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

Chapter Twenty-Three: Her Guardian

As soon as Van moved closer to Drake, he looked the woman up and down, sizing her up. Mary's eyes seemed to glass over with sudden recognition. "You-you should be ashamed of yourself for how you treated me at the hospital that day!" she screamed, anger and frustration washing over her face.

Van didn't feel the same way. "And you are...?"

"Oh no, no, you will not intimidate me again, Mr. Volkov," she growled as she pointed an accusing finger at the larger man. "You scared me away from that hospital, but you will not scare me away from my own front lawn! You're a dirty liar!"

It took a moment for Van to understand just what this vile creature was on about. After briefly looking her over, he remembered where he had seen this vulture before. It was the day Emma had first arrived at the hospital, and he had excused himself to get some coffee.

*******

He growled low as he tapped on the damn machine. It was jammed, and because of Drake's pleads in the past, he couldn't even rip it open to see what was taking so long. The hospital cafeteria was closed, and upon further inspection, there wasn't even any milk in the reception office.

As if his day couldn't get any more irritating, there were two scarecrows chatting loudly in the seats across from him. At first, their attention had been set on Van until he had cleared it up by throwing them an annoyed glance. They soon shut up and started to whisper about someone's death and money. Van really couldn't have given a damn until a certain little girl's name popped up in their conversation.

"It's horrible what happened, I mean, wolves, really? They were ripped apart! Wasn't the ranger there at all?" one of them exclaimed. "How are you coping with all of this, anyway, Mary?"

The Mary woman sighed. "Well, as far as I know, she doesn't have anyone that will take her. I would, but that child is such a handful, and with this added trauma, well, I'd end up murdering her myself by the end of it."

The other woman, despite the situation, stifled an obvious giggle. "Well, I heard—" She ushered Mary to come closer and despite whispering, plainly stated, "That Vivian and Charles both had life insurance. Don't tell anyone, but my husband said that Charles told him their kids would each get over three hundred thousand dollars. The only one left is Aira, so she gets the house and over nine hundred thousand dollars!"

Although Van couldn't have cared less about these two morons, the fact remained that they showed no sympathy towards the situation when the topic of money was brought forward.

The older scarecrow, Mary, almost fell out of her seat. "Really? Holy— Well, now that I think about it, we do have more than enough room, and my brother is a lawyer," she gushed, and they both let out maddening giggles.

Van ignored them as best he could. He even ignored Konstantin pacing and growling at the pure topic of these arrogant women's conversation, but it was a losing battle. He couldn't stand money-hungry humans. Although he wasn't particularly fond of the child, he didn't think it was right to let her go to this money leech. After all, his brother had been throwing hints for days about adopting the girl himself, no matter how much Van disliked the idea. In fact, from the spike in his brother's energy from upstairs, he was fairly sure Drake had just talked Emma into it.

Well, he supposed he did need an outlet for Konstantin. Turning around, Van moved closer to the two women, scowling with his cup of coffee in hand.

Their eyes instantly widened and lit up at the mere sight of him. "Can we help you?" one of them asked, smiling like they'd just won the lotto. From their conversation earlier, Van guessed they thought they really had just won big time... but not for much longer.