Chapter 269
Vivian’s POV
I had felt it the moment I saw him on the steps. One second I was walking out to see what the commotion was about, and the next my wolf was going wild.
“Mate,” she said. Then, howling now, deafening everything else so that our entire world narrowed to that sensation “THAT’S OUR MATE!”
I stood there for a moment, staring stupidly at the man who stood in the driveway, looking at me with an expression matching my own.
The mate bond. We both felt it. That familiar pull as our scents wrapped around each other. I could feel his wolf going wild, too, and I knew he could feel mine.
Then, with as much calm as I could muster, I had walked back inside. Shut the door. Stood in the hallway with my back against the wall and forced my wolf down until her howls had turned into whimpers.
This was not happening.
Finding one’s mate should have been a joyous time in any wolf’s life. It was something that every wolf expected, hoped for, prayed for from a young age. To grow up, come of age, and find one’s mate. It was the most natural thing in the world.
Seeing as I had not found my mate yet, I should have been overjoyed that he had simply walked up to my doorstep now.
But all it did was fill me with dead and anxiety.
I had a plan. I had been working on that plan for years, carefully and patiently, and it was finally starting to yield results. Dominic was close to divorcing Ellie and turning to me in her place; I could feel it. He barely trusted her anymore, if at all. He thought she was having an affair. They hated each other with a burning passion.
I was so. Close.
And I was not about to let some broad-shouldered warrior from goddess-knows-where interfere with that.
Avoiding Colt should have been simple. The house was large. I had my own schedule, my own hiding spots that no one else knew about, and he was new enough that he was still learning where everything was. I managed to stay away from him on the first day
without too much difficulty until dinnertime.
But all the while, my wolf was insufferable about it. She sulked, and pushed at her restraints, and during dinner, she had practically drowned out all conversation with the sound of her howls. Somehow, though, I managed to get through it without
incident.
The next morning, though, I was not so lucky. I was coming back from the packhouse when I heard tootsteps behind me on the path.
I knew whose footsteps they were before I even turned around. My wolf perked up immediately as his scent washed over me
“Vivian?”
I considered pretending I hadn’t heard him, but my wolf made my footsteps slow like an idiot It was too late now, he knew I knew he was there. Exhaling through my nose, I shut my eyes and tilted my head back a little, then opened them again and turned.
Colt was in his training uniform, hair a little disheveled, like he’d just come off the training grounds. He was handsome, and that annoyed me. This would have been so much easier if he were ugly. But he wasn’t. He was perfect. Almost as perfect as Dominic.
“Yes?” I asked curtly.
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He walked up to me and stopped a couple of feet away. He opened his mouth a couple of times like he was struggling with what to say I made no attempt to say anything myself, and did everything in my power to show on my face just how little I was interested in any conversation with him at all.
“I keep missing you,” he finally said. “Feels like every time I turn a corner, you’ve just left.”
“I’m a busy woman.”
“Right.” He scratched his head. “I was hoping we could talk. Properly, I mean. Since we didn’t really get a chance at dinner”
“No. I’m good,” I said curtly.
Colt glanced up at me with surprise written across his face. I didn’t give him a chance to say anything else before I brushed past him and walked away, hoping he couldn’t notice the way my wolf was desperately trying to make me stay.
I made it around the corner and then stopped when I nearly slammed directly into Ellie. She had her bag over her shoulder and looked to have just come back from the healer academy.
“Was this your doing?” I hissed by way of greeting.
She pulled her head back. “What?”
“Colt.” I folded my arms. “Bringing him here. Was that intentional?”
Ellie’s brows lifted. “Intentional? I met him on the road,” she said. “His car was in a ditch. I helped him out. Pure coincidence”
“Why did you offer him a job, then?”
“Because he needed work? And I needed a bodyguard?”
I studied her face. She looked back at me with an innocent expression, but I wasn’t buying it. I wasn’t sure how she knew that Colt was my mate, but somehow, she knew. And I had a sneaking suspicion that she had known when she invited him back to the pack.
It seemed to me that she thought I would give up my pursuit of Dominic if my mate was here. Well, she was wrong. If anything, t was just going to double down my efforts in winning Dominic over and getting rid of her as soon as possible.
I looked at her for another long moment. She didn’t flinch.
“Fine,” I finally said. I walked past her and into the house. At the door, I paused, glancing over my shoulder Colt and Ellie had convened in the garden and were talking in quiet tones.
I clenched my jaw and went inside.
It didn’t take long for me to find Mara. She was standing in front of the hallway closet outside Ellie’s room, tolding a stack of linens that I suspected didn’t need folding. Her eyes were trained on the nearby window, through which she could see Ellie and Colt now walking across the field toward the forest.
“I need a word,” I said, coming to stand beside her.
Mara set the linens down and looked at me.
“I want you to keep a closer eye on Ellie,” I said, keeping my voice low. “Not just your usual. I mean everything who she contacts, where she goes, what she’s looking at. Any patterns. Anything that seems odd.”
“Very well. I’ll report it to the Alpha,” Mara said.
“No,” I said quickly. Lowering my voice further, I said, “I want you to bring your reports to me first. Betore Dominic.”
Mara shot me a sidelong glance.
“And if the Alpha asks?” she said.
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“Just come to me first. I’ll tell you what information is safe to share with him and what’s not.”
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Mara nodded without hesitating. It was why I had chosen her, after all; her loyalty was always to me, not to Dominic. And besides, what he didn’t know couldn’t hurt him. In the end, it would all be distant history, anyway. Once he realized that Ellie
was trash and not worth keeping around at his Luna.
“Good,” I said. “I’ll be expecting your first report tonight.”
With that, I turned and walked away, my mind racing with ideas of what to do next.
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