Chapter 24

IRIS POV:

The street outside had stopped moving.

Three white SUVs were parked along the curb. The middle one had its rear door open, and sitting inside, visible through the open door, was Aurelian. He was in a dark suit today with a phone in his hand, talking to someone beside him.

He hadn't stepped out. He hadn't needed to. Just his presence in that open doorway was enough to pull every eye on the street toward him.

Press people were already gathering at the edges, trying to get closer. His men were redirecting them without touching anyone, which somehow made it worse for the people being redirected.

"Is that…" Pemi appeared beside me. She was staring through the glass, her coffee forgotten. "Iris. Is that Aurelian Virex standing outside our building?"

Behind me, I heard Nicholas go very quiet.

Aurelian looked up.

Through the glass, across the office floor, through the meeting room wall, his eyes found me directly like he already knew exactly where I was standing.

My wolf pushed forward so suddenly I gripped the doorframe.

"Iris." Vera's voice came from beside me. "He sent someone in two minutes ago. You're to go down."

"She's in the middle of a client meeting," Nicholas said.

Vera looked at him. "The meeting appears to be over."

I picked up my bag.

"Iris." Nicholas stepped forward. "Don't walk out of here with him. Whatever he told you, whatever he's offering, he's using you. That's what he does. He finds something…"

"Nicholas." I turned around and looked at him. "You brought her here. You sat across from me and let her mock me, and you put your hand on my wrist." I held his gaze.

His jaw tightened.

"That's what I thought," I said.

I walked out.

The office was quiet as I crossed the floor. I could feel every eye. Pemi. The assistants near the printer. Even Vera hadn't moved from the doorway.

I pushed through the front door and walked out.

Aurelian's men cleared a path without being asked. One moment, press people were between me and the car. The next, they weren't.

Aurelian watched me walk toward him.

"You didn't call," he said.

"You didn't leave a number," I said.

"I left a card."

"With four words on it."

His man opened the door. Aurelian gestured toward it. I looked at the press people still trying to get angles behind the invisible line his men had drawn.

"They're going to write about this," I said.

"They were going to write something regardless," he said. "Get in, Iris."

I got in.

He came around the other side, and the door closed.

The driver drove away.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Somewhere we can talk," he said.

"You said that last time."

"I meant it last time too."

We drove for about twenty minutes. The car turned into a private entrance, and I recognized where we were before I saw the name.

The Virex Grand.

I looked at him.

"I'm in my work clothes," I said.

"You look fine," he said.

"This is the most expensive hotel in the territory."

"I know," he said. "I own it."

My eyes went so still I couldn't blink.

I had always thought the alpha and a group of investors from other packs joined their resources to build this hotel. It didn't look like something one man could own.

The cars came to a stop, and one of his men came out and opened the door for me while he opened his.

I got out of the car.

The lobby was quiet and expensive. Staff moved around us without making us feel watched. Nobody looked at me with recognition or curiosity.

After the last few weeks of people's eyes following me everywhere I went, that alone almost made me stop walking.

We took a private elevator to the top floor.

The suite was large, with windows on three sides and the city below looking small and distant. A table was already set for two.

I sat down.

He poured water and sat across from me.

I looked around the suite once more, then back at him.

"You knew I was working there," I said.

"Yes," he said.

"How long?"

"Since your first day," he said simply.

I set my glass down. "And you waited this long to do something about Nicholas showing up."

"I was just curious to see what you would do first," he said.

I looked at him. "You were testing me."

"I was watching you," he said.

"Why are you even here?" I asked.

"The billboard on the northern interchange said you hadn't been seen in four years. And then suddenly you're back and you're outside my office building and…" I stopped.

"Actually, I want to ask you something else first."

He waited.

"My father told me what you are," I said carefully. "After I came home. He and the pack elders, they told me."

Something shifted in his expression, but he didn't speak.

"You're a Lycan," I said.

He looked at me steadily. "Yes."

"You didn't tell me," I said.

"No."

"Why?"

"Because the moment people know what I am, the conversation changes," he said. "I wanted to talk to you, not to what I am."

I thought about that for a moment. About my father's face when I said the name Aurelian. About the elder saying they do not involve themselves in the affairs of wolves unless the matter concerns them directly.

"The elders said Lycans don't get involved with wolves," I said. "They said the last time one walked openly in pack territory was over forty years ago." I looked at him. "So why did you stop that car?"

He was quiet for a second.

"You were standing in the middle of a highway in a wedding gown, and I didn't. My driver did," he said.

"That's not a reason," I said. "Not for someone like you. Your driver could have driven around me."

"He could have," he said.

"But he didn't."

"No," he said. "He didn't."

He wasn't going to give me the full answer yet. I could see that clearly enough, so I let it go and picked up a different thread.

"My father told me alphas work under you," I said, looking at him. "Does that mean Nicholas works for you?"

Something in his expression confirmed it before he even opened his mouth.

"He does," Aurelian said. "But he doesn't know it. He thinks he works for his father. His father answers to me." He paused. "Nicholas will only understand that the day he takes the Alpha title."