Chapter Four
Last night, Hunter could’ve watched the pretty human work all evening long. He’d much rather have watched her than the Vamps. Oddly, the tension that he’d first felt around the Vamps had disappeared—all because of her.
Asha had little nuances that made her stand apart from them. The way she’d muttered under her breath, chewed on her bottom lip, and fiddled in her seat, while not out of the ordinary, had been cute. Whenever she’d caught herself talking under her breath, she’d cut her eyes at the blonde Vampire, and while the blonde hadn’t paid any attention to her, Asha seemed worried about her just the same.
His wolf liked watching her as well but, unlike Hunter, wasn’t content. He’d sent Hunter pictures of Asha in his bed, with his sheets messed up around her. As soon as those pictures had hit his mind, Hunter had tried pushing them out, but that hadn’t mattered. The image of her lying beneath him, with pleasure in her eyes, was forever burned in his head.
He’d kept his eyes on her, willing her to look his way, but, most of all, willing her to notice him. The wolf inside had stirred at the physical reaction Asha caused within.
When Asha had finally turned her beautiful, smoky eyes his way, she hadn’t shied away like most human women did. Their eyes had locked and his wolf had threatened to break free. Mentally, he’d had to coax his wolf back into submission. Shifting without a valid cause in front of the Vampires wouldn’t have gone well. They would’ve taken it as a threat and reacted. Hunter had stilled his natural instincts and had fought against his wolf.
If he’d met Asha under different circumstance, he would’ve welcomed the chance to get to know her better, which meant getting her alone so that he and his wolf could explore every inch of her willing body. He’d been with humans before—not many, but enough to know how to please them. And please them all he had.
The sound of his cell phone ringing jolted him from his thoughts. He pulled his eyes away from the security monitor that he’d been focused on before thoughts of Asha had taken over his mind. He’d been alternating between watching Erzsebet while she talked on her desk phone and Asha working on the computer in the conference room. His phone rang again and he fished it from his pocket.
“Hunter, here.”
“Hey, Hunt, it’s Lajos.”
At hearing his cousin’s relaxed voice, Hunter immediately smiled and leaned back in the desk chair. “Don’t tell me that you’ve taken time out of your honeymoon to call and check up on me?”
Lajos chuckled. “I sure did, and if you tell my wife, I’ll deny it.”
Hunter laughed as well. He could just imagine Meisha’s reaction to Lajos thinking about work when he was supposed to be enjoying two weeks of rest and relaxation.
Lajos had met Meisha when he’d gone to Jacksonville, Florida, with Kristof to terminate an accounting contract that Dark Wolf Enterprises had with a human accounting firm that was owned and operated by Trudy, Kristof’s now life-mate. Neither Kristof nor Lajos had thought that they’d both come back from that trip life-mated. And Hunter could also bet that Meisha and Trudy, childhood best friends, had never thought that they’d be mated to Wolf-Shifter brothers.
“How did the first night with the Vampires go?” Lajos asked after a long yawn.
Hunter let out a breath. “Tiring and boring.”
“Tiring and boring?” Lajos asked. “Really?”
“Yeah, essentially.”
“So, um, you okay with being saddled with them, then?” There was a hint of confusion in Lajos’s voice and Hunter understood why. Although his family had been attacked well before Lajos had even been born, he knew the story of what had happened.
“I am. To be honest, I thought it would be harder to control my wolf around them and I thought I would have…flashbacks, but…” Hunter thought about it more. “Nothing like that happened. I’m okay.”
“Well, that’s good to hear. I was feeling guilty about not being there to take over this job for you.”
“No need to. Enjoy your honeymoon, and don’t think about us here.”
“Andras is certain that they’ll get the job done, then?”
“Yeah, I have no doubt in that, either. Andras will have his preliminary report sometime today.”
“Already?”
“They work fast. Their human assistant arrived about an hour ago. She’ll give their daily report to Andras as soon as he’s free.”
Hunter had tried to take the report, telling Asha that he would give it to Andras after he finished his meeting, but she’d declined. She had strict instructions to physically hand the report to Andras and only him. He’d taken her to the conference room reserved for her and the Vampires to wait until Andras was ready.
“Good. I want all this mess to be over with already.” Lajos cursed low under his breath. “Here comes Meisha,” he said in hushed tones. “I’ll call you when I can.”
Hunter burst out laughing. “Tell Meisha I said hi.”
“Uh-uh. No can do. She’ll never know about this conversation.”
“Mum’s the word, then.”
Lajos disconnected the line.
When Hunter stuffed his phone back into his pocket, he still had a smile on his face. But as soon as he saw Erzsebet on the security monitor preparing to leave for the evening his smile dropped. He could either follow her again or come right out and ask her what was going on. She was hiding something and he intended to find out what it was.
He left the security office and headed to the accounting wing. He nodded to the employees who were also related in one way or another, as he passed. Most had on their coats, with belongings in hand, ready to leave before five. It would be hours yet before the Vampires were scheduled to arrive but, per the memo he and Andras had sent out, employees were to leave well ahead of time.
When he made it to Erzsebet’s cubicle, she had her purse flung over her shoulder. She turned away from her desk, with her car keys in hand, and bumped right into his chest.
“Oh! Hunter. I didn’t see you behind me.”
Hunter cocked his head to the side. “Did you happen to see me behind you yesterday?”
She kept her face neutral. “I thought that was you.”
“Don’t play games with me, Ezie. So, you lost me on purpose?”
Erzsebet narrowed her eyes. “You’re the only one who’s playing games, brother. I’m not a pup anymore. Stop following me around.” She tried to shoo him out of her way, but he wouldn’t budge.
“What else am I supposed to do?” Hunter felt his anger rising. “You’ve been acting strange, secretive, and I don’t know what’s going on with you anymore. I wanted to make sure you were okay with the Vamps being in the area and so close to home.”
She hugged herself, then as if noticing what she’d done, she dropped her arms to her side. “I’m fine. I don’t have to cross paths with them or anything.”
“It doesn’t bother you that they’re in town? We haven’t been this close to them since leaving Hungary.”
She lifted a shoulder nonchalantly. “I told you that I’m fine, Hunter. What do you want me to do, break down and cry?”
“Of course not, Ezie. But after they killed Mom and Dad you had nightmares for years. And now there’re Vamps practically knocking on your door you can’t blame me for wanting to check in on you.”
“That happened over a hundred years ago. I’m learning how to cope. I can’t go running to you every time a Vampire comes to town.”
He couldn’t get the memory of holding Erzsebet in his arms, helping her through one of her flashbacks of being trapped in the cave out of his mind. He’d spent countless hours talking her down from anxiety attacks. He’d moved them from Hungary to a place where there wasn’t a Vamp clan, just so she wouldn’t run into any and have a regression. He frowned at her. “But you can if you need to.”
“And you once accused me of being clingy. Sheesh.” She rolled her eyes. “Do you really want to know what’s going on in my life, Hunter?”
He crossed his arms. Finally, he was getting somewhere with her. “Yes.”
She cocked one side of her mouth into a smile. “I’m being an adult,” she whispered playfully.
Hunter ran a hand down his face, feeling the three days’ worth of facial hair that really needed to go. “You may be an adult, but you’re still my responsibility.”
“Until I find a mate,” she pointed out.
He stilled. “Is this what this is all about? A mate? You haven’t…?”
She shook her head. “Not yet, but soon. I can feel it.” She had a gleam in her eyes that the younger pups had when they were starting new relationships. She was in love.
He pulled back his shoulders and narrowed his eyes. Erzsebet may have only been a few years younger than him and well past the mating age, but there was a part of him that would always see her as that scared little girl whom he’d promised his father to protect. “Who is it? I’ll have a talk with him.”
She pushed him and maneuvered around him. “No. I don’t want you talking to him. It’s my business, not yours.”
“It is my business when someone is sneaking behind my back trying to claim my sister. Give me a name. Now.” He growled low in his throat.
“No.” She walked away from him.
Hunter started to follow her but stopped short when he saw Asha standing in the entranceway to the conference room, watching their exchange.
He blew out a heavy breath. “What?” He hadn’t meant to sound so gruff, but that was the way it came out.
The stunned look in her eyes quickly disappeared. “Andras just called. He’s ready for me.” She straightened her shoulders. “I was going to ask you to escort me.” She waved her hand in the air. “Never mind. I’ll wait here for you to call someone else.” She turned around.
“This isn’t over, Ezie,” he yelled after his sister’s retreating back. “We’ll finish this later.”
Erzsebet ignored him as she left the room.
Hunter reached Asha and caught her arm. Sparks erupted on his fingertips where he touched her bare skin. Her arm went rigid and she stared down at his hand.
She doesn’t like to be touched.
He quickly released her, when all he wanted to do was trail his hand up her silky skin, letting her know that touching could be good. “Sorry about that. I’ll take you.”
She glared at him. “Are you sure? You don’t have any other women to follow around?”
He looked back at the empty door that Erzsebet had stalked through. “Erzsebet isn’t a woman,” he muttered.
When he turned his attention back on Asha, she had an eyebrow raised. “You could’ve fooled me.”
Hunter thrust his hand through his hair. “What I mean is that she’s not that kind of woman. She’s my younger sister.”
Asha opened her mouth in an ‘O’.
He waved toward the exit. “If you’re ready now, I can escort you.”
She followed him out of the door, falling in step with him.
“So, are you going to arrive hours before the Vamps, I mean, the Vampires, er, your employers every day?”
“Yes. Since I don’t have the luxury of being able to stay up all night and sleep requires me to leave earlier than them, coming in early allows for me to put in the same amount of hours. This way, I can pull my own weight.”
“Your own weight?” he asked in amusement. “You’re human—no one expects you to work at the same pace as a Vamp. Hell, I couldn’t even do that. I noticed how fast they were typing last night. I could barely make out the movements.”
She gave him a sideways glance.
The Vampires did expect her to keep the same pace as them. He shook his head. “I don’t know why you humans are always so fast to throw yourselves at the Vamps’ feet. What is it? The promise of wealth? Beauty? Immortality?”
“Why do you care?” Irritation laced her voice. “Are you jealous that humans would rather service the Vampires than the Wolf-Shifters?”
“Do you think that I’m really jealous?” He snorted. “Not hardly. I don’t need a human following me around, being my flunky, in order to feel good about myself.”
Her steps faltered. “I’m nobody’s flunky. Maybe we should just stop this conversation right now. The research that I did on Wolf-Shifters didn’t include you being judgmental assholes.”
He blew out a breath. “I’m not judging you. I’m just wondering why a girl like you would allow Vamps to use her. You seem to have your life together. You’re well educated, with degrees. Don’t you know that as soon as you outlive your usefulness they’ll drain you dry or worse yet, wipe your mind and leave you as a ward of the state?”
She stiffened. “You don’t know anything about me or them.”
“I know plenty about them.” They are stone cold killers. “And I feel sorry for you. You’re living in some kind of warped fairy tale that’s going to come crashing down around you one day.”
She stopped in her tracks and swung to face him. “Fairy tale? You actually think that my life is filled with unicorns and rainbows? Not hardly.” She stabbed his chest with her finger. “Clarissa may not be perfect, but she’s all I have. My degrees? She paid for. Without her, I wouldn’t be who I am today. We’re family.” She peered at him through the slits of her eyes. “So get over it already.”
Never one to back down from a fight, he faced her and growled low in his throat. She growled back.
Hunter blinked a few times, trying to process what had just happened. While the man knew that she couldn’t have possibly known that she’d issued a mating challenge by growling back, the wolf did not. He bucked for control.
Hunter shook his head and backed against the wall, putting distance between him and Asha. “No. Not right now.”
His wolf sent him flashes of him nestled between Asha’s thighs. When the pictures projected in his mind, they played like a slow-moving movie. He could not only see his hips thrusting, he could feel the tightness of her pussy. The wetness of it.
A tremble ran through him and rumbled across his cock, making it grow.
Hunter squeezed his eyes shut, fighting for control that he was losing fast.
Take her.
Not here. Not now.
Another picture flashed in his mind. This one of Asha running her nails across his back, leaving red welts in their wake.
He was undone.
“Um…what’s going on here?” Trudy’s voice came through the fight raging in his head.
“Get her away from me. Take her to Andras,” Hunter bit out.
“Right-O. Come on. Let’s give Hunter some space,” Trudy said.
“W-will he be all right?” Asha asked.
“Eventually.”
As soon as he couldn’t hear Trudy and Asha’s footsteps anymore he staggered to the first unlocked door he found and went inside. There he sat in the dark and had a heart-to-heart with the wolf battling for control. He explained all the reasons why this human couldn’t be their mate.