Page 64 of Howl You Doin?
Shocked that this is suddenly what he wants when it has always been my goal too, I ask, “How long have you been toying with that idea?”
“Since your little grand opening. Bianca suggested it actually.” A grin spreads across his creepy face, more teeth than smile.
Bianca? “You have got to be shitting me.”
That horrendous woman made it to the castle the same day George did, and I never thought to question it.
I growl low, remembering how she tried to hang all over me and Vlad. “Did you send her here? You fucking control freak, of course you did.”
He claps his hands, then uncrosses his legs and pushes away from the desk. “When it comes to Vlad, did you really think I would take any chances?” he scoffs. “The moment Jekyll mentioned his need for sunscreen, I had her put in place, but I never could have accounted forAubrey.”
“You are twisted.”
“A six-hundred-year-old vampire who hasn’t eaten in over a hundred years, and you decide to open the castle to humans?” Yellow crawls up his body and his hands begin to glow lightly, the skin at his neck turning next until the color effuses his entire face, showcasing the scarring at his neck. “I did what anyone withhalfa brain would do. Although Bianca didn’t have a chance to get close to him. Funny that, isn’t it?”
My stomach churns. “You would send a human woman here to seduce him? What if he accidentally harmed her or tried to feed from her after so many years of starving himself? Do you know what I went through to make sure Aubrey was safe? I still have nightmares from their mating—the pheromones werenauseating, not to mention the fucking noises.” I shudder for effect.
His expression is thunderous, as if he thinks I’m the crazy person in this equation. “Biancais a ghoul, you idiot.”
My expression falls.
“How did you mask the smell?” I ask him, truly intrigued.
A ghoul and I didn’t catch it at all. Bianca smelled human, and I checked myself.
Everyone has a scent, even the supernatural, and usually no perfume, cologne, or concoction could fool my nose half so well. I met her at the door and scented nothing out of the norm.
Frank’s expression shutters. “We all have our little secrets, don’t we? I assume you have more than one trick up your sleeve to blend in with the humans, otherwise I would have known about the fact that you don’t need the full moon to change.”
I don’t bother with a reply. He’s seen well enough the last few days that I’m completely unlike the wolves.
My poor, genuine Italian leather executive chair creaks under his heavy, muscled form as Frank shunts himself forward to stand, and I worry the entire time his massive hands will crush my comfortable armrests. “I don’t make it a point of interfering unless I need to, no matter what Vlad says.” Orange fades to slate gray as he heads for the door to exit.
“What else is new?” I retort, my tone flippant.
Frank and I have been business associates since before his little business venture turned into a billion-dollar enterprise, but this is too far for my liking.
He straightens his dark-gray suit, and glances at his astronomically expensive watch. “Don’t get your fur in a twist, mongrel. I am, in a way at least, trying to help you. Bianca was only put there in case he went feral.”
Keeping Vlad and Aubrey out of the limelight is damn near impossible as it is. A fight between him and Frank is the last thing I need.
At one time, the four of us would stay in the castle, but that was before London was set ablaze from Frank falling for a human—which is why he has been against us fraternizing with them from the start. It hasn’t been an issue until Vlad, and now Whitley.
I don’t offer a response and stare unseeing at the empty fireplace grate for long moments after the door to my study shuts behind him.
My only hope is that I can keep Frank from finding out about Whitley being my potential mate before I figure the truth of it. I also somehow need to hide my true self from her at the same time. If I can make her want me as I want her...
The thought that I will have to lie to my mate, a human, for the rest of my life is almost unbearable. The idea that she could reject me—or even run from me in fear—makes my stomach heave, and if she were ever afraid of me, I couldn’t live with myself.
“Fuck,” I say to the empty room, my body shaking to be near her again.
This incessant need for Whitley may very well kill me if this is only the beginning. I crave her nearness and won’t be able to fight my reaction to her much longer. I have never in my life wanted another woman as I do her, a word from her mouth, a sigh from her lips, or anything she’ll give me.
Frank’s words echo in my head about how this is only the beginning.
I’m positive he’s right, he just doesn’t know in what way.
Gods help me, this woman may well break me.
