Chapter Three
"Anyone smell chocolate?" Leif asked. He sniffed the air, a faint confused look on his face.
Erik grumbled to himself, irritated that the woman had gotten underneath his skin like she had. Even more so that she had managed to ruin his morning.
"I had a bit of an accident," he said.
Leif raised a brow. "You get into a fight with a chocolate bar? Is this a you-should-see-the-other guy moment?”
Erik flipped him off before taking the clipboard to look over the inventory. "The new temp ran into me with her drink," he said gruffly.
He looked up from the board and found the other man staring at him in surprise. It wasn’t like him to be so pissy. Erik knew this. Usually he let things roll off his back.
Maybe the pretty blonde had just hit him on a bad day. Dealing with the vamps first thing in the morning always put him in a shitty mood.
“New temp?” Leif said with a grin. He ran a hand down his beard. “Maybe you should have her put in some overtime.”
Erik rolled his eyes. “Last thing I need is a woman getting in the way, especially with the growing tensions in town. Something’s going on with those vampires. Even Corso seems more on edge, and he likes to play things close to the chest.”
He could tell Leif wanted to ask more about the woman but decided against it.
“Think the vampire will confide in us if the shit hits the fan?” Leif said.
Erik snorted. He made his way through the large room, surveying all the crates there.
“Not likely,” he said. “Corso is already pushing the bounds by working with us. Only reason the elders are even allowing it is because it benefits them. He has no real sway with them though.”
Leif kept pace with him as they made their way through the room. “So what do we do?”
Erik shrugged. “Keep doing what we have been doing.”
“And if things go south?”
Erik stopped to stare at the other man. “Then we have to reassess our position with the vamps.”
It wasn’t something he wanted to do, but they would if need be. He couldn’t expect loyalty from the vampires, and they were unlikely to give it.
"Let’s see the new shipments,” he said.
They made their way through the second floor of the building. On the outside it might not seem like much, but that was exactly how Erik wanted it to be. The less assuming the place was, the less likely they were to be a target of thieves. And they certainly had reasons to be broken into, considering the high-end collectibles his people tended to deal with.
Back when they first started, they had a large warehouse and were constantly being broken into by whatever random idiot thought he’d get a nice payday. It wasn’t like they couldn’t handle trouble, but it was just a risk they didn’t need. Plus, the higher-end clients weren’t so keen on going to some dingy warehouse.
Buying the building had been the best decision they had made. It was secure in all the ways they needed to be. Plus, it offered a level of class that some of his clients were looking for.
"The list Corso gave us last time was very helpful," Erik said. "We were able to find several new items, and Gwen is getting ready to hunt out a few things in Seattle this week."
Things were getting on quite well for them. The vampires had deep pockets, and Erik had no problem taking advantage of that, despite his instincts. They had a need, and he had a means to fulfill that need.
"You going to the land at the end of the month for the hunt?" Leif asked.
Erik sighed. He knew he needed to go out. It had been far too long since he'd hunted and could already feel the wolf inside him aching for the freedom that the shift gave him. The longer he fought the beast, the more difficult it became to hold the animal inside him back.
"If I can," he said.
"Okay, are you planning to tell your Nan?" Leif asked. "There is no way in hell I'm going to tell her you’re blowing her off until then."
Erik laughed. The old woman definitely wasn't one to be crossed. She might be half his size but was a spitfire nonetheless.
He didn’t get back to the land as often as he wanted these days. Some of it had to do with business and some had to do with the questions.
When was he going to settle down? When was he going to have pups of his own?
All questions that he couldn’t or didn’t want to answer. Truth was, he didn’t plan on settling down. Although he didn’t totally believe in their people being cursed, other than being werewolves, he was very certain of his own curse, the one that led to the deaths of his mother and father.
His people weren’t normal. It was a fact that was hard to miss given they were damned werewolves. Still, he believed only in what he could see, and the things he knew to be true. Not whatever random crap someone had heard from their fifth cousin. Everything else was just a bunch of fairy tales. Nothing more.
"I'll send her a message when we finish here," Erik said.
From the corner of his eye, he watched as Hall carried a painting into the secured humidor vault. He stumbled as he moved but quickly recovered.
"How's he doing?"
Leif followed his eyes and nodded. "Doing well so far," he said. "Still learning the ropes on care for the merchandise in the area, but he's coming along nicely. Still not so certain about what happened this morning."
Erik ran a hand through his hair. The younger recruits were getting harder and harder to convince. They had less control over their instincts. Their wolves were telling them to kill vampires, not help them. He understood it, but that didn’t change their situation.
Though Hall seemed to get that, given some of the things he’d said. Maybe it was just as simple as him not liking Corso’s open disrespect. That just came with any client-centered job.
They had to make a living. And this was how they did that. It wasn’t something they ever talked about though. Most of the wolves were allowed to run wild, and it had left them undisciplined.
"He'll get used to it," Erik said, and nodded. "Tyr will make sure that he’s on the right track."
He watched the elder brother as he supervised the other man, teaching him how to properly store the paintings so nothing would happen to them.
Although his men had a standing deal with the vamps, it didn’t stop them from picking up the odd piece from time to time that might cause trouble.
In those cases, they stored the piece and kept it out of the public eye. The Council was glad to pay for procuring and storing the material.
Not that he liked being in the Council’s pocket, but it was nice leverage if need be. They were a powerful group, and he worried that if corruption seeped into the area, it could cause trouble for just about everyone they knew. Including his people.
Erik breathed in deeply. The scent of cocoa filled his nose.
That damned woman. Despite himself, his mind kept flitting back to the pretty blonde.
She was a small thing. Even in the giant troublesome shoes she was wearing, she still just barely reached his shoulders.
He’d never seen a woman like her. Her pale blonde hair and light blue eyes made her seem unearthly. For a moment, he’d been certain she must be a fairy or something. She certainly looked like she’d stepped right out of a story book.
Erik felt his pants tighten as he thought about her pink lips and pale blue eyes as she stared up at him in surprise. Her mouth was opened slightly as if begging for something. He could think of something he’d like to see in that pretty mouth.
A low, deep growl filled him. The room grew quiet as the men turned to stare at him.
Erik strolled quickly into the humidor room, embarrassed that he’d let his wolf creep up on him like that. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one that had the hots for the pretty woman.
When the door closed behind Leif, Erik relaxed a little.
“Looks like you aren’t the only one who noticed Ms. Cocoa,” Leif said.
Erik ignored him and made his way to the back of the room where the newer inventory was stored. He pulled out several of the rollers. Many of the paintings were already decaying from years of poor care before landing in his hands.
“The wolf doesn’t control me.” He grunted.
Leif placed a hand on his shoulder. “He doesn’t, but on this, you need to be as one. Maybe you both need a little… release.”
Erik shook off his friend’s hand. He didn’t want to talk about this. Never in his life had he let his wolf lead him by the balls to a woman. He fucked who he wanted, and the wolf had no role in that.
Something niggled at the back of his mind. The annoying voice that told him the truth.
He couldn’t let the wolf be in control. If he did, that was a chance that he might be no better than the vampires, only his victim wouldn’t go to the darkness following the best orgasm of her life. She would be ripped to shreds by the monster lurking inside him.
“The woman means nothing,” Erik said stiffly. “I’ll be at the land soon enough, and the wolf will get what he wants.”
Leif sighed loudly. “It sounds more like neither of you are getting what you need.”
Erik ignored him now. He got enough of this shit at home. No way in hell he was having a deep conversation at work about if he needed sex or not.
He slid out the latest painting. “This is the new one?”
Erik leaned toward the piece. It wasn’t the normal fare the Council liked to grab. Usually they were keen on portraits, single or group. This wasn’t even close to that kind of thing.
Instead it was more fantasy that anything. Possibly Biblical. People were running in the scene, their faces frozen mid-scream as the ground broke all around them. In the center a giant bolt of lightning ripped through the dark sky, illuminating great monsters hidden in the dark. Creepy as fuck.
“Well, that’s… disturbing,” he said, and turned to look at Leif. “They give any info on this?”
Leif shook his head. “Nothing other than a few basic pieces,” he said. “Gwen thinks it might be a scene from the Book of Revelations. Mid-1400s. Maybe Scandinavian.”
Erik stared at the painting for a moment longer. Something about the piece struck him as wrong, but then the whole damned thing was creepy as hell. It wasn’t surprising that it was unsettling to look at. Crazy-ass people.
“Ms. Decoux will be here with her niece soon,” Leif said.
A small smile played on his lips. The old money Southern Creole woman was one of the few clients he enjoyed interacting with. She reminded him of his Nan. She didn’t take shit from anyone and knew exactly where she sat in the family, at the head of the table.
Leif pulled out the painting the older woman had been seeking. It was a family heirloom that was a few hundred years old. The picture showed a young woman with a clear family resemblance. Nothing else out of the ordinary though and certainly nothing like the last painting they had looked at.
“I don’t get it,” Erik mumbled as he looked over the piece.
“Sometimes people just like to have something that links them to the past,” Leif said.
Erik stared down at the woman with jet black hair before handing the painting over. “As long as she’s paying, I guess it doesn’t much matter either way. You get that prepped, and I’ll head on up.”
He took in another deep breath of cocoa and frowned. If he was going to forget the new temp, he’d need to get that damned smell off him. Maybe a quick stop at the showers would be in order.
Erik glanced at his watch on his way out of the room. If he hurried, there would be just enough time.