Violet’s agenda is packed with back-to-back meetings with other pack leaders, diplomatic events, public appearances, andcouncil sessions. Every movement is accounted for, every location mapped with entry locations and security checkpoints marked in red. Her security detail is a specialized unit, and they rotate in shifts that overlap to ensure constant coverage.
And if that’s not enough, Darius’s schedule is closely aligned with hers. They’re together almost constantly, and their respective guards coordinate with each other to create layers of protection that would take an army to breach.
I lean back, shaking my head as frustration settles into my bones like lead. Getting the hybrid alone is starting to look more difficult than I anticipated. Every scenario I run through my mind hits the same walls of logistics and timing and too many witnesses.
I need to clear my head.
I get up and leave my office, following a route I could manage blindfolded by now. As I push the break room door open, I stop in my tracks.
Anne is sitting at the far end of the room, but this isn’t like last week when she was completely isolated, hunched over untouched food with that blank expression that made my chest ache. Now, she’s sitting surrounded by two male colleagues and a woman, all of them deep in a conversation that’s making her laugh.
The sight of Anne smiling like this causes a warmth deep in my chest that spreads before I realize it. But immediately, there’s another feeling, a darker one.
I should be the one to make her smile this way.
I inhale sharply and start moving toward the coffee maker before it becomes awkward that I’m just standing by the entrance, staring. Anne doesn’t even look at me, doesn’t acknowledge my presence at all, her attention completely absorbed by whatever story one of the men is telling.
I pour myself a cup and lean against the counter in a pose that’s meant to convey nonchalance, but every sip I take is just me trying to mask the attention I can’t help but pay to her table.
Words float over from their conversation, fragments I catch between their laughter.
Derek, the one I saw approach her cubicle last week, says, “I had no idea you could dance like that, Anne.”
Anne’s smile is playful, light in a way I haven’t seen in forever. “Well, there’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
“Ooh,” Derek replies with mock intrigue, and all four of them laugh again.
My fingers grip the mug tighter, the ceramic warm against my palm. She’s…dancing?
The other woman at the table leans forward, grinning. “But honestly, you looked like you had such a good time at the club Saturday night. I don’t know why you never agreed to come with us before.”
Anne chuckles. “I’m trying new things. Actually, I found a place I’ve never been to before that I’m going to check out after work today.”
My heart thunders in my chest, blood rushing hot through my veins. I set the coffee mug down loudly and walk out of the break room because suddenly the walls feel too close and the air feels too thin and I can’t be in the same space as her right now.
She wouldn’t even look at me in the car. She wouldn’t say two words to me. But she’s going to clubs? Making friends? Smiling like that?
When I’m back in my office, I try to focus on Violet’s schedule to find gaps that might present an opportunity to isolate her. But the words all coalesce into meaningless data that won’t organize itself into anything useful because all I can think about is how light Anne looked with those colleagues, how she smiledso easily with them, how she said she had a spot she wanted to check out later.
The rest of the day drags, and as soon as five o’clock hits, I’m out of my office and heading for the parking lot. I get in my car but just sit there, waiting. The windows are tinted dark enough that no one can tell anyone’s inside, so I sit in the shadows and watch the building’s entrance.
Staff trickle out in ones and twos, heading for their cars, their voices sounding chipper. I ignore all of them, eyes locked on the door. Finally, Anne walks out, keys already in hand. She walks over to her car and gets in.
I wait until she pulls out of the lot, then follow at a distance, keeping two cars between us so she won’t notice.
I should go home. Should focus on the mission, on Violet’s schedule, on creating a gap in her security coverage. But my hands turn the wheel toward Anne’s neighborhood instead.
This is insane. Reckless. Exactly the kind of distraction I was warned about. But I don’t stop following her.
She drives to her place. I park down the street, positioned where I have a clear view of the front door of the apartment building. I wait with the engine off, and some pathetic part of me hopes she’ll stay inside for the evening, that the other plan she had will fall through.
But after fifteen minutes, the door opens—and my breath catches.
She steps outside in a red dress that hugs every curve like it was designed specifically to destroy my sanity. The fabric clings to her body in a way that makes my wolf snarl with possessive hunger, and I have to grip the steering wheel to keep from getting out of the car and dragging her back inside where no one but me can see her.
She gets in her car and starts driving again. I follow discreetly.
She goes all the way across town to the human district: the part of the city where only humans live, completely oblivious to the existence of us wolf shifters. She parks outside a club with neon signs flickering in the windows and music thumping loud enough that I can hear the bass from inside my car with the windows up.
