Page 53 of Broken Wolf

He ran his tongue over his teeth as I stood, anger in his eyes even as he looked a bit amused. “I probably deserve that even as it smarts.”

I smirked at him. “You’re older, so you’d expect it more from a man, but you’re used to women not being so confident and able to let it run right off of them. Not in my line of profession.” I thought about that a second. “Actually, scratch that, there aren’t any at my level, so they don’t get the chance to show you or have the experience. Yeah, that’s more accurate.”

He seemed to accept that.

“I’m going to have to dig into your staff and those in your court. So not the court clerks, but who is clerking for you that you trust most? That’s who I want to start with and loop in to work directly with the special agent in charge handling most of this for me.”

“I heard you had problems delegating,” he muttered.

I snorted. “My whole life is delegated to the point I have people constantly tell me that my life gives them heartburn and headaches when they hear a fraction of it. And that was before I just bought a few helicopters that I thought overkill and now keep needing. But dirty cops mean I’m involved and it’s good to train the newbies on, so we are.”

He nodded and gave me the name. Even better, he asked for a time for the four of us to meet privately away from eyes and go over it all. He wanted me to clear the clerk myself as a supe.

Great, now he was demanding. I was going to do it anyways since there was dirt, but I was glad to see he was all in and efficient.

He even quietly coordinated so we got the court’s personnel files we needed and who to start digging into that could get us the right red flags. Getting requests for all of that would raise eyebrows and have people talking, so this was way better.

And with the light staff before the holiday, people wouldn’t care and would forget it over the vacation day. It was actually perfectly timed, and I thanked him for making it easier on me.

We still had a ton of everything we needed to get and dig into, but it was a good jump.

That win was ruined when I smelled something on Carter that I didn’t like and he was being distant.

Again.

So much for our magical night and amazing connection that meant everything to him, huh?

It made me already salty, and then Hagan was waiting for me in the hallway of my apartment looking like he was itching for a fight.

Great. Just fucking great. So we were finally going to have this out?

He was stupid to do it right after my period started now that they were nasty on supe birth control.

“My wolf is agitated because I was childish and pushed this back, but I would like a calm conversation,” he said, sensing my reaction to his state. “Please.” He scrubbed his hand over his head. “And maybe with Eva.” He nodded. “Yeah, I’m sorry, but I want to tag her in and settle this even if it’s awkward because she’s your grandmother. I have one point I want to make.”

Okay, I could more than give him that after I’d embarrassed him. I hadn’t done it intentionally… But I had.

But he was also an idiot for leaving this and just avoiding me.

Which was also my specialty, so I really couldn’t judge.

Eva glanced between us as we walked in. “I asked your chefs to give me the list of what was in those shrimp lettuce wraps we had on your menu. I liked them but thought there was something I wanted to change for my tastes. Maya helped me with the grocery delivery, and I thought we could have some fun personalizing them since I know you like them too.”

“I do already make them,” I told her. “I don’t do raw onion like they do and throw in a bit of mild salsa and Japanese mayo. And more pine nuts. That’s how I like mine.”

“Interesting. Show me, and we will handle what is boiling between you two,” she told me, waving us both over.

It was weird to tell my grandmother something so personal, and I didn’t want to hurt Hagan but yeah, we just needed to handle this. So I was honest. I loved him and I wasn’t mad, and I certainly loved the sex we had, but I didn’t fantasize about it. He wasn’t who I tended to fantasize or crave because he could be selfish.

He satisfied me, but he was more focused on how awesome sex with me was and what I could give him. It was why I wore my ring sometimes, and I knew that annoyed him.

She listened to me, and I felt like she was also probing me with her siren. She tossed me an apron and got me set up with ingredients to show her exactly my proportions even.

Then she waved Hagan to go.

“All I really want to say is that sometimes Sera gets things wrong,” he admitted calmly. “It seems petty to bring up because like no shit, and that was why I fought against doing this. My wolf got annoyed, and now we’re agitated because he’s fair and thought Sera wasn’t being fair. She can’t see everything. She gets some images.

“And some feelings from those images. That’s way different than like a telepath or even a full picture. I know she’s flinched when I’ve thought that I’m glad her turn is over, but there was more to that. I’m glad she was happy and I did it well. I get nervous for her turn and if I can make it good enough. Sometimes I want it over because—”

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