“Of course not. But that doesn’t mean you terrorize employees,” she snapped.
“Oh, okay. I’ll just sprinkle fairy dust on them and wave a magic wand so they don’t have to feel sad about Bas Dubh killing their families, raping their women, or eating their babies!” He slammed his fist onto the table and the wood cracked. “Why don’t you go write policies for Bas Dubh? Maybe one of your policies can end the war.”
Sofia stood up. “You are the most unprofessional, extremist, coercing…ruthless…mean man I know. We are not having a policy that allows you any opportunity to stretch the intent of the policy to meet your own sick and twisted desires!” she shouted, pointing her finger in his face.
Rick rose to his feet, towering over her. “We are not having a policy that limits my ability to develop a team of highly skilled wolves to combat one of the most evil vampires to ever exist,” his voice boomed.
Sofia watched his jaw muscles pulse. His nose twitched, and deep within his eyes, something savage moved.
Fergus and Osgar jumped to their feet.
“So this is probably a good time for another break.” Osgar nodded toward Fergus.
“Sofia, come with me. Let’s go review the changes you’d like to see.” Fergus attempted to lead Sofia from the room, but she didn’t move.
Instead, stunned by what was happening to Rick, she stared. Fur began to flow over his face. His bone structure changed, growing into the wolf she’d seen earlier in the week. His teeth enlarged, jaws snapping. Ears pricked above his head. He stood to his full height, nearly eight feet tall, swung his head back and howled, an angry growling sort of call.
“Sofia, let us leave Rick and Osgar.” Fergus pulled her from the room, but not before her gaze locked with Rick’s. A cold shiver spiked down her back and her heart hammered in her chest. For the first time since she came to Cader, she realized the wolves might be deadlier than the vampires. She knew Rick would kill her given the chance.
Chapter Sixteen
The howl of an enraged werewolf has the power to wake the dead.
But could it pull a man from a dream of ecstasy?
Dragomir rolled to his side, trying to hold on to the illusion of Sofia’s soft lips pressed to his.
Was the warning of danger within the stronghold powerful enough to disrupt a vampire’s fantasy?
He squeezed his pillow, clutching it against his chest, holding her safely in his embrace.
Again the wolf howled. This time a second wolf joined.
The scent of wild berries and flowers swirled. It mixed with the spicy scent of desire. Lust. Need. She wanted him. He must have her.
The howls changed. The tone lowered. Growling ensued. Banging began. Louder and louder. Harder and harder. The sound of someone hitting metal over and over.
The illusion of Sofia vanished.
“Dragomir! Wake up!”
Dragomir bolted from his bed and ran toward the door. “What it is?” He flung the door open and grabbed the throat of whoever disturbed him. He spun quickly, slamming the body to the floor, his hand still gripping the neck.
“You’re needed upstairs,” Noelle hissed. “Your charge is, yet again, irritating the wolves.” She didn’t fight him, instead she glared and curled back her lips to flash fangs at him.
Dragomir knelt on her right side with his right knee pressed into her abdomen, resting between her ribs just below her diaphragm. One sharp thrust and he’d crush her chest, then he would remove her heart with his bare hands.
“You know.” His words were so harsh Noelle flinched. His vision faded to black and white.
The sound of her sharp intake of breath was her only response.
Dragomir felt her try to throw her mental defenses into place. An invisible cold wall erected between them. His eyebrow twitched and he watched her squirm, her fingers digging into his hand.
Noelle’s attempt to block his intrusion was no match for Dragomir. He’d interrogated many over the years and his skill for finding weak points and unlocking hidden secrets buried deep within the psyche far surpassed her abilities to stop him.
He wandered in her mind, looking for the secret, the one little bit of knowledge she held that could destroy everyone. He moved past current worries, memories of lives long past, and minutiae.
Nothing. Not a hint of what she knew or how or why laid exposed anywhere. Not in the open or hidden away.
Dragomir probed, pushing ideas and thoughts aside as if rifling through boxes of old clothes. Finally, tucked away deep under layer after layer of mental shield, he found it locked up tight where few would have ever looked.
He moved around it, testing it, prodding her, working to loosen her hold on that one bit of information. But she held tight, sending wave after wave of defenses at him, shoving him back, ramming him as though she could remove him from her mind.
He told me, you know.
I do. Her voice sounded tired, pained. I have known since her birth and have never told. I will not betray him. She struggled to keep control of the blaze of information. It lit like a hot poker as Dragomir prodded.
She believed herself, a genuine statement. She would not mean to betray Jankin.
But will you betray Sofia? Dragomir attacked. His hands tightened around her neck. His knee came up high and hard. His presence in her mind grew to consume every single molecule of space, crowding her out of her own mind and forcing her to drop her guard.
Noelle screamed. She clawed at his chest and her legs thrashed about.
Dragomir did not yield. Instead, he bore down harder than before, focused on the one bit of information that could destroy so much.
The secret vanished.
Pulling back from Noelle’s mind, Dragomir loosened his hold on her body. She lay silently, having forced herself into a death-sleep, shutting down her mind, making it impossible for Dragomir to remain within. Impossible for anyone to take the secret from her.
Dragomir released her. He stood, showered, and dressed.
Noelle was loyal. Always had been. He could trust her with Jankin’s life. She’d protect him to the death. But Dragomir would trust no one with Sofia’s. She was his concern.
Dragomir found Noelle’s key in her hip pocket then carried her back to her chamber and placed her on the bed. Left on her own she would sleep for days. Dragomir would find Jankin. He sired Noelle. He’d be able to wake her.
As he drew closer to the exit from the Lower Level, the racket coming from the upper levels neared the riot stage. Between the howling wolves and yelling vampires there might have been a mutiny occurring.
Dragomir raced up the stairs from the Lower Level onto the ground floor and into the ER. Raised voices and chanting came from behind the doors. Metal clanged. He pushed open the doors and found the nurses and Dr. Schwartz gathered around the nurse’s station arguing over takeout menus and who would go pick up dinner. Clipboards clattered as nurses argued over Chan’s or Asian Dynasty while two technicians and Jamieson chanted for Italian and banged metal charts against a filing cabinet. The three men pounded out a beat and demanded Gino’s Rustic Kitchen.
Dr. Schwartz glanced over, grinned, and pointed up, then loudly made the argument for Italian because they’d ordered Chinese last time.
Dragomir gritted his teeth. He marched out the door and bolted toward the stairwell. Not being able to track Sofia was becoming a nuisance. Every wasted stop he made meant she continued to dangle in peril’s way. The woman was going to be the death of him.
He took the stairs three at a time, finally getting so frustrated he launched himself up the last flight to hit the landing with a hard thud. The voices coming through the open doorway indicated chaos had broken out.
Rick and Osgar were shifted, but the tone of their gravelly growls was different than usual. The pitch was higher. Dragomir registered shock instead of anger. The wolves were surprised by something.
She has to be up here. He pushed open the door and heard Fergus say, “Sofia, please come into t
he office.” He was pleading, not demanding or suggesting.
“How the hell are you doing that?” Meg asked.
“And I don’t see why you constantly resort to this response whenever you don’t get your way!” Sofia shouted.
Dragomir entered the third floor hallway.
Osgar stood in front of Rick. Meg and Fergus stood behind Sofia, Meg tugging on Sofia’s waist. Sofia faced the shifted wolves, using one hand to push Osgar aside and the other to jab at Rick’s chest.
Rick snarled.
Dragomir took one step forward, prepared to block any attempt Rick made to harm Sofia, but he didn’t move another inch. The woman seemed to have complete control over Rick.
Sofia’s green eyes held all the angst she’d been carrying for days. They narrowed and her gaze centered on the stunned werewolf standing in front of her. Dragomir was glad Rick was on the receiving end of that look. That was an expression he never wanted aimed at him.
“Oh, don’t give me that. I don’t want to hear it. You’re not even willing to see my side.” This time Sofia lunged at Osgar. Meg’s hold on her waist slipped and Sofia slammed into him. He stumbled back and fell through the doorway into the conference room. Sofia scrambled to her feet and closed the door between them.
She flipped back the waves of black tresses tumbling over her face and sent that florally scent wafting into the air. Dragomir silently inhaled.
Not jasmine. Definitely not.
“And furthermore…” Sofia turned to Rick, finger poised to jab into his chest. “…I have been nothing but reasonable with you. I’ve been shocked, but reasonable. It is not out of the realm of rational thought to ask you to develop and share a training plan.” Rick stepped back until he was pressed against the wall. She followed, poking the entire way. “It is not an outrageous leap to believe tossing a man off a building and breaking his ankles every night is cruel. Especially, when you know he’s terrified of heights.” Her finger drilled into Rick.
He growled something.
“Unacceptable. No.” She shook her head.
The conference room door opened and Osgar came out rubbing his head, no longer in wolf form. “Sofia! Dude! Come on. How do you know what he’s saying?”
“Not now, Osgar.” It was the only acknowledgement Sofia gave him. “Well? What’s it going to be?” She jammed her hands on her hips. “Are you giving me the training plan or are we going with zero tolerance on the Workplace Violence Policy?”
Dragomir’s eyebrows rose and he bit back a smirk. He had no doubt she’d try it, but no faith it would pass. Training wolves or vampires without some violence was an absolute impossibility.
Rick grumbled something.
“That’s what I thought. I’ll expect it on my desk tomorrow morning.”
Meg’s mouth dropped.
Fergus stuttered. “So…So…” He scratched his head and rubbed his beard, then gaped at his wife.
“Where the hell have you been?” Osgar snapped at Dragomir.
Sofia turned from Rick and her eyes widened just a touch when she faced Dragomir. Her mouth dropped open for a split second and then clamped shut into a tight line. She straightened her skirt, yanked her shirt hem down, fixed her jacket sleeves, and adjusted her collar. Her fingers fussed with a brightly colored scarf then she pulled her hair around her neck.
Desire bolted through Dragomir. He forced himself to remain where he stood, not to go to her, take her in his arms, and kiss her like no man had ever kissed her. His mouth watered and he clamped his jaw shut.
Sofia’s left eye narrowed while her right eyebrow inched up. “We don’t need you. I have Osgar.” She glanced toward Osgar and her mouth dropped open again. She spun around, turning her back to him. “Maybe you could put on some clothes.”
Dragomir nodded toward Osgar. “And I see he did an admirable job of keeping you safe by falling into the conference room.”
The tone of his voice was deeper than Dragomir had intended, surprising not only himself, but catching Sofia’s attention as well. She glanced in his direction, and he had to remind himself not to go to her. He was fairly certain she’d do worse than give him that glare if he groped her again. Not to mention what Jankin would do.
“She caught me off guard.” Osgar rubbed his head again. “You’d have been knocked over, too, if she suddenly started reading vampire minds or something. She understands us when we’re in our wolf form.”
“It’s shocking,” Meg said. “Sofia, how long have been able to do this?” Meg’s tone was less than encouraging. An angry alpha female was, generally speaking, more dangerous than a male. As Dragomir remembered they were more unpredictable.
He stepped closer to the group, shooting a sharp look at Meg.
She nodded. “How long?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t know I really could until just this conversation.” She waved toward Rick and peeked over her shoulder. “It’s because of him. If he didn’t constantly become that whenever we meet, I wouldn’t have to learn to understand him.” She looked down at the floor and sidestepped toward her office.
Rick growled.
Dragomir positioned himself between Rick and Fergus, keeping one eye on Rick and trying not to watch every move Sofia made.
“It’s not like I understand every wolf,” she snapped, caught another glimpse of Osgar, and shuffled a few steps closer to her door.
Shoeless. Interesting. Dragomir took in the entire package. She was not quite as fashionable as she’d been every other day. Today her clothes didn’t fit right, she had on a silly scarf knotted like one of those cowboy bandanas, and he was pretty sure the colors of everything didn’t go together.
Her silky black hair fell past her shoulders, framing her face. The dark locks made her eyes appear brighter than usual. He had the desire to run his hands through her hair, down her shoulders, and over her entire body.
She bit her lip.
Was he making her nervous or was she finally realizing she’d tried to go hand-to-hand with a werewolf more than three times her size?
“But the only non-wolf who can understand a wolf in this form is the master vampire bound to him.” Meg stared from Rick to Sofia to Dragomir and finally at Fergus. “Do you know why this is happening?”
“No. I’ve never seen this before. Not once have I ever encountered a human who could speak to wolves.” Fergus pulled out his cell phone and scrolled for a number.
Sofia walked toward her office. “Great. Now I’m the werewolf whisperer.”
Less than a full ring completed before Jankin answered Fergus’s call. “Jankin, Sofia seems to be able to speak to the wolves.”
Dragomir heard Jankin’s response. “She speaks to them?”
“In English. But she understands them as though they were speaking English to her. Do you know the explanation for this?”
Jankin remained silent for several seconds. “I’ll be up.”
“Get dressed. Both of you,” Fergus said. “And do not mention this to anyone.” He walked back to his office. Meg followed, the pained look in her eyes said she knew this was a problem.
Dragomir followed Sofia to her office. He leaned in the doorway. “Have you ever seen a werewolf in wolf form before the incident with Rick in the conference room the other day?”
“No. And don’t come in.” She faced her computer screen, but every few seconds her eyes darted to the left, then back to the computer.
“So just two days ago you had your first encounter. At that meeting did you understand what Rick was saying to you?” Dragomir crossed the threshold.
She glanced in his direction and huffed. “I told you not to—”
“Answer the question.”
“He wasn’t talking to me. He was talking about me.” She turned back to the computer. “And it wasn’t very nice.”
“You didn’t mention it.”
“No one asked.”
Dragomir nodded and walked to the window. In the distance a very small glow faded into the h
orizon. Night had fallen. He watched Sofia’s reflection in the window. She shuffled papers and straightened little piles on her desk. Every five or six seconds she glanced at him. When she bent over to reach for something below the desk her hair fell forward, covering her face. He hid a smile as he watched her watching him through the dark curtain.
“You are full of surprises, Ms. Engle.”
“Look who’s talking.” She ducked beneath the desk to reach for something and her chair shot backward dumping her on the floor. “Damn it.”
“Are you all right?”
“Fine. Just stay over there. And you’re not supposed to be in here.” She sounded as though she was in a cave.
A blue high-heel shoe appeared on the desk. Beside it she tossed a flat loafer, similar to ones he’d owned, only blue and much smaller. She crawled up into the chair and slipped the loafer on then unbuckled the strap of the sandal and placed it on her other foot. “You have a lot of explaining to do,” she whispered in a harsh tone and glanced from Dragomir to the door and back.
“Yes. You must learn to disengage.” Dragomir remained calm, unaffected. “Why are you wearing two different shoes?” She certainly had a way of keeping him perplexed.
“Never mind. It’s not your business,” she huffed and bent over to secure the strap to her ankle. Her nimble fingers worked the tiny clasp.
His gaze ran the length of her leg up to her knee. A well-defined calf muscle drew his attention. The way her leg looked in that heel made his mouth water. Even her reflection excited him. He maintained a slow pulse and tried only to breathe when he spoke. But he struggled. Being this close to her made him want to pin her against the wall, rip her clothes off, and grind himself into her until she screamed in ecstasy.
He couldn’t even consider turning around at this point. She’d see her effect on him. Why the hell is this happening? He’d encountered plenty of other beautiful women in his existence. Most of whom did not argue about the meaning of his world. Why was this happening now?
Black Magic Rose Page 13
