Meet me in the Emerald Forest

Chapter 8 Lukas

I straightened my clothes and tucked the files under my arm as I walked up the sidewalk to my mate's house. I knocked on her door twice and waited a minute before it opened. Clementine's scent hit me first, the light floral aroma sending goosebumps up and down my spine and causing Bastian to howl in my head. Then came my beautiful mate. She was wearing a pair of dark colored capri leggings, an oversized sweatshirt, and her hair was pulled high on top of her head in a messy bun.

"Lukas?" Her eyes pinched together in surprise.

"I brought the files." I said, waving them in front of her.

"You didn't have to come so early." She chuckled, glancing down at herself nervously.

I wondered if she was self-conscious about her outfit. She shouldn't have been because she looked positively mouthwatering.

"I wanted to see you." I shrugged casually causing her to blush.

Her eyes narrowed on me and I cursed at myself, thinking that I was moving too quickly for human standards.

"Come in." She sighed, opening the door widely for me to enter her home.

"Thanks." I said, walking as closely to her as I possibly could and inhaling deeply.

Once we were both inside and the door was closed behind us, she led me towards the office in the back of the house. There were several boxes on the ground, the large desk was covered with papers, and there was a large glass board on wheels sitting off to the side.

"Excuse the mess. I'm just getting set up." She said, brushing all the papers and folders on her desk into a pile and motioning for me to sit my files down there.

"What is all this?" I asked, looking around. I figured it was her files from Quantico but I couldn't let on that I already knew that.

"My files from my office at Quantico about my parents' case and some other cases that needed consultations." She replied, standing in the center of the room with her hands crossed protectively across her chest like she was shielding herself from something.

"What exactly does that mean?" I asked, leaning against the edge of her desk. It was just tall enough for me to perch on the corner.

"Consultations?" Her face pinched up in question and I nodded in response,

"Oh, well there are only so many profilers available and so many hours in the day for us to fly to cities who need our help. So, local police departments send us their cases and we consult on them. We look over the case and write up a preliminary profile. We also determine which of the cases sent to us need our immediate attention and that's how we decide which cases to tend to in person. There's a never ending pile of cases to consult on so that's what I'll be doing on my time off." Clementine explained.

I was watching her carefully and I couldn't help but notice how her face lit up when she talked about her work.

"A profile?" Now I was actually curious. I'll admit to not knowing much about how the human law enforcement offices operated.

"That's what I do, I'm a profiler. The Behavioral Analysis Unit is a team of profilers."

"What exactly is a profile?" I wondered.

"It's an assumption on who the unknown subject is, why they're committing the crime, and what their end game is." I couldn't help but think she was dumbing the whole thing down for me.

"Like you can predict their gender and age and stuff?" She chuckled at my oversimplification.

"Among other things, yes."