Dark Heart Series- His Lonely Reign

Chapter 4: First Day In Hell

Sydney

I stood in front of those glass doors, fingers gripping the strap of my bag until my knuckles turned white. Today was my first day as the secretary for one of the biggest logistics companies in the country. Owned by a man I knew was dangerous, and how no clue how to approach. Not that it mattered. I had a job to do.

And I would do it.

Even if it f*****g killed me—not that I wanted it to.

Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to open the doors, stepping inside the spacious lobby. Cold air trickled through the vents, sending chills down my bare arms. The heat of the city evaporated as I moved toward the silver card readers. The light blinked green, and before I knew it, I stood before the elevators with a small crowd waiting to go up.

Like yesterday, there was a mix of human and supernatural. I tried to ignore the ones I knew were obviously not human, keeping my eyes straight ahead. I could feel eyes on me, however. It didn’t matter if there were hundreds of workers in this company, they knew I was new.

Hell, all the training I had gone through was to fight supernaturals and being a secretary wasn’t exactly something I was qualified for. So I had no doubt I had ‘new girl doesn’t know what the f**k she is doing’ tattooed right across my forehead.

The elevator doors swished open and we stepped aside to let others filter out. I hurried in at the back of the crowd, just barely squeezing in. Trying not to get too close to one supernatural woman with golden eyes and blue hair—a Fae—that seemed intent on people watching, instead of sticking her face in her phone like everyone else.

Floor-by-floor, the elevator slowly started to empty. I was one of the very few heading up to the top. The more floors we passed, the more eyes I could feel on the back of my head.

“Is that the new secretary?” A whisper caught my attention, but I refused to turn around.

“I think so.” There was a slight pause. A soft snort. “She won’t last very long.”

“How long did the last one make it?”

“A few months.”

Chills crept down the back of my neck, though I brushed it off. Unlike the last woman, I knew what I was getting into. Somewhat. At least I was aware of the supernatural and what they were capable of. That was something the last secretary probably hadn’t known. Already I was one step ahead. I just needed it to stay that way.

The gossipers stepped around me as soon as the doors opened. From their pointed ears, they were also fae. Except these were different from the woman I had noticed before. Their skin had a slight green tint to it, and their eyes were just a little too sharp. Humans wouldn’t notice these types of things, but I certainly did. They sneaked a last look before the doors slid closed, their lips moving as they whispered. I didn’t hear what they said before the elevator started up to the top floor, but I didn’t really care.

I had to stay focused. Today, would put me one step closer to proving myself.

When I stepped out onto my floor, I let out a heavy breath of nerves that had been building inside me all the way up to this floor. Stepping out into the lobby, I smiled at the front desk woman I’d seen yesterday. “Good morning.”

She barely glanced up before looking back down at whatever she was doing. I had heard of people being rude within companies like this, but the front desk woman? That was new.

Shrugging it off, I headed through the glass doors and down the hall. My new desk sat before Noah Solvmane’s office, the same as yesterday. Thankfully, his office door was closed. Which meant I had time to get situated before having to face him. Setting my purse on the floor, I tucked it beneath the drawers, prepared to dig into whatever Mr. Grey was trying to explain yesterday while I was doing paperwork.

Unfortunately for me, just as I was about to sit down and figure out my first task, the office door behind me opened.

“You’re late.” Noah’s silver eyes narrowed. Today he wore a tight-fitting black suit with a red tie. His dark hair slicked back with a bit of stubble along his sharp jawline, giving him a more rugged look.

Glancing at the gold clock on the wall, I frowned. Mr. Grey had told me to be here at eight in the morning. It was now seven fifty-nine. “I—”

“You’re to be here at seven-thirty each morning,” Noah said shortly. “Check the schedule for the day. I’ll need a report of all the meetings I have today within the next ten minutes.” Without another word, he stepped back into his office and roughly closed the door.

I stared at where he retreated to with my lips partially opened. Clearly, there’d be no grace period to get used to things, not that I should have expected there would be. Ignoring my new boss’s rudeness, I switched on the computer. It wasn’t that hard to find his daily schedule. Already programmed into the computer, it popped up on the screen.

Grabbing a notepad from the middle draw and a pen from the pencil holder on top of the desk, I quickly noted his meetings for the day. I had no idea what they were for or who they were with, but it might have been something my father and Elite Humanity might be interested in. Just to be sure, I took a picture of the computer screen. Just in case.

My knuckles rapped against the glass door of Noah Solvmane’s office five minutes later.

“Come in.”

Pushing the door open with my shoulder, I stepped into his office. Like the rest of the building, it was minimalistic and as dark as midnight. Every piece of furniture was a smoky black with accents of gold. A large desk sat to my right, velvet black chairs sitting just before it. There was a large gold clock on the wall, the small hand slowly ticking. There were no personal pictures that I could see except one on his desk and it was turned away from the door, hidden from my view.

“Do you have the report for today?” Noah asked coldly, one eyebrow raised. It was clear he doubted my ability to keep up. Something I would have to prove to him I could do without issue, the familiar feeling of determination to prove myself growing by the minute.

“You have a nine o’clock meeting with Gregory and a twelve with Janet. There’s another meeting this afternoon at two with something else scheduled for three?” I wasn’t sure what that last one was since there were no names attached to it. The title had only said ‘meeting’.

“Very well. Cancel the two o’clock. Reschedule that for next week.” Noah’s eyes slid away from me to the desktop screen to his right. His fingers flew across the keyboard, clacking keys, the only other sound in the room.

I studied him closely, trying to understand why he seemed so normal compared to the horror stories I had heard about his kind when I was younger. I had never seen a Lycan in person before, a Werewolf, yes… but Lycan’s were not Werewolves. They were more monstrous creatures whose senses were ten times that of a normal shifter, and the power they held was unimaginable.

Not that we knew much about them. Lycans were rare, silent creatures.

And the worst monsters were always the ones you couldn’t see coming.

“Is there anything else?” Noah asked. There was a sharpness to his words that yanked me from my thoughts.

“Uh, no. That’s all.”

“Then…” He motioned toward the door. “Mr. Grey will be sending up some reports later. I’ll need you to make copies and put them together for me to review.”

“Will do.” I barely stopped myself from saluting him.

Noah’s eyes cut toward me, his fingers pausing over the keyboard. Black shadows flickered around his irises as he held my gaze. This man was something else entirely, and though part of me wanted to run from his office, I couldn’t move. Instead, heat rose to my cheeks as he stared at me with dangerous vibes rolling off his body.

I didn’t know how to feel about it all. I was taught to fear what he was, to not try and take one on, especially alone. This was left to the elite of my people, people like my father and brother. Not that our company came across them often—in fact, I don’t recall we ever had.

My heart trembled at the thought of having to be in his presence until I found out what was going on in this place. He was gorgeous, and feeling attraction to him completely threw me off balance but at the same time I was scared.

“I’ll get those to you as soon as I’m done,” I muttered, turning on my heel. I fled from the office, letting out a breath of relief as soon as the door shut behind me.

Noah Solvmane was a Lycan, I was sure of it. Though part of me didn’t want to jump to conclusions. EH didn’t have all the intel, and though it wasn’t 100% known what he was, my instincts had never really been wrong before. One thing I was absolutely sure about was he was dangerous. There was an edge to him that made me nervous. For the first time, I felt out of my element. Maybe Melissa and my brother Patrick were right, and I wasn’t up to the challenge.

Maybe this wouldn’t be as easy as I thought it would be.

Pushing those thoughts away, I took a seat at my desk. My phone pinged from my purse, alerting me to a message. Glancing at the office door, I dug it out from under the desk.

How is your day?

Laurent’s message glared up at me. I knew he wasn’t checking in on me because he cared.

Just starting, I typed quickly, keeping an eye on the office door. Knowing my luck, Noah would catch me with my phone in hand when I was supposed to be working, and then all of this would have been for nothing. My siblings would never let me live that one down.

Time’s ticking.

As if I didn’t know. When he’d first given me this mission, my father had been perfectly clear that the EH would need information as soon as possible. Attacks on humans in the safe cities were rising and somehow they were linked to this company. Whether Noah was the mastermind behind the attacks or if the supernaturals were planning something bigger, I didn’t know.

That’s why I was here.

Another sound forced my attention to the computer on my desk. An email popped up on the screen with several attachments labeled as reports. I stuffed my phone back into my bag and got to work. It took me a while to figure out where I had to print these damn things. The woman at the lobby desk wasn’t very helpful in finding the copy room, but as there were only a few rooms on this floor, I found it on my own in the end.

File cabinets lined the room with a single printer set against the back wall. A black table was placed in the center of the table, made of glass. Two swivel chairs sat beside it looking forlorn. It didn’t look like anyone had been in here for awhile and I wondered just how long ago it was that Noah’s secretary had quit.

Papers slid out from the printer one-by-one, hot to the touch. Glancing over my shoulder, I closed the copy room door, deciding to make the most of what I was doing—and snoop. The first few pages of the reports seemed normal to me. Each one outlined each department’s activities. Nothing too crazy. I didn’t understand half of it, but I knew it didn’t have anything to do with the supernatural. It was more about exports and imports than anything else.

Which wasn’t what I was after.

Sighing, I started stacking up the papers.

“So you’re the new girl.”

Whipping around, I nearly dropped the stack of papers I’d grabbed from the printer. Standing in the doorway was a woman I didn’t recognize but, at first glance, she looked human. Actually, she looked gorgeous. Her honey-blond hair fell in thick waves around her shoulders, freckles dotting her pale cheeks beneath brilliant blue eyes rimmed with black lashes. Her lips were painted red, her makeup subtle enough to enhance her beauty rather than diminish it. She was taller than I was, her heels giving her an extra inch.

“I—uh, yes. I guess I am.” I carefully set the papers on the table, careful not to mess up their order. “Who are you?”

“Congrats. I’m Aria.” She walked to the table, hand extended. I shook it warily. “I work down in Order Fulfillment.”

“It’s nice to meet you.” I was only being nice to get her out faster. With her here, I couldn’t keep going through the reports.

“First day?” Aria asked, taking a seat in one of the chairs. Inwardly, I groaned. If she insisted on staying, I’d have to come back later.

“Yes.” Please leave, I thought. I really, really didn’t want to stay here any longer than I had to.

Aria studied me, blue eyes unwaveringly innocent. “You should come out with some of us tonight. We usually go out a few times a week for drinks. It helps take the edge off.”

“Edge?” The question slipped out before I could stop it.

“I mean, yeah. Working here isn’t always easy.” Aria grins. “And I have a feeling you’ll probably need that drink sooner or later.”

“Is he that bad?” I ask, nodding toward Noah’s office through the glass walls. They were clouded, like his, but Aria got what I was asking about.

She shrugged. “Last girl didn’t last very long. Or the one before that.” There must have been a look on my face. “But who knows,” she said quickly, “you might be the one that sticks around.”

“Thanks,” I reply dryly. “Well, I have to get these reports to Mr. Solvmane, so.”

“Of course.” Aria gracefully stood, hands smoothing down her bright red pencil skirt. “If you need anything, just come find me.” Flashing a smile, Aria slipped out of the copy room.

I bent over the table, quickly skimming through the rest of the reports to make up for the time lost chatting to my new friend. After a few minutes, I let out a frustrated groan. There was nothing here. Nothing that EH would be interested in anyway. I couldn’t end my first day without any information whatsoever, however. Which meant I’d need to stay later just to go snooping.

Perfect.