“But I thought you—” He turned completely this time, shoulders straining his gray T-shirt. A galaxy of stains speckled the cotton: glue smears, white paint, grease stains. “Whynot?”
I felt both my eyebrows slant on my forehead. “You clearly didn’t want to show it to me,August.”
He loosed an exasperated sigh. “Ness. . . ”
I tapped on my phone to seem busy. He grumbled something. Because I couldn’t leave well enough alone, I flung my gaze back onto him. “Did I dosomething?”
His jaw ticked. “I don’t know. Did you?” His voice was so low that I wondered if I heard himcorrectly.
“Youaremad atme!”
He just stood there, brooding and silent, cloaked in darkness,oozingdarkness. He’d been mad at me before I came in to work, so whatever I’ddonehappened before today. But the last time we’d seen each other was at the hospital and—Oh. . .
Heat coursed through me as quick as the current in the Colorado River during snowmelt. Was August Wattjealous?
“Liam asked me when I was leaving,” he finally said. “I’ll get out of this goddamn place when I’m ready, not when someone tells me to,understood?”
My mouth fell open.Notjealousy.
My navel pulsed as though August’s anger had somehow yanked on the tether between us. And then my heart began to pulsate in time with it. As fast as it had flooded me, the strange heat receded. I was mortified to have believed himjealous.
The darkness beyond August suddenly turned brighter, noisier. A van sped down the road, kicking up a pale cloud of dust. I kept my gaze locked on the approaching car because if I looked at August, I would either yell at him for thinking I was somehow complicit in trying to get him to leave Boulder, or I would start crying. I wasn’t sure which wasworse.
As I stalked toward the van, I tossed out over my shoulder, “I’ll tell him to stop harassingyou.”
Had August concluded that Liam and I were a couple again after seeing us together in the hospital room or had Liam impliedsomething?
As I took a seat next to Jeb and answered his questions about how my day had gone, I typed out a lengthy diatribe to Liam. In the end, I deleted all of it, sensing our Alpha would take it out onAugust.
So I simply sent:I forgot to ask, do pack tuition loans extend to out-of-statecolleges?
Liam’s answer came an hour later, while I was having dinner.Why?
ME:Because I’m thinking of applyingelsewhere.
He called me then. Not sure I’d be able to control my tone, I declined the incoming call and texted:Can’t talk right now. But I cantext.
A couple seconds later, he sent me:Your application’s already being processed. You should be getting the welcome packet soon. And no, pack money and influence are only good on pack territory. We need to keep our wolvesclose.
Then why are you trying to send Augustaway?
I felt I knew the answer tothat.
The doorbell rang then. I inhaled long and hard, expecting Liam’s scent to hit me, but the smell was a mixture of antibacterial soap and ground coffee. Definitely not Liam’s, unless he’d changed his soap to the hospital-grade kind and was jacked up oncaffeine.
“That must be Greg,” Jeb said, going to open thedoor.
Exhaling a relieved breath, I set my phone face down on the couch and stood up to get my eyes examined by the pack doctor, praying he wouldn’t spot all the anger that brewed beneath myirises.
30
The following day,Liam stopped by the warehouse to see me, seemingly none too happy that I hadn’t picked up the two calls he’d made after his last text wentunanswered.
When he strode into the office, I kept my gaze fastened to the computer monitor. I felt him at my back though, felt his body thrum and his scent invade the entireroom.
“Why didn’t you answer any of my calls?” heexclaimed.
“Because I was mad at you.” I still didn’t look at him even though he’d moved to stand in front of thedesk.
