third person's POV
"I..." Vanya just started to speak, her voice still a little shaky, when Derek's voice suddenly came from outside the door: "Theodore, the thing you asked me to buy..."
Derek's voice stopped abruptly when he saw what was in the room, like an invisible hand was choking him.
His pupils subconsciously narrowed into slits, then quickly went back to normal. The fancy food box in his hand almost slipped.
Theodore gave off fir pheromones all over him like blades dipped in ice, and they were covering the whole room with undisguised pressure.
Vanya hurriedly backed away, putting some distance between herself and Theodora. The wolf fur on the back of her neck stood up a bit from nerves, and her lily-of-the-valley-scented pheromones got a little messy.
Derek noticed Theodore's gloomy face, and the coldness swirling in those vertical pupils could almost freeze someone. He immediately realized he came at the wrong time.
His cedar mixed with malt pheromones had a flattering tremble: "How about... I leave first?"
"Don't go! I just happened to need you for something!"
Vanya stepped up right away, her mind a mess. There was a barely noticeable wolfish tremor in her voice, and her scent got all mixed up too: "I'm a little hungry, what did you buy?"
"Theodore asked me to get you dinner... said you probably hadn't eaten after work." Derek said while sneaking a glance at Theodore.
That look was like he wanted to kill someone, and the hostility in the fir-scented pheromones almost turned into real ice picks.
Vanya opened the lunchbox, and inside it was actually her favorite creative food from that place.
She froze for a second, her pheromones paused for a moment, and her pupils widened a bit: "Didn't their place not do takeout?"
"Hey, I went there myself, paid enough money, what wouldn't they do."
Derek said this, his pheromones relaxed a bit, and he even winked at Theodore, but the coldness around the other didn't ease at all. Instead, Theodore let out a low warning growl.
"Theodore really went out of his way for you, I never got that kind of treatment."
Derek felt uneasy—did he just interrupt his buddy's confession?
It couldn't be such a coincidence!
But the next second, he saw the family crest on Vanya's chest, his pupils suddenly widened, and his pheromones burst out like a lit firecracker: "Theodore! That's so not cool of you!"
Derek said this with that special Alpha pheromone pressure, and it scared Vanya so much that her fork clattered to the floor. She trembled a little, and her wolf ears twitched without her realizing it.
Theodore frowned, and the scent of fir swept out like a cold wave, carrying an undeniable pressure: "Get out!"
"How could you confess... mmph!"
Derrick didn't finish his sentence before Theodore suddenly covered his mouth. There was already a faint shape of wolf claws on his fingertips. With that unique wolf speed and strength, he dragged him out. There was still a trace of interrupted annoyance in his scent.
Vanya looked at this scene and reached up to touch her burning cheek.
The lily of the valley scent on my chest had somehow turned warm and gentle, like flowers warmed by the sun.
She seemed like she really had feelings for him, even her eyes had a soft glow in them.
The next day, the Todd family held an emergency meeting.
Since the masked ball at the M Group, the Todd family cut ties with several partner companies, and those companies quickly switched to the M Group.
This meant that now several projects of M Group and the Todd family's projects over the years were the same kind of products, and the two became complete competitors.
All these years, this was the first company that dared to go head-to-head with the Todd family.
"Cliff, what should we do? Our company's shares dropped recently, and a lot of projects got taken by M Group. The sales of all our subsidiaries also went down. If this kept going, we'd have a serious loss!"
"M Group obviously wanted to steal our business. How about we use some special methods?"
The directors down there all chimed in.
They couldn't mess with M Group openly, so they could only come up with some sneaky tricks in secret.
In the past, Cliff might have agreed without hesitation.
But now, he just fell silent.
That night, he just got drunk and went to M Group on a whim, and unexpectedly really saw Vanya.
Did Vanya really have something to do with the M Group?
Or was it that she had something to do with Kendrick?
Cliff rubbed his forehead, looking tired. "I've got things to do. Let's talk about this later."
After saying that, he got up and left the meeting room.
Elliot next to me said, "Cliff, how about taking some hangover medicine first?"
Cliff drank a lot again last night, and his whole mood was obviously bad.
"I asked you to check on Kendrick, any results?"
"Not yet. This person's info was hidden really well. I already used all my connections, but still couldn't find any of his personal details."
"What about Melinda?"
"Miss Coleman went to the Thompson family business by herself, the general manager over there received her in person, and now she was Luna Vania's direct boss."
Elliot didn't say much, but Cliff knew in his heart.
Back then, he took Melinda to all kinds of events, and those bosses all knew her. Looks like Mr. Thompson saw Melinda as his woman.