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Archer tucks her hair behind her ear, nodding his understanding. Meg leans into his palm, and something in my chest cracks.
Fuck. It’s been a long time since I remembered I had a heart in there.
“I got promoted,” Meg whispers, like it’s a mistake she made. “To a junior exec. They liked my omega demographic strategies.”
“I like them too,” I say. “I read your packet, and I think your ideas have a ton of potential. You’re very impressive, little one.”
Theo winks at her. “Gorgeous and brilliant.”
Her timid smile warms my bones. And the way she looks up at Archer only makes it better—she already knows he’s the shy one. The one who will understand her in that moment.
His mouth curls up in reply, long fingers smoothing her hair back again. “Then what happened, Meg?”
“It was probably stupid of me to take the job,” she sighs. “As soon as I did, I was in individual meetings all the time. A lot of them were with my former boss.”
She makes a bratty little snort that gets me half-hard. I like her sassy side. I’ll like taming it even more.
Jesus, Ronan. Focus.
“I guess people figured he would be nice to me since I spent a year refilling his coffee and buying presents for his omega,” Meg adds.
“Dick cheese,” Theo grumbles.
Meg blows out a shakier breath. “We were supposed to be working on a scent spray campaign,” she says, her voice losing strength. “We were in the conference room. Alone. And…”
She hangs her head fully, her voice under water. I’m vibrating with rage. I feel it rolling off Theo, too. But Archer is the best of us. And he just holds her tighter, waiting patiently.
It works. Meg raises her eyes to his, her face pleading. “I perfumed. In the meeting. I didn’t mean to, I just— It wasn’t even him. It was one of the spray samples they sent us. And I had on professional clothes. Including undergarments to block scent. But I guess he was sitting close enough to sense it, anyway…”
She flinches with remembered fear. “He lunged at me. And tried t-to bite me.”
The fury inside of me hardens into ice.
“He what?” Theo half-shouts. “Oh hell no. Ronan, call the lawyers. I’m going to jail for murder.”
“He tried to bite you,” Archer repeats, nostrils flaring. “Were you all right? Did he hurt you?”
Meg fidgets, toying with her shirt again. “He twisted my wrist and bruised my arm pretty badly before I got away. The real injuries happened after, when he chased me out of the conference room and tried to corner me in a cubicle.”
We all snarl. Meg shivers. “He destroyed the whole executive level in his rut. I wasn’t focused on anything except getting away, so I didn’t realize how banged up I got. The company lawyers claimed they weren’t liable for anything because it happened due to my own actions. My own… um… arousal.”
She mouths the last word, too embarrassed to say it out loud. I would find that cute if I wasn’t about to rip someone’s head from their body.
“They lied,” I say flatly. “You had every right to sue. And you will, if I have anything to say about it. Forcing you into meetings, alone, with an alpha? Where you worked around synthetic pheromones? It’s negligence. I’ll gut them.”
Wide blue eyes blink up at me. “You… will?”
I nod, the motion emphatic. “If you allow me to, absolutely.”
She looks back at her busy fingers, her skin flushed again. “I—I really don’t want anything from them. Except maybe my healthcare back? Just for a few months?”
My packmates and I trade worried looks. She needs medical insurance, clearly. It’s unacceptable to have her worrying like this. I open my mouth to tell her I will give her a limitless credit card right this second, but Archer catches my eye, his expression severe.
Right. I’m a jackhammer. And right now this girl is brittle as glass.
“We can discuss it more whenever you want,” I promise. “But for now, we need to get you settled. Do you know where you’d like to stay? We have the guest room here. Or we can get you a hotel room.”
I hate that idea—a hotel isn’t as safe as our house or her own. But I don’t want her to be hours away, and I know she may not want to stay with us. We technically aren’t even courting her yet.
