Ayden opened his mouth to tell Gabriel his asshole was showing, but a glare from Lucian had him snapping his mouth shut. No reason to get himself into trouble again when they’d only just moved past the portalling debacle.
“Stop winding Ayden up so you can punish him, Gabe,” Tal said, his words slow and rumbling across the space as his hulking grey form shifted in his seat. Gargoyles were ever the peacekeepers and diplomats.
“Why ruin the fun, Tee? I wanted to watch the show,” Viper said, the long, waving tendrils of the snakes that made up his hair hissing along with his snickering laughter.
“Perhaps we could let Ayden finish his sitrep on what could well become the biggest threat to our kind this century?” Oshen growled.
Ayden waved a lazy thanks to the orc. “Not much more to say. The Council rep mentioned that the wolves and the witches appear to be better able to set their differences aside than the vampire coven. No unmitigated human exposure of our kind has occurred yet beyond our new recruit, but it seems only a matter of time, given the tactics in play from the terrorists. I’d suggest we review the contingencies for larger-scale human relocation if there is an exposure event. I’ve got a team working on howto support cross-division tactics if we need to subdue one of the families, too. We’d all better hope it doesn’t come to that, though, because I wouldn’t want to take any of them on.”
“Thank you, Ayden. I trust we won’t have any further missteps from you as we manage this emerging risk. An abstinent incubus is about as much use as a vegan vampire,” Gabriel said, clearly still suffering from the stick up his ass. Apparently, they hadn’t moved past the portalling debacle quite yet.
Ayden’s retort was interrupted by his phone vibrating. He hadn’t turned it off because you never knew when someone might need an urgent transport assist. Glancing down at the screen, he scowled when he saw it was the human’s number.
“I need to take this,” he said, not waiting for Lucian’s wave of assent before stepping out of the boardroom to answer the phone.
“What?” he snapped as the door clicked closed behind him.
“Uh, Ayden?” Liam was panting, and he could hear the wind like he was running down the street. Why wasn’t he at his desk?
“Yes, human.”
“I went out to get us a coffee, and I got to talking to a guy on the way back. What does it mean when a werewolf, like, rips off all their clothes and tells you to run?”
CHAPTER 4: AYDEN
Ayden’s growlhad the nearby admin staff craning their heads in alarm, and he almost shattered the phone from where he gripped it so hard. The human had only been working for him for three hours, and a hellhound in werewolf form had already stripped to chase him? And he wanted to know what itmeant? Surely that was fucking obvious.
“It means even a werewolf can tell you’re too horny for your own good, and he thought you wanted to play. Where are you?”
“In a park?”
Ayden pinched the bridge of his nose. Fuck. The ‘park’ in question was for adults only. Someone should’ve warned Liam.Aydenshould’ve warned Liam.
“Stop running.”
“But he’s chasing me!”
“And you’re every werewolf’s primal play wet dream right now.Stop. Running.”
Generally, it was difficult to lock onto a person you didn’t know well to portal to them without some kind of focus, but Ayden was desperate enough to try. Drawing in a deep breath, he cleared his mind of everything but the feeling he got when he was in Liam’s presence. To his surprise, the draw of a location came through loud and clear. It only took him a moment to weave a portal in the air and step through to the nearby park.
“Thank fuck you’re here!” Liam cried, throwing two cups of coffee to the ground and jumping into his arms.
Or at least it would have been into his arms if Ayden hadn’t stood there unresponsive. Instead, Liam wrapped his arms and legs around him like a baby lemur and just clung for dear life as a very large, very aroused hellhound in werewolf form emerged from the nearby trees.
“Ayden? Is he yours? Why was he wandering unattended in a play park? He should’ve said,” the werewolf growled.
Ayden sighed. “He’s not… You know what? Sure. He’s mine. But I haven’t had a chance to train him yet. Sorry for the hassle. I can take care of that for you if you like, Sal,” he offered, waving towards the raging erection the poor hellhound was sporting.
“Hey!” Liam snapped, pulling his face away from where he’d buried it in Ayden’s neck. “I’m right here! Don’t you dare!”
“I wasn’t going to touch him. And I wasn’t aware we had an exclusive arrangement going.”
Liam seemed to remember he was an employee and not Ayden’s mate about that moment, sliding down his body before pretending to ignore both Ayden and the looming hellhound as he stooped to pick up the coffee cups and drop them in a nearby bin.
“I’ll leave you two to figure that out,” Sal said, shifting into his hellhound form and loping off into the trees.
“Did he still have an erection after he shifted?” Liam asked, fascinated.