Chapter 5 - Cassandra

Earlier that day

“Kenji!” I exclaim, hopping off my chair and bounding into the man's open arms.

“Cassandra!” he chimes equally cheerfully, wrapping me in his arms and swinging me in a circle. When he sets me back on my feet, I gasp and place my hands on the muscles bulging beneath his sweatshirt.

“Damn… When did you get so ripped?!”

Kenji chuckles, the dimples on his cheeks indenting. “Shoosh, you!” He flicks his wrist, waving a hand through the air to gesture to the table. “Sit your pretty ass down and tell me why you're staying in drab ol’ Oklahomes…”

I giggle under my breath as I take a seat while Kenji orders brunch. My lips remain pursed while he ogles the waiter, batting his eyelids at him.

Kenji's always been the biggest flirt, and no one is off-limits.

“So…” he turns to me, eyes as dark and magnificent as ravens. “... Ya gonna tell me, or do I needa blackmail it outta ya?”

“It's not that much of a secret, Kennie,” I sigh. “My mother died, and naturally, she left the cottage to me.” A shiver passes through me because this is the part where I have to lie to my college friend.

“... I missed the small town, so I've decided to stay.”

“So you've left your whole life in Tokyo behind?” He narrows his eyes at me, and I gulp because this is the very question I was dreading.

Kenji Sato was the reason I was able to escape the hellhole of Mysthaven. With his ample connections in the tech underworld, he'd hooked me up with enough jobs to save money to leave the country.

The only thing he doesn't know about me is that I am a werewolf. I'd rather keep it that way, even if he's the only one who's been keeping my secret identity a secret all these years.

“I've left it behind,” I confess. “Along with any chance of going back.”

Kenji leans over the table and places a worried hand on mine. “Don't tell me you got into trouble. I know people—”

I giggle. “I didn't get into any trouble,” I assure him, dropping my voice to a whisper when I say, “I told you I'd never work as Asuka unless I had you on my side.”

A grin appears on his face as he leans back. “As long as it's not legal trouble, we're in the clear.”

I nod, explaining how my rather impulsive decision to stay in the States wasn't met with understanding from the company I worked for in Japan. Of course, a sudden email to hand in my resignation was a shock when I'd only applied for a short period of leave a few days ago.

The reply I received from HR informed me that I wouldn't be able to come back. Ever.

“... That's why I'll need to find work here,” I sigh, reaching for my cappuccino.

Kenji blew out a breath as if he'd breathed in the weight of my situation. He releases it now, then leans in.

“Then I suppose it's a good thing I've already put you on the market,” he smirks, leaning back and pulling his sunglasses off his head and onto his face before crossing his arms.

I know exactly what the gesture means. Business.

I take a deep breath, set the cup on the side plate, and say, "I'm listening…”

“When you told me you were coming back, I opened up our channels. Ya know, just to test the waters,” he grins. “I guess my intuition was right.”

“As always,” I chuckle. “So, did we get any bites?”

Kenji leans in, opening his hands in gesture, “A fucking huge fish, baby!” he jeers. “A quarter of a mill.”

“What?!” I exclaim, lowering my head when I realize that I've just drawn attention from the crowd of patrons on the restaurant patio. “What?” I whisper. “ That big?”

Kenji grins from ear to ear. “That big,” he confirms with a nod. “The owner of the largest tech company around.”

“Hm…” I lament, picking up my cup and sipping lightly on the warm drink. “... It's exactly what I need to get me on my feet out here.”

“Then it's a good thing I've arranged for a meeting tonight.”

“You sneaky bastard… That's why you wanted to see me today?!” I accuse with a pout.

“Nonsense!” He flaps a hand through the air. “You know I missed you. But this client has been on my neck for a while. He's desperate.”

“Desperate for what?”

Kenji waves over to the waiter to pay for brunch. “We need to find you a dress for your dinner date,” he winks. “I'll tell you all about the job when we're at the boutique.”

***

Nerves twisting into a bunch as I ride the cab, I spread my fingers out on my lap, appreciating the smooth silk of the black dress we'd picked up from the designer boutique.

It was Kenji's way of celebrating not just my return to the States but a sort of pre-celebration for nabbing a high-profile client who'll be paying a huge sum of money.

I look up in the small confines of the cab and gasp, realization dawning upon me at that moment. We'd been running through all the details of the job, and we forgot one key piece of information.

I know who the client will be pretending to be tonight for the sake of our meeting in a public setting. As far as he's concerned, I'm just Asuka's rep, but this is the only way I get to gauge my client one-on-one. But I forgot to ask Kenji who he is in real life.

Slapping the headrest of the seat in front of me when a light goes on in my head, I sift through my purse and get my cell phone out just as the cab pulls to a stop outside the Shogun restaurant.

“Hey, Cass. Ya all good?” Kenji answers the call.

Propping the phone between my shoulder and cheek, I pay the cab driver and shimmy my way to the door.

“You haven't given me his name, Ken,” I chuckle as I exit the cab. “Rusty ‘round the edges, huh?”

“It's been a while, okay?” he defends. “You've been gone for years, Cass. What do you expect?”

“Well, if we're gonna keep doing this, you'll need to sharpen your swords, okay? No loose ends if we're gonna do this for the long haul.”

“Okay, okay, Madame! Relax,” he consoles over the phone.

“You've cross-examined this guy, right? He's not gonna sell me out?” I enter the restaurant, accepting the attendant's help when he takes my coat. “Reservation for the Browns,” I tell the hostess behind the desk.

Working with Kenji, we've always covered our tracks using aliases like this. Tonight, I'm “Mr. Brown's wife,” meeting him in a fancy restaurant for dinner.

“Your husband is already here, Mrs. Brown,” the hostess tells me and whispers instructions to a waitress.

As far as the restaurant is concerned, my “husband” is meeting me inside. I stifle my giggle as I nod.

It's always been fun playing a different role each time. It's a perk of the job, and I'm excited about this one.

“He's as squeaky-clean as they come,” Kenji assures me as I follow the waitress into the cozy restaurant. “Like I said, he owns the biggest tech company in Oklahoma. Aha! Here he is… a mister Cyrus Rudolph…”

I stop dead in my tracks, the color draining from my face as every nerve ending in my limbs goes cold.

“Mrs. Brown…?” the waitress presses when she turns and notices my face turning pale as if I've seen a ghost.

“Cyrus Rudolph…?” I murmur into the phone, my arm dropping at my side as a buzzing sensation fills my eardrums. Everything starts to spin in my hemisphere of vision, and my flight detectors perk up.

“... Your husband told me to call him once you arrived,” the waitress goes on. “Would you like to take a seat in the meantime?”

“N—no…” I snap out of the momentary daze, lifting the phone back to my ear to speak to Kenji. “Are you sure that's his name?”

“Yeah, Cass. Why—”

I cut the call off abruptly, returning my attention to the waitress as my heart pounds at a dangerous speed in my chest.

A flurry of panic has gripped me, and I'm not sure what to do.

Cyrus Rudolph is the owner of a large tech company who wants me to infiltrate a government system.

Why?

“Where is he?” I ask the waitress in a tiny voice.

She gulps, then turns toward the restaurant's left and points at the bar along the wall.

“He's at the sushi bar, ma'am.”

Following the young woman's eyes, I see the ghost of my current disposition, the reason for the loss of color in my cheeks in the form of the tall, broad-shouldered Alpha of the Moon Shine Pack. Even with his back facing us, the soft, sheen bristles of the tips of his dirty-blonde hair skimming his crisp white collar is unmistakable. With a bedhead of tousled, wavy locks on the top of his head, I know that's him.

When he glances at the blonde woman seated on his right, the corners of his eyes are crumpled and full of laughter. His lips stretch with a smile, and it ignites something frightening inside me.

I quickly dart behind the waitress's head, not wanting to be seen.

“Should I go get your husband, ma'am?” she asks with raised brows when she glances over her shoulder at me. “I don't think he meant anything—”

“It doesn't matter,” I whisper blandly, the taste of bile filling my mouth.

Not only is the client the Alpha I know, but he's flirting with the woman at the sushi bar.

I scoff under my breath, tugging on the strap of my purse on my shoulder and deftly turning toward the front of the restaurant.

“Don't bother calling him over,” I tell the waitress. “I'm leaving.”

“But, Ma'am—”

I don't stick around to hear the rest of the woman's attempt to subdue me. It's not like I can afford to be here right now, so I quickly dart out of the restaurant and flag down the first cab from the sidewalk.

Cyrus Rudolph is the client I'm supposed to meet.

I can't let him know that I am the infamous hacker who goes by the name “Asuka”.

I can't trust him to keep my identity a secret, not when I have no idea what his motives are.

Hacking a government system is not child's play. Why would Cyrus, the Alpha of Moon Shine, want to infiltrate a government satellite when the risk is too high? Not only is it illegal, but he's the leader of a werewolf pack whose identity is meant to be kept a top secret.

Why would he risk the safety of the pack?

***

Pacing the wooden floors, I gnaw on my bottom lip as I contemplate the very close call I had tonight.

My cell phone rings for the umpteenth time, and I finally decide to answer the damned thing. If I don't, the incessant ringing will only serve to interrupt my thoughts.

“Jesus, Cassandra! Finally!” Kenji exclaims on the other end of the line. “What the fuck is going on?”

“I couldn't do it, Kennie,” I relent with a huff, plopping my rear on the armrest of the sofa. I wince at the force of the impact. Still, it's probably what I needed to snap me back to reality instead of walking around the cottage like a headless zombie.

“Cold feet?” he chuckles. “Ya coulda just told me you weren't ready—”

“Oh, trust me, this isn't a case of cold feet, Kennie,” I chuckle dryly. “I… I can't explain everything right now, but I can't take the job.”

“Well…” Kenji sighs. “... They aren't happy, but they're still willing to give you another shot.”

Of course, Cyrus isn't happy. For someone who's accustomed to getting his way in life, this must have bruised his ego substantially.

Strangely enough, I feel like this adds to the tally of my quest for vengeance against the brutal Alpha.

He deserves a couple of knocks to his inflated ego.

“Not happening, Kennie,” I declare boldly. Apart from punching the Alpha in the gut by backing out, I can't risk being outed.

I'd worked hard to keep my identity a secret. Being a hacker in the underworld was my ticket to freedom, a means of escape into better pastures.

Just because I'm back in Mysthaven, it doesn't mean that I'm going to risk losing the sanctity of my alias, Asuka. She's everything I have, everything I built on my own strength.

I can't let Cyrus take that from me.

“This might get ya a bad rep if the word goes out,” Kenji sighs. I know he only means well when he goes on to explain that Cyrus's assistant, who conveniently is the Beta of this pack, has given me another chance without threatening to wreck my name in the underworld.

I've never backed out of a job before.

What Kenji says makes sense, but I'm not ready yet to take on this job for Cyrus. Even if he doesn't meet me and Kenji goes in my place, I need to know what Cyrus is up to.

“Just tell them that something came up, Kennie. Tell them Asuka's rep had an emergency or something. I need some time to decide if I want to do this.”

“Look, I dunno what's going on, but I'll be on standby, m’kay?”

Kenji remains supportive despite my reluctance to take the job right now. He knows I have good reason not to take the job right now. But I have to consider my reputation if I'm going to do this in the long run.

As soon as he ends the call, I blow out a frustrated breath and fling my phone on the coffee table, getting to my feet in desperate need of fresh air.

I need to get to the bottom of this. Why does Cyrus need Asuka's help when he has a whole company of technological masterminds?

Is it the man's greed that drives him? Is this some grand plan to take over the country? Is being the leader of a werewolf pack not enough?

“Urgh!” I groan toward the heavens, the moon's radiant light shining down on me as if to highlight my dilemma. Another groan, and I drop my head down, staring at the floor on the side of the little cottage.

Why do I feel like this?!

It wouldn't be so risky to have Kenji take my place at the meeting so that I can work from behind the scenes. That way, Cyrus will never know that I'm Asuka. Even if I was posing as the representative, I couldn't be exposed.

He'd ask too many questions.

Then why am I still reluctant?

It's because you saw him flirting with another woman…

The stark realization, that inner voice of reason, causes a gasp to escape my lips. My brows furrow into a frown as I stare ahead into the blank void of the dark forest.

It shouldn't bother me that he'd been chatting up a human woman. What was I expecting? Some kind of loyalty from a werewolf who's only proven in the past that he thinks she-wolves are below him?

I'd faced the wrath of his abuse for years. Why would I think that he isn't some playboy, using women only for bodily pleasures when he couldn't even see what's right in front—

“What are you doing out at this time of the night?”

Startled, I squeal and almost jump out of my skin when Cyrus appears out of nowhere. As if an apparition materialized from the recesses of my mind, his dark silhouette emerges from between the trunks of two trees.

With his hands shoved into the pockets of his perfectly tailored slacks, his striped tie hangs loose on his chest, three buttons undone to reveal brown chest hair framing the top contours of defined muscle.

Gulp…

None of tonight matters now that he's in front of me. Not the job, not the woman in the restaurant…

Not even my hatred for him.

When his adam's apple bobs in his throat, the movement serves to snap me from my daze and lock eyes with him as he approaches me. That's when his gaze flicks down and rakes me from head to toe.

I gulp, noticing how he drinks up the sight of curves in the black silk figure-hugging dress. Awareness has me pressing my thighs together, internally praying that a stray wind doesn't betray me right now and reveal the slit that ends high up on my left thigh.

“Cyrus…” the tiniest utter of his name is my feeble attempt to clutch onto my walls of defenses, which are hanging by a thread woven of the most delicate silk. Soft and fragile, made vulnerable by Cyrus's being.

Mentally, I'm undressing him while he scrutinizes my dress with sharp eyes.

“Why are you dressed like that?” he asks as he raises a brow and meets my eyes again. “Where are you going?”

Where was he? The question comes to mind as the most absurdly intrusive thought in a moment like this.

What did he do with that woman? Is that why his shirt is unkempt, his dirty-blonde hair tousled on his head?

Damn… Why do I even care? Perhaps it's his accusatory eyes as he glowers at me, his question hanging in the dense air between us.

Reeling my thoughts back in, I take a deep breath and reply, “Nowhere. I was just going inside.” It takes every ounce of mental stability I have inside me to spin on my heel, ignoring the blatant seduction of his eyes when he found me in this dress.

It's just a dress, I remind myself, when a large hand clamps my wrist like a vice-grip and spins me back around.

Shrieking from the swiftness of the motion, my hands fly out as a reflex, landing flat on his strong chest. I gasp when I look up into Cyrus's eyes, fierce and accusing as he stares into my face.

“Why are you dressed like this, Cassandra ? ” he punctuated each syllable of my name with a venomous bite, my heart skipping a beat with every pause. Breath hitching in my throat when I realize how close he is to my face. His breath licks at my nose like hot flames.

Momentarily stunned, I let my eyelids flutter closed, basking in his rising body heat that swirls around us.

But just as quickly, my mind floods with the armor I'd worked hard to build, reminding me that I cannot fall victim to the clutches of any man.

Especially not Cyrus Rudolph.

Pushing at his chest, I back away, my eyes narrowing like jets of accusation.

“How I dress is none of your business, Cyrus,” I boomed, all the resentment for the man returning now that I've escaped the hypnosis of wood and citrus. Breathing in crisp air of vigilance now, I bite back with venom. “Where I'm going is none of your business, either.”

Cyrus licks his lips, leaving behind a sly smirk. “It is when you're a part of this pack, Cassie. Isn't that what you chose by remaining in Mysthaven?”

I scoff, crossing my arms over my chest and defiantly turning my head. “That doesn't give you the right to watch my every move.”

His sardonic chuckle forces me to turn back and notice the step he takes forward, sending panic up my spine.

I don't want to be around him when his presence threatens my better judgment of him.

When he leans in, it's almost my undoing. It takes every ounce of strength not to cave in at the knees, and I have to hold my breath so that my airways don't become intoxicated.

“It gives me every right to watch your move when the things out there could kill you…” he drawls smoothly, leaning even closer.

“K-kill me…?” I murmur unintelligibly.

Cyrus nods his head slowly and calmly. “Don't even dare go over those borders, Cassandra…” His eyes flick to my chest, where the loose neckline of the dress does little to cover the mounds of my breasts. “... Especially not looking like that.” Cyrus licks his lips as he draws his eyes to mine. “The dangers that lurk out there will have their way with you before having your neck…” He punctuates the statement by lifting a nimble finger to my neck, his fingertip coasting my exposed collarbone. “... Any man wouldn't resist.”

Cyrus simply turns and strolls off, disappearing into the woods once again. Leaving me stunned, I can only stare into the void while my heart beats uncontrollably.

Whoa…

What the heck was that?

For the first time in my existence as a Moon Shine wolf, Alpha Cyrus Rudolph didn't criticize me for my body.

Instead, he made me feel… desirable.

Except for the part about getting killed.

The warning he left me with has me wondering if there's something he's hiding. If there’s something he knows that's linked to his motive for needing Asuka's help.

My help, which I'm not willing to give away without understanding what's truly going on.

I'll just have to find out.

In the meantime, I'd better get out of this dress…