Her cold Heart

| 10 |

Izaya P.O.V

“I think she’s gotten scarier since she’s become a mother,” Kovr snickered.“Do you want to explain why you ran out in the middle of a date with Toni last night?”

I could tell by the sound of her voice she was standing over me.

“Do you think you could scoot over? You’re blocking my sun.” I pouted, knowing full well it would only annoy her more.

She took the magazine out of my hand, rolled it up and hit me with it. I flinched but couldn’t help laughing.

“Oh, lighten up, Nadia,” V said, rubbing some lotion into her shoulders. “Just because Izaya had fantastic s*x last night and you haven’t gotten laid in a while doesn’t mean...”

“Kovr!” I hissed, covering my eyes with my hand.

“Don’t start with me, V. I only have time to kill one annoying little

sister today and Izaya is at the top of my list.” Nadia arched her eyebrows at me. “You ran out on Toni to go hook up with another man?” She tapped her perfectly manicured fingers on her hip, waiting for some kind of explanation.

“Technically I didn’t run out. I told him I didn’t want anything long term and left.” I tried to defend, fighting the urge to laugh.

In the morning light, this was much funnier.

Nadia rolled her eyes. “ Do tell, what would be so bad about that? I mean seriously, Izaya. Toni is a great guy with a great Position who would take care of you. What else could you want?”

Passion, Adventure. There were actually several other things but I didn’t say that out loud. Of course, she didn’t understand this. She had done everything she was supposed to do when she found her mate Langdon.

He was a good wholesome guy my parents approved of and she started popping out kids almost immediately. I had certainly taken our share of detours from that path, and so had Kovr.

No one was nearly as concerned with her though, because she was engaged to a beta from a neighbouring pack.

“Izaya, come on.” Nadia came and sat down on the end of my chair. “Don’t you think it’s time you settle down? Find someone to take care of you and get mated?”

“I don’t need someone to take care of me. I appreciate the effort but I’ll find my own dates from now on. Besides, Kovr’s older than me and she’s not mated yet.” I crossed my arms childishly.

She had thrown me under the bus earlier and this was just payback.

“Kovr’s engaged, Izaya.” Nadia rolled her eyes, not tolerating my petty excuses. I was willing to bet my father had put her up to all of this to begin with. She may have a ring on her finger, but I always teased her that she was perpetually engaged.

She and Adam hadn’t even talked about setting a date yet, and I had my own suspicions about the whole thing.

“And I’m responsible.” Nadia smiled triumphantly. I glared at her, making sure she didn’t divulge any more information than she already had.

Kovr wasn’t exactly anybody’s definition of responsible, she was just sneakier than I was.

“Whatever. I’m going inside,” I resolved, standing up and grabbing my things. I wasn’t going to win this battle, I had learned that long ago.

“Fine. But someday, you’re going to wish you had listened to me.” Nadia shrugged, taking my spot on the chair.

“By the way, dad wants to see you in his office.”Fantastic. That was the last thing I wanted to deal with right now.

I slipped a cover-up on and patted down the hallway to my father’s office.

I knocked softly and heard him grunt on the other side. The door was

heavy as I pushed it open and entered the office. It was dimly lit and smelled like a mix of pine and cigar smoke. My father sat stoically behind the desk, glasses on, staring intently at a paper in his hands as intimidating as ever.

“You wanted to see me Father?” I mustered up the sweetest voice I could manage. I hated the idea of disappointing my father, and tried desperately to please him any chance I got. Nothing ever seemed to be good enough, even more so in the last few months.

He was a hardened Alpha, and his world did not have much room in it for children or more specially daughters.

“Izaya,” he sighed, looking up at me. “You didn’t come home last night.”

I bit my lip, holding in a sharp breath. I’m not sure why I thought I could get away with this to begin with. I was an adult, it wasn’t like he could ground me, but it still didn’t make this any easier.

When I had disappointed him, standing in front of my father was every bit as terrifying at 22 years old as it had been as a 10-year-old.

“Izaya!” my dad snapped sternly.

“No, I didn’t,” I said quickly. “I stayed at a friend’s house and...”

“You better think twice before you lie to me.” He glared. “You’re an adult and are capable of making your own decisions but at least stand by them enough to tell me the truth.”

I let out a slow sigh, contemplating my next move. I had two choices here, I could tell him the truth, or I could continue to try to lie my way out of this. Neither seemed like a fantastic idea at the moment.

“Your mother and I are concerned. Things were better for a while, but I’m starting to see glimpses of who you were after Isaac died, and I’ll be damned if we go down that road again.” He narrowed his eyes at me.

“Father, I’m not...” I started, but was quickly cut off.

“You’re getting to the age where you need to became more responsible and think about getting mated. You know I know several nice men who would take care of you and be good for business.” He scratched his chin.

“You can’t seriously be suggesting an arranged marriage.” My stomach dropped. The thought of that made me sick.

“What I’m suggesting is that you get ahold of things yourself, or I will,” he threatened. “I won’t have you running around recklessly giving our family a bad name. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir.” I nodded, defeated.

“Izaya, you know I only want what’s best for you,” he said, softening a little bit.

“I know,” I agreed. “I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”

“See to it that it doesn’t. I’m serious Izaya, I don’t want to force you into anything but I will to keep you safe and our family name clear. Do you understand me?”

“Yes sir.” I nodded again, wanting to crawl into a hole and die. What a horrible way to follow such an amazing night.

“Good.” He kissed my forehead. “I’m heading to the packhouse to meet with Gian. I’ll see you at dinner tonight.”

“Gian?” I asked curiously. My father generally liked to keep the women out of the pack business but I knew enough to know exactly who Gian De Lio was.

He and my father were enemies and if he was meeting with him nothing good was going on.

“Nothing for you to worry about. Izaya. Shut the door on your way out.”

With that, he quickly ushered me out of his office.

I saw Bella and Angie still sitting outside but I didn’t feel like facing them right now. My father’s ultimatum had left a bad taste in my mouth, and all I wanted to do was crawl back into my bed.

I guess if I was changing my ways, last night with Elijah was as good a night as any to go out on.

Elijah P.O.V

“I am not sure where, But somewhere between the docks and when the shipments are getting back to the warehouse, we’re coming up short. Just a little at a time. I have a feeling it might be a supplier but I want to be sure before we do anything.” dad said

“How? I’ve been checking them myself,” Trevor questioned.

“Somewhere along the line before redistribution. We need to keep a close eye on things these next few weeks and see where the problem is. I don’t want to draw any attention to it right now, just see how the week goes and then we’ll go from there.” My dad’s expression was serious.

He was seriously concerned about this which scared me. He didn’t get disturbed very often so when he did it was a big deal.

“And in the meantime?” I questioned. “How will we make up the loose ends? We can’t send our shipments out short.”

He sighed heavily. “In the meantime, I’ve asked the Dumais’s for additional support. They deal with a few mutual suppliers and Ivan said they’re having some of the same issues.”

“You’re working with the Dumais’s?” I shirked. This was absolutely absurd. Signing a deal with them was like signing a deal with the devil.

“We’re working with the Dumais’s,” he corrected. “It’s only temporary and we’re all on the same side here.”

“I don’t like this one f*****g bit.” Trevor groaned.

“You don’t have to like it, Trevor. We just need to figure out what’s going on and go from there. We’ll both be monitoring our own groups and then meet in a few weeks and see what we can figure out.” Dad checked his watch.

“I’ve got to run. You two behave yourselves.” He slugged back the rest of his coffee and slammed the cup back on the table.

“And you,” he said, pointing to me. “No more booty calls. Find yourself a nice woman that your mother will approve of.”

I chuckled, shaking my head.

“Easier said than done.” Trevor laughed, taking my side for the first time in this whole conversation.

Dad waved and headed out the front door, as if he hadn’t just dropped a bomb on us like that. Working with the Dumais’s was dangerous.

This was going to be a nightmare.