Chapter Five – Danger Zone
Another young man in a suit tended the front desk of the Pembroke building, but his attitude toward Ryder was the same as his colleague’s.
“I must insist,” he said. “It is a matter of life and death.”
“Sir, Mr. Pembroke does not receive anyone without a prior appointment,” the young man replied calmly.
Telling these people the truth took him nowhere. Ryder despised guile more than anything else.
“I do have an appointment,” he said, pursing his lips.
“Now you have an appointment? Let me check with Mr. Pembroke’s assistant,” the young man said, lifting the receiver of the phone on his desk, all the while his eyes remaining glued to Ryder. “Anita, hi, there’s this strange man--”
Ryder grabbed the phone handle from the desk attendant and started, “If you don’t put your master through at this moment, you will all be sorry. Tell Theodore that his mate is here.”
The woman at the other end squealed nervously, but she seemed to have more sense than the pretentious silly man in front of him.
“Give that back,” the desk attendant protested and wrestled the phone out of Ryder’s hand. Only because Ryder relaxed his hold could he achieve his purpose. “Anita, sorry—oh, please forgive me, sir. Yes, I will tell him right away.” He placed the phone back into its cradle and stared at Ryder with unhidden anger. Still, his voice was strangely calm when he spoke. “Mr. Pembroke will see you now.”
***
The elevator even had an operator in this building, another young man in livery that used a range of gestures that appeared too grandiose and overly sufficient for the job at hand. Ryder paid him no mind; Theodore obviously enjoyed having an army of human servants, and it seemed like he was magnanimous by nature. Most of these people seemed to be doing little to justify being by their master’s side.
He looked at the blinking numbers as the carriage moved up. He would soon see his mate; he would be able to remove the curse placed by thus far unknown forces on his pack and he’d do it all before his next heat began.
Whenever he had thought of this moment, he had imagined it differently. But there was no unfamiliar flutter in his stomach, and his heart wasn’t skipping a beat. He was only slightly upset at the ridiculous obstacles he had met so far. Otherwise, he didn’t behave as if he could barely wait to meet his mate, and the strangeness of that fact took him by surprise.
“Hello,” a woman in a tight skirt and a crisp white shirt welcomed him, jumping out of her seat as if it had burned her as soon as he arrived at the last floor and the door had slid open.
Large artificial plants were tucked into every corner, and the entire place looked and smelled like it had been sanitized with the usual chemicals that humans used to chase away dirt. Their combination hurt Ryder’s head, and he found it difficult to breathe. How could his mate live here? Conduct his dealings every day without succumbing to these terrible scents?
Maybe he was using all these things to cover his true nature.
“You should have told the desk you went to school with Mr. Pembroke,” the woman said nervously.
School? Ryder didn’t trouble himself to figure out what was going through the woman’s mind. As much as he didn’t want to lie, this would have to be a lie by omission.
“Take me to him,” he said curtly.
She hurried to open two large wooden doors to let him walk into the main office. She bowed her head as he entered and lifted her eyes in surprise at his sincere ‘thank you’.
The large desk placed in front of the glass wall grabbed Ryder’s attention right away. The lavish chair was turned away from the door, and there was no movement until the female human closed the doors as she withdrew.
A low chuckle emerged from that turned away chair. Ryder frowned. The scents weren’t as offensive in here, but he didn’t like that laugh. It was cruel and clearly pointed at him. The chair finally turned, revealing its occupant.
Theodore Pembroke held his hands steepled in front of him and looked over them at Ryder. “My mate,” he said in a low voice.
He looked even more handsome than in the pictures Ryder had seen. His broad shoulders pressed against the back of the leather chair, as Theodore pushed himself back to take a good look at his visitor.
“Remind me, what classes did we take together?”
Ryder’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. What was Theodore talking about? Such a mistake was to be expected coming from his mate’s human servants but not from him.
“I have to admit that I was intrigued by the commotion. I looked over the security cameras to discover who dared to demand to see me about a – what did you call it? – matter of life and death.”
Ryder took a step forward. If only Theodore could detect his scent, and Ryder smelled him too, this whole misunderstanding would be resolved with no need for further explanations.
“I know for a fact that you’re not carrying a concealed weapon, so I assume you intend to come at me with your bare hands. Very well,” Theodore said and stood to his feet. He shrugged off the coat of his suit and crossed his arms. “Who sent you?”
His heart was beating the same as always. He couldn’t smell Theodore’s scent at all in this scent-crowded room. Ryder took in the incense stick burning in a beautifully adorned container in a corner. It reminded him of something but he couldn’t recall what.
“I know of your true nature, Theodore,” he said in a low voice, using the same tactic his mate had. He needed to show he wasn’t intimidated. “I am here because I am your mate.”
“My mate?” Theodore frowned and moved around the desk. He was coming closer, and Ryder felt his anticipation growing. Soon, his teeth would sink into his mate’s coveted flesh, and he would be able to save everyone.
He needed to wait patiently. Since Theodore was, unusually enough, a submissive alpha, that didn’t make him any less of an alpha. Offering himself up for Ryder to mark him would take going against everything he had been taught his entire life.
They were of equal height. They were so close now they could stare into each other’s eyes. Ryder tried to focus, to capture his mate’s unique scent, the only one that was able to make him go mad with desire, but he couldn’t find it.
He needed to extinguish that burning incense to stop it from releasing its terrible scent, but not now. He had to allow his mate to sniff him and know that they were meant for each other.
Theodore did just that. He leaned forward and sniffed Ryder, although not as overtly as a mate might hope for.
He pulled back in surprise, narrowing his eyes. “Wolf,” he said through his teeth.
Finally, he understood. Ryder reached out for Theodore, willing his heart to do its thing, and his teeth to tingle in the anticipation of meeting his mate, but there was none of that. The damn incense was most likely to blame.
“You are mine,” he said, although his words sounded hollow, as if they belonged to someone else.
He opened his mouth wide, his eyes fixed at the side of Theodore’s neck. He would mark him properly later, but for now he needed to make his intentions known.
Soon, he would be intoxicated by his mate’s wonderful scent. He closed his eyes, and just as he did so, his senses tingled in alarm.
Danger? What sort of—
The air swished, sliced by sharp blades, and Ryder barely had time to pull back out of their path.
Those weren’t blades – they were Theodore’s claws, brushing by Ryder’s chest, slashing his t-shirt.
What was happening? Why was his mate attacking him? Ryder moved swiftly out of the way. Theodore’s right arm had broken through the tailored shirt sleeve, and it was now hard and dangerous, covered in dark fur. Theodore’s eyes had turned red and burned, while their owner bellowed and launched another attack at Ryder.
Something was wrong. Everything was wrong. Nothing had prepared him for this sort of danger. Could it be that the curse had affected Theodore, as well? Ryder needed to make him see the truth, but when a wolf got that sort of eyes, any sort of talking rationally to him was going to fail.
He nimbly stepped out of the way of the Theodore’s continued attacks. Although the wolf inside him was growling to come out and punish the one who dared to provoke him, Ryder used all his power of will to command him to stand down. Theodore was in danger and had to be subdued in a different way.
First, he had to destroy the incense diffuser. Ryder felt it was important to do so.
Theodore blocked his path and bellowed at him. His face was now turning, as well, and Ryder could clearly see what a handsome wolf his mate was, his fur so dark it shone blue.
Now wasn’t the time to admire his destined one.
“Has the city destroyed your sense of smell?” he hissed at Theodore. “How can you not tell that I’m your fated mate?”
“You’re fated all right,” Theodore growled. “But mate? My mate, you? How silly can you be?”
“Stop attacking me. I can barely keep my wolf from responding in kind, and you won’t like it when he comes out to fight,” Ryder warned.
His words fell on deaf ears. He shouldn’t have been surprised, and the fact that they couldn’t smell each other grew more and more frustrating with each passing moment. He ducked just in time and hurried toward the corner that held the incense diffuser.
“Coward!” Theodore growled at him. “Come and fight me!”
Ryder ignored the insults, even though they were making his blood boil. He threw himself at the small table on which the incense stick was burning, kicking one of its legs. The container flew across the room, smashing against the wall.
A small cloud of terrible scent emerged from the broken pieces, making Ryder dizzy. It weakened him enough to let Theodore jump on his back and wrap his clawed paws around his neck. He felt sharp stings like needles sinking into his skin and going deeper.
Would his mate kill him, under the effects of that dark spell? Ryder pushed Theodore away, as his wolf could no longer suffer the indignity of staying out of the fight.
He stood so abruptly that he sent Theodore flying. As he turned, he faced the pair of maddened eyes with two of his own.
They were about to lunge at each other, when a voice, coming from the desk made them stop dead in their tracks.
“Mr. Pembroke, I need to remind you that you have an eleven o’clock meeting with the board.”
Theodore transformed under his eyes. He walked over the desk and pressed a button on the phone there. “I will be ready in five. I have something to finish up first.”
Ryder thought fast. He pulled back to the wall and then made his way quickly to the door. If he managed to dash through it—
“I’m not finished with you!”
“For now, you are,” he said and opened the doors, returning the puzzled look on the female human’s face with absolute calm.
Behind him, Theodore had remained motionless, as he had predicted. Ryder nodded at the secretary, just as her eyes moved down to his chest and ripped t-shirt, only to jump back to his face.
Like other wolfshifters, Theodore couldn’t reveal his true nature to the humans around him. Unless the female human had been sworn into secrecy by giving her blood, his gamble would pay off.
The elevator door opened before him and he stepped inside. The elevator attendant didn’t give him a glance, but the secretary was leaning over her desk, still staring at him, her mouth agape. Now in front of his office doors, Theodore was giving him the evil eye. Ryder noticed with satisfaction that, even if by accident, he had managed to temporarily scar his mate. A few droplets of blood seeped out of a superficial wound on his left cheek.
***
“That is so not his boyfriend,” Danny heard Jeff’s obnoxious voice coming from not more than three feet behind him.
“You think? It looks like our little doe finally found her wolf,” Kat whispered angrily. “And keep your voice down. He’s right over there.”
Danny had a mind to turn on his heel and abandon his post only to scare the living daylights out of the two gossipers. Unlike Kat, who usually assumed a submissive role when his boyfriends were around just to show what a cute twink he could be, Jeff was more masculine in appearance and preferred to pretend to be a straight shooter – but not that sort of straight. Both of them hoped for billionaires to come through the front door and whisk them away to lives of luxury.
They worked in a store that catered to young guys with a bit of money to spend on jeans and t-shirts nicer than usual, so that hope for billionaires was so misplaced that it made Danny laugh to himself to think of it.
He must have laughed to himself a little too loudly, because the gossiping stopped abruptly.
“Hey, Danny,” Jeff called out. “Kat is telling me that you got yourself a boyfriend. But I don’t buy it. Was that guy from this morning some sort of rent boy you found at a discount or something?”
Danny turned, his face all a smile. “The guy from this morning will come pick me up at six, when we finish here. You’ll have a chance to ask him yourself.”
The way Jeff’s face metamorphosed from obnoxious to unsettled should have been recorded for posterity. Danny shrugged and returned to his task. He wasn’t the sort to strike back because, usually, Kat and Jeff aimed their poisoned arrows at him. Right now, however, they were insulting Ryder by calling him a rent boy – a mistake Danny himself was guilty of, but he could give himself a break due to the shock of having such a handsome guy in his home. What were his colleagues’ excuses?
***
Was there such a thing as a clairvoyant in this damned city? Ryder zippered his jacket after getting one too many stares from people who eyed his bloodied chest, seemingly startled by the sight of a bit of blood.
His mate had to be under a spell, but without Cassandra’s help, Ryder couldn’t identify its source, nor the way to lift it. The fact that he hadn’t been able to smell his mate at all was unnerving, but at the moment that was the least of his problems.
Theodore was strong, and while Ryder didn’t wish to hurt him, a second meeting was likely to turn really bloody for both of them. Without answers, he couldn’t face Theodore again. Hopefully, he would get them before the next full moon. If not, they would all remain cursed for eternity.
Every place in this city was carefully documented on maps that could be accessed through his phone. Ryder studied the device with keen eyes. If he managed to find someone similar enough to a clairvoyant or a wizard of sorts, he might come closer to discovering a solution to his current predicament.
“Fortunetelling?” he murmured to himself.
There was a fee for the services offered. And there were so many to choose from. How was he supposed to try them all and see who was a fraud and who wasn’t?
“First session free, come back for more,” he read slowly. A free session sounded like a good deal in the beginning. This person was obviously confident enough in his or her ability to charge only for a second session; displeased customers would surely not return to someone who told them a bunch of silly lies the first time.
Ryder had to find this fortuneteller and see if there was any thread of magical wrongdoing he could unravel from the little he had glimpsed during his visit to his mate.
***
The fortuneteller was conducting his business in a small room that could barely contain a tiny table, covered in a dark red cloth, two chairs, one currently creaking under Ryder’s weight, and the young man who advertised his services on the screens of phones.
“I’m here for the free session,” Ryder informed him.
The young man was short and thin, looking like any gust of wind would blast him away. He reminded Ryder of a rodent, but not the pesky kind. More like the cute kind that the girls in his pack sometimes kept as pets. The thick-rimmed glasses seemed too big for the young man’s head, and he was nervously fiddling with a deck of cards on his table.
“Certainly. I wasn’t expecting anyone.” The cute little human offered a small nervous smile, then added, “Today.”
“You’re a fortuneteller and you couldn’t tell someone was going to come through your door today?” Ryder inquired, quirking an eyebrow.
“Good point.” The fortuneteller pointed both his index fingers at him. “I’m doing this as research.”
“Research of what?”
“Never mind. Let’s start.”
Ryder pondered whether or not to get up and leave. But the allure of a free session of fortunetelling, seeing how meager his funds were, couldn’t be denied.
“As a clairvoyant, are you sworn to keep all you find of a person’s future a secret from everyone else?” Ryder asked. Cassandra had told him about this; if a clairvoyant disclosed what he or she knew, a curse would be the prompt reward for such actions.
“I will keep your secrets, sir,” the young man said solemnly.
“Very well. I am Ryder Asherman from Pinemoor, the alpha of Luna’s Sentinels. I am here to find my mate and just discovered that a spell has been placed on him.”
The young fortuneteller stared at him wide-eyed. “Hi, I’m Jack. Your… mate?”
“Yes. My fated mate,” Ryder said slowly, as it seemed that Jack was a bit slow.
“And who is your mate, if I may ask?”
“You may. My mate is Theodore Pembroke.”
“Pembroke? That Pembroke?”
Ryder had no idea what Jack meant by ‘that Pembroke’. “The tall building three subway stations from here. It belongs to him.”
Jack opened his mouth and closed it a couple of times. “Wow. This is juicy. I mean, interesting.”
“Can you help me?” Ryder asked.
Jack grabbed his deck of cards. “I can try,” he said, smiling happily.
TBC
Author's note: Thank you for reading! In case you want to support me while writing this story, you can do so on my Patreon.
@Derek - Ryder didn't misinterpret the clairvoyant's words... but there is something iffy about the whole thing as you've noticed already. Now that you read chapter 5, you know that you were right on the money regarding Ryder's 'mate'.
@DavidB - I knew Ryder would be a hit with the readers... I also enjoy writing this sort of straightforward character from time to time, to balance the string of misunderstandings my heroes often go through. Otis is a special one, too!
