Feral Bonds

Chapter 32

"Okay, my contact is human and doesn't know about our world, so he didn't tell Duvall you're a beast bound. You'll have to do that introduction yourself. He just said he had someone who was interested in being a bodyguard."

"Is the suit really necessary?" Natania complained, tugging at the stiff collar. She hated it just as much as she had when she had lived with them.

"It's a job interview, would you rather wear a dress?" Gretchen piped in.

Natania scowled. It wasn't like he was going to reject her "application" because of what she wore, it was what she was that was supposed to capture his attention.

"Besides," Vincent added, "you can't just waltz in there and shift. You have to actually separate him from the mundanes."

"Fine," Natania grumbled.

Gretchen patted her arm. "You'll do fine."

Natania waved her off with a sigh. "I'll be back later, I guess." They had decided that she should walk to the location of the interview, so there wouldn't be a license plate to track back to Gretchen, or Vincent. The vampire had created a fake ID that named her Avery Syrus. Now it was just up to her to remember to respond to the name.

It didn't take long to reach the Duvall building. The design was more plain than she was expecting, but the bodyguards told her that it was the right location.

Natania tried to look confident as she walked up to one of the two doormen. They both straightened at her approach, giving off an aura of distrust.

"Hi!" Natania said, with fake cheer. "I'm Avery, I have an interview with Mr.Duvall in..." she glanced at her watch, "ten minutes. Could you let me inside?" She dug her fake ID out of her purse and handed it to the guard that wasn't flipping through a clipboard.

"Twentieth floor," the clipboard man said, opening the door. The other grunted and handed back the ID.

"Thanks!" Natania scurried inside, hearing the door slam behind her.

She didn't take much notice of the interior of the building, she was too focused on getting to the right place and not screwing it up.

She had never actually had an interview before, being a pureblood wolf she was never expected to go out into the human world to work to support the pack and, after running away, she had just hunted for herself and avoided attention until she'd met Vincent.

Natania shoved her way to the elevator, uncomfortably close to the other occupants. There were too many people, especially for how late at night it was, and not one of them paid attention to the rest.

As the elevator climbed high, something in the air started to feel wrong, like a subvocal noise that left her on edge, but everyone else was trapped in their own world. Natania felt sweat start to gather in her palms and shoved her way out of the elevator four floors early. She took great gulps of air before moving onto the stairwell.

A glance at her watch told her she was already late. Natania grimaced, but kept walking. On the twentieth floor, she rolled out her shoulders and straightened her suit, plastering a smile on her face. The door opened easily at her touch and she entered a waiting room. A lady looked up from a pile of paperwork and frowned at Natania. "Avery?" The woman scowled when Natania nodded. "You're late."

"Sorry," Natania put whatever Charisma she could manage into her words, "traffic, you know?" She didn't have much Charisma, but the receptionist blinked like she was in a daze and waved Natania to a door on her right.

"He's in there."

Something really isn't right here, Natania thought as she nudged open the door.