5

A s I pull my car into the garage level of our building, I approach my parking spot, and I'm immediately ready to murder someone again. Preferably the person standing in front of my spot. She's standing there with her hands on her hips, like I've inconvenienced her by making her wait for something.

I throw the car into park and barrel out of my seat, slamming the door for good measure.

“What the fuck are you doing here, India?!” I roar, but she doesn't even flinch. She's just staring at me. It's not sweet, but it's not evil either. She's strangely impassive.

“I came to watch your game. I'm trying to be more active and supportive. And what do I find, Roman? You making heart eyes at some human bitch?” It takes every ounce of willpower I possess not to lay her out, but she's not done yet, and her voice changes to something I don't know that I've ever heard. She sounds almost…real.

“Look, I know I've never been your favorite person. I know I haven't lived my life in the best light. I know you'll never love me, but the King chose us. He chose us to lead our people. I'm taking that responsibility seriously. I’m trying to change. But walking in and seeing that last night…”

Is this really happening to me?!

“…I'm sorry for my attitude, okay. Just give me a chance for us to try to do this right.”

I can't even think right now. While I no longer want to lay her out, I also can't tell her right now that there isn't, and never will be, an us. I want to scream it from the rooftops that I don't care about the crown and the responsibility to our people. I don't care about any of it. I need to find my fucking mate, and that's it for me. She's it for me.

“India, I appreciate the sentiment. I really do, and I'm proud of you for trying to change. But I really can't talk about this right now,” I growl. “Something has come up, and I have to get upstairs to the men. I'll call you when I'm ready to talk, okay?”

I swear, a small look of triumph crosses her features for a fleeting moment, but I chalk it up to me not raging at her and throwing her out on her ass. She thinks I took the bait. I'm also proud of myself for my response. She has no idea what's going on.

She nods and touches my arm. I want to flinch. My wolf is snarling at her. But I force myself to remain completely still. “I'm here for you, Roman. Let me know when you're ready to talk, and I'll be here.” She definitely thinks she won. She pats my arm and turns on her heels, swaying her hips as she walks away, obviously hoping I’m watching her for reasons other than making sure she leaves. Just as she reaches her car, she opens the door, turns, and gives me a small smile and wave before setting herself into the seat and closing the door.

As soon as she's out of sight, I sprint to the elevator door and catch the men up on the encounter through our mind link as I ride up to the main level.

I burst through the door and find them all waiting by the massive kitchen island, right where I'd hoped they'd be.

“Alright, report. Do we have anything?” I ask, already knowing the answer. If they had anything, they would have already told me through our mind link. I didn't block them out, so I would have heard anything.

The only answers I get are shaking heads and somber faces.

“FUCK!” I roar, slamming the door so hard it splinters.

I tear into the kitchen and start destroying anything that I can reach. Ripping glass plates out of the cabinets to crash them to the ground. Just to feel something. Anything. Blind rage will have to do for now. My men let me continue my rampage through half of the kitchen before I'm being sprayed with cold water.

Still lost in the fury, I turn around with every intention of murdering whoever is responsible.

Instead, I'm now being sprayed in the face with a steady stream of ice cold water. It's hitting me square between the eyes, so I can't even see who I want to kill.

I take two steps towards the source of the spray when it stops. My anger slowly dissipates as I find Matilda standing beside the sink, placing the nozzle back onto the kitchen faucet. She sets her hands on her hips and steps towards me slowly.

“Come here, dear,” she commands in her no-nonsense voice, but I’m frozen in place, other than shaking my head.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. What a mess you've made.” She shakes her head as she scans the area. Likely thinking of how long it will take her to clean this up. She's also probably taking a mental inventory of everything I destroyed so she can replace it.

Shame seeps into my bones at my outburst as I lower my head and begin picking things up, when a small wrinkled hand crosses my line of vision and takes my hand in hers.

“Roman, dear, look at me,” she tries again.

I slowly lift my head, afraid that she can see straight into my soul and see how worthless I really am.

“The boys caught me up on what's going on,” she continues as she slowly tugs me towards a barstool beside Benny. “Losing your cool won't help that poor girl or yourself. Get your shit together, young man.”

“Miss Tilly!” Benny shrieks in shocked laughter. “You never say bad words.”

“Well, maybe you boys are finally rubbing off on me. Either way, you boys need to find our girl.”

I've never been so motivated by such few words, but I let them soak into my skin as I look around the room, and it seems to have hit all my men the same way.

“You're right. I'm sorry for the mess. I'll clean it up, and you can use my card to replace everything with whatever you like.” Turning towards my men, I ask, “What are we going to do about the away game coming up?” I ask no one in particular.

Slate is the first to respond, “Well, I have a plan to have the game cancelled with your approval.”

My only response is the lift of my eyebrow and nod for him to continue.

He begins typing on his ever-present laptop before turning it to me. “I checked their system to be sure I could pull it off before I offered, but if I hack the other team's rink systems, I can shut down the coolant system and melt the ice, so they’ll have no choice but to reschedule the game.”

“Do it,” I answer without a second thought. “I'm in no headspace to play a game. If you all want to go play without me, you’re more than wel—”

“Not fucking happening, Boss,” Benny pipes up immediately. “Where you go, we go.”

The twins cross their arms over their chests and nod.

Andrei, the poor kid, looks as fucked up about all this as I feel.

“Alright, Eris, Dolos, do you have anything on our least favorite people?”

“Nah, most of them don't even hold a grudge anymore,” Eris speaks first, sounding disappointed that more people weren't out to get us.

“Thanks to Slate’s hacking skills, I was able to check on Khaos, and it looks like he is throwing a charity event for his team tonight,” Dolos provides.

I look to Andrei again, but he just shakes his head and walks away again.

Slate's head is still buried in his laptop when I ask, “What can I do?” I loathe how desperate I sound.

“Give me some time. I'll find something. I swear.”

With that, I leave the room and climb the steps to the roof.