Wolves and Men

He snapped his head around toward his mate. He didn’t care that he was screaming at her, he didn’t care about anything right then. “Where the hell were those cheap ass security mercs we paid so much for? How the hell did that happen?!”

Natalia ducked her head, avoiding making eye contact with him. “The security force was there relatively soon. They had the perpetrators in sight. They fired hundreds of rounds but the perpetrators were able to set fire to the place using the boiler and by sabotaging the emergency release valves, it caused an explosion that set fire to the place.”

“Who were they, Natalia? ANSWER ME!!!”

She bowed her head again; eyes were glued to the ground. “They were werewolves, my mate.”

Of COURSE they were werewolves! He ripped a mirror off the wall and threw it down the hallway. The mirror shattered into a thousand beautiful shards that caught the light from the crystals of the chandeliers above. Natalia watched them fall back to the ground, afraid to look at Kenneth.

“Why? What in the hell is going on? Why would the wolves break the peace now? They haven’t done anything like this for over a year, maybe two or three. Why DO THIS NOW?!!” Kenneth put his hand through a wall. His ongoing frustration with Ansuya downstairs and now this was all just a little too much for him to handle. His plans would still be in motion, there was nothing that could stop that now, but these minor irritants were infuriating. And he knew that Alessandro would call on him to check out the two locations and do an assessment of loses and time tables for when the two operations could be back up and running. He hated finding out about these things so long after they had already happened.

“Alright, there is nothing I can do about this now. I’m… I’m going to bed…” He stopped and turned back toward his mate. He lifted her chin so that her eyes met with his. “You will be with me tonight.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes, my mate, I will,” she answered. There was fear in her eyes but obedience in her voice. Ever since he had sent her on her little escapade, she had taken on a very demure behavior around him. That pleased him. She had been taking too many liberties with his patience as of late. It was good that she remembered where it was she stood in the natural order of things. And if that understanding took a little chunk out of her fiery personality, that was a sacrifice that he was willing to make. She was his mate, not the other way around.

* * *

The next sunset he was up and ready to face whatever task that Alessandro would no doubt contact him about. He had other things to do today, but if his House Head called upon his services, who was he to refuse. Only a fool disobeyed his master.

He left Natalia in the bathroom. “Natalia, I want you to inject a double dose of the drug into Ansuya tonight. And only cut it with 500 mg of the dopamine, we don’t want her too comfortable down there just enough to continue the process.”

“I understand, Kenneth. It will be as you say,” she said quietly.

He smiled at her response and the way it had been delivered. It was really nice to not have to worry about the loyalty of his own people, especially the ones closest to him. After all trust was a scared covenant between mates. If he couldn’t trust her, he couldn’t trust anybody.

Michael was waiting out in the front drive with the Jaguar, idling beautifully and ready to go. He allowed Michael to open the door for him and he slid onto the leather seats. Michael took the driver’s seat and they were on the road in moments.

It had been a while since he had ridden in this car. The leather and the clean smell of the vehicle reminded him of why he loved the car so much. Driving was so passé anyway, why drive when one could be driven. If you control the driver, are you not also in control of the car?

“Michael, we need to make a visit to Advanced Cell Technologies. I need to check up on our dear doctor Swaan,” he said with mock concern.

Michael looked into the rearview mirror and nodded his head once. The car shifted lanes and moved through traffic with a purpose. Michael was an expert driver. He could handle a Formula One car if given the chance. In fact, that had been where he and Michael and first met, at a race track.

Michael was so young and full of energy and he wanted to prove Formula One was a sport. His body was in great shape, much better than most drivers, though his car was tenth rate at best. His sponsors included a cereal company and some synthetic motor oil company that went bankrupt that year. He had a snowball’s chance in hell of ever making it past his first year in Formula One, no matter how good he was. It had been a mercy to ‘talk’ him out of professional driving and into construction contracting. He made a pretty decent income, had twenty people work for him, and he still got to drive cars. It really had been for the best, all things considered.

Michael pulled up to the labs on the outskirts of the city. Kenneth checked his phone and Alessandro still had not called for him to attend to either incident from last night. That was a little troublesome. Alessandro had always turned to him for this kind of thing. He had the contacts to deal with the wolves. His network had led him to over fifteen Shape shifters in the last few months alone. He was the closest thing to an expert on the wolves that Alessandro had, and the old man knew it.

Kenneth smiled to himself. Even if Alessandro somehow thought he could solve this problem by going around him and his resources, the old man would eventually come around and give him the job. The problem with having a pupil who was smarter than you was that you had to rely on them more and more till they had all the power in the relationship.