Chapter 2
“Oh, fuck me.”
She was the boss’s daughter.
Eli had spent every spare moment dreaming of his mystery woman.
That one night with her left an indelible mark on his very soul.
Not knowing where she was, who she was, had been driving him crazy for the last couple of weeks.
He was almost glad that he’d been sent on a long mission abroad for the last month, otherwise, he would have gone to Blood Moon every day from the moment it opened until they closed and combed every inch of New York City looking for her.
His wolf had been crazed and furious the entire time, one time almost landing him in trouble with their VIP client.
Now she was here, standing in front of him. His mystery women. Who also happened to be his boss’s daughter. And if that wasn’t complicated enough, there was Sloane.
What the hell was she doing here?
“So. Hi.”
Her angelic voice broke through his thoughts. “Yes … er …”
“Olivia,” she said. “It’s Olivia.”
Olivia.
All this time, he never even thought about what her name could be.
Maybe she had none and he’d dreamt it all.
Maybe none of it happened and she was just a figment of his imagination.
But now, here she was, in the flesh. If it wasn’t for her sweet, cinnamon pastry scent, he would have thought she was a mirage.
His wolf howled like a madman who’d finally been set free.
“And, uh, you?”
“Eli.”
“Eli,” she said, as if testing out the syllables. “What are you doing here? When did you get back to New York?”
“This morning.”
That part was true. As soon as the job he and St. Vincent had worked on ended, they took the first flight back to New York City and went straight here for their debrief. However, it was obvious Olivia had no idea he worked here. Hell, he had no idea Killian Jones had a daughter.
“I should probably explain why I’m here.”
“Yeah, you could start with that.” She brushed a strand of blonde hair from her cheek.
A memory flashed in his brain, of those same silvery strands wrapped around his fist, and the softness of the skin on her cheek.
“Eli?”
He cleared his throat. “I work here.”
“You … work here? In New York? For my dad?”
“Yeah.”
“I can’t believe—” She choked on a laugh. “But I’ve never heard of you … where …”
“It’s a long story.” And he didn’t even know where to begin, not without revealing the secrets he’d been hiding all these months. His brain told him that the smart thing to do was to leave now. Leave his job, leave New York and never look back. But now that he found her …
“Excuse me.”
They both spun toward the sound of the voice. Sloane had emerged from the office, Jacob right behind her.
“I hate to interrupt,” she continued. “But I think you know what needs to happen, Eli.”
His flight response kicked in. Flee, it said. But his wolf begged him to stay.
“Wait, what’s going on?” Olivia glanced at Sloane. “Did you tell Jacob—”
“No, it’s not about that. Whooo boy,” she said, shooting Eli a look that said, you’re in trouble. “It’s about who he really is.”
Olivia’s head snapped back toward him, her violet eyes searching his. “What is she talking about?”
The walls seemingly closed in, ready to collapse on him as his foundation of lies threatened to crumble.
From the murderous look on Jacob’s face, it was obvious Sloane had told him everything.
He longed to reach out to Olivia, to hold her for one last time.
Because once he revealed his whole truth, he would likely never get the chance to touch her again.
“I still want to hear it from you, Blake,” Jacob said through gritted teeth. “Or whatever the hell your name is.”
Before he could answer, the din from the conference room down the hall grew louder as the door opened.
“What are you guys doing here?” Killian Jones asked as he stepped through the door. “Come back—oh, Eli, you’re back. Good.” He raised the champagne glass in his hand. “We’re celebrating, come and join us. We can debrief tomorrow.”
Eli cursed to himself. Now there really was no way he was getting out.
“Uncle Killian,” Jacob began. “We need to talk. In private. And you should call Uncle Connor and Dad too.”
Killian frowned. “What’s this about?”
“Something important.”
Jacob’s grave tone was seemingly enough for the other Lycan. “My office in five then,” he said before disappearing back into the conference room.
“Let’s go,” Jacob said. “Olivia, you should head back to the party.”
“I’m coming with you,” she insisted.
“He’s right.” Eli put a hand up, blocking her way. “You don’t need to get involved.” And he didn’t want her to know the rest of his story. If she did, she would hate him forever.
“No way, I’m not leaving—”
“You can’t—”
“Don’t argue with her, Eli,” Sloane interrupted. “Trust me, she needs to hear all of it.”
Eli opened his mouth, but quickly clamped it shut. How much did Sloane know about what happened between him and Olivia? Seeing the determined expression on her face, he relented. “Fine.”
They followed Jacob into the last office at the end of the hall.
The lavishly decorated corner suite featured a spectacular view of the Empire State Building.
The furnishings were luxurious, all modern glass and metal in muted tones of gray and brown.
The space whispered professional and high-end, with no personal items anywhere as per company policy.
Eli’s own desk in the larger open space office down the hall was bare, though it wasn’t like he had any knickknacks or photos to display.
“We’re here,” Killian announced as he entered, followed by two men behind him. The first was Quinn Martin, Lone Wolf’s CTO and Jacob’s father. He was pretty much an older version of his son, though his blond hair was silvering at the temples.
The third figure was a hulking man nearly seven feet tall and wide shoulders the size of boulders.
While he had no formal title in the company, most of the employees here had a few names for him, none of which were good.
Dr. Bone Breaker had been a favorite, and well deserved as no employee who trained under him finished their probation period without at least one trip to the doctor.
But Connor Forrest was tough on Lone Wolf Investigations and Security’s recruits because he had to be.
They were constantly putting their lives on the line, so they had to think and act fast in extreme circumstances.
Eli had learned more from Forrest in the last couple of months than he had in fifteen years under the tutelage of the Boston Clan’s most cruel enforcers.
“So,” Quinn began. “What’s so important that our guests of honor have to leave their own party to have a meeting?”
Jacob cocked his head at Eli. “Tell them.”
Eli attempted to swallow, but his throat narrowed as thin as a straw. His wolf took a defensive stance, baring its teeth.
“Eli?” Killian asked. “What’s going on?”
“Just tell us,” Olivia said, violet eyes training on him. “Go ahead.”
The muscles around his throat loosened and his wolf relaxed. “I lied to you. I’m not a Lone Wolf,” he admitted. “I mean, I wasn’t always. I used to be part of the Boston Clan.”
“Boston?” Quinn glanced at Sloane. “Your old clan?”
She nodded. “Yeah. But Eli, I was told you died fighting the mages.”
“Ronan Forte sent a dozen of us to fight when the New York Alpha sent out that call for help.”
Olivia’s violet eyes widened. “You were there? At Lake Hope?”
“Yeah.”
“You were killed by a mage,” Sloane whispered.
“How did you even hear about that?” he asked. “That was after you—”
“Tried to kill Ronan?” Sloane finished. “There were still a few people who were feeding me information after I left. Tell us what really happened, Eli.”
“I nearly did die,” he began. “A mage hit me with some kind of potion and I blacked out. When I woke up, I was under a pile of bodies and everyone from Boston was gone. I laid low in the area for a bit, then got myself a lone wolf tattoo when I saw my name published in the list of those who died.”
It was then he decided to go to New York City.
Having grown up in the Boston clan, Eli didn’t have any real skills and Ronan Forte’s criminal network would have eventually found him.
But the Boston Alpha’s reach didn’t extend to other Lycan clans, so Eli knew going to New York was the best play.
He’d heard about Lone Wolf Investigations and Security that night in Lake Hope, how they were an all-Lycan security company under the New York clan.
It was just his luck that they were looking for new recruits, having lost a couple of agents during the battle.
When Killian Jones interviewed him, Eli said he was there at Lake Hope and wanted to join because he wanted to prevent something like that happening again.
Killian assumed he’d been one of the Lone Wolves the mages had kidnapped for their blood magic ritual, and Eli never corrected him because he needed to a place to hide.
Turns out, he wasn’t just good at being an agent, but he actually enjoyed it.
And now he would have to go on the run again. Because after living in that hellhole for two decades, there was no way in hell he was going back to the Boston Clan.
“No one thought to look for you?” Jacob said. “Not your Alpha, even your beta—your own father, Garret McCall?”
Sloane sent him an apologetic look, but Eli didn’t blame her for revealing his secret. She had no idea he’d been hiding out here after all.
“Wait, Garret McCall—the Boston Beta—is your father?” Quinn asked, his voice rising. “Why didn’t he bother to confirm you really were dead? Or look for your body?”
The name turned the blood in his veins to ice. He hadn’t thought of that bastard in months. “The old man never gave a crap about me while I was alive. Doesn’t surprise me he didn’t bother to check if I was really dead or not.”
“And you didn’t think to tell us? We gave you a job and you lied to us,” Killian accused. “You could get us in trouble. We vouched for you to the Alpha so you could stay in New York.”