Alessia Stocklin and Ezra Withers are polar opposites, but they can certainly agree on one thing: their mutual hate for each other.
He's an Alpha deadset on killing every rogue he comes across, while she's a vigilante - known as Nightshade - intent...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Much to my delighted surprise, Ezra did not bother me at all the next day. Apparently — according to Apollo — Alpha Byron wasted no time in ambushing Ezra in the early morning hours, pleading for the two of them to start off the day with a one-on-one training session. Apollo claimed Alpha Byron would not let Ezra out of his sight, taking his extended stay as a sign of a budding friendship.
I did not blame Alpha Byron for his overjoyed and slightly misplaced reaction. Alpha Ezra could be just the thing he needed to take our pack to bigger and better places. Alpha Ezra's connections could be the aid the pack needed to rebuild itself to its former Meridian glory. By getting on Ezra's good side, our pack might be able to build up a reputation among other packs, as well. It would likely have a ripple effect in the Werewolf community.
I had my suspicions Ezra was aware of how one-sided their relationship was (if you could even call it a relationship). Sure, Ezra agreed to a stronger alliance between the two packs, but his goal in doing so was to get to the bottom of my identity, not to grow closer to Alpha Byron which was why I was still trying to deduce why Ezra was giving Byron the light of day.
In the meantime, while Ezra had not made an appearance since our last encounter, Apollo was another story. He acknowledged my mysterious disappearance. I had to calmly explain I picked up Cooper's shift, but Apollo was not pleased with that explanation. He remarked it was quite peculiar of me to pick up a shift without having mentioned anything to him prior.
Apollo was not in charge of me, but he liked to be left in the loop. Usually, I had no problem with that. I mean, if he had really wanted to find out what I was up to before, he didn't have to exert any special detective skills for someone in the pack to cough up my location — even Link was not safe from Apollo's interrogations. However, once I became Nightshade, things changed. I still hadn't managed to find a way to tell Apollo about my secret identity without him getting irrationally enraged.
"I don't believe you," Apollo said, blinking slowly.
"I've told you a million times I was simply doing something nice for Cooper," I groaned, throwing my head back.
"But you've never been close to Cooper before. Do you," his voice grew soft. "Do you like Cooper? All I'm saying is I find it odd that both you and Cooper weren't at the party yesterday."
"No," I retorted in nervous laughter. "I do not have a crush on Cooper. Trust me."
"I am on to you, Alessia," he looked me in the eyes; staring into Apollo's dark brown eyes was like staring into a carbon copy of my own eyes. "I know you're keeping something from me, and I might just have to interrogate Cooper to find out what you're hiding."
I rolled my eyes. Apollo was convinced I was sneaking off to meet with Cooper. Of course, I told him this was not the case, but he refused to believe me.
"Good luck with that," I patted Apollo on the back.
To keep up with my side of the bargain, I stayed true to my word and picked up Cooper's night shift. The shift was sooner than I anticipated, but I dawned on my freshly washed Enforcer uniform and headed straight to work. Upon entering the Enforcer Bay, Yuri assigned me my post, which just so happened to be the same position as yesterday.
