“Barnaby?”
Just as quickly as the rage had entered his eyes it seemed to fade and the older man slumped slightly against the windowsill, before looking at her.
“I'm sorry, Melanie. I was letting my anger and bitterness get the better of me.” He smiled gently and patted her on the shoulder before making his way to his office. “Welcome back, Melanie. It's good to be working with you again. Let's get to work, and once we've managed to catch up on everything you can fill me in on what I've missed during my absence.”
Chapter Eight
When Melanie returned to her room, after work that day, she found a letter addressed to her from Manu. She plucked it gently from the door, before sliding her card key through the scanner and pushing the door open with her butt, as she set about slitting open the envelope. She smirked as she unfolded the letter and read through it slowly.
Dear Melanie,
I tried to come and see you today, but you must have been off at your new assignment. I was hoping that you would be willing to join me for a dinner date tonight. I have some news that I want to talk to you about, but I want to do it in person. After spending Valentine's Day with you, I feel the time for being coy is over. I've never been good at this sort of thing, but I'll do my best. Meet me at Ronaldo's tonight at seven-thirty. You don't have to overdress, but I wouldn't mind if you wore something dressy.
Sincerely,
Manu Nekrumah
Melanie leaned back on her bed, resting her hand over her eyes as she fought to contain the giddiness within her. She rolled back and forth on the bed, squealing softly and kicking her feet out like a school girl. After the drunken tryst she had shared with him on their first night, they had taken things slowly. With his busy schedule she hadn't spent nearly as much time with him as she would have liked. The day after orientation, she had discovered that Manu had saved his number into her phone when he'd installed the app for her.
It’s kinda strange that he wouldn't just text me about it. Is this his way of trying to be romantic? He did say that he wasn't very good at courting. I kind of thought he would have tried to make a move with me on Valentine's Day, but he left shortly after he brought me back to my room. He said he had something to take care of, but it has been almost two months since then. Has he been off on an assignment and not had time to contact me? He was pretty good about keeping in constant contact up through Valentine's Day. Something doesn't seem right. If he really is trying to invite me to dinner, though, I don't want to be rude and stand him up. I'll go, but maybe I should ask someone to come along with me just to be safe.
She plucked her phone from her pocket and quickly dialed Kiki's number. The call was answered on the third ring. She quickly explained the situation, not holding back any of her suspicions from her friend. The werepanther agreed that the situation seemed slightly fishy, but was also eager to come along. They made plans to meet up at six o'clock, and when the time came, the two women met up in the main lobby. Melanie had chosen to wear a sky-blue dress that matched the color of her contacts and heels, while Kiki was dressed in a bright-yellow sundress and sandals that showed off her yellow-painted toenails.
“I have to tell you. It is going to be really awkward if it isn't actually Manu here waiting for you,” Kiki said, blowing a bubble in the gum she was chewing.
“If it isn't Manu waiting for me, we will see what the person who called me here wants and then leave,” Melanie replied nonchalantly, patting her purse gently. “If they try anything funny, I’ve brought my little friend with me.”
“I’ve brought mine too,” Kiki said, lifting the hem of her skirt to reveal the holster strapped to her thigh. “Never can be too careful, even if we are supposedly safe here. Even Selena carries a gun on her when she walks around the compound. Says you can't be too careful, and if those rumors of a spy in our midst can be believed, it is probably best not to be caught unawares.”
“We still have about an hour and a half before we are supposed to meet Manu, though. Even if someone was trying to set up a trap for us, do you think they would have arrived so far ahead of time?”
“If it were me, that would be the smartest thing to do,” Kiki said, tilting her head to the side slightly in contemplation. “After all, an hour and a half is a lot of time. It would give time to clear out any guests who weren’t in on the plan, and to get their people in place and prepare their contingency plans. It would also let them call in anyone who might be on the outer edges of headquarters and slip their buddies from outside in. If we really do have a spy, then I am sure there is more than one. They will probably be working together. If that is the case, we might be able to fool them into coming out.”
“Shouldn't we call in backup?” Melanie looked uneasy now. Despite what Kiki had probably intended, her words had made Melanie more anxious rather than helping to calm her. She took a deep breath and pushed open the doors of the restaurant. The smells of Italian cuisine hung in a thick cloud on the air. The restaurant was filled with well-dressed people, some of whom Melanie recognized from her days of working in different areas of headquarters and her orientation. She waved to a few, who called out her name, before making her way to the attendant standing behind the reception podium. The young woman, with a bright-yellow Mohawk, who led her to a table far back in the restaurant seemed anxious, and Melanie and Kiki exchanged a look after they were seated.
“Is there anything I can start you ladies out with while you wait?” the young blonde asked, pulling a pencil and a pad of paper from the front pocket of her apron. “We have some drink specials going on tonight for all martinis and piña coladas, if you are interested?”
“What makes you think we are waiting for someone?” Melanie asked suspiciously, her eyes narrowing as she looked sidelong at the waitress. “We didn't even say who we were.”
“A gentleman reserved this table for you a few days ago and told us to expect you. We weren't expecting you quite so early, but we have been keeping the table since five o'clock, just to be safe. The man in question is the kind that doesn't like to repeat himself, nor does he like being kept waiting when he wants to be seated,” the waitress said, her eyes averting Melanie's gaze.
“Can you happen to tell me the name of this gentleman?” Melanie was becoming slightly impatient with the way the woman was acting, and her eyes moved past the girl to glance around the restaurant. No one seemed to be paying them any special attention, but that didn't mean that someone wasn’t watching her. Her gaze fell upon a familiar star-spangled bandanna. Her eyes narrowed then, her and nostrils flared as the distinct scent of sweat reached her. Her gaze moved back to the waitress, noting the small beads of sweat now dotting her brow.
“I'm afraid that he was insistent upon us not mentioning his name. He said that it would spoil the surprise, and after all the trouble he went through to set this up, he wouldn't want it to be ruined,” the young woman said, smiling as she slid her pad back in her pocket. “I'll give you two a few minutes to look over the menu. I'll be back in just a bit,” she said, offering a polite bow before hurrying off in the direction of the kitchen.
“That was really weird,” Kiki said once the girl had disappeared from view. Her eyes gazed in the direction the girl had gone. “That girl has guilty written all over her face.”
“Yeah, she couldn't have been more obvious, if she had tried,” Melanie said, giggling softly. “Like I don't already know that Manu was the one who arranged everything.”
The small smile that tugged at the corners of Kiki's mouth caused Melanie to blush. “What? Why are you smiling like that?”
“You are just really lucky, is all. Manu has single-handedly spurned the advances of practically every woman here at headquarters, even Selena. I just can't believe that you are the one he decided to choose is all.” Kiki laughed gently then, waving her hand flatteringly. “Not that I'm insulting you or anything. I can see why he likes you more than anyone else. We haven't had another wolf shifter here,” she added softly.
“His sister?” Melanie blinked hard at that. He had never mentioned a sister to her before in all the times they'd spoken. “What sister?”
Kiki looked slightly uncomfortable then, and her gaze dropped to the table, before she spoke. “Her name was Claire and she was one of our best agents. She had the kind of charisma that you only encounter once in a lifetime. If she had wanted to, she probably could have assembled all of the shifters in the world together and led them in a revolution. However, she never wanted to do that kind of thing. Claire believed that the divide between humans and shifters could be healed if we proved that we meant no harm. She went on countless ambassador missions, to different countries, to talk to leaders and entertainers about improving relations. She was the best kind of celebrity that our people could have asked for,” she said, sadness edging clearly into her voice.
“What happened to her?” Melanie bit her bottom lip gently, doing her best to stifle the feelings of betrayal welling up inside of her. She didn't know why, but Manu not telling her about his sister bothered her. Why would he have chosen to keep something like that from her? If he was willing to keep such a thing a secret, what other sorts of things was he keeping from her?
“Uh oh, I know that face,” Kiki said, breaking into Melanie's thoughts. “You are probably mad at him for keeping it from you, but I imagine that even talking about the memory is too painful for him. He probably also didn't want to scare you off right away, by revealing all of his baggage. You and I both know that kind of thing would send most ladies running in the other direction.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Melanie relented, looking up as the waitress approached their table once more. “I just hope that letter wasn't some stupid prank by someone.”
Kiki glanced at her watch, noting that it was now forty-five minutes after six, leaving roughly forty-five minutes until the time the mystery man was supposed to show up. Nothing had happened so far that seemed out of the ordinary, which was good news as far as she was concerned. They ordered a couple of drinks to help take the edge off, though Kiki wouldn't let either of them drink until she had dropped two white tablets into each of their drinks, watching them slowly fizz and bubble. “Alright, they are safe to drink. Those tablets wouldn't have dissolved if something fishy was in the drinks. I helped the research and development guys come up with these, the first year I came here,” she added proudly.
“That's really amazing, Kiki,” Melanie said, setting her glass back down on the table. “I didn't realize you were so smart.”
“Well, what can I say?” Kiki asked, shrugging her shoulders while looking immensely pleased with herself. “I didn't spend all those years at university, for pharmaceutical sciences, for nothing.”
“I have to say, I didn't expect you to show up so early,” a familiar voice spoke up from behind them, causing the two women to cut off their conversation and crane their necks upwards to see who it was. Melanie felt her throat immediately go dry as she saw Manu standing there dressed in a freshly ironed white dress shirt and matching pants. With the way that the light reflected off him, he looked like a god. “I hope you haven't been waiting long.”
“Well, I think I will leave you two alone,” Kiki said, slipping out of the bench and waving her fingers at Manu. “You don't mind covering my tab, right?”
“I suppose it is the least I can do to thank for you keeping Melanie company, until I could get here,” Manu said, smirking gently as he took the now empty spot across from Melanie. “Thank you for waiting for me.”
“Where have you been, Manu? You haven't contacted me in almost a month and a half, and suddenly you just leave a letter on my door telling me to meet you here. Why didn't you text me?” Melanie asked, unable to keep the annoyance out of her voice.
“That is why I needed you to come here tonight, Melanie. I was on a mission until this morning, and I couldn't contact you because I had to focus on that mission. Besides, I've discovered something very interesting,” he said, his eyes glinting.
“What did you discover?” Melanie didn't understand what he was getting at, but she had a feeling she knew what he was going to say even before he said it.
“I've discovered who the spy is.” His voice was low, but somehow it felt loud in her ears. Her inner wolf bristled, and her hands clenched into fists as her jaw tensed.
“Who is it?” She did her best to keep her voice low, and her heart beat so loudly that she felt as if she could hear the pounding of the ocean within her own skull.
The name was like a soft curse word when he spoke it, and the pounding in her ears suddenly cleared enough for her to hear him say it.
“Selena.”
Chapter Nine
The first moment, when Melanie realized that something was wrong, was when she looked up and saw that there were no patrons, aside from them, in the restaurant any more. Even the wait staff seemed to have disappeared without a trace. The sudden silence came as a noticeable change from the volume that had been in the restaurant up until then. She heard Manu let out a gentle huff, followed by him cursing softly under his breath.
“I should have known.”
“What?” Melanie asked, but her answer came in the form of the front door to the restaurant being thrown open, and multiple men dressed in dark cloaks burst into the room. “What's going on?”
“Isn't it obvious?” came a feminine voice from the doorway. Melanie's heart sank in her chest as her eyes fell on Selena. The green-eyed woman was smiling coldly and the gaze she fixed on Melanie was filled with hatred. “Now that the two of you have discovered my secret, you can't very well just walk out of here alive.”
“Selena, why? I thought you were a shifter like the rest of us,” Manu said, pushing himself out of his seat and rising to his feet. “How could you do this to us?”
“Me? A dirty shifter like the rest of you?” Selena's laugh didn't hold a speck of amusement – the sound coming out harsh and twisted. “If I had even a speck of your mongrel blood flowing through my veins, I would have thrown myself from a bridge years ago.” She spoke with such vitriol that Melanie couldn't help but wince slightly.
“I thought you were one of us, Selena. I thought you wanted humans and shifters to live together,” Manu said, his hands clenched into trembling fists at his side now. “You told me that you wanted to do it for your sister.”
“Oh, do you mean the sister that was killed and raped by one of you shifters?” Selena asked softly, the hatred in her eyes burning ever brighter as she spoke. “You expected me to want to keep a race of brutes safe, who use their abilities to consistently break the law and harm others? Don't make me laugh. This was just a cushy job that I would have been stupid not to take advantage of. And then, I was approached by someone who was willing to pay me far more than I would ever make here. All I had to do in return was to give the government the location of headquarters. Seemed like a pretty good deal to me. Now I can sit back and watch as every last one of you monsters are hunted down and exterminated like the rabid beasts that you are, and I will finally have peace of mind.”
Melanie finally managed to find her voice, her eyes narrowing gently. “Were you the one who leaked that I was a shifter to the Enforcers? Is that why they came after me at work?”
Selena's smirk was one of the ugliest, most twisted things Melanie had ever seen.
“That’s right. I hoped that they would manage to catch you before you got out of Barnaby's office, but it seemed Manu there was too fast for that. However, that hardly matters now,” she said, and the sound of multiple guns being cocked echoed around the room. “Do you have any last words before I send you to your maker?”
“You cost Barnaby his wife,” Manu said softly, something in his tone causing Selena and her cronies to take a collective step back. “That sweet old man has never done harm to anyone, and you took the one person who meant the most to him.” Manu was growling as he spoke, fur slowly beginning to erupt from his beneath his skin to form the shaggy pelt of a wolf. H
is mouth and nose merged together, pushing outward to form the telltale lupine muzzle, and his lips pulled back to reveal a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth.
“If it makes you feel any better, I plan on having him join his wife soon enough. Once I'm done with you two, I will give the word for the rest of my Enforcers to storm the place. I've already shut off the outside security systems, so they should have no trouble getting in here,” she said, her laughter echoing eerily around the room.
“I'm afraid that won't be happening, Selena.” Manu growled, his transformation into a wolf-man now complete. He took a step forward, flexing his claws. “If you want your foolish plan to go any further, you are going to have to go through me.”
“With pleasure,” Selena said, raising her pistol and centering it on Manu's chest. She paused for a moment before smirking, and then turned her pistol to point at Melanie, instead. “However, I think I will enjoy killing the woman you love first. It is always such a joyful feeling to deprive one of their lover. I can't tell you the joy I felt when I shot Barnaby's wife point blank. He won't even know it was me because I wore a mask the whole time.”
“Perhaps you shouldn't have admitted that last part so gleefully.” Manu said, his eyes gazing past Selena and her goons, as a shadow fell across the doorway of the restaurant. The battle cry that followed would be enough to send shivers up even Melanie's spine. A few of the men turned and tried to fire their weapons, but they were attacked by a myriad of shifters. Melanie recognized big cats of many different breeds, a variety of lupine and canine shifters, and a few bears as well. There were a few screams as some of the men tried to turn their weapons on the new arrivals, but the shifters were far too fast for them.
Selena cast a glance at Manu before turning and bolting out of the front door of the restaurant. Manu glanced back at Melanie, who nodded at him as her own body began to shift into her wolf form. Pure white fur erupted across her skin. A tail shot out of the base of her spine, even as her joints shifted and changed into those of a wolf.
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