Dontae’s jaw tightened. “Of course not,” he grunted.
“You stopped that robbery a month ago when that old lady was tied up in her house! How is this any different?”
“I didn’t…finish the job.”
The room went silent.
“Yeah. Well, I did.” Nathaniel flipped around and made for the door.
“Nate. Come back,” Darik called after him.
“Fuck him.” Nathaniel slammed the door. As he strode to the stairs, he paused. Inside, with a voice so low only a werewolf could hear, Darik confessed, “You’re still hung up on Catherine, that’s your problem. Not every woman cheats and lies, Dontae. When are you going to make room for that?”
There was only silence. Nathaniel headed down the stairs, realizing they were probably listening to his exit. Or at least Dontae would be; he was no fool. He’d been one for Catherine, and Darik was right, he wouldn’t let it go. Now he was on high alert for anyone doing anything they couldn’t say aloud and with pride. Nathaniel didn’t have to explain himself for wanting to see Michelle today. Last night’s actions were his pack’s business, but he didn’t see how seeing her had anything to do with Dontae. The mere implied power he tried to exert over Nathaniel was offensive and out of line. They were their own wolves, equals. A fact that all four understood.
Fuck Dontae.
Chapter Five
By Wednesday, Michelle was kicking herself for not getting his last name. Sure, she didn’t want to get into a cab with a stranger no matter how hot he was, but she could have suggested instead that they go get a coffee and chat, or something! At the same time, his being unable or unwilling to explain his appearance made her angry all over again.
Back and forth went her emotions over the passing days. As she sat outside Moore Designs waiting for her client to come out and join her, she typed away on her laptop on the bench, muttering more than once, “I’m losing my mind.”
“Sorry that took so long!”
Michelle looked up to find thirty-something Laura Moore smiling, her red hair all wild, wavy and fabulous. Her outfit was to die for, one of her own creations. She had a funky hipness to her clothing style that didn’t lack elegance. It was what a hipster would wear when they grew up a little and decided to wash their hair.
Closing her laptop, Michelle rose up to give a hug. “You look so cool.”
“Me? Look at you!” Laura motioned to Michelle’s burgundy wrap dress and brown boots. “I love this!”
Laughing and pleased, Michelle admitted, “I feel like I have to step it up a notch when I come to meet with you in person.”
Laura waved her away like a friend would, and cocked a red eyebrow. “Want to get a drink and talk about what you’ve got planned? Karrie can watch over the place just fine.” She leaned into the shop and called out, “Karrie! I’ll be back in an hour or so. Make sure it doesn’t burn down!”
“You got it!” her associate shouted back.
Laura winked. “Fun! Let’s go!”
They walked to a local restaurant that had a full bar and while Michelle wouldn’t normally have a drink during work hours, this was her client and in a way her boss, so…best job ever. As the bartender leaned in, she was pleased to hear Laura inquire as to whether they carried Trefethen Chardonnay, one of Michelle’s delicious favorites.
“We have that by the glass.”
“Two, please.” Laura turned on her bar stool and crossed her legs. “So, what have you got for me?”
The women talked about marketing for the boutique at first, but as they were halfway into their first glass they were laughing so much that business was soon forgotten.
“Yes, you should have seen his face!” Laura mimicked her ex-husband’s reaction, lowering her voice. “'Do you know how many clothing stores there are in New York? You might as well throw money into the Hudson!’”
Michelle laughed, “Once I was dating a guy who told me that because I was a woman, corporations wouldn’t take me seriously! There was no way I’d get anywhere big with my business. Can you believe that? In this day and age? I mean, he’s right that sexism is still alive and well, but as if that ever stopped us!”
Laura rolled her eyes. “Don’t they know we woman have been fighting for everything we’ve gotten since the dawn of time? Look at Eve! She wasn’t going to just sit in that garden looking pretty. She made a deal with the devil to get what she wanted.”
Michelle cracked up, shaking her head. “I guess you’re right!”
“Well, I knew when he told me that, he would never take me seriously and didn’t know who he was married to! You have to find someone who helps you keep your sparkle, and that man wasn’t him.”
They clinked glasses in a good-riddance toast. “I can’t believe you were already married. I haven’t found the guy yet.”
“Well, apparently neither have I!” Laura glanced over as a couple of men sat down on barstools to their right. They returned her look, but she wasn’t impressed and gave all her charismatic attention back to Michelle. “Is there anyone in your life?”
“I met someone last weekend, but…it’s not going to go anywhere. He was a little strange.”
“Strange good or strange bad?”
“I’m not sure yet. And now I’ll never know. I don’t even know his last name.” A rueful smile flashed on lips that had lost their lipstick from all her nibbling. “Should we get some food?”
“I had lunch, but I need a snack.” Laura leaned toward the bartender, catching his eye. “Could you give us a couple menus, please?”
He reached beside the cash register where plastic folded menus lay waiting. As he brought them to her, he asked, “Another round?” Laura and Michelle exchanged mischievous looks and both nodded at the same time.
While he got them, Laura shared more of herself easily in a way that Michelle found very refreshing. She was really growing to like this woman and already considered if she and Rose would get along, or if they’d be separate friendships. Mixing people together was like making a good soup, and both women had enough fire to cause a potential explosion. “I married Matthew early, and he wasn’t a bad man, but he just had too many rules set for himself. Those included having a wife who stayed a couple steps behind him. That wasn’t me, but it took me a little while to realize that.”
“You always knew what you wanted, didn’t you? That you were going to design fashion?”
A nostalgic smile lit Laura’s face and she shook her head. “No. At first, I thought I might be a housewife. Matthew made good money, but when I thought of having kids with him, it didn’t feel right. And I had this inspiration eating at me that I couldn’t ignore.”
They thanked the bartender as two new glasses replaced their fingerprinted, empty ones. Michelle waited for him to leave before she asked, “He was competitive with you, then? Is that why he didn’t like the idea of you owning a shop?”
“At first he thought I couldn’t do it. But then when I got the loan, found manufacturers I could afford to have create the designs, found a graphic designer who created my logo, all the beginning foundation pieces, etc., and it was moving forward, that’s when his true colors came out. He became irritable. Snapped at me all the time. He stopped having sex with me…” Her eyes went back to the past. “Except this one time. It was so angry and raw I could feel how mad he was that I wasn’t who he’d wanted me to be. Which, between you and me, was the hottest sex we’d had in the three years since he’d put the ring on.” Her eyes clouded as she looked at the empty space on her finger. “You know when you get married you think it will be forever. I guess sometimes you can’t predict the future.”
“No, but you can still be hopeful and give it your best shot.” Michelle watched as her client nodded, picked up the menu and began to read. It was clear Laura’s mind wasn’t on the printed words before her; she wanted the distraction as the subject had gotten a little painful.
Michelle gently offered, “You loved him.”
Laura glan
ced up from far away. “What? Yes, at first. But it’s more the loss of a dream. That’s the worst thing about divorce.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Laura said with a wave. She perked up with a wicked smile. “I just want to meet a man who can go toe-to-toe with me. I’m telling you, that angry sex? I liked it.” She picked out her red hair, making it wilder with her fingers. “I think I need French Fries.”
Michelle chuckled and realized it was the only sound to be heard besides the quiet background music. Everyone around them was locked on the T.V. screen. She looked at it, curious to see what had the whole room rapt. To her horror, there was a reporter standing outside the alley she’d been attacked in. “Can you turn it up?” The bartender glanced over to her and nodded, grabbed the remote.
The reporter grew louder by the second. “They still haven’t found the animal that killed Gene Carol Williams here a little past 3:30 a.m. last Saturday Night. As we’ve told you, police say the body was torn to shreds, but now we hear that the zoo is denying any animals have escaped, assuring us they are on full lockdown. What was it that killed Gene Carol Williams that night, and are we safe?”
Laura’s voice came through the fog. “So scary.”
Like someone had just packed her gut with ice, Michelle stared at the screen. “Oh my God,” she whispered.
Laura glanced over. “Haven’t you seen this? They’ve been talking about it for days.”
Numb, Michelle shook her head, admitting quietly, “I don’t watch the news.”
Laying down the menu and picking up her fresh glass, Laura shrugged one shoulder. “Smart. It’s always bad anyway. But can you believe it? I think the zoo is lying. I think they caught the beast and don’t want to draw bad press. You’re in marketing, what do you think? Would it be good to tell, or better to keep it secret?”
“Keep it secret,” she mumbled, her mind on the attack.
Blinking to her menu, she did what Laura just had: hid her feelings by focusing on the mundane problem of whether to order sliders or Buffalo wings.
“Your phone’s ringing. Go ahead and grab it. I have to use the ladies room.”
Michelle looked from Laura walking away to her phone silently lighting up on the bar-top. It was a phone number she wasn’t familiar with. Sliding to answer, she heard her voice still shaken as she said, “Michelle Nero.”
“Ms. Nero? We’d like to interview you this Friday. Are you available?”
She sat up straighter, her eyes on the T.V. screen. A commercial was playing and the sound was back down, but Michelle could only see that alley. That was no animal. Animals don’t talk. “Sure. Who is this?”
“My name is Darik. I’m with D.D.E.N. Inc., an architecture firm here in Manhattan.” His calm deep voice lifted the fog. “We hear you’re good at getting new business for your clients and we want to meet you. If you’re free on Friday? Tomorrow we’ll be out of the office.”
“Yes. I am free Friday. And I’m glad for the day to prepare so I can present you with some ideas of how to expand your social presence. Do you have a Facebook page?”
He chuckled then cleared his throat. “No. We have none of those things. That’s why we need to meet you. How’s one o’clock?”
“Fine. You have my phone number so I’m assuming you have my email as well, that you got it off my website?”
He paused. “Yes. I have it in front of me.”
“Fantastic. Will you please send me over whatever information you’re currently using for your brand, and the address I’m to go to? Oh, and perhaps send a few photographs or links to buildings you’ve designed so I can get an idea of your vision, and how best to present that to the world.”
From his tone, she’d impressed him already. “I can do that.”
“Wonderful. I’ll see you then.”
He said goodbye and they hung up.
Michelle ordered the sliders and two orders of French fries. Her mood was lifted and when Laura returned, she saw it. “Good news?”
She said on a wide smile, “Someone referred me to an architecture firm. I’ve never worked with one of those. Should be a challenge. Though it won’t be half as fun as pushing amazing clothing.”
Laura laughed, “Flatterer!”
“I ordered for us.”
“Oh good, I’m starving.” She lifted her glass and held it toward Michelle. “To success.”
“To new friends,” Michelle added.
“Awww…I’ll drink to that!”
They clinked their glasses.
Chapter Six
Darik hung up and looked at his two packmates.
Eli leaned against the office wall. “She’s coming?”
Nodding, Darik glanced over as Dontae interrupted, “I can’t wait.”
Eli was tired of Dontae’s attitude. It didn’t matter that he understood it. They were under enough stress as it was and if everyone could just relax a little, he’d be glad of it. It didn’t look like that was going to happen.
Darik set his phone on his desk. “She sounds very intelligent and good at her job. Nice, too.”
“She’s the one human being who could expose us!” Dontae nearly shouted. “And if you think you can trust a woman, then I don’t know who you are!”
Exasperated, Eli crossed his arms, his suit bunching up a little from its tightness. “She hasn’t come forward yet to the police and from what Nathaniel said, she didn’t see him in his shift. He said she didn’t even look.”
“And you think we can trust…”
“DONTAE!” the two other wolves shouted in unison, over it once and for all.
Darik inhaled deeply. “You know we can trust Nathaniel. No way and I mean NO WAY would he ever put himself or any of us in danger with that kind of lie. If he says she didn’t see his wolf, she didn’t see it.”
“He put us in danger by…”
Cutting him off, Eli growled, “I swear to God, your trust issues are enough to make me want to find Catherine and gut her myself for changing you into this.”
Dontae grimaced at the harsh point hitting home. “I just want to make sure she won’t tell anyone.” Hazel eyes dropped to the floor, and for once he looked vulnerable.
Eli pushed off the wall and smoothed down his jacket to calm himself. “You’ll be able to determine what kind of a woman she is on Friday. Now tomorrow, I’m sleeping in until at least eight at night. I suggest you come join me so I can hold you and make it all better.”
Dontae grumbled and left the room.
Darik and Eli waited until they heard the door to Dontae’s office close, then Eli looked at his bearded friend and said at a lower volume, “Between you and me, I’m not having her here to see if she can be trusted. I just want to get Nathaniel talking again. He hasn’t said a word since Sunday.”
“He’s got it bad. He hasn’t come in today, either. What’s he doing?”
“Who knows?” Sitting in the chair opposite Darik’s desk, Eli added with a tired spirit, “You and I are the only sane ones around here. Let’s do something. Let’s promise to always stay single. Anything else is too messy.”
Darik stretched his arm across the desk. They clasped hands and said together, “Deal.”
Looking to the door with his mind full, Darik leaned back and sighed, “An animal escaped from the zoo. Can you believe it?”
Eli rubbed his head. “We’re lucky so far. They found fur on the body, so…”
“Yeah. It’s a good thing the police don’t know werewolves exist or they’d be checking that evidence more closely. You’d think after all these centuries, human beings would have caught on by now”
Eli nodded, thinking about it. “People like to shove their heads in the sand over things they don’t understand. Or kill it if they’re forced to look.”
Darik frowned. “Do you sometimes wish they knew? Not just the cops…everybody.”
Eli played with a button on his suit jacket. “Yeah. I’ve thought about it. It’d be nice to not hav
e to hide. But can you imagine what society would do if they realized their horror myths were sitting at the table next to them at Dominic’s?”
A sardonic smile spread from Darik. “If they accepted us and knew what we were, and you know, didn’t try to dissect us to see how to heal faster and advance science…it’d make life a very different thing. Like what Nathaniel’s going through. You know he just wants to go and tell her what he is and what he did.”
Eli stared at Darik, surprised he’d figured it out so clearly. “How’d you know that?”
Darik shrugged. “It’s what I would want if I met someone I’d kill for. I’d want her to see me.”
Eli snickered, “You’ve been watching Avatar again.”
Guilty as charged, Darik mumbled, “Well, if the world knew, it would make dating a whole lot easier. I’m just saying.”
“Or harder. Depends. Most women would be scared to death.” Eli cocked his head to the side, his dimple flashing. “But we’re staying single, so what do you care about women and dating?”
Darik restrained a grin. “Right. I forgot about that.”
Smacking his hands on the arms of his chair, Eli rose up and shook his head dramatically. “Fucking women. What they do to us.”
“If they only knew.”
At the closed door, Eli turned around, his smile dropping. “Nathaniel’s not going to like this if it doesn’t work out.”
Darik leaned forward with his hands clasped together, elbows on the desk. “He’ll never know. But this will give us a chance to check her out and see what to do next. If he wants her, we need to meet her and make sure he’s got our best interests at heart. We’re a pack of four, not one.”
“Now you sound like him,” Eli pointed at the door, and both of them knew he was talking about Dontae. “Nathaniel’s our brother. You’ll see.”
After Eli left the room, Darik yelled, “Avatar’s a great film!”
“Softy!” came back the laughing retort.
Werewolves of New York: Nathaniel (Werewolf Shifter Stand-Alone Paranormal Romance Book 1) Page 4