Page 9 of Forsaken Desire (Ruthless Wolves #1)

I crouched at my locker on the bottom row and stuffed my coat inside. The uniform fit me perfectly, hugging my ass with ease. I’d never felt anything so soft as the material against my skin. It was like I was being enveloped by silk.

The lock clicked shut, and I straightened, using the lockers to keep my balance in the unsteady heels.

It was a good thing Lucian had brought me to work because the downpour of rain this morning was crazy, and his luxurious car with its seat warmers was life-altering.

The buttery interior was simply to die for—but the ride also proved to me that he was very well-off in whatever job he held.

I still hadn’t asked, but I was mustering up the strength.

It wasn’t like he would be cruel to me about it.

He was my mate. It was against our makeup to be mean to each other, and if he did, it would mean he truly did not like me.

Fortunately, he hadn’t been cruel or rude to me. He didn’t speak down to me, nothing. He seemed particularly aggressive sometimes, but we descended from wolves. Aggression was a given, so I understood the roughness, and I kind of liked it.

My heels clicked on the linoleum as I exited the locker room and passed by some of my coworkers dressed in various uniforms from the hotel, but no one paid me any mind. My shift was solely training today, so I would follow Karol around and learn the lay of the land.

As soon as I stepped into the main hall, carpet stretched across the floor, muffling my steps.

“There you are,” Karol said, rushing over to me. She was already dressed in her uniform. “I was waiting near Wilbert’s window, but you must have walked by while I went to the bathroom. Thank you so much for taking the towels to room 201. Like seriously, you saved my life.”

“It was no big deal.”

“Yes, girl, it was. He would have had me fired like this.” She snapped her fingers. Her animated expression was much more open than yesterday, and I didn’t want to stop her from lowering her walls by telling her that he ended up being my mate. I stifled my smile.

“Is your daughter okay?”

“Good, fortunately, I think her teacher exaggerated a bit.” She rolled her eyes. “But she’s going to a human school, so she doesn’t know she’s sturdier than she looks.”

She said it like there was another option.

“Are there schools for those like us?”

“Oh yes, Alpha set all that up a while ago for anyone who had children with shifting issues.” She shrugged. “But you know, we live in the human world, we’re integrated, so it's best to start them early.”

“The Alpha doesn’t sound too bad.” Hopefully, he would be lenient with me, too.

“Eh.” Karol cleared her throat. “I mean, he does his job as Alpha and keeps pack members safe. He provides a harbor, but I think your statement is a stretch. The man is a bit crazy.”

“Oh . . . fun.” I wrinkled my nose. That didn’t sound as promising. She propped the door open for me, and then we were crossing the lobby.

“You could say that.” She laughed. We approached Ms. Zhao, and she pierced me with a dark, searching gaze. I forced the corners of my lips up, and she turned to Karol.

“She will shadow you today, Karol. Show her the system and the login procedures.”

“Yes, ma’am,” she replied in a professional tone, losing any emotion from earlier. Ms. Zhao gave me another look as she walked away.

Karol waited until she disappeared.

“I know she’s human, but she scares me.”

I snorted and followed her behind the granite counter.

The girl to the left gave me a derisive look and turned back to her computer.

Another two girls on her other side were concentrated on phone calls as they spoke in a high-pitched, extra-friendly tone.

That customer service voice was going to be a challenge for me.

Karol pulled out a drawer beneath her keyboard, and her cell came into sight.

“I thought we couldn’t bring our phones?”

“Pft, don’t stress, just make sure you store it here and don’t let Zhao see it out and you’ll be fine.”

Oh. I was so used to following instructions and following them to a tee, but now I had more choice. “This is the first time I’ve seen you smile.”

I quickly smoothed my expression out, but the giddiness didn’t stop.

I’d left my new sage-colored cell phone in the locker.

I loved the color so much, especially since it came from him.

Lucian told me I could call or text him whenever I wanted, and he would be available. I was looking forward to testing that.

A rolling bag echoed through the lobby, and a human approached the desk.

“The check-in rush is about to start. Just watch me and make note of any questions you want to ask me later.”

And that was what I did, I watched her go through customers and check them in with ease and a smile, even the curt asshole ones. I was used to ignoring that sort of behavior, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.

The line eventually dwindled as time ticked on. The monitor stated an hour and a half had passed, yet it’d felt like nothing.

“Finally,” the girl beside us groused with a sneer on her face. She turned the other direction to talk to the other two girls.

“Ignore the three of them, they always get like this with new girls. Galina is a chosen mate, so you’ll see her around often. The other two are Sasha and Jun. They’re also pack members.” Except the last two were clearly wolves based on their scent.

“But Galina is human.” I kept my voice low.

“Yeah, it happens.” Karol shrugged.

“Why are you talking about shifter stuff with an outsider?” Sasha suddenly whirled mid-conversation. “Karol, you need to be careful.”

Karol dropped her eyes immediately.

“She’s a shifter too, Sasha.”

The pale girl approached me, breathing in pointedly as she pinned me with her stare. I met her glare, and the corners pinched slightly as if she didn’t like that, it was made clearer by the flaring of her nostrils.

“You shouldn’t look a shifter more dominant than you in the eyes.” She encroached on my space, which I really didn’t like. “Are you new to the pack?” My neck tensed, and my teeth crunched together as I stilled at the challenge. “Where did you come from?”

I kept my lips firmly shut. One, I didn’t owe her an answer, and two, I didn’t know because I had yet to meet the Alpha and ask him to join the pack.

Her eyelids thinned, and she growled. Aggression marred every line of her body.

My hands fisted, and I waited for her attack. I could take a beating, but I could also give it back.

“Ladies.”

Sasha immediately whirled to the calm female voice and lowered her eyes.

“Yes,” she whispered and backed off.

With the respect she was giving her, the woman must be a pack dominant based on the power beating against my skin, second to the Alpha if I were to guess from the girls’ reactions.

I took a moment to collect myself before turning to the talk to the lithe woman.

Her black hair fell in lush waves, curling around her shoulders.

The shade slightly lighter at the ends, as though it had once been dyed. She had slim, doll-like features.

She gave off Snow White vibes.

Deceptive since she’d likely tear my head off if I went at her.

My aggression rose to the surface despite the dominance I felt coming from her, and I clenched and unclenched my hands to release some of the energy coursing through my limbs. Her heels clicked on the tile as she rounded the barrier.

“Behaving this way presents an image we should not have.” The threat was clear in her tone, even though it remained steady.

The girls straightened to the point I worried they would snap in two. I lifted my gaze to meet hers, curious about the second strongest werewolf in the pack I hoped to join. She met my gaze, and her eyebrow twitched.

“Is this the female you told me about, Karol?”

“Yes.”

The woman hummed, still glaring at me. She kept staring me down like she expected something of me. I frowned, wanting to figure out her expression, but I dropped my eyes to her mouth and lowered my head.

“You’re a weak wolf,” she murmured.

What was that supposed to mean? It seethed with insult, and as much as I wanted to scowl at her, I kept my expression rigid.

If she were one of the three dominants surrounding the Alpha, I didn’t want to risk having her naysay me being an addition to the pack, especially since, according to Karol, she controlled that.

I bit back the frustration. If one dominant didn’t like me, I had no chance at getting into this pack. I’d need to find another job and apartment. I hadn’t the slightest clue where I would go.

“I will let you know when my Alpha is available.” There was a certain possession in her tone. Her eyes dropped to the rest of my uniform, and her expression became taut when she reached my shoes.

“Those heels are hideous.”

She didn’t allow me a response before she dismissively turned away.

“Thank you?” I trailed off, my words low. She left, her fancy shoes glinting under the chandelier lighting. They did seem much sturdier than mine.

“No freaking way she already doesn’t like you.” Karol’s fingers dug into my arm, and I frowned as her expressive eyes bounced from the back of the dominant to my face. “There’s another girl she hates in our pack. Likely because she’s a human, but I think you topped her hatred for that girl.”

Lucky me.

My mouth wouldn’t function to formulate my response. I still reeled. The other girls stared at me, judgment in their eyes. Lack of knowledge was a surefire way to get a target painted on my back, so I shrugged, turning the conversation to something else.

“She’s the one Alpha is going to mate with?”

“Yeah, and I think that got to her head.” Karol sighed.

“Many pack members go to her before the Alpha because they’re terrified of him.”

Sasha scoffed. “Because he’s psycho.”

“He’s not known for his patience . . . or kindness . . . or anything positive, other than keeping order,” Karol said with a wince.

“And getting what he wants.”

“Doesn’t mean you wouldn’t fuck him, Sasha,” Galina sniped, rolling her eyes.

“For your information, I have fucked him. Just not recently because I don’t want Cierra to tear my head off.” She scowled. “She warned me away from him.”

“Cierra is the delightful dominant wolf you just met,” Karol whispered as the other two quipped back and forth.

This Alpha sounded like a threat, and not one I wanted to be near, but it was sounding like Cierra kept things running. I could handle her sneering and haughty personality just fine.

Tate had told me the most about the hierarchies, everything I must have known before my memory loss.

All that information was new to me. Per pack, there was only one Alpha, then followed his top three dominant wolves, then it was the rest of us wolves.

The neutral pack members who fell within the hierarchy within that line of dominance.

It seemed like a jumbled mess, but it wasn’t so bad when an Alpha allowed off-pack-land living like this one did.

When I got Karol alone, I would ask about her position—and Lucian!

I still didn’t know where in the hierarchy he fell.

Giddiness exploded in my stomach. To expel some of the restless energy working its way through my belly, I returned to the desk to line the documents in a near-orderly pile. I couldn’t wait to see my mate.

The doors behind us swung, and Ms. Zhao appeared. Her gaze settled on me.

“Go on your break, Ms. Garcia.”

“Already?” Karol asked, frowning. It seemed soon to me, too.

“Run along, child.”

I exchanged a look with Karol as I backed away from the desk. At least I could get my phone sooner than I’d anticipated.

Once I walked through the swinging doors leading to the back, I picked up my pace. Lucian might have already texted and would be waiting for my response?—

A stern grip caught my waist and yanked me through a threshold into the dark. I gasped, stiffening against the harsh tug.