And she had allowed Ashford to leave unharmed?
I knew the name; I’d heard it spoken in hushed conversations, uttered like a warning, almost mythical, like the stories of wolf hunters used to warn children to clear their plates and go to bed. She ensured the compliance of all those under the thumb of Pack Sandstorm Credit House.
I didn’t think he—no, she—was, well, a woman, and I didn’t expect someone as admittedly attractive. I pictured some brute, more wolf than man. But here was the Storm, Cole, dressed in a clearly tailored suit, immaculately presented from her hair to the jewellery she wore: gold hoop earrings, a signet ring on one hand, and a gold and diamond bracelet on the other wrist.
She smiled, amused.
“So, you know my name but not my face. Let me guess: you expected me to be a man?” she asked.
“Sorry,” I answered.
“No apology necessary; it’s a common error. What is your name, Omega?” she asked.
“Harriet,” I answered.
“I’ll have to think of what to do with you, Harriet.”
Chapter two
A New Prison
Cole had led me into the lift and produced a gold card from her trouser pocket to take us down to the ground floor.
In the light of the lift, her complexion was perfect: sculpted eyebrows, a sharp jawline, full lips, and there wasn’t a curl out of place. I tried not to stare, looking away and meeting our reflection in the black mirrored wall. The difference between us was mockingly shocking. She was tall, her clothing fitting perfectly, her beauty as unquestioning as the power she exuded, and there I was, my hair frizzy, a mess, lopsided with one high-heeled shoe missing its heel, my makeup somehow smudged. I always felt self-conscious because I knew I was being seen and noticed, but standing next to Cole created a new, worse kind of self-consciousness because I wasn’t just being seen; I was being seen in comparison to her.
As we stepped out of the lift into the Valmont Grand Reception, Cole was immediately speaking.
“My car?” Cole asked a blonde woman who carried a tablet in both her hands and approached the lift as the doors opened, as if she had been expecting us.
“Waiting outside,” the woman, whom I assumed was an assistant, answered.
“Thank you, Chloe,” Cole said and began to walk towards the exit.
I followed behind her. The doorman didn’t speak as Cole passed him, and I noticed the way he lowered his head instead.
A driver waited outside a large black executive people carrier, beside an open door.
Cole didn’t enter immediately; she turned and gestured for me to get in. I took the furthest seat from the open door, and Cole followed, taking the seat beside me.
The interior was pure luxury: a large arm console sat between us, and two further seats sat opposite us. Chloe sat in the seat opposite Cole and pulled out a hidden, folded table from her armrest, producing a laptop from the bag she carried to replace her tablet.
“We should be back by late morning. Alpha Sara has scheduled a meeting with you this morning, and this afternoon you have a business lunch with Sepher Logistics,” Chloe said as the door closed electronically and the driver returned to the cab.
It was clear that Cole was a woman of means and power, and the kind of full schedule that comes with being second in charge of one of the most powerful packs and a powerful institution. Sandstorm Credit House was old money.
“When did Sara request this meeting, and did she provide objectives?” Cole enquired.
“Alpha Sara did not provide any objectives for the meeting,” Chloe half-answered.
I tried not to watch Cole, but I couldn’t stop myself. She smiled, almost playfully, in response to Chloe’s answers, like there was an inside joke.
“Where are we going?” I asked as silence fell and the car joined the highway.
“We’re going to my pack home, a private gated community along the east coast: Lucian Hill,” Cole answered.
“Oh, okay,” I said.
Lucian Hill was where the richest and most powerful wolves lived. Ashford had tried and failed to rent a flat in the Lucian Hill area last spring. He took the rejection as a slight against himself and Pack Blizzard. The truth was, it had been out of his price range, and he had not passed the credit check.
