He was still struggling through the work when a distant voice reached him, audible despite not being raised.
Whoever it was wasn't shouting or calling out. The voice carried calmly, evenly, as if the person speaking never expected to be overheard.
Grey paused mid-sentence.
He rose from the chair and walked toward the window. When he looked out, he spotted Leo standing far across the compound, a phone pressed to his ear.
He had gone far enough that Grey wondered why.. what kind of conversation required that much distance from the building.
What unsettled Grey more was not the distance, but the fact that he could hear him at all.
Leo wasn't projecting his voice.
There was no reason Grey should have been able to hear him from where he stood, yet the words reached him clearly.
Grey leaned closer to the glass, his focus narrowing.
Was this his wolf side at work?
Or was there something about Leo, something about his presence that made his voice stand out no matter how far away he was?
"Dad, I told you I'm already working on it," Leo said. His tone carried mild irritation. "I've started already. It won't take long."
Grey frowned.
Leo listened for a moment, pacing slowly across the open space, then spoke again. "Slow? We just started. How can that be slow?" He paused. "And what do you mean I should use a drug to accelerate things? What drug?"
Grey's thoughts stopped short.
A drug?
Accelerate what?
They had just started.. started what? And what was the drug for?!
None of it made sense, yet the unease settled deep and refused to leave. It felt like something he should understand, like the pieces were meant to fit together, and because they didn't, his mind refused to let the matter rest.
Grey stayed by the window, listening.
Leo stood in place now, his attention fixed on the call.
The longer he listened, the more his expression shifted. When he spoke again, he didn't sound irritated anymore. Instead, a grin slowly formed on his lips.
The anxiety grew until Grey could no longer watch or listen. He turned away, went back to his desk, sat down, and forced his attention onto the work in front of him.
But the words blurred together. The numbers refused to align. His thoughts would not stay where they were supposed to be.
Leo's voice still reached him, until the call ended.
He checked the clock mounted on the wall, only to realize that the twenty minutes he was given were up.
He grabbed the file, stood, and left the office in a rush. He entered Lord Jethro's office and handed over the file, then took the seat in front of the desk.
Lord Jethro accepted it without comment and began scanning through what Grey had written.
Grey watched him in silence. He wasn't sure if the work made sense. He wasn't even sure it was complete enough to justify the time he had taken. His mind had been elsewhere, pulled in too many directions at once.
Something inside him urged him to speak, to say something about Leo, but another part of him warned him to stay quiet.
He hadn't been asked for opinions.
He kept his mouth shut as long as he could.
If he spoke now and said the wrong thing, he would be sent away.
He would be told he had overstepped, that he was concentrating on what wasn't his business, instead of the work given to him.
He might be asked to leave, and that would mean returning to the pack house. The thought alone was enough to make him recoil.
He hadn't realized how strongly he wanted to avoid that place until the possibility surfaced.
The memory of it sat heavy in his mind, too many reminders of what he wasn't.
He pressed his lips together, and told himself he won't say a word.
But the words came anyway.
"I don't think Alpha Leo is a real friend to you."
The sentence left his mouth before he could stop it.
Lord Jethro looked up slowly, his gaze settling on him.
Grey continued, knowing that if he hesitated now, he would lose the courage to finish.
"He pretends to be," he said. "He's the kind of friend who acts happy when something good happens to you, but deep down he's bitter, hiding it quietly while wishing to destroy it and drag you back into the mud."
Lord Jethro said nothing, his gaze was still pinned on Grey.
Grey felt the weight of his own mistake settle in.
He scolded himself..
Why did you open your mouth?
No one had asked for his opinion.
His gaze fell to the floor, even though he had promised himself he wouldn't do that again, never to shrink even under Lord Jethro's scrutiny.
But holding his gaze now felt impossible.
But then, he told himself, if Lord Jethro was angry, so be it. Grey told himself that he didn't regret speaking.
He had said what he believed to be true. If it cost him this position, then at least he would leave knowing he hadn't stayed silent when something felt wrong.
He was trying to help.
He waited to be told he had crossed a line, and to be dismissed.
"I know that." Lord Jethro's voice cut through his thoughts.
Grey looked up instantly.
"You… know?" he asked.
Of course he knows. Someone like Lord Jethro wouldn't miss something like that. He must have seen it long before Grey ever did.
But... If Lord Jethro knew, then why keep Leo close? Why allow him access? Why trust him with anything at all?
The realization left Grey staring at him in silence.
Lord Jethro returned his attention to the file, as though the matter were settled, as though Grey hadn't just crossed a boundary he didn't fully understand.
Grey sat back, unsure whether he felt relieved, or more unsettled than before.