I'd seen a lot of expressions on Fen's face since he started staying with me. I'd seen what he was like drunk, jealous, happy, sad. I thought I'd seen just about every one of them, but the cold look in his eyes as he stared at the two men sitting beside Eli was something else.

Without saying a word, he pulled me against him and I briefly considered moving out of his grasp, but that idea was abandoned when I got of good look at his entire expression and not just his eyes.

He looked menacing.

"What's going on?" I finally questioned. "Eli, who are these people, and why are you in my house?"

Eli's gaze flickered to the men beside him. "I was coming to check on you after everything that happened at Reed's ceremony. I didn't know they'd be here." His gaze shifted to Fen. "Or him."

I mentally winced. This was all a mess. This wasn't how I wanted him to learn about Fen—not after the first time.

"Fen," The brown-eyed man who I recognized was an alpha by the aura his wolf was giving off, said.

"Nolan," Fen rigidly responded.

"So it was you," The man, Nolan, muttered. "In the woods that day. I thought I was imagining things."

I studied both of them and it finally dawned on me that this was Fen's former alpha. Or, at least one of them.

"What are you here for? To alert the council?"

My stomach dropped at the thought. Any werewolf who kept somewhat tabs on the current events knew that getting tangled up with the council was almost always a death sentence.

If he truly did alert them, that meant Fen could potentially be—

"I just want to talk," the alpha replied calmly.

"And you brought Atlas here for...?"

"It was him or Nixon."

Fen seemed to become tenser at the thought.

"What if I don't want to talk?" Fen said. "I don't have anything to say."

"I think you do. You owe me that much, don't you think?"

Fen frowned and his eyes shifted to me. I held his stare for a long moment and I don't know what he saw in my eyes, but he turned away with a sigh.

"Not here," he stated. "We aren't doing this here."

"That's fine."

Fine? That wasn't fine when they had quite literally been talking about the council moments before.

"Fen—" I started, but he stopped me by lightly pushing CJ's carrier into my arms.

"Do you remember when I moved in and you made all those rules? Do you remember what rule number four was?"

"What?" My brows knitted together. What was the point of mentioning those at a time like now?

"It was to keep the peace around the house. No past enemies, shady deals, or anything of that sort. This is me trying to respect you by following that rule," Fen said, his voice steady and his dark eyes warmed up slightly. "Just wait here with CJ for me, okay?"

I wanted to argue; to tell him to sit the fuck down and not go anywhere with these people, former alpha or not, but it was as if the words got caught in my throat. Instead, I was stuck in place watching as Fen exited the house with Atlas and Nolan in tow.

"What the fuck?" I said as they left. "What the fuck just happened?"

"Nolan won't hurt him," Eli stated and I jumped at the sound of his voice, forgetting that he was there.

I noticed the disappointment shining in his eyes and I mentally cursed to myself. I was so worried about Fen, I forgot I had my own situation to handle.

"How long?" Eli asked and it didn't take a rocket scientist to know what he was referring to.

"He's been staying with me for a little over a month now," I admitted and it honestly surprised me that it had only been that short. It felt longer, but I guess that was because we'd been interacting way before that at clubs and other events.

"Honestly, I don't know how to feel," Eli admitted. "It's not my place to try and tell you not to see him, so I won't. It's just watching you two interact like that...seeing how close you are..."

"It wasn't always like that," I admitted. "When I first started seeing him around after you left, I hated his guts. I was an absolute dick to him—I mean, I originally invited him to stay here so I could reject him in the end—but if there's one thing I've learned about Fen, it's that he's persistent to a fault. He doesn't back away and he didn't let my attitude scare him away. Goddess knows why."

"How has he been toward you?"

"Sweet," I answered immediately. "Really fucking sweet actually. He's always trying to make me happy, he answers my questions honestly even though he doesn't have to answer them at all, and so much more."

Fen seemed to be aware of the bad reputation he had and it seemed like he was trying to show me there was more to him than that. It took time, of course, but even though Fen might've been regarded as the most "dangerous" in this house right now, I trusted him the most which said something.

"He makes you happy."

I thought of the clingy, brown-eyed, cooking-obsessed former beta who had a bad habit of sneaking into my bed at night, with his cat, to sleep beside me and wake up early enough to make me breakfast.

"He does."

Eli nodded slowly. "Well, I guess that's what matters then."

"I don't expect you guys to be best friends again, Eli. Or even close for that matter. You have every right to hate him for what he did and tried to do. I just don't want this to completely ruin our friendship."

"I don't hate Fen," Eli admitted. "I've come pretty close to it at times, but I don't hate him. I don't know if there's a world where he and I can ever be friends again, but that's between Fen and me. I wouldn't take that out on you."

CJ let out a small meow, reminding us both that he was still there. I pulled the newly shaved cat out of his carrier with surprising ease and noted the way Eli glanced at him.

"What happened to his fur?"

"Fen found him matted so they had to shave him," I explained.

Eli leaned forward and touched CJ softly and the cat all but jumped out of my hands on into Eli's lap. His expression seemed to brighten and I watched CJ for a moment to make sure he wasn't tricking Eli so he could attack him off guard. Once I was sure he wasn't, I turned my attention back to the door and sighed.

Now I had to wait for Fen to come back.