Night Flower

11

ADIR

On rare occasions my men felt the need to approach the moving vehicle I was in, they would usually wait until both of my feet were on the ground and that my attention was with them, they didn't dare to talk more than necessary or come to me with minimal problems but when your head of security and my right hand both stood came to met me a dreading feeling became me.

Aside from a minor issue in the past, our world seemed to be fine. Any other day an inquiry or an unexpected encounter happened between species but it was something that was handled. My outings were merely political, giving face and showing the rest of the warmbloods that knew about us that everything was under control. Keeping in line the few riled-up parties of hot-blooded and the rare attacks on civilian grounds. These were peaceful times, so peaceful that the woman, the brunette intruder had been even entertaining. Her lies were not, still couldn't put a finger on it, something in my gut told me not to believe her.

Her story was believable and there were no loopholes but, she had something, her eyes. The way she moved. She showed no signs of being a werewolf or acting like one, he bones almost snapped with a single pull, but female wolves were seemingly fragile compared to males. Her scent was human, barely anything and that was a dead giveaway to our race. There were no reports of missing females so there was only one thing I could do. Lock her away; she might be a human spy. How had she gotten intel on where I was located? That was the real question.

"Speak." The sideglance one threw to the other, like neither of them was ready to deliver the bad news.

"I don't have all day until you two decide to say what is so urgent you couldn't wait until I got out of the car." With more shifting between them, one would think there was communication telepathically.

"Sir, there has been a problem. The prisoners, the wolves are losing it." Ernst, my Security Coordinator spoke first. His eyes never reached mine, a sign of respect but I could see he wanted to. He wanted me to see the truth in them.

"Explain." I stepped closer to him to what they took one backward, the norm. They knew not to be too close, not to invade my space, and sometimes I did test their reactions and actions. How well they were trained but this was not one of those times.

"There seems to be a female among them."

Impossible.

"There hasn't been a female prisoner on this ground in years, clearly you are mistaken." He shook his head, he wanted to say I was mistaken but clearly, he knew better.

"We can assure you, there is one."

"And how can you be so sure?" Dead silence. I looked around me at the serious faces that had joined us at the driveway. Reineck then appeared, someone must have alerted him of my return. His usual poker face was gone, his eyes were unusually wide, and locked jaw. Most of them were in a similar state and that couldn't only mean one thing, the last thing you would want in a household full of unmated males.

"She's in heat." There it was, like a bucket of cold water. There are stories about females causing revolts in small towns just because she's going through a phase. It's not unheard of but rather common to have this kind of situation, it was why we kept the men tied to customs and hard-drilled training, teaching them restraint and respect. Women were allowed to run freely, to run and hide if they desire it when the time came. They were powerful when it happened but also vulnerable. Not really in control.

"Do we know who?"

"Most of the guys are guessing the spy but we could be wrong."

The little spy was in heat.

"But she's no wolf."

"That's what I said sir, she showed no signs." The constrained voice of Reineck was almost laughable. One would think that at his age he wouldn't show any signs, that it wouldn't affect an old wolf but the mating call turn any male into what we really were, animals.

She's a better liar than we thought.

She fooled me alright.

Looking around I noticed every window was open, to let the air in or her scent out. It was true what they said, a woman was capable of destroying a man, a country, a kingdom. She had been here for more than a month and in that time she had riled up my men, had foolishly tried to either hurt me or just merely touch me, and now my home was in flames.

"She's started Friday." My trip had started Sunday, almost a week ago right after I sent her to the dungeons. The negotiation for the territory for the Green Acres compound had been finalized but they needed me there to make it official. It was a safe place, far from noisy humans but close enough for them to survive with the help of civilization, the one that wasn't aware that we existed and walked among them.

Today was Sunday, two days they waited to tell me, apparently, it wasn't a big deal but what I had in front of me said quite the opposite. She had been locked up for two days suffering, two whole days they had been fighting the urge to do what nature set them to do in times like this.

And here I was not knowing what to do, my mood had plummeted to the ground, and the happy faces had been replaced by the image of a naked woman luring me into her side. The achievements of months of talk and negotiation had simply vanished, there was no place for celebration here, and now I had to think what was the next step to be taken. Knowing quite well what waited for me once I came in, once I caught a scent there was no going back, my primal need would take over and since I was higher in rank she was obviously mine.

The question was, would she take me?