Chapter 29

Third Person POV

Asher heard the front door open, the mumble of voices drifting to him. Sienna and some other girl, someone who sounded…

He pressed his ear to his door, honing in on the voices, his curiosity getting the better of him.

The only few words he caught chilled him to his absolute core.

“…I’m Mia.”

He jerked back, stumbling a few feet away from the door.

Did that girl just say her name was Mia?

Sure, a common name. It could be anyone.

But in this world, with his luck?

He opened his door so he could hear a bit more, listening in to the conversation taking place just a room over.

“See, I was sent by the Council due to their concern regarding your leadership abilities,” Mia said, and that was when Asher knew.

That voice.

It was her.

His Mia.

The childhood best friend he’d fallen so deeply in love with, here, outside his door. It wasn’t a coincidence, right?

Sweat instantly beaded on his temples, a dizziness taking over his vision.

This is bad. Really, really bad.

Sienna spoke, and Asher could tell she was trying not to let her voice tremble. “My leadership ability? The pack is showing improvement.”

Mia kept going, that blunt tone of hers shining through. “Well, maybe it is, but it’s not showing enough. So they sent me — you’re welcome!”

Asher could practically see that dazzling smile of Mia’s, condescending and sexy all at once.

“So what do you need from me then…Mia?” Sienna hesitated in saying her name, clueing Asher into the fact that she was all too aware that this could be the Mia.

Oh god, this is a mess. Of course there’s even more of a mess now.

“I’ll be staying here in the pack, observing and sending my notes back to the Elder’s...”

Mia kept talking, but Asher heard nothing else but that very first sentence.

She would be staying right there in Nightwind. In the pack. Right next to him.

Always around.

The nausea rose in Asher’s stomach, nearly sending him sprinting to the bathroom. He couldn’t let Sienna know he was there, in the house, else she’d want him out there with her.

Talking to Mia.

He slipped back into his room, pushing back the rise of hyperventilation in his lungs.

The voices rose and fell for a little while longer, and Asher could sense the tension rising in the air. It wasn’t necessarily going well, that much was clear.

It was impossible to resist the urge to listen in further, so he crept back up, pressing his ear to the door again.

“This just seems a bit out of nowhere,” Sienna said in confusion, obviously on edge from the surprise of it all.

“We’re not required to let you know we’re coming.” Asher could visualize the way Mia shrugged, hearing that cute way she laughed ever so slightly when she delivered a hard truth, an attempt to lighten the moment just a little.

“No, but I was under the impression I still had time before my next review,” Sienna countered, and Asher knew her arms were already crossed over her chest.

“Again, the Council can send anyone out at any time, whenever they see fit. And you, Sienna, are on their list.” Mia let out a giggle that raised every hair on Asher’s body.

This is unreal, he muttered to himself.

“Right,” Sienna said with defeat. “I’ll have my Beta find you somewhere to settle in. Make yourself at home.”

There was a bitterness in Sienna’s voice, for good reason. This was a whole new bomb drop for her.

Soon after, the door thudded shut, and he could hear Sienna softly sobbing.

She couldn’t know he was in the house, so he did something pretty ridiculous.

He climbed out his window, slipping around the back of the house to move around the front, like he’d just come back from, say, a morning stroll.

That’s what he’d let her think. She was obviously more tender than normal right now.

And she was most definitely going to ask him about Mia.

He readied himself, waiting another ten minutes before shaking out his muscles and entering the front door, greeted instantly by Sienna sitting at the table.

“We have a problem,” she said lowly, her face stricken with grief.

“What is it?” he asked as naturally as he could, strolling to sit with her at the table.

Nonchalant. Knowing nothing.

Having no idea that Mia was there, in Nightwind.

Sienna recapped everything he’d already heard, his heart racing in his chest. He reacted as though he was hearing everything for the first time, except his mind was on what loomed next.

The inevitable question was coming.

“Why is the Council sending someone else out already? Do you think it’s because of what happened with Julian?” Her eyes widened a little in fear.

“I think they’ve always had their eye on you since you parents,” Asher said carefully. “What Julian did just means he is being watched now, too.”

“It’s unfair to single me out like this — yes, I’m young, but I’m not even being given a chance.” She let out a massive sigh, dropping her head in her hands. “And she was so rude…can inspectors really be that rude?”

Asher raised his eyebrows slightly, a silent thought passing between the two of them.

Yes, inspectors really are that rude.

“She really didn’t need to be that much of a bitch, though.” Sienna rolled her eyes.

Asher bit back a comment in defense of Mia, because now was not the time for that.

Mia had always been so blunt, and Asher had found that to be…endearing. He had never minded someone telling him exactly how hey felt.

Even if it stung sometimes.

“I think it’s a tense and rather awkward situation,” Asher said instead, trying not to take either side.

Of course, Sienna latched right onto that.

“Are we going to address the elephant in the room?” Her eyes narrowed on his, head cocking with impatience.

“What?” Asher played dumb, doing everything he could to stall this if only just a few seconds more.

Don’t make me say it, please don’t make me say it…

He wouldn’t lie to her, not again. Even without her wolf, she could tell he was off.

This was tearing him apart in so many different ways.

There was a long, long pause, where Sienna just stared at him, and he stared right back.

Neither speaking or moving.

The question screamed in the air, and he wished, more than anything at all, that she hadn’t asked it.

Just when they were going to talk, maybe fix things, Mia had to come back, didn’t she?

“Is it her, Asher?”

If only they could have sent any other inspector.

Anyone else, and this wouldn’t have been such an issue.

He waited just a few more precious second, before he shattered everything.

But he didn’t even have to say anything, because the waiting had told her enough.

She shoved away from the table, slamming the door behind her with the force of a thousand winds.

Shutting the door on the idea that their relationship might, just possibly, be fixable.