Chapter 2

(Dominic’s POV)

I looked in the mirrors that surrounded us in the elevator on the way up to the twelfth floor and for a brief second marvelled at the difference between Liam and myself. I was, as always when I was due in the office, dressed in a tailored three-piece suit, this one being a charcoal grey. And my dark brown, almost black short hair was neatly styled back. Even the grazing of stubble across my chisel cut jawline was neat and precise. I was always told that my golden brown eyes held the warmth of my soul, my mother’s words, not mine. But I couldn’t see anything special unless my wolf Titan was present and then they turned the healthy gold of an Alpha rank. Whereas Liam, on the other hand, wore a standard off the rail light grey suit, the jacket hung open and his shirt was roughly tucked into his slacks. His shock of sandy blond almost too long hair hung in a mess and brushed against his neck. His pale blue eyes danced with mischief though, and even the silver eyes of his wolf Flint were always alive with some kind of trouble. I knew that Liam hated that his wolf eyes were silver and even though it was a mystery that they never ranked up to the dark gold of the Beta rank; he was still my Beta.

“Tidy yourself up, man,” I scoffed at him and he rolled his eyes. Liam didn’t hold a role at Rose Bower, but he was well known here, anyway. It was mostly for fraternising with the female employees who found his broad muscular frame and jerk attitude attractive for some reason. 

“I look good,” he said, admiring himself in the mirror and then winking at me, “Or at least Jules thinks so,” 

“Leave Jules alone, I need her working, not flirting with you,” I said and rolled my eyes back. My personal receptionist was such a lovely girl and a hard worker unless Liam was around, and then she was a shaking mess of a woman. She was human, but one of the few humans who knew of our existence due to some unfortunate incident in her teen years.

The elevator pinged to signal our arrival to the twelfth floor, and the doors opened to reveal a flustered Jules standing there with a pile of papers. 

“Mr Bowers,” she said as I nodded to her, “Mr Carver,” her voice a little more hesitant. 

“Jules, looking good as always,” Liam said with a wink and the poor girl blushed. I inwardly groaned and walked past them both towards my office.

“Oh Mr Bowers, Jamie has just arrived and is setting things up for a meeting in your office now,” Jules called as she followed after me, “I wasn’t aware of the meeting, but he did assure me you were aware.”

“It’s okay Jules,” I said without turning around, “I’m fully aware.” 

“Oh okay, good,” she responded, slightly out of breath while trying to keep up, “Also Mr Revinton from-” she started, but I turned around cutting her off. She almost walked straight into me. The poor woman flushed pink in the cheeks again.

“Jules, I need to take this meeting right now,” I said with a smile to try to ease her nerves, “But could you please leave the rest of the messages until tomorrow and reschedule anything that I have for the rest of the day?”

“Oh yes, of course sir,” she said, nodding her head furiously before turning and heading to her desk. Liam tilted his head as he watched her walk away and I shook my head at him. 

“Come on creep,” I said, and he laughed and followed me into my office. 

My office was a big modern room with floor to ceiling windows and sleek pale wood and silver furniture. I had an interior decorator here a few years back who promised that the decor oozed my personality, but I was just happy that it looked good enough for any meetings that I took here. I much preferred my office back at the pack house. Jamie was already set up at the conference table at one end, and the large presentation screen was lit up with various boxes. 

“Jamie,” I said, shaking his hand,

“Alpha,” he replied with a slight bow of his head, “I have the information on the person of interest that you asked for.”

“And in record time I hear,” I said, letting the approval show clear in my voice, “Good man,”

“Well, as much as I would like to take credit, it wasn’t exactly hard,” he turned to the screen and flashed up several pages at once, “The woman isn’t exactly hiding, she has plenty to go on. Various social media platforms, a website, even a couple of dating profiles.” I looked at the images that he showed up. The woman looked pretty enough, not all out striking, more of a girl next door type. She had blond hair that was straight in most pictures and soft facial features. Her eyes seemed to draw me in more than the rest of her, though. They were a vivid cornflower blue and there was something there that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

“Theia Adams,” Jamie said, pulling my attention away from the screen.

“What?” I asked, slightly confused,

“The woman’s name,” he said, a little uncertain “Theia Adams,”

“Pretty name,” I said and Liam sat in a chair and whistled.

“She’s not bad looking, a bit skinny, but not bad,” he said as he surveyed the screen. A growl escaped my lips, and he looked at me, shocked. I was a little shocked myself. Why did I react to his words like that? It wasn’t like I wasn’t used to his womanising brain.

“Whoa!” he said laughing, “Alright man, she’s all yours,” I shook my head to clear it and then nodded to Jamie.

“Go on,” I said and even though he looked hesitant, Jamie carried on with delivering the information.

“She is twenty-six years old, single and lives alone in a one-bedroom apartment downtown. All her online activity points to her being an author of paranormal romance, whatever the hell that is,” he said with a scoff. I couldn’t help but smile as Liam let out another laugh.

“She had three books out with moderate success and a bit of a cult fan following.” that part piqued my interest. If Adams had a cult following of fans, then things could be difficult if we had to make her disappear. 

“And what pack is she from?” I asked. Jamie shook his head.

“No pack sir, she isn’t a werewolf,” Yes! I thought, if I could show that she wasn’t our problem, then the Conclave could stop blaming the werewolves from being responsible.

“Okay good, what species of supernatural is she then?” I asked, and Jamie looked confused.

“From what I can tell Alpha, she isn’t any supernatural species. She’s human,” he said, and I looked at him in surprise.

“What?” I asked. This suddenly got more complicated. If she was human, then it was possible that she had a werewolf friend feeding her the information.

“Are you sure?” I asked, and he nodded and turned towards the screen. Several medical looking documents appeared with a list of long words that I didn’t understand. 

“The woman had medical notes big enough to hold their own library,” Jamie said, “Some sort of rare neurological condition that causes a type of seizure. Different from epilepsy, but she is still heavily medicated for it,” I watched as he added more to the screen, “There is no way that someone with this many medical issues is supernatural.” he said. I inwardly groaned. Great, I thought, just what I needed. I rubbed my temples, feeling like I had a headache coming on, but knew it was just the sudden stress with this case.

“Are there any supernatural types in her immediate social circle?” I asked and Jamie shook his head.

“Nothing that I have picked up on so far, but I can do more digging,” he offered, and I nodded. 

“Please if you can,” I asked, and he smiled brightly.

“Absolutely Alpha, he said, “I will get right on it,” 

I was about to turn away when I saw something changing on one of the screens. 

“What was that?” I asked, looking at one of her social media pages. Jamie looked around with confusion before his face cleared. 

“Oh I have the page on auto refresh, it’s just a post that she has been tagged in.” he said, making that screen larger. I looked at the new post by someone called Harlow Steele. It looked to be a standard post.

“So excited to see my girls Theia Adams and Naya Sanchez for a writers circle at SocieTea in an hour.”  

I knew of the place, it was some trendy cafe downtown, popular with the creative types. My sister Leah had mentioned it once or twice. I glanced at Liam, who had already got bored and was on his phone. 

“I’m going out,” I said, and he looked up at me and then the screen, and back at me. 

“Are you going to spy?” he asked, and I shrugged.

“Just to get an overview,” I said, and he laughed.

“If any of them are supernatural, you run the risk of being made,” he pointed out. I knew he was right, but I still felt like I wanted to take the risk, like I wanted to just see her in the flesh. I wasn’t sure why I was feeling that way, but it felt like an itch I had to scratch.

“I’ll be discreet,” I said. “Plus it’s not like it’s a secret to the supernatural community that I run this company. So it’s not like I would be out of place there. And Leah goes there so…” I trailed off, realising I was rambling.

“Are you convincing me at this point, or yourself?” Liam asked with a mischievous grin, and I glared at him. 

“Okay,” he said, holding his hands up in mock defeat, “You go and scope out the woman. I am gonna head back to the apartment if that’s okay with you. I have a hot date with a cute redhead tonight,” I nodded in response. When I worked in the city, I made use of the company apartment. It was a lot easier than driving to and from the pack house.

“I’ll catch you later,” I said and after nodding a thanks to Jamie, I headed into my private bathroom. 

I always kept a change of clothes at the office, just in case. Which would prove useful in this instance. My turning up in the three piece suit would draw attention, but changing into my faded black jeans and a white t-shirt would help me blend in. I also switched the suit jacket for a black leather high collar jacket. I wouldn’t stick out as much now. I headed out of the offices on foot and set off deeper into the city towards where the cafe was. It was only a ten-minute walk, and the day was pleasant. I would have struggled to get parking, anyway. 

It wasn’t long before I was standing in front of the popular venue. I looked in the window to check the place out and saw that it was reasonably quiet. I sighed and opened the door to the place and walked in. I was hit with the overwhelming but almost intoxicating scent of fresh lemon with the slightest hint of honey. It must have been one of the tea flavours, but it had my mouth watering. I scanned the place quickly, keeping myself relaxed and setting my expression into a mild boredom, but recognised Adams almost immediately. I could have sworn that she glanced at me as I walked in, but I couldn’t be certain. It could have meant that she was in fact a werewolf and scented me as an Alpha, as our scents appear to be stronger than your average wolf. Or it could mean that someone walked in the door that drew her attention for a second. 

I made my way to the counter and ordered a latte before taking a seat a few tables away from Adams and her friends so that I was in hearing and sight range, but not obviously so. The waitress brought my latte with a flirty smile and I smiled in return but quickly put my attention back on the trio of women at the table. I saw the waitress glance over at the table and then left with a deflated sigh. I drank my coffee slowly as the women made small talk about books and men when I saw one of the women turn and glance at me with a smile before turning back to the other two and whispering. I realised I had been made when first the other woman glanced over and then Adams looked up shyly from under her hair. I tried to avoid eye contact, but those bright cornflower eyes caught me in their sights.

Suddenly it hit me full on. The strange desire to come to the cafe, the way I reacted to Liam earlier. Even the overwhelming scent of lemon and honey. It all became clear as I became locked in place by those suddenly oh so beautiful blue eyes. Titan was going crazy in my head as I found myself uttering the word that I both wanted and didn’t want to.

“Mate!”