Chapter 40
Chapter 40
Nolan POV
Lance’s sudden appearance at the house caught me completely off guard. I was wrapping up for the night, finally ready to get some dinner, when he appeared in the doorway
The look on his face wasn’t exactly upset or even troubled, it was just… tense, in a way I couldn’t quite name. It had been a long time since I saw Lance like this. He almost seemed like he was feeling guilty about something.
“Did we have an appointment?” I asked as he stepped into the living room.
“No,” Lance said, taking the empty seat across from me. “I just wanted to talk to you.
I was in this part of town anyway p>
“Luckily, I happened to be in,” I muttered.
“I mean, I figured you would be, because Ellie was out,” Lance answered.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Nothing. I was out with some friends at the grill house and I saw Ellie there with Rae,” Lance said dismissively.
“Of course she was,” I muttered. “So why are you here p>
“Just thought I’d check in since I was around,” Lance replied, but there was a stiffness in his shoulders I wasn’t used to seeing. The hostility he normally carried toward me seemed muted somehow.
Before I could question him any further, the front door opened. We both paused, listening as Ellie came inside and kicked off her shoes.
“I’m home,” she called out.
“I’m in the living room,” I responded, glancing at Lance, who was giving me a curious look.
A moment later, Ellie peeked around the doorway. “Just letting you know so you don’t send anyone out looking for me p>
“There’s no reason to worry about that,” I replied evenly.
Her gaze shifted to Lance. “So you gave up on looking for a drunk girl to bring home?” she asked teasingly.
Lance scoffed, but there was no heat to it. “Something like that p>
“Whatever that means,” Ellie said before turning and walking away.
I listened to Ellie’s footsteps fade before turning my gaze back to Lance. “What the hell was that? What’s going on with you p>
He didn’t respond to Ellie with anger or even a sharp comeback. He just accepted that from her. It didn’t make any sense. I almost wanted to ask if he was sick or something. I was weird enough that he’d shown up here to see me for no apparent
reason.
“Look, nothing is going on with me. I just-” Lance hesitated, as if he wasn’t sure what he wanted to say. Then he looked at me with a determined expression. “I just want to prove that I’m not the embarrassment of the family p>
I was suspicious, obviously. Lance hated me. He’d never gone out of his way to do anything for the pack before.
In fact, it was like pulling teeth to get him to show up to anything that really mattered. The fact that he was here, late at night, offering his help… it didn’t make any sense.
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But neither did his reaction to Ellie just now. Unless… maybe she’d said something about him being an embarrassment, and it had gotten under his skin. Lance was so competitive, it wouldn’t surprise me if he was doing this just to prove her wrong. Either way, I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. If he was actually offering his assistance for once, I was going to take it.
“There’s a lot going on at the moment, and I could use the help,” I said finally.
“Yeah, I figured. Seems like you practically live in your office,” Lance said with a scoff.
His words annoyed me, but I forced the feeling down. I didn’t want to get into an argument tonight. I was too tired.
“Look, I don’t know what your actual motivation is here, but if you’re serious, there is something you could help with,” I said reluctantly.
“What is it?” Lance asked.
“The Moonstone pack is still here, and it’s looking like they’re going to be around for at least a couple more months. But something weird is going on with them, and I could use a trustworthy set of eyes to help me out. You’re around the same age as Cassian, maybe he’d be open to talking, hanging out. If he says anything concerning, you let me know,” I explained.
“You want me to spy on the Moonstone Alpha’s son?” Lance asked skeptically. “Not spy, exactly. Just see if you can get him to open up about what they really want here. There’s something deeper going on than just the deal between our packs, but I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is. I just know something else is happening.” “Far be it for me to question your intuition,” Lance said with a sigh. “Yeah, fine. I’ll hang out with Cassian and see if he does anything weird p>
“Good. It may take some time for him to open up, but if anyone can manage it I’m sure it’s you,” I said.
Lance was annoying to me, but other people seemed to find him charming. He was always surrounded by a group of friends who, by all accounts, were loyal to him. Maybe he could work some of that charm on Cassian.
Third Person POV
In the guest rooms of the pack house Cassian and alpha Alaric are still awake. Alaric is pacing, too agitated to settle. Cassian watches him with obvious concern.
“The blatant disrespect,” Alaric mutters. “It’s astounding.
“And so far reaching,” Cassian sighs. “To think that it was allowed to get this bad. I know that Ellie is technically a rogue, but she’s the wife of the alpha p>
Alaric shook his head and stopped, looking at his son. “Either Nolan has no control of his pack or he has condoned this treatment p>
“I’d believe either,” Cassian said. “The servants have been more than willing to tell us all of the drama going on here p>
“Do you believe what they’ve told us?” Alaric asked with concern.
Cassian hesitated to answer. He didn’t want to believe that was all true. Regardless of whether they were right about Ellie being his missing sister, no one deserved the kind of treatment the servants had described.
The stories they’d heard about Ellie’s attempts to win Nolan’s affection being thrown
in her face made Cassian almost as angry as the whispers and insults that were spread about her by other members of the pack.
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And then there was the rumor that Nolan had a mistress.
Cassian clenched his hands. “The woman they say alpha Nolan is involved with, Felicity. She’s the one who called Ellie the one who insulted her,” he said, unable to repeat the word.
“Yes, I noticed that too,” Alaric said bitterly. “If we’re right about Ellie being your sister, we need to get her out of here. Nolan doesn’t deserve to have her by his side p>
“Agreed,” Cassian said earnestly. “We just need to convince her to come with us.” “And find the proof of her identity,” Alaric reminded him.
Cassian nodded, but the truth was that even if Ellie wasn’t his sister he wanted to help her. He didn’t think that
anyone deserved to be mistreated this way by someone that was meant to love them.
He just had to convince Ellie to accept their help.
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