Page 33 of Elven Shadow

Aldous’s way or the highway, and in this scenario, the highway had already been built.

Rebecca had a shadow she was unlikely to discover without detriment to herself or her own secrets, and if she failed to retrieve the fucking Darkspawn Aldous was so certain truly existed, hewouldkill her.

He would try, anyway. She’d stop him, of course, but that came with its own inherent risks. At the top of that list was the certainty that in order to stop him, she’d end up revealing exactly who and what she was, and it would happen at a time when she and Aldous certainly weren’t alone.

He’d make sure of it.

So what could she do now but stand here, take the abuse flying in her face with all the spit flung from his lips, and figure out how to get herself out of this unnecessary hole dug for her by a complete moron who thought he was better than her in every way.

Keeping her mouth shut was the most difficult part of this whole thing.

“Hmm?” Aldous asked, taking one more step toward her and turning his head to press his ear closer, as if he expected her to whisper some new secret in his ear. “Anything at all, elf?”

Rebecca glared at him.

Say nothing, and this would all be over…

“I asked you a fucking question!” His shout echoed through the office, followed by a tense silence that made her ears ring.

Then Rebecca nodded. “Just one thing, yeah.”

Aldous spread his arms. “Then let’s hear it. I’m waiting.”

She should just turn around right now and let himkeepwaiting. That was the smarter thing to do. The low-key thing. The best way to lie low andstayunder the radar despite having already captured her commander’s attention in such a way that had led tothisshitshow.

Rebecca knew all of this, but her rational mind and the passionate fire flaring through her blood were entirely at odds with each other now, and the fire won out—like it usually did.

She leaned toward the furious green changeling and sneered right back at him. “I don’t get on my knees for anyone. So you can go fuck yourself.”

The shocked outburst bubbling up the back of Aldous’s throat croaked and squeezed off in disbelief when she rounded it off with a middle finger just for him.

Spinning around to end this meeting on her own terms was apparently the last straw for him.

“Don’t you turn your back on me!” Aldous shrieked. “I haven’t dismissed you!”

“I’ve got work to do,” she barked. “You’ll have to dismiss me later.”

“If you fail me, elf, I swear I will slit your throat myself!”

“Noted.” Whether the changeling had heard her, Rebecca couldn’t tell. She didn’t care.

More importantly, if she didn’t get out of the same room with him, one of them would definitely end up getting their throat cut tonight, and it wouldn’t be her.

Aldous offered a final furious roar behind her before snarling at his Head of Security, “Get her the fuck out of here.”

While Aldous sputtered and fumed, unable to get over himself, Rebecca marched toward the office door still silently and expressionlessly manned by Maxwell.

He met her gaze with that same stoic mask, though something glimmered within his silver eyes that almost made him look impressed.

“What?” she murmured as she reached him. “Why are you looking at me like that? Oh wait, did you want some of this too?”

She swung a raised middle finger in the shifter’s direction this time because it was either that or a fist to his face when she really wanted to punch in Aldous’s instead.

Maxwell didn’t have a response for that, big surprise, but he also didn’t say anything else to Aldous or even look at Shade’s leader for some other sign or signal or perhaps a last word.

Instead, the shifter quickly followed Rebecca out of the office, pulling the door shut with little thought to how hard or how loudly that door banged behind them.

Then Rebecca stalked down the hallway on her own, heading for the double layers of staircases that would take her back to the ground floor and eventually to her personal quarters in the compound.

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