7. Not a single Willow Doyle

I watch as confusion flicks across her face at my question and again smooths out into a professional smile. Does she not know her clan or the pack she came from? Do I have a banished wolf in my territory?

“I’m not sure what you mean by clan? My father has Irish heritage, but I couldn’t tell you much more than that.” I look at Anders’ bewildered expressions, sure I have the same one on my face. She can’t be serious with this act. We both watch as she moves onto Colin.

“What the hell is happening right now Anders?” I demand through our link. Anders gives an almost imperceptible shrug. Willow moves back past, her hand gesturing for us to sit, and in spite of my annoyance I find myself sinking into my chair. Not because she told me to, but because I cannot, for the life of me, understand what I am seeing.

“Is she a lone wolf?” Anders speculates, fiddling with his laptop to bide us some time.

“Even lone wolves need to apply for territory residence and register their work and home address. Colin, I need you to look up Willow Doyle in the system while Anders keeps her distracted with the presentation.” I send the order to Colin with Anders linked in so he knows what to do – then send a subtle pulse of my Alpha power over the table to her to see if she will react and fold.

I get nothing, no reaction, no nervous swallows, no sweating brow. She just looks at the document on her tablet, ignoring us for a moment.

Anders clears his throat to start, as Tristan enters with a tray of drinks. Three water glasses and two coffee cups. He places ours in front of us with practiced efficiency and then slides one of the coffee cups over to Willow. She looks up and gives him a gratitude filled smile, she’s radiant when she smiles, her whole face lighting up and her eyes crinkling. He gives her a rueful smirk back and takes his seat. They clearly know each other well, which means she has been here for a while – completely undetected.

I watch rivetted as she takes her coffee in two hands, raises it to her pursed lips, gives the top a soft blow of air before closing her eyes and taking a sip. A soft hum sounds from her throat, it thrums through my chest and then hitting me lower, and before I can stop myself, I growl back in response. Her eyes open instantly and lock onto mine, I send another pulse of power at her to see if she will react, bare her throat to me. Her nostril flare slightly, and she looks slightly confused for a second, but that’s all.

I get another soft waft of her scent, as Anders begins the presentation, taking her attention from me. She takes a quick sip of her coffee and then turns her body to face him and the screen he is presenting on. She takes notes every now and then but other than that doesn’t look at me even though I know she can feel my stare. I increase the strength of the Alpha pulse I aim at her, but still there is no reaction. Is she somehow immune? That can’t be possible though – not unless she is an Alpha too and if she is strong enough to ignore my power than she should be a Regional.

“Brace yourselves, I’m going to try full strength.” I warn Anders and Colin and they subtly shift back behind me, out of the line of fire.

I take a breath and send out a pulse of of my full Alpha power. This level of dominance has seen grown men drop to the floor in a dead faint, soiling their pants. But Willow…she simply takes a sip of her coffee; her hand clutching the mug a little tighter but that’s all.

“Are you sure you used full strength.” Colin asks, we are both as perplexed as each other that she isn’t reacting at all, if anything it’s like she’s actively ignoring me.

“It’s full strength. Have you found out who she is yet?” I reply, real worry starting to gnaw at my chest – I can’t have an unregistered wolf of this strength in my territory.

“I’ve got nothing. Not a single Willow in the system, no pending applications. I can’t find a single thing on her.” He sends it back, and I can hear how disturbed he is at the absence of information.

Anders finished the presentation, stepping forward again, turning to Willow. “That’s our proposal, now what questions can we answer for you?”

She takes a few moments to look over her notes, still actively ignoring me and it annoys me. I’m not a vain man but I have never been so clearly and easily dismissed before. She asks him a question about back up redundancies and I jump in to answer the question befor Anders to force her to look at me, to talk to me. For some reason she’s getting under my skin and I find myself wanting her full attention focused on me.

To keep her focus, I throw another pulse of power at her. She frowns for a second, it’s the most reaction I’ve managed to get from her, but it lasts less than a second before her expression is replaced with a congenial smile, but I swear there is challenge shining in her eyes.

Tristan jumps into the fray with his own question about licensing which Colin takes so Anders and I can keep a watch on this mysterious she-wolf.

She’s more alert than when she came in, her intelligent eyes taking in everything we are doing, but her reactions are never what we expect or are looking for.

I watch her as her head tilts to the side, arching a brow at Anders as he tries to take in her scent. To catalogue it for later, in case we need to hunt.

“Did you see that; did she just challenge me?” Anders carefully sits down, moving the laptop in front of him to shield his expression.

She looks down at her tablet again, makes some more notes and then suddenly stands. “Well gentlemen, we appreciate your time and presentation. We have a few other vendors to review before we come back to you with potential next steps, hopefully by the end of next week. If you will excuse me, I have another meeting to attend to. Tristan will give you my details if you need to contact me in the meantime.”

She nods and is out the door before any of us have time to move, speak or stop her. I glance at Tristan but he’s not surprised, he pulls out a couple of business cards to hand to us. I’m ot having it. She does not get to dismiss me before I get some answers.

Not in my territory.

I move around Anders with the speed and agility of my wolf, and pound down the hall after her. I can see her hips swing as she paces towards the stairwell at the end of the floor. I need to stop her before she gets there and disappears. I reach out and grab hold of her wrist pulling her to an abrupt stop. Her wrist feels small and delicate in my big mitt of a hand. She swivels to face me slowly, her gaze landing on my hand clutching her arm, then slowly raises her eyes to mine. The look in her eyes makes me want to sweat.

I’m pretty sure she’s mad.