Chapter 86
Fiona
“Fiona Aldridge?”
I turn, finding the owner of the light, questioning voice. A petite dark-haired woman watches me with curious eyes and a smile.
“Yes,” I answer, feeding another paper into the copier. Even though she looks slightly familiar, I don’t believe I’ve met her. Or at lease, I hope I haven’t. I try to remember everyone I meet so no one is upset, but this company is huge.
“I’m Sophie, Reid’s sister,” she says warmly, offering her hand.
“Oh, thank you so much for letting me borrow your—”
I go to shake her hand, but when she takes my fingers in hers, she lifts them to her forehead and bows her head like Reid and Isaac had done. It catches me off guard, and I whip my head to the left and right just to find that no one else is around us.
“You don’t have to do whatever this is,” I whisper, unsure how to deal with this. It seems to be some sort of greeting, but the men didn’t do it to Ethan. “Actually, what is this?” I ask.
Sophie smiles and releases my hand, “It’s the way we greet the Alpha’s mate for the first time. It’s a sign of acceptance and respect.”
Acceptance and respect. For me?
My heart warms at her words. I haven’t fully committed to this new world, but they’re already accepting me as Ethan’s mate.
“Th-thank you,” I whisper, still checking that no one is around. I don’t know the protocol for this stuff, but I have a feeling that if a regular person walked by to find someone bowing and doing this little greeting to me it would look strange.
“You’re welcome. Now, I’ve come to invite you to eat lunch with me, Reid, and one of the other women from the pack,” she tells me, grabbing the large stack of papers that sits on the cooling rack of the copier. She hefts them into her arms, moving past me when I try to take them, saying, “I’ll carry these.”
“Thank you, and I’d love to have lunch with you,” I tell her, following behind her after grabbing the original papers from the tray.
She stops at the elevator that leads to my desk and Ethan’s office. Since her hands are full, I press the button for her, earning a smile in return.
“Great, I’ll meet you in the lobby at one with Reid and Lexi, and we can leave from there,” she says, stepping into the elevator. I press the top floor button.
“Okay, I’ll let Ethan know I’m not eating lunch with him, then.”
She snickers at my comment but doesn’t say anything else as the elevator dings and the doors open. She passes the stack of papers to me and waves, telling me she can’t wait until lunch.
As I set the stack of papers on my desk, I can’t help but smile. Not only am I making new friends, but I have people to eat lunch with. Don’t get me wrong, eating with Ethan is nice, but there are days when he’s busy, so it’ll be nice to have friends I can eat with instead of eating alone.
“Fiona, can you come in here?” Ethan calls through his open office door just as I’m about to sit down.
“Coming!”
I’m excited to tell him about my lunch invitation until I see the serious expression on his face. Immediately, I push down my excitement, wondering what happened. Had something gone wrong?
“Come sit down. I have something to show you,” Ethan says, patting his chair. He stands behind it, which is strange anyway. Usually I’d just sit in one of the chairs in front of his desk.
“What’s going on?” I ask. His jaw ticks in aggravation as he clenches it, so I don’t argue. I don’t think he’s upset with me, or else he would’ve said something. Plus, I haven’t done anything to make him mad. Not that I know of, anyway.
Shoving my nerves down, I take a seat, letting him roll me closer to the desk. He leans over the back of the chair, caging me in with his arms and looking me in my eyes.
“I found the arsonist.”
“What? You did?” I ask, surprised. It hasn’t even been two days, and he already found them.
Ethan nods and sighs, shoving a hand into his perfectly kept hair. He drags his fingers through the hair, then growls softly, trying to fix it back. It’s like he didn’t realize what he was doing, and now he’s upset at himself for messing his hair up.
It’s cute.
“Come here,” I mutter with a little laugh while turning the chair, grabbing him by the tie, and pulling him closer. I brush my fingers through his hair, fixing the mess he created and kissing his forehead.
“Thank you,” he says before standing and adding, “We’re about to have guests.”
“Guests?”
Almost as soon as the words leave my lips, the bell of the elevator dings and several police officers exit the elevator with Jessica in tow. I’m surprised and confused at seeing her with the police.
“What is going on here?” She demands, yanking her arm from one of the cop’s hands. She glares at the man before turning to narrow her eyes on me and Ethan. I glance at Ethan too, and the hard, angry look on his face gives me the answer I need.
“Is she…”
“Jessica, do you have something you’d like to confess?” Ethan asks, his voice booming through the room and making not only Jessica jump, but me too.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t done anyt—”
Ethan rounds the chair, moving closer to Jessica who takes several steps back. She bumps into two men who don’t look like cops. One is in a t-shirt, jeans, and a leather jacket, while the other looks like he could almost work here if his suit jacket wasn’t missing, his button up shirt wasn’t two buttons undone, and his sleeves weren’t rolled up to reveal tattoos.
“You poured gasoline around Fiona’s house and lit it on fire. You even broke keys off into her locks so she wouldn’t be able to get out,” Ethan growls, stopping in front of her. She shakes and my gut churns. Her?
Ethan holds up a flash drive, showing it to the officers in the room.
“One of Fiona’s neighbors caught you on video, so there’s no use denying it,” Ethan announces. My vision blurs and my ears ring, the shock sending me into a spiral of disbelief. Muffled voices reach my ears, but I don’t know what they say or if they’re even talking to me.
How could she do this?
How could she hate me enough to want to burn me alive?
I shake my head. She’s not that evil. It doesn’t matter how much she hates me. Jessica wouldn’t—
“Fine! I did it, but only because she ruined my life first!” Jessica screeches, jolting me out of my daze.
“Fiona.”
I lift my hand to stop Ethan.
“Get her out of here. I don’t want to see her again,” I mutter, turning so that I can’t see her anymore. She starts yelling, but I cover my ears and squeeze my eyes shut. I don’t want to hear anything she has to say anymore.
Any ounce of compassion I had for her died the moment she admitted what she’d done.
“Fiona,” Ethan’s voice filters through my fingers.
“Is she gone?”
“She is.”
Turning, I throw my arms around him and bury my face in his chest to hide the tears. I’m so tired of crying. It seems like I’m crying every five seconds lately, and I hate it. There’s nothing more pathetic than a woman who is always weeping.
Along with the misery and self-consciousness, I feel the sadness creeping up within me. How had she turned into someone willing to take a life?
“I knew she hated me, but I didn’t realize she’d be willing to kill me,” I sniffle, wiping tears that roll down my cheeks.
“Jealousy can turn anyone into the worst version of themselves,” a new voice says, making me pull back. The two men who Jessica had run into, the leather jacket one and the unbuttoned one, stand in front of Ethan’s desk.
“Fiona, this is Max,” Ethan introduces, pointing to the man in the leather jacket. “And this is Sean,” he says, motioning to the man in the dress shirt with tattoos.
They kneel like the others, and I stutter, “P-Please don’t. I—”
Ethan stops me with a shake of his own head as he nudges me around the desk. Just like with Reid, Isaac, and Sophie, they take my hands in theirs and touch my knuckles to their forehead.
“It’s a pleasure,” Max rumbles, looking up at me with bright blue eyes.
“We’ve been looking forward to meeting you,” Sean tells me with a smile.
The whole bowing thing is strange, but a feeling of warmth blooms in my chest at their words and actions. It doesn’t completely get rid of the betrayal from Jessica, but it soothes the hurt and makes me feel a bit better.
