Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

M ax was in the office pretending to work when Charlie appeared in the doorway. He managed not to startle, but his hand shook as he put the book down.

“Hi.” She smiled a little shyly, pushing the mass of curls behind her ears.

“Hi,” he gulped, feeling his wolf bound into his throat with longing at how beautiful she looked. He frowned; the scratch was a visible welt on her cheek.

He wanted to… go and kiss it better.

He pushed down the urge.

“How’ve you pulled up this morning?” he asked.

“A little sore, but otherwise okay, I think. What about you? How’s that bite on your leg?”

“Remarkably, it’s almost healed. I even managed to go for a run with no discomfort. Thank you for your fast action.”

“The Almanac’s advice clearly works then,” she said. “You want me to make us a coffee?”

He was going to refuse, but realized he probably needed a hit of caffeine. He still felt discombobulated from his mind-blowing release.

But at least now he could look at Charlie without his wolf wanting to do unimaginably filthy things to her.

When she returned with two perfect cappuccinos, he took a deep breath. “Charlie, I think we need to discuss… the events of last night.”

She nodded and sat down. “I’m so sorry you had to rescue me. And I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you at first… I guess I was in shock, and never having seen you in wolf form before, you know, I got confused.”

Max fumbled with his coffee, spilt some in the saucer, and silently cursed his clumsiness. “Shifting into my wolf has never happened before.”

Her eyes widened. “Really? Not ever?”

He shook his head. “Nope.”

“Not even at full moon?”

“Not even then.”

Her dark eyes perused him, genuinely curious. “I thought transforming was part of being a werewolf.”

He gave a bark of a laugh. “Guess I suppressed it well.”

“Have you ever got close to it before?”

Max hesitated. “I suppose I’ve felt it stirring at times…”

“Like when?”

He felt his cheeks deepening to beetroot. “Oh, you know, when I had a crush on a girl as a teen. That sort of thing.”

“Oh, yeah. Right.” She looked up at him from under her lashes, her eyes deep and dark and her lips parted, and his wolf kindly jerked on his cock. Which, considering he’d come like a freight train only half an hour ago, was concerning. “You’ve got to understand, I didn’t hang out with wolves back in Selig. Consequently, those traits probably weakened.”

“I guess I’m not very knowledgeable about the whole shifting thing.”

“Believe me, neither am I.” Max scrubbed at the back of his neck with his hand. “Look, Charlie. I don’t understand why this happened, though thank the gods it did, because if I hadn’t found you, who knows what would have happened. What were you doing out there alone?”

She hung her head, shuddered slightly. “I was just trying to get a Muber and… the guy pretended he was one of their drivers. The next thing I knew a whole gang had jumped out of the car and grabbed me. I guess they like to pull that one on unsuspecting folks. I should have known better, but I kind of left the party in a hurry.”

“Why?”

“Tod got pissed off with me. He thought I was there because I wanted to get back with him.”

“Do you?”

“No, no way. It’s completely over between us.”

His wolf nearly howled with joy.

Shut the fuck up, you low-life hound.

That thought brought the purpose of this conversation sharply back in focus. He took a sip of coffee, then put his cup down—carefully this time. “Charlie, we need to place some boundaries around our interactions.”

A frown pleated her brows. “How do you mean?”

“I think you should work in another room. Keep your distance from me.”

Her eyes widened. “Really, Max, seriously?”

He nodded. “I’ll put a desk in the snug for you.”

“I honestly don’t think that’s necessary.”

“Charlie, please don’t argue,” he said, more harshly than he’d meant to. “I’m wrangling with the dark side of my nature here.” Her frown deepened and he struggled to find the words to explain. “Wolves… we… we have a history of dominance, aggression, sexually inappropriate behaviors, coercion of females into mateship, chasing, biting…” He drew a sharp breath. “It’s extremely difficult to know that is a—a part of my ancestry… that I could act on it. Turning wolf last night, it deeply worried me, to be honest.”

“How can you say all this, when your wolf saved me?”

Max pinched the bridge of his nose. “I know, I know, thankfully. And gods believe me, Charlie, I’m trying to make sense of that right now. But one thing I do know, there is a shadow side to my psyche that I must not let loose.” He couldn’t tell her how bad it was, that if he hadn’t spilled his seed this morning to an image of fucking her wildly, he wouldn’t be able to string logical words together right now. Worse, he might even vault over the desk and grab her, kiss her… and, recalling his fantasy, it wouldn’t stop there.

Almost brusquely, he said, “Truly, it’s better if we put some physical distance between us.”

To his surprise, instead of immediately acquiescing, her eyes challenged him. “Why are you so intent on seeing the dark side of your wolf?”

“W—what?” His chin retracted.

“This idea you have that wolves are wild uncontrolled rapists or something. There have been many loving mate bonds through history, male wolves who were fiercely loyal and helped to raise their cubs. Human women willing to forsake everything to be with their wolf. Why, when there’s all this evidence, do you carry so much shame about your wolf?”

That made him blink. Truth was, Max didn’t know. Not really. Oh yeah, he’d read enough about the dark nature of his kind. But maybe it was just as much his mother grinding the fear of the gods into him about his inner wolf, her sneers of derision during visits to the Hunt pack, her grim remarks. “ Just look at them, Maximillian. So uncouth.”

Was it shame that had made him distance himself so completely from his genes? Was that why, when they reared up in him, he was totally unprepared for the wolf to manifest?

He tried to gather his thoughts, a muscle in his jaw ticking.

Before he could answer, Charlie continued. “When you rescued me last night—that wasn’t the dark side of your psyche, Max. You were gentle and kind, you checked out my wounds, ran me a bath…” She was pleating her fingers in her lap. “You saved me, from something that would have been so much worse than your wolf could ever be. That is not the act of a wild, uncontrolled beast.”

He ground his teeth together, feeling the points of his incisors. He ran his tongue over them. Gods, were they sharper than usual?

Charlie was not helping the situation with her gentle reasoning. He could feel the man and the beast fighting inside him, but he couldn’t let his wolf win on this.

Except… maybe she was right. His wolf had rescued her, hadn’t it? Carried her home to safety. His wolf had done her no harm. Despite the longing to claim her as his, he’d maintained control over his baser nature.

Gods in heaven, he was so damn confused right now.

Max cleared his throat. “Thank you, Charlie, for your faith in my wolf. But for now, let’s stick to practicalities, shall we? If we can both concede that, er, what happened last night was a bizarre aberration brought on by the unusual nature of the circumstances, then I’m confident you can work here for the duration of your contract.” He glanced at her over his glasses.

For a moment Charlie was silent, staring down at her laced fingers. He saw her breasts rise and fall under the silk of her blouse, like she was trying to gain some control.

When she glanced up again, her smile was polite. “I really want that too, Max. It will be amazing to have your name on my CV.”

He felt a dump in his stomach. So all she wanted was his name on her CV? It irked, even though it shouldn’t, of course. It was a perfectly reasonable expectation on her part. She had a life, after all, a career to get on with. And he’d do everything he could to help her. She’d already be getting an amazing reference based on her work. “Right, that’s all clear, then. So, er, we’ll keep out of each other’s way today and start fresh tomorrow.”

For a moment those huge dark eyes perused his face, and Max felt his neck heating under her gaze. “Sure. I’ve got plenty to occupy my time,” she said sweetly, and stood up. “And I’ve made your bed up, thank you for letting me sleep in it.”

Max nodded curtly; he must not think of Charlie in his bed right now. “And Charlie, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention, the, um, events of last night to anyone.”

“I promise it’ll stay between you and me.” Something about the husky way she said those words made him jolt, as though they had shared something more. “And thank you again, Max, for being my knight in shining armor.”

He felt himself blushing deeper.

“Well, I guess, all’s well that ends well.” Gah, now he was mumbling platitudes. He started to sift through his papers. “I’ll be getting on with this pile. And I’ll re-organize our work arrangements by tomorrow morning.”

“Don’t we have the meeting at Motham Palace first thing?”

Gods, how had he forgotten that? It was the pinnacle of this whole trip to Motham.

“We do indeed. Thanks for reminding me.”

She smiled, made to leave, but for some reason he wanted to keep her talking, just a little longer. “I’m glad we’ve had this chat, Charlie. I’m sure we can navigate things in a way that will keep you safe.”

She turned at the door, pushing the mass of curls away from her neck, and his gaze dropped. Right there at the dip at her throat, where her neck splayed into her clavicle, his wolf begged to bite her, just a little nip, just enough to mark her…

He snapped his eyes away from her throat.

“For the record, Max, I don’t feel remotely unsafe around you,” she said, as long lashes dipped over those brown sugar eyes.

Max stared at her helplessly.

Oh, gods, that was the truth of it, wasn’t it?

Charlie wasn’t the one who was unsafe here.

He was.