The Amber Shift

Twenty-Eight

Elijah

I raise my fist and tap on Corbin's office door, my heart hammering out of my chest. The last thing I want to do right now is talk to my alpha about what I confirmed last night during the shift, but I can't keep it from him forever. Not to mention I have no idea what to do.

When he gives me permission to enter, I slip into the room and close the door behind me, trying to even my breathing so he doesn't think I'm losing my mind.

I am never rattled. I can always keep a cool head and stay calm; in fact, as commander, I'm usually the one everyone comes to for advice.

But not this time. This time I'm more lost than I ever have in my entire life.

"Good evening, Elijah," Corbin says, barely glancing up from whatever he's working on. "Everything okay?"

I sink down into the wingback chair across from his desk and run my hands through my hair, leaving it standing in all directions. "Not exactly, no."

He lifts his head this time and really looks at me, his gray eyes searching my face. "What's wrong, Eli?"

"I have a major problem," I start, picking at a loose thread on my shorts. "And I need your advice." I feel faint, like at any second, I'm going to end up passed out on the floor.

Corbin sets aside the paperwork he'd been filling out and leans forward on his elbows. "Elijah, what is it? You're worrying me, son."

"It's about Noelle, me, and the endless confusion I feel toward our situation."

He cocks his head to the side. 'Endless confusion'? What do you mean? I didn't know there was a...situation."

I shift in my seat and pinch my lips between my fingers. "I suspected something was different between me and Noelle the moment we met. At first, I thought it might be the connection between the two of you and then you and me. But as the weeks have passed and she has become more comfortable with my men, I'm not finding that same type of comfort. If anything, my feelings are intensifying. And last night, when I saw her wolf..." I shake my head.

Corbin stands, walks around to the front of his desk and perches on the edge, crossing his arms over his chest. "What are you saying, Elijah? Do you think that she's..." He trails off and I am caught under his weighted stare.

"She is."

My alpha purses his lips and takes in the contemporary décor of his office. He remains quiet for several seconds, and I can almost see the cogs inside his head turning. Since the moment he took me in, Corbin has never minced words with me. He always gave me the whys and hows no matter how much it hurt. But with Noelle involved, this changes everything. She doesn't have a desire to become a sentinel or to rise above her station as a lycan.

"Does she know she is your mate?" he asks.

I shake my head and stare at my feet. "I haven't mentioned it to anyone except you. I don't even know if she knows that mates are a thing. I—I've tried so hard to stay away from her. While the others are—" I break off, realizing Corbin probably doesn't want to hear about his niece's sexual escapades. I clear my throat. "Everyone else gets along fine. I've been sort of a dick, and I was doing it to try to keep distance between us. But now that I know she's my mate, I—I can't imagine being apart from her. But if I give in, if I let myself fall, it's going to mess everything up."

"I can't tell you what to do, Elijah. I understand that you have spent years working to get to the point you are at now. But I have to wonder if holding on to the control you've worked so hard for is worth sacrificing a mate. There are no second chances. Another person isn't going to come along for you," he lifts a brow, "or her."