I bellow and come so hard my eyes roll back in my head. The air in the pod is hot with our breath. Our sex. Our love.
“Madi,” I whisper softly. I wrap my arm around her waist and roll us to our sides, keeping our bodies tightly molded together. “My perfect, brilliant mate.”
“My Big Bad Boss,” she murmurs back.
As I listen to the slowing rhythm of my heartbeat pounding against her back, I pray to fate I can be more than that to her. For now, it’s what we have. A way we work.
I need to find others.
Fate chose her as the perfect mate for me. But Fate also paired my parents-two alpha bloodlines from rival packs. Of course there was a design there-they created me and my sisters. We are wolves born of the two most powerful shifter bloodlines in the world. But I don’t want to live out my parents’ destiny-to have a marked mate without a true bond. To be mated, but not together-forever divided by pack and blood.
Somehow, I have to find a way to keep Madi and my pack.
Brick
Sully meets me on the tarmac, his hair blowing in the salty breeze. Madi is still asleep on the jet, but I’m not going to wake her yet. I don’t need her to see Sully here. She thinks this is a honeymoon.
If only it were.
“All clear, Alpha. I checked the whole island. Every staff member has been vetted. This place is secure.”
“Good. I want your hand-picked security staff here when I leave. I need to know she’s safe at all times.”
“They’re en route now.”
“All right. Give me two days here to settle Madi, and then I’ll meet you in Sweden.”
“Are you-” Sully breaks off.
“Am I what?” I snap, throwing a little alpha command in my voice. I sense the doubt in my leadership still, even in my own closest brothers.
Sully lowers his gaze and bares his throat. “Are you fully recovered? From the moon madness?”
“Yes.” I’m not sure if it’s true. There’s still an inner war with my wolf, especially when I think about attending the Winter Games.
He searches my face, eyes flaring shifter bright.
“What?” I snap.
The light in his eye winks out, and he angles his head slightly. “I’m not questioning your abilities, it’s just that I can protect you better if I know the whole picture.”
Irritation spikes. My need to get back on the plane and secure my mate is eating at me. “You have the picture. Now go.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
My phone rings before I can get back on the plane. It’s Ruby, so I answer.
“Brick, what the actual fuck?”
“Excuse me?” My wolf makes my voice drop in register. “Do you want to reword that?”
“Forgive me, Alpha.” Her sarcasm could slice a person in half. “But what exactly is your plan? You’re going to the Winter Games to find a mate?”
Ah. Now I understand why she’s ready to rip me a new one.
“No, of course not. Madi is my mate. I just couldn’t reveal that to the pack so soon after the leaked video of my boardroom shift. They would think me unfit. We can’t risk anyone defecting to the Adalwulf pack right now.”
“Where is Madi?”
“She’s with me-in Greece. I brought her to the island where she will be safe and close while I go to the games.”
“Does Madi know about you going to the shifter games?”
My wolf snarls beneath the surface. The idea that I might be sabotaging this relationship is turning me feral again. “I don’t need to discuss this with you.”
“That means she doesn’t know! Brick-“
“
I am handling this, Ruby,” I cut her off with a full alpha command.
“Like hell you are,” she mutters as I end the call.
* * *
Madi
I look out at the view of turquoise water and white sand from the window of our honeymoon suite. The architecture on the island is a glorious combination of raw nature and complete luxury. All the buildings gleam white, matching the foam of the sea. We’re staying in a killer mansion right on the beach. A heated pool carved into the hillside takes on the look of natural water, complete with a waterfall and hot tub area. We have a full luxury kitchen, but there’s a restaurant right behind us where Brick says I can order anything and have it brought to our quarters or anywhere on the island.
After we arrived on the island, we showered, had sex again, and unpacked. Then Brick left, saying he was going to arrange our dinner.
I decide it’s a good time to call Aubrey. We’ve been texting, but we haven’t spoken in days-not since Brick marked me, and I miss her. I may not be able to share the fact that Brick’s a werewolf or that we’re mated, but I still need my bestie’s input and feedback.
She answers on the second ring.
“So, I’m on a Greek Island.”
“Stop it.”
“Seriously.” Beyond the bay window, the setting sun bathes the empty beach in pink and purple hues.
Our suite features wall-to-wall windows that face the sea, with a giant sliding glass door for easy access. Like when Brick helicoptered me into the Miravelle Spa, the employees were waiting for us when we arrived, and I haven’t seen any other guests. Like he rented out the entire island. Is that possible?
“That’s just nuts. So what-your billionaire boyfriend just decided to whisk you off to an island on his private jet?”
“That is literally what happened.” I couldn’t be more stunned about the state of my life.
“That’s terrible for the environment but also kind of awesome for you. Except, you don’t sound as ecstatic as I think you should.”
“Honestly…” I take a deep breath. I need to get this off my chest. “It feels like bringing me here is his stalling technique. Or meant to distract me. He doesn’t want to rehire me yet at Moon Co-I’m guessing because it would be a PR nightmare.”
“What do you mean?” Aubrey demands.
Aubrey always has my back. She would pee on Brick’s windshield right now if I told her he hurt me. Peeing on a person’s windshield is the ultimate insult, according to her.
“I think they want me to stay the bad guy to show the security breach has been completely handled. It might look even more mismanaged if I’m suddenly back to work there.”
“Oh that’s fucked up. I don’t like that at all.” Aubrey’s tone of voice matches the tension in the pit of my stomach.
It feels good to at least explain the situation aloud to someone. I’ve been too isolated lately. It turns out, I’m still on lockdown here. This seems to be his own private island. We’re not at a public resort. Or if we are, he booked the entire place.
“I don’t, either. I mean, I think he’s going to work it out but wants the dust to settle and to put some strategy behind it, but he’s not letting me in on the strategizing, so I feel…”
“Ew.”
“Yeah. That sums it up.”
“Do not let this guy jerk you around. I feel like the fact that he started as your boss may have set your relationship up for a weird dynamic where he thinks he gets to call all the shots.”
I close my eyes remembering the way he mastered me in the jet last night. I loved it-so much-but she’s right.
“That’s accurate.”
“Just because he’s rich and powerful does not make him better than you. He-” Aubrey interrupts her own rant.
“What?”
“Hang on. Let me ask you a question. Serious question, Mads.”
“Okay.”
She hesitates. “This is sort of the opposite of what I was just saying. But just to be devil’s advocate for a second-do you think you might be extra sensitive to this situation because he’s rich and powerful?”
“No.” I answer too quickly, a note of defensiveness ringing in my own ears.
Aubrey doesn’t say anything.
I turn over her words in my head. Of course, she doesn’t know the whole picture. How much of an outsider I really am to this man and his family, friends, and pack.
“I just know that’s a sore spot for you because of your sperm donor. I think it might make you defensive when you don’t need to be. I mean this guy is clearly crazy about you. I saw how miserable he looked when you guys split.”
She can’t know how true that is. He literally went mad over me.
“I feel like you might be looking for ways this isn’t going to work out as a way of protecting yourself instead of finding ways to make it work. You’re the problem-solver, Madi. I know when you set your mind to anything, you figure it out.”
“I…I’m not sure this is a problem I can solve.”
Aubrey scoffs. “Do not sell yourself short. You’re Madison-fucking-Evans. You already brought this crypto billionaire to his knees. Now make it work!”
I smile.
“Seriously. You’re on a Greek Island. Please go live it up. Have great sex. Enjoy the scenery. Make him give you your job back with another raise. This is your oyster. Pry it open and take your pearl.”
I laugh. “You’re waxing poetic today.”
“I’m a little jealous. Not that I’d want a rich dude to jet me off to an island, but it seems like you’re being rewarded for a lifetime of hard work and proving yourself worthy. So drink it up!”
My chest feels lighter. “I will. You’re right. I’m probably just tired from the jetlag. Thank you for talking me off the ledge.”
“Any time. Also, I love you. But I gotta run. Call me if you need to!”
“Love you-bye!”
I end the call just as Brick walks in through the door.
“Ready, love?” He holds a hand out to me. It’s shocking how giddy and breathless I get hearing him call me love. “I think you’re going to like the dinner I have planned for you.”
* * *
Brick
I lead Madi down the beach to the place where I had the staff set up a table for two, surrounded by blazing torches that light the table and keep Madi warm and reflect fire on the water.
“This is lovely. Thank you.”
Madi’s eyes are warm as I pull out her chair to seat her. There’s something softer about her-like whatever she was bracing against has been removed.
If only I knew what it was.
“This sure beats New York in December.”
“It does.” I uncork the wine and pour us each a glass.
Madi’s skin glows in the light of the setting sun and the glow of the torches. I want to forgo dinner and devour her again.
“Did you book this entire place?”
“I own it. So yes. This way I can fully focus on you.”
And have you close by and protected when I go to the pack games.
One of the staff brings out our salad plates-traditional Greek salad with the most perfect sheep feta ever created.
Madi devours it, pleasing my wolf.
The next few courses consist of more Greek cuisine-fresh-caught and grilled sea bass, dolmades, rice, and the light, flaky baklava for dessert.
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