Cassidy #3
The office door swings open, and Silas Varrick steps inside like he owns the building.
Like the building would thank him for it.
He’s enormous.
Not merely tall, though he absolutely is, but broad in a way that makes the entire room feel smaller around him.
His charcoal button-down is rolled to his forearms, exposing warm, golden-tan skin dusted with dark hair, while his fitted black trousers somehow make his shoulders look even wider.
Everything about him feels controlled. Grounded. Purposeful.
Dark brown hair is styled neatly away from his face, though a few strands have fallen slightly out of place, softening the harsh cut of his jaw.
Deep-set brown eyes immediately find mine, thick lashes lowering slightly as his gaze drags over me with quiet intensity.
“Oh, good,” Harlan mutters dryly. “Another pain in my ass.”
Silas ignores him completely. Which feels brave.
Or deeply stupid.
Unlike Evander’s overwhelming force, or Harlan’s razor-sharp control, Silas feels steady.
Immovable.
His gaze lingers on me for one long second before shifting towards Harlan.
“I thought you were coming to my office?”
Harlan leans back in his chair with a sigh. “You don’t have an office. You have a fucking storage room.”
Silas smirks. “Snob.”
“Cassie, this is Silas Varrick, as you probably remember from the meeting this morning,” Harlan says dryly. “Silas, this is my new… trainee, Cassidy Hargrove. She’s not entirely useless.”
Not entirely useless.
From Harlan, that’s close to receiving praise. Even if it comes at the cost of me biting my inner cheek to prevent tears.
I’m pathetic.
“Nice to officially be introduced to you, Mr Varrick,” I say softly.
“Silas, please,” Silas replies. “What is your relationship with Evander Whitmore and Isaac Reid, Cassie?”
I freeze, my eyes widening as Harlan growls lowly.
“You’ve got a relationship with the compliance cu—people?” he asks, and Silas’s smirk widens.
“No, not really. Well, I’m friends with Isaac, I think? Sort of?” I stammer.
Harlan’s expression darkens immediately.
“You think?” he repeats flatly. “How hard is it to know whether you are friends with someone?”
My stomach drops, and I look down at my hands.
Silas moves further into the office, slow and deliberate, before taking the seat beside mine without asking.
The chair creaks faintly beneath his size.
“You smell like Whitmore,” he says conversationally.
I nearly choke.
Harlan goes unnaturally still.
“For fuck’s sake,” he snaps, tossing his pen on the desk with a sharp clatter. “Do you just let all of the alphas around here walk around scent marking you?”
My face burns so hot I’m surprised I don’t combust on the spot.
I half-wish I did.
“He didn’t mean to,” I whisper weakly, the words leaving my mouth before I can stop them.
“Oh, so he was close enough for you to know that?”
Panic floods me instantly.
“It wasn’t—it’s not—I bumped into him in the corridor,” I blurt out quickly.
Silas hums softly, like he already knows that, which wouldn’t surprise me considering how he was watching me earlier.
“And Reid?” he asks.
“Isaac was just helping me earlier,” I say weakly. “We had lunch together.”
“Mm.”
That’s all he says to me, but the look he and Harlan share feels like a conversation in itself.
Harlan exhales sharply through his nose and shakes his head at Silas. The alpha at my side winks at Harlan, and I bite my inner cheek as I wait this out.
My heart is racing, my nerves practically on fire, and I know it’s all my fault.
“Right, we’ve got actual work to do,” Harlan says, looking at me now as if it was me who derailed things. “Let’s stop interrogating my trainee like she’s committed corporate espionage, hm?”
Silas smirks. “You’re protective today.”
The room goes silent.
I suddenly feel like I’m witnessing something I shouldn’t be.
Harlan leans back in his chair slowly, green eyes cold.
“And you’re an asshole every day, Brother. We all have our burdens.”
Brother?
My eyes dart helplessly between them again, searching for any similarity.
Are they related?
Silas’s mouth twitches slightly.
“Fair play.”
Neither of them look remotely convinced. The air thickens with their presence, but both men are coated in the same scent neutraliser I’m using, so at least I’m not smothered by their scents as well.
I grip my laptop tighter, resisting the urge to disappear entirely.
“Right,” Harlan says eventually, voice clipped and professional again. “Can we focus on the reason you’re both here before I lose the will to live?”
Silas finally looks away from me fully, though the warmth of his attention still lingers beneath my skin somehow.
“Fine by me.”
Harlan gestures sharply towards the documents spread across his desk.
“Cassie, open the revised campaign notes.”
I scramble to obey immediately, relief and disappointment tangling painfully together in my chest as the room finally settles back into something resembling professionalism.
Even if the room still feels thick with restrained alpha tension.
And somehow, despite the professionalism settling back into place, I can still feel both of them watching me.