The Curvy Human Behind The Alpha's Survivor

Cracks.

Nina's POV

"So when's the big reveal? Restaurant Griffin Wolfe himself is personally funding, I assume there's a name yet? A launch date? A press release Cass conveniently forgot to send me first?"

"Cass, it's been four days."

"Four days is a long time when you used to tell me everything within four hours." She said it lightly, stirring her coffee, but something underneath it had an edge I wasn't used to hearing from her.

"I've been overwhelmed.” I replied. “I can barely believe it myself yet."

"Sure." She glanced at her phone, thumb moving fast over the screen. She wasn't looking at me anymore. "Anyway, I was going to introduce you to my contact at the territory council, the one who handles new business permits, but honestly, it sounds like you've got bigger connections than me now. You probably don't need the intro."

"Cass, that's not—"

"It's fine, Nina." Her smile didn't quite reach her eyes. "Really. I'm happy for you."

She didn't sound happy but I didn't have time to ask what it was that was disturbing her because my phone buzzed with a delivery notification and my head was already elsewhere, already circling back to Griffin's hand on mine four days ago and the offer I still hadn't answered.

She did leave in under an hour and I decided to finish up with laundry.

Gabriel had been jumpy for a week straight. He'd flinch at doorbells, check the window every time a car idled too long outside.

While doing laundry, I found a phone by accident because his jacket pocket had been heavier than it should have been.

“A burner?” I turned it around. It was indeed one and the screen came on. The phone has no password so I scrolled through it. There were three unread messages from a contact saved only as a single letter. Underneath it, there was folded cash, more than Gabriel had made in months from whatever odd jobs he claimed to be working.

He walked in while I was still holding it. "That's not yours to go through."

"It's my apartment, Gabriel. What is this?" I held it up.

"It's nothing." He crossed the room fast, took the phone and the cash out of my hands. "Just, work stuff. Complicated work stuff."

I looked at him confused. "What kind of work pays in cash and burner phones?"

"Nina, drop it." He retorted. “It's nothing serious.”

"I'm not going to drop it. You've been sleeping on my couch for a week looking like you're waiting for someone to kick the door in."

"I said drop it." His voice cracked sharp, louder than I'd ever heard him use with me, and then immediately softened, guilt flooding his face. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I just, I can't talk about this right now. Please, just trust me a little longer."

Before I could say anything else, he left and the sound of the doorbell distracted me.

“Alpha Griffin?” I was surprised to see him on the front porch. “What a surprise.”

He was holding a folder of restaurant paperwork under one arm, an excuse thin enough that I almost laughed when he offered it.

"You could have called."

"I could have." He stepped inside when I waved him in, glancing around the small apartment with an expression I couldn't quite read. "I wanted to see your face when I said it in person. The offer's real, Nina. Whatever you're worried about, there isn't one."

"There's always a catch."

"Not with me." He set the folder down, but neither of us looked at it. "Ask Odette. She'll tell you I'm annoyingly straightforward. It's apparently one of my worst qualities."

"Odette." The name sat strange in my mouth. "Your ex."

"You've heard about her?"

"I saw her face at dinner the other night. The way she looked at us." I crossed my arms. "Cass mentioned the history, a little."

He exhaled then took a seat on the arm of my work couch. "We were together for a long time. I thought I loved her until I saw her change into something else.”

"What was that?"

"Convenient for a while." His eyes came up to mine, steady. " My wolf wouldn't accept her anymore. She treated the omegas and whoever was beneath her like trash but you Nina, you aren't like that.”

"Jace thought I was complicated too.”

"I'm not Jace."

"I know that."

"Do you?" He stood, closed the distance between us, giving me every chance to step back if I wanted to. I didn't. “I've spent five years carrying around a memory of a woman who saved my life and never asked for anything, and I've spent the last week trying to figure out how to be worthy of finally getting to know her properly."

"Griffin—"

"Tell me to stop," he said quietly, close enough now that I could feel the words more than hear them, "and I will."

I didn't tell him to stop.

His hand came up slow, fingers brushing my jaw, and I felt my whole body lean into it before my brain caught up, before I remembered every reason this was reckless, before—

"Nina?" Gabriel's voice cut through the room from the hallway. "Nina, I need—"

We both turned. Gabriel stood in the doorway swaying slightly, a dark stain spreading across the sleeve of his shirt, blood, real and fresh, dripping slowly onto my hardwood floor.

Griffin went rigid beside me, every trace of softness gone from his face in an instant. He looked fierce and his eyes had changed. I could feel his wolf.

"Who is this?" Griffin asked, his eyes never leaving Gabriel.

"He's my best friend. Gabriel, what happened, are you—"

"I'm fine, I just, I need somewhere to sit down." Gabriel's eyes flicked to Griffin, then away fast, guilty and scared in a way that made my stomach drop straight through the floor.

My phone buzzed on the counter behind me. I almost ignored it, every instinct pulling toward Gabriel instead, until the screen lit up bright enough to catch my eye from across the room. There was a news alert, and a face staring back at me under a nam

e I didn't recognize.

Gabriel's face. A different name underneath it. He was wanted for murder in seven packs.

“What have you done Gabriel?”