Chapter 29 Annoyingly Cryptic

— Eveline —

That morning, I woke with a smile on my face.

I can’t say that happened very often throughout my life.

I am not a morning person.

I love lounging in bed, having breakfast in bed. Basking in the afterglow of a good dream.

I like this period between sleeping and awake, when you’re awake and yet still half-dreaming. It’s generally when my brain chooses to give me my best dreams.

But this morning, I had a gloriously handsome naked man in my arms, who had given me incredible sex the night before. Good enough to wake in a diluted horny haze.

He was still sleeping, though—as I checked under the covers—not entirely.

So I decided to work my way there with kisses.

He blinked a few times went I reached his navel. When he looked down at me—I never really defined myself in ways, even close to a femme fatale—, but the look he gave me, was all the confidence boost a woman could ask for.

We kept our early morning time busy, and as per my preferences, we stayed in bed.

After a long shower together, and much needed food to refuel ourselves, we decided for me to go to work.

This week had been a difficult one, and work would be piling up. We were both fine and it was time to go.

When did I become so responsible?

Also, it was a perfect time for Darren to go and tell my brother about his decision.

I didn’t have spare work clothes with me, so we had to go to my parents place first. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to get our closet closer together.

We walked into the office building hand-in-hand. Granted it might not be the most professional form, but everyone knows at this point, about us, so I didn’t much care. We got a few looks. I was feeling too good to be bothered.

I walked like I own the place. I don’t, but I’m probably the closest one to do, after my brother and father, so I decided it counted.

“Hey there princess,” said Mark as I came to my office.

“Hi,” Darren and I told him.

“I heard Prince Charming was all nobly lately.”

Darren snorted. “Since when am I Prince Charming?”

“Since I decided so,” Mark said. “And since your little rescue stunt at Celia.”

“You know about that?”

“Man, everyone knows, it’s all over the chats.”

“Oh,” he noted.

“So you’re parading your boo here on your day offs now?” Mark asked me.

“Nah. I’m a little late, but I figured I should get back to work, and Darren is here to talk to my brother.”

“Oh!” said Mark. “Well, he should be available soon.”

“Cool,” I said.

And the guys started chatting about the event of the week.

I wasn’t sure if I should rescue Darren from people getting too nosy and asking too many questions, but he seemed fine now. Maybe everything got better with a little distance. I’m not sure I’d be able to bounce back emotionally so fast. But when I went to my desk I mouthed ‘Are you okay?’ to him and he nodded at me so I decided to trust him and looked at the pile of stuff on my desk.

After Brandon got out of my brother’s office—seeming relatively okay from his previous injuries—Darren went in.

Brandon was moving a little stiffly when he would sit down or get up, but other than that, he was relatively fine. His brown hair was combed perfectly as always, and is grey eyes glued on his tablet. It had been a little over a month now, so given the extensive damage he’d had, it was pretty good. It would have taken a lot longer if he’d been human.

After twenty minutes in the office, I saw Henry come in.

“I’m expected,” he simply told Mark in passing, and went straight in.

I guess all was going well.

Marie gave me a series of numbers to call, and documents to have checked for legal loopholes and any oversights, so I sent them to our lawyer’s first.

It took a few hours actually until Darren and Henry got out.

They shook hands. “Tomorrow, early. Before the office get back in motion. I want to use this opportunity to get as much done as possible then,” Henry told Darren.

“Sure, just tell me the time,” Darren told him.

“Is eight too early?”

“No. It’s fine. Will it be here?”

“My office is on the floor below.”

“Okay.”

“See you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow.” The guys concluded and Henry left.

Darren looked at his watch, then at me. “Do you get off soon, or do you have to stay late?”

I looked at Marie inquisitively.

She shrugged, but then Mark’s speaker beeped. “Send Eva in,” said my brother’s voice.

I got up, looking surprised at Darren. He shrugged not knowing anymore than I what this was about.

“Sit,” Kaden told me as I got inside his office. It was a beautiful room, with lots of bookshelves and leather chairs. It was warm despite the stone external walls that were bare even from the inside. Their ridiculous thickness, made the windowsill extremely deep. I guess it was good for a fort, but I can’t begin to imagine the amount of work and resources required for building this way. It’s easy to see why no knew building is like that. That, and how modern artillery made it far less efficient too.

“What is it?” I asked sitting down.

“I’d like to send you somewhere,” he said. “I know you have Darren now and you might not want to travel anymore—,” he began.

“I’ll go,” I cut him.

“You don’t know yet,” he said smiling in approval.

“I’m not stopping work. And Darren is Gamma now. I’m gonna gain responsibilities too.”

“Not necessarily,” he interjected.

“I thought about it. And Darren needs help, I’m gonna give it to him. And if you want to give me tasks, I’m gonna do them,” I told him. “I’d much prefer to do things I’m good at, though,” I thought aloud. “But I can learn. Also, I’m looking in language school. I’m gonna learn French, and when I master it, I’ll move to the next language. If you have suggestions, I’ll take them into account.”

“What is bringing this forth?” he asked me.

“I had a meaningful talk with someone clever. I want to do my part in this pack. And I want to do it well. I know it took me a while to get a move on. But I’m sure now. I know I fooled around a lot, and I didn’t go to college. I’m gonna start with languages. Then I’ll see, when I’m sure of the direction I’m going in, I might go back to school.”

He looked me up seriously, then nodded. “Good to know,” he said. “I’m not sure yet on how Darren’s position is gonna affect you and your workload. How about we let him go through the initial three months and see where this is organically headed? If anything clashes with your work, or classes, tell Brandon, Marie, or me, and we’ll adjust on the go.”

I nodded.

“We can make a more solid plan after that.”

“Okay.”

“This trip,” he said getting back to business. “Will be a little different from the usual.”

“Okay,” I said.

“I’m sending you to Ghealach pack. We need information, and they’ve agreed to give it to us, but only in person. They were really fussy about this, but they finally agreed to an official envoy.”

“So it’s Brotherhood stuff?” I asked.

“Not quite. The Brotherhood is playing things really close to their chest lately, and I need more than their usual cryptic non-answers. Something is brewing in the supernatural world. The word is that it has to do with faes, and Ghaelach pack is probably the one with the most connections on this side of the supernatural.”

“Couldn’t you ask for official talks with one of their emissaries?”

“Sure, but the faes are generally annoyingly cryptic about everything. Plus, I don’t even know to which faction I must pander to. It might come to that in the end. But I need to orient myself. Which is why I’m sending you.”

“Isn’t this pretty big? Don’t you generally do those type of meetings yourself?”

“Generally, but there’s been escalations in hostilities, and the reason why I need this information is to make more sense of it. It’s hard to gather intelligence on multiple front and prepare for eventual confrontations without delegating some.”

“Okay,” I said. “How serious is it?”

“I’m not sure yet,” he said raking his fingers through his hair. I could see the tiredness in his eyes. “It looks like it could get very serious,” he continued.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll do what I can.” I looked at him a little. “How are you doing? That’s a lot of things all at once, with the earthquake and all. You should rest some.”

“I’ll rest when I’m dead,” he said casually, but I felt my stomach fall all the way to my heels.

“I’m fine,” he added quickly, noting the change in my mood.

I harrumphed.

“How about you leave early and go celebrate with Darren?” he told me to distract me from the matters at hand.

It worked, I cheered some and we said our goodbyes for the day.