Julian’s POV

    As I overheard Chase asking out Amber, two concurrent questions immediately filled my mind.

    One. What in the world was the most notorious yboy of my pack doing here in Amber’s clinic?

    And two. Why was he talking to Amber like that?

    Amber didn’t reply yet. Maybe she was about to, but she stilled when she saw me looking at them. I could only wonder what she was about to say. Gods, I wished I would have heard her reject him.

    She was going to reject him… right?

    When Chase looked at me, he nched slightly.

    “Well… I look forward to hearing from you, Healer Amber,” he said quickly and then started to rush down the hallway to the exit. That hallway meant he had to walk past me though.

    As he came closer, he turned away, likely wanting to ignore me. I wasn’t going to let him get away with

    that.

    “Chase,” I said.

    He froze, then cleared his throat. “Alpha Julian,” he said, and then scurried forward, disappearing down

    the hallway.

    Out front, I heard Ca call out for him, but he didn’t stop to talk to her.

    “See you tomorrow, Ca,” he said. Then I heard the front door open and close. Ca sighed dramatically.

    I kept my eyes on Amber.

    b“/bYou know him,” she said.

    “Him and his parents,” I said, walking closer to her. “He’s from an affluent family, but he’s such a wild child that I’d heard they cut him off. He still seems to do well for himself though. I suspect his many, many girlfriends see to that.”

    I hoped she could read between the lines of what I was trying to tell her. Chase’s offer of dinner was genuine, certainly, but anypanionship he offered her came with limitations. He was young yet, early to mid–twenties, but he already had a reputation so big most of the pack knew about it.

    He rose in poprity only after Amber was gone the first time, though, so perhaps she hadn’t attended enough functions to truly encounter him in the wild after her return.

    As such, it was my duty to warn her against him. It wasn’t just because of the jealous banger /bcoiling

    around within me. Or the way my wolf was growling in my mind, protective and watchful

    “He shouldn’t be near our mate,” my wolf grumbled.

    “You should stay away from him,” I said aloud to Amber. “He’s trouble.”

    “I appreciate your concern,” she said very formally, her doctor’s voice. “But he is a patient of mine. He has a condition, and it is my life’s work to see him healed.”

    “He’s probably faking

    —

    “He is not,” she said tly, promptly ending any fantasies and conspiracies that I might have been internally working on. “His condition is real, I can verify that. I don’t know the extent of it, but once I have the results of hisb work, I think I will be able to help him.”

    I couldn’t sway her from that, as much as I wanted to. Healing people was Amber’s passion. To deny her that because I was nervous about Chase’s intentions would be grossly unfair.

    I was trying to woo Amber, not push her away by being overbearing. Too many rules had been part of our problem in the past.

    Don’t tell people we’re together. Don’t talk to me in public. Stay home. Don’t work.

    The orders made me cringe internally. Had I been a more devoted partner back then… perhaps we never would havee to this, to me needing to win her back. I could have potentially stayed a part of her life. I could have already had my family, and been with them from the start.

    I hated the man that I used to be, the one who had cheated and pushed Amber away. I deserved every sharp nce, every cruel word, every moment of distrust.