He frowned when his gaze landed on the chaise again. “Where’s your computer?”
She glanced up at him. “I took it and a couple boxes home with me.”
“Good.” He turned as Grant and Max entered the room, their expressions grim. “Do we know if they took anything?” His security team had already let him know that there was no video feed of the intruder, though there were a couple guys still combing over the videos anyway.
“Not sure,” Grant said as he looked at Ella.
She shook her head before turning back to the scene of chaos. “I need to check my files, but there’s not much in them anyway. I took almost everything home. This scene is weird though…” She trailed off, shaking her head.
Asher nodded in agreement. “It’s like someone was looking for something.” Otherwise, everything would have been destroyed. “Who had this office before?”
“The human I bought this place from.” Grant’s voice was tight with restrained rage.
Asher knew he had to be keeping a tight control on his wolf now. Breaking into a pack’s place of business like this was just not done. Not without definite retaliation. Grant couldn’t appear weak to anyone so they needed to find whoever had done this, and soon. “I’ve got a file on him. I’ll start running all his records, see what I come up with.” That was just the beginning.
Grant nodded. “Good. I’ve already put out feelers to my human contacts in the city, looking for any whispers of someone with a beef against the pack.”
Though he hated to ask, he turned to Ella. “Do you have any enemies, anyone who would want to hurt you?”
Frowning, she shook her head. “No, and this doesn’t feel personal anyway. Otherwise, they would have destroyed my stuff or broken into my home. Not my office. Right?”
He nodded slowly. “Probably.” Asher still wasn’t ruling anything out. Since he wasn’t sure the threat wasn’t personal, he was going to make sure Ella had security 24/7. “I want to go through all the files you received from the previous owner.”
“Of course.”
“And I’ll be staying with you until we figure out who’s behind this.” He wasn’t asking.
It was as if his announcement sucked all the air out of the room. Grant and Max were silent and even the shifters hovering outside the door seemed to have grown quiet too.
Her gaze narrowed a fraction. “Do you really think that’s necessary?”
Hell yeah, he did. She was his whether she realized it or not and he was going to make sure nothing happened to her. “I’m not taking the chance with your safety.”
Sighing, she nodded. “Okay.”
Could she sound any less enthusiastic? Asher hated the circumstances, but he was still looking forward to sharing a roof with her. Unfortunately she didn’t seem to share the sentiment.
“Is there a chance this has anything to do with why you left your pride?” Max asked, his expression thoughtful.
Ella paled at the question, quickly shaking her head. “No.”
Frowning, Asher looked between the two of them, then focused on Ella. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
Grant cleared his throat when she didn’t respond. “Listen, meet me in my office in a few minutes,” Grant said to Asher, then nudged Max.
When they’d left the office, Grant pulling the door shut behind them, Asher turned to face Ella again. “What was Max talking about?”
Her chin came up. “It has nothing to do with this. Trust me.”
“Ella.”
She rolled her eyes, but wrapped her arms around herself defensively. “The reason I relocated is because my ex-boyfriend and sister, uh, recently got mated. And married. It’s not a big deal, but I just didn’t want the hassle of all the stupid pitying from my pridemates. I’m the one who dumped him, but…” She trailed off again and even though she tried to hide it, he could see the hurt lurking in her dark eyes.
The loser had lost Ella, then gone after her sister? Asher’s hands automatically balled into fists. It pissed him off that anyone would hurt her like that. “Did your sister talk to you about it first?” he asked.
Jaw clenched, she shook her head. “I found out when they announced it to the entire pride. I just wish she’d told me first. After that things were awkward between us. It was like she was avoiding me, but then when we were in the same room she’d be overly excited to see me and overly nice. It made things weird and uncomfortable.”
Oh, shit. Some things were inevitable and her sister mating with her ex was in the realm of possibilities in a big pride or pack. The choices of mates could be smaller if a shifter wasn’t interested in humans. But to not tell her sister first? “That sucks.”