THE AIR IN THE LOUNGE seems to have being sucked away along with Hiram as he retreats to the elevators. Casselba stands shaking on her feet in the resting area.
Caden walks in shortly. He spies her shivering frame and in a split-second the man appears by her side. He spots horripilation dotting her arms. Obviously, she was terrified.
Why? The handsome CEO contemplates, looking around. He finds nothing and cannot fathom the reason for her sudden freeze. Caden moves closer.
"Casselba, are you alright?" he asks.
When she doesn't reply, he certainly knows something is wrong.
"I ended the meeting as soon as I heard you were around," he goes on, lowering her petrified form back to the couch by the wall.
The young woman remains frozen with steel-gray eyes seemingly staring at nothing.
"Casselba, you're scaring me," Caden says to her face now gradually drained of color.
He follows her eyes to a spot just outside the office. The spot where he had stood minutes ago with the owner of the new company Hallow Corporation wanted to acquire.
Seeing the evident fear in her eyes, his brilliant mind quickly connects the dots.
... Casselba's apprehension after their meeting.
... Her rigid state now.
... The man's fucking name... Hiram Arespoulos.
It had all been right there in front of him. Up until that moment, Caden had remained clueless to this fact. The fact that the man who just left his FUCKING office is the same fucker that had hurt Casselba.
The very same Hiram he had sent Ren to find.
It'd been so obvious, yet so hidden. If not for Casselba's wide eyes and frozen state, he would never have guessed that the man who seemed all calm and cool was the very same man who had hurt the lovely woman beside him.
Hiram might be a werewolf but was also a 'snake' through and through.
Caden didn't know what he had done but Casselba's shivers confirm his fears. The bastard hurt her. From her shaken form, he guesses some sort of trauma.
Caden immediately wraps his arms around her, pulling her to him.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know. I'm sorry," he whispers, burrowing her close to him.
He becomes glad when the shivers subside a little.
Casselba on the other hand is furious at her reaction to seeing Hiram again. She had expected that the next time she would see him, she would be brave and bold to send him to the Afterlife. But here she is, shivering in the arms of a human.
It angered her greatly that Caden had to witness this particular weak moment of hers. She had sworn that gloomy day in the Woods of Los Padres that she wouldn't be weak.
...that she wouldn't be a flower or a spring, but a choking thorn and a waterfall. The Storm to sweep away the Ferals.
Yet when she had seen Hiram, what had her wolf done? It had shrank back in fear, reaching for the smallest corner under her skin. This makes Casselba wonder how in the world she was to face this Feral wolfman if she can't even hold her fear in his presence.
Seeing him up close had nearly sent her into cardiac arrest. Inwardly, Casselba knows why he'd affected her to such unrest. She had suspected it after she had awakened to the cold corpses of over a dozen werewolves that bloody night in the Woods.
Seeing such carnage had given her what the humans call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. To Casselba, it's more of 'Blood-scares-the-shit-out-of-me' Syndrome; but she had to deal with it.
If she ever hoped of getting into a fight with the Ferals and getting out alive, or at least alive until she could get her revenge, flushing out the demons left in her head seems to be the first step.
Ironically, Casselba is glad she met with him. Now that she is fully certain she has PTSD, she has to find a way to overcome it before going 'mano a mano' with the most territorial supernaturals in the history of mankind.
Her thoughts focus once more on the present and she feels strong arms wrapped around her. The shivers have calmed and she is able to move her limbs once more.
Casselba turns.
On meeting Caden's hazel eyes, she abruptly jerks away, scooting the distance to the edge of the red sofa. It's obvious she wants to be far from him. Caden comprehends this and his next words are a question.
"What's wrong? Are you okay?"
Casselba narrows her eyes at him and for a second, they flash amber. Caden immediately recognizes the canine eyes, noticing she's angry and asks again.
"Casselba, what's going on?"
This time she replies with a question of her own.
"Do you know him?"
"No," Caden enunciates the word.
Casselba seeks the truth in his brown irises even though she already knows he would never lie to her. If he did, she would sense it in their psychic connection.
Caden waits a beat before going on.
"I only knew he was the HIRAM from our conversation when I saw you freeze. His name didn't stand out to me during our meeting. I guess you wouldn't be able to see something unless you're looking for it."
Casselba shifts a little on the sofa.
"So you don't work with him?"
"No, Casselba. I definitely do not work with him. This is my first day of meeting him."
Casselba narrows her eyes in suspicion. Something didn't add up. Something wasn't right. Why did Hiram choose to suddenly appear in her life? And why in Caden's office?
The answer soon hit her clear as day.
...The man knew she had human mates.
As was the barbaric code of the Ferals, he was coming for them. His appearance, subtle as it is, was a threat.
Casselba lifts her gray eyes back to Caden.
"What did he want?"
Caden sighs, reclining against the rear of the sofa as he gives his reply.
"I'm trying to acquire a Green Energy company, and as the Head of one of the interested parties he came to fly his idea by me."
"What's the name of this company?" Casselba asks next.
"The A. Group."
She smirks then at Caden's reply. Could the man be any more obvious? What he meant as subtlety was clearly open to her ingenious mind. Casselba thrived in enigma. She was a Professor for chris'sake.
"Why are you suddenly grinning?" Caden asks, squinting at her.
Casselba still holds her smile as she replies.
"Because clearly the 'A' in the A. Group stands for Arespoulos."
Caden smiles then. Casselba always found new ways to stun him. Her nubian beauty and mind-blowing genius were just the tip of the iceberg with her.
Staring at her sitting across from him on the banquette, he was glad she visited for he had missed her. Apart from their beautiful mind link, he loved to just stare into those gorgeous gray eyes.
"Can I hold you now?" he asks, cocking an eyebrow.
She gives him no reply. However, her lips twitch and Caden takes this as a yes. He moves across the sofa to her and gathers her once more into his arms.
"I'm sorry," he breathes into her hair, caressing the soft dark waves.
The spilling length fills his hands and he smooths down the strands. Casselba discovers she loves his long fingers in her hair and leans deeper into his solid warmth.
"I will break all ties with the A. Group or whatever he chooses to call himself next, I promise," Caden whispers, placing a light kiss on her forehead.
Casselba finds herself blushing at his gentlemanly gesture. Clearly, Caden Hallow; CEO of Hallow Corporation doesn't do cliché but it seemed she was the exception.
Lifting her head, she gazes into his eyes. Just like that, in his hot stare, office sex flashes into her mind. She had her lupine hormones to thank for that.
She wets her lips with a swift swipe of her tongue. Caden's bedarkened gaze pins on this subtle movement and his eyes go fierce, liquid and metallic. They're about to kiss when the door to the Lounge flies open. Adelaide walks in.
"I'm sorry Sir," she starts, noticing she interrupted something. "...but you have a call."
Caden sits up, his eyes narrowing. Adele wouldn't disturb him if it wasn't urgent.
"Who is it?" he asks.
"It's from Ren, Sir," his Assistant replies.
"Put it through," Caden says, standing up.
Adele nods and hurriedly exits the lounge area. Caden walks to the glass walls and presses down on a button to the side.
A thin black film slides over the four corners of the office, making the glass tinted. The once see-through office walls become dark and opaque. The Lounge was obviously built to accommodate open and private meetings.
"It's coming through on the flatscreen, Sir," Adele's voice sounds through the intercom.
"It's a video call?" Caden asks.
"Yes Sir."
He looks to the large 64-inch flatscreen hung high on the wall in front of the red sofa. About five seconds later, the TV lights up and Ren's face fills the massive screen.
...But it's not at all what Caden expects.
Ren's left eye is swollen as a light bulb, metaphor excluded. His neck had large gashes as if bear paws had strangled him. The poor man sat tied up on a wooden chair. Frankly, the person in the video resembled some terrorist hostage and not at all the Head of Security he knew.
Ren Curtis was a skilled fighter, with years of miltary experience so Caden knows whoever his captors were, they had to be stronger to gain advantage over the Japanese ex-soldier.
"Trace the call!" Caden fires into the intercom where Adele waits at the other end.
His face is a mask of wrath, and from the corner of his eyes, he spies Casselba frozen again on the sofa. Caden paces the room.
"...Get me his current location. I want to know who the fuck kidnapped—"
Caden is suddenly interrupted by a deep voice from the flatscreen.
...that voice. He knew that voice. He had heard it just moments ago in his conference room. Casselba's eyes widen. She definitely knew the voice. It was the eerie whisper of a killer. The Werewolf Murderer.
"You don't need to look far, Mr. Hallow," the voice drones.
Two pairs of eyes; Caden's and Casselba's focus on the TV screen as Hiram walks out of the shadows behind Ren's chained form.
Caden stands perplexed as he watches the man grip Ren's shoulder. Black claws dig into Ren's flesh, and blood soon soaks the spot on his shirt.
Casselba had told him nothing of Hiram yet but looking to Ren's bleeding, broken body, he could clearly see why she feared him.
"Your bodyguard is quite formidable, Mr. Hallow..." Hiram begins, his voice the soft danger of a psychotic serial killer.
"...but our kind have existed on this planet long before you little Homo Sapiens. We are the Apex. It was a weak bloodline of even weaker runts that sired your species. You spineless humans..."
The word 'human' leaves his lips like he distastes the very mention of it. In spread lips, canines sharp as a tiger's nick his gums.
"...Now, you will listen clearly, Mr. Hallow. If you want your precious bardash bodyguard alive, here are our conditions. First, you will accept the offer to merge with the A. Group. Then, you will also deliver that errant excuse of a She-wolf by your side to us..."
The man still stood in his crisp business suit from earlier as he makes this announcement.
"You have until tonight," he finishes.
Before Caden could even think to say anything, the screen blacks out.