Leilani.

What I hated wasn’t how dismissive Maya had been about the whole issue. It was not the fact that she had blatantly refused to allow me to come and live with her and Gavin for another couple of weeks...

It was the things that her words did to me.

It was the way I thought about her words over and over and over again until there was nothing left to think about. It was the way— as per her words— my body now seemed very hyperactive whenever any of the triplets were close even if they were a couple of meters away.

Now, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was indeed developing feelings for them, or if this was one of those cases where love— lust— comes right after marking.

I frowned.

"You’ve been picking on your food since forever," a familiar voice, gruff with a tinge of worry, suddenly slipped into my subconscious, snapping me out of my train of thoughts.

I jerked my head upward only for my breath to hitch when I realized that four pairs of eyes now watched closely, all seemingly worried, and all holding a distant yet small amount of amusement that I found odd.

Maya still had her smug smile on— one that hasn’t gone off since you know, the Zevran incident, Zevran still couldn’t look at me in the face without blushing because he’s probably still not over it yet as well; and then there was Kael and Caelum, two totally oblivious men, but who seemed to have their own internal jokes going on in their heads as well.

I hissed; "Huh?"

"I said that you’ve been picking on your food since forever. Is the seafood boil not to your liking?" Kael asked softly, his eyes darting from my barely touched plate to my face.

I let out an exaggerated sigh and pressed the back of my hand to my neck as I whispered; "No."

"It isn’t...?"

"No. It is. I just do not feel too good."

As I said those words, my eyes met Maya’s and I didn’t miss the glee in them. Now, it was beginning to look as though after I told her about my conflicting feelings for the triplets, she has been paying too close attention to us, wanting to see or feel any misstep and make fun of it later on.

A small smile touched her face as she placed her cutleries onto the table and muttered; "It’s the work. You’ve been working your ass off these past few days and you haven’t been resting properly."

"Tell her," Zevran chirped in, "...she never listens to me whenever I tell her this!"

"The same way you do not listen whenever we ask you to remain at home!" Caelum snapped back at him, and for the first time in his annoying life, helped me to get me off the radar.

I mouthed a quiet; "thank you," to him before I resumed back to my food which I only ate for a couple more seconds and then set down my fork.

"I am not so hungry so I’d love to go to bed now," I said softly, then turning to Maya, I continued; "You’d sleep over, right?"

"Right," she answered with a smile. "I’ll be with you in a couple of minutes."

I nodded and stood without stopping to regard anyone, but just as I turned around and was about to walk out, Kael’s voice suddenly rang out, stopping me mid- walk.

He asked; "Leilani, may I see you for a minute?"

I spun around to face him, my eyebrows pushing into my hairline as I asked; "Why?"

"It is work related. And you have every right to say no if you do not want it."

I turned to look at the other brothers who in turn turned away from me. Their reactions however, made me believe that they already knew exactly what he was about to say to me so I nodded and continued to walk, hyper aware of the fact that he was following closely behind me as I did.

We walked down the quiet hallway without exchanging words— not even a glance— and when I finally stopped in front of my door— well, not my door per say, but the door to the room they’d made mine only temporarily, I stopped, crossed my arms over my chest and turned to face him.

"What?"

"I need your help."

There was no preamble. Not beating around the bush. Just plain flat out answers.

I frowned. "What for?"

At the sound of my question, he sighed heavily and turned away from me, but not before I saw the worry and the raw frustration in his eyes. He drawled; "I know that what I am about to ask of you may be wrong ethically..."

"How?"

"It is wrong," he hissed, "...especially since you work personally for a rival company. But I can’t help but come to you because—"

"Just go straight to the point, Alpha Kael, and stop beating around the bush!"

I didn’t mean to snap but my voice came out a tad bit harsher than I had intended for it to, and when Kael heard it, he lowered his head, whispered something along the lines of: "I knew that this was a bad idea," under his breath before lifting his head to meet my gaze one more time.

And hell, he looked like shit. He looked like he had just been dragged through hell and back.

His eyes suddenly seemed sunken and dark, and the gray of his eyes looked white-washed. But that was not all.

His shoulders were slumped and his posture was like that of a defeated man as he began to talk;

"There’s this new stinking rich business mogul in town and we want to establish a partnership with him."

That was interesting.

I pressed my back against the door and mused; "Okay..."

"Lately, he’s been hell bent on only working with Frostclaw. inc and has refused proposals from every other company that has tried to reach out to him, including ours."

I said it: interesting! "And?"

"You know him, he’s Mr Valemont."

At the mention of his name, I froze. My blood ran cold and rang loudly in my ears before settling into something not more than a buzz at the back of my skull.

"I need you to have a look at the proposal I have come up with my team. The one I intend to submit to him."

"No." I flat out said, not missing the way his eyelids twitched for a second before he continued to speak as if he hadn’t quite heard me.

"You don’t have to ensure that we get the contract or do anything extra. I just need better, smarter eyes to look at it from a different perspective."

"What you ask of me is wrong." I drawled coldly— again, sounding way colder than I intended to. "It’s a breach of my contract with the Frostclaws."

"I know," Kael answered, sounding defeated. "The Frostclaws have already signed a partnership deal with the Valemonts so we aren’t stealing anything when you really think about it. We just want some of his goody bags. A deal or two. That’s all."

"And why have you come to me?" I asked, and even before I would blink or retract my statement, he answered quickly—a little too quickly.

He said; "Is there anyone better than you, Leilani? Do you not know that you are part of the reason that Frostclaw.Inc is the most sought after establishment in town?"

I frowned. "No."

"Is the ’no’ an answer to not knowing you are one of the reasons that Frostclaw. Inc is doing so well, or is it the answer to my proposition?"

"It is to both." I answered, more like sneered and watched his face crash as he lowered his head one more time.

Something about his overall stance clawed at something at the back of my heart. It scratched a spot in my brain that people normally wouldn’t reach, and against my better judgement, I found myself asking;

"Is something the matter?"

Of course, something is the matter! He wants more money!

He sighed. "Our company is under some kind of internal pressure. Micah, our cousin is doing all he can to get most of the executive board members on his side, and this... this was just another desperate attempt to prove to them that we are on top. That the company is our inheritance for a reason. I am sorry."

I knew who Micah is, but that story he just told was news to me.

Anyways, before I could ask him about it, he turned around and began to walk away.

And I should let him go, right?

RIGHT?

So tell me why I started to feel bad?

Tell me why watching him leave made me feel like such a bad person?

I didn’t even know when I said the words until they were well out of my lips. I said; "Wait, I can help you."

He stilled.