Lunar Temptations

Ch 54

"Did you get the drive?" I spoke into my phone. Jasper was eagerly typing something on his keyboard, and I could hear the keys tapping through. We had finished work, and he was mailing our documents to us. I wouldn't be disturbing him anymore if it wasn't something important.

"Yeah, I got it," came Holly's voice in the background, and he must have put the call on speaker.

Holly was one of the cybersecurity analysts in our team, and she was brilliant at her work. The idea came to me that night when I went to sleep and couldn't stop thinking about how we had lost the evidence, and Macy's statement was the only hope now. It was then that it hit me that Holly had once recovered deleted data, and we were mesmerized by it. Though she made it look simple, it was amazing nevertheless, especially because losing that data would have cost us a lot. I woke Zayden in the middle of the night to tell him about my plan. The look on his face was priceless when I told him that we might still be able to recover the deleted evidence from the drive. His gorgeous smile was breathtaking and had me distracted for a while.

We had the plan in motion, and Zayden had one of his trusted men take the drive to Jasper in LA after I informed him of the scenario. I didn't tell him and Holly much except to keep it confidential and that the data would help an innocent get justice. They may or may not have understood because they didn't ask much either.

"I would first have to determine if it could be recovered or not," she said. "Yeah, do that and whatever is necessary to retrieve it. I would owe you this one," I said, sighing. They were close to me, and even though we didn't have such formality, getting this data back would mean the world to me and would fix somebody else's world too.

"Don't worry, I am sure that girl will get her justice," she reassured, and I hung up soon after as Zayden awaited me by the car.

It had been 2 days since Sage Barlowe was captured and was being held in confinement. After some interrogation, Zayden allowed me to see her, that too in his presence, and this was happening barely a day before we were to depart for the loup-garou festival. Nico and Jax were accompanying me, and weirdly the two of them had barely replied to any of my questions in the past days. Something told me that my overprotective mate had something to do with it. I wanted to walk up to him and tell him that he couldn't control whom I talk to or not, but then I remembered the lesson he had given me. A sinister part of me wanted to rebel again just to get that punishment, but I put a hold on those thoughts before they could drive me crazy again.

It was already a punishment enough that he was sitting next to me, smelling and looking so delicious. I closed my eyes and tried to calm my panicking nerves. I was on edge for the past 2 days, partially because of the festival's preparation, but mostly at the thought of meeting Sage after all these years. Have I mentioned that she was a spitting image of Elio? The siblings shared an uncanny resemblance, and I didn't know if I was ready to see that face yet. I should have been blaming the man sitting by me for taking her brother's life away and causing all the chaos in our lives, but with the current perspective, Zayden appeared to be more of a hero for saving my life from Sage. While the girl had my sympathy, attempting to claim one life in revenge for the other was not the solution to anything.

"Stop fidgeting; she wouldn't be able to touch you before I snap her neck," his voice came, and I snapped my neck at him instead.

How did he know I was wriggling my fingers? For all I could see, he had been looking straight ahead at the road ever since the ride to the pack prison had started. Sometimes, my subconsciousness would take him as a statue when he wouldn't budge for a long time and kept his typical broody face. He did resemble those Greek statues with toned muscles and breathtaking features.

"You know Jax and Nico can do that too," I said, biting back a smile when he was the one snapping his head at me. I couldn't see through his shades to know what his eyes reflected, but I didn't mind. He didn't like any man near me, yet he couldn't leave me unprotected in his absence. However, he had told them to come along with us once for extra security. I didn't need him to tell me this to know that he was paranoid about my security, and a part of me loved that.

"I assure you, I would be done before they'll even lift a finger," he said, refocusing on the road once again. Butterflies erupted somewhere inside me; his possessiveness was a sight to cherish.

"You do remember Sage, right? She wasn't like this before," I said, diverting the topic back to her. I didn't want to continue teasing or else who knew, Zayden might end up deciding to punish me again, and I was already nervous enough.

"Before I killed Elio," he corrected me. My heart skipped a beat. It was a sore topic and something that we had left untouched for quite some time now. Zayden had not attempted to bring it up, and neither had I tried to open up. A part of me knew that I was falling off my verdict from before. I no longer wanted revenge for Elio's death. My sentiments towards my mate were slowly changing, and I was too afraid to reflect on it yet.

"It's simple. She wants revenge," he stated.

"But why? I didn't—" I began to speak, but he cut me off. "Not on you."

A chill crept down my spine. "She wants revenge on me."