Chapter 3

Cassian must have felt the change in me through the bond.

He brought Dora straight home.

The moment Dora saw me, she threw herself at me, rubbing her cheek against mine like she'd done a thousand times before.

Cassian hung back. Awkward. He worked a strained smile onto his face.

"Eva, I shouldn't have spoken to you like that earlier."

"Dora getting sick — that's on me too."

"I was the one who agreed to let her go north in the first place..."

I gave a small nod, then pried Dora off me and set her down. My face stayed cold.

She looked up at me, hurt. I had never been cold with her, not once.

This was the daughter I had bled for. Who I had nearly died to bring into the world. I had spoiled her every day of her life.

"Eva? What's wrong?"

"Are you not feeling well?"

I lifted a hand and cut him off.

"I'm fine."

"You, on the other hand, are looking very well taken care of. A lot healthier than when I left."

A small flinch ran through him.

I didn't give him room to recover. I kept going.

"I really should thank Kayla."

"For taking such good care of my husband while I was away."

He let out an awkward laugh and stepped toward me, arms half-open like he wanted to pull me in.

"Eva, come on. She's a colleague. That's it."

The second he came close enough, I caught it. The thick, sharp bite of rose perfume.

I have never liked that smell. I have always hated anything strongly perfumed.

Cassian knew this. Wherever I was, anything scented got tossed before I came near it.

But this time, I came home faster than he expected. He hadn't had time.

I shoved him off me.

"Cassian. You smell like someone else."

He froze. His hand flew up to his shirt and he started sniffing himself, scrambling.

Under my stare, he tried.

"Eva, Kayla said the office needed something to make it feel warmer. Some kind of scent..."

"You and Dora coming home — I was so happy I forgot to wash it off..."

"Let me go clean up. Right now."

I watched his back as he hurried away. Pathetic.

Then I looked at Dora, who didn't know what to do with herself.

She had never, in her short life, heard me speak in a voice this cold.

The pressure of an alpha aura — my alpha aura — pinned her where she stood. She started trembling.

"Dora. Why are you still standing there?"

She turned and bolted for her bedroom.

The living room was empty. Just me.

Quiet. Strange. Sickening.

A dozen feelings tangled together. I sank down onto the couch — and caught the smell of something else.

I reached under the cushion before I could think about it. My hand came back with a piece of sexy lace lingerie.

The scent of mating still clung to it.

Cassian's scent. Layered with hers — Kayla's.

I folded the thing up, calm. I sealed it inside an airtight bag.

I wanted that scent preserved. Perfectly.

I wanted to make sure that pair of arrogant little fools went down so hard that no pack on this continent would touch them.