“Anytime. Now quit being a fucking bitch and get over yourself,” he called as I stomped down the hall.
Fuck, with advice like that, it was no wonder I was in the situation I was in. But Wes was right. I never should have gone after someone like Callie. It was my own damn fault I fell for someone so far out of my league. And now I was paying the price for my stupidity.
Chapter 32
Callie
Denial.
Based on my hours of research last night, that was the first stage of grief, and I guessed that was what was happening to me. I was grieving. And I was in denial.
I was in denial that I’d met my fated mate.
I was in denial that Wyatt left me.
And I was certainly in denial that on only the second day that my business was open, someone had already vandalized the property.
I stood there, staring at the poor cat nailed to the front door and wondered how things had gone downhill so fast. One minute, I was happy. Enjoying this man who seemed to be everything I’d ever wanted and even some things I didn’t know I wanted until I got them. Next thing I knew, he was my fated mate and he was leaving me because I wouldn’t go public.
But he’d be back.
There was no way things were really over between us.
He’d realize he was wrong just like he had in the past and he’d come apologize once he’d cooled off. He’d understand that I didn’t want to tell my family or the pack about us. He’d get that saying the L-word was too big of a step for me. He’d stop asking for more and just be happy with what I gave him.
And in the meantime, I needed to figure out this mess with the dead cat.
Unfortunately, it was apparent this message was for Ellie. The cat nailed to the front door looked exactly like the pet she’d brought with her to live in Asheville. Thankfully, Abey had already confirmed her beloved Charlie was alive and well, but that didn’t change anything. This cat was still dead, and the message was clear–someone was out to get Ellie.
I didn’t know what we were going to do about this, but I knew my brother had called one of his enforcers to come down to the office to help. Usually, I kept out of alpha and enforcer business, but this was my organization and it looked like I had no choice but to be involved this time.
As I sat with her in the waiting room, I didn’t know whether I wanted it to be Wyatt on his way down here or not. Sure, I missed him, but if he wasn’t ready to apologize and move past this, I had nothing more to say to him.
When a maroon Suburban pulled up out front, my heart rate settled a bit. Some part of me held out a tiny bit of hope it might be Wyatt in there, but it was dashed as soon as Wes hopped out of the driver’s seat.
Fine.
That’s fine.
I didn’t want to see him anyway.
I left my brother arguing with Ellie in the lobby and headed back to my office. Despite the dead cat and whatever ramifications would come from it, I had work to do. We’d hit the ground running and I didn’t have time to slow down. I finally had the office space and lab I’d been dreaming about, and nothing was going to stop me.
Except, of course, the fact that I could barely keep my eyes open.
I’d had a long, restless night and had no hopes of tonight being any better. Which meant copious amounts of caffeine were in order.
I picked up my mug to take a sip, but soon realized I’d need a refill. My third of the day already and it wasn’t even noon. With a sigh, I grabbed my mug that said There’s No Planet B and left my office.
It wasn’t until I was halfway to the break room, my eyes on the linoleum floor, that I realized something was tugging on my lower belly. I stopped short in the hallway and slowly raised my eyes, finding first a set of old work boots, and then a well-loved pair of jeans and a flannel shirt, before finally reaching the face attached to the body. One that instantly made my heart race and my hands shake.
Wyatt was here.
In my building.
I watched him carefully as he leaned against the wall, scrolling through his cell. I knew the exact moment he realized I was there because his shoulders stiffened and his thumb froze above his phone screen. With torturously slow movements, he lifted his head and turned in my direction.
His gaze met mine for a brief moment, barely long enough for that connection between us to flare to life, before he broke eye contact. His head dipped slightly as he gave me the briefest once over and then turned back to his phone.
I stood there, frozen in the middle of the hall as I watched him ignore me.
I waited and waited for him to acknowledge my presence.
For him to come to his senses and apologize to me.
For him to wrap me in his arms and tell me our fight was over and things could go back to the way they were.
Heck, for him to even say hello, but he did none of that.
Instead, he continued scrolling through his phone like I wasn’t even there. Like I didn’t matter. Like there’d never been anything between us and I was no more important than a stranger on the street.
And that was the moment my denial melted away and I hit the next stage of grief.
Anger.
It started in my chest, flaring to life, growing in size until that wasn’t enough space to contain it. Then it spread through my limbs, igniting the blood in my veins and reaching into every nook and cranny of my body.
Without realizing what I was doing, I started stomping down the hallway toward him, my vision going red and my body vibrating with rage.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I hissed.
He kept his eyes on his phone as he shrugged. “Alpha called.”
I watched him for a moment longer, waiting for something else. Anything else, but that was all he had to say. And all it did was feed the fire.
“You need to leave.”
He shook his head. “You can take that up with Abraham.”
I stomped my foot and growled softly in the back of my throat. “This is my fricken business and I get to say who comes and who goes, and I say you need to go.”
He ignored me. Again.
Flat out ignored me.
Not a shrug. Not a head shake. Not even a blink of his eyes that still wouldn’t meet mine.
It only fanned the flames.
I opened my mouth to say I don’t even know what when the door to Ellie’s office creaked ajar. I barely spared a glance for her and my brother before focusing on Wyatt again.
“What’s going on?” Ellie asked.
I turned to her, noticing the way her eyes widened before looking at my brother. “What the hell is he doing here?”
Abraham’s brows dipped in confusion. “He’s here to watch over El.”
I fisted my hands tighter. “Why wasn’t I informed of this?”
Abraham’s frown deepened. “I didn’t know I needed to run it by you.”
“This is my office, and everything needs to be run by me.”
Abraham held up both hands. “Okay, Callie. I assigned Wyatt to guard El until we figure out what’s going on.”
I stood up straighter and leveled him with a glare. “Assign someone else.”
“Excuse me?”
I took a shaky step forward, my control slipping. “I said assign someone else. I don’t want him here.”
“Callie, you’re being ridiculous.”
“I am not,” I growled. “This is my company, and I get to say who comes in here and I say he can’t. I want him out of here right now.”
My brother’s eyes were still wide as he tried to reason with me, but I couldn’t be reasoned with at that moment. “Callie, El needs a guard.”
“Then assign someone else.”
“There is no one else.”
I crossed my arms over my chest so they wouldn’t reach out and wrap around my brother’s neck. “You’re telling me out of all your enforcers, he’s the only one who can do this job?”
Abraham shrugged. “He’s the only one I trust wit
h her safety. This is for El, Callie.”
My chest heaved as I stood there, clearly outnumbered. The tiny little part of my brain that was still rational realized this was important. That Ellie needed protection. But the rest of me was white-hot with rage and didn’t care about anything but the fury brewing inside me.
“I’ll stay out of your way,” Wyatt finally spoke up.
We all turned to him, but he was looking at me, his gaze somewhere around my chin.
“Not good enough,” I said.
He pushed off the wall and stood to his full, impressive height. “There’s someone out there that’s willing to snap a cat’s neck and nail them to your door, and it seems like their sights are set on Elizabeth. You’re going to let whatever’s between us get in the way of protecting her?”
Him being reasonable only made me angrier. Who did he think he was, making sense and talking calmly and being the mature one in this situation? It was absolutely unacceptable.
I stood there, my whole body heating with the flames of my rage as everyone held their breath in anticipation of my reaction. My hands shook with the need to shift and get this pent-up energy out of my system, but that wasn’t an option.
I was an adult.
I was a professional.
I was a scientist.
I would not let Wyatt get to me.
Nope. Not today.
A sinister growl crawled its way out of my throat before I threw my hands in the air and pinned Wyatt with the most menacing glare I could muster. “Fine. But I don’t want to see you. You stay in this office and the hell away from me.”
Before I completely lost my mind, I spun around and stormed back to my office, the coffee completely forgotten. I slammed my door behind me for good measure and winced as the newly constructed wall trembled with the force.
I paced back and forth across my office floor as I worked to get myself under control. This wasn’t like me, and I hated that Wyatt could bring this side out. I hated that I had a side like this. I prided myself on my cool, calm intellect, but it was failing me at that moment.
Because about twenty feet away was a man who’d walked out on me again. And instead of being able to come to work and leave him and all that nonsense on pack lands every day, he’d followed me here too.
That small, rational part of my brain piped up again to remind me that he hadn’t just walked away–I’d pushed him away. And he wasn’t there to make my life miserable, he was there to watch over Ellie.
But I wasn’t in the mood to listen to reason.
***
The next couple of days did nothing to cool my anger. If anything, it made it worse. Because every single day I had to go into that office and pretend like everything was fine while physically feeling Wyatt close by. There was no chance to get over him when I couldn’t forget him for even a few minutes.
It did nothing to improve my mood and I’d taken to isolating myself so no one else had to deal with me. There were few things that dragged me out of my office. One was bathroom breaks which were, of course, unavoidable, and the other was coffee refills which I refused to go without.
So, I grabbed my mug that had a picture of a rhino with the words Save The Chunky Unicorns on it, and headed to the break room. As I walked down the hall, that feeling in my belly intensified and I knew, I just knew I should have turned around and come back at a better time, but I was a glutton for punishment.
And despite how angry I was, I still had feelings for him.
Deep, deep, impossible to ignore feelings.
So, when I swung the break room door open to find him smiling at my employee Katie, I wasn’t totally surprised by the flash of jealousy that ran through me. Irritated, but not surprised.
I must have looked as formidable as I felt because their conversation ended abruptly, and Katie turned to me with big eyes.
“Hey, boss. How’s it goin’?”
How’s it goin’?
Oh, fine. Just fine. The man I’m deeply in love with but petrified of is standing five feet away from me and my pride won’t allow me to do anything but ignore him, but other than that, things are great.
I ignored her question completely for fear I’d say one of those stupid thoughts out loud.
“I dropped off some of the air sample results on your desk. I need you to analyze them and report back by the end of the day.”
Katie swallowed once. “Sure thing, boss. I’ll get started right now.” She shot a small glance at Wyatt who was staring into his mug of coffee like it was the most interesting thing in the world. “See ya, Wyatt.”
See ya, Wyatt.
Ugh.
She walked past me and out the door, leaving me alone with Wyatt for the first time in days. And suddenly, I wished I hadn’t sent her away.
I shook that thought out of my head and stalked toward the coffee maker. A hundred different sets of words piled into my mouth, but the only ones that came out were, “I thought I told you to stay in Ellie’s office.”
He scoffed. “I’m just getting a coffee, Callie.”
The way he said my name sent a shiver down my spine, but I refused to let it affect me. Or at least affect me more than it already was.
I decided to ignore him as I poured coffee into my mug and retrieved the creamer from the fridge, but that was impossible. His smell permeated the air between us, and even from across the room, I swore I could feel the heat of his body like it was pressed against me. Another shiver threatened to wrack my system, but I shook that off too.
Wyatt snorted, and through sheer willpower, I kept my eyes on my coffee.
“Nice mug.”
I closed my eyes for a moment as his words washed over me. They were simple, and there were only two of them strung together, but they brought me back to when we could joke with each other. Back even before we were romantically involved. To when we were just friends who flirted and joked, and he’d become this integral part of my life.
I didn’t respond, not that I thought he was expecting me to, but it still stung when he sighed and said, “I’ll get outta your hair.”
I closed my eyes and listened to his heavy footsteps as they faded away. Not that I needed to listen for him, because I could always feel him. That tug in my belly lessened the farther away he got, and I convinced myself it didn’t bother me.
Which led me to the next stage of grieving: Bargaining.
Because in that breakroom, with Wyatt’s leather scent still in the air and my heart still racing from having been that close to him, I swore if there was anything I could do to get over him, I’d do it.
If there was any promise I could make that would help me stop thinking about him, I’d make it.
If there was any way possible for me to stop loving him, I’d do it.
Because I didn’t know how much more of this I could take.
Chapter 33
Callie
“I’ve been made aware of some new intel that I need to share with you.”
Abey stood in the front of the room, commanding the attention of everyone here. And it seemed like everyone was here. The whole McCoy tribe plus Ellie along with every enforcer in the pack crammed into one room made for a stuffy environment. But I could hardly focus on that.
Because behind me and to the right was Wyatt Carter, and he was taking up all my brain power. Without my permission, my ears strained to listen to every one of his breaths and every beat of his heart. I knew it wasn’t healthy for me, but I couldn’t help myself.
Because I’d coasted through denial, burned through anger, talked my way through bargaining, and now I was smack dab in the middle of depression with seemingly no way out. Like I was a life raft in the middle of the ocean with nothing but the sky and the sea for miles in any direction.
Due to the fact that I’d spent time researching it, I knew depression was defined as sadness, gloominess, dejection, and hopelessness. Not that I needed Merriam-Webster to tell me that. I was living it.
And because I w
as so depressed, I didn’t care what kind of harm listening to Wyatt’s heartbeat would do to me. Didn’t care that taking these extra inhales in order to breathe him in would keep me up tonight. I couldn’t sleep anyway, so what did it matter?
Abey continued to drone on, but I knew what he had to say, because I’d been there to hear it for myself. Our old packmate Peyton was now working with our uncle against us.
She’d been friends with Bea for years and we’d all tolerated her, even grown to almost like her, but recently she’d just been awful. Peyton has had a thing for my brother since as long as I could remember, but he was never interested. As soon as Ellie showed up and stole his heart, Peyton went from annoyingly persistent to outright relentless.
She’d even poisoned Ellie’s cat in a bid to get her to move back to Raleigh. But the last straw had come during the solstice party. Turned out, Peyton had conspired with Calvin to separate Abey and Ellie for good. Her job was to cause a fight between them and then get Abraham alone while Calvin came to Ellie’s rescue and drove her back to Raleigh.
She probably didn’t know that Calvin was planning to kidnap Ellie, or that he’d been murdering women in the woods for a year, but that didn’t matter much to Abraham. The moment his mate’s life was on the line because of Peyton’s actions was the same moment she found herself without a pack.
We hadn’t seen or heard from her since then, but that all changed tonight. She’d been at Del’s show, hurling threats and showing more of her hand than she probably meant to. It seemed like when she left the Asheville pack, she’d been offered a place with our Uncle Conrad in Charlotte. Which led to this meeting.
I knew it was all important, and I knew it pertained to me, just like I knew I should care, but I was having difficulty doing that. Besides, all my focus was on the man just two feet away from me.
A cheer went up around the room and I focused back on Abraham and what he was saying.
“Are there any questions?” he asked as his blue eyes glanced around the room. When no one spoke up, he dismissed the enforcers and took a seat at the head of the table we were positioned around.
Chasing Callie (Southern Werewolf Sisters Book 1) Page 27