Titus.
I jogged up the stairs and down the hall, then planted one foot in Titus’s bedroom doorjamb just in time to stop it from closing. Too late, I remembered I wasn’t wearing shoes. “Ow! Wait.” I pulled my foot free and rubbed it while I hopped on the healthy one, grateful for the cat’s balance that kept me upright. “You gave me your word.”
Titus pulled the door open and looked at me. I stopped hopping and set my throbbing right foot on the floor, suddenly aware of how stupid I must look. “Come in. But we’ll have to talk while I pack.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m taking a leave of absence. Like I said.”
“Yes, butwhereare you going?” I stepped into his room and was surprised to find it nearly spotless in the wake of Corey Morris’s invasion. No more torn clothing on the floor. No more wet footprints. The exception was his bed, which still looked very much slept in, with the dark gray comforter askew and the crimson sheet hanging from one side. “Where does a billionaire go to get away from his problems? Europe? The Caribbean?”
“Jackson.” Titus opened a door on the far wall and disappeared into a closet the size of my former dorm room, lined with racks of hanging slacks and suit jackets.
“Jackson, Mississippi? As in, anhourfrom here?”
The grunt from the depths of his closet sounded vaguely like an affirmation. A second later, he emerged with a carry-on sized designer suitcase.
“Why the hell would you go to…” My question faded into nothing. The answer was suddenly obvious. “Jackson is where Corey Morris was infected. You’re not trying to get away from this. You’re digging deeper into it.”
Titus wouldn’t investigate something he already understood. But if he didn’t understand how Corey Morris was infected, why would he accept the blame for it? Why would he give up his territory and leadership position?
He set his suitcase on the bed and flipped it open without even a glance in my direction. While he returned to his closet, I closed the hard shell case and sat on it. He returned with an armload of clothes and stopped short when he saw me.
“Spill it, Titus. I’m not going to move until you do.”
TWELVE
Titus
Robyn sat on my suitcase in those snug jeans, her legs crossed at the knee and dangling down the side of my unmade bed. The sight of her there, so close to where I wanted her, sent a spike through my pulse.
But she’d never been mine, and I no longer had the luxury of pretending otherwise.
I laid my clothes across the footboard, trying not to notice that she twisted to watch me, then I headed into my closet. “Do you honestly think I only own one suitcase?”
When I came out with a spare, she was sitting on my clothing, her legs now dangling against my footboard.
“I know you have more clothes,” Robyn said, looking up at me with her arms crossed beneath her breasts. “And more suitcases. And probably duplicates of everything you own. I can’t stop you from running out of here without keeping your promise. But I don’t think you’ll do that. A good Alpha keeps his word.”
“I’m not an Alpha anymore,” I pointed out as I eyed the wrinkles her shapely thigh was pressing into my favorite shirt. Wishing I was wearing it at that moment.
“You’re nottheirAlpha. But you’re still an Alpha. According to Abby, the position of ‘Alpha-as-leader’ isn’t the same as beinganAlpha. Her brother Isaac is in charge of his Pride, but he’s not truly an Alpha yet. And Jace is an Alpha with no Pride to lead. That’s why you two keep butting heads. You’re like him now. A displaced Alpha. But a good one. You’ll keep your word.” Her mischievous smile stirred a heat deep inside me. “And in case I’m wrong about that, I’m fully prepared to obstruct you every step of the way until you start talking.”
I could see that she wasn’t bluffing. And Ihadgiven my word.
“Okay, but this is for your ears only, Robyn. You can’t tell Drew. You can’t even tell Abby. I need you to swear, and I need to know you mean it.”
“I swear.” Her smile faded into a look of concern. “What’s going on, Titus?”
I pulled her to her feet and hung my clothes over my desk chair, then sat in the chair. Robyn sank on the edge of the bed again, facing me, worry dipping her brows lower over her big blue eyes. I exhaled slowly. Then I met her gaze.
“You were right. I lied. The scent woven through Morris’s isn’t mine.” I could see the questions already forming on her tongue, but I pressed on before she could ask them, because once Robyn started talking, it was hard for anyone else to get a word in. “It’s my brother’s. The scents of same-sex full-blood siblings are very similar. Have you ever smelled Abby’s brothers?”
Robyn shook her head. “I’ve met Jace’s brothers, but at the time I was too preoccupied with the charges against me to notice what they smelled like.” She shrugged and dropped her gaze to the floor. “And that was before my mandatory training, so I wasn’t really tuned in to how much you can learn about a person from his scent. Other than the obvious advantage for identifying the bastards who did this to me.”
“Well, if any of them had had brothers, you might have made some big mistakes,” I told her.
She snorted. “The current consensus is that Ididmake some big mistakes.” She blinked, and I could practically see her dragging her focus back to the present. “Tell me about your brother.”
