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“Oh, I know! Remember what happened to the last one? The redhead?”
His companion sat up but immediately fell back drunkenly.
“What? Oh! Yeah, whatever happened to her? Scarlet? Marla?”
“Starla. No one knows. She lipped off once too much, methinks!”
The men burst out in a round of raucous laughter that made my blood curdle. I forced myself back before I scaled the wall, teeth bared to murder them both.
Stumbling back to my ride, I dipped back into the shadows and melted into the darkness from which I’d come, shaking my head as if to wash my mind of what I’d seen inside.
Bianca was in there, waiting to be married off to that pig.
And there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it without serious consequences to myself and everyone else around me. Fuck Gabriel and his curse.
Chapter20
Atlas
Work. That was all there was to focus on. Sage had been right about the insurance company being a pain in the ass about the payout. They were making me jump through hoops about the cause of the fire.
“It was a faulty gas line,” I snapped at the inspector, who looked me dead in the face and shrugged.
“That is your own doing, Mr. Atlas,” he informed me flatly, attempting to use his no-nonsense business voice, though I heard the quaver in his tone. “This is part of your routine maintenance, which you failed to upkeep.”
He was just a human, after all, but my reputation still preceded me.
“That’s horseshit, and you know it. I have all of my inspections, current and accounted for.”
I pushed a folder across the desk to him as proof. He didn’t move to touch them.
“Be that as it may, they are beings that you contracted. You are ultimately responsible for their outcomes. If they didn’t catch the problem, it’s on you. I suggest you take up payment with the company you hired.”
He rose, as if the matter was over and done with, leaving my jaw on the ground.
“What?! Absolutely not!” I yelled, but he didn’t stop. He was almost running out the door, and for good reason. I felt my fangs elongating. “You can’t collect premiums from me and pull a stunt like this!”
“You should read the fine print of your insurance contract better,” he replied evenly without bothering to look at me. “You don’t have a leg to stand on.”
He left me, but that wasn’t the end of it. I’d get the payout one way or another.
Insurance companies. I made it my personal vendetta to end them all in Covale City as soon as I dug myself out of this mess. The closure of the Golden Halcyon was costing me too much in the meantime. I had to get it up and running before I dealt with the smug suit in front of me.
In my rage, my body shifted, my full wolf form overtaking me. Gray tufts of fur spiked out over my muscled shoulders to cover my back and body, clothes ripping away as I whirled. The combination of losing Bianca, of the explosion, and this bastard laughing in my face was too much for me to take.
I unleashed an unearthly howl that reverberated through the already unstable windows of the office until they tremored. Pouncing forward on all fours, I leapt onto the desk, relishing the flurry of paperwork as it hit the floor in a whirlwind. My teeth gnashed, and I bit into my chair, the stuffing flying free from the leather interior, the cloud of white oddly cathartic but still not what I needed.
I jumped off the desk, back paws bouncing to propel me off the wall—and onto Sage, who rushed through the door.
“Atlas, what the—”
I landed on her, knocking her to the ground, drool dripping from my fangs onto her horrified face before I’d even realized what had happened. The terror in her eyes instantly morphed me back into my human body, driving me off her quivering form as she scoured toward the baseboard, shielding her face.
“It’s all right, Sage,” I rasped, grabbing for the torn remnants of my pants to hide my nudity. “I didn’t know it was you.”
She whimpered lightly, but peeked over her arm at me warily. I nodded, shame flooding me as I turned away and hastily dressed. I needed to get a grip.
“W-what happened? Were you attacked?” she mumbled, still unable to look at me directly as her heart beat to the drums of fear.
