It wasn’t like Mark to mince his words. He hadn’t risen through the ranks by being diplomatic, or a soft touch. He had gained the position of station chief in the London headquarters of Archangel by being a hard-nosed, take-no-shit hunter who didn’t know when to quit.
So why was he dancing around whatever he wanted to tell her?
“Is this about what happened to me?”
He shook his head, causing threads of his sandy hair to fall down and brush his brow. He swept it back and scrubbed the back of his neck before loosening his black tie and undoing the top button of his white shirt.
“It’s about you getting what you deserve.”
Emelia wasn’t sure whether that sounded ominous or not. Coupled with the vague text he had sent her that had only asked her to come back to HQ immediately for a meeting, she was leaning towards ominous.
Did he know she was having doubts about Archangel? Did he know she had been meeting Wolf and keeping it secret from them because she didn’t want them turning their sights on him?
“What would you say if I was to show you this?” He pushed off the desk and rounded it to the other side, and her heart began a painful rhythm in her throat as he opened a drawer and looked in it.
Her mind conjured photographs of her with Wolf. With everything that had been happening recently with Sable and Olivia, and now Anais, she could only imagine how badly Archangel would react to discovering she was growing close to an angel.
One who had entered their headquarters twice without authorisation and had attempted to take their best hunter from them by force.
But it wasn’t photographs that Mark pulled from the drawer.
It was a rectangular black box.
He held it out in front of him and opened it, revealing the contents.
A gold pin.
Her pulse shot into overdrive as recognition hit her, and her gaze leaped up to meet his. “You’re kidding.”
His grey eyes remained serious. “I assure you, this is real. In light of your recent achievements, dedication to our cause, and continued hard work, we reviewed your position and decided you were the right choice for the role that just opened up.”
A commander.
It was everything she had ever wanted, but as she stared at the gold pin nestled among the black velvet, she couldn’t help but feel she was only being offered the position and the chance to lead her own squad of hunters because Sable was leaving.
And because her superiors pitied her after everything she had been through.
Not only that, but she was one of only a handful of experienced hunters left after the war in the Third Realm of the demons and several incidents in Hell and this world.
Mark pulled the pin from the presentation box and walked around the desk to her. She stared at it as he held it out to her, unsure what to say.
Did she care that she was getting this role now, when she was probably one of only a few suitable candidates?
Not really.
Did she care that she might be getting chosen for it over the other hunters because of what she had been through in Hell?
Absolutely.
“This isn’t about that,” Mark said on a sigh as he withdrew the pin, clearly catching her train of thought. “I can understand why you might think it, Emelia, but it isn’t. This promotion has been a long time coming, and you deserve it.”
She raised her eyes from the pin to his. Belief shone in their depths. Mark had always championed her, putting her forward for the role of commander more than once. The committee had always decided in favour of another. She guessed persistence won, though, or whoever had been against her had been removed from the council.
Or maybe they pitied her.
Mark certainly didn’t.
He curled his fingers around the pin. “You can take it or not. It’s up to you, Emelia. You earned this based on your merits, not on anything else. Never think that. You’ve worked towards this moment the entire time you’ve been with Archangel, so don’t let those doubts I can see in your eyes ruin it. You’ve been the best candidate for promotion for the last few years, but the idiots are only just seeing that now that two of the people they chose have screwed up.”
He wasn’t talking about Sable now. One of the hunters in question had gone rogue, using his team to take out targets not on Archangel’s list. The other had gone mercenary, dealing death in exchange for cold hard cash and using Archangel’s resources to make it happen.
There was corruption in every corner of Archangel these days.
It was getting hard to see who was still loyal to the organisation and its creed.
Emelia reached out and took the pin. It was warm in her fingers, far heavier than it had appeared, and she felt the weight of it as she looked down at it.
A commander.
This small pin gave her the power she had always wanted, the ability to help shape Archangel and keep it on the right path, and she would do her best to serve it and make that happen. She wouldn’t let the bad seeds steer it wrong or destroy it, turning it into something evil.
“Return whenever you’re ready, and we’ll have the squad picked out for you. I’m afraid you’ll have to handle some new blood. Think you’re up to the task of wrangling some rookies?”
She nodded, her eyes still locked on the pin. “They won’t know what hit them.”
Mark grinned at that. “Hazing the rookies always was the best part of being on the front line.”
He looked as if he missed being in the thick of the action whenever he smiled like that with a wistful edge to his grey eyes.
“Get out of here.” He waved her towards the door. “Before I start telling tales of the days when some of the serving members of the council were greenhorns and the shit we pulled on them.”
Emelia rose to her feet, nodded and drifted towards the door, her focus fixed on the pin she clutched in her palm.
She couldn’t wait to tell Wolf.
She paused outside the office as that thought hit her, rapidly followed by another. She was so comfortable around Wolf now, had enjoyed the time they had been spending together and she hadn’t been afraid when she had touched him.
The feel of his strong jaw beneath her fingers, the light dusting of dark stubble that coated it scratching at her palms, and how warm his skin had been had thrilled her.
And how he had looked at her.
Damn, his silver irises had been glowing, gold edging them as he had stared deep into her eyes, his holding her immobile, unable to move a muscle as she fell into them.
Desire had darkened them, pulling her deeper under his spell, and she had ached for the kiss they had promised.
Still ached for it.
She wanted to see him again.
Tired as she was from so much travelling, she made her way back down through the building in the heart of London and exited it. She strolled through the courtyard, taking in the cool night air as she made her way to the other side of the building. A few of the hunters she passed that were relaxing in the courtyard, taking a break from their work, nodded and she returned it, a new bounce in her step as she clutched the pin.
She hadn’t realised how badly she had needed this lift until it had happened. Now, her outlook had changed, her future seeming brighter and her past further away.
She pushed the door to the other wing of the sandstone building open and made her way down to the underground parking lot. It was quiet, only a few of the black fleet vans and SUVs out on patrol. She walked past the two lines of spaces reserved for them and tiptoed as she tried to remember where she had parked her car.
When she found it, her thoughts shifted back to Wolf while her feet carried her over to it. She didn’t notice as she entered it, or as she drove it out of London. Didn’t notice the songs that were playing on the radio as she thought about Wolf, part of her hoping he would be waiting for her.
And that he hadn’t returned to Hell.
She wasn’t sure how she could convince him to give
up his mission, but she knew she had to do it, before it was too late. Hell was affecting him. He couldn’t hide that from her, not anymore. She had seen the black feathers and how dark he had grown when his mood had shifted.
She had seen the shadows that had writhed around his legs.
Now more than ever, she needed to speak with Sable, but she wasn’t sure her friend could help her. Not anymore. What was happening with Wolf was probably beyond the limited knowledge of angels her friend had gained and into the territory of her fallen angel contact. If Emelia could speak with the female angel, maybe she would be able to find a way to halt the spread of those black feathers. She didn’t know much about angels, but she knew fallen ones had black wings, and something told her she needed to stop him from gaining any more tainted feathers.
Was there something she could do to slow their spread?
He had told her once that she calmed him, that he came to her whenever things got too tough for him and he needed her to soothe his darker side, to ground him and give him the strength to fight back against his urges.
If she asked him to stay for a while with her, would it purge the darkness from his soul?
Would he even consider it?
He was bent on going to Hell and hunting down Zephyr. She had watched that need as it had grown inside him like an infection, a disease that had stolen control from him, making him a slave to his desire to kill the dragon. Now, she wasn’t sure whether he would stay if she asked it of him.
He had denied her the few times she had tried to convince him to leave the dragon alone and stay out of Hell.
Talking to him wasn’t going to make him change his mind, that much was clear.
Her heart started a hard pounding against her ribs as she pulled to a halt on the gravel drive of the manor house.
If talking wouldn’t convince him to let it go, to at least take a break and stay with her for a while, would something else?
Her hands shook against the steering wheel, conflict flooding her as her body heated at the same time as her mind shrieked at her to not even consider it, she wasn’t strong enough to do it. He would hurt her. Be cruel to her.
She closed her eyes and rested her forehead against the top of the steering wheel, between her hands.
Wolf would never hurt her.
She knew that in her heart and she had to listen to it, not to the instincts Zephyr had created in her.
She had wanted that kiss, and she wanted so much more too. She wanted to be brave again, to seize the moment and the object of her desire and not let go. She wanted to take the risk, make the leap, and she knew it would be worth it.
Wolf would catch her.
She just had to keep her nerve and not listen to that damned voice.
Zephyr had hurt her, physically and emotionally, mentally, but he hadn’t broken her. She was still strong. Still brave. Wolf had shown her that and so much more. He had shown her she could still laugh. Still smile.
Still love.
She switched off the engine and pushed the door open. The gravel crunched under her boots as she stepped out of the car and closed the door. It slammed, the sound loud in the still night.
Emelia stared at the old mansion. Her home. Strange how she had always avoided it, and now she couldn’t wait to return here whenever she was away.
Because of Wolf.
Part of her felt this was more than her home now. It was becoming theirs, the place where they always met, where he was relaxed around her and she was at peace. A world away from their own ones. Here, she wasn’t a hunter for Archangel. Here, he wasn’t a warrior of Heaven.
They were just Emelia and Wolf.
Two people fighting against falling in love.
It was time she gave up that fight.
And she would make him give up too.
She skirted the illuminated sandstone building, following the path that led around the back. The lights were on inside the pool house and she frowned, an uneasy feeling trickling through her.
She hadn’t left the lights on.
Her steps slowed and she had half a mind to return to her car and get the weapons she kept in the boot.
But then the most glorious sight she had ever seen strolled out of the open door, seven feet of pure masculine beauty in nothing more than a pair of tight black trunks.
CHAPTER 21
Wolf froze mid-step, his silver gaze wide as it swung to land on her.
“Making yourself at home?” Emelia couldn’t stop the words from leaving her lips, and the teasing way they came out startled her, bringing a smile to her lips as that sense of comfort she always felt around Wolf chased away her momentary panic that it was a burglar.
Or worse.
Emelia shoved the dragon out of her head.
He wasn’t here, and he would be dead if he came to her now. Wolf would see to that.
So she was safe.
Although, there was a barely clothed warrior staring at her as if he wanted to tangle with her.
Every muscle on his powerful torso tensed and flexed as he breathed, a mesmerising symphony that kept drawing her eyes downwards.
“I was… I came back and you were not here, and I was bored waiting.” He looked down at his tiny shorts that left very little to her imagination and the white towel he clutched in his left hand, and then at her. “I thought I would swim.”
The bolder part of herself thought that sounded like a good idea.
She’d had the pool cleaned only a few days ago and hadn’t had the chance to test it out.
It didn’t seem fair that Wolf got to be the first to swim in it when it was her hard-earned money that had paid for it to be cleaned and filled, and the heater fixed.
“Stay right there.” She pointed to his feet.
He had big feet. They shifted as she stared at them, one lifting and then the other, and she realised she was making him uneasy with her gawping, so she hurried inside. She stripped off her jacket as she climbed the stairs and tossed it onto the couch in the small living room area.
She looked down at the pin in her hand, a slow smile curling her lips. She was a commander now. The same rank Wolf held. She was going to tease the hell out of him about that, because she felt she was going to need to do something to lighten the mood when she walked out and jumped in that pool.
Her swimsuit was modest as two pieces went, but the thought of wearing only the plum-coloured shorts and halter-style top in front of a man had her nerves threatening to rise to panic point.
She breathed through it as she dug the swimsuit out of her bags in the bedroom.
When she laid the top and bottom out on the dark wine covers of her double bed, nerves shot to panic so fast, she felt ready to pass out. She fought for air, battling her emotions at the same time, wrestling to get herself under control.
It was only a swim.
She had wound herself up thinking about kissing Wolf, but now that wasn’t necessary. He was here, and he looked as if he meant to stay. The pressure was off. She could keep him here by swimming with him, giving him a chance to relax and hopefully recover from the effects of Hell, at least enough that those black feathers stopped spreading.
She switched off her emotions by focusing on her task, removing her T-shirt, boots, and jeans, and then her underwear, and stepping into the shorts of her swimsuit. She tugged them up and smoothed them over her backside and hips, and followed them with the top. She did up the front fastening and left the cups barely clinging to her breasts as she twisted her dark hair into a knot at the back of her head. Her hands shook as she grabbed the two long thick ties of her top and pulled them up, tying them at her nape in a bow.
Glancing at herself in the mirrored doors of the built-in wardrobes was a mistake.
She froze, her breaths coming faster as she stared at her reflection.
At the scars on her thighs and over her right shoulder.
Emelia tore her gaze away, squeezed her eyes shut, and just breathed.
She wasn’
t the only one with scars. Wolf had them too. They criss-crossed his chest and darted across his thighs, visible beneath the dusting of dark hair. He wouldn’t see her scars and judge her. He wouldn’t.
She forced herself to move as she opened her eyes, through the living room and down the stairs, and hesitated for only a moment in the lower room of the pool house. She flicked on the underwater pool lights and grabbed a towel from the pile, giving herself a second to draw up her courage and seize hold of it so it wouldn’t fail her, and then strode out of the open door.
Wolf’s eyes immediately leaped to her, sending a hot shiver cascading over her as he raked them down her, from her head to her bare toes.
“I thought I would swim too.” She scurried past him, deeply aware of his gaze on her, how he tracked her as she moved towards the illuminated pool.
She tossed the towel on one of the wooden loungers beside the pool, twisted, and dived into the water. She swam as far as she could beneath the surface, letting her breath out little by little as her tight lungs relaxed.
Wolf continued to track her, hunting her through the water.
When she breached the surface and drew down a deep breath, her panic faded to a trickle, nothing more than background noise as the water lapped around her. She kicked her feet and moved her arms, swishing them back and forth to keep herself stationary.
Wolf prowled along the front of the pool house, the lights on the outside of it chasing over him as he stalked towards her, his eyes on her the entire time.
“So you’ll never guess what Mark wanted.” She kept treading water, fighting the heat that began to build in her veins as he continued staring at her.
He stopped at the edge of the pool, towering over her, imposing even without his wings. “What did the human want?”
She frowned at the way he said that. Was he trying to distinguish himself from Mark by pointing out her boss was human? She could see no other reason for it. He wanted her aware that Mark was a mortal and he was an immortal. Did he believe she would think he was better than a human because of that mere fact alone?
Or was he just jealous because she was talking about another man and he wanted her to be more impressed with him, wanted to keep her interested by playing on his strengths and pointing out differences between him and Mark?
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