Chapter 10 - Cyrus

I want so badly to just act like nothing has happened and move on, but this combative tension between Lena and I just keeps rearing its ugly head. She can't even tell me the truth about how she's feeling. She's so guarded. I hate it. We used to tell each other everything.

Well, almost everything. I did leave out the entire special operations team assignment and magical being thing. That is just a part of it all, isn't it? I don't think that should count.

I finish helping clean up the spill and shoot a text message off to Kaius about the doctor and the reaction we'd seen. Something is definitely off about that guy, and the fact that I can't get any sort of scent or read off him makes me even more suspicious. No human could mask their scent. I want to know what he's hiding.

Lena is back to ignoring me as she moves around the store. I'm trying to take my mind off how much it hurts that she's still pushing me away. I work on trying to clear everything out of the case that was damaged during the break-in, taking some measurements so that we can order replacement glass and fix it.

I bend down to pick up the small raw copper nuggets, and the first one in my hand radiates with warmth. This is definitely not ordinary copper. I flip the small chunk over in my hand, weighing it with a frown.

"Lena?"

"Oh my God, what now?" Her voice sounds exhausted and guilt shoots through me. I hate that I'm the reason she feels like this. I do. I just don't know how to make it any better.

I cross the room and set the small cluster of copper on the table in front of her. How do I ask this without letting on that there's even more I'm keeping from her?

"Are these from around here?"

She looks down at the copper and then back up at me with a single eyebrow raised. I am absolutely certain she thinks I have lost my mind, but there's not much I can do to stop that right now.

My eyes drop to her chest while she's studying the copper.

Stop it. Don't look at her tits. Behave yourself.

"Yeah," she responds cautiously, and I pull my eyes back up to her face, "They're from the mine. There is actually an entrance on the back of my property, but there's a more stable entrance over on the Harrison side of the river by Merl's, but it's connected. Why?"

"Oh, nothing. Just wondering if these may have been something they were looking for when they broke in the other night. I'm trying to piece it all together."

I'll need to have the guys check out this mine for sure. There's something more than just copper that's going on in there.

"It's just copper. I mean, it's not worthless, but it's not like it's as high in demand as something like silver or gold would be."

"Maybe," I agree, trying to enjoy that we have made it a whole three sentences without her acting like she wants to kill me, "I was just trying to think through all the angles of it. Anyway, I got most of that cleaned up. I also have the dimensions so we can order some wood and glass, and I can build a new display case."

"You're going to build a new case?"

She has this look on her face that I can't really read. Is she mad? She's probably mad. Oh no, was she going to do it herself? Am I apparently treating her as fragile again? Damn it, how am I supposed to know?

"I mean, I was going to. If you want? I promise I'm not implying that you aren't perfectly capable of building one yourself or anything. I just… well, figured if I'm going to be here to help keep an eye on things anyway, I could at least do something useful. We used to make a decent team."

She's silent and just staring at me. Her slate eyes are a bit darker than usual. The dark gray long-sleeve shirt she's wearing seems to cause their color to change a bit. Something about trying to meet her eyes like this just makes my heart beat faster.

Don't do it. Don't look at them...

I want nothing more than to lay her back across this worktable and feel her body against mine again, but there's not even a chance of that right now with the frigid stance she's taking. I inhale slowly, trying to take my mind off the idea of what her body would feel like in my hands.

"That would be helpful, thank you. I was just going to have to buy a new one. I don't know the first thing about building something like that."

"Of course, I'd be happy to."

A strange look crosses her face, and she steps around the table, stretching up on her toes and kisses me lightly on the cheek.

"Thank you, really. For being here."

I reach for her, but before my hand makes it to her arm, she turns and steps away.

"Shoot, I meant to have these done an hour ago," she mutters staring at the boxes on the counter, "I need to head over to pick up Rosie because of this rain. It's too cold to walk all that way."

"Don't worry about it. I can go pick her and Milo up if you want. Then we can come back here to pick you up, and I can take these over to the post office while you're at your book thing."

Lena bites the edge of her lip, thinking about it, and then nods. She turns away from me and I allow my eyes to finally take in the rest of her body. Her ass is full, and the black jeans she is wearing fit perfectly. I want her so much.

"Stop staring at me."

"I'm not—what?"

She turns around with that damn accusing eyebrow already arched as she walks back across the room toward me and tosses the keys my way.

"I don't remember a rule about not appreciating your ass in those jeans."

"That can be remedied, Captain…"

She and her ridiculous nicknames. I am still getting texts addressed to Cap and Captain Cranky. They've all been very careful to leave out any mention of my pants to stay in line with the order I had given, but they are all teasing with it far too much for my liking.

"Oh no, Sweetheart. You can't stop that one. You can try to enforce shirts, and I may or may not comply. But appreciating your ass is a mandatory, God-given right. Nope. I'll keep fighting you on that one."

She blushes hard, and I'm satisfied that I at least have gotten something other than anger in response this time.

"You're going to be late," she sighs, trying to cover her embarrassment.

"Fine, I'm going. Feel free to appreciate my ass as I leave. I do recall you happened to be particularly fond of grabbing it."

I give her a wink and turn for the door, taking my time. I can feel her eyes on me.

Good, serves her right.

The drive to the school is short. The drive to anywhere in this town is short. You can get anywhere in five minutes, maybe thirty, if you get stuck behind deer. I pull up into the driveway and see Milo and Rose leaning against a wall, chatting animatedly. They look like they're getting along well, at least.

"It's the absolute best one. Hands down, I'll prove it," Rose laughs as they both settle into the car. "Cy, how have you never made him read those henchmen comics we read together? Shame on you as a big brother. You failed him there."

"Oh man, I'd forgotten about those. They are so good."

"Right?! He'll love them, I'm sure, especially if he's reading this trash," Rose wags one of Milo's comics back and forth in her hand.

"Hey now, my taste in comics is my own, thank you very much," Milo grumbles. "I haven't given you a hard time about your taste in music."

"What's wrong with my taste in music?" Rose is looking back at him in the back seat with a genuine smile.

"Oh, nothing if you like bubble gum pop. You do you, Princess."

A familiar look crosses Rose's face, and her eyes take on the same look that I have seen all too much lately in her mom's eyes. I turn my eyes back to the road with a laugh.

Bold choice, Milo.

The comic thwacks against something in the back seat, and Rose turns back around with a huff, crossing her arms. There's an awkward silence as we pull in front of the shop, and I can't help but laugh. Apparently, they both like to throw things now.

"Well, this was a joy. Can y'all come in and help me get all these boxes that have to be shipped moved to the car?"

"Ugh, shipment day sucks," Rose whines but moves to join me.

"Hey now," I offer as I hold the door open for her, "It could be worse. I could subject you to Milo's taste in music if you don't want to help with shipment day."

Milo pretends to look offended as he passes through the door, mock outrage on his face.

"Do you hear what they do to me, Miss Lena? They wound me."

"Just Lena, Milo. You make me feel like an old lady with all that Miss stuff."

Lena lets out a genuine laugh as she gets the last piece of tape in place and pushes the box across the counter toward us with her good hand. Orion joins us from the back room, and we make short work of loading all the shipments in the car.

"Wow, okay. Shipment day sucks a lot less with three big dudes and their muscles to help move all the boxes," Rose laughs as we pile in the car before heading out. This ride is much less chatty. Milo and Rosie are laughing about someone from school, but Lena and Orion are silent. It makes for an awkward tension.

I am beyond relieved when we pull up to Lena's house and everyone splits off in different directions.

"Hey, Milo, send Evander out here when you find him. I'll run this stuff to the post office after I drop Lena off at her thing."

I need fresh air. I need time away from the scent of her overwhelming me. I walk to the edge of the woods, wondering where exactly the mine entrance she mentioned is. I have to remember to get her to talk more about that without making it seem as suspicious as it probably will.

"What's up?"

Evander's voice is clipped. I think he's still pissed at me over disrupting the plan and the forced marriage idea. I wish he would just get over it. There's enough going on right now that having my best friend and right hand mad at me is just one thing too many.

"Cool it with the pissy tone, would you?"

He levels me with a surprised look.

"Really? You think I'm pissy? Whatever could I have to be irritated about? Rather than disrespect my Alpha, I think I'll keep my mouth shut. Thank you very much."

"No, out with it. You have permission to vent because I can't handle you being moodier than a teenage girl."

Evander doesn't even pause.

"You knew coming back here was going to be complicated. We had a solid plan for how we were going to make initial contact with Lena, and you couldn't even last a day. Then, to make it so much worse, you are stalking her around town like the control freak we both know you've become in the last several years. The real kicker is, you forced the poor girl into marrying you while she was arguably concussed and dealing with an adrenaline dump."

"Wow, don't hold back. Anything else?"

"You're annoyingly tall."

He glares at me for half a breath before we both laugh. We aren't really built to fight each other. I know he's genuinely mad at me, and there's a fractional, non-ridiculous mate-bond-driven side of me that would acknowledge he's right. I have no idea how to control myself where she's involved. Evander is always good about at least letting it go once he gets his irritation off his chest.

"I'm not disputing that I am an idiot in this. I can't seem to help myself around her. It's as if being this close to her and not being able to have her is shredding at the last bits of my sanity."

"We'll at least we both can agree you're an idiot."

I groan and kick irritably at a log on the ground.

"Less helpful, man. What do I do here? She's mad at me for everything. I breathe wrong. I'm too helpful. I am jealous. It's just an unending parade of all the ways she hates me now."

Evander is quiet, studying a rock that he's flipping over with the toe of his shoe. I don't like it when he gets quiet like this. It usually means he is going to tell me something I don't want to hear.

"You need to respect that she still has some pretty big hurt. The way I pulled you out, the way Nestor made it impossible for you to contact her. Can't you see it from her side? I mean, Cy, that ring was already in your pocket eight years ago. You've carried it around on you since. If you've been torn up the way you have, don't you think she has had her own side of it?"

Oh, yeah. Definitely not something I want to think about, let alone hear. I don't like the idea of her carrying that hurt around after all this time. No part of me wants to acknowledge that I was responsible for doing that to her. But I am. That's the reality I have been trying to avoid.

"And now you've forced her into marrying you, which is a whole other layer of torment. So, maybe cut her some slack. I think she's actually dealing with this about as best as could be expected."

"I really hate it when you're right."

"Of course you do."

"So, how do I fix it?"

"I think you give her time. Give her some space. Learn to trust her a little bit and suppress the mate-bond a bit. It may help you come off slightly less like a controlling ass hat."

"Controlling ass hat?"

"Would you prefer her name, Cap?"

I groan, and we turn back toward the cabin.

"Let's go. I have to drive her to this book thing. I‘m at least walking her in and out. She's still healing from the damn shoulder and concussion. I don't really want to risk leaving her alone again."

"That's a decent compromise."

"Okay, okay. That's enough therapy for the day, Doc. Thanks. On a more serious note, there's something I meant to tell you earlier. The copper that she had in the case at the shop is radiating energy. It's not just normal copper. She said it's all from one mine that connects here on her property somewhere. Can you and the guys check it out?"

We are a few feet from the back porch when Lena steps off it, and I feel my breath catch. She has dark eyeliner and makeup on that makes her eyes look haunting. Deep red lipstick that stands out on her pale face. She's swapped her work clothes for a dress that ends right above her knees with a top that dips into a low V on her chest. Fuck.

I'm definitely staring now.

I am tormented by the intense need to see what she has on under that dress. I want to see it riding up her thighs. This is my new version of Hell, being this close to her and not being able to do anything about it.

"Good luck with that self-control," Evander laughs as he heads into the house, roughly patting me on the shoulder.