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Her green eyes scanned the visibly annoyed Aydan and she took a step back.

“Sorry!” she squealed. “The door was open and you said–”

I waved her apology away. “What is it? It’s clearly important.”

I couldn’t help but rake my eyes down her body. She preened a bit, picking up on the attention and clearly enjoying it.

Succubi.

Aydan rolled his eyes.

“What can I do for you?” I asked again.

Thea jolted, as if remembering she had, in fact, stormed into my office for a reason.

“Oh! Right. Diana dropped by?—”

My interest was immediately piqued. The descendant of Aphrodite was a hell of a lookeranda good fuck. Whereas Thea was simply...desperate.

“—not sure what you want to do with her.” Thea leaned back and grabbed something, yanking a woman none-too-gently through the threshold of my office.

I tried to focus on the frumpy woman pushed before me, disheveled and irritated.Dianahad brought her to me?

Usually she had much better taste.

Though, perhaps more was hiding underneath that large sweater. Her curves were obvious enough—thick thighs in worn jeans, generous hips, messy brown hair piled on top of her head. Brown eyes glared at me from a flushed face. Nothing particularly remarkable or worth a second glance.

A witch.

Unbonded, but her magick was oddly erratic, and familiar to me. Odd.

“You’re supposed to hire her,” Thea supplied helpfully.

My eyes narrowed. “Why?”

Aydan gathered up his graphs and other papers, knowing he’d lost my focus and attention. “To hire her, didn’t you hear?” he snapped.

He pushed past Thea and the new girl, in a proper huff. I’d likely have to make it up to him somehow later, or whatever I’d hoped to save of my quota would be a distant hope.

“Dianasaidso.” Aydan smirked and made himself scarce.

I burned at the reminder of my indentured servitude to the descendant of the goddess of love—never bet it all in Santa Monica after thirteen shots with the triplet great-great-great whatevers of Dionysus.

“Well, if that’s all...” Thea slunk away, eyeing the new girl like she was fresh meat.

I waited until the sound of her heels clicking down the hallway faded completely, and tried to smile. Judging from the way this new witch slowly blinked at me, that smile probably came out as more of a grimace.

“Sit,” I said, pointing to the single chair in front of my desk.

She stared at me for a moment, then sat primly with pursed lips.

Interesting. Diana had clearly thrown the poor girl into the lion’s den without any kind of explanation on who I was, or who she was. Well, I could have fun with that, couldn’t I?

My mood perked up immediately.

“Miss...” I raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to elaborate. Usually one smolder from me had a woman in a little puddle all over my office.

Her arms crossed over her chest as she skeptically eyed my office. “So...what exactly do you do here?”