Page 46 of Her Cruel Alpha

“Do you need help?”

I looked at him, a little surprised. “Really? You’re not going to ask me to give this up.”

Henrik shook his head. “I would love to, but after listening to the Council go on about how you're the most qualified person to handle this, I couldn’t. It would be selfish.”

I softly smile. “I hope you know that means a lot to me.”

He gave me one in return. “So, do you want to start?”

I shook my head. “I want to sleep. I’m exhausted. We can start tomorrow, and I’ll fill you in on everything.”

Henrik rested his forehead against mine. “Okay, then tomorrow.”

We went home and slept for hours. We both got up and arrived at the lab a little before eight the following morning. I showed Henrik everything that I had done and told him aboutthe different experiments we’d done and how we’d gotten little response.

“Is it weightless?” Henrik asked as I set a flask onto the table filled with the black mass.

“Is it, yet it somehow weighs a ton at moments.” I frowned, glancing at him. “We had a young lady who told us it surrounded her room, and it felt like someone was standing on her chest. It broke four of her ribs, and she had a punctured lung.”

Henriks eyes widened. “Jesus.”

I nodded, glancing at the flask. The mask swirled around like black water, and you could feel the energy emanating from the glass.

“It’s constantly changing its abilities.” I tilted the flask and stared at it. Henrik leaned on the table, raising an eyebrow. “Why does it react to you?”

“No idea,” I said. “But it does.”

We spent days together working hard to figure things out. Henrik and I mixed the mass with things, getting little results. We arrived at the lab early in the morning and left late into the night. Henrik came with me every day and was always willing to do whatever I asked. He helped clean and wrote all the notes down as I did the experiments.

“Should we break for lunch?” Henrik asked, setting the notepad down. I looked at him from the computer and then looked at the time. It was a little past noon now.

“Yeah, what should we have today?”

“I don’t know if I can eat cafeteria food again,” he added. “How about I run out and grab us something? And maybe another coffee?” He pointed to the mug that was set beside me.

As Henrik pulled on his jacket, his phone started to buzz. He pulled it out and frowned. “Dang it.”

“Who is it?”

“Kyle. I meant to call him when we got home last night, but I fell asleep. Shit, he wanted to have a meeting.”

“Why don’t you go then?”

He frowned. “I don’t want to leave you alone here….” He waved a hand towards the black mass. “With this.”

“I have other people down here who check on me. Besides, it’s been a while since you’ve seen the guys and caught up. You’re needed with them.”

“Are you sure? I can still bring you food?”

I shook my head. “I don’t mind the food upstairs, and you should head out. I’ll see you when I get home.”

He walked over, reaching a hand up, and cupped my face. He leaned forward, placing a kiss on my cheek.

I felt my face heat, aching to step closer to him. We had been working in close quarters for a while, and he was always so helpful. I found my mind wandering at times, thinking of the last time we had been this close.

I shook the thought away. “I’ll see you at home.”

Henrik left, and I went upstairs for lunch. I ate lunch and headed back down to the lab. After a few more hours, my brain ached. I glanced at the time, seeing it was a little after four and I should call it a day.

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