Page 21 of Haze

Fortunately for Brayden, I’m not in charge here. Until I get Lena on my side of things, I need this job to stay close to her.

I toss the phrase back at him. “Oh, and I suppose she needs you? For someone failing chemistry, you sure spend an awful lot of time in the science department. Isn’t there some, I don’t know, communications class you should be sitting in on?”

“Oh, because you’ve a degree in what?” Brayden sasses, extending one of his lanky arms to gesture toward me.

“I have a business degree from Trinity College in Dublin.” I give him a cold laugh before lowering my brow and looking down at him.

“You don’t own Lena.” He says that phrase again like he’s stuck on it.

He doesn’t know how relevant I plan to make ownership a part of my relationship with Lena. I intend to own her in all ways.

Brayden narrows his eyes at me. “I will date Lena. I’m taking her to homecoming. I’ve known her a lot longer than you have. It’s best you step away.”

Best for who? My wolf laughs, his tongue lolled out in a sly smile.

I question, “I will, yeah?”

“Yeah.” Brayden mocks my Irish accent, poorly. “I know you’re a shifter. I’m not afraid of you.”

“If you think the fact I’m a shifter should scare you, you’re an eejit.” I shake my head. “The fact you put your manky human hands on my mate should.”

“You’ll have to find yourself a different bitch because Lena’s mine.” Brayden makes what could have been a fatal mistake.

I grab his collar and slam him across the hallway into the wall, pushing my forearm against his throat.

My wolf encourages me to finish him. Little bit more and the problem resolves itself.

Brayden’s eyes widen, understanding how fucked he is. Fear floods off him in droves. The stank smell clogs up my nose and the air of the hallway.

I push a little harder, cutting off his windpipe. Holding back my wolf, I suppress the urge to growl and snarl my way through my promise. “I’ll speak very slowly so you can understand me. If you talk about Lena that way again, I will have no problem getting rid of you. Touch my mate or even look at my mate the wrong way, and I’ll be sure it’s one of the last things you do.”

A door down the hall opens. I turn as one of the raven-haired wolves from Lena’s lab pokes her head out. She stifles an ‘oh’ before covering her mouth with her hand. It barely muffles the laugh before she retreats, closing the door.

Seems I’m not the only one who’s had enough.

I swing my attention back to Brayden and loosen the pressure on his neck. He swallows hard as if understanding what I’m saying.

I attempt to drive the fear of God into him, or at the very least, the fear of me. “When you’re beating yourself over the head with your chemistry textbook tonight and decide you need to take a break because the last two brain cells in your ugly block have all but given up, maybe you give the old internet search a hit. In the event you haven’t heard, I’m Griffin O’Leary, brother of Magnus O’Brien.”

If Brayden’s paling face is anything to go by, he pays enough attention to international news to know Magnus has been in it a lot since wolves were outed to the public. Crime pays well, but it also tends to get your last name and mugshot splashed across news screens. The police will never be able to make any of the charges stick, but Magnus spends quite a bit of time in the headlines and shiny bracelets.

With great theatrics, Brayden crumples to the ground when I let go of him. He scrambles to his feet.

I grab hold of his bicep, standing him still along my side. Tilting my head over my shoulder at him, I growl, “You will delete Lena’s number from your phone and never text her again. If you ever make another woman anywhere near as uncomfortable as you did Lena last night—and it gets back to me—you better start praying to whatever God you believe in that he takes you first.”

In his smartest move yet, Brayden uses his spindly legs to quickly walk down the hall with one last wayward glance over his shoulder. I watch him go before walking into my office.

From my pocket, I pull out my wallet to find Cade’s card and enter his number into my phone. Per Lena’s instructions, delayed by a night’s sleep, I send him a text message:

Me:

This is Finn O’Leary. I believe it’s time we have a meeting.

Cade texts me back almost immediately.

Cade Alden:

I’m guessing this isn’t something that can wait until the one I had scheduled for tomorrow.

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