United (The Ushers) Read Online Free

leaves Annie.”
    “Wow, you’re blind.” Ellen’s voice held no humor. “He sits in that little dorm room, every night, and reads until he falls asleep. Alone.”
    “Right,” Monica scoffed, “Fionn Murphy, sleeping alone every night for five months? I don’t buy it.” But she began to see it, in her head. She could see him in his spare little dorm room, with a box of books and a half-dozen pairs of jeans hanging in the closet with his T-shirts, his feet hanging off the end of the single bed, too small for his giant frame. It seemed like exactly the kind of self-punishing nonsense Fionn Murphy would put himself through.
    “Annie sleeps in her cat form on the floor next to my bed, Monica.”
    “She sleeps in your room?” Monica met Ellen’s eyes. There was no laughter there.
    “Yeah, she’s my friend. She doesn’t like to be alone, so she bunks in with me. I don’t mind. It’s nice to have a gigantic kitty cat to snuggle on a cold night.” Ellen shrugged.
    Out in the sitting room, Monica heard Angelo on his phone, cursing in Spanish. He was most likely talking to one of his couriers—he liked to hire other Xicano wolves. Several of his employees had grown up with him in California. When he’d settled in at Amazon, they had crossed the country to join him. Angelo had offered them steady employment and a chance to rise in power in a big pack. The Sur Califas Pack in California was powerful but nowhere near as large as Amazon. She listened until she heard a gruff goodbye and then called his name.
    “Angelo, can you come in here for a minute?”
    He appeared in the doorway, brows furrowed, looking like he’d just stepped out of the pages of GQ , his thousand dollar suit enhancing his presence. In spite of his casual appearance in the evenings, between nine and five, Angelo wore his suits the same way he wore his immaculate arrogance: as if they were the only choice, the only way to dress himself. He could keep the dry cleaners on campus in business singlehandedly, and she had never once heard of him shift-and-shredding. His self-control when it came to preserving his wardrobe was legendary.
    “Where did you go this morning?”
    “I ran with Fionn,” he admitted.
    “Why?”
    “I needed to talk to him.”
    “About me.”
    “ Si, Querida .”
    “Dammit, you’re all a bunch of meddling pains in my ass.” She sighed, tossing her pen down on her desk.
    “You cry in my arms. It breaks my heart for you. I’m sorry, Monica.”
    “Is it true, what Ellen just told me?” She met his dark eyes with her own. “ He’s celibate?”
    He nodded. “I promised him I wouldn’t tell you.”
    “You didn’t. Ellen did. Leave me. All of you.”
    “Mon—” Ellen started to speak.
    Monica held up a hand, cutting her off. “Just go, Ellen. I’m fine. I don’t need a bodyguard in my own apartment. Lock the elevator and the stairs, as if you were going home for the night. I need to be alone.”
    “I’m sorry, Monica. It didn’t seem right to let you think there was something between Annie and Fionn.”
    “Don’t apologize, Ellen. Just get the hell out.” Monica bit out the words and watched her friends leave.
    She rested her forehead in her hands and thought about what they’d said. If it was true—and she doubted either Ellen or Angelo would lie to her—then he’d not been with anyone since he met her. The most famous playboy of the last fifty years, and he was celibate? That was just crazy talk. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized it must be true. And now he’d be gone for another month.
    A plan started forming in her head. He wanted her. She knew that much. Whatever was going on in his head, it was just that: in his head. His wolf could be convinced. She just needed to appeal to the wolf instead of the man.
    Her phone rang, Bianca’s number lighting up on the display. She smiled and pressed the speaker button. “Bee? How is everything?” she asked.
    “It’s a girl,