DIMITRIThe look in her eyes was fear. I had seen it on the faces of people more times than I could count. The question I had been asking myself these past few days was why the hell was the fear directed at me. I paused with one foot at the bottom stairs, taking care to keep my movements slow and deliberate. If I approached, she was sure to go stumbling down all in a bid to avoid me. She looked from me to the lower part of the stairs. I shifted closer to the railing so she could get a better view. I heard her sigh of relief the minute I was no longer half blocking her path. Valeria came down the stairs, taking care to keep close to the railing on the other side."Hi," she squeaked and immediately hurried past me as though she was afraid I would lunge at her or something. I watched her until she was out of sight, then I continued climbing upstairs slowly. I sighed heavily. This was Valeria's attitude these days. She was now frightened of her own shadow. Being around me made her frig

VALERIABy the glint in her eyes and her exasperated expression, I knew just what Ivy was going to say to me.To forestall her, I quickly said, "I'm fine. Really. I'm just usually so tired out after work that I always want to stay at home.""No, you're not," she said firmly. "Valeria, you have been holing yourself up in the office and at the house for some time now. It's like you're practicing on how to be a hermit or something."I smiled in what I hoped was a convincing manner. "You are exaggerating, as usual. I have been fine. I'm fine. I'm just tired and-""And when has being tired ever stopped you from going out? I don't even remember the last time we both hung out. When did we even have a girl's night out? It's been... ages."Ivy was actually right. Even our friendship had received a few hits because of my recent discovery of my abnormalities. A girl's night out with Ivy sometimes meant us hanging out at the spa, a bar, club, restaurant, but the thought of being in such close pro

DIMITRIIt was official. I was going to have to spend more time at the pack. I had known it the moment Nox had hurried in and said something about another attack. Tiredly, I gestured for him to have a seat. He perched on the very edge of it. He was too wound up to relax. Beside me were Damon and more of the other pack leaders."Tell us what happened," I said.Nox launched into a tale of the attack he had gotten from some members of the pack which had been attacked. A worried hiss echoed around the room when Nox revealed that the pack which had been attacked was the one close to ours."It's just as I had suspected," I said. "They probably stopped the attacks for a while so we could let our guards down so that they could strike.""Maybe they were even looking to attack us too," said Damon. "They probably found out that our defenses were too strong and that's why they only just attacked the neighboring pack."I spoke loudly to be heard over the murmurs Damon's theory had caused. "Now it

VALERIAWhy had I allowed Noah to talk me into going to Rosy's place? I asked myself. Now facing Rosy was sure going to be awkward. I considered going back the way I came and finding another way into my office, but Rosy's sharp eyes had already picked me out of the other staff moving around."Hi, Valeria," Ellen called.With my eyes on Rosy, I raised a hand in greeting to Ellen as I made my way to Rosy. She was seated in the waiting room with a magazine on her lap. She had abandoned all pretense of reading the moment she had spotted me. I hoped I had not said anything last night that would affect her business dealings with Dimitri's company. There would certainly be hell to pay if that were the case. I pulled the glass door of the waiting room half closed behind me."Good morning, Rosy. You're here early."She straightened the lapel of her immaculate pant suit. "Yes. I'm waiting for Dimitri.""I thought you knew that Mr Dimitri is not not around. He won't be around for a while... At

DIMITRIWas it just me, or was Rosy's voice over the phone more terse than usual? She was usually like this whenever she called to discuss something that wasn't going well for the project. I could not really remember her sounding quite like this for a long, long time. She had just told me that she wanted to meet up so we could discuss something really important. Emphasis on important.I had left the pack earlier in the day, had gotten into town and was planning to surprise Valeria, seeing as I was back earlier than she had expected. Now, Rosy wanted to talk."Can't it wait?" I asked her. My thoughts were still with Valeria. I wanted to see for myself if she had gotten over whatever it was that had been bothering her. "Better still, we can talk about it over the phone.""Oh no. This is a conversation that has to be done face to face."I sighed, admitting defeat. "Fine. Where are you?""At your company actually.""That makes it simple then. I'll just stop by there on my way-"Rosy was i