A Wolf in the City

13. An image of Raven.

Dante.

I wake up early this morning to get to work on time, or so I think. As I am looking at my own five O” clock shadow in front of the mirror, I start to think about the day ahead, asking myself if it would be any different to the usual routines at the stupid human job that I have been confined to just to penetrate their securities. I then look up in dismay only to see that the alarm clock reads 7:00 am.

“Incredible.” I say. The one day I had actually set the stupid alarm, it didn’t even wake me. I get up, stepped on a shoe, then kick it across the room forgetting that I need to wear it later. “Damn shoe.” I utter with useless dismay.

The computers are my next stop. I had a set pattern while getting on the computer. First I check the e-mail, delete the useless stuff, read the useful stuff, then reply to the ones I actually give a damn about. And then I check in on the pictures of the men that I am trying to end, as well as their families. I also go ahead to go through my plans and how my day is going to work hand in hand with my mission and also my camouflage. Today is different though. I get into my e-mail and noticed a product ad and I click on it revealing the elaborate backgrounds that these places always takes the effort to use to catch the eye of the customer. One knows the ploys and the ‘special one-time deals’ that these places always give out are almost never real.

The next e-mail subject reads ‘Sexy pics.’

“Awesome.” I think to myself, more candidates for my wallpaper on the computer. Clicking on it turned out to be a mistake. A jolly roger pops up with a message reading ‘Click the X button if you can’ with a timer right below it that reads approximately one minute .

“Can’t be too hard,” I say as I click the ‘X’. All of a sudden, it darts across the screen to the other side. Now the screen reads ‘Try Again’, the timer begins going faster.

“No way,” my thoughts races trying to figure out how to outsmart the skull and cross bones on my screen. Nothing comes to mind. The timer runs down and next thing I know, my computer had downloaded a virus and begin to erase everything from my hard-drive.

“Well I guess there goes all the years I spent studying tech in the humans university.” I am just too proud to accept the fact that a tech guru like me had just fallen so easily for such a cheap stunt.

My phone chimes repeated with texts and even before I check it, I already have an idea of who it could be and I am right. Just as soon as I am about to check the content of the messages, a call enters and I instantly pick it, “what is it this early morning, Adalee?” I question with a groggy voice.

“I saw it in the news... did you later change your mind and just go ahead with it like father wanted? You could have at least carried me along, you know? ” She says, leaving me confused.

“Do what? What are you talking about?” I ask.

There is a pause at the other end before she then speaks up again, “Oh... that’s not you then? So if it isn’t you and it isn’t me, whats this news about wolf marks and bites on General Veer Arush and his family. Dante, Veer Arush has been murdered overnight and so was his wife and two children. It is all over the news and they are all confused by the wolf marks especially since Veer Arush himself claimed that a wolf keeps threatening him just before he died.” Adalee explains and I am shocked.

I hung up the call and go over the news and seeing it all, it is clearly done by one person, father.

As I drive to work, I am angry and very pissed at the fact that father did not deem me fit enough to carry out the mission as planned. He even lacks the strength to do this and he goes ahead nonetheless?

The smells of cafes and fast food restaurants cooking food and making coffee is very tempting, so after a while of being stuck in traffic I pull over at Starbucks to grab a coffee. I returned to my beauty of a car to drive a few blocks down to the palace.

When I finally arrived at work, I park my car in my usual place where it is always safe. I step out only to come across some of my colleagues. As we join the other people in the elevator to the floors where all our offices were, one of them tells me that his fiancee is going to have a baby. Everyone else in the elevator is so happy for him but I could not care less even though I pretend to. I come across several females trying to get my attention and touch me as I walk to my space and I wink at the ones I can.

On settling down in my glass transparent office where I can still see everything going on outside it even though they can’t, I remember that I had recommended Raven Martinez to be accepted for the job she has applied for so many times and I feel a little excitement coming in for the boring morning.

I lean back against my chair and wonder what excuse little Miss Snob will give for coming late. A lover, perhaps?

An image of Raven, lying spreadeagled on my bed, that pale skin flushed with lust as she stares up at me in longing, comes into my mind and I feel a stirring in my groin. I shake my head to clear the image. Raven Martinez is not the sort of woman I take to my bed, for one thing, she is far too curvy for my tastes. I always like my women slim, elegant and well endowed, not full figured little snobs, with nothing better to do than act like everything revolves around them.

At the same time that I go outside my office to get speak to the head of the tech department, the elevator door opens and the very object of my thoughts hurries inside, in a haze of pink. I raise an eyebrow at the tousled hair and ridiculously, bright pink dress she is in. My lips curls in amusement at seeing her so disheveled. No doubt, she had been busy with a lover, too busy.

“I am so sorry,” Raven announces to no one in particular, completely flustered as she rounds the table without looking directly at anyone. She sets the brown leather bag she carries on the table and shoves her hair from her face, looking into the faces gathered around with an apologetic smile, “I am new here, I-”

She stops as soon as she catches sight of me and stills, mouth dropping open. “You!” She yells as she recovers from her shock quickly, shoot to her feet and glare at me. “What the hell are you doing here? This is palace security team, did you miss your way?”

I shrug and lean back in my seat. “I hope you don't make it a habit of arriving late to meetings, Ms. Martinez?”

Her face heats up and I get the pleasure of seeing her flustered. “No, I don't,” she forces out through gritted teeth, her eyes filled with hate as she levels that brown gaze on him. “I was, delayed.”

“Interesting,” I murmur, thoroughly enjoying her discomfort. I allow my gaze to sweep insolently over her, lips twisted in mockery. "Must have been a splendid lover to make you forget your responsibilities.”

The other workers watches us with varying mixtures of fascination and intrigue but no one tries to butt in. She gapes at me in shock. “I beg your pardon?”