Gilbert blinked rapidly, trying to claw back so control over his scattered thoughts. How could this woman possibly be his mate?
His wolf was moving restlessly inside him, but his human mind was still several steps behind.
"I... I don’t know what you’re talking about," he lied, refusing to claim any Serrano as his mate. His cheeks burned with a rare flush as he stared at her, equal parts dazed and wary at how bold she had been. Apart from not wanting any Serrano, he’d heard so much about Laila he would never have soone like her as his mate. This was sothing that could never work out.
Laila’s lips curved into a slow knowing smile. His mother was an elder, one locked in a quiet, simring feud with her uncle, and her uncle would absolutely lose his mind if he discovered her fated mate was Gilbert. Even though to get back at her uncle, Laila would make this work.
She lifted her free hand and slowly ran her thumb across his lower lip, tracing the wetness she had left behind. The simple touch sent another jolt straight through him. Gilbert’s breath hitched audibly.
"I hope this haunts you until you understand exactly what I’m saying," she murmured, her voice dropping into an intimate tone. Her eyes held his for one long, charged second, letting him see the storm swirling behind them, the rejection she had just walked away from with Sebastian, and the rejection she had no intention of accepting twice in one day.
Laila had never been a one-man kind of woman, but Sebastian’s rejection and her uncle’s action had lit sothing reckless in her, sothing that wanted to push back against the world. She leaned in and pressed a final kiss to the corner of his mouth.
Then she released his collar.
Laila stepped back smoothly, smoothing down the front of her dress as though she hadn’t just upended his entire world in the middle of a hallway.
Gilbert remained pinned against the wall, his chest still rising and falling unevenly, one hand drifting up unconsciously to touch his lips where her thumb had traced. His wolf whined in protest at the sudden distance, already mourning the loss of her scent and closeness.
She turned on her heel, then paused, glancing back over her shoulder one last ti. "Doctor Gilbert," she said softly, almost like a promise, "you’ll be seeing more of ."
With that, Laila walked away, her hips swaying with that sa familiar confidence, even as fresh tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. She refused to let them fall again, and smiled through wiping them away.
Gilbert stood frozen for a long mont, staring after her retreating figure. His heart hamred violently against his ribs.
The faint mate bond, if that was even what this electric pull was, humd beneath his skin. He bent slowly to retrieve his tablet, his fingers trembling slightly as he picked it up.
"Damn it," he muttered under his breath, dragging a hand through his hair. For the first ti in years, the composed, unshakable pack physician felt completely unmoored, and scared shitless. Of every she-wolf in Silver, it had to be Laila Serrano.
"I have to avoid her from now on." He muttered, hurrying toward the Alpha’s office and trying desperately to hide the flush still burning across his face.
___
When Gilbert entered the office, he found the Alpha walking toward his private room, but Sebastian stopped the mont Gilbert ca through the door. Still reeling from the encounter in the hallway, the doctor failed to notice at first how his entrance had made the Alpha’s expression shift into a frown of open irritation, not until he felt the atmosphere in the room change and looked up to find that dark scowl aid directly at him.
"Can’t a man get a single day of peace with his wife in this pack? Why does everyone keep coming to disturb my ti?" Sebastian said with barely concealed annoyance, and Gilbert composed himself enough to notice the Luna standing at the private room’s doorway in nothing but the Alpha’s shirt, and he understood imdiately that he had walked into sothing he very much shouldn’t have.
"My apologies, Alpha. You told to report to you today." Gilbert said.
Sebastian ran a hand through his hair, recalling that he had indeed sent a private ssage to the doctor last night asking him to co by today. Laila had been the real culprit who had eaten into his ti, Gilbert was only doing his job.
Sebastian’s eyes move to his wife, who was now standing in the doorway watching him, and he felt the last hope of spending the full day with her shatter quietly into pieces. As though she understood the situation perfectly, she walked over to him and said,
"I think it’s best I head back to my place. You can co find when your work is done, there’s no need for to stay here and distract you." She told him good-naturedly, even though a flicker of disappointnt sat quietly in her chest at their mont being broken. She understood he had to work.
Sebastian didn’t care that the doctor was standing in his office. He wrapped his arm around his wife’s hips, pulling her close, and buried his face into the crook of her neck. "You should at least eat sothing before you go back, sunshine." He murmured, pressing a kiss to her pulse point and making her squirm in his arms.
Viola was very aware of Gilbert’s presence on the other side of the room and felt it was rude to be displaying this level of affection in front of him. She tried to gently push away as she whispered, "I have eaten my fill and left the rest for you. I’m full." His arms only tightened around her in response rather than loosening.
She felt his hand settle flat against her stomach, pressing lightly before he pulled back to scold her with a look. "Your waist is still exactly as small as it was in the shower, and I can’t feel a single bit of food bloating, amor. You didn’t eat enough, did you?" He asked, looking down at her in open displeasure, because it seed his wife was still quietly neglecting herself.
"I finished a ham sandwich, Seb, and I will snack when I get back to my place. The doctor is waiting for you." She reminded him carefully, wanting to escape the display before it went any further.
She had never been a particularly shy person, but perhaps years of receiving no affection at all had made her more guarded with it, wanting to keep it private, especially when she and Sebastian had always felt like sothing entirely their own, contained between just the two of them, until now.
But her husband wasn’t finished fussing over her. He raised his hand and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, looking down into her blue eyes. "Expect tonight. I will sleep at your place, and keep your phone close by, because I will video call you in a little while to check that you actually snacked or ate sothing." He whispered.
Viola nodded quickly, agreeing to anything at all as long as it ant she could escape him before the wetness building between her thighs beca obvious, because his affection was turning her on, and she wasn’t wearing panties to contain it. With the sharp senses every werewolf possessed, soone would pick up on a scent like that quickly, and Gilbert being a doctor ant he would know instantly that she was getting damp for her husband.
Sebastian didn’t release her imdiately, but then his frown deepened when the scent of her arousal reached him. He let go of her briefly, retrieved a coat from behind his office couch, and walked back over to drape it around her shoulders.
"Let walk you to the elevator." He said, settling his arm around her waist and pulling her possessively against his side as they walked past Gilbert, who, if they had only known, wasn’t paying them the slightest bit of attention. His mind was miles away, still tangled up in his own very recent encounter in the hallway with Miss Serrano.
Sebastian walked his wife to his private personal elevator and kissed her hard one final ti before reluctantly letting her go, with a promise from him that he would eat the food she had left behind when he was done working. He watched the elevator doors close, catching one last glimpse of her waving back at him, and turned away fighting an arousal so intense it was almost unbelievable, considering everything they had already done together in that shower just hours ago.
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