What We Left Unsaid

“And you’re sure there’s no chance at all that anyone can see the recent activity?”

“Yes, Ma’am. I am completely confident in our security precautions, and I will guarantee that no one will have any access to the information.”

“And were I to die tomorrow before I could officially sign this order...?”

”He still would not have any access, as discussed. You don’t have to worry about policy, Miss Rinaldi, not with us; we are happy to make any exception for you at any time.”

“I’m pleased to hear that, Frau Wyss, because I need one more exception made. The documents I am arranging to have collected? I need those stored and delivered against Council Law. You should have the name right in front of you. I need those documents delivered to her and her alone, and that’s strictly prohibited by the Council’s mandates, but I don’t care. Those are not to go to my mate; those are never to go to my mate. That is manageable?”

”Of course, Miss Rinaldi. I have the woman’s name right here, and I have your specific instructions should anything have happened to her. Circumventing such laws will require a bit of a time delay, but it will be done and your mate will never know that your documents even exist -- you have my word.”

“Good.”

“Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Not at the moment, Frau Wyss. But thank you again for adjusting your schedule to make time for this call. I appreciate all that you and your company have done for me over the years.”

”And I appreciate your continued business, Miss Rinaldi, so clearing my morning is the least I could do to accommodate you; I only apologize for not being available this evening when the time would have been much more convenient for you. Please, do not hesitate to call us back if you have any further questions or concerns.”

“Of Course. Auf Wiederhören.”

“Auf Wiederhören.”

And, with a click, the phone call was finally over and Ava Rinaldi was able to go back into her phone’s history, delete the evidence of the call, and discard her cell onto the end table with a satisfied sigh. One glance at the bedside clock, however, had that sigh of hers turning into a groan as she lifted a hand and rubbed over her face. It was already two forty one in the morning.

The conversation had taken much longer than expected, she had already been rather exhausted from the day’s events before she had called. She considered that to be the only downside of her chosen associates -- that she had to make phone calls at ungodly hours in the middle of the night in order to get a hold of someone in the office during business hours in Switzerland. Aside from that one irritation, though, she couldn’t think of a single thing to complain about; they were discrete, they had the connections to accomplish everything she needed, and they honestly did make exceptions for her on pretty much everything she requested they do for her. And the best part of it all was that she had established an account specifically for their continued payment years ago, so her current lack of access to the Rinaldi funds didn’t mean a damn thing.

Without spending any more time wallowing over the sleep she had already lost, the blonde pushed the conversation to the back of her mind and focused instead on clearing all of the papers off of her desk. The harder task, of course, was hiding them away again where they would never be found.

A set of two quick but soft knocks kept her from being able to do that.

She cursed under her breath, freezing only for a second. She knew that knock, and she knew that it usually was followed by a door being thrown open whether she was ready or not. So, wasting no more time with useless hesitations, she was quick to throw open the nearest drawer and toss the binder in without even taking the time to try and cover it with other, less-secretive items. She managed to slam the drawer shut just as the door opened, revealing a rhythm guitarist with green eyes narrowed a bit in obvious suspicion as he glanced between her and the drawer.

“Hold on!” Ava snapped when he made a move to step further into her room, lifting one of her hands to gesture for him to wait where he was. A quick glance back at her desk, and she was snatching up the bottle of air freshener and giving the room a very generous spraying. The harshness of the chemicals irritated her nose, but at least the overwhelming smell of vanilla and raspberries was a much more favorable assault on her sense of smell than whatever she was sure she’d smell the second the dark-haired man made his way into the room.

It was nearly three in the morning, after all, and she had heard him arrive back from his night out with the Berrys perhaps an hour ago. There was only one reason why he would show up at her bedroom door like he was, and she wasn’t at all interested in smelling the proof. Hell, she wasn’t at all interested in seeing his face at all, but she knew better than to just kick him out of the room and refuse to help him, especially after she had gone and given him permission.

“Alright,” she huffed when she was satisfied she wouldn’t be able to smell anything but that synthetic concoction that in her personal opinion was a combination that made absolutely no sense. Waving her hand, she motioned for him to go ahead and come into the room. “Hurry up then, yeah?”

As instructed, Zacky made his way into the room, stumbling a little bit in his state of obvious intoxication, before closing the door behind him and giving a rather loud sneeze when he inhaled for the first time. Though he gave his head a shake and made a face of obvious distaste, he seemed to know better than to comment on her decision to spray the room. Instead, he just sent her a lopsided grin that told her exactly how drunk he was. “I wasn’t expecting you to be awake,” he said in contemplation, before frowning when she only growled at his attempt at pointless chitchat. Lifting a defensive hand, he quickly changed his topic. “Okay, okay. I just kind of need to--”

“I fucking know what you need, Baker,” she interrupted, heaving out a sigh as she reached up and swept her hair to the side so that the marking on her neck was unobstructed. Taking a few steps across the room and closing the distance between them a little bit, she arched an eyebrow pointedly and tilted her head to the side. “Go for it.”

“But I--”

“Just fucking do it!”

He apparently didn’t need any more encouragement, for within a second, he had eliminated all of the distance between them and had pulled her against him. He wasted no time in lowering his head to her shoulder, his lips brushing over the purple skin before his jaws closed down over the marking, the bite this time a bit softer than any of the other times. But, just like both of the other times, she didn’t fight him or so much as make a wince at the discomfort of having someone’s teeth essentially half in her neck. Instead, she simply kept her arms stiff at her sides and just stood there, letting him use the grip on her hips to guide her into him and doing her best to keep her head upturned just enough so that she when she inhaled she didn’t pick up any scent from his proximity.

What did have that carefully controlled blank mask of hers cracking was when, after nearly twice the amount of time she’d ever granted him, he still hadn’t released her. Brows furrowed together in confusion, she just continued to stand there, not entire sure what was taking him so long and not having any idea whatsoever as to what she could do to make him hurry it all along. But standing there became pretty darn difficult when, a moment later, he started to step forward, those hands on her hips guiding her backwards ever so slowly.

That was when she finally made a small noise of protest, both of her hands lifting then to rest on his shoulders as she steadied herself. It was a hell of a lot harder to stay balanced than she would have expected, at least when someone was pulling her close to them and also pushing her backwards; she’d nearly tripped over his big feet twice. But she was a werewolf, and she still had the strength to give those shoulders of him a firm push, applying just enough pressure to still him but not enough to send him flying backwards. Roughly shoving him back would not have been in her best interest, what with the whole his-teeth-in-her-neck thing still going on.

“Baker,” she warned aloud when after only a brief moment of remaining still, he was once again guiding her backwards. Her tone held the hint of a threat in it, and though she wasn’t entirely sure exactly what kind of threat she could actually carry out in their current positions, she didn’t let herself sound anything less than strong and confident.

The little yelp of surprise that came form her when she felt something collide with the back of her legs and she was sent falling backwards with him still practically attached to her was pretty much the opposite of strong and confident. But the fierce growl she gave when her body landed on the mattress, her mate quick to move into a position where he was straddling her, completely made up for her moment of surprise. She made a move to pull away from him, but the motion only had her hissing in pain when she was physically reminded of the fact that he had his teeth still in her goddamn neck.

“Baker!” Ava snapped again, this time lifting one of her hands -- and maneuvering her arm in a rather twister-esque way in order to be able to reach around his own arm -- so that she could give his cheek a few quick pats. “Damn it, Baker! You can hear me, can’t you? Come on! You’re being really weird; please stop!”

She was one hundred percent certain that it was only a coincidence that he chose that moment finally relax his jaws, but that didn’t stop her from feeling just a little bit impressed with herself, as if she had actually managed to say the secret code word or whatever. Her momentary fuck-yeah moment didn’t last long, though, because she was not about to leave him in a position of dominance for longer than necessary. Two seconds was all it took for her to have them flipped, him lying with his back to the mattress this time, as she moved so that it was her straddling him.

“What the hell was that?!” she snapped at him when she finally looked up to fix a glare right into his eyes. But the fire in her gaze burned out the second she realized she was looking right into eyes of pure amber, his expression marginally less lost than it had appeared the last time, but still not quite normal. Her follow up question died in her throat. “...Baker?”

The amber slowly melted away from his eyes, but his expression didn’t even begin to switch back to normal. Instead, he just stared right back up at her, apparently not even tempted to move by the very motivating fact that it was she in the dominant position. That wasn’t something he’d usually tolerate for even a second.

So, fixing a still-mildly-confused-and-more-than-moderately-irritated look in his direction, she heaved a sigh, sat up a little bit, and shrugged a shoulder dismissively. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Just get out of here, now, alright? I’m fucking exhausted.” And, with that, she made a move to roll off of him.

With a growl of protest, Zacky finally sprung to action, rolling with her so that she was once again pinned beneath him and he was hovering over her. She reacted instantly, letting out a violent growl of her own as she gave her torso a sharp twist, but with the soft mattress beneath her sucked away more than half of the force, and her little attempt at flipping them was useless. She blew out a breath in irritation, before stiffening the second she started to inhale. It wasn’t vanilla and raspberries she was smelling; it was him. And only him.

That was about the time she got pissed, and he seemed to notice, eyes flashing a bit as he made a noise she was sure was supposed to be one of those soothing sounds meant for babies. “Hold on, hold on! It’s not--”

“Are you fucking kidding me!?” she practically shouted, growling loudly as she thrashed in irritation. And she didn’t miss the fact that either he had sobered up after his momentary loss of sanity, or he hadn’t really been all that drunk to begin with. “You didn’t even fuck anyone, and you still came in here and asked for my help?”

“Technically, I didn’t ask for your help, and you cut me off before I could even explain why I was knocking on your door! I--”

“Well what the hell else am I supposed to think? It’s fucking three in the morning, Baker! Besides, I didn’t make you fucking bite me, did I? Why the hell would you do that if that’s not why you came?”

“Because it is why I came.”

”What?” she questioned, blinking a bit at his admission and temporarily abandoning her attempted assault on him. She was too tired to multitask, and her confusion far outweighed her irritation. “I’m not following.”

He blew out a long breath, tucking his chin to his chest for a moment before finally glancing back down at her, a look in his eyes that she recognized well. She wasn’t sure there was a word for it, honestly, but she understood exactly how irritated, trapped, and grudgingly vulnerable he must have felt in order for him to be looking at her like that. She immediately knew he was about to tell her something he didn’t really want her to know, which, of course, only made her want to know even more.

“What do you mean that’s why you came, Baker? I know you didn’t need to come and--”

“That’s just it, Rinaldi: I did! I do. It’s all I can fucking think about,” he admitted quietly as he dropped his head down beside hers, so that his forehead was pressed against the mattress, his cheek against hers, and his lips right against her marred skin. He gave the marking there a light, delicate bite, not even really enough to be called a bite, before heaving out a loud groan.

She just continued to lay there rather awkwardly, far too busy trying to understand what the hell he meant to care about little details like personal space. “You’ve been drinking the tea though, haven’t you?”

“It’s not the pain, Rinaldi,” he dismissed easily, lips still brushing over her skin every time he spoke. “I just... I can’t fucking sleep, alright? I haven’t been able to in a while, honestly. And when I’m trying to fall asleep, all I can fucking do is toss and turn and think about the stupid fucking feeling I get every time I let myself...” He trailed off for a moment, giving her shoulder another testing little bite before cursing and slamming one of his hands down onto the bed rather violently.

She only blinked at the sudden action, her confusion about and slight curiosity with what he was saying still present, but her exhaustion growing by the minute. So, huffing out a little sigh of her own, she finally lifted her hands back up again and nudged at his shoulders, trying to get him to move without actually having to exert the strength required to do so... and also without risking him biting her at the same time and tearing out a chunk of her flesh or anything -- that was something she very much didn’t want to deal with at three in the fucking morning. “Alright, well, you’ve... experienced that, or whatever. You can go off to bed now. ...Run along.”

“No, no, no!” he quickly objected, apparently choosing to ignore her not-so-subtle attempt to get him to at least release her. “Wait!” he requested, his tone just shy of begging. “Wait a minute, Rinaldi. If I leave now, I’m just going to be tossing and turning all night again anyways. I’m comfortable right now. I feel like I can finally sleep! I think I--”

“What do you mean ‘if’? You’re not fucking staying in here!”

“Well why not?” He made it sound as if his idea was actually a reasonable one, even when it was anything but.

“Because we don’t fucking do that, Baker!” she replied incredulously. “Because that crosses way too many of our well-established lines. We don’t chitchat, we don’t share things, we don’t fucking do favors like you’re asking me to do right now, and we sure as hell do not share a goddamn bed! No!”

“I think you’re being a little bit ridiculous right now. It’s not really a big--”

“You’re being insane right now! Get off of me, for fuck’s sake! And get the hell out of here! I agreed to help you out with the whole side-effect thing because I understood that you had needs I didn’t want to satisfy, but this is comple--”

“So if I went and fucked someone first, then you’d be okay with this?”

She gave an irritated growl. “That’s not what I fucking meant, and you know it! Just... no. That’s too weird; I’m not okay with it. You need to leave!”

“It’s a goddamn bed, Rinaldi. You freaked out less when I tried to seduce you, for Christ’s sake! You’ve slept in the same bed with everyone in the pack millions of times.”

“But not with you! It’s weird, Baker! It’s like breaking a law of nature or something. No, absolutely not!”

“Damn it, Ava!” he growled finally pulling himself up a bit so that he was hovering a good foot above her, a mixture of amber and green in his eyes as he stared right down at her. “I get that we’re not mates. Believe me, I’m happier about that than you are! But we are,” he added in a way that logically made no sense, but she was still easily able to follow. “We are mates, and we have to deal with what that means, and for whatever fucking reason, that means I can’t sleep all the way down the hall right now. And fine, you don’t have to deal with that, but I’m asking you to. I’ll owe you bigger than I already do, alright? I’ll talk to Kat, even. But please, Ava; I need to sleep! I just need one peaceful fucking night’s rest, alright? Just once!”

She meant to tell him that there was no way in hell that was happening. She meant to tell him he was fucking out of his mind if he thought she gave a damn about his sleep needs. But somehow, when she opened her mouth to say all of that, she only sighed and grumbled out an irritated agreement. “Fucking once!” she told him through narrowed eyes. “This isn’t an every night thing.”

“Of course not!”

“And you’re gone before I wake up.”

“Can do.”

“And this is my fucking bed, so I don’t know what you normally sleep in, but you’re not sleeping in your goddamn birthday suit in my bed!”

There was a ghost of a smirk on his lips when he arched an eyebrow down at her. “What, you worried you’ll be tempted to do something besides sleep, Ava?”

She made an immediate gagging noise, earning a dark look and a growl for her theatrics. ”No, Baker. I just don’t want to touch more of you than I already have to. And it’s my goddamn bed!” He rolled his eyes, but otherwise nodded. “And... you’re the one that’s getting up to turn off the light!”

He didn’t even hesitate to do that, immediately hopping off of her and making his way over to the switch. “Any other demands, Princess?” he asked of her mockingly as he made his way back over to the bed.

“Yeah, stop fucking calling me Ava, damn it!”

He laughed and gave a quick nod, before arching an eyebrow as if to ask if she had anything else she wanted to add. But there was nothing else she could think of, so, without bothering to come up with a snide little remark to throw his way she simply rolled right over to the other side of the bed and hopped to her feet. And, one quick moment later, she was comfortably under the sheets and uncomfortably under Zacky, for he had pretty much immediately made himself right at home and tossed a leg and an arm over her, burying his face in her neck so that he could go ahead and close his jaw ever so lightly over the marking.

She could already feel the regret turning in her stomach, but she decided she could deal with that in the morning.

“Just this once, Baker. Just this once.”