Desire shot straight to her core at the inviting tone of his voice. The nerve of this bastard! Ignoring him, she pivoted on her heel and walked out of Lizzie’s office. As soon as she was far away enough, she took a deep breath of the artificial air-conditioned air, trying to calm herself. Her inner wolf, on the other hand, paced back and forth, almost chastising her.
How could someone she’d only met barely an hour ago tie her up in knots and make her wolf behave strangely? She’d always felt at peace with her inner animal, but this was the first time it seemed defiant, like a teenager testing its boundaries. However, it was like she was the teen. All hormones and no sense.
It’s the lack of sex, she told herself. More than two years of celibacy was catching up with her. She was horny, and he was the first male she’d met that she wasn’t related to or had worked with in her capacity as head of GI. Not yet anyway. But that would change soon.
She must have been standing there too long because a group of people standing by the watercooler in the corner was staring at her. Narrowing her eyes, she shot them glares of reproach, making them scurry back to their cubicles. With a silent satisfied harrumph, she strode toward the elevators and jabbed the call button. As she waited, that feeling came over her again—that someone was watching her.
A frisson of excitement shot up her spine, but she ignored it. Her enhanced hearing could pick up his heavy footsteps coming toward her. “Come on you damned thing,” she muttered under her breath at the doors.
“Cher, I think we—”
Maybe God was looking down at her today because the silver doors slid open, and she hurried inside and pressed the button for the top floor. As she turned around, the sight of Delacroix’s surprised face was the last thing she saw as the doors shut.
With a relieved sigh, she leaned against the wall, pressing her forehead to the cool metal. What was it about him that made her both uneasy and thrilled? Why was her inner wolf acting so strange? God, this was the worst timing for her to be feeling this way. Please, not today.
It was one of those workdays that seemed to last forever, but by the time she was finally leaving her office, Mika felt like it had ended too soon. That tightness that had been in her chest the entire day only gripped harder, but she knew she had to get through the rest of this day without breaking down. Clearing her head, she made her way to her car in the garage and drove out of HQ and into the streets of lower Manhattan. Swinging back, she actually had to cross over the Brooklyn Bridge to get to Flatbush.
After pulling into an empty street parking spot, she opened the trunk of her car and took out the six pack of craft beer she had placed there last night and walked toward the austere stone arches of the Holy Memorial Cemetery.
It was a beautiful, crisp fall afternoon, and the bright reds and golds of the foliage were on full display. Though her Lycan biology ensured her body was always at an even temperature, Mika clutched at the collar of her coat tight with one hand as a chill went through her. She took her time, taking in the peace and quiet of the cemetery as she made her way to the familiar row of headstones before finally stopping at the one near the end.
Joseph Allen Morgan
Beloved Son and Husband
“Hey, babe. Happy birthday.”
She lay the six-pack—it had been Joe’s favorite—by the headstone and knelt down, lovingly caressing the name carved into the gray granite. “I can’t believe this is your third birthday up there.” Which meant it had been more than two years since the car crash that killed him, the one that she survived because of her Lycan accelerated healing.
Clearing the lump in her throat, she continued. “I hope you’re having a great time with all the angels. No, no,” she shook her head, as if she could hear his deep voice protesting. “I always believed you’d end up there. You’re too good, you know. So selfless and caring. Everyone knew it, especially all those people you helped get back on their feet.”
Joe had been director of a men’s homeless shelter in Brooklyn and had been well-liked by everyone. He worked eighty hours a week caring for the residents, and sometimes even taking time during his weekends to help when they were shorthanded or if a resident was in trouble. The day of his funeral, over a hundred people had come to pay their respects.
“You were always too good, even for this world.”
The month after he was buried, she’d come here every day, talking to him. Some people might have thought she was crazy, but coming here had helped her cope with the crushing sadness in those days. Her family and friends had been concerned, but they didn’t interfere. As time went by, she knew she had to pick herself up and get on with her life. So she came less and less. It felt like a betrayal, but even she knew Joe wouldn’t have wanted her to wallow in depression her whole life, no matter how tempting it was. But when would she truly feel like she was over it?
“I miss you, babe.” She lay her head on the cold, hard stone. “Every day, I miss you.”
Joe was the first serious relationship she’d ever had, serious enough that she had asked permission from the Lycan High Council to reveal her true nature to him after a year of living together. He’d been shocked when she had told him what she was, but it had never occurred to him to break up with her. He accepted her
