Five.

Lana’s POV

Abby stays with me until we pull up in front of the large hotel. There must easily be five hundred rooms in this place. Everything from the outside was glass and I don’t really remember seeing this place before, but then Abby and I hadn’t been in town for long.

“Wow, fancy!” Abby mutters as she climbs out the passenger door.

“Yeah and I can already smell them!”

“I think there must be something wrong with your nose. It’s really not that bad!” Abby shrugs her shoulders at me before wishing me luck and waving me off.

My boots click clack along the marbled floor as I make my way to the front desk and ask to see Logan Lonecrown. I was just grateful that the receptionist was human. Hopefully a sign that this Logan person was too.

“Ah, you must be Miss Decker. Mr Lonecrown is unavailable right now”

I roll my eyes, it wasn’t the first time this meeting had been rearranged. I knew what was about to happen. She was going to give me a load of shit about making it up to me.

“But Mr Seth Norman is more than happy to see you. He is Mr Lonecrown’s right hand man” She gives me a huge toothy grin, perfect white teeth surrounded by deep red lips. Something tells me that she would quite happily do a few favours for Logan.

“Sure, but please call me Lana.” I still had issues about people calling me Decker. It wasn’t my birth name, it was the surname of my adoptive parents. I had hated them and didn’t want anything to do with them. Yet I couldn’t use my birth name because I had no idea of what it was.

“Sure” she shoots me a big toothy grin and asks me to take a seat, her eyes going to my hair. Crap! That meant my curls were sticking out.

Sitting down, I grab my compact out of my bag and eagerly try to smooth the curls down as they spring back up. Sometimes I really hated my hair!

There was still a wolf scent here, but that was to be expected. It was after all a hotel and I would need to take note of the layout if I am to return.

I had less than a second to myself when my name is called. I stand to see a man with a pen stuck behind his ear. He had clearly borrowed the suit, it was far too big on him. Not exactly what I had imagined when the receptionist had said I would be seeing the right hand man.

He had a shock of ginger hair that he had tried to gel down, leaving a little bit sticking up at the back and I inwardly laugh. At least it wasn’t just me that had hair issues, plus he was kind of cute.

He was a little taller than me and could have at least shaved this morning but it was just a bonus that he wasn’t a wolf and I let out the breath I had been holding.

As I step closer, he glances over me, screwing his face up.

“Do I know you?”

“Sorry, I don’t think so. I don’t believe we have met.”

He scowls a little, like he was certain that he had met me and the panic bubbles up inside of me. Shit, what if he had seen me do something. I was normally so good but my guard had been down the last couple of days.

“You must just look like someone I know.” He waves me into the office. Everything is just as perfect as it is outside. Everything is clean, crisp without a speck of dust anywhere. The marble floor and glass walls extended into here too. I was a little jealous, it wasn’t anything like what I lived in. Mr Lonecrown had good taste.

“Sorry Miss Decker, you will have to excuse this,” he gestures at himself. “I wasn’t expecting to do this today and at such short notice.”

“It’s no problem, but please call me Lana!” 

“Lana?”

He was the first man not to try it on with me, but then again. He was human, they seemed to be able to control themselves better than the horny male wolves. His eyes drift to the mark on my neck and he frowns again.

“My name,” I smirk back at him. Why was he being so weird? I hear his heart skip a beat. Great, he was just like all the other men.

“Not a name you usually hear. I see you are mated too. Do you mind if I ask if you are a wolf or human? I just can’t tell I’m afraid. Not that it will cause any problems whatever you are!” His cheeks redden as he becomes flustered.

“Human.” I lied, smiling at him again, I did not like where this was going. “But mated to a wolf.” I point to my neck and he nods his head. It wasn’t something out of the ordinary these days.

“Lucky man!” but his eyes rest on my mark longer than I would like. Then he apologises and tells me that he didn’t mean to offend and that he was engaged. It didn’t make any sense, why would his heart skip a beat.

I flew through the meeting as quickly as I could. I wanted to get out of there and never come back. If my boss wanted to be involved then they could deal with this. 

He walks me to the door and gives me one long lingering look. Waving goodbye, he doesn’t say anything else and quickly shuts the office door.

“How did it go?” Abby shoves a coffee cup into my hand as we walk to the car.

“I didn’t see him. It was his helper.” 

“Oh. Wolf?”

“No, but he was being all weird, kept looking at my mark even when I told him I was mated.”

“A human fascinated with your mark? There’s nothing new there. They are all like it. I will never understand the need for humans to be hooked up with a wolf. They are an abomination.” She pauses to look at me, knowing she had stuck her foot in it. I was the only wolf Abby would accept.

“That I can agree on.”

I fall into silence, thinking over the strange meeting. When Abby announces that she has a new target for tonight, I inwardly groan. It would be another night of smelling like a mangy wolf when all I wanted to do was chill.

“You are going to like this. They are twin wolves. They think they are quick, they think they are clever.”

“Is that it? Just two.” It was a very small amount compared to what she normally kills. Abby never tells me how she tracks them down. She was pretty good at it though, always finding numerous wolves each day. Maybe her birth family had been hunters??

“There’s something else. They tried to threaten me. Tell me that their Alpha brother would come for them. That he would make me suffer.” she lets out a laugh. Threats seemed to spur her on. Especially since she killed our father. As much as I hated them and didn’t want to take part, I would never let her do it on her own. We were a team.

“Who is this brother? Did you track him too?” 

Abby shakes her head at me.

“No idea. I think his name begins with L, but one told the other to shut up. Pretty sure we can get it out of them. But maybe he is the one we have been looking for!”

I freeze, the name that I had heard. Logan! Surely it couldn’t be! Surely I couldn’t be mated to an Alpha.