Charmed by the Werewolf

by Sandra Sookoo

  Before Sophia could answer, the door to the attorney’s inner sanctum opened.

  Piercing green eyes flashed from a face that should grace magazine covers. “If you wish to talk with me this afternoon, do it now. I have to be in court in an hour.”

  Sophia opened her mouth and shut it like a fish. “Okay.” Xavier put a hand on the small of her back as they proceeded into the office.

  “Remember, you belong to me, Sophia. No exceptions.” The werewolf’s strong whisper rang in her ear.

  “As if you’d let me forget.” She grinned at his barely audible growl. Baiting him was such fun. “Don’t worry, Wolfman, I can only tolerate one overbearing man in my life at a time.”

  The spacious office was dim and warm. The furniture was massive and heavy, made from dark oak and thick black leather. Thermal lined drapes of black silk covered the floor to ceiling windows behind the desk. As Sophia sank into one of the wingback chairs in front of the desk, she noticed a lit fireplace on the far wall—the heat source.

  Xavier’s growl was the only indication he acknowledged the attorney’s presence.

  Braeden Hollister perched on the corner of his desk, and for the second time in two minutes, Sophia was at a loss for words. A shock of chocolate brown hair fell over his forehead while brilliant eyes stared without emotion. Broad shoulders, muscled arms, and the way his lavender silk shirt clung to his chest like a second skin created dark fantasies in her mind. She caught a vague hint of a washboard stomach under that shirt. “Oh.” Her lips formed an O of appreciation as she looked her fill until Xavier kicked her in the shin.

  “Why the hell did you do that?” Nevertheless, the pain broke the spell. Sophia glared at the werewolf.

  “Mine.” He lifted an eyebrow then turned his attention to the attorney. “We need a favor.”

  Her fingers itched to brush the hair from Braeden’s forehead, but one glance at the hard set to Xavier’s lips reminded her of their mission. “We need an item of a personal nature from you.”

  “Apparently, you haven’t done your research.” Braeden crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t do favors.”

  “Surely you could make an exception in our case.” Tingles crept over her skin when she met the attorney’s gaze. “It’s a matter of life or death.”

  “Miss Raines.” The lawyer extracted a small leather bound notebook and a gold pen from his breast pocket. “If I made an exception for you, word would get out and all my clients would want the same treatment. Then where would I be? I don’t represent charity cases and I don’t do favors. Period.”

  “At least have the decency to hear us out.” Her anger slowly built. Sophia gripped the armrest of the chair so tightly her knuckles showed white. “You owe us that.”

  “What my mate meant was—”

  Sophia shifted her gaze to the werewolf. “If I meant to say a thing, I would have said it. We already covered this.”

  “Then stop wasting time.” Xavier stroked his goatee. The corners of his lips lifted in a tiny grin. “You dither.”

  “I do not dither. What the hell does that even mean?”

  “You do, you’re always—”

  The growl that filled the air didn’t come from Xavier. “If I may interrupt this little spat, tell me how it is I could owe you anything?”

  Sophia blinked at the undisguised venom in Braeden’s silky voice then transferred her anger from one man to the other. “For one, you kept us waiting in your reception area for a huge amount of time, and for another, your office is incredibly warm.” She fanned herself with a hand.

  “Shut up, Sophia. I’ll handle him.” Xavier frowned and sent her a warning glance.

  “Sometimes, Xavier, you can catch more flies with honey rather than vinegar.” She turned to the darkly scowling attorney. “Are there any other objections or shall we just get down to business?”

  “You don’t wish to tangle with me, Miss Raines.”

  She sucked in a breath when Braeden swooped in close and rested his hands on the armrests of her chair. She felt Xavier’s rage beside her as he jumped to his feet, a snarl wrenching from his chest. “Uh…” Her heart beat frantically at the very real danger from both men. Adrenaline surged through her veins as she stared into the vivid eyes of the attorney. Xavier laid a hand on her shoulder, dug his fingers into her flesh. His touch gave her courage to defy the dragon.

  “Why should I be afraid of you? Contrary to popular belief, attorneys aren’t the evil menace they’re billed to be.” He was so close she could discern the subtle pin striping of his suit jacket, each individual piece of stubble on his cheeks. “You’re a person, like me, and if I were you, I’d back off because Xavier’s about to attack.”

  Braeden held her gaze for what seemed an interminable length of time before pulling away to perch on his desk. “I have under estimated you.”

  She released the breath she held and slid a glance at Xavier. His thunderous expression chilled her skin and shot a thrill down her spine at the same time. His strength and wicked possessiveness made her want to forget everything and burrow into his arms. Forget the quest, forget the curse, forget the birthright, and just take him.

  Sophia swallowed and looked at Braeden. “Maybe next time you won’t be so quick to dismiss people.” She crossed her legs at the knee and settled her purse on her lap.

  With a growl that bared his teeth, Xavier seated himself, never taking his eyes from her face. “If you two are done flirting, could we get back to the reason for being here?”

  “What?” She glanced at him in surprise. “I’m not flirting. If I was, I certainly wouldn’t flirt with a dragon.” She intended to bait the attorney. He was too smart to give up a tooth just because they asked him to. She needed to find another way.

  “Dammit, Sophia, it looked like flirting to me. And that isn’t acceptable from my mate.” He kneaded the brim of his fedora, crushing its form.

  “Just because I’m being friendly to the man doesn’t mean I’m flirting.” Sophia’s cheeks burned. She hated the anger on his face, hated she was the reason for the emotion, but didn’t know how to fix the situation.

  “There’s a difference between flirting and friendly. I’ll not warn you again. I’m the only man you need to concern yourself with. Period. Do you understand?”

  “Yes.” The whispered word vanished into the emotionally charged air. She squirmed in her seat until she faced the werewolf. His chest heaved with the force of his angst, until the desire and pure lust took over and all she wanted was him. “Forget about it, Xavier, it’s not worth this. We’ll find some other way of lifting the curse.” His golden gaze held her captive; his scent surrounded her, owned her, and possessed her.

  Hers. Suddenly, sitting in the office seemed like an incredible waste of time.

  Braeden made a sound in his throat that Sophia interpreted as frustration. “There’s counseling available for people like you two.” He coughed. “How did you find out I’m a dragon?” He retreated behind his desk and settled into his chair with the crunch of leather and the squeak of springs. “That isn’t common knowledge.”

  “It wasn’t difficult.” She refused to look at Xavier, but the anger that still radiated from him compelled her to lay a restraining hand on his arm. “Besides—”

  “Don’t argue with me, girl. There’s only one way you could have procured that information. The Portal Master told you.” He pinned them each of them with a glare. “If there’s one thing I will not tolerate it’s a lie.”

  “Uh…” Sophia swallowed and glanced uneasily at Xavier. “I can honestly tell you Sterling had nothing to do with our coming here.”

  A glossy eyebrow rose in surprise. “Sterling, huh? You must be intimately acquainted with him. This is an interesting twist.”

  “What is it with the two of you?” She gritted her teeth. “Do I give off some vibe that says I play fast and loose with the Portal Master? Do I have a sign on my forehead which declares I slept with Sterling?” She swept the
men with her anger. “Tell me, I’m curious to know why you both think the same thing.” Both men turned the same look of mild amusement and smugness on her.

  “Did Mr. Leighton say something along those lines as well?” Braeden grinned as he exchanged a purely male glance with the werewolf. “There must have been just cause.”

  Xavier stroked his goatee. “I accused her early this morning, but since then we’ve worked the kinks out of our relationship. She’s my mate and no other man has claim to her.” He lifted an eyebrow, a challenge to the attorney evident in his hard gaze.

  “Your mate. Interesting. Does that mean you have some hidden paranormal streak yourself?” The attorney cracked his knuckles.

  “Ack!” With a strangled sound, Sophia launched out of her chair to pace in front of the fireplace as fear wrapped around her spine. She needed to distract the dragon. “There’s so much testosterone in this room I’m surprised we can all still breathe.”

  “Sophia.”

  She stopped pacing as Braeden moved into her path. She hadn’t seen him leave his chair. “Look, you may be the most powerful attorney in this building, but I refuse to listen to more of your posturing. I already have one overbearing male. I don’t need another.”

  “Xavier can leave.” Malice dripped from the dragon’s grin.

  “Not without her.” Xavier rose from his chair and moved toward her. “I’ll stay since the reason we need your assistance is for me.”

  “That won’t be necessary.” Braeden moved to his desk, his intense gaze resting on Sophia. “I’ll speak to her myself.”

  “I can handle this.” She fought down a thrill of excitement as Xavier wrapped a protective arm around her waist. “Remember what I said about breathing room.”

  “I’m sure you can, but I’m not leaving—not now, not ever.”

  “Xavier.” Her chin trembled at his steadfast refusal to abandon her. She met his gaze, willed him to understand. “Do you want the item or not? I can do this. Trust me.”

  “I do trust you, but it’s a bad idea.” He leaned in; his lips close to her ear, his scent assaulting her. “How do you know he isn’t in league with Sterling?”

  “It always comes back to him, doesn’t it?” She wrenched away from his grasp. Tears gathered in her eyes. “If you can’t trust me, we don’t have a relationship.”

  With a sound of exasperation, Braeden pressed the intercom button on his phone. “Deirdre, please send security to escort Mr. Leighton out of the office.”

  “Xavier, what do we do now?” Sophia’s birthmark flared to life under her clothes. She clutched her arm. “Being separated wasn’t part of the plan.” She kept her voice a whisper, but she wasn’t confident the dragon wouldn’t hear.

  “I’m not leaving this office, Hollister.” Xavier squeezed her hand then moved toward Braeden with his fists clenched. “I remain with Sophia and will fight for that privilege if you provoke me.”

  “Uh, now would be a great time to do that whole wolf change thing.” She focused on the two men blocking the doorway and quickly closed the space between her and Xavier. “If you have any other ideas, I’d love to hear them.”

  Dressed in black suits, the swarthy, hulking men nodded to Braeden, advancing into the room, pausing just over the threshold.

  “Please escort Xavier to our alternative waiting area.”

  “I changed my mind. I need Xavier with me.” She clutched at his arm as fear snaked through her stomach. The thugs moved ponderously toward them. She glimpsed shoulder holsters under their dark jackets. “We won’t take up much of your time.”

  Braeden gestured at his minions and grinned. “It isn’t necessary for me to speak with both of you. Since Sophia interests me more than the wolfman, I choose to make the deal with her. Whatever it is I have, you apparently need it desperately, and I want to know why.”

  “You won’t touch her.” Xavier’s growl reverberated through the room, loud enough to crack the marble mantelpiece of the fireplace. “Come, Sophia, we’re leaving.” He gripped her hand, swung around to the door, pulling her behind him.

  “I can’t allow that.” Braeden removed a gun-shaped object from an inner pocket of his suit and aimed it at Xavier. “Thanks for dropping by.” He pulled the trigger and two wired darts smacked the werewolf in the chest. Xavier fell to the carpet, his face crossed with lines of pain and surprise as his body twitched.

  “You tasered him?” Sophia took a step forward but the two thugs each grabbed one of Xavier’s arms and hauled him from the room. She lifted her gaze to the attorney. “Bastard.”

  As freaked out as she was about Xavier’s removal, it was nothing compared to the way her internal alarm system went off when Braeden closed the office door.

  Chapter Fifteen

  She was alone with the dragon.

  “Now that we’ve removed the unpleasantness, why don’t we get to the crux of the matter? Tell me why you’re here.”

  As he advanced toward her, Sophia choked back fear. “Uh, on second thought, I’ll just go collect Xavier and we’ll find someone else to help us.” The room suddenly seemed too small to contain Braeden’s presence.

  “You came here expecting something. It’s not my style to disappoint a woman.” He cornered her between the low coffee table with a golden urn resting in the middle and the chaise lounge. “What do you want?”

  “It’s not important.” Her heart hammered as his silky voice glided over her. “I’m sorry to have bothered you.” In her attempt to slink past him, her boot heel caught in the fringe of a throw rug. She tumbled backward onto the slick leather lounge.

  “How convenient,” Braeden murmured. He dropped beside her with his body half covering hers.

  Scooting into a semi-sitting position, her breath caught when she met the brilliant green of his eyes. “What are you doing?” She smelled his sharp, musky cologne and wrinkled her nose to stave off a sneeze. “Let me up.”

  “I’m giving you what you’ve practically begged me for since you walked into my office.” He kissed her lips. “You have very expressive features.”

  “Don’t think so.” She pushed against his chest, but he swatted her hands away as if they were insignificant insects. “I can’t get involved with you.” The last came out on a squeak. Braeden ignored her protests and fumbled with the buttons on her shirt.

  Xavier’s admonitions burst into her consciousness, and she could imagine his fierce scowl at her situation. “You misunderstood me.” As quickly as she rebuttoned the garment, his nimble fingers followed, undoing the progress.

  “Then have I misunderstood your reaction to this?”

  When his teeth closed on a taut lacey, bra-covered nipple, Sophia gasped and jerked against him. Fear slithered around her like a serpent, cold and just as deadly. She shivered, wishing he would leave her alone. “That isn’t what I want.” She struggled, but the more she moved, the more she became wedged between the back of the lounge and the solid wall of Braeden’s chest.

  “As you wish.” He sat up mere inches, allowing her a tiny bit of space. “Let’s exchange information.”

  “Fine.” She shivered, from his breath on her skin or the way his smug voice clung to her consciousness, she couldn’t say. She wished she’d studied dragons prior to the visit. Sophia buttoned her shirt, glad for the denim jacket on top of the shirt but equally annoyed she’d worn a skirt. It provided way too much a temptation for him.

  “What do you want?” In the back of her mind, she thought about Xavier. Was he hurt?

  Braeden’s grin bordered on lecherous. “Besides burying myself in your tasty bit of flesh?” He lifted a dark, glossy eyebrow. “Tell me how you know the Portal Master. You don’t exhibit the natural fear he invokes and you refer to him by his first name.”

  She expelled breath she hadn’t realized she held. “If you must know, I work for Sterling. I’m a Gatekeeper.” She interpreted the expression on his face as shock and squirmed out from under the attorney. He enclosed her wrist in a grip
of iron as he stood.

  “Why would a Gatekeeper come here? And why, if the Portal Master sent you, would you not get to the point of your visit long before now?”

  Sweat dampened the back of her shirt. “I never said Sterling sent me. In fact, I’m not here in an Immortal Court capacity.” She hoped he wouldn’t call Sterling to verify facts.

  “Interesting.” Braeden moved across the plush carpeting to his desk. Sophia had no choice but to follow as the pressure on her wrist never wavered.

  “Um, why would you say that?”

  “How often does a Gatekeeper do freelance work? I’m told the case load in the Courts is stifling enough.” He shuffled through a sheaf of papers, cursing when a pile slid off the desk to the floor. “I wonder if Sterling knows you’re here.” He frowned and released her wrist. “Pick those up for me, please.”

  “Why does Sterling have to be involved at all?” Glad to be free of his grip, Sophia knelt to gather the fallen paperwork. As she stacked them, Mona’s name jumped off one of the pages. She surreptitiously scanned the legal jargon.

  Apparently, Braeden was the attorney who represented an opposing party’s lawsuit against Mona’s family. She bit her bottom lip to stifle a gasp. She needed more information in order to help her friend. If seducing the dragon was what it would take, then she would have to try.

  Sophia swallowed hard as her mouth watered in preparation for retching. Prickles of revulsion crept over her skin at the thought, but Mona needed her help. A knot grew in her stomach at the thought of betraying her promise to the werewolf. She hoped he’d understand her motives. The niggling fact that he probably wouldn’t pinged about her brain. She thrust it away. The plan would have to work. Mona was her responsibility.

  Braeden waggled his fingers. “The paperwork?”

  “Right.” She dropped the papers on his desk then sidled closer to the dragon, her throat suddenly dry as if common sense had fled with the saliva. “Do we have to talk about the Portal Master right now? Surely there are other things you want from me besides information about Sterling.”