Chapter Two #2
Sloan claps her hands once. “Now that we have you back with us, let’s start this again, shall we?”
“So what, you guys are my therapists now, is it?” I verbalize it, hoping it'll drive home just how stupid this is.
“Clearly not, since therapists don’t drop random truth bombs on their patients,” Bree says.
I sigh. Cami, Marcus, and Matt are barely hiding their amusement.
Sloan blows out an angry breath. “Do you want to lead this instead?”
Bree smiles a serene smile. “Gladly.” She turns to me. “So, how are you feeling today, Nicholas?”
I blow out a breath. “Okay. No, I’m not ignoring any of you. And definitely not because of what happened to… because of what happened. I was just enjoying my nice little vacation with my nice little boyfriend,” I snap.
Because that’s the truth. Dominic had to die. That was the only way. He knew Elliot’s truth, and he would have blabbered it all to the human police who were right on my tail. Once he was caught, he had nothing to lose.
Bree smugly dusts off her hands. “Breakthrough. See, when you do things right, you get results.”
“Honey, he’s obviously lying,” Cami says soothingly.
“Obviously. But it’s a start. Plus, his boyfriend is really little, that wasn’t a lie at least,” Bree says.
“God, we desperately need real therapists in the Bureau,” Matt says.
I pull myself up, sitting up to face my friends. “I don’t need a therapist. Elliot is not that little. And I’m not lying,” I say. “There. Now, can we talk about how Matt needs to calm down about the shapes of the chairs at his wedding? They’re chairs. How complicated do they have to be?”
Matt glares at me while Sloan gives me a disappointed look, head shake and all. I feel a pang of guilt like I’ve been caught in the act. I push the feeling down.
Marcus gives me an approving glance. “I’m so happy you said something, because I was about to blow up on him.”
Matt turns to Marcus. “You’ve literally never tried to hide your feelings about it. Ever.”
“Didn’t you block Matt for a week?” I point out.
“Didn’t you try teaching Mickey to chew all of Matt’s socks?” Cami says.
He did what?
“Considering how grouchy Marcus is capable of being, I’d say he has been downright nice,” Bree points out.
Marcus nods. “Thanks, Bree. Wait, hey!”
Matt smirks, then turns to look at me. His eyes go wide. “He’s doing that ‘let’s talk about someone else’ thing right now.”
Ugh, thanks, Sloan, for making that public. I’ll have to find a way to get back at her. But right now, we need another distraction. And quick.
“Obviously he is,” Sloan says.
The answer to my prayers comes in the form of a doorbell ringing. It’s like someone out there is looking out for me because I’m not ready to lie about this thing to my friends yet. Thank you—I sniff the air—Meena?
As the head of the LA Werewolf Regulation Bureau, Meena Srivastav manages the entire Bureau team in the city.
From admin to the on-street action, she’s at the helm of every step the Bureau takes.
She manages werewolf trials while also hounding werewolves to finish their paperwork.
The point is she shouldn’t be here for this stupid intervention.
Matt marches up to open the door while we look at each other with matching confusion. Matt follows Meena back to the living room, looking like a sulky teenager despite towering over her by a foot.
From her blue pantsuit and white shirt, I have no way of knowing if she’s here on business or if this is a casual visit to Matt and Oliver’s. The latter doesn’t really seem like a thing they’d do, though.
“Why are you all looking at me like that?” Meena takes Matt’s chair while he flops down beside me on the therapy couch.
“Umm… hi?” Bree asks. “How have you been?”
Meena tilts her head. “I texted Sloan I’d be here about the case. She didn’t tell you?” She turns her disappointed face towards Sloan, who is coincidentally sitting closest to her, so she gets the maximum effect. “You didn’t tell them?”
“You just asked where we were meeting today. I thought you were just keeping track of us,” Sloan explains.
“Wow,” I say. “Like she’s our mother? That’s such a weird thing to think, Sloan.” I shake my head too. You miss out on all the opportunities for revenge you don’t take.
Sloan glares at me, and Meena sighs. “Sloan had told me you all were meeting today, without any inquiries from my end about your whereabouts, just so it’s clear. I thought I’d come down because we need to plan our next steps to catch the Vigilante Wolf Hunter.”
My heart drops to my stomach. It still manages to speed up. “Vigilante Wolf Hunter?” I mutter.
Meena looks at me sympathetically. “Yes, if you need more time, I understand. What happened couldn’t be easy. But with the recent developments, we can’t put it off anymore.”
I frown. “Recent events?”
Meena looks confused. “Yeah, we found another werewolf’s body this morning.”
Everything goes silent. I can see her mouth moving, but can’t hear anything over the static in my ears. Another murder?
“...I thought Matt already…”
It’s not possible. He promised he was done. But then why is there another body?
“...we would have gotten to it eventually…”
Maybe it’s an old body. No, Elliot told me about all his victims. We had found all the bodies he had hidden. No.
“...you were blocked, so I obviously didn’t get your message…”
My body goes cold. He can’t be lying to me. He just can’t—
“—Nick,” Cami’s voice brings me back into the chaos. From the worried look on her face, this wasn’t the first time she’d called my name. “You okay?”
I nod. I pull my focus back into the room. Information. I need more information before I come to the worst possible conclusion. I ignore Matt and Marcus’s whisper fight beside me and turn my gaze to Meena. “Who was the victim?”
She frowns at me. It takes me a second to realize she was mid-conversation with Sloan. “James Adler. A pharmacist. He was found in his home.”
“Same MO?”
Her frown deepens. “Of course. We found the concoction of drugs in his blood.”
“And we had this James in our system?”
She nods. “He was being investigated for the murder of his neighbor. We were very close to making an arrest.”
“Fuck, I really thought we were done with this,” I blurt out.
Matt pats my shoulder. “New relationship has made you too optimistic if you believed the killer moved on just because he went quiet for a few months, bud.”
Hopefully, the relationship hasn’t made me irrationally trustworthy. “When was he killed?” I ask, holding my breath. This is my last hope.
“Some time last night or early morning.”
I blow out a relieved breath. It couldn’t have been him. We’ve been together every minute for the last two days. I hadn’t left Elliot’s side since I went grocery shopping on Thursday. I hate that I doubted him even for a second.
Of course, he wouldn’t do this. Now I just have to make sure he never learns I even entertained the thought. Or I'll lose what little trust he has in me.