The Internship

Who Is Mr. Gordoni?

Xavier

“Did you seriously just say all that to her?” Jack paced into my office like he had come for an inspection and was disappointed with the results.

I rolled my eyes, a silent reminder of the certain privileges he enjoyed solely because he was my friend.

“Take a seat,” I commanded, gesturing to the sofa on the other side of the room. I didn't care if he liked the tone. Besides, I didn’t want anyone sitting on the exact spot Paige had occupied earlier.

He shot me a glare but walked over to the seat grudgingly.

“You were saying?” I raised a brow, challenging him to finish his thought.

Jack clicked his tongue, trying to bite back his words. Friends or not, he knew exactly where the line was, and he knew better than to cross it with me.

“You dumped too much on her for your first meeting,” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose before loosening his tie. “In case you’ve forgotten, she’s a human…” He paused, shutting his eyes tightly. “She could—”

“You don’t have to worry, Jack,” I cut him off. I had no patience for his emotional rambling. “I wiped her mind. She doesn't remember a single word of our conversation.”

I expected that to shut him up. Instead, his eyes went wide. “You used that on her?!” He snapped, standing right back up to pace the room. “If it’s too much for her—”

“It isn’t,” I snapped back.

“But if it is,” Jack insisted through clenched teeth.

I rolled my seat backward and stood up, taking fast strides until I reached him by the window. I gripped his shoulder, my hold firm enough to make him look down at the city with me. “Look, Jack. She’s my mate. I’m sorry, but I can’t just stay away. Don’t ask me to stay away.” I wiped a bead of sweat from my forehead, then casually walked back to my desk.

“If she really has her soul in her, she’ll be fine. She should be strong enough to handle a few mind tricks.”

He shook his head, knowing it was useless to argue with me. He quietly walked back and took his seat on the sofa. “And the dreams?” he asked, lowering his head and leaning his elbows on his knees.

“Let’s just say her heat draws me close. You can’t blame me,” I said, locking my eyes onto his. “You were practically banging Cecilia on every single trip we took.”

I leveled a hard stare at him. He let out a short, nervous laugh before quickly clearing his throat to mask it.

His features returned to dead serious. “I just don’t want you to do something you’d regret,” he said quietly.

I leaned back in my chair, looking right through him. “Me too, Jack. Me too.”

I didn't give him time to offer any more unsolicited advice. I picked up a glass file from my desk, turning it over in my fingers, dismissing him without saying a single word. Jack knew the drill. He stood up, adjusted his jacket, and walked out of my office, closing the door quietly behind him.

Once the room was completely empty, the silence took over. The air still carried the faint, intoxicating trace of Paige’s scent. Vanilla and heat. It was driving my senses wild, demanding that I go after her.

I dropped the file back onto the desk and leaned back, closing my eyes. I could still feel the sensation of her mind resisting me when I pushed into her memories. She was human, yes, but there was a stubborn, fierce spark hidden deep inside her. Even under the weight of my compulsion, she had paused for a split second before it took over her.

She'll be fine, I told myself, remembering Jack’s words. She has to be.

An hour passed in complete isolation before my private phone buzzed on the desk. The screen lit up with Jack's name. I snatched it up, pressing it to my ear, already annoyed.

"What do you want, Jack? I told you I'm handling it."

"Lucian, you need to look at her apartment security feed right now," Jack’s voice came through, completely stripped of its earlier humor. He sounded panicked. "I kept an eye on her tracker just in case her mind reacted badly to the wipe. She didn't go back to her apartment."

I stood up so fast my leather chair rolled back and slammed into the bookshelf behind me. "What do you mean she didn't go back? Where is she?"

"She's at the Blackwood corporate archive building downtown," Jack swallowed hard. "And Lucian... she didn't take a cab. She walked there like a zombie. The compulsion didn't lock her memories away, it fractured them."

A sickening realization washed over me. A human mind wasn't built to handle the Lycan Alpha's compulsion if they tried to fight it. If she was digging into the archives while sleepwalking under a broken trance, she was completely defenseless.

I slammed the phone down on the desk, grabbed my car keys, and practically ripped my office door off its hinges as I bolted down the hallway.

My wolf was screaming inside my head. If she stumbled into the restricted sections of the Blackwood files, she wouldn't just find corporate documents. She would find the truth about our entire species.

I parked the sedan sideways across the street, not even bothering to turn off the engine. I vaulted over the hood and charged up the stairs. The front glass doors were locked, but with a hard shove, the locks shattered under my strength.

The main lobby was dead quiet. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath through my nose, filtering through the scent of old paper and dust until the sweet scent of vanilla hit the back of my throat.

I followed the trail down the stairs into the basement level, where the oldest, un-digitized files were kept.

My breath hitched in my chest when I stepped into the room.

Paige was sitting on the floor in the middle of the aisle, surrounded by dozens of old leather-bound folders. Her knees were pulled up to her chest, and she was staring blankly at a piece of parchment in her lap. Her skin was incredibly pale, and a thin line of dark blood was trickling from her nose. Her human brain's physical reaction to the mind wipe.

"Paige," I said softly, taking a cautious step forward, keeping my voice as unthreatening as possible.

She slowly turned her head toward me. Her eyes were wide, completely dilated, and completely unfocused. She looked straight through me, like she was trapped in a living nightmare.

"The wolves," she whispered, her voice shook violently. She pointed a trembling finger at the old paper in her lap. It was a hand-drawn map of our territory boundaries from a hundred years ago. "The dreams... they weren't dreams."

"Paige, hey. Look at me. You need to breathe," I pleaded, taking another step. My heart tore at the sight of the blood on her face. Jack was right. I had pushed her too hard. "Let me help you. Your head is hurting because you're trying to remember things that shouldn't be there."

"You're one of them," she choked out, a tear mixing with the blood on her cheek as she finally looked right into my eyes.

She tried to scramble backward away from me, her heels skidded against the floor, but her body was too weak from the mental strain. She gasped, her eyes rolled back into her head as she began to lose consciousness completely, slipping sideways onto the floor.

I lunged forward, catching her before her head could hit the floor, pulling her body against my chest. She was burning up with a fever, her breathing became short and shallow.

Before I could even lift her up into my arms to get her out of there, the heavy click of a gun safety echoing from the aisle made me freeze.

I snapped my head around, baring my fangs instinctively as a low growl vibrated in my chest.

Stepping out from behind the rows of the shelves was a man wearing a heavy tactical vest, a silver-plated rifle pointed directly at my head. Behind him, three more hunters snuck into the room, blocking the only exit.

"Well, well, Alpha Lucian," the leader smiled darkly, his eyes cold and triumphant. "We've been waiting for your weakness to lead us to you. Who knew the self righteous Alpha would break a little human girl's mind just to keep a secret? Drop her, and step away."