Roane
As I walked out of that room, I had to stop and lean against the wall for support before taking another step.
How the hell had I even made my body work to speak in there? My mind was moving a mile a minute and my heart was racing even faster than that.
Everything was flooding through my thoughts, and I was trying to keep the contents of my stomach where they were.
That girl's words had hit me much harder than I would have liked because while I refused to admit it, I think she may have been right.
Of course, my uncles would have been on board to bring the girl here, they knew something about her that I still didn't.
Was it this? The fact that this girl, and f*ck, she was just a nineteen year old girl, could not only give me access to my wolf, but that she can manipulate the weather?
F*ck! My legs felt like they just might actually give out. How? How was it possible that this girl was so, gods, I didn't even know if strong was the right word to describe her?
Powerful? Dominant? Hell, I couldn't even think of any other words that could be as descriptive as all of these and yet they still didn't feel to be enough.
I had told grandfather that I felt a pull towards her, but it was much more than that. I hadn't' realized how wrong these words were until I came down moments ago.
As soon as I walked into the elevator, I felt it. An urge or desire to come down here, to this floor as soon as I could.
Meetings be damned, I had come straight down to see where I was being led. I should have known it was here.
I had come in, made myself comfortable, and watched as everything unfolded in front of me.
The girl, Lecia had been sitting quietly, and then exploded. She targeted her brother first, and then Dylan.
Shocked at how angry I had gotten, I didn't do anything as she spoke to her, but I felt a tingling sensation, almost like goosebumps rising, up and down my arms.
But it was Dylan's words, the change in atmosphere that had me frozen in place as I watched in both anger and awe at the subtle and immense transformation that took place in front of us all.
Dylan had seen the moment her friend had regretted the words that had come out of her mouth, and I knew it because I had, but she didn't stop herself from firing back at her and I honestly liked it.
It wasn't until Tristan asked her to leave, that I slipped out of my trance and back into reality and looked at what was going on around the room and with the others.
My gaze caught with Dylan's for the briefest of moments before I followed Lecia from the room.
I had no idea why I had followed her, maybe to see if the girl had wanted, what company, or to ease her clear regret? Instead, I had only walked out to her pain reappearing as another form of claws.
This girl, she frightened me in a different way than Dylan had. It was with her words and the fact that she knew one of my biggest secrets. At first, I was going to follow her to find out how she had known, but I couldn't.
No, I had stopped, and I let the doors, slide open, watched her walk inside, and watched as they closed. She knew. She said she had known that I had a wolf, but how?
Never had anyone been able to pick that up before. Not even when I had encountered alphas from other packs had they picked up on that fact.
So how had Lecia, a female wolf from Blood Mist who had no known connection to the line of alphas of that pack, been able to pick up on it.
I didn't want to think about that right now. What I wanted was to go back into Tristan's suite and be with Dylan and see how she was doing. I knew that Lecia's words had hurt her, and I was truly concerned.
When I walked back in, I had seen Tristan kneeling by Dylan where she still sat in the same chair as moments ago, Micah sitting close by and Nico across from her, but all eyes had been on her.
I had stood outside for a second and listened to their conversation before reentering and I wanted nothing more than to see if it was true.
The only way to do that was to go and look out the windows to see if she had again changed the f*cking weather.
So, when I walked in, I had taken a quick peek before turning my attention to everyone at the table. Her eyes were the first that I met, and the words just fell from my mouth without thinking.
"So, is this something that you do often or is it only when you're upset? If so, I can only imagine how you acted when your brother fired you from your job."
Everyone had different reactions to those words, but it was hers that I had stayed focused on. I hadn't meant to cause her anymore pain, they had just slipped out.
Seriously, I couldn't understand how being around this girl was causing me to be so unprofessional, no, so exposed. I felt like she was seeing the center of myself that I hid from everyone else.
There was something about her that made my brain stop working as other parts of me kept functioning.
I had gotten lost in my thoughts while Tristan, Micah, and Dylan had their little interaction, but I felt his gaze on me as my focus returned back to her.
It was Nico. He was watching me again with an odd look on his face, but he let that same cool mask slip over his features as he had done the first time, I met him.
Glancing at him briefly, I stared back at him, and I saw the dark green flash across his eyes briefly before it was gone almost as fast, and he turned back to Dylan.
Wondering what it was that he thought when he saw me would get me nowhere, but I knew instinctively that he did not like me, either that or he was suspicious of me for some reason.
Regardless, I didn't care, but when I turned back towards Dylan, I heard her say a word I've never heard spoken in quite the same way before and it made me feel all kinds of things.
I knew that Kesh had come forward the second I heard his voice come out of Tristan's mouth and that small part of me that awful little piece that was buried deep within sparked a bit.
Looking away, I let them finish their little moment, but as soon as I could safely get out of the room, I took my leave. I had told them that I was going to go and check on Lecia and to my surprise, I had.
And here is where I found myself. Standing, barely, outside of Tristan's suite feeling like an utter fool and complete mess.
Forcing myself to turn back into Roane Winters, the CEO of Aspen Communications and not who I was acting like right now helped. So, I walked to the elevator and took it to the next floor.
Standing outside the door, I contemplated knocking and what would happen if she even bothered to answer.
Would she talk to me? If I asked her what she knew and how she had known would she tell me? What if she didn't answer or didn't want to talk to me? What then?
F*ck, why was I acting like this? I needed to pull myself together and try to figure out what it is that my grandfather and uncles know.
Last night I had considered going straight to Micah and Tristan and telling them what Ezra had said, but a part of me didn't want them to know.
What if Tristan thought that I was only using Dylan to try to get my wolf to wake up or to help me to finally access him? Gods, if he thought that, he might end up leaving with her.
That thought hit me so hard in the chest that it felt like I had actually taken a direct blow, but I couldn't make him stay any more than I could make her.
As that set in, the realization that while I considered Tristan and Micah like brother's we weren't. They stayed because they chose to because we worked together, because we were friends, but what if that changed?
If he took her, then. No, I stopped those thoughts right there. What the f*ck was wrong with me? I had no rights or claims to this girl. Dylan had been through so much. More than I probably wanted to know, or I had any right to.
This train of thought was going to get me in trouble, or into a situation that I definitely didn't want to be in.
Stepping back from the door, I went back to the still open elevator and got inside. Lecia was nothing to me just like Dylan was.
The sister of my friend. That is where I needed to draw the line and remember my place. I had plans. Plans that had not involved Dylan. She had just been an employee at that point and.
I felt a warm sensation run through me and a soft flutter and I knew that my wolf agreed with this new train of thought.
Dylan had been an employee. I had said it myself earlier. We had fired her, or at least Tristan had because he had wanted to get her here.
What if I did the same thing to keep her here? I could offer her a job within Aspen and help solidify a foundation for her to stay here, with us, with me.
Yes. That was it. My mind was already running through where I could fit her into the company and how much money I should offer her to make it too good of an opportunity to leave.
Just then I remembered. Tristan had money, lots of money and now it didn't just belong to him, but to her. She was an heir to Black Sol's assets just like he was and that meant she was entitled to half of everything.
I would need something more than a job to keep her here, but I would start with that and work everything else out next.
Taking out my cell, I sent a text to Xavier about the job for Dylan and added on one for Lecia to.
The three of them were not going to be going anywhere if I could help it, so I needed to find a place for them all. This could only work for my advantage.
Xavier responded with a few options for each of them right away and I browsed through the list quickly.
He was probably the best asset that I had within this company, and I really needed to let him know that.
As I typed out my text to him, the doors of the elevator slid open, but instead of finding the lobby and the newly appointed guards, I found myself face to face with my uncle Blane.
Seeing him alone was a rarity, but I had to admit, he was the easiest one to deal with when they were together and when he was alone it was almost like he was normal.
But there was a look on his face that I didn't know how I should feel about. "Are you here to see someone," I asked as I took a step to the side to walk around him, but he didn't move.
"We need to speak nephew," he said with the same strange look on his face, and I knew that I was not going to like what was about to come next.
Sighing, I asked, "here or are we going somewhere else." He looked at me as if he was debating where we should go for our little conversation, then turned and started walking towards the front doors.
I knew he meant for me to follow. Blane was not being rude; this was just how he was. I think it was because Ezra knew and read him so well that he expected others to be the same way with him.
By the time we walked out the doors, I had forgotten about the text to Xavier, and had let my mind try to come up with what he could possibly want from me right now.
Pulled up in front of the building was his red mustang. Blane had a thing for classic cars and this one was one of his favorites.
It meant that he had not come here strictly for business. He more than likely had been out doing something with his mate or just taking a drive.
So, why was he here now and what did he need to talk to me about that he didn't say last night or had waited to say when we were alone?
Blane was a hard one to crack and I have tried to understand him in the past, but what I learned was that he was who he was and that was it.
There were no ulterior motives or hidden innuendos in his speech or actions. What you see is what you get, nothing more and nothing less.
So, as he climbed inside the car, I walked around to the passenger side and did the same. The smell of the leather filled my nose and I inhaled deeply.
This had always been one of my favorite cars. When I was younger, I would play inside of it when it was parked in the massive garage.
One day when he found me playing in it, he took me out and told me his story. He said that it was identical to one that he had seen when he was a boy and he had sworn to buy it one day.
The car had a soft shake when he started it up that made you feel like the engine was just waiting to take off and explode down the road and it filled me with all sorts of memories that I hadn't thought of in so long.
We took off down the path and the guards opened the gate for us. We drove past the small outer buildings and then past the main building as we headed for the final main security gate.
"Where are we going," I finally asked him, but he didn't respond until Aspen was already well behind us.
"Gabe," he said on an exhale and immediately my insides tightened up. There were only few occasions when my family called me Gabe and lately, it was only when they were going to tell me something I didn't want to know.
"I need to talk to you about your mother," he said without looking at me. There was a slight pause, but he wasn't done. "Oh, and Ezra wanted time to visit Tristan."
My gaze shot to him, and I felt the blood rush from my head. I should have known that there was a reason for taking me away from the building.
Ezra was so f*cking impatient, but he wasn't my problem right now. They knew Tristan, but I knew him better. If Ezra thought he was going to have free access to Dylan, he had another thing coming.
Pushing past the annoyance of feeling like I had been kidnapped, I figured I would just enjoy being in this car again and hear what he had to say.
We drove out towards Silver Moon and past the private entrance my family had that led to my grandparents' private home.
I watched as he kept going East past the pack lands and knew immediately where he was taking me. "Why are we going out there," I asked as I clenched my hands together.
My parents had built a house close enough to the pack lands, but far enough that they had their own privacy.
It had been where they started their family and also where their lives had been cut short. My grandparents couldn't bring themselves to tear it down or sell it, so it has been empty for years.
When I was younger, I had lived here with them and since my parent's death I had only visited the grounds a handful of times, but I have never stepped foot inside the house.
Blane drove down the property and from the street I could see the house, but instead of turning down the drive he just stopped the car.
Neither of us spoke for a time, but I knew he was looking at the house just as I was. Closing my eyes, I tried to picture something from my past that would bring me closer to my parents or to this house, but those memories were long gone.
When Blane spoke again, this time it wasn't out loud, it was inside my head and to my surprise, it didn't bother me the way it usually did.
"The she wolf needs to stay here. She will bring about a change the likes of which we have never seen. We need to protect her at all costs, this time."
Quickly I turned to look at him and saw that he was leaning on the steering wheel and there were tears in his dark blue eyes.
"What do you mean by this time?"