Calla

As soon as our meeting ended, Rhys pulled me aside, sporting a gloating expression that made me immediately apprehensive.

My arm felt hot under his grip.

"What's with you two?"

Fuck. Dev's snide statements had given too much away. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Denial clashes with those Louis Vuittons. Try again."

"Detective Kim and I have worked together for years."

"Yes, but were you also in the same fraternity?"

"Stop it, Rhys." Despite attempts to keep my blood pressure from rising, my cheeks heated.

"Oh my God, you giant hypocrite!" Rhys opened his mouth wide like a teenager who just learned his two favorite popstars were hooking up. "You slept with him, didn't you?"

"Shhh, lower your voice."

"Fine," he whispered. "But don't expect to live this down any time soon. After your stupid lecture on the moral wrongs of asserting situational power over humans, and then berating me from being chummy with Dev... Oh, I see now—our close rapport makes you jealous, doesn't it?"

"Jealous? Why the hell would I be jealous? Did you sleep with him too?"

"I wish I had because the fact that he loves me and can't even look you in the eye would make this so much better. But no, I'm as uninterested in men as he is."

"He can look me in the eye, he just prefers not to."

"Because why? Did you dump him when you realized a human couldn't quite cut it for you? He left you unsatisfied, didn't he? I've never had that happen, obviously, but I imagine it would be the sort of ego-busting experience that would leave a mark. Poor Dev."

"You don't know what you're talking about. On multiple levels. God, I can't believe this is still my first day working with you. It feels like I've been trapped at Apex for a decade."

"So, what was the nature of your relationship? A one-night stand? Or did you go back for seconds?"

"Do I have to remind you that I'm your boss? This is Human Resources material right here."

"Fine," Rhys said. "You're right. I won't bring it up again."

"Thank you."

"For at least thirty minutes."

"No, you won't bring it up ever again."

His hand remained gripped onto my arm. Almost as if he was the jealous party. We hated each other but chemistry didn't care about that and neither did our wolves. As amusing as he seemed to be, he must be seething on the inside, discussing a man who had once held a claim to me and knowing he never would.

Peeling his hand off finger by finger, I gave him my best stern expression. Despite my position over him and my personal loathing of him, not to mention that I still believed he knew something about my friend's disappearance, it still took more energy than it should have to stand up to him. Alpha males held the biggest sway in the werewolf community. Even a pack Luna like myself was meant to defer to them. It was times like these that I hated the rigid social structure we'd wrapped ourselves in. I tended to ignore any reason for subserviency, but in this case, a little mild pleading would work in my favor. "Please, Rhys. You know what could happen to me or to Dev if this got out. Besides, it's over. Like, completely over."

"Judging by his body language, I wouldn't be so sure about that, but...since you asked so nicely." He pantomimed a zipper going across his lips.

I didn't trust him for a second, but I at least had to pretend like I did. "Good. Now what I need you to do is head back down to the car and wait for me."

"Wait for you?" He reached for my arm again, but I smacked his hand away.

"Look," he said, his voice low and filled to the brim with irritation. "This building seems secure, but it's still a bad idea for the only two werewolves on Neutral Isle to split up."

"I'll just be a few minutes." I pressed the down button on the elevator, then turned around. "Don't worry. If you get attacked, I'll be there soon enough to save your ass."

I received a low growl for my snark. Nice to know I bothered him as much as he bothered me.

Dev, alone in his office, looked up from his paperwork and acknowledged me with a resigned nod as I entered.

Closing the door behind me, I leaned against it. "Mind if we talk?"

He let out a long sigh. "What more is there to say?"

"You seemed like you had more to get off your chest than you were able to with Rhys in the room."

"Rhys Rawlings." He shook his head. "Underneath his Alpha attitude, he's quite likable. His brothers are both dumb as nails and can be nasty when provoked, especially Aamon. But regardless, the fact that you're forced to work with any of them...I hate that for you."

"I hate it for me too. But there's a lot at stake here. We could lose our legal status and our claim to our home territories, which we've held for generations. If I can use my influence and public appeal to right this situation, what other choice do I have?"

"I honestly don't know, Calla. If I think of anything that can solve this problem and get you out of working for Apex, I'll let you know."

"There's another reason I agreed to the job," I said, venturing far enough into his office to prop myself on the corner of his desk. "Remember my friend, Vicki? Vicki Anatoli."

Vicki had been the one person I'd talked to about my relationship with Dev. She'd supported me completely and had been my shoulder to cry on after things with him ended.

"Of course, I remember."

"She went missing a few days ago."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Did her family file a missing person's report?"

"I was her family," I said. He gave me a strange look and I explained. "She grew up in foster care. So, she has a chosen family. Me and her roommate Brett. We're both like siblings to her."

"Okay, did you or Brett file a report."

"Given the nature of her disappearance, I thought it was better to bring it up with you. In person. Without Rhys here."

He was paying attention now. Standing up, he maneuvered around his desk and leaned against it so we were side by side. "What does Rhys have to do with it?"

"Maybe nothing, maybe everything." I brought up my phone and opened the app showing the last location of Vicki's phone.

He studied the screen. "I'll be damned. Am I seeing this right?"

"Yep. She was at Apex Headquarters at ten PM on the night of the full moon, less than a half hour before moonrise. Brett said she'd been talking to an Apex shifter online and that she was planning on meeting up with him. She never came home."

"And no one's heard from her since."

"No."

He tapped his index finger against the tiger eye pendant he wore every day, a habit I associated with Dev when he was in deep thought. "I can see why you brought this to me. Depending on whose desk this case landed on..."

"It would be buried. And I can't make a stink about it because I have no proof of wrongdoing."

"You think Rhys was involved in this?"

"He's an Apex werewolf, therefore, he's a suspect."

"Sure. He's also an Alpha with typical Alpha machismo. But I don't see him harming a human woman."

"What about a human man?" I asked. We both knew the human I was referring to. "That man was attacked just hours after Vicki was at Apex. What if Rhys...or one of the other Apex wolves, completely wilded."

Dev winced at the word. Wilding occurred when a werewolf experienced a traumatic event just prior to turning. The trauma led to an erratic transformation in which the werewolf was prone to feral behavior, including uncontrolled violence. It was a rare event—one that we never discussed due to its negative PR implications—but it happened to Alphas at a rate twice as high as to other werewolves.

"We haven't had a documented case of a wilding in two decades. And when that incident occurred, thankfully, he was stopped before any humans died."

"He killed two shifters from his own pack, though. Not that humans cared much since none of them suffered." The event had ended one of Sury's smaller packs for good, its remaining members disbursing mainly into Apex.

"Calla, don't take it like that."

"No, it's fine. I'm just saying, there's a double standard, isn't there? But that's a discussion for another time. For the moment, Rhys is an Alpha and I'm not going to rule him out as doing something awful to my friend and then wilding during the full moon and attacking a random human in Crown territory. It's not impossible."

"Again...I really hate that you have to work with him if you think he's capable of all that. For the record, I don't see that sort of uncontrolled hostility in him."

"I'd love to be proven wrong. Either way, I'm hoping you can help me discover the truth. I don't think anyone else can."

"I'm the only one." His fingers brushed against mine. "Is that true? There's no one else you can turn to."

I waited for him to take my hand, to raise it, kiss the inside of my wrist the way he had so many times before, sometimes in this very office. I closed my eyes. "No one else."

Instead of doing what I had imagined, he pulled his hand away and lifted himself off his perch. "You have more allies than you think."

"It doesn't feel that way." And meanwhile, my friend had been kidnapped or murdered and if Dev wasn't willing to help figure out what happened to her, no one would.

"I'll look into it," he said.

The heaviness in my shoulders eased a bit. "Really?"

"I'll assign it to an investigator. Be warned, they will need to contact Apex."

"I know. Apex will realize soon enough they have another incident to sweep under the rug. Try not to tie this back to me though. You received a unanimous tip. If they know I triggered an investigation, they're going to hate me more than they already do."

"I understand."

"Thank you."

"There's a catch, though." He avoided my gaze. "This is a conditional agreement."

"Okay. What's the condition?"

"You can't keep relying on me and only me for everything. You're taking advantage of me. Of our past. Of my...sentiments."

"That is not true! Vicki is missing and who else..."

"I'm going to help, but there are other detectives out there who aren't in league with Apex. Yet, you come to me and give me a story about how I alone can help. Because you know I can't say no to you."

"Have you forgotten who ended things between us?"

He shook his head. "All I did was say what you weren't willing to. I would have piloted a ship to the moon for you if you were willing to go with me."

But I wasn't. I hadn't been. Dev wanted to take our relationship public and I, knowing full well the consequences for us both, had refused. This argument between us went on for over a year before he finally pulled the plug. I hadn't wanted things to end, but in the six months since they had, I'd never once regretted the choice that I'd made that led to our relationship's demise. I missed him, but he was the one who made our necessary, professional interactions unpleasant by dwelling on the past.

"Someday, you'll find the woman who you're meant to be with and who will make you happier than I ever could." Someone he didn't have to hide away from the world.

"I already have."

"You what?" I'd been convinced that between the two of us, it would be me who would've found a new person first.

He brought out his phone and showed me a picture of an attractive woman with a mass of dark curly hair and a sweet, dimpled grin. In the image, Dev stood with one arm around her shoulders, the other stretched in front of him to take the selfie.

"She's beautiful." Judging from the background, the photo had been taken outside along Neutral Isle's historic boardwalk. "And human, I take it."

"Her name's Marly." He nodded. "We met through my sister about two months ago. I know it's quick, but I can see a future with her."

The way he never could have with me. "That's great. Truly." I meant it, even if my gut twisted a little. I hopped off the desk. "I better get going. Rhys will be chomping at the bit to be out of here."

"Keep him reigned in, Calla."

I snorted. Keeping an Alpha under control was easier said than done. "Let me know what you find out about Vicki. If it turns out Rhys had anything to do with her, keeping him reigned in will be the least of his concerns."