Chapter 5
Brick
Sully meets me on the tarmac, his hair blowing in the salty breeze. Madi is still asleep on the jet, but I’m not going to wake her yet. I don’t need her to see Sully here. She thinks this is a honeymoon.
If only it were.
“All clear, Alpha. I checked the whole island. Every staff member has been vetted. This place is secure.”
“Good. I want your hand-picked security staff here when I leave. I need to know she’s safe at all times.”
“They’re en route now.”
“All right. Give me two days here to settle Madi, and then I’ll meet you in Sweden.”
“Are you–” Sully breaks off.
“Am I what?” I snap, throwing a little alpha command in my voice. I sense the doubt in my leadership still, even in my own closest brothers.
Sully lowers his gaze and bares his throat. “Are you fully recovered? From the moon madness?”
“Yes.” I’m not sure if it’s true. There’s still an inner war with my wolf, especially when I think about attending the Winter Games.
He searches my face, eyes flaring shifter bright.
“What?” I snap.
The light in his eye winks out, and he angles his head slightly. “I’m not questioning your abilities, it’s just that I can protect you better if I know the whole picture.”
Irritation spikes. My need to get back on the plane and secure my mate is eating at me. “You have the picture. Now go.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
My phone rings before I can get back on the plane. It’s Ruby, so I answer.
“Brick, what the actual fuck?”
“Excuse me?” My wolf makes my voice drop in register. “Do you want to reword that?”
“Forgive me, Alpha.” Her sarcasm could slice a person in half. “But what exactly is your plan? You’re going to the Winter Games to find a mate?”
Ah. Now I understand why she’s ready to rip me a new one.
“No, of course not. Madi is my mate. I just couldn’t reveal that to the pack so soon after the leaked video of my boardroom shift. They would think me unfit. We can’t risk anyone defecting to the Adalwulf pack right now.”
“Where is Madi?”
“She’s with me–in Greece. I brought her to the island where she will be safe and close while I go to the games.”
“Does Madi know about you going to the shifter games?”
My wolf snarls beneath the surface. The idea that I might be sabotaging this relationship is turning me feral again. “I don’t need to discuss this with you.”
“That means she doesn’t know! Brick–”
“I am handling this, Ruby,” I cut her off with a full alpha command.
“Like hell you are,” she mutters as I end the call.
* * *
Madi
I look out at the view of turquoise water and white sand from the window of our honeymoon suite. The architecture on the island is a glorious combination of raw nature and complete luxury. All the buildings gleam white, matching the foam of the sea. We’re staying in a killer mansion right on the beach. A heated pool carved into the hillside takes on the look of natural water, complete with a waterfall and hot tub area. We have a full luxury kitchen, but there’s a restaurant right behind us where Brick says I can order anything and have it brought to our quarters or anywhere on the island.
After we arrived on the island, we showered, had sex again, and unpacked. Then Brick left, saying he was going to arrange our dinner.
I decide it’s a good time to call Aubrey. We’ve been texting, but we haven’t spoken in days–not since Brick marked me, and I miss her. I may not be able to share the fact that Brick’s a werewolf or that we’re mated, but I still need my bestie’s input and feedback.
She answers on the second ring.
“So, I’m on a Greek Island.”
“Stop it.”
“Seriously.” Beyond the bay window, the setting sun bathes the empty beach in pink and purple hues.
Our suite features wall-to-wall windows that face the sea, with a giant sliding glass door for easy access. Like when Brick helicoptered me into the Miravelle Spa, the employees were waiting for us when we arrived, and I haven’t seen any other guests. Like he rented out the entire island. Is that possible?
“That’s just nuts. So what–your billionaire boyfriend just decided to whisk you off to an island on his private jet?”
“That is literally what happened.” I couldn’t be more stunned about the state of my life.
“That’s terrible for the environment but also kind of awesome for you. Except, you don’t sound as ecstatic as I think you should.”
“Honestly…” I take a deep breath. I need to get this off my chest. “It feels like bringing me here is his stalling technique. Or meant to distract me. He doesn’t want to rehire me yet at Moon Co–I’m guessing because it would be a PR nightmare.”
“What do you mean?” Aubrey demands.
Aubrey always has my back. She would pee on Brick’s windshield right now if I told her he hurt me. Peeing on a person’s windshield is the ultimate insult, according to her.
“I think they want me to stay the bad guy to show the security breach has been completely handled. It might look even more mismanaged if I’m suddenly back to work there.”
“Oh that’s fucked up. I don’t like that at all.” Aubrey’s tone of voice matches the tension in the pit of my stomach.
It feels good to at least explain the situation aloud to someone. I’ve been too isolated lately. It turns out, I’m still on lockdown here. This seems to be his own private island. We’re not at a public resort. Or if we are, he booked the entire place.
“I don’t, either. I mean, I think he’s going to work it out but wants the dust to settle and to put some strategy behind it, but he’s not letting me in on the strategizing, so I feel…”
“Ew.”
“Yeah. That sums it up.”
“Do not let this guy jerk you around. I feel like the fact that he started as your boss may have set your relationship up for a weird dynamic where he thinks he gets to call all the shots.”
I close my eyes remembering the way he mastered me in the jet last night. I loved it–so much–but she’s right.
“That’s accurate.”
“Just because he’s rich and powerful does not make him better than you. He–” Aubrey interrupts her own rant.
“What?”
“Hang on. Let me ask you a question. Serious question, Mads.”
“Okay.”
She hesitates. “This is sort of the opposite of what I was just saying. But just to be devil’s advocate for a second–do you think you might be extra sensitive to this situation because he’s rich and powerful?”
“No.” I answer too quickly, a note of defensiveness ringing in my own ears.
Aubrey doesn’t say anything.
I turn over her words in my head. Of course, she doesn’t know the whole picture. How much of an outsider I really am to this man and his family, friends, and pack.
“I just know that’s a sore spot for you because of your sperm donor. I think it might make you defensive when you don’t need to be. I mean this guy is clearly crazy about you. I saw how miserable he looked when you guys split.”
She can’t know how true that is. He literally went mad over me.
“I feel like you might be looking for ways this isn’t going to work out as a way of protecting yourself instead of finding ways to make it work. You’re the problem-solver, Madi. I know when you set your mind to anything, you figure it out.”
“I…I’m not sure this is a problem I can solve.”
Aubrey scoffs. “Do not sell yourself short. You’re Madison-fucking-Evans. You already brought this crypto billionaire to his knees. Now make it work!”
I smile.
“Seriously. You’re on a Greek Island. Please go live it up. Have great sex. Enjoy the scenery. Make him give you your job back with another raise. This is your oyster. Pry it open and take your pearl.”
I laugh. “You’re waxing poetic today.”
“I’m a little jealous. Not that I’d want a rich dude to jet me off to an island, but it seems like you’re being rewarded for a lifetime of hard work and proving yourself worthy. So drink it up!”
My chest feels lighter. “I will. You’re right. I’m probably just tired from the jetlag. Thank you for talking me off the ledge.”
“Any time. Also, I love you. But I gotta run. Call me if you need to!”
“Love you–bye!”
I end the call just as Brick walks in through the door.
“Ready, love?” He holds a hand out to me. It’s shocking how giddy and breathless I get hearing him call me love. “I think you’re going to like the dinner I have planned for you.”
* * *
Brick
I lead Madi down the beach to the place where I had the staff set up a table for two, surrounded by blazing torches that light the table and keep Madi warm and reflect fire on the water.
“This is lovely. Thank you.”
Madi’s eyes are warm as I pull out her chair to seat her. There’s something softer about her–like whatever she was bracing against has been removed.
If only I knew what it was.
“This sure beats New York in December.”
“It does.” I uncork the wine and pour us each a glass.
Madi’s skin glows in the light of the setting sun and the glow of the torches. I want to forgo dinner and devour her again.
“Did you book this entire place?”
“I own it. So yes. This way I can fully focus on you.” And have you close by and protected when I go to the pack games.
One of the staff brings out our salad plates–traditional Greek salad with the most perfect sheep feta ever created.
Madi devours it, pleasing my wolf.
The next few courses consist of more Greek cuisine–fresh-caught and grilled sea bass, dolmades, rice, and the light, flaky baklava for dessert.
“I got you something.” I pull a small jewelry box from my pocket.
“Oh.” Madi’s eyes round as she splits a glance between the box and my face.
“I made a mistake denying what you meant to me. I went mad. I didn’t have a chance to…propose before I marked you for life.”
“Propose.” She sounds stunned. This isn’t quite the moony-eyed reaction I was hoping for.
“Claiming you was the shifter form of a proposal, but I should have given you this first.” I crack the box open.
Inside is a giant baguette cut rectangular emerald, surrounded by tiny diamonds that continue around the length of the slender band.
Madi stares at it but makes no move to take the box.
I pry it from the container and reach for her hand.
She pulls her fingers away. “Hang on. Brick, the reason you didn’t propose before is because we were nowhere near that level in our relationship. Just because you marked me doesn’t mean we just skip ahead to marriage.”
Damn. Clearly Madi doesn’t understand that I’m way past marriage. She’s mine. I’m hers. There’s no other option for us, except the miserable form of anti-mating my parents lived out, which I’m not willing to reenact.
But she’s human. She has no idea what the marking means. And if I look through her eyes, I can see that I jumped the gun with this ring. I’m anxious to seal the deal with Madi and floundering.
“Okay.” I put the ring back in the box and pocket it. “I’ll make you a deal.”
The corners of her lips tick up. My beautiful mate loves a challenge. “What deal?”
“You run from me. I’ll chase. If I catch you, you wear the ring. It doesn’t have to be an engagement ring. We’ll call it a late Christmas gift.”
Madi downs the rest of her wine. “Do you mean run and chase literally or figuratively?”
I arch a brow. “Run, Madi.”
“Now?” She slides her chair back in the sand.
“I’ll give you three minutes’ head start. Then I’ll be on the hunt–and you’ll be my prey.”
Madi bolts from her chair and runs barefoot down the darkened beach, her flip flops left in the sand under the table.
I close my eyes, savoring the vibration of my wolf readying for the hunt. Knowing that I will catch my mate, that I will master her, and that she will love every minute of it heightens the experience. I remain perfectly still, listening to the waves crash against the shore, drowning out the fading sound of Madi’s foot falls.
I wait until she’s had ample time to put distance between us. Perhaps to hide.
Tension builds beneath my skin. I’m sure my eyes begin to glow amber as my night vision engages to seek her. I kick off my shoes beneath the table.
Without looking at my watch, my body calibrates to three minutes, and the moment the last second ticks by, I surge into motion. I sprint in the direction Madi ran for several hundred yards and then stop, turning in a slow circle.
My clever mate wouldn’t run in a straight line. She’d double back to fool me.
I lift my nose to the air. The salt spray fills my nostrils, but I catch her scent. I turn in another slow circle.
There.
I catch her scent more fully. I take off again, slowing when I lose the scent. I find it again near the rocks. I turn and climb the jagged stones to the top of a small cliff. There, I find Madi’s scent grows stronger.
When I draw closer to it, she darts out of the crevice where she is hiding and jumps to the sand below. I vault after her, catching her around the waist and hauling her into the air.
She laughs.
I spin her in a circle, drop her to her feet, and let her run a few more feet before I catch her again. This time I tumble us both to the ground, making sure my body breaks the fall for hers. I roll her to her back in the sand and straddle her waist.
“Now, I’ve got you.” There’s a deep purr to my voice.
She blinks up at me, a smile on her face. “What now, Big Bad?”
“Now you wear my ring.” I pull the box back out of my pocket and pry the ring out. “Give me your finger.”
She offers up her right hand.
“Wrong hand.”
“You said it wasn’t an engagement ring.”
“It isn’t.” I pick up her left hand and slide the ring on her fourth finger. “But I still need to see a ring on this pretty finger. I can’t have some other human thinking you”re available.”
“What if they did?”
“I will destroy any man who makes a move on you,” I growl.
“Hmm.” Madi pulls my face down to hers, moving her lips across mine. “I kind of like the jealousy.”
“Get used to it.” I yank her shirt up and slide my hand inside her bra. “I’m possessive as fuck.”
“You caught me. Now what are you going to do with me?” She shivers a little, so I scoop her back up into my arms.
“Now I’m going to fuck you senseless. But after I strip you and warm you up in the hot tub.”
She loops her arms around my neck. “That sounds amazing,” she murmurs against my ear.