Christina’s POV
I stayed late at Nyx Collective.
Midnight late.
Everyone else had left hours ago, but I was still at my desk, hunched over my laptop, the soft glow of my desk lamp casting long shadows across my workspace.
Technically, I was working.
Realistically? I was hiding.
From Hudson.
The terrifying part was that he might suggest we complete our brand-new, totally normal, absolutely-not-weird marriage with a perfect mating ceremony.
Because I was scared I’d say yes without blinking.
Or worse,what if I was the one to bring it up?
Sure, we were legally mates now.Well, husband and wife in human terms. But the only ti we’d actually slept together, I’d been drunk and didn’t even know his na.
Still, from the fragnts I did rember, he’d been... insane. Stupidly good.
The kind of good that ruins porn for you.
Like, knew what to do with his lips and hands and tongue and you-know-what good.
And okay, yes, my libido wanted an encore. A sober one. That night had awakened sothing in my body—this strange, intense reaction whenever he was near. After Niall’s rejection damaged Akira, I’d lost my ability to detect scents, but my body still responded to Hudson in ways I couldn’t explain.
But the rest of was terrified I’d co on too strong, act like so unhinged she-wolf in heat, and scare Hudson off.
I an, I did rip his shirt that night.
That’s not exactly first-date energy.
He’d been very professional about this whole contract marriage thing.
So I needed to be professional, too.
Which is why I was still at Nyx, doodling nonsense on my sketchpad, pretending I cared about bezel settings and chain lengths when really, I just didn’t want to go ho to our shared penthouse.
Eliza Black was coming in a few days to pick her lead designer.
No pressure or anything.
My brain had been flatlining all week, but the pendant necklace had given so inspiration which I needed to jot down before it vanished.
I’d shut off all the lights except one, because mood lighting helped stimulate my creative wolf.
Close to one o’clock, I had just stretched and cracked my spine when I heard the door open quietly.
I turned and cocked an eyebrow.
What was she doing here?
Violet Lin had left hours earlier.
Apparently, she was just as surprised to see as I was to see her.
"Oh wow, working late?" she said, pulling up short when she saw stand up.
I gave her a side-eye, sat back down, clicked my mouse, and shut down the deck I had been working on.
She didn’t need to see anything.
She noticed my move and scoffed. "Please. Like I care what you’re working on. We both know you’re just killing yourself over that Eliza Black pitch. I already finished mine. Not that I’d waste my ti looking at yours. I will get the project, by the way. You should just quit now. Save yourself the heartbreak. Nothing worse than crying over a dead dream."
I turned my chair slowly to face her. Leaned back, feeling Akira stir defensively.
"If I get it, great. If I don’t, whatever. It’s one project. I don’t treat it like it’s the last golden ticket out of my tragic little life. That level of desperation kinda reeks. If anyone’s crying when Eliza picks soone else, it’s going to be you, sweetheart."
Violet’s jaw clenched so hard I half-expected her teeth to crack.
She stord closer, heels stabbing the floor like she was trying to kill it.
"I’m not desperate," she hissed, her eyes flashing with that unmistakable werewolf glow. "Even if I don’t get this, I’ve got backup. Unlike you, I’ve got options. I could quit tomorrow and still be fine. Hell, I could buy Nyx Collective if I wanted and fire your smug face just for fun."
"Cool. So why are you here at midnight talking to instead of doing rich-girl Pilates or whatever? Shouldn’t you be out hunting bunnies with your pack?"
Her nostrils flared.
I smiled.
She didn’t.
"Your folks made so cash riding the post-pandemic crypto wave. Big whoop. Doesn’t change the fact they’re still new money trying to claw their way into the established packs. If your family had the power you’re flexing, why didn’t they even get an invite to the Laurents’ gala, hmm? And while we’re at it, you still haven’t told how you got in. What was it,snuck in under the dessert cart? Or did you shift and slip in as soone’s pet?"
Her face dropped. "You—!"
"Yes?" I kept my voice sweet, ready to put this upstart in her place.
She glared like she was seconds from launching her Louboutins at , then hissed, "You’ll regret this," and stomped out.
I watched her go, head tilted.
A minute after she left, I grabbed my bag and followed.
Sothing about her showing up after hours, all flustered, didn’t sit right with .
Violet Lin didn’t do unannounced pop-ins without a reason, and her face when she saw earlier was straight-up guilty.
I slipped downstairs, low heels silent on the marble.
She’d already reached the lobby, deep in conversation with one of the security guards.
I ducked behind the stairwell, the one blind spot in the CCTV coverage, discovered thanks to three months of staying late and pure paranoia. My weakened wolf couldn’t help scent what was happening, but my eyes and ears still worked just fine.
She handed the guy a card.
Not the kind to access the building, the kind you swipe on a POS terminal.
The guard, whose na was Jace I think, had started last month.
Baby-faced, couldn’t have been more than twenty-five.
Clean-cut, twitchy, the type who still apologized when people bumped into him.
More importantly, not the rich type. Definitely not from one of the major packs, probably a lone wolf trying to make it in the city.
Normally, Violet wouldn’t chat up soone like him.
No way she was down here chatting him up for fun.
Jace tried to push the card away, but Violet said sothing too low for to catch, then he pocketed the card, but not before he darted his eyes around, guilt written all over his face.
I ducked down before he could see and connected the dots.
Violet was paying him off to erase security footage.
Only security and managent had access to the surveillance tapes.
If she wanted sothing wiped, she had to go through him. Or Savannah.
Which ant her little detour upstairs had been a recon mission—to check if the office was empty, and if by luck, Savannah had forgotten to lock her door.
But the mont she saw , she changed her plan.
I waited for her to leave before heading back upstairs to pack up.
But not before I checked my phone and made sure I got what I wanted.
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