Page 24 of The Alpha's Gamble
He took a step closer, smiling slightly, eyes glinting pale in the reflected glare of the sky and the spotlights across the loading dock. He was approaching me from the same direction as the maintenance guy had gone, so there had to be a staff entrance or something over there. But I hadn’t noticed him before he spoke. And I couldn’t smell him at all, even now that he stood near me; he had to be masking his scent and his magic.
I resisted taking a step back and forced myself to hold my ground. I wasn’t scared of this guy.
Even if his plastic smile and opaque eyes gave him all the charisma of some kind of creepy sci-fi replicated human that didn’t quite pass as a real person. The hour and the lighting didn’t help.
“It’s my business to keep an eye on Mr. MacKenna’s assets,” he said. “This isn’t somewhere you should be, Mr. Castelli.”
Completely putting aside his categorization of me as one of MacKenna’s “assets,” the fuck?
I took a long drag on my neglected cigarette, aiming my exhale in his direction. The smoke parted around him like the Red Sea. Gods, I hated magical assholes.
“Not sure what’s wrong with the back of the hotel,” I said finally. “It’s quieter back here.”
It wasn’t, really, what with the machinery chugging away. But at least it didn’t have any people. Until this fucker came along, anyway.
“That’s it precisely,” he said. “It’s vulnerable. You’re vulnerable. Not everyone has the same vested interest in Mr. MacKenna’s well-being as we do.” His teeth flashed in the odd light. Normal human teeth, white and even. They still made me shudder.
That and the weirdness of that statement left me speechless, thank gods, because I had the sudden feeling that talking to this man wasdangerous. I couldn’t explain it. I couldn’t justify it. He was half my size, and the magic he’d shown so far—hiding his scent and his magical nature from a shifter, making cigarette smoke move away from his face, being super quiet—didn’t rise to the level of a direct threat. And he had to work for MacKenna, right? Since he’d been in on my interrogation the other day. Not that I automatically thought someone working for MacKenna couldn’t be a threat to me. But if I was one of MacKenna’s “assets,” then taking this guy at face value…he’d be looking out for me, like he said. At least making sure I didn’t get killed or something.
And I knew, in an instinctive way I couldn’t shake, that he wasn’t looking out for me. Not at all. He was threatening me, although…why? He hadn’t been happy when MacKenna decided to deal with me personally rather than having me arrested. That had been obvious. But would that really be enough to make him dislike me as much as I’d started to think he might?
He hadn’t moved a muscle while I stared at him, so unnaturally still it pushed him even further into uncanny valley territory—and that was coming from a werewolf who was literally not human but close enough to pass, himself.
Another drag of the cigarette bought me time and gave me a reason not to say anything.Not everyone has the same vested interest in Mr. MacKenna’s well-being as we do. Irony? He had to know I wasn’t MacKenna’s biggest fan, right? Or was he implying something about how much he had invested in MacKenna?
Fuck, I hated weird, creepy people who stared at me, and I hated mind games, and I still just desperately wanted a drink.
I could’ve had all the drinks I wanted if I’d stayed nice and quiet up in the suite.
That had started to sound better and better, despite how antsy I’d been to get out. I was out of my depth here. This guy had issues.
The cigarette had burned down to my fingers, and I really didn’t have any other way to stall. On the other hand, now I had a reason to leave.
I dropped it and crushed it under my toe. “Well, I’m ready to head back up now that I’ve gotten a breath of air. Don’t worry, I’m not planning on hanging out back here all the time or anything.” His paranoia wasn’t worth addressing, I decided. Especially since I had no idea how to address it in the first place. Better to get the fuck away from him as quickly as possible and never,everbe alone with him again. I’d bang on the door of the suite until MacKenna answered and chewed me out. Fuck, that had started to sound fantastic in comparison to this.
“I’ll escort you.” He smiled, and my flesh tried to crawl off my body and slither away in terror. Fucking gibbering gods, why did this guy freak me out so much? All of my instincts were screaming, and all he’d done was stand there! “After you.” He waved a genial hand in the direction he’d come from, around the corner and presumably toward the door that had to be there.
Putting my back to him had my instincts not just screaming but jumping up and down. But I didn’t have much choice. He could call MacKenna, or security, and have me dragged back up to the suite if he wanted. And while MacKenna was going to get woken up one way or the other, at least this way there might not be a public scene.
Nodding stiffly, I stalked past him and around the corner, the space between my shoulder blades itching the whole way, a weird buzzing that seemed to be spreading to the nape of my neck. I had to stand aside when I reached the door so that he could swipe us in. Why had he put me in front of him? And why had my head gotten so fuzzy? Had he…he’d done something. To me? What had he… My thoughts were coming more slowly, falling into my brain like blobs of Jell-O instead of flowing water.
That didn’t make any sense. I shook my head and failed to clear it at all. The door hung open in front of me. I stepped through into some kind of utilitarian hallway, the flickering fluorescents above seeming to pulse at a rate I could actually see. Dim, then bright, then dim, and it made me so fucking angry. Soenraged, I’d never been so furious, my vision clouding over with crimson red, my fangs dropping, and I had to kill him, so I spun around and growled, long and loud, echoing, and took a swing at his face, all weirdly big and small and close and far, that smile, those pale eyes…
My fist connected with a crack that traveled all the way up my arm and then around and around my head. He moved, falling back, hands coming up.
Something hit me like a wave.
I fell. The light went dim again, and then black.
Chapter 8
There Was a Gross Thought
Waking up sucked. Werewolves didn’t usually get headaches unless we’d been hit with a sledgehammer or something, but the stabbing pain in my temples struck like a bolt of lightning the second consciousness returned. The newness of the sensation made it even worse, and I groaned, rolled to the side, and panted through a wave of nausea, head hanging over the side of the…bed.
Yep, in a bed. “My” bed, in fact, in MacKenna’s suite.
I flopped back onto the pillows and nearly levitated right back up again at the sight of MacKenna leaning against the wall by the door, arms crossed over his chest and with a ferocious scowl aimed right at me.
