Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Noah
I pulled off that bit of espionage at the museum perfectly. So why am I so shaken by my encounter with the lovely and enigmatic Seeress?
Head down, I walk the city streets. I keep my steps measured, so I don’t look suspicious, but my body is so wired with adrenaline it’s all I can do not to break into a run.
What was that?
Fate sent me there. I do not doubt that. I’m a logical, even skeptical, person, but I can’t deny that all these dreams of Aster led me to the museum and then to that moment in the elevator. It was destined.
The Adalwulf princess’s delicate magnolia-peach scent still clings to my clothes. Warm and floral, at odds with her ice-princess exterior. There was something completely intoxicating about her. Like she’s a magnet pulling me in. Part of me wanted to pick her up and carry her out with me.
Of course, I never would have made it out alive.
My hands shake just thinking about the feel of her ass on my lap.
My dick is still chubby. I shove my hands into my pockets, but my dick?
Forget about it. There’s nothing I can do but curse it and will my erection to go down.
Thinking about baseball won’t work; I don’t watch human sports, so I have no idea how that game is played.
My life revolves around my mission–infiltrating the Adalwulfs, so I can learn the truth about my birth.
That’s why I planted a bug on Aster–for the mission–not because I’m obsessed with the female who’s haunted my dreams for months.
I’m not going to replay the moment she landed in my lap over and over again.
I won’t dwell on the way her white-blond hair looked so elegant, braided into a crown, but when it brushed my chin, it felt soft as corn-silk.
It’s probably long enough to hang down past her waist in a perfect curtain.
If she were naked, it would brush the top of her ass…
And now my dick is hard again.
It’s no use. I can’t focus with the scent of peaches clinging to the stubble on my chin. All my thoughts lead to Aster right now.
The long walk does me good. By the time I clock back into work, I’m disgusted by the scents of the city–exhaust from the cars and buses, the concrete sidewalks covered in trash and gum flattened by a thousand dirty-soled shoes.
The scent of magnolia and peaches is still there, but it’s faded enough that I can focus.
As soon as I get to my desk, I get a message telling me to bring a report to the big boss’ office. That’s enough to kill my boner.
Brick Blackthroat is a beast in the business world, but humans have no idea how much of a beast he really is.
I worked hard to qualify for a job here, and even though Adalwulf Associates was my first choice, my job at Moon Co.
has turned out to have untold benefits. Once again, it was like Fate was guiding me because I was able to befriend Madi, the human fated to be Brick’s mate.
Fate, again. I might be a believer after all.
I make sure I wash my hands thoroughly and change my shirt and jacket before heading up to the big boss. Brick probably doesn’t know what Aster Adalwulf smells like, but there’s no sense smelling like an Adalwulf if I can help it.
When I arrive on the top floor, Brick’s secretary sends me in. I tap on the door before I open it, even though I wouldn’t hear if he told me to stay out.
“Here’s the report, sir.” I step up to Brick’s desk and set the stack of unstapled papers on his desk. He’s usually a “send it by email” guy, so I’m guessing he wants to go over it in person.
I watch his lips move. “Great.” He doesn’t look at the report–he looks at me.
I’m standing while he sits, but he holds the power in the room.
His alpha nature is a large presence. Even his scent is dense and powerful–but there’s a light citrus and spice essence that reminds me of his mate, Madi.
Either she was just here, drinking her favorite vanilla latte, or her scent is now interwoven with her mate’s.
Either way, it makes me want to smile. I don’t, though, because Brick’s mood seems serious.
“Do you ever let out your wolf, Noah?” He speaks the words at the same time he makes the ASL signs for your wolf run?
, except he doesn’t put the raised eyebrows we use to indicate a question.
Still, the fact that my employer and his executive team attempted to learn ASL after I became an ancillary member shocked me.
No one but my grandmother learned to sign in my home pack. Our alpha wanted me to learn Total Communication, making me wear hearing aids as a child to teach me oral speech and lip-reading.
I arch a brow, surprised by this question. “I ran over Christmas.” I both sign and speak out loud because he’s still learning ASL. “When I was in Kentucky.”
He gives me a cool look. His expression is inscrutable, but I can feel the power play.
There’s a challenge in his posture. The stare-down he’s giving me.
The alpha wolf has finally called me to the carpet over why I never petitioned to join his pack.
Alphas don’t like stranger wolves on their territory.
It’s in their nature to be suspicious of a lone wolf like me.
It’s been two years since I started working here. I expected this conversation eighteen months ago. Now, it’s been so long since I showed up in New York without requesting admission to his pack that I’d thought we’d both swept it under the rug.
Brick drops the game and shoots straight. “Why have you never requested to join my pack?” He doesn’t attempt to sign the words.
I measure the air between us. My wolf doesn’t sense an immediate threat. There’s tension, but it’s not deadly. Yet.
I have to answer him carefully.
“When I came to New York, I didn’t know either pack.”
Brick makes no acknowledgement; he simply watches me. His scent is one hundred percent his, cedar and leather and sandalwood, no eau de Madi to soften it.
“I think you know that I also applied at Adalwulf and Associates.”
He nods.
“I thought it best to keep my options open, not knowing where I would land.”
“Bullshit.”
I can’t hear Brick’s words, but I can tell he threw an alpha command into them by the way they shove me square in the chest. If I were part of his pack, I would’ve fallen back a step.
Instead, the power wafts past me, like a punch that misses me by a few inches.
Interesting. I’m not one of his wolves, but I should still feel the pressure to submit to his Alpha commands. I felt the power, but it didn’t touch me.
Is it like this for all lone wolves?
Of course, Brick is my boss. He could still fire me. And he’s right. The reason I offered was bullshit. I’m not sure how or why he knows that, though. Or what he suspects.
I shrug, keeping my body movements languid to show I’m not distressed and try for something closer to the truth. “Honestly, I’m more of a lone wolf. I didn’t want to get caught up in pack politics.”
Brick’s eyes narrow, like he knows I’m hiding something. His nose twitches–he’s probably relying on his nose to clue him into my thoughts. “Why apply at the two wolf-owned companies if you weren’t interested in pack politics?”
Well, that’s an excellent question. One I definitely don’t want to reveal the answer to.
“I was keeping my options open, I guess.”
“You could have used the fact that you’re a wolf to get this job.
That would be the normal course of action.
Show up, introduce yourself as a fellow shifter, and ask for a job.
I would’ve given it to you. But you went through HR like a human.
” He shakes his head. “It doesn’t make sense. Help me understand it.”
Deaf Culture rejects the idea that we are disabled. Deafness is not viewed as a loss but is rather a gain. There’s a whole community, culture, language, with an identity built in.
That said, I’m not human. I’m a wolf.
My mother had to sneak me out of my birth pack–the Moonborn sect of the Adalwulf Pack–to keep their alpha Odin from murdering me as soon as it was known I was “defective.” My grandmother’s pack in Kentucky wasn’t so backward, but they still never welcomed me with open arms.
I don’t want to do it, but it might be time to play the deaf card with Brick.
“Packs don’t always accept my kind,” I tell him.
It works. The aggression drops away from Brick’s expression, and compassion seeps in. His scent shifts, growing less intense. He rises from his seat and walks around the desk to my side, no longer in punishing principal mode.
“You know we accept you.” He attempts to sign again, perhaps realizing his lapse.
I nod. His pack is different–they’ve honored who and what I am from the beginning. That doesn’t mean I want to join them, but I guess I do believe they would treat me as an equal if I were admitted.
“Yes. Thank you. I am grateful for all you have done.”
He spreads his hands. “Yet you still haven’t petitioned me to join.”
I choose to bow my head. I don’t lose anything by submitting now and placating the most dominant wolf I’ve ever met. “Forgive me, Alpha. I meant no offense to you or the pack.”
“I take it as an insult.”
I wince. I rack my brain for something to say that will allow me to remain free of the pack yet still keep this job.
My lack of a response further irritates my boss. He jerks his head toward the door. “Get out.”
Fuck. Am I fired?
I don’t move.
“I won’t pressure anyone to join my pack. We don’t coerce. If you don’t want in, it’s your loss. But if you ever go near the Adalwulf Pack, we’re going to have a big problem.”
I go still, staring at him. Do I come clean? Tell him I held the Adalwulf princess in my arms an hour ago? That I put a tracker in her bag and plan to find out where they keep the Moonborn?
No. I can’t. My mission is more important than pleasing my boss. I’ll have to risk his wrath.
“Understood, Alpha,” I say.
“Apparently, I’m not your fucking alpha.” The alpha command in his voice registers as another shove to my torso.
I tip my head to the side to show my throat. “Yes, sir.”
“Get out.”
This time, I obey. As I walk out, I sense danger closing in on me from more than one side.
I’ll have to choose my path carefully, or I’ll never have the chance to find my mom and free her from the cult that’s kept her captive for so long.
I hole up in my cubicle, keep my head down like I’m getting to work. In between answering emails for my Moon Co job, I monitor the data the tracker in Aster’s purse is picking up for me.
The tracker has an audio component, which I run through a speech-to-text translator, so I can speed-read the conversation.
The Alpha wants to know if you think the tiara is worth purchasing.
It’s powerful. Maybe too powerful. The vision I had was strong.
I tag the second speaker as Aster and the first as her bodyguard.
I scan all the texts, but she hasn’t admitted she met me. In fact, she’s insisting that she doesn’t know who I am.
A stranger,
Is it possible she hasn’t seen me in her dreams? They felt so real.
She’s the enemy, I remind myself. She means nothing.
I know that’s a lie. I can still smell her sweet floral scent, even though I washed it away before my meeting with Brick.
I need to focus. I can use the Seeress to get intel and infiltrate the Adalwulfs, but that’s it. Beyond that, my interest in her needs to stop.
Bodyguard:
So the moonstone will be an asset to the Blood Bonding.
Blood Bonding? What’s that? I make a note to call Gran and ask her.
Aster:
Maybe. There’s a danger in using another culture’s talismans to enhance our own rituals.
The speech-to-text doesn’t give me any nuance, like facial expression or tone of voice.
I wish I had visuals, too, and not just so I can examine Aster’s stunning ice-blue eyes and lovely face.
I want to know how she feels about this Blood Bonding ritual.
It sounds fucking painful, and knowing what Gran told me about the cult of the Moonborn, it’s probably not a walk in the park.
Bodyguard:
A danger to whom?
Aster:
To everyone involved in the ritual.
Bodyguard:
I’ll let the alpha know.
So that was the purpose of the museum visit. Seeing the tiara. Purchasing it for some sort of ritual.
Bodyguard:
Alpha Aiden has cleared the purchase. The sale will take place tomorrow at 6 pm. The museum is trying to negotiate, but the alpha will make sure the tiara is in our possession in time for the ritual.
I scramble. I have to get this tiara before Aiden does. Something tells me it’s important.
And I know just the person who can help me.
I grab my phone and open a private app that connects me to a super secret forum.
I text my friend.
Hey
She’s a witch who was also born into a creepy cult. Not the Moonborn but a family of underground dark magic users turned grifters.
Have you ever done a job at the Gem and Mineral Museum?
I don’t wait long before she zings back.
Nope. But I cased it six months ago for shits and giggles. Why?
I grin. Once I tell her what I need, I know she’ll want to help.
This is going to be fun.