Oath Sworn - K.N. Banet Page 0,59

Actually, the earliest believed ancestors of humanity had a problem with big cats eating them.

I knew the sort of response I could elicit from the round security officer, who was just trying to enjoy his bagel.

His face blanched. “The wolves work on floors sixteen and seventeen,” he said quickly. “Welcome to Dallas…”

“Thank you.” I patted the counter and started towards the elevator. It was funny that he didn’t notice what I was wearing, or maybe he thought it didn’t matter. I was obviously not human and I presented myself as someone he had no chance of identifying. Maybe my casualness seemed like a display of powerful disrespect to the petty human contrivances around me.

None of that was true, since for all I knew every human in the building was smarter than me, but appearances were important. I wasn’t dressed importantly, so I had to act important. Above it all. Werecats didn’t survive if they didn’t know how to blend in a little bit. It was like Joey and his friends in Jacksonville. They knew I wasn’t human, but I presented myself as mostly harmless and as human as I could. I didn’t try to be innocent and disarming, just normal, talking about things they found interesting, like the football team that I pretended not to care about. They found me less of a threat because of it.

But they still knew I wasn’t human.

Part of me wished I wasn’t using all my instincts to make this work, though. I was running on pure instinct, the hunt driving me and keeping my feet moving. The only time I stood still in the building was when I stepped into an elevator with several other people, all of whom gave me a wide berth. A lady looked over her shoulder at me and I could smell the shock in her scent.

Yeah, lady, realize you and your power suit aren’t the most powerful thing in the elevator.

My mom was a power suit kind of woman. It kind of made me want to gag, honestly. Not just the women, either. The men too. What was the point of wearing suits to sit behind a desk all day? Professionalism? What even was that? Wasn’t the definition of professional whatever someone decided it would be?

I mean, I understand not wanting people to show up in booty shorts…Actually, I own a bar. If I hire a couple of waitresses and let them wear little cut-offs, I would own the most popular bar in town. So I don’t really understand that either.

That put an immature smile on my face, as I slid between a few of the humans to get out on the sixteenth floor. Stone and Mortar, a construction company of the highest caliber and with the most boring name. Realty and construction were popular for the wolves. It gave them positions of employment for their less intelligent, but still very strong, lower pack members. Imagine houses built by werewolves in the suburbs, and then consider that werewolves have been known to heal broken backs. Worker’s compensation took on a different meaning when it was harder to injure and disable the workers.

I stepped through double glass doors and walked up to the front desk, taking a long sniff. There was a werewolf in the office, or there had been one recently. I grinned as I leveled a stare on the woman at the reception desk, who was watching me cautiously.

“I’m looking for a werewolf,” I told her, stepping closer.

“Which one?” she asked, her hand moving. I wondered who she would call if she needed help. A werewolf, or the building’s security? I didn’t plan on letting it get that far. I had no intention of hurting any humans, no matter who they worked for. Scare them a little? Sure, but not this woman, who was already on the edge of screaming just by seeing me. An interesting reaction. It showed me just how bad things were getting for the pack if their human employees didn’t feel very safe.

“Doesn’t matter, actually. I’m not here to hurt anyone, just talk.” It was a half-truth. I was in Dallas to hurt someone. A lot of someones, really. I wasn’t in the building to hurt anyone, just trying to find anyone I could get information from.

“Why?” she demanded. She grabbed something, pulling it towards her slowly. I sighed, reaching over to stop her from doing whatever that was. I tried to not bare my teeth as I felt the silver and looked down.