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Thank Heaven for understanding women. The receptionist’s interest was clearly piqued, but at least she made no move to pick up the phone as Ashley went back to the elevator. She stepped off at the top floor and made her way quickly to Raf’s office, but as she raised her hand to knock, she heard a crash from inside the office and jumped. What was he doing in there?
Listening carefully, she could make out the sound of his voice, rising and falling like he was having a conversation with someone—or maybe with himself, she couldn’t tell—but no one else was audible. Steeling herself for a less than pleasant welcome, she opened the door and strode into the office, coming to an abrupt halt as she saw Raf; shirtless, muscular, and his skin a more luminous shade that his usual pale brown, he flung a folder off his desk.
"What?" he yelled, then looked up to meet her eyes and they both froze.
Raf’s eyes were solid, brilliant gold in color, and the turn of his body showed something that had hidden in the shadows behind him at first—wings. Dumbfounded, she stared at him as he stood there with gleaming brown wings, like something out of a drug-addled nightmare.
"Ashley?"
She barely even heard him call her name. She couldn’t stop staring at the wings. He most certainly hadn’t had wings when they’d been in bed! There was no way. She was seeing things. She had to be. The eyes were different, too, though she’d seen hints of gold in his far darker, chocolate-brown eyes at moments of extreme feeling. All of her wonderful dinner threatened to come back up now, and she backpedaled hastily.
"Ashley, wait!" When he reached out toward her, seeming suddenly much closer, she broke and ran. It was too much.
Chapter 13 - Rafael
Rafael stared after her as she fled him, only having become aware of what she was seeing when the shock on her face had turned to something else akin to horror. He’d stripped out of his shirt as soon as he was back in the office, though he thought he’d locked the door before releasing his wings. His mind wasn’t on his shape, how could it be when the woman of his dreams had lied to him? Now she’d seen him half-shifted… and fled.
This was already the worst day of his life; how could she have just walked in on him like that? It was all too familiar to him, loath as he was to remember the time before he’d moved to Denver when he’d thought he was in love.Shehadn’t been able to handle the truth of him, either, and he should have known to leave it well enough alone this time. He would have, if only she hadn’t burst in like that!
He couldn’t truly blame her; he apparently hadn’t locked the door like he’d thought. For that matter…
Raf strode over and firmly locked the door, leaning his head against the solid wood with a thunk. That was his own damn fault. He’d let himself start believing in silly folktales, that they could be fated mates. She’d made him so happy… but no. Clearly it was his own foolishness to believe a human woman would have that kind of connection to him. She’d gotten pregnant with his child and could barely tell him so! If that didn’t speak for itself, he really didn’t know what would.
Stone-cold sober after seeing her horror, despite the excessive amount of scotch he’d had to numb his instinctual rage, Raf returned to his desk and slumped into the chair. He didn’t know how to deal with this. The unplanned pregnancy was one thing. Her fear of seeing even part of his reality was too much to bear.
Raf shifted the mess he’d made of his desk, trying to find his cell phone. Eventually he found it on the floor beside the desk. He poked a contact and stuck the phone between his shoulder and his ear, pulling up his internet browser for his personal email.
He had most of her contact information typed out before his friend answered the phone. "Raf? This is a surprise."
"Kai. I wish this was a social call." He sighed and rubbed his eyes. His headache had started while he’d been in her office at lunchtime and hadn’t abated since.
"What’s wrong, man? You never call for my help."
"I’m calling now. My girlfriend’s pregnant." That might be an overly charitable way of referring to her after tonight’s spectacular implosion.
"Congrats! Damn, never would’ve taken you for the first one to settle down." For all that Kai could be an antisocial thug sometimes, he was still a good friend.
"Uh, I’m not sure that’s exactly what I’d call it. She’s human, and she walked in on me half-shifted just now."
Silence met his statement for several moments. "She didn’t know." It wasn’t a question.
"No. No, she didn’t. If our argument earlier hadn’t already made enough of a mess of things, now this. I don’t know if I can protect her, Kai, not if she won’t let me." The idea that she very well might not didn’t sit well with him. In fact, it broke his heart.
"Will she let you hire security for her? Does she have any idea what’s at stake?"
Raf sighed heavily. That was probably enough of an answer, but he couldn’t hold back, not at the risk of Ashley’s safety. Or his child’s. "Not in the least. She knows how much money I have, so I may be able to convince her that she needs some kind of security. I don’t honestly know yet how bad this is going to be, but I want her taken care of." A few more keys and he sent the email to his friend. "Her data are in your inbox. Can you scope it out for me and let me know what it will take? Assume best-case scenario for now, though I’ll want security whether she’s willing or not. I know that’ll be a lot more work for you."
"She’s pregnant. She’s one of us now. I will get right on it, Raf, you don’t need to worry about her." A pause. "Is she going to tell anyone?"
"I don’t know, Kai. I really don’t know anything right now. But I won’t have her at risk." Rafael didn’t know how he felt about her right then, too many emotions were all jumbled together for him to know anything more than that he was stressed—but she was carrying his child, and he would not compromise on that point.
His friend was quiet for a moment. "A shifter child’s not always an easy pregnancy, Raf. How are you going to help her with that?"
"That’s my next phone call. I think Chas can probably put her at ease, and if he can’t, Angie can."
Kai made a muffled sound like an oof. "Bringing out the big guns. I get it. We’ll keep watch for your girl, Raf. Whatever it takes."
"Thanks." It was a weight off his chest to have told someone, instead of ranting at the world at large. "I’ll celebrate when she lets me explain."
