CHAPTER THREE: WOLF

The bright sun shone that Friday morning as the private jet’s wheels touched down slowly on the runway and then came to a stop.

Almost immediately, a black Lamborghini Sian Roadster pulled up next to it and waited.

The door of the jet opened, and a young man came out of it, an impassive look on his face and his eyes shielded from the glare of the hot sun by a pair of sunglasses. His jet black hair shone in the sunlight, shiny strands of it falling across his face and confidence radiating from every part of him.

He had a plain white dress shirt on with the sleeves rolled up lazily, exposing his gold Rolex watch. The first three buttons were undone, leaving his ripped chest exposed to beat the heat.

His shirt was tucked in his black pants, which hung from his trim waist and matched the Italian shoes that covered his feet. The long fingers of his right hand held up a phone to his ear, while his left hand stayed hidden away in his pocket.

A man in his fifties whom the young man easily dwarfed followed closely behind, holding his briefcase. He looked at his watch and the time showed 10:30 AM. Just in time. He had to be at work by 11 AM.

The chauffeur came out of the car and bowed his head.

“Welcome back to Palm Springs City, Mr Jayden Wells.”

The young man, Mr Jayden Wells smiled, a smile that barely touched the corners of his lips. He pulled out two wads of money from his pockets and held it in front of them, and each man took one.

“Tips for the kids. Thank you. Go enjoy your weekend.

They both turned around and left, and he got into the car.

He hated having people doing too much for him, and he liked his freedom, which was why he opted to drive himself to work. The car’s engine revved up smoothly, and he leaned back in the seat while pressing his foot on the accelerator, one hand on the steering wheel and the other grazing his lip.

The speedometer showed that he was going at a speed of 75 metres per hour, and the wind blew through his face and hair, the sunglasses shielding his eyes again.

He exhaled and gripped the hand brake harder, and then he smiled another slight smile that barely touched the corners of his lips. He looked like a Greek god come to life at that moment, his face mirroring a perfect image of relaxation.

The roads were free as always, and Jayden sped up, enjoying the sight of green palm trees lined up beside the roads of Palm Springs city, one of the reasons for the city’s name. He got to his destination and parked in front of a tall glass building, and as he came out of the car, a valet came and bowed, and Jayden handed over his key.

He went into the building, and as soon as he was out of the sun he took off his sunglasses, exposing his cold dark grey eyes. The valet followed quickly behind him, holding his briefcase as he diverted and went to an elevator.

“Take it to my office,” Jayden ordered as he opted for the eleventh floor and went in.

The silent hum of the elevator was not enough to distract his thoughts and he suddenly had a flashback.

A bitter memory he had been struggling to suppress.

He groaned, his bones changing form, his hands forming into paws, and fur rapidly growing out of his skin.

He was morphing into his wolf form, right in his office’s elevator.

What if a human saw him?

Jayden clenched his fists, shut his eyes tight and inhaled deeply, and was soon back to his human form as the chime of the elevator drew his attention. Some men who were coming in looked at him weirdly, wondering why he was covered in sweat.

How would they know he was a werewolf?

He walked out and saw the valet waiting for him in front of the door that led to his office, and to the left, at the ever-so-beautiful reception filled with ornamental plants sat Anita, his receptionist.

A full human who knew nothing beyond fiction about werewolves, and probably did not believe in them—if only she knew how much they controlled Palm Springs City.

She stood up, her eyes locking with his for a second before she stared at something else in front of her. His eyes, however, remained on her as he gave another slight smile that barely touched the corners of his lips.

Anita was an extremely beautiful redhead, and a curvy one too, and more than anything, Jayden knew she wanted him. She had gone from a shy and plain-dressed but smart girl at her interviews and first day at work to a woman who did one or two things hoping to get his attention.

He could see the bright red lipstick she wore at the moment and the beautiful cleavage formed by her luxuriant breasts. He also noticed moments when she would come into his office and drop something by “mistake” and then bend to pick it up, offering him a view of her white thighs.

But for a werewolf who had watched his mate burn to her death before his very eyes, and who could potentially rip Anita in half during sex or mating, he paid no attention to her.

“Good morning Sir,” Anita greeted, her eyes meeting his again before she looked down.

“Hello Anita. How are you today?

“I’m doing okay, Sir.”

“I need you to reschedule my meeting with the company’s board to 3 PM. Also, put Doctor King on the line for me. Tell him I need to see him privately. And no one must disturb us when he comes.” He commanded.

“And what about the meeting with Mr Peter Knowles for the $700,000 contract? It was scheduled to be held at 2 PM, Sir.”

“Cancel it.”

“Okay, Sir.”

“No. Let it be.” Jayden reconsidered. “I should be free by the time he comes.”

“Yes Sir.” She answered, jotting his instructions down as quickly as she could.

“Get me a pen and a piece of paper.”

Her clumsy hands were shaking as she gave them to him, and his hand grazed hers very lightly. His cold dark grey eyes, however, were on her as he took them, and he offered her another of his slight smiles.

The Jayden Wells smile.

“Good girl.” He said and turned away, going into his office.

He heard her whisper to herself, words his sharp werewolf hearing picked up easily, words an ordinary human would never have heard.

“Oh fuck. I want him.”

The inside of Jayden’s office had a wide glass panel the length of an entire room that offered a bird’s eye view of Palm Spring City.

He could see the palm trees standing everywhere, green dominating the view, and the small brown patch of land in the middle of it all that had maple trees, the spring-fed pond, and the bunch of large rocks that stood on the edge of the pond.

The wolves also had their pack meetings there.

Jayden loved this view. It was beautiful and relaxed him so well. The sun shone brightly on everything, and the colours seemed to pop. He closed his eyes, inhaled, and opened them again, and then noticed a lone car driving uptown.

He needed no one to tell him it was Doctor King in that car.

He walked to his swivel chair behind his big C.E.O. desk and sat, relaxing as much as he could in it and turning over the words to say to the doctor in his head.

On the desk, there was a tag with his name on it. It read “Jayden Wells, Chief Executive Officer, Jayden Wells Construction Company.”

He picked up the pen Anita gave him, put it back down and spun around in the chair intending to watch the car, but it was out of sight. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to get himself under control as he gripped the arm of his chair subconsciously, his right forefinger grazing his lips.

“Doctor King will soon be here. Five minutes max...” he thought.

The big grandfather clock in the corner ticked loudly, and he exhaled.

Time. Only Time.

He shut his eyes and let his acute wolf hearing concentrate on the ticking sound.

Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock...

He did not know how many ticks he counted, but then the telephone on his desk rang. He spun around once again, reached where the telephone lay and picked up the call.

“Doctor King is here to see you, Sir.” Anita’s voice informed.

“Let him in.”

The door creaked open and the doctor walked in, a man in his forties, grey already dominating his scalp, his protruding belly hiding under his shirt. Jayden rose and shook the doctor’s hand as Anita shut the door.

“Private wolf business, I figured.” Doctor King smiled as he lowered himself into a seat, the two men alone in the office.

“Very, very private,” Jayden replied.

Palm Springs City was a beautiful and quiet place, and the wolf pack with a population of thirty-one wolves found it easier to hide their existence here. They had their alpha, several betas — Jayden was one of them, and even more Omegas, every wolf holding a position of power in the city, no matter the rank in the pack.

The doctor’s gaze was fixed on him. He was a beta werewolf too, which made him and his hospital important to the werewolf community in Palm Springs City. They all went to him when they needed medical help to avoid the human doctors detecting the abnormalities in their superior body systems.

“I will not open my mind to you, Doctor King. Stop trying to get into it.” Jayden retorted, understanding that the doctor’s gaze was an attempt to break through his eyes and see in his mind.

For Werewolves, the fact that the eyes are the window of the mind is true. They only needed to stare deep into the other wolf’s eyes to read their minds, though Jayden and a few other strong-willed wolves had mastered the art of refusing this entry.

All it demanded was a strong will to not reveal a thing, but not every wolf had a strong will.

Doctor King laughed. He had been busted.

“I keep trying because I want to know if you have grown weak in your strong will. You have not.”

Jayden’s lips formed a hard line as he sat back, his left hand gripping the arm of his swivel chair and his right forefinger grazing his lips again.

“Only Avana could read my mind.”

The silence that came between them lasted for a few seconds.

“You imprinted on Avana well. The best match I had seen all my life. She complimented you in every possible way. Do you know how rare it is for a pure black fur wolf to have a pure white fur as a mate? It happens only once in a hundred years.” Doctor King admitted.

Jayden’s hand gripped the arm of his swivel chair even harder.

“She died because of me.”

“It is not your fault that she burnt in the fire, Jayden. Things happen.”

“It is. I should have saved her. I took her to my farmhouse for our wedding night after our wedding, and then I went to get her a late night surprise when I came back and found the house in flames and—”

Jayden broke down, unable to continue.

“I know Jayden. I know it all.” Doctor King said.

“No, you don’t,” Jayden growled. “Do you know what it means to take in the sickening smell of your mate’s flesh burning?”

Both of Jayden’s hands were gripping the arms of his swivel chair with a lot of force, and then they started morphing into wolf paws. His canines were rapidly coming out of his mouth. His bones were changing form and his eyes were flashing dangerously.

It only took the breaking in pieces of the swivel chair to distract him and change him back to his human form.

Doctor King’s eyes were fixed on him as he took in deep breaths and then sat on the edge of his big C.E.O table, his hands supporting him up and his swivel chair now next to useless. A brief silence came between them.

“You miss her, don’t you?” Doctor King broke it.

“More than anything else, King. I would give all I have and even more just to see her again. My Avana.”

Doctor King felt pity for Jayden. He was not the first Werewolf to lose his mate, but it was rare to find one who lost his mate on their wedding night.

“Why does it enrage you so much, Jayden? You don’t feel sadness, but anger. It makes you morph into your wolf form. Strong emotions are what make us morph. We have learnt to control how we feel these emotions and apply them so we can morph only when we need to. Why do you let the strength of your anger consume you?”

Another silence came between them, as they could both hear the sounds of their breathing. It felt like an eternity until Jayden spoke up.

“Because I could have saved her if only I stayed with her. Or we could have died together. The fact that I exist and she ceases to enrages me so much.”

“And what do you want now, Jayden?” Doctor King asked.

“Life without Avana has been empty for me. It has been three years, and the only thing keeping me alive has been my mother. She will be so alone if I choose to die. But now I have found a solution to that, so I can die quietly and reunite with my Avana on the other side with the Moon Goddess.”

“What is that solution?” Doctor King asked.

“I want to leave a baby. An heir. A replacement for me in the pack.”

“So you want to find another mate?”

“No. I want a human mother.”

Doctor King’s eyes were wide open with surprise. The entire conversation was surprising to him. Jayden’s planned suicide, and his wanting to have a human mother for his planned baby.

“Are you crazy? You could find a lonely she-wolf to mate with and even probably imprint on her after mating, hopefully. Why a human? Mating with humans is not new but you risk exposing the pack if you morph in front of your human or bite her while mating.”

“A she-wolf never forgets her child, not even under the pain of death. When I am dead, she may come to take my child from my mother. Humans are not us. They can sell their souls for money because they believe in money, not bonds. A human can choose to forget her baby if I pay her off and keep it secret. And I have a strong will, King. I will only bite the human if I choose to.”

“This is the craziest thing I have heard in all my forty-six years of life, Jayden. Why do you want to die?”

Jayden looked at the doctor, seated on a chair across from him and then smiled. He stood up and went to the glass panel window, backing the doctor as he observed the view below again.

His hands were in his pockets, and his jet-black hair fell across his face.

“Ask me no more questions, Doctor. Life is unreal. You save lives but never take the time to ponder on it. On how empty it is. On how all of us, human or wolf, will be pieces of bone with forgotten stories a hundred years from now.”

Silence came between them again.

“Human-Werewolf babies are possible but lack the ability to imprint and read minds. The baby could also pose threats to its human mother if left unchecked unless I secretly administered little doses of werewolf DNA throughout the pregnancy to sustain the mother without making changes to her own human body system as the baby develops and takes in blood.” Doctor King continued.

“Even their human babies kill them sometimes, Doctor. Do as I say. Find me a human mother who will have the child and forget about it once I pay her off. Money is not my problem. A person who will come to ask for the child in future is. You know and have surrogates and I want one of them.”

“What about Anita, your assistant? I can tell she will be willing to do it. The way she looks at you.”

“Anita knows too much about me, and I have some self-respect to not get my assistant pregnant. I want a surrogate who does not know much about me. I do not want her to come back for the baby.”

Another round of silence came between them.

“I will do something for you, Jayden Wells. I will.”

“Thank you and goodbye.”

And as the doctor left the office, he carried a thin hope in his mind that Jayden Wells would find a reason to stay alive once he set his eye on his child. Jayden was a strong-willed wolf, but what wolf did not find purpose when it took in the scent of its baby and set its eye upon it at birth?

It would be a shame to lose such a young Beta in his prime to suicide.

And the pack too. He wondered if they would reject the cub. A wolf-human baby had not been recorded yet in their pack, but only by rogues who had gotten kicked out. He took in a deep breath and hoped for the best.

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