“We’ll go anywhere you like,” he added.
Maggie smiled, and Henry knew he’d won at least the first battle of the evening.
Henry waited until the waiter left before broaching the subject that had been on his mind most of the day.
“The work we do…” he started, then looked up to find Maggie already staring at him intently. “Do you ever wonder if we’re doing all we can?”
“We’re making a difference, aren’t we? Only a few years ago, we had no idea about the threat against us posed by the Sons of Domnall. Now we’re hot on their trail and arresting new people all the time.”
“True, we’re making progress. I do wonder sometimes if we’re doing the right thing.”
Maggie’s eyes narrowed. “What are you trying to say?”
“The other day, the surveillance order on Matt Argyle,” Henry said, hoping against hope that she wouldn’t see this as an invitation to start this morning’s argument all over again.
She paused for a moment.
“What about it?”
“It just didn’t feel right. He’s one of us, not the enemy.” Henry ran his hand through his hair.
“God, is that why you didn’t want me to go? Because you weren’t sure it was the right call?” Maggie sat back and observed him for a moment. “You got an order; you followed it. I honestly don’t see the problem. And if he isn’t following the rules, he might as well be the enemy.”
“You really think that?” Henry asked. This conversation wasn’t going as he had hoped.
“I can’t believe you’re even asking me this. We signed up for this thing for the same reason: to keep our people safe. Things are getting worse. Disappearances, even murders. As many Sons members as we’ve caught, we have no way of knowing how many more are out there.”
“True.”
“It’s not rocket science. Keep our true nature a secret from humanity. What’s so hard in that?”
Henry sighed. Maggie was a strong woman. That was one of her qualities which he’d always admired. The downside was that she could be incredibly stubborn. There was no convincing her of something she didn’t already believe in. There was little point in discussing this matter any further.
“You’re right. It’s quite simple,” he said. “Oh, the food is here.”
Henry smiled at the waiter as he brought out their plates. Steak, medium-rare. Just what he needed.
He glanced over at Maggie again, who looked equally pleased to see the food.
For the rest of the meal, Henry didn’t bring up this doubts about Blacke’s policies anymore. It seemed Maggie was equally content to leave the topic behind as Henry was. Perhaps it had been the wrong time to discuss it, but at the very least she wasn’t angry anymore about being excluded from the surveillance job.
As pleasant as the meal had been, the evening left Henry with a bitter taste in his mouth. By the time they’d gone to bed, doubts had started to overwhelm him. He turned to look at Maggie beside him, her eyes closed and features completely relaxed. How different she looked when she was asleep.
She wasn’t onboard with his idea. This was a major setback, and unlike how Henry had hoped for things to turn out. But it was normal for couples to disagree on things. They had to get past it.
Somehow, Henry had to figure out a way to start the new movement himself, without her help. Blacke needed to be stopped somehow before he went too far, no matter what Maggie believed. They were a team in the office, a team at home, most of the time. But this was something he had to do for his own satisfaction and beliefs.
He needed to come up with a solid plan and gather support beyond Matt all on his own. Hopefully, then Maggie would see that Henry was right and join him after all.
Chapter Two
This was not what Gail imagined her new job would be like. Not at all.
She held on tighter to the pile of document folders as she tried to keep pace with her new boss, Adrian Blacke, on the way to the holding cells located in the basement of the Alliance headquarters in Stirling, Scotland.
It was like a typical scene from a coming of age chick flick, only she refused to play the part of the clumsy heroine who would drop all her papers as her boss lost patience with her. That’s not who she wanted to be.
Who did she want to be? Gail wasn’t sure.
She followed Blacke through the heavy, reinforced doors, through the long corridor, stealing glances through the narrow windows in the cell doors. Inside each of them sat someone who had been deemed a danger to the shifter world, whether through threatening or violent behavior or by simply breaking one or more Alliance rules. It seemed like the latter group made up most of the prisoners here.
Their footsteps echoed against the concrete of the hallway as they made their way further into the belly of what her colleagues referred to as ‘the dungeon’; a fitting name indeed for a place as unpleasant as this.
“Let’s see what old man Campbell has to say for himself today,” Blacke muttered.
After just over a week on the job, Gail knew better than to respond. Blacke had a habit of talking to himself when it was just the two of them. As if she wasn’t even present.
They approached the cell where Lee Campbell was being kept - just across from his son Gareth who had been captured at the same time apparently. His cell was one of the few with a dedicated guard; he was one of the most valuable prisoners here.
Most of the Sons of Domnall members they had captured were just small-time soldiers, but Lee Campbell was something else entirely. He was a leader of some sort, though his exact rank wasn’t yet known.
Blacke nodded at the guard, who unlocked the heavy door and stepped aside. Gail followed her boss inside the cell, though it made her skin crawl to be here. This, coming down here, was one of the more unpleasant parts of her job.
She couldn’t be sure what Blacke was planning for today, but his personal interrogations of Campbell had turned nastier and nastier over time. The more Campbell kept quiet, the more determined Blacke had become to make him talk.
“Morning,” Adrian Blacke said, his voice low and sinister.
Campbell, who was merely sitting on the basic cot in the corner of his otherwise sparse cell, looked up. His eyes were blank like he wasn’t actually present. His face was an unhealthy shade of grey, and the bags under his eyes seemed to darken with every passing day.
His deterioration wasn’t all that surprising, considering they had kept him locked up in this windowless basement for weeks now. In an attempt to break his resolve, Blacke had instructed the guards to wake Campbell every two hours throughout the night and put him on a severely restricted diet.
Gail shuddered at the sight of Blacke, who continued to glare at the miserable looking man. Some days, the prisoners seemed more approachable and sympathetic than her boss did.
Blacke snipped his fingers, jerking Gail into action.
“Yes, sir?” she asked.
“A chair. Get me a chair.”
Gail turned on her heel, eager to get out of the dingy cell, but her relief was cut short by the guard outside who had already arranged for a chair. Damn.
She dragged it inside with one hand, the steel feet making an awful kind of noise scraping over the bare concrete of the floor.
Blacke sat down without acknowledging her.
“Let’s try something new today, shall we?” Blacke said. “We’ll step things up, as they say.”
Gail’s insides twisted painfully. She really wasn’t keen to find out what Blacke had in mind.
“Get me Agent Dumbarton,” Blacke spoke in a low growl.
Gail nodded and finally made her escape from the cell. This was bad, very bad. Dumbarton was mean. One of those guys who didn’t think twice before getting physical. Calling him into an interrogation could only mean one thing: Blacke planned to make good on his threats; he was finally going to have the prisoner tortured.
With every passing step, back past all those cells, through the doors and up the
stairs, Gail couldn’t shake the feeling of dread that her realization had inspired. She didn’t want to be here.
That man, Campbell no doubt was the enemy, as were the rest of the Sons of Domnall. He’d kill her and everyone in this building if he had the chance. But this went too far. If they did this, they’d sink to his level and justify his beliefs that shifters were dangerous and needed to be rooted out.
Her hands trembled as she opened the door leading to the main floor where all the agents had their desks. It didn’t take her long to spy Dumbarton in a crowd hanging around the coffeemaker. He was the loudest of the lot.
“Agent Dumbarton,” Gail addressed him, attempting to sound a lot more confident than she felt. “Mr. Blacke needs you in the dungeon. Cell 27.”
Dumbarton gave her one of those looks. The ones that make you feel dirty and violated. “Sure thing, darling. Anything for you.”
Some of the other agents chuckled. Pigs, the lot of them.
She didn’t want to wait for what else he would say, instead made a run for the exit. Whether Blacke wanted her back down there or not, she didn’t care. She wasn’t willing to watch what was going to happen next.
Outside, the grey skies perfectly matched her mood. The only noise around was the groundskeeper who operated a leaf blower to clear away the last fallen leaves of autumn.
The Alliance headquarters was situated in a strange looking mansion built in the 1920s by Blacke’s grandfather. Ever since he’d taken over control of the Alliance Council, this place - which thanks to its concrete and steel exterior looked more like a bunker or a prison than a luxury country retreat - had been used to hold council meetings and store prisoners taken by the various Alliance branch offices.
It was ugly, as were most of the people inside.
Gail took a deep breath, but it didn’t help calm her nerves. The hum of the leaf blower stopped, as Gerry, the caretaker retrieved a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one. Perhaps that would help.
“Gerry, excuse me,” Gail called out to him.
He looked up, as though surprised that anyone was talking to him at all.
She approached him, her knees weak as she did so. “May I have one?”
“Sure.” He retrieved the crumpled packet and held it up for her.
“Thank you,” she said.
He offered her a light and continued his work straightaway. Like most bears, Gerry was a man of few words.
Gail walked back towards the building, hoping that standing closer to its walls would offer some shelter against the sharp wintery breeze. She inhaled deeply, waiting for the smoke to relax her. It did nothing of the sort.
All it did was made her cough and feel nauseous. What a ridiculous idea. Why would a cigarette help her when she didn’t even smoke? She put it out against the bottom of her shoe and leaned back against the cold concrete with her head down and eyes shut.
Gail wasn’t sure how long she remained like that for, only that the sound of an approaching vehicle made her look up again. Black, windowless, Ford Transit. All of the HQ agents were on site, so this could only mean one thing: a transport bringing with it more unfortunate souls to be forgotten in the dungeon.
She didn’t want to see who was being held in the back. She didn’t want to think about what would happen to them, but rather than run inside, something made her stick around and watch.
The driver’s side door opened, and her heart all but stopped.
Gail had never seen the man before during her time here. His broad shoulders looked like they could carry the world on them. He was most definitely a brown bear, bigger and stronger than her own subspecies. Although she knew nothing about him, when he turned around she could see in his eyes that he was different from all the guys working inside. He was meant to be hers. She could feel it.
Gail tried to swallow the last remnants of that horrible cigarette and dusted herself off.
“Hey,” she said, but it came out all hoarse at first. “Hey!”
The man, who had already walked around to the back of his van, looked up.
“Can I help you?” Gail asked.
“Prisoner transport.” The man barely acknowledged her presence beyond that, instead unlocking the backdoor of his vehicle.
Gail nodded. She did vaguely remember Blacke discussing an upcoming transport with other people in the office. Still, it was infuriating that he wasn’t paying any attention to her at all. He was her mate; she just knew it. However, he seemed to be completely oblivious.
“Name? I’m Gail McPherson, by the way. Mr. Blacke’s assistant.”
That last bit of information seemed to sink in, because the man stopped what he was doing again and turned to face her.
“Agent Weston. Your boss is expecting me.”
“I see…” Gail frowned. Why couldn’t things just be simple? Not only was she stuck doing a job that wasn’t at all how she thought it was going to be, here was a guy who didn’t behave in the least how he was meant to. She’d heard about the instant attraction bears experience when they are confronted with their true mate. It was always mutual. Why wasn’t it mutual now?
“I will let him know you’re here,” Gail said.
She paused for another moment, only to find that so-called Agent Weston was intent on ignoring her presence. Fine! Off she went to notify her boss of the arrival of Weston and his transport.
Perhaps once he was done doing the job he had come here for he would be more open to converse with her.
Chapter Three
Henry was still in shock when he led Caroline Pratt into the Alliance Headquarters. That woman, Gail McPherson, who had introduced herself as Adrian Blacke’s assistant, had awoken things in him he hadn’t felt before. A connection. A certainty that he was meant to be with her.
But that couldn’t be. He had chosen Maggie as his mate already, someone he’d known and worked with for years.
This is just a silly infatuation, he told himself. There’s no way this is real.
Perhaps it was due to the recent disagreements between Maggie and him, most notably their differing views on their work. That had to be it.
Every relationship took work and dedication. Everyone had doubts sometimes. He just had to make sure not to give in to them.
“Prisoner transfer from Glasgow,” Henry told the man manning the front desk. “Mr. Blacke is expecting me.”
“Hold on, let me check.” The man picked up the phone on the table in front of him and dialed a few numbers. “All right, you can go straight down. Is it just the one prisoner?”
Henry shook his head. There were more in the van. “Two more.”
“Very well. Bill, give us a hand here, will ya?” The agent called out to one of his colleagues who had just passed through the double doors at the other end of the entrance hall.
The other guy, Bill, nodded and approached Henry.
“This one and two more prisoners as requested by Mr. Blacke,” the man behind the desk clarified.
“Understood. Follow me.”
Bill led Henry along with his prisoner to another, less impressive door in the corner. Behind it was the staircase leading into the basement. They walked in silence, almost all the way to the end of the long corridor, cells on either side. One of the doors opened, and that same woman from before, Gail, almost ran into Henry.
“Careful, there,” he mumbled, as he reached out to steady her by her arm.
Their eyes met, and he felt it again. The pull, the strange attraction he’d never felt before. You’re mine. He immediately pulled his hand back again. How awkward. Had she noticed him stare?
“Excuse me,” she whispered. She shot a cold stare at Henry’s companion and marched off back in the direction of the staircase. Like she couldn’t wait to get out of here. Obviously, he’d made her uncomfortable with his weird behavior.
“Nice one, aye. I wouldn’t mind bumping into that myself,” Bill remarked and stopped for a moment, looking back at Gail as she walked away.
It was distasteful. Henry balled his fists and took a deep breath. There was no point getting into a confrontation with this guy. And over what? Some misplaced feeling of protectiveness towards a woman who wasn’t even his to protect. What a mess.
“Let’s do this,” Henry grumbled under his breath while prodding Caroline in the back to make her walk faster.
“What?” Bill asked, then shrugged when Henry didn’t reply. “Here we are. You can leave the prisoner in here. I’ll open up a couple more cells for the others.”
“Great. I’ll be right back.” Henry left Caroline behind and turned back immediately. His feet seemed to carry him in a hurry back to the door at the end of the hall, up the stairs, and through the entrance hall back outside. As though he was stuck in a trance.
The fresh air helped clear his head. He was just going to do what he had come here for and stop obsessing about that woman.
With everything that was already on his mind, this was the last thing he needed.
Luckily, it seemed she had read his mind, because he didn’t run into her again.
Within little under an hour, he had delivered the remaining prisoners and handed over their paperwork as well. He’d also been taken in to see Mr. Blacke himself, who questioned him on his findings regarding Matt Argyle’s conduct. All in order, Henry had said.
That’s as much as he was willing to divulge, and luckily, Blacke hadn’t pushed him further.
If only Blacke knew what Henry was planning… For now, though, Henry’s senior position in the Glasgow office afforded him a certain amount of trust from the normally quite suspicious Alliance Council leader.
Henry made a quick exit as soon as everything was settled. No matter how hard he tried throughout the lonely drive back, he couldn’t get Gail out of his mind. Raven black hair, dark brown, nearly black eyes, and flawless olive skin. She was something else. When he closed his eyes, it was as though he could catch her scent again.
How was he meant to resist such temptation? When every cell in his body seemed to ache for her. He wasn’t a womanizer. He couldn’t betray Maggie.
Scottish Werebear: A Painful Dilemma: A BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Scottish Werebears Book 5) Page 2
