Chapter 133

Theodore’s POV

I was growing tired of Eva’s friends.

To give them the benefit of the doubt, I tried asking each of them some polite questions to get to know them. Each one gave me more vague answers than the last, evading further conversations with me afterward. The one thing I had learned that didn’t seem to be a lie was that, like Eva, they were in fact all rogues.

Aside from constantly answering the door and hovering to see who I was entertaining, I caught one snooping in the kitchen, claiming he was looking for salt as he flipped through Violet’s recipe book. He could probably smell her scent on it as well as I could.

I found my papers out of order in my study, though I could only assume that one of Eva’s friends was to blame. Then I found another one of them scrolling through my phone, insisting she thought it was hers.

It only served to strengthen my suspicions. It was getting a little ridiculous, and I couldn’t think of a smart way to get rid of them.

For once, I found all four of them in the living room, sprawled on the couch and chairs as they watched TV. Like actual house guests. Riley had control of the remote and was flipping through the channels.

As he passed the news, blaring headlines caught everyone’s attention. I paused as I passed them in the hallway and Riley lowered the remote to watch. The news anchor reported grimly.

“Breaking news this evening has everyone locking their doors and windows as reports flood in of a rash of rogue attacks across several territories.” Pictures flashed across the screen of mutilated crowds and homes destroyed.

“Reports reveal that the attacks appear to be random in nature with cruel intent, as has been the case historically with rogue attacks.”

Every one of Eva’s friends stiffened at the accusation about people just like them.

“Though authorities cannot seem to find motivation for the cause of these attacks, we can only imagine how this timing will have an impact just three days before the vote on Alpha Nightshade’s Shelter project, a program designed to rehabilitate rogues. After a night like this, we have to wonder: can rogues really be rehabilitated and do we want them reintegrated back into the communities they destroy without remorse?”

My jaw dropped at the blatant bias of the news anchor until a realization hit me: not a single photo displayed during the coverage captured an actual rogue in the act.

This entire story was probably fabricated to hinder the Shelter project vote.

Whether or not the spies in front of me had more information on that, I couldn’t help but notice their clenched jaws and proud posture. I wondered then if Owen, who was surely behind this hoax of a news report, had just unintentionally offended the spies he’d planted in my home. It reminded me of the way I use to mistreat my staff, like Sophia, before Violet explained how detrimental that could be to me – outside of being a decent werewolf.

This was shortsighted, even for Owen. I wondered if that would play to my advantage somehow in the future.

Shocked and incensed, I hung my head and continued up to my room. I needed a shower to wash away the hatred that Owen so easily got flowing through my veins.

As I shucked my clothes off my body, throwing them into the hamper in my closet, my mind drifted to Violet. I wondered how she was holding up as I meandered to my attached bathroom. I missed her smell and her brilliance.

Staying separated from her was torturous, but I would do it as long as needed to ensure her safety. Seeing her now would risk exposing our intent to go after Owen, and if the king came after us, I wasn’t sure I was powerful enough to take down the entire palace army to protect her.

I kept dreaming of her, dreaming of waking up with her in my arms, dreaming that I was fucking her senseless, dreaming of the moment the bands first glowed across our foreheads, dreaming of her smile and that gleam in her eyes when she knew she was about to win.

I scowled into the mirror at my hardened length. Even the memories of her got me going.

It had been weeks now of just me and my hand. Though it wasn’t even near the thing I missed most, I certainly missed her for that, too.

“Need help with that?”

I startled at Eva in the doorway to my bathroom, shocked that she so effectively snuck up on me. She practically drooled as she eyed my cock, and I instinctively grabbed a towel. Wrapping it around my waist, I wasn’t surprised that it didn’t tent at all.

Eva’s presence was like an ice bath.

Her face fell. “It’s been weeks, Theodore. Don’t you think it’s time you stop hiding yourself from me?”

I hated my name on her lips. I hated the hunger in her eyes. I hated her in this room that belonged to me and Violet.

“You surprised me,” I offered as an excuse I knew wouldn’t satisfy her. Especially when I didn’t move to uncover myself now that my heartbeat was returning to normal.

Her eyes looked cold and calculating. That muted pull toward her still thudded within me, but it felt tainted, like the devil’s temptation. If my physiological response was anything to go on, even the most primal parts of me weren’t interested in her.

Before she could make a move I would raise her suspicions by denying, I spoke up. “Darling, how long can we expect your friends to stay with us?”

She pouted her lips, widening her eyes into something that I suppose she thought was sexy. “I know, they’re such bores. It’s nearly impossible to get any privacy with them around all the time.”

She raked her gaze down my mostly naked body to let me know exactly what she wanted to do with me in private.

I held back a gag.

She approached me like a predator, and I stilled. Stopping just a few inches from me, she traced a single finger from the vulnerable hollow of my throat all the way down my torso, past my navel and lingering where it met with the towel around my hips.

“My friends will leave when they’re convinced I’m… safe.” She tugged at the towel until it fell to the ground, leaving me completely exposed, and I read between the lines.

Once we consummated our new mate bond, they would be convinced I was on board with it. That’s when they’d leave us alone.

Eva reached for my tragically flacid cock, but I caught her wrist before she touched me. Our eyes locked, and I slowly lifted her hand, trying as hard as I possibly could to convey love, longing, and tenderness in my gaze upon her as I pressed my lips to her knuckles.

“It pains me to tell you that I’m running late for a meeting.” I swallowed my pride as I looked her over with as much hunger as I could fake. “I do not wish for our first time to be rushed.”

I kissed her fingers again, waiting to find out if my lie was adequate. Her eyes were unreadable.

“How romantic,” she finally said. “I am the luckiest Luna in the world,” she mused with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. And I wondered how many more excuses I could offer to keep from mating with her before I had to reveal my hand.

Because if it came to it, I would burn our plans to the ground before I let this woman lay hands on me.