Big Bad Billionaire (The Woolven Secret Book 1) (7 page)

Randi carefully replaced the book and swiped her ID to open the door to the laboratory.

She didn’t know what she’d expected, but again, the bright white, pristine environment startled her. It shouldn’t have. Randi didn’t have time to consider, she needed to figure out where the key fit.

It seemed too obvious that it would fit the cabinet on the far wall, or maybe it wasn’t. The thing looked like it had been constructed as part of the room… a bomb shelter or something.

She slipped the key into the lock, the cabinet door opened, and a large steel tray slid outward.

On that tray rested the shiniest bit of chrome she’d ever seen. No, not chrome— silver, like everything else deadly in this place. She picked it up and angled it this way and that in the harsh sodium light, watching as the liquid in the reservoir sloshed.

It looked like mercury, but she’d bet it was silver too. Silver nitrate.

The reservoir on the opposite side was full of something, too. Purple and pink, like a nebula, it danced around inside the glass long after she’d put it down—a snow globe of death.

She knew whatever that thing was, it hadn’t been designed to cure cancer, that was for damn sure. It was pure hand-held destruction.

Now she had to find out why it was worth her father’s life.

Chapter Seven

The very real possibility that Randi wasn’t safe, even inside the compound, was unacceptable. It triggered something in Blake and he needed to find her, to be near her.

Had to put his hands on her flesh and reassure both sides of his nature—man and beast—she remained untouched by the de la Lunas.

He suspected their enforcers killed David Rutger and staged it to look like a suicide.

If they’d done something to Randi, the Woolven Pack
would
go to war.

There’d be no politics, no negotiation, and no concern for maintaining their anonymity among the naturals. He’d rip them all limb from limb then devour their insides whole. No de la Luna would be safe from his teeth, his claws, or his undying rage.

Blake howled loud and long. Not in tribute to the mother moon above, but an alarm to the rest of his pack and as a warning to any intruders.

He knew they were there.

And he was coming.

The soft, loamy earth gave like cotton beneath the crash of his giant paws and he gained a speed no natural animal could attain.

Just outside the maze, War crashed into him, placing himself between Blake and the main house.

Between Blake and Randi.

He knew why. He knew he couldn’t show her his true form yet, but fear for her outweighed his human logic—his human everything.

Only her potential fear of the beast reined him in. He managed to retake his human form, but only barely.

The beast still surged just beneath his skin, and his humanity as a whole was a faint memory of a thing. He knew his eyes burned amber, but let that be a lesson to any who would dare cross him.

Every once in a while, those who lived and worked at Aphelion needed to be reminded that Blake Woolven wasn’t just their boss. He wasn’t just some cold, corporate void. He was all predator, fire, and brimstone. Crossing Blake Woolven wasn’t just a financial death sentence.

It meant the end of all things. No gentle twilight of sensation, but a ripping of teeth and claws.

He struggled into a pair of ratty fatigues he’d kept for training and entered the house, barefooted, with muddy feet.

Mrs. Westwood’s cleaning spells handled the mess soon enough, though a part of him wished they hadn’t. Part of him wanted to meet the threat with the soggy earth on the soles of his feet, the night scents still clinging to him, wrapped in the cocoon of power the darkness offered him.

He followed her scent to the laboratory, where he found her seated behind her father’s desk, notes in hand.

Safe.

Sound.

Whole.

But it wasn’t enough. He needed to touch her to be sure. He needed solid proof. He advanced toward her.

Her eyes went wide, and her scent changed. Arousal tinged with fear. He hoped, for her sake, that she didn’t decide to run. He didn’t think he’d be able to stop at pleasuring her and walking away, not when she’d begged so prettily. But it wasn’t the right time. It was too soon.

“What’s happened?” she asked.

“Are you…” he began, then stopped realizing his voice was much too low, too guttural.

Too animal.

Just like everything else about him at the moment.

Parker and Drew burst through the door behind him. “What happened?” Drew asked.

“I don’t know.” Randi shook her head. “He burst in here like the fire of hell was on his heels.”

In a way, it was. The threat to his business, his family, and to his
mate
burned hotter inside him than any hellfire ever could.

He turned on his brothers, and they both took a step back.

“I heard you,” Drew said.

“Who left the weapons in her room? By the Goddess, it had best have been one of you,” he snarled low and deep.

Randi’s fear spiked.

“What are you talking about?” Drew asked. Then he leaned in to add, “You’re scaring her.”

“I know. She needs to be scared. She’s not safe.” He fought to keep from roaring the last like the raging beast he was about to become.

“It was me,” Parker admitted. Rather than looking ashamed, he grinned. “Twisted your tail all up, didn’t it, big brother?” Parker narrowed his eyes. “Or, is that Big Bad right now?”

“Shut. Up.” Drew shot him a glance. “Do you want him to rip your arms off?”

“Will someone please tell me what’s going on? Don’t talk about me as if I’m not here.”  Randi stood to join their circle.

“I think it’s best if you stay where you were, behind the desk,” Drew advised.

“Christ, you act like Blake is some uncontrollable lunatic who might attack me.” She rolled her eyes. “I know that’s not the case. If he was going to hurt me, he would have already.”

Strangely, Blake no longer smelled any fear from her. Her mistake, but it also calmed him some, soothed him. Scenting her fear ratcheted all of his emotions higher—including his rage. He could find his logic, find that place so he could keep his human skin intact. At least for a while longer.

When her fingers rested on his forearm, he became torn between two extremes. Calm, because she was near, she was safe yet the absolute rage that the beast felt coupled with his need to mark her. To Turn her.

To protect her.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Parker,” Drew chastised him.

“There’s been a breach of security.” He glanced at Randi, then back to his brothers. “No…traces of any further infiltration thus far.”

“Then why are you so angry?” Parker tossed the question out while suddenly seeing a need to inspect his nails.

“Because they used Woolven Enterprises proprietary technology on the security fence. That means someone from de la Luna is inside Aphelion. She’s not safe. Neither is anyone else. The tech they used is still secret, since we’ve only recently applied for a patent.”

“Or they got it out of Rutger before they killed him,” Drew said, then closed his eyes, as if he’d just realized what he’d said.

“What did you just say?” Randi demanded.

“Look, I don’t think your father killed himself any more than you do, if we’re being honest, but he is dead. So someone made him that way. I think it was de la Luna.” Drew explained in a way Blake wished he could.

“Of course you do.” She shook her head. “Anything to shift the blame from Woolven and your sainted brother. What was this so-called proprietary tech? It probably wasn’t worth killing over.”

“No, not that tech itself. But how they could use it to infiltrate Aphelion? That’s worth killing over,” Blake said, forcing his voice to a more human, natural octave.

“Why?” she demanded. “Why was it worth my father’s life? Why would a silver nitrate gun be worth his life?”

“You found it?” Blake asked. “What about his notes? Can you read them?”

She wrinkled her nose as if he’d asked her something offensive. “Of course I can read them. Of course I found it. That’s why you brought me here, isn’t it? You knew I’d be the only one who could.”

Drew seemed to be watching them as he would a tennis match—the lobs back and forth, the points they’d inevitably scored off of each other.

“Yes, for that and other reasons.” Blake admitted.

“So why is de la Luna targeting you?” Randi asked. “Death is a pretty serious consequence for a piece of fucking tech anyone could reproduce.”

“Anyone? You mean like that silver nitrate plasma gun?” Blake countered.

“You didn’t answer my question.” Randi put a hand on her hip. “Why does de la Luna think anything you have is worth murder? Furthermore, if you do think they’re out to get you, why were you about to fuck Marchessa de la Luna in your office?” A look of horror crossed her face. “Is that what gets you off? You want women you’re not supposed to have? A billionaire bad boy who can’t get off with any of the women who
do
want him?”

“Leave us,” he demanded to Parker and Drew.

He grabbed her upper arms and shoved her against the wall, holding her firm and steady until his brothers closed the door to give them privacy.

“You want me.” It was a statement, a fact, a home truth.

“No, I don’t.” She lifted her chin. “Earlier, it was the flower. That’s not desire. That’s a date rape drug. I’m surprised it’s legal to grow it here. Maybe it’s not.” She raised her chin another notch.

She was so soft, sweet, and her desire was a heady perfume. “Don’t lie to me, Randi. I know you want me.”

“You sound like a sex offender.” Still, she didn’t look away from his gaze.

He could feel his eyes changing, the heat that passed through him when the Change was near. He began to see through the eyes of a predator—heat signature, blood pumping through veins and arteries—hot and delicious.

“Do I? And yet, you can’t deny the truth of what I said. Or, if you do, we both know it’s a lie. Your musk gives you away.” He leaned down to nose at her throat.

“My musk?” She pawed feebly at his shoulders. “You’re a disgusting human being who’s read too many sordid magazines.”

“Am I? Are you so sure about what I am?” He cocked his head to the side, still staring down at her. He watched as realization dawned on her, as she grasped he wasn’t at all what he pretended to be. He wanted her to know, wanted her to discover his nature. But still it wasn’t the right time. “Or are you the one you’re disgusted with because you’re so fucking hot for me? Because your pussy is wet for me, a man you despise. And, this?” he tightened his grip on her arms “This is what really makes you slick.”

“Fuck you, Blake. Let me go.”

“Make me.”

“I shouldn’t have to make you. All I should have to do is ask. Say I am wet for you, say I do want to fuck you? Maybe my mind made the best choice to decline. It doesn’t matter how wet I am, even if, for some freak reason, you
can
smell it. I said to stop.”

She was right. He released her, but he didn’t step back. “I stopped.”

“Tell me why I should be afraid. Tell me why de la Luna is more horrible than you are, and why I should trust you and fear them?”

“Because you’re mine, Randi.”

“Like my father was yours? Is death the price he paid for leaving you?”

“No, sweetheart. I would have to say my relationship with your father was nothing at all like my relationship with you.” He leaned down to nose at her neck again, to inhale the scent of her and reassure himself that she was his, she was safe.

“You’re disgusting.”

“You said that once already. Why don’t you try something else?”

When her hands curled around his shoulders, he decided it meant he could touch her again. He splayed his fingers at her hips, pulling her hard and flush against him.

“I don’t want this.”

“Tell me to stop again. Right now. Tell me, and I’ll have a car take you back to the city. We’ll never see each other again.”

“I can’t very well bring you down from the city.”

“You can’t fuck me from there, either.” He nipped at the tender arch of her neck and she shivered, squirming closer.

“Are you telling me that I have to fuck you to keep my job, Mr. Woolven?”

“Are you telling me you don’t want to?”

“You told me no earlier.”

“Earlier you wanted me because of the flower. I want you to make the choice yourself.”

“Then why would you slam me up against a wall?” she asked.

“Because there’s a part of me that has no use for the veneers of humanity.” That part of him was in control now, the part of him that needed to touch her.

“I don’t doubt that, Blake.”

He released her again and stepped back, unhooking her arms from his shoulders. “I am a monster. I told you, I’m the king of monsters. But I will protect you from the rest of them.”

“Only if I give you what you want.”

“Randi, whether or not you ever give me what I want, I will protect you and watch over you for all the days of your life.”

“I don’t understand you,” she cried and spun away from him. “You’re all over the map, except where you should be.”

“Where should I be?” He really wanted to know. “We all do what we should, is that right?” It would be so much easier if she wasn’t his mate. He didn’t want this, didn’t need it—yet here it was.

Here
she
was.

“Of course we don’t. But it’s wrong that I told you I’m going to destroy you, and now you’re feeding me some line about protecting me. Why would I ever believe you?”

“You don’t need to believe me.” He was stone and cold, his wolf beaten down to a small cage that smothered everything he’d send spewing to the surface.

“Yeah. Whatever.” She shook her head. “I’m on to you, Woolven. I’m not going to fall into this trap where I suddenly believe you give a damn about me. Is that what you did to Marchessa de la Luna? Did you make her love you? I won’t love you. And I will never stop trying to bring you down.”

“They say that revenge is best served cold, but you, sweetheart, you burn way too hot.”