Mishaps and Wolves (OLD VERSION)

Chapter 23 - Distractions Lead To Insanity

Chapter 23 - Distractions Lead To Insanity

Once they'd eventually cleaned up the mess in the dining hall, which the main culprits had been exempt from once they'd run to Marissa and she'd helped them escape, Roman had taken her to sit in his office whilst he'd gone to just wash the food out of his hair and change his shirt She'd come with him at first to grab something then gone back to the office.

When he first walked in, she'd been wearing his shirt again and was lying on his sofa. Straight away, the blood had drained out of his brain. he'd just stood there like an idiot watching as she sat on the sofa with one of his favourite books that she'd taken off the shelves. She'd looked up at him, her hair messy and her scent mixing with his from his shirt...he hadn't really stood a chance. His brain had short wired.

"Coming in or what?" she'd asked him.

He came in and closed the door. When he went over to his desk, her scent kept distracting him. He tried to get some actual work done, checking on the pack's accounts and businesses in the cities. But every time he tried, his brain got frazzled. It just kept chanting 'mate, mate, mate' every single time he got a whiff of her scent. He was going insane.

He got up a few minutes after entering the room and shut the door and tried to walk it off. He tried sorting himself out and even managed to tell one of the shifters to find Nicholas and send him to his office. But after hiding like this, he had to go and face her. He had to deal with the crazy urge now or he'd never be able to do anything around her.

When he came back, Marissa was sitting in his chair and was currently typing something on his laptop. Since she was so completely engrossed with what she was doing, she didn't look up when he came in and walked around the desk to stand behind her. He leaned forward to look over her shoulder. What he saw made him wince.

She was checking on a website for veterinary practices and checking out the diagrams for a specific procedure that had him shrinking back. When she finally switched the screen page to an email, he was both glad and suspicious. He read over her shoulder as she typed out the procedure to someone named Katy and said she'd be back home soon. She finished the message off with a note to call her if the operation didn't go well and he had a really bad feeling snake through him.

"So who's Katy?" he asked from beside her.

She squealed and jumped out of the chair. When she turned round to face him, she was definitely angry, and this time you could hear the growl, "What the hell! Can't you make a sound or do you have some sort of 'scare you to death' complex that you have to exert on me?"

He just watched her rant before speaking, "Who's Katy?"

Her cheeks reddened and she crossed her arms over her chest, "I don't have to tell you anything."

He copied her, folding his arms over his chest, "Yes it is."

She just rolled her eyes, "Well, if you really need to know, I was emailing my colleague who just got out of veterinary school and got one of my regular patients."

His blood ran cold, "You're a vet?"

"What? You in a perpetual state of questioning everything? Yes, I'm a vet, otherwise I wouldn't be telling someone how to prevent a tiny Chihuahua from populating the entire borough with more versions of himself especially considering he always manages to get himself hurt trying to get out of the stupid cone collar." She puffed out a sigh and leaned back against the desk.

Roman was having mini heart attacks. Not only was his mate very unstable in the anger department but if he really thought put some effort into setting her anger off, he would be in very dangerous waters.

I think someone is messing with us upstairs, he told his panther.

No shit, Sherlock. What did you do to give us this much bad luck?

Roman's brain hurt from trying to pin-point which moment was the point of his downfall. Was it losing the orb? Was it leaving his parent's pack all those years ago? Was it a curse that had been incited when he'd given in to his urges and punched Regan in the face the first time they'd met? So many moments and knowing the luck he was having, it was probably being himself.

Thankfully at that moment Nicholas walked into his office and saved him from over-thinking. But the second his friend came into the room, his worries fell back onto his shoulders. There was still a traitor in their midst.

"What news have you got?" Roman asked Nicholas.

Nicholas shut the door and leaned back against it, "Nobody was seen coming out of the house before the fire."

"That's not the greatest new in the world." Roman looked over to Marissa who was voicing her thoughts aloud as she moved around the desk, "If the person who set the fire wasn't seen running out of the house before the fire, then they were probably still in there when everyone came running."

"Laura and her daughter Vera, Cinna, Stanley and Julian. They're the only ones that were seen coming out of the house once the alert was sounded. None of them could have done it." Nicholas defended their people straight away. Roman understood Nicholas' defensive nature. Both needed this family that they'd created and the life it gave them. If this turned out to be a false dream, what else could they rely on?

Roman couldn't go back to his family. He was a stronger alpha than his father and if he was to ever live with them, he'd have to defeat his father and that was something he refused to do. Nicholas had a worse situation. He'd been thrown out of his pack by his family at 18 and had been a rogue before Roman had found him and together they'd saved those who'd needed a family just as badly as they did. To have someone turn their back on family...it didn't sit right.

"There is still the possibility that there is someone who's been causing these accidents. We need to ask all of them what they saw and what they were doing just before the fire. That way we know exactly who was where and who could have done it."

Roman sighed, "She's right Nicholas. We need to exhaust every option despite how horrid the idea of a traitor is."

Nicholas looked defeated as he nodded and left. Roman felt terrible for voicing the possibility of a traitor in their midst but it had to be said. He turned to Marissa who was watching after the door with a defeated look on her face. For the compassion she showed to those he called family, he was ever-so proud that she was his.

"We need to go and interview people today. Tonight is the first of the three pack shifts and we don't have time to be lagging on this and trying to get the orb back all at the same time."

She nodded and headed to the door. "Where are we heading first?" she asked him.

"Hospital Ward."