The blood pack (Book five)

Chapter nine

~Trev~

I came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my waist. I saw Dawn stiffen on the sofa before slowly turning towards me, her eyes travelling up and down my glistening body before she quickly looked away. “How did the interview go?” I asked with a smile on my face, knowing that my body had had an effect on her by the slight scent of her arousal that mixed with her normal scent making my c**k twinge again.

“I got the job.” She whispered, not looking back at me again which annoyed me slightly, having enjoyed the way her eyes dilated slightly as they stared at me.

As her words registered in my brain, my own arousal quickly died down. “So you are going to work at Tallen Corp?” I hissed, unable to keep my anger at her putting herself in danger out of my voice. Her head moved up and down, not even bothering to give me a verbal response. “When do you start?”

“Tomorrow.” She responded, making my whole body tense. She then turned back to me, her eyes showing anger and hurt. “So you were wrong.”

“What?” I asked, not sure what she meant.

“That the way that I look, the way that I dress, would stop me from getting the job.” She stood up, turning towards me while putting one hand on her hip and pointing the other at me. “I will never change who I am, not for anyone, and especially not for a self centered asshole like you!”

My eyes searched hers, only seeing anger and pain in there. I didn’t know what to say, knowing that I was the one to put that there. I walked to the bedroom, slamming the door closed behind me. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have bred so much hate and distrust between us in the short time that we had been together? She was everything I wanted, everything I needed, and I had completely blown it.

I slumped onto the bed, fisting my hands through my hair, pulling at it slightly, punishing myself. I couldn’t just tell her how I felt, how my wolf felt. Nick would kill me and even though I knew that her body wanted me, the way that she looked at me told me that she did not feel the same way. I had made sure of that.

I stood up, pacing back and forth. I had to make things right, had to find a way to at least get her to like me, even if I had made sure that she would never let me claim her with my words. Why did I always put my foot in it? Why did I always find a way to f**k everything up? I stopped my pacing, my chest rising and falling rapidly as I stared at the wall in front of me. My fist shot out, making a hole in the wall and plaster falling to the floor. It didn’t make me feel any better, nothing could make me feel better right now. My wolf snarled and paced in my mind, equally as restless as I felt.

I didn’t leave my room again, not wanting my current anger at myself to spill out and make things even worse, if that was even possible right now. I racked my mind, trying to think of a way to make it up to Dawn. She was not the type of girl to give in to hearts and flowers, plus that would be laying too much bare before her. She was a tech person, just like me. Hell, we had more in common than I first thought with her short temper and ability to keep a grudge. I smiled slightly at that thought.

So, what would I like for someone to do for me? What could someone do to show me that they were sorry and help me to forgive them. I thought about the second case that she had brought with her, filled to the brim with her laptop, external SSD, a terabyte of storage. It was all good gear, but I could think of better.

I smiled as I pulled out the burner phone that I had been given by Nick, going online and looking through what stores were close by that sold what I needed. Yes, I would love it if someone did this for me. I looked through motherboards, RGB fans and coolers, mechanical keyboards. Oh yes, the Punky Princess would f*****g love this. I would, of course, do a home build, not wanting the stock crap that came with the premade desktops.

I laid down on my bed, feeling less restless now that I had a plan. When Dawn went to work tomorrow, I would go out and everything would be set up for the time she got home. The thought of the smile that she would have on her face at seeing what I had done for her made me smile as well as I drifted off into a deep sleep for the first time since I got here.

~Dawn~

I woke up early, nervous about going to work for Tallen Corp and also still seething from my argument with Trev, again. I don’t know why his attitude towards me affected me so much, why everything he said seemed to be an insult or even the tone that he used seemed to be judging me. It was hard to stay angry when he stood there, bare chested, muscles glistening with the water that still clung to his skin, but I somehow managed.

I got up, taking a quick shower before running into the bedroom, trying not to make a sound as I clung to the towel wrapped around me as I grabbed a pair of jeans and t-shirt that had a computer screen on it with “Buffering…” written on the monitor, fishing some underwear out of the suitcase on the floor where it still lay waiting to be unpacked. I tiptoed back out of the room, closing the door quietly behind me before letting the towel drop and quickly pulling on my clothes, only managing to pull on my underwear before I heard the door behind me open.

I froze, turning slowly to see Trev, bare chested, his jogging bottoms hanging low on his waist showing he had nothing underneath. His grey eyes moved up and down my body, my body unable to stop from reacting under his gaze as my need pooled in my panties, a shiver running through me. He stepped closer, reaching out and tucked a strand of wet hair behind my ear, my breathing becoming heavier with his closeness.

“Be careful.” He whispered, his eyes pained. My mind stopped working, it was like I was unable to speak, unable to move. Trev stepped back slightly, his hand dropping from where it had cupped my face for a moment. He walked past me, straight to the bathroom where he closed the door, not saying anything else.

The sound of the shower turning on snapped me out of my daze. Shaking my head at how easily I gave into him, how easily he controlled me, I pulled on the rest of my clothes, gabbing my handbag before I headed for the front door. I paused for a second, looking back at the bathroom, wondering why Trev had been so kind, so tender, given that every conversation we had before then was more of an argument than anything else. I sighed deeply, thinking I was overthinking the entire situation before I turned and left.

I took the bus again, finding that I liked the alone time to think through my jumbled thoughts, trying to put together what was happening in our tiny apartment. Even though we lived together, we may as well be on different planets. I had wanted to get close to Trev, meet the legend, the man who I thought about so many times when my hand sought to bring me some sort of pleasurable release for so long. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, he wasn’t supposed to hate me and I wasn’t supposed to want to hate him, despite the fact that I found that I couldn’t.

I got off the bus, walking into the Tallen Corp building with my head held high, casting a small smirk at the receptionist who looked like she was chewing on a bee hive. I boarded the elevator, holding my breath again as others got on, overwhelming me with the scent of their mixed perfumes and aftershaves. As wolves, we did not use artificial scents, relying on the natural scent of our wolves alone. The thought of Trev’s masculine scent invaded my mind, remembering us stuck in the car together for hours as I tried to control the way it called to me.

The elevator dinged on the tenth floor and I pulled myself together, getting off to come face to face with a smiling Riley. “Nice to see you again Dawn.” He said as he ushered me backwards onto the elevator again. “We will go down to HR and get them to issue you with an ID card and computer access and then you can come to the morning briefing where you will be assigned to a project group.”

I nodded my head as the doors closed again, the elevator continuing its journey upwards to drop off the rest of the passengers. Riley stood close to me, so close I could feel the heat of his breath against my shoulder. I tried to move further away, but the carriage was too full and so I steadied out my breathing, trying not to choke. It felt like the longest journey ever, going higher and higher until finally we reached the top floor.

A man in a fancy suit got on, a small smile on his face as he nodded to Riley before his eyes turned to me. “Morning. This must be the new hire.”

“Dawn.” I quickly said, realising that knowing my name was probably not on the top of his to do list with the way he looked amused at me.

“Well, Dawn, let’s hope that you live up to all that Riley here has boasted about.” The man drawled as he got onto the Elevator, pressing the button for the ground floor.

The elevator didn’t stop on its descent, but as the two men stood either side of me, the smell of the other passengers dissipating, I could swear I smelt another wolf. The smell was not strong, not like someone here was a wolf, but more like someone had been near another wolf, and recently. The scent was so faint that I could not tell if it came from Riley or the mysterious person guy who had just got on, but my wolf was cowering away at the recesses of my mind, imagining all the images that I had had to look at, scene after scene of utter brutality that I had witnessed.

The doors opened, bringing my mind back to the present as Riley disembarked. “Dawn.” He called back to me, making my legs kick into action as I walked back, not able to resist looking back over my shoulder as the doors closed again, trying to memorise the guy's face. He had short dark hair, green eyes, stubbled chin, his nose was slightly crooked, looking like it had been broken once or twice and the slight greying to some of his hair along with the wrinkles around his eyes made me believe he was in his mid to late forties. “Dawn.” Riley called again, forcing me to look away and pick up the pace as I followed behind him.

We walked down a corridor, all the rooms on this floor seeming to have the luxury of a window to the outside world. We stopped outside a room, Riley cheerfully knocking a rhythm three times before it opened. “Jacks, this is Dawn, she needs an ID and computer logon at the programming level.”

“Programming level?” I asked.

The guy in the room laughed slightly. “They are so paranoid here that they only allow certain access to the system to certain employees. At higher levels, the restrictions are less but for the grunts, you are only able to access the parts of the network that you need to do your job.”

“It is a normal procedure.” Riley assured me, making me instantly drop the subject so as not to draw attention to either my lack of actual experience or what I was really there to do.

Jacks took my picture, before printing it on to a small plastic card with a magnetic strip and lanyard with the Tallen Corp logo embossed on the thin strip of fabric. I pulled it over my neck, making sure the image of me was facing outwards, taking the slip of paper from Jacks. “When you first log on, change the password to something that you can easily remember. It must contain at least one capital, one number and one symbol. Don’t write down your password, don’t tell anyone your password.” I rolled my eyes at Jacks, making him chuckle. “You would be surprised how many people are stupid enough to write down their details only to misplace them.”

“Thanks Jacks.” Riley said, clasping his hand on Jacks’ back. I walked out with Riley, heading back towards the lift. “You should come out for some drinks with the guys after work, get to know who you will be working with.” He smiled as we waited for the elevator to arrive.

“Sure, why not.” I half smiled, the ding of the elevator announcing its arrival. I had to blend in, and maybe they would say something that would help with my investigation. People talked more, maybe too much when they drank. Plus, how could it hurt?