Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
Snickering to himself, Emmett tucked his phone back into his pocket. He’d hoped Jonah’s questions would be off the wall. He got the feeling asking about lamia would be just the beginning for the clueless human. He couldn’t wait to hear what he had to say next.
He stepped into the security office on the fifteenth floor, looking around curiously.
It looked the same as the smaller security offices in the tech building and the interdimensional division he’d been to the week prior.
An empty reception desk separated the general visitors from the cubicle filled room, with two separate rooms in the back: one for the leader of the security team and one with a wall of monitors and one or two security members watching over them.
The rest sat around waiting for something to happen, which wasn’t at all helpful.
It was the first thing Emmett noticed— all of his packmates did.
The security personnel should have been walking the building, not sitting around waiting for trouble to come to them.
The leader of this team was an orc with a scowl that looked permanently engraved on his face when Emmett knocked on his door. He grunted and waved Emmett inside his office, glaring at the screen in front of him.
“You from Moonfall?”
“Yes, sir. Emmett Moonfall,” Emmett replied, offering him a hand to shake. “I promise, we’re only here to help.”
He’d found the other security leads weren’t too happy about their involvement, pointing fingers at each other over whose fault it was that the company got swindled by a coup and then another employee participating in corporate espionage.
It wasn’t any one person or division’s fault as far as Emmett could tell, which was why the whole security system was getting an upgrade, including a brand new cyber security division that was being set up in the main building.
Apparently, they had a few guys doing cyber security, but they’d had to split that work with other IT tasks, and it wasn’t enough to cover the entire building, much less four other divisions.
That changed, as did the security teams themselves.
The golems, while well-meaning, were easily manipulated and moved to outside projects with chaperones.
They were the muscle, not the brains of the operation.
Apparently Alistair’s mate also did loyalty interviews on the remaining security staff.
He was some kind of hot shot telepath, but people seemed to like him enough to let him do his job without complaining.
Emmett visibly shuddered when Ronan had first told them about that.
He did not want someone poking around his head.
“Name’s Zed. I’d say we don’t need help, but that’s a godsdamn lie. I’ve been tellin’ Grimsley for a while now that we needed to be doin’ more. He was so distracted with that IT kid, he wasn’t listenin’.”
His response surprised Emmett, and he sat in the chair across from the man, head cocked curiously. “Why do you say that?”
He huffed, spinning his screen around to show what looked like an empty hallway.
He jabbed his finger at a door on one side.
“See that door? Two of my guys went in there twenty minutes ago. Haven’t come out yet.
They’re supposed to be walkin’ the building like that woman from last week told us. Tasha?”
Emmett nodded. “She’s the second for this job. Where is that? I can get them moving.”
“Thirteenth floor. It’s a bathroom, I think. Those idiots better hope no one goes in there, otherwise they’ll be in a lot more trouble than they already are.”
Thirteenth…
Oh, no. That was the same floor as Jonah.
Sure enough, the human he’d been talking to wandered into the frame, heading straight for the bathroom. Emmett ripped his phone out of his pocket, sending a quick text to the man while Zed cursed under his breath and picked up his phone, probably to try and call his guys again.
Supe Guru Extraordinaire: Not that bathroom. It’s occupied.
He watched Jonah pause just outside the bathroom, looking at his phone screen with a confused frown. He looked around, like Emmett might be around the corner and just messing with him, so Emmett sent another text.
Supe Guru Extraordinaire: Look up.
He did, and when he noticed the camera, he cocked his head before sending a text.
Jonah: Are you stalking me? I don’t need a babysitter.
Supe Guru Extraordinaire: I’ll explain later. Go to another bathroom unless you want to see something you shouldn’t.
Jonah’s head jerked back as he read Emmett’s message, and he shot a wary glance at the bathroom before stepping away from it. Emmett breathed a sigh of relief, and a moment later, one of the guys picked up the phone, Zed immediately barking at them to get their asses back upstairs.
Emmett watched with avid fascination as the bathroom door ripped open, startling Jonah, who visibly jumped.
He pressed himself against the wall to stay out of the way as two security guards wrestled with their uniforms as they ran for the stairs.
He was fighting a laugh at poor Jonah, glued to the wall with wide eyes, when he got another message.
Jonah: …
Jonah: Is there another bathroom on this floor?
Emmett: No, but there is one on each floor. Just take the stairs.
He saw Jonah cast a wary glance at the stairs and huffed a small laugh. “Excuse me for a second.”
Zed waved him off, still busy shouting at the phone.
Emmett’s ears flattened to block out the noise, and he hurried out of the room, stepping into the monitor room instead, where the guy watching the screens was texting instead of paying attention. Emmett sighed. He really needed to whip this team into shape.
“I know it’s not busy, but seriously?”
The guy, a gnome with a thick beard, squeaked in surprise and whirled around, gaping at Emmett, who waved him off. “We’ll talk about this in a minute. Can you show me the stairwell between floors twelve and thirteen, as well as floor twelve’s hallway with the bathroom?”
The gnome, realizing he had messed up, hurried to do as asked, pulling up the requested screens. Emmett sent another message to Jonah.
Supe Guru Extraordinaire: You’re good if you go now. All clear.
The human must have trusted him because a few seconds later, the stairwell door opened and Jonah poked his head out, rushing down the stairs and down the hallway of the twelfth floor to get to the bathroom.
Emmett snickered. He couldn’t tell if Jonah was rushing because he was afraid of bumping into a supe or if he really had to use the restroom.
After keeping an eye out for Jonah and making sure he got back to the server room without bumping into anyone, Emmett jerked his chin towards the main security room. “I’m gonna talk to your boss, then there’s going to be a meeting. Mandatory. Let the rest of the security staff know, will you?”
Nervously, the gnome nodded at him. Emmett left him to it, since his phone was already out, he probably could text them all to meet him just fine. Stepping out of the monitor room again, he came up short when he noticed the door to Zed’s office was closed, and he heard shouting from inside.
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” someone drawled, pulling Emmett’s attention away from the noise.
One of the guys at a cubicle nearby was leaning back in his chair so it balanced on two legs, his hands tucked behind his head, and a bored look on his face.
When Emmett raised an eyebrow, the guy raised an eyebrow back, giving Zed’s door a pointed look.
“He’s yelling at Amil and Rocco. He can’t fire them, they’re in their mating period and protected by law, but that won’t stop him from chewing them out.”
Realization struck Emmett, and he grimaced. “What kind of mating?”
“Rocco’s lizardfolk.”
Ah. That explained it. Lizardfolk matings took a while, long enough that most had to return to work as they couldn’t afford to take that long off. Something about their species dragged out the process even longer than most other supes.
“Well, damn. How long has it been going on?”
“Six weeks, give or take,” the bored guy shrugged.
Which probably meant they were only halfway through the process and splitting them up would lead to major issues.
That human movie, Godzilla, was probably just a rampaging lizardfolk in the middle of its mating.
Emmett had watched it with his cousins. It was hilarious then, but now he had to wonder…
The rest of the security staff filed in one by one.
Ten in total, including the two being chastised.
They all sat at cubicles or leaned against walls, socializing while they waited for their supervisor, who they likely assumed had called the meeting.
Emmett didn’t bother correcting them. He just waited, taking them all in.
They were a diverse bunch, and they looked at least physically ready to handle the job.
They just needed some guidance, that was all.
He preferred to remain optimistic until proven otherwise.
Zed’s door finally opened, and a lizardfolk and a blushing human both scurried out, heads ducked.
They smelled similar, which was probably the whole reason for the rendezvous.
Mated supes were naturally possessive, and he knew of a few species that needed their mates to smell like them in order to be able to focus.
Werewolves were one of them, so he understood the urge.
Still, they could’ve taken a long lunch and gone to a hotel or something.
Technically they were supposed to do that stuff at home.
In the restroom where anyone could walk in on them was not only stupid, it was potentially dangerous.
Possessive mates weren’t what he’d consider stable.
Rocco might have lashed out or hurt Jonah if he’d walked in on them.
The thought had a low growl rumbling in his throat. The human was already terrified. Being subject to that on his first day while he was still figuring things out would’ve been messed up.
Turning to face the group, Emmett summoned his patience and spoke, his voice just on the edge of gruff.
“Hey, everyone. My name is Emmett Moonfall. I’m with the Moonfall Security team, and I’m here under the orders of Alistair Silverbreeze.
There’s going to be a change in how things work from here on out.
” He shot a pointed look at the couple who both ducked their heads again.
“But first, we’re going to start with the basics.
I need everyone’s names and where they were pulled from to attend this meeting. ”
If they were needed somewhere specific, he wanted to make note of that before scheduling rotations and the like.
As they went through each member of staff, Emmett thought about Jonah.
No one should have to feel unsafe at work, especially around security.
Had Jonah walked in on the couple in the bathroom, he would’ve never trusted security again thanks to the uniforms the guys were wearing.
Mating or not, he needed them to act better.
He didn't want anyone in the building afraid of approaching security.
Especially not the poor human who had barely managed to summon enough courage to walk into the building that morning.
Emmett had seen him standing just out of the way of the influx of people, pale as a sheet and uncertain.
He’d been on the way to introduce himself and figure out what was wrong when Jonah had run into him.
He promised Jonah he was safe here. Emmett was going to make sure of that.