Fated To Three, Betrayed By All… Until She Rose. Chapter 397: Against work ethics

Leilani.

What I hated wasn’t how dismissive Maya had been about the whole issue. It was not the fact that she had blatantly refused to allow to co and live with her and Gavin for another couple of weeks...

It was the things that her words did to .

It was the way I thought about her words over and over and over again until there was nothing left to think about. It was the way— as per her words— my body now seed very hyperactive whenever any of the triplets were close even if they were a couple of ters away.

Now, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was indeed developing feelings for them, or if this was one of those cases where love— lust— cos right after marking.

I frowned.

"You’ve been picking on your food since forever," a familiar voice, gruff with a tinge of worry, suddenly slipped into my subconscious, snapping out of my train of thoughts.

I jerked my head upward only for my breath to hitch when I realized that four pairs of eyes now watched closely, all seemingly worried, and all holding a distant yet small amount of amusent that I found odd.

Maya still had her smug smile on— one that hasn’t gone off since you know, the Zevran incident, Zevran still couldn’t look at in the face without blushing because he’s probably still not over it yet as well; and then there was Kael and Caelum, two totally oblivious n, but who seed to have their own internal jokes going on in their heads as well.

I hissed; "Huh?"

"I said that you’ve been picking on your food since forever. Is the seafood boil not to your liking?" Kael asked softly, his eyes darting from my barely touched plate to my face.

I let out an exaggerated sigh and pressed the back of my hand to my neck as I whispered; "No."

"It isn’t...?"

"No. It is. I just do not feel too good."

As I said those words, my eyes t Maya’s and I didn’t miss the glee in them. Now, it was beginning to look as though after I told her about my conflicting feelings for the triplets, she has been paying too close attention to us, wanting to see or feel any misstep and make fun of it later on.

A small smile touched her face as she placed her cutleries onto the table and muttered; "It’s the work. You’ve been working your ass off these past few days and you haven’t been resting properly."

"Tell her," Zevran chirped in, "...she never listens to whenever I tell her this!"

"The sa way you do not listen whenever we ask you to remain at ho!" Caelum snapped back at him, and for the first ti in his annoying life, helped to get off the radar.

I mouthed a quiet; "thank you," to him before I resud back to my food which I only ate for a couple more seconds and then set down my fork.

"I am not so hungry so I’d love to go to bed now," I said softly, then turning to Maya, I continued; "You’d sleep over, right?"

"Right," she answered with a smile. "I’ll be with you in a couple of minutes."

I nodded and stood without stopping to regard anyone, but just as I turned around and was about to walk out, Kael’s voice suddenly rang out, stopping mid- walk.

He asked; "Leilani, may I see you for a minute?"

I spun around to face him, my eyebrows pushing into my hairline as I asked; "Why?"

"It is work related. And you have every right to say no if you do not want it."

I turned to look at the other brothers who in turn turned away from . Their reactions however, made believe that they already knew exactly what he was about to say to so I nodded and continued to walk, hyper aware of the fact that he was following closely behind as I did.

We walked down the quiet hallway without exchanging words— not even a glance— and when I finally stopped in front of my door— well, not my door per say, but the door to the room they’d made mine only temporarily, I stopped, crossed my arms over my chest and turned to face him.

"What?"

"I need your help."

There was no preamble. Not beating around the bush. Just plain flat out answers.

I frowned. "What for?"

At the sound of my question, he sighed heavily and turned away from , but not before I saw the worry and the raw frustration in his eyes. He drawled; "I know that what I am about to ask of you may be wrong ethically..."

"How?"

"It is wrong," he hissed, "...especially since you work personally for a rival company. But I can’t help but co to you because—"

"Just go straight to the point, Alpha Kael, and stop beating around the bush!"

I didn’t an to snap but my voice ca out a tad bit harsher than I had intended for it to, and when Kael heard it, he lowered his head, whispered sothing along the lines of: "I knew that this was a bad idea," under his breath before lifting his head to et my gaze one more ti.

And hell, he looked like shit. He looked like he had just been dragged through hell and back.

His eyes suddenly seed sunken and dark, and the gray of his eyes looked white-washed. But that was not all.

His shoulders were slumped and his posture was like that of a defeated man as he began to talk;

"There’s this new stinking rich business mogul in town and we want to establish a partnership with him."

That was interesting.

I pressed my back against the door and mused; "Okay..."

"Lately, he’s been hell bent on only working with Frostclaw. inc and has refused proposals from every other company that has tried to reach out to him, including ours."

I said it: interesting! "And?"

"You know him, he’s Mr Valemont."

At the ntion of his na, I froze. My blood ran cold and rang loudly in my ears before settling into sothing not more than a buzz at the back of my skull.

"I need you to have a look at the proposal I have co up with my team. The one I intend to submit to him."

"No." I flat out said, not missing the way his eyelids twitched for a second before he continued to speak as if he hadn’t quite heard .

"You don’t have to ensure that we get the contract or do anything extra. I just need better, smarter eyes to look at it from a different perspective."

"What you ask of is wrong." I drawled coldly— again, sounding way colder than I intended to. "It’s a breach of my contract with the Frostclaws."

"I know," Kael answered, sounding defeated. "The Frostclaws have already signed a partnership deal with the Valemonts so we aren’t stealing anything when you really think about it. We just want so of his goody bags. A deal or two. That’s all."

"And why have you co to ?" I asked, and even before I would blink or retract my statent, he answered quickly—a little too quickly.

He said; "Is there anyone better than you, Leilani? Do you not know that you are part of the reason that Frostclaw.Inc is the most sought after establishnt in town?"

I frowned. "No."

"Is the ’no’ an answer to not knowing you are one of the reasons that Frostclaw. Inc is doing so well, or is it the answer to my proposition?"

"It is to both." I answered, more like sneered and watched his face crash as he lowered his head one more ti.

Sothing about his overall stance clawed at sothing at the back of my heart. It scratched a spot in my brain that people normally wouldn’t reach, and against my better judgent, I found myself asking;

"Is sothing the matter?"

Of course, sothing is the matter! He wants more money!

He sighed. "Our company is under so kind of internal pressure. Micah, our cousin is doing all he can to get most of the executive board mbers on his side, and this... this was just another desperate attempt to prove to them that we are on top. That the company is our inheritance for a reason. I am sorry."

I knew who Micah is, but that story he just told was news to .

Anyways, before I could ask him about it, he turned around and began to walk away.

And I should let him go, right?

RIGHT?

So tell why I started to feel bad?

Tell why watching him leave made feel like such a bad person?

I didn’t even know when I said the words until they were well out of my lips. I said; "Wait, I can help you."

He stilled.