Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
ADDIE
I’ve always been able to smell a weak man before he even opens his mouth.
It’s a scent like sour milk, always masked by expensive cologne and the unearned confidence of a legacy surname.
James Sterling Jr. reeked of it. He stood at the head of the boardroom table, his face flushed a mottled red, blustering his way through a presentation he hadn't written for a client he didn't understand.
"The metrics here are… well, they’re robust," James said, waving a hand vaguely toward the projection screen.
He was using his 'big' voice; the one he used when he was trying to hide the fact that he was drowning in the shallow end of the pool. I knew this because I sat comfortably in the deep end, swimming in all the data and figures that went over his head.
"We’re looking at significant synergy across the verticals. High-level engagement. The kind of results you only get with Sterling I could survive a mediocre human like James Sterling. A low growl swept across the room, and the men and women looked right and left.
"Melissa, you can't bring your poodle into the office without it being a licensed service animal."
"Mr. Teacup is at home today," Melissa said through pursed lips.
I pressed a hand to my belly before another sound could escape.
The wolf was a physical weight in my gut, a restless, pacing heat that wanted to claw through my ribs.
It wasn’t just a desire to get out; it was a demand.
My muscles twitched with the suppressed memory of a run, the phantom ache of a shift I had denied for weeks.
I shoved the beast back down into the dark, cold cellar of my mind.
It was a dangerous game I was playing. A wolf caged too long became a feral thing, its instincts curdling into a hair-trigger temper. But I didn’t have the luxury of a run. I had spent every waking hour for the last month as the ghost in Nell’s machine, grinding through the logistics of this deal.
We were closing today. Tonight, I promised my wolf. Tonight, I’d drive to the outskirts, strip off the silk and the shame of the human world, and let the air hit my fur.
The heavy mahogany door opened. A receptionist stepped into the room, looking as if she’d just seen a ghost. She bypassed James and came straight for me.
"Ms. O'Shea, there’s a call for you on the main line."
"Take a message, Sarah," I said, my voice flat. "I’m in a closing."
The girl swallowed hard, her eyes darting to Nell and then back to me. "I’m sorry, I tried, but he was… very insistent. He said it was a family emergency. He said it couldn't wait."
The silence in the room turned brittle. All eyes shifted to me. James looked annoyed at the interruption, but the rest of the partners were staring with that morbid human curiosity, waiting for me to bolt for the door in a panic.
I didn't bolt. I suppressed a sigh, my jaw tight. I forced myself to rise slowly, my movements deliberate and controlled, masking the fact that my heart was already beginning to hammer against my ribs.
I didn't want to deal with my family. I had spent the last ten years carving out a life that didn’t involve the Vane Den or the smell of stale beer and old blood.
There was only one person in that world I cared about, and Elias would have contacted me via the private server we set up. He knew my rules.
The fact that someone had called the firm—that they had gone to the trouble of hunting down my professional alias just to drag me back in—meant the human mask was about to be ripped off.
"Excuse me," I said to the room, my voice a hollowed-out version of its corporate self.
I didn't look at Nell as I walked out, though I felt her hazel eyes burning a hole in my back. I followed Sarah to the reception desk, my heels sounding like gavel strikes on the marble. I picked up the receiver, the plastic cold against my ear.
"This is Addie O'Shea," I said. Whoever was calling me, I knew I'd piss them off by using my mother's maiden name. But the hell I was going by Vane and making myself an easy target.
"Adolpha."
The sound of my father's voice was a bucket of ice water over my head. He sounded bigger than I remembered. The growl in his voice made my gaze dart around the reception area. But I knew he wasn't here. He stayed out of the crowded city, preferring to live further upstate where he could roam.
In an instant, the sterile, peppermint-scented air of the Sterling office was gone, replaced by the memory of the den; of raw meat, wet fur, and the suffocating pressure of an Alpha’s presence. I was six years old again, backed into a corner of the kitchen while his big, brown wolf snarled over me.
I could still see the way the light caught the yellow in his eyes, the way the saliva dripped from his black-lipped jowls as he pinned me to the floor with a single, heavy paw.
A lesson in submission delivered through the weight of his ribs and the low, vibrating threat in his chest that told me I was nothing but a pup who needed to learn her place.
He had felt like a mountain then, a force of nature that could snuff out my life with a snap of his jaw.
Standing here in my tailored skirt, the phone felt like a heavy stone in my hand.
He wasn't even in the room, but the mere resonance of his voice made my pulse hammer with the old, instinctive terror.
"Yes, sir?" Manners had been drilled down so deep into my soul that I offered up the honorific he didn't deserve.
"You need to come home."
I snorted at that. Manners were one thing. Coming home was something that would never happen.
"He’s gone, Adolpha. They took him."
The beast in my belly stopped pacing. It went still. Lethal.
"The Blackwoods. They took Elias."