(Dominic’s POV)
I was sitting at the large dark wood table in the Conclave meeting, not really paying attention. I hated these meetings. I had a pack and a business to run. I didn’t want to be wasting what precious time I had being stuck in one of these stupid meetings where Garrett Blackthorn, the Alchemist Guild Master and Master of the Supernatural Conclave, lorded over everyone and commanded us all to kneel before him. Well, maybe that was a bit dramatic, but I bet he would try if he thought he could get away with it.
The room was full of supernaturals, around twenty of us in total. There were at least two vampire clan leaders in here, one coven priestess for the witches, and a master sorcerer. I think I even spotted a few different faeries as well. But what I did notice was that my Beta, Liam, and I were the only werewolves in the room. That didn’t look good. I knew that a lot of the supernatural community thought of shifters as lesser, that we were just out-of-control beasts. But I had seen how some of these clans and covens worked, and they always seemed to be out for each other. At least we had loyalty.
I had done dealings with a few of the supernaturals in the room, mainly through my work within the conclave. My father, in all his wisdom, had signed me up as a conclave agent when I was eighteen. It was to build connections; he said. And to build strength. But here I was fourteen years later, still being dragged into the dumb meetings once every three months, and wasting my time.
I felt a sharp pain as Liam kicked me under the table and I looked up to see everyone looking at me expectantly. Fuck, I had fazed out and hadn’t heard anything anyone had said.
“Erm…” I hesitated and glanced at Liam for help. He was too busy trying to not laugh at me, fat lot of good he was, the prick.
“I’m sorry,” I said finally, “I must have zoned out. Did you say something?” I looked Garrett squarely in the eye and watched as his face slowly turned red with the attempt to not smite me where I was sitting, or whatever these jerks did.
“I asked if you were aware of the werewolf in question,” Blackthorn said and I looked at him blankly. Werewolf? I was totally lost and had no clue what he was talking about.
“If the perpetrator is a werewolf, then he certainly isn’t one of ours,” Liam said with a cough, “We can check out the rogue community but they aren’t alway forthcoming with information as we like,” he then glanced at me and his eyes glazed over. Sure enough, a second later, I heard his voice in my head.
“There is someone sharing supernatural secrets to the human world, they obviously are blaming us wild heathens, which is impressive because I assumed they didn’t think we were advanced enough to write a book,” I held back a laugh at his mocking tone and returned my gaze to Blackthorn.
“Did your Beta catch you up now?” he said sarcastically, and I held back from rolling my eyes at his condescending tone.
“Yes, thank you,” I replied with the same level of sarcasm.
“So this supernatural is releasing information how, again?” I asked.
“In the form of fiction books,” Blackthorn snapped.
“Well, if the books are marked as fiction, then why is it an issue? I mean, it’s not like the other tripe that is out there is causing us any harm,”
“Only the information is extremely accurate,” Blackthorn replied, “In the wrong hands, be it supernatural or human, this information could be rather damaging.” I nodded. I could understand that. There had been a couple of instances back in the seventies where some supernaturals had tried to expose the supernatural community to the human world. And several cult-like groups had sprung up. The problem was, of course, that the humans were not equipped enough to know the truth about the supernatural world. They were ants compared to us and it wouldn’t be long before we would be overrun with either worshippers or pitchfork wielding idiots. Both types were dangerous to humans and supernatural alike. So it was the number one enforced rule that humans didn’t find out about our existence. Even the humans working in my company didn’t know their CEO, and most of the management team were in fact werewolves.
Which meant that this person that was giving away this information would need to be shut down, and fast.
“Okay,” I said, “And why do you think that this is a werewolf?”
“Because the information that is coming out right now seems to be focused around werewolves, and in fact your own pack has been mentioned more than once,” Blackthorn said, and I immediately sat up straighter. If my own pack was being harmed by whoever it was, then I had a duty of care to my people, as their Alpha, to protect them.
“Fine,” I said, “Send me the case file and I will investigate myself.” Blackthorn nodded in approval and turned away onto the next point on the agenda.
The rest of the meeting was pretty much the usual boring crap that I tried to ignore, civil wars with the faeries, casting wars between the witches and sorcerers and territory disputes with the vampires. I had nothing to bring to the meeting, as always. Sunset Rose was the largest pack in the south of England, and as such, the other packs in our surrounding area came directly to us to settle disputes. We didn’t need to bring these disputes to the conclave.
I was finally able to make my escape after two hours of boredom. I could see Blackthorn heading my way, so I made a quick exit with Liam rushing behind me. I didn’t like that there could be a werewolf causing this much trouble. It didn’t look good, and I prided myself on us being able to handle things.
“Has the case been assigned over?” I asked Liam as I climbed into the driver’s seat of my car. Liam was already jumping in the passenger seat and was checking the database as he was buckling his seatbelt. He knew I hated being at the conclave and wouldn’t be wasting time with pleasantries.
“Yup,” he said as he flicked through his phone. The joys of modern technology where even an ancient order such as the Alchemist Conclave could streamline business and daily running. Although despite them have been around since the beginning of time and creation, the Alchemists were also the ones who invented most of the technology we saw. Some of the worlds genius’ were Alchemists pretending to be humans and not the god-like creatures they were.
“Okay, get Jamie to do a full search on the information we have and we can go from there,” I said. “I want to get this matter dealt with quickly and smoothly.”
“Yes sir,” Liam said with a smirk. I side eyed him as I pulled out of the Conclave grounds and onto the long ass country road that led to the massive estate. I knew he was mocking me, but also knew it was harmless joking. Liam and I had been friends since we were young and his folks transferred to our pack. His father wasn’t a ranked wolf, but when it came to picking a Beta, Liam was the obvious choice. He was my closest friend and the one I could trust the most.
“I’ve sent the info to Jamie now,” Liam said, “Are we heading into the city?”
“Yeah,” I said nodding, “There are some things I need to do at the office and I want to get on this thing as soon as possible,” and Liam nodded.
“And avoid your father after his talk with Blackthorn, that he is undoubtedly having right now?” Liam laughed. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. My father and Blackthorn were good friends and my lack of interest at today’s meeting would likely piss my father off massively.
My father was very much the traditional Alpha type. He stepped down as Alpha two years ago on my 30th birthday. He wanted to wait until I had found my mate, but since I still had no luck in that department, he agreed to pass the title on the basis that I would agree to pick a chosen mate within five years. I wasn’t a fan of chosen mates. A cousin of mine in a pack up north tried to pick a chosen mate a few years back, and the thing had been a complete disaster. But then, his circumstances were vastly different from mine.
It wasn’t too long before we made it back to civilisation and I was pulling into the underground carpark of Rose Bower International, a financial company that had been in our family for over thirty years. My father had started the company directly from the pack territory before I was born. It had grown so much by the time that I was ten that my father couldn’t just have pack members as employees. He bought this building, and it became the home for the company ever since. I took a management role after I graduated from university and moved into the CEO position shortly after becoming Alpha. I did most of my work from the pack territory, but still had to visit the office once every other week for board meetings.
I parked the car in the CEO space just as Liam’s phone rang.
“Jamie,” Liam said in the phone and then listened for a bit, “What, already? I’m impressed man, I mean I know you are good but even for you this is impressive.” I gave him a look and he held the phone away from his ear.
“Jamie has a full profile on our naughty werewolf,” he said and I raised my eyebrows in surprise.
“What already?” I asked. Jamie was one of the pack members who worked out of the office full time, and he was also one of the best hackers I knew. If there was ever a trace of it on the internet, he would find it. He came very in handy for cases like our talkative werewolf and also for digging up dirt on competitors.
“Tell him to meet in my office straight away so he can brief me directly,” I said and Liam nodded.
“Boss said to-“ Liam started and then laughed “Okay smart ass, see you in less than five,” he then ended the call and looked at me.
“He heard you,” he shrugged, and I nodded with a chuckle.
“Well then,” I said, opening the car door, “Let’s find out about our chatty friend then.”
(Dominic’s POV)I looked in the mirrors that surrounded us in the elevator on the way up to the twelfth floor and for a brief second marvelled at the difference between Liam and myself. I was, as always when I was due in the office, dressed in a tailored three-piece suit, this one being a charcoal grey. And my dark brown, almost black short hair was neatly styled back. Even the grazing of stubble across my chisel cut jawline was neat and precise. I was always told that my golden brown eyes held the warmth of my soul, my mother’s words, not mine. But I couldn’t see anything special unless my wolf Titan was present and then they turned the healthy gold of an Alpha rank. Whereas Liam, on the other hand, wore a standard off the rail light grey suit, the jacket hung open and his shirt was roughly tucked into his slacks. His shock of sandy blond almost too long hair hung in a mess and brushed against his neck. His pale blue eyes danced with
(Theia’s POV)I typed furiously at my keyboard, allowing the words to flow through me as always.[ “Mate!” he said as he realised that the woman sitting a few tables down was the reason for the intoxicating scent. Even now, as he stared at her, unable to drag his eyes away, he could see the subtle differences in her hair. It wasn’t just blond, it held strands of pure gold and honey gold. Her skin appeared to glow with a radiance that wasn’t there a few moments before.What he couldn’t understand was that although he scented his sweet mate as soon as he walked into the cafe, it wasn’t until they made eye contact that he realised that she was indeed his fated mate. Even somewhere deep down, back at the office when he had the urge to come down to the cafe, there was that pull to find her. Like he already knew, or some part of him did and was guiding him to her.“Well duh,&rdqu
(Theia’s POV) I was struggling to concentrate on the conversation with my friends. What with being strangely aware of the man sat a few tables away and the rapidly increasing headache that was starting to make me feel sick. The chapter I just wrote before coming out kept pushing itself to the forefront of my mind. I mean, it was like the chapter was becoming real or something. He was sitting there, and I was sitting here. I was trying to remember the details of the chapter and was resisting the urge to pull out my phone and find it on the cloud. And then I was internally laughing at myself. Oh yeah, Theia, that’s right. You think you are some heroine in a book. The very idea sounded absurd. It still didn’t stop the strange feeling that I was having. It was the strongest urge to turn and look at the stranger, and that I could feel him sitting there behind me. The effort not to turn around was making my headache so much worse. “Hell
(Dominic’s POV) I looked down at my phone again and groaned when I saw Liam’s name. He had been messaging me pretty constantly for the last few hours. And they were getting more frequent, too. I sighed and looked back up at Theia. “I’m sorry,” I shook my head. “I really do have to go,” She shrugged like it was fine, but I could see the sadness in her eyes, and it hurt that I put it there. I wanted to reach out and take her hand. I wanted to feel the sparks again. Carrying her the whole way to her apartment had been amazing. I could feel the bond running through my body and my wolf Titan was acting like a giddy puppy, bounding around inside my head. “It’s okay,” she said quietly, “I appreciate your help today, and sorry if we took you away from something important,” I didn’t know what was harder to hear, the words that she said or that she believed them. I could tell that she didn’t see herself as significant, and I couldn’t
(Dominic’s POV)My jaw dropped as I stared at Liam.“Did I reject her?” I asked in shock. What the hell did he mean? Did I reject her? Why the hell would I have done that?“No, of course I didn’t reject her,” I snapped, “Where the hell would you get that notion from?”“But she’s human,” Liam said, eyeing me with confusion, “And a weak one at that,” Titan was furious and wanted to rip Liam’s throat out for calling our mate weak, and I wasn’t much less mad either. I didn’t try to stop the growl from escaping my mouth. Liam looked shocked and stood up slowly and started backing away.“Hey man,” he said, holding his hands in front of him in a defensive position, “I didn’t mean anything by it, I’m sorry I didn’t mean anything by it.” I growled again but fought against my wolf who too
(Theia’s POV)I cried myself to sleep after Dominic left. I didn’t understand why I was having such strong feelings. Maybe it was because it was the first time in a while that someone had shown an interest. I did have a tendency to catch emotions quickly, so maybe that was it. Or maybe it was my story, and how strangely familiar it all seemed. But did I really believe that Dominic was a werewolf and was in love with me because of some mythical bond? Geez Theia, I thought, stop dreaming. We live in the real world here, not one of my stupid books.The next day I dragged myself out of bed and ran myself a bath. There was no way that I was going to be able to stand in the shower with how I felt. After a long soak in the bath, I pulled on some comfortable jogging pants and a plain top. There was no point getting dressed in anything too good, comfort was key. I was just running a brush through my wet hair, with difficulty, when my doo
(Theia’s POV)I shifted uncomfortably on the sofa, not exactly sure what to do. The room suddenly felt awkward as Dominic stood politely, looking seriously hot in his tight cut jeans and that t-shirt that didn’t leave anything at all to the imagination.“Erm..” I said quietly and looked down, “would you like to sit down?” Dominic smiled and nodded his head.“Thank you,” he said as he sat on the sofa right next to me. I could smell the leather and fire smell again and wondered if it was his aftershave or something. I didn’t know what, but it smelt absolutely beautiful. I wanted to move closer and take a deep breath of it while running my hands down his thick biceps. Oh my god Theia, I thought to myself, what is wrong with you. I needed to move away, for I did something embarrassing. I went to stand up and Dominic held out his hand when I wobbled a little.“Where
(Theia’s POV) I looked in the mirror and groaned. It had been a couple of days since Dominic had come over and I had fallen asleep on him, and embarrassingly drooled all over him. I woke up the next morning in my bed. I had assumed that he had left, but some noise had led me out of the bedroom and into the main room. Dominic was in the kitchen area, making a full cooked English breakfast. We spent the morning together talking, and at some point during that conversation, I had agreed to go on a real date with him. So here I was Saturday night, and getting ready for the first date in well over a year. And with a guy that dreams would struggle to compare with. Naya had come over to help me get ready, which would have been great, but that woman was way more body confident than me. She put me in a black body hugging dress that cut at just above the knee. It was an elegant dress for sure, with a wide neckline. But on me it showed all my lumps and bum