Leader of the Pack (8 page)

* * * *

Cullen’s stomach started to growl. He had been staring at the latest reports and avoiding leaving for the reservation. It was a three hour drive. He still had an hour or two before he had to leave in order to be there before sunset. He had been managing to find excuses to not leave all day. Everyone was waiting patiently. As far as most of the others were concerned this was Cullen’s day. If he wanted to be late and piss off Jenna, that was his call.

The report he was looking at seemed to be calling his name. It was as though he knew there was something in it that he was just missing. His stomach growled again. Finally he decided to just take the damn reports with him. He pulled them together and headed down to the restaurant.

Cullen sat down in his normal seat more than a little nervous about possibly seeing Aislinn which pissed him off right from the start. He began spreading the records out to look at them while he waited. Just then a small commotion got his attention. He looked up to see Aislinn rushing through the restaurant and Meghan following her. He didn’t even think about it. He just knew that something was wrong.

Cullen came up to the employee’s break room. He could smell Aislinn and Meghan and he knew that they had gone in there. The door was open a crack. He could hear crying. He almost stormed in to find out why Meghan was making Aislinn cry when he heard someone start talking.

“Meghan I’m sorry,” I didn’t mean to be late Aislinn sobbed. Cullen stopped and listened, hoping he’d hear what was going on. He figured that Aislinn wouldn’t tell him.

Meghan tried to be mad, but it was really hard to be the boss and yell at someone when they were already upset. “Alright, just tell me why you’re so upset. I can’t very well send you out to wait on customers like this.” Meghan tried to be comforting, but Aislinn pulled away in a manner that reminded Meghan of someone who had been abused.

Aislinn shook her head. “I can’t. Please I just need to go to the restroom. I’ll be fine.” She sounded so defeated. Cullen knew how she felt.

“Aislinn,” Meghan said in a sympathetic tone, “I need to tell Liam something. I know you told Rissa that you had to go to court today. Is this about that? What happened?”

“Rissa told you?” Aislinn was scared to death she was going to lose her job. God she had just been to court and found guilty of battery. Never mind that it wasn’t her. She would have done it herself if she had been capable. As it was it didn’t matter who had done it. She was the one who was found guilty and the Taigh-O

sda wasn’t the kind of place that employed people with a record.

“Hey, don’t be like that,” Meghan said softly. She reached out to Aislinn again. “She was just trying to help. We’re on your side here.”

She shook her head. Well what was she going to say? It was public record. If she lied they could look it up. “Fine,” she said with that defeated tone and more tears. “Remember when I first got here and I said that Cul- Lord Arnauk had helped me out with something?” Cullen felt his stomach turn.

“Yeah,” Meghan smiled. “You’re entrance here was kinda hard to forget.” She was trying to be lighthearted about it but it obviously wasn’t helping.

“Well my last boss had attacked me and Lord Arnauk stopped him. He ended up in the hospital and decided to sue me for battery and he just won. I got fined and he came after me again on my way out of the damn court.” Aislinn’s voice broke at that point. “I can’t lose this job Meghan. If I do I’ll never pay off the bills I had before, and now there’s this fine. I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

Cullen almost went into the room. He stood there growling under his breath.
That piece of caoch. He had one hell of a nerve.
Cullen thought.
Wait ‘til he sees what I do to him when I get my claws on him again.
Cullen was nearly of a mind to go back to the Blood Pit and burn it to the ground when Aislinn and Meghan came out of the break room and saw him standing there.

Aislinn’s eyes went as wide as saucers and the tears started again. Meghan saw the standard Cullen Arnauk dismissal stare and gave Aislinn a reassuring glance before she hurried off down the hall. Aislinn looked like a scared animal about to bolt. Cullen took hold of her before she could run and led her down to the office further down the hall. When they walked in Liam looked up from his desk and upon seeking Cullen stood up.

“Lord Arnauk?” Liam looked between the two. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” Cullen said shortly. “Can I use your office a moment?”

“Of course,” Liam said in confusion and quickly let himself out.

Aislinn was still staring at him as though he was about to do something awful, and that cut through him worse than anything else that had recently happened. He could handle any one being afraid of him, but not her. “It’s alright,” he said gently. “You’re not losing your job or getting yelled at or anything else.”

It was the look in his eyes that calmed her down more than anything else. This past week had been worse than any in her life. Perhaps worse than her time with the Circle. She couldn’t understand her need for his approval or touch, but being so close was more than she could handle right now. Aislinn stepped toward him, tears of frustration and embarrassment burning their way down her cheeks, and buried her face in his chest as she wrapped her arms around him. She didn’t really know why she did it. She had refused any comfort from Meghan. She just needed to be close to him.

Cullen wrapped his arms around her automatically and leaned into the hug so that his check rested on the top of her head. They stood there feeling the warmth pass between them and feeling the need for more growing relentlessly. When she had finally calmed down he managed to pull back a little. He placed his hand under her chin and brought her face up to his. Slowly he kissed away the tears. Then he placed a small gentle kiss on her lips. At least it meant to be small and gentle, but as she kissed him back the intensity grew. They melted into the kiss and hands began to roam.

As Cullen felt his wolf beginning to stir he knew he needed to slow this and find out what he could do to actually help. Seducing her in this kind of state was just not a possibility. He gently pushed her down. Aislinn tried to lean in for another kiss, but he managed to catch her and stop it. Any more like that first one and his wolf would be unstoppable.

“Aislinn,” he said softly. “We need to talk. I need you to tell me why you left me out of this court business.”

She looked away from him. Her arms dropped and she stepped away. Suddenly he wished he hadn’t asked. “I didn’t think you should get involved.”

“I was the one who beat the guy up. You shouldn’t have taken the fall for that,” he said with concern.

“I was certainly part of it, the cause of it, and I did hit him before that,” Aislinn was sounding indignant and Cullen could see the argumentative side of her emerging. He knew if that happened there was no way that he’d be able to resurrect this conversation.

“You’re right. You were part of it. But so was I. I could have helped you. I would have helped you.” He thought about it a moment. “Maybe we can get it overturned.”

“No, I just want to pay it and have it all go away,” she said sadly and the tears started again.

He couldn’t handle that. “What if I managed to make it go away without you having to be involved anymore?”

She looked at him uncertainly.

“Money can do a great deal,” he said trying to sound as off-hand as he could. “Let me help you.”

“I still don’t understand why you want to,” she said shaking her head. “I mean that night, this job, now you want to make this court case disappear.”

“Can’t you just let me? Do I have to explain it? Besides, I really didn’t need to beat him up as badly as I did. I was pissed and drunk.”

She nodded and walked over to him again. He pulled her the last couple steps to himself and held her again. Nothing had ever felt so right to him. He nuzzled into her hair and took in her scent, still wondering at the amazing way she smelled to him. “What are you,” he whispered into her hair, entranced.

“I could ask the same of you,” she responded just as softly. “What does it matter? Who and what are completely separate from intention. Whenever I look into your eyes I feel safe.”

Cullen held her tighter, stroking her hair and breathing in her scent. “I’ll take care of it. Just don’t do anything until I tell you. Okay?” He finally pushed her away far enough that he could look into her face. She nodded. He let the air in his chest out, not even realizing that he had been holding his breath. “Now, Liam needs his office back, I want dinner, and you’re going to eat with me.”

“I can’t. I have to get to work. I was already late,” she said, sounding upset again.

“You can’t wait on tables in this kind of mood. You won’t make any tips,” he smiled. “You’ll eat with me and then you can get to work. You’ll feel better by then. Besides, I’m in charge around here. If I want my waitress to sit and eat with me,” he shrugged and smiled wider trying to get her to smile back, “then I get to have her sit and eat with me.”

Aislinn was about to argue some more, but she didn’t have the energy to. He took her by the hand and led her out to his table, only realizing that he’d left the records sitting there when he saw them spread about the table.
This woman is going to be the death of me,
he thought. He had never been so easily distracted by anything before. He pushed the records aside and motioned for her to sit.

Rissa was immediately over to the table and taking their order. “And while you’re at it you can tell Meghan that Liam can have his office back and I ordered Aislinn to have dinner with me. She’ll be back to work as soon as I’m done with her,” he smiled over at Aislinn as he said it and was rewarded with an amused grin as she shook her head at him.

“You realize,” Aislinn said as Rissa headed off to get their order in, “that the entire kitchen is going to be gossiping about this for a week?”

Kitchen, nothing, the entire pack it going to have a fit with this one,
he thought. Cullen smiled deviously. “Just think of how much fun the rumors would be if they caught us in the office a few minutes ago?”

Aislinn blushed a bit. “You’re a dangerous man I think,” she said a bit breathlessly. “But not in any of the ways that everyone else believes.”

Cullen grinned and winked at her. Aislinn reached for her glass of water and noticed that Cullen was staring down her blouse. When he finally met her gaze again she gave him a knowing, amused look.

“I’m only a man,” he said with a wicked grin.

“I have a hard time believing that,” she answered. As she set the water back down it spilled and ran across the table toward the papers he had moved out of the way when they sat down. “Shit,” she said and grabbed the papers up, barely missing the torrent of water. As she held them up she felt the dark and light take her. Everything in the restaurant seemed to freeze in time, like a dream while she was awake.

* * * *

Aislinn saw a series of scenes flash before her eyes. First she saw a small, sleepy town. It was night and the streets were empty. She was standing naked, like in her other dreams, she moved and changed into her animal shape as she walked through the streets. She could hear the voices whispering but they weren’t looking for her. They were looking for something. She walked through the streets. She couldn’t see any people, but she saw buildings burning, and heard the whispering. She followed the voices to the buildings. It was as though the fire was frozen in its blaze, solid and blinding in the darkness. She walked into the building and found she was instantly in an office. The room was torn apart and books and papers were strewn about the floor. The bookshelves were thrown away from the walls and the desk was carved in half as though someone had taken out his anger on the innocent furniture.

The scene shifted, and again she was standing naked on a street. Again she heard the whispering, and again she found a burning building. Walking through the door she found herself in a library, just as destroyed as the office had been. The scene shifted again and again. Always she was taken to a burning building and always she found herself in a room of books.

Finally she was surrounded by people. There was no street. She was walking through trees. This felt much different. This time the danger was coming. In the other places the danger had already gone. There were people and wolves. They were celebrating something. She walked slowly through the crowds of people and wolves. They didn’t seem to see her. She knew that she wouldn’t be here. This premonition was not for her.

She had never had a premonition for someone other than herself. It was a strange sensation. She knew that the danger was fearsome and real and coming. She knew she was meant to warn these people. She walked through the woods. Everywhere she looked there was sex. Half of the people she looked at were as naked as she was. They didn’t seem to see her. But she got the impression that if they could see her it wouldn’t have mattered.

She found herself looking at a woman on her hands and knees. She was beautiful. Her eyes glowed amber in the night. Her dark hair flowed over her shoulders. On top of her was a large black wolf. He had mounted her and the woman was writhing in ecstasy as the wolf wildly humped against her. Aislinn walked around the pair. She was fascinated. And she was aroused. She watched as the woman moaned and the wolf growled. Beads of sweat formed on the woman’s brow. She begged the wolf to fuck her harder. The wolf’s eyes glowed that same amber, brilliant and needy as he thrust into her. His claws scratched her sides and she begged for more from him. Finally the woman began to cry out her pleasure and the wolf howled hungrily at the sky.

Aislinn reached down and touched herself as the couple cried out their climax. She could feel the wetness pooling in her own heated center as she stared in amazement at the pair. Then they both rolled off onto their sides. As she watched the wolf slowly turned into a man. All the while the creature’s cock remained lodged in the woman’s body. Aislinn stared in shock as she watched the wolf turn into a man.