Page 7 of Briggs (Paranormal Council Enforcers #16)

Todd

I t wasn’t unusual for me to run to the council building to grab to-go boxes for our lunch.

What was though, was for Dr. King to join me.

He’d done that all week, and I knew it was because of what I’d shared with him Monday morning.

It was just so unusual to eat with my boss.

It wasn’t that Dr. King wasn’t nice—he was.

But he’d been a bit…I wouldn’t say clingy lately, but, well, more attentive? Was that it?

It didn’t matter. Well, it did, but it shouldn’t.

Dr. King was my boss, and I knew he really just wanted me to stop messing things up so his office would go back to running smoothly.

I knew he missed Cecil tremendously. Every time he’d been in here, Dr. King had asked about him and if he was ready to come back.

Even after I’d started working in the clinic.

And really, I couldn’t blame him. Cecil knew everything about computers.

He was amazing with the customers, and Dr. King’s office had run smoothly when he’d been here.

When it had been decided that I might be a fit, I was willing to give it a try.

But I’d not realized just how much knowing all about computers the job entailed.

I pulled the back door of the clinic open and heard Dr. King on the phone.

I didn’t know if it was a personal or work call, but it didn’t matter to me either way.

I entered the clinic’s break room and set our boxes down on the table before I went to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water.

I was already eating my sandwich when Dr. King came into the break room.

He glanced at the other box before looking over at the counter.

“You don’t have to eat with me. You didn’t use to before this week. I understand, and you shouldn’t feel obligated to have a meal with me.” It had been a bit uncomfortable at first, but I’d grown to relax a bit more around Dr. King.

“I was looking for tea,” he said. As he sat, a steaming mug of tea suddenly appeared on the table in front of him.

It must be incredibly nice to be able to do magic such as that.

If I’d had magical abilities as he did, I wouldn’t have been taken.

Or even if I had, I would have been able to get away and rescue the others who had been there with me.

Sadly, I didn’t, and we’d all endured terror for years.

“Your aura just turned blue. Why are you sad? Do you want to talk about it?”

My hand froze, the sandwich halfway to my mouth. “What do you mean?” I asked as I set the sandwich back in the to-go box.

“Your aura spends a lot of time orange, which indicates frustration and anger. That is understandable since you are often frustrated with the computer. Blue is a somewhat new color.”

“You can see my emotions?”

Dr. King tilted his head to the side. “Todd, I’m a warlock. An older one at that. Yes, I can see your emotions. I’m not a shifter and cannot scent the changes as you can.”

“Oh. I guess I’ve not ever thought about that.” That was interesting. A new thought occurred. “Can you see other things? Like, through walls?”

Dr. King chuckled. “I can see auras through them, yes. I don’t go walking through the neighborhoods and peek in on people though. It is an unwritten rule to not abuse our power. That is one of them.”

I nodded, but when Dr. King raised an eyebrow at me, I sighed.

“I was thinking about being back in that cage in Mexico.” I waited, and when Dr. King just stared at me, I grumbled a bit.

“I saw you magically produce tea, and I was thinking that if I’d been born a warlock instead of a cheetah, I either wouldn’t have been taken, or I would have been able to get myself and the others out of there, and we wouldn’t have had to go through what we did. ”

“That might be true, but it’s possible that you would have still suffered the same fate.

They gave you something to keep you from shifting, no?

” I nodded. “That same drug, whatever it was, could have very well been used to keep a warlock from using his magical powers.” Dr. King shook his head.

“Trust me when I say I wish nobody ever had to suffer because of others’ actions.

Sadly, we live in a world where that isn’t the case. ”

Before I could respond though, there was a loud knock at the back door.

That was unusual because everyone used the front door.

The only people who ever used the back door were Dr. King and me or Dr. Rothwell when he was here helping.

I became a bit concerned when the knocking continued, only getting louder as it went on.

“Stay here,” Dr. King said. I nodded.

Dr. King went to see what was so urgent. It wasn’t as if the front door wasn’t unlocked. The only time the clinic was actually locked was when we went home for the day. I had a key code for the door, and of course, Dr. King could access the building at any time as well.

The knocking stopped, and although I could hear voices, I was a bit too far away to understand the words that were being spoken.

A moment later, I heard footsteps, but not just one set of them.

Dr. King came back into the break room, and there was a quiet growl behind him.

Dr. King froze, turned, and pointed his finger.

“That stops now.”

I still couldn’t see who it was, but my cheetah was on edge. I knew I was safe here, but the fact that someone was growling in the clinic caused a bit of panic.

“Sorry,” the voice said. At the sound of the stranger’s voice, my cheetah had a completely different reaction.

“Todd, I believe that you and Briggs here need to have a discussion about certain things.”

I slowly stood. “Have I done something wrong?” I didn’t know who Briggs was, but I had to assume he was a fairly safe person since he was here on Treasure Ridge.

Dr. King chuckled. “No, Todd. You’ve done nothing wrong. It’s not anything negative that Briggs and you will be discussing.”

In that moment, the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen stepped around Dr. King.

The first thing I noticed was his eyes. They were a crystal blue and looked like gemstones.

His hair was sandy brown, curly and messy on top.

He had a short beard, which was something I’d never found attractive before, but on this man—on Briggs—it was sexy.

He was tall, had wide shoulders, and was definitely muscular.

I heard chuckling, and it took me a moment to realize that I was staring and being completely rude. I managed to break my stare and looked to Dr. King, who was smiling.

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “Staring is rude. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“I don’t mind. In fact, it gives me a bit of hope for things to come.”

I glanced up at Briggs’s words. “What do you mean?”

“You haven’t come into the room enough yet,” Dr. King said. “Maybe if you get a little bit closer, he’ll be able to scent you.”

I glanced between Dr. King and Briggs, completely lost about what they were talking about.

That was, until Briggs smiled and did exactly what Dr. King had suggested.

When he stepped closer, I was able to scent him completely.

My cheetah knew immediately, but it took my human brain a bit longer to catch up.

When it did, my eyes widened, and I sat back down slowly and shook my head.

Briggs’s smile slowly fell from his face. “You’re shaking your head. No what?”

I shook my head a bit harder before I glanced up at Dr. King. “I can’t have a mate,” I told him. “You know what I’m like.”

Dr. King offered a gentle smile for me before he turned to Briggs. “Briggs, if you would wait for me in my office just across the hall, please?”

Briggs looked as if he wanted to argue, but after a moment of looking back and forth between the two of us, he nodded once and walked away.

I could only watch him go, and when he was out of sight, I relaxed, but my cheetah yowled in my mind.

Briggs was our mate! Why now? Sure, I wanted my mate, but I knew I wasn’t ready for a mate.

“Todd, tell me what you’re thinking.”

Dr. King was sitting across from me again, and I shook my head.

“I can’t have a mate,” I said quietly. “I’m broken.

I barricade myself in my bedroom at night.

Well, I used to. But what if…he’s going to want to claim me.

What if I can’t do that? You know…that part of things?

And what about my cheetah? What if I shift in the middle of the night and I hurt him? ”

Dr. King smiled. “First, Briggs is an enforcer, so I’m sure that if you shift in the middle of the night, he and his wolf will be all right.

Second, they say that we are sent our mates when we need them most. Perhaps having Briggs at your side to navigate through things will help you, not cause issue? ”

I thought about that for a moment. “He’s so gorgeous,” I whispered. Then I realized what I’d said and peered at Dr. King with wide eyes. “I said that out loud, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did. But that is all right. He’s your mate, and you are supposed to feel that way toward him. Would you like to go across the hallway and talk to him? Or I could have him come back in here?”

Did I want that? Possibly. But I was trying to be honest with myself.

I knew I couldn’t offer Briggs all that he was expecting from finding out I was his mate.

I was certain I could have sex with the alpha.

Well, maybe. I’d started having dreams of that sort several months ago.

I knew my body was ready for sexual pleasure, but the rest of me?

“Can I talk to him? Do you think he’ll understand?”

“You absolutely should talk to him,” Dr. King said. “He’s an enforcer, and he knows things have happened to others that are here on Treasure Ridge. I’m not sure what all he knows about you, other than you are an omega that happens to be his mate and you work here in the omega clinic.”