Rhys
It had been way too early in the morning for such an intense conversation. If it happened at a more civil hour, I wouldn't have found myself so invested. Instead, I'd done something extreme to prove myself to someone who was never going to view me in a favorable light.
What had I been thinking?
I escaped out of that stifling office and away from Calla, opting to head up to the rooftop where I could regroup. Tracing the spiraling towers of Sury with my index finger held out to the sky, I let the familiar pattern of architectural design soothe me.
My discussion with Calla had not gone to plan. I'd arrived in the morning confident that I would have the upper hand with her, and at first, I had. But her accusations penetrated deeper than expected. They should have bounced off the surface like rubber bullets. Instead, I felt like I was bleeding internally, each misdeed she'd blamed me for nicking a crucial artery.
It irked me that I cared what she thought of me. Aamon would have said it was better for her to believe me capable of bold action as long as it instilled fear in her. I could hear him now, had I told him what transpired with Calla.
"Good," he'd say. "You're the most powerful Alpha of your generation. She should feel that truth whenever she gets within one hundred feet of you."
I wanted her to feel my power, sure, but only if it was accompanied by arousal and a sense of respect—not fear. And so, I'd made the stupidest move possible: I opened myself up to her, providing a psychic link she wasn't entitled to in the hopes that she'd witness my true self. This was not only stupid but dangerous because I'd never allowed anyone besides my family this connection, and certainly not to a woman from outside my own pack.
The vulnerable position it put me in was terrifying but also...exhilarating. Not only did I open myself to her, but I also allowed her the opportunity to do the same.
That's where it should have ended. Me making my stupid mistake, and Calla rejecting my efforts. Instead, and against all odds, Calla had let me in.
Not a lot.
Not for long.
But she had.
She'd taken what I had to give her, and she'd considered it. And in that consideration, I could feel from her something almost as shocking as what I was feeling from myself: She liked it. She wanted it. Whatever I'd been experiencing, it wasn't as entirely one-sided as she made it seem.
At that moment, I wanted a hell of a lot more than her half-hearted declaration that perhaps I wasn't a homicidal monster. I wanted to open that tenuous channel I'd created—open it as wide as it would go. Then, I wanted to dive in, find the deepest, darkest recesses within her and plunge down, and I wanted her to let me, to hold me there.
I didn't ever want to come up for air.
I brought my hand down from the sky and clenched onto the clear plexiglass barrier that prevented Apex's drunken VIPs from tumbling to their deaths. This was beyond a bad idea. Calla, of all people, didn't deserve to see a side of me I rarely even showed myself. And after all that, she still hadn't fully believed in my innocence.
Anger provided much-needed clarity. I'd given her more than she'd given me. I'd extended an emotional connection to her only to have her revert to her same off-putting self.
"Fuck this." I slapped the wall. If she could keep herself in her own little emotional corner, then so could I. And what other choice did I have? I'd drown in her if I wasn't careful.
My phone buzzed and I took it out of my back pocket to find a text from Calla.
Come back so we can prep for the conference.
I scowled at my screen. She'd given me an order like I was an unpaid intern instead of an Alpha with his finger on the pulse of his company. I brushed away thoughts of what else I'd like to have my finger on and lingered at the edge of the rooftop for a few minutes without answering her text, or the next five that came in after it.
Fuck this, and fuck Calla—not literally because that would be my downfall. It was bad enough she had control over my work life; I could not give her an inch when it came to my personal existence. If that meant keeping my distance and her always assuming I was a guilty wilding shifter, then so be it.
"I thought I'd find you up here."
Her floral, honey scent floated towards me like a swarm of bees ready to attack.
God, I hated this.
"I got your litany of texts, Calla. I was on my way."
"It doesn't look like it."
I turned toward her but kept myself near the plexiglass wall. "Lots of things don't look the way they really are to you. Nothing I can do about that."
She forced her cherry red lips into a tight, glossy pucker. I focused my gaze on a potted fern to avoid being lured in by them.
"What's your problem, Alpha? We have an important press conference in less than three hours, assuming your family hasn't murdered me before three o'clock."
I widened my stance as my brain replayed the missing best friend side plot that had helped propel me to this new level of consternation. "My family doesn't know anything."
"But they will if you tell them."
"I'm the one who warned you that they couldn't find out!" And then it hit me...there was a part of Calla that feared me. I knew something that could get her killed if my family found out. It would take me all of two minutes to set in motion her demise.
"It's better if she fears you," Aamon's imagined voice whispered to me. "It's the natural order of things."
My own nature said differently, however. Her fear triggered something primal within me.
I took several long strides until I was standing in front of her. I could so easily have folded her into me, placed her head on my chest and wrapped my arms around her. The urge to reassure her, to make sure she knew she was protected, was damned near uncontrollable.
But I did control it. What would I get in return if I didn't? I hated that she was afraid of me, but I was also afraid of myself when I was around her. I stopped before I could touch her, closed my eyes so I couldn't see that bruise on her forehead, and breathed through my mouth to lessen the intoxicating effect of her scent.
"I can't make you trust me," I told her. "So, I'm done trying. Let's just try to get through the press conference without incident."
Narrowing her eyes, she placed her hands on her hips and matched my defensive stance. "Make sure your brothers don't fuck this up."
I snorted. "You're the boss. That's your job."
"As your boss, I'm ordering you to keep your brothers in check."
"What are you going to do if I don't?"
She opened her mouth and then closed it again. I had the leverage here. I could throw her to the wolves—literally—if I wished. And yet...was that really the sort of Alpha I wanted Calla to believe I was? Was I like Aamon, or did I make my own rules?
"Look, Calla, we both know things about each other we'd prefer to keep from my family. Your little investigation into Vicki's disappearance, for instance, and my..." I paused, hoping she'd finish my sentence so I wouldn't have to say it myself.
She shook her head, her narrowed eyes expressing confusion.
"My...issue with blood."
Her eyes widened. "You mean they don't know?"
"My father is the only one who does, and believe me, he would not be happy if anyone else found out."
She nodded. "So, you keep my secret, and I keep yours. Is that the agreement?"
It seemed like a fair exchange to me. We could both protect each other, but we could both do immense damage as well. "I'll even agree to tell my dipshit brothers not to be dipshits if it makes you happy."
***
Several hours later, I stood shoulder to shoulder with Calla in front of a crowd of reporters. So many cameras were aimed our way, it was hard to know which way to look. On either side of us, my brothers stood, nodding appropriately as Calla spoke.
"Some of you must be shocked to see me here with Apex pack royalty. It's certainly not where I envisioned I'd be a week ago. I want you to know, I'm here of my own volition. I have not been abducted by the enemy pack. I have, however, been offered twice my usual salary, so I think you can tell who has the upper hand." She smiled as several reporters chuckled.
Had my father really offered Calla that much money? I glanced at where he stood on stage next to Simone Bardot, but if her words riled him, he didn't let it show.
"But seriously...you may have also noticed that I'm sporting a few wounds." She touched her head. "As is the Apex Alpha."
I nodded.
"Rhys and I are already battle tested, and that's what this is shaping up to be, isn't it? I'm not talking about a battle between humans and werewolves. I'll do everything in my power to assure that peace is kept. No." She shook her head. "This is a battle for the truth. What happened the night of the full moon? Who attacked Trevor Daniels, an innocent man—a man under my pack's protection? We have all heard the rumors, and I'm here to say that at least one of those rumors is true: the culprit was indeed from Apex."
A collective gasp filled the room. While everyone knew an Apex shifter was responsible, most assumed Calla would deny it, or have some other theory to put forward.
"I told you we are in a war for the truth so that's what I'm delivering to you, unbridled and ugly as it may be. We're still investigating, but what we know so far is that an Apex wolf attacked an innocent Crown man for unknown reasons. I stand before you today, with the three Rawlings brothers by my side to declare to you that I won't stop until the perpetrator is found and held accountable. We owe that to Trevor and his family, and to all of you, the citizens of Sury, werewolves and humans alike.
"I took the position at Apex not to gloss over this incident but to bring it to light, to expose every bit of corruption there is in this powerhouse of a pack. And look—" she placed her hand on my shoulder. "Rhys Rawlings is by my side, every bit as hell bent on finding out the truth as I am. Would I be here, standing amongst these shifters if I didn't feel from them an inherent sense of justice? They want to reclaim the reputation that has been lost through the senseless act of one Apex shifter. Rhys even accompanied me to Neutral Isle to accomplish this goal. He broke open the damaged front of our vehicle to heroically save my beloved human friend who was injured when our car was struck by an IED. He risked his life for Neil, who is still alive today because of Rhys's swift action."
Damn, she was so convincing, even I, who had been with her during the events she was describing, started to believe they had played out that way. I stood a little taller.
"I'm just glad Neil is okay," I said. It was my job to bring Calla's speech home. "He's a good man. Just as the humans of Sury are good people. And I swear to you, as Apex's Alpha, that I will not rest until we root out the rot that has formed within our own pack. We are good people too. We want to carry on the vigilante justice system that has kept our city of forty-seven million souls clean for generations. We only ask that you give us the time to investigate and forgive us for not realizing that one amongst us had become deranged. I swear to you, I want what you want. My brothers want what you want." I gestured to them, and they both smiled and nodded, even though I could tell Aamon was fuming, and Liam had tuned out a while ago. On impulse, I grabbed Calla's hand and held it up with mine as the cameras clicked, delighting in the surge of energy her touch triggered.
"We'll take questions now," Calla said as the room settled. She pulled her hand away from mine and pointed to a journalist with a thinning hairline. "Yes, the gentleman in the front?"
Calla fielded several questions, explaining their investigative procedures and her responsibilities at Apex. An attractive female reporter from a men's magazine asked Aamon if the incident would injure his status as the Sexiest Shifter of the Year contestant.
"Not at all," he said, flashing everyone his easy grin. "I can't let the actions of one bad apple deprive the rest of you from seeing those shirtless pictures I took for the contest, can I?" He gave the reporter a wink.
Another reporter, a man in his thirties who I didn't recognize, asked Calla about the next full moon cycle. "What if it happens again?"
"First of all," Calla said, "We hope the guilty party is found before then. But even if that isn't the case, as you are aware, this next full moon is our quarterly Wilderness Cycle. We will be away from the city."
The reporter looked straight at her. "That will give us a taste of what it will be like."
"Excuse me?" Calla asked. "What what will be like?"
Apparently not one for journalistic neutrality, he smirked at her. Without thinking, I took a step in his direction, but Calla held me back.
"Go on," she said. "What were you saying?"
He looked up at me and my gigantic brothers and with no fear in his voice, he answered her. "We'll know what Sury is like when it's free of your kind. When you're all put down like the rabid dogs that you are."