Chapter 24

Valen stared around my office, it used to be Valarie’s apartment, but we converted it into office space. I found it challenging to come here before. Memories always brought back heartache, so we revamped it, and now the place didn’t haunt me. Yet, seeing Valen standing here in what used to be her home filled me with sadness. She loved her son, and here he stood unaware that this place, the Hotel, used to belong to the woman who had given birth to him. What kind of man would he be if she was given a chance to raise him, I wondered.

I watch him for a few seconds, and he stops at the shelving before rearranging it. My brows furrow as I watch him straighten the ornaments making them line up; it was one thing seeing my son do odd things like that, but a grown man? His movement was strange as he rearranged the books in alphabetical order on the shelf below. However, OCD wasn’t a genetic probability, so it had to be a coincidence.

“Why are you here? I wasn’t expecting you to stop by,” I tell him remembering his threat to come back tomorrow, yet here he stood.

“I don’t need a reason. I own the City, or did you forget?” I roll my eyes at him. Typical Alpha, thinking the world owes them for us being allowed in their presence.

He stops looking around, and I notice the picture of Valarian on my desk and quickly swipe it off, placing it in the drawer just as he turns to face me. My door opens up, and the night secretary walks in.

“Coffee?” Emily asks, her brown eyes sparkling. She was a cheerful woman though ordinarily shy. Despite that, Emily has lasted the longest on the night shift in the foyer. Her son was seven, and she lived in the Rogue commune, working here of a night to provide for her child. However, she makes her coffee from scratch, and it is terrible, she grows the beans herself, and after stopping by her place when I met her and offered her the job, I refused to drink a single cup-always bringing my own. “No, this won’t take, ” “Yes, Please,” Valen cuts me off, and I glare at him. Emily lingers for a second, and I nod to her. Valen smiles triumphantly when I give in, yet the joke was on him if he thought he would enjoy what she would prepare for him.

“Now, if only you would give in that easily to the mate bond,”