overpowering all else, inviting him to shift and root out the Shadow Men in a spray of blood and a chorus of screams. He shivered and ran his tongue over his lips. It had been a very long time since he’d last gorged himself on Shadow Man meat. The gift of agelessness it brought had been necessary to Goliath. To effectively hunt vampires, they needed to be longer-lived to retain all their training and tricks. Of course, eating your enemy was always satisfying in and of itself. Perhaps once the cub was safe, the alpha could reintroduce the practice to some of the better warriors who had earned their shot at immortality.
Before long, he found himself at the glittering tower of glass that housed the leech’s office. He took a deep breath and mentally prepared himself. Hopefully this would go quickly and smoothly.
Paul walked around the building, observing all of the entrances and making note of the security cameras. A delivery truck was backed up against a garage located near the parking structure; seeing no one around to observe his actions, he strolled right in and immediately made his way to the service elevator down the hall. A security camera blinked at him from a corner, but there wasn’t much he could do about it.
He took the elevator up to the eighth floor, glancing up and down the hall. Many closed office doors greeted him, each with a plaque denoting which company they belonged to. He soon found the placard for A.D. Royce Industries, letting himself in without further ado, and smiled with closed lips at the receptionist. She immediately jerked about two feet back. When he spoke, he kept his head lowered and tried not to open his mouth too wide.
“I am here to see Alec Royce.”
The flustered receptionist gaped at him. Human, he noted, with some disappointment. It took a very long moment for her to regain her poise, carefully avoiding looking into the glowing golden irises of the ill-kempt man.
“I’m sorry, sir,” she said, voice wavering, “but Mr. Royce is not in the office this evening. Did you have an appointment?”
“No, but I think he might be expecting me. I know it is proper to send a representative first, and then make my appearance with some sort of gift, but I understand this is not done anymore. Do you know, I find that so very uncomfortable. Things used to be done differently. Better.” He paused. “Would you call him?”
“Oh—oh—okay. Have a seat, please.”
‘Being here is like a starving man standing at a buffet and telling himself he’s not hungry,’ Paul thought miserably. He tried not to think about it as he shuffled to the chairs to wait.
The receptionist rattled off an email to Royce’s second, John, as she dialed the younger vampire’s extension, following the usual drill. He picked up after a couple rings.
“What’s up, Dahlia? I’m trying to finish these damn timesheets, I thought you were holding my calls.”
She cringed, her worried gaze flicking over to the strange man and then back to her computer. “I’m sorry, sir. I’ve got a gentleman here who doesn’t have an appointment with Mr. Royce, but seems to think he’d be expecting him. I checked the calendar and didn’t see anything on file for a meeting today.” That last was the unwritten code for, ‘There’s a potentially dangerous Other here and, oh my God, I’m just a human, please come deal with it, thanks.’
John straightened. He was reasonably certain who it must be, and didn’t want anyone getting hurt while he dealt with the Goliath alpha. “I’ll be out in a minute. Send an email to everyone telling them they’ve got a paid night off, and to leave the office as quickly as possible through the back. Stay there until I get him out of reception, then you can leave, too.”
He hung up, scanning the email with the physical description of their visitor. He’d never heard of an alpha Were with clawed feet or golden eyes unless they were mid-change. It sounded like the guy had spent too much time shifted and was stuck somewhere in between.
Rising with a pit of dread heavy in his stomach, he straightened his tie and ran his hands raggedly through his short, reddish-brown hair, and shot off an emergency text to Royce before heading out to meet their unexpected guest.
He was unsurprised to see Dahlia was watching their visitor like one might watch a rabid dog.
John came around the receptionist’s desk and paused, leaving