Alpha in a Fur Coat (4 page)

Fifteen minutes later, Storm was sitting in a hovertaxi next to Grant, still trying to even out her breathing. She had tried to convince him to take a separate taxi, since their condos were in completely different neighborhoods. But Grant, ever the gentleman, had insisted on seeing her home. As their self-driving hovertaxi rose high above the city of Chicago and headed for the flyway above what used to be Lake Shore Drive, Storm stared out the window intently to avoid making eye contact with Grant.

She felt like such a jumble of emotions, and part of her wanted to just leave Chicago now, before things got any crazier. She wanted to remember this city as it was right at this moment—beautiful and teeming with life, with the vast majority of its citizens completely unaware that shifters were walking among them. She hated the creeping sense of dread she felt every time she thought about the eye scanners. She racked her brain, trying to come up with a plausible way to bring the scanner development to a halt.

But she knew that it was only a matter of time before the scanners were completed. Technology moved at lightning speed, and, with the best scientists in the country now working on the project, it wouldn’t be long before the government announced a plan to identify and get rid of shifters. Storm bit her lip hard, trying to push away the feeling of bitterness flooding her heart. She knew that allowing anger and bitterness to overtake her emotions would only cloud her judgment and waste valuable energy. But it was hard to maintain a positive attitude with so many chips stacked against you.

She had never done anything to hurt anyone. She was a valuable, contributing member of society, working hard at her job in the Mayor’s office. And yet, she knew that as soon as she was identified as a shifter, many of those around her would instantly see her as a monster. Storm took a deep breath in and let it out in a long, frustrated sigh.

“You okay?” Grant asked. Concern once again etched his face, and Storm felt even more frustrated as she looked over at him. Why couldn’t he see that her heart was jumbled up enough as it was? She didn’t want to deal with a romance on top of everything else right now.

“I’m fine,” Storm said sharply, grateful that the hovertaxi had started descending to a parking spot in front of her condo building. She didn’t look at Grant again, choosing instead to continue staring out the window as the hovertaxi came to a complete stop and the computer announced that they had arrived.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Storm said quickly as she reached down to grab her purse. She still didn’t look at Grant. She didn’t want to make eye contact with him again tonight.

But before she could escape the taxi and head for the relative safety of her condo, she felt a strong hand on her arm. As soon as Grant’s skin touched hers, she felt a shock of electricity run through her body. Instantly, she felt herself torn between the desire to turn and yell at him and the desire to turn and kiss him.

She did neither. Instead, she reluctantly raised her eyes to meet his. She sat stubbornly in silence, waiting for him to explain himself.

“Storm, you’re not okay. I’ve never seen you look this dejected before.”

Storm tried to draw her arm back, but Grant’s hand gripped it firmly.

“Well, of course I’m not okay,” she spat out. “Life as we know it is about to end. Everything I’ve worked so hard to build up here—my job, my condo, our group of friends—it’s all under attack. Who knows where we are going to end up? Who knows if we’ll even survive? How can you act so calm?”

“Storm,” Grant said, locking his eyes with hers. The desire and heat in his expression took Storm’s breath away. “It’s going to be okay, I promise.”

“How can you promise that?” Storm asked, exasperated. She desperately needed to get out of this hovertaxi and away from Grant. She just wanted to be alone and have time to sort through all of the emotions she was feeling right now.

“I promise you, Storm,” Grant said. “I know we’re facing some big threats right now. But shifters have faced big threats before. We’ll find a way to get through this, just like we always do. And I promise you that you’ll be okay. I’ll take care of you.”

That was it. Storm had to get out of there. She forcefully pulled her arm away from Grant’s grip, and, this time, he let her go.

“I’m not yours to take care of, Grant,” she hissed. Then she hopped out of the hovertaxi and made a beeline for her condo building, careful not to look back at the man who seemed so insistent on making a play for her heart.

* * *

Grant swore as he stepped into his own condo fifteen minutes later. He ran his fingers through his hair and looked around the room, as though the answer to all of his problems might somehow magically jump out at him. But the only thing staring back at him was an empty living room. He made his way to the liquor cabinet, and barked out an order.

“Computer, one Jameson reserve, neat.”

“Coming right up, Grant,” the computer cheerily responded. A whirring sound came from inside the liquor cabinet as the computer poured a glass of whiskey for him. The door to the cabinet opened and a shiny glass shelf slid out with the whiskey on it. Grant grabbed it and gulped it down, then set the glass down on the shelf again.

“Computer, one more Jameson reserve, neat,” Grant ordered.

After a few more moments of whirring, the computer delivered a refill for Grant. This time, he took the glass to the living room to sip it slowly. He sank down onto his couch, which automatically adjusted the temperature to ensure he stayed cool. Despite his comfortable surroundings, though, he felt antsy and uneasy.

“Computer, dim lights,” he said. The lights in the living room softened, and Grant felt a little bit better. But it would take more than softer lighting for him to feel better about the day he’d had.

He was angry with himself for the way he’d handled things with Storm. He’d been dancing around his feelings for her for so long, and for some reason this week had just seemed like the right time to show her his hand. He’d been dropping hints, and he knew she had caught on to his meaning. The trouble was, the stronger his hints had become, the more she had pulled back. That was a hard pill for Grant to swallow. As an alpha’s kid, he’d pretty much gotten everything he wanted his whole life. And he knew that, if he had stayed in Alaska, he would have had his choice of mate. No shifter in her right mind would refuse to date a future alpha. The rewards of being the alpha’s mate were too great.

But he wasn’t in Alaska, and Storm wasn’t impressed by his alpha genes. Why would she be? She had alpha blood running through her own veins, too. Grant sighed and took another long sip of his whiskey. Leave it to him to fall for the one girl who wasn’t interested in him.

Leave it to him to have the worst timing, too. Why would Storm want to start a relationship right now, with the entire future of the shifter population at stake? Grant frowned as he remembered Storm’s indignant expression when she pulled her hand away from his in the hovertaxi. She was right. She didn’t need him to take care of her. She was damn strong on her own.

And that was part of the trouble. Her strength and independence turned Grant on. Thinking about the fiery darts in her eyes when she left the hovertaxi caused a stiffening between his legs. The more she pulled away, the more Grant wanted her. His bear growled and writhed within him, whispering insistently to his heart.

Claim her
.

Grant took another sip of whiskey. Storm had become his obsession. But what good was an obsession when you couldn’t act on it? She had made it abundantly clear tonight that she didn’t appreciate his advances. He could keep trying, but he knew deep down that the more he chased after her, the more she would push him away. His head told him that the best option for now was to lay low, and get the whole “future of shifters” thing figured out first. But his heart told him that he should pursue her relentlessly, because if everything really went to hell, he might not have another chance.

Grant let out a loud, primal roar, and threw his glass across the room in a fit of anger. It shattered, sending shards of glass in several directions. Moments later, his robotic vacuum calmly whirred across the floor to the mess, sucking up every last piece of glass. Within a minute, the mess was cleaned up as though it had never happened.

But cleaning up the mess in Grant’s heart wasn’t so easy. With a frustrated grunt, he stood and made his way to his bedroom. The best course of action he could think of to take right now was to get some sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a big day at the firm. Now that Grant and the other associates had been given a chance to read the memos from Hook Labs, they would be expected to begin drafting documents to start a lawsuit against Mr. Astor. With the scientists from Washington on their way to Chicago next week, there was a lot of pressure to get things done quickly. Grant already knew he had several extra-long workdays ahead of him.

Not to mention, he had the meeting with the Fur Coats tomorrow night. They were all coming over to Grant’s apartment, which meant in less than twenty-four hours Storm would be standing in his living room.

Grant tried his best not to think about Storm as he changed into pajama pants and an old t-shirt. If he didn’t somehow manage to get her off his mind, he was never going to be able to get to sleep. He squeezed his eyes shut and ordered the computer to play waterfall sounds in the background. He tried to imagine that he was back in Alaska sitting by a beautiful waterfall on a perfect summer day. It was the first time in a long time that he allowed himself to think about what life would have been like if he’d stayed to take over his clan, instead of coming to Chicago to blaze a new life. And it was the first time he had to admit to himself that maybe becoming a city lawyer hadn’t been the best choice for him after all.

It took nearly an hour, but Grant finally drifted off to sleep. His dreams were full of fantasies about kissing Storm under Alaskan waterfalls, and, for a moment at least, his heart was at peace.

Storm stared blankly at her computer screen, and mindlessly sipped from her coffee mug. Was this her fifth cup? Sixth? Storm had lost count. All she knew was that it had been a long time since she’d been this dog-tired. She could feel the exhaustion in her bones. After she told Grant off last night, she’d been unable to sleep. She’d tossed and turned all night long, despite making her best effort to convince herself that she didn’t have any deeper feelings for Grant.

Who was she kidding? He made her feel things at her core that she’d never felt for anyone before. She had a small, creeping suspicion that he was her lifemate.

Too bad she had sworn off the idea of ever having a mate.

Storm hated the way everyone just assumed that every shifter needed a mate. Maybe that was true back in the dark ages, but times had changed. There was more to life than pairing off and having babies. Storm wanted to work, to lead, to make a difference. To matter.

She sighed again and put her head in her hands, trying to rub away the bleariness in her eyes. She’d had such big dreams when she moved to Chicago. She’d taken this job with the Mayor’s office because she’d thought that maybe she could actually do worthwhile work here. Sure, it had been a low-level, starter position. But she’d figured that with time, she’d be able to move up and get more responsibility.

That had been years ago, though, and she still hadn’t moved up the ladder. She’d underestimated how much government bureaucracy would slow down her dreams. Instead of being promoted and making a difference, she was still doing the same mediocre work. Worse, she was becoming disillusioned on the idea of government service as a way to actually make any kind of significant public service contribution. There had to be a better way, but Storm had no idea what that better way might be.

A little voice in her head told her that if she’d stayed in Alaska, and worked toward taking over as alpha of the clan, then things might have been better. Storm pushed the voice away and tried to focus on her computer screen again. She didn’t want to think about what life would have been like if she’d never come to Chicago. She was here now, and that was that. There was no use in playing the regret game.

A sharp knock on her cubicle wall pulled her out of her mental ruminations. Storm looked up and saw Maria, another low-level employee whose dreams of making a difference were slowly being crushed.

“Hey, Maria. What’s up?” Storm asked, trying to keep her voice pleasant. Maria had a bad habit of stopping by to talk for hours, keeping Storm from her work. Normally, this annoyed Storm. But today, maybe wasted hours wasn’t such a bad thing.

Maria squeezed into Storm’s tiny cubicle, and looked around suspiciously as though she was being followed.

“Did you hear?” Maria finally asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Maria’s eyes sparkled with excitement, and Storm couldn’t help but smile. Yup, Maria was in a gossiping mood. Whatever she was here to discuss was probably going to waste quite a bit of time.

“Hear what?” Storm asked in a normal tone of voice. Maria instantly hushed her.

“Shhh. Not so loud. We’re not supposed to know.”

“Oh, sorry,” Storm said, lowering her voice to a whisper, then repeating. “Hear what?”

“The President is coming to town,” Maria whispered, her eyes dancing. She couldn’t hold back a little squeal.

Storm was instantly paying attention. But, unlike Maria, her reaction was not one of joyful excitement. “The President is coming? When? Why?”

Maria smiled, pleased that she had grabbed Storm’s interest with her juicy gossip. “I don’t know why, exactly. But the Mayor has several meetings planned with him over the next two days. It’s pretty exciting. I’ve been waiting years for this. Maybe I’ll have a chance to actually shake the President’s hand. Or even get a picture with him! Can you imagine? All my Facebook friends will be so jealous!”

Storm could feel her heart sinking. She had a pretty good idea of why the President was coming to town. If she was right, this was bad news for the shifters.

“Maria, who told you about this? Did they say anything at all about why the President is visiting?” Storm probed.

Maria shrugged. “No one told me. I overheard one of the higher-ups whispering about it. No one is supposed to know yet. They said something about the President wanting to discuss safety concerns with the Mayor. My guess is it has something to do with the Mayor’s failed safety summit from last week. After that fiasco, the Mayor probably wants a way to regain credibility. And who better to help him with that than the President? Oh, I hope I get to meet him!”

Storm bit her lip and felt her heart pounding. As soon as Maria said the words “safety concerns,” Storm knew the shifters were in trouble. Not only was the shifter situation on the President’s radar, but it was also apparently of high concern to him. He wouldn’t be visiting Chicago otherwise.

“I have to go,” Storm said, standing suddenly and pushing past Maria.

“Wait, what? Don’t you want to plan out with me how we can get our picture with the President?” Maria called after her.

“Later,” Storm said, barely turning around as she spoke. “I just remembered something important I have to do.”

Storm made her way to the stairwell and started climbing the steps to the fifth floor, where the mayor’s office and the other executive offices were located. She had no idea what she was going to do when she got up there. She just knew that her heart was beating like crazy and that her days on this job were numbered, anyway. Once the mayor knew she was a shifter, he would fire her for sure—or worse.

Storm paused in front of the door that led to the fifth floor, leaning her head against the cool, concrete wall. What would the mayor and president do with the shifters, once they knew how to find them? Would they push to have them all locked up? Or, worse, killed off? Storm shuddered and then pushed the door to the fifth floor open. The future of her people was at stake. She had to do something.

The stairwell opened to one of the main hallways on the fifth floor. Storm had only been up here a few times, usually when her direct boss, John, wanted help taking notes during an executive meeting. She still remembered where the mayor’s office was, though. She marched directly toward his office, and was pleased to see that his secretary was out. The woman was probably out to lunch, which gave Storm an excuse to try to talk to the mayor directly.

Taking a deep breath and summoning up as much courage as she could, Storm walked up to the mayor’s closed door and knocked. A soft whirring noise filled the air as the camera above the door turned to focus on Storm. A soft flash of light momentarily blinded Storm, followed by the sound of the computer’s voice from behind the door.

“Confirmed employee,” the computer said. “Positive eye scan identification for Storm Williams.”

Storm shuddered again, thinking about how this standard eye scanner would likely be replaced with a shifter-detecting scanner before too long. Moments later, Storm heard the mayor’s voice from inside commanding the computer to open the door. As soon as the door was opened, the mayor looked up from his desk, squinting at Storm. He probably didn’t recognize her, since it had been quite some time since John had brought her up here.

“Storm?” the mayor said. “How can I help you.”

Think fast
, Storm told herself. She had about two seconds to come up with an excuse for being here.

“Uh, John sent me up here. He said you had something for him?” Storm fibbed. Maybe once the mayor told her that John must have been mistaken, Storm could fish for some information about the President’s upcoming visit. But, to her surprise, the mayor’s stopped squinting and nodded, turning around to the shelf behind him where several tablets were stacked.

“Oh, right. I thought he was going to come by himself to get it later, since it’s such highly sensitive information. But I guess he figured since it’s encrypted there’s not much danger if it falls in the wrong hands.”

The mayor was shaking his head, clearly not impressed by John’s lackadaisical attitude toward confidential information. Storm said nothing, waiting patiently for the mayor to find the tablet he was looking for. After rummaging through the stack, the mayor paused and pulled out one of the smallest tablets.

“Ah-hah! Here it is,” he said, spinning around and holding it up proudly. “It’s one of the newest models, with an eye scanner in it. Have you seen one of these yet? Probably not, since they’re brand new and incredibly expensive. I know they don’t pay you guys enough to afford toys like this. Government wages and all.”

The mayor winked at Storm, and she tried to force a smile. But on the inside, all she could do was think about the fact that eye scanners were going to be everywhere soon, even in tablets and phones. The mayor didn’t seem to notice Storm’s uneasiness, however. Instead he held up the tablet to his face.

“Watch this,” he said, then looked directly at the tablet. “Computer, unlock screen.”

“Eye scan required, please look at camera,” the computer required. A soft flash of light went off, and then the computer spoke again. “Welcome back, Mayor. Screen unlocked.”

The mayor let out a laugh and handed the tablet over to Storm. “Pretty impressive, huh? It’s the highest level in security. Encrypted information guarded by eye-scanning technology. No one can break into that stuff.”

Storm forced another smile. “Impressive,” she said, trying to sound like she really was impressed, when she felt more like throwing up than anything.

The mayor kept laughing as he handed the tablet over to Storm.

“I’ll get this straight to John,” she said.

The mayor nodded, still laughing as he waved Storm away and turned his attention back to the computer screen on his desk. Storm took this as her cue to leave, and turned toward the door. But as she reached the threshold, she turned to look at the mayor one last time. She had come up here to find out information about the President’s visit, but all she’d managed to do was get a glimpse of how proud the mayor was of his new tablets. She had to at least try to get some information that would help her before heading back downstairs.

“Uh, so, I heard we have a big, important visitor next week,” Storm said, trying to keep her voice casual. She plastered what she hoped was a teasing, flirtatious smile on her face.

The mayor looked up at her, surprised, and then let out a long sigh before shaking his head in frustration again. “John must have told you, eh? I swear, that man cannot keep a secret. I don’t know how he ever managed to get any kind of security clearance. Yeah, the President’s coming. Keep quiet about it, though, okay? We don’t want too many people to find out and start trying to get an in to get a selfie with him or other nonsense like that.”

“Right, of course. My lips are sealed,” Storm said. She made a zipping motion across her lips, and the mayor seemed pleased with her response.

“Good girl,” he said. “I suppose John also told you why he’s coming, eh?”

Storm shrugged. “You know John. He trusts me with everything. He did mention the eye scanners.”

Storm held her breath, waiting to see how the mayor would respond. Storm hadn’t talked to John in weeks, but the mayor didn’t know that. Storm only hoped that she was right about the reason for the President’s visit.

The mayor rolled his eyes. “I need to have a discussion with John about his blabbermouth. But, anyway, yeah, the eye scanners. We’re hoping they’ll be done before the President gets here so we can show them off. This is gonna be what history remembers me for, Storm. I’m saving humanity here!”

The mayor pounded his desktop, and Storm jumped. She forced a smile on her face.

“Very impressive, sir,” she said, swallowing back the taste of bile that was filling her mouth.

The mayor nodded, then waved his hand again, dismissing her. “Thank you, Storm. Definitely don’t mention the scanners to anyone, either.”

Storm nodded, and stepped out into the hallway, letting the door close behind her. She took a few deep breaths to steady her racing heart, then rushed back to the stairwell to head back to her cubicle. Now she had to figure out how to hand this tablet off to John without raising his suspicions about why she ended up with it. And she had to figure out how to actually concentrate on work for the rest of the day.

As soon as the stairwell door closed behind her, Storm sat down on the first step and took several deep breaths. This was all really happening. The shifter-scanners were moving forward, and the President was apparently on board with this. Time was ticking down. It wouldn’t be long now until everyone at the office found out she was a shifter. It wouldn’t be long now until the whole nation got behind a movement to eliminate shifters. Storm wanted to be optimistic, but she knew how these things went. People feared what they didn’t understand. And the Mayor and President would make sure that shifters were misunderstood.

Storm took in another deep breath and glanced down at the tablet, then widened her eyes. The screen was still unlocked! The mayor had never re-locked it, and apparently the automatic lock was either disabled or was set to only trigger after a significant amount of time. Right there on the screen in front of her was a document full of gibberish. Storm had no idea what it said, but she had no doubt that Grant could decode it.

Her heart did a quick flip-flop when she thought of Grant, but she quickly pushed away her own feelings. This wasn’t the time to deal with her own emotions. She needed to find a way to record this information before the screen locked itself. Storm glanced around for security cameras. There was a camera aimed toward the door, but there didn’t appear to be any other cameras in the stairwell. The government probably figured that being able to see who entered and exited a stairwell was good enough. Storm was in one of the only spots in the entire building right now that wasn’t under surveillance. Quickly, she whipped her phone out of her pocket and opened the camera app.