Page 10 of Betrayed Auctioned Mate

Keira studies me. I watch some of her defensiveness melt.

“I don’t plan on being in the field,” she says.

“Things happen.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

Of course, she does. We both do.

I tilt my head slightly. I’m the shortest guy in the team, but I tower over Keira. We used to laugh about it, once upon a time.

“An hour a day, until I’m satisfied,” I tell her. “Aris can do it if you want. I’m not taking arguments on this.”

Keira frowns. I see her clear her face of emotion by force.

“Fine,” she says, with the weight of someone who understands what can go wrong. “An hour a day with Aris.”

Chapter 5 - Keira

The faces of the missing girls in the files bring me back to the office in New York, where I’ve spent the better part of three years. This shouldn’t surprise me, but it does.

I spent an hour looking through the files Ado and Aris supplied me with, sitting in the uncomfortable straight-backed seat I was assigned for the briefing and trying not to listen in on the other conversations around me, on the couches and at the table. Most of the pack is still here. I think Ado must be, too. I can smell him nearby. I keep my head down and pretend I can’t feel people staring.

It was like a shock of lightning to see Bigby, Byron, and Percy again, and likewise to meet their mates and friends, these new members of a pack I used to know. Everyone has been nothing less than kind to me. Still, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The other shoe is lingering by the door behind me, I know, silent and waiting. What he’s waiting for, I don’t yet know.

A heavy hand claps down on my shoulder. I jump about a mile.

“Whoa!” Bigby laughs. “Easy there. It’s good to see you, Hart.”

“Please—just Keira,” I tell him. I stand, too, coming up to his level, suddenly full of nervous energy. “It’s good to see you again, too. And did someone tell me you have a daughter?”

“I know I don’t look the part,” Bigby laughs.

I find myself laughing too. “Everyone got so grown-up somehow,” I joke.

“You did, too,” says Percy, approaching us. He pulls me into a quick hug. I see a kind of tiredness in his face that wasn’t there before. I wonder what I missed. “Big office job in New York. Climbing the corporate ladder.”

“It’s not all that,” I promise, bashful now.

The air thickens with awkwardness. I’m not sure what to ask or say. The history I’ve missed feels insurmountable. Do I ask about everyone’s kids? Something about the mission, maybe—it’s why I’m here. But the meeting’s over, and suddenly, it occurs to me that I should leave and that this isn’t my place.

Bigby opens his mouth to say something, but I speak first, cutting over him.

“I need to carry on with these files. I might head to my room and knuckle down with them,” I say.

Percy looks sad. “You should stay and catch up with us.”

“No, really, I need to get caught up to speed on the details.” I force a smile onto my face. “Another time, though. Promise.”

Making clear that we have to get drinks and socialize properly soon, the boys disperse. I catch a quick, curious look exchanged between them. I find myself thinking again about Ado. Did he ever speak about me, in all these years?

I gather my papers and make for the door. I can’t see Ado, but I know he’s close. A woman whose name I think I remember is Rosa waves at me from one of the leather couches, and I wave back as I leave.

Preoccupied, I stumble over the ridge along the bottom of the doorframe and stagger forward, fumbling with the papers in my hands.

Someone catches my arm to steady me. I pull away on instinct and look over my shoulder to see Ado standing in the shadows against the wall on the outer side of the door.

---