And The Heart Grows Fonder

And The Heart Grows Fonder Part 6

CHAPTER 5

Atlanta, Georgia

Audrianna was too busy clicking through messages on her Fire Phone to register the ding of the elevator. As it reached the thirtieth floor of Maxckcom, the doors swished open. She felt a sudden grip at the back of her billowy, U-neck dress from behind and she gasped.

"Audrianna! A baby, again!"

Audrianna heard the strong feminine voice with flexed Russian undertones as it rolled the 'r' in her name. "Viktor!" The woman spat at her cousin who was now walking briskly into view from the side a good many feet away. "Just because she is a fox, doesn't mean she can have a litter!" Markova barked at him.

If Audrianna had been very fair, the blush she felt would have been seen sky high on her cheeks and ears. The dress nearly reached her ankles, but was lifted a bit as it contoured the line of her soft bump. Her hand went to her face and she grinned to her hubby. "Sorry." Audrianna's shoulder gave a small lift. "Can't defend you on that one, honey."

This caused the brother and sister duo to laugh out loud from behind.

Viktor grew immediately tight-lipped, his eyes dark slits of annoyance as Markova drew Audrianna into an aggressive embrace. Mayakovsky was next at taking her into his arms, and Viktor's teeth gnashed. His sharp, bear incisors elongated threateningly, but he tapered his instinct to a low growl of disapproval at both his relatives' irritating, repeated pattern of cloistering his wife whenever they met, though he knew they did it mainly to get on his nerves because he couldn't stand anyone getting close to his wife; touching her, talking to her, drawing her affection. He had already accepted the fact that he was a nutty Were, and it worked for him just fine. It was other people who needed to chill, because he was a Mega-Bear and Mega-Possessive and that was not going to change any time soon. Probably not ever.

He intentionally curbed his stride from automatically quickening his pace to Audrianna and prying Maya's arms from around her, ripping his hand from the swell of her stomach, and instead nodded them in the direction of his office. As he swiveled to lead the way to the glass double doors, he flexed his shoulders and they gave a small pop and crack as he moved his head slowly from side to side.

The offices of Maxckcom were sleek and sophisticated, following an all-white, silver and grey colour scheme. In Viktor's office, the chairs, desk, window pane, and desk lamp were silver. The floor was a white rug with a square, dark grey and light grey checkered pattern that the desk and chairs were situated on. The walls displayed a sleek white and cream medium stripe pattern.

Viktor took his seat behind the desk, his back to the wide area of skyscraper windows.

"Won't Audrianna be joining us today?" Markova, or Mark as she was often called by close friends, withdrew a thick, A4, white envelope from the inside of her dark brown, mid-calf length trench coat.

Viktor grew even more irritated at the bland delivery of such an obvious dig. Markova knew very well that Audrianna could not join them for this discussion; it was about Audrianna herself and the paranormal investigation that surrounded the entity within her. A vice Audrianna was not yet aware of.

She bent the package out until flat, then paused and smirked. If the drama affected Viktor in the slightest, his effortless stillness did not give away his annoyance.

Markova dropped the package on the desk and it landed with a loud slap. Using her middle finger, she flicked it across the desk towards Viktor. His hand stopped its movement by landing on top of it as it slid across the desk.

He felt a measure of expectant finality in the brief moment he had to revel in having before him the information he'd sought. He had once kept the alarming disturbance about Audrianna a secret from his closest relatives, but he could not deny any longer that he needed help with finding a way to disrupt the entity's hold on her. He had far greater responsibilities now that he had the father, husband and multi-billion dollar benefactor roles going for him.