H.A.

7

As soon as the presentation was done, I was out the door and to the front desk, the presentation had gone slightly over time and so I found Noël just as she was leaving her post.

She chuckled and let me take her arm as I guided her to the hotel restaurant.

"You're eager to go to get food," she joked and I glanced at her before lightly shaking my head.

"No, I'm eager to get away from a certain someone..." I said, but then laughed when my stomach made an obviously hungry sound. "Well, seems I'm hungry as well..."

"No kidding... is it the man from this morning, I can call hotel security if he's bothering you..." I glanced at her again but shook my head.

"No you don't have to do that, it's not at that level... at all" I whispered the last part.

"Oh... is he perhaps... your mate then?" I stopped short and she ran right into me. I sniffed the air. No, she was definitely human. Turning around, I saw her face was white as a sheet and she backed up a few steps before looking down.

"He is, but what...?"

She visibly relaxed at my soft tone and her cheeks regained colour, turning a bright red. She looked back up and at my questioning look opened her mouth to explain but a crowd of people from the conference hall made their way through the corridor and I tugged her to the cafeteria before all the good spots would be occupied.

We took a seat in the far corner of the room, where we had our backs to the wall and could observe other people while we discussed quietly.

"So..." I asked unsure when we were seated comfortably and had ordered our food. "Can I ask why you called him that?" Noël flushed again but nodded anyway.

"I'm guessing you ask that because I'm human and should be oblivious to the existence of 'werewolves'?"

"'Wolf shifters' but yeah..." I interjected but gave her a nod and she continued.

"My uncle is a 'wolf shifter', and so is one of his daughters, my cousin..." I nodded again.

"You... you sometimes move weirdly..." I lifted my brow at that and she shook her head nervously, "I mean fast, really fast, like one minute you're there and the next you're gone... then I remembered you said you lived in a community and I thought maybe..."

"Hmm well if you already know about it there's no point in hiding it..."

"So he's your mate?" she asked curiously and I groaned at the way her eyes lit up.

"Yes and you're probably a hopeless romantic."

"Mais bien sûr!" she grinned at me then she seemed to remember something. "So... you're an 'alpha'?" she was wholly engrossed by my kind I could see.

"You seem to know an awful lot about us..."

"Hopeless romantic remember, I devour wolf novels for breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper and midnight-snack." She replied with a huge cat-grin.

"I seem to remember you devour disgusting French-cheese sandwiches for dinner..." I teased and she huffed. Our food arrived and the rest of the meal was spent pleasantly chatting.

ΩΩΩΩΩ

The afternoon went by fast, Noël kept me company the whole time and when dinner arrived and the reception began I introduced her to some company representatives and business entrepreneurs as she jokingly called them behind their back, all the while feeling his eyes on my back. He seemed to be watching my every move ever since morning but I ignored it.

Why the change? Could he have changed his mind? About what? Dating me? Even though he had a fiancé, could I date him, knowing he's a cheater? No there's no telling if he would even consider that. Would he? Would I? I felt his presence getting closer and realised Noël had left my side to get our drinks refilled. My body tensed before I turned around to face him. He looked surprised as I turned, but steadily continued towards me.

He came to a stop in front of me and looked me in the eyes. Just as he opened his mouth to say something I took a step closer to him then whispered, barely audible, "My apologies, SIR, as you seem to be engaged, I will not bother you with my presence any longer." He didn't move as I stepped past him and joined Noël who was nervously hovering about.

I was grateful when Noël, who knew about Connor, dragged me to the other side of the room and introduced me to her professor, though he didn't seem to know her. After she told him she was one of his students, they got engaged in an animated discussion about social media and I stood there thoughts wandering. I overheard Connor as he agreed to go drinking with his peers and felt him leave half an hour later.

ΩΩΩΩΩ

At one in the morning I was awoken by my phone. Looking at the screen - it was an unknown number - I blocked the number and went back to sleep. Half an hour later I was woken again, this time it was the professor. I picked up the call and turned on the night lamp.

"Professor, it's the middle of the night..."

"Ah miss De Bourgh, sorry for calling you so late... or early... it's just, there's been a man calling for you here at the office, he sounded drunk... I told him you were not in but he keeps calling back... if you could call him or something... he said you know him? Uhm... O'Brian? He had an accent."

I groaned inwardly and sighed. "Yeah, I know him, can you give me his number?"

He rambled of the number that'd called me a while ago, I thanked him, wished him good luck with the rowdy first-year students he was about to 'brainwash' and hung up. Sitting up I dialled the number and waited the tone went over a few times then it went to voicemail. I hung up frowning at the screen. A persistent buzz shook me out of my musings. It was the unknown number again. I let it go over a few times before picking up.

"... Mr O'Brian?" I called out after a long silence. It stayed quiet and I was about to hang up. Maybe he'd fallen asleep.

"... Adalyn..." his voice sounded anguished and he let out a moan-like noise before I heard something crash and the phone clattered on the ground before disconnecting. I sighed and stood before grabbing the dressing-gown from the chair near the bed and slipped into my flip-flops. Making sure to lock my door I went down to the third floor and went to his room.

He opened the door almost immediately after I knocked. His rigid frame gave him the appearance of soberness as he leaned his hand against the doorframe. He looked at me intensely and I gulped mentally. As soon as he let go of the doorpost he stumbled forward, revealing his drunkenness. I stepped forward and helped him steady. He looked up again and again took me in with that intense gaze.

______

Next chapter will be private again due to... you'll see.