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Chapter 8: Jealousy at Midnight

The pillow wall was a joke.

Ava had built it with surgical precision. Four pillows, stacked, straight line down the middle of Ethan's massive king bed. A border wall. The Berlin Wall of fake dating.

"This is demilitarized zone," she announced at 10 PM, standing in pajama shorts and a tank top, pointing. "Your side, my side. No crossing. Violation of treaty results in... um... loss of coffee privileges."

Ethan, in sweatpants, no shirt, arms crossed, stared at the wall.

"You think four pillows will stop me if I want to cross?" he asked, amber flickering.

"Yes," Ava said firmly. "Because you are a gentleman billionaire Alpha King who promised Clause 7."

"I'm also a wolf in rut who almost lost his Luna to wolfsbane this morning," he said, but he got into his side. The bed dipped under his weight. "Fine. Wall stays."

They turned off the lights. New York glowed outside.

Silence. Then Ava's phone rang. Loud.

Maya. FaceTime. With a photo of them both making duck faces.

Ava answered fast, whispering, "Maya, I'm kind of - "

"AVA MILLER YOU ARE ALIVE AND IN A PENTHOUSE?" Maya shrieked so loud Ethan sat up. "Girl, t****k is blowing up! You're trending! #HumanLuna! And your ex Jake got arrested? And is that a man in your bed? IS THAT ETHAN BLACKSTONE? OH MY GOD IS HE SHIRTLESS?"

Ava fumbled, turning camera away. "Maya, lower your voice - "

Ethan leaned over the pillow wall, into frame, bare chest, sleepy, possessive.

"Hi, Maya," he said. "She ate your yogurt, by the way. You owe her one."

Maya screamed.

Ava pushed Ethan back over the wall. "Out! Private girl talk!"

Ethan lay back, smirking, listening shamelessly with werewolf hearing.

Maya was still talking, fast: "Okay okay okay, but listen, the real tea - you need to come back to work. Mr. Chen is asking. And - " She lowered voice conspiratorially. "There is a super cute guy who came in today. Asked for you. Human, hot, like surfer hot. Said he was in your lit class at NYU. Liam? He left his number."

Ava's stomach did a weird thing. Liam? Liam Parker from college? He was cute.

On the other side of the pillow wall, the temperature dropped 10 degrees.

"Oh?" Ava said, trying to sound casual. "Liam? Wow, I haven't seen him in - "

Ethan sat up.

"What number?" he asked, voice flat.

Ava turned. "Ethan, we are on a private call - "

"What number did he leave?" Ethan repeated. Louder. Wolf in voice.

Maya, on phone, went, "Ooooh. Alpha jealous. Ava, your fake billionaire boyfriend is jealous. This is better than Netflix."

"I am not jealous," Ethan said. "I am... concerned. About security. Strange men leaving numbers for my claimed Luna is a security risk."

"Security risk?" Ava repeated. "Liam was my study buddy!"

"Liam is a security risk," Ethan said, standing. The pillow wall collapsed under his knee as he leaned over. "Give me the number. I will vet him."

"You will not vet my college friend!"

"I will vet anyone who wants my Luna's number!"

"Fake Luna!" Ava shouted back. "Contract says fake!"

"Goddess mark says real!" Ethan shouted, just as loud.

They stared at each other, breathing hard, faces inches apart, pillow wall destroyed between them.

Maya whispered from the phone: "Kiss. Kiss. Kiss."

Ava grabbed the phone and hung up.

Silence again. Heavy. Charged.

Ethan's eyes dropped to her mouth. Then to her neck, where gold mark glowed faint in dark.

"Ava," he said, voice low, rough. "If you want to call Liam, call him. I can't stop you. Contract says you're free. But - "

"But what?" she whispered.

"But my wolf will lose his mind. And I will have to smell him on you. And I don't know if I can - " He cut off, ran a hand through hair. "I'm not good at this. I've never been jealous. I've never had to share."

Ava's anger melted a little. This big, powerful man, billionaire, Alpha King, looked like a lost boy.

"Ethan," she said softly. "I signed a contract to fake date you for 30 days. I didn't sign to make you jealous. I have not even thought about Liam in three years. I thought about you all day. When I was in the hospital, I - "

She stopped.

"What?" Ethan stepped closer, over the ruins of pillow wall. "When you were in hospital?"

"I wanted you," Ava admitted, small. "Not Doctor Lee. You."

Ethan's breath caught.

Slowly, he sat back on bed, on her side now, wall gone.

"Can I... can I hold you? Just hold? No - no Clause violation. Just... so my wolf stops thinking Liam is going to take you."

Ava looked at the broken pillow wall. At Ethan's hands, clenched to not touch.

She moved, just a little, and leaned against his chest.

Ethan froze, then melted, arms wrapping around her, big, warm, safe. He buried his face in her hair, inhaling.

"Mine," he whispered, not to her, to himself. To his wolf.

Ava felt the mark on her neck warm, happy.

"Yours for 30 days," she corrected, but her arms went around him too.

"30 days," Ethan echoed, holding her tighter. "We'll see."

They fell asleep like that. No wall. No treaty. Just a human girl and a wolf King, tangled, while outside, New York kept flashing, and somewhere in Queens, Maya texted Liam: Sorry, she's taken. By a billionaire werewolf. It's complicated.