Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Fuck, who is this female, Adrian wondered.
Her scent had hit him before she did. Something sweet. Floral, but not cloying—more like wildflowers after rain, with an undercurrent of something electric. Alive. His wolf perked up, attention sharpening from lazy alertness to full predatory focus in the space of a heartbeat.
Then a small body collided with his chest, and instinct took over.
His hands shot out, catching her before she could stumble backward.
The woman was tiny—barely reaching his chest, even in those ridiculous pink boots.
His fingers wrapped almost entirely around her upper arms, and beneath the soft skin he could feel the delicate architecture of bone and muscle. Fragile. Human. Mine to protect—
He clamped down on that thought so hard his jaw ached.
“Whoa. Easy there.”
She blinked up at him, and for a moment, he forgot how to breathe.
Enormous grey eyes magnified by thick-framed glasses.
Pink hair—pink, like cotton candy, like something that belonged in a children’s fairy tale—hanging damp against flushed cheeks.
A cropped t-shirt that exposed a sliver of pale stomach.
And that scent. It wrapped around him like silk, burrowing into his brain, making his wolf pace restlessly behind his ribs.
“Sorry!” She stumbled as she yanked her hands back from his chest and he automatically tightened his grip to hold her upright even as he fought back the urge to demand she keep her hands on him.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she squeaked as he took in her appearance. Fuck, she was tiny. Not only short but slender, with delicate hands and small hips and a fragile frame that made his protective instincts roar to life inside him. A human female. In the Moonstone headquarters. At this hour.
His wolf rumbled its approval. Ours. The word was a possessive growl in his mind.
He ignored it. Mostly.
“I’m Adrian Moonstone,” he said, keeping his voice as calm and non-threatening as possible. He didn’t let go of her arms. The feel of that silky skin under his hands was too addictive.
“I’m Harper. Bailey. Harper Bailey,” she whispered, not meeting his gaze.
She was looking at a point somewhere over his shoulder, her entire body radiating a tension that had nothing to do with their near collision.
“I work here. In security. Computer security, not like, building security. I don’t stand by doors or anything.
Not that there’s anything wrong with standing by doors!
Very important job. I just… I work with computers. ”
Harper. The name fit her. Soft and melodic. His wolf repeated it, rolling it around like a treasure, like a claim. Harper.
No.
“I know who you are,” he said gruffly, his voice scratching against his throat like sandpaper.
He forced himself to release her arms and stepped back, putting space between them.
Necessary space. Safe space. “Derek’s mentioned you.
You’re the new cybersecurity genius who’s been living in the office. ”
“I don’t live here.” A defensive note crept into her voice. “I have an apartment. With furniture and everything. A bed. I just… haven’t spent much time there.”
A bed. That one word in her soft, flustered voice sent a jolt of pure, unadulterated lust straight through him. An image flashed in his mind of this tiny female, all pale skin and pink hair, tangled in sheets that smelled like her. His sheets. With him in the bed. With her—
He slammed the door on that mental image with a force that made his head throb. This was Derek’s employee. A human. A skittish, clearly overwhelmed human who probably slept with firewalls to keep her safe at night. What was wrong with him?
The problem, he knew, was the timing. He was an Alpha, and his wolf was restless.
The pack was secure, their territory on Monster Island well-established and respected, but a part of him—the most primal, instinctual part—was hungry.
For a mate. For a family. For something more than just pack politics and petty disputes.
It was a dangerous kind of hunger, the kind that could make a male mistake simple attraction for something far more complicated.
No. He’d seen for himself the damage a female could cause, even a female wolf with a supposed mate bond.
A human female would be even more dangerous.
Just because his brother had been lucky enough to find a human woman who wasn’t a lying, manipulative—Stop it, Adrian. Don’t poison this with the past.
“You have an apartment,” he repeated, forcing the growl from his voice. “With furniture.”
“Yes.” She clutched the strap of her shower bag like it was a life raft. Her gaze darted towards the elevator, a clear signal of her desire to escape. “I should probably go. To the apartment. With the furniture.”
The morning light streaming through the atrium windows seemed to intensify, catching the damp strands of her hair and turning them into strands of liquid rose gold. She was beautiful in a way that caught him completely off guard, as delicate and fragile as her wildflower scent.
“My brother said your new security system is a work of art,” he heard himself say, the words sounding clumsy to his own ears.
The compliment, however awkward, seemed to throw her. Her gaze finally snapped back to his, her eyes widening behind the glasses. A faint blush bloomed on her cheeks, a delicate rose pink that made him want to see if she flushed that same color everywhere.
He should walk away, end the conversation, continue to Derek’s office, and forget this entire encounter.
She was human. A city human, probably raised on concrete and fluorescent lights, who probably couldn’t tell a pine from a spruce if her life depended on it.
She was exactly the kind of female he’d trained himself to avoid.
But his wolf wouldn’t let him move. Not yet.
“What are you doing here so early?” Her cheeks flushed darker. “I mean, not that it’s any of my business. Obviously. You probably have important Alpha… things. Pack… stuff. I’d better…”
“I’m meeting with Derek.” He kept his voice level, controlled. The voice of an Alpha, not a man distracted by big eyes and wildflower scent. “We have family business to discuss.”
“Right. Yes. Family business. Between brothers. That makes sense.” She started edging around him, giving him a wide berth, like she was trying to slip past a wolf in the forest.
Smart girl.
“Harper.”
She froze. He watched her pulse jump in her throat, watched her breath catch, and his wolf howled in triumph at the evidence of her reaction. She feels it too.
Stop it.
“Derek mentioned you’ve been putting in a lot of hours.
” He let his gaze sweep over her again, noting the shadows under her eyes and the slight tremor in her hands from too much caffeine and not enough food.
The way her cropped shirt had ridden up slightly, exposing another inch of that pale, soft stomach…
“You should take care of yourself. Even geniuses need sleep.”
“I—okay?”
“Okay.”
He stepped aside. She fled towards the elevator without looking back, her pink combat boots squeaking slightly on the polished floor. His wolf wanted to chase her, to pin her against the wall and bury his face in her neck until she smelled like him instead of wildflowers and lavender shampoo.
He did none of those things.
He waited until the elevator doors slid shut, cutting her off from view. Only then did he allow himself a deep, steadying breath that did nothing to calm the raging storm inside him. The air in the hallway still carried her scent, a phantom presence that teased at his senses.
He shoved it away. She was a distraction. Nothing more.