Chapter 213 Not for them to understand

Chapter 213: Chapter 213 Not for them to understand

_Rowena’s POV_

The bank notification popped up on my phone screen with a soothing chime: Direct deposit received: $60,000.00.

I leaned back in my chair and stared at the numbers, letting out a long satisfied laugh that bounced off the walls of my workspace.

Sixty thousand dollars.

Brielle had actually paid sixty thousand dollars for a discarded, second rate draft that I had literally dragged into my laptop’s trash folder days ago.

It was almost too easy, she was so desperate to look like a medical prodigy that she had handed over a small fortune.

Oh, it looked gorgeous on paper for sure, it was sleek, complex, and full of fancy micro fluid channels that would make any amateur engineer swoon.

But the moment someone over two hundred pounds tried to walk down a steep flight of stairs in it? Snap. The secondary joint lock would seize up like a cheap toaster.

I wasn’t going to tell her that, of course. For sixty grand, she was welcome to discover the joys of structural tension all on her own.

"You are evil," Ezekiel voiced when I explained everything to him after he returned to the Ashthorne residence. "Pure, unadulterated evil, I love it."

I swung my chair around to face him, grabbing a donut off his plate without asking seeing he had a plate again. "It isn’t evil, Ezekiel. It’s called sustainable business. I’m simply charging her an arrogance tax. Besides, I’m using her money to buy higher grade titanium alloys for Kristy’s actual leg."

"You made her think she bought a masterpiece," Ezekiel sighed, leaning against my main workbench and wiping a smudge of sugar off his thumb. "Pierre told me this morning that Brielle’s mother has been bragging to literally anyone with ears at the pack club. She’s claiming Brielle solved the neural link problem in her sleep."

"Let her brag," I said, taking a bite of the donut. "The higher she climbs on that fake pedestal, the louder the thud will be when she falls off it."

Ezekiel smirked, but I noticed the way his shoulders were relaxed for the first time in a while. The cloud that had been hovering over his head since the scandal was finally gone.

His eyes were bright, and he was actually smiling like his old self.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Speaking of Pierre... you two seem cozy now, or am I thinking too much? I take it that your departure earlier was to go see him."

Ezekiel’s face immediately flushed a bright, violent shade of pink. He suddenly found the floor pattern fascinating, clearing his throat awkwardly as he tried to look dignified.

"We... resolved our differences," Ezekiel muttered. "He admitted he was being an idiot. I admitted I was being a dramatic idiot. We compromised on being idiots together."

"And the elders?"

"Pierre told them that if they tried to force him into a political mating match, he would resign from the council and move to another territory to become a tennis coach," Ezekiel said, a proud grin breaking across his face. "It terrified them so badly they backed off completely. But I actually want Pierre to move with me to become a tennis coach.”

"A tennis instructor?" I laughed. "He doesn’t even play tennis."

"That’s what made the threat so terrifying," Ezekiel replied.

Before I could reply, the door at the end of the hall clicked open with a hiss.

I turned around to see Alaric walking into the lab, dressed in a dark suit now with his navy tie loosened slightly at the collar.

He looked better than he had yesterda, the dark circles under his eyes had faded, his color was back, and his powerful Alpha aura was once again steady and grounding.

Sleeping on my shoulder for two hours had clearly done wonders for his wolf spirit.

Alaric stopped near my workbench, his dark eyes scanning the room from the 3D printers to Ezekiel eating donuts, and to me sitting on a chair now covered in dust.

"You look remarkably cheerful for someone on a three week deadline," Alaric said, an amused smile touching his lips.

"I am having a fantastic week," I told him, spinning slightly in my chair. "I just closed a very lucrative business deal with an anonymous client."

Ezekiel snorted into his coffee cup, trying desperately to cover up his laughter with a series of fake coughs. "Excuse me. Cold air."

Alaric glanced between the two of us, his brow twitching up. He knew us both far too well to believe for a second that we were up to anything good. "Should I be concerned? Has someone mysteriously disappeared?"

"Not yet," I said sweetly. "Though if Brielle’s mother comes near me at another public event, I can’t make any firm guarantees."

Alaric let out a chuckle, stepping closer to my desk. He reached out and gently ran his thumb across my cheek, the casual intimate gesture made my breath hitch for a second, my heart doing a silly little flip in my chest.

"Gabriel told me you bought a house yesterday," Alaric said, his eyes locking onto mine. "And that you paid off a woman by throwing cash at her face."

Ezekiel froze mid chew, his head snapping toward me. "Wait, what?! You threw cash at a woman’s face?! Why wasn’t I invited to this?!"

"How did he know that second one?” I asked confused.

“It was captured by a paparazzi, I had to sort it out before it went viral. You should have been careful.”

I sighed and nodded thankfully. “She was being rude to an old man," I replied, keeping my voice calm while my cheeks warmed under Alaric’s gaze. "And the house was for a girl named Olivia and her sick father. Their former apartment building was a health hazard."

Alaric didn’t pull his hand away immediately. His thumb lingered near my jawline, his eyes filled with something deep, warm and fierce.

"You spend my money on high tech metals, you spend your own money on pack members, and you terrorize my enemies," Alaric murmured, he had been finding the equipment for Kristy’s project. “I am beginning to think you are entirely too dangerous to leave unsupervised, Marchioness."

"You couldn’t supervise me if you tried, Alpha," I teased back, leaning into his touch.

"I know," Alaric smiled, his thumb brushing my bottom lip before he finally stepped back, looking over my blueprints spread across the table. "And that is precisely why I am not even going to try."

He looked down at the actual, completed nerve mapping diagram I had finished an hour ago, the real one, the masterpiece that was going to give Kristy her life back.

"Is it ready?" Alaric asked, his tone turning serious.

I smiled, picking up my stylus and tapping the screen to initiate the final 3D printing cycle.

"It’s not for you to know yet, Alpha King.”

The thing on the screen was confusing to understand, anyone would think it’s nonsense. And that was very okay, I planned to shock them.