Page 20 of Haze

Finn drives the speed limit, is respectful of other traffic, and is suspiciously good at driving on the right-hand side of the road. The trip to the apartment building isn’t long, but we pass it in silence.

Once parked in front of my building, Finn opens his car door, pointing a finger at me, which I only assume means to stay and wait for him. Defiance leads me to reach for the handle, but I’m not compelled to pull it. Why?

Because you want him as much as I do, my wolf growls at me, her attention firmly locked on him.

Finn opens the door and stoops down, making sure the seatbelt is out of the way before offering me his hand to exit the vehicle. In an awkward jingle-your-keys-while-standing-on-the-front-step moment at the end of a date, I stand toe to toe with Finn. His strong silence doesn’t make it uncomfortable.

No, that’s my wolf as she practically begs me to take Finn upstairs.

“Text him. He’ll be asking for your number anyway. Saves me the hassle of getting it off the lab phone tree.” I pull one of the dark blue business cards out of my wallet.

After handing it to Finn, I don’t wait to hear his reply. I abandon him on the sidewalk and retreat into the apartment building and the sanctuary I’ve created.

Chapter 7

Finn

Lena isn’t in the lab. I’ve looked for her a few different times today. Her office light is off, and none of the things I scented her on have been touched today. By lunchtime, I’m getting antsy looking for her. Without a small army of loyal soldiers, I can’t simply have someone look for her while I do the job I’m being paid to do. I dislike this adjustment to the ‘new normal’ that is my life.

“She doesn’t have class on Thursdays or Fridays.” Brayden patronizes when I walk past her lab again on my way to my office.

I turn to look at him. His face begins and ends with a shit-eating grin.

Brayden walks toward me slowly. Squaring his shoulders, he crosses to the far side of the hallway and keeps his torso centered with mine as he walks past me. Then he circles back to stand in front of me, blocking my original path.

It’s like he’s read a book on wolf behaviors and is trying to intimidate me by circling around. I would tell him how it makes him look like an arse, but this is more amusing.

“You think you’re tough shit coming in here in your dress shirt and clipboard. Somehow last night, you got Lena to defend you.” Brayden makes it clear he misunderstood what happened last night.

He extends his noodle arms out to the side, blocking my path down the hallway.

Do we look like a bear or a flock of sheep? My wolf equates his attempt to seem bigger as an attempt at intimidation.

I agree; the dress shirt is out of place except among senior faculty. But I’ve yet to see anyone here with anywhere near the amount of ink I have. Before I take the place down a class, I want a better lay of the land, so the long-sleeve dress shirts stay.

Brayden, like many of the other young gobshites waltzing into my life before him, takes my silence as an invitation to keep running his mouth. “You shouldn’t put your hands on her. You don’t own her.”

My wolf revels in the idea of tearing him to pieces for touching her last night. It’s our right.

Back home, if he’d laid a hand on any of the females in the pack, he’d have lost an arm. It would have been me to carry out his sentence, and I would have done it gladly. No one should make a woman feel uncomfortable like that without experiencing negative recourse.

Instead, I stand stock-still, watching. The O’Brien way isn’t suited here.

I try to dismiss him, and I even use manners to do it. “Thank you.”

“You don’t know her schedule, but you’re sure acting like you own her.” Brayden crosses his arms across his chest. Giving up on corralling me, he now tries to intimidate me. “She’s not some weak little flower. She’s the Alpha Female here. Her brother Cade is a big deal.”

At least he pays some attention. Though now I’ve pulled my head out of the trenches more, it seems Cade has been making quite a bit of headway for the wolves of this country.

I try condescension as an attempt to dismiss him with a wave of my hand. “Aye.”

Brayden brazenly steps closer to me. Before, he was just beyond arm’s reach, but now he’s easily too close to escape.

Unaware of the danger he’s put himself in, he scoffs and informs me, “Lena doesn’t need someone like you in her life.”

Smiling isn’t something I do. My men would tell you my smiles are reserved for women and the people I’m about to punch in the face for opening their mouths and letting stupid come out. And Brayden isn’t a woman.

I quirk a half smile and contemplate how good it would be to bloody my knuckles on his face.

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