elevator. Once inside, she scanned her ID and pressed seven. It felt weird, but the elevator began to rise.
Krys got out on the seventh floor, and there was a single reception desk facing her. A middle-aged woman was sitting there, and she smiled warmly when Krys approached.
“Hi. Um, I have been summoned?” She held up her company ID, and the woman beamed.
“Excellent. He has been pacing all morning. I am so glad you are here.” The woman smiled and said, “Please, come with me.”
Krys smiled weakly. “I really don’t know why I am here.”
“Because Mr. Danforth has requested your presence. I am sure he will explain why, but don’t worry about things, his bark is worse than his bite.”
“Okay. Good to know. Have you worked for him long?”
“Since he began the company. Ten years now.”
“Do you enjoy it?”
The woman smiled. “Of course, or I would find something else to do. What department are you in, dear? Clerical?”
“Audits.”
“Oh. Well then, you have a bit more spine than others. Here we are.” She knocked softly, and when there was an answer, she opened the door. “The young auditor that you have summoned is here.”
When the secretary left the space, Krys stepped in and closed the door, walking to stand in front of the desk, which is where she finally raised her head to look at the CEO.
Nen looked devastating in a suit, and Kel was banked behind his eyes. The discrete nameplate to one side of his desk said it all. Kelnen Danforth.
He smiled a very familiar smile, and she swayed, the world going grey around her. He was up and around the desk in an instant, helping her into a chair and crouching next to her.
“Krys, are you all right?” He stroked her cheek and neck.
She blinked and stared at him. “You’re here.”
She raised her hand, and the bells wiggled, but she didn’t hear anything.
He grinned and lifted her wrist to his lips. “I was very glad that these stayed on. They let us know when our mate had arrived. It has been quite the wait, knowing that you were in our building but wouldn’t recognize us.”
The light press of his lips on her wrist caused a welling of emotion in her chest, and she didn’t deal with emotion well. Huge, fat tears tracked their way down her cheeks, and they wrapped their arms around her. She didn’t sob, she just sat there while her eyes wept.
Kelnen leaned back and stroked her cheeks with his thumbs. “Happy or sad?”
She blinked. “I think, happy?”
He smiled. “I imagine you have questions?”
She nodded slowly, but her mind was putting together the bits of facts she knew. “You started this company ten years ago.”
They nodded. “We arrived twelve years ago and set about educating ourselves.”
“And I didn’t see you in the last five years because...”
“We were hiding from you. You hadn’t met us yet, so it would have been difficult for us to control ourselves and awkward for you. So, we waited. For Kel, twelve years is nothing.”
“Why did you go so far back?”
They grinned. “We wanted to make sure that you were doing well, and for that, we needed to employ you. You were right, you are very proficient with numbers. It has been a source of pride for us that you are so skilled.”
Krys nodded.
They smiled and lifted her hand. “When we heard this in the corridor,” he flicked the little bells, “we knew that you had met us, and we just waited for your work habits to return to normal before sending that email.”
She blinked. “You can still hear this?”
He nodded. “Of course. They were crafted from metal mined from my own shell.”
“Shell?”
“There are two types of drake, those that hatch from eggs laid while their female parent is in shifted form; they take decades or centuries to hatch and appear fully grown as I did, and those who are born into a human shape and mature from there.”
She blinked. “Do those children favour the mother?”
He smiled. “Usually, or they wouldn’t be born. Though there are complications for some mothers if the father isn’t there to take care of her.”
She looked down. “Oh. Right. The power issue.”
He frowned. “Yes, that why are you suddenly so tense?”
She twisted her lips. “It is really early still, and a lot can go wrong, but I would really like it if you two could stay close for the next nine months.”
She saw the two faces clearly overlap for a moment in surprise. He leaned back and