Lady and the Wolf [Book One, Lady and the Wolf Series] -Published-

Chapter Twenty: Seeing Red

"Welcome back, Mr. Volkov," the captain said as he took the CEO's bags off the hanger and handed them to another man.

Van nodded as he started walking towards the Airport's terminal, Aiden close behind. The alpha had been having a strange feeling for the last few hours — a feeling strong enough to make him call in his company plane — and had dragged Aiden out of bed, all but throwing the poor boy into the car with Ivan. He even had to threaten Aiden's life when the boy was stupid enough to snarl at Van for getting too close to his sleeping mate.

Pulling out Aiden's borrowed cell phone, Van put in the code for his brother's number and waited for Drake to answer. His annoyed growl was proof that he was not in the mood for any delays today.

"Hello, oh, glorious Alpha," Drake answered. There was amusement in his voice, and that irked the older Lycan.

"The girl, where is she?" Van snapped. It certainly wasn't the most pleasant greeting, but his patience was wearing thin.

Drake sounded confused as he replied, "She just left for school. Is everything okay?"

Van paused for a moment as he slowed his what Aiden referred to as death-march and tried to hide the deep sigh he had been containing. The girl was safe, so he found relief that this feeling wasn't connected to her. He had jumped into the car before even thinking about contacting Drake, certain this gut-wrenching feeling had something to do with the girl. He supposed it was because of his unease towards Ronan and the entire situation.

Without missing a beat, Van said, "We're at the airport. Come pick Aiden up."

"What about you?"

Van, already staring down the reporters that gathered at the terminal, let out an annoyed grunt. "I have something I need to do."

He hung up the cell phone and shoved it in his pocket, much to Aiden's annoyance, and said, "Pup, Drake's coming, so go grab the bags."

Right then, a photographer stepped right in front of Van's warpath and screamed when the agitated alpha grabbed his camera lens, crushing it in his palm. There was nothing he hated more than photographers. He had already warned them to stay the fuck out of his way many times before.

Aiden stayed back to apologize while his uncle kept walking, growling viciously at anyone stupid enough to get in his way.

Van stormed through the airport, making sure to side step any security that got in his way. He needed to see for himself that the human was indeed okay. He needed to see if she was safe. He had had shifters watching over her for some time now when she went to that school, but they could only watch her from the outside. Whatever happened on the inside was out of their limits.

He had no time to deny why he was going through this much trouble as a burning sensation swelled up in his throat. Something was not right. He picked up speed as he left the airport and called for someone to bring his car. His office was much closer than where Drake was coming from.

The sudden urge to get to Aira's school was beginning to become overwhelming.

"Mate... help... mate!"

Well, it seemed Konstantin was back to bother him, however, the voice in the back of his mind was all the encouragement he needed to go and see for himself if she was indeed okay.

*******

Emma yawned as she held the house phone to her ear while flicking through a magazine. Her mate had rushed out so quickly that she had forgotten to ask him to pick up Aira's birthday cake from the bakery. It still shocked her that Van had gotten here so fast. It was at least a nineteen-hour flight, yet he had managed to get here overnight.