Annabeth was sitting back in Collin's all too familiar office, on his dark leather couch. It wasn't exactly the place she wanted to be at the moment. This was the place Collin basically told her she was his mate and where they shared their first kiss. And now she had ruined it all with her selfishness and off the charts issues. She needed to fix this. She sighed and exhaled some regret as she watched Collin as he sat behind his desk, with his feet up, making phone call after phone call; every once and a while he'd sneak a glare at her and it wasn't a happy look in his silver eyes.
He finally slammed the phone back into the holster and stood up. "Let's go." He commanded standing up and waiting for her while running his hand over his short blonde hair. She stood up and walked over to him and unconsciously tried to take his hand, but he jerked away instantly and wouldn't look her in the eye. She prayed he would just take her hand and tell her it was all going to be okay, but she had heard what he said: "my friends don't exactly get the treatment my mate does." He meant every word too.
She trailed behind him as exited the office floor with her head facing the ground. She just really wasn't in the mood to meet the gazes of the vampires working in that office. The only time she looked up was to smile at the frizzy haired human receptionist, Leo. He still cowered a little when Collin passed from their little traumatic experience a few days or so ago. It was hard to believe it had been barely a week since she had met Collin and traumatized poor Leo with Collin's more vicious side that did anything but traumatize her. She needed to file away a note mentally to ask about why Leo worked in vampire headquarters.
Annabeth followed silently as Collin met with James in the elevator. James wore his normal preppy attire, which today included khaki pants and a tucked in white button down that was rolled to his elbows. He kept sending disapproving gazes at both Collin and Annabeth the whole ride down to the lobby and the entire walk that ended with sliding in the back of a black car with dark tinted windows.
The drive to their destination was short, but awkward. Spending five minutes rubbing knees with the very man the mildly hated her and his best friend wasn't exactly how she wanted to spend any of her time this overcast afternoon.
They exited the car the opposite side they all entered and now Collin dragged her to her feet by her elbow. He didn't loosen his grip as they walked into the building. She knew he was still terribly possessive of her, but didn't want to give her luxury of actually holding his hand. Ass.
Suddenly, as they entered the brick building she felt terribly underdressed. Men wearing suits and ties and women wearing business suits scurried around the room. To think about it she was the least dressed up person in there. Collin had on black pants and a blue button-up and all she had on was jeans and a white blouse. The arm that wasn't being dragged wrapped itself around her middle self-consciously.
Annabeth felt like she was in a hurricane of office workers as they swirled desk to desk and filing cabinet to filing cabinet faster then she though they should be able to move in finely polished leather shoes and high heels. Collin finally dragged her out of the mayhem and into a more quiet area with a single dark wood desk and then finally into a conference room.
Only two men sat at the table, one sat at the head and the other beside him. Ah, now she knew where they were. They were in the government building. And those two old men at the head of the table were the governor and the mayor of this city.
The old men stood. "Collin Sangue and James Allenton," the governor smiled and shook their hands and then turned to Annabeth as the mayor did the same.
"Annabeth Wolfe," She introduced herself taking the man's hand with a polite smile and repeating her actions with the other.
Quickly they all sat down and the mayor began speaking with his hands even before his mouth could catch up. "Where's that scary fellow, um Alec was his name?" He asked.
James laughed. "He's temporarily on guard duty defending an important asset." He smiled. Annabeth still couldn't get over how beautiful vampires were when they smiled.
"I see," The old man said smoothing his tie, "now down to business boys. You say you want to completely evacuate nearly an entire square mile of city and residential area?" The man raised an eyebrow raising his hooded eyelid with it.
"Less want and more need." Collin said strictly his business face on. "You see here," He pulled out a map from a manila folder on the table in front of him and uncapped a red sharpie. "Here is the rogue pack that needs extermination," He stated circling a large area in the state preserve. "This is going to be our home base for now as we call in some reinforcements for this fight," He told them circling Sangue Suites on the map. "So, this area here," He boxed in the area between the hotel and the tree line, "will need to be evacuated for the people's safety. These rogues don't think much of humans and wouldn't care to kill a few during the battle."
"I see," The governor said and sat back in his chair with a loud squeak. "Do you have a detailed plan to cover this all up?" He folded his wrinkled hands in his lap.
Collin laughed, of course he did. He slid a white folder down to the front of the governor. "The nuclear power plant had a small leak and you need to make sure the area is safe for people again." He said simply.
"Ah, but what about noisy news 'copters that want a view of this 'leak'," The man asked stroking his chin, which was covered with gray stubble.
"Give the workers Friday off and show them a barren nuclear plant." Collin explained. "The rest of the specifics are in that folder. And I mean everything." Collin stood up. "Thanks for your time gentlemen. You promise to get that area evacuated and we'll promise to take care of this issue."
"One last thing Mr. Sangue," the mayor finally spoke up, "when I spoke with you at the beginning of the week you had said you'd been monitoring this pack. What happened to this so called one man mission you had described you were supposed to be able to complete."
Collin laughed a dry humorless laugh. "I greatly underestimated the pack numbers, sir." Annabeth watched James smirk out of the corner of her eye. "Now gentlemen I have many issues to take care of."
Collin didn't have time for lollygagging. They were out of their as fast as they got in.
--
The lush green scenery quickly faded to beautiful oranges and reds as Emma stared out the deep-tinted window of the truck they had been given. The colors of the leaves weren't the only things that were changing. The landscape gradually become hillier as the day also gradually slipped away. It was 7 PM and the temperature had moved from a comfortable 72 to touching the lower sixties as the day light came to an end.
So far this ride was mainly a quiet one. Alec was definitely not a talker and she wasn't the type to strike up a conversation with a person let alone a vampire. The silence was awkward for the first hour, but now it was comfortable and she at least had the radio playing to fill it.
They had only stopped a few times for rest stops, to get her food, and once to gear up a little. It would have creeped her out that he seemed to also know when she was hungry or had to had to pee if she didn't know about his little ability. She tried to control her thoughts, but that only made her think about things she really didn't want to think about like Alec in many stages of undress.
They had stopped at a camping supply store and Alec made sure she was outfitted with warm clothes. She couldn't see how the current weather could call for all the warm clothes and blankets, but she didn't verbalize her argument. She wasn't much in to arguing about things she could careless about. They also had a cooler in the back with food, a couple cases of water, extra blankets, other necessities, and full gas cans.
Emma was in a good mood for the most part, but she didn't know why. Her life was a mess and her entire pack was dead or missing. Her only comfort was the fact her life was so fast paced at the moment she had no time to think about it. She secretly feared the moment she found herself bored and let her mind drifted to her reality. Yet, for now her mind was on trying to figure out Alec and fear for the war that was getting ready to take place.
Her mind was on overdrive and she found herself drifting off while tilted back in her seat.
--
Kadence sat in a similar situation, except she sat in the passenger with her arms crossed and her jaw clenched. She couldn't stand Eli. He was a bossy arrogant ass. All he had done so far on this trip was order her around and of course she argued no matter what he had ordered her to do. He sat there driving, his own jaw clenched in frustration. She wanted to throw her hands up and run away all ready, and they weren't even to their safe house where they would be spending the next seven days.
"Are all vampires this infuriating?" She asked staring straight ahead. Kadence wasn't one to keep any of her thoughts to herself.
He didn't answer. This woman was content in driving him crazy.
"You're not gonna talk to me anymore Eli?" She fake pouted and looked at him.
That's the only way he could keep his sanity. At first verbal sparring with her was kind of fun. He hadn't met a woman who could keep up with him, but now he was tired and more than a little stressed. His clan was about to take on the previously thought smallest pack to biggest pack of rogue werewolves in the East and all he could do was protect this quick tongued girl.
