Page 4 of Redeemed Wolf (Grim Wilds #4)

Chapter 4

Silas

“Hey, you’re back.” The same guard was at the gate, grinning wide this time. He’d dropped his stern persona, leaning one hand on the doorframe of my car. He had a dark beard, thick but kept short and tidy, and while he probably had a few extra pounds on him, he looked to be packed with muscle. He was no donut-eating slacker. “I guess that means the interview went well.”

I tried to match his enthusiasm, but I wasn’t really good at playing buddy-buddy. “Yep. Looks like I’m here to stay.”

He handed me the visitor’s pass, explaining that I would have my photo taken today for my permanent ID.

“Name’s Greg. If you wanna get to know everybody, the guards meet for drinks on Friday nights. You should come, make some friends.”

“Sure, that sounds great. How many other guards are there?” I asked, fishing casually for information.

“Only about half a dozen of the daytime staff will come out with us. The others go home to their families or whatnot.” Greg rolled his eyes, telling me he was probably single. He promised to tell me more tonight after my shift, and I headed in.

The rat-man was back, still as stiff and chilly as he had been that first day. This time, he introduced himself as Nathan Randall, daytime manager of Apex Labs. He had me sit down with some forms that he called “standard” paperwork, and I had to wrack my brain to make sure I got all these basic questions right, according to my backstory.

After he’d printed up my new employee ID, he paused before handing it to me. “This job is on a trial basis,” he explained stiffly. “We will reassess your job performance in one month’s time.”

“Sure thing,” I said, grinning so hard it hurt. I hadn’t smiled this much in years.

He did not smile back. “Please, come this way.”

We had just stepped out into the hall when I caught sight of Dr. Taylor coming our way. “Ah! There you are.”

Nathan grunted. “I was just about to take him on a tour of the facility.”

“Oh, no need. You’re a busy man. Nathan, you head back to take care of that project. I’ll show Silas around.”

“If you’re sure, sir.” Nathan looked between us for a moment, a crease forming between his brows as he glared once at me, then he turned and headed away, presumably to work on whatever project they’d been referring to. My curiosity pinged, and I had to bite down an itch to ask about it.

Instead, I turned to Eric and smiled. “Lead the way.”

We wandered through hallways that all looked the same, and I was sure I would get lost at some point. The place didn’t seem all that large, though. The entire time, I kept trying to scent shifters on the air, but I found nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, I’d started to wonder if this was the right place.

“So… what kind of stuff do you guys do here?” I asked, trying to make it sound like an innocent question. “You don’t have any Ebola virus or anything, right?”

Eric chuckled. “No, nothing like that. We work in pharmaceuticals.” Well, that was a vague answer if I’d ever heard one.

I nodded. “Sure, that’s cool. As long as I don’t have to worry about fighting off any bioterrorists or anything.”

His smile grew tight. “I won’t lie and tell you there’s no risk in the job, but we’ll want to get you trained in firearms this week and apply for all the appropriate permits. Our guards are armed here.” As if I hadn’t noticed.

“Don’t worry. I know my way around guns.”

His eyes flicked to mine. “Right. You said your father was in the Army?”

“Exactly. He taught me himself.” All part of the lie, but I didn’t like thinking about my real family. The fake parents were so much better.

Eric showed me the breakroom and where I would be stationed at one corner of the facility near an emergency exit, but otherwise, I couldn’t see anything worth guarding here. He said they were in pharmaceuticals, but there were no labs, no scientists of any kind.

The only thing even remotely out of the ordinary was when we walked past a solid metal door, locked with a card reader and a keypad, and something that looked like a scanner of some kind. As we walked past, I felt an uncomfortable tingling sensation in my chest. I rubbed at my sternum absently, and as we moved on, it faded to nothing more than a remembered sense of pressure.

There was something important behind that door, but apparently, it wasn’t part of the tour.

Eric left me at the desk that would be my station going forward, with another guard named Melissa, because apparently, we all worked in pairs. She was shorter than I was by almost a foot, and couldn’t have weighed much more than an acorn, but there was something hard about her that said not to fuck with her. She was used to being underestimated. I liked her immediately.

She trained me for the rest of the day, explaining that we would take turns walking a circuit of the halls every 15 minutes, before logging it on a clipboard. That was pretty much it. That was the entirety of my new job. Walking and sitting, and presumably reporting anything out of the norm.

“Have you ever had to use that thing?” I asked Melissa, nodding at the pistol holstered at her hip.

“Nah,” she said, shaking her head. “But one of our other labs was broken into once, and apparently it was pretty awful, so if worse comes to worst, you’ll be glad you have it. Just in case.”

“Right… just in case.” I leaned back in my cheap plastic chair, the metal legs creaking. “What would someone want to steal from a pharmaceutical company?”

“How should I know? They don’t pay me to ask questions.” The guarded look she gave me made me think she knew more than she was letting on.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, and on the way out, I exchanged phone numbers with Greg at the gate, with the promise that I would come out with the other staff on Friday. It was a good thing, because I hadn’t learned anything important today, and I knew the staff might be more likely to spill some classified information after they’d had a drink or two.

I had to bide my time, but much like when my wolf was hunting, I was not known for my patience. Maybe I was the wrong man for the job after all.

Pacey was sitting at the kitchen table when I walked in, eating a bowl of cereal. I could smell the artificial colors from here. “How was your first day?” he asked.

“Meh. It’s a job. Didn’t learn much, but at least the pay’s alright. I like my co-workers. They’ve been working there for years, and I know they’ve got a lot to teach me.”

We’d be stuck talking in code just in case my phone was bugged. I couldn’t return to the woods from this point on, because we had to assume I was being followed. Pacey would leave the apartment to relay messages to Shan from his burner phone, but I wasn’t sure how I could describe the locked door. Or that strange pressure I’d felt.

My fingers strayed to rub at my chest where I’d felt the weird sensation. I wonder what it was…

There was something going on at that lab, I had no doubt, but for now, we were playing a waiting game, and hopefully with time, it would pay off.

The entire week passed in much the same way, walking and sitting, chatting with Melissa. When Friday rolled around, I was looking forward to having a drink just for a change in the monotony. Was this what being a human was like? It was mind-numbingly boring. How could they stand it?

I hadn’t found many pros to life in the city. It was overly loud and bright, it stank, and the food was all too salty, sweet, or greasy. Sometimes all three at once.

I sat wedged into the corner of the bar’s vinyl-covered booth. My skin prickled being in such close proximity to these strangers, and when I leaned my forearms on the table, I found the surface sticky.

“First round’s on me,” Greg said, slapping me on the back before sliding out. “Pick your poison.”

“Uh, just a beer’s good. Thanks,” I tacked on as an afterthought. I wasn’t used to needing manners.

It didn’t matter what I ordered. It wasn’t like any of what they had to offer would get me drunk. For that, I needed the drink to be laced with wolfsbane, but I didn’t think this was the type of place to cater to my kind. Then again… The bartender was definitely a shifter. He had a strong, musky scent to him that laced itself through the myriad aromas—beer, body odor, pheromones, and greasy bar food. My guess was puma, based on his tan hair and amber eyes, but it could’ve been another large cat breed, I wasn’t certain.

As Greg wove his way through the crowd to the counter to place our order, the bartender met my gaze. He raised an eyebrow in question, and I nodded. Maybe I’d get a real drink after all.

“So, how do you like the job so far?” a mousy-looking man with wire-rimmed glasses asked. “Think you’ll stick around?” He’d introduced himself as Felix. He worked in accounting, the only one at the table who wasn’t a guard, but he seemed to have been adopted by the rough crew.

“Yeah, it’s all right. Why do you ask, don’t people stick around?”

He exchanged a look with Melissa on my other side. “Oh, no reason. Every job has its turnaround.”

I grunted in reply, doubtful. Before I could ask him to elaborate, though, Greg came back to the table, the bartender right behind him with a tray of drinks.

“You’re new here,” the bartender said, looking right at me as he distributed the drinks around our table. “You working up at the lab?”

“Yeah. I’m sure you’ll be seeing a lot more of me.” I smiled, but it held a sharp edge of warning. Did this guy know what was going on at the lab just down the road?

“My name’s Mike, and this is my bar. You’re welcome anytime. Your first drink’s on the house.” He passed me a glass mug of beer, and I could smell the earthy herbal hint of wolfsbane under the hops.

My smile turned appreciative, and I raised the glass in a toast. “Much obliged.”

Halfway through my third drink, things had started to turn liquid around the edges. It was nice to relax for the first time all week, but I reminded myself to be mindful of what I said.

I wasn’t the only one feeling a little loose. I’d lost count of how many drinks had been consumed around the table, and while it seemed like Greg could hold his liquor, the other two were lightweights.

Felix had started to slide low on the bench, and Melissa leaned her head on my shoulder, sighing. “So… I might’ve applied for some other jobs.”

“What?” Greg choked on his sip of beer and smacked his glass down on the table.

Felix let out a long whine. “Noooo, you can’t leave us.”

Melissa shook her head slowly, lolling back and forth. “I have to. I can’t do it anymore.”

“Why not?” I asked, my focus sharpening. “The pay seems pretty good to me.”

“You don’t know,” she slurred, and her eyes slipped closed. “I’ve seen things, heard things… They’re not good people.”

“Mel,” Greg barked, and Melissa gasped sharply, dragging herself up to sitting.

She blinked a few times as if just realizing where she was. “I’m drunk,” she finally said, as if that were explanation enough. Then she nudged me to slide out of the way. “Move, I gotta pee.”

“What did she mean?” I asked once she’d disappeared down the hall to the bathrooms. “What has she seen?”

“Nothing,” Greg said, leveling me with a hard look. “None of us have seen or heard anything. Got it?”

“Yeah. I got it,” I said without hesitation.

I knew exactly what these people were capable of.