13

The rest of my Sunday was great. We had a video call with Melicent and heard all about the first official supe outreach event that was in NYC yesterday. Eva had wanted to be there and show her support, but Melicent had told her that she would overshadow everything. I understood that.

But I also understood Eva's hurt that her granddaughter cared more about that than wanting to share it with her. It was part of why I'd done a lot to distract her. I also reminded her that Melicent had been too sheltered and now some overcorrecting needed to be done.

I got the shock of my life when someone came flying into my office Monday just before lunch to show me something. I gave them a dry look about barging in like that and it better be important.

Yeah, it was… Hence the shock of my life.

It was Brian on the news making it clear in no uncertain terms that I didn't have a habit of being involved with my bosses like the First Lady had accused, but that we were soulmates.

"Ohhhh, someone got him the clips of her luncheon speech and other speaking engagements," I whispered as I watched it with wide eyes.

"My fiancée is one of the most loyal women I've ever met," Brian stated firmly. "And clear as glass on her lines. I saw someone flirt with her once when she was right out of training and the first thing she did was check for a wedding ring. When she saw one, she warned him to stop as it made her uncomfortable that he couldn't be loyal to his vows and would involve her.

"Anyone who actually knows Sera knows that about her. The First Lady has never met her and is dragging my fiancée's name through the mud. Is that really how a woman in that position should behave? Is that where we are? I'm tired of this being brushed off as gossip or catty women's gossip. It's not . She called the woman I love the Whore of Babylon.

"That is so far over the line it's disgusting. She called a highly decorated division chief of the FBI who saves lives daily ‘The Beast' from Revelations and said she will bring about the apocalypse. She directly quoted teachings that make it clear the Whore of Babylon must be destroyed for the world to survive.

"That's called a threat for those of you paying attention. The First Lady made a public threat against my fiancée, and that is not only unacceptable, but disgusting. Sera is former military, saves lives, a dedicated law enforcement agent, and so much more. You might not agree with her personal life— understand the way of shifters, but you have to see how wrong this is.

"How she doesn't deserve this. I hope others see reason and that all of this has gone too far. Especially coming from a woman that I don't see doing anything besides costing this country money spreading hate and dividing us. Sera wouldn't push for this, but I will. She better get a damn good apology and retraction of what was said along with it stopping now ."

"Wow," I whispered as the clip ended. "He went nuclear."

"Better than flowers," the guy chuckled as he took his tablet back, most knowing our relationship was having issues still.

Fair enough.

I winced when my phone rang and I saw it was Galvin. "I didn't know, I swear."

"He warned me. For the record, I didn't know either. We—there's so much going on, keeping up with the First Lady's luncheons aren't even on the damn radar."

I snorted. "They shouldn't need to be." I sighed. "She's such a useless cunt."

He chuckled. "Don't hold back what you feel, Thomas."

"We'd be here a while and your ears would bleed from my potty mouth, sir," I drawled.

"I don't blame you." He sighed when I didn't say anything. "And I don't blame you for going after my ex-wife. I tried to call Dain and have him—"

"I can't get into this with you, sir," I muttered as I went over and closed my door. "I don't know what he's even really doing."

"I know you have to say that, but she's gone too far and—"

"Scott, you're not hearing me," I cut in, my voice tight. "I'm not okay." I cleared my throat when he didn't say anything. "Eva's not just here to visit. My wolf is—Stacey tried to kill me. They don't think I know, but I know enough and how people reacted… She tried to kill me, not just she wished I had an accident. Clayton stopped it or—I'm not okay."

I think finally saying that and admitting that I knew was like a weight off my shoulders.

And too much to bear at once, blinking back tears.

"So I don't know what he's doing," I whispered, trying to keep the tears at bay. "But please understand it's not just petty gossip. Everyone believes what she says with how loudly she says it and for how long, and we keep not jumping on that crazy. It's more than my career, and I have a son to protect too and—"

"I know," he muttered. "I know and I'm sorry, Sera. You didn't deserve any of this because I'm attracted to you and my wife was crazy jealous and I ignored it. I'm sorry about your birth mom—all of it. I should have taken better care of you when you were mine. You did well yesterday—you're doing amazingly well. Just keep going and know lots of us are on your side."

"I'm trying. I'll tell Dain to let you in if you're not going to fight us."

"No, I want his help to get full custody of my kids since she's using them as leverage to try and keep me quiet while apparently going to the First Fucking Lady as her new goddamn mouthpiece to spew lies and bullshit. It all makes me look bad too, but she doesn't care and—you don't need to hear this. I'm sorry."

No, I didn't, and I had enough on me already.

"You are doing amazingly well," he said again after a few tense moments. "I knew you and Perez would shine and handle this all like rockstars. The system you've put into place—even a lot of the older guys here in DC are singing your praises. We're not changing a single idea of how to upgrade the buildings from what you've done."

"Thank you. It was a pain for a week to have everyone check in through the parking garage, but making the teams assemble at an exact time and go together made it seamless and helped security. They can come in early and adjust their hours for a damn week. And for one week, everything can move fast instead of bureaucratic slow. The tech guys you sent were good.

"They got the new security gates installed and running great. Only one with a hiccup, and they replaced the chip fast—stellar work. I know people aren't going to like this, but the key is having the vamp painters and floorers. They just get it done so fast overnight for that bonus that would take weeks for humans to do."

"Yes, but we're still keeping that quiet," he reminded me.

"They don't want the attention. They just want protection. Noah and I are willing to let them travel and do all of the offices. We'll handle it on the supe and coven side, but we want our people protected and not hassled. These aren't fighters. They're—several have abusive pasts and like the calmness of painting and peace of putting pretty flooring together."

"Understood. Perez is going to be in charge of overseeing each office overhaul and staying there while it happens."

I blinked at the wall of my office for a full minute as that sank in. "Oh, he's gonna kill you. I mean… I'll wear something pretty to ya funeral because ya dead."

He burst out laughing, but I was only half joking.

"He is still swearing up a storm, yes. But we need it done and right, and too many will use this as a way to fuck us—especially me and get me out. And not have him take over. It's bad."

"Shit, his wife is going to divorce him," I groaned.

"He's worried about the same," he admitted. "He's trying to leverage not being in DC when this is all over as what to work with. She hates it here, and he doesn't ever want to be the director."

"I have no problem with him here. Stick him in an office out with Brian so he's closer to the airport instead of the downtown madness and—they get along great."

"I thought you would be upset it would undermine your authority," he admitted.

"Yeah, if he was in here from the start of my taking over, but he's going to take years updating all of the buildings. That's not a small task and I love his wife. She's way too good for him, so I don't blame her for wanting out of DC. But he can have an office here but make him mostly out of the training facility. That will make the conservatives happy that a human is watching our supe army-building facility."

The amount of sarcasm dripping off of my last sentence was a lot, but I wasn't wrong.

"Smart. Really smart. Thanks, Thomas. I can make that work for sure."

Well, that was my good deed for the day.

And better Brian have the deputy director in his face all the time than me.

Cry me a river.

A couple days of digging and we finally got a name on who owned the trailer park. Greg Camara… And there was nothing on him.

Abso-fucking-lutely nothing.

So that wasn't his real name.

Yeah, nothing fishy here.

And he was stupid because then it was extra easy to seize it all. But there had to be more to it than that, right? Any idiot nowadays had to know that would be the result.

So was there some bigger con with money overseas or—what was the deal?

I didn't hand it all off like normal. Something irked me about this one, and if we were dealing with dirty cops in DeKalb, I wanted to be directly involved.

Fine, I gave myself more work too often. But I liked this part of the job. It was what I had signed up for. I hadn't ever wanted to run an office or be management.

That shit bored me to tears.

There was just something that made me think I needed to be involved in this, and I'd survived a lot following my instincts. I wasn't going to do it all solo though, getting a team to work with me and giving out tasks. It would be good training for some who were greener and had come on while I was gone and I didn't know well so I could get a feel for them too.

I had them start by digging deeper into this guy. Finding any trace of him anywhere—social media, credit, memberships— anything . I wanted his life.

Also, everything on this trailer park. Who lived there. Who was tossed out. I wanted deeds, evictions—all of it. I wanted them to sniff out the dirt from the piles of normal.

Fun FBI work like that.

They would thank me for it later because I'd done that for so many years that the dirt practically leapt out at me now.

"Keep this close to your vests," I warned them. "Don't make a show of getting information and don't even talk about it with others. Anytime there is dirt on cops, we don't share even over the watercooler. We all like to talk too much, and we all know too many people. Someone in this office knows someone on that police force."

"And you don't trust people here," someone muttered, bobbing his head.

"No, I didn't say that at all," I growled. "I trust everyone here. It's not needed to worry them that it's their friend. We all have enough shit on our plates. Just keep a lid on it and learn discretion. That's what I'm saying."

He looked properly chastised. "Got it, Chief."

Twit.

I was surprised to see I had a sparring date with Dain when I got home after work. It had been weeks since the first, and given how that one had gone, I hadn't thought we'd have another.

Did he know it was on my schedule? Had someone been hopeful for me and added it?

Apparently, it was legit because he was in the training room of the building working out and waiting for me. He smiled when he saw me in the mirror and walked over towards me.

"I'm shocked we're doing this again after how you acted—weren't you mad at me?" I blurted in my lovely goober Sera way.

He frowned before giving me a soft kiss. "I was an ass to you. I swear I was teasing. I didn't know you thought I was serious and I hurt you. Truly, wife , I enjoyed it. I very much enjoyed it. I was happy it was on my calendar." He gave me another kiss when I didn't say anything. "If I had known you still worried about this, I would have asked for another sparring date immediately."

I wanted to really believe that. I did.

But if he didn't ask for it… And I didn't ask for it.

Who put this on our calendars?

Carter? He seemed like the pushy one to help us get over our shit.

Probably.

Or any of the ancients really.

Especially when this sparring date ended up exactly like the last one. It wasn't even ten minutes before I was all over Dain. His fingers were in me on the ride up to my apartment and we fucked all over my shower and bathroom like animals.

"Don't be mad at me," I mumbled when we were in bed and spent.

He burst out laughing, kissing my shoulder and hugging me closer. "My love, I'm not mad. I'm elated ." He ran his fingers over my hip and then fingered my well-used pussy. "My young, sexy, gorgeous, luscious wife that so many men desire it drives me mad cannot keep her hands off of me.

"Do you know how happy that makes me? A nerd like me makes you so hot that you cannot control yourself? You? The woman with limitless control and who can compartmentalize like no other. You lose complete control and all inhibitions sparring with me. I am not mad at all. I am out of my head happy even if I still have not learned to spar with women and probably never will."

Fine by me. He was too damn sexy to be near other women besides me like that. Seriously.

He was so far from a nerd and he couldn't see himself for who he was.

And I was just glad he wasn't mad at me.

He doted on me the rest of the night and I soaked it up, nothing more addictive than my fairy giving me his full attention and being all about me. It was like a drug when he was so in tune with me and his whole being focused on my needs. Things just appeared when I didn't even realize I wanted or needed anything, and I felt so, so special.

Which was how I ended up jumping him all over again before bed.

"If you only understood how much I truly love you, wife , you would never have these doubts that I cannot seem to put to rest," he whispered when he thought I was already asleep.

I wished my heart could accept his love too. I wished I could heal the damage that was done to me as a child so I could.

Was there some sort of magic for that?

A pill to take?

Wouldn't that be nice?