Chapter 76: Chapter 76

JASON Grace meets my gaze for a brief second and then barrels into my body. I don’t think twice. I just wrap my arms around her.

Her arms sling around my waist and her head burrows against my chest.

I’m slightly stunned.

It’s the first time she’s initiated full-body contact like this.

I’m not saying I don’t like it, just…”You okay, Grace?”

She nods against me.

Grace raises her head slightly and looks to her side. Then, she heaves a sigh of relief. She looks up at me, "Have you paid the bill?"

“Mm-hmm. I have."

"Then let's go," she says picking up her bag and walking out of the restaurant with me as if she was running away from something.

I stop her on the street. ”What's wrong? Are you hiding from someone?"

She flushes guiltily. "My former colleagues came here to eat too, I... I don't want them to see me.”

Is that all?

I rub my chest.

My wolf prowls beneath my skin looking to come out.

It’s a frequent issue with my ‘other half’ and given the high-stress situations at work, the constant threats from would-be Alphas who’d love to step into my shoes, and near-constant drama that surrounds Grace, it’s a wonder I’m not in wolf form more often than human.

“Oh no,” she whispers. “I don’t mean to get you riled up.”

She doesn’t.

My damn wolf is …oddly protective of this female.

He growls again as if annoyed with me.

Grace bites her lip."It's ridiculous, isn't it? In fact, they all know what I've been through and they probably can guess how miserable I must be right now, but I still don't want to see them face to face."

Her self-deprecating look makes a sudden pang shoot through my heart. I don’t want to see her unhappy.

I want to see her eyes bright and shining and that same glow of joy I had only a few minutes ago.

Happiness that came from something so simple as me putting some food on her plate.

I catch her hand and pull her into a jog. "Then let's avoid them.”

She laughs and falls into step beside me.

“One day in the future, you will shine more beautifully than anyone else,” I promise her.

She swats my arm and runs faster.

My wolf growls appreciatively.

I run faster to catch her.

And her laughter is like music to me.

* * * * * * * * * * *

SEAN "I heard from Lily that you wanted to help Grace Cummins find a job. I'm warning you, don't get yourself involved in that woman's affairs again. Back then, she killed Lily's sister, who was also Alpha Reeds fiancée! Our Pack cannot afford to offend Jason!"

My father's warning comes from the other end of the phone, and I expel a deep breath. "I understand, sir.” And I do.

No one understands how precarious our position is better than me.

"Our family cannot afford to offend this Alpha,” my father emphasizes again. It all comes down to money and business with my dad. To hell with anyone’s happiness. “Pack comes first, Sean!”

I’ve heard those words my whole life.

Pack comes first.

Do what’s best for our pack.

We must sacrifice in order for our pack to succeed.

A thousand ‘rules’ have been drilled into my head since I was a baby.

“I’m not a child, Father. I’m an Alpha, lest you forget.”

My father grunts. “Then act like one.”

I’ve heard that phrase before too.

Most impressionably, when I first started dating Grace.

My father—and most of the elders in our pack—had been hellbent against that match. Never mind that she was smart and capable and from a respectable lineage.

What could she bring of benefit to Pack Stevens had been the question.

Not much, apparently.

Fortunately, later, after breaking up with her, I started going out with Lily. My family—my father especially—was naturally satisfied with this development.

The Atkinson Pack has expansive lands and solid enterprises within the cities. Their tech companies are thriving.

It was a good match.

The merge of our packs and resources would be considerable, strengthening both, and giving our pack considerable financial and tactical advantages.

“Did you hear what I just said?” my father growls.

I rev the car’s engine. “Sorry,” I lie. “Must driven through a dead zone.”

My father curses. “Stay away from Grace Cummins, Sean. This is your last warning.”

The phone disconnects.

I stop at the next intersection and wait for the light to change. On the corner, an old woman is selling flowers. It’s cold out and the bouquets are a mix of early spring blooms. I can’t tell you the names, I just recognize a few that Grace had liked. Simple daisies I think and some other ones. Not roses or the pricier ones, I recall.

She liked the flowers she’d find locally when we would run together.

It was undeniable that the current Grace is very different from the woman I knew in the past.

For starters, I don’t think she even has her wolf anymore. My wolf didn’t detect Ava’s presence and even though she was furious, there was none of her wolf’s energy pouring out to challenge me.

Her features were the same and outwardly she didn’t look all that different. A bit duller maybe. Thinner.

And seeing her in those garish sanitation clothes, it was a bad as seeing her in the courtroom in her prison apparel.

Breaking up with her was the right decision.

For my pack. For me.

Grace is… poor, and broken. An embarrassment to herself.

Lily was the woman who was the most suitable choice. As for Grace, she was just a memory.

I’m not really sure what I was thinking when I offered to get her a job. I knew my dad would never allow it, and it wasn’t like that kind of thing could fly under the radar. In their companies, the employees were all wolves.

They’d know Grace by sight and smell.

It’d be all my pack would talk about.

So, yeah, bad move on my behalf.

But I’d been feeling guilty. It’s true, I abandoned her. It’s true I resented her. She damn near ruined BOTH of our lives when she crashed into Jennifer Atkinson’s car.

It’s only because I cut ties with her and so publicly denounced her that Lily would even come near me.

There’s a flash of movement beside the road and though the light turns green, I don’t move.

That’s Grace!

And who is the man running with her, spinning her into his arms and up against the side of a building…