Page 144 of Elven Shadow

Well, look at that.

Rebecca didn’t know whether to be flattered by his interest or offended by his complete lack of regard for her personal space. Why couldn’t it be both?

Maxwell Hannigan, Head of Security and her second in command, had a little alpha wolf in him after all.

And she liked it.

Rebecca stared him down as he loomed over her in her armchair, his silver eyes pulsing and his hands clamped down around the chair’s armrests, which creaked in protest beneath the added weight and pressure.

This guy had some real guts. She could give him that.

How much further was he willing to take this broach on her personal space, and his inference of wanting only one thing from her, and his certainty that he would get it one way or the other?

The air practically crackled with the tension between them, and Rebecca struggled between two equally intense urges.

To either shove him away or to jump him right there and call him on his bluff—to make him show herexactlywhat it was he wanted and meant to take from her.

And a third little voice in the back of her head set off a repeat warning alarm for several reasons, but only one of them blared louder than all the others.

She couldn’t be involved with anyone, no matter what kind of tense, electrifying chemistry flared between them at all the wrong moments.

Beyond that, Maxwell was a shifter, and that was just… Well, it was different.

To make it worse, she didn’t feel at all like herself right now, thanks to her unhealing homunculus wounds and Zida’s quick-fix treatment starting to wear off.

Hopefully, she wouldn’t pass out at any second and end up making Maxwell think it was because ofhim.

Though if the shifter was so intent on propositioning her like Aldous had, she didn’t think she’d be so closed-off to it this time.

Not from him.

“Only one thing you want from me?” she asked, tilting her head. “And what’s that?”

Maxwell stared her down a moment longer, then snorted as if he’d been trying to hold back a sneeze.

Had he been smelling her again?

“The truth,” he said.

Was that all? Great. Moment ruined, then.

If Rebecca thought there was some pull of attraction here between her and the shifter, she could probably blame it on her current physical state and nothing else.

“Careful what you wish for, Wolfie,” she told him, still loving the way his nostrils flared whenever she called him anything but Maxwell or Hannigan.

Finally, he shoved himself away from the armchair to put more space between them. Though whether he was convinced of her resolve or simply frustrated that she hadn’t given in yet, she couldn’t tell.

“I don’t trust you, elf,” he said, shaking his head. “I didn’t trust you when you showed up here, and nothing you’ve done since then has changed that. Not even getting this entire task force behind you to lift you all the way up to the top.”

“Huh.” Rebecca wrinkled her nose at him when he turned his back and headed toward the box of non-organic body parts he’d dropped on the floor. “Maybe you didn’t hear me last time, but Ididsay this isn’t what I wanted, either.”

“I heard you. But we both know how dangerous it is to believe everything you hear.” He picked up the box again and slung it under one arm like it was nothing before turning around to face her one last time. “You’ve been hiding something since the moment you stepped foot in this building, and you’re still hiding something.”

“You can’t convince me I’m the only one here this applies to,” she replied. “All of us withpast lives we can’t go back to. So you’re telling me no one’s allowed to have secrets?”

“Not when they interfere with field missions or bring nurúzhe like Hector down on our heads and incite rebellion from the inside. Hey, maybe this was all part of your plan from the beginning to ensure your dirty little secrets stayhidden. Insulate yourself within the entire organization at your disposal, and there’s no one left to question you.”

“Whew.” Slumping back in the armchair again, Rebecca crossed one ankle over the opposite knee and grinned. “That’s quite the imagination you have, Max.”

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