Chapter 4: Standard Procedure

The scalding water on my skin was nothing compared to the fire burning within me. I scrubbed my skin until it was raw, trying to wash away the scent of him off me along with my own humiliation.

No one and I mean no one has even spoken to me with such disrespect and lived.

This was one of the sole reasons why I so much despite wolves, they carried themselves with such pride it was nauseating. Taking whatever it was they saw fit. But this William Winchester bark up the wrong tree and I was going to make him regret ever meeting me.

I stepped into my walk-in closet, and chose a blood-red Alexander McQueen power suit with shoulders sharp enough to draw blood and a blouse that buttoned all the way to my chin. To hid the bruises on my neck. 

By the time the elevator doors slid open on the penthouse floor of Lancetii Enterprises, my Ice Queen mask was lacquered on so thick I could barely feel my own face.

"Ms. Lancetii, your ten o'clock with the board has been moved to the—" My junior assistant, Sarah, scurried alongside me, her tablet in hand.

"Cancel it," I said, not even looking at her. The clicking of my stilettos against the marble floor was the only sound in the long hallway. "Cancel everything until lunch. And find Yui. Tell her if she isn't in my office in sixty seconds, she’s fired. Then you’re fired for watching her be fired. Move."

Sarah blanched and vanished.

I slammed my office door shut and locked it. The silence of the room usually soothed me, but today everything seems to be getting on my nerves. 

My hands were shaking, but not from fear, I told myself, but from an evolutionary need to tear something apart. I crossed to the hidden refrigerator behind the mahogany paneling and grabbed a chilled pouch of O-negative from the shelf.

I didn't bother with a glass. I tore the seal with my fangs and downed the thick blood in four long, desperate gulps. It hit my system like a battery jump-start, stitching my frayed nerves back together, but it didn't touch the hollow pit of rage in my stomach.

The door opened and I didn't need to look up to know it was Yui; she was the only one who didn't knock.

"You're late," I said.

Yui stopped dead in her track as her eyes scaned the room, then the empty blood bag. Before falling on me wiping a stray drop of blood from my lip with the back of my hand.

"Astrid? Is everything okay? What happened?"

"Everything is not fucking okay, Yui," I hissed. I grabbed the folder William had left and threw it across the desk. It skidded over the polished wood, hitting her hand. "Read that and then tell me how much it costs to hire a hitman who specializes in eliminating Alphas."

Yui frowned as she picked up the folder and flipped through the pages. "Astrid, this is a hostile takeover of your entire life. Who is William Winchester and why would he think you would sign this?"

"The man from last night,” I admitted, knowing she was going to go off about how careless I had been lately. “He recorded me feeding of him, Yui. It was a whole damn horror show. He demands I sign this contract in order not to handover the video to the A.S.A."

Yui brows furrowed deeper, “Easy, then, let's just killed him.”

“Precisely why I need a hit man to take him out. I want his head added to my collection.”

"I'll get to it," Yui said immediately, her voice shifting into a professional tone. "And will gather everything we need to know about him while at it. This could be a political matter underneath." She whispered the last part.

I paused at her words, the thought never crossed my mind that this could all be linked back to the business world and possibly someone I knew.

But before I could say anything a knock interrupted us and the door swung open with Sarah sticking her head in, looking terrified. "Ms. Lancetii? I’m so sorry to interrupt, but the representatives for the 10:00 AM merger meeting are here and they insist—"

"I told you no!" I roared, my voice hitting a frequency that made the glass water carafe on my desk vibrate. "Get out before I find a reason to make you disappear permanently!"

Sarah let out a small squeak, stammered an apology, and slammed the door so hard it rattled the frame.

Yui leaned back against the desk and crossed her arms. She gave me a long, reprimanding look the kind only a human who has seen a vampire’s worst tantrums can give.

"Keep it cool, Astrid," Yui said quietly. "We will get to the bottom of it.”

But I couldn't remotely find it in me to keep anything cool right now.

By noon I was finally in my first meeting of the day. I had decided to let Yui do her thing and handle the part of business I knew how to do.

She was well capable of finding a hitman, marking the target and relaying the results back to me.

I sat at the head of the table, and stare out the window, not really paying attention to what was being said. Rather I went through a long list in my head of all the possible people that would want my downfall.

The boardroom went silent the moment the doors swung inward.

I didn’t look away from the window immediately. I watched the reflection of my board members, men and women in five-thousand-pound suits who thought they ran the world scramble like ants as two agents in grey blazers marched in. 

Behind them stood a man who didn't wear a uniform, and carried the scent of a wolf.

That was the exactly moment I knew something was wrong.

The A.S.A agents never walked along side any supernatural being.

"Out," I said, my voice cutting through the panicked murmurs in the room. Listening to their elevated heartbeats as they practically tripped over one another to exit.

Only when the heavy oak doors clicked shut did I rotate my chair.

The two A.S.A. agents stood with their hands resting habitually near the silver-lined restraints at their belts. But it was the third man who held my gaze. He was lean, with eyes that held the flat, predatory stillness of a wolf.

"Ms. Lancetii," the first agent began, his voice raspy. He placed a digital tablet on my glass table. "Agent Miller.” He introduced “And this is Agent Dan. We’re here on a tip from the Winchester Group’s legal liaison."

He gestured to the third man.

"Kaelen," the man said, his voice a low. He stepped forward, his eyes falling to my cover neck before meeting mine again. "Mr. Winchester sends his regards.” he stated plainly.

I had to bite my tongue to prevent decapitating him right where he stood.

And he knew it, the small smile on his lips was a death give away.

“He was quite concerned to hear about the... security breach... in your lower-level departments."

The way he said security breach felt like a blade held to my neck. Because we both know he was actually taking about me.

"A security breach?" I leaned back in my chair, forcing myself to remained calm. I still had until the end of the day. That was the time line he gave me.

"My IT department is the best in London. I’m sure Mr. Winchester is mistaken." I said.

"The report wasn't of that nature, Ms. Lancetii," Agent Miller interrupted, leaning over the table. He tapped his tablet, bringing up a heat-map of my building. "We received an anonymous tip, heavily encrypted alleging that a Class-V supernatural entity is currently posing as a high-ranking executive within Lancetii Enterprises."

I forced myself to sigh, just how messy would it get to cover up two A.S.A. agents deaths. 

I could always send their head along with this Kaelen wolf back to his Alpha.

"A Class-V? In my building? That sounds like a means to waste my time, Agent."

"The tip included a specific biometric signature," Dan added, his eyes narrowing. He pulled a small, silver-cased device from his pocket a Blood-Scanner. "It is standard protocol we conduct a floor-by-floor sweep when this kind reports are made. We will be swift and out of your hair in no time."

Kaelen stepped closer, before I had the chance to speak and block my view of the Agents. "William was adamant that we settle the... merger... before the A.S.A. finishes their sweep. He’d hate for you to undergo the process."

“Of course, he would.” I replied sarcastically.

This was all his doing, he was telling me that he has the power to get me killed and throw my life work down then drain.

I looked at the silver scanner in the agent's hand, then at Kaelen who was before me. 

"Well?" Agent Miller prompted, holding the scanner toward me. "Standard procedure, Ms. Lancetii. Just a thumbprint to clear the CEO first."

“Or would that be a problem?” his partner Dan asked. His hand ready to drew his weapon.

And while I could take out both of them before they delivered any fatal shots, it would be a real pain to get injured with those weapons.

“Of course not,” I smiled. Standing to my feet. “Anything to help with your search.”