Werewolves of New York (7 page)

E
li knocked
louder on the door. It was only two in the morning. It’s not like it was late. “Why’d I give him my fucking keys?” he muttered under his breath.

Footsteps from inside. The door opened with Nathaniel standing there, his hair pointing in all directions and his green eyes hazy from sleep. “Hey. Come in.” Like he was still in dreamland, he turned and padded naked into the hall.

“Hi Eli!” Michelle’s groggy voice called from the bedroom.

“Hey Michelle,” Eli called back, feeling like a dick as he locked the front door. “I won’t keep him too long.”

“It’s totally fine.” The sentence faded like she was disappearing down a cave.

“I found your phone,” he called to her. She didn’t answer.

When Rose left, he’d sat down on the couch trying to figure out what to do. She’d called him out, had seen his wolf, and that had never happened before. It took everything he had to let those elevator doors close. He couldn’t tell her what he was. He couldn’t make that choice for them all without consulting his brethren. Frankly the thought terrified him. It was never anything he imagined he’d do, and that he wanted to confess to her was a mystery even he couldn’t understand. In the bathroom, his wolf had refused to be ignored as it growled in his soul,
Tell her! Tell her and claim her. She’s ours. Tell her!

From his weight sinking into the cushions, he felt something and moved over to discover the slender phone trapped there in the couch. He tried to turn it on as the wild urge to call Rose took him over. He didn’t have her number, he realized, but the number was in here! When he’d looked her up online, the only numbers given were for the law firm she worked at.

Michelle’s battery was dead. He searched like a madman for a charger and realized that ironically she had the charger with her but not the phone. His phone was a different model so of course his charger didn’t work. Fucking phone companies and their bullshit.

Nathaniel plopped on the couch with his cock hanging out. “What’s up? Hating the new place? We can switch back if you need to.”

Eli sat down in one of the leather chairs and rubbed his bowed head, elbows on his knees.

He kept his voice quiet so Michelle couldn’t overhear. “No, it’s not that. I saw Rose tonight and things got…complicated.”

Nathaniel’s voice was sharp as he whispered, “Did you fuck her?”

“Not exactly,” Eli muttered. He looked up and met his friend’s inquisitive anger.

“What does that mean? You can’t shit where you eat, Eli.”

Eli waved him away. “It’s worse than that. I like her. Apparently I like her too much.” He stared at his hands, remembering how she felt. His voice deepened with confusion. “She saw my wolf, man. My eyes, they started the shift. It’s never, and I mean NEVER happened. I am normally in complete control, you know? The worlds don’t mix, and the women I fuck, they don’t hit me like this woman. He came out because he wanted to be seen. I wanted her to know. Deep down I wanted to tell her!” He scanned his best friend’s face and waited for some consoling words. He needed them. “I’ve been clawing out of my own skin ever since I turned off the shower and told her to go. You should have seen her face. I hurt her! What the fuck is happening to me? And I didn’t tell you that I ran into her the other day. Nathaniel, I had to vamoose because my dick got hard in the middle of the street just smelling her! I swear to God if I were younger without the discipline I’ve got, I would have laid her down and fucked her in front of New York City. My wolf broke out of his prison and doesn’t want to go back in the cage!” His eyes were wide. “Help me, man. You’ve gotta help me.”

Nathaniel took a deep breath and raked his hands slowly through his hair as he contemplated everything he’d just heard. “You’re fucked.”

Eli blinked at him and flew off the chair. “You are not helping.” He made a beeline for the bar and then paced away from it. “I don’t even want a drink!” he said on a loud whisper, “I just want her. I want to bend her over and mark her, Nathaniel. And I’m not even kidding, if I knew where she lived, I’d be there right now!” He pulled out Michelle’s phone. “The only reason I’m here, if I’m gonna be honest with myself is that I needed to charge this bad boy so I could call her because I don’t have her number!” He tossed it on the chair as he strode angrily to the balcony, staring out through the spotless window at the city skyline, the lights twinkling. “You should have seen her face. She’ll never forgive me.” Spinning around he held his wrists together like there were invisible handcuffs there. “I had no choice. I couldn’t just say, yeah, I’m a werewolf. That’s okay right?” He dropped onto the chair and moved the phone over to the coffee table. “Tell me it’s a bad idea to date Rose.”

“It’s a bad idea to date Rose,” Nathaniel said, his expression grim.

Eli spread out his legs and threw his head back, staring at the lights embedded in the ceiling. “I tasted her. She tasted like…” he stopped himself, sat up and stared at his friend with the kind of surprise you’d have if you’d just been punched hard by a frail old lady.

“Like what?” Nathaniel leaned forward on his elbows. “What were going to say?”

“She tasted like my wife.” The two stared at each other for a second and then he shook it off, leaping off the chair for the bar again. “Okay, now I need a drink.”

Nathaniel was speechless. He got up slowly and walked to the bar. “Eli, you don’t want to get married. You and Darik made a pact.”

Eli nodded and grabbed two glasses. “Yeah.” He chose the Oban since the bottle of Macallan was empty from last night. Whispering so as not to wake Michelle, Eli kept talking, figuring it out as he went along. “I know what you’re thinking. I don’t know her. I don’t know her.”

“You just said that twice.”

“Shhh! I’m working this out!” he hissed as he poured. “It’s like my wolf knows before I do. That’s how it works doesn’t it? Instinct. Claiming what he wants before anyone else does. Right? I mean, that’s why you went bananas on that guy, you knew Michelle was yours instinctively even when…”

“I hadn’t even talked to her,” Nathaniel muttered, picking up one of the glasses. He sighed, “Yeah.”

Eli stared into space, his mind numb. “I have to wake Michelle up and get Rose’s number. I looked her up on the Internet but she’s a lawyer so they don’t give out their personal information. Blah blah blah. And she doesn’t have a Facebook.”

“You went on Facebook?” Nathaniel was shocked.

With a shrug, Eli stared at his packmate. “I’m not in my right mind. See?” Raising his voice, he called, “Michelle! Wake up!” Nathaniel reached across the bar to punch him but Eli was too fast for him and ducked out of the way. “Michelle! Come here!”

Nathaniel swore under his breath and whispered, “Don’t tell her about Rose, yet. Not until you know what you’re going to do.”

Eli gritted his teeth, knowing his friend’s head was screwed onto saner shoulders. “Fine,” he grumbled, taking a sip of excellent Scotch as footsteps padded toward them.

“Babe?” came her soft, sleepy voice. “Everything okay?” She appeared in her robe and her brown eyes widened as she saw her husband’s nudity. “Um…Can I get you a robe?”

He glanced down, having forgotten he was naked. “Oh, yeah, that’d be great.”

She made a face that he was strange, and disappeared to get it.

Eli downed his drink and poured another one, whispering, “If I can’t tell her, how am I going to get the number?”

“You’re not. You’re going to sit with this and see if it’s real or not.”

“You want more?” Nathaniel shook his head. “Right. You’re still full. Well, don’t judge me.”

Nathaniel chuckled and they both stayed quiet until Michelle returned with a navy blue terrycloth man’s robe. She handed it over. “Sorry, I know you told me you guys were all naked growing up, but I’m not used to it yet, when your friends are over.”

He kissed her and took the robe. “I get it. You look cute.”

“Thanks.” She turned to Eli, her smile showing only happiness to see him. He was glad for that. Her consistency of being one of the good ones impressed him. Now he hoped that like attracts like. Michelle’s smile faded as he stared at her. “You look…shitty, Eli.”

A low, surprised laugh escaped him. “Yeah, I bet.” Pointing to her phone lying on the table, he said, “I found that in your couch.”

“Oh! That’s where it was!” She rushed over and pushed the buttons. “I guess it’s dead, huh?”

“Yeah and Rose has been calling you. She was pretty upset you didn’t tell her about the move.” He wanted to demand Rose’s number, but Nathaniel’s warning was valid. This was all happening way too suddenly, and he didn’t know what
this
was yet. Maybe it was just lust. If that’s all it was, he needed to step back and get ready to walk away permanently. His packmates and their safety was the number one thing to uphold. Their secret must remain intact at all costs, only shared with the women they took as their forever mates and with no one else. Ever.

Michelle frowned and shot a worried look to Nathaniel. “Oh no! Remember I said I had to call her?” He nodded. She glanced to Eli and held the phone like it was precious, like Rose was inside it. “I didn’t have her number without my phone and my computer is still at my place…or your place now, I guess…so I didn’t have her email either! And I don’t have them memorized.”

Nathaniel reassured her, “She’ll understand. No one knows phone numbers by heart.”

“Not anymore, no,” she whispered. “She must think I’m a terrible friend. I have to call her. I have my charger in here…” Michelle started for the bedroom, but stopped as a realization dawned. “Wait. You saw Rose?” She glanced between the two wolves. “How come you saw Rose?”

His wolf paced in his chest, eager to hunt that charger down and steal the phone back. Eli exhaled and focused. “Uh, she uh…came by your place since you hadn’t called. And I was there of course. That’s why. No big deal. Nothing happened or anything.”

“She must hate me,” Michelle whispered with guilt, heading to find the cable. “I have to get this working.” Her voice faded as the distance grew. “I’ll plug it in and call her as soon as it gets a little bit of juice.”

Nathaniel and Eli looked at each other and waited until they heard the door close.

“You were going to grab that thing right out of my wife’s hands,” Nathaniel smiled.

Eli dropped the glass on the counter and cracked his neck. “You don’t have to tell me.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to focus on what I should focus on. Taking care of Louis.” At his friend’s raised eyebrows, Eli explained, “The guy who’s beating up Diana. That’s what’s important now. And beating the shit out of that motherfucker will take the edge off. I do not envy that guy. But until I know what to do, I’m not doing anything.” He looked over to the twinkling city lights again and muttered, “I gotta get outta here. If she comes back with that phone working…” he didn’t have to explain the rest.

Nathaniel clapped his hand on Eli’s shoulder as he passed. “Call me tomorrow.”

“Yeah.”

W
aking up
, Rose stretched and looked at the clock. “Oh no!” She leapt out of bed hightailing it for the bathroom. She brushed her teeth while sitting on the toilet and simultaneously smoothing her hair down with her free hand. Running back into the bedroom, she dressed faster than she ever had, swearing under her breath before finally almost shouting, “How did I miss my alarm??!!”

Women who want to be made junior partner at a law firm do not show up to work over an hour late, which is how late she would be by the time she walked through the oak doors of Hewlett, Leonard, and Clarkson. Searching for her purse, she found it in the kitchen, the phone inside and the alarm long spent. She froze as she stared at the screen. There were two messages from Michelle. “Oh, now you call me!” She shoved the phone in her purse, grabbed her keys and ran as fast as her conservative heels would let her.

Mornings in the Financial District were jumping. She was able to catch one of the many taxis driving around hoping to make their cab rental fee as quickly as possible so the rest of the day would be profit. He didn’t pay attention as she put on her mascara and nearly stabbed herself in the eye. She bit her tongue from chewing him out because he was doing what she needed him to–driving with the speed of light.

Running up the steps to her firm’s building, her mind had three things keeping it very busy. Michelle’s unheard messages, being late, and Eli. Rushing to the elevator, she called to the security guard sitting behind his desk, “Morning Harold!”

“Ms. Hendricks. You runnin’ late, huh?”

“Is it obvious?” she laughed sarcastically. “Wish me luck!”

“You don’t need it!” he called after her as she scooted past other suits, eighty percent male, into one of the elevators.

“Sorry. Excuse me. I’m late.” She shoved into a tiny space, forcing everyone to squeeze closer together, which they clearly did not want to do. As the numbers lit up, everyone watched. Nobody said a word. Rose elbowed a couple people as she dug out her phone and played the voicemail.

Michelle was riddled with apology, her voice urgent. “Rose! It’s me. I just heard your messages. I lost my phone and then it died! I didn’t hear your message about the case and then turn off the phone. The battery died! Congratulations on the case! I so wish I’d known. I swear, Eli found my phone at my old place. I wanted to call you, but I didn’t have your phone number or email and so I was going to come by your place and tell you in person. I’ve been telling you to get on Facebook forever and if you’d listen to me, this never would have happened.” Rose’s lips squished up. It was true. Michelle was a social marketing guru and knew everything about current networking sites while Rose stayed far away.
I don’t want people I prosecute stalking me on the Internet.
Michelle continued, “You can ask Eli! He’ll tell you the battery was dead.” Rose’s stomach hurt just hearing his name.
Yeah, I’ll call him right up.
“But hey, let me take you out for lunch. I don’t have any big meetings today! Let me take you out to celebrate your win, okay? Please call me.”

The doors opened to the Penthouse and Rose walked off, the last one on the elevator. She took a deep breath at the double oak doors, wrapped her hand around the handle and opened up impending doom.

The receptionist raised sculpted eyebrows when she saw who it was walking in. Rose gave her a weak smile. “Morning, Luanne.”

“Rose. You’re never late. I figured you were already in your office!”

Passing her for there, she sighed, “Yeah, I didn’t hear my alarm.” They exchanged a knowing look.

Loud footsteps coming down the hall around the corner were unmistakably those of Mark Leonard, a man whose presence scared small children. She took a deep breath as she turned to meet him. He quickly spotted her and did the strangest thing. He smiled.

“Ms. Hendricks! Exactly the person I was coming to see. Didn’t you get my email? We’re waiting for you in the conference room.” He flipped around and gave her a nice view of his newly trimmed grey hair.

“Did you get a haircut, Mr. Leonard?” she asked, as if everything was normal, meaning she was kissing his flat ass.

“I did! Thank you for noticing.” He swung open another set of oak doors and walked in ahead of her, which she liked. It made her feel like he saw her as one of the guys. Here, that was politically important. Seated at the immense table that could seat twenty on any given day were the other two partners and one of their executive assistants, Alice Makers, a woman of forty-two who’d been having an affair with her boss for six years. She sat calmly beside Michael Hewlett, age sixty-one, as though they’d never wrapped legs around each other. And certainly not three times that week.

Stuart Clarkson, a young forty-five, was cleaning his glasses, his diminutive frame made even smaller every time he was in the same room with his imposing partners. But he was a viper in the courtroom and Rose took him more seriously than the other two who liked to showboat but had passed their ambitious, hungry days long ago. Mr. Clarkson never would.

He stood and motioned to a chair. “Ms. Hendricks. Please sit down.”

Since Mr. Leonard hadn’t realized she was late, she had no idea why they summoned her. Rose took a seat and set her purse on the empty chair next to her. Mr. Leonard joined the others at the end of the table, all four people lit by the natural light coming in windows that spanned the entire south wall, the view of New York spectacular outside.

Immediately, she began to sweat as she realized she’d completely forgotten her briefcase. Taking a deep breath and wiping her face clean of expression she sat up straight and clasped her hands on the waxed wood table. “You all look very handsome today. And Alice, you look great in blue.”

Alice smiled politely. Mr. Leonard and Hewlett thanked her, but Stuart Clarkson just put his glasses on and stared.

Mr. Leonard hit him with an elbow. “Come on now, Stu, you said you wanted to give her the good news.”

Rose blinked at the nickname. She’d never heard The Viper called such a friendly name before.

He cleared his throat and without smiling, informed her, “Wanda Lavigne used to babysit me. I gave you the case to see what you would do with it, and if you helped her, I promised myself we would make you junior partner.”

Mr. Leonard guffawed and smacked Stuart on the back. “I bet you wish you hadn’t told us that before she won the case!”

Rose’s heart expanded like it might burst. “Would you please say that again?”

Mr. Leonard, remaining completely out of character, announced, “You’re now a junior partner, Ms. Hendricks. And the first female one we’ve ever had.”

Through gritted teeth, Mr. Hewlett grated, “Yes. Quite.”

Mr. Leonard boomed like he was talking to a room of fifty people, “And all because this man promised himself he’d help his babysitter. Now isn’t that the funniest thing you’ve ever heard in your life?”

Pride knotted her veins as Rose’s eyes narrowed.
Funny?
All the work I’ve done and you’re calling my promotion funny?
She unclasped her fingers and wiggled them. “Does Paul know?”

Three pairs of male eyebrows went up slightly, while Alice remained cool and distant. Mannequins showed more emotion than this woman. Mr. Leonard, the more vocal today by far lost some of his glee, as he informed her, “No We haven’t told him yet.”

Paul was vying for partnership, too, and Rose disliked him simply because he was sure he would get it over her, regardless of the fact that she was the better attorney. She’d graduated high in her class and ever since had been busting her ass to show what she could do. Paul rode in on his family’s legacy, old money in upstate New York and lawyers all of them. He was passable as far as attorneys go, but he didn’t have the fire Rose had nor the track record.

She sucked on her bottom lip as she realized how much Paul would hate this. Even though it was what she’d worked so hard for, now that it was presented like a piece of moist chocolate cake when she’d been living on stale crackers, she was desperate to eat it, but something felt wrong.

They waited for her to say something. Hewlett glanced to the men to his right who remained locked on her.

She leaned forward and addressed Mr. Clarkson. “So am I to understand I have received this incredible promotion merely because of a bet you made against yourself?” He didn’t answer. “I work hard, harder than any of those people out there,” she pointed to the door, “and you know it. I win eighty-three percent of my cases, even some I know you throw at me because you thought they were dead in the water.”

“Ms. Hendricks,” Mr. Leonard tried to interrupt.

“Excuse me, sir, but let me finish. Mr. Clarkson, if you’re the one pushing me for junior partner, I need it to be because you know I bring value to this firm with my time, talent and dedication.”

“Don’t get too full of yourself. You’re very young, Ms. Hendricks,” said Stuart Clarkson in a sober voice that sounded pretty fucking condescending.

She smiled and got courtroom-calm. “I’m just stating the facts of what I bring and there is nothing wrong with knowing one’s worth. Did you know that men get more raises than women simply because they ask for them? They have no problem saying
I deserve what I deserve
. And how old were you when you made partner?” She knew the answer was twenty-nine. He didn’t offer it, and so she continued, becoming more theatrical and having fun with this now that her anger had ignited. “But you’re a man, right? I’m the first woman, you said? Why is that, when the feminist revolution happened in the sixties? That’s fifty years ago. Why am I the first, and why do you say that like I should be proud? It only makes me angry for all the women who were passed over before me. I know many who’ve left Hewlett, Leonard and Clarkson, but you want me to be proud? How can I be when their blood is on your hands?” She started to understand what she was going to do. A light shone from her heart that guided her to stand up. She leaned forward with her fingertips on the table and her weight on them. “Yes, I could take this job and make history, but I can’t do that in good conscience unless you gave it to me for my abilities alone. Or for them being at least eighty-three percent of the reason. Gentlemen, thank you very much for your time, for convening here today and for offering me this very esteemed position.” She picked up her purse. “I regretfully decline.”

Stuart-The-Viper-Clarkson had seen this coming as she’d been talking and showed no surprise, but both Hewlett and Leonard were shocked. Which, frankly showed that they were losing their touch. Alice kept blinking to the table, the window, Rose, back to the table, and then to all of them again.

Rose smiled a real smile, remembering Eli saying she was strong. “I’ll send over my current cases. You’ll have all the files by the end of today.
Paul
can finish them for me. He’ll do a mediocre job that you’ll be very happy with because he has a penis.
I’m
going on a vacation.” Mr. Hewlett winced at her crudeness, but Alice stifled a laugh. Rose grinned, happy to have at last made the woman’s stiff veneer crack.

Rose nodded goodbye. “Good day gentleman. Good luck, Alice. It’s been hard work, but it’s been fun.”

She walked out.