The Werewolf Assistant

Chapter 4

The bus moved slowly through the crowded nighttime traffic, its windows reflecting the city lights and passing vehicles as passengers settled into the familiar rhythm of another ordinary trip. Mia sat among them with her phone in one hand, reading the messages Olivia had been sending about the upcoming pre-wedding dinner, completely unaware that three men aboard the bus were watching the passengers with a very different purpose.

Olivia's pre-wedding dinner, sometimes called the rehearsal dinner, was tomorrow night, and Mia still had plenty to do before then. She needed to help with the final preparations, make sure everything was ready, and spend time with her family before the wedding events began. She had left in such a hurry that night that she had not even realized she had forgotten something important back at Adrian's penthouse.

The first man sat near the front. He looked like an ordinary commuter in a faded gray jacket, but beneath his quiet appearance was a former security guard who had lost his job after stealing expensive equipment from the warehouse where he worked. He had spent months struggling afterward, moving from one temporary job to another until his debts became impossible to manage. His knowledge of security procedures eventually made him useful to people willing to pay for the skills he had once used legally.

Another man sat several rows behind Mia. He was younger and looked nervous whenever someone glanced in his direction. Before joining the group, he had worked as a mechanic and had tried to keep a small repair business alive after borrowing money to pay for equipment and supplies. The business eventually failed, leaving him with debts he could not repay, and criminal work became the easiest way he could think of to earn enough money to survive.

The third man stood closer to the rear doors. He was the lookout, an experienced street criminal who had spent years doing small jobs that depended more on patience than violence. He knew how to watch streets without attracting attention, how to recognize police vehicles before they came close, and how to notice when ordinary people were beginning to suspect that something was wrong.

Their leader sat several rows ahead of Mia.

Unlike the others, he looked completely calm.

He wore a dark shirt and clean shoes, his posture relaxed as though he were simply another passenger traveling across the city. Nothing about him immediately suggested that he was directing the men around him, and that was exactly how he wanted it.

His phone vibrated.

He answered without looking at the screen.

"Report."

The lookout glanced through the rear window before answering quietly.

"Still clear."

"Stay on position."

The lookout looked toward the street again. A few people were beginning to pay attention to the bus, and he shifted uneasily.

"I think people are noticing something."

The leader's voice remained calm.

"Don't move. We need the time."

The lookout hesitated before answering.

"Understood."

The call ended.

The leader placed his phone away and looked around the bus again. Everything was still under control, and the lookout remained where he had been ordered to stay.

For the moment, nobody outside understood what was happening.

Mia certainly didn't.

She was too busy thinking about Olivia's messages and trying to make sure she would arrive in time to help with the preparations for the pre-wedding dinner. Since the dinner was tomorrow night, she still had the following day ahead of her and expected to spend it with her family getting everything ready before the evening celebration.

She glanced at her phone again and typed a quick response before putting it away.

Then, despite herself, her thoughts drifted back to Adrian.

She remembered the dream.

The memory made her uncomfortable, but there was something else mixed with the embarrassment that she couldn't quite deny. A small part of her had actually been happy to see Adrian that way in her dream, and that realization bothered her more than the dream itself.

He was really handsome.

She had always known that, of course, but the dream had forced her to imagine something beyond the harmless teasing they shared.

Mia had started teasing Adrian because it was fun. She liked watching the cold, intimidating billionaire lose his composure whenever she complimented him or caught him looking at her for too long. Sometimes their little exchanges happened so naturally that neither of them seemed to realize how personal they had become.

She had never planned for it to become romantic.

Yet somewhere along the way, it seemed as though their story might actually progress in that direction.

That thought made her nervous.

Adrian was strange in ways she still couldn't understand. He could be incredibly cold and distant, keeping his emotions hidden behind that controlled expression of his, and then suddenly he would do something unexpectedly gentle that made her wonder how much of his supposed indifference was real.

He remembered small things she said.

He noticed when she was tired.

He had personally gone to an expensive store to buy her formal shoes simply because she had mentioned needing them for Olivia's pre-wedding dinner and the wedding events.

And every time Mia got close to asking what he really felt, Adrian denied it.

He always denied it.

But his actions kept telling a different story.

Mia looked down at her hands.

She couldn't figure out how a romantic relationship with someone like Adrian would even begin. She couldn't imagine him suddenly admitting that he loved her, especially when he seemed determined to pretend that he didn't have feelings at all.

Would he ever actually tell her what he wanted?

Would he even know how?

And more importantly, did she want him to?

The dream had made her realize that she wasn't sure.

She liked him.

She was attracted to him.

She cared about him.

But she wasn't ready to call it love.

Not yet.

The teasing suddenly didn't feel as harmless as it had before.

If she continued making Adrian blush while secretly wondering what it would be like to kiss him, something might eventually happen that neither of them was prepared for.

Maybe she needed to distance herself.

Maybe she needed to stop teasing him for a while and give herself enough time to understand what she actually wanted.

The thought made her chest tighten.

She didn't want to hurt him, but she also didn't want to lead him somewhere she wasn't ready to go.

Mia turned toward the window and watched the city pass.

She had spent so much time wondering what Adrian felt about her that she had forgotten to ask herself the more important question.

What did she feel about him?

She still didn't know.

And for now, that uncertainty was enough to make her step back.

---

Several streets away, Adrian was running.

He had no idea what he was doing.

He had never chased after anyone like this in his life, much less through crowded city traffic while carrying a shoebox containing a pair of formal shoes.

But he couldn't let Mia leave without them.

The box had been sitting in his kitchen, and the moment he realized she had forgotten it, he had imagined her arriving at the pre-wedding dinner without the shoes she had needed for Olivia's wedding events.

The thought had bothered him far more than it should have.

He could have sent someone.

A driver could have taken them to her. One of his assistants could have delivered them. Security could have handled it without Adrian ever leaving the penthouse.

Instead, he had taken the shoebox himself and run after her bus.

He knew how foolish that was.

He simply couldn't bring himself to care.

Adrian moved through the crowded traffic, weaving carefully between vehicles whenever the road allowed it. His breathing remained steady despite the pace, and the strange strength that had been building inside him seemed to make the effort easier than it should have been.

The full moon was still five nights away.

That thought crossed his mind, but he pushed it aside.

There were more important things to think about.

Mia needed those shoes.

That was all.

*I am only returning something she forgot.*

The thought sounded reasonable enough.

It was his first excuse.

He kept running.

Then another excuse appeared.

*I am her employer. It would be irresponsible to let an employee leave for an important family event without something she needs.*

Adrian immediately disliked that explanation.

It sounded forced even inside his own head.

He knew this had nothing to do with being her employer.

He had personally chosen those shoes because he remembered the things Mia had told him. He had remembered that she preferred simple designs and practical things rather than anything flashy, and he had wanted to choose something she would actually like.

That was not the behavior of a man who felt nothing.

Adrian pushed harder, catching sight of the bus farther ahead.

Then his third excuse came.

*She will be disappointed when she realizes she forgot them.*

That one was harder to dismiss.

He didn't want Mia to be disappointed.

He didn't want her to spend tomorrow worrying about something she had forgotten. He wanted her to have everything she needed, to feel prepared, and to enjoy the pre-wedding dinner and the wedding events instead of worrying about something as simple as a pair of shoes.

He wanted to make her happy.

The realization unsettled him.

He had spent so much time telling himself that his feelings were dangerous that he had never considered what would happen when he simply wanted to do something kind for her.

He was acting foolishly.

He knew that.

But he couldn't stop.

The bus slowed as traffic became heavier, and Adrian finally caught up with it near a crowded bus stop. He reached the doors just as they opened, standing there for a moment with the shoebox held tightly against his side while he caught his breath.

A billionaire had just chased a public bus through traffic because his assistant had forgotten a pair of shoes she needed for her sister's upcoming wedding events.

He could already imagine Mia's reaction.

She would tease him.

The thought almost made him smile.

Then he stepped onto the bus.

His eyes moved through the passengers until he found her.

Mia looked up.

Her expression changed immediately.

"Mr. Vale?"

Adrian took another step toward her, already searching for the least ridiculous of the three excuses he had invented.

He never got the chance to use any of them.

The leader stood.

"Nobody move."

The words were calm, but the entire atmosphere inside the bus changed.

A woman near the front gasped, while another passenger dropped a phone onto the floor. The former security guard moved into the aisle, and the young mechanic reached inside his jacket.

Mia froze.

Only now did she notice the three men positioned around the bus.

The leader raised his weapon.

"Everyone stays in their seats."

Panic spread through the passengers.

Mia looked toward Adrian.

He had stopped moving.

The shoebox remained in his hand.

For a brief moment, he looked almost as surprised as she was.

Then his expression hardened.

The leader noticed him.

"You. Sit down."

Adrian slowly lowered the shoebox beside his leg.

He had wanted to make Mia happy.

He had wanted to return something she had forgotten.

He had wanted one simple moment in which he could pretend that what he felt for her was nothing more than kindness.

Instead, he had walked directly into a hostage situation.

Adrian looked at Mia.

She could see something different in his eyes now.

Fear.

Not for himself.

For her.

The leader stepped closer.

"I said sit down."

Adrian's face became cold again, the familiar expression returning as he tried to hide everything he was feeling.

"I heard you."

But he didn't sit.

He moved one step closer to Mia instead.

The leader raised his weapon.

"Stay where you are."

Adrian stopped.

His hands remained at his sides, and his expression stayed controlled, but Mia could see that he was watching the criminals more carefully than before.

The leader turned slightly and reached for his phone.

"Report."

The lookout answered from outside.

"Still clear."

"Stay on position."

The lookout glanced toward the surrounding traffic.

"People are starting to notice."

"Don't move," the leader replied. "We need the time."

The lookout reluctantly remained in position.

Inside the bus, the leader ended the call and looked across the passengers.

"Nobody tries anything. You cooperate, and nobody gets hurt."

Mia swallowed.

She looked at Adrian again.

Only minutes earlier, she had been wondering whether she needed to distance herself from him because her feelings were becoming too complicated.

Now he was standing between her and the criminals.

The man who had spent so much time denying that he cared about her was looking at her as though nothing else on the bus mattered.

And suddenly Mia understood something she had been trying not to think about.

Maybe Adrian's feelings weren't as difficult to see as he believed.

Maybe the real question was what she was going to do about her own.