Chapter 13: Brooke and James - Departure

****Brooke

“What do you mean you have to go to Eagle?” It sounded like a question, but I knew very well that it was an accusation.

“Mom…” I snorted, undoing my apron. I had just told her I was going to skip lunch and she didn't take it well at all. “It's for work. They gave me this new task... can I refuse?”

“Yes, I could. You can do anything, my daughter.” my father intervened, walking past me to kiss my mother on the cheek. “Good morning.”

“There is nothing good about this day…” he violently slammed three cups on the tray and looked at me. “The coffee is ready. I'll take the eggs out of the oven and we can sit down.”

“She found out that I won't be back for lunch,” I explained to my father.

He widened his eyes, pretending to be scared, and gave me a sympathetic look, careful not to be caught in the act by my mother.

“What is your commitment?”

“I have to go to Mount Eagle to work on that campaign Malloy needs.”

“Mmm.” he suddenly became thoughtful. “It's a difficult area.”

“But we will be in the valley.” I got impatient. “Mr. Farrow has already said that I can refuse if we decide to climb to the top.”

“You should have even refused to come down.” complained the mother again. “Today. Today your brother arrives. You shouldn't have done this to me!” she stuck her finger under my nose: “You really shouldn't have done that to me!”

“Listen, Lillibeth.” My father grabbed her shoulders affectionately. If anyone could calm her down, it was him. “We have a lot of pending expenses and the supermarket doesn't give us lifetime credit. I think Brooke was very responsible in accepting the extra work. If she misses lunch with Mattias it will mean we organize another one at the weekend before he leaves again.”

“Of course, of course,” he muttered, succumbing to logic. In an instant, however, she was back to reciting her script like an apprehensive mother. “Who's going to take you to Malloy's base?”

“I'll take a taxi.”

“You have expense reimbursement, right?” asked my father.

“I think so. I don't know. We don't talk about it.”

“You could have accompanied that colleague of yours. What was her name?”

“Jenny.” I helped her.

“Here you are! She! He could have cut you some slack.”

“She won't be on set. It'll just be me and Mr. Farrow.”

Dad and Mom stared at me in silence.

Yet.

She still is.

“What it was?” I got impatient.

“Why is it just the two of you?” the mother's eyes were full of suspicion.

I escaped their gaze and ran to the stove.

“The coffee maker is grumbling, haven't you noticed?”

I filled the cups and put a sugar cube in each one.

“Why is it just the two of you?” my mother repeated, this time speaking louder.

I took the tray. “Mother! Do you want to stay calm? Mr. Farrow wants to film life in the forest, a kind of commercial documentary, and he needs an assistant. I was free and…”

“Jenny wasn't there?”

“Jenny is from the commercial department. She works alongside Mr. Dimitri. She doesn't handle the commercials.”

“There are colleagues with much more experience than you.” she didn't miss anything, it was clear.

“You've already met my colleagues. Can you imagine them in the forest with horrible boots?”

My father frowned. “You're right, Lillibeth. This is how the world of advertising works. There is more appearance than substance. What do we know about how to set up a scenario? If Mr. Farrow chose our Brooke, it means he saw potential in us.”

“More than anything, he saw potential in the fact that I didn't wear high heels,” I observed. I didn't know how much I liked it.

****James

“So, let me get this straight, you invented this fake biodiversity campaign, convinced Brooke to follow you, which...let me tell you...surprised me, and finally you chose our territory as the location for the commercial.” Dimitri summed up.

He stood with one leg crossed uncomfortably over his knee as he played with his slice of bread.

The sun's rays reflected off the flat water of the pool, creating halos that made my eyes burn. I changed position on the lounge chair by the pool and went back to taking care of my backpack. I checked that I had taken the entire artificial lighting kit and that I had sealed the material.

“Exactly our territory!” he commented, emphasizing the word “our”.

I twisted the cable from the camera's emergency battery and placed it in the case where I had placed the follow focus lens, so I could change the focus without necessarily having to touch the camera.

“I don't think it was a random choice.” he continued babbling, trying to get my attention.

I carefully folded the reflective sheet and tried to stuff it into his bag.

“Brother!” His tone almost sounded like a warning and I slowly looked at him. “Are you aware that bringing her to our territory is a big gamble, or do you need to list the dangers she would face if she came across the herd?”

“Brooke will stay by my side. I'll get to the set before her and mark my territory. No wolf will come near me.”

“No wolves in our pack.” he specified.

“Not even those from the other three bands, if they don't want to die.”

“So the plan is to take you there and show you our world? Where did you plan to use human manners and calmly get her used to going?”

I closed my backpack and stretched my legs on the lounge, lowering my sunglasses so I wouldn't go blind. My pupils were still red from when that little girl left my office the day before. Even though I managed to hide from her what her virgin scent was awakening in me, that didn't mean my body hadn't suffered the effects. He still trembled with the need to possess her.

“I'm not going to show her anything. I made her my assistant on this fake project just so we could spend time together and let her get to know me. In the office, it would have been impossible. If I had to recognize a talent in that girl, it's that she understands very well what our respective roles are, even if it leads her to distance herself and play everything at a professional level. In the bush, it will be different.”

“But why on Mount Eagle?”

“Because it's the only territory I have complete control over... even over humans. Furthermore, Malloy's proximity will serve as a deterrent if…” I didn't need to finish the sentence. Dimitri understood very well.

I needed witnesses, someone who could intervene to keep Brooke safe if I lost control. I could barely control myself when she wasn't in front of me. Being by her side for so long was a kind of Russian roulette: it could have been good. Or not.

If I had been able to let my human side prevail, I could have spent hours with her in which we would have learned to know each other, but if instead I had been held hostage by that bestial part inside me, I would have thrown her to the ground and possessed her. to claim her as mine.

Too bad then I would have found a corpse as a companion. No human being was physically equipped to resist our powerful thrusts, the way we held them, or the way we kissed her lips. When we mated with any woman it was different. We did it just to rob them of the liquid of excitement, but we didn't feel any feelings. And even then, everything didn't always go well.

Mating with Brooke would have been the biggest mistake I could have ever made in my life. On the other hand, not doing so was easier said than done. And that meant my defeat.

“Do you know that you will have to stay for a few days?”

“Not yet.”

“And how are you going to convince her to stay?” he asked. He wasn't convinced of my plan, you could see it clearly on his face.

“I will order you,” I replied obviously.

“You are not her Alpha.”

“But I'm her boss. A human version of Alpha. That little girl is proud, but she knows her place and, most of all, she knows who is in charge between the two of us.”

Dimitri left his coffee cup on the wrought iron table and tied his tie, ready to go to the agency. How he managed to sympathize so skillfully with human beings was a mystery that I hoped, in time, to solve. His ability to keep a wide range of emotions under control became legendary, and it was precisely for this reason that my father chose him to be my right-hand man. I would monitor the wolves, Dimitri the humans.

“I'm going to keep my cell phone stuck to my ass.” he supported me as always. “If you need anything, call me, then. I'll be with you in twenty minutes.”

“I hope there is no need.”

*******

****James

“Brother…” he placed a solemn hand on my shoulder. Fear lodged in his eyes and he did nothing to hide it. “If she dies, you will die, and all of us with you.”

I did not answer. As an Alpha, I didn't need to do that. However, if I didn't do this, it was only because I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to keep my voice steady. The entire fate of the pack weighed on my shoulders more and more each day. For two years I guided each wolf to maturity, impeccably defended the borders, and repelled all attacks from other packs. I did this without fear and without ever showing the slightest hesitation.

Today, however, was the first time I felt like I was facing a real challenge. An enemy pack was a thousand and thousand times less dangerous than that little girl. Today, for the first time, I felt the bitter taste of fear.

“How can you resist?” I shouted at him when he was about to enter the garage. “Their smell! How can you resist?”

“Juniper.”

A grimace of disgust escaped me. The smell of juniper was the most revolting thing that could exist for a werewolf and often made us vomit.

“I have a bag hidden in the agency's archive and another in the garage. I smell it when I feel like I'm losing control with a woman, without getting upset. It's a palliative, but it's better than nothing.”

“Thank you, bro.”

“Is that? I don't want to sound homosexual, but I remember that every erection you have runs the risk of killing me.” he laughed, sticking one leg into the cab of the convertible and resting an arm on the window with a playful gesture in the air. “If I help you, I'll only do it to save my balls.”