Protected by the Last Kitsune

Expect the Unexpected

Harley's Pov.

I have been waiting hours for that damn package and nothing. I needed this job.I had been out of money and food for some time and I was starving. If it wasn’t for the rare deer my wolf and I could hunt, which there wasn’t much in the woods of this big city, I would probably have starved to death by now. I looked at the clock and it's now 2:30. Still no package. Fuck... I need this. I am tired of waiting. I called the asshole.

“Hey, where the f**k is the package? You told me it would be delivered early this morning.”

“What do you mean, where is the package? I had already dropped it off.”

“ I have been home all day, nothing was dropped off.”

“I had slid under your door. Maybe you just didn’t see it?”

“ If it were here I would know. What number did you bring it to?”

“ Number 26, since there was no 29 like you said, I didn’t want to stand there f*****g around all day so I just pushed it under the first one and left.

“ I live in apartment 29 you moron, there are not two apartments the same. You dropped it at the wrong apartment.”

“Just go f*****g get it!”

“ Yeah, because that is just oh so simple. What if whoever lives there opened it?”

“ Kill them, Ha, you call me a moron. Don’t even say I don’t kill bystanders, it's collateral damage, them or you. This job needs to be done soon. So quit bitching and go f*****g get it!”

I hung up the phone now, annoyed, pissed off and hungry, the s**t I go through just to eat. Walking out my door, I noticed one of the nails holding the number 9 had fallen out, making it fall, so now it was a 6. This place is such a dump. I make a note to fix it when I come back. Walking down the hall, I got to apartment 26 and knocked. There was no answer. I relaxed a little thinking, good whoever lives here hasn’t had a chance to look at the package, hopefully, so I may not have to kill them, or maybe they are on their way to the police. f**k! That won't be good. I run my fingers through my hair, then rub the back of my neck. Thinking about breaking in to get it, the door opens.

I am not sure what I expected, but she definitely wasn't it. There in front of me was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, standing at about 5’2”. She was a woman of Asian descent, her strawberry blond hair with gold highlights dancing in waves down to her hips, her flawless porcelain skin made the color seem like it was on fire as soon as the sun shone on it. Even more, her eyes, though they didn’t settle right with me, I noticed she was wearing brown contacts as I could see the outline of them around her Irises, It makes me wonder what color they really are. She freezes at the sight of me, just staring at me. Looking into her eyes, I heard my wolf Gunner yell “Mate”. I block him out while I continue to look at her, even if she is my mate, she won't be for long. If she opened that envelope, no matter how much I would hate to kill her, I need to do what I need to do, I just pray to the goddess she didn’t.

Man! I have been waiting for this moment my entire life. My heart shatters as I think I will have to kill her. I stepped away from my thoughts, burying them deep, turning on the cold killer I am “I believe a package was delivered to you by accident,” I stated to her instead of asking. She snapped out of her trance. “I’m sorry?" she asked a little confused. "A package, it was delivered here earlier, where is it?" I demanded "what does it look like? I had gotten a lot delivered while I was out.” she said with a little attitude, so I described it to her. She then turned around on her heel and went into her room. While she was gone, I took this opportunity to let myself in. Stepping inside, I closed the door and locked it. As she came back, I saw the look of shock and anger as she said “Excuse me! I did not give you permission to enter my home!” I looked at her with a chilling grin. “ I don’t need permission from a weak woman, now where is my package?” I bit out. " Find it yourself." She bit back at me as she roughly handed me the stack she was holding, I went through them until I found what I was looking for. Looking at it closely, I can't see any tampering, then think to myself, thanking the goddess, now when this is all said and done, I will come to claim what is mine. I had to make sure, so I figured if I scared her, she would be honest, so I said: “You didn’t open this I hope, for your sake.” with as much threat as I could muster, my voice like venom.

She looked at me with her arms crossed, one leg slightly out to the side. “ No, I haven’t had a chance to open it yet, I just got in a few minutes ago. And even if I had opened it, what the hell would you have done? Not a damn thing.” she bit out her words cut in like venom from a snake bite. This girl is either very brave or she puts up a good front for a human, but if she is scared, then her heart isn't giving it away. I took a few moments to look at her, taking in her body, Damn… she is hot! Even for a human, I didn’t think they could look this damn good... Wait, even if she is human couldn’t she feel the pull? Why was she acting like that? No matter how I treat her, she should have been wanting me, yet she still shows no sign that she does. I take a deep breath to get her scent, I smell nothing, wait, there is nothing, how had I not noticed before? She should have a scent, but there is nothing. I pull myself from my thoughts or try to as I am getting hurt and angry over her lack of acknowledgment that I am her mate... I looked her in the eyes as I said “ It wouldn’t end well for a gorgeous piece of ass like yours.” she actually scoffed at me, then rolled her eyes “Ya, well. I didn’t, so you can leave!”

As soon as that left her mouth, I pinned her against the wall behind her, my eyes staring right into her's, my arm outstretched as my hand wrapped around her neck. Then I started to take in every inch of her face to get a reading, anything to know she felt the tendrils of electricity going through us, plus as to memorize it and see if I can get a sense of what she is. I was just millimeters away from her nose, barely touching it, her mint-scented breath fanning my face. Just as quickly as I pinned her, I let go and left.

The pain was raging its way into my body, shattering my heart. She didn’t feel it, she felt nothing, there was no love in her eyes, nothing, not even fear. Who is this girl? Is she my mate? She must be, otherwise, Gunner wouldn’t have said so. I don’t understand. Dropping the thought before it could get any worse, I called d**k head to let him know I had retrieved the package.

“Yeah, I got it.”

“And? Did you take care of who had it?”

“No, there is nothing to worry about, she is just human, she didn’t even open it.”

“Well, she got lucky. So are you taking the job then?”

“I am looking at it now.”

Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, the marks turned out to be the entire royal family. Was this guy for real? There is no way in hell I am going against my King and his family. They took care of me as a child after my family died in a hunter's attack. I left them because I felt as if I was a burden. I couldn’t put them through that anymore. As they had their own pups to tend to. So I left.

“Are you crazy? It is a suicide mission for very little pay. 5 million isn’t even enough to get my ass out of bed, let alone to kill multiple high-security marks. The chances of getting one let alone 6 is impossible..”

“I will pay double or triple. Just get it done.”

“I don’t care how high you’re willing to go, I will not go against the royal family, I am not stupid.”

“You do realize now that you know the mark I can not let you go, so you yourself have just become a mark.”

“Go ahead asshole, try to send someone to take me out, good luck on that. You don’t have enough manpower to afford losing anyone if these are your targets.”

“How cute you seem to think you know about my manpower. You know nothing!”

“Don't threaten me!”

“Why is that?

“Because - when I find you, and I will, I will rip your f*****g head off.”

“You say that now, but you will find out when the shadow is standing over you as your life slowly slips away.”

“The Shadow? Ha-ha, really? Yeah, OK man, good luck finding him, no one knows who he is or how he gets his targets. I really doubt a piece of s**t like you knows who he is. Besides, I know for a fact you have no idea who it is, because if you had, you wouldn’t be looking for a hitman because they would be dead by now. But hey thanks for the laugh”

I didn’t even wait for him to respond before I hung up, walking into my apartment, slamming the door closed.

After a few minutes, I heard strange sounds coming from her apartment. It sounds like someone is hitting a punching bag, but I didn’t see one when I was there. Maybe it's another neighbor or something. After all, I can't really see my tiny little mate training, she's maybe like a buck five if even that soaking wet. Why did I have to think that, now Gunner is throwing images of her in the shower, "Knock it off Gunner! She doesn't want us. You saw her, she didn’t even acknowledge us, period." I yelled at him and pushed him back. After a few hours, the sounds went away. Now a delicious smell hits my nose, making my stomach growl. Where is that smell coming from? It's killing me. I have lived here for a few years and never have I smelled anything so delicious. I followed the scent out my door, which brought me right back to her door. As my stomach growls again at the smell coming through the door, another scent hits me, a female royal werewolf. Well, f**k, this day just gets better and better. Turning on my heel, I went back to my apartment, closing the door and pacing. Why would one of the royals be there?

Just as I was pacing, trying to figure this out, there was a knock at my door. I walked to the door, peering through the peephole, there she stood. I opened my door, leaning on it, just staring at her.

“Umm, hi, I know we didn’t get off on the right foot today. I felt bad for how I treated you after you left, though I got the impression you really don’t like me, but you are the only neighbor I have met and would hate to be on bad terms. So I was wondering if you would like to join me and a friend of mine for dinner,” she said while looking back and forth between me and the floor with what seemed like a slight blush on her cheeks. After seeing that look on her face, I was falling even more for her which made my heart break even more. Coming out of it now a little angry and hurt, I can't help but wonder how she knew where I lived? I looked at her with a skeptical look. ” How did you know where I lived?” she looked at the floor as she answered, “I heard you slam your door shut earlier, so I knew it was down this way, so I knocked on a couple of doors and well here you are.” I just stood there listening to her heart beating to catch her in a lie something was off with this human girl. No matter what her heartbeat stays the same, which is odd, it's always a constant, steady beat “ I- I do cook very well, so you don’t have to worry about getting sick or anything, I promise, but if you don’t want to, I - I understand.” she says as she turned and started to walk away. “Wait,” I said as I reached out to touch her arm, she flinched, pulling my hand way I didn’t mean to scare her, as the images surged through my brain of how I treated her earlier, “What are you having?” curiosity getting the better of me“ Um, homemade Chicken with Mushroom Alfredo, with four cheeses garlic bread and salad. But if you are busy, maybe another time.” with that said, she walked away.”Go you i***t” Gunner yells “ how can I go with how I treated her earlier? She hates me and seems scared of me. It wouldn’t be right." I hated how that felt. What was I thinking? “If that were the case, do you think she would have come to invite you? Besides, now that business is out of the way, you can make it up to her. I want my mate Harley. Don’t f**k this up. If you don’t go, I will lock you in your own mind and live as you and get her back myself. I am not playing.” he growled out. I huffed out a sigh, he is right, I need to make it up to her and get to know her, maybe then I can figure out what the hell is going on with her and why she isn’t responding to the pull.

I walked out my door, closing as I walked through, then locking it. This building is known for the trash that lives here, which makes me realize she lives here alone. Bad things can happen to a single woman in this area. It was then I vowed to keep an eye on her to keep my fragile mate safe, even if she doesn't know. Once I reached her apartment, I knocked, then waited, I heard her tell her friend there was one other guest as she made her way to the door. How did she know I was coming? Once she opened the door, she smiled as she said: “ Hi, come on in, I am Lita by the way, thank you for accepting my invitation, please come in.” She opened the door wider for me to enter as I stepped in. passing her “ Harley, it's nice to meet you again. Thank you for the invite. It smells wonderful.” she laughed a little with a “wait till you eat it.” Her laugh was music to my ears I wanted to hear more.

We made our way to the table where she introduced me to her friend, “Harley, Teala, Teala, I would like you to meet Harley” we smiled at each other and shook hands as Lita and I took our seats. “Please help yourselves.” Lita said with a smile. I took the plates, I dished them out to the ladies before I helped myself. This act takes her by surprise as her eyes widen then go back to normal quickly with a little smile. We spent dinner just talking, nothing personal, just about movies we have seen, the music we like, etc. I like the feeling of being able to be the real me, or well, half of the real me, the other half is a side I wish to never show her again. I want to show her how the real me would do anything for her just to see her smile and hear her laugh. Living in a hell hole like this only tells me she has had a not-so-loving life. I want to change that. I may not be able to give her riches or the finest clothing, but I can give her my heart and make her feel loved and cherished. Hell, I would even quit the Hitman career to get a regular job at minimum wage just to keep her safe. But the real question is, would she want some lowly lone wolf who can barely feed himself? I get out of my thoughts as I notice dinner has finished. Lita is starting to clean the table when I get up, taking the dishes from her, “I’ll clean up, it's the least I could do as a thank you for such a wonderful meal.

As I cleaned up, I couldn’t help but overhear them. Lita was helping with homework. God, let it be college and not high school. I can’t handle any more heartache. I think to myself as I listen, Lita is very intelligent. Not only was she teaching her friend, but in no time at all, she figured out the best way to not only teach her but to allow her to retain that information. I couldn’t help but smile as I silently slipped out, back to my apartment. I can't help but wonder about her as I shower and get to bed with a full stomach for once. Man, the girl can cook. was the last thing I thought about before I was asleep.