Chapter 34 · Intern

"Sir, this file's flagged wrong. It says the mark's still active." The intern held the folder up like it might bite him. "That's not possible, right? Not after a public reject?"

My stomach dropped straight through the floor.

I came around the desk fast, hand out. "Give me that, Ezra."

He pulled it back, confused, still just a kid three weeks into the archive job, still thinking paperwork was paperwork. "I was just cataloguing. It's got the Alpha's seal on it and everything, so I figured—"

"Ezra." My voice came out sharper than I meant. "That file isn't cleared for interns."

"Then why was it in the open drawer?"

Because I'd been stupid. Because I'd pulled it at 2 a.m. two nights ago to read the burn levels again like a lovesick idiot, and I hadn't locked it back up before he clocked in.

The door slammed before I could grab it out of his hands.

Callum. Of course.

He crossed the room in four strides, and the temperature in the archive dropped ten degrees the way it always did when he walked in wearing that face —