Two: The lie and the exit

Theo's pov

As much as I tried to, I couldn't bring myself to leave right away. 

My teeth still ached from where I’d put them in him and the taste of Lucien was sitting in the back of my throat like something I wasn’t allowed to want. The mark was temp, 30 days, but it felt permanent on my tongue, like I could still feel the heat of his skin under my mouth.

He'd refused to go out so we had to return to his office and he still had my jacket thrown over him, swallowing him whole, and I told myself I’d done it for optics. I did it to hide the scent and to hide him from whoever came through that door next. 

The truth was uglier and I wasn’t ready to look at it yet. The door opened behind me before I could move. "Cran—" Caspian stopped when he saw the scene. 

His eyes went from me, to Lucien on the chair who was trying to act normal then to my mouth and back to the jacket. 

"Why didn’t you let my men in?" he asked with a frown. "We heard shouting and we heard—"

"He was in distress," I cut in, and I made my voice sound believable to sell the lie."Rogue Alpha hit. He went into an early heat but I contained it. Isn't that what I was paid to do?"

Caspian stared at me. "You contained it by marking him?"

I let a slow smile pull at my mouth that didn’t reach my eyes. "I contained it by keeping him alive. Sterling would’ve preferred him dead on the floor instead of marked and breathing? My apologies. Next time I’ll let him bleed out for the shareholders."

That did it. His nostrils flared but he couldn’t argue with the logic without admitting he knew what heat looked like. And Caspian Sterling did not admit weakness. 

"Fine," he said finally. "Is he stable?"

"Yes." I nodded.

Lucien stirred then. His eyes opened and for one second they found mine across the room. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to.

The mark on his neck was hidden by my jacket and that was the only mercy I was going to give him today. The only thing I could give him that didn’t cost me everything.

Caspian followed my gaze and his face went hard. "Alright, Your job's done Crane. You can go. Sterling security will handle the rest."

Job’s done.

Two words and I was supposed to walk away like I hadn’t just put my claim in the Sterling heir and felt his body give under me. 

I stood up slowly and before I turned I looked at Lucien one last time. He was sitting up now, my jacket around his shoulders, and he looked smaller than he did in the photos I’d seen on earnings calls. 

He looked like the guy from Red Moon who’d laughed when I told him I was nobody and didn’t ask for anything else. I walked out without another word.

The SUV was waiting downstairs and I didn’t speak until we hit the bridge. Marco kept glancing at me in the rearview and I ignored him because if I opened my mouth I wasn’t sure what would come out. 

My mouth still tasted like him and then the math started, because math was the only thing that didn’t lie. 

The Red Moon was two years and fourteen weeks ago. I’d picked up a drunk Beta at the Glass Wolf because the moon was full and I was stupid. The worst mistake was not asking for his name too.

We'd made love that night and he’d left before sunrise. I’d told myself I didn’t care that he didn’t look back. Bastard sons didn’t get to care.

Fourteen weeks pregnant with a heartbeat that wasn't his. It couldn't be a coincidence.

Of course it was him. The universe loved putting me in rooms where I was never meant to be chosen and then handing me the one person I couldn’t have without starting a war.

I was the bastard son of a Crane and he was Sterling. 

I pulled out my phone and called my second. "I want every second of Sterling Tower security from floor 40 tonight," I said flatly. "And get Crane legal on standby. Don’t ask why."

"Yes sir," he said. 

I hung up and stared out the window. The jacket was gone. I’d left it with him and that was going to be a problem I’d deal with when I wasn’t trying not to drive back to him.

The SUV turned into Crane Docks and I got out before Marco could kill the engine. I needed air that didn’t smell like cedar and Lucien and choices I couldn’t undo. But the air here was empty and it made it worse.

I walked Pier 7 with my hands in my pockets because if I stood still I was going to go back to Sterling Tower and that wasn’t happening. My second texted: `Tower footage is scrubbed. Admin access.`

I leaned against a shipping container and let my head fall back. The mark throbbed on my teeth. 30 days until it faded and he was just Lucien Sterling again and I was just the Crane who’d touched him and walked away. 

Twice now, my phone had rang and it was an unknown number. I didn't answer but on the third ring, I let my curiosity get the better of me and his voice came through. 

"Theo." My name in his mouth did something stupid to my chest. 

"What?" I asked sternly. “And how did you get my number?” Only when I asked did I realize that he'd probably gotten it from my job info which was accessible on the internet.

A pause. "I need you to come back." 

I laughed but there was no humor in it. "No." 

"Please." That word broke something I didn’t know was still intact. "You have Sterling Security. You have Caspian. You don’t need me." 

"I need you," he said, and his voice cracked on the last word. "The mark is burning and I don’t trust anyone else to be in the room with me right now." 

I closed my eyes. My wolf was already standing, already pushing to go. Every cell in me wanted to say yes and I wanted to run but I was a Crane and he was a Sterling. 

"I want nothing to do with you," I said, and hung up. 

My hands were shaking but my wolf wasn’t and I hated the fact that I longed for him.

“Fuck!”