by Juniper Hart
But even as he washed, Michael knew he was fooling no one. The inner battle in his thoughts couldn’t convince him to find her another position. There was zero chance he would send Everly away now that he had her so close, no matter what the cost was.
He only hoped that the cost would come later.
Much later.
In the interim, he intended to relish every moment he had with the succulent girl he had claimed as his own.
Chapter Ten
Everly lay on her back, staring at the ceiling as Sydney stared at her, eyes wide.
A million thoughts coursed through her mind, none of them coherent.
Why did I seek him out tonight? I should have left well enough alone. Now it’s going to be awkward when I see him at work today.
Everly reasoned that if she and Michael had not found their previous encounters awkward, this was not likely to change much.
But why did she feel so differently? Was sex such a big step when they had almost gone there twice already?
Everly had a feeling she knew why she saw things in another light, but she didn’t want to entertain that thought. Not then, especially not with Sydney studying her face with such intensity.
“Why do you look so funny?” the blonde asked, but Everly could not speak.
Everything that had happened the last few days piled up on her, and she felt paralyzed with worry.
My best friend knows I’m a Lycan. I slept with my dad’s best friend, a man who I am about to work under literally and figuratively. Everyone at work thinks I got the job as a favor. Things are not good.
“Everly, you’re scaring me,” Sydney said urgently. “Say something.”
“I always look like this after a full moon,” she replied dully, but Sydney didn’t look convinced.
“No, you don’t,” she argued flatly. “You never look like this after a full moon. You are tired, yes, but you’re also excited.”
Everly stared at her. “How long have you known about me?” she demanded, not understanding how Sydney could have possibly made such an inference.
Sydney shrugged. “Couple years,” she answered nonchalantly, and Everly stared at her in disbelief.
The previous day, when Sydney had confronted her, Everly had been stunned.
“Don’t look so shocked,” Sydney told her. “You’re a terrible liar. Everything you try to hide is plain visible in your eyes.”
“You could read that I was a lycanthrope in my eyes?” Everly protested. “What does that even mean?”
Sydney chuckled. “Of course not, but I noticed you would act weird on certain days and disappear, so I decided to follow you one night. I have to tell you, Everly, I almost had a heart attack.”
Everly stared at her best friend for a few seconds before finally speaking. “Why didn’t you tell me you knew?”
Sydney shrugged indifferently. “What was I going to say?” the blonde replied, laughing shortly. “I mean, what is there to say?”
Everly nodded, silently admitting that her friend had a valid point.
“Honestly, I didn’t really know what you were, and I had no idea if confronting you would result in me being eaten or something. I decided to research what I could. Anyway, I figured if you wanted to talk to me about it, you would have done it,” Sydney rushed on.
“But you’re bringing it up now!” Everly protested. “Why?”
Sydney sighed and shook her head. “Because I can see you’re in a bad place since you came back, and I want you to know that you can leave Utah and come with me if you want to. I think it will be safer for you, at least mentally.”
Everly stared at her, heart pounding.
She knows me better than anyone has ever known me, she realized. I should leave with her. It would be good to get out of Ogden and start over where no one knows anything about me. The decision was one that weighed on her for months.
“Sydney,” she said, “I just don’t think I can go. So much is happening around here, and I’m really confused.”
What she didn’t tell her friend was that she was mostly confused about Michael.
I will just sleep with him one time and get it out of my system, Everly had naively promised herself the night before. But after sleeping with him, she wanted more.
As she lay on her bed, though, she knew she had done something terrible.
“Everly, what happened last night?” Sydney demanded, pushing her arm. “You’re freaking me out.”
Everly sat up and shook her head, lowering her eyes in shame. “I slept with him,” she murmured, and Sydney gazed at her uncomprehendingly.
“You slept with who?” she asked, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.
“My boss…” Everly trailed off. “…who also happens to be my dad’s best friend and our pack leader.”
Sydney’s mouth dropped open in shock, and she gaped at her friend. “You’re lying!” she accused, but there was no conviction in her tone. Sydney groaned. “Oh, my God! Why?”
Everly had no answer, and Sydney shook her head.
“Okay,” she exhaled. “Okay, no, this is good.”
Everly stared up at her. “What?” she screeched. “How is this good?”
“Because now we get you out of here without any regrets,” her friend answered. “You just pack up and come home with me. I’m leaving tomorrow, anyway.”
Everly lowered her blue eyes guiltily.
“You can stay at my place until we find you an apartment,” Sydney continued, jumping from the bed to pace the bedroom as she spoke. “We still won’t know about the job in Austin for a few weeks, but there are other jobs. We can find you something, I’m sure of it.”
Sighing, Everly threw her legs over the side of the bed and headed toward the hallway.
“Where are you going?” Sydney demanded. “You need to be packing.”
“I’m going to take a shower.”
“Well, hurry up! You have a lot of packing to do before tomorrow.”
Everly paused and looked at her friend before dropping her gaze sadly. “I can’t go back to Texas with you, Sydney,” she replied miserably. “I belong here.”
Sydney stared at her. “Everly, I know you think you can’t leave, but that’s not true! There are other packs you can join. There are packs everywhere, literally everywhere—I’ve looked into it!”
Everly smiled softly at the girl. She really thinks it’s like a book club membership, she thought, stifling a giggle. This is just one of the many reasons I can’t go anywhere. No one understands. How could they? It’s so much more complicated than anyone could ever imagine.
But Everly knew that was not the primary reason.
She was not ready to give up on whatever her feelings for Michael Vanier were, as twisted and wrong as it was.
“It’s deeper than that,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry, Sydney, but my place is here in Ogden.”
Sydney huffed. “Is it about your boss?” she demanded.
Everly dropped her eyes again, but she didn’t respond.
“Oh, God,” Sydney muttered. “You can’t continue to sleep with him. It’s not just your job, it’s your relationship with your family and your pack. Everly, the best thing you can do right now is separate yourself from this place and leave with me!”
Everly forced a smile. “I know it seems bad—” she started, but Sydney snorted, holding up her hand.
“This has nothing to do with your werewolf crap,” she snapped. “You’re making a run of the mill shitty decision. You’re clearly not thinking with your head.”
Everly opened her mouth to deny it, but Sydney spun to collect her belongings, stuffing them into her overnight bag.
“Where are you going?” Everly demanded, panicking slightly. “Don’t leave!”
“Why not? I took off time to come be with you because I thought you were in trouble, but you’re not in trouble. You’re just being an idiot!”
Everly’s jaw dropped open. “I am not!” she yelled. “You don’t kno
w what you’re talking about! Just because you read some stuff on the internet, you think you know everything about my life now?”
Sydney glowered. “Give me one good reason why you can come to New York for four years without issue, but you can’t come to Texas with me,” she retorted.
“Because they knew I was coming back when I left for college!” Everly argued. “If I leave with you, they’ll shun me for turning my back on the pack!”
Sydney scoffed. “Would that be such a bad thing? Your boss and pack leader, who also happens to be your dad’s best friend, is taking advantage of you. Are those the kind of people you want to be around? Who cares if they disown you? Your dad treats you like you’re not his kid, anyway.”
But Everly knew that it was much more complicated than the way her friend laid it out.
“I’m sorry if I made it sound so bad,” Everly mumbled. “But it’s not that way at all.”
“Oh, okay,” Sydney snapped sarcastically. “Sorry I stuck my nose in here then.”
Silently, she zipped up her bag and stormed towards the door.
“If you snap out of whatever trance these… people seem to have over you, you know where to find me. Until then, find someone else to gripe to. This is all too exhausting for me.”
She didn’t allow Everly to respond, throwing open the bedroom door and stomping into the hallway with her bag in hand.
The door to Kevin and Cynthia’s room opened, Everly’s mother poking her head out with her brow furrowed.
“Are you all right, dear?” she called to Sydney’s retreating form.
Sydney paused and looked at her, pursing her lips. “Yes, Mrs. Castle. Sorry to have woken you…” She glared at Everly. “Thanks for your hospitality.”
“Sydney—” Everly called after her, but the blonde was not having any of it. She made her way down the stairs and out the door, not even bothering to put on her coat as she snatched it from the closet.
“What’s going on?” Cynthia demanded, but Everly could not answer, turning toward her bedroom.
Is Sydney right about everything? Am I crazy for wanting to stay here?
She thought about Michael’s heated body insulating her from the snow, the way he had felt inside her. It was better than she had imagined, and Everly was warmed at the thought of him.
It’s just sex, she told herself reasonably. We are physically attracted to one another, but nothing can ever happen between us, of course. It’s just sex.
Still, she couldn’t ignore all that was at stake.
If her father found out…
If the people at her work found out…
If the pack found out…
There were so many things that could go wrong.
Then why did nothing seem as important as being near Michael?
We can hide this from everyone, she told herself optimistically. With this new position at the company, I can probably afford an apartment. If I move out and Michael comes to visit me at my place—
She cut off her own thoughts, shaking her head in shame.
How do you know that Michael wants to pursue this? He has more to lose than you do!
A sick feeling filled her stomach, and suddenly Everly wanted to run after Sydney.
I just sent her away because I believe I have feelings for Michael Vanier, but what if this has only been a game to him?
She swallowed heavily and made her way to the bathroom, needing to shower the night’s activities from her body.
I’ll feel better after I bathe, she promised herself, but Everly knew she wouldn’t be right until she saw Michael’s face and knew the truth.
Even if it hurt.
And she was right.
When she arrived at work that morning, the atmosphere had changed dramatically.
She wasn’t greeted kindly by Lizzie when she walked in the lobby.
The receptionist actually turned her face away when she saw Everly approaching and pretended to make a phone call to avoid speaking with the younger woman.
This is ridiculous, Everly thought angrily. I have every right to work here, even if Michael is my dad’s friend. My grades in college were stellar and I’ve proved myself so much that Lizzie herself recommended me for the position. But I guess all that is moot now.
Of course she didn’t bother to yell that to the fleshy brunette, sighing as she boarded the elevator.
Whatever, she told herself. I don’t need their approval to do my job.
She stepped onto the third floor and immediately felt a wave of frosty air sweep out to meet her as everyone seemed to turn and stare at her.
The men leered, and the women casted her disgusted looks.
For a moment, Everly wondered if they had learned what she and Michael had done the night before.
How could they? None of them are Lycans. They would have no reason to be out last night, and even if they were Lycans, they know Mount Ogden is off limits to everyone but the pack leader on the night of the full moon. Could we have been seen?
A cold sweat erupted over Everly’s face, and she looked around hopelessly for a friend in the crowd.
Her eyes rested on Roger, who smiled weakly, and she returned his grin, but he averted his eyes as if he was worried someone else would detect the exchange.
God, I’m a pariah. And this is without them knowing that I had sex with Michael. How much worse would it be if they found out?
“Everly, are you going to stand there all day?”
Her head jolted up as Michael poked his head out of his office.
He winked disarmingly to show he was only joking, and she felt a sense of relief wash through her body.
“No,” she murmured, hurrying to join him.
The other employees returned to their work as if they had not stopped, and she slipped inside the sanctuary of Michael’s office, exhaling deeply as the door closed behind them.
Michael returned to his desk, and Everly remained at front of the office, unsure of what to do.
He glanced up at her.
“You seem uncomfortable,” he told her gently, and she swallowed, shaking her head in denial. His beam widened. “It’s okay, Everly,” he assured her. “We can keep things completely professional.”
Her body went weak with the words, and color exploded over her fair cheeks.
Nothing is going to change. He’s still the same man he was yesterday, the same man who took care of me when I was sick. I wasn’t wrong to stay.
“Come and sit down,” he encouraged, gesturing at the chair before him, and Everly hurried to oblige, her heartrate regaining its normal pace. “Before we jump into it,” Michael told her, his eyes boring into hers, “I wanted to discuss your pay increase.”
She eyed him skeptically. Is he expecting that I’ll work for less because I’m his friend’s daughter?
He scrawled a number on a piece of paper and slipped it across the desk for her to see.
“I am hoping this will suffice as a base salary. Of course, there will be overtime and bonuses for good performance.”
Everly glanced at the number and did a double take.
It was three times the amount she made as intern.
She gasped aloud, her mouth remaining open.
“But there is a condition with this,” Michael told her quietly, and Everly felt her back tense.
“What condition?”
He cleared his throat and sat back, making a steeple of his hands. “You have to move out of your parents’ house immediately.”
Everly cocked her head to the side, a stab of elation filling her belly.
Yes! she almost screamed, but resisted the urge to throw her arms about his neck and bestow kisses all over his handsome face.
That was all she had wanted since returning home from school: a place of her own, away from her father’s ridicule and displeasure.
And it would be a private place for Michael and me to meet.
But as soon as the feeling came, it passed, and a sense of dread replaced i
t.
Is that why he’s giving me this promotion? As a way to control me?
Everly gulped back the lump in her throat and dropped her eyes, knowing that Michael was waiting for her reply. Regardless of whether or not Michael wanted her to move into a new place for his own reasons, she wanted the same thing. Moving away from her parents’ home would give her some peace and quiet.
Slowly, she nodded. “All right,” she whispered. “I’ll move out right away.”
Michael seemed placated by her answer, and he nodded. “Good,” he said. “Let’s get to work then.”
As he started to discuss her duties, Everly could barely focus on what he said.
Am I just attracted to him, or am I really falling for him? It’s more than sex, it has to be. I analyze every move he makes. I am falling in love with this guy and he looks at me like some sugar baby. What have I done?
Chapter Eleven
Over the next two months, Michael found himself happier than he had ever been in his life.
His company was in the process of expanding again, and his days were consumed with the growth.
But his nights were filled with Everly and exploring the miracle of her sweetness at every opportunity.
She had found a small apartment, and he found himself at her place more often than his own.
On full moons, he took her with him hunting, something he had never done with another soul, male or female, and she proved herself to be a worthy companion.
She continued to impress him in every aspect, and every day, Michael found himself more smitten with the red-haired woman
It shocked him that the two spent as much time together as they did, and yet, he still wanted to see her more. Lately, he had been wondering how she would feel about them moving in together, but he knew the idea was ridiculous.
Michael was falling for Everly, despite his intentions to keep their relationship purely physical. He didn’t know who he thought he was fooling by pretending that he could do that.