Grey Wolf in the White House: The Trilogy (Paranormal BBW Erotic Romance) (8 page)

As she walked down the path,
she realized that she had no idea where she was going. There were
guards at the main gates; she knew that much.
How do I get out of here?
Damien had
said that she was free to leave at any time, but she doubted that
he actually meant it now, so she didn’t want to risk being seen by
the guards. Taking a detour into the gardens, she remembered the
view from her window. There was a tall, dark green hedge on one
side of the property, and she might be able to climb through it,
depending on how thick it was. She knew that a patrol of guards
drove up and down the road alongside the hedge, but with any luck,
she could hide in the shadows if they did, before running away as
fast as possible.

Once she had reached the hedge, she
reached out to touch it, poking and prodding at it to see if she
could get through. It was uncomfortable, but she could make it. The
leaves scratched and raked long red marks over her face and hands
as she pushed her way through it, and she was glad that the rest of
her body was covered in clothing. Finally, she was on the other
side, and she scanned the road, looking for any sign of the patrol
car.

It was nowhere in sight, and
she began to run down the road, away from the vampire compound.
After a few minutes, she heard heavy breathing behind her, and then
two strong arms encircled her waist.
Caught. Shit.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” a
gravelly, familiar voice said.

The strong arms let her go,
and she spun around.
Remy.

Remy’s eyes glowed a bright amber color
as he glared down at her, blazing with fury as he took in her
disheveled appearance and the fang marks on her neck.

“We need to talk,” he
growled.

***

Part Three

Ari gulped in fear as Remy continued to
glare down at her, and he reached out and grabbed her by the collar
of her coat.

“You’re coming with me,” he
growled.

“Remy! Get off her. I’ll take her home.
You take your men and go elsewhere. You need to cool off,” said a
familiar, gruff voice from behind her.

Remy’s eyes blazed even
more, but he let her go. Another arm pulled her towards a sleek
black car, and Ari looked over her shoulder, glancing at Remy one
more time as he continued to watch her with a look of fury that she
had never seen before, on anyone. The person that was holding her
pushed her inside the car and then climbed in after her, and Ari
finally realized who it was.
Ross
Wilkins.

“Hello again, Miss Mills,” he said,
staring intently at her. “It’s good to see you again. I’m glad that
you are safe. You have no idea how crazy Remy has been going since
you left, he’s made us sit outside the vampire compound every night
since you were taken. He couldn’t pick up on your scent, but he
claimed that he ‘just knew’ that you were here. I am grateful that
he was correct. Trying to conceal this whole fiasco from the
American public has been a PR nightmare, as I’m sure you can
imagine.”

Ari was speechless.
Ross,
the grumpy old White
House Chief of Staff… he knew about all of this?
She finally found her tongue and spoke
up.

“Are you… are you one of them?” she
asked hesitantly.

“What, a werewolf?”

Ross threw his head back and laughed.
It was the first time that Ari had actually ever seen him crack so
much as a smile, and his mirth began to make her feel slightly more
comfortable, even though she had absolutely no idea what was going
on.

“No,” he said after a moment, still
chuckling. “I’m just as human as you are. But seriously, did you
think that the Chief of Staff wouldn’t know a tiny little detail
like… the President is actually a werewolf? Come on, Ari, I thought
you were a smart girl.”

“So you knew the whole
time?”

“Course I did. I’m one of the few
humans that know what’s really going on with the world.”

Ari suddenly felt like curling up into
a ball and crying.

“Ross… I know you don’t like me very
much, but could you please tell me what is going on?” she asked,
fighting back tears.

“Ari, I never disliked you. You were,
by far, one of the best interns I ever had. Even though you
flounced around with all your silly little hair-dos and lipstick, I
still saw your potential. That’s why I pushed you harder than the
rest. I apologize if I came across badly.”

“If I have so much potential, then why
did Damien Xavier have to lobby for me to get offered a paid
position?”

Ross looked incredulous.

“He told you that? That’s ridiculous.
He’s a senator; he has no real say over who we employ at the White
House. You were offered the position because I wanted to offer it
to you. You are a strong, intelligent woman, and you earned the job
through your hard work. Believe that.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, oh. What else did that pale white
son-of-a-bitch tell you?”

Ari found herself pouring her heart out
to the older man, telling him everything that she had experienced
over the last three weeks, from the time she had been kidnapped up
until the few moments before her escape. He listened carefully, and
then placed a hand over one of hers and squeezed.

“There, there, my dear. You aren’t the
first human to have been taken in by a vampire’s lies. They are
renowned for their cunning, manipulative tendencies. There’s an old
saying… it goes something like, the very best of lies are those
that have a sprinkling of the truth in them.”

“What do you mean?”

“Some of what Mr. Xavier told you is
correct, and I must say, he is even smarter than I thought. Don’t
feel bad, I can see almost anyone being tricked by what he told
you. After all, Remy wasn’t entirely honest with you about things,
so I can see why you thought he was one of the ‘bad
guys’.”

Ross chuckled again, before assuming a
more serious expression.

“Let me explain everything to you.
Listen carefully.”

“Okay.”

“The story that he told you about the
origins of the werewolves… that was accurate. They are, in fact, a
species that diverged from the vampires several thousand years ago,
beginning with Remus and Romulus. Evolution is normally an
extremely slow process, but this was… different, for reasons I
don’t even understand myself. It was almost immediate. Our best
scientists are still studying it.”

He coughed for a second, and then
cleared his throat.

“Anyway, the reason Remy and a lot of
other werewolves lie about their origins is because… well, you can
imagine how the vampires feel about them. They always saw
themselves as above humans anyway, and they saw the new werewolves
as…well, inferior sub-people, seeing as they are technically a
sub-species. It’s ridiculous, but that’s vampire logic for you.
When the werewolves became immensely powerful, the vamps were
furious. To them, the werewolves should have been a slave
species.”

“Why do the werewolves lie about
it?”

“It’s a difficult thing to explain. But
the gist of it is that they don’t want to tell their children where
they originated from for two main reasons. They don’t want to admit
that they are descended from their mortal enemies, and they also
don’t want their children to ever get the idea that they are
inferior in any way.”

“Oh. So what about the mass killings of
the vampires? And the laws they brought in?”

“There was never any mass culling of
vampire families. That’s another myth perpetuated by the vampires.
If you don’t believe me, by all means go and look at the
archaeological evidence that we have from that period. There is
nothing to suggest that it is true. As for the law… the werewolves
actually had nothing to do with that.”

“What?”

“The vampires infiltrated the ranks of
ancient Rome, and when enough of them had gained power to exert
political influence, they brought the law in
themselves.”

“Why would they do that? Why would they
deny themselves the draining of humans, when that’s what they
needed to do?”

“They don’t
need
to drain humans, Ari.
They need blood to survive, but they can get by without actually
killing or seriously hurting a person. In fact, if blood is in
short supply, a vampire can eat or drink normal human food for a
few days before starving. What do you think the vampire senators
and their wives do at political events? They don’t drink blood,
obviously; they are happy to much away on canapés if it makes them
look human.”

“Still, though… why bring the law
in?”

“Think about it. What did Mr. Xavier
tell you about what happened when the law was enacted?”

“He said that there was an almost
immediate population explosion, for humans.”

“Exactly. And look how many
people there are today; billions upon billions. The vampires
wanted
this to happen, so
that when they eventually took over the humans and werewolves, they
would not only have countless slaves, but they would also have a
massive amount of potential prey. To hunt. Vampires love to chase
and hunt.”

It was a lot to take in. Ari
sat back in her seat, her mouth almost hanging open with shock at
all the new information that was being presented to her.
I’ve been so stupid. I should never have listened
to Damien.

“There is so much more to it than what
I’ve told you in the last few minutes, Ari, but right now I think
you need to go home. You must be exhausted, and you have twigs in
your hair. You made the right decision in leaving the vampire
compound, though.”

He smiled and patted her hand, and she
was overwhelmed by a sense of panic.

“I can’t go home! My roommate… he’s a
vampire too.”

“Don’t worry about that, my dear. You
have a new apartment, in a much nicer neighborhood, where you will
be safe from the vampires. All your possessions from the old place
have been moved to the new one. We are on our way there
now.”

“What? I can’t afford a nicer area than
the one that my old place is in.”

“It’s been taken care of,” he
replied.

Ari wasn’t sure what he meant by that,
but she decided not to press him right now. She was tired, and
right now, she just wanted a hot bath and a warm bed. She wasn’t
even upset that she would never see her old apartment again; it
seemed like a distant memory now, after the way that her life had
changed so drastically in recent times.

The car pulled up to a beautiful old
apartment building, and Ross squeezed her hand again before handing
her a key.

“Well, here we are. The driver will
escort you upstairs. I understand that you may need some time to
re-adjust after your experience with the vampires, but the White
House position is still yours if you want it. Again… I am very glad
that you are safe. If you weren’t, it would have killed Remy,” he
said.

Ari thanked him and headed into the
building, followed closely by the driver. The key had a number
attached to it, so she knew exactly where to go, and once she had
arrived, the driver cleared his throat and spoke.

“Well, Miss Mills, this is your new
apartment. There are guards posted in different places outside to
keep you safe. Goodnight.”

With that, he turned on his
heel and left. Ari unlocked the apartment and stepped in, gasping
as she looked around. The place was even nicer than the room that
Damien had given her; decorated in all her favorite colors, with
her favorite style of furniture. Even her favorite paintings were
hanging on the walls, and she could see a few ornaments that her
mother had given her sitting on a windowsill and an elegant-looking
coffee table.
Whoever decorated this place
really knows me.

She explored the apartment
some more before heading into the bathroom and taking a long,
luxurious bath. As she relaxed in the warm water, she felt a twinge
of hatred when she remembered how the vampire had seduced her while
she took a bath.
God, I’m so
stupid!

She then recalled Remy’s
angry face when she had seen him tonight, and felt tears springing
to her eyes.
I betrayed him. He will never
forgive me.
Damien had made her feel as if
she really should be afraid of Remy, but the second that she had
looked into his eyes tonight, all her old feelings for him had
immediately come flooding back, filling her mind with a confusing
mixture of regret, hurt and… love.
I do
love him. And now I’ve screwed everything up.

After drying and dressing in
her favorite pajamas, which she had found neatly tucked away in one
of the bedroom drawers, she realized that she desperately needed a
drink of water. She padded to the kitchen and filled a glass, not
bothering to turn the light on, and as she gazed out of the kitchen
window, she admired the incredible view of the city that lay before
her.
This really is a lovely apartment. I
wonder how long I can get away with living here before they realize
that I can’t really afford it.