sustained a cut. Why would I deliberately hurt myself?” She sobbed.

I sighed and glanced down at the scissors on the medical tray. After silently examining it, I raised my gaze.

“The scissors are still in the same spot. If I had been the one who hurt her, wouldn’t it be in my hand? Wouldn’t the camera have captured it as I dropped it back?” I said, and the color drained from Elowen’s face.

I reached into the kit and pulled out a sterile gauze.

“If you are still in pain, get a stitch before you leave,” I handed the gauze to a nearby healer. “And move from the emergency route.”

Her eyes widened in shame.

As I looked away from her, a man’s amused voice came from behind me.

“Some things never change, does it?”

I snapped around.

Xander Beckett stood there, dressed in the dark uniform of the pack’s rehabilitation center.

He was the center’s director and one of the independent experts reviewing our medical research.

“Oh my goodness, it’s you, Xander.” I couldn’t help but smile.

“Hi, Layla.” He replied, returning the smile.

Realization dawned on Theodore, who immediately stepped forward to side hug him. “I heard a great deal about you, Mr. Beckett.”

Xander hugged him back. “Hopefully nothing too terrible.”

Theodore laughed, pulling back.

Whereas Xander glanced toward the clinic entrance.

“Alpha Theodore, this place is nice but you’ve got two gaps in the floor coverings. It should be fixed or someone could get hurt.”

“Right, I’ll take care of it immediately.” Theodore called one of the event coordinators over and began giving instructions.

Xander concentrated back on me. “Make sure you show up to our gathering later today.”

I nodded at once. “I will.”

Theodore stopped speaking. “What meeting?”

“You didn’t know?” Xander looked at him.

When Theodore nodded, Xander seemed genuinely taken aback.

“Actually, Ms. Layla here designed a training facility for healers and it made it to the finals. So her team will be presenting the next stage of the project this afternoon.”

Theodore faced me. His expression was almost comical.

It was as though he’d just discovered an entirely different side of the woman he’d spent years living with.

Elowen, still sitting on the ground, looked between us.

“Layla,” Her voice was careful. “How come you never told the Alpha about something so important?”

“He didn’t want to know.” I said simply and walked away with my kit, leaving Theodore’s lips to part uselessly in his spot.

~*~

My duty at the clinic was almost over when Theodore walked up to me.

“Why did you never think to tell me about the project?”

“I’m sure I did.” I replied flatly, and continued packing my equipment.

His brows pulled together. “When was that?”

That made me straighten up.

“You don’t remember the week you told your secretary to go over your presentation for the pack?”

Now that I’d jogged his memory, the realization was clear on his face. “Right, you said you needed to work on something.” He murmured more to himself than me.

That week, I vividly remember that I told him I had to round up my project submission.

I’d been working on the final research materials for weeks, and the deadline was approaching.

But Theodore had barely glanced at me before pushing his presentation toward me. “Write out my speech before anything else. Yours are medical documents and can’t be that urgent.”

I spent days fixing his presentation. He drove around the pack and drank without a care while I barely slept a wink.

Only after I was through with helping him did I finish my project and submit.

“Oh my goodness. I thought it was just some minor task, Layla.” He said apologetically, and palmed his face in guilt.

Unmoved, I merely sneered. “That’s more reason why you don’t need to know about it now either.”

With that, I took off my coat, draped it around my arm and started walking away.

I heard him utter my name but I didn’t stop. Then Elowen’s voice cut through the air.

“Alpha Theodore,” She purred, her voice wobbly. “I’m afraid the cut is starting to bleed.”

I glanced back. Theodore hadn’t moved. He stood there watching me leave.

Elowen noticed it and something passed across her face.

I kept walking. It was nothing serious yet but ever since they’d been glued to the hip, that little change was more than adequate to put Elowen on edge for the first time.

~~

I was in the inn preparing myself dinner when my phone pinged. I checked and saw the bloodhounds had sent me photographs of the packhouse.

I opened them one by one.

The place had been stripped almost bare. The bed was gone.

The bookshelf was gone too. The dishwasher had been removed. Even the air conditioner was gone.

The walls were marked with little holes where our pictures and shelves had once been.

The floor had scratches from where the furniture had been dragged out.

Now, the packhouse looked less like a home and more like a wrecked building.

My phone buzzed in my hand again.

I clicked on it.

It was Theodore. He had snapped the pictures of the pack house and forwarded them to me.

His message followed, “Why do you have to tear our home apart like this?”

My jaw ticked as I stared at the word ‘our’.

Then I typed my reply. “That’s actually your pack house. It stopped being mine.”

I sent it, rendering him totally speechless on the other end of the phone.